he determineth not the creature to God forâ—saw that Ananias would not not that he could not dispose of the price of his estate as he pretended to do that he would not not that he could not forbear to lie Act. 5.3 4. He could not indâ—ed make God ignorant yet he coâ—ld have done otherwise than he did for all Goâ—'s knowledge that he would not so do Nay possibly it may prove no less dâ—fficult to make out what some do so Peremptorily fix upon as the way in which or manner how God in Eternity foreseeth all things that shall ever come to pass namely in his own Decree giving them a futurition in the first place and thence taking the Idea of them in his own will since that in Eternity there is no prius and posterius one thing before an other it consists in a Point beside that the free Act of God will have no necessary connexion with his Being nor do they by way of emanation result therefrom Eph. 1.11 Who can make out these things Can any one define or resolve how God himself should fore-see and fore-appoint things to come and yet notwithstanding their Futurition or Shall-be still we are to conceive of him wherein he hath not bound himself by express law or promise to the contrary as retaining a liberty pro arbitrio whether this or the other thing shall come to pass or not unless we will take away and destroy the reason and foundation of Prayer according to that of the Poet Desine fata Deûm flecti sperare precando let us never think by prayer to move God to reverse his determinations or to alter that which he foresees and therefore will and must be We ought not to pray only for that it is our duty and as that which fell also within Gods predetermination but we are in our addresses to him suppose under a national calamity or a particular distress to conceive of him as yet free at his pleasure to prosper or blast us in the very instant wherein we pray to him and accordingly as we shall demean our selves we may expect from him though we have no certainty of the event Jer. 18.7 9. Jonah 2.9 Zeph. 2.3 Exod. 32.31 32. 2 Cor. 12.8 And not think that once he could help us antecedently to his determination or before the contrary was future but that now he is not at liberty as before to proceed either way or to be moved by any Address to him c. and yet to form any adequate conception of the consistency of these things may be to us impossible 2 Nor is the question touching Gods preordination or free decree of all actions or events either efficiendo or permittendo whether they be good or evil though I deny that the decree of God did enter into them after the same way and manner God did from Eternity predestinate or decree some of fallen man fallen I mean ut in esse cognito such in the foreknowledge of God unto salvation and unto faith and holiness in order thereunto Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1.4 5.2 Thes 2.13 He did decree to cause it so to be And the same doth and shâ—ll come to pass as the Effect of it But I deny that God did so decree the fall of man though he did to permit it or that he did so predestinate any man unto unbelief impenitency and rebellion the Material of it Thus the learned Bishop Davenant in his Animadversions against Hoard mihi p. 105. Predestination is a cause effectual in the producing of all salutiferous actions But reprobation or preterition is no effectuâ—l cause in the producing of any wicked actions And we hold not that God hath dâ—termined to produce any bad actions in men as impenitency or the like so p. 258. Predetermination in this sense taken as an immanent act in God and the same with his decree precisely in its self It puts no more into his Subject than his bare Prescience How the event or things decreed shall be brought about falls within the decree too But that belongs to the execution and is de modo which may be as well by permitting or ordering things so as to ascertain the existence of what is decreed as by affective production or causative determination and specifying the operation of the creature in persuance of his decree and such a difference there is Gods will giveth Being and Existence to the Object of his love Not so of his hatred but presupposeth it only there and yet both the one and the other are births lying in the womb of his Eternal decree whether they shall have a true Existence or not Even touching the evil projections and actions of men God hath predefined which of their contrivances shall take effect and which not what Weapon shall be improsperous and what shall prosper Dan. 8.25 and 11.25 27. Isa 54.15 17. Jer. 47.7 Isa 44.7 his determinate counsell and purpose is concerned therein Isa 46.10 Act. 4.28 Of which more hereafter 3 Neither is the question touching the providence of God either in the sustentation or conservation of the Being of man or of his concourse to the enâ—bling him unto the production of his Acts and operaâ—ions in general nor of his iâ—fluence and causation as to good actions nor yet touâ—hing his order