them? If we fhould allow it to be juftice, to damn a poor infant of a day old to all eternity, merely as defcending from a finful Adam; yet, I pray you, where were the mercy to that poor infant? As to God's doing what he will with his own, I grant he may do fo; he may give irrefiftible grace, and whenfoever he doth fo, no man hath reafon to complain of his fuperlative mercy: yet it must also be granted, that God may also, if he pleases, proceed no further with his creatures, than to give them fufficient grace, to every man a talent to trade with, and to him more talents, who useth that talent which he hath, as he ought. And from him who useth it not, or cafts it away, or refufeth to receive it, or moft unprofitably lays it up in a napkin, God may juftly take away his talent which he hath given, or withold what he had offered, and was refufed.

Eutychus. But the Apoftle hath told us, Rom. xi. 33, That God's judgments are unfearchable, and his ways paft finding out: which is enough to flop the mouths of his creatures, and make them ftand amazed, and adore his counfels, which are paft finding out by the fhallow line of human reafon. Hath not God the fame power to do with his creatures, as the potter hath with his clay, of the fame lump, to chufe one part unto honour, and leave another unto difhonour?

Epenetus. As to what you have faid, concerning God's counfel being fecret and unfathomable, it doth not relate to the electing particular persons abfolutely, or conditionally; but to the depth of God's goodnefs, in patiently bearing with the contumacy both of Jews and Gentiles; to the depth of his wisdom, in making the fall of the Jews, a means of bringing in the Gentiles. For had you not overlooked the words immediately going before (God hath concluded them al! in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all;) you might have feen, that it was the confideration of that rich mercy, which made the Apoftle cry out, Oh, the depth, &c. Quite different to your principles; St. Paul, alledging that God may have mercy upon all. You endeavour to prove, that

God

God may not have mercy upon all. To ftate the whole. matter, I observe firft, What God willed shall come to pass, fhall come to pafs as he hath willed it, and no otherwise than as he hath willed it. 2. What doth come to pass absolutely (as the creation of the world, the mutability of man, the tending of heavy bodies downwards, and the like) he did eternally will should come to pass absolutely; and what doth come to pafs conditionally, he did eternally will fhould conditionally come to pass. But the word of God tells us, and all men confess, that man's eternal reward, or punishment, doth come to pafs upon condition of his obedience, or difobedience. Therefore, 3dly, man's eternal reward or punishment, were eternally decreed or wiled to come to pass, in the very fame. manner in which they do come to pass, namely, on condition of his obedience, or rebellion. Which propofitions must needs be true, becaufe God's decrees are adequate to their events; and the effects of his decrees, are exactly answerable to his decrees, (as face answereth face, when a man looketh into a glass ;) for whatsoever and howfoever he decreed to do before time, that thing, and in that manner, he doth in time.

Eutychus. Since the matter is thus, what muft we think of thofe fcriptures, where it is faid, God hardens men's hearts; that he delivers them up to a reprobate mind; that he fends them frong delufions, that they fhould believe a lie? I am fure this favours of an efficacious impulfe in almighty God on the hearts of men.

Epenetus. By no means; for God never hardens any man's heart as the fun hardens clay, by shining on it, but as the fun hardens wax by not fhining on it, by not foftening it any longer. For all those verbs, to harden, to deliver up, to deceive, to fend delufions, and the like, are to be taken figuratively; permiffive in fignification, though active in found. And in this sense all the Fathers both of the Eastern and Western Churches have underflood them. So far is God from being the author of any man's fin, Apoftle, 1 Cor. x. 13, faith, He is faithful,

that the

and will

not

not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will be fure to make a way, either for conquest, or for escape. We dare not fay then, when we have been great finners, What if God hath fo decreed it? St. James hath told me, that fin is both ingendered and conceived within me: when my luft hath conceived, it bringeth for fin, James i. 15. And if my luft is the mother of it, fure the father is my will. It was David's remark on wicked Ifrael, that they provoked God to anger, (not with his will, but) with their own inventions, Pfal. xvi. 29. There are contrivers of mischief, Pfal. Iviii. 3. Devifers of lies, fuch as weary themfelves to commit iniquity, Jer. ix. 5. And fhall we presume to impute all these to an abfolute decree? God forbid! Oh Lord! righteoufnefs belongeth to thee, but unto us confufion of face. For thou haft made man upright; but we have found out many inventions, Dan. ix. 7. Ecclef. vii. 29. We are thy creatures Oh Lord! but fin is of our own creating. Thou fawest every thing that thou haft made, and behold it was very good. We see the things that are made by the fiat of our will, and behold they are very evil; for the wages of fin is death. Which plainly shews, that God did not ordain punishment, but in respect to fin. Because if God had made a hell by an abfolute purpose, merely because he would that fome should fuffer it, damnation had been a misery, but not a punishment: which would reprefent God to be just like one I have read of, who made it his recreation, to cut up animals alive. For what potter makes a veffel on purpose that he may break it? Sure not a madman can be thought to act thus. God hath faid, Rom. xii. 19. Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. But how could this be, if God caft men into hell, without regard to any fin committed by them? This would be an act of power, indeed, but not of vengeance: hell would be a torment, but not a recompenfe. From whence we may learn, the finner is the efficient caufe of his eternal punishment; though not of hell, the place of his punishment; neither of the devils, or the fire, the inftruments of his punishment; for they are substances

of

of God's creating, and in their nature very good: hell being made by God to keep men from it, as well as to punish those that would needs go to it. To fay that God is a flayer of men from all eternity, who is the Lamb flain (that is, a Saviour) from the foundation of the world, Rev. xiii. 8, is to affirm that of him, which he affirmed of the devil, who is called by our Saviour, a murderer from the beginning, John viii. 44. Which the devil could not be, if God had abfolutely willed the death of any, without refpect to the fnares of the devil; it being impoffible to murder the dead, or to flay those that were killed long before they were born.

BE

CONFERENCE. VI.

Eutychus.

E pleased to walk in. I am extremely affected with your laft discourse, and it is an inexpreffible joy to me, to hear God fo fully cleared from having the leaft hand in the mifery of his creatures; and that he has no hand in the effecting any evil, or even in the permiffion of it, fo far as permiffion denotes connivance. All this is a mighty encouragement to me, to go on with my objections, in hopes to find the fame fatisfaction. Again, if fin were the caufe that moved God to reprobate mankind, he would have reprobated or rejected all, because all men are looked upon as finners. But fince he did not reprobate all, therefore for fin he reprobated none, but for his own pleafure; in which we must rest, without feeking any other cause.

Epenetus. Then it must follow, that God did bring men into a neceffity of finning, and left them under this neceffity; and fo, confequently, must be the author of the Reprobate's fins. For, by this doctrine, God must be the chief cause of that, which is the immediate caufe of the fins of Reprobates, namely, their want of fupernatural grace; therefore he is by the fame doctrine, the true and proper caufe of their fins. Because that which withdraweth or witholdeth a thing,

which being prefent would hinder an event, is the caufe of that event. As for example: he that cutteth a string in which a ftone hangs, is the cause of the falling of that ftone; and he that withdraweth a pillar, which would uphold a house, is the true caufe, of the falling of that houfe: now if God witholdeth from Reprobates that power, which would keep them from falling into fin; by confequence he becometh a true moral caufe of their fins.

Eutychus. Here you are under a mistake. God's withholding grace from the Reprobates, may indeed be faid to be an accidental, but not a proper and direct cause of their fins.

Epenetus. If I am under a mistake, you are befide the purpose: for a caufe is then only accidental in relation to the effect, when the effect was befide the intention and expectation of the caufe. For example: digging in a field, is then an accidental cause of finding a bag of gold, when the event is neither expected, nor intended by the husbandman, in digging: but when the effect is looked for, and aimed at, then the cause is not accidental. For inftance: a pilot withholding his care from a fhip in a florm, when he fees, by his neglect, the fhip will be loft; is not to be reputed an accidental, but a proper and true caufe of the loss of the ship. From whence I argue, that God, by his act and decree of denying grace neceffary to the avoiding fin, from the Reprobates, knowing infallibly what mifchief will follow, and determining percisely that which doth follow, namely, their impenitency and damnation, becometh the proper and direct cause of their fins. This is the confequence of your doctrine, a dofirine moft cruel and deftructive to the fouls of men, and repugnant to the fcriptures in every page of them. How oft would I have gathered you? Saith Chrift to Jerufalem, Mat. xxiii. 37.. Thefe things I fay, that ye might be faved: but ye will not come to me, that ye might have life, John v. 34. 40, intimating, that it was his full intent, by his preaching, to gather and to fave those very men, that in the end were not gathered nor