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earth_n	day_n	heaven_n	new_a	7,263	5	6.5009	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45355	Deus justificatus, or, The divine goodness vindicated and cleared against the assertors of absolute and inconditionate reprobation together with some reflections on a late discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the divine dominion and goodness.	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?; Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1668 (1668)	Wing H460; ESTC R25403	132,698	316

had an eye to when in Artic. xvi they express themselves thus After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from the grace given to us and fall into sin and this is the dictate of Reason for Habits as they are acquired by assiduous and repeated acts so they may likewise be lost by inobservance and negligence according to that of the Poet Neglectis urenda filex innascitur agris For the soul of man being a perpetual motion and activity will be alwayes catching at something and if once it cool and flag in the wayes of Righteousness will undoubtedly be wrought off and spend it's strength and powers in the service of that other principle which being not wholly mortified will certainly revive and confirm it's hold when the Counsels and Inspirations of the Divine life are in any measure rejected and it left free to regain the Dominion from whence it was most justly by the powerful and efficacious influence of Gods grace detruded And he that shall further consider that long and confirmed degeneracy the soul lay under before a new and Divine principle began to act in it and how agreeable the objects and impressions of sense are to be our present state and how eligible by us will perceive that the Nature of Man may oft be overcome and the Divine life driven from it's rightful throne till by a sharp and persevering contention it be throughly settled and radicated in a quiet peace and tranquillity by putting all it's enemies under it's feet But for a more clear inspection into this Doctrine of Perseverance we must recurr to what was said above Chap. V. concerning the Liberty of Mans Will and consider all true and sincere Believers under a threefold state for the Divine life arises gradually and increases in due measures and proportions till it arrive to a full and compleat perfection and invest the soul of man with immortality and glory 1. The Scripture speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New-born babes who are fed with the Milk of the Word with the plain Doctrines and Principles of Christianity their Criterion being not yet purged enough to have a true sense and rellish of stronger meat and the more sublime and Mysterious part of Christianity And these are those Lambs which the Lord Christ the great Shepherd when he was leaving the World so affectionately bequeathed to the care and conduct of St. Peter redoubling his request in those passionate terms Feed my Lambs And this is the sense of that Mystical Prophecy denoting the compassionate care of Christ Gathering the Lambs with his arme and carrying them in his bosom and gently leading those that are with young who are pregnant with the Divine form and Image of the Holy Jesus From this infant-state of Grace the descent is easie by reason of the strength and powerfulness of the adverse principle which hath taken so firm and deep a radication and watches all opportunities to propagate and dispread it's infectious Nature that the man is perpetually within the confines of danger till by strong and continued habits of Virtue he have totally mortified and extirpated every lust passion and inordinate desire which hinders and obstructs his passage to that quiet and serene state where all things are plain easie and delightsome Hence is that admonition of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist c. iii. v. 6. that he suffer not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Novice one newly converted and brought into the faith of Christ to take upon him the office of a Bishop because that state of Grace is subject to infinite hazards and dangers by reason of the potenr opposition of the contrary life and the prevalency of the Corporeal Nature which till it be perfectly subdued will alwayes breath a fuliginous steam and more or less obnubilate Reason the eye and guide of the soul 2. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young men which have overcome the wicked one and which have in a great measure brought low and weakned the power of the unrighteous Nature such who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect men and through a faithful and constant exercise and uninterrupted habit of Holiness have a true discriminating sense of good and evil and have purified and sublimated their intellectual powers by an assiduous mortification and eradication of every perverse desire and motion of the inferior life To these well-grown Christians true Religion displayes it self and appears in it's native beauty and excellency and they embrace it with delight and joy and looking beyond the Horizon of time and change behold nothing but a bright and never-ceasing day and this fills them with a peaceful consolation that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will not fail to crown his own life witn that glory and felicity which he himself partakes of in the highest heavens But though this state be so glorious and lovely yet it is not wholly out of the reach of danger but needs often admonitions and great diligence accompanied with frequent acts of Devotion which may fan and kindle the heavenly fire lest the dying and perishing principle of the contrary life revive and get the upper hand This degree of grace although it be able to overcome many and great difficulties and defeat the latent stratagems of powerful enemies yet it is sometimes though not so easily or frequently as the former captivated by the undiscerned force of Pride or Hypocrisie or some other refined sin For it may so happen that a good man who cannot be drawn to the commission or acting of a gross impiety by any temptations in the world yet may fall through the prevalency of an intellectual Vice and court the shadow and fantastick image of sin and yet never descend into the brutish and ferine life of action 3. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fathers who are arrived to the highest perfection the nature of Man is capable of in this life and these a Plantonist would call Heroically Good although this Divine frame and God-like temper be infinitely more precious and transcendent then the highest reach and comprehension of pure Platonisme and not attainable by the exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Paradigmatical Virtues which wholly extirpated the first motions of sin and did in their sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie a man and transform them into Intellect and place him out of the noise and perturbations of the inferior life in a quiet and serene contemplation of the first and ever-blessed Author of all things Here the whole will and desires are so farr conformable and resigned to the Will of God as the ordinary course of things and the earthly state will permit and the Man is perfectly dead to himself and to every rellish of bodily motions and the life of God triumphantly seated in the mind from whence it rules and governs every thought word and action with unspeakable ease and pleasure and replenishes the soul with a

