endeavours to unite and become one with that ever-blessed Being subtracting his affections from all earthly vanities as finding something more noble and worthy to bestow them upon Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus as Porphyry speaks of the Egyptian Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath given up his whole life to Divine Contemplation and search after the Deity Such Power have Evangelical Truths over the minds of men that they transform them into their own native image and similitude and the more they are looked into the more they enravish them with their heavenly beauty and pulchritude And because afflicted and persecuted Vertue could not be thought eligible meerly for it self nor be a sufficient argument to induce us to the love and practice of it who were so fatally addicted to the concerns of sense therefore God who knew our frame and how far and to what degrees we had apostatiz'd from his holy Nature did not only propound good things to our choice but solicit our wills to the embracing of them by the strongest evidences and most attractive motives that our Natures were capable of receiving The life of sense being more powerful and laying a greater though not a juster claim to our minds as we are born into this World God was pleased to deal with us after a sensible manner and in a way of condescending Wisdom proportioning the Truths he delivered to us to our capacity of reception And this was that the Apostle called the Foolishness of Preaching wherein God stoops down and puts on the garb and frailties of humanity and suits the results of his will with our mean and shallow apprehensions Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh and cradled in the circle of a Virgins arms which clearly demonstrates even to outward sense the exceeding Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty God that he hath not cast off the care of Mankind but is at peace with the World and hath put on the bright robes of Loving-kindness and Mercy which he hath given a large Specimen and full proof of in the Mission of the Lord Christ from heaven God would have all men lay aside their hard thoughts and causless-jealousies and suspicions of his Nature as if he did not from his heart intend them good but only suspended his anger for a time which might again break out upon them in prodigious floods of vengeance and fury For this is the most certain sign that God wills and desires our happiness and welfare in that he hath united himself to our Nature and sent down his only begotten Son for no other purpose but to seek and to save that which was lost And if he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things What is there now can lay a greater tie upon ingenuous spirits then the discovery of so much undeserved kindness and love What heart is there so obdurate and rocky that this will not dissolve into the tears of love and joy to behold the blessed Jesus hanging between heaven and earth upon the Cross that he might reconcile all things that are in heaven and earth and become a propitiatory Sacrifice for all mens sins in the World It is said of Socrates that he was so inamour'd with this Divine passion of Love that he styled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A servant of Love Let therefore Love which is the Proxenet of Nature the great instrument of conciliating hearts beget in thee a return and retribution of Love and never think of those streams of blood which so copiously flowed from the wounded body of thy dying Lord without a passive and melting spirit but be likewise a servant of Love and act under that generous principle for Love is of God And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And that we may not think we are set to remove mountains or perform impossibilities when we are exhorted by the Gospel to the participation of Gods holy life we shall never be left alone to sink under our load and die but shall have the assistance of that Almighty and Demiurgical spirit of Love who hovered over the dark Chaos and brought into Being the goodly frame of heaven and earth and replenished all the immense tracts of space with sutable inhabitants Wisd ch vii This is that Wisdom which is the brightness of the Everlasting the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his Goodness which remaining in her self makes all things new and in all ages entring into holy souls makes them friends of God and Prophets She will not lodge in a sinful body nor abide when unrighteousness cometh in For she is more beautiful then the Sun and above all the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it This kind and loving spirit will God bestow upon every one that asks it of him to repair his broken and decayed Nature to raise up the Divine Image to joynt and confirm every perverse dislocation in the frame of his soul and to perfect and compleat the living efformation of Christ within him Let no man then despair of attaining to a state of Blessedness under the Gospel for this Benign Spirit whose delights are with the Sons of Men pervades the whole World and touches and overshadows every man with out-stretched wings who is willing to have the Divine Image and Pourtraiture formed in him and doth not by impurity and uncleanness chase it away Though our enemies are mighty and our souls weak yet let none despair of Victory for through the assistance and conduct of that Almighty we shall be able to overcome them He is ever cherishing and fostring the life of God wherever it 's born into any soul and sweetly insinuates into our minds and hallows and sanctifies all our powers and excites us to a serious and hearty pursuit after the indispensable laws of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We are not fallen and degenerated beyond the power of God but his Spirit is able to raise and bring up our souls from the lowest Hell and to renew and reform our debased and wretched Natures For what cannot he do who at first made us faultless and happy till we ruined and defaced his blessed Image and rendred our selves the miserable objects of his compassions What is there in our frame so stubborn and insequacious that he cannot rectifie and redress who at first created all things and brought into Being all the Beauty and Harmony of Heaven and Earth He will never leave us destitute and forlorn but will take hold of every fitness and capacity till he have perfected in us the Divine life and brought us unto Glory But because Examples are more prevalent with mankind then Precepts and Instructions that God might not leave any thing undone which would in any kind conduce to our Interest he hath recommended to us the Example
