considerable part of the Divine Workmanship were at first made in the highest invigoration of the spiritual and intellective Faculties which were exercis'd in Virtue and in blissful Contemplation of the supream Deity Here we see the chief Faculties of the Soul are supposed to have once enjoyed the perfectest Bliss for quality that their Natures were capable of which if in truth it had ever been so their Condition would have been in all reason eternally happy For First The Intellect and the Will being in their highest inactuation and exercise they could not purely of themselves without some Argument or Motive desert the Beatific Object because the one most perfectly understanding and the other most perfectly loving being in their highest invigoration the same they should otherwise without regard had to any Object withdrawing them from God have left and forsaken what was most clearly known by the Intellect to be the Soul 's chiefest Good and as such practically delighted in with all the strength of the Will which is a thing impossible the Intellect being never drawn but by some Argument true or false nor the Will inclined without a Motive really or apparently good Neither Secondly could the Souls copartner the Body nor the inferior Powers of the Soul relating to the Body have drawn the supream Faculties from that which they fully experienced to be amiableness it self and the only true Felicity to gratifie any or all of them for the Soul was united with the most subtil and aethereal Matter that it was capable of inacting and the inferior Powers those relating to the Body being at a very low ebb of exercise were wholly subservient to the Superior and employed in nothing but what was serviceable to that higher Life so that the Senses did but present occasions for Divine Love and Objects for Contemplation and the Plastic had nothing to do but to move this passive and easie Body accordingly as the Concerns of the higher Faculties required Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. Whence it plainly appears that the Souls inferior Powers and the Body were so far from having a stronger propensity to Objects of Sense than the superior Faculties had an inclination to God that those were wholly subservient unto these in the exercise of their proper Functions and so could be no inducement to make them forsake their enjoyed Felicity Nor Thirdly could long continuance through Torpitude or Defatigation in performing their Offices be a Cause why the Soul should desert its Bliss because when it shall be re-estated therein to Eternity it shall according to the Praeexistentiaries have a Body of the like pure aethereal Matter and the same innate triple congruity for ever which it had at first For since the supream Faculties were by Creation in their highest inactuation exercise and invigoration that their Natures rendred them capable of and the Soul united to the most tenuious pure and simple Matter as the fittest instrument for the most vigorous and spiritual Faculties as the Author of Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. expresly says they were the first and last state of Soul and Body will not be different which if really so then if ever we had been in perfect Bliss we should have continued therein to Eternity for the last Estate of the Blessed shall abide the Praeexistentiaries grant for ever The Annotator upon Lux Orientalis I know offers pag. 116 117 118. several things to evade this Consequence That if the last estate of the Blessed be unalterable the first would have been so also for he says First That it may be a Mistake that the Happiness is altogether the same that it was before For our first Paradisaical Bodies from which we lapsed might be of a more crude and dilute Aether not so full and saturate with Heavenly Glory and Perfection as our Resurrection-Body is I answer that tho the Annotator makes some scruple whether the Body was by Creation such as the Author has described it to be yet I do not find that he differs from him as to the state of the Soul which in regard it was in its highest inactuation exercise and invigoration the Body that it might be adapted thereunto was of necessity to be of the most subtil and pure aethereal Matter that the Soul was capable of inacting as the Author we have seen says it was or else there would have been that disproportion between the Soul and Body as that the praeexistent state should not have been the best that Rational Nature was capable of which the Praeexistentiaries cannot admit of to be true without yielding the very Foundation of their Hypothesis to be subverted thereby since they lay it as hath been seen in this That the Eternal and Almighty Goodness the blessed Spring and Root of all things made all his Creatures in the best happiest and most perfect condition that their respective Natures rendred them capable of The Annotator's first Reason why happy Souls might formerly fall albeit they shall never hereafter in the future world do so again being you see of no validity let 's proceed to examine the rest for he saith 2ly The Soul was then unexperienced and lightly coming by that Happiness she was in did the more heedlesly forgo it before she was well aware and her Mind roved after new Adventures although she knew not what 3ly It is to be considered whether Regeneration be not a stronger Tenure for enduring Happiness than the being created happy For this being wrought so by degrees upon the Plastich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with ineffable groans and piercing desires after that divine Life that the Spirit of God co-operating exciteth in us When Regeneration is perfected and brought to the full by these strong Agonies this may rationally be deemed a deeper tincture in the Soul than that she had by meer Creation whereby the Soul did indeed become holy innocent and happy but not coming to it with any such strong previous Conflicts and eager Workings and Thirstings after that state it might not be so firmly rooted by far as in Regeneration begun and accomplished by the operation of God's Spirit gradually but more deeply renewing the Divine Image in us 4ly It being a renovation of our Nature into a pristine state of ours the strength and depth of impression seems increased upon that account also 5ly The remembrance of all the hardships we underwent in our lapsed condition whether of Mortification or cross Rancounters this must likewise help us to persevere when once returned to our former Happiness 6ly The comparing the evanid Pleasures of our lapsed or terrestrial Life with the fulness of those Joys that we find still in our heavenly will keep us from ever having any hankering after them again 7ly The certain knowledg of everlasting punishment which if not true they could not know must be also another sure bar to any such negligences as would hazard their setled Felicity Which may be one reason why the irreclaimable are eternally punished
