that all should be as they are Shall Error be set for a Rule If one be born deformed or wanting some of those integral parts which make up a Body would any that is in his Wits be willing to be conform'd to that unnatural Idea If a man had a Child born defective in any Limb blind lame or any way mishapen would he not think it a great favour if it might be granted to him to have this Child born again in a handsom form and restored to a beautiful proportion Wise men have ever thought that it is a greater monstrosity to be mishapen in Soul the Mind corrupted the Affections corrupted with Lust and so made dishonourable to the state of Human Nature The Holy Scripture doth very justly call this a Corruption of Human Nature for every thing deserves that name when it hath lost that power which is the proper Excellency of its Nature and by which it is fitted to its End This Degeneracy is so great that the Holy Scripture saith Men are degraded by it into the condition of brute Beasts 2 Pet. 2. 12. and in other places The Philosophers saw it by the Light of Nature and have spoken more highly in the case Arrian calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the most unhappy among Beasts and adds that if there be any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more wretched and abject a man depraved with sin is that The Poets meant the same when they spoke of the Transformation of Vlysses his Companions who by Debauchery were turned into Swine grunting in Circe's Prison and there thrusting out their Snouts through the Grates in which they were kept Slaves So monstrous is the state of the Soul when it is made to truckle under every ungoverned Passion Second Motive This is enough to have shown the reasonableness of Repentance and I might now add the danger which a sinner incurs by Impenitence for he makes himself liable to that Vengeance which God will take for the contempt of his Orders But before I speak of that I shall discourse of my second Motive to Repentance which is taken from the Goodness of God who is willing to forgive the Penitent sinner and that is so great an Encouragement to this Duty that the Apostle says it leads us to Repentance That it doth so will be seen plainly in the Account which I shall give of it in six Particulars 1. The first Encouragement is that Declaration which God hath made concerning his own Nature that it is not implacable but that he is willing to forgive those who have sinned if they repent of their sins This Goodness of the Divine Nature God made to pass before Moses when he desired to see the the glory of the Godhead when God proclaimed himself to be the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiveing iniquity transgression and sin This glorious Name was given as that by which God was willing to be known to the World and it doth give us notice of that which doth most concern us to know of the Deity God by his Royal Prerogative hath power to forgive if he please By right of Creation he is the Sovereign Rector of the World He who made all things must need have authority to give them Law it is fit that all Creatures should obey him who gave them their Being As he hath power to give Law so also to threaten in case of Disobedience and so he only is Dominus poenarum the punishment of sin is solely at his appointment for whatsoever mischief sin may do in the Consequences of it to others it is his Law which is violated by it it is his Authority which is affronted But as God hath only right to punish so if he please it is his Prerogative not to punish His Threatnings are Conditional and so in themselves capable of Relaxation He may depart from his Right if he will and forgive us what we are not able to pay He may pass by those wrongs for which we can never make him amends as indeed we cannot for one Sin For as Daniel said To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him As it his Royal Prerogative that he can forgive so it is his Divine Benignity that he is willing to do it The goodness of God for which we constantly adore him is a voluntary propension of the Divine Nature to do good to his Creatures according to their several Capacities and he hath a particular Love to Mankind which makes him willing to promote their Happiness and as sin is the only hindrance of that he hath declared his love by his willingness to prevent the mischievous effects of it by forgiveness Here the Divine goodness doth magnifie it self against our wickedness the Divine Wisdom finds a way to save the Offender from the ruin of his own Folly and God's Justice shows it self wise and good not reaching after that satisfaction which cannot be had to wit not requiring that the Offence be undone for that cannot be nor yet seeking the utmost which may be had which is that the sinner be destroyed but is content with such a Reparation as may be made of the Divine Honour by Repentance by which sin is extirpated and the sinner saved I have spoken of this Particular more largely to fix a right Notion of the temper of the Deity in mens Souls It is no small comfort to us that we know God is not necessitated to execute his Threatnings and that he is of so Benign a Nature that he is willing to part with his Right rather than ruin his Creatures This is a mighty Encouragement to Repentance and should make every sinner say as the Prophet did Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Art thou so good though I have been so bad I will rebel no more I hope in thy Mercy I will return We read that Benhadad and his great Army invaded Israel and when they were beaten the very Report that the Kings of Israel were merciful made them come with Sackcloth upon their Loyns and Ropes about their Necks Suing for Pardon with all the signs of Penitence and Submission We are told also in the Story of Augustus Caesar That there was one Corocotta a Spanish Thief so famous for doing Mischief that the Emperor promised Ten thousand Sesterces to him that should bring him alive into his presence Here upon Corocotta fearing his danger if he continued his Course and having heard of the generous temper of Augustus carried himself to him It could not be the hope of the price set upon his head that could make him do so for what pleasure can a man take in telling money when he is going to
