exigence which desires it and to unite it self to it All these do infallibly evidence the Goodness of the First Being communicated to the second Being for who put into the Creature a Motion or desire to unite it self to that which might supply its want who framed a proportionable Good to that Vacuity and desire who placed that Activity in any thing to let out and unite that Goodness that is in it to that desire and Vacuity the very warmth of our Cloaths the nutriment of our bodies do bespeak an Infinite Rational Communicative Goodness that defined these correspondencies and hath taught the creatures those mutual motions for their own and each others Good while they themselves know not what or why they do it 7. From the former considerations it follows most evidently that he is most Just and that it is impossible he can be otherwise and this as it necessarily results from the admission of his Goodness for Justice is nothing else but Goodness in a rational Being indued with Will so it flows from this consideration that he is the First Cause of all things Nothing can be said Vnjust which is not contrary to the prohibition of some Law given by something that can exact obedience to it Nothing can give the First Being a Law or Rule but his own will and consequently he can do nothing but what is most Just because it is impossible that any thing else can be a Rule of Justice but himself not any thing without him for then he were not the First Being not his creature for over that he hath a most supream and absolute dominion How can that which receives his being his subsistence his rules of Justice from the First Being prescribe a rule to him by whom it is or exact the performance of it So that nothing can be the rule of Justice to him but his own will and therefore what he wills cannot be but Just because he wills it and as it is impossible for him to act but what he wills so it is impossible for him to will but what is Just because his will is the only rule of his Justice and though ex natura rei he might have willed what he doth not will yet that which he had so willed had been just yet de facto the act of his will being Eternal and immutable it is impossible any unjust thing should be done by him because impossible he should do contrary to his own will which is the only measure and rule of Justice And from this we may clearly evidence 1. That there is a most absolute unlimited Dominion and Power in the First Cause over its Effects and he is bound unto it by no other obligation but his own Will which though it doth manifest it self in all Mercy and Tenderness and Goodness and Wisdom towards it yet it is only because it is his Good will so to do 2. That therefore whatsoever Rule or Law the First Cause doth prescribe to his creature that is capable of a Law it ought unquestionably to be submitted unto for what soever he wills must needs be just inasmuch as there is no measure of Justice or Injustice but his will although we are not to look upon any thing required by the First Cause but flowing from a most Wise as well as a most absolute Will and so holding a proportion with the ability of that creature from whom it is required 3. From hence we find where is the Original of all Justice in the World it must all be resolved into that will of the First Cause and that in a double respect 1. In respect of Conformity for were there no precise Law given to rational creatures it is true there could be no Obligation yet a Conformity in the actions of rational creatures to the similar actions of the First Cause towards his Creature would be Comely and Just in a rational Creature and questionless as the irrational Creatures have certain Instincts planted in them by their first creation which though they are not properly Laws but Inclinations to Man as he came out of the hands of his Maker with the impression of his Image upon him had some conformity to the supream Justice without any reference to any Command which is not clean lost but even in Men without education doth strangely manifest it self in divers particulars 2 In respect of Obligation for there can be nothing imaginably Unjust without these two considerations viz. 1. A Law commanding or forbidding a thing under a pain whatsoever falls not within the command or Prohibition is permitted and cannot be unjust 2. A Power to exact an Obedience to that Law and to inflict the punishment that follows upon the breach of this Law. Otherwise the Law were ridiculous and vain Now as to the first without all question the First Cause in the first creation of reasonable creatures did by what way we know not give him a Law whereby he should live and which he traduced to his posterity as the Commands of the First Cause though in succession of time those grew weaker and corrupter every day than other These are those Jura Naturalia which have an influence into all the Laws of Men as to worship God to keep our Promises c. and when we come so far as to be perswaded that they are the Laws of God then it binds in a fear to offend because thereby we become liable to punishment which we are sure he hath Power and Right to inflict his Power being universal and unavoidable and his Right and Dominion over his creature absolute and uncontrolable Thus we find a plain Obligation in those Laws that are given by the First Cause and consequently admitting such a Law we have a clear Rule whereby to measure what 's Just and what 's Unjust and when I can resolve any thing into the Command or Prohibition of this Law I find my self bound in Conscience viz. under pain of Guilt to obey If I enter into a society and agree to be bound by the Laws that the greater number of that Society makes they make a Law here be now but two things that can bind me to observe this Law and consequently to denominate my disobedience thereunto Unjustice viz. The Power of the Society but that is but a thing extrinsecal I may avoid their power and then I am absolved and if external power were enough to denominate my disobedience Unjustice then if I could procure a power to overmatch theirs their obedience to their own Law were injustice The Promise and agreement to submit to that Law so made but what is that that binds me to keep my promise if nothing binds me to it then is not my disobedience any Unjustice for the obligation of the Law is resolved into my agreement and if nothing above me bind me to keep my agreement I have no obligation at all upon me therefore the Dominion Power and Justice of the First Cause is the only Bond
though all Good be the Object of the Will in its Latitude yet the Will fastens particularly upon that Good which by the Understanding is presented to be his Chiefest Good and in order to the Union unto this Good is the Motion of the Will and subservient to this Motion are the several Passions and Affections of the Soul which are but the impressions of the actions of the Will upon the Blood and Spirits whereby the Will exciteth and produceth those external actions in the body which tend to the execution of its commands and therefore I omit them Upon what hath been said may appear wherein lies the immediate Cause of Man's miscarriage to his Supream End It lies in the Defects of his Understanding and his Will. 1. For his Vnderstanding If this hath either no Light or a false Light the Will is misguided The Soul of Man will be moving to some thing or other under the notion of Good this sets the Understanding a work which if not rightly Principled takes up that for his Good which either the temper and constitution of the body and fleshly appetite or the present opportunity suggests and affects and puts the intention of the Will upon it as Pleasures or Profits or Honours or empty Speculations and yet in the pursuit of these a Man that hath almost any Intellectuals though it may be he arrive not to the true and positive Knowledge of what is his Supream End most commonly finds that this is not and though sometimes he knows not why yet he is sick and weary of them as unsatisfying and deceiving things wheraas the true cause is that disproportion they bear to the nature of the Soul and are not that End to which it is ordained and would move if it knew it and how to attain it Again though the Understanding doth sometimes find that these are not the things will make me happy but I spy the true and Everlasting Happiness yet the Conviction is not so strong and evident that it dares conclude the pursuit thereof to be preferred before the present Enjoyment of those delights which we are sure of and from hence it comes to pass that the competition of these present Enjoyments will soon starve and famish these uncompleat Convictions and all pursuits in the Will of them These and the like defects happen in the Understanding 2. In the Will which hath lost her Liberty to follow her Light and is captivated by the Sensual Appetite The Understanding being rightly inlightned presents to the Will several Ends the Subordinate Ends Preservation of the Compositum by Meat and Drink acquisition of Wealth to provide these Conveniences obtaining of Power to secure that Wealth the Supream End Blessedness and that wherein it consists shews the Will that the Value of these Ends must be the measure of her pursuit of them viz. with subordination to the Supream End in order to it and bids her beware of turning the Subordinate Ends to Ultimate Ends But the Sensual Appetite either before the Counsel of the Understanding hath precipitated the Will into a violent pursuit of those present and sensible Goods or so bewitched her after in the enjoyment thereof that it can no more listen to the entertainment of the pursuit of a future Spiritual Good than if it had no Reason the Beast in Man hath got the Man upon his Back and runs away with him contrary to the cries and dictates even of Reason that should rule it And of these and the like defects all Mankind is sick both in his Understanding and Will and cured we must be before we can clearly and uniformly move to our Supream End which what it is as the next Inquiry CHAP. IV. Of the Supream End of Man. WHAT is that Good for the Sons of Men as it was the greatest Inquiry of the Wisest of Men so it is that Problem that hath tortured the Wits and wearied the pursuits of most of the Children of Men that have been in the World. The universality of the question grows from that restless motion in the Soul of Man after some End which puts every Man at last upon the prosecution of somewhat as his End though it may be not upon the speculative and critical inquiry concerning it As the ordinary rational faculty of the Soul teacheth a Man to conclude rationally though he have not that artificial Reason of Reason which is acquired by speculation and study And as this is the cause that puts