Iohn and Christ damneth the contemners of God and such as willingly continue in sinne and will not repent Those the Scripture excludeth from the generall promise of grace It may seeme that The contemners of God and such as willingly continue in sinne and will not repent in master Hoopers phrase are the same in your judgement with those whom you account to have filled up the measure of iniquity But what ground have you for that Master Hooper saith not that all such whom he accounts contemners of God and such as willingly continue and sinne and will not repent have hereupon filled up the measure of their iniquitie or that hereupon all possibility of amendment is taken from them these are your assertions they are not master Hoopers Again all contemners of God and such as willingly continue in sinne and will not repent master Hooper saith the Scripture excludes from the generall promise of grace and this he utters without any distinction as well he may to wit for the present and so long as they continue in this their contempt and hardnesse of hart For as much as the promise of grace both for the pardon of sinne and salvation of our soules belongs to none but such as breake off their sinfull courses by faith and repentance But you distinguish betweene such contemners of God and presumptuous sinners and tell us that some of them have arived to the full measure of their iniquity and that there is no possibility of their amendment such as Pharaoh was after the seventh plague others though contemners of God c. yet in this their course of contempt have not filled up the measure of their iniquity such as Pharaoh was before the seventh plague who undoubtedly was a contemner of God before that time and one that willingly continued in sinne and would not repent and of all such you professe that God doth unfainedly love them Now there are no tracks or footsteps of such strange assertions as either of these to be found in Bishop Hooper Of all contemners of God he professeth according unto Scripture that they are excluded from all promise of grace to wit for the present he doth not say God unfainedly loves any of them but as for the time to come he doth not affirme that all possibility of amendment is taken from them Had hee thought so then he should acknowledge them to bee in a desperate condition But hee is so farre from this that hee accounts Desperation to bee a principall let and impediment unto godlinesse chap. 18. fol. 90. The first let saith hee or impediment is desperation when as men thinke they cannot be saved but are excluded from all mercy and a little after Of the contrary nature to presumption is desperation it taketh from God his mercy For when they offend and continue in sinne they thinke there is no mercy left for them and that as in the next sentence he sheweth specially because of custome and long continuance in sinne Then he proceeds saying This discourse and progresse in that knowledge of sinne beareth him in hand that it is impossible to returne unto God This is as much as in your phrase to affirme that all possibility of amendment is taken from him But doth Mr. Hooper justifie this Nothing lesse for this is a maine let or impediment to repentance which he desires to remove out of the way of sinners and to that hee proceeds in this manner Moses saith he like a good Physitian teacheth a remedie against this dangerous disease and sheweth the way unto God declareth that God is full of mercy and ready to forgive and beginneth his oration in this manner unto such as bee afflicted and oppressed with sinne When there commeth upon thee all those things when God hath afflicted thee for thy sinnes and thou returnest unto him with all thy heart he shall deliver thee from captivity and receive thee to his mercy againe Of the which text learne this doctrine that God will alwaies forgive how many and how horrible soever the sinnes bee and learne to feare presumption and to beware of desperation So that hoe acknowledgeth no just cause of desperation no not in respect of custome and long continuance in sinne The next sentence in Mr. Hooper transcribed by you in this eighth Section of yours conteines no more then that which wee all acknowledge Thou seest saith he by the places before rehearsed that though wee cannot believe in God as undoubtedly as is required by reason of this our naturall sicknesse and disease yet for Christ sake in the judgement of God wee are accounted as faithfull believers for whose sake this naturall disease and sicknesse is pardoned by what name soever Saint Paul calleth the naturall infirmity and originall sinne in man This is something concerning the nature of originall sinne in the opinion of Mr. Hooper nothing at all touching a certaine state of sinne wherein all possibility of amendment is taken from a man to which purpose Mr. Hooper is alledged by you in this place Yet because I doe not know what reaches you have in this also I answer that Mr. Hooper speakes of originall sinne as it is found in the regenerate and as it is in them hee calls it onely A naturall sicknesse and disease And indeed when wee are once regenerate wee are no longer dead in sinne no longer estranged from the life of God But herehence it followeth not that Mr. Hooper was of opinion that originall sinne was even in the unregenerate to bee accounted onely A naturall sicknesse and disease and not rather a death in sinne especially considering that the holy Apostle acknowledgeth A law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and