Excerpt from Nine Sermons on the Decrees and Agency of God But this is impossible, unless the foresight Of God is mere uncertain conjecture, like our own; and that is no fore-knowledge at all. When we speak of uncertainties, contingencies, being or not being, we always have reference to ourselves. Things are uncertain to us, but not to God. When it is said, therefore, that God foreknows a particular event, it is meant that that event is certain to him. And it would be equally certain to us, if we could foreknow, or if God should communicate his knowledge of it to us. The event is certain in itself, or it could not be the object of the divine knowledge. It has a real existence in the divine mind. But it is a matter of uncertainty to us whether it will happen or not, because we are not. 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.

Excerpt from Nine Sermons on the Degrees and Agency of God First, they say that which cannot be supported. It can be shown that God could prevent man from sinning without infringing upon his moral agency. For, not to insist upon that which is true, but is denied by these men, to wit, that God can incline the will and give man a heart to obey, without infringing upon his moral agency; God could have prevented man from sinning in many other ways. He could have prevented man from sin ning, by keeping out of his way every temptation. He could have confined the tempter to the prison of hell. He could have taken away the life of man, before the temptation was presented, and taken him to heaven while he was yet upright and spotless. He could have reduced all things again to their primitive nothing, before sin had ruined his work. It is manifest, then, that God could have prevented man from sinning, without touching his moral agency. But, again, when any say that God did not prevent man from sin ning because he would thereby have destroyed his' 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.

Excerpt from The Decrees of God: A Discourse Second - It is objected, that if God fore-ordains whatsoever come to pass he is the author of sin. Some may say and think so, but Presby terians neither say nor think so. We do not understand the term ordain or fore-ordain to mean fatality or physical necessity. When it is said that Christ was verily fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, we do not mean that he was under the physical necessity of dying or was compelled by fate to die. But this is Our meaning when we speak of fore ordaining an event: It is to form such a purpose respecting it, as retr ders certain its future existence, through positive or permissive agency. Now, does it follow that because God fore-ordained or purposed to save a portion of our race, and fore-ordained to permit another portion to go on in sin, or to leave them to themselves to pursue their own course, that he is the author of their sins? Take an illustration: Suppose you knew that by preaching the Gospel to five men, one of them would repent and turn from sin, but you also knew that the repentance of that one would so enrage the others that they would curse the very God of their existence, and cruelly persecute the man that repented. Knowing these things with certainty, you determined to preach to the five men, and thus save one instrumentally; do you not at the same time decree, IN one sense, the cursing and persecution of the others and yet you are in no sense the author OF their wickedness. Because God enlightens some, and others are hardened by the use of the same means and God punishes them for the neglect and abuse of the means of grace, does that make God the author of sin? There certainly is a vast difference between the sun's being the source of heat and light and being the cause of darkness. When the sun sets darkness follows, but would any man in his senses say, that the sun, which is the fountain of light, was also the fountain of dark ness 7 SO God is not the source of sin, but when he withdraws his pre sence and influence, sin invariably follows but that no more makes God the author of sin, than the setting of the sun makes it the source of darkness. 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.

Excerpt from Discourses, on the Sovereign and Universal Agency of God, in Nature and Grace Secondly, That God's own will is the only rule, by which he makes, governs and directs all things.(4) I am then, in the first place, to show, that the agency of Divine Providence produces and governs all things. 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.