Apostles but to others Was either Reason or Will made use of in the producing of these or was it a brute Way unbeseeming God Are not the Principles of reasoning inbred in Nature and freely given of God Is therefore Man's reasoning a brute Way Nothing can be more express against this Opinion than that of Ezekiel A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and give you a Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. There is a great Inclination in Man to put Works upon Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace and that as deserving by Justice the Performance of God's Part. The Semi-Pelagians after the Pelagians were baffled and exploded that they durst no more profess the Powers of Nature to be sufficient for Salvation said there behoved to be supernatural Grace given of God at Conversion yet there were preparatory Works such as the Sense of Sin and of its deserving the Spirit of Bondage the use of Ordinances which they thought deserved Grace which God in Justice could not but give these were also exploded and were called Semi-Pelagians All the Apostle Paul's Arguments against Righteousness by the Law strike as fully against these as against any Merits or Works on Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace and he is accurately positive That by Faith only we are sav'd without any thing on our part in which we might glory or attribute our Salvation to our selves in whole or in part 4. There is of late an Opinion vented in England that tho the Covenant of Works is now become impossible which required perfect Obedience yet God in his Goodness hath entered into the new Covenant or Covenant of Grace in which Man's Part is not a legal and full Obedience but through Christ's Mediation he hath accepted an Evangelical Obedience being a sincere Endeavour to fulfil all God's Commandments and a Course of Life without continuing in any kind of known Sin Their main Ground is that it cannot be thought that God entering with Men in the Covenant of Grace would not have Men as a Part of their Engagement to resolve and promise to have respect to all God's Commandments and to endeavour so far as humane Frailty could allow to fulfil them all if it were not so that Holiness were Man's Part of the Covenant we behoved to take the Antinomian's Interpretation that we were no more under the Law but under Grace that the Law had no more Obligation on Believers therefore the new Obedience must be Man's Part. This Opinion hath been held by some Pious and otherwise Orthodox Divines and therefore it ought rather to be cleared as a Mistake than prosecuted as a stated Profession It must therefore be adverted that God's Moral Law is indispensable and behoved to be binding tho there had never been a Covenant as hath been shown before God's Dispensation might have been without taking Man's Consent by way of Covenant but by the Law written in his Heart obliging him to Obedience under the just and proportioned Punishment of eternal exclusion from God's Favour the breach or loss of no Covenant could take away that it became indeed Man's Part of the Covenant of Works but that Covenant is broken yet the Obligation of the Law which was anterior to that Covenant stands In theCovenaut of Works there was partly Merit partly Favour but the Covenant of Grace excludes all Merit and Man's Part is by Faith only so that Faith is not considered in its moral Goodness for in that Consideration Love is a far more excellent and disinterested Vertue than Faith but Holiness is on God's Part of the Covenant of Grace as in the former Conception is expressed he infuses the Habits of all the Christian Vertues in Conversion Man's Engagement to endeavour to keep God's Law were of no Import unless he did keep it and so God's Part should not be at the time of Conversion but at the time of Death after the Course of Man's Life did appear The Scripture makes no mention or moment of Man's Resolution which is as the early Cloud or Morning Dew which quickly passeth away Neither would the Terms of the Covenant of Grace be equal to all the Endeavour of some would go much further than the Endeavour of others 5. Some Divines in England have made Man's Part of the Covenant to be Faith as it is a good Work because it is said Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is it was held sufficient as if all Righteousness had been performed But this had been still a Covenant of Works accepting one Work in place of entire Obedience but Abraham's believing in that Place was not the Act of Faith as it is Man's Part of the Covenant for it relates to a former Place of Scriptnre as the Scripture saith Abraham believed which was concerning his Son Isaac who was promised to him in his Old Age and therefore he staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief which was a particular Act of Belief of that Promise and was properly an Act of Holiness and was so imputed or reputed as an Act of Righteousness but the Act of Faith in which Abraham entered in the Covenant of Grace was believing in God through the Messiah to be justified sanctified and glorified 6. Some Reformed Divines in France and England bring good Works on Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace as perfecting and compleating Faith for only a lively Faith working by Love is saving for there is a Faith that worketh not by Love The Devils believe and tremble and Faith without Works is dead Abraham was justified by Works when he offered Isaac Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works And Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Yet Paul's reasoning is much more full and accurate discussing the Point of Justification by Faith only without the Works of the Law which could not consist if James spoke of Faith as Justifying whereas James takes off an Error of those that thought they might be saved by believing the Gospel without Holiness which he redargues as a wrong Consequence from Paul and shews that not to be true Faith but such a Faith as the Devils have which cannot be that Act of Faith whereby Man entereth in the Covenant of Grace which is not believing the Truth of the Gospel but relying on God for Salvation through Christ according to the Gospel and on the contrary Abraham's Faith is brought in as true Faith which yet was not the justifying Act nor is the Justification there meant the Justification in Conversion which maketh a Man just but that which manifests his Justification to himself and other Men For Paul saith If Abraham were justified by
