God been capable to have procur'd their Happiness For it would be unjust to condemn Men for not doing of a thing and yet condemn them too although they doe it and therefore a good Life join'd with their Knowledg must leave them with a reasonable Excuse or make them capable of Salvation 'T is true St. Paul speaks in general Terms that the Gentiles were Idolaters and for that reason condemnable as acting contrary to Knowledg but that all the Gentiles thus acted contrary to Knowledg does by no means follow from St. Paul's manner of expressing himself it being usual in Scripture to speak of all in general and comprehensive Terms when such as are or may be excepted are very few in number So the Prophet Elijah in the Term of that general Apostacy under Ahab exclaim'd saying that he alone was left of all the true Worshipers of God 1 Kings 19. But God tells him that he had left in Israel 7000 Men who had not bow'd the Knee to Baal and even in Sodom the most wicked Town that ever was upon the Earth there was found a Righteous Lot To put the Question out of all dispute we have a most pregnant Proof from St. Paul in his continuation of this Argument 2 Rom. v. 10. pronouncing Glory Honour and Peace to every one that worketh Good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for there is no respect of Persons with God telling us also that not the Hearers but that the Doers of the Law are justified before God For when the Gentiles who have not the Law that is a reveal'd Written Law doe by Nature the Things contain'd in the Law they having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing witness c. In this Place St. Paul treating professedly of the Law of Nature by which the Gentiles did act calls it the Law viz. of God written in their Hearts and that acting according to the Dictates of this Law they doe the Things contain'd in the Law having the Testimony also of their Consciences acquitting them for so doing and therefore Doers of the Law are justified in the sight of God And truly I am the more confirm'd in this Opinion when I think upon that last great and final Sentence which shall pass on Men at the general Judgment of the World Many then shall make great Ostentation of the Faith saying Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name Mat. 7. and in thy Name cast out Divels c. But Christ knows them not but tells them Mat. 25. that because they did not doe Works of Mercy towards their Brethren the suffering Members of Christ they should go into utter Darkness but that those who did shew compassion towards them should enter into Everlasting Happiness Let us now see what may be objected against this Discourse And first Christ before his Ascension Mark 16. says He that believeth and is Baptiz'd shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damn'd Now that those who never heard of Christ do not believe is plain also from 10th to the Rom. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher therefore no Salvation to those who never heard of Christ To this Objection which indeed carries the greatest force of any thing that can be urg'd I answer First that Passage of the 16th of St. Mark He that believeth not is damn'd is not to be understood negatively as though an Ignorance of Christ and of his Doctrines did certainly expose Men to Damnation for then the Children of Christian Parents dying before they come of Age to make an Act of Faith would be damn'd The Words then of this Place do include a positive Act of dis-believing or rejecting the Doctrines of Christ after they are propos'd This is evident from the Context in the precedent Verse where Christ gives Authority to his Disciples saying Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature he that believeth and is Baptiz'd shall be sav'd but he that believeth not shall be damn'd So that they are damn'd who after the Gospel was preached to them did yet reject it all which concerns not those who never heard of Christ nor of his Gospel This then doth supersede that also of Rom. the 10th where the Apostle speaketh of a positive and explicite Act of Faith for v. the 9th he saith that if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy Heart that God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be sav'd Now as such a Faith cannot be attain'd but by the preaching of the Gospel or from extraordinary Revelation so neither doth it follow from hence that all who have not receiv'd this joyfull Tidings of the Gospel shall not be sav'd He that is a great Linguist is generally reckon'd to be a learned Man and yet from thence it doth not follow that he who is not a great Linguist is not a learned Man upon the whole the Sense of the Apostle amounts to no more but this that they who by the hearing of God's Word or of Teachers shall arrive to a knowledg of Jesus Christ their Saviour and believe his Resurrection are in a State of Salvation quoad Antecedens in respect of the means but quoad Consequens or the effect that all such shall actually be sav'd is no way ascertain'd from the foremention'd place We read every where in Scripture of those who make shipwrack of their Faith and of falling from the Faith and when we are exhorted to stand stedfast in the Faith this does imply a possibility of lapsing Nor is it any thing to the purpose to say that no Man who has once embrac'd the true Faith can fall from it for the Faith which the Apostles exhorts us to stand stedfast in is doubtless the True Faith In like manner at the 13 v. of the same 10th Chap. to the Romans we read that whosoever calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved and yet Matth. 7th we read Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the Will c. So that all such Places are not to be understood Mathematically and precisely such as cannot be otherwise but morally or as to the general being attended with a good Life and good Works of Christian Charity But it may be farther objected John the 3d. Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God so that Salvation cannot be had without Baptism but they who never heard of Christ could never be Baptiz'd into Christ and must be therefore excluded Salvation To this I answer that Baptism under the Gospel is the same with Circumcision under the Law this being a Type of the other and both of them a Sign or Seal of a Covenant of Mercy But in
