A14095:954
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of…A discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of…
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of D. Jacksons profound discourses, may see the vanity and weakness of them, in sundry passages, and especially so far as they tend to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twice, Doctor of Divinity, as they say, from whom the copy came to the pressA discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of D. Iacksons profound discourses, may see the vanitie and weaknesse of them, in sundry passages, and especially so farre as they tende to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twisse, Doctor of Divinitie, as they say, from whom the copie came to the presse
Amsterdam: printed by the successors of Giles Thorp, 1631
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Again, was not the creation of the World, is not the end of the World decreed by God, the rewarding of the godly & the punishing of the wicked, are they not decreed by God? What moves you then to make only things possible the object of Gods decree, and the things that will or shall be only the object of his foreknowledge? This wit of yours is able to make us a new World of Divinity and Philosophy both, if it be let alone to run a wild goose race at pleasure. Well, God passeth no act to the prejudice of his absolute and eternal power of jurisdiction. What of this? In the next place, you tell us that, ⟨p. 395⟩what grant or promise soever he makes cannot bind the exercise of his everlasting liberty for a moment of time: they last no longer then Durante been placito: seeing gracious equity, and only it, is his everlasting pleasure. Be it so that gracious equity is his everlasting pleasure; and will it not follow herehence that seeing all his promises do proceed from his gracious equity, and this you say is his everlasting pleasure, and his grants and promises must last you confess during his good pleasure, is not this enough to assure us that whatsoever grants and promises God doth make, they do so far bind God to performance, that we may assure our selves they shall stand good for ever and never be reversed? Only you discourse that they shall last no longer. And what sober man would expect or desire that they should last longer then for eternity? Or what wisdom is found in such discourse as laboureth to prove that Gods grant, shall last no longer then during pleasure, and withal confesseth that his pleasure is everlasting. But no promise you say, binds the exercise of his everlasting liberty for a moment of time: It is fit to consider this. To my judgement Gods promises bind him as much, as our promises bind us; the force of which obligation is not to bind our liberty, but to keep our honesty: For what promise soever he makes, he is still free naturally whether he will perform what he hath promised or no; but if he breaks his promise he shall be untrue. In like sort God if he should do otherwise then he hath promised, he should be untrue, though never a whit the less free. And in doing what he hath promised he is both true and never a whit the less free.
Againe, was not the creation of the World, is not the end of the World decreed by God, the rewarding of the godly & the punishing of the wicked, are they not decreed by God? What moves you then to make only things possible the object of Gods decree, and the things that will or shall be onely the object of his foreknowledge? This witt of yours is able to make us a newe World of Divinity and Phlosophy both, if it be let alone to runne a wilde goose race at pleasure. Well, God passeth no act to the prejudice of his absolute and eternall power of jurisdiction. What of this? In the next place, you tell us that,