Samuel Blair: Does God create men to damn them?

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Reformed Covenanter

Cancelled Commissioner
... To suppose, that the Misery of any Creature, strictly and abstractly in itself, without any other Consideration, is agreeable and pleasing to God; yea so agreeable, that he makes them for this very End that he may have the Pleasure of punishing them; is indeed, to represent him like the very worst of Beings But then I would ask, Does God’s decreeing to punish Men for their Sin, as they deserve, for maintaining the Dignity of his Government, and the shewing forth of his infinite Holiness, Justice, and rightful Authority; does this, I say, bear in it any such Thing, as that he delights barely in the Misery of Creatures, so as to create them for the Sake of it? How irrational is such a Consequence?

But if any will yet insist on it, as a just Consequence, I desire them to consider a little, how they will free their own Scheme of it; which is every whit as liable to the Charge: Unless they have stupid Ignorance, and blasphemous Presumption enough, to deny God’s infinite Understanding and foreknowledge of all Things, it is just as reasonable to bring this Objection against the Arminians, as the Calvinists; and say, that God creates Men to damn them, if he knows before-hand, that he will damn them; if he fore-knew that they would die impenitent, in Unbelief; and thereupon has decreed their Damnation, before he has created them.

The Truth in the Matter is this, God decreed to create all Men for the Manifestation of his own Glory, which is his End in all his Works; and looking upon Mankind in their Apostacy and Sin, he decreed to leave a particular Part of them in that State, and to punish them according to their Sin, for the Manifestation of the Glory of his Sovereignty, Holiness and Justice, and the right and infinite Obligations of his Authority, as a Law-giver over his reasonable Creatures. ...

For more, see Samuel Blair: Does God create men to damn them?
 
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