to receive the Grievances of the People and to Administer Justice promising withal that if he ever came to the Crown he would redress such Abuses holding also a more intimate Correspondence with such as were disgrac'd and disgusted with the Court all which he receiv'd with great familiarity embracing them in his Arms and kissing them By these Arts of Popularity and Condescension he is said to have stoln or rather ravish'd the Hearts of David's People Such then were the Methods of former Times as well as of later Ages and such they will be to the end of the World And as these were human Policies so were they blown up too by the like human Artifice For Hushai the Archite a sure Friend of David's claps on a Mask for a time and gets within King Absalom by crying God save the King God save the King And when Absalom in a surly manner rallied him for abandoning his Soveraign Lord and Master Hushai with a Gentellesse non pareille with an unparallell'd softness and with the utmost Artifice of a double refin'd Courtier cajol'd Absalom in making God's Providence and the Consent of the People to be the ground and measure of his Allegiance saying Nay but whom the Lord and this People and all the men of Israel choose his will I be and with him will I abide 2 Sam. 16. And then subjoins whom should I serve should I not serve in the presence of his Son as I have serv'd in thy Father's presence so will I serve in thy presence For which seasonable and well manag'd Piece of Flattery or Court Loyalty he was admitted into the Number of Absalom's Privy Councellors and by that means did discover and defeat Achitophel's Advice which drew on the Restauration of his old Lord and Master Nay though God in these or any other Passages of the Old Testament had declar'd his Will in the most ample manner imaginable concerning such Revolutions and that they were brought to pass by him of his deliberate Appointment and Institution in the same manner as any other Positive Law whatsoever yet is not this any good Argument to prove such Alterations in other Nations to be de jure divino For the Jewish Government was a Theocracy or Government where God did visibly preside raising up Judges Deliverers and Prophets by his special Inspiration from time to time even from the Children of Israel's leaving Egypt to the days of Samuel Then indeed it was that the People desiring to be like the rest of the Nations round about them Petition'd for a King which shews though it were not according to God's Counsel and Good-liking as God himself testified saying that in asking for a King they did reject him from being their King yet so it was that God hearkned to them where by the way we may observe how God acted in this Alteration of the Jewish Government conformably to the Wills and previous Inclinations of the People naming the Person to them whom he caus'd to be Anointed so that 't was not here as 't was in other Kingdoms which were Elective or Hereditary for God Translated the Kingdom from the House of Saul to the House of David nor did Adonijah David's Elder Son succeed but Solomon the like Interruption of Descent we may observe in others also And yet for all this no Man doubts but that in Kingdoms now adays the Hereditary Descent of the Crown in a right Line is very Consonant to the Law of God and he that should produce the Examples of the Jewish Successions to the contrary would be lookt upon as a Mad-man The Ordinary Method by which God now adays does govern these Affairs is by the Civil Laws and Sanctions of a Kingdom and the Suffrages of the People not excluding the Law of Nature which gives Precedence to Primogeniture These Ordinances we are sure do proceed from the God of Order whatsoever falls out otherwise must be lookt upon as extraordinary and out of the common Road. But some will say That the most high ruleth in the Kingdom of men and he giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4. 17. And truly by as good Authority may a Thief take away my Cattel Put the Case then that a Thief were Arraign'd for stealing and Pleading not Guilty the Court should ask him how he would be try'd By the Word of God says the Thief as H. Peters answer'd in something a worse Case How says the Judge have you the Word of God on your side yes says the Thief for I have the Cattel jure divino Prove that quoth the Judge Why thus quoth the Thief The Lord taketh away and the Lord giveth therefore 't is the Lord who gave me the Cattel nor did he give any thing but what was his own for it is written of him Psalm 50. Mine are the Cattel upon a thousand hills Would such a Plea of my knavish Sophister pass Muster think you No verily for the Jury doubtless if it were not a very Ignoramus one would find him Guilty and the Judge too would with a Jure Divino recommend them to the Gallowâ— The Case is perfectly the same in both these places of Scripture and the Thief is to the great Robber as the Pyrat was to Alexander And if such places as these may give Kings a Divine Right to their Crowns I cannot see but that Subjects too when they rebel against them and make them Prisoners have God also on their side for it is written of him That he bindeth their Kings in Chains c. and we know who they were who blasphemously applied it to the best of Kings this Nation ever enjoy'd And when all is done 't is but to cant it out to the old Tune This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes The Arguments taken from the New Testament have something more of difficulty in them being Preceptory as that of the thirteenth to the Romans where every Soul is required to be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and a little after verse 5. we are required to be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake The like we meet 1 Epist of Peter c. 2. of submitting â—â—r selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake To these I answer That the Powers or Ordinances which St. Paul speaks of were settled Governments and such as had all the Qualifications and Conditions requisite to Constitute a Legislative Power For St. Paul wrote his Epistle Anno Christi 59 and the 2d of Nero's So that there was now Bacon ad An. Christi 59. more than an Hundred Years past since the first Usurpation of Julius Caesar There was the Succession of Six Emperors of the Julian and Claudian Family in a Legal Descent and although Julius Caesar was a