of the sad Condition in which Adam was after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit and upon the sense of his Fault had hidden himself from God hoping at least wishing he had done so when God enquiring after him though knowing well enough where he was asked him this Question Adam where art thou He makes this Answer for him proper enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am where they are who are not able to look upon God where they are who obey not God I am where they are who hide themselves from their Maker where they are who are fled from vertue and are destitute of wisdom I am where they are who tremble by reason of guilt and cowardise This being the melancholick condition of wretched sinners after they come to consider how things are with them in the cool of the day when the heats of their Wine and Lust are over their ranting mirth ended their Passions becalm'd and they begin to bethink themselves and to reflect upon their Extravagancies and are made to hear that still voice which call'd to Adam after his prevarication Wise men having compared the sprightly erect chearful temper of good men with this Law justly pronounced that vertuous persons do not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not only exceed a vitious man in that which is honest but also overcome him in pleasure for which only the sinner seems to betake himself to wickedness And this pleasure is so considerable that Aristotle could say that it did exceed that of the wicked those Fugitives from Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that it is more pure and more solid and so is as another calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a pleasure as one shall never have cause to repent of But those pains which I forementioned are more considerable because they are both more pungent and more lasting than those of the Body which made Simplicius say of them That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they are more grievous stay longer and are harder to be cured A bodily Distemper is more easily relieved than an evil Conscience take away the present pain and the Body returns to its health but the soul is pain'd with the remembrance of what is past and the sear of what is to come which is so great an affliction that many times it makes the present state intolerable Therefore Holy Scripture and Ancient Philosophers called the state of Sin the Death of the Soul So our Saviour said of the vitious Prodigal that he was dead and the Apostle of the wicked world that they were dead in sins and trespasses and the Heathen Philosopher the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The death of the soul is the deprivation of God and Reason which are accompanied with a turbulent conflict of inordinate passions And that none might think that he dully supposed that an Immortal Being can dy he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not that they cease to be but that they fall from the happiness of life And in another place he says that wickedness is the corruption of an Immortal Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it corrupts it as much as is possible For this reason when any of Pythagoras's Sholars abandoned the practise of Vertue and lest his Society they hung up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an empty Coffin for him looking upon him as one dead And they might very well do so for is it not the destruction of a reasonable Being to be corrupted in those Principles which are essential to it to be spoiled in its best Faculties to be hindred from the free exercise of its Natural Powers to be bereav'd of that joy which a man hath when he acts according to that which is best in him to be deadned to a vital sense of his chief good and to be deprived of the love of God which is the very life of good men Whatsoever intercepts the favourable Influences of God's Benignity doth as much contribute to the death of the soul as he would promote the bodie 's life who by some fatal obstruction of the inward passages should hinder the communication of vital Spirits to all the parts of the body What joy can a man have when the indwelling God is grieved and the Fool lives in contradiction to the connate Principles of his soul 2. This brings me to the second Demonstration of the Reasonableness of Repentance because sin is an insolent contempt of that excellent order which God hath planted in Humane Nature which is his Law upon it and is the ornament and preservation of it There are few who have so little use of their soul bestoweds upon them but that they know they are better than their Bodies and that the Faculties of it do transcend those of the sensual Part and that the mind doth not only understand what is best but hath Authority bestowed upon it to govern the bodily Appetites which being inferiour in Nature and needing a Guide ought to receive Law from it The soul doth discover being it self taught of God by its natural light and super-added Revelation what is the happiness to which it was made the best good of which it is capable and shows the means by which it may be attained directs assists in the use of them propounds rational Arguments to persuade to use and persist in the use of them can baffle such Objections as are raised either by the homebred Enemy or Forreign Tentations to hinder the soul in its chearful progress towards its Felicity The soul tells us what satisfaction is allowable to the bodily appetites disting uisheth between lawful and unlawful utterly forbids the latter and commands that there be no excess in the former shows what Moderation is and the benefit of it and represents the mischief as well as the sin of excess threatens death upon the eating of all forbidden Fruit. Order is then observed as it ought to be when all the Faculties do obey this Superior upon whom God hath bestow'd power to discern Freedom of choice and authority to command For which reason ancient Philosophers have call'd it by very agreable Names as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the part to which is committed the guidance of all the rest It was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which rides and governs the lower Faculties as the Charioteer doth his Horses with Rains because it was placed in man to guide the Affections and conduct the Faculties of soul and body in what way they should go and what pace and to teach them when to rest and when they went astray to curb their Extravagancies and to reduce them into the right Path. It is worthy of all reasonable Beings to maintain this Dignity and it is their Duty to see that it be not trampled upon This made a great Philosopher say that when a man is assaulted by any
