the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began And in another Epistle (f) Colos 1.26 The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints 'T is named (g) Tit. 1.2 the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began Because our hope of it is grounded there upon which place proveth also the immutability and certainty of it for God cannot lye And St. Peter calleth Christ (h) 1 Pet. 1.19 20. the lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world All which Texts do point at our Election in Christ from all Eternity so we need no longer to insist upon this but to proceed to the unchangeableness When we say Election is unchangeable we mean that none of those that are elected to everlasting life can perish and be damned which is the same as to say the number of Elect is certain and can neither be augmented nor diminished so that the Elect ever remain Elect and are never reprobates Several places in Scripture do prove this immutability of Gods Decrees as the following which are so clear that there is no need of enlargement or exposition I (a) Mal. 3.6 the Lord change not not in his Nature which is always the same that was that is and that is to come Eternal immortal c. Nor doth he change place because he always is every where filling all with his infinite Being nor is his Mind and Will which is the question in hand he is not as men who often alter their resolutions but God being most and infinitely wise the only Wise is unchangeable in his Decrees So that (b) 2 Tim. 2.19 the foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth them that are his His chosen (c) Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance for (d) Numb 23.19 he is not a man that he should lye neither the Son of Man that he should repent I know our Adversaries cast a slanderous aspersion upon this Doctrine as thus let a Man walk continue and obstinately persevere in sin and do all the evil he can if he be unalterably elected to eternal life he needs not care what he doth for he shall be saved which say they is an encouragement to sin so a Man that is a reprobate let him do all possible good things 't is in vain he can never be saved But those that say so must either have a great deal of gall and malice in their Heart and be in the bonds of iniquity or be very ignorant of God's ways and of the workings of grace upon the heart What an injurious opinion have they of God as if he knew not what he doth to bring Men into Heaven by the way of Hell or into Hell by the way of Heaven hath the Lord forfeited his wisdom as to separate the means from the end Is it not blasphemy to think nay which is more to say that God who so strictly forbideth Sin and commandeth Repentance and Holiness in his word would therein give an encouragement to all manner of vice and wickedness We own that if the Elect would obstinately continue in sin they should be damned but God who will not have them to be damned and Perish but after they have sinned to return to him and (e) 2 Pet. 3.9 come to repentance doth convert and with threatinngs and chastisements contain them in their duty as it appeareth in the cases of David Peter c. I add 't is no more consisting for an Elect to persevere in sin to the end than for a Reprobate to persevere in grace and true Faith which he never had They who in consequence of their Election be converted are of another sort of temper than those Slanderers take them to be of notwithstanding the frailty of the Elect there is in them a fear and love of God sin dwelleth but doth not reign in them though sometimes they commit wickedness yet they have not sold themselves as 't is said of Ahab to commit it they sin but are none of those whom the Apostle speaks of (a) 2 Pet. 2.14 that cannot cease from sin If sometimes God leaveth them to themselves yet he returns to them with his restraining preventing and strengthening Grace (b) Psal 68.28 He strengtheneth that which he hath wrought for them and in St. Peter's words God doth (c) 1 Pet 5.10 make them perfect stablisheth strengtheneth and settleth them After sin God doth give them Checks We read of David that after his sin of numbering the People (d) 2 Sam. 24.10 His heart smote him they have reality of faith though it be weak sincerity of Repentance though it be unperfect truth of love to God and Charity for the Neighbour though attended with much frailty and weakness Those that have experience and some inward assurance of God's mercy to them in Christ have better thoughts of their duty and will not be drudges of sin and Satan they will be afraid of doing things unworthy of God's Children for fear of displeasing so gracious a Father they will endeavour to work their Salvation with fear and trembling and as much as humane frailty and the sinfulness of their nature will allow they will avoid doing things unworthy of their holy calling they who have such an opinion of them have not yet tasted how good and sweet the Lord is We who assert this true and sound Doctrine of Election know (e) Ephes 1.4 we are chosen that we should be holy not commit sin and wickedness we are called unto holiness and certainly in God's Children the persuasion of Election is the greatest motive and encouragement they can have to a good life and conversation We know we are God's workmanship Chap. 2.10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Not to lead a loose and vicious life and that (a) 2 Tim. 2.19 Psal 85.8 every one that nameth the name of Christ let him as much as he can depart from iniquity And not turn again to foll Every one that hath a saving knowledge of God's word which is the rule of Practice as of Doctrine is convinced it is against a vicious and wicked life (b) Tit. 3 8.14 This is a faithful saying saith Paul And these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works And the 6th verse following he gives the same charge Let ours also learn to maintain good works We do and so will all true Believers joyn with St. Peter in a just and right conclusion of a gracious premise (c) 1 Pet. 2. â— Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people All this is admirable well but what will our
