new like as a man regenerate is called a new man though as he hath the same members of his body nor more nor lesse so he hath still the same faculties and passions of the soule no more nor no lesse but these faculties are better seasoned these passions are better ordered and in like sort these members of the body are better employed then they were before before they were made weapons of unrighteousnesse unto sinne now they are made weapons of righteousnesse unto God Rom. 6. 13. Thirdly let us enquire whether by this pretended enlivening of the will common to all men there are any new habits engendred For that is the most probable And so we commonly say that in regeneration besides the receiving of the spirit of God to dwell in our hearts which is a great mistery there are certaine habits whereby our naturall powers are elevated unto supernaturall objects and thereby fitted to performe supernaturall acts and these are but three and accordingly but three sorts of supernatuall acts and commonly accounted the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity And all morall vertues which for the substance of them in reference to their acts whereby they are acquired and which they doe bring forth are found in naturall men doe become Christian graces as they are sanctified by these three and as their actions doe proceed from these By faith we apprehend things beyond the compasse of reason by hope we wait for the enjoying of such things which neither eye hath seen c. And by charity we love God whom yet we have not seene even to the contempt of our selves Now I presume they will not say that these habits of Faith Hope and Charity are bestowed upon all and every one by that fained universall grace of theirs And what other habits they doe or can devise I have had as yet no experience neither am I able to comprehend And indeed faith doth not leave a man in indifferency to believe or no nor hope to wait or no nor charity to love God or no but they doe all dispose the heart of man to believe only to wait upon God only to love God only they being the curing of infidelity and despaire hatred of God or rather the removing of them yet but in part as regeneration in this life is but in part there being still a flesh in us lusting against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. Thus we may maintaine that albeit every man hath power to believe if he will and repent if he will a will to believe and a will to repent being the greatest worke in the work of grace I meane the renovation of the will and making it willing to that which is good though it requires strength also to master the lusting of the flesh whereby it growes simply and absolutely potent to doe every good thing without any effectuall impediment from within yet neverthelesse till this renovation be wrought by the hand of God we may well say there is an utter impotency morall to doe any thing that is good and pleasing in the sight of God whereby they cannot believe they cannot repent they cannot be subject to the law of God And if to Preach this doctrine be to breed sloth to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall liberty then our Saviour did breed sloth c. when he told his hearers plainly He that is of God heareth Gods words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Ioh. 8. 47. As likewise when he Preached unto them in this maner No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him Ioh. 6. 44. And the Evangelist also in saying He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heale them Ioh. 12. 40. And none more then Moses when he tells the people of Israel in the Wildernesse saying Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and to all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen those great miracles and wonders yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Yet this Author confesseth that our Saviours hearers and Moses his hearers many of them might be Godly men but no thankes to this doctrine of theirs that they were so the true and naturall genius whereof to wit of Christs doctrine and Moses his doctrine for it is apparent that it is the same with ours in this particular we now speake of is to breed sloth to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall liberty but to some thing else either to Gods providence who will not suffer this Doctrine for his own glory and the good of men to have any great stroake in their lives or to mens incogitancy who think not of reducing it ad praxim or drawing conclusions out of it but rest in the naked speculation of it as they doe of many others or lastly to some good practicall conclusions which they meet with in Gods word and apply to their lives as they doe not the former deductions such as these are Be ye holy as I am holy without holinesse no man shall see God Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Yet I pray restraine that and give your sorrow course rather in beholding such prophane aspersions cast upon the holy Doctrine of Christ his Prophets and Apostles as if thereby sloth were bred and men drowned in carnall security and carnall liberty countenanced We are of another mind for Wisedome is justified of her Children we observe the wisedome of God herein to prevent the greatest illusions of Satan and such Doctrines as stand in most opposition unto grace The morality of Heathen men was admirable yet were it farre greater we conceive no greater opposition unto grace then to look for justification by it In the next place we conceive there is no greater opposition unto grace then for a man to arrogate unto himselfe ability to doe that which is pleasing in the sight of God Our Saviour hath said Iohn 15. 4. that As the branch cannot beare fruit of it selfe except it abide in the Vine so neither can wee except we abide in him So that either all the World must be engrafted into Christ or else it is not possible they should bring forth sweet grapes Yet these men will have all and every one to have their wills enlivened and enabled to will any spirituall good whereby they shall be excited Is this doctrine of theirs fit to humble them and not rather to puffe them up with a conceit of their own sufficiency Is not our doctrine farre more fit to humble us and to what other end tendeth that of Moses The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive eyes to see and eares to heare unto this
of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it And upon this poore interpretation he grounds the only substantiall part of his reply to our answer to this his argument For to say that Gods mercy is rich abundant long suffering beyond apprehension is nothing to the purpose For all this hinders not but that the application of it may be and is made only to certain vessells who are called vessells of mercy in distinction from vessells of wrath Rom. 9. 22. 23. Therefore he addes That it surmounts his justice in its objects and expressions wherein what he means by its expressions I know not For I find no comparison made by him between Gods mercy and his justice in its expressions but only in respect of the objects and there the expression of justice seems more quick then the expression of mercy And as for the extention of mercy to more then justice is extended to he dispatcheth in three lines as I said of these three leaves of his discourse But let us see what force he finds in that comparison to serve his turne First he saieth the comparison is between three and foure on the one side and a thousand on the other as if the odds were a thousand to three or foure but how doth he prove that The Text compares three or foure generations to thousands not to a thousand generations but to thousands and he boldly conceives it to be understood of thousands of generations though it be much more then the World consists of from the beginning of the World to the end of it For suppose the World shall last seaven or eight thousand years how many years will he allow to a generation Suppose he allow but twenty to explode the custome of the Germans of whom Tacitus writes that Sera virginum venus which to this day is continued yet a thousand of such generations must make the World to consist of twenty thousand years But if it consist but of seaven or eight thousand years you must allow but seaven or eight years to a generation to make up one thousand generations Then againe the World was now two thousand years old when this was delivered so that it had not above six thousand years to continue and accordingly but six years was from thenceforth to be allowed to a generation And all this liberality of allowance is no more then will make the child a coat to compleat one thousand generations whereas the Text speaks of thousands in the plural number and the least of plurality is two thousand so that to help this we must allow but three years to a generation by which account they had need be married at two and have a child at three and who then should rock the cradle But leave we these fooleries and content our selves with the plain Text and not piece it out with our brainsick additions We know that for Abrahams sake who feared him and for the covenants sake he made with him he had mercy on thousands of his posterity to bring them out of Egypt six hundred thousand men from twenty years old to threescore and take them unto him to be his peculiar people which continued for the space of about 1600 years and now for 1600 years they have been cast off from being his people And of the goodnesse of God towards Abraham in choosing his seed after him even many thousands of them the Jewes had sensible experience that very day he spake unto them from Mount Sinai he did not mean to trouble their braines with any Algebra in counting up a thousand generations But suppose this were granted him yet these that feare him being only within the pale of his Church what a small handfull were these in comparison to all the world of heathens besides that hated him Marke what difference S. Paul puts between the Jewes and the Gentiles when he saith we Jewes by nature not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. And the Psalmist before him Psal 147. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances to Israel he hath not dealt so with every nation neither have they known his judgements According whereunto the Apostle having demanded saying What is then the preferment of the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision Answereth thus Much every way and chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1 2. And the same Apostle doth not acknowledge the Gentiles to have obtained mercy at the hands of God untill the time of their calling by the Ministry of the Gospell Rom. 11. 30. in these words Ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe This might suffice for answer to this argument taking it in the full strength thereof But I am content to runne over the whole discourse and to take every part of it into consideration 1. He saith God is mercy in the abstract and Love By this it is apparent that the Attributes Divine are the very Essence Divine otherwise they could not be predicated thereof in the abstract and consequently they can no more be of the same nature with vertues Morall in us then the Divine Essence can be of the same nature with an accident 2. He is a Saviour of men true and it is as true that he saveth both man and beast and as for men though he be a Saviour of them all yet in speciall sort of them that believe 3. When he saith of the love of Christ that it is without height and depth and length and breadth he doth overlash for the Apostles prayer is in the place quoted by him on the behalfe of the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith that being rooted and grounded in love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth height For though the height of it be such as is incomprehensible by us in this World yet the Apostle supposeth an height depth length and breadth thereof rather then denies it 4. He saith Gods Mercy is advanced above his Justice not in respect of its essence for all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in things that concerne the expressions of it Here we have words but can any wise man draw it to any sober sense What I pray is it to advance mercy above justice in things that concerne the expressions of it He saith it is more naturall and deare to God then his justice what reason is there for this if the one be equally as excellent as the other To make this good with some colour at least he alleadgeth Mich. 7. 18. Mercy pleaseth him or he delights in it The like we read Jer. 9 24. namely that God delights in mercy and in the same place the Lord professeth joyntly that he delights in judgement But Isaiah 28. 21. Judgement is called his strange worke Now three severall times
of our Children to love the Lord our God with all our hearts to take the stony heart out of our bowells and give us an heart of flesh and to put his own spirit within us as he seeth our waies so to heale them yea to heale our back-slidings to heale our rebellions All this this sweet comforter takes no notice of contenting himselfe with such a grace to be merited for him by Christ as this if he will believe he shall believe if he will repent he shall repent if he will love God with all his heart he shall love him with all his heart Yet when a man doth believe they are able to give him no assurance of his salvation or of his election because they maintaine that a man may totally and finally fall away from grace And all because their doctrine is that Gods effectuall grace in working the act of faith and repentance is given meerely according to mens works Tempted God purposed that his Sonne should dye for all men and that in his name an offer of remission of sinnes and salvation should be made to every one but yet upon this condition that they will doe that which he meanes the greatest part shall never doe i. e. Repent and believe nor I among the rest CONSIDERATION How doth God meane that the greatest part of men shall never believe and repent by our opinion Is it in this sence that they shall not believe and repent if they will When was it ever knowne that any of our Divines ever wrote or taught this We think rather it is impossible it should be otherwise therefore say it is a very absurd thing to call this Grace as the Arminians doe Indeed we say that God doth not meane by his preventing grace to work the wills of the greatest part of men to believe repent Doe not the Arminians say so too Yes verily and a great deale more for they deny that he workes any mans will to believe and repent in this manner but we say God purchaseth thus to worke the wills of all his chosen ones and when he hath wrought them to keepe them by his power through faith unto Salvation and put his feare in their hearts that they shall never depart a way from him Jer 32. 40. And upon this ground we can assure believers of their election which Arminians cannot And them that believe not keepe from dispaire in better manner then the Arminians can for they leave them to themselves to believe whereas the Scriptures shew that to be impossible so that they take upon them to comfort such quite against the haire But we comfort them with a possibility of being converted unto God by representing his allmighty power whose voyce is able to pierce into the graves and make dead Lazarus heare it This power he shewed in converting Saul when he marched furiously Jehu like against the Church of God Therfore be thou of good comfort especially considering thou art as it were under the wings of God thou hearest his voyce many come out of their graves at his call some at one time some at another and so maist thou God knowes how soone then shalt thou be assured of thine election which by Arminianisme thou canst not be in the meane time thou hast no cause to conclude that thou art a Reprobate Minister God hath a true meaning that all men who are called should repent and believe that so they might be saved as he would have all to be saved so to come to the knowledge of the truth and as he would have no man to perish so he would have all men to repent and therefore he calls them in the Preaching of the word to the one as well as to the other CONSIDERATION He keepes his course to afford thee the best comfort his doctrine yeelds which is as much as is incident to a Reprobate and how that should make thee conceive better of thy selfe then as of a Reprobate I doe not perceive Gods meaning is that as many as heare the Gospell should believe and repent ex officio that is that it shall be their duty for he commands it but he hath no meaning to bestow on all and every one the grace of faith and repentance as appeares by experience And if God did will they should de facto believe and be saved then either God is not able to bring them to faith and to save them or else his will is changed In like sort if it were his will that all and every one should know his truth then God is not able to make all and every one know his truth for it is apparent that all doe not it is apparent that all have not the Gospell The Apostle saith That God will not have any of us to perish but all to come to repentance he doth not say he would but he will And this is true of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Apostle speakes of believers and elect But as for others the Scriptures plainly professe that God blinds them hardens them and of Israell in the wildernesse The Lord saith Moses hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Deut 29. 4. He calls all that heare the Gospell indifferently by the Ministry of the Word but he openeth not the heart of all to attend unto it as to the Word of God like as we read he opened the heart of â—idia Acts. 16. 14. Tempted God hath a double call outward by his word inward by the irresistible work of his spirit with this he doth not call every man to believe but a very few only whom he hath infallibly and inevitably ordained to eternall life and therefore by the outward call which I enjoy among many others I cannot be assured of Gods good will and meaning that I shall believe repent and be saved CONSIDERATION Our Doctrine teacheth not that God calls every one by his Word that is an Arminian interjection But the outward call belongs to many more then are chosen as our Saviour sayth many are called but few are chosen Indeed he gives faith and repentance to a very few which no Arminian denyes only the Question is Whether God gives faith and repentance to whom he will or according to mens works We saytis to whom he will proceeding herein according to the meere pleasure of his will and not according to mens workes which to affirme is manifest Pelagianisme and publikely condemned many hundred yeares agoe It is true if thou dost not believe Gods Word doth not assure thee that he will make thee believe that were to assure thee of thine election before thy vocation a most unreasonable thing to be expected But God by his word assures thee that t is his meaning that without faith thou shalt not be saved Yet there is no cause thou shouldest think thy selfe a Reprobate for this was the condition of every one of Gods elect before their calling
good if he will but it inclines and disposeth the will unto vertuous actions So justice is not an indifferency of condition leaving it to man whether he will be just or noe but it makes him just and so disposoth him to just courses Againe if grace supernaturall doth only give power to believe if one will this being a free power it is indifferent as well not to believe as to beleive as well not to repēt as to repent For liberty is alwaies to act opposite whence it will follow that by vertue of supernaturall grace a man is disposed not more to faith then to infidelitie not more to repentance then to hardnesse of heart and Impenitency 4. Consider a man hath noe need of supernaturall grace to inable him to refuse to repent seing naturally he is sufficiently disposed hereunto necessarily by reason of that naturall corruption which is hereditary unto him By all this it is apparent that a power to believe wrought in a man by supernaturall grace is not a free power working freely but rather a necessary power working necessarily like unto the condition of a morall vertue which restraines man's naturall indifferency to good or evill and disposeth him only to good And consequently as many as maintaine no other power to be given unto man by grace then to believe if a man will they deale like Pelagians who called that which was meerly naturall prevenient grace Lastly if God be the Authour of man's conversion because he gives him power to convert if he will he may as well be called the Authour of non conversion and perseverance in sinne because God gives power not to convert and to persevere in sinne if he will 2. As touching the second If God be the Authour of man's conversion because he perswades thereunto then certainly he is not the Authour of sinne because he perswades not thereunto 3. If God be the Authour of conversion because he cooperates thereunto then certainly he may be as well said to be the Authour of every sinfull act For that he doth cooperate thereunto I am very confident this Authour will not deny Now I could earnestly entreate the Judicious Reader to examine well this Authour's opinion in these particulars and compare them with his former discourse that he may have a cleare way opened unto him to judge with what conscience he carried himselfe in his former discourse imputing unto us that we make God the Authour of sin albeit in treating of God's providence in evill we generally have the expresse word of God before our eyes and in our explication thereof doe rather qualify the seeming harshnesse thereof then aggravate it For undoubtedly by the tenour of his discourse looke upon what grounds he denies God to be the Authour of sinne he must withall deny God to be the Authour of faith of repentance of conversion And look upon what grounds he makes God the Authour of conversion upon the same grounds he must make God the Authour of sinne As in case to give power to believe if we will and to cooperate with us in the act of faith be to make him the Authour Or if only upon perswading us to believe God is said to be the Authour of faith then it followes as a sufficient Apologie for us that we make not God to be the Authour of sinne seing none of us conceive him to be a perswader of any sinfull act but rather a disswader and forbidder thereof and that upon paine of eternall damnation But on the contrary we make a vast difference between God's operations in sinfull actions and God's operations in actions gracious As first every sinfull act is alwaies within the compasse of acts naturall noe supernaturall act is or can be a sinne Now to the producing of any act of morality every man notwithstanding his corruption hath in him a naturall power But there is noe naturall power in man to the performing of an act supernaturall God must inspire him with a new life called in Scripture the life of God and make him after a sort partaker of the divine nature and give his own Spirit to dwell in him in such sort that being crucified with Christ we hence forth live no more but Christ liveth in us These supernaturall acts are but few according to the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope Charity whose offsprings they are the love of God to the contempt of our selves hope in God to the contempt of the world as touching the worst it can doe unto us and faith in God to the quenching of the fiery darts of the devill As for all other good acts in the producing of them God hath a double influence one common as they are acts naturall touching the substance of them another speciall as touching the gracious nature of them proceeding from faith and love But as touching evill acts he hath noe influence in the producing of them but that which is common and to the substance of the acts none at all as touching the evilnesse of them the reason whereof is that which was delivered by Austin long agoe Malū non habet causam efficientem sed deficientem Evill hath no cause efficient but deficient only And it is impossible that God should be defective in a culpable manner The creature may the Creatour cannot And the ground of the creatures defective condition is accounted to be this that he was brought out of nothing consequently of a fraile condition And it is received generall as a rule in Schooles that a creature cannot be made impeccabilis per naturam that is such a one as by nature cannot sinne This was delivered long agoe by Anselme one of the first of School-divines In evill things God doth worke quod sunt that they are non quod mala sunt not that they are evill But in good things God doth worke Et quod sunt quod bona sunt both that they are and that they are good Here this Authour sets down our opinion concerning Election and Reprobation at his pleasure We say with Austin that predestination is the preparation of grace that is the Divine decree of conferring grace And both he and all confesse it is also the decree of conferring glory And because in making of this decree God had respect unto some only not to all both men and Angells therefore in this consideration it is called the decree of Election in distinction from the decree of reprobation Now this grace is of a double nature for either it is grace custodient from sinne and the decree of granting this was the election of Angells called in holy Scripture The elect Angells or grace healing after men have sinned and the decreee of granting this is the election of men commonly in Scripture called God's Elect in reference unto this It is farther to be observed that Austin grounds the Orthodoxe doctrine of predestination and election upon the Orthodoxe doctrine concerning grace And the absolutenesse of the one he
repentance and that by instruction admonition and exhortation therefore I doe instruct them in the knowledge of God that made them after his own Image and how this image of God came to be defaced in them to wit by the sinne of our first parents and how hereupon we became to be shapen in sinne and borne in sinne and therewithall children of wrath and such as deserve to be made the generation of God's curse then I represent unto them the mercy of God towards man in giving us his Son to beare our sins in his body upon the tree and suffer a shamefull and bitter death upon the crosse for them and that for this his Son's sake he offers unto us the pardon of all our sins upon our repentance and faith in Christ and thereupon I exhort them unto repentance We farther say that God takes no pleasure in the death of him that dieth but takes pleasure in a man's repentance We doe not say neither doth the word of God say that he willeth not the death of him that dyeth For undoubtedly he willeth the damnation of all them that dye in their sins without repentance We doe not say that God would have no man to perish but all come to repentance Neither doth the Scripture say any such thing For that were to deny God's omnipotency For seing many there be that perish if this were contrary to God's will then God's will should be resistible and we should be driven to deny the first Article of our Creed As Austine hath long agoe argued the case But indeed Peter writing to them who had obtained like pretious faith with the Apostles themselves and such as were Elect unto sanctification of the spirit and were begotten againe to a lively hope by the resurection of Jesus Christ from the dead to them he writes saying The Lord of that promise is not slack but is patient towards us not to us Reprobates God forbid that we should so corrupt the interpretation of his words but rather to us Elect to us called to us begotten of God not willing any to perish to wit of us but all come to repentance to wit all of us whensoever through our frailty we turne out of the good wayes of the Lord. God cries unto you by us and calls upon you by us and hath along time shewed great patience and long suffering and hereby led you unto repentance by his word stands knocking at the doores of your hearts and calling upon you to open unto him And the more to move you he is pleased to expresse himself in the affections of a weake man who is not able to accomplish his desires O that there were an heart in you to feare me and keep my commandements and with great passionatnesse cryeth out unto you What shall I doe unto you how shall I intreat you As if he were to seek what course to take and willing to use every provocation to excite you and stirre you up sometimes by gracious promises as Come and let us reason together though thy sins were as scarlet c. Sometimes by threatnings Woe unto thee ô Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be And withall he gives us to understand requires us to preach as much unto you also even to acquaint you with the whole counsell of God tell you that as many as are ordained unto eternall life as many as to whom the arme of the Lord is revealed as many as are of God they obey this calling they believe they heare God's words and turne unto him by true repentance sooner or later They that doe not it is because they are not of God And albeit those words are the words of Moses O that there were an heart in you to feare me speaking to them in the name of the Lord yet the same Moses tells the same people plainly that The Lord had not given them an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto that Day And albeit the Lord professeth in like manner by his Prophet Esay O that thou hadst hearkned unto my commandements then had thy prosperity been as the flood and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the sea Yet this very disobedience of theirs was consequent to the Lord's obduration of them as appeares Es 6. 9. Goe say unto this people ye shall heare indeed but ye shall not understand ye shall plainly see not perceive Make the heart of this people fat make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and convert and he heale them Then said the Lord how long should this obduration continue And he answered untill the Cityes be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate And the Lord have removed men farre away and there be a great desolation in the midst of the land Yet I dare not say of any of you that ye are Reprobates For God may open your eyes before you dye to see your sins and touch your hearts that ye may bewaile them And whensoever this blessed condition doth befall you I will stirre you up to give God the glory of it who alone it is that worketh in us that which is pleasing in his sight Yea both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure If he never workes any such thing in you the more inexcusable are you who presuming of your own power to believe to repent yet are nothing moved with such passionate expressions unto repentance If you doe believe there is such impotency in you to good and that it must needs continue in you while God continueth to harden you by denying his grace and thereupon ye except against Gods course in complaining of their disobedience whom he hath hardned saying Why then doth he complaine For who hath resisted his will I put all such over to St. Paul to receive answer from him Rom 9. 20. 21. 22. As touching this Author's conclusion Dares he himselfe say that by God's decree Reprobates shall ever repent or be saved What then is his meaning why doth he not expresse himselfe in this particular but most unshamefastly earthes himselfe like a foxe unwilling to bring his vile opinion to the light which I take to be no other then this that God's decree of giving faith is not absolute but conditionall namely to give faith to as many as shall prepare themselves for it And to deny it to none but such as faile to prepare for it as much as in plaine termes to professe that Grace is given according unto workes The very filth of Pelagianisme Yet hath he no where discovered wherein this preparation consists that he keeps to himselfe and to his own Muses P. 80. I find another addition to the third Sub-section in these words To offer salvation under a condition not possible is in circumstance a great deale worse For it is a
