so far bear with one another as is consistent with the peace of the world and every man ought to endeavour so far as Religion and virtue will permit to render his humour and his manners as agreeable as he can to those with whom he converses for the greater comfort of Humane life for the preservation of friendship and charity in the world and for the mutual benefit and advantage of Mankind And now I see nothing that remains which hath not been sufficiently considered upon this Argument of Liberty and Necessity either in this introduction or in the book it self unless it be one of these three things which I shall pass over very briefly The first is the case of the divine Prescience which is pretended to be inconsistent with humane freedom To which it is sufficient to answer that extend the foreknowledge of God as wide as you please yet knowledge is but knowledge all this while and can have no external Physical causality for this were to confound the notions of knowledge and of power together so that the only reason why there can be no such thing as a free agent is not because this freedom is inconsistent with the divine Prescience which can have no Physical influence upon it and there is no other influence in the nature of things but because the notion of a free agent considered by it self is an impossible notion that is it is impossible there should be any such thing as an immaterial being for I have proved at large in one Part of this Discourse that an immaterial and a free agent are the same and this being a point upon which all Religion depends I leave the Calvinists to consider of it Secondly Mr. Hobs his Arguments against Freedom are objected and those Arguments as I remember for I have not his Book by me are these two which follow the first is contained in this syllogism Every Cause is a sufficient cause Every sufficient cause is a necessary cause Therefore every cause is a necessary cause Which is no more then to say in fewer words Every cause is a cause Which being an Identical Proposition must needs be true for nothing is a cause till it have produced an effect and then indeed it is necessary that the effect should have been because that which is past can never be to come but yet it does not follow but that there might be a causality or causability residing in a subject or substance though it do not yet exert it self by any express or actual operation and Mr. Hobs in this sence might have been said to be a cause of the Leviathan and the book de Cive many years before he wrote the Books themselves His second argument is taken from the nature of a disjunctive proposition concerning an action which is supposed to be future and contingent as thus Either Socrates shall dispute to morrow or he shall not dispute to morrow and it is certain that this Proposition is unquestionably true because it consists of contradicting parts which contain the whole circuit of things within themselves for everything in the world besides disputing is not disputing and if Socrates should dye or should be annihilated to morrow yet to be annihilated or to dye is not to dispute so that the whole Proposition is unavoidably true but it does not follow that either of its parts are so determinately at this time and that was Mr. Hobs his mistake as I will prove by altering the Proposition a very little Either Socrates shall dispute freely to morrow or he shall not dispute freely Now the nature of a Disjunctive Proposition is this that all the parts taken asunder cannot be true at the same time because they are supposed to be incompetible and inconsistent with one another otherwise there is no disjunction further it is certain that there can but one part of a Disjunctive Proposition which concerns the present be true at the same time and in a Proposition de futuro there can be but one part eventually true but this depends upon the nature of the thing and upon the issue of the expected event not upon the nature of the Proposition to which it is necessary that it should consist of several parts and therefore the truth of it as such must depend upon the just and full enumeration of all those parts of which it ought to consist so that whatever becomes of the nature of the thing the Disjunctive Proposition hinders not but Socrates may be free since freedom is supposed in one of its members but yet if it be necessary that he shall dispute freely to morrow as Mr. Hobs must own if he will be consistent to himself then he will be free and necessary at the same time which is absurd The third and last thing which may be and is usually objected concerns those places of Scripture wherein the days of a man are said to be numbred and the time of every respective personalities continuance upon the earth predetermined and preordained which if it be true then it will follow unavoidably that the actions of a mans life are necessary and fatal for there may be a thousand several actions that may conspire to bring a man into a Chronical distemper which shall be the cause of his death if he be predetermined to dye at such a time of the Plague it must likewise be so ordered that he shall necessarily reside there where it is or repair thither that he may catch it and if his fate be to be knockt on the head by the fall of any Stone or Timber from an House it is necessary that he be abroad and passing by that place where the Stone or Timber may be sure to meet him in its fall and the like But I do absolutely deny that the days of a man are any where in Scripture affirmed to be thus limited or predetermined but that which is called the appointed time is the utmost distance of time from the day of a mans birth to which the stamina vitae will extend or to which the respective constitutions will last if they be well used and what that time is God certainly who is the Author of nature and hath all causes and effects perpetually present to him and always in his sight cannot chuse but understand very well but yet it does not follow but a man may anticipate this time by intemperance or by want of skill or want of care nay I suppose we may affirm it for a certain truth that no man ever did yet live so long as he might possibly have done had he understood his own constitution and the respective usefulness or annoyance of all other things to it together with the true proportions in which they are to be taken and avoided and had he lived a life answerable to so exact a knowledge and yet after all humane life would be but of short continuance and after all we should have reason to pray with the Prophet David that
but a perpetual warefare with bad desires from within with importuning Temptations from without with our own frailties and with the Solicitations of others and with the crafty inveiglements of the Devil who will be sure to accost us on that side which is weakest and least defensible in us by motives of Pleasure profit applause or Power or whatever else he shall judge most likely to prevail upon us But now I beseech you who is there or who ever was there or will ever be of humane race so perfectly pure and untainted that he could not yeild to the importunity of any Temptation or what Combate could there be if he could not resist Besides it is necessary there should be such a thing as the Schools are pleased to call libertatem contrarietatis a liberty of determining either way in an Action or Case given one of which said determinations shall be Culpable the other meritorious or praiseworthy because to suppose otherwise is to deprive the divine Justice of any Foundation to exercise it self upon Justice in the person punishing and liberty in the person offending do naturally suppose one another for to Condemn one who could not avoid what he did or to reward another who could not so much as endeavour to merit what he enjoys may be called Arbitrary but can never be just For what Judgment is there where there is no difference And what Justice can there be where there is no Judgment made of the merit of the persons that appear before it Both of which reasons of the divine permission of Sin are excellently pointed at by an ancient Writer published among the works of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is God permits us to commit those evils which we wilfully chuse not that he is not able to hinder it but because we have a liberty of doing otherwise and because by this means he displays his own patience and forbearance with us But yet notwithstanding though it be true that God does and must be supposed to permit Sin in the world yet to interpret all those places which are the Subject of our present debate only of a bare Permission will appear very harsh and uncouth to any that shall peruse the places themselves wherein a great deale more than this seems manifestly to be contained and is ascribed to God in as plain words as it is possible for any Language to speak Besides that it is needless to the design for which it is done because necessity destroys the nature of Sin and just so much as there is of freedom in any Action so much of moral good or evil there may be in it but no more he that is necessitated is passive in what he does neither are those Actions which he commits in such a state to be considered as his but they are the Actions of that Agent by whom he himself is Acted The case is this one man kills another lying in wait for him out of Malice forethought because he bore him a grudge and had vow'd Revenge or being in a cooler humour than this he does it out of a wicked frolick resolving for a jest to kill the next man he meets now it so happens that this man himself is afterwards destroyed by the goring of a mad Bull