or sav'd in that his Safety proceeded from a present unstedfast Inclination 't is obvious that the former would have cause to be more intimately and cordially thankful and to love him more tenderly and affectionately that saved him alive than the latter would have reason to be unto the other who preserv'd him from perishing SECT IV Man was created by God. He has an immaterial Substance which is the Principle of Motion proper to him immortal and indued with the Rational Faculties of Vnderstanding and Will. He was created in a State of Innocency What the State of Innocency was The End for which Man was created In what his Chief Good and Felicity doth consist 1. THat God is the Creator of all things and therefore of Man was proved sect 3. par 2 3. Who in that it is evident by certain Experience that he moves himself whenever he pleases after what particular manner he pleases and to whatsoever Object he pleases without being necessarily agitated by Sense or Passion or Phantasie as Brutes always are he must have some Power or Principle within him which is not material especially since he doth sometimes with great Deliberateness and Reason set himself to oppose what the corporeal and animal part solicits and prompts him to and prevails thereby against the Allurements of Sense the Assaults of Passion and the Insinuations of Phansie which could not be if there were nothing but corporeal Substance or the animal Life in Man because Matter Sense Passion and Phansie make up the whole Animal and it is not possible that the same numerical Matter Sense Passion or Phansie should have at the same time quite contrary Motions Inclinations or Impulses crossing opposing and controlling one another and therefore it must be some other Power residing in Man which resists and masters their Motions Inclinations and Impulses 2. There is then in Man something besides corporeal Substance and consequently something which is not subject to Corruption but is of an indissoluble and immortal Nature For since Corruption is the dissolution of a thing compounded and dissolution is separation and separation division which cannot be made but in something that is divisible or may be divided into separate parts it is apparent in regard nothing is divisible into separate parts but what is corporeal and that Man has a Principle of Nature in him which is not so par 1. that there is something belonging to human Being which is incorruptible and immortal viz. the active Power or Principle in Man which we call the Soul since besides it and the Body there is nothing else conceivable that constitutes the whole Substantial Frame of Man. 3. Man's Soul then is of an immortal Nature And seeing we experience within our selves that it has a Faculty to frame Notions of things conceived to it by the Senses and from Notions put together to make Judgments and from those Judgments orderly disposed to infer or find out some Truth whereof it was ignorant before the Soul is said to be Rational or endued with Reason for by Reason is meant a Power in the Mind of Man which enables him to proceed from the knowledg of one thing to the knowledg of another by due Consequences made to that intent and purpose The Soul then has a rational Faculty or Ability whereby it discovers the Truth of things and this Faculty we usually call the Intellect or Understanding 4. And forasmuch as the End and Benefit designed by Nature to accrue to Man by the knowledg of things is to discern what is convenient or inconvenient or good or evil for him and that it would be to small purpose nevertheless to attain thereunto if he had not a Faculty or Power enabling him to apply himself to that which is good for the obtaining of it and to deeline that which is evil for the avoiding of it 't is clear that since God and Nature make nothing in vain there is in Man a Faculty by which the Soul is impower'd to desire good for the acquiring of it and to have an aversion to evil for the avoiding of it which Faculty is called the Will or rational Appetite because framed by the nature given it by God to follow the Dictate of Reason 5. Wherefore seeing the all-wise and all-good God was the Creator of Man who consists of Soul and Body 't is manifest that he had by Creation not only an Understanding and Will whereby he was capacitated to apprehend and desire what was truly good for him but had likewise a Body duly qualified to contribute its assistance towards the fruition of the same 6. And since nothing is good to Man as Man but either that which of all things is most convenient for him or which will do him most good and is therefore called his chief Good or else something that is useful and beneficial to him for procuring the same 't is plain that Man in the state wherein he was created understood what was his chief Good and what the proper Means whereby to procure it were and made use likewise of the same seeing his Intellect was clear his Will upright and his Body in a frame duly subservient to the same par 5. 7. Which chief good of Man in regard he is composed of Soul and Body must be something that is best either for the Soul alone or the Body alone or for both together That Man 's chief good cannot consist in what is best for the Body alone is evident from this that the Soul is undoubtedly the more excellent part of Man so that what is best for the Body be it what it will must of necessity be some good which is consistent with the good that is best for the Soul. 8. And what is best for the Soul the same must give the greatest and highest Perfection to it which it is capable of And the greatest and highest Perfection which the Soul is capable of must needs consist in that which will most of all perfect the prime Faculties thereof which being the Intellect and the Will par 3 4. 't is manifest that that which will most perfect those two Faculties is best for the Soul. 9. And since the Intellect is a Faculty of Knowing and the Will of Desire the utmost Perfection of the one will be the largest and highest Knowledg and of the other the greatest and noblest good which they are respectively capable of 10. Wherefore seeing the Object of the Intellect or knowing Faculty is Truth and that the more a Man knows he is both the more desirous and more capable still of farther and higher Knowledg 't is apparent that the Intellect could not be perfected to its utmost Capacity by the Knowledg of all created Beings if really possessed thereof because there would be a more excellent Object than all that still unknown to wit the prime independent Being which is the Origin and Cause of all created Being The Knowledg therefore of the prime independent Being so far as
