with mans f nne. he therein exercifeth pofitive andpowerfull a`is. The very decree of permitting that finne to be committed which lieth in Gods will to hinder, is a pofitive aá of the Di- vine will, which is pofitively converfant about all the finales of men , though not working them as effeas, yet working upon them as materiali objeós, and ufing them to fuch purpofes as make belt and moft for his glory. This is not a mere privative demea- nour. And laft of all, in the furring up of their wills, even unto thofe a Lions which are malitious in the doers, there may be and often is a pofitive a&of God, and. yet rnoft pure and free from infufng the leafs dropof malice into the wills of fuoh wicked agents. It is a pofitive aä of God , to ítirre up a particular cogitation in the mind of a wic- ked man , which otherwife would never have come into his mind : it is a pofitive a t of God, to order and difpofe the con- currence of all circumiiances according ro his own good pleafure. When God cer- tainly'forefeeing that fuch a cogitation good in it felf, or fuch circumftances in them- felves not bad, will infallibly through the inbred malice of wicked men ftirre them up towicked aflions; God procuring fuch thoughts to arife in bad minds, and order- ing the concurrence of fuch harmleffe cira cumfances to be prefented unto bad men, is
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