An Answer to Blasphemous Cavillations by an Anabaptist, Section 2
THE ADVERSARIE.
God hathe not created all men to be saued by any manner of meannes,The second sectiō. but before the foundation of the world he hath chosen a certen to saluation which is but a small flocke, and the rest which be innumerable he hath reprobate and ordeined to condemnation. Because so it pleaseth him.
ANSWER.
They are not onelyonly reputed liers ād called fals witnesses, that boldly and planelie affirme a lie in plane and expresse wordes, but such also as in reciting the myndes of other men, change their meaning by altering their wordes, by adding more then they spake, or by dyminishing that which might explane the thinges that remained obscure or more fully might expres the minde of the speakers. And in all these thre vices are you criminall in this your first accusation or witnessing laid against vsus. For our wordes ye hauehave altogether altered: to them ye hauehave added, and from the ye hauehave diminished that which ye think may aggrauate and make odious our cause. And therefore I say, ye are detestable liers, and malicious accusers. For probation hereof I appele to our writings, be they in latyn, frē che, Italiā, or english (in so many tōgues this mater is writtē) if that any of you be able to brīg furth our propositiōs in any of thē in this your forme, ād cōteining your whole wordes, I offer to make satisfactiō vntounto you, (whether ye will be worde or writīg) y• I hauehave hieghly offended in callīg you detestable liers. But if ye be neuer able to shew any such wordes vsed by vsus (as plane it is ye be not) thē yor master Castalio ād you bothe are far from yt perfectiō (to speake no more bitterly) wt ye pretēd.Liers are the deuilles sonnes. For ye are manifest liers: ād whose sōnes they are called, you can not be ignorāt, accusing mē of that they neuer mēt. For thus formeth Castalio his first fals accusacion against Master Caluin. God hath created to perdition the most part of the world by the naked bare and pure pleasure of his own wil. And this same ye affirme in mo wordes more impudently patched▪ so bothe you and he do adde to our wordes of your own malicious mynd. These sentences: God hath created the most parte of the world, which is an innumerable multitude, to perdicion, onelyonly becaus it so pleased him, you steall from our wordes, and suppresse that which euer we ioyne whē we make mention of gods predestination, to witt, that he hath created all thīges for his own glorie. That albeit the cause of gods will be incōprehensible, secret, and hid frō vsus, whē of y• same masse he ordeyned som vesselles to honor, ād sō to destructiō, yet it is moste iust, most holie: ād most to be reuerenced. Now to y• further declaratiō aswel of or mynd as of your shameles malice, I shall recite som s̄etēces of master Caluī, as doth that godlie and learned mā Theodorus Beze against the craftie surmyse of your master Castalio. I say (faieth Iohn Caluin) with Augustin, that of God they were created whom without doute he fore knew to go to perdition: and that was so done becaus so he wold. Why he wold, it apperteineth not to vsus to inquire, who cā not comprehend it: neither yet is it conuenient, that the will of God shall discend and come downe to be decided by vsus. Of the which so oft as mention is made vnderunder the name of it, is the supreme and most hie rule of iustice nominated. And further we affirme, that which the scripture clearly sheweth, to wit, that God did once by his eternall and immutable counsel appoint, whom somty me he should take to saluation, and also whom he should condemne to destruction.Institut. Cap. 14. Sect. 5. We affirm those whom he iudgeth worthie of participation of saluation to be adoptate and chosen of his free merciemercy for no respect of their own dignitie: but whom he giueth to condemnation, to the same he shuteth vp the entres to life by his incomprehensible iudgement. But yet by that iudgemēt, that neither can not may be reproued. And in another worke.De aeterna Dei praedestinatiō. If we be not ashamed saieth he of the Gospell, it behoueth vsus to confes that which therin is manifestly taught, that is, that God of his aeternall good pleasure, whose cause dependeth vponupon none other, hath destinate to saluation whom it pleased him, the rest being reiected And whom he hath honored with his free adoption, those he illuminateth by his Spirit, that they may receaue the life offered in Christ: Others by their own will so remaning vnfaithfull, that being destitute of the light of faith, they continue in darknes. Also that which sainct Augustine writeth: So is the will of God the hieghest rule of iustice,In…titu. Cap. 14. Sect. 14. that what so euer he will in so far as he willeth it, it is to be holden iust. Therefor when the questiō is why did God so? It is to be answered: Because so he wold. But if thow procede asking, why he wold, thow sekest a thīg greater and more hie then Gods wil, which can not be founde. And after saieth he: We must euer returne