leading him captive to the law of sinne and calleth it A body of death crying out against it and saying Who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 1. The last clause as I take it makes more for your present purpose as when hee saith And this imperfection and naturall sicknesse taken of Adam excludeth not the person from the promise of God in Christ except wee transgresse the limits and bounds of originall sinne by our owne folly and malice and either of a contempt or hate of Gods word wee fall into sinne and transforme ourselves into the image of the devill Then wee exclude by this meanes ourselves from the promises and merits of Christ who onely received our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his law This passage I confesse is somewhat strange and of my knowledge hath troubled some concâ—iving it as an assertion of yours and not so much as dreaming that it was delivered by Mr. Hooper I answer therefore First of all that this serves not your turne for the present that in two respects First you distinguish the contempt of Godsword and of his law according to different degrees eithersuch as was in Pharaoh before the seventh plague or such as was in
law God might allowe the Israelits in robbing the Egyptians Abraham in sacrificing his sonne Sampson in sacrificing himselfe we may not allowe any in the like God hath power to expose men unto sinne to harden mens hearts we may not take any such courses but rather doe all we can to keepe our bretheren from sinne Now from your discourse it no more followeth that God cannot be unjustly mercyfull then that he cannot be unmercifully just especially towards those whom he loves more dearely then any man doth himselfe as you speake And if you would be pleased to take notice by the way of the oracles of God and not follow still the course of your owne inventions you might find that God hath mercy on whome he will and hardneth whome he will Yet is not he either unjustly mercyfull in the one or unmercyfully just in the other Neyther should he be though the case were altered and he were mercyfull to those whome now he hardneth and hardned those whome now he comiserateth satis contraria fata reponens But let us goe with you along the coast of Barbarie Gods love you say extends it selfe unto our nature so polluted with corruption It is true and that not only in respect of corruption by sinne orginall but by sinne actuall For he gave his sonne to dy for us when we were his enimyes and when we were dead in sinne and walked after the Prince of the ayre and fashions of the world he quickned us Ephes. 2. 29. The effects of this love you say are limited towards men by the correspondency which they hold or loose with that absolute goodnesse or with those rules of equity in which his will is to have man made like him This manner of limitation is unsound and fowly unsounde as that which apparantly excludeth our correspondency to Gods goodnesse and unto Gods love out of the number of the effects of Gods love as much as to say that faith and repentance thankfulnesse and obedience are no effects of Gods love but merely works of nature as if it were not God that worketh in us both the will the deede according to his good pleasure As if regeneration were but the imagination of a vayne thing For I presume you will not say it is in the power of man to regenerate himselfe And how can it be a work of God if not an effect of his love and correspondency unto Gods goodnesse you make to prevent the effects of Gods love Agayne the effects of Gods love the Scripture teacheth us are limited according to the good pleasure of God both as touching graces of edification for he distributes to every one as he will 1. Cor. 12. and as touching the graces of sanctification For he hath mercy on whome he will Rom. 9. And according to his purpose and grace he hath saved us and called us not according to our works 2 Tim. 1. 9. And of his owne will hath he begotten us c. There is a condition of morall goodnesse which God doth accept to reward with glory but there is no condition of morall goodnesse which God doth accept to reward with grace For then grace were of works and consequently no more grace And then God should call us accordinge to our works which he expresly denyeth Tit. 3. 5. and 2 Tim. 1. 9. There is no condition of morall viciousnesse that excludes Gods mercy in calling men unto faith and salvation Austine coumpts it impiety and madnesse to thinke otherwise as I have often alleaged him Enchirid. 96. He calls some at the first houre of the day some at the last And what absurde conceyte is it to require some mitigation of sinne or morall good qualification to make correspondency unto mercy in pardoning sinne and curing it As no disease of the body is uncurable by God so no disease of the soule or simfull course is unpardonable or uncurable by the mercy of God the Father the merits of God the sonne For each are infinite but the sinnes of all the world are finite God himselfe may limite the demonstration and exercise of his mercy as he thinks good Now as touching the limitation hereof nothing is revealed unto us but only this that the sinne against the Holy Ghost shall not be pardoned and cured no small infidelity and impenitency All other limitations are merely revelations of flesh and blood and the inventions of idle Braines that impugne the prerogative of Gods grace and in the place thereof advance the operation of nature as that which first commends us in some sort unto Gods grace you are apt to