certum effe debuit, mem Chap. 8. fignal one, and next to that over Chrift himself, hath not wanted Adverfaries. Socinus faith, That Christ Caput quidem the Head was predeftinated, but believers the Members were not. Corvinus faith, That notwithstanding bra autem non the death of Chrift, it was poffible that there might modo incerta be no Church or believer. Grevinchovius afferts, effe poffunt, fed etiam de- That Redemption might be impetrated for all, and bent. Pralet. applied to none because of their incredulity. This Theol. cap. 14. Opinion to me is a very impious one. The Learned Fieri potuiffe, Junius obferves upon that of Socinus, That it is a ut nemo ho- portentous and monftrous thing, that there fhould Chriftum cre- be an Head without a Body. And the Profeffors of deret, ac nulla Leyden call that of Corvinus Dogma cqnuor xỳ BadsCor. contr. Mol. nuov, an opprobrious and blafphemous Opinion. Omnibus poThe impiety of it appears in the foul confequences tuit effe im- which flow from thence. minum in effet Ecclefia. petrata re * demptio, & tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem. Grevinch. contr. Amel. *Cenfur. fol. 289. 1. It puts the lye upon the Promises of God. He faid that Chrift fhould have a feed, Ifa. 53. 10; and yet according to this opinion, he may be childlefs, and have none at all. He faid, That he should have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his poffeffion, Pfal. 2.8; and yet he may have nothing. He faid that he should reign for ever, and of his kingdom there should be no end, Luk. 1. 33; and yet by an utter failer of fubjects he might not reign at all, and of his Kingdom there might be not fo much as a beginning. He faid, That he should be head over all things to the church, Eph. 1.22; and yet he may have no body; nay, nor fo much as one poor member of it. Notwithstanding all the Pro mises, mifes, he may be a Father without Children; an Chap. 8. Heir without an Inheritance; a King without Subjects; an Head without Members: And how can these things be! Or how can God be true to his word, which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth! Neither will it falve the matter to fay, That in the event there was a Church, and fo much God foreknew: For if he foreknew it, it was a certain immutable thing. Meer Cafuals, fuch as may be or may not be, are not the objects of Prefcience. If a Church might be, or might not be, as this Opinion would have it, it was not the object of Prescience. If a Church would certainly be, then it is the object of Prescience: but then this Tenet, that it might be, or not be, falls to the ground. However if we fuppofe a Prescience, Prefcience is not Providence: Neither, if there were there only nude Prescience, would the Church in the event be from Providence, but from Chance; and then the confequence is, Chance, which made no Promise, performs all; God, who made the Promife, performs nothing. He is fo far from taking care about it, that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will, whether there shall be a Church or not. If the event hit right, yet God is never the truer; he never performed the promife, he took no care about it; that thing, or rather Nothing, called Fortune, did order all. 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Chrift and his precious Blood. Creatures, nay the highest of them, Angels, may fail and mifs the mark; they have Semina nikili, feeds of vanity and defectibility in them: but for Jefus Christ, who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself, to fall fhort of his end, Chap. 8. end, and fo, as it were, to fall from himself and his happiness. For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood, and to have nothing built upon them: For him to make a Laver of his own blood, and to have never a foul washed in it: For him to procure the Holy Spirit, and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in, is a wonderful difparagement. The reflexion is in effect, as if he were but a meer man, not wife or powerful enough to compafs his end, or compleat his work; as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it, effectually to procure a Church and people to himself. All which are below and extremely unworthy of him, and the great work in his hands. Every little feed in nature hath a body given to it; and yet according to this opinion, the Son of God might fow his own Blood and Righteoufnefs, and have none at all. A cup of cold water given in charity, hath its reward; and yet the Blood of Chrift poured out in a tranfcendent excess of love, may want it. 3. This cafts a foul blot upon Providence, that, fuch is its accuracy, reaches to every thing in nature, even to fuch minute things as hairs and fparrows; yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World, and the iffue of it. It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian, to fpend his time in catching of Flies, while he neglected the great things of the Empire. And what just apology can be made for Providence, if it wake and watch over the Sun, Moon, Stars, Meteors, Beasts, Plants, nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures, while it flumbers and sleeps over the fufferings of the Son of God? How much more tolerable were a neglect neglect of all creatures, than of that one concern, Chap. 8. which is a thing of infinite moment! If we believe that Providence took no care about fo great a thing as Chrifts death, how can we perfwade our felves that it should refpect the creatures, which are infinitely below it? A greater failure in government there cannot be, than this, to be accurate in trifles, and neglective in momentous things. Again, Providence reaches to the end of things; it doth not go part of the way only, but conducts them to their end: yet according to this opinion, it doth not do fo in a thing of more confequence than all the world. It watched over the genealogy, birth, life, death, refurrection of Chrift; but then it made a ftand, taking no care what the iffue or fruit of all this fhould be, after all was done: whether Christ should have a Church, or fo much as one believer in all the world, was not determined by Providence, but left to the Lottery of mans Will. A greater defect cannot be imagined than this, To do great admirable things, and then not to regard what shall become of them. I fhall fay no more to this opinion, but conclude, That a very great Providence did watch over the iffue of Chrifts death, that a Church might be fecured unto him. But because it may be faid, That the Providences over Chrift and the Church are, though great, yet but particular ones, I fhall proceed to the next thing. 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two. As God hath a fpecial eye upon Christ and the Church, fo he orders other things to be some way or other fubfervient unto them. I fhall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences Z 2 Chap. 8. dences, first, to that over Chrift,and then to that over the Church. First, Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ. It was an ancient faying of the Jews, That the World was made for the Meffiah. The Apostle tells us expresly, That all things were created by him and for him, Col. 1. 16. That Providence which was over him, being the Master-piece, the highest Providence that ever the Sun faw, must in all reafon be the rule of the reft, in that we have the nobleft profpect of God and the creature, the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory, and a creature, an human nature, elevated to the highest pitch: unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred. To give fome inftances: God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holinefs all to pieces: and why did he permit it? doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity; no man dares deny it: doubtless he permitted it not irdicere,ut neq; rationally; his will is ever irradiated with infinite Angelus neq; homo cade wifdom: What account then may be given of it? If poteftate non any at all be given, I fuppofe a better reafon cannot fuiffe? 4uft.de be given than this, That he permitted it, that way Civ: Dei, 1.14. might be made for the coming of his Son in the flesh: Hence that speech, O fælix culpa, quæ tantum meruit redemptorem! Eftius gives other reafons; but this (faith he) is ratio omnium potiffima, the chief reason of all, That God might be made man. The Learned Zanchy faith, Certum eft, It is certain that evil was permitted, that the Son of God might take our flesh. But to go on: After the fall, the Providence which watched over Noah, Abraham, Judah, Ruth, David, with others the Ancestors of our Saviour, did look Quis audeat credere aut ret, in Dei 27. In Sent. 1. 2. Comment. in Col. 1. v. 16. at |