Davenant:

And last of all, absolute predestination, and absolute reprobation or non-election, do not exclude or deny the eternal intuition of faith and perseverance in the elect, nor the eternal consideration of infidelity and impenitency in the non-elect, but they deny such a consideration of good or bad acts foreseen in men as causes or precedes the different decrees of God in electing some men mercifully unto salvation, and leaving others through their own default to plunge themselves into eternal damnation.

If by casting off men for ever, you¹ mean the eternal exclusion of the damned from the blessed presence of God, and their eternal tormenting in hell, no side will deny but this is grounded upon the foresight of final continuance in sin: yet so, that as the final continuance of Peter in faith was not a cause, condition or motive foreseen, and so determining the divine will to elect him, but the divine election was the cause which afterwards produced in him that foreseen faith. So the foreseen final continuance of Judas in sin and infidelity was not it which determined the divine will to pass by him in his decree of electing singular persons unto the infallibly attainment of eternal life, but being thus passed by, God foresees that through the voluntary obstinacy of his own will (not by any necessitating violence of God’s decree) he will live and die in sin and impenitency, for his voluntary sin and impenitency deserve and undergo eternal torments.

Those who in ordering the eternal decrees, place predestination and negative reprobation before the consideration of the fall, are not few for number, nor men of any late sect. Scotus with the whole army of Scotists,² the greater number of the late School-Divines,are of this opinion: And Suarez by name, whose words are these, Probabiliorem existimo communem sententiam Theologorum asserentium electionem hominem prædestinatorum antecessisse permissionem originalis peccati.³

As for Calvin, he never troubled himself with these imaginary priorities and posteriorities in the eternal immanent operations of God: but all that he aimed at, was to prove, “That the fall foreseen could not be the cause or motive unto God of some men’s election and others’ reprobation.” As for the intuition or divine considertion of all mankind in statu lapso, Calvin in plain terms avouches it: Postquam Paulus, Deum ex perdita massa eligere & reprobare quos illi visim est docuit, quare & quomodo id fiat adeo non expedit ut potius expavescens, &c.

And this presupposition of sin considered in persons, whether elected or not elected, whether to be saved or to be damned, is most convenient for helping our understanding in this deep mystery. But if any shall thereby conceive that the eternal volitions or intuitions of God have any real posteriority or priority in the divine will and understanding, he deceives himself, and troubles others with vain jangling. Utilitas distinguendi hæc instantia rationis, non est, ut ille modus intelligendi retineater, sed ut viam aperiat veritati, quæ aperta relinquatur.

John Davenant, Animadversions Written by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Lord Bishop of Sarisbury, upon the Treatise intitled, Gods love to Mankinde (London: Printed for Iohn Partridge, 1641), 20-22.

[Some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

_____________________________

¹Davenant’s opponent.

²Lib. 1. dist. 41. Lib. 3. dist. 19.

³In 3. disp. 5. p. 103.

Hutchinson:

1) HE is also full of mercy; letting the sun shine upon good and evil, and sending rain to both sorts. “Thou, most gracious Lord, brings forth grass and herbs for cattle, and food out of the earth; thou gives us wine to make our hearts glad, and oil to cheer our countenance, and bread to strengthen the heart; thou satisfies all men’s desires with good things” [Psal. civ.], and specially of those that be merciful; as the only-begotten Son makes proclamation in the mountain: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” [Matt. v.]. The earth is full of thy mercies: and it, O Lord, reaches unto the heaven” [Psal. xxxiii.]. No place is empty of thy mercies. Roger Hutchinson, The Works of Roger Hutchinson (Cambridge: CUP, 1842), 56. [Some spelling modernized; some reformatting; marginal references cited inline; and underlining mine.]

