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…

was this horrible sin any less then a consequent to more then ordinary obduration• for even heathen men are seldom exposed to such unnatural courses. So that if this obduration were an effect of Gods hatred, but not immediate; supposing sin according to the manner of your Discourse; then you must be put to devise some other sin as precedent to this obduration. And whereas that sin also cannot be denied to be a consequent to Gods denial of effectual grace to abstain from sin, we shall never come to an end, till the cause of all these obdurations be at length resolved into original sin; And what share I pray you hath the world of mankind therein, which Gods elect have not? When you tell us the hardening is a punishment of sin, it were very fit you should deal plainly, & tell us in what operation of God this work of hardening doth consist, ⟨p. 191⟩which I make no doubt, would clear all. All confess that God is not the cause of hardness of heart in any man, but man being borne in hardness of heart, Ezek. 36. 3. 1. God is said to harden, not infundendo malitiam, sed non infundendo gratiam: By leaving him thereunto, whereby it comes to pass that naturally it is increased, especially in case a man be moved to courses contrary to his corrupt humours, whether by Gods word, or by his works, and God doth not by grace correct those corrupt humours, which are so contrariant to good motions; good motions, I mean such as have their course only in the way of instruction and persuasion; In this case thus to move and to deny grace is to harden. But when God doth forbear thus to move, and gives men over to follow the swing of their own lusts, this I confess is to harden in greater measure, and properly a punishment. But this was not the manner of Pharaohs hardening. For long after the ninth Chapter of Exodus we read how God continued to admonish Pharaoh by his servant Moses to let his people go; neither ceased he this Discipline till the ten plagues or nine of them at the least were fulfilled. And like as to show mercy is not to move only to obedience, but effectually to work men to obedience, so the hardening of man in opposition thereunto, consists not in not moving unto obedience, but rather in not working unto obedience, although they be moved thereunto both in the way of instruction and exhortation.

was this horrible sin any lesse then a consequent to more then ordinary obduration for even heathen men are seldom exposed to such unnatural courses. So that if this obduration were an effect of Gods hatred, but not immediate; supposing sin according to the manner of your Discourse; then you must be put to devise some other sin as precedent to this obduration. And whereas that sin also cannot be denyed to be a consequent to Gods denyall of effectuall grace to abstaine from sin, we shall never come to an end, till the cause of all these obdurations be at length resolved into originall sin; And what share I pray you hath the world of mankind therein, which Gods elect have not? When you tel us the hardening is a punishment of sin, it were very fit you should deal plainly, & tel us in what operation of God this work of hardening doth consist,