and to do of his (e) Phil. 2.13 own good pleasure implying clearly that nothing less than the almighty Power of God's own Grace exciting inclining and determining the Will can suffice unto any good Work The Assertours of free Will those grand Parasites of Nature do count it indeed the first born of Absurdities to teach that the Grace of God hath any such determining Influence upon the Will as shall effectually work it to a closure with what is good Hence they affirm that God himself cannot without wrong to the proper Crasis and Constitution of the Will without committing a Rape upon her Virgin-freedom act otherwise upon it than after all he hath done or can do to leave her the precious priviledge of resisting his Grace rejecting the Tenders of his Love and destroying himself Thus whilst they would seem tender of the Creatures Liberty they proclaim themselves Traytors to Heaven encroaching upon God's Prerogative-royal while they would make the World believe that the essential and characteristical Property of the Will must be destroyed unless we give her a Power to bafflâ— nonplus and conquer the Almighty Spirit and Grace of God at her pleasure But we must know God doth so accommodate his Concourse with the Will of Man in his Conversion that no Violence is offered to the Will 's intrinsique Frame nothing done inconsistent with her essential Constitution Necessitate God doth but never compel the Will to what is good he doth determine but not force hâ—r he doth not destroy but give her liberty rescuing her from under the Bondage of Sin that she may be free to choose to embrace to delight greatly in himself As when Water which naturally descendeth inclining downward is transelemented and changed into Air then it doth naturally ascend contending upward So when the Will of Man which by Nature moves downward is graciously changed and freed from her native Viciousness then she readily moves upward and is wonderfully carried out after God after Christ after Heaven and Glory taking a sweet Complacency in every good Word and Work So that to consent to the Grace of God â—o accept of his graciouâ— help and to long for it this is wholly from God himself (f) Ut ergo desideremus adjutorium gratiae hoc ipsum quoque opus est gratiae ipsa namque incipit infundi ut incipiat posci ipsa quoque amplius infunditur cum poscentibus datur Quis verò potest gratiam poscere nisi velit Sed nisi Deus in eo ipsam voluntatem operetur velle null◠〈◊〉 poterit Fulg. ad Theod. ep 6. p. 555. invincibly sanctifying the Will and by an act of â—lmighty Power determining it to what is supernaturally good It is not enough to provide the means but God himself must strongly apply them he must afford the blessed Operation and powerful Concurrence of his own Spirit the Revelation of his own Arm and Might upon the Soul or he will never consent no not to her own Happiness upon Terms of Grace And truly if in Nature Man cannot determin himself nor exert any vital Actions unless premoved and determined thereunto by the immediate Influx of God upon him as the first cause how much less in things Spiritual 'T is much controverted I know whether Men have not a Sufficiency of Power within themselves to act move and do all things agreeable to their Nature which God hath given them without any further help from him to actuate that Power to premove and determine them to every physical Action that proceedeth from them The dependance of all Creatures upon God for the Support and Continuation of their Beings is by most acknowledged But that there should be the same necessity of dependance upon God for their Workings there are many Men both of great Learning and of singular Holiness who deny it those especially who side with the Jesuites against the Domâ—nâ—eans in this Controversy making an active indifferency to Good or Evil at (g) Deus non est causa liberi arbitrii nisi quia liberum arbitrium abâ— ipso est conservetur Durand in 2. Sent. d. 1. q. 5. d. 37. q. 1. least an undeterminateness in the Will to be of the Essence of Liberty Durandus his Opinion in this Case is sufficiently known who would not have God to concur otherwise with his Creatures in any of their Actions which they exert than by way of Conservation so as to continue their several respective Beings and energetical Powers to them Austin speaks of some in his Time that were of the same Mind (h) Sunt qui arbitrantur tantummodo mundum ipsum factum à Deo caetâ—ra fieri â—â—mundo sicut â—â—â—e ordinavit jussit Deum autem nihil operari Aug. lib. 5. de Gen. ad lit cap. 20. Magna Dei conditoris fuit impotentia imprudentia qui naturam ita condere non potuit ut sola quod suum esset facere non possit officium Taur de rer aetern part 2. p. 461. Voluntas autem creata non est purus actus sed habet libertatem participatam quae includit aliquid potentialitatis ideo ut exeâ—t in actum necesse est ut pramoveatur Alvar. Disp 9â— n. 13. referente Amesio affirming that God having Created the great Organ of the World did forthwith leave it to play upon it self and to make all sweet and harmonious melody not by any further powerful touch from God but by virtue of its first Composure Above all others Taurellus is most dogmatical averring that it would degrade the great God from that Wisdom Dignity and Power which of right doth belong to him to think that he should so make his Creatures as not to be able to discharge their respective Offices without being prompted thereto by his almighty