many upon the Inquiry and all upon the Prosecution of some End so the difficulty of the Decision doth produce that variety of Judgements and Practice concerning this which are impossible all to be sound and true but possibly they may be all false in as much as there can be but one Supream Good and adequate End of Man which is his Happiness And from hence it is that amongst the several determinations of Men concerning this matter each do abundantly convince the other to be errors and mistakes and though none do sufficiently satisfie and convince a Man that it is the right yet doth abundantly satisfie that the adverse Opinion is mistaken concerning this Point because the Truth is but one the rest are all Errors and though some carry more likelihood of Reason than others yet it carries so much distance from Truth that it is discernable not to be the Truth and the mistake is not only evident to Reason but even to Sense it self That Man that would go about to perswade me that Happiness consists in Corporal Pleasures outward good of Body or Fortune Wealth or Honours Knowledge of all created Beings practice of Moral Virtues c. I need no other conviction of the falsity of these but this That in the midst of any or all of these I still find those affections in my Soul that cannot consist with Happiness but mingles Misery with this thin and empty Happiness 1. Desire of somewhat more or somewhat else which I have not which ariseth not from the Goodness of what I enjoy but from the Emptiness and Narrowness of it 2. Consequently Grief for what I want and have not 3. Fear of Loss of what I have And never any Man in this World in all the Enjoyments he ever had or was capable of except that which we now intend to speak of but in the midst of all had these three Affections about him actually working which can never consist with Happiness Now the general Grounds of these mistakes in the practice of Men is 1. The Error of their Judgment 2. The Impetus or force of the Sensual Appetite which precipitates and captivates their Judgment The Speculative Error ariseth from Ignorance 1. Of the Subject Man for let it be but once granted that the Soul of Man is an Intellectual Immortal Substance all those Opinions which place Happiness in this Life will be convinced clearly false and vain But though the Knowledge of this be sufficient to tell me what is not my
of his Attributes by the same Essence he is and he is what he is they are divided notions in us but in him neither divided from his being nor one from another And hence it likewise follows that though the emanant Actions that flow from this First Cause are different and represented unto us under different Notions as this is an act of Power this of Goodness this of Knowledge or Wisdom and upon these we frame notions to our selves whereby we represent that from whence these acts move by several Names or Attributes of Mercy Power Wisdom yet these proceed not in truth from several Qualities in the First Cause but from one simple absolute unqualified Being V. From this consideration that he is the First Cause and Being it follows that he is Ens Perfectissimum For that is Perfect to which nothing is wanting Now it is impossible that any thing can be wanting to the First Cause for there can be nothing besides him but what proceeds from him and that which proceeds from him cannot possibly either add any further degree of Perfection to him or include that Perfection which was not in the First Cause most eminently The First Cause had a pre-existence to all things else nothing then could be wanting to his Perfection because there was nothing else but himself The production of the Second Causes could not possibly include any greater Perfection than what was derived to them It is true in the working of Second Causes there may be a production of an Effect that may be more perfect in its kind than the Cause that immediately produced it as the production of a Worm out of putrefaction a Plant out of the Earth c. but there the Effect is not purely due to the Second Cause but to the Original Operation of the First Cause that did put that activity in the Second Causes to produce such Effects for every Second Cause worketh and moveth in the virtue and efficacy of the First Cause and hath its causality from it as well as its being without which though it had its being it is impossible it should be operative This Perfection in the First Cause is in truth inconceptible because impossible for humane Understanding to receive it without Divine Revelation and much more impossible to comprehend it because Infinite Therefore to help our selves herein we do and that rationally attribute to the First Being that manner of Being that we find most Perfect Therefore from this Perfection it follows 1. That the First Cause is a most pure Act without any mixture of Passibility or Power for if there were any Power as it signifies a susceptibility of some further act or impression that were an Imperfection for whatsoever is susceptible of some further act as all Power is it is impossible it should be perfect And from hence follows his Omnipotence for all inability to do any thing proceeds from the want of activity in the agent to overcome that resistance that it finds in the thing to be done Now in the First Cause there wants no activity for it is a most pure Act and were it not a most pure and Infinite Act it were impossible it should be the First Cause because that supposeth a priority of being in the Cause to the Effect and consequently requires an Infinite Activity in the First Cause because it must produce that which before was not at all and the motion between being and simply not being is infinite and therefore requires an infinite activity 2. From the consideration of this Perfection it follows that this First Being is a Substantial Act not an act that flows from another thing or depends upon another thing for then he could not be Ens Primum nor yet Ens Perfectissimum but it is an Act subsisting by it self 3. From this consideration of this Perfection it follows that he is Ens Vivens Life adds a degree of Perfection to the substance in which it is and the more Perfect the Life is the more perfect the Being hence the Sensitive Life is perfecter than the Vegetative and the Rational Life than the Sensitive and the Life of a Spirit than the Life of a Body Now this First Cause being an Infinite and Pure Act he hath an infinite perfect Life 4. From hence it follows that he is an Intellectual Being and as all his Works bespeak him so so doth this consideration of his Perfection necessarily evidence it for otherwise he should not be Perfect because an Intellectual Being is a more Perfect Being than that which is not so And this Understanding of the First Cause is commensurate to his Essence viz. Infinite and Eternal whereby he perfectly seeth himself and all things else that are or can be in one Eternal Indivisible act And from hence riseth the Omniscience of the First Cause without which he could not be Perfect for if any thing that is or might be were hid from him then by the discovery of that to him he would receive a degree of Perfection that he had not before And this Knowledge hath a threefold Object 1. His own Essence which requires an Infinite Knowledge to comprehend it because an Infinite Essence 2. All things that are for his Knowledge being Infinite it must necessarily extend to all other things 3. All things that may be because otherwise upon a further act of his Power that should be a new extension of his Knowledge which stands not with his Perfection And all this with one Eternal Indivisible act not by Succession not by mediate representation Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me 5. From hence it follows that he is Ens Liberrimum though he be most necessarily what he is yet he is free first for that the Freedom in agency is a degree of Perfection above a necessary agent and therefore this Liberty must of necessity be attributed to the First Cause Again it is impossible but that the First Cause must be a Free Agent for whatsoever works necessarily hath that necessity put upon it by somewhat without it which is inconsistent with the First Cause for if any thing else did put that necessity of working in him then that which imposeth that necessity was the First Cause Again every Necessary Agent omnibus aequè dispositis works uniformly now nothing was as equally disposed to become something from Eternity as at the first production of any thing the motion from not being to a being being the adequate effect of the First Cause therefore if there were not a Freedom in the First Cause the first Effect had been as ancient as the First Being Therefore we must necessarily affirm concerning the First Being that he is Ens Liberrimum Voluntarium and that according to his Will he worketh 6. From hence it follows that he is Ens summè Bonum Concerning this Goodness of God we affirm 1. That it is an Essential Goodness and his Goodness is not any thing divided from his Essence for that is
compass them yet a wise Statesman according to the convenience or exigence of the Publick can manage and order this Ambition and the Satisfaction thereof unto a higher End which the other never so much as dream'd of As we therefore divide all Beings and Causes into First and Second so we distinguish all Ends into the Ends of the First Cause and of Second Causes Touching the End of the First Cause we say it is twofold 1. That which is the End in respect of himself This is nothing but the Satisfaction of his own Will. As we must resolve the being of all things into the Will of the First Cause in point of Efficiency so in this respect we must resolve all things into that same Will in point of Finality and this is the most adequate and Ultimate resolution of all things they are because he wills them to be For the First Cause being absolutely and infinitely Perfect and Good cannot originally be moved by any thing without him that would import a Passibility viz. to be moved and impulsed to any thing by any thing without him and an Imperfection which might be supplyed by the acquisition of that End for which he works both these are necessarily to be admitted in any case where any End extrinsecal to the Efficient it self is admitted for 1. the End hath an impulsion or action upon the efficient and 2. it necessarily supposes a vacuity or emptiness quoad hoc which shall be supplied with that End acquired be it an End of Supplement or Delight Neither of these are possibly to be admitted in the First who is an Infinite Good commensurate to the Infinite measure of his own Will. The Final Cause then of all things is He wills because He wills His Glory is a consequence of his Work in the Work not the ultimate End