necessary part of our Religion so must we resolutely do still or else we shall be worse than the Light of Nature teacheth Heathens themselves to be § 14. God hath many waies to cause the Effects of Sin without causing the Sin it self as by impediments to other waies by altering Recipients Objects Concauses and many others which I have elsewhere enumerated He can will and procure that Christ shall die by the sinful malice and action of the Iews without willing or causing their malice will or action as bad As he can procure a man to be in the way where a Murderer cometh with a disposition to murder and can direct the Bullet c. § 15. When one and the same word doth signifie both the Sin and the Effect of the Sin it occasioneth the error of men that cannot distinguish And so if the Scripture should say That God is the Cause of it they think it includeth the Sin with the Effect So Murder signifieth both the will and action of the Murderer and the death of the man murdered as the effect Absolom's Constuprations signifieth both his sinful will and action and the effect of both The revolt of the Israelites from Ieroboam the giving up of Kingdoms to the Beast and many such-like in Scripture are ascribed to God as the Cause not as the words signifie the sinful will and action of the Malefactor but only the produced effect of both saving when God's permission only is understood § 16. They that deride it as absurd that God should decree will and cause the Effect and not the Wills forbidden Act are too bold with God in measuring his Counsels and Actions by the rule of their vain Imaginations Yet many give us instead of Scripture and Reason but such a confident derision and say How absurd is it to say that God willed decreed and caused that Christ should be murdered and yet willed decreed or caused not that any should murder him That God should will and cause David's Concubines to be defiled and not will or cause that Absolom should defile them That He should will and cause the Kingdom to be rent from Rehoboam and yet not cause any one to will or do it c. But is all false that is not agreeable to their imagination Or is this a convincing way of reasoning It is not from imperfection but perfection that God doth not will or cause mens Sin But it is from his perfection that he causeth the effect as being the Lord and Ruler of the World Sin is not a capable Object of God's Volition or an effect which he can cause But the effect is God cannot love or cause Iudaâ—'s will or act in specie of betraying Christ nor the Iews will or act in murdering him But God can will and cause that Christ shall be betrayed and killed by such individual persons as he foreknew were by their wickedness disposed thereunto § 17. All good men have so deep a hatred of Sin and zeal for God's Holiness and confess that Sin is of the Devil and it is his special character to be the Author of it that when zeal against an Adversary in Disputation can yet make many put that character on God yea as the prime Efficient which is more than a Tempter and this as a part of the Honour of his Providence and think they serve God and his Truth by bitter reviling the contrary-minded it is a dreadful instance how far Faction and Contentious Zeal may carry men And yet when we see how carefully many avoid Sin when they have thus honoured it as God's work it is a notable instance how far good men may err in notions and yet practically hold the contrary truth and what great notional Errors must be pardoned to each other as they are pardoned of God § 18. God punisheth Sin with Sin without causing that Sin at all that is 1. He justly demeth his Grace to the rejecters of it and their Sin is the consequent of that Privation as a drunken man's wandering is to ones denying to lead him 2. God maketh it a punishment when man hath first made it a Sin q. d. If thou wilt commit such a Sin it shall have this penal nature and effect As if in the Law of Nature God decreed that excess of Drink or Meat should breed Sickness that taking a sweet Poison should torment you that Venery should bring the Pox that Prodigality shall impoverish men c. Here Man first maketh it a Sin and then God maketh it a Punishment And Sin it self being the deformity and misery of the Soul hath two relations at once in time the first in order of Nature is the sinfulness caused by Man and the second the penal relation caused by God whose Act indeed was antecedent in his Law of Nature making Nature such that it should so suffer if it will so do and yet the Effect is consequent to mans Act. CHAP. IX Of Natural Power and Free-will § 1. THE Glory of God on his Works is their expression of his Perfections by the Impression of them which he hath made And He hath communicated Being and Substantiality as the substratum and therein the Virtues of Vital Power Wisdom and Goodness or Love and these are his Image upon Man § 2. The more Power therefore a Creature hath the more he glorifieth the Power of God And the most powerful Creatures as the Sun do more shew forth his greatness than the most impotant Therefore to deny or extenuate any Power given of God is to dishonour him in his works So absurd is it to think that the Power ascribed to Man is dishonourable to God as if you took from the Workman all the Praise that you give to his Works § 3. All Man's Power is passive from GOD and superiour Causes but it is naturally active as to things inferiour and in it self § 4. God endued man at first with a threefold Power 1. Natural 2. Moral 3. Political which is a Ruling Power over Inferiours § 5. Man's Power was partly essential or inseparable and partly accidental or separable 1. To have the three Powers or Faculties of Vital Activity Intellection and Will is essential and Man cannot be a Man without them But to have these in promptitude and strength is but as health or strength to the Body a separable thing 2. To have some moral Power to know and desire and practise some moral Good it seemeth is inseparable from Man in via for all men naturally have some notitiae communes and differencing sense of moral Good and Evil Else men should be as bad as Devils But to be truly Holy was separable as Health and so was lost 3. To have some superiority over Brutes and Parents over their Children it seems is inseparable or is not separated for it continueth in Nature But the true Majesty of this superiority was lost by Sin § 6. No Creature hath any Power but what is totally derived from God and
