Rationalis facultatis arguunt similiter c. that as the operations of Brutes how sagacious soever they be yet being compared with the operations of men do manifest a want of a faculty in them that we are endowed with so the sublimest actions of Natural men being compared with the operations of such as are born of God do as plainly argue the lack of a faculty in those which these have Thes. Salm Tom. 1. p. 139. 3. Their knowledg of divine truths is not transformative Their assent is accompanied with a disaffected heart to the things they assent to Under all the imbellishments of knowledg they are not attempered into the likeness of what they believe and profess Their hearts are not changed into the vital Image of truth but remain Animal and Brutish notwithstanding all the Notions their heads are fraught with They are not cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the form and moâ—ld of the doctrine they believe Their hearts and affections are not framed into the similitude and figure of it The Word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ingrafted Word turning the whole stock into its own nature and likeness But they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold or imprison the truth in unrighteousness Inest homini sanctâ— legis scientia nec â—amen sanatur vitiosa concupiscentia Aug. lib. de gest Pelag. cap. 7. see Rom. 7.8 Fourthly Because of Weakness through the loss of the Divine Image and because of Enmity through indwelling lust we are altogether unable in our selves savingly to comply with the terms of the Gospel There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a want of power in every one of us to those things No man can come to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 To come is as much as to own Christ as the sealed and Anointed of God and to believe in him as the alone Mediatour and Surety Joh. 5.40 Joh. 6.35 37. And without the Fathers drawing i. e. without an efficacious work of God ingaging the Soul in a most sweet but powerful manner no one will be ever found in the practice and exercise of those things There is both that disproportion of faculty and that wicked aversation from the terms of the Gospel in every one which only the Divine Spirit can relieve and conquer Objective grace or the Moral Swasion of the word is not enough we need also subjective Grace and a new principle What a dead man is to vital operations that every one by Nature is to Spiritual acts The soul is not more necessary to the body for the functions of Life Sense and Reason than the Spirit of life in the New Birth is to all holy performances We not only need insinuations of Spiritual light to awaken our slumbring minds but to elevate and dispose them for the due perception of the things of God nor do we only need grace to court our perverse wills but to determine them to the choice of holiness An impotency is acknowledged by all who measure their conceptions about these things either by the declaration of the Word or the Universal experience of Mankind The Natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 The Carnal mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdom of the flesh i. e. the best thoughts affections inclinations and motions of the mind of a Natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being as much as homo corruptus Joh. 3.6 Gen. 6.3 is Enmity against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the abstract For it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 Fifthly How this impotency is now to be called is not of so great consequence as some men make it For on the one hand all are agreed that it consists not in a Deprivation of any Essential Power or Faculty of our Rational Being This Spanhemius as well as Amyrald Twiss as well as Truman are at an accord in And it is granted likewise on the other hand that it is not only Congenite with us and so in that sense Natural wherein we are said to be by Nature the Children of Wrath but farther that it implies both á want of concreated Rectitude and a connate pravity and aversation from God and that it is only God who can overcome our opposition and relieve our weakness and that secluding his work upon the soul we neither will nor can comply savingly with the terms of the Gospel so that whether it ought to be stiled a Moral or a Natural Impotency is for the most part but a strife about words There is a perfect harmony as to the sense and meaning the alone contest is about the manner of expressing and phrasing it Philosophy is only concerned in it not Divinity Nor is the question who speaks most truly but who speaks most properly It is the dispute of Divines not of Divinity The terms might have been avoided without prejudice to truth Nor do I know any reason for the use of them but to confound mens apprehensions I heartily wish that those Learned persons who have made so great a noise about Moral and Natural power would have been so ingenuous as to have told the World that they impeached no man of error but only of solecism and that their adversaries were as sound in the matter contended about as themselves only that they had not the luck of declaring it in so apt words as this would have contributed more to the peace of the Church so hereby private Christians would have judged their concern but small in these debates But seeing for