It is "that which is right in the eyes of the Lord."(Deut. vi,17,18; Heb. xiii, 21) It is "that good, that acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. xii, 2.) And, if it be not so, how can we be assured that we do please him, and are acceptable in his sight, when we walk according to this rule?

2. This will of God is not always done, but many times the contrary." "When I called ye did not answer; when I spake ye did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did chuse that wherein I delighted not." Isa. lxv, 12; and lxvi, 4; So Jer. xix, 5; and chap. xxxii, 35; "They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind."

Now to come to those passages of the Psalmist when he saith, "The Lord doth whatsoever pleaseth him," it cannot be understood of man's work, whether we mean his siN or his

DUTY.

(1.) Not of his SIN; for that cannot be said "to please God.”— For he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness." (Psalm v, 4.) And therefore most of our adversaries are ashamed, directly to attribute the effecting thereof unto God.

(2.) Nor yet can it be understood of MAN'S DUTY; for that pleaseth God, not as it is opus operatum, (Isa. i, 12; &c.) but as it is a duty; and a duty it cannot be, if it be God's doing, for a DUTY is "a work performed by an inferior, in obedience to the command of his superior, who hath authority over him;" and consequently man's duty cannot be a work of God's only doing. Besides, he that commands a thing would have that thing which he commands, to be done by him to whom he doth command it. But he that does that thing (supposed to be under command) himself, wills not that it be done by another: Otherwise he should at the same time both wILL and NILL it to be done by that other. The Psalmist therefore is to be understood, not of the things which the Lord would have done (in a way of duty) by others; nor yet of such things as he promises to perform himself upon condition of man's obedience,-which through default hereof many times are not accomplished, as Numb. xiv, 30; 1 Sam. ii, 30; but of all things which he intends absolutely to execute and bring to pass himself, as Psalm xxxiii, 9. And so we may observe, that his power in these works is opposed to the impotency of Idols, who are able to do just nothing. See those two Psalms throughout, viz. cxv, 3; & cxxxv, 6; &c.

But here a question may be moved, "Whether the will of God can at any time be defeated?" To which the answer is, that it is most true, in a good sense, that the will of God is always fulfilled. For the understanding whereof, we must distinguish of God's will and the objects of it.

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1. Some things God wills ABSOLUTELY, and they must of NECESSITY come to pass, otherwise that will of God could not be truly said "to be fulfilled." Thus when it is said, "God will give Christ for a covenant of the people; whoremongers and "adulterers God will judge; the faithful he will save:" If Christ were not so given, or whoremongers and adulterers could avoid judgment, or the faithful fail of salvation,—God's will, declared in those promises and threatenings, were utterly broken. Thus also, it being God's absolute will, that man, being a reasonable creature, should be a FREE AGENT, he must be

SO OF NECESSITY.

2. Other things God wills DISJUNCTIVELY; and they come to pass CONTINGENTLY, or not at all; otherwise, if they should come to pass oF NECESSITY, God's will should be crossed in them. For in these things his will is, "that neither the one nor the other particular should be NECESSARY, but either that they should NOT BE at all or be cONTINGENT."

This distinction may be seen in his judgment threatened and propounded to David:(2 Sam. xxiv, 12, 13;)" Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things, chuse which of them I shall do unto thee. Wilt thou that seven years of famine come upon the land, or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, or that there be three days of pestilence in thy land?"-Here God ABSOLUTELY willed to send a judgment, and consequently the coming of it was NECESSARY: but, which of the three, was referred to David's CHOICE, and so that was CONTINGENT. But this distinction is more evident in God's commands, established with promises and threatenings, relating to man's transgression and obedience respectively. So in his commands for temporal safety: "And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey." Jer. xxi, 8, 9. Here God's will is DISJUNCTIVE, and whether they continued in the city, and perished there, or fled out to the Chaldeans and were preserved by them, it was a matter of their own FREE CHOICE and SO CONTINGENT; but whichsoever of these two courses they took and succeeded accordingly, God's will was fulfilled.

So it is likewise in the matter of life and death eternal. "Behold, I set before you this day, a blessing and a curse: A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God: And a curse, if ye will not obey, but turn aside out of the way, which I command you." (Deut. xi, 26, 27, 28.) And, "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom. viii, 13.) So that whether they live by one means, or die by the other,

God's will is necessarily fulfilled; because his will is not, that they shall either necessarily observe his commands, or necessarily transgress them: But if they do transgress, (though that transgression be contingent,) death is the necessary doom awarded to it. And if they do observe them, (though that observation be a matter of choice and so contingent also,) yet is life the necessary reward, and absolutely designed to crown

obedience.

It appears by this discourse, that God cannot fail of accomplishing such an end, and after such a manner as his wisdom thinks fit to propound in his intercourse with voluntary and free agents. For if he cannot prevail with us, (by such means, and such a manner of working as is agreeable to the condition of our intellectual nature,) to suffer ourselves to be saved by him, in performing that service to which his goodness hath ordained us, (which his good pleasure is set upon in the first place,) then his good pleasure is fulfilled by inflicting upon us that punishment, which he threatened; according to that saying of Saint Augustine, Facit Deus Voluntatem suam de eo, á quo voluntas ejus facta non est.*

"God executes his own will concerning [or through] that man by whom his will is not performed."

ΑΝΝΟΤΑΤΑ

QUEDAM IN FUNDAMENTALES

M. THOME PARKERI

THESES

DE TRADUCTIONE HOMINIS PECCATORIS AD VITAM.

SOME ANNOTATIONS

ON THE

FUNDAMENTAL THESES

OF MR. THOMAS PARKER,

CONCERNING THE TRADUCTION OR DRAWING OF MAN, AS A SINNER, TO LIFE.

LECTORI.

SISTE TE parumper, erudite lector, ut noris cujam et qualem pagellam comprimis, hoc scilicet solo nomine redarguendam, quod sit tota gemmea. In historiis, "compendia, dispendia;" at in Theologia, polemica saltem, μεγάλαι βιβλοι, μεγάλα σήματα, atque instar montium, qui, quo sublimiori consurgunt cacumine, magis sterilescunt. Optandum ex Theologorum disceptationibus et colloquiis, (ut puta Mompelgartensi, Hagiensi, aliisque,) succum et sanguinem exprimi, responsionum lacinias abradi, in personas nominaque (quas vere" rabiem & rixas Theologorum" vocavit Melanchthon,) lituras expungi: quibus sarmentis, siquis inter (quos vocat Spiritus Sanctus §) nomen suum professus, operam daret averruncandis, plus certe quam ex alio quovis scripto elenctico proficerent lectores. Dicam quod res est: misere ruspamur in controversâ Theologiâ, et si quando

§ Eccles. xii, 1. Payudes, magistres collectionum sive pandectarum. MERC.
Vide Consilium J. HORNBECK in Sum. Controvers. de Papismo, p.316.

TRANSLATION.

ADDRESS TO THE READER.

STOP a little, learned reader, and learn whose pages these are which thou turnest over, and what is their quality. + The only fault with which they can be charged, is, that they are entirely studded with gems. In historica. works, abridgments are said to be real detriments. But in Divinity, at least in that which is polemic, "great books are great evils," and resem ble mountains, "the more elevated their summits are, the greater is their sterility. It is very desirable, that the juice and blood were extracted out of the disputes and conferences of Divines. (such, for instance, as those of Montbelliard, the Hague, and others, ) that the borders of the answers were cut away, and that the blots upon persons and names were expunged, which Melancthon has truly called, "the madness and squabbles of Livines." If there be any one that has placed his name among those whom the Holy Spirit calls "masters of assemblies,"§ and if he would attempt to remove all those fragments and excrescences, he would perform a service from which a far greater degree of profit would accrue to the readers, than from any other argumentative compositions whatsoever. Shall I state what is really the fact? Unhappily we make deep researches into controversial theology; and, after having been almost famished through our pressing

§ Mercer calls them, "Rhapsodists, masters of the collections, digests or pandects." See the advice of Hornbeck in his Summary of the Controversies respecting Popery, page 316.