performed commending himselfe by solemne prayer unto God For he called unto the Lord and said O Lord God remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray thee onely this once O God that I may bee at once revenged of the Philistins for my two eyes and thereupon taking hold of the two pillars of the house he bowed himselfe and said Let me die with the Philistins and the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people that were within so the dead which he slew at his death were more then they which he slew in his life What a strange zeale possessed Phinees when he ran his javelin thorow Zimri and Cosbi thus perishing in their incestuous act and thus hee as it were sending their soules to hel as well as their bodies to the grave Yet God approves of it and seales hereupon unto him the covenant of the Priesthood The children of Israel expell the Canaanites and destroy them without all mercy having nothing to justifie them in these violent courses but onely the commandement of God The Israelites are said to have robbed the Egyptians in borrowing that which they never meant to restore and the Lord animates them hereunto and foretels unto Moses that he would cause them to march out of the land laden with the riches of Egypt and a great part of this was afterwards consecrated to the service of the Tabernacle 4. In the next place you tell us after your manner positively that the infinite goodnesse of Gods Majestie cannot wrest his most holy will from strict observance of such rules of righteousnesse as he sets us to follow and this dogmaticall assertion of yours is ushered in with a great deale of state by a comparison forsooth of the contrary disposition of great men for whom to set paternes of the morality which they require in others is reputed a kinde of pedantisme or mechanicall servitude and why mechanicall forsooth because it is like the setting of us copies or songs or teaching us some honest trade Yet I can hardly beleeve but that Sardanapalus or Heliogabalus both did thinke it better becomming the Majesty of a Prince to give examples of honest conversation then to play the Scrivener or the Shomaker Instruction in morality or in liberall Arts may in some things have resemblance to mechanicall instructions but is any man so sottish as thereupon to conceive such morall and liberall instruction to be mechanicall An Ape may bee like unto a man Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis yet no foole conceives him to be a man Neither doe I see any cause to wonder that they who are willing to give lawes to others are loath to have any lawes given to curbe them Well though the garments of morality be too strait for great ones yet they are not too strait for God he can bee content to put them on to weare them and they become him so well that the infinite greatnesse of his Majestie cannot wrest his most holy will from strict observance of such rules of righteousnesse as he sets us to follow As I remember in Cyri paedia there is conceived such a good lesson becomming Princes namely themselves to observe those lawes which they make for their people This law you have such a transcendent conceit of and of the goodnesse of it that you thinke fit to establsh it in the Common-wealth of the Trinity God say you cannot wrest his will Consider I pray whether this be a sober speech The corruptest man that lives the devill himselfe cannot wrest his will First because the will cannot be wrested lawes may be wrested by violent interpretations mens goods may bee wrested from them by violent courses but I never read nor heard that any mans will may be wrested For it is a received rule that Voluntas non potest cogi Secondly because a man cannot wrest anything that he undertakes to wrest but by his will Now in what congruitie can the will of any be said to wrest it selfe But take we your meaning that God doth strictly observe the rules of righteousnesse which he sets us to follow Now the rules he setteth us to follow ate partly such as are conteined in the first table and partly such as are conteined in the second In the first wee are commanded to love him to feare him to put our trust in him Are these the rules that God himselfe doth so strictly observe doth he feare himselfe doth he put his trust or confidence in himselfe In the second we are commanded to worship him according to his word hath God a care to worship himselfe according to his word God sometimes doth sweare by himselfe and I hold it impossible that God should doe any thing in vaine much more that he should take his owne name in vaine But as for the sanctifying of the Sabbath whereunto wee are bound I cannot well conceive how that day and the sanctification thereof should be observed by God unlesse you are of the Iewes opinion who thinke that God spends some part of the day in reading their Talmud and some part in lamenting Ierusalem and the desolation thereof and the other part of the day he spends in playing with Leviathan and you desire to translate these celestiall devotions to the Sabbath We are bid to honour our father and mother God hath none to honour Wee are forbid to kil any man yet God did bid Abraham to sacrifice his sonne and allowed Phinees in slaying Zimri and Cosbi and exposed his owne innocent Sonne to be crucified and gives us power over inferiour creatures as Lords of life and death God made Adam after his owne image and likenesse Adams integrity was the image of his holinesse but when man by his fall lost this his holinesse take heed you avouch not