accident in Japan or the Regions beyond the Mountains of the Moon as that all were damn'd though otherwise never so wise and vertuous who did not know the History of the Gospel when yet we find how the Disciples themselves who convers'd with Jesus were ignorant of the Nature of his Government expecting a temporal Messiah nor were they fully instructed till after the descent of the Holy Ghost and even then too we find Peter doubting whether it were lawfull to converse with the Gentiles as appears by the case of Cornelius It remains therefore that the Gentiles of this latter Age of the World could have no other ways of knowing the Christian Mysteries but by such ordinary methods as other matters of Fact are brought to Light which failing the only Medium of Knowledg and Information must be by an extraordinary Revealer And this was the true State of the World in the first Age of the Church when the Disciples of Jesus furnish'd with supernatural Gifts and Graces were made the Apostles and Messengers of these glad Tidings of Salvation nor did they doe all this in one Age but succeeding Ages and Nations became Converts to the Christian Faith as new Discoveries and Men of an Apostolick Spirit did present themselves as all Histories do testifie This then being the greatest Point in Controversie I shall endeavour to pursue it more fully by such Arguments as Natural Reason and Scripture can afford us First then that such Men as we now speak of having not by any Means receiv'd Information of the Christian Mysteries should yet be capable of Salvation is very insonant to the Nature of an All-mercifull and Righteous God viz. Not to punish Men for what was not in their Power to help or if in their Power they would have yielded all dutifull Compliance with it Now as this is consonant to God's Goodness so is it not derogatory to his Justice considering as I promis'd at first that such a knowledg of God and Practice of Moral Vertues as we find oftentimes amongst the Gentiles are the Gifts of God and not the Effects of Man's proper Will and Power neither yet are they derogatory to the Merits of Christ when we call to mind what was above promis'd that Christ's Obedience and Passion is the efficient and meritorious Cause of Man's Salvation so that Man's knowledge being only instrumental whatsoever influence it has it must be deriv'd also from God and resolv'd finally into the Merits of Christ according to my first two Axioms or Postulata's let us argue then the Point a little closer The King of England perhaps sends a considerable Summ of Money for the Redemption of all English Slaves throughout the Turkish Dominions those who hearing the joyfull News readily embrace it with all imaginable Thankfulness whilst others hearing nothing of it sit silent now would it not seem very hard and unjust that these should be excluded from all Benefit by this Act of Grace and Bounty and left in perpetual Bondage because they did not lay hold of that which they never heard of which yet doubtless they would have embrac'd also with the same sense of Gratitude with others had they had the same notice nay rather do we not account an unknown Act of Grace and Bounty done to a Man and before 't is sought for to carry Characters of greater Goodness and to lay a stronger Obligation also upon the Receiver when he shall come to have a knowledg of his most generous Benefactour So that I doubt not but Socrates Aristides Epictetus with other such like Heroes whom without Blasphemy or Heresie we may suppose capable of Mercy in the day of Judgment will exalt with great Joy and celebrate the Praises of their gracious Redeemer when they shall see him though in the Clouds yet far more glorious than the Sun and by whose Merits and Mercies they were brought into that luminous Region of Eternal Happiness And as this is the Voice of Reason so also is it of the Holy Scriptures The first is that of the 11th to the Hebrews where we read that he that cometh to God must believe he is and the Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Now this belief many of the Heathens had viz. of his Existence as also of a future State where after this Life good Men should be rewarded and the Wicked Men punished we see then that by these two Acts of Assent the Heathens were said to come to God or to be admitted to his Favour and Grace which yet cannot be verified of them unless they be accounted capable of Salvation nay farther this kind of coming to God is called Faith and such a Faith without which 't is impossible to please him when the Apostle tells us in the Context That without Faith 't is impossible to please God subjoining it presently as a Reason For he that cometh to God must believe that he is c. Another Argument from Scripture is that Passage of Cornelius the Centurion Act the 10th who though a Heathen yet by his Alms and Prayers and the devout Order he kept in his Family procur'd the Grace and Favour of God to have St. Peter sent to him for his farther instruction And of such force and conviction was this Truth that even St. Peter himself though the Apostle of the Circumcision could not forbear to make an open profession of it saying of a truth I find that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness as did Cornelius and many also of the illuminated