liberty of the Will but speaking of that famous Difficulty concerning the inconsistence of the Divine Prescience with it he says that we are not to deny the truth of a Proposition or Notion which we feel and of which we are intimately conscious to our selves for the sake of a Being whose Modes of operation and ways of scientifical Intuition by reason of his infirnity we cannot comprehend And I do appeal to any Man in the World let him be who he will and of what perswasion soever if Posidonius in a raging fit of the Gout or Stone should yet out of an affected piece of Stoicism pretend that all that while he feels no manner of Pain but that he is perfectly at ease and should not have suspected himself to be at all discomposed were it not for the Visits of his Friends and the formality of a Nurse and a Physician by his Bed-side that he is listning all this while with unspeakable Delight to the Tunefull and Melodious Musick of the Spheres when yet his Groans and wry Faces do sufficiently confess that he feels no such Harmony within would not every one say that he does not believe himself and that he has no reason to expect that any one else should believe him And shall we not with equal reason say the same of him who will needs argue and dispute himself into a necessary Agent notwithstanding he feels himself inwardly to be Free Or how is it possible for us ever to look on any Proposition as True when the universal Seemings and Appearances of Mankind and those not of things without us but such as if they be any thing at all are a part of our very Nature and are always most intimately present with and in us shall yet notwithstanding be looked upon as no better than Dreams and Delusions of a sickly Mind This is the first Answer to the first Advantage that may be taken from the consideration of that Lucta or Contention which there is between the two Principles of the Flesh and Spirit as that Contention is described by St. Paul But Secondly The second Answer may be that if this place of St. Paul or any other be to be understood of an absolute and uncontrollable Necessity overruling all actions and thwarting perpetually all our good Desires so as without the help of an irresistible Grace they can never produce their effect this will destroy not only the Necessity but the nature of Obedience for Obedience and Compulsion are inconsistent together to Obey is one thing and to be compelled is another not only of a quite different but of a quite contrary Nature Thirdly Since it is supposed at least from this very place of St. Paul that there are such good Desires implanted in us by Nature which yet for all that are everlastingly overborn without being able to attain that end to which they are directed what is this but to represent God as the most cruel and arbitrary Being that can possibly be conceived who does not only plague and torment us in the other World for no reason but his own arbitrary Will and Pleasure but to compleat the Torment of those whom he has predestined to Eternal Flames and to signalize his utmost Vengeance and Displeasure against them He begins the Tragedy in this Life and creates in them a longing after Happiness and Virtue only to make them the more exquisitely Miserable by an everlasting Frustration Fourthly and Lastly St. Paul himself in the beginning of the next Chapter hath these words For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of Sin and Death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit In which words it is plain beyond all possible colour of Exception that we are capable by Nature of paying some sort of Obedience to the Laws of God and right reason for whatever is weak is acknowledged to have a comparative though imperfect Strength and whatever wants to be fulfilled or compleated is at the same time acknowledged to have something of its own And so St. Paul tells us elsewhere not that we cannot possibly do any good work or think so much as a good thought of our selves by our own natural ability and power but that we have all Sinned and come short of the glory of God that is that our Obedience though it is not nothing and though it may be syncere yet it is imperfect and stands in need upon account of its defects of some other Expiation than what we are able to make so that after all it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth though we may do both but of God that sheweth Mercy It is so far from being true that by reason of the Original corruption of our natures we are carried forth with such an irresistible violence to all manner of Evil that it needs a perpetual Miracle to hinder the most profligate wretches from being worse than they are which yet Mr. Calvin does expresly assert and I have shewn that by his principles he is bound to do it that on the contrary it is acknowledged by St. Paul himself that there are very strong desires and tendencies to Goodness very powerful inclinations and breathings after Virtue implanted in us by nature and it is manifest by experience that all manner of Wickedness even in those who are arrived at the utmost perfection of degeneracy and Lewdness is at first accompanied with a sensible regret and pain that every man in the cool and unprejudiced retirement of his thoughts condemnes it and finds always in it an harsh and grating Incongruity to the natural grain and byass of his mind Nemo repente fuit turpissimus it requires a great deal of exercise and practice for a man to arrive at such a desperate pitch of Madness and Folly as to sin without any reluctancy or pain without some inward blushing and secret shame without a silent Confession of his Guilt and an earnest though fruitless and impracticable Desire that his lost Innocence might be retrived Every man is naturally desirous of a good name and a good name in the common judgment of all Mankind not excepting those themselves who have most grosly forfeited their Title to it is only to be purchased by worthy Inclinations and virtuous Deeds and for what those Deeds and those Inclinations are we have the same unanimous and universal consent All men admire and envy the Virtues of those who are better than themselves they excuse their own Follies by comparing them with those of other men and they uphold their drooping Spirits which would otherwise be oppressed by the too heavy weight of guilt and shame either by such Intemperance as removes from
