lives according to his doctrine and example and to the setting foorth of his glory hee will TAKE FROM THEM his holy word his KINGDOME whereby hee should raigne in them because they BRING NOT FORTH THE FRUIT that he looked for Can your Learning and Understanding make any other construction of these words than that a man may FALL away FROM GRACE become NO childe of GOD at all If you can advance and teach mee that which passeth my poor apprehension They were TRULY called that did TRULY beleeve they were justified by faith that were so called as I conceive it that beheld the face of GOD'S mercie in CHRIST that had their hearts so enlightned with GOD'S SPIRIT that they were meerly transformed from Darknes unto Light into the Image of GOD reformed If these be not attributes of Justified men good Sirs teach us some new Divinity yet in the Doctrine of the Church of England expounded in this Homily these men may prove unthankfull negligent and lose the Interest they had in that his Kingdome of grace by his holie word And yet further in the second part of this Homily wee are sent unto a conclusion more ad oppositum not onely of TOTALL Lapse for a time but also of FINALL Separation and for ever Which is also according to the doctrine expressed in the ARTICLES for he that saith A man may fall away and may recover implieth withall that some men may fall away and may NOT recover which the Homily declareth thus They shall be NO LONGER governed by GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT they shall be PUT FROM the GRACE and BENEFIT which they had and EVER MIGHT have enjoyed in CHRIST they shall be DEPRIVED of the heavenly light and LIFE which they had in CHRIST while that they abode in HIM They that thus fall away unto the state of damnation were TRULY justified for it is said They were in CHRIST they continued sometime in CHRIST for they abode in him But yet this is not all for it followeth They shall bee GIVEN UP unto the POWER of the DIVELL who beareth RULE in all that are CAST-AWAYES from God as he did in SAUL and IUDAS I suppose this is plaine and home enough If you be acquainted with the LITURGY and publicke religious SERVICE of our Church as to your shame few of you and your Divines are or will be unlesse it bee to oppose and cavill at it there you shall find also as much as Falling from grace commeth to In the Forme of holy Baptisme we are taught otherwise than your Masters teach that every child which is duly baptized being before borne in originall sinne and in the wrath of God is now by that Laver of Regeneration received into the number of the CHILDREN of GOD and HEIRES of EVERLASTING LIFE For our Lord IESUS CHRIST doth not deny his GRACE and mercy unto such infants c. So heere they bee put into the state of GRACE And lest it should be left to mens CHARITY as you use to tell the world wee are there taught earnestly to BELEEVE that CHRIST hath favourably RECEIVED these infants that are baptized that he hath EMBRACED them with the armes of his mercy that he hath GIVEN unto them the BLESSING of ETERNALL LIFE and out of that BELIEF and PERSWASION wee are to give thankes faithfully and devoutly for it c. To make which doctrine the more sure against all Novelists it is againe repeated in the Catechisme to the end that children might likewise bee noursed up in it and taught that in their Baptisme they were made the MEMBERS of CHRIST and the children of GOD and that it is CERTAINELY TRUE by the Word of GOD that children being baptized have ALL things necessary for their salvation and if they die before actuall sinne shall be UNDOUBTEDLY SAVED According whereunto all Antiquity hath also taught us Now let this bee acknowledged to bee the doctrine of our Church that children duly baptized are put into the STATE of GRACE and SALVATION which you see you cannot you must not deny and both your and my experience will shew that many so baptized children when they come to age by a wicked and leud life do fall away from God and from that STATE of GRACE and SALVATION wherein hee had set them to a worse STATE wherein they shall never be saved If you grant not this you must hold that all men that are baptized are saved which I know you will never doe To make an end then In my judgement this is the doctrine of the Church of England not delivered according unto private opinions in ordinary Tracts and Lectures but delivered publickly positively and declaratorily in Authenticall Records And you cannot bee ignorant for it is still extant upon Record that your prime Leaders have understood the Tenet of the Church of England to be as I have reported it and accordingly they have complained against it as you have against mee and objected it as one of their reasons why they refused to subscribe Let there then be added EXPRESSE SCRIPTURE EZECHIEL XVIII