Gentiles is accepted of him Nay St. Peter's Discourse does imply that in every Nation there might be some who feared God and wrought Righteousness and if so of a certain truth they are accepted of him To these Places we may add what St. Paul testifies of himself that though he had an historical Knowledg of the Life Doctrines and Sufferings of Jesus and was a violent Persecuter of those who believed on him yet obtain'd Mercy because he did it in Ignorance and Unbelief 1 Tim. 1. ought we therefore to exclude all from Mercy who never heard of Jesus and yet such too as would have been as ready as others to embrace him and to suffer for him had he been reveal'd unto them The last Argument which I shall take from Scripture is that of the 1st to the Romans For the invisible Things of him saith St. Paul from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without Excuse Here we see that the Apostle condemns the Gentiles not for Ignorance or not Believing but for their Idolatrous Worship and not living conformably to that knowledg they had by the Works of the Creation of God's Eternity and Power which Knowledg renders them inexcusable and yet they would have been excusable had not their Knowledg join'd with a suitable Worship of the same true
an eternal and prae-existent matter then must that matter have been immutable for though the things made out of it be subject to continual vicissitudes and corruptions yet the matter must be still the same as the Stone and Timber of which the House is made is the same still for nature and essence as 't was before Now if that out of which the World was made was Immutable and Eternal then must it have those Perfections of which the Divine Nature chiefly do's consist but if this cannot be granted then must it be mutable and then can it not be Eternal for what 's Eternal must of necessity endure the same for ever But to proceed This Truth of the Existence of a God made such deep Impressions on the minds of Men through all Ages that even the Poets themselves so much abandon'd as they were to their own wanton Fictions were ever and anon forc't to throw off their Masks and to expose the bare-fac'd Truth The places cited out of the Ancient Greeks are known and many As the Passages also of the Sibylls in Lactantius No less remarkable are the Latins Ovid's first Book of his Metamorphoses seems nothing but a Paraphrase upon Genesis As also Virgil in that Passage or Fiction of Aeneas his descent into Hell Lib. 6. Aeneld where his Father Anchises amongst other Mysteries tells him In the beginning 't was the Spirit did form Heaven Earth and Seas Sun Moon and Stars of Morn The Mind diffusing through the bulky Frame Fermented all the Mass and from thence came Trees Flowers Birds Beasts thence also Mankind sprang With whatsoever is in th' Ocean The like he hath also in his fourth Book of his Georgicks What Opinion the Wisest of the Romans had touching the Heathen Gods cannot be better learnt then from Cato in Lucan who being Lucan l. 9. reduc'd to great Extremities in the Deserts of Libya was advised by Labienus to Consult the Oracle of Hamon being then near unto it to which Cato most Christian like reply'd God's Throne 's the Earth the Sea the Air and Heaven And above all a Mind to Vertue given What needs a further search of Gods above What ever we see where ever we be there 's Jove adding further that 't was not the Oracle but Death which could make him certain and without more ado he continued on his march never offering so much as once to salute Jupiter In short whosoever shall consider what the wisest of the Heathen spake concerning a Deity though they sometimes used the word Jupiter as being a Name most known to the Vulgar yielding herein as I have said to the Stile and Customs of the Times in which they liv'd Nevertheless the Descriptions they made could belong to none but to the only True and Immortal God For could that Jupiter be thought by them to be Hominum Sator atque Deorum who was born in Creete and so came into the World being Peopled before his Birth as now it is Could he be the Father of those who were born before himself Or could he give Immortality and Divinity to others who could not preserve himself from Death Could he be the just and upright Governour of the World who in his Life time committed so many Murders Rapes and Incests and after his fictitious Translation ceas'd not to have his Ganymede and to be employ'd about nothing more than to get Fuel for his Lust The grossest Heathen could never believe this much less so many Excellent and Learned Men amongst them of whom we read so much in prophane Story Some are of Opinion that this knowledge which the Heathen had of the True God was not from any instinct of the Light of Nature but from Divine Revelation first to the Patriarchs and from them by way of Tradition deliver'd from Generation to Generation The Ground for their Opinion is this The most Ancient Authors whose Testimonies are cited in this Argument are Zoroastres and Hermes Trismegistus The former is said to have lived about the beginning of the Chaldean Empire and is by some suppos'd to have been the Son or Nephew of Ham. Whoever he was Plutarch makes him Tract de Isid Oser to have liv'd many Ages before the Trojan Wars he is said also to have Instituted the Order of the Magi and in Imitation of these the Persians afterwards had their Sophi These Magi had the Custody of the Emperors Archives Registring the Actions of their Lives and were accounted as Oracles in Matters of Religion As for Mercurius Trismegistus he was an Egyptian and of the greatest Antiquity In the Works which bear his Name he seems to speak as clearly of the Divine Mysteries as Moses himself Now the Egyptians and the Chaldeans were ever accounted by all Prophane as well as Sacred Historians to have been the most Ancient