'faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; it is the work of God that we do believe;' John vi. 29. 'He blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in Christ;' Eph. i. Now all these gifts and graces, God bestoweth only upon those whom he hath antecedently ordained to everlasting life: For the election obtained it and the rest were blinded;' Rom. xi. 7. 'God added to his church daily those that should be saved;' Acts ii. 47. therefore, surely God chooseth us not, because he foreseeth those things in us, seeing he bestoweth those graces because he hath chosen us. Wherefore, saith Austin, doth Christ say, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' but because they did not choose him that he should choose them; but he chose them that they might choose him.' We choose Christ by faith, God chooseth us by his decree of election; the question is, whether we choose him, because he hath chosen us; or he chooseth us, because we have chosen him, and so indeed choose ourselves: we affirm the former, and that because our choice of him is a gift he himself bestoweth only on them whom he hath chosen.

6

Sixthly, and principally, The effects of election infallibly following it, cannot be the causes of election, certainly preceding it. This is evident, for nothing can be the cause and the effect of the same thing, before and after itself; but all our faith, our obedience, repentance, good works, are the effects of election flowing from it, as their proper fountain, erected on it, as the foundation of this spiritual building. And for this the article of our church is evident and clear; 'Those,' saith it, that are endued with this excellent benefit of God, are called according to God's purpose, are justified freely, are made the sons of God by adoption, they be made like the image of Christ, they walk religiously in good works,' &c. Where, first, they are said to be partakers of this benefit of election, and then by virtue thereof, to be entitled to the fruition of all those graces. Secondly, it saith, Those who are endued with this benefit, enjoy those blessings; intimating that election is the rule whereby God proceedeth in bestowing those graces; restraining the objects of the temporal acts of God's special favour, to them only whom his eternal decree doth embrace; both these indeed are denied by the Ar

Non ob aliud dicit non vos me eligistis sed ego vos elegi,' nisi quia non elegerunt eum ut eligeret eos, sed ut eligerent eum elegit eos. Aug. de bono perse, cap. 16.

minians, which maketh a farther discovery of their heterodoxies in this particular. You say," saith Arminius to Perkins, 'that election is the rule of giving, or not giving of faith, and, therefore, election is not of the faithful, but faith of the elect; but by your leave this I must deny :' but yet, whatever it is the sophistical heretic here denies, either antecedent or conclusion, he falls foul on the word of God. 'They believed,' saith the Holy Ghost, 'who were ordained to eternal life;' Acts iii. 48. And the Lord added daily to his church such as should be saved;' Acts ii. 47. From both which places it is evident that God bestoweth faith only on them whom he hath preordained to eternal life: but most clearly; Rom. viii. 29, 30. For whom he did foreknow, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son; moreover, whom he did predestinate, them also he called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' St. Austin interpreted this place, by adding in every link of the chain, 'only those,' however the words directly import a precedency of predestination, before the bestowing of other graces and also a restraint of those graces, to them only, that are so predestinate; now the inference from this is, not only for the form logical, but for the matter also, it containeth the very words of Scripture, Faith is of God's elect;' Tit. i. 1.

For the other part of the proposition, that faith and obedience are the fruits of our election, they cannot be more peremptory in its denial, than the Scripture is plentiful in its confirmation: he hath chosen us in Christ, that we should be holy;' Eph. i. 4. not because we were holy, but that we should be so: holiness, whereof faith is the root, and obedience the body, is that whereunto, and not for which, we are elected. The end, and the meritorious cause, of any one act cannot be the same; they have divers respects, and require repugnant conditions. Again, we are predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ; ver. 5. adoption is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God, when before we are foreigners, aliens, strangers, afar off, which we see is a fruit of our predestination, though it be

2 Dicis clectionem divinam esse regulam fidei dandæ vel non dandæ : ergo electio non est fidelium sed fides electorum: sed liceat mihi tua bona venia hoc negare. Armin. Antip. p. 221.

the very entrance into that estate, wherein we begin first to please God in the least measure. Of the same nature are all those places of holy writ, which speak of God's giving some unto Christ, of Christ's sheep hearing his voice, and others not hearing, because they are not of his sheep; all which, and divers other invincible reasons I willingly omit, with sundry other false assertions, and heretical positions, of the Arminians, about this fundamental article of our religion, concluding this chapter with the following scheme.

S. S.

Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified; so that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ;' Rom. viii. 29, 30-39.

'He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy;' Eph. i. 4.

Not for the works that we have done, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began;' 2 Tim. i. 9.

him that calleth;' &c. Rom. ness, faith, and piety, where

shall come to me;' John vi. 37. Editor.

CHAP. VII.

Of original sin, and the corruption of nature.

HEROD the Great, imparting his counsel of rebuilding the temple unto the Jews, they much feared he would never be able to accomplish his intention; but like an unwise builder, having demolished the old, before he had sat down and cast up his account, whether he were able to erect a new, they should (by his project) be deprived of a temple; wherefore, to satisfy their jealousies, he resolved as he took down any part of the other, presently to erect a portion of the new in the place thereof. Right so the Arminians, determining to demolish the building of divine providence, grace, and favour, by which men have hitherto ascended into heaven, and fearing lest we should be troubled, finding ourselves on a sudden deprived of that, wherein we reposed our confidence for happiness, they have, by degrees, erected a Babylonish tower in the room thereof, whose top they would persuade us shall reach unto heaven. First, therefore, the foundation stones they bring forth, crying, Hail, hail, unto them, and pitch them on the sandy rotten ground of our own natures. Now, because heretofore some wise masterbuilders had discovered this ground to be very unfit to be the basis of such a lofty erection, by reason of a corrupt issue of blood and filth, arising in the midst thereof, and over-spreading the whole platform; to encourage men to an association in this desperate attempt, they proclaim to all, that there is no such evil fountain in the plain which they have chosen for the foundation of their proud building, setting up itself against the knowledge of God in plain terms, having rejected the providence of God, from being the original of that goodness of entity which is in our actions, and his predestination from being the cause of that moral and spiritual goodness, wherewith any of them are clothed, they endeavour to draw the praise of both to the rectitude of their nature, and the strength of their own endeavours: but this attempt, in the latter case, being thought to be alto

a Joseph. Antiq. Judæ. lib. 15. cap. 14.