that hereby he lost the image of God Our holinesse consisteth in seeking the glory of God and no creature can be so zealous of Gods glory as God is of his owne But how to expresse our zeale of Gods glory better then by obedience unto his will I willingly professe I know not As likewise what you meane by those ever living examples of goodnesse which as you say God expresseth in his works vnlesse it bee in making his sunne to shine and his raine to fall both upon good and bad For unto this is the last precept which you mentioned referred by our Saviour And yet I doubt not nor you neither that God hath contrary waies and courses as namely in making us to discerne betweene the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serveth God and him that serveth him not and that in respect of demonstration of mercie to the one and execution of judgement on the other Behold my servant shall eate and ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drinke and yee shall be thirstie behold my servants shall rejoyce and ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart
fullfilled in theire suffering how is it possible that this theire suffering of death should be against the will of God which yet you boldly affirm and that with such confidence as to breake out into a censure of them that thinke the contrary as if they did rather dreame then thinke the contrary And yet when you breake forth in avouching manifest contradiction would you have your reader conceave your selfe to be in a sober discourse waking or in a dreame sleeping Yet this is usuall in your writings 4. The mayne poynt proposed to wit how God without change of a loving Father becomes a severe judge you dispatched in a few words saying the change is wholly in man and therin giveing us your word for it and afterwards served your selfe with certayne illustrations nothing to the purpose And to refresh your spirits and get some breath you turned aside to the consideration of the proportion of mens punishments to theire sinnes poynts merely extravagant And now you take liberty to maintayne your extravagant discourse by inquiring how it stands with Gods justice to inflict eternall punishments for temporall sinnes VVe must be content to follow you in your wilde goose race For seeing we are in we must goe thorough and get out as we can Yet you acknowledge the doubt proposed nothing pertinent but to make matter of farther discourse you tell us it were pertinent if the immortall happinesse wherunto the riches of Gods bounty did dayly leade them here on earth had not farther exceeded the pleasure of this life then the paynes of Hell doe those grievances which caused them to murmur against theire heavenly Father You are very bold to acknowledge God to be the heavenly Father of the reprobates Whereas the Apostle professeth that we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Gal. 3. 25. And if sonnes then heyres even heyrs of God and coheyres with Christ. Rom. 8. Much more bold if because our Saviour Christ exhorts the Apostles to be like theire heavenly Father therfore you will acknowledge him the heavenly Father even of reprobates also This is by the way I come to the maine and say first were it so as you speake yet this doubt were nothing pertinent to this place of cleering God from innovation and change of nature as often as his tender love is turned into feirce wrath Secondly your argument contracted being this Immortall happinesse doth more exceede the pleasures of this life then the pains of Hell exceede the grievances of this life therfore it is impertinent to make a doubt how Gods justice doth appeare in inflicting eternall punishment for temporall sinne I see no just consequence at all in this I will drawe it to the best forme I can devise in congruity to your meaning which I desire to picke out as well as I can And that is this Theire obedience should be rewarded with infinite joy therefore theire obedience may be justly punished with infinite sorrow and no doubt is to be made hereof And this I confesse is more suitable speaking of the protension duration of each then of theire intension as you doe For though the joyes of Heaven were never so greate beyond the degree of sorrows of Hell Yet if they were not everlasting the comparison would not hold Because there could be but a finite difference betweene theire intensions for joys of man cannot be infinite in degree But if the one were everlasting the other not there should be an infinite difference in this And albeit the joys of Heaven were but of equall degree in proportion to the sorrows of bell Yet the argument would every whit proceede as well upon supposall of inequality and that of exuberancy on the part of joyes Now I will shew what exception may be taken against this First no laws of the World the execution whereof are reputed just doe or can proceede after any such proportion Let a man take a purse upon the high way or kill a man he shall dye for it Let him give tenn times as much to the poore let him save ten mens lives they neyther doe nor can reward in proportion to the punishment Let the greatest honour or any other kinde of rewards be heaped upon him all are inferiour to his life For all that ever a man hath he will give for his life But then you will say if it be just with man to punish with death though they cannot possibly administer rewards in any proportion therunto how much more is it just with God to punish with eternall death seeing be can and will reward obediency with eternall life And I nothing doubt