by the interposition of some obstacle that hinders Gods influence of love from comming into the Soule But 't is manifest every mortall finne that is contrary to Gods Commandements is such an obstacle of hindring the foresaid influence because by that very act man chuseth sinne and prefers it before Gods love c. Whereby it followes that presently by one Act of mortall sinne the habit of love is lost 3. My third way to come to the true meaning of our Article was to parallel it with the twelfth of the Augustane Confession c. Art 12. Augustanae Confess Art 16. Anglicanae Confess De poenitentia docent quod lapsis post Baptismum contingere possit remissio peccatorū quocunque tempore cum convertuntur Et quod Ecclesia talibus redeuntibus ad poenitentiam absolutionem impertiri debeat Not every deadly Sin c. is unpardonable wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denyed to such as fall into Sin after Baptisme Damnant Anabaptistas qui negant semel jnstificatos posse amittere Spiritum Sanctum Item qui contendunt quibusdā tantam perfectionem in hac vita contingere ut peccare non possint Damnantur Novatiani qui nolebant absolvere lapsos post Baptismum redeuntes ad poenitentiam After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace and fall into sinne c. Therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny place of forgivenesse to such as truly repent What need many words there is nothing more cleare than that this is the Doctrine not onely of the Church of Rome from which our first Reformers desired not to depart but where it had departed from Scripture and Antiquity But also of the Churches of upper Germany and of Denmark with which ours kept most conformity So that the Calvinists are singular and alone in their Opinion Other doctrine of our Church of like nature to this is found in the booke of Homilies especially in that which is intituled Of declining from God in the Table and of Falling from God in the booke Out of the first part whereof I transcribe but this sentence pag. 54. For whereas God hath shewed to all men that truly beleeve his Gospell his face of Mercy in Jesus Christ which doth so lighten their hearts that they if they behold it as they ought to doe bee transformed to his Image be made partakers of the heavenly light and of his holy Spirit and be fashioned to him in all goodnesse requisite to the children of God So if they after doe neglect the same if they be unthankfull unto him if they order not their lives according to his doctrine and example c. He will take away from them his Kingdome his holy word whereby he should riegne in them Out of the second part thereof I transcribe this sentence pag. 57. God will take from them the teaching of his holy word so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdome they shall be no longer governed by his holy Spirit they shall be put from the grace and benefits that 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 c. In the second tome in the Homily of Repentance the first part pag. 261 262. there is a full paraphrase upon the 16. Article according to the two parts I made of it too much to write out admitting that we may chance after we be once come to God and be grafted into his Son Jesus Christ to fall into some horrible Sinne and yet be received againe into favour defining that the Sin against the holy Ghost is a finall faling away from Christ that the promises of mercy to them that turne to God Jer. 4. Isay 55. Osee 6. ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sinnes and wickednesse were gone away from him that David and Peter were justified yet fell horribly but by repentance were forgiven Lastly the prayers of the Church have ever beene a place from which Arguments have beene drawne thus Against them that say the Regenerate may be perfect without sinne Why then doth our Lord teach them to pray Forgive us our trespasses against them that say they cannot be tempted to evill to be overcome why doth he teach us to say Leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evill So Jerome 2. lib. Contra Iovinianum In like manner I argue if a Beleever cannot finally fall from God why doth our Church pray in the Liturgie at the buriall of the dead O God most mighty suffer us not at our last howre for any paines of death to fall from thee CHAP. XVII Of the Persevering Faith of the Elect. THe second question stated was of the Perseverance of the Elect whether it be without interruption in a perpetuall constancy or happy if it be finall that is what the state of a regenerate man is suppose him one of the Elect though knowne so to God onely under some grievous Sin into which he is fallen untill he repent Here I will first argue ex concessis and then rest in one argument out of the Scripture Our Judicious Divines that were at Dort apprehending well the danger of their Tenent that maintaine the Regenerate sinning to be still actually in the state of Salvation say very much of the evill plight of a regenerate man lapsed so much as I require no more That he is not actually reconciled untill he repent but verily in state of damnation and unapt for to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Yet some things they hold fast that they may not forsake their party altogether That which I object is that the things which they deny cannot stand together with the things they grant 1. They say first Though the Regenerate so sinning be guilty yet they are in the purpose of God to be absolved Ans So they were before they were regenerated or repented or beleeved at all Secondly That they are not dealt withall by God in rigor Ans No more are many reprobates fallen from Faith whom yet God would bring to Repentance by his long-suffering Thirdly That they have not lost jus ad Regnum but usum Juris as a leprous man hath not lost the right of his house but the Vse Ans I understand you well by a similitude but I care not for an Argument out of that place Then belike an Elect person guilty of Murther hath jus ad regnum O Sancte Paule thou speakest too loosely 1 Cor. 6. 