punishment of his in another world that was instantly to have Commenced for a temporary cooler Hell here hardened his heart and obstructed all possibility of Repentance from him and so concluded him in this life in an irreversible Estate Which notion he afterwards improves to the same purposes that I have done and after some further discourse upon this occasion p. 18. He concludes thus All which being not only granted but proposed as necessary considerations to be taken along with this Doctrine it remains still clear and uncontrouled that God may if he will thus punish a hard heart with total and final substraction of Grace and so with hardening irreversibly either here which I only say he may but know not that he will or at the hour of Death at which time there is no doubt but he will thus proceed with every impepenitent I account my self very happy in having jumped so exactly in my sentiments of things with so famous and renowned a Champion of our Church and I was the more pleased in the first of these Citations to find not only the notion but the very words in which it is expressed to come so near to some of mine in the following Discourse though I had not the good fortune to see Dr. Hammond's Treatise till near two Months after I had written mine when upon showing what I had written to a worthy Friend to have his opinion of it he was pleased to communicate that piece of the Doctors to me which when I found it so agreeable to mine own thoughts you may well imagine I read it with abundance of satisfaction But still there is some small difference betwixt the learned Doctor and me He as I do humbly conceive out of a needless tenderness for the Honour of God and for the Glory of his attributes to make his patience and forbearance with us the more remarkable and conspicuous will not admit of this way of procedure till the last cast when the man is grown desperate and it is almost in vain to expect any amendment from him nay he will not positively determine whether ever God do visit men with final impenitence till the hour of Death But it is very clear that whatever God may lawfully do without any violence to his Justice that he may do at all times whenever there is a lawful or justifiable occasion since therefore it is confessed on all hands that God may and does oftentimes take away Sinners in the middest of their days by a particular Judgment the consequence of which without all question is inevitable Damnation why may he not as well harden and blind men sooner or later as he pleases himself into an irreversible Impenitence so as it shall be impossible for them to Repent that he may reserve them on this side the Grave to be the publick examples of his Justice to the world For no man can be any more than Damned and therefore with respect to the offender himself these are but two several instances of the same rightful dominion and Soveraignty over us which may take the forfeiture of our Sins either way and at what time it shall seem best to the supream Lord and uncontroulable proprietor of all things It is true indeed the common impressions which are so deeply rooted in us all concerning the divine nature and the daily experience we have of his infinite Goodness in the administration of this lower world will not permit us to think that God will do either of these without very great provocations but we are to consider that all men are not equally ripe for punishment at the same time or age there is great difference as to the frequent repetition of Sin as to the different enormity or heinousness of the Crimes committed and as to the different aggravation of those circumstances under which they are committed one man sins against greater convictions after greater Mercies under more powerful Influences of the holy Spirit than another and these things would make a vast difference as to the time of inflicting punishment though the divine Justice were always to be administred ad pondus and did always hold the same proportion to the Sins of men but then it is to be considered in the second place that God is not bound to extend the same patience to all nor indeed so much to any as he does but in some he may take the forfeiture of their Sins sooner in some later as he pleases himself which whoever shall seriously reflect upon will find it a Doctrine not only very reasonable in it self but in its Consequences so wholesome that nothing can be more For what greater Inducement can there possibly be to an holy and virtuous life to care and watchfulness in all our Conversation than to think that we are every moment upon our good behaviour and that God if we continue to provoke him any longer may the next minute seal our everlasting Doom and consign us over to eternal Flames may put us into an irrecoverable State of degeneracy and Apostacy in this life that we may be made a Spectacle of shame and horrour in this world and an eternal prey to infinite and everlasting Torments in the next Certainly if this one Consideration were but throughly impressed upon the minds of men there is nothing in the world that could have better effects or produce a more lasting or a more universal reformation in it And therefore as you cannot well if you reflect upon the Circumstances of most men enlarge this power of obduration in God so far as to make the exercise of it unjust so the farther you do extend it with consistency to reason and Justice the better effects it will produce and the greater advantages will be reaped from it There are indeed two things which have made many learned and pious Persons cautious of admitting so much as I have done First Lest God by this means should be looked upon as the Author of Sin and therefore as the only way in their opinion to avoid this inconvenience they generally interpret all those places only of a divine permission without which indeed it is impossible any Action should be done or any event come to pass because upon his will and power the very existence of all things does depend in him we live and move and have our being therefore if he did not sometimes permit at least and suffer bad things to be done no such thing could ever come to pass besides that a divine permission is of absolute necessity to the very being of virtue and true Religion in the world for if men could not Act otherwise than they do they could not be said to be either good or bad and therefore that men may use that freedom which is given them aright it is necessary they should also have a power of determining themselves another way To be sure with respect to this life this must be granted to be unavoidably true for what is our whole life
is more plain than the reason and the usefulness of his Intercession for Salvation being annext to Faith and Repentance and a good Life and the satisfaction of Christ being apply'd to the person of a Believer upon these conditions which conditions are not so fully performed by any as they might be nor equally by all it is manifest there must needs be very many whose performance is so weak and imperfect that without any breach of that Covenant which God has entered into with Mankind he might very justly abandon them to eternal Flames to be tormented for ever with and by the Devil and his Angels but that the intercession of Christ extends and enlarges the benefit of his satisfaction and makes it more operative and available than otherwise it would have been But besides the Prophetick Office of Christ under which I include his example and his preaching and the Priestly to which his Sacrifice and his Intercession in virtue of that Sacrifice belong there is also his Kingship to be considered one great part of the exercise of which consists in his sitting in Judgment at the last day to pronounce the irreversible sentence of Death or Life upon all Men but there can be no Judgment where there is no difference made betwixt the Moral good or evil of things for to judge is to act with reason and Fate and Morality are inconsistent together which Fate if it were the only principle and spring of Action the Reprobate at the last day need not stand in justification of themselves from other Topicks as they are made to do in Scripture but they need only say that what they had done they could not avoid which being a very reasonable excuse and yet not urged where the Pleas of the Wicked are set down by our Saviour himself it is a very powerful and convincing Argument that he will at that day proceed by other measures and that he will not much less did he design it from all Eternity condemn the meanest Wretch that ever wore the shape and title of a Man for any but voluntary and wilfully committed Sins Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right said Abraham to his God Gen. 18. 