of his Work because nothing that he made can contribute ought to his Glory or Happiness 2. In respect of the thing produced the ordination of every particular thing to its particular End either in order to it self or to some thing else or both the Intermediate Ends of all things being different according to their several natures and the several dispensations of the Divine will. That this may be so is evident upon the consideration of that Infiniteness of Wisdom Power and Presence of the First Cause which before is considered and that it must be so is likewise evident upon the consideration before expressed viz. that the Will of the First Cause is the Cause of all beings and operations in the World Nothing can be unless he wills it to be and this will must needs be extended to every individual thing and motion in the World for as well as any might evade the determination of his will all things might There be three degrees of things Natural Contingent and Voluntary Now the Means of carrying things merely Natural to their several Ends ordinarily is that Rule and Order which he hath set in things Natural and those Propensions and Inclinations which are planted in things to the observance of that Law. Now this hath a threefold reference to the First Cause 1. Of Position or giving for it is not imaginable that this Rule was taken up by the things themselves the Law of Nature and the Frame order and Course of thing according to that Law doth most necessarily conclude a Lawgiver and although the motion of the Law or Rule of Nature is for the most part uniform yet it doth in no sort follow that therefore it moved not from a voluntary Agent But though it infinitely speaks his Wisdom that did so foresee and order all things that one uniform Law or Rule should serve without any alteration for a change of a Rule imports Imperfection in the Rule and a want of foresight in him that makes it of those emergencies that induce such an alteration Now in as much as nothing could be but it was first in the Will of the First Cause and consequently in his Knowledg all those Propensions Rules and Orders of Nature which he hath put into things are exactly subservient to those purposes and consequently to the effects produced by it 2. Of Concurrence with it all things depending upon the First Cause as well in the support as in the Original of its subsistence 3. Of Subordination to it Hence it is that extraordinarily the Ordinary Rule of Nature is intermitted for though the most exact uniform Rule unalterable in the least point may nevertheless proceed from a Free Agent because the uniformity of the Rule proceeds not from it self but because the First Cause wills it to be so and yet hath exactly fitted it to the bringing about his Ends yet because Mankind is apt to mistake sometimes there is an intermission or interruption of that Course of Nature this Subordination likewise appears by the Direction and forming of it to special purposes wherein whiles the Second Cause moves according to the Rule of Nature that is set in it yet by the Concatenation and Conjuncture of other things which happily moved naturally thither some strange effect is produced beyond the reach of that Natural Agent as when an Artificer by conjuncture of several things together makes use of the natural motion of the Lead poise to work a circular or other strange motion in a Clock or Engine Now the Law or Rule of Nature as in divers other particulars so in these it most evidently sheweth it self to be nothing else but the Course that the great Master of the World hath put in things 1. Those Propensions that are in things for their own Preservation and Protection Hence those motions of Inanimate things as it were to their several homes and stations appointed by the First Cause Multiplication of their kinds Specifical Inclinations incident to a whole kind 2. The Subserviency of one thing to the use and exigence of another wherein for the most part the more Imperfect is still subservient to the more Perfect and all to Man. 3. The Disposition of things in those places and ranks as may be most usefull and as may best prevent that disorder and confusion which contrary qualities would produce as appears in the Elements in hurtful creatures 4. The Subordination of the particular Inclinations and Dispositions of any particular to the prevention of that which is contrary to the Law of the universe 5. The admirable Concurrence of things indued with contrary qualities and destructive each to other in tâ—â—â—onstitution of mixt bodies shewing a hand that tempers and overrules them in their operations and causalities 2. Contingent Effects In reality there is nothing in the World Contingent because every thing that hath bin is or shall be is praedetermined by an Immutable Will of the First Being But we therefore call a thing Contingent because either we find no constant Rule or determination of the immediate cause to the production of the effect or an effect resulting out of the conjunction of
without any actual Causality upon the things These though they are not so much as accidentally differing in God yet in our Apprehensions there is a difference so that we conclude there is not only a Prescience in God of all things that shall or may be Known unto the Lord are all his Works from the beginning but likewise a Predetermination by his Divine Will of all things that shall be and of the several means conducing to it And this Counsel of God is in truth the supream Cause of all things for as that Power whereby all things do move themselves or other things is put into them by the great maker of all things by the mere and immediate act of his Will as hath been before observed so the managing of all these several Powers to the production of the several things in the World is the act of the same Will of God they move in their several Series according to that Counsel of the great God of Heaven Now this Counsel of God is represented to us in the Scripture under these several qualifications 1. An Eternal Counsel 2. An Immutable Counsel 3. A Free Counsel 4. A Wise Counsel 5. An Active and Irresistible Counsel 6. An Universal Counsel 1. It is an Eternal Counsel a Purpose and Counsel before the Foundation of the World the indivisible and unsuccessive act of his Will. It is true the Counsels of Men as their Conceptions are successive one consideration supplying the defect or imperfection of the former and oftentimes the Counsels of Men are taken up pro re nata principally because they have not either the power to manage all the Emergencies and Ingredients into an Action according to their own Wills nor to foresee those Accidents that might enervate or impede the fruit of his Counsels but the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore as nothing can have a Being without his Will so nothing can impede or hinder the Counsel of his Will. 2. From hence it follows that it is an Immutable Counsel otherwise it cannot be Eternal for what began to be otherwise than it was before cannot be Eternal The Change of Counsels and Purposes among Men arise from one of these Causes either from an intrinsecal Unsetledness and Unconstancy which is their imperfection or from some extrinsecal Emergency which either was not forâ—seen or cannot be mastered but neither of these can fall upon God. It is true what he wills he wills freely and therefore ex natura rei he might not have willed it yet what he wills he wills from all Eternity with him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning I the Lord change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed And as there is no ground of change in himself so neither is there any possibility of change from any thing without him because the same Act of his Will which is his Counsel is the cause and measure of the being of all things and therefore it can no more hinder or alter his Counsel than it can give it self a Being against his Will. But because there be some things that owe not their Formality to the Counsel of God as Sin which how far it falls within the Counsels of God shall be hereafter considered yet that cannot any way elude the Counsel of God as shall be hereafter shewn Therefore those several passages in holy Scripture that tell us that God repented of Evil when Man repented of Sin Joel 2.14 Jonah 3.4 are not to be understood of the Nature or Counsels of God for in that respect Balaam spoke a Truth of God Numb 23.19 God is not a Man that he should lye nor the Son of Man that he should repent For the same Counsel of God which appointed Jonah to be the Instrument of Nineveh's Repentance ordained likewise their turning upon that preaching and ordered the diversion of that Judgment which the same Counsel had ordered to be imminent but not executed But because there was the execution of such a real change which in Man is ordinarily the effect of a change of purpose or repenting therefore it is called a Repenting yet the very same Counsel that appointed the denunciation of an imminent Judgment appointed their repenting upon that denunciation and that diversion upon that repenting 3. It is a Free Counsel it is nothing else but the act of the Will of God. It is true the determination of that Will imposeth a necessity of the existence of the thing willed yet the determination it self was an act of the freest Agents This excludeth any Stoical Necessity 4. It is a most Wise Counsel And this is evident even in the lowest and most inconsiderable execution of this Counsel and therefore Isa 28.29 the dispensation of this Counsel of God even in the sowing and threshing of Fitches concludes this also cometh forth from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working This Wisdom is eminent in this 1. In that it doth not only predetermine the End or Event but likewise all those Means that are conducible to the bringing to pass of this End. It is true God by an act of his Power might and sometimes doth per saltum bring to pass his own Purpose by his own immediate Power but this is not the ordinary course of the execution of his Counsel but produceth the End Decreed by Decreed Means Acts 27. Paul's dangerous Voyage is predetermined to end in a safe Arrival Verse 24. Yet Verse 31. Except these Men abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved This Perswasion of Paul's becomes prevalent and they stay The Counsel of God that determined the Ship 's safe arrival predetermined the stay of the Men in the Ship to be the means of that safety and the perswasion of Paul to be the means of their stay Here is the Link of God's Counsel coupling the Event to his Purpose with subordinate and purposed Means When I see a Counsel of God discovered that had not its compleat Execution in many hundreds of years after and observe how many thousands of strange connexions of Accidents do intervene between the Counsel discovered and the Execution of it although till the execution the event seems as unlegible as any thing in the World nay oftentimes these Antecedents that seem most probable of any to the producing of the expected Event with a contrary wind quite driven off and blasted yet when after all these several Meanders of Successes I see the Effect come to pass even by most improbable and accidental Means I must needs acknowledge this seeming Confusion is methodically managed by the same Counsel that predetermined the End I must conclude as the Wise Man doth in another case Eccles 7.14 God hath set the one over against the other to the End that Man should find nothing after him Let us consider it in the great Business of our Redemption by Christ God in his Eternal Counsel had appointed Man to be partaker of
