and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan Self-love and Sensual Pleasure The Terms of the Covenant of Grace are much more fully represented in the Scripture than was the Covenant of Works The Covenant of Grace was first published to Adam and Eve after their Fall in these Words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent Where by the Serpent is understood Satan who under the appearance of a Serpent deluded them and by the Seed of the Woman is meant the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace who is to bruise that Serpent's Head and to deliver from the Power thereof such as should obtain the Benefit of the Covenant of Grace which for my more distinct understanding I do conceive as if it had been more fully exprest and as if God after the Fall had said to our first Parents thus I made a Covenant with you for your selves and your Posterity that if you continued innocent during the time of your Trial I would have given you supernatural Grace whereby you should never sin but should be eternally Happy I gave you sufficient natural Capacity to fulfil that Covenant but you have distrusted my Kindness and have believed an Apostate Spirit and therefore have lost to your selves and your Posterity the Benefit of that Covenant without being in any necessity to break it by my Decrees or Dispensations I might justly cut you off without having any Posterity or might leave you and them to follow your own ways and I will no more make a Covenant with you for them but I will raise up a second Adam who shall take upon him your Nature and be like you in all things Sin only excepted who will be for ever Innocent and Holy and so not only perform that which by the former Covenant you might have performed but will submit himself to Sufferings for you and your Posterity of greater value than if you had all suffered eternally the just Reward of your Sins And for his Sake I do offer you and will offer to all your Posterity who shall be capable to know an offer of Mercy and Grace that I will make you new Creatures enduing you with supernatural Powers and Inclinations making you Holy and Happy and will not suffer you to continue in Sin if you be not so addicted to your Sins as to reject my Offer to make you Holy and therefore I will continue with you and your Posterity the Light and Law of Nature written in your Hearts whereby you may know Sin the Transgression of it and that you may know that there is Mercy for the Penitent and none for the malicious while obstinate Sinner whereby you may also know that if you repent and betrust your selves to my Mercy and Conduct that I will make you Holy and Happy And albeit neither you have nor will they have Ability to repent and trust yet with the Offer I will give Strength to perform these Acts if the Offer be not rejected and will bring them to the Means of Grace to follow out the same This Offer becomes a Covenant by acceptance thereof the Accepters betrusting themselves to God's Grace and Direction by his Word and Spirit trusting to obtain Pardon of all Sin and of Excitation to Repentance for obtaining of it and for obtaining eternal Happiness by infusing the Habits of Grace here and perfecting them in Glory hereafter in the beatifick Visions of God's Perfections and the shining of his Face for ever without fear of Sin or falling from that happy State I do conceive that in this Representation all the Requisites of a Covenant are comprehended For the Difference between a Covenant and any other Favour done or promised whether absolute or conditional is no Covenant albeit there may be therein mutual Prestations required but this is special in an Offer that it hath no Obligation till it be accepted whereby the Accepters become obliged to perform the mutual Prestations on their Part. God making the general Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation to Sinners if they repent and betrust themselves to him for all things necessary for their Happiness for even the natural Conscience of all Men of Discretion is capable to know and represent to them that God is Just and will punish obstinate Sinners and yet is merciful to penitent Sinners throwing themselves upon him tho without Revelation they cannot know how a just God can pardon Sin without Satisfaction to his Justice but the same is manifested by the Gospel as by the first Adam all his Posterity were capable of Happiness if they sinned not so now by the second Adam all are again capable of Happiness upon far easier Terms of Repentance and Faith and even these performed by supernatural Grace If Adam or his Posterity had the making of the Covenants of Grace they could not without Impudence make them larger for there could be no more added but that even all the obstinately Wicked and Impenitent should enjoy the Pleasure of their Lusts on Earth and thereafter the Joys of Heaven so that I do and all considering Persons might cry out with the Apostle O the Height the Breadth the Length the Depth of the Love of God! And yet his electing Love is even larger than this Offer for albeit it be inconsistent with his immaculate Holiness to make any happy whom he doth not first make holy yet some Rejecters he maketh holy and happy pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire which maketh none of the obstinate and rejecting Sinners excusable who continue to refuse to be made holy and tho they may deceive themselves thinking they would be willing to be holy yet while they are addicted to their Sins in reality their Will is not to quit them In my most serious Thoughts I can perceive nothing in this Conception of God's Covenants with Men that is impossible inconsistent with or incongruous to any of the Divine Perfections but highly illustrating them all and becoming the Majesty and Glory of God as the King and Ruler of his rational Creatures as to their eternal State Thereby he shews himself to be the most excellent King not only in a just Distribution of Rewards and Punishments but in great Goodness providing all things requisite that might have made them all happy without making any one miserable but by their own particular Fault Thereby also his great Wisdom is manifested designing or doing nothing in vain but ever choosing fit Means for the best Ends whereby his Mercy doth eminently appear that even against Merit he gives Grace and Glory to those Creatures of whom he had no need and who had willingly and ungratefully offended and injured him that he hath left nothing undone that could consist with his Domion his Wisdom his Purity and Holiness to extend his Goodness to his rational Creatures He doth not only govern the Elect towards their Happiness after their Conversion
but even before it he waits upon their Repentance and gives time to repent to those that do never make use of it He gives them his Vicegerents to rule them in Civil States he provides Necessaries for their convenient living in that State he does not punish these Societies but for gross common and national Sins which by the ordinary Power of Nature they might forbear and which are atrociously odious by the very Light of Nature to all but these the Gratification of whose evil Affections perverts them to think them pleasant So that none of his Creatures ever had or ever shall have reason to complain of his Dispensations but he hath just reason to complain against every lost Sinner that they have hardned their own Hearts from his Fear Could there be a greater Evidence of the Goodness of God to Mankind than that after so just and reasonable a Covenant he entered into with them at first and which they so soon so unnecessarily and so ungratefully violated that he did immediately publish to them the new Covenant of Grace to make all capable of Happiness through the Incarnation Suffering and Satisfaction of his Son and even pulling some as Firebrands out of the Fire when they were raging in their Sin and rejecting the Offers of Grace and resolutely cleaving to their Abominations and saying in their Hearts that they would have none of him In this way the Errors and Mistakes of Men about the Divine Dispensations may be prevented or cured As 1. It was the first and is yet the most general Error Why did God suffer Sin to enter into the World Might he not have made all his Rational Creatures to be infallible that had been more Goodness than what appears in either Covenant This was the Devil's Temptation murmuring that God had made them fallible and under the necessity of a diligent Attention and Guard giving them Trouble Satan did deceive Man representing God as envious hindering the Happiness he might attain by eating the forbidden Fruit. But let it be remembred that God was free to give what measure of Goodness he pleased it is impossible that he should communicate so much Perfection to Creatures that they were not capable of more for then his Goodness should be exhausted Christ said to the Labourers of the Vineyard who murmured That he had given as much to him that served but one Hour as to them that had endured the Heat of the Day Is it not free for me to dispose of my own as I please If God had created his Rational Creatures that they could not shun Sin and Misery by irresistable Temptations or by an operative Decree they might have complained but when they might be happy and would not what Impudence is it to complain But likewise as God is bountiful so he is wise and will not divest himself of the Government of the World or manage Men by Instincts as he doth the Brutes therefore his Wisdom did require that his Rational Creatures should be capable of Rewards and Punishments and be governed by them and not by fatal Necessity 2. The Voluptuous think Why did God give us Pleasure in such Objects which results from them so powerfully that we are not Masters of them Eve insinuated this that the forbidden Fruit was pleasant good to eat and fit to make the Eater wise Thence also wicked Men do deceive themselves that these Pleasures to which they have so strong a Propension cannot be evil at least the cause of eternal Misery But they consider not the Goodness of God to Man in giving these Pleasures of Sense Life and Health may be continued when Smell is lost and even when Taste is lost as Barzillai said to David If God provided no Remedy there might be pretence of Complaint but tho Pleasure or Grief be not directly in Man's Power yet God hath endued him with Reason that he can manage them by applying other Objects to his Sense or Thought which will keep them from Excess If Eve upon the Sight or Smell of the forbidden Fruit and the Pleasure arising from it and the Desire to it had remembred God and the Pleasure arising from the clear Thoughts of him she had never proceeded to eat Beside that it was rational and congruous to the Divine Perfections that the Obedience of his Creatures should require Attention and Diligence and should not consist in such Trifles as were wholly indifferent without Pleasure or Pain Appetite or Aversion I conceive they stretch too far that make the first Motions of Pleasure or Appetite thereof to be Sin Covetousness is the voluntary continuing of these against the Command Our Saviour had an Aversion from the Cup of his Suffering and wished it could have been delayed which was but the Effort of innocent Nature which he did not voluntarily continue for immediately he says to the Father Not mine but thy Will be done The Heathens and many Christians in their Ignorance reckon nothing to be Sin but where the evil Inclination takes effect and the Apostle says That without the knowledg of the Law he knew not that Covetousness was Sin which will not infer that the first Motions of the Affections are Sin until the Will concur to continue or proceed in these Affections contrary to the Law for it is said When Lust is conceived it bringeth forth Sin Where Lust must signify the natural Affection of Pleasure which is not Sin but the rise of it The Aversion from Persecution or Martyrdom not yielded to is not Sin but it is the greater Duty of Holiness willingly to undergo it notwithstanding that natural Aversion So the first Motion or Desire of the Pleasure of the forbidden Fruit if it had been immediately avoided by diverting the Mind to God and Gratitude to him it had not produced the doleful Effects that followed These first Motions make many Men doubt of their Regeneration tho they did not continue in the same in their most secret Thoughts yet Sin is more in the Will when it doth continue these than in the outward Act which is rather an Evidence of the strength of the Concupiscence than a part of the Sin The distinct knowledg of the Terms of the Covenant of Grace has been much perplexed by apprehending Sin as if it were a Debt obliging the Sinner to Punishment especially from that that Sin is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Lord's Prayer and elsewhere which is translated Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors But the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only signify debeo but also obnoxius sum I am liable and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not only debitum but noxa that is Injury or Wrong and cannot otherways be properly understood in that place for God hath not required us to discharge the Debts owing to us by our Debtors but the Resentment of Wrong done to us by them The Punishment or penal part belongs to God and so cannot be forgiven by