teach and instruct mankind in the true knowledge and worship of the Deity Hence it is that in the Gentile Theology Love is made the most ancient of the Gods and the Sire of all things * Plutarch tells us that for this reason Hesiod made Love the most ancient of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is described by Simmias Rhodius in a pair of Wings which suited well with the Symbolical representation of the Chaos by an Egge which was brooded and hatched under these wings of Love Something of this we find Aristophanes in Avibus sporting withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Love therefore according to their Divinity being the benigne Creator of all things the Father of Men and Angels from whose bounteous fecundity the vast spaces of the external Creation became replenished with suitable inhabitants must needs be ever present with every thing he hath brought into being and communicate himself to all his Creatures so far as their respective Natures are capable of receiving the influxes of his Paternal Goodness What was therefore obscurely and imperfectly delivered by the Heathens concerning the production of things we have fully declared in the Mosaical history of the Creation where we find the Holy Spirit of Love by his fostering incubation bringing into being and cherishing under his extended wings the new-born World Which manner of production surely denotes a tender care and dear regard of whatever is brought into being and therefore the Metaphorical expression of Wings is often used in Sacred Writ to set forth Gods loving care and providence Psal xci 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers when thou betakest thy self under the shadow of his wings And when the blessed Jesus would denote that dear love wherewith he would have embraced Jerusalem had she returned unto him he tels us that he would have gathered her children together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a bird gathereth her young under her wings Mat 23.37 God cannot be separated from any of mankind but as he brought them into being for no other end but that they might taste of the communications of his Nature so he takes care that none of them shall fall short of this desirable end but through their own default 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That mind which is the Father of all things being life and nature it self produced man like unto himself and loved him as his own off-spring But far short of this comely Idea of the Divine Nature is that of Calvin who had he been to describe the barbarous stratagem of some cruel Nero or one more inhumane than the World hath yet known contrived to slay the innocent under colour of Justice could scarce have done it with more horror and amazement than that wherein he layes down the eternal counsel of God against Reprobates Instit lib. 3. cap. 24. Sect. 12. Quemadmodum suae erga electos vocationis efficacia salutem ad quam eos aeterno consilio destinaret perficit Deus ita sua habet adversus reprobos judicia quibus consilium de illis suum exequatur Quos ergo in vitae contumeliam mortis exitium creavit ut irae suae organa forent severitatis exempla eos ut in finem suum perveniant nunc audiendi verbi sui facultate privat nunc ejus praedicatione magis excaecat obstupefacit i. e. As God by the efficacy of his Vocation towards the Elect compleates that Salvation to which he designed them by an eternal decree so he hath his determinations against Reprobates by which he executes his decree concerning them Those therefore whom he created for the reproach of life and perdition of death that they might become the instruments of Anger and examples of his Severity those that they may arive to their end he sometimes deprives of the means of hearing his Word and othertimes more blinds and amazes by the preaching of it But is the Name of a Creator nay of a Father no more promising Why was Man made in the Image of God unless he intended to deal with him according to that relation he stood in unto him We do not read that God hath dealt thus with any of the rest of the Creation for the rebellious Devils were not cast down from the higher regions of light and glory till they apostatiz'd from God and drew with them the race of Mankind And shall Man alone the noblest part of that Creation to which God once vouchsafed that cheerful Elogium and Approbation that it was very good shall he only I say be banished from the participation of that All-comprehensive Goodness I can sooner therefore believe that the proud Gyant the fanciful Poets have placed under mount Aetna should by his own native effort throw of that heavy burden from his oppressed breast or that the spirit of Nature should convert a flinty rock into a heap of fragrant flowers than that God should create any of Mankind on purpose to make them the pitious objects of others scorn and his own powerful and implacable vengeance I can never believe any thing I say that savours of such irrational and unjust proceedings but rather affirm that the Eternal benignity of the Holy one diffused and communicated through the whole Orbe of beings and comprehension of Nature will so certainly take hold of every thing that is capable of enjoying it that it shall not fail of being happy so long as it acts evenly and regularly in that place and state infinite Wisedom hath allotted to it Hence Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn 3. What wonder is' t if God Who did the World create From his own works repel All sad and evil fate As if it were contradictory to the very Nature of God to be the Demiurgus and Maker of all things and yet not to render his productions as happy as the capacities of their natures will admit For nothing advantageth him ought and all the happiness or misery the Creatures run through in the course and order of things is neither an addition nor detraction of his felicity only he being Essential Love which envies not nor thinks any evill delights to communicate of himself in effects of kindness tenderness and beneficence to all beings round about him The whole Creation tastes of it having all it's parts cemented with Goodness and it's foundation lay'd in Love The Heavens the Earth and Sea and whatever moves within the compass of them bear witness to this Truth This is that All-mighty Love which feeds the young Ravens when they open their mouths towards heaven and provides for the Lybian Lyons when their souls are pincht with hunger and they roar after their prey He it is that opens the windows of heaven and refreshes the dry and parched Earth causing the grass to grow for the Cattel and herb for the service of Man All things in
