their care might be cast upon him who careth for them 1 Pet. 5. 7. forbidding any to touch his anoynted ones Psal 105. 15. and that because they are unto him as the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. now this speciall providence hath respect unto a supernaturall end to which that and that alone is to be convayed For wicked men as they are excepted from this speciall care and government so they are not exempted from the dominion of his Almightie hand he who hath created them for the day of evill Prov. 16. 4. and provided a place of their own Acts 1. 25. for them to goe unto doth not in this world suffer them to live without the verge of his all-ruling providence but by suffering and enduring their iniquities with great patience and long-suffering Rom. 9. 20. defending them oftentimes from the injuries of one another Gen. 4. 15. by granting unto them many temporall blessings Matth. 5. 45. disposing of all their works to the glory of his great name Prov. 21. 1 2. he declareth that they also live and move and have their being in him and are under the government of his providence Nay there is not the least thing in this world to which his care and knowledge doth not descend ill would it become his wisdome not to sustaine order and dispose of all things by him created but leave them to the ruine of uncertaine chance Hierome then was injurious to his providence and cast a blemish on his absolute perfection whilest he thought to have cleered his Maiestie from being defiled with the knowledge and care of the smallest reptiles and vermine every moment and St. Austine is expresse to the contrary who saith he hath disposed the severall members of the flea and gnat that hath given unto them order life and motion c. even most agreeable to holy Scriptures so Psal 104. 20 21. and 145. 15. Matth. 6. 26. He feedeth the fowles and cloatheth the grasse of the field Iob 39. 1 â— and Ionah 4. 6 7. sure it is not troublesome to God to take notice of all that he hath created did he use that great power in the production of the least of his creatures so farre beyond the united activitie of men and Angels for no end at all doubtlesse even they also must have a well disposed order for the manifestation of his glory not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father Matth. 10. 29 30. even the haires of our head are numbred he cleatheth the lillies and grasse of the field which is to be cast into the even Luke 12. 27 28. Behold his knowledge and care of them again he used frogs and lice for the punishment of the Egyptians Exod. 8. with a gourd and a worme he exercised his servant Ionah Chap. 3. yea he cals the locusts his terrible Army and shall not God know and take care of the number of his souldiers the ordering of his dreadfull Hoast That God by his providence governeth and disposeth of all things by him created is sufficiently proved the manner how he worketh all in all how he ordereth the works of his owne hands in what this governing and disposing of his creatures doth chiefly consist comes now to be considered And here foure things are principally to be observed First the sustaining preserving and upholding of all things by his power For he upholdeth all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. Secondly his working together with all things by an influence of causalitie into the agents themselves for he also hath wrought all our works in us Isaiah 26. 12. Thirdly his powerfull over-ruling of all events both necessary free and contingent and disposing of them to certaine ends for the manifestation of his glory So Ioseph tels his brethren as for you you thought evill against me but God meant it unto good to bring to passe as it is at this day to save much people alive Gen. 50. 20. Fourthly his determining and restraining second causes to such and such effects even the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whither soever he will Prov. 21. 1. First his sustentation or upholding of all things is his powerfull continuing of their being naturall strength and faculties bestowed on them at their creation In him we live and move and have our being Acts 17. So that he doth neither worke all himselfe in them without any cooperation of theirs which would not only turn all things into stocks yea and take from stocks their own proper nature but also is contrary to that generall blessing he spread over the face of the whole world in the beginning increase and multiply Gen. 1. 22. nor yet leave them to a selfe subsistance he in the meane time only not destroying them which would make him an idle spectator of most things in the world not to worke hitherto as our Saviour speaks and grant to divers things here below an absolute being not derivative from him the first whereof is blasphemous the latter impossible Secondly for Gods working in and together with all second causes for the producing of their effects what part or portion in the worke punctually to assigne unto him what to the power of the inferiour causes seemes beyond the reach of mortals neither is an exact comprehension thereof any way necessary so that we make every thing beholding to his power for its being and to his assistance for its operation Thirdly his supreame dominion exerciseth it selfe in disposing of all things to certaine and determinate ends for his owne glory and is chiefly discerned advancing it self over those things which are most contingent and making them in some sort necessary inasmuch as they are certainly disposed of to some proposed ends betweene the birth and death of a man how many things meerely contingent doe occurre how many chances how many diseases in their owne nature all evitable and in regard of the event not one of them but to some prove mortall yet certaine it is that a mans dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with the Lord he hath appointed his bounds which he cannot passe Iob 14. 5. And oftentimes by things purely contingent and accidentall he executeth his purposes bestoweth rewards inflicteth punishments and accomplisheth his judgements as when he delivereth a man to be slaine by the head of an axe flying from the helve in the hand of a man cutting a tree by the way but in nothing is this more evident then in the ancient casting of lots a thing as casuall and accidentall as can be imagined hudled in the Cap at a venture yet God overruleth them to the declaring of his purpose freeing truth from doubts and manifestation of his power Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing of it is from the Lord as you may see in the examples of Achan Iosh 7. 16 17. Saul 1 Sam. 10. 21. Ionathan
conjecture according to his guesse at mens inclinations and indeed this is the Helena for whose enjoyment these thrice tenne yeeres they have maintained warfare with the hosts of the living God their whole endeavour being to prove that notwithstanding the performance of all things on the part of God required for the production of any action yet the will of man remaines absolutely free yea in respect of the event as well as its manner of operation to doe it or not to doe it that is notwithstanding Gods decree that such an action shall be performed and his fore-knowledge that it will so come to passe notwithstanding his co-operating with the will of man as farre as they will allow him for the doing of it and though he hath determined by that act of man to execute some of his owne judgements yet there is no kinde of necessitie but that he may as well omit as doe it which is all one as if they should say our tongues are our owne we ought to speake who is Lord over us we will vindicate our selves into a libertie of doing what and how we will though for it we cast God out of his throne and indeed if we marke it we shall finde them undermining and pulling downe the actuall providence of God at the root and severall branches thereof For First for his conservation or sustaining of all things they affirme it to be very likely that this is nothing but a negative act of his will wherby he willeth or determineth not to destroy the things by him created and when we produce places of Scripture which affirme that it is an act of his power they say they are foolishly cited So that truely let the Scripture say what it will in their conceit God doth no more