called intrinsically evil God may excite these Acts where the Intention or Direction only is evil God's Intention being quite different so he may excite the giving of Alms intending thereby the relief of the Poor but the directing of the Alms to be seen of Men is a distinct separate Act. There is no ground inferring that God excites to that end much less that he excites to Acts intrinsically evil which no Intention can make good and where there are not different Parts or different Acts Therefore God doth not foreknow Acts intrinsically evil or the evil Intention of Acts that otherwise might be good or indifferent in his Decree to excite them but only in his permissive Decree not to hinder the free Creatures in acting them wherein I am convinced by many pregnant Reasons First God's foreseeing such Acts in his purpose to excite the Creature to them and his being an immediate and total Actor of them appears to me inconsistent with his immaculate Purity but thereby he behoved to be the Author of Sin I know many good Men perceive not this Consequence and are far from acknowledging it and are forced to harsh Concessions to shun it as that God is the immediate Cause of the Act but not of the Vitiosity of the Act which is only Privative and requires no Cause nor any Efficiency but Deficiency which importeth nothing as to evil Intention or Acts intrinsically Evil but only as to Acts that would be Good if right directed and is well illustrated by riding of a Lame Horse where the Rider is the cause of the Riding but the Lameness of the Horse is the cause of the Halting but this cannot be applicable to an indivisible Act whence Sin necessarily results and so the whole Act or the Act of Intention is totally Evil And thereby there cannot be one part attributed to God and another to the Creature if God be not the immediate and total Actor but that the Creature hath a different Act the forefight of that Act could not be by the Decree of God to act it and so all free Acts could not be foreseen that way The more Ingenuous are forced to recur to this Evasion that God is under no Law and so the same Act may be Sin in the Creature and no Sin in God but this overturns the Being of Acts morally Good or Evil in congruity to the Nature of God which are not so because God willeth them to be or not to be but he so willeth them because they are absolutely and immutably Good and not alone by the Will or Decree of God God is above his positive Law but he is neither above nor under his moral Law but is a Law to himself else God could make Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue for whatever depends upon Acts of the Will can be altered by another Act of the same Will So God hath altered many of his positive Laws and Precepts because they are only Good in that they are willed and commanded Secondly God hath expresly declared that he hath hindered many Acts of his Creatures which must necessarily import that they would have been acted if they had not been hindered for it is inconsistent to say that God decreed to be an Actor with the Creature and yet decreed to hinder that same Act Thus God declareth that he had hindered Abimelech to touch Sarah whom he had taken on design to make her his Concubine but God disabled him that he could neither meddle with her nor any other Thirdly There are many Sins of Omission wherein the Sinner doth not resolve to omit but by Carelesness and Inconsideration omits here there is no Act of the Creature And if God hinder the Creature to consider he must be sole Actor in these Sins and if not there is no positive Act or Excitation in them and so no Decree for such Acts and therefore they cannot be foreseen in that Decree and yet they are certainly foreseen Fourthly If it were sufficient to clear the Divine Purity that Sin is only a Privation requiring no Efficiency but Deficiency that could not but also vindicate the Creature albeit a total Actor of the same Act. Fifthly If God decree without foresight of what the Creature using its proper Power would act then he behoved to decree the torment of his Creatures without consideration of their future Sins voluntarily to be acted by them which is very inconsistent with his Justice and forces the Authors of this Opinion to acknowledg That God might eternally torment his innocent Creatures and that it is greater Goodness to give them a miserable Being than no Being at all which is neither consistent with his Justice nor his Goodness and gives a most unlovely Representation of him Sixthly There is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than the Efficacy of Prayer for it is said That the fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much But if God did determine all future things without Foresight and Consideration of the Prayers of his People Prayer were of no value but a meer Formality without any Efficacy For to what purpose should any pray to an unchangeable God who had already determined all things without consideration of Prayer I know no Evasion can be made but that God hath determined not only the Matter but the Manner of what was to come to pass and so determined many things to be after antecedent Prayer but then Prayer were a meer antecedent Formality and no efficacious Mean availing much But if God did determine many things upon the foresight and consideration of the earnest Prayer of his People they might with as much Confidence pray as if he were undetermined when they prayed I know there are many specious Reasons accustomed to be brought for God's being the immediate total Actor in all the Acts of his Creatures which I consider as Objections 1st It is objected If God decreed any thing upon Foresight and Consideration of any thing in his Creatures he were not altogether independent but behoved to depend upon such Considerations and be pedissequous to his Creatures This Reason can conclude nothing against God's Foresight and Consideration of what he foresaw in the Creature as given by himself above their natural Strength for thereby he depended on nothing but on his own Supernatural Grace It is true that if God's Election were upon the foresight of the Creatures Faith or good Works by that common Power all Men had by their Birth they might glory in themselves and the Election could not be said to be of Free Grace and God might be thought pedissequous to the Creatures and therefore that Opinion of Papists and Arminians is justly rejected But God cannot be said to be pedissequous to the Creatures he foresees would maliciously or obstinately and finally reject the offer of Grace because he decrees to let them follow their own Ways and in Justice to punish them whom he doth not follow but crosseth And though God doth not decree to damn the Reprobate
glorious Excellency of God in relation to a particular Creature and his Glory shining forth to the whole Creation and must produce a far greater measure of Love and Reverence which are much weakened by attributing any thing to him unworthy of him However none can justly blame me to clear my own Thoughts and raise them as high as I can and I do bless God for the increase of Love and Reverence he gives me thereby I am perswaded that the rise of most of God's Decrees and Dispensations are from the Congruity thereof to his natural Perfections as becoming and being worthy of such a Being I say it is a Congruity to his natural not to his moral Perfections for he is not just because he is true nor true because he is just nor gracious or merciful because he is just or true But when I consider what is congruous to worthy and becoming a Spirit omniscient omnipotent self-existent all-sufficient infinitely blessed free and independent and then put the Question to my self Must not such a Being be just exactly fulfilling all his Promises incouraging and rewarding the Good discouraging and punishing the Evil according to their Merit I am fully perswaded he must be such not by a fatal Necessity nor by meer Indifferency but by a voluntary and free Choice And when I further pose my self whether such a Being will only perform his Promises reward and punish according to Merit I am convinced it is congruous to him to be good bountiful gracious and merciful beyond what his Justice requires and that without any Bounds as in his Justice which precisely follows his Promise or what is congruous for him to do upon occasion of the good or evil Actions of his Creatures When I consider Whether such a Being will always express his Mind truly and never deceive I can have no doubt of it If again I consider Whether such a Being will ever choose fitted Means for all his Purposes and do nothing in vain I am assured that he is infinite in Wisdom and will do nothing in vain And lastly when I consider Whether such a Being will ever be constant in his Purpose and be unchangeable therein and in his Justice Bounty Truth and Wisdom I know he cannot change in these because they are all congruous to his unchangeable Nature By this Congruity I understand God's Holiness or Godlikeness that is that God acteth always like himself There is nothing more frequently inculcated in Scripture than Godliness and Holiness which are originally and principally attributed to God and in Analogy to his Rational Creatures it shall be the eternal Exclamation of all God's happy Creatures Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty I do not take Holiness to be as a Metaphysical Abstract from all God's Moral Perfections but that it is the precise and formal Reason why they are morally good Holiness in the Creature or Godlikeness which is the same consists chiefly in the Creatures being Godlike that is imitating the Divine Moral Perfections in being just being true prudent and constant but in other Duties of Holiness the Likeness to God is more analogical and less proper The Analogy consists in this that as God acteth always congruously to the Divine Nature so the Rational Creatures ought to act congruously to that Nature and those Principles that God hath freely