therefore said to nourish the Body because being digested by the Stomach they afford Chyle which sanguified immediately refresheth and strengthens it so the Body and Blood of Christ crucified are there said to nourish the Soul because being applied to it by Faith they confirm it in Charity which is the Spiritual Nourishment and Strength thereof being that which immediately unites it to God Sect. 11. and in the Souls Union with God is the Spiritual Life Strength and Vigor thereof 6. That then the Sacrament of Baptism is the Sacrament of Initiation and introduces Charity into the Soul and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Sacrament of confirming and strengthening the same is in general made manifest And how each of them in particular effects what it was instituted for shall be briefly seen 7. Baptism which is the initiating Ordinance is not to be administred to any that are capable to understand to what intent it was ordained till they give an account of their Belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith and make a serious and solemn profession of their unfeigned desire and stedfast resolution to forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and to lead a godly righteous and sober Life in which if they be sincere and understand as they ought to do that the external washing with Water or dipping therein denotes the inward cleansing of the Soul from Sin or a dying to Sin and rising again to newness of Life and is a Seal likewise and Means thereof how can it be doubted of but that the Sacramental Action of Baptism being duly performed should to one so prepared have the Effect it was intended for and improve his holy purpose and resolution of leading a new Life into a real performance of the same For to suppose the Soul rightly prepared and immediately disposed to receive Baptism and Baptism duly administred and yet the Effect of Baptism or Res Sacramenti not to follow were to suppose an entire adequate Cause actually causing without its proper Effect ensuing or a thing actually to cause and yet nothing answering thereto actually caused which is impossible 8. And as to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is an Ordinance for Confirmation and strengthening of Grace in that it represents unto us the bloody Passion of our Saviour in a more solemn sacred and venerable manner by Christ's own intendment and designation than any other divine Institution doth it must certainly to him who comes with due Reverence and Devotion to that august Mystery and stupendious Token of God's immense and endearing Love to Man be the most effectual Means possible to cause a deep impression of Charity in his Soul and even ravish and transport him with the Love of so good and gracious a God and Benefactor Object 1. If the expulsion of Sin by the accession of Charity be the Effect of the Sacrament of Baptism then can no man be justified without being actually baptized with Water although he really repent and be truly converted to God. Solut. If so be that external Baptism were the only Cause of the Remission or taking away of mortal Sin the consequence would be good but the desire of Baptism for the washing away of Sin may be so ardent and operative in some that Charity will be obtained before the actual administration of the Sacrament and whensoever and by what means soever Charity is introduced into the Soul Mortal Sin is necessarily cast out thereby sect 11. par 6. But few without the Sacramental washing with water though piously disposed have the habit of Charity compleated in them Neither is Baptism given in vain even to those whose mortal Sin is expelled out of the Soul before it be administred for since there are as many degrees of Righteousness as there are of Charity sect 11. par 8 9. the actual receiving of that Sacrament will cause in them an encrease of Charity and so of Righteousness which is never perfect till the Love of God be so ardent that it wholly burns up all the dross of carnal and earthly Affections in the Soul Sect. 11. Object 2. If the Belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith and an earnest desire and a stedfast resolution to forsake Sin and to lead a godly Life be Dispositions necessarily required in those who are to be baptized then is Infant-Baptism a fruitless and insignificant thing Solut. It is evident as well by the Office of Baptism as by the Church-Catechism that Infants through their Sureties are engaged before the Church will admit them to Baptism except in imminent danger of Death in which Case the Church enjoyning speedy Baptism becomes it self Surety thereby and therefore orders that the Child if it live be brought into the public Congregation and that the Godfathers and Godmothers undertake for it like to what is done in public Baptism to believe themselves the Articles of Christian Faith and to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil when they come to Age no less than such as are of ripe years are obliged to declare they already do unfeignedly all those things by which it appears that the Benefit which accrues by Baptism to both has a reference to and proceeds on their part upon the account and ground of a true profession of Faith and a real endeavour after Holiness of Life So that although Baptism be administred to Children before they understand it yet the effect and benefit of it more than this that they obtain thereby the grand Privilege of becoming Members of the visible Church whence they are brought to enjoy the great Blessing of Christian Education takes not place nor is reaped till they do And thus it is easie to apprehend as to those Children that live till they have the use of Reason how Baptism becomes profitable to them whilst if they get benefit thereby they must perform what their Sureties promised for them which if they unfeignedly do by cordially believing the Christian Doctrine and by taking a firm resolution through the Grace of God to live a godly Life the Consideration of the gracious Design of Christ's instituting of Baptism to take away Sin and of the solemn Celebration of it by the Church for their sake to that end will if the Consideration be such as it should be cause a loathing of Sin and a real forsaking thereof for the Love of God. For why Baptism already past should not through a serious reflecting on it especially when Confirmation is duly according to the great importance of it administred be an effectual Means of cleansing the heart from Sin as well as it is by the earnest desire thereof before it be had will not be easily I believe resolved The main difficulty to unfold is how Baptism can profit Children that die young Those who say that Grace is immediately infused by God will be hard put to 't to give a tolerable Reason to what good purpose the Use of Means is when the Effect receives
