Heathens give Rules for the regulation of mens thoughts and affections as well as words and actions Theoph. Why do you ask me that Question For you very well know that they abound with them as ignorant as you are pleased to make your self Philal. I was I confess guilty of great inconsiderateness in putting that Question to you Theoph. And you are not to learn that divers of them lead men to good ends in their vertuous actions And that placing mans supreme happiness in the enjoyment of God they teach us to make that our great designe Philal. I have much observed it and especially in the Writings of the Platonists And moreover that in their Moral discourses they tell us that it is our duty to perform good actions out of love to Goodness and condemn base ends and particularly some of them even that of applause and a great Name as much as some others allow of it and commend it too But have you found that any of them teach men to act our of Love to God and to make his Glory their last end Theoph. These two you ought not to have distinguished from each other Now though I do not remember the later in any of them as you word it yet the former I do The forementioned Hierocles speaking of Piety or Love to God hath this saying With this every thing is pleasing to God but without this nothing And he brings in Apollo speaking thus to one that offered an Hecatomb to him but with no pious minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thine hundred Oxen I less kindly take Than Poor but Pious Hermions Barley-cake But I need not trouble you with instances to this purpose for there is nothing more plainly agreeable to Reason than that we ought to act principally out of love to God our obligations to him being beyond all expression and conception great Any man may see this that hath not lost all sense of Gratitude which Principle how any should quite extirpate out of their souls I cannot understand it being I think not much less deeply rooted there than that of self-self-love and observable in Brutes as well as men Philal. But yet I conceive that to act out of love to God and out of love to Goodness are much the same Theoph. Materially they are Goodness being the very nature of God But 't is certain that nothing argueth a man to be so like to God as doth doing vertuously from this principle of love to Goodness Philal. Nor do the holy Scriptures seem to me to make any nice distinction between designing the enjoyment of God as our supreme happiness and making his glory our last End Theoph. No surely they do not and I wish that no good people were more Critical in so doing than the Scriptures are by this means would many free themselves from a great deal of needless trouble they are apt to cast themselvs down with Philal. I have sometimes wondered greatly how Heathens should come by such excellent notions in matters of Religion but I should now be tempted to account it matter of Admiration should they all have been ignorant of them Theoph. Truly Philalethes I do really think that it is so far from being difficult to conceive how those that never law the Bible should have such conceptions that it would be rather so how those of them that through the goodness of God were emerged out of those gross notions of the Deity into which the generality of Mankinde were sunk and that made use of their intellectuals and were considerative should not have them Philal. But doth not what hath been said tend to disparage the Gospel and make it the very same excepting in two or three precepts with a meer Natural Religion Theoph. I would rather impose an eternal silence upon my tongue and pluck it out by the roots too than once utter a syllable to such a mischievous purpose But I am so far from being conscious to my self that what hath been said doth tend to the debasing of the Christian Religion that I know it highly conduceth to its commendation But whereas you asked whether to assert that there are scarcely any duties therein enjoyned but what mens Reason alone were it well consulted might suggest so to be be not to make it a meer Natural Religion To that I answer that you did not consider that the Gospel is not made up altogether of agenda or things to be done whereas these you know are but a part of it There are besides relations of matters of fact and many things to be known and points of meer belief which yet have an influence upon practice too There are abundance of Promises as well as Precepts and stupendious expressions of Gods love to Mankinde therein declared all which we are beholden to Revelation alone for the knowledge of But in short I assert these two things concerning the Gospel which do highly tend to the magnifying of it infinitely above any Religion that was ever embraced by the sons of men First That it containeth all those excellent Precepts that are scattered here and there very thinly among much Trash and Rubbish in other Books some in one and some in another and moreover that there is found therein whatsoever may be discovered by Reason to be becoming and worthy of Mankinde which are all there expressed one where or other in a most plain and intelligible manner And were there no more in the Gospel than this we should be infinitely obliged to God for it in that what the Heathens took pains for and by the exercise of their discursive faculty were or might have been acquainted with we have laid before our eyes and the knowledge thereof need cost us no more pains than Reading the Scriptures will put us to Lest we should either be too slothful to acquire the knowledge of our whole duty by drawing inferences from premises and gathering one thing from another or any of us too weak headed to do this successfully God hath out of his abundant kindness assured us thereof from his own mouth which we have all great cause to esteem as a most exceedingly great Priviledge But this is but little in comparison of what is next to be said Secondly The Gospel gives far greater helps to the performance of our duty and enforceth its precepts with infinitely stronger and more perswasive Motives and Arguments than were ever before made known Such as the unconceivable love of God in giving his onely begotten Son to take the humane nature and to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for Lost Sinners his excellent Example here among us his declarations of Free pardon to the vilest of Sinners upon their Repentance and Faith in his Gospel His proffers of grace to assist us in well-doing and his readiness to work in us by his Spirit an inward living principle of holiness if we will not resist and quench it his promises of the most transcendently-glorious reward in the life to come to sincere
