Days and Nights unequal except in the two Equinoctial Days and Nights all which is performed by two uniform circular Motions of the AEther the one by the Zodiack and the other by the Equator The Sun doth so far exceed in Light all the other Stars as to the illumination of the Earth that when it shines bright their shining tho it ceases not is yet unperceivable The Sun is not only the chief Luminary and Fountain of Light but likewise of Heat which increaseth and decreaseth not only every Day as the Sun comes nearer to or goes farthest from the Meridian or Southermost Places of the Earth but also as it proceedeth toward the North and the South and so the Heat is always equal about the middle of the Earth but elsewhere unequal whereby it makes the different Seasons of the Spring when all Plants do sprout and become green of the Summer when the Flowers appear and the Fruits begin of the Harvest when the Fruits come to Maturity and of Winter when the Fruits Leaves and Herbs fall whereby in the Wisdom and Prudence of God there is a Ballance of Enjoyment through the whole Earth the variety of the Seasons where the Days are unequal compensing the Pleasure where the Days are equal because what is ordinary and doth not change is little noticed We would be little sensible of the glorious Light of the Day if we had not the Vicissitude of the Darkness of the Night and albeit the Places near both Poles be far short of the Enjoyment of the rest yet most part there is Sea and not Land There is also great conveniency of the Night for Man in the State of Mortality whereby the Curtains of Heaven are drawn that he may sleep The Earth also doth require a perpetual Vicissitude of the rising and falling of the Vapours by which the Dews and Rains do water the Earth Another Sun opposite to this would have made a perpetual Day but with great Detriment to the Earth The Wisdom of God is also seen in the Instincts of the ravenous Creatures whereby they have no Inclination to go abroad in the Day-time but in the Night thereby Men and the tame and harmless Creatures are free of their Trouble for which the Psalmist praiseth the Wisdom and Goodness of God Thou makest Darkness and it is Night wherein all the Beasts of the Forest do creep forth the Sun ariseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their Dens Man goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the evening O Lord how manifold are thy Works in Wisdom dom hast thou made them all The Glory of the Sun is also well expressed by the Psalmist which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber rejoiceth as a strong Man to run a Race his going out is from the End of the Heaven and his Circuit unto the Ends of it and there is nothing hid from the Heat thereof The Wisdom of God is also seen in the usefulness of the Moon which was appointed to rule over the Night and to give a faint Light for those that might have necessity to travel in the Night but God having ordained the Night for Man to rest in he has not given the Light of the Moon to be so constant as the Light of Sun and therefore it doth not derogate from his Wisdom and Goodness that he did not make more Moons by which there might always have been Light in the Night and besides the brightest Glory and Majesty of God is in this visible World the starry Heaven which in number and variety of the Stars exceed the comprehension of Men and Angels they are the Lamps and Flame-beaus making some resemblance of the Magnificence of the Palace of the King of Glory and yet they are no more than the Ornaments of his Outter-Court or the enamelling of the Pavement of his Inner-Court the third Heaven or the Heaven of Heavens When God doth most favourably condescend to Abraham he bids him look unto the starry Sky and asks if he could number them and doth the like with Job when he was first to humble him for his boldness and then to exalt him for his faithfulness The starry Heaven is never so glorious as when neither Sun nor Moon doth appear therefore it was fit that the Light of the Moon should have Intervals Little is known of the Influence of the Stars tho many Astrologers make unsolid and unwarrantable Conclusions on pretence of their Experience It is true God said to Job Knowest thou the Ordinance of Heaven canst thou set the Dominions thereof in the Earth canst thou bind the Influences of Pleiades or loose the Bonds of Orion Which imports a great Influence of the Stars upon the Earth but the Astrologers infer most from the Planets and their Aspects which are opake and unactive Bodies doubtless the Sun and Moon have great Influence on the Earth not only by their Light and Heat but that correspondence betwixt the Tides of the Sea and the Course of the Moon giveth strong ground to infer that the Moon hath much Influence thereon I cannot certainly know whether the sweet Influence of the Pleiades doth import any more than that when the Sun is under the Pleiades or seven Stars the Spring is in its Prime when all things revive and it is called the Time of Life or whether the Bonds of Orion being near to the North Pole implieth more than the Rigour of Cold and Frost when the Sun is nearest them and farthest Northward God in his Wisdom hath said little of the dark Planets Saturn Jupiter and Mars Venus and Mercury but hath left them to Man's Exercise and Industry who hath found by their Eclipses that they have no Light of their own but do only reflect the Light of the Sun as doth the Moon and tho of old they were thought to be wandring Stars yet now their regular and certain