It is sad to observe abundance of seemingly learned men, who are posed in the smallest creature which they study, yet talking as confidently of the unsearchable things of God; yea and raving as furiously and voluminously against all that contradict them, as if they had dwelt in the inaccessible light, and knew all the order of the acts of God, much better than they know themselves, and the motions of their own minds; or better than they can anatomize a worm or a beast. They that will not presume to say, that they know the secrets of their Prince, or the heart of any of their neighbours; yea they that perceive the difficulty of knowing the state of a mans own soul, because our hearts are a maze and labyrinth, and o•r thoughts so various and confused, can yet give you so exact a Scheme of all Gods conceptions, that it shall be no less than heresy to question the order of any part of it. They can tell you what Idea's are in the mind of God, and in what order they lye; and how those Idea's are the same unchanged about things that are changed; about things past, and present, and to come; and what futurition was from Eternity, as in the Idea of Gods mind; they can tell me in what order he knoweth things, and by what means; and whether future contingents are known to him in their causes, or in his decree, or in their coexistence in eternity: They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives; as that such a man shall not have Faith given him; that millions of things possible shall not be, that you shall not be a plant, or a beast, nor any other man, nor called by any other name, &c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One, and yet not only unconceivably numerous, but the order of them as to priority and posteriority, is to be exactly defined and defended, though to the detriment of charity and peace: As to sin, they can ⟨p. 173⟩tell you, whether he have a real positive Decree, de re eveniente, or only de eventu rei, or only de propriâ permissione eventus, i. e. de non impediendo, i. e. de non agendo; whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent; Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind, either whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; yet know they all the methods of the Spirit:
It is sad to observe abundance of seemingly learned men, who are posed in the smallest creature which they study, yet talking as confidently of the unsearchable things of God; yea and raving as furiously and voluminously against all that contradict them, as if they had dwelt in the inaccessible light, and knew all the order of the acts of God, much better than they know themselves, and the motions of their own minds; or better than they can anatomize a worm or a beast. They that will not presume to say, that they know the secrets of their Prince, or the heart of any of their neighbours; yea they that perceive the difficulty of knowing the state of a mans own soul, because our hearts are a maze and labyrinth, and o•r thoughts so various and confused, can yet give you so exact a Scheme of all Gods conceptions, that it shall be no less than heresie to question the order of any part of it. They can tell you what Idea's are in the mind of God, and in what order they lye; and how those Idea's are the same unchanged about things that are changed; about things past, and present, and to come; and what futurition was from Eternity, as in the Idea of Gods mind; they can tell me in what order he knoweth things, and by what means; and whether future contingents are known to him in their causes, or in his decree, or in their coexistence in eternity: They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives; as that such a man shall not have Faith given him; that millions of things possible shall not be, that you shall not be a plant, or a beast, nor any other man, nor called by any other name, &c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One, and yet not only unconceivably numerous, but the order of them as to priority and posteriority, is to be exactly defined and defended, though to the detriment of charity and peace: As to sin, they can ⟨p. 173⟩tell you, whether he have a real positive Decree, de re eveniente, or only de eventu rei, or only de propriâ permissione eventus, i. e. de non impediendo, i. e. de non agendo; whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent; Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind, either whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; yet know they all the methods of the Spirit:
