A23636:138
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction › Reflections on Chapt. 5. Of God, His Decrees &c.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sect. 4. Here he chargeth our Doctrine referring to the Divine Decrees, to be the same with that of Ranters; which is an abusive slander and we shall make it appear to be far otherwise; for, supposing them to agree with us in one principle, viz. That God doth all, & hath unchangeably ordered all things good & bad; are we therefore Ranters? We deny not every thing that G. K. says, but that does not make us Quakers. May there not, (nay, is there not) a vast difference between their Interpretation & Improvement of this Article and ours? But had he well studied the Doctrine of Divine Concurse, he would never have said, either, That If God decrees all things, He must needs be the Doer of them, or, that hence he must needs be the Author of Sin, for all our denying any such Consequences. This Doctrine is so fully handled by all that have written Systems of Divinity, or that have waded in Controversies between us and ⟨p. 71⟩the Jesuits & Arminians, that it would be superfluous here to search into it. Let only two or three Conclusions that are to our present purpose be observed, Viz. That, firstly All creatures depend absolutely upon God, as in respect of their Being, so of all their Actions, Act. 17.28. 2ndly. That this dependence is not only for a general sustentation of the Being & powers of the Creature, but for influence into every individual Action, Joh. 19.11. 3dly. That Notwithstanding this Influence upon the creature, in respect of its Action, the Creature hath its Action of its own, subordinate to, and assisted by this Influence, 1. Cor. 3.9. 4thly. That Sin is a moral respect which the Action bears as it is done by the creature, who is under the Law, 1. Joh. 3.4 and therefore it cannot touch God. And his interpretation of that Eph. 1.11. that [all things] intends only all things that He doth, is true; but his Inference, Viz That when we say a man doth all things by Wisdom, none will be so foolish as to infer that he doth all foolish things, is a foolish Similitude: for to argue from a particular Agent to an Universal Efficient, by making them parallel, is Folly. Besides, tho' they are Follies of second Causes, yet there is the wise Conduct, even of these things, by the