to when left in the dark There is nothing in Gods nature can give me cause of fear at least if I do but return to God but there is enough in it to give me cause of hope And though I have no acquaintance with Christ my acquaintance with God will serve my turn For Christ discovers nothing more of Gods gracious nature to sinners than we knew before by the light of nature as I well remember you instructed me awhile since In short it seems there is a naturalness of mercy in God but not of justice Sherlock No no of the naturalness of Gods Justice that he could not pardon sin without satisfaction I make this the import That he is so just that he hath not one dram of goodness in him till his rage and vengeance be satisfied which is a glorious kind of Justice I confess p. 59. Satan I perceive you are a merry Gentleman and so are all of your Club. And I hope hereafter I shall be merry too and be fit to make one of you I am sure I had almost pored out my eyes with seeking for these Gospel mysteries in the Gospel and could never find them p. 40. To borrow your significant words with your good leave but now I understand that I looked for them where they were not I should have learned to argue from the nature of God and his works of Providence and the nature of mankind and Angels though the Eanaticks call such arguings carnal reason p. 79. There is nothing now remains besides thanks for your pains but to sum up the heads of Argument upon which my hopes of salvation as well as mans are built And if I should misrepresent any of them you will please to correct my mistakes 1. That God is so good that he designs and desires the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures and therefore mine 2. That Gods will in that design is not arbitrary having no reason but it self For such a will would destroy all the perfections of Gods nature 3. That holiness in the Creature is the reason of the determination of his love to any particular person 4. That this holiness is not an effect of an Omnipotent Power but of powerful motives and arguments and so by the use of my free-will I may be holy if I will 5. That though this holiness be not perfect yet God will accept it if sincere 6. This acceptance of my sincere holiness I have reason to believe and hope for though I have no promise For 7. Gods gracious nature obliges him to reward all sincerely though imperfectly good actions God is merciful to all whose Creator he is and affords them all possible means of Salvation without a Saviour or any knowledg of one And accordingly 8. De facto Abel and Enoch and Abraham were saved without a Faith in Christ And needs they must because no man could believe in Christ till he came And 9. Though God hates me now yet he may love me hereafter For Gods love and hatred are not immutable nor does the immutability of them consist in loving or hating alway the same person but for the same reason because they are either good or bad And which may confirm me 10. God never designed the glory of mercy and justice in saving some and not others in the permission of his Creatures sins 11. Though a Saviour was brought into the world after it was about Four thousand years old yet he was not of absolute necessity for the only knowledg absolutely necessary to the purposes of Religion whereof Salvation is not the least is such a knowledg of Gods nature and will as is sufficient to direct our actions and incourage our obedience And hence 12. The wisdom of God was not discovered in sending a Saviour if there were no other way of redeeming the World For wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it 13. This Saviour being the Eternal Son of God we may reasonably conclude he came upon no less design than of universal goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all men and we cannot imagine why he should lay a narrower design of love in the redemption than in the Creation of mankind c. all which fits my case the Eternal Son of God being my Creator hath no temptation to partiality being equally concerned in my happiness and mans as we are his rational Creatures 14. That a Saviour is of no great use now he is come For he comes neither to fulfil the Law for sinners nor to die in their stead but only to confirm Gods promise of saving them that repent and forsake their sins which promise was needless Gods nature obliging him to save sinners upon those terms before any promise and the light of nature discovering that obligation nor was the confirming of it needful For the light of nature would teach us that God will not break his promise And so if it should happen that the Saviour was not intended for me yet I might be saved as Abel and Enoch were without one And I gather from hence that you make the blood of Christ no more satisfactory than the blood of Bulls and Goats were under the Law but that God was pleased with both upon the same reason because the shedding of his and their blood was an act of obedience to his will not a satisfaction to his Justice And so you have subverted the Gospel which stood in the way of my hopes of Salvation for which I con you hearty thanks And hence I collect 15. That whoever was or shall be justified were and shall be justified without any righteousness at all For righteousness importing a relation resulting from the conformity of dispositions and actions to their Rule sincerity is no righteousness at all supposing the righteousness of Christ not so far imputed as to take away its defects unless the Law as a Rule requires no more conformity to it self than the Gospel as a Covenant accepts which cannot be because then no deviations from the Law are sinful where there is sincerity 16. A Saviour is the less needful because Gods Justice is not natural though his mercy is And the fears of sinful men and so of Angels of Gods Justice are but the workings of heated fancy and religious distraction 17. If a Saviour be of use the way to come by an interest in him is not a fiducial reliance or recumbence on Christ For that Abraham had not and so nor his children but a believing his Revelations which the Church of England somewhere in her Homilies acknowledges I do and the chief of them The Articles of Faith and governing our lives by them which I hope to do hereafter So that Abrahams Faith and a Believers now are of a different kind but your faith and mine are of one kind we