Courses are found and known and more little Planets moving about Saturn and Jupiter since the Invention of Telescopes whereby their Courses are also known and calculated and the Usefulness thereof for finding out the Longitude is known which is of so great Use for Navigation and it is very probable that more will yet be found The Comets or blazing Stars are yet looked upon as prodigious or irregular yet it is not without Hope that their regular Course may be also found The Eclipses of the Sun and Moon gave great Astonishment and Terror at first to all and still to the less knowing Nations but they give still Matter of Admiration and incite us to consider the wonderful Works of God Their Recourses are now certainly known and calculated for many Years to come for the Predictions of these that have past have always held since the Course of the Planets have been exactly known from whence the Eclipses do necessarily follow The Eclipses have also great Use for the Calculation of Time for in divers Nations and at divers
an Object as the Eye The Particles of Fire severally have so small Force that their rolling can easily be stopped by which Men can so easily be master of raising and quenching Fire In all which the wonderful Wisdom of the Divine Contrivance is resplendent The Work of the second Day of the Creation was the creating of that Power of Motion or Pression of the several Parts of the AEther whereby one Sphere of it moved about compleating its Motion in twenty four hours and thereby the Light that was created in the one Hemisphere of the AEther illuminating one side of the Earth was carried about and made Day and Night in the same way that the Sun now doth and so made Day and Night before the Sun was created That AEther is called in the English Translation the Firmament but by the Dutch and Latin Translation is more accurately called the Expansum or the Bulk having Parts stretched out and is called the Waters but more accurately the Fluid which comprehends both Water and AEther for the same Word was used before that the Spirit moved upon the Waters there being nothing then but the Chaos or pure AEther and thereafter it is called Heaven which is that part of Heaven in which the Sun and the Planets were after created for that Heaven is said to divide the Waters above from the Waters beneath that is the AEther in which the fixed Stars are above the Planetary AEther and the AEther in which the Terraqueous Globe is being the Waters under the Planetary Sphere In the third Day of the Creation that part of the Fluid which is now more strictly and properly called the Water and which surrounded the whole Face of the Earth was gathered together God having made the Surface of the Earth which at first was round unequal by Mountains Vallies and Plains and by that great and hollow Receptacle in which the Sea is contain'd and thereby the dry Land appeared and the Waters of the Sea could never return to cover the Face of it tho by the miraculous Deluge not only all the Clouds which are but rarified Water fell down in Showers upon the Earth but much more of the AEther was turned into Water the Clouds were but raised after the Separation of Sea and Land for it is said There went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole Face of the Ground the Return whereof could not have covered the Mountains After the Separtion in the same day the creating Will of God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees which did immediately take Effect and it was so In the Works of this Day the wonderful Wisdom of God doth gloriously appear 1. In the Structure of the Terraqueous Globe being of a round Globular Figure most capable of the Vicissitudes of Day and Night and of the several Seasons ballanced by its own Weight in the midst of the World and tho it be a very small part of the World yet the whole visible World hath its Perfections directed towards it not upon its own account but as it is the Habitation fitted and destinated for Mankind Its Figure makes it fit for Man's Habitation upon all the sides and parts of it being so contrived that near both the Poles there is nothing but the vast Ocean where if there had been dry Land it had been altogether uninhabitable 2. The Figure of the Earth in its Inequalities sheweth the Wisdom of God that thereby the Sea is hemmed in which is majestickly expressed by God in his humbling Job saying Who shut up the Sea with Doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the Womb and brake up for it is my decreed place and set Bars and Doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed By the Mountains also there are Vallies whence the Rain that falls on the Mountains runneth down into Vallies and makes them fruitful and in the Mountains there are Fountains perpetually flowing whence arise Rivulets and by their Concourse Rivers running down into the Sea and making a perpetual Circulation of Water from the Sea into these Fountains and from the Fountains back into the Sea so making perpetual Motion which God only hath immediately made By these Rivers there is not only Fruitfulness in the Vallies by the reciprocal Vapours arising from them and returning to them and the Lands about them by an unending Intercourse they are the Marches of Countries and give much retardment and stop to the Invasion of the Inhabitants on either side in time of War but in time of Peace make an easy Intercourse and Commerce among Men where they are navigable which in many is continued for many hundred Miles If the Earth had been exactly round the Surface