and Decrees ofClod, &c. or accidentor modeof Creatures, as ohjeds, are mil-taken ; Though they maybe Conceptions in the mind. of Creatures, concerning that which is nor. 67. Therefore alto God is no Caufe of anyEternal Poffibility or futu- fay. 68. Therefore the Fallibility and futurity of things (conceived as an effedt ) hath noEternal Caufe : For there is nothing Eternal but God. 69. Though man Imagine Things which are not, and then think that theycan be, andwillbe, becaufethat Is, whichcan or will Caufe them, and thence frame notions andnames of Nothing, and call it Fallible and Future ; we mutt be very fearful and not unreverenr and rafh, in afcribing filch a danceor lulus of notions. to God, unlefs as ufed with great impropriety after the mannerof weak man. 7o. Godknowethhis ownPower, Knowledge and Will; And fo know- ethwhat he can do, what he knoweth to be eligible, and what he will do. And if any willcall this knowledge of God, by the name of the Fallibility or Futurity ofthe thingknown, or will denominate, Nothing, (asan Ima- gináry fomething ) as Poi ible and Future, relatively from Gods Power, well or Knowledge, Let them remember , s. That Nothing hath no rela- tion. 2. That properly they thould but give the denomination to that which is, that is, to Gods Power, will and Knowledge, and fay God Can, e.g. make aWorld, Or will do it and not to that which is not c And when they fay that e, q, the world is eternallypoble or future, they can juftly mean no more, but that God can and will make it. .3. And that this is but lie de nomine, and,not a real difference ( whether futuritionbe thus fromEternity ). 71. And efpecially let them remember that nothing in God is eaufed: There are no effeEts in God : Therefore as there is nothing from Eter- nity butGod;.and thereforepofbility and futurition mutt needs . be names of Godhimfelf,or fome Divine perfedtion or conception ( which is him- Pelf) if they be laid to be eternal ; fo fuch Poffibility and futurity can have no eternalcaufe. For Godhath nò Caufe, norany thing in God. 72. If the Futurity of finmutthavean eternal caufe,then God caufeth the futurity ofall fin: But that is notfo. For none is the Caufe thatfen willbe, but he that (mediately or immediately) caufeth the. being of it when it is. 73. Imagine (perpobilevel impobile) that a thoufand years hence a freecreated agent . ( that can do otherwife) will caufe fuch an all ; It maybedenominated Future without the taking in of any antecedent caule into the notion. It is called Future becaufe it Will be, and not becaufe there is at prefent .exiftent any caufe from whence it will bemediately or im- mediately. 74. Though Futurity be Nothing, yet this Propofition is fomething; [This or that willbe.] And to know the futurityof a thing, is moil pro- perly toknow the truth,of that propofition [ Itwill be.] 75 God knoweth not by Propofitions (for that is the impeded mode of man) But he knoveethPropa itions when they are exiftent, as humane in- flrumentsor conceptions: And thereforehe 'knoweth the truth of all true :propofitions offuturity. 76. What man knoweth by Propofitions, God knoweth otherwifeby a more tranfcendent perfel, but incomprehenfible way ; Therefore God knoweth that every, thing will be, whichwill be. 77. There were no Propofitions from Eternity : (For manthat nfeth them, was not : And God uCeth them not, though he-know them as tiled C by 'Pinner. 1. 3. ê. r4: citeth many Fathers faymg,that things are not future be- caute fore-known, but fore-known becaufe fu- ture : And Aagufiine, Greg. M. Boetin's, Anfein, Lomb. du. Aquin. Paying the contrary. And he cireth the four wayes of the Schoolmens recon- ciling them, and mn- cludeth that-in regard of the Creatures being, the firft is true; and in re- gard of freeads, the fe- tond. I think that hi regard of fin neither is true. tlnlefs [Becaufe] fignifie only ratiotemde- nominations obieciivam And.even if fo it is du- bions, whether they be not fimulraneous as Re. lacions are.
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