Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

effndthe Sub-operations of ManWill. Serpent as malism fiGI naturale, becaufe it is a hurtful creature; But this is no Moral Evil in them; nor is their death their punifilment : nor yc;'t in any ravenous creature, which preyeth on the reft that are iono- cent. And fo would it bewith bad men, if God had made them bade Indeed if Adam have made them all had, andGod have given no Saviours Grace or Remedy, they are condemnableand unexcufable, as 'they were virtually in Adam, if judged only by the Law of Innocency as made to Adam: But they are excufeable if judged by Chrift by the Law ofgrace, which condemneth noman meerly as not innocent , or a firmer, but as a rejecter of grace. Thefe things are fo plain and weighty, that 5anfenias lhould not joyn with theAntinomians in oppofing them. X IV. While heconfeffeth that Chrift fo far dyed for all, as topro cure them all the mercywhich he giveth them, I have no further quarrel with him, but toprove that a Condition pardon of fin and grant of Life eternal, with much meansand help to make men perform the Condition, which is but 'a fuitable Acceptance, is indeed mercy. XV I. That Chrifts grace is Love, or Complacencyin good, is a truth which I highly value : but with all thefe exceptions to his dodtrine. r. It is the Heart of the newCreature, and that which niuft communicate it felf to all the tell, or elfe they are lifelefs and unacceptable: For the will is theman in Gods account And complacency, or love, or appetite is the firft a& Of thewill ; which is it that he calleth with Au of ine Deice-le:- tiara: Grace lyeth principally in a Placet. But the man bathmore parts than his Heart : And all other parts of fanuificationare graces of Chrift, in their feveral places, andnot love only. a. Though no man is to love himfelf as God, not infteadofGod, nor aboveGod, nor as thenobleft ultimate objeét of his love ; yet all men are necefïitated by nature to love themfelves and therefore todelire their own felicity in lovingGod, next to God as the final objeet of that love ; And fo our end is finis amantis vel amiciti.e which includeth mutual . complacency and union, though not in equality. And to filch an end, grace cauferh us to ufe the means : And Chrift is propofed to us as our Saviour, and all his grace as for our good, and all Gods commands as necef(ary for our happinefs, and fin is defcribed to us to be hated as out own evil and deftruetion, and againft our good as well as againft Gods will and honour. Andwith us this is denyed fcarcely by the Aatinomi- ans themfelves: Much lefs by any judicious Chriflians. 3. It is pall the reachofanyof us, to prove that our a&ual love is the fief} eiertt of the faniifyingSpirit on the foul. Imean not only, Whe- ther tome other eels ( as Intellectual perception, and belief) be not in order of nature before it, and in timewith it, and real parts of the fame new creature, but alfo, Whether as Alvarez and others fay, therebe not fach a divine motion or impulfe on the fout tending to this love, and an- tecedent to love it felt, in nature, ( love being an effe& of Gods will and mans,) which 7anfenius denyeth. But 4. If it be not fo, but really love be the firft effeá ofGod on the foul, then thecontroverfies are all at an end; about the differenceof fuf- fcient and effeetual, equal and unequal grace. For then it Would be as fanfenius faith; and there is no grace but the effedl it fell, and fo there would beno queftion, bat Whether all men love God, andall alike. But I yet believe that there is force preparatory grace of Chrift which tend- di to the love of God. X V I. I believe that thewill is the prime feat of Morality, and that. Iove or complacency is as the fpirit of.all laving fpecial grace. But yet it

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=