of it had been much less and there could have been no Rivers because there could have been no Descent The Mountains also serve to give shelter against the Excess of the Sun and shelter against the Tempest of the Wind. 3. In the Mountains all sorts of Metals are found which were partly created and partly gathered so that they have a kind of Growth like Trees 4. The Mountains also are like Eliopils the Wind springing from their Caverns from some of them so constantly and strongly that from divers sides of the same Mountains there are Anniversary Winds keeping their fixed Periods whereby Men know to sail from one Country to another and to return by the vast Ocean but the nearer Distances where Men must pass in short time the Winds are variable that may serve them both to come and go and the wonderful Providence of God is seen in them that Men are furthered or stopped in their Designs according to his Purpose and may warrantably trust and pray to be served by these Winds without tempting God by desiring a Miracle Tho the Winds be the necessary Products of inscient Matter yet God foresaw both the Exigence Faith and Prayers of all his Creatures and made the course of Nature to answer them as well as sometimes on their Prayers he changes the course of Nature If God in his Wisdom had not provided both these fixed and variable Winds the Intercourse and Communion of Mankind had been very small expensive and troublesome it had been an unpleasant and dangerous undertaking of a Voyage of many Months if it had always been liable to contrary Winds and no less inconvenient in short Voyages if Men could not go and return for many Months together until the turning of these stated Winds and if there were no Winds there were little Benefit by Rivers and none at all by the vast Ocean It makes no Exception from the Wisdom of God that all the Earth is not equally fertile for if it were it would be little noticed or valued and beside God has ballanced well the Advantages of the fertile and barren warm and cold Regions In the cold Regions there is long Life much Health great
Principle to Mankind to prefer the common Interest of the whole to that of any part On the fifth Day God perfected the Creation of inanimate Creatures by an orderly Procedure according to the degrees of their Perfections 1. The Chaos which before it had Figure or Motion was the most imperfect Substance 2. Adding Perfections to that part of the Chaos he made Fire to give Light and Heat by its Motion 3. Giving an uniform circular Motion to those Particles of the Chaos that made up the Spheres of AEther by whose Revolution the Vicissitudes of Day and Night began 4. Adding Cohesion of Parts of the Chaos about the Earth whence arose the Figures of the Particles of Water which at first covered the whole Face of the Earth being then exactly round 5. Separating the Earth and the Water by making the Mountains and Vallies the Earth having been also made of the Chaos by Cohesion of its Parts whereby a far more variable Figure of its Particles arose in which were comprehended Metals Minerals Stones saline and sulphurous Bodies the Seeds of Plants and the Terrestrial Fire 6. The Plants are formed whether they sprung of these Seeds by the immediate creative Power of God or whether beside the Seeds the Plants were formed fit to receive them it is uncertain it might appear rather that they sprung of the Seeds because it is said Let the Earth bring forth c. yet that may be understood of the subsequent Growth of Plants And last the Stars were created being the most perfect and glorious of all inanimate Creatures Then followed the Creation of living Creatures in the same order proceeding from the least perfect Kinds to the more perfect until the last Termination in the Creation of Man The other living Creatures are stated in three Orders the Fish in the Waters the Fowl to fly in the Air and the Beasts on the Earth all which have their variable Motions which some imagine to be without Perception or Sense and that they be only passive in their Motions from the Impression of outward Objects for which I see no solid Reason for they having Senses so like unto Men if all their Motions were by Impressions on their Senses it could not be doubted but such Motions would be also in Men seeing their Senses are operative without their Will or any intrinsick active Power which is contrary to the common Sense and Experience of all Mankind However it be there is great Evidence of the wonderful Contrivance of the Wisdom of God in brute Creatures especially in the peculiar Instincts of the several Species which do all act necessarily upon their proper Objects without Hesitation or Deliberation They have their Pleasures and Griefs their Appetites and Aversions in which they cannot divert from one Object to another nor can they compare Objects Means or Ends and yet by the wonderful Wisdom of God they do most things necessary for their Preservation their Promotion and Propagation by meer Instincts more exactly than Men can in the same things that are common to both Besides the wonderful and various Structure of their Bodies there are Depths concerning them that the most knowing Men have never been able to reach as what their Souls are how they are produced how their Bodies are framed by Generation wherein certainly there is a difference from the Generation of Men. God doth not command the Earth to bring forth Man as he doth to bring forth the brute Creatures therefore it seems their Seeds were created in the Beginning as well as the Seeds of the Plants