bound or conquer'd that can turn Nothing into Something at his pleasure Non-futurity is nothing therefore it hath no Cause Is this Nothing the Ruler of God and All things because he causeth not that which is not causable Alas that good men should keep up dividing Controversies at this rate of reasoning You say If it have no Cause it can have no Impediment and so there is Fatum Stoicissimum We all talk at the rate that we understand The World was nothing before it was made and so had then no Cause in the esse causae as being no effect Relations in esse being simultaneous Doth it follow that God was subject to Fate There was no Impediment indeed to Nothingness it is not necessary that Nothing be hindred lest it become Something God can make somewhat where there is nothing at his pleasure and can make a future Nothing to become an existent Something And what should be the medium I wonder that tempted you to think otherwise Did the nothingness of Angels before their Creation hinder God from making them Or can nothing have a ruling Power Ad 6. Again you stick not at the repeating of the contradiction of a self-originated Future or Nothing and think God's Decrees endangered by nothing because it hath no Cause What a dreadful thing is this Nothing To be self-originated is to be Something of it self And if Futurity be nothing then it is something of it self And you offer not a Syllable to prove these Contradictions You add To what purpose shall Decrees be Ans. To produce the thing decreed in its proper time and place and not to make them something before they are any thing nor to make an ens Rationis to be a real extrinseck Entity You strangely say To decree such a Futurity is a nullity for it can never come to pass What can never come to pass Futurity Say also To decree Non-futurity or that there shall be to us but one Sun but one Saviour is a nullity because Nothing can never come to pass What is it for Nothing to come to pass It is come to pass without a Cause that there is but one Sun to us but one Saviour and other Nothings The Decree or Will of what shall come to pass is no nullity for it shall all come to pass and yet the Decree made not the word shall be to signifie a real Entity distinct form or model of the thing that shall be The Decree that there shall be a World was fulfilled and yet shall be was not a being before t 〈…〉 World unless it was God's Essence You Phrase importeth as if Futurity must come to pass as a thing Decreed and question whether there was a futurity of that futurity and so in infinitum For the word Coming to pass importeth futurity of futurity and not eternity You say To decree in compliance with it is below God over All for it will come to pass whether God decree it or no. Alas that Speaking should be so hard an Art What iâ— it to decree in compliance with nothing Hath it any sence How is it that Nothing will come to pass It 's true that Nothing will be Nothing without a Cause and therefore without a Decree And therefore let the reverence of God make you consider whether it be meet for us in the dark to ascribe to God such Decrees of nothing and to number Nothings and make as many Decrees Such a dance and game of notions we may more boldly use about our selves than about God till we know him better You add God in decreeing doth not decree the thing into being in the instant of decreeing but He decreeth the Futurity of it and if that be nothing he decreeth nothing Ans. Wrong thoughts will have wrong words All that you should have inferred is That His Decree effecteth nothing till the time come which is true For He decreed only to effect it at such a time But doth it follow that God decreeth nothing but Futurity because the thing decreed is not presently done Thus you must say That God decreed not the World nor CHRIST nor Salvation but Futurity only The Decree or Will of God was That the World CHRIST Resurrection c. shall be at such a time shall be is no being and yet it is a being when existent which God decreed but his Decree maketh it not a being till it exist Dr. Twisse will over and over tell you that God's immanent acts do nihil ponere in objecto And I have oft told you truly that you or I little know what we say when we divide God's Eternity into parts and assign him his praeteritum futurum And it would put you hard to it to tell me clearly and surely what God's Eternal Decree is before the effect exist our present common-received School-Divinity will call us Blasphemers if we say that before the Creation there was any thing but God and any thing in God but God and that God had any real accidents And therefore it saith that he doth operari per essentiam and not per accidentia And therefore that God's Decree before the effect was nothing but his Essence But it is his Essence denominated not as such but as related to the things decreed though yet they be not If you will forsake this common Theology and place acts in God which ex parte agentis are but Accidents and not his Essence and say This is consistent with his Simplicity and Perfection you will let in a Body of new Divinity and we shall not know when we have all God's Accidents noâ— how to order them His freest Acts are his Essential Will freely acting but those free acts themselves before the effect are nothing but God himself We must not place in God a number of Thoughts Images Notions Accidents as we do in Man But your Phrase savoureth of other Thoughts Ad 7. Here you are for yea and nay you will suppose no Propositions in God and yet you argue that then what will remain of a Decree I said But that God knoweth not by Propositions bâ—â— yet that he knoweth Propositions If you hold That God knoweth by Propositions and Argumentations say so that I may know what to speak to If you hold That He hath no Decrees what is it that you plead for But to answer your Question God's Decree is not a forming of Propositions in his mind or any change in himself or addition to his Being But it is His simple will that such and such things shall be emanative communicative productive of them in their season There are some that think that as Time-Divisions are the measures of imperfect Creatures and God's Eternity hath none such so that it is an ascribing Imperfection to God to say That he hath Decrees de futuris distinct from a productive Volition which in the most proper sence should be denominated from the produced Existent as such But in this I interess not my self as knowing that we
know that their extraordinary production hath an answerable extraordinary use and signification of God's Will § 9. And no doubt but Nature and all its parts are absolutely in the Power and Government of God's Will And He can and doth turn things up and down as He pleaseth without making any breach in his established Order If the Husbandman can turn the course of Rivers to water his Grounds by meer Impediments and Receptivities without any alteration of the natural motion of the Water how much more must we ascribe to God in using Nature without overthrowing it § 10. It is Atheistical or absurd to set God and Nature in opposition competition or separation and to say as some Philosophers This or That natural Causes can do without calling in God as the Determiner Whereas natural Causes are nothing and do nothing but by God And there is no less of God in the effects of Nature than if He did the same himself alone In Him we Live and Move and Are. § 11. And it is no better in them that say that God doth not operate proximately and immediately where Nature or second Causes work but only remotely As immediately signifieth without any medium or second Cause so God doth not then work immediately But as it signifieth proximately He doth For an infinite being cannot be essentially distant from any Creature or Effect Nor is it possible that the second Cause can be nearer to the Effect than God who is as near as if he used no such Cause § 12. And the Dispute Whether God do proximately effect immediatione suppositi or only virtutis seemeth to have a false supposition viâ— That God's Virtue is not his suppositum and