to be superfluous because both Life and Death are rather the Acts of Gods Will then of his Prescience or fore-knowledge And then he adds as of his own that if God did but fore-see the successes of men and did not also dispose and order them by his Will then this Question should not without cause be moved Whether his fore seeing any thing availed to the necessity of them But since sayth he he doth no otherwise fore-see the things that shall come to pass then because he hath decreed that they should so come to pass it is in vain to move any Controversy about Gods fore-knowledge where it is certain that all things do happen rather by divine Ordinance and appointment ' Yet notwithstanding all these shifts he is forced to acknowledge the Decree of Adams Fall to be Horribile decretum A cruell and horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruell and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many Millions to destruction and consequently unto sinne that he might destroy them And then what can the wicked and Impenitent do but ascribe all their sinnes to God by whose inevitable Will they are lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated to death and so by consequence to sin A Doctrine so injurious to God so destructive of Piety of such reproach amongst the Papists and so offensive to the Lutherans of what sort soever that they profess a greater readiness to fall back to Popery then to give way to this Predestinarian Pestilence by which name they call it to come in amongst them V. But howsoever having so great a Founder as Calvin was it came to be generally entertained in all the Churches of his Plat-form strongly opposed by Sebastian Castellino in Geneva it self but the poor man so despightfully handled both by him and Beza who followed him in all and went beyond him in some of his Devises that they never left pursuing him with Complaints and Clamours till they had first cast him out of the City and at the last brought him to his Grave The terrour of which example and the great name which Calvin had attained unto not only by his diligent Preaching but also by his laborious Writings in the eye of the World As it confirmed his power at home so did it make his Doctrines the more acceptable and esteemed abroad More generally diffused and more pertinaciously adhered unto in all those Churches which either had received the Genevian Discipline or whose Divines did most industriously labour to advance the same By means whereof it came to pass as one well observeth ' that of what account the Master of the Sentences was in the Church of Rome the same and more amongst the Preachers of the Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased so that they were deemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his Writings His Books almost the very Canon by which both Doctrine and Discipline were to be judged The French Churches both under others abroad or at home in their own Country all cast according to the Mold which he had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their own Reformation took the self same pattern ' Received not long after in the Palatine Churches and in those of the Netherlands In all which as his Doctrine made way to bring in the Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support the Doctrine and crush all those who durst oppose it Only it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat wilder then the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself had more rightly placed in Massa corrupta in the corrupted Mass of Man-kinde and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for the Election or Reprobation of particular persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election or Reprobation of particular persons the restraining of the Benefit of our Saviours Sufferings to those few particulars whom only they had honoured with the glorious name of the Elect the working on them by the irresistible powers of Grace in the Act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the sayd Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of their Deviation they being scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main Foundation which they built upon but passing under the name of Calvinists as they thus did And though such of the Divines of the Belgick Churches as were of the old Lutheran Stock were better affected unto the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination then to that of Calvin yet knowing how pretious the Name and Memory of Calvin was held amongst them or being unwilling to fall foul upon one another they suffered his Opinions to prevail without opposition And so it stood till the year 1592. when Mr. William Perkins an eminent Divine of Cambridge published his Book called the Armilla Aurea c. containing such a Doctrine of Predestination as Beza had before delivered but cast into a more distinct and methodical Form With him as being a Foreiner both by Birth and Dwelling a Supralapsarian in Opinion and one who had no personal Relations amongst themselves it was thought fittest to begin to confute Calvins Doctrines in the person of Perkins as many times a Lion is sayd to be corrected by the well Cudgelling of a Dog without fear of danger And against him it was his order in delivering the Decree of Predestination that Arminius first took up the Bucklers in his Book intituled Examen Praedestinationis Perkinsoniae which gave the first occasion to those Controversies which afterwards involved the Sublapsarians also of which more hereafter VI. In the mean time let us behold the Doctrine of the Supralapsarians first broacht by Calvin maintained by almost all his Followers and at last polished and lickt over by the sayd Mr. Perkings as it was charged upon the Contra Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. in these following words Viz. ' That God as some speak by an eternal and unchangable Decree from amongst men whom he considered as not created much less as falâ— ordained certain to eternal life certain to eternal death without any regard had to their righteousness or sin to their obedience or disobedience only because it was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdom and free Authority or Jurisdiction ' many being also so ordained by his eternal and unchangable decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to Salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destined to destruction who are
necessitated to returne an Answer to it which he published in the second or third year of Queen Elizabeth In which Answer he not only cleares himselfe from favoring the Pelagian errors in the Doctrin of Freewill Justification by works c. but solidly and learnedly refuteth the opinions of certaine English Writers and Preachers whom he accuseth for teaching of false and scandalous Doctrin under the name of Predestination for his preparation whereunto he states the point of universall redemption by the death of Christ out of the parrallel which St. Paule hath made between Christ and Adam that by the comparison of condemnation in Adam and redemption in Christ it might more plainly be perceived that Christ was not inferiour to Adam nor Grace to sin And that as all the generation of man is condemned in Adam so is all the generation of man redeemed in Christ and as general a Saviour is Christ by Redemption as Adam is a condemner by transgression Which ground so laid he shows how inconsistent their opinions are to the truth of Scripture who found the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation on Gods absolute pleasure by which