of all Nations and we find in Scripture that 't was with these Nations the Patriarchs had greatest Commerce For Abraham liv'd for some time amongst the Chaldees and in Egypt where the Children of Jacob also with their Posterity sojourn'd for some Ages 'T was no wonder then that these two Nations should have so early a knowledge of Sacred Mysteries as also of all other kind of Learning From Egypt it was that the Greeks took their Light Orpheus the most Ancient Author amongst them visited Egypt and search'd into all their Sacred Records Next after him was Pythagoras who not only travell'd into Egypt but into Chaldea also and 't was from Pythagoras chiefly that Plato took his Notions as the Poets from Orpheus so that the nearer they were to the Original the better always were their Copies But whatsoever knowledge the Ancients had by this way of Tradition certain it is that they could not but receive much Light too from the Book of Nature For Reason tells us that whatsoever has a Beginning must have it either from it self or from some other not from it self for then must it have had an Existence before it had an Existence the thing which produces another being ever before that which is produc'd But if it has its beginning from something else and that from another and so on we must either make an Infinite Progress in Natural Productions which is utterly impossible for no Infinite can actually be made up of Finite Actions or we must at length resolve all into one first Cause which in it self is without beginning which can be no other than God Let a Man turn himself which way soever he pleases he shall find a vast Expanse of Creatures before his Eyes He sees the Earth producing every Living thing and Plants in their Season and yielding all things useful for the Life of Man He sees the Heavens beautified with innumerable Stars of vast Bulk and Purity he sees those Glorious Luminaries the Sun and Moon he sees all these Celestial Bodies how they are most regular and perpetual in their Motion most unchangeable in their Natures and of wonderful Influence
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
Concurrence in all their Actions whether Good or Evil it being impossible a Creature should subsist a moment independant upon God but more especially such Actions are ascrib'd to him by reason of his foreknowledge of all future Events from all Eternity And for as much as by his Previdence or Providence he so orders these wicked Actions as to make them beneficial to Men and declaratory of his own Glory either by using them as Punishments or to humble them under the sense of their Failings or to divorce them from their Passionate Desires after worldly Comforts all which shews great Power as well as Goodness proper only to Almighty God to produce such excellent Effects out of Evil and to make an Antidote out of the Poison of the Serpent This may more specially be demonstrated from all the Instances which Calvin does enlarge upon in making God to work inwardly in the Minds of Men and as it were to inspire them with wicked Purposes First then for Shimei's cursing David it was a Transgression against the Fifth Commandment of the Moral Law David who dated his Miseries from the time of his Sin against Vriah reflecting upon God's Just Judgments on him in a continual series of Afflictions commencing from that fatal Transgression piously ascribes this particular Injury of Shimei to God's Just Judgment for had he been ascertain'd that God had directed or inspir'd Shemei to it it had been very unjust in David upon his Death-bed to mind Solomon of taking Revenge on Shimei for what was done many years before by God's special Command Next for Absalom's lying with his Father's Concubines this was occasion'd by David's Transgression of the Seventh Commandment for which God tells him 2 Sam. 12. that he would raise up Evil against him out of his own House and that his Neighbour should lie with his Wives in the sight of the Sun which was verified in Absalom who transgressing the Fifth Commandment as also the Seventh executed what God had foretold by spreading upon the Terrass of the Royal Palace and there lying with his Father's Concubines in the sight of all Jerusalem This execrable Fact is said to be done by God's Appointment for as much as he made use of it for the Punishment of David by a way of Retaliation when yet the Author or Counsellor of this wicked advice was the Devil or Ahitophel who by this means thought to make the Breach betwixt the Father and the Son to be incurable Another Instance is that of Job's Calamities but this was not Malum Culpae but Malum Poenae design'd by God for the tryal of Job's Patience and for the Procurement of greater Blessings and executed by the Devil with design to drive Job to Desperation in which Passage we find that God's Part was only permissive in withdrawing that Vertue by which the Devil was kept in Awe and Subjection Another Example is that of the Prophet who seduc'd Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead 1 Kings 22. This was said also to be from the Lord forasmuch as he suffer'd a Spirit or the Devil to inspire the Prophets with a Lye This fatal End was justly due to Ahab who himself all his Life time had been willingly seduc'd by false Prophets and was guilty also of shedding the Blood of Innocent Naboth Nor does it appear that what was reported by Micaiah in this Matter was any more than Visionary representing God's Permission that Ahab should perish by Seducers who whilst he liv'd was the great Patron or Protector of them For to understand it literally that God did hold such a Consult and ask Advice of Evil Spirits how to destroy Ahab is what we cannot apprehend but under such Imperfections and Characters of Deformity as are utterly inconsistent with the Nature of God In like manner ought we to