of PredeflinationandReprobation: Schools then thepulpitsyea indeed unfit even in the Schools to bemeddled withal%, ifthe importunity of our adverfaries and the ne- ceffity of mainteining our own caufe didnot fometimes drive us evenagainh our wills to thefe nice fpçculations. Such are the difcuf- fions whichare made byDivines about the fignes of priority &Pofteriority in the eter- nall decreesof God, withgreat labour and little profit. Someaffirm that the firh decree in the Divine underftandingand will was of fending theRedeemers& thenanother,offa- ving the Elect by this Redeemer. Others hold the contrary way. Yea, fo boldly curi- ous have Tome mortal]. men been,that when they havelaid down the order ofthe Divine decrees asa thing whereofthey had certain knowledge, affirming this to have been the firfi decreeof the Divine will, that the fe- cond, another the third, and fo on,at length they flick not to avouch , that if God had . not obferved this veryorder which they ap- prove of, he íhould have done either un- wifelyor unjuhly. Awife Miniher fhould wholly abhein from handling thefe thorny queftions:however thebufìneffeneverought to come to that point, that ifwe fail in thefe our fpeculatîons , any reproch Mould be fattened upon God himfelf. The Miniffers of the word therefore , oft as occafi- on is offered of treatingof Predeflination before 495
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