thought that God elected some to bestow the Holy Ghost upon them that by working that which is good they might obtain everlasting life and who were those whom he thus elected namely such as whom he foresaw would believe and what was his reason for it surely this Quod ergo credimus nostrum est quod autem bona operamur Illius est qui Credentibus dat Spiritum Sanctum quod profeciò non dicerem si jam scirem etiam ipsam fidem inter dei munera reperiri quae dantur in eodem spiritu Marke I pray the manner of his Retractation I would not have said so if at that time I had known Faith to have been amongst the gifts of God which are given in the same spirit So then as soon as Austin came to acknowledg that Faith it selfe was the gift of God he therewithall came off from affirming that Quem sibi crediturum esse praescivit ipsum elegit cui Spiritum Sanctum daret ut bona operando etiam vitam aeternam consequeretur And like as before he maintained that God elected some to wit Believers to bestow the Holy spirit upon them that by working good workes they might obtain also everlasting life so now having found that Faith also is the gift of God he was accordingly to maintain that God elected some to bestow the Holy spirit upon them that both by believing and working good workes they might obtain everlasting life so that no longer was the foresight of Faith to precede election in Austins opinion to wit after once he knew Faith to be the gift of God And accordingly in his Book De Praedestin Sanctorum addressing himselfe to the rectifying of the Massilienses in the poynt of Predestination wherein they did not as yet discerne the truth of God Adhuc in quaestione caligant de Praedestinatione sanctorum Cap. 1. And againe Si quid de Praedestinatione Sanctorum aliter sapiunt Deus illis hoc quoque revelabit Ibid. Marke I pray you what course he takes to rectify them herein cap. 2. Priùs itaque fidem quâ Christiani sumus donum dei esse debemus ostendere and whereas he had performed this task very sufficiently before manifesting by divers pregnant passages of holy Scripture that Faith was the gift of God and the Massilienses did elude them by such a distinction as this Faith may be considered two waies either as touching Initium the first beginning of it or as touching Incrementum the augmentation thereof and accommodating this distinction said The passages of Scripture alleadged by Austin proceeded as touching the Augmentation of it which they willingly granted to be the work of God but not as touching the initiation of it which they still maintained to be the work of man Therefore Austin addresseth himselfe in that discourse of his to prove that the very Initiation of Faith is the work of God and not the Augmentation only His words are these Sed nunc iis respondendum esse video qui divina testimonia quae de hâc re adhibuïmus ad hoc dicunt valere ut noverimus ex nobis quidem nos habere ipsam fidem sed incrementum ejus ex Deo tanquam fides non ab ipso donetur nobis sed ab ipso tantum augeatur in nobis ex merito quo coepit à nobis And likewise in the 19. cap. of the same Book having propounded the opinion of the Pelagians namely that because God foresaw that we would be holy and unblameable before him in love therefore he elected and predestinated us in Christ before the foundation of the World and shew'd how this opinion contradicts that of the Apostle Ephes 1. 4 5. where it is said that God elected us in Christ and predestinated us before the foundation of the World that we should be holy and unblameable before him in love and perceiving withall how the Massilians did avoid this as nothing contrary to their Tenent though contrary to the Pelagian Tenent forasmuch as they maintained not that God foresaw any thing but our Faith and therefore God elected us before the foundation of the World that we should be holy and unblameable before him in love for these were their words Nos autem dicimus nostram Deum non praescisse nisi fidem ideo nos elegisse ut etiam sancti immaculati gratia atquè opere ejus essemus what course doth Austin take to beat them off but this namely to prove that Like as Holines so Faith also and that as touching the Initiation thereof is the work of God thus Sed audiant ipsi in hoc testimonio ubi dicit sortem consecuti simus praedestinati secundum propositum qui universa operatur Ipse ergo ut credere incipiamus operatur qui universa operatur So that it is cleer in the opinion of Austin that to take both himselfe and others off from premising the foresight of Faith unto Gods election it is sufficient to prove that Faith is the gift of God the work of God both touching the augmentation and touching the first introduction thereof And thus evincing the condition of Predestination as excluding all foresight of Faith from the condition of Predestination as being throughout the work of God in man rather then taking a contrary course as if the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were what is the condition of Gods decree of Predestination as here it is pretended and supposed And albeit it is commonly received of all sides as if it were without question that Faith is the gift of God yet we find practises on foot for the working of a manifest innovation herein For not to speak of their interpretations of their own meanings as in what sence they say God workes Faith in us it is apparent the Remonstrants now a daies doe as good as professe that Faith is not bestowed upon us for Christs sake in as much as they deny that Christ merited Faith for us For when the Author of the Censure passed upon the Remonstrants Confession disputeth thus At si hoc tantum meritus est Christus tum Christus nobis non est meritus fidem nec regenerationem the Remonstrants in the Answer hereunto forthwith confesse it in these words Sanè ita est Nihil ineptius nihil vanius est quà m hoc Christi merito tribuere Si enim Christus nobis meritus dicatur fidem regenerationem tum fides conditio esse non poterit quam a peccatoribus Deus sub comminatione mortis aeternae exigeret And by the way marke I pray that not any difference is put between Faith and Regeneration manifestly signifying thereby that as they grant it to be the work of man to believe so we are commanded to make our selves a new heart And as for ordering of the decrees which here is added to compleat the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here is pretended that in my opinion is so farr off from being the main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
ought to doe or not in what manner he ought to doe it not one of all which is incident unto God All efficiency both divine and humane is found only about the act substrate unto sinne and all sides now a daies acknowledge that God is the author thereof as well as man by an effective concourse though difference there is about the manner of the concourse and particularly these Arminius will have Gods concourse to an evill act to be every way as much as his concourse to a good and that he concurres to the working of a good act no more then to the working of an evill act Which we utterly deny requiring a double concourse to every good act that is not supernaturall as touching the substance of the act One to the producing of the substance of the act another to the producing the goodnesse thereof that is the gracious manner of performing it For even a naturall man may abstaine from lying stealing whoring blaspheaming but no naturall man can abstaine from these in a gracious manner that is out of the love of God and that such a love as is Amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui the love of God to the contempt of himselfe For this manner of performing it is supernaturall Secondly as touching the matter of divine concourse to the substance of any naturall act We say God moves the will to the doing of it as it becomes the first cause to move the second but how agreeable to the nature of it that is like as he moves naturall agents to doe that which they doe necessarily so he moves all rationall agents to doe that which they doe contingently and freely What is the Arminian tenent to the contrary namely this that God workes in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle modo velit as absurd an assertion as ever any man breathed It is true many times our Divines in speaking of the secret providence of God in evill doe expresse themselves in phrases of a very harsh accent in the judgement of flesh and blood but herein they doe nothing exceed sobriety forasmuch as usually they contemper themselves to Scripture phrase rather within the compasse thereof then beyond it Yet Blasphemy is usually imputed unto them without all feare or wit not considering that herein they impute blasphemy to the language of the Holy Ghost As for example What an horrible sinne is it for Kings and Princes to imploy their power and authority not for the supporting of the Kingdome of Christ by whom Kings reigne but for the supporting and establishing of the kingdome of Antichrist as in the Martyrdome of Gods Saints delivered over to the secular power to that end and that by censures Ecclesiasticall Now if we should say that it is God that works thus in the hearts of Kings thus to imploy their power for the supporting of Antichrist we should be censured for blasphemers Yet the Holy Ghost spares not to professe that God hath put into their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdome to the Beast untill the words of God be fulfilled In like sort from the first Preaching of the Gospell unto this day many there have been and at this day are who are disobedient unto it and stumble at it either in the whole or in part If we should say that they who thus disobey and stumble at the word of God are ordained thereunto such as this Author and his Complices are ready to cry out upon us as Blaspheamers and to professe that they will rather deny that there is a God then hold with the Contra-Remonstrants Yet S. Peter budgeth not to professe that Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to them which stumble at the word of God being disobedient whereunto also they were ordained When we professe that not any thing in the world comes to passe but Deo volente God willing it We are censured as Blasphemers in professing that God doth will that which is evill and sinne yet not only the Articles of Ireland Artic. 11. professe as much and Austin Enchir. 95. Non aliquid fit nisi Omnipotens fieri velit but the Apostles with one voyce as touching the contumelious usages of the Sonne of God both by Jewes and Gentiles Herod and Pilate in their picus meditation poured forth before the face of God professe that Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together against the holy Sonne of God to doe that which Gods hand and Gods councell had before determined to be done In like sort when we speak of Gods giving men over to illusions to believe lies others to vile affections and to uncleannesse through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves which consisted in this that The Women did change their naturall use into that which is against nature and likewise the men leaving the naturall use of the Women burned in their lusts one towards another men with men working that which is unseemely and receiving in themselves the recompence of their errour which was meet and observe herehence that it is just with God to punish sinne with sinne And as it hath been observed before us from the daies of Austin who when Iulian the Pelagian said this was done deserendo replies taking him at his word who could not but professe that God doth thus the Scripture expresly testifying as much and touching the manner mentioned by him addeth whether God doth this deserendo or alio modo sive explicabili sive inexplicabili it matters not An Arminian spirit spares not to joyne himselfe with Iulian the Pelagian in affronting Austin thus discoursing out of the word of God and to professe that that doctrine of Gods punishing sinne with sinne is a common errour whereas the Apostle professeth in expresse termes that Herein they received such recompence of their errour as was meet and what is recompence here but punishment and wherein consisted it but in defiling themselves contrary to nature as the Scripture plainly testifies saying Men with men working that which is unseemely and receiving in themselves such recompence of their errour as was meet And Arminius spares not to professe that Omnis paena Deum authorem habet Wherein yet we concurre not with Arminius Wee deny that Omnis paena habet Deum authorem It is true that Paena positiva not of all punishment that consists in privation such as sinne is For Malum as Austin long agoe pronounced non habet causam efficientem but deficientem Yet we confesse that God could keep any man from any sinne but if he will not this is not sufficient to make him the author of it It is only a culpable defect that makes one the author of sinne that is when he failes of doing that which he ought to doe But God is bound to none to preserve him from sinne any otherwise then his own free will doth
sub nomine gratiae Fatum asserimus quia nullis hominum meritis dicimus Dei gratiam antecedi Si autem quibusdam omnipotentis Dei voluntatem placet Fati nomine nuncupari profanas quidem verborum novitates evitamus sed de verbis contendere non amamus Yet because we are to give the Devill his right With what conscience could this Author professe of this Fatum of the Heathens that their faith thereof did take away all conscience of sinne seeing it did not take away the conscience of sinne in her who is made by the Poet to utter this as appears in the same Author within a few lines after For there she professeth that if God the creator of all should make his wrath break forth against her and strike her with a thunderbolt from heaven yet this were no sufficient punishment for her sinnes Queen Iocastas word are these Non si ipse mundum concitans divum sator Corusca saeva teia jaculetur manu Unquam rependam sceleribus paenas pares Shee justifies God and condemnes her selfe notwithstanding her former words used only as it seems to pacify the furious moode of her Sonne and Husband Oaedipus Will not such one day rise up in judgement against many Christians who unlesse themselves may be exempted from that providence divine whereby he moves all things agreeable to their natures are so apt to condemne God of injustice and justify themselves as needing not to have any conscience of sinne And which is most strange they acknowledge Fate in this case to be such as that it necessitated even God himselfe as appears by the last Chorus Fatis agimur cedite Fatis Non sollicitae possunt curae Mutare rati stamina fusi Quicquid patimur mortale Genus Quicquid facimus venit ex alto Servátque sua decreta colus Lachesis durâ revoluta manu Omnia certo tramite vadunt Primúsque dies dedit extremum Non illa Deo vertisse licet Quae nexa suis currunt causis It cuique ratus prece non ullâ Mobilis ordo multis ipsum Timuisse nocet multi ad fatum Venere suum dum fata timent But as I said before whatsoever they conceived of Fate and howsoever they fashioned it their opinion thereof did not expectorate all conscience of sinne in them or urge them to justify or excuse themselves in their courses For it appears both of Oaedipus and Iocasta that they not only condemned themselves but became selfe executioners of punishment upon themselves for their foule crimes the one pulling out his own eyes judging himselfe unworthy to see the light and the other destroying herselfe Though whatsoever they or the Poets that set them forth conceived of Fate in this case of theirs it was only the Oracles of the Devills and his illusions that abused them God giving them over thereunto and that no doubt most justly when in a wicked curiosity they desire to know what shall become of them and their children the Devill gives forth his Oracles as he thinks good afterwards sets his witts on work to accomplish them thereby to gain the greater credit and reputation to himselfe and so much the more forcibly holds them in his snares But to proceed This argument or motive is not yet at an end but like as this doctrine is pretended to take away all conscience of sinne which is as much as to say all desert of sinne on the one side so it may be extended to shew how it takes away all conscience of obedience and all desert thereupon on the other side to wit in good actions And indeed were it true that the doctrine did bereave a man of all free will it were true as Hierome saith that where such necessity is nec damnatio nec Corona est But Austin hath spent an whole Book in proofe of this namely that grace consists with freedome of will unto that which is good and want of grace together with God's efficacious operation even in the worst of things doth consist also with freedome of will unto that which is evill But that in the state of nature man hath no free will to that which is good but is a servant unto sin I know no man that doth or can deny unlesse withall he deny Originall sinne with the Pelagians like as indeed it is written of Grevincovius that great Arminian that Grevincovius negavit peccatum Originale quod testibus convinci potest And indeed this Authors discourse bears strongly this way whatsoever Protestation in shew of words he makes hereafter to the contrary For it is apparent that in this place the face of his discourse stands for freedome of will in all as well unto that which is good as unto that which is evill And albeit there is so little difference between this and his former motive touching the conscience of sinne that it seems to be added only to make way for this sentence of Hierome which yet is nothing to the purpose unlesse he can prove that Gods decrees doe bereave men of liberty of their wills yet very unhappily doth he carry himself herein and in farre different manner from Hierom's expression though he placeth Corona in opposition to damnation one whereof to wit damnation implies the merit of sinne preceding but the other to wit Corona no way implies any meritorious nature of obedience precedanious thereunto But this Author sticks not to apply a meritorious condition to good actions on the one side as well as to evill actions on the other And if good actions were as meritorious and that naturally too of the crown of righteousnesse as evill actions are of damnation And withall he will have no more to decree or work the faith and repentance and obedience of one then he doth the infidelity and impenitency and disobedience of another least this his will operation prove an adamantine chaine of necessity to draw them to faith and repentance and obedience whereas his wisdome thinks it fit they should be left to their own choyce whetherthey will believe and repent yea or no. For he doth very considently presume that every man hath power to believe and repent and doe any good work which is as good as in expresse termes to professe that there is no originall sinne at all Notwithstanding so many expresse testimonies of holy writ to the contrary namely Iohn 12. of some that They could not believe Rom. 2. of others that They could not repent Rom. 8. of all that are in the flesh that They cannot please God 1 Cor. 2. of the natural man that He neither perceives the things of God nor can know them of the Israelites in the Wildernesse that God had not given them an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto that day Deutr. 29. 4. But these passages of holy Scripture seem to have no place in this Authors consideration if so be they have in his Creed This bed is something too short for him
rather a fiction of the remnants of the Pelagians wherewithall to reproach the doctrine of S. Austin in the poynt of Predestination Thus have I examined this Authors pretence of the Novelty of our Tenent I come to the consideration of that which followes DISCOURSE The Second Motive IT S unwillingnesse to abide the Tryall I find that the Authors and Abettors of it have been very backward to bring it to the Standard not only when they have been called upon by their Adversaries to have been weighed but also when they have been intreated thereto by their chief Magistrates who might have commanded them A shrewd argument mee thinks that it is too light In the Disputation at Mompelgard Anno 1586 held between Beza and Jacobus Andreas with some Seconds on both sides Beza and his company having disputed with the Lutherans about the person of Christ the Lords Supper c. When they came to this Point did decline the sifting of it and gave this reason among others that it could not then possibly be disputed of sine gravi eorum offendiculo qui tanti mysterii capaces non sunt without the great scandall and hurt of the ignorant and unacquainted with these high mysteries The Contra-Remonstrants also in their Conference with their Adversaries at the Hague in the year 1611 could not be drawn to dispute with them about this point but delivered a Petition to the States of Holland and Westfrizland that they might not be urged to it resolving rather to break off the Conference then to meddle with it In the Synod likewise of Dort in the year 1618 and 1619. the Remonstrants were warned by the President of the Synod ut de Electione potius quà m de odiosâ Reprobations materiâ agerent that they should rather dispute of the point of Election then the odious point of Reprobation Can this Doctrine be a truth and yet blush at the light which makes all thing manifest especially considering these things 1. That Reprobation is a principall Head of Practicall divinity by the ill or well stating of which the glory of God and good of Religion is much promoted or hindered 2. That there is such a necessary connexion between the points of Election and Reprobation both being parts of predestination that the one cannot well be handled without the other 3. That Reprobation was the chief cause of all the uproares in the Church at that time 4. That it was accused with open mouth and challenged of falshood and therefore bound in justice to purge it selfe of the crimination 5. That it may easily be defended if as some say it be such an apparent truth for Nihil est ad defendendum puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum veritate facilius saith S. Hierom. The striving to lye close and hide it selfe though perhaps it be not so infallible yet it is a very probable argument of a bad cause Truth covets no corners but is willing to abide the tryall whether in men or in doctrines David knowing his heart to be without guile offers himselfe ready to the Lords tryall Search me o God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me And our Saviour tells us that Every one that doth evill hates the light and comes not to the light least his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God As S. Paul saith of an Heretick he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selfe condemned and so may we say of Heresy and untruth it condemnes it selfe and by nothing more then by refusing the Touch-stone He is to be thought an empty Scholler who is loath to be opposed and his gold to be light and counterfeit that will not have it touched and weighed and these Opinions to be but errours which would so willingly walk in a mist and dwell in silence when it concernes the peace of the Church so much to have them examined TWISSE Consideration VVHo are these Authors of this Doctrine who here are said to have been backward to bring it to the standard Is Beza those Authors whereof was he the Author Was it the doctrine of predestination as proceeding of the meer pleasure of God and not upon foresight of mans faith and works Is it not apparent that this was the doctrine of Austin 1200 years agoe and that in opposition to the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians Or was it the doctrine of reprobation as not proceeding upon the foresight of sinne but of the meer pleasure of God Is this Author so ignorant as not to know what are the conclusions of Alvarez in the question Whether there be any cause of reprobation on mans part Lib. 10. de Auxil disc 110. pag. 866. 1. His first Conclusion is this Reprobation whereby God decreed not to give unto some everlasting life and to permit their sinne is not conditionate but absolute neither doth it presuppose in God foresight of the deserts of reprobates or of their perseverance in sinne unto the last period of their life 2. His next Conclusion is In the Angells that fell there is no cause of their reprobation on their part as touching the whole effect thereof but before any foresight of their future sinne God pro sua Voluntate of his meer will did reprobate some of them and suffered them to fall into sinne 3. The third Infants departing in Originall sinne alone there is no cause on their part of reprobation if they be considered in comparison with others which are not reprobated and the like is to be said proportionably of men of ripe years 4. The fourth Not only comparatively but absolutely there is no cause of reprobation Therefore neither sinne actuall nor originall nor both of them foreseen by God was indeed the meritorious and motive cause of the reprobation of any as touching all the effects thereof and the proofe hereof he prosecutes at large 5. Reprobation as touching the last effect thereof presupposeth in signo rationis the foresight of sinne originall or actuall for which a reprobate is damned Marke it well He does not say as the cause for which God decrees his damnation but as the cause for which a reprobate is damned And Aquinas whose followers the Dominicans are expresseth this doctrine in this manner and that more Scholastically and accurately then Alvarez Praescientia peccatorum potest esse aliqua ratio reprobationis ex parte paenae quae praeparatur reprobatis in quantum scilicet Deus proponit se puniturum malos propter peccata c. in Ad Rom. 9. Sect. 2. in fine that is Prescience of sinnes may be some reason of reprobation on the part of punishment to wit in as much as God purposeth to punish wicked men for their sinnes Where sinne is evidently made the cause of damnation and that by vertue of Gods purpose but by no means the cause of the
must needs be because he cannot save them this was Austins argument 1200 years agoe Enchirid. cap. 96. and 97. handling this very place of the Apostle 3. If God did from everlasting will the salvation of all and every one then either at this day he doth continue to will the salvation of all and every one and shall continue for ever to will it or no if he doth continue to will it and ever shall then say that God doth will the salvation of the damned both Men and Divells albeit it is well known he damnes them If he doth not continue to will it then is God of a changeable nature directly contrary to the word of God as well as to manifest reason With him saith Iames is no variablenesse nor shadow of change I the Lord am not changed Mal. 3. 6. As for that which he thrusts in to help make weight saying that there is no let in God but that all men may believe and be saved this is a most improper speech for no man is said in proper speech to be let from doing ought but upon presupposition that he would doe it now we utterly deny that God hindreth any man from believing and repenting whose will is disposed to believe and repent But seeing all men have infidelity and hardnesse of heart naturall unto them as a fruit of that corruption wherein all are borne we deny that God câ—â—es it in all but only in whom he will according to that of Saint Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And our Saviour upon the same ground is bold to tell the Jewes saying Ye therefore heare not my words that is believe them not because ye are not of God 2. The first exposition here mentioned was given by Austin many hundred years agoe Enchirid. cap. 103. and he proves this his interpretation of the word all by the congruity of it to Scripture phrase in other places as where it is said of the Pharises that they tythe every herbe his words are these Iâ—to locutiâ—nis modo Dominus usus est in Evangelio ubi ait Phariseis Decimatis mentham rutam omne olus neque enim Pharisei quaecunque aliena omnium per omnes terras alienigenarum omnium olera decimabant Sicut ergo hic omne olus omne olerum genus it a illic omnes homines omne hominum genus intelligere possumus yet see the ingenuity of this great light of the Church of God for forthwith he gives leave to devise any other convenient interpretation provided that we doe not violate Gods omnipotency by saying that any thing that God would have brought to passe is not brought to passe his words are these Et quocunque alio modo intelligi potest dum tamen credere no cogamur aliquid omnipotentem Deum noluisse fieri factumque non esse qui sine ullis ambagibus si in caelo terra sicut veritas cantat omnia quaecunque voluit fecit profecto facere noluit quaecunque non fecit This interpretation is generally received by our Divines because of the congruity thereof to the Text it selfe for as much as the Apostle having first admonished them in the generall to pray for all forthwith he descends to specialls as Vossius acknowledgeth Generi speciem subjicit now look in what sort the Species is to be understood after the same manner is the Generall to be understood Now the Specialls mentioned are certain sorts or conditions of men as Kings and such as are in authority therefore the generall all must in like manner be understood of all sorts and all conditions of men upon this consideration also it was that Austin did insist in the place before alleadged Praeceperat saith he Apostolus ut or aretur pro singulis hominibus specialiter addiderat pro Regibus iis qui in sublimitate sunt qui putari poterant fastu superbia seculari a fidei Christianae humilitate abhorrere Proinde dicens hoc enim bonum est coram salvatore nostro Deo id est ut etiam pro talibus oretur statim ut desperationem tolleret addit qui omnes homines vult salves fieri in agnitionem veritatis venire Hoc quippe Deus bonum judicavit ut orationibus humilium dignaretur praestare salutem sublimium Now I come to consider what this Author hath to say against this exposition for he gives us very gravely to understand that it gives him little satisfaction we are therefore to expect some better satisfaction from him It is true that all is so used in Scripture not only some times but very frequently let him come to instance in his sense we are ready to instance with him for ours But the Text saith he shewes we are to understand the individualls and not the kindes Where first I doubt his ignorance in understanding the distinction aright is his best ground of opposition When Austin urgeth for his interpretation that of the Pharises tything omne olus every hearb who doubts but they tythe Individuall hearbs In like sort when Peter saw in a vessell let down unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every foure footed beast no question but Individuall beasts were let down unto him not every one of every kind but of every kind or of most kinds or of many kinds some so that the meaning of the distinction is not to exclude all individualls as this Author seems to carry the matter but only to exclude a necessity of understanding all individualls of all sorts It is enough if God will save some of all sorts that is of all conditions some individualls Then seeing he undertakes out of the very Text to give us better satisfaction then either Austin or our Divines have hitherto received it must needs be a shame for him to leave the present Text and fetch grounds elsewhere for the clearing of Pauls meaning here Now let us observe how congruously or incongruously to his own undertakings he carryeth himselfe in this businesse of the duty enjoyned and of the motive annexed there is no question but whereas he shapes the coherence thus and makes Paul in effect to speak after this manner our charity must reach to all to whom God extends his love to God will have all to be saved and therefore we must pray for all Though all this were granted him it makes nothing for him but over and above here are causelesse errours more then enough For first our charity must extend farther then Gods love was not Jacob bound to carry himselfe charitably towards his brother Esau though Gods hatred of Esau we know was as ancient as his love to Iacob 2. We are not bound to extend our charity so far as God extends his love for many thousands there be in the World not to speak of the Elect departed this life towards whom it may be God extends his love which yet are unknown to us are we bound to
pleasing to them At saith he ut innotescat quod latebat suave fiat quod non delectabat Dei gratia est quae humanas adjuvat voluntates We doe not smother this truth of God that we may delude men we rather represent how all flesh are obnoxious and endangered unto God that all are borne in sinne and therewithall children of wrath and such as deserve to be made the generation of Gods curse and that it is at his pleasure to shew mercy on any only the word of God hath power to raise us from the dead his voyce pierceth the graves and makes dead Lazarus heare it and it is his course to call some at the first some at the last hower of the day Thus we desire to bring them acquainted first with the spirit of bondage to make them feare that so they may be prepared for the spirit of Adoption whereby they shall cry Abba father neither doe we despaire of any that are humbled with feare we count rather their case most desperate who are nothing moved hereby or that perswade themselves they have power to believe when they will and repent when they will we account no greater illusions of Satan then these yet these abominable opinions may be fostered by some and masked with a pretence of great piety forsooth and a shew of holinesse and a zeale of defending Gods glory and salving the honour of his mercy justice and truth 3. The third is in their obligation to believe and the aggravation of their punishment by not believing The Divells because they must be damned are not commanded to believe in Christ yet poore men must be tied to believe in Christ and their torments must be encreased if they believe not I make no doubt but this Author is as confident of his learned and judicious carriage in shaping this comparison as that the fruit of Adams sinne is the guilt of eternall death in all mankind But none so bold we commonly say as blind Bayard and it seems either he knowes not or considers not that the first sinne of Angells was unto them as death unto man that sinne placed them extra viam and in termino incur abilis miseriae as death only placeth wicked men in the like case Now we doe not say that God commands man after he is dead to believe in Christ any more then he commands obedience unto Angells since their case is become desperate The Divells are not commanded to believe or repent because God doth not nor never did purpose to damne any of them for want of faith or of repentance but for their first Apostacy from God But it is otherwise with man for God doth not purpose to damne any of them but for sinne unrepented of And therefore as good reason there is why their damnation should be encreased for want of repentance and acknowledging of Gods truth as why the Devills should be damned for their first Apostacy If perhaps as it is likely enough this Author to hold up his comparison shall fly to God decree of reprobation upon supposition whereof it was impossible that men should either believe or repent I answere first that in like sort upon supposition of Gods foreknowledge that they would neither believe nor repent it followeth as necessarily as it is necessary that Gods knowledge should be infallible that it was impossible they should believe and repent and the like followeth as necessarily of the Apostacy of Angells as of the infidelity and impenitency of man And as men are pretended to harden themselves in vitious courses upon supposition of the unalterable nature of Gods decree So Austin gives instance in like manner of one that hardened himselfe upon pretence of Gods infallible knowledge De bono persever cap. 15. Fuit quidem in nostro Monasterio qui corripientibus fratribus our quaedam nonfacienda faceret facienda non faceret respondebat qualiâ—cunque nunc sim talis ero qualem me Deus esse futurum praescivit Qui profecto verum dicâ—hat hoc vero non proficiebat in â—onum sed vsque adeo profecit in malum ut deserta Monasterii societâ—te fieret canis reversus ad â—uum vonutum tamen adbuc qualis sit futurus incertum est Secondly I answer that the like may be said of Angells upon presupposition of Gods decree to deny the grace of standing unto them which Austin professeth expressely namely that either in their creation minorem acceperunt amoris divini grattam or that afterwards the reason why the one sort stood when the other fell was this to wit because they were amplius adjuti then their fellowes and consequently the other minus adjuti And as God gave grace to the elect Angells which he denyed to others So it cannot be denied but that from everlasting he decreed both to bestow it upon the one and deny it unto the other Now howsoever I know the Arminian party cannot swallow this morsell yet by this it appears how supersiciary is that augmentation of the difference between Men and Angells wherewith this Author contents himselfe yet notwithstanding it is not want of faith alone that condemneth any man by want of Faith man is lest to the covenant of works to stand or fall according to his own righteousnesse or unrighteousnesse whereof if he faile and withall despiseth the counsell or God offered him in his Gospell is there noe good reason his condemnation should be the greater For certainly it is in the power of a naturall man to afford as much faith to this as to many a vile and fabulous relation which is farre lesse credible by judgement naturall we see both prophane persons and hypocrites so farre to believe the Gospell as to embrace a formall profession thereof and sometimes proceed so farre therein as that 't is a hard matter to distinguish them from sincere professors yet we say a true faith is only such as is infused into the heart of man by the spirit of God in regeneration Now what one of our Divines can be represented that ever was known to affirme that the damnation of any man shall be encreased because God did not regenerate him and in regeneration inspire a Divine faith into him As for our answer in generall to this argument considered in briefe and this Authors reply my refutation thereof I dispatcht in the first place Although he carrieth himselfe not fairely in relating the answer on our part in as much as therein he mixeth the consideration of justice divine which is aliene from the present purpose with the consideration of mercy divine which alone is congruous that so while he puts off the plenary justification of his reply to that which is aliene he may seem to undertake a full justification of his reply to the whole But I hope we shall be as able by Gods assistance to manifest his sinister carriage in the interpretation of Gods justice as we have done already as touching his accommodation of