and government of the world but it is of his precurse or transient influence unto the determination of the Subject in the exercise and specification of his Acts antecedently at least in order of nature to his own determination and that in relation to evil actions especially whereof we are enquiring Here iâ—'s granted 1. That the creature as to all its actions in general hath its dependance upon God the first cause on his manutenency and supportation both in esse operari as to his Being and Motion Psal 104.30 Neh. 9.6 and consequently that to all actions incommon whether good or evil so in like manner to all operation of every creature such a sustentation and concourse of God there is necessary thereunto as whereby he preserveth the order of nature and enableth every cause to produce its effect and that by his continual energetical operation and influx which is the same he doth concurr with the reason and free will of man at least concomitanter in its own election and free determination as that whereupon the Will in acting the Acts of the will and its Actions willed do depend and without which the Agent could not subsist nor move of himself at all Act. 17.28 Rom. 13.36 But it hence followeth not but that man hath a self determining power that presupposed as to some acts or actions which he hath not lost his capacity unto 1 Cor. 7.37 The Providence of God whereby he upholdeth all things Heb. 1.3 and by his general influence doth preserve and keep alive the power and operation of the creature doth differ from Creation that is the production of something out of nothing simply or out of the power of Nature or
If he himself Indeclinably Predetermineth them to the very thing which he dehorteth them from and Worketh in them both to will and to do so as that they can do no otherwise No Man can form a Conception of God more repugnant to the Notions that the Scripture hath given us of his Nature and Properties If I mistake not Amos 2 11 12 13. Arg. 3. The former Hypothesis of Physical Predetermination It over-turneth the Doctrine of Original Sin And of its Traduction If on the one Hand God did substract his Gift from Adam before he Sinned and deprive him of that Light and Ability which he once had and without which he could no longer stand before any fault or forfeiture of his and so determined him to fall in Execution of his Decree as is sometimes said by what Rule should his Posterity be Obliged still to have that which though the Nature of Man was capable of it yet was never due to it and which God hâ—mself took away or why should it be termed Sin to want it when it 's by no fault of his that it 's wanting nor was it ever by God intended to be continued It must be a meer Negation no Privation Since there could not be debitum inessendi any due Obligation of having it if their Supposition be true No more than is on a Beast to Reason Shall the Lord and Master of the Family take the Candle out of the Room not the Servants Extinguish it and then make it an Offence that they are in the dark and challenge them for their not working or will it solve the matter to tell them that it 's a Privation Darkness a non-Entity and therefore he could not cause it So on the other Hand If that which is termed the Corrupt Nature dwelling in Man be ens as it is a Quality or Habit and all that hath Entity be the Workmanship of God as they say it is or else Man must have a Creative Power and also good why then do we call it sin and Original sin or if it be nihil a non-Entity how then doth it descend How is it Traduced Joh. 3.6 and said to be ours by real Inhesion and Contagion as the whole Church consesseth saith Davenant Arg. 4. It staineth the Glory of free Grace in the Pardon of Sin and casteth a Blemish upon the Whole of the Meditation of Christ Whaâ— Conviction can possibly possess the Mind of Man of the Riches of Gods Grace in the Pardoning of sin whilst it 's maintained that the abounding of sinful Actions not to say sin is as well from God the Efficient and Predeterminer unto them as the Superabounding of Grace in the Remission of them Rom. 3.7 and 5.20 What sense can abide upon the Soul of the Grace of Christ in his being made Flesh and bearing the Wrath of God for those Tranâ—gressions whereof himself as God was the Prime Efficient and the which man by his own Influence and Causation was Indeclinably Predetermined unto He that shall Cause or Determine another supposing him a Rational Agent and capable of such an Imprâ—ss freely and willingly to do that whâ—ch in the Issue will prove Rottenness in his Bones as Prohibited or Illegal Actions will do Job 20.11 Psal 38.5 will Receive little thanks for his Cure whatever Cost he may be at When himself caused the Disease and the which had he not done it there had been no need of a Remedy for it Arg. 5. If the Doctrine of our Adversaries be true What meaneth then the Combating of the Spirit of God against sin or Mens being said to grieve and to Quench