for whom all things are made the Supreme Governour of all things which are or shall be and the Idea of all that 's Good As for the Romans they us'd more liberty and boldness than the Greeks in these Discourses so that Tully who was an Academick or one of Plato's School never uses the Name of Jupiter but tells us That God himself cannot otherwise be understood of us but as a certain Spirit free Lib. 1. Tusc Quaest segregated from all mortal Composition such as understands and moves all things being it self also endow'd with an eternal Activity In like manner Seneca one of the greatest Luminaries amongst the Stoicks never talks of Jupiter but uses the word Deus or God always in the singular Number God says he has the Exemplary of all things within himself comprehending in his Seneca Epis 65. Mind both the Number and Measures of whatsoever things are to be done And a little after shewing that God is the Original and Author of all things so the End propos'd by him is nothing but his Goodness and from thence concludes That he hath made every thing the best that might be From which and many the like Passages we are made to understand that the Notions they had of God were true and solid being taken from those Incommunicable Attributes or Properties which are essential to the Divine Nature CHAP. III. Of the Attributes of God NOw the Attributes of God are either absolute or such without which the Divine Nature cannot be apprehended to subsist or Relative and such as regard his Creatures Amongst his absolute Attributes or Properties the first is his Eternity or his being without beginning or end For should he have a beginning then could he not be God but must be inferiour to and after that from whom he had his beginning but this includes a Contradiction therefore the Antecedent also is impossible And as the Nature of God excludes all possibility of having a Superiour from whom it may derive its being so also do's it exclude all possibility of ending For whatsoever should put an end to its being must have greater power and strength than it self and consequently the latter Power must be greater than that of God but this is also impossible In the next place 't is essential to the Divine Nature to be infinite in Perfection For should his Perfection be finite and bounded he might yet be more perfect by having further degrees of Perfection superadded for to whatsoever is finite there may be made Addition Since therefore there can be no Addition made to God's Perfections they must be infinite nothing but what is infinite being uncapable of further addition or access Another Property essential to the Divine Nature is his Immensity or his being of a Nature which cannot be circumscrib'd by any imaginary space how vast soever For should there be any Ambient or Imaginary space surrounding God then would he cease to be most perfect For should he fill all Spaces he would be more powerful and perfect than when he is confin'd to some as we see the Imperial Power is greater than the Regal as extending it self over a wider Circuit Now that any thing should be more perfect than God or that he might be more perfect than he is is utterly inconsistent with the very Nature and Being of God And as he is Immense so must he be Omnipresent since there can be no imaginable space whatsoever assignable which he do's not fill and then if he be Omnipresent he must also be Omniscient there being nothing done or possible to be done in any point of space whatsoever to which he is not present nay he must have a Knowledge or Prescience of all future Actions whatsoever For all future Actions must derive their Being from him first so that God having a fore-knowledge of whatsoever he himself shall hereafter do must have the same fore-knowledge also of whatsoever thing shall require his Concurrence Now that God has a fore-knowledge of whatsoever he himself shall do is evident otherwise something might fall out contingently and unexpected to him which implies Imperfection and Ignorance and so not consistent with the Nature and Essence of God The last Property essential to the Divine Nature is That he must be One For should there be more One could not be of infinite Perfection as wanting the Perfection of the other Nay it could have no Divine Perfection the other having an infinite and consequently all Perfection The Relative Attributes of God being such as regard his Creatures are his Goodness his Justice his Veracity and the like all which being agreed to by all to appertain to the Divine Nature in the highest perfection possible and being ever attributed by the Heathens to their Deities how false soever they were there is no Place left for Reason to prove what by its own clearness is as undemonstrable as any first Principle whatsoever These then are some of the Attributes of the Divine Nature To enumerate all is past the Abilities of any poor mortal and finite Creature for they are indeed above number only such as I have already touch'd upon are sufficient to evince the Truth of his Existence to whom they do belong and of those which may be rank'd under this Head the first and principal which does occur to our Consideration is that Noble Attribute of Gods being the Creator of all things CHAP. IV. Of Gods Creative Power AS for those who held the Eternity of the World or of