his Glory by the death of Christ who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Man is created in a glorious happy free Estate he hath a Covenant made with him which he may keep or break at his own liberty he is left in his own hands and not necessitated to break that Covenant which he but even now made with his Maker if he had done so the sending of Christ had been needless Man falls now is Christ promised Gen. 3.15 and after confined to the Line of Abraham Gen. 18.18 and after to the Line of David See what a World of Interventions of Accidents and Success interposed between the Promise and the Event the Birth of Christ any one whereof if it had miscarried had disappointed the whole Success When he was born what strange Events happen for the fulfilling of all the Prophecies concerning him So in the fulfilling of the Prophecy made to Abraham that after four hundred years bondage his Posterity should enjoy the Land of Canaan Gen. 15. ver 13 18. What a world of strange Interpositions were there conducing to the fulfilling of it between that and Exod. 12.40 and Joshua 18.1 The Births of Isaac Jacob and the Patriarchs the Dream of Joseph that caus'd envy against him and that very Envy conducing to the fulfilling of his Dream he is sold to the Ishmaelites by them to the Egyptians he is injured and imprisoned Pharaoh's Butler is imprisoned in the same Prison and then dreams this interpreted by Joseph the Butler delivered Pharaoh dreams Joseph is mentioned and interprets it is advanced furnisheth Egypt to be the Magazine of Africa the Famine pincheth Jacob's Family this lead his Sons to Egypt Joseph is discovered Jacob sent for he and his Family sixty six Persons go down into Egypt What a Circle is here of the Divine Counsel managing these seeming Casualties to fulfill that part of the Prophecy to Abraham That his Seed should be Strangers in a Land that was not theirs Well for their Deliverance from thence they must be oppressed that 's not enough the Males must be killed had not this been Moses had not been exposed Pharaoh's Daughter must come just to prevent his drowning and to give the opportunity of a learned Education this was the Instrument of their Deliverance The like we might pursue in the following Passages wherein we may see the Wise God by his Wise Counsel marshalling the Means fitting them most admirably with Circumstances and strange Conjunctures for the fulfilling of his purposed Ends. And herein is the Excellency of the Scripture that shews us a Hand ordering and disposing by a most Wise Counsel these seeming tumultuary and disorderly Passages in the World to most admirable and fixed Ends. This is the first thing wherein the Wisdom of this Counsel of God is seen in chaining all things one to another by the very same purpose whereby he determined the End. 2. That in the disposing of Means and Ends every thing notwithstanding moves according to that Law that he hath given to its particular Being We usually distinguish the actions or successes of things within our observation into three Ranks or Ranges viz. Necessary Voluntary Contingent 1. Necessary Effects are such as their Causes being admitted have a necessary conjunction therewith or consequence thereupon according to the usual course of Nature Such are the Consequences that rise upon the motions of the Heavens as the positions of the Planets the Consequents that arise upon the contiguity or conjunction of the Elements and divers such things that hold a constant course in Nature These although the great God may and sometimes doth interrupt by the extraordinary acts of his Power and to shew his Freedom yet most admirably he doth not hinder but useth them to the production of his own most sure Counsels And this evidenceth the Infinite Wisdom of the great God that hath so admirably framed his Works and his Counsels that while the former move uniformly according to that prescript Rule and Law which the God of Nature hath put into them yet the latter shall not be interrupted but effected by them though they know it not nor mean it not As when we see in a curious Watch the uniform motion of the Spring serving to produce several artificial motions as of the hour of the Day the day of the Month the age of the Moon and the like we commend the Wisdom of the Artist that hath so tempered the Spring that by one uniform motion it may be useful for all these and hath likewise so directed and managed this natural motion of the Spring to serve exactly those different intellectual motions and do conclude that the contrivance of this piece of Work was all at one time otherwise it were impossible that every part should hold that order So when we see the natural motiâ—ns of the Creatures conducing to the production of those rational Ends which God hath appointed we may justly admire the Wisdom of God that while he intends a Purpose above the conception or drift of a natural Agent he bringeth it about without the violation of the Rules or Laws which he hath appointed to be constant in Nature and may most justly conclude That the Law of Necessity in the natural Agents is but the Effect of that â—â—ry Counsel that hath predetermined his own Purpâ—â—â—s by them and that they are all of a piece all laid at the same time And from thence grows the subservience of the natural Agent in the most rigid Law and Rule of his Operation unto the free Counsels of the great God that doth most sweetly and infallibly â—ffect the latter without the violation of that Rule which he hath given to the former And hence it is that those Effects which are produced naturally by natural Causes we do and may call Natural and Necessary and yet it excludes not the Counsel of the Divine Will in the production of it for it is the same Counsel that hath made this necessary connexion between the Cause and the Effect that did predetermine the Effect to be produced Here then is conspicuous the Wisdom of God that while his Creatures in whom he hath placed an uniform Course of Working fulfil his Will yet they keep their Law of Unformity and Necessity 2. Voluntary And this is admirable that whiles Voluntary Agents do most necessarily fulfil the Counsel of God yet they do it without the least diminution of their Freedom The Jews did most freely crucifie Christ yet it was by the predeterminate Counsel of God Pharaoh did most freely refuse to let Israel go yet Almighty God tells him for this purpose had he raised him up to shew his Power upon him Exod. 9.16 And from hence we may observe the reason why Almighty God in all times hath used rational ways for the reducing of Men to the Obedience of his Will not but that he could if he pleased force the Wills of all Mankind to what Dispositions or Actions
that most rational and clear Doctrine of our Saviour 2. The thing denominating that action sinful it is the Obliquity of the act of the Will for the last act of the Will which preceeded the action is the Sin and the action divided from that act of the Willing is not nor can be sinful It is therefore called a sinful action because it is the fruit or expression of an act of the Will moving contrary to this Law of God. And by this it is evident that the Sin is not inherent in the external action produced by the Will but in the Will it self and that the Sin hath a pre-existence such as it is in the Consent of the Will before the action is produced And according to the measure of the freeness and fulness of that Consent is the measure of the Sin and not according to the action though it be regularly true that that consent of the Will that is strongest produceth most ordinarily an action Hence it is that an action contrary to the Command of God produced either through Incogitancy Fear Surprize Passion is not so great a sin as a deliberate studied resolved Sin though in truth it be not produced into act by reason of some extrinsecal impediment because there is a fuller Consent of the Will in the latter than in the former These things being premised we may conclude 1. God's Counsel doth not predetermine the Will to any evil for although it is true the Obligation of a Law is the necessary Antecedent of every Sin and it is impossible that the Laws which God gives to man do bind the Law-giver yet this is inconsistent with his Purity Truth and Justice Inconsistent with his Purity for certainly there is an intrinsecal Justice and Holiness in the Law of God whereof he cannot cause the Violation Inconsistent with his Truth the Will of his Counsel never crosseth the Will of his Command Inconsistent with his Justice to require an Obedience to that Law whereof he doth necessitate the breach And in this case predeterminating the Action by way of necessitating the Will and to predetermine the Obliquity differs little 2. Much less doth he infuse Obliquity or Evil into the Will to serve the Series of his Counsels But then it seems the Evil Actions of Men are out of the Counsel of God or God must take up new Counsels upon the Vision or at least Prevision of the actions of Men. No But here we must remember what hath been before premised that here is seen the great Justice and Wisdom of this Counsel that it puts nothing off from that manner of operation wherewith the God of Nature hath endued it Thus he draws out infallibly the action of a free Agent even in things sinful and yet the Will moves freely in what it doth and consequently owes that Sin to it self The Counsel of God is active in these particulars 1. Proposing of an Object The Babylonish Garment was no cause of Achan's sin for it was propounded to him meerly objectively and was passive to his Choice 〈◊〉 Permitting extrinsecal Moral Perswasions unto 〈…〉 This is Temptation Adam was created without 〈◊〉 yet with Liberty to sin He was left wholly in the hands of his own Will here was an Object presented the fruit was fair to look upon and Moral Perswasions by