moment of nature and reason will both prevent this inconvenience and also justifie Gods decree of condemnation to proceed upon the consideration of those sinnes for which hee purposeth to condemne them But then there is another point of great moment which in like manner must be accorded unto though you seeme to be little aware of it though I willingly confesse this over-sight is very generall namely that God decreeth the salvation of none of ripe yeares but upon or with a joynt consideration of their faith repentance and good workes For let us first make the decrees of salvation and condemnation matches As for example Reprobation as it is accounted the decree of condemnation is a decree of punishing with everlasting death Now if you will match Election unto this as it is the decree of salvation it must be conceived as a decree of rewarding with everlasting life Now let any man judge whether this decree must not as necessarily be conjoyned with the consideration of faith repentance and good works in men of ripe years as the decree of condemnation or of punishing with everlasting death must be conjoyned with the consideration of those sinnes for which God purposeth to punish them And I will further demonstrate it thus Like as the decree of permitting some men to sinne and to continue therein to the end and Gods decree of condemning for sinne are joynt decrees neither afore nor after other and consequently the decree of condemning for sinne must necessarily be conjoyned with the consideration of sinne In like sort Gods decree of giving some faith repentance and good workes and his decree of rewarding them with everlasting life are joynt decrees neither of them afore or after other and consequently Gods decree of saving them and rewarding them with everlasting life is joyned with the consideration of their faith repentance and good workes Now that these are joynt decrees I prove thus First the decree of salvation cannot precede the decree of giving faith and repentance for if it should then salvation were the end of faith and repentance but salvation is not the end as I prove thus The end is such as doth necessarily bespeake the meanes tending thereunto but salvation doth not necessarily bespeake faith and repentance tending thereunto for God intending the salvation of Angels brought it to passe without faith and repentance as likewise the salvation of many an infant hee brings to passe without faith and repentance Secondly the end of Gods actions can be nothing but himselfe and his owne glory and therefore salvation it selfe must have for end the glory of God Now examine what glory of God is manifested in mans salvation and it will forth with appeare upon due examination that the glory of God manifested in mans salvation is such as whereunto not salvation only doth tend but diverse other things joyntly concurring with salvation thereunto As for example Gods glory manifested on the elect is in the highest degree of grace but in the way of mercie mixt with justice This requires permission of sin the sending of Christ to make satisfaction for sinne faith and repentance for Gods justice is seen partly in conferring salvation by way of reward and last of all salvation Out of all these results the glory of God in doing good to his creature in the highest degree of grace proceeding in the way of mercie mixt with justice Thirdly if God gave faith and repentance to this end to bring his elect unto salvation as to the end thereof then by just proportion of reason God should deny the gift of faith and repentance unto others that is to permit them finally to persevere in their sinners thereby to procure their condemnation as the end thereof which you will not affirme neither can it with any sobrietie be affirmed In the next place I will shew that neither can the decree of giving faith and repentance precede the decree of salvation for if it should then should faith repentance be the last in execution to wit if it were first in intention and consequently men should first be saved and afterwards have faith and repentance granted unto them Thus I have shewed my readinesse to concurre with you in opinion in this particular and that upon other grounds than yours and whose grounds are more sound yours or mine I am content to remit it to the judgement of any indifferent Reader As for your reason here mentioned repeating onely what you have formerly delivered as touching the will and good pleasure of God not for the death but for the life not onely of the elect but of all others also the vanitie of this assertion of yours I thinke I have sufficiently discovered And I wonder you should carry it thus not of the death but of the life when most an end you have carried it onely thus hitherunto that Gods willing their life is onely upon condition of their obedience and repentance not otherwise Or in a disjunct axiome thus Either of life in case they repent or of death in case they did not repent and what should move you to call this a willing to give them life and not to inflict death Why should you not rather call it a will to inflict death and not to give life considering that God was resolved to deny them such grace as would effectually bring them to obedience and repentance and to grant them only such a grace as he fore-knew full well would never bring them to obedience and repentance 1. Cain was of the familie of Adam to whom the promise was made concerning the seed of the woman that he should break the serpents head and although Cain was offered acceptance upon his repentance yet it followeth not that all were offered the same acceptance even those that never received any tidings or promise concerning the Messiah And the Apostle plainly signifies that the Gentiles were not admonished to repent untill Christ was preached unto them Act. 17. 30. But suppose it were so yet this hinders nothing at all the precedencie of the decree of condemnation unto the decree of giving such a Covenant and permitting them to dispise it For because God purposed to damne them for such a sinne therefore hee might decree to give them such a Covenant and permit them or expose them by leaving them destitute of his grace to the despising of it Not that I doe approve of any such conceit as before I have manifested but to shew how short your discourse falls of making good that which you undertake to prove And I am much deceived if you mistake not their tenet who make reprobation to proceed upon the consideration of the corrupt masle in Adam For undoubtedly their meaning hereupon is not to maintaine that God did purpose to condemne all reprobates only for the sin of Adam or for originall sinne drawne from him this were a very mad conceit But supposing that by Adams fall an impotency of doing that which is good is come upon
Esau as if it consisted onely in making Esau Jacobs servant and Jacob Esaus Lord according to your opinion it extends further then this even to the granting of such grace to Jacob as should bee accompanied with salvation and denying of the same to Esau whereupon infallibly followed condemnation It is true God is just in dealing with Esau and God is as just every whit in dealing with Jacob for hee deales with each according to the Law himself made But God shewed mercy also unto Jacob in providing a Saviour to die for him and in circumcising his heart and making him to perform the condition of life hee shewed no such mercy unto Esau You see well how incongruous it were to plead the sin of Esau why hee should bee so dealt withall seeing Jacob at that time deserved no better But why doe you not observe that this Discourse of the Apostle hath every way as pregnant a reference to the obduration of Pharaoh or of any one that is hardned as to Gods dealing with Esau Again suppose some are not so bad as Pharaoh was when God hardens Pharaoh and doth not harden others but rather shews them mercy will you say the reason hereof is because these deserved better at the hands of God then Pharaoh Doe you not perceive how this Doctrine carryeth you ere you are aware to trench upon the freenesse of Gods grace in mans effectuall vocation Suppose Nicodemus who sought to our Saviour by night were converted and Saul had not been at all converted but still hardned would you have said that Paul was hardned because of his sin in persecuting the Church of God but Nicodemus deserved better at the hands of God then Saul Yet wee are sure that Saul in spight of all his persecution was converted when in all probability many a morall Jew and nothing factious in opposing the Gospel of Christ yea and many a Gentile too were not converted but perished in their sins and in the blindnesse of their minde If it bee urged thereupon that God doth harden the creature and also hateth him with a positive hatred without all respect of sin in the creature out of his absolute will I answer in these deep counsels and unsearchable wayes of God it is safe for us to wade no farther then wee may see the light of the Scriptures clearing our paths and the grounds thereof paving our wayes and as it were chalking it out before us The Scripture telleth us That God hardens whom hee will And again sin is the cause in which and for which God doth harden any both which will stand together That as God sheweth mercy on whom hee pleaseth so hee hardneth whom hee pleaseth out of his absolute will Yet hardneth none but with respect of sin going before For First when wee speak of the reprobate with comparison of the elect they are both alike sinners And therefore if the question bee why God hardneth the reprobate and doth not harden but shew mercy on the Elect Here no cause can bee rendred of this different dealing but onely the will and good pleasure of God sin is alike common to both and cannot bee alledged as the cause of this diversity Idem qua idem semper facit idem But when wee speak of the Reprobates alone considered in themselves If the question bee why God is pleased to harden them The answer is alway truely and safely given It pleased God to harden them for their sins And which is yet more when God is said to harden a wicked man for his sin it is not sin that moved God primarily to harden him but his absolute will it was to harden him for his sin for what sin could God see in the creature to provoke him to harden it but what hee might have prevented by his providence or healed by the blood of Christ if it had so seemed good to his good pleasure When therefore God doth harden a creature for his sin it is because it is his good pleasure even his absolute will so to harden him To will a thing absolutely and yet to will it on this or that condition may well stand together in many a voluntary agent when the condition is such as that the will might easily help if it so pleased As if a man should cast off a servant for some disease hee hath which hee might easily heale if it pleased him or break his vessell for some such uncleannesse which hee could easily rinse out Both these may well bee said of him at once that hee cast off his servant for his disease and brake his vessell for its uncleanenesse and yet might hee cast out his servant and break his vessell and both out of his good pleasure and out of his absolute and his free will It is true the Word of God is a Lantborn unto our feete and a Light to our paths and it is fit wee should rest contented herewith for discovering unto us the whole counsell of God Now this Word of God plainly teacheth us that God bardneth whom hee will Now I presume you doe not doubt but that God out of his absolute will shews mercy on whom hee will Nay I can hardly beleeve but that your opinion is that like as God out of his absolute will granted saving grace to Jacob so out of his absolute will he denyed saving grace to Esau And still doth to those whom you account the world of mankinde And I have already shewed that the deniall of this grace can bee no punishment For as much as punishment consisteth either in inflicting evill or in denying some good which formerly was granted them But in denying saving grace to the world of mankinde hee doth not deny them any thing which they formerly injoyed I have already shewed what that hardning is which is for sin and wherein it doth consist not in denying saving grace which they never injoyed but in denying that naturall restraint from some foule sin which formerly they injoyed as I exemplifyed it in that Rom. 1. 27. That in Rom. 11. 7 8 9 10 11. is nothing for you where there is no mention of sin as the cause of their obduration As for that in Psalm 69. 21. Their blinding is referred to their giving unto Christ Gall in his meate and in his thirst vinegar to drink I pray consider Were they not even then blinded when they persecuted Christ unto death And yet notwithstanding some of these were converted Act. 2. But upon this their opposition unto Christ God did proceed to blinde them more and more but how Not by denying saving illumination for this they never injoyed it was denyed them from the first to the last But by withdrawing from them the meanes of illumination more and more as namely the preaching of Gospel and the working of miracles and the giving them over unto the power of Satan This also is to give them over to their own hearts lust Psal 81. 11 12. by ceasing to
