Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
kept his Native Integrity yet our Blessed Saviours Incarnation Doings and Sufferings occasioned by the Laps were as primarily intended by God as the very Creation it self For the All-wise and All-good God infallibly knowing what Use Man would make of the Freedom of his Will designed his Creation no sooner than he did a Way which should not only prevent the defeating of the End for which he made man but would also be a means to advance it to an higher degree of Perfection than it could have had without it whilst man has by the Blessed Incarnation of the Son of God of which hereafter in the 9th Section and the gracious Sequel of it far greater Motives to the Love of God in which Felicity consists sect 4. par 13. than by the Creation and all other things besides whatsoever and consequently a certain Means of augmenting the intensness of his Affection to God and thereby the greatness of his eternal Bliss as will hereafter be made out sect 11. 6. This occasional interruption over I go on to shew that Grief Fear Discord Damnation and the Torments of Hell are so many several Branches of the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil For as for Grief it is a Passion which arises from the Sense of an incumbent Evil and Fear from the apprehension of an evil approaching so that in regard there could have no evil happened if Man had continued innocent there would have been neither Fear nor Grief in the World. Nor should Discord or Wars have been found amongst men if their Appetites had continued regular and subject to Reason for generally it is because that several men desire the same single thing which one alone can but enjoy at the same time that differences arise which if the Parties concerned be Sovereigns often grow to Wars But whatever other cause of Dissentions there be 't is the effect of immoderate Desires which sprouted from the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil There is then no Misery incident to Man if Damnation and the Pains of Hell be within the List but derives its Origin from thence which that they are shall be the Work of the following Section to make appear SECT VII Eternal Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows from the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affections from God. Eternal Torments or the Pains of the Damned necessarily for ever accompany their impious Desires of preferring worldly Vanities before the Enjoyment of God. Hence by these two an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature Man makes himself eternally miserable 1. SInce it has been proved Sect. 4. par 13. that eternal Felicity consists in the immense Pleasure Joy and Contentment that flows from the Beatific Vision or Intellectual Sight of God and that the same Pleasure Joy and Contentment is the Love of Complacency or Delight whereby the Soul inseparably adheres to God with all its might sect 4. par 14. 't is plain that such Alienation of the Soul's Affections from God as shall for ever deprive it of such adherence to him must of necessity deprive it of everlasting Bliss 2. And in regard an everlasting deprivation of Bliss is that eternal Misery which the Schools call Poena Damni 't is clear that Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affection from God. 3. And whereas it is impossible to alienate the Souls Affections from God upon his own account because in him is no appearance of evil 't is manifest that for the gratifying of some inordinate Desire as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or Pride of Life man's Soul is alienated in affection from God. 4. Wherefore if the Souls Affections be in this Life so bent upon Riches Honour Luxury Revenge or other worldly Contentment that it prefers any of them before the enjoyment of God and thence makes choice thereof as its chief Good and Felicity or the thing wherein it is above all others delighted it must needs be that whatsoever Soul departs this Life so affected must either forsake and leave off that its desire or be satisfied with the Fruition of the Thing desired or else be eternally tormented for to be for ever deprived of that which the Soul perpetually longs for will be an endless affliction 5. And first That a Soul departing this Life with an habitual affection to some worldly Vanity wherein it delights cannot ever shake off that its Desire is apparent from this that the Will which is an essential Faculty of the Soul can never be void of some Desire or other and that it is unconceivable how it should part with those it is habitually possessed of when it leaves the Body since it is certain that the love of God in pious Souls begun here on Earth continues after Death and accompanies them to Heaven as will be seen sect 13. par 2. and that the Nature of Qualities or habitual Dispositions whether good or bad as to their inherence in the Soul is in all men alike And secondly That those Lusts which inseparably adhere to mens Souls after death can never with the enjoyment of what they desire be satisfied is as certainly true as that their Return to the Earth to enjoy the Pleasures of this World shall never come to pass And thirdly that men who have inordinate desires shall after death endure Torments answerable to the strength of Affection which they have for the Things they lust after and cannot possibly enjoy may be gathered from the afflicted miserable condition of those