jot as high a favour and as great an expression of the Divine grace to be dealt with as if we were perfectly righteous as to be so judged and esteemed Philal. I should think him as blinde as a Beetle that doth not see it is But though I said the Antinomian notion of imputed righteousness is of dangerous consequence yet now I remember me the defenders thereof have a way to evade it for they say that though a real inward righteousness is no qualification required to this imputation of Christs righteousness and so to our justification yet it will follow of it self by way of gratitude and therefore will be found in men before their Salvation Theoph. I will answer you to this in the words of an excellent Doctor This is like to prove but a slippery hold when it is believed that gratitude it self as well as all other graces is in them already by imputation What Reply they can make hereunto I am not able to imagine Philal. I am not like to help you To say the truth it is a most sottish and mischievous Doctrine and must needs do a world of hurt among people that are glad of any pretence for their carnality and disobedience Theoph. I know too many that make use of it to patronize their ungodly practices and no question it is the grand support of most if not of all hypocrites A very worthy person preaching some time since upon the words of Zacheus the necessity of Restitution where there is ability in case of fraud one of his Auditors was heard to say as he was going out of the Church If the Doctrine now taught us be true how are we beholden to Iesus Christ And multitudes I fear of our meerly imputatively-righteous men think what that Gentleman had the face to speak Philal. You may well fear it for there is no consequence more natural from any Doctrine than is this from those mens viz. That real righteousness or inherent holiness is a needless thing in order to eternal happiness Theoph. The light at noon-day is not clearer than is that inference for if a person may have in his unregenerate or sinful state Christs righteousness made his and so be esteemed by God as perfectly righteous what should hinder but that in the same state he may be admitted to enjoy the reward of a righteous man If an ungodly man may be justified and declared righteous why may he not also be saved and made happie Philal. But they will tell you that it is expresly asserted by S. Paul That God justifieth the ungodly Theoph. I cannot conceive why it may not be admitted that the word that signifieth to justifie is in divers places to be understood for making really just or sanctifying for because it is sometimes to be taken in a forensick sence it doth not therefore follow that it must always be so But I will willingly grant that it is to be so understood here if that by the ungodly may be meant those that were once so that is before not at the same time when they were justified For to say that God can pronounce a person just righteous that is unjust and unrighteous is the greatest contradiction imaginable to his own justice his own righteousness This makes him to pronounce a perfectly false sentence and to do that which Prov. 17. 5. he himself had declared an abomination Nor can we entertain a more unworthy thought of the Holy God than to conceive that he hath no greater antipathy against sin than to make him that alloweth and liveth in it an object of his complacential love Philal. But Theophilus to say the truth I have observed that those men make such a thing of sin as that it may become God well enough to reconcile himself thereunto as well as to him that lives in it For they make it a meer indifferent thing in it self and to depend onely upon arbitrary laws the evil of which is founded upon the alone will of God as you gave me an intimation at our entrance on this Discourse Which account of sin doth plainly as you said undermine all Religion and therefore the Antinomian opinion of imputed righteousness as absurd and of as wretched consequence as it is may if that be so very well be true Theoph. It may with as great shew of reason be questioned whether God be essentially good as whether sin be intrinsecally evil And I admire what those men have done to themselvs to enable them once to doubt the later more than the former Philal. I hope they will call it Blasphemy to deny Gods essential goodness yet in acknowledging no vertue or vice independent upon all will they dwindle it away to a perfect nothing Theoph. I have not a more undoubted assurance of mine own being than of the truth of what you say Well Philalethes those whose stomacks can digest such filthy stuff and such as I can shew you even Heathens did nauseate need not stick at swallowing the Phancie of imputed righteousness in that gross sence as absurd and dangerous as it is but we that know how contrary sin is to the Nature as well as the Will of God cannot question that no man that is in love with it can by vertue of anothers Righteousness be esteemed or dealt with by God as righteous Philal. When I can once see a diseased or lame man made well and sound by anothers imputed health and soundness I may imagine a wicked man made righteous by the imputation of anothers righteousness but before I cannot as well knowing that wickedness is as really a moral as sickness or lameness is a natural evil Theoph. If you don't fancie it till then to be sure you never will Philal. They are both alike contradictions But I pray Theophilus now I think on 't how can those that hug and are so fond of this ill-favoured notion have any opinion of Christs Expiatory Sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins for how can there be any sin to be pardoned where a perfect and most complete righteousness is imputed Theoph. That question is put by the last mentioned Doctor but I believe he will wait long enough for a satisfactory answer to it Philal. Is it possible think you that there should be any good men of this Perswasion Theoph. As apt as I am to censure and condemn some doctrines I would be as backward to pass sentence on the persons of those that hold them And I must tell you I verily hope that there are pious men of that opinion we are now perstringing but know too that those of them that are so are so weak as not to understand the true consequences of their Doctrine and so honest as at first hearing to abhor them And were led to like well of it not out of a designe to gratifie any base lust but because it seemed to them to have a shew of humility and self-denial and to advance Gods grace Philal.
THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES Of certain Moderate Divines of the CHURCH of England greatly mis-understood Truly Represented and Defended Wherein by the way Some Controversies of no mean Importance are succinctly discussed IN A Free Discourse between two Intimate Friends In III Parts Phil. 4. 5. Let your Moderation be known unto all men LONDON Printed for Lodowick Lloyd at the Crown in Duck Lane MDCLXX To the Reader READER WHat may be the Fate of this Book I can't Divine nor will I be solicitous concerning it But I expect and also claim at thine hands so much Candour as that how meanly soever thou mayest think of it thou wilt not judge uncharitably of the Author's Design in writing it I that may best know it am able to assure thee that it was not to gratifie those Persons he wisheth he may not rather offend them whom he therein giveth a true account of but to serve a more noble Interest Nor is it his desire that their Adversaries would entertain a more favourable opinion of them upon their reading the following Lines but onely in order to their being reconciled to their Spirit and Principles This is an Age wherein plain and open-hearted Dealing will be by no means endured and must look for no better thanks from the generality than Calumnies and down-right Rayling But I am very sure that no man can be easily provoked by any thing in this Dialogue but he that accounts Moderation a great Crime and is conscious to himself that he is in the way it hath pleased him to espouse a hot spirited and violent Zealot For neither Theophilus nor Philalethes have taken a course to exasperate any one of the contesting Parties but only and much alike too the high and fierce men of each Party And as for such they could not perswade themselves to be over-careful not to displease them as too well knowing that it would signifie nothing so to be they being a Generation of people whose waspish and testy not to add proud Spirits can by no means brook a Dissenter scarcely in the smallest and most trivial matters Whereas Theophilus as he passeth along doth engage himself in the Confutation of certain Opinions I desire thee to take notice that he is notwithstanding so far from a disputing or contradicting Genius that I know no man more averse than himself thereto And he thinks time infinitely better spent in the serious practice of true Piety than in disputing or studying Controversies and that there is no such life when all is done as that which is chiefly employed in mortifying Corruptions and making our selves more and more like to God and fit for the enjoyment of him And indeed if all our Professors of Christianity did sincerely love God and made it their great business to keep Consciences void of offence towards him and men it would be scarcely worth the while to concern our selves much about curing them of any of their mistakes For so long as they are careful to exercise themselves in so doing to be sure they cannot possibly be such as would so far injure them as to render them uncapable of Eternal Blessedness But seeing there are several Opinions very highly cryed up among us which do apparently make many of the Embracers of them much worse and have an extreamly bad influence upon their Lives and therefore much more upon their Souls it must needs be a work of great Charity to endeavour to undeceive those that hold them And they are such Doctrines alone as Theophilus is assured are of very bad consequence that he hath much troubled himself about in this Discourse As for the last Opinion that he spends any considerable time in endeavouring to shew the falsity of it was at first his intention to take no notice of it But to deal freely with thee he could not upon second thoughts gain leave of his Conscience to let it pass for that told him that he would shew but little love to his infinitely Good God or concernment for his Honour should he not take advantage of so fit and proper an occasion as was then offered him to vindicate him from the most unworthy Representation that Doctrine giveth of him And he solemnly professeth that he would have said nothing of it were he not constrained to do otherwise by his Love to God and the Souls of Men And by his earnest desire to give his Testimony against the abuse that is thereby put upon the best of Beeings also to contribute his little Mite towards the utter silencing of that Plea for Carelesness and Irreligion that very many if not most men from thence make Whoever they be that shall take offence at that Person for freely speaking his own mind because it hath the ill hap not to jump with theirs I would fain know of them why he may not be as much out of humour though he is resolved he will not with them again For surely he doth not more differ from them than they do from him Well Reader it is high time to be reconciled to Moderation and Sobriety to lay aside our uncharitable and therefore unchristian heats against each other And to labour to preserve the Unity of the Spirit if it be not already quite lost in the bond of Peace and throw water upon those Flames that threaten our destruction and but for God's Infinite Mercy would have effected it before now instead of adding more fewel to them And that is the great Design as thou wilt easily perceive of the ensuing Discourse Moreover I most humbly entreat thee to consider that as God was not in the Whirlwind but in the still Voice So Divine Truth is far more unlikely to be found among men of violent and boisterous Passions than among those that are soberly and sedately considerative Passion doth cloud and darken the understanding it casts a thick mist before the eye of the Soul and makes it altogether unapt to discern a difference betwixt Truth and the error that is nearest to it and to distinguish it from one of the extreams which it lyeth between I have another Request to make to thee viz. If thou shalt vouchsafe to cast an eye upon this Discourse that thou wouldest not only read here and there some part of it but take the small pains to run it through For by this means thou mayest understand the Authors sence in several Passages which otherwise thou wilt be lyable to be mistaken concerning And also to go away with a false notion in some Particulars of the Persons therein represented Whom should they judge it an over-bold attempt to give the VVorld without their own consent or knowledge a Character of them he knows to be Masters of so great ingenuity as will easily encline them to put up such faults how great soever they may seem in themselves as are mitigated by the Circumstance of well-meaning The Author is aware that the matters discoursed might have been digested into a more accurate Method but