interpret that Place in Ezekiel of God's saying that when a Prophet is deceiv'd 't is he that deceiveth him as likewise that other Passage of 2 Thessal 2. all which cannot be understood otherwise than of God's withdrawing his Grace and so leave Men to the Course of their own Impetuous Lusts and Passions and to the Instigation of the Devil And here I cannot but call to remembrance how Blasphemously such Expressions were abus'd in the Time of the late Usurper For some of his Chaplains as they call'd themselves pretending to have a Revelation from Heaven of his Recovery when the Cheat was confuted by his subsequent Death one of them in a Strain of Humiliation charg'd God in the Language of Ezekiel crying out Lord thou hast deceiv'd us nay even thou hast ly'd unto us To such dreadful Blasphemies are Men misled by such gross and perverse Interpretation of Scripture The last Argument of Calvin's which I shall mention is that of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 6. Where God bids the Prophet Make the Heart of the people fat deafen their Ears and blind their Eyes lest they should see with their Eyes hear with their Ears and understand with their Hearts and be converted and live This Passage Calvin much triumphs in making frequent use of it to prove That Spiritual-Infatuation is the work of God Now if this be understood literally it proves that God does use his utmost endeavour to seduce and destroy those who otherwise would turn to him by Repentance a thing which cannot be thought of but with great Impiety Besides it proves the contrary to that for which Calvin does alledge it for Calvin labours to prove from hence that Man has not a power to decline a sinful Act when yet the Words import the very contrary For were it not for such a Spiritual Infatuation and Blindness Men happily might see and understand too and be converted so that they are blinded on purpose to prevent their Conversion by seeing And if they were blind before what needs a direction to make them blind This would be the same thing as if we should take one who was born without Eyes and shut him up in a dark close Dungeon for fear he should see and make an escape or as if we should load a Cripple with Irons for fear he should make use of his Legs and run away so that the very manner we see of the Prophets expressing himself does imply a power in the Sinner of making use of his Eyes and Understanding in order to his own Conversion All that can be concluded then from this place is this That God may in Justice deprive Men of or withdraw those Natural Gifts from wicked Men who have for a long time withstood the good Motions of God's Holy Spirit inviting them to Repentance which the Prophet does express Symbolically by deafning and blinding That we may not expatiate in infinitum upon this Topick we will take in one Instance more out of the New Testament which Calvin so much relies upon and which carries indeed the greatest shew of difficulty being that of Acts the 2. where St. Peter says that Christ was deliver'd up by
great Usurper in suppressing the Senate in whom the Government had so long continued yet the Senate themselves having confirm'd this Alteration for so many Ages and through so many Successions by infinite Decrees and Acts testifying their Submission here was a real Abdication or Resignation on their part And although they were at first brought to this by Conquest yet so many subsequent and voluntary Acts by which as it were step by step they divested themselves of their Authority settled an indubitable right of Government in the Heirs and Successors of Caesar Had Cato Cassius and the Bruti with others of the Republican Party prevailed after that bold blow they gave in the Senate they would have had not only Statues but also Altars and Temples erected to them But Octavian and his Party getting the better by many illegal Methods no less violent and sanguinous than those of his Predecessors the Form of the Government I say was chang'd and submitted to by the Senate themselves and those brave Men who endeavour'd to preserve and retrieve their Countries Liberty were stigmatiz'd with the black Character of Conspirators and Parricides So much does Success give Credit and Authority to Tyrannical Attempts Now where there is an Authority or Government of such continuance and so universally submitted to by the former Lords and Masters as the Roman Empire was at the time St. Paul wrote this Epistle then will it be pertinent to cite this Passage but when nothing of this appears an Argument taken from a State so settled and submitted to as the Roman Empire was is little to the purpose The same Answer serves to that place of St. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. As also that of our Saviours paying Tribute or giving to Caesar the things that were Caesar's for this was spoken about the Sixteenth Year of Tiberius and Seventy Years after the death of Julius so that in all these Cases there was no visible Right or Title which stood in competition with the Possession of the Empire Hitherto I have spoken to the Testimonies of Scripture in the Explication whereof the Rule is most safe and Orthodox viz. to interpret Scripture by Scripture and to understand it in such a Sense as shall not contradict a greater Evidence and Testimony of Scripture and not to do as some who when they are press'd with the pernicious Consequences of their Interpretation presently shelter themselves under God's unsearchable Wisdom crving out Who art thou O man who prescribest Rules to thy Maker with such Nonsensical Stuff as though God's Omnipotence could not be declared but by obtruding on him horrid Impieties and the most gross Absurdities By the same Capacity or Absurdity rather by which they endeavour'd from Scripture Testimonies to prove National Revolutions procur'd by wicked