Some late Experiments by Microscopes have shown an infinite number of Animalcula in the Sperme of the Brutes but their Souls are not endued with that Perfection to have any Perception but by the Impression of Objects so their Bodies being marred their Souls can never more have any Animal Operation as the separate Souls of Men have The first and lowest Degree of Animals is of Fish which live in the Water whereof there are innumerable kinds and degrees of Perfection from the Oister that hath no other Motion but the opening its Shell to receive its Aliment to the Whale This also is strange in Fishes that Concourse of the Seeds of Male and Female do but in few of them appear nor have they that Pairing which the Fowls and other Brutes have when left to their natural Course nor any Knowledg of or Affection to their Birth The more perfect Fish are furnished with Instruments for their Progress especially with Fins The next Degree in Perfection of Brutes are the Fowls who are adorned with their beautiful Feathers and instructed with their Wings by which they fly Their several Kinds have their distinct Voices by which they express their Affections the variety of which and of their Shapes and Colours and their Instincts by which they know their Food and Physick and what is hurtful to them and the melodious Songs of many of them do all manifest the wonderful Wisdom of their Creator The Water is impowered and commanded to bring forth both Fish and Fowl which doth import that their Seeds are lubrick and not firm as that of Plants and therefore are dispersed in that soluble Element On the sixth Day were created the Terrestrial Beasts for God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creatures after his kind which are three beside the various Species of every Kind to wit Cattel creeping Things on the Earth and the Beasts these seem to be the wild and ravenous Beasts that live not in Herds or Flocks which are the Cattel but both walk with Legs and so are different from the creeping Things as Worms and Serpents I shall not need to speak any thing of the Variety of these and of the Wisdom of God shining in them seeing they differ not much from what has been said of the Fish and the Fowls but that they come nearer to the Perfection of Man than they God hath given eminent Instances of his Wisdom in the Perfections of the Horse and the Leviathan whose Scales do clearly distinguish it from the Whale so that it is a Terrestrial Animal and in the Unicorn All the Creation tho it be very wonderful holds a small Proportion with the Wisdom of God in the creating and governing of Man which is incomprehensible Some part of it will appear in the Dominion of God which I shall leave to the next Meditation and only remark upon the whole Creation that wonderful Beauty of all its Parts their Correspondence and mutual Usefulness and the Termination of all their Perfections on Mankind MEDITAT XVIII Upon the Dominion of God and his Dispensations thereupon towards his Rational Creatures especially by the Covenant of Works and Covenant of Grace I Have as distinctly and orderly as I could cleared and quieted my Thoughts concerning the Divine Perfections Natural and Moral severally I come now to consider them jointly in the glorious and gracious Dominion of God over the World in
would not have omitted to plead that when he pleaded fo weak a ground as the Invitation of his Wife not that he spared the Soveraignty of God for he insinuates a too harsh Reflection against God not only blaming the Woman but that she was given of God It was a farther degree of the Bounty of God that he had given a mutual Affection between Angels and Men that their Converse was both profitable and pleasant By these Principles that God gave Man he was not only innocent without Vice or Sin but he was holy and morally good till he fell from his Integrity by disobeying God and brought Sin into the World if he then being innocent became sinful tho he was ripe in his Capacities so soon as he was created and had the Love of God awakned in him in so high a degree having freshly received so great and so high Favours of God how much more capable behoved his Posterity to be of Defection that were to be born and live so long an animal Life unless God had given him a Promise or declared unto him a Purpose to confirm him and his Posterity if he had continued to give Proof of his Obedience in his innocent fallible State as it is commonly believed that the elect Angels were confirmed The Bounty of God doth yet further manifest it self in giving Man the Dominion of all the Creatures in this inferior World not peculiarly to Adam as if all Right of the Creatures had been to be derived from him but God gave Right to subdue and possess them which could not be done by Adam but by Mankind and therefore the first Title of Right was the Possession of that which was void and possessed by none and the Fruits thereof not only the Profit but the Pleasure of the Creatures was given chiefly to Man The variety of Shapes and Colours of Animals Trees Herbs and Fruits the beautiful Verdure of Trees and Herbs the various Painture of the Fruits of Trees of the Flowers and Blossoms of Plants and of the Feathers of Birds were of little use to themselves but of much use to Man by an innocent Pleasure arising from the Sight of them leading to the Admiration of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God their Author In which I doubt not that the Angels are Sharers so that it was not in vain that the Earth brought forth all these things tho for a