of any Against this Scripture therefore fights this absolute reprobation and hatred of men TWISSE Consideration BE it the whole lump of man-kind if that Lettice like his lipps I should think by World is meant homines in mundo degentes men at any time living in the World without any restraint But herehence it followeth not that God doth not absolutely hate the greatest part of man-kind which this Author should have proved but he doth not therefore I will not only deny it but disprove it First therefore consider this love is only secundum Quid in reference to mens persons namely so farre forth as in case they believe they shall obtain everlasting life through the Sonne of God But if there were no farther love of God towards man they might be damned yea every Mothers sonne for all this Secondly if faith it selfe be a gift of God and God gives it not to all but to some only and those but a few for even of them that are called few are chosen and withall if God hath absolutely decreed to bestow this grace only on a few and deny it to the greatest part of the World will it not manifestly follow herehence that if absolutely to decree the denyall of faith be to hate then surely God absolutely hates the greatest part of men notwithstanding this love here mentioned albeit we extend it to all and every one Therefore it became this Author to prove that God is indifferent to give Faith to one as well as to another and that either absolutely whence it would follow that all and every one should both believe and be saved or conditionally and therewithall represent unto us what that condition is whereupon God bestowes faith on one and for the want thereof he refuseth to bestow faith on another This is the very criticall poynt about the controversies of Gods decrees Here therefore he should have shewed his strength For as for Gods purpose to damne we willingly professe that as God damnes no man but for sinne so he purposeth to damne no man but for sinne But as for his purpose to give or deny the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance we as readily professe that not the purpose only but the very giving of faith and repentance for the curing of infidelity and hardnesse of heart in some and the denying of it unto others so to leave their naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart uncured proceeds meerely according to the good pleasure of his will according to that of the Apostle He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And by a cloud of testimonies out of Austin we can prove that in this very sense he understood the Apostle in that place And indeed no other interpretation of that place can with any modesty be devised or obtruded upon us As for the redeeming of all and every one by Christ distinguisheth that which the haters of Gods truth doe delight to confound There is a redemption from the guilt of sinne and a redemption from the power of sinne For we are redeemed from our vaine conversation Christ came into the World to dissolve the works of the Devill No greater works of Satan then blindnesse of heart 2 Cor. 4. 3. and hardnesse of heart Ephes 2. 2. and 2 Tim. 2. last The pardon of sinne and salvation God bestowes only on believers and upon condition of faith Now like as God is ready to bestow these benefits on all and every one and that for Christs sake in case they believe so Christ hath merited pardon of sinne and salvation for all and every one in case they believe Such is the sufficiency of Christs merit that if every one of Adams race should believe every one should be saved and this present Text proceeds upon this namely upon the sufficiency of Christs merits But enquire farther whether Christ did not merit for us the grace of faith and if he did whether absolutely of conditionally if absolutely then all must believe de facto and be saved if conditionally then faith is a grace which God bestowes on man conditionally Now let this Author shew us what that condition is upon performance whereof by man God will give him faith and let him try whether he can carry himselfe so warily herein as not to plunge himselfe into plain Pelagianisme This poynt is a break-neck or Crevecoeur unto all Arminians they generally avoyd the delivering of their minds clearly hereupon as a man would avoyd a precipice It is true some Divines doe interpret the word World here of the Elect as Piscator Rolloc doth not making no mention of the Elect hereupon And Piscators meaning is no more then this viz. that this love of God in respect of every gracious effect I mean in the way of sanctifying grace determins only upon the Elect for in all likelihood he followed Calvin in this Universalem notam apposuit saith Calvin tum ut promiscuè omnes ad vitae participationem invitet tum ut praecidat excusationem incredulis To the same purpose saith he pertaines nomen mundi quo prius usus est And again se toti mundo propitium ostendit quum sine exceptione omnes ad fidem vocat But here he subjoynes a caution thus Caeterum meminerimus ita communiter promitti omnibus vitam si in Christo crediderint ut tamen minime communis omnium sit fides Patet enim omnibus Christus expositus est solis tamen Electis oculos Deus aperit fide ipsum quaerant So that this gracious promise is generall to all and every one whosoever believes shall be saved But yet notwithstanding if it shall appeare that God gives the grace of faith to none but to a certain number which are his Elect it followes that the effect of this love of God to wit Salvation shall in the issue redound to none but Gods Elect. 1. As for the designing a place where the World is taken for the Elect we need no such place as I have shewed yet Piscator conceives that so it is taken Iohn 3. 17. That the World might be saved by him But what think you of Rom. 11. 15. Where the casting away of the Jewes is said to be the reconciliation of the World And that 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himselfe I say the reconciled World is only Gods Elect for the reconciled are all saved as I prove by the Apostles argument Rom. 5. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Ioh. 1. 29. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Are their sinnes taken away that are damned for them And Ioh. 6. 33. He gives life to the World Is life given to any but to the Elect 2. The second reasons why in this place it cannot be so taken are in effect but one and that a
to begin with the examination of those Arguments against the absolutenesse of Divine Reprobation which M r Mason and M r Hord tooke to be of a convincing nature by which Method in Reading thou wilt the sooner meet with that abundant satisfaction which this worke will yeeld as touching this controversy unto all that are capable or desirous thereof THE FIRST PART CONTAINING A CONSIDERATION of those Reasons for which M r HORD as he pretended first Questioned THE TRUTH OF ABSOLVTE REPROBATION OXFORD Printed by L. L. Printer to the University for T. R. Anno 1653. THIS TREATISE DIVIDES IT SELFE INTO TWO PARTS Viz. 1. An Introduction 2. A Discourse I. The Introduction SECTION I. SIR I Have sent you here the Reasons which have moved me to change my Opipion in some Controversies of late debated between the Remonstrants and their Opposites I doe the rather present them unto you 1. That I may shew the due respect which I beare your Worship with my forwardnes to answer your desires as I can with regard to Conscience 2. That you may see I dissent not without cause but have Reason on my side 3. That if I can be convinced that my Grounds are weake and insufficient I may think better of my Opinion which I have forsaken then I can for the present In the delivery of my Motives I shall proceed in this Order 1 I will state the Opinion which I dislike 2 I will lay down my reasons against it Touching the first your Worship knowes these two things very well 1 That the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Question in these Controversies and that on which all the rest hang is What the decrees of God are touching the everlasting condition of men and how they are Ordered 2. That the Men which have disputed these things may be reduced to two sorts or sides The first side affirmes that there is such an absolute decree proceeding from the good pleasure of God alone without the consideration of mens finall Unbeliefe and Impenitency as by which he casteth men off from Grace and Glory and shuts up the farr greater part of men even of those that are called by the Preaching of the Gospel to Repentance and Salvation under invincible and unavoydable sin and damnation The other side disavowing any such decree say that the Decree of God to cast off men for ever is grounded upon the foresight of their continuance in sin and unbeliefe both avoydable by Grace and consequently inferring no mans damnation necessary TWISSE Consideration WOrthy Sir according to your desire to take into Consideration this writing directed unto you at length I have gotten some leasure from other