A treatise of Mr. Cottons clearing certain doubts concerning predestination together with an examination…A treatise of Mr. Cottons clearing certaine doubts concerning predestination together with an examination…

6 To all sorts of men, yea, to men and Angels, it ministereth ¹much matter of admiring and adoring the wonderful riches of Gods grace to Christ the head of the Church, and in him to all the elect his members, the absolute power of his sovereignty in dealing far otherwise with the world, the unsearchable depth of his wisdom in the order and end of all his ways, the unsearchable depth of his patience, bounty and long-suffering towards all men, and manifest equity of his justice, even to those who abuse his patience and bounty to their own perdition.

6 To all sorts of men, yea, to men and Angels, it ministreth ¹much matter of admiring and adoring the wonderfull riches of Gods grace to Christ the head of the Church, and in him to all the elect his members, the absolute power of his soveraigntie in dealing farre otherwise with the world, the unsearchable depth of his wisdome in the order and end of all his wayes, the unsearchable depth of his patience, bountie and long-suffering towards all men, and manifest equitie of his justice, even to those who abuse his patience and bountie to their owne perdition.

1. 16.

I confess this course of justifying, a tenet, by the usefulness of ¹it, is usually much made of by the Arminians; but I could never brook it in any. This is a fair way to make a rule of faith unto our selves, and under colour of usefulness, to shape the doctrine of the Gospel after our own fancies: yet, I am willing to examine what here you deliver also in every particular. 1. As touching the first Use, I find, you serve your turn with a manifest confusion of the grace of vocation, with the grace of salvation; Thus: God of free grace saves in the one, in justice damns in the other. But the comparison you make is nothing congruous; For, it is so carried by you, as if in this dealing of God, the case were alike with mans dealing; as when a Judge amongst many malefactors, equally guilty of death, saves some, and damns others. These are nothing equal; for the one die in faith and repentance, the other die void of faith, and in the state of impenitency. Therefore to help this incongruity, you will be driven to fly to effectual vocation: And indeed, before God doth effectually call some by such a grace as he denies others, they whom he calls were no better then others. But, let us make way for the truth to appear in her proper colours, by distinguishing those things which ought to be distinguished, lest we be found to be in love with our own errors.