for the profession of the Gospell that now hauing gotten the vpper hand of your miseries you would not suffer the followers of Arminius to make your actions an example for them to proclaime to the world that wicked Doctrine of the Apostasie of the Saints It is all worthy of deepe consideration and among if not aboue the rest 1. The opinion that this great and wise King had of this Doctrine of The Apostasie of the Saints Hee saith of a booke so intituled The Title â—…re enough to make it worthy the fire And he callâ—… him Hereticke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that published this booke The booke also Hee termeth A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Apostasie of the Saintâ—… And by his Ambassadour He calls it That wicked Doctrine of the Apostasie of the Saints 2. What agreement this booke and Doctrine had with the Doctrine of the Church of England Here of the King saith Hee was shamelesse to maintaine in his letter to the Arch bishop that the Doctrine contained in his booke was agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church of England And againe A letter wherein he is not ashamed as also in his booke to lye so grossely as to auow that his Heresies contained in the said booke are agreeable with the Religion and profession of our Church of England 3. The dangers that arise from this kinde of Doctrine Arminius left behinde him a distraction in the State And you cannot expect any other issue thereof then the curse of God infamy throughout all Reformed Churches and a perpetuall rent and distraction in the whole Body of your State 4. The councell that was both taken and giuen hereupon It was high time to bestirre our selues when as this Gangreene had not onely taken hold on our neerest Neighbours but did also begin to creepe into the bowels of Our owne Kingdome And For these respects therefore haue Wee cause enough very hartily to request you to root out with speed these Heresies and Schismes which are beginning to bud forth amongst you I may adde hereunto the Doctrine of the Articles of the Church of Ireland which fitly may here be inserted as both looking to King Iames vnder whose Authority and protection it came forth and was maintained and looking to the Doctrine of the Church of England since it were an intollerable and impudent iniury to the wisdome and religious knowledge of those times to say that betweene them there was not a harmonie All Gods elect are in their time inseparably vnited vnto Article of Ireland Num. 33. Christ by the effectuall and vitall influence of the Holy Ghost deriued from Him as from the Head vnto euery true member of his Mysticall Body A true liuely iustifying Faith and the sanctifying Num. 38. Spirit of God is not extinguished nor vanisheth away in the Regenerate either finally or totally THE DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England for Certaintie of Saluation THe Church of England teacheth the certaintie of Saluation and she hath done it so constantly and and generally that it will be very hard to produce any one of her Sonnes that durst before very late dayes to affirme and defend to the contrary by any publike worke and writing Shee hath taught this Certaintie by her owne Articles Shee hath re-enforced it by an exposition of Her Articles it hath beene explained and enlarged by Articles of Lambeth it hath beene taught by Her most eminent Sonnes the Reverend Fathers the Bishops of this Church and the Professors of Divinitie who are trusted by her to deliver her true thoughts and Tenents in Divinitie to her children And wee see that it hath also beene sealed vp and settled in Articles of the Church of Ireland betweene which Church and the Church of England to make a contraritie and opposition is a thing of extreame danger and absurditie And first for her owne Articles In the Article of Praedestination our Church teacheth the Certaintie of Saluation diuers wayes One way by making Saluation to depend on such a constant and sure Election that it bringeth the Elect constantly to Salvation A constant Decree of Election brings the Saints constantly assuredly through the way of Saluation vnto the wayes end even Salvation it selfe This constant bringing of the Elect to Saluation wee may finde in these words God hath constantly Decreed by his Counsell secret to Article 17. vs to deliuer from Curse and damnation those whom hee hath chosen in Christ out of Man-kinde and to bring them by Christ to euerlasting Saluation From hence is it plaine and easie to argue Those whom God hath constantly Decreed to bring to Salvation they are constantly and certainly brought to Saluation But here God hath constantly Decreed to bring his Elect to Saluation Therefore the Elect of God are constantly and certainely brought to Saluation And that this bringing to Salvation is not in the wayes end only but in the way it selfe the particulars by which the Elect are brought to Salvation plainly shew which are to follow in the next consideration But here by the way let vs note that this bringing to Salvation by a constant and certaine Decree carries with it a certaine and assured Salvation even by the confession of the Enemies of it For in this very respect because it induceth a certaine and constant Salvation they reiect it as that which crosseth their inconstancie and mutabilitie of Salvation