A55752:1294
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...
London: printed by J.T., 1658
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But here may objections arise, for when you hear that it 1is a thing pleasing to God that all men should believe, here it may be objected. How can these two stand together, that God desires that men should believe and live, and he it is that must give them ability to believe, and yet doth not, he hath it in his power to make them to believe, and yet will not, notwithstanding he expresseth in the forenamed places of scripture such an earnest desire to have men live and not die.
- 1Object.
To this I answer, that the scope of all places in scripture 1is, to show that if men will come in, there shall be no impedient upon Gods part, and they show that he is full of mercy and compassion, the fault shall be in their own stubbornness and contempt, and these declare that it is more acceptable to God to save them, then to condemn them, and that he is full of mercy and ready to forgive, that he hath such a disposition as was in the father of the Prodigal. This I say is the main scope of those and such like places of Scripture. But there is a double consideration of the will of God, it is either simply considered, and so to believe and repent and obey, all these are pleasing to ⟨p. 422⟩him, for it cannot be but when any object is put into the will of any, if it be suitable and agreeable to the will, it must needs •well-pleasing to it, and therefore God being Holy and pure must needs be delighted in the faith and repentance and obedience of his creature, but then there is a secret will of God, by which he dispenseth to man an ability to believe, and this he giveth to some and not to others, for reasons best known to himself, and in this consideration all those places of Scripture are to be taken and considered, that he will have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth, and that it is not in him that runneth, but in God that showeth mercy; so that according to the first consideration we must understand that it is acceptable to God to have men to believe.