that the virtus divina may be where the suppositum is noâ— If by suppositum they mean God's Essence as Essence existing and by virtus they mean his Essence under the formal notion of Power Wisdom and Love then they are but two inadequate Conceptions of the same simple Being and therefore God thus ever operateth immediatione essentiae virtutis essentialis But if they mean that God hath â— virtus which is neither his Essence nor a Creature we believe them not § 13. The Controversie between Durandus and his Followers and the Jesuites and Dominicans about the necessity of a moving Concourse besides the support of Nature seemeth to me thus reconcileable 1. God as he is fons naturae is the Living God the prime Active Principle who by constant vital Activity is the Spring of all the Action in the World and is not to be dreamt of as one that had made the World and then left it to it self and withdrew his hand and is fallen asleep 2. But the Living God moveth not all things alike but every thing according to its nature and place for his Influx is received ad modum racipientium 3. The Nature of some Creatures is essentially Active and so inclined to act that they will act if their Nature be not by others or want of concurrent Necessaries hindered Such is every Soul or living Principle and Fire And other Creatures are naturally Passive only ex se or at least principally So that for God to continue Fire or Souls or any naturally-active Principle is to continue a nature essentially inclined to move or act 4. It is supposed that these Natures are not solitary but parts of the universe and are continued with all necessary circumstant Beings and Objects and that the whole frame of Nature and cooperating Causes are continued e. g. That the Sun doth not stand still while the Life of a Plant or Brute is continued 5. All this being supposed by Durandus Aureolus a Dola and all sober men the Question debated is Whether there be further necessary another immediate Divine Motion or Concourse to every motion of a Creature natural or free besides all this aforesaid And 1. Let it be consider'd that God's Essence being but one his Act which ex parte agentis is his Essence is not distinguishable saving ex connotatione effectus And if this be all that is meant That as ipse motus distinguitur a causis so God's Will Power and Agency may be distinctly denominated 1. As from the second Causes and 2. also from the Motion it self as more than the Causes this none can deny nor is it a Controversie But if the question be of the necessity of another distinct way of Divine Causation of the motus besides that by second Causes before mentioned they can prove no such necessity For is it mediate or immediate Causation or Efficiency which they mean we speak not of immediate as it signifieth proximate which is granted but as signifying sine causis secundis If it be mediate by second Causes that God must further concurr those are natural Causes or some other if natural it 's a contradiction to say that Besides God's moving by natural Causes which is granted he must also move by natural Causes as if Ideâ— were not Idem Unless they will say it must be by some other natural Causes which they do not nor can assign nor yet any other that are not natural But if they mean that to every motion there must be an immediate operation of God to it withoâ—â— that which he doth by second Causes even by God alone without any second Cause I then ask Doth God move any thing in the World by any second Cause or not If not then not by the Sun not the Coach by the Horses the Arrow by the Bow the Stone by the Hand the Pen by the Writer c. If yea then is it the whole or part only of that motion which is made by second Causes and God by them If the whole habetur quaesitum If part how prove you that God cannot make the whole motion himself by second Causes as well as part but must needs leave the other part of the same motion to be done without second Causes And it would follow that no second Cause no not the noblest in the World as the Sun and God as acting by it hath and exerciseth à vis adequata to the smallest motion even of a Leaf Whereas God in Nature maketh natural Power with his own as he is fons naturae adequate to its Actions And let unbyassed Reason judge Whether if a Rock should be held up in the Air if God conâ—inue the natural Gravity of it with all the rest of the frame of Nature could not that Rock fall without another motion of God which is without any second Cause to thrust it down If He continue the nature of Fire was it not a greater Miracle that it burnt not the three Witnesses Dan. 3. than to have burnt them or than its ordinary Action Why else should there need ten thousand fold more natural Power to hold up the said Rock or to quench a City on fire or to stop a River or the Winds than to move them supposing natural Causes if there need an
man can do any more good than he doth and so That he hath no meerlysufficient Grace to any one act in all his life § 28. The Controversie about sufficient Grace is the same in the true meaning of it with that of the Power of Mans Free-will For when by sufficient Grace we mean nothing but the enabling a Man to the act or giving him Power to do it the stress of the Question is Whether Man hath truly any Power to do more than he doth For if he have such a Power Grace hath given it him if it be for a Work that Grace is needful to So that indeed were it not for Custom and Expectation this Question should be handled under that of the Power and Liberty of Man's Will § 29. No man hath at the present Grace sufficient for his Salvation if he have longer time to live Because the Grace or help of the present hour is not sufficient for the next but there must be continual Supplies from God supposing that we distinguish of Grace by the distinct numerical acts and hours for and in which we need it But if you distinguish of Grace by the species of Acts for which it is needful and not by the numerical acts then it may be truly said that the same Grace in specie which a Believer hath to day may be sufficient to his Salvation or to his life's end § 30. But if you speak de gradu that Grace may be sufficient to one thing which is not sufficient to another And so 1. An Infidel may have Grace sufficient to forbear some Sin or avoid some Temptation or use some means that tendeth to Faith and Repentance who hath not Grace sufficient to believe and repent unto Salvation 2. A man may have Grace sufficient to enable him to believe and repent unto Justification and yet not have at that instant Grace sufficient to enable him to love God above all as God with a fixed habitual Love and to live an holy life for the Spirit and Sanctification are promised on condition of Faith and Repentance 3. A sanctified man that is yet but weak may have Grace sufficient to live to God a holy life at present and yet not have Grace sufficient for greater trials of Duty and Temptation And therefore Augustine and all his Followers still say That the Grace of Perseverance is a Gift over and above the Grace of meer Sanctification in the weakest degree § 31. By all this it is evident that he that disputeth of the sufficiency of Grace must first distinctly tell us 1. Whether he mean extrinseck Grace or intrinseck 2. If