placing us in a State if not of perfect Innocence yet of Forgiveness and Justification ARTICLE XII Of good Works ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of Gods Iudgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith in so much that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit In this Article there is nothing which I have not already sufficiently asserted and insisted upon in what I have said above about Justification and in what I have just now observed upon the Article of freewill And Lastly In what I have said concerning Perseverance and of the case of St. Peter and that confession which he made that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of the Living God ARTICLE XIII Of Works before Justification WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath Willed and Commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of Sin In which last recited Article though more difficulty may seem to lie then in the two foregoing yet upon a more particular survey of it it will appear that there is nothing which is not very consistent to those principles which I have laid down For First This Article asserts plainly that good Works may be done but that they are not pleasant to God before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ of which I have already spoken Secondly This Article does not deny that there is such a thing as Grace of Congruity and consequently that there may and must be some manner of preparation in our selves by which we are made capable of receiving it but only that we cannot deserve this grace of Congruity and that is very true for it is still an infinite condescention in the Spirit of God that it will stoop to our Infirmities and enter into so strict a Friendship with such polluted Beings as the best of Men of themselves are found to be Lastly When the Article tells us that before the Reception of this Grace even our good Works themselves have the nature of Sin it is not so to be understood that good Works proceeding out of an honest Heart and a pious Intention are or can be displeasing to God so far forth as they are done to good Purposes and out of good Designs for this would be to make them good and bad at the same time but before the Reception of this Grace they are tainted with much of imperfection in themselves and by their having the nature of Sin may be also meant that before the Reception of this Grace and without the satisfaction of Christ for the transgressions of our Lives they are no more available for our Justification than if they had been bad or wicked Works because no future innocence or virtue can be a proper Attonement or satisfaction for the guilt that is past so it being no more than we are always obliged to it cannot expiate for our former Sins Neither is it affirmed as I conceive in the tenth Article that we cannot turn or prepare our selves at all or in the least degree but that Article is rather to be explained by this expression in the thirteenth that we cannot so turn or prepare our selves as to deserve the grace of Congruity which I have already granted to be True and I have shown the Reason why it is so St. Paul tells us Rom 8. 7. That the Carnal Mind is at Enmity against God by which it is imply'd at least that there is a friendship and Congruity betwixt the spiritual mind and the mind of God And the case of the Heathen world in the first Chapter of that Epistle who were deserted by the spirit of God and given over to their own beastly Lusts and Affections to defile themselves with all manner of Wickedness and Uncleanness shews plainly that there is a common Grace or Influence of the Divine Spirit running through the World and that it never forsakes us till we by many acts of willful Sin have broken and violated those Congruities to which its presence is inseperably united according to the greater or lesser proportions in which those Congruities exert themselves though since no Man by the Assistances of this common Grace did ever live up to the perfection of the law of Nature I shall neither be so Uncharitable as to exclude them from all benefit in the Passion of Christ nor so presumptuous as to determine how far the Merits of that Passion may be applicable to them However if it be granted as it is all the reason in the World that it should what we find contained in the twentieth Article that it is not lawful for the Church it self to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another then it is easie to perceive what we are to pronounce of the Doctrines of irresistable Grace and of absolute Reprobation if we will adhere either to the Judgment of right Reason or to the sentiments of the Church of England it being impossible to maintain either of these Doctrines without explaining one Text after such a manner as to make it flatly contradictory to another and consequently to invalidate the Authority of the Scripture which if it be not consistent to its self can be of no force or obligation to us Besides what hath been already largely represented of the inconsistency of these Doctrines with the constant tenour design and current of the Scriptures if in the place of St. Paul so lately mentioned where he exhorts us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling it be but granted as it cannot be avoided but it must be that there is a Power or ability of working supposed in them to whom this exhortation is made otherwise it would be a very impertinent Exhortation and if it be affirmed of the very next words for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do that they are so to be understood as if he had said that we are able to do nothing of our selves but that God does all by an irresistable Grace then it is manifest that these two places though immediately Joyned are yet plainly contradictory to one another How is it possible then if we will follow the Counsel of the Church of England but we must expound this latter so as I have done since any other way they cannot be consistent together And what can be a greater disparagement to
