oppo f th Gods Mercy. 275 fail, a deftroyer, may be fitter for him then 2a)74, aSaviour: which I tremble to think. Doth mercy pleafe him , when he bath made a decree which theweth farre more feverity toward poore men then mercy ? Is heflow to anger, when he hath ta- ken filch a (mall and fpeedy occafion to puniLh the greaterpart of men for ever, and for one finne oncecommittedhath thut them up under invincible finne and damnation ? Is his mercy abundagt, doth it reachfurther then jullice, when it is tuckt up fo fhorr, limited to a very few (elehted ones, when a hundred for one at leaf} ( rake-in all parts of the world) are unavoyd- ably cal} away out of his onely will and pleafure ? Or doth his love paffeknowledge, when we fee daily farre greater love then this in men and other creatures ? What father (H) and mother (that have not onely caft off fatherhood and mother- hood, but humanity too) would determine their children to certaindeath, nay to cruel torments worfe then death, for one onely offenfe , and that committed too not by them in their own perlons, but by Come other, and imputed onely to them? But to deliver (1) things a little more clofcly; Foure things (in my conceit) being well and di.jtinaly confidered, do make it apparent that this decree is incompatible with Gods mercy. r . That Adams finne is the finneof mans nature onely , and no mans perfonall tranigreffion, but Adams: It was neither committednor contented toby anyofhis pofterityin their own perlons. z. That it was the fume of our nature, not by gene- ration (as I have (hewed) but by Gods own voluntary impu- tation. 3. That God did pardon it in Adam, ( for fo it is ge- nerally believed) who did aEtually and freely commit it in his own perfon. 4. That Chrift came into the world to take away peccatum mundi, the,finne of the world,Joh. r. 29. That God either did or might have fatisfied his wronged Office in the blond of the Covenant for all mankind, and without any im- peachment to ruftice haveopened a way of falvation toall and everyman. Thefe confiderations (I think) being well dige- fted, will make any man to think,that either there is nodecree of(.k ) abfoluteReprobation, or that God is not mercifull to men at all, much lefte more mercifull to them then to ether creatures, bnt more (harpa great deal and levere then he is to r. anycreatures in the world. z. the very devils themfelves. s. Then to any other creatures. For they, even the baler among them,though perhaps they havebut a defpicable being, yet theyhave filch being 11,s is farre better then no being at all: z whereas
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