hindrethPiety andagodly life. voydablc. For no man will flee froman evilthat cannot be prevented; but will yield up himfelfto it, as Cefar did his bo- dy to the murderers inthe fenate-houfe. Now , by this de- cree, heaven and hell are not objeets poilible but neceffary : Heaven thall unavoydably be obteined by thofe that are ele. tied, andhell muff as certainly be endured by thofe that are reprobated. For men haveno power to alter their eternal' flares: All men by this decree are precifely determined adu- nion , to one fiate, toneceffary falvation or neceffary damnas Lion, without any power or liberty to choofewhether. And from hence this conclufion is clear, That the abfolute decree taketh away thechiefefl inducements to holineffe and deterrements from vvickedneffe, and confequently hinder- eth a godly life exceedingly. II. The injurioufneffe of thisdoárine to a godly life may furtherappear by thefe confederations that follow , one de- pending upop another. a. Abfoluteand peremptory (e) decrees are inevitable whatfoever the thingsbe about which they are exercifed and mens everlaffing Oates if theybe abfolutely determined, are altogether undeclinable. Stat fati lex indeclinabilis , The law of Defhny is undeclinable. And the reafon is, Becaufe it bath an inevitable caufe,theadamantine decrees of almigh- ty God, which are indeclinable twowayes. 1. Irreverfible, lyable to no repeal (as the fiatutes are which are made inour Parliaments) but farre more unalterable then the laws of the Medes and Perfians. As I have fpoken, fo will I bring it to page: I have purpofed, andl will do it, Efay q.G. it. Men do many times bite-in their words again , becaufe they utter things rafhly ; and do repealtheir 'Fumes and ordinances ; Becaufe they fee fume inconvenience, in them being made , which they could not forefee : but Godnever callethin his decrees, becaufe they are all made in greatvvifdomé. z. Ir- refiftible. It lyethnot in the powerofany creature todifan- null them. who bath refilled his will? Rom. 9.19. Our God h in heaven: he doth wharfoever he will, Pfal. I I 5.3. What- foever is once concluded by his abfolute will , ism) vvayes alterable by the will ofman, It is more poflible fora man to hinder the rilingof the Inaneor to flay his courfe in the hea- ven, to (top the revolutionsof the yeare , and overturn the whole courfe ofnature , then to make the leaf} change inany of Godsabfolute decrees. z. Mens atiotas (F) about ends and things determined by C 3 an - 4°7
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