These are doctrines that I believe searchers of the Scripture had scarce ever been acquainted withal, had they not lighted on such ex- positors as teach, ^"That the only cause why God loveth" (or chooseth) " any person is, because the honesty, faith, and piety wherewith, ac- cording to God's command and his own duty, he is endued, are accept- able to God;" which, though we grant it true of God's consequent or approving love, yet surely there is a divine love wherewith he looks upon us otherwise, when he gives us unto Christ, else either our giving unto Christ is not out of love, or we are pious, just, and faith- ful before we come unto him, — that is, we have no need of him at all. Against either way, though we may blot these testimonies out of our hearts, yet they will stand still recorded in holy Scripture, — • namely, that God so loved us when we were his "enemies," Eom. v. 10, "sinners," verse 8, of no "strength," verse 6; that " he gave his only- begotten Son" to die, " that we should not perish, but have ever- lasting life," John iii. 16. But of this enough.
1 " Ratio dilectionis personae est, quod probitas?, fides, vel pietas, qua ex officio suo et prasscripto Dei ista persona prsedita est, Deo grata sit." — Rem. Apol., p. 13.
GO A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
Fourthly, Another thing that the article asserteth according to the Scripture is, that there is no other cause of our election hut God's oiun counsel. It recounteth no motives in us, nothing impelling the will of God to choose some out of mankind, rejecting others, but his own decree, — that is, his absolute will and good pleasure ; so that as there is no cause, in any thing without himself, why he would create the world or elect any at all, — for he doth all these things for himself, for the praise of his own glory, — so there is no cause in singular elected persons why God should choose them rather than others. He looked upon all mankind in the same condition, vested with the same quali- fications, or rather without any at all ; for it is the children not yet horn, hefore they do either good or evil, that are chosen or rejected, his free grace embracing the one and passing over the other. Yet here we must observe, that although God freely, without any desert of theirs, chooseth some men to be partakers both of the end and the means, yet he bestoweth faith, or the means, on none but for the merit of Christ ; neither do any attain the end or salvation but by their own faith, through that righteousness of his. The free grace of God notwithstanding, choosing Jacob when Esau is rejected, the only antecedent cause of any difference between the elect and reprobates, remaineth firm and unshaken; and surely, unless men were resolved to trust wholly to their own bottoms, to take nothing gratis at the hands of God, they would not endeavour to rob him of his glory, of having mercy on whom he will have mercy, of loving us without our desert before the world began. If we must claim an interest in ob- taining the temporal acts of his favour l)y our own endeavours, yet, oh, let us grant him the glory of being good unto us, only for his own sake, when we were in his hand as the clay in the hand of the potter. What made this piece of clay fit for comely service, and not a vessel wherein there is no pleasure, but the power and will of the Framer ? It is enough, yea, too much, for them to repine and say, " Why hast thou made us thus ?" who are vessels fitted for wrath. Let not them who are prepared for honour exalt themselves against him, and sac- rifice to their own nets, as the sole providers of their glory. But so it is : human vilencss will still be declaring itself, by claiming a worth no way due unto it; of a furtherance of which claim if the Arminians be not guilty, let the following declaration of their opinions in this particular determine : —
" We confess," say they,^ " roundly, that faith, in the consideration of God choosing us unto salvation, doth precede, and not follow as a fruit of election." So that whereas Christians have hitherto believed that God bestoweth faith on them that are chosen, it seems now it is
' " Eotunde fatemur, fidem in consideratione Dei in eligendo ad salutem antcccdcrc, et non tanquam fi"uctum electionis sequi." — Eem. Hag. Coll., p. 35.
PEEDESTINATION CORRUPTED BY ARMINIANS. 61
no such matter, but that those whom God findeth to believe, upon the stock of their own abilities, he afterward chooseth. Neither is faith, in their judgment, only required as a necessary condition in him that is to be chosen, but as a cause moving the will of God to elect him that hath it, ^" as the will of the judge is moved to bestow a reward on him who according to the law hath deserved it," as Grevinchovius speaks: which words of his, indeed, Corvinus strives to temper, but ail in vain, though he wrest them contrary to the intention of the author; for with him agree all his fellows. ^" The one oidy absolute cause of election is, not the will of God, but the respect of our obedi- ence," saith Episcopius. At first they required nothing but faith, and that as a condition, not as a cause ;^ then perseverance in faith, which at length they began to call obedience, comprehending all our duty to the precepts of Christ : for the cause, say they, of this love to any person, is the righteousness, faith, and piety wherewith he is endued ; which being all the good works of a Christian, they, in effect, affinn a man to be chosen for them, — that our good works are the cause of election; which whether it were ever so grossly taught, either by Pelagians or Papists, I something doubt.