plentiful in Capacity to forbear to reveal a Secret he loses nothing by keeping it To another a Man may trust his Money without Writ or Witness if he know him to be Vertuous tho he were Poor much more if he be Rich and so under no Tentation to abuse his Trust. And it were but a Folly to require a Promise to restore for there being no Means of Proof he might as safely violate his Promise as his Faithfulness and would think himself less trusted or obliged It is Indiscretion first to relate a Matter and then to say it is a Secret or to require Secrecy because he that accepts the Trust should do it freely his Promise may oblige him to keep it close but not his Faithfulness unless it be first told him that there is to be revealed a Secret to him which he may lawfully keep close that he may forbid the discovery if he will not lie under that Obligation of trust He that is pursued or searched after for his Life if he be not able to defend himself tho he have no Relation or Confident near him he will run for shelter to the most vertuous and fit Person that without Fault may cover him In all these there is Trust but without any Promise or Paction There are some things which no Man with prudence can believe in any Creature because no Creature can have Power to give all things that another may need God alone is absolutely Faithful for he is Alsufficient he is boundlesly Benign he cannot have any thing less by whatever he can give yet his Faithfulness doth not require that he should give or do any thing to any but what is congruous for him to give and them to receive It were very incongruous for him to give Grace or Glory to one who knowing him or tasting of his heavenly Power did hate him with Despite He doth much Good by his Bounty respecting nothing in the Object but its Capacity to receive much more by his Mercy and Compassion upon the Miserable but most of all to those that trust in him and expect from him This is by his Faithfulness the others are by his Mercy and Benignity The Weakness of Creatures hath made him not only Promise but Swear yet it is Indiscretion to urge him upon his Oath or even upon his Promise where his Faithfulness were sufficient No other can give Grace or Glory but he and those may be trusted for by all that did not hate him or did cleave to their Sins and refuse to become Holy and there is no Foundation of Distinction of one Man from another In this Case he needs not enquire whether he be elected and contained in the Covenant between the Persons of the Trinity It were impossible for him to know that immediately but only by consequence from a true and lively Faith working by Love purifying the Heart tho then Considence and Assurance that it was true and saving Faith not Presumption may be inferred from a Holy Life Faith in this Sense is the Christian Vertue next in Excellency to Love and as Love makes the Pleasure and Glory of God the last End so Faith gives the Resolution for pursuing all the Means towards that End and towards the next subordinate End the Tranquillity of the Mind trusting in God for Direction in all the Means towards these Ends that as the natural Man trusts to and rests on natural Means for obtaining his Ends so the spiritual Man trusts to and depends upon the Conduct of the Holy Ghost by supernatural Means especially Therefore the Apostle Paul saith and gives warrant to all who walk Christianly to say The Life that I now live is by the Faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me The second Point proposed is whether that Faith which is Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace be the Habit of Faith or any one or more Acts of that Habit In which I conceive it is very clear that a Covenant cannot be entered and continued by an Habit but it doth necessarily require an Act of the Will tho it is true that the Habit of Faith is more universally necessary to Salvation than that Act of Faith by which Men come into the Covenant of Grace For Infants come into that Covenant by Regeneration when the Habits of Grace are infused in their Souls as they and all the Elect were undertaken for in that Branch of the Covenant of Grace which from Eternity was among the Persons of the Blessed Trinity Yet they could not be said to be actually in the Covenant till they were not only made Creatures but also new Creatures by Regeneration and Sanctification of the Spirit It is a needless Curiosity to enquire whether they exert any Acts of that Habit in this Life It is said that at the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin to Elizabeth the Child in her Womb did spring for Joy but whether the Springing of the Child was from his or her Joy is not necessary to determine I doubt not but the Soul of an Infant is capable to act its imbred Principles if it could perceive the Objects thereof but it is so delighted in that tender Case to