the Gospell according to that Mar. 1. Repent ye and believe the Gospell Now to believe the Gospell is one thing the summe whereof is this That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners but to believe in Christ is another thing which yet this Author distinguisheth not though it appears by the course of his argumentation that he draws to this meaning and that in a particular sense which is this to believe that Christ died for them as appears expressely in the latter end of this Section And no marvaile if this Author carry himselfe so confidently in this being as he is armed with such confidence But I am glad that in one place or other he springs his meaning that we may have the fairer flight at him to pull down his pride and sweep away his vain considence though we deale upon the most plausible argument of the Arminians and which they think insoluble My answer is first Look in what sense Arminius saith Christ died for us in the same sense we may be held to say without prejudice to our Tenet of absolute reprobation that all who heare the Gospell are bound to believe that Christ died for them For the meaning that Arminius makes of Christs dying for us is this Christ dyed for this end that satisfaction being made for sinne the Lord now may pardon sinne upon what condition he will which indeed is to dye for obtaining a possibility of the redemption of all but for the actuall redemption of none at all Secondly But I list not to content my selfe with this therefore I farther answer by distinction of the phrase of dying for us that we may not cheat our selves by the confounding of things that differ To dye for us or for all is to dye for our benefit or for the benefit of all Now these benefits are of a different nature whereof some are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sinne and Salvation of the Soule and these God doth conferre only upon the condition of faith and repentance Now I am ready to professe and that I suppose as out of the mouth of all our Divines that every one who hears the Gospell without distinction between Elect and Reprobate is bound to believe that Christ died for him so farre as to procure both the pardon of his sinnes and the salvation of his soule in case he believe and repent But there are other benefits which Christ by his obedience hath merited for us namely the benefit of faith and repentance For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell Col. 1. And He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in Christ that is for Christs sake and God works in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and therefore seeing nothing is more pleasing in Gods sight on our part then faith and repentance even these also I should think God works in us through Jesus Christ and the Apostle praies in the behalfe of the Ephesians for peace and faith and love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that is as I interpret it from God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as an efficient cause and from the Lord Jesus Christ God and Man as a meritorious cause thereof Now I demand whether this Author can say truly that t is the constant opinion of our Divines that all who heare the Gospell whether Elect or Reprobate are bound to believe that Christ dyed to procure them faith and repentance Nay doth any Arminian at this day believe this or can he name any Arminian that doth avouch this Nay doth himselfe believe this If he doth not if he cannot shew any Arminian that doth with what face can he charge this opinion upon us as if we should extend the obligation to believe much farther then the Arminians doe whereas usually they criminate us for not extending it so farre as we should And indeed there is a main difference between these benefits and the former For as touching the former namely pardon of sinne and salvation God doth not use to conferre them but conditionally to wit upon the condition of faith and repentance But as for faith and repentance doth God conferre them conditionally also If so then let them make known to us what that condition is on mans part and whatsoever it be let them look unto it how they can avoid the making of grace to wit the grace of faith and repentance to be given according unto works But if these graces are conferred absolutely and Christ dyed for all to this end that faith and repentance should be conferred absolutely upon all then it followeth manifestly herehence that all must believe and repent and consequently all must be saved So that not only Election as Huberus that renegate faigned must be universall but Salvation also Thus have I given in my answer distinctly to that which he delivered most confusedly Fourthly I come to the scanning of the particular opinion of Zanchy namely that every one that hears the Gospell whether elect or reprobate for so I suppose it proceeds to wit only of them who heare the Gospell though this Author takes no consideration of that neither but hand-over-head laies about him like a mad man is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ and will trye whether I cannot reduce that opinion of his also to a faire interpretation And here first I observe Zanchy is not charged to maintain that every hearer of the Gospell is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ unto faith and repentance but only to salvation that puts me in good heart that Zanchy I shall shake hands of fellowship in the end and part good friends Secondly I distinguish between absolute-Election unto Salvation and election unto Salvation-absolute The first only removes all cause on mans part of election the latter removes all cause on mans part of salvation By cause of salvation I mean only a disposing cause such as faith repentance and good works are as whereby to expresse it in the Apostles phrase we are made meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light Now albeit Zanchy maintains as we doe that all the elect are absolutely elected unto salvation there being no cause on mans part of his election as we have learned yet neither Zanchy nor we doe maintain that God doth elect any unto salvation absolute that is to bring him to salvation without any disposing of him thereunto by faith and repentance Now to accommodate that opinion of Zanchy I say it may have a good sense to say that every hearer is bound to believe both that Christ dyed to procure Salvation for him in case he doe believe and that God ordained that he should be saved in case he doe believe where beliefe is made the condition only of salvation not of the Divine ordination and the confusion of these by the Arminians doth usually
because their deeds are evill Is there any reason why their condemnation should be any whit the easier for this Neither have I ever read or heard it taught by any that men shall be damned for not believing fide infusâ which is as much as to say because God hath not regenerated them but either because they have refused to believe or else if they have embraced the Gospell for not living answerable thereunto which also is in their power quoad exteriorem vitae emendationem though it be not in their power to regenerate their wills and change their hearts any more then it is to illuminate their minds yet I never read that any mans damnation was any whit the more encreased for not performing these acts Thus farre I have been content to expatiate in the way of reasonable discourse to meet with this Disputer in his own element though every sober Christian I should think should rest satisfied with the word of God which both teacheth us that the naturall man perceiveth not the things of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that all men are found dead in trespasses and sinnes before the spirit of regeneration comes that men cannot believe that they cannot repent that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and that a man hardned cannot obey and yet withall that God doth command faith repentance and obedience and complaines of default in performance And if any man charge such courses as unjust what is the Apostles course in meeting with such imputations but either to shew that the word attributes such a course to God and therefore it cannot be unjust as Rom. 9. 14. What shall we say then is there unrighteousnesse with God God forbid for he saith to Moses I will have compassion on him on whom I will have compassion and I will shew mercy on him to whom I will shew mecy or to fly to the consideration of the Lords dominion over all as Creator over his creatures I come to his second reason 2. And that is because it is impossible that they should believe they want power to believe and must want it still God hath decreed they shall have none to their dying day I answer This argument is the very same with the former not so much as differently drâ—st or crambe bis cocta and therefore my former answer will serve in every particular Yet adde this also this impossibility is only upon supposition of Gods Decree which nothing hinders the liberty of the creature in doing freely what he doth and freely leaving undone what he doth not as appears manifestly by divers instances For upon supposition of Gods decree that not a bone of Christ should be broken it was impossible they should be broken yet who doubts but that the Souldiers did as freely abstaine from the breaking of Christs bones as they did freely break the others bones And the Text notes the reason why they brake not Christs bones to wit because they saw he was dead already In like sort upon supposition of Gods decree that Josiah by name should burne the Prophets bones upon the Altar Cyrus by name should build him a Citty and let goe his captives it was impossible that it should be otherwise yet I think no wise man doubts but that Josiah did the one and Cyrus the other as freely as they did any thing in their lives And therefore this Author doth miserably overlash in the element of his Philosophy and rationall discourse in saying a man in justice can be tyed to believe no more then a man can be bound to fly like a Bird or to reach heaven with the top of his finger He might as well say that because God had determined that the Souldiers should not breake Christs bones therefore they had no more power to breake Christs bones then they had power to fly like a Bird or to reach Heaven with the top of their finger Certainly there is no man but by grace may be enabled to believe but never was any man known to affirme that by grace a man may be enabled to fly like a Bird or to reach Heaven with the top of his finger If this be not miserably to over-reach I know not what is As for his rule Nemo obligatur ad impossibile judge I pray of the truth of it by this What if a man by a vitious conversation hath made it as impossible for him to doe good as it is impossible for a Blackemore to change his skinne or a Leopard his spots Shall he therefore be obliged no longer to doe good And as by our own sinnes committed by our persons so by the sinne of Adam which was the sinne of our nature upon the whole nature of man was this impotency brought as the Scriptures teach and none that I know were known in the dayes of Austin to deny but the Plagians I come to the Third 3. Now this depends upon a notorious confusion of things that differ For I have shewed how the Lord hath given them a sufficient object of that faith which he requires of them as touching Christs dyeing for them namily to believe that Christ hath merited the pardon of sinne and salvation for as many as believe in him in such sort that if all and every one throughout the World should believe in him they should be saved by him And this depends meerely upon the sufficiency of Christs merits and undoubtedly it was the will of God that Christs merits should be of such a value as was sufficient for the salvation of all and every one otherwise it were not true that if all and every one should believe in Christ they should be saved by the vertue of Christ merits But as for any obligation to believe that Christ died to procure faith and repentance for all and every one I never yet heard or read of any Arminian that he believed it Nay in their Apologia Remonstrantium or Censura Censurae they plainly professe that Christ died not at all to merit faith and regeneration for any In like sort it is not credible to me that any Arminian believes that Christ dyed for any so as to procure pardon of sinne and salvation absolutely for him whether he believe or no provided that he live to be capable of faith and repentance and to enjoy the Gospell and the Preaching of Christ crucified And like as it is no lye but truth that Christ dyed to procure salvation to as many as believe in him so in being obliged to believe this or punished for not believing it is neither to be obliged to the believing of a lye nor punished for not believing it Therefore it is false to say there is no such matter For look in what sense they are bound to believe that Christ died for them in the same sense it is most true that Christ died for them they are bound to believe that Christ dyed to procure salvation for every one
is ingaged to give ability of believing unto men he may as well inferre that he is engaged to give ability unto men to the keeping of his law and what need was there of Christs coming into the world Seeing by his coming into the world we have gained no better condition by the Arminian Tenet than to be saved if we will and if men have ability to to keepe the law even by the law they may be saved if they will and it will follow as well that God without giving this ability to keepe the law cannot justly punish the transgressours of it as that God without giving men ability to believe cannot punish men for not believing no more than a Magistrate having put out a mans eyes for an offence can command this man with justice to read a booke and because he reads not put him to death But this is a very vile simile and stands in no tolerable proportion to that whereunto it is resembled For the man thus bereaved of his eyes hath a will to read and consequently it is no fault for not reading for all sinne is in the will But it is not so in not obeying either Law or Gospell If a man had a will to obey and believe but he could not in such a case it were unreasonable he should be punished But in the case of disobedience unto God we speake of all the fault is in the will voluntarily and wilfully they neither will obey the one nor the other like as they that have accustomed themselves to doe evill can not doe good as a blackemoore cannot change his skinne Yet with this difference that man is never a whit the more excusable or lesse punishable for not doing that which is good not so the blackemore for not changing his skinne But such is the shamefull issue of them that confound impotency Morall with impotency naturall as if there were no difference As wild is the comparison following of the Masters exacting from his Servant a just employment of that stock which he hath taken from him An evill servant may have a will to play the good husband in imploying his Masters stock where he pleased to intrust him with it But though he hath a will to be faithful and thrifty yet without matter to worke upon he cannot exercise this fidelity of his to his Masters behoofe Shew the like will in a carnall man to believe if he could and if God bereave him of power in such a case then conclude the unreasonablenesse of Gods courses herein But if the Master gave him a stock to employ upon a resonable rent to be payd him yearly for certaine yeares if so be the servant wast the stock Shall it not be lawfull for the Master neverthelesse to require his debt And bid him pay that he owes him This is the case we speake of In Adam we all have sinned saith the Apostle and thereby have wasted that stock of grace which God had given us and so disabled our selves to performe that duty we owe to God What therefore Shall not God call upon us to pay our debts because we are become bankrupts Especially considering the naturall man is proud enough of his abilities to performe any thing that is good And as for ability to believe is there not a kind of faith performed by prophane persons by Hypocrites who concurre with the best in the profession of the Gospell Nay Is there not a secret kind of hypocrisie as when a man thinks his heart is upright towards God when indeed it is not Otherwise what should move Saint Paul to call upon the Corinthians to examine themselves whether they were in the faith saying Know you not your selves how that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Car. 13. 5. It is true there is a faith infused by the spirit of God in regeneration but who ever said that any man was damned because he doth not believe with such a faith As much as to say that non-regeneration is the meritorious cause of damnation Now how well he hath proved that our Doctrine in the poynt of absolute reprobation is repugnant to Gods justice let the indifferent judge DISCOURSE SECT IV. Which I divide into Three Subsections SUBSECT I. THe Third Attribute which it oppugneth is the truth of God God is a God of truth Deut. 32. 4. Truth it selfe Ioh. 14. 6. So called because he is the fountain of truth and the perfection of truth without the least mixture of false-hood the strength of Israell cannot lye 1 Sam. 15. 29. Never could any man justly charge him with dissembling Let God be true and every man a lyar saith the Apostle that he might be justified in his sayings and overcome when he is judged Rom. 3. 4. That is men may lye for all men are lyars but God cannot lye for God is true if any man should goe about to challenge him of untruth his challenge would easily appeare to be a calumny The truth of God like a glorious Sunne will break through all those clouds of accusations which seek to obscure and hide it Simile gaudet Simili God loves such as are of a true heart Psal 51 6. And hath an hypocrite in utter detestation and therefore he must needs be true himselfe No man for ought I know doubts of it But by this decree is God made untrue and hypocriticall in his dealing with all men and in all matters that concerne their eternall estate particularly in his commands in his offers of grace and glory in his threats in his passionate wishes and desires of mens chiefest good and in his expostulations and commiserations also 1. In his commands for by this doctrine God commands those men to repent and believe whom he secretly purposeth shall never believe Now whom God commands to believe and repent those he outwardly willes should believe and repent For by his commandements he signifies his will and pleasure and he must inwardly and heartily will it too or else he dissembles For words if they be true are an interpretation of the mind when they are not are meere impostures and simulations 2. In his offers of grace and glory these offers he makes to such as refuse them and perish for refusing them as well as unto those who doe accept them to their salvation This is evident Math. 22. where those were invited to the wedding that came not And Acts 3. 26. Where t is said To you hath God sent his Sonne Jesus to blesse you in turning every one of you from your iniquities Math. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered of you saith Christ speaking of such as neglect the day of their visitation and so lost their salvation This is evident also by reason for as many as are under the commandement are under the promise too as we may see Acts 2. 38 39. Repent and be Baptized every one of you and you shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost for to you and to your Children
and meanes another and therefore dissembles This is so evident that some maintainers of absolute reprobation doe not deny it but ascribe unto God Sanctam Simulationem duplicem personam duplicem voluntatem a Holy counterfeiting a double face a double will by which they offer extreame injury unto God for tolerabilius est saith Tertullian duos divisos quam unum versipellem Deum praedicare It is more tolerable to set up two Gods then a double and deceitfull God If this be granted Iesuits have no cause to be ashamed of their equivocations nor Polititians of their Holy water and crafty dissimulations men need not be afraid to cogge and lye and deale deceitfully one with another but are â—ather to be commended for their courtship and complements and false-heartednesse because in this they doe but imitate God to whom whosoever they be that come nearest they are the best But howsoever some doe inconsideratly ascribe such things to God the most I know would tremble to entertaine such thoughts and therefore the more horrible it is to lay such things to the charge of the Almighty the farther I take this opinion to be from all truth and honesty TWISSE Consideration GOD he saith by our Doctrine is made full of guile in his passionate wishes that even these men might repent that repent not The guile I guesse consists in this that God hereby makes shew that he would have them to repent when yet indeed he hath no such will To this I answer that by the same reason he might conclude that God carrieth himselfe with guile in taking unto himselfe eyes and eares and hands and heart for hereby he makes shew that he hath the members of a man But to this we answer that this shew is only unto them that understand that properly which is to be taken figuratively so that it is not the word of God so much as the weaknesse of men in understanding it that casts this colour For these things indeed are spoken only per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a metaphoricall kind of speech And if God takes liberty to conforme himselfe to the members of our body may not he take as great liberty to conforme himselfe to the passions of our minds and to assume unto him the passions of feare wrath and jealousy joy sorrow and such like Isai 63. 8. For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour yet what followeth in the next verse save one But they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit According to the course of this Divines superficiall consideration a man might conceive that God is subject to errour and improvidence as well as man for God said surely they will not lye but it appeared by the event that they did lye So that hereupon we are driven to conclude that the former passage is delivered per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in conformity to a mans judgement who promiseth unto himselfe better obedience from his child for the time to come then afterwards he finds In like sort God in his passionate wishes conformes himselfe to the condition of man who useth this sometimes as a means to worke impression upon his child to be more carefull to order his conversation towards his parents And this being apt to work upon a child though but naturally ingenuous why may not God use this course nay if he should not use this course he could not be said to doe all for his vineyard that could be done in the way of outward husbandry So that passionate wishes are but a passionate kind of exhortation God through us doth beseech you saith Paul we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20. Yet neverthelesse the same Apostle professeth that the Gospell was a savour of death unto death to some 2 Cor. 2. 15. Now the Gospell includes all these and such like patheticall admonitions And hereby God doth effectually signify how much he delights in the obedience of the creature and in the glorifying of his mercy in their salvation But yet this mercy of God in giving the grace of obedience is not shewed indifferently towards all but only to some even whom the Lord will Rom. 9. 18. And this consideration drives us to interpret such passionate wishes not properly but figuratively For whereas the Lord saith Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were such an heart in them to feare me Who can deny but that God could give them such an heart if it pleased him And the same Moses professeth of these very people of Israell that God had not given them such an heart for the space of 40 years Deut. 29. 4. you have seen the great temptations and signes But the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day and Jerem. 32. 40. He makes promise of giving it to some I will put my feare in their heart that they shall never depart away from me In like sort whereas the Lord saith Isai 48. 18. Oh that thou hadst hearkened unto my commandements Psal 81. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my waies who doubts but that it was in the power of God to work them hereunto by boaring their eares and circumcising them by regenerating them and so making them to be borne of God that so being of God they might heare his words Iohn 8. 47. As also to put his own spirit within them and cause them to walke in his statutes and keep his judgements and doe them Ezek. 36. 27. 2. In his expostulations in that Isai 5. 3. What could I have done more for my vineyard What doth this signify more than that more could not be done But how In the way of outward Husbandry conforming himselfe to an husbandman that hath planted a vineyard For can it be denied but that God could have made them fruitfull had it pleased him and though Paul plants and Apollo watereth yet Is it not Gods peculiar office to give the encrease Is it not he that worketh in us every good thing that is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb. 13. 21. Is not he both the Author and finisher of our faith Was it not he that gave repentance unto Israell Acts 5. 31. And to the Gentiles Acts 11. 18. And must we not waite with our hearers if so be God may give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. And as for that of Jerem. 2. 32. Can a Maid forget her Ornament or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten mee And have I been a Wildernesse unto Israell or a land of darknesse Is not this exprobration of their unthankfulnesse just and without guile unlesse God doe actually change all their hearts Yet this might be a means and also was and is and ever shall continue to be a means to bring Gods people to repentance And undoubtedly the worst of them had power
to have abstained from many of those foule sinnes yea from all of them wherewith God doth upbraid them albeit to abstaine from any sinne in a gracious manner be a worke of Gods speciall grace which he affords not according to mens workes which way tends all this eager but superficiary discourse but according to his own purpose and grace 3. Hosea 11. 8. God represents as it were a conflict within him between his mercy and justice and his mercy hath the glory of the day But wherein To spare them though their sinnes deserved at his hands that he should make them as Adma and Zeboim as Sodome and Gomorrah He would rather shew himselfe to be as he is God and and not Man And wherein But in this man may pardon his enemy but cannot change his heart it is otherwise with God he can both pardon our sinnes and change our hearts and to this purpose he becomes our Lord and our God and walkes in the midst of us as the holy one of Israell to sanctify us as it followeth in the same place of Hosea v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roare like a Lyon viz. In such expostulations comminations c. but the issue shall be gracious for when he shall reare then the children of the West shall feare that is feare unto him as Hos 3. 5. That is come flying unto him and to his goodnesse with feare like Birds scared from one place fly with greater speed to another so conscience affrighted with sense of sinne and apprehension of Gods wrath shall fly from his wrath unto his mercy to his goodnesse whereof God shall make unto them a full representation in David their King that is in Christ as in whom we behold the glory of Gods grace with open face and trepidare in Latine is found to be of the same signification with festinare And v. 11. Is manifested as much as where it is said They shall feare as a sparrow out of Egypt and as a Dove out of the land of Egypt and I will place them in their houses saith the Lord. That is come flying unto the Lord with feare As for that Math. 23. 37. O Jerusalem how oft would I c. This is of another nature as being delivered by Christ the sonne of God made under the Law who as in his manhood he might entertaine such desires in proper speech so by the Law of God was bound to desire the conversion of his brethren as well as any other Prophet or man of God or minister of his word But such confusion becomes this discourse right well In all this he saith there is little sincerity if there be a secret resolution that the most of these towards whom those wishes chidings and commiserations are used shall be unavoydably damned But what if but one of them towards whom these are used by a secret resolution shall be unavoydably damned is there sincerity enough in these courses divine Sureif this resolution concerning the unavoydable damnation of the one doth not prejudice Gods sincerity neither shall such a resolution concerning the damnation of two or of two hundred or thousands or the most any way prejudice sincerity divine But this kind of discourse is spread all over this Treatise like a scab only to worke upon vulgar affection where judgement is wanting to observe the frothy condition of it And whereas he saith that in all this God aliud animo vult aliud verbis significat its most untrue as to every one should be made manifest according to the right understanding of it had he been pleased to accommodate it severally and shew what that is which God signifies by his word and what that is which he willeth in his heart And indeed as in the poynt of Gods commandement I have shewed there is no colour of contradiction between it and Gods purpose but only according to this Authors superficiary interpretation For to command a thing is only to will that it shall be our duty to doe it notwithstanding which it is apparent God may purpose not to give grace to worke the doing of it So in every one of the rest had he instanced as it became him and shewed wherein the guile consisted the absurdity of this crimination might have been made as manifest as in this That which he conceales and which he would have his readers rather take to themselves than shew himselfe clearely to stand to the maintainance thereof seems to be this that every one hath power given him to believe to repent to change his heart yea to regenerate himselfe but it sticks in his teeth and he dares not speake it out plainly Only he keepes himselfe to Gods resolution concerning mans unavoydable damnation yet we maintaine not that any contingent things come to passe unavoydably that were utterly against the nature of a contingent thing which is to come to passe so as joyned with a possibility of not coming to passe And as for damnation in particular we acknowledge it throughout to be avoydable by repentance and not otherwise unto men of ripe years And as for repentance we say that there is no man but may repent as long as he lives through grace so that in the issue the maine poynt to be debated herein is whether every man living hath such a grace given him as whereby he may repent But upon this poynt though his whole discourse be grounded thereupon yet is he content to say just nothing least their shamefull and most unconscionable courses in dishonouring the grace of God should be discovered and brought to light But consider in a word or two as touching this universall grace which they make to consist in the inabling of the will to will any goodthing whereunto they shall be excited If such a grace be universall then every one hath power to believe and power to repent But this is untrue for the Apostle telleth us of some that they cannot repent Rom. 2. 4. of the naturall man that he cannot discerne the things of God and that they are foolishnesse unto him and while they seeme foolishnesse unto him is it possible that therein he should discerne the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. our Saviour tells us of some that they cannot believe Ioh. 12. 46. and tells others to their face saying How can you believe when ye receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God only Ioh. 5. 44. Likewise of them that are in the flesh Saint Paul saith They cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. 2. It is the habit of faith that inables us to believe so that if all men have power to believe it must be confessed that all men have faith but the Apostle saith Fides non est omnium 2 Thes 3. 2. Tit. 1. 1. he saith it is electorum like as Austin professeth Habere fidem sicut habere charitatem gratiae est fidelium de praedest Sanct. cap. 5. 3. Whosoever hath power to
