decree is in order and time before the creature which being the latter cannot be the cause of the former and saith Mr. Calvin Instit 3.22.3 Speaking of those that would have fore-sight of Faith and Holinesse to be the cause of Election but saith he how shall these things agree together that those things which are derived from Election should be the cause of Election We are elected that we may be holy that so God may love us Ephe. 1.4 Not because we are holy so then the cause of Election was in God himselfe Ephes 1.9 Saith he God considered nothing without himselfe whereby he had regard too in his decrees therefore the end of Election tends to the praise of the glory of his grace ver 6. So that it was not actuall love to the people of God from all Eternity that moved God to send them a Saviour the moving cause was then in himselfe Againe I answer from another like place to this Luke 7.47 Many sins were forgiven her for shee loved much Will they say here the womans love went before Gods forgivenesse If they say no then I say they must needs conclude the same from that place in Iohn 3.16 That God did not love them before the sending of Christ and besides if they affirme the contrary they overthrow their first Argument for then they said that they were reconcil'd in Christ before the world was but here they would have all to be done before the sending of Christ but if this were so I demand to what purpose he came if not to reconcile and to adopt us and so to bring us into the love and favour of God the discovery of their owne contradictions might be a sufficient confutation of it Againe the world here with God so loved may be understood more generall and then more speciall First more generall he hath disposed the whole world and then more speciall First more generall he hath disposed the whole world Job 34.13 that is God disposeth of Heaven and Earth and all creatures in them The world is mine meaning all things that ever God made Psal 50. He shall judge the whole world with right Psal 96.13 That is he will doe all his creatures justice and so here God so loved the world John that is God so loued all his creatures and saw them all very good Gen. 1.31 When he had finished them he rested and was refreshed Exo. 31.17 So greatly did God delight in the workes of his hands that he was not willing they should be all destroyed in regard they were all very good therefore he sent mankind a Saviour that so all his creatures might be preserved I mean some of every kind The Elect Angels should be established by Christ that they cannot fall as also the highest Heaven is established that it cannot be moved but the lower heavens and the earth with all the creatures in them are defiled with sin The Heavens are not cleane in his sight Job 15.15 And the Angels that fell he chargeth with folly Job 4.18 And the Earth also is corrupt before God For all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6 11.12 So then all the creatures in the two lower heavens and the earth are corrupted by the sin of man and partake with him in punishments but by Christ they that are sound alive at the day of judgment shall be restored agame to their first perfection and so remaine for ever And their earnest expectation is when they shall be delivered Rom. 8. See the Saints Inheritance after the day of judgment this world of creatures God so loved that he sent to mankind a Saviour that some of all the workes of God may be preserved for ever For the new Heavens and the new Earth which I will make shall remaine before me saith the Lord Isaiâ—h 66.22 The second exception of this word world is more specially to be taken for the world of believers that is all the beleevers from the first to the last in the time of their being and this world was never without beleivers since Christ was promised to Adam and Eve they having a justifying Faith wrought in them they should not perish nor any true beleevers that discended of them For God so loved the world of believers that he sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world 1 John 4.14 And Christ gave his life unto the world John 6.33 And bee taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 But these places must needs bee understood to be the world of believers they shall never perish but have everlasting life for God so loved the world of believers is to take away their sinnes They are his people children that wil not lye So he was their Saviour Isa 63.8 When Israel was a child saith the Lord then I loved him Hosea 11.1 But all this will not prove that God loved him before he was a Child from all Eternity before they were adopted or sanctified by the Spirit But they will say God loved Iacob and hated Esau before they were borne because the Apostle quoting Malachi saith It is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Rom. 9. I answer the Prophet wrote this a long time after their death now if he say after their death that God loved one and hated the other in the time of their being wil that prove that God either loved or hated before they were all that the Apostle saith was done before they were born is this that the elder should serve the younger this was the purpose of God according to election Rom. 9.11 12. And Gen. 25.23 Yet this was not to be understood of their persons but the elder nation should serve the