matter we may observe of Aristotle that in the Course of his Reasonings how much soever he did comply with the Customs of the times he liv'd in and with his own private Passions he was forc'd to resolve the Operations of Nature into a first Mover And in his Book De Mundo written in his riper Age and dedicated to Alexander he tells us That the World and Order of the Universe was conserv'd by God and that there was nothing in the World of which he stood in need that he was the Father of the Gods as well as of Men and the Producer as well as the Preserver of all those things of which the World was made not by way of commixture with them but that this Power and Providence of his residing in the Heavens extended it self to all things and mov'd the Heavens with the Sun and Moon ballancing and sustaining the Earth and providing that every thing should act according to its Nature In like manner Epicurus his Opinion was as unstable and fluctuating as his Atoms For even Lucretius his best Commentator was forc'd to acknowledge that the World had a beginning for had it been Eternal we must needs have met with Monuments of greater Antiquity than the Siege of Troy or the Theban War Now let us see whether what these Men granted of an Eternal Infinite and Invisible Framer of the Universe be consistent with that Eternity of matter of which they dreamt 't was made Had there been
Ceres and Proserpina soon felt the smart of his Sacrilegious Villainy for immediately the Plague brake into his Camp of which there dyed 50000 He himself being put to a most shameful flight return'd inglorious into his Country and execrated by all who when he had frequented the Temples in the vilest Apparel and acknowledg'd Heavens Justice in punishing his own Impieties concluded his wretched Life by a voluntary Famine I confess we do not every where meet with Instances of this Nature but yet we may observe in the Course of Providence some unexpected Issues by which the meanest Instruments and upon the greatest disadvantages are carried on by they know not what kind of Impetus to the compassing of great Designs whilst others upon the greatest assistance of present Means and the encouragement of past Success are dampt in the Execution and in the very heat of things find a qualm Such Accidents or seeming Irregularities are by most ascrib'd to Fortune to they know not what confluence of lucky Circumstances when yet they seem to be the greatest Proofs of a superlative Energy and Wisdom to be able to produce such strange Effects out of so obscure and small Beginnings like what we observe in the Mathematicks where the Wisdom of the first Inventor is seen from hence that from a few ordinary and common Principles and obvious to the meanest Capacities are rais'd such mighty Theorems as ravish the most Masculine Understandings in the Contemplation of them And as in these so also in the progress of Providential Dispensations though they seem abstruse at first yet after we have dwelt a little on them we see the reliance of such Consequences upon their Antecedents in the Connexion which runs through the whole Choire of Causes It is not usual with God in his Providential Regimen to unhinge Secondary and Natural Causes each from other No he does from all Eternity foresee Events and must therefore penetrate the most retired Thoughts and preside over the most retir'd and deepest Consultations which though they be of Evil Consequence to us as being executed by wicked Instruments yet to him who sits above they are design'd as Chastisements for past and Terrours for future Provocations and are the Effects therefore not only of his Justice but of his Mercy also For our fuller understanding this Point there is one difficulty which seems to obstruct our progress in this Argument and 't is this If Alterations and Revolutions of Government be manag'd by the disposition of divine Providence then is it not a Sin to comply with God in such his Purposes Nay rather we are oblig'd thereto since 't is the Duty of every Man to endeavour the accomplishment of that by which God designs his own Glory This Notion has been the Pillar of Rebellion the Divine Palladium or rather the Trojan Horse from whence came the Conflagration and Ruine almost of this Kingdom In the solution whereof I shall observe Three Degrees of Divine Providence The First is that by which God as the Creator and Preserver of the Universe concurs indifferently to the Actions of his Creatures The Second is that by which he does so dispose of Accidents and in a Natural way as to make them useful to the Purposes of Men which yet could never have been foreseen by any human Sagacity What is more uncertain than the Weather yet what Success has follow'd in point of War when the Enemy upon the Inconveniencies of Rain has found the Progress of his Fortune bounded by the Inundations of a River or by the Diseases caus'd by too immoderate wet in the continuance of a Siege The Third and Last Degree of Providence is that when by some Supernatural and Miraculous way a displeasure is declar'd from Heaven against the Proceedings of Men now to apply these Cases to our present Purpose As for the Last Men without controversie are not concern'd herein such Effects being suppos'd to proceed in a way Supernatural and from the immediate Hand of God or if their Concurrence were requir'd they might act their Parts securely no doubt it being impossible for God to work a Miracle for the compassing of a sinful Action But this cannot concern the Objection because we see no Kingdoms now destroy'd by Miracles Nor is the First Case of moment because God does no more than what the Exigencies of Finite Creatures require of him as their Creator that is his ordinary Concurrence with them so far as they depend upon him in all their Actions whether Good or Evil and therefore the