discourse of Gods inviting men unto God and of the riches of his bounty that way but of Gods working men unto God and of the riches of his bounty that may never any Arminian or Pelagian spake lesse then you Yet the despising of Gods goodnesse shewed eyther in his word or in his works shall indoubtedly increase mens condemnation But God can breake of these their contemptiouse courses in whome he will and when he will and where he will as Austine professeth with such confidence as that he censureth him of impiety and dotery whosoever he be that denyeth it A silly course it is to inferre that vicious courses doe exclude men from Gods mercy because God hates filthinesse or uncleanesse For God undoubtedly hates all manner of filthinesse and uncleanesse whether the measure of it be filled up or no For did he not hate Manasses his idolatry and his bloody courses and his using them that were given to sorcery and witchcrast Yet all this excluded him not from the participation of Gods mercy And if for this reason to wit because God hates filthinesse men are excluded from Gods favour so as to be uncapable of his mercy then every man shoulde be a reprobate and incapable of mercy and abandoned as a vessel of wrath unto everlasting condemnation And you consider not that to be uncapable of mercy is to be uncapable of Gods love even in your owne discourse whence it followeth that God must after a certayne time cease to love them as in reason it should be acknowledged by you according to the tenour of your opinion and that when the doore of repentance is shut upon them as your selfe have phrasified it most of all when God condemnes them to everlasting torments in hell fire he must needs cease to love them And consequently you must necessarily admit mutability in the nature of God which is directly contrary to the perfection of God delivered unto us in holy Scripture I the Lord am not changed and you sonnes of Iacob are not consumed Mala. 3. 6. And with God is no variablenesse nor shadow of change Iac. 1. 19. This rocke you have in your eye labour to keepe your Tenet from dashing it selfe desperately against it Wherin how well you have carryed your selfe we are to consider in the next place CHAP. XX. Whilst God of a loving Father becomes a severe
this Such an hight of sinne implyeth a contradiction to infinite justice to vouchsafe them any favour Now of this proposition of yours I see no reason Nay I seeme to observe manifest reason to the contrary For justice consists in giving to every one his owne Now seeing the wages of any sinne is death even everlasting death Not to condemne him that hath deserved to be condemned seemes as contradictory to justice as not to condemne him that is come to an hight of impiety And which is more many thousand infants perish in Originall sinne and yet we beleive that Manasses who unto Originall sinne added many abominable sinnes was notwithstanding all this saved and will you say there was any contradiction unto Gods justice in all this And I wonder you so much beate upon the contradiction unto Gods justice and take no notice of Gods mercy whereas we doe not consider the pardoning of sinnes as an act of Gods justice but rather as an act of his mercy and without quest on it is not contradiction to Gods mercy to pardon any sinne And God is mercyfull as well as just and it is very absurd in my judgment to say that God in performing an act of mercy contradicts his justice as well as to say that in performing an act of justice he contradicts his mercy And the reason is because it is indifferent to God to exercise eyther his mercy in commiserating whome he will or his justice in hardening whome he will And therefore when the Apostle proposeth such an objection against his former doctrine of election reprobation as this What shall we say then is there any injustice with God He answereth it by this that God is free and hath a lawfull power to exercise mercy and compassion on whome he will God forbid sayth he we should thinke so For he sayth to Moses I will have mercy on him to whome I will shewe mercy and will have compassion on him on whome I will have compassion And yet I pray consider what colour of contradiction to Gods justice in pardoning the sinnes of them be they never so many never so fowle for whome the sonne of God as you say hath suffered the sorrowes of death and therby made full satisfaction for all theire sinnes unlesse you will say that Christ dyed to make satisfaction for originall sinne only and not for sinnes actuall or for some of theire actuall sinnes and not for all to which strange and uncouth opinion You seeme to incline in the end of your 15. Chapter where you say that Christ only receaved our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his law I have cause to suspect that you concurre with Arminians in maintayning that all Infants the very children of Pagans Turkes and Saracens that perish in theire infancy are saved For how can it be conceaved that any improvement of evill inclinations is made in them unto such an hight as that it should imply contradiction to Gods justice to shew them any favour And where such an hight of impiety is not you professe they cannot be excluded from all fruits of his love Yet I confesse theire soules have a being and that eternall and if this be a fruit of Gods love then though the hight of impiety be never so greate yet is no man or devill excluded from this fruite of Gods love For they shall continue for ever and that to theire everlasting wo. As touching your manner of expressing your meaning this increase of sinne you call the sinister use of contingency that God hath bestowed upon them your meaning must be the sinister use of the liberty of theire wills which in your phrase is the sinister use of contingency wherof I am perswaded you can give no example And by the way I observe you suppose in every naturall man a power to use the liberty of his will eyther will or ill I had thought and doe still thinke there is no power in carnall man to use theire naturall liberty well but only to use it either in this or that subject but so as still the use of it shall be evill For the affection of the flesh is not subject to the law of God nor can be sayth the Apostle and every man is dead in sinne till God quickneth him Ephesi 2. 