395 The Sublapfarians dollrine taketh not confeffe that to be a true will which by af- i. Meg: fording ordinarymeans aimeth at the f San- 4.3. rim, íi f cation and g Salvation ofall men, donot 2' 4. withfl:anding intimate unto us an abfolute will eternally predeflinating and in time in- fallibly working thefalvation onelyoffome men ; it is but a weak kind of reafoning, from the affirmationofthe one to conclude a negationof theother. The dotrine of abfolute Elution and Reprobation inferreth, That God had not an abfolute will by thofe means of grace which he bellowed upon the non-elea an- gels or men to bring them unto glorie; and that hehad anabfolute will to permit them- felves to abufe them, to the procuring of their own eternal! miferie : And yet he that :fhould fay, that God by giving the non- eleâ angels fuchexcellent indowments, or by giving Cain and Judas fuch fatherly ad- monitions, did in thole means aim at their cleitrudion,fpeakethboth ignorantly &pró- fanely. For the aim of God, and the end of anygood gift which hevouchfafeth un- tomen, is tobe meafured by thenature of the gift it felf, and not by the perverfe ufe which God fuflereth the receivers tomake pf it. Calvin ufually fpeakerh in the Scripture- phrafe, even in thofe points which feem harfh to the ears of the Remonftrants. But this
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=