extrinseck Whether he mean it comprehensively of all extrinseck Grace together or only of some particular part of sort 3. If the latter Whether he speak of the sufficiency of Christ's Death and Righteousness Sacrifice Merit Intercession c. or of the sufficiency of the Gospel-Covenant or Promise or of the sufficiency of Preaching Praying and other means or of the Scripture-Records c. 4. If he speak of intrinseck Grace Whether the Question be of Sufficiency ex parte Dei agentis which none must question or ex parte effecti 5. If the latter What is the effect whose sufficiency he questioneth 1. Is it a Grace or Power to do some more common good use some means forbear some evil as the Unregenerate may do 2. Or is it a Power truly to repent and believe 3. Or to love God habitually and live holily 4. Or to overcome greater Temptations and persevere 6. And he must tell you whether he speak 1. De specie whether the Grace or Power sufficient to this sort of Acts or Duty be sufficient to another or to all 2. Or de gradu Whether this degree be sufficient against a greater degree or sort of Temptation 3. Or as men use to distinguish Grace and Help by numerical Acts and Hours Whether the Grace of this Hour and Act be sufficient for the next or for all The sence of all these Questions is distinct 7. But his last and greatest difficulty will be to tell you truly and plainly what is that Grace which is the subject of his Question of its sufficiency in the general nature of it and as related to the thing which it is called sufficient to § 32. For by Grace he meaneth 1. Either somewhat ex parte Dei agentis 2. Or ex parte effecti or 3. Quid medium 1. Grace as it is in God the Agent 2. Or as it is in Man the Recipient 3. Or as it is somewhat between both § 33. I. Grace as it is in God is nothing but his Essence not as Essence but as an essential Power Intellect and Will denominated by Connotation from the effect This is commonly agreed on God doth operate per essentiam and not by Accidents § 34. II. If they mean any mediate thing between God and the Effect either they speak of the first effect or a second and so on If they speak but of secondary effects and the meaning be only whether one effect be a sufficient Cause for another they mean either an outward or an inward Grace or Effect If an outward then the sence of the Question is Whether some other Work of God be sufficient to move the Will of Man And then it must be told what other Work you mean Whether an Angel or the Planets or the Word or Preacher or an outward Mercy or Affliction or what it is But if you speak of the very first effect then the fancy is almost proper to Aureolus among the Schoolmen to think that there is something from God antecedent to the Creature and Motion which may be called Action or Energy or Efflux which is neither the Creator nor a Creature neither Cause substantial nor Effect but Causation As if some Beam of Virtue or Force went from God to produce every Creature and Motion which is neither God nor the Creature or Motion But this is commonly and justly rejected as feigning a third sort of Entity between God and the Creature which it passeth the wit of Man to conceive of what it should be ☞ And if God do immediately per essentiam cause that middle Entity or Action or Force which he saith is no Creature why may he not as well immediately per essentiam cause the Creature and motion it self This therefore cannot be the thing meant by Grace in this Question To question the sufficiency of God's Essence is intolerable To question the sufficiency of a mediate divine Efflux or Action which is between God and the Creature and Effect is to dispute in your Dream of a Chimera an unproved and a disproved and commonly-denied Entity To dispute of the sufficiency of Angels Scripture Sermons c. to work Grace is not the thing commonly intended in this Controversie of Grace Each several sort of means may be sufficient in its own kind and to its own use but no one of them is sufficient to the
Non-futurity or Nothing be therefore any thing God's knowing that it will be and yet is not proveth that the thing future is nothing and therefore Futurity no modus rei but a Name put by us on Nothing from God's Will to make it Supposing it be not Sin which God will not make but hath another Cause I had thought you had known how commonly the School-men prove That things that are not may be certainly known by God yea how the Nominals prove his Knowledge of future Contingents from his meer Perfection so that Socinus is not unanswered in those things and yeâ— Futures and Futurity are no beings At least you may see Answer enough in Strangius and Le Blank 〈…〉 two Authors well worth your reading Those 〈…〉 hings are certo futura which God will certainly make or certainly knoweth will be done and 〈…〉 et Futurity be nihil reale I would you had told me whether you take the Reality of Futurity to be 〈…〉 n esse rei extrinsecae or in esse objectivo intrinseco The former you are not able considerately to believe that nothing can have any real mode accident or affection if none of these what is 〈…〉 t then You must needs hold to the latter and then in man the futurity of things is nothing real â—ut the mode of his Cogitation or Conception as I have afore said we may have real thoughts that here is not such or such a thing but will be in which we frame a real Idea of that which will be and is not in our minds from the helps of similitudes or words and so say Such a thing thought on and named but not in being will be But in God there is nothing but God the Creature is of him and is in him dependently as their Cause and Comprehender but not as constituent of his immanent acts Why you add Suppose nothing to have some Verity is above my reach I think Nothing hath no Verity But 1. God's Knowledge that it will be hath Verity 2. The Proposition This will be may have Verity 3. But the thing future hath not Veritas rei Futurity as in re hath no more Entity than Possibility But to will or know that quid nominatum can be and that it will be are two real acts in Man and two extrinseck Denominations of the Divine Will and Intellect When you have answered what I said of Dr. Twisse I may review it Ad 4. You say Future is nothing ergo â—â—thing is future I am glad that the Creed a 〈…〉 Bible are not thus worded Future in your fir 〈…〉 Proposition signifieth the Affection or somewh 〈…〉 real of the thing future and so it is nothing 〈…〉 you take future so in the second it is fuâ—ile 〈…〉 true being but a gross expression of Nothing hath real Futurity which is aliquid rei But according to common use your second Propositio 〈…〉 will be taken for a denial of the Saying Somewhat will be and this is a real truth You say th 〈…〉 Proposition is identical as Nothing is Nothing We speak not of the Being or truth of Propositions or Conceptions but of futurity it self as incomplexum You after confess I told you so May you not equally say Negations Non-existents Non-futurity are nothing ergo Nothing is a Negation Non-existent Non-future Answer one and you answer the other Negations in mente are Thoughts and in the Mouth they are Words but in re negata they are nothing So I say of Non-futurity and Non-existence Frail Man dreameth that the mundus naturalis is the same with the