the Devil that there was no danger that it would make them wise the Man eats This is most clearly a most free act for neither the proposition of the Object nor Perswasions do any way derogate from the freedom of the action God could in his Counsel have intercepted the Object or impeded the Perswasion he doth neither the sin is committed and that without the least colour of imputation to the Counsel of God for the Man's Will was not necessitated he sinned freely 3. By withdrawing those efficacious Aids of his Grace and Dispensation which especially since the Fall of Man are the great impediment to that Career of sin that Man would run And this is no violation of Man's Nature or Freedom for they are extrinsecal to his Nature and therefore not due to him nor is he injured if withdrawn from him especially since for the most part Man thrusts them away before they are taken Such are the outward dispensations of his Providence in Education Affliction Prosperity the Preaching of his Word Advice of Friends giving external Allays to the humours of the Body These and the like God lends to the Sons of Men and may take them again when he will. And as he hath such outward operations so without question such is the Vicinity of God to our Souls that there are Secret Inward Perswasions sent in by the Power of God to our Souls which as they do not violate the Liberty of our Wills but direct them so they are not due to the Creature debito justitiae and may be withdrawn without injustice 4. By Ordering it Thus the Wise God oftentimes brings Good out of Evil by the restraining the sin quo ad hoc by the Dispensation of his Providence as a wise Politician will order the Ambition Cruelty Lust c. of Men for bringing good to the Common-wealth The Depravation of Man's Nature is Universal and like as the Water would diffuse it self over the whole Surface in the pursuit of its own motion and Nature so the corrupted Nature of Man being now become universally evil would diffuse it self in all disorders but as a wary Artist will by external Provisions not only confine this natural motion of this extravagant Element to this or that course but also make its natural motion serviceable for artificial ends so the Wise God doth not only set Bars and Doors and saith to this Sea of Mischief Hitherto shalt thou go and no farther and here shall thy proud Waves stay but also so manageth the same that whiles Man sins he works his Creator's Will which he knows not O Assyrian the rod of mine anger c. howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few Isa 10.7 A sinful and unthankful Israel deserves a punishment an ambitious and cruel Assyrian flies at all opportunity of Rapine and Spoil the Wise God shuts him up upon all sides but that which is towards Israel and there he finds a passage and breaks out satisfies freely his own ambitious ends which only he pursued yet fulfils the Will of our Creator which he knew not nor thought of This also cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working Those ways of God and the manner of his Concurrence in those actions are evident in Scripture Exod. 7.3 I will harden Pharaoh 's heâ—rt c. Verse 11. They cast down their rods and they became Serpents c. and he hardened Pharaoh 's heâ—rt that he hearkened not unto them Exod. 8.15 When Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardened his heart and
436 1. Natural Page 436 437 2. The Word of God absolutely in it self Page 438 1. The Law 1. Moral Page 438 2. Ceremonial Page 441 3. Judicial ibid. 2. The Prophets Page 442 3. The Gospel which contains a most excellent Rule of Righteousness in 1. The Example of Christ Page 443 2. The Precepts and Counsels Page 444 Page 1. General 1. Love of our Neighbour Page 448 2. Doing as we would be done unto Page 456 2. Particular things Page 1. To be done Page 2. To be suffered 3. Parts 3. God. A Brief Abstract of the Christian Religion Page 461 Seasonable Considerations for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life Page 473 A DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves PART I. By the Light of Nature CHAP. I. Of the Existence and Attributes of God. I. ALL things but the Soul it self are extrinsecal to the Soul and therefore of necessity the Knowledge of all other things is extrinsecal to the Soul for Knowledge is nothing else but the true impression and shape of the thing known in the Understanding or a conception conform to the thing conceived And although the Soul in its own nature be apta nata to receive such impressions and doth therefore naturally desire and affect it yet it is as impossible for the Soul to know till the Object be some way applied to it as for a Looking-glass to reflect without first uniting of a Species of some Body to it that may be reflected The Means whereby the Scibile or thing to be known is united to the Soul and consequently Knowledge is wrought is threefold viz. 1. Supernatural Thus Almighty God in the first Creation of Man did fasten certain Principles of Truth in Man by his immediate discovery especially the Knowledge of Himself and his Will which was properly the Image or Impression of God in his Understanding This was not essential to the Soul but a Habit or Quality which God put into his Understanding and therefore though his Knowledge decayed by his Fall yet his Soul continued the same 2. Artificial Thus Knowledge is derived from Man to Man by signs of those impressions of Truth c. that are wrought in his Understanding that communicates it Thus Knowledge is acquired by Writing Speech and other Signs that are agreed upon to communicate Intelligence from the understanding of one Man to the understanding of another though mediante sensu Thus the Reliques of the knowledge of God in Adam were derived to his Posterity though still it grew for the most part of Men weaker and corrupter 3. Natural And this may be divided into these three branches viz. 1. Simple Apprehension Thus when any object singly by the Ear or Eye or other Sense is let into the Phantasy and so shewn to the Understanding without either affirming or denying any thing concerning it 2. Complex Apprehensions whereby either duo scibilia are joyned together in an Affirmation or Negation and this is a Proposition which again is of two kinds viz. either that which is most universal and therefore the first proposition that is framed in the understanding viz. that it is or est or est ens For that notion doth necessarily and upon the first view of any object joyn it self with it in the understanding Other propositions are more complex or remote as that God is good c. For the first question in the Understanding is Whether it be to which that general proposition answers and in the next place What it is to which the second sort of complex notions answer Now of this second kind of complex notions there are two kinds viz. either such as without the help of any Discourse or Ratiocination present themselves from the object to the understanding as this The Man is red the Man and the red being both objects of Sense and meeting in the same subject or else such as either the thing affirmed or the thing whereof the affirmation is or both are things that do not immediately fall within our Senses as the Man is a substance or the Spirit is a substance These though originally derived from sense yet they are refined by the help of Discourse 3. Conclusions drawn either from these simple or complex apprehensions which flow into our understanding immediately by our Senses and this is Rational Discourse a Faculty or Power put into Man whereby he is beyond all other visible Creatures and whereby all his actions whether Civil or Religious are and ought to be guided This is that Power whereby we may improve even sensible Objects Apprehensions and Observations to attain more sublime and high discoveries and rise from Effects to their Causes till at last we attain to the First Cause of all things So we may conclude that the Knowledge of our Creator though it fall not within the reach of our Sense and so falls not immediately within the reach of our Understanding yet by the ascents and steps of Rational Discourse so much may be gathered as may leave an Atheist without excuse God having given to Man even in his lapsed condition besides other Providential helps a stock of Visibles and a Rational Faculty to improve that stock to some measure of the Knowledge of himself For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom 1.20 Therefore as on the one side we are to avoid curiosity in measuring the infinite Mysteries of Truth by our own finite Understandings so on the other side we must beware of Supineness and Neglect of imploying that treasure of God's Works and his Light or Reason in us to that end for which it was principally intrusted with us even the knowledge of our Creator yet still humbly concluding with Elihu Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me II. The first and most Magisterial Truth in the World upon which all other truths do depend is this That there is a First Being and Cause of all other Beings This is evident by clear Reason 1. Either we must admit a First Cause or else an actual infiniteness of Succession of Causes The latter is impossible in Nature because it is impossible there can be that which is infinite and yet successive for then it would follow That that which is actually infinite in number should be yet more infinite because there are new Successions on Causes and Causations Again it is impossible that there should be an eternal dependance of Causes one upon another without a First because then the whole Collection of those Causes taken all together must needs likewise be actually depending and if so then upon themselves and that is impossible for the immediate Cause of the Effect doth not depend upon its Effect but immediately upon its Cause Therefore this bundle of dependent causes must depend upon some one among them which is independent And impossible