imployments to addresse my selfe to give you satisfaction in this particular 1 That I may shew my selfe answerable to that respect which you have deserved at my hands and not so only but to my zeale of Gods truth which hath deserved much more at the hands of us both 2 That you may the better discern which of us two whom you put to conferre doth maintain the cause of Gods truth and hath the best reasons on his side As for the change of Opinion here mentioned such Professions are nothing strange But whether such a Profession be in truth or in pretence and rather liberty taken to manifest that Opinion which formerly hath been cherished as also with what conscience voyd of all carnall respects such a change or manifestation is made it belongs not unto us to judge but to leave that unto God who tryeth the hearts and reynes Sure we are the heart of man is full of deceitfulnesse both to deceive others yea and to deceive our selves the more need there is to be jealous over our selves and to carry a watchfull eye over our own soules and whether we have chang'd a former way or at the first chose one or other way and continue to imbrace that whereof we have been at first informed not to despise but in the feare of God to practice that holy counsell of the Apostle given to the Corinthians a famous Church and such as were destitute of no spirituall gift Prove your selves whether you are in the Faith examine your selves know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates as also to consider how indifferently we carry our selves in using means to inform our selves in the way of truth and whether they be not such as doe discover our chiefe care hath been to bring our judgements about to the imbracing of that way whether Truth or Errour which formerly we did effect Certaine it is that Heresies must be and that to this end that they that are approved may be made manifest And Illusions shall have their course when the truth of God is not imbraced with love whatsoever be the pretence of our disaffecting it whether harshnes to affections or discrepancy to carnall reason And when such judgements have their course Who are priviledged from being seduced Let our Saviour speake in this So that if it were possible men should deceive the very elect Upon what may we be assured to stand firme in time of such temptation Let the Apostle answer us in this when after the effectuall working of Satan in them that perish he comes neere to them to whom he writes in the way of comfort thus But we ought to give thankes alway to God for you Brethren beloved of the Lord because that God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth Like as before he did conclude unto himselfe their election from observation of the work of their Faith the labour of their Love and the patience of their Hope And the greater is the comfort which hereby is ministred unto us the greater should be our care to informe our selves aright in the doctrine thereof and especially to have an eye unto it that we doe not shape it in such a manner that like as it is impossible we should have any assurance thereof so it will prove equally impossible we should draw any comfort from thence 1. But is it so as here it is put upon you that you knew very well indeed that the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Question in these Controversies and that on which all the rest hang is What the decrees of God are touching the everlasting condition of men and how they are ordered I assure you if you knew this you know more then I doe I had thought rather that the resolution of the Point concerning Predestination had depended upon the resolution of the Point touching Grace efficacious then the contrary As namely if Faith be confessed to be the gift of God and that not with respect to any thing in man it followeth herehence that Predestination unto faith and reprobation from faith must proceed mecrely upon the good pleasure of God and not upon foresight of ought in man There was a time when Austin
opposites And indeed it is the Word of God alone which is that spirituall light which giveth manifestation to all spirituall truth And consequently neither are they to be censured as blushing at the light that prefer to write quietly of these controversies then to conferre about them in some cases or that preferre conference by the penne as Beza did before conference by word of mouth though this better pleased the lipps of Jacobus Andreas Yet neither Beza did refuse to yeeld to Andreas his own way neither did either the Contra-Remonstrants at the Haghe Conference or the Divines of Dort refuse to treat of reprobation as well as election as formerly I have shewed by authenticall evidences But suppose Beza and his fellowes whether two or three had altogether declined to conferre at all as in my judgement they had good reason to refuse must this be censured their blushing at the light Austin professeth as I have formerly vouched him that there may be many causes of forbearing to deliver the truth at some times He little dreamed of exposing the truth thereby to such a censure as if it blushed at the light And if some few might be justly censured as blushing at the light must all for their sakes by the rules of justice be made obnoxious to the same censure and not the Doctors only but the Doctrine it selfe Is it not apparent that a true and sound doctrine may be weakly apprehended by many though learned and Veritas est temporis filia and the accurate handling and maintaining of the truth in plainer points then this of reprobation comes not to perfection but by degrees and after much ventilating of it in a ruder manner Thus I think I have crackt the crowne of this conclusion I may proceed with the greater facility to the rest 1. That Reprobation is an Head to any part of practicall Divinity I never read nor heard till now But yet in every theoreticall poynt as touching the nature of God and his attributes by the true doctrine thereof the glory of God and good of Religion is promoted by the erronious doctrine thereabouts it is as much impaired For like as it is blasphemy to attribute that unto God which doth not become him so is it blasphemy also to deny unto him that which doth become him As for the entertaining or refusing conference thereabouts I have already spoken sufficiently yet two particulars more I have to deliver which I purpose to subjoyne to the end of those five considerations here distinguished as remarkable ones if my memory failes me not 2. A Connexion I grant there is between election and reprobation and the clearing of the truth in the one doth give light unto the other But which of these is to be handled first that the clearing of the truth therein may give light to the stating of the other I should think no sober man would make question Yet the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dort were eager to begin with Reprobation but were therein generally censured by the consent of forraine Divines that assisted there But that one of them cannot be handled without the other is a palpable untruth as appears by the very practice of this Author himselfe and his own carriage in this businesse For he undertakes only the poynt of reprobation 3. As touching the third particular in charging the doctrine of reprobation with being the chiefe cause of all the uproares in the Church at that time this author takes to himselfe a strange liberty of discourse We read and heare of no small stirres in the Church of Rome between the Dominicans and the Jesuits but I never read that the Jesuits laid to the Dominicans charge that their Doctrine as touching the predetermination of the creatures will to every act thereof was the cause of any uproare in the Church of Rome But to the contrary rather I read that in the contention between the Dominicans and Jesuits in Rome it selfe wherein Valentianus through some heat in disputation caught a feaver whereof he dyed within three daies after of the relation whereof made by one Pet that had been a Priest in Oxford I was sometimes an eare witnesse The Jesuits were rather taxed for their heterodoxy in the poynt de auxiliis as Petrus Mattheus in his History reports it And from D. Jacksons mouth I have heard what a Spaniard should deliver upon the mention of Molina the Jesuit namely that he was the man qui tantos tumultus excitavit to wit in Spain But as for Churches Protestant he doth well to limit his crimination to a certain time For the stirre that was raised by Huberus in the Lutheran Churches was neither caused nor occasioned by our doctrine concerning reprobation Huberus his cause was a pertinacious standing for an universall Election It seems he hath relation only to the Haghe conference and the uproares as he calls them amongst the States only and their particular or provinciall congregations alone as it seems he denominates the Churches Now let us consider Who made those uproares were they the Contra-Remonstrants or the Remonstrants only If he chargeth this upon the Contra-Remonstrants let him prove it least he be justly censured for one of those wild beasts an Emperour was sometimes warned to beware of they were the slanderers If the Remonstrants were the authors of these uproares how doth he prove that the doctrine of reprobation was the chiefe cause of them Were not those Arminians voluntary agents in those uproares If they conceived their opposites doctrine to be unsound could they not oppose it without uproares without violent proceedings Againe their opposites doctrine was it never received or preached 'till those daies Or was there any uproare made thereupon 'till Arminius his innovating And is that the chief cause of an uproare which hath no such consequent ensuing untill it meets with some turbulent spirits which begin to stirre as innovators in a Church or State And yet was reprobation that alone whereupon they stirred Is it not apparent that about the five Articles commonly so called they conferred alike But he saith it was the chiefe cause and only saith it yet Molinaeus professing reprobation to proceed upon foresight of finall impenitency as in truth it cannot be denied but that as the Contra-Remonstrants professed as well in that Conference at the Hague as in the Synod of Dort that God did never intend to damne any man of ripe years but for finall perseverance in infidelity and impenitency Did their contentions hereupon either totally cease or in part But such criminations are nothing strange We know after what manner of greeting wicked Ahab saluted the holy Prophet Elijah Art thou he that troubleth Israel but he spared not to answer him I am not he that troubleth Israel but Thou and thy Fathers house In the like manner were Paul and Silas entertained Act. 16. 20. when being caught and brought before the Magistrates heard such an accusation made against them These men which are
that amongst Papists and Lutherans And this is a grand motive with him to abhorre it But I pray consider was not the doctrine of the Gospell infamous at the first both amongst Jewes and Gentiles What time the Jewes were the only people of God how doth Tacitus out of his worldly wisdome brand them Doth he not call them Gentem teterrimam Cenus hominum invisum Diis And as touching their religious Rites marke what censure he passeth upon them Profana illic omnia quae apud nos sacra rursus concessa apud illos quae apud nos incesta and comparing them with the Rites of Bacchus saith Liber festos laetosque ritus posuit Judaeorum Mos absurdus sordidusque And speaking of the Christians he calls them Genus hominum propter flagitia invisum This censure he passeth upon them in the daies of holy Paul who forbad them to doe evill that good might come thereof and commands every soule to be subject to the Higher Powers even then when soules were at the best and powers at worst And see I pray what the King of Ashurs judgement was concerning the Religion of Samaria and Jerusalem in comparison to the Religions of their Nations which were heathenish Isa 10. 10. Like as mine hand hath found the Kingdoms of the Idolls seeing their Idolls were above Jerusalem and above Samaria So that of an heathenish Religion he had a better estimation then of the Religion of the Jewes Now if some Rabshakeh amongst them should turne heathen for such a tradition as I remember is received amongst the Rabbins namely that Rabshakeh was a Jew but turned heathen and afterwards endeavoured to entice the Jewes to doe as he did and that because of the infamous nature of their Religion amongst heathens how deserved such a one to be entertained by them Was he not by the Law of God to be stoned to death In like manner if in the primitive daies of the Church some Christian should turne Jew or Infidell and practice to seduce others from the obedience of faith representing unto them how every where it was contradicted how Christ himselfe was counted a blaspheamer a sorcerer how the Gospell was a scandall to the Jewes foolishnesse to the Gentiles and that in killing the holy Apostles the world thought they did God very good service Saint Paul himselfe professing of himselfe and his fellowes That they were made as the filth of the world the offscouring of all things Did this infamy prevaile with Paul or any other holy servant of God to remit any thing in the maintenance of his Christian faith Nay doth he not professe saying I passe not for these things neither is my life deare unto me so I may fulfill my course with joy and the Ministration that I have received to testify the Gospell of the grace of God And that in all things They approve themselves as the Ministers of God by honour and dishonour by good report and evill report as deceivers and yet true Againe Is it to be expected that any doctrine should be well spoken of by such as are opposites and adversaries thereunto Suppose a rigid Lutheran should by Gods providence be taken off from their ubiquitary doctrine and in justifying himselfe for the change of his Opinion should represent unto them the infamous condition of that doctrine both in the judgement of Papists and in the judgement of Calvinists I pray consider How in all likelyhood would this plea be entertained Could he expect any better recompence hereof then to be cast out of their Synagogues Suppose a Papist should have his eyes opened and brought to the truth of God in the poynt of justification and being demanded the reason of this change of mind in him should answer that the infamy of this doctrine both amongst Lutherans and Calvinists is so great and that such a morsell which neither Lutherans nor Calvinists can swallow should therefore in his judgement not down very easily with Papists and without suspicion Now let any indifferent Reader confider how this plea in all probability would be received amongst papists Yet I mean not to quiet my selfe or content my Reader with this parallell Of that which he here delivers of Papists he gives us no evidence but his bare word in pawne for the credit of this assertion Neither gives he any testimony of Lutherans their calling us damned Calvenists and though he had I pray what were we the farther off from the kingdome of God for that And I pray consider is it not in our power to recompence them and call them damned Lutherans if we list to recompence malice with malice so to serve our own turnes And all this is delivered by him without distinction of Papists learned and unlearned Dominicans and Jesuits in like sort without all distinction of Lutherans whether rigid or moderate But let us examine his crimination a part And first as for Papists not one is here named nor any reference made to any of of them S t Pauls prayer was that they might be delivered from unreasonable men I think never Sect rose upmore unreasonable then this Sect of Arminians This Writing came unto my hands before I had dispatched a large discourse sent unto me from one of same Sect and therein I have met with pregnant evidences that more heads then one were employed thereabouts And there I am told to my face that our doctrine of absolute reprobation we have learned from the Papists Another with whom I had to doe not long before professeth in plain manner thus The Jesuits ten of them for one favour the absolute irrespective decree following herein as they think S t Austin but especially their S t Thomas and Scotus with all the rabble of rotten Schoolmen and the whole Tribe at this day of the Dominicans who are buzy zelots for the cause of whose consent some amongst us are not ashamed to bragge If our irrespective decree be so joyntly maintained by both Jesuits and Dominicans and that as they think according to Austin how is it possible our doctrine herein can be so odious to the Papists Or what Papists doth he mean if neither Jesuits nor Dominicans nor any such as concurre with either of them Or if it be so odious unto them as one Arminian Proselite professeth how can it be so concordantly maintained by them as another Arminian proselite avoucheth And if we have learned it at the hands of Papists what will these Lutherans gaine by uniting with Papists rather then with us that is with the Masters rather then with the Schollars And if a Lutheran should be converted to the embracing of our Tenent herein and to justify himselfe should plead That we Calvinists are ready to protest that in the doctrine of reprobation and predestination we had rather unite our selves with Papists then with them Of what moment think you would this motive be with them which this Author most inconsiderately proposeth as a poynt of very
things and for thy will sake they have bee and are created And albeit men faile in giving God the glory of his power and wisdome as they should will it follow herehence that God is not so much to be glorified for his power and wisdome as for mercy justice and truth yet who falles in this that failes not in the use of the Lords Prayer the conclusion whereof is this For thine is the Kingdome and power and glory And indeed albeit Power and Wisdome may be shewed other waies then in the way of mercy justice and truth yet Gods mercy justice and truth cannot be shewed without the simultaneous demonstration of his power and wisdome And therefore when God comes to make good his gracious promise for the delivering of Israel out of Egypt which cannot be denied to have been a singular work of mercy justice and truth the Lord professeth that then he would make himselfe known unto them by the name Jehovah by which name he was not known before The Incarnation of the Sonne of God was it not an admirable work as well in the way of power and wisdome as in the way of mercy justice and truth I am apt to confound Gods justice with his truth ere I am aware without having that awfull regard to the authority of this writer as perhaps may seem fit But I hope it is a pardonable fault considering my education hitherto in divinity whereby I have attained only thus farre to the acknowledgement of justice Divine for justice consisteth in giving every one his due now this due being either in respect of God or the creature Justice Divine in giving God his due Aquinas hath taught me that it is all one with Gods wisdome promoting his ends by congruous means justice Divine in giving the creature his due I have learnt to depend wholy on Gods determination manifested by his promises and threatnings and this is commonly called justitia fidelitatis which I take to be all one with truth But I am very willing to be better informed by this Author and I give my selfe to his contemplations to have my thoughts fashioned by them as they can and if hitherto they have not transformed me into a new Creed I cannot help that Now if it be so that Gods power and wisdome accompany the demonstration of his mercy justice and truth I cannot see how God is honoured more by the exercise of the one sort then of the other but rather on the contrary So that albeit a King is more renowned among his Subjects for his clemency equity candid and faire dealing then for his dominion and authority yet I doe not easily perceive how God is renowned more for his clemency equity c. then for his power c. yet again this seems to me a very poore argument to conclude Clemency to be a chiefe attribute of God because men doe more magnify him for that then for his Power For consider a Malefactor going to execution is called back and saved by the Kings pardon this man be sure will magnify the King more for his clemency in saving him then he would for his justice in putting him to death but will it follow herehence that Clemency is a more chiefe attribute of a King then justice Solomon the greatest of Kings hath said the Throne is established by Justice and it was wont to be said fiat justitia ruat orbis No such thing is said of Mercy Then again the King could not doe this but by vertue of his prerogative yet the Malefactor magnifies him not for his prerogative but for the favourable use of it for his good for that is all he respects yet aske I pray any man of judgement which is the chiefer attribute of a King and more glorious of the two his prerogative or his clemency Clemency is a very vulgar vertue but the royall prerogative is peculiar to one A Thiefe after a robbery committed on the high-way meeting with a begger that beggeth a penny if he astonish him with the gift of twelve pence the begger is very likely more highly to magnify him then any honest man going on the way that bestowes but an halfe penny upon him yet Whose liberality is the greater of the two Carnall men renowne others for the benefit they receive by them not according to their true worth yet there is a farther difference humane authority may be abused and Soveraignty on earth is not alwaies joyned with good Morality much lesse with Piety but in case a man could not sinne the more honour and authority is laid upon him the more glorious should he be as being backt with the greater power to execute his goodnesse Thus it is with God it is impossible he should abuse his soveraignty yea his mercy and justice are one and the same reality with his power what a vanity then is it to discourse as this Author doth in preferring one attribute of God before another as if God were more glorious in the one then in the other But he hath farther reasons for this let us consider them 1. Power saith he is no vertue nor morally good but mercy justice and truth are I answer Though it be so yet who will say the glory of vertue is greater then the glory of power 2. Especially considering that vertue is common to the meanest 3. A little vertue joyned with power shall bring forth farre better fruits then a great deale of vertue without power 4. Though it be so in man whose power may be abused shall we transferre it to God whose power cannot be abused his power and his goodnesse being all one 5. Morall vertues denote a goodnesse removeable where it is obtainable where it is not but no such goodnesse can be found in God and consequently no Morall vertue in proper speech whatsoever is in him that being naturall and essentiall unto him 6. Lastly to power only and soveraignty we owe obedience and not to goodnesse and jurisdiction is farre more glorious then subjection Yet by the way it is untrue in my judgement that acts of Power are made good by being accompanied with justice speaking of Morall goodnesse as acts of vertue alone they are morally good not as acts of power If justum oportet esse quod laudem meretur then justice if not alone yet chiefly shall be that whereby one is renowned yet herehence it followes that every act of Gods power shall laudem mereri because it is impossible that any thing he doth should be otherwise then just such a justitia condecentiae followeth all his actions otherwise we must grant that God hath power to doe that which is unjust 2. And accordingly though power humane and Angelicall may be shewed in barbarous actions yet power Divine cannot let him doe whatsoever he is able it shall not be unjust let God turne all the World into nothing another manner of destruction then that of Sauls slaying the Lords Priests or Netuchadnezzars casting the three Children into
second generall reason against it TWISSE Consideration THat Salvation and that by the ordinance of God is only obtaineable by men of ripe years by faith and repentance as also that in case every one should believe and repent every one should be saved is without question For hath not our Saviour professed that whosoever believeth shall be saved and doth it not undeniably follow herehence that it is Gods will that whosoever believeth shall be saved Neither is this any wish as this Author faigneth neither doth any of our Divines say that ever I read or till now heard of that God wisheth that all that believe shall be saved this being a most absurd speech and contradiction to the ordinance of God For those things which God or man are said to wish are such which doe not alwaies come to passe but this ordinance of God whosoever believeth shall be saved is more stable than the covenant which God hath made with day and night Not any Arminian that ever I read doth expresse himselfe in so prostitute a manner as to say God seriously wisheth the salvation of Reprobates in case they believe For he hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and herehence it followeth that if all and every one from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved But when they speake of velleity in God or wishing the object thereof they make not to be the salvation of men in case they repent but absolutely the salvation of men which kind of velleity is resolved indeed in the issue into a conditionate will thus Gods will is that all shall be saved in case they repent not thus I doe wish that all may be saved in case they repent according to the most absurd fiction of this Author At length he grants that God will have all men to be saved only upon condition they will believe and repent and that conditionall promise may be serious as well as an absolute but then saith he the condition must be possible to them to whom the offer and promise is made and the performance of the condition must be a part of Gods will as well as the salvation promised or else the promise cannot be candid and sincere Whereto I answer that it is confessed on both sides that God hath ordained that all that believe shall be saved and consequently it must be granted that the promise of salvation hereupon to wit upon faith must needs be candid and sincere it being the promise of God Now shall we herehence inferre hand over head that therefore the condition must be possible unto all in spight of all other evidences to the contrary though never so plainly and expressely laid downe unto us in holy Scripture as namely that a naturall man perceives not the things of God they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. That they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. That they who are accustomed to doe evill can no more doe good then a Blackemore change his skinne or the Leopard his spots Jer. 13. 23. This is the immodest course of this Author to set up one piece of Scripture by his paltry consequences to outface another nothing lesse evident Notwithstanding this Scripture discovereth unto us how this impotency of doing good is contracted unto us all by sinning in Adam as whereupon we were bereaved of grace and of the spirit of God yet if he would deale fairely and deny originall sinne he should erre no more then Pelagius did and withall he should have as much ingenuity as Pelagius had But now though equall to him in the one yet is he inferiour to him in the other But come we nearer to him than so What one of our Divines denyeth the performance of this condition to be possible to al men But is it fit that he should talke of possibility as he doth at large without any reference to the grace of God And dares he say that it is possible to any man whether elect or reprobate without grace I say he dares not say so much though like enough he and all the Sect of them have a good mind to it What then is the issue of all this Controversy between us but to enquire what manner of grace that is without which it cannot be that any should believe Is it only such a grace as gives only power to believe This is no better than plain Pelagianisme as appears by Austin de grat Christ cont Pelag. coelest c. 6. and in the end where he comes to make an overture for the compounding of the Controversy between them Or Is it some other grace prevenient working only Morally by way of perswasion This also appears clearely to have been the opinion of Pelagius in the same book of Austin cap. 10. And he challengeth him to the acknowledging of another manner of grace if he will not only be called a Christian but be indeed a Christian Or Lastly is it only grace subsequent by way of concourse as to say that God workes in us the act of believing provided that we will believe This this is that Helena that our homeborne Arminians are inamoured with meere Pelagianisme for who seeth not that thus the grace of faith is conferred according to the acts of willing in men which is as much as to say t is conferred according to works Then marke yet farther absurdities for thus God hath not mercy on whom he will in giving faith but on whom man will and what colour is there in this case for any such objection to be made hereupon as is devised by the Apostle Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will Further consider Doth not God in this manner concurre to the most sinfull act that is commited in the world And why then doe we not as well say that the commission of sinne is not possible without grace subsequent for certainly t is not possible without divine concourse Lastly say farther what is the grace required to the very act of willing Doth God work this also by grace subsequent As much as to say God works in us the act of willing provided we worke it in our selves Such morsells as these can easily goe downe with these stomacks which are apt to tumultuate upon the hearing that God hath power to make whom he will vessells of mercy or vessells of wrath man must be the crafts-master of his own fortunes and it were neither agreeable to Gods mercy nor to his justice nor to his truth unlesse their free-will hath the greatest glory of their conversion and God be admitted no more to the working of that act of faith and of repentance than to the working of the most sinfull act that is committed in the world But I find it nothing
the flesh with the affections and lusts For they that walke in the spirit shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh their faith shall give them the victory over the world and God in his good time will tread Satan under their feet DISCOURSE SECT III. TO be exercised in fruitlesse affaires it is both a folly and a misery 1. A folly for de necessari is nemo sapiens deliberat saith the Philosopher And our Saviour speaking of things above our power Cur estis solliciti saith he to his Disciples Mat. 6. 27. Luke 12. 25 26. Why take ye thought about such things Which is as much as if he had said It is an argument of folly in you to trouble your selves about such things as lye not in your liberty 2. A misery in the opinions of all men as the fable of Sysiphus implies who as the Poets feigne is punished for his robberies in hell with the rolling of a great stone to the top of a sharpe hill where it cannot rest but presently comes tumbling downe againe The Morall of that fable is that it is a torment and a torment fit for Hell for a man to be set about any worke that is fruitlesse and vaine Men will rather be exercised in high and hard imployments that produce proportionable ends then pick strawes play with feathers or with Domitian spend their time in flapping or killing of flies or doe any other easy workes which end in nothing but ayre and emptinesse except they be fooles or selfe-tormentors And therefore when Balaam once saw that the Lord had fully determined to blesse Israell and that all his Sorceries could not effect the contrary he presently gave over and set no more enchantments And reason teacheth every man to doe the like If any man were fully possest with a perswasion that this temporall estate were determined in Heaven and that he should be worth just so much neither more nor lesse he would conclude that his care and paines could not profit him nor his idlenesse impoverish him and so would be quickly perswaded to take his ease And if it were evident that every Common-wealth had a fatall period beyond which it could not passe and short of which it could not come and that all occurrences good or bad were absolutely preordained by the Almighty then the King would call no Parliament use no Privy Counsell for there would be no use of them at all As once a famous Privy-Councellor told our late Queene Elizabeth men would neither make lawes nor obey them but would take the Councell of the Poet. Solvite mortales ammos curisque levate Totque supervacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt orbem certa stant omnia lege From these three premises laid together it followes directly that the doctrine of an absolute decree which determines mens ends precisely is no friend to a Godly life For if events absolutely decreed be unavoydable if mens actions about unavoydable ends be unprofitable it in unprofitable imployments men will have no hand willingly men that know and consider this will have nothing to doe with the practice of Godlinesse For their ends being absolutely pitched and therefore unavoydable they will conclude that their labour in Religion will be unprofitable and so will not labour in it at all That which hath been said may be yet farther confirmed by two witnesses The one of them is by two witnesses The one of them is our Calvin who in his Institutions hath these words Si quis it a plebem compellet si non cred it is ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio praedestinati estis is non modo ignaviam fovet sed etiam in dulget malitiae If any man saith he should speake thus to people If there be any among you that believe not it is because ye are ordained to destruction this man would not only cherish slothfulnesse but wickednesse also Which is as much to say me thinkes as this If a man should set out the doctrine of absolute reprobation in its colours and explaine it to a people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse The other witnesse is a man of another stampe the miserable Landgrave of Turing of whom it is recorded by Heisterbachius that being admonished by his friends of his vitious and dangerous conversation and condition he made them this answer Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata poterunt mihi Regnum Coelorum auferre si praescitus nulla bona mihi illud valebunt conferre If I be elected no sinnes can bereave me of heaven if I be a reprobate no good deeds can help me to heaven I conclude therefore that by this opinion which is taught for one of Gods principall truths Religion is or may be made a very great looser which is my fourth generall reason against it TWISSE Consideration DE necessari is nemo sapiens deliberat This is true of things necessary by course of nature not of things necessary meerely upon supposition of Gods decree For such things are as often contingent as necessary For as he decreeth that some things shall come to passe necessarily so he decreeth that other things shall be brought to passe contingently As the buying of the Prophets bones by Josiah Cyrus his dimission of the Jews out of Babylon to goe to their own Country the contumelious usages of Christ by Herod and Pontius Pilate together with the Gentiles and people of Israel were necessary in respect of Gods decree it being expressely testified by the Apostles with one mouth that all these were gathered together against the holy Sonne of God to doe what Gods hand and Gods Counsell predetermined to be done Act. 4. 28. Yet who is so impudent as to deny that all these did freely whatsoever they did against Christ In like sort you know what was the course of proceedings against Protestants in Queene Maries daies when they were convicted by Ecclesiastiques of such opinions which they accounted hereticall and which were made capitall by Law of the Land then they were delivered over unto the secular power to be put to death So that herein to wit first in making such bloudy Lawes Secondly in executing them for the establishment of Popish Religion The Kings gave their power to the Beast that is implyed their Regall power and authority to the countenancing of Romish Religion this undoubtedly was a contingent thing Yet was this determined by God as the Scripture testifies Revel 17. 17. God hath put in their hearts that is in the hearts of the tenne Kings to fulfill his decree and to be of one consent and to give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the word of God be fulfilled Againe suppose God hath determined my salvation yet if he hath determined to save me no other way then is revealed in his word namely by growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ If he hath made known unto
the decision whereof carryeth with it the decision of all the rest this Author should unshamefacedly decline it But some there be that hate the light because their workes are evill but doth it become him to taxe others for declining the triall when none sheweth more vile carriage this way then himselfe What that Privy-Councellor was I know not nor have I any evidence of the truth of the story but as it lyeth dictated at pleasure I have shewed how it nothing disadvantageth our cause though the Author of that speech were not only a Privy-Councellor but a great Divine too Yet amongst many good there might be some bad in Queen Elizabeths dayes If that were true which is reported to have been mentioned by D r Lively in a Lecture of his in Cambridge namely that a certaine Booke was found under a Privy-Councellors pillow whose inscription was this De tribus Mundi impostoribus Mose Christo Mahumite As for fate stoicall to give the Divell his right I no where find it maintained by any of them so as to prejudice mens wills but by many great ones I find this expresly denyed and hereof I have already spoken more at large Still he keepes his course in impugning an absolute decree determining mens ends precisely What secret misteries he conceales in the Word precisely I know not but it is aparent we maintaine no such determining the Salvation of any man so as to exclude a Godly life We both know and teach that without Holinesse as much as to say without a Godly life no man shall see God But we further say that this is not wholy the decree of predestination though this Author with his Remonstrants would faine rest here but we farther say that a Godly life is the gift of Gods grace and that God bestowes this gift on whom he will but this Author hath no great lust to oppose us here The more Equivocall a phraise is the fitter it is to serve his turne that lyes upon advantages to promote error and obscure truth And therefore keepes himselfe to the absolute decree and precise determinations either not understanding or not considering that an absolute decree may be takendivers waies either quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing or quoad res volitas as touching the things willed the decree properly signifies the act of God willing but this Author in consideratly takes it quoad res volitas as touching the things willed all along as appeares by his oppossing it to decree or will conditionall And will conditionall with him is such as when the thing willed is not effected because the condition is not performed They are his owne words in the last Section save one of his former sorts of reasons the very last words As for example the will of Saving men is not accomplished because men doe not believe Then as touching the things willed Gods decrees being considered here also arise different considerations for as much as the things willed are different Grace and Glory As for Glory and Salvation we doe not say that God hath decreed to confer that absolutly but only conditionally yet thereupon he stiks throughout supposing his adversaries to maintaine an absolute decree concerning the conferring of Salvation abolutely which is most untrue wherein he fights without any adversary yet there he dischargeth himselfe very strenuously and layes about him like a mad man But as for grace to wit the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance this we readily professe that God doth bestow it absolutly to wit on whom he will according to the meere pleasure of his will All this It is the glory of this Author in his discourse most juditiously to confound which made him the more to abound in matter that he might seem to say some thing when indeed it is nothing supple to the purpose And to meet with him in every particular of his conclusion The events to wit of Salvation or damnation are not at all decreed by God to come to passe absolutely but meerely conditionally and consequently not unavoydably but avoydably rather like as things that come to passe contingently doe come to passe with a possibility not to come to passe and accordingly God decreed they should came to passe contingently And consequently mens actions hereabouts are not unprofitable nay they are both necessary for obtayning the ends here intimated such as never faile of obtayning them As for example Sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth never faile of procuring Salvation for as much as God ordained by these meanes to bring men unto Salvation 2 Thess 2. 13. And by no meanes else And therefore most absurd it is to conceive that the practise of Godlinesse proves unprofitable and from such wild promises the unprofitable nature of the prctise of Godlinesse can prove no better then a wild conclusion I come to his two witnesses the first is Calv. Inst l. 3. c. 23. sect 14. Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis is non modo ignaviam fovet sed indulget malitiae This saith this Author is as much to say as this If a man should set downe the doctrine of Reprobation in its colours and explaine it to people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse Now this Calvin delivereth as out of Austin as appeareth both by his entrance hereunto and by his shutting up of it His entrance into it is this Et tamen ut singulare aedificationis studium sancto viro fuit that is Austin sic docendi veri rationem temperat ut prudenter caveatur quoad licet offensio Nam iquae vere dicuntur congruenter simul posse dici admonet The man he speakes of still is Austin as is apparent to him that shall consider the coherence of this Section with the former Then he sets downe the inconvenient manner of Preaching this truth as Austin doth though not in Austins words but in his owne Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis c. And shutting the whole up he expressely names Austin misliking such manner of Preaching thus Tales itaque Augustinus non immerito tanquam vel insulsos Doctores vel sinistros ominosos Prophetas ab Ecclesia jubet facessere What is the mystery then of this that Calvin is here brought in for a witnesse in making a relation of Austins discourse and Austin himselfe whose judgement Calvin doth but relate is pretermitted especially considering that Austins testimony where it serves his turne would give farre more credit to his cause then Calvins you will give me leave to guesse at the mistery which I take to be this Calvin is well known to be opposite unto him in the doctrine of reprobation but Calvin acknowledging that this Doctrine might be delivered in a harsh
manner which yet nothing moved him from entertaining it this harsh manner of propounding it is enough to serve this Authors turne to defame it both in his own conceit and in the conceit of others such as himselfe For as for Calvins opinion to the contrary that is of no consideration with him yea though Luther also joyne with him in this Hee is especially in these daies and with some persons so contemptible as never was honest man more But to bring in Austin acknowledging this Doctrine and taking notice of some harsh manners in propounding it and yet notwithstanding embracing it in despight of the harshnesse thereof and shewing withall how this harsh manner of propounding the same truth may be tempered his Authority this Author well knew and considered would be of greater Authority to sway for it then some harshnesse in the propounder or this Authors Me thinks would sway against it And therefore he thought fit to spare the bringing in of Austin to testify for him and contents himselfe to bring Calvin only upon the stage though he doth but relate in effect the discourse of Austin Thus as formerly I said this Treatise savours more of the Fox then of the Lyon But let us bring him unto Austin De bono perseverantioe cap. 16. Where the objection made by them of Marseiles against Austins Doctrine of Predestination is proposed thus Sed aiunt ut scribitis neminem posse correptionis stimulis excitari si dicatur in conventu Ecclesiae audientibus multis Ita se habet de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis Dei ut alii ex vobis de infidelitate accepta obediendi voluntate veneritis ad fidem vel accepta maneatis in fide caeteri verò qui in peccatorum delectatione remoramini ideo nondum surrexistis quia nec dum vos adjutorium gratiae miserantis erexit Veruntamen si qui estis nondum vocati quos gratia sua praedestinaverit elegendos accipietis eandem gratiam qua velitis sitis electi Et si qui obeditis si praedestinati estis rejiciendi subtrahentur obediendi vires ut obedire cessitis But they say as you write that no man can be excited by the good of reprehension if in the congregation before many the Preacher shall thus discourse Such is the sentence of Gods will determined as touching predestination that some of you receiving the will of obedience shall come from infidelity unto faith or receiving the gift of perseverance shall continue therein But if there be any among you who are not called whom God hath through his grace predestinated to be elected they shall receive the same grace whereby to will to be to become elect And if there be any of you who obey the Gospell that are predestinated to be rejected the strength of obeying shall be taken from you that you may cease to obey Here is the objection against it Austins doctrine of predestination and reprobation at full his answer to it followeth at full but how Not in denying ought that hereby is implyed concerning his doctrine of Predestination but to the contrary First shewing that this harsh proposition of things must not deterre us from the embracing of it Secondly shewing how the same truth may be delivered in a more temperate manner Ita cum dicuntur saith he ita nos a confitenda Dei gratia i. e. quae non secundum merita nostra datur a confitenda secundum eam praedestinatione Sanctorum that is These things thus delivered must not deterre us from confessing Gods grace which is not given according unto workes and from confessing the predestination of Saints according thereunto Where observe I beseech you how farre he joynes together the doctrine of Gods free grace with his doctrine of predestination according to his Tenet which here was opposed by the same Argument wherewith the Author in this place oppugneth ours Manifestly giving to understand that his doctrine of Predestination could not be impugned as there it is but withall they that impugne it must deny the freenesse of Gods grace maintain that it is given according unto works or merits So that as he answers them so we may take liberty to answer this Author and say that this argument of his must not deterre us from confessing predestination according to Gods free grace least so we be driven to maintaine that Grace is given according unto works And the reason is manifest For if it be not of the meere pleasure of God that he bestowes faith on one denyes it unto another then the reason hereof must be because God findes some better disposition in one then in another and therefore he gives him that is better disposed the grace of faith which he denyes unto another Now this both in Austins judgement in cleare reason appears to be the maintaining that grace is given according unto workes which is condemned in the Synod of Palestine above 1200 years agoe Yet Austin rests not here but shewes how the same objection may have place as well for the overthrowing of prescience divine as for the overthrowing of predestination divine We saith he must no more be deterred by this objection from confessing the freenesse of Gods grace and predestination divine suitable thereunto then we are hereby deterred from acknowledging Gods fore-knowledge and shewes how the same objection may be accommodated against Gods fore-knowledge thus Sive nunc recte vivatis sive non recte tales vos eritis postea quales vos deus futuros esse praescivit vel boni si bonos vel mali si malos That is Whether at this time you live well or not well such you shall be as God foreseeth you will be either good if he foreseeth it will come to passe or evill if he foreseeth you will be evill Now saith he if upon the hearing of this some are converted unto slothfulnesse this is the very objection proposed by Calvin for the matter of it but the forme is different For Calvin saith the Preacher doth cherish slothfulnesse c. Austin signifieth only that by such kind of Preaching men take occasion of slothfulnesse and therefore it is fit that Calvin should in that sense only be interpreted seeing he only relates in effect that which he findes in Austin suppose saith Austin going on That hereupon they runne after their lust shall we therefore thinke that to be false which was delivered as concerning Gods fore-knowledge Then he tells a History of his own experience namely how one in the same monastery whereof he was abused in this manner the doctrine of fore-knowledge For when his brethren reproved him he would stubbornly answer Whatsoever I am now surely I shall goe out of the World such as God foreseeth I will be Wherein saith Austin he speakes truth but he was so farre from profiting by it unto good that at length he utterly forsooke our society returning as a dog to his vomit and yet what he will be saith
or ability at all in the issue of avoiding their sinnes but must of necessity commit them Thus they teach and therefore by just consequences they make God the Authour of sinne as it will plainly appeare by these following considerations Poets tell us there was a time when Giants on earth set themselves to fight against God in heaven because the place of his habitation was out of their reach they laid mountaine upon mountaine hill upon hill Pelion upon Ossa that so they might make their approaches unto him beseige him in his own fastnes this fable is a monumēt of the shipwrack of that truth among heathen-men which the Lord had preserved unto his Church upon record in his holy word For when after the great Deluge in the dayes of Noah men began to be multiplied upon the face of the earth they consulted how they might fortify themseves against the like inundation for the time to come and thereupon encouraged thēselves saying Goe to let us build us a City and a town whose top may reach unto the Heaven that we may get us a name least we be scattered upon the whole earth But how didthe Lord deale with these presumptuous adventurers The Poet 's faign that Iupiter destroyed them with his thunderbolts and as for one of them Typhoeus by name a proud fellow he laid him fast enough under the hill Aetna in Sicily where he breaths out smoak fire like the great Polan out of a Tobacco-pipe somewhat bigger then a good Caliver But the Scripture tels us how that for their saying Goe too let us build c. the Lord answered them with a Come on let us goe downe and there confound their language that every one perceive not one anothers speech This Author herhaps is but a Pygmie for bodily presence yet he may be a Gyant for his wit and found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight against God in a spirituall way in the opposing of his truth As Gamaliel sometimes advised the high Priest with his counsell to take heed lest they were found even fighters against God It is true this Author no doubt perswades himselfe that he fights for God in as much as he affects to free him from being the Author of sin But let not the simple Reader be deluded with shewes but seriously consider whither all this doe which he makes about the point of Reprobation doth not clearly tend to the overthrowing of God's free grace in election which is so much the more foule because he doth it underhand as conscious to himselfe of his owne impotency to impugne it openly or fearing the generall opposition of our Church against him therefore he practiseth to undermine it And this I have found to be his course divers years agoe in his private undertakings to draw proselytes unto him namely to decline the point of grace of election to deale only upon Reprobation and there to put his concurrent to begin as if he would have a young Divine to inform a Sexagenarian as I have seen under his own hand But see the hand of God upon him in confounding his language as when he stands for Reprobation evitable avoidable reproacheth his adversaries for maintaining Reprobation inevitable unavoidable This is the phrase of his Schoole For I do not remember to have met with it any where but in him his disciples Now what man of common sense doth not observe this phrase to be appliable only to things that are to come but of a contingent nature so that they may be avoyded declined but by no means apply able to things already done that more then many thousand years agoe For what sober man could heare with patience another discourse of the avoidable nature of Noah's flood now in these daies to maintain that it is at this day avoidable what fustian like to this Might he not as well take liberty to discourse of the Aequinoctiall pasticrust It was wont to be said that this alone God himself could not perform namely to cause that which is done to be not done As Aristotle in his Eth relates a saying of one Agatho to that purpose Now reprobation is confessed by all to be of the same age with election election was as the Apostle tels us performed by God before the foundation of the world And is not this Author then besides himself when he pleads for evitable avoydable Reprobation But albeit this Author makes the worst of our opinions and expressions yet I will not requite him by making the worst of his that were base inglorious and to be overcome I will therefore hearken to the Apostles counsell where he saith Be not overcome with evill but overcome evill with good I will make the best of his and according to the distinction of God's will used in Schooles as it is taken either quoad actum volentis or quoad res volitas as touching the act of him that willeth or the things willed So I will imagine that he speaks of Reprobation which is the will of God not as touching the act of God Reprobating making such a decree but as touching the thing decreed this thing decreed he will have to be of an avoidable nature Now this we willingly grant utterly deny that this any way hinders the absolutenes of God's decree We say with the 11 article of the Church of Ireland that God from all aeternity did by his unchangeable councell ordain whatsoever should in time come to passe yet so as hereby neither the contingency nor liberty of the second causes is taken away but established rather So that whereas we see some things come to passe necessarily some contingently so God hath ordained that all things shall come to passe that do come to passe but necessary things necessarily contingent things contingently that is avoidably with a possibility of not comming to passe For every University Scholar knows this to be the notion of contingency yet will not I content my selfe with the article of Ireland for this Aquinas thus distinguisheth For having proposed this question Whether the will of God doth impose a necessity upon the things willed To this question this Author with whom I deale would answer affirmatively saying it doth impose a necessity on all such things or at least obtrude such an opinion upon us himself undoubtedly thinks that in case Gods will be absolute it must cause a necessity upon all things willed therby both which are utterly untrue this last utterly denyed by Aquinas For first every will of God is absolute in the judgment of Aquinas which I prove thus That will which hath noe cause or reason thereof is absolute This proposition I presume this Authour will not deny But the will of God hath no cause in the judgment of Aquinas therefore every will of God is absolute by his doctrine Yet this absolute will of God imposeth not a necessity upon all things
the heart of his servants that I might worke these my miracles in the middest of his realme Here we have plaine enforcements those of great power used by the Lord yet still the Lord continues to harden Pharaoh's heart and professeth as much not fearing the censure of any vile wretch to cast upon him the imputation of imposture throughout the whole course of his ministery And the truth is all the learned concurre in distinguishing between Voluntas praecepti voluntas propositi and count it absurd to inferre the purpose of God or his will to have such a thing done from his commanding it though this command be joyned with exhortation expostulations wishes or whatsoever other emphaticall expressions all which the learned conclude under Praeceptum as a signe of God's will And the Pelagians of old urged it no farther then as God's precept backt with what exhortations and enforcements soever thence to conclude that man had power to yeild obedience but not to conclude it was God's will it should come to passe and to impute desires unto God in proper speech which never are accomplished what an unscholasticall course is it even as much as to deny him to be God and to bereave him of his blessed condition by frustrating him of his desires Whereas the time shall come that the Elect of God shall be so blessed as to have no desire of theirs in vaine Neither doth the objectour introduced by St. Paul breake forth into any such blasphemy as to charge God with any imposture in hardning whom he will when neverthelesse the ministery of the word hath course with them as well as with any other but rather proposeth it as a thing unreasonable that God should complaine of mens disobedince when himselfe hath hardned their hearts whereby it comes to passe that it cannot be that they should obey God as they ought For who hath resisted his will Yet we know what answer the Apostle maketh to stop the mouthes of all such as call God to an account for his procedings But ô man who art thou who disputest with God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour And wilt not thou allow as much power unto God over thee or over the matter whereof thou wast made as the Potter hath power over the clay Proud man thinks himselfe able enough to believe to repent Now God by his passionate expressions in the Prophets discovereth the vanity of this proud conceit and laboureth by their little profiting by all these patheticall moving courses to manifest the strength of man's corruption And when they will not learne and receive this instruction by his workes he tells them the plaine truth of it to their faces Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Is this the course of imposture when he tells them to their faces that albeit he commands them exhorts them expostulates with them and expresses formes of desire of their obedience in his word yet except God gives them an heart they cannot perceive except God gives them eyes they cannot see except the Lord gives them eares they cannot heare What can be more plaine dealing then this Like as our Saviour no lesse plainly told the Jewes to their face He that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Yet was he earnest and patheticall enough in exhorting them to repentance by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist by his own ministery Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chicken under her wings and ye would not Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till that ye say Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. I come to this Author 's Prosopopey for the truth is his Rhetorick surmounts his Logicke whereat I wonder not a little O ye Reprobates once most dearely beloved in your father Adam But where hath he found in any of our Divines that Reprobates were at all beloved in our father Adam We all hold Reprobation to be as antient as election which St. Paul testifies to have been before the foundation of the world And to ordaine to damnation I should think is to hate rather then to love and this ordination divine was from everlasting And the Scripture hath taught us that the divine nature is without variablenesse or shadow of change He speakes in the language of his own Court when he talkes of sealing up under invincible sinne and misery The Scripture speaks of sealing unto the day of redemption by God's holy spirit which gives them assurance that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation That God will deliver them from every evill work preserve them to his heavenly kinngdome But no such spirit is given to Reprobates to assure them of their damnation so to seale them up under invincible sin misery They are under the power of Satan but he hath neither power nor authority to assure them of their damnation And albeit this Authour fashions a discourse to reprobates as if they were a sect well known Yet we are so farre from knowing who they are that they are in our opinion neither known to themselves nor known to Satan no nor to God's holy Angells unlesse he reveale it unto them If we should have any cause to addresse our selves to Reprobates which kind of case and occasion is incomprehensible by me we should describe them no otherwise then thus O ye who are not only for the present under the power of Satan and so are all God's elect before the time of regeneration but will continue vassalls unto him even unto death going on from sinne to sinne and never breaking them off by repentance but continuing to despise the goodnesse of God leading thereunto Now this being only in reference to the time to come I cannot speake to any in present under this forme absolutely but hypothetically For none are Reprobates to us but such who finally persevere in impenitency Therefore I cannot exhort them to amend their lives under the stile of Reprobates but as such who although they are under the power of sinne and Satan may for ought I know belong to God's election and in good time come out of the snare of Satan And because the ministry of the word is the only meanes whereby God brings men unto