The Preface as Salvation and Damnation are temporali effeets terminated unto the creature : and therefore the latter maybe fufpended upon many conditions, though the former be in Godnever fo abfolute. The Treatife infuing would have had much more perfpicuitie, if the Authour had briefly and plainly fet downwhat he under- fiandethby this wordPredéftination or E- leJion , and whether he conceive it tobe an abfolute or a conditionall Decree. If conditionall ; he fhould have (hewed us with whom God conditioned, upon what terms, and where the conditions Randupon record. If he grant abfolute Predeflinati- on , his plea for conditionate Preterition will be to little purpofe with thofe who underftand that the abfolute Eleaion of fuch a certain number doth ineodenafimo ra- tionis as abfolutely imply a certain number of men not eleaed. Thewifdomeofour Church ofEngland in the xviith Article layeth down the do- drine of Predeflination , and doth not fo . much as in one word meddle with thepoint of Reprobation ; leaving men to conceive that the one is the bare negation or deniall of that fpeciall favour and benefit which is freely intended and mercifully bowed in the other. Would to God the children of this Church had imitated the wifdorne of their
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=