sure we account that Man a fool who loves at this rate and how that should come to be the perfection of the Love of God which is a reproach to Men is above my apprehension p. 399. Satan But I pray Sir tell me then what other Reason but his own arbitrary Will God could have for shewing mercy to sinners Sherlock The holiness of a Creature is the Reason why God determines his Love to any particular person p. 401. Satan If I be not much mistaken I have heard some such passages read in some or other of your Churches Second Lessons That God hath chosen men before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and that Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that it should be holy and without blemish which seems to make the holiness of a Creature the effect not the cause of Gods Love But I have told you I am resolved at this time to be a Learner and oportet discentem credere The Scholar must believe his Master is a Rule among Teachers It may be Paul was mistaken for I have heard some say that he was an hot-headed Fellow and now here 's no body but our selves you will excuse my freedom in telling you that as far as I have been able to observe none of your Club care much for him For their greatest trouble in dealing with the Fanaticks is to rid their hands well of the Allegations out of him But to our business supposing your Doctrine true I am an unholy Creature I cannot deny it and therefore God hath no Reason for the determination of his love to me Sherlock If you be unholy then you must make your self holy Satan I but I doubt that 's past my skill There is a spiritual impotency and inability in a sinner to do any good thing Sherlock Who told you so Sir Satan John Calvin I dare say or John Owen but I hope you have more wit than to believe them Satan No indeed I was told so by St. Austin and many a great man of your Church Fathers and Sons But before them all by your Arch-Adversary St. Paul who says that sinners are dead in trespasses and sins and that they are created to good-works and become new creatures and born again when converted Sherlock When they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own resurrection no more can we towards our conversion which is true of natural death but will be hard to prove of a moral death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of and is your case too Sir Satan which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue The other Argument is of the like nature that we are said to be created to good works and to become new creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it viz. our Conversion than we did to our first creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good-works did signifie the manner and method of our conversion and not the nature of the new creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the Image of God so we are renewed after his Image in the second which is therefore expresly call'd in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds p. 109 110 The fruitfulness of Gods love with respect to the methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an omnipotent and irresistible power for then sin and death could never have entred into the world but he governs and doth good to his creatures in such ways as are most suitable to their natures He governs reasenable Creatures by principles of Reason as he doth the Material world by the necessary laws of matter and bruit creatures by the instincts and propensities of nature p. 212. This I am sure is a new discovery whatever you say of St. Austin and the great men of our Church that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistibl power of the Grace and spirit of God p. 50. Satan I have heard your long Discourse with a great deal of patience and your meaning as well as I can take it up is that conversion is an effect of moral suasion a term of art which many of your good friends much delight to use and I listned to hear it out of your mouth so that if I do but attend to what God hath revealed of the excellency and necessity of Holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut puto Deus fio I shall be holy all on a sudden But I am not very apt to believe this because my mind hath been a great while illuminated with such Revelations and yet I do not find my Will moved by them As for what you object against sinners being wholly passive in the work of Conversion if you had to do with a Phanatick he would press you with this Argument If the Image of God was received by the will in the first creation without its own contribution to the production of it why may not that Image be restored to it without the wills cooperation to the restitution But because I perceive you have a kindness for me I will not personate any of that foolish troublesome sort of people who can ask more Questions than a wise man can answer Well Sir let us go on but suppose I should make my self holy yet if I be not perfectly such I am never the near to obtain my end Gods favour and acceptance For I well remember there is a passage in the Bible That God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity that is with approbation as I have heard Preachers expound it and you your self tell me that Gods natural love to holiness is the reason why he loves holy men p. 401. And by the like reason sure holy Angels whence I infer for I have pickt up a little Logick as well as Divinity in the Schools that perfect holinevs in the creature must be the reason of Gods natural love to it for that only is agreeable to his holy nature Sherlock Nay there you are out in your inference for the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them p. 54. God is as ready to pardon the worst of men and why not the worst of Angels when they return to their duty as a kind father is to receive an humble and penitent prodigal p. 43.