2. And a dead man can performe no action of life naturall if dead naturally no action of life spirituall if dead spiritually But whether naturall inclinations unto evill may be thus farre improved in the children by theire Forefathers on no you say is disputable but in another place that is it is a disputable question whether children may not by the sinnes of theire Father be so farre corrupt that it implyeth contradiction to Gods justice to shew them any favour You might as well say it is a disputable question whether there be any God or no For that there should be a God and yet not able to cure the naturall corruption wherein any man is borne is contradiction And if he were then sure he were able to shew them no small favour And as for contradictions to Gods justice there is so litle colour herof in the saving of Infants that on the contrary there is nothing the condemnation of the Sonne of God alone excepted wherin the justice of God is more obscure then in the condemnation of Infants I thinke you have litle minde to come to an accoumpt how you doe accommodate this your doctrine unto Infants yet you must be called hereunto whether you will or no unlesse you clippe the wings of your generall propositions as when you say None can be excluded from the fruits of Gods love untill the improvement of inclinations naturally bent to evill come to that hight of impiety as to imply a contradiction for infinite justice or equity to vouchsafe them any favour Yet by the way you put in an exception concerning Infants and that is in case there be a neglect of duties to be performed to them by theire Elders why doe you not speake plainly and say saving in case they are not baptized And what thinke you in this case Are they damned I cannot beleive you thinke so yet the face of your discourse lookes this way I say I cannot beleive it and that for two reasons The one is because the tenour of your tenet caryeth you rather to maintayne with the Arminians that all children dying in theire Infancy though they dye without the Church are saved My second reason is because herein you should directly contradict the discourse Kinge Iames had with certaine Divines a litle before his death and his apparent profession to the contrary not as his private opinion but as the opinion generally of our Divines whome he had learned in his younger dayes to have censured Austine for his opinion to the contrary as one that was Durus Pater Infantum Now I am so well perswaded of you that I thinke you would not
infinite Now of Gods infinite will I never heard before his power we say is infinite because hee can doe every thing that is possible to bee done his knowledge is infinite because hee knowes all things that may bee knowne but God doth not will all things that may bee willed by him Nay his power receives limitation and restriction by his will as touching the execution thereof for hee doth no more then what hee will Likewise wee say Gods love is infinite in the way of extention for it neither had beginning neither shall it have end But such is not Gods love towards them that perish for it ceaseth by your doctrine when the measure of their iniquity is filled up but such as it is you say it layeth no necessity upon their wills A most ridiculous speech as much as to say it doth not make men repent necessarily whereas concerning them that perish it is apparant that it neither makes them repent necessarily nor contingently And as for the elect hee gives them repentance which he doth not to the reprobates as Austine long agoe professed Istorum neminem adducit Deus ad salubrem spiritualemque poenitentiam qua homo reconciliatur Deo in Christo sive illis ampliorem patientiam sive non imparem praebeat Nyither doe wee say that to whom God gives repentance he gives obedience he makes them to repent necessarily to obey necessarily but freely For it is manifest that grace takes not away the power of disobedience but onely prevents the act of disobedience and that not in all particulars neither for the children of God sinne too often And as for those which want this grace which God bestowes on his elect they have not onely liberty left them unto sinne but also this liberty turnes into wilfulnesse according to that of Austine Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia Liberty without grace is not liberty but wilfulnesse But yet wee say upon supposition that God will give any man repentance and that at such a time that man shall repent at such a time and t is impossible hee should not repent yet in repenting hee shall repent freely and not necessarily Like as God ordaining Christs bones should not be broken upon this supposition it was impossible it should be otherwise albeit the soldiers abstained from breaking