they made profession of their faith and as for Infants they were also anciently said to be Baptized in fide Parentum Gods patience Rom. 2. 4. And the goodnesse of God manifested therein leadeth a Man to repentance so doe his judgements also Hos 5. In their affliction they will seeke me early and so doth Gods word and all this only in the way of a moving cause and exciting to repentance every morning God brings his judgements to light he faileth not yet will not the wicked be ashamed Zeph 3. 5. But it is the duty of all to be moved by his word by his works by his mercyes by his judgments to turne to the Lord by true repentance But God alone is he that workes them hereunto without whose efficacious grace none of all these courses will prevaile as Isai 57. 17. For his wicked covetousnesse I was angry with him and have smiten him I hid me and was angry They wanted neither admonition from his word nor from his corrections yet they profited by neither as it followeth yet he went away and turned after the way of his own heart yet what is Gods resosolution but to overcome their stubbornesse by the power of his grace as there we read I have seen his waies and will heale them now who are these whom he leads so as to bring them to repentance let Austin answer Contra Julian Pelag. l. 5. c. 4. Bonitas Dei te ad poenitentiam adducit verum esse constat sed quem praedestinavit adducit and he adds a reason Quamtamlibet enim praebuerit poenitentiam nisi Deus dederit quis agit poenitentiam And in the same Chapter professeth touching the Non-praedestinate that God never brings them to wholsome and spirituall repentance whereby a man is reconciled to God in Christ whether God affords them greater patience than he affords his elect or nothing lesse His words are these Istorum neminem adducit ad poenitentiam salubrem spiritualem qua homo in Christo reconciliatur Deo sive illis ampliorem patientiam sive non imparem praebeat God intends by this his patience that it is the duty of all to repent that is that they should repent ex officio but did he intend they should de facto repent what then could hinder it Then he would afford them efficacious grace to heale them as he promiseth Isai 57. 18. Then would he rule them with a mighty hand and make them passe under the rodde and bring them unto the bond of the covenant So then to the poynt in particular here observed 1. God leads all to repentance by his goodnesse manifested in his forbearance and long suffering by way of admonition that it is their duty to turne unto God by repentance while he gives them time and space for repentance 2. But as for those whom he hath elected he not only thus leads but also effectually brings them to repentance in the time he hath appoynted before which time they are found sometimes to despise the riches of his goodnesse and to have hard and impenitent hearts as much as any Reprobate who more foule in the committing of horrible abominations than Manasses Who more furious in persecuting the Church of God then Saul Yet God took away the stony heart and what is harder then stone out of their bowells and so he doth to all whom he regenerates 3. As touching a finall contempt of Gods patience that is peculiar unto Reprobates as for the elect though some are called at the first houre of the day some not till the last yet all are effectually called before they drop out of the World To say that God intends the everlasting good of Reprobates is to deny the first Article of our Creed even Gods omni potency as Austin hath disputed 1200 years agoe we find in our selves that whatsoever we will doe if we doe not it it is either because we cannot doe it or because our will is changed but to ascribe either mutability or impotency to God is intollerable in a Christian and it cannot be denied but God did from everlasting intend their everlasting damnation so that to say he did intend their everlasting good is flat contradiction neither is there any way to charme it but by saying God intends their everlasting good conditionally but to intend it after such a manner is apparently no more to intend their salvation than their damnation nay lesse rather considering the conditions of salvation are utterly impossible unto man unlesse God correct and cure his corrupt nature but this grace he dispenseth according to the meere pleasure of his will as the Apostle signifyeth in saying he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth As for that 2 Pet. 3. 9. He is patient towards us not willing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any of us to perish it hath been already considered but here he interpreteth towards us as if it had been said towards us men and I hope the elect are men as well as others but what ground hath he for this liberty of interpretation Why may he not take the liberty in interpreting of Iohn as well as Peter both were pillars Gal. 2. where he saith They went out from us but they were not of us for had they been of us they had continued with us and still swalloweth a palpable absurdity following hereupon even to the denying of Gods omnipotency in as flat contradiction to the Apostle where he professeth that God hath mercy on whom he will which is not to have mercy on all but on some only hardening others as Rom. 11. The election hath obtained it but the rest are hardned DISCOURSE SECT V. IN the last place those other gifts of God whereby mens understandings are enlightened and their soules beautifyed which are knowledge repentance fortitude liberality temperance humility charity and such like are bestowed upon all them that have them among whom are many that may prove Reprobates in the end that by the exercise of them and continuance in them they might be Saved The Reprobates are adorned with many of those graces as apears plainly by many Scriptures especially Hebr. 6. 4. Where the Apostle sayes that it is impossible for those that have been enlightned tasted the heavenly gift been made partakers of the Holy Ghost tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they fall away should be renewed by repentance and the graces which the Apostle speakes of here are not ordinary and common but speciall graces illumination faith relish of the sweetnesse of Gods Word and the tast of Heaven The persons spoken of are Apostates such as are under the possibility of falling away for upon a dainger not possible cannot be built a solid exhortation and if Apostates then Reprobates and the thing intimated is that upon Apostates and Reprobates are these gifts bestowed The Like speech we have Hebr. 10. 26. For if we sinne willingly after we have received the
knowledge of the truth there remaines no more sacrifice for sinne c. from whence we collect that men that sinne willingly and unpardonably may receive the knowledge of the truth yea and be sanctifyed by the bloud of the Testament and the Spirit of grace v. 29. 2 Pet. 2. 20. They may escape the filthinesse of the world i. e. be washed from their former sins by repentance the uncleane spirit may goe out of them Mat. 12. 43. They may receive the word with joy Mat. 13. 20. And many excellent graces they may have besides All which graces are not given them that they might abuse them and so purchase to themselves the greater damnation or that they might doe good to others with them but none to themselves but rather that as by the former gifts of nature so by these of grace they may obtaine Salvation If God aime at this in those gifts that are farther off much more in these which make those that have them like the yong man in the Gospel not farre from the kingdome of Heaven Thus we see what end God aimes at in his gifts to men TWISSE Consideration THese gifts this Author formerly described to be gifts of grace applying salvation unto men which he distinguisheth from gifts of grace purchasing salvation in the entrance upon this reason of his Now it is apparent that most of these gifts have been found in the heathen men and who was ever heard to call these vertues found in the heathen gifts of grace applying the salvation purchased by Christ whereof they were wholy ignorant like as of Christ himselfe And whereas he makes faith and repentance to be gifts communicated unto such who as he expresseth it doe prove Reprobates in the end Saint Austin to the contrary as formerly I have alleadged him out of his 5. lib. contra Julian Pelag. c. 5. Expressely professeth of the Non praedestinate that God brings not one of them to wholsome and Spirituall repentance whereby a man is reconciled to God in Christ And our Brittaine Divines in the Synod of Dort upon the 5 th Article and fourth position professe in like manner of all such as are none of Gods elect that it is manifest they never really and truly attaine that change and renovation of the mind and affections which accompanieth justification nay nor that which doth immediatly prepare or dispose to justification For they never seriously repent they are never affected with hearty sorrow for offending God by sinning nor doe they come to any humble contrition of heart nor conceive a firme resolution to offend any more And whereas he saith that such doe prove Reprobates in the end he may as well say of others that they prove elect in the end which doth wholly savour of shapeing the decrees of God to be of a temporall condition and not eternall unlesse he delivers it of the manifestation of it in the judgement of men which yet as touching Reprobates cannot appeare untill their death and 't is a very hard matter for any man to passe upon men generally the censure of elect or reprobates the hypocrisy of man hath such power to evacuate the one and the secret operation of Gods mercy and grace the other How farre reprobates may attain to the illunination of their mind and renovation of their wills and reformation of their lives is set downe more fully by our Brittain Divines in the Synod of Dort than by this Author not one particular if I mistake not being mentioned here as touching the places of Scripture containing the indication thereof which is not set downe there and some there are set downe which are not set downe here In their first position concerning those who are not elect upon the fifth Article this Authors quotation here leaving out the Article and by a wild reference to the page being fitter to confound a Reader than direct him the first position there is this There is a certain supernaturall enlightning granted to some of them who are not elect by the power whereof they understand those things to be true which are revealed in the word of God and yeeld an unfained ascent unto them And in the explication of it Luke 8. 13. The seed which fell upon the stony ground noteth unto us such hearers as for a while believe that is those that for a while give ascent to things revealed from above and especially to the covenant of the Gospell and thereby it is plaine that this their ascent is no way faigned because they received the word with joy Acts 8. 30. And afterwards they give a farther reason of it thus For it is not to be imputed for a fault to any man that he is fallen from an Hypocriticall faith neither can a shipwrack be made of a faigned faith but only a detection and manifestation of it nor indeed can he suffer shipwrack who was never in the shippe 2 Pet. 2. 20. Some are said to have escaped from the filthinesse of the world by the knowledge of the Lord whose latter end is worse than their beginning and of those Ioh. 12. 42. who believed in Christ but did not confesse him they write that they believed with an unfaigned dogmaticall faith which then lay secretly hid in their hearts but never shewed it selfe in any outward profession for feare of danger ensuing Thir second position is this In these fore-mentioned there doth arise out of this knowledge and faith a certain change of their affections and some kind of amendment of their manners This they prove out of Math. 13. 20. They received the word with joy and 1 Kings 21. 17. concerning Ahabs humbling of himselfe and out of Heb. 6. 4. alleadged by this Author and over and above out of v. 6. observe a renovation also in as much as it is said That it is impossible they should be renued againe which implyeth that they had been formerly renued in some sort and out of Chap. 10. 19. That they trod under foot the blood of the Covenant by which they are sanctified and that they attained to some amendment of life they prove both by the example of Herod and out of 2 Pet. 2. 20. where t is said of them that they had escaped from the filthinesse of the world And Chap. 1. 9. Where they are said to have forgotten that they were purged from their old sinnes And out of Math. 12. 43. Where 't is said the unclean spirit was departed out of them and that all this was not faigned but that they proceeded out of the power of those dispositions unto grace and from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost yet notwithstanding all this in their fourth position they pronounce that they never attaine unto the state of adoption and justification and in their explication of it that they never attaine the change and renovation of the mind and affections which doth immediatly prepare and dispose unto justification For they never seriously repent
c. at large Now seeing God brings them no farther as he doth his elect with what sobriety can it be said that God intends their salvation And as for the poynt of sanctification which here is attributed to them other Divines doe not goe so farre as to interpet it of any inward sanctification as Paraeus Erat autem saith he Sanctificatio Apostolorum non interna sed externa in professione fidei participatione sacramentorum externa consistens erant sanctificati hoc est a Judaeis Paganis professione segregati pro veris Christianis habiti Loquitur enim secundum judicium charitatis quae omnes de doctrina for is consentientes habet pro sanctificatis licet non omnes cordibus vere sint sanctificati Non eergo hinc sequitur Apostatas Vere fuisse regeneratos Pro quibus enim Christus ne or are quidem dignatus est eos multo minus sanguine suo sanctificavit ideo Johannes Apostatas de Ecclesia renatorum fuisse negat ex nobis egressi sunt quia non erant ex nobis Et Petrus vocat eos canes porcos redentes ad vomitum volutabrum canis vero etiam post vomitum est canis sus lota est sus canem vero suem se semper mansisse ille ista per reditum ad vomitum volutabrum declarat Cameron likewise in in his Myroth p. 334. Dupliciter sanctificantur homines alii absolute ut soli fideles cum scilicet non tantum ab aliis hominibus segregantur hoc enim verbum sanctificare saepe significat in Scriptura a Deo sed remissione peccatorum apprehensa Spiritus Sancti virtute sanctificati in sanctitatis studio permanent Alii comparate qui scilicet separantur quidem ab aliis hominibus externa fidei professione aliqua fortè vitae instituti immutatione at non sanctificantur absolute ut fideles ad hoc posterius sanctificationis genus pertinet hoc Apostoli dictum in quo sanctificatus fuit But albeit they were truly sanctified to suppose that for the present yet if God purposed not to give them perseverance therein undoubtedly he intended not their salvation Nay no Arminian denies but that God did from everlasting intend the salvation of all such Apostates and to say that he had a velleity to save them is to dash a mans selfe against the rock of absurdity as to deny Gods omnipotency unlesse he will say Gods mind is changed and to talke of a conditionate will intending their salvation is no more to say that he intends their salvation in case they doe believe than to say he intends their damnation in case they doe not believe And as for his allegation out of the suffrages of our Divines in the Synod of Dort that is very wild neither mentioning the Article nor rightly quoting the page though the things here proposed are mostly taken out of the first and second Thesis concerning the Non-elect upon the fifth Article but no glimps doe I find there of any such end of Gods granting these dispositions as that thereby they might be brought unto salvation though as in the elect such like dispositions are so in the Reprobate they might be preparations to farther grace if it pleased God so to ordaine as to bring them on forward to justification and true sanctification conjunct therewith and thereby unto salvation As for the ends which God doth intend thereby to wit by bringing them so farre look whatsoever God doth bring to passe hereby that God doth intend For nothing can fall out casually unto God If they doe persevere in this condition to wit as touching the outward emendation of their life it is ut mitius puniantur as Austin expresseth himselfe somewhere which now doth not come to my remembrance if they fall from it whereupon they shall be more grievously punished this also was intended by God Or if others are bettered by them undoubtedly this also was intended by God as also to teach all others not to content themselves with superficiall renovation superficiall obedience and so likewise illumination clearely takes away that excuse which some are apt to make as Austin observes namely Dicere solet humana superbia si scissem fecissem Which how well this Author infringeth we are to consider in the next place DISCOURSE SECT VI. BUt there are some Scripturs which seem to say the contrary v g. Rom. 1. 20. Where God is said to reveale himselfe to the Gentiles by the creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might be without excuse Luke 2. 34. Simeon said of Christ that he is appointed for the falling and rising againe of many in Israell and. 1 Cor. 1. 23. I preach Christ sayth Paul to the Jewes a stumbling blocke 2 Cor. 2. 16. We are the sweet savor of death unto death and it seems by these places that God gives these things to some that they may stumble and be left without excuse What shall we say therefore to these places Of all these Scriptures in generall I may say this that they are to be understood of the end which is many times effected by these gifts of God and not of the end that is primarily intended in them and they shew what Christ the Word Preached and the gifts of nature and grace are occasionally to some men through their voluntary rebellion against God and his Ordinances and not what they are intentionally in Gods first thoughts and resolutions He intends them for them for their good though many times they receive them to their hurt it is with Gods Ordinances and gifts and that very often too as it is sometimes with Physick it is given by the Physitian for the Patients good many times through the distemper of his body it doth him hurt And as it is with the Sunne God intends by the shining of it the enlightning and clearing of men and other creatures in this inferior World others are hurt by the light of it accidentally by reason of the climates wherein they live or the ill affectednesse of their eyes and bodies So the blessings of God which out of his abundant goodnesse are bestowed upon men for their eternall good through the ill frame and temper of their heart doe effect their hurt partly because lighting upon naughty hearts they loose their force and edge for quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis and partly because of the severity of God who as he hath an antecedent and gratious will to doe men good so he hath a consequent and judiciary will of giving up wicked men to the lusts of their hearts and of permitting them to dash against Christ and other means of eternall life and so to fall into endlesse misery and mischiefe as we may see Psal 101. 11 12. and Rev. 22. 11. He that is filthy let him be filthy still Now if this be the meaning of those Scriptures then they thwart nothing that hath been said of Gods
manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a gracious answer concerning this concludes with thankes I thank my God through my Lord Jesus Christ if I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complaine but to runne rather unto God with thankes for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed as I may adde in the fourth place this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of naturall corruption common to all is meerely a morall impotency and the very ground of it is the corruption of the will therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot doe any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is carnall sensuall and because they are in the flesh they â—annot please God and because of the hardnesse of their hearts they cannot repent sinne is to them as a sweet morsell unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his tongue Fiftly dost thou blaspheame God because of Leprous Parents thou art begot and conceived and borne a leprous child What impudency then is it in thee to challenge him for injustice in that the spirituall leprosy of thy first Parents is propagated to thy soule Lastly if thou renouncest the Gospell what reason hast thou to complaine of want of power to embrace it so farre as not to renounce it hast thou not as much power to believe as Simon Magus had as many a prophane person and hipocrite hath that is bred and brought up in the Church of God Hadst thou gone so farre as they and performed submission unto the Gospell by profesing it surely thou shouldest never be brought to condemnation for not professing of it but rather for not walking according to the rule of it which thou promisedst when first thou gavest thy name to Christ I come to the third 3. Look what the Word promiseth that doe the Sacraments scale the word promiseth Justification Salvation to all that beleive the same doth the Sacraments seal As Circumsion Rom. 4. 5. Is said to be the seale of the Rightiousnes of faith so is Baptisme it did in our Saviours dayes and in the dayes of his Apostles seale to the believer and penitent Person the assurance of the forgivenesse of their sinnes over and above Baptisme is the Sacrament of our birth in Christ and the Lords Supper of our growth in Christ each an outward and visible signe of an inward invisible grace But what is the grace were of the Sacrament is a signe Is it a power to doe good if a man will Call you that grace which is not so much as goodnesse for certainly goodnesse consists not in a power to doe good if a man will but in a definite inclination of the will it selfe to delight in that which is good and to be prone to doe it But this grace whereof Baptisme is a signe is suo tempore conferenda like as Circumcision was even to those Jewes who yet were not regenerated untill they were partakers of the Gospell Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth Writing unto the twelve tribes of the Jewes And it is very strange to me that regeneration should so many years goe before vocation But this opposite Doctrine and the sealing of a blanke is nothing strange to me I was acquainted with it twenty yeares agoe and I seeme plainly to discerne the chimney from whence all the smoake comes 4. As for other gifts bestowed on the Reprobates 1. We willingly confesse they shall never bring them to salvation be they as great as those who were bestowed on Aristotle Plato Aristides Sophocles and the most learned morall and wise men of the World that never were acquainted with the mystery of Godlinesse it was wont to be received generally for a truth that Extra Ecclesiam non est satus But Arminians take liberty to coyne new Articles of our Creed 2. But yet they may doe them good hereby they may Proficere ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur For certainly it shall be easier in the day of udgement for Cicero then for Cattline for Augustus than for Tiberius for Trajan than for Heliogabalus 3. And therefore it is certainly false that they are hurtfull and that they proceed out of extreme hatred And as for love the Scripture teacheth us that Jacob was loved of God and Esau hated each before they were borne Such is the condition of all the elect as Jacob of all the Reprobates as Esau and in Thomas Aquinas his judgement Non velle alicui vitam aeternam est ipsum odisse Knowledge I confesse of the mysteries of Godlinesse where life and conversation is not answerable doth encrease mens condemnation neither is God bound to change the corrupt heart of any man if they are workers of iniquity Christ will not know them at the great day though they have Prophesyed in his name and in his name cast out Devills neither was it ever heard of that the graces of edification and graces of sanctification must goe together and that God in giving the one is bound to give the other As for being proud of them pride for ought I know requires no other causes but domesticall corruption but he that acknowledgeth God to be the giver of any gift and hath an heart to be thankfull for it I make no doubt but he hath more grace than of edification only certainly the gifts they have sinke them not to hell but their corrupt heart in abusing them And hath a man no cause to be thankfull unto God for one gift unlesse he will adde another The Gentiles are charged for unthankfulnesse Rom. 1. But it seems by this Authors Divinity it was without cause unlesse we will with this Author say they all had sufficiency of meanes without and power within to bring them to salvation and what had Israell more Or the elect of God more in any age True for according to the Arminian tenet an elect hath no more cause to be thankfull to God for any converting grace than a Reprobate In a word what good act wrought in the heart of man whether of faith or of repentance or any kind of obedience hath man cause to be thankfull to God for when God workes it in him no otherwise than modó homo velit and so they confesse he workes every sinfull act Have they not in this case more cause to thank themselves than to thank God And unlesse we concurre with them in so shamelesse unchristian gracelesse and senselesse an opinion and in effect if God converts the heart of man according to the meere pleasure of his will and hardeneth others all the gifts that he bestowes on man are censured by this audacious censurer as Sauls bestowing Michal on David Jaells courtesy and usurers bounty c. or a baite for a poore fish as if God needed any such course
us that without holinesse no man shall see God That a man in good time shall reape provided that he faint not nor be weary of well doing Who seeth not that a necessity of Godly life is laid upon all that will be saved Now God hath revealed this latter expressely unto us in his word but as for the salvation of particular persons we have no such revelation at all set downe unto us in Gods word but in generall thus Whosoever believeth shall be saved whosoever believeth not shall be damned Be thou faithfull unto the death and thou shalt receive a Crowne of life Whosoever continueth unto the end shall be saved And good workes as Bernard saith are via Regni though not causa regnandi Therefore if any man desire to come to the Kingdome of Heaven he must be carefull to walke in the way that leadeth thither The Word saith not to any man in particular Thou shalt be saved but If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Such was not the promise made to Paul concerning the saving of them who were in the ship with him but it proceeded in an ansolute forme Acts 27. 23 24. There stood by me this night the Angell of God whose I am and whom I serve saying Feare not Paul for thou must be brought before Caesar and loe God hath given unto thee freely all that saile with thee Here is a manifest signification of Gods decree and determination to save all that were in the ship yet did this make Paul or the rest negligent in using such meanes whereby they might save themselves It is apparent that it did not For the Mariners they thought to fly out of the ship and to that purpose had let downe the boat into the Sea under colour as though they would cast anchor out of the foreship meaning to provide for themselves and leaving others to shift for themselves But Paul perceiving this and the dangerous condition of it unto the rest as that which would bereave them of the ordinary meanes of preservation he said to the Centurion and the Souldiers except these abide in the ship ye cannot be safe Did not Paul feare the failing af his own credit and reputation Who having before assured them and that by the message of an Angell of their safe coming to land now on the other side tells them that unlesse the Marriners abide in the ship they could not be safe Nothing lesse neither did the Captaine and Souldiers fly in his face as an impostor and one that had abused them as by this Authors dictates they might especially if he had had the Catechising of them but rather of themselves conceiving it an unreasonable thing so to depend upon the promise of man or Angell as not to use the best meanes that lay in their power Forth with the Souldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let it fall away choosing rather to loose their boat which yet was of good use too then their Marriners This was not all but Paul useth spirituall meanes and by exhortation comforteth them that so they might take heart and the better set themselves to the use of the best meanes not weakely but couragiously for their preservation This is the Fourteenth day that y e have tarried and continued fasting receiving nothing Wherefore I exhort you to take meat for this is for your safeguard for there shall not an hayre fall from the head of any of you And when he had thus spoken he tooke bread and gave thankes to God in presence of them all and brake it and began to eate Then were they all of good courage and they also tooke meat Well at length the ship brake and the Centurion commanded that they that could swim should cast themselves first into the Sea and goe out to Land and the others some on boards and some on certaine pieces of the Ship Here to the end we see no meanes neglected And so it came to passe to wit by use of such meanes that they all escaped to Land Yet was the promise of their Salvation made to Paul in an absolute forme so is not the promise of Salvation made to us Now I leave it to the indifferent to judge of the wisdome of this Authors discourse Yet non deliberation is no suffitient evidence of the needlesse condition of meanes For Aristotle sayth that Ars non deliberat not because he useth no meanes to bring about his ends but because the Artificer which is his crafts-master is not to seeke of the meanes For the same reason deliberation is not incident unto God his wisdome is nothing the lesse in discerning congruous meanes to bring about his intended ends As for that of our Saviour Cur estis solliciti de vestitu Surely t is not of any thing above our power in respect of use of meanes Indeed to ad one Cubit to our stature is not in our power neither doe I know any that take thought thereof But it is no more in mans power to blesse his owne cares and labours for the procuring of himselfe meat drinke rayment then it is in his power to adde a cubit or two unto his stature Therefore it becomes us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to distract our selves with carking cares as touching the end of our affaires but he forbids us not to be carefull in the use of means For to this purpose God would not have Adam to be idle in Paradise he must dresse the Garden though the thriving of ought thereby was not so much by his care as by Gods providence And therefore he hath given us six dayes to worke and commands us to doe all our works therein but as for the issue of our labours leave that to God his blessing And whether our labours are successefull or not successefull not to trouble our selves there abouts It was spoken to the singular cōmendation of D r Raynolds by him that Preached his funerall Sermon that he was most carfull of the means most carelesse of the end Thus I have endevored to distinguish those things which this Authours very judiciously confounds And as it was no folly for Paul to doe as he did that all good meanes might be used for their preservation so much lesse was misery nay they had bene in amiserable case had they neglected any due meanes to preserve themselves for S t Paul notwithhanding the message delivered unto him by an Angell and his promise therupon made unto the Centution spared not to professe that unlesse the Mariners staid in the ship they could not be Saved so that this Authours fable of Sysiphus is no better accommodated then the rest save that herein he may refresh his reader thank him for his curtesie for representing unto him as in a glasse the nature of his proceedings For in this his discourse he doth very accuratly play
