io8 Ofgod's Gracious Operations on Man's Soul: ter with fo many felf-madenames andnotions as Behmen, Paracelfus, rvi- gelius and fomeothers, yet thofe few that hebath, do fomewhat obfcure it t 3. But above all the exceffive pregnancy of his wit produceth fo great a fu-. perabundanceof Metaphors or Allegories, that (about the defcription of Chrift efpecially) they make up almoft all his ftyle ; fo that to any ordinary Reader his matter is not fo much cloathed in Metaphors, as drowned, buried or loft : And though I confefs mywit, being tohis, but as abarren Defarc to a florid Meadow, may be apt to undervalue that which it at- taineth not ; yet Ido approve of my prefent judgement, in thinking, that feeing all metaphorical terms are ambiguous, ) he that excelflively ufeth them befriendethnot the Truth and the hearers intelleét, but 'while he is too much a Rhetorician, he is too little a good Logician : and as he is hardly underftood by others, I fhould fear left he feduce his own under - ftanding, and can fcarce have clear mental conceptions of that matter, which he utters by a torrent of ambiguous Metaphors, if he think as he fpeaketh, and his wordsbe the direr t expreflions of his mind. I had ra- ther be inftructed in the words of the molt barbarous Schoolman, adapted to the matter, than tobe put to fave my felf from the temptation of equi- vocations in every fentence which I hear, and to fearch after that Truth Z which is knownonly naked) under fo florid a difguife and paint. 0.3. But I cannot deny, that though my temptations before werevery great, to doubtwhether the Doctrine of Univerfally-neceffary Predeter. mination, as delivered byBradwardine, the Dominicans, Dr. Twiffe, Ru- therfordand Hobbes, were indeed to be rejected, the ReadingofMr. Sterry increafed my temptation ; not by any new ftrength of argument which he bath brought, but by the power of his pious florid Oratory, by which; whileheentirieth God to the neceffìtating caufationof all fin, andmifery, he feemeth to put fo honourable and lovely a cloathing on them, from their relative order to God, to theZlniverfe, and to their End, as that I felt myhard thoughts of both to abate, and I was tempted to thinkof them as partof the amiable confequentsof the Divine Love, and of the Harmon; ous order caufedby the manifold wifdom ofGod. 4. And by this I fee, of how great importance is is inthe world, not only whatDoftrine is taught, and with what proof, but who fpeaketh it, and inwhat manner. For as I found the fame things reverenced in Dr. rwi fe andRutherford, which were not fo in Alvarez, or yanfenius, or Thom. white ; fo I found the fame Doctrine of Predetermining Necefli-, cationalmoft commonly brought intogreater diflike by Hobbes and Bene- diflusspinofa's owning it, and applying it toits too obvious ufes, than all argumentationshad ever before brought it ; And I fee it as likely to rer cover its honour by thepious and florid drefs put upon it by Mr. Sterry, as if tome new demonftratious for it were found out. . If I fhould recite Mr. sterries mind in his own Metaphors, the Reader may not underftand it ; If I Epitomizehim and change his words, fomemay fay that I mifunderftand and wrong him : But I will not do it willingly ; and if I do it neceffarily, his ltile is my excufe. He that would bePeen mull come into the light. 6. Thefumm of that which I am now concernedin, in Mr. sterry's Treatife is, That " the Freedom ofall things is to all according to their {Bnatures ; andfois that of thewill of man ; and that in God and man, ,"Neceflìty andLiberty concurr, and that whatever we do or will, we do "or willit neceffarily, as being moved to it by the first caufe and a chained "connexion of neceflitating caufes; by which all things in the world are u carryedon: That a will not determined by God, but left to a felf-de- t: termination tn Traft. Polit.Theo!.
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