hands and keepe us from falling into the hands of men yet if God calleth us thereunto to commit our selves unto God when we doe cast our selves into the hands of men Because in Gods hands are the hearts of kings and hee turneth them whither soever it pleaseth him certainly They that put their trust in the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good even at such times when Lyons want and suffer hunger Yet by your leave it is not the nature of God that is the ground of our confidence but the revealed will of God For whatsoever Gods nature is hee workes freely in the communicating of any good thing unto us but hee hath revealed that he will never faile them that put their trust in him And this is that loving kindenesse of God as much as to say his loving and gracious will and pleasure revealed to us which excites the sonnes of men to put their trust under the shadow of his wings It was improbable that there should bee any motive from the creature why God should give them a being neither was it his love to the creature that moved God to make the creature as you superficially use to discourse but meerely the love of himselfe For he made all things for himselfe And the creature before God made him was just nothing neither was there at that time any distinction betweene King Alexander and his horse Bucephalus It is a strange conceit to say that the being of the creature is like unto Gods being who is the Creator For what likenesse is there betweene an apple and a nut between an horne and a bagpipe an harp and an harrow Ens hath no univocation in the comprehending of all created entities much lesse as by denomination it comprehends both the Creator and the creature Certainly all do not love God whom he loves for he loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. 8. But if all did so love him as all shall either sooner or later it will not follow that all should bee saved For onely such as Iacob are loved of him in Scripture phrase and such as Esau are hated rather And though you will not bee beaten off from that uncoth assertion That they whom God wills to be saved are not saved yet we had rather abhorre so foule a sentence with Austine as denying Gods omnipotency then concurre with you in boldnesse to the embracing of it The apprehension of Gods love to us is the cause morall of our love to him though God it is that by the circumcision of our hearts workes it Deut. 30. 6. But if lovelinesse in the object be the cause of love how dare you professe God loves the reprobate and that ardently and with excessive and infinite love Is there any lovelinesse in them in the state of their corruption and not rather unlovelinesse throughout Neither will it serve your turne to say that he loves them as his creatures For if this be sufficient to qualifie the businesse of the object which hee loves you may as well say that hee loves frogs and toads yea and the Devills and damned Spirits 3. I make no question but an unregenerate man may love his friend and companion in evill as brethren in evill do love one another and our Saviour hath taught us as much Matt. 5. 49. If yee love them that love you what reward shall ye have doe not the Publicanes even the same I never heard nor read before that condemnation was dispensable The doing of things otherwise unlawfull in some cases may be dispensed with but punishment was never knowne to be dispensed with it may be remitted but that is not to dispense with it I take your meaning and leave your words you thinke belike that infinite mercy cannot free the world from condemnation I no way like such extravagant assertions though frequent in your writings as if you would innovate all both naturall reason and divinity I know no sinne which infinite mercy cannot pardon neither doe I know any sinne beside the sinne against the Holy Ghost and finall impenitency which God will not pardon in his elect Much lesse is mans dull backwardnesse to love him unpardonable For though as it seemes you were never conscious of any such dulnesse in your selfe yet I cannot easily be perswaded untill I finde cause that any Christian in the world entertaines such a conceite of himselfe as you doe of your selfe Be God never so louely yet if a man know him not how can hee love him And doe you thinke it is naturall for a man to know God Suppose we doe know him to be most wise most powerfull yet if he be our enemie how should this move us to love him or put our trust in him If we know him to love us and to be our friend yet are not the best backward enough from loving him when we are easily drawne to sinne against him And are all sinnes of this kinde unpardonable what an uncomfortable doctrine is this and how prone to carry all that believe it into desperation God regards not our love unlesse we keep his commandements Ioh. 14. 5. Againe what is the love of God Is it not to love him above all things even above our selves as Gerson expresseth it Amor Dei usque ad contentum sui Is this naturall long agoe Austine hath defined it to bee supernaturall And if any dull backwardnesse bee found in us to this love of God if wee are loath to lose our lives for Christs sake is this sinne unpardonable You are a valliant Champion I heare you are ready to dye in maintenance of your opinions but I cannot believe you are any whit the readier for that to die for Christ. But alas what should become of poore Peter that for feare of some trouble upon confessing himselfe to bee a follower of Christ denied that he knew him and that with oath and imprecation Yet Christ looked back upon him â—s before he had praied for him that his faith might not faile and Peter looked back upon himselfe and went forth and wept bitterly and within three daies after the Angells take speciall order that Peter by name should be acquainted with the first with the comfortable newes of Christs resurrection from the dead that as he died for his sinnes so hee rose again for his justification The infinite love of God becomes known only to the regenerate who take notice of it chiefly as touching blessings spirituall As for temporall blessings Gods love therein to man how can it be knowne to a man unregenerate seeing it can bee knowne onely by faith Those temporall blessings you speake of in the judgement of flesh and bloud comming to passe onely by course of nature But that his intention in bestowing temporall blessings upon the wicked is to binde himselfe to instate them in the incomprehensible joyes of endlesse life which hee never meanes to performe is one of your incomprehensible paradoxes To the children of God there is
A DISCOVERY OF D. IACKSONS VANITIE OR A perspective Glasse wherby the admirers of D. IACKSONS profound discourses may see the vanitie and weaknesse of them in sundry passages and especially so farre as they tende to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received Written by William Twisse Doctor of Divinitie as they say from whom the Copie came to the Presse Iob 38. 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsell by words without knowledge Imprinted ANNO M. DC XXXI To the understanding Reader TWo sorts of men there are to passe by the meer Politicians ready to serve the times and their owne turnes without any fear of God or man which now undermine that doctrine of grace which formerly they themselves have beleived and by the preaching wherof they have receyved the grace wherby they are what they are in any true good Some under a shew of modestic and simplicity hold off themselves and others from admitting so high poynts as not willing to beleive that which is above their comprehension But others take up the cause a clean contrary way and would bear the World in hand that the failings of our divines in this doctrine came from shallownesse and want of profound knowledge in Metaphysicall speculations Of this later ranke Mr. D. Iackson is the ringleader This man doubteth not to professe that he hath found no character of the incomprehensible Essences ubiquitary presence no not in the Holy Prophets and Apostles writings from which he hath receyved so full instruction or reaped the like fruits of admiration as from one of Trismegist an Egyptian Priest part 1. pag. 55. So that the sentence which he passeth