mundus fantasticus notionalis in his Brain and Oh! how commonly do Words and Thoughts go in Disputes for Extrinseck Realities Ad 5. Because God decreeth to do any thing you and I when we know it may truly say This will be and will be is no being but Gods will and our knowledg and our words are Alas that so much skill is necessary not to be deceived by ambiguity of words God's Knowledg and your Knowledge and your Words may be all true and yet Futurity ex parte rei futurae hath no proper Verity metaphysical physical or moral being no subject capable of any such You say Did not the Futurity of the World result from a Decree It 's 〈…〉 earisome at every Sentence to repeat Distinction and open Confusion The futurity of the World is nothing Extra mentem Divinam humanam extra propositionem de futuritione Why talk you of our designing another Origin when we are proving that it 's nothing and needs no Cause And why answer you not what I wrote against Dr. Twisse before you call for an Answer to him Or at least why answer you not Strangius but impertinently talk of the Serpent Socinus If Socinus had no more wit than to take the Futurity of Sin for a Being Substance Accident or Mode no wonder if he knew not how to deny that God is the Cause of it And why do you not attempt to answer me who tell you That if you take it to be a real Being and eternal you must take it to be God himself for nothing else is eternal But I pray you say not like your former arguing about nothing The eternal Futurity of Sin is God himself ergo God is the eternal Futurity of Sin The Subject and Predicate are not so convertible as you seem to make them You say if we say Futurity is nothing then it is a wonder an independent on God and his Will self-originated and unpreventable c. You write no wonders to me this rate of Discourse being common in the World and hath been in most Ages Is Nothing a wonder Is it a wonder for nothing to be independent but yet that which hath no dependent Being may so far as a Nothing be at God's will that he continue nothing or make something the first non agendo the second agendo as he pleases that is by willing or not willing And it were a wonder indeed for Nothing to be self-originated or that Nothing should spring from any thing as an efficient Cause But reductively some Nothings may be ascribed to God's Non-agency as Beings good are to his action As God is improperly called the Cause of Darkness because he there maketh not Light so improperly he may be said to be the Cause of Nothings because he made not the contrary Something 's You say then there is fatum Stoicissimum on God and all his Works and this Futurity binds the Almighty that he cannot do as he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth This is a wonder indeed that Nothing should be stronger than God and rule him and the World If Dr. Twisse hold Sin to be nothing doth it follow that it binds God because it 's nothing Doth Death bind God because it is but the privation of Life or vacuity si detur vacuum because it is nothing Or when there was nothing but God did Nothingness bind God Is that God
dependent on him and still upheld by him and used under him § 7. Though some would have more Power ascribed to Nature and others appropriate more to Grace yet in this it is no Controversie How much is to be ascribed to God For both Nature and Grace and the Powers of both are totally from God But all the question is Which way God giveth it to man § 8. In general we should be most cautious 1. That we disparage not any Power or Endowment which is God's own Work whether natural or gracious 2. That we give not too much to any Work that is proper to Man § 9. Natural Power of Vital Action Intellection and Volition is supposed by God as Lawgiver in his Subjects that is that we are Men. § 10. Every act of Knowledge Faith Repentance Love and Obedience is done by our natural Powers or Faculties and none without them § 11. The word Moral Power signifieth 1. Sometimes a Power to moral actions and so natural Power in Man is also moral in some degree 2. Sometimes a Holy Disposition especially in the Will to such holy moral actions which is the Rectitude of our natural Powers or the Health of them in a saving degree or sort and is the Gift of Grace since Sin departed 3. Most frequently I use the words for such a degree of God's helping or healing Influx or Grace as is short of a Habit for promptitude and facility but yet puts the soul in such a disposition by which Man can do the Act and it may come to pass without more Grace whether it do or not which the Dominicans call Sufficient Grace and I rather call Necessary Grace 4. Sometimes it is meant as causa moralis for that which is Power Reputatively § 12. Power hath several degrees some can act easily yea is hardly restrained some can act with difficulty yet constantly some difficultly and very rarely some can act but the Impediments are so great and its weakness such as that it never will do what it can And these we call a moral Impotency as being reputative impotency in these three last degrees § 13. Sin hath debilituted Man's very natural Vivacity and Activity to things spiritual and also darkened and undisposed his Understanding to them but especially disâ—ffected him and perverted his will with an indisposition averseness and enmity to God And none of these are cured but by the Grace of Christ quickening or strengthening and awakening illuminating and converting the Soul Of which more after in due place § 14. Adam had Power to have stood when he fell God took no power from him nor let out such a Temptation as he could not resist But Sin entered at his Will and corrupted it before he lost his Power § 15. There is therefore in 〈…〉 such a thing as a true Power to do more good and less evil than we do § 16. And there was such a Power in Adam's Will by which he could have willed what he did not â—ill and by which he could have rejected the Temptation And this without any other Grace than that which he then had and used not § 17. Otherwise all the sin of Adam and the World would be resolved into the necessitating Will and Work of God and so all Faith would be subverted § 18. Therefore Man's Will was such a Faculty as could be a causa prima of the moral modification or specification of its own Acts Not a causa prima simpliciter but thus secundum quid For else God must be the causa prima of Sin which is the ill modification of that Act. § 19. I know that to Nature the Reasonings of our late Infidels to prove That every Act of the Will is as truly necessitated as the motions of a Clock do seem plansible and hard â—o answer because it seemeth strange that in any mode of Action Man should be a first Cause of it and that a Creatures Act should have no superiour Cause in any mode But on the other side the Evidence is cogent 1. That God is able to make a self-determining Power that can thus do For it is no contradiction 2. That it is congruous that below the happy Race of confirmed Spirits there should be a Race of such undetermined free Agents left much to their own self-determining Power 3. And Experience perswadeth us de facto that so it is 4. And they that deny it must unavoidably make God the prime Cause of all Sin in a higher degree than it is or can be ascribed to Satan