rewarding him according to his deserts in conformity to that of the Apostle Therefore hath God exalted him But neither this advancement of his is the end of his humiliation nor either of these the end of his assumption into an hypostaticall union with the Sonne of God Nor his hypostaticall union with the second person in Trinity the end of any of these and therfore they are to be accompted rather co-ordinate then subordinate in the intention of God 2. Now I come to examine how this doubt is cleered Here we have first a rule then the accomodation of this rule Touching the rule I acknowledge it and I adde something to the cleering of it Granting that there is no order in Gods decrees but such as is grounded upon this that God purposeth one thing for another This one thing and another are only the end and the means between which we say in the intention of God there is onely prioritas rationis priority of reason which in my judgement is well expounded thus when ratio unius petitur à ratione alterius the reason of the one is taken from the reason of the other as ratio mediorum petitur à ratione sinis the reason of the means is taken from the reason of the end And therefore we say The end is first in intention and then the meanes As for the accomodation of the rule it seems to me to be nothing at all to the purpose for the doubt proposed was not how it might appeare that there was any thought of the glorifying of God before the presupposall of Adams fall and of Christs humiliation We willingly acknowledge the glory of God was thought on before them all both before the incarnation advancement of the man Christ mans fall and Christs humiliation I say before them all prioritate rationis by priority of reason for undoubtedly both the incarnation of the Son of God That is the hypostaticall union of Christs manhood to the second person in the Trinitie and the advancement of the man Christ was to the glory of God as the end thereof as well as ought else And this glory of God hath been specified at least in part And as for the glorifying of himself in Christ this still denotes the glory of God as the end though it addes withall the matter wherein it shines to wit the man Christ And to prevent the errour of equivocation that usually lurkes under generalls This glorifying of God in Christ consists either in severall or in common with the glorifying of himself in man also to wit in the elect considered in severall I confesse there is a double glory of God manifested in Christ The one is the glory of his pure grace in conferring the greatest good and honour that the creature is capable of as namely in the hypostaticall union of the manhood of Christ to the second person in the Trinitie Secondly the glory of Gods remunerative justice in the highest degree possible both in respect of the reward the greatest that possibly could be deserved for that hypostaticall union could not be deserved and that is the glorisication of the humane nature of Christ both in respect of his glory absolute and of his glory relative as by whom salvation is procured to others as also in respect of the desert the greatest I thinke that possibly could be to wit the humiliation of the Sonne of God to the death of the crosse in way of obedience to his Fathers will There is also a glory of God that appeares in Christ not in severall as a sole meanes thereof but in common with other meanes joyntly concurring thereunto and that is the glory of God in the way of mercie mixt with justice in saving sinners for the obedience of Christ The glory of God in all these severall wayes was in the first place intended by God before ought else prioritate rationis in prioritie of reason and afterwards the congruous meanes to these severall ends as the ends them selves did bespeake were intended by him for ratio mediorū petitur à ratione sinis the reason of the meanes is taken from the reason of the end But all this is nothing to shew that the incarnation of the second person or advancement of the man Christ should be before the consideration of mans fall or Christs humiliation Yet let us examine that which followeth delivered by way of proof of that which no man that I know makes question of Because Christ was ordained before the world was therefore before the consideration either of Creation or Fall For in scripture phrase when God is said to doe one thing before another he meaneth before the existence or being of it in his consideration as an inducement leading him unto it as well as before the existence of it by nature As when God is said to have loved Jacob rather then Esau before they had done either good or evill Rom. 9. 11. He meaneth before they had done it in his consideration as a cause or condition leading him to love or hatred as well as in actuall performance in their owne persons I pray consider why was Christ ordained and to what end before the world was Was he not ordained to be incarnate in the womb of the Virgin and to be a Lambe for a burnt offering to make satisfaction for sins And was it possible that this ordination could have course without consideration of the creation and fall And though this be confessed yet will it not here hence follow that the decree of creation and permission of mans fall was before the decree of the incarnation of the Sonne of God which alone as I conceive casteth some mens inventions upon the platforme of a new course And consequently it will not follow that in this case the consideration of creation and fall should precede as motives to God to send his Sonne For first I say the considerations hereof are not all precedent but conjunct and concomitant like as are the decrees Secondly if they did precede yet should they not precede as motives Good or evill workes are fit motives I confesse of election and reprobation if it were possible their considerations could precede the one or the other But creation and fall are no fit motives of ordaining Christ for they were found in Angels as well as in men though the consideration of them could precede this ordination 2. Election is as expresly said to be before the foundation of the world as the ordination of Christ And was not reprobation in opposition to election in the same moment of time and nature also Doth not election connotate reprobation But it will be said that this phrase before the world signifies not any measure of duration when that worke was done but a negation of any consideration had of the creation or fall This seems a very strange construction therefore it deserves to be discussed 3. Before Abraham was I am would you interpret it thus Before the
Christs humiliation was the meanes of Christs advancement and I prove it Those only are to bee accounted meanes to such an end quorum ratio petitur a ratione finis designati that is the means are onely such as the nature of the end duly considered doth bespeake But the advancement of Christ doth not bespeake any such meanes for undoubtedly God could advance Christ without any such humiliation nay having taken his manhood into an hypostaticall union with his Son even in this respect his advancement was far more requisite than in respect of his humiliation You will say God purposed to advance him no other way then this I grant it and if you consider it well you shall find the reason of it by considering the right ends hereof in the counsell of God And these are different one was in respect of others to wit that he might be a fit Saviour of Gods elect not that their salvation was the end of his humiliation but the glory of God in a certain kind the end of both to wit both of his humiliation and our salvation namely the glory of his free grace in the way of mercy mixt with justice This end required satisfaction as without which it could not be procured But here I confesse the advancement of Christ hath no place but in another consideration it shall find place and that as a joynt meanes together with his humiliation for another kind of glory would God the Father manifest in Christ And indeed the Nation of mankind is as a glasse wherein a very complete body of Gods glory doth appear in very great variety and that was the manifestation of his glory in the way of remunerative justice in the highest degree remunerating obedience I say in the highest degree both in respect of the reward deserved and also in respect of the desert it selfe the reward being the sitting in the Throne of his Father and to have all judgment committed unto the Sonne the desert being the obedience of the Son of God one and the same God with his Father humbling himselfe to death even to the death of the crosse for the salvation of Gods elect But perhaps you may further say It is not necessary that the means should bee only such as the end doth naturally require For God could have brought man to salvation the same way he brought Angels without faith and repentance yea hee could have made them and immediatly have translated them into glory yet wee commonly say Faith and Repentance are the means of salvation I answer granting not onely that wee commonly say so but that wee truly say so in respect of our selves namely that as salvation is the scope and end wee aime at so faith and repentance are the onely meanes to bring us thereunto but in respect of God it is utterly untrue for neither is our salvation the end of Gods actions but his owne glory Hee made all things for himselfe Prov. 16. 4. And if it were his end hee could have brought it about divers other wayes besides this but in that hee brings it to passe this way there is good reason for it as wee shall well perceive if wee take the end of God aright namely to manifest his glory in doing good to man in the highest degree and that in the way of mercy mixt with justice This end doth necessarily require a permission of sin again it doth require satisfaction as by the death of Christ and thirdly it doth require faith and repentance that so hee may doe him good by way of reward and lastly a glorious salvation which is the doing of him good in the highest degree And as mans salvation is not the end of Gods actions so neither is the glory of Christ as hee is man the end of Gods actions for such a glory inherent can but bee a created glory and no created thing can be the end of Gods actions but onely God himselfe For as he is the chiefe efficient of all so must hee bee the supreme end of all and as hee is most lovely and most good so must hee necessarily love that most which is most lovely even himselfe and aime at his owne glory in all 2 Now I come to the Apostles Text wherewith this Argument is backt 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All are yours and yee Christs and Christ Gods that is say you The world for the Church and the Church for Christ and Christ for God thereby giving us to understand That God first intended his glory for which are all things and then Christ for whom the Church is and then the Church for which the world is and then the world last of all But I pray you consider whether this Interpretation and Collection thereupon be not more superficiary than sound First when he saith All are yours is the world only to be understood by all Is not the world expresly named but as a member of this universall Are not Paul Apollos and Cephas also joyned with it together with life and death and things present and things to come and joyntly comprehended under the word all Verse 21. Let no man rejoyce in men for all things are yours Verse 22. Whether it be Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death whether they be things present or things to come even all are yours 23. And yee Christs and Christ Gods As he was perswaded Rom. 8. 38. That neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come 39. Nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature should bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore wee need not feare them So here he goes further and tells us that all are put as it were in subjection unto us to worke for our good and therefore wee should not rejoyce in them but rather in Christ and in God who hath wrought this and ordered all this for our good through the merits of Christ not only Apostles and Pastours but even the very Angels also who pitch their tent about us and have charge given them to keep us in all our wayes and all of them are sent forth for the good of them that are heires of salvation Yet this subjection is onely of a spirituall and gracious nature nothing prejudicing their advancement above them whom they thus serve in love and that for this their service performed for Gods sake to whom rather they are in subjection then unto us yet so farre in subjection to worke our good that it becomes us not to rejoyce in any of them but rather in God who hath thus ordered them for our good and Christ for whose sake they are thus ordered An Argument like to that the Lord useth Deut. 4. 19. Take heed lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the sunne and the moon and the starres with all the host of heaven shouldst bee driven to worship them
