we are to ask the Father, in the name of the Son, by the Holy Ghoft, Eph. ii. 18. and v. 20. Quest. 41. Will not this mystery be more fully known and difplayed in heaven? Anfw. Yes: for, fays Chrift, at that day ye shall know, that I am in my Father, John xiv. 20. See alfo 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 1 John iii. 2. Quest. 42. What comfortable inftruction may we learn from this doctrine of the trinity? Anfw. That the gift of eternal life, in the promife and offer of the gofpel, to finners of mankind, is attested by the three famous witnesses in heaven, who are above all exception; and confequently that a portion, infinitely rich, is infured by the covenant of grace to all them that believe, when it makes over all the three perfons to them, as their God, I John v. 7, 11. Jer. xxxi. 33. Queft. 43. What is the duty of the judicatures of the church, with reference to Arians, Socinians, and Deifts, who deny this fundamental doctrine of the trinity? Anfw. It is their duty, after the first and fecond admonition, to reject them as heretics, Tit. iii. 10. 7. QUEST. What are the decrees of God? ANSW. The decrees of God, are his eternal purpose, according to the counfel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass. Queft. 1. What do you understand by a divine de free? Anfw. The purpose of God, or the counsel of his his will, concerning all future events, Eph. i. 11. Ifa. xliv. 7. Queft. 2. What doth the word counsel, as afcribed unto God, import? Anfw. Not the receiving the knowledge of things from another, or in the way of study and advisement, as among men, but the eternity, wifdom, and immutability of his determinations, Pfalm xxxiii. 11. Prov. xix. 21. Queft. 3. Doth the Scripture Speak exprefly of God's decrees? Anfw. Yes; in many places: fuch as, Pfalm ii. 7. Job xxviii. 26. and xxxviii. 10. Ifa. x. 22. Jer. v. 22. etc. Queft. 4. Whether, by the decrees of God, are we to understand the things decreed, or the act decreeing? Anfw. The act decreeing or difcerning. Queft. 5. Is the decreeing act of God one fimple act only? Anfw. Yes; because of the perfect oneness or fimplicity of his nature, on account whereof he could not but decree all things at once; and because of his immutability. Quest. 6. Why then do we speak of the divine decrees as various or many? Anfw. Because of the many objects which the decreeing act of God doth refpect the things decreed are many, but the act decreeing is but one only. Queft. 7. What are the properties of the divine decrees? Anfw. That they are eternal, moft wife, abfolute, and unchangeable. Queft. 8. How do you prove the decrees of God. to be eternal? Anfw. The decrees of election, and publishing the gospel, are eternal, as is evident from Eph. i. F 3 4. and 4. and Cor. ii. 7.; and therefore all other decrees must be eternal likeways, because he decreed all things at once by one fimple act, Acts xv. 18. Queft. 9. Wherein does the wifdom of God's decrees appear? Anfw. In the beautiful order wherein they are executed, Mark vii. 37. Queft. 10. Whether are the divine decrees conditional or abfolute ? Anfw. They are intirely abfolute, depending upon no condition without God himself, but upon his own good pleasure allenarly, Eph. i. 9, 11. Matth. xi. 26. Queft. 11. Are there not means whereby the decrees of God are executed? : Anfw. Yes but thefe means are decreed as well as the end, 2 Theff. ii. 13. Queft. 12. How doth it appear from scripture that the means and the end are connected in the decree? Anfw. From the prefervation of Paul, and thofe who were with him, in the ship: God had decreed to preserve them all, Acts xxvii. 24. yet lawful means were to be used; the ship-men must not get leave to flee out of the fhip, otherwife the rest cannot be faved, as Paul tells the centurion and the foldiers, ver. 31. Quest. 13. What is the difference betwixt the means of execution, and decreeing conditionally? Anfw. The means of execution are stated in the decree; but to decree a thing conditionally, is to decree it upon an uncertain event, which may, or may never take place. Queft. 14. What is the abfurdity of conditional decrees? Anfw. They make the will of God, which is the firft caufe, to depend upon the will of the creature; and they plainly fuppofe, that either God is ignorant of of the event, or incapable to accomplish it, or that he has determined nothing certainly about it; all which are blafphemously abfurd. Queft. 15. How doth it appear that the divine decrees are unchangeable ? Anfw. From fcripture, Job xxiii. 13. He is in one mind, and who can turn him? Ifaiah xlvi. 10.--- My counsel fhall ftand, and I will do all my pleasure: And from reafon, because there is no defect of wisdom, power, and faithfulness in God, from whence any change of his will may flow, as is the case among men. Queft. 16. Do the abfoluteness and immutability of God's decrees, infer that they come to pass necessarily, and that the liberty of the will is thereby destroyed? Anfw. The abfolute and immutable decree, only infers a neceffity of confequence, whereby the event cannot but follow upon the decree, because of the immutability of God's will, and the infallibility of his fore-knowledge; but not a neceffity of nature, whereby fome fecond caufes cannot act otherwise than they do, as fire cannot but burn. Quest. 17. What is the reafon why the abfolute decree does not take away the liberty of the will? Anfw. Because there is no compulfion, or violence, offered to the will, in the execution of the decree : God fo determines the event as not to change the nature of things, but fuffers neceffary caufes to act neceffarily, and rational agents to act freely and voluntarily, with no more constraint, than if they were under no fuch decree; as is evident from the example of Herod, Pilate, and the Jews, when they crucified the Lord of Glory; for what they did, was with full freedom of their will, and yet they did nothing, but what God's hand and counfel determined before to be done, Acts iv. 27, 28. Queft. 18. Doth any thing come to pass in time, but what was decreed from eternity? Anfw. No: : Anfw. No for the very reafon why any thing comes to pafs in time, is becaufe God decreed it, Eph. i. 11. Acts xv. 18. Queft. 19. Are things that are cafual, or accidental, pofitively decreed? Anfw. Yes as is evident from the inftances of Jofeph's advancement in Egypt; and the not breaking a bone of Chrift, and many others. Queft. 20. What has the decree of God fixed with refpect to man's continuance in this world? Anfw. It has immoveably fixed the precife moment of every one's life and death; with every particular circumftance thereof. Queft. 21. How may it be proved, that the precife moment of every one's death is unalterably fixed in the decree? Anfw. From exprefs fcripture teftimony, Job xiv. 5. Pfalm xxxix. 4.; from the reafon given why the Jews could not lay hands on Chrift, namely, because his hour was not yet come, John vii. 30. ; and from God's numbering the hairs of our head, Matth. x. 30. much more the days and moments of our life. Quest. 22. Were there not fifteen years added to Hezekiah's days, after the prophet Jaid to him, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live, Ifaiah xxxviii. 1, 5.? Anfw. The fentence of death, by the prophet, was not an intimation of the decree of God, that Hezekiah was presently to die, but of the nature of his disease, which, according to the ordinary course of second causes, was mortal, if the power of God did not miraculously interpofe. Queft. 23. How does the decree of God extend to things naturally and morally good? Anfw. Effectively, because God is the author and efficient of all good, Phil. ii. 13. Queft, 24. How does it extend to things morally evil? |