Rebel has no better a Plea for the Success he meets with than the Murderer since God affords his ordinary and general Concurrence indifferently to both The stress then of such Pretences must lie upon the Second Method viz. When by an immediate Contribution of Natural Causes God shews himself more favourable to one side than the other but this can be no good Argument unless I knew that there were an immediate and special Influence of God therein concern'd Secondly admitting this were known yet unless we knew the Mind of God and so propose the same End we can have no assurance that what we do is Just since the same Action according to the several Ends propos'd becomes qualified with different Formalities of Good and Evil. But to shew the Absurdity of those who maintain God's Secret Will in opposition to his Reveal'd and according to our Modern Language own God as King i. e. fight against him in one Capacity to preserve him in another I shall observe first That Politick Power in General is immediately from God as being founded upon the Law of Nature For whether Men will or no they must be Govern'd some way since to the Conservation of human Race 't is necessary that men should be secure from the violence of Oppressors but no man can be secure but by flying to some Body who is Superiour to him who offers Violence and Superiour he must be either by strength of Arms or by Authority Should private Questions and Quarrels be decided by Strength the World would quickly fall to Pieces it remains therefore that Recourse must be had to one who is Supream in point of Authority and Command In the next Place 't is indisputable that this or that kind of Government in Specie whether Monarchy Aristocracy or the like is not De jure Naturae and from God immediately but by the consent of the People intervening For by the Law of Nature no Man has Right to rule more than another but when Men for their own private Quiet and Security do divest themselves of that Power by conferring it on a common Representative Or when Kingdoms got by Usurpation in tract of time become Lawful Governments the Concurrence of the People being won over by degrees In these Cases so far as they resign their Power so far have they made themselves Subjects and therefore if an Usurper acquire the Power de facto this cannot be said to be
Blasphemers who spit their Venom against Heaven adding withal that this is no new thing since in all Ages there have been wicked and prophane Men Qui adversus hanc Doctrinae partem ore rabido Lib. 1. Inst Cap. 18. Sect. ult latrarent which Language of his is so virulent and unchristian like that I know not how to make it English And to conclude this Chapter says Calvin If it shall seem difficult to any what we now assert to wit That there is no Agreement of God with Man when Man by the just Impulse of God does that which is not lawful for him to do he cryes out Who can forbear trembling at the Judgments of God who works in the Hearts of Men whatsoever he will More justly may we cry out Who can forbear trembling to hear such desperate Doctrine 'T is true he denies every where that God is the cause of Sin but whether that which I have cited out of him and which was delivered by him not occasionally but ex professo be not a proof of his making God to be the cause of Sin I know not what can ever be proved upon the Earth and if he contradicts himself let those who follow him look to that he seeming in this Particular to be an Example of that Judgment which he so often ascribes to God of being deliver'd over in Reprobum sensum or of having the Eyes of his Understanding darkned And thus much for the Doctrine of Calvin whom I shall forbear to treat with that scurrilous Language he so freely bestows on those who differ from him in Opinion upon this Point He was certainly a learned Man and of a strict Life and severe but withal of a most morose and sour Disposition most vexatious furious and obstinate as are all those who follow him most opiniative of himself a Vilifier of such as deserted from him and as to what concerns the Point in question his Doctrine is little less than Blasphemy For according to this Doctrine Man is made a meer stupid dead and Passive Principle and Free Grace is built upon the greatest Similitude of which a Rational Nature is capable if so be it be capable thereof a necessity to Sin But God has given us faculties to discriminate betwixt Good and Evil and Abilities also to arbitrate upon them To what purpose otherwise are all those Menaces Exhortations and Prohibitions so frequently us'd and insisted on in Scripture What meaneth the Spirit of God when we are required to do good and eschew evil to repent us of our sinful ways and to turn unto the Lord to put on the Armour of God and to withstand the Wiles of the Devil and to work out our Salvatition with fear and trembling For if so be I have not a power to obey these Injunctions How is it that God commands me to do that which is impossible and yet punishes the non-performance with Eternal Death This is all one as if a General should bind his Soldiers Hands and Feet and having done so require him to rise up to apply himself to his Service and to combat the Enemy and then execute the man for not executing his Commands Besides supposing the Will to be thus impotent and deprav'd might not the Sinner thus interrogate his Soul Why am I thus sollicitous to withstand the Assaults of the Devil Why do I thus tire and weary out my self with vain Endeavours Why do I embitter the Pleasures and Enjoyments of my Life with Grief and Anxiety when it lies not in my own power to remove my Fear Nay might not the Reprobate thus expostulate with God as Sostratus in Lucian did with Minos Seest thou not with what Injustice thou art chargeable who hast doom'd me to everlasting Misery being subservient and