9. Gal. 5. 21. Be not deceived I tell you that they which doe such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Shall they not inherit that have jus ad regnum that have right to a Kingdome Fourthly They say That their Vniversall Justification is not made void Ans Truly their former absolution from former sins
ac fine ipso beatorum praevisis Molina q. 23. Art 1. Desp. 2. pag. 305. The predestinating to some Men but those meanes which God foreknowes through their owne fault will not bring them to life is the Reprobating of them namely with that Reprobation which is Negative That those meanes bring them not to life is not ever from the insufficiency of the meanes for by the same meanes in the Church of God others come to life but from the personall fault and disobedience of them that use not the meanes or their fault that have charge of them That no better meanes are given them which Gods knowledge understood would save them if they were given ariseth only from the just Will Pleasure of God Neither can this be disgraced by a nick-name of Post-destination because it is after the knowledge of Gods simple understanding for that knowledge is not of things absolutely to be but onely conditionally if God please to say They shall be seeing these things are not known scientia Visionis it is Praedestination properly that gives them being CHAP. IV. Of Election and Reprobation BEcause in these acts God useth both his Knowledge and his Will therefore the holy Scriptures name the Elect sometimes from one head sometimes from the other sometimes those whom God foreknew as Rom. 11. 2. Sometimes those Whom he did Praedestinate according to purpose Rom. 8. 28. whence Election and Reprobation may be defined either of these wayes 1. Election is the foreknowledge of those benefits of God whereby a man will be saved if they be given him and the Will to give them unto him Or thus 2. Election is the purpose or Will of God to give to one man those benefits whereby he knoweth the man will be saved if they be given him These agree with the old definition Praedestinatio est praescientia praeparatio beneficiorum dei quibus certissmè liberantur quicunque liberantur 1. Reprobation is the foreknowledge of those benefits of God under which a man through his owne ingratitude will perish if no other be given unto him and the will to give him no other Or thus 2. Reprobation is the Decree of God to give to a man no other benefits than those under which he doth foreknow the man through his owne ingratitude will perish if no other be given him Here foreknowledge looks directly uppon the ingratitude of the man neglecting benefits and the Will denyes to give any new or more benefits than these ineffectuall to Salvation onely by the abuse or neglect of the ingratefull Thus God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth not alwayes taken immediately for I except Infants not surviving out of the Masse of Originall sinne giving to one man the Grace of most certaine repentance and leaving another in his corruption without releefe able to save him But thus in the dispensation of his benefits and meanes of Grace outward and inward granting unto one those benefits which he infallibly knowes will save him and denying another those Graces which he likewise knowes would save him if they were granted Not that he gave him no grace at all sufficient unto life for he gave him much which the man received in vaine through his owne fault but more God pleased not to give For to harden is not to deny all Grace sufficient to Salvation but to deny that high secret Grace hidden in the Treasury of Gods power which God knowes would speed convert and save if it were given Thus doth man first harden his owne heart disobeying the Grace which God doth offer Ps 95. 8. and God doth harden mans heart in not adding or increasing a stronger grace to the former which would overcome all the hardnesse and disobedience of man if it were the pleasure of God to give it which if it were so to all he should permit no man to perish rather it is his pleasure to exercise his justice upon the despisers of his sufficient Grace and to make them Vessels of his wrath to teach the Creature what it is to tempt the Creator to put forth the uttermost of his wisdome and power to save the sloathfull and ingratefull CHAP. V. The Transition to the third part THus have I spoken sparingly and with reverence of these high things conceived by us as eternall and before all time Next I am to declare the things done in time opening revealing of those Eternall Counsels which two parts I think good to unite as it were by a strong joynt set betweene them taken and transcribed out of that judicious Divine M. Richard Hooker lib. 5. par 56. Wherein let the Ingenuous Reader tell me whether I do not shew him faire prints of my fifth Opinion That which moveth God to work is Goodnesse R. H. and that which ordereth his work is Wisdome and that which perfecteth his work is Power All things which God in their times seasons hath brought forth were Eternally and before all times in God as a work unbegun is in the Artificer which afterward bringeth it unto effect Therefore whatsoever we doe behold now in this present world it was inwrapped within the bowels of divine Mercy written in the booke of Eternall wisdome and held in the hands of omnipotent Power the first foundation of the world being yet unlaid so that all things which God hath made are in that respect the off-spring of God they are in Act. 17. 