' Aquinas.
2 " Nos negamus Dei elcctionem ad salutera extendere sesc ad singulares pcrsonas, qua singulares personas." — Rem. Coll. Hag., fol. 76.
■* " Dens statuit indiscriiuinatini media ad fidem admiuistrare, et prout has, vel illas personas, istis mediis credituras Yel non credituras videt, ita tandem de illis statuit." — Corv. ad Tilcn., 76.
58 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
mineth of them," as saitli Corvinus. Well, then, God chooseth no particular man to salvation, but whom he sceth believing by his own power, with the help only of such means as are afforded unto others who never believe; and as he maketh himself thus differ from them by a good use of his own abilities, so also he may be reduced again unto the same predicament, and then his election, which respecteth not liim in his person, but only his qualification, quite vanisheth. But is this God's decree of election? " Yes," say they; and make a doleful complaint that any other doctrine should be taught in the church. ^" It is obtruded," say the true-born sons of Amiinius, " on the church as a most holy doctrine, that God, by an absolute, immu- table decree, from all eternity, out of his own good pleasure, hath chosen certain persons, and those but few in comparison, without any respect had to their faith and obedience, and predestinated them to everlasting life/' But what so gi'eat exception is this doctrine liable unto, what wickedness doth it include, that it should not be account- ed most holy? Nay, is not only the matter but the very terms of it contained in the Scripture? Doth it not say the elect are few, and they chosen before the foundation of the world, without any respect to their obedience or any thing that they had done, out of God's mere gracious good pleasure, that his free purpose according to elec- tion might stand, even because so it pleased him ; and this that they might be holy, believe, and be sanctified, that they might come unto Christ, and by him be preserved unto everlasting life? Yea, this is that which galls them : ^" No such will can be ascribed unto God, Avhereby he so willeth any one to be saved as that thence their salvation should be sure and infallible," saith the father of those children.
Well, then, let St Austin's definition be quite rejected, ^" That pre- destination is a preparation of such benefits whereby some are most certainly freed and delivered from sin and brought to glory;" and that also of St Paul, " That (by reason of this) nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ." What is this election in your judgment? ^" Nothing but a decree whereby God hath appointed to save them that believe in Christ," saith Corvinus, be they who they will; or a general purpose of God, whereby he hath ordained faith in Christ to be the means of salvation. Yea, but this belongs
1 " Ecclesiae tanquam sacrosaticta doclrina obtnulitiir, Ileum absolutissimo ct inimu- tabili decreto ab oinni retro ajternitate, pro puro suo beneplacito, singulares quosdam lioniines, eosque, quoad ctcteros, paucissimos, citra uUius obedientiiic aut fidei in Chris- tum intuitum pnodestinasse ad vitam." — Prtefat. Lib. Armiu nd I'erk.
- " Nulla Deo tribui potest voluntas, qua ita vclit homincir. uUum salvari, ut salus indc illis constet certo et iufallibiliter."- — Armin. Aiitip., p. Oci."^.
3 " Frredestinatio est pnvparatio bcnelicioriim quibus ccrtissime liberantur quicun- quc liberantur." — Aiig. de I'oiio Per. Sen,, cap. xiv.
* " Decretum clcctionis nihil aliud est quam dccretum quo Deus constituit credcntes iu ('hristo justificare et salvare." — Corv. ad Tilen., p. 13.
PREDESTINATION CORRUPTED BY ARMINIANS. 59
to Judas as well as to Peter. This decree carrieth as equal an aspect to those that are damned as to those that are saved. Salvation, under the condition of faith in Christ, was also proposed to them ; but was Judas and all his company elected? How came they, then, to be seduced and perish? That any of God's elect go to hell is as yet a strange assertion in Christianity. Notwithstanding this decree, none may believe, or all that do may fall away, and so none at all be saved ; which is a strange kind of predestination : or all may believe, continue in faith, and be saved ; which were a more strange kind of election.
We, poor souls, thought hitherto that we might have believed, ac- cording unto Scripture, that some by this purpose were in a peculiar manner made the Father's (" Thine they were"), and by him given unto Christ, that he might bring them unto glory ; and that these men were so certain and unchangeable a number, that not only God "knoweth them" as being " his," but also that Christ " calleth them by name," John x. 3, and looketh that none taketh them out of his hand. We never imagined before that Christ hath been the media- tor of an uncertain covenant, because there are no certain persons covenanted withal but such as may or may not fulfil the condition. We always thought that some had been separated before by God's pur- pose from the rest of the perishing world, that Christ might lay down his life for his " friends," for liis " sheep," for them that were " given him" of his Father. But now it should seem he was ordained to be a king when it was altogether uncertain whether he should ever have any subjects, to be a head without a body, or to such a church whose collec- tion and continuance depend wholly and solely on the Avill of men.