A65285:517
A Body of Practical Divinity
A body of practical divinity consisting of above one hundred seventy six sermons on the lesser catechism composed by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster : with a supplement of some sermons on several texts of Scripture / by Thomas Watson ...
London: printed for Thomas Parkurst, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Answ. God doth not infuse Evil into Men, only he withdraws the Influence of his Graces, and then the Heart hardens of itself, even as Light being withdrawn, Darkness presently follows in the Air; but it were absurd to say, that therefore the Light darkens the Air: and therefore you shall observe that Pharaoh is said to harden his own Heart, Exod. 8.15. God is the cause of no Man's Sin; 'tis true God hath a hand in the Action where Sin-is, but no hand in the Sin of the Action: He that plays upon a jarring Instrument, he is the cause of the sounding of the Instrument, but the jarring is from itself: so 'tis here, the Actions of Men so far as they are natural are from God, but so far as they are sinful, they are from Men themselves, and God has no hand at all in them. And so much for the first Position, That God's Providence reaches to all Places, to all Persons, and to all Occurrences.
Answ. God doth not infuse Evil into Men, only he withdraws the Influence of his Graces, and then the Heart hardens of itself, even as Light being withdrawn, Darkness presently follows in the Air; but it were absurd to say, that therefore the Light darkens the Air: and therefore you shall observe that Pharoah is said to harden his own Heart, Exod. 8.15. God is the cause of no Man's Sin; 'tis true God hath a hand in the Action where Sin-is, but no hand in the Sin of the Action: He that plays upon a jarring Instrument, he is the cause of the sounding of the Instrument, but the jarring is from itself: so 'tis here, the Actions of Men so far as they are natural are from God, but so far as they are sinful, they are from Men themselves, and God has no hand at all in them. And so much for the first Position, That God's Providence reaches to all Places, to all Persons, and to all Occurrences.
2. A second Position is this: There are Providences that are casual and accidental to us, are predetermined by the Lord: the falling of a Tile upon one's head, the breaking out of a Fire to us, is casual, but 'tis ordered by a Providence of God. You have a clear Instance of this,