28 29. him as effects in their highest cause he likewise actually is in them the assistance and influence of his Deity is their life Let hereunto saving grace be added and it bringeth forth a speciall off spring amongst men conteyning them to whom God himselfe hath given the gracious and amiable name of Sons We are by Nature the Sonnes of Adam when God created Adam he created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the root out of which they spring The Sonnes of God we neither are all nor any one of us otherwise than only by Grace and favour The Sonnes of God have Gods owne naturall Sonne as a second Adam from heaven whose care Progeny they are by Spirituall and heavenly birth God therefore loving eternally his Sonne he must needs eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are spiritually sithence descended and sprung Eph. 1. 3. out of him These were in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator onely It was the purpose of his saving goodnesse his saving wisdome and his saving power which inclineth it selfe towards them They which thus were in God eternally by their intended admission to life have by vocation or adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in the worke which his hand doth presently frame We are therefore in God through Christ eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we were chosen to be made his in this present world before the world it selfe
the lowest and first gifts of the Spirit what bee the highest and the last words of sense as Tasting Hearing Seeing are not used in the Scriptures to expresse a little superficiall conceit of things Spirituall quasi primoribus labris gustasse but rather the full clear certaine deepe apprehension of them See Job 34. 3. Psal 34. 9. Joh. 6. 40. Joh. 8. 56. 47. Et alibi passim From hence it is that the renewing of these men againe by Repentance is so hard or impossible that fell from so great an height whereas to be renewed after lesser faults is ordinary How will these Divines of the Schoole satisfie weake ones and our common Christians of the Country in whom they shall not finde so much as these things which they call initialls how will they perswade them that they are in the state of Regeneration and have that justifying Faith whereof they say Believers may be assured or will they exclude them out of the rank of Believers 3. I oppose S. Augustines judgement in this which must not bee refused by any replyer De corrept grat cap. 8. Mirandum est quidem multumque mirandum c. It is to be wondered at and very marvelous that God should not give Perseverance to some of his Children whom hee hath Regenerated in Christ and to whom hee hath given Faith Hope and Love when as he forgives so great wickednesse to other strange Children and makes them his Sonnes by conferring his Grace upon them c. The thing that S. Augustine admireth is Cur illos Deus c. why God should not then snatch away those his children which have lived faithfully and godlily out of the danger of this present life lest their evill inclinations should worke a change in their mindes And hee refers this to the inscrutable judgements of God most wisely and holily But his Opinion is that if these men had dyed in that time when they lived justly and piously they had beene saved therefore their faith was more than begun they were more than seeming Christians they were truly justifyed and sanctifyed and then fit for the Kingdom of Heaven 4. Lastly I maintaine and prescribe this to be the publike Doctrine of the Church of England by Law established and first Heare King Henries Protestations in the Booke before praised In the Article of Justification If after our Baptisme it chance us by our Spirituall enemies to be overthrown and cast into mortall sinne then is there no remedy but for the recovery of our former estate of justification which wee have lost to arise by Penance wherein proceeding in sorrow and much lamentation for our sinnes c. we must have a sure trust and confidence in the Mercy of God that for his Son our Saviour Christs sake he will yet forgive us our sinnes and receive us into his favour againe and so being thus restored to our Justification we must goe forward in our battaile aforesaid Againe a little after And it is no doubt but although we be once justifyed yet we may fall therefrom by our own Freewill and consenting to sinne and following the desires thereof For albeit the house of our conscience be once made cleane and the foule spirit be expelled from us in Baptisme or Penance yet if wee wax Idle and take not heed hee will returne with seven worse spirits and possesse us againe This I allege not for it selfe but for the affinity our 16. Article made in Edw. 6. hath unto it as a Child of the same Fathers Article 16. Of Sinne after Baptisme Not every deadly Sinne willingly committed after Baptisme is Sinne