but that it is just but the question is wherin consisteth this justice For it seemes that justice in this kinde should stand in reference to the worke and not be measured by any aliene consideration Especially considering that the question may be revived on the part of the reward For how stands it with justice to reward with everlasting blisse a temporall obedience so that still we shall be to seeke of the right measure of justice in this kinde Agayne if a Master shall say unto a servant doe such a thing and I will give thee an hundred pound it will not herehence follow that for his disobedience the Master may make him pay an hundred pound And the reason is because it is manifest that like as a man may give what he will freely so he may reward as liberally as he will But it is not so manifest that God himselfe mai doe what evill he will unto his creature and accordingly afflict what punishment he will for the transgression of his creature And therefore the reason that you give for justifying God in this is unsound and you seeme to be sensible of it when you desire to helpe your selfe with the consideration of mens multiplyed contempts of grace all which neverthelesse doe make up but a short continuance in sinne Besides that this consideration hath no place in such infants as perish in originall sinne You cannot find any neglect in them much lesse often and yet to say and barely to say That often and perpetuall neglects turnes slames of eternall love into an eternall consuming fire is to please your selfe in your own dictates but to proove nothing The same song you sing still when you tell us the oftner God pardons a man the greater is his wrath against impenitency save that the prosequution of it is more absurd then the former For it hath reference rather to the intention of his wrath which is greater or lesse according to the qualities of mens sinnes not to the protension and duration of it which is equall to all But by the way where I pray doth it appeare that God doth often pardon the sinnes of reprobates or that he doth at all pardon them Doth God pardon any sinnes without repentance Or are the reprobates at any time brought by God unto repentance I am sure Austine professeth the
certeyne universall nature mooves them contrarily to their speciall inclinations for mayntenance of the integritie of the whole and for avoydance of all vacuity I see no reason for that other assertion of yours that nature cannot sett boundes to bodies naturall but rather is limited in them What thinke you of the soules of men doe not these as other soules prescribe limits unto the matter Materia prima was accoumpted in our Vniversitie to have dimensiones in determinatas and that it receaved the determination therof from formes but by the operation of Agents in their severall generations I confesse nature it selfe is but the effect and instrument of God who is the God of nature as well as of grace But yet whether every thinge that hathe boundes of nature as the World hathe dothe herby evidence and inferre the creation therof is such a question wherin Aristotle and his followers did peremtorily maynteyne the negative and the Scripture it selfe do the impute unto faithe our acknowledgement of the Creation 4. Nowe we come to the scanninge of your second Principle Whatsoever hathe no cause of beinge can have no limits or boundes of beinge This in part hathe evidence of truthe thus Whatsoever hathe no efficient cause of beinge the same hathe no beginninge of beinge But if it proceede of limits of essence or of qualitie or of quantitie it requires helpe of reason to make it good For as many as denyed the World to have a beginninge denyed as it seemes that it had any cause of beinge and thought the beinge therof to be by necessitie of nature Yet did they maynteyne that the World had limits of quantitie and qualitie For they maynteyned that Infinitum magnitudine was absolutely impossible as Aristotle by name By your distinction followinge of diverse wayes wherby beinge may be limited you make no mention of limitation by havinge a beginninge therof which yet hathe bene the cheife if not only limit which hitherto you have mentioned Agayne why shoulde you make but two wayes confoundinge the limits of quantitie with the limits of intensive perfection in every several kinde It were too much in my judgement to confound limits of quantitie with limits of qualitie which yet are both accidentall But most unreasonable it seemes to confound eyther of these with intensive perfection of every severall kinde But howe will you accommodate the members of this distinction to the former proposition Allmightie God hathe no cause of beinge therfore he hathe no limits of beinge Nowe I pray apply this to the members of your distinction concerninge the kinde of limits of beinge Is he without limits in number why then belike he is numberles Yet indeede he is but one and can be but one in nature and in persons can be but three must needes be three Is he without limits in quantitio and so infinite therin But in very truthe he hathe no quantitie at all Is he without limits in qualities not materiall for such are not incident to him but spirituall so infinite therin Are there no boundes of the degrees of his goodnes why but consider in God there are no degrees no qualities at all As touching perfections created therof indeede we have severall kindes but none such are to be found in God Only because God is able to produce them therfore they are sayde to be eminently in God thoughe not formally