instrumental only in those Evils which Fate had predefin'd and yet thou rewardest others with Happiness who are no other than the Dispensers of that Good to which the guidance of their unalterable Decrees had pre-ordain'd them Was there not the same Necessity in both why then is there such inequality in the Sentence These and such like prodigious Blasphemies are the Natural or rather the Unnatural Consequences of this Doctrine 'T is true if we look back on man as in a state of Nature and as under the deprivation of that Primitive Perfection with which he was once invested he has no Abilities of himself to fulfil the Will of God nor perform those Christian Duties which are requir'd of him unless he be first illuminated by God's Holy Spirit quicken'd with his Grace and encouraged by the discoveries and Gracious promises of the Gospel But this is nothing to the Question for we now consider man under his moral Capacity and of moral Actions 't is that Calvin tells us That it is of the special Grace of God as often as we think of doing any thing which may concern our Temporal Good or as often as our minds and thoughts have a version to any thing that may hurt us Upon these moral Actions then it is that Calvin does chiefly controvert though the Arguments and Examples he makes use of are taken in a manner all of them from the Old Testament To all which I answer First in general That those Expressions which we meet with every where in Scripture are not to be understood in strict Propriety of Language but per Modum Recipientis and in the same Sense as God is said every where to repent to be jealous to be angry to forget to hear and see with such like Passions and Affections as are infinitely short of the Divine Nature it seeming good to the Holy Spirit to use such Descriptions to make weak and ignorant men more capable to understand the Will of God by such sensible and familiar Representations And that this is the true Sense of them is evident from those infinite Places in the Old Testament where Men are invited to Repentance and Amendment of Life to turn to the Lord and where heavy Judgments are every where denounc'd against those who shall not conform themselves to such Admonitions all which would be nothing but a mere delusion of men if they were not able to turn themselves one way or other 'T is certain also that the Prophets every where use many Rhetorical and Figurative Expressions Emblems and Similitudes as doth David also Job and almost all the Ancient Writers Now to understand all these literally would be to lead us into endless Perplexities we have therefore no other Rule to understand them by but by interpreting them in such a Sense as shall agree best with the Nature and Attributes of God with the general Context and Scope of Scripture and with the Nature also of Men endu'd with Reasonable Souls Now so it is that the Actions of Men are ascrib'd also to God not only from that general Influence he has upon his Creatures as their Creator and by which he gives them Beings and affords them his general
but by force of Arms Something like this also we find at this day to arise frequently amongst the High-land Clans where meeting with one another in great Bodies they fight it out at Sharps and live always in a kind of Hostile manner To remedy such Mischiefs the several Families or Tribes of old were forc'd to unite themselves into one Common and greater Body under certain Laws of Government whether Monarchical or of a Commonwealth or in Case of Conquest to make the best Terms they could with the Conqueror And this is the True and Natural Original of all Governments throughout the World and are no more the Work and Institution of God than other Civil or Natural Occurrences derivable from him as he is the Creator and Preserver of the World which generally he Governs by the ordinary and familiar Methods of Nature CHAP. X. Of God's special Providence over the Actions of Private Persons FRom God's Providential Government of Human Affairs in respect of Civil Bodies we advance in the next Place to consider the continuance of the same Paternal and Providential Power in relation to the Lives and Actions of every Private Man This follows Naturally from the former for as much as the same Virtue which moves the Body must move also every Part and Member of it as also for that God's Omnipotence Omniscience and Omnipresence upon which Attributes is founded his Providential Power extend themselves to all the Actions of Individual Persons from the dependance they have on him as their first Cause and Preserver But to prosecute this Point with more particular Arguments we may first take notice of what occurs to our Observation in God's special Care of Man at his first entrance into the World above other Creatures It is known to all how some have been expos'd in their Infancy and have been miraculously preserv'd to be the Parents of mighty Nations such as Moses Cyrus Romulus and the like is storied also by the Poets of their Jupiter and others of their Gods thereby intimating the special care of Divine Providence towards particular Men not only in saving them from the Dangers they were expos'd to but by making them the chiefest Instruments in Matters of greatest Moment and of Universal Benefit But to leave these unusual Methods which seem to carry in them some shew of Miracle let us look a little nearer home and we shall find that Man of all Creatures that come into the World is naturally the most unable to shift for himself all Beasts almost as soon as born find the way to the Teat Birds once hatch'd are quickly in a Condition to feed themselves but with Mankind 't is otherwise The Infant that is born stands in need of continual Help and Succour and is expos'd to continual Cold and Hunger to Wants and Danger and this too not for some days but for some years