of this Curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousie shall smoke against that man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven He that despiseth the methods of God's grace and continues his Disobedience and yet perswades himself that all shall be well with him doth highly provoke God The Hope of the Disobedient is a great part of their Disobedience for it is a presumptuous believing against the express Declarations of God's Will and they shall be punished for it as an aggravation of their other sins Such people slight the Divine Threatnings disbelieve the Truth and Power of God concerning their performance but they shall pay dear for it especially in the great day of Wrath when Christ will come in flaming Fire to render Vengeance to those who acknowledge God no better and do wilfully disobey his Gospel This misery is dreadful because the Sufferings to which the Impenitent will be condemned are so great that now they would be intolerable but which then they shall be made to endure Of this I shall give account 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of them which we find in Holy Scripture 2. By the deep Impressions which they will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents of which we are told in Holy Writ 3. By setting down four particular Notices which we have received concerning the dreadfulness of that state 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of the misery of Impenitents which we find recorded in Holy Scripture It hath pleased God to express the future Torments of Impenitent Souls by taking resemblances from the bodily pains with which they are now acquainted and hath chosen the most sharp of those which men suffer on Earth to be Emblems of those far greater which they shall suffer in Hell I shall name a few of them Sometimes that miserable Condition is described by the Torment of Fire than which nothing is more sharp which is called Matth. 5. 22. Hell Fire which Chap. 13. 49 50. is called a Furnace of Fire into which the wicked shall be cast in the end of the World and Rev. 21. 8. a Lake of Fire and Brimstone into which several sorts of sinners there named shall be thrown Heb. 10. 27. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Fiery Indignation because of the fierceness of Divine Vengeance This is terrible and therefore such as are obnoxious to it are there said to be under a fearful expectation of Iudgment It was a pain unspeakably dreadful which those old sinners endured who were inclosed in Sodom and made to perish in the noysom smoke of Brimstone and the unsupportable Torment of Fire But that is nothing to that which will be kindled in Hell where the Fire will never go out nor the Persons who are burnt in it ever be consumed Sometimes this Punishment is called the Gnawing of the never dying Worm sometimes it is represented by utter Darkness which signifies the utmost disconsolateness of a dismal Condition Happiness in Holy Writ is called Light and Heaven the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Those who are cast into utter Darkness are removed to the farthest Distance from God who is the Fountain of Life and in whose Light the Blessed see Light It is called The Blackness of Darkness i. e. the most Horrid into which no glimpse of Light shines This state is worse than that of a Malefactor who is condemned to be made up between two Walls there to perish in Darkness Hunger and Solitude Sometime this dreadful misery is signified by a Pit which hath no bottom into which the ungodly are to be cast and sometime by the Torment of a perpetual Rack sometime by a Cup of Wrath called the Wine of the Wrath of God mixt with bitter Ingredients and in this World God doth make sinners to drink some drops but in the great day he will make them drink up the Dregs of it the bitter Wrath which lies in the bottom in which is no Alloy of Mercy Lastly by the pains of the second Death which the ungodly must endure which is a thousand times worse than the first for that is but a Temporal separation of the Soul from the Body this an Eternal separation of Body and Soul from God 2. The greatness of this Misery is plainly declared by the deep impressions which we are told it will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents as we perceive the acuteness of pain which men suffer by the grievousness of their Cries Our Saviour says that in the place to which the Impenitent shall be condemned there will be weeping and gnashing of Teeth These are Expressions of extreme grief and show the extremity of Misery A small matter will not make one cry out nor a little cold make the Teeth chatter No it is because the great day of wrath is come and who shall be able to abide it The Impenitent would then be glad of Annihilation it would be good for them that they were nothing or as our Saviour says That they had never been born In great Anguish they will say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb But the Rocks will be as deaf to the Impenitent then as they are to God now 3. Thirdly The Impenitents misery is made known to them by four particular Notices which are given them of their dreadful Condition in the other World 1. They are told beforehand what Company they shall have in Hell and that is no better than the Devil and his Angels Haters and hated of God So the Sentence runs Go ye cursed into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels You hold of his side and it is fit you should share in his Lot I called you to the hopes of my Mercy and offered you a part in the happiness of Obedient Souls but you rather chose to comply with your own and my Enemy and to perish with Satan rather than to hearken to me Get you gone from me and all the blessed into that Fire which was not designed for you but was appointed as the punishment of Devils but since you would have your portion in it I confirm your choice This is sad For the Devils were always and are still Enemies to Mankind They were Murderers from the beginning and are Malicious to the end To be shut up with such Companions is a greater Torment than to be nailed up in a Vessel among Serpents Will impenitent sinners be able to endure this Can they dwell with everlasting Burnings Can they make an