the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 it must according to thâ—â—r Hypothesis be God on both parts His own Counteraction in the Subject And if all the first motions of the Imagination all Distraction in Religious Duties all the vain Thoughts emerging out the Heart of Man in their Numberless Operations be from God as the first Mover and Determiner why then should Man be râ—quired at his Peril to dislodge them Jer. 4.14 What is it that he can do Or should he Enterprize the Eviction and Expulsion of the ataxie or Obliquity of them whilst that God himself keepeth the Entity of them in possession and in actual Operation Deut. 15.9 Arg. 6. It layeth the Axe to the Root of all Repentance for what is done and past It raseth the Foundation thereof and Excludeth the very Idea of it A Man may bewail Impreventable disaster but cannot prevent him of that which he could never have helped 2 Cor. 7.11 I appeal to the sense of any man living whether his Heart be wont to reproach him for the doing of that wherein he was no way wanting to himself or for that the which were it to do again must be done and could be no otherwise on no Account whatsoever within his Power now nor ever before If Man by the Necessity of his Being and from the Exigency of his Condition as a dependent Being cannot move save that way he is premoved and cannot but act that way that he is Predetermined or acted why then when he sees the Event should he wish it were Undone and Repent him that he did it or not rather that God did it if that be true Repentance is not founded in the Obediential Subjection of the Creature namely that God could have caused him to do otherwise or barely in the Capacity of the Subject to receive such an Impress from the first Cause but on the Evitability of the Fact or Possibility of the contrary from a Principle Intrinsick and Connate to himself Yea who or where is the man that dare go to God in Prayer with such a Notion in his head and hold to it that he is not to Confess that he could have done more Good and omitted more Evil than Eventually he hath Neh. 9.16 17 26 29. Ezra 9.10 14. had not David just Cause to Repent him of his Lye that he told to Abimelech 1 Sam. 21.2 and to acknowledge it a preventable Act which is the Sole aggravation of Sâ—n and true Reason of it though all Sin is not now Preventable as some is though I know not why or how he should so do were it true which is by some Affirmed that in linea physicâ to the Entity of the Act he was Predetermined of God to speak every Word and Syllable that he did whereof there was never a one true equally as in the using of his Tongue in the praâ—sing of his name Arg. 7. It leaveth not the least Foundation whereupon to bottom Gods Judicial Process against Man in the Day of Judgment To resolve mans Damnation into meer Dominion and Sovereignty is abhorrent to God and Cross to all Scripture Nor is there any thing more Repugnant to the Notions of Justice and Righteousness which are the Attributes of God to be Displaied towards all that shall then be Cast or Periâ—h Rom. 3.5 2 Thes 1.5 than that he should be thought to Adjudge
therein or by a moral agency only whether he draweth and turneth the soul as the Fisher doth the Fish when he hath it upon his hook and line by a physical impulse or as the Fisher doth the Fish when he hooketh it or in order to it by laying the bait before it where the pleasure of the bait or hopes of â—ood presented in the fancie doth allure and draw it this way or that till it hath takn it in or swallowed it which is an objective drawing and like to that which is moral in men I mean it not in the Arminian sense so as to leave the soul indifferent or the Will in suspense that what ever God doth on the contrary it still may eventually will or nill chuse or refuse cast ballance this way or the other but whether Gods actual efficacious and powerfull determination of the Will of the sinner indeclinably to Good many not be effected and brought about by the way of moral operation or causation as well as physical where the soul specifieth its own Act in a way more congruous to its nature and yet can go no other way in its elections without offering an affront to the dictate of its own Reason and Understanding Psal 119.36 8. Luk. 15.17 First rectified by the special Grace and help of God Col. 3.10 Job 33.16 Jer. 31.11 Joh. 4.10 after the same manner by a divine Inculcation of Truth and fixation therof upon it to a saving illumination Mat. 5.22 Joh. 14.26 and 16.8 But that God doth not either the one way or the other predetermine men to actions wicked and sinful I take here for grant and shall hereafter prove I mean neither by external legal Commanding counselling or perswading nor by internal moral suasion or Suggestion which is yet more powerfull tempting or soliciting effectually thereunto much less by any physical Thrust or premotion of the Will that he should influence it inevitably and insuperably in its election of two objects lying evenly