amorous Gestures often overrule their kind Husbands of which sort Adam was undoubtedly one and induce them to do what otherwise they would abstain from And if Secondly we consider that the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil being sweet and delicious and for that greedily fed upon by Eve would not only quicken and augment her animal Spirits but would also by its too much Nutriment enflame and overheat her Body of an equal Temper till she had listened to the Tempter and thence excite Venereal Desires which are apt to enliven the Luster of the Eyes the Briskness of the Countenance and the Amorousness of the Gesture in her and so render her more delicate and taking than she had formerly appear'd to be 't will be the less wonder that Adam should be surprised and hearken to the Voice of his Wife especially if withal it be minded that the State of Integrity consisted more in the even and unbyass'd Frame and Constitution of the Body and Soul of Man than in the strong Habit of Virtue which was by degrees through the frequent Exercise of pious Duties perform'd to grow to perfection in the Soul as is manifest by this that diverse both Men and Women under the Gospel Dispensation have through the Power of Christian Virtues encountred far sharper Tryals of their Obedience to Gods Commands and victoriously triumphed over them than those which our Prime Parents were at the first assault easily vanquished by as the Multitude of Holy Confessors and glorious Martyrs abundantly testifie 6. Thus our first Parents fell that is they eat of the forbidden Tree by which they were deprived of that Estate which if continued in would have made them at length for ever happy seeing that before their consenting to eat their Minds were placed chiefly on God and so only on other Things as subservient and tending to further the full Fruition of him by loving him with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Strength and with all the Mind But as soon as their Desires were ardently set on the coveted Fruit their due Conformity of Mind to God was violated thereby in that their Affections were turned away from the due Love of God to the inordinate Love of the Apple by which they departed from their Original State in preferring the Vanity of a Sensual Pleasure before the Spiritual Delight of the Soul. 7. After the forbidden Fruit was eaten and digested our Prime Progenitors were yet more estranged from their Maker by strong Venereal Desires which it raised in them strong I say because if they had continued in their first Estate those Desires would have been wholly regulated by their Rational Faculties and not at all violent whereas after the Digestion of the Fruit they were inflamed with immoderate Lust to each other whence looking towards the satisfying of their Carnal Appetite their Spiritual Love to God as their Sovereign Delight stood at a still greater distance thereby For that the Fruit through its deliciousness and nutritive Nature excited them to Venery besides that Physitians inform us that Sweet being compounded of what is moderately hot and moist is very nutritive and generative Seed the Superfluity of Nutriment may be easily gathered from Gen. 3. 7. compared with Gen. 3. 11. whilst it is said in the seventh Verse And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed Fig-leaves together and made themselves Aprons and in the eleventh Verse God replying to Adam who had rendred this Excuse for hiding himself that he was afraid because he was naked said Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat fairly intimating that the eating of the Tree was that which discovered to our first Parents their Nakedness not so much by putting them in mind of their Sin as by manifesting of their Shame the latter of which it was that troubled them not the former as seems evident by their covering of their Nakedness and excusing their eating of the Fruit. So that this which was their Fault gave them not their Disturbance but 't was the Effect thereof that caused their Trouble to wit their Nakedness or the swelling Motion of their Generative Parts not then under the absolute Power and Command of their Wills as they had formerly no less then the rest of the Members of the Body always been which thing being ashamed of they sought to cover those unruly Parts by sewing Fig-leaves together and making themselves Aprons to hide them with Nor is this a new Interpretation of the Passage as the great St. Austin will witness whose Words are these Posteaquam Praecepti facta est transgressio confestim gratià deserente Divinâ de corporum suorum nuditate confusi sunt unde etiam foliis ficulneis quae forte a perturbatis prima comperta sunt pudenda texerunt quae prius eadem Membra erant sed pudenda non erant senserunt ergo novum motum inobedientis Carnis sitae tanquam reciprocam poenam inobedientiae suae Aug. de Civitate Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 13. i. e. After a Transgression of the Precept was committed the Divine Grace straightway deserting them they were troubled for the Nakedness of their Bodies whereupon they covered with Fig-leaves which haply they first in their Perturbation met with their undecent Members which before were the same Members but were not undecent they felt therefore a new Motion of their disobedient Flesh as a reciprocal Punishment of their Disobedience SECT VI. Original Sin the natural Consequent of eating of the forbidden Fruit and how What Original Sin is God cleared from being the Author of it Actual Sin is excited by Original All Miseries incident to Man as well as Sin are the bitter Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil 1. AFter the Equability of Temper in the Bodies of our Common Parents was corrupted Sect. 5. Par. 4. the same Objects which had no power to move the sensible Appetite of themselves before more than was convenient would now raise a different Motion in it by reason the same Causes in a Subject diversly disposed will have different Effects Wherefore since there would be a perpetual Commerce between the Senses of our first Parents and corporal Agents from every hand incessantly almost beating on them with Objects grateful to the now corrupted sensitive Appetite the Inequality of their Bodies Temper once begun could not chuse but still continue And in regard the Seed of Generation is an Extract from the Body participating of the Nature and Qualities of it the male Disposition of our Prime Progenitors Bodies never to be restored to their primitive Constitution would be transmitted by propagation to their Children and from them to their Off-spring and so successively downward to the Worlds end 2. Wherefore since we are convinced by constant Experience that Mans Body by reason of its close