XXIV and a common UNANIMOUS FATHERS expounding that and other places of Scripture which consent our Church doth by open profession maintaine in these Canons which she set forth to be subscribed unto together with the XXXIX Articles Anno M. D. LXXI and I see no reason wherefore I might not have been as confident in maintaining falling away from grace as you and your Divines are upon weaker grounds in defending the contrary But I have ever bin solicitous to preserve peace and to give as little occasion of disturbance thereof unto distempered humours as was possible Salus Ecclesiae non vertitur in istis and therefore I thought it not tanti and being not urged upon necessity in my Answer to the Gagger to handle this question otherwise than I did I suspended mine owne judgement and lay off aloof in a kind of neutrality Neither doe I now say more than I am urged to doe by the PLAINE and EXPRESSE words of our ARTICLES and Doctrine publickly professed and established in our Church which I hope your selves will give mee leave to doe the rather because I knowe you have subscribed the same with your Hands though what became of your Hearts in the meane time I cannot tell CHAP. V. Touching PREDESTINATION Of Arminians Lutherans Calvinists forraine Divines Of the Church of England Submission thereunto The Question between them and us INFORMERS THe whole XXI chapt of his book savoreth strongly of ARMINIANISME wherin depraving odiously reporting the Doctrine of OUR DIVINES commonly called CALVINISTS and declaring himselfe to consent with the LUTHERANS in this point he hath these words That PETER was saved c. MOUNTAGU MAy not your Sense deceive you in the Savor The Object we know is often represented unto the Sense not as it is but as it seemeth If your Sense be out of frame the Savor of Arminianisme may deceive you and
of Salvation In the second Homily there I have read thus Iustification is not the office of man but the office of GOD. and againe Iustification is the office of GOD onely and is not a thing which we render unto him but which we receive of him not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free mercy and by the onely merits of his most deerly beloved Sonne our Lord our only Redeemer Saviour and Iustifier IESUS CHRIST And yet it is Popery in M. MOUNTAGU to have said and written Properly to speake GOD only justifieth who alone imputeth not but pardoneth sinne En quo vaecordia caecos For yet moreover is it not your owne Beleefe and Profession for which if he should say otherwise M. MOUNTAGU should be cryed downe Papist that Iustification consisteth in Remission of sinnes or not imputing of them unto the man justified Ne posthac dubites saith CALVIN Instit III. XI XXII and you subscribe it quo modo nos DEUS justificet cum audis Reconciliare illum nos sibi non imputando delicta and againe Nos justificationem simpliciter interpretamur acceptationem illam quâ nos DOMINUS in gratiam receptos pro justis habet Eamque in Peccatorum remissione ac justitiae CHRISTI imputatione positam esse dicimus Sect. 2. to whom per omnia agreeth M. PERKINS in mo places than ten defining Iustification to be an Act of GOD absolving c. And yet with you M. MOUNTAGU is a Papist for affirming GOD only justifieth properly when your selves confesse that Iustification at least properly consisteth in Remission of sinnes and that none can forgive sinnes properly but GOD. How this should hang together I professe my ignorance I cannot tell For eyther Iustification in your opinions must not consist in forgivenesse of sinnes or else others beside GOD must have power of imputing or of not imputing sinnes And heere it is worth the while to observe how these detracters doe crosse their owne shinnes It will not be long before that M. MOUNTAGU with them be accounted a Papist for saying A Priest GOD'S Minister in GOD'S place can forgive sinnes and heer he is a Papist for saying GOD only justifieth properly when themselves will have Iustification to bee meerly forgivenesse of Sinnes and yet hold that none doth or can forgive Sinnes but GOD. May I not say well ô vertiginem In sober and not in madde Puritanicall sadnesse dare you say that some other beside GOD some creature over and above GOD can forgive Sinnes This is contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England in that Homily which you remember indeed but can produce no testimonie thence Because all men bee sinners saith that Homily and offenders against GOD and breakers of his Lawes and Commandements therefore can no man by his owne acts workes or else deedes seeme they never so good be justified and made righteous before GOD but everie man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousnesse or justification But where shall he find it where is it to bee had It is expressed according unto