before it one good the other evil to chuse and determine it self to that which is most nefariously wicked which at the same time he dehorteth from and declareth hâ—s abhorrency of and threatneth to punish Dut. 29.20 Here by the way let me take occasion to note the disadvantage which to my best understaâ—ding I conceive the truth of God to have received in the management thereof in the Point now mentioned by those who go the way of physical Predetermination whil'â—â— sober and woâ—thy men of that perswasion in their popular Sermons undertaking as one doth in print to vindicâ—te the Sovereignty of the Grace of God in the begining and carrying on of mans conversion and salvation and for the maintenance of the necâ—ssiâ—y of effectual grace therein shâ—ll pitch upon such mediums as these namely 1 That the denial thereof disparageth Gods providence For that â—t breaks the essential subordination between the second cause and the first 2 It destroys prescience for how then câ—n God infallibly foresee the Motions of the Will and the Effectâ— depending on it the evâ—nt being uncertain 3 It deifies the Will making it supream and independeâ—t upon God himself c. which do as well prove and are the main arguments brought for the maintaining of Gods efficacious predetermination of men in and unto their Unbelief Rebellion and all the most impious actions whereof the most profligate sinner is guilty and cuts the throat of the fourth argument that it abolishes all prayer and thanksgiving for that on the former Hypotheses the meaning of such prayer to God muâ—t be only that he would change his operation and cease to premove and determine the Will to that which he had all along before guided and overruled it to that he would counterwork his own prior determination and now turn it and determine the Will to good as before to evil which is a strange notion of prayer Nor can the soul in good earnest thank him for it when done if it be indeed really convinced that it might not thank it self that it was done no sooner or that it may thank God that it so long resisted his Spirit and walked in the path-way of destruction in every instance whereof it was effectually predetermined by a superiour agent on whom it had its dependence who foresaw all its motions who had an absolute supremacy over its Will and unto whose efficâ—ent energetical Operation it could not but be obsequious If we had no other medium to oppose Arminianism by in the Point of effectual Grace I should take our case for desperate and the remedy to be no less dangerous than the disease But to proceed 3. As to the Providence of God in the Government of the World It 's granted that God doth not carry it as a meer Spectator but that his Providence is positively active in the disposal of all Events under the Sun even to a sparrow falling to the ground Mat. 10.29 or to the Lot that is cast into the Lap Prov. 16.33 All the Issues of Health and Sickness Poverty and Riches War and Peace Life and Death they are in God's hâ—nd Eccl. 9.11 Job 14.14 2 King 8.11 Jer. 10.23 Prov. 16.9 Eccl. 11.5 6. nor are sinful men out of the limits of his Supremacy in the order and disposal of their actions which of their Projections shall take Effect or see the light and in what Circumstances and which not Psal 29.10 he hath all wicked men upon his hook Ezek. 38.4 the Heart of the most Absolute on the Earth at his Pleasure and Dispose Prov. 21.1 Isa 10.5 and 44.28 and 45.7 9. Psal 33.15 16 17. the Over-ruling Providence we acknowledge in the order of all Events whatever betideth us Yet hath not every Providence the same aspect with it though Gods hand be in it all Suppose for iâ—stance a man walking in the Streets the Tyles of a house he not perceiving any danger may slip and fall on him or he seeing them ready to fall may yet to save the wetting of hâ—s foot chuse to adventure the going under them rather than to cross the way and they happen to hit him Or one from the Roof of the house witâ—ingly throwing them down upon him and wounding him either way in them all he must acknowledge and eye Providence but in the first instance though there was a natural cause and reason of their Falling yet he wholly resolves his Misfortune into the Divine Providence which could have diverted him from coming at that instant there but did not or which ordered things in such a concurrence of Circumstances as that it should so fall out that he should not avoid the Stroke of them In the second he Notes the Providence and withal repents him and befools himself for his rashness and oversight that he prevented it not when it was in his power God could have turned his thoughts too and did not and so might he had he considered the Danger as he should and could have done In the
