of the reach of danger and if he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for God will raise him up The gates of hell shall never pluck him out of Gods hands nor separate him from his eternal Love for having loved his own he loveth them unto the end The thickest cloud of sin and darkness arising from his polluted and rotten heart though it may suspend for a while yet can never totally divest him of Gods paternal Love and favour because he is one of Christ's Sheep of his little flock and he knows him and is confident he is known of him and though he have lived in vice and rolled in the dirt and mire of the Earth till the utmost Period of his life yet the holy Spirit will infallibly and irresistibly at the very Exit of his soul change and renew it and cast the robes of Christ's spotless Righteousness upon it and then 't is impossible the man should miss of heaven And is this a Doctrine adapted to the carrying on the design God intended in the Gospel namely the Reduction of the world to a conformity to the Divine will to forsake and abandon all their sinful and false wayes and to live in a universal submission and resignation to his holy Laws and Commands What proof or evidence doth it bring that it aims at any such thing Is it in that it declares to a man that Faith and Repentance and every good motion of the soul is the irresistible work of God and that 't is no more in his Power to confer any thing to his being a good Christian a just and Righteous person than to add one cubit to his bodily stature but if he be not as yet regenerated he must stay and wait till that good time come wherein the Spirit of the Lord shall enter into him and make him a New Creature for the wind bloweth where it listeth Or is it in that it affirms That Christ dyed for the Elect and though the value of his Satisfaction were infinite and sufficient to redeem the whole World for them only and that his death hath satisfied for all their sins and that now God imputes the Righteousness of the Lord Christ to them and upon his account they are esteemed as righteous as if in their own Persons they had fulfilled the whole Evangelical Law though in the mean time their hearts are very corrupt and unsound Are these the Demonstrations by which this Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees manifests it self to come from God If it bear the Superscription and Image of God upon it it is then as he himself is Light and there is no Darkness no mixture of impurity and humane imagination in it for God cannot patronize any thing but what is holy as he is holy and pure as he is pure But if we consider well such Positions will appear very obscure and frightful horrid and amazing savouring of the Prince of Darkness by whom they were breathed into the minds and spirits of unsanctified Persons and by them communicated to the World as the Arcana of Christianity but tending in reality to the eversion of it and the augmentation and increase of the Devils Kingdom For when Men shall hear that upon such and such Pulpit-signs which their Impertinent Preachers deliver to them they may gather their Election from all Eternity and that maugre all the Oppositions of Men and Devils they shall never fall quite away by a final Impenitence but assuredly recovered by an uncontrollable and peremtory power when they shall be told likewise That Gods calls are at certain times and seasons and that till they perceive themselves forcibly inacted and carryed away by the impulse of the Divine Spirit all their previous actions are to no purpose Will not these things cause them to sit down in laziness and take their ease without troubling themselves with the renovation of their minds sith that God will take care for that and soak themselves in terrestrial joyes and pleasures till the dead-awakening trump which when it will be they know not call them from the Grave of sin and death as Christ did Lazarus and bid them come forth Will not the imputation of Christs Righteousness and the mantle of his Satisfaction damp the endeavours of men after real and inward Righteousness and inherent Holiness by which they attain to a participation of the Divine Nature since they can have anothers at so cheap a rate which will likewise be as beneficial and stand them in as much stead as if they had of their own Men are prone to palliate their sin and take hold of any pretence to stop the mouth of their accusing consciences and need no such artifices to lead them into those paths that go down to Hell and the comfortless chambers of death Their evil Natures and the examples of others and temptations of Satan are sufficient to draw them into Vice and Irreligion that none need disseminate such doctrins as shall invite them to immorality and iniquity from the Authority and Countenance of Gods word But it is supposed that every Christian Mâ—stagogus who acknowledges himself to have a Master in heaven to whom he must give an account for the souls committed to his charge if not for theirs yet for his own felicities sake will have so much prudence and circumspection as not to build on the foundation of the Gospel Wood Hay or stubble any such Doctrins as will not abide the test of Reason but prove both to God and Mens souls very mischievous and injurious for though he does it ignorantly his work shall be burnt but he himself shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet so as by fire that is with extreme difficulty as he that hardly escapeth out of the fire 2. The second Instance wherein the Doctrin of Irrespective Decrees inverts and destroyes the end and purpose of God in the Gospel is by leading Men into desperation I do not mean that they should despair of mercy so long as they continue in their sins for this every Criminal ought to do that he may be induced to come out of them the sooner but by Desperation here I mean a disbelief of Gods will or power to save them whereby they go on carelesly and resolutely in a course of Rebellion and Iniquity For being perswaded on the one hand that the number of the Elect is but small in comparison of Reprobates and that both the one and the other are particularly designed and marked out by name for the Lord knows who are his and that all the labours of men after the Kingdom of Heaven will prove unsuccessful and abortive till God by a high and mighty hand come upon them and powerfully convince them of the evil of their wayes and astonish them with the weight and multitude of their sins laying them low and bringing them down as they phrase it to the gates of Hell and shewing them the worm that never dies and the fire which never shall
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
way and live He would have all his Creatures know that he is no way accessary to their destruction Hos xiii 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And when he sees what froward and untoward Creatures we are that readily forsake what he loves and run after that which his soul delighteth not in making such unhappy choices for our selves as if we studied how to be our own Executioners then he begins to reason with us O my people what have I done unto thee Mich. vi 3. or wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me Jer. ii 5 31. What evil have ye found in me Have I been a barren Wilderness unto you or a Land of darkness and if any shall yet be so presumptuous as to cast the blame of their wretchedness and misery upon so benign a Father he stands ready to acquit himself and calls heaven and earth to record against them that he hath set before them Life and Death Deut. xiii 19. Blessing and Cursing and requested them to chuse that which may make them for ever happy Joh. v. 40. But they will not come unto him that they may have life Nay further that God might take away all manner of excuse from the Sons of men and mannage his cause in a way of Reason and Equity he hath not onely shewed his Righteousness to the Heathen and declared his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth but asserted it possible for men to perform his Will so that his yoke is in it self easie and his burthen is really light and his service is reasonable * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is agreeable to the dictates and sentiments of our rational Nature Rom. xii 1. For the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise the Word is very nigh thee Rom. x. 6 8. in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it No man can complain of any hard usage that God commands impossibilities and injoyns things that are above his reach For the Spirit of God that mighty principle of Life and Vigour which pervades the whole World of intellectual agents is ready to assist the generous and hearty attempts of all sincere persons after the Divine Life and Nature for so he who gave that gift to his Apostles and assured mankind of the continuance of it till the end of the World hath long since made known to us that if Earthly Parents know how to give good gifts to their Children Luk. xi 13. God our heavenly Father should much more give his Holy Spirit to all that ask it of him He would have all the Creation take notice that it is not for any ends of his own that he is at such pains with us My people sayes God have forsaken me the fountain of living waters Jer. ii 13. and have hewn out to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold no water Methinks the words signifie thus much as if God should thus bespeak us O my people if you could mend your selves by forsaking me the fountain of living Waters then I could be content and reason would that I should bear with you but that you should betake your selves to broken Cisterns which can hold no water and are then dryed up when ye most stand in need of them this argues your lightness and folly Isai xxx 18. God waits to be gracious and with infinite patience and long-sufferance expects our Repentance and suffers that tempestuous whirlwind of enraged Vengeance which Sin and Vice have fed and congested to roll long within the Orbe of Mercy before it burst forth and bear down the sinner into the horrors and agonies of Eternal ages And this is sufficiently evidenced by those Pathetical expressions of his unwillingness to punish his Creatures till at last being compelled to it he sets about it with a kind of reluctancy of spirit and is as it were grieved to the heart that he must use such rigorous means to reduce them to himself Hos xi 8 9. How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together This is Gods gracious Expostulation with himself as if he should have thus said What shall I do unto thee O my people or how should I behave my self toward thee Should I make thee