upon Vorstius whom he seemeth more to aemulate in overturning the divine attributes then any other doth shreudly reflect upon himselfe The evaporations of proud phantastick melancholy hath ecclipsed the lustre of glorious presence in this prodigious Questionists braine which would bring us out of the Sunne-shine of the Gospell into old Egyptian darknesse From the same Aegyptian learning thorough Plato and Plotinus he taketh his draught of the divine decrees For he acknowledgeth no decree of God concerning humane actions good or bad no not of those which God promised to effect either concerning his mercy in Christ and Christians or concerning his judgements to be effected by the wicked but onely disjunctive that is by his owne instances part 2. Sect. 2. cap. 17. Aut erit aut non erit it shall eyther raine all day tomorrow or befaire all day tomorrow in which example of a false disjunction he may seem to teach that Gods decrees may also be false the Sunne will eyther shine or not shine this day at twelve of the clocke Surely from this character of a divine decree though we can receyve no good instruction yet have we as much fruit of admiration as D. Iackson himself receyved from the former of ubiquity For what Christian can satisfie himself in wondering how erit illa die which is the usuall expression of Gods decree in the Prophets phrase can be interpreted by erit aut non erit how all the promises which declare Gods decree of dispensing his grace upon all nations by the ministery of men as ra ne or dew upon hearbs should be so glossed it shall eyther raine or not raine or how all the decreed promises concerning the prevayling course of the Sunne of righteousnes in by his his servāts activitie should be flouted with this disjunction it shall shine or not shine It would bring some fruit of admiration if any Prince or Law maker should make no other decree about such things as concerne their and their subjects good but meerly disjunctive eyther men shall doe so or not so eyther they shall doe good or suffer evill For though men have not power of determining absolutely future actions yet they come neerer to that then the indifferencie of an even-weighing disjunction doth import They putte so much weight as the efficacie of their will can bear to that scale wherin they place this shall be But Plato and Plotinus conceyved or rather in some of their discourses expressed no more then this All Christians therfore are by D. Iackson called back agayne to this as if by the Prophets and Apostles they had been caried too farre It can not indeed be denied but the Platonists did commonly so decipher their humane ideas of divine decreeing as D. Iackson doth For Alcinons de doctrina Platonis cap. 12. hath the same relation in plaine termes which D. Iackson hath turned into his strong lines of Oxford Sic fatum ex sententia Platonis pronunciat quaecunque anima talem vitam elegerit hujusmodi quaedam commiserit consequenter talia patietur Libera ergo est anima in ejus arbitrio vel agere vel non agere ponitur quod autem sequitur actionem ab ipso fato perfinitur Veluti ex eo quod Paris Helenam rapiet quod quidem in ejus erat arbitrio sequetur ut Graeci de Helena decertent Indeterminatum atque indifferens natura sua libertate nostra in utram placuerit statere lancem quodam modo declināte mox aut verum aut falsum ex possibili sit But if D. Iackson had not too much been caried away with admiration of these ideas he might have receyved a double inctruction from this Alcinons 1. That Plato did overthrow his owne idea by granting a fatall decree of the Grecians fighting against Troye in which warre were conteyned so many thousands of humane actions as there were soldiers in the Grecian army in exemplifying the liberty of humane actions from fatall decree 2. That Plato went before Aristotle of whom he was forsaken in better notions in denying upon that libertine ground any contingent especially free actions to come to be true before they be acted Which Swarez himselfe in his Metaphysicks confesseth to be no lesse an error then the overturning of Christian faith doth amount to libertate nostra mox aut verum aut falsum ex possibili sit Had not the same passion of admixation stood in the way he might have learned out of Marsilius Ficinus to whom he is beholding for other Platonicall notions that Plato himself was by fits of another minde For so sayth this Author de Theol. Platon cap. 13. Deus naturarum omnium temperator dum regit cuncta singula pro singulorum regit natura Quoniam vero motor primus praevalere debet dominari ideo sic animos ut Plato vult quasi cogit ad bonum ut bonum ipsum nolle non possint And that these secōd thoughts of Plato were more agreeable to Christian faith the same Marsilius Ficinus is witnesse Epist. lib. 2. Epist. cui tit Homo quam difficile extra habitum naturalem posilus felicitatem sequitur tam facile hanc in naturalem habitum restitutus assequitur where treating of the like question he saith Quid respondebimus Magi Pythagoraei Platonici Peripatetici forsan sic
did this opinion growe common there Did that Kingdome consist of more Protestants then Papists Or amongst the Protestants was the number of Calvinists more then of Lutherans Speake playnly say the choosing of a Calvinist to be their King was the ruine of the State of the Provinces which were as members incorporate therinto say Calvinisme was the ruine of the upper the lower Palatinate And herupon let your Almanacke of Prognostications proceede be bolde to tell the States of the Lowe Countreys that this Tenet is a forerunner of their ruine allso unles they we foorthwith turne Arminians we are like to be lost fall into the handes of Papists But of what Papists Not such as Thomists the Dominicans the most learned Divines in the Church of Rome for they maynteyne that God determineth the will of Men Angells to every act of theirs whether good or evill as touching the substance of the act by influence generall over above allso unto every good gracious act such as faithe is repentance by influence speciall And as he dothe thus determine the wills of all his creatures so from everlasting he did decree thus to determine them Belike the Iesuites are they into whose handes we are like to fall unles with speede we turne Iesuits that so herafter we may comfort our selves as Themistocles did with Periissemus nisi periissemus we had bene undone if we had not bene undone that vtterly both body and soule Happy are the Lutheran Arminian party that they are acquainted with no such forerunner of their ruine They are like to holde their owne while they acknowledge a sweete disposition of the Allseeing and unerringe providence leave out All deorecing providence out of their Creede But let the Dominicans looke to it least their ruine be not at hand allso as well as ours For there is to be found such an oracle in some Mens writings that whosoever shall embrace the doctrine of Gods Alldecreeing providence let them knowe this opinion is the forerunner of ruine ito most floorishing States Kingdomes where it growes common or comes to full light And the experience of the course of these times especially in the ruine of the Palsgrave of so many Christian Provinces with him For certeinly 〈◊〉 no time or part of the world besides was any such experience to be founde so conveniently to serve your turne Is it not great pitie but that the Kinges majestie his Counsell both houses of Parliament should be acquainted with this mystery of State for why shoulde I doubt but that God will heare the affectionate prayers of his people in good time establishe a perfect vnion betweene the King his people In the meane time we will wayt upon the Lord who hath hid his face from the house of Iacob we will looke for him Yea we will give him no rest untill he restore Ierusalem the prayse of the world This I confesse is a way to supplant your Adversary opinions but of any power you have to confute them and therby to praevent the growthe of them I have founde litle evidence in other of your writings by the generall survey I have allready taken I have small hope to finde any great satisfaction in this But let us examine this point a little more narrowly You suppose that some in opposition to Arminius doe