Prince and Saviour Men would have of themselvs concluded Faith in him their duty when they were convinced of that truth though there had been no precept to make it so Which is so plain that I shall disparage your intellectuals in using more words to clear it to you Philal. It is indeed so plain that I am ashamed I ask'd the Question Theoph. But if you please Philalethes I will more particularly and distinctly though very briefly demonstrate that the duties of the Gospel are such as Reason would we consult it would prompt to us Philal. You cannot shew the strength of your own Reason upon a nobler Subject Theoph. A very small pittance of it that is so little as I am master of is sufficient to enable any one with ease to perform this successfully Now then as our Saviour referreth our whole duty to two Heads viz. the love of God and our Neighbour so doth the Apostle to three Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness Now for Godliness which contains all our duty immediately relating to God all the instances thereof which the Gospel enjoyns may be learnt by improving but that one natural Principle of Gods existence and that thus There being a God he must necessarily be absolutely perfect He being absolutely perfect is to be acknowledged the Creator Preserver Benefactor and Governour of the whole world for it is unreasonable to attribute our Creation preservation c. to any besides such a Being And then God having all perfections in himself and being so related to us this will necessarily follow that we ought to make him the object of our highest Admiration our greatest love we ought to offer up Sacrifices of Prayer and Praises to him to trust in him and depend upon him in all our ways to acknowledge him chearfully to do what he commands patiently to submit to his dispose c. And there is no duty immediately relating to God but is in those included setting aside that of doing what he commands for that alone takes in our whole duty in reference not onely to God but also to our Neighbour and our Selvs God being such a one in himself and to the world as you heard this must be eternally true that it is the duty of all Reasonable creatures to carry themselvs towards him as was shewn There is so close a connexion between those Premises and these Conclusions that a man cannot believe the one and except he were stark mad doubt the other We cannot more easily apprehend this Argument to be necessarily true viz. This Figure is a Circle therefore all its parts are equally distant from the Center than this God is our Creator Preserver c. therefore we ought so as was now said to behave our selves towards him Nay we can hardly think of that premiss but this conclusion will come into our mindes whether we will or no. And then for Righteousness which implieth our duty to our Neighbour that Rule of our Saviour What ye would that men should do to you that do ye to them which Severus expresseth in Negative terms Quod tibi fieri non vis altâ—â—â— ne feceris it is as self-evident 〈◊〉 Principle as any is to be found in Morals And this will teach us to be just most severely just to every body and to be kinde and merciful to those that are in need Now these two include all that the Gospel requires in reference to one another And then for Sobriety that comprehendeth our whole duty to our selvs The meer principle of Self-love will teach a man that he may not be intemperate in any kinde he by this means abusing himself And the very knowledge of our selvs and what excellent creatures we are will convince us that we ought not to set our heart upon or place our happiness in any earthly thing Therefore this was one Rule among the several excellent ones in the Pythagoraean Golden Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things Revere thy self There is no man but does or may know that his soul is too Noble a creature to glut it self with base Corporeal Pleasures and that his understanding is too sublime a faculty to subject it self to his brutish appetite And that God as the Philosopher speaks indued him with that to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Prince and Ruler within him and with this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Subject and Ruled to be the Servant not Master of his Minde There is no man but feels his soul too big for these terrestrial things and that they are never able to fill its vast capacities Now what are we enjoyned in the Christian Religion as relating to our selvs but is to be reduced to one of these nay to this one head of inordinate affection And in short for I am sensible that we have protracted our discourse upon this Subject to too great a length I know no duties enjoyned in the Gospel besides that of Faith in Christ and the two Sacraments but may be found as to the substance of them at least commended as noble perfections in some one or other of the Heathenish writings as may be particularly shewn but that it will take up too much time Philal. What say you to meek bearing and putting up affronts but especially to loving malicious enemies and rendering good for evil Theoph. Both these may be found in them if not under the notion of indispensable duties yet as greatly becoming us most highly commendable and significations of a bravely generous and virtuous Minde The instances of the former are so many that you cannot be a stranger to them nor any that have read but that little Book that is worn out in School-boys hands Tully's Offices Nay Plato brings in Socrates speaking of it as that to which all men are absolutely obliged Injury saith he is to be done by no means vely by no means nor may it be repayed to him that doth an injury as the vulgar think for that it is to be committed upon no pretence And what think you of that speech of Cato If an Ass kicks me shall I again kick him He thereby intimated that it was unworthy of him to be revengeful at least towards some sort of people And as to the later I remember that Origen in his eighth Book against Celsus gives two notable instances of it the one of Lycurgus and the other of Zeno. One being delivered into the hands of Lycurgus that had put out one of his eyes he was so far from revenging the injury as very great as it was that he never left giving him wholsome Counsel till he had made him in love with Philosophy And he brings in Zeno making this Reply to his enemy that said Let me perish if I do thee not a mischief viz. And let me perish if I do not reconcile thee to me Both these shew sufficiently what those Heathens thought of returning good for evil Philal. But have you observed that the
consequence some received notions of that grace are and that not a few that have imbibed them have so well understood their true and natural inferences as to be thereby encouraged to let the Reins loose to all Ungodliness They also so state the Doctrine of imputed as to shew the absolute necessity of inhaerent Righteousness and that in a more intelligible way and less lyable to misconstruction than hath ordinarily been heretofore done As also the Doctrine of Gods grace so as to reconcile it with and shew the indispensableness of mens endeavours and as the Apostle doth they make Gods readiness to work in us to will by his preventing grace and to do by his assisting a motive to work out our own salvation And I have heard several of them do this in a more satisfactory and clear manner than most with whose Preaching I have been acquainted wherein as in the foregoing instances they have done in my opinion very worthy service But some hot-headed men from thence also take occasion greatly to vilifie them represent them as men Popishly affected and holding Justification by works as persons utterly unacquainted with the great Mystery of believing as those that make void the righteousness of Faith by establishing Moral righteousness and that set themselvs to cry up the power of Nature and to perswade their Hearers that they are able to convert themselvs without being beholden to the divine grace In all which it is easie to shew that they have performed the parts of most notorious Calumniators and shewed themselves if not too malicious which I would not think yet extremely weak Philal. You say that they are accused as men that make void the righteousness of Faith by establishing Moral righteousness I am thereby put in minde that they have another Name given them besides the Long one and that of Rational Preachers namely Moral Preachers Theoph. Then have you heard them so called Philal. Yes of late frequently Theoph. And do you think that an opprobrious name Philalethes Philal. No I assure you not I but I perceive they