Reasons that I think not fit to enquire into this needful Advertisement hath been neglected I hope it will not prove an unacceptable service that we have here suggested it presupposing then that Agreement in the Main which hath been intimated All that lies upon our hand is to enquire who express themselves most Philosophically in this matter And though I must confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Halicarn apt words are of great import to a clear apprehension of things yet I must withal add that I am no friend to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a coâ—ning of new terms when old ones will serve the turn And I am so far from seeing any solid ground why in the matter and case before us we should wave the word Natural for the word Moral that I think there is a great deal of reason for the contrary 1. The most likely way of arriving at a distinctness of understanding our present inability is by considering what at first was communicated to us and for what ends and according to this method of proceed I would argue thus That impotency which consists in the want of a principle not only concreated with us but Naturally due to our undefiled Natures in order to our living acceptably to God may I think not unfitly be called a
live soberly to our selves righteously towards our neighbour or answerably to the dependance we have on or the relations we stand in unto God whence it naturally by a kind of necessity comes to pass that they are wholly estranged in their lives from that Sobriety Temperance Justice Equity Devotion Humility Gratitude Meekness c. they should be in the exercise of These men presume themselves into Salvation and claim happiness on the boldness of their belief nor do they apply themselves to conquer heaven otherwise than in the alone virtue of their imagination If they can but arrive at so much impudence as to vote themselves Saints they think that they are acquitted from all care of Vertue and Obedience These are the men who set vertue and grace at odds who frame to themselves a Religion not only empty of but inconsistent with real goodness the unhappy off-spring of those whom the Apostle James encounters Cap. 2. vers 14. to the end The Second is That some having obtained of themselves endeavour to prevail with others to renounce and seclude all infused principles commonly called grace with the subjective influences of the Spirit and to erect in the room thereof acquired habits natural dispositions innate abilities and moral vertues as the whole of that in the strength of which we may live acceptably to God and acquire a fitness and title to immortality and life Moral vertue saith a late Author is not onely the most material and useful part of all Religion but the ultimate end of all its other duties And all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the practice of vertue it self or the use of those means and instruments that contribute to it Eccles. polit p. 69. All Religion is either vertue it self or some of its instruments and the whole duty of man consists in being vertuous ibid. p. 71. There is nothing beyond the bounds of moral vertue but Chimera's and flying Dragons illusions of fancy impostures of Enthusiasm Idem def continuat p. 338 339. Hence he challengeth any man to give him a notion of grace distinct from morality affirming that if grace be not included in morality that it is at best but a phantasm and an imaginary thing Eccles. polit p. 71. and again that the spirit of God and the grace of Christ when used as distinct from moral abilities performances signify nothing def continuat p. 343. Thus vertue grace are not only made co-incident morality and Religion in its utmost latitude made convertible terms but in the pursuance of these Notions men are acted to vent all manner of contempt against the Spirit of God deriding the inward operations quicknings and influences of the Holy Ghost as Enthusiastick dreams canting phrases the fumes of Religious madness To be born again and to have a new spiritual life is a phantastick jargon unless it only signify to become a new moral man saith the former Author def continuat p. 343 344. All the pretended intercourse betwixt Christ a believing soul in way of discoveries manifestations spiritual refreshments withdrawings dâ—sertions is nothing but the ebbs and tydes of the humours of the body and the meer results of a natural and mechanical Enthusiasm nor otherwise intelligible than by the laws of mechanism as the motion of the heart and the circulation of the blood are ibid. p. 339 340 341 342. Hence to describe conversion by our being united to Christ and ingrafted in him is called a rowling up and down in ambiguous phrases and canting in general expressions of Scripture without any concern for their true sense and meaning ibid. p. 343. The consideration of the inconsistency of these principles with truth the affront offered to the Gospel and dammage done to the souls of men by each of them hath led me to this undertaking On the one hand to separate grace from vertue and to set faith and morality at variance cannot but furnish men Atheistically and irreligiously disposed with occasion of Blaspheming that worthy name by which we are called it being too much the custom of prejudiced disingenuous persons to reflect the scandals which arise either from the doctrines or