sustaine and uphold all his creatures then I doe a house when I doe not set it on fire or a worme when I doe not tread upon it Secondly for Gods concurring with inferiour causes in all their acts and working they affirme it to be onely a generall influence alike upon all and every one which they may use or not use at their pleasure and in the use determine it to this or that effect be it good or bad so Corrinus as it seemes best unto them in a word to the will of man it is nothing but what suffers it to play its owne part freely according to its inclination as they ioyntly speake in their confession observe also that they account this influence of his providence not to be into the agent the will of man whereby that should be helped or inabled to doe any thing no that would seeme to grant a selfe-insufficiencie but onely into the act it selfe for its production as if I should helpe a man to lift a logge it becomes perhaps unto him so much the lighter but he is not made one jot the stronger which takes off the proper worke of providence consisting in an internall assistance Thirdly for Gods determining or circumscribing the will of man to doe this or that in particular they absolutely explode it as a thing destructive to their adored libertie It is no way consistent with it say they in their Apologie so also Arminius The providence of God doth not determine the will of man to one part of the contradiction that is God hath not determined that you shall nor doth by any meanes over-rule your wils to doe this thing rather then that to doe this or to omit it so that the summe of their endeavour is to prove that the will of man is so absolutely free independent and uncontrouleable that God doth not nay with all his power cannot determine it certainly and infallibly to the performance of this or that particular action thereby to accomplish his owne purposes to attaine his owne ends truly it seemes to me the most unfortunate attempt that ever Christians lighted on which if it should get successe answerable to the greatnesse of the undertaking the providence of God in mens essence would be almost thrust quite out of the the world tantae molis erat the new goddesse contingencie could not be erected untill the God of heaven was utterly dispoyled of his dominion over the sons of men and in the roome thereof a home-bred Idol of selfe-sufficiencie set up and the world perswaded to worship it but that the building climbe no higher let all men observe how the word of God overthrowes this Babylonian tower First in innumerable places it is punctuall that his providence doth not onely beare rule in the counsels of men and their most secret resolutions whence the Prophet inferreth that he knoweth that the way of man is not in himself that it is not in man that walketh to direct his wayes Ierem. 10. 23. And Solomon that a mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directeth his steps Prov. 16. 9. David also having laid this ground That the Lord bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought and maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect but his owne counsell abideth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psam 33. 10 11. proceedeth accordingly in his owne distresse to pray that the Lord would infatuate and make foolish the counsell of Achitophel 2 Sam. 15. 33. which also the Lord did by working in the heart of Absolom to hearken to the crosse counsell of Hushai But also secondly that the working of his providence is effectuall even in the hearts and wils of men to turne them which way he will and to determine them to this or that in particular according as he pleaseth The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord saith Solomon Prov. 16. 1. which Iacob trusted and relied on when he prayed That the Lord would grant his sonnes to finde favour and mercy before that man Gen. 43. 14. whom then he supposed to be some Atheistical Aegyptian whence we must grant if either the good old man beleeved that it was in the hand of God to incline and unalterably turne and settle the heart of Ioseph to favour his brethren or else his prayer must have had such a senslesse sense as this Grant O Lord such a generall influence of thy providence that the heart of that man may be turned to good towards my sons or else that it may not being left to its own freedome a strange request yet how it may be bettered by one beleeving the Arminian doctrine I cannot conceive Thus Solomon affirmeth that the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water he turneth it which way he will Pro. 21. 1. If the heart of a King who hath an inward naturall libertie equall with others and an outward libertie belonging to his state and condition above them be yet so in the hand of the Lord as that he alwaies turneth it to what he pleaseth
together with the same ligament quo ille mortua iungebat corpora vivis wherewith the tyrant tied dead bodies to living men This strange advancement of the clay against the potter not by the way of repining and to say why hast thou made me thus but by the way of emulation I wil not be so I wil advance my self to the skie to the sides of thy throne was heretofore unknown to the more refined Paganisme as these of contingency so they with a better error made a goddesse of providence because as they faigned she helped Latona to bring forth in the I le of Delos intimating that Latona or nature though bigge and great with sundry sorts of effects could yet produce nothing without the interceding helpe of divine providence which mythologie of theirs seemes to containe a sweeter gust of divine truth then any we can expect from their towring fancies who are inclinable to beleeve that God for no other reason is said to sustaine all things but because he doth not destroy them now that their proud God-opposing errors may the better appeare according to my former method I will plainly shew what the Scripture teacheth us concerning this providence with what is agreeable to right and Christian reason not what is dictated by tumultuating affections Providence is a word which in its proper signification may seeme to comprehend all the actions of God that outwardly are of him that have any respect unto his creatures all his works that are not ad intra essentially belonging unto the Deitie now because God worketh all things according to his decree or the counsell of his will Ephes 1. 11. for whatsoever he doth now it pleased him from the beginning Psal 115. seeing also that knowne unto God are all his works from eternitie therefore three things concerning his providence are considerable 1. His decree or purpose whereby he hath disposed of all things in order and appointed them for certaine ends which he hath foreordained 2. His prescience whereby he certainly foreknoweth all things that shall come to passe 3. His temporall operation or working in time My Father worketh hitherto Ioh. 5. 17. whereby he actually executeth all his good pleasure the first and second of these have been the subject of the former Chapters the latter only now requireth our consideration This then we may conceive as an ineffable act or worke of Almightie God whereby he cherisheth sustaineth and governeth the world or all things by him created moving them agreeably to those natures which he endowed them withall in the beginning unto those ends which he hath proposed to confirme this I will first prove this position that the whol world is cared for by God and by him governed and therein all men good or bad all things in particular be they never so small and in our eyes inconsiderable secondly shew the manner how God worketh all in all things and according to the diversitie of secondary causes which he hath created whereof some are necessary some free others contingent which produce their effects nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerely by accident The providence of God in governing the world is plentifully made knowne unto us both by his works and by his word I will give a few instances of either sort 1. in generall that the Almightie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and framer of this whole universe should propose unto himselfe no end in the creation of all things that he should want either power goodnesse will or wisdome to order and dispose the works of his own hands is altogether impossible 2. Take a particular instance in one concerning accident the knowledge whereof by some means or other in some degree or other hath spread it selfe throughout the world and that is that almost universall destruction of all by the flood whereby the whole world was well-nigh reduced to its primitive confusion is there nothing but chance to be seene in this was there any circumstance about it that did not show a God and his providence not to speake of those revelations whereby God foretold that he would bring such a deluge what chance fortune could collect such a small number of individuals of all sorts wherein the whole kinde might be preserved what hand guided that poor vessell from the rocks and gave it a resting place on the mountains certainly the very reading of that story Gen. 7. having for confirmation the Catholike tradition of all mankinde were enough to startle the stubborne heart of an Atheist The word of God doth not lesse fully relate it then his works doe declare it Psal 19. My Father worketh hitherto saith our Saviour Ioh. 5. 