Thirdlj^, If ye will charge our human nature with a repugnancy to the law of God, they will maintain that it was also in Adam when he was first created, and so comes from God himself: chapter the eighth.
Fourthly, They deny the efficacy of the merit of the death of Christ; — both that God intended by his death to redeem his church, or to acquire unto himself a holy people ; as also, that Christ by his death hath merited and procured for us grace, faith, or righteousness, and power to obey God, in fulfilling the condition of the new cove- nant. Na}^, this were plainly to set up an ark to break their Dagon's neck; for, " what praise," say they, "can be due to ourselves for be- lieving, if the blood of Christ hath procured God to bestow faith upon us?" " Increpet te Deus, O Satan !" See chapters nine and ten.
14 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
Fifthly, If Christ will claim such a share in saving of his people, of them that believe in him, they will grant some to have salvation quite without him, that never heard so much as a report of a Savi- our; and, indeed, in nothing do they advance their idol nearer the throne of God than in this blasphemy: chapter eleven.
Sixthly, Having thus robbed God, Christ, and his grace, they adorn their idol free-will with many glorious properties no way due unto it: discussed, chapter twelve, where you shall find how, " movet cor- nicula risum, furtivis nudata coloribus."
Seventhly, They do not only claim to their new-made deity a sav- ing power, but also affirm that he is veiy active and operative in the great work of saving our souls, —
First, In fitly preparing us for the grace of God, and so disposing of ourselves that it becomes due unto us : chapter thirteen.
Secondly, In the effectual working of our conversion together with it: chapter fourteen.
And so at length, \vith much toil and labour, they have placed an altar for their idol in the holy temple, on the right hand of the altar of God, and on it offer sacrifice to their own net and drag; at least, " nee Deo, nee libero arbitrio, sed dividatur," — not all to God, nor all to free-will, but let the sacrifice of praise, for all good things, be divided between them.
CHAPTER 11.
Of the eternity and immutability of the decrees of Ahiiii^hty God, denied and overthrown by the Arminians.
It hath been always believed among Christians, and that upon infallible grounds, as I shall show hereafter, that all the decrees of God, as they are internal, so they are eternal, acts of his will; and therefore unchangeable and irrevocable. Mutable decrees and occa- sional resolutions are most contrary to the pure nature of Almighty God. Such jsrinciples as these, evident and clear by their own light, were never questioned by any before the Arminians began axivrira. ziviTv, and to profess themselves to delight in opposing common no- tions of reason concerning God and his essence, that they might exalt themselves into his throne. To ascribe the least mutability to the divine essence, with which all the attributes and internal free acts of God are one and the same, was ever accounted vvBpQoXn adioTi^Tog^ " transcendent atheism," in the highest degi'ee.^ Now, be this crime of what nature it will, it is no unjust imputation to charge it on the ' rhil. lib. quod sit Deus iminutabilis.
OF THE DECREES OF GOD. 15
Arminians, because they confess themselves guilty, and glory in the crime.
First, They undermine and overthrow the eternity of God's pur- poses, by affirming that, in the order of the divine decrees, there are some which jprecede every act of the creature, and some again that folloiu them : so Corvinus,^ the most famous of that sect. Now, all the acts of every creature being but of yesterday, temporary, like themselves, surely those decrees of God cannot be eternal which fol- low them in order of time ; and yet they press this, especially in re- spect of human actions, as a certain, unquestionable verity. " It is certain that God willeth or determineth many things which he would not, did not some act of man's will go before it," saith their great master, Arminius.^ The like affirmeth, with a little addition (as such men do always " proficere in pejus"), his genuine scholar, Nic. Grevin- chovius. ^"I sujipose," saith he, "that God willeth many things which he neither would nor justly could will and purpose, did not some action of the creature precede." And here observe, that in these places they speak not of God's external works, of those actions which outwardly are of him, — as inflicting of punishments, bestowing of rewards, and other such outward acts of his providence, whose ad- ministration we confess to be various, and diversely applied to several occasions, — but of the internal purposes of God's will, his decrees and intentions, which have no present influence upon, or respect unto, any action of the creature; yea, they deny that concerning many things God hath any determinate resolution at all, or any purpose farther than a natural affection towards them. " God doth or omit- teth til at towards which, in his own nature and his proper inclina- tion, he is affected, as he findeth man to comply or not to comply with that order which he hath appointed," saith Corvinus.'* Surely these men care not what indignities they cast upon the God of heaven, so they may maintain the pretended endowments of their own wills; for such an absolute power do they here ascribe unto them, that God himself cannot determine of a thing whereunto, as they strangely phrase it, he is well affected, before, b}'' an actual concuiTcnce, he is sure of their compliance. Now, this imputation, that they are tem- porar}^ which they cast upon the decrees of God in general, they press home upon that particular which lies most in theu' way, the