conversations of professors on that Holy and innocent Religion which they though but hypocritically do profess On the other hand to swallow up the whole of Religion in morality seems a plain renouncing of the Gospel and shapen particularly to befriend men in such a design For if the Gospel be nothing but a restitution of the Religion of Nature as the aforesaid Author affirms def continuat p. 316. And if the Christian institution doth not introduce any new duties distinct from the eternal rules of Morality as is alledged def continuat p. 305. I see not but that whoever would act consistently to these principles he must needs proceed to a plain renunciation of all the instituted duties of the Gospel which is to overturn the whole fabrick of Christianity confine himself to the Decalogue that being a plain and full system of the law of nature and a sufficient transcript of the duties we were obliged to by the rule of Creation Nor supposing that Martin Sidelius was not mistaken in his hypothesis that all Religion consists in morality alone The same opinion with that asserted by a late Author can I censure him for what he thereupon proceeded to namely the renouncing the Gospel Nor doth he deserve the character fastned upon him def continuat p. 313. of a foolish and half-witted fellow upon the account of his deductions they being neither streined nor absurd but clear and natural whatever he demerited upon the score of his premises These among other Considerations having swayed me to this undertaking I would hope that an endeavour of instructing the minds of Men and of contributing to the conduct of their Judgments and Consciences in those things may not be unacceptable and the rather because not onely of some difficulty in setting forth the due lines measures and bounds of Vertue and Grace the describing their mutual Relations and the subordination of the one to the other But because there is very little extant upon the subject at least with respect to the end and in the manner that it is here managed Nor indeed was any thing of this nature thought necessary in a Nation where the Gospel is embraced till the Debates and Discourses of some have of late made it so § 2. To avoid all Ambiguity Darkness and Prevarication it will be needful ere we make any further proceed that we fix the meaning and import of Vertue and Morality Grace and Religion these being the terms of the Question to be Discoursed and Decided nor without a setling the Notion and Conception of these can any thing of this Argument be duly understood Vertue is a term seldome occuring in the Scripture In the Old Testament we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chajil several times rendred by our
with men neither will nor can come up to and where there is no provision for their relief signifies not very much nor accords with infinite Wisdom which adapts one thing to another Of all the defenders of Universal objective Grace they spake most coherently who affirmed the Heathens to have been saved by Philosophy as well as the Jews were by the Law or we by the Gospel vid. Clem. Alexand. Strom. lib. 7. Just. Mart. Apolog. 2. Secondly such is the disproportion betwixt our intellectual faculties and the great objects of the Gospel that they can neither fathom nor bear the Majesty of the doctrines of the New Covenant though they be never so clearly revealed The Sun doth not more overpower and dazle the eye than those things of the Gospel from which all our pardon and peace flow's do overmatch our understandings The Natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of a large inteâ—â—ect Receiveth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est capax is not adapted a metaphore saith Beza taken from a small vessel which cannot admit any large body into it the things of the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in contradistinction from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may gather cockles on the shore but we cannot dive to the bottom of these depths It is enough that we are perswaded of the infallibility of the Testimony we must not hope to comprehend the things testified Our work is not so much to look after the evidence of the things themselves as the Evidence of the Revelation of them And herein we have an instance of the Love Care and Wisdome of God that what is most incomprehensible in its own Nature is above all other things revealed in terms most plain and intelligible The obscurity of the Mysterious truths of the New Covenant is not to be reflected on the darkness of the Declaration but is to be ascribed to the Majesty of the things declared Est enim objectum ita sublime ut a mente nostra perfectè comprehendi nequeat non etiamsi careret omni labe tantae scilicet rei creatura modus capax non est The things are in themselves so sublime that were our understandings pure and unspotted they could not be grasped or comprehended Our fâ—â—ite capacities bearing no proportion to them Amyrald Therefore as one says sicut in Logicis argumentum facit fidem sit in Theologicis fides facit argumentum as demonstration begets faith in Philosophy so faith begets assurance in Divinity Alex. Aâ—ens The Scripture of whose Divineness we have all the evidence that is possible is the truest ground for the certainty of particular Doctrines that our understandings can rest in Jansenius