and would have reached his life too would he have suffered him v. 4. without any premoâ—ion of God's therein or Predeterminatâ—on otherwise as to the manner than by a non-impedition of his own motion and Inclination The Eveâ—t is indeed in the Diâ—pose of God and the Executioner as the Axe Rod or Stâ—ffe in his hand Isa 10.5 Yet so as that he retaineth a dominion over his own Act therein Gods sustâ—ntation concurse and pâ—rmission presupposed he is not a mere machine or dead engine nor yet his Reason and free Will carried along after the way and manner of a vital engine or spontaneous inâ—â—rument yet necessâ—rily but is so termed from his subserviency aâ— that time to God's special Providence and instrumentalâ—ty in performing his Design though in such a way as he he may justly and equitably afterwaâ—ds be called to an account for the same as well for the fact Isa 10.12 as for the circumstances of it v. 7.13 otherwise than in every other Omission of his or every Act of Unbelief Impenitency Hatred of God and the like men are not ordinarily styled God's instruments therein or compared to the Axe or staffe in his hand or to be conceived of by us as such with reference thereunto Herein I subscribe to the worthy Bishop Davenant As for the procuring and working the impenitency or infidelity of Reprobates God doth not saith he at all work any vitious dispositions or defective and sinful actions in such men wicked habits or dispositions are diseases bred within mens own soules and yet they have an entity not infused into them by the Physician of our souls wicked and sinful actions are the productions of theâ—r own corrupted free-Will and not produced by any divine operation working in them for it 's onely in holy and good actions that God giveth us both the Will and the deed Animad p. 120. neither doth God draw any man unto sin by an unconquerable power but he permiteth some men by the Devil and their own lusts to be drawn from sin to sin till at last they perish in them of whom perditio tua exâ—te thy destruction is of thy self notwithstanding is most truly verified p. 121. although the Will of God hath the determining Stroke amongst all possible evil actions or events which shall infallibly be and which not And God may be said to be the prime cause of the substrate matter or act in every motion whether of the soul or body as in whom we live and move and have our Being as the same learned Author asserteth Yet doth it not follow but that man still retaineth his sâ—lf-determining power quoad speciem actûs a liberty of specifying his own act as the same Author maintaineth with St. Augustine deus it à ordinat omnia ut proprios motus exercere sinat p. 154. From whence the formal nature of good or evil resulteth as the same is conform or inconform to the Law of God I mean from its specification not its Entity in the general The Saebeans and Chaldeans for instance had their power and their actual Exercise thereof from God enabling them to take goods and drive cattel and to destroy the life of man or beast but the specification of that power in the actual Exercise thereof or it's modification which hath nothing more of Entity which way soever it 's determined unto the Robbing of men or slaying of the innocent was not of God but of themselves that they spoiled Job not another man and slew his Servants in individuo and not another mans was of themselves as and of God too though in a different sense of themselves as the immediate cause of the action of God as the prime cause or fountain of Being and Operation of themselves as the specifyers of the act according to their own free election of God in that he permitted it for the triall of his servant when possibly he had hindred them from hundreds of such like expâ—oits before and besides that overruled its circumstances so as that it should infallibly light upon him and no other man at that time Which I cannot better express than in the words of the aforesaid learned man Those that derive the evil Actions of men from their own Free-Will as the proper efficient cause and the exsisting or coming of such actions in eventum à decreto dei permittente ordinante into event from the permitting and disposing decree and appointment of God are in no errour at all p. 57. The providence of God reacheth to all Events and actions but forwicked actions which according to Gods eternal determined Decree come into act at the time appointed as the Betraying of Christ the murdering of him and such like the Devil and mens Free-Will are the only moving and determining causes unto them p. 115 God cannot be an Author or Producer much less an Inforcer in regard of any sinful action yet he may be a determiner in permitting it p. 118 Gods decree in malis is only as he tâ—rmeth it antecessio ordinis not causalitatis 4 Nor is the question yet farther about Determination in general or Predâ—termination simply considered or of the compossibility or consistency thereof with humane fredom For it s granâ—ed 1. That an Aequilibrium or Indetermination is not mans best state Such a pendulous Suspâ—nse or Even poyse and inclination of mind and Wâ—ll in the Exerciâ—e and specification of its acts consequenter aftâ—r the