not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness Ezek. xxxiii 12 13 14 15. The result of these places is this That particular men or the persons of men from time to time come under the Eternal Decrees of Love or Hatred according to their actual and present state of righteousness or unrighteousness For if God decreed life and death upon the consideration of future sin and holiness he may as well decree a reward and punishment respectively for that which men would have been engaged in had they lived in this World to all eternity which directly contradicts that Scripture wherein we are said to give an account for the things which we have already done not which we should have done had we continued longer in the body And hence it is that the righteous man who is now in the love and favour of God being hardned again through his own negligence and the deceitfulness of sin may relapse into that state which the Decree of death takes hold of and of such a man is that of St. Peter to be understood 2 Peter ii 21. It had been better for such a man not to have known the way of righteousness then after he hath known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to him And when the righteous man degenerates from his former faith and the enemy takes advantage and oppresses the Divine life through his carelessness and folly God charges all his past sins upon him and recals his justification whereby he was before esteemed as righteous in his sight which is intimated in the Parable Matth. xviii where he that had the debt forgiven him because he dealt so harshly and ungently with his Fellow-servant was again called in question and the whole summe charged upon him and Christ applies it to our present purpose verse 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses For we must know that God pardons our iniquities by parts and as we grow in Virtue and Holiness so his displeasure decreases and is taken off and he that is justified becomes yet more justified and walks in the light and the breath of God enkindles the heavenly fire and fans it into flames and ardors and so long the man is safe but if he return to folly the anger of God is renewed as at the beginning and the last state of that man is worse then the first 2. That true and real Believers may relapse and be confined and brought in bondage to the strait and narrow laws of their own self-wills and fall from the life of God and become settled and radicated in a life of self-seeking and guided by the parsimonious principles of Pleasure and Interest is the voice of Scripture and Reason the former of which palpably and undeniably concludes and determines the case Heb. x. 38 39. Now the just shall live by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if he not any man as our Translation improperly supplies it i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just man who before is said to live by his faith if he draw back Gods soul shall have no pleasure in him and what this drawing back is we may collect from the subsequent words But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition So again Heb. vi 4 5 6. For it is impossible i. e. very difficult and hard for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who were once enlightned i.e. Baptized for Baptism was called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the world to come if if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame And if this were to be understood of Hypocrites what need the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For unto what should they be renewed and reinstated their former condition being in it self so deep an unregeneracy and from what is it they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall away when their distempered natures were never recovered by the practice of any real and substantial holiness Wherefore this must necessarily be meant of those who had in a good measure subdued the motions of the inferior life and left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principles and rudiments of Christianity and were arising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perfection For the tasting the heavenly gift and the good word of God and the powers of the world to come are no more to be understood of a slight touch and transient perception then the same phrase when it is used of the Lord Christ that he tasted death for every man Chap. ii 9. But that as he did really feel and experience the effects of death conquering his mortal life so these here spoken of did truly rellish and apprehend the sweetness of Christianity from a clear discriminating sense of it's native excellency and felt the Divine Spirit destroying the irregular appetites of the inferior life and sanctifying their Natures by a blessed inhabitation To these we may add Ezek. xviii 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live All his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned What can be more manifest than this if men would clear up their apprehensions and look upon things as things and not content themselves with bare names and shadows For that the righteous man in the Text should signifie an Hypocrite and one seemingly righteous is the most distorted gloss that can be put upon it 1. Because the righteous is here opposed to the wicked person but if it were to be expounded of one seemingly righteous who is so much worse then an open profane person in that he acts impiety under the cover of Religion the words must run thus When the righteous man i. e. the Hypocrite turns away from his Hypocrisie and acts according to the abominations of the wicked man and if by the righteous be meant an Hypocrite what is to be understood by the wicked to which 't is opposed 2. This righteous man is said to live by his righteousness but the Scripture no where sayes That the Hypocrite shall live by his counterfeit holiness but directly the contrary The hope of the Hypocrite shall perish And I must confess I do not at all understand the intent and purpose of God in inserting so many Cautions and Exhortations to Watchfulness and Diligence in the Gospel if there be no possibility of a true Believer's desertion of the Faith which questionless the Illustrious Compilers of the Church of England's Confession of Faith
