so with us that wee know not what these things meane if to our apprehension there appeare more terror in the angry words of a King than the most peremptory threatnings of God if a reproofe of a knowne fault will be rejected by us with contempt and gall if we sleight the sweetest exhortations and the Consolations of God seeme a small matter to us if wee can with a Confident scorne of all Gods counsells hold a resolution to goe on still in our owne courses let God and his Ministers say what they list if our Corruptions trouble us not and of all things in this life we take least notice of the sinfull estate of our soules or of all pleasures and studies wee finde least content in hearing reading meditating on the Word These things are infallible Symptomes of Spirituall death that hath seazed on us and that as yet wee have not so heard the Word the Voyce of the Sonne of God as to be made alive by the hearing of it This tryall is certaine and this Change that the Word and Spirit worke in our regeneration is very sensible if wee be not sensible of it we may be bold to Censure our selves that as yet wee have it not To conclude they only heare the Word as the word of God which finde in it Gods power working Sanctification in their hearts others heare it only as the word of man which goes no further than the naturall care and understanding Where this change of the heart is not all reformation in the life is but counterfeit and hypocriticall In the two former Questions wee have examined the pretended sufficiency of Grace universally bestowed on all whether within or without the Church and shewed you that all those gifts which are ordinarily given either to Christians or Heathens are utterly insufficient for to worke their true Conversion unlesse there bee a further aide of the speciall grace of the Holy Ghost working on the Soule to the sanctification thereof Wee are at this time to come unto our third and last Question whether or no supposing such grace to be given as is truly sufficient to convert it be notwithstanding in mans power freely to choose whether he will be converted or not converted by it The Arminian affirmes that it is so and that when God directly intends to Convert a man and for that purpose affords him all gracious helpes needfull to be given on his part then Man by the liberty of his Will may resist Gods will and worke so as they shall not worke his Conversion A desperate error which whosoever maintaines it is impossible that Christian Humilitie and thankfulnesse can have any place in that mans heart Wherefore it behooves us much to be rightly informed in a point of such consequence wherein it is so easie to become an enemy against the grace of God The Question then is this Whether it be in mans power so to resist the grace of God as finally to hinder his owne Conversion In the explication of this Controversie I shall with Gods helpe proceed in this order 1. To shew unto you in briefe the Opinion and Errours of our Adversaries in this point 2. To unfold and confirme that Truth which the orthodox Church defends as touching this matter 3. To answer such Arguments as are made against it The Opinion of the Arminians touching the power of Mans free Will in the worke of Conversion is most fully and freely expressed by that perverse Sectary Iohannes Arnoldi Corvinus in these words of his so often mentioned in the acts of the late Synod and which are most worthy to be had in everlasting detestation Positis saith he omnibus operationibus gratiae quibus ad Conversionem in nobis eâ—â—iciendam Deus utitur manet tamen ipsa Conversio it a in â—ostra Potestate libera ut possimus non converti id est nosmetipsos vel convertere vel non converters id est Suppose all the operations of Grace which God useth to worke conversion in us bee present yet Conversion it selfe remaines in that sort free in our power that wee may be not converted that is we may convert or not convert our selves This is plaine dealing without ambiguity and doubling When God hath done all that is to be done for his part 't is still on our free choyce whether wee will convert or not Their explication of this conclusion is as strange as the conclusion it selfe is hereticall It is thus there are two operations of Grace precedent to a mans Conversion 1. Illumination of the Vnderstanding in the cleere knowledge of the Law and Gospell Sinne and Grace Which illumination is not you must thinke wrought by any immediate worke of the Holy Ghost opening the understanding to discerne of Spirituall things but by the very plaine evidence of the things themselves so cleerely declared and represented to the Vnderstanding that every man having the use of reason aâ—d judgement and being attentive in the hearing or reading of the Word may by the help of his naturall reason without other Supernaturall light understand the sense of all things delivered in Scripture needfull to be knowne beleeved hoped for or practised This is the first worke of Grace upon the Vnderstanding the next is in the 2. Renovation of the Affections which are quickened and rectified with new motions towards spirituall things So that a man not yet converted may truly Sorrow for his offending of God Bewaile his spirituall death in sinne be inflamed with the love of the truth Desire Grace and the Spirit of regeneration hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and eternall life truly wish for deliverance out of his sinfull estate in briefe offer up to God the Sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart in Humilitie in Confession of sinne in Prayers for mercy in a Purpose and an Assay of amendment of life And thus farre the heart or affections may be changed and quickened when yet a man is not Converted Now this alteration which is wrought in affections is if you will beleeve them not any immediate effect of the Holy Ghost working this change in them but the proper cause of it is the Illumination of the understanding whereupon followes necessarily the stirring up of the affections in their right orderly motions which formerly were dead and disordered by reason of the darknesse of the minde misguiding them These two workes goe before mans Conversion and are wrought in all that heare the Word Vniversally and Irresistably the plainesse of Divine truth is such that men though they would cannot avoide the knowledge of it and the dependance of the affections on the Vnderstanding is such that their motions must needs bee conformable to the knowledge and apprehensions thereof When these two effects are wrought in a man hee is then furnished with sufficient strength to Beleeve and Convert if he will This power and strength is given him irresistably will he nill hee but for the Act of
him In the first union we were insensible of it and grace is given to us non petentibus that asked not after it in this second union wee are most sensible of its comfort and benefit and here an augmentation of grace is bestowed on us petentes earnestly suing for it and by faith expecting the receiving of it Wherefore I conclude All grace and vertue whatsoever in us is given us from the fulnesse of Christ the fountaine of all supernaturall life but yet all is not wrought by Christ embraced by our faith but by Christ convaying his grace unto us by his Spirit This first quickens us wee then with Lazarus after life put into us can awake stand up come forth and by faith looke on him that raised us fall downe worship and beleeve in him as our Lord and God The places alledged eyther touch not our sanctification at all or speake onely of the increase of grace not of its first infusion faith being a meanes of that but no efficient or instrument of this Having thus shewed the nature of our conversion or sanctification it remaineth that for the further cleering of many doubts and our more easie passage unto other points wee speake somewhat touching three materiall circumstances necessary to bee considered in this point of our conversion and vocation and they are these 1. The cause whereby 2. The manner how 3. The subject wherein conversion is wrought Of the cause first which is double 1. The impulsive or moving cause 2. The efficient or working cause That which moves God to bestow the grace of sanctification upon man is nothing in man but all in God himselfe namely his free-love to his elect in Christ Which love of God is from eternity before the foundations of the world were laid and though it be revealed unto the elect in time or at their conversion yet doth it not then begin when it begins to bee manifested When wee yet lay in the shadow of death strangers from the life of God through ignorance that was in us when wee were cast out polluted in our bloud not yet washed and seasoned with salt even then God looked on us with tender compassions hee pitted us hee loved us as chosen vessels prepared for glory as heires of grace and life and because he thus loved us he said to us Live hee covered our nakednesse and cloathed us with righteousnesse Now that God doth thus actually love the elect before they are regenerate or can actually beleeve may further appeare by these reasons 1. Where God is actually reconciled there he actually loveth for love and reconciliation are inseparable But with the elect before they convert and beleeve God is actually reconciled Ergo He loves them before their faith and conversion The minor is evident because before they are borne much more before they are regenerate a full Attonement and satisfaction for all offences is made by Christ and accepted on Gods part Whereupon actuall reconciliation must needs follow And this the Scriptures make manifest Christ being the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world and God testifying of him at his Baptisme long before his death in that speech of admirable consolation This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am pleased well pleased with him for the unspotted holinesse of his owne person well pleased with us in him for his unvaluable merits And hence a second reason à pari 2. If God did actually love the elect before Christs time when an actuall reconciliation was not yet made then much more may hee actually love the elect after the attonement is really made by Christs death even before they doe beleeve it But the former is true as appeares by the salvation of the Patriarkes and therefore the latter may not well be denied The reason of the consequence is this Because it is farre more probable that God should love us upon satisfaction made before our faith than love them upon their faith before satisfaction was given Specially seeing neyther their faith nor ours is any efficient cause why God loves either them or us 3. Election effectuall Vocation and Faith all are fruites and consequents of Gods actuall love unto the Elect which graces and favours he therefore bestowes upon them because hee loves them And therefore t is vaine to say Deus elegit homines diligendos non dilectos or that faith and sanctity are bestowed on us onely to make us capable of Gods love Is not the bestowing of them a fruit of his great mercy and love unto us Yea the whole series and chaine of all Gods gracious workes for mans salvation have Gods love for their first linke as is apparant Ioh. 1. 13. 4. These affections of love and hatred in God are perpetuall being eternall and unchangeable acts of his will Whom he loves he loves alwaies whom he hates he hates for ever Nor doth hee as man at any time begin to love that person whom before he hated or hate that person whom before he loved These things agree not with Gods immutability or omnisciency For it cannot be that like a man he should bee deceived in the placing of his affection or that hee should change his minde where the things themselves change not forasmuch as he that is once hated of God will bee for ever hatefull for who should make him otherwise and he that is once beloved shall be for ever lovely for God that loves him will make him so Wherefore Gods love to the regenerate is not a thing of yesterday as themselves are but one of those ancient favours which have been laid up for us in the treasury of his old and everlasting counsells 5. God loves and saves those of his elect who dye infants and cannot have actuall faith Of which more anon Wherefore I conclude that before conversion much more before actuall faith God actually loves the elect and out of that his great love bestowes upon them the grace of conversion But here I would have you observe a twofold distinction 1. Betweene Gods love in itselfe The manifestation of it to us That is perpetuall and One from all to all eternity without change increase or lessening towards every one of the Elect But the manifestation of this love to our hearts and consciences begins in time at our conversion and is variable according to the severall degrees of grace given and our more or lesse carefull exercise of Piety whereby the light of Gods countenance at one time shines bright upon our soules at another time is in the eclipse Which divers degrees of revelation argue no difference in Gods affection nay in earthly Parents it doth not alway for a strong affection may be concealed but we may truly say That Gods love to us when he decreed to save us is one the same without addition with that which he manifesteth unto us when hee glorifieth us That holy flame of divine love towards us doth burne as hote now as then
all Vncleannesse to make us holy vessells of pleasure fit for the seruice of Gods Sanctuary Now whereas this worke of the Holy Spirit is by divines called Donatio Spiritus Sancti the Giving of the Holy Ghost that we be not mistaken you are to note briefly that the Holy Ghost is said to be given two waies 1. In his Essence and Graces both together and so was he given to Christ the Head of the Church in whom dwelleth the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily or substantially whom God hath annointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power and that above all his brethren having given him the Spirit without measure 2. In his Graces and Vertues only and so is hee given unto the Church the body of Christ. Touching this Sending forth of the Spirit into the hearts of the Elect the inhabitation thereof in their hearts how they are said to bee the Temples of the holy Ghost and Partakers of the Divine nature albeit it be most true that the Holy Ghost being God must needs be present euery where by his Essence yet I take it to agree best with Christian modesty to let passe curious speculations about such sacred mysteries and to rest our selues contented with this that it sufficeth abundantly for our comfort if wee enjoy his Gracious presence replenishing us with all heavenly vertues and Consolations Now this donation of the Spirit in his graces and vertues is double 1. One respecting the publike when an extraordinarie measure either of Inferiour gifts or of Sanctifying graces is bestowed upon some men for the greater benefit of the Church in common And this was more peculiar to the times of the Primitive Church Of which donation of the Spirit you may read Ioh. 7. 39. Act. 2. Act. 19. 2. 6. Eph. 4. 8. 11. 2. Another in regard of the Private good of every Elect person when the Holy Spirit is given to him effectually to call convert and sanctifie him And this only is that giving of the Holy Ghost which wee now seeke after when the power of that Holy one overshadowes our soules and by the immortall Seed of his owne most gracious vertue frames in us the New man created according to God in Righteousnesse and Holinesse Let this suffice concerning the Causes of our Conversion which are briefly wrapped up in that of the Apostle Rom. 5. 5. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I goe on to the next circumstance viz. The manner how it is wrought in us To inquire in what manner the Holy Ghost breathes into our Soules the Supernaturall life of Grace is a scruteny as difficult as to search whence and whither the winde blowes or for a dead man raised up to tell how life and sense came into him or for a man borne into the world to describe in what manner each of his members was fashioned in the wombe There is not I suppose any mortall man not inspired with speciall revelation that can declare unto us this Way of the heavenly spirit any more than the skilfullest Anatomist the Way of the earthly spirit nor how the bones doe grow in the wombe of her that is with childe as Saloman speakes Eccle. 11. 5. To tell the moneth day or houre wherein they were converted is in most converts impossible in all of exceeding difficult observation though I denie not but the time may be in Some of sensible marke But euen in them or others to shew us by which way the Spirit went out from God to speake unto their hearts by what secret motions it moued upon their soules how and in which parts its quickening and sanctifying vertue gaue life and heat unto them we cannot expect from them any declaration of that which they had no power to obserue Doe not looke then I should make knowne unto you the manner of that in you whereof I am ignorant in my selfe This I trust that thorough the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ both you and I may say with the blinde man in the Gospell One thing we know that we were blinde but now we see we were dead but now we are aliue we were lost but are now found we were darkenesse but are now light in the Lord albeit how our eyes are opened and illightned how we were recovered from our wandring in the vale of death wee cannot in euery particular exactly recount Blessed is hee that findes this change in himselfe and farre more blessed than they who betray themselues to have no part in the worke by their pride and bitternesse in quarrelling the manner of it who as the learned Moulin censures not too sharpely are themselues ledde by a reprobate Spirit whilst captiously and carnally they inquire after the working of Gods Spirit There are neverthelesse two things in the manner of Graces plantation in us which we may descry because the Scriptures have discovered them unto us namely 1. That this Plantation of Grace in us is meerely Supernaturall 2. That this Plantation of Grace is Constant Durable not to be rooted up again two circumstances about the infusion of Grace into mans heart so necessary to be well observed as nothing more Because in the one lies the foundation of all Christian humility we having nothing but what we have received on the other depends all our unconquerable comforts in this our pilgrimage that we have so received grace as wee shall never lose it again In both these Sathan hath not beene wanting by his instruments men of corrupt mindes to pervert sound doctrine and poyson religion even in the roote advancing the wisedome of the flesh against the power of Gods Spirit filling the heart with proud imaginations by ascribing so much unto the Sufficiency of its owne naturall Abilities in point of Convesion as it need not be much beholding to God for his grace and againe breeding in the soule terrors unsufferable and fearefull doubtings of its perseverance in grace received upon the apprehension of no stronger support in grace than the reede of mans Free-will which having received may as easily reject grace and having made them may by the same power eternally undoe them againe So looke how men are exalted in pride on the one side as low are they throwne downe in discomfort on the other side and scarce is there any point of religion wherein we may erre more easily and dangerously Well then let this be our first conclusion touching the manner of our conversion that The Grace of Sanctification is wrought in the Elect in such a manner as is meerely Supernaturall id est above the strength without the concurrence of any abilities of our corrupted nature God though a supernaturall agent yet worketh many things by naturall meanes and in a naturall manner whilst hee doth but only giue his assistance and co-working power to with the naturall abilities originally planted in every creature And then though we denie not Gods
settled plantation for many ages In which time learning Arts and all Civilitie seemed to have beene confined to those middle parts of the world the rest further remote being left in grosse ignorance and barbarisme And the same course is held to this day wherein Learning and Civility hath abandoned the Easterne countries which have forsaken true Religion and hath not yet approached to the Westerne Americans who have not heard the sound of the Gospell Now then in the course of times it could not bee but sundry accidents would fall out for the dispearcing of sacred knowledge as trading and commerce of Merchants both strangers into Iudaea and Iewes into forraine parts Entertaining of Slaves and Captives who if barbarous learned of their Iewish if Iewes taught their barbarous Masters many mysteries of Religion received and beleeved among the people of God The perigrination and sojourning of many Iewes abroad in forraine parts as no countrey soever but hath some of its people in all countreys which Iewes as they learned the superstitions of the Heathen so they brought in amongst them some pieces and relickes of true Religion Lastly the Curiosity of the Philosophers of those times shaming the negligence of the learned now who would with any cost purchase bookes of any Art in any Language which they thought contained some secret knowledge and rare mysterie as also spared no labour in travelling into forraine parts wherein they heard were any men or meanes whereby their knowledge might be increased Wherefore it is more than probable that those Ancients Zoroastres Hermes Orpheus Plato and others drew their knowledge which in part they had of many high mysteries out of a deeper and cleerer fountaine than the muddy shallow springs of their owne naturall reason though in the passage this water was much soyled by them with the mudde of many idle fables and silly conceits A reason whereof we may conceive to be either the darknesse of their apprehension not cleerely discerning what was perhaps plainely enough delivered or the corruption of those Idolatrous times which permitted not the least innovation in opinion or practice touching the matter of Religion as appeares in the case of Socrates which constrayned the learned in those dayes to conceale much of what they knew or to declare it darkly in many mistie and foggy fables whose interpretation aftertimes forgot and so beleeved a lie for a true tale Hitherto of the knowledge of a meere naturall man let us next descend to the Effects thereof in regard of Practice which admitting of a double consideration as theformer What may be what hath beene done shall yet here be handled joyntly together By the former discourse it appeares how imperfect the knowledge of the wisest naturall man is whence it followes that his practice will come as farre short of his knowledge as his knowledge doth of perfection For so t is even with the best Christians who practise farre lesse than they know much more with the naturall man whose knowledge is too darke and uncertaine to cause any powerfull and vigorous impression upon his will and sensuall affections which will be too too violent and untamed to give way to the commands of his understanding Yea should we suppose in a naturall man the cleerest apprehension of all duties in the morall Law yet could it not much better his practice so easily would the Naturall Conscience bee choaked and borne downe by the power of Corruption unlesse it bee supported by Faith which only puts life into our knowledge and strength unto our practice And in this case there is no difference betweene a Naturall Heathen and an Vnregenerate Christian who in knowledge may and doth exceed the other and yet come short of him in practice For seeing they both alike want Faith and Sanctification it is possible that goodnesse of naturall temper civility of education strictnesse of government due hope of reward and praise or feare of the contrary with the like motives may carry a Heathen as farre in vertuous courses as bare illumination can a Christian. The same corruption in both perhaps greater in the Christian than Heathen as sinne abounds more where unsanctified knowledge abounds I say the like corruption in both would imprison this knowledge in unrighteousnesse that it breake not forth into Religious practice Whence wee finde that Christians much more Philosophers have not beene the same men in the Chaire and in their Conversations but that their opinions and discourses have beene full of Sanctity and Temperance when their lives have beene defiled with all Impiety and Sensuality Wherefore for the generall let us set downe this Conclusion as most true that The meere naturall man never goes so farre in the application of his knowledge unto practice as hee might doe and as hee knowes he should doe And therefore the Gentiles are condemned for detaining the truth in injustice for sinning against their consciences accusing them for knowing God and yet not glorifying him as God So that t is cleere although the Naturall man cannot doe or know so much as he ought yet hee knowes more than hee is ever willing to practise and for that cause his knowledge is sufficient to condemne him of his unrighteousnesse towards man and false worship of God himselfe though it bee not sufficient to direct him in the true meanes and manner of Gods right worship or the practice of a holy life And thus in Gods wonderfull judgement he is left as without sufficient direction for well doing so without all lawfull excuse for his ill doing But come we to particulars the Naturall mans practice respects either God in his Inward worship Outward Man 1. In things concerning God and his worship the Naturall man utterly perverts himselfe in his practice there being in this case the greatest deformity and disagreement that may be betweene his knowledge in the speculation and his application thereof to practice Consider him in the Inward worship of the heart how hee stands affected toward the Deity in those inward affections of Love Feare Credence and Confidence which are required as part of our Spirituall worship of God It would be strange to see the disposition of a meere Naturall mans heart in this part of Gods worship how feeble cold and forced these affections would bee how full of hypocrisie and falshood being secretly fastned to the creature when they pretend to bee directed to the Creator just like unregenerate Christians that will make shew of Love Feare Faith and Trust in God when t is apparant they intend nothing lesse in their affections Consider him in the Outward worship of God and the Naturall man is farre more defective as appeares by the manifest experience of all ages who corrupted their waies in nothing so much as the service of God mistaking the object and seeking for that Deity which they apprehended in a generall Notion not onely in the Similitude but in Nature of the Creatures and those many times of the weakest and
doe it As God commandeth and seeing the Circumstances of every good worke are a pure Conscience and Faith unfained the Cause and the Glory of God the End which give such beauty and so sweet a relish to all actions as that without them they are deformed and unsavoury in the eye and taste of the Almighty it is manifest that all the morall actions of the Heathen fell short of their Compleate perfection forasmuch as their Persons were unholy their Consciences defiled their Purposes perverse and crooked and their best Intentions finally resolving themselves into temporall worldly and selfe-considerations But if wee looke unto the substance of the worke it selfe wee shall finde little difference betweene many actions of the Heathen and of Christians there being as exact proportion and correspondence to the rules of Iustice observed by the one as by the other yea many times more by the Heathen than the other It were a consideration worth ones labour to parallell the lawes customes and famous actions of the people of God with those which we finde like unto them recorded in humane history we should see that many particulars would carry a faire resemblance betweene themselves and have the same stampe of vertue imprinted on both This morall goodnesse in Heathen men was no doubt pleasing and acceptable to God so farre forth that he liked the worke and approved of it with that common allowance which he affords to all things that beare any stampe of his owne goodnesse but not so that he liked the person and accepted of it into any speciall favour of grace For it were most absurd to imagine that the Iustice Temperance Valour Chastity of an Aristides Cato Scipio Lucretia c. shall stand condemned before God with the same censure of dislike as the rapine luxury cowardise lust c. of a Sardanapalus Caligula Messalina or such other miscreants Nay he approved of their vertue and civility as the effects of his owne grace in common bestowed on the Gentiles for a common good and in testimony of this his approbation hee prospered those persons and common-wealths among whom sobriety of life strictnesse of discipline severity of good lawes was best maintained And Heathenism it selfe could discerne the ruine of Common-wealths to spring originally from the neglect of Piety and Vertue To conclude then and summe up all touching this point Gods Nature and Attributes his Godhead and eternall Power and Providence are indeede cleerely to bee seene in the Creatures if the Heathen had eyes to see them as Adam had at first But though they be still as visible as they were yet man is blinde and cannot behold them It is very little the Naturallman hath seene not much that hee can see What hee knowes might teach him that God is to be worshipped otherwise than he doth but cannot shew him how to worship him as he ought Whatever he doth or can do in the worship of God nothing is done aright for matter or manner His Inward worship is unholy because his heart is so His Outward worship is superstitious and idolatrous because hee is utterly ignorant of Gods appointments both are false and displeasing being presented to God without a Mediatour of whom the Heathen have no knowledge Againe the Nature of their sinne and misery is above the reach of the Heathens knowledge and therefore Grace and Mercy are beyond the possibility of their desire both which yet are the first step to true Conversion Finally for their vertues they are corrupted in the roote perverted in their buddes defective in their whole practice So that unlesse we will thinke that a civill Conversation without all Sanctity of heart to be true Conversion a kinde of bare Naturall reverence of the Creator in some cold affections of Love Feare c. or an externall superstitious invented worship without all warrant from God To be Gods true right worship in part which are the things the Heathen can attaine unto it appeares to be a vaine assertion to affirme That God hath afforded sufficiency of ability to the Gentiles by the good use of Nature to convert truely to the right worship and obedience of God This of the first the second ground is That if the Heathen use the light of Nature well God is ready yea bound in justice to bestow on them Supernaturall light of grace In the examination of this we neede not be long it being supported by the former together with it it falls to the dust A meere imagination it is withour all warrant from Scripture though for it they bring that place Matth. 25. 29. For unto every man that hath it shall be given and hee shall have abundance i. e. say the Arminians Hee that hath the light of Nature and useth it well to him shall be given the Supernaturall light of grace An Arminian glosse that corrupts the Text which is to be understood of painfulness in the Ministers of the Gospell in the emploiment of such gifts as God hath endewed them withall for the benefite of the Church Which gifts and abilities being well used increase through Gods blessing but if neglected decay utterly through his secret curse as experience shewes in painfull or idle Ministers If the argument be framed only by analogy from this Text and the generall equity of it That whosoever uses any thing well shall have more given unto him besides that this is a very large interpretation which will admit of many exceptions it is to bee noted that in their deduction they mistake the proportion observed in the Text and Parable which speaketh of an increase in the Same not in a Divers kinde Hee that hath meane gifts for the Ministry and useth them well he shall have greater gifts in the same kinde But thence to collect Hee that useth Nature well shall have Grace given him is as if wee should say He that useth his health well shall have riches or honours given him things of another nature It had been true if they had said Hee that useth Naturall light well i. e. studiously in the search of all good knowledge in him that light shall be increased as it was in Philosophers but this made not to their purpose and therefore they take a wide step from Nature to Grace In Scripture therefore there is no ground for this conceit besides there are these three errors in it 1. Against Experience which shewes that grace hath not beene bestowed where they have had the best Natuturall dispositions as is plaine by rejection of the Tyrians and Sidonians and Vocation of the Capernaites though they were naturally better fitted to entertaine the Gospell than these as also by the long rejection of all the civill and learned men of the Nations of the world who though they used their Naturall reason farre better than other barbarous people yet were left destitute so many ages of all Supernaturall helpes as well as they 2. It is founded upon two false Suppositions 1. One That the