not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Our most blessed Saviour speaks home and positively upon the matter (f) Matt. 12.34.33 O generation of Vipers how can ye being evil speak good things after he had said in the foregoing verse either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit The words of Austin upon the matter are excellent (g) Mea bona nec mea sunt nec perfecte bona mea mala mea sunt perfeste mala The good I do is neither mine nor perfectly good but the evil I do is both mine and perfectly evil But this is not all for not only there is an impotency to all Spiritual good but also a propensity and inclination to all Spiritual evil through a perverseness that is in our nature (g) Gen. 6.5 God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually The Text is very full and comprehensive in every word thereof if any thing can be added to it elsewhere we find it thus (h) Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it We sometimes find by experience how a Man desperately in love with a Daughter of Belial I mean a Woman without any Fortune Honour or Virtue will confess he is in an error and over-ruled by a Passion yet though to the ruin of himself and Fortune he must have her or else he cannot live and is not a Natural man's Will desperately wicked So that though he hath checks and convictions of Conscience about his evil courses with his being so fond of the World and so much in love with Sin and though he knows better yet he neither can nor will leave it where is here Free-will where sufficient Grace If it is not to be found in those Natural and Temporal things much less in Spiritual and Eternal O let every one lay his hand upon his Conscience and seriously examine himself Another thing we assert is That whatsoever good or spiritual working is found in any Man it comes from God who worketh it in Man nothing of Nature but all of Grace Our being Enlightned Conversion Repentance Holiness Faith c. come all from God alone (a) Isa 26.12 for he works all our works in and for us and (b) Eph. 2.10 we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Also (c) Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure It doth not lye in our free-will nor is it in our power to receive or reject Grace neither do we thereby destroy the natural liberty of the Will which doth not consist in indifferency that is to choose or to reject this or that but in a freedom from compulsion neither doth the immutability of the Decree take it away that which God hath Decreed shall indeed necessarily be but a thing may be done voluntarily and necessarily too for necessity and liberty in one subject do very well agree Thus God is necessarily good yet most freely good the Devil is freely evil yet necessarily evil Saints in Heaven do necessarily praise God for they can do no otherwise yet they do it most freely and voluntarily nothing but a necessity of coaction a forcible necessity takes away liberty and this the Will of Man is free from Wicked Men do necessarily yet freely sin with pleasure and delight (d) 2 Pet. 2.14 they cannot cease from sin These are Scripture words yet our Adversaries as before clamour thus then after this all Precepts Promises Threatnings and Exhortations to make Men abstain from Sin will be in vain if they cannot forbear sinning But I say though some be not the better rather the worse for these things yet such things are not in vain for thereby they are taught their Duty and commanded and exhorted to perform it and thereby unpenitent and unbelievers become unexcusable for they cannot pretend ignorance Neither is it in vain in relation to the Elect who enjoy these outward means together with Reprobates because thorough the inward working of the Spirit the Preaching of these things becomes effectual in them and puts them upon avoiding of Sin In few words the better to understand this matter of Free-will two things ought chiefly to be considered First What a state Man is in when we speak of his Free-will Secondly The nature of the things which he doth exercise his Free-will about There are four states of Man which Schoolmen call Institutus Destitutus Restitutus Praestitutus that is to be more plain of Innocency Nature Grace and Glory The things are either necessary or natural indifferent mix'd or spiritual The state of Innocency needs not to be spoken of 't is lost and gone in Adam of whom Divines say Habebat posse quod veltet He had Free-will and Power to do what he would though at last he wanted the Will to do what he could for he would not continue in his Integrity In the other three states the Will is free from compulsion and coaction else instead of being voluntas it would be noluntas not Will but Vnwill God himself never offers such a violence whereby its nature would be destroyed So then in the state of Nature the Will is free only to Evil in that of Grace part to Good and part to Evil yet so that the Evil is wholly from our selves and the Good only from God in that of Glory only to Good 'T is to be observed how in the passing out of the state of Nature into that of Grace that is at the time of our Conversion God by his holy Spirit works in us against us I mean our natural corrupt inclinations But afterwards he works in us and by us that is he guides inclines and turns our faculties to that which is good and acceptable in his sight But to come nearer We say in the state of Nature in Natural and Necessary things as to eat and to drink which are natural and necessary to preserve Life yea this or that kind of Meat and Drink man's Will is most free so 't is in indifferent things as to Walk Stand or Sit to Game Sing or the like The Will is very free even in those things that are of a mix'd nature and which seem to imply a violence as when a Man gives his Purse to a High-way-Man to save his Life when in a Storm Merchants and Seamen cast the Wares into the Sea to save the Ship and themselves Though in such cases there be an unwillingness and a repugnancy to the thing yet the Will determines it self of two Evils to choose the least but our Question concerning Free-will is not about such Objects but about Spiritual things in this state of Nature and before Conversion Hereupon