them And will you think this worthy and becoming the Majesty of that Good and Just God who hath taken such strange and unimaginable wayes to make his Creatures happy and who dayly woes the Sons of Men with arguments of the greatest weight and seriousness to accept his offered Salvation I cannot but speak and it were a crime to be silent when the glory of heaven thus lies at stake the honour of my Creator trampled in the dust and the spotless purity and holiness of his Nature sullyed and defiled by the impure conceptions of unhallowed judgments Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth while I plead the cause of the holy One who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity against the ignorant zeal of inconsiderate persons who under pretence of doing honor to his Name do really render that admirable contrivance of God in the Gospel than which nothing was ever communicated to the World more full of incomprehensible Wisdom the most unreasonable project in the choicest parts of it that ever was set on foot among the Sons of men Do you think the Eternal Logos or Reason of God would declare a Doctrine to the World that should be in all points of all his numerous issue only unlike the Father that is that the Gospel alone among all the projections and contrivances of that All-comprehensive Wisdom should be found unreasonable Reflect a while upon the Heroick Generosity and Innate Nobility of your own Spirits and let not your conceptions of God and his Works dwindle away into childish Words and Names nor stifle and suppress any noble sentiments by perverse altercations about terms but let a manly spirit possesse your breasts and look upon men as rational Creatures the composure of whose souls I mean their Intellectual frame is such that every thing is not a congruous and proportionate object of their inward sense and it is not in their power to receive Truth and Falshood alike but as the eye cannot behold the sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some resemblance of the Sun it self so neither can the soul without a great deal of molestation and regreat embrace what is not congenerous to it 's rational Nature And as it is in Nature every Plant is not adapted to entertain every particle that comes to nourish it but admits only such as are consimilar to it 's own pores so the spirit of man being rational in all the ducts and lineaments of it's moral structure cannot acquiesce in any thing that is irrational nor receive any Doctrine but what is homogeneal to it's inward temper Consider this I say and judge of the Doctrins you so earnestly contend for by this Index and Rule and remember that so often as you propound any of the Dogmata of Christianity either as unreasonable in themselves or make them appear so to others by your unwary and irrational Explication of them you become treacherous to your Saviour by hindring as much as in you lies those good effects he intended by the Propogation of the Gospel throughout the World and you likewise do violence to the Nature of Mankind by imposing upon them what is plainly repugnant thereto But I fear I have been too luxuriant in this sudden though not wholly impertinent Excursion I shall therefore immediately fall upon the last Proposition which is 4. Prop. 4. That to Create and bring into Being on purpose to destroy and make miserable is most irrational There is no Being whether meerly Sensitive or Rational too but by a natural sympathy and propension loves and takes care for it's own off-spring The Beasts of the field and the Fowls of the air bear a tenderness and affection towards their young and never cast of the care and protection of them till time have enabled them to shift for themselves The Hircanian Tygers never discover the fierceness of their cruel natures more vehemently and passionately than when they are in danger of being bereaved of their whelps Thus have I seen a Serpent pull down the nest and devoure the young ones of a little Bird before her eyes while the innocent damme not daring to come nigh and yet unwilling to flie away suffers a pretty controversie between love and fear within her breast continually environing her more powerful adversary by many circular flights and powring out in vain her pitiful complaints into those insensible ears till the cruel beast hath eaten up her loving care and charge and then she mourns and makes the trees participate of her grief and often with sad notes visits the place where lay the tragick Scene of her latest sorrows Should we ascend to men who bear the similitude of heaven even the most barbarous not excepted they all have a more regular care and love to their off-spring than brute Animals inasmuch as they partake of a higher degree of life and have the principles of Reason seated in them And can any tender and compassionate Father behold without a relenting and bleeding heart his only Son racked or massacred before his eyes to satisfie the brutish passion of some blood-thirsty Tyrant Shall frail men then be a precedent of love and tenderness to his Maker Shall God whose love is alwayes amiable and serene without the least disturbance or cloud of passion be less pitiful to what he hath brought into being then frail and imperfect mortals It was a prevalent argument which Moses used in the behalf of the