Return Admitting it were so which yet I think may modestly enough be denied the Doctrine of imputative Righteousness would be never a whit the more true because inasmuch as it necessarily implies in it that a man might possibly be if God would permit it an absolutely righteous and unrighteous person at once though it never actually fell out to be so it supposes a possibility of two contradictory Assertions to be both true together But it is farther argued against imputative Righteousness thus If man be made formally righteous by the Righteousness of Christ then is man truly righteous abstracting from every thing which he himself doth more than what is necessary on his part for applying Christ's Righteousness to his Soul viz. Faith or a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his according to some or a Recumbence or resting on Christ for Salvation as others will have it But man is not truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than what is necessary on his part for applying Christ's Righteousness to his Soul viz. Faith or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation Ergo Man is not made formally righteous by the Righteousness of Christ The truth of the Proposition being evident I prove the Assumption thus If a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God be necessary to Justification then is not man truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation But a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God is necessary to Justification ergo man is not truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation The Minor which alone can be doubted of proved If Christ's imputed Righteousness be not sufficient without a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God to free the Soul from deadly Sin and the Consequent of it eternal Misery then is a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God necessary to Justification But Christ's imputed Righteousness is not sufficient without a real hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God to free the Soul from deadly Sin and the Consequent of it Eternal Misery Ergo A real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God is necessary to Justification The Major needs no Proof and the Minor is evidently true if deadly Sin be nothing else but the preferring the Enjoyment of the World before the Enjoyment of God or an Aversion from God and Conversion to the Creature and that everlasting Misery is the necessary Result of the perpetual Continuance in Sin according to what is said in the 7th and 8th Section Lastly The Doctrine of imputative Righteousness seems erroneous from what here follows If men be formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ made theirs then are all men justified alike or have equal Righteousness because Christs Righteousness is one and the same and if justified alike then also glorified alike seeing Glory depends on Righteousness or rather is compleat Righteousness it self or the perfect love of God in Heaven Par. 9. But all men are not glorified alike therefore neither justified alike That all men are not glorified alike I gather thus The perfect or entire love of God without any mixture of Affection to any thing besides as the Souls Sovereign Good being Mans Felicity for tho the Blessed Saints and Angels mutually delight in each other and more or less according to every ones Excellency yet it is only as they are and appear so many bright Rayes issuing from the Sun of Glory and not as having any proper independent Loveliness of their own or Excellency which is not totally derived from God it will be so that if of two enjoying Bliss the one love God more intensly and vigorously than the other tho both with their whole Affection for so do all the glorified Saints and Angels he will be the more happy for he that more intensly and vigorously affects or takes Delight in the Object he enjoys must of necessity have more Joy Pleasure and Contentment then he that adheres to what he loves with less ardency of Affection This being clear let 's compare in our Minds the Intensness or Vigor of Love to God wherewith the Holy Virgin the Blessed Apostles and Pious Martyrs or any of them particularly the Virgin Mary departed this Life with that remiss but sincere Affection which some other good Christian has to God when he leaves this World and we shall easily perceive there must needs be a great Disproportion of their love to God. When therefore the Beatific Object shall be presented to both their Affections will be encreased proportionably to what they wâ—â—t from hence with as for Example suppose the Blessed Virgin departed this Life with an Affection to God in comparison of what the other had at his Departure as five is in proportion to two then in case his Affection which stood in proportion to the Virgins as two to five be raised by the fight of God to the degree of five hers will be advanced thereby to the degree of eight for why the Beatific Object since it is able to give infinitely more satisfaction than Mans Nature is capable of should augment the one and not the other proportionably I see no appearance of reason Affections thereof for as the Strength of the Body is placed in the Nerves so is the strength of the Soul in relation to Objects of the Will in its Affections the Vigour of which the more the Mind is set upon any thing it desires and employed in the Contemplation of it is the more augmented like as the strength of the Sinews is encreased by the Exercise of the Body Wherefore since our gracious God will reward every one according to his Works Matth. 16. 27. and that no Work is acceptable to him which is not done for the love of him or out of a desire to enjoy him eternally it follows in all reason that seeing God himself is the Reward of the Ever-blessed and that therefore the difference of Rewards must proceed from the difference of the manifestation of his Glory he will manifest Himself proportionably to the Ardency of desire which every one has to enjoy him and consequently that they who love him most here in that they most son likely to be given If it be said that every glorified Saint loves God with all his Might and consequently that seeing one mans Soul differs not in Effence from another every one will love God alike in Heaven I answer that to love God with all the Might of the Soul is to love him with