inconsistent with his Simplicity so that his Essence is his Goodness and his Goodness the same with his Essence which is also to be observed in all his Attributes though our Understanding cannot apprehend this Indivisible Being all at once but step by step And from hence it follows that whatsoever may be affirmed concerning his Essence may be likewise affirmed concerning his goodness viz. 1. That it is Infinite for so is his essence The Essential goodness of an Infinite Being must needs be Infinite and hence it is not capable of any increase or diminution and therefore the production of the Effects and the Communication of his goodness to them did neither add unto nor take from his goodness 2. That it is Perfect for that which is Infinite must needs be Perfect because it excludes any mixture of any thing that is not good 3. That it is Eternal that is evident for it is the same with his Eternal being Now from this consideration of the goodness of the first Being arise these Conclusions 1. That he is Perfectly and self-sufficiently Happy because in the enjoyment of himself he enjoys an Infinite goodness which is the same with his being and impossible to be severed from it Good is of its own nature the object of desire the desire and the object being severed breedeth pain and unhappiness the conjunction of good to the desire is fruition and if the good be proportionable to the desire of it then in the Union of that good to the desire there is a full rest and complacency Now the first cause is moved with an Infinite love as I may with fear say to that Infinite good which is most Essentially and Indivisibly the same with himself and consequently he hath an Infinite rest and complacency in himself and that without the contribution of any thing without him for he had the same boundless happiness in himself before the existence of any effect as he had after because he had the same measure of goodness and the same perfect fruition of it before any such production as after the productions of new effects are the emanations only of his Essence and produced no alteration in him neither did it dilate his Essential goodness or add a new degree of fruition of good to what he before had for he loved the productions of his Will in himself and for himself 2. That the First Being as it is the First Cause of all things so it is the Supream End of all things because he is the Supream Good and the only adequate object of himself So that in the production of any effect the effect that was produced or any thing without the First Being could not be the ultimate End for which it should be produced for his Will was and is filled with an Infinite Good viz. himself So that it was impossible he should take any thing into that Will which was not in order to himself He made all things for his own self And upon this ground it follows that nothing without him is an End to it self because he that is the First Cause of all things must needs be he that must be the Master and appointer of the End of all things so caused 3. From hence it follows that all the Goodness that is in the Creature is nothing else but the print or impression of that Goodness which is in the First Being though according to the different degrees of things the impressions are more or less genuine for it is impossible that any thing can be denominated Good but by a conformity in some measure to that which is the First Goodness That conformity is nothing else but that impression of Divine Goodness upon the Creature This impression of the Goodness of the First Cause upon the Creature is not by any transmission of any part of the Essential Goodness of the First Being into the Effect for that is incommunicable nor by any physical action of that Goodness upon another thing but the mere will of the First Mover Now we find a fourfold Goodness in the Creature 1. An Essential Goodness which is communicated with the very being of it thus every thing that is is Good in it self though relatively it may be evil because in that it is it is conformable to the First Cause who wills it to be This Goodness in any being is that by reason whereof every thing desires it self and is moved to its own preservation and is intrinsecal to the being of the thing 2. An Intrinsecal but not an Essential Goodness when a thing hath all those qualities or requisites in it self which are suitable and conducible to those acts and operations that belong to the degree of its being and the variety of the degrees in these qualities denominate it more or less Good thus were all Creatures in their Original perfectly Good though every kind had a several degree of Perfection yet every thing had a perfection in its kind This Goodness is likewise communicated from the First Being And the suitableness of those qualities in the creatures to the exigencies of their own conditions do most evidently manifest the impression of that Goodness that is in the First Being 3. Relative or Communicative Goodness viz whereby one thing is conducible or useful for the preservation or perfection of another thing and is therefore desirable or good for it for though the Essential Goodness of any thing being as indivisible is the Essence it self and therefore in that abstract notion is not capable of degrees yet there are degrees of perfection which a finite being is capable of and different degrees of perfection in several beings in their concrete notion as a Man is a more perfect being than a Beast a Spirit than a Man though one be as equal a being as the other This then imports four things 1. A Vacuity or absence of some Good whereof that being is receptible and consequently a receptibility of that which may supply it 2. A Motion or Desire of that being that hath this vacuity and receptibility unto that which may supply it and a desire of Union to it this it hath from the cause of its being for the cause of its being must needs be the cause of this appetite or motion to its farther perfection and this is sometimes so strong and active that it carries the creature by way of consequence to the destruction of that being which at present it hath to attain a higher being 3. A proportion between the Vacuity or necessity of the subject desiring to the thing desired as a Man to supply his Hunger desires not Cloaths but Meat and when cold desires not Meat but Cloaths because these hold proportion to that exigence that the creature desires to fill And hence it is that Temporal Good satisfies not a Spiritual substance nor a Spiritual Good satisfies a Carnal substance because they are not proportionable 4. An Activity in the Good desired to apply it self to the supply of that
whereby we are bound and whereunto all Humane Justice is to be resolved both in point of Conformity as to its Pattern and Obligation as to its Law. But how these Laws were at first given to Man whether by a formal Command or whether by an immediate Impression in the understanding and will or whether by an implanted Propension or inclination in the will or partly by one partly by another it is not easy to determine Sed vide infra But what ever way it was it is impossible to have any notion or imagination of just or unjust among Men without resolving it in its original into the Rule or Law that was given to Men by the First Cause of our being 9. From the consideration of the First Cause and of the premisses it must needs follow that he is Immutable for Mutability is inconsistent 1. With his Perfection It is impossible that a Pure Act can have any Change for all Change doth necessarily infer Passibility and Receptibility of what it had not before and to suppose that were to conclude he were not Actus Simplicissimus Perfectissimus for all Receptibility imports Potentiam or Passibilitatem 2. It is inconsistent with his Eternity for all Changes too of necessity suppose a Succession of Duration in the thing changed it is not to every intent the same simply that it was before it had that change which doth of necessity import Succession which is inconsistent with Eternity for whatsoever is Eternal hath no Succession and consequently whatsoever is affirmed of it at one instant must necessarily be affirmed of it Eternally this cannot stand with any change for before that change that could not be affirmed of him which might be affirmed after if it should be admitted 3. It is inconsistent with his Simplicity Some things have accidental changes which yet in Essence continue the same as from ignorance to knowledge from one colour to another but such accidental changes cannot be in that which is Ens Simplicissimum because there can be nothing in him which is not his Essence 4. It is inconsistent with his Infinitude for to whatsoever any thing can be added that it had not before that cannot be Infinite because still capable of a farther accession And as this Immutability is affirmed of the First Cause in point of his Essence and Nature so in some respects it is concerning his Acts. These are of two kinds viz. the Immanent Acts such are the Acts of his understanding and Will and these are Immutable as well as his Essence for indeed they are but notionally divided from it In us our Will is one thing and our willing another but that is inconsistent with the Simplicity of the First Cause hence it is that as his Essence so his Will is immutable he wills nothing now but what he ever willed and understood from Eternity what he now knows for Eternity hath neither now nor then in it 2. The Emanant Acts those are nothing else but the Execution of that Immutable Will these are subject to mutation but without the least mutation either in the Essence or will of the First Cause 1. Not in his Essence It is true here is a new relation that was not before for when the First Being produced an Effect it is true the Relation of a Cause and an Effect is now produced which was not before and so when more Effects are produced the Relations are multiplied but Relations breed no Change at all in the subject concerning whom they are affirmed the being was the same before it put forth it self in a causation as it was before it doth of necessity import a change in the thing effected viz. a motion à non esse simpliciter or à non esse tale but not in the Cause which had an absolute being before though not actually as a Cause before 2. Not in his Will. It is true when any Effect is produced that was not before here is an execution of what was not before but the will of that to be then was from all Eternity Again when a being is either changed or annihilated that is not by a Change of the will in the First Cause but only in the term or execution of that Will for by the same indivisible and eternal act of his Will he willed this or that to be made and after to be annihilated in time the Change is in the terminus or execution of his Will not in the Will or the Immanent Act of it But how can we then conceive that there should be one Immutable Act of his Will when a thing is past How can he be said to will that which is already executed and past For which we must return to what hath been said viz. that past and to come are but the measure of Successive Motions and therefore though they are applicable to them yet they are not applicable to an Indivisible Being or Act the measures of successive motion do not fit Eternity which though it be a Duration that consists with the Successive Motion and Duration of the Creature yet it holds no proportion with it The Motion of the Heavens though 10000 times swifter than the motion of a Tortois have yet a proportion one to another because both