desired him to shew him his glory The Lord saith hee mercifull and gracious and that will by no meanes cleare the guilty visiting iniquity Where God declareth and proclaimeth his chiefe glory to stand partly of attributes and the work of grace in the one hand and of justice in the other for God in like sort declareth wherein hee delighteth chiefly to glorifie himselfe viz. in the exercise of loving kindnesse and righteousnesse and judgement Jer. 9. 24. I should think whatsoever is in God is equally glorious even his strength as well as his mercy wherewith the Lord begins in the place alledged though here pretermitted Neither doth it follow that because these only are here mentioned therefore the glory of God doth principally consist in these And besides there is the glory of his soveraignty expressed even then when the promise of this revelation here mentioned was made to Moses to wit in shewing mercy and having compassion on whom hee will I beseech thee shew mee thy glory And hee answered I will make all my good goe before thee and I will proclaime the Name of the Lord before thee for I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion And this is it the Apostle doth most insist upon Rom. 9. yet I make no question but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the various wisdome of God is as glorious as any of the rest and this appeareth in the incarnation of the Sonne of God and in the complete execution of his office as in nothing more But I conceive that glory of God represented to Moses Exod. 34. 6 7. was expressed to a speciall end unto his people namely to compose them to a greater reverence of his Majesty which reverence is a quality consisting of a mixture of love and feare a morall gesture Not to speak how the execution of mercy and justice are competent unto the creatue nor to mention that wherein Vasquez and Suarez concutre otherwise much different about their conceptions of Gods justice namely that there is no justice in God toward the creature which is not grounded upon the determination of his will and so undoubtedly is the execution of his mercy also onely with this difference God hath revealed unto us rules according to which hee will proceed in the execution of his justice no such rules hath hee revealed to us or prescribed to himselfe according to which he wil proceed in the execution of his mercy It is well observed by others that those vertues which grace the Will are more honourable than those which grace the Understanding or other parts It is a greater honour to a Prince to be gratious and just then to bee wise and powerfull power and wisedome may bee found in a vitious Prince not grace and justice If then grace and justice doe more set forth the glory of their soveraignty surely God who aimeth at his highest glory in the highest and first place he aimed chiefly at the manifestation of his grace and justice above the manifestation of his power and dominion 1. First concerning the instance it selfe I answer 1. It is not to be expected I confesse that vertue should be found in a vitious person but yet Princes commonly make more accompt of their absolutenesse then of their vertue 2. And the most capitall crime against them consists rather in the derogation to their power then to their vertue 3. And vertue is common to all and if all were as they ought to be what glory were it to a King to be vertuous 2. But as for the accomodation of it though all were granted yet it concludes nothing To be vertuous is honourable to a man because he is indifferent to execute his power in the way of vice as well as in the way of vertue But there is no such indifferency found in God Gods gratious disposition tyes him to doe good to none but to whom he will Had he never made the world nor purposed to produce any creature he had beene notwithstanding the same he now is yea the very execution of justice in God doth presuppose the determination of his owne will whereupon it is that Bradwardine distinguisheth betweene meritum aptitudinale meritum actuale Aptitudinale meritū is the merit of such good as God can bestow in the way of reward if he will or such evill as God can inflict in the way of punishment if he will Actuale meritum is the merit of such good or evill as God hath determined to bestow or inflict Answerable hereunto Gerson professeth that when a sinne is committed it is meerely at the pleasure of God to inflict what punishment he will And withall he professeth that God doth actually remunerate every good worke ultra condignum and punish every evill worke citra condignum all which I hold to be Orthodox and sound And let me intreat and prevaile with you in this that you will not thinke any thing in the nature of God to be lesse glorious then another howsoever to our apprehension some attributes may seem more glorious then others Consider what you finde last in the execution of Gods decree and from thence gather what was first in his intention Now at the last judgement as likewise in the course of his providence in this world God doth chiefly manifest the glory of his grace to the elect and the glory of his justice upon the world When God in his wayes towards the elect blesseth them with all spirituall blessings in Christ what doth he rather aime at then the praise of the glory of his grace When God destroyeth the wicked in their flourishing estate and causeth the righteous to flourish in their weake and decayed age what doth be rather aime at then to shew that the Lord is upright and there is noe unrighteousnesse with him When Christ shall come to judgement at the last day what will he rather shew forth then the righteous judgement of God upon the world of the ungodly and the admirable glory of his grace to the Saints Since then all the wayes of God doe finally worke to this issue the setting forth of his grace and justice surely we are so to conceive it as his primary aime and intent to be to glorifie rather his grace and justice then his power and soveraignty 1. That God doth manifest the glory of his grace to the elect and the glory of his justice upon the world both in this life and at the day of judgement I grant But that he doth chiefly manifest this is not proved save only there is a propension in the phrase to signifie as much as properly and then it is true indeed His grace properly on the one his justice properly on the other whereas the glory of his power and soveraignty and wisdome is promiseuously shewed on both yet there is not taken so distinct a consideration of justice as seems fit For
sometimes you doe even in this Section more than once as when you say Gods Purpose willeth life to the world upon the condition of their obedience and repentance it would manifestly appeare that there was no reason to distinguish the Elect from the Reprobate in this Purpose of God seeing it equally passeth upon them both For undoubtedly Gods Purpose is not to give the Elect life but upon condition of their obedience and repentance And likewise his Purpose was to condemne all one as well as another upon the condition of their disobedience and unrepentance But had you dealt thus plainly then you would be driven to acknowledge another decree which alone puts the difference between the Elect and the Reprobate and that is the decree of God to shew mercy in giving the grace of obedience and repentance unto the one and of hardening in denying the grace of obedience and repentance unto the other But this plaine-dealing had utterly marred the state of your present discourse in this particular Yet to touch something by the way How I pray doth God the Father by the end of the Creation of his workes and Providence beare witnesse to this Point that it is the will and good pleasure of God to save the Elect not according to their owne workes but his grace Secondly if God the Sonne died for the whole world Reprobate and Elect how doth this testifie that onely a few called the Elect should be saved by Gods grace Is there any greater grace than the grace of Redemption by the bloud of Christ which is both of a satisfactory nature for all sinne and of a meritorious nature to purchase all grace and all glory And shall not God deale with Christ according to the exigence of his merits and satisfactions whether they were meritorious and satisfactory so farre of their owne nature or by the constitution of God all is one Last of all as touching the motions of the Spirit if they are no other then morall invitations they tend to no other end then to bring all men alike unto salvation in case they are obeyed and to expose all alike unto condemnation in case they are disobeyed If wee speake of other motions making the former effectuall unto obedience and repentance these being found onely in the Elect are documents of Gods will and purpose to save them to whom they are granted and as manifest a document that Gods will and purpose is not to save them to whom they are denyed As for the harmony you speake of between Gods Purpose and Covenant herein is your error two-fold First in that you apply this wholly to the world to Reprobates whereas it concernes as I have shewed the Elect as well as the Reprobate the reason whereof is because it respects onely the collating of salvation and inflicting of condemnation which have their course upon condition But there is another worke of Gods Providence concerning the giving or denying of grace for performing the condition of life And this worke is not performed upon any condition but meerly according to the good pleasure of God in shewing mercy to whom hee will and hardening whom he will And the Purpose of God for the execution of these is clearly absolute without all colour of condition And whereas you conceive this Purpose of God thus absolute concernes onely the Elect that is your second error For God doth not more absolutely grant the gift of obedience and repentance unto his Elect than hee doth deny it unto Reprobates as I doubt not but will be made clearly to appeare if you should come to a Collation hereabout But I doe not thinke you have any purpose to deale upon this but carry your selfe in a way of your owne not exactly considered wherein confusion of things that are to be distinguished doth afford you the best service As for the third which this harmony you speake of comprehends to wit the Providence of God I left that out because you shape to your selfe such a Providence of God as whereby God did provide for all men in all ages sufficient meanes of grace to bring them to obedience and repentance which seemes to be the opinion of the Author who wrote the two bookes De vocatione Gentium For the justification of which conceit though Arminians now-adayes relye much upon that Author in