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intemperancy: Man therefore only Sinned, God is difhonored. The King made his Subject able to rebel against him, by delivering his Military Furniture unto him; the verier Mifcreant he that did Rebel against him. So God made Adam indeed able to Sin, but he never intended that he should Sin with that Ability. God then is the Cause of all thofe things in which we Sin, and yet whatfoever he doth is exceding Good; he is not the Cause that we intend any Sin, but the Cause that we are able to commit thofe Sins we intend; and yet he intended not our Abilities for Sin, but for his Service. Of all our good Actions he is the first Caufe, we are the fecond: of all our Sins we are the proper Caufe, he is only the Conditio fine quà non.

But here fome Man may fay, that Choice or Election of an unlawful Object, upon which we mifplace our Actions, is that which maketh us Sinners; now this being an Act of our Will, it must fuppofe alfo the Concourfe of God; how then doth our Opinion clear the point? The fame Anfwer abundantly fufficeth; God made Adam able to be Willing to Sin, but he made him not to Will Sin: God fet before him Life and Death; that he did choofe Death, it was by the ftrength of Will given him of God; but God did not bind him to choose Death, for that were a contradiction, a Neceffitated Choice.

Briefly, whatsoever we choose, we do it by the Power by which we are voluntary Agents, yet if we choose Death, God is not to be blamed; for he made us voluntary, and therefore it was as poffible for us to have chofen Life. If the nature of a voluntary Agent be well obferved, this point will be most evident.

The laft Objection is this, God's Fore knowlege of all Futures is moft Infallible and Neceffary: Therefore,

all

all Futures in respect of him fall out Neceffarily, otherwife it is poffible God may be deceived; yea, if many things fall out Contingently, God's Fore-knowlege of them can be but Contingent, depending after a fort on Man's Free-will.

This Argument is plaufible at the first View, but if it be touched it falls to fhatters. It is one thing to know that a thing will Neceffarily be done, and another to know Neceffarily that a thing will be done. God doth Neceffarily and Certainly foreknow all that will be done, but he doth not know that thofe things which fhall be done Voluntarily will be done Neceffarily: he knoweth that they will be done, but he knoweth withal, that they might have fallen out otherwise, for ought he had ordered to the contrary.

So

God Neceffarily knew that Adam would fall, and yet he knew that he would not fall Neceffarily, for it was as poffible for him not to have fallen. It was the ancient, and is ftill the true, Opinion, that God's Prefcience is not the Caufe of Events; he Fore-knoweth all things because they will be done, things are not done because he Fore-knoweth them. The Infallibility of his Knowlege confifteth not in the Immutability of his Decree, but in the Prerogative of his Deity; it is impoffible therefore that any Man by his Voluntary manner of working fhould delude God's Fore-fight; not becaufe God doth Neceffitate his Will to certain Effects, for this were indeed to take it away, but because his Foreknowlege is Infinite.

Let our hearts therefore be never fo full of Mazes and Meanders, Turning and Winding, yet Πάντα εἴδων Δῖς ὀφθαλμός, to ufe the Poets Language, the All-feeing Eye of God cannot but efpy them long before, not because he himself contriv ed them, for then it were no wonder if he were naprofvagns, but becaufe to him, who is every

way

way Infinite, all things cannot be but present and τετραχηλισμένα, which is the fignificant word of the Author to the Hebrews, fignifying open, by a Metaphor or fimilitude drawn from a word that fig. nifies, having the Faces laid upwards; becaufe fuch as lye fo have their Face expofed to the fight of all Men.

INDEX

Of the TEXTS of SCRIP-
TURE Explain'd or Referr'd
to in these TRACTS.

Chap. Verf. Pag. Chap. Verf. Pag. Chap. Verf.

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