imprinted in their Minds so they ought to adore God to obey him in all his Commands to trust in him and to be temperate in every thing and to subordinate Self-love to the Love of God Holiness is also taken for the Destination of things to the Service of God and separated from common Use which therefore is called Consecration I know the immediate Rule of the Creatures is the Will of God obliging them to obey not only what is congruous to the Divine Nature or to their own Nature but whatsoever positive Law or Precept God doth command tho the Matter be indifferent and that they may sufficiently be assured that he will never command any thing incongruous to himself yet it is of great use to know the difference between Moral and Positive Commands for the Glory and Amiableness of God appeareth far more in the one than in the other albeit the Positive Commands of God do indispensibly require full Obedience which is from an inbred Principle in the Mind of all Rational Creatures I am not troubled that it may be said that the Scripture Phrase is most of the Perfection of God and of his Justice Goodness Mercy and Truth for all is still mentioned as his Holiness and Godlikeness and many Cases do and may occur that we cannot so clearly refer to these particular Terms as we can know whether it be congruous for God so to do or not neither doth the Scripture express and define wherein Holiness consists but by the Expression of Godliness or Likeness to God And altho Perfection be frequently attributed to God yet Godliness is a more distinct Term for we must not explicate Godliness by Perfection or Goodness lest we should fall in the Apprehension that hath misled many that God would have shown more Goodness to have prevented all Sin and that there must be more Worlds than this at least more Species of Creatures than upon the Earth but we must explain God's Goodness with Congruity to his Nature which comprehends his Freedom whereby it is not congruous to him to communicate all the Good he can which would never terminate nor be stable but that he acteth freely and that it were impossible for us to know what Good he hath done or will do if he had not revealed it Some of the Fathers and many since have fallen into that Error that God's Goodness doth not admit that he should punish any Creature eternally and tho the Scripture says the contrary expresly they produce other places to prove that Eternity is sometimes taken for a very long Time Becomingness or Decency is vulgarly attributed to the Modes or Forms of Behaviour and so it is said by the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order which doth neither declare nor constitute that Decency as a kind of a Christian Vertue but as a Recommendation of what is expedient The Scripture maketh an express Distinction between that which is unlawful and that which is inexpedient so that kind of Decency is a part of Civility No serious Man can imagine that every undecent Gesture or Expression is a Sin Hence it may seem that the precise Nature of Holiness cannot consist in Becomingness or Congruity to the Nature of God or of Creatures which could only amuse the Vulgar who lay too much weight upon Words and Terms as if the appropriating the Name of Decency or Comeliness to the least of Civil Vertues in which there is no Speciality did import that there were not an higher degree of Decency but if Words import those of the Learned must be of the most Importance The Greeks which were the learnedst of Nations
as in the other It is not said whosoever sheds Man's Blood by that Man or his Relation his Blood shall be shed for he that 's killed or disabled cannot shed his Blood who did it nor ought he to be Judg or Avenger of it where another can be had which is the Prerogative of God alone Men may defend themselves against Injury which is not by Distributive or Judicial Justice but by the Obligation they owe to God to preserve these Lives whereof he alone is Master but they may not avenge themselves without a Judg knowing the Evidence of the Fact tho he be not a Civil Judg having an Authoritative Superiority Kings and States ought not to be both Judges and Parties where others can be had but before they enter in War they ought to demand Satisfaction and give sufficient Evidence of the Fact and not decline Arbitriment where an indifferent Judg can be found nor do they judg their own Cause against their Subjects but by Judges tho constituted by themselves yet sworn to do Justice between them and their Subjects without respect of Parties not only in their Civil Rights but in Crimes and Injuries against themselves It is by this kind of Justice that Princes and States interpose between their Neighbours entering in War where no Arbitration hath preceded and they cannot justly concur with the injured without a preceding Judgment for it would choak Humanity to think that they might kill Men by implicit Faith or Report much less by Kindness or Contract By this Justice Men are not only obliged to act as Judges but as Witnesses by giving their own Testimonies or any Evidence they have or can cause any in their Power to give Avenge not your selves is not with a Restriction to private Persons Vengeance is God's and can only be done by himself or by his Warrant I know the Perverseness and even Inadvertance of Men make them run upon their Adversary to give themselves that great but inhuman Pleasure of Revenge not so much delighting in Justice as in the Misery of the Injurer yet the Mighty God hath not only said but sworn That he delights not in the Death of a Sinner When I consider these Branches of Justice as they are in God I perceive great Difference in them as they are in Men who by Attributive Justice may take nothing from any Man that is his own except in the way of Punishment for a just Cause but as to God all Mens Goods Honour Freedom and even their Lives are but precarious during God's Pleasure and as the Peculia of Children or Servants and therefore it is no Injustice in God to take them away or to transfer the Right of them to any other The Israulites not restoring those things that they had borrowed from the Egyptians at their Departure was no Stealth or Injury because they did it by God's Warrant It is more questionable whether it was congruous to God to have taken away the Life of his innocent Rational Creatures by Annihilation or by Death wherein I do incline to the Negative For I see not how it can consist with the Happiness of any Creature if it have not Certainty of its blessed State But I think also that the assurance of the Continuance thereof is not from God's Justice but from his Bounty especially from his Faithfulness There is nothing revealed of any Promise made to the Angels and yet there is no doubt of their full assurance not to be annihilated and it is hard to conceive how their Life can be otherwise taken away nor do I know whether there was such a Promise made to Man in Innocency for tho Death was threatened upon his Disobedience the assurance of the perpetuity of Life did not thence necessarily follow But innocent Angels and Men had sufficient ground to have full Trust in God that if they offended him not he would never destroy them tho not from his Promise for that had been by his Justice but I am far clearer that God's Justice could not permit that he should torment his innocent Creatures or make them miserable I know some think that by his Soveraignty he might torment his innocent Rational Creatures as having more Power over them than the Potter over his Clay to make Vessels of Honour or Dishonour of them but I have cleared my Mind as to that Point that by the Vessels of Honour or Dishonour are not meant the happy and miserable but his free giving of Grace by which they become honourable or his permitting them to harden their Hearts by which they become dishonourable for that is said in Answer to an Objection Why doth God find fault with Men that their Hearts are hardened for who hath resisted his Will Finding of fault cannot relate to innocent Misery I know some are puzzled to extricate themselves as to God's Command to Abraham to sacrifice his Son Isaac I see no Difficulty in the Case as to God's Justice for tho Isaac had been sacrificed God could have restored him to Life and so fulfilled his Promise That in Isaac all Nations should be blessed I conceive the Difficulty lies as to God's Unchangeableness who hath never changed any Law of Nature that he wrote in Man's Heart but Abraham's killing and sacrificing his own Son without a deserving Crime is inconsistent with the Law of Man's Nature But there was no certain ground for Abraham to conclude that his Son would be sacrificed but only that God did prove his Obedience who by an implicit Faith which is only due to God was obliged to proceed till he was stopped tho he could not know how that Act could consist with the Law of Nature yet he might still hope for a Reprieve even when he lifted the Knife to give the fatal Blow as the Event shewed and I take this to be the best Instance of God's voluntas signi where there is not voluntas beneplaciti for here there was a presumed Will or rather a Presumption of the Will of God from his Command but it admitted a contrary Probation the Voice from Heaven having warranted him to hold his Hand This is also a clear Evidence that God does not always will to operate what he does command for his Will can never want its Effect tho oft his Command doth the Intent whereof is to oblige the Creature and shew it its Duty I know some think they cannot enough exalt God's Soveraignty if they admit any thing right but by his Will but they should remember that he is so Soveraign as he is also Just Bountiful and Faithful They do too much detract from the Loveliness of God that plead for him as Courtiers for their Masters who love not to hear or give another Cause of their Commands but Such is our Pleasure God's Promises do certainly infer his Attributive Justice to perform and yet what he performs may well be accounted a free Gift because before his Promise he was not only free but indifferent but
