B. You had this Objection about necessity before, and to the answer of it I refer you further, 1. Immutable Election doth set up but a consolatory quieting certainty in the World, without which mans mind must still be in troublesome, unquiet, if not tormenting terrors. Is it a wrong to you, if you can be sure to be saved? Had you rather live and die under these apprehensions, [I know not whether I shall be in Heaven 1or Hell for ever?] If you have not certainty, or a hope that is somewhat near it; I think this conclusion, if you be awake, and in your wits, must needs make your life a constant bondage, and the fear of death your constant misery, and must blast all the pleasures of your fullest Prosperity. Thank God that his Foundation standeth sure, and the Lord knoweth who are his; and see that you keep his mark upon you, professing Christ, and departing from iniquity. And do not cry out as if you were fatally carried to Heaven against your wills.
2. As for the word [Fate] it is ambiguous: Some by fate, mean but the certainty that God's Predictions shall be fulfilled; Quod fatur eveniet. Some mean only the certain connection of Causes and Effects ⟨p. 20⟩under Gods sapiential Government of the World. (As Campanella maketh Necessity, Fate, and Harmony, to be the result of Power, Wisdom, and Love; but not accurately enough.) And some say, (but how truly I know not) That the Stoics took Fate for some primary necessitating Cause, which did necessitate all Acts of the Gods and Men. It is a word that we have no need of; they that will play them with it may.
3. But as to Necessity again, I say, 1. Election maketh no mans sin or misery necessary, nor tendeth to it. 2. It maketh no mans Salvation 2necessary against his will in sensu composito. 3. The more it maketh our Salvation necessary, that is, certain and insuperable, the greater is Gods mercy, the greater our happiness, and cause of gratitude and Joy. The Saints in Heaven are not offended at the certainty of their persevering blessedness.
If you shall Object, That it necessitateth the perishing of all others, because none can be saved who are not Elect. Remember that this was your third Crimination, and is answered before. I say again, 1. Necessity and Impossibility are either Logical in ordine probandi; or Physical in ordine causandi. The first sort followeth upon your own Doctrine:
B. You had this Objection about necessity before, and to the answer of it I refer you further, 1. Immutable Election doth set up but a consolatory quietting certainty in the World, without which mans mind must still be in troublesome, unquiet, if not tormenting terrours. Is it a wrong to you, if you can be sure to be saved? Had you rather live and die under these apprehensions, [I know not whether I shall be in Heaven 1or Hell for ever?] If you have not certainty, or a hope that is somewhat near it; I think this conclusion, if you be awake, and in your wits, must needs make your life a constant bondage, and the fear of death your constant misery, and must blast all the pleasures of your fulest Prosperity. Thank God that his Foundation standeth sure, and the Lord knoweth who are his; and see that you keep his mark upon you, professing Christ, and departing from iniquity. And do not cry out as if you were fatally carried to Heaven against your wills.
2. As for the word [Fate] it is ambiguous: Some by fate, mean but the certainty that God's Predictions shall be fulfilled; Quod fatur eveniet. Some mean only the certain connexion of Causes and Effects ⟨p. 20⟩under Gods sapiential Government of the World. (As Campanella maketh Necessity, Fate, and Harmony, to be the result of Power, Wisdom, and Love; but not accurately enough.) And some say, (but how truly I know not) That the Stoicks took Fate for some primary necessitating Cause, which did necessitate all Acts of the Gods and Men. It is a word that we have no need of; they that will play them with it may.
3. But as to Necessity again, I say, 1. Election maketh no mans sin or misery necessary, nor tendeth to it. 2. It maketh no mans Salvation 2necessary against his will in sensu composito. 3. The more it maketh our Salvation necessary, that is, certain and insuperable, the greater is Gods mercy, the greater our happiness, and cause of gratitude and Joy. The Saints in Heaven are not offended at the certainty of their persevering blessedness.
If you shall Object, That it necessitateth the perishing of all others, because none can be saved who are not Elect. Remember that this was your third Crimination, and is answered before. I say again, 1. Necessity and Impossibility are either Logical in ordine probandi; or Physical in ordine causandi. The first sort followeth upon your own Doctrine:
- 1Kipping Philonatur. l. 9. c. 11. p 431. voluntas ista absoluta hominem cum effectis suis ineluctabiliter necessitat hoc est ad unum oppositorum necessario constringit & determinat omnia ejus acta & eventa, ut non aliter evenire queant quam eveniant: where he confuteth Piscators Arguments for such necessitating Decrees, p. 432, &c.
- 2Thus Fewrbornius in Fascicul. Disser. de termino vitae useth 17 Arguments, contra sententiam Calvinianam de fatali & simpliciter necessario termino vitae, (quasi Deus ex absoluto & simplici decreto & absque ullo ad causas secundas physicas, & voluntarias respectu, c•ique hominum genus & horam mortis praesixerat.) And all upon the encouragement of some ill and unsound words of Piscator, who is most extreme in this: whereas this is none of the Calvinists sense commonly, who hold that sin is only fore-seen, and not decreed: but all true means are decreed with the end in one Decree; therefore respected as decreed.Thus Fewrbornius in Fascicul. Disser. de termino vitae useth 17 Arguments, contra sententiam Calvinianam de fatali & simpliciter necessario termino vitae, (quasi Deus ex absoluto & simplici decreto & absque ullo ad causas secundas physicas, & voluntarias respectu, c•ique hominum genus & horam mortis praesixerat.) And all upon the encouragement of some ill and unsound words of Piscator, who is most extream in this: whereas this is none of the Calvinists sense commonly, who hold that sin is only fore-seen, and not decreed: but all true means are decreed with the end in one Decree; therefore respected as decreed.
