Antidote Against Arminianism, Discourse · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of the Fourth Property of the Divine Decree, it is Free.
THE Fourth Property of the Divine Decree, is the Freeneſs of it; as it is not Conditional but Abſolute, ſo 'tis not Neceſſary but Free as flowing only from the Pleaſure of God's Will. God is a Free Agent, and cannot fall under any Obligation, ſo as to Neceſſitate him in any of his Emanations to the Creature, but as he is graciouſly pleaſed out of his own Free Love to oblige himſelf.
Reaſon 1. The Firſt Argument to prove the Freeneſs of the Divine Decree is, Such a Decree as paſſeth without any Obligation to Neceſſitate the paſſing of it, muſt needs have the Property of Freeneſs; but thus it was with the Divine Decree: Therefore, &c. If thore be any Obligation, it muſt be either in reſpect of Objects, or of Acts, or of Motives; but God was not obliged in any of thoſe Reſpects. Therefore, &c.
Reſpect 1. Not in reſpect of Objects; for God was under no Neceſſity of having either any Elect or any Reprobate, and was Happy in himſelf from all Eternity, and would have been ſo for ever without either of them; Illud eſt perfectum cui nihil poteſt addi; and to affirm, that God ſtood in need of any ſuch Objects, is to deny the Perfection of God: God was infinitely happy in himſelf, and needed not to have looked out of himſelf for any additional Happineſs, and therefore it is call'd, an Humbling of himſelf to look down on Things in Heaven, much more on Things on Earth; Pſalm 113.5. It muſt needs therefore be Granted that he needed them not, but would have been God bleſſed for Ever without them.
Reſpect 2. Nor in reſpect of Acts as they are Neceſſary by a Moral Obligation; God was under no Moral Obligation to Man, he had done Man no wrong if he had never willed Man to be, much leſs to be Holy and Happy: God was not bound to any of his Actions concerning Man, either Election, Vocation, Juſtification, &c. for God cannot be a Debtor to Man any other way, than as he makes himſelf a Debtor of his own good Pleaſure: As in his Promiſes, his Love mov'd him to make them, and his Truth binds him to perform them; otherwiſe thoſe Actions would be Actions of Debt and not Acts of Grace, contrary to the Tenure of many Scriptures, that makes the whole Work of Man's Salvation to flow wholly from the Free-grace of God.
Reſpect 3. Nor in reſpect of Motives: Neither, Firſt, In the Creatures. Not, Secondly, In Chriſt.
1. Not in the Creature.Firſt, Not in the Creature it ſelf, for the Being of the Creature (much more the Faith and Good Works of the Creature) was the Effect of the Decree of God, ſo could not be the Motive thereof. God could not foreſee any Faith or Works antecedently to his own Purpoſe and Decree, but in his Purpoſe and Decree of giving them both; In Maſſâ corruptâ (which the *Arminius in the 1ſt. of his four Divine Decrees.Arminians aſſent to) nothing that is good can be foreſeen, but what is cauſed by that Grace which was eternally prepared for them in the Decree of Predeſtination, and actually applied in the Effectual Vocation: So that Faith as foreſeen is but a May-be, and the Decree or Will of God cauſeth it to become a Shall-be; and therefore it cannot (in any good Senſe) be the Moving Cauſe of the Decree, for then muſt it be the Cauſe of its own Cauſe: But of this Point much more, when I come to confute the Conditional Decree.
2. Not in Chriſt.Secondly, Nor is Chriſt himſelf the moving Cauſe of the Divine Decree; for Chriſt is the Effect of God's Eternal Love, not the Cauſe of it, John 3.16, God ſo loved the World that he gave his Son; There is a Sic without a Sicut, and God's Love gives Chriſt; Chriſt is not the Cauſe of this Eternal Love, tho' he be the Cauſe of our Salvation (which is the Application of the Divine Decree) but not of the Decree of Love it ſelf. Therefore we are ſaid to be Elected in Chriſt, but never for Chriſt; for Chriſt is an Elect One himſelf, as is ſhewed before; God willeth to ſave us for Chriſt, but not for Chriſt willeth he us to be ſaved; according to that Theſis in the Schools, Deus vult hoc eſſe propter hoc, non propter hoc vult hoc. Chriſt (indeed) was the firſt choſen, for the Head comes firſt out of the Womb of Predeſtinating Love, and then the Members; yet, though he be firſt choſen to that Glory which became him as an Head, he is not the Cauſe why we are (alſo) choſen: Even as the firſt Alam is not the Cauſe why God did love me, ſo that I ſhould be a Man and have this Natural Being; though in and through him I come to have this Being: So Chriſt is not the Cauſe why God did love me, ſo that I ſhould be a Chriſtian and have a Super-natural Being, a Life above Nature, even the Life of Grace, though I attain to it and receive it through him, in him, and for his fake. The Love of God as immediately cometh from himſelf to me as to Chriſt, he was fore-ordained to be our Head, 1 Pet. 1.20. as we to be his Members; Thus we are Chriſts and Chriſt is Gods, 1 Cor. 3 22,23. as the Effect of his Love to his Elect from all Eternity.
