Excerpt from A Practical Discourse Concerning God's Decrees: In Two Parts Bar, my lord, i am not defirous to difpute at all in thefe matters, much leite with one, who is (o ta ken up with abufing perfons of greater worth, that he cannot find leafure to take notice {of one To Ine confiderable as my felfe: onely entending to handle foine part of that quefiion which is now in contefi, I mufl'crave leave to profeffe, that inever yet was latisfied, but that thofe fatall confequences, what ever they, are, which are thought to attend Alfolutc Reprooatiofz, they do as farre as Ican fee equally Accompany Gods Prefcimce, of which yet this Gentleman is a zealous allertour. For if God forefees who will refufe the meanes oft Grace, he forefees likewil'e that he will affifi one and net ano ther: and that'without fuch par'ticular Divine aili fiance, it is impoffible any fhould believe and he (owed Now what is this elfe, butfor men at long runne, after much time mifpent in wrangling, to have recourfe unto God: alfolute-ibut lyetdifcri minating Will and Power, which at their firfi fet ting out they were defirous to decline. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The reason why one man believes, that is embraces the way of Salvation, and another doth not, is finally to be resolved into God's eternal Election of the one and Reprobation of the other; or more briefly thus, that only those who are ordained unto Eternal Life, either do or can believe...and the Apostle Paul doth everywhere assert faith to be a fruit and not a cause of Election, that we are chosen unto good works, not for them, that is that they who are predestinated shall certainly believe, not they who believe were therefore predestinated, which is the sum of his discourse in Ephesians chapter 1. So that in the Act of Election, men are to be considered as merely passive, that is, as recipients, not as believers, as such who were liable to be disposed by God how he pleased, but had no possibility of meriting anything from him.

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