This Doctrine of certaintie crosseth their doctrine of Incertaintie and therefore their doctrine of incertaintie crosseth and reiecteth this doctrine of Certainty For well they know that it must be a certaine Saluation which is wrought and brought to passe by a constant and absolute Decree of Election Therefore to plant this Apostacie and that men though Elected may haue leaue to fall from Saluation if they will they make an Election which followâ—…th a man vpon the condition of his sore-seene perseverance So that as in the doctrine of our Church a constant Decree of Election constantly bringing to Salvation must needs withall giue a finall perseverance in the state of grace their Doctrine not enduring this constant perseuerance and saluation issuing from a constant Decree of Election haue deuised an Election that waites vpon man to see whether hee will giue to himselfe finall perseuerance by his owne Free-will An Election by which no man is actually Elected vntill hee be no man that is vntill hee be parted the soule from the body But as I said before our Doctrine may be knowne to be a Doctrine of Certaintie that doth oppose and reiect this falling away because the fallers away doe oppose and reiect it there being indeed an incompatibility betweene a constant Decree that brings men constantly to Saluation and a dependant and contingent Decree that waites on mans vncertaine Will to see whether his will will finally perseuer and so bring his owner to Election A second way by which our Church teacheth the certaintie of Saluation in this Article is this Because shee sayeth the same grounds
wisdome to bee foolishnesse So the Owle thinkes day to bee night and the sunne to bee a cause of blindnesse but the Night goes for day and the setting of the Sunne to bee the Spring of the morning Therefore the witt of man offended with the purity of this spirituall doctrine hath invented a doctrine of its owne which exceedingly agreeth with the wit of man that bare it for here though not in a better case the Mother is the Nurse The wit of Man hath made a Foard in the depths of God it hath found out the wayes that are past finding out and where St. Paul cryes out O depth there they leade along their schollers that they passe through it allmost with dry feete The plot of Election and Grace is discovered and these men will tell you the reasons of Gods Counsell Neither is it a new devise of mine to accuse Mans wisdome of this folly it hath long since beene done yet will I bring a witnesse whom I may call an Oracle of these last times a man of the most sound and definite Iudgment that these latter Ages haue brought forth And his discovery may very well serue for a remedy The Diuines of greatest name held that Article of free Praedestination for Orthodoxe and the contrary for Hereticall because good writers of the Schoole as Saint Thomas Scotus and others did commonly thus beleeue That God before the foundation of the world out of the vniuersall masse of mankind by his onely and meere mercy did chuse some to glory to whom he prepared effectuall meanes for the obtaining of the same and this is called to Pradestinate And of these there is a certaine and determined number which is not to d ee increased c. Yet this opinion was oppugned by other Diuines but of lower note who called it hard cruell horrible and impious as that which made God to bee an accepter of persons c. The first sentence indeede comprehending a great mystery and secret doth humble the minde of man and while on the one side it presentes to man the deformity of sinne and on the other side the excellency of Gods grace it wholly fixeth him vpon God The second opinion is more plausible popular glittering and agreeable to the pride of mans heart and in this respect it was acceptable to the Fryers professing more the Art of preaching then the sound knowledge of Diuinity It did also seeme more probable to the Courtiers as being agreeable to reasons of policy And indeede those Who defended it because they relyed on reasons meerly humane they preuailed with men of humane wisdome but when the matter came to bee tryed by testimonies of Scripture then their cause soone fell to the ground Hist Concil Trid Lib 2. So wee see here the same Author leades vs to a second Politick grounds of Arminianisme ground of Arminianisme which is Policy It were too long for a worke which I intended to bee short to insist on the seuerall sorts of Policy in which this error hath beene rooted and from which it hath sprung vp and spread abroad the branches of it My Author hath discouered one of the Friers it serues their turne best for Rhetoricall perswasions and plausible declamations And I wish other Clergy-men had not also their Politicke endes and did not seeke to get glory to themselues by selling the glory of God No question it were an outward and seeming glory to them if when a man hath killed the seed of God in him they without any seed of God could make this man to liue againe to enter into heauen not being regenerated that is hauing wholly lost his Regeneration But in these gaines God looseth for his seede looseth the glory of being incorruptible that corruptible man may get the glory of God But I hasten to another Policy and that is The plot of 3 bringing in Popery Whosoeuer will bring in Popery into a country strongly fixed in the Protestant