4. Mr. B. hath given us a rule in his preface, that when any thing is ascribed to God in one place which is denied of him in another, then it is not properly ascribed to him. Now, God says expressly that " fury" or anger "is not in him," Isa. xxvii. 4; and therefore it is not properly ascribed to him.
5. Of all the places where mention is made of God's repentings, or his repentance, there is the same reason. Exod. xxxii. 14, Gen. vi. 6, 7, Judges x. 1 6, Deut. xxx. 9, are produced by Mr. B. That one place of 1 Sam. xv. 29, where God afiirms that he " knoweth no re- pentance," casts all the rest under a necessity of an interpretation suit- able unto it. Of all the affections or passions which we are obnoxious to, there is none that more eminently proclaitos imperfection, weak- ness, and want in sundry kinds, than this of repentance. If not sins, mistakes, and miscarriages (as for the most part they are), yet dis- appointment, grief, and trouble, are always included in it. So is it in that expression, Gen. vi. 6, " It repented the Lord that he had
H »t/v TOTi lyyivofiivvi (pxyrairla riSovhv faiu, uffVio it roit ivvTrtioit. — Arist. xthet. lib. 11.
cap. ii.
' A/a KetfivovTis, ipi^'Bf/,ivoi, Ipuvris, ^itptavriSt oAwj ivi^uf/.t>vv-Tis, xai f/.h xuropDovvri;, ipy'iXoi ilfi. — Id. ubi sup.
OF THE ATTRIBUTION OF PASSIONS, ETC., TO GOD. 113
made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."^ What but his mistake and great disappointment, by a faihng of wisdom, foresight, and power, can give propriety to these attributions unto God? The change God was going then to work in his providence on the earth was such or like that which men do when they repent of a thing, being " grieved at the heart" for what they had formerly done. So are these things spoken of God to denote the kind of the things which he doth, not the nature of God himself ; otherwise such expressions as these would suit him, whose frame of spirit and heart is so described : " Had I seen what would have been the itsue of making man, I would never have done it. Would I had never been so overseen as to have enfjao^ed in such a business ! What have I now got by my rashness ? nothing but sorrow and grief of heart redounds to me." And do these become the infinitely blessed God ? 6. Fear is added, from Deut. xxxii. 26, 27. "Fear," saith the wise man, " is a betraying of those succours which reason offereth;"^ — na- ture's avoidance of an impendent evil ; its contrivance to flee and pre- vent what it abhors, being in a probability of coming upon it ; a tur- bulent weakness. This God forbids in us, upon the account of his being our God, Isa. xxxv. 4; "Fear not, O worm Jacob," etc., chap. xli. 14. Everywhere he asserts fear to be unfit for them who depend on him and his help, who is able in a moment to dissipate, scatter, and reduce to nothing, all the causes of their fear. And if there ought to be no fear where such succour is ready at hand, sure there is none in Him who gives it. Doubtless, it were much better to exclude the providence of God out of the world than to assert him afraid pro- perly and directly of future events. The schools say truly, " Quod res sunt futurae, a voluntate Dei est (effectiva vel permissiva)." How, then, can God be afraid of what he knows will, and purposeth shall, come to pass ? He doth, he will do, things in some likeness to what we do for the prevention of what we are afraid of He will not scatter his people, that their adversaries may not have advantage to trample over thera. When we so act as to prevent any thing that, unless we did so act, would befall us, it is because we are afraid of the coming of that thing upon us : hence is the reason of that attri- bution unto God. That properly He should be afraid of what comes
' Theodoret on this place tells us, " "Ou |«jjv, a; -rives (pairU, etc. Non autem ut fuerunt quidaiu" (so that Mr B. is not the first that held this opinion), " ita quadam et poeni-
tentia ductus Ucus htec Cgit : Tavra, ya.f> toi ut^fuvtva 5r«^» ii Ss ^'ua (fiffi; iXiufi:a Ta^'cuv."
Aud then he adds, " Ti Ir.Tori -ro'ivw, etc. Quoinodo ergo poenitcntia cadnt in Deum ?" His answer is, " Ovk oZm l-x) eiou y.iTUfii\!ii!c, etc. Quare psenitcntia Uei nihil aliud est, quam niutatio dispensatiouis ejus. I'amitet me (inquit) quod co7islilwrim Saul regem, pro eo quod e.st, stntui ilium deponerc. Sic in hoc loco (Gen. yi. 6), Pocnitet fecisse we hominem; hoc est, decrevi perdere humauum genus." — Theod. in Gen. quaest. 50, torn. i. pp. 41, 42.
* Eff'Tw o£ (foSoSt XvTri T/f >i Tapap^r) \k (favraff'ia;, [/.tWovriis xaxcv n iffapTixov, n Xv^npov. — • Arist. Khet. lib. ii. cap. vi.
VOL. XII. 8
114 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^,
to pass who knows from eternity what will so do, who can with the breath of his mouth destroy all the objects of his dislike, who is in- finitely wise, blessed, all-sufficient, and the sovereign disposer of the lives, breath, and ways of all the sons of men, is fit for Mr. B, and no man else to affirm. " All the nations are before him as the drop of the bucket, and the dust of the balance, as vanity, as nothing; he upholdeth them by the word of his power ; in him all men live, and move, and have their being," and can neither live, nor act, nor be without him; their life, and breath, and all their ways, are in his hands ; he brings them to destruction, and says, " Return, ye children of men ;"^ and must he needs be properly afraid of what they will do to him and against him ?