in his passage through the Streets or by the fall of a Beam from an House all on fire or the like here is the same event on both hands a man kill'd but yet to the Destruction of the one there is a guilt belonging to the other there is not what is the reason of this why the reason is plain because the first is the effect of a free the latter of a necessary Agent If therefore a man by some external impulse be so far overrul'd that he is not himself his Actions are not his own neither but he is in the nature and quality of the mad Bull or the Beam he does these things because he cannot help it and therefore they are no Sins Or if sometimes there be a Complexion of the free Cause and of the necessary together as I have shown there may be yet the common Action resulting from them both partakes only of so much guilt as it borrows of Causality from the Free It is impossible therefore that God should be the Authour of Sin in any other Sense than as he is the Authour of that freedom by virtue of which we commit it but yet to speak properly it is not the freedom it self which is the cause of Sin but it is the abuse of that freedom which is wholly owing to our selves and God is no otherwise concurring to it than as a causa sine quâ non in as much as we could not have sinned if we had not abused our freedom and we could not have abused our freedom if God had not made us free From all which it appears that to talk of God's being the Authour of Sin in men is to talk not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that neither can nor ought to be believed but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that are utterly impossible to be done For my part I am so far from favouring any such opinion that if any man should by way of excuse lay his Sins to the charge of God Almighty as necessitating him to what he did I think it is a plain Argument he is sensible of his having done amiss and consequently might have done better if he had pleased and shall therefore very heartily joyn in Philo's imprecation against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He that shall presume in his own excuse to lay his misdeeds to the charge of God Almighty let him be punished without mercy and let no Sanctuary afford him its protection Sanctuaries not being intended for such as defend their Sins but for such as do humbly acknowledge and bewail them The second Reason if indeed it may be called a second and be not rather the same why some have been so extreamly scrupulous in the interpretation of such places of Scripture as are now under Consideration is to be taken from their deserved hatred and utter Abomination of Calvinistical Doctrines by which God is represented to be so cruel and sanguinary a being but the exposition of these texts according to their first and most natural sense is so far from bordering upon Calvinism that it perfectly destroyes it since every such Text is a new Argument for the liberty of the humane nature and will in as much as it would be ridiculous to say God hardens or blinds men by a particular Judgment if before that in their natural and best Estate they had neither the use of their reason nor the liberty of their will There be four instances made use of in the ensuing Papers for the Confirmation of this Doctrine which it will be requisite for the more compleat satisfaction of all those scruples which either too much nicety or too
you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the just and on the unjust And then concludes that Chapter with this general rule to make God the universal pattern of our Imitation v. 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect But now if the reprobating Doctrine be consonant to reason and to truth then we must invert these exhortations from the example of God and perswade men to the mutual hatred and detestation of one another because God who is the most perfect being and the most worthy of our Imitation so hated the World that he made the infinitely greatest part of Mankind out of a design to destroy them not that they had or that they could ever offend him being acted by a resistless Necessity in all they do but only to reak his everlasting vengeance and gratifie the eternal malignity of his Nature For though it be pretended and it is very true that Adam acted freely in the Commission of the first Offence yet it is true likewise Qualis causa talis effectus such as the cause is such is the effect that very offence being an effect and instance of his Freedom it was impossible that a free action in him should be the natural and proper cause of a necessary Nature in us or indeed that any one action which it was possible for him to Commit especially that for which the Son of Sirach tells us he made some amends by his Repentance should so far alter both his Nature and ours who are descended from him as that we should be quite another sort and species of Creatures from what we should have been before for Necessity and Freedom do toto genere distare Heaven and Earth East and West the Northern and the Southern Poles are not more Diametrically opposite or more remotely distant from one another Since therefore God did at least forknow that Adam would commit that offence which was so fatal to himself and his Posterity and since upon supposition of that offence he did preordain that all Mankind should be tainted by such an universal and irresistible Corruption which was impossible to be effected by any natural means it is the same thing as if he had simply preordained it without any respect to the fall of Adam at all because a simple Decree and a Decree founded upon a condition that will certainly come to pass are to all intents and purposes the same But we need not be so nice and subtle in bringing our Adversaries to an inconvenience since Mr. Calvin himself is pleased expresly to acknowledge that God did not only foreknow the fall of our first Parent but that by a positive act of his will he did absolutely preordain it as well as all the Mischiefs and Calamities which are consequent upon it and he refers it all to God's arbitrary Soveraignty and lawless will which he makes to be the only square and measure of all his actions in the Government of the world Since therefore it is clear according to the Calvinistical Hypothesis that God pursues Mankind with such an exquisite and immortal hatred and since he is certainly the best and the noblest example of our imitation how can we better imitate and resemble him than by hating one another by persecutig and tormenting every man his Neighbour by arming and equipping our selves to the mutual Ruin and Destruction of each other neither is it any argument in this ease that such a course of life is against our own interest as well as against that of those with whom we contend there being no man who could promise himself one minutes safety when once he had made himself the common Enemy of all Mankind For if God hate us how can we better express our imitation of him than by hating our selves or how can we better express that hatred than by doing those things which tend to our Destruction And though it be true that a Remnant shall be saved that is as our Adversaries do very impiously and very unreasonably interpret those words that a very small and inconsiderable party shall be culled out of the gross of Mankind to be the Objects of the divine Favour while the rest are for no reason but his arbitrary pleasure Condemned to everlasting Torments yet de non entibus non apparâ—ntibus eadem est ratio it being impossible for us to have a real and inward sense of a nother Man's Conversation or to feel those influences and intercourses of the divine Spirit which are reciprocated with the Spirit of another man the best way of imitating God will be without any respect or distinction of Persons to proclaim an open War against all Mankind lest by a too sollicitous pity for the Elect who by the worst that can happen will but be dispatched to a better place we spare the Reprobate whom God hath forsaken and who to gain quarter will be sure to make large pretences to the Seal of the Spirit whether they have received it or no. And is not this a precious way of imitating God which yet is the most proper inference that can be made from that topick if the Calvinistical reprobation be to be admitted are these the words of Peace the Laws and Ordinances of the Prince of Peace the Doctrine of the Meek and Humble Jesus or is it not rather a perfect Burlesque and Mock-song to the Bible an Infamous Pasquil and a most scandalous Lampoon upon the Gospel Was it for this that Isaac the Type and the Progenitour of the Messias was called the promised and the Holy seed the happy Man from whose auspicious Loyns that Bright that Glorious that Majestick Babe was in the fulness of time to be descended in whom all the Families of the Earth were to be blessed For this that as the watchful Shepheards were guarding of their sleeping Flocks the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid when the blest Spirit Cloth'd with a gentle and refreshing Light uttered these words of Peace and Comfort to them Fear not said he for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all People for unto you is Born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord For this the Beautiful and immortal Quire that sing perpetually before the Throne of God fill'd Heaven and Earth with their triumphant Song Glory be to God on High on Earth Peace and good will towards Men For this old Simeon hugg'd the mighty Infant and welcom'd his approaching Fate with Notes more Charming than the dying Swan or Nightingals contending for the Mastery with the most delicate and tender touches of the fainting string Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart
have such power over the Elements as Satan is represented to have had at that time and it was a convincing argument to the Disciples that our Saviour was an extraordinary person and had his mission from above when the Winds and the Sea did hearken to his voice Matth. 8. 27. What manner of man is this that even the Winds and the Sea obey him Thus when the destroying Angel smote the Host of the Assyrians when Moses with his Rod divided the Red-Sea and when Gideon with his Trumpets blew down the Walls of Jericho We must not think that it was the power of that Angel that wrought that execution the natural strength or skill of Moses or of Gideon by which those miraculous effects were brought to pass which are so plainly above the activity and beyond the sphere of all humane efficiency and power but it was the will of God overruling the ordinary course of Nature and positively concurring to make its laws give place to the will of these Instruments commissioned and employed by him neither is this any more than what Satan himself acknowledges in the parable of Job where although God is pleased to say Behold all that he hath is in thy power v. 12. Yet Satan plainly acknowledges v. 11. That he had no power to do that mischief which he did but what was truely and properly the power of God v. 11. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face My opinion therefore is that real miracles that is effects far surpassing the regular strength of Nature and as much exceeding the power of those at whose will those effects are brought to pass may be and have been actually allowed by God to false Apostles and false Christs as well as to true to the Magicians as well as to Moses and to the Devil himself who is the Prince of darkness as well as to an Angel of light and sure they were not mere Juggles and impostures which our Saviour honours with the Majestick titles of great signs and wonders so great that if it were possible for such to be deceived they should deceive the very Elect and yet this was a power with which the false Christs and false Prophets were to be indued by the express prediction of him who was truth it self Matth. 24. 24. Neither is it at all prejudical to such a supposition as this that the wonders of Antichrist and his adherents are called lying wonders 2 Thes 2. 9 For I do not deny that many have pretended to a power of miracles who really had it not and besides if you take the whole place together you will perhaps look upon this place instead of doing any prejudice to be a confirmation of my opinion in the Greek it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose coming or appearance is after the working or activity of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of a lie Now it may seem very strange that perfect Tricks and Juggles the Cheats of Hocus Pocus and Legerdemain should be called not only by the magnificent names of power and signs and wonders but of all power all signs all wonders for the word all is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be referred to each of these It will therefore be better to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders of a lie as if the Apostle had said wonders to confirm a lie or in confirmation of a false Doctrine as those works may be said to be works of Darkness which are done at Noon-day because they tend to the confirmation and Establishment of the Kingdom of Darkness or to the promotion and encrease of Satan's usurped rule and Soveraignty over the minds of men In Miracles there are three things to be considered the nature of them as to their Causes the nature of them as to their Effects and the tendency of them as to their design First As to their Causes it is necessary they stould be such as plainly carry along with them the marks and signatures of a supernatural power otherwise they are not miracles but Tricks and Juggles Secondly As to their effects if they do nothing but Mischief in the world or if they are calculated only for wonder and amazement not for use these are not sufficient grounds to rely upon that they are intended by God as a testimony to the truth but it is on the contrary justly suspicious without some further reason for our belief that it is a doctrine of Devils not of God whereas the excellence of our Saviours miracles consisted in this that setting aside his Doctrine they themselves were so useful and beneficial to mankind he healed Diseases he cleansed Lepers and he cast out Devils and he went about continually doing good which was a very strong argument that he had no ill design to bring any damage or prejudice to the world which is the whole tendency of Diabolical wonders when all his miracles were so full of Love so full of Charity and Goodness to mankind But Thirdly The tendency of these miracles is to be considered we must examine carefully those Doctrines which they pretend to advance if they be inconsistent with right reason or with natural Religion they are either Juggles and Impostures or at best they are but Diabolical wonders or it is the power of God cooperating with the wicked Insinuations of the Devil for the Sins of men to harden and to blind the world but it is impossible the Elect should be deceived they who are truly pious and sincere God will not suffer them to be so fatally imposed upon and men of rational and sober minds will easily conclude that these miracles are wrought in the name of Belzebub because they tend to the promotion of his interest and to the advancement of his Kingdom in the world Whereas if the Doctrine be consonant to reason and useful to mankind then these miracles are divine miracles then the Doctrine and the miracles do mutually confirm and strengthen one another because by our Saviours invincible argument it would be an absurd thing for the Devil to cast out himself since a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand St. Paul seems to have foreseen that false Prophets might be and would be endued with a power of working real miracles and that the Devil might and would put on the appearance of an Angel of light when he so straightly charges his Galathians Gal. 1. 8. If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Nay the same Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 17. 1 2. That though a man have the gift of prophecie though he speak with the Tongue of men and Angels though he understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and have all Faith so that he could remove Mountains yet if he have not Charity he is nothing that is he is nothing in himself and to others he ought to be looked
be deceiv'd in their proper objects when they are duly circumstanced to take a right cognizance of them Which if it be admitted for true we can not tell whither any such Miracles were ever wrought or no there being the same possibility of our senses being deceiv'd in one case as in another p. 215 216 And the same is likewise true of the Doctrine of Reprobation if it be admitted for true in the Calvinistical sense for there is no question but God doth reprobate obstinate and impenitent sinners the whole Oeconomy of the Gospel is overthrown all the dutyes recommended in it are either destroyed or â—â—erted the design of Christs coming into the world is frustrate and so is that of his passion and his intercession p. 216 217 When St. John exhorts us to mutual love after the example of God 1. Joh. 4 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love it ought to have been considered if the Calvinistical Doctrine be true that denominatio sumitur a parte potiori and therefore if we consider how small the proportion of the elect is in comparison of those that are arbitrarily doom'd to Eternal Torments it would have been a truer proposition and a more Legitimate inserence He that hateth not knoweth not God for God is hatred and more to the same purpose from p. 217 to 221 It is by no means in this case sufficient to say that the reprobation of so great a number of mankind is owing to the Sin of Adam who acted freely in what he did for it is impossible that a free action in him should be the true and proper cause of a necessary nature in us p. 221 Since therefore God did at least for see the fall of Adam and upon supposition of that fall did reprobate so great a proportion of Mankind by concluding them under an irresistible pravity it is the same thing as if he had condemned them antecedently to the fall of Adam that is without any respest or regard to it from all Eternity or if he had condemned the 〈◊〉 the same state though Adam had not fallen at all because a simple decree and a decree founded upon a condition that will certainly come to pass are to all intents and purposes the same p. 222 But Mr. Calvin confesses plainly that God did plainly preordain the fall of Adam and therefore the former considerations return with greater force if God so hated us and if he be the best and the more noble patern for our imitation then ought we also to hate our selves and one another from p. 222 to 224 The horrid Blasphemy of this doctrine and its inconsistence with the word of God which is the rule and measure of our Christian Faith aggravated from several considerations from p. 224 to 228 Three ways by which Christ may be said to have redeemed us p. 228 First he Redeems us from the Bondage of sin or from the Dominion of it in our hearts and from the gloomy night of ignorance which hovered over the Jewish and the Heathen world by his example his Gospel and his Spirit but where there is