the case Is it at all consentaneous to that communicative Goodness wherein God takes most delight to glorifie himself to make those souls the desolate Victims of enraged Vengeance who never had any more then a capability of Existence when their first Parent sinned against heaven and could no more prevent their defilement by that diffusive contagion then hinder themselves from being first made Arrian makes a very near cognation and affinity of the souls of Men with God Cap. 14. lib. 1. in Epictet as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particles and avulsions from him and when Moses made intercession for the Israelites upon the Rebellion of Korah he uses this Title or Appellation Numb xvi 22. The God of the spirits of all flesh as the most prevalent Argument to induce him not to be wrath with the whole Congregation for one mans sin forasmuch as he was their Creator and therefore could not but pity the works of his own hands And the Author to the Hebrews styles this everblessed Being Chap. xii 9. The Father of Spirits who for that very reason can never cast of that Relation and become unpitiful to his own lovely Off-spring who in their lowest state and greatest degeneracy were vouchsafed to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sons of God Joh. xi 52. And now what other can these things signifie but that there is a very near alliance and consanguinity between God and the souls of Men and that it is only the corrupt imaginations of men which introduced those horrid Decrees and represented God as a hater of Mankind and desirous of the death of his Creation But to carry on this a little further That God should hang the everlasting interest of millions of souls upon the frail and mutable Will of a single Person whom he foresaw would lapse and by it ruin and undo the greater part of his yet uncreated Posterity is an Oeconomy too harsh and rigid ever to be put in execution by the God of Love and unworthy the Nature of him who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in him the Father of Mercies and Compassions Let us be wise unto sobriety and act like men who care not for Words and Names but Things Suppose an hundred Persons condemned to die equally culpable equally criminal and it be in the Power of some Good Man to save ten twenty or all if he please will he not rather deliver all than only redeem twenty or a less number especially when he may do it with the same expence and cost and shall we imagine God to be less Good than a charitable and kind-hearted Man Do God and his holy Angels take an infinite complacency and delight and rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and can we think they take pleasure in the destruction of Myriads even before they ever actually offended This made Mr. Calvin betake himself to the defence of the Supralapsarian cause because he knew not how the Personal sin of Adam should be derived upon his Posterity and make them formally guilty so as God might Salvâ bonitate justitiâ Reprobate them as sinners and cast them into the lowest hell Wherefore he ascribes all to the Divine Preordination and doubts not to say In Resp ad Calumn Nebul. ad Art 1. Nihil ad nos unius hominis culpa nisi nos coelestis judex aeterno exitio addiceret But let us hear him speak out his mind more fully to this purpose Instit lib. 3. cap. 23. § 7. Disertis verbis hoc extare negant decretum fuisse à Deo ut sua defectione periret Adam Quasi verò idem ille Deus quem Scriptura praedicat facere quaecunque vult ambiguo fine condideret nobilissimum ex suis Creaturis Liberi arbitrii fuisse Dicunt ut fortunam ipse sibi fingeret Deum verò nihil destinasse nisi ut pro merito eum tractaret Tam frigidum commentum si recipitur ubi erit illa Dei Omnipotentia quâ secundum arcanum consilium quod aliunde non pendet omnia moderatur Atqui Praedestinatio velint nolint in posteris se profert Neque enim factum est naturaliter ut à salute exciderent omnes unius parentis culpâ Quid eos prohibet fateri de uno homine quod inviti de toto humano genere concedunt Quid enim tergiversando luderent operam Cunctos mortales in unius hominis personâ morti aeternae mancipatos fuisse Scriptura clamat Hoc cùm naturae ascribi nequeat ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minime obscurum est Bonos istos justitiae Dei Patronos perplexos haerere in festu â altas verò trabes superare nimis absurdum est Iterum quaero Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Hic obmutescere oportet alicqui tam dicaces linguas Decretum quidem horrible fateor inficiari tamen nemo poterit quin praesciverit Deus quem exitum esset habiturus homo antequam ipsum conderet ideo praesciverit quia decreto suo sic ordinarat It cannot be denyed then but that the Scripture abundantly testifies and our dayly experience asserts the Lapse and Apostacy of Men from God and that they are really guilty of an Original contagion but that it came by any Ordination and Decree of God neither Scripture not Reason will assent unto And for this Degeneracy God might justly have punished all the World since that every man had made himself obnoxious by departing from him and violating his Sacred Law But God whose Goodness never fails was so far from taking advantage of the deplorable state of Mankind that he had a design of Good towards them and sent the Lord Christ into the World who taking upon him to become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of men took of all that displeasure which was conceived against them according as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. v. 19. Col. i. 19 20. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And again It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell and having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven By which Reconciliation is meant Gods taking into grace and favour lapsed Man and forgiving their foul degeneracy from him and assuring them that their past obliquities shall never ruine them if now they will endeavour to become New-creatures and that now he hath entred upon a Covenant of Peace wherein he promises to them all the assistance that possibly can be given Rational Beings so that now no man is damned for his Original but Actual Transgressions otherwise it cannot be understood how God through Christ should reconcile the World unto