17. but did not God end his worke on the seventh day and did he not then rest from all his works Gen. 2. 2. True from his worke of creation by his omnipotence but his worke of gubernation by his providence as yet knows no end yea and divers particular things he doth besides the ordinary course only to make known that he thus worketh Ioh. 9. 3. as he hath framed all things by his wisdome so he continueth them by his providence in excellent order as is at large declared in that golden Psal 104. and this is not bounded to any particular places or things but his eyes are in every place beholding the evill and the good Prov. 15. 3. so that none can hide himselfe in secret places that he shall not see him Ierem. 23. 24. Acts 17. 24. Iob 5. 10 11. Exod. 4. 11. and all this he saith that men may know from the rising of the Sun and from the West that there is none besides him he is the Lord and there is none else he formeth the light and createth darknesse he maketh peace and createth evill he doth all these things Isaiah 45. 7. in these and innumerable like places doth the Lord declare that there is nothing which he hath made that with the good hand of his providence he doth not govern and sustaine Now this generall extent of his common providence to all doth no way hinder but that he may exercise certaine speciall acts thereof towards some in particular even by how much neerer then other things they approach unto him and are more assimilated unto his goodnesse I meane his Church here on earth and those whereof it doth consist for what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them Deut. 4. 7. in the government hereof he most eminently sheweth his glory and exerciseth his power joyne here his works with his word what he hath done with what he hath promised to doe for the conservation of his Church and people and you will finde admirable issues of a more speciall providence against this he promiseth the gates of hell shall not prevaile Mat. 16. 18. amiddest of those he hath promised to remaine Matth. 18. 20. supplying them with an addition of all things necessary Matth. 6. 33. desiring that all
1 Sam. 14. 41. Ionah chap. 1. 8. Matthias Act. 1. 26. And yet this overruling act of Gods providence as no other decree or act of his doth not rob things contingent of their proper nature for cannot he who effectually causeth that they shall come to passe cause also that they shall come to passe contingently Fourthly Gods predetermination of second causes which I name not last as though it were the last act of Gods providence about his creatures for indeed it is the first that concerneth their operation is that effectuall working of his according to his eternall purpose whereby though some agents as the wils of men are causes most free and indefinite or unlimited Lords of their owne actions in respect of their internall principle of operation that is their owne nature are yet all in respect of his decree and by his powerfull working determined to this or that effect in particular not that they are compelled to doe this or hindered from doing that but are inclined and disposed to doe this or that according to their proper manner of working that is most freely For truly such testimonies are every where obvious in Scripture of the stirring up of mens wils and minds of bending and inclining them to divers things of the governing of the secret thoughts and motions of the heart as cannot by any means be referred to a naked permission with a government of externall actions or to a generall influence whereby they should have power to doe this or that or any thing else wherein as some suppose his whole providence consisteth Let us now joyntly apply these severall acts to free agents working according to choyce or relation such as are the wils of men and that will open the way to take a view of Arminian Heterodoxies concerning this Article of Christian beliefe and here two things must be premised First that they be not deprived of their own radicall or originall internall libertie Secondly that they be not exempt from the moving influence gubernation of Gods providence the first whereof would leave no just roome for rewards and punishments the other as I said before is injurious to the majestie and power of God St. Augustine judged Cicero worthy of special blame even among the heathens for so attempting to make men free that he made them sacrilegious by denying them to be subject to an over-ruling providence which grosse errour was directly maintained by Damascen a learned Christian teaching things whereof we have any power not to depend on providence but on our owne free-will an opinion fitter for a hogge of the Epicures heard then for a Scholler in the Schoole of Christ and yet this proud prodigious error is now though in other termes stifly maintained For what doe they else who ascribe such an absolute independent libertie to the will of man that it should have in its owne power every circumstance every condition whatsoever that belongs to operation so that all things required on the part of God or otherwise to the performance of an action being accomplished it remaineth solely in the power of a mans owne will whether he will doe it or no which supreame and plainely divine liberty joyned with such an absolute uncontrollable power and dominion over all his actions would exempt and free the will of man not onely from all fore-determining to the production of such and such efffects but also from any effectuall working or influence of the providence of God into the will it selfe that should sustaine helpe or co-operate with it in doing or willing any thing and therefore the authours of this imaginarie liberty have wisely framed an imaginary concurrence of Gods providence answerable unto it viz. a generall and indifferent influence alwaies wayting and expecting the will of man to determine it selfe to this or that effect good or bad God being as it were alwaies ready at hand to doe that small part which he hath in our actions whensoever we please to use him or if we please to let him alone he no way moveth us to the performance of any thing now God forbid that we should give our consent to the choyce of such a Captaine under whose conduct we might goe downe againe unto Paganisme to the erecting of such an Idol into the Throne of the Almightie No doubtlesse let us be most indulgent to our wils and assigne them all the libertie that is competent unto a created nature to doe all things freely according to election and foregoing counsell being free from all naturall necessity and outward compulsion but for all this let us not presume to denie Gods effectuall assistance his particular powerfull influence into the wils and actions of his creatures directing of them to a voluntary performance of what he hath determined which the Arminians opposing in the behalfe of their darling Free-will doe worke in the hearts of men an overweening of their owne power and an absolute independence of the providence of God For First they deny that God in whom we live and move and have our being doth any thing by his providence whereby the creature should be stirred up or helped in any of his actions that is