But the like you may say as well of any materiall attribute as of spirituall For God can produce all alike Therfore all are eminently alike in God Of thinges visible the most perfect you say are but perfect in some one kinde It is true of invisible creatures as well as of visible but this kinde is to be understood of a kinde created But you may not say that God is perfect in all such kindes but rather in none of them For that were to be perfect in imperfections Gods perfection transcendes all created kindes and he is the Author of them producinge them out of nothing They that maynteyne the World to have bene eternall maynteyne it to have bene so by necessitie of nature And all such would peremtorily deny that it was possible for the World not to have bene and therfore in this discourse of yours it would have becommed you rather to proove the contrary then to suppose it Howe the Heaven of Heavens shoulde be accoumpted immortall I knowe not seing they are not capable of life And seing deathe properly is a dissolution of body and soule immortalitie must consist proportionably in an indissoluble conjunction of the body and the soule which is not incident to Angells much lesse to Heavens which have neyther bodies nor soules wherof to consist Neyther dothe Seneca in the place by you alleaged speake of Angells in my judgment but rather of the Species of thinges generable particulars thoughe subject to corruption beinge inabled for generation and therby for perpetuation of their kindes and consequently for the mayntenance of the World and that for ever It is well knowne that the Platonickes thoughe they maynteyned the World to have a beginninge yet denyed the matter wherof the World was made to have had any beginninge Of the same opinion were the Stoicks Their common voyce was De nihilo nihil in nihiluâ— nil posse reverti accordingly they might well conceave that God might be hindered in his operation by reason of the stubbornes and churlishnes of the matter so the censure of Muretus upon such Philosophers I conceave to be just Yet by your leave I doe not thinke that any creature capable of immortalitie in what sense soever applyable to Angells as well as unto men can be made immortall by nature Yet I doubt not but God can make creatures in such sort immortall by nature as that no second cause can make them ceasse to be For it is apparant that God hathe many such as namely the Angels and soules of men Yet still their natures are annihilable in respect of the power of God Neyther can I believe that to be immortall in Senecaes language was to be without beginninge For I doe not finde but that the Stoicks together with Plato conceaved that the World had a beginninge But in this respect he calleth them eternall I shoulde thinke because the World together with the kindes of thinges therin conteyned subject to corruption and generation in particulars should have no ende and that by the Providence of God We believe that nothinge is absolutely necessary but God But Aristotle believed the World allso to be everlasting without beginninge of absolute necessitie For that the World shoulde be created originally out of nothinge all Philosophers helde impossible and that the matter shoulde be everlastinge and of absolute necessity wherof the World was to be made that seemed impossible unto Aristotle and that upon good reason The creation therfore is to be justified against Philosophers by sound argument and not avouched only by bare contestation That which followethe
as well that it is extended to frogges and toads to Angells and Devills as well as to mankinde This is onely to professe that it extends to all Now this is a very improper interpretarion of infinite love for lesse love and lesse liberality may extend to more then greater love and greater liberality for he that gives ten shillings to one person is more liberall then that divides five shillings amongst threescore persons in giving them a peny apiece Lastly the fruit of this love can be but being and is it not a proper commendation of Gods infinite love towards mankinde to say that he gives being unto all And doth Gods love to man appeare more herein then to the vilest creature that is 2 In the next Section you discourse at large after your manner of the amplitude of Gods love in comparison which is nothing at all to your purpose whose chiefe aime is to insinuae that Gods love is alike to all Yet having proceeded thus farre my resolution is to go on and to consider what you bring What thinke you of Adams love in the state of innocency was it perfect or no Though without sinne awhile yet hee fell into sinne so did the Angells before him so should wee though as perfect as they if God should not uphold us Yet our love in greatest perfection could not be so much as a shadow of Gods love there being no resemblance betweene them our love being a love of duety Gods love to us of meere grace and mercy Besides betweene the fruits of Gods love to us and the fruits of our love towards God no colour of resemblance Man is bound heartily to desire the good of all but God is free and hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Many widowes were in Israel in the daies of Elias when heaven was shut three yeares and six months and great famine was throughout all the land But unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a city of Sidone unto a certaine widow Also many lepers were in Israel in the dayes of Elesaeus the prophet yet none of them was made cleane but Naaman the Syrian And if Gods will had