successive and so Time measures both But the Duration of the First Cause is the Duration of an Indivisible Being and consequently holds not proportion with Succession And hence it is that it is but our gross conception that do imagine any part of Eternity past or any part to come or that Time doth divide the fore part of Eternity from the future part of Eternity It is an indivisible permanent Duration nothing past nothing future but the same fixed instant consequently the Act of the Divine will always one always present This Knowledge is too wonderful for me CHAP. II. Of the Works of God of Creation and Providence THUS far have we proceeded in those inquiries which rectified Reason suggests to us concerning the Nature of the First Cause Now we consider the Emanant Acts of his Will and Power upon things without him for from this consideration that he is the First Being it likewise follows that All things besides him must needs have their being and subsistence from him This falls into these two Conclusions 1. That all thing besides himself have their being from him 2. That all things are directed and governed unto their several Ends by him Touching the former viz. That all things besides him have their original being from him that is a necessary consequent of the admission of a First being for whatsoever is not first there was a time when it was not for otherwise it must be eternal the contrary whereof is before evidenced That then which once was not and now is and consequently had a beginning of its being could not have it from it self for nothing hath a power or activity of it self to produce any thing therefore that second being must needs
be produced by the First Being the consequences whereof are these 1. That all things except the First Cause had a beginning of their being and consequently there was no Eternal Matter out of which any thing was made 2. That all Beings had their first being from him that is the First Being This is evident by what goes before 3. That the first production of all things by the First Being is purely and solely by way of Efficiency and not by derivation of substance from himself for that is impossible his Essence is Immaterial and Indivisible 4. The manner of this Efficiency or his Causality is not any act distinct from himself but only the meâ—e act of his mere Will which is essentially the same with himself and with his Infinite Power And herein the first production of second Beings differs from that manner of causation which is ordinary in subsequent productions of things for the first production of beings was an infinite motion viz. from a simple not-being to a being and therefore was acted immediately by the Infinite Power and Will of the First Cause there being no instrument to be used or if it had been yet any instrument had been infinitely disproportionable to such a motion But in the subsequent production of most things the matter pre-existing and so the motion not being à non esse simpliciter the causation of the First Cause is by instruments and second Causes 5. That as the first production of all things was the immediate act of his will so the disposing of all things into that Order and frame wherein they now are was the immediate Act of his Will and Power and Wisdom This is evident upon a double ground viz. First because whatsoever had its being from another had its esse tale from him 2. It is not conceptible that if all the things in the World had been put together they being all irrational substances they should ever have marshalled themselves into that order they are in unless the First Being had so willed it And if it should be admitted that the Forms and Qualities of the several beings would naturally have inclined them to their several places and stations which though all things had been wrapt together would by degrees have severed and taken their places That as it is impossible to imagine would ever have been unless the substances themselves as well as their active qualities had been divided so if it were granted it were equally to be resolved into the Will of the first Being to put such Forms Qualities and Inclinations in things conducing to and effecting such an order as if that Order and Fabrick of things had been by the immediate call of every thing into its Order and Rank by the First Cause 6. That the production of Mankind especially was the immediate work of the First Being This is touched before 7. That all these Activities that are in Second Causes are put into them by the First Cause and they work in the virtue of the First Cause so that although the Effect be not the immediate production of the First Cause yet the Activity and Power that is put in the second Cause to work is originally due to the First Cause And hence it is that a more ignoble being doth produce sometimes a being of a higher nature than it self as the Earth produceth Vegetables Putrefaction Sensibles because the vigor and Activity that causeth it was at first put into the second causes by the First so that though they move uniformly omnibus rectè dispositis yet they act in virtute Primae Causae 8. Though Second Causes work naturally and uniformly for the most part where all things are equally disposed and this by the virtue of that Activity which by the will and Power of the First Cause was at first put in them yet this Activity is managed and ordered so that it neither breaks the Law of its causality or motion that was at first put into it nor yet disturbs or disorders the universal fabrick of Nature things being at first framed in that order that each should be a corrective to the other in case of exorbitancy de hoc infra 9. From hence it follows that the constant and uniform Course of Nature is not to be attributed to it self but only to the Will of the First Cause that wills it to continue in that frame though he hath ordained Means subservient to that end 10. From hence it follows that as all things in actu primo owe their being to the will of the First Cause constant and uniform Course of Nature is not to to be attributed to itself but only to the Will of the First Cause that wills it to continue in that frame though he hath ordained Means subservient to the will of the First Cause so in actu secundo viz. their continuance and subsistence is due only to that Will they were made because he willed it and they continue because he wills it And this as it is most true in respect of the whole frame of Nature which hath no adequate means of its subsistence but the Will of the First Cause so it is true likewise as in the beings so in the continued subsistence of Second Causes which though they are and are supported immediately by Second Causes Qualities and concurrences yet the Activity and Power that is in these Second Causes to produce or continue these Effects is due to the First Cause and continues in them by virtue of that Will that at first planted it in them 2. The Disposing of all things to their several Ends whether remote or near belongs to this First Cause Every Intellectual Agent works for some End or other the First Cause we have shewed to be an Intellectual Agent therefore what he works he works for some End answerable to the Work and Worker and it must of necessity be that he that is the First Cause or Efficient of all things must needs be the appointer of his own End in that Work. The End though it be last in execution is first in intention for it moves the Agent to the work or otherwise though he work not without an Event he doth it without an End. Now that which is first in Efficiency must needs be the first designer of his own End which is but the result of his Work A Second Cause though he may have an End in his Causation proportionable to the causality wherewith he is indued yet as his Efficiency is subordinate to and derived from the Efficiency of the First Cause so must his End be it may be an Ultimate End in respect of it it is but interlocutory or rather no End at all in respect of the First Cause but only a means conducing to the Execution of the End of the first Cause When a passionate Ambitious or Covetous Man drives mainly and wholly at the satisfaction of those lusts as his End and that End draws out his activity and strength to
causes that have no natural connexion one with another When the Prophet that prophesied against Bethel returned back met the Lion and the Lion slew him here was a Voluntary Act in the Prophet viz. to go a Contingent Act in the meeting with the Lion a Natural Act in the Lion to kill him now because this death of the Prophet had no necessary connexion with all the causes that concurred to it neither had the journey of the Prophet any necessary connexion with the walk of the Lion that they must needs meet the death of the Prophet though it had a kind of natural connexion with the next cause that preceded it was in the estimation of Men Contingent yet in respect of that predetermination that was of all this business which was not therefore predetermined because spoken by the old Prophet who had only a revelation of That counsel the whole frame of this business was necessary yet note that this predetermination did not alter the nature of the intermediate causes the journey of the Prophet was nevertheless voluntary the meeting with the Lyon Contingent the death of the Prophet by the Lyon in effect necessary So the Divine Predetermination of Effects predetermines them in their several Causes and takes not away the truth of the denomination of Necessary Contingent and Voluntary it predetermines the being of each but the being of the first but to be necessarily because it predetermines it to depend upon a necessary cause as the Eclipse of the Sun it predetermines the being of the second but to be contingently because it predetermines it to be upon contingent and unconnexed causes it predetermines the third to be but to be voluntarily because it hath predetermined it to be upon a voluntary cause All things to him have the same necessity of being though distinguished in their manner of being which are represented to our understanding under the notions of Necessary Contingent and Voluntary 3. We have considered the influence of the First Cause upon the creature in actu primo which is giving it a being or creation and as to things Natural and Contingent in actu secundo which is Providence or Government Now concerning the relation that Man the only visible Intellectual and Voluntary being in the World hath We must premise to this consideration what hath been partly observed viz. 1. That the first disposal of every thing to its several End doth of right belong to the First Cause 2. That this End is twofold 1. In respect of the First Cause the mere fulfilling of his own Will 2. In respect of the Creatures 1. relatively