of the reach of danger and if he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for God will raise him up The gates of hell shall never pluck him out of Gods hands nor separate him from his eternal Love for having loved his own he loveth them unto the end The thickest cloud of sin and darkness arising from his polluted and rotten heart though it may suspend for a while yet can never totally divest him of Gods paternal Love and favour because he is one of Christ's Sheep of his little flock and he knows him and is confident he is known of him and though he have lived in vice and rolled in the dirt and mire of the Earth till the utmost Period of his life yet the holy Spirit will infallibly and irresistibly at the very Exit of his soul change and renew it and cast the robes of Christ's spotless Righteousness upon it and then 't is impossible the man should miss of heaven And is this a Doctrine adapted to the carrying on the design God intended in the Gospel namely the Reduction of the world to a conformity to the Divine will to forsake and abandon all their sinful and false wayes and to live in a universal submission and resignation to his holy Laws and Commands What proof or evidence doth it bring that it aims at any such thing Is it in that it declares to a man that Faith and Repentance and every good motion of the soul is the irresistible work of God and that 't is no more in his Power to confer any thing to his being a good Christian a just and Righteous person than to add one cubit to his bodily stature but if he be not as yet regenerated he must stay and wait till that good time come wherein the Spirit of the Lord shall enter into him and make him a New Creature for the wind bloweth where it listeth Or is it in that it affirms That Christ dyed for the Elect and though the value of his Satisfaction were infinite and sufficient to redeem the whole World for them only and that his death hath satisfied for all their sins and that now God imputes the Righteousness of the Lord Christ to them and upon his account they are esteemed as righteous as if in their own Persons they had fulfilled the whole Evangelical Law though in the mean time their hearts are very corrupt and unsound Are these the Demonstrations by which this Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees manifests it self to come from God If it bear the Superscription and Image of God upon it it is then as he himself is Light and there is no Darkness no mixture of impurity and humane imagination in it for God cannot patronize any thing but what is holy as he is holy and pure as he is pure But if we consider well such Positions will appear very obscure and frightful horrid and amazing savouring of the Prince of Darkness by whom they were breathed into the minds and spirits of unsanctified Persons and by them communicated to the World as the Arcana of Christianity but tending in reality to the eversion of it and the augmentation and increase of the Devils Kingdom For when Men shall hear that upon such and such Pulpit-signs which their Impertinent Preachers deliver to them they may gather their Election from all Eternity and that maugre all the Oppositions of Men and Devils they shall never fall quite away by a final Impenitence but assuredly recovered by an uncontrollable and peremtory power when they shall be told likewise That Gods calls are at certain times and seasons and that till they perceive themselves forcibly inacted and carryed away by the impulse of the Divine Spirit all their previous actions are to no purpose Will not these things cause them to sit down in laziness and take their ease without troubling themselves with the renovation of their minds sith that God will take care for that and soak themselves in terrestrial joyes and pleasures till the dead-awakening trump which when it will be they know not call them from the Grave of sin and death as Christ did Lazarus and bid them come forth Will not the imputation of Christs Righteousness and the mantle of his Satisfaction damp the endeavours of men after real and inward Righteousness and inherent Holiness by which they attain to a participation of the Divine Nature since they can have anothers at so cheap a rate which will likewise be as beneficial and stand them in as much stead as if they had of their own Men are prone to palliate their sin and take hold of any pretence to stop the mouth of their accusing consciences and need no such artifices to lead them into those paths that go down to Hell and the comfortless chambers of death Their evil Natures and the examples of others and temptations of Satan are sufficient to draw them into Vice and Irreligion that none need disseminate such doctrins as shall invite them to immorality and iniquity from the Authority and Countenance of Gods word But it is supposed that every Christian Mâ—stagogus who acknowledges himself to have a Master in heaven to whom he must give an account for the souls committed to his charge if not for theirs yet for his own felicities sake will have so much prudence and circumspection as not to build on the foundation of the Gospel Wood Hay or stubble any such Doctrins as will not abide the test of Reason but prove both to God and Mens souls very mischievous and injurious for though he does it ignorantly his work shall be burnt but he himself shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet so as by fire that is with extreme difficulty as he that hardly escapeth out of the fire 2. The second Instance wherein the Doctrin of Irrespective Decrees inverts and destroyes the end and purpose of God in the Gospel is by leading Men into desperation I do not mean that they should despair of mercy so long as they continue in their sins for this every Criminal ought to do that he may be induced to come out of them the sooner but by Desperation here I mean a disbelief of Gods will or power to save them whereby they go on carelesly and resolutely in a course of Rebellion and Iniquity For being perswaded on the one hand that the number of the Elect is but small in comparison of Reprobates and that both the one and the other are particularly designed and marked out by name for the Lord knows who are his and that all the labours of men after the Kingdom of Heaven will prove unsuccessful and abortive till God by a high and mighty hand come upon them and powerfully convince them of the evil of their wayes and astonish them with the weight and multitude of their sins laying them low and bringing them down as they phrase it to the gates of Hell and shewing them the worm that never dies and the fire which never shall
be quenched and then making bare his arme and demonstrating his Power by lifting them up from thence into the warm Sun-shine of his favour where they shall remain as secure of Heaven as if they were there already till God please by death to translate them unto glory And being taught on the other hand that whoever finds not this mighty work of Grace within him and feels not this great change wrought in his spirit it is a certain sign he is in the state of Reprobation and one of those who were of old ordained to condemnation Men I say being thus instructed and misguided by Pragmatick zeal that sets up it self in the place of Reason and not knowing that ever they had any sense or perception of those forementioned effects being wrought in them presently conclude that there is nothing to be expected for them but a sure and inevitable Damnation They never heard the sound of that breath of heaven which quickens dry bones and makes them stand up and live nor ever were acquainted with those impetuous agitations and convulsions of spirit whereby the New-birth is formed in them they never took notice of any such audible Voice behind them saying unto them this is the way walk in it Nor ever felt any such black tempest of horror and trembling seazing on them which presently the cloud being blown over was turned into a serene gale of quietness and peace Now it being thus with them what other conclusion can they draw from such Premises but that they are the objects of Gods hatred and are utterly excluded from all hope of happyness by a Decree unalterable as the Laws of the Medes and Persians For God hath determined say the Reprobationists and purposed in himself and he is not as Man that he should lye or the son of Man that he should repent that he will shew mercy to none but those few whom he hath pre-ordained to Salvation for the illustration of the Glory of his free Grace What shall I now comfort those despairing and disconsolate souls withal Should I tell them that God hates nothing that he hath made that he is the Father of Spirits and no Parent will tare out the tender bowels of his own dear off-spring they will presently reply that though the number of souls be as the sand of the Sea a remnant only shall be saved a little flock a tenth as the shaking of an Olive tree two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches and though it be true that God is the Father of Spirits yet he is likewise the Supreme Lord of his Creation and May he not do what he will with his own hath not the potter power over the clay and therefore they are certainly vessels of dishonour and included in that great multitude which shall inherit bitterness and sorrow Should I declare to them that God is merciful and will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth and to this end hath sent down the Lord Christ from heaven to declare to mankind that he is reconciled unto them and thinks thoughts of Love and Goodness towards them and that if they will repent and turn to him he will blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more that Jesus Christ is become an Alsufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole World and hath taken away that anger and displeasure that was conceived against the Sons of Men having tasted Death for every Man and that now he invites all in the most condescending terms to come unto him and hath promised that Whosoever comes unto him he will in no wise cast out And what return now shall I have to these perswasions they will tell me that it 's true God is merciful and would have All that is some of all sorts and conditions of men to be Saved and to this end Christ came down from heaven and was made man that he might gather together the World of his Elect and tasted Death for every one of them and these he invites and these shall come to him but none else for no man can come unto Christ except the Father draw him and we have no evidence or but plausible grounds to think that he either hath or will draw any of us his Sheep only know his voice and follow him but we have no proof whereby we can collect our selves to be of his fold Wherefore all our arguments are fruitless and vain and you can give us no solid and substantial comfort to uphold our weak and dying hopes that we are not in a state of Reprobation I might here before I leave this Argument demand of the stout Champions and Promoters of this rigid Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation What they think of those general calls and invitations of all lapsed Mankind in the Gospel and How they will make them consistent with that sower Dogma for to what end or purpose were these and such like expressions inserted Mat. xi 28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heaven laden and I will give you rest If any man thirst Joh. vii 37. Isai lv 1. let him come unto me and drink Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come ye Behold I stand at the door and knock Rev. iii. 20. if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Wisdom cryeth without Prov. i. she uttereth her voice in the streets How long ye simple ones Turn ye at my reproof The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that heareth say Revel xxii 17. Come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Why doth Christ invite Reprobates to come to him when he denies them his gracious Assistance and intends they shall not come For that they are included here I think none can question that attends how general the terms are and if the balance be cast on either side the advantage will accrue to Reprobates for Christ came not to call the Righteous those who presume themselves to be Elected but Sinners such as the World judges Castawayes to repentance and besides the Text plainly implyes the same for who are more weary and heavy laden than those who are dayly burdened and know not where to rest Who are more thirsty than those who are scorcht with perpetual heats and travel in unknown deserts and solitudes panting and gasping and lifting up their dying eyes to Heaven and yet cannot obtain so much as one drop of cooling dew to allay the flames and ardors of their parched souls And if it be certain as it cannot be denyed that all men whatever are interessed and concern'd in these passionate invitations it is likewise clear as the Noon-day Sun that all may come and receive the benefit designed