Means to be the peculiar and proper Work of God's Providence or that such Tyrannical Powers once introduc'd have God's Authority to warrant and defend them upon the Score of his Providential Prerogative I say by the same Logick we may prove from Scripture also that God has no Providential Care over the World at all Forasmuch as we read 2 Cor. chap. 4. That the God of this World viz. Satan hath blinded the Minds of Men so that the Dominion of Satan in his Government of this World is absolute and that of a God Now if the Devil rules in this World as Prince or God what Province to assign to God Almighty's Inspection is hard to imagine 'T is apparent therefore from hence That all such Scriptures are not to be understood literally but analogically and with reference to God's Attributes and to the Articles of our Christian Faith Where by the way we may also observe Calvin's perverse Interpretation of that place of 2 Thes chap. 2. where God is said to send them a strong delusion that they should believe a Lye that they all might be damn'd who believ'd not the Truth when yet from this place of the second to the Corinthians chap. 4. the blinding of the Minds of those who believe not is ascribed to the Devil to the Devil by the way of Counsel and Execution to God by way of Permission For we cannot ascribe this Spiritual Execution to God and Satan too in one and the same Sense without manifest Impiety But to return to the Temporal and greater Transactions of the World what can be more absurd than that all violent acquisitions all the Usurpations and Oppressions all the Blood Sacrilege Rapine and wicked Practices by which many Kingdoms and Empires through all Ages have been raised up propagated and enlarg'd I say that all such Kingdoms thus supported should be God's Ordinances and that they who do not acknowledge this are in a State of Damnation Hence it will follow that all the Christians who have groaned under the Turkish Slavery should they by adhering to Christian Princes endeavour to recover their former Fortunes and Liberties which they were Tyrannically deprived of in doing this they would resist the Ordinances of God and incur Damnation Nay 't will follow also that the power of Supremacy which the Pope is said to usurp is also of God or God's Ordinance And truly if Duration can give a Title this of the Pope's has been of longer continuance than any other Title now in Europe or perhaps in the whole World It has been challeng'd for above a Thousand Years and actually submitted to by a great many Nations But it may be said perhaps that the Popes Usurpations are Spiritual and that in Spiritual Matters we are to obey God rather than Man This Objection does not dissolve but rather knit the Knot faster For the Text saith There is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God so that all Power without exception falls under a Notion of God's Ordinance And truly if God take such a care for Temporal Administration much more for Spiritual if a Sparrow falls not to the Ground without his Will he must needs be morè concern'd for so great a Body of Men the Church being that which he himself with his own Right Hand hath planted in sending his only Son to purchase it by his Incarnation and suffering death upon the Cross The Spiritual Capacity is his Kingdom more peculiarly and tho' the Papal Power were an Usurpation that 's no matter it being once possess'd by the Bishop of Rome and that for so long a time it becomes a settled Government and an Ordinance of God They therefore who in the first Reformation did resist this Power did according to these Mens Doctrine resist the Ordinance of God and are liable for so doing to Damnation And thus have they found out a new Argument to justifie the Pope's Authority such as never any Jesuit nor the Pope himself yet dream'd of Nay the Dominion and Power of Antichrist according to their Doctrine must be an Ordinance of God's also For whether the Pope be Antichrist or whether he be yet to come certain it
Penitent another while as an humble Petitioner anon with Strains of Gratitude and in Heavenly Raptures he addresses himself to his Creator and Celebrates the Praises of Almighty God by recounting his Wonders and Mercies his Comforts and many Deliverances all which cannot but shew that they were dictated by another Spirit and kindled by a purer Fire than what commonly sparkles in the gay Fancies and Inventions of Men. As for the Historical Books of the Old Testament we have touch'd upon them already and we may say of the whole Book or Collection of these Sacred Writings that 't is like the Manna it speaks of it is Food to every Palate such as does not nauseate but has a rellishing Taste of every thing and creates an Appetite And 't is worth our Observation that let a Man read these Holy Writings with all attention imaginable yet when he comes to read them again he shall discover some things of which he was ignorant before though he repeat the Section of them to the very end of his Life which shews that t is a Spring which is inexhaustible and that the more we drink of these Waters the more we thirst from whence it is that the Wisest and most Learned Men have addicted themselves most to the reading of these Books the nearer they drew towards their End which shews also that 't is their Nature to lead Men forwards towards a State of further Perfection Another thing which shews these Books to be of Divine Inspiration is the manner of their writing Turn over all human Histories whatsoever and we shall still find it to have been their grand Scope and Design to magnifie their own Nation and to represent their Actions with all advantageous Characters imaginable to applaud their own Customs and Manners and to avouch the Justice of their Dealings But 't is otherwise in these Sacred Writings the Pen-Men of them are in