destroyed from p. 37 to 47 This is the meaning of that Phrase the trembling of God that is a Panick terror seizing upon the hearts of men by the immediate judgment of God proved by the circumstances of the place it self and by Analogy of other interpretations in a short digression upon that subject from p. 41 to 47 It is all one when God hath absolutely decreed to destroy a People by what means soever he bâ—ing that destruction to pass from p. 47 to 49 The Phoenomenon of Obduration farther exemplified in other instances of Sihon Saul David Rehoboam Ahab the Sons of Eli and the whole Nation of the Aegyptians and the justice of it shewed particularly in all the Cases proposed from p. 49 to 67 An occasional digression concerning the inviolable sanctity of the Persons and the unaccountable authority of Kings from 56 to 63 The Objections of Episcopius and Curcelleus against the premises proposed and reducible to three beads First that they whom God is said to have hardened are also said to have hardened themselves p. 68. To which objection it is answered p. 69. that these two are by no means incompossible or inconsistent with each other p. 69 70 An enquiry whether the divine induration were of it self sufficient to necessitate the Aegyptian King to do what he did without the concurrence of the will of Pharoah and the difficulties attending each part of the Dilemma p. 70 71 First answer to the enquiry that Pharaoh would have been necessitated to do what he did by the divine induration without the concurrence of his own will but yet notwithstanding this does not excuse him from sin for two reasons first because the formality of sin consists in the choice of the mind secondly because freedom and necessity being both of them determined the same way are not inconsistent together from p. 71 to 74 The second Answer to the Dilemma proposed that Pharaohs hardening of his own heart may be understood only of the outward appearance because it seemed so to the standers by and this confirmed by the authority of Kimchi Grotius and Josephus from p. 74 to 77 Other Places produced by Curcelleus to prove that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was wholly and entirely owing to himself considered from p. 77 to 79 A second objection or elusion of this Hypothesis of the divine obduration framed from those words Exod. 8. 15. But when Pharaoh saw there was respite p. 79 80 81 The inconsistency of Episcopius with himself and the insufficiency of his solution demonstrated from p. 81 to 83 What Episcopius attributes to the intermission of Judgments that Curcelleus attributes to the lightness of them p. 83 The manifest unskilfulness and downright absurdity of the Curcellean expedient together with a reflection upon the power of prejudice and a further confirmation of the doctrine of Obduration from p. 83 to 87 The last Objection taken from Gods veracity considered and proved that in some cases it is not inconsistent with the divine nature and perfections to deceive nay that it is so far from it that the contrary is confessedly manifest by experience from p. 87 to 95 It is naturally impossible for God to be the Author of Sin together with the vanity of all scruples and objections that are founded upon that supposition Every action of a wicked and unreclaimable man being under the sentence of impenitence and final obduration is the effect of many necessities combined together Pag. 90 91 The Conclusion consisting of four very short observations tending further to demonstrate the truth innocence and usefulness of this Doctrine THE CONTENTS TO THE Apologetical Vindication THe Authors Apology for publishing his two Sermons Pag. 1 A Summary account given of the subject of the two Sermons viz. that it was an attempt to vindicate the literal and proper sense of Scripture in those Places where God is said to have hardened blinded or deceived men against two sorts of misinterpretations one of which will not allow any of these texts to be meant of any more then a Divine permission and the other is so bold as to expound them of a causeless or arbitrary obduration p. 2 The defect and inconvenience of the first way of interpretation and the impiety of the second demonstrated from p. 2 to 5 The usefulness and necessity of some expedient betwixt these two extremes for the vindication of the honour of God the credit of Religion and the Authority of the Scriptures p. 5 6 The expedient proposed as contained in the Discourse entituled the Middle way c. viz. that all these places are to be understood in their first and most proper sence of a positive act of the divine will whereby he hardens and blinds obstinate and inveterate Sinners by way of punishment for their past offences and make them publick Examples to the world p. 6 7 8 An appeal to experience whether some men do not seem to be hardened and blinded by a divine infatuation p. 8 The Author submits it to the judgment of his Reader whether that Hypothesis which he hath lay'd down be not very well fitted to salve the Phaenomena which he pretends to explain by it p. 9 10 The case of Pharaoh considered with an Appeal to the Reader whether the seeming inconsistency betwixt those places where God is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart and where he is said to have hardened his own heart hath not been very fairly removed by