this particular I freely confesse I know no reason nor colour of reason As for the comparison you make between a godly regenerate man and God you might as well have shaped it betweene many an honest heathen man and God But you consider not a most momentous difference man purposeth to doe things upon conditions the performance or not performance whereof he is not able to fore-see much lesse able to dispose of efficacy to performe the condition to whom hee will and to deny it to whom hee will all which is incident unto God and casts us necessarily upon the acknowledgement of an absolute Purpose in God to performe this as hee thinkes good which is not to be found in man Againe you conceive this Purpose and Covenant of God to be made onely with the world who will never performe it Man enters upon no such Purposes and Covenants but rather such the conditions whereof are as soon performed as not performed And I wonder you should swallow this comparison as exact not considering the foule disproportion that is found therein between God and man But affection to our owne opinion I confesse is apt to abuse us and make us take notice onely of that which makes for us not of that which makes much more against us As for the Objection here inserted in the Answer whereunto you trouble your selfe not a little you might well have spared your paines and answered in briefe that though it were very strange that any thing should not be accomplished which God doth will absolutely yet surely it is nothing strange that that should not be accomplished which God doth will to come to passe onely upon a condition for the condition failing there is no reason why wee should expect the accomplishment thereof And such is the will of God which here you propose concerning the world namely in willing that they shall be saved on condition of their obedience and repentance damned in case of their disobedience and impenitency Yet it is not amisse to consider what you let fall in your Answer to an Objection very needlesse and which no wise man amongst them who are adverse to you in this opinion would frame That act of Gods will you say which it pleaseth God to put forth is alwayes accomplished I demand then as touching this will of God whereby hee wills life to the world upon their obedience and repentance whether it be accomplished or no If it be then it is accomplished in their condemnation for certainly it is not accomplished in their salvation And to this effect I presume tends your answer in the next Section That which followes when you
confesse this course of justifying a tenet by the usefulnesse of it is usually much made of by the Arminians but I could never brooke it in any This is a faire way to make a rule of faith unto our selves and under colour of usefulnesse to shape the doctrine of the Gospel after our owne fancies yet I am willing to examine what here you deliver also in every particular 1. As touching the first Use I finde you serve your turne with a manifest confusion of the grace of vocation with the grace of salvation Thus God of free grace saves in the one in justice damnes in the other But the comparison you make is nothing congruous For it is so carried by you as if in this dealing of God the case were alike with mans dealing as when a Judge amongst many malefactors equally guiltie of death saves some and damnes others These are nothing equall for the one die in faith and repentance the other die void of faith and in the state of impenitency Therefore to help this incongruitie you will be driven to fly to effectuall vocation And indeed before God doth effectually call some by such a grace as he denies others they whom hee cals were no better then others But let us make way for the truth to appeare in her proper colours by distinguishing those things which ought to be distinguished lest wee be found to be in love with our owne errours As touching Vocation 1. we acknowledge with you and you with us the freenesse of Gods efficacious grace bestowed on some and denyed to others and herein magnified that whereas God might have bestowed it on others and not on them he hath bestowed it on them and not on others yea on them who are but few in comparison permitting a farre greater multitude of others and which is especially to be considered though you are not willing to take notice of it Like as God hath mercy on some in giving them this efficacious grace we speak of meerely according to the good pleasure of his owne will so he hardens others denying them the same grace and that meerely according to the good pleasure of his owne will And thus the freenesse of his grace is magnified towards the elect by his severitie and freenesse of his will in denying it unto others whereas you so carry it as if the freenesse of his grace to the one were magnified in respect of his justice toward the world of mankinde in dealing with them according to their workes which is a plausible speech and of common course usually admitted but utterly void of truth The truth being this That like as God in inflicting damnation on men doth not proceed according to the meer pleasure of his own will but according to the works of men so in denying grace efficacious he doth not proceed according to the workes of men but meerely according to the good pleasure of his owne will For the Apostle plainely professeth in this case that looke how he hath mercie on whom hee will so likewise he hardens whom hee will And to cleare the truth in this point because as many as vary from the truth of God in this point are not very prone to heare on this eare let us consider that justice hath different acceptions In a common notion it is no otherwise taken then for justitia condecentiae as the Schoolemen call it Thus whatsoever God doth is an act of Gods justice whether it be an act of power as in makeing the world out of nothing or an act of liberalitie in doing good to the creature without cause or an act of mercy in pardoning sin all these are acts of justice in this sense The meaning whereof is no more but this In all these actions God doth no other thing then what himselfe hath lawfull power to doe In this sense it is just with God as well to have mercy on whom he will as to harden whom hee will And so your comparison here made should have no life at all to that purpose whereunto you accommodate it For in this sense the justice of God shall equally appeare on both sides Whereas you make the freenesse of Gods grace only on the one side to be magnified the more by the consideration of his justice which hath course on the other So that to hold up your owne comparison as decently proposed you must be driven to forgoe this common notion of justice and sticke to a more strict and peculiar notion thereof and that is when God rewards or punisheth men according to their workes Now I say that God doth not deny efficacious grace to any man according to his workes which I demonstrate thus The execution of justice in this kinde doth alwayes proceed according to some law which law is made to man by some superior power but unto God not by any superior power for hee acknowledgeth no superior power but by his owne will As for example Wherefore doth God crowne all them with glory who die in faith and in repentance To wit because he hath ordained and made a law that whosoever continueth to the end in the state of faith and repentance shall be saved Againe why doth God damne them to everlasting fire who die in sinne void of faith void of repentance To wit because God hath ordained and made a law that whosoever beleeveth not provided that he continueth in unbeliefe unto the end shall be damned For undoubtedly God could have turned men into nothing had it so pleased him and had hee not decreed the contrary like as hee brought men out of nothing Now shew me that God hath ordained or made a law that men found in such or such a condition shall be denyed efficacious grace if you cannot shew any such ordinance or law of God then doe not say that God in denying grace proceeds according to mens workes in justice And indeed if any such law could be assigned it would follow that in the communicating of grace also God should proceed not according to the good pleasure of his will but in justice according to mens workes Consider a second argument What is sinne originall but the spirituall death of the soule By Regeneration man formerly dead in sinne is revived Now is it congruous to say that because man is dead in sinne therefore it is just with God not to revive him Because a man is blind therefore it is just with God not to open his eyes Or because he is deafe therefore it is just with God not to open his eares Suppose sin were but the sicknesse of the soule is it congruous to say that because a man is sicke therefore it is just with God not to cure him Whereas it is manifest that unlesse a man were first sicke it were impossible to cure him unlesse first blinde or deafe it were impossible to restore sight or hearing unto him unlesse first dead it were utterly impossible to revive him Come wee now to salvation and
the younger to the participation of his free love and to soveraignty over his Brother and depressed the elder to the condition of a servant and as a servant reserved for him just dealing but not fatherly love might not this seeme an unequall partiality with God to deale so unequally with persons equall To resolve this doubt the Apostle could not have cleered God from unrighteousnesse by pleading the sin of Esau which deserved that hee should bee so dealt withall for neither did Jacobs sin deserve better and besides the Apostle had said before God gave out these Oracles which pronounced his different respect of them without all consideration of good or evill in either of them viz. before they had done either good or evill Therefore to satisfie the objection and cleare Gods righteousnesse the Apostle wisely alledgeth testimonie of Scripture to prove Gods absolute power and ability to shew mercy on whom hee will and whom hee will to harden When you say this hardning of Pharaoh though an effect of Gods hatred of Pharaoh yet was not an immediate effect of the like hatred which hee bare to Esau before hee had done good or evill but presupposeth the sin of Pharaoh your meaning seems to bee this that it is not at all an effect of the like hatred which hee bare to Esau before hee had done good or evill yet it is no lesse then the not writing of his name in the book of life as touching the communicating of saving grace and glory neither do wee acknowledge it to bee any more like as Aquinas doth not now the consequent of this kinde or measure of hatred in holy Scripture is no lesse then the worshipping of the beast Rev. 13. 8. nothing lesse then the obduration of Pharaoh The obduration of the children of Israel was no greater then such as was consequent unto this that God did not give them an heart to perceive and eies to see and ears to heare Deut. 29. 