object is united with the faculty and reason haâ—h weighed the good and evil the conveniency and â—nconveniency of things in its ballance and deliberated about it is the soules sickneâ—s or disaster arising from an insufficient applâ—catiâ—n of the Object or defect in the Understanding an inability to judge of the Good or Evil of what lieth before it which should ponderate it and cast the Scale in its election that it hangeth in a Suspense which is the freedom which Arminians seem to plead for True Freedom consisteth not in a power or libeâ—ty after the due exercise of ratiocâ—nation be the evidence what it will to write black for white or white for black to judge Evil Good or Good Evil or still to be undetermined about it for fear of forestallâ—ng the will or in a power or liberty in the will not to follow the liberum arbitrium the free award of Reason or for the soul in willing not to be confined to its own reason in what it chuseth or avoideth or pro libitu arbitrarily or at his pleasure to elicit and imperate what it listeth though against the sentiment of the mind or at least that after reason hath issued in a judgment the Will should still be indetermined to one Such a dominion over its reason or liâ—erty and freedom of will cannot but be abhorrent to the nature of man All that can be desired is that the soul hath such a freedom of Will and dominion ovâ—r its â—wn acts as that in what ever it willeth it acteth as a
they are Inviâ—cibly deâ—ermined to Evil or bent on it in the General or cannot do Good Man in Innocency he had perfect Good or spotlâ—ss Obedience and also Sin and Evil within his power both being made Mutabâ—e Man Restored and Manumitted by Grace hath imperfect Good compâ—red to the Original Law or Sincere Oâ—edience within his power and also Sin and Disobedâ—ence being on Earth defectible or not yet Confirmed though the Decrâ—e and Efficiency of God shall prevent that he sinneth not to Death Yet may Free-Will be denominated or affirmed of them all The one act as freely as the other the worst in sinning as the best in obeyâ—ng He acts freely that can act or not act what when and how he pâ—easeth in things which mâ—y be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in our power so doth the sâ—rvant at his Masters Beck Col. 3.23 where note by the way that to act voluntarily or freely and yet necessarily are consistent and may well stand together The Angels in Heaven they love God and serve him Voluntarily and Freely so shall the Sâ—ints in Glory and so doth man in his present state even in what hath a kind of natural Connexion with the Will determine himself Freely according to the Dictate of his Reason and Judgment A Rational a Voluntary and a Free Choice are Convertible Terms The Will acteth Freely not Necessarily as opposed to Volunâ—ary either contrariè by Coaction or Violence against its Elicit Inclination or negativè from a meer natural Necessity without Reason Bâ—t still it acteth Necessarily in some sense as the Will evermore doth when Reason hath once cast the Scale with necessity of Immutability in respect of the Event which opponitur possibili non esse is opposed to a Possibility not to be God's Supportation and Concurse presupposed or eventus contrarii of the contrary Issue or Event it can do no otherwise and tâ—at from the Potency or perfection of the Rational Faculty and Cognation that it hath with the Objâ—ct And the contrary is as true of Wicked and Unregenerate men they Act freely following the Dictate of their Reason and Judgment such as it is though Brutish Jer. 10.8 21. 55.17 thougâ— Carnal â—ensual and Deviliâ—h Jam. 3.15 Jer. 4.22 voâ—d of all natural Necessity or Coaction in their choice of Sin and Flâ—sh-pleasing Eph. 2.3 Yet do they Act Necessarily also so as that they cannot possibly Will or Do the Contrary without renewing grace Job 5.44.45 Rom. 2.5 and that ab intriseco from a Privation in their Mind Rom. 3.11 Eph. 4.18 and an Impotency or contraty Propension in their Will and Affections preponderating them to Evil though not sub ratione mali and to a Disrelish of true Holiness Rom. 8.5 7. which is languor aegritudo animi the Souls sickness and depravation of its Faculties the fruit of mans first Apostacy from God Job 14.4 though he be still habile subjectum a Subject capable of the Retrivement of God's Image into his Soul Col. 3.10 i. e. Man still with his natural faculties of Reason and Will and so Good is yet possible to him in some sense if God please to adapt him for it Eph. 2.10 In and about particular Acts agible within mans power and unto which he is not actually or virtually by a previous invincible Habit or Propension of Mind and Will predetermined lieth the Contingency and Evitability of Humane actions In such actions hath man a liberty of Contrariety or Contradiction in the Exercise and Specification of his Acts or of Indifferency accordingly as his Reason doth sway him He may and can Act or suspend his Act his Will containeth