namely that it may the better secure eternal happiness to others 8ly Though we have our triple vital congruity still yet the Plastick Life is so throughly satisfied with the Resurrection-Body which is so considerably more full and saturate with all the heavenly Richness and Glory than the former that the Plastick of the Soul is as entirely taken up with this one Body as if she enjoyed the Pleasures of all the three Bodies at once Ethereal Aereal and Terrestrial Since the Annotator in the first Argument he offers why Souls will not lapse in their future state as they did in their first says only that our first Paradisiacal Bodies might be of a more crude dilute Ether not so full and saturate with heavenly Glory and Perfection as our Resurrection-Body but in his eighth Argument positively affirms that the Resurrection-Body is considerably more full and saturate with all the heavenly Richness and Glory than the former yet without any reason alledged for the same and that also in his fourth Argument he calls our last state the renovation of our pristine state and in his fifth Argument our former happiness his Assertion in the eighth Argument appears to be precarious besides that it plainly contradicts the Author's description of the first Paradisiacal Body backed with Reason unconfuted by the Annotator as in my Answer to the first Argument was observed Yea considering that Man's Nature is capable of all the Glory of the resurrection-Resurrection-Body if the Glory of our first Bodies was inferior to it the Foundation of the Praeexistentiarian Hypothesis is totally razed which is That the Almighty made all Creatures in the best Happiest and most perfect Condition that their respective Natures rendred them capable of This in Answer to the eighth Argument And as to the 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 all the Motives recited in them for causing the Soul to persevere in Bliss once again obtained by fixing its Affections unalterably on God fall so far short of the immense Power Force and Efficacy which the full Fruition of God by clear Vision affords to that end that the Disproportion between them in that very respect is unspeakable insomuch that if the Soul were capable of infinite influx the Beatific Vision would infinitely ravish it with the Delight thereof And therefore if ever we had been in that height of Felicity which the Author of Lux Orientalis chap. 4. p. 113. holds we once enjoyed we could not voluntarily have deserted the same and that God by whose meer Goodness it was bestowed should have thrust us from it is incredible and if neither we had forsaken God nor God us we should certainly have remained for ever happy If it be said that the triple vital Congruity would have been given by God in vain if it had never been exerted my Answer is that all good Souls did not lapse but that some still continue in Bliss Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. p. 119. And the Annotator in his eighth Argument we saw allows the triple vital Congruity to accompany us in the next world in case there be any such thing as that Congruity is said to be 9ly The Annotator concludeth thus And lastly which will strike all sure He that is able to save to the utmost and has promised us eternal life is as true as able and therefore cannot fail to perform it This I own strikes all sure indeed but to have recourse to the Divine Promise to do it is after all the high Efforts of Wit and elegant Philosophical Essays that have been used by the Praeexistentiaries to leave their fine Hypothesis to shift at length as it can for any help that 's to be had from Philosophy at the upshot of all when it should have received its consummation from it and might in reason have expected it if in truth it had been really founded on a sound Philosophical Bottom For though the Promise of God must of necessity stand firm yet in that he does not use to accomplish the same but by something which immediately brings it to pass and establisheth it there must be a more immediate Cause of fixing the Saints in everlasting Bliss than the Divine Promise and the Beatific Vision is as has been shewn that very Cause Angelic Nature you 'l say is a much more sublime and excellent Constitution than Humane and therefore the lapsed Angels fell from an higher pitch of Glory than the Praeexistentiaries suppose lapsed Souls to have done I answer That comparatively they did not for the Author of Lux Orientalis writes that Blessed Souls were in the highest Bliss their Natures rendred them capable of But the Angels that fell never attained to the highest Felicity they were capable of enjoying for though they saw in the Glass of the Creature and more especially in that most clear one of their own pure Natures the Divine Excellency yet they never saw it immediately in it self and to do that is the alone highest degree of Bliss that Rational and Intellective Beings can attain unto which Supream Glory if they had once been possessed of they could never have lost it For since Good is the proper and adequate Object of Desire it implies a Contradiction that what is immediately seen or known and experimentally found to be essential Goodness which God is should ever be voluntarily deserted by Men or Angels for otherwise they should decline good under the very Notion of good and thereby cease to be what they essentially are a thing impossible for it is the essential Nature of the Will to love good as good By what hath been said in this last Paragraph it is easie to apprehend the Cause of the different final condition of good and bad Angels for as the good Angels by reason of the free and full conversion of their ardent desires to enjoy the immediate sight of God were accordingly rewarded with the Beatific Vision which makes them eternally most happy so the bad Angels on the contrary through their voluntary aversion from God in preferring something in their Affections before the fruition of their Maker by immediate Vision deprived themselves for ever of that Blissful Sight and by their Conversion to the more valued Object of their inordinate desire violently affected but never to be obtained render their Condition most miserable to Eternity But after all this though the highest state of Bliss be an illapsible Condition and cannot after it is gained be fallen from may it not however be reasonably enquired whether there might not have been a lapsible praeexistent state of Men not unlike to that of Adam's in his Innocency but coming much nearer to Perfection than his did And if there might why considering that the almighty Goodness does always what is best for the Creature there really was not such a State My Answer is that from the seeming possibility of such a State it cannot be rationally evinced that the actual Existence of it would have been best as may be seen from the
