An Answer to Blasphemous Cavillations by an Anabaptist, Section 44
THE ADVERSARIE,
The properties of the God of the careles by necessitie.The 44. section Their gods wrath exced…th all his workes for he hath reprobate the most part of the world, afore the foundation of the world. be is slowe vntounto mercy and ready to wr…the, for he will not be intreated to saue any of them whom he bath reprobate afore, but of necessitie do, what they can, they must be damned, ne…ther is he omnip…tont, which may do, and leaue vndone▪ what pleaseth him, for he is bound …y …is …wn absolut ordinance and infallible foresight to do onelyonly all things as they be donne, and becaus … so pleased him to she we his power & strength he styrred up Pharao & many mo to do wickedly …e giueth wicked commandement, and euill thoghtes to Semei, and many other. And therafter plagued them for their labor, onelyonly because they were wicked instruments to work his will for he made them naughtie vesselles … commit all abomination, neither could they choose but work wickedly being …is vesseles of wrath: he hathe two willes, …ne contrary to an other, for he saieth one thing and thinke…h another. he is worse the… the deuill, for not onelyonly tempteth …e to do euill, but compellet… by immutable fore ordinance and secret wil without which, no thing can be do…e. he is the prince of darknes, for frome him com… euill thoghtes, which are darknes.
ANSWER.
Because that now I hauehave to do not onelyonly with a blasphemer, but euē (as it were) with a deuill incarnate, my first and chief defence, is to say, the Lord putte silēce to the … Sathan. The Lord confound thy dispiteful counselles by the which thou studiest to peruert the righteous way of the eternall God.
But now of thee,To ye 1 ô blasphemous mouth, I aske, if thou be able to forge to the, and to thy pestilent facti…, an other God, then that God who most iustly did drowne, and destroy by water, all liuing creatures in earth, except so many, as were preserued in the arke with Noah who also did destroye by fire from heauen Sodom, and Gomorra, with the cities …diacent, and the hole inhabitantes of the same (Lot and his two daughters onelyonly reserued…) who further by the space of four thousand yeres, did suffre all nations to walk in their owne wayes, reueling onelyonly his good will, and the light of his word, to the sede of Abraham (to those that descended of Iacob I meane) Canst thow I say forge to thy self another God, then this eternall maiestie of our God whom we do reuerence, in whom we trust, and most stedfastly beleue, whose Sonne Christ Iesus we preach to be the onelyonly sauiour of his Church, and whose eternall veritie we mainteine, not onelyonly against Iewe, Turke, and Papist, but also against you enraged anabaptistes, who can admitte in God no iustice, which is not subiect to the reach of your reason? Darest thou, and thy conspiracie stand vp, and accuse God of crueltie, because that in these his workes, thou canst not deny, but that mo were punished, then were preserued, mo were left in darknes, then were called to the true light? Shall not his merciemercy excede all his workes, except that he saue the Deuill, ād those that iustely be reprobated as he is? Stoupe Sathan vnderunder the empire of our Soueraigne God,To ye 2. whose will is so free, that nothing is able to constreigne, or binde it. For that is onelyonly libertie, that is not subiect to mutabilitie, to the inconstancie or appetites of others,What is …. as most blasphemously you wold imagin God to be in his election and most iust reprobation: by the which in despite of Sathā,To ye 3 of thee his slaue, and sonne, and of all thy sect, he will declare his glorie, as well in punishing with tormentes for euer such blasphemers, as you be, as in shewing the riches of his glorie to the members of his deare Sonne, who onelyonly depend vponupon Christe Iesus, and vponupon his iustice.
To purge my God from that iniustice,To ye 4. 5. or from those absurdities, which thou woldest impute vponupon his eternall maiestie, I will …ot labor, lest that ether I should seme to doubte of our owne cause, ether yet to be sollicite, for the defense of our eternall God. And therfor seing that ye declare your selues not men ignorant, willing to Iearne, but deuilles enraged against God, against his eternall, and infinite iustice, as I began, so do I finish. The Lord confound thee Sathan. The Lord confound you enraged dogges, which so impudently dare barcke, against the most iust iudgementes of God. And thus leauing you to the handes of him, who sodanely shall reuenge his iustice from your blasphemies. For the cause of the Simple I say, First, that most maliciously ye accuse vsus, as that we should affirme God to be slow to mercy, and readie to wrath, which blasphemy we protest before God, before his holy Angelles in heauen; and before his Church here in earth, did neuer enter into our heart. For the contrarie thereof we daily see, and perceaue, not onelyonly in our selues, to whom most mercifully he remitteth the multitude of our sinnes, but also in the most cruell ennemies of his Church.
We do not define, what nombre God hath elected to life, nether yet what nombre presently God hath reprobated. OnelyOnly we stand content, with that, which the holy Gost hath reueled openly, to witte that their be both elect, and reprobate.
That the elect can not finally perish, nether yet that the reprobate can euer be saued, we constantly affirme. But we adde the causes, to wit that because the one sort is giuen to Christ Iesus by ye free gift of God his father, before all times: therfor in time they come vntounto hī, by power of whose spirit, they are regenerate, their darkenes is expelled, and from vertue, they procede to vertue, till finally they attein to the glory promised. As ye other sorte is left in their own corruption, so can they do nothi…g but obey their father ye deuil, in whose bōdage they iustely are left. And so where ye burden vsus, that we say, let the reprobate do what they can, yet they must be dā ned, ye do most shamefully belie vsus. For we saye, and teach, that who so euer declineth from euill, and constantly to the end doth good, shall most certenly be saued. But our doctrine is thi…, that because the reprobate hauehave not the spirite of regeneration, therfor they can not do those workes that be acceptable before God.
How God is almightie, and omnipotēt, we hauehave before confessed, to witt, that as he in his eternall wisedom foreseeth, and appointeth all thinges, so doth his power put all thinges in execution, how, and when it best pleaseth him. Neither can his wisedom, will, nor counsels be subiect to any mutabilitie, vnstablenes, or chāge. For if it so were then his godly wil and counsels, did not depend vponupon him self, but vponupon his creatures, which is more then absurd.
Nether to Pharao, neither to Semei, neither yet to any other reprobate, did, or doth God giuegive, either wicked commandement or euill thoght. But those wicked thoghtes, and euill motions, which be in them of their euill nature, and are stirred vp by the instigation of the deuill, as he doeth, not purge them, so doth his wisedom vse them well to his owne glorie, to the exercise of his children, and to the comfort of his Church. In so much that the verie tyranny of Pharao, the cursing of Semei, and the incest of Absalom in so farre as they were gods workes, they were iust, and holy, because they were iust punishmentes of their sinnes, an exercise for his children, and some part also of his fatherly correction for their offenses. To the rest of your vanitie, I will not answere, not because I feare your sophisticall subtilitie, but because I will not (except that yet I be further prouoked) nether by tongue, nether yet by penne once name or expresse your horrible blasphe mies. Which manifestly do witnes and declare, that you (as dogges enraged) without all reuerence, do barke against God, because his workes do surmount your capacitie. The Lord speadely call you to repētance, or els so bridle your venemous tongues, that they be not able further to infect. Now to the rest.