therefore say's well that quemadmodum intellectus Philosophiâ— suscipiendâ— propria facultas est ita memoria Theologia Ille quippe intellecta principia penetrando Philosophâ—m facit haec ea quae sibi scriptâ— aâ—t praedicatione tradita sunt recordando Theologum Christanum As the understanding is the proper faculty for Philosophy so is the memory for Theology for as that by penetrating into the Principles of things makes a Philosopher so this by remembring what it meets with in and hearâ— from the Word maketh a Divine Tom. 2. lib. proâ—â—m cap. 4. pag. 4. Thirdly There is not only a Physical disproportion through the finiteness of our faculties betwixt us the objects of the Gospel but there is also a contracted adventitious Moral ineptitude through the privâ—tion and loss of that Rectitude which was at first concreated with us I grant that the Doctrines of the Gospel being attended with so great subjective and objective evidence of their truth neither indwelling lust nor practical immorality can prove a total bar to the assenting to them Unregenerate men may perceive the truth of Scripture-Propositions as well as of those of Humane Authors The word revealing things as clearly and being accompanied with more stronger motives of credibility than any other writings are But through want of a Vital alliance to the things they are conversant about there is a Threefold unhappiness such men labour under 1. They are Sceptical and fluctuating in the belief of Gospel-truths Every temptation can fetch them off In stead of a firm settledness of mind in the perswasion of them they are loose and Aporetical Their assents are weak and vanishing Divine truths having no cognation with the subject they are in they are easily blown away or wither whatever certainty be in the object there is little in the Mind They want the full assurance of understanding of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. No man saith the Apostle can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 He cannot say and profess it from a full perswasion of heart till the Holy Ghost have taught it him See Heb. 11.1 And remember the notion we have already given of the design and meaning of those words 2 Their knowledg of Gospel-mysteries is not affective They do not savour the things they assent to Objects have quite an other aspect to an unregenerate person than they have to one that is renewed in the Spirit of his mind and the act of seeing is of a different kind How tastless are the great truths of the Gospel to unregenerate souls and how faint are the Rayes of Gospel-Light The mind being deprav'd by impure and vitious tinctures it doth not relish the things which it is even perswaded of Unless a man saith Christ be born again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he cannot see know or understand the Kingdome of Heaven the mysteries and doctrines of the Gospel Hence it is that the believing soul though otherwise simple and ignorant hath an insight into the things of God which the Learned whose hearts are not connaturalized to the Gospel have not It is one thing to know in the Light of Reason and another thing to know in the Light of the Spirit Therefore the doctrines of the new Covenant being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Spiritualiter res divinas cognoscere est eas agnoscere judicio ductu illuminatione Spiritûs sicut animaliter vel rationaliter cognoscere aliquid est ex judicio rationis cognoscere Musc. ad 1 Cor. 2. Animalis homo intelligiâ— quidem vocabula aliquot sententias Sâ—iritualem autem corum sensum percipere fidem â—is habere noâ— potest Par. ad 1 Cor. 2 14. Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 They lye out of the Gust and true perception of a Carnal man For as to discern Rationally is to perceive it in the vertue of a Rational Principle and through the influence of Reason So to discern a thing Spiritually is to do it by a Spiritual Principle and through the illumination of the Holy Ghost It is an excellent expression of Amyralds Quod sicut operationes omnium animantium quantumvis subtilissimae nihilominus cum iis quae a mente hominis proficiscuntur collatae defectum
our impotency relieved our faculties healed and elevated to concur as vital principles of Faith and New Obedience There is a secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or powerful working on the Soul by which the darkness that did benight us is dispelled our minds irradiated with beams of light our wills softned and rendâ—ed plyant and our affections purified and changed The faculties being one individual entity both with one another and with the Soul only receiving various denominations according to its exertions to different objects what-ever impresseth or affecteth the Soul so as to dispose it to one operation disposeth it proportionably to all This is called the saving us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 The Creating us again to good works Eph. 2.10 The shining into our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The giving us an understanding to know Him that is True 1 Joh. 5.20 The enlightning the eyes of our Understanding Eph. 1.18 The working in us to will and to do Phil. 2.12 The writing the Law in our hearts Jer. 3â— 33 Hence we are said to be born of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God Joh. 6.45 To receive