long time Man possessed but a small part of it for the Wisdom of God could have so ordered that the Seeds disseminate in Earth and Waters should only spring as Man had use of them It does not diminish the Bounty of God that there is a great Inequality in the Perfections of these Creatures and that some of them bred Horror and Hurt unto Man because they set off the Lustre of the rest which otherwise would be less valued if we never had Darkness we would little value Light The hurtful Creatures are Instruments of God's Justice and none of them want their peculiar Vertues It is also the Goodness of God that the Discovery of the Natures of the Creatures and all experimental Knowledg hath proceeded from the beginning and shall to the end encrease that there might never be wanting a sutable Exercise Diversion and Delight to the more ingenious and inquiring Men. The Sun the Moon and Stars and all their Courses and Motions are designed to manifest to Angels but chiefly to Men the Majesty and Glory of the Omnipotent Creator and for the Pleasure and Profit of Men. It is a general Effect of the Bounty of God that he preserveth all these things in their Existence Power Vigor and Action but more particularly he preserves Man and Beast in over-ruling their Inclinations whereby they shun those things that might destroy them and attain those that may preserve them Without God's Preservation no Creature could subsist nor have any Activity For in him we live and move and have our Being God needs no positive Act to destroy any Creature if he withdraw his Support they would return into nothing out of which they came Yet I do not think that Preservation is a continual Creation otherwise God should create the Souls of the wicked full of actual Wickedness and even the damned Spirits in all their Malice I know not how this Difficulty could be shunned by any but those who think that Accidents can subsist being separate from Subjects or transmitted from one Subject to another Nor could the same Individual be continued but as every moment one is created another behoved to be annihilated so that all Creatures were deceived of themselves and all others thinking they were the same and yet they were an innumerable Multitude of in-coexisting Individuals Preservation is more properly expressed by a continued Support as Creation is an Elevation to Existence from nothing Preservation is the Support from receding into nothing a thing supported will certainly fall if the Support be removed The Bounty of God is crowned by God's Government of the World especially of Angels and Men How unhappy should Man be if they had an Epicurean God that were not concerned in the Actings of Men leaving them wholly to themselves The Goodness of God extends it self not only to the Natural Capacities of Men but to supernatural Powers as the Gift of Prophecy of Language not learned and the Interpretation thereof and of other miraculous Works which in distinction from saving Graces are called Gifts These are the Graces whereby God gives the supernatural Faculties of the Regenerate in Conversion or doth encrease the same thereafter yet that Term is otherwise taken and is extended to a graceful Countenance or Deportment making the Person having it to have a special kind of Amiableness for it is not every Beauty or Comeliness that is esteemed Gracefulness but that which shews a Nobleness or Excellency of Mind which therefore is very sutable to Princes and is frequently attributed to them without sufficient Ground The highest degree of this Gracefulness is called Majesty appropriated to Kings yea every signal Favour having eminent Effects is called Grace whence ariseth the distinction of Gratia gratis data and Gratia gratum faciens upon both accounts the Capacities given in Conversion are called Graces being freely given of the greatest Import and making the Receivers acceptable and lovely to God and it is chiefly in respect of these that he takes the Title of Most Gracious God and thereby also the Converted are called Gracious MEDITATION XIII Upon the Truth of God NExt unto the Goodness of God is his Truth Nothing can be more evident than that it is most congruous to and becoming the Divine Nature to be true nor could any thing more inconsistent be imagined than lying or deceiving in God The Truth of God is the first Ground-stone of his Creatures Happiness and if it were not sure it were impossible to know that they were not in all things deluded even in the concurring Testimonies of Sense
Christian Crown the Perseverance of Saints when Christ hath said That no Man can pluck his Sheep out of his Hand and God hath said That whom he loves he loves unto the end Or why are we bidden to make sure our own Salvation Why is a Plerophory or full assurance of Salvation held forth in Scripture if these be unattainable in this Life It is a pitiful Evasion that Men may be sure they have Grace but not sure they will keep it for the Assurance relates not to Grace but to Glory and Salvation It is true If the righteous Man depart from his Righteousness it shall be remembred no more But it is as true that the gracious God who freely gave Righteousness will not suffer the Righteous to depart from it either in this Life or that which is to come There is another way of universal Grace maintained by some of those of the Augustan Confession and it seems to be so held in the Liturgy of the Church of England that Grace is given to all who are baptized at the time of their Baptism The Church of Rome excludes all from Mercy and Glory that are not