murmuring and discontented Israelites That if God proceeded against them in fury to their utter undoing Numb 14.15 16. the Nations which had heard his fame would say Because the Lord was not able to bring his people into the land which he sware unto them therefore he hath slain them in the Wilderness and may not the same infamous obloquie with a farr more specious pretext be cast upon the righteous Providence of God while in displeasure he persecutes to the death his innocent Progeny That because he was not able to maintain them in that happiness he designed them for he hath by an unalterable law fixed their eternal misery and destruction The ancient Philosopher Pherecides taught that God transformed himself into Love when he brought into being the whole Creation and surely that Love which moved him first to act cannot be thought to degenerate so far from it's Nature as to be busied in contriving the ruin of what is so newly brought forth And though the Ancients did veil and obscure their choicest Mysteries in Fables and Aenigmatical Symbols yet the intelligent inquirer may gather many substantial truths from them which being in themselves so coherent with the Divine Oracles seem to be a firm indication of Gods love and affection to the Sons of Men and that Providence being never excluded from any time or place did in all ages and parts of the World raise up such considerable persons and every way furnish them with gifts and abilities as might serve as instruments in her hand to
of an unlimited Will and Power how and when he pleaseth and declaring their effluxes and emanations to be the rule of reason and measure of all Moral Actions and the grand Law of the whole Creation or else in those Hymns and Hallelujahs which are offered up to him by intellectual Beings from all quarters of the Universe Whereas in truth his Glory is nothing without himself nor any acquisition and purchase to augment his happiness for he being an Infinite Plenitude of all Perfection is incapable of receiving any complement of Glory or Blessedness but then he most of all elevates and raises his glory and lustre when he most of all communicates his Nature and shines in with a full and uninterrupted light of Truth and Goodness upon all the intellectual Creation He never seeks his Glory in respect of us in any other way than by dispreading and imparting those Soveraign Attributes of Love Mercy Patience Wisdom and Justice And we in the most proper sense do then advance the Glory of God highest and discover it to the World in the most ample and transcendent manner when the life of God becomes a Vital Principle in us carrying us beyond the reach of corporeal exsudations and defilements which render the soul inept for a conformity to his blessed Image and when Truth Holiness and Righteousness in which the Divine Nature is copyed out become not empty and insignificant Names and sounds of words but actuating and quickning Principles and we studiously endeavour to engrave those beautiful Forms in our minds and spirits In a word then do we glorifie God when we converse with him in the Temple of an unspotted heart and derive from him in whom there is no blemish of iniquity such an Universal Holiness as lives within us and pervades and sanctifies all our actions And this the Lord Christ who best knew how to glorifie God hath intimated to us Joh. xv 8. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit I have now finished this Argument from the consideration of the Divine Nature and have deduced such genuine and legitimate Conclusions that if rightly estimated and weighed cannot but implant for the future in every unprejudic'd mind more generous and serene Apprehensions of the Deity then are offered in any Scheme of the Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian Doctrins both which concurr in that which appears most deformed to every pure and defecate eye viz. The Eternal Reprobation and Confusion of the greatest part of Mankind the one upon pretence of Gods sole Will and Pleasure and the other under the mantle and cover of Adam's transgression in whose loins the whole race of Mankind was included when he fell and lost his Paradise Both which opinions though never so fairly guilded over do really make God put on the mask of cruelty and rigour that he might appear just in his Oeconomy and Administration of the affairs of the World and that which is most barbarous and infamous in the eye of reason is made to speak the glory of the Deity And that God might bring about this dismal and black design of Damning his Creatures he must compass it by injurious artifices and tyrannical contrivances rot unlike that inhumane fraud Tiberius used to Brutus and Nero the sons of Germanicus Suet. in Vit. Tâ—…b c. 54. Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur How deep a stain doth this cast upon the lovely rayes and efflorences of the Divine Goodness and Mercy making him to become the Executioner to his own off-spring and rend that dear life in pieces which his own hands gave Being to And although the Sublapsarian Dogma be entertained of some on purpose to mollifie that harsh decree of the Supralapsarian Reprobation yet if we divest it of those terms and artifices of words wherewith it is mantled over to appear more specious to the World we shall find it cast as great a blot upon the Divine Nature as the other For whether is it better to say That God by his Eternal Prerogative of Absolute Dominion over all his Creatures has adjudged the greatest part of Mankind to inevitable misery for no other reason but upon the impulse of his own Will and to shew the glory of his Power Or to say That God for the sin of one Man whom he made the Representative of the succeeding Generations of Men to the end of the World committed some thousands of years