First, " Our God is in the heavens," saith the psalmist: " he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased," Ps. cxv. 3. Not only part, but all, whatsoever he pleased should come to pass, by any means. " He ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will," Dan. iv. 1 7. The transposition of kingdoms is not without the mixture of divers free and voluntary actions of men, and yet in that great work God doth all that he pleaseth. Yea, before him " all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth : and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" verse 35. " My counsel," saith he, " shall stand, and I will do all my plea- sure," Isa. xlvi. 10; "I have purposed, I will also do it," verse 11. Nay, so certain is he of accomplishing all his purposes, that he con-
52
A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
firms it with an oath : " The Lord of hosts hath sworn, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand," Isa. xiv. 24. And indeed it were a very strange thing, that God should intend what he foreseeth will never come to pass. But I confess this argument will not he pressing against the Armi- nians, who question that prescience ; but yet, would they also would observe from the Scripture, that the failing of wicked men's coun- sels and intentions is a thing that God is said to " deride in heaven," as Ps. ii. 4. He threatens them with it. " Take counsel together," saith he, "and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand," Isa. viii. 10. See also chap. xxix. 7, 8. And shall they be enabled to recriminate, and cast the like aspersion on the God of heaven? No, surely. Saith St Austin, ^"Let us take heed we be not compelled to believe that Almighty God would have any thing done which doth not come to pass." To which truth, also, that the schoolmen have universally consented is showed by Alvarez, Disput. xxxii. pro. 3. And these few instances will mani- fest the Arminian opposition to the word of God in this particu- lar:—
S. S " Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased," Ps. cxv. 3.
" I will do all my pleasure." Isa. xlvi. 10. " None can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Dan. iv. 85.
" I have purposed, I will also do it," Isa. xlvi. 11.
" As I have pur|Dosed, so shall it stand," Isa. xiv. 24.
Lib. Arbit.
" We nothing doubt but many things which God willeth, or that it pleaseth him to have done, do yet never come to pass," Cor- vinus. " We grant that some of God's desires are never fulfilled," Idem.
" It is in the power of man to hinder the execution of God's will," Idem.
" It is ridiculous to imagine that God doth not seriously will any thing but what taketh effect," Episcopius.
" It may be objected that God faileth of his end: this we readily grant," Rem. Synod.
' " Nc credere cogamur aliquid omnipotentem Deum voluisse factumque non esse." — Aug. Eu., cap. ciii.
PREDESTINATION CORRUPTED BY ARMINIANS. 53
CHAPTER VI.
How the whole doctrine of predestination is corrupted by the Arminians.
The cause of all these quarrels, wherewith the Arminians and their abettors have troubled the church of Christ, comes next unto our consideration. The eternal predestination of Almighty God, that fountain of all spiritual blessings, of all the effects of God's love de- rived unto us through Christ, the demolishing of this rock of our salvation hath been the chief endeavour of all the patrons of human self-sufficiency; so to vindicate unto themselves a power and inde- pendent ability of doing good, of making themselves to differ from others, of attaining everlasting happiness, without going one step from without themselves. And this is their first attempt, to attain their second proposed end, of building a tower from the top whereof they may mount into heaven, whose foundation is nothing but the sand of their own free-will and endeavours. Quite on a sudden (what they have done in effect) to have taken away this divine pre- destination, name and thing, had been an attempt as noted as no- torious, and not likely to attain the least success amongst men pro- fessing to believe the gospel of Christ ; wherefore, suffering the name to remain, they have abolished the thing itself, and substituted another so unlike it in the room thereof, that any one may see they have gotten a blear-eyed Leah instead of Rachel, and hug a cloud instead of a Deity. The true doctrine itself hath been so excellently delivered by divers learned divines, so freed from all objections, that I shall only briefly and plainly lay it down, and that with special reference to the seventeenth article of our church, where it is clearly avowed; showing withal, — which is my chief intention, — how it is thwarted, opposed, and overthrown by the Arminians. Predesti- nation, in the usual sense \in wMcK] it is taken, is a part of God's providence concerning his creatures, distinguished from it hy a double restriction : —