an example of my judgment as Admah Or should I consume thee in a moment like Zeboim No surely my heart is quite averse from such harsh proceedings they are even extorted from me therefore my heart yerns after thee O Ephraim my bowels are turned and melted within me an expression of the dearest love and affection that possibly can be Jer. xxxi 20. I am even overcome with those deep-fetcht breathings of affectionate Love which I bear unto thee therefore I will not execute the fierceness of my anger for I am God and not Man I bear no malice against any of the Creation but had rather my kindness then my displeasure should endear men to the consideration of their own happiness And at last he appeals to our own Reasons and Consciences and is content to submit himself and his Dispensations to our own thoughts whether we can imagine any better course then that he hath taken to reform us Isai v. 4. Judge I pray you between me and my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard then I have not done So that it is only when all means prove ineffectual that the God of Love turns to a consuming fire and makes us the proper objects of his direful Vengeance To take yet a more direct view of that fair Perfection the very root and centre of the Deity I mean Goodness or Love let us behold God manifest in the flesh and look upon him who being the brightness of his Fathers Glory the express Image and Character of his Person encircled with the loving armes of Heaven and folded up in the bosome of Blessedness yet left those sacred Mansions of Happiness out of pure good will to the race of Mankind and put off the robes of Glory that he might be capacitated to dwell in a body of flesh to the intent that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life That pure soul which shone with an Ethereal brightness farr surpassing the glory of the Sun being vitally united with the Eternal Logos and full of the Divine Life did inwardly pity and commiserate the lapsed posterity of Adam wherefore that he might more abundantly demonstrate the riches of his grace he declared himself the Saviour not of some few only but of the whole World that the design of his appearing was to scatter an healing influence upon the broken and distracted Sons of men and that the effects of it should be good tidings of great joy to all people assuring guilty
sinners of the love of their offended God and that yet they had not sinned out of the reach of Mercy but that now while 't is called to day if they would hear the God of love speaking to their consciences and gently mollifying their obdurate hearts they should run unto him by a speedy repentance and he would melt and thaw their frozen spirits into a plyable ductility by the warm gleams of his Eternal Love loosen the wings of their entangled Souls and secure their flight into the quiet regions of Peace and Joy When this Son of Love who was alwayes going about doing good saw the Multitude scattered abroad like Sheep that have no Shepherd it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. ix 36. He was moved with compassion on them which word sayes a Learned Critick denotes Summam vehementem commiscrationem ex intimis visceribus profectam Such an inward feeling and yerning of the heart and soul as melts the very bowels into a pitiful commiseration of the object they are affected with which intense affection is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bowels of the mercy of God Luk. i. 78. And when he came to Jerusalem how did he weep over her and moisten his fresh Laurels with a shower of Tears O Jerusalem Matth. xxiii 37. Jerusalem thou that killedst the Prophets and stonedst them that were sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not His heart was so full of grief that it could hold no longer but must empty it self in a sympathizing flood of tears over that incorrigible City softning that ground with his watry eyes which shortly after should be bedewed with blood Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Surely there is no man so blasphemous as to think Christ wept tears of deceit and treachery No they were the very breathings of his heart to a people that were going into inevitable destruction For if we look into the whole History of the Gospel we shall find that our blessed Lord was of as tender and passive a constitution as ever the world had any cognizance of and in this very instance which was Christs last solemn visit for the recovery of those rebellious Jews he hath left upon record to all succeeding ages of the World the fervency of his Love and the greatness of their Obstinacy and Rebellion He rode in triumph the children sang Hosanna to him and he cured many impotent and diseased persons that at least that miraculous and wonder-working Power residing in him might extort this confession from them that he was the Son of God and the promised Messiah and after all this he weeps for their Infidelity and pities them with tears and having his heart and spirit full of love that is stronger then death he leaves no way untryed but spends the whole day amongst them and looks round about him towards evening to see if any would invite him home being unwilling to depart till their Ingratitude forces him away And now that he is exalted in Glory and sits at the right hand of his Father invested with