-276 r The sublapfarians decirine whereas Men are determined by his omnipotent decree to fuch a wofull being as is a thoufand times worfe then no being at all. What man wouldhave accepted of life, when firft he en- tred upon poflèfionof it, ifhe had known uponwhat lamen- tableconditions it was to be tendred ? Or (did men firmly believe this dot-trine) they would at a venture with Job curfe their birth-day, be releafed willingly from the right of crea- tures, and define their immortali fouls might vanifh;into no- thing. Malunt exftinguipenitus quàna adfuppliciarepot/aril as Minutius Felix fpeaketh in another cafe. And parents out of mere compaf ion to their children would with that theymight be born toads and ferpents rather thenmen , creatures whefe beings at !aft !ball be refolved into nothing, rather then im- mortall fpirits. i. To the very (L) devils alto (fuppofing this decree) is God more mercifull then to men; and yet the devils are fee forthin Scripture for the greateft fpeélacles of Gods ireful! fe- verity. In one thing this decree rnaketh moli men and devils equal{ ; Vtlquedefperatafalos, they are both Pure tobe da- mned : but in three things men are in a far worfe condition by it. I. In their (M) appointment to to hell, not for their own, proper,perfonall finnes,forwhich onelythe devils are damned; but for the finne of another man that lived and finned long before they were born. I I. In their (AT) unavoidable deflination to endleffe mile. ay, under acolour of the contrary. The dévils,as they are de- creed to damnation, fo they know it, they expert it, they look for no other: but men, who are appointed to wrath, are yet fed up with hopes of falvation, and made to believe that the whole bufineffe is put into their hands; fo as if they perifh, it is not defeats mifericordie, becaufe God will have no mercie on them, but defechu voluntatis proprie, becaufe they will not be faved : when yet indeed there is no fuch matter. Now if it be work to be deluded inmifery then fimiply to be miferable,then is the condition of men in this refpe& (by this decree) much worfe then the flare of devils. ' III. In their (0) obligation to believe, and the aggrava- tion of their punifhrent by not believing. Thedevils,becaufe they mull be damned, are not commanded to believe in Chrift, nor is their punithment heightenedby their not believing : but miferable men, who by this decree -have no more liberty to efcai'e hell then the.devils,muft yet beti:d tobelieve in.Çhrift, and M'za2't.Felik, pazI13-
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