they inlighten the understanding it stirres up the Sensuall affections for as touching the Will it meddles not with that and so gives unto the heart Sensum verbi and by an inward power infused doth move and dispose the heart to Beleeve and Convert Yea but how is all this done Is it by any proper worke of the Spirit distinct from the power of the Word By no meanes say they It is done by a morall perswasion per Representationem objectivam by a proposall of what is to bee done with commands exhortations intreaties promises thereto annexed And is this sufficient to our regeneration Yea there is not there needs not any other immediate inward invincibilis actio as they stile it of the Holy Ghost upon the Soule The Word only the Word begins continues and consummates our Conversion Nay if an inward worke of the Spirit be granted they affirme that the preaching of the Word can by no meanes possible bee accounted any meanes at all of our Conversion What then Inward Calling there is none No say they there is no other inward regenerating grace but onely the forenamed Morall Perswasion to goodnesse by the outward Ministery of the VVord This is the summe of their opinion and that Chaos of confused errors which t is hard to distinguish into any good order I will touch upon them in these three propositions manifestly opposing their fundamentall suppositions in those their Assertions The first shall be this 1. That not so much as common Illumination and stirring up of the affections is given to all in hearing of the Word preached Shall wee goe any further than experience to prove this in thousands that heare the Word yet understand no more of it and are no more affected with it than the seates they sit on The Arminians as they 'le deny any thing reject this argument from experience except that though they doe not understand yet they might understand if they would To which I answer that t is true Such men shall bee condemned of wilfull ignorance because the meanes God afforded were sufficient to have brought them to more knowledge if they had done but as much as they might but yet the exception is here altogether vaine because here we inquire of the Act whether all men bee inlightned not de Potentià whether they may bee or no. For the Arminians hold that the Vnderstanding is inlightned and the affections moved in all and that Irresistably men cannot choose but know and be affected with the Word preached And this they stiffely maintaine because that God hath infallibly given unto all Potentiam Vires Credendi and this strength is nothing but Illumination of the Vnderstanding and Exciting of the Affections and therefore all must infallibly be illuminated and excited Wherefore when they affirme that a man may choose whether he will understand and be affected or no though it be true in part yet they contradict their owne maine position and confirme ours That God though he have given the outward meanes yet hath not given so much grace unto all as to make use of them for the gaining of ordinary knowledge in the Word The second proposition shall be this 2. That bare Illumination in the understanding of the sense of the Word preached is not sufficient for Sanctification of the heart i. e. to move to renue to quicken those affections with true love of goodnesse and desire of grace which before were disordered by reason of the darkenesse of the understanding This they affirme we deny it as a new and uncouth opinion and that upon these grounds 1. Because it presupposeth that in the affections there is no other vitiousnesse but that onely which is bred in them by the errour of the understanding which being deceived misguides the affections but being once rightly informed the affections are presently brought in order to follow the directions thereof Than which nothing can be more absurd and contrary to all experience 2. If bare Illumination or Morall Perswasion be sufficient to Sanctifie it shall work that effect either by it own simple vertue or by the help of something else besides If by it self then why are not the Divels sanctified who know more of Divinity than haply the learnedst man And why are not all learned Divines sanctified also what should hinder Or if there must be some speciall grace beside how can they affirm that to be of it self sufficient which helps not without the help of another thing And yet this is that wherto they are driven namely to confesse there must be a Special grace to make the Generall effectuall so in one word they dash all their dispute about the sufficiency of Vniversall grace Or if they like not that will fall to that shift to say that Bare illumination is sufficient though not to Sanctifie yet to worke true Faith and Conversion which is nothing else but to affirme that there is Faith Conversion before and without Sanctification Which opinion is a kind of phrensie The third proposition shall be this 3. That besides the Common illightning of the Vnderstanding and Motion of the affections in ordinary preaching of the Word there is necessarily required another immediate worke of the Holy Ghost upon the soule for its Sanctification throughout without which the preaching of the Word will bee utterly unable to worke true grace in the hearers This I prove by Scriptures and Reason The Scriptures are many I will name but one or two of the plainest places 1. Iohn 6. 36. Where Christ speaketh to the Vnconverted Capernaites thus But I say unto you that yee have also seen me there 's their knowledge of the Gospell by Christs preaching and miracles but yet yee beleeve not What was the reason of that t was this God had not given the Capernaites to Christ and therefore he gave them not grace to come unto Christ for All that the Father giveth me commeth unto me and he that commeth unto mee I cast not away vers 37. Yea will an Arminian say They came not because they were not willing to come there wanted nothing on Gods part but they might have come Yes but there did if wee beleeve Christ God did not draw them therefore they came not For No man can come unto mee except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day vers 44. But what is this Drawing it is the same which in the next verse he call Gods Teaching of us It is written in the Prophets They shall all be taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee Nothing can be more manifest than in this place the plaine distinction of an inward Drawing from an outward Morall Perswasion an inward Teaching of God from the outward Preaching of man Which is effectuall to true Conversion in all and onely those that are inwardly so drawne and taught of God which the Capernaites were
is all Naturall good or evill 2. Rationall appertaining to the reasonable Appetite or Will and guided by the Vnderstanding These are proper to man and they have their originall from the substance of the reasonable soule in which they alwaies remaine not onely when it is in the body but even when t is severed from it For feare hope love hatred joy griefe c. are in the damned and blessed Spirits as well as living men The object of these properly humane passions is all Morall and Spirituall good or evill I neede not among so many learned Artists stand curiously upon the distinction of these two sorts of passions in man the identitie of names in both sorts hath caused some confusion but in reason the diversity of their nature is evident Wherefore I goe on to see what is meant by Excitation or Stirring up of the affections whereby we can understand nothing else but their right and orderly motions about their proper objects As in the particulars Sensuall passions are then duely excited when they are moved about any Naturall good or evill according to the instinct of Nature in brute beasts and according to the same instinct of Nature in man but guided and moderated by right reason Reasonable Affections are then duely stirred up when their motions about all Spirituall and Morall good or evill are conformable to the quality of the object affected and to the rules of a rightly informed understanding Let us now see what affections they bee that grace workes upon and how they are excited before men are converted For Sensuall affections tending to a meer Naturall good or evill albeit it bee most true that Grace sanctifying us throughout hath a singular work upon them too in moderating the excesse and repressing the distempered motions of such passions as arise from our Naturall or Personall temper as of choler lust c. yet we will not be so uncharitable as to thinke our adversaries meane these affections in this businesse For 1. It is a strange fancy to thinke that grace should begin to rectifie the inferiour faculties in a man before it have put in order the superiour to rectifie the sensitive appetite and leave the will disordered God is no such preposterous Physitian who cùm capiti mederi debeat curâ—t reduviam when the head is sicke applies a plaister to the â—ingers ends 2. Againe what singular preparation to Faith is it that our naturall affections be well qualified in their motions about naturall and bodily things I confesse t is good they should be so but what speciall vertue hath that to procure unto mans will a free exercise of its liberty in Heavenly or Spirituall things as the Arminians affirme the excitation of the affections doth Vnlesse we should goe further and make Spirituall things the object of the Sensitive Appetite which were to elevate it farre above its naturall power and is an absurdity too grosse to be imagined by any learned man Wherefore it must bee that other sort of affections which we call Rationall and Humane whose object is vertue or vice all Spirituall and Morall good or evill Of these then wee are to enquire how in an Vnconverted person they are stirred up in their motions about such objects as are Spiritually good or evill The Arminians give a very large allowance of grace to an Vnregenerate man and they tell us that Besides the knowledge of sinne a sorrow for it in regard of punishment a feare of Gods wrath a desire to be free from it all which we confesse may be in a man Vnregenerate besides these there are say they in such a one a deploring of his Spirituall death in sin and utter impotency to doe any good a griefe for the offending of the divine Majesty a desire of Grace and the Spirit of regeneration to be given him a hungring and thirsting after Righteousnesse and Life a love of Goodnesse and hatred of evill Humility Prayer and Confession of sinnes an inward purpose of heart to set upon a reformation of life in briefe an Vnregenerate man may offer to God the sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart yea God may give a man a new heart and yet he not be converted till afterward as some of them affirme shamefully abusing that place Ier. 24. 7. Yee will wonder what maner of thing these men make the Conversion of a sinner to bee who ascribe so many things to a man unconverted as they can hardly tell what more to attribute unto him after his Conversion But to make short let us aske them touching this change of the heart and affections in a man unregenerate whether these Stirrings of his affections moving him towards Grace and Godlinesse be true or counterfeit If these motions be indeed true and right so that an unconverted man doe truely sorrow for his sinnefull state truely grieve for Gods displeasure truely desire the grace of regeneration heartily thirst after righteousnesse unfainedly love the truth if he be truely humble can pray confesse sinne purpose amendment and all this truly without hypocrisie then wee desire to bee resolved in these doubts 1. What can be done by a man after his Conversion more than he can doe in these things before he be converted At all times he can but doe them truely that is spiritually and this he may doe as well before as after Conversion 2. Whether it be not admirable and unconceivable to any mans understanding how the affections can bee thus moved and yet the will remaine untouched For whereas they say that a sinner may out of true sense and sorrow for sinne truely desire grace and freedome by Christ before such time as his will doth assent to the promise of Mercy it is most strange how t is possible that a man should heartily and unfainedly desire the benefite of the Promise of grace in Christ and yet at the same time not assent and embrace the promise offered unto him T is as if we should say a man may Desire a thing and yet not Will it when as to desire is nothing but an action of the will And the very same is true of all the affections that they are but divers Motions of the Will about divers objects as the irrationall passions are of the Sensitive Appetite and therefore to make such separation betweene the Will and the Affections in the reasonable soule as that the Affections should be Excited and yet the Will not moved is to speak favourably a very unlearned imagination 3. Whether that argument used to comfort distressed consciences namely That he who truly desires grace hath true grace whether I say this argument of Consolation used by the skilfullest Divines and accounted hitherto unanswerable by men or divells be not now by this doctrine utterly made of no worth if this of Arminius his followers be to be allowed that a man may unfainedly desire to bee good and to be regenerate and yet be unconverted and so without all true goodnesse as
