are abrogated than the ways of God that are changed for those Laws which God had given to the Jews by the Ministry of Angels were to be abrogated at the coming of J. C. The Figures were to cease in the presence of the true Messias and his Mysteries But the Power which the Angels have over Men shall never be changed because the general Laws by which God hath given them this power shall never be abolished unless perhaps when the holy City shall be built and Jesus Christ shall have given up his Kingdom to his Father and brought to nought all Powers and God shall be all in all till this happy time the Angels in dependance upon J. C. their Head will always work in the Spiritual Building of the Church and God acting in them and by them according to the same Laws will produce a thousand and a thousand different effects and yet according to my Principles cannot be supposed to be in the least unconstant For tho by particular wills he cures as I may say the defects which might follow these Laws when order requires it I have sufficiently explained this elsewhere tho he guides our Conductors that they may faithfully execute his designs yet since his ways are always the same it sufficiently appears that it is not through inconstancy that he sometimes acts against the ordinary course of his Providence but because he is obliged to have respect unto all his Attributes as well as his Immutability Object VI. The Author of the Treatise says That he is perswaded that these two natural Laws which are the most simple of all viz. That all Motion proceeds or tends to proceed in a right line And that when Bodies strike upon one another their motions are communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Bodies which strike upon one another are sufficient to produce such a World as we see I mean the Heaven the Stars the Planets the Comets the Earth the Water the Air and the Fire in a word the Elements and all Bodies except those which are organized and animated This therefore would have been the most simple way of producing the World to have stayed till it had formed it self of the matter which God had created and put into motion according to these two Laws without imploying therein particular wills This supposed I see not what the Author could answer to a Libertine who should thus accost him Therefore according to you that which is said in Genesis is not true For on the one hand you maintain It is evident that God cannot falsifie himself and being infinitely wise cannot but act wisely and that it would not to be to act wisely to do that by compounded ways and particular wills which he may execute by simple ways and general wills And on the other you teach me that the World such as we see it to be might have been produced by these two natural Laws which are the most simple of all other Therefore God has made it after this manner and not as it is said in Genesis where the Creation is described as if it had been made by particular wills and not by these simple ways which yet you teach us is unworthy of the wisdom of God Would you tell him that God has his Reasons for this But this Libertine will answer That there can be no reason why God should falsifie himself why he who is infinitely wise should not act wisely why it being in his power to have form'd a work worthy of himself by an uniform constant and regular Conduct he has chosen one which is unequal changeable irregular and which shews inconstancy and ignorance in him who observes it c. Answer I should say to this Libertine that he little understands what he says and he who undertakes to overthrow the sentiments of any Author should take them aright for nothing is more easie than to confound things when the matters treated of are obscure in themselves According to your opinion says this Libertine that which Moses relates of the Creation of the World in Genesis is not true Fairly and softly I should answer you neither understand what the Scripture saith nor what my sentiments are as for Genesis I shall not explain it to you But this is my sense observe it well I maintain that God always acts by the most simple ways but it must be always supposed that there is an equality in all things else whether in the ways or in the works as I have so often explained it must also be supposed that Order doth not require that he should compound his ways God never falsifies himself Very well But to change Conduct is not always to falsifie himself God may nay he ought to compound his ways when that which he owes to his Wisdom his Justice to any one of his Attributes is more considerable than that which he owes to his Immutability God would falsifie himself if upon some occasions he did not change his Conduct for he would not do that Justice which he owes to himself and his divine attributes and thus would not observe that immutable Order which is properly his Law or the inviolable Rule of his proceedings He would cease to love himself to act for himself he would sin You look upon things only on one side You compare the Conduct of God only with his Immutability Compare his ways with all his attributes and you may easily comprehend that tho there can be no reason which obliges God to falsifie him self there may be many which oblige him to change his Conduct And do not ask me in such and such occurrences what are his reasons for neither I nor any person else can be assured that we know them This in reason is enough to silence this Libertine for tho I do not take upon me to know the particular reasons why God ceases to follow his general Laws or to act by the most simple ways I think I know that he never ceases to follow these Laws and that he never compounds his ways but when Order obliges him thereunto And this I think I have proved so many ways that it is to no purpose to do it any more Nevertheless let us examine the difficulty to the bottom I maintain that God has made the World by the most simple ways For I say that in forming the World he has observed these two Laws as far as 't was possible The form of Bodies proceeds only from the various motions of those Bodies which are about and within them Now I maintain that this variety of motions which is at present observed and that of the Motions which have been made from the beginning of the World is the effect of the same Law of the communications of motions by which this Libertine would have had the World made successively by little and little that God might have spared his particular wills This Libertine doth not observe that he puts into his consequence that condition which renders it