do that use it Theoph. I ever esteemed Morality as that which no ture Christian can have a slight opinion of and therefore thought it could never be judged a Crime to preach it Philal. But by Moral Preachers they mean such as are meerly so Theoph. If by Moral righteousness they understand a barely external conformity to or customary observance of the laws of Righteousness they most shamefully belye these Divines in saying that they preach no other Righteousness but if they mean thereby the whole duty of man to God his Neighbour and Himself which these Preachers insist upon as much as any whatsoever by the names of true holiness the divine life of vertue the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ Iesus which he taught in his own person and by his Apostles and upon our using the means works in us by his Spirit or inward rectitude and integrity and doing all the good we can from the best and most divine principles or as one of them expresseth it that divine and heavenly life whose root is faith in God and our Saviour Christ and the branches or parts of it are humility purity and charity I say if they upon the account of their preaching up such a Righteousness alone as this call them in contempt Moral Preachers they expose onely themselvs to contempt by so doing Philal. Those men will tell you that Evangelical righteousness is as well to be insisted on as Moral nay and more than Moral too by persons that would be accounted Gospel-Preachers Theoph. Truly Philalethes I am so very dull as not to be able to make any distinction between these two as I have now described the later righteousness but think Evangelical to be such a Moral righteousness and such a Moral Evangelical Philal. But you know that they make a difference between them Theoph. It is strange they should understanding Moral righteousness for that which consisteth in the Regulation of both the outward and inward man according to the unchangeable Laws of righteousness which I must confess may be properly called Moral righteousness and is so in the most proper sence too for I am as certain as that the Gospel is true that its onely ultimate designe upon us is to work in us that Righteousness Let any man but consider the Precepts of it and he shall finde I 'll warrant him that they are all designed either mediately or immediately to make men in that sence morally righteous And I fear not to say that I am verily perswaded that if this were not the end of the Christian Religion it would not be worthy of the Son of God Let any one read our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount and then tell me whether he doth not think that if he were now upon the earth these men would not call him a Moral preacher He must have a strangely piercing eye of his own that can therein discern any other than such Moral discourses What doth the Apostle S. Paul tell us the grace of God that brings salvation teacheth us is it not that denying ungodliness and all worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily And if these Gentlemen suppose that living godlily implieth something that is not so Moral for I know they will not say so concerning living soberly and righteously they will finde themselvs very hard put to it to make it out For all Godliness our Saviour as hath been said referreth to the love of God and it would be strange if that should not be a Moral vertue What did S. Peter mean when speaking of our Saviour he saith that his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live to righteousness What righteousness should that be which he doth there oppose to sin if not such a one as is in the number of Morals And yet the Apostle tells us that our living to this was the designe of the death of Christ. This also is the end of the promises as well as precepts of the Gospel as the same S. Peter assureth us He hath given us saith he exceeding great and precious promises for what end is it that we should be swollen with high conceits of Gods special love to us and of our being the favourites and darlings of heaven Nothing less but it followeth that by these we might be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And what do those men think it is to escape the corruption of the world if not to be truly virtuous and in the best sence morally righteous Nay what can they imagine it is to partake of the divine or a divine nature if not this Can any thing be understood thereby but participating of the divine moral perfections such as Justice Mercy Purity I hope they will not say that an imitation of
so the Law of perfect obedience now cannot by reason of ours 3. We may sometimes understand any works of what nature soever considered as meritorious causes Could we obey perfectly we cannot merit thereby the pardon of past sins nay had we never sinned we could deserve no reward at our Creators hands our righteousness being not at all profitable to him much less then can the imperfect works of sinners be meritorious 4. Meer external works performed by our own power in our unsanctified state that is such as proceed not from an inward principle of life may in other places be understood But we have no ground ever to understand by works when opposed to Grace or Faith inherent holiness or new obedience to the Gospel-precepts I dare promise an unprejudiced person that reading the several Scriptures where works are so opposed he will be satisfied that they are not any where to be otherwise understood than of one of these four sorts So that as works signifie sincere obedience to Christs Gospel neither I nor those Preachers can account it any scandal to have it said of us that we hold Justification by works nor can we deserve to have it thought that we have one bit the more of a Pope in our bellies upon that account And why any man should be more shie of acknowledging this than S. Iames was who saith in plain terms A man is justified by works and not by faith onely and that Abraham was justified by works I cannot understand Nor need we so mince it as to say that faith justifieth our persons and works our faith for understanding works I say for a working faith our persons if ever they be must be justified by them I would not that Protestants should give such advantage to the sottish Papists as to be shie of using any Scripture-language and by being so to give them occasion to think that we are in the other extreme from them and have a slight opinion of good works And I think it desirable that we would cease to prefer S. Paul's language before S. Iames his and not more interpret S. Iames by S. Paul than S. Paul by S. Iames they being both alike Apostles and their Epistles alike Scripture but that we would be content to interpret them by each other And then I dare say this Controversie would quickly be at an end among us and we should have no adversary to contend with about this point but the Papist onely Philal. I am of your minde Theoph. But Philalethes don't you remember that you set me a method and desired me first to discourse of those our Friends Practices and next of their Opinions Philal. Yes very well Theoph. And you see how well I have observ'd it But the best of it is I told you then that I would not promise you never to confound those two together nor indeed could I have been as good as my word if I had for I could not as I ought discourse of their Preaching and not take in some of their Doctrine Par. II But I will now in a more distinct manner give you an account of their Opinions They may be referred to matters of Doctrine and Discipline As to the former they profess to dissent from none that have been held to be Fundamentals of the Christian Faith either by the