And is all this with the rejection of Christianity more eligible than the Concession that God can and doth make a Creature with such self-determining Free-will as can as a first Cause of its modified act sin without God's Predetermination And by his help could forbear Sin when he doth not The Contest is Whether GOD or Man shall be counted the causa prima of Sin we say Man is the first Cause and GOD is none at all Some say God must be the causa prima of all that can have a Cause in it and rather than deny him the Honour which is given to Satan they will deny Christianity and deny him to be holy and to be GOD. § 20. GOD made this natural Free-will that Man might be a governable Creature fit to be morally ruled by Laws and rational Motives and as part of God's Image on Man CHAP. X. Of Original Sin § 1. BY one man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all in that all have sinned § 2. We were not in Adam distinct Persons really for our Persons then existed not and therefore did not inexist § 3. God doth not repute us to have been what we were not for he judgeth truly and is not mistaken Therefore he judged not Peter and Iohn to have been those Persons in Adam then nor Adam's person the same with theirs § 4. Therefore we were not then when he sinned persons guilty in Adam for Non existentis non sunt accidentia § 5. We were Seminally or Virtually in Adam when he sinned Which is but that he had that Virtus generativa from which we naturally sprang in time But to be Virtually in him is Not to be personally in him but Potentially it being as to Existence terminus diminuens § 6. As soon as we were Persons we were Persons derived by Generation from Adam Therefore with our Persons we derived Guilt and Pravity For he could beget no better than himself § 7. When Adam sinned his whole Person was guilty and no part innocent Therefore his very Semen prolificum had its part in the guilt according to its Capacity And though it was not a guilty Person it was a part of a guilty Person and a part that was the Semen personae so that when that Semen became a pâ—rson Cain it became a guilty person the guilt following the subject according to its Capacity And so downward by Propagation
Christ yet the Promise and Notification of the Mediator and his merits and sacrifice as the reason of this Pardon did then exist and was the cause of that Pardon which Christ was afterward to merit § 19. It is therefore no absurdity that the existence of Man's Faith and Repentance should be necessary when the Mediator's Existence and his Merits was not necessary For it was not then an existent Mediator and Sacrifice c. that was the Object of Faith but only a Promised Mediator § 20. And whereas it is a doubt seeing the Head is essential to the Church and the Divine Nature only was Head of the Church before the Incarnation and the Divine and Humane united was afterward the Head whether it follow not the Church before the Incarnation and after and so Faith and Religion were divers in specie and not the same I answer That while we agree all de re that so much difference there is it is not worth our trouble to strive about the Name or Logical Notion of Sameness of Species § 21. When God hath chosen to save Man by way of a Mediator and by his Sacrifice and Merits as that way in which his Wisdom Love Holiness Mercy and Justice are eminently glorified it seemeth to me too bold Presumption to dispute Whether he could not have saved us otherwise and pardoned Sin without a Saviour as it would be to dispute Whether he could not illuminate the Earth without the Sun He wanteth not Power to do whatsoever is meet for God to do but all the question is Whether it be meet supposing Man's Nature and Sin to be what they are § 22. God did illuminate the World without the Sun till the Sun was made But it was the imperfect World and before the perfecting of his Work And so God did save Man without an Existent Mediator unless God may be called a Mediator between himself and us which is a harsh Phrase But it was before the Work of our Salvation was brought to maturity for the Cure of Man is perfectest at last § 23. We must take great heed that in considering of the parts of our Redemption by Christ we look not all at one and over-look the rest nor set not those Works of Christ in opposition which must be taken in conjunction But his Incarnation Obedience Contempt of the World Victory over Satan Suffering Resurrection Ascension Glory Intercession Reign Raising the Dead Judgment glorifying his Church must be all conjoined though not confounded § 24 The Benefits of Redemption or recovering Mercies are not all given in the same way We must carefully distinguish of those that God giveth absolutely and antecedently that is before any Condition or Duty on Man's part and those that he giveth consequently upon Man's Duty performed as the means of Reception § 25. Antecedent Mercies are some common to all men and some proper to some Countries Ages and Persons as the free Benefactor pleaseth § 26. Of the former sort is the Sustentation of Nature reprival from deserved miseries the Law of Grace as to the tenor and some degree of promulgation with all the common Mercies Means Duties which tend to Recovery Of the later sort are the greater degrees of such mercies and means which God freely giveth to some more than others § 27. Therefore we must not say that Infidels or wicked men have no Mercies or no Right to what they do possess as from God as being no Consenters to the Covenant or Performers of it Because there are Antecedent Mercies given before such Consent or Performance not as to Covenanters but as to miserable men invited to enter Covenant with God in Christ. Though these are so forfeited by their refusal that they have no assurance of their continuance but God may soon take them all away § 28. The consequent Mercies are Pardon Iustification Adoption the Spirit a secured filia◠Right to all outward Mercies that are good and suitable to us and final Glory and whatever God hath promised on Conditions by us to be performed § 29. The question of universal Redemption and special I shall pretermit till I speak of universal Grace § 30. Seeing Life Health Food Hope and all that is truly good were forfeited by Sin and none of them can be due to us by the Law of Innocency it followeth that wherever they are given it is upon other terms which can be no other than those of the Law of Grace as fruits of our Redeemer's Mercy antecedently or consequently And where the Fruits are apparent we may know the Cause § 31. The Fruits of Redemption are one entire frame consisting of various and unequal parts to divers persons yet mutually related And therefore it will not follow that nothing but what certainly inferreth the person's Salvation is any such effect of Man's Redemption CHAP. XII Of the several Laws or Covenants of God § 1. THough the order of the matter require that I should have spoken of the Law of Innocency before I had spoken of Sin and Redemption yet thinking that the sort of Readers for whom I now especially write will best understand things if I treat of all God's Laws together I will at this time fetch my method from their intended benefit § 2. The nature of a Law in general and of God's Laws in special I have elsewhere