against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable wherefore The place for penitents Artic. Edw. 6. The grant of repentance Artic. Eliz. Is not to be denyed to such as fall into Sinne after Baptisme After wee have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sinne and by the Grace of God we may rise againe and amend our lives And therefore they are to bee condemned which say They can no more Sinne as long as they live here or deny to such as truly repent Place of forgivenesse Eliz. The place for Penitents Edw. 6. This Article my Opponents would bee well contented it had nought against them though it were not for them But I hope to evince it to be so far against them that while it standeth they must needs be Heterodox in the Church of England that preach or publish that Opinion which is now so prevalent every where This I shall doe by three wayes 1 By the Concession and Confession of their own friends that have complained of this Article 2. By Analysing the Propositions and scanning the Literall and Grammaticall sense to which wee are bound to keepe us both by the Law of learning and by the Declaration of K. Charles prefixed to our Articles 3. By Paralleling our 16th with the 12th Article of the Augustane Confession from whence it was taken and with other Doctrine of our Church in the Booke of Homilies 1. For the first The Authors of the second admonition to the Parliament pag. 43. lin 30. doe accuse some Bishops then as suspected of the Heresie of Pelagius and for Freewill not onely they are suspected say they but others also Then they adde And indeed the Booke of Articles of Christian Religion speaketh very dangerously of falling from Grace which is to be reformed because it too much inclineth to their Error So they There were then some Bishops that held this Error of falling from Grace as it was counted by these Authors who count also the Article too much inclining to their error But a wiser learneder man than they in the Conference at Hampton Court 1. Jacobi made it his first motion pag. 24. That the Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explaned in some obscure places and enlarged where some things were defective for example whereas Article 16. the words are these After wee have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace Notwithstanding the meaning be sound saith hee yet he desired that because they may seeme to be contrary to the Doctrine of Gods Predestination and Election in the 17th Article both those words might be explained with this or the like addition yet neither totally nor finally So thâ—n if this Article did not speake dangerously of the falling from Grace and seeme to contradict the 17th Article this motion was needlesse And in truth so it was and so judged for nothing was done to the explaining or enlarging of the Article neither is there any contradiction betwixt the 16th and 17th Articles and the addition of finally totally would have quite subverted not have explained the sense and scope of the whole as I will demonstrate in the two places 2. For the second way by Analysing the Propositions c. thus I proceede The Title is of Sin after Baptisme Cleerly it is not the scope of any part of this Article as some would
Hee shall not pronounce thus But what then shall he say Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire for yee saw me an hungry and fed mee not c. But these are not the common sinnes of all mankinde but the particular faults of every particular man which therefore shall then be specially objected to every one lest in that sharpe torment and griefe of minde they should presume to beg mercy of God who themselves have denyed mercy to their poore Brethren craving it CHAP. XX. An Abridgement of the whole Doctrine of this Booke TExts the Foundation of it Acts 15. 18. Knowne unto God are all his Workes from everlasting Psal 135. 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven and in Earth Rom. 8. 29. Whom he did foreknow he did predestinate 1 Pet. 1. 2. To the Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father Ephes 1. 3 4. Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ according as hee hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World To conceive aright of the Order and Manner of the Divine Predestination in the Minde of God revealed unto us in the holy Scriptures after our manner of Understanding It is necessary to consider something of the Nature of God who did predestinate and something of the Nature of man who was predestinated Of the Nature of God chiefly in this matter must be considered with humble Reverence His infinite Vnderstanding or knowledge His just Will His Soveraigne Dominion His knowledge may be conceived of two sorts that which is called Scientia Visionis knowledge of Vision or that which is scientia simplicis intelligentiae knowledge of simple or meere Understanding that is called also scientia libera because it followeth some free act of the Will of God this is called Naturalis Naturall because it is in God who is of Infinite Understanding before any act of his Will be supposed to have passed His knowledge of Vision or of sight is onely of those things which either have or shall have a being and therefore this knowledge is after Predestination and builded upon it for when Predestination hath decreed what things shall be then God by his Understanding of Vision doth know them as beholding them Seeing then this knowledge is after Predestination is finished and concluded it hath no place in the Act of God predestinating neither can any thing that is under such knowledge or sight be any cause or rule of Predestination whence it appeareth that Rom. 8. 