no liberty there can be no sin where there can be no endeavour or imiâ—ation which suppose a freedome and a power of not imitating and not indeavouring there can be no example to them that have it not in their power to obey the Gospel is in vain proposed and the influences of the spirit where they are irresistible as Calvin ever supposes them to be cannot properly be said to redeem us in any measure from sin but only to drive us out of one necessity into another p. 228 229 Secondly Christ redeems us by his satisfaction but where there is no sin there needsno satisfaction neither indeed in propriety of so speech can there be any and where there is no Freedome there can be no sin so that after all the Calvinistical bitterness against the Socinian Haeriticks for so I call them and so I think them to be they themselves deny the satisfaction every whit as much and with more detestable circumstances than the Socinians themselves do from p. 229 to 232 The third way of redemption is by the intercession of Christ which though in the Orthodox Creed that is in the Creed of those that believe rightly concerning the nature of the humane soul and the nature of its Will it be very good â—â—â— useful and intelligible sence yet admit the Calvinistical Doctrine to be true and nothing is more useless and impertinent nay nothing can possibly be thought of more contemptibly ridiculous than that is p. 232 233 Again if we consider Christ as exercising the Office of supream Judge as he will do at the last day it is manifest that there can be nothing which can in propriety of speech be called a judgment where there is no difference made betwixt the moral good or evil of things and it is as certain that in the Calvinistical necessity which destroys the very nature of Morality and Religion no such difference can possibly be suppos'd so that a judgment in this case would be every whit as ridiculous at the last day as an intercession before it p. 234 235 And as nothing is more inconsistent with the whole current of the Scriptures than the Doctrine of Reprobation so neither is there any thing so destructive of that meekness and humility which it was one of the main designs of the Gospel to encourage and promote nothing that is so naturally productive of insolence and Pride of a fastidious contempt and scorn of one man towards another nothing so exactly fitted to make Parties and Divisions among men and to continue and propagate those Divisions when they are made to the great prejudice of the publique peace and the perpetual disturbance of the world from 235 to 237 Six accounts to be given of the rise and progress of the Doctrine of absolute reprobation p. 237 First account to be taken from a too inconsiderate interpretation of those places wherein Justification is ascribed wholly to faith in opposition to the works of the Law of Moses or to that justifycation which pretends to be obtained by a perfect obedience to the Laws of nature or an absolute and entire conformity in all parts of our lives to the duties and obligations of natural Religion p. 237 238 Two reasons why justication could not be obtained by the Law of Moses the one drawn from the nature of the law it self which was but a shadow of a more perfect dispensation and the other from the defectiveness and imperfection of that obedience which was given it p. 239 But neither was the law of Nature by reason of humane Frailty which renders it morally impossible for us to walk up to the utmost perfection of that Law sufficient of it self in order to this end p. 240 A sin being committed there are but five ways possibly to be thought of by which justification that is the Remission of that
than of any other part of the Creation and it would seem as if God had sent them into the World only that he might triumph over the infirmities and sport himself in the misery of his Creatures for this as I have said is the usual effect of that freedom for which I am now contending But now if at the end of this Race there be a Prize proposed if this laborious Combat which we are perpetually obliged to maintain with so many unruly Lusts and headstrong Passions be but to fit and refine our tempers for the enjoyment of a better and a more exalted condition of life nay if the very nature of that happiness do in a great measure consist in a comfortable remembrance of and reflexion upon that successful Conflict which we in this life have maintained with the brutish and beastly part of our selves then all is made good sense again and here is a very clear account given of the reason of that spontaneous principle which we find within our selves and of its Connexion with the happiness or misery of another Life Whereas on the contrary if all humane actions be necessary and fatal the nature of rewards and punishments is utterly destroy'd For though a Man may be plagued or tormented yet he can never properly be said to be punished for what he could not avoid for all punishment is either for the amendment of the offending party or for an example to others Now where there is no fault there can be no amendment and where there is no choice there can be no fault Again that Calamity which being inflicted upon one is intended for an example to others must have its effect upon us either by the way of a rational motive or of a necessary cause if the first that supposes that freedom for which we contend for deliberation without freedom is the greatest non-sense in the world if the latter then I demand whether before the appearance of this necessary cause there were an Antecedent liberty or no if you say there was then I do by no means understand why the punishment of one or more voluntary Agents should destroy the freedom of all Mankind invert the order of things and alter the natural constitution of the world and if you will not grant it then here are two contrary necessities contending with one another as a Body moved any determinate way will continue the same motion and the same determination if it be not hindered from pursuing its course and turned another way by another more powerful than it self whether quiescent or in motion which it shall meet or overtake in its passage but then how either of these determinations shall be either culpable or meritorious is another thing which I do not understand and I am afraid it will puzzle a wiser head to give a tolerable account of it Again the pains of the Damned in the life to come consist as I have said in a great measure to be certain in a troublesom and uneasie remembrance of the miscarriages of this But how can I be troubled for what I could not avoid Or if I may be troubled yet it is plain I am troubled without reason and consequently this is but the effect of another necessity and so here is one necessity punished by another which is certainly the most unreasonable and the most unjust thing in the world so that we must unavoidably grant either that there can be no such thing as Injustice or that this is that very thing aggravated with all the circumstances that can make it most unworthy of God or most hateful to Men. For here is the greatest injury and the greatest deceit together the greatest injury for a Man to be tormented to all Eternity for what he could not avoid and the greatest deceit for a Man to think all the while that he might have acted otherwise than he has for that is the case of every Man who is possessed with a sense of Guilt Repentance or Shame For what is Shame but a troublesom reflexion upon Folly And how can Folly and Necessity be consistent together What is Guilt but a certain pain and anguish of the Mind arising from a sense of Sin And how can that Action be sinful which it was not in our power to eschew Or why may we not as well conclude that the Sun commits a Sin when it parches the Earth with an immoderate heat Or the Rain when it poaches it with intemperate showres What room can there be for such a passion as Repentance where there is nothing to be repented of And how can any Man repent of that which it was utterly impossible for him to avoid And which being placed in the same circumstances he must with the same necessity act over again There are those whose dejection of Spirit is so great under the perpetual weight and pressure of misfortune that they curse the unhappy day wherein they were born into a World so full of misery and sorrow but there are none repent their being born because Repentance is a reflection upon a Man 's own action not upon the action of our Parents or upon the consequence of it â— No Man can be said to repent that he was born blind or that he became so by the virulence of a Distemper which it was not in his power to prevent he may wish it had been otherwise or he may be sorry that it was not but this desire or this sorrow of his is not accompany'd with a sense of guilt or shame which is always requisite to fill up the notion and constitute the nature of Repentance No Man repents his having had the Rickets in his Childhood or his being afflicted with the Gout in his old Age so far as these Distempers depend upon spermatick and hereditary Causes but if by Lewdness and Intemperance he shall contract a crazy and infirm habit of Body and shall derive a sickly and diseased Constitution down to his Issue then he may and has reason to repent for his own sake and for theirs too to whom he is the occasion of so great misfortune he must needs look back with blushes and confusion of face upon his own personal follies and it will be still a farther aggravation to the trouble of his mind that he has poison'd Ages and Generations to come that his name shall either perish with himself or dye together with his Children or live with infamy and disgrace in the infirmity of those that shall succeed them What hath been said concerning Guilt Repentance and Shame passions that do unavoidably suppose and prove a freedom the same is likewise applicable to the business of Temptation Watch and pray said our Blessed Lord to his Disciples that ye enter not into Temptation Mat. 26. 41. But now in all Temptations liberty is plainly supposed for if a Man cannot yield how is he tempted And if he cannot resist it is more than a Temptation So that the nature of a Temptation
