the Preacher speakes Marke 6.20 Herod heard Iohn gladly Acts 13 46. The Iewes refuse to heare the Gospell Psal. 58.4 The wicked stop their eares like the deafe Adder THE SECOND POSITION THere are certaine inward effects going before conversion or regeneration which by the power of the word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of men not yet justified As are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sinne a feare of punishment a bethinking of freedome and some hope of pardon THE grace of God is not wont to bring men to the state of justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasme or rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing actions taming and preparing them through the Ministery of the word 1 This we may see in those who upon hearing S. Peters Sermon feele the burden of their sinne are stricken with feare and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of pardon All which may bee collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 2 This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the naturall generation of man there are many previous dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the spirituall generation by many actions of grace which must goe before doe we come to the spirituall nativity 3 To conclude this appeares by the instruments which God uses for the regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministery of men and the instrument of the word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospell But if God would regenerate or justifie a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sorrow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the ministery of men nor of the preaching of the word for this purpose neither would any care lye upon the Ministers dividing the word of God aright fitly and wisely first to wound the consciences of their auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospell and to exhort them to beg faith and repentance at Gods hand by prayers and teares THE THIRD POSITION WHom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the meanes of the word those doth hee truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion BY the nature of the benefit offered and by the evident word of God we must judge of those helpes of grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospell of its owne nature calls men to repentance and salvation when the incitements of divine grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done fainedly by God This is proved by those earnest and patheticall intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled vnto God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 Wee beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vaine those expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvell that you are so soone removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ those promises Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all whom he vouchsafes this gift of his word and Spirit to a serious conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sonnes name and the messengers of the Euangelicall promises might bee accused of false witnesse and those who being called to conversion doe neglect to obey might bee more excusable For that calling by the word and the Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is onely exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable THE FOVRTH POSITION THose whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initiall or entring grace THe talent of grace once given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his owne fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where wee are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the grace of God in vaine that wee depart not from God Yea that is most evidently noted to bee the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsaken by man Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because yee have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you But never in the Scriptures is there the least mention that God is wont or is willing at any time without some fault of man going before to take away from any man the aid of his exciting grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards mans conversion Thus the Orthodoxe Fathers who had to doe with the Pelagians ever taught It is the will of God that wee continue in a good will who before he be forsaken forsakes no man and oftentimes converts many that forsake him THE FIFTH POSITION THese foregoing effects wroght in the mindes of men by the power of the word and the Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of our rebellious will and in many are so that some in whose hearts by the vertue of the word and the Spirit some knowledge of divine truth some sorrow for sin some desire and care of deliverance have beene imprinted are changed quite contrary reject and hate the truth deliver themselves up to their lusts are hardned in their sins and without all desire or care of freedome from them rot and putrifie in them MAtth. 13.19 The wicked one commeth and catcheth away that which was sowne in his heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turne from the holy commandement delivered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his owne vomit Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to returne them againe to repentance Many doe quickly entertaine the light of the minde but the understanding it selfe hath not the same force or power in all and many when they seem enriched with faith and understanding yet they want charity and cannot hold fast to those things which they see by faith and understanding because there is no persevering in that which is not loved with the whole heart THE SIXT POSITION THe very elect in those acts going before