36. to judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts xiii 46. To reject or render ineffectual the Counsel of God against themselves Luke vii 30. Not that they do directly and principally intend any such thing but because they commit and act those things which do either naturally or by virtue of the Divine command produce such an event and consequence In like manner on the contrary Men are said to work out their Salvation Phil. ii 12. To save themselves 1 Tim. iv 16. To save their own souls Luke ix 24. because they act and prosecute those things which have an indisputable tendency to such a desired end For a Conclusion of this whole Discourse I shall briefly examine these two following Illations and Deductions of the Contra-Remonstrants from the Doctrine of Absolute and Irrespective Decrees 1. That none can be a true believer or sincere Christian who knows not when nor how he was regenerated and born again by the Spirit that is to speak in their language who cannot tell when he felt the mighty and efficacious power of the Divine Spirit dashing asunder his strong heart and gathering up the broken shivers and uniting them together and changing them into a heart of flesh and infusing new qualities into the will and raising the whole man from death to life See XI and XII Canons of the Dort Synod De homonis corrupt convers◠ad Deau 2. That every man who by those evidences signs and marks of True Believers prescribed to him can collect himself to be such that is to be in a state of Grace and Salvation may assuredly believe that he shall to the last Period of his life remain and 〈◊〉 a living member of the Catholick Church and undoubtedly partake of everlasting bliss and glory Attic. IX and X. of the Dort Synod De Perseverantia Sanctorum Against the first of these I shall lay down these Conclusions 1. That he is a true and sincere Believer who hath to his utmost endeavours so mortified and subdued the body of sin that he willingly harbours no vice nor takes any complacency in the impure motions of the brutish life but through a fixed belief in the Goodness of God displayed unto mankind through the Lord Christ resolutely presses forward to higher measures and degrees of Christian perfection and incessantly breaths after a fuller participation of the Divine Nature Such a man I look upon to be truly regenerate and born anew of the Spirit of God and to be affected according to his proportion as Christ himself was affected when he dwelt on earth and conversed with men And though this Divine life dispread and manifest it self by successive acts and shine not so full and bright as when it is near it's Center yet it is as truly a God-like Nature as an Infant is a Man though he be not so in growth and stature It is nothing but our self will which stands out against heaven and keeps such an impregnable fort against the grace of God and whoever is truly dead to it and receives the gentle impressions of the Divine Spirit into his soul and acts correspondently to so holy a principle he is certainly in the Land of Life and Truth and partakes of that blessed Nature which cannot rest among the dust and rubbish of this lower World but separates whatever is heterogeneous in the soul of man and by perpetual and successful attempts restores again those Divine forms which shone gloriously in humane minds before their unfortunate recession and retrogradation from the lucid fountain of their everlasting joy and happiness 2. The first actings of Grace in such a Man as I have above described are altogether undiscernible and imperceptible being nothing else but the preparatory Exertions of that Almighty Goodness the Source and Father of all things for the fitting and adapting Men to receive the Divine Image and Form of the Holy Jesus according to the words of the Lord Christ John vi 44. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and in this the Nature of Man is wholly passive and the only thing pertaining to him is to see that he do not obstruct and hinder the progress of that efficacious Love by a cowardly submission to the importunate motions of iniquity and unhallowed actions Now the effluxes and operations of this Vital Principle are coeval with the first actings of Reason and discriminative Perception and extend themselves according to the dimensions of the intellectual Powers but no man is any more conscious of it's energy then of the growth of his bones for so he that made the Nature of man and knows his frame hath told us Luke xvii 20. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation And Mark iv 26 27. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how And when men are born again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that incorrupible seed 1 Pet. i. 23. sown in their hearts by the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Christ calls his Father John xv 1. it breaks through the clods and springs up being cherished by the dew of heaven and the warmth of that immortal fire which passeth through the intellectual world and melts and refines every lapsed Being from the contracted filth of material concretions and no man can say Lo here I was caught by the breath of God or lo there was my resurrection from the comfortless grave of sin and death John iii. 8. For as the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit But this I would have understood of the ordinary way of Gods dispensing his Grace and not of that supernatural manner whereby he converted Saul casting him down to the Earth by a voice from heaven nor of the diffusion of the Spirit to the Heathens when first converted to the faith For such as also notorious and gross sinners may have some sensibility of Divine Vegetation and apprehension of some external circumstances attending the New-birth unto righteousness But for those who are born and educated under Christian Parents our Church hath excellently well determined in the service and office of Baptisme That they are Regenerated and born again not only of Water but of the Spirit by which their Natures are Sanctified as we read of the Prophet Jeremy and John the Baptist who received the spirit of holiness and were hallowed from their Mothers wombs and for any man to enquire of such or for them curiously to search after some preternatural stirrings and motions of the Divine Spirit in their souls by which to discern the first dawnings of the grace of God upon them is as impertinent as it would be to demand of them when first they heard or perceived
