arcs e quc.tioned. being fo dïfpofed, that things cannot fuccefíively ehrne to paffe othcrvvife then they do, but muff of neceflitie be as they are, even invito Deo, though God would have fume things to be othervvife then they are. The Manichees held, Thai all mens actions, good or evil, were determined too; good actions by a good God , who Was the authour of all good things that were created,and of all good anions that carne to palle in the vvorld; evil aL t- ons byan evil God, who was the primum principium mall,' the prime authour of all evil things or anions that were extant in the world. The mainteiners Of the abfolute decree do fay oneof thefe two things, either, That ail anions, natural! and mo- ral!, good and evil, and all events likewife, are abfolurely neceffary; fo the Supralapfarians: or, That all mens ends (ac 'call) are unalterable and indeterminable by the power of their wills; fo the Sublapfarians : And this is upon the matter all one with the former. For frfl, (B) in vain is our freedome in the anions and means, if the end at which they drive be pitched and determined; Pith all anions are for the ends fake , that it might be obteined by them, which without them could not. And fecondly, the deter- mination of the end doth neceflàrily involve the means that precede that end ; as if a than be fore- determined to damnation, he Mutt urtavoydably finne, ellc he could not be damned. Now in thefe three opinions we may note two things. 1. The Stbfflance and formalitie of them, which is an un- avoidableneffe of mens anions and ends whatfoever they be; In this all of them agree, all holding that in all things , at leaf} in all mens ends, 'indeclinable Fates and infuperable Necefìïtie' do domineere..And thereföre (C) Melanchthon doth not flick fundry times inhis Commonplaces to call this Abfolute decree fatum Stoicism Co~ tabulav Parcarum , Stoi- call fate and the Deftinies tables, He alto charged) the Church of Geneva (the great Patrone of it) with a labour to bring-in the Stoicks errour, as we may fee in a certain E- n Merrnch.iri piffle of Melanchthons to Peucer, where he !lath thefe words; Ep:J}.ad Peu-i n Lelitts writeth Tinto me that in Geneva there is fsch firife cer.Scribit ad me Lzlius, de'Stòico faro ufq; adeò litefn Geneva moveri, ut quidam in carceremconjeEtus fit proptereaquad à Zenone differret.O miféra tempora!Dof ring falutis peregrines qui- bufdam dubitatioúibus obfcurarur. E 2 abexit 1
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