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria Acts 1.8 13.31 Of whom 't is said in the same Book who are his witnesses unto the people And as they were witnesses unto the people of what they had seen so on the last day they shall be God's witnesses against the people of what they had done and preached to them The second sort of witnesses are from or within men themselves that are guilty Wherefore saith our Saviour to the Jews ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets Matth. 23.31 And with the Gentiles their conscience also bearing Rom. 2.15 16. and shall bear witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another I a word God can never want witnesses for if these held their peace saith Christ the very stones would speak and be witnesses according to what Joshua said Jâ—sh 24.27 This stone shall be a witness Thus to our present purpose God doth outwardly call reprobates and commands them to repent not with an intent they should do so for he denys them the grace of repentance and faith without which they cannot repent and believe For if God would effectually have it so it should infallibly be according to what we have in a place of the prayer book Whose power no creature is able to resist grounded on St. Paul's saying who hath resisted his will But God doth it to shew them their duty and leave them without excuse seeing they had Christ offered to them Here they object a place I answered before about Jerusalem but because they lay a stress upon the comparison as the Hen gathereth her Chickens a sign say they that Christ intended their Salvation to what I said I shall add that Christ doth use the comparison of his being willing to gather Jerusalem as a Hen gathereth her Chickens Matth. 23.27 not in relation to the end and intention but as to the effect if their affection had been answerable They say farther if when Christ calleth Reprobates to come to him he doth not intend thereby to save them then the outward vocation doth differ from his inward purpose which we deny For by the outward calling God actually doth with Reprobates what in the call he proposed within himself for God purposed to call reprobates to promise them Salvation upon account of Obedience to the end they should learn the way to Salvation to know their Duty and at last confess they are justly Damned and he obtaineth the end he aimed at But here followeth a high charge God promising Salvation to reprobates upon an impossible condition which he is not willing to give them grace to perform doth but mock and deceive them We answer the promise of Salvation made to reprobates upon an impossible condition is no delusion but a denyal of Salvation for want of performance of the condition without which no Man can be saved even according to God's Decree for as in time God denyeth reprobates Salvation by reason of impenitency so from eternity he decreed to damn them for impenitency the end of the Promise and of the Vocation are the same When God commandeth all men every where to repent 't is not meant the end of the declaration as if it was God's purpose it should be so but 't is the thing commanded and which those who are called ought to do We must in this matter have a care not to confound the intention of the Minister with that of God who from eternity knows every individual reprobate the Minister not so for being not able to know reprobates from the elect he must have a real intention in his station to save every one that heareth him and if he be mistaken and disappointed of his end he being neither All-mighty nor All-knowing there is no absurdity therein but here we speak of the end of the vocation of reprobates in relation to God Two things more I am to answer First That God is not an hypocrite though he doth not intend the Salvation of all those whom he calleth to 't an hypocrite would seem to be what he is not but there is no such intention in God only he points at and sheweth reprobates the cause why he denyeth them Salvation The second thing I am now to do is to shew that God in his outwardly calling of reprobates is not unjust though he requireth of them impossible things But before I must answer an Objection I had omitted to shew that 't is in Man's power to save himself if he will 't is taken out of St. Paul's words (a) Philip. 2.12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling But this goeth from the state of the question which is about Conversion before it be effected but in this place the Apostle speaks to regenarated Men for he saith they always obeyed now as in the act of Conversion we are meerly Passive after it is effected and there is the new Man created in us we are not like Stone and Stocks we move as we are acted by the spirit of God This is an Exhortation to Holiness and every good Work but to shew how the Apostle doth not think it is in their power to work their own Salvation of themselves in the next verse he addeth For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure This explantation he giveth for fear they should misunderstand what he said about working their Salvation and we see how to keep them from Pride and Presumption he saith work it with fear and trembling But now I must return where I left and say of things unpossible some are so absolutely and of their nature others are such only in some respect and accident that obedience which God requireth of Men is not of absolute impossibility for if there was any injustice in the case here it would lay but what God requires of Men was once possible but man through his own fault lost that power what in the state of Innocency namely obedience was possible for Man is by his fall become unpossible to him yet for all this he still is bound to do his Duty the more because he hath no excuse to plead for in relation to God who neither inticed him nor commanded or compelled him but rather expresly with threatnings did forbid him to sin so that God is most just in calling for his own This is as if a Man had lent me Money when it was lent I was able to pay but since through my own ill management I ruined my whole Estate and made it unpossible for me to pay the Debt must my Creditor suffer for my evil Courses after I am become a prodigal Son Is he unjust to call for his Money and make me pay the Debt No surely as you see the (b) Matth. 18. from 24. to 35. Lord did by that servant of his who had no mercy upon his