Help and immediate praedetermining Influence But to speak my Thoughts in one word I see not how the Will of Man which is not a Power simply and absolutely active as Bellarmin would have it but a mixed having much of Potentiality in it should be reduced into act otherwise than â—y some powerful impress of God upon it who is a most pure Act. Besides shall we give the Will of Man a creative Power in reference to its own elicite Acts which have surely some physical Being Or acknowledging him the Author and first cause of all Actions as such shall we deny him to praedetermine Man's Will in the producing of them when every Cause is always before the Effect at least in order of Nature Are not all things below God owned for second Causes not because they had their Being (i) Omnes res creatae dicuntur causae secundae unde verò hoc nisi quod in agendo dependeant à primâ quae Deus est Maccov from him for so as a learned Man observeth they are dependeant Beings not Causes but because in their Operations they wholly depend upon him and are predetermined by an immediate Influx of his Power
that Practise may be lawful and currant amongst Christians which hath God's own Image and Superscription written upon it The Lord commands us that we should seek the Kingdom of God Mat. 6.33 as our end and his Righteousness as the only adequate means leading thereto he hath bid us lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven he requires of us all that we should work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 he hath willed us the seeking of those things that are above Col. 3.1 2. enjoyning us to lay hold upon Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.12 And shall we still question the lawfulness of that Practice for which we have a Mandamus sent forth of God and therein an unquestionable Warrant sealed and subscribed by the unerring hand of Heaven it self From God's Oportet which is wrapt up in every one of his Commandments that are all of them holy and just and good Rom. 7.12 we may doubtless concludingly infer the Christians Practical Licet without seeming in the least to patrocinate or give countenance to any Unchristian Disingenuous and Mercenary Performance If God say we must the inference will be undeniable that Christians by patient continuance in Well-doing may lawfully here on Earth seek for Glory and Honour for Immortality and Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven Form the Argument in what mode and figure you please sure I am That wherever the Will and Command of God are made the Premises the least that you can put in the Conclusion without reflecting dishonour upon God himself must be the Legality and Holiness of the practise inferred from them For since the Will of God is the only adequate rule and measure of all Holiness How can we but acknowledge that to be lawful and holy which doth harmoniously accord with it and in every way proportionate thereto so far as we find it to be transcribed into Holy Writ The Holiness of Man doth consist in his (f) Summa puritas consistit in adhaesione cum deo nam deus est ratio objectiva et mensura sanctitatis Less de Perfect divin lib. 8. c. 1. Anological resemblance of and conformity with God who is alone the sure Standard the grand Exemplar and the objective cause of all Purity and Holiness in the Creature Every action of Man is holy or unholy according to it's conformity with or contrariety to the Will of God Holiness is nothing else but a pure derivation from God himself the Spring and Fountain of all Purity And therefore whatever is conveyed into the Heart and Lives of Men from this pure Fountain through the Golden Pipes of God's Commandments it must needs be holy and just and good For to be sure conformity with the rule of Holiness can never make a Man unholy no more than walking in the light can produce darkness Did our Holiness consist in a conformity with some else besides God's holy Will in a conformity with the Decrees of Counsels with the uncertain Records of Antiquity with the Judgment of Fathers with Ecclesiastick Constitutions with Enthusiastick Impulses or with the dictates of an Erronious Conscience embracing many times the shadow of Holiness and engaging Men to the strict observation of that for the doing whereof God never gave his Fiat we might then indeed come under censure and be impeached of unholiness for conforming our selves to the Will of God endeavouring to transcribe his Commandments into our Lives and Conversations But to set up all these or any of these for a Rule making them the standard of Holiness were to usurp God's Sovereign Authority and to set the Crown of his Glory upon the head of a poor obscure non-entity or something worse just as if a Man should go about to make a small Drop the Spring and Mother of the vast Ocean or as if he should make that little Ray of Brightness which dissembles itself in a dark Glow-worm the Fountain of Light to the glorious Sun Doubtless as God is the sole Author of our Being so he must be the only Rule of all our Operations We can no more be independent in these than we are in that For since we live in God and have our Being from him there is nothing in all the World that can denominate us truly Holy but a care to act and move according to his Righteous Will Every Impression supposes a Seal from whence it came every Stream will lead you to the Spring-head out of which it issued and came bubbling forth every Beam of Light