he was not to have sinned 1. This is reasonable for no man is sensible of danger approaching but he will endeavour to prevent it as soon as he can and he may delay so long that it will grow impossible If a mans House be on fire will he not presently endeavour to quench it If he be bitten with a Serpent doth he not seek for present remedy He which is fallen into sickness makes haste to send for a Physician every body knowing that recovery is then most to be hoped for when proper Remedies are used in time A Disease may prevail so far by neglect of those Medicines which would have cured it at first that neither they nor any other will be able to do it afterward Delay in this affair makes the work grow harder By repeating of sin the Offender hardens his heart and though afterwards he turn Penitent he will find his task more difficult because instead of a slighter disposition which he might have more easily conquered at first he must now conflict with a firm habit Shall he which cannot outgo a Footman hope to outrun Horsmen 2. The demerit of sin encreaseth by delaying to return Can he hope for mercy who hath stood out in rebellion to the last He which delays to repent treasures up wrath against himself when as God knows if his wrath be kindled but a little there is no man able to endure it It is strange that any Conceit should come into a mans Head that acknowledgeth his dependance upon God to make him defer his return to him by repentance It is possibly this He means at last to repent of his negligence Doth he and yet is deliberately negligent at present It is a new sort of Vertue this to sin pretending an intention to repent and as odd a kind of wisdom to abuse infinite goodness in hope to find that favour of which the course of life which we chuse makes us infinitely unworthy and being continued in will give us strong reasons to despair of when we dy 3. Pardon is not to be had no nor repentance when we will He who is so gracious that he pleaseth to pardon when we truly repent hath not promised we shall have grace to repent when we please We are advised in Holy Writ to seek the Lord whilst he may be found and when that is we are told I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me How applicable this is to the matter of Repentance we may see by what is said in the fith and sixth verses of Psalm 32. David was in great distress by reason of Divine Wrath which lay upon him for his sins whereupon he took himself to repentance speedily bewailing and openly confessing his Faith to to God and so returning to his duty found pardon For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found He that knows how great a matter it is to be reconciled to an offended God and that there is a time of finding mercy which if it be slipt the sinner is eternally undone will thereupon make what speed he can to return to God and humbly seek his favour in a seasonable address lest he lose himself with the opportunity It is not many years since the Master of a Ship loitering ashore and not taking the advantage of one Tide when the Wind blew fair with which other Ships went out was forced by contrary Winds to stay in the Port till the forementioned Ships made their Voiage and return'd They are bold people but extremely sottish who slight opportunities of doing that which belongs to their chief good when they know they cannot command the stay or return of such seasons Dost thou slight God in thy youthful health when to have served him early is the unspeakable consolation of old age and which they who then want it would purchase with all the World if they had it upon their Death-bed Is not old age burthen enough except it be plagued with the heavy remembrance of a wicked life This hath made many to cry out with him in the Tragedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Alas for me that men may not grow younger twice and as often old that so I might in my after life correct what was not well done in the former part of it 4. Though a man begin never so soon this work of Repentance is not to be done of a sudden It will require great pains and much time and therefore none is to be lost Can sin which hath taken deep root in the soul be drawn up at the first pull Can our unwillingness to do it be mortified in a moment Is a habit of sin soon master'd No but as we have been longer in contracting it and so making it stronger it will not be conquered but by the contrary habit of Vertue which requires time to be implanted grow and get strength in the soul. It may be that we have many Vices to overcome and do we hope to do that presently We have committed many Errors and can we repent of them all on a sudden We have many things to do and those not easie to one accustomed to sin We are to make our selves Vessels meet for our Masters use but it will require time to do it considering how we are put out of order by sin and therefore all possible speed is necessary in the practise of Repentance 2. As Repentance must be speedy so it must be sincere and that we shall find if it answer those descriptions of it which are given in holy Scripture vvhere it is called The renewing of the mind crucifying the old man and his deeds putting off the body of sin and destroying it crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts purging our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in Gods fear being made new creatures and partakers of a Divine Nature vvith many more expressions to the same purpose The Sense of which is comprehended in these four Particulars 1. Sincere Repentance begins in a change of the inward disposition for which Reason the true Convert is called a new man as we learn from Eph. 4. and the alteration is so great that it denominates the Penitent to be a new Creature which is not meant as to Transubstantiation of Nature but Emendation of Temper making the Penitent not another person but a better Man A few Scriptures considered will make this so plain that every one may know what it means and judge himself accordingly It consists in two things 1. In change of Apprehension 2. In Alteration of Affection 1. In change of Apprehension he which is truly Penitent hath another sense of things than he had before which the Apostle calls renewing in the spirit of the mind by which he now understands the goodness of God and perceives that to be perfect and most acceptable of which he had but mean thoughts before