he the Lord knoweth Now who doubts but that our doctrine of justification by faith and not by workes may be an occasion to some to abuse the grace of God unto wantonnesse such there were even in the Apostles daies but what Shall we therefore renounce that doctrine I am not yet come to the tempering of the manner of proposing this doctrine I have more to say before I come to that What difference is there in harshnesse between these doctrines If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath ordained you to destruction and this If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath not regenerated you Let any man shew how a doore is open to slothfulnesse more by the one then by the other especially considering the ground of all is mans inability to believe without this grace of God effectually preventing and working him unto faith Now this doctine is plainly taught and that particularly of certain persons to their faces Ioh 8. He that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God The phrase to be of God I interpret here of regeneration but both Austin of old and our Divines of late doe interpret of election and so it is precisely the same with the Preaching of reprobation in his true colours as this Author interprets it and passeth this censure upon it as opening a doore to liberty and profanenesse which may I confesse well be occasionally to carnall men or to men possest with prejudicate opinions yet here it appears plainly to be in effect the same with that which our Saviour himselfe Preached But take this withall as it may be an occasion of slothfulnesse so it may be a meanes to humble men and beat them out of the presumptuous conceit of their own sufficiency to heare Gods word to believe to repent and the like and thereby to prepare them to look up unto God and to waite for him in his ordinances if so be as the Angell came downe to move the waters in the poole of Bethesda to make them medicinable so Gods spirit may come downe and make his word powerfull to the regenerating of them to the working of faith and repentance in them And I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to this end tended not the very like Doctrine and admonition proposed by Moses to the Children of Israel in the Wildernesse Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his Land The great temptations which thine eyes have seene those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day For is it not Moses his purpose to set before their eyes how little they have profited in obedience and thankfulnesse unto God and amendment of life by all those great workes of his in the way of mercy towards them and in the way of judgement towards the Egyptians And what was the cause of all this but the hardnesse of their hearts and the blindnesse of their eyes and to what end doth he tell them that God alone can take away this hardnesse of heart and blindnesse of mind which hitherto he had not done Might he not seem to justify them in walking after the hardnesse of their hearts by this and harden them therein by this Doctrine of his like as this Author casts the like aspersion in part upon the like Doctrine of ours Yet Moses passeth not for this so he might set them in a right course to be made partakers of Gods grace and that by the ministry of the Law to humble and prepare them for the grace of God which is the Evangelicall use of the Law And it is remarkable that in the first verse of this Chapter these words are said to be the words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Wherefore seeing the Covenant made in Horeb was the Covenant of the Law it followeth that this Covenant is the Covenant of grace and these words are the words of the Covenant of grace which is plainly expressed in the next Chapter v. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed that thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule that thou maiest live And what is the usuall preparation hereunto but to humble men by convicting them of sinne and of their utter inability to help themselves and that nothing but Gods grace is able to give them an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare But yet because we doe not speake in the same measure of the spirit and of power as Moses and our Saviour did therefore we labour to decline all harshnesse as much as lyeth in our power where we see occasion is like to be taken of offence Therefore first as touching this discourse of Calvins If you believe not therefore it is because you are already destinated unto damnation I say this is untrue more waies then one First if he conceives destination unto damnation goes before Gods decree to deny faith this I utterly deny and have already proved that in no moment of reason doth the decree of damnation precede the decree of denying grace Therefore Gods decree to deny them grace is rather the cause why they believe not then the decree of damnation Secondly whether we take it of the one or of the other or of both yet the proposition is utterly untrue For it doth not follow that because a man doth not as yet believe therefore God hath decreed to deny him faith and because he hath so decreed therefore he denies him faith For he that believes not to day may believe to morrow Saul was sometimes a persecutor of Gods Church but was it at that time lawfull to conclude that because he did not then believe therefore he was destinated unto damnation so that the reason indeed is either because God hath not decreed at all to give them faith or because the time which God hath ordained for their conversion is not yet come This is so cleare that Calvin himselfe were he alive would not gainsay upon consideration Neither doth he justify this discourse but only saith we must be more wise then so to discourse to our Auditors But this Author in saying this is to set downe our doctrine of reprobation in its colours delivers that which is shamefully untrue and nothing sutable with our doctrine More necre to the matter we should say rather That like as therefore a man heareth Gods word because he is of God that is as I interpret it because he is regenerated of God so therefore men heare them not because they are not of
law of God cannot doe good For this impotency is only morall and the subject of this impotency is only the will and it consists in the corruption thereof being wholly turned away from God and converted to the creature in an inordinate manner Enemies and strangers from God their minds being set on evill things Col. 1. 21. And to say that a man can believe if he will can from the love of visible and temporall things convert himselfe to the observation of Gods precepts if he will which Austin in his latter daies even then when he wrote his Retractations professeth to be true omninò And in his Book ad Marcellinum De Spiritu litera cap. 31. Professeth it an absurd thing to deny this namely that every one may believe if he will Vide nunc utrum quisque credat si noluerit aut non credat si voluerit Quod si absurdum est c. And cap. 32. Cum ergo fides in potestate sit quoniam cum vult quisque credit cum credit volens credit I say to affirme this namely that a man can believe if he will is no more then to say that a dead man can speake if he were alive For as the Scripture teacheth that all men are dead in sinne 'till the spirit of regeneration comes to breath into our hearts the breath of a spirituall life So this deadnesse is to be found no where so much as in the will And therefore Aquinas professeth that a man is more corrupt quoad appetitum boni then quoad intellectum veri The Heathen could professe Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor And in my experience I find that Arminians doe not satisfie themselves with this universality of grace as to say A man can doe good if he will unlesse they adde that also potest velle as I have observed in Corvinus And those whom I have in private been acquainted with doe not rest in this that All men can believe if they will but they say also that by universall grace the will is enlivened as I have seen under their hands and thereby enabled to the willing of any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited So that if they rested here to wit in saying that by universall grace all men may believe if they will there is no grace acknowledged by them tending to the furtherance of the good of mankind but we acknowledge it as well as they and make the extension of it as large as they And therefore the more vaine and voyd of all reason is their pretence that we for want of acknowledging such an universality of grace as they doe doe drowne men in carnall security and countenance carnall liberty Only though we grant the reality of that which they maintaine yet we deny that it deserves to be called grace as touching the first prevenient grace as they call it which we with Austin say deserves to be called nature rather then grace as we speake of grace to wit as distinct from nature and indeed supernaturall And as for grace subsequent that consisting only in concourse we deny that to be grace for as much as Gods concourse is granted as well to any sinfull act as to any gracious act as now adaies is commonly acknowledged on all sides But as for the enlivening of all mens wills and enabling them to will any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited for this is their very forme of words we utterly deny this and are ready to demonstrate the unreasonablenesse thereof For first seeing this cannot be understood of life naturall but of life spirituall it followeth that all men by this doctrine are regenerated and as they confesse this disposition continues in all unto death so it followeth that all and every one should dye in the state of regeneration also Secondly seeing there are but three sorts of qualities in the soule of a reasonable creature as Aristotle hath observed to wit powers passions and habits it followeth that this enlivening of the will must consist either in giving it new powers or new passions or new habits which it had not before But neither of these can be affirmed with any sobriety neither doe I find that they look to be called to any such account but in their aëriall contemplations of Gods attributes especially of his mercy and justice shaped at pleasure doe conceive hand over head that such an enlivening there must be of the will of man in all without troubling themselves to enquire wherein it consists But let us proceed in our triall of the soundnesse of it by the touch-stone of rationall and Christian discourse First therefore I say it can be no new power infused into the will by this enlivening For the will it selfe is a power and it was never heard that potentia can be subjectum potentiae a power can be the subject of a power and that a power should be in a power as an accident in the subject thereof Rationall powers are but two the power of understanding and the power of willing and both these are naturall following ex principiis speciei from the very nature of the humane soule as all confesse But some may say are there not supernaturall powers bestowed on man as well as naturall I answer these supernaturall powers are but the elevating of the naturall powers unto supernaturall objects as the understanding by enlightning it and the will by sanctifying it Never was it said I presume that a man regenerate had two understandings in him by the one to understand things naturall and by the other to understand things spirituall but that by the same understanding he understands both but by light of nature the one by light of grace the other The holy Ghost saith That they who are accustomed to doe evill can no more doe good then a Blackemore can change his skinne and a Leopard his spots Yet when men of evill become good they get not new powers properly but new dispositions rather of their naturall powers which we call habits and may be called morall powers but not of indifferency to doe good or evill such as the naturall power of the will is but such as whereby is wrought in the will a good likeing of that which is good an abhorring of that which is evill so that indeed these morall powers doe not make the will able to will but rather actually willing of that which is good in generall which generall willingnesse is specified according to objects present and opportunities offered of doing good in one kind rather then another Like as justice makes a man willing unto just actions which willingnesse is exercised this way or that way according to emergent occasions Secondly no new passions are given by this enlivening of the will well our passions may be ordered aright both touching their objects and touching the season and touching the measure touching the rule of them and in respect of this gracious ordering of them they may be called
the word of God But Ecce Rhodus ecce Saltus we are come to the Dialogue it selfe where he undertakes to make good that which he saith And here begins the Enterlude Tempted Woe is me I am a Castaway I am utterly rejected from grace and Glory CONSIDERATION Let me take liberty to set down what I should think fit to answer unto such a complaint Now my Answer is this Who hath revealed this unto thee Art thou privy Councellour to the Almighty We are taught that secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed are for us and for our Children to doe them Now where and when and how hath God revealed this his counsell unto thee namely concerning thy rejection from Grace Glory We know no other revelations divine then are contayned in his Word Now hath God in his word revealed unto thee more then unto me that thou art a reprobate The word saith unto thee If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom 10. 9. Now how canst thou make it appeare that this belongs lesse unto thee then to any Martyr that ever was content to lay downe his life for Christ Wilt thou say Thy sinnes make thee to conceive so I answer are thy sinnes greater then were the sinnes of Manasses who made his sonnes passe through the fire to Molech gave himselfe to witchcraft and sorcery and filled Jerusalem with bloud from corner to corner If his sinns were not sufficient to conclude that he was a Reprobate why should thy sins be thought sufficient to conclude that thou art a Cast-away Are thy sinnes greater then Sauls were who was a Blasphemer a Persecutor of the Saints of God from Citty to Citty Yet was he received unto mercy Wilt thou say Thy sinnes have been committed since thy calling Yet are they greater then was the sinne of Peter in denying Christ his Master with execrations and oathes And these sinns were committed not only after his calling but even within his Masters hearing too Yet he went out and wept bitterly And Christ as soone as he was risen sent word of his resurrection by name to Peter to comfort him Nay hath not God taught us in his word that the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1. And how canst thou make it appeare that any one that ever was or is hath greater interest therein then thy selfe wilt thou say this remedy belongs unto none but such as believe and repent but I doe not I answere in like sort there was a time when Paul believed not and when every one believed not yet at length they believed and so maist thou wilt thou say But I cannot believe and repent I answer this is the condition of all till God takes away the stony heart out of their bowells and gives them a heart of flesh and puts his owne spirit within them wilt thou say God gives grace to others but not to thee I answer there was a time when God had not mercy on them at length an houre came wherin he called them so an houre may come wherin he may call thee And thou hast no more cause to conclude that he hath rejected thee then every Child of God had before his calling that God had rejected him without grace neither thou canst nor they could believe but grace can bring all to faith and repentance and thou hast no more cause to think that God will not bring thee to faith then any elect had before his calling to think that God would not bring him to faith Now seeing this grace is given in the Word doe thou wait upon God in his owne ordinance which any naturall man hath power to doe as namely to goe heare a sermon thou knowest not how it may worke upon thee yea though thou commest thither with a wicked mind For we read of some that comming to take Christ were taken by him And Father Latimer taking notice of some that come to Church to take a nap yet never the lesse saith he let them come they may be taken napping Minister Discourage not thy selfe thou poore afflicted soule God hath not cast thee off for he hateth nothing that he hath made but bears a love to all men and to thee amongst the rest CONSIDERATION And not only poore but miserable also is that afflicted soule that hath no better comforter whether we consider the nature of the consolation or the warrant of it For first hath not God made Froggs and Toades and Devills as well as man And hath an Arminian that boasts so much of strongest arguments of comfort no better comfort to an afflicted soule then that she is Gods creature which is the condition of a Frogge and a Divill and a damned spirit 2. Then as touching the warrant of it Is the booke of Wisdome the best store-house of comfort for an afflicted soule a booke writen by Philo the Jew that living after Christs passion resurrection and ascention yet never believed in him Againe speake out and tell us what is the fruit of that love which God beares to all men Hath he ordained to give Salvation unto all to this afflicted soule in particular If he hath not but damnation rather unto some and particularly to this soule for upon what ground darest thou say or canst assure he hath not art not thou as miserable a comforter to her as ever Jobs friends were to him Or hath God ordained to give all men the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance if so then either absolutely or conditionally if absolutely then all must be regenerate all must believe and repent If conditionally speake it out and let thy Patient know what condition that is on performance whereof by man God will give him faith say what thou wilt the comfortable issue shall be this That grace is given according to workes and this indeed is the only Arminian consolation Tempted 1. God hateth no man as he is his creature but he hates a great many as they are involved in the first transgression and become guilty of Adams sinne CONSIDERATION Pooresoule suffer not thy selfe to be instructed by them that labour to deprive thee not only of the comfort of Gods grace but of the comfort of common sence Dost thou well understand what it is to hate a man as a sinner and not as a man If hatred be no more then displeasure surely whatsoever be the cause of it in hating thee he is displeased with thee as thou art his creature and that in thy proper kind of man if withall it signify punishment whatsoever the cause thereof be surely he punisheth thee as man though not for thy natures sake for that is the worke of God but for some corruption he finds in thee And we should prove very sorry comforters if on such a distinction as this we should ground any true
most comfortable course and sets forth the danger of the other in farre more emphaticall manner then Melancthon doth and therewithall discovereth the true Balme of Gilead wherein it consists in the same manner that Melancthon doth and more fully but it served not this Authors turne to represent Calvin thus discoursing though he could not be ignorant there of if himselfe read the place which he alleadgeth out of Calvin and tooke it not upon trust at anothers hand By the way I observe he makes the universality of the promise mentioned by Melancthon all one with the universality of the Covenant of grace mentioned by him As if the Covenant of grace consisted only in this Whosoever believes shall be saved and accordingly you may guesse of his meaning as touching the universality of Christs death namely that the benefit thereof shall redound to all that believe as good as in plaine termes to professe that Christ dyed not to procure and merit faith for us which the Remonstrants doe now adaies openly professe but I doe not find that our Arminians hitherto dare to concurre with them therein And in like manner the universality of Gods love is to be understood namely of willing salvation to as many as believe not of willing grace unto them at least not of any meaning to bestow faith and repentance upon them Yet not any will yet shew themselves so ingenuous as to confesse in plain termes that God gives not faith and repentance to any man but leaves that to be wrought by the power of their wills pretending that God hath enabled all men with a power to believe And indeed if faith and repentance be a gift and speciall gift of God it is strange that God should bestow them upon us extra Christum not for Christ sake And whence it followeth that those gratious promises of circumcising our hearts of sanctifying us of writing his law in our mind and inward parts and his feare in our hearts never to depart from him of healing our wayes our backslidings our rebellions of taking away the stony heart out of our bowels and giving us a heart of flesh and causing us to walke in his statutes and keepe his judgements and doe them are nothing belonging to the Covenant of grace in this Authors judicious consideration And to conclude if all men be under the Covenant of grace what force or substance at all is there in that promise which God makes unto his people of Israell namely that he will cause them to passe under the rodde and bring them unto the bond of the Covenant As also in that Ezek. 16. 60. I will remember my Covenant made with thee in the dayes of thy youth and I will confirme unto thee an everlasting Covenant 61. Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters both thy elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for Daughters but not by thy Covenant 62. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. I come to the consideration of the reasons why these grounds are pretended to be able to healpe in such a case 1. Because they are directly contradictory to the temptation a will to save all a givinig of Christ to death for all and an offer of grace to all cannot possibly stand with an absolute anticedent will and intent of casting a way the greatest part of mankind or indeed any one man in the world To this I answer 1. Though they be contradictory to the temptation yet if they carry manifest evidence of notorious untruths in their foreheads delivered as they are without explication what true comfort shall an afflicted soule receive therehence when by embracing them he shall but hould a lye in his right hand For doe not these comforters themselves acknowledge that God hath from everlasting decreed the damnation of the greatest part of men Yet they would have a poore afflicted soule believe that notwithstanding this he wills the salvation of all even of them whom he hath appointed unto wrath it is the Apostles phrase 1 Thess 5. 9. To endeavour to perswade them of this what is it but to make a sickly creature to feed on fire or digest Iron as if that could ever turne into good nourishment In like sort to perswade him that Christ hath made satisfaction for all the sins of al mē merited salvatiō for all every one when notwithstanding Christs merits of their salvation the greatest part of the world shall not be saved And notwithstanding Christs satisfaction for their sinne they must be put to satisfy for them that by suffering the torments of hell fire that for ever 2. Let these points be explicated then no comfort at all will appeare therehence to an afflicted soule in some case As for example when they shall understand that Gods love tends only to the saving of them in case they believe repent mortify the deeds of the flesh persevere in such like gracious courses unto death alas what comfort is this to a sick soule when he feeles in himselfe no power to believe no power to repent no power to any spirituall good contrary wise prone to evill either not taking delight in Gods Word or nothing profiting by it Will it suffice to out face them herein tell thē they have power to believe if they will to repent if they will to mortify the deeds of the flesh if they will to crucify the affections lusts if they will yea to have victory over the world if they will and to quench all the fiery darts of the Devill if they will And withall that their wills are enlivened to will any of all these yea to will all these and any other spirituall good whereunto they shall be excited Whereas the Scripture teacheth us that men are dead in sinne before the time of their effectuall calling and that such was the condition of the Ephesians before the Gospell was Preached to them and they converted by it and that till they embrace the Gospell all men are led captive by the Divell to doe his will 3. What poore comfort is this to perswade a man that he is no absolute Reprobate when upon the same grounds namely that the number of Reprobates is farre greater even an hundred for one then the number of Gods elect he may still be perplexed with doubts and feares yea and with as strong an apprehension that he is a Reprobate And amongst all the examples that I have lighted upon of desperation upon this ground they have not proceeded according to this distinction of reprobats absolute or not absolute but simply upon an apprehension that they were Reprobates that not upon the consideration of the small number of Gods elect and the vast number of Reprobates but upon the conscience of some sinne or other which they conceived to be unpardonable a sinne unto death a sinne against
them to be a good man or to have the grace of faith repentance or any other truly planted in his heart Which being so I say that the Minister cannot by the eternall acts and fruits of faith and repentance which he seeth come from him make it evident to the tempted for the silencing of all replies that he is without doubt a true believer and a true repentant and consequently no reprobate For still the tempted may say You may be deceived in me for you can see not a whit more in me then hath been seen in many a Reprobate If this be all you can say to prove me to be none I am not satisfied I may be a Reprobate nay I am a Reprobate and you are but a miserable comforter a Physitian of no value This that I say Piseator doth ingeniously confesse where he saith that no comfort can possibly be instilled into the soules of Reprobates afflicted with this temptation Whence it followes that the greatest part of men must beare their burthen if they fall into this trouble as wel as they can the Gospell cannot afford them any sound comfort 2. That the elect in this case may be comforted but it must be this way viz. by their feeling of the burthen of sinne and their desire to be freed from it by Christ which proofs as I have said are but only probable not infallible arguments of a mans election and therefore unsufficient comforts And in the end of the same Thesis where he saith That a man should reason thus with himselfe Grace is offered to some with a mind of communicating it to them therefore it may be that I am in that number he implyes that the doctrine of absolute Reprobation which teacheth this communication of grace to some few only affords but a fieri potest a peradventure I am elected for a poore soule to comfort himselfe withall TWISSE Consideration IN the last place we are to consider how truly he affirmeth that our doctrine leaveth a Minister none but weake grounds and those insufficient to quiet the tempted And whereas he saith We cannot conceive and make it evident to the understanding of the tempted that he is not that which he feares a Reprobate we willingly acknowledge it For not to be a reprobate is to be an elect Now how can any Arminian convince and make it evident to the understanding I doe not say of the tempted but of one that is a believer and walkes on comfortablely in the wayes of Godlinesse is he I say able to convince such a one and make it evident unto him that he is one of Gods elect I doe not think they dare professe that they presume they can or make it evident to their owne understanding that themselves are of the number of Gods elect How unreasonable then is this course to require of us to convince a man that acknowledgeth neither faith nor repentance in him for this is the condition of a man tempted as himselfe fashioneth it and to make it evident to his understanding that he is an elect and no reprobate when himselfe cannot convict him that believeth of this no nor their owne consciences neither notwithstanding all their confidence that they alone are in the right way of salvation Was there ever heard a more unreasonable course then this Againe to feare to be a reprobate or least he be a Reprobate is one thing to perswade himselfe that he is a Reprobate and to despaire thereupon is another thing We say and that according to our Doctrine that there is no cause why any man who hath not sinned the sinne unto death the sinne against the Holy Ghost should perswade himselfe that he is a Reprobate and despaire thereupon we doe not say there is no cause of feare In as much as he hath no evidence of his election there is just cause to feare but then againe seeing he neither hath nor can have any evidence of his reprobation excepting the guilt of the sinne against the Holy Ghost he hath every way as good cause to hope And for the comforting of such a one I would make bold to tell him that there is more hope of such a one as himselfe then of those who goe on in the wayes of their owne heart and in the light of their owne eyes without all remorse and check of conscience without feare or wit not considering that for all these things God will bring them to judgment And towards such I would think it fit to use all meanes and motives to make them feare The Apostle seemes to me to take the like course with better men then such even with such as went on in a faire and comfortable profession of Gospell namely to make them feare and suspect themselves as when he saith Prove youre selves whether you are in the faith examine your selves Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. And for good reason for as Paul was jealous over the Corinthians with a Godly jealousy for feare least as the Serpent beguilde Eve through his subtilty so their minds should be corrupt from that simplicity which is in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. And in like manner entertained feare least when he came he should not find them such as he would and that he should be found unto them such as they would not c. 2 Cor. 12. In like manner I should think it is good for a man to be jealous over himselfe with a godly jealousy least their minds should be corrupt their wayes corrupt more then they are a ware of and there upon give themselves to the examining of themselves and to the searching and trying of their wayes whereunto the Holy Ghost exhorts us Lament 3. 40. And there is good comfort to be taken in such a jealousy such a feare such a course For we find that the spirit of bondage making us to feare is the forerunner of the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. Certainely they are in better case and nearer to the Kingdome of God then such as feare not yet is their no cause of despaire for as much as the elect of God had no evidence of their election before their calling Nay after their calling they may be much afflicted with the feares and terrours of God thinking themselves to be in worse case then indeed they are David found cause to pray that God would restore him to the joy of his Salvation yet Bertius would not say that David was fallen from grace and that propter graves causas yet who hath written more eagarly to maintaine that Saints may fall away from grace then Bertius But this Author beares before him such a spirit of confidence as if he would have all men ordered by his rules When Manoahs Wife Judg. 13. 22 23. discourseth thus If the Lord would kill us he would not have received a burnt offering at our hands nor shewed us these things He
doth obtrude upon us that Manoahs Wife had no faith but only a probability of this that is his glosse yet this acceptation of a burnt offering at their hands was manifested by no lesse then a miracle and the difference between Abels offering and Caines offering is laid downe to be this that The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering he had no regard Gen. 4. 4 5. And Davids prayer for acceptation and finding favour at the hands of God is set downe in this manner amongst other particulars Let him remember all thine offerings and turne thy burnt offerings into ashes Psal 20. 3. Yet why should he conceive that Manoah and his Wife were not in temptation and that a very sore one strēgthened with the expres word of God namely that No man can see God live which in these days was generally received amongst thē applyed by thē in this particular For Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely dye because we have seen God could a probability to the contrary put by such a temptation as this How was the great Prophet Esay exercised with this when he cryed out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of polluted lipps and dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lipps for mine eyes have seen the King and Lord of Hosts What temptation hath he that thinkes himselfe a reprobate like unto this excepting still the guilte of that sinne which is unto death What ground of Scripture can they represent to prove that they are reprobates as those Ancients had ground for this that they must dye who had seen God It is one thing to be in temptation it is an other thing to yeeld to the temptation and to be overcome with it and that upon no ground which yet this Author confounds as a course very propitious for his turne and suitable with the part that he acteth As for Jacob the cause was this he that now enjoyed as it were the death of Joseph for many yeares his sonnes pretending they knew not what became of him yet brought his Coat imbrued with bloud unto their old Father who there upon conceived some evill beast had devoured him and who could expect that at the first hearing he should believe now the report of the same sonnes to the contrary especially considering how those brethren of Ioseph were astonished when Joseph himselfe told them saying I am Joseph doth my father yet live for the text saith his brethren could not answer him for they were astonished at his presence And though Iacob at the first believed not the report they made to be true yet neither is it said or likely that he believed it to be false But the Text saith his heart failed him denoting a condition betweene hope and feare as the Geneva noteth in the Margent As for Thomas his incredulity which he ascribeth unto a temptation he may as well ascribe the infidelity of Turkes Jewes unto a temptation The person tempted here represented doth not say I hope as Thomas did Except I see in his hands the print of the nailes and put my finger into the print of the nayles and put my hand into his side I will not believe it And what power doe Arminians attribute unto temptation doe they ascribe more unto it then to the operation of God which with them extends no farther then this as touching grace then to excite them to believe which yet they may resist if they will And may they not also resist the Divells temptations if they will Especially considering that in perswading them that they are Reprobates the Divell proceeds upon no ground which is not common to every one of Gods elect when he saith They will not believe any thing that is said for their comfort till it be made so apparent that they have nothing to say to the contrary It seemes this Author hath had some extraordinary experience of the condition of persons tempted I had thought the condition of persons not tempted only but giving way to the temptation had been for the most part unreasonable untill it pleaseth God to bring them to their right wits and like as feares property is to betray the succours that reason offereth so is the Devills practice to take them off from attending that to they cannot answer and holding them to their uncomfortable conclusions in despight of the weaknesse of their own premises and strength of contrary principles Excepting the case of finning against the Holy Ghost which was the case of Francis Sptra and accordingly his conclusions were most true as his premises strong and his comforters had little or nothing to say to the contrary And in such a case the only course to quench the fiery darts of desperation is to enquire diligently about the matter of fact whether he hath committed any such sinne as he layeth to his charge and thereupon to discourse of the nature of that sinne which is commonly called a sinne unto death and not only so but a sinne against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour pronounceth to be unpardonable and the Apostle signifieth as much when he saith that in such a case there is no more sacrifice for sinne but a fearfull expectation of fire And it may be this Authors discourse runneth with reference to such examples as this of Spira but fashioned at pleasure to serve his turne as formerly he did set down the story out of Coelius Secundus Calvin as he said but without any quotation of the place where But to enter upon a comparison between their doctrine and ours and that upon supposition of this rule delivered by him I say first that by our doctrine we can make it so evidently appeare that the tempted hath no ground at all to conceive himselfe to be a reprobate whatsoever his condition be except guiltinesse of the sinne against the Holy Ghost I say we can make it so evident that neither he nor any Arminian can say any reasonable thing to the contrary not denying but that they may say enough to the contrary in an unreasonable manner And my reason is because whatsoever his condition be it is no other then is incident to one of Gods elect Secondly I say as touching the Arminian doctrine two things The first is this There is no condition of man so holy in this life as whereby any man can have any assurance by Arminian doctrine that he is an elect of God and consequently no reprobate much lesse can they give any assurance to any man in the time of temptation as this Author speakes of it that he is no reprobate The Second is this Arminians can give assurance to no man that he is no reprobate for as much as all their grounds of comfort are common to the reprobate as well as to the elect wherehence it manifestly followeth that their doctrine can afford no better comfort then a reprobate