had an eye to when in Artic. xvi they express themselves thus After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from the grace given to us and fall into sin and this is the dictate of Reason for Habits as they are acquired by assiduous and repeated acts so they may likewise be lost by inobservance and negligence according to that of the Poet Neglectis urenda filex innascitur agris For the soul of man being a perpetual motion and activity will be alwayes catching at something and if once it cool and flag in the wayes of Righteousness will undoubtedly be wrought off and spend it's strength and powers in the service of that other principle which being not wholly mortified will certainly revive and confirm it's hold when the Counsels and Inspirations of the Divine life are in any measure rejected and it left free to regain the Dominion from whence it was most justly by the powerful and efficacious influence of Gods grace detruded And he that shall further consider that long and confirmed degeneracy the soul lay under before a new and Divine principle began to act in it and how agreeable the objects and impressions of sense are to be our present state and how eligible by us will perceive that the Nature of Man may oft be overcome and the Divine life driven from it's rightful throne till by a sharp and persevering contention it be throughly settled and radicated in a quiet peace and tranquillity by putting all it's enemies under it's feet But for a more clear inspection into this Doctrine of Perseverance we must recurr to what was said above Chap. V. concerning the Liberty of Mans Will and consider all true and sincere Believers under a threefold state for the Divine life arises gradually and increases in due measures and proportions till it arrive to a full and compleat perfection and invest the soul of man with immortality and glory 1. The Scripture speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New-born babes who are fed with the Milk of the Word with the plain Doctrines and Principles of Christianity their Criterion being not yet purged enough to have a true sense and rellish of stronger meat and the more sublime and Mysterious part of Christianity And these are those Lambs which the Lord Christ the great Shepherd when he was leaving the World so affectionately bequeathed to the care and conduct of St. Peter redoubling his request in those passionate terms Feed my Lambs And this is the sense of that Mystical Prophecy denoting the compassionate care of Christ Gathering the Lambs with his arme and carrying them in his bosom and gently leading those that are with young who are pregnant with the Divine form and Image of the Holy Jesus From this infant-state of Grace the descent is easie by reason of the strength and powerfulness of the adverse principle which hath taken so firm and deep a radication and watches all opportunities to propagate and dispread it's infectious Nature that the man is perpetually within the confines of danger till by strong and continued habits of Virtue he have totally mortified and extirpated every lust passion and inordinate desire which hinders and obstructs his passage to that quiet and serene state where all things are plain easie and delightsome Hence is that admonition of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist c. iii. v. 6. that he suffer not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Novice one newly converted and brought into the faith of Christ to take upon him the office of a Bishop because that state of Grace is subject to infinite hazards and dangers by reason of the potenr opposition of the contrary life and the prevalency of the Corporeal Nature which till it be perfectly subdued will alwayes breath a fuliginous steam and more or less obnubilate Reason the eye and guide of the soul 2. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young men which have overcome the wicked one and which have in a great measure brought low and weakned the power of the unrighteous Nature such who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect men and through a faithful and constant exercise and uninterrupted habit of Holiness have a true discriminating sense of good and evil and have purified and sublimated their intellectual powers by an assiduous mortification and eradication of every perverse desire and motion of the inferior life To these well-grown Christians true Religion displayes it self and appears in it's native beauty and excellency and they embrace it with delight and joy and looking beyond the Horizon of time and change behold nothing but a bright and never-ceasing day and this fills them with a peaceful consolation that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will not fail to crown his own life witn that glory and felicity which he himself partakes of in the highest heavens But though this state be so glorious and lovely yet it is not wholly out of the reach of danger but needs often admonitions and great diligence accompanied with frequent acts of Devotion which may fan and kindle the heavenly fire lest the dying and perishing principle of the contrary life revive and get the upper hand This degree of grace although it be able to overcome many and great difficulties and defeat the latent stratagems of powerful enemies yet it is sometimes though not so easily or frequently as the former captivated by the undiscerned force of Pride or Hypocrisie or some other refined sin For it may so happen that a good man who cannot be drawn to the commission or acting of a gross impiety by any temptations in the world yet may fall through the prevalency of an intellectual Vice and court the shadow and fantastick image of sin and yet never descend into the brutish and ferine life of action 3. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fathers who are arrived to the highest perfection the nature of Man is capable of in this life and these a Plantonist would call Heroically Good although this Divine frame and God-like temper be infinitely more precious and transcendent then the highest reach and comprehension of pure Platonisme and not attainable by the exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Paradigmatical Virtues which wholly extirpated the first motions of sin and did in their sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie a man and transform them into Intellect and place him out of the noise and perturbations of the inferior life in a quiet and serene contemplation of the first and ever-blessed Author of all things Here the whole will and desires are so farr conformable and resigned to the Will of God as the ordinary course of things and the earthly state will permit and the Man is perfectly dead to himself and to every rellish of bodily motions and the life of God triumphantly seated in the mind from whence it rules and governs every thought word and action with unspeakable ease and pleasure and replenishes the soul with a
