Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

Of Clod's jraciotts Operations on I4an's S'.oeal: fpoken more fully in the firft Book. And of their opinion , that Gods Influx puts nothing into the will, but onlyis ad altumfeu effeltum, if it be true, it eafily endeth the controverfie of the 'difference of fufficient and effedlual grace, as to that Ad : But it is to me unintelligible, and the thing quite above all our underftandings, and, very unfit for bold difputes, or mutual cenCures. The true face or Scheme of the Dominican . predeterminant way as to the fenfe and confequents. T Do readily confefs that, as the fummofall the Çontroverfie is, Whe. 1 ther man have truly any Free-will, that is not moved as neceflarilyas any natural motions are caufed ; fo the arguments ofHobbes and theDemi- nicans and Dr.7wiffe are not eafily anfwered. And had we not bet- ter proof of all that Morality and Religion which is _inconfiflent with this opinion, I fhould my felt be inclined alfo to think, that we mutt be contented with the naked name of Liberty ; there being nothing indeed, but Volition neceffitated; and that man is an Engine moved byGod and other caufes, no Ids neceflàrily and phyfically than a Clock or Watch, but only by more invifible caufes and to us unknown , and therefore our Volitions are called Contingent and free , when truly there is nothing. contingent in the World. We that converfe in the body with things corporeal, are fomuch ftrangers to our felves and to all the race of In- telleetual-freeSpirits, that we are very prone to filch grofs corporeal ima- ginations, and to think that all anion is like the motus projeltorum, vio- lent, and neceffitated ;- and that it belongeth to the perfe@ion of the firft mover that it fhould be fò, yea, that he himfelf fhould be in all things the molt neçefJàry agent , and confequently all things necetated by him. But as Alvarez confe(ieth, Free -will is proved by Aquino and many others, by natural proofs, and no Predeterminant or Hobbift can give the tenth part fo full and certain proof, of the necefsitation of all Volition, as we can give of all the contrary.principles in Morality which are over- thrown thereby. And therefore ( whatever Come think of the fatum Stoicorum) the Light of Nature taught älmoft all the Philofoahers in the World, the Freedom of mans will, and the morality there founded : ofwhich Grotius hath colledted fo full a Volume of teflimonies in his Book entituled De fato, that it (hall Cave nie.the labourof tranfcribingany. Yet though I think chriftianity inconfiflent with their opinion, Idoubt not but many of the Predeterminants are good Chriftians, and excellently learned and acute Divines, as not apprehending the incontinency of their own thoughts : And I confefs that there is a Religion eonfiftent with their fundamental error , which I (hall therefore put into theScheme, left any think that none but Hobbes hath made the right deductions from. it. And remember, that I charge them not to fayall the words which I here lay down, but onlythat the reafonwhy I my felf do above all others Ihun their principles, is becaufe I take thisfollowing to be the rrus fenfeand com- plexion ofthem, which I mutt alío believe, if I do believe them : And I fuppofe

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