truth To be received at GOD'S hand It is GOD then that justifieth in this opinion of the Homily And againe in the second Homily of that argument as is already remembred Iustification is the office of GOD only it is not the office of man Credimus SPIRITUM SANCTUM in cordibus nostris habitantem voram nobis fidem impertiri ut hujus tanti mysterij cognitionem adipiscamur saith the Belgick Confession which is the POPERY of M. MOUNTAGU as pleaseth these Great Masters in Israel Lyars against their owne knowledge in saying it contradicteth the Doctrine of the English Church Or if this be not the thing they meane what is it That GOD imputeth not sinnes unto the justified or that Iustification is not in pardoning and not imputing sinnes whereas the Papists doe clamour against us for maintayning that Iustification to be received at GODS hands is forgivenes of sins and trespasses in such things as hee hath beene offended in I confesse I am a Papist if this be Popery or else that which followeth after Remission of sins against which they informe in the next place CHAP. IX Holinesse of life added unto Iustification and Remission of sins GOD justifieth originally and Faith instrumentally INFORMERS AGaine WHO only can and doth translate from death unto life reneweth a right spirit and createth a new hart within us MOUNTAGU WHo can doe this but only GOD most high It is a work of Omnipotencie to create they say it is a greater work to recreate Where sinne is pardoned by GOD and a man is become regenerate borne anew and in state of Grace with GOD there GOD by his HOLY SPIRIT worketh inward renovation Where sinne is graciously and freely pardoned there holy life and conversation doth est soones ensue This is the divinitie that I have learned in our Protestant Schooles touching this point And to my understanding it is observed and tendred by DAVID in Psal L. X. Hide thy face from my sinnes and put away all mine iniquities which is Remission of sinnes Then followeth to make up a complete worke Create in mee a clean heart O LORD and renew a right spirit within mee which to me seemeth an Infusion of Grace And S. PAUL doth everie where after vocation unto and acceptation of us with GOD urge walking according unto vocation in newnesse and in holinesse of life But because GOD was moved thereunto by a true and a lively faith in him and his mercies in CHRIST Faith is by mee said to iustifie instrumentally That GOD justifieth causally hath beene suspected of Popery and challenged therefore Now that Faith justifieth instrumentally cannot avoide the same imputation And yet the maine exception of all Papists against the doctrine of our Church is that we hold a man is iustified by Faith which must be originally or instrumentally THAT wee exclude with the forenamed Homilies That we be iustified by Faith in CHRIST only is not That this our owne act to beleeve in CHRIST or this our faith in CHRIST which is within us doth iustifie us for that were to account our selves to be iustified by some act or vertue within our selves For saith S. PAUL Rom. VIII XXXIII It is GOD that iustifieth THIS we embrace as also in the same Homily Faith doth directly send us to CHRIST for remission of our sins And by Faith given unto us of GOD wee embrace the Promise of GOD'S mercie and of Remission of sinnes which accordeth with the traduced passage of M. MOUNTAGU because GOD was drawne unto it by our Faith which laying hold upon his mercy in CHRIST obtayneth this freedome and newnesse and renewing from Him Faith is therefore said to justifie that is instrumentally or applicatorily And so I am content to passe for a Papist with the CHURCH of England CHAP. X. An Accesse declaratory made to the act of Iustification by the works of a lively Faith S.
walke in holinesse and in newnesse of life Remission of sinnes and imputation of CHRIST'S Righteousnesse saith M. PERKINS is Iustification a free pardoning and cancelling of all Bands and Obligations of transgression for CHRIST'S sake through the only merit of his Death Passion and shedding of his bloud Which Act Psal XXXII II. is called Not imputing sin When and where GOD doth so pardon and not impute sinne he addeth unto it out of his love a seconding Act of divine mercy and grace enabling man to abandon everie mortall sinne those sinnes that doe hang so fast on that are more eminent notorious enormious whose property is vastare conscientiam to the amolishing of the whole body of sinne that it raigne not in our mortall bodies although that those delicta ordinariae incursionis as TERTULLIAN nameth them cannot so easily bee put away Have I unto you seemed to confound Iustification with Sanctification if yet you knowe the difference between them or have I ascribed in your seeming anie act of Sanctification unto Iustification You may bee pleased to