the real Merits of a Cause whether I have not very fairly and clearly expounded those places of St. Paul which I have produced upon this head together with all others of a like meaning and signification which it is not necessary accurately to insert so as that no advantage can be reaped from them to the Calvinistical Doctrine The Second Account which I shall give of the origine and progress of this Opinion and of its Continuance among us to this Day shall be taken from those Texts in the Epistles of St. Paul where he describes the Lucta or Contention which is to be found more or less in every man for it is not equal in all between the two principles of the Flesh and Spirit or between the natural tendencies and desires of the humane Soul as it moves from its self by an inward spring or principle of self activity abstracted from all Intanglement or Encumbrance from the Body which are all regulated by the sober and steady deliberations of right reason without any Prejudice Humour Interest or Passion and between those desires which are owing to the union of the intellectual or spiritual principle with matter from whence it comes to pass that our nobler part is perpetually sollicited and frequently overborn by the importunity of sensual Pleasures by yielding too frequently or too grosly to which it follows unavoidably that the natural strength and activity of the mind will be by degrees impaired as Elastical Bodies by moysture lose their Spring or as the Bodies of men or other Animals by want of exercise and too much ease are used to grow Scorbutick resty and unactive but on the contrary by constant breathing activity and motion they acquire new strength and arrive to an Athletical firmitude and vigour as it is also with the Mind which is not more impaired by a tame and cowardly submission to Animal and fleshly desires than it is improved and strengthned by a stout and resolute resistance of them In this continual combat between concupiscence and reason consists that spiritual Warfare which we are obliged to maintain with the World the Flesh and the Devil in the conquest of which Enemies or in our utmost endeavour towards it as being an effect of the natural strength and activity of the Soul shaking off the Cloggs and Encumbrances of the sensual or lower Life which is wholly governed by gross and corporeal Impressions from without the nature of Virtue consists a on the otherside Vice is nothing else but an unnecessary yielding to so mean impulses or it is that decay or infirmity of mind which is the consequence of such a yielding This Combat is excellently described by St. Paul in the Seventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans from the 14th verse to the end of that Chapter in these words We know that the Law is Spiritual but I am carnal sold under Sin For that which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not I consent unto the Law that it is good Now then it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin Much such a Description as this we have likewise by the same Apostle in his Epistle to the Galathians c. 5. v. 17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Where he also acquaints us what are the distinct works of the Flesh and the Spirit the First consisting mainly in the gratification of sensual Appetites and desires or in an ambitious pursuit after the Pomp and Vanities of this world or in that turbulent and uneven constitution of mind in those either private or publick Mischiefs which are the usual consequences of Lust and Passion as the latter are chiefly discernible by such a calmness and serenity of Mind and Will as does perpetually accompany the Soul of man when it is moved from it self from an inward spring and principle of its own and when its streams are not troubled or turned back with violence upon their Fountain by the tempestuous winds of Passion such a calmness and serenity as makes a man most easie to himself most acceptable to others and most fit to enjoy an intimate Friendship and Communion with God Now the works of the Flesh saith he v. 18 19 20 21 22 23. are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And from this distinction of the Flesh and the Spirit men are denominated according to the respective Predominancy of either sometimes Carnal or Natural and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritual men So in the next Chapter v. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are Spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self lest tho◠also be tempted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye which are Spiritual that is ye who have mortified the Flesh with its affections and Lusts ye who have given your selves up to the guidance and conduct of the inward-man whose Souls are as far as may be retired within themselves freed from the Dominion of Prejudice and Temptation and making no further account of any thing without than it is necessary to the support of Life or serviceable to the noble ends of Happiness and Virtue ye who measure all things by a steady and impartial reason according to their true estimate and value and not as they are falsly and unskilfully represented by the specious flatteries of a deluded fancy and so those things or truths of which
which is the only Effectual and certainly productive principle of Godly Fervour and Zeal Such a zeal as no Predominancy of Lust or Evil Concupiscence from within no allurement of any Temptation from without can withdraw from its wistly intention and devout prospect upon that Glorious Object to which it is directed such a zeal as having burnt up all the tares and cockle of the fleshly Life is fruitful in pious and virtuous Resolutions and effectual for the bringing them to their intended Issue Now it being very rarely if ever seen that such extraordinary influences of the Divine Spirit are bestowed upon such as have no manner of preparation in their Hearts to Receive them and have not made some sincere at least though weak and ineffectual attempts towards the Conquest of themselves from hence it comes to pass that the whole Action resulting from the common Efficiency of humane Endeavours assisted by the Divine Spirit may in some Sense be attributed wholly to the first of these Causes as being the Causa sine quâ non as the Schools love to speak without which the other would not have exerted it self and the whole Action is acceptable to God on our behalf for the sake of that part of it which is owing to our selves or for the sake of those Virtuous dispositions of Mind to which the influences of Gods holy Spirit which are always carried forth in Streams of Love and Goodness towards the whole Creation have such an unalterable Congruity that they will never fail to be inseparably united to them nither will they ever forsake us till we have first deserted and forsaken our selves Besides that in those good Actions or those pious Inclinations of ours in which the Holy Spirit has the greatest share there may yet notwithstanding be more of our own then we are usually wont or then we ought with any thing of Arrogance or self Conceit to attribute to our selves for a man without this Assistance endeavouring to make a perfect Conquest of his inordinate Appetites and Desires would find them so unruly and ungovernable and Springing with such perpetual Fruitfulness one out of another that he would give over the Conflict out of meer Despair and yield himself tamely into an utter Vassalage and Captivity to them but when assisted by so potent Aydes this wonderfully Excites the natural Chearfulness and Vigor of his own Mind and he Exerts those Faculties and Powers which God has given him with more Alacrity and with better Success it being the same Case as if coming to lift a Burthen which is plainly too heavy and unwieldy for us we find a strange unwillingness so much as to attempt it but when encouraged by the assistance of another we then with Chearfulness apply our Hands and Shoulders to it and each man puts forth so much strength and Vigour as is almost sufficient to surmount the whole difficulty by its self and this is plainly the meaning of that Phrase which we Translate by helping our Infirmities The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it bears a part of the Burthen together with us Neither is it true only of Prayer to which this Text has a more immediate Relation that the Spirit of God helpeth our Infirmities in the performance of it but it is the same case in all other Duties of the Christian Life that these also in their utmost Beauty and perfection are owing to a Concurrence and Cooperation of the same Blessed Spirit as is very reasonable to believe from this that Prayer is only a means for the better attainment of that great End the regular and steady performance of all other Duties in order to Eternal Happiness By calling off the mind from Objects of a more gross and Earthly Nature and by engaging our thoughts in a pursuit after and insinuating them into a Communion with God it Creates in us those Calm Peaceable and quiet Dispositions which put us