25. That be far from thee to do after this manner Which Expostulation and Appeal of his to the Divine Justice must either be acknowledged to be very frivolous and nothing at all to the purpose or else we must be forced to confess that Christ when he sustains the person and character of a Judge and a Judge of all the Earth as he will do at the last day he will not proceed by Arbitrary measures which know no distinction of Persons or of Causes but condemn or save by unaccountable methods without any regard to reason or to justice the exercise of which is founded upon the differences of Moral good and evil all which differences must come to nothing where the liberty of humane Actions is destroyed but he will act with us upon a supposition of Freedom for the improvement or abuse of which we shall reap a proportionable punishment or reward And as nothing is or can be more contrary to the whole current of the Scripture than the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation so neither is there any thing more destructive of that meek charitable and humble frame of Mind which it was the design of the Gospel to establish in the World the natural and immediate tendency of such Doctrines in the minds of inconsiderate Men though if they consider all they have no reason to be proud being to create a Spiritual Pride and overweaning Conceit of themselves together with a contempt and hatred of all others whom they call the Reprobate and are pleased to look upon as the Dross and Off-scouring of the World There neither is nor can be any other opinion which is so naturally fitted to make distinctions and parties amongst Men or to preserve those distinctions when they are made for what greater or what wider difference can there possibly be thought of than between the Reprobate and the Elect Those who are irrecoverably given over to everlasting Torments and those who are out of all danger of miscarrying and past the possibility of not being as happy as God and happiness themselves can make them Or what greater indignity or reproach can be cast upon one Man by another than for some to separate from the rest under pretence that they are rejected and forsaken by God This being if those that separate would speak their minds one of the true reasons of their separation as it is likewise the strongest Prop and Pillar by which that uncharitable Schism is supported for I reckon that there are six accounts especially to be given of the first rise of this absurd and impious Doctrine of absolute Reprobation and of its continuance in the World to this day The first of which is that inconsiderate Interpreters not minding the whole scope and drift of the Writings of St. Paul but looking only to the immediate seeming sense of one single Proposition and not considering that neither so well as they should have done have stretched the interpretation of those places beyond their natural extent wherein St. Paul sets himself in opposition to the Jews who expected Justification from the Law of Moses or to the Judaizing Christians who would have retained that Law either in whole or in part as thinking that Justification could not be had without it or lastly to any other who expected Salvation from an exact observance of the Duties of natural Religion or of the Law of Nature For by the Law in the Writings of St. Paul both these are promiscuously understood as might be shewn from several places but that of Gal. 5. 22 23. is sufficient The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law that is whether of Moses or of Nature And the same may very well be the sense of all those places where he says That the knowledge of Sin is by the Law and that if it had not been for the Law he had not known Sin and that by the works of the Law no Flesh can be justified and that where there is no Law neither is there any Transgression All which may very well be understood of the Law of Nature as well as of that of Moses it being equally true of both Now the reasons why Justification could not be obtained by the works of the Law of Moses were these two First That that Law containing the Types and Shadows of things to come when once their Antitypes appeared in the World they could be of no longer value or signification And Secondly That besides that those legal Rites and Ceremonies had a respect to future events which events were now exactly fulfilled they did also under them contain a shadow of that inward sincerity and purity of Mind without which notwithstanding all the accuracy of external Observations
they could be of no moment or avail with God who is the searcher of Hearts and delights rather in the Sacrifice of a clean and humble Spirit than in the fat of Rams or the blood of Bulls and Goats which could not put away Sin any otherwise than in a Typical way as they pointed at that great Sacrifice which was in God's appointed time to be offered up for the Sins of the whole World neither could they Atone for that uncleanness or insincerity of Mind with which those Sacrifices themselves were offer'd up or those other Mosaick Ceremonies performed These were the two reasons why Justification could not be obtained by the works of the Law of Moses but neither was the Law of Nature sufficient for this purpose not that it was not perfect in it self for every Law is thus far perfect That it obliges no farther to punishment than it does to obedience and so the same Apostle tells us Rom. 2. 14 15. That the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But though the Law of nature be perfect in it self that is it requires nothing of us but what is truly and intrinsically good Nay nothing but what all things considered is most for our advantage â—t exacts no more punishment than it requires Obedience it Commands nothing which is naturally impossible to be performed which no Law can be supposed to do yet considering the many Temptations and Infirmities to which we are obnoxious it is morally impossible but at some time or other it will so come to pass that what through in inadvertency Temptation or Frailty we shall step aside out of the milky way of Innocence and Truth into the forbidden paths of Lust and Errour and it is certain that no man ever did hitherto nor will ever hereafter live in perfect Innocence except our Saviour himself who was created in the utmost perfection of the humane Nature assisted and improved by a most intimate presence and union of the Divine So that in this case a Sin being once committed it is necessary in order to our Justification that is to our being freed from the punishment which is consequent upon it for the guilt can never be wholly washed away any more than it is possible for that never to have been which is already past I say it is necessary that this Justification be attained one of these five ways for there can no other be thought of First We