remember that I went not most punctually to work but è re natâ to confute the Gagger described Iustification at large never suspecting that any professed enemies of Popery as you would seem to bee would so captiously have perverted my true sense and meaning my words at least my passage beeing warranted by YOUR owne Dictators CALVIN PERKINS BEZA For Iustificationis nomen largè accipio saith BEZA and imagine them to bee my words ut complectitur quicquid à CHRISTO consequimur tam per Imputationem quà m per Spiritus in nobis Sanctificationem Annotat in Tit. 111. ver VII and in Opusc To. 11. pa. DCLXXVII Otherwise be it known unto your Masterships that I beleeve Iustification in strictnes of tearms is neither Regeneration nor Renovation nor Sanctification but a certaine Action in GOD applied unto us or a certaine respect or relation whereby we are pardoned and acquitted of our sinnes esteemed righteous before GOD and accepted by him in CHRIST unto life everlasting which wiser men than you have so expressed whom haply for my sake you will hold to be Papists heereafter CHAP. VII A change made in a justified man The Author agreeth in part with the Councell of Trent and therfore maintaineth Popery no necessary illation The doctrine of the Church of England and of other reformed Churches in this point of Iustification INFORMERS ANda little after In the state of grace a man is iust when hee is changed Which change must have concurrence of two things Privation of Beeing to that which was The body of sinne and secondly a new constitution unto GOD in another estate In which he that is altred in state changed in condition transformed in mind renew'd in soule regenerate borne anew unto GOD by grace is iust in the state of Iustification ceasing to bee what he was becoming what he was not before In this maine point he accordeth fully with the Councell of TRENT Sess VI. cap. XXXVII contradicteth the Doctrine of the Church of England in the book of Homilies serm of salvation and all other Reformed Churches MOUNTAGU HEER now at length wee have some though very poore shew of a just and formall accusation the rest are but meer calumniations For heer is a charge of delivering Popery and maintaining it and withall an advancing of that charge by pretending some seeming proofe in a threefold branch 1. of According fully with the Councell of TRENT 11. Contradicting the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND 111. Dissenting from all other reformed Churches which is done by this one Assertion A change is made in a justified man the substance in briefe of all the former suggestion such an one as maketh mee beleeve that these informations were not gathered by any Scholars or Divines but subscribed unto unadvisedly and collected by some other at odds with his owne little or frantick wits for who can conceive that a just and uniust a carnall and spirituall man should be the same that one regenerate and reformed in the spirit of his mind should be the same that hee was before that a live man should bee dead I confesse I cannot conceive LAZARUS in his grave and sitting at table with our SAVIOUR to have undergone no change nor alteration SAUL a Persecuter and Saint PAUL an Apostle without change the Thiefe upon the Crosse no other man than when hee robbed and killed upon the high-way Was he called justified saved then sure he was changed Had hee not been changed from what hee formerly was hee had not entred into Paradise with our SAVIOUR Hee whose Disciples YOUR Divines are assigned to be never taught you this Learning Fatemur saith he dum nos intercedente CHRISTI justitiâ sibi reconciliat DEUS ac gratuitâ peccatorum remissione donatos pro justis habet cum ejusmodi misericordiâ conjunctam simul esse hanc ejus beneficentiam quòd per Spiritum suum sanctum in nobis habitet cujus virtute concupiscentiae carnis nostrae magis ac magis indies mortificantur Instit III. XIV IX You heare him to speak of righteousnes inhabiting in our hearts by grace diffused from the HOLY GHOST of a progresse in a new course of life from grace to grace from perfection unto perfection which is not a phantasie but reall Nos enim so he addeth sanctifitamur hoc est consecramur DOMINO in veram vitae puritatem cordibus nostris in legis obsequium formatis And somewhat before as hath been remembred already he calleth it a resurrection from death to life and no resurrection but supposeth change when this mortall shall have put on immortality and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption which is indeed the work of the right hand of the Most High and cannot be but betwixt terms that à quo and this ad quem which is the strangest Popery that ever yet I was acquainted withall But why go I about to proove that there is Motion unto those that agree not upon common Principles