Majesty and Power his Compassions are no whit abated nor is that benign care and Providence which in the dayes of his Humiliation and condescent he exercised over the fallen generations of Men at all lessened by the augmentation of his Blessedness and Felicity but dayly woes and beseeches us by his Ministers and Servants to enter upon terms of amity and friendship with God who in him hath been pleased to reconcile the World unto himself Should we now cast our eyes upon the whole frame and fabrick of the Gospel we shall find it to be the most effectual engine that infinite Wisdome could contrive for the winding of the minds and spirits of men from their too eager pursuit of the pleasures and gratifications of the lower life and working them up to those noble and high purposes for which they were made And doubtless there is no man in whom prejudice doth not outbalance reason but will readily set his seal to this truth there appearing in the Gospel such sweet condescentions to our capacities and complyances with the frailty of our condition such infinite aversness to our misery and destruction and such powerful endearments and attractives to Holiness and Righteousness that he cannot judge it to proceed from any other then a principle of Infinite Goodness Love and Wisdome I might here further tell you that the Gospel being designed to be the Religion of men of all sorts and conditions of all ranks and qualities and so adapted to our rational powers and in the main drift and scope of it so plain and easie even to the most illiterate capacities Divine Wisdom could not but highly approve of it and by a favourable benediction suffer it to have that Universal effect it pretends to that is the full and compleat renovation of all mankind that would not wilfully reject the counsel of God against themselves and the perfecting every one without exception or limitation that would faithfully and cordially to his utmost powers adhere unto it CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason wherein is set out the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil Truth and Falshood And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions THere is nothing that can lay any claim or pretence to the decision of Questions of a Moral Nature and Import but will appear very lame and ineffectual without the aid and assistance of Right Reason which is so noble and generous a principle that if we take a serious view of it it will soon discover to us it 's Royal Pedigree and Divine Extraction There is a near alliance and consanguinity between the Reason of Man and that Eternal Goodness which at first sealed it as an impression of his Nature upon our souls and therefore there need be no such distance between true Christianity and it For assuredly that Divine Wisdom which at our first production implanted in us the apprehensions and Idea's of things did so order the business that if we used our discriminative faculties aright we should have no other conceptions of them then what did really and significantly express the Natures of the things themselves and such as were Eternally lodg'd in the All-comprehensive Intellect of the Deity There being then no Judge on Earth whose Dictates and Determinations may be credited as Authentick and Infallible and every man being commanded to prove all things to try the Spirits whether they be of God and to look carefully and diligently to himself that he fall not nor be led into Error and the Reason and understanding of man if rightly manag'd being the Candle of the Lord whereby he is inabled to examine and judge of Doctrines it will follow
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 his Blessed Son as the fairest copy of Holiness Justice Compassion and Self-resignation that ever was yet discovered to the World For should we compare him with the greatest lights that ever shone upon the Gentile parts of the Earth they would appear as foils and shadows to set off his glorious lustre and Divine splendor as hath already been made good by a Reverend and profoundly Learned Person There is none can hold any equality with the Lord Christ not Moses himself the Divine Lawgiver of the Jews who indeed was faithful in all his house Heb. ch iii. as a Servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But Christ is a Son over his own house being the Heir of all things and therefore is counted worthy of more glory than Moses And though we read that Moses was meek above all that dwelt upon the Earth yet when he was to fetch water out of the Rock for the murmuring Israelites his spirit was so farr provoked that he spake unadvisely with his lips and after forty years troubles and vexations in the Wilderness he brought not his people into the land of Canaan but dyed after he had taken a prospect of the Promised Inheritance which he must not go to possess But on the contrary the Lord Christ whose lips were full of Grace and Truth and in whose mouth never was any guile found not only promised a spiritual Canaan a Land of immortal peace and rest but went also himself and took possession of it and signified the same to the world by sending down his holy Spirit upon his Church All the time that he dwelt upon Earth and conversed with Men he was full of the Spirit of Love Tenderheartedness and Compassion perpetually going about doing good binding