so oft and largely spoken of pretending somewhat to clear up that Doctrine from several mistakes that I must here pretermit it § 3. Though the word Law do principally signifie the regulating Imposition of our Duty and the word Covenant doth principally signifie a mutual Contract yet it is the same Divine Instrument which is meant oft and usually in Scripture by both these Names Of which see Grotius at large in his Preface to his Annotations in Nov. Testamentum It is called a Law in one respect and a Covenant in another but the thing is the same As a Law the parts of it are 1. The Precept and Prohibition constituting our Duty 2. The Retribution Premiant and Penal constituting the Dueness of Rewards and Punishments as the duty is performed or neglected As it is a Covenant it containeth 1. The Benefit which is the Reward freely given yet on condition of a due and suitable Reception and use of prescribed Means 2. The Condition described and Means prescribed in the said Preceptive part 3. And the Threatning in case of Ingratitude Refusal and Disobedience Which are the same things as in the Law of Grace considering the Covenant but as Instituted and Offered For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth usually but the Resolved declared terms of Life and Death or the Divine Ordination by which he will Rule and Judge us And so it is oft called a Covenant before Consent by Man which maketh it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mutual Contract And even a Law as Received by a voluntary subject is Consented to and becometh a Contract If any think that I give not the
per se and independant for so none is good but God only And all this is the Effect of Grace § 45. 2. But saith Ian senius there is some grace which is not gratiâ— Christi the grace of Christ and such is all that cometh from meer fear without Love which is a kind of providential preparatory grace but not the grace of Christ. Ans. It is not that eminent and special grace of Christ But to think that it befalleth men without Christ's procurement and is not a commoner sort of Christ's grace when all Power in Heaven and Earth is put into his Hand and he is made Head over all things to the Church is below a Christian Divine to imagine and too injurious to Christ. But by all this it appeareth that even Iansenius differeth from others more about the Names of Good and Christ's Graces than about the Matter CHAP. XIV Of Mans Power and Free-will since the Fall § 1. SO much is said Chap. 9. of Mans natural Power and Free-will and so much now Chap. 13. of grace and the Power given by it as may allow me to be short in what is here to be added § 2. All that natural Power and Liberty which was essential to the Will remaineth in it since the Fall For Man is of the same Species § 3. The Will is still a self-determining Principle supposing 1. God's necessary Influx as he is the first Cause of Nature 2. And the Being and convenient Position of Objects 3. And the Perception of the Intellect 4. And the concourse of necessary concomitant second Causes § 4. The three Faculties of mans Soul are all vitiated by sin 1. The vital active Power is so far dead to God and Holiness as to need the cure of quickening and strengthening and exciting Grace 2. The Intellect is so far blinded as to need the cure of illuminating grace 3. And the Will is so far turned by Enmity from God to the inordinate Love of carnal self-interest and Creatures as to need the cure of converting sanctifying Grace § 5. Grace healeth the Will of this Enmity and vitious perverseness so far as it prevaileth which is 1. common Grace enableth it to common good and prepareth it for better 2. Special Grace causeth it actually and habitually to will and love special Good that is God as God and the Creature for God and Holiness as his Image 3. Perfecter Grace bringeth up the Will to perfecter holy Acts and Habits § 6. Nature it self is not in lapsed man divested of all moral or Divine Principles Abilities and Inclinations In the Intellect there are commen Notices of a Deity that is That there is one God who is infinitely powerful wise and good And in the Will there are some Inclinations still to good as good and therefore to God as far as he is truly conceived of as good and so far as that conception is not conquered by a cross Conception of some Enmity And so of other Good § 7. Nature and common Grace may cause a man to go as far in Love and Religion as those whom we call the highest Hypocrites or almost-Christians may do which our practical Preachers do frequently tell the People at large in Books and Sermons § 8. Such may have a common sort of Faith in Christ even formerly to the working of Miracles and of Repentance and Reformation and of good Desires and love to goodness and good Men yea to God himself § 9. For men are not so corrupt by Nature much less under the Effects of common grace as to hate all goodness or to hate all that is in God They may love God as he is the Almighty Creator Preserver and Natural-Orderer of the World and the Cause of its Being Motion Beauty Harmony and all natural Good And they may love him as he is the Giver of life and all natural Blessings to themselves and as he is the Preserver of them and their only Security and Help in Danger and not only as his Blessings gratifie their Senses but as all their Hope of everlasting Happiness is in his Power and Love They may love him as he doth this good to others also and is the common Benefactor to the World without whom it could not subsist a moment And they may love him as he maketh such Laws as preserve their lives and Properties and Rights from Fraud and Violence and by making other Men conscionable just and charitable to all do both gratifie themselves and tend to the common Order Peace and Welfare of Societies and of Mankind § 10. I am not able to confute or deny what Adrian afterwards Pope hath written in his Quodlibets That an unsanctified Man not in a state of Salvation may so far love God even above himself as to consent rather to die and be annihilated than were it possible God should be annihilated or not be God For a Heathen might consent to die for his Country And he is a Bâ—ast and no Man that would not rather be annihilated than all the World yea or all the Kingdom or all the City should be annihilated or than the Sun should cease to be or to shine And he that knoweth that if there were no God there could be no World no Being Motion Knowledge Goodness or Felicity in the World besides that which is worse the Cessation of the Infinite Good himself must be yet more unmanly if he would not rather be annihilated alone if per impossible you suppose he could live alone than all this greater Evil should come to pass He that tells men that they shall be saved if they would rather be annihilated than that there should be no God doth make them a promise which God hath not made § 11. But as the same Author observeth that which the unholy cannot do is to love God as God as the ultimate Object and most amiable Good to be known and by Love and Holiness enjoyed and pleased by a holy Soul and this above all sensual terrene Delights and to love him as the holy Ruler of the World who forbiddeth all sinful sensuality and all mens inordinate Conceits Desires Delights and Practices and requireth holiness and purity of Mind and Life and Sobriety and Temperance and Self-denial in all that will be saved And as he is a just Judge who will execute all these Laws and condemn the ungodly to endlers Misery They love not God as he is the holy Goâ—â—â—â—our and righteous Iudge of men that would restrain them from their sinful Wills and Pleasures and damn them if they will not be holy And consequently they love not his Laws and other means by which this is to be done Because loving the pleasure of their Lusts and being averse to things spiritual high and holy they love not that holiness and rectitude in themselves which God commandeth Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8 c. § 12. Though God as the Fountain of Nature continue the natural power and liberty of the Will yet its moral