thâ— Author in his Discourse of the Middle way p. 9 The concurrence of Josephus in his sentiments with him largely demonstrated from p. 9 to 18 Josephus is still more express in the Case of Rehoboam p. 18 19 20 Curcelleus and Episcopius when sifted to the bottom confess every whit as much as the Author of the Middle way hath asserted prov'd undeniably from their own Writings from p. 20 to 26 The Authors opinion confirmed by two plain citations out of Dr. Hammond to the same purpose together with his deserved gratulation of himself for having jumped so exactly in his sentiments of things with so famous and renowned a Champion of the Church of England p. 26 27 28 But yet Doctor Hammond is more cautious then needs must or then is consistent with his own concessions together with a further Vindication of the Doctrine of Obduration both as to it's Justice with respect to God and as to its usefulness with respect to men from p. 28 to 32 Two reasonâ— which have made many learned and pious persons cautious of admiting this doctrine of obduration First reason lâ—st God should be the Author of sin a thing in its own nature impossible and absurd as is largely demonstrated from p. 32 to 39 The second reason founded upon a too nice and scrupulâ—us detestation of Calvinistical Doctrines in answer to which it is shewn that this Doctrine of Obduration is so far from favouring the Calvinistical pretences that it perfectly overthrows them p. 39 Four instances made use of
practice upon himself for a man to extinguish the natural tenderness of his mind and will so far as to be compleatly wicked without remorse or shame from p. 303 to 305 Besides the natural congruitiâ—s which are planted in our minds betwixt virtuous actions and a reflecting Nature all the instances of Virtue and Religion whether they relate to our selves to our Neigbour or to God are founded upon such plain and such undoubted principles of reason that it is rather a Miracle that Men are so bad as they are then that they are no worse which Mr. Calvin makes to be the effect of a perpetual Miracle by ascribing it wholâ—y to an irresistible Grace overpowreing the ungovernable impurities of our Nature largely represented from p. 305 to 320 But for all this the Author does not pretend that the Grace of God is useless or that it is not of absolute necessity in order to the right conduct and governance of humane Life and for the more full understanding of the case and the avoiding the two equally dangerous extreams of Calvin and Pelagius he layes down in Seven particulars what his opinion is concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of Men. p. 320 First there is no instance of our duty which may not in some sort and degree be performed by our selves p. 320 Secondly there is a common Grace or Spirit diffused over all the World which exerts it self according to the several capacities and fitnesses of things and persons from 320 to 322 Thirdly there is a more peculiar Grace and influence of the Holy Spirit Watching over the Church then over the rest of Mankind p. 320 321 Fourthly even the particular instances of our duty in their uttermost perfection are owing to a concurrence of the Spirit of God from p. 323 to 332 But yet this hinders not but that the whole action in such cases may in some sense be ascribed to our selves as is largely represented upon several accounts p. 325 326 327 329 330 331 That after all it must be confessed that our justification is wholly owing not to our selves but to the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ applied to us by Faith and Repentance and this whether we consider our actions singly by themselves or whether we reflect upon the whole course of our lives p. 331 332 â—or what hath been said of single Actions in the fourth particular that without the Grace of God they will want their utmost perfection integrity and consummation the same is much more true in the fifth place of the whole course of our lives that this can much less be managed as it ought to be without the conduct and assistance of the Spirit of God from p. 332 to 336 Sixthly though God afford to all sufficient Grace and to the Church more than to the rest of the World yet he dispenses it sometimes in a more plentiful proportion as a proprietor may do by Arbitrary measures for no reason at all but what is foundâ—d in his own will and pleasure p. 336 337 Seventhly and lastly a Historical or notional Faith in Christ is obtainable by the use of ordinary meanâ— reading and study and an impaâ—tial inquiry into the truth of things 〈◊〉 a practical influential and saving Faith cannot be obtained without the Grace of God as is farther exemplisyed in the different case of Peter from that of the Centurion and the generality of the Jewish Nation from p. 377 to 341 The Tenth Twelfth and Thirteenth Articles of the Church of England explained and proved that they are no such friends to Calvinistical Doctrines as the Calvinists would make the world believe from 343 to 351 But if the Articles of the Church should happen to interfere as they do not with the Scriptures we are excused by the Twentieth of those Articles themselves from acquiescing in their Authorities neither hath the Church any power if we believe that Article to expound any place of Scripture after such a manner as to make it repugnant to another both of which things happen in the Calvinistical Doctrines that they are repugnant to some Scriptures and they expound some Scriptures after such a manner as to make them perfectly inconsistent with others from p. 251 to 253 The main inconvenience of the Doctrine of Reprobation is that if it were admitted to be the constant sense and tenor of the