and Decrees of god, &c. 55 353. But yet indeed God never doth command an ael orforbidan acs; and yet Decree that the fame Ad immediately commanded (hall not be done, or that the ad diredtly forbidden (hall be done. Becaufe fin is a thing that God cannot decree or will, ( ofwhich anon. ) 354. But the effeil ofthe commanded or forbiddenad is fometimes Paid to becommanded or fórbidden And this may be contrarily decreed of God. Andmen that think not truly of the matter, think that this is to Decree athing forbidden, and . fo they err by fuch confufed thoughts. E.G.. Gods command is that I (hall relieve a poor man ; and not let him fa- mfh ; and that I (hall heal the Fick, &c. and yetGod may decree that this poor man thall be famifbed, and this lick man dye ; And yet no contra- didtion. For indeed [Relieving] in effedt, is but the End"of the Ad which is commanded me, and not the ad it Pelf: Iam bound .toofferhiríi relief: But if one cannot takeit,. and another will not, yet I have done my duty : And fo in the other inftance. So God commanded Abraham to facrifice his Son, and yet decreed that he (houldnot be facrificed ; And this without any conttadidtion. For the ad that under that name was commandedAbraham, and made his duty, was not adtual eventual facri- fcing. ( For then it had been a duty to refift the Angel and do a thing imponible. ) But :to ,cottfent and endeavour on his part to facrifice his Son : which he did. So the prefervation of our own and others lives is commanded usby God, and yet at the fame time mens deathdecreed : Be- code thething indeed commanded, is not PreJérvation as it fignifieth the effe& and fuccefs, but only Prefervation as it fignifieth our true endea- vour. So the yews were forbidden to kill Chrill, and yet God decreed that Chrift fhould be killed : For the thing forbidden them was their own Confetti- and wicked a&: But the thing that God willed and decreed was only the effe&, without any Will of their At that caufed it (unlefs ir1 genere ac'tus,) but only a permiJlon of it. Men of profs brains that cannot diftinguifh and judge accurately, may blafpheme God in their ig- norance, in a cafe that to a difcerning judgement is very plain: 355. * ThenextdiftinllionofGods will,isinto 4bfolute and Conditionals which force Divines ufe and 'otherscondemn, and (ay that God bath no Conditional Will. Thecommon anfwer which molt Schoolmen and other Papifts agreewith the Proteftants in, is, that there are Conditionsrei volitæ of the event of the thingWilled, but no Conditions of thea& ofvolition in God. AsAquinas faith ofCaufes, t Dens volt hoc e f fe propterhoc ; non autem proper hoc volt hoc, r. Thereare both Caufes and. Conditions of the event willed of God. z. Denominations extrinfeca ex connotations obje&i his Will is hence calledConditional; meaning but a Volition of Conditionals. 356. That God willeth conditions, and Conditional Propofitions, and Grants, is pall all controverfies. For he willeth his own word, which is his work: But his word bath conditional pcomifes and threats : And as his word allo may be called his will, hebath aConditional will, becaufe a Conditional word. 357. Gods eternal Omnifcience proveth, that at no inftant he.had a will properlyConditional quoad a&um Becaufe he that at the fame inftant fore-knoweth whether the Condition wouldbe done ornot, mull needs have his will to be thereby abfolute. But yet if it hadpleated. God tofufpend the Ad of his own Volition, upon a humane Condition, it would not have expofed him at all to the charge either ofmutability or. dependence : which is very clear. For a. It is prefuppoled his Will as voluntas ' Ef- Jentia is unalterable, and ispot that of whichwe fpeals. x, But only his Volition ° Of whichfee Amyraldat againft opositen. de Grar. unive>ftli. t De Vol. Conditional", elr authoritatibus .'r ration' bus pro eadem Vide Ruiz. deVol. Dei, dill,. 20. Eut his al ertion that [una Creatura ejti Ratioma- vens tanquam objiGum materiále (fecundarla ) ut Deus velit alum produce. re] is a ion , though he lay his tirets on it about the orda decreto- rum. For macere is cau- fdre, ing "loth caufe òr and move noth God to aft. There are Ratiens effetáuum er eorum ordi- nis: but bone ofthe ef. ficient Alts of God in him : If you fay, It is abfurd to fay, that God had no Reafon to will thecreationofthisworld rattler than another t I anfwer, That is an ABof efficient Wifdom, above all Reafon: Buttò fetch Reafons from the òbjeet, and.thereby to bemoved to A8, is thepart of the imperfehcreature. Rea- foning properly is be- low God :. much more to be moved by extrinfick objehive reafons : Yet on this Ruiv,difp. 24. lay- eth 3 great fabrtck; and fo men may draw twenty Schemes ofGods Reafon- ings. as they varioufly fancy.
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