Sixthly, and principally, The effects of election, infallibly following it, cannot be the causes of election, certainly preceding it. This is evident, for nothing can be the cause and the effect of the same thing, before and after itself But all our faith, our obedience, repent- ance, good works, are the effects of election, flowing from it as their proper fountain, erected on it as the foundation of this spiritual building ; and for this the article of our church is evident and clear, " Those," saith it, " that are endued with this excellent benefit of God are called according to God's purpose, are justified freely, are made the sons of God by adoption ; they be made like the image of Christ ; they walk religiously in good works," etc. Where, first, they are said to be partakers of this benefit of election, and then by virtue thereof to be entitled to the fruition of all those graces. Secondly, it
' " Non ob aliud dicit, ' Non vos me eligistis, sed ego vos elegi,' nisi quia non elegerunt eum ut eligeret eos; sed ut eligerent eum elegit eos."' — Aug. de Bono Perse., cap. xvi. VOL. X. 5
66 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
saith, "Those who are endued with this benefit enjoy those blessings;" intimating that election is the rule whereby God proceedeth in be- stowing those graces, restraining the objects of the temporal acts of God's special favour to them only whom his eternal decree doth em- brace. Both these, indeed, are denied by the Arminians; which maketh a farther discovery of their heterodoxies in this particular. ^" You say," saith Arminius to Perkins, " that election is the rule of givhig or not giving of faith; and, therefore, election is not of the faithful, but faith of the elect : but by your leave this I must deny." But yet, whatever it is the sophistical heretic here denies, either an- tecedent or conclusion, he falls foul on the word of God. " They 'be- lieved,'" saith the Holy Ghost, "who were 'ordained to eternal life,'" Acts xiii. 48 ; and, " The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved," chap. ii. 47. From both which places it is evident that God bestoweth faith only on them whom he hath pre-ordained to eternal life ; but most clearly, Kom. viii. 29, 30, " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover wliom he did predestinate, them he also called : and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." St Austin interpreted this place by adding in every link of the chain, " Only those." However, the words directly import a precedency of predestination before the bestowing of other graces, and also a restraint of those graces to them only that are so predestinated. Now, the inference from this is not only for the form logical, but for the matter also; it containeth the very words of Scrip- ture, " Faith is of God's elect," Tit. i. 1.
For the other part of the proposition, that faith and obedience are the fruits of our election, they cannot be more peremptory in its denial than the Scripture is plentiful in its confirmation: " He hath chosen us in Christ, that we should be holy," Eph. i. 4 ; not because we were holy, but that we should be so. Holiness, whereof faith is the root and obedience the body, is that whereunto, and not for which, we are elected. The end and the meritorious cause of any one act cannot be the same ; they have divers respects, and require repugnant conditions. Again; we are "predestinated unto the adop- tion of children by Jesus Christ," verse 5, Adoption is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God, when before we are "foreigners, aliens, strangers, afar off;" which we see is a fruit of our predestination, though it be the very entrance into that estate wherein we begin first to please God in the least measure. Of the same nature are all those places of holy writ which speak of God's giving some unto
• "Dicis electionem divinam esse i-egulam fiilci dandse vcl non dandiie ; ergo, clcctio non est fidelium, scd fides clcctoruni ; sed liccat mihi tua bona venia hoc uegare." — Aniiiji. Antip., p. 221.
PEEDESTINATION CORRUPTED BY ARMINIANS.
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Christ, of Christ's sheep hearing his voice, and others not hearing, because they are not of his sheep; all -which, and divers other in- vincible reasons, I willingly omit, with sundry other false assertions and heretical positions of the Arminians about this fundamental article of our religion, concluding this chapter with the following scheme : —
S. S.
" Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con- formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-bom among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified : and whom he justified, them he also glorified/' So that "nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, Avhich is in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 29, 30, 39.
" He hath chosen us in him be- fore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy," Eph. i. 4.