infinitely the greatest part of all mankind is precedaniously excluded from having any part or interess in this redemption reprobated to eternall death both in body and soule as the examples of his vengeance and consequently preordained unto sin as the means unto it that so his vengeance might appear with the face of Justice Which preordaining unto sin as it doth necessarily infer the laying of a necessity upon all mens actions whether good or bad according to that predeterminate Counsel and Will of God so these good men the Authors of the books before remembered doe expresly grant it acknowldgeing that God doth not only move men to sin but compell them to it by the inevitable rules of Predestination 9. But against this it is thus discoursed by the said Campneys that if Gods predestination be the only cause of Adams fall and filthy sin And consequently the only cause and worker of all evill yea even with compulsion and force as they shamefully and plainly affirm then will no man deny but that on the other side Gods predestination worketh as violently in all things that are good so then if Gods predestination work all without all exception both in evil and good then all other things whatsoever they be although they all appear to work and do some things yet do they indeed utterly nothing So that the Devill doth nothing Man doth nothing Laws do nothing Doctrine doth nothing Prayer doth nothing but Gods predestination doth all together and is the efficient cause yea and the only cause of all things He further proves that according unto this position they hold the errour both of the Stoicks as also of the Manicheans that is to say as St. Augustine declaeth that evill hath his original of Gods Ordinance and not of mans free-will for if Murtherers Adulterers Thieves Traitors and Rebels be of God predestinate and appointed to be wicked even as they are cannot chuse but of meer necessity by the Ordinance of God commic all such wickedness even as they doe then what is our life but a meer destiny All our doing God ordinances and all our immaginations branches of Gods Predestination And then we must have thieves by Predestination who remasters and Adulterers by Predestination Murderers and Traitors by Predestination and indeed what not if all mens actions are necessitated by the will of God and so necessitated that they can neither doe less evill nor more good then they doe though they should never so much endeavour it as some of our Calvinians teach us which opinion as Campneys hath observed is condemned by Prosper of Acquitaine in his defence of St. Augustine in these following words Predestinationem dei sive ad malum sive ad bonum c. That the predestination of God saith he doth worke in all men either into good or into evill is most foolishly said As though a certaine necessity should drive men unto both seeing in good things the evill is not to be understood without grace and in evill things the evil is to be understood without grace And so much touching Campneys and his performance in the points against the Gospellers some passages haveing before been borrowed from him concerning Lambert Gynnell and his Adherents For which see Chap. 6. Numb 11. 10. No sooner was this booke come out but it gave a very strong alarum to those of the Calvinian party within this Realm which had been very much encreased by the retiring of so many of our learned men to the Zuinglian and Genevian Churches in Queen Maryes dayes amongst which none more eagar because more concerned then Veron Crowly above mentioned The first of these being Reader of the Divinity Lecture in the Church of St. Pauls and one of the Chaplains to the Queen published his Answer shortly after called An Apology or Defence of the Doctrine of predestination and dedicated to the Queen in which Answer he gives his Adversary no better titles then the blind Guide of the free-will men p. 37. A very Pelagian and consequently a Rank Papist p 40. Suffering the Devill by such sectaries as Campneys to sow his lyes abroade c. and 41. The Stander-bearer of the free-will men His booke he calls a venemous and Railing booke upbraids him with his bearing of a fagot in K. Edwards dayes and chalenging him that if he be able to maintaine his own Doctrine and oppose that in the answer to it let him come forth and play the man Nor was it long before another Answer came out by the name of Crowly called an Apologie or defence of the English Writers and Preachers with Cerberus the three headed dog Hell Chargeth with false Doctrine under the name of Predestination printed at London in the yeare 1566. And by the title of this Book as we may see with what a strange Genius the Gospellers or Calvinians were possessed from the first beginning we may well conjecture at the Gentle usage which the poore man was like to finde in the whole discourse But if it be objected in favour of these two books that they were published by Authority and according to order when that of Campneys seems to have been published by stealth without the Name of Author or of Printer as is affirmed in Verons booke before remembred It may be since answered that the Doctrine of the Church was then unsetled the Articles of K. Edwards time being generally conceived to be out of force and no new established in their place when Veron first entered on the cause And secondly it may be answered that though Crowlyes Apologie came not out till the yeare 1566. when the new articles were agreed upon yet his treatise called a confutation of 13. Articles which gave occasion to the Quarrel had been written many years before And he conceived himselfe obliged to defend his
never was any more destructive of humane Society more contrary to the rule of Faith and Manners or more repugnant to the Divine Justice and Goodness of Almighty God then that which makes God to be the Author of sin A blaspemy first broacht in terms express by Florinus Blastus and some other of the City of Rome about the year 180. encountred presently by that godly Bishop and Martyr S. Irenaeus who published a Discourse against them bearing this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Viz. That God was not the Author of sin And he gave this Inscription to it as the Story telleth us because Florinus not content with those Vulgar Heresies which had been taken up before would needs break out into blasphemous Phrensies against God himself in making him the Author of all those sins which lewd men commit Which Doctrine were it once admitted not only the first sin of Adam but all the sins that have been hitherto perpetrated by his whole Posterity must be charged on God and he alone must be accountable for all Murthers Robberies Rapes Adulteries Insurrections Treasons Blasphemies Heresies Persecutions or any other Abominations which have been acted in the world since the first Creation For certainly there can be no reason why every man may not say on the committing of any sin whatsoever it be as did Lyconides in Plautus when he deâ—â—owred old Eudio's Daughter Deus mihi impulsor fuit is me ad illam illexit it was God alone who tempted and provoked them to those wicked Actions II. What Arguments the good Father used to cry down this Blasphemy for a Heresie is a name too milde for so lewd a Doctrine I cannot gather from my Author but such they were so operative and effectuall in stopping the current of the mischief that either Florinus and the rest had no followers at all as most Hereticks had or such as never attained to the height of their Masters Impudence And so that damnable Doctrine the doctrine of Devils I may call it seems to be strangled