eind the Sub-operations of Man's l!/ill. I ó9 '' termination without Gods predetermining caufality is not to be aliened, " as contrary to Gods Goodness, Wifdom, power, &c. That fin is a pri- vation formally, and all that is p3fitive in it is direâly and not hy. ", accident of Godspofitive caufation ( elfe with the Manichees we mutt "hold two firft causes ; ) And that the formal privation is from the with- " drawing of neceffary Divine caufation of the contrary, and Cod is the " Negative neceffitating caufe of it ì Even as he caufeth Light by the "inningof theSun, and caufethdarknefs by itc Pettingor finning : or "as he caufeth fubflancesand fhadows, Life and death ; And that all fin thus as neceffarily followeth Gods not giving the contrary, or his leaving " the defe tible Creatureto itfelf, as the darknefs followeth the Lights "removal; And this wasthe entranceof fin into the world ; the Woman "being Neceffarily deceived,neceffarily finned ; and all good and evil is thus ( as to neceffity equally ) to berefolved into Gods caufrng and not " caningWill ; whathewill caufe cannot but be andwhat he will not caufe "cannot be : And is thebeautiful variety and harmony in the Univerfe t "In God himfelf is nothing but perfeElion, but the Creature being the "fhadowy Image of God, defe&ibilityandimperfeétion is effential to it : " fo that he reduceth Morality to theframe, and neceffity of phyfical mo- "tion, andmaketh Moral Good andevil to be indeed asmuchnatural good sand evil andof the fame kind ( except as in another fubjeêt) as Sum- mer andWinter, heat and cold, day andnight, health and ficknefs, life '.' anddeath, animate and inanimate, the unavoidablediverfifications of the "will and work of God ; And that every permiffionof his will is accom- panied with apofitive volition ofthe thing permitted, (Andyet that will "isnot properly in God,butfo called after the manner of man :) That fin is " confidered as related to the Principle of aEtion, which is God, and fo it is "good; or as in the terminus Man, and fo it is horrid, devilifh, odious, "evil, as blindnefs, death, darknefs, caufed all by Gods defecdon, or not "operating otherwife thanhe doth. "p. q. To the quietingof themind thatcannot digeft this,but thinketh "God is thusdifhonoured, beingmade more than Satan the caufe of fin, "and mifery for fin, which the Scripture contradiéteth ; and that man is " excufableat the barrof Juftice that could no more (in innocency) for- "bear to fin, than tomake a world ; To them that think it hard that no one "inall the world could ever poffibly do more or lefs Good or Evil than "theydo, but that is all done, by phyfical motion as in an Engine, &c. he "batha great deal to fay, andmore than ever I elfewhere met with, and "with great modefty propofed. " 1'. 8. As to the Law ( whole tranfgreffion is fin) he fuppofeth, that "Whatfoever impofeth onus any thing tobe done byus, as an antecedent "condition to any consequent good, is the Law oppofed to the Gofpel. "Yea that the propofal or preffingof any Truth or Goodnefs on us, im a "literal or moral way only, or the word as written in Letters, is the Law "and the fpirit operating the thing it felf on the foul is the Gofpel ; the "firft is the old Covenant and the fecond the New : That the proper "and next ends of the Law (or letter) are fin, condemnation, death and " the Divine wrath : To let in fin, andheighten it thatit might abound "and tobringonus fpiritual death ; Thefe flow not from the Lawof it fell; "but byaccident, from theweaknefsof the ffefh and creature : But both "Law and fin are brought in ultimately for good ; viz. God having a "deignwhichhe intended to enrichwith the fulleft, the higheft glories of his Godhead, brings forthin the courfe of this deign, a dark fcene of «all evils, fin, death, wrath ; The evil in this fcene is carryed on to its ut- tí molt Pag.
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