particular promises ensured by God's Veracity we have firm grounds of Hope plain measures of Expectation and he which doth not give credit unto them makes God a lyar as St. Iohn says puts the same contempt upon God which men do upon the words of vain persons who never mean what they say or are unable to perform what they promise Without this Revelation a Heathen could say Qui desperat Deum exasperat nec bonum credit i. e. He which despairs makes God angry and doth not believe him to be good After all this wilt thou not repent 5. Especially when God hath given a mighty Demonstration of his full purpose to fulfil what he hath promised to penitent sinners not only declaring these Promises by his dear son but by making him 1. A Sacrifice of Expiation for sinners in his Death and 2. Also an Advocate for them since his Resurrection 1. God hath made him a Sacrifice of Expiation in his Death An Expiatory Sacrifice is when one suffers for another and so saves the other from suffering when Body is given for Body Life for Life Such was our Saviour's Passion for sinners And therefore the Apostle said He gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for all men Or as our Saviour said himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for many He gave his Life as such a price by which Captives or Slaves are set at Liberty and therefore he is said to have redeemed us from the Curse being made a Curse for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He bought us off with a great price from the Curse due to our sins being himself content to be used for our sakes as one who is accursed What worse things could happen to any mortal man than those which Christ suffered His Death was esteemed by all men as the most infamous and most painful and was looked upon by the Eternal Father as the common Penance of Mankind for whom he suffered it Thus our Saviour became our ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave his life for ours and we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our sins Yes through his blood For he nail'd our Bond to his Cross and so cancel'd it and freed us from our Debt Thus hath God been willing to let us know how unwilling he is to punish us if we repent Though it be of the nature of punishment that it be inflicted for sin yet it is not necessary that it should be upon the person offending if the offended will accept of another to suffer for him and so free him This is our Case for God was pleased to accept of the Temporal Death of his dear Son to free all penitent sinners from Death Eternal 2. I need not prosecute this comfortable Argument any further God hath by it abundantly signified his mind to relieve trembling sinners having made his Son a Propitiation for them in his Death and declared also that he is an Advocate for them since his Resurrection If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place signifies one who deprecates Anger mitigates Wrath begs pardon for such as have offended The Design of the Gospel is to preserve us from sin but if one chance to fall into sin left he sin also into Despair it gives this encouragement to rise by Repentance because we have an Advocate with the Father the Son of God who intercedes for us pleads our cause in Heaven This Encouragement is great upon many accounts 1. Because long before his Incarnation he was designed to that merciful Office by the Eternal Father So we read in Isaiah which the Evangelist Mark applies to our Saviour He shall make Intercession for Transgressors deprecate the Divine Anger for them appear in the presence of God for them It is a great satisfaction to all thoughtful minds that they are assured of the truth of his Commission We are ignorant upon what grounds some have bestowed this part of his Mediation upon Saints or Angels The Scripture hath told us that Abraham knows us not and that Israel is ignorant of us and that no man taketh to him the honour of mediating for others with God but he that is called of God But we have great hope in this one Mediator because God hath given him the honour to stand at his Right Hand and plead for sinners He is the great Angelus Orationis as I think Tertullian called him who when the prayers of Saints goes up to Heaven puts in his Merits to make them acceptable As for others alas poor Souls they have no merits to make their own Prayers sweet and how then shall they perfume those of others 2. This our Advocate was always and is the most beloved Son of God He dwelt eternally in the Bosom of the Father a phrase which signifies Intimacy and Love He is one to whom the Father never denied any thing so he said himself I know that thou hearest me always 3. It is a great Encouragement that we have such an Advocate who by his Death merited a just Right to intercede with God for sinners He might well pray for pardon who offered himself a Sacrifice of Expiation and demand the Release of Captives for whom he had paid the Ransom We are not to think that in Heaven our Saviour prays for sinners offering up cries with tears for them but intercedes with the Authority of Mediation which he obtained by his Death He appears in the presence of God for us offering great Reasons for our pardon 4. To this add that he hath whilst he doth this strong desires in himself to have us made partakers of it We are told that he is a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God and that he is willing to make Reconciliation for us not like the Masters of Requests in this World who many times are so hard to come at that it is easier to get a Petition granted by the King than presented by his Servant No he is so merciful that he hath bid us come boldly to the Throne of Grace and to be confident that we shall obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need we may come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely declare our case to God have free access to him for that purpose and we shall not be turned away with shame as people are when their Petitions are slighted This goodness of our Saviour's Temper is an inward Advocate for us always dwelling in his Breast making him willing to receive the Petitions which we offer to him and also to present them to the Eternal Father and to add to them what may make them acceptable He show'd his benign Disposition before he left this World in that kind Excuse which he made for the neglect of his Friends who failed him in a time when he much needed their Service For though he reproved them for