maynteyne that all thinges were so decreed by God before the Creation of the world that nothing since the Creation coulde have fallen out otherwise then it hath done and nothing can be amended that is emisse But I knowe none of any such opinion nay rather they whome I concenve you doe most ayme at doe directly teache the contrary We are willinge to professe with Austin that Non aliquid sit nisi quod omnipotens fieri velit velsinendo ut siat vel ipse faciendo Nor ought commeth to passe but that which the Allmighty will have to come to passe eyther by suffering it to come to passe or himselfe working it And with the Articles of Ireland confirmed by our State in the dayes of King Iames that God from all aeternitie did by his unchangeable counsayle ordeyne whatsoever in time shoulde come to pusic Now whatsoever God willethe he willed eternally For in God there is no variablenes nor shadowe of change And supposing the will of God that such a thing shall come to passe eyther by his operation or by his permission it is impossible in sensu compositâ— in a compound sense that it shoulde not come to passe But this impossibility is not absolute but only secundum quid in respect of somewhat to witt of Gods will decreeing it is allwayes joyned with an absolute possibility of comming to passe otherwise in sensu diviso in a divided sense As for example it was absolutely possible that Christs bones shoulde be broken as well as any of the theeves bones that were â—rucified with him For bothe his bones were breakable the souldiours had power freewill to breake them as well as the others bones but supposinge the decree of God that Christs bones shoulde not be broken vpon this supposition I say it was impossible they shoulde be broken Nay further we say that unles thinges impossible to come to passe otherwise then God hathe decreed them upon supposition of Gods decree be notwithstanding absolutely possible to come to passe otherwise it were not possible for God to decree that some thinges shall come to passe contingently For to come to passe contingently is to come to passe in such sort as joyned with an absolute possibility of comming to passe otherwise Thus we say with Aquinas that the efficacious nature of Gods decree is the cause why contingent things come to passe contingently necessary thinges necessarily his wordes are these Cum voluntas divina sit efficacissima non solum sequitur quod si antea quae Deus vult fieri sed quod eo modo fiant quo Deus ea fieri vult Vult autem quaedam Deus sieri necessario quaedam contingenter ut fit ordo in rebus ad complementum universi Seing the will of God is most effectuall it followeth not only that those thinges come to passe which God will have come to passe but allso that they come to passe after the same manner that God will have them come to passe Now God will have somethinges come to passe necessarily somethinges contingently that there may be an order amongst thinges to the complete perfection of the Universe And accordingly God hath ordeyned all sorts of second causes bothe contingent causes to worke contingently as the willes of men Angells necessary causes to worke necessarily as fire in burninge the Sunne in giving light heavy things in mooving downewards light thinges in moovinge upwardes And as he hath ordeyned them to be such kindes of Agents thus distinct so he hathe ordeyned
a beginninge so we believe it shall have an ende And consequently the producing of more individuall substances shall have an ende And wheras all Species and individualls formerly produced being put together doe make up a number only finite howe can this inferre that God is infinite especially if so be more Species might be produced then have bene produced For eyther it argueth a greater power to produce more and more kinds of things or no. If it dothe then the producing of those that are produced is no evidence of Gods greatest power If is dothe not then the number of thinges produced were they double to that they are or shall be cannot evidence that Gods power is infinite Agayne seinge God is yet in producing more and more we can have no evidence herby of Gods greatest power till he come to the ende of his workes therfore as yet we have herby no evidence of his greatest power or that his power is infinite thoughe perhaps the world may have to witt when God is come to the ende of his workinge Yet when that time is come wherein God shall cease from producinge newe all his workes put together being but finite howe can that consideration evince a power infinite Wherfore Hill that Atheist in his Philosophia Epicurea c. maynteyned that the World allready made was infinite because it was fitt as he thought that an infinite cause should have an effect correspondent and therfore saythe he the world must be infinite To proceede a litle further when the time shall come that God shall surcease to produce any newe thinge eyther in kinde or individuall the particulars produced put together from the beginninge of the world to that day shall be but finite and howe can this inferre a power infinite Nowe all this discourse of yours proceedes upon supposition that all thinges are produced by God and not only by course of nature but by such a cause as was first created and since maynteyned and governed and ordered by God which truthe was nothing evident to the greatest Philosophers that ever were And you well knowe that the creation of materia prima was denyed by them all And therfore I should conceave that the infinitenes of God is rather evidenced by his manner of producing things then by the number of thinges produced as namely by his creating of the World that of nothing For if God hathe power to give beinge unto that which hathe no beinge but only is capable of beinge as put the case to a man or Angell and that by his word will he is as well able to give being to any thinge conceavable that is capable of beinge by his word and will and Qui potest in omne possibile is est omnipotens He that can give beinge to any thinge that is possible to be he is Allmighty Agayne if God were finite in perfection of entity then it were easy to imagine a more perfect thing then God then that allso should have an existence For if the essence or existence of a nature lesse perfect shoulde be all one how much more should this be verified of a nature more perfect And consequently there shoulde be many Gods one different in perfection above another CHAP. IV. There is no pluralitie of perfections in the Infinite essence albeit the perfection of all thinges be in him Of the Absolute Identitie of the Divine essence and attributes AS for the argument which you propose We must eyther allowe the Gods to have bodies or deny them sense because sense is never founde without a body I see no great cause to mislike it especially if it be rightly proposed as it may be thus because sense to witt in proper speeche cannot be founde without a body For is not sense an organicall facultie that is such a facultie as cannot exercise its function without materiall instruments How you dispute in justifyinge your censure upon this argument let the Reader judge God the supreame Artificer can make Virtus formatrix you say doe more then Epicurus can by all his sense and reason and hence you conclude that therfore God hath both sense and reason Wheras you may as well proove that God hathe bodily substance in him both because he setts virtus formatrix on woorke in producing bodies and can doe more then we can withall our bodies and soules Therfore if you please you may in confidence of such illations proceede to say that God consists of a body and soule too The Psalmists Philosophy is a poore ground for you to builde on For you may as well conclude out of the Psalmist that God hathe eyes and eares and handes allso as when he say the The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous his eares are open unto their prayers The right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly And if you are pleased to attribute sense unto God why doe you not attribute unto him feeling and smelling and tastinge allso Whatsoever we come to understand by our five senses why may not God understand the same without sense as well as Angells That God only is and all thinges numerable are but mere shadowes of his beinge are your owne principles and phrases to drawe conclusions from such groundes is to builde Castles in the Ayre You thinke to helpe it by sayinge that Hearing sight and reason are in God according to their ideall patternes or perfections you might have taken in three senses more as well and have sayde that smelling â—astinge and feelinge are in God according to Ideall patternes and perfections and justify Epicurus too in maynteyninge that the Gods have bodies For thoughe our Saviour sayde a Spirite hath not fleshe and bone yet you knowe howe to justifie that bodies and soules and fleshe and bone and braynes and senses yea and the basest thinge that is are in God to witt according to their ideall patternes and perfections For we make no question but that all these thinges are knowne to God and he is able to produce them no more doe you require in the next Section unto this that all thinges are in God yea materia prâ—a and all And this conceyte of yours you prosecute with a great deale more Rhetoricke then Philosophy or Logicke Certeinly not to be and not to have operation are farre more different betweene themselves then nihil agere and otium esse For these are formally the same the other are not For like 〈◊〉 to be and to worke are in themselves manifestly distinct so must be their negations allso so are not nihil agere otium esse 2. Your affectation of phrasifyinge more like a Rhetorician then a Philosopher makes you overlashe and cast your selfe upon resemblances without all proportion As when you say all thinges are in Gods power as strengthe to moove our limmes is in our sinewes or motive faculty Now in this I say is no proportion For seinge all thinges are
so farre manifested his power and wisedome that wee plainly discerne both of them to bee infinite and doe you thinke God can so manifest either of them or both of them that we may discerne them to be more then infinite And if his wisedome manifestable doth but so farre exceed his wisedome manifested as his power manâ—festable doth exceed that which is already manifested c. what meant you to say that Least of all may his infinite wisedome bee comprehended within those effects produced For if there bee but a paâ—ity of proportion then no disproportion You proceed to amplifie the wisedome of God above all that can bee gathered by this Vniverse after your manner But I pray consider was it possible for God to take a more wise and convenient course for the salvation of the world then he hath done I am sure Austin flatly denyes it Aug. de Trinit lib. 13. cap. 10. Ostendamus non alium modum possibilem Deo desuisse cujus potestati cuncta aequaliter subjacent sed sanandae nostrae miseriae convenientiorem modum alium non suisse nec esse oportuisse I am apt enough to conceive that God could have made and governed the world after another manner then hee hath done and that after as wise a manner as hee hath done but I dare not say that hee could doe it after a wiser manner then he hath done Many other particulars might bee instanced in that might stagger the course of your amplifications which yet sometimes are wondrous vulgar as when you say God knowes what might have beene and what may be as perfectly as he knowes the things that are Which is as much as to say God knoweth as well what he can do as what he doth Now is this strange in a silly man to know what hee doth or what he can doe And it were a vaine exception to say that God knowes as well things done by others as by himselfe seeing not onely their power of doing is from God but the very doing it selfe is by you acknowledged to be by the concourse of God As for the manner of Gods concourse if you conceit it to be upon supposition of Gods foresight of mans endeavour first you doe not well to propose your errours or any other Iesuiticall paradoxes for principles and grounds to build upon 7. The incomprehensible wisedome of God doth appeare more you say in the harmony or mixture of necessity and contingency And this you say is most conspicuous in moderating the free thoughts of men or Angels and ordering them to the certaine accomplishment of his glory In the fouâ—th Section you told us that the parts of wisedome were two the one in intending the right end the other in ordering right meanes So then the prescription of right meanes is a part of wisedome but why it should affect the mixture of necessity with contingency in accomplishing the end intended I see no reason Nay rather I finde that wisedome alwaies affecteth the most certaine meanes that can bee had for the compassing of the end intended As for example all manuall Arts doe expresse their wisedome by meanes used by them which are altogether of necessary operation In the art of physicke also the meanes used by physitians as all sorts of medicines doe all worke by necessity of nature In the Art of Oratory the end is wholly conjecturall and the meanes they use being arguments of persuasion there no necessity at all hath place No where doe I finde that any wisedome affecteth the mixture of necessitie with contingency as you speake Come we to the consideration of the wisedome of God How is Gods wisdome seene in the contexture of a mans body and every part thereof Who knoweth the breeding of young bones saith Solomon I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David Galen in consideration of the body of man anatomized was driven to acknowledge the Divine providence Now what mixture of necessity with contingency did God affect in this The fashioning of the body in the wombe being meerly an operation of nature not of any free agent Yet even this necessary operation of nature is contingent I confesse unto God for as much as he could either suspend the course of nature or after it or set an end unto it So on the contrary the most free actions of men doe of necessity come to passe in their kinde and after their manner as well as workes of nature in their kinde and after their manner For to abstaine from the breaking of Christs bones was a free action of the Souldiers so was Iosiahs action in burning the Priests bones upon the Altar so was Cyrus his action in restoring the Iewes unto their country so was the crucifying of Christ Iesus and other foule actions committed against him by Iewes and Gentiles yet were all these decreed and determined by God as the Scriptures plainly testifie and therefore as your selfe acknowledge of necessity they come to passe Yet how God doth moderate the thoughts of men and Angels you are not over hasty to communicate unto us Solomon speakes plainly when he saith The hearts of the Kings are in the hands of God and he turneth them c. and both the preparations of the heart and answer of the tongue are from the Lord and that many seeke the face of the Ruler but every mans judgement commeth of the Lord. But in what sense you say God moderates mens thoughts and ordaines them for the accomplishment of his glory you doe not love to discover and I doubt all this will desinere in piscem in the end and come to nothing But although the meanes which man may use may be successively infinite yet the ends you say which God doth forecast in their creation shall by any course which they take be inevitablely brought to passe what these ends are which God did forecast in their creation you come very soberly to expresse or rather leave to the Reader to collect out of these wordes the award of every thought is determined by Gods eternall decree that is to bring you to playne termes either Salvation or Damnation These then are the wayes wherby they shall accomplish Gods glory in the end what course soever they take And herein consists the infinite wisedome of God Now let us examine the sobriety of all this First you told us of courses infinite by which notwithstanding all they re varieties and inconstancies Gods ends should be accomplished Now all these courses in reference unto the issue of damnation or salvation whereby Gods glory shall be â—llostrated wherof you speake as of the end that shall be accomplished I say al these courses in reference hereunto are but two good and bad answerablely to Hercules his bivium and Pythagoras his Y according to that of Esay Say yee surely it shall be well with the just for they shall eate the fruite of they re workes woe be to the wicked it shall be evill with him for the reward of his
exhortations whereunto some yeeld and some resist And I pray who deserves to be accounted the author of my faith the author of my repentance he that exhorteth me hereunto or rather I my selfe that doe beleeve and doe repent though upon anothers exhortations For exhortation may thus farre bee performed by a reprobate for such plead at the day of judgement Have we not prophesied in thy name and S. Paul observed that some preached Christ not chastly but upon pretence and that with foule intentions even to adde affliction to Pauls bonds yet howsoever he rejoyced in this that Christ was preached which hee would never have done if by their preaching none were likely to be brought over to Christ by faith and repentance Againe to inspire them with good desires and with conformity to Gods will this is no other in your language then to exhort them hereunto And thus it is that God workes in us both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure Now this speech bewrayeth you as much as ever Peters speech bewrayed him but with this difference Peters speech bewrayed him to be a follower of Christ but your speech bewrayeth you to be a follower of Pelagius and as like him as if you were spit out of his mouth for thus did Pelagius discourse Operatur Deus in nobis velle quod bonum est velle quod sanctum est dum nos terrenis cupiditatibus deditos futurae gloriae magnitudine premiorum pollicitatione succendit dum revelatione sapientiae in desiderium Dei stupentem suscitat voluntatem dum nobis suadet omnem quod bonum est Now see to what acknowledgement of grace Austin putteth him if so be he will be a true Christian. Nos eam gratiam volumus isti aliquando fateantur qua futurae gloriae magnitudo non solum promittitur verumetiam creditur speratnr nec solum reveletur sapientia verumetiam amatur nec suadetur solum omne quod bonum est verumetiam persuadetur Hanc debet Pelagius gratiam consiteri si vult non modâ— videri sed esse Christianus Now what followeth upon this your doctrine touching the nature of election namely that it must bee upon the foresight of mens obedience to Gods exhortations and perswasions which here you call placid inspirations Now because God exhorts us to faith repentance and all manner of good workes the foresight of our obedience hereunto must bee it whereupon our election must depend and so you are ready to shake hands with the Apostle not of fellowship but to bid him adieu as who plainly professeth that Election is not of workes but of God that calleth us and he proves it by this that before they had done either good or evill Iacob was elected and Esau reprobated which must exclude not only the pre-existence of works but the pre-consideration of them otherwise hee could not therehence conclude that election is not of workes and the circumstance of not being as yet borne doth evidently exclude as well faith as good workes For a man unborne is as unable to beleeve as to performe any other worke And notwithstanding this foule injury you offer unto God in robbing him so shamefully of the glory of his grace and absolute prerogative to dispose of his creatures as he thinkes good in making whom he will vessels of mercy and whom hee will vessels of wrath yet you thinke to pacifie him with an hungry base and meere verball amplification of the streames of his goodnesse the issue whereof is to injurie him afresh in like manner by robbing him and adorning man with the spoiles of his glory For increase of joy and happinesse shall be you say unto a man from the streames of life proceeding from God as a fountaine of life provided that man gives free passage to their current And what is this current but Gods spirations formerly mentioned whereby he exhorts us to profit by the examples of his judgements on others and also to patience when we are injuried by others Now if we doe yeâ—ld to this and doe profit by the consideration of Gods judgements upon others and doe patiently beare the wrongs that are done us by others then increase of joy and happinesse shall be unto us from the fountaine of goodnesse who as he hath some streames of life whereby hee exhorts us unto that which is good so he hath other streames of life and happinesse wherewith he rewards us for our obedience so that whatsoever shew you make of honouring God the issue is to bestow all the honour upon the obedience of man So that the amends you make herein for former injuries is as if a man having given his neighbour a box in the eare should make shew of making him amends by kinde stroaking of him and in stead of stroaking him give him another box in the eare Thus Ioab tooke Amaza by the beard as though hee would have kissed him but indeed stabd him to the heart You are willing to make God the author of glory but by no means can you be brought to acknowledge him the author but onely the orator of grace like to the Panims who were wont to say Det vitam det opes animum mihi ipse parabo You are given so much to painting that it is a hard matter to discerne the native countenance of your discourse the proper face of your meaning What meane you by the current of life Is it a gracious current or a glorious current if gracious that is the same with spirations before spoken of and these are exhortations and perswasions But how I pray doâ— these when they are refused by some the more overflow to others They that heare the same Sermon have never a whit the more for others resisting it they that heare it not have no part of it though all resist it As for the currrent of glory how hath any man the more for that others are wholly deprived of it yet it is true that even the reprobation and damnation of some tends to the increase of glory to the elect in contemplation of the mercy of God towards them in comparison of others and of the sorrowes from which God hath freed them as both the Apostle signifies Rom. 9. 22. And is maintained both by Didacus Alvares and Alphonsus Mendosa But I doe not finde you have any such meaning But when you have taken up a metaphor by the end you play upon it and make as good musicke with it as pigges doe in playing upon Organs What are the miseries which wicked spirits suffer are unknowne to us we reade that they beleeve and tremble Iam. 2. that they are kept in chaines to the judgement of the great day They aske our Saviour whether he be come to torment them before their time they pray him not to send them into the deepe And therefore a man may very well be ignorant of any good which their miseries work upon us seeing that
And if to inflict the torments of hell upon these or these for their sinnes be to hate them surely to intend to inflict the torments of hell upon them for their sinnes is to hate them And seeing God from everlasting intended to doe whatsoever hee doth in time it followeth that from everlasting hee did hate them Yet this truth you dare secretly to outface without taking any notice of it But here you argue well let us consider it For men to blesse God and to curse men doth argue a dissolution of that internall harmony which should be in the humane nature therfore for God to hate some men and to love others would necessarily inferre a greater distraction in the indivisible essence besides the contradiction which it implies to insinite goodnes This latter clause is thrust in to make weight and to turne the scale but being nothing save meere breath and aire makes it rather lighter Like as when the Spaniard to make his state weigh as much as the state of France and finding that Spaine and other places would not serve the turne clapt in Millane and Naples into the ballance whereupon it was found well the lighter Yet I am content to consider that also in its turne But first of the argument My answer hereunto is twofold First as touching the antecedent I say and have already shewed that the passage of Iames whereat you aime proceeds of cursing onely as it signifies cursed speaking not as it signifies the pronouncing of a curse which may be in an holy manner it being cleere that both God and man both God the Father and God the Sonne may and have pronounced curses in an holy manner without giving evidence of any dissolution of that internall harmony which should be in them and yet such a dissolution is to be acknowledged to have its place more or lesse in the best of men in this world for they have flesh in them as well as spirit but neither is nor can be in God Secondly I deny the consequence for it doth not follow that because it is not lawfull for man to curse therefore it is not lawfull for God to curse Are not Devills accursed At the day of judgement shall not our Saviour pronounce that sentence on thousands Go ye cursed into everlasting fire And why should this argue any distraction in God more then in a Iudge that absolveth some and condemneth others So our Saviour at the day of judgement will say unto some Go yee cursed into everlasting fire unto others Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world If you do not speake of blessing and cursing in the way of execution of judgement and reward what meane you to walke thus in the cloud of generalities If you speake not of execution but of intention as God doth execute judgements for sinne and rewards of obedience so doth he from everlasting intend both the one and the other as it is impossible it should be otherwise Your selfe acknowledging in words Gods decrees to be eternall And doth it not become God from everlasting to intend to proceed in the day of judgement as before spoken of As great a divine as you are taken for I much doubt you little understand the state of the question wherein you seem to oppose some body for I cannot be perswaded you doe wilfully dissemble it But there is another course of Gods providence in another matter and farre different from the execution of punishment and reward maintained by your opposites and impugned by you but you are loath to bee seene in your opposition therein and to have your opinion knowne particularly for feare lest the common voice should cry shame upon you as upon a profest Arminian a manifest impugner of the soveraignty of God in shewing mercy on whom he will and denying mercy to whom he will and so hardening whom he will Now here you have no comparison to helpe your selfe withall drawne from the condition of man For in mans power it is not either to give grace or to deny it But to the contrary wee finde that Superiours have the dispensation of favours and gratifications in their power which they enlarge or restraine at their pleasure and extend to whom they will How much more shall the Lord of all take liberty unto himselfe to have mercy on whom hee will have mercy and to shew compassion on whom hee will shew compassion yea and as to have mercy on whom hee will so to harden whom he will also and that I hope without contradiction to his goodnesse which you besides the word of God cast in to outface the proclamation of God himselfe For as Gods goodnesse did not binde him to make the world so neither doth it binde him to save the world And as when he made the world he made as many creatures as he thought good so in saving the world he saves as many creatures as he thinkes good both amongst men and Angels by giving grace to whom he will and denying grace to whom he will When you say that To love the worke of his owne hands is more essentiall to him that made all things out of his meere love then it is unto the fire to burn matter combustible This speech of yours is a grosse unsavory speech transforming God into a naturall and necessary agent for it is well knowne that the fire burnes naturally and necessarily And if God doth more essentially love his creatures then he must naturally and necessarily preserve them in being and cannot destroy them And because it is out of the same love that you derive the creation of the world it followeth that God was necessitated by the necessity of nature to make the world and consequently that the world was everlasting without beginning and so shall continue without end Behold the flowers that grow in the paradise of your contemplation fitter for Aristotles Physicks or Metaphysicks then for the meditations of a Christian Divine as being fit onely to make a nosegay for the Devill The love of God towards himselfe is essentiall towards his creatures is meerely accidentall Hee needed not to have made them neither is it any whit necessary that he should preserve them And as creation and preservation are attributed of extrinsecall denomination unto God so is his love towards his creatures also Neither was it out of love to the creature that he made the world but out of love to himselfe as who is the end of all For both Salomon professeth that God made all things for himselfe and Saint Paul likewise gives us to understand that as things are from him so all things are for him also But Gods love is infinite therefore say you it extends to all seeing all are lesse then infinite A proper argument and as well suitable unto your text which undertaketh onely to shew that Gods love is infinite to mankinde And this argument proves
any particular good therefore what good in particular soever he did did it freely So doe the Angels so shall we in the kingdome of heaven Hitherto under colour of consequence which yet indeed was no tolerable consequence you did stride very wide from the matter you had in hand to wit of Gods obligement in justice to make men taste of the fruits of his mercy after their wilfull contemning of it into an aliene matter farre removed touching impeccability Now you seeme to returne to your former discourse but in such a manner as if you meant utterly to overthrow it for here you give us to understand that so long as man doth lesse evill then he might doe he may be confirmed in goodnesse and translated unto happinesse Now I pray as bad as the Sodomites were yet were they not lesse evill then they might be For if God had suffered them longer and left them destitute of his grace had they not profited in pejus growing worse and worse And yet I confesse hereupon to bee confirmed in no better goodnesse then they had had not beene much seeing this their goodnesse had beene never a whit but you say not onely this that they that doe lesse evill then they might may hereupon not onely bee confirmed in that goodnesse which they have which may be very farre off from any goodnesse at all but also translated to everlasting happinesse Since mans fall you say wee are not capable of mercy but by free abstinence from some evills Now I demand whether this free abstinence from some evills be of grace or no If of grace whether this grace be not a fruite of mercie If so then it appeares that before we abstaine from any evill wee are capable of mercy thereby to obtaine grace to abstaine from evill I know no state that makes a man uncapable of mercy in this life but onely the state of sinning against the holy Ghost I doe not like your distinction of doing good and doing it naughtily for whatsoever we doe naughtily therein we cannot be said to doe good but evill rather for therein we sinne and in sinning wee doe not any good but evill rather Yet I confesse wee may be said to doe good imperfectly but not naughtily in my judgement Though we doe both lesse evill and the good that we doe lesse naughtily then possibly we might doe God still you say diminisheth the riches of his bounty towards us I professe at first sight I tooke this to bee a notorious untruth but when I considered a claw of your sentence which is this lesse evill then possibly we might doe I reverse my judgement and finde it to be a most vulgar and despicable conceit though in the way of truth For the contrary proposition to your supposition is a thing impossible For how is it possible that a man can doe at once all the evill that he can doe Now if he doth not doe all the evill that possibly hee can doe there is some comfort in your paramutheticall contemplations and hee neede not feare lest God proceede to diminish the riches of his bounty towards him And so might the Sodomites comfort themselves at the worst for certainly they had not done all the evill that possibly they might doe Now it was well worth the having to heare you explaine unto us what you understand by the influence of Gods gracious providence which you say God restraines and by restraining suffers men to fall from one wickednesse to another suffering the reines of our unruly appetites to bee given into our uâ—ieldie hands Here be good phrases which if you would bee pleased to interpret unto us in plaine termes I doubt not but wee should finde good matter to worke upon But to the comfort of all profane persons bee it spoken God doth never deal thus with any by your computation but such as have done as much evill as possibly they can doe To be capable of well doing is to be capable of Gods mercy and you have already told us to our comfort that to do lesse evill then possibly wee can doe doth make us capable of Gods mercy yet here you say this cannot bee done without Gods love and favour Now to my judgement no person is so profane or impious but that hee doth lesse evill then possibly he might doe whence it followeth that to this state of impiety considered as lesse then possibly might be he is arived through the love and favour of God Yet what you meane by the love and favour of God I know not and throughout I finde cause to doubt that you meane nothing lesse then to advance the honour of Gods grace but onely your scope to advance the power of mans free will And I wonder you consider not how you enterfare and crosse your owne shinnes in your discourse when you conceive the love and favour of God as a meanes to make us capable of the mercy of God you might as well say that the mercy of God makes us capable of his mercy for love and favour shewed unto him that is in misery is in the way of mercy So when you make a great difference betweene withdrawing a mans selfe from the extremities of mischiefe and the doing of such good as may make a man capable of well doing you contradict your selfe for to do lesse evill then possibly might bee what is it other then to withdraw from extremities of mischiefe yet that is enough to make a man capable of well doing as you have signified in this very page more then once as namely both in the first sentence and in the third yet this is wilde enough to say A man must doe good to make himselfe capable of well doing By the sentence following it seemes that this good that is to be done to make us capable of well doing is to repent and this you say cannot be done without the attractions of infinite love yet usually you make a worke of nature to bee a preparation to grace and sometimes you call that worke of nature humility sometimes the doing of lesse euill then wee might doe And what you meane by the attractions of infinite love I know not for you make it incident to men without the Church who are not so much as drawne hereunto by the word so that as it seemes it can be no other then Gods patience in sparing them and so leading them to repentance that you meane in this place Yet see into what absurdity of conceit you cast your selfe while you make shew to honour the grace of God as namely when you say since Adams fall our love to sinfull pleasures is so strong that we cannot repent without the infinite attractions of love implying thereby that before Adams fall wee could repent without infinite attractions of love But I pray consider what need was there of repentance before Adams fall Yet such obedience as then was congruous to innocent and undâ—filed nature could he performe without speciall grace Yes you
this while you have beene as it were in trimming your instrument and it seemes not to bee yet in tune the first musick is so harsh and without all harmony I cannot devise a construction thereof to carry any tolerable sense But the sentence following seemes to bee of the same nature where you call that Revenue which before you called Charge very incongruously as if a mans revenues were a burthen unto him whereof he did exonorate himselfe Or if it bee spoken of Bursers accounts in Colledges the incomes are not to them that are charged and put to exonerate themselves but to the Colledges this at the best is but a gamboll le ts come to the naked truth Though mans love to his dearest friend bee in respect of Gods love to us but saint and his power small yet because his love to justice is much lesse heâ— oft-times effects that for his temporall good which God though infinite in power doth not effect for those whom he infinitely loves I thinke I may bee bold to say that this is infinitely false God loved Iacob and hated Esau now all whom God hates as he hated Esau he damnes and all those whom he loves as hee loved Iacob he saves yet this love was but infinite and what love of man or Angel vicious or vertuous can effect the like Yet God blessed both Esau and Ismael with temporall blessings and what friend by good courses or lewd courses was able to equall it what creature can equall that temporall good that God affords to any reprobate for hee gives him his being and all that hee enjoyes nay what man or Angell can doe ought for him in the effecting whereof God hath not a greater hand then the man or Angell himselfe Yet you suppose that God infinitely loves the very reprobates It is familiar with you to suppose that God loved Esau and that infinitely of whom the Scripture professeth that God hated him Your suppositions are fat and well fed but your arguments are more leane and ill favoured then the leane kine of Pharaoh Yet I will be content to helpe you a little in the way of argument Gods love saith Aquinas is in respect of designing some good to his creature now God doth will temporall good to the very reprobates and that in such a manner as cannot be supplied unto them but by power infinite In no other sense doe I finde that it may bee tollerably avouched that God loves them infinitely though you are pleased to suppose it often It is untrue that his grants made to man must undergoe the examination of justice for it is law full for him to doe what hee will with his owne to bestow being and gracious being and consequently glorious being on whom he will for both grace and glory is executed on man in the way of mercy and hee hath mercy on whom hee will And though he hath revealed unto us by what rules hee will proceede in pronouncing the sentence of salvation or condemnation yet hath he revealed unto us no rules according whereunto hee proceedeth in giving grace unto some and denying grace unto others And both Suarez and Vasquez though opposite in other points about the justice of God concurrently professe that there is no justice in God towards man but upon presuposition of his will And those unchangeable rules you speake of for confining God in the execution of his power according to his gracious will are like Castles in the aire that have no foundations and fit for nothing but to discover the new world in the Moone and to ease the man there of his burthen that travelled so long with a bush at his backe God may convert whom hee will and consequently save whom he will as the Holy Ghost teacheth us this is no fiction Quis porro saith Austine tam impie desipiat ut dicat Deum malas hominum voluntates quas voluerit quando voluerit ubi voluerit in bonum non posse convertere Who doth so impiously doat as to say that God cannot convert the evill wills of men whom hee will when hee will and where hee will Yet you say as much as this comes to when you tell us of unchangeable rules of justice restraining God from converting and changing the hearts of men without all feare of imputation either of dotage or impiety God you say loves justice more then mankinde God loves himselfe better then hee loves mankinde or all his creatures for he made all things for himselfe Prov. 16. 4. But as for any justice in God that limits his will I know none neither are you able to prove any as I am verily perswaded What you have hitherto delivered I thinke I have not suffered in any materiall part to passe unsaluted unanswered CHAP. XVII The truth and ardency of Gods love unto such as perish justified by our Saviour and S. Paul I Would your propositions were onely paradoxes but indeed we have weighed them in the ballance and found them plaine untruthes yet what those propositions are which you intimate when you say These are no paradoxes but plaine truth I am to seeke neither can I tell whereto to referre it but to a point which you aime at and insinuate rather then expresse as if you feared plaine dealing most For that which you undertooke to shew in the former Chapter was onely this In what sense God may bee said to have done all that he could doe for his vineyard yet your ensuing discourse throughout hath very little correspondency thereunto But the point you aime at is to perswade that God doth all that hee could doe for all reprobates and that hee doth as much for them as for his elect and the difference betweene the elect and reprobates ariseth rather from their free wills then from any different dispensation of Gods providence in giving that grace unto the one which hee denies unto the other A most foule opinion and therefore no marvell if you are content to travaile long in the delivery of such a monster and seeme to desire that your Readers forwardnesse in understanding your meaning should deliver you thereof and if his propitious affections should be as ready to embrace it upon your weake suggestions the whole businesse shall be very preposterously carried Yet unlesse this conceit of yours bee admitted you tell us Wee shall hardly finde any true sense or good meaning in Gods protestations of sorrowes for his peoples plagues or in his expostulations of their unthankefulnesse or in his kinde invitations of them to repentance which never repent or in his tender profer of salvation to those that perish Whensoever you shall charge us with any of these like places if a true sense and good meaning of them shall be found by us though hardly without the acknowledgment of your foule Tenets wee shall not faile to obtaine wherewithall to answer you Certainly sorrow is not incident to God no not for the plagues of his elect and therefore cannot be
attributed unto him but per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by conformity to the nature of man Sorrow may be incident unto Christ for hee was man as well as God and so man is subject to the law of God which commands us to love our neighbour as our selfe and who is to bee accounted our neighbour himselfe hath taught us in the parable of a certain man that descended from Ierusalem to Iericho by the way as he went fell into the hands of thieves and a fruit of this love is well knowne to bee compassion whereby wee rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weepe with them that weepe yea weepe for them who weepe not for themselves And yet it is very strange to inferre that because Gods sorrows for his peoples plagues doth inferre that he hath done all that he can for his people therefore God hath done all that hee can doe for them that perish Or because God doth expostulate with his people for their unthankfulnesse therefore he doth all hee can doe for the salvation not onely of his people but of them that perish also But it is true in the ministery of the word hee invites them to repentance that doe not repent And it is as true that if this bee required to the doing of all that hee can doe for the salvation of them that perish then many thousands perish for whose salvation God doth not all hee can doe For many thousands have perished that never enjoyed the ministery of the word to bring them to repentance They indeed that live within the precincts of Gods sanctuary enjoy this benefit though many thousands of them perish Neither doth it follow that because God invites them to repentance he doth all hee can doe for their salvation For if it pleased him hee could not onely invite them to repentance but give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. last and Act. 5. 35. and Act. 11. and the 18. And as Austine saith Quantamlibot Deus praebuerit patientiam nisi Deus dederit quis aget poenitentiam so may I say Quantumlibet Deus invitaverit ad rescipiscendum nisi Deus dederit quis aget poenitentiam And as Austine in the same place professeth of such as God hath not predestinate whether out of the Church or in the Church Istarum neminem adducit Deus ad salubrem spiritualemque poenitentiam qua homo reconciliatur Deo in Christo sive illud ampliorem patientiam sive non imparem praebeat And consequently though hee profereth salvation upon condition of faith and repentance for no otherwise doth he profer it to any unto some of those that perish yet herehence it followeth not First that hee profereth this unto all that perish or secondly in profering it to any that perish he doth all that he could doe for the salvation of them that perish as when he saith Esa. 65. 2. I have spread out my hands all the day long unto a rebellious people which walke in a way that was not good and herehence it followeth not that hee did all that he could doe for their salvation For this signifieth onely his invitation of them and readinesse to imbrace them upon their repentance and complaint of the hardnesse of their heart in not repenting But God could doe more then this hee could take away their stony heart and give them an heart of flesh and put his owne Spirit within them and cause them towalke in his statutes and to doe them Ezech. 36. 27. And therefore it is a very vaine discourse of yours when you say The unremovable rules of eternall equity will not suffer him to stretch out his hand any further then he doth towards the sonnes of men for it is apparant that he doth stretch them further to as many as in the course of his loving kindenesse he doth convert and thus farre hee doth stretch them out to as many as hee transports into the land of promise as your selfe confesse But whereas you say The measure of their iniquity being accomplished is an obstacle to God as whom his justice in this case will not suffer to stretch them out so farre any longer this is one of the articles of your creede besides all text of Scripture or Christian reason for God calls some even at the last hower of the day as the Gospell preacheth in the parable of the labourers hired into the vineyard end in the example of the thief upon the crosse the example of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. sc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if at any time God may give them repentance and the ancient saying is inter pontem fontem And S. Augustine counts it impietie and madnesse to thinke otherwise Enchir. 98. Quis porro tam impie desipiat ut dicat Deum malas hominum voluntates quas voluerit quando voluerit ubi voluerit in bonum non posse convertere And the order of our Church in visiting the sick doth justifie this in urging us to visite all to invite all to repentance even to the last gaspe saving that indeede no mans iniquitie is at full till his death and after death no calling to repentance for the wicked imediately upon their death are carried into hell as Dives was and Ex inferno nulla redemptio out of hell no redemption At you say that with sorrow hee doth withdraw his hands so you may with as good sobriety say that with soraow hee doth punish the reprobate men and Angels with eternall fire and directly contrary to Scripture phrase Prov. 1. 24. Because I have called and you refused I have stretched out mine hand and none will regard 26. I will also laugh at your destruction and mock when your feare cometh As for the love of God in stretching out his hands I deny it not because to stretch out his hands in inviting unto repentance is a speciall favour which God denies to many thousands and such as whereby many a reprobate may and doth profit ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitiùs puniantur to an outward emendation of their lives that they may be punished more mildly But you make this love to reprobates equall to the love of God towards his elect for you maintaine that God doth as much as he can doe for the salvation of the reprobates And it it apparant hee doth no more for the salvation of his elect Now this is an abominable opinion And the stranger is Gods mercy in electing you wherof as I have read in some of your writings you make no doubt when you thinke you are not bound to render him more thanks for his goodnesse towards you then a reprobate is but though yet you do not you may doe ere you die and be pulled out of this abominable opinion of yours as out of the fire with feare For as Paul was a chosen vessell of God though for a while hee persecuted the truth of God even unto bloud so may you bee not withstanding your impugning of it though in a milder