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…

Lastly, consider, as there is a grace of raising from out of sin, so there is a grace of preserving from sin. This grace God granted to the elect Angels, he denied to the rest, merely out of his own free pleasure, according to the Sovereignty he hath over his creatures, and not with any reference unto sin preceding. For how was that possible? namely, that there could be any sin found in Angels before their first sin? yet were the one, (to wit) the elect Angels amplius adjuti, more succoured then the other, as Austin exprestely profesteth, lib. 12. De Civ. Dei. cap. 9. Indeed I find Ephes. 2. 3. That we are born children of wrath, in respect of sin, but that sin makes a man a vessel of wrath, or that he is not a vessel of wrath till sin comes, the Apostle saith not; nay, the Apostle intimates the contrary, when he represents the power of God over his creatures, by the power of the Potter over the Clay, in making therehence one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour. It is true, since the fall of Adam; man in his generation hath no being without sin; (for we are even conceived in sin) yet it is not that sin, that makes a man a vessel of wrath, for if it did, then all should be made by God vessels of wrath. But albeit the Apostle signifies that we are all born children of wrath, which is verified in respect of the desert, even of sin original, yet neither Apostle nor Prophet doth any where give us to understand, that all men are made vessels of wrath. This phrase includes, first, the intention of God like a Potter, to make such use of them, as to make his just wrath appear upon them, and this purpose of God was everlasting, not only as old as every mans generation, but as ⟨p. 287⟩old as the creation of all, yea, and from everlasting before the Creation. Secondly, it includes also a fitness in the vessel for such an use, not fitness in the way of desert only; (such fitness being found in all the natural sons of Adam) but fitness in respect of Gods purpose to show wrath. Now like as in proportion hereunto, the making of a man fit for mercy, is the giving of him grace; so the denying of grace finally makes him fit for wrath in this sense, for as much as God will damn none but such as die in their sins. Here I speak of wrath and mercy, as they consist in giving salvation, or inflicting damnation.

Lastly, consider, as there is a grace of raising from out of sin, so there is a grace of pieserving from sin. This grace God granted to the elect Angels, hee denyed to the rest, meerly out of his own free pleasure, according to the Soveraignty hee hath over his creatures, and not with any reference unto sin preceding. For how was that possible? namely, that there could bee any sin found in Angels before their first sin? yet were the one, (to wit) the elect Angels amplius adjuti, more succoured then the other, as Austin exprestely profesteth, lib. 12. De Civ. Dei. cap. 9. Indeed I finde