to the pleasure of his will, the cause whereof is hidde within him self. But to make this mater more euident, I will adduce one or two places mo, and so put end to this your forged accusacion for this tyme. In his book which he wri…th of the eternal predestination of God, thus he saieth. Albeit that God before the derection of Adam had determined for causes hid to vsus, what he was to do, yet in scriptures we read nothing to be condemned or him, except sinne. And so it resteth, that he had iust causes (but hid from vsus) in reiecting a part of men: for he hateth nor damneth nothing in man, but that which is contrarie to his iustice.Caluin vponupon Isaiah. Also writing vponupon Isaie the 23. chap. vponupon these wordes: The Lord of hoostes hath decreed, to prophane the pryde of all the noble ones &c▪ he saieth, let vsus learn of this place, that the prouidence of God is to be considered of vsus, that to him we may giuegive the glorie and praise of his omnipotecie, for the wisdom and the iustice of God are to be ioyned with his power. Therefore as the scriptures teach vsus, that God by his wisdom doth this or that, so do they teach vsus a certen end why he doth this or that: for the imagination of the absolute power of God which the scholemen hauehave inuented, is an execrable blasphemie: for it is as much as they should say, that God were a tyrant, that appointed things to be done not according to equitie but according to his inordinat appetite. With such blasphemies be the scholes replenished,The schoeles of Papistes full of blasphemies. neither yet differ they from the Ethnicks who did affirme, that God iested or did sporte in the maters of men. But we are taught in the schole of Christe, that the iustice of God shyneth in his workes what so euer they be, yt the mouthes of all men may be stopped, and glorie may be geuen to him alone. And therefor the Prophet rehearseth iust causes of this destruction (meaning of the destruction of Tyrus) that we shall not thinke that God doth any thing without reason. Those of Tyre were ambitious, proude, auaricious, lecherous, & dissolute.
What is he so simple, which may not now consider and vnderstand, what was your malice and deui…ish intenion▪ in patching vp this your first accusation? not the zeale of gods glorie, as you falsly pretend: but the hatred which ye hauehave conceaued against them who hauehave soght your saluation. For if ye had ment any thing simply, ye should not hauehave added that which ye be neuer able to shew in our writinges: neither yet can ye laufully proue, that we hauehave spoken the same in reasoning with any of you. We (so taught by the scriptures) with reuerēce do affirme, that God, for iust causes albeit vnknowē ād hid to vsus, hath reiected a parte of men. But you (making no mention of any cause) affirme, that we holde, that he hath created the most part of the world (which is innumerable) to no other end, but to perdiction, in which shameles lie your malice pa…eth measure: For neither do we rashly define the nomber of the one nor of the other, howbeit the scripture in dyuers places affirmeth, Christes …ocke to be the little flocke, the nomber to be few, that findeth the way that leadeth to life▪ this notwihstanding (I say) we vse not boldly, to pronounce, whether of the nobres shalbe the greater, but wt all sobrietie we exhorte the people cōmitted to our charge, not to folowe y• multitude to iniquitie. For if they do, there is no multitude that can preuale against God. And so to vsus in this behalf ye are greatly iniurious. But yet in ye secōd parte, your malice is more manifest: for ye burdē vsus, that we should affirme, that the end of the creation of the reprobate, was none other but their eternall perditiō. From which calumnie master Caluin clearly purgeth vsus in these wordes.Inst. cap. 14. sect. 17. All oght to know (saieth he) that which Salomon saieth, yt God hath created all for him self, ād the wicked also to the euill day. Cōsider ād mark, that we (instructed by the holie Gost) do first affirme, that the cause and end why the reprobate were created, neither was, nor is not, their onlie perdition (as ye burden vsus) but that the glorie of God must nedes appere and shyne in all his workes. And secondarely we teach, that their perdition doeth so depend vponupon gods predestinatiō, that the iust cause and mater of their perditiō is found within them selues, and that albeit the decre and coūsel of God be incomprehensible to mens vnderstāding, yet neuertheles it is most iust and most holie. And thus hauehave I so plainely and in so few wordes as conueniently I could expound in what pointes ye are malicious liers, what ye hauehave added of hatred to our wordes, and what ye suppresse that the equitie of our cause should not appere to men. God grant you (if his good pleasure be) with greater modestie to write, and with more humilitie to reason in those hieghe mysteries, which far surmount the reatch of mannes capacitie. But now I procede to the preface of your confutation which thus beginneth.