4. And this of not giving hearts to perceive c. undoubtedly is a consequent even to that hatred which you are content to attribute unto God concerning Esau But you helpe your self with a complicate proposition and flie to an immediate effect which alone you deny in this case for as much as the hardning of Pharaoh as you say presupposed sin committed by him but very improvidently For if it bee not an immediate effect of the like hatred that God bare unto Esau then in accurate consideration it is to bee acknowledged an effect thereof Only there is some effect thereof more immediate then this and what I pray was that was it Pharaohs sin for of no other doe you make the least intimation the more improvident is your expression intimating thereby that Pharaohs sin was a more immediate effect in Pharaoh of the like hatred God bare to Esau then this obduration But how doe you prove that Pharaohs hardening was not an immediate effect of the like hatred which God bare to Esau to wit because it presupposed sin But I deny this Argument neither doe you discoursing at large give your selfe to the proving of it but onely suppose it By the same reason you might say that salvation is not the immediate effect of election unto salvation because salvation in men of ripe years presupposeth faith repentance and good workes Nay you may as well say that Gods giving of grace is not an immediate effect of Gods love to any man because in most men of ripe years it presupposeth many good works In Saul it presupposed his zeale and his righteousnesse according to the Law which was unblameable If you say that Sauls righteousnesse whatsoever it was before his calling was no fruit of his love I may with more probability affirme that Pharaohs sin which preceded his obduration was no effect of Gods hatred If you say that though such righteousnesse in Saul was no moving cause to God to give him saving grace In like manner I say that no sin in Pharaoh was a moving cause in God to deny him saving grace For if it were then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God Not by necessity of nature for undoubtedly God could have pardoned this sin of his and changed his heart as well as he pardoned the sins of Manasses the sins of the Jews in crucifying the son of God Act. 2. the sins of Saul in persecuting Gods Saints and changed all their hearts Nor by any constitution of God for shew mee if you can any such constitution of God And if you would but explicate wherein the hardening of Pharaoh did consist I presume it would clearely appeare that the meere pleasure of Gods will is the cause of it like as it is the meere pleasure of God that he doth not harden others in like manner But when we carry our selves in the clouds of generallties we are very apt to deceive not others onely if they will be deceived but our selves also Againe you seem to speake of Pharaohs hardening mentioned Exod. 9. 16. And indeed for this cause have I appointed thee to shew my power in thee c. Whereas from the first time that Moses was sent unto him hee was hardened and that by God according as God had told Moses before-hand that hee would harden him As for his sin before ever Moses was sent unto him you doe not take any speciall notice thereof at all but whatsoever it were as suppose the cruell edict of his in commanding the male children of the Hebrews to be cast into the River like as God answered him most congruously in his works first causing the waters of Aegypt to bee turned into blood and in the last place making the waters of the red Sea the grave of Pharaoh and of his Host was this horrible sin any lesse then a consequent to more then ordinary obdurationâ— for even heathen men are seldom exposed to such unnatural courses So that if this obduration were an effect of Gods hatred but not immediate supposing sin according to the manner of your Discourse then you must be put to devise some other sin as precedent to this obduration And whereas that sin also cannot be denyed to be a consequent to Gods denyall of effectuall grace to abstaine from sin we shall never come to an end till the cause of all these obdurations be at length resolved into originall sin And what share I pray you hath the world of mankind therein which Gods elect have not When you tel us the hardening is a punishment of sin it were very fit you should deal plainly tel us in what operation of God this work of hardening doth consist which I make no doubt would cleare all All confesse that God is not the cause of hardnesse of heart in any man but man being borne in hardnesse of heart Ezek. 36. 3. 1. God is said to harden not infundendo malitiam sed non infundendo gratiam By leaving him thereunto whereby it comes
conscience to judge not to mention how this Discourse of yours is found to harden many in the way of error and to offend others in the way of truth Indeed there were no cause of any such objection as that Rom. 9. 29. if so bee God hardens no man but for sin and withall it is just with God to harden men in their sine and lesse cause of such an answer Rom. 9. 20 21 22. No man I think makes any doubt but that the objection Why doth hee complain for who hath resisted his will ariseth from the 18 ver where it is said that God as hee hath mercy on whom hee will so hee hardneth whom hee will even as hee hardned Pharaoh but yet you doe not shape the objection right when you shape it thus What fault is there in mee to bee hardned which is in effect as if you would shape it thus Wherein then have I deserved to bee hardned For the negative to this namely that God doth not harden upon desert is that which the Apostle avoucheth Like as neither doth hee shew mercy upon desert But like as upon the meere pleasure of his will hee shews mercy on some So according to the good pleasure of his will hee hardneth others But well might hee say why then doth hee complain of the hardnesse of my heart and my impenitency or rather the Apostle proposeth it in reference to the fruits of mans hardnesse of heart and impenitency such as God complains of Esa 1. I have nourished and brought up a people and they have rebelled against mee And Esa 56. All the day long have I stretched out mine hands to a rebellious people that walk in a way which is not good even after their own imaginations Or as if Pharaoh hearing of this ministry of Gods providence should say Why doth hee complain of the hardnesse of my heart in not letting Israel goe when hee hath hardned my bea rt that I should not let Israel goe and who hath resisted his will I have already shewed that this hardning of Pharaoh and so likewise of all reprobates as it consists in denying of saving grace in congruous opposition to Gods mercy proceeds meerely according to the good pleasure of Gods will And the Apostle plainly signifies as much when hee saith That like as God hath mercy on whom bee will so hee hardneth whom bee will Neither doth hee take into consideration any sin of theirs as the cause of hardning either in the proposition delivered by him or in answer to the objection arising there-hence Why then should wee bee moved with your bare word in saying wee need not say that the Apostle gave occasion of this objection by ascribing the hardning of Pharaoh and other reprobates to Gods absolute will and without all respect to sin as the deserving cause thereof Neither do you give any reason of that you avouch in saying that albeit God doth not harden but in respect of sin yet the creature will pleade or expostulate as indeed it is most unreasonable to ask why God doth complain of hardnesse of heart and the fruits thereof when it hath been shewed that this hardnesse of heart hath been brought upon man for his own sin and no exception taken against it But when out of Gods absolutenesse men are hardned then and not till then may it justly seem strange that God should complain of the hardnesse of mens hearts and the fruites thereof As for the place of Esa 63. 17. Wherein you suppose Gods people to expostulate with God for hardning them notwithstanding they suppose that God hardens them for their sin this is to beg the question and not to prove ought there being no evidence of any such acknowledgment as you suppose namely that God doth harden them for their sins Yet if there were any such acknowledgment it would not forthwith make for your purpose unlesse they should acknowledge as much of that obduration the Apostle speaks of where hee sets it in opposition to Gods shewing mercy To serve your turn you take liberty to interpret the coherence of these parts to erre from thy waies and to bee hardned against thy feare as if the former were the cause of the other upon no other ground that I know but that thus it shall stand in more congruity with your opinion Whereas indeed there is a farre greater probability that hardning against the feare of God should bee the cause of the errour of our wayes then that errour of our wayes should bee the cause of our hardning against the feare of God especially taking hardning not confusedly hand over head but distinctly in opposition to Gods shewing mercy in mans conversion I take them only as severall expressions of the same things consisting of an inward corrupt disposition as the roote and that I conceive to bee the want of the feare of God and the fruit hereof which is aberration from the good wayes of the Lord. And they expostulate with God for not correcting all this by his grace as by his Covenant of grace which hee hath made with them hee hath ingaged himself hereunto even to keep them from going astray like a good Shepherd and to put his feare into their hearts that they shall never depart away from him Which kinde of expostulation is nothing answerable to that which the Apostle proposeth to answer Rom. 9. 16. And I may well wonder what you meant to yoke them together Non bene inaequales veniunt ad aratra juvencae The children of God doe not expostulate with God for his complaining of their disobedience unthankfulnesse and rebellions against him though they heartily wish they had never provoked him and expostulate with him for not preserving them by his grace from such courses of provocation of him even of the eyes of his glory The wicked have no such desire to bee preserved from sin and sinfull courses which are unto them as sweet bits which they roule under their tongues Although when they heare of the Doctrine of obduration and his power to harden them and in hardning they may take advantage thereby to blaspheme God and to plead Apologie for themselves Belike then you acknowledge that God hath power to harden without respect to sin for to this purpose tends your comparative illustration But then you must bee driven to deny that obduration is a punishment seeing it is impossible that just punishments can have course but with respect to sin as a meritorious cause thereof That God beateth down the objectour and pleadeth the justice of Gods proceedings against Reprobates from the soveraign authority of God over his creatures is most true ver 20 21. But that hee pleads the due desert of the persons ver 22. thereby to justifie God in hardning whom hee will as positively avouched but so farre from truth as that it involves plain contradiction no lesse then if the Apostle after hee had said that God hath mercy on whom hee will should afterward take
Which how it can stand with a denyall of sufficient power to turn unto God I comprehend not Thirdly You plainly affirm that mankinde slights to work out with the Trinity their salvation Now no man can bee said to slight the doing thereof for the doing whereof hee hath no power You maintain there is in a reprobate mans power to work out his salvation with the Trinity Fourthly the comparison you make to represent Gods different dealing with his Elect and with the reprobate doth intimate as much The servant you say is only perswaded to yeeld himself to bee cut that hee may bee cured of the stone yet earnestly and forcibly perswaded The son over and above is taken by the Father and bound and cut that hee may bee cured Now as it is in the power of the servant to yeeld to bee cut that hee may bee cured so do you hereby intimate that it is in the power of a Reprobate to yeeld to bee converted that God may heale him Fifthly you doe acknowledge that Gods purpose to give life unto the world upon condition of obedience doth imply that God should accordingly give means to help them to the performance of this obedience for you plainly signifie that God purposing to give life unto the world upon condition of obedience doth accordingly give meanes to help them to the performance of this obedience Now I say Gods purpose to give life unto the world upon condition of obedience doth no more imply that God must accordingly give means to help them to the performance of this obedience then that God must accordingly give ability by the help of such means to perform obedience And indeed to what end tends the giving of means to help them to the performance of obedience if they have not ability by the help of those means to perform obedience In this very Section you professe the meanes which God affords are sufficient to bring them to those gracious ends which God you say intends if they bee not hindred by men Which doth imply that in your opinion the men of the world have power to give way unto them and not hinder them Yet I confesse you are very sparing to confesse so much But the more you are to blame by the face of your discourse to bespeak such opinions in your Readers and to draw unto them the maintenance whereof you dare not undertake your self But let us consider what you deliver hereupon And First though you doe not attribute unto a naturall man sufficiency and power to beleeve yet if you doe attribute unto him