God wholly leaves a man in the hand of his owne counsell to the disposall of his owne absolute independent power without any respect to his providence at all whence as they doe they may well conclude That those things which God would have to be done of us freely such as are all humane actions he cannot himselfe will or worke more powerfull and effectually then by the way of wishing or desiring as Vorstius speakes which is no more then one man can doe concerning another perhaps farre lesse then an Angel I can wish or desire that another man would doe what I have a minde he should but truly to describe the providence of God by such expressions seemes to me intollerable blasphemie but thus it must be without such helpes as these Dagon cannot keepe on his head nor the Idoll of uncontroulable Free-will enioy his dominion Hence Corvinus will grant that the killing of a man by the slipping of an axes head from the helve although contingent may be said to happen according to Gods counsel and determinate will but on no termes will he yeeld that this may be applied to actions wherein the counsell and freedome of mans will doe take place as though that they also should have dependance on any such overruling power whereby he absolutely excludeth the providence of God from having any soveraigntie within the territory of humane actions which is plainly to shake off the yoke of his dominion and to make men Lords paramount within themselves so that they may well ascribe unto God as they doe onely a deceiveable expectation of those contingent things that are yet for to come there beeing no act of his owne in the producing of such effects on which he can ground any certainty onely he may take a
in particular then certainly other men are not excepted from the rule of the same providence which is the plaine sense of these words and the direct Thesis which we maintaine in opposition to the Arminian Idol of absolute independent Free-will So Daniel also reproving the Babylonian Tyrant affirmeth that he glorified not God in whose hand was his breath and whose were all his wayes Dan. 5. 23. not onely his breath and life but also all his wayes his actions thoughts and words were in the hand of God Yea Secondly sometimes the Saints of God as I touched before doe pray that God would be pleased thus to determine their hearts and bend their wils and wholly incline them to some one certaine thing and that without any prejudice to their true and proper libertie So David Psal 119. 36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousnesse This prayer being his may also be ours and we may aske it in faith relying on the power and promise of God in Christ that he will performe our petitions Iohn 14. 14. Now I desire any Christian to resolve whether by these and the like requests he intendeth to desire at the hand of God nothing but such an indifferent motion to any good as may leave him to his owne choice whether he will doe it or no which is all the Arminians will grant him or rather that he would powerfully bind his heart and soule unto his Testimonies and worke in him an actuall embracing of all the waies of God not desiring more libertie but onely enough to doe it willingly Nay surely the prayers of Gods servants requesting with Solomon that the Lord would be with them and encline their heart unto him to keepe his statutes and walke in his Commandements 1 Kings 8. 5. 7. And with David to create in them a cleane heart and renew a right spirit within them Psal 51. when according to Gods promises they intreat him to put his feare into their hearts Ierem. 31. 32. To unite their hearts to feare his Name Psal 86. 11. to worke in them both the will and the deed an actuall obedience unto his law cannot possibly aime at any thing but a generall influence enabling them alike either to doe or not to doe what they so earnestly long after Thirdly the certaintie of divers promises and threatnings of Almightie God dependeth upon his powerfull determining and turning the wils and heart of men which way he pleaseth thus to them that feare him he promiseth that they shall finde favour in the sight of man Prov. 3. 4. Now if notwithstanding all Gods powerfull operation in their hearts it remaineth absolutely in the hands of men whether they will favour them that feare him or no it is wholly in their power whether God shall be true in his promises or no surely when Jacob wrastled with God on the strength of some such promise Gen. 32. 12. he little thought of any question whether it were in the power of God to performe it yea and the event shewed that there ought to be no such question Gâ—n 33. for the Lord turned the heart of his brother Esau as he doth of others when he makes them pitty his servants when at any time they have carried away captives Psal 106. 46. See also the same powerfull operation required to the execution of his judgements Job 12. 17. and Chap. 20. 21 c. In briefe there is no prophesie nor prediction in the whole Scripture no promise to the Church or faithfull to whose accomplishment the free actions and concurrence of men is required but evidently declareth that God disposeth of the hearts of men ruleth their wils inclineth their affections and determines them freely to choose and doe what he in his good pleasure hath decreed shall be performed such as were the prophesies of deliverance from the Babylonish captivitie by Cyrus Isa 42. Of the conversion of the Gentiles of the stabilitie of the Church Matth. 16. Of the destruction of Ierusalem by the Romans Matth. 24. with innumerable others I will adde onely some few reasons for the close of this long discourse This opinion that God hath nothing but a generall influence into the actions of men not effectually moving their wils to this or that in particular First it granteth a goodnesse of entitie or being unto divers things whereof God is not the authour as those speciall actions which men performe without his speciall concurrence which is blasphemous the Apostle affirmes that of him are all things Secondly it denieth God to be the Authour of all morall goodnesse for an action is good in as much as it is such an action in particular which that any is so according to this opinion is to be attributed meerely to the will of man the generall influence of God moveth him no more to prayer then to evill communications tending to the corruption of good manners Thirdly it maketh all the decrees of God whose execution dependeth on humane actions to be altogether uncertaine and his fore-knowledge of such things to be fallible and easily to be deceived so that there is no reconciliation possible to be hoped for betwixt these following and the like assertions S. S. In him we live and move and have our being Act. 17. 28. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. Thou hast wrought all our workes in us Isa 26. 12. My Father worketh hitherto Iohn 5. 17. The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord Pr. 16. 1. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water he turneth it which way he will Prov. 21. 1. Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies and not unto covetousnesse Psal 119. 36. Vnite my heart to feare thy Name Psal 86. 11. Thou hast not glorified God in whose hand is thy breath and whose are all thy wayes Dan. 5. 23. See Matth. 27. 1. compared with Act. 2. 23. and chap. 4. 27 28. Luk. 24. 26. Iohn 19. 34. 36. For the necessitie of other events see Exod. 21. 17. Iob 14. 5. Matth. 19. 7. c. Lib. Arbit Gods sustaining of all things is not an affirmative act of his power but a negative act of his will Rem apol whereby he will not destroy them God by his influence bestoweth nothing on the creature whereby it may be incited or helped in its actions Corvinus Those things God would have us freely doe our selves he can no more effectually worke or will then by the way of wishing Vorstius The providence of God doth not determine the Free-will of man to this or that particular or to one part of the contradiction Arminius The will of man ought to be free from all kind of internall and externall necessitie in its actions Rem that is God cannot lay such a necessitie upon any thing as that it shall infallibly come to passe as he intendeth see the contrary in the places cited