Scriptures themselves yet this instead of doing any Service to that Doctrine would but destroy the authority of the Scriptures themselves as well as the veracity of God and the nature of all Morality and Religion from p. 353 to 359 The Articles of our Church acknowledge that even General Councils may err much more would it have been pâ—ssible for a rational Synod to do so though our Church had asserted as it does not the Doctrine of Reprobation To which is added a recapitulation of what hath been said upon occasion of the Articles of the Church of England p. 355 356 But yet the Author does not after all deny but there may be such a thing as an irresistible Grace nay he proves it both from the reason of the thing and from very many instances to be met with up and down both in the old Testament and the new though those instances were peculiar to those miraculons Ages in which they happened and have nothing to do with our times wherein those miraculous effusions of the Holy Spirit are unquestionably ceased from p. 356 to 368 The second advantage to be made from the consideration of the Lucta or contention betwixt the Flesh and Spirit is that the spiritual principle mentioned by S. Paul may be pretended to be no part of the humane nature but only a supernatural influence of Divine Grace p. 368 To which the answer is twofold fiâ—st more directly that St. Paul does manifesâ—â—y assert two opposite Principles in the nature of man considered by it self and secondly more remotely and consequentially but no less pertinently and truly then the other that there is such an harmony and agreement betwixt the Divine Spirit and the spiritual or immaterial and abstracted principle in man that the same effâ—cts are attributed to both because they are both of them causes of a like nature and because they do both usually concurr to the production of the same effect p. 369 370 To all which it is to be added that the very notion of a mind or inward Man or immaterial Principle of Action includes in it an assertion of Freedom likewise an immaterial and a free agent being termes convertible and to all intents and purposes exactly the same and so are a necessary and a material agent from 370 to 374 This notion confirmed from the testimony of Plutarch shewing that it was the opinion of all the Ancient Philosophers and from the Doctrine of the Sadduces and Pharisees from a citation of Lactantius and a precept of Pythagoras in the Golden Verses and lastly from a further survey
out but let him be brought as low as can be Let him feed on Grass as Beasts do which is an argument of the baseness of their Condition according to those known Verses of Ovid. Recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto Aethere cognati retinebat semina coeli Quam satus Iapeto mistam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem moderantûm cuncta Deorum Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri Jussit erectos ad sidera tollere vultus And now from this story of Nebuchadnezzar thus evidently and clearly explained give me leave to step aside into these following remarks or Observations First That when I say he was deposed by his people I mean no more neither is there indeed any more in the truth of the thing it self than that the Administration of affairs by reason of his extream madness and incapacity to govern was put into other hands of one or more but it is probable in the East where Monarchy was the only form of Government of one and he as it seems of the meanest of all the people chosen perhaps by such another trick as Darius is said to have been v. 17. The most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of men which in the language of an Heathen is as much as to say Valet ima summis Mutare insignem attenuat Deus Obscura promens But yet notwithstanding they did no otherwise disobey Nebuchadnezzar their lawful Soveraign than by refusing to comply with him or lend their helping hand to the executing his most unjust and barbarous Decrees of which no doubt he gave many lamentable instances before any longer Obedience was denied him and one of them we have no farther off than in the Chapter immediately preceeding where all are commandded through all his spatious Provinces and large Dominions to be cast into the Fiery-Furnace that would not fall down and worship the golden Image which he had set up A Decree so strangely Tyrannical and inhumane that it is an equal wonder that there should any where be found so wicked a Prince as to enjoyn or such enslaved and miserable Subjects as dare not refuse in such a case to obey so savage and so impious a Decree Secondly The second thing which I shall observe is that being devested of all Power and that Madness which was the cause of it being by this means improved to a greater height there is no doubt but while he was in this Condition he did with his own hand commit many great and horrid outrages though he could not find any body to assist him but all were either weary or afraid of being any longer the Executioners of his wicked Commands But yet Thirdly It is plain notwithstanding all this that his person e mained sacred and inviolate neither was any man suffered to hurt or annoy him for the space as is probable of at lest seven Years together which Religious care of doing no manner of violence to the Majesty of Princes which is next to that of God would without question have lasted longer if the hand of God had continued any longer upon him which is a notable example of that strange Veneration which the Liege men of old time did use to pay their natural and rightful Soveraigns and what an awe and dread they had for that Character which they receiv'd from God and that unaccountable Authority with which they were by him invested Fourthly No sooner did he return to himself and the heavy hand of God being removed from him began to have a sense of his former Miscarriages and to recover the use of his reason Dan. 4. 