actually baptized tho they give them a more easy Quarter which they call Limbus Infantum than those of riper Age and certainly they must place Idiots there as well as Infants yet they are more cruel that condemn these Infants and Idiots to eternal Torment No Protestant excludes Salvation by the want of Baptism and none of them do include Salvation by Baptism but only Regeneration nor do they hold that that Regeneration doth always or for the most part continue but that these Infant-Saints may fall away yet all that die in Infancy must be saved for they cannot fall away The Liturgy saith we do not doubt that all that are baptized are truly regenerate which I would rather interpret as a Presumption in the Judgment of Charity than as a positive Assertion in the Judgment of Verity As if one saw a Man of Age giving Signs of his Belief baptized said I doubt not this Man is regenerate yet some of the Learned understand it otherwise who yet are not for amissible Grace and therefore perplex themselves indeavouring to invent a Sacramental Grace of Regeneration being conditional upon Faith at the time of Discretion The Papists are more puzled to clear how the Water of Baptism regenerates for they think it not enough that God hath promised to regenerate all at that time but they hold that the Water sacramentally used doth it opere operato by a Power given it by God I know no reason to confirm this Opinion it is true Christ saith Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God This would exclude all that were not baptized from Heaven if there the Kingdom of God signified Heaven which none hold but Papists And therefore many by the Kingdom of Heaven understand the Christian Church as it must be understood in several other places so that the meaning will be no Man can be a Member of the visible Church but he that is or is rationally supposed to be regenerated by the Spirit of God and likewise consecrated to God by Baptism So that it is of the same import with these words Whosoever shall believe and be baptized shall be saved The joining of Water to the Spirit can no more infer the necessity of Water than of Fire which is elsewhere joined to the Spirit It is from this Opinion tho without Warrant that Baptism is called the Laver of Regeneration because a Laver imports Washing but Regeneration is to be attributed to the sanctifying of the Spirit the Baptized are consecrated by the Water of Baptism not as antecedent to Regeneration but more frequently consequent thereto I see no reason to prove Baptism to be a converting Ordinance but the quite contrary in the very Institution of it He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved So that there is no warrant to baptize any but such as in the Judgment of Charity may be accounted Believers either by actual or habitual Faith Therefore Baptism doth not confer the Grace of believing nor hath God shown that he will ordinarily confer that Grace at Baptism This is much confirmed by Circumcision which was the Seal of the Covenant which could not be meant of the actual sealing and confirming which was in every circumcised Person for it were inconsistent with the Wisdom of God to have designed a Seal for that use which were only applicable to Men and not to Women But it was a Seal confirming that Society in which it was used to be the Society wherein ordinarily the Covenant of Grace was to be found as it was also the solemn Inauguration and Entry into the Church so is Baptism which is now the solemn Entry into the Christian Church and is in place of Circumcision and therefore the Anabaptists have no just ground to scruple at the baptizing of Infants born to be Members of the Church which have not only a presumptive inward Holiness but a federal Holiness or such a Holiness as all things consecrated to God have much more Children consecrated by the Members of the Church and dedicated to God by their Parents or in case of their Death or Incapacity by their nearest Relations or even by others from the presumptive Will of their Parents I see no Warrant for any under the pretence of being God-fathers or Godmothers to baptize the Children of Infidels tho they were in their Power All these ways of general and amissible Grace do much incroach upon the Wisdom of God Why should he give Grace to so many who he knew would not make use of it were not that Grace in vain But if Grace be given always and effectually at the time of Conversion it is both sufficient and quadrant with the Wisdom of God who doth nothing in vain It will breed no Difficulty that God calleth many whom he doth not choose because that is necessary to put them in a possibility of Salvation and to render those inexcusable that do refuse it But to give actual Grace to those who would throw it away were to cast Pearls before Swines All these ways of conceiving the Covenant of Grace and the Divine Dispensations of Election and Reprobation shew that generally Christians agree that it is an eminent part of the amiable Aspect of God that he hath put no Rational Creature under the Necessity of Damnation tho most Part do overdo holding more than what is necessary or convenient for that Effect There can be nothing more clear and there is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than that the Way of Salvation is by the way of Covenant which implies in its Nature mutual Prestations of the Parties covenanting towards each other but doth not imply that these Prestations must be of equal Value or of any Merit but that the Force of the Covenant is from the Engagement of the