his life for his friends for his sheepe for them that were given him of his Father but now it should seeme he was ordained to be a King when it was altogether uncertaine whether he should ever have any subjects to be a head without a body or to such a Church whose collection and continuance depends wholly and solely on the will of men These are doctrines that I beleeve searchers of the Scripture had scarse ever been acquainted withall had they not lighted on such Expositors as teach that the only cause why God loveth or chooseth any person is because the honesty faith and pietie wherewith according to Gods command and his own dutie he is endued are acceptable to God which though we grant it true of Gods consequent or approving love yet surely there is a divine love wherewith he looks upon us otherwise when he gives us unto Christ else either our giving unto Christ is not out of love or we are pious just and faithfull before we come unto him that is we have no need of him at all against either way though we may blot these testimonies out of our hearts yet they will stand still recorded in holy Scripture viz. that God so loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. 8. sinners vers 10. of no strength that he sent his only begotten Sonne to die that we should not perish but have life everlasting Ioh. 3. 16. but of this enough Fourthly Another thing that the Article asserteth according to the Scripture is that there is no other cause of our election but Gods own counsell it recounteth no motives in us nothing impelling the will of God to choose some out of mankinde rejecting others but his own decree that is his absolute will and good pleasure so that as there is no cause in any thing without himselfe why he would create the world or elect any at all for he doth all these things for himselfe for the praise of his own glory so there is no cause in singular elected persons why God should choose them rather then others he looked upon all mankinde in the same condition vested with the same qualifications or rather without any at all for it is the children not yet borne before they do either good or evill that are chosen or reiected his free grace embracing the one and passing over the other yet here we must observe that although God freely without any desert of theirs chooseth some men to be partakers both of the end and the means yet he bestoweth faith or the means on none but for the merit of Christ neither doe any attaine the end or salvation but by their own faith through that righteousnesse of his the free grace of God notwithstanding choosing Iacob when Esau is rejected the only antecedent cause of any difference betweene the elect and reprobates remaineth firme and unshaken and surely unlesse men were resolved to trust wholly to their own bottomes to take nothing gratis at the hands of God they would not endeavour to rob him of his glory of having mercy on whom he will have mercy of loving us without our desert before the world began if we must claime an interest in obtaining the temporall acts of his favour by our own indeavours yet oh let us grant him the glory of being good unto us only for his own sake when we were in his hand as the clay in the hand of the potter what made this piece of clay fit for comely service and not a vessell wherein there is no pleasure but the power and will of the framer it is enough yea too much for them to repine and say why hast thou made us thus who are vessels fitted for wratth let not them who are prepared for honour exalt themselves against him and sacrifice to their own nets as the sole providers of their glory but so it is humane vilenesse will still be declaring it selfe by claiming a worth no way due unto it of a furtherance of which claim if the Arminians be not guiltie let the following declaration of their opinions in this particular determine We confesse say they roundly that faith in the consideration of God choosing us unto salvation doth precede and not follow as a fruit of election so that whereas Christians have hitherto beleeved that God bestoweth faith on them that are chosen it seemes now it is no such matter but that those whom God findeth to beleeve upon the stocke of their own abilities he afterwards chooseth Neither is faith in their judgement only required as a necessary condition in him that is to be chosen but as a cause moving the will of God to elect him that hath it as the will of the Iudge is moved to bestow a reward on him who according to the law hath deserved it as Grevinchovius speaks which words of his indeed Corvinus strives to temper but all in vaine though he wrest them contrary to the intention of the Author for with him agree all his fellows the one only absolute cause of election is not the will of God but the respect of our obedience saith Episcopius At first they required nothing but faith and that as a condition not as a cause then perseverance in faith which at length they began to call obedience comprehending all our dutie to the precepts of Christ for the cause say they of this love to any person is the righteousnesse faith and pietie wherewith he is endued which being all the good works of a Christian they in effect affirme a man to be chosen for them that our good works are the cause of election which whither it were ever so grossely taught either by Pelagians or Papists I something doubt And here observe that this doth not thwart my former assertion where I shewed that they deny the election of any particular persons which here they seeme to grant upon a fore-sight of their faith and good workes for there is not any one person as such a person notwithstanding all this that in their judgement is in this life elected but onely as he is considered with those qualifications of which he may at any time divest himselfe and so become againe to be no more elected then Iudas The summe of their Doctrine in this particular is laid by one of ours in a Tract intituled Gods love to mankinde c. a Booke full of palpable ignorance grosse sophistrie and abominable blasphemie whose Authour seemes to have proposed nothing unto himselfe but to rake all the dunghils of a few the most invective Arminians and to collect the most filthy scumme and pollution of their railings to cast upon the truth of God and under I know not what selfe-coyned pretences belch out odious blasphemies against his holy name The summe saith he of all these speeches he cited to his purpose is That there is no decree of saving men but what is built on Gods fore-knowledge of the good actions of men No decree no
perversly said that originall sinne makes a man guilty of death Of any death it should seeme temporall eternall or that annihillation they dreame of and he said true enough Arminius doth affirme it adding this reason because it is onely the punishment of Adams actuall sinne now what kinde of punishment they make this to be I shewed you before But truely I wonder seeing they are every where so peremptorie that the same thing cannot be a sin and a punishment why they doe so often nick-name this infirmity of nature and call it a sinne which they suppose to be as farre different from it as fire from water is it because they are unwilling by new naming it to contradict St. Paul in expresse termes never proposing it under any other denomination or if they can get a sophisticall elusion for him is it least by so doing Christians should the more plainely discerne their heresie or what ever other cause it be in this I am sure they contradict themselves notwithstanding in this they agree full well That God reiecteth none for originall sinne onely as Episcopius speakes and here if you tell them that the question is not de facto what God doth but de iure what such sinne deservers they tell us plainly That God will not destinate any infants to eternall punishment for originall sinne without their owne proper actuall sinnes neither can he doe so by right or in iustice so that the children of Turkes Pagans and the like Infidels strangers from the covenant of grace departing in their infancie are farre happier then any Christian men who must under-goe a hard warfare against sinne and Satan in danger to fall finally away at the last houre and through many difficulties entering the kingdome of heaven when they without further trouble are presently assumed thither for