Mercy they attain to everlasting Felicity Here are also the Particulars by which that general bringing to Salvation is perfected so that to joyn both together it is but one and the same and from first to last there is such an indissoluble Connexion that he who is elected to eternal Life shall infallibly have it Upon this certitude and assurance it is that St. Paul concludes nothing can deprive us of eternal Life because nothing can separate us from the love of God which is the Ground of our Happiness Wherefore he defieth any thing or person to do it though Arminians undertake to accept of the Apostle's Challenge not caring how they come within his Defiance For they seem to answer that there are many or some things that can separate us from the love of God in Christ tho' after and before a long Enumeration St. Paul concludes In all things these we are more than conquerours And Job will trust in God John 13.15 though he kill him Now that which maketh us to Conquer is not our own free-Will but it is God that loved us In conformity to this in the same Article it is said The consideration of Election doth greatly establish in the Saints and confirm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ And the same Interpreter upon the 17th Article in his 3d. Proposition out of the Words constantly decreed doth infer this Wander then do they from the truth which think that the very Elect totally and finally may fall from Grace and be damned c. I think this is very clear for us And in the latter end of his 8th Proposition he condemneth those who call the Doctrine of Predestination a licentious Doctrine As to the point of Justification which is a Fundamental Article of our Religion and much corrupted by Arminians the xi Article of the 39. saith We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works and Deservings These last Words do reach Arminians as well as Papists for free Will Faith Perseverance right use and improvement of Means do come under the Word Deservings There is then nothing of Man and Rogers in the Proofs of his 1st Proposition explains it thus By his only Righteousness we are justified It expresses only Christ's Righteousness and excludeth any thing else But I must not be too long upon this Out of what hath been said I hope it doth appear how of the 39 Articles those which speak about these Matters are clearly for us against Arminians Now we must come to the Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book which now and then and in several places doth strike against those Errors and for the Truth And as the Church teaches us those Doctrines by Articles of Faith so in the Liturgy she doth confirm it by Practice But before I come to it I must take notice of some Passages in the Catechism which is also a publick Record and Evidence of the Doctrine of the Church Know this that thou art not able to do these things of thy self nor to walk in the Commandments of God and to serve him without his special Grace See also the Answer to the first Question about the Lord's Prayer I desire c. Read the Answer to the 4th Question and by God's help so I will c. Now to come to Particulars out of the Prayer-Book In one place we have thus (a) Collect on Christ's Nativity Grant that we being regenerate and made thy Children by Adoption and Grace may daily be renewed by thy holy Spirit Those Benefits we receive as effects of Grace not of our free-Will and our being renewed is by God's Holy Spirit not by our Will If it be by one it is not by the other because in Matters of Salvation Grace and natural Strength are opposed In another place (b) Collect upon Ash-wednesday we beseech God to create and make in us new and contrite Hearts Then we cannot have it of our selves and the Word to create sheweth it to be beyond the power of any Creature it is the Work only of the Creator Elsewhere we own (c) Collect on 2d Sunday in Lent to have no power of our selves to help our selves If we have a free-Will we have a Power Again (d) Collect on Monday and Tuesday in Easter week As by thy special Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Minds good Desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect This is plain and full against Arminians If there be good Thoughts in our Mind good Desires in our Heart it is God alone that puts it therein By what Motive and upon what Account Not for any thing in us but by his Grace nay his special not a common universal Grace not for our Faith Repentance good Works right use of Means but by his special Grace preventing Grace before we can think and desire But this is not all for as the beginning is from God as are Desires so is the Progress for we pray for his continual help so also is the end that we may bring the same good Thoughts and Desires to good effect Without that help nothing doth or can come to any good We have more than this to shew (e) Collect on 4th Sunday after Easter Almighty God who alone canst order the unruly Wills and Affections of sinful Men grant unto thy people that they may love the thing which thou command-est and desire that which thou dost promise We are all sinful Men even God's People Our Wills and Affections are unruly where then lays their Freedom They are obstinate Slaves to their Passions therefore called unruly None but God can order them nothing under a Divine Power can influence them to what is good nay in things that are natural to them as to love and to desire Nothing seems more natural than Love and Desire nothing more free yet here we see our Wills cannot love that which God commands or desire what he promises except God makes them do it Surely these are mortal Wounds to free-Will Furthermore we cannot so much as to think any good thing but by the Spirit of God For St. Paul saith of our selves we cannot have a good Thought so the Church which believeth his Doctrine saith to God (f) Collect on 5th Sunday after Easter Grant to us that by thy holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good This is of Grace and not by Nature therefore (g) Collect on 1st Sunday after Trinity we can do no good thing without thee grant us the help of thy Grace that we may please thee both in will and deed God puts into our Hearts to do Duties and to perform them well (h) Collect on 3d. Sunday after Trinity Thou hast given us a hearty desire to pray We pray God to grant (i) Collect on Ascension day and Collect on Annunciation day