beene to doe the best that might be hee could have cured no doubt all other lepers as well as Naaman and succoured other widows as well as the widow of Sarepta Yet I confesse Gods good will exceeds ours not intensively onely but extensively also for not a sparrow falleth to the ground without the providence of our heavenly Father hee saveth both man and beast and heareth the young Ravens that call upon him the eyes of all doe wait upon the Lord and hee gives them their meat in due season And as touching the conferring both of grace and glory therein hee saveth more then wee know or are acquainted with The number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea that cannot bee counted for multitude As touching temporall blessings all partake of his goodnesse therein in their naturall preservation and consolation therein wee must imitate him in doing good to all as it lieth in our power though chiefly to the houshold of faith yet not to them onely but to others also But though he causeth his sun to shine and his raine to fall upon the just and unjust yet pronounceth not the sentence of salvation on all promiscuously whether they be just or unjust And whereas all are equally corrupt in state of nature yet he doth not equally shew mercy on all or bestow the meanes of grace on all or where he doth bestow these meanes of salvation he doth not make them effectuall unto us He blindes the eyes and hardens the hearts of some that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts and be converted that he might heale them Whereby it comes to passe that the word of God though it be the savour of life unto life unto some yet it is the savour of death unto death unto others and the Ministers of God are a good savour unto God in both even both in them that are saved and in them that perish For God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill Mercie you say is not restrained from ill deservers in distresse so long as the exercise of it breeds no harme to such as are more capable of bountifull love and favour This is a consideration which I confesse hath place among men sometimes and in some cases Yet hardly can I devise how to suit with a fit instance For no states for ought I find doe take notice of any such distinction of times wherein the exercise of mercy will not breed harme and wherein it will but they execute condigne punishment upon malefactors according to the lawes that all may see and feare to doe the like not be encouraged malorum facta imitari but rather eorum exitus perhorrescere God doth not so His patience and long suffering is exceeding great yet if hee should give every man repentance in his death bed and save their soules what one in the world should be the worse for this And though the wicked many times spend their daies in mirth and sodainly goe downe to the grave yet by the grace of God we shall be nothing the worse for this nor provoked hereupon to condemne the generation of Gods children Yet what is it that makes one man more capable of bountifull love and favour then another I know not what makes him more capable of love in the execution of reward I know but what makes him more capable of love in the communication of grace and in shewing mercy towards him I know not Sure I am that woman who had many sinnes forgiven her loved so much the more the ninety nine just persons that thinke they need no repentance like enough love so much the lesse It is true the lawes of States take order for the just execution of punishment upon offenders for the common good yet by your leave Kings on earth by their absolutenesse doe give pardons to whom they will respecting more their own pleasure then the common good And withall I thinke Princes doe lesse offend if at all offend in refusing to pardon malefactors then in granting pardons unto them As for God to whom you say the execution of justice is unnaturall he being the Father of mercy I pray consider if God should give repentance to all on their death-beds and consequently save all what common good of mankinde would be hindred by this And as God is the father of mercy so is he also the Iudge of all the world and I conceive the execution of justice punitive to be as naturall to him as he is Iudge of all the world as the execution of mercy is naturall unto him as he is the Father of mercy Yet you seeme to have a place of Scripture to prove a
that God should by his secret or reserved will recall any part of his will declared by oath We are so farre from thinking that God recalls any part of his will declared by oath that wee doe not believe that hee doth or can recall any patt of his will that hee hath declared by his bare word And wee thinke it equally impossible for God to lye and to perjure himselfe for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither when hee kept Abraham from sacrificing his sonne Isaac doe wee say that he recalled any part of his will which he had formerly declared by his word although he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his sonne for Gods will of commandement signifieth onely what God will have to be our duety to doe not what hee hath determined to be done though you confound these usually and that as wilfully and unlearnedly as Arminius himselfe because it serves your turne and advantageth your cause to confound them But looke you to it how you free your selfe from maintaining that God doth recall something which hee hath properly willed and determined to be done For that God willeth the death of no man that dieth you make