no supernaturall act is or can be sinfull every sinfull act must needs be an act naturall and power either to doe or to abstaine from any naturall Act is not to be denied to any naturall man But it is impossible that any naturall man should abstaine from any sinne or doe any naturall good act so commonly accounted in a gratious manner untill grace comes so to season the heart of man as to love God even to the contempt of himselfe and out of his love to doe that good which he doth and to abstaine from that evill from which he abstaineth 2. But if the question be of the manner how this necessitie of sinning is brought upon the nature of man we say it is not by the pleasure of God But by the sinne of Adam according to that of the Apostle Rom 5. By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne for man by reason of sinne was justly bereaved of the Spirit of God and begetting children in this Condition he begets them after his owne Image and likenesse that is bereaved of the Spirit of God And we hold it impossible for a man bereaved of God's Spirit either to doe that which is good or abstaine from doing that which is evill in a gratious manner 2. Secondly I come to the Synod of Valense when they say the wicked not perish because they could not doe good but because they would not These words may seeme to imply that even the wicked could doe good if they would and truely I see noe cause to deny this But that we may safely say with Austine that omnes possunt Deo credere ab amore rerum temporalium ad divina praecepta servanda se convertere si velint Believe God if they will and from the love of all things temporall convert themselves to the keeping of God's Commandements if they will for if a man would goe to Church but cannot because he is lame would read in God's word but cannot because he is blind These impotencies are naturall not morall but the impotency brought upon mankind by the sinne of Adam is morall not naturall Now morall impotency is found noe where but in the will or at least is chiefly there and secondly in the understanding also as touching knowledge practicall and accordingly when Scriptures testifie that they who are in the flesh cannot please God Rom 8 cannot repent Rom 24 connot believe Ioh 12. This impotency consist's cheifly in the corruption of their wills noted by the hardnesse of heart Rom 2. 4. Eph 4. 18. Againe I have already shewed out of Remigius that a wicked man can doe that which is good but by what meanes to wit by grace not otherwise The words are these Si dixisset generaliter nemo hominum sine Dei gratia libero bene uti potest arbitrio esset Catholicus had he said generaly not any man can use his free will without grace he were Catholique And pag. 36 the same Remigius hath these words In infidelibus ipsum liberum arbitrium ita per Adam damnatum perditum in operibus mortuis liberum esse potest in vivis non potest free will so damned and lost in Adam may be free in dead workes in living workes it cannot Yet pag. 174 thus he distinguisheth answerably to the passage alleaged by this Authour De reprobis nullum salvari ullatenus existimamus non quia non possunt homines de malo ad bonum commutari ac de malis ac pravis boni ac recti fieri sed quia in melius mutari noluerunt in pessimis operibus usque ad finem perseverare voluerunt And pag. 143. Florus of the Church of Lyons where Remigius was Byshop sets downe the same truth more at large thus Habet homo post illam damnationem liberum arbitrium quo voluntate propria inclinari potest inclinatur ad malum habet liberum arbitrium quo potest assurgere ad bonum ut autem assurgat ad bonum non est propriae virtutis sed gratiae Dei miserantis Nam qui mortuus est potest dici posse vivere non tamen sua virtute sed Dei Ita liberum arbitrium hominis semel sauciatum semel mortuum potest sanari non tamen sua virtute sed gratia miserantis Dei ideo omnes homines admonentur omnibus verbum praedicatur quia habent posse credere posse converti ad Deum ut verbo extrinsecus admonente intus Deo suscitante qui audiunt reviviscant Man hath after that damnation to wit such as followed after Adam's fall free will so that of his owne will he can be inclined and is inclined to evill he hath free will whereby he may rise unto a good condition but that he doth arise to that good condition is not in his owne power but of the grace of God compassionating him for of him also who is dead it may be said that he may live yet not by his owne power but by the power of God Soe man's free will also being once wounded once dead may be restored not by his owne power but by God's grace pitying him and therefore al men are admonished to all the word is preached because they have this that they may believe they may be converted unto God that by the word outwardly admonishing God inwardly raising they which heare may revive As touching the last condemning those who say that any should be so predestinated to evill by God that they cannot be otherwise this Authour would faine insinuate into his Reader an opinion That wicked men may change from evill to good of themselves But neither doth the Councill of Valens or Remigius a chiefe man therein intimate any such thing But only that it is in God's power by his grace to change them and so hath changed and will change the hearts of many namely of all his Elect but not of one other That the Remonstrants did not at that time desire that it should be talked of among the common people who might have stumbled at it but disputed of among'st the Judicious and Learned who as the threshing Oxen who are to beate the corne out of the Huske are to bolt out those truthes which are couched and hidden in the letter of the Scriptures That the doctrine which is loath to abide the triall even of learned men carrieth with it a shrewd suspicion of falshood the heathen Oratour shall witnesse for me who to Epicurus seeing that he would not publish his opinion to the simple people who might happily take offence at that answereth thus Declare thy opinion in the place of Judgment or if thou art affraid of the assembly there declare that in the Senate amongst those grave and judicious Persons Thou wilt never doe it and why but because it is a fowle and dishonest opinion True religion as Vives saith is not a thing guilded over but gold it selfe the more it is scraped and
hath a being and by consequence some thing that is good Now this argument cometh nerest to Maldonats discourse upon that of our Saviour speaking of Iudas It had been good for that man he had not been borne Some saith he dispute subtilly more then enough how it could be better for Iudas not to have been whereas not to be is no good to be damned is some good For he that is damned is somewhat And every thing that is as it hath a being is good And we know that man's being is no common good but a speciall one as being made after God's owne Image and likenesse And looke with what judgment this Author extenuates being humane calling it a poore little entitative good with the same judgment he might extenuate Angelicall being For even among Angells some have their portion in hell fire But now he comes to his first proposition that unavoidable damnation of so many millions can not be absolutely and antecedently intended by God without the greatest injustice and cruelty The question is of the suffering of hell paines whether it be worse then to be annihilated This Authour runnes upon the terme damnation which is a civill and judiciall act Is there no difference between these They that say Christ sufferd the paines of hell doe they say Christ was damned Then to speake with a fuller mouth he puts in the damnation of so many millions whereas if the damnation of one may be intended by God without injustice after what manner soever undoubtedly the damnation of never so many millions may Then he helps himselfe with the Epithite of unavoidable added to damnation and the terme absolutely affixed to God's intention to no purpose that I know but to abuse himselfe and others by confusion for feare least the truth should break forth to their conviction To intend damnation avoidable what is it but to intend it conditionally And to intend damnation not absolutely is all one with to intend it conditionally Now to intend the damnation of any man conditionally is with this Author as much to intend his salvation as his damnation Yet this he calls the intention of damnation And Bradwardine hath long agoe maintained and demonstated by evidence of reason that there is no conditionate will of God And this Authour will not say I suppose that God did intend that Christ should suffer hell paines conditionately or that if he did intēd it absolutely he was unjust in so doing Now both D. Iackson expresly confesseth that the distinction of will antecedent and consequent in God is to be understood not as touching the act of willing but as touching the thing willed And Gerardus Vossius acknowledgeth that after the same manner must the conditionate will which is ascribed unto God be interpreted Now we willingly confesse that the thing willed and intended by God to Reprobates namely damnation befalls none but in case they dye in sinne without repentance And as already I have shewed not any of our Divines maintaine that God intended to damne any man but for sinne Only the maine point of difference between us is as touching the conferring denying grace even the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance Herein we willingly confesse that God carrieth himselfe merely according to the pleasure of his own will according to that of the Apostle He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Now on this point this Authour keeps himselfe close and earthes himselfe within his own concealements lest he should betray the bitter Leven of Pelagianisme in maintaining that grace is conferred according unto workes which cannot be avoided by him if once he comes to deale on this Argument He thinks he hath great advantage in the point of Reprobation and very free he is here but declines the point of election and point of conferring grace which argueth a naughty disposition practising by indirect courses to circumvent and suppresse the truth rather then conferre any thing for the clearing of it yet see his confused carriage in the very point For when he speakes of damnation avoidable and unavoidable he takes no paines to manifest in what sense he takes it to be avoidable as whether by power of nature or power of grace Is it his meaning that any man's damnation is avoidable by grace We deny it not Or is it his meaning that it is avoidable by nature we utterly deny this But this man counts it his wisedome not to speake distinctly but worke his advantage upon confusion of things that differ but let all such take heed least utter confusion be their end But if it be his meaning that all men have power to avoid damnation if they will to wit in as much as they have power to beleive if they will to repent if they will I would he would deale fairely once and come to this The Scripture is expresse That they that are in the flesh cannot please God that the naturall man discerneth not the things of God that they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned That they cannot beleive cannot repent Of the Children of Israel in the wildernesse that God had not given them eyes to see eares to heare nor hearts to perceive fourty yeares And truely we take faith and repentance to be the guift of God And the habits of them not to be a power to beleive and repent if a man would but an habituall and morall inclination of them to believe to repent And habits as it was wont to be said Agunt ad modum naturae doe worke after the manner of nature And it is very strang that supernaturall grace should not And long agoe I have learnt in Austin that to doe good and obey God if a man will is rather nature then grace For the will alone is all in all as touching acts morall good or evill and till the will be changed we are as farre off as ever from performing any thing that is pleasing in the sight of God This is the peculiar glory of God's grace To make us perfect to every good worke and to worke in us that with is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ and this he doth according to his good pleasure For grace is not conferred according unto workes That was condemned as a pestilent doctrine long agoe in the Synod of Palestine and all along in divers Councells against the Pelagians How gladly should I imbrace any delineation of this Authours opinion in the point of grace and free will the rather because I seem to smell who he is by this which followeth For I remember sometime under whose hand I read it namely that Plutarch speaking of the Pagans who to pacifie the anger of their gods did sacrifice to them men and women should say It had been much better with Diagoras and his fellowes to deny the being of a God then confessing a God to think he delights in the blood
doe choose the things that God would not 2. If God doth will it but not by a powerfull and effectuall irresistable decree let him shew what that decree is whereby he wills sins Now this is commonly accounted a decree conditionall and let him speak plainely then tell us upon what condition it is that God doth will and procure sin in the world and I am verily perswaded he is to seek what to answer 3. If God doth will and decree it it cannot be avoided but it must be by a powerfull and effectuall decree which cannot be resisted seeing the Apostle saith plainly speaking of his decree that it cannot be resisted Upon these considerations I am perswaded that this Authour doth utterly deny that God doth at all will sin or decree that any such thing shall come to passe in the world that these attributes of powerfull and effectuall irresistable are used by him not for distinction sake but meerly for amplification that so he might speake with a full mouth Now having brought this Authour home to himselfe and delivering himselfe and his meaning plainely I am very willing to cope with him on this point Yet what need I having so fully disputed the point in a certaine digression in my Vindiciae lib. 2. Digrees 4. The title whereof is this Whether the holy one of Israel without any blot to his Majesty may be said to will sin And forthwith I answer that God may be said thus farre to will sin in as much as he will have sin to come to passe And for explication sake it is added that whereas God will have all the good things of the world whether naturall morall or spirituall come to passe by his working of them Only evill things he will have come to passe by his permitting them But this Authour affects to worke upon the ignorant and he doth not affect to trouble their braines with answering my reasons least thereby he should raise many spirits and afterwards prove unable to lay them And this discourse of M. Hord's some of that sect thought good to have it coppied out and communicated to people in the Country as accommodated to their capacities and so more fit to promote their edificatiō in the plausible way of Arminian religion well therefore in the proofe of this tenet namely that God will have sin come to passe by his permission I prove first by Scripture God hath put in their hearts that is in the hearts of the 10 Kings to fulfill his will Now marke what is the object of God's will in the words following and to agree and give their kingdōes unto the beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled now by giving their Kingdomes unto the beast is not to depose or dethrone themselves or to part with their Kingdomes but only to submit their regall authority to the executiō of the beasts wrath against the Saints of God Like as in the dayes of Popery when the Saints of God were by Popish Prelates condemned for heresies then they were delivered into the hands of the secular powers the sherifes to burne thē at a stake Now this the holy Ghost makes the object of Gods will and their agreement thus to execute the Popes Antichristian pleasure is said to be Gods worke For God is said to put it into their hearts to doe this evill of his Of disobedient persons the Apostle professeth that they are ordained to stūble at Gods word wherein undoubtedly they sin Paul likewise testified of some that God sends thē strong delusions that they should beleive a lye of others that God gave them up to uncleanes through the lusts of their owne hearts to dishonour their owne bodyes betweene thēselves And to a Reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient Now let every sober man judge whether when God blinded the eyes of the one and hardned the harts of the other it were not his will that those foule things which were committed by them should come to passe by his permissiō Then consider what the Apostles with one consent testifie concerning those abominable acts committed against the holy son of God namely that both Herod Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles people of Israel were gathered together to doe what Gods hand his coūsell had before determined to be done This the Apostles deliver to the very face of God in their prayers holy meditatiōs And let every Christian consider whether it the Scripture had not made mention of this any one of us had used the like prayer meditatiō this Author all that are of his spirit would not have beene ready to spit in our faces cry us downe for notorious blasphemers Yet the Apostles indued with the spirit of God feared not to be found guilty of violating the Lords holinesse in all this Hence I proceeded to the passages of the Old Testament for the confirmation of the same truth As namely that whereas the desolatiō of the holy Land begun by the Assyrians finished by the Babylonians could not cōe to passe without many enormous sins Who can deny that it was Gods will that these things should come to passe considering that Assur himself is acknowledged by God to be the rod of his wrath and the staffe of his indignation whom God would send against an hypocriticall nation against the people of his wrath would he give him a charge to take the spoyle to take the prey to tread them downe like the mire in the streets Hence I proceeded to shew how that it is Gods usuall course to punish sin with sin Now when God exerciseth his judgments shall not those things justly be said to come to passe by his will which are punishments of foregoing sinnes See the judgment of God denounced against Amaziah the Preist of Bethell Thou sayst prophecy not against Israel drop not thy word against the house of Isaac Therefore thus saith the Lord Thy wife shall be an harlot in the Citties thy sons thy daughters shall fall by the sword And in like manner Solomon saith The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lordshall fall therein The incest of Absolom defiling his fathers cōcubines in a shameles manner came it not to passe by the will of God whose word is this Behold I will raise up evill against thee out of thine owne house I will take thy wives before thine eyes give them unto thy neighbour he shall ly with thy wives in the sight of this sun The defection of the ten tribes frō the house of David came it not to passe by the will of God when God himselfe testifies that it was his worke not his will onely Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel I will rent the kingdome out of the hands of Solomon give ten tribes to thee speaking to Ieroboam here we have Gods will for it And
him 3. It is untrue that by our Doctrine Reprobates doe unavoidably sinne I have already demonstrated the contrary For as I said Malum semper habitat in alieno fundo every actuall sinne is a naturall act a worke of grace may be supernaturall as touching the substance of the act so is not the worke of sinne but allwaies naturall Now no Christian that I know affirmes that a man in the state of sin is bereaved of free will in things naturall Nay we generally confesse he hath free will in things morall only as touching things spirituall he hath no freedome left therein therefore as I said before Iudas might have naturally forborne to betray his Master naturally forborne to destroy himselfe If some object the common opiniō of Divines is that in a state of nature there is noe libertie for sinne I answer first out of Aquinas that this is to be understood of sinne in generall not of any in particular Licet aliquis non possit gratiam adipisci qui reprobatur à Deo tamen quod in hoc peccatum vel illud labatur ex ejus libero arbitrio contingit Though a man that is reprobated of God cannot obtaine Grace for how should he obtaine it if God will not give it will they say that Grace is given according unto workes yet that he falls into this or that sinne this is a contingent thing and proceeds from his own free will So say I every sinfull act committed by man in the state of naturall corruption is committed freely in such sort that he might have abstained from it but I doe not say that he could abstain from it in a gracious manner But whether he doth that which is good he doth it not in a gracious manner so that still he sinneth more or lesse and all by reason that as yet he hath neither faith in God nor love of God which are the fountaines of all gracious actions both in doing that which is good and in abstaining from that which is evill As for Zanchi's saying That God holds Reprobates so fast that they cannot but sinne This act of God is no other then his denying them grace to breake of their sinnes by repentance and to turne unto God Now the Apostle professeth that as God hath mercy on whom he will so he hardeneth others even whom he will in denying this grace unto them And marke what objection he shapes hereupon thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine to wit of men's disobedience for of nothing else doth the Lord complaine For who hath resisted his will Observe the chaines wherewith God holds them fast irresistably to wit the chaines of obduration Let the Authour therefore charge St. Paul as well as Zanchy for making God the Authour of sinne and indeed he might have abounded in passages out of holy Scripture alleadged to the same end whereunto he alleadgeth these out of our Divines yea and Papists too But Piscator Zanchy and Calvine these are his proper markes to shoote at ever since he learnt in his age to correct the errours of his youth in taking frivolous exceptions against Bellarmine As for a necessity of sinning brought upon all by the sinne of Adam Arminius acknowledgeth it and this Arminius is acknowledged by Corvinus in his answer to Lilenus Only God takes it away from his Elect at the time of their calling and regenerating and leaves it upon the rest and who can say black to the eye for this Will we not give him libertie to have mercy on whom he will and harden whom he will Then let us fly in the face of Paul as well as Calvine Zanchy for so plainly teaching this The hardnesse of men's hearts is the immediate cause why they obey not God's word But there is another cause also that our Saviour takes notice of and that is this That God doth not regenerate them or hath not elected them Of this our Divines may well take notice because Moses before hath done the like The Israelites profited neither by hearing of God's word nor by the seeing of his mighty workes I say by none of these did they profit unto repentance and what was the reason hereof Surely the hardnesse of their hearts as Moses signifies Thou art a stiffe-necked people Yet he takes notice of another cause and that is this Yet the Lord hath not given our hearts to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day So our Saviour in the Gospell He that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Now to be raised up in Calvin's Phrase to illustrate God's glory in their damnation is no other then to be brought forth into the world and not to be borne of God that is to have the grace of regeneration denied them and consequently to be suffered to goe on in their sinnes and lastly to be damned for their sinne to the manifestation of the glory of God's justice Solomon saith as much The Lord made all things for himselfe that is for the manifestation of his glory even the wicked against the day of evill And St. Paul Rom 9 by shewing mercy towards some signifies how God formes some after one manner by hardening others he formes them after another manner comparing the 18. v. with the 20. And in the 21. He justifies God in this and that in reference to different ends which are the manifestation of his glory different waies saying Hath not God power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour And verse 22. What if God to shew his wrath and to make his power known suffered with long patience the vessells of his wrath prepared to destruction v. 23. And that he might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessells of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory What one of our Divines expresseth himselfe in this argument more fully or more liably to carnall exceptions following the judgment of flesh and bood then St. Paul doth in this Here by the way as touching Piscator I must fetch after mine answer in his behalfe to that which in the entrance to this Section was delivered of him and overseen by me For this Authour confessing that our writers have never said directly in terminis that God is the cause of sinne which introduction of his is the very same which Bellarmine useth opposing our Divines on this very argument lib. 2. Deamissione gratiae statu peccati cap. 4. Afterwards by a parenthesis brings in an exception of Piscator and some other of the blunter sort without naming one of them And though he name Piscator yet he quotes no place for if he had he should withall direct his Reader to the grounds whereupon Piscator affirmes this namely that God is the cause of man's fidelity And it is the very place formerly mentioned in these words He that is of God heareth God's
either by doing more he understands that God doth the same which the Devill wicked mē do more or though he does not the same yet he doth that which is more then that If his meaning be that God doth the same which the Devill wicked men doe this is notoriously untrue considering thē as tempters advizers and perswaders unto sin For God on the contrary forbids sin perswades to repentance to obedience both by his word and by his spirit and indeed the spirit workes not but by the word which is called the sword of the spirit All holines of life is comprised within the compasse of ten commandements these were given by the Lord frō mount Sinai pronounced by the sound of a trūpet to these the Lord calls his people saying stand in the waies and behold and aske for the old way which is the good way and walke therein ye shall find rest unto your soules For the transgression of these the Lord expostulates with thē Heare ô heavens and hearken ô earth I have nourished and brought up a people they have rebelled against me Whē they have gone astray he exhorts the and that most pathetically to returne by repentance by promise of salvation and threatning judgment if they doe not repent O Ierusalem wash thine heart from wickednes that thou maist be saved how long shall thy wicked thoughts remaine within thee I have seene thy adulteries and thy neighings the filthinesse of thy whoredome on the hills in the feilds and thine abominations Woe unto thee ô Ierusalem wilt thou not be made cleane When shall it once be And to provoak them the rather unto repentance he represents himselfe unto them as easy to be intreated as slow to wrath and one that by his patience and long suffering leades them to repentance And to this end he gives charge to his Ministers namely by representing the gracious nature of God to admonish them of their sinnes to call them to repentance to obedience And to this purpose to represent his promises which he hath annexed unto godlinesse both the promises of this life and the promises of a better life that is to come Yea and his threats also both of judgments in the world to come to the casting both of body and soule into hell fire and thereupon to exhort us to feare him above all others And judgments of this world as famine pestilence and the sword of the enemie To deliver them over into the hands of beastly people skilfull to destroy To send Serpents and Cockatrices among them that will not be charmed and that shall sting them and that without all mercy Surely these are not the courses of Satan or wicked counsellours Therefore they doe not as God doth neither doth God doe that which they doe and more also 2. If it be said that albeit the Lord doth not as the Devill doth and wicked men doe in perswading them to sinne yet he doth that which is more then this I answer that neverthelesse he cannot be accounted the Authour of sinne in case the doing of this alone doth constitute an Agent the Authour of sinne Now as formerly I have shewed this was the opinion of Dominicus Soto and of the Divines of Salamancha yea and Vasquez the Jesuite professeth that he was ever of that opinion Againe if to doe more then this be to become the Authour of sin both this Authour and all that are of his Spirit doe maintain as well we that God doth that which is farre more then this For I presume he will not deny but that God is he and he alone who doth support our natures in the committing of sin who maintaines our senses in their vigour and quicknesse without which we could take noe pleasure in sin and that concurres to every act of sin in the way of cause efficient not morally which alone makes one to become the Authour of sin by the judgment of Divines formerly mentioned but physically and naturally which no creature can doe namely become a naturall coefficient cause to the act of another man's will Nay which is most considerable I presume this Authour hath so much accuratenes in School-learning as not to deny that when the Devill tempts us or wicked counsellours doe tempt us to sin God concurres with them in this act and that in the kind of a cause efficient physicall For in him we live and move and have our being what is it to have our being from him but that he is the Authour of it in the kind of a cause efficient In the same sense doe we live in him and in the same sense doe we move in him It stands us upon as much to maintaine this as to maintaine that God is our Creatour For unlesse all things doe subsist in him neither were all things created by him Now this is a great deale more then to perswade For a weake man is able to perswade but noe creature is able to performe these parts which God doth in the act of every thing created by by him So that hereby the Reader may evidently perceive that the discourse is as farre off as ever from proving God by this Doctrine of ours to be the Authour of sin any more then he is constituted the Authour of sin by the doctrine of this Interpolator But I am content to examine the things he proposeth particularly and severely 1. The Devill saith he doth only allure men by inward suggestions and outward temptations to fall into sinne But God doth much more if he doe necessitate and by his decree first and next by his powerfull and secret working in the soules of men determine their wills irresistibly to sinne For to determine is infinitely more then to perswade Now to this I have already answered by shewing 1. That albeit God doth more then this yet seeing he doth not this if the doing of this alone constitutes one the Authour of sin as many great Divines have concurrently maintained still God is free from being the Authour of sin This Authour barely supposing not once offering to prove the contrary 2. Himselfe confesseth that God concurres to the act of every sinne and that in the kind of a cause efficient naturall And I may be as bold as to say of this that it is infinitely more then to perswade like as he saith of God's determining the will and necessitating thereof Now I proceed to a more particular examination of his discourse And here first I wonder not a little at this Authour's distinction of the Devill 's inward suggestion from his outward temptations For I confesse freely I know noe outward temptation of Satan distinct from his inward suggestions Outward occasions and provocations to sinne I know none wrought by Satan any farther then as he in some cases is God's instrument as in afflicting Iob. For surely God hath not given over the world or any part thereof to the goverment of Satan this is in