Primitive or best Reformed Modern Churches And heartily to subscribe to the 39 Articles of our Church taking that liberty in the interpretation of them that is allowed by the Church her self Though it is most reasonable to presume that she requires Subscription to them as to an Instrument of Peace onely Philal. So the late most Reverend and Learned Archbishop of Armagh several times expresseth the sence of the Church of England as to her requiring Subscription to those Articles The Church of England saith he in his Schism Guarded p. 396. doth not define any of these Questions as necessary to be believed either necessitate medii or necessitate praecepti which is much less but onely bindeth her sons for peace sake not to oppose them And pag. 150. he doth farther thus express himself We do not suffer any man to reject the 39 Articles of the Church of England at his pleasure yet neither do we look upon them as essentials of Saving Faith or Legacies of Christ and his Apostles but in a mean as pious opinions fitted for the preservation of unity neither do we oblige any man to believe them but onely not contradict them Theoph. I thank you Philalethes for these citations out of so excellent an Author which are no small confirmation of the truth of that assertion of mine which did occasion them But to go on Those opinions in Doctrinals that those Divines look upon themselvs as most obliged to manifest their disapprobation of and to confute are such as either directly or in their evident consequences tend to beget in mens mindes unworthy thoughts of God and unlovely notions of his nature or to encourage profaneness or discourage from diligence and industry in the ways of holiness as by what hath been said you have in part understood Philal. 'T is strange to me Theophilus that any that understandingly believe the being of God should entertain an unlovely notion of his nature for not to have the most lovely is to deprive him of his very Godhead He must needs be as good as good can be and have all perfections attracting love concentred in him in the highest degree possible He must be infinitely merciful of perfectly unspotted righteousness purity and holiness which I esteem as no less lovely qualifications than that of mercy or he cannot be God Nay no man I should think that is not a very Atheist can doubt but that all the amiable qualities that we see in good men are but so many effluviums if I may so call them or emanations from those that are in God and therefore must needs be in an unconceivably greater measure in him where they are originally than in them where they are but derivatively We learn from very Heathens that such qualities are irradiations sliding into mens souls from God and that they proceed from a divine afflatus who also tell us that God is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best as well as chiefest and most supreme being And they give a most lovely description of Gods essence and make him you know to be no less just and gracious than wise and powerful as I need not tell you may be shewn in a world of instances But that any Christian should be able to form to himself an unlovely idaea and conception of God is to me matter of the greatest astonishment he being so excellently represented in the New and also in the Old Testament In the New we finde his definition to be Love it self and that the way to be his lively images and like to him is not
expressions of his goodness to them but the quite contrary whereas he tells us as was said but now that he is good to all and that his tender mercies are over all his works and that the whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. This is likewise from thence a sequel too plain and natural That Jesus Christ is not onely eventually but also intentionally the greatest curse that ever befel the world and a far greater expression of the Fathers hatred than of his love notwithstanding that he himself hath said that he came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved and that So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son c. For if the forementioned Doctrines be true our Saviours coming was to aggravate the condemnation of the generality of men which would be far more properly called the world than a very few for not believing in him who never died for them so much as to put them into a possibility of being saved though he declared that he gave himself a ransome for the vulgus or multitude of the people for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendered many doth among the Greeks most commonly signifie as our Lexicons tell us and Vatablus also upon that place and S. Paul saith He gave himself a ransome for ALL and did taste death for EVERY man and that he is the Saviour of ALL men though especially of those that believe and though he sadly bewailed mens not coming to him that they might have life and wept over Ierusalem for her obstinate persisting in unbelief and most pathetically with tears wished that she had known in that her day the things that belonged unto her peace I could go on instances of this nature as Theoph. But I pray Philalethes do not for they are grating to my ears and most grievous to me And it troubleth me to the very soul that any good people especially should entertain and much more should be zealous for such Notions as are attended with so long a train of most dismally-sad Consequences and so greatly reflecting dishonour upon our infinitely-holy and good God Philal. I fear this kinde of discourse hath put you into one of your old dumps of Melancholy for me-thinks you all of a suddain look very dejectedly Theoph. No Philalethes there is no fear of that but I would willingly be more concerned at any dishonour that is done to God and his Son Jesus than at any personal evil Well what was it that immediately occasioned this last talk Philal. The ill use that is made of that distinction of Gods Secret and Reveled will Theoph. You say well it was so Philal. But is that distinction to be found fault with Theoph. I see your memory needs rubbing up as well as mine I did not at all except against that distinction but against opposing Gods secret to his reveled will And now I adde that whatsoever God saith he intends he really doth so and that his declarations are to be understood as we would any honest mans But to deal freely with you I should not be at all sorry if the distinction of voluntas signi beneplaciti were quite thrown out of doors Philal. But what say you to that of Gods commanding Abraham to offer up his son Isaac Did he intend he should be offered up Sure no. Theoph. Nor did God say he intended it but onely for tryal bade Abraham do it Philal. So it may be said that God may not as well really intend that all should observe his Laws to whom he gives them Theoph. But he plainly and often declares that he gives them for that end and moreover hath imprinted them in mens souls as well as written them in his Book and as I said expresseth a desire that men would observe them and yeeld obedience to them i. e. do what lies in them so to do And I hope that none will say otherwise than that it is every ones duty to believe that God would have him obey his Laws but it was not Abraham's duty to believe that God would have him to sacrifice his son but onely to do it except he interposed Philal. But it appeareth from the story that Abraham did believe this Theoph. I grant that but I say he was not bound to believe it though he did for no man can be obliged to believe a falsity And besides he could have no reason to be confident that God did not intend onely to try him by that Command as the event proved he did But suppose it