314. TheSublapf rians docirine t,em, He who willeth a thing in the caufe, willeth the effeft that neceffarily floweth from that caufe. Now if it be the certain will of God that Reprobates íhall in no wife believe, he cannot with reafon and equitie tie them to believe : for thenhe tieth them to an aft contrary to his determinate will. 3. Becaufe they have (F) no objeft of faith, no Chrift to believe in. Credere jubet, & fidei nullum obje5tum ponit, He commandeth to believe, and affordeth no objeft to believe in: this foundethnot well. The devils have no part in Chrift or the new covenant : we will not therefore fay that God can juftly bind them tobelieve, or punish them as tranfgref- fcurs ofthe covenant becaufe they believe not : How then can we fay that God can juflly require faith ofReprobates, or de- firoy them for not believing , if they have indeed no more partin Chrift or in the covenant then the devils have ? If a man fhouldcommand his fervant to eat, and puni(b him for not eating, and in the mean time fully relolve tint he fhall Lave no meat to eat, would any reafonable man fay thatfuck aman were juft in the command or punilhinent? Change but the name , and the cafe is the fame. Again , that Chrift died for Reprobates (by the do6rine of abfolute Repro- bation) is a lie; and can God juftly bind men to believe a lie? This is the fecond reafon. III. The third reafon why the abfolute decree infringeth Gods juftice , is, becaufe it will have him (G) to punish men for omiflîonof an aft which is made impoffible to them by his own decree : not by that decree alone by which hede- termined togive them nopower to believe, having loft it; but by that decree allo by which he purpofed that we fhould par- take with Adam in his finne, and be flrippedof all that fuper- naturall power which we had by Gods free grant beftowed Upon us in Adam beforehe fell. Thefe are the reafons which move me to think, that this abfolute decree is repugnant to Gods Juftice. Three things are ufually.anfwered. I. That Godswayes may be very juff, and yet Teem unjufF. to mans erring underftanding: and fo is this decree, though flefh and blond will not yield it tobe fo. This anfwer (H) I take tobe falle, and the contradicfiorie to it to be true ; namely , That nothing is truly jufi which humane underftandingpurged from_ prejudice, corrupt a- mans
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