Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

128 Ì am told to my face that our Doftrine of Abfo- Iutelicprobationwe have Iearned from the Pa- pifts; Another profcffeth that the Jefusts ten of them for one favour the abfolute irrefpefive de- cree, follow herein, as they think S. Aubin, but mfpeciaily their S. Tkon?as andScotus, with of the rabble of rottenSchool- men , and the whole tribe at this day of the Dominicans , who are bulk Zealots for the Caufe, of whofe content Come among us are not afhamed to brag. Ymiee againf Hoardli.r. psg.8 5. This reporter maketh us at one with fefuites and Dominicans. And yet may we not be Co with Protèftants? Of the 5ature, IÇnolwledge, Will agendum.] And is here no ground for Chriflian Concord in this point f But of this fubjeet, I mua (peak more particularly in the Third Part; 684. Bellarmine himfelf bath enough I think to convince any man, that he mutt have a fubtile contentious wit, that can find any great into- lerable difference herein between him and the Synod ofDort : (I write not for them that will revile Gods truth, if Bellarmine do but own it, ) De Grid. & lib, arb. li. s, cap, g, this is his propofition [Though a "Grace fufficient be given to all, yet no reafon from us ( or our part) "can be given of Gods predeftination, By which we exclude no cc onlyMerits properly fo called, but alto the good ate of free-will, or of "grace, or both as forefeen of God, though it be not called Merit, but "de cóngruo, and though it be not called a Cattle, but a Condition jio "qua non pradeflinaretur, ] ( And what elfe would you have excluded,: ) And he goeth on in divers Chapters at large to prove from Scriptures, ,3ugufrine, Tradition, Reafon, that there is no forefeenCaufe or Condi. Lion of predeflination in our (elves. 685. And Idelire theReader to notehis Order of the Decrees ( for they mnft all be tr.edling with the Order of Gods inward ads s But hedoth is moll briefly and plainly thus ) tb. cap. 9. "[According to our mode of underftandin, this feemeth to be the c` Order of Predeflination in Gods mind : r. God forefeeth that if he "makeman he will fall with all his pofterity ; And withal he feeth that " he can deliver all or force as he pleafe. a. He decreeth ( or willeth "to create man, and to permit him to fall, and mercifully to deliver "foreof the number of the fallen, leaving others juftlyin the mafs ofper- "dition. 3. He contrived apt remedies for the laving of the eleét : In " which the incarnation and paffon of our Saviour Math the firft place. 't 4,Heapproved thofe remedies,and then chofe Chrift and us in him,before "the Conftitutionof the World. 5. He difpofed, ordained, and in a fort '" commanded that fo it fhould be done. ] Isnot this as high as the Synod of Dort goeth f yea, more rigid than Manyof the Suffrages a For he mentionethno giving of Chrift, or any remedy at all to any but the Elea, nor carrying the refit any further than the common mats of perdition, before they be forfaken ; contrary ttr what Martinius, Cretins, Molinaus, the Brittifb Divines, and others delive- red to or in that Synod : And indeed it is unfound. 686. If you fay, that he begins with a Scientia Conditionalis. Ian= Ewer, It's nomore than what all lober men will grant de re, that is, that God knew from eternity that if he fo made man as hedid, he would fall: or, if there were eternal propofition, Godeternally knew the truth of this hypothetical propofittion, [ If I fomakeman, he will fall.] If this was quid intelligibile, no doubt but God knew it. But de ordine & de nomi- ne, whether it be fit to parcell out Gods knowledge ( and Volitions) into fuck fhreds and atoms, and fo denominate them, let them look to it on both fides that trouble us with their divifions. 687. And note Be'armines further explication [Of thefe airs, (faith he) "the firft is of theunderftanding, the fecondof the will, the third of " the underfianding, the fourth of the will , and the fifth of the under= " ftanding; and in that laft the effence of predeftination efpecially con- "fifteth.] 688. Yea, cap. 15. whereas many diftinguifh predeftination to faith or grace, from eleétion toglory, and fay that the latter is upon theforelght of f,iith as a condition, though the firft be abfólate, he oppofeth them and

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