in the birth or to be buried in the same grave with the Authors of it never revived in more then thirteen hundred years after the death of Irenaeus when it was again started by the Libertines a late bâ—ood of Sectaries whom each of the two opposite parties are ashamed to own This taught as did Florinus in the Primitive times Quicquid ego tu facimus Deus efficit nam in nobis est That whatsoever thing they did was Gods working in them and therefore God to be intituled to those wicked Actions which themselves committed The time of their first breakings out affirmed to be about the year 1529. The Founders of this Sect Loppinus and Quintinus Flemmings both and this Prateolus affirms for certain to be the Progeny of Calvin and other leading men of the Protestant Churches They came saith he Eschola nostrae tempestatis Evangelicorum Bellarmine somewhat more remisly Omnino probabile est eos ex Calvinianis promanasse and makes it only probable that it might be so but not rightly neither The Libertines breaking out as before was said Ann. 1527. when Calvin was of little credit and the name of Calvinists or Calvinians not so much as heard of And on the other side Paraeus Professor of Divinity in the University of Hidelberg writing some Animadversions on the Cardinals Works assures us that they were both Papists acquaints us with the place of their Nativity and the proceedings had against them Nor was Calvin wanting for his part to purge himself from such an odious imputation not only by confuting their Opinions in a set Discourse but making one Franciscus Porquius a Franciscan Fryer to be a chief stickler in the Cause Against which I know nothing that can be said but that the doctrine of the Libertines in this particular doth hold more correspondence with Calvins Principles then any of the received Positions of the Fryers of S. Francis But whether it were so or not I shall make this Inference That the Doctrine must needs be most impious which both sides detested which the Papists laboured so industriously to Father on the Schools of Calvin and the Calvinians no less passionatly to charge on some of our great Masters in the Church of Rome III. But so it is that though the Impiety was too gross to appear bare fac'd yet there have been too many both in the Elder and these later times who entertaining in their hearts the same dreadâ—ul madness did recommend it to the world under a disguise though they agreed not at all in that Masque or Vizard which was put upon it Of this sort Manes was the first by birth of Persia Founder of the damnable Sect of the Manichaeans An. 273. or thereabouts This Wretch considering how unsuccesfully Florinus had sped before in making God who is all and only good to be the Author of sin did first excogitate two Gods the one good and the other evil both of like eternity ascribing all pious Actions to the one all Sins and Vices to the other Which ground so laid he utterly deprived the will of man of that natural liberty of which it is by God invested and therefore that in man there was no ability of resisting sin or not submitting unto any of those wicked Actions which his lusts and passions offered to him Contendebant item peccatum non esse a libero arbitrio sed a Daemone â—apropter non posse per liberum arbitrium impediri as my Author hath it Nor did they only leave mans will in a disability of hindering or resisting the incursions of sin but they left it also under an incapability of acting any thing in order to the works of Righteousness though God might graciously vouchsafe his assisting grace making no difference in this case betwixt a living man and a stock or Statua for so it follows in my Author Sed nullam prorsus voluntati tribuebant Actionem nec quidem adjuvante spiritu sancto quasi nihil interesset inter statuam voluntatem In both directly contrary to that divine counsel of S. James where he adviseth us to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and to receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls Cap. 1. ver 21. That of S. Peter exhorting or requiring rather That we work out our salvation with fear and trembling And finally that golden Aphorism of S. Augustine si non sit liberum arbitrium quomodo Deus judicabit mundum With what justice saith the Father can God judge or condemn the world if the sins of men proceed not from their own free will but from some over-ruling power which inforc'd them to it IV. Others there were who harbouring in their hearts the said lewd opinions and yet not daring to ascribe all their sins and wickednesses unto God himself imputed the whole blame thereof to the Stars and Destinies the powerful influence of
him or found them ready of themselves to promote the work began to spread abroad their Errors about the year 405. Amongst the which those that especially concern this purpose are these two that follow Viz. 1. Non esse liberum Arbitrium si Dei indiget auxilio quoniam in propria voluntate habet unusquisque facere aliquid vel non facere 2. Victoriam nostram non ex Dei adjutorio esse sed ex Libero Arbitrio That is to say 1. That there is no freedom of the will if it stand in any need of Gods assistance because every man hath it in the power of his own will either to do a thing or not to do it as to him seems best And 2. That our Victory over sin and Satan comes not of any help which we have from God but our own free will Add unto this that which must follow of necessity from the former Principles Orationes quas facit Ecclesia pro infidelibus aliis peccatoribus ut convertantur sive pro fidelibus ut perseverent frustra fieri That is to say That the Services of the Church which are made either for the conversion of the wicked or the perseverance of the Just are but labour lost because say they our own free will is able of it self to attain those ends and therefore it is to no purpose to ask those things at the hands of God which we may compass of our selves Quod ad illa omnia sufficicere dicant nostri Arbitrii liberam potestatem ita non opus esse a Deo petere quae nos ipsi consequi possumus as my Author hath it whose words I have layd down at large that we may see how much the world was carried to the other extreme how much the truth was lost on both sides and yet how easie to be found by those who went a middle way in the search thereof IX For looking on these last opinions as they stand in themselves we may affirm of them in general as Augustine doth particularly of the Stoical Fates Nil aliud agere nisi ut nullus omnino aut rogetur aut colater Deus They seem to aim at nothing more then the utter abolition of the Worship and Service of God But these Pelagian Heresies did not hold out long being solemnly condemned in the 2 Affrican Councels of Carthage and Milevis confuted by S. Augustine with great care and diligence and finally retracted by Pelagius himself in the Synod of Palestine So that the Heresie being suppressed the Catholick Doctrine in that Point became more setled and confirmed by the opposition such freedom being left to the will of man as was subservient unto grace co-operating in some measure with those heavenly influences And so much is confessed by S. Augustine himself where he asks this question Quis nostrum dicit quod primi hominis peccato perierit Arbitrium de humano genere Doth any man saith he affirm that free will is perished utterly from man by the fall of Adam And thereunto he makes this answer Libertas quidem periit per peccatum sed illa quae in Paradiso fuit habendi plenam cum immortalitate justitiam That is to say Freedom is perished by siâ— but it is that freedom only which