of Adrumetum were the Authours of it And this Interpolatour takes Vossius his part and labours by certaine arguments to make it good against he judicious observations of that most reverend and learned Arch-Bishop of Armagh It may be I shall represent my answer thereunto by waâ—â—â— digression but first I must dispatch my answer to this I have in hand Sect 6. Many distinctions are brought to free the Supralapsarian way from this crimination all which me thinks are noâ— better then mere delusions of the simple and inconsiderate and give noe true satisfaction to the understanding There is say they a twofold decree 1. First an operative by which God positively and efficaciously worketh allthings 2. A permissive by which he decreeth only to let it come to passe If God should worke sinne by an operative decree then he should be the Authour of sinne but not if he decree by a permissive decree to let it come to passe and this only they say they maintaine It is true that God hath decreed to suffer sinne for otherwise there would be none Who can bring forth that which God will absolutely hinder He suffered Adam to sinne leaving him in the hand of his own counsell Ecclus 15. 14. He suffered the nations in time past to walke in their own waies Act 14. 16. And dayly doth he suffer both good and bad to fall into many sins And this he doth not because he stands in need of sinne for the setting forth of his glory for he hath noe need of the sinfull man Ecclus 15. But partly because he is summus provisor supreme moderatour of the world and knoweth how to use that well which is ill done and to bring good out of evill and especially for that reason which Tertullian prelleth namely because man is made by God's own gracious constitution a free creature undetermined in his actions untill he determine himselfe And therefore may not be hindred from sinning by omnipotency because God useth not to repeale his own ordinances 2. It is true also that a permissive decree is noe cause of sinne because it is merely extrinsecall to the sinner and hath noe influence at all upon the sinne It is an antecedent only and such a one too as being put sinne followeth not of necessitie And therefore it is fitly contradistinguisht to an operative decree And if that side would in good earnest impute noe more in sinfull events to divine power then the word Permission imports their maine conclusion would fall and the controversy between us end But first many of them reject this distinction utterly and will have God to decree sinne efficaciter with an Energeticall and working will Witnesse that discourse of Beza wherein he a verreth and laboureth to prove that God doth not only permit sinne but will it also And witnesse Calvin too who hath a whole section against it calling it a carnall distinction invented by the flesh and effugium a mere evasion to shift off this seeming absurdity that that man is made blind Deo volente jubente by Gods will and command who must shortly after be punished for his blindnes He calleth it also figmentum a fiction and saith they doe ineptire play the fooles that use it By many reasons also doth he indeavour to lay open the weaknes of it taxing those who understand such Scriptures as speaks of God's smiting men with a Spirit of slumber and giddinesse of blinding their minds infatuating and hardening their hearts c. Of a permission and suffering of men to be blinded and hardned Nimis frivola est ista solutio saith he it is too frivilous a glosse In another place he blameth those that referre sin to God's prescience only calling their speeches argutiae tricks and quirks which Scripture will not beare and those likewise that ascribe it to God's permission and saith what they bring touching the Divine permission in this businesse will not hold water They that admit the word permissive doe willingly mistake it and while to keep of this blow they use the word they corrupt the meaning For 1. Permission is an act of God's consequent and judiciary will by which he punisheth men for abusing their freedome and committing such sins day by day as they might have avoided and to which he proceedeth lento gradu slowly and unwillingly as we may see Psal 81. 11. 12. Israel would none of me so I gave them up c. Ezeh 18. 39. Goe and serve every one his Idoll seeing ye will not obey me c. Rom 1. 21. 24. Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God therefore God gave them up unto their hearts lusts to vile affections and to a Reprobate mind Rev. 22. 11. He that is unjust let him be unjust still In these places and many more we may see that persons left to themselves are sinners only and not all sinners but the obstinate and willfull which will by noe meanes be reclaimed But the permission which they meane is an act of God's antecedent will exercised about innocent men lying under no guilt at all in God's eternall consideration 2. Permission about whomsoever it is exercised obstinate sinners or men considered without sinne is no more then a not hindring of them from falling that are able to stand supposeth a possibility of sinning or not sinning in the parties permitted but with them it is a withdrawing or withholding of grace needfull for the avoiding of sin and so includeth an absolute necessitie of sinning For from the withdrawing of such grace sin must needs follow as the fall of Dagon's house followed Sampson's plucking away the Pillars that were necessary for the upholding of it Maccovius in two disputations expounding this word Permission circumscribes it within two acts The first of which is a Substraction of Divine assistance necessary to the preventing of sinne And having proved it by two arguments that none may thinke he is alone in this he saith that he is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses and produceth two The first of them is our reverend and learned Whitaker some of whose words alleadged by him are these Permission of sinne is a privation of the aid which being present sinne would have been hindred The second is Pareus for saying that that helpe which God withdrew from Adam being withdrawen Adam could not soe use his endowments as to persevere And this doctrine saith he is defended by our men as it appeareth out of Pareus lib de grat primi hominis c. 4 p. 46. Their permission therefore of sinne being a substraction of necessary grace is equivalent to an actuall effectuall procuring and working of it For Causa deficiens in necessariis est eficiens a deficient cause in things necessary is truely efficient and so is but a mere fig-leafe to cover the foulenesse of their opinion Here we have a very demure discourse proceeding in a positive manner proceeding from one that takes upon him to
God willing it he denies not any more then Beza doth that it comes to passe by God's permission of it But Calvin rests not in a bare permissions and no marvaile For the Scripture saith not that God permitted Pharaoh to refuse to let Israel goe but plainly and energetically thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall not let Israel goe I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them I will rent the Kingdome from Solomon not I will permit it to be rented and so throughout Bellarmine himselfe contents not himselfe with a bare permission but farther saith God doth rule and governe the wills of wicked men yea torquet flectit he wrests and bends them And Austin often saith he enclines them unto evill And whereas it is farther added out of Calvin that a man is blind volente jubente Deo God willing and commanding it Is it not expresse Scripture Es 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their eares heavy and shut their eyes So that Calvin doth but accomodate himselfe to Scripture phrase But when we come to the explication of this either in Christian reason or by comparing one place of Scripture with an other we say that to Make their hearts fat their eares heavy and to shut their eys And to give them the Spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare Is no more then not to give them hearts to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare Yet where Calvin saith this I cannot find the quotation here is so disturbed but I guesse the Authour would referre us to lib. 1. Institut cap. 18. prima secunda Sect But I find no such thing there but speaking of God's providence in blinding Ahab thus he writes Vult Deus perfidum Ahab decipi God will have perfidious Ahab to be deceived This is plaine out of the 1 Kings 22. 20. Who shall entise Ahab that he may goe and fall at Ramoth Gilead operam suam offert Diabolus ad eam rem The Divell offers his service for this saith Calvin And doth not the Scripture expresly testifie as much There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will entise him And the Lord said unto him wherewith And he said I will goe out and be a false Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets Calvin goes on Mittitur cum certo mandato ut sit Spiritus mendax in ore omnium Prophetarum God sends him with a certaine command to become a lying Spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's Prophets This also the Scripture testifies as expresly as the former Then the Lord said thou shalt entise him and prevaile also Goe forth and doe so Now let the indifferent judge whether this Authour might not as well calumniate the Holy Ghost the Inditer of this Scripture as Calvin who proceeds but according unto Scripture in that which he delivers Now let every sober man judge whether hereby it doth not manifestly appeare Excoecari Achabum that Ahab was blinded by the Devill Deo volente ac jubente the Lord willing and commanding it but this taken apart from the instance in reference whereunto it is delivered a man might suspect his meaning were that God commands a man to shut his own eyes blind himselfe And judge I pray whether to say that this whole providence of God concerning Ahab was no more then permission deserves not to be called figmentum a fiction as indeed Calvin calleth it To this he addes the joynt profession of the Apostles touching God's providence in crucifying of Christ in Absalom's incest the Chaldees bloudy execution in the land of Iuda and the Assyrians before them which in Scripture is called the worke of God c. And concludes it to be manifest Nugari eos ineptire qui in locum providentiae Dei nudam permissionem substituunt that they doe but toy and trifle who in place of God's providence substitute a naked permission And this Authour doth but calumniate Calvin's expression in rendring the word ineptire by playing the foole Ineptire in the proprietie thereof is in this case to faile of fit and congruous interpretation and accommodation And may he not justly taxe those who understand such Scriptures as speake of God's smiting men with the Spirit of slumber and giddinesse of blinding their mindes infatuating and hardning their hearts of a permission and suffering of men to be blinded and hardned I had thought common sense might have justified him in this taking Calvin aright who denies not permission in all this but nudam permissionem naked permission as much as to say these Scripture passages doe signifie more then permission And as I have said before Bellarmin himselfe doth not satisfie himselfe with a naked permission in such like providence divine as here is mentioned I thinke he may justly say that to explicate excecation and obduration by permission is such an explication as will satisfie no sober man and that such a solution is too frivolous And as for God's prescience it is apparent that the horrible outrages committed upon the holy Son of God the Scripture testifies not to have been foreknowen only by God but by the hand and counsell of God predetermined also more then this cleare reason doth justifie that the ground of God's foreknowing ought is his foredetermining of it as I have often proved by invincible demonstration 2. Who mistakes the nature of permission most we or this censurer let the indifferent judge It is apparent that he puts no difference between permission humane and permission Divine Sure I am Suarez requires to permission divine a concurrence to the act the obliquity whereof is permitted And more then that both Scotus of old without question and the Dominicans of late and Bradwardine before them maintaine this concurrence to be by way of determining the will to every act thereof But all these mistake the nature of permission if we believe this Authour upon his word wherein he carrieth himselfe very authoritatively no Pope like him Yet he is ready to give his reason for it though with manifest contradiction to himselfe but let us consider it 1. Permission is an act of God's consequent and judiciary will by which he punisheth men for abusing their freedom c. Most untrue and manifestly convictable of untruth by that which himselfe delivered but a little before in this very Section where he said It is true that God hath decreed to suffer sinne for otherwise there would be none By this it is manifest that whensoever sinne is committed there had place God's permission of sinne otherwise there would have been no sinne therefore permission had place in the very first sinne that was committed by man and Angells Judge Reader with what felicity he comes to censure and correct the mistakes of others about permission As Austin sometimes said of one opposing him noverit se esse
abstaine from sinne when such a grace is granted him and consequently in granting such a grace he permits him still to sinne as well as in denying it and in denying he permits him to doe good as much as in granting it So that still it is not God that keepeth a man from sinne as often as he abstaineth from it but merely the power of his own free will Whereby it is evident that this Authour as well denies that God is the Authour of any good as that he is the Authour of any evill But man is Authour of the one as well as of the other The power of doing good he will grant is from God neither can it be denied but that the power of doing evill is from God He will grant likewise that God is ready to concurre to any good act if man will and I presume he will not deny but that God concurres also to the substance of every evill act The only difference that remaines is this God perswades only to good and disswades only that which is evill Now this third and last assertion we grant as well as he Yet he layes to our charge that we make God the Authour of evill but cares not at all how he denies God to be the Authour of any good in the actions of men and makes noe place for any grace save such as is hortatory which is performed usually by the ministery of men Yet consider what Bradwardine sometimes Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Elect hath written in this kind before Luther or Calvin were borne The title of the fourth chapter of his second booke is this That free will being tempted cannot of his own strength without the helpe of God and his grace overcome any temptation Of the first this that free will strengthned with what created grace soever cannot without another speciall succour of God overcome any temptation of the sixth this that That speciall succour of God is the unconquerable grace of God Of the seventh this That no man though not tempted can by the strength of his free will alone without created grace or with created grace how great soever it be without the speciall asistance of God avoide any sin all these propositions he demonstrates with variety of argument Behold the ingenuity of this Authour He flies in the face of Calvin and Beza and other our Divines for maintaining that unlesse God by his grace keep and preserve a man effectually from sinning it cannot be that he should abstaine from sinne Bradwardine maintained the same before any of these were borne yet he saith nothing to him le ts all his arguments alone but upbraides us for maintaining the same doctrine without giving any reason to convict us of our errour Adde to this which I have omitted the Corolary of that seventh chapter in Bradwardin formerly mentioned is this That it is the will of God which preserves them that are tempted from falling and them that are not tempted both from temptation and from sinne Not one of the arguments whereby he confirmes any of these positions doth this Authour goe about to answer In like manner Alvarez Positâ permissione divinâ infallibiliter peccat homo upon supposition of God's permission man sins infallibly The proposition he intends to prove in that disputation is this Therefore a man is not converted because he is not aided of God But both he and we deny that hereupon a man sinneth necessarily alwaies but only in some cases In some cases it followeth as namely a man borne in sinne and in the state of corruption the naturall fruits whereof are infidelity and impenitency untill God affords a man the grace of regeneration he cannot believe he cannot repent They that are in the flesh cannot please God Thou after the hardnesse of thy heart that cannot repent Therefore they could not believe In which case God is not the cause of infidelity and impenitency but these proceed naturally and necessarily from that originall corruption wherein they are conceived and borne God is only the naturall cause why this their naturall corruption continues uncured For none can cure it but God it being a work nothing inferior to the raising of them from the dead Yet he is no culpable cause of this For as much as he is not bound to any but he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth So that necessarily without the grace of regeneration every man continueth in his naturall corruption devoyd of faith of hope and love These being supernaturall and whereunto no man can attaine with out supernaturall grace In like manner hence it followeth that no naturall man can performe any morall good act in a gracious acceptable manner in the sight of God because â—he fountaines of such performances are not found in naturall men But they have a free power as to commit any naturall evill worke so to abstaine from it though not in a gracious manner Free power as to abstaine from any vertuous act so to performe it also though not in a gracious manner They may be temperate chast just and the like but their vertuous actions are not truly vertues in a Christian account because they know not God nor Christ much lesse doe they believe in him and performe these vertuous actions out of their love unto him If Maccovius and Whitaker and Pareus be of the same mind and the Dominicans with them and Bradwardine before them all let the indifferent Reader consider what an hungry opposition is made by this Authour not offering to answer any one of their Arguments nor of mine neither in my Vindiciae Nor saith ought by way of reply upon any answer to the like argument of Arminius The resolution of all that here he delivers determining in a rule himselfe proposeth without reason or authority to justifie it A rule as here it is applyed conteining a notorious untruth For causa deficiens in no case can be efficiens in proper speech any more then causa efficiens can be accounted deficiens unlesse it be understood in divers kinds As for example efficiens naturaliter may be deficiens moraliter and deficiens moraliter may be efficiens naturaliter An efficient cause naturally may be deficient morally and so a cause deficient morally may be efficient naturally Least of all can it have place in the present question which is of the cause of sinne For sinne as sinne evill as evill non habet causam efficientem sed deficientem hath no cause efficient but deficient only as Austin hath long agoe determined and it is a rule generally received and never that I know denied of any Againe causa deficiens in necessariis may be culpable I confesse and so interpretativè as they say may be interpreted to be as good as an efficient As in a civill consideration it is said of the Magistrate that Qui non vetat peccare cum possit jubet He that forbiddeth not a man to sinne when it
hath a Corollary to this effect That some kind of necesity and liberty are not repugnant but may consist together Againe God doth after a sortnecessitate every created will unto every free act therefore and to every free cessation and vacation from act that by necessity antecedent naturally And he addes a Corollary that some kind of antecedent necessity and liberty are not repugnant and may consist together This distinction of liberty from necessitie liberty from sinne liberty from misery I find in Bernard and Vossius alleadgeth it only out of him and the School-men might take it up after him Bernard hath many obscure passages in the prosecuting of it especially in reference to the two first members Neither doth Vossius take any paines to cleare them from a manifest contradiction in shew And no marvaile if Doctor Potter doth not in stating the opinion of the Church of England in the point of free will which he undertakes very magnificently in his answer to charity mistaken he was content to be led by his blind guid now the seeming contradiction is this If there be in a naturallman no liberty from sinne then is he necessarily carried into sinne and how then is there any liberty in him from necessitie unlesse necessitie be taken as all one with constraint And Bernard sometimes in that very treatise doth clearly expresse himselfe to understand thereby coaction And so M. Fulkes in his answer to the Rhemish testament denying unto man liberty from sinne yet grants unto him a liberty from coaction And indeed sinne to the profane person is like a sweet morsell which he rolleth under his tongue as the booke of Iob speaks he comes not constrained thereunto but naturally takes delight therein I doubt too many there be who though they are driven to confesse that a naturall man hath no liberty from sinne yet they please themselves with a certaine expression of Lindan's that a man hath free will unto sinne hoping therehence to conclude when time serves that a man as he hath freedome to commit it so he hath freedome to abstaine from it and so by a backe doore to draw in a Tenet quite contrary to the first namely that even a naturall man hath liberty from sinne I am not sure that Lindan did well understand his own expression so as to know how to make it good much lesse that they are able who licke their lips at it But of this and the clearing of Bernard and of the difference between liberty naturall and liberty morall I have else where discoursed at large And Calvin observing this contradiction might well blame them that confound necessity with coaction whereby a way is opened to conclude that because a man is free from constraint of sinning therefore he is free from necessity of sinning whereas originall sin doth necessarily incline him to sinfull actions courses in generall though to this kind of sin in speciall or to this particular in what kindsoever it doth not yet by the way it is to be considered that Calvin in some particulars as namely in gracious courses did attribute so much to the efficacy of God's operation upon a man's will as that the actions performed thereby though voluntary yet in his opinion were not to be accounted free indeed they are wrought in opposition as it were in spight of a certain principall of corruption that in part remaines in the very best of God's children But we see no reason to the contrary but that when once God hath planted in us a principle of new life of the life of grace by the spirit of regeneration though all the powers thereof doe incline only to that which is good like as the powers of naturall corruption incline only unto evill yet the particular use and exercise of those is alwaies free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our corruption is allwaies free to the committing of this or that sinne according unto emergent occasions standing in congruity to every man's particular dispositioÌ„ 2. The Authour keepes himselfe to the language of his own Court but he should not so imperiously put it upon his opposites to concurre with him in the language of Ashdod We know nothing that necessitates the will to sinne but that originall corruption wherein every man is conceived and which we brought with us into the world For that makes us impatient of a yoake like unruly Heyfers And nothing is more burthensome unto us in our corrupt nature then the holy lawes of God The statutes of Omri are not so nor all the manner of the house of Ahab these are punctually observed when God's holy ordinances are proudly despised God moves every creature to worke agreeably to ' its nature Necessary Agents necessarily contingent Agents contingently Free Agents freely He doth not move to any such act as is sinfull save only where the feare of God is not at all found or not quickned but the motions and suggestions of Satan entertained nor then neither alwaies and that not only in his own children but even in the hearts of the wicked to restraine from sinfull courses in spight of Satans temptations by injecting into their minds the consideration either of danger or of shame ensuâ—ng so in a naturall way to restraine from the committing of such an act as is sinfull especially when he seeth it prejudiciall to the peace of his Church in generall or any member thereof in particular otherwise if he gives them over to Satan and moves them agreably to his suggestions entertained by them as being naturally well pleased with them why should this seem strange to any So that not any sin is inevitably committed by the most wicked creature that lives upon the face of the earth but he hath power enough I doe not say to avoid it an absurd phrase as if sinne were a thing to be forced upon a man whether he would or no but to abstaine from it though not in a gracious manner that being in the power of them only who have the spirit of regeneration dwelling in them 3. In the same language he prosecutes his vile cause giving manifest evidence to the world that it cannot be supported without lyes nor embraced by any but those whom God in his secret judgments hath given over to strong illusions to believe lyes It is not incredible to me that ever any Papist or Protestant hath affirmed that God necessitates the will to sinne They generally acknowledge that evill hath no cause efficient but deficient only The terme of God's operation is no other then the substance of the act which as an entity and as an act must necessarily proceed from God as Aquinas hath delivered And albeit they maintaine that God's concurrence to the producing of the act doth worke upon the will of the creature which from the first time that Divines came resolutely unto the acknowledgment of this Divine concourse to the act of sin hath also been received
magistrates have spared such offenders as have been overswayed with passions which did but incline not determine them to their irregular actions they would never have punished any trespassers if they had thought them to be such by invincible necessity Or if offenders did thinke that their offences were their destinies and that when they murther steale commit adultery make insurrections plot treasons or practise any other outragious villanies they doe them by the necessity of Gods unalterable decree and can doe no otherwise they would and might compâ—aine of their punishments as unjust as Zenoes servant did when he was beaten by his master for a fault he told him out of his own grounds that he was unjustly beaten Because he was â—fato coactus peccare constrained to make that fault by his undeclinable fate The Adâ—umctine Monks misled by Saint Austin Epist 105. ad sixtum Presbyterum which he calleth a booke wherein he setteth downe his opinion concerning Gods grace did so teach grace that they denyed free will And this Saint Austin confuted in his booke De gratia liberoarbitrio And thinking the grace of God as Saint Austin taught to be such as could not stand with freedome of will they thought that no man should be punished for his faults but rather prayed for that God would give them grace to doe better Against this Austin directed his other booke De correp gratiá In which discourse though it be grace that is still named yet predestination is included For as Kimedontius saith truely in his preface to Luther De servo arbitrio Between grace and predestination there is only this difference as Saint Austin teacheth Libro de praedest Sanctorum cap. 10. that predestination is a preparation of grace and grace a bestowing of predestination As Zenoes servant and these Monks did so would all men judge did they considerately thinke that men could not choose but offend And what would be the resultance of such a perswasion but an inundation of the greatest insolencies and dissolution of all good goverment Indeed if our doctrine make sin to be no sin and therewithall take away the conscience of sin it is not to be marvailed if it take away the desert and guilt of sinne For as sinne is no sinne so likewise it is as fit that the desert and guilt of sinne should be the desert and guilt of no sinne and so no desert or guilt at all This Authour to serve his own turne takes great libery of discourse in talking of offences fatall these were called by Austin profane novelties of words Yet elsewhere he professeth that if no other thing were meant hereby then the divine providence Sententiam teneant linguaÌ„ corrigant let theÌ„ hold their orthodoxe meaning but let theÌ„ correct their language Now by providence divine is meant the will of God working every thing that is good and permitting every thing that is evill And without this will of God not any thing comes to passe in the judgment of Austin Non aliquid sit saith he nisi oÌ„nipotens furi velit vel sinenâ—o ut fiat vel ipse faciendo Not any thing comes to passe unlesse Almighty God will have it come to passe either by suffering it or by 〈◊〉 working of it to wit if evill suffering it if good working it but of each he professeth that God wills it The abominable outrages committed upon the person of the holy Son of God were such as God's hand and God's counsell sore determined that is as much as to say antecedently determined to be done And the â—en Kings in giving their kingdomes to the Beast are said herein to have agreed to dce God's will Yet this Authour dares not say that these actions could not be justly punished Yet the maintainets of destiny as I have shewed out of Austin denyed that the wills of men were subject to destiny while this Authour talkes in their language why doth he not talke in their meaning And if he talkes in our meaning why doth he not talke in our language Now Austin farther saith is I have shewed out of the same place that they who exempted the wills of men from all necessity seared a vaine and causelesse feare professing that as to some necessity the will is not subject such as is the necessity of death which befalls us whether we will or no. So to some necessity it may be subject without any danger and that necessity he expresseth to be such as when we say it must needs be that such a thing come to passe Now such a necessity and no other is granted by us as consequent to the will of God so that if God will give a man faith it must needs be such a man shall believe if he will give repentance it must needs be that such a man shall repent If he will keep such a man as Abimelech from sinning against him it must needs be that such a man shall be kept from sinning against him If God will not give a man faith nor repentance it must needs be that such a man will not believe will not repent In like manner if God will not keepe a man from sinne but suffer him to sinne it needs must be that such a one shall sinne If God harden the heart of Pharoah so that he shall not set Israel goe undoubtedly so it shall come to passe If God put it into the hearts of the Kings to give up their kingdomes to the Beast they shall infallibly give their Kingdomes to the Beast If he gives men over unto a Reprobate mind to doe things inconvenient undoubtedly being thus prostituted by God to their own corruption from within and to the power of Satan from without they shall doe those inconvenient things be they never so abominable yet not necessarily much lesse in the way of absolute necessity as this Authour wordeth it affecting to speake with a full mouth which is a quality naturall to these Arminians and runnes in a blood but proveth nothing but contingently and freely not only with a possibility but also with an active power to the contrary And if freely then surely their works are their own proceeding from their own power and soveraignty but yet not supreame and absolute dominion and independent in their operation on God their maker God must have the prerogative still of being the first mover the first cause the first Agent the first free Agent So farre off are we from maintaining that the actions of men have their being by absolute necessity that we utterly deny any thing in the world to have ' its existence by absolute necessity saving God alone as before I have shewed Sciendum saith Durand quod loquendo de necessitate simpliciter voluntas divina nec imponit nec imponere potest rebus necessitatem nec res creatae sunt capaces talis necessitatis We are to know that speaking of necessity simply so called the will of God neither doth
gift of God Him God raised to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel forgivenesse of sins Then hath God also unto the Gentiles given repentance unto life If so be God may give them repentance What then Shall this Authour 's not Logick but Rhetoricke whereinto his Logick is transform'd to the wonder of all that know him in the University like some Medusa's head turne us into stones and in spight of Scripture evidence drive us to deny that either faith or repentance is the gift of God For if it be the gift of God is not somewhat else required to the working of faith in us over and above all these enforcements Not one Arminian hitherto have I found daring to deny that faith is the gift of God Yet ever since I read them in their Censura Censurae to deny that Christ hath merited faith and regeneration for us I looked when they would come to deale seriously and sincerely And if they have any such meaning clearely to professe as much namely that faith is not the gift of God But if this Authour's meaning be that God gives it to all that have it and is also ready to give it to them that have it not próvided that they will doe their own part seing he chargeth us to make God's waies void of truth and syncerity how comes it to passe that this Authour carrieth himselfe so subdolously shewes so little sincerity and clearenesse in dealing plainly telling us that this is his meaning Is it because we are ready to conclude upon him that he is as errand a Pelagian as ever was in maintaining that grace is conferred according to works Why doth he carry himselfe and his opinions in huggar muggar if he be of that mind and doth not plainly shew himselfe to be a Pelagian and prove to the world that Pelagianismus est verus Christianismus Pelagianisme is true Christianity and in the next place oppose Paul also in saying that God saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace and that he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth 2ly Consider further the strange infatuation of this Author more waies then one For 1 inquire of him whether after all this worke of the ministery performed by him unto reprobates he thinks not himselfe bound to pray unto God for a blessing upon his labours whereby it may become effectuall unto them and that upon this ground because Paul may plant and Apollo may water but God is he who gives the encrease And let him expresse what the encrease is which he beggeth at the hand of God whether it be not the performance of those duties whereunto he hath exhorted them in the most emphaticall manner that the word of God doth afford any example of And if no more be required for the working of man's will to that which is good having as this Authour supposeth a power to performe obedience if they will then these enforcements which he so much amplifies whereto tend his prayers after all these enforcements are used is it that God will afford his concourse to the act Why is this a worke of grace Doth not God afford this to the most sinfull act that is without all prayers And is it decent to maintaine that God of himselfe is forward enough to afford concourse to such acts as are evill be they never so abominable but to concurre with us to that which is good he stands off and must be entreated and sollicited by our prayers earnest and fervent otherwise he will be slacke to concurre to that which is good though nothing slack to concurre to that which is evill Nay is it possible that man should will ought or doe ought and God not concurre with him to the producing both of the will and the deed Now I had thought prayers tended to the procuring of works of grace such as concourse is not as which is performed of God 1. To sinfull acts as well as to pious acts 2. And that necessarily upon supposition that the reasonable creature doth ought Consider farther if his prayers tend only to the procuring of God's concurrence and this concurrence is upon supposition of mans concurrence let the indifferent I say consider the genius of this man's prayers For albeit the forme of them runnes thus that God will convert his hearers to faith to repentance and to work in them that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ yea to worke in them both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure to circumcise their hearts to love the Lord their God with all their hearts with all their souls to heal their backslidings yea as he seeth all their waies so to heale them to cause them to walke in his statutes and to keep his judgments and to doe them yea to put his feare in their hearts that they may never depart away from him For thus he must pray if he pray in faith built upon God's promises we having speciall promises for all these particulars yet his meaning is no more then this that as many of his Auditors as he findes willing to doe ought of this that God will concurre with them to make them willing And as many as doe performe it he will concurre to the performance of it as for those that are unwilling he will not pray that God will make them willing though that hath been ever the Lords course towards some as Austin often professeth And as for that prayer of Austin Da Domine quod jubes jube quid vis Lord give me to doe what thou commandest and then command what thou will Like enough he spights it as much as ever Pelagius did But if any are forward to hate to despite God's word or the professours of his truth he will not pray unto God to concurre with them thereunto For he knowes God's forwardnesse to concurre to the performance of every abominable act without his prayers Nay in despite of any prayers to the contrary And doth he not thinke it in vaine for the holiest man that ever was to pray for this 3. Againe observe he saith that by our doctrine the whole ministery is a mere imposture why because it is in shew hearty and serious but in truth nothing so But what moves him to say this doth not God procure hereby the conversion salvation of millions vea of many of those who have crucified the Son of God who have persecuted his Church Do we not believe that a time shall come wherin the Jews shall be cōverted in spight of all their former obstinacy in despight of all their blasphemies powred sorth against the Son of God But he will say that grace is shewed only to the Elect by our opinion But here let every indifferēt person judg between us of the equity of this his discourse The whole