will we cannot conceiue any naturall thing as true but we must conceiue as Good too Witnesse all I ogicke rules Philosophy Mathematickes there is no conclusion how vnpleasant soeuer it seeme to be but if it be apprehended as True it also affects the vnderstanding with ioy delight and contentment in the goodnesse of it It delights because it is true and so Truth quatenus Truth is good So that vnto such as aske wherefore are the Mathematickes good I answer Because they are True a part of Gods created truth of which it is blasphemy to hold and affirme that any the least part is euill and nought worth nor deseruing a mans study All Truth is amiable like God the Authour of it and goodnesse is so essentially incorporated together with Truth that they cannot be seuered in our knowledge or affection Now in morall and Diuine things the case is much more plaine That their Truth consists wholly in their Goodnesse nor can it be imagined how vertue should be said to be true but onely because it is good or what the Truth of Grace is but onely the Goodnesse of it Wherefore generally that rule is Cortaine Bonum Verum conuertuntur and their praedication each of other is not onely in the Concrete Verum est bonum but also in the abstract Verâ—… est bonitas ò cont◠〈◊〉 And so the Scripture takes these two indifferently as Gen. 1. 31. When God had created all his workes he looked on them and saw that they were Very Good They were true as well as good but one includes both And Iohn 8. 44. it is said touching Satan that He abode not in the Truth that is in that perfect and good condition wherein God created him for he fell from his goodnesse as well as from his Truth By this it appeares that this distinction which is made betweene the truth and goodnesse of things is not from their Nature but from our esteeme and conceit of them We measure the goodnesse of things by our owne ends and the vse we haue of them such things as fit our purposes are proportionable to our necessities those we account good and Such things we make the Obiect of our wils because wee desire them with a more notable degree of Constancy and vehemency Other things though very good in themselues yet because they touch vs not and our desire of them is slight and vanishing we make them the obiect of our vnderstanding only as if wee apprehend in them nothing but bare Truth As for example he that shall discourse vnto an intemperate man in his temperate moode how shamefull and vnseemely a thing it is for a Christian to be ouercome of drinke to be a seruant to his appetite to wallow in filthy pleasures to bee seene in base company and hase places and shall tell him how comely and commendable a vertue sobriety is how gracious an ornament of a man how necessary a duty in euery Christian when you tell him of these things he vnderstands you and assents not only to the truth but to the goodnesse of what you say But heere is the mischeefe his resolution stands otherwise sottish delights preuaile against all sober aduise and the stronger desires of pleasures drowne those faint affectious towards Temperance How in this case the truth and goodnesse of the vertue commended is but one thing and the intemperate man did aâ—t that same time apprehend and approue of both in generall wishing that it were with him as it should be and is with other men But now when anon after he comes to put in practise what he thus knowes and allowes of long Custome and ill perswasions doe so farre darken his former apprehension of the Goodnesse of the thing that now there seemes to be nothing left in his head but a generall notion of the Truth of that which he heard at such a time So then Truth and Goodnesse are not two seuerall things nor apprehended by two seuerall faculties but one and the same thing knowne and desired by the same facultie The difference lyes onely in the diuers degree of our apprehension which varies according as the things apprehended seeme to haue more or lesse agreement with our particular vses and necessities Where matters fit vs in particular there our desires are Strong and Constant When they agree to vs onely in the generall then our Generall Desires not well rooted are choked and stisled by contrarie affections in the particular performance It fares with men as it did with Shimei Salomons commandement of not Departing the Citie is Good till Shimei haue a Seruant take his heeles and run to Gath and then Shimeis beliefe of Solomans threatning must giue way to his Couetous desire of recouering his runnagate Seruant So in matters of Religion men know and approue of their truth and goodnesse in generall wishing that themselues had all the grace and pietie which is so much spoken of but when after they compare it with their more pleasing contentments in this or that kind they renounce the Goodnesse of Religion and hold it onely as a Truth Of which diuersitie in assenting to the goodnesse of things in generall and in particular more shall be spoken hereafter in the next point For conclusion of this point touching the subiect of Faith we doe not appropriate faith either to the Vnderstanding or the Will nor yet refer it to both as vnto two distinct faculties but we place it immediately in the whole intellectuall Nature whether of mans soule or of Angels In which wee follow the sentence of the Scriptures that seate Faith in the whole heart as Rom. 10. 10. With the Heart man belieueth vnto righteousnesse and Acts 8. 37. If thou belieuest with all thine heart Now it is a thing manifest that in Scripture the heart is taken for the Whole soule with all its powers and operations as of vnderstanding 1 King 3. 9. Salomon asketh of Godan vnderstanding Heart of Willing and Choosing Act. 7. 29. In their harts they went backe to Egypt 1 Cor. 7. 37. He that stâ—nâ—â—th firme in this Heart i. in his purpose and resolution Againe of the Affections Mat. 6. 21. Where the treasure there is the Heart also i. Loue for Rom. 1. 24. of the memory Luk. 1. 16. They did those words in their hearts so Luke 21. 14. We need not goe seeke on t any trouble some distinction of faculties wherein to place faith seeing the Scriptures speake simply of the whole soule and neither Nature nor Scriptures do intimate any necessity at all of malâ—ing such a difference Wee come now to the third and last point proposed in the definition or the Genus vnder which it is comprehended that is Assent about which wee must enquire after two things 1 The Certainty of this Assent of Faith 2 The Diuers Degrees and Essentiall Differences whereby the assent of Faith in Gods Elect is distinguished from all other Faith The Certainty and strength of
Prophets in the famous Vniversity of Oxford yet I assure my selfe that whosoever reads this booke with good attention and understanding shall finde the Authors meditations therein so throughly digested and the nature properties and proper acts of Grace and Faith so distinctly layde downe and accurately distinguished that he shall reape to himselfe much profite and comfort thereby and shall with me admire the grace of God abounding toward the Author in all wisedome and in all knowledge lively sense and utterance of heavenly and supernaturall mysteries far above all which can be expected from or is ordinarily found in one of his age and yeares If as we know trees by their fruit so we may passe our sentence upon the composer of this Treatise by his work we cannot conceive or speake lesse of him but that as hee was from his childehood trayned up in the Schooles of learning and had profited above his equals in the studies of the best arts humane divine so undoubtedly he hath from his tender yeares beene throughly disciplined in the Schole of Christ and hath by much and daily experience of afflictions and manifold temptatiâ—ns in himselfe and of the inward sensible operations of Gods spirit and grace in his owne soule attained to this high measure of heavenly knowledge and understanding whereof he hath here given us a lively experiment It is not the most strong out stretched arme of humane reason nor the most swift and farre flying arrow of the sharpest naturall wit nor the farre extended lines of long continued studies which can reach so high to these heavenly and supernaturall mysteries It is onely the holy Spirit of grace comming upon all these taking possession of mans soule dwelling in him and making him a new creature which brings this kind and measure of profound wisedome and this distinct knowledge of divine things yea by the fiery tryall of inward temptations onely doth that blessed Spirit drive the thirsly soules of Gods militant Saints to digge and dive so deep into the fountaines of the sacred Scriptures and to draw such living waters from the very bottome of those Wells of salvation In a word as the Apostle saith of yongue Abel that by Faith having offered up a more excellent sacrifice than his elder brother Cain he by it obtained witnesse that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts by it he being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. so I will not doubt nor bee affraid to say of the godly and learned Author of this Booke who having offered up to God in a publike place these exercises as the first fruits of his heavenly learning did not long after leave this world in the flower of his age and ascended up into that supercelestiall glory towards which he had ever bent all his studies and desires and which alwaies hee had sought after in the whole course of his life that by faith hee though yongue in yeares hath offered up a more excellent sacrifice than many of his elder brethren by which hee being dead yet speaketh and shall speake to future ages And as hereby he shall obtaine witnesse of all Gods surviving Saints that hee himselfe was a righteous and faithfull servant of Christ excelling in grace and vertue in the dayes of his pilgrimage here on earth So God also will testifie of this his gift that it is holy and acceptable in the eyes of his Majestie by making it powerfull and effectuall to the begetting and increasing of saving grace faith and knowledge in all such as reade and peruse it with true Christian docilitie diligence and humble devotion To the blessing of which gracious God I leave this worke and to his grace commend you all desiring in my daily prayers to be and continue Your brother companion and fellow souldier in seeking the glory of Gods grace defending the truth of the Gospell and fighting against the spreading errours and springing heresies of this age George Walker The Table of the chiefe matters contained in this Treatise ABilities of man are not to be measured by his own partiall iudgement page 145 Actions of grace and holinesse how far they are in a godly mans owne power 147 Admonition three-fold about searching the Scriptures 217. c. Affections two-fold sensuall rationall described 125 Affections not quickned nor stirred vp to loue of goodnesse before conuersion 125 Not rightly moued towards Spirituall things but when thoy are affected spiritually 130 Articles of the Arminian faith 53 Arminians how they erre about vniuersall grace 54 Their errors about the worke of Gods Word and mans calling 99 Their obiections and reasons answered 106. 107. c. Their errors about the subiection of mans naturall affections to his reason discouered 125. c. They giue large allowance of grace to men vnregenerate 127 Their absurdities therein 128 Their grosse errors about mans will discouered 132 c. Their errors in holding that conuersion doth begin and consist in the act onely of beleeuing 134 135. c. The dangerous issue and conclusion of their errors 136 Assent differs in degree according to the diuersity of the obiects assented vnto 169 Assistance effectuall why denied by God at some times to the regenerate 153 B BAptizing of Infants lawfull 47 Beleefe how it differs from faith and trust 170 C CAlumnies of Arminians and Iesuites 155 Calling outward and inward described 94 How the Arminians conceiue of Calling 99 Catechizing needfull and vsefull in the Church of Christ Preface page 6 Certaintie of assent in Faith springs from three grounds The first 206 The second 220 The third 222 Communion with Christ two-fold 15 Conuersion of a sinner to God 6. 7 The causes of it 16. 24 The subiect 37 The manner how it is wrought 27 It goes before Faith 4 It signifies First Gods infusing of habituall grace Second The regenerate mans actuall imploying of grace infused 89. 144 Conuersion mistaken by Arminians which is a cause of confusion in their writings 92 Conuersion how to be truly discerned 115 Preparatiue meanes vnto it 137. 138 How weake they are and in a man vnregenerate how they are said to be sinfull 139 That they may be resisted and how 140. c. Cooperation of Gods Spirit necessarie in all holy actions of men regenerate 151 Corruption of nature what it is 5 D DEsire of spirituall things after a naturall manner is a corrupt desire 130 E ELect men onely are the proper subiect of true conuersion vnto God 41 Euidence of the Scriptures declared proued 175. 176 Conclusions touching it The first 176 The second 182 The third ibid. 183 F FAlling from grace and finall resistance described 142 Faith in Christ a part of sanctification 10 The habit and act of it and when it is wrought ibid. It is not properly the root of all grace 12 There is some Spirituall life before it 13 and some participation with Christ 15. 23 It helps forward and increaseth grace and all gracious actions 14 Faith is commanded in
is a word of Spirit and Life as Christ speakes of his owne Iohn 6. 63. a working Word renuing in soule and creating in it all the graces of Sanctification 2. Outward in the Preaching of the Word calling us to Faith and Repentance whereto the Spirit joynes his secret vertue to make it effectuall in whom he pleaseth I will not now stand to justifie this distinction of our Outward and Inward Vocation so ancient so necessary but yet in these quarrelsome times derided and scornfully rejected Let us for the present take it as it is for a truth and so apply it to our present purpose thus Those of the Elect that die infants are internally called and converted that is Sanctified before they are capable of externall Vocation Those of the Elect that live to ripe age are converted and called both inwardly by the worke of the Spirit and outwardly by the voice of the Word In both sorts the worke of Conversion is the same and Infants have it the same in substance as others being Sanctified by the Spirit without the Word but those of yeares have it also in the circumstance of externall Vocation being Sanctified by the Spirit working in and together with the Ministery of the Word which is the voice of God calling men unto himselfe Now a voice presupposing ears to hear and an understanding to perceive infants cannot properly bee said to bee called by any such voice though they may properly bee said to bee converted and sanctified And this worke of our Sanctification is also not unusually in Scripture stiled by the name of our Calling Wherefore that wee may a little further insist upon this point touching the state of the Elect in their infancy let this be laid downe as a sure conclusion That the graces of Sanctification may bee and are infused into many of the Elect in their very infancie The truth whereof there is not any doth or can justly denie considering 1. That infants are as capable of the Habites of Sanctity as men are 2. That their soules may as well be now sanctified by infused Grace as if Adam had not fell they should have been Holy even from the wombe by Originall justice propagated unto them and inherent in them 3. That the Humanity of Christ was in this maner Holy even from the conception which was therein by speciall priviledge like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births if we had not sinned 4. That it cannot honestly be denied to bee so in Iohn Baptist but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the Holy Ghost even from the wombe which may bee confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the Salutation of Marie the mother of our blessed Saviour Luke 1. 41. 44. And of Ieremie t is not unprobable by that which God saith of him Ier. 1. 5. Before I formed thee in the wombe I knew thee and before thou camest out of the wombe I sanctified thee and ordeined thee to be a Prophet unto the Nations Albeit here I will not deny but that Sanctifying here may well be taken not for the graces of Regeneration but for a designation unto such a function and a preparation of the Prophet thereto by the infusion of such qualities as might make him meet for the discharge thereof as extraordinary wisedome courage patience and the like In which sense the word Sanctifie is not unusually taken as Esa. 13. 3. Where God called the Medes and Persians prepared and designed for the destruction of the Babylonians his Sanctified ones i. e. set apart for his owne service in that businesse So also Paul of himselfe Gal. 