assumed Man's Nature on purpose to make up the Breach between God and Man and that his great and gracious Merits were in their Nature considering the infinite Dignity of the Person sufficient to have fully satisfied for an infinite Offence if God had been infinitely offended but to bring them from the Pulpit to the Schools as if the Law given by God to Man had been really intended not for Man's good alone but his own also for all Laws as was shewn sect 8. must of necessity tend to some good is nothing scholastically done For that even the Breach of human Laws from whence the Allegories in the Objection were occasioned is esteemed an Offence against the Maker of them more commonly than cautiously shall in the following Section which for illustration rather than necessity is here inserted be made appear SECT X. The End of Human Laws is the Good of the Community The Breach of them is evil as it hinders the same and not as it meerly opposes the Will of the Legislator Every Breach of them is more or less evil as it is more or less prejudicial to the general Good and has in that respect a greater or less Penalty assigned thereunto Penal Laws are made for preventing of Evils that might happen for want of them and not to take revenge on the Transgressor of the Law for neglecting or crossing the Legislator's Will. 1. 'T Would be wholly frivolous and pertinent for men to make Laws if the end for which they are made could be had and enjoyed without the making of them and therefore some End or other is designed in the making of all human Laws 2. And forasmuch as the End designed in the making of them must if the Institution of Government which is the Ordinance of God be not deserted but kept to be something that is intended for good 't is plain since Laws generally respect the whole City Province or Nation where they are made that the good of the Community consisting of the governour and governed is the general End designed according to the Institution of Government by God in the making of human Laws 3. For if to have the Legislator's Will obeyed otherwise than with regard had to the general good were the End aimed at in the constituting of human Laws then might the Law-giver of right enact any thing for Law though known as well by himself as the People to be destructive of the common good provided it were the Legislator's mind to be obeyed in the observance of it because he would act therein what directly tended to the End of Government to wit Obedience whereas in truth Obedience performed to the Command of the Law-giver is a means by which the End of Government the Public Weal or Good is to be obtained and not the End it self 4. Laws then ought of right to design the common Good and therefore every Law as it contributes more or less to the benefit of the Community is more or less good and by consequence likewise the Breach of every Law is a greater or less Evil Fault or Crime by how much the observance of the Law whereof it is a violation is more or less conducible to the public Commodity 5. Hence it follows that Penalties inserted in Laws are not intended as pure Revenge for offending the Law-giver in the breaking of his Laws but are real Branches of the several Laws wherein they are found tending to enforce through fear of the Penalty to be inflicted the performance of the thing commanded to be done or abstained from when the Laws directive part shall fall short of attaining its End. 6. For since there will be in all places where there 's need of Government some good and some bad people 't is requisite that convenient provision be made by Laws that the good designed to be obtained by Government should be effected and brought to pass as much as may be by both sorts And the way to do it in respect of good men is to direct them but in respect of bad men to awe them and through the fear of Chastisement Amercement or other Penalty to affright them into their Duty or to do what is beneficial to the Public or in case their Malignity be such as that there 's no hope of Amendment to remove them either by perpetual Imprisonment or Exile or Death out of the way that they may not for the future obstruct the good which the Government labours for and that others by their example may be deterred from committing the like Crimes for which they undergo the Penalty of the Law. 7. For that the true intent of the Law in punishing Offenders is that which hath been said will farther appear from this that the Law authorizeth the supream Magistrate to dispense with Penalties in Criminals which of right it could not do if meer Revenge or Satisfaction by way of condign Punishment for the Offence committed were the thing aimed at in the enjoyning of Penalties For to free an Offender without Satisfaction when the Law requires Satisfaction is to do Injustice which the Law that requires Justice to be done could not without contradicting it self empower him to do But if by commanding of Punishment to be inflicted on the Transgressors of the Law the Security of the public Peace be aimed at then is it not only equitable that the Penalty of a Law in such case should be remitted when the inflicting of it is adjudged by the supream Governour to be less beneficial to himself and his Subjects than the omitting the execution thereof would be but even Justice requires that it should be actually omitted and that the person liable by the Letter of the Law to be punished should be freed and delivered from the Penalty which was never intended by the Law-giver to be executed on any one to the prejudice of the Commonweal For to dispense with Penalties is not so truly an Act of meer Grace as of distributive Justice forasmuch as no Dispensation ought of â—â—ght to be given save only to such as the Law it self would have exempted from Punishment in case the Lawgiver had foreseen the Circumstances which render their indemnity better for the Public than their being punished So that whenever a Dispensation to free from the Penalty of the Law is rightly granted the intent of that very Law is more truly fulfilled than if the Penalty were inflicted yea in truth it is only in so doing rightly fulfilled the very ground and reason of granting Dispensations being this that Penal Laws might have their due effect viz. the Good of the Community which in some Cases and Circumstances would by the executing them in their literal sense be prejudiced instead of being promoted 8. The Truth of this Assertion that punitive Justice is not vindicative will yet farther appear from this that Lex Talionis Eye for Eye Tooth for Tooth c. is no part of the Law of Nature as it would of necessity be in case Penalties
