did come to passe by Gods Irresistible Will His Error into which the greatest Clerk living especially if he be not an accurate Philosopher might easily slide consists originally in confounding Eternitie with Successive Duration and not distinguishing Succession it self from things durable or Successive He and many others in this argument speak as if they conceived that the necessary Coexistence of Eternitie with Time did necessarily draw every mans whole course of life Motu quodam raptús after such a manner as Astronomers suppose that the highest Sphere doth move the lower whereas if we speak of the course not of Pharaoh's natural but moral life it was rather an Incondit heap or confused multitude of durables than one entire uniforme duration And each durable hath its distinct Reference to the eternal Decree That which is eternally true of one was not at all much lesse eternally true of another Eternitie it self though immutable though necessarily though indivisibly co-existent to All was not so indissolubly linked with Any but that Pharaoh might have altered or stayed his course of life before that moment wherein the measure of iniquitie was accomplished But in that moment he became so exorbitant that the Irresistible Decree of induration did fasten upon him His Irregular motions have ever since become irrevocable not his Actions onely but his Person is carried headlong by the everlasting revolutions of the unchangable decree into everlasting unavoydable destruction 22. The Proposition or Conclusion proposed Pharaoh was hardened by Gods Irresistible Will indefinitely taken is true from all eternitie throughout all eternitie and therefore true from Pharaoh's birth unto his death but not therefore true of Pharaoh howsoever qualified or of all Pharaoh's Qualifications throughout the whole còurse of his life For so the Proposition becomes an Vniversal not onely in respect of the Time but of the Subject that is of all Pharaohs several qualifications The sense is as if he had said God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh howsoever qualified as well in his Infancie as his full Age by his Irresistible Will and thus taken it is False The Inference is the same with the fore-mentioned Adam in Gods foreknowledge was a sinner from eternitie Ergo Adam was alwaies a sinner a Sinner before he sinned during the time of his innocencie or with this God from all eternitie did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should die the death Ergo He did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should dye as soon as he was created or be a sinner all his life long To reconcile these two Propositions aright God from eternitie decreed by his Irresistible Will that Adam should dye God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should die otherwise than we have reconciled the two former God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will no Writer I presume will undertake The only reconciliation possible is this God did decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam sinning should die God did not decree by his irresistible-Will that Adam not sinning should dye nor did he decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should sin that he might die For as we said before God did neither decree his Fall nor his perseverance by his Irresistible will And his death was no more inevitable than his Fall Nor was Pharaohs final Induration more inevitable than the measure of iniquitie to which such Induration was from eternitie awarded by Gods Irresistible will Of Pharaoh thus considered the Conclusion was true from eternitie In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said universal universalitate temporis as to Pharaoh true in respect of every moment of Pharaohs life wherein the measure of his iniquitie was or might have been accomplished though it had been accomplished within three years after his birth And this accomplishment presupposed the Induration was most inevitable his Final Reprobation as irrecoverable as Gods Absolute will taking absolute as it is opposed to disjunct is irresistible 23. In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said to be universal universalitate subjecti The same Proposition in respect of Reprobation is universally true Vniversalitate Subjecti that is of every other person so ill qualified as Pharaoh was when God did harden him VVhosoever shall at any time become such a man as Pharaoh was then is a Reprobate from eternitie by Gods Irresistible will And seeing no man is exempted from his Jurisdiction he may harden whom he will after the same manner that he hardened Pharaoh although de facto he doth not so harden all the Reprobates that is he reserves them not alive for examples to others after the ordinary time appointed for their dissolution Nor doth he tender ordinary meanes of repentance unto them after the door of Repentance is shut upon them God in his infinite wisdom hath many secret purposes incomprehensible to man as VVhy of such as are equal offenders one in this life is more rigorously dealt withall than another VVhy of such as are equally disposed to goodness Moral one is called before another by his irresistible calling That thus to dispense of mercy and justice in this life See his Treatise of the Signs of the Time the 3. or moral part of it doth argue no Partialitie or respect of persons with God is an argument elsewhere insisted upon 24. The Point whereupon we are now to pitch is this Indefinite Men usually are Called Elected Reprobated or hardened by Gods Resistible will before they be called Elected reprobated or hardened by his irresistible will All these Termes are Indefinite and according to their different measures as truly mutable as Immutable from Eternitie or as in other * See Chapt. 37. Num. 5. 6. See 9. Book Ch. 18. c. Meditations we have shewed There is a State of Election under promise and a State of Election under Oath of which the latter only is Absolutely immutable The like we may say of Reprobation it is either under general Threat or upon Oath the Former is mutable so is not the Latter No man living shall ever be able to make his Inference good Pharaoh was absolutely reprobated from eternitie that is Whether granting that Pharaoh was a reprobate from eternitie we must grant withall that Pharaoh was a reprobate in his Middle age Youth or Infancie His reprobation was immutable from eternitie Ergo Pharaoh in his Youth or Infancie was a Reprobate To inferre the Consequence proposed no Medium more probable than this can possibly be brought Pharaoh from his Infancie to his full age was alwaies one and the self-same Man Et de eodem impossibile est idem affirmari negari The Consequence not withstanding is no better than this following The last Eclipse of the Moon was necessary from the beginning Ergo The Moon was necessarily eclipsed in the first quarter or in the
on whom he will have mercie and whom he will he hardeneth Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his will c. THe former part of this Proposition here inferred by way of Conclusion was avouched before by our Apostle as an undoubted Maxim ratified by Gods own voyce to Moses For he said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion Exod. 33. 19. The true sense and meaning of which place I have before declared in unfolding the 16. verse of this Chapter so that the later part of this eighteenth verse Whom he will he hardeneth must be the Principall Subject of my present discourse The Antecedent inferring this part of this Conclusion is Gods Speech to Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee and that my Name may be declared throughout all the Earth The Inference is plain seeing Gods power was to be manifested in hardening Pharaoh 2. The Points of Inquiry whose full discussion will open an easie passage to the difficulties concerning Reprobation and Election and bring all the contentious Controversies concerning the meaning of this Chapter to a brief perspicuous issue are especially Four 1. The Manner how God doth harden 2. The Pertinencie of that Objection why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will and the Validitie of the Apostles Answers 3. The Logicall determination of this Proposition Whom he will he hardeneth What is the proper object of Gods Will in hardening 4. What manner of Division this is He will haue compassion on whom he will have compassion and whom he will he hardeneth For the right opening of all Four difficulties the Explication of the single Terms with their divers Acceptions serves as a Key The Termes briefly to be explicated are Three 1. Gods Will 2. Irresistible 3. Induration or hardening The principal Difficultie or Transcendent Question is In what sense Gods Will or Induration may be said to be irresistible whom he will he hardeneth 3. Gods Will Not to trouble you with any curious Distinctions concerning Gods Will this is a string which in most * See Attributes 1. Part Sect. 2. Chapt 15. 2. Part. 2. Sect. Chapt. 18. c. meditations we were inforced to touch Albeit Gods Will be most truly and indivisibly One and in indivisible unitie most truly infinite and immutable yet is it Immutably free Omnipotently able to produce pluralitie as well as unitie mutabilitie as well as immutabilitie weakness as well as strength in his creatures By this one infinite immutable Will In what sense or in respect of what Objects Gods Will is said to be Irresistible he ordaines that some things shall be Necessarie or that this shall be at this time and no other And such particulars he is said by an extrinsecal denomination from the Object to will by his Irresistible Will The meaning is the production of the Object so willed cannot be resisted be-because it is Gods Will that it shall come to passe notwithstanding any resistance that is or can be made against it If any particular so willed should not come to passe his Will might be resisted being set only on this By the same immutable and indivisible Will he ordained that other Events should be mutable or Contingent viz. that of more particulars proposed this may be as well as that the Affirmative as will as the Negative And of particulars so willed no one can be said to be willed by his Irresistible Will If the Existence of any one so willed should be necessarie his will might be resisted seeing his Will is that they should not be necessary Each Particular of this kind by the like denomination from the thing willed he may be said to will by his Resistible Will The whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or List of several possibilities or the indifference betwixt the particulars he wils by his Irresistible Will The Psalmist's Oracle Psal 5. is universally true of all persons in every age of Adam specially before his Fall Non Deus volens iniquitatem tu es God doth not he cannot will iniquitie And yet we see the world is full of it The Apostles speech again is as universally true This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one of you should know how to possesse his vessel in honour 1 Thess 4. 3. God willeth and he seriously and earnestly willeth sanctity of life in our selves uprightnesse and integritie of conversation amongst men and yet behold a Vacuum in this little world in the sonnes of Adam whom he created after his own image and similitude So then he neither wils mens goodness nor nils their iniquitie by his Irresistible will He truly willed Adams integritie but not by his irresistible Will For so Adams could not have fallen What shall we say then that God did will Adams Fall by his irresistible will God forbid For so Adam could not but have sinned Where is the mean or middle Station on which we may build our faith The immediate Object of Gods irresistible Will in this Case was Adams Free-will ' that is Potestas labendi potestas standi Power to stand and power to Fall By the same Will he decreed Death as the Inevitable Consequent of his Fall and life as the necessary unpreventable Reward of his perseverance Thus much briefly of Gods Will in what sense it is said to be resistible or Irresistible The nature and propertie of an hardened heart cannot in fewer words better be expressed than by the Poets Character of an unruly stubborn Youth Cereus in vitium flecti monitoribus asper Hor. de Arte. It is a constitution or temper of mind as plyant as wax to receive the impressions of the Flesh or stamp of the Old Man but as untoward as flint or other ragged stone to admit the Image of the New Man The first General The manner how God doth harden 4. The first General THe Difficultie is In what sense God can be truly said to be Author of such a Temper The Proposition is of undoubted truth whether we consider it as an Indefinite God doth harden or as a Singular God hardened Pharaoh or in the Vniversalitie here mentioned God hardeneth whom he will The Apostles meaning is that God can harden whom he will after the same manner he hardened Pharaoh Concerning the manner how God doth harden The Questions are two 1. Whether he harden Positively or Privatively only 2. Whether he harden by his Irresistible Will or by his Resistible Will onely To give one and the same Answer to either demand without distinction of times or persons were to entangle our selves as most Writers in this Argument have done in the Fallacie Ad plures Interrogationes Touching the First Question God doth not harden all men or any man at all times
hardneth In respect of every particular and determinate person not thus qualifyed it is universally true He hath mercy when he will have mercy and when he will be hardeneth And he hardeneth at no time sooner then when men what men soever are most confidently presumptuous of his mercy That this doctrine delivered is no way prejudicial to the certainty of salvation but rather directs us how to make our Election sure or untimely secure of their perseverance in faith or continuance in his favour 32. Perhaps the ingenuous and hitherto indifferent Reader will here begin to distast these last Admonitions and for their sakes most of our Resolutions as prejudicial to a commonly received doctrine concerning the Certainty of Salvation And I must confesse that upon first sight they may seem suspicious in that they suppose our Election to be not only uncertain in respect of our apprehensions but mutable in its nature But if it please him either to look back into some passages of the former discourse or to go along with me alittle further I shall acquaint him though not with a surer foundation yet with a stronger frame or structure of his hopes than he shall ever attain unto by following their Rules who I verily think were fully assured of their own salvation but from other grounds than they have discovered to us Surer foundation can no man lay than that whereon both parties do build to wit the absolute immutabilite of Gods decree or purpose Now admitting our apprehensions of his Will or purpose to call elect or save us were infallible yet he that from these foundations would rear up the Edifice of his faith after this hasty manner Gods purpose to call elect and save mee is immutable Ergo my present calling is effectuall my election already sure and my salvation most immutable becomes as vain in his imaginations as if he expected that wals of loom and rafters of reed covered with fern should be able to keep out Gun-shot because seated upon an impregnable Rock For first who can be longer ignorant of this truth than it shall please him to consider it That Gods purpose and Will is most immutable in respect of every object possible that mutabilitie it self all the changes and chances of this mortal life and the immutable state of immortalitie in the life to come are a-like immutably decreed by the eternal counsel of his immutable Will Now if mortalitie and mutabilitie have precedence of immortalitie in respect of the same persons by the immutable Tenor of his irresistible decree can it seem any Paradox to say That mans Estate whether of Election or Reprobation is even in this life usually mutable before it come to be Immutable and that by vertue of the same inalterable decree Or That ordinarily there should be in every one of us as true a possibility of living after the flesh as of living after the spirit before we becom so actually and compleatly spiritual as utterly to mortifie all lusts and concupiscences of the flesh Untill then our mortification be compleat and full we may not presume all possibilitie of living after the flesh to be finally expired and utterly extinct in our soules And whether this possibilitie can be in this life altogether so little or truly none as it shall be in the life to come after our mortal hopes are ratified by the sentence of the almighty Judge I cannot affirm if any man peremptorily will deny it nor will I contend by way of peremptorie denial if it shall please any man upon probable reasons to affirm it 33. But if to such as finally perish no true or reall possibilitie of repentance during the whole course of this mortal life be allotted by the everlasting irresistible decree in what true sense can God be said to allow them a time of repentance How doth our Apostle say that the bountifulnesse of God doth lead or draw them to repentance if the doore of repentance be perpetually mured up against them by his Irresistible will If in such as are saved there never were from their birth or Baptism any true or reall possibilitie of running the waies of death the fear of Hell or the declaration of Gods just judgements if at any time they truly feare them is but a vaine imagination or groundless Phansie without any true cause or reall occasion presented to them by the immutable decree Or if by his providence they be at any time brought to fear hell or the sentence of everlasting death yet hath God used these but as bug-beares in respect of them though truly terrible to others And Bug-heares when children grow once so wise as to discern them from true terrors do serve their parents to very small purpose For mine own part albeit I fear not the state of absolute reprobation yet so conscious am I to mine own infirmities that I would not for all the hopes or any joy or pleasure which this life can afford abandon all use of the fear of hell or torments of the life to come But whatsoever the Tenor of my estate in mine own apprehension heretofore hath been for the present is or hereafter may be I am and I think shall so continue absolutely perswaded that the absolute impossibilitie whether of Apostasie from Faith professed or of becomeing true and Stedfast professors is the usual Successor as heir by Conquest of mixt possibilitie of becoming as well vessels of wrath as vessels of mercy and è contrà 34. Upon this reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath doth our Apostle ground those admonitions Hebr. 3. 12. 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif indeparting from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin And againe Chapt. 4. v. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it These and the like admonitions frequent in the Prophets and the Gospel suppose the men whom they admonish to be as yet not absolutely reprobated but in a mutable state or in a state subject to a mutuall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy and by Consequence not altogether uncapable of that height of impietie unto which onely the eternal and immutable decree hath allotted absolute impossibilitie of repentance or of salvation Upon the true and reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of mercy supposed to be awarded by the eternal and Irresistible decree to all partakers of the word and Sacraments doth S. Peter ground that exhortation Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly in to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2 Peter 1. 10 11. The end of this exhortation was to bring his Auditors
Reconciliation of mankind to God the Father there had been no election in Christ So that though it be most True that Christ was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World yet was it not necessary from eternity that this Lamb should be slain For Christs death was no more necessary then Adams death or Transgression was Now no man I hope well advised will affirm that God did destinate Adams Transgression as a necessary Means that Christ should dye for so he should make him the Author of sin in Adam before he became the Fountain of Mercy in Christ The Truth then is That Adam having sinned not of necessity but Freely God out of his Free Mercy and Compassion towards man-kind did destinate the Incarnation the Death and Passion of his only Son as the Only Means of our Redemption and Reconciliation to himself And did likewise Destinate the Consecration of his Son by his death unto his everlasting Priesthood as the only means for the accomplishing of our Redemption that is for making our election sure and Absolute As Christs Priesthood is then most unchangeable and most necessary yet was it not necessary from eternity that he should be made a Priest by the suffering of death So our estate of election in him is most Absolute and necessary after we attain unto it yet was it not necessary from eternity that we should attain unto it not absolutely necessary that any should attain unto it but necessary only upon Supposal of Adams Transgression which was no way necessary but Free and Contingent and of Gods infinite wisdom and mercie in sending Christ Jesus our Lord. 16. If no mans Destination or designment to the Absolute State of election in Christ were absolutely necessary from Eternity but necessary only upon the Supposals last made which were not necessary much less was the Designment of any mans Individual nature or Person to the Absolute State of Reprobation or damnation absolutely necessary from Eternity Damnation as all grant is the end of Sin or rather an endlesse misery into which no man can fall but by sin whence if this endless misery had been absolutely necessary from Eternity or Decreed by God as the Goal of any mans Course of life the means likewise or only way by which men come unto this end or Goal must have been by a like degree of necessity destinated and decreed by God and the only way or means by which men come unto this end is sin So that God by this Opinion or Doctrine should have been as Immediate a Cause of Sin and death as he is of the Punishment of sins or of non-Repentance for sins committed And this is Contrary to the fundamental Principles of Christianity of Religion it self By both which we are taught that God as a Righteous Judge is the sole Author of the Decree or Sentence against impenitent sinners but no Cause at all no Author of their sins or Impenitency and therefore no Cause much lesse any necessary Cause of any mans Falling into the Absolute state of Reprobation Our Saviour Christ as then designed to be the Future Judge of quick and dead did pronounce that Woful Sentence against Judas and against him alone for ought we read It were good for that man if he had never been born Judas not Reprobated from Eternity We may hence safely conclude that Judas from that time was in the Absolute State of Reprobation and had now deserved without hope of Pardon this fearfull Sentence as having now resolved in his heart without Remorse or Compunction to betray the Son of God into the hands of sinners He became an Absolute Reprobate by resolving to betray the Son of God he did not resolve to betray the Son of God because he was an Absolute Reprobate from Eternity or from his birth He was not lyable to this wofull Sentence from his birth or in his Infancy for if it had been better for him from his birth or from his calling to the Apostle-ship not to have been born at all or not to have been so called God howsoever most gracious and good in himself had not been good or gracious unto Judas in giving him Being in making him an Apostle seeing it had been much better for him not to have been either a Man or an Apostle if from the time of his Birth or Apostle-ship he had been inevitably designed to the absolute estate of Reprobation to a greater measure of everlasting punishments then other men ordinarily are But the Truth is the greater measure of his punishment did presuppose a greater measure of his unthankfulness the greater measure of his unthankfulness in respect of other men did presuppose a greater measure of Gods Favour and goodness towards him in giving him birth and being in the days of his Sons Incarnation or in calling him to the Fellowship of his Apostles or Ambassadors And thus we come a Thesiad Hypothesin from the general Speculative Truth unto the Particular Use or Application 17. All of us do I am perswaded unfeignedly acknowledge our selves to have been by Naturall birth the Sons of wrath and to be the sons of wrath includes in it some work of Satan wrought not in Adam only but in our Nature Satans work two-fold Sin and Curse which we derive from him and this work of Satan is Twofold Sin Original and the Curse thereunto annexed this Latter Part to wit the Curse must be dissolved by Faith as by the Instrument For he that believeth not saith S. John Chap. 3. ver 36. shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him that is It was upon him from his First Being and rests upon him until it be removed by Faith in the Son of God Now in that this work of Satan that is the Curse due to Sin Original is removed by Faith in the Son of God the Son of God is the Principal Cause or Agent which removes it by his Sacerdotal or Princely Blessing upon our Ministerial Act or Function of Baptism It is a Truth unquestionable especially in the Doctrine of the Church of England that as many as are Baptized are from their Baptism and by their Baptism translated from the Estate or Condition of Sons of wrath to the Estate or Priviledge of the Sons of God This Doctrine of our Church is necessarily grounded upon the Saying of our Apostle Gal. 3. 27. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now it is impossible that any should put on Christ and not receive him And to as many as receive him saith S. John cap. 1. ver 12. to them he gives power Right or Priviledge to become the Sons of God 18. But here some will demand If all that are Baptized become the sons of God do they not all likewise by this new birth become heires with Christ Yes all that are Sons are likewise Heirs but not therefore un-disinheritable because
a sin was incest in Lot such are all the sins committed by the Elect And so were all the sins of the Elect remitted before they were committed But the Question is Whether God did so absolutely decree the remission of any mans sin from eternitie as that their remission was from eternitie absolutely necessarie If God did absolutely decree that the sins of the Elect should be remitted Sin not remitted before committed then he did absolutely decree that they should be committed For even in Gods eternal Foreknowledge of all things that fall out in time the Commission of sins hath precedencie of their Remission and if their Remission were in respect of his Foreknowledge or decree absolutely necessary their Commission was as necessarie It is impossible there should be any Remission of sins without a presupposal of their Commission Yet are the former Conclusions not muttered in corners but maintained as part of that holy doctrine which hath been delivered unto us by the masters of Israel approved by the best writers in reformed Churches These and the like Doctrines are held in so precious esteem that if the lawful Pastor seek to root them out where they have been planted by others or to prevent their growth or spreading he shall be traduced for an Arminian and as they hope be so censured by the high Court of Parliament But my hope is that no Loyal Elder of Israel shall ever so far forget himself as either to attempt or seek to have those and the like Conclusions ratified by our great Josuahs Royal consent Sure I am these are no branches of that Ancient Catholick Apostolick Faith of which we acknowledg our Soveraign Lord to be the defender and God grant that he may ever defend and keep it pure and undefiled from these and the like Conclusions that it may defend him and his people from their adversaries 12 Yet to seek the Correction of these and the like Conclusions though malapertly maintained by some of the Flock against most of their Pastors or the punishment of those which so maintain them until the Principles from which they naturally issue be checkt or inhibited were but Tyrannie These here related are the least not the worst part of those noysom branches which spring from this one root That Gods irresistible decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others is immediatly terminated to the Individual Natures Substances or Entities of men without any Logical respect or reference to their qualifications This Principle being once granted what breach of Gods moral Law is there whereon men will not boldly adventure either through desperation or presumption either openly or secretly For seeing Gods Will which in their Divinitie is the only Cause why the one sort are destinated to death the other to life is most immutable and most Irresistible and seeing the Individual Entities or natures of men unto which this irresistible Decree is respectively terminated are immutable let the one sort do what they can pray for themselves and beseech others to pray for them they shall be damn'd because their Entities or Individual Substances are unalterable Let the other sort Live as they list they shall be saved because no corruption of manners no change of morality breeds any mutability or change in their Individual Natures or Entities unto which Gods immutable Decree is immediatly terminated Whatsoever become of good life and manners so the Individual Nature or Entity fail not or be not annihilated salvation is tyed unto it by a necessity more indissoluble then any chains of Adamant 13. This Assertion Whosoever is Elected from Eternity was never the child of wrath save only in the esteem of men I found delivered in certain papers at my first entrance upon my Pastoral charge in the Town of Newsastle written by one that had been a great Rabbi in some private Conventicles in and about that Town And for the refuting of this Opinion and the Principles out of which it doth most necessarily follow it was presently conceived by some of my Auditors that I went about to refute the Doctrine of all Reformed Churches concerning Election and Reprobation And Amongst the Doctrines of Reformed Churches which it was vehemently suspected I went about to refute this was expressed for one That the sins of the Elect or Regenerate were remitted before they were committed A doctrine which for my part I dare not charge any one reformed Church with though some in reformed Churches have stifly maintained the Principle out of which this Conclusion will necessarily follow and some few have in expresse Termes delivered the Conclusion but so hath not to my knowledge any reformed Church or entire Congregation besides the Familist to which this errour properly belongs The Council of Dort hath expresly delivered the contrary so have others which write against the Arminians But in this Point a Reverend and Learned Pastor in the City of London hath saved me a Labour The false Principle from which both these Conclusions 1. The sins of the Elect are remitted before they are committed 2. Whosoever is Elected being elected from eternitie never was never could be never can be the child of wrath will most necessarily follow is the forementioned Errour which tyes or terminates Gods Eternal and irresistible Decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others to the Individual Natures persons or Entities of men elected or reprobated But to omit for the present the question concerning such absolute Election not the most Tyrannical Lawgiver that to this day hath breathed on earth did ever declare himself to be so farre the son of the Divel as to make solemn decrees against mens persons without respect or reference to their Qualifications It is the propertie of the enemy of mankind to delight in mans punishment as he is a man or a reasonable creature to desire to have any man as he himself now is but sometimes was not a vessel capable only of vengeance or punitive justice alltogether uncapable of Gods free bounty mercy or favour And seeing this most Honourable Court of Parliament now happily assembled to make wholesome Lawes doth not intend to make any Punitive Lawes or decrees specially capitally punitive against any mens Persons or Nature but against mens ill Qualifications misdemeanors I am confident that every member of it doth firmly believe that our heavenly Father did never make any such Decree or Law Again seeing God hath revealed his good Will and pleasure to be this To reward every man according to all his wayes I shall find no opposition or Contradiction to this Conclusion as I hope among good Christians God did from eternity decree to reward every man not according to his Individual Nature but according to his wayes his works or qualification which he did no lesse certainly foresee then he did his Individual Nature He hath decreed from eternity to revvard the vvicked and the ungodly for their vvicked vvorks
Irresistible Will in the eternal Idea of Reprobation before man or Angel had actual Being as if the only end of his Being had been to be a Reprobate or vessel of wrath Beza's Collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than he hath left them make God not onely a direct and positive Cause but the immediate and onely Cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessary Cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of those or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable Cause that is he did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardening Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an Absolute Reprobate or born to the end he might be hardned we are hereafter to dispute in the third Point All we have to say in this place is this If as much as Beza earnestly contends for were once granted the Objection following to which our Apostle vouchsafes a double answer had been altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examin the Pertinencie of the Objection and unfold the Validitie of the Answers The second General Point concerning the Pertinencie of the Objection 6. VVHy doth he yet find fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth he yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth he chide See Lib. 7. Ch. 19. Numb 4 5 6. All that are reprobates doth he only chide them is this all that they are to fear the very worst that can befall them were this speech to be as farre extended as it is by most Interpreters no question but our Apostle would have intended the force and acrimonie of it a great deal more than he doth thus farre at least Why doth he punish why doth he plague the reprobates in this life and deliver them up to everlasting torments in the life to come seeing they do but that which he by his Irresistible Will hath appointed Or suppose the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might by some unusual Synecdoche which passeth our reading observation or understanding include as much or more than we now expresse all the plagues of this life and all the torments which befall the reprobates in the life to come That the Objection proposed hath referrence only to Pharaoh or to some few in his Case not al that perish or are reprobated yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to do It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturaly designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immoveable Sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of Gods everlasting wrath against Reprobates in General 7. These Queries which here naturally offer themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any interpreters have occasioned me in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usual for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historical Circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have special Reference or Allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet exaltest thou thyself against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them go Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yet chides and threatens him again how long wilt thou refuse to humble thy self before me Let my people go that they may serve me Else if thou refuse to let my People go behold to morrow I will bring the Locusts into thy coasts That which makes most for this interpretation is the historical circumstance of time and manner of Gods proceeding with Pharaoh For this expostulation whereunto our Apostle in this place hath reference was uttered after the seventh wonder wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh upon which it is expresly said that The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh that he hearkened not unto them Whereas of the five going before it is only said That Pharaoh hardened his heart or his heart was hardened or he set not his heart to the wonders See Chap. 40. Numb 15. The Spirits Censure likewise of Pharaohs stupiditie upon the first wonder may be read impersonally or be referred to the wonder it self which might positively harden his heart in such a sense as is before expressed Nor is it to be omitted that upon the neglect of the seventh wonder the Lord enlargeth his Commission to Moses and his threats to Pharaoh Exod. 9. 13 c. Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes Let my people go that they may serve me For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maiest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth or as Junius excellently rendreth it I had smitten thee and thy people with pestilence when I destroyed your cattel with murrain and thou hadst been cut off from the earth when the boyles were so rife upon the Magicians but when they fell I made thee to stand for so the Hebrew is Verbatìm to what purpose That I might shew my power and declare my name more manifestly throughout all the earth by a more remarkable destruction than at that time should have befallen thee 8. The true Occasion of the former Objection This brief survey of these historical Circumstances presents unto us as in a Map the just Occasion the due force and full extent of the Objection here intimated in transitu Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet find fault As if some one on Pharaohs behalf had replied more expresly thus God indeed had just cause to upbraid Pharaoh heretofore for neglect of his Signs and wonders for it was a foul fault in him not to relent so long as there was a possibilitie left for him to relent But since God hath thus openly declared his Irresistible will to harden him to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why doth he chide him any longer Why doth he hold on to expostulate more sharply with him than heretofore for that which is impossible for him to avoid For is it possible for him to open the door of repentance when God hath shut it or to mollifie his heart whose hardening
an Vniversalitie of the Subject inferre an Vniversalitie of Time This Collection is false God from eternitie foresaw that all men would be sinners Ergo He foresaw from Eternitie that Adam in his Integritie should be a sinner The Inference in the former Syllogism is as bad God decreed to harden Pharaoh from eternitie Ergo He decreed to harden him in every moment of his life Or Ergo He was a Reprobate from his cradle This Conclusion rightly scanned includes an Vniversalitie of the Subject that is all the several Objects of divine justice which are contained in Pharaohs life not one particular only Whereas Pharaoh in the Minor Proposition is but one particular or individual Object of induration or of the divine Decree concerning it 19. And thus at length we are arrived at that Point whence we may descry the Occasions Albeit Pharaoh was alwaies One and the same man yet he was not alwaies One and the same Object of the divine Decree by which so many Writers of good Note have missed the right stream or Current of our Apostles discourse and gravelled themselves and their Auditors upon By-shelves All this hath been from want of consideration That albeit Pharaoh from his birth unto his death were but one and the same Individual Man yet was he not all this while one and the same individual Object of Gods Decree concerning mercy and induration The difference betwixt these we may illustrate by many parallel resemblances Suppose that Scepter whose Pedegree Homer Iliad That Pharaoh in the Syllogism proposed is no singular but an Indefinite Term. Lib. 2. so accurately describes had in that long succession lost some part of his length this had broken no square nor bred any quarrel whether it had been the same Scepter or no. yet if the first and last owners should have sold or bought Scarlet by this one and the same Scepter they should have found a great alteration in the measure So then it is one thing to be one and the self-same Standard and Another thing to be one and the self-same Staffe or Scepter The least alteration in length or quantitie that can be doth alter the Identitie of any measure but not the Identitie of the material substance of that which is the measure The same grains of barly which grow this year may be kept till seven years hence But he that should lend gold according to their weight this year and receive it according to their weight at the seven years end should find great difference in the summes though the grains be for number substance the same yet their weights are divers Or suppose it be true which is related of the Great Magore that he weighs himself every year in gold and distributes the summe thereof to the poor and that he had continued this custom from the seventh year of his age yet cannot there be half the difference betwixt the weight of one and the same Prince in his child-hood and in his full age after many heartie prayers to make him fatt as is between the different measures of Pharaohs induration within the compasse of one year Therefore this Argument Pharaoh was hardened after the seventh plague by Gods irresistible Will Ergo He was an irrecoverable reprobate from his childhood is to a man of understanding more gross than if we should argue thus The great Magore distributed to the poor five thousand pounds in gold in his fortieth year Ergo He distributed so much every year since he began this custom of weighing himself in gold For as he distributes unto the poor not according to the Identitie of his person but according to the Identitie or Diversitie of his weight so doth the Immutable Rule of Justice render unto every man not according to the Vnitie of of his Person but according to the Diversitie of his work Unto the several measures of one and the same mans iniquities several measures of Induration whether Positive or privative are allotted from eternitie But Final induration by Gods irresistible Will or irrecoverable Reprobation is the just recompence of the full measure of iniquitie or as the Prophet speakes To harden thus Q. Whether he mean Dan. 9. 24. is to seal up iniquitie to destruction without hope or possibilitie of Pardon 20. These two Propositions are of like eternal truth God from eternitie decreed by his irresistible will to harden Pharaoh having made up the full measure of his iniquitie and God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Pharaoh should make up such a measure of iniquitie For he doth not decree iniquitie at all much lesse full measures of iniquitie And yet unlesse he so decree not iniquitie only but the full measure of it Pharaohs Induration or Reprobation was not absolutely necessary in respect of Gods eternal Decree For It was no more necessary than was the full measure of iniquitie unto which it was due And that as hath been said was not necessary because not decreed by Gods Irresistible Will without which Necessity it self hath no Title of Being That the contention concerning Pharaohs induration hath no contradiction for its ground From these deductions I may clear a debt for which I ingaged my self in my last publick meditations My promise was then to make it evident that these two Propositions 1. God from Eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will 2. God from Eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will might easily be made good friends if their Abettors would cease to urge them beyond their natural dispositions See Attribut 1. part Ch. 15. Numb 7. For in their natures they are Indefinites not Singulars Both in a good sense may be made to tell the truth But a wrangler may work them Both to bear evidence for error God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will T is true of Pharaoh so misqualified as Moses found him perhaps when he brought the first at least when he brought the Seventh Message to him But false of Pharaoh in his Infancie or not laden with such a measure of Iniquitie as by the Divine Decree was from Eternitie Sealed up for death God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will is true of Pharaoh in his infancie or youth but false of Pharaoh after his wilfull contempt of Gods Summons by signes and wonders 21. The Conclusion of the Syllogism proposed indefinitely taken is most true but universally taken is altogether false Beza's Collection upon this place is grounded upon the Indefinite Truth of this Affirmative God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh But he extends this Indefinite Truth beyond its compass For he makes it an Vniversal in that he terminates the Irresistible decree to every moment of Pharaoh's life without Distinction of Qualification And it may be he was of opinion that as well each several qualification as each different measure of Pharaoh's hardening or impenitency
prime Because the Moon being of an incorruptible substance hath continued one and the same since the first Creation But unto this Consequence every Artist could make reply that the proper and immediate subject of the Eclipse is not the Nature or Substance of the Moon howsoever considered but in certain opposition to the Sun So that albeit this Proposition The Moon shall be eclipsed be true and necessary from everlasting yet it is necessarie yet it is true only of the Moon in such Diametral opposition to the Sun that the Earth may cover it with her shadow as with a mantle Whensoever it is in such Opposition it is necessarily Eclipsed Whensoever it is not in such opposition to the Sun it cannot possibly by the course of nature be Eclipsed 25. It is in like manner true which we have often said that the proper and immediate Object of the eternal Decree concerning Induration or Reprobation was not Pharaohâ—s Individual Entitie or Essence but Pharaoh charged with a certain measure of iniquitie or separation from his God Granting then that Pharaoh's Substance from his infancie to his full age was one and the same as incorruptible as the Moon yet the degrees of his declination from the unchangeable Rule of Justice or of his opposition to the Fountain of mercy and goodnesse might be more than are the degrees of the Moons aberration or elongation from the Sun Now the Alseeing providence did more accurately calculate each work each word each thought of Pharaoh and their opposition to his goodness than Astronomers can do the motions of the Moon or Plancts And will he not make his payment according to his calculation Tu Domine nosti utrum radix sit dulcis an amara de qua for is pulchra folia Emittuntur Tu judex interius meliùs ipse nosti etiam medullas radicum subtiliùs perscrutaris non solùm intentionem sed radicis ejus medullam intimam disertissima tuae lucis veritate colligis numeras intueris consignas ut reddas unicuique non solummodo secundum opera vel intentionem sed etiam secundum ipsam intertorem absconditam medullam radicis de quâ procedit intentio operantis Augustin in Soliloqu Cap. 14. pag. 14. 2. So that in One and the self-same Pharaoh there might be more several Objects of the eternal decree than are minutes or scruples in forty years motion of the Moon Not the least varictie or alteration in his course of life but had a proportionate Consequent of reward or punishment allotted to it from all eternitie by the Irresistible Decree Unto Pharaoh then having made up the full measure of his iniquitie Irresistible induration and unrecoverable Reprobation was by the vertue of this eternal Decree altogether necessary and inevitable But unto Pharaoh before this measure of iniquitie was made up neither induration nor irrecoverable Reprobation was so necessarie or inevitable To think the unchangeable Rule of Justice should award the same measure of Induration or Reprobation unto far different measures of iniquitie goes deeper thaâ— the dreggs of Heaâ—henism it is a doctrine which may not be vented where any Christian eare is present 26. The former Resemblance is fully Parallel to our Resolution in all other points save onely in this that the eternal decree did not so necessarily direct or impell Pharaoh to make up the full measure of his iniquitie as it doth direct and guide the course of the Moon till it come in full and Diametral opposition to the Sun Therefore this Similitude will not follow As The Moon though at this time not Eclâ—psed yet holds that course by the unchangeable decree which in time will bring it to be in Diametral opposition to the Sun and by consequence to be Eclipsed So though Pharaoh in his infancie was not reprobated or hardened by Gods Irresistible Will yet Was he by the eternal decree ordained to such reprobation or induration without possibilitie of altering his course or avoiding that opposition which his full age had unto Divine Goodnesse As every true convert or regenerate person may say with him in Saint Ambrose Ego non sum Ego I am become another man so might it be truly said in a contrarie sense Pharaoh sometimes was not Pharaoh When he was a child he spake as a child he thought as a child His mouth was not not opened against God his mind was not set on murther To have seen the Israelitish infants strangled or exposed to the merciless flouds would more have affected his heart being young and tender than afterwards it did his daughters Nor was that crueltie which in his full age he practised so contained in his infancie as poison in the serpents egge It did not grow up by kind or necessitie of his natural temper much lesse was it infused by Gods Irresistible Will but acquired by Voluntarie custom The seeds of it were sown by his own self-will ambitious pride was the root politick jelousie was the bud tyrannie and oppression the fruit Neither was it necessary by the eternal decree that this corrupt seed should be sown or that being sown it should prosper and bud or that after the budding it should ripen in malignitie During all this progress from bad to worse the immediate Object of Gods Immutable and Vnresistible Will was mutabilitie in Pharaoh But this progress which was not necessarie by any eternal decree or law being de facto once accomplished his destruction was inevitable his induration unresistible his reprobation irrecoverable by the eternal and uncontroulable Decree 27. That Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was not excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from possibilitie of repentance That Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was not such an Object of Gods Irresistible Will for induration as in his full age he became may be thus demonstrated No man whose salvation as yet is truly possible is utterly excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation But the salvation of Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was truly possible Ergò Pharaoh in his Touth or infancie was not excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation Therefore He was not then the Object of Gods Irresistible Will for Induration The Major is evident from the exposition of the Termes For God is said to Will that onely by his Irresistible Will which hath no possibilitie to the contrary The necessitie of it like-wise may be made evident by the Rules of Conversion No mans salvation that stands excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation is truly possible Ergò No man whiles his salvation is possible is utterly excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation or which is all one No man whiles his salvation is possible is either hardned or reprobated by Gods Irresistible Will or in Latin more perspicuously thus Nullus per Irresistibilem Dei voluntatem à salute exclusus est servabilâ—s Ergo Nullus servabilis idest quandiu servari potest est à salute exclusus per irresistibilem Dei