Persons upon Earth whose Hearts are irrevocably set on Riches Honour Luxury Revenge c. when they find themselves totally disappointed of what they earnestly desire For does not Experience shew us that the Heart of many a covetous Wretch is so cemented to his Gold that when it is stollen from him his Life which before he would not have exchanged for Heaven becomes his Hell so as that he hastens by the first thing in his way to be delivered from it And are not the Thoughts of some vain-glorious and ambitious men so intent upon Honour that falling into Disgrace their very Hearts burst for grief of the want of that alone amidst the affluence of almost all other worldly Goods besides As sad distress befals not a few forlorn Lovers whose Affections are so fast glewed to their Mistresses that they judge no Pain like that of frustrated Love insomuch that they chuse the readiest for the best way of offering violence to their restless wearisom Lives What shall I say of envious and revengeful wishes not accomplished than which no Viper can more cruelly gnaw mens Hearts If then mens Desires may be so violent and the frustrating of them so grievous as hath been said while the Soul is involved in a Body of Clay how fierce will the one and how intolerable will the other be when its Operations are not damped thereby Object
all the desire the perpetual Enjoyment of Him will also love him most hereafter for exactly according to the measure of the Manifestation of Gods Glory both to the Saints and Angels is the Measure of their Love of Him or Delight taken in the Contemplation of his Excellence and in this consists their Felicity which though it is sufficient and satisfactory to every one of them inasmuch as they all love him with their entire Affection or are delighted in him with all their might and so are happy to their own Desire yet do they not however enjoy equal Happiness because the love of God in some of them is more intense than in some others as answering to a fuller manifestation of his Glory to them Object 4. If the formal Cause of Justification be inherent Righteousness or Charity then doth every degree thereof truly justifie so that man's Righteousness may be greater or less and consequently either every degree of Righteousness will not give a just Title to Heaven so as Possession shall ever ensue thereupon or else imperfect Charity shall estate men in everlasting Felicity which is contrary to what hath been often said Solut. In Answer to this Objection I grant that every degree of habitual Charity from the highest to the lowest if either it be not lost or being lost be renewed entitles men so truly to Heaven I that they shall not departing this life therewith finally fail of the full possession of Bliss but sooner or later shall certainly obtain the same sooner or later I say because such an absolute full desire to enjoy the Presence of God as totally excludes all appetite to earthly Enjoyments and Satisfactions of this Life is the sole immediate disposition which prepares the Soul for Bliss so that those alone who through their ardent desire to be with God are weary of this World shall strâ—ight upon their departure hence go to pure and simple Joy but yet so intense as they shall afterwards have at the last upon the re-union of Soul and Body I do not say All the rest that depart this life not having the like ardency of desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ their God and Saviour will in all appearance of Reason retain the mixture of Affection to God and the World which they left the later with for how a meer separation of Soul and Body should root out all Affection to the World is I think a thing unaccountable till the Resurrection from the dead If it be said as indeed it is by some that Christ's appearing to the Souls of good men that departed this Life before his Death must needs have been a Motive and Cause of Change unto them whence it came to pass that the Graves were opened and many Bodies of the Saints which slept arose c. Matth. 27. 52 53. I answer that since it is here supposed that there had been no Motive offered before that his shewing himself to them which had altered the state into which they entered at their separation from the Body it is reasonable to think that there will likewise be no Motive to cause a Change in those which have left or shall leave this World after that his appearing till his coming to Judgment at the last day which in that it must needs in some degree or other be both dreadful and amiable to every one that hath not totally rooted out all Affection to the World according to their different Measures of Fear and Hope arising from their finding themselves more or less clogged with terrene Desires will be a Motive rightly adapted wholly to purge out all the Dreggs of impure Affections and so cause them to fix their Minds for ever upon God. But in the intenim they 'l continue in that condition which they left the World with and so each of them as their Love to God is greater will have more and purer Delight yet not be altogether void of anguish of Spirit by reason they cannot go immediately to God through the load of Sin which though not so heavy as to press them down to Hell yet will not suffer them to soar up to Heaven For we see even in this Life the more Pious that men are the more serene Joy and greater inward Contentment they enjoy but have not withstanding their Groans and Sighs and trouble of Spirit because they find the Old Man is not throughly conquered and subdued and however brought low is nevertheless often giving check to their Spiritual Joy and causing their Grief Nor is an incompleat imperfect State after this Life till the Day of Doom only consonant to Reason but the Sacred Scripture also and Catholic Tradition appear to make for it for what mean these Expressions of being recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just Luke 14. 