C HAP 3. We muff not lean to any Righteoufnefsrr'ithìn to. 459 gants, is to jutifie him. Anf All this is little or nothing to the purpofe : for fuch as are careful! that man rob not God of his glory , do not deny the ho- nour due to the creature , knowing that when honour is given to the creatu- re, upon a right ground , and in the right manger , it redounded unto the. honour of the Creator : But a ho knoweth not, how ready the Creature is to Deal into the throne of God ; and how ready men are to tranfcend t, and tranfgrefs all due limites ? And is it not faifeft to keep far from fuch a dange- rous precipice ? Is it to edification thus to gratifiewith our pleadings proud Nature, and to blow at this fire ofcorruption , that the Saints have daily- hard work about to fupprefs & exilinguish ? Mull we thus , on fo fatal' ccca- ions , plead fo floutly for man, & pretend to plead for God too He addeth next ( n. i S7.) If thefe Teachers mean', that no man hath any power freely to fpecifie the ails of his own will by any other help of God , betides neceffitating predetermining pïemotion ; dT f i that every man doth all then he can do d1' no man can do more than he doth; They di: honoure God by denying him to be the Creator of that free power , which it a ffentsal to man ds] which God bim felf accounteth it his honour to creat. And they feigne God to damne Y_/M blame all, that aredamned a blamed , for ar great impofJìb :litier , ar if they were damned blamed for not making a world, or for not being Angels. Anf. This is not a fit pla- ce to treate of that O ie (lion of Predetermination , though Mr. Baxter pull it inhere by the Bares; It is enough for us , that we fee now , whither all that Mr. Baxter bath here been Paying, tendeth , even to give unto Man, the glory of all the good he doth , of his Faith, Repentance, Love of God, obedience & perfeverance , in the firit , chiefe & immediat place; for by his own Natural Power he did freely fpecifie the as of his own will , and fo beleeved , when he might have rejected the Gape! , Loved God & Chrift, . when he mighthave hated both , Repented , when he might have remained impenitent , Converted himfelf, when he might have remained in his for- mer (late (& Mr. Baxter maketh no difference of ads here, and fo his words taut! be looked on as meaned of ft pernatural ails , as well as of Natural ) & that without any predetermining grace or motion of God. This glory shall we never yeeld to be clue unto man , Let Mr. Baxter load the Dottrine of Predetermining grace , with all the reproaches, and abfurdities, he can invent. He needs not think now to reftrick his opinion of denying Prede- termination unto natural a &s, for as the good fpoken of by thofe he here oppofeth, is fupernatural good , as Inch ; fo his difcourfe here is expreflive enough of this : And thus the caufe is ycelded unto Pelagian''_, efuitr & Arminian'', and the crown is put upon the head of man, and he is to honour & praife himfelf for what good he Both , for all began at his own fell- deter- mining power & will and the Almighty himfelf could not have bowed & predetermined his will, except he had overturned the courfe of Nature , & de(lroyed that free power, which is effential to man: And thus it is made to be to the honour of God, to creat a Creature, that is abfolute Lord & Master ofall his own anions, & fo mull be the frfl Caufe of his own actions, as to their fpecifick moral nature, & what is this but to make m an an inde pendent Creature , as to his actions -, L& confequently a God to himfelf: 1.1.1 w 1,4 ry
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