an Unction from the Holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 This is the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.23 24. This is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 This is a vital Law Rom. 8.2 The Spirit of God dwelling in us Rom. 8.9 By this we become of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord Isa. 11.33 This restoreth the Soul to an athletique healthiness like leaven ferments it into its own Nature and by a vital antipathy crosseth all the heavings and stirrings of Lust in it And where this inward working is withheld outward teaching signifies little Sonus verborum nostrorum aures percutit Magister â—â—tus est Nolite putare quenquam hominem discere ab homine Admonere possumus per strepitum vocis nostra si non intus sit qui doceat inauis fit strepitus noster The sound of our words strike the ear but the teacher is within No man learns of another the things of God We may admonish but all is in vain unless he be within that instructs August Per vocem non instruitur quando mens per spiritum non Ungitur Where there is not the inward anointing there is no saving instruction received by the outward Ministry of the Word Gregorius vocaâ— allocutionem intimâ— inspirationis quae humanam mentem contingendo sublevat Greg. Homil. 30. in Evang. There is an actual influence of the Spirit both irradiating the word and elevating the faculty otherwise nothing is truly attained § 16. A New Principle being thus formed in the soul there is thereby begotten a promptitude and readiness of acting according to the Law of Creation So that where-ever there is Grace there is Vertue also Grace is our Medicine by which our Aversation and Weakness in reference to the Original Law is removed and healed and proportionably to that measure of it we are made partakers of we are brought under an inclination and into an aptitude of obeying the Primitive Law There is hereby an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a restoring us in Christ as our head to our primitive dependance on God Eph. 1.10 Through him we are not only recovered to a state of favour but reduced to a subject posture The Soul is now brought into a due subordination to God as its Maker Preserver and Rector In stead of adhering to the Creatures and pursuing the gratification of the animal life God becomes our great end and the pleasing him in all things our main study and endeavour According as the will of God becomes known it is spontaneously embraced and complacentially rested in The Grace of God not only teacheth but inableth us to deny Ungodliness and Worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godlily in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. Exemplariness in all vertuous conversation is a certain concomitant effect of renewing Grace However immoral men may be antecedently to their being born of God yet afterwards vertue is a chief part of their endeavour and study 1 Cor. 6.11 If any then pretending to Grace do either in their doctrines encourage immorality as the Nicolaitans and Marcionites of old and some Germane Antinomians of late or in their practice be void of sobriety and honesty Let the persons so teaching and walking bear the imputation of it but let not Religion in General be reflected on So far are all the Advocates of Grace as distinct from Moral Vertue that I know of from setting them at odds that they Unanimously affirm that where there is not Vertue there can be no Grace and that none can be truly Devout that is not highly Moral It is true our renovation being carried on but by degrees and there being remains of indwelling and unmortified lust in the best there is not one but at some time or other is transported less or more to undue objects But so far as any one is imbued with the spirit of life and born of God he sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3.9 It is a most slanderous imputation therefore which a late Author fast'neth upon the Nonconformists that they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners Eccles. Polit. p. 74. see also Def. Continuat p. 308. 338. c. § 17. An Obedience to the Law of Creation answerable to the Original and proper form and tenour of it we have already demonstrated to be in the lapsed state impossible For as it is a contradiction to make that not to have been which hath been so is it to suppose a conformity in him who hath sinned to that Law which in its primitive Sanction requireth every man to be sinless Yet this Law being still continued not only as the Rule that God will judge every man by who through non-compliance with the terms of the Gospel is not relieved by the Law of Faith But also as the Rule of that obedience which with some attemperations introduced by the Indulgence and Mitigation of the New Covenant God continues to exact of every one that shall enter into life It will not be amiss to enquire briefly into the Nature and degree of that obedience and to state the ability we enjoy through Christ of performing it First then Sincere Obedience to the whole Law of Creation is not only still required but it is required under the penalty of Damnation Though the Gospel relieve us from the sentence of the Law on faileur of perfect obedience yet it ministers no such relief where there is a want of sincere Obedience An endeavour to walk in all the Moral