Doctrin must not presently fly in the face of the whole Protestant Doctrine but his onely way is to worke into it by these degres of plausible Arminianisme euen to put in these little theeues they seeme litle to naturall men into the window of a Church then they may vnlocke the dores of a Church and let in all Popery Our Religion is contained in diuers seuerall Articles they run vpon one Thred of Establishment Authority now if you can cut this Thred but in one place and breake through the Authority which established thē you may easily see that all the rest like beades will run out But here a word may serue to the wise Fourthly Arminianisme being a kind of twilight 4 and a double-faced thing that lookes to two Religions at once Protestantisme and Popery hee that is in it is like him that stands in the borders of two adioyning Kingdomes who is ready to dwell in either as either serues his turne best So that an Arminian is like a flying fish if preferment be among the birds he is ready to fly after it with the birds and if it be among the fishes then among the fishes he will swimme after it Fiftly it seemes to be a factious ground wherevpon 5 Politicke men may worke their owne ends that I may vse the wordes of one that perchance will be more pleasing to some and one that seemes to acknowledge such a thing de facto Did no wiser men or man worke vpon perhaps exasperated mindes or exasperate MONTAGVES Appeale p. 42. mindes to worke vpon as it hath hapned else-where in pointes of controuerted Diuinity called into question or maintained on Foote that Religion may serue for a stalking horse to catch fooles and bee pretended to serue Turnes For I yet hasten to a Sixth Policy and that is a fearfull one even a Policy to loose Religion Land and all For there is not a Policy more advantagable to the Spaniard then to bring in Division into a Land by bringing in Arminianisme This is not wordes but deedes which I speake For even this Division had almost forfeited the Low-countryes to the Spaniard And whom the warres of so many yeares did make still stronger the peace of a few yeares with Arminianisme had almost brought to ruine And it is well knowne to some that haue travelled that this very Counsell hath beene given to the King of Spaine by an execrable Author for the destruction of England and the Low-countryes even to bring in this doctrine which now hath gotten the name of Arminianisme But farre bee it from vs so to devide our selues by opinions that wee should make our selues weake and our enemies strong Let vs much rather like brethren which quarrelled before cast away the quarrels and ioyne together against a common Enemy both of Church and State Let vs striue to put our selues into the same Religion into the same vnity wherein God protected and prospered vs against this deuourer of Europe and his Inuincible
Bernard de lib. arb gra my words but the Apostles who attributes all the good that may possibly be vnto God and not to his owne Will euen to thinke to will and to doe If then God worketh these three things in vs that is to thinke good to will it and to performe it he worketh in vs the first indeed without vs the second with vs and the third by vs. For by sending in a good thought he preuenteth vs by changing our wicked Will hee ioynes it to him by consent and by giuing power to our consent this inward WORKER shewes himselfe outwardly in our manifest worke Post peccatum ante reparationem c. After sinne and â—… Lombard lib. 2 dist 25 Ex Hug. de S. Vict. before the restoring of Grace the Will is oppressed and ouercome of concupiscence and is weake in euill and hath no grace in good and therefore it can sinne and it cannot chuse but sinne and that damnably Operans Gracia est quae praeuenit c. Working or Id. lib. 2. dist 26. â—… operating Grace is that which preuenteth the good Will For by it the Will of man is freed and prepared that it may bee good and that effectually it may will good But cooperating Grace followeth the Will when it is good in helping it Gracia Dei mecum ostendit vt spepo quòd ipsa est causa Bradwarden de causa Dei lib. 1. cap. 40. efficiens c. The Grace of God with mee I hope will shew that Grace is properly the efficient cause of euery good act I meane Grace freely giuen which is an habite poured into the soule freely by God Vertue and chiefly the chiefest vertue Grace of Charity is no selfe EFFECTVALL than Vice But Vice effecteth euill acts wherefore Grace or Charity effecteth good acts And that I may say nothing of vices morally gotten who doth not know who doth not feele what acts one Radicall vice effecteth that law of the members that tyrant of nature that source of sinne Concupisence or the lustfullnesse of our flesh which also the Doctors often call Originall sinne A witnesse hereof is experience too common too forceable A witnesse also is the Apostle when hee saith I am carnall sold vnder sinne for what I doe I allow not For I doe not that which I would but that which I hate that I doe Seeing then that lust is so violent so effectuall so manifoldly actuous how doth Charity represse diminish and ouercome it if she doe nothing at all if she moue nothing at all if shee be altogether idle Qua Gratia non noua Voluntas creatur c. By which Grace there is not created a new will neither is the Cassander Consulâ—… Art 18â—… will inforced being vnwilling