Infancy Can it be thought that Man by his Merit could deserve Celestial Glory and Confirmation freeing him from the hazard of falling in Sin or losing that blessed State by Mortality or Annihilation and yet there is no ground to doubt that as the Angels were confirmed after their Trial so would Men have been which with the Immortality God had promised he lost and became mortal and miserable by eating the forbidden Fruit. Whence there is enough to satisfy the Consciences of Men of God's Dispensation in suffering Adam to fall whereby neither he nor any of his Posterity could ever by themselves recover that blessed Estate which he had lost to himself and them by his Fall albeit they could not conceive how God could eternally torment all his Posterity for his Sin tho they had none of their own But blessed be God that Christ was separate from Sin unto the end and became the second Adam expiating Sin and procuring for the Elect that Blessedness which through Adam's Fall they had lost How unreasonable then and odious must the Meritmongers of Rome be who not only hold that sinful Men acquire Heaven by their Merits but that they have so great store of Works of Supererrogation to which they were forced to flee when the horrid Grossness of the Pope's setting to Sale Indulgences for Money through most of the Dominions of his Obedience had awakened a great part of the World to see that it was impossible he could be Christ's Vicar on Earth but rather the Antichrist There was no Evasion with any pretence but that there was a Treasure of the Supererrogatory Merits of the Saints whereof the Pope was the sole Dispenser and yet tho that Treasure was not pretended to be infinite and inexhaustable the Popes neither knew what was the measure of it nor how much was exhausted and how much remained or if any thing at all for there was no Record kept of what Indulgences were given out or how much they needed that got them nor could there be seeing the Indulgences were not given by the Popes immediately and upon trial but were gifted and farmed to his Emissaries who were the vilest of Men who rendered that Religion absolutely ridiculous I pity the deceived Multitude of that Synagogue but I abhor their chief Leaders and without the breach of Charity I think I may safely say that many of them must be convinced of gross Errors in that Church but cannot acknowledg them because of the Canons already made unless therewith they quit Infallibilty which is the Pillar and Ground of their Faith God's Punitive Justice has not escaped dangerous Errors not only from those who make all God's Laws to be only obliging by his Will so that he may not only dispense with them without any Punishment but may abrogate them of which I have cleared my self before in meditating upon his Holiness but from those that think his Justice requires no exact Proportion between the Crime and the Punishment but that it is meerly Arbitrary that God might have accepted the Sacrifice of a Lamb for the greatest Sin or the Penance that Men inflict upon themselves and that the Mosaical Sacrifices did expiate Sin of themselves not as Types of the only one satisfying Sacrifice of Christ. I am convinced that the very Nature of the Justice of God imports an exact Proportion of Rewards and Punishments to the Objects of them and that therein God's Justice differs from the Justice of Man who neither can know the exact Proportion nor can adjust a Punishment to expiate any Sin Mens Justice in Punishments are not to satisfy Justice or to expiate Crimes past but to prevent and suppress them for time to come and therefore they become unjust and cruel by applying Arbitrary Punishments more than are needful to suppress the Crimes but God perfectly knows the just Proportion of Rewards and Punishments and he hath not that Indifferency in applying them as he hath in his Acts of Bounty Sin is so opposite and so odious to God that his Aversion to it is infinite and therefore it cannot be expiated but by a Punishment infinite in Value and therefore in the Damned Punishment is only eternal because in no Time the finite Natures of Creatures can bear an infinite Punishment The Sins of the Elect are expiated by the Sufferings of Christ which were short in Time but infinite in Value because of the Dignity of the Person that suffered yet God having denounced the Wages of Sin to be Death both by the Separation of the Soul and Body and by the Separation of both from the Joy arising from God's Countenance Justice required that the Mediator should suffer both tho but for a short time in his Agony in the Garden and on the Cross when innocent Nature made him cry out in the one that if it were possible that Cup might be removed yet with voluntary Submission and in the other when he said My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me They must be strangely deluded that attribute that Cry to the Pains or Sense of Death for therein he should have been exceeded by innumerable Martyrs none of which cried that they were forsaken of God and many have triumphed over their Tormentors and have sung in the midst of the Flames I think they are both bold and ignorant who presume to assert that any Suffering of Christ without Death had been sufficient to expiate the Sins of the Elect None but God can know the just Punishment of Sin Common Reason may assure that God would not afflict his innocent Son in vain but Revelation putteth it beyond doubt by the Apostle's arguing against the Possibility of Salvation by Works of the Law saying If Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain It is necessarily understood as in all such Arguments but that is impossible that Christ should have died in vain nor would it conclude if by dying in vain were understood dying to no purpose For tho it had been indifferent to God to have brought Salvation by the Law or by the Death of Christ yet neither of the ways had been in vain that is to no purpose which soever of the two God had chosen But then it would not have concluded that Righteousness could not have come by the Law therefore in vain must be understood as ordinarily it is that which is needless or unnecessary and then the Argument is clear and convincing thus If Righteousness had been by the Law then Christ's dying had been needless because the Law alone could have brought Righteousness but it is impossible that Christ should have died when there was no necessity for it therefore the Law nor no other way could do it There is another dangerous Mistake about God's Punitive Justice as if the Consideration of his Punishment were to compense the Displeasure he had from Sin by his Pleasure in the suffering of his Creature as Men commonly do but the true Consideration is
Father These are the ordinary ways of the Spirit in which the saving Act of Faith is always in the order of Nature anterior to God's part of this particular Covenant of Grace whereby he regenerates Believers begetting in their Souls the Habits of Grace and Holiness which is a new Creation which these and they that receive them are called new Creatures and ordinarily both parts of the Covenant go together Believing and Regeneration yet some are sanctified from the Womb who come afterwards actually to believe The ordinary Procedure of the Spirit held forth in the Scripture hath some Operations of the Spirit anterior to the entering into the Covenant of Grace which are called Preparatory Works And first the Spirit convinceth every Man that cometh to have the use of Reason that he is a Sinner by comparing his Life with the Light and Law of Nature written in his Heart that he hath broken that Law that thereby he deserveth Punishment tho his Transgression were never so secret which neeessarily imports that there is an invisible Judg that can inflict it and who certainly knoweth it and will not pardon it while it is approved and the same Light of Nature shews that there is hope of Pardon to those that do not approve their Transgressions and are grieved for them I doubt not but all this is wrought upon the most barbarous and ignorant Savage for tho by Prepossession and Custom many of the Laws of Nature are never adverted yet ever so much ariseth in the Mind as maketh the Natural Conscience perceive the Transgression of them and a Difference between those who continue and delight in the Transgressions of them and those who grieve for them upon account of Punishment tho they have no distinct Perceptions of that invisible Power from which they fear Punishment or tho their mistaken Interest and the Opinion of their Neighbours seduce them to believe that that fear of Punishment of secret Transgressions is but from a groundless Fancy such as they have in the Darkness and not in the Light That which perswadeth me of this general Operation of the Spirit of God is that otherwise tho greater part of the World were in inevitable necessity of eternal Misery and could never accuse themselves even when awakened in Hell and made clearly to know that through their own fault they were in that Misery which they might escaped if they had followed these Motions by their Natural Conscience to repent I have before cleared my Mind that the blessed and benign Conception of God doth import so much that he condemneth none to eternal Torment but for that Sin which they might have escaped as to the Punishment of it Tho there be no necessity that the Spirit should further follow those who hate to be reformed yet to magnify the Justice and Benignity of God the Spirit proceeds frequently further even with Rejecters clearing up in them the Light of Nature bringing them to know the Word of God in which not only the Light of Nature is revived but much revealed that hath no Foundation in the Light of Nature whence there arises a Perswasion of the Truth of that Word and all revealed in it He gives also frequently the Perception of the hazard and horror of Sin the forbearing of the outward Acts of some Sins and the inward Inclination to some others a natural Pleasure in some Vertues and thence oft-times follows an unwarrantable Perswasion of having obtained Grace and Right to Glory If these or some of them were not the Reprobate would become without all hope of Mercy and as malicious as the Devils yet these are given not for their own sakes but for the common good of Mankind and the special good of the Elect but by none of these is the Covenant of Grace entered The Act of Faith by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace is not in their own Power nor can they exert it at any time they please even when they hear or meditate upon the Word of God or when they hear read and meditate upon the most convincing and perswading Preaching or when they do most earnestly pray to be pardoned and accepted All these are but the Ordinances of God with which he doth ordinarily confer Regeneration and which are therefore Mens Duty to use them and it were to tempt God to desire or expect Convorsion in another way Neither are these meer Formalities or Solemnities but have their proper Effects especially in loosning the Soul from its Addictedness to Sin for it is said expresly By Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God There must therefore be a present inward Vocation Motion or Excitation of the Spirit offering to the Soul to turn it from cleaving to Sin unto God and to give Pardon Reconciliation Holiness and Happiness but not conferring these until the Soul be willing to accept them There will be little difficulty to embrace that Offer as to the Pardon of Sin nor to have the general Notion of Happiness tho if the particular way of Happiness were explicated to be the Delight in God and Spiritual Things and not in Carnal Delights The prepossessed Soul by sensible Pleasures might readily loath that as light Food yet the greatest Difficulty would be in being willing to be made holy that is consecrated and devoted to the Love of and to the Delight in God above all things with an Opposition to all known Sin This therefore must be the Gift of God freely given at the time of that Motion of the Spirit to such only as are elected whether they be such as are not positively resolved to cleave to Sin or reject such Motions or such whom God even against that Reluctancy will overcome and maketh willing to embrace and accept the Offer and Motion of the Spirit This is that inward Call which is one of the Links of the Golden Chain of Salvation for whom he predestinated them he also called justified and glorified and which therefore is called effectual Calling to which there is never made effectual Resistance it being ever stronger than any Resistance yet not so that the Soul could not possibly resist but that God had made the Call so strong that though it was willingly imbraced not necessarily but freely yet always effectually Albeit God might give such an Inclination to accept Holiness as he gives to desire Happiness yet there is no ground to think that he doth so for such Acts which are absolutely necessary deserve not so much as Praise being but as the Instincts of Brutes It is a great Mistake to think that God's inward Call cannot be effectual unless it gave as strong an Inclination as is the desire of Happiness For he knows certainly the Effect of every Condition by Nature or Grace and by his Wisdom he does no more than what is requisite for his Purposes They highly derogate from the Glory of God that imagine his Call to the Elect is