which it is wedded that it can think of nothing else as Experience shews of all Men when in extream Passions their Souls can think of nothing but of the Object of these Passions Nor do I doubt but God may so far manifest himself to an Infant 's Soul as to give it great Joy but as there is no Necessity so there is no Probability that such Souls should enter in Covenant tho it be most congruous to the Divine Perfections and to the Way God hath chosen that all that are capable should actually enter into a Covenant with God at their Conversion When it is said Without Faith it is impossible to please God I do rather think that by Faith Acts are meant rather than the Habit albeit the new Creature by the Habit be pleasant to God yet not as an Act but as a Quality whereas to please signifies an Act pleasing and so it must relate to those that are capable to covenant with God in relation to whom all Directions and Instructions in the World are to be understood I am not moved by this Objection that if the Covenant of Grace be entered by an Act of Faith Children and Idiots must either be excluded from the Covenant of Grace or there must be a different Way of saving Children and Men of Discretion and a different Covenant of Grace for Children For it is beyond question that God's Way with Children and Idiots is different from his Way with others and that the Rules and Directions revealed in Scripture relate only to those of Discretion capable of them So the Apostle in determining Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace opposeth the hearing of Faith unto Works and saith likewise How can they believe unless they hear Which neither relateth to nor is exclusive
Person Hypostasis or Subsistence of the Divine Nature It is too great Presumption for any in the State of Mortality to determine the manner of the Oneness of the Father Son and Eternal Spirit which is so clearly declared a Mystery near the close of the Canon of Scripture never unfolded after in it The Trinity hath been asserted and owned with the greatest Firmness and Forwardness in the purest State of the antient Christian Church and the least Derogation attempted against it by the Arians hath been condemned with Abhorrence by the most Eminent and Orthodox Fathers and by the Determination and Solemn Confession of Faith by the Council of Nice and it is amongst the most incontestably Catholick Doctrines of the Universal Church owned by all National Societies of Christians in the World above the course of a thousand Years Augustine and some others of the Fathers have attempted to give some Resemblances of the Trinity in Unity though he still acknowledgeth it to be a Mystery they could not fully comprehend So Augustine in his 15th Book of that Treatise he wrote upon the Trinity saith That we have a Representation of the Generation of the Son by the Father in that he is called the Word of God as all Idea's are conceived by Words of the Mind so God's Idea of himself and his Decrees is his Word essential and substantial For all that is in God is God The Son is also the Character of his Person his Image the Brightness of his Glory his Wisdom that was with him from Eternity He says also That the Procession of the Holy Ghost is his Love to Himself by his Idea of Himself with his whole Decrees and that all the Persons of the Trinity are Wise and Powerful by the same Power and Wisdom because they have but one Godhead The Generation of a Son doth not import an Imperfection or Inequality of the Nature of the Son more than of the Father much less doth the Generation of the Eternal Son imply an Inequality of the Son with the Father or a dependance of his Being from the Father as if he needed Preservation like Creatures Yea all the Persons are increated without any Cause and so Self-existent and Coeternal The Errors of Socinians are much more abominable than those of the Arians the Socinians acknowledg nothing of the Son before he was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin The Light of Nature was ever sufficient to confute the Multiplicity of Gods and to convince that there could only be one God Albeit the Multiplicity of Gods did far prevail in the World it was long before it did prevail and not until God had given Men up to their own Ways because of their Wickedness against the clear Light of Nature for they were given up to believe Lies because they did not receive the Truth which by the Light of Nature they knew in Love to live according to it The knowledg of one God was not alone among the Hebrew or Jewish Nation as the Scripture maketh evident in Job and his Friends among whom there was so much clear Knowledg of the Divine Perfections and even of a Saviour and of a Resurrection which are not deducible from any inbred Principle by the Light of Nature and therefore they could not want Revelation yet we have no ground to know any Communication between the Hebrews and them Neither were there a few Persons indued with that Light but a City and Common-wealth having Judges and Counsellors that sate at their Gates Balaam also knew and acknowledged the only true God not by Communication with the Israelites there being a vast distance and no Communication between Aram and Egypt The three Wise Men of the East that were led by a Star to come to Bethlehem when Christ was born could not possibly by Astrology have discovered the Birth of the Mediator and therefore did neither want Revelation nor a miraculous Sign Neither is there any ground to believe that they were Idolaters but that they knew and worshipped the true God and it is highly probable that they were not the only Persons of their Country that did so Yet they did not desire for ought I know