in the best Condition both to know our Duty and to practise it by a perpetual but humble importunity before the Foot-stool of his Mercy It calls down those Graces and Influences upon us whose design and Business is to guide us into all Truth and to encourage us in every good and Virtuous Undertaking and it is still further to be considered that the performance of our Duty its self is in the nature of a perpetual Prayer and carrys along with it a most powerful intercession on our behalf and therefore may Expect and will Receive the Encouragements of Divine Assistance upon the same Account upon which they are afforded to our very Prayers themselves Another way by which it comes to pass that the whole Action of a virtuous and good Man becomes well-pleasing and acceptable to God on his behalf though in its utmost Integrity and perfection it be owing to a concurrence of the Divine Spirit is from hence that his mind is not only in some degree of preparedness to receive those Blessed irradiations from above but that when he has received them he affords them a wellcome and suitable Entertainment he Improves and Thrives under the Influences of Grace he Warmes and Cherishes his Virtue by that Heavenly Fire and makes himself every day by an improvement of inward Purity and outward Cleanness a more agreeable receptacle for the Holy Ghost and he that does not quench and resist the Influences of the Spirit by slothful Negligence or willful Sin he that when it was in his power to obstruct and hinder it does on the contrary promote its Operations and conspire with it for the Accomplishment of the same Ends and Designs may not improperly be said to be the Author of those either good Actions or pious Thoughts or virtuous Intentions in which he has so great a share and which it was in his power utterly to have Obstructed And from hence it is that we are exhorted in Scripture to be Watchful and Diligent and Sober to be frequent in Prayer and Holy Meditation because these are natural means to preserve us in that temper of Mind which fits us best for the performance of our Duty and for the preserving an uninterrupted Intercourse and Communion with the Spirit of God Again it is to be observed that the Spirit helps the Infirmities of a good Man not only by Warming his Affections but by Enlightening his Understanding and so far as his Actions or his Inclinations depend only upon this latter Cause they are as properly his own as if no such illumination had been the case being the same as if in any matter of Difficulty or Moment in which I am not so throughly versed my self I should take the Advice of another more skilful than I am and if being convinced in my self of the reasonableness of that Course which he propounds to me I shall afterwards follow his Advice yet the Action is nevertheless mine for having done it by the direction of another for so soon
for what is past when they consider they could not help it and then being listed into such a Party where all take themselves to be of the Elect added to this other comfortable consideration that the Elect cannot possibly fall away from Grace This makes them look not only without remorse but with satisfaction and pleasure upon the enormities of their past life they will repeat them and chew them with a Gusto as I have seen many of this sort of People do as being the unavoidable consequences of the beastly and as I may call with a great deal of reason the unnatural state of nature But now they tell you their pardon is seal'd and they are sure 't is impossible for them to miscarry which is Milk and Honey without Money and without Price a Calvinistical Dispensation at once more cheap and more effectual then any his Holiness can afford at Rome which was thought for many years to have been the only staple of that profitable Trade for it is profitable to the cause of Calvinism and to the interest of a separation that might be justifyed upon other grounds though it be more effectually promoted by this and though the Pope indeed in point of ready money have perhaps the start of the Doctours of Geneva Which brings me to the fifth thing and that is that this Doctrine of Election on the one hand and of absolute rejection and reprobation on the other is apt to fill men with insolence and pride with an high opinion of themselves and with a contempt and hatred of others and so is at once a natural cause of separation and of an obstinate and inveterate continuance in it Whether the grounds of such separation be reasonable or no which as it did confirm and strengthen the separation from the Church of Rome a thing that was otherwise necessary to be done without fancying any such eternal decrees to make themselves proud and to breed an hatred and contempt of those from whom they separate for justifyable reasons so I reckon likewise that it is the great Pillar of the Schisme from our Church at this day which as it pretends to greater purity so it proceeds upon an opinion that the Separatists for it are the Elect of God while we from being peaceable and sincerely honest without terms of art â—or being good Subjects without any reserve and for being good Christians without censuring all as Reprobates that differ from us are sometimes pityed and at other times despised as unregenerate Wretches being yet in our sins and in the state of nature that is in such a state in which there is no salvation and in which there is no other prospect but of Eternal death and a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour the Adversaries This if it be examined will be found to be the general Ear-mark and Characteristique of the Separation and I am of opinion that there cannot be a better service done to the Church or to Mankind then by exposing such pernicious doctrines so injurious to God and so destructive to the peace and quiet of the world to that disgrace and infamy which they deserve But sixthly and lastly the last thing which I shall mention as having given occasion and encouragement to so dangerous a doctrine is the overheated zeal of St. Austine St. Jerome and others of that age against Pelagius who though it neither can nor must be denyed that he was much to blame that he attributed too much to the Powers of Nature and too little to the helps and Assistances of Grace yet it is equally certain that those who opposed him both in that age and afterwards went too far into the other extreme it must likewise be acknowledged to the credit of our Country in which he had his birth that he was a very wise as well as virtuous person and that for the clearness of his reason he had incomparably the advantage of all his adversaries put together and upon supposition that his last concessions were not extorted from him by the violence of his opposers but by the evidence of truth and by a more serious enquiry into the sense of Scripture and into the nature of things for our belief of these divine assistances is founded in both I should make no very great scruple to affirm that he was a tolerably Orthodox Divine And thus much shall suffice to have written upon this weighty Subject concerning Freedom and Necessity and concerning their several bounds borderings and interfering mixtures together with the genuine causes and effects of the one and of the other FINIS THE CONTENTS of the Two SERMONS THat those places wherein God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharoah are to be understood in their naked and Grammatical sense that is that God did really harden the heart of Pharaoh as the Scripture affirms him to have done Pag. 1 2 A short and true survey of the behaviour of the Aegyptians towards the children of Israel from their first entrance into the Land of Aegypt till their departure out of it and the drowning of the Aegyptians in the Red Sea from p. 2 to 7 From whence a true account is given of the reason why God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and it is likewise shewn that this hardening is not to â—e looked upon under the notion of a sin but of a punishment for former sins from p. 7. to 10 God cannot with justice condemn a man to everlasting torments merely because be did not or could not understand his duty p. 10 11 Part of the ninth Chapter to the Romans relating to this matter explained and the true extent of Gods dominion over his Creatures assigned from p. 11 to 22 The hardening of obstinate and inveterate sinners is so far from being any injustice that it seems absolutely necessary to the due administration of the divine justice in the government of the world from p. 22 to 25 There is nothing in it for which a Sinner can justly expostulate with God as having suffered any wrong because it is a thing perfectly of his own choosing from p. 25 to 27 It is the same thing in effect with the taking away Sinners by untimely deaths before they have made their peace with God by repentance which no man denies but God may justly do p. 27 28 In what sence God may be said to be the cause of obduration or hardness in a Sinner p. 28 29 A Parallel of the Story of Nebuchadnezzar with that of Pharaoh from p. 30 to 35 The same was the case of the Builders of Babel and in what sense their Language may be said to have been confounded p. 35 36 37 The same notion confirmed from Deut. 28. p. 37 To the same cause must we refer all those divine or Panick terrors infused into the minds of men by a supernatural way by which the Philistines the Midianites the Ammonites Moabites inhabitants of Mountseir Canaanites c. were