we had in Paradise of having perfect righteousness with immortality For otherwise it appears to be his Opinion that man was not meerly passive in all the Acts of Grace which conduced to Glory according to the memorable saying of his so common in the Mouths of all men Qui creavit te sine te non salvabit te sine te That he who first made us without our help will not vouchsafe to save us at the last without our concurrence If any harsher expressions have escapt his Pen as commonly it hapneth in the heats of a disputation they are to be qualified by this last Rule and by that before in which it was affirmed That God could not with justice judge and condemn the World if all mens sins proceeded not from their own free will but from some over-ruling providence which enforc'd them to it 10. After this time we meet with no such Enemys to the Grace of God no such Advancers of mans free will and the power of Nature as might intitle any man to the Crime of Pelagianism It cannot be denied but that Illyricus and some other of the rigid Lutherans upbraided Melancthon and all the Divines in a manner both of Lipsique and Wittenberge with teaching that a man by the powers of Nature may yeild obedience to the Word embrace the Promises and make no opposition to the workings of the Holy Ghostâ— as hath been noted by Lyndanus But then it must be granted that when their works came to be weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary it will be found that they speak only of such a Synergie or cooperation as makes men differ from a sensless stock or liveless statua in reference to the great work of his own conversion And thereupon we may resolve that at the last the Church in general concentred upon these Propositions 1. Man in the state of corruption hath freedom of will in Actions natural and civil 2. That considered in the same estate he hath free will in matters moral And 3. That man hath free will in Actions of piety and such as belong unto his salvation that is to say Being first prevented by Gods Grace and having afterwards the assistance and support thereof which Propositions being easie and intelligible as they stand by themselves but are made more difficult and obscure even to learned men by interweaving them with many intricate disputes touching the correspondence of free will with Prescience Providence and Predestination disputes so intricate and perplexed that Armachanâ—s as great a Clerk as almost any in his time travelled no less then twenty years in the search of one of them alone and yet could not find it And yet I cannot say that the consent in those three Propositions before remembred in which the Church hath generally concentred since the death of S. Augustine hath met with no dissenting Judgment in these later times Some men restraining all our Actions to so strict a Rule as to make the will of man determined and tyed up in all particulars even to the taking up of a Rush or Straw as in another case it was taught by Cartwright the great Bel-weather of the Flock in Queen Elizabeths time sufficiently derided or rather gravely reprehended for it by judicious Hooker And if we meet with any thing which looks that way in the writings of some Dominican Friers who stifly stand to all the rigours of S. Augustine in the controversies of Predestination Grace free Will c. against the Jesuits and Franciscans it is to be imputed rather to the errour of their Education a stifness in maintaining their old Opinions or finally to that Animosity which commonly the weaker party carrieth against
all which things are absurd But for censure first the Authority of the Prophet was brought directly contrary in terms where God sayth That if the Just shall abandon justice and commit iniquity I will not remember his works The Example of David was added who committed Murther and Adultry of Magdalen and S. Peter who denied Christ They deâ—ided the folly of the Zuinglians for saying the Just cannot fall from Grace and yet sinneth in every work The two last were uniformly condemned of temerity with exception of those unto whom God hath given a special Revelation as to Moses and the Disciples to whom it was revealed that they were written in the Book of Heaven IX Now because the Doctrine of Predestination doth naturally presuppose a Curse from which man was to be delivered it will not be amiss to lay down the Judgment of that Councel in the Article of Original sin which rendred man obnoxious to the dreadful curse together with the preparatory Debates amongst the Scool-men and Divines which were there Assembled touching the nature and transmitting of it from Adam unto his Posterity and from one man to another Concerning which it was declared by Catarinus That as God made a Covenant with Abraham and all his Posterity when he made him Father of the faithful So when he gave Original Righteousness to Adam and all man-kinde he made him seal an Obligation in the name of all to keep it for himself and them observing the Commandment which because he trangressed he lost it as well for others as himself and incurred the punishent also for them the which as they are derived in every one and to him as the cause to others by vertue of the Covenant so that the actual sin of Adam is actual sin in him and imputed to others in Original for proof whereof he grounded himself upon this especially that a true and proper sin must needs be a voluntary Act and nothing can be voluntary but that transgression of Adam imputed unto all And Paul saying that all have sinned in Adam it must be understood that they have all committed the same sin with him he alledged for example that S. Paul to the Hebrews affirmeth that Levi payd Tythe to Melchisedeck when he payd in his great Grandfather Abraham by which reason it must be sayd that the Posterity violated the Commandments of God when Adam did it and that they were sinners in him as in him they received Righteousness X. Which Application as it was more intelligible to the Prelates Assembled together in the Councel then any of the Crabbed Intricacies and perplexities of the rest of the Scoolmen irreconcilable in a manner amongst themselves so did it quicken them to the dispatch of their Canons or Anathamatisms while they had the Notions in their heads against all such as had taught otherwise of Original sin then was allowed of and maintained in the Church of Rome but more particulary against him 1. That confesseth not that Adam by transgressing hath lost Sanctity and Justice incurred the wrath of God Death and Thraldom to the Devil and is infected in Soul and Body 2. Against him that averreth that Adam by sinning hath hurt himself only or hath derived into his Posterity the death only of the Body and not sin the death of the Soul 3. Against him that affirmeth the sin which is one in the beginning and proper to every one committed by Generation not imitation can be abolished by any other remedy then the death of Christ is applied as well to Children as to those of riper years by the Sacrament of Baptism ministred in the form and rite of the Church CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Councel in the Five Controverted Points I. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings II. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof III. The several Judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega. IV. The different Judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the Freedom of the Will were lost in Adam V. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God VI. The opinion of Fryer Catanca in the point of irresistibility VII Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected VIII The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties IX The Doctrine of the Councel in the V. controverted Points X. A Transition from the Councel of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches I. THese Differences and Debates concerning Predestination the possibility of Falling away from the Faith of Christ and the nature of Original sin being thus passed over I shall look back on those Debates which were had amongst the Fathers and Divines in the Councel of Trent about the Nature of Free-will and the power thereof In order whereunto these Articles were collected out of the Writings of the Lutherans to be discussed and censured as they found cause for it Now the Articles were these that follow Viz. 1. God is the total cause of our works Good and Evil and the Adultry of David the cruelty of Manlius and the Treason of Judas are the works of God as well as the Vocation of Saul 2. No man hath power to think well or ill but all cometh from absolute necessity and in us is no Free-will and to affirm it is a meer Fiction 3. Free-will since the sin of Adam is lost and a thing only titular and when one doth what is in his power he sinneth mortally yea it is a thing fained and a Title without reality 4. Free-will is only in doing ill and hath no power to do good 5. Free-will moved by God doth by no means co-operate and followeth as an Instrument without life or an unreasonable Creature 6. That God correcteth those only whom he will though they will not spurn against it II. Upon the first Article they spake rather in a Tragical manner then Theological that the Lutheran Doctrine was a frantick wisdom that mans Will as they make it is prodigious that those words a thing of Title only a Title without reality are monstruous that the Opinion is impious and blasphemous against God that the Church hath condemned it against the Maniches Priscillianists and lastly against Aballardus and Wickliff and that it was a folly against common sense every one proving in himself his own Liberty that it deserveth not confutation but as Aristotle sayth Chastisement and Experimental proofe that Luther's Scholars perceived the folly and to moderate the Absurdity sayd after that a man had liberty in External Political and Oeconomical Actions and in matters of Civil Justice that which every one but a Fool knoweth to proceed from Councels and Election but denied Liberty in matter of
which they cannot avoid sin that is to say by imputing to them the transgression of their Father Adam And 2. In that he leaves them irrecoverably plunged and involved in it without affording them power or ability to rise again to newness of life In which case that of Tertullian seems to have been fitly alledged Viz. In cujus manu est ne quid fiat eideputatur cum jam sit That is to say In whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done as a Pilot may be sayd to be the cause of the loss of that Ship when it is broken by a violent Tempest to the saving whereof he would not lend a helping hand when he might have done it They Object thirdly That this doctrine is inconsistent with the mercy of God so highly signified in the Scriptures in making him to take such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men forever and for one sin once committed to shut them up under an invincible necessity of sin and damnation For proof whereof they alledge this Saying out of Prosper Viz. Qui dicit quod non omnes homines velit Deus salvos fieri sed certum numerum praedestinatorum durius loquitur quam loquutum est de altitudine inscrutabilis gratiae Dei That is to sayâ— He which sayth that God would not have all men to be saved but a certain set number of predestinate persons only he speaketh more harshly then he should of the light of Gods unsearchable Grace 4. It is affirmed to be incompatible with the Justice of God who is sayd in Scripture to be Righteous in all his waies according unto weight and measure that the far greatest part of man-kinde should be left remedilesly in a state of damnation for the sin of their first Father only that under pain of damnation he should require faith in Christ of those to whom he hath precisely in his absolute purpose denied both a power to believe and a Christ to believe in or that he should punish men for the omission of an Act which is made impossible for them by his own decree by which he purposed that they should partake with Adam in his sin and be stript of all the supernatural power which they had in him before he fell And fifthly It is sayd to be destructive of Gods sincerity in calling them to repentance and to the knowledge of the faith in Jesus Christ that they may be saved to whom he doth not really intend the salvation offered whereby they are conceived to make God so to deal with men as if a Creditor should resolve upon no terms to forgive his Debtor the very least part of his debt and yet make him offers to remit the whole upon some conditions and binde the same with many solemn Oaths in a publick Auditory The like to be affirmed also in reference to Gods passionate wishes that those men might repent which repent not as also to those terrible threatnings which he thundreth against all those that convert not to him all which together with the whole course of the Ministry are by this doctrine made to be but so many Acts of deep Hypocrisie in Almighty God though none of the Maintainers of it have the ingenuity to confess the same but Piscator only in his Necesse est ut sanctam aliquam si mutationem statuamus in Deo which is plain and home X. And finally it is alledged that this doctrine of the Sublapsarians is contrary to the ends by God proposed in the Word and Sacraments to many of Gods excellent Gifts to the Sons of men to all endeavours unto holiness and godly living which is sayd to be much hindered by it and tend to those grounds of comfort by which a Conscience in distress should be relieved And thereupon it is concluded that if it be a doctrine which discourageth Piety if it maketh Ministers by its natural importment to be negligent in their Preaching Praying and other Services which are ordained of God for the eternal good of their people if it maketh the people careless in hearing reading praying instructing their Families examining their Consciences fasting and mourning for their sins and all other godly Exercises as they say it doth it cannot be a true and a wholsome doctrine as they say 't is not This they illustrate by a passage in Suetonius relating to Tyberius Caesar of whom the Historian gives this note Circa Deos Religiones negligentior erat quippe addictus mathematicae persuasionisque plenus omnia fato agi That is to say That he was the more negligent in matters of Religion and about the Gods because he was so much addicted to Astrologers fully perswaded in his own minde that all things were governed by the Destinies And they evince by the miseserable example of the Landgrave of Turinng of whom it is reported by Heistibachius that being by his Friends admonished of his vitious Conversation and dangerous condition he made them this Answer Viz. Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata poterint mihi regnum coelorum auferre si praescitus nulla opera mihi illud valebunt conferre That is to say If I be elected no sins can possibly bereave me of the Kingdom of Heaven if reprobated no good Deeds can advance me to it An Objection not more old then common but such I must confess to which I never found a satisfactory Answer from the Pen of Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian within the small compass of my reading CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the Story of them untill their finall Condemnation in the Synod of Dort I. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter then Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius II. The first undertakings of Arminins his preferment to the Divinity Chair at Leiden his Commendations and Death III. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to Five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference IV. The sayd five Points according to their severall Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort V. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange VI. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Councel at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves VII The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions VIII A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconyvel to S. Dudly Carlaton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by
