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• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
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• §93
• §94

§70

Remarks upon the Consultation about making Peace among Protestants, by Peter Jurieu.But while we are meditating these things, there is fallen into our hands, A Consultation about making Peace among Protestants, by Peter Jurieu a Divine of Rotterdam.48 I think fit to bestow a little Pains in the Examination of what he therein delivers, to try whether or no a further light may thence be fetch’d to this Controversie. Who tho’ indeed he seems to have omitted none of these things which can be said to recommend the Opinion of the Reform’d upon the Article of Grace and Predestination; yet it is to be hoped that those who are free from Prejudice will acknowledge, that those things which our Party profess upon this Article do much better sute with the Sense and Meaning of Holy Scripture, and the Notions which this requires us to entertain of Almighty God. Certainly as no man hath seen God but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father he hath reveal’d him, John 1:18. So we know nothing concerning God and his Will, and the Order Establish’d concerning our Salvation, but what is reveal’d to us by him in the Holy Scriptures. In this way we shall walk with most safety, and it is certainly rash, and slippery to forsake them and follow humane Reasonings, with however subtle Distinctions they are supported. Therefore, that Jurieu pronounces, That Inefficacious Wills do contract the Idea of a Being infinitely Perfect, because they argue either Mutability, or Ignorance, or Impotence. We on the contrary think that Inefficacious Wills, that is, such as do not reach the extream Effect of a thing, do not contradict the Notion of a Being Infinitely Perfect. For God is not to be conceiv’d of after the manner of a Brutal Power, such as a weight is, which always exerts its utmost Force in an uniform manner; but after the manner of an Agent that is Intelligent and Free, and which can intend, and restrain, and moderate as he sees fit his Power and Force of Acting. But when it pleased Him to Create not only Irrational Creatures which Act after the manner of meer Machines, but also such as have in their Nature some Degrees of Liberty, so as that they may and ought to give an account of their Actions: Therefore the Will of God did not exert all his Power about these, but proceeded within a certain Order design’d by it self. Otherwise it would have involv’d a Contradiction to create a free Creature which must give an Account of his Actions, and yet to determine his Actions beforehand by his own absolute Will. Therefore it is not any unconsider’d Change, or unforeseen Event, or any external Cause which comes across as it were, that renders the Will of God Inefficacious; but he himself suspends his Will upon the Event of the Action, or Omission of another, which is indeed foreseen by him, but which he does not Will to bend or induce by all Means the Will of the other to undertake, or omit, but leaves it intirely to its liberty. Certainly no Man can deny but God can do more than he actually does; therefore his Will does not reach so far as to the utmost of what he is able to do.

[48.]Pierre Jurieu, De Pace inter Protestantes ineunda consultatio … (Utrecht, 1688).