yet at his right Hand there is Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore that is in the State of Glory But there may be even here so much Joy from meditating upon God which all other Objects cannot parallel much less exceed or extinguish 9. The Scripture doth frequently inculcate the Benefit of knowing God of remembring him of meditating upon his Perfections his Laws and Dispensations and gives it as the Character of the Wicked that they know not God that they remember not God that they have him not before their Eyes whom to know is Life everlasting This is Life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The Knowledg of God cannot formally be Life eternal but it is the Mean necessary to attain it because it doth excite that Joy in which it doth chiefly consist It is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their Thoughts that is so far as they can shun and that they will have no Thoughts of the most High the Thoughts of God crush their sinful Inclinations and Pleasures which fall before them as Dagon did before the Ark of God Job gives it as a discriminating Test between the Godly and the Hypocrite only knowable by every Man of himself when he says of the Hypocrite Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he always call upon God 10. There is a Knowledg of God by the Light of Nature by Acquisition in Improvement of the Light of Nature and Experience by Revelation of that which hath no Principle in the Light of Nature by spiritual Illumination whereby spiritual things are discernable which the natural Man cannot know because they are spiritually discerned and his Notions of them are but as those of a Country from a Map and according to these several kinds of Knowledg must the different kinds of Meditation and the different Degrees of Joy Love Reverence Obsequiousness and Confidence in God arise and the true Humility of the Soul of Man not so much by debasing it below its true Value but by exalting God and perceiving the Infinite Distance of Perfection betwixt the two which may equally be between two Objects by heightning the one or by depressing the other The Monkish Humility is much in disgracing humane Nature which is not without reflecting upon its Author and doth not only loath humane Nature in so far as sinful The Stoicks fall into the like Fault by looking upon all Affections as vitious Perturbations not endeavouring to rule and use them but to root them out as if a Horse should not be made use of because some ill-managed Horse will kick off his Master or break his Bridle and run away or as if a Sail should not be used because sometimes it oversets a Ship Indeed weak or vitiated Minds were better if they wanted all Affections to be their Servants than having them to be their Masters 11. The natural Knowledg of God improved by Industry and Experience goeth a great way even in Religion for the Light of the natural Conscience convinceth a Man that there is one and only one God who is the just Judg of all rational Creatures and knoweth their most secret Thoughts and that he rules them and the whole World and that they find in their Souls a Rule of their Life a Quiet and Pleasure in their Conscience when they keep it and a Terror when they break it yea they have the natural Notion of the Mercy and Forgiveness of God to penitent Sinners and they think that every Man can repent if he please but they are utterly confounded and at a loss when they consider the Consistency of the Justice and Mercy of God how all might repent and all be forgiven and yet that God is entirely just and fully abhors Sin The Entry of Reveal'd Religion discovering a Messias or Mediator delivering his People from their Sins by his Sufferings is no small Confirmation of the Truth of that Religion inducing a strong Probability of it though nothing but the Divine Illumination can breed a full Perswasion of it nor give Warrant to force the imbracing and professing it as may be done for the Light and Law of Nature as well for Religion as far as it goes as for other Ends. Something of Religion will arise from the Notion of a Deity convincing that God is to be adored by Acknowledgment of his Power Bounty Justice and Mercy by Supplication for his Favour and the Requisites of Life by Deprecations of his Displeasure Justice and Wrath Praise and Thanksgiving for Benefits received or hoped Much more will result from the improved Knowledg of God by the Light of Nature and yet more by the Probability of his revealed Will. Whereby it cannot but be acknowledged that if these things be true which are contained in Scripture God's Bounty and Mercy to Mankind is far greater than what could be dreamed of from the Light of Nature But all this is far short of the Knowledg arising from the Illumination of the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the Regenerate by which they are capable of a far more glorious and firm Apprehension of the Divine Perfections and Dispensations and a quite other and far greater Joy therein and in the Perswasion of Peace and Reconciliation with God and in the Hope of that Glory which is greater than Ear hath heard or Eye hath seen or hath entred into the Heart of Man to consider 12. The Knowledg of God even in the Renewed hath great Variety of Degrees and it is both the Interest and Duty of all of them to extend it so far as their Capacity and Opportunities do enable them that they may increase their Comfort and strengthen their Faith against the Suggestions of Satan and the Seductions of weak or wicked Men misrepresenting God not so much in his Power and Wisdom as in his Goodness and Purity whereby they do exceedingly incroach upon that Infinite Loveliness whereby he draws and ravishes the Souls of Men and doth not only drive them by the Power of his Soveraignty Some represent God as if his Soveraignty were his highest Perfection and his greatest Interest as despotick Soveraigns represent themselves to be above all Law and to be indifferent whom to save or whom to destroy without any consideration of their Actings but to shew their absolute and arbitrary Power and that they neither love their Subjects nor care for the Love of their Subjects but for their Fear that may make them obey without Reserve How strange is it that so many eminent Divines should represent God as if the Order of his Decrees were not only to glorify some and not for their foreseen Performances by their own Power but to eternally torment the greatest part of his rational Creatures without the consideration of their Sin as coming in not as a Motive from the Foresight thereof but as a Mean to that End Others are amaz'd when they consider the Goodness of God why infinite Duration pass'd before he
they were the Residences thereof yet the ignorant Vulgar gave direct Worship thereto The Earth also was worshipped and particular Mountains Vallies Rivers Islands where evil Spirits had appeared but where they had fixed Oracles they liked better to have the Worship immediate to themselves as more congruous to Human Reason and more difficult to be disswaded The Vulgar did not so soon give direct Worship to Pictures as to Statues representing these imagined Deities to the Life not only in the shape of Man but in other terrible Shapes in which the Devils did appear as hath lately been evident among the Savage People in America who have their evil Gods who appear in Bodies of terrible Aspect and oft-times severely beat them and therefore they worship them with howling and great Terror Other evil Spirits transformed themselves into Angels of Light and appeared benign and favourable both to attain their Adoration and Trust and both pretended an Omniscience and gave Responses of the most uncertain and important Events of which they had most probable Conjectures knowing the Interests and Inclinations of those Persons who had Rule in publick Affairs and on whom they had Influence and in other things giving dark or dubious Responses which might be applied to any Event The Insolence also of some powerful Men made them affect to be adored and esteemed Gods which the Heathen Roman Emperors frequently did and some of the most flagitious of them were so impudent as to be adored when alive and at distance and had Temples and Altars consecrated to them The misapplied Gratitude to the Inventers of those things that are of great and common use to Mankind or those who were admired for their Dexterity in Government or Gallantry in War gave their Ghosts the Esteem to be accounted Gods Demi-Gods or Heroes unto which evil Spirits were very concurring so to seduce The Poets with their Poetical Fictions and the Pleasantness of their Verses did powerfully work upon the Imaginations of People and thereby radicate and increase the Belief of these Absurdities yet they kept still a Distinction and Subordination to the great God whom they called Zeus as the Fountain of Life They did also attribute to their Gods the greatest Vices and Infirmities of Men as Sleeping Recreation Consultation Faction Intrigues Quarrels and not only upon their own Interest but as they partied different Nations and Persons The more judicious counted these but Fables and though few durst express their Mind of the only true God for danger of the seduced Rabble yet many of the Philosophers did There were few of these false Gods that had the Dedication of Temples but were worshipped at Rivers Mountains or other places from which Voices or some extraordinary Signs were heard or seen there at last it came to that height of Absurdity that all believed that wheresoever they would make up an Image or a Statute a Deity would take up Residence there and be their Protector and answer their Prayers Yea the ruder sort ador'd Stocks and Stones and the vilest of Creatures as Deities without the Opinion of any resident Spirit so that not only every Nation but every City and Family had their different Gods These Abominations came to that height that the World became asham'd and wearied of them and would have quit them if their Priests who had Honour and Profit by them had not co-operated with evil Spirits to support them The Romans made it an Interest of State to acknowledg the Deities of all the Nations that they subdued the better to keep them under Obedience It was not Reason but Interest that supported the Plurality of Gods The Silver-smiths of Ephesus did with Tumult and Fury cry up Diana of the Ephesians but their Leader did more ingenuously tell those of his Trade than the rest of the Multitude that by making the Shrines of Diana they had their Wealth In this Condition was the World except among the Jews where Religion was turned to a meer Formality and corrupted with Man's Inventions pretended to be Divine Traditions when Christ came to bring Life and Immortality to light which did hardlier obtain with the Jews than with the Gentiles who were become so irrational in their Worship and therefore the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth not make use of Signs and Miracles but of Reason and the Light of Nature to convince them to know the only true God For they sought Wisdom but the Jews could not be convinced without Miracles to forsake their Ceremonial Worship which they became grosly to mistake as if it had been a perpetual Institution sufficient of it self to purge away Sin So the Light of Nature concerning the only true God revived and made way for the Gospel whereby the Multiplicity of Gods is no where to be found but among the barbarous Nations who kept no Correspondence or Commerce with the rest of the World such as the wildest Tartars the Chineses Japoneses and Americans The