ago and imputed only to his Posterity who were no more able to help it than to hinder their being born into the World should take the advantage of his lapse and decree the greatest number of Mankind to Everlasting destruction And if we impartially view this latter it will appear no less precarious and absurd than the former For though it be true that we are really and formally guilty of Original Sin yet to say that God did physically predetermine Adam's fall or in the mildest sense That he looked upon man as fallen for the Reprobationists are not consistent with themselves and so took the opportunity which he foresaw would offer it self by his lapse to bring about his design of ruining the greatest number of Mankind is to bring Almighty God the Father of compassions upon the stage of the World speaking unto the calamitous Off-spring of Adam like the Wolfe when he intended to devour a Lamb Ante hos sex menses ait maledixisti mihi Respondit agnus Equidem natus non eram Pater hercule tuus inquit maledixit mihi Atque ita correptum lacerat injustâ nece Should God take the souls of men being yet innocent so soon as he set them upon acting in the World according to those Principles and Powers he bestowed upon them at their first production and cast them into everlasting burnings they would have this comfort left to them that they suffered innocently and never in the least measure violated any of the sacred Laws of Heaven But when they shall hear that their Creator and Father who upon that very account could not inflict a greater evil than the good he bestowed on them hath contrived their death and drawn them into sin that he might with the fairer shew of equity punish them with infinite tortures both in body and soul this injustice must needs appear unspeakably grievous For although some would seem to excuse this Oeconomy from all harshness iniquity and rigor by substituting the softer termes of Preterition or negative Reprobation yet if they will unmask their apprehensions and speak plain sense the difference will appear only in words not in the thing it self and is all one as if a man should seek to alleviate the calamity of a condemned Malefactor by telling him he should not die by Common but Noble hands For the event declares Gods intention and the denial of his help to extricate them from misery is equivalent to a positive Reprobation Let us consult a little our own faculties and reason
teach and instruct mankind in the true knowledge and worship of the Deity Hence it is that in the Gentile Theology Love is made the most ancient of the Gods and the Sire of all things * Plutarch tells us that for this reason Hesiod made Love the most ancient of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is described by Simmias Rhodius in a pair of Wings which suited well with the Symbolical representation of the Chaos by an Egge which was brooded and hatched under these wings of Love Something of this we find Aristophanes in Avibus sporting withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Love therefore according to their Divinity being the benigne Creator of all things the Father of Men and Angels from whose bounteous fecundity the vast spaces of the external Creation became replenished with suitable inhabitants must needs be ever present with every thing he hath brought into being and communicate himself to all his Creatures so far as their respective Natures are capable of receiving the influxes of his Paternal Goodness What was therefore obscurely and imperfectly delivered by the Heathens concerning the production of things we have fully declared in the Mosaical history of the Creation where we find the Holy Spirit of Love by his fostering incubation bringing into being and cherishing under his extended wings the new-born World Which manner of production surely denotes a tender care and dear regard of whatever is brought into being and therefore the Metaphorical expression of Wings is often used in Sacred Writ to set forth Gods loving care and providence Psal xci 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers when thou betakest thy self under the shadow of his wings And when the blessed Jesus would denote that dear love wherewith he would have embraced Jerusalem had she returned unto him he tels us that he would have gathered her children together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a bird gathereth her young under her wings Mat 23.37 God cannot be separated from any of mankind but as he brought them into being for no other end but that they might taste of the communications of his Nature so he takes care that none of them shall fall short of this desirable end but through their own default 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That mind which is the Father of all things being life and nature it self produced man like unto himself and loved him as his own off-spring But far short of this comely Idea of the Divine Nature is that of Calvin who had he been to describe the barbarous stratagem of some cruel Nero or one more inhumane than the World hath yet known contrived to slay the innocent under colour of Justice could scarce have done it with more horror and amazement than that wherein he layes down the eternal counsel of God against Reprobates Instit lib. 3. cap. 24. Sect. 12. Quemadmodum suae erga electos vocationis efficacia salutem ad quam eos aeterno consilio destinaret perficit Deus ita sua habet adversus reprobos judicia quibus consilium de illis suum exequatur Quos ergo in vitae contumeliam mortis exitium creavit ut irae suae organa forent severitatis exempla eos ut in finem suum perveniant nunc audiendi verbi sui facultate privat nunc ejus praedicatione magis excaecat obstupefacit i. e. As God by the efficacy of his Vocation towards the Elect compleates that