Reaſon 2. The Second Argument to prove the Freeneſs of the Divine Decree is, that which the Word of God affirms to be a Free Act, an Act of Grace and not of Debt, an Act of Love and Special Favour founded upon the meer good Pleaſure of God, muſt be accordingly believed to be ſo by us, but the Word of God doth all this Ergo, Mat. 11.26. Even ſo, O Father, it pleaſed thee, Luke 12.32. It pleaſeth your Father to give you the Kingdom. 2 Tim. 1.9. It was a Gracious Purpoſe in God from. all Eternity. Eph. 1.5,9,11. Paul's repeated Epiphonema is, the Pleaſure of his own Will, the Pleaſure of his own Will, the Counſel of his own Will, but more fully in that Rom. 9.13,15. exemplifying this Truth in Jacob and Eſau: Both the Prophet and the Apoſtle makes this Inſtance the fulleſt Exemplification of Free Election, Mal. 1.3. Rom. 9.11. They do not bring in for an Inſtance, that of Cain and Abol in the beginning of the Old World; or that of Shem and Ham in the beginning of the New World; but this of Jacob and Eſau. For, (1.) Theſe two were Fratres Utero (yet not Animo) at one and the ſame time, they laid together in the ſame Womb, and were born at the ſame time (for Jacob took hold of Eſau's Heel) ſo the contrary Diſpoſal of theſe two doth more illuſtrate the free Predeſtination of God, than of any other two whatſoever. (2.) In Jacob there began to be a diſtinguiſhed People from all the World, even a Church unto God; as of Eſau ſprang alſo a perſecuting Seed, yet before they had done either Good or Evil, Jacob was loved and Eſau hated: God had no regard to Faith in the one, or Infidelity in the other, whereby they might be differenced the One from the Other; they were at that time (when God's Oracle paſs'd upon them) already conceiv'd in Sin in their Mother's Womb, and if there were any Preheminence, Eſau had it, as being the Firſtborn. What then did caſt the Ballance? Nothing elſe, but the good Pleaſure of God: Thus the Apoſtle determines it (according to that Wiſdom given to him, 2 Pet. 3.15.) God will have Mercy on whom be will have Mercy, and whom he will be hardeneth: Indeed Carnal Reaſon ſays, It was becauſe God foreſaw what they both would be. But if that had been the Cauſe, the Apoſtle (Divinely Inſpired) would have anſwered this Objection, v. 16. (Is there then Unrighteouſne's with God?) according to that Hypotheſis, which would not have been foreign (as 2 Pet. 3.16.) but eaſie to be underſtood, and would not have reſolved all (as he doth) into the Unſearchable Will of God: And as Jacob's Perſon was thus loved freely, ſo was his Poſterity, not becauſe they were ex xnmeliori luto; but God loved them becauſe he loved them; Deut. 7.7,8. It was chooſing Love that he bare to them, and that is the beſt of the Kind; that is the Favour which God bears to his People: As a Man loves his Goods and his Servants with a common Love, but his Wife and Children with a Special Love; and though Malachy inſtances only the Defolation of Eſau's Country as the Evidences of God's Hatred to Eſau; yet the Apoſtle ſaw more in it than the ſpoiling of his Earthly Inheritance, for in that very Deſolation (as an Outward Pledge) he reads God's Eternal Hatred towards him in the Decree of Reprobation.