36. But the glory of his Kingdom his Honour and his Brightness returned together with them his Councellors and his Lords sought unto him and he was established in his greatness and excellent Majesty was added unto him which is a new sign how unwillingly they disobeyed him whom they looked upon as God's vicegerent and that they thought nothing but absolute necessity could excuse their non-compliance with his Commands but that when that necessity was once removed they were still under the same obligation as before Fifthly God's suffering him to remain so long a publick example of inviolate and sacred Majesty his not taking him away by any untimely death and perhaps protecting him against the course of Nature his restoring him after all this to the use of his reason and to the full exercise of his imperial Dignity and Power is a plain argument how highly he approved this dutiful behaviour of his Subjects towards him and a clear proof especially if you consider how wicked a King this Nebuchadnezzar was that Princes are as to their actions Unaccountable as to their persons Sacred and as to their Laws that they are by no means to be disputed or disobeyed by us unless in cases of a plain and absolute Necessity where we cannot do it without a manifest and open Violence to the laws of God and Nature to the common sentiments or the common interest of mankind as it is when absolute Monarchs use that absolute and arbitrary Power with which they are entrusted only to the utter Ruin Destruction and Extirpation of their Subjects as Nebuchadnezzar by his sanguinary Edicts and barbarous acts of Soveraignty was used to do In this case we are excused from obeying his Commands but we are in no case to resist or fight against his Person The force of which argument will extend yet further if you consider that though indeed the Eastern Nations are and have always been observed to be composed of a sort of people the fittest of all other to bear the Yoke being by nature the most perfect Slaves being not only contented but proud under that Condition and being strange admirers of the Majesty and greatness of their Princes yet when this Majesty was thus eclipsed when all further obedience was rendered in a manner impossible It is an incredible thing that such an awful respect for the person of their King when they had shaken off all obedience to his Commands should still remain among all the sorts and all the several degrees all the several Constitutions and tempers of men through all the spacious Territories of so large an Empire had it not been that God Almighty did some way or other interpose in his behalf and did by an immediate hand restrain the fury of those who would otherwise have reeked their Revenge upon his person not so much out of kindness to him so wicked a King so great a Rebel and Traitor to his God as to put the world in mind of their Duty to the supream Powers who are his Vicegerents and not ours and therefore accountable to none but him and that it was God's design from the beginning that his person should not be touched though his power were for the reason above mentioned taken
unalterable decrees of Heaven Sometimes again you shall have several persons promise or intend to meet together at such a place upon such a day for such or such an end and this they do supposing themselves to be free and indu'd with an ability of being as good as their word and it is a shrewd sign that what they supposed was true when at a Club a Coffeehouse a publick Feast a Rendezvous or an Exchange you shall find them all accordingly met together which if the fatal Hypothesis were true it seems utterly impossible for them to be but most of them by that particular necessity by which they are governed would either be kept at home or carry'd violently some other way to which they were predetermin'd before this assignation was made To conclude we have had very warm and fierce Contentions about things necessary and things indifferent and about the Civil Magistrates power as to the latter in Religious affairs which if the Calvinistical Doctrine be true is a very needless Controversie for according to them if they will stand to their own Principles there is nothing indifferent either in Sacred matters or in Civil but all things are necessary because unavoidably determined And so the Controversie is happily at an end and we should be much to blame for censuring such innocent people for such unavoidable Scruples but that we cannot help it which if this Hypothesis be true is the Universal reason and excuse of all our actions And thus I think I have proved that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation it self how absurd or contradictious soever it may seem yet it is not more inconsistent with the common sentiments of Mankind and with the plain acknowledgments of its own Defenders with reason experience and with common sense than this of the Stoical or Calvinistical fate which most of the actions of our lives and most if not all the Passions which we find within our selves are combined in a strict confederacy to overthrow it being directly contrary to the nature of the one and to the suppositions upon which the other proceed Another very just exception which has been made and managed to very great advantage by a very Reverend and Learned person Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury against the absurd and blasphemous Doctrine of Transubstantiation is this That it overthrows