be saved such as are to turne unto God to beleeve to persevere and particular ensuing acts which being considered by themselves are not absolutely necessary to salvation as the avoyding of this and that sinne the not omitting of such and such a good deed For the performing of the former actions grace doth so worke that it gives the Elect both power and will to accomplish them But as for the latter there is not wanting unto us the motion and guidance of Gods Spirit through the whole course of our lives yet so that wee may bee wanting unto those motions of grace yea and too too often wee are wanting unto them and ever and an on we both freely and foully obey our owne corruptions Hence that of the Apostle Gal. 5.16 Walke in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the spirit of God by whom yee are sealed unto the day of redemption For they are said to grieve the holy Spirit who resist the guidance thereof and with a servile libertie goe after their owne concupiscenes contrary to the motion of grace and suggestion of their own conscience Erroneous Opinions which wee reject THE FIRST THat the will is not capable of spirituall gifts and that therefore there never were any spirituall gifts in the will of man before his fall that these graces were never severed from the will of man upon his fall and that such graces are never infused in regeneration into the wills of men THe holy Scripture in placing Gods spirituall gifts in the heart acknowledgeth also them to be in the will As namely uprightnesse or truth Psal. 32.12 Rejoyce all yee that are true in heart puritie Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart goodnes Luke 8.15 They are those which with an honest and good heart heare the word of God and keepe it 1 But if any man shall referre these graces to the affections and place them without the will he shall which were a foule enormity settle the chiefest gifts of divine grace in the unreasonable part of the soule Moreover the very habituall conversiō of the will unto God the Creator the aversion or turning away thereof from the inordinate desire it had to commit fornication with the creature without doubt is to be counted a chiefe and principal gift And that the will was capable of this gift it doth hence plainly appeare because it was created with such uprightnesse For God in the beginning made man righteous But that this righteousnes is lost it is over manifest by the effects seeing that now the will being carnall cannot choose but injoy and rest in those things which it ought onely to make use of and use the things which it ought rather to injoy forasmuch as a whole trope of sinfull dispositions have rushed and broke in upon the will 2 Furthermore as the will of a meere naturall man is said to be vicious frō a certaine inbred inherēt wickednes which in a wicked man even thē when he doth nothing is habituall so againe we must acknowledge that in the will of the regenerate there is a certaine righteousnesse infused and given from God which is presupposed in their religious actions Saint Austin in many places setteth forth this habituall righteousnesse The good will of man goes before many graces of God but not before all and this good will it selfe is to be reckoned among those gifts which it selfe cannot precede But lest any man should dreame that this goodnesse of the will is not an inward gift infused into that very faculty but onely a bare denomination fetched from the act of the will Prosper calls it the first plantation of the heavenly husbandman Now a plantation notes something engrafted in the soule not an act or action flowing from the soule THE SECOND ERRONEOVS OPINION THat that grace by which wee are converted is onely a gentle and moral swasion or inducement WEE deny not but in the worke of conversion whether in fitting us for that future grace or in confirming us therein as already performed God useth the perswasive force of his threats promises exhortations by which he allureth stirreth and ploweth up the fallowes of mens hearts But moreover for adding without faile the last close to this operation hee works more powerfully and unconquerably according to the exceeding greatnesse of his power and the working of his might Ephes. 1.19 Neither is swasion sufficient which no more then contingently affecteth and inviteth the will 1 For morall swasion moveth onely by way of object and so farre forth as the end propounded can allure But the Philosophers rightly determine that as the inclination of any one is accordingly hee apprehends the end So long therefore as a man is carnall and unregenerate his will cannot so bee affected with supernaturall benefits proposed unto it that by the desire of them hee should bee throughly enflamed to beleeve and convert But the will must be overcome and changed by a powerfull operation exceeding all swasion that so it may effectually embrace the good represented unto it 2 If men should be converted unto God onely by a morall swasion then this question why upon profer of equall grace one man beleeves another doth not might be answered out of the free wils owne power of willing or nilling neither should we have herein any cause to admire the unsearchable wisedome and justice of our God But this sound doctrine hath alwaies beene defended against the Pelagians That conversion faith comes from the secret grace of God which according to his mercie is afforded to some and according to his justice is not vouchsafed to others 3 If men were converted onely by morall swasion he which receives this swasive grace might truly say I have separated my selfe For I have received this gentle and swasive grace which hath solicited me to faith and conversion but no more then it solicited others they by the liberty of their free-will did reject this morall swasion and therefore they still remaine unconverted but I by the libertie of my free-will have given way and embraced the same swasion and therefore I am converted To what purpose then is that of Saint Paul Who hath separated thee What hast thou which thou hast not received Faith both begunne and perfected is the gift of God and no man who doth not oppose most manifest Scripture will doubt but that this gift is given to some and not given to other some THE THIRD ERRONEOVS OPINION THat presupposing all the operations of grace which God useth for the effecting of this conversion yet the will of man is still left in an equall ballance either to beleeve or not to beleeve to convert or not to convert it selfe to God 1 IF after all the workings of grace the will of man be left in eaven point it will necessarily follow that not God by his grace but man by his free-will is the chiefe cause and author
Christs death hath obtained for all men restitution into the state of grace and salvation 1 SAlvation is a thing promised by the new covenāt neither is it promised but upon the condition of faith Whosoever beleeveth shall be saved Since therefore all men have not faith in Christ under which only condition salvation is promised it is certaine that the death of Christ did not obtaine for all but for the faithfull alone a restoring into the state of grace and salvation which is abundantly proved by that of the Apostle Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God By peace in that place we understand our reconciliatiō with God who were formerly enemies and our restoring into the bosome of grace This is also further enforced by those places Rom. 3.4 Gal. 2.16 Which prove that we are justified by faith alone in Christ that is accounted by God for just persons 2 Without faith in Christ man doth remaine in the state of damnation Iohn 3.18 He is already judged Iohn 3.36 He shall not see life but the wrath of God remaineth on him But they whosoever are restored into the bosome of grace every one of them hath remission of sinnes which makes men happy Psal. 32.1 neither doe they remaine in condemnation neither doth the wrath of God remaine upon them They therefore who want faith are not restored by the death of Christ into the state of grace or salvation since through the name of Christ no man obtaineth remission of sinnes except hee who beleeves in him Acts 10.43 3 If so be the death of Christ hath obtained restitution for all then are they restored either then when Christ from all eternity was destinated to death which is false For so no man should be borne a child of wrath neither should originall sinne any whit damage mankinde being according to this opinion from all eternity forgiven them neither should infants and other need the laver of regeneration which is contrary to the assertion of our Saviour Iohn 3.5 Except a man be borne of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Or else they were restored in the person of our first parents when the promise of the seed of the woman was proclaimed Which cannot be For our first parents were not restored into the state of grace but by faith in Christ and consequently their posterity in like manner Therefore not all whether beleevers or unbeleevers are restored Or lastly when Christ himselfe suffered death upon the Crosse which cannot be For so no man before that moment should have beene restored which will not be granted by any neither are all restored from that time because without doubt even at that moment and afterward the anger of God waxed hot against some of his accusers condemners crucifiers and mockers Their Suffrage concerning the third and fourth ARTICLES First of the strength of freewill in man after the fall THE FIRST POSITION THe will of man being falne is deprived of the supernaturall and saving graces with which it was endowed in the state of innocency and therefore to the performing of any spirituall actions it is able to doe nothing without the assistance of grace THat the will of man was endowed with excellent graces it is hence manifest because man was made after the Image of God But the jmage of God had the prime place in the cheife faculty of the soule and what these graces were with which the will of man was beautified in the Creation it is evident out of those things which are restored for the making whole againe of this Image Ephes. 4.24 Put yee on that new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse And that this righteousnesse holiness and uprightnesse of our will was lost by the fall it is cleare by this second receiving the same being recovered by the grace of God in Christ. For wee are to put on anew that which we put off in Adam when hee was stript and left naked And that such a will as this of ours availes nothing to the performance of supernaturall actions the Scripture cleerely witnesseth Iohn 15.5 Without me you can doe nothing Rom. 5.6 When as yet wee were of no strength c. 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves Hence is that saying of St. Austin What good can a wicked man doe except so farre forth as hee is freed from perdition And againe Our will is so farre said to be free as it is freed THE SECOND POSITION THere is in the will of a man being fallen not onely a possibility of sinning but also an headlong inclination to sinne THis possibility was in the will even when it was incorrupt as it is too evident by the event But after the fall even by the fall there was over and above added a greedy thirst and desire to sinne Iob 15.16 Man drinkes iniquity like water A content and delight in sinne Prov. 2.14 Who rejoyce to doe evill and delight in the frowardnesse of the wicked Gen. 6.5 Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was evill continually A slavery under sinne Rom. 6.17 Ye were the servants of sinne Lastly death in sinne Ephes. 2.2 You were dead in sinnes and trespasses Neither can the case stand otherwise in corrupt man not yet restored by the grace of God since that such is the nature of the will that it cannot remaine single or utterly unfurnished but falling frō one object to which it did adhere it pursues another eagerly to embrace it And therefore being by a voluntary Apostasie habitually turned from God the Creator it runnes to the creature with an unbridled appetite and in a lustful and base manner commits fornication with it being alwayes desirous to set her heart and rest on those things which ought only to be used on the By and to attempt and accomplish things forbidden What maruell then if such a will be the bondslave of the deuill Luk. 11.21 When a strong man armed keepes his place his goods are in peace c. The will without charity is nothing but a vicious desire Of those things that goe before Conversion THE FIRST POSITION THere are certaine externall workes ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the state of regeneration or conversion which are wont sometimes to be performed freely by them and otherwhiles freely omitted as to goe to Church to hear the word preached or the like THat such things are required it is manifest Rom. 10.4 How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard And that they are in our power both reason tells us seeing it is in every mans power to rule his mouing faculty and experience proves it because wee see in outward things men as they will thēselves doe this or that or omit both They can therefore sit at home when they should go to Church It is in their power to stoppe their eares when
regeneration do not carie themselves so but that for their negligence and resistance they may justly be relinquished and forsaken of God but such is the speciall mercy of God towards them that though they doe for a while repell and choake the grace of God exciting or enlightning them yet God doth urge them againe and againe nor doth he cease to stirre them forward till hee have throughly subdued them to his grace and set them in the state of regenerate sonnes IOhn 6.37 Whatsoever my Father gives me shall come to me and him that commeth unto mee I will in no wise cast out Ier. 14.7 O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us doe thou it for thy names sake for our backslidings are many And 32.39 I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever Philip. 1.6 He that hath begunne a good worke in you will performe it untill the day of Iesus Christ. But if God should not goe on thus to follow even those that hold off and retire from him no calling would bee effectuall there would be no filiall adoption and even election it selfe grounded upon the good pleasure of God would be frustrated Since the fall of man God would have it ascribed to his grace that a man doth come unto him neither will he have it ascribed to any thing but his grace that a man doth not goe from him THE SEVENTH POSITION THose that are not elected when they resist the Spirit of God and his grace in these acts foregoing regeneration and extinguish the initiall effects of the same in themselves by the fault of their own free-will are justly forsaken by God whensoever it pleases him whom by their owne fault so forsaken we truly pronounce to remaine by the same demerit hardened and unconverted WE thinke it to be without all doubt that no mortal man doth so cary himselfe toward God but that either by omitting that which he should have done or committing that which hee should not have done he deserves to have the grace taken frō him which hee hath Which ground being forelayed it is cleere that God without all injustice and cruelty may take from such men that grace which hee hath extended to them and leave them to the hardnesse of their own hearts Rom. 9.18 Hee hath mercy on whom hee will have mercy and whom hee will hee hardeneth God oweth this to no man that when he resists enlightening exciting grace and serves his own lusts he should then soften and mollifie him by that speciall grace which no hard heart doth resist Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompenced unto him againe Againe he that is thus forsaken being not converted perishes through his owne fault Iohn 5.34.40 I say these things that yee might be saved and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Acts 28. The heart of this people is waxed grosse lest they should be converted and I should heale them Of conversion as it designes the immediate worke of God regenerating men THE FIRST POSITION GOd doth regenerate by a certaine inward and wonderfull operation the soules of the elect being stirred up and prepared by the aforesaid acts of his grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning spirit and seasoning all the faculties of the soule with new qualities HEre by regeneration we understand not every act of the holy Spirit which goes before or tends to regeneration but that act which as soone as it is there we conclude presently this man is now borne of God This spirituall birth presupposes a minde moved by the spirit using the instrument of Gods Word whence also wee are said to bee borne againe by the incorruptible seed of the word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiasticall regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden rapture without any foregoing action either of God the Word or himselfe Furthermore wee conclude that the spirit regenerating us doth convey it selfe into the most inward closset of the heart and frame the minde anew by curing the sinfull inclinations therof by giving it strength and infusing into it a formall originall cause or active power to produce spirituall actions tending to salvation Ephes. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away your stony heart and give you an heart of flesh From this worke of God commeth our ability of performing spiritual actions leading to salvation As the act of beleeving 1 Iohn 5.1 Whosoever beleeves that Iesus is the Christ is borne of God Of loving 1 Iohn 4.7 Every one that loveth is borne of God Lastly all works of piety Iohn 15.5 Without me ye can doe nothing Prosper saith that Grace creates good in us The Schoolemen doe not deny so manifest a truth Thomas Aquinas affirmes that this grace of which we speake doth give a certaine spirituall being to the soule that it is a certaine supernaturall pertaking of the divine nature that it is in respect of the soule as health is in respect of the body THE SECOND POSITION IN this worke of regeneration man is meerly passive neither is it in the power of mans will to hinder God regenerating thus immediately IOhn 1.13 Which were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God For if in the naturall creation it be true that God made us and not we ourselves much more in the spirituall recreation Ier 13.23 If the Ethiopian cannot change his skin neither can man defiled with sinne correct his naturall corruption In the will depraved there is the passive power to receive this supernaturall being comming from without but not the active to produce it of it selfe or with another Ier. 17.14 Heale me O Lord and I shall be healed In quickning of men God doth expect no beginning from mans will but hee quickneth the will it selfe by making it good What doth freewill I answer briefly It is saved This worke cannot be effected without two one by whom it is done the other in whom it is done God is the Author of salvatiō freewil is only capable of it Our creation in Christ was made into the freedome of the will and without us if into freedome then not out of freedome If without us then it is not in us to hinder this worke of God When God determineth to save no will of man resisteth Of Conversion as it imports what man himselfe doth in turning to God by faith and saving repentance THE FIRST POSITION VPon the former conversion followeth this our actual conversion wherein out of our reformed will God himselfe draweth forth the very act of our beleeving and converting and this our will being first moved by God doth it selfe also worke by turning unto God and beleeving that is by executing withall its
alone the Elect of God Doth God justifie Paul onely Or doth Christ make intercession for Paul alone Since therefore out of these premises common to the whole Church of the Elect Saint Paul in that place inferres that confident conclusion Who shall separate us and I am perswaded c. certaine it is that other beleevers also who have interest to the same meanes of salvation may hence deduce and apply unto themselves this full perswasion of their salvation and perseverance The same conclusion every faithfull soule is able to make out of other ordinary premises 1 From the faithfulnesse of God 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithfull who will not suffer c. 2 From experience of his former good will Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that hee which hath begun a good worke in you will also perfect it c. 3 From the practise of good workes performed in faith 2 Pet. 1.10 If yee doe these things ye shall never fall and what those things are t is evident out of the 5. and 6. verses 4 From the testimony of the conscience 1 Iohn 3.21 If our hearts condemne us not then have we confidence toward God 5 By the testimony of former led life 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight hence forth is there a Crowne laid up for me 6 Lastly the testimony of the Spirit doth seale all these things to us Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit c. These and other evidences of the like kind are obvious to every faithfull soule and therefore likewise the conclusion But if this certainty should issue only from an extraordinary revelation Saint Peter shold in vaine exhort all the faithfull thus 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure THE FIFT THat as often as any grievous carnall sinne is committed so often is the state of justification and adoption lost AGainst this opinion these arguments besides others are of force 1 Man cannot by any sinne make void any act of Gods But justification and adoption are Gods acts and those flowing from his owne good pleasure Ergo. When therefore it is questioned whether or no there may be an intercision of justifying grace caused by the sinnes of the flesh the question is not onely whether a man can lose any qualitie by sinne but we must fetch this question much further to wit whether mans sinne be of force to make void Gods acts or to alter that doome of God by which hee in himselfe hath already pronounced us just and adopted us into the right and title of Sonnes In vaine in this case some oppose against us the defect of the subject or failing on mans part Whereas God doth continually repaire the subject which of it selfe without doubt would faile by giving the faithfull perseverance that they may not faile For to the end that by faith he might keepe us he keepes also that very faith in us as elegantly that reverend late Bishop of Salisbury 2 So farre it is that every grievous sinne of the flesh should altogether devest a faithfull soule of the state of justification and adoption that on the contrary it is held especially by practicall Divines that God doth permit those sinnes very often in justified and adopted persons that both their justification and adoption might be afterward the more confirmed unto them according to that of the Prophet Psal. 119.71 It is good for me that thou hast humbled me that I might learne thy statutes This is evident in the falls not onely of David but also of Hezekias and Peter whereby occasionally the endevor of holinesse the acknowledgement of their owne infirmity and a more vehement suit unto God for the gift of perseverance were increased in them We conclude therefore that neither justification is broken off nor yet adoption lost by the falls of the Saints but that hence it comes to passe that rising againe they doe so much the more warily worke out their owne salvation with feare and trembling THE SIXT THat the doctrine of the certainty of perseverance and salvation is of its owne nature both hurtfull unto true piety and pernicious every way to Religion BOth Gods truth and mans experience easily wipe off this aspersion For this Christian perswasion of perseverance and salvation not onely in respect of its own nature But also according to the very event in the Church doth by Gods blessing produce a quite contrary effect 1 First in respect of the thing it selfe the certainty of the end doth not take away but establish the use of the meanes And the same holy men who upon sure grounds promise unto themselves both constancy in the way of this pilgrimage and fruition of God in their everlasting home know also that these are not obtained without performance of the duties of holinesse and the avoidance of contrary vices and therefore they turne not their backes from these meanes but industriously embrace and prosecute them 1 Iohn 3.3 Everie man that hath this hope in himselfe purifieth himselfe even as he is pure Esay 38.5 When Hezekiah had received that promise of God of an addition of fifteene yeares to his life he did not therefore neglect the use of medicines or meats but that this promised event might be brought into act he applied for the cure of his body the plaister which was prescribed unto him by the Prophet The Apostle doth altogether reject this consequence of carnall security imputed to this doctrine and that with a kinde of indignation Rom. 6.1 Shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound God forbid How shall we which are dead to sinne live any longer therein As if Saint Paul would intimate unto us not onely the incongruity but also impossibility of such a sequell 2 As touching the event true it is that any the most wholesome truth of God may bee perverted by the abuse of men But upon this doctrine wee cannot acknowledge that there groweth any such inconvenience no not de facto that is in the event it selfe Let us take a view of the Reformed Churches in which this confidence of perseverance and inviolable adoption is beleeved and maintained Doe we finde that thereupon the bridle is let loose unto riot That piety is trampled downe We give thankes unto God through our Lord Iesus Christ that among ours who enjoy this full perswasion of spirituall comfort and are confident that there is an inheritance which cannot bee lost laid up for them in heaven there is not found lesse care of godlinesse nor lesse endevor so far forth as mans infirmity will suffer to live an unblameable life than is to be found among any sort of those who pinne their perseverance on their owne free will and will not grant it to flow from any foregoing Election of GOD. THus have wee set downe our joynt Suffrage concerning these five controverted Articles which our judgement wee beleeve to be agreeato the word of God and sutable to