Reaſon 3. The Third Argument to prove the Freeneſs of the Divine Decree is, If God in all Ages hath given us Examples of his free Receiving or Rejecting ſome out of Mankind, then the Divine Decree muſt needs be free, but the Antecedent is true, Ergo, the Conſequent. This Aſſumption is plain in Scripture Hiſtory, for of Adam's three Sons, Cain, Abel, Seth; the [Eldeſt] was rejected: Of Noah's three, Japhet, Shem and Ham; the [Youngeſt] was rejected: It appears that Ham was the Youngeſt, Gen. 9.24 and Japhet the Eldeſt, Gen. 10.21. but of Terah's three Sons, Abraham, Nahor and Haran, the [Middlemoſt] was rejected; for Nahor was an Idolater, and Laban ſware by his Idol, Gen. 31.53. Not by the God of Abraham, and the God of Iſaac, but by the other Gods which Nahor ſerved, Joſh. 24.2. Now why is this Picking and Chooſing, this Receiving and Rejecting, Eldeſt at one time, Youngeſt at another time, the Middlemoſt at a Third Time; but to ſhew, that neither Birth, nor Age, nor any Thing (either foreſeen or exiſting in the Creature) can make any Claim, but all lies in the Free Election of God. We cannot give a Reaſon, why Pharaoh and Mebuchadnezzar (both being engag'd in the ſame Cauſe of Warring againſt Iſrael, the Church of God) had differing Diſpenſations of Heaven upon them; foraſmuch as the One was hardened, and the other was humbled under the Mighty Hand of God: Nor why Pharaoh's Baker was hang'd, and yet his Butler reſtored to his Office again; Why two Men ſhall be in one Bed, the One taken, and the Other left: Why two Women ſhall be grinding at one Mill, the One taken, and the Other left: Why Aaron's Rod (of all the Twelve) only bloſſomed. Theſe and many more Inſtances, do ſufficiently demonſtrate the Reaſon of all thoſe Differences, is not any thing that can be found in the Creature; but 'tis only the Free Election of God.
Reaſon 4. The Fourth Argument is, If the Fruits of the Divine Decree be freely given, then the Decree it ſelf muſt be a Free Decree; but the Antecedent is true, Ergo, the Conſequent is true alſo: The Propoſition is Evident, for if I give a Book or a Piece of Money freely, then I muſt needs purpoſe to give them freely. The Aſſumption is as clear, For, 1. Our Vocation is from Free-Love, Chriſt called the Sons, and leaves the Father with the Hired Servants, Mar. 1.20. and Called to him whom he would, Mar. 3.13. It is [given] to you to know the Myſteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not [given] to them, Mat. 13.11. 1 John 5.20. & Mat. 11.26. 2. Our Juſtification is from free grace, We are juſtified freely by his Grace. Rom. 3.24. (3.) So is our Sanctification, Of his own Will begot he us, Jam. 1.18. This Sanctifying Spirit breathes where it liſteth, and the Wind at Sea is as much at our Command as the freſh gales of this Renewing Spirit. (4.) Our Glorification. Eternal Life is the Gift of God, *Rom. 6.23.he doth not ſell it for foreſeen Faith or Works, but he freely gives it. Now if all thoſe Fruits of Election be free, then Election it ſelf to thoſe Fruits, muſt needs be free alſo; If God call ſuch as have no Money to buy withal, Iſa. 55.1. and blds them drink of the Water of Life freely, Rev. 21.6. If Faith be the free Gift of God, Eph. 2.8. and it is [given] to us not only to believe, but to ſuffer for his Name, Phil. 1.29. then Predeſtination to Faith, muſt of Neceſſity be free alſo; for God worketh [all things] according to the Counſel of his own Will, Eph. 1.11.
Conſectaries.1. Admire Free grace in this Decree of Predeſtination, and cry, How is it (Lord) that thou manifeſts thy Love to me and not to the World! John 14.22.
2. Thou makeſt not thy ſelf to differ from others, but Free-grace does it for thee, thou art a Lump of Clay in the Hands of the Potter (no better than others) yea, preſſed down to Hell by Adam's Fall; that God ſhould lift thee up to Heaven, be Thankful.
3. Rejoyce with all thy Might, as David did, for chooſing him before Saul to an Earthly Kingdom, 2 Sam. 6.14,22. but thee to an Heavenly Kingdom.