11 April, 2008

Ordaining men to destruction

The Adversary.

 

God created man a very good thing: and dare you say that God ordained a very good thing to destruction? Then God delighteth in the destruction of that which is very good. Man at his creation was a just and innocent creature; for before the transgression, there was no evil neither in Adam nor in us. And think you that God ordained his just and innocent creatures to condemnation? What greater tyranny and unrighteousness can the most wicked man in the world, yea, the Devil himself does, than to condemn the innocent and just person? Hereby may we see that these Careless Men be more abominable than the Athei, which believe there is no God. But these affirm God to be as bad as the Devil, yea, and worse; forasmuch, as the Devil can only tempt a man to death, but he can compel none to fall unto condemnation; but God may not only tempt, but also compel by his eternal decree the most part of the world to damnation. And hath so done (as they say), so that of necessity, and only because it was his pleasure and will. Then must God be worse than the Devil. For the Devil only tempted men to fall, but God compelleth them to fall by his immutable decree. Oh, horrible blasphemy!

 

Answer.

Because that before, plainly and simply, I have declared our judgment of God’s eternal Election, and most just Reprobation in all these your despiteful arguments, I will only show your malice, ignorance, and proud vanity. This is your argument: “God created man a very good thing, therefor he did not ordain him to destruction.” Your reason is, “for it is contrary to his justice to ordain a good thing to destruction.” I answer, if ye be able to prove that man stood in the same goodness, perfection, and innocence (he and his posterity whom so highly ye praise) in the which he was first created, then will I confess your argument to be good. But if man (albeit he was created good) did yet willingly make himself evil, how can it be contrary to the justice of God to appoint punishment for transgression, which he did not only forsee by an idle speculation, or yet suffer and permit against his omnipotent will, but in his eternal counsel, for the manifestation of his own glory, had decreed the same. Against which, albeit ye cry horrible blasphemy till your brains drop out, yet have we Moses, Exodus 9, Isaiah 6, Solomon, and Paul, to absolve us from your cruel sentence. For they do affirm, that God hath created all things for his own glory, and the wicked to the day of destruction; that he raised up Pharaoh, that his power might be shown forth in him; that he blindeth the eyes and hardeneth the hearts of some, so that they can neither hear nor see that they may convert; that God hath prepared both vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. Which places, albeit some of them seem not to appertain to the creation, yet if they be justly weighed, it shall evidently appear that the hardness of men’s hearts, their blindness and stubborn malice, are not only punishments of sin, but also are the effects of Reprobation, like as faith, obedience, and other virtues be the free gifts of God given in Christ Jesus to those whom he hath Elected in him. But yet to your argument, which thus ye amplify: “Do ye think that God ordained his just and innocent creatures to damnation? What greater tyranny and unrighteousness can the most wicked man in the earth, yea, the Devil himself does, than to condemn a just and an innocent person?”

I answer (as before) that your argument is naught worth, for you conclude more than ye be able to prove of your two former propositions, which be those: “God created man a very good thing;” true it is. “And God reprobated man, and shall also condemn him whom he created good;” I grant also. “Therefore he damned the good thing which he created, or that thing which is very good:” I deny the conclusion. For before damnation there cometh a change in man; so that he of very good became extreme evil, and so God’s just judgements found nothing but that which is evil to condemn. You form your reason as that God had so created man good, that he by no means after could be made evil; which last part is false, and so you are deceived. If ye can not see just causes why God should make that thing very good which after should become extreme evil, accuse your own blindness; and desire of God, to repress in you that presumption and pride which against the eternal Son of God you have conceived; and so your eyes shall be illuminated, and you shall see, first, that because the Creator is infinitely good, that therefor it behooveth the creatures in their original creation to be good. And so I doubt not was the Devil created good, but in the verity he stood not. And secondarily, that because the just judgements of God were no less to shine in the damnation of the reprobate, than his infinite mercy was to be praised in the vessels of honor, it behoved the one and the other to be innocent and good in their creation. For if the original had been evil, God justly could not have after damned that which he had made no better; but so we must confess, that it was good that (yet willingly corrupting the self) man made a way to the most just execution of God’s eternal counsel. And last, that the eternal purpose of God might in time be notified unto man, which was that God would bestow greater liberality, show greater love and mercy in the redemption of man justly damned, than that he did in his creation. of nothing he did creat him (for his corporal substance was made of the dust), which sometimes was not to his own image and similitude; to him he gave the dominion of all creatures; these were documents of a true love. But if they be compared with that love which in Christ Jesus we receive, and that of free grace, they are nothing. For what is the dominion of earthly creatures in respect that we shall reign with Christ Jesus for ever? What were the pleasures and fruits of Paradise in comparison of those heavenly joys which Saint Paul affirmeth can not enter in to the heart of man? If man had stand perpetually in Adam, neither had the love of God so wondrously been notified unto us; neither yet had place been granted to his free grace and mercy which we receive in Christ Jesus; for mercy properly hath respect to misery. But the chief comfort of God’s children is, that as they fell in Adam, so are they new transferred in another; that is in Christ Jesus, to whom they are given, and who (as before we have proved) hath so received them from the hand of his Father, that he shall give life everlasting to so many as the Father hath given him. If ye, I say, can not admit these reasons, why it behoved man to be created good, and yet after to fall in to sin and misery, accuse yourselves, storm not against God, for he will not be subject to your reason and judgements. Your horrible blasphemies against God, and your despiteful railing against us, at this time I will omit. And how impudently ye leap from the purpose of God’s reprobation to the execution of his judgment, shall be spoken in weighing this your reason, which thus followet