"Be deaf to all, nor heed the plaintive moan, Of weeping husband, parent, child or friend ; 'Tis my high will that fhe attend my throne, Where flow thofe perfect joys which never shall have end." So fpake th' Omnipotent: the Spirit heard, Amaz'd he view'd this feat of humble love, With eye afkance, he aims the deadly blow, Nor dares to look while he directs the dart; No more her cheeks with purple blushes glow, In vain, in vain! the heart refuses aid, An iron flumber feals her heavy eyes; She finks in death-th' aftonish'd foul dismay'd Burfs through the doors of life, and feeks more friendly skies. Hail, Spirit, difengag'd from cumbrous clay! Let not our tears retard thy blissful flight: The figh diffolves in faith; pursue thy way, Till heaven's full joys fhall open on thy ravish'd fight. O, Thyrfis! raife thy low declining head, Nor fink beneath this mighty weight of woe: ་ 心 THE Arminian Magazine, For OCTOBER 1791. DIALOGUES on PREDESTINATION. [By Dr. WOBACK, fometime BISHOP of WORCESTER.] D10. A [Continued from page 455.] SI told you formerly concerning God's permiffive decree, fo now I must tell you concerning his actual permiffion; if, there were no more in it but the bare. negation of an impediment, it were poffible for man (efpecially. in his ftate of integrity) to forbear the fin to which he is thus permitted; and fo God fhould fail of his means for the ac complishment of his end, the manifestation of his vindictive juftice. To give you, therefore, our full sense and meaning, when we fpeak of God's permiffion of fin, it imports, 1. That God doth fubftract,* or withdraw his grace and divine affistance, * Polan. Synt. Theol. lib. VI. cap. vi. page 326. E Maccov. Col. Difp. 8. de ftat. prim. Rom. (mihi) page 86. VOL. XIV. 3 R fufficient fufficient and neceflary to the avoiding of fin; and that as well from the angels and our innocent firft parents, as from their lapfed pofterity. 2. That he doth influence the finful act, after a two-fold manner. Firft, in moving and predeterminating the will unto that wicked work, by fome previous reality received into it; and this is that which Amefius+ approves of in Alvarez, when he faith, "God doth, by a previous motion, effectually apply the created will to work freely and infallibly, as he alfo applies other fecond caufes to work naturally." And he gives it us in his own words, thus: "God is converfant about the exiflence of fin, not by an idle and inere negative permiffion, but by fuch a permiffion of the will, as doth fore-determine the very event itfelf." And this is not all: for, fecondly, God hath his influence, together with the will, into the fame wicked work, by a concomitant, or, as they call it, a fimultaneous concourfe. To this purpose, Mr. Calvin faith, that man doth effect nothing, but by the fecret direction and motion of Almighty God; nay that he does that which is not lawful, by the juft impulfe of God. PAG. If this be the nature of God's actual permiffion, I can. not fee how it frees him from the imputation of being the author and caufe of fin: for whatsoever finful act a man commits, it is abfolutely unavoidable, becaufe God applies and predetermines his will unto it, and that infuperably, and produceth the act, and that immediately; otherwife the man, according to your doctrine, is not able to commit it. Dio. I perceive you have little fkill in the metaphyfics. Therein we are taught, that every thing that hath a being is good, and from God, and of his production: and therefore we muft, as I faid, diflinguifh betwixt the act, and the finful p. 29. For that is now the prevailing opinion. Mr. Baxter on Saving Faith, + Ubi fupra, n. 5. vide etiam lib. III. сар. |