endeavours to unite and become one with that ever-blessed Being subtracting his affections from all earthly vanities as finding something more noble and worthy to bestow them upon Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus as Porphyry speaks of the Egyptian Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath given up his whole life to Divine Contemplation and search after the Deity Such Power have Evangelical Truths over the minds of men that they transform them into their own native image and similitude and the more they are looked into the more they enravish them with their heavenly beauty and pulchritude And because afflicted and persecuted Vertue could not be thought eligible meerly for it self nor be a sufficient argument to induce us to the love and practice of it who were so fatally addicted to the concerns of sense therefore God who knew our frame and how far and to what degrees we had apostatiz'd from his holy Nature did not only propound good things to our choice but solicit our wills to the embracing of them by the strongest evidences and most attractive motives that our Natures were capable of receiving The life of sense being more powerful and laying a greater though not a juster claim to our minds as we are born into this World God was pleased to deal with us after a sensible manner and in a way of condescending Wisdom proportioning the Truths he delivered to us to our capacity of reception And this was that the Apostle called the Foolishness of Preaching wherein God stoops down and puts on the garb and frailties of humanity and suits the results of his will with our mean and shallow apprehensions Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh and cradled in the circle of a Virgins arms which clearly demonstrates even to outward sense the exceeding Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty God that he hath not cast off the care of Mankind but is at peace with the World and hath put on the bright robes of Loving-kindness and Mercy which he hath given a large Specimen and full proof of in the Mission of the Lord Christ from heaven God would have all men lay aside their hard thoughts and causless-jealousies and suspicions of his Nature as if he did not from his heart intend them good but only suspended his anger for a time which might again break out upon them in prodigious floods of vengeance and fury For this is the most certain sign that God wills and desires our happiness and welfare in that he hath united himself to our Nature and sent down his only begotten Son for no other purpose but to seek and to save that which was lost And if he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things What is there now can lay a greater tie upon ingenuous spirits then the discovery of so much undeserved kindness and love What heart is there so obdurate and rocky that this will not dissolve into the tears of love and joy to behold the blessed Jesus hanging between heaven and earth upon the Cross that he might reconcile all things that are in heaven and earth and become a propitiatory Sacrifice for all mens sins in the World It is said of Socrates that he was so inamour'd with this Divine passion of Love that he styled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A servant of Love Let therefore Love which is the Proxenet of Nature the great instrument of conciliating hearts beget in thee a return and retribution of Love and never think of those streams of blood which so copiously flowed from the wounded body of thy dying Lord without a passive and melting spirit but be likewise a servant of Love and act under that generous principle for Love is of God And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And that we may not think we are set to remove mountains or perform impossibilities when we are exhorted by the Gospel to the participation of Gods holy life we shall never be left alone to sink under our load and die but shall have the assistance of that Almighty and Demiurgical spirit of Love who hovered over the dark Chaos and brought into Being the goodly frame of heaven and earth and replenished all the immense tracts of space with sutable inhabitants Wisd ch vii This is that Wisdom which is the brightness of the Everlasting the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his Goodness which remaining in her self makes all things new and in all ages entring into holy souls makes them friends of God and Prophets She will not lodge in a sinful body nor abide when unrighteousness cometh in For she is more beautiful then the Sun and above all the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it This kind and loving spirit will God bestow upon every one that asks it of him to repair his broken and decayed Nature to raise up the Divine Image to joynt and confirm every perverse dislocation in the frame of his soul and to perfect and compleat the living efformation of Christ within him Let no man then despair of attaining to a state of Blessedness under the Gospel for this Benign Spirit whose delights are with the Sons of Men pervades the whole World and touches and overshadows every man with out-stretched wings who is willing to have the Divine Image and Pourtraiture formed in him and doth not by impurity and uncleanness chase it away Though our enemies are mighty and our souls weak yet let none despair of Victory for through the assistance and conduct of that Almighty we shall be able to overcome them He is ever cherishing and fostring the life of God wherever it 's born into any soul and sweetly insinuates into our minds and hallows and sanctifies all our powers and excites us to a serious and hearty pursuit after the indispensable laws of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We are not fallen and degenerated beyond the power of God but his Spirit is able to raise and bring up our souls from the lowest Hell and to renew and reform our debased and wretched Natures For what cannot he do who at first made us faultless and happy till we ruined and defaced his blessed Image and rendred our selves the miserable objects of his compassions What is there in our frame so stubborn and insequacious that he cannot rectifie and redress who at first created all things and brought into Being all the Beauty and Harmony of Heaven and Earth He will never leave us destitute and forlorn but will take hold of every fitness and capacity till he have perfected in us the Divine life and brought us unto Glory But because Examples are more prevalent with mankind then Precepts and Instructions that God might not leave any thing undone which would in any kind conduce to our Interest he hath recommended to us the Example