sufficiency of power to perform ought upon performance whereof grace shall bee given him whereby hee shall bee enabled to beleeve and to come to Christ you shall even in this bee guilty of that which you call ungracious Pelagianisme Now as for your opinion of the power of a naturall-man you here expresse it partly negatively partly affirmatively You confâ—â—â— they are deprived of those drawing and effectuall meanes without which none can come and with which none ever failed to come to Faith and Repentance Touching which I have something to oppose concerning the phrase and something concerning the assertion it self The word meanes used by you and which you call effectuall wee commonly understand as things outward such as either the Word of God and the Ministry thereof or the Works of God and the manifestation of his providence therein But you seem to goe further and comprehend thereby the effectuall operation of Gods Spirit which is very ambiguous and being delivered in the generall is the fitter to serve a mans turn sometimes in the one sometimes in the other signification As touching the assertion it self it utterly overthrowes all that you have delivered in clearing the fifth Doubt For with what sobriety can God bee said to entertain an earnest and serious affection concerning their conversion which is as much as to say concerning their repentance being resolved to deprive them of those drawing and effectuall means without which none can come to repentance Again how can God bee said to entertain an earnest and serious affection concerning their Salvation being resolved to deprive them of those drawing and effectuall meanes without which none can come to Repentance and consequently without which none can bee saved As for the affirmative part you say the Reprobates are sufficiently enabled by God to do much more then they doe in seeking after the Lord and finding mercy from him and that by certain means and helpes Now in this place I conceive by means and helps you understand only outward things as either the administration of Gods providence in his Works or the ministry of his Word and not the effectuall operation of Gods Spirit bestowing any power upon them which naturally they had not though this must needs bee your meaning in the negative part of the assertion But as touching the assertion it self there is no question but every naturall man hath power to doe more then hee doth in the way of actions naturall but in the way of doing ought that is good and pleasing in the sight of God I know no power incident to a naturall man for as much as the Apostle saith They that are in the flesh cannot please God Yet I confesse according as the world accounts morality every naturall man hath power to doe more good then hee doth and to abstain more from evill then hee doth that is hee may give more Almes then hee doth hee may bee more temperate then hee is but whether hee doth that which for the substance of the action is accounted good or abstaines from some particular evill actions yet neither the one nor the other is or can bee performed by him in a gracious but rather in an ungracious manner and whether this bee accounted a seeking after the Lord and that to finde mercy from him I dare appeale to your own judgement yet this is not all you maintain For wheras the Lord may bee sought after as the God and governour of nature onely you further say in the next page that there is a sufficiency of power in the means to lead the men of this world to come to the knowledge of God and to grace in Christ But let us examine the places of Scripture which you muster up in great abundance The first is out of Act. 17. 25 26 27. There wee read that God is not worshipped with mens hands as though hee needed any thing seeing bee giveth to all life and breath and all things 26. And hath made of one blood all mankinde to dwell upon all the face of the earth and hath assigned the seasons which were ordained before and the bounds of their habitation 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they should seek the Lord if so hee they might have groped after him and found him though doubtlesse hee bee not farre from every one of us 28. For in him wee live and move c. This seemes to bee the most
persecute the Church as Soul did are nothing further off from seeking the Lord and finding mercy from him then the other These did manifest themselves unworthy of eternall life doe not all so who stumble at the Word of God and refuse to hearken to it For this is the condemnation of the world Light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather then light because their deeds were evill Joh. 3. 16. Will you therehence inferre that all such are inabled to obey it which is as much to say as that they are inabled to beleeve and repent The eighth is out of Mat. 23. 37 38. How often would I have gathered thy children together as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and yee would not Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate c. What I pray you is to bee gathered under his wings can it bee lesse then to come unto him nay is it not to bee healed by him since as your selfe observe healing was under his wings and if so to come to Christ is to bee healed by him can it bee any thing lesse then to beleeve and repent And will you herehence inferre that they had power thus to come under his wings and consequently to beleeve and repent And yet in this very place you professe that as touching all others except the Elect God deprives them of those drawing and effectuall means without which none can come to Faith and Repentance Nay whatsoever it bee that lies in their power to perform besides by the performing of it doe they come any whit neerer to the participation of Grace I do not finde you adventure to professe so much for feare of falling into that which you call ungracious Pelagianisme The ninth is Luk. 19. 41 42. Which is of the same nature and of no greater force then the former Oh that thou hadst even known at the least in this thy day those things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes For the daies shall come upon thee when thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee and make thee even with the ground because thou knewest not the season of thy visitation To know in Scripture phrase is of a complicate notion and signifyeth knowledge joyned with congruous affections and thus to know the things that belong unto our peace is so to know as therewithall to imbrace them and to know the time of our visitation is so to know as to accommodate our selves thereto in agreeable conversation as Jer. 8. 7. The Stork in the aire is said to know her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow are said to observe the time of their comming That is so to know it as accordingly to come so to know the time of our visitation is so to know it as accordingly to come unto God when hee visites us and according as his Visitation requires of us Now will you herehence inferre that they were inabled to perform all this and so to seek the Lord I appeale to your own conscience whether it might not bee as justly said of them as Moses said of the children of Israel in the wildernesse Deut. 29. 4. The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Nay doth not our Saviour himself say as much of these Jews Joh. 12. 39. Therefore they could not beleeve because that Esaias saith again 40. Hee hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and should bee converted and I should heale them Neither will it follow hereupon that they are excusable so much the more although this is a very plausible inference for our Saviour professeth notwithstanding this that they had no cloak for their sins Joh. 15. 22. And indeed onely such an inability doth excuse as hereby a man is unable to doe that which hee fain would doâ—â— As for the doing of that they did in resisting the Gospel they had rather too much will therein then too little and that through the want of grace For as Austin wisely observes Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia Liberty without grace is not liberty but wilfulnesse The tenth is Ezek. 24. 13. Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not bee purged from thy filthinesse till I have caused my wrath to light upon thee I should think this were spoken of Gods Elect not so much by observing that phrase till I have caused my wrath to light upon thee but chiefly by comparing it with Ezek. 22. 10. I will scatter thee among the heathen and disperse thee in the Countries and will cause thy filthinesse to depart from thee It may have place not onely of the Elect but of the regenerate also for even them sometimes God doth cause to erre from his wayes and harden their hearts against his feare Which though they have power to repent yet upon supposition of obduration and so long as that continues it may bee said that they cannot repent How much more may it bee verifyed of naturall men in the state of unregeneracy that they cannot repent And shall this any way hinder the course of Gods judgements against them for their sins unrepented of because without grace it is not in their power to purge themselves from their sins by repentance I deny not but they have power to performe feigned repentance as Jer. 3. 10. And shall feigned repentance think you bee of force to keep off the judgments of God or if Gods judgements shall have their course except they bee prevented by unfeigned repentance will it herehence follow that naturall men are inabled to perform unfeigned repentance The eleventh is Prov. 1. 20. to 30. Wisdome cryeth c. 20 How long will yee love foolishnesse ver 22. Turn you at my correction ver 23. Because I have called and yee have refused c. ver 24. I will also laugh at your destruction ver 28. Will you herehence infer that they were enabled to turn to hearken to wisdoms voyce and think to put a difference betwixt your opinion and that of the Pelagians of old by saying that though naturall men have not power to beleeve and repent yet they are inabled to doe more good then they doe in the way of seeking the Lord and finding mercy from him and pin upon every place you alledge such a distinction as this which you no where manifest sufficiently to understand your selfe as touching the latter part of it So loath you are to shew what are the particulars of seeking the Lord they doe attain to and to what particulars further they might attain and of what particulars they must necessarily fall short for want of certain helps Might you not as well infer that it is in the power of man to make him a new heart because God cals upon him to make him