but the will being sicke is healed being depraued is rectified and is changed from euill into good And by an inward kinde of motion is drawne that of vnwilling it may become willing and may freely consent to the Diuine calling and afterward the same Grace cooperating it may obey the will of God and by the same Grace perseuering in good workes may also through the same Grace enter into the inheritance of the heauenly Kingdome This Doctrine of the Grace of God and Free-will the sounder Schoole men strongly defended against the Pelagians among whom was Thomas Brauarden or Bradwarden called in his time the profound Doctor who wrote an excellent worke which he calleth a summe against Pelagianisme increasing in his dayes And how much many of them did attribute to Grace Bonauenture alone may testifie This saith he is the dutie of godly mindes that they attribute nothing to themselues but all to the grace of God wherein how much soeuer a man doth giue to the Grace of God hee shall not depart from pietie though by giuing much to the Grace of God hee take away something from the power of Nature or Free-will But when something is taken away from the Grace of God and that is giuen to Nature which belongs to Grace there may be danger THE DOCTRINE OF King IAMES concerning the Certaintie of Saluation and against the Apostacy or falling away of the Saints ABout the same time one Beâ—…tius a Scholler of the late Declar. against Vorstiue Arminius who was the first in our Age that infected Leyden with herisie was so impudent as to send a letter vnto the Arch-bishop of Canterbury with a booke intitâ—…led de Apostasia Sanctorum And not thinking it sufficient to auow the sending of such a booke the Title whereof onely were enough to make it worthy the fire hee was moreouer so shamelesse as to maintaine in his letter to the Arch bishop that the Doctrine contained in his booke was agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church of England Let the Church of Christ then iudge whether it was not high time for Vs to bestirre Our selues when at this Gangrene had not only taken hold amongst Our neerest Neighbours so â—… Non solùm paries proximus iam ardebat not onely the next house was on fire but did also beg in to creege into the bowels of Our owne Kingdome It is true that it was Our hard hap not to heare of this Arminius before hee was dead and that all the Reformed Churches of Germanie had with open mouth complained of him But as soone as Wee vnderstood of that distraction in your State which after his death hoc left behinde him Wee did not faile taking the opportunitie when your last extraordinary Ambassadors were here with Vs to vse some such speaches vnto them concerning this matter as We thought fittest for the good of your State and which Wee doubt not but they haue faithfully reported vnto you For what need Wee make any question of the Aâ—…gancy of these Hereticks or rather Atheisticall Sectaries 〈◊〉 you when one of them at this present remaining in your Towne of Leyden hath not onely presumed to publish of late a blasphemous booke of the Apostasie of the Saints but hath besides beene so impudent as to send the other day a copie thereof as a gâ—…odly present to our Arch-bishop of Canterbury together with a letter wherein hee is not ashamed as also in his booke to lye so grossely as to 〈◊〉 that his Heresies contained in the said booke are agreeable with the Religion and profession of the Church of England For these respects therefore haue wee cause enough very hartily to request you to roote out with speed those Heresies and Schismes which are beginning to bud forth amongst you which if you suffer to haue the Reynes any longer you cannot expect any other issue thereof then the curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetuall rent and distraction in the whole Body of your State His Maiestie doth exhort you seeing you haue heretofore â—…id taken Armes for the libertie of your Consciences and haue so much indured in a violent and bloudie warre the space of fortie yeeres
that is stronger then hee And indeed this is the very cause of our ouer comming if we beleeue S. Iohn Because 1 Ioh. 4. â—… hee that is in vs is greater then hee that is in the world Therefore Gods constant loue is still to bee lookt vnto as the only cause of our safetie which keepes our wills by grace against these ouer-mightie enemies and wretched were wee if our wills were put to keepe themselues by grace For then if we were but as Adam these principalities and powers would prevaile with vs as with Adam especially having a body of sinne about vs which hee had not But the only cause of our standing against these principalities vnder whom Adam fell is the constant loue and purpose of God By that as S. Paul saith We are more then 2 Cor. 1. 