we finde it in the supercilious looks in the haughty carriage of those who are so well assured of their own Election who cannot so disguise themselves as not to undervalue and despise all those who are not of the same party and perswasion with them A race of men whose insolence and pride there is no avoyding by a modest submission whose favour there is no obtaining by good turns and benefits Quorum superbiam frustra per modestiam obsequium effugeris as in another case was said by a Noble Britain VI. And finally it is objected but the Objection rather doth concern the men then the Doctrine that the Arminians are a Faction a turbulent seditious Faction so found in the United Provinces from their very first spawning not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a Common-wealth So saith the Author of the Pamphlet called the Observator observed and proves it by the wicked conspiracy as he calls it of Barnevelt who suffered most condignly as he he tells us upon that account 1619. And afterwards by the damnable and hellish plot of Barnevelts Children and Allies in their designs against the State and the Prince of Orange This Information seconded by the Author of the Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. who tells us but from whom he knowes not that the States themselves have reported of them that they had created them more trouble then the King of Spain had by all his Warres And both these backt by the Authority of K. James who tells us of them in his Declaration against Vorstius That if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected then the Curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetual rent and distraction in the whole body of the State This is the substance of the Charge So old and common that it was answered long since by Bishop Ridly in Queen Marys dayes when the Doctrine of the Protestants was said to be the readiest way to stir up sedition and trouble the quiet of the Common-wealth wherefore to be repressed in time by force of Laws To which that godly Bishop returns this Answer That Satan doth not cease to practise his old guiles and accustomed subtilties He hath ever this Dart in a readinesse to whirle against his adversaries to accuse them of sedition that he may bring them if he can in danger of the Higher Powers for so hath he by his Ministers alwayes charged the Prophets of God Ahab said unto Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel The false Prophets complained also to their Princes of Jeremy that his words were seditious and not to be suffered Did not the Scribes and Pharises falsly accuse Christ as a seditious person and one that spake against Caesar Which said and the like instance made in the Preachings of St. Paul he concludes it thus viz. But how far they were from all sedition their whole Doctrine Life and Conversation doth well declare And this being said in reference to the Charge in generall the Answer to each part thereof is not far to seek VII And first it hath been answered to that part of it which concerns King James that the King was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his most excellent understanding as by Reason of State the Arminians as they call them were at that time united into a party under the command of John Olden Barnevelt and by him used for the reasons formerly laid down to undermine the power of Maurice then Prince of Orange who had made himself the Head of the Contra-Remonstrants and was to that King a most dear Confederate Which Division in the Belgick Provinces that King considered as a matter of most dangerous consequence and utterly destructive of that peace unity and concord which was to be the greatest preservation of the States Vnited on whose tranquillity and power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions Upon which reason he exhorrs them in the said Declaration to take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion which was a matter as he saith so opposite to unity which was indeed the only prop and safety of their State next under God as of necessity it must by little and little bring them to utter ruine if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that K. James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruine of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Allye he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachfull names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation VIII So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselveâ— it must be proved by some better evidence then the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an answer the speech being so Hyperbolicall not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to all this businesse was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to finde out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the deaâ—h of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of 5 or 6 men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their warres with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000. of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having got him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States Generall who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Councels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered
and so they live as if carnal liberty were the true liberty of the Gospel But God forbid good people that ever we should desire such liberty for although God suffer sometimes the wicked to have their pleasure in this world yet the end of ungodly living is at length endless destruction the murmuring Israelites had that they longed for they had Quails enough yea till they were weary of them but what was the end thereof their sweet meat had sowre sawâ—e even whil'st the meat was in their mouths the plague of God alighted upon them and suddenly they dyed So if we live ungodly and God suffereth us to follow our own wills to have our own delights and pleasures and correcteth us not with some plague it is no doubt but he is almost utterly displeased with us and although it be long ere he strike yet many times when he striketh such persons he striketh them once for ever so that when he doth not strike us when he ceaseth to afflict us to punish or beat us and suffereth us to run headlong into all ungodliness and pleasures of this world that we delight in without punishment or adversity it is a dreadful token that he loveth us no longer that he careth no longer for us but hath given us over to our selves ' As long as a man doth prune his Vines doth dig at the