of his bones not necessarily but deliberately and freely It is true the Lord saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it but his people would not hearken unto his voice And now the question is onely as touching their obedience whether God did any otherwise will that then by commanding it in respect of those that perish wee say hee did onely command it in respect of such wee say hee did not resolve to give them repentance to give them obedience though he could have done this and doth doe this unto his elect making them to passe under the rod and bringing them under the bond of the covenant not onely seeing their wayes but healing them also healing their rebellions and subduing their iniquities and treading Satan under their feet opening their eies and bringing them out of darkenesse into light and from the power of Satan unto God quickning them when they were dead in trespasses and sinnes creating a new heart and renewing a right spirit within them Doe you but acknowledge this as you must unlesse you will renounce the Scriptures and wee will never quarrell with you for saying God doth all this contingently and not necessarily 2 The Apostles move a question to our Saviour concerning him that was borne blinde Ioh. 9. whether hee had sinned or his fathers that he was horne blinde this was in respect of judgement corporall you apply this to a judgement spirituall that judgement was positive to bee bereaved of sight which in course of nature is otherwise then onely permissive in suffering them to be such as hee found them That was spoken in respect of some not common but extraordinary sinne for though there bee sinne common unto all yet this judgement is not and therefore they might well thinke if sinne were the cause it must bee some extraordinary sinne but our Saviour signifieth that it befell him in the course of Gods providence not so much in respect of sinne as in respect of a certaine end whereto God had ordained it But I hope neither the Apostles nor any sober man would imagine that some extraordinary sinne was required unto this that God should leave men as hee findes them without bestowing some supernaturall grace upon them And in despight of sinne God doth afford this grace to many thousands for God hath mercy on whom he will like as on the other side in despight of mens civility and naturall morality whom hee will he hardeneth Yet to the question by you proposed at pleasure you make no answer but adde hereunto out of Ion. 2. 8. They that follow lying vanities forsake their owne mercies as if you had a minde to imply that there is something in man that makes a difference why some are suffered to walke in their owne waies some are not wherein you doe but corrupt the state of the question after your usuall manner For the question is not about the consequent of lying vanities or not observing them but about the observing of lying vanities it selfe or not observing them that is how cometh it to passe that some are suffered to goe on in the course of their lying vanities some are not but rather are taken off from those ungodly courses wherein they have beene brought up as many thousands were taken off thus in the Apostles daies wee say it is the meere good pleasure of God that puts this difference having mercy on some and hardning others you take another course as when you say in your familiar and soliloquiall meditations with God Never hadst thou given them up to their owne hearts lust to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath had they not despised the riches of thy bounty Here you mixe different courses of God together for when you talke of giving them over to their owne hearts lusts Which scripture applieth to Gods dealing with his own people Israel upon the despising of his grace offered them in his word but the rest as this also being accomodated unto the heathens you seeme to referre to the despising of the riches of Gods bounty declared to them in his workes for as for the riches of Gods bounty declared in his word the heathen were not pertakers of this untill the dayes of the Gospell and whereas by the phrase of speech used you seeme to have an eye to that of the Apostle Rom. 2 3. 4. the riches of Gods bounty in that place is specified onely to consist in patience and long-suffering And how did they refuse it but in refusing to repent For the bounty there mentioned is noted to be a bounty leading unto repentance So that in the issue your
hands and keepe us from falling into the hands of men yet if God calleth us thereunto to commit our selves unto God when we doe cast our selves into the hands of men Because in Gods hands are the hearts of kings and hee turneth them whither soever it pleaseth him certainly They that put their trust in the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good even at such times when Lyons want and suffer hunger Yet by your leave it is not the nature of God that is the ground of our confidence but the revealed will of God For whatsoever Gods nature is hee workes freely in the communicating of any good thing unto us but hee hath revealed that he will never faile them that put their trust in him And this is that loving kindenesse of God as much as to say his loving and gracious will and pleasure revealed to us which excites the sonnes of men to put their trust under the shadow of his wings It was improbable that there should bee any motive from the creature why God should give them a being neither was it his love to the creature that moved God to make the creature as you superficially use to discourse but meerely the love of himselfe For he made all things for himselfe And the creature before God made him was just nothing neither was there at that time any distinction betweene King Alexander and his horse Bucephalus It is a strange conceit to say that the being of the creature is like unto Gods being who is the Creator For what likenesse is there betweene an apple and a nut between an horne and a bagpipe an harp and an harrow Ens hath no univocation in the comprehending of all created entities much lesse as by denomination it comprehends both the Creator and the creature Certainly all do not love God whom he loves for he loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. 