or bring proofs to ANAXAGORAS for The snowe is white who would not suffer himself to be perswaded so nay because he was otherwise by preconceit perswaded he said it did not so much as seem white unto him YOUR opinions are your owne you will opine what formerly you have thought So doe for mee and there an end If yet you would there make an end and be content to enjoy your conceits unto your selves and make much of them at home but we must come over and conforme our Faith unto your thoughts or wee shall heare of it on both our eares For instance at present Odiously and maliciously you advance this accusation to procure hate and envie unto the part and parties ad oppositum unto you It is the Doctrine you say of the Councell of Trent and M. MOUNTAGU agreeth fully with that Councell But you mistake on each hand and knowe not what you say I do not
Church Hic rhodus hic saltus These are those Passages at which IEPHTHA'S souldiers are to try the lisping EPHRAMITES in their Sibboleth If heer I be concluded with that absolute Decree of Predestination I yeeld If no such Prescription or Tye be imposed then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by your leave ringantur the Faction I minde I may so doe to continue in the opinion I am of YOUR DIVINES as you stile them concerning Predestination beleeve and teach That in the order of the causes of salvation and damnation Almighty GOD primarily and absolutely and IRRESPECTIVELY did from all eternity decree and resolve and semblably brought it so to passe in time concerning genera singulorum and singulos generum to make them vessels of honour or dishonour to bring them unto life or cast them off into death to crowne them with glory and immortality or plunge them into destruction and hell-fire for ever To bring this his Decree and unchangeable purpose to passe it was necessary he should and so hee did purpose and so effect the creation of man and all mankinde necessarily also unto life or death So that the major part of mankinde by farre perishing everlastingly from GOD did so perish because GOD had decreed irreversibly and irrespectively that they should so perish and indeed made them that they might so perish inevitably For the will of GOD is the necessity of things say YOUR Masters out of S. AUGUSTINE mis-understood This is no malicious relating of the doctrine of YOUR Side that delight to be stiled Calvinists The first counsell purpose and decree of GOD was thus Before the works of his hands of old meerly and irrespectively to declare his power I cannot say his justice and what hee might and would doe upon his creatures for his glorie sake hee made the wicked AGAINST nay FOR the day of vengeance The meanes to bring this his purpose to passe was Creation and the cause of his creating man was to effect it Praedestinationem vocamus aeternum DEI decretum quo apud se constitutum habuit quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet Non enim PARI conditione CREANTUR homines sed alijs vita aeterna alijs DAMNATIO aeterna PRAEORDINATUR Itaque prout in alterutrum finem quisque CONDITUS EST ita vel ad vitam vel ad MORTEM PRAEORDINATUM dicimus Hanc Deus non modò in singulis personis testatus est sed specimen ejus edidit in totâ ABRAHAE sobole Vnde palà m fieret in ejus arbitrio esse qualis cujusque Gentis futura sit conditio Thus the Founder of your fancies in expresse words Can you find this so ruled so taught so prescribed in our Church or articulated unto our Teachers Predestination unto life saith the XVII Article is that everlasting purpose of GOD whereby before the foundation of the world was laid he hath constantly decreed by his counsell secret unto us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in CHRIST out of mankinde and to bring them BY CHRIST unto everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour In which the Church speaketh onely unto Election toucheth not upon Rejection Reprobation or Desertion and Dereliction rather and in that also goeth no further than ad Esse rei First that there is a Predestination by GOD unto life Secondly that it was an Act of his from everlasting Thirdly that he founded it and resolved for it in the Man and Mediatour CHRIST both for the purpose and performance Fourthly that it is and was of some speciall ones alone elect called foorth and reserved in CHRIST and not generally extended unto all mankinde Fiftly the which purpose and counsell of his is like himselfe unchangeable done according to the counsell of his will This is all that I can finde touching that Purpose and Decree of GOD. Then ensueth concerning the putting it in practice and execution in their calling by grace justification freely and adoption of sons in conformity to Christ study of good works and then when these are done to finall consummation in glory All