2) HE is full of all goodness, St James witnessing of him, that “every good gift is from above, and comes down from the father of light” [James i.] that is, father of good men; for they are called light. Vos estis lux mundi, “you are the light of the world” [Matt. v.]. “What have we, that we have not received!” [1 Cor. iv.]. He is liberal, patient, merciful, wise, strong, constant, equal, faithful, magnifical, affable. Liberal, “giving to all men indifferently, and casting no man in the teeth;” patient, “calling us through his long-suffering unto repentance,” [Rom. ii.], merciful, “not dealing with us after our sins, nor rewarding us according to our wickedness” [Psal. ciii.] wise, for “of his wisdom,” David saith, “there is no number” [Psal. cxlvii.], strong, for “he is our buckler, our shield, our strength and defense, the rock of our might, and castle of our health” [Psal. Lxii.], constant, “with whom no man can prove any variableness,” [James i.], equal, for “there is no partiality with God,” [Rom. ii.], “there is no Jew neither Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither man ne woman, but all be one in Christ Jesu” [Gal. iii.], faithful, for “he is a strong God and a faithful; stable in all his words” [Deut. vii.], magnifical, for “the work of the Lord is great, and worthy to be praised” [Psal. cxlv.], “the heavens, the sun, and the stars, the waters, and great fishes therein, are the work of thy fingers,” [Matt. vii.], affable, exhorting us continually to ask, knock, and pray unto him; and talking with us most familiarly, first by holy fathers, his prophets and patriarchs; afterward by his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ [Heb. i.], walking here upon earth, to whom belongs all power, majesty, rule, and honor. We read of a certain ruler, which called Christ “Good master,” asking him what he should do to obtain everlasting life: whom Christ rebuked, saying, “Why call thou me good! None is good, save God only” [Luke xviii.]. If God only be good, then all goodness is in him. Roger Hutchinson, The Works of Roger Hutchinson (Cambridge: CUP, 1842), 60-61.

Hufsey:

Exhort. 1. Stand still, and admire we the love of God to the world, in sending his Son Jesus Christ, and giving him for us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” 1. What an unparalleled act of love it is to part with a Son, tender hearted parents are best able to judge. To part with one son of many, had there been act of great kindness: Christ was and is the Father’s only Son. To part with an adopted son had been undeserved love, Jesus is mongenes the only begotten Son of the Father. If he had been a son who had no form or comeliness nor beauty in him, that he should be desired, to part with had been less, but he is fairer than the sons of men, the chief of ten thousands. Or if he had been as too many sons are, a grief to his Father like Esau, the matter had not been so great; but Jesus Christ is and was daily his Father’s delight, neither displeased with him, lay in his bosom, yet God sen him. “Having yet one Son his beloved, he sent him,” Prov. 8:30. “Behold how he loved us!” Joh. 8:29, 1:18.

2. But to what end did God send his Son Jesus Christ? Possibly for a preferment a tender Father may part with a dear son; but God sent his Son into an ungrateful world, to unthankful husbandmen, Mark 12:7, “Who received him not” with acknowledgments of gratitude, and respect, nay they hated him to death, and crucified him. Those husbandmen said, “this is the heir, come let us kill him,” &c., Acts 4:2 And this God in his eternal foreknowledge saw and knew certainly would so come to pass, yet he sent him.

3. For whom did God give his Son, for whose sake and benefit? Was it for Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, those morning stars of an higher orb, and the Son of God, as the Angels are styled, Job 38:7. Nay, it was for mortals who inhabit cottages of clay. But sure it was for innocent men, and good men. Nay, God commends his love to us, “that when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Rom. 5:8. Miser, indeed, moves pity, where a man becomes casually miserable, he neither willing it directly, nor in its cause, as Aquinas speaks; but we fell into sin and misery willfully, yet God shows mercy, and sent his Son to receive millions of souls, become obnoxious to condemnation by their own fault or their parents.

2. Exh. What shall we render to the Lord who spared not his own Son from death for us for our redemption? O give to the Lord of the best, the dearest thing tho hast; what is that? thy heart: My son give me thy heart.

1. We had no title to Jesus Christ, yet God sent him, our misery for requiring. God has manifold right, all right to our hearts: he is Lord of the whole man, and we are not our own.