nothing more copious than in shewing the Blemishes of their own Nation their Apostacies their Idolatrous Dispositions together with the notorious and scandalous Lapses and Relapses of their Kings though held in never so great esteem for Power and Goodness And this certainly is an Invincible Argument that they did not in their Reports proceed upon Natural and Human Considerations but as it was dictated to them by a higher and more noble Impulse and contrary to the Genius and Temper of that Nation who in reality were as Vain Self-admiring and Unconstant as any other People upon the Face of the Earth 'T is beyond my Power to answer such Difficulties as occur in the Old Testament touching the Jewish Genealogies and Chronologies together with some Customs and Passages as seem strange to us of this Age since we find the like and greater in the Writings of all prophane Authors though never so well digested or perhaps God Almighty might on purpose suffer some Passages to be obscure and seemingly Repugnant to our Understandings the better to subjugate our Reason to Faith which is a more excellent degree of assent because it resolves it self into the absolute Authority and Veracity of the Proponent without hesitance or any dependance upon our own feeble Notions In the last Place the Divine Authority of these Sacred Writings is legible in the Acts and Monuments even of Human Antiquity so that the most polite Writers amongst the Ancients did light their Candles from this Sacred and ever burning Lamp Virgil and Ovid borrowed out of Genesis their History of the Worlds Creation which they improv'd or rather debas'd by their Poetick Fictions Iapetus the Father of Prometheus and by whom the World was Re-peopled after the Flood was no other but Japhet whom the Poets feign'd to be the Son of Coelum and Terra that is to have had his Extraction from God The Ogygian and Deucalion Floods were Poetick Fictions deriv'd from Noah's Deluge Plutarch Plutarch lib. quod Bruta ratione utuntur makes mention too of a Doves being sent out of an Ark by Deucalion to discover the Abatement of the Waters The Giants climbing up to Heaven was taken from the building of Babel we find also whatsoever occurs in the Fragments of Prophane Writers of greatest Antiquity to square with the Accounts we meet with in the Jewish Monuments The Egyptians and Chaldeans were ever held amongst prophane Authors to have been the most Ancient of Nations and we find the same in Scripture also The History of the burning of Sodom has left indelible Marks of its verity in the Bituminous Waters and noisom smells of the Lake adjoining which is so stinking and poisonous that nothing can live in it as appears even at this very day as also in the Fruits which grow near that accursed Place which though most beautiful to the Eye are easily crumbled to Dust and Ashes as Morney du Plessis a Morn cap. 26. de Verit. Rel. proves out of Galen Strabo Solinus and others The same thing is affirm'd also by Tacitus The departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses with many other Passages of the Old Testament are mention'd by b Justin lib. 36. Justin as also by c Lib. 5. Hist Tacitus though with some depravation The simplicity and plain Pastoral Life together with the Habits of the Patriarchs are much the same which we meet with in Homer who liv'd a little after the time of David in his Descriptions of the Age and Men of which he wrote and even the Feasts of the Gods consisted of no other Dainties than Bread and Wine The Temple of Solomon was so famous throughout the World that it gave the denomination to the City it self which is called Hierosolyma quasi Hieron Solomonis or the Temple of Solomon And even at this very day the great Emperor of the Abyssines or of Ethiopia called Prester John with all the Natives of that vast Country though Christians still retain Circumcision not as brought thither by the Eunuch who was Baptiz'd by St. Philip but in Memory of their descent from the Queen of Sheba whom Solomon treated not only at his Table but at his Bed also so that amongst other proud Titles of that Emperour he glories most in stiling himself the Son of Solomon and of David The Memory of the Ten Tribes who were at several times carried away Captives by Teylath Phalastor and Salmanastor into the Desart and Nothern Parts of Media is preserv'd to this very day in the Tartars who 't is certain are descended from the Jews who were dispers'd by the Medes their Conquerors for the Colchians who were the Progenitors of the Tartars as Herodotus tells us Herod lib. 2. were Circumcis'd tho' the Name of Tartar was not considerable nor known till about the year of our Lord 1200. at such times as Givigi their Captain began to over-run the World with his Barbarous Multitudes However so it was that they still retain'd Circumcision even long before they ever heard of Mahomet and upon
Paul fully shews Hebr. the 4th where he proves also that the promised Rest was not that which Joshua gave them in Caanan Farther yet 't is not improbable that God should conceal this Important Truth from the Jewish Fathers to the end their Faith might be more Illustrious for the less of Evidence the greater is the Excellence of Faith as St. Paul pursues at large through the 11th Chap. to the Hebrews in the many noble Acts of Faith recorded of the Jewish Worthies and particularly of the Patriarchs he expounds it that they saw the Promises a far off and that they were only as Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth seeking another Country which was heavenly Now if they who had but such a saint glimmering or dawning of a future State should live in such a constant dependance upon God's Providence with such exactness of Moral Justice and with such indifference for the Things of this Life in respect of God's Commands was a thing