A55752:1302
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.
Secondly, I answer that these similitudes hold not, because it is very difficult to exhort and command a man to do a thing when there is an extreme impediment, as it is with a man in a Well and in Prison. But that is not the case here, for if a man hath but the will to come to Christ, there is no external impediment, and therefore if we exhort and command men to come to Christ, and they come not, we cannot only say that they cannot come, but rather that they will not come; here then is reason enough for our exhortations in this kind.
Secondly, I answer that these similitudes hold not, because it is very difficult to exhort and command a man to do a thing when there is an extream impediment, as it is with a man in a Well and in Prison. But that is not the case here, for if a man hath but the will to come to Christ, there is no external impediment, and therefore if we exhort and command men to come to Christ, and they come not, we cannot onely say that they cannot come, but rather that they will not come; here then is reason enough for our exhortations in this kind.
It may be objected that men cannot will to come, there is an impossibility, though no external impediment, because 1they cannot will.
- 1Object. 5.
To this I answer first, that it is false that men cannot will, in two cases indeed it is true, either when the thing 1is not revealed to a man, in such a case it may be truly said that a man cannot will, because the thing is not made known to him, and therefore those that never heard of Christ can not will Christ, and therefore they shall not be condemned for not receiving of Christ.