their order wait upon him and he scatters his bounty in the midst of them and by a provident care looks down from Heaven and tends all his charge so that not a Sparrow closeth it's wings on Earth but that watchful eye observes it's fall And 't is very strange that those armes which fold and embrace every thing that exerts any faculty and degree of life should be employed in plunging humane souls while innocent and undefiled into woe and misery * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that to Eternal ages Where is that love and pity which all Creatures proclaim to be in their Soveraign Lord and Maker And if it were an Almighty Goodness that brought them into being surely the same Goodness being never disjoyned from an All-comprehensive Wisdom which beheld the Natures mutual relations and dependences of all Creatures would have judged it fitter never to have brought them into being then that they should be made perpetually unhappy so soon as ever they were created To conclude this Argument Our Religion being in all the parts of it highly reasonable as being propounded to rational natures in whom there are manifest Idea's and notions of Eternal verity and they being so deeply sealed upon them that it is neither in their power to obliterate nor without great reluctancy receive any thing repugnant to them it will appear from the nature of the thing it self that there can be no such absolute Decree of Reprobation as some pretend CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation TO speak worthily and becomingly of that adorable Being to whom we and all creatures else owe not only our Existence but our present subsistence and conservation in the several states of life wherein we are and to have right apprehensions of his Nature * This is made by Epictetus â—…p 38. a Prolepsis of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is a great piece of our duty so it spirits and invigorates our minds to manly and generous attempts and leads us to the knowledge of the most considerable Theories in Nature and Providence For whether we consider the exuberant plenitude and fecundity of the Divine Goodness which cannot but communicate it self to the utmost capacities of things or the fathomless depth of that Wisdom which hath framed the whole world with such curious and exquisite Artifice that the most perspicacious wit cannot find the least flaw in that beautious structure and yet was able to produce it after another manner beyond our conceptions if he had so pleased or whether we weigh the infinity of the Divine Power which is able to effect any thing that implies no contradiction in Naturals or deformity in Morals Or lastly whether we contemplate the vast fetches and circuits of Providence which though to the low and contracted spirit seem to clash and interfeer yet to the noble and capacious soul are all concentrick and harmonious and make that still and sweet Musick in his ears which the mistaken vulgar thought Pythagoras heard from the motion of the Sphears whereas it was nothing in reality but that admirable and enravishing consent of Providence which God the great Harmostes orders in such tunable and methodical proportions whether I say we attend to any of these things the contemplation of them cannot but widen and enlarge that which is the flower and summity of our souls I mean their Intellectual Natures and fill them with such raised and sublime Notions and Idea's that it will be almost impossible for us to miss of finding out some material Truth which shall be worthy the Author of all things and gratifie and reward our diligent inquisition Now that we may have a true and genuin conception of the Nature of God it is altogether necessary that we free our minds from all prejudice and anticipation of judgment and purge them throughout from the gross and impure steams of the Corporeal life lest when we think we have an Idea of him it be only an Image of our unclean fancies and imaginations but as that Holy One is altogether Spiritual and immaterial so must our apprehensions of him be spiritualiz'd and removed as far from the vile commerce with matter as possibly we can that our eyes being freed from the dust and soil of the earth we may behold him as he is that is as a Being absolutely perfect For he that thus judges of that ever-blessed Being not only removes from him all imbecility and imperfection but invests him in the most infinite manner with whatever the mind of Man doth rationally repute to be an excellency and perfection And whatever the prophane Atheist may object who under pretence of honoring God with the title of Incomprehensible removes him so far that he professes he can have no certain conception of him at all and therefore concludes that he is not and perversely laughs all incorporeal substances out of the World as if there were a contradiction in the very terms yet he that will discard the perplext dictates of Fancy and Imagination and keep close to the sure Deductions of free and solid Reason will I doubt not ingenuously confess that the Idea of God is as easie and natural as of any thing else in the World But it is no wonder if he whose mind is perpetually enveloped with a cloud of vice and sin cannot behold the Eternal Existence of that glorious Being which we call God or acknowledging of him yet deciphers him to the World by such strange Characters as no reasonable man can believe to be a true copy of his Nature It is an indubitable Truth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing is best known by that which is most analogical to it and as the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some picture and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it no more can any Man have a true notion of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless he be made God-like and partake of his image and similitude There is a certain congruity and harmony between Truth and the Soul of Man and however that ancient league by our unhappy lapse came to be violated and broken yet still there are some strokes and impresses in our minds which claim a cognation and affinity where-ever they meet with it And those few sparks which yet remain after the extinction of that great fire of Divine life whose harmless and innoxious flame burnt bright within us and by it we saw our selves and beheld the Natures and proprieties of things till we suffocated and choaked it by casting an heap of dust and rubbish upon it these I say though faint and glimmering yet retain their alliance with heaven and God owns them as the projections and rayes of his own good life and whoever sincerely