may please our selves with a conceit that the Innocence of our past lives may a tone and satisfie for the offence committed but this cannot be because that Innocence how great soever is no more than what we were obliged to before so that having done no more than our Duty we have nothing left by way of supererrogation to make amends for what we have done amiss and set the account right again between God and our selves Secondly We may hope that our Repentance will be available with God and that he will set our Sorrow against our Sin and let the former expiate for the latter and it is certain that the very next thing to Innocence is Repentance and that God will not despise a broken and a contrite Heart but still it is equally certain that whereever there is Repentance there is Guilt and whereever there is Guilt the right of punishment still remains in him against whom the offence is committed if he have not actually remitted it already or at least obliged himself by promise that he will do it But then Thirdly The third way from which some might peradventure promise to themselves to be justified or pardoned for their Offences is by the Obedience of the remaining part of their Life but this will not do neither for a reason already mentioned namely because that Obedience is no more than we are obliged to pay and so has nothing to spare by way of Expiation for all or any of those Transgressions which we have committed and though it be true that this Obedience is a certain sign that our Repentance is sincere which will for that reason be sure to be the more available with God yet whatever motive or Inducement it may be to his Goodness it lays no such Obligation upon his Justice as that his right to punishment will be by this means destroyed But then if you consider how great the frailty and infirmity of humane Nature is and how lyable-our very Duties are to a mixture of Guilt and Imperfection by the coldness and indifference of their Performance by the want of a due fervour and ardency of Mind and by the wandering of our thoughts and affections towards unsuitable Objects and desires in the very midst of our Devotion and much more in the usual course of our Lives that Obedience how great soever it may Comparatively be when we set it in opposition to that of other men yet in it self it is so far from being able to expiate for the Sins and Follies of our past Life that it will upon account of its own defects stand in great need of another Expiation Wherefore these three ways being found so insufficient for the Justification of a Sinner for the reasons already mentioned the Fourth possible expedient that may be thought of in order to this end is that of God's free pardoning and remitting of Sin as an act of meer Goodness without any expiation or satisfaction performed by us either in our own proper Persons or in that of our Proxy But it seemed best to his infinite Wisdom to make use of this fifth and last way that is to accept of a Proxenetical or Vicarious expiation in our stead not that the other way had any Repugnancy in it to any of the Divine Attributes for it is the undoubted right of all Personalities whatsoever to remit those injuries which are done to themselves but as I conceive especially for these three reasons besides others which may very well be unknown to us and are only discernable to his unsearchable wisdom First Because as the Authour to the Hebrews tells us c. 9. v. 22. Almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood and without shedding of Blood there is no Remission the Jews therefore which was also more or less the case of all the Heathen world being used in their Religious rites to appease God's wrath by Sacrifices and by the shedding of Blood and this by the express Command of God himself it would have been an excuse to them not to believe the Gospel nor to accept of that pardon and remission which it offered if Justification had been proposed upon any other terms than those oâ— shedding of Blood besides that without this they would have had no reason to forsake the Mosaick platform of
them the sight and sence of their Sin or by such pleasant though uncharitable searching into the more infamous Lives or Actions of their Neighbours as presents them with a comparative Innocence in themselves There are none so hardened as to make a publick profession and shameless boast of Sin but downright madmen and fools and there are many who by a long course of Wickedness have stifled the convictions of their own minds who yet are ashamed to own how bad they are out of a fear and reverence for the common sentiments of Mankind in a word no man ever had a good opinion of wickedness but he that was hardened in it by his own habitual Vices or by the just Judgment of God or he that was not truly sensible of what he did or said in the heat and intemperance of a Debauch but still as the Debauch goes off and the man returns to a sounder sense of things reason by insensible degrees recovers strength and Virtue begins to shake her drooping wings and pick out the sickly feathers of the mind till being too often and too much opprest by the steams of Concupiscence and vain desire this Candle of the Lord shines every day with a more gloomy and imperfect light and at length abandons us to perfect Darkness and leaves us to become a prey to those unruly Appetites whose end is temporal and eternal Ruin For besides the natural congruity and agreement which there is betwixt all virtuous Actions and a conscious reflecting nature which cannot possibly look back with comfort upon any thing but what is reasonable and like it self there are such plain advantages in point of temporal Interest and profit which flow in a perpetual and uninterrupted stream from all the instances of Virtue and Religion that it may rather seem a Miracle that all Mankind is no better than that they are no worse than they are And from hence it is that Piety and Goodness are by him who is by God himself honoured with so great a Character as that of the wisest of Princes and of Men very fitly stiled by the name of Wisdome as on the contrary all manner of speculative pravity of the mind and all external naughtiness of Conversation is by the same Oracle of experience and truth branded with the ignominious and reproachful term of Folly There being no instance of Virtue which is not an argument of the truest Wisdom nor any example of Wickedness and Vice which does not palpably discover the greatest folly and Madness in the world Shall we think that it needs an irresistible Grace to perswade a man to be temperate or sober when the experiments which almost every one may have made of himself besides the sad examples which every days experience will furnish him with in others will tell him how destructive Intemperance is to health how unfit it renders us for Business how uncapable it makes us of that discretion and Prudence without which our persons must sink into Contempt our Estates run to decay our Families be exposed to inevitable Destruction and Ruin or Lastly how it inflames our Passions disturbs our Reason distracts and discomposes our Imagination and renders the whole man uneasie to himself and insupportable to others What better Remedy or what more mitigating asswagement is there in afflictions or disappointments then patience and how does a carefull and habitual exercise of this virtue set us in a manner beyond the reach of Fortune and place us up on a Rock which no Calamity can shake How does it smoothen polish and refine our Souls How does it blunt the edge of Misery And how does it improve and heighten that calmness and serenity of Spirit in which the true Nature of happiness consists Lastly How nigh of kin is Patience to Humility which gives us Grace and acceptation both with God and men Which procures an easie pardon for our faults excuses and hides our Imperfections and sets an additional brightness and lustre upon all the valuable Endowments of our minds How vexatious to our selves how troublesome to others and how destructive of the Happiness and quiet of all the world are Insolence Impatience and Pride What infinite Charms What inexpressible Pleasures are there to be found in Charity Sincerity Truth and Justice is it not plain by experience that they procure us a lasting respect and veneration from others That they create the most certain delight and satisfaction in our selves How do all Mankind endeavour to avoid dependance and subjection And how are they in love with Power And what nobler or what safer exercise is there of that Power than by doing those things which make for the common Interest of the world and procure us the Friendship and assistance of all with whom we have to do Or of whose help we shall ever stand in need What weakness does Hypocrisie and Dissimulation betray How bigg is it always with Jealousie Suspicion and Shame And how often does it lay open and expose it self by a too anxious fear of being discovered and by a too sollicitous and artificial provision against it How pleasant How excellent and how Godlike a thing is it to have Mercy and to forgive How exquisitely painfull and tormenting is an unsatiable thirst after Revenge And is it not more safe to pardon a great offence then by revenging every little one to draw perpetual Dangers and Troubles upon our heads And since besides the outward advantages with which all the instances of Virtue are so plentifully Crown'd there is also such a strange harmony and agreement between Happiness and Virtue implanted by God and Nature in the Souls of men that we cannot enjoy the one without the other but without Virtue the mind is perpetually out of tune and can make no agreeable Musick to it self what Madness is it to affront and abuse that conscious Nature in us in whose disquiet and pain the very nature of Misery consists as Happiness is to be measured by its satisfaction and Contentment What hath been said of those Duties which are personal and of those which relate to our Converse with one another the First of which have a Natural the Second only an Hypotheticall or accidentall Obligation because it is not necessary to the being of a Man that he should be a Member of a Society or that any other Man should exist besides himself the same is likewise applicable with the same evidence of Demonstration to those Duties which are more properly and strictly denominated Religious as being conversant about Divine Worship and having God for the Scope and Object to which they are Directed that these also are Founded upon principles of such undoubted Interest and Reason that as no Man but the Fool did ever say in his Heart there is no God so it is still an higher degree of Stupidity and Madness to acknowledge and believe that there is so Powerful so Good so Gracious so Wise and so immense a Being and yet not to pay
which is the only Effectual and certainly productive principle of Godly Fervour and Zeal Such a zeal as no Predominancy of Lust or Evil Concupiscence from within no allurement of any Temptation from without can withdraw from its wistly intention and devout prospect upon that Glorious Object to which it is directed such a zeal as having burnt up all the tares and cockle of the fleshly Life is fruitful in pious and virtuous Resolutions and effectual for the bringing them to their intended Issue Now it being very rarely if ever seen that such extraordinary influences of the Divine Spirit are bestowed upon such as have no manner of preparation in their Hearts to Receive them and have not made some sincere at least though weak and ineffectual attempts towards the Conquest of themselves from hence it comes to pass that the whole Action resulting from the common Efficiency of humane Endeavours assisted by the Divine Spirit may in some Sense be attributed wholly to the first of these Causes as being the Causa sine quâ non as the Schools love to speak without which the other would not have exerted it self and the whole Action is acceptable to God on our behalf for the sake of that part of it which is owing to our selves or for the sake of those Virtuous dispositions of Mind to which the influences of Gods holy Spirit which are always carried forth in Streams of Love and Goodness towards the whole Creation have such an unalterable Congruity that they will never fail to be inseparably united to them nither will they ever forsake us till we have first deserted and forsaken our selves Besides that in those good Actions or those pious Inclinations of ours in which the Holy Spirit has the greatest share there may yet notwithstanding be more of our own then we are usually wont or then we ought with any thing of Arrogance or self Conceit to attribute to our selves for a man without this Assistance endeavouring to make a perfect Conquest of his inordinate Appetites and Desires would find them so unruly and ungovernable and Springing with such perpetual Fruitfulness one out of another that he would give over the Conflict out of meer Despair and yield himself tamely into an utter Vassalage and Captivity to them but when assisted by so potent Aydes this wonderfully Excites the natural Chearfulness and Vigor of his own Mind and he Exerts those Faculties and Powers which God has given him with more Alacrity and with better Success it being the same Case as if coming to lift a Burthen which is plainly too heavy and unwieldy for us we find a strange unwillingness so much as to attempt it but when encouraged by the assistance of another we then with Chearfulness apply our Hands and Shoulders to it and each man puts forth so much strength and Vigour as is almost sufficient to surmount the whole difficulty by its self and this is plainly the meaning of that Phrase which we Translate by helping our Infirmities The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it bears a part of the Burthen together with us Neither is it true only of Prayer to which this Text has a more immediate Relation that the Spirit of God helpeth our Infirmities in the performance of it but it is the same case in all other Duties of the Christian Life that these also in their utmost Beauty and perfection are owing to a Concurrence and Cooperation of the same Blessed Spirit as is very reasonable to believe from this that Prayer is only a means for the better attainment of that great End the regular and steady performance of all other Duties in order to Eternal Happiness By calling off the mind from Objects of a more gross and Earthly Nature and by engaging our thoughts in a pursuit after and insinuating them into a Communion with God it Creates in us those Calm Peaceable and quiet Dispositions which put us in the best Condition both to know our Duty and to practise it by a perpetual but humble importunity before the Foot-stool of his Mercy It calls down those Graces and Influences upon us whose design and Business is to guide us into all Truth and to encourage us in every good and Virtuous Undertaking and it is still further to be considered that the performance of our Duty its self is in the nature of a perpetual Prayer and carrys along with it a most powerful intercession on our behalf and therefore may Expect and will Receive the Encouragements of Divine Assistance upon the same Account upon which they are afforded to our very Prayers themselves Another way by which it comes to pass that the whole Action of a virtuous and good Man becomes well-pleasing and acceptable to God on his behalf though in its utmost Integrity and perfection it be owing to a concurrence of the Divine Spirit is from hence that his mind is not only in some degree of preparedness to receive those Blessed irradiations from above but that when he has received them he affords them a wellcome and suitable Entertainment he Improves and Thrives under the Influences of Grace he Warmes and Cherishes his Virtue by that Heavenly Fire and makes himself every day by an improvement of inward Purity and outward Cleanness a more agreeable receptacle for the Holy Ghost and he that does not quench and resist the Influences of the Spirit by slothful Negligence or willful Sin he that when it was in his power to obstruct and hinder it does on the contrary promote its Operations and conspire with it for the Accomplishment of the same Ends and Designs may not improperly be said to be the Author of those either good Actions or pious Thoughts or virtuous Intentions in which he has so great a share and which it was in his power utterly to have Obstructed And from hence it is that we are exhorted in Scripture to be Watchful and Diligent and Sober to be frequent in Prayer and Holy Meditation because these are natural means to preserve us in that temper of Mind which fits us best for the performance of our Duty and for the preserving an uninterrupted Intercourse and Communion with the Spirit of God Again it is to be observed that the Spirit helps the Infirmities of a good Man not only by Warming his Affections but by Enlightening his Understanding and so far as his Actions or his Inclinations depend only upon this latter Cause they are as properly his own as if no such illumination had been the case being the same as if in any matter of Difficulty or Moment in which I am not so throughly versed my self I should take the Advice of another more skilful than I am and if being convinced in my self of the reasonableness of that Course which he propounds to me I shall afterwards follow his Advice yet the Action is nevertheless mine for having done it by the direction of another for so soon
placing us in a State if not of perfect Innocence yet of Forgiveness and Justification ARTICLE XII Of good Works ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of Gods Iudgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith in so much that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit In this Article there is nothing which I have not already sufficiently asserted and insisted upon in what I have said above about Justification and in what I have just now observed upon the Article of freewill And Lastly In what I have said concerning Perseverance and of the case of St. Peter and that confession which he made that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of the Living God ARTICLE XIII Of Works before Justification WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath Willed and Commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of Sin In which last recited Article though more difficulty may seem to lie then in the two foregoing yet upon a more particular survey of it it will appear that there is nothing which is not very consistent to those principles which I have laid down For First This Article asserts plainly that good Works may be done but that they are not pleasant to God before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ of which I have already spoken Secondly This Article does not deny that there is such a thing as Grace of Congruity and consequently that there may and must be some manner of preparation in our selves by which we are made capable of receiving it but only that we cannot deserve this grace of Congruity and that is very true for it is still an infinite condescention in the Spirit of God that it will stoop to our Infirmities and enter into so strict a Friendship with such polluted Beings as the best of Men of themselves are found to be Lastly When the Article tells us that before the Reception of this Grace even our good Works themselves have the nature of Sin it is not so to be understood that good Works proceeding out of an honest Heart and a pious Intention are or can be displeasing to God so far forth as they are done to good Purposes and out of good Designs for this would be to make them good and bad at the same time but before the Reception of this Grace they are tainted with much of imperfection in themselves and by their having the nature of Sin may be also meant that before the Reception of this Grace and without the satisfaction of Christ for the transgressions of our Lives they are no more available for our Justification than if they had been bad or wicked Works because no future innocence or virtue can be a proper Attonement or satisfaction for the guilt that is past so it being no more than we are always obliged to it cannot expiate for our former Sins Neither is it affirmed as I conceive in the tenth Article that we cannot turn or prepare our selves at all or in the least degree but that Article is rather to be explained by this expression in the thirteenth that we cannot so turn or prepare our selves as to deserve the grace of Congruity which I have already granted to be True and I have shown the Reason why it is so St. Paul tells us Rom 8. 7. That the Carnal Mind is at Enmity against God by which it is imply'd at least that there is a friendship and Congruity betwixt the spiritual mind and the mind of God And the case of the Heathen world in the first Chapter of that Epistle who were deserted by the spirit of God and given over to their own beastly Lusts and Affections to defile themselves with all manner of Wickedness and Uncleanness shews plainly that there is a common Grace or Influence of the Divine Spirit running through the World and that it never forsakes us till we by many acts of willful Sin have broken and violated those Congruities to which its presence is inseperably united according to the greater or lesser proportions in which those Congruities exert themselves though since no Man by the Assistances of this common Grace did ever live up to the perfection of the law of Nature I shall neither be so Uncharitable as to exclude them from all benefit in the Passion of Christ nor so presumptuous as to determine how far the Merits of that Passion may be applicable to them However if it be granted as it is all the reason in the World that it should what we find contained in the twentieth Article that it is not lawful for the Church it self to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another then it is easie to perceive what we are to pronounce of the Doctrines of irresistable Grace and of absolute Reprobation if we will adhere either to the Judgment of right Reason or to the sentiments of the Church of England it being impossible to maintain either of these Doctrines without explaining one Text after such a manner as to make it flatly contradictory to another and consequently to invalidate the Authority of the Scripture which if it be not consistent to its self can be of no force or obligation to us Besides what hath been already largely represented of the inconsistency of these Doctrines with the constant tenour design and current of the Scriptures if in the place of St. Paul so lately mentioned where he exhorts us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling it be but granted as it cannot be avoided but it must be that there is a Power or ability of working supposed in them to whom this exhortation is made otherwise it would be a very impertinent Exhortation and if it be affirmed of the very next words for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do that they are so to be understood as if he had said that we are able to do nothing of our selves but that God does all by an irresistable Grace then it is manifest that these two places though immediately Joyned are yet plainly contradictory to one another How is it possible then if we will follow the Counsel of the Church of England but we must expound this latter so as I have done since any other way they cannot be consistent together And what can be a greater disparagement to
the Prophets had usually the Garbe and deportment of Mad and Frantick Persons Saul being amongst them stript himself stark Naked and lay without his Clothes for an whole Night and a Day together It is the Character which one gave of the young Prophet who was sent by Elisha to Anoint Jehu 2 Kings 9. 11. Wherefore came this mad Fellow to thee and whoever shall read the Stories of Elijah and Elisha and his Servant Gehazi will without much difficulty be induced to believe that the Spirit of Prophecy was usually attended with a sort of Madness insomuch that it was the usual Opinion both in the Jewish and the Heathen Nations that there was somewhat Sacred and Divine in Frantick Persons as it is still among the Turks to this day which was therefore so far from being a disadvantage to the Message of a Prophet that it rather gave new Authority and Recommendation to it But since these extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit are now wholly ceased together with the reason of them there being no new Revelation to be expected and there being sufficient reason especially in these parts of the World to render every man inexcusable who does not believe this What folly is it to talk of irresistible Grace when the influences of the Spirit are so Gentle that they cannot be distinguished from the motions of a Man 's own Mind When we can give a reasonable Account of what we do and are not sensible of any Violence from without by which our natural Propensities are forcibly over-ruled though that there may be sometimes and in some particular Cases such an unaccountable and perhaps irresistible bent of our Minds which cannot well be attributed to any other Cause then to the spirit of God is a thing which I will not deny but since the Apostles themselves were not always in the Spirit and under the influences of such an irresistible Grace what Madness is it to affirm it of these Times when there is not the same occasion for it or do not Mens Consciences give the Lie to their Tongues when they talk of an irresistible Spirit in those very actions in which they seem to themselves and others to be the most perfectly free and unrestrained Thus much is sufficient if not too much in answer to the first Advantage which may be taken from the consideration of that Lucta or Contention which there is betwixt the two principles of the Flesh and the Spirit The second possible advantage which may be made is this that the Spiritual principle there mentioned may be pretended to be no part of the humane Nature but that it is only a supernatural influence of Divine Grace from above Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you and vers 13 14. For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God But to this it may be answered First That there are plainly in every Man if we will believe the express affirmation of St. Paul himself two distinct principles of Action which he calls the Flesh and Spirit and the latter of them sometimes the inward Man which is a sign that it is a part of our Selves c. 7. v. 22. For I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man and sometimes the Mind v. 23. But I see another Law in my Members Warring against the Law of my Mind Secondly This Spiritual principle in us is that which is properly the Image of God and the resemblance of his Nature betwixt which and the Divine Spirit there is a marvellous Harmony and Agreement For as the Carnal Mind is at Enmity with God Rom. 8. 7. So betwixt the spiritual Mind and him there is a wonderful Concord and Friendship he Cooperates and concurs with it in all its virtuous Endeavours and Undertakings And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit as it is v. 16. That we are the Children of God From whence it comes to pass that the that the same Effects are attributed to the Spirit of God and to our Spirit as their Cause because there is a Concurrence of both these for their Production and because the utmost perfection of Holiness is scarce attainable in a single Instance while we carry these fleshly Tabernacles about us and much less in the whole course and tenour of our Lives without the assistance of the Divine Spirit These are the two advantages which may be taken from the consideration of that strife or contention betwixt the two principles which is described by St. Paul which what Service they are like to do to the Predestinarian Cause we have already seen but it is now further to be considered that the very supposition of a Mind or inward Man or immaterial principle of Action for all these are one is at the same time an assertion of humane Freedom and a shaking off those Clogs and Fetters which the Calvinistical Fatality would put upon us For when things come to be examined to the Bottom it will be found that an immaterial Nature and a free Agent are the same Extension is the common attribute of all Substance whatsoever it being impossible to have any conception of any thing which is not somewhere or to have any notion of Place The School distinction betwixt Locus and Ubi being a very idle unintelligible Distinction which is not extended by real Parts and such as are at least by Cogitation separable from one another It being therefore so clear that no Man can possibly conceive otherwise but that all Substance is extended it follows in the next place either that there is but one sort of Substance or that there are several sorts of Extension If the first be granted the consequence of this will be First That matter must be self-moved for that there is such a Substance as Matter will not come into dispute And Secondly That all Matter hath a power of moving it self because what ever is of the essence of Matter must belong in common to all Matter whatsoever And Thirdly That all Matter may be moved with an equal celerity and degree of Motion because the Essences of things are indivisible and therefore if Motion be of the Essence of Matter considered barely as such and be not owing to some other principle from without it must belong equally to all Matter whatsoever And therefore in the Fourth place the reason why all Matter is not equally moved must be that it is indued with a power of exerting or suspending its Activity either pro arbitrio for no reason at all or by the measures of Prudence for the good of the World But if it be absurd ridiculous and contrary to experience to attribute so much Understanding Will or Power to every Stick and Clod to every seemingly
be deceiv'd in their proper objects when they are duly circumstanced to take a right cognizance of them Which if it be admitted for true we can not tell whither any such Miracles were ever wrought or no there being the same possibility of our senses being deceiv'd in one case as in another p. 215 216 And the same is likewise true of the Doctrine of Reprobation if it be admitted for true in the Calvinistical sense for there is no question but God doth reprobate obstinate and impenitent sinners the whole Oeconomy of the Gospel is overthrown all the dutyes recommended in it are either destroyed or â—â—erted the design of Christs coming into the world is frustrate and so is that of his passion and his intercession p. 216 217 When St. John exhorts us to mutual love after the example of God 1. Joh. 4 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love it ought to have been considered if the Calvinistical Doctrine be true that denominatio sumitur a parte potiori and therefore if we consider how small the proportion of the elect is in comparison of those that are arbitrarily doom'd to Eternal Torments it would have been a truer proposition and a more Legitimate inserence He that hateth not knoweth not God for God is hatred and more to the same purpose from p. 217 to 221 It is by no means in this case sufficient to say that the reprobation of so great a number of mankind is owing to the Sin of Adam who acted freely in what he did for it is impossible that a free action in him should be the true and proper cause of a necessary nature in us p. 221 Since therefore God did at least for see the fall of Adam and upon supposition of that fall did reprobate so great a proportion of Mankind by concluding them under an irresistible pravity it is the same thing as if he had condemned them antecedently to the fall of Adam that is without any respest or regard to it from all Eternity or if he had condemned the 〈◊〉 the same state though Adam had not fallen at all because a simple decree and a decree founded upon a condition that will certainly come to pass are to all intents and purposes the same p. 222 But Mr. Calvin confesses plainly that God did plainly preordain the fall of Adam and therefore the former considerations return with greater force if God so hated us and if he be the best and the more noble patern for our imitation then ought we also to hate our selves and one another from p. 222 to 224 The horrid Blasphemy of this doctrine and its inconsistence with the word of God which is the rule and measure of our Christian Faith aggravated from several considerations from p. 224 to 228 Three ways by which Christ may be said to have redeemed us p. 228 First he Redeems us from the Bondage of sin or from the Dominion of it in our hearts and from the gloomy night of ignorance which hovered over the Jewish and the Heathen world by his example his Gospel and his Spirit but where there is no liberty there can be no sin where there can be no endeavour or imiâ—ation which suppose a freedome and a power of not imitating and not indeavouring there can be no example to them that have it not in their power to obey the Gospel is in vain proposed and the influences of the spirit where they are irresistible as Calvin ever supposes them to be cannot properly be said to redeem us in any measure from sin but only to drive us out of one necessity into another p. 228 229 Secondly Christ redeems us by his satisfaction but where there is no sin there needsno satisfaction neither indeed in propriety of so speech can there be any and where there is no Freedome there can be no sin so that after all the Calvinistical bitterness against the Socinian Haeriticks for so I call them and so I think them to be they themselves deny the satisfaction every whit as much and with more detestable circumstances than the Socinians themselves do from p. 229 to 232 The third way of redemption is by the intercession of Christ which though in the Orthodox Creed that is in the Creed of those that believe rightly concerning the nature of the humane soul and the nature of its Will it be very good â—â—â— useful and intelligible sence yet admit the Calvinistical Doctrine to be true and nothing is more useless and impertinent nay nothing can possibly be thought of more contemptibly ridiculous than that is p. 232 233 Again if we consider Christ as exercising the Office of supream Judge as he will do at the last day it is manifest that there can be nothing which can in propriety of speech be called a judgment where there is no difference made betwixt the moral good or evil of things and it is as certain that in the Calvinistical necessity which destroys the very nature of Morality and Religion no such difference can possibly be suppos'd so that a judgment in this case would be every whit as ridiculous at the last day as an intercession before it p. 234 235 And as nothing is more inconsistent with the whole current of the Scriptures than the Doctrine of Reprobation so neither is there any thing so destructive of that meekness and humility which it was one of the main designs of the Gospel to encourage and promote nothing that is so naturally productive of insolence and Pride of a fastidious contempt and scorn of one man towards another nothing so exactly fitted to make Parties and Divisions among men and to continue and propagate those Divisions when they are made to the great prejudice of the publique peace and the perpetual disturbance of the world from 235 to 237 Six accounts to be given of the rise and progress of the Doctrine of absolute reprobation p. 237 First account to be taken from a too inconsiderate interpretation of those places wherein Justification is ascribed wholly to faith in opposition to the works of the Law of Moses or to that justifycation which pretends to be obtained by a perfect obedience to the Laws of nature or an absolute and entire conformity in all parts of our lives to the duties and obligations of natural Religion p. 237 238 Two reasons why justication could not be obtained by the Law of Moses the one drawn from the nature of the law it self which was but a shadow of a more perfect dispensation and the other from the defectiveness and imperfection of that obedience which was given it p. 239 But neither was the law of Nature by reason of humane Frailty which renders it morally impossible for us to walk up to the utmost perfection of that Law sufficient of it self in order to this end p. 240 A sin being committed there are but five ways possibly to be thought of by which justification that is the Remission of that