29. Whom he foreknew he did predestinate such foreknowledge of Vision cannot be understood seeing there Foreknowledge goes before Predestinating as Predestinating goes before Calling and Calling before Justifying So that they speak improperly that use the termes of praevisa fides for fides Praecognita in the Question whether Faith foreknown have any place in Gods Predestination with this knowledge then of Vision we have no more to doe in this matter Gods knowledge of pure or simple Vnderstanding is of the same things that are predestinate to be but before they were predestinated and of infinite things more besides them all which it understood and compared together before any thing was decreed or determined to be This knowledge is founded on Gods Omnipotency for he knoweth his owne power and so it is of things but as possible to be if he please to give them being and he knoweth also by this his Understanding if he please to give them being what will be their Operations and effects and what may flow or issue from them either as they are Naturall Agents or Voluntary So by this meanes the knowledge of God ariseth to an infinitenesse and to be without number as the Psalm saith 147. 5. But if it should be limitted to these things alone which have a being and are within the circle of heaven or within the compasse of the ages of the world the knowledge of God should in a sort be finite since these things though to us they be many yet certainly they are finite Now the first act of Predestination was in choosing these things to be which now are and the decree to put them into being refusing and rejecting infinite other things which God knew as possible as these and which might have beene if it had pleased him But of this predestination of all things that are and the rejection of such things as are not our inquiry and dispute is not but of Angels and Men that have a being in what order and manner some were predestinated to life and some rejected To which my answer is that this was not done without that selfe-same foreknowledge of simple Understanding of this part of the world Angels and Men which was used in the predestinating of the whole That is to say 1. That God did Understand that if it pleased him to create among other his glorious workes some creatures endued with reason and of a free Nature they would be more fit than the rest for him to shew forth in them his wisdome goodnesse bounty justice mercy fidelity and all his glorious properties yet it remained at his pleasure to create them or not 2. That he did understand that such creatures according to their freedome would vary in their choices some cleaving fast to good some declining to evill he knew this not onely in generall and as possible but particularly the very persons if they were created and put to the tryall yet it remained at his pleasure to create them or to try them or no to permit or hinder any of them in their choices which he knew how to doe if he would 3. That he did understand that of them whom he knew would forsake their first good estate if he permitted them hee might justly forsake some and punish them for their rebellion or he could find means to restore them and reconcile them to himselfe but yet he determined neither 4. That he understood that it might be more justifiable and equall not to spare Angels but to shew mercy to Men as more fraile and weake as also deceived by Angels Yet he would consider what to doe 5. That he understood that if he should out of that mercy provide excellent meanes sufficient to raise men fallen and to restore to them power and freedome to work like reasonable and free Agents in the Use of those meanes to their Salvation he understood I say that among many some would thankfully receive his mercy some ungratefully reject it for the sake of the pleasures of sin the very particulars he knew of al his own mercies in their several degrees and varieties of all the Persons in their severall conditions and events but still the determination what should be done or permitted of all this was as it were held in suspence 6. That he understood that if he should condemne them that had refused his many mercies and should receive them to favour that returned to him he should doe justly to
hee saw a fit occasion to open all these by separating some ex promiscua illa perditione quâ ad unum omnes pari mortis aeternae conditione obstricti erant the Scripture no where saith and hee himselfe that saith it dares not doe it but with this parenthesis interponente se hîc dilecto filio quos in illo voluit it would clearly appeare that the separation of man was not made upon the view of Mankinde corrupted no more than upon the view of the same uncorrupted but upon Christ interposing Himselfe God separating quos in illo voluit voluit autem credentes in ipsum This let mee expresse in the words of Alesius on John 17. 1. Cum filius Dei praevidisset genus humanum ruiturum in aeternum exitium propter peccatum factus est supplex aeterno Patri ecce interponente se hîc dilecto filio ac promeruit Pater ei daret universos qui credituri essent in ipsum ut eos servaret à tyrannide Diaboli morte aeternâ The Father never denyed the Son any thing which hee asked Psal 2. Aske of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance So by this the intercession of Christ hath obtained all that beleeve in him to bee given to him to deliver from curse and to bring to eternall Life and Salvation not their faith nor their works but Christs favour with his Father The last thing in the Definition is an illustration the predestinated to Life are accounted as Vessells made to honour This is taken out of S. Paul Rom. 9. 