Miracles Therefore a Servant of Christ may most comfortably suffer Martyrdome for his testimony to the Deity Christianity the Life-to-come or Charity and Justice against Malice and Persecution and Cruelty which even a Miracle would not justifie more than for a disputable Opinion § 20. It 's a great Question How a true Prophet might be known antecedently before his Prophecy was fulfilled And it 's of great moment to consider the difference between a Legislative Prophet and a meer particular Message Moses and CHRIST the Legislators confirmed their Laws and Word by multitudes of uncontrouled Miracles For Life and Death lay upon mens Obedience or Disobedience to them And if a Prophet did reprove any Sin against that Law the Miracles that confirmed the Law did justifie them But if it were but a Prophecy about some other temporal Event as Ieremy's of the Captivity it needed no Miracle for it was but a temporal Suffering that followed the not believing them The Law of God which should here be handled I shall speak of afterward CHAP. VIII Of God's causing or not causing Sin § 1. HOw certainly the Doctrine of the necessity of immediate efficient physical predetermining Premotion doth make God the principal Cause of all Sin I have so oft shewed and so fully proved that I shall here be very short upon that Subject § 2. To say that God is the principal determining Cause of every sinful act with all its Objects and Circumstances called the materiale peccati and also the Cause of the Law that forbiddeth it and the Person that committeth it is to make him the chief Cause of Sin as far as it is capable of a Cause even of the formal Cause § 3. To say That such a Cause is the Cause only of the Act but not of the Obliquity is absurd because the obliquity is a Relation necessarily resulting from the Law and Act with all its modes and circumstances And the obliquity can have no other Cause § 4. To say That God willeth and loveth and causeth Sin not as Sin but for good ends and uses is to say no more for God than may be said for wicked men if not for Devils save only that God's Ends are better than theirs § 5. To say That God willeth not Sin but the Existence and Futurity of Sin is but as aforesaid to say that He wills not Sin as Sin or sub ratione â—ali but that it exist for better ends or else it is a contradiction For to will or cause Sin is nothing else but to will and cause the existence of Sin § 6. They that say That God willeth the Existence of Sin as it is summe conducibile to the Glory of his Justice and Mercy yea and that per se and not only per accidens do wrong the Glory of God's Holiness and Wisdom A Physician can love his own skill and compassion and the honour that cometh to him by curing a Disease without loving or willing the Disease it self but only supposing it as an Evil which he can turn to Good § 7. They that say That God is the Cause indeed of our Sin but is no Sinner himself because he is under no Law say nothing in the latter but what all grant and nothing in the former but what God's Church doth commonly abhorr excepting some few singular presumers § 8. They that hold That God doth by immediate physical efficient predetermining Premotion principally and unresistibly cause every sinful act with all its modes and circumstances do certainly deny all certainty of Faith and so subvert all Christianity For the formal Object of all Divine Faith is God's Veracity that God cannot lye if God could lye our Belief could have no certainty Now God speaketh to us but by inspired men and not by an essential voice of his own And if God cause as aforesaid all the Lyes that ever were spoken by Men or Devils in the World then no man can be sure that he doth not so by Prophets and Apostles or that ever they say true And God's Veracity then is gone § 9. They that think â—o evade this Evidence by the difference of Predetermination and Inspiration and say God inspireth no Lyes though he predetermine all by physical Premotion do labour in vain For 1. No man can ever prove that any Inspiration doth interest God more in the Act or Lye than physical Predetermination doth For how can God be more the Author of any Act than by effectual premoving the Creature to act it and that by immediate physical Predetermination What doth Inspiration do but so move the Mind Will and Tongue of a Prophet No man can name more that Man is capable of 2. But if there were a difference we are not capable of understanding that difference so well as to prove that God can cause all the Lyes in the World by predetermining Premotion and yet can cause none by Inspiration shall none believe him that know not this difference 3. And were it intelligible it would be only to inspired men themselves So that I am past doubt that we must part with all Certainty of Christianity and of all Divine Belief if we receive this Doctrine of Predetermination because the objectum formals fidei is then gone § 10. They that say that if we make not God the Predeterminer to every act in specie morali and in every comparative respect and mode we shall make Man a God by making him a Causa prima do thereby as much conclude God to be the first and principal predetermining efficient Cause of every wicked Habit as of Malignity or Hatred of God c. because a Habit hath as much Entity as an Act Therefore if it deifie Man to make him the first Cause e. g. of a Lye or Murder in specie then so it will do to make him the first Cause of the Habit. § 11. If it be as impossible for Man to do any thing but what he doth or not to do all that he doth without God's foresaid predetermining Premotion as it is to be Gods or to overcome God or make a World then if Men are counted Sinners and condemned it is for not doing such impossibilities for not doing what God alone can do or for not overcoming Almighty premoving Power § 12. â—t cannot rationally be expected that they that believe that God is the chief Cause and Willer of all Sin should think it very bad or themselves bad for it or that when God hath unresistibly made all men to sin he yet hateth it and sent his Son into the World to testifie his Hatred by dying for it and that he is serious in all that he saith against it in his word nor that such men should hate it and rather die than sin § 13. Therefore as the Church of God hath ever abhorred to make God the Cause of Sin and kept up the sence of the Evil of Sin for our hatred of it and departing from it and our Humiliation as a