for Breach of Laws were purely vindicative and intended as satisfaction or just recompeuce for the violation of them For since in strictness there 's no equality or proportion between the Member of a Man's Body and the Goods of Fortune it were unequal and unâ—â—â— to recompense the loss of any Limb with a pecuniary Mulct and yet we see 't is generally so done by Christians who nevertheless maintain the perpetual obligation of the Law of Nature Yea the Learned Bodin tells us upon no slight ground that the Lex Talionis in the commonly received Notion of it was never in practice among the very Jews his Words in the English Translation are these To requite like with like is indeed nothing else but to punish Offences with Punishments answerable to them that is to say great Offences with great Punishments mean with mean and so little Offences also lightly which they also meant when they said a Hand for a Hand a Tooth for a Tooth and an Eye for an Eye And so the ancient Hebrews the best Interpreters of God's Law have understood it expounded it practised it as it is in their Pandects to be seen in the Title of Penalties Yea Rabbi Kanan denieth the Law of like Punishment to have any where in the Cities of the Hebrews taken place in such sort as that he should have an Eye put out who had put out another man's Eye but the estimation of an Eye put out was usually by the discretion of the Judges in money valued For proof whereof let it be that before the Law of like Punishment there was a Law viz. Exod. 21. whereby it was ordained that if two men fighting one of them should hurt the other but not yet unto Death he which had done the hurt should pay the Physician for healing thereof But to what end should he so pay the Physician if he which did the hurt were in like sort to be himself wounded It should also thereof follow more absurdly that many delicate and tender Persons in receiving of such Wounds as they had given to others should thereof themselves die and perish Besides that also he who had the harm done him having lost his I Hand where with he should get his Living if the others Hand were also for the same cut off he so wanting his Hand wherewith he should get his his Living might haply so starve Wherefore such literal Exposition of the Law of like Punishment by Aristotle and Favorine is but vain and deceitful Bodin of a Common-weal Book 6. page 781. 9. I 'le conclude this Point with one only Argument more for the confirmation of what has been said which is this to inflict Punishment as dolorous and painful without regard had to a farther End to be obtained by the doing of it is to do direct Evil because that Punishment which has no Tendency to the procuring of something which has as much or more good in it than the pain has harm for Pain simply in it self considered is Evil as being offensive to Nature and a thing occasioned by Sin is purum putum Malum meer Evil which for any Law to design would argue the Makers of it to be void of Reason and Humanity Obj. 1. If the Breach of a Law be not an Offence and punishable as it only stands in opposition to the Will of the Law-giver without regard had to the Public Good presumed to be included in it then are not men obliged in Conscience to obey a bad Law or which tends not to the Common Good But men are obliged in Conscience to obey the Laws of the Land where they live although in that respect bad as not tending at all to the Public Good Ergo the Breach of the Law is an Offence and punishable as it only stands in opposition to the Will of the Law-giver without regard had to the public Good presumed to be included in it Solut. In answer first to the Major I return that if it were so that a private Person could certainly know that a certain Law had no manner of Tendency to the Public Weal yet would he be obliged in Conscience to give Obedience to it provided it were not against the Moral or some Positive Divine Law because in disobeying he might be an occasion to others of slighting or contemning the Governour and Government which is a Mischief of most dangerous Consequence to a Nation But Secondly I answer to the Minor that no Law which is not repugnant to some part of the Law of God who by reason of his inerrable Wisdom never commands but what is good ought by private Persons to be judge bad For every Legislator among Men whatever way he acquires a Right to the Legislative Power doth necessarily receive with it the Sovereign or Supreme Judgment and Will both these being so inseparable Ingredients of the Legislative Power that it cannot subsist without them For whoso has not the Supreme Judgment or a Right invested in him to give final Judgment and Determination what is requisite and convenient to be enacted for procuring the Publick Good he wants the Knowing part of a Law-giver or that which legally enables one finally to judge and determine what will be a proper Means for the Consecution of the Common Good. And whoever has not the Supreme Will or a Right appropriated to him of enacting what is finally adjudged and determined to be good for the Common-weal he is destitute of the commanding part of a Law-giver or that which legally empowers one to pass what is determinately adjudged requisite for procuring the general Good into a Law. Which things being presupposed to be true the Inference from them will be necessarily this That no Law enacted by a Sovereign Power can in Reason be said by any private Person to be bad or not tending to the Public Good if it be not manifestly contrary to his Law whose Judgment is infallible For in that he has the Legislative Power he is of necessity supposed to have the Supreme Judgment so that no inferior Judgment as the Judgment of every Subject there being but one Supreme in one Government necessarily is can without manifest Contradiction to Reason judge that he judges amiss Object 2. If Laws be therefore obliging because presumed to be good since it is certain that no Command can be good which is opposite to Gods Law it would follow that no manner of Obedience either Active or Passive is due to the Commands of Sovereigns which are against the Moral or a Divine Positive Law. Solut. If to do a thing commanded because commanded to be done be to obey a Command then to refuse to do a thing commanded is to disobey a Command and how a Man should at the same time both obey and disobey the same Command I understand not Actively you 'l say he cannot do both at once but may he not refuse to give an active Obedience to an unjust Command and yet at the same Instant be