Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/144

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Chap. 20.
of Conſtancy.
123

were it not for that wanton Mind of ours which (being infected with an evil Itch of wrangling and dispute) is ever and anon urging and exasperating it self. For (say they) if God foresaw that I should sin; and this foresight of his is no way to be deceiv'd: How can it otherwise be, but that I should sin Necessarily? I acknowledge it is Necessarily, but not in respect of your Mind; since your own free will doth here intervene. For he foresaw that you should sin the same way he foresaw; but he foresaw you should do it freely, and therefore of Necessity you must sin freely. Is not this sufficiently clear? But they urge again; that God is the Author of all motions in us. He is indeed (I confess) the Author of all motions in common, but the fautor, and favourer of nothing but what is good. Do you prepare your self to an action that is virtuous? He knowes and assists it. Or to one that is vitious?

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