doth put you in mind of the Sun out of which it shines and upon which it doth necessarily depend So whatever you see that is Good that is Pure and shining forth with a native Lustre and commanding Beauty in the Lives of Men it may well bring to your Remembrance the God of Heaven who is the Fountain of all Goodness the Chrystalline Spring out of which all Moral Purity by a Blessed Emanation issues and the glorious Sun of Righteousness by whom our Lives are irradiated with most clarified Beams of Holiness and without whose uninterrupted Irradiations like refracted Beams they would presently cease to shine and become a dark Chaos of all confusions For as Light in the Air is nothing but a derivation from the Sun that Fountain of Light So Holiness in us is nothing but a Pure Emanation of Goodness and a noble progeny of Moral Rectitudes springing from and born not of Blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of Man but of the will of God himself John 1.13 whose Image and Superscription they bear Indeed some things are intrinsically good they have a native Beauty they are essentially Pure and therefore God wills them whereas other things are only Amiable and holy and good because God wills them so that they have no moral Entity and Goodness but what they receive from the Signature of God's Will and Command upon them However whether we seek of things that are Intrinsically Good or of things that are Meerly Good from the Command of God injoyning them yet surely their Goâ—dness is not Independant and the measure of it self but doth wholly consist in that beautiful Resemblance and harmomious Analogy which they have with God's holy Will For all Created Excellency it shineth with a borrowed light whatever Goodness is in the Creature it is only by way of Participation from God pre-supposing (g) Omnis Sanctitas participata supponit Sanctitatem per essentiam the same transcendently treasured up in him even as the Impression presupposes the Seal that made it So that there is no form nor comeliness nor beauty in any thing that we should desire it any further than we find either the bright Stamp of divine Sovereignty or the plain Superscription of his Holiness in legible Characters written upon it (h) Nihil est bonitatis creatae in toto entis ambitu quin a deo producta a deo exemplata a deo conservata et in
Let us not unsubordinate the Creatures to God their Creatour And make that independent in its Workings which we know to be otherwise in its Being To me it seems little less than to divest the great God of his Prerogative-Royal and to set the Crown upon the Head of the Creature when acknowledging him for the first Cause we will (k) Acts 17.28 grant that we live and have our Being from him but not that we are moved by him The profound Bradwardine the learned Twisse the acute Ames the Judicious Zanchy Neither they with many others of our Protestant Divines nor (l) Nihil praeter primum motorem movet agitve nisi motum actum Zan. de lib. Arb. thes 2. pag. 116. he could yet bear such Doctrin who lays down this as a sure Maxim that nothing but God the first mover doth either move or act if not moved and acted And indeed its hard to say how they who deny the Will of Man to be physically determined of God make not Man the first mover not moved the (m) Quod si haec hominis determinatio non praedeterminetur à Deó physicè primum erit homo determinans in genere entis physicè non determinatum primum movens non motum primum agens non actum ab alio ideoque determinationis suae prima causa primum principium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 independens Et quia primum movens propterea duo prima erant sic Deus non erit ens absolute primum D. P. de Trad. hom peccat ad glor pag. 15. first Agent not acted by any other So that he shall be the first cause of determining his own Will yea independent and without any other cause than himself For we may not think that God only offers his Creatures a certain indeterminate common and indifferent concourse which is either like a Laquy subsequent to their determining themselves and comes in at the close of the day actum agere or like a Lesbyan Rule which (n) Novum istud commentum Jesuitarum solide refutatur à Thomistis quia facit providentiam Dei confusam imperfectam à creaturâ pendentem ut ab ea proficiatur Ames Dâ—llar Enervat tom 4. lib. 1. p. 31. they may incline determine and bend either to good or evil as they please This Devise of the Jesuites is confuted at large by the Thomists and most of our own Divines in the Doctrin of Providence who reject it as that which makes the divine Providence confused dependent imperfect and such as is capable of receiving its ultimate Perfection from the Creature Though Similes prove nothing yet they may illustrate and therefore to give you a perfect understanding in this case I shall shut up with the Simile of a learned Divine whereof the most of our English Divines in their Discourses about Providence make use telling you with him that God set up the World as a fair and goodly Clock to strike in time and to move it in an orderly manner not by its own Weights by fresh Influence from himself by that inward and intimate Spring of immediate Concourse that should supply it in a most uniform and proportionable manner This great Organ of the World he turned it yet not so as that it could play upon it self or make any Musique by virtue of its own Composure as Durandus fancies but that it might