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Separated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Apostleship From this Conclusion that Elect infants may bee partakers of the grace of Conversion and Sanctification namely in the Habite implanted in their soules I desire you to observe foure Corollaries thereon depending each whereof have their necessary use 1. A Resolution of that doubt which troubles many tender consciences who having the care of their salvation in highest regard are suspiciously jealous over their deceitfull hearts and apt to thinke the worst of themselves where they see no manifest evidence to the contrary These men will often doubt of the truth of their Conversion because they know not the time when of starke naught they become Good and Holy They will tell you that their birth hath beene of religious parents their education under godly governours that from their youth they have beene accustomed to frequent the exercises of religion in publicke and to use themselves to all dueties of devotion in private some goodnesse and love of godlinesse they find in themselves but they know not how it hath crept upon them by degrees and they question whether all be right or no with them because they never remember in all their lives that ever there was such an alteration wrought in them as they heare and see to bee in other men To these I say there 's no reason they should bee sorry that they have not beene so bad as other men They ought to rejoyce and be thankefull that God did so soone stop up in them that bloudy issue which in others hath so many yeares run incurably that hee healed their wounds when they were greene and cured their impoisened nature before the venome thereof grow more ranke and raging that hee bowed their hearts when they were yongue and tender before they grew stiffe and old in sinne that hee hath preserved their youth from those corruptions which others in their age have decrely repented of Let such who from their infancie have with Isaac Samuel Timothy and other Saints beene bred up in all pictie and growne as in stature so in favour and grace with God and good men let such not doubt to say t was at my baptisme or at my birth or in my mothers wombe that God hath dealt so graciously with mee sanctifying me with the Spirit of grace which then was given me and hath ever since shewed itselfe in all blessed inclinations to religious courses 2. A justification of that Prayer in our publike Leiturgie where the congregation gives thankes to God for the childe baptized in that it hath pleased him to regenerate the Infant by his Holy Spirit and to receive him for his owne childe by adoption and to incorporate him into his holy Congregation For it cannot be denied but that this Holy Ordinance of Baptisme the scale of our Sanctification doth take effect many times immediatly in the Infusion of the present grace into the Infants soule though many times also it have not its effect till many yeares after But seeing t is questionlesse true in many wee may and must charitably suppose it in every one for when we come to particular whom dare we exclude And this wee may doe without tying the grace of regeneration necessarily to Baptisme as some complaine that wee doe by
he is a living Substance 3. That hee is one 4. That hee is Eternall 5. That hee is Immutable 6. That he is Omnipresent at once in all places 7. That his Substance is Incorporeall and Invisible 8. That hee is most Simple without all mixture and composition 9. That he is most Perfect most Happy most Good and Omnisufficient in and of himselfe 10. That he is Omnipotent and most free Omniscient and most wise 11. That hee is most just and mercifull in rewarding and punishing Besides these invisible things of the Godhead a meere naturall man may know these two 1. That this God is the Creator of the world giving all things their being of nothing 2. That this God by his Providence doth Preserve and Rule all things Thus farre at least a naturall man may proceed in the knowledge of God as Adam knâ—w him and the Gentiles might grope after even in their naturall darknesse But this is not all in the third place touching the knowledge of the morall Law as it containes all such duties as were to be knowne and put in practice in regard of God and our neighbour by the very lawes of Creation we may safely affirme these things fallwithin the reach of the naturall understanding and conscience 1. That this God is to bee worshipped and adored of all creatures men especially 2. That hee is not to bee worshipped in bodily shapes and figures 3. That there are outward religious services to be done in his honour as Invocation with its solemne Times Gestures and Ceremonies and also Oathes 4. That God is to bee inwardly reverenced as well as outwardly adored namely with the pure affections of Love Feare Trust and Confidence 5. That in all the duties of the second Table Iustice and Civill honesty in a state betweene man and man as also sanctity and sobrietie in each man is a thing commanded by God and pleasing to him And thus farre if not further a naturall man might goe proceeding still upon sure undeniable grounds and experiments in nature and reason and from thence deducting necessary conclusions So that I doubt not but a learned Philosopher having his judgement rectified by the helpe of Logicke not forstalled and infatuated by some superstitious and senslesse conceits as was that of the ancient Philosophers might have attained thus farre if hee had diligently and mainely intended the search of these things But as their search so their finding was by halfes Christian Philosophers have taken more paines in this point and it alters not the case that they were Christian and so had other light besides that of their owne seeing in this matter they used it not but have taken pleasure in this naturall search both to see Religion confirmed by reason as also to behold how short the Ancients came of those conclusions which posterity hath with much ease collected even out of their owne principles To make a summary collection of all those reasons which are produced by sundry authors who have purposely or by occasion dealt in these points were a matter of no great difficulty Such as have written of Metaphysickes as also some Divines afford us no small number of Arguments But out of them or where they faile out of Reason it selfe to make a certaine and unerring discourse for confirmation of all the forenamed points so as a wrangling cavelling and gainsaying naturall wit might be convinced and set downe were a labour worth the paines of some active and searching wit but requiring time and industry In the issue of which discourse these two conclusions would appeare evidently true 1. That our naturall man may goe much further in the disquisition of Gods attributes and those things that concerne his worship than in the understanding of the Nature of the Divine Essence wherein following reason hee would be as some Christians are strangely befogg'd especially in the mysterie of the Trinity 2. That nothing concerning God himselfe immediatly in the first Table of the Law would bee so discernable to the Naturall man as those other points of morality contained in the second a more particular and exact knowledge whereof hee would with ease attaine unto The ground of this whole discourse besides that in Nature we have in the Scriptures in the like practice of the Apostle with the Gentiles as with the Lystrians Act. 14 17. the Athenians in that long and excellent Sermon wholly almost of this subject Act. 17. 24 25 c. and the Romans Chap. 1. vers 18 19 20 21. An exact consideration and resolution of which places would singularly declare the point in question But goe wee on from what may be knowne to enquire in briefe what hath beene found out by naturall men in former times Which being a matter of fact depending upon Records and Histories of ancient times cannot possibly be perfectly handled seeing time hath defaced the memory and monuments of our Ancestors Many learned men have made collections of those sayings and opinions which the Ancients have left unto us concerning the matter of Religion the like whereof were not hard to be performed with much addition by such as have time to reade and would use diligence to collect the passages of severall authors For the present I desire you only to observe in generall these two cautions which particular search will approve for good 1. That the wisest of the Gentiles have taken more paines and with farre better successe in points of Morality touching the second than Divinity in the first Table as appeares by those Treatises of Oeconomickes Ethickes and Politicks where the orders of houshold Government the course of a vertuous conversation the lawes of State and Policie are disputed largely and in most points consonantly to the Scripture and the fundamentall grounds of equity and justice So that in many of these vertues commended unto us in Scripture wee may with much profit have recourse unto their writings for the explication of their nature and qualitie 2. That we cannot bee certaine when these Ancients were only guided by the meere light of nature and when by some supernaturall illumination not that God did afford divine Revelations concerning heavenly mysteries unto the Heathen excepting haply the Sybills but that what God had revealed from heaven to his Church was from them brought by some meanes or other to the knowledge of these Philosophers A point not much to be doubted if wee consider that all knowledge whatsoever in any kinde hath principally flourished in those parts of the world that have beene nighest unto the borders of the Church Such is the nature of Religion that it breedes Civilitie and Knowledge of all Arts in the Countries wherein it is professed and also spreads some part of its light and vertue into the Countries next adjoyning Witnesse hereof are the Countries of Chaldea Syria AEgypt Arabia Greece and Asia with the neerer coasts thereof wherein the Church had its originall and first breeding or nigh whereunto it had its abode and
basest ranke mistaking the manner of this Service falling from that Spirituall service which by the lawes of Creation was onely required to a thousand carnall outward Ceremonies and observations of their foolish devising some ridiculous and senselesse some strange cruell and horrible against all good nature and humanity some furious madde and drunken some obscene and beastly all superstitious and divellish mistaking lastly the time of this service in appointing a number of Festivalls but neglecting utterly the Sabbath the knowledge whereof was quite worne out among the Gentiles Which particulars are all manifest by records of old and experience of latter times in those places where the Gospell hath not beene yet preached A reason of this generall corruption in the whole frame of Gods worship we may conceive to be this The worship of God that man was to performe in his innocency was wholly Spirituall not consisting in outward Ceremonies Ordinances and Observations according as the same shall againe bee performed by us in Heaven hereafter Such was the perfection of Adams nature that he being fully replenished with the love of his Creator did alwaies more cheerfully delight himselfe in the contemplation of his excellency and obedience to his commands without such externall helpes True it is that to Adam in his innocency was prescribed the observation of the Sabbath and two Sacraments of the Tree of Life and Knowledge of good and evill But for these Sacraments the latter was rather of Abstinence than Action a triall rather than a helpe of his obedience the former was a pledge of his happinesse if hee stood but no meanes of his upholding and so both of them mainely differing from all Sacraments afterwards given unto the Church for the support of our infirmities Likewise the Sabbath was then to bee spent in exercises meerely Spirituall not in any such outward bodily observations as since the Fall have beene instituted by God in regard of our weaknesse And though God alwaies required to bee worshipped in spirit and truth yet since the Fall there have beene certaine externall rites added thereunto which were not needefull in time of innocency Now then this whole frame of the outward and instituted worship of God man once corrupted could not so much as ghesse at God therefore revealed it from time to time in the Old and New Testament and that with many straight prohibitions of adding or altering any things out of our owne invention for who can or could tell with what outward things God would be pleased but he himselfe So that the Heathen being destitute of this light it was no marvell if they became vaine in their imaginations and in this point sought out unto themselves many strange inventions They found by experience how needfull it was by some outward services to give testimony that they beleeved and worship ped a God whom else they might seeme to deny in regard of their monstrous impieties but in what manner to doe this they knew not Onely this you are to observe that the whole world almost retained the custome of sacrificing unto their gods which you must not thinke was a thing learned from the light of Nature for what ground in reason had they to imagine that the wrath of God against a man for sinne should bee appeased with the slaying of a beast but it was a practice received by tradition from the beginning of the world this custome of Sacrificing being the most eminent and principall outward service of God commanded first to Adam and by his precept and practice delivered to posterity Who retaining the outward worke and ceremony as mans corrupt nature is ceremonious enough but forgetting the mystery and signification did quickely pervert that sacred institution in all abominable Idolatry and esteemed the Numen or Deity offended to bee directly pacified by that which in its Originall was onely a figure of that propitiatory sacrifice of Iesus Christ. 2. Let us in the next place enquire of the meere Naturall mans practice as it concerneth man in all Morall duties of the second Table wherein hee will goe much further than in the former So that there is scarce any sin therein forbidden which the Heathen have not condemned or duety commanded which some of them have not praised and practised Instances might be shewed in those many excellent patternes of vertue whose lives have been left registred unto us by the Ancients and hardly is there any man so bad in whom wee shall not finde some one or other eminent part of goodnesse But in this point touching the Vicious or Vertuous practices of the Heathen you are to observe two things wherein the Naturall man will alwaies discover his ignorance and error 1. In determining the right cause and Originall of sinne whence all this disorder which is evidently perceived in mans nature had its beginning and how it came into the world Here the Naturall man is at a stand and cannot possibly ascend so high as to finde out the fall of Adam in his Sin Gods Curse thereupon to discover the fountaine of all our uncleannesse and wretchednesse So that every Naturall man would upon examination of this matter easily fall into that opinion of some that there were Duo principia the one summum Malum the cause of all Evill the other summum Bonum the cause of all Good Wee not much wonder that the remembrance of so memorable an accident as Adams fall should quite bee lost in his posterity seeing that Adam himselfe having that Fact of his in horror and detestation whereby he made himselfe and all the world miserable was not willing to publish his owne shame but rather conceale it from his children as hee would have done from God and as for the most part of his posterity they little heeded to know that whereof they cared not to repent 2. In judging aright of the Nature of sin either in regard of the Punishment of it or in regard of the Evill of it For the Punishment of it though the Heathen had a grosse apprehension of Gods wrath against wicked persons in this life and some kind of punishments they should feele afterwards in Hell yet they never could come so far as to see that all men were in one condition under the Curse of God subject to everlasting damnation in body soule without speciall grace shewed from God And for this cause that knowledge of the Law which the Gentiles had could not worke in them that effect as in the Iewes and Christians it doth These it drives unto Christ to seek after a Saviour from the curse and punishment which the Law threatens them withall but in the Gentiles who apprehend not this Curse it cannot take any such effect Againe for the Evill and Vitiousnesse of sinne they never conceived of it according to the full extent of it They knewit to be bad but not so bad as to deserve such horrible punishment as the Scriptures tell us to be due unto it