before it can be able to feed and nourish it self and yet we see how God does provide for all these Exigencies of Nature when all Natural means seem to fail For the Children of those poor Creatures who seem destitute of all Relief themselves rarely miscarry through want of Succour unless through the wilful Impiety and Cruelty of such Parents who to conceal their own shame or to ease themselves of some small Expence and Care embrue their Hands in the Blood of those tender Infants or actually with-hold that Sustenance and Comfort which their Condition does require In which Case God is not oblig'd to work Miracles and force the Wills of those bloody and obdurate Wretches to prevent the Effects of their wicked Intentions no more than he is oblig'd to lay a Physical restraint on Men to keep them from the commission of Murder Theft Incest or any other such Crimes as depend upon their own proper Will and Power I shall here forbear to speak of the Natural Gifts and Perfections of Man's Mind that being elsewhere treated of at large We have a signal Proof of God's particular Goodness and Care towards Man in that Dominion and Soveraignty he has given him over all other Animals whatsoever How do all the Beasts of the Earth and Fowls of the Air give way and retire at his appearance or approach and by such with-drawing confess a Majesty in his Presence The fiercest Creatures and those of greatest strength will not make opposition unless they be mightily provok'd and reduc'd to great Extremity Others again express a more than ordinary Obsequiousness mixt with Fear and almost all pay him Homage and Service In a word Providence is that Vigilant and Indulgent Mother which with an hundred Arms labours perpetually and presents to every Man all the Blessings and Delights of Nature She enlivens him by the Light and Beauty of the Stars she warms him with her Flames she refreshes him with her sweet Showers and Breezes of Air she serves him with her wholesom Waters she surrounds him with Rivers which serve for Defence and Commerce for Delight and Benefit She delights him with Verdant Pastures with enamel'd Meadows and with the Curious Colours Figures and sweet Odours of Herbs and Flowers She does Recreate him with the Melody of Birds and with the soft murmurs of Chrystal Rivolets and Fountains she does nourish and enrich him with her fruitful Fields she shelters him with her Trees yielding Shade and Materials for Building she does feast him with infinite variety of Fruits beautiful to the Eyes fragrant to the Smell and delicious for Taste as well as wholesom for Food she furnishes his Table with all varieties of Meat according to mens different Appetites and the several Seasons of Nature the Earth with all sorts of Flesh the Air with Fowl and the Rivers with Fish and in Case of Sickness he is succour'd with Medicinal Plants Minerals and Waters of rare Virtue so that which way soever a man turns himself he receives Tribute from every quarter of the World and Feasts his Senses with the Wonders and Delights which do surround him These indeed are but some of those Entertainments which are in a manner common to all Men being such as flow from the Hands of Providence in the Blessings of Nature To which if we add the Benefits and Ornaments of Art with what comes from Traffick and Commerce they would exceed Number As for other Creatures into what a narrow compass are their Enjoyments reduc'd All their content is measur'd by a little Food and Water and after the Flux of a few years or days perhaps they wax feeble and die That which seems to discredit this important Truth is the Observation which has been made through all Ages that the greatest Libertines and Oppressours are for the most part Prosperous and swim in Pleasures and Delights whilst the Vertuous and Innocent are generally despis'd and many times reduc'd to Misery or if some become more fortunate it is presently attributed to the Deity they Invoke when yet others much more in Number and no less constant in
proudly sailing when we observe how easily 't is turn'd about and how regular it is in all its Motions and yet of that force as to resist the blustring Winds and the raging Ocean we are easily persuaded that there is some one within who animates this great and curious Machine who though he be no part or Member of the same yet all the Effects he works depend upon the good disposition and frame of the Ship for if it be old leaky or any way disabled in the Hulk Rigging or any of its subservient Instruments the Pilot though never so knowing will appear very defective in all his Endeavours nay though the Pilot knows himself to be of a more durable and excellent Frame than the Vessel which carries him yet he fears a Wreck and labours what he can to save his Ship from the Apprehensions he has of the uncertain State to which he shall be expos'd when the Vessel which now covers him shall fall to pieces how apposite this Emblem is to illustrate our present Argument is obvious to all As to the Operations of Man's Soul I confess much must be allow'd to the force and Methods of Education and to the Temper of the Climate in which Men live and yet we may observe that the grossest Peasants have naturally all these Gifts which the wisest Men by all their Arts and Study can arrive to The laborious Husbandman though he cannot dicourse of the Dimensions Beauty and Motion of the Heavens understands well enough the Criticisms of every Season and knows also the Virtue and Temper of the Earth he cultivates much better than the inquisitive Philosopher and accordingly takes his Prospect and makes his profitable Returns he is cautious and subtle in making his little Bargains as the greatest Statesman can pretend to be in his Contracts and Measures of Government and what is yet more observable as he has a greater dependance upon