within its dominion a power and possibility unto contrary acts and effects what is future is yet evitable and that possible that is not future Man saith the Learned Davenant hath not onely potentiam in se liberam a faculâ—y in its self free or capable of freedom but liberum usum potentiae the free Vse or Exercise of it A wicked Man for instance can upon other Deliberation resolve to do otherwise than he doth which freedom is evident in Adulterers Thieves and all manner of Sinners who being resolved to Commit this or that Sin when they perceive some great Danger presently choose to abstain from it till fitter opportunity Cain Absalom Judas and others were not under a Necessity of committing those Sins whereof they are noted to be Guilty it was out of their free Election having a power whereby they might have abstained from them The Angels that fell notwithstanding the Decree of the Divine Will had a Possibility of Not-rebelling against God and a Sufficiency of Divine Grace given them to have preserved them so had Adam had they not abused it God's absolute prescience doth not take away the possibility of the contrary Action or Event no more doth his absolute decree to think that the decree of absolute Reprobation must leave men under a necessity of committing their several sins is a false Imagination as every mans Conscienee is able to witness so the aforesaid Author p. 116.199.328.344 whom I have the rather consulted for that he is instanced in by some and produced for a maintainer of God's Predetermination of mans will in the sense by them pleaded for Which himself termeth a controversy between the Dominicans and Jesuits with whose Metaphysical speculations our Protestant Divines love not to torture their brains Nor yet do I take all Extrinsick Predetermination to be Inconsistent with humane Freedom in Acting For it hath been before granted that such Predetermination of God is necessary unto the Conversion of any Sinner unto him though the Sinner is capable of doing something that in the Order of Gods appointment hath a tendency to it Prov. 2.3 5. Isa 64 7. and it lieth at the Door of any under the call of the Gospel that they are not converted and healed by God it 's their own fault Jer. 13.27 Mat. 25.29 and their heart will one day Reproach them for it Luk. 16.28 neither do we when we speak of an Irreversible Insuperable Irresistible Determination whether to good or evil Actions meane any more than such as cannot or rather shall not be resisted such as is efficaciously prevalent and never fruastrate Yet is the Liberty and Freedom of Co-operation in the Subject in such case no more than that of a Rational Spontaneity it containeth in it's own nature nothing of contingency or possibility of the contrary Event In Effectual calling the New Creation wherein God worketh something above and besides the Order and Course of second Causes in order to the new Biassing and Pointing the soul towards himself Heaven and Holiness whatever the Influence or Efficiency of God be on the soul or its faculties of Reason and Will or his manner of Operation whether it be by way of objective Proposal and Fixation on the mind Demonstrating the Object and Effectually setting home Truth to an immutation therein and turn of
the Will 1 Cor. 2.4 Or by way of Physical Precurse and Premotion besides exciting the natural Powers into Act and inclining and bowing them in their Operation as the Fountain of Being and motion unto a Change or Turn into a new Course Eph. 2.2.4 10. of which before still he so intimately by his Presence and Virtue reacheth and applieth himself to the Active Principle of the second cause he so congruously accommodateth himself to the nature of the subjecy to be wrought upon as that all the vital Wheels of the soul the Reason Elective power Will and Affections go along with choice and delight in their determination without the least Rape or Violence offered to the Innate freedom of the soul though God and Christ be carried into the heart with a greater weight of Love than any other Object can ballance to turn the scale of its Predominant Elecion an other way and yet it 's Invincibly or Irresistibly wrought upon and a necessity Induced upon it in a sense It can will no otherwise Christ drawing yet the Will remaineth still free for voluntary and violent willing and forced do implicare The Will cannot be forced and for the Will to be determined necessarily or indeclinably to Good and what may render the soul happy no man that prayeth to God for grace or that acknowledgeth God therein will ever recoil at it or account himself injured thereby or concerned to rise up against it nor is it at all repugnant to the Commands Counsels Promises or Threats laid before men to induce them to a Returnal unto God Heb. 4.1 11. For that the dispensation of this grace is as to us contingent and in the use of means And the second cause hath its immediate formal and proper Efficiency therein It is man that believeth and