to become Proselytes of the Jews Neither is there ground to doubt that Moab or Ammon the Sons of Lot or Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons by Keturah or Esau their nearest Posterity were convinced that there was but one God nor could their Posterity be soon brought to believe a Plurality of Gods So that we have no ground to doubt that the Knowledg of the one God did long and largely propagate it self in the World though through defect of History the Particulars be little known I do not hear of Idolatry before the Flood the cause of it in God's just Judgment is attributed to Mens corrupting of their Ways and the wickedness of their Works After the Flood the Notion of one God did long remain as appears by the common Name of Baal or Lord which was long almost universal and the several Nations that worshipped Baal gave him different Epithets according to their apprehension of his Attributes of which there is frequent mention in the Scripture So the Moabites God was Baal without addition the Sidonians also called their God Baal so did the Canaanites Some Nations called their God Baal Berith that is cursing Baal others Baal Gad Baal Hamon Baal Meon Baal Peor Baal Hanan Baal Hazor Baal Hermon Baal Perazin Baal Zebub the God of Ekron Places also were denominated from Baal as Baal Perazin Baal Shalisha Baal Zebub Baal Zephon and Bell of the Babylonians is but a different Dialect of Baal but that which was the Name of one God with different Epithets did easily come to be apprehended as so many Gods yet the several Nations did not worship many Gods but their own So after the Captivity of the ten Tribes those that were planted in their places being plagued conceived it was by the Anger of the God of that Place and therefore sent for the Jewish Priests to appease him The Greeks were the first that worshipped many Gods and after them the Romans for then the Souls of Men eminent upon Earth were supposed to be cooptated among the Gods in different Orders and as the Nations and Places had Interest in them they had Confidence in them and became forgetful of the true God After arose Images and the relative Honour and Worship attributed to them not only to the Images and Pictures of these Deified Men but also to those Bodies wherein the Gods were supposed to delight and to reside It is not imaginable that so many Men of Discretion and Spirit could with direct Worship adore inanimate Creatures or the meanest Brutes or Plants but that they thought they were delightful to and resided in by Deities and so the Sun the Moon Planets came to be worshipped even by those who did not believe that they had Life or Understanding or were Bodies informed by a Deity but that
many not the meanest and ignoblest of Men have wilfully made their Bodies uncapable to serve their Souls that they might escape it and how many more would if without that Pain they could flee out of their Bodies few would suffer Misery in them but those who knew and did acknowledg the Trust and Command to preserve them given by God under an higher Pain than they could suffer by abiding in them A farther degree of the Goodness of God is manifested in the other inbred Inclinations which God hath freely given to the Soul beside that of cleaving to the Body which is not by fatal Necessity seeing the Soul is a separable Substance and might easily escape from the Body if it could please so to do Such Principles are the Love to God above all as being the Soveraign Good and incomparably most amiable Object the Love to Mankind preferring the Interest of Manking to the Interest of any part of Men and in most things to Self-interest Self-love also is a Gift of God and good in it self when kept within its Bounds tho by the Corruption of Sin it is become the Cause of most Evils Men do either wholly exclude the Love of God and of Mankind or do exceedingly abate them and subordinate them to Self-love For these Affections cannot arise before or without the Perception of their proper Objects Therefore it is that because it is long before the Perception of the Deity or of the common Interest arise in the Soul during which time Self-love doth wholly and solely possess the Soul and all its Affections are exercised without Restraint except what ariseth by the Fear of Chastisement or the natural or industrious Perception of the Uncomeliness of some extravagant Acts that Self-love becomes habitual and so strong that when the Perception of God or the common Interest of Mankind by the natural Conscience or Instruction is excited Self-love makes the Soul have a powerful Aversion from these Objects which would low or restrain it so that it can never be kept within Bounds especially in Subordination to God without supernatural Grace given by him It will sooner yield to the Love of a Family of a Society of a Country than to the Love of the common Interest of Mankind yet even Heathens have come a great length as to that but came never to any sutable Proportion of the Love to God as all their Writings and Actings do manifestly show There is another general inbred Principle and Inclination in Man to do that which is congruous to and becoming his Nature not only to what is essential to him but to what is superadded by the Divine Benignity which is more sensibly felt in the Aversion of things which are unbecoming Man and which all judg to be vicious and vile except in so far as they have eradicated their inbred Principles and debauched their Natural Inclinations so even natural Men love Temperance Sobriety Modesty Meekness Sincerity Constancy Courage and Comeliness and those whose Depravation make them love and practise the contrary in themselves do frequently hate them in