had fallen out otherwise that would not at all have altered the case for who dares say but that God may if he pleaseth give commands to his servants when he doth not intend they should do as he biddeth them but onely to make an experiment of their readiness to obey him None sure will deny the use of this liberty to any earthly parents towards their children or masters towards their servants And therefore I say that Abraham had no just cause to conclude that this was not his Creators designe in that command though he took it for granted that it was his purpose that he should do as he bade him Philal. What you say is clear enough But did not God by the Prophet tell Nineveh that in fourty days she should be destroyed did he mean as he spake then Theoph. Yes doubtless that he did for there was a condition so plainly implied in that threatning viz. If she repented not that the Ninevites themselvs were inclined of their own accords so to understand it And it is ordinary among men to imply conditions in both threatnings and promises that sound absolutely but especially in threatnings and so such are usually understood Nay some conditions are always understood by us in the most absolute promises and threatnings that are ever uttered by the tongues of men and must be so Philal. The truth is I am but a sorry Objector Theoph. Your Objections have as much weight in them I think as any that the Scripture affordeth but I confess some more baffling ones may be urged from seeming Reason but whether we can answer them or no we ought not in the least to be shaken by them much less to be overcome For if I may not believe any thing against which I am not able to answer all Objections I must resolve to believe nothing at all to set up for a perfect Sceptick There are Arguments invented by Wits against the certainty of evidence from Sense which he must have a good Metaphysical pate of his own that is able to answer would all men therefore that han't such heads do foolishly in giving undoubted credit to their own senses I know no man that can give a satisfactory answer to an Argument that is brought against the possibility of so close an union of the particles of matter each with other as to make a solid body but will
lessen Gods grace to any whereupon for a while I was well pleased with that Middle way you now gave an intimation of till after better weighing it I found but very little if any thing gotten by it Then I fell to considering that other I have given you an account of and have ever since been as well satisfied with this as I was with that dissatisfied And so I took my leave of the forementioned Principle and was thereupon I thank God well rid of its troublesome attendants For some time I could not be perswaded that those sad consequences were so fast tyed to that opinion but that they might be loosed from each other whereupon I set my very teeth to the knot and tryed all my skill to undo it but when I found that it was labour in vain I was as I said chiefly encouraged by the acquaintance I took with this way to send both Principle and Conclusions packing together and so bade them all Goodnight Philal. I am no less beholden to it than you are nor do I think that any ones minde hath been more relieved by it than mine hath Theoph. And have you not found Philalethes that since you exchanged the Calvinistical for this way you love God better than before and can think of him with more delight and pleasure Philal. Yes I thank God And whereas before I loved him chiefly from some hopes I had that he loved me I can now love him for himself and the consideration of the amiableness of his nature and essential perfections And therefore my affection to him is more constant than it was while it chiefly depended upon the apprehension I had of his affecting me Theoph. So it must I should think needs be although you still loved him onely in regard of his love to you For though you may sometimes possibly be without any great sense of his love of complacence yet I dare say you now never want that of his love of benevolence Philal. No never Theoph. You have also a clearer sense of the goodness of the divine precepts and of the hatefulness and vileness of sin han't you Philal. Yes a much clearer which I hope hath some good influence upon my life Theoph. So your love alone must needs have but much more that and this together Philal. But Theophilus what a Catechist are you grown all of a suddain I pray desist from putting any more Questions of this nature Did I not so well know you I should have done but foolishly in thus freely answering those you have ask'd me And had I of mine own accord told you what you have now heard you your self would have accounted me too guilty of boasting and vain-glory But yet though thanks be to Gods grace I am somewhat better than I have been yet am I still sensible of so much weakness of such great discomposure of thoughts and disorderliness of affections as may well keep me exceedingly low in mine own eyes and Antidote me from pride and conceitedness in regard of my attainments were they greater than they are even though I should onely be beholden to my own strength for them But seeing you are so good at Catechizing why may not I be so also Theoph. So you have been I think sufficiently since the beginning of this discourse Philal. But why may not I repeat to you your own Questions Theoph. But you have time little enough at present for other matters don't you see the Sun grows low Philal. Well then to pursue more closely the business in hand Do not our Adversaries in this point accuse those Friends of ours of Arminianism in asserting Free-will notwithstanding that their Middle way Theoph. This way teacheth us to assert no Free-will that is opposite to Free-grace And onely thus much that men are invested by God with ability to do much in order to salvation as to abstain from the external acts of sin to hear his Word read it and consider it and to endeavour to subdue all their lusts and perform whatsoever duties are required of them c. And likewise by the infinitely-strong motives contained in the Gospel by the motions of his holy Spirit various providences or in one word by his preventing grace may they will so to do But that we can of ourselvs turn our own wills from the ways of sin to the ways of God is peremptorily denyed by us and for ought that I can learn by the Remonstrants themselvs also as much as they are accused by some for so asserting Philal. But don't we see that the generality of men that enjoy the means of grace are never the better for them but continue in wilful disobedience Theoph. 'T is too true and matter of saddest lamentation but what of that Let us in Gods name charge it wholly upon themselvs and not say they are not able to do otherwise if this were so I should think it the greatest folly in the world to be angry with a wicked man Don't we see that the threatning of an easie punishment or the promise of a small reward will make men finde a will to abstain from several sins which they would not be kept from by all the threatnings and promises in the Book of God Therefore surely by the help of these and especially if we take the other helps along with them that were but now named they may will not onely to keep from some sins but also to endeavour to keep from all Mens Wills being so seldom wrought upon doth not prove that they have no power to will thus to do For we see that it is the very same thing as to all other habits as well as sinful ones there is not one among many scarcely that will be broken of such Customs as are in themselvs very innocent no though they finde them prejudicial to them as I need not give you instances But then for so few mens being throughly converted by the means of grace let us much less run to Gods absolute decreeing their non-conversion or damnation to give a Solution of it Nor let us so wrong God as to say that it is any way long of him or that he hath been wanting to them and by this means excuse them What reason have we to imagine that they are not themselvs in all the fault and that God would not have given them such a measure of grace as would have effectually converted them had they but acted in some sutableness to the power he hath given them Had they but done what they could and might have willed to have done too but that they freely chose the contrary And against the checks of their own Consciences and all the methods of Gods grace with a free not fatal willingness preferred the pleasing of their senses before the salvation of their souls God hath said enough to perswade us not to imagine this as may be largely shewn Philal. I could never hear the most wicked wretch when he is wisest and most
