A26883:2745
Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who,…Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who,…
Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1675
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.
The third Crimination.
A. III. You make God necessitate mens sin and damnation by your negative decrees, as well as others by their positive: For you hold, That no man can believe and repent, but such as God decreeth to give Faith and Repentance to: And no man can do any more good than God decreeth that he shall do. And some say that God decreeth, Not to give men any more Grace than he giveth them (which is a Decree objectively negative de non dando); And you and others say, That he doth not Decree to give them more. And so as a stone is not culpable for not flying, no more are Sinners, not elected, for not believing and obeying God.*
- *Note what Vasquez. granteth in 1. Tho. q. 23. a. 5. disp. 92. c. 2. Certum est praedestinationem gratiae, & ipsam primam gratiam (quod idem est) non esse in nostra potestate, sicut & praedestinationis & ipsius gratiae nullam causam aut occasionem ex nobis praecedere.
B. You wholly mistake and misreport us. If we differ from you, it is by going further from the matter of the Objection than you do your selves. 1. We hold, that God giveth many men power to do more than they do: And consequently that he decreeth to give it them. Men do not do all that they can do. Indeed we hold, That no man can do any thing, which God doth not give him power to do, and decree to give it him. And dare any of you deny this. There is no power but of God. 2. I hold not, that God hath any Will or Decree in proper sense, Not to give Grace, not to give Faith, not to give Repentance, Help, Means, &c. But only that he doth not decree to give it, where he giveth it not indeed; But as Lombard afore-cited, saith, He neither Willeth, nor Nilleth