the heart of his servants that I might worke these my miracles in the middest of his realme Here we have plaine enforcements those of great power used by the Lord yet still the Lord continues to harden Pharaoh's heart and professeth as much not fearing the censure of any vile wretch to cast upon him the imputation of imposture throughout the whole course of his ministery And the truth is all the learned concurre in distinguishing between Voluntas praecepti voluntas propositi and count it absurd to inferre the purpose of God or his will to have such a thing done from his commanding it though this command be joyned with exhortation expostulations wishes or whatsoever other emphaticall expressions all which the learned conclude under Praeceptum as a signe of God's will And the Pelagians of old urged it no farther then as God's precept backt with what exhortations and enforcements soever thence to conclude that man had power to yeild obedience but not to conclude it was God's will it should come to passe and to impute desires unto God in proper speech which never are accomplished what an unscholasticall course is it even as much as to deny him to be God and to bereave him of his blessed condition by frustrating him of his desires Whereas the time shall come that the Elect of God shall be so blessed as to have no desire of theirs in vaine Neither doth the objectour introduced by St. Paul breake forth into any such blasphemy as to charge God with any imposture in hardning whom he will when neverthelesse the ministery of the word hath course with them as well as with any other but rather proposeth it as a thing unreasonable that God should complaine of mens disobedince when himselfe hath hardned their hearts whereby it comes to passe that it cannot be that they should obey God as they ought For who hath resisted his will Yet we know what answer the Apostle maketh to stop the mouthes of all such as call God to an account for his procedings But ô man who art thou who disputest with God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour And wilt not thou allow as much power unto God over thee or over the matter whereof thou wast made as the Potter hath power over the clay Proud man thinks himselfe able enough to believe to repent Now God by his passionate expressions in the Prophets discovereth the vanity of this proud conceit and laboureth by their little profiting by all these patheticall moving courses to manifest the strength of man's corruption And when they will not learne and receive this instruction by his workes he tells them the plaine truth of it to their faces Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Is this the course of imposture when he tells them to their faces that albeit he commands them exhorts them expostulates with them and expresses formes of desire of their obedience in his word yet except God gives them an heart they cannot perceive except God gives them eyes they cannot see except the Lord gives them eares they cannot heare What can be more plaine dealing then this Like as our Saviour no lesse plainly told the Jewes to their face He that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Yet was he earnest and patheticall enough in exhorting them to repentance by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist by his own ministery Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chicken under her wings and ye would not Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till that ye say Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. I come to this Author 's Prosopopey for the truth is his Rhetorick surmounts his Logicke whereat I wonder not a little O ye Reprobates once most dearely beloved in your father Adam But where hath he found in any of our Divines that Reprobates were at all beloved in our father Adam We all hold Reprobation to be as antient as election which St. Paul testifies to have been before the foundation of the world And to ordaine to damnation I should think is to hate rather then to love and this ordination divine was from everlasting And the Scripture hath taught us that the divine nature is without variablenesse or shadow of change He speakes in the language of his own Court when he talkes of sealing up under invincible sinne and misery The Scripture speaks of sealing unto the day of redemption by God's holy spirit which gives them assurance that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation That God will deliver them from every evill work preserve them to his heavenly kinngdome But no such spirit is given to Reprobates to assure them of their damnation so to seale them up under invincible sin misery They are under the power of Satan but he hath neither power nor authority to assure them of their damnation And albeit this Authour fashions a discourse to reprobates as if they were a sect well known Yet we are so farre from knowing who they are that they are in our opinion neither known to themselves nor known to Satan no nor to God's holy Angells unlesse he reveale it unto them If we should have any cause to addresse our selves to Reprobates which kind of case and occasion is incomprehensible by me we should describe them no otherwise then thus O ye who are not only for the present under the power of Satan and so are all God's elect before the time of regeneration but will continue vassalls unto him even unto death going on from sinne to sinne and never breaking them off by repentance but continuing to despise the goodnesse of God leading thereunto Now this being only in reference to the time to come I cannot speake to any in present under this forme absolutely but hypothetically For none are Reprobates to us but such who finally persevere in impenitency Therefore I cannot exhort them to amend their lives under the stile of Reprobates but as such who although they are under the power of sinne and Satan may for ought I know belong to God's election and in good time come out of the snare of Satan And because the ministry of the word is the only meanes whereby God brings men unto
is sufficient to disparage his cause with all that are indifferent and judicious The Scripture plainly professeth that faith is the gift of God repentance is the gift of God But as he carrieth the matter nothing lesse appeares then that this is his opinion Yet I know he dares not in plaine termes oppose the cleare evidence of Scripture in this Now if faith be the gift of God withall he gives it without difference to all thē all must believe which is notoriously palpably untrue If he gives it only to some thē all the rest are mocked by God according to this Authours discourse as often as he saith unto them believe and ye shall be saved And to whom he saith this to them he saith also Oh that there were such an heart in them to feare me c. If he saith he gives faith absolutely to none but conditionally and upon the same condition he is ready to give to all this is clearely to confesse that the grace of God is given according to man's workes Againe 't is God that worketh in us both the will and the deed and that according to his good pleasure if according to his good pleasure How can it be said that it is according to the preparation of the creature Then what condition can be devised whereupon God workes in us the will If he say the grace which God gives to all and whereby to believe to repent is made a thing possible unto all For thus we must proceed groaping after his meaning he affecting nothing more then to sculke and earth himselfe in his concealements I answer first The Scripture makes no mention of any such power given to any but to the contrary professeth of all persons unregenerate that they cannot please God that They cannot discerne the things of God 1 Co 2. 14 that They cannot believe that They cannot repent Ro 24 that they are not subject to the law of God nor can be 2ly The Scripture plainly saith that faith is the gift of God repentance is the gift of God It doth not say that the power to believe if they will is the gift of God If he saith by faith is meant such a power whereby a man may believe if he will I prove the contrary then all men should have faith For in this mans opinion all men are indued with this power But the Apostle plainly saith that All men have not faith Againe faith is described to be The faith of God's Elect but a power to believe if we will this Authour makes common to the Elect with Reprobates Moreover if to give power to believe if a man will be to give him faith then in as much as God gives power to sinne if he will he may be said as well that God gives sinne Adde to this that to have power to believe if one will is rather nature then grace For it is no more then posse fidem habere and this is the nature of man as Austin testifies Posse fidem habere naturae est hominum fidem habere gratiae est fidelium 'T is the nature of man that he may have faith but it is of the grace of the faithfull that a man hath faith And indeed if faith given us of God did only inable us to believe if we will it were farre inferiour to a morall vertue which doth not give man power to be vertuous if he will or to performe a vertuous act if he will but makes him vertuous and disposeth the will to vertuous acts only and leaves him not indifferent whether he will performe vertuous acts or no. To returne then if no other grace be required to free God from mocking and deriding his creature surely we are as free as our adversaries from making God to deride and mocke his creature For we are ready to grant that all men may believe if they will repent if they will with Austin l. 1. de Gen cont Man cap 3. De spiritu liter â ad Marcellin cap 32. De praedest in Sanct cap 5. And our reason is this Not to be able to doe that which a man will doe is impotency merely naturall but the impotency that we speake of which is hereditary to all mankind by reason of the fall is impotency morall and resident in the will of man For who doubts but that the will to believe is to believe For credimus si volumus So the will to repent is to repent For repentance in the root thereof is nothing else but the change of the will And Pelagius of three things proposed Posse Velle Agere he willingly granted the first to wit Posse bonum to be from God but he denied the other two to be the works of God but of our free wills which if he had acknowledged to be the workes of God as well as the first Austin tells him that ab Apostolicâ doctrinâ abhorrere non videretur he should not seeme to vary from the doctrine of the Apostles And for ought I see this Authour goes not one step beyond Pelagius He acknowledgeth that God doth perswade and exhort to believe so did Pelagius ibid. cap. 10. He saith also that God doth concurre to the act but so he doth in his opinion to every sinfull act so that this is but a generall concourse and what Pelagian was ever known to deny but that God might have as great an hand in any good act as in any naturall act Now since we acknowledge all this as well as he what colour hath he to impute unto us that we by our doctrine so fashion God's providence as to make him deride and mock miserable people Though the Jebusites did mock David as this Authour gives his word for it though I doe not find that Ribbi David Kimhi or Piscator count it any derision but a plaine representation of their confidence that David was never able to take it such was the strength of the tower◠that the weakest even the blind and the lame were sufficient to defend it Though withall Kimhi acquaints us with a strange story out of the Jews Darashe of a Covenant made between Abraham and King Abimelech and that concerning not him alone but his Son and his Nephew to suffer them quietly to enjoy their own And that the Nephew of that Abimelech was alive at that time when David came to besiege that fort And that therein the Jebusites had erected two Images the one blind to represent I saack who in his old age was blind and the other lame representing Jacob who by wrestling with God became lame and in the mouthes of these Images was kept the Covenant which was made between Abraham and Abimelech The instance he gives of a proclamation which takes up the greatest part of this supplement as a great part of this Authour's discourse is spent in such insicete representations is most incongruous not only to the matter whereunto it is applyed but to
out of Calvin Behold he directs his voice unto them that they may be the more deafe He kindles a light but that they may be made more blind He giveth them a remedie that they might not be healed Now Calvin herein points to that of Esay Goe and say to the children of Israel hearing heare but understand not seeing see but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat or obstinate and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts convert and be healed And Calvin doth but relate what the Lord saith to Esay Ecce vocem ad eos dirigit Behold by this place of the prophet Esay to what end the Lord sends his prophet to speake unto them Now if Calvin doth herein misinterpret that place of the prophet Esay it became this Author to except against his interpretation and discover the unsoundnes of it But taking no such course and consequently by his silence being an adversary justifying his interpretation while he reproacheth Calvin in this particular he reproacheth the Holy Ghost whose words he represents delivered unto his prophet The next passage is taken out of Beza in his Praelud on the 9. to the Rom p. 434. where he sayth It ought not to seem absurd that God unto Reprobates liuing in his Church doth offer grace in his word and Sacraments For he doth it not to this end that they may be saved but that they may have lesse excuse then others and at length be more greviously punished And indeed why should this seeme aliene from the course of Gods providence revealed in his word testifying that the invisible things of God to wit his eternall power and Godhead are made manifest by his works to the ena men might be without excuse And what this excuse is S. Austin tells us saying It is spoken of such an excuse as men in their pride are wont to pretend saying Si scissem fecissem had I knowne it I would have done it And Eze 2. 5. The Lord manifests the same end of his sending Ezech unto the Jewes For he told him They would not heare For they were a rebellious house vet saith he they shall know that there hath beene a prophet among them And let every indifferent man judge whether the very place in Iohn If I had not come and spoken unto them they should not have had sin but now have they noe cloak for their sin doth not justifye that conclusion which Maccovius drawes therehence namely that Therefore God sent his son unto them that by the contempt and hatred of his sonne they might procure unto themselves the greater damnation For he professeth that by his comming and speaking unto them all excuse was taken from them And let every one judge whether contempt in such a manner doth not procure greater damnation And old Simeon professeth that Christ should be set up as to the rising of some so to the falling of others And long before the Lord professeth that he should be as a net and a snare to both houses of Israel Yet I am not of Maccovius his mind in saying that God proposeth his word unto Reprobates to noe other end but this But certainly he proposeth it not unto them to the end that they should be saved by it And let every sober man judge whether it be not better to ascribe such intentions unto the divine nature as are fulfilled rather then such as are not fullfilled P. 94. Where he layes to our charge that our doctrine hinders piety and godly life Sect 2. he hath this passage inserted It is absolutely decreed that Devills shall be damned were it not a fruitlesse thing in them by prayers teares and endeavours to seeke to alter it It is also simply decreed that the soule of man shall be immortall Is it not a labour in vaine for any man to use meanes that his soule may be annihilated It is ordained that the sun shall rule the Day and the Moone the Night that the one shall finish his proper course in a yeare the other in a month Would not a mans endeavour to make an alteration in these things be unprofitable and ridiculous Although that which I have said upon this Section in answer to M. Hord be sufficient to shew the absurditie of this Authors discourse yet I think good to accommodate what there I have delivered to this also especially to the particular instance of Divells And first it is a thing worthy our consideration that he saith It is absolutely decreed that Divels shall be damned Now if this be true then the divine decree concerning the damnation of Divells is an absolute decree now this decree is not temporall but eternall Now if the eternall decree of God concerning the damnation of Divells be absolute why should not Gods eternall decree of the damnation of men be absolute also let him mumble upon this argument and acquaint us with his answer thereunto when he thinks good When he discourseth of the fruitlesse nature of the Divells prayers and teares and endeavours to alter this decree he seemes to me to suppose that the Divells are not bereaved of their free-will to pray and which were more then wonderfull in their state of innocencie to shed teares and to performe holy endeavours and if this were true it were unreasonable for us to deny that Arminians had the like power left unto them But if they have no such freedome of will what totter tooke this Author to discourse of the fruitlesse exercise of such a power Would he not think our braine were crackt if wee should tell him how fruitlesse his course would be to clamber up into the world of the Moone seeing it is as possible for him to be Lunatick here as well as there Yet if the Divells have any such freedome of will left them whereby they may attaine to holynesse their endeavours that way though fruitlesse in respect of the altering of Gods decree yet surely would not be fruitlesse in another respect For better it were by farre I should think for them to repent and submit to the will of God in suffering Hell paines then to blaspheme in suffering them But be it so that not only Gods decree be absolute concerning their damnation but that their first sinne did put them quite out of the way and is to them as death to men Yet such is not the condition of men And albeit the decree of damnation both of Divells and men be absolute yet neither the one nor the other was decreed to be brought upon them absolutely but upon the Angells in case they kept not their owne habitation upon men in case they did not only sinne but finally persevere in sinne without repentance Though in this respect there is no place for the repentance of Angells yet place there is for the repentance of men and by repentance
They who make the starres the fates of men are more tolerable then he who taketh away the foreknowledge of things to come For to confesse that there is a God to deny him to be foreknowing of things future is a most open madnes And againe in the same place Sed quoquomodo se habent tortuosissimae concertationes disputationes Philosophorum nos ut confitemur summum verum Deum ita voluntatem summamque potestatem ac praescientiam ejus confitemur Afterwards again Religiosus autē animus utrumque eligit utrumque confitetur fide pietatis utrūque confirmat that is both the liberty of the will Gods prescience Quod verò Cicero negat ordinem omnium causarum esse certissimum Dei praescientiae notissimum plus eum quam Stoici detestamur Aut enim Deum esse negat c. Aut si esse confitetur Deū quem negat praescium futurorum etiam sic dicit nihil aliud quà m ille dixit insipiens in corde suo non est Deus Qui enim non est praescius omnium futurorum non est utique Deus To confesse that there is a God and to deny his foreknowledge is to say with the foole in his heart that there is no God For he who doth not foreknow things to come is not God Other testimonies you may see quoted in Suarez lib. 1. De scientià futurorum contingentium absoluta cap. 2. Out of other places of Austin as also out of Fulgentius and Anselme But I may very well spare this labour of citing the Ancients seeing M. Hord or M. Mason I know not well which tells us that the Fathers did generally make sinne an object of Gods prescience and therefore they maintained That there was prescience in God As for the Schoolemen they in their Commentaries upon Aquinas Sum. 1. p. Q. 14. Art 13. And on Lombard lib. 1. dist 38. 39. doe generally resolve nemine contradicente that I know That Gods foreknowledge of things to come is a point certaine de fide And amongst those that are called Protestants I know none that oppose it save the Socinians against whom in this particular you may read Stagman Photinianis disp 13. And Johannes Junius in refutat praelect Fausti Socini cap. 8. 9. 10. 11. The Arminians however now some of them walke in the cloudes and will not speake out yet at first the Ringleaders did not stick to professe that election was upon foresight of perseverance in faith and reprobation upon foreknowledge of perseverance in infidelity and impenitency D. Twisse tells us That Gods foreknowledge of things future is a point assented unto by and uncontroverted amongst all Christians De Scientia Media p. 245. Extra controversiam est apud Christianos omnes futura omnia quantumvis contingentia Deo not a fuisse idque ab aeterno neque mirum cum nihil positivum aut sit aut futurum sit in rerum naturà cujus productionem non operetur ipse Deus idque in genere causae efficientis consèquentérque cujus productionem non ab aeterno decreverit quá de re nulla fere inter Christianos hodie saltem eruditiores viget Controversia And hereupon it is that he censureth the proofes brought by Suarez for the confirmation of it to be needlesse Pergit Suarez in confirmatione ejus de quo Christianus nullus dubitat abidem And againe in his book against M. Cotton p. 69. he saith That for men with Cicero to deny that God foreknowes things to come is to turne Atheist But against this cloud of witnesses I foresee that you will take sanctuary in those two termes Formally and Properly though none save Atheists and Socinians deny the Prescience of God yet notwithstanding this it is say you the constant assertion both of Ancient and moderne Divinity That Prescience or foreknowledge are not Formally or Properly in God To make this good you only quote Austin in your Margent and Gregory unto whose sayings alleadged by you every Schooleman almost that dissenteth from the Dominicans about the presence of things in eternity gives an answer of which if you be ignorant you must needs be a very great stranger to Schoole Divinity You tell us next that the Learned assertors of the Protestant cause are at perfect agreement with their adversaries the Schoolemen and Papists in this assertion That prescience or foreknowledge are not properly or formally in God This is a thing which those that dissent from you would in all likelyhood question and yet you bring not so much as one instance out of either Protestant or Papist to make it good That there is such a peace and concurrence of judgement about this between Protestants and Papists I never read or heard of before And if you can prove it by an induction I will confesse my ignorance If any such unwary passages as you here speake of have dropt from the pennes of either Protestants or Papists I suppose they are to be qualified and understood in the like manner that Suarez understands and qualifieth the speech of those who deny knowledge to be properly and formally in God They take saith he knowledge as signifying a quality or habit produced by some power or knowledge gained or gotten by way of discourse or inference or including some such like imperfection In like manner if any either Protestants or Papists have denyed foreknowledge to be properly and formally in God they are to be understood concerning such a foreknowledge as is found in men in whom 't is cloathed with many imperfections from which 't is abstracted as it is ascribed unto God But I shall take a more particular and distinct notice of these two termes Formally and Properly in reference unto the attribution of foreknowledge unto God And first let us enquire whether foreknowledge can formally be ascribed unto God The terme Formally may be opposed unto either Eminently or Extrinsecall denominations First unto Eminently Perfections are either secundum quid in certo genere after a sort in such a kind or else simply such The former doe so essentially imply some imperfection limitation or composition as that they cannot possibly be abstracted therefrom and therefore are ascribed unto God only eminently or vertually But now the latter doe include no imperfection or repugnancy with or opposition unto any greater or equall perfection And these perfections are ascribed unto God Formally as you may see proved by Suarez Met. Disp 30. Sect. 1. num 8. 9. De perfectionibus ergo simpliciter dicendum est omnes esse in Deo formaliter quia in suo formali conceptu nullam imperfectionem sed puram perfectionem involvunt neque inter se repugnantiam includunt unde sic illas habere id est formaliter melius est quam aliquà earum carere ideo de ratione Entis summe perfecti in totâ latitudine Entis est ut has omnes perfectiones formaliter includat Adde in his perfectionibus non posse
manner to command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne but it was not Gods determination that Isaack should be sacrificed In like sort he commanded Pharaoh to let Israel goe but withall he told Moses he would harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let them goe for a long time 2. But in the accommodation of these distinctions unto thy selfe What ground hast thou to affirme that God willeth not thy salvation in particular If thou believest Gods word assureth thee thou shalt be saved if thou believest not yet thou maist believe and Gods word hath power to bring thee unto faith as formerly I have discoursed And as for the best of Gods Children who doe believe to the great comfort of their soules rejoycing with joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. They were sometimes in as uncomfortable a condition as thou now art And the rather I put thee upon this because I see he that takes upon him to comfort thee doth take a course rather to feed thy humour then to remove it in as much as he never enquires into the cause thereof For albeit he gave to understand he would apply his argument with as much art and cunning as could be yet it may be that was rather with respect to the advantage of his own cause then to thy consolation But let us see whether he mends it in the next Minister Christ came into the World to seeke and to save what was lost and is a propitiation not for our sinnes only i. e. the sinnes of a few particular men or the sinnes of all sorts of men but for the sinnes of the whole World therefore he came to save thee for thou wast lost and to be a propitiation for thy sinnes for thou art part of the whole World CONSIDERATION Still he continues to afford thee as much comfort as any Reprobate in the world and if thou desirest no more thou maist rest satisfied with this but withall I confesse he affords thee as much comfort as he can afford any of Gods elect for he maketh elect and Reprobate all alike in receiving comfort from Gods Word Christ came into the world to save that which was lost but unlesse he came to save all that is lost it will not follow that he came to save thee We know that pardon of sinne and salvation is procured by Christ for none but such as believe and therefore be not deceived without faith looke for neither by faith be assured of both and that thou art one of Gods elect and no Reprobate And observe well he tells thee nothing of Christ meriting faith and repentance this now a dayes is plainly denyed by the Remonstrants and this Authour is content to say nothing of it when he is put to it we know what must be the issue of it if he sayeth Christ hath merited faith and repentance for thee the meaning is but this Christ hath merited that if thou wilt believe thou shalt believe if thou wilt repent thou shalt repent And that Christ hath merited that God should bestow faith and repentance not on whom he will according to the meere pleasure of his will but according to mens workes The comfort that our doctrine ministers unto thee is this If thou dost believe in Christ thou maist be assured thou art an elect of God if thou dost not believe there is no cause why thou shouldest thinke thy selfe a Cast-away for albeit thou hast not faith to day yet thou maist have faith to morrow Give thy selfe to Gods Word and waite upon him in his ordinances thou maist be so wrought upon as that unbeliever was 1 Cor 14. Who is there represented falling downe on his face and confessing that God was in the Preacher of a truth And though at first thou attendest to it but in a carnall manner yet God may open thy heart as he opened the heart of Lidia and make thee attend unto it in a gracious manner Tempted The World as I have heard is taken two waies in Scripture Largely for all mankind and strictly for the elect or believers In this latter sense Christ dyed for the World Or if for all yet it was only dignitate pretii not voluntate propositi thus only for a few selected ones with whom it is not my lot to be numbred CONSIDERATION Suffer not thy selfe to be abused by them who pretending thy comfort yet seeke nothing lesse but only the promoting of their owne cause And observe how he takes notice of no other benefits of Christs death then such as belong unto men upon the condition of faith to wit pardon of sinne and Salvation in which case the mention of Gods elect comes in very unseasonably And thus is the love of God set forth unto us so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And if it be not thy lot to be numbred amongst believers then we can give thee by Gods Word no assurance of thy Salvation But if thou art not a believer yet thou maist be in good time as formerly I have spoken more at large and therefore no reason to think thou art a Reprobate And if once thou dost believe in Christ our doctrine gives thee assurance of Justification Salvation and Election the Arminan doctrine doth not As for faith and repentance we say Christ hath merited them also but to be bestowed how According to mens workes say our Arminians though forraine Arminians professe plainly that Christ merited not faith and regeneration for any And if thou relishest this comfort be satisfied with it we say faith and repentance are bestowed absolutely according to the meere pleasure of Gods will and accordingly Christ merited them but not for all for then all should believe and repent and be saved but only for some and who can these be but Gods elect whence it followeth clearly that whosoever believes may by our doctrine be assured of his election not so by the doctrine of Arminians but if thou believest not thou art in no worse case then the best of Gods childern have been for there was a time when they believed not therefore thou hast no more cause to think thy selfe a cast-away then they had Minister God hath founded an universall Covenant with men upon the bloud of Christ and therefore he intended it should be shed for all men universally he hath made a promise of salvation to every one that will believe and excludes none that will not believe CONSIDERATION This I confesse is to administer as much comfort as is administred to any Reprobate but how can this qualify thy discomfort and discontent which riseth from this conceit that thou art a Reprobate And the truth is that by our Doctrine wee were all in a miserable case if Gods Covenant of grace extended no farther then this But hath not God promised to be our Lord and our God that sanctifyeth us to circumcise our hearts and the hearts