others and never cherish them but when it is to lessen or abolish their own Shame by making their Vice more common or that they require the Concourse of others to practise them Beside these general Principles which require Attention and Ratiocination God by his Bounty hath imprinted on the Soul of Man special Principles for eminent Cases which operate like Instincts without necessity of reasoning as the desire of Happiness the care to preserve Life the abhorrence of Cruelty the desire to relieve the Innocent opprest Gratitude to Benefactors Faithfulness to those that do rationally rely and trust Love to those in Society and Friendship that especially which is most entire and absolute by Marriage and the mutual natural Affection of Parents and Children and of those which are of one Kindred and Blood The Institution of Marriage was a farther degree of the Bounty of God appointed in Innocency that betwixt one Man and one Woman by the free Choice of both there should be so intimate a Society and Friendship as could be no greater having all their Interests common perpetual and most part incommunicable that each of them had more Right to and Enjoyment of all than when they had them alone excluding the other tho the unsutable Choice of some hath marred this Blessing it diminisheth not the Bounty of God being by the fault of the Parties at least is a Judgment for their other Faults and it was their Interest that this Society was indissolvable even by the Consent of both but only by Adultery or Desertion which gave a strong Inducement to compose their Humours tho naturally discrepant rather than to be in a continual Disquiet It was a great Addition to the Happiness of this Conjugal Estate that there was given them so strong an Inclination of these Imbraces necessary for Posterity which otherwise have nothing of Comeliness in them and Women would never have endured the Trouble and Pain of Child-bearing if this Affection and the natural desire of having Children did not over-master them How great Addition to Adam's Pleasure behoved it to be when awakening from his Sleep God presented him Eve the only Creature like to himself which was the first Glass in which he did behold the Beauty of his own Body as well as hers who was fitted for him in all things that he could desire not only passionately loved but even more passionately loving both being endued with the same Principles and Inclinations and requiring no need of farther Acquaintance than the first View both being innocent and void of all Vice and able to communicate their Thoughts by that Language with which God did endue them without their own Industry by which they might communicate their Knowledg of God their Admiration Confidence and Delight in him their Love and Reverence to him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure in all things which they knew by the Moral Law written in their Hearts and which it is like he did explain and declare unto them as he did his positive Command of the forbidden Fruit to be a Test of their Obedience by restraining their Appetite from so pleasant a Fruit for which Restraint they had no inbred Inclination as they had to the Moral Duties but rather contrary except his Pleasure and Prohibition for if he had willed that they should not eat of it it would certainly have been effectual but he did only declare what they might eat and what they might not eat and denounced the Punishment if they did eat what was forbidden which sufficiently shews that their forbearing would have been acceptable to him which was sufficient to lay the strongest Obligation upon them and yet he expressed the heaviest Penalty if they trangressed which was implied by their knowledg of his Justice tho it had not been expressed which could not consist with his moving exciting or necessitating them to it Adam whose Knowledg was so great
when a consequent Conclusion is inferred from false Grounds But it is no deceit to express Truth for good Ends tho the Speaker may know that the Hearers will make bad use of it unless the Speaker be obliged not to suffer the Hearer to make that use Deception also may be without Words or Signs signifying Thoughts as when a tempting Object is brought unto the Sense Mind or Memory with design to tempt or seduce In all these ways God is perfectly true he never expresseth Words or Signs but such as are both conform to his Thoughts and the thing signified he never designs to deceive by any Words or Signs nor doth he tempt by these or any other Objects represented for God can neither tempt nor be tempted to Evil he may represent Objects to prove the Firmness and Faithfulness of his Creatures but with the Temptation he giveth always Strength either effectual or at least sufficient to escape He made the forbidden Fruit very pleasant to the Eye and it is like to the Smell also which being appointed a Badg of Man's Obedience to God's Will alone it could not reach the End if it were altogether indifferent but it was just and fit that it should have a contrary Excitation in the Sense which might be over-ruled by a more powerful Inclination of the Mind but requiring Attention and Diligence to keep that Principle of the Mind in remembrance thereby to over-rule the Incitation of the Sense Therefore it may warrantably be thought that the forbidden Fruit was more pleasant than any other in the Garden for it was an unsutable sign of Affection and Obedience unto God if God had forbidden the eating of the Fruit upon the one side of the Tree and allowed the eating of it on the other Circumcision and the most of the Jewish Rites were of the like nature and had all a great Contrariety to the Pleasure of Sense Yea tho God permitted Satan to tempt to the eating of the Fruit not only from the Pleasure of Sense but from a false Expectation of greater Wisdom there was a Principle in the Mind fully sufficient to resist both that God could not be envious and that there could be no Advantage to transgress his Command and therefore tho God foreknew the Event he was not nccessory to the Transgression nor put any necessity upon the Man or Woman to commit it and therefore did justly and severely punish them both nor did they even by their after-thoughts plead that the Temptation was insuperable and that they had not sufficiency of Strength to resist it tho they omitted not very insufficient Excuses There is no ground to stumble at the Prophet Jeremiah's Saying Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived nor the words of the same Prophet saying Ah! Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul which are no more than the weak Rovings of Saints in the Extasy of Trouble Such as were many of Job's Expressions and David's saying That in vain had be washed his Hands in Innocence when he saw the Prosperity of the wicked It is evident that God never said to Jerusalem Ye shall have Peace simply but if ye follow the Paths of Peace and so there was no Inconsistency with the Event that the Sword reached unto the Soul seeing they followed not the ways of Peace Neither doth the Parabolical Representation of Micah the Prophet That the Lord said Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And when a Spirit said He would go out and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets and the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Now therefore behold the Lord hath put a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets These and the like Expressions such as God's hardening Mens Hearts must be understood according to the Analogy of Faith in Consistency with the infinite Perfections of God and they are elsewhere explicated in Scripture that the wicked harden their own Hearts and that God giveth Men up who have refused the Offer and Means of Grace to follow their own Ways and unto strong Delusions to believe Lies because they received not the Truth in Love and therefore they can be attributed no other way to God than that they cannot be without his Permission and his permissive Will and Decree and his over-ruling Providence bringing Good out of Evil. Some very learned have held Truth not to be distinct from Goodness or Bounty but a Branch of it and where that is not to be used Lies may be used as well as Stratagems against Enemies If this were true it were not impossible for God to lie but Truth is a Perfection wholly distinct from Bounty and from Justice and is rather a Point of Decency How unbecoming were it and incongruous to the infinitely blessed and glorious God to express a Lie For Creatures may be blameless in expressing Words not conformed to the thing signified which is not a Lie because not disconform to their own Judgment but the Omniscient God can never use Expressions disconform to the things signified but they must also be disconform to his own Thoughts I know there are too many who to uphold their Philosophick Notions do suppose that God in the Scripture speaketh many things according to the vulgar Errors of Men and not according to the Truth of the things signified which is a gross Error derogatory to the Truth of God and to be abhorred tho there were no other evil Consequence but there be many For instance a way is thence opened to innumerable Errors which when redargued by Expressions in Scripture though they be proper and plain yet there is still an Evasion that these are but spoken according to the vulgar Error and Prepossession of Men which in some things they think evident and take the Authority to extend to the like so far as they please neither is there any Evidence or Rule in Scripture where to stop God useth figurative and parabolical Speeches but never any Falshood is spoken by the Motion of his Spirit I admired and abhorred to see a Professor of Divinity in a Treatise heap up so many places of Scripture and of so great moment as spoken by erroneous Prepossession of Men but not true and conform to the things signified which yet may easily be answered God speaketh often to Man's Capacity as to the Manner but never untrue the Matter Kings and States may infer Good from the false Prepossessions of People which they presuppose but do not assent to or approve at least should not tho they may suppress their Disapprobation Who should then imagine that God would approve false Opinions to infer true unless they were related not as his Opinions but expressed as theirs It may be doubted whether God's Truth be wholly his Moral Perfection or if partly Natural which I do not inquire out of
which all his Perfections are displayed and manifested It is Omniscience and infinite Wisdom in the Contrivance of the World and of all that was to occur in it unto Eternity His Omnipotence in bringing all his Purposes to pass His Goodness that all he did and was to do is very good and nothing he made is without some Perfection for it self and Usefulness for some other Creature and that even from the evil Actions of Men he taketh occasion to increase the Exercise of his Goodness Bounty and Mercy His Justice Truth and Faithfulness are exercised upon all his Rational Creatures who only are capable of them and his most eminent Goodness in that Resemblance he gave them of his own Perfections and in those Principles wherewith he hath endued them beside his Image congruous to their Natures but not perfectly correspondent to his own to whom none of his Creatures can be like but with infinite Unlikeness Yet with