14. Of the Spirit being saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. Of finding Mercy of the Lord in that Day 2 Tim. 1. 18. but that something is to be received at the Day of Judgment not to be obtained before Which the practical Tradition of the Church both Eastern and Western give Testimony to by their praying for the Dead but not for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory a Practise so universal that the Learned Mr. Thorndike saith It hath been a Custom so general in the Church to pray for the Dead that no beginning of it can be assigned no time no part of the Church where it was not used Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England Book 3. Ch. 29. P. 333. And another of our Learned Country-men Dr. Hammond writeth thus 'T is certain that some measure of Bliss which shall at the Day of Judgment be vouchsafed the Saints when their Bodies and Souls shall be reunited is not till then enjoyed by them and therefore may safely and fitly be prayed for Annotat. on 2 Tim. 1. 16 17 18. For besides that it is evident from Holy Writ that there shall be a general Resurrection The hour is coming in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5. 28 29. it is manifest likewise to our Reason that there must be a Re-union of every Soul and Body at the last Day for since Christ shall then appear in his Humanity Ye Men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1. 11. corporeal Eyes will be necessarily requisite to behold Him with and that not only because the Organs or Sense are the proper Means instituted by God for the giving notice of corporeal Objects to the Souls of Men but for this farther reason also that there may be a manifest equal Distribution of Justice to the whole Generation of Mankind for
assisted by the Spirit of God they are as apt to convert as a Knife being employed by the Hand is to cut cannot actually convert but when they are applied to a Subject fitly prepared to take impression from them and therefore when they meet not with a due Disposition or right Preparation of Heart to receive them Conversion will not ensue And forasmuch as such Disposition or Preparation of Heart is not in the Power of Mans Free Will as Pelagius impiously held it was but is the undoubted work of God every ones Conversion is truly attributed to the Power of the Holy Ghost in that he works the mentioned Disposition in the Soul by causing it to give due Attendance to the means of Salvation offered as may be clearly collected from the Instance of Lydia's Conversion whose Heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. For through that her attention the Word of God delivered by St. Paul took effect and converted her There is then no Scruple at all to be made but that every man's Conversion is the Work of Gods Spirit in the heart both in respect of the Application of the Means of Grace and of giving due Attendance thereunto The only difficulty lies in this how the Attention to the Doctrine of Salvation requisite on Man's part to his Conversion is wrought whether by some physical Influence or real Emanation issuing from God and penetrating the Heart of Man as Fire warms by sending forth Heat into the thing warmed by it or by the sole force of the Divine Will without any such either Influence or any intermediate Cause whatsoever or lastly that through the Almighties Government of the World in ordering second Causes which are all in his disposing man's mind becomes inclined to give due heed to Instruction and Exhortation by Motives offered several ways such as are pain of Body loss of Estate or Friends Plagues Desolation sudden and violent Deaths great and unexpected Mercies and Deliverances with divers other things seen heard or read of The first of the three rehearsed ways the absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature makes impossible for how should any Physical Influence or real Emanation proceed out of him whose Being is Immutable one essential Act and entirely simple Sect. 1. Par. 8 9 10. The second Way would be as miraculous as the creating of all things out of nothing and the Attention given to the Means of Grace would be irresistible in all Men. The third Way therefore I take to be truth and am confirm'd therein from St. Paul's Conversion which though strange and unusual yet was it not effected by the immediate Will of God without all intermediate Means from his becoming all things to all men over and above his zealous preaching of Christ and indeed from the constant manner and method of God's dealing with Mankind since the very Creation If it be replied that I seem to place the sole and whole immediate Cause of Man's Conversion in the Means and only the remote Cause thereof in the Spirit of God which yet is held by Divines actually to reach and work by its immediate Inspiration the Effect I answer that the Divine Will which instituted and orders the Means as well for Conversion as for the Preparation of the Heart goes still along therewith to make