be fitted for the Finger of God himself and at the presence of his powerful touch might sound forth the praise of its Creatour in a most sweet and harmonious way So then if where Man hath a Power he cannot act unless determined thereto of God how much less is he able to act graciously in spiritual Concerns without the immediate predetermining Work of God's Grace upon him Thou can'st not stir a foot nor move an Hand without God and can'st thou then run the way of his Commandments or touch the golden Scepter of his Grace without him Never think to come to God without strength from God nor to come to Heaven if God carry not thy Soul thither in the triumphant Chariot of his own Grace The Lord breathed into Adam the Breath of Life and then he became a living Soul So the Lord must breath into thy Soul the enlivening Breath of his own free Grace and then thou wilt no longer be dead but alive unto God If Christ will draw her †Cant. 1.4 the Spouse doth then promise that she will run after him Thus thou wilt never run after Christ nor love Christ nor have the least desire to Christ if first he draw thee not by his own Spirit sweetly over-powering thy will to embrace to chuse to love the best things ¶ John 1.13 Sicut in nativitate carnali omnem nascentis hominis voluntatem praecedit operis divini formatio sic in spirituali nativitate nemo potest habere bonam voluntatem motu proprio nisi mens ipsa reformetur à Deo Fulg. de gâ—â— lib. arb p. 758. The Power and Wisdom of God forming the Babe in the Womb that prevents and goes before all thought that the Child could have of its own formation Thus those that have the happiness to be conceived in the Womb of free Grace the Spirit of regeneration that prevents them with a principle of life before ever they could have so much as a thought of or a will to or the least groan of desire after their new Birth Lazarus he had never come out of the Grave at Christ's call if the Lord had not first put life into him Thus our good Works can never come out of the Grave of our unclean Hearts 'till God do first of all * Isa 26.12 work them in us Not that we are to think he doth formally believe repent and as one Person with us exert other vital actions of Grace according to that wild Opinion of some Libertines But that he as the Author doth by the efficacy of his own Holy Spirit working in us enable us to perform whatever Duties whatever Services whatever Conditions himself hath required as necessary to our Salvation * Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus bonum de quo dictum est Deus est qui operatur in nobis velle operari Certum est nos facere cum facimus sed ille facit ut faciamus praebendo vires efficassimas voluntati qui dicit faciam ut in justificationibus meis ambulâ—tis judicia mea observetis faciatis August de liber arbitr Grat. cap. 4. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat â—â—n obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam idem In the conversion of a lost Sinner unto God 't is Man that doth believe repent and will whatever is good and pleasing in the sight of God But yet 't is God as the sole donour of every such good and perfect gift that doth first bestow a renewed will and
Actions of praying repenting and believing these are good as to the matter of them But our remisness our negligence our weakness in the exerting of them this is sinful and argues the most perfect in all the World to be yet imperfect falling short in all that do (c) Job 1.22 Neither doth that Scripture so much triumphed (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes justitiae nostrae sunt sicut panniculus remotionum id est faeminarum quo ob menses suos seponuntur Exod. 28.38 in by a Pontificianizing Doctor of our own where 't is said that in all this Job sinned not at all incommodate this too sadly experimented Truth For the Negation there is only of acts sinful in the matter of them which Satan tempted that Holy Man to commit and into which he expected Job would through impatience and the sharpness of his Afflictions have been transported Nor doth it any thing at all advantage the cause of the Perfectionits which this Doctor hath taken upon him to assert that the good Works and Graces of God's People are wrought by the holy Spirit of God in them (d) Deus quidem primus boni operis est author sed ejus ductu homo est actor For though the Spirit work these things in us yet that 's only by way of efficiency as the Author of them and not formally as one Person with us (e) Opera fidelium si simpliciter omnino Dei essent omnino pura et perfecta essent at non sunt sed simul fidelium qui impuri perfecti ex parte sunt ideoque opera ex parte perfecta sunt The Spirit of God doth not believe and repent for us but enableth us thereto As it is not God that eateth drinketh or walketh but we ourselves by ability received from him Though then that which proceeds from the Spirit of God as the sole immediate cause thereof without the intervention of any other subordinate cause can never be impreached of the least defect Yet Grace being subjectively in us and good Works formally wrought by us as the Spirits Instruments do admit without any reflexion upon him of much imperfection and defilements Here our Graces are mingled with Corruption our best Duties with some undutifulness (f) Gal. 5.17 and all our religious undertakings with the sad counterlustings and countermotions of the Flesh against the Spirit in them Oh but Christians