164 DireElions forgetting and keeping be utterly impoifible, and therefore it !till remained] Po fsible,though it fhall never come to pafs. obj, But it is Paid, They fhall deceive if it Were 'Poffible the very Elea. A molt comfortable place which many oppofers ofEleetion and Free-grace, do in vain feek to obfcure. But let me tell youfor the right under- h andingof it. 1. That as I Paid, i `Poffiblel, and [Im- poffïblej are Relative terms, and have Relation to the Power of Tome Agent, as proportioned to the thing to be Done . Now this Text fpeaks only ofthe power of falfe Chrifls and falfe Prophets (and the devil by them) Theirpower of Deceiving is ex- ceeding great, but not great enough to Deceive the Elea which is true in two Refpec`ts, t . Becaufe the Eleft are guided and fortified b "y Gods Spirit. 2. Be- caufe feducèrs work not efficiently, but finally by propounding objets ; or by a Moral improper efficiency only. All their feducements cannot force or necefsitate us to be Deceived by them. But though it be impofsible to them to doit; yet it is Pofsible to God to permit ( which yet he never will) and fo Pofsible for our felves to be our own Deceivers, or to. give Deceivers flrength againft us, by a wilful receiving of their poyfoned baits. z. Befides Chrift fpoke not inAriî otles School, but among the Vulgar, where words mull he ufed in the common fenfe, or elfe they will not be underftood : And the Vulgar ufe to call that Impoffib'e which fhall never come to pars. There is a Confequential impofiibility of the Event, becaufe it is dire&ly impoilible that God fhouid be mutable or deceived; even as contingents may
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