21. conquerours and thence it is that Principalities and Powers cannot separate vs from the loue of God And as by this constant loue of God we are constantly and safely preserued from separation and Apostasie so let our constant saftie ever acknowledge this constant loue and purpose of God to bee the cause of it But both this safetie and the cause of this safetie the teachers of Apostasie doe denie so robbing God of the glory of mans stabilitie and robbing man of the safetie and stabilitie which hee hath from God Finally that yet wee may know our selues to be fully and finally safe the blessed Apostle is not contented to speake of safetie from separation and Apostacie onely in the present time but he denies Apostacie beth by future things and in the future time Nor things present nor things to come c. shall bee able to separate vs from the loue of God Behold a finall and full perseuerance in safetie for things present cannot separate vs and things to come shall not be able to separate vs yea no other creature that is nothing can separate vs and therefore not the Arminians A third way by which our Church in this Article doth teach Certaintie of Saluation is this shee saith that the consideration of Election doth establish in the Saints a Faith of their saluation to bee enioyed through Christ. For the Saint finding in himselfe the mortification and vivification of the Spirit hence ascendeth vp to the knowledge view and consideration of his Election and from this constant Election hath a stable and sure Faith that hee shall enioy eternall saluation in Christ. Now from hence plainly issueth this argument That saluation is certaine whereof there is an established Faith But there is an established Faith of the Saluation of of the Saints Therefore the Saluation of the Saints is certaine The first proposition cleareth it selfe by its owne light For there is not an established Faith of vncertaine and fallible things but of certaine Yea if there were no other word but the word of Faith this Faith presumeth and pâ—…esupposeth a certaine and infallible truth for the obiect of it and consequently in this place a certaine and infallible saluation of the Saints The second proposition is raysed plainly out of the words of the Article For the consideration of Election is there said vpon the view of Sanctification to establish a Faith of Saluation to be enjoyed Wherefore I may conclude in the words of the ninth Article There is no condemnation to them that beleeue and are baptized Which the Article of Ireland thus resembleth Howsoeuer for Christs sake there be no condemnation Num. 34. to such as are regenerate and doe beleeue The first of which is a position of our Sauiour They that beleeue and be baptized shall be saued They Mark 16. 16. are not onely now in the state of Saluation but they shall hereafter be saued for hee that beleeueth shall not Ioh. 5. 24. see condemnation And the other resteth on the saying of Saint Paul who saith that to the Saints there is no condemnation For the Law of the Spirit of life which Rom. 3. is in Christ Iesus freeth a Saint from the law of sinne and death Now if a Saint bee free from death who can make him a bondslaue of death This were flatly to affirme that which the Apostle denyes both here and else-where Wee haue not receiued the spirit of bondage to Rom. 8. 15. feare againe but the spirit of Adoption by which wee cry Abba Father And if a sonne then no more a seruant Behold Saint Paul saith wee haue not receiued the spirit Psal. 46. 7. to feare againe who then dares to put vpon the Saints a spirit of bondage to feare againe and Saint Paul saith by the Spirit of God If a sonne then no more a seruant And how dares flesh and blood to say if a sonne yet againe a seruant But let vs stand fast in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made vs free neither let vs againe be intangled with the yoke of bondage Let vs say with Saint Paul once a sonne and no more a seruant once a sonne and a sonne for euer And indeed Christ himselfe saith That a sonne abides in the house Ioh. 9. 35. for euer onely let vs remember that therefore we are deliuered from this feare and house of bondage That Luk. 1. 74. being deliuered from our enemies wee might serue God without feare In holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our liues Our safety is giuen vs mainly 1 Ioh. 3. 3. for an incouragement to holinesse For hee that hath this hope purgeth himselfe as God is pure And now that it may appeare that I haue not wrested a priuate sense out of these publike Articles let vs see whether the same truth hath not beene publikly taught by others There is a worke formerly alledged which hath this Title The Faith Doctrine and Religion professed and protested in the Realme of England and Dominions of the same expressed in thirtie nine Articles the said Articles analysed into propositions c. This worke was made by a Chaplaine of Doctor Bancroft late Archbishop of Canterbury and to his Grace Dedicated But it is well knowne Arch-bishop Bancroft did not fauour any Puritanicall or Schismaticall Doctrine neither is it to be thought that his Chaplaine would or durst offer any such vnto him Neither is it to be beleeued that he would be so shamelesse as to say to the same Arch-bishop in his Dedicatorie Epistle That these Propositions shee that is the Church of England publikely maintaineth if there had beene any Puritanicall Doctrine maintained in them Now this Writer hauing raysed a Proposition vpon these words of the seuenteenth Article constantly decreed he inferreth Wander then doe they from the truth which thinke That the Regenerate may fall from the Grace of God may destroy the Temple of God and be broken off from the 〈◊〉 Christ Iesus The same Doctrine is proued by other Articles more plainely and punctually vnfolding what was in the former Articles truly and really contained though not so manifoldly