Salvation to which he designed them by an eternal decree so he hath his determinations against Reprobates by which he executes his decree concerning them Those therefore whom he created for the reproach of life and perdition of death that they might become the instruments of Anger and examples of his Severity those that they may arive to their end he sometimes deprives of the means of hearing his Word and othertimes more blinds and amazes by the preaching of it But is the Name of a Creator nay of a Father no more promising Why was Man made in the Image of God unless he intended to deal with him according to that relation he stood in unto him We do not read that God hath dealt thus with any of the rest of the Creation for the rebellious Devils were not cast down from the higher regions of light and glory till they apostatiz'd from God and drew with them the race of Mankind And shall Man alone the noblest part of that Creation to which God once vouchsafed that cheerful Elogium and Approbation that it was very good shall he only I say be banished from the participation of that All-comprehensive Goodness I can sooner therefore believe that the proud Gyant the fanciful Poets have placed under mount Aetna should by his own native effort throw of that heavy burden from his oppressed breast or that the spirit of Nature should convert a flinty rock into a heap of fragrant flowers than that God should create any of Mankind on purpose to make them the pitious objects of others scorn and his own powerful and implacable vengeance I can never believe any thing I say that savours of such irrational and unjust proceedings but rather affirm that the Eternal benignity of the Holy one diffused and communicated through the whole Orbe of beings and comprehension of Nature will so certainly take hold of every thing that is capable of enjoying it that it shall not fail of being happy so long as it acts evenly and regularly in that place and state infinite Wisedom hath allotted to it Hence Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn 3. What wonder is' t if God Who did the World create From his own works repel All sad and evil fate As if it were contradictory to the very Nature of God to be the Demiurgus and Maker of all things and yet not to render his productions as happy as the capacities of their natures will admit For nothing advantageth him ought and all the happiness or misery the Creatures run through in the course and order of things is neither an addition nor detraction of his felicity only he being Essential Love which envies not nor thinks any evill delights to communicate of himself in effects of kindness tenderness and beneficence to all beings round about him The whole Creation tastes of it having all it's parts cemented with Goodness and it's foundation lay'd in Love The Heavens the Earth and Sea and whatever moves within the compass of them bear witness to this Truth This is that All-mighty Love which feeds the young Ravens when they open their mouths towards heaven and provides for the Lybian Lyons when their souls are pincht with hunger and they roar after their prey He it is that opens the windows of heaven and refreshes the dry and parched Earth causing the grass to grow for the Cattel and herb for the service of Man All things in
the World because it is possest of nothing but an unlimited desire of doing mischief and for this reason alone Wisdom and Power are no further good or speak perfection then they are in conjunction with Absolute Goodness and consequently must depend upon it as the beams of light disperst through the air upon the Sun or faculties and actions upon the principles from whence they flow That Wisdom which is devoid of Goodness is nothing but a higher degree of craft something of the Nature of that cunning and wilyness we may discover in voracious Beasts and Birds when they deceive and prey upon the more innocent and harmless sort of Animals so that we plainly perceive that Wisdom and Power separated from Goodness offer no notion of perfection at all to our minds and therefore there is something in the Deity more amiable and lovely and which as it speaks perfection it self and is the most desirable and excellent thing upon earth so it is the spring of all other Attributes in the Deity which are no further morally good than they are united with this prime and noble quality Hence Tully introducing C. Cotta disputing against Velleius the Epicurean tels him that Epicurus by taking away Love from the Deity Tollit id quod maximè proprium est optimae Lib. â—… de Nat. Deorum Seneca Epist 95. Primus est Deorum cultus Deos credere deinde reddere illis Majestatem suam reddere bonitatem sine quae nullae Majestas est praestantissimaeque naturae Nihil enim melius aut praestantius bonitate beneficentiâ Let us now reflect upon that Archetypal Image according to which man was made and if we do not wilfully blind our eyes we cannot but see that it was neither Wisdom nor Power though we partake in some measure of both but Goodness and Love whose glorious forms and Idea's are disseminated through the intellectual World and impressed upon every rational Being The Angels themselves who far exceed us in Power and Wisdom yet should they exercise them without the ballast of Goodness would prove more exorbitant and ungovernable then the Apostate Devils For wherein consists the height of that degeneracy and revolt of Men and Angels from God but only in this that they are departed from the eternal laws and rules of Goodness and strive to sustain and prop up themselves by their unlimited self-will and hence it comes to pass that having no sure and steady foundation to bottom themselves upon they fluctuate and are tossed to and fro by every unruly passion and desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all