prov'd in their kind so as that the proofs of it whether they be demonstrative or no are sufficient the nature of the things to be prov'd consider'd to justifie a rational and prudent Man's embracing it this Religion I say seeming to me to have such positive Proofs for it I do not think that the Objections that are said to be drawn from Reason against it do really prove the belief of it to be inconsistent with right Reason and do outweigh the Arguments alledgable in that Religions behalf To propose some of the general grounds of this Answer of mine was the design of the Considerations hitherto discours'd of which as I hinted to you at the beginning could be no other than general unless you had mention'd to me some of your Friends particular Objections which when he tells you you will perhaps find that I have already given you the grounds of answering them And though to propose Arguments to evince positively the Truth of our Religion after the example of the excellent Grotius and some other very learned Writers be not as you see either my task or my design yet if you attentively consider what I write in that short Discourse wherein I manage but that seemingly popular Argument for Christianity that is drawn from the Miracles that are said to attest it you will perchance be invited to think that when all the other Proofs of it are taken in a Man may without renouncing or affronting his Reason be a Christian. But to proceed to the more considerable part of what I presum'd your Friend will object I answer That the considerations I have alledg'd in the behalf of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion will not be equally applicable to the most absurd or unreasonable Opinions For these Considerations are offer'd as Apologies for Christian Doctrines but upon two or all of these three Suppositions The first That the Truth of the main Religion of which such Doctrines make a part is so far positively prov'd by real and uncontroul'd Miracles and other competent Arguments that nothing but the manifest and irreconcileable Repugnancy of its Doctrines to right Reason ought to hinder us from believing them The second That divers of the things at which reasonable Men are wont to take exception are such as Reason it self may discern to be very difficult or perhaps impossible for us to understand perfectly by our own natural light And the third That some things in Christianity which many Men think contrary to Reason are at most but contrary to it as 't is incompetently inform'd and assisted but not when 't is more fully instructed and particularly when 't is inlightned and assisted by Divine Revelation And as I think these three Suppositions are not justly applicable I say not as the Objection does to the most absurd or unreasonable Opinions but to any other Religion than the true which is the Christian so the last of these Suppositions prompts me to take notice to you that though we ought to be exceeding wary how we admit what pretends to be supernaturally reveal'd yet if it be attended with sufficient evidence of its being so we do very much wrong and prejudice our selves if out of an unreasonable jealousie or to acquire or maintain the repute of being wiser than others we shut our eyes against the light it offers For besides that a Man may as well err by rejecting or ignoring the Truth as by mistaking a falshood for it I consider that those Men that have an Instrument of knowledge which other Men either have not or which is as bad refuse to employ have a very great advantage above others towards the acquiring of Truth and with far less parts than they may discover divers things which the others with all their Pride and Industry shall never attain to As when Galilaeo alone among the modern Astronomers was Master of a Telescope 't was easie for him to make noble discoveries in Heaven of things to which not only Ptolomy Alphonsus and Ticho but ev'n his Masters Aristarchus Samius and Copernicus themselves never dream'd of and which other Astronomers cannot see but by making use of the same kind of Instrument And on this occasion let me carry the Comparison suggested by the Telescope a little further and take notice that if Men having heard that there were four Planets moving about Iupiter and that Venus is an opacous body and sometimes horn'd like the Moon had resolv'd to examine these things by their naked eyes as by the proper Organs of Sight without employing the Telescope by which they might suspect that Galilaeo might put some Optical delusion upon them they would perhaps have assembled in great multitudes to gaze at Venus and Iupiter that since plus vident Oculi quam Oculus the number of eyes might make amends for their dimness This attempt not succeeding they would perhaps choose out some of the youngest and sharpest sighted Men that by their piercing eyes that may be discover'd which ordinary ones could not reach And this Expedient not succeeding neither they would perhaps diet their Stargazers and prescribe them the inward use of Fennel and Eye-bright and externally apply Collyriums and Eye-waters and those to as little purpose as the rest With such a pity mix'd with Indignation as Galilaeo would probably have look'd on such vain and fruitless attempts with may a judicious Christian that upon a due examination admits the Truth of the Scriptures look upon the presumptuous and vain endeavors of those Men who by the goodness of their natural parts or by the improvements of them or by the number of those that conspire in the same search think with the bare eye of Reason to make as great discoveries of heavenly Truths as a person assisted by the Revelations contain'd in the Scripture can with great ease and satisfactoriness attain To which let me add this further improvement of the Comparison that as a skilful Astronomer will indeed first severely examine whether the Telescope be an Instrument fit to be trusted and not likely to impose upon him but being once resolv'd of that will confidently believe the discoveries it makes him however contrary to the receiv'd Theories of the Celestial Bodies and to what he himself believ'd before and would still if the Telescope did not otherwise inform him continue to believe so a well qualifi'd Inquirer into Religions though he will be very wary upon what terms he admits Scripture yet if he once be fully satisfi'd that he ought to admit it he will not scruple to receive upon its authority whatever supernatural Truths it clearly discloses to him though perhaps contrary to the Opinions he formerly held and which if the Scripture did not teach him otherwise he would yet assent to And as the Galaxy and other whitish parts of the Sky were by Aristotle and his Followers and many other Philosophers who look'd on them only with their naked eyes for many Ages reputed to be but Meteors but to those
