Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

andDecrees ofgod, &c. $9o. But for brevity, befrdes what is faid, I !hall farther direst the impartial Reader, how to answerall fuch objections : And wichall let the confounding cavillers againft diftinguifhing, fee, what blafphemy and fub- verfion of Religion may enter, forwant of one or two diftinetions which confufed heads regard not. 1. Be lure to diftinguifh the name of fin, from the nature. t. And remember that nooutward ád is fin any further than it is voluntary (by privation orpofition of Volitions.) 3. Diftinguifhbetween the Ao`a as it is Agentis, and as it is inPaffo. 4. Andbetween the Aft and the efect. 5. Between the effeda of a Jingle caufe and of divers caufes, making a compound effect. 6. Andbetween a forbidden objeta compared with the contrary, and one forbiddenobjet compared with another. 595. And then all this fatisfying Truth will lye naked before you. T. Thatthe fame name dually fignifieth the fin and the efeUof fin; or theAsa as Ailedand as Received. Adultery, Murder, Theft, ufually fig- nifie the Adisof theAdulterer, Murderer, Thief, as done and as received in Paffd, and aseecling. 2. That the firmer only is the fn, viz. firft the Volition,Nolition, or .Non-Volition, and fecondarily the imperate aft as animated by the will And no more. The reception of this ad in Paffo is not fin ( as fuch ; ) nor the moft immediateeffedof this at : It is but the effeda of fin. 3. Andyou will fee that the fame effect may have feveral caufes : a Good Andbad; And fo God may be a caufe of that effect, which mans fin allo concurreth to caufe : And God doth not thereforeWill or Caufe the fan;. 4. And you will fee that God may morally caufe the efed as it is `On this object rather than another forbidden, though both make the at finful, andyet not Cadeit asit is exercifed on either of thofe tsbjeds com- pared with fuch as are not forbidden. 592. Andyou will here plainly fee that God hath manywayes tocaufe the effelä without wilting or Caufing the fin. As for inftarice, r. He can do it by adding (as I faid before) a good ail to thefinners bad one. 'As when caiaphas is willing to kill Chrift, God can put into éaiaphao's thoughts, the jealoufieof the Romans overthe Jews, and the viable dan- ger they are in if they Ihould be thought to have another King : which thoughts in themfelves are true and good : Sohe canput into Pharaoh's thoughts the lofs of the Ifraelites fervice , which was not finful of it felf, 593. And a. God can fet that objeta before a fanner which heir molt inclined to abufe : Which is not to Will his fin : But may proceed from Gods Willing the Elea. . As if "ibfalombe by Pride andLuft enclined to Adultery, his Fathers Wives maybe in his eyeand way. And God may will to punifh Davidby their pavepollution, without willing his ad of finat all, interior or exterior. 594. 3. And God can remove other objetas out of the way, fo that this object !hall be folitary, or molt obvious to the fmner. As if a drunken man were refolved to kill the next he met, God can keep Peter, Sohn, &c. out of his way, and fo 7udas (hall be the next. 595. 4. Yea God can fufpend his own intrinfickconcurfe as to fotne one finful adby whichit will follow that it will fall upon another ob- ject. Many other fuch wayes God hath, whichare unknown to us. 596. And if you fuppofe a man fo inclined to Murder or Adultery as that hewill exercife it on the next moll: provoking object, if Godnow did Caufe the Ad, as exercifed on a forbidden objectt, compared with another it pe hoe vid. Ocl¿am fuprd. bi The wife Reader that can impartially receive truth without refpeet of perfons, may findmuch hi Epirfolutanititat. Theol. li. 4. Jett. . 4. de president. inhis anfwering allthefe Texts of Scrip}tture, as' mif-eapounded by tome: And his moderate opi- nion exprefied in eon- clnf. lt a. o the that Sein,. in how end far of do- urines are or are not damning which fübvcrt the foundation, is lauda- hie, andhis reafon very good and clear, ((vii fó far as they auually pre- vail with the will and praaice : Even as out faith is Paving as effeetu- al and prauical, and not as a deadopinion, fo is error damning.) I think as heBoth.

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