should let all Men loose to follow their own inclinations There is no savage beast that would be so precipitant ungovernable and outragious no river how swift and violent soever that can overflow it's Banks with a more rapid and impetuous stream In the elect God hath a way of curing these malignities which I shall explain hereafter but in the reprobate he only curbs and bridles their appetites and takes care that they may not break out so far forth as he sees it necessary to keep the world in some tollerable order and quiet which would be otherwise broken in pieces by interfering appetites and destructive inclinations Hence it is so that some are kept in aw by an inward sence of shame and others by a principle of fear that they dare not actually break forth into many sorts of wickedness though notwithstanding they cannot altogether hide the impurity of their nature there are others that have an opinion that virtue is for their interest and upon that principle they aspire after it after a sort and as well as they can and it is so ordered in others that they shall emerge above the common dregs of the people that by their authority they may keep them in order Thus God by his providence bridles and restrains the perversity of nature that it may not break out into act but he does not purge it and refine it by his Grace within S. 5. ib. He hath these words Quia peccati servitute vincta detinetur Voluntas ad bonum commovere te non potest nedum applicare that is because the will is kept bound under the slavery of sin she cannot so much as make the least attempt at any thing that is good and much less fix and fasten her self upon it And a little after in the same Section he produces a very lame distinction of St. Austin to make our actions wholly voluntary although they be wholly necessary at the same time his words are these De natuâ Grat. alibi Non dubitat Augustinus in hunc modum loqui de necessariâ peccati serviâ—ute Haec igitur distinctionis summa observetur hominem ut vitiatus est ex lapsu volentem quidem peccare non invitum nec coactum Affectione animi propensissimâ non violentâ coactione quâ tamen est naturae pravitate non posse nisi ad malum moveri agi That is St. Austin makes no scruple to speak after this manner concerning the necessary servitude of sin The true pinch of the controversie lies here Mankind as they are now in their degenerate and lapsed estate do commit sin willingly not by any external force or coaction with a most prone and ready propension of mind not by any violent compulsion but such is the pravity of their nature that they cannot of themselves be moved or incited toany thing but to what is evil But now I thought notwithstanding this dictinction that necessity whether it proceed from outward causes or whether it be bound up inwardly in the nature of the thing had been equally necessary in both cases and I see not how either sort of these necessities where they are so absolute and uncontroulable as Mr. Calvin supposes them to be can be consistent with Guilt So that here is â—ignum patellâ operculum a fine distinction finely brought a bed These Citations are I think of themselves abundantly sufficient to shew what opinion Mr. Calvin had of the necessity of humane actions and the pravity of humane nature and upon comparing these examples with what I have laid to his charge in the Apologetical Vindication I appeal to the most partial and prejudic'd of his Disciples whether I have misrepresented him or no or whether indeed it was possible for me to set him forth in worse colours than those in which he hath thought fit to Paint or to express it in words more proper to the occasion to daub and to besmear himself but because I have further charged him p. 222. with predestinating the fall of Adam himself by an express decree as well as all those miseries and calamities that were Hypothetically consequent upon it therefore I will here add some other very full Citations for the clearing of this point by which his former notions of the necessity and pravity of humane nature will be still further inculcated and confirmed Instit l. 3. c. 23. s 24. Rursum excipiunt nonne ad eam quae nunc pro damnationis causâ obtenditur corruptionem Dei ordinatione praedestinati antè fuerunt quum ergò in suâ corruptione pereunt nihil aliud quà m poenas luunt calamitatis in quam ipsius praedestinatione lapsus est Adam ac posteros suos praecipites secum traxit Annon itaque injustus qui creaturis suis tam crudeliter illud it fateor sanè in hanc quâ nunc illigati sunt conditionis miseriam Dei voluntate decidisse Filios Adam atque id est quod principio dicebam redeundum tandem semper esse ad solum Divinae voluntatis arbitrium cujus causa sit in ipso abscondita Sed non protinus sequitur huic obtrectationi Deum subjacere c. That is our adversaries do further object after this manner were not Mankind predestinated by the ordinance and appointment of God to that corruption which is now pleaded against them as the cause of their Damnation since they perish in and for their corruption what is this but to be punished for that calamity into which Adam fell by his express decree and drew his posterity headlong after him is he not therefore unjust that marks and playes upon his Creatures at so cruel a rate To which I answer that I confess indeed that the Sons of Adam have fallen into this miserable estate by the will and appointment of God and this is that which I said at first that when we have done all we must at last resolve it into the sole and only determination of the Divine will whose cause is unaccountable and hid within himself but it does not presently follow for all this that God is at all obnoxious to the imputation of injustice c. But I confess I see not how it can be avoided and if Mr. Calvin or any of his Disciples can shew me any humane means according to his principles how we shall bring him off then I will turn Calvinist the next moment and recant every thing publickly whatever I have said or written against so reasonable and so innocent a Doctrine Ib. S. 6. Sic ergo prophanae linguae obganniunt Cur ea vitio Deus imputaret hominibus quorum necessitatem sua praedestinatione imposuit Quid enim facerent an cum decretis ejus luctarentur An frustra id facturi sint quum omnia facere non possint Non ergo jure ob ea puniuntur quorum praecipua in Dei praedestinatione causa est Hîc abstinebo à defâ—nsione ad quam ferè scriptores Scholastici recurrunt non impedire Dei
evidently demonstrates a power either of yielding or resisting in him to whom it is offered but this power can never be conceived without a concession of freedom Again St. Paul tells his Corinthians Epist 1. c. 10. v. 13. There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Will he so will he enable us to bear it but how will he bring this good Effect to pass why he will do it partly by the natural Powers and Faculties which he has given us and partly by the blessed Influences of his merciful and good Spirit infused into our Hearts and strengthning the natural force and activity of our Minds But yet after all this we must make our escape our selves he will strengthen us with sufficient might in the inward Man whereby to repel the assault of any Temptation but yet he does not so strengthen us as to destroy that liberty by which we are still in a possibility of yielding and if there were not such a possibility then St. Paul instead of encouraging his Corinthians the more boldly and chearfully to encounter with temptations from this Consideration that they have such Assistances both natural and divine as cannot fail to make their warfare successful might have told them in short that they were now arrived to an impeccable Estate and that they need not trouble their heads any further with any idle apprehensions of the Devil or mistrusts of themselves with any scruples of Conscience from within or any fears of Danger from without for that they were now arrived at a degree of Perfection so high and yet so steady that it was impossible for them to fall away or to commit Sin any more and by this means he might have saved himself and them the needless trouble of a long Epistle Lastly when he tells them that no Temptation hath befaln them but such as is common unto Men it is as good as to say that all men who are not perfectly forsaken by God and hardened into a final impenitence for their former Sins though they are not assisted with those extraordinary influences of the divine Spirit which are peculiar to the Christian world yet they have still such helps both natural and divine as are at least sufficient to subdue any Temptation that can be offered and if they had not they could not be said so properly to be assaulted by a Temptation as compelled by necessity and irresistable fate But to what purpose does our blessed Lord command his Disciples and consequently us to Watch and Pray that we enter not into Temptation when if the Doctrine of Calvin and his Fellows be true that all humane actions are necessary and fatal and that they are predestinated from all Eternity to determine themselves to such and such Objects after such or such a manner in such and such periods of time then it signifies no more to Watch and Pray than to whistle against the Wind out of hopes to divert it into another Quarter We may as well sleep on and take our rest for any good we are like to do by Watching For at this rate all our Watching will be ineffectual all our Prayers to no end or purpose and all our Religion will be vain for the fatal Knots can neither be unti'd nor cut in sunder And whatever has been resolved in the utmost recesses of Eternity must come to pass in the predestinated intervals of time so that the best way for us when all is done will be to sit down passively consented under every thing