them effectual not unlike to a mans Mind which after he hath made a Pen to write with and prepared Ink and Paper continually goes along with the Pen to effect the intended Writing so that I plainly maintain what answers to that which others call the immediate Operation or Inspiration of the Holy Ghost or Divine Influx or Concourse with the Means of Grace whilst I hold that as the Pen cannot write without the continued assistance of the Hand moved by the Will so neither can the Means of Grace convert a Sinner or cause any other holy Act without the perpetual Aid of the Divine Will or Power of the Holy Ghost enabling them thereunto If it be said that albeit Man's Mind guide and go along with the Hand and Pen yet the Pen alone immediately touches the Paper and makes the Impression in it my Answer is that both the Mind and the vis impressa conveyed by the Hand to the Pen reach as far as the Pen it self otherwise the Pen could not write what it doth either as to the Character or the Matter for what knows it of the difference of any Figure or Subject whatsoever and even so doth the Spirit of God no less than the Means of Man's Salvation reach the Heart both to prepare it and convert it unto God but with this difference that the Writing on the Paper is an Impression necessarily received by it but the preparative Disposition and Conversion of the Heart are Effects wrought therein by a voluntary Compliance and Concurrence of the Will of Man with the Author and Means of Grace SECT XVI Praise and Thanksgiving to God are proper and efficacious Means for procuring and augmenting Charity Vocal Prayer Musick and Gestures of Body betokening Humility and Reverence towards the Divine Majesty are useful and advantageous for begetting inward Devotion and Affection towards God. 1. AS Prayer hath been shewn to have its proper effect in procuring the Moral and Theological Virtues in order to the uniting the Soul to God by Charity and by causing the frequent exercise of it and them when they are acquired by which Charity is confirmed enlivened and augmented in us Sect. 15. so likewise will it appear that the virtue and good of Praising and Lauding God for the Excellency of his Essence Power and Wisdom and of his great and noble Acts in creating and governing the World is terminated in setling and confirming the Love of God in Mens Souls for whose Cause and not for his own as he commands Prayer to be made unto him so doth he enjoyn Honour Laud and Praise to be perpetually given unto Him. 2. For since every Command whether of God or Man must of right tend to and design the obtaining some good by fulfilling of the same and that it is impossible for the Almighty who was all Perfection within himself to receive any good either of Profit or Pleasure from abroad Sect. 8. it necessarily follows that God requires Honour Laud and Praise to be given unto him not for any accession of Advantage to himself but solely for the Benefit of his Creature 3. And because the uniting the Soul to God by Charity is the alone Good whereunto all that can be truly said to be good to Man tends Sect. 11. every one is required to praise God in his Holiness to praise him in the firmament of his Power to praise him in his noble Acts to praise him according to his excellent Greatness Psalm 150. ver 1 2. by reason the often hearty doing thereof cannot chuse but exceedingly advance the Love of God and cause a longing in the Soul to
and slight those Benefits which God by them tenders to him and in so doing not only sets slight of the Author of them but also rejects the End at which they ultimately aim Felicity No man therefore possibly can deliberately dishonour his Parents or other his Superiors but his Heart will be thereby estranged from God. But much more in wilfully disobeying their just Commands is there an Aversion from their Sovereign Good for therein is a direct Refusal of God's Goodness offered by them whilst every thing they lawfully command is some way more or less directly or by consequence advantageous to the acquisition of Bliss if right use be made thereof The 6th Commandment which is Non occides Thou shalt not kill or Thou shalt do no Murther is not kept by a meer abstaining from desiring contriving or attempting the Death or bodily Harm of our Neighbour but in wishing and doing likewise our Endeavour to preserve his Life and Health in order to the eternal Welfare of his Soul which we cannot do save only as we are excited thereto by the Love we bear to our own Life and good Estate of our Bodies as serviceable to the End for which Life and all the Helps and Attendants of it were given For neither Health nor Life ought to be desired if such Circumstances occur as that the Preservation of them is inconsistent with the everlasting Welfare of the Soul which because it is placed in the Fruition of God the Love we have thereto is the principal reason and motive why we ought to desire to continue in Life and Health our selves or wish the like to our Neighbour for making preparation towards the full Enjoyment of him after this Life is ended And on the contrary the bare doing of bodily Harm to our Neighbour or even the taking away of his Life is no sin simply in it self considered but in this respect only that he who does it has not that due regard for want of the Love of God to the preservation of it which the importance thereof in order to the end whereunto it was given requires For who is ignorant that the Execution of the Penalties in Laws for capital Crimes is no Sin either in the Judge who gives Sentence of Death or in him that executes the same provided they have no personal Malice to the Offender but solely have an Eye to the satisfying of the Law which intends not any Mischief to the Malefactor but Good to the Weal-public by removing an incorrigible Member from among the People But if the Judg or Executioner desire his Death out of hatred to him albeit he deserve to die and be justly condemned and executed there is Murther committed notwithstanding that the Party suffering has no more Torment inflicted on him than if no Malice had been towards him whence it is apparent that the Breach of this Commandment lies in that depraved Disposition of Mind which is opposite to the sound desire of wishing a Man's Neighbour's bodily Welfare in order to the Health of his Soul which because none ever heartily doth but in virtue of his own Love of Bliss the Want of that Love is the formal Reason why the bereaving any one of Life or working his bodily harm is a sin or hinderance to Felicity The 7th Commandment is Thou shalt not commit Adultery the Breach of which doth not consist in the material Act of carnal copulation with anothers Wife but in forsaking the Love of God for an unlawful Pleasure For suppose a Wife should leave her Husband and be married to another Man inculpably ignorant of her former Marriage the Woman alone would offend against this Precept albeit the Man also transgressed the Letter of the Law in carnally knowing anothers Wife Or in case a Man should have his Neighbours Consort put into his Bed thinking her to be his own he offended not although he should commit the external Act of Adultery with her And on the contrary if an Husband lay with his own Wife thinking her to be his Neighbours he would in so doing sin against this Precept and yet no Transgression of it would thereby be made as to the external Act prohibited Hence it is plain that the Violation of the Seventh Comandment is in the depraved Affection of the Will in turning the Heart away from the Love of God to unchast Pleasures and that it is kept by having a Mind undefiled with fleshly Lusts which every one so long hath as Charity or the Love of God above all things is predominant in the Soul. If it be objected that simple Fornication also alienates the Heart from God through the desire of unlawful Venereal Pleasures whence it should be a sin no less grievous then Adultery I answer that he who attempts to pollute his Neighbours Bed knows that he ought upon a double account not to do it First because his Neighbours Wife is not tied in a Matrimonial Bond to him Secondly because she is bound to another and therefore he will have his Heart more hardned in sin or farther estranged from God than if he only desired to satisfie his Lust with one from whom upon the former account alone he holds himself to be restrained and so the sin of Adultery all Circumstances being equal is a more heinous Transgression of the Law of God than the Sin of simple Fornication is The 8th Commandment is Thou shalt not steal by which we are obliged not only to abstain from taking by Force or Fraud whatsoever temporal Good our Neighbour has a Right to but also to employ our Endeavours if just occasion require to help to secure him in the lawful Possession of the same yet with this intent that he use it as a Means to further him in the pursuit of his Eternal Good the fruition of which is the Vltimate End of all Laws whether Divine Moral Canonical or Civil in the sincere Desire whereof they are only truly kept and for want of which they are solely broken as to their principal and Grand Design albeit not as to their particular respective ends which they more immediately but less beneficially look at And therefore even this Precept which more obviously regards and enjoyns the doing Justice may be violated as to the letter of it without a formal Breach thereof as will appear by shewing that in some Case one Man may without violating this Precept take from another without his Consent what the Municipal Laws of the Land where they both live entitle him to which I thus undertake to do No Man by the primary Law of Nature or Reason can or ever could except Adam who was Lord of the whole Earth claim Propriety in any thing without himself Propriety came by a latter Law namely either by Distribution of Lands and Goods made by Adam or else by Division or Occupancy after Adams Decease of what he had not disposed of immediately or mediately in his Life time to which purpose Grotius in his Second Book
designs it to be a Warning to others not to imitate them in their gross Impiety and at that time when he knows the Offenders will rather grow worse than ever after come to amendment And as Man's Condition here for any Decree of Gods to the contrary is as good as can be considering the Causes Natural and Moral which render his Condition what it is so will his State hereafter likewise be the necessary and voluntary Causes considered which bring him to it of which Causes the Variety in respect of all Mankind is so great at all times and so differently circumstantiated in their Influence and Application and the Subjects to be wrought on so contrarily often disposed one to another that it is easie to conceive that they may very well become effectual Means of Conversion to some great Sinners while other less Offenders are not moved to a thorow Amendment