I shall now instance only in the Dominicans predetermination. They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act natural and free, that God be the principal immediate Physical efficient predetermining cause of it, do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings (as well as other sins) that ever were spoken or written in the world: not only as they are acts in genere, but as these words in particular; as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias and Sapphira to say those very words which they said, rather than others: Now seeing it is apparent 1. That God hath not a voice but speaketh to us by a Created Voice, even by Prophets and Apostles, and that the Scripture was written by men. 2. And that Gods Veracity, which is the formal object of our Faith, consisteth in his not using lying instruments, nor sending a lying messenger to us; (it is Veracitas revelantis per alium.) 3. And that no way of Inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an Apostle, than his Immediate Physical efficient specifying predetermination doth (for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause, Physically to premove the agent to this Thought, Will, Word, or Deed, considered with all its circumstances,) It followeth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an Apostle or Prophet to speak true, ⟨p. 141⟩and when to speak falsely; and that no words or writings are o certain truth, upon any account of Gods inspiration or premotion, because God not only can, but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world: Therefore no Faith in Gods Revelations hath any sure foundation, nor any formal object at all: And so all Religion is dashed out at a stroke. To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word, nor the word as false, but the word which is false, might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the Universal Cause of the Word o• Act in genere as a Word or Act; and that the specification is only from the sinner. But in them that say he is the particular Cause of this word comparatively rather than another, it is but a contradiction: 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity, which is a mere Relation, but that which causeth the Rule and the Word or Writing which is false, and so layeth the foundation. 2.
I shall now instance only in the Dominicans predetermination. They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act natural and free, that God be the principal immediate Physical efficient predetermining cause of it, do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings (as well as other sins) that ever were spoken or written in the world: not only as they are acts in genere, but as these words in particular; as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias and Saphira to say those very words which they said, rather than others: Now seeing it is apparent 1. That God hath not a voice but speaketh to us by a Created Voice, even by Prophets and Apostles, and that the Scripture was written by men. 2. And that Gods Veracity, which is the formal object of our Faith, consisteth in his not using lying instruments, nor sending a lying messenger to us; (it is Veracitas revelantis per alium.) 3. And that no way of Inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an Apostle, than his Immediate Physical efficient specifying predetermination doth (for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause, Physically to premove the agent to this Thought, Will, Word, or Deed, considered with all its circumstances,) It followeth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an Apostle or Prophet to speak true, ⟨p. 141⟩and when to speak falsly; and that no words or writings are o certain truth, upon any account of Gods inspiration or premotion, because God not only can, but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world: Therefore no Faith in Gods Revelations hath any sure foundation, nor any formal object at all: And so all Religion is dasht out at a stroke. To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word, nor the word as false, but the word which is false, might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the Universal Cause of the Word o• Act in genere as a Word or Act; and that the specification is only from the sinner. But in them that say he is the particular Cause of this word comparatively rather than another, it is but a contradiction: 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity, which is a meer Relation, but that which causeth the Rule and the Word or Writing which is false, and so layeth the foundation. 2.