infinitely more Noble than if they had had future Rewards within a near prospect for then Self-Interest might seem to have been their Motive whereas now all their Obedience was resolv'd into the Will and Pleasure of their Almighty Sovereign and therefore 't is that Abraham's Faith is so highly recommended to us in this Chapter For in his readiness to sacrifice his Son he actually sacrific'd all the Affections of Nature and the considerations even of his Reason in his chearfull compliance with God's Commands Many are the noble Acts of Faith recorded of these famous Men of old who yet received not the Promises God having provided some better things for us that they without us should not be made perfect In short the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality being taught by Jesus Christ and the divine Authority of Jesus Christ being evidently deduc'd from the Writings of the Old Testament it follows also that this Doctrine was therein contain'd as to its Causes like as an Embryo in the Womb which though invisible for a while was in its due time to be brought forth and be made manifest to the World Another Objection from Scripture against the Immortality of the Soul may be grounded upon that Passage of Genesis the 9th whereby God speaking of Man said Gen. 9th Surely the Blood of your Lives will I require at the Hand of every Beast will I require it c. what our Translation renders Life is by the Vulgar rendred Soul or the Blood of your Souls and therefore Levit. 17. 't is said that the Life or Soul of all Flesh is the Blood thereof and for that Reason 't was that Blood was prohibited as being the Life or Soul of every living Creature Now if the Life or Soul be the Blood or in the Blood as the Phrase is us'd promiscuously it follows that proportionably to the effusion of Blood the Soul also is effusible and consequently divisible and Mortal To this 't is answer'd that Scripture Phrases are not to be taken according to the strict Notions of Philosophy but according to the Apprehensions and customary Speech of those they are directed to For so it is that whilst we see Life departing leisurely upon the effusion of Blood we say commonly that the Soul departeth with it forasmuch as the Spirits which are the great Instruments of the Soul are recruited by the Blood which upon this consideration also may be said to be the Vehicle of Life but cannot be said to be Life it self but in an improper sense for though upon an Evacuation of the Blood the Soul or Life departeth so the Soul or Life may depart also the Blood still remaining in the Body without any notable diminution or alteration The next Prejudice against the Immortality of the Soul is grounded upon the Birth Growth Progress and Decays we observe usually of its operations conformable to the several Stages of Life Reason we see does begin to disclose it self in Child-hood and although some Men have a greater share of it than others yet upon the main it seems to borrow its Improvements from the different Tempers and Dispositions of Men and the several Methods of Education nay some Countries have an Influence upon the Genius's of Men more than others and inclines them to more Man-like and regular Thoughts and render them quicker Witted and subtle If the Soul of Man were endow'd naturally with such excellent Gifts why does it not manifest the same without so much cultivation and Expense without so much diligence and study and as fast as we acquire the knowledg of some things we forget others so that all the Productions of the Mind are rather the effects of Art than of Nature We see also when the Body is most Athletick the Mind also is most vigorous and as the Body decays by Age or Sickness so the Functions of the Soul languish also and by all the Experiments we can make are totally suppress'd by Death Besides if the Soul of Man were Immortal how comes it to pass that it has naturally such a horrour of Death whereas it should rather rejoice at its approach as the only means of its deliverance from that Obscurity and Restraint it is subject to in the Body from which being once releas'd 't is said to enjoy a perfect and unchangable State of Bliss To the latter part of this Objection 't is answer'd that the Fears which seize usually on dying Men is the best Argument in the World to prove the Soul's Immortality For dying Men could never have such a fear had they not Apprehensions of a future State as also of its Duration and Immutability so that these Considerations being incident to Men of all Conditions Ages Countries and Perswasions prove sufficiently that they are inherent and natural to the Soul as Gravity Levity and such like Inclinations of Bodies do demonstrate there is another Region without them to which they naturally tend were the Soul of Man as well as his Body extinguishable by Death to dye would be no more than to close up all the Labours of a tedious Life in one found and eternal Sleep a thing which all Men naturally would rather covet than abhor But when a departing Soul feels an inward Agony and labours betwixt Hopes and Fears it shews it is approaching towards a future state of Happiness or Woe the apprehension whereof cannot choose but fill it with some amazement and distraction As to the other part of this Objection viz. That the Powers of the Soul do rise and fall proportionably to the Improvements and Delays of Nature therefore they must perish with it I answer this does by no means follow A Candle burns brighter or dimmer as the Glass or Lanthorn which contains it is more clear or cloudy and yet the Light would not be extinguished though the brittle Case were broken but on the contrary it would appear with a fuller Lustre and diffuse its Beams without confinement When we see one of those floating Castles of the Sea
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