by them so that the dying of men in their Sins cannot justly be so attributed to the Divine Will and Pleasure as if the Almighty suffered them to perish out of pure design for the manifestation of his Glory the infallible Word expresly declaring to us the contrary God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. And again who will have all Men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. To which knowledge though they do not all attain yet is the Word of God no less firm and sure Why all Men in the World have not heard of God's infinite Love manifested in the Death of Christ many Causes may be assigned all grounded on Gods infinite Justice and Mercy Of Christ's Death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have been Partakers save only for their free and voluntary Progress from evil to worse or wilful refusal of Gods loving Kindness daily proffered to them in such Pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good only as they plight the truth of God's Love unto them which he manifested in the Death of his Son. With this manifestation of his Love many again out of meer Mercy have not been acquainted lest the sight of the Medicine might have caused their Disease to rage and made their Case more lamentably desperate Dr. Jackson in his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Cap. 17. Paragr 3. All which I mean that hath been said in the whole Answer to the Objection considered together with this that it was not only better to create than not to create but also that no other World could be created save only that which doth exist Sect. 3. Par. 8. 't is clear that the Almighties Wisdom and Goodness are justified even to the Eye of Human Reason notwithstanding the different times and ways of men departing Life either in respect of Age or of dying more or less in Sin. Objection 14. From the Instances given in the explanation of the Seventh Commandment sect 19. you seem to hold that there can be no external Sin in the Body of any one denomination where there is not an internal Sin in the Soul of the same kind from which alone the exterior Act as being produced by it can be called sinful Against this Opinion I offer it to your Consideration whether there may not be external Idolatry where there is no internal as suppose an Idol be commanded by the Magistrate under pain of Death to be worshipped by bowing down before it and a Christian to save his Life bows his Body towards it but at the same time abominates the Idol in his heart so as that he is far from giving any internal Honour to it and yet surely you will not say but that he commits the Sin of Idolatry and may be justly censured by the Church as an Idolater Answer Since the Christian instanced in does what is commanded so far forth as that the Lookers on have sufficient cause to believe he has committed Idolatry the Church ought to esteem and censure him as an Idolater for what he has done by reason it cannot judg of the Heart but by outward Signs and inappearance he has committed Idolatry But yet if you 'l go to the exact definition of Idolatry you 'l find the Fact comes not within the compass of it and that Sin which will not come under the definition of Idolatry you must needs grant cannot be truly speaking the Sin of Idolatry for Idolatry is a Crime which exhibits the honour due to God alone to another Object and therefore since the bowing down of the Body is not an Act appropriated to the Divine Majesty for we lawfully and laudably bow unto our Prince Parents and others in Authority over us of which there are several Examples in Holy Writ it is evident that the mentioned act of bowing towards the Idol is not Idolatrous according to the definition of Idolatry To make this more plain by an Instance let 's suppose another Christian to be brought before the Idol and commanded to bow unto it as the other did which he likewise in appearance does by stooping down that he may catch it by the feet to overthrow it and according to his intent casts it with scornful indignation to the ground in doing of which he gives full satisfaction to the Beholders of his abhorrence of performing any manner of Worship to it notwithstanding that they all see him bow towards it as low as the other did judg him an Idolater till the Reason of his incurvation becomes apparent to them by seeing the Idol so contemptuously used at the length Is then you 'l say the formerly spoken of Christian who is granted to deserve the Churches Censure as an Idolater no more guilty of Idolatrous Worship according to the strictest Notion of Idolatry than the latter I refer you to the definition of Idolatry which cannot delude you for answer Is he therefore you 'l peradventure reply only sinful in the sight of Men and not also in the sight of God Yes undoubtedly he is a very grievous Offender even before God as well as men for he not only scandalizes Christianity in giving the Enemies of it an occasion to triumph in hardening them in their idolatrous Worship and in encouraging them to proceed to persecute Christians with hope of desired success but also in disheartning of the weaker Brethren in making them to stagger in the Faith and in grieving all the Members of Christ in general to do any one of which is a great Sin but to do all of them together is a Crime of complicated Scandal to the Gospel of Christ which at once instructeth and exhorteth saying Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him