such is the pure Nature of this glorious Reward that it will perfectly change you into the spotless Purity and Holiness of itself Truth is the great Reward of Grace is Grace itself a Christian being never compleatly happy till crowned with an absolute perfection in Grace and Holiness But oh how happy will this Reward make thee when all thy defects and weaknesses shall be done away when all thy Graces that are now in their minority and as so many Undergraduates shall grow up to their full stature in Christ commencing Doctors as it were and taking their highest degree of Blessed Perfection in Glory Here Grace is like Gold in the Oar having much dross of Sin and indwelling Corruption mingled with it but in Heaven it will be fined into an absolute and unmixt purity This Reward indeed for a little Time dissolves the frame of Nature parting Soul and Body asunder But it easily makes amends for that perfecting that frame of Grace and at length brings both Soul and Body together again in fulness of Glory You must never think to be so gracious so pure and holy as you would be Christians till you come to Heaven Where only the Law in our members struggling against the Law of our Minds shall have an end where all decays and languishings of Grace shall be removed where all deficiencies of Grace shall be filled up and the first Fruits of the Spirit which here we receive as an earnest of Glory shall be turned into a full Vintage Your Graces are now like smoaking Flax in which there is most Vapour and but little light or like a broken Reed that is easily shattered with every blast But in Heaven it shall be turned into purest Glory and made a stately Pillar to stand unshaken for ever in the Temple of God Like the Sun wrapt up in a thick Cloud such are the Graces of God's People now But when once the Reward of Eternal Glory shall be given them then their Graces shall be like the Sun shining for in its strength with most radiant sparkling beams of Brightness You then that go languishing all the day long that your knowledge of heavenly Mysteries is so dark and confused your desires after God so faint your Love to Christ so cold your zeal for his Glory so remiss your delight in his Ways so small and all your Graces so full of Weaknesses and Imperfections Oh lift up your Heads with Joy and take Comfort in the hope of this glorious Reward which will quite do away all your present defects crowning all your Graces with fulness and most heavenly perfection Grace in the Heart of God's People here is like a Plant that grows in a barren Soil which thrives but slowly and bears little Fruit But when once it shall be transplanted into the heavenly Canaan there it meets with that proper and fertile Soil which will bring it on to perfection causing every Grace like a flourishing Vine to be laden with full Clusters of most sweet delicious Grapes for ever Oh then what manner of Reward is this and how much to be desired which will thus change Grace into Glory and our morning Twilight into a Noonday brightness making all Gods People as perfectly pure as perfectly holy and gracious as their Heart can now wish to be if not much more This Reward must needs make Grace perfect because Perfection in Grace is the principal part of this blessed Reward Needs must this Reward perfect Grace into heavenly Glory because the greatest Glory of Heaven next to God himself is Grace perfected and blossoming into the Flower of unspotted purity 9 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's a most safe Reward and such as can never be lost nor taken from them They are not only sure to have this Reward as we shewed in another particular but they are sure to hold it so as never to be deprived of it Other Rewards may be lost and a Man may be cheated of them he knows not how But the Reward of Eternal Glory it s a safe Reward out of this all the cheats in Hell are not able to rook you (g) Luke 10.42 as being indeed that better part which shall never be taken from you This Reward is our Treasure laid up in Heaven and therefore it can neither be corrupted by the Mâ—th nor be taken by the Hand of violence (h) Mat. 6.20 Here though we lay up Treasure under Lock and Key in Chests of Adamant and make it never so
dependance upon them but eternal and inconditionate Whether Man were considered of God electing as in the pure Mass is much controverted And many there are both Pious and learned do wholly oppose it making Man in the corrupt Mass to have been the object of Predestination But how to reconcile that opinion either with the unering rule of Scripture or the genuine dictates of right Reason I must ingenuously confess I see not Not with Scripture ¶ Rom. 9.20 23. which makes Predestination in both the branches of to be a pure Act of Gods sovereignity and universal Dominion over all Creatures wherby he may dispose of them to different ends according to what seems good in his own infinite Wisdom assigning no other Reason to mitigate the seeming Rigour of Predestination and to silence all the captious Cavils of carnal Minds against it who think to insnare God by their Subtilties than his Holy and righteous Will Nor can I reconcile it with the Dictates of right Reason which teacheth that every wise and understanding Agent will attempt nothing without the Predestinating of it to some certain end Whereas to make Man lapsed and miserable in Sin the Object of Predestination doth imply that God first decreed to Create Man before