contradicting Humour I despise nothing more it argues those in whom it is observable to have attained to no solid judgment or sense of things and besides there is a deal of conceitedness and pride in it and too much ordinarily of a cross-graind and ill nature But amicable Disputes sometimes meerly in order to the finding out of Truth can have no other than a good effect and moreover they add much to the pleasure of Conversation And therefore let the Professors of Christianity labour for the true spirit and temper of Christians and it will be as well with the Christian World as if we were all of the same mind I mean let us not magisterially impose upon one another and be so charitable as to believe well of Dissenters from us that live good lives are of a modest and peaceable deportment and hold no Opinions that directly oppose the design of the Christian Religion and of making men like to God and then we shall see that there will be little reason to desire an Infallible Judge of Controversies to make us all of one Opinion So that by this pleading for one the Case standing as it doth there is no hope of having an end put to them but by this means as you said well is there another Controversie added to the rest and this alone except it were more plainly decidable than it is may cause as much wrangling as the Church is now disturbed with So that Philalathes those Friends of ours cannot but judge it a piece of Tyranny too near of kin to that of the Cruel Procrustes for any to endeavour to force others to be just of their pitch and size in Opinions and to approve of their Sentiments Philal. And well they may For by this means though men may make Hypocrites and cause some to profess what they do not believe yet they can never make any sincere Converts but rather so much the more alienate Dissenters both in their Judgments and Affections from their Religion Theoph. There cannot be a more effectual Course taken so to do than this is And though men of some Tempers may not be able to contain themselves from over-much warmth in managing a Dispute yet it is no less unreasonable to malign our Brethren because they are not in every thing or in several things of our Judgment than to quarrel with each other upon the account of the unlikeness we observe in our Faces and Constitutions Philal. 'T is surely utterly unwarrantable and most unaccountable to Censure and Condemn those Persons as Hereticks that dissent from us in any matters not very clearly revealed in Scripture for no other reason but because they do so It being very evident that where its sence is doubtful we have a liberty of thinking one way or other and that we are not so much as Culpable in misunderstanding such places as are capable of various Interpretations if we are not wanting to our selves in our endeavours to understand them If we suffer not our selves to be lead by Parties Prejudices and the like in our Enquiries after Truth Theoph. Our understandings are not free as are our wills but the Acts of them are natural and necessary Nor can they judge but according to the Evidence that is presented The Understanding is like the the Eye which cannot apprehend the Object but as it offereth it self nor can it otherwise judge of Objects than the nature of the Reasons that are offered will endure Philal. But Theophilus though that faculty can never properly deserve blame when it is deceived yet mens Wills may and I fear often do and that many suffering them to lie under the power of prejudice and to be governed by some inordinate affection are by that means careless of providing their understandings with due helps for making a true judgment Theoph. You say well but this no man can be a competent Judge of in any one that doth not declare it by unwarrantable practising upon his Opinions and therefore to be incensed against men meerly for not being of our mind and not having the same thoughts that we have in uncertain points may be to find fault with the make of their Intellectuals and to condemn them for that which they cannot help Philal. If our Saviour had laid such great weight as too many nowadayes do on such things if he had made a right understanding and belief of them a necessary condition of Salvation we may be assured that the love he beareth to man-kind would have caused him to speak most plainly and to have taken a course that his Apostles should do so likewise where it is of such infinite importance not to mistake his meaning Theoph. There is no doubt to be made of it Now then I say Philalethes that those Divines from these Considerations and such like are not at all forward to conclude any man an Heretick or erring damnably that is of a Perswasion contrary to theirs supposing his Opinions do not so evidently contradict the Scriptures as that it is unimaginable how any should not see it that do not purposely shut their eyes And can hope well of any one notwithstanding his mistakes if they be not inconsistent with true Goodness and have no bad influence upon his Practice They are so perswaded of the graciousness of the Divine Nature that they verily believe that simple Errors shall be destructive to none I mean those which men have not contracted by their own default and that where mistakes proceed not from evil affections and an erring judgment from a corrupt heart through the goodness of God they shall not prove damnable But that he will allow and make abatements for the weakness of Mens Parts their Complections Educations and other ill Circumstances whereby they may be even fatally inclined to certain false Perswasions Philal. I remember to this purpose a good saying of the Learned and Pious Chillingworth in his excellent Book against the Papists I am saith he verily perswaded that Errors shall not be imputed to them as sins who use such a measure of industry in finding Truth as humane Prudence and ordinary Discretion their Abilities and Opportunities their Distractions and Hindrances and all other things considered shall advise them to Theoph. 'T is a saying like one of that brave Persons who had he lived till these dayes would most assuredly have been branded with the hateful long Name as he was before his death with those of Papist and Socinian and which adds to the wonder for the sake of that his Book Philal. I scarcely ever more admired at any thing then at the Character I have read of that Piece Theoph. As vile a Book as not only all Papists but some also that would be thought no Friends to them think it I am sure he would do a very excellent piece of Service which all good Protestants would have cause to thank him for that would take the pains to translate it into