from whence fo many Abfurdities and Contradictions to our Senfes and Reafon are inferred.

§ XXXIV. Secondly, If you look diligently into these Schemes, you will find a great part of the Difpute arifes on this Queftion, What is firft or fecond in the Mind of God? whether he first foresees and then determines, or first determines, and by virtue of that forefees? This Question feems the more ftrange, because both Parties are agreed, that there is neither first nor last in the Divine Understanding, but all is one fingle Act in him, and continues the fame from all Eternity. What then can be the meaning of the Difpute? Sure it can be no more than this, whether it be more honourable for God, that we should conceive him as acting this way or that, fince it is confeffed that neither reaches what really passes in his Mind. So that the Question is not concerning the Operations of God as they are in themselves, but concerning our way of conceiving them, whether it be more for his Honour to reprefent them according to the firft or fecond Scheme: And certainly the right Method is to use both on occafion, fo far as they may help us to conceive honourably of the divine Majefty; and to deal ingenuously with the World, and tell them, that where thefe Schemes have not that effect, or where through our ftretching them too far, they induce us to entertain dishonourable Thoughts of him, or encourage Difobedience, they are not applicable to him. In short, that God is as abfolute as the first represents him, and Man as free as the last would have him to be; and that thefe different and feemingly contradictory Schemes are brought in to fupply the Defects of one another.

§ XXXV. And therefore, Thirdly, The Managers of this Controverfy ought to have looked on thefe different Schemes as chiefly defign'd to inculcate fome Duties to us; and to have prefs'd them no farther than as they tended to move and oblige us to perform thofe Duties. But they, on the contrary, have ftretch'd these Representations beyond the Scripture's defign, and fet them up in oppofition to one another; and have endeavoured to perfuade the World that they are inconfiftent: infomuch that fome, to

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establish Contingency and Free-Will, have deny'd God's Prescience; and others, to fet up Predeftination, have brought in a fatal neceffity of all Events.

And not content therewith, they have accufed one another of Impiety and Blafphemy, and mutually charg'd each the other's Opinion with all the abfurd Confequences they fancy'd were deducible from it. Thus the Maintainers of Free-Will charge the Predeftinarians as guilty of afcribing Injustice, Tyranny, and Cruelty to God, as making him the Author of all the Sin and Mifery that is in the World: And on the other hand, the Afferters of Predestination have accus'd the others, as deftroying the Independency and Dominion of God, and fubjecting him to the Will and Humours of his Creatures. And if either of the Schemes were to be taken literally and properly, the Maintainers of them would find difficulty enough to rid themfelves of the Confequences charg'd on them: But if we take them only as analogical Representations, as I have explained them, there will be no ground or reason for thefe Inferences.

$ XXXVI. And it were to be wifh'd, that those who make them would confider, that if they would prosecute the fame Method in treating the other Reprefentations that the Scriptures give us of God's Attributes and Operations, no less Abfurdities would follow: As for example, when God is faid to be merciful, loving, and pitiful, all-feeing, jealous, patient, or angry; if these were taken literally, and understood the fame way as we find them in us, what abfurd and intolerable Confequences would follow; and how dishonourably muft they be supposed to think of God, who afcribe fuch Paffions to him? Yet no body is fhock'd at them, because they understand them in an analogical Senfe, And if they would but allow Predeftination, Election, Decrees, Purposes, and Fore-knowledge, to belong to God, with the fame difference, they would no more think themfelves obliged to charge thofe that afcribe them to him, with Blafphemy in the one Cafe, than in the other.

"Tis therefore incumbent on us to forbear all fuch Deductions, and we fhould endeavour to reconcile these feveral Representations together, by teaching the People,

that God's Knowledge is of another Nature than ours; and that tho' we cannot, in our way of thinking, certainly foresee what is free and contingent, yet God may do it by that Power which anfwers to Prefcience in him, or rather in truth, fupplies the place of it. Nor is it any wonder that we cannot conceive how this is done, fince we have no direct or proper Notion of God's Knowledge; nor can we ever in this Life expect to comprehend it, any more than a Man who never faw can expect to difcern the Shape and Figure of Bodies at a diftance, whilft he continues blind.

XXXVII. The fifth use we are to make of what has been faid, is to teach us how we are to behave ourselves in a Church, where either of thefe Schemes is fettled and taught as a Doctrine: and here I think the Refolution is eafy. We ought to be quiet, and not unfeasonably dif turb the Peace of the Church; much lefs fhould we endeavour to expose what she profeffes, by alledging Abfurdities and Inconfiftencies in it. On the contrary, we are obliged to take pains to fhew that the pretended Confequences do not follow, as in truth they do not, and to difcourage all that make them, as Enemies of Peace, and falfe Accufers of their Brethren, by charging them_with Confequences they difown, and that have no other Foundation but the Maker's Ignorance.

For in truth, as has been already fhewed, if fuch Inferences be allowed, hardly any one Attribute or Operation of God, as described in Scripture, will be free from the Cavils of perverfe Men.

'Tis obfervable, that by the fame way of reasoning, and by the fame fort of Arguments, by which fome endeavour to deftroy the divine Prescience, and render his Deerees odious, Cotta long ago in Cicero attacked the other Attributes, and undertook to prove that God can neither have Reafon nor Understanding, Wisdom nor Prudence, nor any other Virtue. And if we understand these literally and properly, fo as to fignify the fame when apply'd to Godand to men, it will not be eafy to answer his Arguments: but if we conceive them to be afcribed to him by Proportion and Analogy, that is, if we mean no more when we

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apply them to God, than that he has fome Powers and Faculties, though not of the fame nature, which are analogous to these, and which yield him all the Advantages which these could give him if he had them, enabling him to produce all the good Effects which we fee confequent to them, when in the greatest Perfection; then the Arguments used by * Cotta against them have no manner of force: fince we do not plead for fuch an Understanding, Reason, Justice, and Virtue, as he objects against, but for more valuable Perfections that are more than equivalent, and in truth infinitely fuperior to them, though called by the fame Names; because we do not know what they are in themselves, but only fee their Effects in the World, which are fuch as might be expected from the most confummate Reason, Understanding, and Virtue.

And after the fame manner, when perverfe Men reason against the Prescience, Predeftination, and the Decrees of God, by drawing the like abfurd Confequences, as Cotta doth against the poffibility of his being endowed with Reafon and Understanding, &c. our Anfwer is the fame as before mention'd. If these be fuppofed the very fame in all refpects when attributed to God, as we find them in ourselves, there would be fome colour from the Abfurdities that would follow, to deny that they belong to God; but when we only afcribe them to him by analogy, and mean no more than that there are fome things anfwerable to them, from whence, as Principles, the divine Operations proceed; it is plain, that all fuch Arguments not only lose their force, but are abfolutely impertinent.

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Qualem autem Deum intelligere nos poffumus nulla virtute præditum? Quid enim ? prudentiamne Deo tribuemus? Quæ conftat ex fcientia rerum bonarum & malarum, &, nec bonarum nec malarum? Cui mali nihil eft, nec effe poteft, quid huic opus eft delectu bonorum & malorum? Quid autem ratione ? quid intelligentia ? quibus utimur ad eam rem ut apertis obfcura affequamur. At obfcurum Deo nihil poteft effe. Nam Juftitia quæ fuum cuique diftribuit, quid pertinet ad Deos? hominum enim focietas, & communitas, ut vos dicitis, Juftitiam procreavit : temperantia autem conftat ex prætermittendis voluptatibas corporis : cui fi locus in cœlo eft, eft etiam voluptatibus. Nam fortis Deus intelligi qui poteft? in dolore, an in labore, an in periculo? quorum Deum nihil attingit. Nec ratione igitur utentem, nec virtute ulla præditum Deum intelligere qui poffumus? Cic. de Nat. Deor. L. III. Sect. 15.

It is therefore fufficient for the Minifters of the Church to fhew that the established Doctrine is agreeable to Scripture, and teach their People what use ought to be made of it, and to caution them against the Abuse; which if they do with Prudence, they will avoid Contentions and Divifions, and prevent the Mischiefs which are apt to follow the mistaken Representations of it.

§ XXXVIII. This is the Method taken by our Church in her XVIIth Article, where we are taught, that Predef tination to Life is the everlasting Purpose of God, whereby before the Foundations of the World were laid, he bath conftantly decreed by his Counsel, fecret to us, to deliver from Curfe and Damnation those whom he hath chofen in Christ out of Mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation. And that the godly Confideration of Predeftination, and our Election in Chrift, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unSpeakable Comfort to godly Perfons, as well because it doth greatly establish their Faith of eternal Salvation, to be enjoyed through Chrift, as because it doth fervently kindle their Love toward God. And yet we must receive God's Promifes, as they be generally fet forth to us in holy Scripture. Here you fee the two Schemes join'd together: And we are allowed all the Comfort that the Confideration of our being predeftinated can afford us and at the fame time we are given to understand that the Promises of God are generally conditional; and that notwithstanding our belief of Predeftination, we can have no hope of obtaining the benefit of them, but by fulfilling the Conditions. And I hope I have explained them in fuch a way, as fhews them to be confiftent in themfelves, and of great ufe towards making us holy here, and happy hereafter.

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