ever his Wisdom provided what to do with him and to permit his fall into Sin and Misery before ever he determined any thing certain about his everlasting and final Condition If Man's Wisdom which is but a drop to the vast Ocean compared with God's observe a better Decorum in all Undertakings first determining the end of his Work and then accordingly disposing of his Workmanship it is certainly hardly-conceivable how such Preposterousness should sort with the infinitely wise God whereby he is represented as decreeing the Creation and Fall of Man before ever he came to any Result in his own Thoughts nay before ever he entertain'd so much as one serious Thought about Man's great End and everlasting unchangeable Estate in the World to come However it be in this Controversy yet certain it is that there was nothing foreseen in God's Elect as a Motive or Reason influencing him to ordain them to obtain Salvation or inducing him to prepare for them rather than others the Reward of eternal Life For God's Will is of that supreme Sovereignty and absolute independency that he need not look out of himself at any Qualification in the Creature for the determining of it Nor can there be any thing more absurd than to make something in the Creature the cause of God's Will as if Faith foreseen good Works and final Perseverance in them should either be before it above it or have a casual Influence upon it to determine it when that indeed is the supreme Reason into which the Grace of Election must be wholly resolved Our Saviour therefore will give no other Reason why Gospel Mysteries were hidden from some and revealed to others But sends us wholly in this case to the sovereign Will and good Pleasure of God not at all subscribing the difference to the foresight of our Will receiving or rejecting the Tenders of his Grace Even (a) Mat. 11.26 so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Nor can we indeed assign any thing in Man as a Cause or Reason upon the Prevision whereof God should be moved to elect him Since there is nothing of Grace or Goodness in any Man but what God hath decreed from Eternity to communicate to him and doth graciously in time bestow upon him as the genuine and proper effect of his electing Love That Grace which makes a saving difference betwixt us and others in time is nothing but the Fruit of God's eternal Love wherewith he loved us before all time Hence we may find the holy Ghost asserting Faith to be the Effect not the cause of Election So that to hold Election upon foreseen Faith and good Works is no less absurd than to make the Sun receive its Light from the Day the Tree its Sap from the Fruit growing upon it and the Fountain its fulness from those Streams which by a natural emanation do flow continually from it For saith (b) Acts 13.48 the Apostle telling us what entertainment the Gospel Preached found amongst the Gentiles and as many as were ordained to eternal Life because they believed But therefore they believed because first they were ordained to eternal Life Where the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained is added as a Reason why these believed whilst others rejecting the Gospel continued in their Impenitency and not as denoting any Preparations or Predispositions in them to eternal Life before Faith in Christ For that were much more absurd than if you should affirm a young Bird whilst yet without Wings to be prepared for and disposed to fly Faith being the first Qualification preparing for eternal Life and that spiritual Wing upon which the Soul takes her first flight towards Heaven More might be urged but what our Saviour saith (c) John 15.16 of his own Disciples they had not chosen him but he had chosen them and the Apostle of (d) 1 John 4.19 all Believers that they therefore love God because he loved them first may well satisfie any in this case who are willing to captivate their own Reason to the belief of the Truth as it is in Jesus For if Faith and good Works foreseen were the cause why God chose us then the clean contrary would be true that we chose and loved him before he either chose or loved us which yet we cannot say without Confronting the Spirit of Truth speaking in the Scripture Truth is we do not prevent God with our Love but he prevents us with his Love Our Love is but of yesterday and is the Spirit of his His Love bears date from Eternity and is the Root from whence ours springs We did not first prepare our selves for Glory by having an Eye of Faith to the Recompence of Reward But God first prepared Glory for us by casting a propitious Eye of Love upon us from Eternity that in time he may give us the Reward of Life everlasting Oh then what manner of Love is this that before we had any Being or so much as a thought of a Being in this World God should be plotting our Happiness and providing for our eternal well-being in the World to come Before Christian thou had it either Name or Life thy Name (e) Rev. 21.17 was then written in the Lamb's Book of Life and shall never be blotted out Before ever thou did'st or could'st do one stroak of Work in God's Vineyard he was thinking what glorious Reward to bestow upon thee preparing a Kingdom for thee before so much as the Foundation of the World was laid Before ever thou hast any spiritual Appetite to what is good any Hungerings or Thirstings after Righteousness even from Eternity was God preparing a Feast of fat things for thee a Feast of Love and Life of Glory