in the World how can there come to be any Motion amongst Bodies since they neither have it upon the score of their own nature nor can receive it from external Agents If Mr. Hobbs should reply that the Motion is impress'd upon any of the parts of the Matter by God he will say that which I most readily grant to be true but will not serve his turn if he would speak congruously to his own Hypothesis For I demand Whether this Supreme Being that the Assertion has recourse to be a Corporeal or an Incorporeal Substance If it be the latter and yet be the efficient Cause of Motion in Bodies then it will not be Universally true that whatsoever Body is moved is so by a Body contiguous and moved For in our supposition the Bodies that God moves either immediately or by the intervention of any other Immaterial Being are not moved by a Body contiguous but by an Incorporeal Spirit But because Mr. Hobbs in some Writings of his is believed to think the very Notion of an Immaterial Substance to be absurd and to involve a Contradiction and because it may be subsum'd that if God be not an Immaterial Substance he must by Consequence be a Material and Corporeal one there being no Medium Negationis or third Substance that is none of those two I answer That if this be said and so that Mr. Hobbs's Deity be a Corporeal one the same difficulty will recurr that I urg'd before For this Body will not by Mr. Hobbs's calling or thinking it divine cease to be a true Body and consequently a portion of Divine Matter will not be able to move a portion of our Mundane Matter without it be it self contiguous and moved which it cannot be but by another portion of Divine Matter so qualified to impress a Motion nor this again but by another portion And besides that it will breed a strange confusion in rendring the Physical Causes of things unless an expedient be found to teach us how to distinguish accurately the Mundane Bodies from the Divine which will perhaps prove no easie task I see not yet how this Corporeal Deity will make good the Hypothesis I examine For I demand How this Divine Matter comes to have this Local Motion that is ascrib'd to it If it be answer'd That it hath it from its own Nature without any other Cause since the Epicureans affirm the same of their Atoms or meerly Mundane Matter I demand How the Truth of Mr. Hobbs's Opinion will appear to me to whom it seems as likely by the Phaenomena of Nature that occur that Mundane Matter should have a congenit Motion as that any thing that is Corporeal can be God and capable of moving it which to be it must for ought we know have its Subsistence divided into as many minute parts as there are Corpuscles and Particles in the World that move separately from their neighbouring ones And to draw towards a Conclusion I say that these minute Divine Bodies that thus moved those portions of Mundane Matter concerning which Mr. Hobbs denies that they can be moved but by Bodies contiguous and moved these Divine Substances I say are according to the late supposition true Bodies and yet are moved themselves not by Bodies contiguous and moved but by a Motion which must be Innate deriv'd or flowing from their very essence or nature since no such Body is pretended to have a Being as cannot be refer'd as a portion either to the Mundane or the Divine Matter In short since Local Motion is to be found in one if not in both of these two Matters it must be natural to at least some parts of one of them in Mr. Hobbs's Hypothesis for though he should grant an Immaterial Being yet it could not produce a Motion in any Body since according to him no Body can be moved but by another Body contiguous and mov'd As then to this grand Position of Mr. Hobbs though if it were cautiously propos'd as it is by Des Cartes it may perhaps be safely admitted because Cartesius acknowledges the first Impulse that set Matter a moving and the Conservation of Motion once begun to come from God yet as 't is crudely propos'd by the favourers of Mr. Hobbs I am so far from seeing any such cogent Proof for it as were to be wish'd for a Principle on which he builds so much and which yet is not at all evident by its own light that I see no competent Reason to admit it I expect your Friend should here oppose to what I have been saying that formerly recited Sentence that is so commonly employ'd in the Schools as well of Divines as of Philosophers That such or such an Opinion is true in Divinity but false in Philosophy or on the contrary Philosophically true but Theologically false Upon what Warrant those that are wont to employ such Expressions ground their Practice I leave to them to make out but as to the Objection it self as it supposes these ways of speaking to be well grounded give me leave to consider That Philosophy may signifie two things which I take to be very differing For first 't is most commonly employ'd to signifie a System or Body of the Opinions and other Doctrines of the particular Sect of those Philosophers that make use of the Word As when an Aristotelian talks of Philosophy he usually means the Peripatetick as an Epicurean do's the Atomical or a Platonist the Platonick But we may also in a more general and no less just Acception of the term understand by Philosophy a Comprehension of all those Truths or Doctrines which the natural Reason of man freed from Prejudices and Partiality and assisted by Learning Attention Exercise Experiments c. can manifestly make out or by necessary consequence deduce from clear and certain Principles This being briefly premis'd I must in the next place put you in mind of what I formerly observ'd to you that many Opinions are maintain'd by this or that Sect of Christians or perhaps by the Divinity-Schools of more than one or two Sects which either do not at all belong to the Christian Religion or at least ought not to be look'd upon as parts of it but upon supposition that the Philosophical Principles and Ratiocinations upon which and not upon express or meer Revelation they are presum'd to be founded are agreable to right Reason And having premis'd these two things I now answer more directly to the Objection that if Philosophy be taken in the first sense above-mention'd its teaching things repugnant to Theology especially taking this word in the more large and vulgar sense of it will not cogently conclude any thing against the Christian Religion But if Philosophy be taken in the latter sense for true Philosophy and Divinity only for a System of those Articles that are clearly reveal'd as Truths in the Scriptures I shall not allow any thing to be false in Philosophy so understood that is true in Divinity so explain'd