which I constantly professe and beleeve and I adde that according unto this Doctrine a curse is presupposed a state of damnation and wo intended out of which they are delivered whom hee electeth in CHRIST into which how they came how they were plunged the ARTICLE doth not speak YOUR Teachers declare expressely it was GOD'S positive peremptory prime irresistable Act they were cast into it by GOD irrespectively because he would doe it they were thereunto appointed by himself for himselfe and his own pleasure and being so appointed by his will were ABSOLUTELY NECESSITATED thereunto that they could not possibly resist his will alter his purpose prevent his Decree nor avoid the effects of his pleasure For aditum vitae PRAECLUSIT exitio DEVOVIT Sect. 7. Now what inferences and hideous consequences will ensue the Papists and Lutherans doe not spare to speak and presse to purpose and you cannot avoid to my poor understanding their conclusions The Church of England is not heerto liable cannot bee charged with it must not for YOUR sakes be put to avow or justifie it which in wise moderation sitteth downe by this Temper To have GOD'S promises in such wise received as they be GENERALLY set forth to us in holy Scripture and doth not insolently presse into GOD'S Secrets CHAP. V. Dangerous consequences brought by Others upon the Irrespective Decree INFORMERS IN this point he hath these words That PETER was saved because God would have him saved Absolutely and resolved to save him so Necessarily because hee would doe so MOUNTAGU IT is true in this point I have these words indeed not as mine but as yours For relating the doctrine briefly of YOU Calvinists as you are and would be called I propose it exemplified as you use it so but withall I added which is also your Doctrine and I go no further there that IUDAS was damned as necessarily because that GOD as absolute to decree as omnipotent to effect his decree did primarily so resolve concerning him and finally so conclude as touching him WITHOUT RESPECT of any thing but his owne will Is not this the manifest direct plain and expresse doctrine of Him whom you professe to follow of whom you glorie to be denominated Nothing is by me ascribed unto your Side and YOUR Doctors but an absolute and irrespective necessitating Decree concerning man in utramque partem and concerning all the effects of Predestination I brought no inferences to presse you withall such as are commonly and odiously made against you by Opposites Papists Lutherans Arminians or if there be any else whose virulent invectives and strange though too true imputations I like not I used not I did not charge you with making GOD the AUTHOR OF SIN nor that GOD who calleth himselfe as he is the Father of Mercies made the greatest part of mankinde with intent and purpose to PERISH eternally to DAMNE
them for ever into and in Hell fire That every man is as he is Predestinate a Sinner or Beleever NECESSARILY unavoideably That the Reprobate are incited on and PROVOKED to sinne by GOD. That GOD was the Author of IUDAS treason and the like None of these dropped out of my pen against you therefore that Depravation of YOUR Doctrine or odious relating of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which I relate is confessed by your selves That PETER could not perish IUDAS could not but perish Whether this be good Catholick doctrine I did not touch CHAP. VII Lutherans averse from the doctrin of Calvinists The moderation of the Church of England in these great and unsearchable mysteries The Author's submission thereunto The doctrine of Predestination Man the Author of his owne destruction and not GOD. The doctrine of Antiquitie contemned by Novellers The Synod of Dort no obligation to us The saying of DEODATE The Articles of Lambeth forbidden by Authority Forraine Doctrine maintayned to bring in forraine Discipline The Church of England no Patronesse of Novell opinions INFORMERS BUt I make the world beleeve that the Church of England doth oppose the doctrine of absolute and irrespective Election which the SYNOD of DORT concluded upon and determined and that it agreeth with the Lutherans in this point MOUNTAGU DOE I make men Beleeve it How can you tell that the world is so perswaded through my words It is probable enough that the world thought so and Beleeved so before that my name or the Gaggers came into play among you or were heard of in the world And for the Lutherans this is all I say The Lutherans abhorre it It that is That opinion as I then spake indefinitely not imposing it on you or YOUR Divines as gently as I could as tenderly as was possible And I pray you for the Lutherans is it not so out of your knowledge or heare-say doe not they detest it as horribiliter in DEUM contumeliosum generi humano perniciosissimum and that so farre with such