Iii. Hovv God Putteth In Execution His Eternall Counsell, As Vvell Tovvards The Electe, As The Reprobate
The thirde chapter.
Hovv God putteth in execution his eternall counsell, as vvell tovvards the Electe, as the Reprobate.
THE Lord God, that he might put in execution this eternal counsel, to his glory, prepared a way according to his infinite wisdom, indifferent both to those that he would choose, and those also which he would refuse. For when he determined to shew his infinite mercy in the salvation of the elect, and also his just judgment in the Condemnation of the Reprobate: it was necessary that he should shut up both under disobedience & sin, to shew his mercy to all (1) those that believe (2) that is to say, to the Elect: because faith is a gift of God which properly belongeth unto them (3) and contrariwise to have just cause to condemn them, to whom it is not given to believe (4), nor to know God's mysteries (5). Therefore God did this in such sort, & with such wisdom, that the whole fault of the Reprobates damnation lieth in themselves: and on the other side, all the glory and praise of the Elects salvation belongeth wholly in his only mercy. For he did not create man a sinner, for then he should have been (with reverent fear be it spoken, the author of sin, which afterwards he could not justly have punished) but rather he made him after his own image (6) to wit, in innocency, purity, and holiness (7): who notwithstanding without constraint of any, neither yet forced by any necessity of concupiscence as touching his will (which as yet was not made servant to sin) (8), willingly and of his own accord rebelled against God: binding by this means the whole nature of man to sin, & so consequently to the death of body & soul (9). Yet we must confess that this fall came not by chance or fortune, seeing his providence doth stretch forth itself even to the smallest things (10), neither can we say, that any thing doth happen, that God knoweth not, or careth not for, except we would fall into the opinion of the Epicures, from the which God preserve us, neither yet by any bare or idle permission or sufferance, which is separate from his will and sure determination. For seeing he hath appointed the end, it is necessary also that he should appoint the causes which lead us to the same end, unless we affirm with the wicked Manichees that this end happeneth at all adventures, or by means of causes ordained by some other God. Furthermore we cannot think that any thing happeneth contrary to God's will, except we deny blasphemously that he is omnipotent & almighty, As Augustine noteth plainly in his book De correptione & gratia. Cap. 104.
We conclude therefore that this fall of Adam did so proceed of the motion of his will that notwithstanding it happened not without the will of God: whom it pleaseth by a marvelous and incomprehensible mean, that the thing which he doth not allow (for as much as it is sin) should not happen without his will. And this is done, as we said before, that he might shew the riches of his glory towards the vessels of mercy: and his wrath and power upon those vessels, which he hath made to set forth his glory by their shame and confusion (12). For the final end of God's counsel is neither the salvation of the elect, nor the damnation of the reprobate: but the setting forth of his own glory, in saving the one by his mercy, and condemning the other by his just judgment. Then to avoid all these blasphemies, unto the which the infirmit of our wits doth draw us, let us confess that the corruption of the principal work that God hath made (which is man) is not happened by chance, nor without the will of him, who according to his incomprehensible wisdom, doth make and govern all things to his glory. Albeit we must confess (in despite of man's judgment, which was limited in the beginning within a certain compass, and after was miserably corrupted) that the whole fault of his damnation lieth in man: forasmuch as betwixt the secret and incomprehensible will of God, and that corruption of man's nature, which is the very first occasion of the reprobates damnation, the will of the first man is a mean, which being created good, hath willingly corrupted itself, and thereby opened the door to the just judgment of God, to condemn all those, to whom it doth not please him to shew mercy. And if they would yet object and cavil, saying, that they cannot resist the will of God (13), let us suffer them to their own destruction to plead against him, who will be able enough to defend his justice against their quarreling. Let us rather reverence that which passeth the reach & compass of our wits, & turn our minds wholly to praise his mercy, who by his only grace hath saved us, when we deserved the like punishment & damnation, & were no less sinners & wicked than they.
Notes of the thirde chapter.
(1) Rom. 11.32. (2) Gal. 3.22. (3) Acts 13.48; Eph. 2.8; 2 Thes. 3.2; Titus 1.1,
2; Phil. 1.29; Gal. 5.22. (4) Matt. 13.11. (5) John 12.38, 39. (6) Gen. 3. (7) Eph. 4.24. (8) Rom. 5.12; 7.20. (9) Rom. 5.12 &c. (10) Matt. 10.29, 30; Prov.
16.33. (11) Rom. 9.21, 22; 1 Pet. 2.8; Exod. 9.16; Prov. 16.4. (12) Exod.
9.16; Prov. 16.4; Isa. 54.16; Rom. 9.11, 12, 13, 17, 18, &c. (13) Rom.
9.13,19.