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ask a reafon, why God allowed and allotted unto thefe Men the means which he foreknew would bring them to Glory, and fettled the end, Glory and eternal Life upon them? And why he permitted any at all to perish, or why thefe rather than others, when he foreknew their ends would be unhappy through their own fault, when he could have remedied it, and have fo difpofed things, out of the Treafures of his Wifdom and Knowledge, that. thefe alfo might have been faved, or others that are faved might have perished? Our answer to this, I fay, muft be founded on God's Dominion; that it was his high Pleafure to have his feverity manifefted, as well as his Mercy; his feverity in the one, without wrong or injuftice to any; his Mercy to the other, in beftowing on them his free and frank Bounty, as Lord of his own things. Thus when God, as the Supreme caufe, difpofer and ruler of all, was contriving and ordering how all things fhould be, we fee it verified in him, that he hath Mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardneth, by his granting to fome those means which he knew would be falutary, and refolving to help thofe no further, whom he found would fail under fufficient help given them.

Here is to be feen that Mafs or Lump of Mankind, out of which the great Potter made Veffels to Honour, and to Dishonour; namely, the whole race of Men, from the firft Man to the laft, under all circumftances accompanying every particular both on God's part, and alfo on Man's, known and confidered by the natural and fimple Understanding of God: for then they were as a lump without determined forms, capable of any change or amendment, according to the great Work-mafter's pleasure. For as God by his Sovereign Power maketh of the fame Earth one piece Gold, another Lead, or ba

fer

fer ftuff; fo of Mankind, he made fome to Holi. nefs and Honour, fome he permitted to be Defiled and come to Difhonour: But with this difference, that there his own hand did all, as working upon dead and fenfelefs matter; here he worketh upon a living and reasonable Creature, whofe nature we muft fuppofe to be preferved in God's working upon it. For in Comparisons, as there must be fome likeness, fo the differences must be obferved, as the nature of things compared do differ, elfe nothing is more fit to deceive with, than a fimilitude. Thus much of the nature of God who did Predeftinate; Let us now confider the nature of Man who was Predeftinated. It pleased the most wife. and omnipotent Creator, amongst other his Glorious works, to conceive one more admirable and excellent than the reft, to fubfift of a mixt and compound nature, of Spirit and of Flesh: By the Flesh, inferior to the Angels; by the Spirit, fuperior to beafts, to whom he might fay, Be not as the Horfe, and as the Mule that have no Understanding; for he would make him a reasonable Creature, and fo a free Creature, not in fuch a manner free, as to be under no Superior, or to be abfolute, felf-fufficient, and independent on any other, for this belongs only to God himself; but fo that in fuch things as he fhould Will or Nill, the nature of his Will fhould be free, and at liberty to choose, or refuse this or that, to be Mafter and owner of his own acts, to be thereby capable of righteoufnefs, or of Sin, of doing Good or Evil, of Obedience or Difobedience; and thence a fubject of praise or punishment, of bounty or Juftice, which no creature could properly be, that is not free in Will, and loofe, and at liberty from all kind of neceffity.

This perhaps may be faid to be true of the first Man Adam, in his Creation; but fince his Fall,

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that freedom of Man is to all kind of things decayed, and to things Spiritual utterly loft: which being granted, yet this is to be added, that God who knew and permitted this fall and lofs, knew alfo how to provide, and prepare the Graces of his powerful Spirit, for reftoring and supplying what was loft; and how to give a new commandment, or make a new Covenant with Man fallen, fit and propor tionable to the impotent will of Man, and to those Graces of his Spirit, which he would be ever ready to fupply, either preventing Man, or working in him, or affifting, protecting and preferving him, as need fhould require: So that this noble Creature ftill might hold and keep the Place and rank of a free Agent. For we may not think that the Wifdom of God made fuch an one to fhew him to the Angels, and to the World, and ever after to have banished him out of the World; or to have admitted fo notorious a defect in this Universe, that there fhould not be found in it, the nobleft nature of things here below, above a day or two, in the very infancy of the World; and ever after, Men fhould all either be neceffarily Evil, or neceffarily Good, as the Manichees fuppofed: feeing God created Man to be the Subject of his righteous Judg ment. The old faying therefore must be remembered; If there be no Grace from God, how shall God Save the World? If there be not Freewill in Man, how hall God Judge the World? Grace is to be defended fo, as not to fubvert the Freedom of Man's Will, and the Free-will of Man is so to be defended, that we do not evacuate the Grace of God.

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To conclude with uniting the confideration of these two natures together, of God and Man, in our conceiving the order and manner of Divine Predeftination; Secing the nature of a free Creature is the Subject and Root of moft of the contingencies in the World, and the natural knowledge of

God,

God, or his fimple Understanding, is the infallible foreknower of all future contingencies, even conditional, if God please to create fuch a free Creature. It followeth from hence, that a juft Decree before all time, determining what fhall become of every Free-creature in the end of time, cannot poffibly be conceived by us to have been made, but as proceding from that infallible Foreknowledge of every Man's works, which is in God; fince he will render to every Man according to his works.

And again, becaufe the fame Decree doth procede from a Sovereign Lord whofe Will is abfolute, who will be debtor to none, but will have all debtors to him; it followeth again, that the Foreknowledge out of which the Decree procedeth, can be no other, after the manner of our conception, than that of God's natural, and fimple Underftanding of things, when they were but as poffible before any Decree was made, that they should be Created or come into being. To which knowledge when the omnipotent Will of God adjoined it felf, an infallible and unchangeable Decree was made, that things fhould be fuch as they are now, neceffary or contingent, means or ends, caufes or effects, fuch as foreknowledge had apprehended and understood them: So that the Salvation of every Man who is faved, is from God; and the perdition of every Man that perisheth is from himself. To God only wife, the Gracious and Righteous Lord, be all Honour, Glory, and Dominion for ever, Amen.

Sufficiant que dicta funt. nec enim oportet, quod dici folet, univerfum ebibere mare eum qui velit difcere,

quoniam aqua ejus falfa eft.

Iren. Lib. 2. Cap. 34.

CHAP.

CHA P. XXI.

An Analysis to the Seventeenth Article of the Church of England.

T "O make manifeft how perfect a confent the fifth

Opinion hath with the confeffion of the Church of England in the feventeenth Article, which is of Predeftination and Election; and to fhew who are worthy to be accounted Heterodox from the Church, I moft humbly crave leave to Analyfe and Explicate the faid Article.

In doing whereof I defire the judicious Reader to confider with me three things; First, the Scope and Intent of the Article; Secondly, the Parts and Paragraphs with their connexion; Thirdly, the Loweft and Particular Terms in every Part, and that in their Literal and Grammatical fenfe, as we are commanded by his Majefty's Declaration, and according to thofe places of Scripture, from whence the Terms are taken fo Religioufly, that nothing could

be better.

The Scope of the Article is; First, to establish an unity of Doctrine in the high point of Predeftination and Election, among the Members of the Church; Secondly, to direct them in the right ufe of this Doctrine, and to prevent abufes.

The Parts and Paragraphs diftinguished to the Eye in moft Editions are two; the first, from the beginning to thefe words, they attain to Everlasting Felicity. This hath refpect chiefly to the firft end, the Établishing of the found Doctrine of Predeftination: The Second beginneth at thefe words, As the Godly confideration, &c. and reacheth to the end: this hath refpect chiefly to the fecond; to

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