resistance unto Gods intention Directly contrary to the Discourse of Austin Enchir. cap. 96. whose words are these Deo proculdubio quam facile est quod vult facere tam facile est quod non vult esse non sinere Hoc nisi credamus periclitatur ipsum nostrae fidei consessionis initium qua nos in Deum Patrem omnipocentem credere confitemur Neque enim ob aliud veraciter vocatur omnipotens nisi quia quicquid vult potest nec voluntate cujusquam creaturae voluntatis omnipotentis impeditur effectus And if it bee so as you professe That no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him by the same Almighty authority and power whereby hee sent Christ into the world and withall if you adde thereunto as else-where you doe that this power I leave out authority as of an alien signification is shewed onely in drawing his Elect what need all these paines that you have taken since it is cleare that so long as you hold to this you shall never satisfie any Pelagian or Arminian and all the absurdities they charge our Doctrine with are directed against this But well you may puzzle the wits and trouble the minde of many an Orthodox and well-affected Christian with so intricate a discourse labouring to devise a new way to justifie our Doctrine of Election by so tempering the Doctrine of reprobation as utterly to overthrow your own Orthodox opinion in the very point of election as I have already shewed as occasion hath been given Object How then will you say can these two stand together there is a sufficiency and power in the meanes to lead the men of this world to the knowledge of God and to grace in Christ and yet there is an impotency yea an impossibility in the men of the world to come to Christ without greater and stronger means then these bee Answ For answer whereto I will not content my self to say that these means are sufficient because they suffice to leave men without excuse onely in the second place and by accident after when men have neglected to make so good use of them as they might have done but you see that God aimes at other ends in the first and principall place viz. to lead them to repentance to save their soules from the pit as the places alledged give evident witnesse and for these ends it is that these means must bee acknowledged and conceived as sufficient For else the Word of God argued an imperfection or insufficiency of such meanes to their proper ends I think it safe to say these means are sufficient ex parte Dei on Gods behalf to manifest the will of God rather to desire repentance and life then the hardning and destruction of the Creature And ex parte hominum in regard of men sufficient to inable them to the performance of such duties in which their naturall consciences would excuse them and in which way they might the sooner finde mercy mercy vouchsafing more powerfull and more effectuall helps whilest they walk according to the knowledge and helps which they have received and sin not against conscience but only out of ignorance in the state of unbeleef It is Arminius his superficiary conceit that Hortatio non facta sed sprâ—ta makes a man inexcusable not considering that admonition and instruction it self takes away excuse although none have need of excuse but they that doe evill For the excuse is this si scissem fecissem or si audivissem credidissem now this excuse is manifestly removed by the preaching of the Gospel And the word inexcusable though it formally signifie without excuse yet withall it con-notates a condition delinquent and such as had need of excuse though bereaved thereof and such a condition ariseth from the contempt of the means of grace Neither is this condition by accident like as the neglecting to make good use of them is not by accident For God intending to deprive them of those drawing and effectuall helpes without which none can make good use of them did never intend they should make good use of them but rather the contrary in asmuch as hee purposed not to shew that mercy towards them which hee shews towards his Elect but rather to harden them As the Lord tells Ezek. Chap. 2. 4. They are impudent children and stiffe-hearted I doe send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord God But surely they will not heare neither indeed will they cease for they are a rebellious house yet shall they know that there hath been a Prophet among them So that albeit the Lord knew full well what sorry entertainment his Prophets should finde yet would hee not give way to any such excuse as this If the Lord had sent his Prophet to admonish us of our wandrings from him wee would soon have turned unto the good way of the Lord. No they shall know there hath been a Prophet among them And as for the ground of this his fore-knowledge Esay manifesteth this to bee Gods purpose to harden them Esa 6. 9. Goe and say unto this people yee shall heare indeed but shall not understand yee shall plainly see and not perceive make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and I shall heale them What place is here for such conceites of leaving men without excuse in a second place and that by accident Yet if you can prove that God did intend any better thing unto them in a first place wee shall bee willing to confesse that this comes in in a second place You say God leads them to repentance to save them from the pit I answer this leading to repentance Rom. 2. is onely his sparing them in their sins and admonishing them to repent and this wee say is done to the Reprobates not with any purpose to bring them to repentance for if God had any such purpose hee would not deprive them of those helpes without which none can come to repentance as your self professe hee doth and if hee had any such purpose to bring them to repentance and yet doth not it followeth that hee cannot And if hee hath any such purpose either this purpose must continue still in God even after their damnation or otherwise God must bee charged with mutability all which you consider not much lesse accommodate any tolerable answer thereto For the same reason I deny that God hath any intention or purpose to save them how can hee considering that from everlasting hee hath ordained them to condemnation And of this also you take no notice much lesse goe about to shape any convenient answer thereunto carrying the matter all along in such manner as if Gods decree of their condemnation were not conceived untill the means of Grace offered are found to bee finally despised Neither doe the places alledged
from maintaining such foule collusions By the way give mee leave to wonder that you expresse your self in such a manner But alas what should wee look for when the cause is no better and yet a gracious respect unto a gracious end namely the justifying of Gods proceedings hath cast a good man upon such a course So dangerous a thing it is when a man is to seek in some particulars not to content himself with acknowledgment thereof and to waite upon God for a time of revelation but to cut out his own way in seeking satisfaction Thirdly the men of this world doe not walk answerably to the means they have received neither doe they imploy or use these talents to such advantage as they might The Gentiles though they knew God yet they glorified him not as God but became unthankfull and vain in their imaginations they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge but to detain the truth in unrighteousnesse The Jews resisted the Holy Ghost despised the messengers and word of God acknowledged not the day and meanes of their own peace refusing him and all his benefits preferring a murtherer and false prophet before him brought forth wilde grapes of injustice and oppression instead of the sweet grapes of righteousnesse and judgement In this they abused the talents and meanes of Grace in a worse manner then could bee excused by any necessity or impotency of corrupt nature Corrupt nature resisting not but by these helps they might have avoided these sinnes which they fell into and might have reached to the performance of these duties for the neglect of which they are here reproved for comming short of 〈◊〉 Yea Pilate himselfe would have brought forth better fruit then some of these which the Jews yeelded but that the Jews themselves prevailed with him for worse To speake plainely that phrases doe not deceive us it is true that the men of the world doe not live according to their knowledge nor abstaine from foule sinnes from which they might abstaine But what if they did should they finde mercy the sooner for unlesse you make this good you say nothing to the purpose Therefore to the maintenance of this you tended in the former Section but all in vaine For consider why then did not the Philosophers find mercy Plato Socrates Phocion the most morall men of the world Again did any of these abstaine from any foule finne in a gracious manner or out of their love to God Look to Isocrates his incitements to morality what are they other then the reward of praise and applause of the world and why I pray you should God regard them any whit the more for this nay did they not look for justification by this all their goodnesse did they not attribute to their own Free will and why should not God hate them the more for this Doe not Publicans and Harlots and did not our Saviour tell us as much enter into the kingdome of Heaven before Scribes and Pharisees Bee it so that the men of the world were Fornicators when they might have forborn it were Idolaters but might have abstained from that were Adulterers Wantons Buggerers and might have kept themselves pure from such abominations were theeves when they might have abstained from laying hands on their neighbours goods were covetous yet might have contemned the world as many did were Drunkards yet might have tempered themselves from such excesse were Railers yet might have ordered their tongnes were Extortioners yet might have been more mercifull then so Now I pray you tell me were not the elect of God such also See what the Apostle saith in reference to every one of these particulars 1 Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you but yee are washed but yee are justifyed but yee are sanctifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God Nay how many a naturall man was more morall then to be guilty of so foule pollutions as many of Gods elect have been conscious of yet never found mercy at the hands of God If otherwise God should call men not so much according to his purpose and grace as according to workes directly coutrary to Pauls text 1 Tim. 1. 9. And what then should become of that Hee hath mercy on whom hee will and whom hee will hee hardneth Rom 9 18. As for the fault you mention of the Gentiles was it not common to the Elect as well as to the Reprobates What saith Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 12. 2. Yee know yee were Gentiles and were carryed away unto dumb Idols even as ye were led Yet the Romans for above a hundred years had no Images as Varro testifies saying That then the Gods were worshipped castius more chastly and that they who brought in Images timorem ademerunt errorem auxerunt took away the feare of God and increased the errour concerning the nature of God Yet in these dayes of Image-worship thousands were from Idols turned to serve the living God 1 Thess 1. 8. in those former daies not one that we read of Wee come to the Jews bee it so that they were worse then Pilate yet many of them in despight of their sinnes were converted unto Christ I say of them that crucified him and preferred a murtherer before him Pilate was not at least wee have a record of the conversion of the one Acts 2. none of the other Yea Saul breathing nothing but wrath and fury against the Church of God as Ferox scelerum Quia prima provenerant being heartned with the bloud of Stephen as with a cup of sweet Wine was converted unto Christ when many a morall quiet peaceable and nothing factious Jew had not the mercy shewed him that Saul had They abused you say their talents and meanes of grace in a worse manner then could bee excused yet who worse then Saul or Manasses by any necessity or impotency of corrupt nature But who I pray goes about to excuse them this way wee certainly excuse them not no nor they themselves neither for it were most incongruous they should even as if Epicures should complain of the sweet morsels which they roule under their tongues that they are so sweet that they cannot forbeare to bee in love with them But will you deny God to have a hand in hardning them to the committing of so foule excesse what is the meaning of giving over to vile affections to doe things inconvenient and that in an abominable kind and that to what end but this that so they might receive the just recompence of their errour yet that errour is well known to have been incident as well to the very elect of God as unto Reprobates By the way you signifie that by the neglect of the helpes and meanes afforded them they fell short of these duties to the performance whereof they might have reached Their sin was in doing contrary to their knowledge and conscience upon due information out of Gods Word this