to bee the word of God confirmed by oath and you understand it of Gods will properly so called and yet you maintaine that God willeth the death of him that dieth though not as man and as the sonne of Adam yet in some other manner which either is flat contradiction or else God doth recall and change his will The last part of your devout asseveration is Farre be it from us to thinke that God should proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath and yet exempt many from all possibilitie of receiving any benefit by it Here you seeme to shew your teeth but I had rather understand your meaning for to proclaime pardon to all is ambiguous for it may bee done absolutely as kings on earth grant pardons and usually our kings grant pardons at the end and conclusion of parliaments I doe not thinke this is your meaning for then all should be pardoned for to proclaime pardon is to signifie his Majesties pleasure that hee doth pardon them But if conditionally it is true God proclaimes that whosoever believeth shall be saved this is a knowne truth no man takes exception against it And how doe we exempt any from all possibility of receiving it You will say that this we doe in exempting many from all possibility of performing the condition to wit of believing I answer that your owne opinion is to be charged with this ours is not for you maintain that Pharaoh after the seventh wonder was exempt from all possibility of repentance and the like you avouch of all reprobates and such as have filled up the measure of their sinne which according to your opinion may be many yeares before their death and in the seventh Section following you expresse it thus Having their soules betrothed unto wickednesse such undoubtedly was Ahab that sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and many such like And in this case you professe in your owne phrase that the doore of repentance is shut upon them But wee like not this opinion of yours wee know no measure of sinne nor continuance of sinne that doth prescribe unto the grace of God and forbids the banes of matrimony betwixt him and his Church but that in a due time the power of Gods grace shall breake through all obstacles even through the furious idolatry of Manasses in giving his children unto Devills and that sealed with bloud wherewith hee filled Ierusalem from corner to corner yea and through his sorcery and witchcraft also and through the rage of Saul persecuting Gods saints and making havocke of the Church of God And for as much as wee maintaine it to be possible for every one to believe and repent through Gods grace it is manifest that we exempt no man from all possibility of believing and repenting to wit in consideration of the power of God But in consideration of the power of man wee exempt not many onely but all and every one from possibility of beleeving and repenting by power of nature And dare you avouch the contrary It is apparant that whatsoever you thinke you dare not openly professe thus much And therefore are content to hide your head and lurke under generalities So that the case is cleare that you doe us wrong in saying wee exempt many from all possibility of repenting I say it is a notorious slander for we exempt men from possibility of repenting onely by power of nature and so we exempt not onely many but all and every one from possibility of repenting But perhaps you may say that withall wee maintaine that God doth not purpose to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all but to deny it unto many yea unto most and upon this supposition we exempt them from all possibility of repenting But I pray consider to exempt some from possibility of repenting upon supposition is this to exempt from all possibility without supposition For you have delivered this without all supposition And then the issue is to enquire whether God hath decreed to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all or rather to deny it to many yea to most And dare you affirme that God hath decreed to give the grace of faith and repentance unto all It is apparant you dare not openly professe this and therefore carie your selfe in the clouds without any cleare and distinct proposing of your meaning In S. Pauls daies there was a remnant amongst Israel which are called Gods election Rom. 11. and these had obtained this grace of faith and repentance as there the Apostle signifieth but the rost were hardned And if God hath purposed to give grace unto all you may as well say God hath elected all But the Holy Ghost witnesseth that many are called and but few are chosen Many I say are called not all neither nor the most part as all experience and the histories of the world doe manifest and therefore though God proclaimes in his word pardon of sinne to all that beleeve yet he doth not proclaimethis unto all By the way I observe that whereas you say that God doth proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath this of Gods oath which you adde doth draw us to conceive that the meaning of those words As I live I will not the death of him that dies containes this sense in your construction that God will pardon the sinnes of all and since these words as you understand them doe not runne conditionally but absolutely herehence it followeth that according to your opinion God hath sworne absolutely to pardon the sinnes of all men the absurdity whereof I leave to everie mans sober consideration 7. Hitherto you have told us in what matters the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti cannot