root and lay fresh earth to them he hath a mind to them he perceiveth some token of fruitfulness that may be recovered in them but when he will bestow no more such cost and labour about them it is a sign that he thinks they will never be good And the father as long as he loveth his childe he looketh angerly he correcteth him when he doth amiss but when that serveth not and upon that he ceaseth from correction of him and suffereth him to do what he list himself it is a sign he intendeth to disinherit him and cast him away for ever so surely nothing should pierce our hearts so sore and put us into such horrible fear as when we know in our conscience that we have grievously offended God and do so continue that yet he striketh not but quietly suffereth us in the naughtiness that we here delight in then especially it is time to cry and to cry again as David did Cast me not away from they face and take not thy holy Spirit from me hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into hell The which lamentable prayers of his as they do certifie us what horrible danger they be in from whom God turneth his face for the time and as long as he so doth so should they more and more stir us to cry unto God with all our heart that we may not be brought into the state which doubtless is so sorrowful so miserable and so dreadful as no tongue can sufficiently express nor any heart can think for what deadly grief can a man suppose it is to be under the wrath of God to be forsaken of him to have his holy Spirit the Author of all goodness to be taken from him to be brought to so vile a condition that he shall be left meet for no better purpose than to be for ever condemned to hell for not only such places of David do shew that upon the turning of Gods face from any persons they shall be left bare from all goodness and far from hope of remedy but also the place rehearsed last before of Isaiah doth mean the same which sheweth that God at length doth so â—o sake his unfruitful Vineyard that he will not only suffer it to bring forth weeds bryars and thorns but also further to punish the unfruitfulness of it he saith he will not cut it he will not delve it and he will command the clouds that they shall not rain upon it whereby is signified the teaching of the holy Word which Saint Paul after a like manner expressed by planting and watering Meaning that he will take that away from them so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdom they shall be no longer governed by his holy Spirit they shall be put from the grace and benefits they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the heavenly light and life which they had in Christ whilst they abode in him they shall be as they were once as men without God in this world or rather in a worse taking ' ' And to be short they shall be given into the power of the Divel which beareth the rule of all men which be cast away from God as he did in Saul and Judas and generally in all such as work after their own wills the children of mistrust and unbeilef let us beware therefore good Christian people lest that we rejecting or casting away Gods Word by which we obtain and retain true faith in God be not at length cast so far off that we become as the children of unbelief which be of two sorts far divers yea almost clean contrary and yet both be very far from returning to God the one sort only weighing their sinful and detestable living with the right judgement and straitness of Gods righteousness be so without content and be so comfortless as they all must needs be from whom the Spirit of counsel and comfort is gone that they will not be perswaded in their hearts but that either God cannot or else that he will not take them again to his favour and mercy the other hearing the loving and large promises of Gods mercy and so not conceiving a right faith thereof make those promises larger than ever God did Trusting that although they continue in their sinful and detestable living never so long yet that God at the end of their life will shew his mercy upon them and that then they will return And that both these two sorts of men be in a damnable estate and yet nevertheless God who willeth not the death of the wicked hath shewed means whereby both the same if they take heed in season may escape The first as they defend Gods rightful justice in punishing sinners whereby they should be dismayed and should despair indeed as touching any hopes that may be in themselves so if they would constantly and stedfastly believe that Gods mercy is the remedy prepared against such despair and distrust not only for them but generally for all that be sorry and truly repentant and will therewithall stick to Gods mercy they may be sure they shall obtain mercy and enter into the Port or Haven of safeguard into the which whosoever do come be they before time never so wicked they shall be out of danger of everlasting damnation as godly Ezekiel saith What time soever a sinner doth return and take earnest of true Repentance I will forgive all his wickedness ' ' The other as they be ready to believe Gods promises so they should be as ready to believe the
cause to condemn them Who doth not smile at the Grecians Conceit that gave their God a glorious title for killing of flyes Gods Glory in punishing ariseth from his Justice in revenging of sin and for that it tells us as I said a very sad and unpleasant tale for who could digest it to hear a Prince say after this manner I will beget me a son that I may kill him that I may so get me a name I will beget him without both his feet and when he is grown up having no feet I will command him to walk upon pain of death and when he breaketh my Commandment I will put him to death O beloved these glorious fancies imaginations and shews are far from the nature of our gracious mercifull and glorious God who hath proclaimed himself in his Titles Royal Jehovah the Lord the Lord strong and mighty and terrible slow to anger and of great Goodness And therefore let this conceit be far from Jacob and let it not come near the Tents of Joseph How much holyer and heavenlyer conceit had the holy Fathers of the Justice of God Non est ante punitor Deus quam peccator homo God put not on the person of a Revenger before man put on the person of an Offender saith St. Ambrose Neminem coronat antequam vincit neminem punit antequam peccat he crowns none before he overcomes and he punisheth no man before his offence Et qui facit miseros ut misereatur crudelem habet miserecordiam he that puts man into miseries that he may pity him hath no kind but a cruell pity ' 7. The absolute deâ—ree of Reprobation being thus discharged he shews in the next place that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinfull man or of the wicked sinfull man but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Coats in Saint Mathews Gospel Ite melidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither death nor hell for damned men The last branch of his discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth and wisheth every living soul to be saved and to come to the kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his son to save every soul and to bring it to the kingdom of heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of heaven 6. The neglect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Councel and Determination of God ' The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of the old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his further satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited 8. Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be consisidered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel dâ—o vel nâ—mo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Major the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Counsel being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Counsel-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Arch-Bishop of Yorke in the Reign of King Charls 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook hall Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwitch in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him 9. But against this it is objected by Mr Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as heretical 2. That upon this Sermon and the controversies that arose upon it in Cambridge between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the said Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridge where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was made at St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given if would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the