younger which was also fulfilled 2 Sam 8.14 Where it is said that al they of Edom became servants to David K. of Israel Then they alleadg these words of Moses Deu. 7 6 7 8. That God loved them before they were but in the text there is no such matter but is plainly spoken to those that were then in present being saying Thou art a holy people the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a speciall people Now the reason why God chose this people and loved them was not because they were more in number then other people but because the Lord would keep the oath which he had sworn to their fathers vers 7 8. But here is nothing to prove that God loved them before they were if we would speak of Gods love before their being then it is this The Lord loved their fathers in the time of their being and therefore he chose their seed Deut. 4.37 Again if they say God sees all things at once both past present and to come and therefore the elect that are to be justified he ever saw them justified and therefore they were alwaies beloved from all eternity I answer by this rule that God once saw David commit adultery and murther for it was done in his sight Psal 51.4 Therefore hee sees
them from before but they being sencible of their own weaknesse as not being able to behold the clear sun-beams of truth with fixed eyes durst not stand it out but away they fled but this messenger will pursue them to their place of refuge and try their power there and he doubts not of the victory for by faith the walls of this City wil fal down slat before Gods people And cursed be the man before the Lord that raiseth up and buildeth the Citie Iericho Iosh 6.26 1 K. 16.34 But these builders have been employed in repairing this old heresie these fourteen years to my knowledg for then some of these held that a man is actually in the favour of God reconciled in Christ justified sanctified called and adopted all this actually in election such were Paul and Manasses before conversion yea they were borne so into the world and I have had this disputation in writing by me ever since which I had with them and now more enlarged This they would prove from those words of Paul God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 I answer this will prove nothing for their purpose for it is impived there was a world before God did actually recencileit to himselfe but we know the age of the world when it was made and how old it is but for Gods decrees they have bin from all eternity and are as old as himself but if their tenets were true we might boast of our Progenitors and say that Adam had his actuall being as soon as God even from all eternity if Gods decrees and actions his purposes and performances were all actually done at the same time But to prove this they must be constrained to carry the works of God to his decrees and say that all the works of God were created and actually made from al eternity being actually made in his decrees or else they must be forced to bring down the decrees of God to the works of creation and say that neither God nor his decrees had any being before the Creation and so the creatures are as old as their Creator which were miserable Atheisme for any man to think so saith the Apostle God by Christ made all things in heaven and in earth visible and invisible and he is before all things Golloss 1.16 17. And saith wisedome which is Christ The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was from everlasting or ever the earth was when there was no depths I was brought forth when there was no fountaines abounding with water before the mountains were setled before the hills was I brought forth while as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust of the world Prov. 8.22 23 24 25 26. And saith David Thy throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Psal 93.2 Then surely God had his being before the world was and if they would beleeve Moses whom they so much despise he would shew them the original and first beginning of all the creatures in his first of Genesis and how that the 3 persons in trinity consulted about the creation of man before they actually did it saying Let us make man in our Image after our likenes ver 26. every days work was done by a speciall command from God he spake it was done he commanded it stood fast Psa 33.9 Thus God commanded and the spirit of God mooved upon the face of the deep and saith Christ When he prepard the heavens I was there when hee set a compasse upon the face of the depth when he established the clouds above when he strengthned the fountains of the deep when he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not passe his Commandement when hee appointed the foundations of the earth Then I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing alwais before him Prov. 8.27 28 29 30. But after the creation then Christ rejoyceth in the habitable part of his earth and his delight is with the sonnes of men verse 31. But to say that the Creatures were actually made in Gods decree they had as good say they had no beginning and so deny that article of their faith that God made heaven and earth again if they say God reconciled his people to himself actually from all eternity in the decrees then I demand of them when the breach was made which must needs go before reconciliation wil they make the