8. But if all did so love him as all shall either sooner or later it will not follow that all should bee saved For onely such as Iacob are loved of him in Scripture phrase and such as Esau are hated rather And though you will not bee beaten off from that uncoth assertion That they whom God wills to be saved are not saved yet we had rather abhorre so foule a sentence with Austine as denying Gods omnipotency then concurre with you in boldnesse to the embracing of it The apprehension of Gods love to us is the cause morall of our love to him though God it is that by the circumcision of our hearts workes it Deut. 30. 6. But if lovelinesse in the object be the cause of love how dare you professe God loves the reprobate and that ardently and with excessive and infinite love Is there any lovelinesse in them in the state of their corruption and not rather unlovelinesse throughout Neither will it serve your turne to say that he loves them as his creatures For if this be sufficient to qualifie the businesse of the object which hee loves you may as well say that hee loves frogs and toads yea and the Devills and damned Spirits 3. I make no question but an unregenerate man may love his friend and companion in evill as brethren in evill do love one another and our Saviour hath taught us as much Matt. 5. 49. If yee love them that love you what reward shall ye have doe not the Publicanes even the same I never heard nor read before that condemnation was dispensable The doing of things otherwise unlawfull in some cases may be dispensed with but punishment was never knowne to be dispensed with it may be remitted but that is not to dispense with it I take your meaning and leave your words you thinke belike that infinite mercy cannot free the world from condemnation I no way like such extravagant assertions though frequent in your writings as if you would innovate all both naturall reason and divinity I know no sinne which infinite mercy cannot pardon neither doe I know any sinne beside the sinne against the Holy Ghost and finall impenitency which God will not pardon in his elect Much lesse is mans dull backwardnesse to love him unpardonable For though as it seemes you were never conscious of any such dulnesse in your selfe yet I cannot easily be perswaded untill I finde cause that any Christian in the world entertaines such a conceite of himselfe as you doe of your selfe Be God never so louely yet if a man know him not how can hee love him And doe you thinke it is naturall for a man to know God Suppose we doe know him to be most wise most powerfull yet if he be our enemie how should this move us to love him or put our trust in him If we know him to love us and to be our friend yet are not the best backward enough from loving him when we are easily drawne to sinne against him And are all sinnes of this kinde unpardonable what an uncomfortable doctrine is this and how prone to carry all that believe it into desperation God regards not our love unlesse we keep his commandements Ioh. 14. 5. Againe what is the love of God Is it not to love him above all things even above our selves as Gerson expresseth it Amor Dei usque ad contentum sui Is this naturall long agoe Austine hath defined it to bee supernaturall And if any dull backwardnesse bee found in us to this love of God if wee are loath to lose our lives for Christs sake is this sinne unpardonable You are a valliant Champion I heare you are ready to dye in maintenance of your opinions but I cannot believe you are any whit the readier for that to die for Christ. But alas what should become of poore Peter that for feare of some trouble upon confessing himselfe to bee a follower of Christ denied that he knew him and that with oath and imprecation Yet Christ looked back upon him â—s before he had praied for him that his faith might not faile and Peter looked back upon himselfe and went forth and wept bitterly and within three daies after the Angells take speciall order that Peter by name should be acquainted with the first with the comfortable newes of Christs resurrection from the dead that as he died for his sinnes so hee rose again for his justification The infinite love of God becomes known only to the regenerate who take notice of it chiefly as touching blessings spirituall As for temporall blessings Gods love therein to man how can it be knowne to a man unregenerate seeing it can bee knowne onely by faith Those temporall blessings you speake of in the judgement of flesh and bloud comming to passe onely by course of nature But that his intention in bestowing temporall blessings upon the wicked is to binde himselfe to instate them in the incomprehensible joyes of endlesse life which hee never meanes to performe is one of your incomprehensible paradoxes To the children of God there is