good is governable and uniform and it is immutable Goodness above that to speak with reverence makes the Divinity a Uniform Being for Wisdom and Power are in themselves so arbitrarious multiform and uncertain that without the poize of Goodness they cannot settle and radicate themselves upon any permanent Centre This great Truth the ever-blessed Son of God verified when he left the glory and beatitude of Heaven and pitched his Tabernacle amongst men For wherein consisted the flower and excellency of his Divine Perfections Was it not in that Universal Love and Benignity he expressed to the whole World and in that tenderness and compassion he shewed by going about doing good and casting an healing influence upon the bodies and souls of Men This surely was the brightest ray of Divinity that ever shone from God manifested in the flesh and to this every holy mans experience bears witness who then finds himself most peaceable and calm and most conformable to the Divine Image and Pourtraicture when he is doing the most good and his love most enlarged and comprehensive which Love never ascends more acceptably to Heaven than when it overflowes all capable subjects here below and strives to unite and draw them up to God their great Source and Parent Wherefore by what hath been said for the explication of this Proposition it sufficiently appears that Goodness is the inmost Centre of the Deity and Wisdom and Power ray forth from thence like the beams of light from their lucid Centre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That that which is most pretious and best as I may so speak in the Divine Nature will be sure to work first and extend it self to all the capacities and possibilities of things We have already proved That the Deity is no Arbitrary Being but that all his Actions and Determinations relating to us have their Original in Infinitely full Goodness which being the most precious thing in the Nature of God and the measure and rule of all his other Attributes and Perfections it cannot but seem most easie and natural to conceive that this Soveraign property as it is the best so it should likewise obtain the first place in working For infinite Power never acting but in subordination to directive Wisdom nor Wisdom and Power exerting themselves but in the way of and according to the laws of Goodness which being in it's own Nature so fruitful and communicative that all other Modes and Attributes are tinctured with it and lie in a laxe and diffuse manner within the sphear and comprehension of it's Energy it must also obtain the first place of acting as of right belonging to it And if we look out and take a view of the several rancks and orders of intellectual Beings we shall find in every of them something of greatest value and excellency which as it exceeds in worth all other perfections of their Natures so it will be most energetical and of the largest extent in acting and contrarily that what is of less excellency is more contracted and circumscribed and of less efficacy and virtue The soul of man though one entire Orbe in the whole latitude and comprehension of her Essence yet is made up of distinct powers and faculties which are not all of equal value and excellency nor do they all operate in the same order and manner The lowest power which we take notice of in humane souls is that Plastick or Formative virtue wherein consists the Vital Union between soul and body and whose peculiar office it is to conserve the motions and keep in play all the Engines of the whole corporeal Machine and this being so stupid languid and inert is perpetually transfixt by the inevitable motions and variegations of matter and fatally bound up to those operations which are common to us with brute Animals But as we ascend higher the Powers of the soul are more explicate and large and according to their worth and excellency obtain a more or less ample sphear of Energy and Life Thus they gradually arise till they come to that which is the Quintessence and choicest perfection of humane souls Reason or Intellect which being sanctified by the Divine Life blossomes and rayes forth on every side to the circumference of it's Essence and hallows all the Corporeal and Animal powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonist speaks with an Intellectual touch and Divine
endeavours to unite and become one with that ever-blessed Being subtracting his affections from all earthly vanities as finding something more noble and worthy to bestow them upon Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus as Porphyry speaks of the Egyptian Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath given up his whole life to Divine Contemplation and search after the Deity Such Power have Evangelical Truths over the minds of men that they transform them into their own native image and similitude and the more they are looked into the more they enravish them with their heavenly beauty and pulchritude And because afflicted and persecuted Vertue could not be thought eligible meerly for it self nor be a sufficient argument to induce us to the love and practice of it who were so fatally addicted to the concerns of sense therefore God who knew our frame and how far and to what degrees we had apostatiz'd from his holy Nature did not only propound good things to our choice but solicit our wills to the embracing of them by the strongest evidences and most attractive motives that our Natures were capable of receiving The life of sense being more powerful and laying a greater though not a juster claim to our minds as we are born into this World God was pleased to deal with us after a sensible manner and in a way of condescending Wisdom proportioning the Truths he delivered to us to our capacity of reception And this was that the Apostle