creature older then the Creator and say they did offend before his decrees this cursed error is the ground of all confusion for if they say God actually made all things when he decreed to make them it is as much as to say there was no decrees at all There was once a question put to Austine what God did before he made the world and his answer was that hee then made hell for such Inquisiters but if our Antinomians had bin put to answer it they would have said that then God reconciled them justified and sanctified them called adopted them and all this actually in his decree but here Paul doth not say God hath reconciled the world but that God was in Christ reconciling the world neither doth he say before the world was but when the world was then the truth is this when the world was made and Adam had sinned then God began actually to reconcile falne man to himself by faith in the Messiah that should breake the serpents head so God hath been ever since reconciling his elect to himselfe as they fall in the severall ages of the world saith Christ My father worketh hitherto and I work Iohn 5.17 Yet I grant that the Apostles when this was spoken were reconciled for saith Paul God hath reconciled us to himselfe by Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 5 18. But others although they were elected as wel as they yet they were not actually reconciled to God only they had the word of reconciliation and the ministry of reconciliation and saith Paul wee pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God although by the blessing of God upon their preaching and prayers many were reconciled to the Lord or added to the Lord. Acts 5.14 And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minde by wicked workes yet now hath he reconciled Coloss 1.21 There was a time when we were enemies yet afterwards reconciled by the death of his son Rom. 5.10 Againe if all things were actually done in Gods decrees or done because they are decreed to be done then how wil they distinguish between the decrees of God his works actions The holding of this would overthrow his decrees which are his purposes from al eternity to create govern and dispose of al his creatures Then art thou called to the state of grace it is because that the purpose of God was to do it from all eternity Thou art called according to
being empty trunks for the spirit of God to move in personally as they say without any change of the man therefore after conversion they are as dead as before and only those works that the spirit of God doth alone by himself in them are good but for those that the spirit of God doth by us those they say are as bad as the works of the Divell as for example Suppose the spirit of God shal move us to the duty of prayer or any other duty according to his wil this motion they grant to be good but when we receive this motion by faith and perform this duty that we are moved to doe this say they is as bad as the work of the Devil And when the spirit of God moves us and drawes us this is goed But when we run after him as the Spouse saith Cant. 1.4 This is no better then the work of the divel and when the spirit of God perswades us that our sins are forgiven and that we are in Covenant with God reconciled in Christ this they say is good but when we receive take this by our faith This say they is as bad as the work of the divel and so when the spirit of God pronounceth us just that is good but sanctification wherby we declare our selves just that is as bad as the work of the Divell Again I answer if it were possible to separate the works of faith in a beleever from the works of corrupted nature then this might be true Yet I grant that their failings and sinful actions as Davids adultery Peters denying of his Mr. these were the works of corrupted nature because the divel was the Author of them But there repentance and reformation was not the workes of corrupted nature then it appears to me that all their actions were not so bad as the works of the devill neither was Pauls preaching so bad as his persecuting and blaspheming before conversion For when a child of God is in the way of obedience although his actions are not perfectly good yet they are not without some goodnesse in them being acted by faith and regulated by the word of God and tend to his glory Such actions cannot be before conversion neither are they to be found in devils nay the very sins of Gods people are not so bad as they were before conversion as the works of the divel For the spirit lusteth against the flesh that they cannot sin as they would Gal. 5.17 Again The life of a beleever is by faith in the son of God Gal. 2.20 The just do live by their faith Hab 2.4 Neither can they live without it So then they cannot sin as before because the seed of God remaineth in them 1 John 3.6.9 And the spirit of God leadeth them into all truth John 16.13 And the spirit of God dwelleth in them so that if the Divel tempt them to sin greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 And if the world tempt us saith Christ be of good cheare I have overcome the world John 16.33 And we are borne of God and we have faith and this is the victory by which wee overcome the world even our faith 1 John 5.4 And if the flesh would sin the spirit lusteth against the flesh that we cannot doe those things we would Gal. 5.17 Then are Gods people as dead as before and all their works as bad as the works of the Divell Againe we are made living stones and built up into a spirituall house and we are an holy Priest-hood to offer up spirituall Sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 But the sacrifice of the wicked is abhomination Pro. 15. And their praier also Pro. 28.9 And we are made new creatures and cast into a new mould of Doctrine and led by another Principle which made Peter say Wee cannot but speake the things that we have heard and seen Acts 4.20 We doe not obey by constraint but willingly Phil. 14. Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power Psal 110.3 So that although wee bee changed and our heart set upon another object yet wee goe on freely the will being changed wheels all parts of body and soule as a willing instrument in the hand of Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.3 Then although we had no hand in the first infusion of grace but were meere passives in the worke yet when the new life of faith is put into us and we made living stones then we are labourers together with God that salvation which he hath begun we worke it out with feare and trembling and increase our talent of faith by trading and so shal be our salvation hereafter in greater glory as I shewed before For it is our onely busines here to improve our Talent Luke 19.13 And to grow in grace 2 Pet. 3.13 And the strongest Christians must say with the Apostles Lord increase our faith Luke 17.3 Then sure our workes are not so bad as the works of the Divel neither are we as dead as a stone if we sin after grace is given it is either through some weaknes or in some passion or through the violence of some temptation for there is an inward principle flat against it Then eat thy bread with joy and drinke thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy works Eccles 9.7 And so I leave the reader to judge whether the actions of Gods people be as bad as the works of the Divell and themselves as dead as a stone Againe my Opposite at that time maintained against me that God was the Author of sin for saith he murder is a sin yet God commanded Abraham to slay his Son and deceit and robbery are sins yet God gave way to Israel to rob the Egiptians Exod. 3.21 And who gave Iacob for a spoile and Israel to the robbers did not the Lord Isa 42.24 And lying is a sin that shuts out of heaven yet God sends the Divel to be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's Prophets and the Lord stird up David to number the people 2 Sam. 24.1 And wee pray that Christ may not lead us into temptation To these I answer that God is above his Lawes and doth whatsoever hee pleaseth I know that the Lord is great our Lord is above all Gods whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven and in earth in the sea and in all deepe places Psal 135.5.6 If he adde a new commandement upon some speciall occasion or if he take away who can hinder him or who will say unto him what dost thou Job 9 12. Why dost thou strive with him he giveth no account of his matters Job 33.13 Then how dare these men call God to give account to them Nay but oâ—â—man who art thou that repliest against God Rom. 9.20 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him he that reproveth God let him
David acting those fins now and will see them so for ever and because Christ once looked upon Peter when he denyed him with cursing and swearing therefore now he looks upon him at this present and sees him cursing forswearing and denying him and because Christ was once angry with Peter and said get thee behind me Sathan thou art an offence unto me and savourest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men Math. 16.23 Wil it follow that Peter is now an offence to Christ and that Christ now sees that he savours not the things of God doth God see Paul now persecuting his people because he once saw him do so and for the sins of Manasses and Moses who saith we have sinned in the light of thy countenance Psal 90.8 Doth God now see them at this present acting those sins which they committed when they were here because time was when he saw them in the very act of those abhominations A boy of 7 years old might answer that God hath perfect remembrance of them but yet he sees them as past not in present being And God once heard the groanings of Israel in Egypt under the Task-masters he looked upon them and had respect unto them Exod. 2.24 25. But wil it follow that now God sees Pharaoh tiranizing over them at this present they being in heaven out of his reach there the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest and hear not the voice of the oppressor Iob 3.17 18. And so time was when God saw Hezekiah sicke of the plague but now doth God see him sick of the plague in heaven and God saw Davids wounds stinke and putrifie for it was inflicted on him for his foolishnesse Psal 38.5 But now doth God see Davids running sores in heaven because he once saw them in time past or whether hath he a perfect remembrance of them not as in present being but as past God saw what Amaleck did to Israel when they came out of Egypt Exod. 17.14 But afterward in the time of Samuel the Prophet saith the Lord I remember what Amaleck did to Israel 1 Sam. 15.2 And so the Lord saw all the passages of Israel in the wildernesse yet saith he I remember the kindnesse of thy youth when thou walkedst after me in the wildernesse Jer. 2.2 But God sees all these things now as past yet in his perfect remembrance as wee say to remember such a thing past as if it were but now done so then God may have a perfect remembrance of things past and yet not bring them back again to a perfect being God saw all the creatures drowned in Noahs flood but it were folly to thinke that God now sees the water spread over all the earth above the highest mountaines all of us drownd in the deluge And so for things to come God hath in his mind what to do hereafter as Daniel said to the King Dan. 2.28 But the decrees are not yet brought forth Zeph. 2.1 2. As for example God hath in his decree purposed to destroy the world with fire and brimstone but wil it follow therefore that God now sees all his creatures at this present in a burning flame or whether is it low as David saith Thou knowest my thoughts long before or a far off Psal 139.2 So God sees things that are to come but not as in present being the Scripture foresaw that God would justifie the heathen through faith Gal. 3.8 But yet not in actuall being it was in his sight afar off as a man may have the frame of a house or the model of it in his minde before it be actually builded so was all the world in the mind of God before it was created God saw the moddel of it from all eternity yet not as really done but only in his purpose But when God had created all his works he saw them all and said they were all very good Gen. 1.31 But now wil some of those cursed heritiques step forth and say that God dissembled when he said they were all very good for say they he sees all things past present and to come at once and therefore he at that time saw some of the Angels falne and were then cursed devils and a great part of mankind were then reprobates and all the creatures under heaven defiled with sin at that present how wil these men cleare themselves of blasphemy if they hold these wicked tenets that man is actually justified in the sight of God because hereafter he shal be justified by this argument the whole earth was cursed of God and some of the Angels were falne and then cursed as soone as before they were created yea at that present when God said they were all very good And so on the contrary when the Angels had sinned and were cast out of heaven and man had sinned and was cast out of Paradise and the whole earth cursed for mans sin will these men say that God now looks upon divels sinful men as in the time of their Innocency and because God once said they were all very good wil he now say they are very good what blasphemy is this God saith wo be to them that call evil good and wil he do it if this were so why then were all the creatures cursed for the sin of man for by their argument God did once see man innocent therefore God alwaies sees man innocent for God sees those that are effectually called to be actually justified therefore he alwaies saw them actually justified this is Antinomian divinity but we say that God sees all things that are in present being perfectly as so but for things past hee hath a perfect remembrance of them as if they were in present being but yet he sees them as past and for things to come as not yet in present being God wil hereafter justifie sanctifie adopt and save his elect yet they are not so till they have faith effectual calling Other sheepe I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring in John 10.16 But for the present they are not brought in Suppose they say Christ looked on the young man in the Gospel and loved him Mat. 10.21 Although he was an hypocrite and without any saving grace I answer he loves the devil as to own his own work in him but yet hee may be damn'd for all that but suppose they say that God in his love and in his pitty redeemed them carryed them all the days of old Isay 63.9 I answer as before God loved his own work upon them and so redeemed them from Pharaohs bondage But they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned to bee their enemy and fought against them vers 10. But when God loves in Christ he loves for ever John 13.1 But this love is peculiar to his people as David saith Remember me ô Lord with that favour thou bearest unto thy people ô visit mee
beyond their actuall being it was but intentionall or a purpose to loue them When God built this great Fabrick of Heauen and Earth with all the variety of creatures in them his first thought was on himselfe delighting himselfe in his owne Attributes and in the manifestation of them to his creatures as his power and wisedome in the workes of Creation and his works of love and mercy and goodnes in the workes of his providence and his holinesse and justice in the punishment of sin and shewing mercy and forgivenes to whom he pleaseth Thus he made all things for himselfe Prov. 16.4 To set forth the glory of his Attributes then the love of God to himselfe was the first moving cause to bring all things about to his owne glory as Nebuchadnezzar built Babell the great house of his Kindome to shew forth his power and might and for the honour of his Majesty Dan. 4.30 These were his first thoughts then to accomplish this he thought of Timber and Stones and such materials as he was to use in the worke but although these second thoughts came into his mind before the worke was done yet it was not his love to the stones and timber that moved him to build that great Fabrick but it was the love to his owne honour and Majesty that moved him to doe it So it was not Gods actuall love to the Saints that moued him from all eternity to doe all his great works but the love to his own honour and glory that was the mouing cause of all his workes and as a man may have the modell or frame of his house in his mind before he begin to build it So had the Lord the modell or frame of the whole world in his mind before he began to create them and as mans affections are no more to one stone than to another before they be squared and fitted for the building and then he actually loves them So when the Lord finds us all mixed together with the wicked There is no difference Rom. 3.22 Acts 15.9 till wee are squared and fitted and made living stones for his spirituall Temple and then he loves us and though God saw all things from all eternity in the thoughts of his heart yet not as being actually then created and perfectly finished but they were in the thoughts of his heart how they should be and where they should be he seeth all things that are not as if they were not that they are really so indeed no not in his sight God sees all the travels of men out of one Kingdome into another and their birth and death and their soules departure either to Heaven or Hell but not as if he saw them in many places at once this were to make the creature Omni-present to be in many places at once and to say God sees our birth and death all at once would seeme to repute him uncapable of the passage of time here with us so they would make him unable to performe his promise at the time appointed But God is able to keepe his promise to a thousand Generations Psal 105.8 And performe it the selfe-same day Exod. 12.41 The Lord bid the people write the self-same day and shall we thinke that hee doth not keepe a strict account of time till time bee no more yet in Heaven I grant there is no account of time by houres daies and yeares but wee having the account of time and according to our account God did see one thing comming after another into execution and not all being actually done from all eternity therefore he is faithfull to performe every promise made unto his people in the very instant of time promised he sees the way and meanes which he hath decreed to bring about all things to their appointed ends So God from all eternity saw his people in his purpose to give them a being and when they have a being he sees them as having a being but since the fall he sees his Elect in their bloud before conversion and after conversion as his owne children yet as having sin in them and in the world to come as without sin now if they should say that Gods love to the creatures before they were moved him to doe all that is done to them then I demand what moved God towards them when all mankind fell out of this loue of God in that sin of Adam was it not his purpose to doe them good now if they say that God alwaies actually loued them then I reply that if this be true Christ died in vaine but the truth is When we were enemies to God we were again reconciled by the bloud of his Son Rom. 5.10 see Col. 1.21 And to say that God actually loved them before they had any being is all one as to say God loved them before his owne Image was stamped upon them which every creature hath some resemblance more or leste by Creation therefore being made they were all very good but not before Againe if God should actually love his Elect from all eternity then on the contrary he must actually hate the Reprobate before they have any sin and if God should actually love the Elect from all eternity then this love was fruitlesse till the time of Creation Againe we are all borne children of wrath even as others and slaves of the Devill now doth God love any more in us at that time than what we had left off the worke of God by Creation and so he loves the Divell as to owne his workeman-ship in him then here is the difference God is purposed to doe good to his Elect although for the present they lie in the guilt of Adams sin but God hath no purpose to doe good unto the Divels that sinned Againe if God loved slaves of the Divell then what doth hinder but such may be saved and goe to Heaven in that condition but if this be true what need is there of the new Birth nay it matters not in what condition we are if God love us But yee have not so learned Christ If so be yee have been taught as the truth is in Iesus Then put off the former conversation the old man which is corrupt Ephes 4.20 21 22. Yet God loveth the least measure of grace that he hath wrought in his people Hee hath wrought in us that which is well pleasing in his sight Heb. 13.21 Let us have grace whereby wee may serve God acceptably Chap. 12.28 I exhort you by the Lord Iesus that as yee have received of us how yee ought to walke and to please God so you would abound more and more 1 Thess 4.1 You please God now labour to please him better walke as Christ walked 1 John 2.6 So shall you grow in favour with God and man as he did and be able daily to doe his will more and more as strength and wisedome increaseth Luke 2.52 And at length with Daniel be a man greatly beloved Dan. 10.11 And with Mary