their innocency Yea although they are neither elected of God for as they affirme he chooseth none but for their faith which they have not nor redeemed by Christ for he died onely for sinners he saved his people from their sinnes which they are not guiltie of nor sanctified by the holy Ghost all whose operations they restraine to a morall swasion whereof infants are not a capable subject Which is not much to the honour of the blessed Trinitie that heaven should be replenished with them whom the Father never elected the Sonne never redeemed nor the holy Ghost sanctified And thus you see what they make of this originall pravitie of our nature at most an infirmitie or languor thereof neither a sinne nor the punishment of sinne properly so called nor yet a thing that deserves punishment as a sinne Which last assertion whether it be agreeable to holy Scripture or no these two following observations will declare First there is no confusion no disorder no vanitie in the whole world in any of Gods creatures that is not a punishment of our sinne in Adam That great and almost universall ruine of Nature proceeding from the curse of God overgrowing the earth and the wrath of God revealing it selfe from heaven is the proper issue of his transgression It was of the great mercy of God that the whole frame of Nature was not presently rolled up in darkenesse and reduced to its primitive confusion Had we our selves beene deprived of those remaining sparkes of Gods Image in our soules which vindicates us from the number of the Beasts that perish had we beene all borne fooles and voyd of reason by dealing so with some in particular he sheweth us it had beene but justice to have wrapped us in the same miserie all in generall all things when God first created them were exceeding good and thought so by the wisedome of God himselfe but our sinne even compelled that good and wise Creator to hate and curse the worke of his owne hands Cursed is the ground saith he to Adam for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life thornes also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee Gen. 3. 17 18. hence was that heavie burden of vanitie that bondage of corruption under which to this day the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in paine untill it be delivered Rom. 8. 21 22. Now if our sinne had such a strange malignant influence upon those things which have no relation unto us but onely as they were created for our use surely it is of the great mercy of God that we our selves are not quite confounded which doth not yet so interpose it self but that we are all compassed with divers sad effects of this iniquitie lying actually under divers pressing miseries and deservedly obnoxious to everlasting destruction so that Secondly death temporall with all its antecedents and attendants all infirmities miseries sicknesses wasting destroying passions casualties that are poenall all evill conducing thereunto or waiting on it is a punishment of originall sinne and this not onely because the first actuall sinne of Adam is imputed to us but most of them are the proper issues of that native corruption and pollution of sinne which is stirring and operative within us for the production of such sad effects our whole nature being by it throughly defiled hence are all the distortures and distemperatures of the soule by lusts concupiscence passions blindnesse of minde perversenesse of will inordinatenesse of affections wherewith we are pressed and turmoiled even proper issues of that inherent sinne which possesseth our whole soules Vpon the body also it hath such an influence in disposing it to corruption and mortality as it the originall of all those infirmities sicknesses and diseases which make us nothing but a shop of such miseries for death it selfe as these and the like degrees are the steps which leade us on apace in the road that tends unto it so they are the direct internall efficient cause thereof in subordination to the justice of Almighty God by such meanes inflicting it as a punishment of our sinnes in Adam Man before his fall though not in regard of the matter whereof he was made nor yet meerely in respect of his quickning forme yet in regard of Gods ordination was immortall a keeper of his owne everlastingnesse Death to which before he was not obnoxious was threatned as a punishment of his sinne In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die the exposition of which words given by God at the time of his inflicting this punishment and pronouncing man subject to mortalitie cleerely sheweth that it comprehendeth temporall death also dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne our returne to dust is nothing but the soules leaving the body whereby before it was preserved from corruption Further Saint Paul opposeth that death we had by the sinne of Adam to the resurrection of the body by the power of Christ for since by man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 21. 22.
in regard of his owne will is truly innocent God neither doth nor can in iustice appoint any to hell for originall sinne Rem Apol. It is perversly spoken that originall sinne makes any one guiltie of death Armin. We no way doubt to affirme that never any one was damned for originall sinne Corvinus CHAP. VIII Of the state of Adam before the fall or of originall Righteousnesse IN the last Chapter we discovered the Arminian attempt of readvancing the corrupted nature of man into that state of innocency and holinesse wherein it was at first by God created in which designe because they cannot but discerne that the successe is not answerable to their desires and not being able to deny but that for so much good as we want having cast it away or evill of sinne that we are subject unto more then we were at our first creation we must be responsable for to the justice of God they labour to draw down our first parents even from the instant of their forming into the same condition wherein we are ingaged by reason of corrupted nature but truly I feare they will scarse obtaine so prosperous an issue of their endeavour as Mahomet had when he promised the people he would call a mountaine unto him which miracle when they assembled to behold but the mountaine would not stirre for all his calling he replyed if the mountaine will not come to Mahomet Mahomet will goe to the mountaine and away he packed towards it but we shall finde that our Arminians can neither themselves climbe the high mountaine of innocency nor yet call it down into the valley of sinne and corruption wherein they are lodged we have seene already how vaine and frustrate was their former attempt let us now take a view of their aspiring insolence in making the pure creatures of God holy and undefiled with any sinne to be invested with the same wretchednesse and perversenesse of nature with our selves It is not my intention to enter into any curious discourse concerning the state and grace of Adam before his fall but only to give a faithfull assent to what God himselfe affirmed of all the works of his hands they were exceeding good no evill no deformitie or any thing tending thereunto did immediately issue from that fountaine of goodnesse and wisdome and therefore doubtlesse man the most excellent worke of his hands the greatest glory of his Creator was then without spot or blemish endued with all those perfections his nature and state of obedience was capable of and carefull we must be of casting any aspersions of defect on him that we will not with equall boldnesse ascribe to the image of God Nothing doth more manifest the deviation of our nature from its first institution and declare the corruption wherewith we are polluted then that propensitie which is in us to every thing that is evill that inclination of the flesh which lusteth alwayes against the spirit that lust and concupiscence which fomenteth conceiveth hatcheth bringeth forth and nourisheth sinne that perpetuall pronenesse that is in unregenerate nature to every thing that is contrary to the pure and holy Law of God now because neither Scripture nor experience will suffer Christians quite to deny this pravitie of our nature this aversenesse from all good and propensitie to sinne the Arminians extenuate it as much as they are able affirming that it is no great