Providence so naturally he shews a greater submission to the Will of Heaven and bears his Losses and Disappointments with greater patience than those who have been studied in the Schools of Vertue so that much still is to be attributed to the Genius and Fabrick of the Soul the natural Source of all his Actions We may observe also of many Bruits that they are endued with a natural Sagacity great Docility and with a greater quickness of Sense than what any Man can pretend to and yet one who is born Deaf and consequently Dumb though he be thus defective in that Sense of Hearing which is so essentially requisite for the attainment of Understanding and by which all Instruction finds a Passage to the Soul I say such a Man by the help of Art as daily Experience does evince in Mutes may be brought to have an accurate and correct Conception of things to be most apprehensive of what is said or done and by the least Hints and Motions of the Body to understand the Minds of those he does converse with and by an extraordinary quickness in the motion of his Hands and Eyes to communicate his own Thoughts a thing which Bruits though never so subtil and prone to Imitation and though most accute and attentive in all their Senses and though instructed with the greatest diligence can never arrive to in any degree considerable which shews sufficiently that there is a vast difference betwixt the Nature and Capacity of the Animal and those of the Rational Soul That force of Judgment and Reason which we observe frequently in Men under the decays of Nature whether by Age or Sickness is not I confess such a satisfactory Proof of such a perfection of the Soul as is now discours'd of since we find that even habits of Exercise acquir'd in our younger Years as of Dancing or Instrumental performances continue to some considerable degree in Men maugre all the Indispositions and Decays of the Body much more then may those Habits of the Mind which were acquir'd by Discipline and Study continue vigorous in a languishing Constitution though they were admitted to spring from an Elementory mixture But for all this we may frequently observe in dying Men some sudden Sallies and Transports of Joy some extraordinary Efforts of Mind which were not the effects of Education and above all in dying Children whose tender Age never yet arriv'd to any such Inclinations we may oftentimes observe strange Illuminations and quietness of Spirit a little before their departure which I say can never proceed from what they never yet acquir'd but from the innate Propensities and Genius of the Soul But whatsoever that dependence be which the Soul has upon the Body and though it should be granted that it receiv'd all its Improvements from it yet this is no Argument against the future and independent State of the Soul after death An Embryo we see is form'd and nourish'd by the Womb and yet when the just appointed time for its departure happens it is so far from ceasing to be what it was before that it acquires a nobler Degree of Life by being separated from its Matrix and arrives to the perfection of a living Creature endued with Sense which before only was of a vegetative Nature so it is with the Soul which though nourish'd or cherish'd by the Ministry of these Corporeal Organs when once it is deliver'd from them assumes yet a higher degree of Perfection and Life and is capable to subsist and act of it self by Methods far more Noble and Spiritual than those by which it was employ'd when it was in Union with the Body Having thus given a summary Reply to such Observations as seem'd most prejudicial to the Soul's Immortality let us now proceed to prove this Doctrine by such natural Medicines as shall yet give farther satisfaction to the foregoing Doubts as well as establish the truth of our present Assertion Now the general Arguments by which this Truth is demonstrable are taken 1. From the Operations of the Soul 2. From the natural Inclinations of the Soul 3. From the Justice of Divine Providence And lastly from the Testimonies of the wisest Heathens First as to the Operations of the rational Soul though the first Rudiments we have of things be borrowed from the Impressions made upon our outward Senses yet the Reductions and Inferences we make of things which are the Works properly of Reason are of a much sublimer Nature so that the Organs to Sense are but like the Candles to the Soul which discover indeed the Object in some respect whilst the discerning Faculties is of an extraction far more spiritual and pure With what fixt and constant Applications does the Mind of Man bend it self with all its Instruments upon its Object and through how many Labyrinths of Doubts and seeming Contradictions does it wind it self in the pursuit of it whether it be matter of Judgment and Practice or of Speculation only and Knowledg With what order silence and readiness does every Faculty stand prepar'd how quick and diligent
Rewards and wicked Men due Punishments from the hands of God most just it follows of course to be enquir'd into how far this Belief of theirs might make them capable of such Happiness or of Salvation And here I shall promise as a foundation or first Principle to what shall follow that the Efficient or Meritorious Cause of procuring Salvation to Mankind can be no other but Jesus Christ who by his Obedience and Passion hath redeemed good Men and made them capable of Eternal Happiness Next that all good Motions vertuous Inclinations and intellectual Improvements are not acquirable by any Natural strength but by the help and concurrence of God So St. Paul says expressly Rom. 1. where speaking of the Heathen he declares how that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it to them Our present enquiry then will be of the instrumental Course or of the means by which the Merits of Christ's