called the Foolishness of Preaching wherein God stoops down and puts on the garb and frailties of humanity and suits the results of his will with our mean and shallow apprehensions Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh and cradled in the circle of a Virgins arms which clearly demonstrates even to outward sense the exceeding Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty God that he hath not cast off the care of Mankind but is at peace with the World and hath put on the bright robes of Loving-kindness and Mercy which he hath given a large Specimen and full proof of in the Mission of the Lord Christ from heaven God would have all men lay aside their hard thoughts and causless-jealousies and suspicions of his Nature as if he did not from his heart intend them good but only suspended his anger for a time which might again break out upon them in prodigious floods of vengeance and fury For this is the most certain sign that God wills and desires our happiness and welfare in that he hath united himself to our Nature and sent down his only begotten Son for no other purpose but to seek and to save that which was lost And if he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things What is there now can lay a greater tie upon ingenuous spirits then the discovery of so much undeserved kindness and love What heart is there so obdurate and rocky that this will not dissolve into the tears of love and joy to behold the blessed Jesus hanging between heaven and earth upon the Cross that he might reconcile all things that are in heaven and earth and become a propitiatory Sacrifice for all mens sins in the World It is said of Socrates that he was so inamour'd with this Divine passion of Love that he styled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A servant of Love Let therefore Love which is the Proxenet of Nature the great instrument of conciliating hearts beget in thee a return and retribution of Love and never think of those streams of blood which so copiously flowed from the wounded body of thy dying Lord without a passive and melting spirit but be likewise a servant of Love and act under that generous principle for Love is of God And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And that we may not think we are set to remove mountains or perform impossibilities when we are exhorted by the Gospel to the participation of Gods holy life we shall never be left alone to sink under our load and die but shall have the assistance of that Almighty and Demiurgical spirit of Love who hovered over the dark Chaos and brought into Being the goodly frame of heaven and earth and replenished all the immense tracts of space with sutable inhabitants Wisd ch vii This is that Wisdom which is the brightness of the Everlasting the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his Goodness which remaining in her self makes all things new and in all ages entring into holy souls makes them friends of God and Prophets She will not lodge in a sinful body nor abide when unrighteousness cometh in For she is more beautiful then the Sun and above all the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it This kind and loving spirit will God bestow upon every one that asks it of him to repair his broken and decayed Nature to raise up the Divine Image to joynt and confirm every perverse dislocation in the frame of his soul and to perfect and compleat the living efformation of Christ within him Let no man then despair of attaining to a state of Blessedness under the Gospel for this Benign Spirit whose delights are with the Sons of Men pervades the whole World and touches and overshadows every man with out-stretched wings who is willing to have the Divine Image and Pourtraiture formed in him and doth not by impurity and uncleanness chase it away Though our enemies are mighty and our souls weak yet let none despair of Victory for through the assistance and conduct of that Almighty we shall be able to overcome them He is ever cherishing and fostring the life of God wherever it 's born into any soul and sweetly insinuates into our minds and hallows and sanctifies all our powers and excites us to a serious and hearty pursuit after the indispensable laws of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We are not fallen and degenerated beyond the power of God but his Spirit is able to raise and bring up our souls from the lowest Hell and to renew and reform our debased and wretched Natures For what cannot he do who at first made us faultless and happy till we ruined and defaced his blessed Image and rendred our selves the miserable objects of his compassions What is there in our frame so stubborn and insequacious that he cannot rectifie and redress who at first created all things and brought into Being all the Beauty and Harmony of Heaven and Earth He will never leave us destitute and forlorn but will take hold of every fitness and capacity till he have perfected in us the Divine life and brought us unto Glory But because Examples are more prevalent with mankind then Precepts and Instructions that God might not leave any thing undone which would in any kind conduce to our Interest he hath recommended to us the Example