that real tho imperfect Likeness of him his Reasonable Creatures were originally formed whereby he made them all capable of Blessedness and by Resemblance thereof to conceive Thoughts of his own Blessedness in being the only pure Spirit self-existent everlasting self-sufficient independent free unchangeable in all his Perfections Purposes and Performance of them fully delighting in himself and thereby infinitely blessed The Dominion of God comprehends his Dominion of Property and his Dominion of Soveraignty By the former he is Lord of all his Creatures by the latter he is Sovereign Ruler of all his Rational Creatures and so is King Law-giver and Ruler of the whole World There is a clear and known difference between Dominion of Things and a Dominion over Persons The Dominion of Things is a Right and Power to dispose of them at Pleasure without any Restraint This Right is founded in their Creation and Preservation for he that gave Being and that freely might give it with what Perfections he pleased and might at full Arbitrament annihilate or alter whatever he gave and in that Consideration even his Rational Creatures are part of his Property more at his disposal than the Clay is at the disposal of the Potter who can but mould and varnish his Clay and may mar it at his Pleasure but could neither give it its Being and Capacities nor can take them from it In this Relation there can be no Obligement or Debt from God to any Creature and it is by this Dominion that he hath stated all his Rational Creatures in their different Degrees not only of the Kinds but of the Individuals No other account ought to be inquired of the different degrees of Knowledg Wisdom Power Beauty Health Dexterity Length of Days Riches Pleasure or Honour tho these may be used as Means of Justice Truth Faithfulness and Mercy and as the Means of Government yet may they be absolutely without respect to these and it can hardly be discerned when they are otherwise and therefore in them all things befal alike to all and no Man can judg Love or Hatred of God from any thing that is so before him Some Men have thought they magnified God by magnifying this as the only Dominion of God and that there is no other distinct Dominion of Persons which would altogether make void the Justice Truth and Faithfulness of God which are no less essential to God and much more glorious than his Right of Disposal or Property A Proprietor in making use of his Goods doth not govern them no not in the ordering of his Beasts but where-ever Government is there must be Law Liberty Rewards and Punishments by the Government of Persons only can there be a Kingdom He that had the Property of a whole Country could be Lord of it tho there were not a Man on it but himself but he could not be King of it God takes to himself the Title of King in a more proper Sense and it is so acknowledged by all his holy Creatures He is called the King of the whole Earth of all the World The Lord has prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all He is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth they are but his Deputies and Vicegerents Yea the greatest of them are but as Grashopers in his Sight The Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness he sits on a Throne of Holiness he is a great King and he is King of Glory his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom of his Dominion there is no End Yea he is the only Potentate He doth what he will in Heaven and in Earth and who can say what dost thou David at the Dedication of the Temple saith to God Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty Thine is the Kingdom O God and thou art exalted as Head above all And Jeremiah saith Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain The Psalmist saith The Lord is a great King above all Gods The Sea is his and he made it The Sea is mentioned as his Property only because the vast Ocean is capable of no humane Dominion None can or ever did claim a local Soveraignty over the whole Sea nor a Property in it The Psalmist saith The Heavens are thine the Earth also is thine as for the World and Fulness thereof thou hast founded them For his Pleasure all things are and were created Is there any other Soveraign can pretend these Titles He rules in the Kingdom of Men and gives it to whomsoever he will even unto the vilest of Men who can neither pretend worth nor deserving If then Gods's Dominion over Persons be not arbitrary as over things what impudent Presumption must it be for Creatures tho they were Angels much more for Men of like Infirmities with others and of more impetuous Passions to give no other reason for their Commands than Such is our Pleasure There are three common innate Principles written in the Heart of Man the Love of God the Love of Mankind and self-Self-love which in their due Subordination and in their proper Limits are all Good as Christ hath said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Mind with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self These are the chief Means of the Divine Government by which Mankind might be happy in all Conditions Stations and Relations as Men as Married as Parents or Children as Masters and Servants as Soveraigns and Subjects as Fellow-Citizens as Neighbours and Friends who have all their special Principles and Rules by Reason and Revelation which when they forsake and follow the swing of their own Lusts and Passions God in his Justice might give them up to their own Counsels to follow their own Ways and oftentimes doth so as he declares by his Word as to their eternal Interest yet so great is his Goodness as he doth rarely utterly abandon them but as to their outward Condition