clearing up of the true meaning of the Old Testament from the Jews fond Mistake of the Prophecies of the Messia convinced many even by the Light of Nature that God behoved to be just but if without Satisfaction to his Justice he could have pardoned one Sin he might have also pardoned all Sin and so have been without Punitive Justice therefore there was necessity that the Messiah ought to suffer for Sinners The Antiquity and the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion broke much of the Obstinacy both of the Jews and Gentiles and the Grace of God so far prevailed that a great part of the World imbraced and cleaved unto the Christian Religion upon its own account not only without but against all Worldly Interest in that they did even exceed in the desire of Martyrdom But when the Roman Emperors accepted of and established the Christian Religion whereby worldly Interests did attend it in a short time the Roman Empire which then did extend it self to the far greatest part of what was known to be habitable of the World in a great part received it more as the Law of the Empire than as the Law of Christ and were instrumental to make it look as like the Pagan Superstition as they could whereby great Corruption both in Opinion and Practice did ensue In place of the Heathenish Sacrifices the Eucharist was made the Sacrament of the Altar the Presbyters were made Priests and in place of the Heathens Demi-Gods came the Canonized Saints and not only their Ghosts in Heaven but the Relicks of their Bodies upon Earth were brought in to share with God in Adoration without any other but a verbal Distinction for both Prayers and Praises were plentifully perform'd to them and multitudes of Temples dedicated to them Albeit Peter even when present would not suffer Cornelius to kneel before him nor Paul and Barnabas those who offered to sacrifice to them convincing them with that one Reason That they were Men Nor would the glorious Angels accept of such Service as
and it is evident from Scripture and acknowledged by all Christians that there is a difference between God's Moral Commands which are unchangeable and his positive Commands which he hath changed and consequently that there is a difference betwixt the Moral and Positive Law of God So that in the Positive Laws or Commands the Matter is indifferent and becomes only morally good by and during the Command as the Command to forbear the eating of the forbidden Fruit he instituted Circumcision and all the Ceremonies of the Levitical Law and many of the Judicial Laws therefore in the Moral Commands there must be something more in the Matter commanded than in the other and more than the Command it self When the Scripture saith that God cannot deny himself it cannot be restrained unto his Will nor that he cannot deny that he doth exist but that he cannot deny his essential Natural Perfections by commanding or doing any thing unsutable to them The Scripture saith expresly that it is impossible for God to lie if this Impossibility were only because of his Will and Decree then it should be impossible that God should not do all the Acts of Creation and Providence which he hath decreed Yea it would lead to that blasphemous Opinion That God hath decreed and hath or will do all that is possible for him to do and that his Power is no larger than his Will therefore the Impossibility of God's lying must not alone be because he hath willed or decreed not to lie Whatsoever depends upon meer Will is ambulatory and changeable by an opposite Act of the same Will and both Acts would be equally good So it is in the Divine Positive Laws and Precepts which are changed without Changeableness in God because the Change is sutable to his Divine Perfections especially to his Freedom of Indifferency and if he might so change his Promises his Faithfulness and the truth of his Expressions no Creature could have any ground of Trust which would overturn the Faith Were it not horrid to imagine that God who hath freely from Eternity decreed being considered as prior in the Order of Nature tho not of Time to these Decrees or as abstract from these Decrees were indifferent as to Truth and Falshood Justice and Injustice as he was to the creating of Creatures or to the Manner Kinds and Individuals of them which some have rather inclin'd to than to suppose that in the Direction of the wickedest Acts God should not be an Actor to maintain a Metaphysical Extension of his being the first Cause Some have thought that God is not capable of any Obligation or Debt to his Creatures nor of any other Justice but that which is called distributive in Rewards and Punishments because he cannot be obliged to give or perform to his Creature and so not by commutative Justice but tho that kind of Justice be commonly called commutative because it is frequently exerted in exchanging of one thing for another yet we must not measure things meerly by Names for the Obedience of Children and the Performance of every gratuitous Promise is not by distributive but by commutative Justice The Apostle Paul accurately discussing that great Question Whether Salvation be by Grace or by Works doth clearly oppose God's giving any thing by Grace to his giving on the account of Works and saith in express Terms To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt here the Reckoner and the Rewarder is God who accounteth himself Debtor of a Reward to him that worketh Good perfectly without failing I know it sounds yet more harshly to some pious and well-meaning Souls to say that God governs his Actions by a Law supposing it to import that he is under a Law which it doth not import for God is neither under nor above his own Moral Law for he is a Law unto himself And in the narrow Sense that Law is sometimes taken as it requires a Sanction by a Penalty in case of Transgression a Law cannot be attributed to God but that is not essential to a Law for many Laws even of Men have only a Reward annexed and no Punishment and others have neither Reward nor Punishment but the Deeds otherwise done are only annulled and made void or ineffectual A Debt or Obligation cannot be without a Law for Law is the Reason or Cause of an Obligation by which the Person obliged is determined and ruleth himself and therefore it is called a Tie metaphorically whereby one is tied to walk only as agreeth with that Tie so that unless we should say that a Debt or Obligation is without a Reason or Cause we must acknowledg that where a Debt is there must be a Reason of it which is the Law It would sound harsher to these tender Souls to say they worshipped a Lawless God It breeds Horror to think how like these Mistakes would render God to Tyrants who cannot hear of any other Rule of their Subjects Obedience but such is our Pleasure and who would have themselves thought to be above all Law and to be tied by no Obligation to their Subjects I know it is like to be thought a bold and useless Curiosity to enquire into the Cause of God's Decrees and Dispensations who doth all that he will and who may say What dost thou and who giveth account of none of his Matters But God's not giving an account of his Matters is not concerning the Rules of his Holiness of which he gives frequently an account but concerning the particular Means and Expedients by which he brings his Purposes to pass neither is it the question that he does nothing but what he will do yea whatsoever he doth he doth it by his Will but the Question is Whether he willeth and doth upon an anterior Motive not from the Creature but from himself I mean anterior in the order of Nature Nor do I think that it is required of all that are saved to search so high but of those only to whom God hath given Capacities and Opportunities for to whom much is given of them much shall be required And tho the simple Ignorance of these things will not be imputed as an Offence Errors in these Matters are very dangerous and therefore seeing they are so frequently vented in the World it is not only profitable but necessary to prevent or cure Errors concerning the Representation and Character of God Reason being given in Scripture so oft from such Grounds and not from mere Will And beside it is of excellent use to understand the Divine Nature which raiseth and increaseth the Admiration and Adoration of God and the highest purest and least selfish Love to him and the greatest Reverence and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure the meanest Capacity may love God because he hath promised them Happiness by Repentance and Faith and much more the Love of Gratitude may arise from the sense of his giving of these Graces yet there is a small Proportion between the
now think on is God's active Unchangeableness whereby all his Decrees are sutable to himself and all his Actings are unchangeably conform to his Decrees I know that in the right Apprehension of this as in all other the Divine Perfections there is great need of Wariness and Caution lest one of them should be conceived to be inconsistent with or incroach upon another and therefore I might be apt to mistake as others have done the Unchangeableness of God as if it were inconsistent with his Unchangeableness that upon different occasions he should act differently I have seen of late and not without Abhorrence and Admiration published in Print by one that pretends to be a great Divine in the Roman Communion that God is only a common Cause working like the Sun Moon or Stars without Consideration of any particular Circumstances but that all Specialities are acted by Christ whose Understanding being finite as Man cannot comprehend all things at once and therefore the Specialities arise as things fall in his Thoughts It is another strange enough Misapprehension of the Unchangeableness of God as if it did import that he could not have Consideration of the Actings of his free Creatures in any of his Decrees but behoved with as little Consideration of deserving to design the Rejection and eternal Misery of some as of the giving of Grace and eternal Glory and Blessedness unto others It were injurious to imagine that Learned and even Pious and for the main Orthodox Divines could have admitted so harsh a Character of the blessed and infinitely amiable God if their Mistake of the precise Import of God's Unchangeableness had not carried them unto that Supralapsarian Way Others apprehend it must imply a Changeableness in God if his Divine Perfections had any Effect at one time that they had not at another and when they see Scripture and Providence full of the contrary For instance that the Power of God was not always exerting it self in Creation or in the punishing of some and pardoning accepting and glorifying of others yet to maintain their Misapprehension of God's Unchangeableness they strain their Invention to find a Reconciliation and say that there was not any other Act of the Divine Will Power or Perception but his eternal Decree from which alone all these Effects followed so that the Act of Creation was only that Decree as breaking forth in its Effect yea to exclude Changeableness in Knowledg they must also allow that in the beginning God knew not that he was creating or that Creatures were brought forth and not till then which did import no alteration of the Perfection of God's Knowledg because he did as clearly know all things that were to come to pass from Eternity as when they did come to pass yea and knew no more as to the Matter but as to the Being future present or preterit No Invention can avoid that God knows that the World was once to come and now is and that the Flood was to be and is now past Could they also give an account how the same Decree could take Effect by one Act of