2. We no way merited the sending of Jesus Christ, but contrariwise deserved wrath: God deserves our heart, hand, tongue, all.

3. God sent his Son when he knew he would be ill used by men: if you give God your heart he will purify it, adorn it with grace, fit for glory. Christ returned with wounds, scars to his Father: God will fill your heart with joy, comfort, the graces of his Spirit.

4. If we give not God our hearts, Satan will get possession of them.

J. Hufsey, The Way to Salvation: Or, The Doctrine of Life Eternal Laid down in several Texts of Scripture Opened and Applied (London: Printed for Nathaniel Ranew, and Jonathan Robinson, at the Angel in Jewen Street, 1668), 107-109. [Some reformatting and some spelling modernized.]

Hufsey:

If it is demanded, to what end God sent his Son, the Apostle resolves it; “and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins,” 1 Joh. 4:10.

“God gave his Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish,” Joh. 3:16-17. In a word, to save the world.

It is a little to curious to inquire further, whether God might not have saved lost man without the Mediation of Jesus Christ, which Aquinas determines to have been possible to him, to whom nothing is impossible; but God’s infinite wisdom this seemed the most convenient, nay, for us incomparably better way, as whereby

1. God commends his infinite love, and philanthropia to us: Herein is love, not that we loved God, “but that he loved us, and sent his Son,” &c. 1 Joh. 4:10.

This may serve to keep sinners from despair.

2. This shows God inconceivable hatred of sin, to keep sinners from presuming, when God spared not his own Son, appearing in the room and place of sinners.

3. It affords us strong motive to obedience: when we are bought with such a price, we have all reason in the world to glorify God, “with our souls and bodies, which are God’s,” 1 Cor. 6:8.

4. No small honor redounds to human nature, by the word becoming flesh, the Son of God assuming our nature, Nolite nos ipsus comtemnere viri, &c. Undervalue not yourselves O men, seeing Christ was made Men; debase not yourselves O Women, because Christ was born of woman, says one.

5. Christ not only suffered for us our sins, but set us an example of humility, obedience, and all Christian graces, “which may be of great advantage to us, to walk in his steps,” 1 Pet. 2:21.

Reason. There can be no other cause in the world assigned, either internal or external, moving God to give his Son, but his mere love, his innate pity, bowels of mercy and compassion, yearning over his poor creature fallen into misery, plunged into the horrible put of destruction through his own wretched carelessness, and Satan’s implacable malice.

In the giving of his Son, God has made known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, according to his name, so is his nature: “The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression,” Exod. 34:6-7. This is his name forever, and his memorial to all generations. This is celebrated in Scripture frequently; as if the Lord were delighted in glorifying his mercy above all the rest of his name and glorious attributes: “he is said to be plenteous in mercy,” Psal. 86:5. “He is pitiful and of tender mercy,” Jam. 5:11. And upon no occasion is the glory of his mercy so much spoken of, as in the work of redemption, and the sending of his Son: But God who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, &c. “That he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ,” Eph. 2:4,7. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy,” &c., 1 Pet. 1:3.

“Where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound,” Rom. 5:20.

To the praise of his glorious grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved,” Eph. 1:6.

“But after the kindness and love of God our Savior, towards man appeared,” &c. “Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” Tit. 3:4-6.

By all which it is manifest that God gave his Son freely, most freely, out of no necessity, for no profit to himself accruing by man’s salvation, for no works of righteousness, service or obedience foreseen, but moved thereto by his own goodness, grace, mercy, not delighting in the death of sinners, nor willing that poor man should perish by the Devil’s fraud and envy. Grace laid the foundation of redemption, in the sending of Jesus Christ, and grace alone is that which must lay the top-stone with shoutings, crying, “Grace, Grace unto it.”

J. Hufsey, The Way to Salvation: Or, The Doctrine of Life Eternal Laid down in several Texts of Scripture Opened and Applied (London: Printed for Nathaniel Ranew, and Jonathan Robinson, at the Angel in Jewen Street, 1668), 102-104. [Some spelling modernized; some reformatting; and italics original.]