and Decrees of/o4, &c 492. V. And God properlywilleth the. Being and Yrttth of Negative pr opoftions, [viz. Tris or that will not be J and knoweth them( asmade by man at lead ). And as I faid, fin as the fubjcdt of apropofition is not fin, or hath no harm in i't. As fin repented of, or the object of repels-, tance and hatredmaketh up avirtue, and is notfin indeed,,butthe know- ledge of it : So here. But yet hencethe phrafe maybe borrowed, and it, may be faid, that GodNilletb theexiftence of .fuck Pofbles, because he willeth the truth of thepropofition, They (hall not be. 493. V I. but here note, that when God isMorally and molt fitly faid,: to sill InchNothings, it is notas Nothings, but as Pafble Evils ; For -only Evil is the proper object of Pofitive Nolition : fo that it may be fpoken fullier of fin , than of other Nothings , even fitly in a Moral lenfe. 494 V I L Lattly, Adis of Will are ordinarily afcribed to God, when it is sneer operations or privations that are meant; and fo the phrafe is as they fay ab effèFiu ad afe[fum. When a man r. Denyeth his aid, a. Andaítually hindercth, it is a fign of nolition. And fo fromGods- a. Not caufing, a. And his hindering, he is faid toNill that Nothing ( that, Bever flail be. ) So much of the phrafe. 495. Now for application. e.Non-dare dem, sut gratiam, not to con) Vert, is Nothing ; Therefore it is not Pofitively willed or decreed of of God : or at leaft noman can prove it fo to be : So not-togivethe Gofpel,; the Spirit, &c. 496. Yet note, that when mansfins have fo forfeited fach gifts that, they are penally withheld, this non agency hath the denomination of a MoralAri. And alto that the making of the Penal Law, whichmaketh, this Privation due as a punithment , . was apofitive aft of God, and had apofitive Volition. But Negations notpenal arenot fo.. 497. 2. Not to hinder fin, or to Permit fan (barely as permion ) is Nothing : (As elfewhere I have proved.) Therefore it hath no Pofitive Decree or Will : fave that when it is penal, and theexecutionofaLaw,that Law being a real natural being, and thePus thence refulting ,a real relation and tite executive Privation quid Morale, they are Willed and Decreed anfwerably as they are. . To permit a man to be fpiritually Dead is [not- to make him alive :] To permit his Darknels or Ignorance, [is not -togive, him Light or Knowledge:] To permit his unbelief is [ not-tocaufe him, tobelieve.] Topermit his want of Love, is [ not-to give him Love.] To permit his pofitive fins ofMalignity or Carnality, is but ;[ not-tocure and hinder them by Grace or Providence, ] fuppofing the Natural fup; port and concurle, which the Author ofNaturegiveth toall things, 493: ThereforewhenGods Alls in themfelves are his Effence and all one-, and are diverfificd but by connotation of divers, objeíts, relatively, and denominatively; when he knoweth all things rano intuit*, and wit- leth all that he willeth unica volitione., when nihil phiyfcum is nqdeno -, urinating terminus, of a phyfical ad}, ( though fo far as it may be called Moralizer, id eft, Reputative aliquid, as aPrivatian, itmay be faidtode- at minate repáatatively, as aquaf aliquid ;) and that whichis,moraliter vel imputative nihil, cannot morally denominate ; whenboth Non dare 1piriturn, gratiam, f'dem, vitam, &c. and permutere 9nfidelitatem,,pee- cation, &c. are truly Nothing, and even in Reputative Moral fenfe, are xihíl morale, when they are not penal ( And as antecedent tofn, they are not penal ; ) Judge note impartially whether i. Thole men deal not prcíumpuuily with God, z.. And troublefomely with 'his Churçh,,.,who afiert the Being of Pofitive Decrees and Volitions in- tGod about filch Neal.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=