the Divine Will and yet at so immense distance of Time Certainly there was no Act of God's Power different from his Will in the Decree and if there was a Power different from the Will it did not then begin to exert it self how then should that Act of the Will be efficacious that from Eternity had no Effect till the beginning of Time And how should the Will of the ending of Time be so long after the beginning which could not be by the meer Negation of willing but behoved to be by a positive Act of the Divine Will that such Acts of the same Will should be longer without Effect than others So that one Act of his Will should suspend the Effect of another whereas the Scripture doth always distinguish God's Decrees from his Dispensations and Working Our Saviour saith expresly Hitherto my Father worketh and I work Must we thence say Hitherto my Father decrees and I decree And tho it be said that all God's Purposes take Effect it is also said that all things come to pass according to God's Purpose which explaineth the manner of their taking Effect not by his Purpose but by the Performance of it in working according to it The genuine and proper Subject of Changeableness or Unchangeableness as to Acting originally is in the Purpose or Intention for no rational Being can operate rationally but by an Intention to work whether the Intention be before or with the Operation and therefore is changed by the change of the Intention Therefore God's Unchangeableness doth precisely consist in this that his eternal Purpose or Intention being fully sutable to his Divine Nature could therefore never be changed and by his Omnipotence it could never fail of the intended Effect So that his Unchangeableness is not that he acteth ever the same thing but that he acteth ever sutably to his glorious Nature and doth unchangeably perform what he purposeth No Creature could know God's eternal Purposes Decrees or Intentions or what his Will were without Revelation but by knowing what were congruous and sutable to the Divine Nature Our innate Conceptions of the Divine Actings are chiefly in our Apprehension of what is sutable to the Divine Nature from whence we infer his Unchangeableness Justice Benignity Mercy Faithfulness and Truth which we do not perceive so soon or so clearly as the other We may and do oft doubt concerning several Dispensations whether they flow from God's Justice Benignity or Mercy being yet very clear that they are congruous to his glorious and blessed Nature God's Unchangeableness doth not import that he hath always the same Love of Beneplacence and Beneficence to his Elect before they were converted as after and when they fall in presumptuous Sins for which he withdraws his Countenance their Peace and Joy and doth correct them as when they consider their Ways and repent and he cherisheth and comforteth them albeit his Love of Benevolence to them is ever the same because in all these he acts sutably to himself I abhor their Folly who think that Sin is no more Sin nor no more to be sorrowed for in the Regenerate or that God hath relaxed his Justice in making that which was Sin against his Moral Law to become no more Sin which would indeed import a Mutability in him It is also a groundless and empty Notion to infer from God's Unchangeableness that there can be no more nor no less Motion in the World than at the Creation or that there shall be no more or fewer saved of Mankind than fell of the Angels I do also admire and abhor their Error who hold that God's Love of Benevolence to the same Creature can change seeing it flows from his meer Grace and from no good thing in the Object Whence then should the occasion of the Change arise This Imagination not only incroaches upon the Unchangeableness of God but
many not the meanest and ignoblest of Men have wilfully made their Bodies uncapable to serve their Souls that they might escape it and how many more would if without that Pain they could flee out of their Bodies few would suffer Misery in them but those who knew and did acknowledg the Trust and Command to preserve them given by God under an higher Pain than they could suffer by abiding in them A farther degree of the Goodness of God is manifested in the other inbred Inclinations which God hath freely given to the Soul beside that of cleaving to the Body which is not by fatal Necessity seeing the Soul is a separable Substance and might easily escape from the Body if it could please so to do Such Principles are the Love to God above all as being the Soveraign Good and incomparably most amiable Object the Love to Mankind preferring the Interest of Manking to the Interest of any part of Men and in most things to Self-interest Self-love also is a Gift of God and good in it self when kept within its Bounds tho by the Corruption of Sin it is become the Cause of most Evils Men do either wholly exclude the Love of God and of Mankind or do exceedingly abate them and subordinate them to Self-love For these Affections cannot arise before or without the Perception of their proper Objects Therefore it is that because it is long before the Perception of the Deity or of the common Interest arise in the Soul during which time Self-love doth wholly and solely possess the Soul and all its Affections are exercised without Restraint except what ariseth by the Fear of Chastisement or the natural or industrious Perception of the Uncomeliness of some extravagant Acts that Self-love becomes habitual and so strong that when the Perception of God or the common Interest of Mankind by the natural Conscience or Instruction is excited Self-love makes the Soul have a powerful Aversion from these Objects which would low or restrain it so that it can never be kept within Bounds especially in Subordination to God without supernatural Grace given by him It will sooner yield to the Love of a Family of a Society of a Country than to the Love of the common Interest of Mankind yet even Heathens have come a great length as to that but came never to any sutable Proportion of the Love to God as all their Writings and Actings do manifestly show There is another general inbred Principle and Inclination in Man to do that which is congruous to and becoming his Nature not only to what is essential to him but to what is superadded by the Divine Benignity which is more sensibly felt in the Aversion of things which are unbecoming Man and which all judg to be vicious and vile except in so far as they have eradicated their inbred Principles and debauched their Natural Inclinations so even natural Men love Temperance Sobriety Modesty Meekness Sincerity Constancy Courage and Comeliness and those whose Depravation make them love and practise the contrary in themselves do frequently hate them in others and never cherish them but when it is to lessen or abolish their own Shame by making their Vice more common or that they require the Concourse of others to practise them Beside these general Principles which require Attention and Ratiocination God by his Bounty hath imprinted on the Soul of Man special Principles for eminent Cases which operate like Instincts without necessity of reasoning as the desire of Happiness the care to preserve Life the abhorrence of Cruelty the desire to relieve the Innocent opprest Gratitude to Benefactors Faithfulness to those that do rationally rely and trust Love to those in Society and Friendship that especially which is most entire and absolute by Marriage and the mutual natural Affection of Parents and Children and of those which are of one Kindred and Blood The Institution of Marriage was a farther degree of the Bounty of God appointed in Innocency that betwixt one Man and one Woman by the free Choice of both there should be so intimate a Society and Friendship as could be no greater having all their Interests common perpetual and most part incommunicable that each of them had more Right to and Enjoyment of all than when they had them alone excluding the other tho the unsutable Choice of some hath marred this Blessing it diminisheth not the Bounty of God being by the fault of the Parties at least is a Judgment for their other Faults and it was their Interest that this Society was indissolvable even by the Consent of both but only by Adultery or Desertion which gave a strong Inducement to compose their Humours tho naturally discrepant rather than to be in a continual Disquiet It was a great Addition to the Happiness of this Conjugal Estate that there was given them so strong an Inclination of these Imbraces necessary for Posterity which otherwise have nothing of Comeliness in them and Women would never have endured the Trouble and Pain of Child-bearing if this Affection and the natural desire of having Children did not over-master them How great Addition to Adam's Pleasure behoved it to be when awakening from his Sleep God presented him Eve the only Creature like to himself which was the first Glass in which he did behold the Beauty of his own Body as well as hers who was fitted for him in all things that he could desire not only passionately loved but even more passionately loving both being endued with the same Principles and Inclinations and requiring no need of farther Acquaintance than the first View both being innocent and void of all Vice and able to communicate their Thoughts by that Language with which God did endue them without their own Industry by which they might communicate their Knowledg of God their Admiration Confidence and Delight in him their Love and Reverence to him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure in all things which they knew by the Moral Law written in their Hearts and which it is like he did explain and declare unto them as he did his positive Command of the forbidden Fruit to be a Test of their Obedience by restraining their Appetite from so pleasant a Fruit for which Restraint they had no inbred Inclination as they had to the Moral Duties but rather contrary except his Pleasure and Prohibition for if he had willed that they should not eat of it it would certainly have been effectual but he did only declare what they might eat and what they might not eat and denounced the Punishment if they did eat what was forbidden which sufficiently shews that their forbearing would have been acceptable to him which was sufficient to lay the strongest Obligation upon them and yet he expressed the heaviest Penalty if they trangressed which was implied by their knowledg of his Justice tho it had not been expressed which could not consist with his moving exciting or necessitating them to it Adam whose Knowledg was so great