without ground in your opinion And your reason against it confirms me more in my suspicion that you do but verba dare deceive when you say The Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ did excellently qualifie him for the office of a Mediator p. 205 206. For if Christ as a Mediator be not the fountain of Grace secundum naturam divinam i. e. as God he may pass from a Mediator though he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man then he might perswade men to be gracious by powerful motives though he could not bestow grace upon them which is all you intend by Christs being a minister of Grace The Fanaticks indeed silly souls as they are think that Christs Obedience was the meritorious cause of Grace and his Spirit the efficient or fountain of it but you instruct them better that Christ by his blood purchased only a Covenant of Salvation to them that have grace come by it as they can But pray Sir what Vnion do you allow of any or none Sherlock The Union between Christ and the Christian Church is but a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a King and his Subjects p. 156. Satan Then am I united already which is more than ever I knew before for Christ is Head of Principalities and Powers and they are his subjects de jure I am sure Sherlock Hold there our union to Christ consists in our belief of his Revelations Ib. Satan Then still my claim is good for I believe all his Revelations and were I sure none but friends were within hearing I would say that 's more than you do Sherlock You are a jeering Companion and a little too hasty our union to Christ consists also in our obedience to his Laws and subjection to his Authority p. 156. Satan Now I am half gone But yet I live in hopes that the powerful motives you have talked so much of may be powerful enough to move me to that obedience and subjection I owe to Christs Laws and Authority seeing I already believe all his Revelations I will not give you much longer trouble I have but one scruple more I perceive by your last discourse That God requir'd not such a sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins because he could not do otherwise p. 46. This I would have made plain For it sticks much with me that I am a debtor to Divine Justice and therefore I do not understand how God can be good to me till that debt be paid and Justice satisfied For if he should it seems to me that God should raise one of his Attributes upon the ruin of another and so do himself a prejudice to do me a kindness Your charity I believe is such that you wish me well as you do all mankind Answer but this one Objection and I am satisfied Sherlock That God is so just and righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his justice is indeed such a notion of justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor nature acquaints us with for all mankind have accounted it an act of goodness without the least suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment and that he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of justice which consists in punishing of offenders was always looked on as an iustrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either p. 45 46. And this is so rational that thou canst not but subscribe to the judgment of all mankind And but that I think you propose this scruple only to try what answer I can make I should wonder one of so pregnant wit should talk so like a fool Satan I doubt Sir you have not consulted all mankind I have heard other doctrine constantly taught in the Assemblies of Christians who sure are part of mankind where I have been a constant and attentive hearer and I cannot but believe and tremble Sherlock I doubt Sir Satan your ears have not been matches It may be you have heard such doctrine in Conventicles There is one John Owen that hath given us a faste of the gift he exercises in such Assembles in a late Book Entituled Communion with God the Father c. that tells us what ever discoveries were made of the patience and lenity of God to us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other Properties of God as his Justice and Revenge for Sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former p. 95. But what say I to this That is J. O. would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his reveng The sume of which is That God is all love and patience when he has taken his fill of revenge as others use to say That the Devil is good when he is pleased p. 47. Excuse me that I make use of your name Satan I willingly excuse your making use of my name for seeing I have failed in my ambition of being like God I am well enough content you should make God like me Sherlock Elsewhere the same J.O. says That in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness But I think I pay him off Hearken and you shall have my Comment with his Text to a tittle An happy change this from all Justice to all Love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the Justice of God hath glutted it self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so henceforward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengeful man is when his passion is over p. 46. Satan But what 's the matter then that sinners which I know by woful experience my self are haunted with continual fears of Gods Justice Those fears seem to be the effects of the natural notions of God's Justice which we carry about with us Sherlock The workings of the Law the amazing terrors of Gods wrath the raging despair of damned spirits are the working of an heated fancy and Religious distraction p. 95. These must needs be the effect of ignorance not of an acquaintance with Christ which suggests so many encouraging-considerations to return to God as to a merciful and compassionate Father and not to tremble at his presence as a severe and inexorable Judg. Ib. Satan O bene factum O well done my white Boy O Lepidum caput now your work is done you have obliged me for ever For now I undeastand that my fears are but melancholy and hypochondraical such as timerous persons are subject