the inheritance of the Saints in Light Forthwith you return to the right state of the question to wit in the concession or denegation of regenerating grace but carry your self in shew very prejudicially to the freenesse of Gods grace as when you say What if no Reprobate made such use of the means and helps offered as to obtain regenerating grace Dangerously implying that there is a certain use of the means quo posito which being put regenerating grace should bee obtained As if grace regenerating were to bee dispensed according to an unregenerate persons works Of the same leaven savour your words following when you say That because they did not make better use of the means it was just with God to deny them greater means saving that here you may bee relieved by the ambiguity of the word means by shifting from one sense of it to another For if means bee taken in the same kinde to wit of outward means like â—â— it is just with God to reward the right use of smaller meanes with the bestowing of greater so it is just with God for the abuse of the smaller not onely to deny greater but to take away those smaller But as touching the granting or denying grace regenerative herein God carryeth himself meerely according to the good pleasure of his own will according to that of the Apostle Hee hath mercy on whom hee will and whom hee will hee hardneth Neither can it bee otherwise For as much as mercy in regenerating any man cannot bee shewed according unto good works and consequently the denying of mercy cannot proceed according to evill works as I have already demonstrated in the first place The Sixth Doubt Question 6. HOw may it appeare that the declaration of the equity and sufficiency of Gods justice is reall and not pretended since all things are carryed and come to passe by an absolute and unconditionall decree and providence exempli gratia that fact Act. 4. 28. 2. 23. Answer To say that God carryeth all things by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence viz. opposing absolute to all conditions presupposed in the creature in my judgment is neither agreeing to the Doctrine of Scripture nor of our Divines who doe both teach that as God in the fulnesse of time doth administer and dispense the way of his providence so hee decreed to dispense them in the same manner from eternity Now in dispensing the performance of the Covenant of works the Lord punisheth and rewardeth the creature according to the condition of obedience or disobedience performed by it as it is at large described Levit. 26 Deut. 28. and therefore surely he decreed to carry such works of his providence upon the same conditions The places that may bee alledged to the contrary do speak of Gods Decree in delivering Christ to death for us which as it was a work of meere grace you may safely conceive it was decreed by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence as generally the works of free grace are For either they depend on no condition in the creature or at least on none but such as God is pleased to work in us and for us And yet I beleeve that in your own judgement you think not that God did decree the death of Christ much lesse deliver him to death but upon condition of Adams fall If you say God did as well decree a sinfull manner of the death of Christ by the hands of the wicked as the death it self and that by an absolute an unconditionall decree I answer if you mean an unconditionall decree presupposing no condition in those creatures which were the wicked instruments of his death it is spoken without warrant either from those places or from any other That God gave up Judas to betray him it was the punishment of his covetousnesse and hypocrisie That God gave up the high Priests and Pharisees to conspire against him to deliver him to Pilate it was the punishment of their ambition and envy and in some of them their sin against the Holy Ghost That Pilate against his conscience gave iudgement against him it was the judgement of his carnall popularity and his worldly feare of Caesar That the common people and Souldiers cryed out against him and laid violent hands on him it was the punishment of their ignorance and infidelity Now it is out of all controversie that God doth not punish sin with sin nor decree to punish but upon condition of sin presupposed It is true indeed God worketh all things after the counsell of his will but that proveth not that God carryeth all things with an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence For it is the counsell of his will as to work the salvation of his Elect according to the Covenant of Grace freely and absolutely so to dispense rewards and punishments to the men of this world according to the condition of their obedience or disobedience There is therefore no place left for such a question viz. How it may appeare that the declaration of the equity of Gods Justice was not pretended but reall since all things are carryed and come to passe by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence For neither are all things as it is evident so carryed and if they were I had rather such a question should come out of the mouth of an Arminian then of any godly and judicious Brother The Arminians you know upon a seeming faire pretence are wont to object against our Divines that God calleth the Reprobates rather simulate then sorio in semblance rather then in truth if hee hath before determined of them by an absolute and unconditionall decree But the same answer your selfe would return to their objection the same I return to your question with more probability yea I may truly say with more safety That no will of God is conditionall we have the concurrent consent both of our and Popish Divines For both Piscator maintaines it against Uorstius and Bradwardine demonstrates it And this condition which you speake of can be no lesse then some motive cause Aquinos hath professed that never any was so made as to affirm that there was any cause of Predestination quoad actum praedestinantis as touching the act of God predestinating and that for no other reason then because there can be no cause of the will of God quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing Whence it followeth manifestly that in like sort there can bee no cause of reprobation neither quoad actum reprobantis as touching the act of God reprobating and consequently no condition As for the contrary allegations out of Scripture and out of Divines I shall be content to consider them whensoever you shall produce them but I am perswaded you will not bee forwards to trouble your selfe there-about after I shall present unto you how incongruous a course you take to the justifying of that which here you affirme And not incongruous onely but
you of mankinde before Christ came into the world had they this power you speak of through Christ If you think they had I pray you how came they by it If onely it hold of mankinde since the preaching of the Gospel I demand whether of all or some if of all then you must acknowledge the Gospel to bee preached to all If only of them to whom it is preached yet the question still is whether it bee wrought by perswasion or inspiration Secondly in saying that in Christ they have greater grace to help to keep it your phrase doth imply that even without Christ men have grace and helpes and power to keep the Covenant of works In a word dare you say that any naturall man hath any power to bee subject to the Law of God or to doe that which is pleasing in Gods sight If you say they have any such power I demand whether ever any were found subject to the Law of God or did that which was pleasing in Gods sight It is very strange that never any such act should proceed from a power so generall If they were or did that which was pleasing in Gods sight then they were not in the flesh for they that are in the flesh cannot please God Lastly when you say these helps or this power is offered them in Christ it implies that upon some condition performable on their parts it is offered unto them Now it were very requisite you should deale plainly and expresse this condition which you doe not I confesse I see no danger in acknowledging that God purposeth to deale with mankinde according to their works nay I wonder you should exclude the elect from the number of those with whom God deales in this manner when the Apostle professeth so directly wee must all appeare before the judgement seat of God that every man may receive the things which are done in his body according to that hee hath done whether good or evill 2 Cor. 5. 10. Onely for Christs sake God giveth faith and repentance to some working in them that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and doth not deale in the like mercy with others The rest of this Section I dislike not Glory bee to God in Christ and peace upon Israel In submission unto his Truth For why should wee lye for God as man doth for man to gratifie him For an Auctarium here is laid down a short Survey of the ninth Chapter to the Romans so farre as it treateth of the Doctrine of Predestination the better to clear some passages of the former Discourse THe whole Chapter from the first verse to the 23. is taken up in the answering of objections each latter arising from the answer to the former for the Apostle having taught in the last verse of the former Chapter that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ giveth occasion of this doubt that may arise Quest What think you of the Jews are not they the Elect people of God and yet are not they separate from Christ Answ The Apostle doth not plainly affirm it that they are separate from Christ but with much compassion bewailes it yea and protesteth that hee would wish himself rather separate from Christ for their sakes The grounds of which hee rendreth to bee for his kindreds sake ver 3. for their priviledges sake ver 4 5. This coherence I could brook well enough onely I say it is devised at pleasure and I finde it is a generall course to feign coherences and sometimes onely to shape thereby some conformation of the Apostles meaning to their interpretation of him The Apostle I am sure makes none and accordingly Ludovious Leoburgensis professeth saying Prorsus nova disputatio instituitur in qua tametsi doctrinam de Justificatione alicubi repetit intertexit tamen duas alias materias principales tractat videlicet quis sit vere populus Dei seu quae sit vera Ecclesia de vocatione Gentium Judaei contendebant se esse Ecclesiam se esse populum ad se solos pertinere promissiones Paulus respondet Elector esse populos Dei The disputation here instituted by the Apostle is altogether new wherein although hee doth sometimes repeale and insert the Doctrine of Justification yet hee handles two other principall matters to wit who are the people of God in truth and which is the true Church and of the calling of the Gentiles The Jews contended that they were the Church they were Gods people and that to them alone pertained the promises Paul answers that the Elect alone are Gods people Analysis What is then the word the word of promise of inseparable conjunction with Christ to them of none effect Answ No all are not Israel which are of Israel nor are all the children of Abraham that are of the seed of Abraham but in Isaac are his seed called viz. Not the children of Abrahams flesh are the children of God but the children of promise ver 6 7 8. which hee proveth by a twofold instance or example First of Isaac the seed of Abraham by Sarah who was given unto him as his seed by the word of promise ver 9. Secondly of Jacob the seed of Isaac by Rebekah of whom another promise was given that the elder brother should bee to him a servant ver 11. Which promise touching Jacob is amplifyed by First the freenesse of it all cause of different acceptation being removed from the two brethren and in regard first of parentage ver 10. secondly of personall condition and indowments ver 11. which freenesse is also further set forth by the end of it that the purpose of God might stand firm as not depending on any condition in the Creature ver 11. Secondly A parallell promise suiting to it preferring Jacob before Esau in Gods affection when they were both considered onely as brethren ver 13. These words of the Apostle are I confesse the key of the whole Chapter for opening the meaning or at least making way to a faire understanding of all that follows If the Jews are rejected as the Apostle presupposeth to wit as touching the most of them in the former words then it may seem that Gods word is of none effect which consequence the Apostle supposing such a consequence likely to bee made by his denying of it doth imply that there was some Word of God that seemed to bee made of none effect by this Doctrine concerning the rejection of the Jews This word therefore is to bee inquired into the investigation whereof will give light to all the rest Now this word can bee no other then the word of some promise made by God for the taking of the seed of Abraham to bee his people to bee his Church For such a promise alone seems to stand in contradiction unto our Christian Doctrine concerning the rejection of the Jews And indeed such a promise God made to Abraham Gen. 17. 7. I will establish