Life and Passion may be applied to Men in order to their Salvation For the more Methodical Prosecution of which Point 't will be expedient to consider First The State of Mankind before the coming of Christ Secondly the State and Circumstances of Mandkind after his coming Before the coming of Christ as hath been already shewn the Gentiles though they had solid Notions of the Nature and Perfections of a Deity yet there is little or nothing extant which can countenance any Expectation they had of such a Deliverer as we are now discoursing of And as to the Jews for what appears from the Old Testament they knew but little and obscurely of another Life as we have also before spoken-unto They expected a Deliverer or Messiah 't is true but then they figur'd him to be a Temporal Conqueror such as Caesar or Alexander who should erect their Nation also into a vast Empire and bring the World under their Subjection A thing indeed which they earnestly hoped for having been themselves under heavy Oppressions for many Ages Nay so deep was this Opinion rooted in the Jews that even the Disciples of Christ who were daily taught by and convers'd with him could hardly be wean'd from this Belief as appears by the Address or Petition on the behalf of Zebedee's Children that they might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of Christ in his Kingdom as also from their constant enquiry of Christ when he would restore the Kingdom or Empire unto Israel But this as having been already discours'd of and being a thing which will admit of little dispute I shall readily leave and pass on to take a glance of Mankind after the coming of Christ and his Ascension into Heaven They who have had the Happiness to be born within the Church where the Mysteries of the Christian Religion are suck'd in with their first Milk and grow up into their Nature such I say cannot but have a distinct knowledge of what the Christian Religion teacheth concerning Christ and his Merits so that if they do not act suitably to that knowledg they are verily inexcusable But then for those who never had such an Education nor ever heard of Christ or his Gospel and yet retain true Notions of the Nature Power and Justice of God and live justly and conformably to that knowledg retaining a disposition to receive farther Instruction with all propensity to Vertue I cannot see but that they may justly be ranked with those great and wise Men amongst the Ancients whether Philosophers or others in whose Lives and Writings we find so many remains of the true apprehensions they had of a Deity together with their great Pregnancy in Vertue Now of both these sorts of Men whether before or after Christ the question will be the same for as much as both were under the same State and Guidance of Natural Illumination and Moral Vertues I know it is granted and with very good reason too that such as were contemporaries with the Patriarchs though they were not of the same Lineage with Abraham had such a knowledge of the true God as made them capable of Salvation Such a one was Melchisedech of whom we read so great things such a one also Job who liv'd probably about the time of the first Patriarchs for we read that he liv'd in the time of the Chaldean greatness also Jethro the Father-in-law of Moses having such an extraordinary and infallible Information of the Divine Will from the Mouth and Miracles of Moses and being himself also a Person of great Conduct and Wisdom as appears from Scripture he could not but transmit the like Instructions to his Posterity as did Melchisedech and Job without all question the same likewise we may conclude of the descendents from Abraham by Ishmael and of his Off-spring by Keturah Nor was it unusual in those days whilst Men liv'd under that unpolish'd but golden Age for God to manifest his Will by singular Revelation to wise Men even long after the Covenant made with Abraham as appears by the History of Balaam who though an Alien from the House of Abraham had a free Communication with God upon occasions of Moment and prophesied as clearly of the coming of the Messiah as any other ' of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets Now for those whose Doctrine and Actions are not recorded in sacred Writ as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Solon Lycurgus Numa and amongst them I know not why I may not reckon that strenuous Defender of his Country's Liberty Tullius Ciccro I say these and many others of the same class as they are known to have had noble Notions of the Deity and to have been great and prudent Masters in matters of Morality so likewise are they famous for their own exemplary Lives and Government and are by the most impartial and learned Writers held to be in a State of Salvation But for such of the wiser and more vertuous Gentiles who liv'd after Christ Writers generally seem a little more severe though in Truth the same Reason concludes favourably for both alike it being no less difficult for many great Men of former Ages though after Christ to know the History and Doctrine of Jesus as 't is for any of the present Age to know the Transactions in the Dominions of Prester John or of the Emperour of China Nay much more difficult for of these Countries so remote as they are we have by the help of Navigation and Commerce some sort of Account but the Jews as they were to the Romans but an inconsiderable part of their Government so the Romans themselves held no such Communication by Sea as now a-days being surrounded with Germans Dacians Parthians Indians and the like with whom they were in perpetual Hostility and what Countries and Kingdoms lay beyond these were utterly unknown to them by any kind of Correspondence So that we may as rationally conclude that every Man now a-days is an ignorant Idiot who does not know perhaps some new and great