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cause_n act_n effect_n will_n 1,670 5 6.6468 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A60717 A sober letter, touching predestination and obduration Sent to a minister in the city of Bristol. 1679 (1679) Wing S4411; ESTC R219110 8,859 14

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A SOBER LETTER Touching Predestination AND OBDURATION Sent to a MINISTER IN The City OF BRISTOL LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. A SOBER LETTER TOUCHING PREDESTINATION AND OBDURATION Sect. 1. Sir ALthough the Doctrine of God's Eternal Predestination be an offence to many some abuse it to carnal liberty and others to despair yet it is a necessary and useful Doctrine which upon all occasions ought to be uttered with much reverence and circumspection to the praise and glory of God as the same is held forth in the sacred Scriptures without some taste of this Divine Doctrine of Predestination there can be no true Faith but either a doubtful and wavering Opinion leading to Despair or else a vain presumption of feigned Holiness whilst men rest upon their own Works and Performances and not upon the Free Grace of God. There is no Doctrine that doth more beat down the pride of the Flesh that doth more exalt the Riches of God's Grace or more establish and support the Saints in the Assurance of the Love of God than this Doctrine of God's Eternal Predestination if rightly apprehended and improved The Scripture doth usually alledge the Eternal Purpose and Decree of God for strengthening and confirming our Faith and Hope of Salvation and doth not rest in second Causes or in the Fruits of our Faith and Vocation but ascendeth up to Christ himself In whom as in the Head we are elected and predestinated to Grace and Glory Yea it raiseth us up to that everlasting Purpose and Decree which was in God himself before the Foundation of the World Ephes 1.4 5. Matth. 11.25 26. Rom. 8.29 30. Rom. 9.11 16 18 23.2 Tim. 1.9.2 Tim. 2.19.1 Pet. 1.20 Sect. 2. As in other Points of Divinity so more especially in this great Mystery of Predestination we should avoid vain and curious Questions and Speculations using such words and expressions concerning the same as are most agreeable to the Holy Scriptures for who so fit to reveal the mind of God in this great Mystery as God himself and not according to our corrupt fancy and imagination In this case 't is best and safest for us to ascend from the lowest degrees to the highest as St. Paul doth in his Epistle to the Romans speaking first of the Law of God and the Corruption of Man's Nature and so proceeding on to the Remission of Sins and Justification by Christ and from thence to the sublime Mystery of God's Eternal Predestination Whether we go up from the lowest step to the highest or descend from the highest to the lowest we must take heed that we run not from one Extreme to another omitting and passing by the middle Causes or Means of Salvation and Damnation which ought to be duly considered and placed between God's Eternal Decree and the final Execution thereof Nor should the Decree of Praeterition or Reprobation be applied to any Sinner in particular so long as he lives without special extraordinary Revelation seeing God whose Grace and Mercy is infinite and boundless may call and convert him even at the eleventh hour though his sins be never so great and hainous 'T is observable that all those Acts in God which in the matter of Reprobation go befor sin are described rather after a negative than positive manner in the Scripture as the Not writing their names in the book of life Rev. 13.8 They are not found written in the book of life Rev. 20.15 Ye are not of my Sheep Joh. 10.26 I never knew you Matth. 7.23 The Election hath obtained it the rest i e. those who are not elected were blinded Rom. 11.7 Sect. 3. God's Decree of Reprobation is not the cause of sin but Man himself is the cause of sin Eccles 7.29 Ezek. 36.31 32. Jam. 1.14 Reprobation being part of the Decree and the Decree nothing else but God himself decreeing cannot be the cause of sin which is so contrary to God who is Holiness it self His Decree may be said to be the Antecedent of Sin and Sin to be the Consequent of the Decree not the Effect of the Decree Upon this occasion we should always remember that approved distinction between a proper Cause and an Antecedent Life is the Antecedent of death and sight of blindness And as it is impossible that there should be Death where there hath not been Life or Blindness where there hath not been Sight foregoing so it is as impossible that either Life should be the cause of Death or Sight the cause of Blindness following God willeth not Sin as Sin therefore Reprobation is not the cause of Sin God willeth the Permission of Sin therefore Reprobation is the Antecedent thereof For the better guiding and regulating our Judgments in this great point we must consider three distinctions 1. Between God's Willing Sin as Sin and his Willing the being or permission or the ordering of Sin for the Glory of Divine Justice and Mercy 2. Between a Cause and an Antecedent 3. Between a Consequent and an Effect Sect. 4. Sin is the cause of Punishment and Damnation God punisheth no man condemneth no man but for Sin Original or Actual or both Gen. 2.17 Rom. 5.12 Ezek. 18.20 25 28. Though Sin be not the Cause of the Decree of God for that which is temporal cannot be the cause of that which is eternal yet it is the only proper cause of Punishment and Damnation We must distinguish between God's Decree of Non-Election or Reprobation and his destinating men to punishment or preparation to punishment which is usually called Praedamnation As for the former it dependeth solely upon the sovereign Will and Pleasure of God but the latter is an Act of God's Justice The one floweth from God as he is a God of absolute Power and Sovereignty the other floweth from God as he is a God of Justice The Decree of Election and Reprobation is an Immanent Act in God alone as in the Subject and from God alone as from the Original Cause But Damnation is neither originally from God nor subjectively in God but is a transient Act of his Justice God being infinitely wise propoundeth to himself the Manifestation of his own Glory as a most certain and infallible End appointing and making all things to be subservient thereunto The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16.4 And thus the Decree of God is described by the learned Bishop Vsher and other Protestant Divines to be that Act whereby God from all Eternity according to his Free Will did by his unchangeable Counsel and Purpose fore-appoint and certainly determine of all things together with their Causes Effects Circumstances and manner of Being for the Manifestation of his awn Glory Nor should we go about to subject this Divine Decree to our shallow Capacity or measure it by our depraved Reason considering that the Will of God from whence the Decree cometh is unsearchable 'T is true