The last Article I have proved the same principle by Arguments a posteriori that I might touch the minds even of those who reflect upon nothing XX. Here it must be observed that the essential rule of the will of God is Order and that if man for example had not sinned a supposition which wou'd much have changed his designs then order not permitting he shou'd have been punished the natural Laws of the communication of motion cou'd never have been able to have made him unhappy For the Law of order which requires that the Just do suffer nothing whether he will or no being essential to God the Arbitrary Law of the communication of motions ought necessarily to be submitted thereunto Additions God has but two Laws Order which is his inviolable Law his natural Law his Word or his Wisdom which he loves invincibly and the divine Decrees the Arbitrary Laws with which he sometimes dispences but he never dispences with them but when order requires For it is against order that a wise and immutable Being should change his conduct without reason It is a weakness to have a changeable mind it argues want of knowledge or of constancy Man tho' subject to error is offended when he is reproached with his change We must therefore take care not to ask miracles of God or to attribute them every moment unto him This is to tempt God and to have sentiments unworthy of him See the fourth Explication in which I shew that all that is done now or which was done under the Jewish Law against those natural laws which are known to us is not always a miracle or an effect produced by God by particular wills because the Angels for example have power over the present world in consequence of some general laws which are unknown to us as I have proved by Gods way of proceeding in the old Testament XXI There are indeed some sew occasions where these general Laws of motion must cease to produce their effect But this is not because God changes these Laws or corrects himself it is because by the order of grace to which that of Nature must be subservient Miracles are wrought upon certain occasions Besides it is convenient that men should know that God is so much Master of Nature that if he submit himself to the laws which he has established it is because he chuses to do so rather than that he is absolutely necessitated Additions Since the greatest part of men imagine that besides God there is a certain Nature that does all 'T is convenient that God to make himself the better known should act against the custom of this pretended Nature God makes himself admired by the wise or true Philosophers in his ordinary works but all the world are not Philosophers There must be effects which surprise and strike the mind of those who make no reflection upon any thing that is ordinary See St. Augustine upon St. Joh Tract VIII XXVIII Christian Meditations 8. Medit. XXII If then it be true that the general cause ought not to work by particular wills and that God was obliged to establish certain constant and invariable Laws of the communication of Motions by the efficacy of which he foresaw that the world might subsist such as we now see it it may be truly said in some sence that God desires that all his creatures should be perfect that he wills not that Infants should perish in the womb of their Mothers that he loves not Monsters that he has made no laws of nature to beget them and that if he could have made and preserved a World more perfect by as simple means he wou'd not have established Laws whereof so many Monsters are the necessary consequences But that it would have been unworthy of his Wisdom to multiply wills to hinder certain particular disorders which in the Universe make a kind of Beauty Additions That if he could have made and preserved a World more perfect by as simple means he would not have established laws whereof so many Monsters are the necessary consequences This is evident at least in the order of grace in relation to which I say this For God wills that all men should be saved 1 Tim. II. 4. This is the will of God our Sanctification 1 Thes IV. 3. God has no need of the wicked Eccles. XV. 12. On the contrary He hates the ungodly and his ungodliness Wisdom XIV 9. Certainly the design of God in the CREATION is to make a Beautiful work Now all irregularity disfigures the WORK God truly deserves to be admired but much more in the simplicity of his ways than in the Beauty of the Vniverse If God has made the world for man why so much barren ground why more Sea than habitable Earth It is because all this is a consequence of the simplicity of his ways This is not because God particularly wills that such a ground shou'd want water for 't wou'd be a formal disobedience if it was so 't would be to find fault with Gods conduct and to insult over his wisdom to make new water courses Can any thing be more disorderly and less regular than the distribution of Rivers than the disposition of Land and Sea The Philosophers looked upon the Vniverse as the work of blind nature the reason is because they thought not on the simplicity of the ways by which it is preserved But if there had been as simple ways or as worthy of God capable to form and preserve a more beautiful work than the world we now inhabit it must be said things being as they are that either the Author of Nature wanted understanding or that his intention was to make an imperfect work See the 3d. Explication Christian Meditat. 7 8. Monsters make in the Universe a kind of Beauty Not that Monsters are Beautiful in themselves for all things being equal it would be better there were none at all but it is because men often judge of the beauty of certain things by the deformity of others Certainly the Church of Jesus Christ the future world shall be more perfect than the present world and have no Deformity no Monsters no Injustice no Sin Eph. V. 27. Apoc. XXII XXIII God gave to every Seed it s own bud germe which contains in little the plant and the fruit another bud which is fastned to this and contains the root of the plant which root has a new root whose imperceptible branches spread themselves in two Lobes or into the Pulp of this Seed Does not he sufficiently shew by this that he truely wills in some sence that all those seeds should produce their like For why should he have given to those grains of Corn which he intended should be barren all the parts proper to make them fruitful Nevertheless since rain is necessary to make them encrease and since it falls not upon the Earth but by general Laws which do not shower it down upon improv'd grounds only and precisely at