They knew mans nature to be corrupt but never dreamt of any such Originall universall depravation of our nature as that we are dead in sinnefull infirmity utterly deprived of that Spirituall life and ability which sometime wee enjoyed They knew the Outward act of sinne and the grosser sort of Inward thoughts to be evill but they could not imagine that so high perfection of Spirituall obedience was required of man by any Law as to condemne him for every disorderly thought not consented unto To wish for our Neighbours House or Wife is a thought which allowed of with consent may by a Heathen upon the fundamentall notions of right and wrong bee condemned as repugnant to charity and equity But for the same thought to arise in the heart and passe away without all approbation and intention of practice yea haply with some dislike and yet to be esteemed as an offence was never thought of by the naturall man The discovery of the sinfulnesse of this first brood of Lust when by secret entisings it drawes away the heart and shootes forth onely in sudden motions arising and vanishing without notice and allowance this is a point of Divinity of a higher straine than ever any naturall man could reach unto Yea Paul himselfe though a Iew a learned Pharisee yet before his conversion understood it not Rom. 7. 7. and the Papist to this day will not bee perswaded t is so though Paul affirme it Now from hence wee shall learne in part to judge aright of the naturall mans vertue and goodnesse How farre ordinarily it goes and what worth is in it in regard of Gods approbation of it I will briefly set this downe in five Propositions 1. The Vertuous practice of the naturall man is more busied about the Outward act than the Inward affection in reforming the maners not amending the heart in restraining the externall action not resisting the inward desires and inclinations as the true Christian doth It is indeed not to be denied but the Heathen came so farre as to condemne the roote of sinne as well as the fruite and to judge them punishable as vitious persons not onely whose lewd practices testified them so to be but those also who in their affections and thoughts approved the like wickednesse And Philosophers have not a little laboured to finde out the true meanes of composing and settling that more distempered part of our mindes in our unruly passions and perturbations whence they easily perceived did issue originally the chiefe provocations to all evill And in this point they did rightly judge that it was of much greater difficulty to order the unruly motions of the mind than to restraine the outward actions of the body or to atchieve any hard adventure They well knew that the Soveraignty of the Will over the Appetite and Affections was but a civill perswasive authority which might be easily withstood by the stubbornnesse of the inferiour faculties onely over the outward parts the Will had a masterly and absolute command to move them as it pleased without gainsaying Now then although we may finde many among the Heathen of an excellent temper who either by a Naturall disposition or studious education and wise observation of themselves carried a singular command over some of their passions of Anger I ove and the rest yet in the generall wee may assuredly beleeve that all those precepts delivered by the wisest Philosophers touching the calmenesse of minde were farre too weake and heartlesse in their practice to bring the observers of them to true Tranquillity No t is onely the Spirit of Sanctification that commands our disordered soules and if we consider it even in the sanctified Christian having that Supernaturall helpe the longest combat and most doubtfull conflict is with these carnall affections and lusts This exceeding difficulty of mastering the affections did as it seems turne the Stoickes quite on the other side who truely perceiving how great enemies these Desires and Passions were unto Wisedome Tranquillity and Vertuous Endeavours judged them all utterly evill and not to neede reformation so much as abolishment whereby they did rather astonish than conquer them and such their peace might be termed the dull stupidity and unmoveablenesse of a blocke rather than the quiet calmenesse of a man Which thing did in many passages of their lives upon occasion of unexpected dangerous accidents discover it selfe to others laughter and their owne shame when their passions which were formerly stupified and charmed by Philosophicall discourses but not mortified did easily recover their strength and brake forth with unresistable violence So then the naturall man will utterly come short of that endeavour which Christians make their chiefe viz. the inward Reformation and Sanctity of the Soule if he strive about it t is but faintly and hee soone gives it over finding the contention laborious and the victory impossible Outward evill practices he may in part forbeare the grossenesse whereof make a deeper impression of dislike in the naturall conscience and also bring him in compasse of many Civill inconveniences but for the inward loathsome corruptions of the Soule he takes as little notice of them to amend them as the world doth to punish them As in Vice so t is in Vertue the naturall man will love and practise so much of it as may by its outward splendor winne praise honour and reward but to entertaine an entire and unchangeable love to vertue severed from all these by-respects hath beene seldome found in any but those alone in whom Grace hath prevailed more than Nature There have beene some among the Heathen that have held on in a vertuous course even when they have got disgrace and smart by so doing but this hath beene rather out of a kinde of surly Obstinacy and Stiffenesse of minde than any zealous affection to goodnesse it selfe T is one thing to Scorne an ill practice another thing to Hate it and so t is one thing to Love vertue and another to Practise it out of Greatnesse of minde and High Spirit when men having fallen upon some good course and continued long in it with commendations they now scorne so to submit themselves to other mens wills and wisdome as for their pleasure to alter their owne resolutions out of meere stomacke they 'le endure any thing rather than bee so base And in these high Conceits they pleased themselves much more than in the goodnesse of that vertue whereof they made profession For wee cannot beleeve that those cold discourses of Philosophers That vertue is to be loved for it owne sake could ever set so faire a glosse on Vertues face and so to represent her excellencie to the dull apprehension of naturall men as to make any of them so farre enamoured with her beautie that they would still follow her when praise or profit forsooke them Nay this is a point most hard for the best Christians to attaine unto few of whom those excepted whose more strong and lively faith
at all or Nothing else but that Habituall Faith which wee maintaine to be given us as a principall part of our regeneration These mistakings of the Nature of our Conversion hath utterly confounded our Adversaries in their opinions and writings about this point They speake of Sufficiency of Grace to produce the acts and operations of Faith and other vertues when the Question is meant of the Sufficiencie of Grace in producing the Habit of all Inherent Holinesse Now as in the former example of the sicke man it is one thing to enquire whether the Health and strength Christ gave him was sufficient to cause him to walk another thing to demand what vertue of Christ was sufficient to give him that health and strength so in this case t is one thing to aske whether the grace of Spirituall health or Sanctification be sufficient for the producing of the actions of a Sanctified man another thing to aske what grace is sufficient to worke in the soule the grace of Sanctification it selfe Wherefore in this matter we affirme that as Health when it is in a man is sufficient to every Naturall action though alwaies it be not effectuall because wee make not use of our strength at all times but to worke Health in a sicke man no vertue is sufficient but that onely which being applied proves effectuall to restore it So where Sanctification is it is alwaies sufficient to every gracious action if it be duely exercised thereabouts but may sometime bee ineffectuall through our default in not applying it aright but now to worke Sanctification in the heart that hath it not there is no other gift whatsoever sufficient but the onely vertue and power of the Holy Ghost the immortall seede of our Regeneration and wheresoever this onely and all-sufficient vertue worketh in the heart of any man there it is alwayes infallibly effectuall To dreame of any other inherent quality in the soule given to man as sufficient to Sanctifie the soule and yet after t is given ineffectuall to performe it is a fancy never thought of till of late times wherein mens hearts are strangely embittered in fierce opposition against the glory of Gods free Grace This of the first Conclusion the second followeth and it is this That sufficient grace for Sanctification is not given unto all This is a necessary consectary of the former for seeing Sufficient and Effectuall are all one in this case seeing t is apparant that this grace is not Effectuall in some who are never Sanctified it follows necessarily that such Sufficient grace is not given unto all This were enough to have beene said against this opinion of Sufficiency of Grace given to all within the Church But yet ex abundanti for our better satisfaction I desire your patience and attention in the further examination of this second Conclusion The truth of it will be cleered by considering what the grace is which is given to those that are within the Church Now this grace is twofold 1. The Externall Declaration of Gods will made unto all men in common by the Preaching of the Word the ordinary consequent whereof is Knowledge or Illumination And this is termed our Externall Vocation by the Word 2. The Inward gracious worke and vertue of the Holy Ghost immediately exercised upon the Vnderstanding Will Affections and whole Man The constant effect whereof is Regeneration And this is called our Internall Vocation by the Spirit In the explication of the Nature Distinction and Sufficiency of these two unto the worke of Sanctification consists the further cleering of this troublesome controversie The Orthodoxe sentence which hath beene held touching this matter agreeably to the Scriptures is this There are two things which are ordinarily wrought in men living under the Ministery of the Word 1. Illumination of the Vnderstanding 2. A touch or motion of the Will and Affections These two because they are the fountaine of all Outward actions we onely consider in this businesse letting passe such effects as are visible in mens conversations Now both these are each of them of two different sorts Illumination is either 1. Common and Naturall when a man in hearing or reading conceives the litterall sense and meaning of the Scriptures in most points of Christian Religion so that he is able to discourse dispute and write of them I call this knowledge Common because t is bestowed on reprobates as well as others I call it also Naturall because although the object thereof bee Supernaturall and Divine nor could be knowne but by revelation yet being revealed the manner of apprehending it in such a one is meerely Naturall and Carnall and that light which the Spirit affords to such a one is but some more eminent degree of that common assistance which hee gives to all that seeke after knowledge in any learning for a publicke benefite For the case is plaine enough a learned Schollar unregenerate knowes and studies Divinity in the same manner as he doth any other Art and as in them so in this hee may attaine excellent knowledge by a speciall but no sanctifying gift of the Spirit perfecting his Naturall reason but not making it Spirituall 2. Proper and Spirituall when a man by a singular gift of the Spirit of grace is inabled to judge of Heavenly things in a Spirituall manner according to their truth and goodnesse represented to the understanding in their native beauty and excellency I call this Proper because it belongs onely to the Elect and Spirituall because the Sanctified understanding judgeth of them Spiritually Thus for knowledge next touching the Motions which are wrought in the Will they are likewise double 1. Naturall when upon the understanding of threatnings or promises the Will is touched with some kinde of affections towards those things as they which are naturally hurtfull or beneficiall to it as to love hope desire feare or hate such or such a good or evill thing spoken of in the Word I terme these affections Naturall being proportionable to that first sort of knowledge that bred them For when an unregenerate man shall heare it plainly and amply declared what happinesse belongs to the Saints what comfort is in Gods favour what glory in heaven what horrour in Hell and a bad conscience hee will be easily stirred up with many desires of enjoying the one and escaping the other But this he doth in no other manner than as every man by instinct of Nature will wish and seeke for that good which he knoweth to be proportionable to his nature and also shunne the Contrarie 2. Spirituall when upon the thorough apprehension of all Spirituall Good and Evill known beleeved by Faith the Will is strongly inclined with all Constant and Vehement affections of Love and Hatred earnestly to embrace the one and detest the other above all things else whatsoever How great difference there is betweene these Illuminations and Motions in the regenerate and unregenerate I shall by Gods grace shortly have