repenteth not God yet the Effect of God's power overshadowing the soul Psal 110.3 whose Action is not only the first cause in the presence of such a Creature as in the gifts of miracles but is specified by the second cause in the virtue of its proper form suitably to its nature as a reasonable Creature 2 Cor. 6.1 Gods Efficiency changeth not the natures of things though he rectifieth and healeth the Mind and Will morally yet he altereth not its proper motion or manner of operation naturally It inclineth its self as freely to the Act and that upon the cogency of reason and judgment as if there were no such Hyperphysical determination thereof by God at all Dut. 30.19 3. But as to evil or sinful actions whereof our question is such Predetermination is destructive to the Creature and inconfident with God's moral Government over him albeit that God's decrees are infrustrable yet doth not God premove their Wills Insuperably in and unto the Conception and Production at such Act more were it for the honour of God if sin dishonoureth him and the good of man his Creature that such Acts ar Operations of his should for ever abide in their bare Potentiality or that his Will should remain in an Everlasting Indetermination which it 's said that it must if God determine it not than that it's pâ—ssibility should be educed into an Actual invasion of the Government of God and affront of his holy Majestie and then the creature be damned for the same though he could but sees it not meet to prevent it here it 's necessary not only that the Subject hath no Violence offered to it but that it be not made free nor willing which is far the worse If any man should violently snatch me out of haâ—mes way when I was not aware of it or rescue me from the Pit I should have no cause to complain of him but in case any one could reach my Elective power and inâ—atuate and befool my Reason suppose it by fascination and should determine me to the Contrivance and Execution of some horrid Treason to my destruction He should do me more Mischief and Injury than if he had violently or by force assâ—ssinated me and taken away my Life with hâ—s own hands as is obvious to every Understanding mâ—re of Evil would cleave to me and if he were my Judge in such Inâ—tance I know what I could not but say God himself â—ath declared it a thing to him condecent and just that in the matter of Offence and Punishment his Act should be if I may so speak at the Beck and determinâ—tion of the Creature Legislâ—tion belongs to God alone and Deliverance after forfeiture belongs to his Prerogative but that any one becomes an Object of his rectoral Juâ—tice and Wrath God is not the first cause of thâ—t or the Predeterminer to those Actâ—ons which involve men under Guilt The Judge or King is and must be at the Dispose of the Subject in a sense in the Execution of the penalty of the Law not to hang whom he please nor yet to make them culpable Such a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Cases God abhorreth from Isa 50.1 The Position directly contrary hereunto is that which by some is maintained namely That God in Eternity did Predefine or decree all the sinâ—ul Actions of Angels and Men. That by his Efficiency which is but the Execution of his Decree and adequate to it foregoing the Operation of the second cause he doth in time by his transient physical Influence predetermine the Creature to all such Actions thâ—t the necessary dependence of the second cause or the first and its Essential subordination to it doth so require that the Habit or firâ—t Act and the Operation or second Act is the Product and Effect of such Influence of God the first cause as secundary and subordinate to it and is ascertained by it or that otherwise the Decree might suffer disappointment More particularly that the Fall of our first Parents was fore-decâ—eed of God and that in Execution thereof substrahendo by withdrawâ—ng or suspending that Light and Assistance without which it was impâ—ssible for thâ—m eventually to stand or efficiendo by his Physical precurse he determâ—ned them thereunto They affiâ—m not only the concurse of God enabling them to and in the Acts of Appetition of Mastication Manducation c. in eating of the fruit but that the disordeâ—ly Modification of the Act was primarily from God that by his Influence and Causation himself did cast the Scale of their Will to desire and to eat of that Tree prohibited in which was ye disorder rather than any other before free and indifferent till determined theâ—â—unto by that Energy of his whâ—ch couâ—d not but produce the Effect yet so as that no straining or compassion can be dreamed of tâ—erein though in sensu composito considered as in subordination to the Immutable Decrâ—e and Efficiency of God they coâ—ld do no oâ—herwise than they did So for all other the wickedest Actions of men that all the ineâ—cations of the flesh the motus primo primi all the first machinations of the Mind or Thoughts and conceptions of