21. where you shall finde the Vessells made to honour to be also called Vessells of mercy vers 23. and the Vessells made to dishonour called Vessels of wrath vers 22. but mercy and wrath doe both presuppose sin Both so farre wide from the Apostle and our Article are the defenders of the first Opinion What sinne is it that is presupposed That 's now in the question Whether Originall sinne or sinne against Christ It seemes by the Apostle that Vessels of Wrath were such as God endured with much long-suffering which being despised hee then shewed his wrath and his power over them ver 22. which argued their sinne to be impenitency And Vessels of Mercy to be such in whom he maketh knowne the riches of his Glory but this is done in Christ above all Eph. 1. 6. 7. and 2 Tim. 2. 20. the very visible Church of Christ is the great house wherein are Vessels some to honour some to dishonour But the whole Chapter Rom. 9. deserves an especiall elaboration that together with the whole the similitude of the Potter and his lumpe and his Vessels might be openly cleared The summe is That whereas the Salvation of all those that are saved and the perdition of all those that perish is referred as it ought to be to the Will of God to his mercy to his love to whom he will inlarged and from whom he will restrained and that there is no resisting nor complaining against this Will that then God and his Will is to be considered as it is by the Apostle as the Universall and supreme Cause of all things and as the generall Mover Governour disposer of them through whose understanding judgement and allowance they have all passed and might have been otherwise disposed and other Events have proceeded out of them if God had willed And againe the Supreme Cause as such must not onely be considered as the chiefe and prime agent of things or as alone doing all but permitting other created Natures to use their properties faculties and freedomes and to governe them and to use them to such ends and uses as the wisdome of God his Justice his Mercy his Dominion shall judge fit to use them and apply them holily and righteously and according to Gods Nature God therefore in contemplation of his owne workes which he himselfe would doe and of his creatures of free nature what they would doe if he permit conceiving the issues would be diverse some good some evill out of his owne Soveraigne pleasure and power confirmed and ratified by an immutable decree those issues and their free causes that would bring them forth whereby he prepared some men to glory some men to destruction as unto ends but not without the intervent of their owne acts as well as of his who though he could have mended or altered any of his own workes or any of the other Creatures to other issues yet hee would not notwithstanding hee knew that letting things goe thus the greatest part of the Masse or multitude of Mankinde would goe into perdition and but a few in comparison would be transmitted to life and glory yet he rested in this purpose with as much blamelesse liberty as the Potter hath who makes of the same lumpe of Clay vessells for honorable uses and vessels for viler and baser uses For although there seeme a great deale of neerenesse betweene the Potter as a man an owner and his Clay and there come but few things betweene the Will and power of the one and the uses and End of the other as put case the aptnesse and inaptnesse of Clay to an end which yet the Potter could mend if hee list by cost and labour whereby the Potters power seemes to be more great and absolute yet it is most true that there is a great deale more of neerenesse betweene God and his Creature and though there come many more things betweene the Will of God and the End of his Creature yet is the infinite Knowledge Wisdome and Power of God that notwithstanding these many more things intervenient Gods Will is neerer to the End of his creatures than the Potters Will can be to the End of his Clay where so little or nothing come betweene Those then whom God chose in Christ and decreed to bring to Salvation by Christ upon supposition of his owne acts in giving Christ and his Spirit unto them and upon supposition of their acts in receiving Christ and obeying his Spirit these are Vessells made unto honour And againe those whom hee rejected and decreed to bring into everlasting destruction upon supposition of their acts in despising his Promises and inabusing his benefits given unto them those are Vessels made to destruction There is a necessity of such suppositions here because the Masse of Mankinde is not like unto the Masse of Potters earth rude reasonlesse and senselesse but is a free Creature whose nature is by the Ordinance of the Creator to worke out and to procure to it selfe its owne End good or evill good by working according to God seeking that good to men or evill by declining from or forsaking of God in his Worke and so failing of God hee falls into evill But because God was able to have altered or amended the whole or any peece of the Masse which happily the Potter is not alwayes able to doe in his Masse therefore God must needs bee acknowledged to have a