matter no more then Adam was subject unto in the state of innocency but what did God create in Adam a pronenesse unto evill was that a part of his glorious image in whose likenesse he was framed yea saith Corvinus By reason of his creation man had an affection to what was forbidden by the Law but yet this seemes injustice that God should give a man a law to keepe and put upon his nature a repugnancy to that law as one of them affirmed at the Synod of Dort No saith the former Author Man had not been fit to have had a law given unto him had he not been endued with a propension and naturall inclination to that which is forbidden by the law but why is this so necessary in men rather then Angels no doubt there was a law a rule for their obedience given unto them at their first creation which some transgressed when others kept it inviolate had they also a propensitie to sinne concreated with their nature had they a naturall affection put upon them by God to that which was forbidden by the law let them only who will be wise beyond the word of God affixe such injustice on the righteous Iudge of all the earth but so it seemes it must be There was an inclination in man to sin before the fall though not altogether so vehement and inordinate as it is now saith Arminius hitherto we have thought that the originall righteousnesse wherein Adam was created had comprehended the integritie and perfection of the whole man not only that whereby the body was obedient unto the soule and all the affections subservient to the rule of reason for the performance of all naturall actions but also a light uprightnesse and holinesse of grace in the minde and will whereby he was enabled to yeeld obedience unto God for the attaining of that supernatural end whereunto he was created No but originall righteousnesse say our new Doctors was nothing but a bridle to helpe keepe mans inordinate concupiscence within bounds so that the faculties of our souls were never indued with any proper innate holinesse of their owne In the spirituall death of sinne there are no spirituall gifts properly wanting in the will because they were never there say the sixe Collocutors at the Hague The summe is man was created with a nature not only weak and imperfect unable by its native strength and endowments to attaine that supernaturall end for which he was made and which he was commanded to seeke but depraved also with a love and desire of things repugnant to the will of God by reason of an inbred inclination to sinning It doth not properly belong to this place to shew how they extenuate those gifts also with which they cannot deny but that he was indued and also deny those which he had as a power to beleeve in Christ or to assent unto any truth that God should reveale unto him and yet they grant this priviledge to every one of his posterity in that depraved condition of nature whereinto by sinne he cast himselfe and us we have all now a power of beleeving in Christ that is Adam by his fall obtained a supernaturall endowment farre more excellent then any he had before and let them not here pretend the universalitie of the new covenant untill they can prove it and I am certaine it will be long enough but this I say belongs not to this place only let us see how from the word of God we may overthrow the former odious heresie God in the beginning created man
from salvation Corv. I deny this proposition that none can be saved that is not ingrafted into Christ by a true faith Bert. To this question whether the only way of salvation be the life passion death resurrection and ascension of Iesus Christ I answer no Venator CHAP. XII Of Free-will the nature and power thereof OVr next taske is to take a view of the Idoll himself of this great deitie of Free-will whose originall being not well knowne he is pretended like the Ephesian image of Diana to have falne down from heaven and to have his endowments from above but yet considering what a nothing he was at his first discovery in comparison of that vast giantlike hugenesse to which now he is growne we may say of him as the Painter said of his monstrous picture which he had mended or rather marred according to every ones fancy hunc populus fecit it is the issue of the peoples brain Origen is supposed to have brought him first into the Church but among those many sincere worshippers of divine grace this setter forth of new Daemons found but little entertainment it was looked upon but like the stumpe of Dagon with his head and hands laid down before the Arke of God without whose helpe he could neither know nor doe that which is good in any kinde still accounted but truncus ficulnus inutile lignum a fig-tree logge an unprofitable piece of wood incerti patres scamnum facerentne the Fathers of the succeeding ages had much debate to what use they should put it and though some exalted it a degree or two above its merits yet the most concluded to keepe it a blocke still untill at length there arose a stout Champion challenging on his behalfe the whole Church of God and like a Knight errant wandered from the West to the East to grapple with any that should oppose his Idoll who though he met with divers Adversaries one especially who in the behalfe of the grace of God continually foyled him and cast him to the ground and that in the judgement of all the lawfull iudges assembled in Counsels and in the opinion of most of the Christian by standers yet by his cunning insinuation he planted such an opinion of his Idols deity and self-sufficiency in the hearts of divers that to this day it could never be rooted out Now after the decease of his Pelagian worshippers some of the corrupter Schoolemen seeing of him thus from his birth exposed without shelter to wind and weather to all assaults out of meere charity and self-love built him a temple and adorned it with naturall lights merits uncontrouled independent operations with many other gay attendances But in the beginning of the Reformation that fatall time for Idolatry and superstition together with Abbies and Monasteries the zeal and learning of our forefathers with the helpe of Gods word demolished this temple and brake this building down to the ground in the rubbish whereof we well hoped the Idoll himselfe had been so deeply buried as that his head should never more have been exalted to the trouble of the Church of God untill not long since some curious wits whose weake stomacks were clogged with Manna and loathed the sincere milk of the Word raking all dunghils for novelties lighted unhappily upon this Idoll and presently with no lesse joy then did the Mathematician at the discovery of a new Geometricall proportion exclaime we have found it we have found it and without more adoe up they erected a shrine and untill this day continue offering of praise and thanks for all the good they doe to this worke of their own hands And that the Idol may be free from ruine to which in himselfe they have found by experience that he is subject they have matcht him to contingency a new goddesse of their own creation Who having proved very fruitfull in monstrous births upon their conjunctions they nothing doubt they shall ever want one to set on the throne and make president of all humane actions so that after he hath with various successe at least twelve hundred yeeres contended with the providence and grace of God he boasteth now as if he had obtained a totall victory But yet all his prevailing is to be attributed to the diligence and varnish of his new abetters with to our shame be it spoken the negligence of his adversaries in him and his cause there is no more reall worth then was when by the ancient Fathers he was exploded and cursed out of the Church so that they who can attaine through the many winding Labyrinths of curious distinctions to looke upon the thing it selfe shall finde that they have beene like Aegyptian Novices brought through many stately Frontispieces and goodly Fabricks with much shew of zeale and devotion to the image of an ugly Ape Yet here observe that we doe not absolutely oppose Free-will as if it were nomen inane a meer figment when there is no such thing in the world but onely in that sense the Pelagians and Arminians doe assert it About words we will not contend we grant man in the substance of all his actions as much power