Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

r 182 OfSufficient and Effetlual Grace. C. "Explain it by fome in,fíances.- B. r. As to the caufe of (angularity. If one man be born an Idiot or a Monfter, when we ask, what madehim differ fromother men, though really the caufesof the diffimilitude be tobe affigned on bothparts 5 yet we mean only on his part , why is he not like others. So if one Child beunlike to all his brethren , or one Scholar in the School be much 'bet- tenor much worfi thanall the reft 5 or if one in a Family be lick, he that asketh, what makethhim differ ? dothmean, what made him tick ? &c. 2. And fo as toPo.fleriority ofState,ifyoufuppofe oneof thedimiliar parts pre-exifient, and ask what makeththe other to differ from it ? as if youask why theScholar writeth not likehis Copy ? why the Son is fo unlike to the Father ? why this ageis founlike the laft ? &c. We mean only what caufeth the difference exparte fubfequente. C. "Apply it to the cafe in hand. . B. If youask, what made thedifference between the Devils and the perfeveringAngels ? In the full and proper anfwer you mutt affign the reafon on both parts,: But according to the ufual fenfe of the quettion, you mutt fay [The wilful fin oftheDevils made the difference.] For the equal Rateof uprightnefs went before the difference. So if you ask, what made the difference between the world after the fall, and before it ? vulgarly, we muft fay, fin 5 becaufe that came laft. Soif youask, what made the difference between Noahand the world ? betweenLot and sodom? Anf. Indeed, that which made one part fin- ful and the other righteous. But according to the vulgar fenfe of the queftion, it was the itighteoufnefsof Noah andLot, and the caufes ofthat righteoufnefs. Sowhat made the difference , between Judas and the elevenApoftles ? Anf.'udas his wilful tin and Wickednefs, (though indeed the caufe is on both fides.) So what maketh thedifferencebetween Believersand the Unbelieving world ? Really, the unbelief of the world, and the Faithof Chriftians with their caufes : But it's like the fpeaker meaneth only exparte creden- tium : And then the caufeof their Believing is the caufe of their during. . But now, if it hold true that God giveth afufficiencyofGrace ut can- fa univerfalis exparte donantis(antecedently tomensacceptingorreje l- ing) equally, then if one ask, what maketh the difference ? you would underftandhim (why have not unbelievers Faith, as well as others ? And then the anfwer wouldbe, wilful refilling, orrefuting Grace, or the moral fpecial indifpofition of theRecipients makes thedifference 5 or elfe all would be alike believers. But note, that we ask not [What maketh the difference betweenBelievers and unbelievers ?] but do particularize the fubjeft, and ask, [what ma- keth theBeliever differfrom the `Unbeliever ?] or what maketh the unbeliever diffër from the believer ?] It is then fuppofed that we mean only ex parte nominata. And thus in the vulgar fenfe the queftions, [what maketh the believer differfrom the Infidel ?] and [what maketh the Infidel differ from the believer] muft havevarious anfwers. C. Iunderf'landyou thus in brief: r. Toni fay that confitutively it is " Faith that is the difference on Paul'spart, andunbelief on Nero's. 2. The caufes of the faidFaith and unbelief, are the caufes ofthe difference : (As " thecauferof the whitenefs of one walls and of the blacknef of the other caufe their difference.) 3. That toask (why the Believer difiercth from the Unbeliever?) is but to ask [why he is a Believer when theother is not ?] 4. Here you fay the two Relationsof diffimilitude in twoubbjets make thequettions two inone , viz. r. Why or whence is Paul a Believer?] 2. Whence

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