till I see some clearer Proof of it than I have yet met with I have had occasion in the foregoing Discourse to say something that may be apply'd to the Point under debate and in the following part of this Letter I shall have Occasion to touch upon it again And therefore I shall now say but this in short That 't is not likely that God being the Author of Reason as well as Revelation should make it mens Duty to believe as true that which there is just Reason to reject as false There is indeed a Sense wherein the Phrases I disapprove may be tolerated For if by saying that such a thing is true in Divinity but false in Philosophy it were meant that if the Doctrine were propos'd to a meer Philosopher to be judg'd of according to the Principles of his Sect or at most according to what he being suppos'd not to have heard of the Christian Religion or had it duly propos'd to him would reject it the Phrase might be allow'd or at least indulg'd But then we must consider that the Reason why such a Philosopher would reject the Articles of Christian Faith would not be because they could by no Mediums be possibly prov'd but because these Doctrines being founded upon a Revelation which he is presum'd either not to have heard of or not to have had sufficiently propos'd to him he must as a Rational man refuse to believe them upon the score of their Prooflesness And the same Philosopher supposing him to be a true one though he will be very wary how he admits any thing as true that is not prov'd if it fall properly under the cognizance of Philosophy yet he will be as wary how he pronounces things to be false or impossible in matters which he discerns to be beyond the reach of meer natural Reason especially if Sober and Learned men do very confidently pretend to know something of those matters by Divine Revelation which though he will not easily believe to be a true one yet he will admit in case it should be prov'd true to be a fit Medium to evince Truths which upon the Account of meer natural Light he could not discover or embrace To be short such a Philosopher would indeed reject some of the Articles of our Faith hypothetically i. e. upon supposition that he need employ no other Touchstone to examine them by than the Principles and Dictates of Natural Philosophy that he is acquainted with upon which score I shall hereafter shew that divers strange Chymical Experiments and other Discoveries would also be rejected but yet he would not pronounce them false but upon supposition that the Arguments by which they lay claim to Divine Revelation are incompetent in their kind For as he will not easily believe any thing within the Sphere of Nature that agrees not with the Establish'd Laws of it so he will not easily adventure to pronounce one way or other in matters that are beyond the Sphere of Nature He will indeed as he justly may expect as full a Proof of the Divine Testimony that is pretended as the Nature of the thing requires and allows but he will not be backward to acknowledge that God to whom that Testimony is ascrib'd is able to know and to do many more things than we can explicate How He can discover or imagine How any Physical Agent can perform Since I propos'd to you this fifth Consideration I happen'd to light on a passage in Des Cartes's Principles which affords of what I have been discovering the Suffrage of a Philosopher that is wont to be accus'd of excluding Theology too scrupulously out of his Philosophy His words are so full to my present Purpose that I need not to accommodate them to it alter one of them and therefore shall transcribe them just as they lie Si fortè nobis Deus de seipso vel aliis aliquid revelet quod naturales Ingenii nostri vires excedat qualia sunt mysteria Incarnationis Trinitatis non recusabimus illa credere quamvis non clarè intelligamus nec ullo modo mirabimur multa esse tum in immensa ejus natura tum etiam in rebus ab eo creatis quae captum nostrum excedant And let me add on this occasion that whereas the main Scruples that are said to be suggested by Philosophy against some mysterious Articles of Religion are grounded upon this that the Modus as they speak of those things is not clearly conceivable or at least is very hardly explicable these objections are not always so weighty as perhaps by the confidence wherewith they are urg'd you may think them For whereas I observ'd to you already that there are divers things maintain'd by School Divines which are not contained in the Scripture that observation is chiefly applicable to the things we are considering since in several of these nice Points the Scripture affirms only the thing and the Schoolmen are pleas'd to add the Modus And as by their unwarrantable boldness the School Divines determine many things without Book so the scruples and objections that are made against what the Scripture really delivers are usually grounded upon the Erroneous or Precarious Assertions of the School Philosophers who often give the Title of Metaphysical Truths to Conceits that do very little deserve that name and to which a rigid Philosopher would perhaps think that of Sublime Nonsense more proper But of this I elsewhere say enough and therefore shall now proceed to the consideration I chiefly intended viz. That from hence That the Modus of a revealed Truth is either very hard or not at all explicable it will not necessarily follow that the thing it self is irrational provided the positive Proofs of its Truth be sufficient in their kind For ev'n in Natural things Philosophers themselves do and must admit several things whereof they cannot clearly explicate or perhaps conceive the Modus I will not here mention the Origine of Substantial Forms as an instance in this kind because though it may be a fit one as to the Peripatetick Philosophy yet not admitting that there are any such Beings I will take no further notice of them especially because for a clear Instance to our present purpose we need go no further than our selves and consider the Union of the Soul and Body in man For who can Physically explain both how an immaterial Substance should be able to guide or determine and excite the motions of a Body and yet not be able to produce motion in it as by dead Palsies great Faintnesses c. it appears the Soul cannot and which is far more difficult how an incorporeal Substance should receive such Impressions from the motions of a Body as to be thereby affected with real pain and pleasure to which I elsewhere add some other properties of this Union which though not taken notice of are perhaps no less difficult to be conceiv'd and accounted for For how can we comprehend that there should