them Yes there was and is still great need we should make this Prayer now the Gospell is revealed to the Church yet to pray for the Spirit of Revelation to reveale it to our hearts and to inlighten the eyes of our minde not only to understand the literall sense of the Word by the helpe of that Common light of the Spirit which shineth ordinarily in the Church but to comprehend with all Saints the height depth and largenesse of Gods love the riches of his glorious inheritance the pretiousnesse of the promises of Grace the power and saving vertue of the Gospell the rare excellencie and amiablenesse of all divine truth Which none can doe without the speciall worke of the Holy Ghost changing the Vnderstanding from Naturall to Spirituall by an immediat infusion of such a qualitie as inables it to discerne aright of Spirituall things I conclude this point with one reason more If to the understanding of spirituall things there bee no other illumination required but only the cleere evidence of the object plainely represented to the understanding without any further worke of the Spirit upon the Vnderstanding it selfe infusing into it a speciall strength to apprehend the things that are proposed to it then it would be knowne whether these men thinke that our intellective Facultie hath got any hurt and defect by Adams fall yea or no. It is manifest that they thinke that mans fall hath not brought any defect and weaknesse upon the power of mans understanding no not in Spiritualibâ—…s For marke it when Divine things are in a plaine and lively manner declared to the understanding is there any defect in the facultie that must be first amended by the Spirit before it can have the perfect knowledge of those things No say they so therebe the common assistance of the Spirit preserving unto us the right use of reason and judgement we may without any supernaturall worke of the Spirit understand spirituall things when they are plainly expounded unto us Why then here 's all the difference betweene Adam and Vs His Vnderstanding was perfect and happy because he had both the Power to conceive of things hee was yet ignorant of when they should be cleerely revealed to him and also the Actuall knowledge of wonderfull varietie in all things Our understanding is imperfect and unhappy because by our fall wee want the Actuall knowledge of almost all things especially Spirituall but yet we still retaine the same power that we had in Adam to understand any spirituall thing when it is once cleerely discovered unto us So that according to Arminius schoole the understanding of man since the Fall is like unto our Eyes in the darke the eye is well and without blemish needing no cure of any defect in it selfe yet it sees nought because the Object is not inlightened so soone as light shines on that causing a cleere discovery of it the eye without further adoe can easily perceive it But this is yet the very pride and gall of an Hereticall spirit secretly accusing the whole mystery of Gods revealed wisdome whether in the booke of nature or of Scripture as if it were wrapped up in Obscurity and Darknesse Wee forsooth have eyes and we need not that God should restore unto us the Faculty of Seeing only wee are in darknesse because things that are to be knowne are in darkenesse if God will take away obscuritie from them and make them evident to be knowne there 's no such infirmity in us but wee may know them if wee be attentive Let us from our hearts detest this odious popish imputation of obscurity laid upon Nature and Scripture as if the cause of all our ignorance were not now in the weaknesse of our Vnderstanding but in the darknesse of Gods revealing himselfe to us And let us detest that opinion which leads us upon this absurdity and learne we to confesse our blindenesse to pray that God will give us eyes and restore our understanding to its first perfection else though the light shine round about us making all things wherein God is to be knowne most appparant and visible yet wee may still lie in darkenesse and perish in our ignorance This is their first error touching the Vnderstanding of which I shall have occasion to speake more in handling the parts of Faith I now proceed to the second touching the affections which is this 2. That even in Divine things the motions of the Affections necessarily follow upon the illumination of the Vnderstanding So that when the understanding is rightly informed and thoroughly convinced the affections are presently excited in all motions conformable to the things knowne It is very strange that men of so deepe learning should yet professe so much ignorance in the estate of Mans corrupt nature as to dreame of a Correspondency and dutifull subjection of our Passions unto our Reason so that when this is rightly taught they will be truly affected even in Spirituall things Nothing more could be said of Adam in his innocency and to affirme this touching Man corrupted is to give the lie to Reason Authority and all Experience which speake the contrary The truth is this as wee are falne out with God so are we at oddes with our selves and our affections are not more often mis-led by our erroneous understanding than our understanding and right judgement is haled aside by our vitious affections What man in the world that knowes himselfe but will confesse that even in naturalibus and moralibus much more in spiritualibus he may often say with Medea Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor Wherefore we reject this Opinion that there is no vitious inclination properly inherent in the affections besides that which is brought upon them per tâ—nâ—bras mentis through the error of the understanding wee detest this assertion as a fond and false imagination and we confesse with the Apostle that even when we know allow of consent unto the goodnesse of the Law and delight in it in part yet then wee cannot alwayes doe what we would but through the Law of Sinne in our corrupt wills and affections are led captive to disobedience Their third error is this 3. That the affections may be excitati stirred up and quickened with true love of goodnesse and hatred of evill before such time as a man be converted The Arminians are wonderfull obscure in explicating unto us their new invented opinion concerning the Excitation of the Affections which they make the second worke of Grace preceding mans true Conversion They tell us not in plaine termes what affections they meane nor yet what kinde of Excitation and Vivification it is they would have Wherefore we are more particularly to enquire of both For Affections or Passions in man they are of two sorts 1. Sensuall belonging to the Sensitive Appetite and directed by the phantasie these are common to brute beasts with us and arise from one like temper and constitution in both The object of these
yet But that assertion of our Divines That the true desire of grace is from true grace and a part of true grace shall stand fast as founded on Scripture and sound Reason when all Arminianisme shall lie in the dust If these Motions in an unregenerate man bee not True but False Counterfeit then have they made much adoe to little purpose preparing a man to that Faith and Conversion which is true by counterfeit and hypocriticall meanes But they will say that these desires and affections though they are not Spirituall yet in their kinde they are true and not counterfeit because they are true Morall or Naturall desires To which I answer that the rule to judge of the truth of our desires is this Wee must compare our affections with the Nature of those things that wee doe affect if our affections towards them be such as the Quality of the things themselves require then are they right and good if not they are false and evill as to make it plaine by an instance or two When a husband loves his wife but only as his whoore to satisfie his lust this love though it may be very â—ervent and not dissembled yet t is a false love because it is not Matrimoniall agreeable to the qualitie of a Wife the object thereof When Balaam desired the death of the righteous no question but hee spake as he thought without dissembling but yet this his desire was false because he desired it not according to the true nature thereof as it requires a sanctified life to bring us to a happy end which Balaam would none of When a Turke hopes for heaven that there hee may live in carnall pleasures according to Mahomets beastly â—aw 't is true that hee hopes but 't is false that he hopes truly because he mistakes the qualitie of Heavenly joyes which are spirituall not carnall So in like manner generally when Spirituall things are affected spiritually in such a manner as is conformable to their nature and qualitie then are our affections rightly and well moved towards them as to love goodnesse because it is of God to hate sinne because 't is contrary to the holinesse of Gods nature and law to desire grace to the end that it may correct the corruption of nature to wish for heaven that we may have communion with God in the beholding of his glory and our constant worshipping of him These affections are true but they are such as never arise in the heart of man till it be purified and made Holy by the Spirit of Grace But on the contrary when Spirituall things are affected only as things that are Naturally or Morally good or evill such affections are false and of no worth as if a man desire grace because t is a commendable qualitie or redemption because t is good to be free from miserie or heaven because t is a pleasant thing to be at ease such affections are as farre from truth as the eye is from right seeing when it mistakes greene for yellow or a man for a post And such in a man unconverted are all his Affections about Spirituall things Wherefore when they tell us of a true Love of goodnesse a true Hatred of evill c. in a man unregenerate they speake strange paradoxes against reason and Scripture affirming that they who have not the Spirit are naturall men Iud. ver 19. and that the Naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit and cannot Spiritually discerne and therefore not Spiritually desire them 1 Cor. 3. and againe that whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh Ioh. 3. 6. Albeit therefore we denie not but that there are ordinarily many Preparations whereby God brings a man to grace and that the Word workes many effects both upon the Heart and lives of men even whilest they are as yet destitute of true Grace yet as for those affections which our Adversaries place in mâ—n unregenerate we affirme that they are not antecedents but consequents and parts of true Conversion For can hee that is dead in sinne bewaile his Spirituall death Can he that is in the flesh and so an enemie to God yet greve for displeasing of him Can he truly desire the Spirit of regeneration that is of the world and cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Can a man thirst after righteousnesse and yet not be blessed nor satisfied Can a man hate evill who yet loves not the Lord Can hee love God that is not borne of him Can he be humble that hath not the sanctifying Spirit one fruite whereof is meeknesse and humblenesse of minde May a true prayer be made without the helpe of the Holy Ghost Will there ever be a true Confession in the mouth when there is not Faith and Repentance in the heart How can that heart be a new heart a contrite and broken heart sensible of sinne which is not yet changed out of stone into flesh Can hee have a full purpose of heart to amend his life and cleave unto the Lord whose heart is not yet touched with sanctifying Grace Whatsoever shadow of these things may appeare in an unregenerate man it is certaine none can be done in truth but by those only in whom the Holy Ghost hath begun the worke of true Sanctification I might stand upon the further proofe of every particular were it needfull but I passe on to their fourth Error which is concerning mans Will 4. That the Will of man is not capable of any Habituall qualities inherent in it whether of grace or corruption Only a meere liberty it hath to Will or Nill any thing and besides this liberty there never was is nor can be in it any other quality Whence it followes that the Will is not to be termed good or evill from any inward disposition of it selfe but onely from the actions of it according as it is lead or mis-led by the light or darkenesse of the understanding and by the rectitude or depravation of the affections Of all the issues of Arminius braines this is one of the most deformed that the Will of man hath not in it eyther grace or corruption any vertuous or vitious inclination of it selfe a bare liberty to choose or refuse that it hath and nothing else Against which strange noveltie we have to oppose these reasons 1. The Image of God consisting in righteousnesse and holinesse was in every part of mans soule and therefore in the Will as well as the Vnderstanding And if so then besides the liberty of the Will there was in it a righteous and holy inclination towards God and Goodnesse in the first creation of it Which Habituall disposition to goodnesse is corrupted and a perverse inclination to evill come in place thereof If they deny that righteousnesse and holinesse is in the whole soule it will trouble them much to tell unto what part it must be restrained 2. The constant tenour of Scriptures
it is injoyned and that in the first Commandement as a singular part of that inward worship due unto our Creator consisting principally in those three graces of Faith Love and Feare These things thus explaned let us proceede to the unfolding of Faith taken in the forenamed double relation and first as it hath reference to the whole Will and Word of God True â—aith respects all this and onely this Only this because in divine revelations onely is to be found that Infallible truth which gives satisfaction to the soule And againe all this because every part of Divine truth is Sacrosancta worthy of all Beliefe and Reverence threatnings as well as promises precepts exhortations admonitions historiâ—s every part of the Word falls in some degree or other within the compasse of Saving Faith By the same holy Faith whereby a penitent sinner beleeves the promise of mercy of Christ doth hee also beleeve all other promises of this life with other inferiour matters declared in Scriptures This is certaine but the chiefe point to bee noted here is an essentiall property of true Faith which standeth in Vniversality and Vniformity of assent to all things that are from God This Vniversality of assent is to be taken in a twofold regard 1. Of the Object the things beleeved when the faithfull soule gives full assent unto all things revealed by God not onely to such as it may assent unto without crossing its owne desires and purposes but unto those also that directly crosse and oppose carnall reason carnall affections worldly pleasures and all other provocations to infidelity 2. Of the Time and other particular circumstances whilst it doth most heartily and inwardly acknowledge the truth and goodnesse of these things not then alone when this may bee done without any contradiction and resistance but even then also most eagerly fixing the aâ—â—iance of the heart upon them when temptations rise when Heretickes dispute and cavill when humane reason failes and falls to arguing of impossibilities and unlikelihoods when sinnefull lusts hale this way and that when the world threatens or slatters when Satan rages or speakes faire then doth true Faith supported by the Spirit of grace stand fast as Mount Sion or if shaken a little t is not moved out of his place but looking beyond all present temptations to unbeliefe unto the everlasting and infinite truth and goodnesse of God it preferres that which he saith above all that the flesh the world the divell can promise or threaten to the contrary Now in this point stands an essentiall difference betweene the faith of Gods Elect and of Hypocrites These have alwayes their limitations they beleeve something but not all if all t is but in generall when it comes to particular proofe they bid â—arewell to saith when such circumstances come in the way as they love or feare more than they doe God But the faith of Gods Elect is sincere faire open universall without distinctions equivocations mentall reservations or other hypocriticall and Iesuiticall shâ—fts The reason is because the sanctified soule rightly apprehends the soveraignty of Gods truth and wisedome outstripping in Certainty and Excellency all things that can be set against it it judgeth than no good can be equall to that which God promiseth no evill so great as what hee threatens no course so safe as what hee prescribes whereupon absâ—lutely without all qualifications the soule casts it selfe upon God resolving to beleeve and doe as hee pleaseth Whereupon though in particular practice it may be ignorant of some things and weake in the application of others yet in the Habituall resolution and disposition of the heart it doth willingly yeeld assent and conformity to all T is most true that David in a passion may call Samuel a lying Prophet for 〈◊〉 him hee should be King and after abusie dispute maintained upon politicke worldly considerations câ—nciâ—de that therâ—â— no remedie but he must one day perish by thâ— hand of Sâ—â—l So Peter in a bodily feare may chance denie him in whom yet hee truly beleeves so in aâ—l a strong sit of pleasures or other violent incounter may push their buckler