be quenched and then making bare his arme and demonstrating his Power by lifting them up from thence into the warm Sun-shine of his favour where they shall remain as secure of Heaven as if they were there already till God please by death to translate them unto glory And being taught on the other hand that whoever finds not this mighty work of Grace within him and feels not this great change wrought in his spirit it is a certain sign he is in the state of Reprobation and one of those who were of old ordained to condemnation Men I say being thus instructed and misguided by Pragmatick zeal that sets up it self in the place of Reason and not knowing that ever they had any sense or perception of those forementioned effects being wrought in them presently conclude that there is nothing to be expected for them but a sure and inevitable Damnation They never heard the sound of that breath of heaven which quickens dry bones and makes them stand up and live nor ever were acquainted with those impetuous agitations and convulsions of spirit whereby the New-birth is formed in them they never took notice of any such audible Voice behind them saying unto them this is the way walk in it Nor ever felt any such black tempest of horror and trembling seazing on them which presently the cloud being blown over was turned into a serene gale of quietness and peace Now it being thus with them what other conclusion can they draw from such Premises but that they are the objects of Gods hatred and are utterly excluded from all hope of happyness by a Decree unalterable as the Laws of the Medes and Persians For God hath determined say the Reprobationists and purposed in himself and he is not as Man that he should lye or the son of Man that he should repent that he will shew mercy to none but those few whom he hath pre-ordained to Salvation for the illustration of the Glory of his free Grace What shall I now comfort those despairing and disconsolate souls withal Should I tell them that God hates nothing that he hath made that he is the Father of Spirits and no Parent will tare out the tender bowels of his own dear off-spring they will presently reply that though the number of souls be as the sand of the Sea a remnant only shall be saved a little flock a tenth as the shaking of an Olive tree two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitful branches and though it be true that God is the Father of Spirits yet he is likewise the Supreme Lord of his Creation and May he not do what he will with his own hath not the potter power over the clay and therefore they are certainly vessels of dishonour and included in that great multitude which shall inherit bitterness and sorrow Should I declare to them that God is merciful and will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth and to this end hath sent down the Lord Christ from heaven to declare to mankind that he is reconciled unto them and thinks thoughts of Love and Goodness towards them and that if they will repent and turn to him he will blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more that Jesus Christ is become an Alsufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole World and hath taken away that anger and displeasure that was conceived against the Sons of Men having tasted Death for every Man and that now he invites all in the most condescending terms to come unto him and hath promised that Whosoever comes unto him he will in no wise cast out And what return now shall I have to these perswasions they will tell me that it 's true God is merciful and would have All that is some of all sorts and conditions of men to be Saved and to this end Christ came down from heaven and was made man that he might gather together the World of his Elect and tasted Death for every one of them and these he invites and these shall come to him but none else for no man can come unto Christ except the Father draw him and we have no evidence or but plausible grounds to think that he either hath or will draw any of us his Sheep only know his voice and follow him but we have no proof whereby we can collect our selves to be of his fold Wherefore all our arguments are fruitless and vain and you can give us no solid and substantial comfort to uphold our weak and dying hopes that we are not in a state of Reprobation I might here before I leave this Argument demand of the stout Champions and Promoters of this rigid Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation What they think of those general calls and invitations of all lapsed Mankind in the Gospel and How they will make them consistent with that sower Dogma for to what end or purpose were these and such like expressions inserted Mat. xi 28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heaven laden and I will give you rest If any man thirst Joh. vii 37. Isai lv 1. let him come unto me and drink Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come ye Behold I stand at the door and knock Rev. iii. 20. if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Wisdom cryeth without Prov. i. she uttereth her voice in the streets How long ye simple ones Turn ye at my reproof The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that heareth say Revel xxii 17. Come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Why doth Christ invite Reprobates to come to him when he denies them his gracious Assistance and intends they shall not come For that they are included here I think none can question that attends how general the terms are and if the balance be cast on either side the advantage will accrue to Reprobates for Christ came not to call the Righteous those who presume themselves to be Elected but Sinners such as the World judges Castawayes to repentance and besides the Text plainly implyes the same for who are more weary and heavy laden than those who are dayly burdened and know not where to rest Who are more thirsty than those who are scorcht with perpetual heats and travel in unknown deserts and solitudes panting and gasping and lifting up their dying eyes to Heaven and yet cannot obtain so much as one drop of cooling dew to allay the flames and ardors of their parched souls And if it be certain as it cannot be denyed that all men whatever are interessed and concern'd in these passionate invitations it is likewise clear as the Noon-day Sun that all may come and receive the benefit designed