liberty is If the Remonstrants had more diligently weighed these things they might have foreborne their argument taken from infants baptized to avow the Apostasie of the justified especially those who deny that there is any donation of reall grace in the baptisme of Infants Because in this Article two things there are which are usually questioned the one whether they who are not Elect may ever come to the state of sanctification and justification wherby they may be reckoned among the number of the Saints the other whether the Elect who are justified and sanctified doe at any time wholly fall off frō this estate Therfore in the first place wee set downe those Positions by which we shew how farre they who are not Elect may goe on in the way Touching those who are not Elect. THE FIRST POSITION THere is a certaine supernaturall enlightening granted to some of them who are not elect by the power whereof they understand those things to be true which are revealed in the Word of God and yeeld an unfaigned assent unto them THe truth of the position concerning the first part namely the enlightening of their minds is plainely collected out of the Scriptures Heb. 6.4 Where the Apostle maketh mention of such as sinned against the holy Ghost affirming that they were enlightened and in the 10. Chap. and 26. Vers. hee intimateth that they might wilfully sinne after they had received the knowledge of the truth The Apostle Peter also 2 Pet. 2.22 makes mention of some who when they knew the way of righteousness neverthelesse turned from the holy commandement which was given unto them Iudas was the sonne of perdition Ioh. 17.12 yet he was furnished with the knowledge of the Gospell and thereupon was sent by Christ with the other Apostles to preach the Gospell to the house of Israel Mat. 10.7 And Christ threatneth the like punishments to them that despise the preaching of Iudas as of 〈…〉 9. All those were enlightened with a supernaturall knowledge of the truth of the Gospell Which illumination proceeding from the holy Ghost did beget a true knowledge in the mindes of these men out of which knowledge they as occasion required brought forth actions sutable to the same Yea it may come to passe that an heathen Philosopher may apprehend more accurately and distinctly the mysteries of Christs Incarnation and in his understanding more subtilly discern the unity of the person and distinction of natures then an unlearned Christian Concerning the unfained assent which may be and often is yeelded to the Gospel by some who are not elected there is the like evidence Luk. 8.13 The seed which fell upon the stony ground noteth to us such hearers as for a while beleeve that is those which give assent to things revealed from above and especially to the covenant of the Gospell And thereby it is plaine that this their assent was no way fained because they received the word with joy Acts 8.30 Even Symon Magus himselfe beleeved Philip preaching concerning the Kingdome of God and was baptized for testimony of his faith Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwracke of their faith which was not dissembled or fained but true For it is not to be imputed for a fault to any man that hee is falne from an hypocriticall faith neither can shipwracke be made of a fained faith but onely a detection and manifestation of it Nor indeed can hee suffer shipwracke who never was in the ship 2 Pet. 2.20 Some are said to have escaped from the filthines of the world through the knowledge of the Lord whose latter end is worse then their beginning This knowledge doth intimate not a bare apprehension but withall an assent yeelded unto the things knowne whence came that escape from the filthinesse of the world Iohn 12.42 It is recorded that among the chiefe Rulers many beleeved on him but because of the Pharisies they did not confesse him least they should bee cast out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God They beleeved with an unfained dogmaticall faith which then lay secretly hid in their hearts but never shewed it selfe in any outward profession for feare of danger ensuing Who as St. Augustine speakes if they should goe on forward upon their entrance into faith would also overcome the love of humane glory by their farther progresse in faith All backsliders of this kinde are justly reproved and punished not because they fained that faith they never had but because they forsooke the faith they had and they sin in a far greater measure which depart from the grace of faith conferred upon them then they who never tasted of the glad tidings of the Gospel as our Saviour teacheth us Iohn 15.22 THE SECOND POSITION IN these fore-mentioned there doth arise out of this knowledge and faith a certaine change of their affections and some kinde of amendment of their manners OVt of this said illumination and assent of faith there doth arise in such as are not elect some kinde of mutation of their affections as also amendment of their lives The first is plainely set downe Mat. 13.20 They heard the word and received it with joy As also 1 Reg. 21 27. And it came to passe when Ahab heard those words that he rent his cloathes and put sackcloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly These behaviours were evidences of his true sorrow conceived through the Prophets words as appeares in that God rewarded this his humiliation by removing temporall punishments as it is v. 19. because he hath humbled himselfe before me I will not bring the evill in his dayes Heb. 6.4 The Apostates there described were not only enlightened but had tasted of the heavenly gift the good Word of God and the power of the world to come And in the 6 vers it is intimated that they were after a sort renewed and in the 10. Chap. and 16. verse They who had received the knowledge of the truth vers 24. are said to tread under foot the blood of the Covenant by which they are sanctified Mat. 6.20 Herod heard Iohn the Baptist gladly Concerning some amendment of their conditions the same is testified by the example of the same Herod who received Iohn the Baptist and when he had heard him did many things likewise 2 Pet. 2.20 Some had escaped from the filthinesse of the world through the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. These had eschewed the pollutions of the world by the operation and knowledge of this faith some also chap. 1. vers 9. forget that they were purged from their old sinnes and out of such the uncleane spirit is said to have departed Mat. 12.43 In these as the enlightning and assent yeelded to the truth revealed from above was not fained but trve in its owne kind and degree so likewise was the change of their affections and manners namely these beginnings or entrances were not fained or
colourable but proceeded out of the power of those dispositions unto grace and from the inspiration of the holy Ghost which they felt in themselves for a time as is evident by their affections their joy sorrow and zeale which they doe not so much faine and make a shew of as find to be truely in themselves Of such Saint Augustine thus speaketh They were not sonnes then when they were in the profession and had the name of sonnes not because they fained their righteousnesse but because they remained not in that righteousnesse THE THIRD POSITION VPon those good beginnings testified by the externall works of obedience they are reputed and by a charitable construction ought to be taken for beleevers justified and sanctified men THey who to these inward gifts of the holy Ghost have added the outward profession of a Christian faith together with the amendment of their lives ought of right to be reckoned by us who cannot finde out or search into the inward secrets of mens hearts in the number of the faithfull of the justified and sanctified This is plainly proved out of the Apostle Saint Paul who in his Epistles which hee wrote to particular Churches at Rome Corinth Ephesus c. entitles them all promiscuously beloved of God Saints sanctified Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 Ephes. 1.1 Phil. 1.1 In like manner the Apostle Peter in the beginning of his first Epistle speaketh unto the dispersed strangers in this forme of speach To the Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the spirit Adde we to these the note of Saint Augustine speaking of those who were not elect These because they live godly are called the sons of God And afterwards againe There are some who are called of us the sons of God because of the grace received by them for a time but yet they are not the sons of God THE FOVRTH POSITION THey who are not elect although they thus far proceed yet they never attaine unto the state of adoption and justification and therefore by the Apostasie of these men the Apostasie of the Saints is very erroneously concluded ALthough they who are not elect being brought up cherished in the Churches bosome are in their minds will and affections disposed by the aforesaid preparatives tending in some sort to justification yet are they not thereupon placed in the state of justification or adoption For they still retain throughly setled in their hearts the strings and roots of their leud desires to which they give themselves over still they remaine wedded to the love of earthly things and the hardnesse lurking in the secret corners of their hearts is not taken away so that either persecution or tentation arising they retire from grace and being either intangled with the love of pleasures and enticements of the flesh or caried away with some other vicious affections at length they shew that they are lovers of themselves and lovers of pleasures rather then lovers of God and that they enjoy nothing lesse then God howsoever they may flatter themselves but indeed that they would make use of God that they may enjoy the world as S. Augustine speakes Whence it is manifest that they never really and truly attaine that change and renovation of the minde and affections which accompanieth justification nay nor that which doth immediately prepare and dispose unto justification For they never seriously repent they are never affected with hearty sorrow for this cause they have offended God by sinning nor doe they come to any humble contrition of heart nor conceive a firme resolution not to offend any more unto them is not given repentance unto life which is mentioned Acts 10.18 nor that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 they are not poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of God Mat. 5.13 To this purpose is that of Saint Augustine who speaking of the reprobate saith God bringeth none of them to that wholesome and spirituall repentance by which a man is reconciled to God in Christ. Adde also that such doe never feele in themselves an earnest desire of reconciliation They doe not hunger and thirst after righteousnesse For such shall be filled Matth. 5.6 And to them shall be given of the fountaine of living water which shall be in them a well of water springing up to eternall life Iohn 4.14 Also they doe neither denie themselves nor seriously bid defiance to their owne lusts nor doe they once feele in their hearts any such accounting of all things but losse that they may winne Christ as the Apostle did Phil. 3.8 And to conclude they never attaine to that unfained lively faith which justifieth a sinner and worketh through love 2 Tim. 1.5 For this faith is the peculiar of the Elect and is not afforded to the not elected Furthermore that onely the Elect are justified it is plaine by that golden chaine of the Apostle Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified Those onely and no other as out of S. Augustine we have shewne at the first Article Againe the same Saint Augustine God doth not forgive the sinnes of all men but of those whom he foreknew and predestinated It is plaine also out of the Scriptures that they who are not elect never come unto the estate of adoption For first the estate of adoption is grounded upon predestination Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Christ Iesus Secondly the state of adoption as also the right and priviledge of sons is not obtained but by a lively faith For as many as received him to thē he gave power that is aright priviledge that they should be the Sons of God to wit to such as beleeve in his name Also ye are all the sonnes of God by faith in Christ Iesus But this faith is proper to the Elect as was before declared 3 All that are adopted for sonnes are regenerated and that by the incorruptible seed by the word of the living God Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne because his seed remaineth in him 4 Those adopted sons are also heires heires of God and coheires with Christ and doe receive the earnest of their inheritance But they who are not elect are never regenerated by this incorruptible seed neither have they the seed of God remaining in them neither are they assigned to be heires with Christ. Hence is that of Saint Augustine They were not in the number of sonnes no not when they were in the faith of sonnes Againe As they were not the true Disciples of Christ so neither were they the true Sonnes of God yea even when they seemed to be and were so called And Saint Ambrose What can God the Father make void those gifts he hath bestowed and banish those from the grace of his fatherly affection whom he
unbeleevers not yet washed in the blood of Christ nor the guilt of any whatsoever degree but such a guilt as for which the hostile anger and vengeance of God lieth heavily upon the guiltie person Whosoever is justified by a true faith can never afterward bee guiltie after this manner We may therefore say that the effect of justification is for a time suspended by the entercourse of such a particular sin because the person by reason of this new guilt needeth a particular absolution But wee cannot say that the state of justification is dissolved forasmuch as the same person doth not fall from the generall pardon of his forecommitted sins nor is deprived of that speciall intercession which our Saviour hath promised to all the faithfull nor of the free love of God his Father The same case holds in adoption For God never adopted to himselfe a Sonne in Christ whom afterwards he either must or would dis-inherit and cast out of his familie The children of God may indeed sinne and that very grievously but the providence and mercie of God will not suffer them so farre to sin as that they should thereby be bereft of their heavenly home and Father The servant abideth not in the house for ever but the sonne abideth for ever For as Saint Ambrose speakes God doth not make void the gift of adoption To conclude the seed of regeneration with those fundamentall gifts without which the spirituall life cannot subsist are preserved in safetie This is hence evident because that the same holy Spirit who doth infuse this seed into the hearts of the regenerate doth imprint into the same seed a certaine heavenly and incorruptible vertue and doth perpetually cherish and keepe the same Iohn 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life 1 Iohn 3.5 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sinne because hee is borne of God This seed of life remaining in them it is altogether impossible that the gifts of lively faith charitie should be quite extinguished Hence Gregory rightly sayes In holy mens hearts the Spirit alwayes abides according to some vertues or graces according to others he comes to depart and departs to returne but in the hearts of his Elect he remaineth in those vertues without which eternall life is not attained THE SEVENTH POSITION THat the regenerate doe not altogether fall from faith holinesse and adoption proceeds not from themselves nor from their owne will but from Gods speciall love divine operation and from Christs intercession and custody IT is certaine that if God would deale with us upon strict termes he might most justly for our ungratitude untowardnesse withdraw from us his fatherly favour and gifts of saving grace But for as much as even by the determination of the Schoolemen sinne doth not take away grace efficiently that is by certaine expulsion but by way of demerit that is deservingly surely unlesse it can bee proved that God deales with his according to their deserts it will not follow that upon the committing of a grievous sinne they lose faith or fall away from the state of justification and adoption For that which in regard of our ill desert might justly be done is by the mercie of God and by Christs intercession and the operation of the holie Ghost hindred from being done No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Not the Devill for God shall bruise him under our feet Not the world for Christ hath overcome the world And he doth so worke in all his that they also at length overcome through faith Lastly not those things from whence is our greatest danger our own weaknesse the inclination and pronenesse of our owne free will to wickednesse for the goodnesse of God is alwaies shewed in this weaknesse of the faithfull and through the intercession of Christ for them is obtained that they shall not fall off from their faith Luke 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Iohn 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word We doe not therefore fetch this perseverance of the faithfull in their faith and Gods grace from their owne free will but from Christ that frees them The Lord shall deliver me from every evill worke and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome 2 Tim. 4.18 To this purpose are those words of Saint Augustine We live safer if wee trust all to God and doe not commit our selves partly to God and partly to our selves As God workes that we come to him so he works also that we depart not from him THE EIGHTH POSITION THe perseverance therefore of holy men is the free gift of God and is derived unto us out of the decree of election THis conclusion ariseth out of those things which are said before but that it may more manifestly appeare we will adde somewhat more First that it is the free gift of God is proved out of the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive why dost thou glorie as if thou hadst not received If any thing can give a just cause to men of glorying surely this that they have persevered in good unto the end then when they could at their owne pleasure not have made use of those meanes which in themselves were sufficient for perseverance Either therefore this doth betide the faithfull by way of speciall gift or they have something which they have not received in which they may greatly glorie But wee affirme on the contrarie whether by perseverance be understood either that power which doth propp and hold up the faithfull or the stabilitie it selfe and the unconquered firmenesse of their faith or lastly the very act of persevering that there is none of these which is not the gift of God Touching that power by which the will is stayed up that it may persevere the Remonstrants easily grant that it is the onely grace of GOD which doth arme a man with this strength to persevere Touching the stability and firmenesse which is considered as the manner or adjunct of true faith this also is to bee numbred among the gifts of God For he which doth give the thing it selfe to wit faith doth also give the manner of the thing to wit the stability and firmenesse of the same faith 2 Thes. 3.3 The Lord is faithfull who shall establish you 1 Cor. 1.7.8 Yee come behinde in no gift waiting for the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall confirme you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse Out of which words it is manifest that faith is the gift of God as well in the