Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

48 Ofthe 2ature,I noraledge, Dill creature, but what is adapted ro notifie it aright tomans underftanding ; we muff much more be afraidof puttingany cau!elefs, unmeet, unneceflàry names of reality or diftinftion on the will or ActsofGod. 293. Gods Will is not 4ppetitus rei defiderate ; for he wanteth no- thing., 294. God willeth efficiently all that he effelleth ; and finally by com placence, all that is Good. 299. Gods willing or Loving Himfelf, is Himfelf; or an inadequate Conception ofHimfelf as he is. But his willing or Loving Creatures, is ( as is oft faid) arelative connotative Conception of Himfelf asextrinfe- tally denominated, andnot as he is hmfelf. 296. GodsWill ad extra isFree; And therefore it cannot befaid that he willeth or Loveth ad ultimum potentia, all that byPower he is Ableto will, or Love, or do : or that heBoth all that he is Able to do. a97. Therefore it cannot be denyedthat there is in Goda Negation of Volition : that is, that he willeth not fome things which he could will. As tohave madethe World fooner, greater, with other forts of creatures: to have made Come menbetter, wife'', richer, &c. The exterior objefts of GodsWill are finite, and contingent beings. 298. Thereforeto afcribe to God a Negation of forge Poble volition cannot be charged as making Gods Will to be Idle, or Neutral, or as any Imperfe&ion : feeing it is but his free-negation of his ownAft, through his perfeiion. 299. Nor can itbe laid, that hereby we make God Finite in that his willis madeFinite in Ad,which is Himfelf. For his will isInfinite as it is his Effence, and as it Aliethupon Himfelf; though as it aaeth ad extra on finite temporary Creatures, it muff needsbe relatively, and connotatively as to the terminus denominated finite : which all muff hold dere, thatthink not theWorld is Infinite. If theSun were alone inVacuo, it would be as Great as now it is, andas perfeít : And yet as its beams are terminated on this or that recipientCreature, they.are more limited. 300. We cannot prove that really God bath any Pofitive Decrees or Volitions ofNothings as fuch. 305. Therefore none fuch fhould be aflerted byDivines, much lefs pre- tended neceffary to be believed, to our Concord. 3oz. It feemeth more allowable tohold theNegative, that God bath no fuch Decrees ; becaufe Nothing is not a capable terminus of a Divine atl: Andtherefore it is a fiition.of Scaliger, that [ Omnipotentia agit in non ens, tit fiatens, ] Exercit. 369. n.9. pug. 1074. And ft entia non font multiplicanda fine neceffitate, much lefs Divine ails. AlloNon-vo- lition is enough to a non-exigence or a Nothing ; Therefore a Nolition need not be feigned to it : & fruffra t per plura, quod, &c. 3o3. Yet knowing fo little ofGodaswe do, I darenot boldly affertthe contrary : But it'senoughto know that this mull not be affected, and built on in our difputes. 304. HowGod willeth future Contingents troubleth the Schools with many needlefs difficulties as well as how he knoweth them. About his knowledgeof them, before treatedof, there are betides theDominicans that lay it onPre -determination as decreed, and the scotifis that lay it on De- cree or will alone, feveral other opinions : One is ofAm6r. Catharines de Arad. Sand. who holdeth thatGod knoweth not future Contingents, certo fib condition caufali, but only by conjetture : Becaufe the objefl is not otherwife fribile. 2. vafquez faith, that God cannot know a future con - tingent meetly contingent, as being not determinate: And that the Pro- . pofition

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