Son MOses in the second Chapter of Genesis thus relates the Marriage of the first Man The great Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof And the rib which the Lord God had taken from Man made he a Woman and brought her unto the Man And Adam said This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man Therefore shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and cleave unto his Wife and they shall be one flesh St. Paul assures us that this Carnal Marriage is a great Mystery that it is the Figure of the Spiritual Marriage of J. C. with his Church and also that married persons ought to conform themselves to J. C. and his Church in the Duties which they are to pay to one another See his words in the Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. V. Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord. For the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the Body Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself For no Man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church For we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and Mother and shall be joyned unto his Wife and they two shall be one flesh This is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church We are the Members of the Body of J. C. formed of his Flesh and of his Bone as Eve was of Adam The Man shall leave Father and Mother and be joyned to his Wife and with her shall make but one Body This is a great Mystery and I explain it of J. C. and his Church * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacramentum hoc magnum est ego autem dico in Christo in Ecclesia The Letter which kills because it does not raise the Mind up towards him who only gives Life applies that solely to the first Adam which is said chiefly to figure the second But St. Paul inspired with the same Spirit that Moses was clearly explain'd the Mystery which the other had only darkly proposed He assures us that what seems to have been written of the first Man and the first Woman ought to be understood of J. C. and his Church The first Marriage is a great Secret for it figures the greatest of our Mysteries the Eternal Covenant betwixt J. C. and his Church a Secret hid in God from all eternity and revealed to Men in the fulness of times This is the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and Generations but is now made manifest to his Saints To whom God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory Col. I. 26 27. I confess that ordinary Marriages are indissoluble that married persons leave their Father and Mother and make together one strict Society and one Body but these words of the first Man Wherefore Man shall leave Father and Mother may be applied to them for J. C. proves by the same words that the Husband ought not to forsake his Wife because it is God who has joyned them together But I maintain that God has joyned them to figure the greatest of our Mysteries that Marriages cannot be broken because J. C. will never forsake his Church of which he is the Spouse that the Marriage of Christians is a * Because it figures Jesus C. it may be called a SACRAMENT in the large unrestrain'd Sense but not according to the strict and limited Sense of the Word as it signifies an Outward Visible sign which not only signifies but dispences Grace Sacrament which dispenses Grace to those who are contracted because it figures J. C. who communicates Spirit and Fruitfulness to his Church In a word that the first Marriage and all which have been since are transient figures of the eternal and indissoluble Marriage of J. C. with Men. Now the first Marriage was celebrated before Sin God cast Adam into an ecstatical and mysterious sleep he formed out of one of his sides or to speak as the Scripture he built up his Wise which he designed to give him he inspired into him words prophetical of J. C. and as yet Adam had not sinned for doubtless all that the Scripture relates concerning the first Man before his sin doth much more sensibly and expresly represent J. C. than that which is written of him after his fall Doth not this shew that J. C. and his Church is the first and chief of God's designs since 't is evident that the Figure must be for the sake of the Reality and not the Reality for the Figure When God created the first Man he made him according to his Image because he thought of him who is the Image of the invisible God he animated him with his Breath * Tertul. de Resurrect Carnis Cyril Alex. Thes p. 153. A. thanas Orat. 3. in Arianos because he then had the design of uniting his Word to our Nature which he foresaw would become altogether earthly and carnal by sin he made him Lord of all Animals because he intended to subject all things to J. C. God by the sleep into which he cast the first Man express'd the death or sleep of his Son upon the Cross and by the Woman whom he drew out of his Flesh and his Bones the Spouse which J. C. received after he awoke or was risen and which he purchased by his Blood If Adam sinned it was not according to St. Paul because he was tempted but through his fondness to his Wife 1 Tim. II. 14. J. C. likewise was not subject to sin and if he was made sin as the Scripture speaks 2 Cor. 5.21 it was in love to his Church If Adam sinned and communicated his sin to all his Posterity he is even in this tho in a contrary sence the figure of J. C. who only dispences Grace to Men. Where fore as by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Rom. 5.12.14 and Death passed upon all Men. Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them who had not sinned after Adam's transgression who is the * 〈◊〉