understandings but when our wills are conformable to reason and spontaneously elect that which the Intellect propounds to them as best and in it self most eligible Having thus declared the amplitude and extent of the liberty of mans Will in all it 's respective capacities I shall now manifest and shew how it 's taken away by asserting and maintaining of Inconditionate Decrees which will be no hard matter to evince if we consider that both the Predestination of the Good to life and of the Reprobates to destruction necessarily pervades and casts a fatal influence upon their whole lives I mean that that eternal decree invincibly orders and disposes the actions of men to their respective ends so that he who is preordained to happiness shall certainly and necessarily be good and the other who is destin'd to perdition shall inevitably be wicked and vitious A cast of which Doctrine we have delivered to us by Zanchy in these words De Nat. Dei cap. 2. in Resp ad Sophism Non dubitamus itaque confiteri ex immutabili Reprobatione necessitatem peccandi quidem sine resipiscentia ad mortem usque peccandi eóque aeternas poenas dandi reprobis incumbere that is We doubt not to profess that from the immutable Decree of Reprobation there lies upon Reprobates a necessity of sinning and that without Repentance even unto death and consequently of suffering eternal punishments Ad amicdupl Vorst p. 175. Piscator likewise will aver the same and more if you desire it In summa se tueri fatetur Deum absolutè decrevisse ab aeterno efficaciter ne quispiam hominum plus bont faciat quàm reipsâ facit aut plus mali omittat quàm reipsa omittit that is That he defends this conclusion that God hath efficaciously from all eternity so predetermin'd the will of man to every individual action that none can do any more good than really he doth or omit any more evil then ipso facto he omitteth To these I shall add Szydlovius as the worst of the three Apud Curcellaeum de jure Dei in creaturas innocentes p. 25 26. Fateor ipse ad communem sentiendi consuetadinem crudum nimis hoc videri Deum posse blasphemiam perjurium mendacium c. imperare quod tamen Verissimum est in se c. that is I confess that according to common sense it seems very crude to assert that God can command blasphemy perjury lying c. which yet is most true in it self Now following these Principles it is impossible there should be any such things as Vertue and Vice existing in the World for all our acions whether Good or Evil are the necessary effects of an external principle acting and overruling our wills and we are but the instruments which that invincible Power makes use of for the doing such and such actions and can no more withstand it then the Sun cease to make day and night 1 Cor. iv 5. The Apostle speaks of mens receiving praise of God for their good deeds which reason cannot fathome if their wills are necessarily determin'd ad unum as the Moralists speak and acted by a supernatural and irresistible power No man ever praised the Sun for circling the Earth or the Moon for keeping her course because it is impossible they should do otherwise being destitute of any spontaneous principle and carryed by the violent stream of matter No more can any one praise or dispraise the actions of Mankind when they have no power to do otherwise but are inevitably determin'd to such and no other and can no more resist than the Planets stop their constant gyres in the vast whirlpools of heaven He that merits praise for doing well it is upon this account that he might have done otherwise but when God by a Physical application of his Power determines the soul to act thus and leaves it not any power or ability of resisting all the praise of that action must be due to God himself not to Man who was but the instrument and could not avoid it Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest sayes St. Austin Neither can any action whatever be called a sin in Man because he is not left a free agent but acts fatally and unavoidably and cannot be disobedient to that superior force that inacts his will so that Murder Adultery Oppression contempt of Government and whatever brutish action there is else cannot come under the denomination of crimes but he that commits them may justly plead that he could not avoid them his will being never undetermin'd and it was not possible that his weak soul should hinder the stronger and more powerful bent and resolution of heaven How then can God in justice punish any man for doing that which he could not help and How can that be called a sin which is the effect of a necessary cause The distinction between the act and the pravity of the act the former of which God wills say they and works in us but not the latter will stand them in no stead for in many actions the formality of sin consists in the very act it self as in Murder Adultery and such like Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was a sin in it self and we cannot distinguish between the act and the vitiosity for the very act was forbidden and the formality of the crime consisted not in Adam or Eve's eating after any undue manner but simply and barely in the very act of eating And so in sins of Omission this distinction likewise fails nor will it free Almighty God from the imputation of being the Author of Iniquity and Vice And it is no wonder to see this unworthy Doctrine take such deep footing in some mens minds when they are so obstinately set and fixed upon it that they will entertain any absurdity rather then free and unprejudice their understandings Yea so hot was this Dispute grown at Geneva that Melanchton in an Epistle to Caspar Peucerus amongst other things relates this Scribit ad me Lelius de Stoico fato usque adeo litem Genevae moveri ut quidam in carcerem conjectus sit propterea quod à Zenone differret O misera tempora Doctrina salutis peregrinis quibusdam disputationibus obscuratur And truly if Men would leave off these dry reasonings and altercations about words and entertain Truth in the love and simplicity of it and as it is in Jesus in that Divine and Meek Spirit it is to be hoped that God would soon put an end to the dayes of unrighteousness of formal and outside profession and the glory of the Lord would cover the Earth as the waters cover the Sea Chap. VI. An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants I Have now finished the principal and most material Arguments I shall at this time make use of which I have