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to entitle us to life; therefore no condition left us in his passive obedience.

First. For if God justifieth unto life, through the death of his Son, then his Son has died for all sin, but the former is true, Rom. v. 8, 9, 18.

. Secondly. If there be no remission without blood, then the blood must have been shed for all sin, but the former is true, Heb. ix. 22.

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To all which AUSTIN subscribes, when he' says, "Nothing is done, but what the Almighty wills should be done, either efficiently or permissively;" as does LUTHER, whose words are these; "This therefore must stand, to wit, the unsearchable will of God, without which nothing exists or acts." God would not be such if he was not Almighty, and if any thing conld be done without him. And elsewhere he quotes these words of Erasmus; " Supposing there was an earthly prince who could do whatever he would, and none were able to resist him; we might safely say of such an one, that he would certainly fulfil his own desire; in like manner the will of God, which is the first cause of all things, should seem to lay a kind of necessity upon our wills." The will of God is so the cause of all things, as to be itself without cause, for nothing can be

the

law by his blood, he has left us uncapable of sinning judicially; but the former is true. Col. ii. 14, Blotting out the hand writing of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Rom. iv. 15, For where no law is, there is no transgression.

Now I ask, Where is our conditions now? for here is no law. I think we are about the matter. Rom. iii. 27, Where is boasting then?

It

the cause of that which is the cause of every thing. So that the divine will is the ne plus ultra of all our enquiries, when we ascend to that we can go no farther. Hence we find every matter resolved ultimately into the mere sovereign pleasure of God, as the spring and occasion of whatsoever is done in heaven and earth. Matt. xi. 25, Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Luke xii. 32, It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Matt. viii. 3, I will be thou clean. Mark iii. 13, He went up into a mountain and whom he would. James i. 18, Of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth. John i. 13, Which were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man,

called unto him

of the will

but of God.

Rom,

It is excluded: By what law? of works? Nay. What law is it that requires this condition? What, is it a law of works that is blotted out? -So much for this point.-So we see plainly, that the covenant made with Adam, for matter and form, did amplify the covenant of God in Christ, Rom v. 12, to the end runs all along, as and so, as and so.

Now let us see how the covenant of Adam did confirm it : I say, not that this covenant confirm

ed:

Rom. ix. 15. 18, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion; therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And no wonder that the will of God should be the main spring that sets all inferior wheels in motion, and should likewise be the rule by which he goes in all his dealings with his creatures. Since nothing out of God, i. e. exterior to himself, can possibly induce him to will or nill one thing rather than another, deny this, and you at one stroke destroy his immutability and independency. Since he can never be independent who acts pro re nata, as› others; not unchangeable, whose purposes vary and take all shapes according as the person or things vary, who are the objects of those purposes: the only reason then that can be assigned,

why

ed the covenant with Christ to Adam in his un 'fallen state; for how much of Christ Adam knew, is not well known; but I mean after the promise of life was published to him; for after that he must look out of himself, and see himself in anothér, as he had seen all in himself; for in that promised seed, he might have seen himself compleat, without any more conditions than his terity had need of if he had stood; he might have seen that the obedience of that seed was alone accepted

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why the Deity does this or omits that, is because it is his own free pleasure.

Luther, in answer to that question, "Whence it was that Adam was permitted to fall, and corrupt his whole posterity, when God could have prevented his falling," &c. says, "God is a being, whose will acknowledges no cause, neither is it for us to prescribe rules for his sovereign pleasure, or call him to an account for what he does; he has neither superior nor equal, and his will is the rule of all things; he did not therefore will such and such things because they were in themselves right, and he was bound to will them, but they are therefore equitable and right because he wills them. The will of man indeed, may be influenced and moved, but God's will never can; to assert the contrary is to undeify him."

Bucer

accepted of God, as his had been to all his, if he had stood; he might have seen that that offence of his which God imputed to all his posterity, with all the punisment for sin, and all the punishment of sin; the seed was to make satisfaction for them all, in breaking the serpent's head, that is, to spoil principalities and powers; he might have seen, that being God made covenant with him, with his wife in him, before she was taken out of him, that it was so with this other head, (the seed),

Bucer likewise observes, "God has no other motive for what he does, than ipsa voluntas, his own mere will, which will is so far from being unrighteous, that it is justice in itself."

Since, as was lately observed, the determining will of God being omnipotent, cannot be obstructed or made void, it follows that he never did, nor does he now will that every individual of mankind should be saved: if this was his will, not one single soul could ever be lost; (for who hath resisted his will.) And he would surely afford all men those effectual means of salvation, without which it cannot be had.

Now God could afford these means as easily to all mankind, as to some only; but experience proves that he does not, and the reason is equally plain namely, that he will not; for whatsoever the Lord pleaseth, that doeth he in heaven and

on

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