Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions…

Next, You object, [This is performed, before the person justified believes.] Answer. I have said enough to you of this already. (of Bapt. pag. 100.) I add this much: you must distinguish between the Physical act of making this Law, Promise, Covenant, Grant or Testament: and the Moral Agency of this Law, Grant or Testament once made. The former was before we Believed: but the later was not (properly and fully) till after. Do not all Philosophers and Divines in the world that meddle with it, tell you that this is usual with moral causes, that they may have all their absolute Entity and vim agendi, long before they produce their effects? and may be Actu primo, etsi non secundo effectum producente, in being long before. The Law that determineth of your right to your Possession, or that doth give a Reward to every man ⟨p. 337⟩that killeth a wild hurtful beast, or that condemneth every man that murdereth or committeth Felony, &c. was in Being before those persons were born perhaps: And yet it did not hoc agere; it did not Praemiare, Punire, Praecipere, &c. as to this man before. A pardon from a Prince to a Traitor, on condition, doth not perform the moral act of his discharge, till he perform the condition, though it were in being before. The like I may say of a Testament or Deed of Gift: But what need many words in a case where the Truth is so obvious? If some moral causes may be causes, and Agere moraliter, or produce their effects, even before they are naturally in Being, much more may they suspend it, and so produce it long after they are in Being: Causae enim moralis ea ratio est, ut etiam cum non est actu, sit efficax, modò habe at (ut loquuntur in scholis) esse cognitums: inquit Rivetus Disput. 13. de satisfact. Christi. pag. 282.

Next, You object, [This is performed, before the person justified believes.] Answer. I have said enough to you of this already. (of Bapt. pag. 100.) I add this much: you must distinguish between the Physical act of making this Law, Promise, Covenant, Grant or Testament: and the Moral Agency of this Law, Grant or Testament once made. The former was before we Believed: but the later was not (properly and fully) till after. Do not all Philosophers and Divines in the world that meddle with it, tell you that this is usual with moral causes, that they may have all their absolute Entity and vim agendi, long before they produe their effects? and may be Actu primo, etsi non secundo effectum producente, in being long before. The Law that determineth of your right to your Possession, or that doth give a Reward to every man