up the broken-hearted gathering the Lambs in his arm and carrying them in his bosom and gently leading those that are with young healing all their infirmities curing their diseases and easing them of their painful sorrows He that was purer then the Sun and whiter then the Robes of Angels yet was content to veil his Glory and put on the dark and course mantle of our flesh and blood that he might teach us humility and submission to the will of God He whose the Earth was and the fulness thereof would not be born in a Princes Court among the Sons of Nobles but in a Stable at a small Town and among the meanest of his Creatures that he might abate our Pride and Grandeur in ostentation of our selves to the World His life though a perpetual Tragedy encompassed with hardships and afflictions and drawn out into many Scenes of trouble and sorrow yet was alwayes holy and harmless and never stained with the least sin or unwarrantable action His Soul was a pure and spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in him His Heart the holy Altar upon which no unchast flames ever burnt but the fire of Zeal and Love which was kindled from Heaven and dayly sent up clouds of Incense as a sweet smelling savour thither again His Meekness and Patience were no less conspicuous than those other radiant vertues which rendred him acceptable to God and Man for being reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously and thereby he became glorious in the eyes of God who recompenced his Indignities by giving him a Name above every Name If we look at his outward condition he became poor and needy for our sakes that we through his poverty might be made rich for though we read that Judas bare the bag yet his holy Lord and Master was forced by the expence of a Miracle to pay his Tribute peny to the Roman Governor The Foxes had holes and the Birds of the air nests but the Son of Man had oft no where to lay his Sacred Head but on a pillow of grass and his covering was the bright and spangled Canopy of Heaven and yet we never find him murmuring or disobliging Heavens Care and Providence by a repining spirit thereby teaching us that our happiness lies not in the abundance of earthly Goods but in the Godlike temper and frame of our minds and that having food and rayment we ought therewith to be content When he was entring into the shadow of Death and beginning his bitter Passion with what manly courage did he behave himself and How illustrious did he appear in a patient and magnanimous suffering all those Ignominies and Disgraces that were put upon him beholding through the cloud or shame and reproach the good effects of the travel of his soul and confidently believing that though he sate in Darkness for a while yet his Light should break forth from obscurity more glorious then the Sun when he rejoyces as a strong man to run his race And when his Humanity began to sink and that which was Natural in him cryed for ease and relief from the heavy pressures of that doleful Agony so that he desired if it were possible that that cup might pass from him yet through the life and vigour of the Divine Spirit by which he was acted he resigns over his whole will and desires to the wise disposal and pleasure of his Heavenly Father Not my will but thy will be done Hereby giving us a Sacred Method and Rule whereby to demean our selves when the Divine Providence brings us into Calamities and Afflictions namely to imitate the Holy Jesus and follow his steps Let us now accompany him to his painful bed of sorrows the Cross where his friends forsake him and stand aloof of and his enemies compass him round where his holy ears that used to hear the melodious accents of Angels are grated with the prophane obloquies of disobedient sinners and his eyes which beheld the glories of Heaven and the beauty and lustre of Divinity are now forced to see the instruments of his misery and sorrow yet when his Crucifiers meant him the most evil he breaths forth from a heart which never knew what it was to hate this passionate Prayer for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do This also was written for our instruction that we might love our enemies bless those that hate us and pray for them who despightfully use us and persecute us and by so doing become the children of our Father which is in heaven who maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust But all this would yet have proved weak and ineffectual for the promoting the Divine life in the World if Christ had not visibly ascended into heaven and given us a sensible assurance of a blessed state in the immortal Regions above that he will take up Humane Nature after due purifications and refinements into a participation of that transcendent felicity he is fully possessed of For if men had been left in suspence and uncertainties it
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
