A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

¶. 7.

That a Necessary Determination may arise several ways, some whereof are very consistent with Liberty, yea the more necessary the more free.

That a Necessary Determination may arise several wayes, some whereof are very consistent with Liberty, yea the more necessary the more free.

IT is good to observe, and it may clear many difficulties in this point, That a necessary determination may arise several ways, some whereof are very consistent with liberty, yea the more necessary the more free. Thus God himself doth necessarily will that which is good, and yet freely also: And if you ask, Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good? I answer, It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holiness, whereby he is not, nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity. Arminius indeed maketh it little less than blasphemy to say, God is liberè bonus, but that is, because he cannot part with his Helena, or Delilah (viz.) That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil, and in this sense to say, God doth so freely will good, that he can as freely will evil, would be blasphemy; but to will evil is no part at all of freedom, it is a defect in a mutable creature, as is to be showed. Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection, and is likewise in the Angels confirmed, and Saints glorified; here is no power to sin, yet have they liberty in an eminent degree, though determined to good only: On the contrary, the Devils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil, they cannot but hate God, they are not able to have one good thought, or one good desire to all eternity, yet all this is done freely by them; Now as the determination to good did arise from perfection, from the strong principles of holiness within, so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that power of iniquity and sin they are delivered up unto: In this necessity of sinning are all natural men (till regenerated) absolutely plunged into, and that from the dominion which sin hath over them; Only herein they differ from the Devils and damned men, they are in their termino, in their journeys end, and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thraldom to