of faith aside but yet it cannot strike it out of their hands if they give a little ground they will not flye the field but because the heart is holy and entire they returne to themselves and their standing where the shame of a foyle taken makes them knit their strength together and stand more stoutly in the combat But my brethren here 's the mischiefe and miserie of all when there is a false heart within that keepes it selfe in an habituall resolution not to beleeve and trust God in such things or upon such and suchoccasions For in this case what ever shew of true faith they seeme to have in the generality or some few particulars t is most certaine that there is indeed nothing at all in that heart but horrible hypocrisie and infidelitie Such neverthelesse is the temper of all those who having not thoroughly searched out and resolved to renounce their evill affections nor exactly calculated what the profession and practise of Religion will cost them nor yet duly considered upon what grounds they undertake this profession are become their owne carvers in matter of Religion taking only so much of it into their beliefe and practice as the love of the world and their deere lusts will give leave These men are just of the Samaritans Religion that feared God and served their Images so they will beleeve God yet obey their lusts But as it was then none were found more bitter enemies to the restoring of the Iewish Church and State than these Samaritans who by reproaches accusations and conspiracies cruelly vexed that poore people and hindered the restauration of their afflicted estate even then when with fained flattery they proffered their service telling the Iewes they would build with them because they also sought the Lord the God So fares it with these men whose beliefe and forwardnesse in some things cannot make demonstration of so much friendship to Religion as their constant baulking and faltering in others testifies their hearts to be full of rottennesse and corruption bearing hatefull enmity against God and his Grace Take me any man who bewitched with custome commodity or pleasure gives himselfe scope and liberty to live in the breach of any of Gods commandements be it secret or open as constant neglect of the duties of religion in private accustomed mispending of pretious houres due to the businesse of our studies and callings usuall swearing secret thoughts and practices of uncleannesse unsatiable desires of earthly greatnesse and abundance unjust increase of wealth by usury bribery or other secret indirect courses excusing love of some though lawfull pleasures c. I say take me such a man that allowes himselfe in these or the like practices contrary to Gods most holy law and hee will be found though in name a Christian yet in heart an Infidell For trie now
wee affirme that for that other generall faith in assenting to the truth of divine things because of Gods authority this faith as he had when hee was a Catholike so hee still hath it in part now he is an Hereticke and by the same faith he beleeved matters of Religion before his Heresie by the same he beleeves them afterward And those that are Heretickes indeed or such whom wee stile by that name let them bee asked why they beleeve such and such points of religion they 'le answer truly and resolutely they beleeve them because of Gods authoritie that hath revealed them in his Word and for such things wherein they dissent could they be perswaded the Scripture did teach the contrary they would for the same authority sake beleeve the contrary The Iesuite is yet urgent upon us and tells us that no Calvinist or Lutheran beleeves Gods authority but doubts of it Wee tell him againe that 's a foule slander and more than hee can make good yes that he will by a distinction too Gods authority considered Abstractivè in it selfe so indeed we doubt not of But Gods authoritie considered practicé in respect of the Church as it is proposed unto us by the Pastors of the Church so we doubt of it because wee admit not the judgement of the Church but follow our owne phantasie ibid. § 7. To this we answer that we passe very little to be judged Infidells upon such a ground because wee call in question the supposed infallibility and authority of the Romish Church We finde in Scriptures no such straight relation betweene her authority and Gods authority that if wee call hers in question wee must needs doubt of his Wee doubt not of the authority of Scriptures but we denie that the Romish Church hath any infallible authority of judging and interpreting them No one man nor all men ought to usurpe such authority over our faith And let the truth be judge who be the greater Insidells Calvinists and Lutherans that beleeve the Scriptures authority for its owne sake or popish Catholikes that will not beleeve but for mans saying Thus you have this second reason somewhat largely that Faith which our Adversaries call Iustifying is in Divells and ungodly men therefore it is not that justifying faith which the Scriptures speake of and appropriate unto the Elect Tit. 1. 1. Here it is but a vaine shift our Adversaries make to runne unto that poore distinction of Fides Formata and Informis namely that Faith may exist two wayes 1. Vt est conjuncta cum charitate ut in homine iusto and then Faith is called formata viva because Charity is Vita animae In this case Faith can Elicere operationes vitales seu aeternae vitae moritorias Gal. 5. 6. Faith worketh by Charity 2. Vt est separata à charitate quod fit in homine peccatore qui amissa per peccatum mortale charitate retinet fidem quamdin Catholicus est This Faith is called Informis mortuâ— nec potest habere operationes vitales seu meritorias Iam. 2. 17. Faith if it have no workes is dead in it selfe and ver 26. as the body without the spirit c. Becan tom 3. cap. 10. § 4. 5. 6. Thus they would have the quality and proper act of justifying Faith to be in reprobate men and divells but yet it doth them no good because t is without Charity Faith without Workes may be in its nature justifying Faith because t is an assent to the articles of Religion upon Gods authority but yet it justifies not because t is without workes Hereunto we reply that in this distinction there is not a syllable of sound doctrine nor yet of reasonable sense Thus much we grant that there is according to St. Iames. a kinde of â—aith without Workes namely a generall assent unto the truth of divine things but we denie that this kinde of Faith is for the substance one and the same with that Faith which is properly called Iustifying Faith without workes is of one kinde Faith with workes is of another not onely in regard of consequent because one hath workes the other hath not but in regard of their proper nature because the quality and acts of the one differ from the quality and acts of the other Wherefore in vaine doe they tell us that the same Faith is sometime with sometime without Charity Iustifying Faith is never without Charity and that which is is not Iustifying Vnto that conceit that Charity is the forme of Faith wee say t is Metaphysicall and such as no good construction can be made of it He saith Charity is Vita animae hee would say Vita fidei but take his meaning Faith lives by Charity as the body by the forme or soule Here 1. T is absurd to make one habite of the minde the forme of the other wee may as well say that Temperance is the forme of Liberality Each habite of the minde is distinguished by its proper object and actions and this the Schooleman cap. 18. quaest 2. § 3. grants in the strict sense 2. How doth Faith live by Charity We say it lives with Charity as its fellow-grace not by Charity as its soule We say without Charity it is dead yet t is not Charity that gives it life The Iesâ—it saith it doth for being joined with it Faith can elicere vitales operationes performe vitall acts Yea but what are these actions Faith hath but two acts 1. proper and immediate viz. Credere seu Assentiri 2. by consequent Iustificare Neither of these comes from Charity even by these mens owne doctrine Not the first for Catholickes without Charity may assent to the articles of Faith for Gods authority sake Not the second for to Iustifie in the Popish sense is to Sanctifie of a bad man to make a good Now how absurd is it to say Faith by Charity Iustifies i. e. Faith by the love of God and our neighbour sanctifies us or taking Charity for the Act not the Habite Faith by good workes of prayer fasting almes-deeds c. sanctifies us Both these are senselesse propositions for t is manifest that hee who hath Charity i. e. loves God and his Neighbour and doth good workes is not as yet to bee sanctified and made good of bad but is thereby sanctified already T is true that Faith is one part of our sanctification or inherent grace and Charity is another but neither doth Faith sanctifie by Charity nor Charity by Faith but we are sanctified by both together If there by any other vitall acts of Faith they should have beene named The glosse which the Iesuit addeth whereby he interpreteth what hee meaneth by vitall operations viz. aeternae vitae meritorias such as deserve eternall life carrieth with it as absurd a sense as the other Thus Charity is the forme and life of Faith i. e. Charity makes the acts of Faith to be Meritorious sâ—il our love of God and man or our good
workes makes our Faith i. e. our assent to the Articles of Religion because of Gods authority to deserve eternall life Is there in the Scriptures the least intimation of such a strange and uncouth meaning when it tells that wee are justified by Faith To the places of Scriptures Gael 5. 6. Faith workes by Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee answer the meaning of the place is no more but That in Christianity no outward matters are of value that onely which is to be regarded is Faith that bringeth forth good workes These good workes come from Charity or inward love of God and man This Charity is stirred up and provoked to worke through Faith So that Faith workes by Charity as by that chiefe instrument which Faith imployes in the doing of all good works but Charity works by Faith as by the moving cause whereby t is excited to worke according to 1. Tim. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the first wheel in the clock that moves all the rest Faith stirs up and directs the other graces of the soule in their operations whose strength and vigour increaseth according as Faith increaseth Tantum amamâ—… quantum credimus t is cleer in all experience those that have the strongest Faith they shew the greatest love to God and man as in Abraham Moses Paul all the Martyrs But of this more in shewing the connexion between Faith and Obedience To that other place Iames 2. 26. As the body without the Spirit is dead even so Faith without workes is dead we answer that S. Iames understands by that similitude not modum Informationis but necessitatem Vnionis that good workes are necessarily coupled with a justifying Faith not that good workes are the forme and life of Faith à priori They are arguments and effects of a living Faith they are not causes that make it living as is apparent because it is impossible any good worke should goe before justifying Faith Heb. 11. 6. Wherefore this similitude is not so to be strained unto a Philosophicall construction where the Apostle intends no more in all his dispute but to shew that true saying Faith must of necessity bee conjoyned with good workes And if our adversaries bee so strict upon the termes of this similitude t is manifest that they fit not their doctrine for so as the soule is the forme of the body so workes shall be the forme of Faith i. e. an Act shall bee the forme of a Habite which is against reason and their owne doctrine who make the Habituall grace of Charity not good workes the fruits of it to be the forme of Faith S. Iames therefore is to bee taken in the former sense or else wee may without any violence interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place not Spiritum i. e. Animam but Spiritum i. e. Halitum Respirationem and thus the comparison is exact as the body without breathing and motion is dead so Faith without workes Thus it appeares how Faith is sleighted by our adversaries whilst they hold that the Faith wherby a sinner is justified is nothing but an assent to Articles of Religion because of Gods authority Some places of Scriptures there are they would faine build this upon as Heb. 11. 1. Rom. 4. 3. Tit. 1. 1. Ioh. 20. 31. but their arguments thence are so inconsequent and weake they are not worth the mentioning or refuting I proceed therefore from this generall Faith unto that other which is speciall particular Particular assent of Faith is when all things revealed by God are assented unto as most true and excellent in regard of our selves when they are particularly applyed to our proper occasion and compared with all desires and provocations whatsoever to the contrary When we know and beleeve those things that are generally delivered for our selves in application to our owne use and practice as Iob was counselled by his friends so that wee beleeve in this particular aswell as in that at this time aswell as at another In the Explication of the nature of such a particular assent I propose to your consideration two things 1. The Roote and Cause whence it springs 2. The Object of it whereto it is directed 1. The true root and fountaine whence this Blessed assent of Faith ariseth is that grace of sanctification wrought in the heart by the holy Ghost renewing the soule in all the powers thereof T is not common illumination for many know and despise the truth or beleeve it but in generall T is not the Authority of all the men in the world that can perswade to it wee should not then have had so many thousand â—…rmons of Prophets Ministers learned holy and powerfull in their doctrine yet preached to very small purpose with the most of mâ—n T is not miracles and strange accidents that can force this Faith the Iewes had plenty of them yet continued still unbeleeving T is only the sanctifying Grace of Gods spirit that brings this to passe For consider with your selves how deadly an opposition there is betweene a mans unsanctified nature and the wisedome and goodnesse of God all his counsells seeme but craft his words foolishnesse his mercies light and not worthy of estimation His exhortations promises or threatnings are entertained with inward disdaine and the heart saith within it selfe Who is God that I should feare him or what profit shall a man have by beleeving his Word and walking in his wayes Yea men that are otherwise ingenuous and of fairer temper in this case are full of secret scorne and despite of God and goodnesse they account basely of the holinesse of Religion being privie scoffers and bitter deriders of the power of Grace when they are alone by themselves or in company that fits them They make a tush at Scriptures and smile at such perswasions to pietie as they afford counting it an indignitie for men of parts and resolution to bee moved with faire words of a simple man though hee speake in the words of God If their beliefe and knowledge of the truth be good in the generall yet in the application the heart makes violent opposition it begins to hold probable dispute whether it be wisedome to doe so or so whether they be bound in conscience considering such and such circumstances it casts all inconveniences that may possibly be thought on to discourage it selfe yea perchance the truth it selfe shall be called in question and it thinkes Sure I am deceived Gods meaning is otherwise at last it resolves I may doe this and yet fare well enough and If I doe no worse I hope t will not be much amisse and I trust that these commodities and pleasures I enjoy may well countervaile the neglect of such or such a small matter Thus the heart not washed by the holy Ghost in the laver of Regeneration but abiding in its naturall corruption is not nor can be subject to the law of God but proves either impudent and