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and stand with the Apostle, in the self same place that he did, admiring and adoring the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God; I say it will be evident that I do this where there is like occasion for it; not to cloak iniquity or abfurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by, O the depth &c!

Secondly, That I search not at all into any thing by mere natural light, and human reason, which to do in these things were a presumption deserving the feverest censure and worst success, but by the light of Divine revelation in God's holy word; and therefore I have entitled this Treatise, an Ap peal to the Gospel, by which, 1 plainly intimate that I pretend to open God's counsels so far only as he hath been pleas'd to communicate them to us.

And Thirdly, That I do this, not only by appealing to those texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election, which may feem hard and obfcure; but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamental principles of Christianity, and the Grounds of Catechism, which ordinary Capacities, and not Men of great Abilities alone, are able to understand: and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted, and not contrarily.

* Irenaus rightly observeth, that they must put a very forc'd and wrong sense on many things, who will not rightly understand some one; which hath happened to many in our age. That one thing which they will not rightly understand is, the universal promise of Grace and Acceptance, made in the Gospel to all Men, thre Chrift the redeemer of all, which our Church professeth in her Articles and Homilies, and in her Catechism; which one promise is the ground of all the conclufions here maintain'd. So that my Studies

* Multa malè interpretari coguntur, qui Unum rectè intelligere non volunt. lib. 5.

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have

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have not been about some curious and superflu ous questions, separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared; but about the most essential parts, and Articles of that Body, and of their mutual coherence and connexion: The full Examination whereof is so necessary and useful a thing, that I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine, who hath not labour'd therein.

And as my Opinions, unexamined, may be prefumed to be nothing else but either antient or late condemned heresies, neither I nor any good Man ought to bear fuch an imputation or bear fuppofition with filence. I shall therefore in this Tract undertake to shew, that the apprehenfions expressed in it, are none of those old condemned Heresies, nor those late rejected Heterodoxes; but the very Doctrine of the Antient Fathers of the Church, builded upon the sense and letter of the Holy Scriptures, and consonant to the Publick established dotrine of the Church of England, contained in the Books of Articles, Common Prayer, and Homilies. which if I shall make good by clear and undeniable evidence, then I hope my good Friends will hold me excused, and cleared of any such crime as Herefie, or Semi-herefie, or Novelty: and will take me for a true and found Member of the Church of England, both in Doctrine and Discipline: from both which, I fear, there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure, fince the daies of King Edward the Sixth, when they were first established; and since the Primitive years of the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth, wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a fecond, and oft-renewed Judgment. But the Examination and Tryal of all this, I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving Friends, and them and their Studies to the Goodness and Grace of God our Father.

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CHAP.

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CHAP. I.

THE FIRST OPINION.

He first Opinion concerning the Order of
divine Predestination is this:

1. That God from all Eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men.

2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting Life; and other some he reprobated unto eternal Death.

3. That in this Act he respected nothing more than his own Dominion, and the Pleasure of his own

Will.

4. That to bring Men to these ends, he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all Men, that the reprobate might be condemned for Sin; and decreed to fend his Son to recover out of Sin his Elect, fallen together with the reprobate.

This opinion hath for its defenders Beza, Pifcator, Whitacre, Perkins, and other Holy and Learned Men; but is rejected by many Proteftant Divines, as by the Reverend Divines of our Church that were at Dort, by Peter Moulin, Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury, and others: it is detested by the Papists and Lutherans; and was that which Arminius, and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries; and it is charg'd,

With making God the Author of Sin.
With reprobating Men before they were Evil.
With Electing Men not in Chrift, who is fent, ac-
cording to this Opinion, to recover out of Sin
those that were Elected, before they were confi-
dered as Sinners.

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This is that irrespective decree which * Mr. Mount

* See his Appello Cafarem Pag. 49.54&c. this Mountague was afterwards Bp. of Chichester,

ague

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ague difliketh, because in it there is no respect hac to any thing fore-known, not fo much as the fall of Man, much less Chrift, or Faith, giving to God no fore-knowledge, or no use of it at all, in this Act of his which the Scripture calls Prede Stination.

Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion, and Sovereign Power, and Will of God, which must be seen and acknowledged in his Predeftinating of Men, according to Rom. 9. that of the Apostle, Hath not the Potter power over the Clay? and, He hath mercy on whom he will: which

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Rom. 9 we will be mindful of in the fifth Opinion.

15.

1595.

Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Nov. 20. assertions concluded at Lambeth; which some have often laboured to get inferted into our book of Articles, but could never yet obtain their defire. It is requifite therefore to set them down, because they are not vulgarly known, and to examin them what they mean, and see how far they are Orthodox, or agreeing to our Articles. And for their fakes that understand not the Latin Tongue, I will render them in English.

* Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords, John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London, and other Divines at Lambeth.

1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to Life, and some he reprobated unto Death.

2. The moving or efficient cause of Predestination to Life, is not the fore fight of Faith, or of Perseverance, or of good Works, or of any thing which may be in the persons Predestinated, but only the Will of God's good pleafure.

3. Of the Predestinate there is a predefined and cer** For a full account of these Articles see an Appendix to Dr. Elis Expos. of the 39 Articl. or rather the very learned and diligent Mr. Strype's Life of ABy. Whitgift. B. 4. 6. 17, 18.; tain

tain number, which can neither be increased, nor diminisbed.

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4. They which are not Predestinated unto Salvation, shall necessarily be condemned for their Sins.

5. True, lively, justifying Faith, and the Sanctifying Spirit of God, is not extinguished, doth not fall out, doth not vanish in the Elect, either Finally, or Totally.

6. A Man truly believing, that is, endued with justifying Faith, is certain, by or with full perfuafion of Faith, of the forgiveness of his Sins, and of his everlasting Salvation by Christ.

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7. Saving Grace is not given, is not communicated, is not granted to all Men, whereby they may be saved, if they will.

8. No Man can come to Chrift, unless it be given unto him, and unless the Father draw him; and all Men are not drawn of the Father, that they come unto the Son.

9. It is not put in the free Choice, and Power of every Man, to be saved.

These be the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth, at the instance of Dr. Whitacre against * three propositions deliver'd at Cambridge by Peter Baro the Frenchman, Professor of Divinity in the Chair erected by the Lady Margaret.

Only four of these nine, which concern the DoArine of Predestination, are here confidered; the other five we shall speak of in their proper place, in the third part of this Book.

For the words of these four, they are fo compofed, that they comprehend most certain Truths, but applicable as well to the fifth Opinion, hereafter to. be propounded, as to any other. But because all Men will fetch the interpretation of them from Dr. Whitacre, the chief composer, his understanding of them must be taken for their meaning. And how

* 1. De Prædest. & Reprobat. 2. De Amissione Gratiæ. 3. De Certitud. & fecuritate Salutis. Whit, cont. ult. Pag. 4.

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