that can befal us and sing the old Catch on Consort with one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But alas what do I speak of being contented for we can neither be satisfied nor displeased unless when the fit of necessity takes us It is now somewha◠more than sixteen hundred Years agoe since a very wise and a very witty man told the world ira furor brevis est anger is but a shorter kind of Madness but it seems the air of Rome is nothing so sharp and so judicious as that of Geneva and the Italians may cease hereafter to upbraid the Tramontani with want of understanding for had he known so much as the Religionists of our days and in these parts of the world he would have concluded that our whole life was nothing else but one continued frenzy wherein we always sail by the compass of Necessity and flow hither and thither without any Guidance and Conduct of our-selves by the Spring-Tide of uncontroulable fate he would have seen that our very thoughts are straitned and enlarged screw'd up and let down by the Eternal wheels and pulleys and that we speak like Puppets with Bay leaves in our Mouths to so little purpose is it that our Saviour exhorts us to Watch and Pray that we enter not into Temptation when we can do neither of our selves but when the necessity comes upon us we must do both whether we will or no. Duc me parens celsique dominator Poli Quocunque visum est nulla parendi mora est Assum impiger fac nolle comitabor gemens Malusque patiar quod Pati licuit bono But with your leave Cleanthes if the world be govern'd by such a Stoicall or Calvinisticall Fate there can be no such thing as good or Evil in it for Necessity admits of no such moral Distinction If all things come to pass because they cannot be otherwise than they are then he that Prays to God and he that Curses him are equally excused and it is true of the Rich and of all Men what Juvenal thought applicable only to the Poor Jurent licet samotheacum Et nostrorum aras contemnere fulmina pauper Creditur atque deos diis ignoscentibus ipsis For how can God with Justice blame us for stooping to those Laws of Fate which cannot possibly be resisted by us and by which he himself is govern'd For Eadem Necessitas deos irrevocabilis divina pariter atque humana cursus rehit alligat ille ipse omnium conditor ac rector siripsit quidem fata sed sequitur semel paret semper jussit said Seneca according to the opinion of the Stoick and I shall prove immediately that the Calvinists would be bound to defend the same opinion if it were capable as it is not of being defended It is a prodigious thing that an opinion not only so contrary to reason and to truth but to the usual Sentiments of those very men that defend it should ever find so much Countenance or protection among us For show me but one man the hottest Pedestinarian of them all who does not by most of the actions of his Life suppose and assert that freedom which in a fit of disputing he denies and I will yield
the Cause all his Prayers do either return into his own Bosome that is they signifie just nothing at all or else they flie in his Face and upbraid him with not giving Glory to God by an humble acknowledgment and a right use of that Freedom which those very Prayers do naturally suppose For to what purpose do we pray if all things are so unalterably predetermin'd that they cannot be reversed and if it be so that nothing can prevail with God to alter or to suspend his decrees or why in truth should he be moved more by our Prayers than by our Curses by the supplications of those who call themselves the Sanctifi'd and the Godly party than by the Blasphemies and Execrations of those who are not less wrongfully stiled the wicked and unregenerate part of the world when both of them with respect to us are equally Necessary and it is impossible for those that do these things to do otherwise than they do or is not this to vilifie and ridicuel if not perfectly destroy the Christian Life when at this rate the worst actions which we can commit are very excuseable things and our Duties are so far from having any rational expectation of acceptance at the hands of God that they are rather so many pregnant Instances of the Frailty and infirmity of our Natures overborn by the strength and power of those eternal Decrees which it is impossible to Conquer and against which without their own help we cannot strive But tell us that Prayers Almes-giving Good works a good Conversation and the like are means some way or other conducing by the divine appointment to the happiness of men to the procuring those blessings for which and to the averting those Judgments against which we pray that he that has predestin'd the end has also predetermin'd the means he that has resolv'd from all Eternity to be pleased with such a set number or company of Men has also appointed that they shall please him by his acceptance or his taking in good part such or such Actions which he has before hand determined they shall do or by his approbation of certain habits and dispositions of Mind which he has always resolv'd shall be iresistibly infus'd into them The English of all which is That they shall be happy without any reason at all if Men can be happy that never were â—ood or if Men can be good whose â—ctions are governed not by choice but by necessity and resistless fate But let us admit that he does predetermine the means as well as he does the end which it cannot be avoided but he must do in that Hypothesis which makes all things necessary what is the natural consequence of this but that when by the same eternal Decrees he reprobates so unequal a proportion of Mankind he does also by the same act of his Will necessitate them to the Commission of such Actions which he has resolved beforehand though they be necessary shall be displeasing to him and for which as if they had been voluntary he has decreed to condemn them to everlasting Torments or rather for no reason at all but what is founded in his own Arbitrary will and power there being no manner of natural Connexion betwixt necessity and punishment or reward But is it not a most astonishingly strange and surprizing thing that Men should be so obstinate against their own sense and experience and that they should perpetually deny what they can never help thinking to be true What is it for which we so much decry the Papists for asserting their bold and contradictious Doctrine of Transubstantiation Is it not for this reason that their opinion includes in it so flat a repugnancy to their own senses That it is so full of absurdities and contradictions that let them pretend what they please they can never heartily believe it themselves Neither can any Man indeed be said properly to believe such Propositions as have no ground of credibility in them but on the contrary are big with Arguments against the belief of themselves And is not this reason every whit as good against those who subject all humane actions to an unalterable fate For every Man let him say what he pleases in a fit of Disputation yet he does naturally seem to himself to be free and unrestrain'd in most of the actions of his life neither can there be any better Argument of that freedom which he denies than that he finds himself indu'd with a power of affirming or denying so contrary to the natural sentiments of his own mind and understanding One Man he looks upon himself to be wise another just a third merciful and good a fourth he is temperate chast and sober and upon account of these several Accomplishments they all put a proportionable value upon themselves and do at the same time despise or hate their Neighbours if they find them destitute of the same virtuous dispositions and qualifications of Mind and all this they do upon a supposition of freedom otherwise necessity makes all things equal they would have no reason to pride themselves in doing what they could not avoid It would be the greatest nonsense in the world when Fate and Mechanism are perfect Strangers either to praise or to disgrace for any Man to value himself or to despise and much more hate another And as Pride without a supposition of Liberty is a most ridiculous Passion a Passion that deserves more contempt than it bestows upon others so is Anger too unless we admit a liberty in that thing or person which is the object of our anger whereby it might have behav'd it self otherwise than it has but to be angry with things that are acted by necessity is the anger of Dogs that bark at the Moon it is what Solomon calls the Anger of Fools and such may be angry if they please with the Wind for blowing too rudely in their faces or with the Dust for annoying them in a Summer's day Sometimes it is a Man's unhappiness to commit a grievous fault or rather according to this Hypothesis to be fallen into a grievous misfortune for which some are angry others are sorry and some endeavour to make him better for the future by giving him good and wholsom advice and by shewing him the folly or wickedness of what is past and these last no question look upon themselves as very friendly and charitable Men which it is manifest they cannot do but upon supposition that they might have done otherwise if they had pleased for Fate admits of no such thing as Charity Friendship Wisdom or Virtue but it is the same necessity neither commendable nor blame-worthy in any which displays it self by different effects in them all which makes one of them commit such an action another censure a third pity it and a fourth apply himself to remedy the like inconvenience for the future by his fruitless advice and counsel which can never hope to stand in competition with the