An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

§. 11. But God's Promise first, and Christ's Merits and Sacrifice next make a Change in the state of things, laying that Ground-work or necessary Antecedent and Condition, upon which it becometh meet, right and just for God to give the rest of his mercy which this is the Condition of, and the true meritorious Cause: And so the Change was neither on GOD, nor immediately on Man, but for Man on the state of things which God and man were both concerned in: It is a causa ordinis, while that is done first, which is prerequisite to what is to follow: And it is a causa rei (benefici• ) while it not only removeth moral Impediments of our Pardon and Salvation, but also setteth matters in ⟨p. 92⟩such a state, in which it becometh congruous, meet, right and just for God to pardon and save us; which is a remote disposing the fallen sinner to be a due Recipient of God's following promised Grace. And thus it is in both senses a moral Cause, as it is a Cause of our Right, and of Congruity, and as it is, though not indeed, yet morally, reputatively, or Quasi causa physica realis, of our Pardon, Grace and Salvation, by making them become just, right and due. And being thus far a Cause of the effects ad extra, per extrinsecam denominationem ex connotatione & relatione ad objectum, it may be called (with cautelous sobriety) a Cause of God's own Intellections and Volitions: For though in themselves they are God's Essence, yet for God [to know us to be redeemed and to will our present Pardon and Salvation as Redeemed ones,] are words that speak more than God's Essence as in it self, and include the termination of his Acts on these Objects as such; and so denominate God's Essence distinctly from the Objects, which else would never be distinguished, nor have but one name; being really but one.

§. 11. But God's Promise first, and Christ's Merits and Sacrifice next make a Change in the state of things, laying that Ground-work or necessary Antecedent and Condition, upon which it becometh meet, right and just for God to give the rest of his mercy which this is the Condition of, and the true meritorious Cause: And so the Change was neither on GOD, nor immediately on Man, but for Man on the state of things which God and man were both concerned in: It is a causa ordinis, while that is done first, which is prerequisite to what is to follow: And it is a causa rei (benefici• ) while it not only removeth moral Impediments of our Pardon and Salvation, but also setteth matters in