suddenly against a Nation or a Kingdome to pluck it up to root it out and to destroy it But if this Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague which I thought to bring upon them So likewise for his mercy I will speak suddenly concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to build it and to plant it but if ye do evil in my sight and heare not my voice I will repent of the good I thought to do for them Gen. 20. it is exprest where God telleth Abimeleck with-holding Abrahams wife Thou art a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken the event fell out otherwise and Abimileck purged himself with God With an upright minde and innocent hands have I done this There is no question but God inclosed a condition within his speech Thou art a dead man if thou restore not the woman without touching her body and dishonouring her husband 12. Thus we may answer the scruple by all these wayes 1. Yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown and yet fourty and fourty dayes and Nineveh shall not be overthrown Why Because Nineveh is changed and the unchangable will of God ever was that if Niniveh shewed a change it should be spared 2. There were two parts of Gods purpose the one disclosed touching the subversion of Nineveh the other of her conversion kept within the heart of God Whereupon he changed the sentence pronounced but not the councel whereunto the sentence was referred 3. If you consider Niniveh in the inferiour cause that is in the deservings of Niniveh it shall fall to the ground but if you take it in the superiour cause in the goodnesse and clemency of Almighty God Niniveh shall escape Lastly the judgement was pronounced with a condition reserved in the minde of the judge Niniveh shall be overthrown if it repent not Now he that speaketh with condition may change his minde without suspition of lightness As Paul peomised the Corinthians to come to them in his way towards Macedonia and did it not For he ever more added in his soul that condition which no man must exclude if it stand with the pleasure of God and he hinder me not Philip threatned the Lacidemonians that if he invaded their countrey he would utterly extinguish them They wrote him no other answer but this If meaning it was a condition well put in because he was never like to come amongst them Si nisi non esset perfectum quidlibet esset If it were not for conditions and exceptions every thing would be perfect but nothing more unperfect then Niniveh if this secret condition of the goodness of God at the second hand had not been 13. So far this Reverend Prelate hath discoursed of the nature of Gods decrees and accommodated his discourse thereof to the case of the Ninevites Let us next see how far the principal particulars of the said discourse and the case of the Ninivites it self may be accommodated to the Divine decree of Predestination concerning which the said Reverend Prelate was not pleased to declare his judgment either as being impertinent to the case which he had in hand 〈…〉 out of an unwillingnesse to engage himself in those disputes which might not suddenly be ended All that he did herein was to take care for laying down such grounds in those learned Lectures by which his judgment might be guessed at though not declared As Dr. Peter Baroe of whom more hereafter declared his judgement touching the Divine Decrees in the said case of the Ninevites before he fell particularly on the Doctrine of Predestination as he after did And first As for accomodating the case of the Ninevites to the matter which is now before us we cannot better do it then in the words of Bishop Hooper so often mentioned who having told us that Esau was no more excluded from the promise of grace then Jacob was proceedeth thus viz. ' By the Scripture saith he it seemeth that the sentence of God was given to save the one and damne the other before the one loved God or the other hated him Howbeit these threatnings of God against Esau if he had not of his wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation then Gods threatnings against Nineveh which notwithstanding that God said should be destroyed within fourty dayes stood a great time after and did pennance Esau was circumcised and presented unto the Church of God by his Father Isaaac in all external Ceremonies as well as Jacob. ' And that his life and conversation was not as agreeable unto justice and equity as Jacobs was the sentence of God unto Rebecca was not in the fault but his own malice Out of which words we may observe first that the sentence of God concerning Esau was not the cause that his conversation was so little agreeable to justice and equity no more then the judgement denounced against the Ninivites could have been the cause of their impenitency if they had continued in their sinnes and wickednesses without repentance contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospellers in Queen Maries dayes imputing all mens sins to predestination Secondly that Gods threatnings against Esau supposing them to be tanta-mount to a reprobation could no more have hindred his salvation then the like threatning against the Ninevites could have sealed to them the assurance of their present distruction if he had heartily repented of his sinnes as the Ninevites did And therefore thirdly as well the decree of God concerning Esau as that which is set out against the Ninevites are no otherwise to be understood then under the condition tacitly annexed unto them that is to say that the Ninevites should be destroyed within fourty dayes if they did not repent them of their sinnes and that Esau should be reprobated to eternal death if he gave himself over to the lusts of a sensual appetite Which if it be confessed for true as I think it must then fourthly the promises made by God to Jacob and to all such as are beloved of God as Jacob was and consequently their election unto life eternal are likewise to be understood with the like condition that is to say if they repent them of their sinnes and do unfainedly believe his holy Gospell The like may be affirmed also in all the other particulars touching Gods decrees with reference to the Doctrine of predestination which are observed or accomodated by that learned Prelate in the case of the Ninevites had I sufficient time and place to insist upon them CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom it was made and what was done towards the making of it up 1. GReat alterations made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the