the Person injured and if there be any thing of Reparation due by the Wrong it may be lawfully prosecuted but the Aversion and Resentment arising from the Injury is that which Men are required to forgive and obliterate There was indeed a Debt of that holy Action that by Sin was transgressed but every Debt is not a Debt of Payment for Payment imports the delivery of some Fungible as Money or Grain but other Debts consist not in Payment but in Prestation or performance of some Deed as the doing any Work putting one in Possession giving Honour or Obedience And so Creatures Obligements to God are not Debts of Payment but of Prestation or Performance much less can the Guiltiness of Sin import a Debt of Payment but it doth not even import a Debt of Performance A Criminal is not obliged to offer himself to the Justice of the Magistrate who therein is the Minister of God no not to confess his Crime when accused by another unless it can be otherwise proved Nor doth the Judg punishing take Payment but useth his Authority in the way of Vindication as an Act of Punitive Justice done by him on the Criminal and not done to him by the Criminal Prestation of Facts being omitted especially to God can never be repayed that which is past cannot be recalled nor is it compensable by any Liquid Payment but only the Damage done by it and if there be no other Damage the Grief arising by the Injury may be compensed with Joy arising from the Application of some of the Injurer's Goods to the Injured and oftentimes Men count it a Satisfaction by taking Pleasure in the suffering of the Injurer but that is it which Men are required to forgive How can it then be imagined that God requireth Payment for the failure in Duty by the Committer of Sin He is not capable of Grief or Damage and he hath not only said but sworn that he taketh no Pleasure in the Torment of his Creature As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner If Sin inferred a Debt of Payment it might be forgiven without any Satisfaction for scarce is any Creditor obliged to exact the Debt due to him but he may freely forbear it or forgive it And therefore if Sin did properly infer a Debt God might forgive it without Satisfaction therefore God punisheth not Sin as a Creditor exacting his Debt but as he is the King Ruler and Judg of the World he vindicates the Injury against his Law and manifests his infinite Aversion and Abhorrence of Sin not his Delight in the Misery of his Creature 3. I consider the part of the Son in the Decree and Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace not as a making Payment for the Debt of Sinners but a submitting to these Sufferings which do as much manifest God's Abhorrence of Sin and Delight in his indispensable Law as if the whole Race of Mankind had been eternally in Hell and thereby he made way to God's Mercy to fallen Man so far as it was congruous to the Divine Perfections If Christ's Satisfaction had been the Payment of the Sinner's Debt the Forgiveness of Sin would not be by free Grace A Cautioner or any interposed Person paying a Debt the Creditor cannot be said to give a free Discharge to the principal Debtor for he has gotten all he could demand Law doth not suffer a Creditor to refuse Payment from any that shall please to interpose which therefore would be far from exalting the free Goodness of God in pardoning Sin as the Scripture sets it forth beside that all interposed Persons acquire Right to the Debt and have Recourse against the principal Debtor for whom they pay But Scripture makes no mention of Sinners becoming Debtors to Christ for Punishment If Sin had been undertaken by and transferred on Christ the Sinner being so liberated how could the Sinner beg Pardon of the Sin that was already payed Thence some have imagined that it was a fault to mourn for Sin and that so they were no way under the Law but under Grace And those who are a little more modest say that they do not observe the Law as a Debt by Justice but as a free Gratification mistaking grosly that place that the Regenerate are not under the Law but under Grace that is that the Law is no more the Counterpart of the Covenant between God and them as it was in the Covenant of Works but is still a Law obliging them to Performance without Abrogation Derogation Indulgence or Pardon of Sin before it were committed anterior in its Obligation to any Covenant of and with Man The reason of the severe Punishment of Sin is commonly given because it is committed against the infinite Majesty of God to which I think it may be well added that as the Aversion of God from Sin and as his Purity is infinite so his Justice requires an infinite Punishment which because a Creature cannot bear in a finite Duration it becomes an infinite Punishment Thence also it is evident that Christ's Satisfaction could not be infinite in Weight for Weight can no more be infinite than Bulk but it becomes infinite in Value by the Dignity of the Person that suffered it 4. All that deserve the Name of Christians do agree that God's Justice could not be satisfied nor Sin expiated without the suffering of Christ of infinite Value but they do exceedingly disagree in the Terms of the Covenant betwixt the Father and the Son and betwixt God and Man All do agree that in every Covenant there must be mutual Prestations by either Party but the Question is what these Prestations were in the Terms of the Covenant of Grace what is God's part and what is Man's part in it There be many Errors not only perillous but pernicious especially when they are wilfully maintained That Infallibility the Church of Rome pretends makes all her Errors to become wilful and sinful if once they have been owned in that way they count infallible All others may and oftentimes do retract their Mistakes It were highly uncharitable to imagine that any of these had wilfully or willingly taken up an Error in this matter which is the greatest Interest of Men but at first they behoved to be mistaken I do therefore think it worth my utmost Endeavour for my own clearing to consider how they have fallen into these Mistakes and by what way they might come cut of them 1. The Pelagians held That the natural Powers God had given Men by Creation were sufficient for Regeneration and that which seems to have led them into that Error was that it could not consist with the Goodness and even with the Justice of God to damn Men for that which was never in their Power to avoid Seeing nothing can be a Crime but what is voluntary and where the Will might have actually chosen or followed the contrary and so at least it was in their natural Power to
Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
of Children from the Covenant of Grace yet the Covenant of Grace is one for all the Son having covenanted from Eternity for all the Elect to bring them into the Covenant of Grace by Regeneration exerted according to their Capacity by actual believing of those who are capable so to act which also is an Evidence that the Act of Faith is not saving by any thing absolutely necessary in it self but by the free Choice and Institution of God The third Point proposed is what Act of Faith that is by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace and which is their Part of the Covenant Many hold it to be a Perswasion of the covenanting Person that Christ died for him whereby it must be an Act of the Understanding but I see not how that can hold for covenanting must be by an Act of the Will promising or otherwise performing the Covenanter's Part which is oftentimes in the one Party no more than an Acceptance as in a Trust or Commission the one Party gives the Trust or Commission which doth make no Covenant but an Offer but when the other Party accepts then the Contract is compleat and the Accepter is thereby bound to follow the Trust and Commission and make an Account and the Giver is obliged to refund the Expences Albeit Contracts be by mutual Consent and that Consent signifies to have the same Thought yet Agreement in one Mind makes no more a Covenant than when two are of one Opinion in Contemplation but a Covenant is ever somewhat practicable and therefore tho Acts of Understanding precede the Covenant it self is by Acts of the Will The Description of saving Faith by Perswasion is but by a Consequent which ought to be endeavoured by all yet is not attained by all for many are in the Covenant of Grace that come not the Length of Perswasion that Christ died effectually for them and that thereby they are reconciled to God and shall be saved for tho they were perswaded that Christ died for all and every Man that would import nothing to saving Faith for it were much more evident that the Effect of Christ's Death for all Men were not the same seeing so many trample under Foot the Blood of the Covenant and so few are saved Therefore no Man hath just Ground to be perswaded that Christ died effectually for him or with Intention to make him holy and happy or any further than to put him in a Condition to be holy and happy if he himself did not hinder it Therefore tho believing in Christ were not only proposed to all but imposed on all as a Duty yet it is only a Duty in the Order God hath imposed it to wit that all Men should consider their sinful natural Estate and that the just Reward of Sin would be eternal Death without Repentance which none could escape who cleaved to any kind of Sin and hated to be reformed and that therefore they should be willing and endeavour to be reformed and use the Means appointed by God for that End and should throw themselves upon God's Mercy through Christ's Merit if thereby they found that the delighting in Sin in those Kinds especially which did most easily beset them did cease and that the Love to and Delight in God did in some measure take Place But to think to reach the highest Step of the Scale per Saltum were altogether without warrant unless it were extraordinary as in Paul's Conversion Paul to the Romans gives the true Warrants of that Perswasion As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ. Hence it is evident how little Moment is in that Arminian Quibble so much magnified by them that Christ must have died for all Men because all Men are bound to believe he died for them We must therefore yet enquire the particular Convenanting Act of Faith which being so necessary is many Ways expressed and set forth in Scripture that it may be reached by several Capacities it is called a Looking to Christ for Salvation Look unto me all ye Ends of the Earth and be saved A turning to God Turn ye turn ye for why will you die O House of Israel A coming to Christ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest to your Souls And to the Refractory it is said Ye will not come to me that ye may have Life A drawing near to God Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you An answering of God's Call Thou saidst Seek ye my Face my Heart answered Thy Face Lord will I seek hide not thy Face from me A receiving of Christ He came to his own but his own received him not but to all that did receive him he gave Power to become the Sons of God So then the saving Act of Faith must imply all these not that he who entereth in the Covenant must have expresly all these Acts but that the Act he must have must imply and import them all and be virtually as much as they all The Spirit of God in this Branch of the Covenant of Grace does not proceed in one way with all the Elect As the Wind moveth whither it listeth and no Man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is the Spirit of God Some are chased in by the Thundrings and Terrors of the Law running as a pursued Man to a Rock a Fortress a Tower or a Strength or as in the hazard of Shipwrack running into an Harbour As those who by Peter's Sermon convincing the Jews that they had denied the Holy One and the Just and had killed the Prince of Life Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their Hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do And God opened their Ears and their Hearts to receive Instruction But God gaineth others by the sweet and still Voice of the Gospel alluring their Hearts to trust in his Mercy and Faithfulness as being so gracious that he delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that they should repent and live that he will not disappoint those who becomingly trust in him He sometimes begins with the Light of Nature to lead in the revealed Light of the Gospel as Paul dealt with the Athenians and saith to Timothy God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind With some the Spirit proceeds by degrees giving a Spirit of Bondage to fear before the Spirit of Adoption as Paul saith We have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but we received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba