thereof and he gives instance in such a necessity as whereby we say It most needs be that such a thing come to passe as no way prejudiciall to man's liberty And Arminius confesseth that upon supposition of God's decree it must needs be that the Souldiers should abstaine from the breaking of Christ's bones yet I nothing doubt but this action was as as freely performed by them as any other For albeit a thing must needs come to passe which God hath decreed to come to passe yet it is indifferent to come to passe necessarily or freely which also God determines according to the nature of the things themselves namely that necessary things shall come to passe necessarily and contingent things contingently And to this purpose he hath prepared different Agents as Aquinas observeth some necessary working necessarily some contingent working contingently 4. Still this Author harpes upon the same string imputing unto us that we make the whole Circle af a man's life a mere destiny his meaning is that we take away all liberty which is most untrue As for destiny it is well knowne as before I have shewed that this was the usuall crimination which the Pelagians cast upon the doctrine of St. Austin and that because he maintained that grace was not given according unto man's workes And what was Austin's answer hereunto I have shewed before Si cui voluntatem omnipotentis Dei Fati nomine placet nuncupari profanas verborum novitates evitamus sed de verbis contendere non amamus If men please to call the will of Almighty God by the name of destiny we avoid profane novelties of words but we doe not love to wrangle about words For God to worke us to faith to repentance to every good worke yea to the very will and the deed and that according to his good pleasure for which we have expresse Scripture both in the old and new Testament as earst I shewed absolutely to decree this is to make the whole circle of man's like as touching good courses but a mere destiny if we believe this Divine whereas if this be decreed to be done conditionally then grace must be conferred according to works which is as true Pelagianisme as ever dropt from the mouth of Pelagius which himselfe was soÌ„etimes driven torenounce yet this Pelagianisme is the only true divinity if we believe this Author Againe if non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing coÌ„es to passe unlesse God Almighty will have it come to passe whether good or evill which was sometimes delivered by Austin and of late professed by the Church of Ireland in the dayes of King James this is to make the whole Circle of man's life a mere Destiny if this Author be of any credit so farre as to make his words to be received as Oracles yet God's word is expresse from the unanimous consent of the Apostles that both Herod Pontius-Pilate wih the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together against the holy Son of God to do what God's hand God's counsell had before determined to be done Yet were they gathered together to doe such acts as more facinorous were never known to be done since the world beganne And if we believe this Author all this came to passe by meere destiny And if this be to come to passe by meere destiny why should we not believe it Have we better or more compleate testimony for ought throughout the whole booke of God then for this All things that come to passe must needs be the issues of the divine decree not only such things as come to passe necessarily by necessary Agents working necessarily but even such things also as come to passe freely by free agents working contingently and freely as Aquinas hath proved and Austin and the Church of Ireland acknowledged and the word of God hath justified and cleare reason demonstrated for as much as otherwise no future thing could be foreknowne by God from everlasting For nothing can be from everlasting knowne by God as future unlesse from everlasting it were future But without the decree of God passing upon it no contingent thing can passe out of the condition of a thing merely possible such as it is in it's own nature into the conditioÌ„ of a thing future So that whosoever denies God's decree to passe upon every thing that comes to passe throughout the world must therewithall deny the foreknowledge thereof in the mind of God Let but this Authour avoid this one argument if he can but he will never answer it while his head is hotâ—â— conceive I have had sufficient experience of his strength already this way and of the shamefull issue of his adventure therein He that sayd Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing comes to passe unlesse the Almighty will have it come to passe sayd also that God so workes in every creature as without all prejudice to their own motions And when the Apostle said that In God we move his meaning was not that the creature did nothing or moved not at all All that followeth is of the same stampe a fardell of unshamefast untruthes Belike when God saith I will cause them to walke in my statutes and to doe them God caused them to doe just nothing In like manner when the holy Prophet expostulates with God in the person of the Church after this manner Lord why hast thou caused us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts against thy feare the meaning is why hast thou caused us to doe just nothing In like manner when God restraines offences he doth it not by his lawes When he promotes vertue he doth it not by rewards when he converts sinners he doth it not by sermons when thousands were converted in one day it was not by the ministry of Peter and his fellow Apostles This Authours meaning seemes to be that unlesse man converts himselfe it is not done by sermons But see how he overlasheth wheÌ„ carrying the matter so as if God's decree necessitated and overruled all by our opinion yet most absurdly he exempts from this divine decree man's endeavours And who seeth not that to overrule is to carry the reasonable creature on to doe contrary to his own will and judgment For unlesse he doth tosse strenuouslly he can prevaile nothing with any sober and indifferent Reader In like sort to necessitate denotes such a motion whereby the creature is carried to doe a thing necessailry but this is not Bradwardines opinion who alone amongst Schoole-Divines that I know useth this phrase of necessitating For he saith that God necessitates the creature to his free act this necessity is but modall according to that expression of Austin necesse est ut aliquid fiat which Austin confessed 1200 years agoe to be no impeachment to man's liberty But because that phrase Necessitating is not only of an harsh sound apt to be taken in a quite contrary
diverse of my Brethren in both the Universities in the City of London have I should apply my selfe with an undeniable importunity to perswade them unto so good and great a Worke which will Purchase them a precious Memory with the Godly and Learned in all future Ages of the Church I have but one thing more to say of the Booke before I take my leave of Thee If any Arminian whatsoever will give a Just Full and Scholasticall Answer unto It I shall by God's helpe returne him a Reply For 't is De Causa Dei as Bradwardine Entitles his Booke And in defence of God's Cause I shall feare no Colours But if the Ignorant Paper-blurrers of the Time shall Snarle and Snap only at some few Passages they are not to expect that so much as any serious notice should be taken of them Thine In all the obligations of Charity and Truth HENRY JEANES THE FIRST BOOK IN TWO PARTS WHEREOF THE FIRST Containeth a Consideration of those Reasons for Which Mr HORD as he pretended First questioned the truth of Absolute Reprobation THE SECOND Examineth those Arguments against the Absolutenesse of Divine Reprobation which M. HORD took to be of a Convincing Nature OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD for THO ROBINSON Anno Salutis M. DC LIII A Table of the Principall Matters contained in this Treatise wherein the Answer unto Mr. Mason's Additions is referred in such order as that it is made aptly to cohere with the refutation of M. HORDS DISCOUERSE AN examination of the Epistle to the Reader lib. 2. p. 1 2 3 4 5. The maine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Question in these Controversies propounded and stated together with the different opinions of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants both Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians concerning it examined lib. 1. pag. 1 2 3. c. usque ad p. 14 and p. 32 33. usque ad p. 40. l. 2. p. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. The absolute decree cleared from M r Hord's reasons both inducing and convincing 1. And first to begin with those for which as he pretended he first questioned the truth of absolute Reprobation where the absolute decree is vindicated from the charge 1. Of Novelty lib. 1. p. 40. c. usque ad p. 60. l. 2. p. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. 2. Of Unwillingnesse to abide the tryall lib. 1. a p. 59. ad 84. l. 2. p. 19. 20. 21. 22. 3. Of Infamie lib. 1. a p. 83. ad p. 91. l. 2. p. 22. 23 24. 4. Of Affinity with the old and exploded errors of the Stoicks and Manichees lib. 1. p. 92 93. c. usque ad p. 102. 2. Those arguments against the absolutenes of Divine Reprobation according to both the upper and lower way which M r Hord tooke to be of a convincing nature are examined 1. M r Hord's or M r Mason's arguments against the upper or Supralapsarian way are answered lib. 2. p. 25. c. Where 1. The upper or Supralapsarian way is vindicated from the dishonouring of God in two particulars 1. It doth not charge him with mans destruction lib. 2. a p. 25. ad p. 51. 2. It doth not charge him with mens sinnes lib. 1. a p. 14. ad 28 l 2. a p. 51. ad 116. 2. The upper or Supralapsarian way is cleared from the overthrow of Religion and holy Life and that in foure particulars 1. It maketh not sinne to be no sinne lib 1. p. 10 28 29. l. 2. a p 110. ad 121. 2. It taketh not away the conscience of sinne lib. 1. p. 29 30 l. 2. p. 117 121 122. 3. It taketh not away the desert and guilt of sinne lib. 1. p. 10 30 31 32. l. 2. p 122 123 c. usque ad p. 131. 4. It maketh not the whole circle of mans Life a meere destiny lib. 2. p. 127 128 130 131 132 133. 2. Those pretended convictive arguments against absolute Reprobation which proceed as it is stated according to the Sublapsarian or lower way lib. 1. p. 103. c. And it is fully and clearly evinced that the Sublapsarian Doctrine is not repugnant unto 1. Testimonies of Scripture 2. Attributes of God 3. End of the Word and Sacrament with other excellent gifts of God to men 4. Holy and Pious endeavors 5. The Grounds of comfort whereby distressed consciences are to be relieved 1. The Sublapsarian Doctrine concerning absolute reprobation is not repugnant to Scripture lib. 1. p. 103 104. c. Particularly not to Ezek. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will ye dye o House of Israel lib. 1. p. 103 c. Nor to Ezek. 18. 32. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live ye lib. 1. p. 103 104 105 106. Not to Rom. 11. 32. For God hath concluded them all in unbeliefe that he might have mercy upon all lib. 1. p. 107 108. Not to Iohn 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son c. lib. 1. p. 108 109 110. Not to 1. Tim. 2. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth lib. p. 111 112 113 114 115. Not to 2 Peter 3. 9. not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance lib. 1. p. 115 116 117. Not to those conditionall speeches which are in 1 Cron. 28. 9. And 2 Cron. 15. 2. And Gen. 4. 7. And Heb. 10. 38. lib. 1. p. 117 118 119 120. 2. The Sublapsarian Doctrine c. is not contrary unto Gods Attributes to the clearing of which a discourse premised concerning Gods Atributes in generall is refuted lib. 1. p. 121 122 c. unto p. 128. This done our Author comes to shew in speciall how that the Sublapsarian Doctrine doth not oppugne 1. God's Holinesse lib. 2. p. 133 134 c. unto p. 147. 2. God's Mercy lib. 1. p. 128 c. unto p. 145. l. 2. p. 147 148. 3. God's Justice lib. 1. a p. 145. ad 171. l. 2. a p. 149. ad 156. 4. God's truth or sincerity lib. 1. a p. 171. ad 187. l. 2. a p. 156. ad p. 167. 3. The Sublapsarian doctrine not contrary to the use and end of God's gifts to men lib. a p. 187. ad 222. l. 2. p. 166. 167. 4. The Sublapsarian Doctrine not prejudiciall to piety and a Godly life lib. 1. a p. 221. ad 255. l. 2. p. 167 168 169 170. 5. The Sublapsarian Doctrine no enemy to true comfort lib. 1. p. 255 256 c. usque ad finem By this Table Reader thou maist correct the mistitleing of pages as lib. 1. p. 86 87 88 89. 90. lib. 20. p. 22 23 24 25 26 27. p. 52 53 58 59. a p. 133 ad p. 147. READER I would advise thee
ought to doe or not in what manner he ought to doe it not one of all which is incident unto God All efficiency both divine and humane is found only about the act substrate unto sinne and all sides now a daies acknowledge that God is the author thereof as well as man by an effective concourse though difference there is about the manner of the concourse and particularly these Arminius will have Gods concourse to an evill act to be every way as much as his concourse to a good and that he concurres to the working of a good act no more then to the working of an evill act Which we utterly deny requiring a double concourse to every good act that is not supernaturall as touching the substance of the act One to the producing of the substance of the act another to the producing the goodnesse thereof that is the gracious manner of performing it For even a naturall man may abstaine from lying stealing whoring blaspheaming but no naturall man can abstaine from these in a gracious manner that is out of the love of God and that such a love as is Amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui the love of God to the contempt of himselfe For this manner of performing it is supernaturall Secondly as touching the matter of divine concourse to the substance of any naturall act We say God moves the will to the doing of it as it becomes the first cause to move the second but how agreeable to the nature of it that is like as he moves naturall agents to doe that which they doe necessarily so he moves all rationall agents to doe that which they doe contingently and freely What is the Arminian tenent to the contrary namely this that God workes in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle modo velit as absurd an assertion as ever any man breathed It is true many times our Divines in speaking of the secret providence of God in evill doe expresse themselves in phrases of a very harsh accent in the judgement of flesh and blood but herein they doe nothing exceed sobriety forasmuch as usually they contemper themselves to Scripture phrase rather within the compasse thereof then beyond it Yet Blasphemy is usually imputed unto them without all feare or wit not considering that herein they impute blasphemy to the language of the Holy Ghost As for example What an horrible sinne is it for Kings and Princes to imploy their power and authority not for the supporting of the Kingdome of Christ by whom Kings reigne but for the supporting and establishing of the kingdome of Antichrist as in the Martyrdome of Gods Saints delivered over to the secular power to that end and that by censures Ecclesiasticall Now if we should say that it is God that works thus in the hearts of Kings thus to imploy their power for the supporting of Antichrist we should be censured for blasphemers Yet the Holy Ghost spares not to professe that God hath put into their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdome to the Beast untill the words of God be fulfilled In like sort from the first Preaching of the Gospell unto this day many there have been and at this day are who are disobedient unto it and stumble at it either in the whole or in part If we should say that they who thus disobey and stumble at the word of God are ordained thereunto such as this Author and his Complices are ready to cry out upon us as Blaspheamers and to professe that they will rather deny that there is a God then hold with the Contra-Remonstrants Yet S. Peter budgeth not to professe that Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to them which stumble at the word of God being disobedient whereunto also they were ordained When we professe that not any thing in the world comes to passe but Deo volente God willing it We are censured as Blasphemers in professing that God doth will that which is evill and sinne yet not only the Articles of Ireland Artic. 11. professe as much and Austin Enchir. 95. Non aliquid fit nisi Omnipotens fieri velit but the Apostles with one voyce as touching the contumelious usages of the Sonne of God both by Jewes and Gentiles Herod and Pilate in their picus meditation poured forth before the face of God professe that Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together against the holy Sonne of God to doe that which Gods hand and Gods councell had before determined to be done In like sort when we speak of Gods giving men over to illusions to believe lies others to vile affections and to uncleannesse through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves which consisted in this that The Women did change their naturall use into that which is against nature and likewise the men leaving the naturall use of the Women burned in their lusts one towards another men with men working that which is unseemely and receiving in themselves the recompence of their errour which was meet and observe herehence that it is just with God to punish sinne with sinne And as it hath been observed before us from the daies of Austin who when Iulian the Pelagian said this was done deserendo replies taking him at his word who could not but professe that God doth thus the Scripture expresly testifying as much and touching the manner mentioned by him addeth whether God doth this deserendo or alio modo sive explicabili sive inexplicabili it matters not An Arminian spirit spares not to joyne himselfe with Iulian the Pelagian in affronting Austin thus discoursing out of the word of God and to professe that that doctrine of Gods punishing sinne with sinne is a common errour whereas the Apostle professeth in expresse termes that Herein they received such recompence of their errour as was meet and what is recompence here but punishment and wherein consisted it but in defiling themselves contrary to nature as the Scripture plainly testifies saying Men with men working that which is unseemely and receiving in themselves such recompence of their errour as was meet And Arminius spares not to professe that Omnis paena Deum authorem habet Wherein yet we concurre not with Arminius Wee deny that Omnis paena habet Deum authorem It is true that Paena positiva not of all punishment that consists in privation such as sinne is For Malum as Austin long agoe pronounced non habet causam efficientem but deficientem Yet we confesse that God could keep any man from any sinne but if he will not this is not sufficient to make him the author of it It is only a culpable defect that makes one the author of sinne that is when he failes of doing that which he ought to doe But God is bound to none to preserve him from sinne any otherwise then his own free will doth
the Scripture And the reason hereof is because the word of God consists not in the outward barke or bone of the letter but in the inward pith and marrow of the meaning And as for contradiction unto Scripture in terminis it may easily be proved that to deny Gods delight in the destruction of obstinate sinners is to contradict a very pregnant place of Holy Scripture as namely Prov. 1. 24 25 26. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at naught all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I will also laugh at your calamity I will mock when your feare cometh when your feare cometh as desolation and your destruction as a Whirlewind And yet never a whit the more is any contradiction found in Scripture for this because though they contradict each the other in terminis yet there is no contradiction if we consider the true meaning As for example it is both true that the Father is greater then the Sonne as touching the Sonnes Manhood And the Sonne equall to the Father as touching his Godhead So of repentance it cannot be attributed to God as it signifies change of mind or counsell but it may be attributed unto God as it signifies change of sentence according to that of Gregory Deus mutat sententiam consilium nunquam So as touching Gods pleasure or delight in the death of a sinner as it is the destruction of the creature he delighteth not in it but as it is a just punishment of the impenitent creature he delights therein Thus Piscator reconciles it on Ezech. 18. v. 23 32. Surely God delights in the execution of justice as well as in the execution of mercy as Jer. 9. 24. I am the Lord which exerciseth loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. 2. Here first the Author declines from the former phrase of having no pleasure in the death of a sinner to not willing the death of a sinner which phrases have no small difference as Piscator observes upon that in Ezech. 33. 11. for saith he potest homo velle id quo non delectatur ut aegrotus potest velle potum amarum quo non delectatur potest enim eum velle non perse sed propter aliud nempe ad recuper andam valetudinem And to deny that God willeth the death of as many as dye is in terminis to contradict a pregnant place of Scripture as where it is said that God worketh all things according to the counsell of his will Ephes 1. 11. And therefore seeing the inflicting of death is Gods work he must will it But this Author is more happy for invention then his fellowes For whereas others of his opinion work upon the place as it is rendred in the vulgar Latine Nolo mortem peccatoris this Author hath found out an argument from the very phrase of our last English translation to advantage his cause as when from Gods having no pleasure in the death of a sinner he quaintly inferres therefore God doth not of meer pleasure will or decree their death But how superficiary this is also and how fouly it falls in the issue upon the Author himselfe as usually it falleth out with men that affect new and quaint inventions I hope to discover in due place Farther observe that place Ezech. 33. 11. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked according to our last English translation and that Ezech. 18. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye doe differently render one and the same phrase in the Hebrew in the death of the wicked Ezech. 33. 11. which is word for word according to the Hebrew that the wicked should dye Ezech. 18. 23. which being not according to the precise termes of the originall it followeth that hereby our Translators did expound the sense of the Hebrew which is word for word in the death of the wicked and so accordingly that phrase Ezek. 18. 32. in the death of him that dieth importeth as much as this that he who dyeth should dye And as for Tertullian that which he alleadgeth out of him neither makes for him nor against us we all believe what the Prophet delivereth but we enquire about the sense of it But in the same place Tertullian interprets the place not absolutely but comparatively thus Vivo inquit Dominus paenitentiam malo quam mortem and indeed thus it is accommodated more then once in the Book of Common prayer as first in the generall absolution then in one of the Collects upon Good-Friday There is a double pleasure that God may be said to take in the one but a single pleasure only in the other For in the death of an impenitent sinner God delights only in the execution of justice but in the conversion of such a one that he may live God delights both in the execution of mercy which is equivalent to his delight taken in the execution of judgement and over and above he delights in their repentance For like as of such as fall from God it is said His soule hath no pleasure in them so of such as turne unto him it is as true that his soule hath pleasure in them 3. But give we him leave to enjoy the interpretation he affecteth yet consider I pray whether he doth not enjoy it tanquam Diis iratis and to his bane for marke I pray his argument and consider whether I doe not from the same argument most strongly conclude against him 1. His argument runnes thus If God delighteth not in the destruction of wicked men he did never out of his own pleasure take so many millions of men lying in the fall and seale them up by an absolute decree under invincible damnation Now from the rule of contraries I herehence dispute thus If this be a good consequence which he makes then on the contrary it followes that seeing God doth take pleasure and delight in mans eternall life as this Author expressely acknowledgeth therefore he did out of his own pleasure take so many million of men lying in the fall and seale them up by an absolute decree under invincible salvation Now this conclusion is as directly opposite unto him in the poynt of election as his conclusion is opposire to ours in the poynt of reprobation And my argument must be of the same force and validity with his because Contrariorum contraria est ratio Yet I will not content my selfe with this answere 2. Therefore consider I pray in the next place the true meaning of this phrase I have no pleasure in these places of the Prophet the Author himselfe though he doth not plainly professe what is the meaning of it as it became him to doe and not to depend upon colour of words suitable yet by his drift he manifests the meaning of it to be this that God doth not bring
must needs be because he cannot save them this was Austins argument 1200 years agoe Enchirid. cap. 96. and 97. handling this very place of the Apostle 3. If God did from everlasting will the salvation of all and every one then either at this day he doth continue to will the salvation of all and every one and shall continue for ever to will it or no if he doth continue to will it and ever shall then say that God doth will the salvation of the damned both Men and Divells albeit it is well known he damnes them If he doth not continue to will it then is God of a changeable nature directly contrary to the word of God as well as to manifest reason With him saith Iames is no variablenesse nor shadow of change I the Lord am not changed Mal. 3. 6. As for that which he thrusts in to help make weight saying that there is no let in God but that all men may believe and be saved this is a most improper speech for no man is said in proper speech to be let from doing ought but upon presupposition that he would doe it now we utterly deny that God hindreth any man from believing and repenting whose will is disposed to believe and repent But seeing all men have infidelity and hardnesse of heart naturall unto them as a fruit of that corruption wherein all are borne we deny that God câ—â—es it in all but only in whom he will according to that of Saint Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And our Saviour upon the same ground is bold to tell the Jewes saying Ye therefore heare not my words that is believe them not because ye are not of God 2. The first exposition here mentioned was given by Austin many hundred years agoe Enchirid. cap. 103. and he proves this his interpretation of the word all by the congruity of it to Scripture phrase in other places as where it is said of the Pharises that they tythe every herbe his words are these Iâ—to locutiâ—nis modo Dominus usus est in Evangelio ubi ait Phariseis Decimatis mentham rutam omne olus neque enim Pharisei quaecunque aliena omnium per omnes terras alienigenarum omnium olera decimabant Sicut ergo hic omne olus omne olerum genus it a illic omnes homines omne hominum genus intelligere possumus yet see the ingenuity of this great light of the Church of God for forthwith he gives leave to devise any other convenient interpretation provided that we doe not violate Gods omnipotency by saying that any thing that God would have brought to passe is not brought to passe his words are these Et quocunque alio modo intelligi potest dum tamen credere no cogamur aliquid omnipotentem Deum noluisse fieri factumque non esse qui sine ullis ambagibus si in caelo terra sicut veritas cantat omnia quaecunque voluit fecit profecto facere noluit quaecunque non fecit This interpretation is generally received by our Divines because of the congruity thereof to the Text it selfe for as much as the Apostle having first admonished them in the generall to pray for all forthwith he descends to specialls as Vossius acknowledgeth Generi speciem subjicit now look in what sort the Species is to be understood after the same manner is the Generall to be understood Now the Specialls mentioned are certain sorts or conditions of men as Kings and such as are in authority therefore the generall all must in like manner be understood of all sorts and all conditions of men upon this consideration also it was that Austin did insist in the place before alleadged Praeceperat saith he Apostolus ut or aretur pro singulis hominibus specialiter addiderat pro Regibus iis qui in sublimitate sunt qui putari poterant fastu superbia seculari a fidei Christianae humilitate abhorrere Proinde dicens hoc enim bonum est coram salvatore nostro Deo id est ut etiam pro talibus oretur statim ut desperationem tolleret addit qui omnes homines vult salves fieri in agnitionem veritatis venire Hoc quippe Deus bonum judicavit ut orationibus humilium dignaretur praestare salutem sublimium Now I come to consider what this Author hath to say against this exposition for he gives us very gravely to understand that it gives him little satisfaction we are therefore to expect some better satisfaction from him It is true that all is so used in Scripture not only some times but very frequently let him come to instance in his sense we are ready to instance with him for ours But the Text saith he shewes we are to understand the individualls and not the kindes Where first I doubt his ignorance in understanding the distinction aright is his best ground of opposition When Austin urgeth for his interpretation that of the Pharises tything omne olus every hearb who doubts but they tythe Individuall hearbs In like sort when Peter saw in a vessell let down unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every foure footed beast no question but Individuall beasts were let down unto him not every one of every kind but of every kind or of most kinds or of many kinds some so that the meaning of the distinction is not to exclude all individualls as this Author seems to carry the matter but only to exclude a necessity of understanding all individualls of all sorts It is enough if God will save some of all sorts that is of all conditions some individualls Then seeing he undertakes out of the very Text to give us better satisfaction then either Austin or our Divines have hitherto received it must needs be a shame for him to leave the present Text and fetch grounds elsewhere for the clearing of Pauls meaning here Now let us observe how congruously or incongruously to his own undertakings he carryeth himselfe in this businesse of the duty enjoyned and of the motive annexed there is no question but whereas he shapes the coherence thus and makes Paul in effect to speak after this manner our charity must reach to all to whom God extends his love to God will have all to be saved and therefore we must pray for all Though all this were granted him it makes nothing for him but over and above here are causelesse errours more then enough For first our charity must extend farther then Gods love was not Jacob bound to carry himselfe charitably towards his brother Esau though Gods hatred of Esau we know was as ancient as his love to Iacob 2. We are not bound to extend our charity so far as God extends his love for many thousands there be in the World not to speak of the Elect departed this life towards whom it may be God extends his love which yet are unknown to us are we bound to
sinne so he never decreed to damne any man but for sinne But as touching the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance in the granting and denying of this the Apostle plainly tells us he proceeds meerly according to the good pleasure of his will as when he saith The Lord hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And here also God is as just in his decrees as in his executions For if it be just with him to give this grace to whom he will and deny it to whom he will it is as just with him to decree the giving of it to whom he will and the denying of it also to whom he will And why shall not the Lord take liberty to cure infidelity and hardnesse of heart in whom he will as he cured it in Manasses and Saul and leave it uncured in whom he will as he left it uncured in many a proud Pharisee and proud Philosopher notwithstanding all their Morality they boasted of Very seasonably he confesseth Gods will to be omnipotent and irrefistible when neverthelesse he makes him to will the salvation of all Reprobates though not one of them is saved But by that which followes by will omnipotent and irrefistible it seems he understandeth only will absolute which he distinguisheth from will conditionate which can be no other I suppose then this my will is that all and every one shall be saved in case he believe and repent Now seeing it is as true that 't is Gods will that they shall be damned in case they believe not and repent not let every sober man judge whether this deserve to be accounted a will of saving rather then a will of damning especially in case all men naturally are farre more prone to infidelity and impenitency then to faith and repentance As for a will conditionate in God like enough this Author carryeth it hand over head without distinction as he doth many other things besides whereas no such will is agreeable to the divine nature quoad actum volentis as touching the act of willing as both Bradwardine by clear reason and Piscator out of the word of God have demonstrated but only quoad res volitas as touching the things willed by him 4. I have shewed the poverty of his performances by the particular examination of every place alleadged by him and made it plain how he betraies his own nakednesse of interpretation of Scripture and of argumentation throughout and therewithall the vanity of this his boast that our doctrine of absolute reprobation doth contradict these plain Scriptures But he like a brave fellow well conceited of his atchievements and having thereby gotten some authority to himselfe is bold to give his word that it contradicts also the whole course of Scripture which I verily believe he is as well able to performe as he hath performed the former and very judiciously takes upon him to distinguish between the whole course of Scriptures and a few places pickt up here and there as if they were no part of the whole course of Scripture Belike by reason of their obscurity as he pretends no matter if they were expunged like as owles are offended with day-light Our Saviour tells us of some that loved darknesse rather then light because their deeds were evill None hate the light of Gods truth more then such as are possessed with errours as with familiar spirits especially when they have been found to play the Apostates from Gods truth Whether I have dashed my selfe upon the rocks of Austins censure by contradicting any Scripture that he hath brought or only his corrupt and vile interpretation and accommodation of them let the indifferent judge Yet what more plain then this Gods purpose of election is not of works especially compared with the manner how Saint Paul proves it What more plain then this God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth It is apparent he utterly declines the criticall point of these controversies which is as touching Gods giving grace even the grace of faith and repentance and of what spirit that savoureth let every one judge As for interpreting any place we doe not abridge his liberty in interpreting it after what manner he thinks good but we are ready to weigh it and if we find it too light to esteem of it as it deserves neither doe we refuse to take into consideration what he or any of his complices are pleased to insist upon DISCOURSE The Second sort of Arguments Convincing drawn from Gods Attributes SECT I. As touching the Generall SEcondly it fights with some principall Attributes of God therefore it cannot be true For God useth not to make decrees contrary to his own glorious nature and incompatible with those excellent Attributes by which he hath discovered part of himselfe to men Two things are here to be premised 1. That Gods chief Attributes are those perfections in the manifestation of which by acts conformable to them God is most glorified which are Mercy Justice Truth c. For God is more honoured by the exercise of these amongst men then by the putting forth of his unlimited power and Soveraignty as a King is more renowned among his Subjects for his clemency equity candid and faire dealing then for his Dominion and Authority or any thing that is done only for the manifestation thereof And there is good reason for it For 1. Power is no vertue but mercy justice and truth are acts of power are not Morally good of themselves but are made good or evill by their concomitants if they be accompanied with justice mercy c. they are good if otherwise they are naught For justum oportet esse quod laudem meretur 2. Power and Soveraignty may as well be shewed in barbarous and unjust actions as in their contraries Saul shewed his authority and power to the full in slaying the Lords Priests and Nebuchadnezzar in casting the three Children into the fiery furnace and Daniell into the Lyons Denne but no mercy nor justice nor any thing else that was good 2. The second thing that is to be preconsidered is that justice mercy and truth in God are the same in nature with those vertues in men though infinitely different in degree as light in the aire is the same with light in the Sunne in nature not in degrees and that which is just mercifull and upright in men is so in God too And by these vertues in our selves and such acts as are conformable to them tanquam ex pede Herculem we may safely measure the same in God For otherwise these things would follow 1. The common and received distinction of Divine Attributes into communicable and incommunicable would fall to the ground for against it this night be said that the mercy justice truth and other vertues that are in us are not Gods perfections in a lower degree communicated to us but things of a different nature 2. Men cannot be truly said to
that believeth and it is most true that in like manner Christ hath procured the salvation of every one that believes so that here is a truth to feed upon and they that oppose it are strengthned in their vaine confidence by a meere mist of confusion which they raise unto themselves and others that so they may set the better face upon that lye which they hold in their right hand wherewith they are so enamoured that they had rather forsake their own mercies then forgoe it And so I come to the third and last reason in generall drawn from Gods justice DISCOURSE SUBSECT III. THe third reason why absolute Reprobation infringeth Gods justice is because it will have him to punish men for the omission of an act which is made impossible unto them by his own decree not by that decree alone whereby he determined to give them no power to believe having lost it but by that decree also by which he purposeth that we should partake with Adam in his sinne and be stripped of all that supernaturall power which we had by Gods free grant bestowed upon us in Adam before the fall These are my reasons which move me to think that this absolute decree is repugnant to Gods justice TWISSE Consideration I Have already shewed how Gods decree and impossibility arising upon supposition thereof doth no way prejudice the liberty of the creature as by pregnant passages of the Scripture is made plaine unto us And as for the other decree here spoken of First it is untrue which he supposeth that God by a speciall decree decreed all mankind to be made partakers of Adams sinne and therein to be stripped of all supernaturall power which before the had by Gods free grant For if it were just with God to decree that Adams nature upon his sinning should be bereaved of all supernaturall power which formerly he enjoyed this and this alone should suffice to bereave all his posterity of supernaturall power to doe that which is good For seeing all his posterity did receive their natures from Adam after his fall they must therewithall necessarily receive their natures from him bereaved of all supernaturall power unto that which is good untill such time as God be pleased of his free grace to restore it by regeneration 2. Is it not good reason that God for Adams sinne should bereave us of all supernaturall power in Adam as of his meere grace he did adorne us all with supernaturall power in Adam 3. Notwithstanding this depravation of supernaturall power in Adam yet we acknowledge that neverthelesse whatsoever sinne a man commits he committeth freely and the Schoole hath taught it before us Aquin. p. 1. q. 23. art 3. ad 3. licet aliquis non possit gratiam adipisci qui reprobatur a Deo tamen quòd in hoc peccatum vel illud labatur ex ejus libero arbitrio contingit undè merito sibi imputatur in culpam DISCOURSE SUBSECT IV. TWo things are usually answered First that there are many things delivered for truths in Scripture among which this is one which are above the reach of humane capacity and therefore are we quietly to submit as to other revealed truths so to this and not to be so bold as to examine the justice of this decree or any thing else in it by our shallow and erring understandings But this answer takes not away the arguments for I have these things to reply 1. That though there be diverse things revealed in Gods word which are above reason viz. That there are three Persons and one God and that Christ was borne of a Virgin that the world was made of nothing that the dead shall be raised c. to all which we must captivate our understandings and yeeld a firme assent propter authoritatem dicentis yet there is nothing revealed therein abhorring from and odious to sound and right reason for it cannot be that the most excellent gifts of God Faith and Reason Nature and Scripture should overthrow one another and that the wise God who is the fountain of all right reason should discover any thing to us in his word or enjoyne us any thing to be believed which is vere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly and properly unreasonable Our faith is an act of our service of God and Gods service is cultus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable service Rom. 12. 2. and Gods word is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milk reasonable and without guile they are so called no doubt to shew that there is a sweet harmony between faith and reason things revealed and mens understandings though there be a disproportion yet there is no contradiction between them 2. That therefore all those Doctrines which are adverse and repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles are not to be taken for doctrines of Scripture but devices of men corrupting Scripture by false glosses and interpretations and consequently that this absolute reprobation of so many millions of miserable men out of Gods only will and pleasure because it is most irkesome to the eares and understandings of all sorts of men best and worst that stand indifferent to the entertainment of any truths that may appeare to be so is no doctrine of the Text no part of the word of God 3. That howbeit some things in Scripture which are peculiar to the Gospell are above our understandings and must without hesitation be believed yet there are many things there which have their foundation in nature and may be apprehended by the light of nature and demonstrated by reason and among these things the justice of Gods waies is one as I have shewed before out of Isaiah 5. 3. and Ezek. 18. and it is but a meer evasion when the absolute decree is proved by sound reasons to be unjust to say reason is blind and must not be judge but the Scripture only for God offers the justice of his waies to the tryall of reason TWISSE Consideration THis Author seems to swell in the conceit of his rationall performances as if never any fly sitting upon a cart-wheele in a Sommers day had made such a dust as he had made And fashioning to himselfe a victorious conquest as if all his adversaries were but Pigmies to this Anakim glad to runne into corners or into Acorn-cups to hide themselves there For his reasons like some hobgoblins doe so fright them more then all the spirits that stand by the naked man in the book of Moones And therefore all the help they have if we believe this Pyrgopolinices is to charme them by saying that many things are delivered in Scripture which are above the reach of humane capacity among which this is one c. And I take this to be sound For otherwise why should the Doctrine of Godlinesse be called a mystery of Godlinesse And the Schooles teach that Fides est assensus inevidens and Cajetan who was no gras-hopper as great an Anakim as this Author or
his familiar spirit takes himselfe to be spares not to professe that about the reconciling of Gods predestination with the liberty of mans will a poynt that comes so neere to this in hand as a poynt can doe there are many distinctions devised by the learned but yet he saith of them that they did not qutetare intellectum and therefore that he did captivare suum in obsequium fidei and Alvarez no dwarfe neither in Scholasticall that is rationall Divinity addeth that herein Cajetan piissimè doctissimè loquitur But who they are that have taken notice of those arguments here specified and at the sight of them were so ston'd as at the sight of some Medusas head and thereupon came to this course of incantation or pacification he doth very wisely conceale and like a man of authority puts it upon us to take it upon his word Yet I doe not remember that I have rested my selfe upon any such course though the holy Apostle thinks it sufficient to cleare any course of God from injustice by proving that Scripture doth attribute such a course unto God as I have shewed out of Rom. 9. 14. It is true the spirit which this Author breaths is the right Pelagian spirit according to the Pelagians in Bradwardines daies for their vaunt was that they could not be refuted by any reason Philosophicall but only by certain naked authorities Theologicall as I have heard of a Schollar sometimes challenged by a friend and kinsman of his for being given as he heard to the Arminian Tenet made a ready answer with protestation that that opinion was very plausible but that S t Paul was against it And therefore Bradwardine undertakes to confute them by reason Philosophicall so farre off was he from being cowed with their vain boasts and braggs His words are these Sicut antiqui Pelagiani ventoso nomine secularium scientiarum inflati consistorium Theologicum contemnentes Philosophicum flagitabant ita moderni Audivi namque quosdam advocatos Pelagii licet multum provectos in sacris apicibus affirmantes Pelagium nusquam potuisse convinci per naturalem Philosophicam rationem sed vix arguebatur utcunque per quasdam authoritates Theologicas maxime autem per authoritatem Ecclesiae quae Satrapis non placebat Quapr opter per rationes authoritates Philosophicas ipsos disposui reformare And for my part though I affect not in those poynts to goe beyond Scripture and Christian reason yet I am content to be led whethersoever my adversary thinks good to lead me And as a Schollar of my acquaintance being left handed and accordingly casting his cloake over the right shoulder was answered by a Cittizen observing it when he enquired his way saying when you shall come to such a place you must turne on your right hand meaning indeed on the left so likewise I am nothing afraid of this mans Philosophy nor his Abettors neither nothing doubting but as many as I find opposing this divine truth which we maintain their best dexterity in Philosophicall and rationall discourse will prove but a left handed Philosophy and in this very field of argumentation I purpose to lay upon him ere we part But let us first consider the things that he replies 1. He saith There is nothing in Scripture abhorring from sound and right reason he addes Odious too as if his Philosophy had taught him that it is the part of reason to hate and not rather of affections This rule when we were initiates in the University we were soon acquainted with Yet this Author to vent his fulnesse casts himselfe upon an unnecessary proofe thereof and the mischiefe is that his proofe maketh his cause worse then it was before For having formerly made the comparison between the word of God and sound and right reason in his reason he states the comparison between faith and reason nature and Scripture not distinguishing between nature corrupt and uncorrupt reason corrupt and uncorrupt Our service of God is reasonable in as much as it is performed by reasonable creatures and the rule thereof is not naturall reason but meerely the word of God In whom was naturall reason more eminent then in Philosophers Yet were they wont to be called Haereticorum Patriarchae and the Apostle hath professe of all such that the things of God seem foolishnesse unto them 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now I pray consider soberly how reasonable such courses are judged to be which are accounted foolishnesse and what a sweet harmony there is between things revealed and mens understandings and whether reasonable and foolish be not a plain contradiction as well as wise and foolish If we enjoy a more pure and refined reason then they let us give illumination Divine the glory of it and say with him in Job verily there is a spirit in man but the illumination of the Almighty giveth understanding And seeing the word of God is the only means of Divine illumination let us thank Gods word for all I come to the second Materiall of his reply 2. And that is this that all those Doctrine which are adâ—erse and repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles are not to be taken for Doctrines of Scripture but devices of men corrupting Scripture by false glosses and interpretations No marvaile that when men oppose the misteries of Godlinesse they fall upon the mysteries of iniquity Here we have a rule given to try whether a Doctrine proposed be to be taken for a Doctrine of Scripture yea or no And mark it well I beseech you and I desire that every sober man will mark it well and judge whether it deserve not to be numbred amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depths of Satan And withall judge whether the pretended Author of this discourse can in any probability be the Author of this and whether it becomes not rather some old beaten Souldier in Arminianisme that takes upon him to be the Master and Dictator of Sentences About Regula fidei the rule of Faith there is much question between us and Papists the meaning whereof is what that is whereinto must be made the last resolution of our Faith We say it is the word of God contained in the Books of the Old Testament and the New Papists say it is the voyce of the Church This Author deviseth a new way which I think was never heard off before except among the Socinians namely that it is the judgement of understandings purged from prejudice and false Principles For albeit the Doctrine of Faith we judge to be contained no where but in Gods word yet notwithstanding as touching the meaning of it nothing must be taken to be the true meaning of Scripture how fairely soever grounded thereupon in shew unlesse withall it seem nothing repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles Into this therefore must be made the last resolution of our faith Again where shall we meet with these judges as they are here
understandings purged from prejudice and false principles 5. My fifth argument is this If sinne be the cause of Reprobation that is of the decree of damnation then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God not by necessity of nature as all that hitherto I have known confesse But I say neither can it be by the free constitution of God for mark what a notorious absurdity followeth hence and that unavoidably namely that God did ordaine that upon foresight of sinne he would ordaine them to damnation marke it well God did ordaine that he would ordaine or God did decree that he would decree In which words Gods eternall decree is made the object of Gods decree Whereas it is well known that the objects of Gods decrees are meerely things temporall and cannot be things eternall we truly say God did decree to create the World to preserve the World to redeeme us call us justify us sanctify and save us but it cannot be truly said that God did decree to decree or ordaine to ordaine for to decree is the act of Gods will and therefore it cannot be the object of the act of Gods will Yet these arguments I am not so enamoured with as to force the interpretations of Scripture to such a sense as is sutable hereunto presuming of the purity of my understanding as purged from prejudice and false principles I could willingly content my selfe with observation of the Apostles discourse in arguing to this effect Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God according to election stands not of works In like manner may I discourse Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God concerning Reprobation stands not of works And like as hence it is inferred that therefore election stands not of good works so therehence may I inferre that therefore reprobation stands not of evill works 6. If sinne foreseen be the cause meritorious of reprobation then faith and repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto election For therefore evill works foreseen are made the meritorious cause of reprobation because evill works exsistent are the meritorious cause of damnation And if this be true then also because Faith and Repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto salvation then by the same force of reason faith repentance and good workes foreseen must be the disposing cause unto election But faith repentance and good workes foreseen are not the disposing causes unto election as I prove thus 1. If they were then the purpose of God according to election should be of faith repentance and good works which is expressely denyed by the Apostle as touching the last part and may as evidently be proved to be denied by him in effect of the other parts also by the same force of argumentation which he useth as for example from this anticedent of the Apostles before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it no more evidently followeth that therefore the purpose of God according to election is not of workes than it followeth that the same purpose of God according to election is not of faith nor of repentance For before they were borne they were no more capable of faith or of repentance than of any other good works And undoubtedly faith and repentance are as good works as any other 2. If God doth absolutely work faith in some and not in others according to the meer pleasure of his will then it cannot be said that faith foreseen is the cause of any mans election For in this case faith is rather the means of salvation then salvation a means of faith and consequently the intention of salvation rather precedes the intention of faith than the intention of faith can be said to precede the intention of salvation And to this the Scripture accords Acts 1348. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life making ordination to everlasting life the cause why men believed answerable hereunto is that Acts 2. last God added daily to the Church such as should be saved and that of Paul to Titus according to the faith of Gods elect So that according to Pauls phrase fides est electorum but according to the Arminians Doctrine the inverse hereof is a more proper and naturall predication as to say electio est fidelium But God doth absolutely work faith in some men according to the meer pleasure of his will denying the same grace to others which I prove 1. By Scripture Rom. 9. 18. God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth compared with Rom. 11. 30. Yee in times past have not believed but now have obtained mercy where it appears by the Antithesis that to find mercy is to believe that is to obtain the grace of faith at the hands of God in Saint Pauls phrase 2. By cleare reason for if it be not the meer pleasure of Gods will that is the cause hereof then the cause hereof must be some good workes which he finds in some and not in others whence it manifestly followeth that God giveth grace according unto works which in the phrase of the ancients is according to merits and for 1200 years together this hath been reputed in the Church of God meere Pelagianisme 2. I further demand what that good worke is whereupon God workes it in one when he refuseth to worke it in another Here the answer I find given is this that God doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle credere modo velit Now of the absurdity hereof I appeale to the very light of nature and let all the books that ever were written on this argument be searched and let it be enquired whether ever any did expresse themselves in the manner of so palpable and grosse absurdity as wherein the act of willing is made the condition of it selfe whence it followeth evidently that it must be both before it selfe and after it selfe for the condition must allwaies exsist before the thing conditionated Yet they are driven upon these rocks of absurdities in spight of their teeth so shamefull is the issue of their discourses who in hatred of Gods truth revealed in Gods word and in a proud conceit of their own performances in the way of argumentation dare prescribe rules to all others how to carry themselves in the interpretation of Scriptures as namely to be so warie as that they doe not deliver any thing repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles as if the word of God supposed them that are admitted to the studying thereof to have their understandings already purged from prejudice and false principles not that it is given by God for this very end namely to purge our understandings for what is the illumination or opening of the eyes of the mind other than the purging of
prduce a vitall act hath life in him and consequently whosoever hath power to produce any act of the life of grace hath the life of grace in him But the acts of faith and repentance are the acts of the life of grace therefore whosoever hath power to produce these hath in him the life of grace But this is not true of all for the Scripture testifies of some that they are dead in sinne Ephes 2. 1. Are strangers from the life of God Ephes 4. 18. Againe then all should be regenerated but that is untrue for regeneration is signified Psal 19. in Scripture to be wrought by the word of God 1 Peter 1. 23. Iam. 1. 17. But all have not the word of God 4. If a man hath power to believe and repent then the reason why a man doth not believe and repent is not because he cannot but because he will not so that in the issue it comes to this that a man may believe if he will repent if he will But such a power is not grace but nature rather as appears by Austin l. 1. de Gtnesi contra Manich. cap. 3. where he professeth that omnes possunt credere si velint now compare this with that he hath in the same place where though he saith that omnes credere possint si velint yet posse credere simply taken ariseth meerely out of the gift of charity which he professeth to be gratiae fidelium de praedest Sanct. c. 5. But there he professeth that posse habere fidem is naturae hominum the very naturall condition of all men I farther prove it by reason thus Look by what power I can believe if I will by the same power I can refuse to believe if I will Now such a power is no other then whereby a man is indifferent to doe good or evill but such a condition is not grace for grace is goodnesse now goodnesse doth not dispose any either to good or evill indifferently but precisely to that which is good like as naughtinesse disposeth a man only to that which is evill He sleepes so sweetly upon his Arminian pillow that his very dreames make him confident of the evidence of his deductions And he gives reasons for it and that of most force for conviction namely the confession of his adversaries the maintainers of absolute reprobation for even they he saith doe not deny this but ascribe unto God sanctam simulationem duplicem personam duplicem voluntatem But he names none content to sing to himself his Muses throughout when he relats what our sides answer to his profound discourses And I commend his wisdome more then his honesty in this for if he had quoted his Authors herein it may be something might have bin discovered that would be little pleasing unto him yet herein he confounds things much different for as for a double will ascribed unto God all the Learned doe acknowledge so much and the Scriptures testify it as namely that his decree is called the will of God as what the Lord willeth that hath he done both in heaven and in earth and who hath resisted his will as also that Gods commandement is called usually the will of God as This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one should know how to possesse his vessell in holinesse and honour and not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles doe which know not God 1 Thes 4. 4 5. as for duplicem personam that is a phrase which I never read before yet the phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually in the Holy Scripture as when God takes unto him both the members of a mans body and the passions of his mind and so speakes in the way of condescension to our infirmities as to put upon himselfe the person of a man and this is undenyable by all that are not Anthropomorphites And as touching our blessed Saviour we acknowledge in him duplicem naturam a double nature though not duplicem personam a double person and accordingly sometimes he both speakes of himselfe and is spoken of as touching the nature of his God-head and sometimes as touching the nature of his Man-hood As for the first that alone is materiall to his present purpose namely as touching Sancta Simulatio ascribed unto God by our Divines Now it were worth the while to know who is his Author in this and that of the passages alleadged by this Author doth professe that they doe represent in God an holy kind of simulation How could he exspect that this should give any satisfaction seeing he conceales the Author of it And what reader would not be moved with a very greedy desire to know the Author of such an interpretation of the passages alleadged by this Divine that he might consider whether it be rightly alleadged or no and if rightly with what sobriety they deliver it Now I remember well to have read in Piscator that the Scripture attributes in a certaine place Simulation unto Christ not in any passage of this nature wee treat of as namely Luke 24. 28. Where it is said he made as though hee would goe farther like enough to irritate their devotions and to provoke their zealous desire so much the more to retaine him a little longer And I willingly professe not the Simulation but the Dissimulation of this Author in this case hath stirred up a desire in me to be satiâ—fied as touching the Author of this Sancta Simulatio Now I find in Piscator his answer to Vorstius his Parascâ—uen the first part pag. 29. both that place of simulation attributed unto Christ out of Luke 24. 28. And also how that in the examples of Gods messages sent to Hezekiah that he should dye and not live And to the Ninevites by Jonah Yet forty daies and Nineve shall be destroyed his opinion is that therein God doth signify care se velle quod non vult His words are these Adhaec etsi Deus interdum significet se velle quod non vult non tamen propterea hypocriseos insimulandus est for this Vorstius objected unto him Sed potius sapientia ejus agnoscenda in hominibus ad serias preces seriam poenitentiam adducendis ut liquet in exemplo Begis Ezekiae recuperantis sanitatem Ninivitarum conservatorum and whereas Vorstius laies to his charge that in saying God commands one thing and purposeth another he doth impute unto God Hypocrisy which is the very substance of this Authors answere in this place See I pray how he answers it without attributing any holy simulation at all unto God in this case Ad praecepta vero quod attinet non statim sequitur Deum agere Hipocritam si quid praecipiat quod fieri nolit etenim hypocritam is demum agit qui simulat pietatem quâ caret Sane quicquid praecipit Deus id vult voluntare approbante si fiat nisi interveniat praeceptum contrarium ut factum est in
like as none were more opposite to the Epicures then they so none were more religious and devout among the Heathens then they Yet there is no opinion so true or good but by a prophane heart may be abused But as for the efficacy of Gods will we are so farre from maintaining that it takes away either the liberty of mans will or the contingency of second causes that we professe with Aquinas that the root of all contingency is the efficacious will of God and with the Authors of the Articles of the Church of Ireland Artic. 11. That God did from all eternity ordaine whatsoever in time should come to passe and yet neither the liberty nor the contingency of second causes is thereby destroyed but established rather DISCOURSE The Fift and last sort of Reasons It is an Enimy to True Comfort SECT I. I Am come to my last reason against it drawn from the Vncomfortablenesse of it It is a doctrine full of desperation both to them that stand and to them that are fallen to men out of temptation and in it It 1. Leads men into temptation 2. Leaves men in it And therefore it is no part of Gods word for that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good newes to men a store-house of sweet consolations for them that stand and such as are fallen These things are written saith the Apostle Rom. 15. 4. That by patience and consolation of the Scriptures we might have hope implying that therefore was the word written and left to the Church that by the comforts contained in it those poore soules that look towards heaven might never want in any changes or chances of this mortall life a sweet gale of hope to refresh them and carry on their ship full merrily towards the Haven It leads men into temptation and into such a one too as is as sharpe and dangerous as any the tempter hath The Devill can easily perswade any man that makes absolute reprobation a part of his creed that he is one of those absolute Reprobates because there are more absolute Reprobates even an hundred for one then absolute chosen ones and a man hath a great deale more reason to think that he is one of the most then one of the least one of the huge multitude of inevitable castawaies then one of the little flock for whom God hath absolutely prepared a Kingdome Such a man is not only capable of but framed and fashioned by his opinion for this suggestion which is a very sore one if we may believe Calvin Bucer and Zanchius Calvin tells us Quod nulla tentatione vel gravius vel periculosius fideles percellit Satan that the Devill cannot assault a believer with a temptation more dangerous And a little after he saith It is so much the deadlier by how much commoner it is then any other Rarissimus est cujus non interdum animus hac cogitatione feriatur unde tibi salus nisi ex Dei electione Electionis autem quae tibi revelatio Quae si apud quempiam semel invaluit aut diris tormentis miserum perpetuo exeruciat aut reddit penitus attonitum So ordinary is the temptation that he who is at all times free from it is a rare man we are to conceive that he speakes of those that believe absolute reprobation and so dangerous it is that if it get strength he which is under it is either miserably tormented or mightily astonished And a little after this he saith againe Ergo si naufragium timemus sollicité ab hoc scopulo cavendum in quem nunquam sine exitio impingitur He that will not wrack his soule must keep from this rock Bucer also hath a passage like to this Vt caput omnis noxiae tentationis saith he repellenda est quaestio sumusnè praedestinati Nam qui de hoc dubitat nec vocatumse nec justificatum esse credere poterit hoc est nequit esse Christianus This doubt whether we are predestinated or no Must be repelled as the head of every pernitious temptation for he that doubts of this cannot be a Christian Praesumendum igitur ut principium fidei nos omnes esse a Deo praescitos Every man therefore must presume it as a principle of faith that he is elected This very speech of Bucers Zanchy makes use of to the same purpose We see then by the restimony of these worthy men that this temptation is very dangerous and ordinary too to such as think there are absolute reprobates The truth of both will farther appeare by the example of Petrus Hosuanus a Schoolemaster in Hungary who intending to hang himselfe signified in a letter which he left in his study for the satisfaction of his friends and Countrymen the cause of it in that writing he delivered these three things 1. That he was of Calvins and S. Austins opinion that men are not dealt withall secundum bona or mala opera according to their works good or evill but that there are occultiores causae more hidden causes of mens eternall condition 2. That he was one of that woefull company of absolute castawaies Vas formatum in ignominiam a vessell prepared to dishonour and that therefore though his life had been none of the worst he could not possibly be saved 3. That being unable to beare the dreadfull apprehensions of wrath with which he was affrighted he hanged himselfe For these are some of his last words there recorded Discedo igitur ad Lacus Infernales aeternum dedecus patriae meae Deo vos commendo cujus misericordia mihi negata est I goe to those infernall lakes a perpetuall reproach to my Country commending you to God whose mercy is denyed mee Out of this example we may easily collect two things 1. That men who think that there are many whom God hath utterly rejected out of his only will and pleasure may be easily brought to think by Satans suggestion that they are of that company And 2. That this temptation is very dangerous I conclude therefore the first part of my last Reason that absolute Reprobation leads men into temptation TWISSE Consideration AS I remember when this Author first had resort unto some prime stickler for the Arminian way to conferre with him there about it was told me that this Authour should alledge that our doctrine of election was a comfortable doctrine but then on the other side it was alledged that granting that yet with all it did expose to dessolutenes of life And therefore I little expect any such argument as this to be proposed least of all to be ranged amonst the nūber of those that are taken to be of a convincing nature Yet is it the lesse strange because the Apostle telleth us of some that their course is proficere in pejus to growe worse and worse But let us consider whether he speeds any better in this then in the former And whereas he saith It is a doctrine full of desperation both to them that stand
be tormented Againe the obedience of Christ in generall is of a meritorious nature even meritorious of everlasting life Now if Christ hath merited everlasting life for all and every one how comes it that all and every one doe not enjoy Everlasting Life Shall not God the Father deale with his owne Sonne according to the exigency of his merits whether it be that they are so meritorious in their owne nature or by the constitution of God either meerely or joyntly with the dignity of their nature in reference to the dignity of the person who performed them as being not only man but God even the eternall Son of God one the same God with his Father Blessed for ever Now it can be made good that all sins of all men are fully satisfied for by the death of Christ that Christ hath merited in better manner Everlasting Life for all every one then they could have done for themselves although they had passed the whole course of their lives as free from sinne as the very elect Angells this I confesse is a comfortable doctrine with a witnesse though God leave men to themselves and to the power of their owne free wills to doe what they list And I see noe reason but that in the midst of all Ryot and excesse they may be as confident of their Salvation as if they had all faith as of certaine Lutherans it is written as I saw in a letter of an English Divine writen from Rome I make no question but their answer will be that albeit Christ hath thus satisfied for all sinnes of all and every one and merited Eternall Life for all and every one yet the benefit of his merits and satisfaction by Gods Ordinance shall redound to none but such as believe and repent and persevere therein unto death And what comfort can herehence arise to an afflicted soule unlesse she doe believe and repent If she doe believe and repent our Doctrine gives assurance to such of their election the Arminian doth not Here I presume they will say that every one may believe if he will repent if he will and may they not as well say that every soule afflicted with despaire may leave of to despaire if they will and consequently leave of to be afflicted if they will And I confesse this way of consolation hath a very short cut if the afflicted soul would harken unto them Especially considering that I doe not find that in these their discourses they take any notice of any sinne to hinder this no not so much as of the sinne against the Holy Ghost or of that sinne which S t John calleth a sinne unto death But I doe much doubt whether this were the manner of comfort which the Prophet Esay thought himselfe enabled for by Gods grace when he sayd The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the Learned that I should know how to speake a word in season to him that is weary he wakeneth Morning by Morning he wakeneth mine eare to heare as the learned Wherefore let me make bold in behalfe of the Patient to move unto you a question Doth not the Scripture teach us that faith is the gift of God that repentance is the gift of God Act 11. 18. 2 Tim 2. 25 How then is it possible for me to believe and repent unlesse God give me the grace of faith and repentance I presume you will answer that God gives faith and repentance first in as much as he gives all men power to believe and repent And secondly in as much as he concurres with them to the act of faith and repentance in case they will But I pray thee tell me is not the will to repent also the gift of God And if I have not as yet the will to repent how is it possible I should repent Can any man repent without a will to repent Is not repentance chiefly the charge of the will But you will say I suppose that even this will to repent God is ready to worke in me if I will repent But in case a man will repent what need hath he of any Divine assistance to cause in him this will to repent seeing he hath it already Lastly doth not God give a man a power to refuse to believe to refuse to repent if he will And is he not as ready to concurre with him to any sinfull act if he will and to worke the very will also of doing it in case he will And are not these then the gifts of God as well as others To conclude what think you of the gift of faith hath Christ merited it for us or no It seemes by your Doctrine he hath not as when you teach that albeit Christ hath satisfied for all merited Everlasting life for all yet the benefit of Christ obedience and death is by the ordinance of God applyable to none but such as have faith wherby it appears that you do not make faith to be any of those benefits which redound unto us by the obedience of Christ For though it be decent to say that salvation as a benefit procured by Christs obedience can redound to none but to such as believe yet it is very indecent to say that faith it selfe as a benefit of Christs death shall by the ordinance of God redound to none but to such as believe And indeed the Remonstrants now adaies doe openly professe that Christ merited faith for none And they are to be commended for dealing ingenuously and confessing that whereunto the Genius of their Tenet doth carry them Our Arminians deale not so plainly but as they pretend that faith and repentance are the gifts of God so they pretend that Christ merited them for us to wit he merited universall grace for all and every one whereby every man may believe if he will and repent if he will And how comfortable this particular is I have already shewed for it is as much as to say you may cease to despaire if you will you may cease to be afflicted if you will Secondly Christ merited that God should concurre to the working of faith and repentance in them provided that they would worke it in them selves Yea the very will to believe and repent God will worke in them modo velint So that still the resolution of all comfort is into a mans owne free-will For God gives not faith and repentance to whom he will or according to the meere pleasure of his will but rather according to mens workes And this direct Pelagianisme condemned so many hundred years agoe is that most comfortable doctrine of Christianity which our Arminians doe afford And this discourse as touching the universality of Christs death may be applyed also to the universality of Gods love which ends in this that all men shall be saved if they doe believe and that every man may believe if he will and that God is ready to worke faith and repentance in them provided that they will
born My answer was that it was spoken according to the judgment of man though indeed erroneous and that after this manner phraseologies of Scripture doe proceed I there shewed Now this Authour hereupon spared not to professe that if this were true he would turne Atheist I wisht that Friend of mine to whom he spake this to perswade him the next time he met with him to enquire and consider well whether Maldonat the Jesuite doth not imbrace the same interpretation And indeed if such protestations would carry it this Authour would prove a very potent and formidable adversary I have seen the like under his own hand namely this As Plutarch said of the old heathens who sacrificed men that they might pacifie their gods that it had been better with Diagoras to say There is no god then to think that God is such a one that delights in the blood of men And hereupon he adds this Protestation I protest unto you I think it less dishonourable to the blessed Trinity to say with the Atheist there is no god then to feigne such a God as the decree of Reprobation maintained by the Contraremonstrants maketh him to be This man I find is resorted unto and consulted with by the Arminians as if his judgment were an oracle and I willingly confesse he deserves to be in some great place unto them and no place in my judgmentmore fit then to be unto the à protestationibus Yet I doe not prescribe but leave it to their discretion to prefer him as they think good but how comes it to passe that here he is silent in reviving the reproaches he cast upō my answer to the Scripture before mentioned Is it because Maldonat the Jesuite hath been since found by him to embrace the same interpretation And he is loath to fall so foule in censuring such as he is Yet here he falls foul on me for professing my approbation not of Schoole-men but of Austin's discourse This makes me call to mind what was delivered of him sometimes by a London Minister as that he should perswade a young Divine to study Bellarmine as also what censures others have passed upon some writings of his And it hath been my hap to see under his own hand such a counsaile as this givē to a friend of his These things have I represented unto you the rather because I would give you occasion to learne that in your younger dayes which I have learned by late and long experience in my selfe and that in these two things First in reading Bellarmine and other adversaies to our Church I have divers times noted such speeches in them as to my thinking involved contradiction or had shew of absurdity or might either give advantage to our selves or breed prejudice unto them but when afterward I came in cooler blood to weigh the words better and to consider the circumstances more narrowly I found that I did mistake their meaning and that an itching desire to find an advantage made me to take shadowes for substance And the like mistake in my selfe I observed when I read the fathers or the Scriptures ready to interpret every thing either in favour of mine own cause or in prejudice of the adversaries And concludes sententiously thus Nimirum ita est ingenium nostrum facile credimus quae nimium volumus If such be the genius of this Authour though he thinks not good to spare me for Austin's sake yet methinks he should spare me for Richardus sake or at the least for Maldonat's sake This calls to my remembrance an Epigramme which D. Hoskins my chamber-fellow in New-Colledge sometimes made upon the fleas that sore troubled him as he lay in his bed And the conclusion was thus But if ther 's nothing that can slack Your rage and your correction Yet ô remember you are black And spare me for complexion So we proceed Sect. 5. To the first part of this reply namely that it is more desirable to be in hell then to be nothing I oppose three things 1. The speech of our Saviour concerning Judas Woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betraied it had been good for that man if he had never been born Two things especially are set forth in these words of our Saviour First the misery of Judas the betraier of the Lord. Woe be c. Secondly the greatnes of his misery It had been good c. It is as much as if the Lord had said Judas the traitour shall be damned and therefore so woefull will his condition be that it had been good and happy for him if he had never received a being good in earnest as the Interpreters doe generally expound it not in the opinion and esteem of weak minded faint-hearted-men only as some few understand it For first let it be granted that Scripture speaketh of things sometimes according to men's opinions yet without reason to fasten such an expostiō upon any Scripture is to doe as dunces doe in the Schooles who being not able to answer a place in Aristotle wherewith they are charged shift it off and say loquitur ex aliorum sententiâ he speaks according to the opinion of others 2. This scripture cannot in reason be thus expounded First because it is an argument and ground by which Christ declareth the truth and greatnesse of the misery of Judas Woe to the man c And why woe Because it had been good c. But it were no argument to shew his woefull estate by to say that it had been good for him that he had never been born in the opinion of men who mistake the case but not in truth 2. because this exposition would teach and encourage men to be Atheists and Epicures In the second of Wisdome we read how voluptuous men doe stirre up one another to enjoy the good things that are present to fill them selves with wine and ointments to leave some token of their jollity in every place and to practise all manner of wickednesse And what is their motive a false perswasion that their soules shall dye with their bodies and that they should have noe being after death If this conceit would flesh them thus in their opinions and voluptuous courses how freely and eagerly may we thinke would they pursue their carnall and sinfull delights if they could be but once perswaded that after all their pleasure they should be in better case then if they had noe being Secondly I oppose common consent Where shall wee pick out a man but will say if he speak from his heart that he were better to vanish into a thousand nothings then to be cast into hell What is the reason why men are so afraid of hell when they are touched to the quick with the conscience of their ungodly lives and the expectation of eternall vengeance that with Job they curse their birth day and wish an hundred times over that they had never been or might cease to be that so they might
on earth and makes him the Authour not of the sinne only that entred by Adam into the world but of all other sinnes that have been are or shall be committed to the worlds end No murthers robberies rapes adulteries insurrections treasons blasphemies persecutions or any other abominations whatsoever fall out at any time or in any place but they are the necessary productions of God Almightys decrees The Scripture I am sure teaches us another lesson Thou art not a God saith David that hast pleasure in wickednesse And the Prophet Esay tells the people that when they did evill in the sight of the Lord they did choose the things which he would not Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man but every man is tempted when he is drawen away with his own concupiscence And St. John when he had referred all the sinnes of the world to three heads the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life tells us that they are not of the Father but of the world To which speeches let me adde the speech of Stracides though not of the same authority Say not thou it is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth Say not thou he hath caused me to erre for he hath no need of the sinfull man 2. Pious antiquity hath constantly sayd the same and prest it with sundry reasons some of which are these as follow If God be the Authour of sinne then he is worse then the Devill because the devill doth only tempt and perswade to sinne and his action may be resisted but God by this opinion doth will and procure by a powerfull and effectuall decree which cannot be resisted This is Prospers argument who to some objecting that by St. Austin's doctrine when Fathers defile their own Daughters and Mothers their own Sonnes Servants murther their masters men commit any horrible villanies it cometh to passe because God hath so decreed Answereth that if this were layd to the Devills charge he might in some sort cleare himselfe of the imputation Quia etsi delectatus est furore peccantium probaret tamen sc non intulisse vim criminum Because though he be delighted with man's sinnes yet he doth not he cannot compell men to sinne What a madnesse therefore is it to impute that to God which cannot be justly fathered upon the Divell 2. He cannot be a punisher of sinne For none can justly punish those effences of which they are the Authors This is Prospers argument too It is against reason to say that he wich is the damner of the Devill would have any one to be the devills Servant This reason Fulgentius useth likewise illius rei Deus ultor est cujus Auhor non est Tertullian also before them hath sayd He is not to be accounted the Author of sinne who is the forbidder yea and the condemner of it 3. He cannot be God because he should not be just nor holy nor the Judge of the world all properties essentiall to God And this is Basil's reason who hath written a whole Homily against this wicked assertion It is all one saith he to say that God is the Author of sinne and to say he is not God 3 Upon these and the like considerations I may well conclude that the opinion which chargeth God with the sinnes of men is neither good nor true It is first layd to the charg of our Divines that by this their opinion they make God the Authour of sinne not of the first only that entred by Adam into the world but of all other sinnes that have been are or shall be committed in the world as murthers robberies rapes adulteries insurrections treasons blasphemies heresies persecutions or any other abominatiōs But in all these wastfull discourses not a word of proofe The charge is made in the first place the proofe last All that he labours to prove here is that God is not the Author of sinne Bellarmine hath bestowed or rather cast away a whole book on this crimination to him Arminius referrs Perkins telling him that he should have answered Bellarmine I have taken some paines to performe that taske upon that motion of Arminius I would I could receive from this Authour a reply to any materiall particular thereof the rather because I understand in part his Zeale for Bellarmine in his age correcting the harsh exceptions he hath made against him in his younger dayes And let every indifferent Reader compare this Authors discourse with that discourse of Bellarmine and judge indifferently what an hungry peece this is in comparison to that of Bellarmines And whether his paines had not been better bestowed in replying upō my answer thereunto then to adde such scraps as these to that full table of Bellarmin's provision and whether these deserve any answer that whole discourse of Bellarmine being refuted throughout Bradwardine disputes the question Si quomodo Deus vult non vult peccatum I say he disputes it indifferently on both sides and let every Schollar judge and weigh whether it be not a very ponderous argument and consider well his resolution and where he differrs any thing from our Divines in this Calvin observing how frequent the Scripture is in testifying God's hand to be operative in abominable courses thereupon writes a Treatise De occultâ Dei providentiâ in malo in all which he exactly conformes himselfe to Scripture expressions And these and such like vile Criminators may as well taxe God's word for making God the Author of sinne as Calvin who most accurately conformes himselfe to the testimonies of Divine Scripture I remember to have heard a disputation sometimes at Heidelberge on this Argument where Copenius the President or Moderator made manifest that look upon what grounds they criminated Calvin for making God the Authour of sinne upon the same grounds they might criminate the very word of God to make him the Author of sinne For Calvine throughout in his expressions conformes himselfe to the language of the holy Ghost Yet what one of our divines can he produce affirming that God takes pleasure in sinne Piscator confesseth that God taketh no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth upon that place in Ezechiel how much lesse in wickednesse And he illustrates it in this manner For albeit it cannot be denyed but that God willeth the death of him that dyeth For he is the God to whom vengeance belongeth yet he takes no pleasure in it Like as a sick-man would be content to take a bitter potion for the recovery of his health yet he takes no pleasure in that bitter cup. And in like manner albeit God hardened Pharaoh's heart that he should not let Israel goe and as the Apostle speaks hardeneth whom he will Whereby it comes to passe infallibly that they doe not obey
Utile est superbis in aliquod apertum manifestumque cadere peccatum I am bold to speake it It is good for a proud man to to fall into some open and manifest sin I come to the second stay whereby he objects to our Divines that they maintaine that God procures the sinnes of men and that is by his moving and inclining them by his irresistable and secret workings on their hearts to sinfull actions To which I answer first that not any of the passages alleadged by him out of Calvin who alone makes totam paginam in this of his makes mention of Gods irresistable working or of moving or inclining unto sinfull actions And let every sober man judge whether a bridle is fit to urge men to action and not rather to restraine from action and this is the force of the first Quotation But this Authour through heat corrupting his imagination tooke a bridle for a spurre His second testifies only this that man doth nothing but what God decreed and by his direction appointeth and this also upon pregnant testimonies of scripture never undertaking to shew Calvins interpretation to be false or his accommodation of them to be incongruous In the third he grants that God workes in the mind of men In the 4. he saith that God stirrs up the wills and confirmes the purposes of wicked men for the execution of his judgment by Satan the minister of his wrath Where consider he doth this by Satan that is he gives them over to Satan for this so that 't is Satan that stirres up their wills and confirmes their endeavours by Gods permission without restraint either immediate or mediate by the ministry of his good angells and all this is but to execute Gods judgments And that it is just with God to punish sin with sin both scripture testifies in divers places and Austin confirmes with variety of Scripture testimonies in his lib. 5. contra Julian Pelag cap. 3. The last is that God's worke it is to harden mans heart and thereby prepare him to destruction And let every sober reader that is not willing to be cheated both of his faith and honesty all at once examine these places in Calvin and the Scriptures whereby he proves that which he affirmes and let him but aske the Authour these questions If Calvin delivers nothing in all this but what he proves out of Scripture why is he found fault with more then the word of God If Scripture be mis-alleadged and mis-understood by him why do not you confute him 2 Though Calvin in all this makes no mention of Gods inclining wicked men to sinfull actions yet Austin doth as before I have shewed and that by variety of Scripture testimonies And if this be to make God the Authour of sin why hath he not so much ingenuity as to confesse at least in the close of all that Calvin makes God the Authour of sin no more then Austin doth and neither of them more then the word of God doth and therewithall renounce the Scriptures and turne Atheist 3 As the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh to his destruction so did he the heart of Sihon also Nowsee what Cardinall Caietan writes upon thisvery place Utramque homines partē spiritum cor hoc est superiorem inferiorem male dispositam à Deo intellige negativè penes dona gratuita positivè autem quoad judicium inclinationem prosecutionem bòni sensibilis Ita quod Deus spiritum Regis durum hoc est non cedentem petionibus reddit non dando ei gratiam acquiescendi coo operando eidem ad affectum securitatis boni proprii similiter roboravit cor ad affectum boni victoriae hujusmodi Each part of King Sihon his spirit and heart that is the upper and lower part being ill disposed by God understād this negatively as touching guifts of grace but positively as touching his judgment affection and prosecution of a sensible good So that the Lord made the Kings heart hard that is not to yeild to the request made both by not giving grace to rest satisfied and by cooperating with him to the affecting of security and his own good And in like manner he hardned his heart to the affecting of victory and the like I have not heard that this my opposite hath been ever ready to censure Caietan for making God the Authour of all this yet noe passage I am perswaded throughout all Calvin's works can be found comparable unto this Yet was Caietan noe Jesuite he need not spare his censures I come to the sum of that which he hath delivered in a whole leafe The first whereof is this that we teach That God appointed many miserable men from all eternity to unavoidable torments Now that God appointed many fom eternity to everlasting torments this Authour acknowledgeth as well as we As for the avoidable condition of them it is confessed on both sides that they are avoidable only by breaking off their sinnes by repentance before their death and by this we acknowledge them to be avoidable of all and every one as well as they But we say God doth not grant this grace to all For he is not bound to give it to all noe nor to any but he vouchsafeth this grace to whom he will and he denieth it to whom he will and this St. Paul hath taught us where he saith God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth The second is that we teach that God to bring about their intended ruine decreed that they should without remedie live die in a state of sin To this I answer that it is a most absurd conceite to make the tormenting of any man God's end We have learnt of King Solomon that God made all things for himselfe here is the end of his actions the manifestation of his own glory And albeit he made the very wicked also against the day of evill yet the end thereof was for himselfe as formerly specified that is for the manifestation of his just wrath and that God hath power without any difference in the matter to make some vessells of wrath and some of mercy as he thinkes good The Apostle plainely teacheth us where he saith Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour And if any man's wicked proud heart make insurrection against this truth the Apostle hath taught us to stop his mouth with this shall the the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Shall not God have as much power over the masse of mankind as the Potter hath over the clay So that this is God's end not man's damnation but his own glory Haec loquendiratio saith Calvin this manner of speech finem creationis esse interitum aeternum the end of man's creation is his everlasting destruction nusquam apud me occurret shall never be found
God willing it he denies not any more then Beza doth that it comes to passe by God's permission of it But Calvin rests not in a bare permissions and no marvaile For the Scripture saith not that God permitted Pharaoh to refuse to let Israel goe but plainly and energetically thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall not let Israel goe I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them I will rent the Kingdome from Solomon not I will permit it to be rented and so throughout Bellarmine himselfe contents not himselfe with a bare permission but farther saith God doth rule and governe the wills of wicked men yea torquet flectit he wrests and bends them And Austin often saith he enclines them unto evill And whereas it is farther added out of Calvin that a man is blind volente jubente Deo God willing and commanding it Is it not expresse Scripture Es 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat make their eares heavy and shut their eyes So that Calvin doth but accomodate himselfe to Scripture phrase But when we come to the explication of this either in Christian reason or by comparing one place of Scripture with an other we say that to Make their hearts fat their eares heavy and to shut their eys And to give them the Spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare Is no more then not to give them hearts to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare Yet where Calvin saith this I cannot find the quotation here is so disturbed but I guesse the Authour would referre us to lib. 1. Institut cap. 18. prima secunda Sect But I find no such thing there but speaking of God's providence in blinding Ahab thus he writes Vult Deus perfidum Ahab decipi God will have perfidious Ahab to be deceived This is plaine out of the 1 Kings 22. 20. Who shall entise Ahab that he may goe and fall at Ramoth Gilead operam suam offert Diabolus ad eam rem The Divell offers his service for this saith Calvin And doth not the Scripture expresly testifie as much There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will entise him And the Lord said unto him wherewith And he said I will goe out and be a false Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets Calvin goes on Mittitur cum certo mandato ut sit Spiritus mendax in ore omnium Prophetarum God sends him with a certaine command to become a lying Spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's Prophets This also the Scripture testifies as expresly as the former Then the Lord said thou shalt entise him and prevaile also Goe forth and doe so Now let the indifferent judge whether this Authour might not as well calumniate the Holy Ghost the Inditer of this Scripture as Calvin who proceeds but according unto Scripture in that which he delivers Now let every sober man judge whether hereby it doth not manifestly appeare Excoecari Achabum that Ahab was blinded by the Devill Deo volente ac jubente the Lord willing and commanding it but this taken apart from the instance in reference whereunto it is delivered a man might suspect his meaning were that God commands a man to shut his own eyes blind himselfe And judge I pray whether to say that this whole providence of God concerning Ahab was no more then permission deserves not to be called figmentum a fiction as indeed Calvin calleth it To this he addes the joynt profession of the Apostles touching God's providence in crucifying of Christ in Absalom's incest the Chaldees bloudy execution in the land of Iuda and the Assyrians before them which in Scripture is called the worke of God c. And concludes it to be manifest Nugari eos ineptire qui in locum providentiae Dei nudam permissionem substituunt that they doe but toy and trifle who in place of God's providence substitute a naked permission And this Authour doth but calumniate Calvin's expression in rendring the word ineptire by playing the foole Ineptire in the proprietie thereof is in this case to faile of fit and congruous interpretation and accommodation And may he not justly taxe those who understand such Scriptures as speake of God's smiting men with the Spirit of slumber and giddinesse of blinding their mindes infatuating and hardning their hearts of a permission and suffering of men to be blinded and hardned I had thought common sense might have justified him in this taking Calvin aright who denies not permission in all this but nudam permissionem naked permission as much as to say these Scripture passages doe signifie more then permission And as I have said before Bellarmin himselfe doth not satisfie himselfe with a naked permission in such like providence divine as here is mentioned I thinke he may justly say that to explicate excecation and obduration by permission is such an explication as will satisfie no sober man and that such a solution is too frivolous And as for God's prescience it is apparent that the horrible outrages committed upon the holy Son of God the Scripture testifies not to have been foreknowen only by God but by the hand and counsell of God predetermined also more then this cleare reason doth justifie that the ground of God's foreknowing ought is his foredetermining of it as I have often proved by invincible demonstration 2. Who mistakes the nature of permission most we or this censurer let the indifferent judge It is apparent that he puts no difference between permission humane and permission Divine Sure I am Suarez requires to permission divine a concurrence to the act the obliquity whereof is permitted And more then that both Scotus of old without question and the Dominicans of late and Bradwardine before them maintaine this concurrence to be by way of determining the will to every act thereof But all these mistake the nature of permission if we believe this Authour upon his word wherein he carrieth himselfe very authoritatively no Pope like him Yet he is ready to give his reason for it though with manifest contradiction to himselfe but let us consider it 1. Permission is an act of God's consequent and judiciary will by which he punisheth men for abusing their freedom c. Most untrue and manifestly convictable of untruth by that which himselfe delivered but a little before in this very Section where he said It is true that God hath decreed to suffer sinne for otherwise there would be none By this it is manifest that whensoever sinne is committed there had place God's permission of sinne otherwise there would have been no sinne therefore permission had place in the very first sinne that was committed by man and Angells Judge Reader with what felicity he comes to censure and correct the mistakes of others about permission As Austin sometimes said of one opposing him noverit se esse
but the thing willed by him is good by the confession of Bellarmine even then when he is opposing us in this very argument Malum fieri Deo permittente bonum est it is good that evill should come to passe by God's permission And it was avouched by Austin many hundred yeares before Bellarmine was borne And he professeth that God would never have suffered sinne to have entered into the world had he not knowne that it appertained to his almighty goodnesse rather to work good out of evill then not at all to suffer evill Compare the judgment of Austin with the judgment of this Authour and consider whether they differ not as much as light and darknesse And what wisedome were it for God to permit sinne when it is in his power to hinder it as this Authour acknowledgeth in the sixt Section if it be a greater evill and that to God as it appeares by his expression of it Laesio divinae majestatis the hurt of the Divine majesty then the good that can come thereby can be So that the crucifying of Christ was greater in the kind of evil then the redemption of the world that came thereby was in the kind of good No man of common discretion will permit ought if it lye in his power to hinder it to his own disadvantage unlesse he can make thereby not only an equall advantage but a greater But let us farther consider the superficiary speculation of this Divine more becomming children in the Church of God then a grave and learned Divine Sinne he saith is laesio Divinae majestatis the wronging of the Divine majesty but in what sense I pray Is God any thing the worse for any man's disobedience and transgression of God's law Surely like as he is no way advantaged by our obedience so is he as little disadvantaged by our disobedience Yet I affect not to carry that I deliver by the authority of mine own bare word which is this Authours course most usually I represent Scripture for it If thou sinnest what doest thou against him yea when thy sins are many what doest thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he at thy hands Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy rightousnesse may profit a Son of man And in reason looke of what nature the benefit is that redounds from the creature unto God of the like nature is the detrement Now God by making the world acquires no internall perfectiō unto himselfe but only makes his glorious nature known and accordingly if the world should have an end this manifestation should cease but his glorious nature should still continue the same And as he manifests his glory by the world so some creatures he hath made intelligent fit to take notice of his glory and accordingly requires at their hands they should acknowledge it and that not in word only but by their dutifull obedience and that for the farther manifestation of his glory to their good and wonderfull happinesse if they obey and their extream sorrow and misery if they continue rebellious against him So that whereas the end of all God's actions being but the manifestatiō of his glory he doth not loose so much as this by the sins of men For he can glorifie himselfe in their just destruction Nay he can manifest his glory another way namely both the glory of his mercy in pardoning their contempt of his majesty done unto him which men so proud many times they are can hardly doe but in such a case prove implacable Likewise of his grace in curing it as also his power and wisedome in procuring a strange satisfaction to be made for it in a wonderfull manner and that by his own blood That so way may be made for the manifestation of his not royall only but Divine magnificence in bestowing the kingdome of heaven upon them So farre is he from being any way hurt by the sins of men in any true reall account And accordingly as he permits sins dayly so he offers his free grace dayly for the pardon of them and to this tended the dayly sacrifice among the Jewes of a lamb every morning and a lambe every evening But why then is sinne said to be laesio Divinae majestatis I answer this is to be understood not of any hurt done to his majesty in it selfe but as in the minds of men who hereby manifest their contempt of the divine majesty And they that doe contemne him would put him out of his throne if they could wish that there were no God the foole would faine bring his heart about to thinke so But though earthly Kings may be dethroned sometimes have been yet he that sitteth in heaven laughs all them to scorne that rise up against him And bids the potsheard strive with his follow potsheards not with his maker Who will set the thornes briars against me in battells I would goe through them burne them together For God is a consuming fire It is true we must neither do evill that good may cōe thereof nor permit it neither if itlye in our power to hinder it God neither will doe any iniquity nor cā doe but yet is lawfull for him to permit evill that good may come thereof Yea will or decree that evill shall come to passe by his permission as I have proved at large in a digression to this purpose therewithall discovered the Sophisticall arguments of Aquinas Durandus to the contrary not to speak of Valentianus not one part of all which large digressiō do I find āswered by this Author I have often alleadged pregnant passages of Scripture to this purpose Arminius confesseth expresly that God would have Ahab to fill up the measure of his sin which could not be done but by adding sin unto sin Yet this is made the object of God's by Arminius This will of God to have sinne come to passe by his permission is effectuall For whensoever God permits it it comes to passe as both Arminius and Vorstius acknowledge not Piscator only And amongst Papists Navarettus Alvarez as before I have shewed Yet God hath no efficiencie in the sinne but only in the act whereunto sinfulnesse adheres and the saying of Austin is well knowne Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing comes to passe but that which God will have come to passe And the eleaventh Article of Ireland is most expresse for this I am driven to repeat the same things often this Authours frequent Tautologies urge me thereunto 2. Though the members be not opposite it matters not it is sufficient they are disparate the purpose of it being to shew not that God doth not will sin but only to shew under what notion he willeth it Yet it is false and absurd to say that sinne is a meanes of punishment For to him it belongs to worke the meanes who intends the end but sinne
himselfe confesseth to be the worke of God's providence in his Theses of providence and which in Scripture phrase is stiled the leading into temptation against which our Saviour taught his disciples to pray Thirdly the giving them over to the power of Satan And lastly God's generall concourse in moving all creatures to worke agreably to their natures necessary things necessarily contingent Agents contingently and free Agents freely But my answer to this I have prosecuted at large in more sheets then here are leaves in my answer to M. Hoord 3. As for want of mercy we willingly confesse according to the tenour of God's word as this Authour delivers himselfe without all respect thereunto that God shewes no mercy in hardning them For to harden in Scripture phrase is opposite to God's shewing mercy And as he is bound to none so he professeth that He will shew mercy on whom he will shew mercy and will have compassion on whom he will have compassion And this the Apostle takes hold of in prosecuting the doctrine of election and concludeth from hence in part in part from God's hardening of Pharaoh that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth by hardning meaning such an operation the consequence whereof is alwaies disobedience as appeares by the objection derived therehence in the words following Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine now he complaines only of disobedience For who hath resisted his will Manifestly implying that when God hardens man unto disobedience it is his secret will that he shall disobey Like as when God hardned Pharaoh that he should not let Israel goe It was God's secret will that he should not let Israel goe for a good while Secret I say in distinction from the will of command which is alwaies made knowne to them who are commanded But it pleased the Lord to make this will of his knowne to Moses though it was kept secret from Pharaoh yet afterwards he told Pharaoh to his face by his servant Moses saying And indeed for this cause have I appointed thee to shew my power in thee and to declare my name to all the world though Pharaoh believed it not as appeares by that which followeth yet thou exaltest thy selfe against me and lettest them not goe But this Authour together with M. Hoord goeth by other rules which his own fancy suggest's unto him he will have God's love and mercy extended to all and every one Christ's redemption to extend to all and every one the Covenant of grace to comprehend all and every one and upon these universalities he grounds his transcendent consolations whence it comes to passe that Abraham the father of the faithfull was of no more comfortable condition then the grand Signior among the Turkes And the grand Siginior had as good grounds of consolatiō as Abraham himselfe Yet this not shewing of mercy on the vessells of wrath prepared unto destruction tends to the greater demonstration of his mercy on the vessells of mercy prepared unto glory As the Apostle testifies Ro 9. 23. And let this Author tell Saint Paul if he thinks good That this is the disposition of hang-men rather then of good Princes And this is the perpetuall tenour of this Authour's discourse to conforme God's courses to the conditions of courses humane Man is bound to shew mercy on all God is not God is free to pardon whom he will man is not If we permit men to sinne in case we can hinder them we shall be guilty with them but how innumerable are the sins committed in the world which if God would hinder could never be committed As Austin discourseth lib. 5. contra Iulian Pelag cap. 4 In nothing did Nero's cruelty shew it selfe more then in prolonging the lives of men that he might torment them the more What then Shall we taxe God for crueltie in keeping mens bodies and soules alive for ever in hell fire to torment them everlastingly without end See what a doore of blasphemy is opened against the just God that will doe no iniquity by this Authour 's unshamefast discourse By this let the indifferent Reader judge of this Authour 's present performance withall take notice of that which himselfe hath dissembled all along touching his own tenet namely that of every sinfull act committed by the creature God is the efficient cause as touching the substance of the act as for the sinfulnesse thereof we hold it impossible that God can have any agency at all therein or any culpable deficiency forasmuch as he neither doth ought which he should not doe or after what manner he should not nor leaves undone ought which he should doe or after what manner he should doe all which are incident to the creature who is subject to a law but not at all to the Creatour who gives lawes to others but himselfe works according to the counsell of his own will in all things The summe is whatsoever we deliver as touching God's secret providence in evill we have expresse scripture for us nothing but pretence of carnall reason against us which when it comes to be examined is found subject to manifest contradiction both as touching their feigning things future without the decree of God And as touching their conditionall decrees and conditionall concurrences ours is not in any particular The greatest shew of contradiction on our parts is in the point of necessitie and libertie Now to cleare this as others have taken paines so have I in my Vindiciae proving divers and sundry waies that these two doe amically conspire to wit the necessitie being only upon supposition the liberty and contingency simply so called only it is not to be expected that there should be no difference between the liberty of the creatures and the liberty of God the Creator Or that the creature in her operation should be exempt from the operation of God The second cause exempt from the motion of the first whereunto this Authour addresseth not the least answer As for the difference which this Authour puts between the upper way and the lower in making God the Authour of sinne compare this with Arminius his profession Namely that the same twenty reasons which he objected against the upper way may all of them be accommodated against the lower way all of them admitting of the same distinctions which this Authour invades to cleare God from being the Authour of sinne The second inconvenience Section 1. The second inconvenienceis the overthrow of true religion and good goverment among men To this this opinion seemeth to tend for these reasons 1. Because it maketh sinne to be no sinne indeed but only in opinion We use to say necessity hath no law creatures or actions in which necessity beares sway are without saw Lyons are not forbidden to prey birds to fly fishes to swimme or any bruit creatures to doe according to their kinds because their actions are naturall and necessary they cannot upon any
admonition doe otherwise Among creatures indued with reason and liberty lawes are given to none but such as can use their principles of reason and freedome Fooles mad-men and children are subject to no law because they have no liberty To men that can use their liberty lawes are not given neither but in those actions which are voluntary No man is forbidden to be hungry thirsty weary sleepy to weepe tolaugh to love or to hate because these actions and affections are naturall and necessary the will may governe them but it cannot suppresse them And so if to deale justly to exercise charity c. with their contraries be absolutely and antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principall within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these and in the other Now if necessity hath no lawâ— then actions in themselves evill if under the dominion of absolute necessity are transgressions of no law and consequently no sins For sin is a transgression of the law This that I say hath been said long agoe For Justin Martyr speaking against destiny hath these words If it be by destiny that is by absolute necessity For that the Fathers doe generally call by the name of destiny that men are good or bad they are indeed neither good nor bad A speech like to this he hath a little after It would seem if this be so that vertue and vice are nothing but things are judged to be good or bad by opinion only which as good reason teacheth is very great injustice and impiety And surely well might he say so For to what purpose was the Son of God made man and being man made a sacrifice for sinne Why was the ministry of the word and Sacraments ordained To what end are heaven and hell propounded Why are exhortations disswasions or any other meanes to hinder men from sin applied if sin be nothing but a mere opinion Christ the Christian faith the word and Sacraments and whatsoever according to the Scriptures hath been done for the applying of the pardon of sinne are all but mere fables nay very impostures if sinne be nothing And by consequence it is no matter at all whether men be Christians Jewes Turkes or Pagans of what religion or whether of any religion at all Now whether tendeth this but to the ovethrow of religion 2. Because it taketh away the conscience of sinne Why should men be afraid of any sinne that pleaseth or may profit them if they must needs sinne Or what reason have they to weep and mourne when they have sinned seeing they have not sinned truly because they sinned necessarily The Tragedian saith when a man sinneth his destiny must beare the blame Necessity freeth him from all iniquity Sins are either the faults of that irresistible decree that causeth them or no faults at all If either then sorrow feare or any other act of repentance whatsoever may as well be spared as spent This conceit being once drunke in religion cannot long continue For the affections have been the strongest planters and are the surest upholders of it in the world Primus in orbe Deos fecit timot. I come to the consideration of the second inconvenience wherewith our doctrine is charged And that is nothing inferiour to the former to wit The overthrow of true religion and good goverment among'st men With what judgment these are termed inconvenices I am to seeke and I wonder what mischeifes are greater then these inconveniences But I come to consider how well he makes good his charge 1. If sinne be no sinne certainely the opinion must be erroneous that conceives it to be sin I had thought there had been no predication more true then that which is Identicall We are taught that sinne is a trangression of God's law That the wages of it in the just judgment and decree of God is no lesse then death even everlasting death both of body and soule That God sent his own Son and made his soule an offering for sinne that so he might set him forth a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood But let us see this Authour's reason to prove his crimimination He begins with an axiome that Necessity hath no law and hereupon he doth expatiate with his instances too too impertinently a course which Bellarmine takes not whom yet I have answered on this very argument in my Vindiciae least of all doth he offer to make any reply upon any parcell of my answer unto Bellarmine Now this axiome is not applied to Agents unreasonable but only reasonable by them who treat thereof As in case a man be driven to steale to relieve naturall necessity yet all confesse that a man is not only unexecusable but also not to be pitied if he hath brought this necessity upon him And never any sober man that I know denied stealth to be a free action for all this It is true Lyons are not forbidden to prey nor fishes to swimne nor bruit creatures to doe according to their kind For they are unreasonable and consequently not capable of command otherwise then by spurre or goad or the like nor capable of admonition in like sort children afore they come to the use of reason are not capable of admonition As neither mad men are nor fooles such as we call naturall But this Authour is none such For then his wit would not serve him for opposition as it doth It is true likewise that as man is made after the Image of God not as touching his part vegetative nor as touching his part sensitive but only as touching his part reasonable consisting of an understanding whereby he is enabled to know his superiours and their commands and admonitions and of a will whereby he is able to performe obedience both inward and outward it having command over all parts of the body to set them in motion whereupon if their Lord command them to come they come if to goe they goe if to doe this they doe it As the Centurion signified to our Saviour the readinesse of his servants to doe their Masters commands At length he comes to conclude that if to deale justly to exercise charitie c. with their contraries be absolutely antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principle within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these as in the other by these he meanes acts of the soule rationall by the other he meanes acts of the soule vegetative or sensitive Now we utterly deny that any of these are absolutely necessary Nay we deny that any thing is of absolute necessity but the being of the Divine nature and the internall emanations thereof which constitute the distinction of persons in the Trinity For albeit some Agents created are Agents necessary working necessarily yet the works which they bring forth are not of absolute necessity because they may be hindred in their operations either by Angells as some of them or
a thing it is for any man to maintaine that there is some cause of predestination as touching the act of God predestinating So as mad a thing it must be every way to avouch that there is a cause of Reprobation as touching the act of God reprobating And truely the Apostle St. Paul plainly manifests that upon what ground he proves that Election is not of good works namely because before Iacob or Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said The elder shall serve the younger upon the same ground we may be bold to conclude that Reprobation is not of evill workes And the same reason manifests that faith and infidelity are excluded from being the causes the one of Election the other of Reprobation as well as good and evill workes And both Piscator by evidence of Scripture and Bradwardine by evidence of reason have demonstrated that no will of God is conditionall which is to be understood as touching the act of God willing And it may be evidently further demonstrated thus If any thing be the cause of God's will then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God Not by necessity of nature as is evident and all confesse there being no colour of truth for that besides such an opinion were most dangerously prejudiciall to God's soveraignty and liberty If therefore they say it is by the constitution of God maske I pray what an insuperable absurdity followeth hereupon For seing God's constitution is his will it followeth that God did will that upon foresight of this or that he would will such a man's salvation and such a man's damnation And thus the act of God's will is made the Object of God's will even the eternall act of God's will Whereas to the contrary it is apparent that the objects of God's will are things temporall never any thing that is eternall But as touching things willed we readily grant it may be said there is a cause thereof as School-Divines doe generally acknowledge And thus Gerardus Vossius speaks of the conditionall will which he faith the Fathers doe ascribe to God For this is the instance which he gives thereof as for example when God ordaines to bestow salvation on a man in case he believe here faith is made the condition of Salvation but not of the will of God And in like manner we willingly grant that reprobation is conditionall inasmuch as God intends to inflict damnation on none but such as die in sin without repenance But albeit predestination as touching this particular thing willed may be said to be conditionall according as the School-men explicate their meaning and reprobation likewise as touching the particular of dānatiō mētioned yet no such thing cā be truely affirmed either of the one or of the other as touching the particulars of grāting or denying the grace of règeneratiō which are intended also by the decrees of predestinatiō reprobatiō For albeit God intends not to bestow salvation on any but upon condition of faith nor damnation on any but upon condition of finall impenitency and infidelity Yet God intends not to bestow the grace of regeneration on some for the curing of their naturall infidelity and impenitency Nor to leave the same infidelity and impenitency uncured in others by denying the same grace of regeneration unto them This I say God doth not intend to bring to passe upon any condition For if he should then grace should be conferred according unto works which was condemned in the Synod of Palestine and all along in divers Synods and Councells against the Pelagians So that albeit God proceeds according to a law in bestowing salvation and inflicting damnation yet he proceeds according to no law in giving or denying the grace of regeneration for the curing of our naturall corruption but merely according to the pleasure of his will as the Apostle testifies saying He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth And if the conferring and denying of this grace be absolute how much more are the decrees hereof to be accounted most absolute And consequently that one man is delivered from the power of his sins whether originall or habituall another is not but still continueth under the power of them This I say doth must needs come to passe by vertue of Gods absolute decrees Yet no absolute necessity followeth hereupon First because no greater necessity then that which is absolute can be attributed to the existence and continuance of God himselfe Secondly God did absolutely decree to make the world yet no wise man was ever known to affirme that the worlds existence was and is by absolute necessity In like sort God did absolutely decree that Iosiah should burne the Prophets bones upon the Altar That Cyrus should build his Citty and let goe his captives That no man should desire the Israelites land when they should come to appeare before the Lord their God thrice in the yeare That God would circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their children to love the Lord their God withall their heart and with all their soule To put his feare in their hearts that they should never depart away from him To cause them to walke in his statutes and judgments to doe them To worke in them both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure Yea to worke in them every thing that is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ Likewise that Absolom should defile his fathers Concubines that the Jewes should crucify the Son of God that some through disobedience should stumble at the word that the Kings should give their kingdomes to the beast Yet these actions were done by them as freely as ever they did ought in their lives All these things I say by Scripture evidence were decreed by God to come to passe The good by God's effection the evill by God's permission and decreed absolutely on their parts that did them if not let it be shewed upon what condition on Absolon's part he should defile his fathers Concubines upon what condition on the Jewes part they should crucify the Son of God upon what condition on their part others through disobedience should stumble at God's word And upon what condition on their part the Kings should give their kingdomes to the beast And if they take Arminias his way let them reply upon mine answere to Arminius if Bellarmin's let them reply upon my answer to Bellarmine that we may not trouble the world with out Tautologies If a different way from both these I shall be glad to be acquainted with it give it such entertainement as according to my judgment it shall be found to deserve So that with Epiphanius though we are ready to concurre in denying destiny which as before we heard out of him was a necessity derived from the starres yet with Austin we may still hold that the wills of men need not to be exempted from all necessity to maintaine the liberty
our answers thereunto which formerly were but two but now are inlarged with the addition of a third The first whereof is for the forme of it changed throughout The comparison of the waies of God with the mysterious attributes of God is changed not only as touching the forme but as touching the matter here is no pleading for a reasonable service of God as there was His making man's understanding purged from prejudice and false principles as it was proposed there purged from prejudices corrupt affections and customes as it is proposed to be the Tribunall according to whose judgment interpretations of Scripture concerning what is just in the courses of God must be allowed or disallowed I have sufficiently canvased there Let the Reader be pleased to turne to it and compare my answer to this Sub-section and observe how little spirit he had so much as to question against any one peece of my answer Here he addes a reason of his former uncouth paradoxe to wit that Iustice in men and God are for substance but one and the same thing though different in degree as the greater and lesser light I have sufficiently profligated this in the first Section concerning God's attributes For this very rule he premiseth in generall to the ensuing discourse of his most congruously wilde premises and grounds to wild discourses The difference he puts between the wayes of God the mysteries of godlinesse I have there also refuted shewing that albeit some wayes of God's justice are agreable to the judgment of man as these mentioned Es 5. and Ezek 18 yet all are not as there I shew at large And lastly because he likes rationall discourse so well I am contented to deale with him at his own weapon by six rationall demonstrations justifying the absolutenesse of God's decrees in answer whereunto he is content to carry himselfe very judiciously even as mute as a fish The second answer of ours which he brings in to reply upon is inserted a new that I come to consider in the next place as I find it set down pag. 10. 71. 72. It is answered that these decrees are set down in Scripture to be the will of God and therefore they must needs be just For God's will is the rule of all righteousnesse To this answer I have these things to reply 1. This rule in divinity is much abused by the maintainers of absolute reprobation and may not be admitted in their sense and meaning For God's will is not a rule of justice to himselfe as if things were therefore just because he willeth and worketh them but his justice rather is a rule of his will workes which are the expressions of his will He therefore maketh decrees and executeth them because they are agreable to that justice which dwells in the Divine nature as he maketh nothing which hath not potâ—nitam objectivam a power of being created without implying contradiction to himselfe or any thing in him So he willeth and doth nothing but that which may be willed and done salvá justitiâ— without wrong to his justice St. Hierome speaking of the Prophet Hoseas taking a wife of fornication Hos 1. 2. Saith it was done in typo typically not â—â—ally quia si siat turpissimii est because if it had been dâ—ne indeed it had been a most foule thing But thou wilt answer saith he Deo â—ubente nihil turpe est God commanding it nothing is dishonest Thus much we say saith the father that God commandeth nothing but what is honest but he doth not by commanding dishonest things make those things honest which are abominable plainly giving us to see what he thought viz that God doth not will a thing of make it good but willeth it because it is in it selfe good antecedently before the act of God's will about it And thus much doth Zanchy though a rigid maintainer of absolute reprobation not obscurely confesse in his treatise De naturá Dei where he letteth â—all such speeches as make God's justice antecedent to his will and therefore the rule of it rather then a thing regulated by it Neither can God will any thing saith he which is not just And againe The Princes pleasure hath the strength of a law is a Rule saith he among the Canonists But this is true where the King is just and a 〈◊〉 nothing but what is just In which words he plainly maketh the justice of the King amâ—â—edent to that will of his which must be a law Many more speeches he useth there to the same purpose God's will therefore is not a rule of justice to himselfe To whom then To us For by it we are first to â—quaâ—e all our thoughts words and deeds Secondly to examine them when they are spoken and done Primum in aliqâ—o 〈…〉 regula â—ostcricrum supremum inferiorum 2ly I reply that theâ—â— absolute accrces of mens inâ—vitable salvation and damnation are no parts of Gods revealed will The scriptures teache us no such matter And therefore to say that they are is but a mere begging of the question It hath alwaies been ordinary with false teachers to make Gods word a father to their false opinions that they may stand the faster and winne the greater credit The Papists ground their Transubstantiation the Lutherans their conâ—ubstantiation and obiquity upon the Scripture Hoc est corpus meuÌ„ This is my body And the defenders of absolute reprobation doe so too They make their cause to be Gods and entitle his word to it because they see it is the surest way to defend it being herein like to some contentious people who being in law and having a bad cause which they are like to loose they entitle the King to it that they may the better uphold it 3ly Absolute Reprobation can be no part of Gods revealed will The reason is because it is odious to right reason begetteth absurdities For nulla veritas parit absurda no truth begetteth absurdities Divers truths are revealed in Scripture which are above but not contrary to right reason whether they be matters of faith or life Faith and reason nature and Scripture are both Gods excellent gifts And therefore though there may be a disproportion yeâ— there can be no repugnancy between them The worship which God requireth is Cultus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable 〈◊〉 And the word of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milke reasonable and without guile These things therefore being laid together it will appeare to be but a mere shift and evasion when absolute reprobation is prâ—ved to be unjust and therefore unworthy of God to say Gods will is the rule of justice this is part of Gods revealed will and therefore most just whatsoever reason may cavill and say to the contrary Doth not this Authour observe the contradictious nature of this proposition Gods will is a rule of justice to himselfe For a rule of justice to any one is a rule to
his will to be regusated thereby can the will be said to be the rule of justice to the will without contradiction The rule propounded was this God's will is the rule of all righteousnesse but the other rule is the rule corrupted by this Authour when he talks of a will as a rule of justice to the will 2. But whether things are therefore just because God wills them or that therefore God willeth them because they are just undoubtedly that which here is proposed is a truth namely that whatsoever the Scripture sets downe to be the will of God that must needs be just Neither have we any need to improve it any farther then thus For it is well known that our Divines in their doctrine of predestination and reprobation doe depend on nothing so much as the evidence of God's word As this Author throughout this discourse of his depends on nothing lesse And therefore he hath cast himselfe upon a strange practice in the former passage namely to evacuate all our reasons drawn out of the word of God to confirme our doctrine pleading that the interpretations we make of Scripture are all false because the contrary doctrine which he maintaines is justified before the tribunall of humane reason purged from prejudice and false principles corrupt affections and customes Which is as much as to professe in plaine termes that to find out the truth concerning the decrees of predestination and reprobation we must leave the oracles of God and hearken to the oracles of reason provided that it be purged from prejudice and false principles from corrupt affections and customes Now I had thought that the spirit of God alone could purge us from such prejudice and false principles corrupt affections and customes And that this spirit of God worketh only by the word herein which is called in Scripture the sword of the spirit Yet this Author tells us not where this reason thus purged is to be found save that in generall he saith that is just or unjust which is so esteemed in the judgment both of best and worst that stand indifferent to the entertainment of any truth as is to be seen in the former reason according to M. Hord's discourse Now who these best are but the Arminians in this Authours fancy the worst but Anabaptists or heathens or both I know not Sure we are none of them in his understanding purged from false principles and prejudice from corrupt affections and customes because we doe not stand indifferent to the entertainment of his tenets which he calls Truths 3. Where can he shew that I have made use of any such principles to answer any argument of his against us I doe not find that any where he can drive me to this though this be the Apostles course as we may see Ro 9. Is there any injustice with God God forbid how doth he prove it but thus because the Scripture attributes such a course to God I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy and I will have compassion on whome I will have compassion 4. But where hath he learnt to be so audacious as to say that Things are not therefore just because God wills them but that his justice is rather a rule of his will and works Before he told us that justice in man and God were of the same nature Now that justice which is the rule of our will is Justitia obligans justice binding us to doe this or that and is Gods justice obligatory likewise to bind him In making the world I doe not doubt but God did that which was just but was there any justice in God obliging him to the making of the world who seeth not what an Atheisticall conclusion followeth herehence namely that the world was from everlasting if not necessarily by necessity of nature yet necessarily by obligation of justice otherwise for an infinite space of time wherein the world was not made which must needs have been if the world were not from everlasting God had been and continued to be unjust The Schooles have taught me that there is a justice of condecency consequent to all the actions of God noe justice of obligation precedent to it And whereas St. Paul tells us that God works all things according to the counsell of his will both Alvarez and Suarez though School Divines of opposite families yet concurre in this that this Counsell is à libera voluntate acceptum accepted of Gods free will And it is observable that the Apostle calls it not the Counsell of his understanding but the counsell of his will And Vasquâ—z and Suarez both Jesuites but very opposite about the nature of justice in God yet both concurre that there is no justice in God towards his creature but upon supposition of the determination of God's will It is most true that supposing the end which God intends the wisedome of God directs in the right use of congruous meanes and no other justice then this his wisedome doth Aquinas acknowledge in the Divine nature And great is the wisedome which God manifests in the goverment of this world yet the same wisedome as great as it is doth not equall the infinite wisdome of God But of this I have disputed more at large in my Vindiciae Where this question is discussed Whether the will of God be circumscribed or regulated by justice To no parcell whereof doe I find the least savour of an answer in this Authour But let us examine how well he proves his own Tenet And that is first by the authority of Hierome in his preface to his commentaries on Hosea 2. By the authority of Zanchy whereto I answer 1. That if the interpretations of Scripture must be judged of before the Tribunall of reason purged from prejudice and false principles from corrupt affections and customes must not the opinions of such as Hierome and Zanchy be judged of before the same tribunall also 2ly touching Hierome himselfe 1. It is true Hierome in that preface understands that command given Hosea to be only in a Type and for the reason here mentioned but in his Commentary he interpreteth it secundum historiam litterally Neither was the Prophet as he saith to be blamed in this For he was not the worse but he made her the better Praesertim especially he was not to be blamed because he did this not luxuriously or lustfully or of his own will but in obedience to the command of God Now let the indifferent judge whether Hierome be not as much for us upon the text as for our adversary in the preface 2. Observe that Hierome is nothing for him in the preface For Hierome speakes there of God's will of command but we treate of God's will as it signifies not his command given to man but his own purpose and decree to doe this or that himselfe Judge of the extravagancy of this Author by this and whether his understanding be sufficiently purged from prejudice and false principles from
give them the grace of believing without will no man can believe What therefore is God an Hypocrite Away with such a blasphemy He alone is to be accounted an Hypocrite who counterfeits holinesse when he has none Such counterfeiting is not incident to God And let the Reader observe well the immodest cariage of this Authour Piscator when he saith that God in words professeth he will have Reprobates to believe he shewes withall in what respect he doth so to wit quatenus mandat ut credant in as much as he commands them to believe And indeed God's command is usually called God's will and by none more then by these our opposites But this Authour drawes this to the signification of God's will simply so called which is the will of purpose And to that purpose leaves out the words whereby Piscator explicates himselfe Who knowes not that God commanded Pharaoh by his servant Moses to let Israel goe this is to professe with the tongue in Piscator's phrase that God would have Pharaoh to let Israel goe And God's commandement is called God's will in Scripture This is the will of God even your sanctification But to speake properly it is but the signification of God's will of good pleasure properly called the will of God that it should be Pharaoh's duty to let Israel goe but withall he revealed to Moses that he would harden Pharaoh s heart that he should not let Israel goe Now let the indifferent judge what this Authour hath gotten by these passages of Piscator save only the displaying of his own immodest and calumniating courses then he thinks to please his Reader with the story of Tantalus wherein there is no congruity to that whereunto it is applyed For Tantalus à labris sitiens fugientia captat Flumina He was an hungred and would faine eate but could not He was a thirst and would faine drinke but could not God deales so with no man neither reprobate Jewes nor Gentiles had any desire to be partakers of the mercies of God offered them in Christ The Gospell was a scandall to the one and foolishnesse to the other But to them that are called it is the power of God and wisedome of God And as they hunger and thirst after God's righteousnesse in his deare Son so are they satisfied therewith Let him that is a thirst come and drinke of the water of life freely And He every one that is a thirst come ye to the waters and ye that have no silver come buy and eate come I say buy wine and milke without silver and without money Wherefore doe ye lay out your silver and not for bread and your labour without being satisfied Hearken diligently unto me heare and your soules shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Here is no sending of them away empty which thirst after these waters of life They all shall draw waters of the wells of salvation So that here is no such dealing with them as the Poets feigne was their Gods dealing with Tantalus My answer to that which he produceth out of Zanchy and Bucer the Reader shall find in my answer to M. Hord. Pag. 76. 77. In the point of threats and comminations after these words We never read that threats are thundred out against us for originall sinne In M. Hord's discourse it is added Or for that corruption of nature which we brought with us into the world But this Authour leaves it quite out with what mind let the Reader judge and whether he can well brook that originall sinne should be stiled a corruption of nature which we bring with us into the world Pag. 78. In the same second sub-section after that of Abslaon's feast Ioab's congy the kisse of Iudas and the Hyaena's teares c. There is a good passage left out which followeth in M. Hord and in the place thereof this which here followeth foysted in Let the Reader consider with himselfe wherefore that was left out it seemes he was asham'd of that calumniation But thus it followes here Nay the whole ministry wherein God commandeth offereth chideth entreateth lamenteth c. if this be true is but a mere imposture a giving of words without any meaning of answerable deeds And an imposture so much the greater by how much the shew of kindnesse is the heartier For how can a good thing be offered with stronger shewes of a good meaning then when it is offered with exhortations and entreaties to accept it with cleare demonstrations of the excellency of it unfeigned wishes that the parties to whom it is offered would accept it and bitter lamentations for their folly in refusing it With all these enforcements i◠Gods tenderof salvation to Reprobates accompanyed and therefore in shew most hearty and serious In a word thusspeaks God by this doctrine to Reprobates in the ministery O ye Reprobates once most dearely beloved of me in your father Adam but now extreamly and implacably hated and by mine eternall uncontroulable order scaled up under invincible sinne and misery amend your lives and believe in the name of mine only begotten Son If you repent and believe not there is no remedy you must be damned but if you repent and believe ye shall be saved Though your sins be as red as scarlet I will make them to be as white as wooll Thinke not that I would have you dye For I sweare as I live I will not the death of him that dyeth I would have no man to perish but all to come to repentance I beseech you therefore be reconciled I have cryed and called unto you I have a long time waited upon you that you might repent And still am I knocking at the doores of your hearts for entrance O that there were an heart in you to feare me and keep my commandements that it might goe well with you for ever What shall I doe unto you how shall I intreate you will you not be made cleane when shall it once be Can God speake thus to reprobates who by his own decree shall never repent nor be saved without the deepest dissimulation Judge indifferent Reader whether ever more passion were shewed with lesse common sense For let the enforcements be never so great and serious in the ministry of the word under which all the expressions here mentioned are comprehended yet is it possible that men can yeild unto them obedience by faith and repentance unlesse God gives faith and repentance For doth not the Scripture clearely testifie that faith is the gift of God To you it is given both to believe in him to suffer for him that it is the worke of grace Act. 18. 27. What hast thou that thou hast not received And doth not the Apostle accordingly pray on the behalfe of the Ephesians not for peace only but for faith and love also from God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ Is not repentance also the
repentance and that by instruction admonition and exhortation therefore I doe instruct them in the knowledge of God that made them after his own Image and how this image of God came to be defaced in them to wit by the sinne of our first parents and how hereupon we became to be shapen in sinne and borne in sinne and therewithall children of wrath and such as deserve to be made the generation of God's curse then I represent unto them the mercy of God towards man in giving us his Son to beare our sins in his body upon the tree and suffer a shamefull and bitter death upon the crosse for them and that for this his Son's sake he offers unto us the pardon of all our sins upon our repentance and faith in Christ and thereupon I exhort them unto repentance We farther say that God takes no pleasure in the death of him that dieth but takes pleasure in a man's repentance We doe not say neither doth the word of God say that he willeth not the death of him that dyeth For undoubtedly he willeth the damnation of all them that dye in their sins without repentance We doe not say that God would have no man to perish but all come to repentance Neither doth the Scripture say any such thing For that were to deny God's omnipotency For seing many there be that perish if this were contrary to God's will then God's will should be resistible and we should be driven to deny the first Article of our Creed As Austine hath long agoe argued the case But indeed Peter writing to them who had obtained like pretious faith with the Apostles themselves and such as were Elect unto sanctification of the spirit and were begotten againe to a lively hope by the resurection of Jesus Christ from the dead to them he writes saying The Lord of that promise is not slack but is patient towards us not to us Reprobates God forbid that we should so corrupt the interpretation of his words but rather to us Elect to us called to us begotten of God not willing any to perish to wit of us but all come to repentance to wit all of us whensoever through our frailty we turne out of the good wayes of the Lord. God cries unto you by us and calls upon you by us and hath along time shewed great patience and long suffering and hereby led you unto repentance by his word stands knocking at the doores of your hearts and calling upon you to open unto him And the more to move you he is pleased to expresse himself in the affections of a weake man who is not able to accomplish his desires O that there were an heart in you to feare me and keep my commandements and with great passionatnesse cryeth out unto you What shall I doe unto you how shall I intreat you As if he were to seek what course to take and willing to use every provocation to excite you and stirre you up sometimes by gracious promises as Come and let us reason together though thy sins were as scarlet c. Sometimes by threatnings Woe unto thee ô Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be And withall he gives us to understand requires us to preach as much unto you also even to acquaint you with the whole counsell of God tell you that as many as are ordained unto eternall life as many as to whom the arme of the Lord is revealed as many as are of God they obey this calling they believe they heare God's words and turne unto him by true repentance sooner or later They that doe not it is because they are not of God And albeit those words are the words of Moses O that there were an heart in you to feare me speaking to them in the name of the Lord yet the same Moses tells the same people plainly that The Lord had not given them an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto that Day And albeit the Lord professeth in like manner by his Prophet Esay O that thou hadst hearkned unto my commandements then had thy prosperity been as the flood and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the sea Yet this very disobedience of theirs was consequent to the Lord's obduration of them as appeares Es 6. 9. Goe say unto this people ye shall heare indeed but ye shall not understand ye shall plainly see not perceive Make the heart of this people fat make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and convert and he heale them Then said the Lord how long should this obduration continue And he answered untill the Cityes be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate And the Lord have removed men farre away and there be a great desolation in the midst of the land Yet I dare not say of any of you that ye are Reprobates For God may open your eyes before you dye to see your sins and touch your hearts that ye may bewaile them And whensoever this blessed condition doth befall you I will stirre you up to give God the glory of it who alone it is that worketh in us that which is pleasing in his sight Yea both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure If he never workes any such thing in you the more inexcusable are you who presuming of your own power to believe to repent yet are nothing moved with such passionate expressions unto repentance If you doe believe there is such impotency in you to good and that it must needs continue in you while God continueth to harden you by denying his grace and thereupon ye except against Gods course in complaining of their disobedience whom he hath hardned saying Why then doth he complaine For who hath resisted his will I put all such over to St. Paul to receive answer from him Rom 9. 20. 21. 22. As touching this Author's conclusion Dares he himselfe say that by God's decree Reprobates shall ever repent or be saved What then is his meaning why doth he not expresse himselfe in this particular but most unshamefastly earthes himselfe like a foxe unwilling to bring his vile opinion to the light which I take to be no other then this that God's decree of giving faith is not absolute but conditionall namely to give faith to as many as shall prepare themselves for it And to deny it to none but such as faile to prepare for it as much as in plaine termes to professe that Grace is given according unto workes The very filth of Pelagianisme Yet hath he no where discovered wherein this preparation consists that he keeps to himselfe and to his own Muses P. 80. I find another addition to the third Sub-section in these words To offer salvation under a condition not possible is in circumstance a great deale worse For it is a
illud obtinendum quia si adhiberet aliquod medium jam vellet illud voluntate efficaci at qui orat adhibet aliquod medium ad obtinendum nempe ipsam orationem ergo qui orat non vult voluntate inefficaci sed tantum efficaci Although in Christ there ought to be distinguished a two-fold will one effectuall another uneffectuall yet notwithstanding prayer ought not in the like manner to be distinguished for there are not two sorts or kinds of Prayer one proceeding from an effectuall the other from an uneffectuall will for prayer if it be truly prayer alwaies proceedeth from an absolute and effectuall and never from an uneffectuall will of the party praying For he that petitioneth for the doing of any thing doth effectually desire it and therefore useth Prayer as a meanes for the obtaining of that which he requests Hence it is wont to be said that Prayer is in its own nature usefull or profitable for obtaining or procuring Whence I conclude thus He who willeth any thing with an uneffectuall will applyeth or useth no meanes for the procurement thereof because if he should make use of any meanes to procure it he should will it with an effectuall will but he who prayeth makes use of a meanes for the obtaining of what he Praye's for to wit Prayer it selfe therefore he who Prayeth willeth that he prayes for only with an effectuall and not with an uneffectuall will He goes on in the confirmation of this opinion Haec sententia est probabilior pro quâ nota aliud esse orare aliud simplex seu inefficax desiderium proponere quod facile in nobis ostendi explicari potest Nam nostra oratio debet esse conjuncta cum certâ spe seu fiduciâ consequendi id quod petimus Iacobi 1. 6. postulet autem in fide nihil haesitans Et Math. 21. 22. Omnia quaecunque petieritis in oratione credentes accipietis Quando autem proponimus seu manifestamus alteri simplex seu inefficax desiderium nostrum non facimus id cum certâ spe seu fiducia consequendi illud sed potius cum contrario affectu ut si dicam O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos This opinion is the more probable for the opening of which we must marke that it is one thing to pray another thing to propound a simple or uneffectuall desire which may easily be shewen and explained in our selves for our Prayer ought to be conjoyned with a certain hope or assurance of obtaining that which wee pray for Iam. 1. 6. Let him aske in faith nothing wavering or doubting Math. 21. 22. And all things whatsoever ye shall aske in prayer believing ye shall receive But when we propound or manifest a bare simple uneffectuall desire we doe not doe it with a certain confidence of obtaining what is so desired but rather with assurance of the contrary A seond testimony shall be taken out of Doctor Ames an acute and learned Protestant Coron art 5. c. 5. Juxta sententiam Arminii c. nulla propria est oratio quae non sit absoluta quae etiam sententia non est temerè damnanda cum inniti videatur rationibus non contemnendis praesertim illà quae deducitur ab orationis natura Oratio enim est submissa repraesentatio voluntatis nostrae apud Deum ut ab ipso perficiatur Explicatio velleitatis quâ quid vellemus si aliud non obsisteret non est oratio proprie dicta jam vero nihil volumus proprie quod non absolute volumus atque adeo nil petimus quod non absolute petimus Quamvis in dispositione precantium conditionis ratio virtualiter saepe contineatur Petimus quidem nonnunquam ut unum fiat si alterum contingat cujus quidem consequentis rei futuritio ut conditionata sit rogamus Sed ipsa tamen petitio est absoluta quoniam absolute petimus ut posito uno ponatur alterum According to the opinion of Arminius there is no proper prayer but what is absolute which opinion is not rashly to be condemned seeing it seems to be grounded upon considerable reasons especially that which is drawn from the nature of prayer for prayer is a submisse and lowly representation of our wills before God to the end it may be performed by him The unfolding of a velleity whereby we would will a thing if something did not hinder is not prayer properly so called But now we will nothing properly which we doe not absolutely will and therefore we pray for nothing properly which we doe not absolutely petition for although the nature of a condition be often virtually contained in the disposition of the parties praying who may be ready to submit their wills unto Gods Indeed we sometimes pray that one thing may be done if another thing come to passe and here we pray that the futurition of the following thing be conditionall but the prayer it selfe is absolute because we pray absolutely that one thing doe exist upon the positure or existence of another If this which these men say be true then Christ prayed for the justification of all his crucifiers as a private man only improperly and not in the proper and strict acception of Prayer for which improper notion of the word we have warrant from Scripture when Christ said Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Non oravit saith Becanus sed simplex naturae desiderium proposuit He did not pray but propound the simple bare and naked desire of his nature but though this his expression of his naturall desire and love of life be not a prayer in regard of either a criticall or Phylosophicall use of the Word yet you see t is agreeable enough unto the language of the holy Ghost in scripture to inlarge the signification of the Word so farre as to apply it thereunto for Mathew saies expresly that he prayed Math. 26. 39 42. But here for mine owne part I must freely professe that I better like Aquinas his interpretation of the place that Christ prayed not for all his Crucifyers but only for those of them that were predestinate unto the obtaining of eternall life by and through him And of this prayer what a fruitfull and plentifull Harvest he reaped you may read in the 2 3 and 4. Chapters of the History of the Acts of the Apostles There you shall read that the Lord daily added to the Church such as should be saved at one time three Thousand and another time five thousand of whom a great and considerable number denyed the Holy one and the just and desired a murtherer to be granted to them and crucified and killed the Prince of life Acts 2. 36. Acts 3. 14 15. Rivet on Psal 2. quotes a testimony of Austin favouring this glosse videbat quosdam suos inter multos alienos illis jam petebat veniam a quibus accipiebat injuriam In making good this to be the sense and meaning of the place
upon all And accordingly in case when he saith the one he meaneth by the word all no more but Jewes Gentiles it followes that when he saith God hath mercy on all by the word all he understands no more then both Jewes and Gentile and that is certain nations of men only not all men of all sorts and conditions And therefore although it were granted him that all men of all sorts are unbelievers yet unlesse he can prove that in this sense the Apostle speaketh of all in saying God hath concluded all under infidelity let any one that is indifferent judge whether this argument be of any force Thus our Divines understand it to wit of Jewes and Gentiles Thus Aquinas and Sasbutius Popish Divines interpret it Aquinas his words are these omnia id est omne hominum genus tam Judaeos quam Gentes in incredulitate conclusit ut omnium misereatur id est ut in omni hominum genere misericordia locum habeat And again non est extendendum ad omnes homines sigillatim sed ad omnia genera hominum Fit enim hic distributio pro generibus singulorum non pro singulis generum So Cajetan Conclusit permissive omnes tam Judaeos quam Gentes in peccatum infidelitatis The Text it selfe doth cleerely justify this as appears by the two verses immediatly preceding wherewith this coheres v. 30. For even as the Gentiles in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through the Jewes unbeliefe 31. Even so now have they the Jewes not believed by the mercy shewed to you Gentiles that they also that is the Jewes may obtain mercy This construction was embraced of old by Austin as appears by Beda upon the Romans alleadging August de Civit. Dei lib. 21. Conclusit Deus omnes in infidelitate ut omnium misereatur Quos omnes nisi de quibus loquebatur tanquam dicens vos illos Deus ergo Gentiles Judaeos quos praescivit praedestinavit conformes fieri imagini filii sui omnes in infidelitate conclusit de amaritudine infidelitatis suae paenitendo confusi ad dulcedinem misericordiae Dei credendo conversi clamaret c. And anon after Omnium itaque miseretur vasorum misericordiae Quid est omnium eorum scilicet quos ex Gentibus eorum quos ex Judae is praedestinavit 2. Observe how he hides himselfe under an ambiguous phrase least he should come with his foule opinion to the light As when he saith every man of every condition is under mercy The Apostles phrase on Gods part is misereri to shew mercy on mans part as partaking hereof is to obtain mercy v. 30. 31. and to obtain mercy is to believe v. 30. as appears by the opposition for to obtain mercy and not to believe are there made opposite therefore to obtain mercy and to believe are the same For to believe and not to believe are formally opposite Now dares this Author avouch that every man of every condition doth believe Again the Apostles word ut misereatur that he may shew mercy is not spoken of the time present for as much as for the time present the Lord had mercy only on the Nations of the Gentiles But the time should come that God would also have mercy on the Jewes and consequently on all But when should this come to passe Surely not 'till 1600 years after to wit when the time cometh which is appoynted for the effectuall and generall calling of the Nation of the Jewes So that the foundation being most rotten no marvail if the edifice he builds hereupon must needs totter For the Jewes were thus to be shut up under infidelity for many hundred years to wit untill the time came which the Apostle prophesyeth of And so were the Gentiles also before them 'till the time came of their calling And thus Sasbutius interpreteth the Apostle in this very place Sensus est saith he sic visum est Deo dispensare utriusque populi salutem Iudaeorum videlicet Gentium ut permitteret utrumque populum suo vitio concludi sive constringi sub incredulitate damnatione Concludi inquam ne ullâ ratione poscit ex incredulitate suâ vinculo se liberare ut ipsius misericordia gratuita locum habere agnoscatur in utroque populo tam Iudaeorum quam Gentium Thus we see that both his all 's are not worth a Bodkin and to give him two all 's more to encrease his store we may justly say that all this is nothing at all to the purpose DISCOURSE SECT III. IOhn 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever c. God loved the World that is the whole lump of Man-kind therefore God did not absolutely hate the greatest part of Man-kind God loved it fallen into a guilt of sinne and misery for he so loved them as to send his Sonne to redeeme them and a Saviour presupposeth sinne He did not therefore hate the most of them considered in the fall for love and hatred are contrary acts and cannot be exercised about the same Object Many expositors I know doe take World here in a restrained sense and understand by it the company of the Elect or the World of believers only but they have little reason for it in my opinion for 1. I think there can be no place of Scripture alleadged wherein this word World especially with the condition of whole as in 1 Epist of Iohn 2. 2. which is a place equivalent to this for the matter of it and a comment upon it I say I think no place can be produced where World doth signify only the Elect or only believers but it signifies either all men or at least the most men living in some certain place and at some certain time but without distinction of good and bad or if it be used any where more restrainedly it is applyed only to the wicked and Reprobate men who are wedded in their affections to the World and the transitory delights thereof and therefore doe most properly deserve this name 2. Suppose it be granted that World in some Scriptures is restrained to the Elect yet it cannot bear this signification here because 1. The words then would have a bad and senselesse construction for thus would they runne God so loved the Elect that whosoever believed in him should not perish c. And if they runne thus then this would follow there are two sorts of the Elect some that doe believe and shall be saved others that doe not believe and shall be damned which is a division or distinction unknown in Divinity 2. Believers and Vnbelievers damned and saved comprehend all Man kind for there is no man but is one of these Now World in this place includeth believers and unbelievers the saved and the damned as appears most plainly to him that considers the words therefore it signifieth here all Man kind without exception
of any Against this Scripture therefore fights this absolute reprobation and hatred of men TWISSE Consideration BE it the whole lump of man-kind if that Lettice like his lipps I should think by World is meant homines in mundo degentes men at any time living in the World without any restraint But herehence it followeth not that God doth not absolutely hate the greatest part of man-kind which this Author should have proved but he doth not therefore I will not only deny it but disprove it First therefore consider this love is only secundum Quid in reference to mens persons namely so farre forth as in case they believe they shall obtain everlasting life through the Sonne of God But if there were no farther love of God towards man they might be damned yea every Mothers sonne for all this Secondly if faith it selfe be a gift of God and God gives it not to all but to some only and those but a few for even of them that are called few are chosen and withall if God hath absolutely decreed to bestow this grace only on a few and deny it to the greatest part of the World will it not manifestly follow herehence that if absolutely to decree the denyall of faith be to hate then surely God absolutely hates the greatest part of men notwithstanding this love here mentioned albeit we extend it to all and every one Therefore it became this Author to prove that God is indifferent to give Faith to one as well as to another and that either absolutely whence it would follow that all and every one should both believe and be saved or conditionally and therewithall represent unto us what that condition is whereupon God bestowes faith on one and for the want thereof he refuseth to bestow faith on another This is the very criticall poynt about the controversies of Gods decrees Here therefore he should have shewed his strength For as for Gods purpose to damne we willingly professe that as God damnes no man but for sinne so he purposeth to damne no man but for sinne But as for his purpose to give or deny the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance we as readily professe that not the purpose only but the very giving of faith and repentance for the curing of infidelity and hardnesse of heart in some and the denying of it unto others so to leave their naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart uncured proceeds meerely according to the good pleasure of his will according to that of the Apostle He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And by a cloud of testimonies out of Austin we can prove that in this very sense he understood the Apostle in that place And indeed no other interpretation of that place can with any modesty be devised or obtruded upon us As for the redeeming of all and every one by Christ distinguisheth that which the haters of Gods truth doe delight to confound There is a redemption from the guilt of sinne and a redemption from the power of sinne For we are redeemed from our vaine conversation Christ came into the World to dissolve the works of the Devill No greater works of Satan then blindnesse of heart 2 Cor. 4. 3. and hardnesse of heart Ephes 2. 2. and 2 Tim. 2. last The pardon of sinne and salvation God bestowes only on believers and upon condition of faith Now like as God is ready to bestow these benefits on all and every one and that for Christs sake in case they believe so Christ hath merited pardon of sinne and salvation for all and every one in case they believe Such is the sufficiency of Christs merit that if every one of Adams race should believe every one should be saved and this present Text proceeds upon this namely upon the sufficiency of Christs merits But enquire farther whether Christ did not merit for us the grace of faith and if he did whether absolutely of conditionally if absolutely then all must believe de facto and be saved if conditionally then faith is a grace which God bestowes on man conditionally Now let this Author shew us what that condition is upon performance whereof by man God will give him faith and let him try whether he can carry himselfe so warily herein as not to plunge himselfe into plain Pelagianisme This poynt is a break-neck or Crevecoeur unto all Arminians they generally avoyd the delivering of their minds clearly hereupon as a man would avoyd a precipice It is true some Divines doe interpret the word World here of the Elect as Piscator Rolloc doth not making no mention of the Elect hereupon And Piscators meaning is no more then this viz. that this love of God in respect of every gracious effect I mean in the way of sanctifying grace determins only upon the Elect for in all likelihood he followed Calvin in this Universalem notam apposuit saith Calvin tum ut promiscuè omnes ad vitae participationem invitet tum ut praecidat excusationem incredulis To the same purpose saith he pertaines nomen mundi quo prius usus est And again se toti mundo propitium ostendit quum sine exceptione omnes ad fidem vocat But here he subjoynes a caution thus Caeterum meminerimus ita communiter promitti omnibus vitam si in Christo crediderint ut tamen minime communis omnium sit fides Patet enim omnibus Christus expositus est solis tamen Electis oculos Deus aperit fide ipsum quaerant So that this gracious promise is generall to all and every one whosoever believes shall be saved But yet notwithstanding if it shall appeare that God gives the grace of faith to none but to a certain number which are his Elect it followes that the effect of this love of God to wit Salvation shall in the issue redound to none but Gods Elect. 1. As for the designing a place where the World is taken for the Elect we need no such place as I have shewed yet Piscator conceives that so it is taken Iohn 3. 17. That the World might be saved by him But what think you of Rom. 11. 15. Where the casting away of the Jewes is said to be the reconciliation of the World And that 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himselfe I say the reconciled World is only Gods Elect for the reconciled are all saved as I prove by the Apostles argument Rom. 5. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Ioh. 1. 29. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Are their sinnes taken away that are damned for them And Ioh. 6. 33. He gives life to the World Is life given to any but to the Elect 2. The second reasons why in this place it cannot be so taken are in effect but one and that a
strange that as many as refuse to be in subjection unto God have liberty enough to be made vassalls and be brought in subjection unto their own corrupt and unreasonable fancies For the word of God forsooth must be tempered and interpreted according to the rules of their reason their reason must not be ordered and squared according unto the word of God But to proceed the Lawyers rule of the nullity of a contract sub conditione impraestabili is nothing to the present purpose For the case is not alike between man and man and between God and man God stands not at the pleasure of man to contract in what manner he thinks good And when he hath given him power to performe whatsoever at any time he shall command him if man disable himselfe shall God hereby be deprived of his right to command what he thinks good and to punish for disobedience as he thinks good We read of some that have cut off their thumbs to disable themselves for military service is it not just with men to punish such as runne away after they have received their presse monies But there is yet another geofaile in the accommodation of this rule of Law For conditio impraestabilis there is such as cannot be performed by reason of impotency naturall but the impotency we speake of in the case between God and man is meerely impotency morall to wit therefore they cannot because they will not were it not for the corruption of their will no power were wanting in man to believe and repent But as Austin saith alleadged by the Brittaine Divines out of Retract 1. 15. Voluntas sine charitate est tota vitiosa cupiditas and upon the 3 d and 4 th artic De conversione qua denotat immediatum opus Dei hominem regenerantis Thesi 2. They professe that in voluntate lapsa est potentia passiva ad esse hoc supernaturale extrinsecus adveniens recipiendum non autem activa ad idem vel per se vel cum alio producendum Jer. 17. 14. Sana me domine Sanabor And out of the Synodicall Epistle of the Bishops of Africa to the same purpose they alleadge this passage In vivificandis hominibus Deus nullum initium voluntatis humanae expectat sed ipsam voluntatem bonam faciendo vivificat And also that of Austin de corep gra cap. 14. Creatio in Christo in libertatem voluntatis facta est sine nobis si in libertatem tum non ex libertate si sine nobis tum penes nos non est hoc Dei opus impedire Be it all one to deny a piece of mony flatly to a blind man and to promise it upon a condition that he will looke upon it with his eyes In like sort as touching the Reprobate God hath no purpose to give salvation but to deny it rather although he give this generall rule that whosoever believeth shall be saved and therefore he gives this rule because he purposeth by these means to draw his elect unto Christ by faith such a manner being most agreeable to their reasonable natures And the reason why the rule is proposed to all is because partly Gods Ministers are not acquainted with Gods counsell so farre as to know whom he hath elected partly in respect that the more carnall men are the more confident they are of performing any such duties I meane of power to performe it as namely to believe to obey to repent partly to the end that some hereby may be brought ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur as Austin sometimes speaketh as also because there is a kind of faith performeable by a naturall man for we see both prophane persons and Hypocrites concurre in an outward profession of Christianity with the children of God yet there is a great difference between blindnesse naturall and blindnesse spirituall for in the one there is a will and desire to see not so in the other the one being impotency naturall the other morall And in a word there is no impotency morall in man that hath not been brought upon him through sinne either originall of actuall As for the spanning of the earth or touching the heaven with ones finger this never was in the power of man but to believe any word of God I hope this Author will not deny to have been sometimes in the power of man nay he seems to be of opinion that it is in the power of all men still yet he would not be thought to deny originall sinne One thing yet remaines to be considered he said to whom the promise of salvation is made the performance of the condition must be a part of Gods will as well as the salvation promised But of what will of God must this be a part Of his will as it signifies his commandement We grant it is for he commands saying Repent and believe the Gospell and by this commandement it is apparent that it is the will of God that it shall be the duty of every man that hears this commandement to obey it But will he have it a part of Gods will to worke it effectually in all And how I pray Either by way of grace prevenient or by way of grace subsequent Not by way of grace prevenient for then all that heare the Gospell should believe and be saved for to worke Faith effectually that way is to worke the will unto Faith As for the working of it by way of grace subsequent this I have been lately taught by an Arminian to be no other than the working of it by way of concourse and that depends on the will of man and we doe not deny but that if any Reprobate will believe God will concurre to the working of this beliefe but so we say and no Arminian that I know will deny it that if man will work any sinfull act God will concurre to the working of it in as much as 't is generally held that no acts of the creature can be performed without Gods concurrence thereunto Now how well and how judicially this Author hath plaid his part in shewing the contrariety of our opinion to the Attributes of God I am content the indifferent may judge DISCOURSE The third sort of Reasons namely that it is contrary to the nature and end of Gods gifts conferred upon men SECT I. Thirdly it is contrary to the nature and end of Gods giftes conferred upon men which gifts are of two sorts 1. Gifts of nature our creation sustentation preservation together with health strength beauty wisdome c. 2. Gifts of grace which have a more immediate relation to everlasting life and are means either 1. Of purchasing salvation viz. the coming of Christ into the world to be made a sacrifice for sinne or 2. Of applying the salvation purchased namely the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments the long suffering of God the illumination of mens understandings the plantation of many excellent vertues in their hearts and
many more of the like sort What the true use and end of these gifts of nature and grace is the Scripture doth plainly and particularly shew us First for the gifts of nature we find that they are bestowed on all that have them for the encouraging and enabling of them to serve God and save their soules for Act. 14. 16 17. the Apostle saith that God even in these times wherein he permitted the Gentiles to walke in their own wayes and with-held from them the light of his holy word did give unto the people of the world raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their harts with food and gladnes by these not leaving him selfe without witnesse which implyes that he gave them these good things make himselfe known unto them and so that he might draw them to glorify him according to their knowledge of him Acts. 17. 26. The Apostle saith directly that men are therefore made and placed in this world and appointed to their severall times and dwellings that they may seeke God and finde him that is that they may serve him and save themselves for what is it to seeke God but to serve him And what is it to finde God but to enjoy his face and favour here and in Heaven Caelum quippe terra mare omnisque creatura quae videri intelligi potest ad hanc praecipue disposita est humani generis utilitatem natura rationalis de contemplatione tot specierum de experimentis tot bonorum de perceptione tot munerum ad cultum dilectionem sui imbueretur authoris implentis omnia spiritu Dei in quo vivimus movemur sumus They are the words of Prosper therefore is every creature made and ordained especially that mankind which is indued with knowledge and ability to discourse might by the sight of soe many goodly sorts of creatures and the rast of so many blessings be drawne to the love and service of his and their maker And a little after in the same Chap. he saith Quod ergo in Israel per constitutionem legis et prophetica eloquia gerebatur hoc in universis nationibus totius creaturae testimonia et bonitatis Dei miracula semper egerunt looke of what use the law and Prophets were to the Israelites of the same use were the gifts of creation and providence to the Gentiles God intended not to doe to the Gentiles as the Manichees say he dealt with the Iewes to feed them and fat them up with more outward blessings as so many hoggs and swines with husks and acornes but to draw them up by these to an exspectation of better things and a carefull endeavour to please God that soe they might obtaine them The end of all creatures and of all created gifts bestowed upon man is subordinate to the end of man mans end is to glorify God on Earth and to enjoy perpetuall society with him in Heaven And their end is to encourage and direct man to atchieve that high and noble end which his Creator hath appointed him TWISSE Consideration HEre we have a roaving discourse I must pick out of it what I can to draw it up to some sense of argument the ground of all the pith and substance of it is two places in the Acts and two passages out of Prosper The first out of Acts 14. 16 17. God in times past suffered all the Gentiles to walke in their own waies neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witnesse in that he did good and gave us raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse Now as for the first verse of these he is content to say nothing at all thereof neither to deliver what those wayes were nor in what sense God is said to suffer them to walke therein which yet may easily be cleared by comparing it with what is delivered Acts 17. 30. Where the times preceding the Gospell are called times of ignorance The times of this ignorance and this agreeth with the comparative difference made between Jewes and Gentiles Psal 147. 19. He sheweth his words unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israell v. 20. He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his judgements they have not known them So that by the wayes of the Gentiles I understand the wayes of Ignorance and these are no other than the wayes of darknesse and can bring forth no better fruit than the works of darknesse according to that of the Apostle Ephes 5. 8. Ye were darknesse but now are light in the Lord walke therefore as children of the light And againe the night is passed the day is at hand let us therefore cast away the workes of darknesse and put upon us the armour of light And as for Gods suffering of them to walke in those wayes that is expressed in another phâ—ase Acts 17. 30. thus And the times of this ignorance God winked at and the meaning thereof appeares by the Antithesis in the adversative following thus But now he admonisheth every man every where to repent Thus formerly he dealt with the Jewes giving them a law and sending Prophets from time to time to call them to obedience to repentance but such were not his gracious proceedings with the Gentiles But give we him leave to follow his own advantage God left not himselfe without witnesse in sending raine and fruitfull seasons So it was in most places I know none but Egypt excepted and that is to be excepted not only by evidence of Phylosophicall inquisition after the cause thereof in that question Utrum Aegyptus sit impluviata but by evidence out of Gods word Deut. 11. 10 11 12. The land whether thou goest to possesse is not as the Land of Aegypt from whence ye came where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of hearbs but the land whither ye goe to possesse it is a land of mountaines and vallies and drinketh water of the raine of heaven This Land doth the Lord your God care for the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the begining of the yeare to the end of the yeare Yet had they fruitfull seasons by the inundation of Nilus but this was not so apt to dispose them to take notice of a divine providence as the common course of fructifying the Land by raine But yet the whole world in the frame thereof was sufficient evidence of the Eternall power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. and Psal 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke And albeit Aristotle the greatest of Philosophers maintained the eternity thereof without beginning yet he confesseth ingeniously in his Book De coelo that all that went before him maintained mundum genitum esse neither was his discourse of power to raze out that naturall instinct hereof which seems to be graven in the hearts of men and was the chiefe ground of that universall acknowledgment
hell hath a being and by consequent something that is good If therefore God may take away a man's being that is innocent and turne him into nothing for his pleasure much more may he torment him in hell I am glad to see my name so often remembred by this Authour in his margent for a long time I desired to know his way by certaine evidence for I would not suffer my selfe to be carried away with rumours and withall I found some contradiction in the relations I received from different persons but at length I was so happy as to see it under his own hand and there to observe not his judgment only but the strength of his affections also Now let the Reader observe the cunning carriage of this Authour and how farre off it is from all ingenuitie For what I discourse being drawne thereunto by Arminius his excursions that this Authour obtrudes upon me as if the defence of the cause I tooke in hand had drawn me thereunto notwithstanding that I have professed the contrary For thus I write l. 1. pag. 1. De electione Sect 4. pag. 127. In the canvasing of this section Arminius runs out at large saving that most of these things which here he heapes up are aliena and nothing pertinent to the present purpose as pertaining rather to the decree of reprobation then to the decree of election And a little after I write thus Hence it is that Arminius expatiates and transfers his disputation from the point of election to the point of Reprobation too unseasonably Yet wisely affecting the incolumity of his wavering cause By that right saith he which God hath over his creature he cannot ordaine any man to the suffering of pain without the foresight of sinnne To wit that his cause might stand upright and that this examiner might omit nothing that tends to the making of his opinion plausible with his propitious reader it was needfull that he should make use of some such transition though never so unreasonable but seeing such are the wiles and artifices of our Adversaries to confound all Scholasticall method it shall not be unseasonable for me to weigh what he delivers as briefly as I can Therefore after I had refused Arminius on that point where he denyes that God can doe that injustice which he can doe by power after this manner I enter upon a new digression concerning this point Hitherto have I followed Arminius in his extravagants For M. Perkins hath not proceeded so farre as to affirme that God hath power to afflict an innocent creature neither hath his Adversaries objected any such thing unto him as justly inferred from ought delivered by him So that all such have well hardened their foreheads who faigne that our opinion cannot well subsist without the help of so horrid and so harsh an assertion to wit That it is better to be miserable then not to be at all It is true some may conceive that though this were a truth it were to be suppressed rather then affirmed by reason of the harshnesse of it Let every one consider aright that I undertake the defence of M. Perkins and it is he that hath uttered this harsh assertion namely That God can inflict hell paines without any demerit in the creature out of Cameracensis And it stood me upon to defend M. Perkins so farre as I had reason for it Now finding the maine argument whereby Arminius maintaines the contrary to that other yet more harsh proposition to be most unsound and even this assertion which sounds most harsh in the eares of many not only to be maintained by Austine himselfe and and divres Schoole-Divines but answered by many arguments the solution whereof was never expedited by any have I deserved so sharply to be censured for representing all this in the way of justifying M. Perkins whose defence I undertook against Arminius 1. My words are these translated God can annihilate the holiest creature which Arminius confesseth how much more is it in his power to afflict an innocent creature and that for ever considering that not only according to Schoole-divines but also according to Austine yea according to the truth it selfe it is more to be desired to have being under any pain then to have no being at all And afterwards I propose not one argument of mine own for the justifying of this but only represent the discourse of Austine hereupon as it is analized by Durandus that Schoole Divine Now why are not the School-men censured as men speaking unreasonably and against common sense Nay why is not Austine censured as one that had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay downe the conclusion which he hath once undertaken to maintain as well as my selfe Yea and much more considering that the discourse proving this is Saint Austin's and had I not added on the by these four words etiam secundum ipsam veritatem there had been no place at all for any censure to be past upon me If a man finding himselfe convicted by Austin's discourse shall confesse that what he writes is true is it equity to censure him as one who had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay down the conclusions which formerly he hath undertaken to maintain When in the mean time no censure is at all passed upon Austine who alone is the player of the game he that stands by professing only in his judgment he playes his game well 2. If Austine hath spoken unreasonably and against common sense how comes it to passe that this censurer hath not taken the paines to represent unto the world the unreasonablenesse of his argument This authour spends his mouth frankly in censuring but takes no paines to free his Reader from errour by solving arguments produced by Austin for the proofe of that wich this Authour conceives to be an errour 3. Nay he doth not so much as answer that one argument which here is proposed by me An argument which the Scoole-men use as sufficiently convincing the truth as Durandus and Ricardus Yet considering the unreasonable condition of such adversaries who take no course to convince or confute their opposites but imperiously to cry them down I have taken the paines to call to an account both Austin's arguments and others proposed by Schoole-Divines and to devise with my selfe what answer might be made unto them so to performe that for my adversaries which they shew no hart to performe for themselves and I was borne in hand that such a digression of mine should be extant long ere this 4 Yet by the way I wonder not a little that one thing is pretermitted For if I mistake not this very Authour is the man that heretofore hath been very full mouthed in censuring not so much the doctrine it selfe as a certain answer I made to an argument brought out of Scripture against it namely from those words of our Saviour It had been better for that man if he had never been