creed them to be, and actually renders them, incapable of fuccefs; infpire them with hopes, which he has made impoffible to be realized ; and place before their view profpe&s of happiness, which he has put it totally out of their power to attain? "Is not this," demands a late dignitary of our Church, "to reprefent "the good God in a very injurious light, as if "he was not only partial, but exceedingly "cruel? We are always taught, that it is our duty, our intereft, and our happiness, to be “like God, and to imitate his divine perfec"tions as near as we can. But furely fuch "conduct as this, no good man, no honeft man, would choose to imitate, but would "deteft and abhor. How then dare we af"cribe that conduct to Him, which is fo unworthy of ourselves, and would be fuch a difgrace to us?” 66 66 3. Again; he is a God of holiness: an attribute, which one of our old divines reprefents, "as his fovereign attribute; as that, "which of all others God doth, and which of "all others we fhould, moft efteem." In correfpondence with this attribute, it is the cau tion of the wife Son of Sirach, Say not thou, "it is through the Lord that I fell 66 away; for < Dean Tucker's Sermon on Rom. ix. 21. p. 653. "thou oughteft not to do the things that he "hateth: fay not thou, he hath caufed me to "err; for he hath no need of the finful man." And to the fame effect St. James, with divine authority, admonishes us, "Let no man fay "when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; "for God tempteth not any man f." But what is it to represent him, with Calvin, as fitting and preparing men by "crimes for deftruc"tion ;" what is it to reprefent him, with Gomar, as "not only predeftinating man to "death, but so alfo predeftinating him to fin, "the only way to death ";" or to defcribe him with Pifcator, as "having fo abfolutely "and efficaciously determined the will of every man, that he cannot do more good 66 Ecclus. xv. 11, 12. f Jam. i. 13. h . Quia perditum Deus volebat, obftinatio cordis divina fuit ad ruinam præparatio. Calv. Inft. II. iv. 3. Dubium non eft, quin utraque præparatio ab arcano Dei confilio pendeat. Comm. in Rom. ix. 23. "Gomarus, who faw that his iron was in the fire, be gan to tell us, that Epifcopius had falfified the tenent of reprobation; that no man taught that God abfolutely "decreed to caft man away without fin: but as he did "decree the end, fo he did decree the means: that is, as "he predeftinated man to death, so he predeftinated him "to fm, the only way to death: and fo he mended the "queftion, as tinker's mend kettles, and made it worse " than it was before." Hales's Letters from Dort. G. R. p. 435. "than he really does, nor omit more evil than "he really omits;" or to allow with Zanchius, that "the reprobate are bound by the “ordinance of God under the neceffity of fin ning;" or to affirm with Beza, that “God "hath predeftinated, not only unto damna❝tion, but also unto the causes of it, whomfo"ever he faw meet1;" or to affert with Zuinglius, that "God moveth the robber to kill, i Ergo tu fateris iftic ingenue, Deum ab æterno efficaciter abfoluteque decreviffe, ne quifpiam hominum plus boni faciat, quam reipfa facit, aut plus mali omittat, quam reipfa omittit. Pifcat. ad C. Vorfiii amicam Dupl. resp. p. 175. ed. 1618. * Quia reprobatio immutabilis eft, &c. damus reprobos neceffitate peccandi, eoque et pereundi, ex hac Dei ordinatione conftringi: atque ita conftringi, ut nequeant non peccare et perire.-Non dubitamus itaque confiteri, ex immutabili reprobatione neceffitatem peccandi, et quidem fine refipifcentia ad mortem ufque peccandi, eoque et æternas pœnas dandi, reprobis incumbere. Zanchius de Nat. Dei, lib. v. cap. 2. de Prædeft. Op. tom. ii. p. 571. 1 Refpondeo,-ordine caufarum, priufquanı illum conderet, de fine, cujus caufa illum erat conditurus, ac demum de caufis ipfis mediis, per quas ipfos erat ad conftitutum finem adducturus, conftanter et immoto propofito ftatuiffe. Ex quo confequitur recte et vere dici, omnes reprobos factos effe in Adamo fimul eodemque momento, ficut Deus ab æterno conftituerat, non tantum vafa, id eft homines, fed etiam vafa iræ, id eft homines juftæ per medias caufas in ipfis reprobis hærentes damnationi, per media quidem contingenter fequuturæ, ex decreto Dei autem prorfus neceffario eventuræ, deftinatos. Beza de Prædeft. Op. vol. iii. p. 431. Col. i. ed. 1582. " and that he killeth, God forcing him there"tom;" what is it to affirm with Knox, the Scotch reformer, that "the wicked are not only left by God's fuffering, but are com 66 66 pelled to fin by his power";" or to contend with the English Perkins, whofe doctrines firft called forth the ftrictures of Arminius, that "God hath moft juftly decreed even the "wicked works of the wicked":"-what is it to represent him, with other predeftinarians, as not barely permitting fin, but "providentially "putting perfons into fuch circumstances of "temptation, as fhall cause the perfons fo 66 tempted actually to turn afide from the path "of duty, and to commit fin P;" as "working "all things in all men, even wickedness in the "wicked;" and to affirm that "all things are "done by the irrefiftible decree of God, yea, Porro injuftitiam in fefe nobis oftendere numen cum nulla ratione poffet, ut quod undique verum, fanctum, bonum natura fit, per creaturam injuftitiæ exemplum produxit, non quafi creatura illam fuo marte produxerit, quæ nec eft, nec vivit, nec operatur fine numine, fed quod numen ipfum author eft ejus, quod nobis eft injuftitia, illi vero nullatenus eft. Zuinglius de Provid. Dei, c. v. tom. i. p. 364. Tigur. 1581. Movet ergo latronem ad occidendum, innocentem etiam ac imparatum ad mortem. Ibid. c. vi. p. 366. Deo impulfore occidit. Ibid. Heylyn's Quinq. Hift. part ii. c. xvi. • Ibid. part iii. c. xx. part i. c. v. Toplady on Predeftination, p, 60. "whatever bad actions, they alfo are neceffa❝rily done;"—but to make God the author of fin?"Truth it is," faith one of our excellent Reformers, "that God tempteth. Al"mighty God tempteth to our advantage, to "do us good withal: the devil tempteth to "our everlasting deftruction." For, as another of them contended, "God is not the "caufe of fin, nor would not have man to "fin"." If, however, these be not admitted as the avowed tenets of Calvinifts in general, (although it must not be forgotten, that in the opinion, not only of the oppofers of the fyftem, but of Calvin himself, and of many of his most illuftrious followers, they neceffarily make a part of it,) how is this attribute of holinefs at harmony with the affertion of Austin, that "God fuffers evil, and fuffers it not un"willingly, but willingly ;" and that "he 9 Quæcunque in mundo fiunt (tam mala quam bona) ea ex abfoluto decreto et fpeciali præfinitione Dei fiunt. Pifcat. ut fup. p. 191. Et bona opera et mala ex decreto Dei fiunt neceffario. Ibid. p. 212. Omnia fiunt ex decreto Dei irrefiftibili, (etiam peccata quæcunque fiunt,) eoque neceffario fiunt. Ibid. p. 168. Latimer's Sermons, vol. i. p. 458. • Bishop Hooper. Preface to the Declaration of the Ten Commandments. ! Auguft. Enchir. cap. xxix. |