descendeth from the Father of Lights exert it self in pure peaceable gentle merciful and impartial actions But we finding all things go contrary and Autaesthesie the Grand principle of our deviation from God so mischievously powerful leading men to a life of self-seeking and inamouring them with the fading beauties of this inferior World making Intellect and Reason drudge in unjust policy and subtlety for the promoting self-interest and carrying on little and private designs for the treasuring up Riches though by the greatest Extortion and Rapine and consuming and overrunning the poor and innocent like a sweeping Torrent that leaves nothing behind it but the miserable tokens of ruine and desolation This being the state of men and farr worse then I have here represented it under the brutish life and law of sin what signs can they shew that they are arrived to any considerable measure of liberty For it is not some one particular lust but the whole unrighteous and Diabolical Nature which mingles and insinuates it self with the whole frame of the soul and enthrals it to it 's imperious dictates But yet there is some freedome left still and men are not destitute of a light though languid and glimmering to lead them to greater degrees of Vertue if they would suffer themselves to be guided by it There is yet in every man in his greatest Apostacy and lapse from the Divine life a Principle of Conscience accusing and condemning him for the perpetration of evil and that regret and shame a man finds in himself after the commission of impiety is a manifest evidence that he had Power to avoid it 2. Again there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of the mind or conscience ver 23. Another law warring against the law of my mind And this is the second state and condition of mankind For as while they were under the Law of sin they were wholly alive unto themselves and disjoyned from the Universal Spirit of life and true freedome they became at last strangers to their own Beings and ignorant of their high and noble extraction so under this Dispensation of the mind or conscience there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or double-livedness within them being partly alive unto themselves and partly unto God sometimes lending a patient ear to the soft whispers of Divine wisdom and at other times carryed away with the loud murmurs and noises of that worser Principle as Medea in Euripides complains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Conscience tells me that I act amiss But fury stronger than my Reason is And now they begin to awake out of their lethargick drowziness and sleep and open the windows of their souls and receive in some beams of the Sun of Righteousness that hath long circled about them and by his light they see themselves in a broken and unhappy plight and fain would come out of it but dare not put themselves to any trouble or pain so they lay themselves down again to slumber But conscience being once forcibly rouz'd up is not so easily lulled asleep but alarms them with fatal cryes and shews them the guiltiness that lies upon them and the mortiferous and dangerous state they are in by reason of the certain punishment all sin draws along with it thus being affrighted they become Religious out of fear and account Christianity as a task and burdensome service imposed upon them only to deprive them of their liberty and abridge them of that freedom they before possessed and still they bear a love and liking to their lusts and often visit them with dear embraces And while they are here they carry a perpetual warr within them between the Law of sin and the Law of the mind sometime the one and sometime the other prevailing the life of the body strugling against the mind or reason and the light endeavouring to chase away the darkness and night And of this state are to be understood these and such like places of Scripture For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not Rom. vii but what I hate that do I. So then with the mind I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh Gal. v. 17. and these are contrary one to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye cannot do or that ye do not the things that that ye would Now the liberty of Mans will begins to spread and enlarge it self under this Oeconomy for though mens strength be but small yet God whose Goodness both Earth and Sea and the whole community of life partake of cannot behold his own dear life contending with the Powers of darkness and never countenance nor abet it but will lead it victoriously through the midst of hell and secure it from all the Magical spels and enchantments of the inferior World and as this Divine life grows more potent in the soul so the liberty and freedom of the will arises to a greater latitude and perfection But if we prove false to the Divine light and notwithstanding the great helps and means vouchsafed us pretend still our disability and infirmity we may easily lapse again into the brutish life and lie under the Power of the law of sin out of which we began to be delivered and the freedom of our will which was in some measure enlarged will be again contracted into narrowness and exility and our last state will be worse then the first 3. But he that makes good use of Gods gifts and behaves himself as a good Souldier of the Lord Christ and conquers and subdues his rebellious lusts by the power of his Spirit descendihg into the grave with the holy Jesus by a profound humility and mortification and becoming perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead to all the self-feeling and the luscious relishes of the corporeal life he is arrived to the highest dispensation of Christianity which is to be under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. viii 2. Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus Such a man is wholly alive unto God and though he be encumbred with many hardships afflictions and outward calamities which threaten approaching ruine to his body of earth yet his life is holy harmless and innocent like the life of Christ upon Earth and his soul is so affected as his was having but one only will in the World which is to annihilate himself that God may be all in him And whoever is arrived to this high pitch of Divine perfection hath attained an enlarged and boundless freedom his life being melted into the Divine life and his will fitted and adapted to the comprehension of the Divine Will For the true liberty of our wills consists not in an uncertain indifferency and dubious fluctuation between two different objects presented to our choice For this arises out of the darkness and imperfection of our
magnifies the riches of his free and undeserved Grace to his chosen and selected ones But to leave these light and aiery fancies I shall lay down that which I judge to be the proper and genuine sense of the Apostles words In order to which we must know That the scope and intent of almost this whole Chapter is to comfort the Afflicted and calamitous and to exhort them to continue stedfast and unmoved in the love of God and obedience of his commands adding several weighty Reasons and Considerations to incite them to it amongst which these two have their strength and cogency 1. That all the troubles and molestations they suffer here shall work together for their good ver 28. 2. In that they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ who through many hardships and afflictions made his way unto glory ver 20 30. So that the Predestination here mentioned is to be understood of a destination to the Cross and not of any ordination to Faith Life and Glory The sum of all is this That all afflictions and crosses however burdensome and grievous they may be shall work together for the good of those that love God and sincerely and cordially adhere and cleave unto him and though now for the present they may be exercised with many hardships and environ'd with calamitous accidents yet the event should be glorious and the Sun of comfort at last arise and dispel those thick clouds of sorrow and bring on a serene and perpetual day of felicity and joy For whom he did approve of as faithful he determined should arrive to their felicity by the same way that Christ did who by suffering entred into his Glory to the intent that he might be the first-born among many brethren Moreover whom he did thus approve of them he intended to call to a conformity to his Son and whom he thus calls he will likewise justifie that is account them as righteous and whom he thus justifies he will hereafter glorifie if they desert not the signs and tokens of the Cross as he said before ver 17. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For though there be no condition expressed yet it is evidently implyed in the nature and matter of the thing it self See Exposition of Eph. i. 3 4. infra That this is the scope of the Text will be further evidenced from the use of the words and phrases in other places of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are no more then the real and unfeigned servants of God is manifest in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in several places of the Old Testament used to signifie a Follower Adherent or Servant especially in an Army as 1 Kings i. 41 49. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts xi 23. With full purpose of heart that is willingly unfeignedly and constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the same import with the simple Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies no more then an approbation and firm love of those who are thus conformable to Christ is evident from these and such like Texts of Scripture Rom. xi 2. God hath not cast away his people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he foreknew that is which he owned for his So 1 Cor. viii 3. But if any man love God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same is known of him that is him God approves and likes of Hence it is said that God knows not wicked men Mat. vii 23. And our faith and obedience of Gods commands is called our knowing of him Joh. xvii 3. 1 Joh. ii 3. By Gods calling here is undoubtedly meant his Vocation to the Cross to which all Believers are destined as appears from 1 Pet. ii 20 21. But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for hereunto were ye called And 1 Thess iii. 3. That no man should be moved by these afflictions for your selves know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we are appointed hereunto And if it were understood of Gods Vocation to faith it would follow 1. That he foreknew that is approved and delighted in sinners before he called them to the faith and so before they were in Christ 2. That not only Vocation but Justification and Glorification must belong to those that are only foreknown or Elected Which absurdities and insipid illations are avoided by the former Exposition Ephes i. 3 4 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having Predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will The sense and scope of these Verses will be very easie and conspicuous by the illustration of those two Phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 5. The Election therefore spoken of here seems to denote Vocation by the Gospel not simply so but imports and includes the Decree of calling the Jews and Gentiles by the Gospel as 2 Tim. i. 9. Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Now the subject matter of this Election are Believers as such and whoever actually believes comes under that grand Decree of Election to life and immortality designed and intended in the Lord Christ before the foundation of the World and whoever believes not falls under the dint of the other Decree of death and destruction According as our Saviour himself hath delivered to us Mark xvi 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And for a further elucidation of this we may take notice that it is not said simply in the Text that God hath blessed us but in Christ and as he hath chosen us in him therefore Blessing v. 3. and Chosen v. 4. belong both to the same matter for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a term of proportion makes the connexion thus That God hath blessed us in Christ that is His actual present blessing them at that point of time was correspondent to what God had decreed before the foundation of the World Now what the blessing here spoken of is appears 1. In general by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual blessing or blessing in things pertaining to heaven 2. By the Predestination in order of nature precedent to it which is
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
embrace every thing that is like himself nor is the Divine Will Indifferent either to Love or Hate it 's own Image and Similitude And if the Communications of the Divine Goodness to such Beings as bear his Impresses upon them and never defiled themselves with the least contagion of sin and vice be not necessary then he is left free to destroy them and consequently he can destroy something of his own Life and Nature which no sober Person will affirm And if this Hypothesis of his be true I know no ground Mankind can have setting aside those Declarations God hath made of himself in Holy Scripture to believe and trust in him and depend upon him for the advancement of their happiness after Death But we find the sober and wise Heathens who believed the soul of man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hermes and Plato speak constantly relying upon the Almighty Goodness of God which they confidently believed did alwayes that which was Best and thence became assured and raised a strong foundation for their hopes that it should go well with them in the other World and that that Eternal Providence would take their better parts into it's tutelage and care when they laid down their bodies in their beds of Earth I hasten now to dispatch his last Argument which is this If the Exertions of the Divine Goodness be necessary God can never act otherwise but that he frequently does is manifest in all the Instances of his Anger and Severity which not only Reason but Scripture opposes to Benignity To which I return That Gods anger and severity are only several modifications of his Goodness which is not alwayes displayed and manifested after the same manner because of the different capacities of the subjects upon which it is exercised and have no other distinction then that of divers Modes of the same Subject between one another And when God makes use of those sharper dispensations they are as necessary results of his Goodness as his milder and gentler Oeconomy So that I cannot see what Mr. P. would evince from this I have now sufficiently tired my self in so prolix a Refutation which yet is not altogether unnecessary considering that if those Positions be true which Mr. P. hath laid down they will enervate all those Arguments I have made use of and render my design useless which is no other then to beget in mens minds the most noble and generous Conceptions of God to promote real Piety and Religion by shewing a true Idea of God and declaring the real intent and purpose of the Gospel contrary to that Hypocritical and Artificial kind of Religion which many frame to themselves thereby to palliate their sin and stop the mouth of Right Reason and Conscience THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. INconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture page 1. CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason wherein is set out the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil Truth and Falshood And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions page 15. CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation page 64. CHAP. IV. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation taken from the Evangelical Dispensation wherein is shewn the purport and design of the Gospel which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end page 115. CHAP. V. A fift and last Argument wherein is shewn that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Mans Will and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue or punishment of Vice page 171. CHAP. VI. An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants page 189. Some Reflections on a late Discourse of Mr. Parkers concerning The Divine Dominion and Goodness page 253. FINIS