libertie and freedome as a meere created nature is capable of We grant him to be free in his choyce from all outward coaction or inward naturall necessitie to worke according to election and deliberation spontaneously embracing what seemeth good unto him Now call this power Free-will or what you please so you make it not supreme independent and boundlesse we are not at all troubled The imposition of names depends upon the discretion of their inventers Againe even in spirituall things we deny that our wils are at all debarred or deprived of their proper libertie but here we say indeed that we are not properly free untill the Sonne make us free no great use of freedome in that wherein we can doe nothing at all we doe not claime such a libertie as should make us despise the grace of God whereby we may attaine true libertie indeed which addeth to but taketh nothing from our originall freedome But of this after I have shewed what an Idol the Arminians make of Free-will onely take notice in the enterance that we speake of it now not as it was at first by God created but as it is now by sinne corrupted yet being considered in that estate also they ascribe more unto it then it was ever capable of as it now standeth according to my formerly proposed method I shall shew first what-inbred native vertue they ascribe unto it and with how absolute a dominion and sovereignty over all our actions they endow it secondly what power they say it hath in preparing us for the grace of God thirdly how effectually operative it is in receiving the said grace and with how little helpe thereof it accomplisheth the great worke of our conversion all briefely with so many observations as shall suffice to discover their proud errors in
against its exaltation to this height of independencie I oppose First every thing that is independent of any else in operation is purely active and so consequently a God for nothing but a divine will can be a pure act possessing such a libertie by vertue of its owne essence every created will must have a libertie by participation which includeth such an imperfect potentiality as cannot be brought into act without some praemotion as I may so say of a Superiour Agent neither doth this motion being extrinsecall at all prejudice the true libertie of the will which requireth indeed that the internall principle of operation be active and free but not that that principle be not moved to that operation by an outward Superiour Agent nothing in this sense can have an independent principle of operation which hath not an independent being it is no more necessary to the nature of a free cause from whence a free action must proceed that it be the first beginning of it then it is necessarie to the nature of a cause that it be the first cause Secondly if the free acts of our wils are so subservient to the providence of God as that he useth them to what end he will and by them effecteth many of his purposes then they cannot of themselves be so absolutely independent as to have in their owne power every necessarie circumstance and condition that thoy may use or not use at their pleasure Now the former is proved by all those reasons and Texts of Scripture I before produced to shew that the providence of God overruleth the actions and determineth the wils of men freely to doe that which he hath appointed and truely were it otherwise Gods dominion over the most things that are in the world were quite excluded he had not power to determine that any one thing should ever come to passe which hath any reference to the wils of men Thirdly all the acts of the will being positive entities were it not previously moved by God himselfe in whom we live move and have our being must needs have their essence and existence solely from the will it selfe which is thereby made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first and supreame cause indued with an underived being and so much to that particular Let us now in the second place looke upon the power of our free-will in doing that which is morally good where we shall finde not onely an essentiall imperfection in as much as it is created but also a contracted defect in as much as it is corrupted the abilitie which the Arminians ascribe unto it in this kinke of doing that which is morally and spiritually good is as large as themselves will confesse to be competent unto it in the state of innocencie even a power of beleeving and a power of resisting the Gospel of obeying and not obeying of turning or of not being converted The Scripture as I observed before hath no such terme at all nor nothing equivalent unto it but the expressions it useth concerning our nature and all the faculties thereof in this state of sinne and unregeneration seeme to imply the quite contrary as that we are in bondage Heb. 2. 15. dead in sinne Ephes 2. 3. and so free from righteousnesse Rom. 6. servants of sinne ver 16. under the reigne and dominion thereof vers 12. all our members being instruments of unrighteousnesse vers 13. Not free indeed untill the Sonne make us free so that this Idol of free-will in respect of spirituall things is not one whit better then the other Idols of the heathen Though it looke like silver and gold it is the worke of mens hands it hath a mouth but it speakes not it hath eyes but it sees not it hath eares but it heares not a nose but it smels not it hath hands but it handleth not feet but it walkes not neither speaketh it through the throat all they that made it are like unto it and so is every one that trusteth in it O Israel trust thou in the Lord c. That it is the worke of mens hands or a humane invention I shewed before for the rest it hath a mouth unacquainted with the mysteries of godlinesse full onely of cursing and bitternesse Rom. 3. 14. speaking great swelling words Iude vers 16. great things and blasphemies Revel 13. 5. a mouth causing the flesh to sinne Eccles 6. 5. his eyes are blinde not able to perceive those things that are of God nor to know those things that are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. eyes before which there is no feare of God Rom. 3. 18. his understanding is darkened because of the blindnesse of his heart Ephes 4. 18. wise to doe evill but to doe good he hath no knowledge Ierem. 4. 22. So that without farther light all the world is but a meere darkenesse Iohn 1. 5. he hath eares but they are like the eares of the deafe Adder to the word of God refusing to heare the voyce of the Charmer charme he never so wisely Psal 54. 8. beeing dead when this voyce first cals it Iohn 5. 25. eares stopped that they should not heare Zach. 8. 11. heavie eares that cannot heare Isa 6. 10. a nose to which the Gospel is the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. hands full of blood Isa 1. 15. and fingers defiled with iniquitie Chap. 59. 3. feet indeed but like Mephibosheth lame in both by a fall so that he cannot at all walke in the path of goodnesse but swift to shed blood destruction and miserie are in their waies and the way of peace they have not knowne Rom. 3. 15 16 17. These and divers other such endowments and excellent qualifications doth the Scripture attribute to this Idol which it cals the old man as I shall more fully discover in the next Chapter and is not this a goodly Reed whereon to rely in the paths of godlinesse a powerfull Deitie whereunto we may repaire for a power to become the sonnes of God and attaining eternall happinesse the abilities of Free-will in particular I shall consider hereafter now onely I will by one or two reasons shew that it cannot be the sole and proper cause of any truely good and spirituall act well pleasing unto God First all spirituall acts well pleasing unto God as faith repentance obedience are supernaturall flesh and blood revealeth not these things not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God Iohn 1. 13. That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit Iohn 3. 6. Now to the performance of any supernaturall act it is required that the productive power thereof be also supernaturall for nothing hath an activitie in causing above its own sphere nec imbelles generant feroces aquilas columbae but our free-will is a meerly naturall faculty betwixt which and those spirituall supernaturall acts there is no proportion unlesse