vehemency as their custome is in every thing to be vehement and violent that they sticke not to professe they will rather come off roundly unto Poperie againe than joine with YOUR Divines upon any termes in these Questions of Prescience Perseverance Election and Reprobation wherein they say that by your Tenents Non Diabolus sed DEUS erit AUTHOR mendacij GOD not the Divell is made AUTHOR of sinne But concerning the Church of England's consenting with the Lutherans your Glosse corrupteth my Text. I say no such matter That which I say is this The Gagger objecteth unto us as held by us that which you call the Doctrine of YOUR Divines My answer thereto is Negative Absque hoc no such matter For the Lutherans in Germany doe detest and abhorre it the Church of England hath not taught it And yet this is not enough to inferre that we consent with the Lutherans eyther in their Abhorring and Detesting of it or in those Opinions which they hold against it except there could be given Nihil tertium I adde The Church of England doth not Beleeve it and why may I not say so except you shew the contrary or bring me forth a Creed a Canon a Conclusion in being for Beleeving it in the Church of England What our Church resolveth touching this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resolved in the XVII Article the very words of that Article being expressed in termes as farre as concerned that Decree But touching the execution of that eternall purpose both for inchoation by Grace here and consummation in Glory hereafter thus much is tendred in the selfe same place and Article Therefore they that be endowed with so excellent a Benefite from GOD be called according unto GOD'S purpose by his Spirit working in due season They through GOD'S grace obey that calling they be justified freely they be made sonnes of GOD by adoption they be made like unto the Image of his only begotten Sonne IESUS CHRIST they walke religiously in good works and at length by GOD'S mercy attaine unto everlasting felicity In all which passage both containing GOD'S Decree and execution of that Decree is not one word syllable or apex touching your absolute necessarie determined irresistable irrespective Decree of GOD to call save and glorifie S. PETER for instance infallibly WITHOUT any CONSIDERATION had of or REGARD unto his FAITH OBEDIENCE REPENTANCE and to condemn IUDAS as necessarily without any RESPECT had at all unto his SINNE which say I there and I say truely is the private fancy of some particular men and as I conjecture you are professedly of those SOME And whereas you would make the World beleeve that Ecclesia Anglicana Calvinistat as if he were the father and founder of our Faith as if our Beleefe were to be pinned upon his sleeve and absolutely to be taught after his Institutions shew mee good warrant for it and I yeeld I may rather say that the Church of England hath opposed this doctrine because that many of the Learned your selves will not denie in that Church and most conformable unto the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church have mainly opposed it and the Church it self hath directly and in EXPRESSE words overthrown the ground therof in teaching thus that a Iustified man and therefore Predestinate in your doctrine may Fall away from GOD and therefore become not the Child of GOD. The truth is our Church in these deepe and high points hath in great Wisedeme and Prudence gon on warily and suspensely not presuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you and YOUR Divines have done and doe to conclude upon GOD'S Secrets not straightning narrowing of mens consciences by determining specially in those Mysteries at which that great Apostle stood at gaze with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Would you and your Party bee advised I would counsaile you that which I desire to follow in this particular my selfe Ne curiosus quaere causas omnium Quaecunque libris vis Prophetarum indidit Afflata caelo plena veraci DEO Nec operta sacri supparo stlentij Irrumpere aude sed prudenter praeteri NESCIRE VELLE QUAE MAGISTER MAXIMUS DOCERE NON VULT ERUDITA EST INSCITIA I must confesse my dissent thorough and sincere from the Faction of novellizing PURITANS men intractable insociable incompliable with those that will not aedificare ad dissensiones but in no one point more than in this their desperate doctrine of Predestination In which as they delight to trouble themselves and others in nothing more so I professe I doe love to meddle nothing lesse I have not I did not desire nor intend to declare my owne opinion in that point evermore with reservation of my dutifull consent with and unto my Mother for I needed not doe it being not forced so to do in following of the Gagger but because I am challenged for Dangerous Doctrine therein