the whole Fabrick of the Christian Religion by destroying that Foundation upon which it stands that is to say its Divine Authority attested by those Miracles by which it was confirmed because we have no way to judge of Miracles or to distinguish them from the ordinary and usual Phaenomena of nature but by the testimony of our senses which if they may deceive us in their proper objects when they are placed in the most advantageous circumstances to make an unerring Judgment then it is impossible for us in any case given to determine when a Miracle is wrought and when it is not and consequently that Religion whose Sanction and Authority is founded upon Miracles can never be thought to be sufficiently confirmed And what has been said of Transubstantiation the very same may be applied to the Predestinarian Doctrine against which as being founded in the fatal determination of all humane Actions there is a loud and a perpetual Clamour of common sense and experience But besides this it is farther evident from other considerations That if the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation be true the Scriptures of the New Testament are both a very false and a very impertinent Book it being not only plainly contradictory to so many plain Texts of whose true meaning and signification there can be no manner of doubt or question but to the whole Oeconomy of the Gospel to the design of Christ's coming into the world to the design of his Suffering to the reason of his Intercession and Lastly to the genius and temper of the Christian Dispensation S. John tells us 1 Joh. 4. 8. God is love He that loveth not saith he knoweth not God for God is love but you know it is a common rule denominatio sumitur à parte potiori if therefore of those who are born into this world there be not above one in a Thousand who are the Objects of this love and favour while all the rest are irreversibly doom'd to be the eternal examples of his utmost Vengeance and Displeasure and all this for no reason but what depends upon his Arbitrary power and will without any other Consideration then it is manifest if a man were to draw a Character of God Almighty and to exhort Mankind to imitate his example he must preach a Doctrine quite contrary to that which was taught by the Disciple whom Jesus loved and who was himself so full of love to his Brethren it being more suitable to the nature of God if the Calvinistical Painters have drawn him right to say he that hateth not knoweth not God for God is hatred the same may be said of all those other Pathetical exhortations to the mutual endearment and love of one another which are to be met with in the same Chapter of that good Disciple Beloved saith he v. 7. Let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And again v. 9 10 11. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another Lastly v. 19 20 21. We love him because he first loved us If a man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a lar For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also It is St. Paul's own exhortation in the Epistle to the Ephesians c. 4. v. 31 32. Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and Evil speaking be put away from you with all Malice and be you kind one to another tender Hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you So the same St. John tells us in the third Chapter of his Gospel at the 16th and 17th verses God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son into the World to Condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And our Saviour himself in his incomparable Sermon on the Mount exhorts his Disciples to mutual Kindness and Charity for one another and for their very Enemies from the example of God Matth. 5. v. 44 45. Love your Enemies bless them that Curse you do good to them that hate
Divine Grace by considering only in a Philosophical way the power of God and his ability to produce those effects which exceed any humane Efficiency or Skill and by attending to the nature of that Doctrine which Christ is said to have Taught which conduced so much to the Benefit and advantage of Mankind compared with that human or traditionary Testimony which has been handed down to us through so many Centuries of years by Men of unquestionable Credit and Virtue who neither had nor could propound any design of temporal advantage to themselves but on the contrary met with Trouble and Persecution and expcted to meet with no other for their Pains I say upon these Grounds any reasonable Man may of himself believe that there was such a Person as Jesus Christ Born of a pure Virgin who lived a most Holy and Exemplary Life wrought very many and very great Miracles and Wonders among Men who was the Promulger and Preacher of a most wise useful and Glorious Gospel to the World who Died upon the Cross to Seal and ratifie that Covenant which he had made between God and Men and who after his Crucifixion arose again from the Dead and ascended in a Glorious and Triumphant manner into Heaven having obtained a compleat Victory over Death and Sin where he still continues performing the Office of an everlasting Mediator and making a perpetual Intercession for us all This may be believed barely upon the Credit of that Historical Testimony which is given to it but if by Faith we mean a practical and saving Belief of these Truths which by being set home upon our hearts and being always present upon our Minds shall have a lasting and a powerful influence upon our Lives this as I conceive cannot be had or hoped for without the special influence of the Grace of God for the same Reasons upon which I have already asserted an habitual Goodness not to be obtained without the assistance and influence of the same Spirit And therefore when Peter made that Confession Matth. 16. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Jesus answered v. 17. Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona For Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Not that it was Impossible to come to the Knowledge of this in any degree without asupernatural Revelation For several of the Jews did from the greatness of his Miracles and the Wisdom of his Doctrine suspect and partly believe him to be the Prophet that was to come by which they meant either the Messias or his Forerunner and the Centurion who cannot be thought to have received his Information by any such Miraculous way when he saw our Saviour giving up the Ghost and considered the dreadful Agony of Nature at the instant of his Passion said of a truth this was the Son of God But such a Belief as Peter had of this Truth that is a practical and deeply rooted Sense of the Truth of what he said whereby his heart was changed and his affections subdued and his whole Man captivated into the Obedience of Christ and his Gospel this cannot be revealed by Flesh and Blood which is apt to suggest thoughts and invite to practices of a quite contrary Nature but it is owing to the Grace of God and to the supernatural Illuminations and Influences of the Divine Spirit working upon those who have experienced the new Birth and are become Regenerate and Born again into newness of Life by the adoption of Grace Thus have I endeavoured to explain the operations of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of Men and especially of the Faithful so as neither to make them useless with Pelagius nor irresistable with Calvin nor unintelligible with some of our Modern Writers who are cry'd up by their Adherents for nothing more then that they understand not what they say or Write nor the other what they Read or hear and who do on both hands exactly fulfil that witty and Judicious Character which Lucretius gives of Heraclitus and his admirers Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter Inanes Quam de grates inter Graias qui vera requirunt Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque Inveris quae subverbis latitantia cernunt Veraque constituunt quae bellè tangere possunt Aures lepido quae sunt fucata sonore But now that I may not seem in what I have Written upon this weighty Question to depart from the Sentiments of the Church of England to whose Authority I shall always pay as I am in Duty obliged a most profound respect I will here Transcribe those Articles of Hers in which this point is Concerned which are these three which follow ARTICLE X. Of Freewill The Condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his own natural Strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no Power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will In which Article it is plainly imply'd both that we have some natural strength and that we are capable of performing some good Works though that strength be so imperfect that we cannot by the sole Power and Virtue of it prepare and turn our selves to Faith and calling upon God neither are those Works pleasant and acceptable to God in themselves by reason of that mixture of imperfection with which they are attended and because they are interwoven with many bad ones of both which Causes of their non-acceptation I have already spoken without the assistances of Grace by which the Crudities of the carnal and concupiscible Life in us are attenuated and exalted which would otherwise ascend in gross and malignant Fumes darkning the understanding and depraving the will so as neither the one could discern its Duty with that Clearness nor the other execute it with that entire Resignation of it self to the conduct and governance of Reason and with that inward Fervo◠Chearfulness and Sincerity which is necessary to make our performances acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God and which is that which this Article calls a good will to which as well in its Being as continuance and preservation the Grace of God is of necessity required Neither would our good works though assisted and improved by these supernatural auxiliaries from above be acceptable and pleasant in his sight that is so as to be subservient to the great ends of Happiness and Salvation because in themselves they are no more than what by the Laws of Reason and self-Preservation we are obliged to do and because they are allay'd and tempered by so many Misdemeanours whose Guilt all our after-amendment can never wash away if it were not for the Blood of Christ which God has accepted as an Attonement and Propitiation for our Sins and for the
the Authority of the Scripture then that in the compass of so few Lines which are immediately joyned to one another it should so grosly contradict it self But the main inconvenience of the Doctrine of absolute reprobation is this that though it should be granted to be no other than the constant tenour and Language of the Scriptures which is all that its hottest assertours can desire yet this instead of proving that Doctrine to be true will but prove the Scriptures upon which it is founded to be of no Force or Authority in the World For if God Almighty in the distribution of Eternal Punishment or Happiness to Men have no regard to any Principle of Goodness or Justice in his Nature as he must not have if he proceed only by arbitrary Measures and if God may deceive as I have proved that in some cases he may and as it is granted to a degree of impiety by the Calvinists themselves when they distinguish so boldly betwixt his secret and revealed Will by the one of which he Damns the far greatest part of Mankind and by the other exhorts and threatens them and uses such other means as if he intended their Happiness and Salvation Nay if we all seem to our selves to be free when yet notwithstanding we are indeed necessary Agents which is a strange and a perpetual delusion imposed upon all Mankind I say if all this be granted then though we should suppose the Doctrine of irrespective Reprobation to be the genuine and onely Language of the Scriptures yet how can we tell notwithstanding that there is any Truth in it Or if we could be secured of its Truth and were as sure that we are of the number of the Elect which is a very comfortable assurance when there are so many that go the other way yet how can we tell that we shall be so to Morrow What Hopes What Confidence or Affyance can we put in so arbitrary so deceitful and so uncertain a Being Again when he doomes so many to Eternal Flames and so few to the blessedness of a better State if this depend only upon his arbitrary Will founded upon no Reason that Will may alter for as little reason as it was made or if it be that there is a greater propensity in his nature to Cruelty then Mercy that Cruelty will be better gratified by the Destruction of all and the consideration of it will but serve to afford us a very lamentable prospect of what we are all to expect so true is it that this Doctrine is so far from being solidly demonstrable out of Scripture that it plainly undermines the authority of Scripture as well as the very nature of Morality and Goodness Much good therefore may it do our Adversaries with their new-Friends the Articles of the Church of England which how favorable they are to them we have already seen and if they had been never so favourable yet afterwards when they Confess that even general Councils may Err and when they refer all to the decision of Scripture as the only sufficient rule of Christian Faith and Practice they would by this means perfectly have overthrown themselves or if the Scripture could be supposed to favour such a Doctrine that very supposition would overthrow the truth and certainty of the Scriptures but if the Scripture and the Articles should happen to Disagree as I see no danger that they ever will In this case it must be remembred that we have subscribed to those very Articles no further than they shall be found consonant to the Scripture and therefore unless we have a mind to be forsworn and Damned into the bargain we must relinquish our Articles rather than our Bibles But all this while I would not be so understood as if I thought there never was or could be such a thing as an irresistable Grace for this would be in effect to assert that the power of God was not superiour to that of a Mortal Man Besides that perhaps I have observed more Instances of it up and down the Scriptures both of the Old Testament and the New then those who have made the greatest Noise and Clamor about it The Song of Moses and the Children of Israel in the 15th of Fxodus after their deliverance from the pursuit of the Egyptians and the Dangers of the Red-Sea the prophetick Benediction of Jacob to his Sons in the 49th of Genesis and the Song of Deborah and Barak in the 5th of Judges seem all of them to me to have been inspired and uttered by an irresistable Grace as likewise in the new Testament the Songs of Mary and Zachary and old Simeon upon occasion of the Births of John the Baptist and of Christ either shortly expected or already Accomplisht are without question owing to the same Cause When Balaam being sent for by Balack to Curse the people of Israel could not do it though he would never so fain but on the Contrary delivered himself in words Expressive of the greatest Blessings which God could bestow upon his chosen People when Cajaphas being High Priest prophesied by virâ—ue of his Office when Pilate notwithstanding the repeated instances of the Sanhedrim and chief Priests could not be diverted from an unaccountable pertinaciousness in asserting the Kingship and Dominion of Christ over the Jews all this was by an irresistible Grace or Spirit When the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost descended on the Apostles enduing them with a gift of Tongue not understood by themselves by which they delivered themselves to a mixt assembly made up of divers Nations so as every Man heard the glad tidings of Salvation in his own Language when the primitive Christians upon their being brought before the Magistrates and Judges of the Heathen world instead of being abash'd or dismay'd out of an apprehension of Fear or Danger expressed so strange a confidence and assurance as struck a Dread and Terror into their very Enemies themselves and besides were endued with a gift of utterance peculiar to those times and in vain pretended to in these by which they expressed themselves without Fear or Hesitancy and beyond their own natural faculties and skill in the defence of themselves and to the advantage of the Gospel when three Thousand and five Thousand and multitudes were converted to the Christian Faith and received the Holy Ghost upon the hearing of one Sermon all this was by an irresistible Grace Nay the very phrases of receiveing the Holy Ghost and of the Holy Ghost falling upon them and of being full of the Holy Ghost and being in the Spirit which we find in several places of the new Testament imply a strong and powerful influence of the Spirit upon their Minds which they could easily distinguish from the ordinary results of their own thoughts though we cannot do it now adays and from hence it is that St. Paul speaking of Marriage and a single Life and of the respective Obligation to each for the better furtherance and