one to another a Subordination of one thing to and for another as the more imperfect to the more perfect 2. absolutely the End that is planted in every thing is its own Preservation and Perfection 3. That as the implanted End of every thing is his own being and perfection so the being of things being different both in nature and degrees of Excellence so are their Perfections different the Perfection of Animate above the Inanimate the Perfection of the Sensitive above the Animate and of the Rational above the Sensitive 4. That as the several Creatures are moved to their several Preservations and Perfections as to their several Ends so they have suitable Inclinations Dispositions and Motions placed in them conducible to those Ends as the Motions of Bodies to their several stations the generation of Vegetables and their attraction of supplies of nourishment answerable to their tempers the fading of Sensitives and assimilation of the nourishment to their own nature supplying the decays thereof Natural Instincts of every species to avoid those things places and foods that are destructive providing for varieties of Seasons multiplication of their Species and infinite the like which is nothing else but that Rule Law or Means that the First Cause hath put in them for the attaining that End which he hath put in them viz. their Preservation and Perfection And this is the great Wisdom as I may call it of the Creature that it pursues that End by that Law which the First Cause hath given it Mankind hath some things in him common with other inferiour Beings and in respect thereof hath the same Natural End viz. the Preservation of his Subsistence by the same Law of Nature which he doth and may and ought to preserve as other Creatures do But if he have a higher degree of Being than other Creatures then consequently he hath these two things different from other Creatures 1. A higher End than other Creatures planted in him by the First Cause whereinto he is or should be carried 2. A higher and different Law given by the First Cause in order to that End which whiles he follows he is most wise because most conformable to the Will of his Maker and moves to a suitable End to himself by a suitable Means and which when he declines he is more bruitish than the Beast because he either moves to no End or by such a Rule by which it is impossible he should attain it The Conclusion then is That Man was by the First Cause made for an End answerable to his own Perfection by such a Rule or Law as was by the First Cause ordained to be conducible to this End That therefore all other Ends and Perfections that are below the uttermost hight and Perfection of Man may consist with this End for we are not to conceive so improvidently of the First Cause that he should put a thing in such a degree of being that the Ends and Rules incident to any consideration of him should be inconsistent with his Supream End all stood together but if by any casualty it should fall out that there were an inconsistency all the Subordinate Ends must give way to this Supream End That the pursuit of this great End whatsoever it is by this Rule is exactly conformable to the Will of the First Cause by this Man doth two works at once God's work and his own That this is the Great Business of Man the highest act of Wisdom deserves all his labour study and endeavour and all the rest of his Business in the World is either lost labour or worse if not subservient to this great End. We are therefore to enquire into these three things 1. Wherein consists the Eminence of the being of Man above other Creatures for without this we cannot know that Perfection which must be the object of his desire 2. What is this Perfection that is thus to be desired and attained 3. By what Means and how it is attainable CHAP. III. Of Man his Excellence above other Creatures THE Goodness of the Wise Creator was communicated to his Effects 1. in giving them a Being 2. in assigning to every thing a portion of Perfection in themselves answerable to the degree of their Being 3. a Motion or Desire to the attaining and conserving that Perfection and consequently of their Being which is the Vessel wherein that
End which may be had by them if pursued with due subordination to my great End. By what hath been premised we see a double difference 1. between bare Knowledge and Wisdom 2. between that Wisdom which is particular and that which is the Supream Wisdom The difference between the two former is 1. In their Object though every Scibile is the Object of Knowledge it is not of Wisdom 2. In the Use Many things are known only that they may be known but Wisdom is in order to Action and Motion to the thing known as profitable or from it as hurtful it is an act of practical Understanding not purely speculative The difference between the two latter that which is particular Wisdom is but temporary subservient principally to the Body subordinate and when it wants its due subordination proves irrational but the other is perpetual because fixed upon a perpetual End principally concerning the Soul supream and simple without mixture of any thing in it below Reason 3. Conscience Which is a high act of the Understanding for as Wisdom looks and moves forward by the right Rule or Principle to the right End so Conscience looks backward and measures the acts and motions of the Soul by these Rules or Principles and consists of three Propositions 1. It doth of necessity presuppose a Rule or Principle given unto Man directing him in his motion to his Supream End. We see all things natural have some Principle Instinct or Law whereby they are carried to their several Ends and Operations That which is in them an Instinct was to Man a Law because being indued with Understanding and Will he was susceptible of a Law which inferiour Creatures were not Now as the interruption of that Law or Rule in Natural things brings an Obliquity and Irregularity in their motions and so diverts them from that End to which otherwise they would arrive so the Violation of this Law or Rule given to Man doth at once subject him to a threefold Mischief 1. A Loss of that End which the regular motion according to that Rule which God gave him would have carried him unto for the Wise God having disposed all things to their Ends hath done it in and according to those ways which he hath prescribed them to move in to those Ends. 2. A Deformity and Vncomeliness contracted by the violation of that Rule When the Creatures came out of God's hands they were Good and Beautiful that Beauty and Goodness consisted in nothing else but a Conformity to the Will of God in their Beings Motions and Ends if any of that Conformity be altered there ariseth presently a Deformity uselesness and uncomeliness in the Creature The same it is with Man he received questionless a Rule to live and move to a most suitable End and conformable to the Will of the First Cause that ordered him to that End as long as he moves conformable to that Rule he moves according to the Will of his Maker to a most suitable End but when once he violates that Rule he contracts a Deformity Ataxy and Uncomeliness by such violation 3. An Obligation to some Positive Punishment annexed to the violation of that Law for let us suppose any Creature wanting Will and Understanding that did notwithstanding not move according to this Rule by this he would most clearly contract the two former viz. Loss and Deformity but where a Law is given to a Creature endued with these Faculties the violation of the Law so given includes in it not only a Privative Offence as I may call it to which a Privative Punishment may be answerable but a Positive Rebellion Rejection and Disobedience to that Duty and Subjection he owes and is enabled to perform to his Maker and therefore it is most just and rational that there should be added as a Sanction to that Law some Positive Penalty to revenge such a violation that as the Obedience to that Rule would carry a Man to a Positive Good so the Disobedience thereunto should be followed with more than a bare privation of that Good. This then is the first Proposition that is laid in the Understanding or Conscience this or that is Commanded to be done or omitted as the Rule or Law given by God to carry me to my supream End and Happiness the violation whereof subjects me to Loss of that Happiness to a Deformity and Discrepance to the Will of my Maker to the Curse or Sanction of that Law. Without the knowledge of this Proposition the great work or act of Conscience is asleep therefore it is necessarily to be presupposed for it is the supream Resolution of all Obligation in the World both of Laws Contracts and Oaths as appears before And according as this Principle is either true or false clear or dubious so are the actings and conclusions of the Conscience true or erroneous quick or dull It concerns us therefore to enquire How these Principles come into the Vnderstanding We find in the Creatures several Instincts incident almost to every Creature which are connatural with it We may observe likewise in Man dispositions and inclinations of several kinds common to whole Nations Climates Families which though they incline the Men to actions and carriages suitable to those several dispositions yet are not Laws or Principles of Nature These Principles therefore of the Divine Law called Natural Principles of Conscience are in the Understanding these ways 1. Supernaturally Thus Almighty God did at first give Man a Copy of his Will shewed to his Understanding and Will commanded him to obey it and this perfect discovery he made at first and when it decayed after the Fall of Man it is evident he did by Divine Inspiration and Revelation reinforce and discover it as appears by the holy History 2. Artificially by Tradition from the first Man to his Posterity and from one Man to another For though the first Man lost much of his Light and Knowledge by the Fall yet he was not without divers of those Principles which God at first shewed him 3. Naturally viz. by the help of Reason and Discourse for although if a Man were bred up from his Infancy without any manner of Instructions it would be very difficult for him to take up of himself any sound Principles of Nature yet I do believe that the Divine Law given to Man hath that Justice and agreeableness to right Reason that when once the motions of Reason had any materials of Observation to work upon it would incline such a Man though weakly to some though not all of those Divine Laws which were first perfectly written in the Heart of the first Man. The Precepts of the Divine Law though they be not congenite with us yet many of them are so rational and hold such a conformity with right Reason that Reason exercised would light upon some of them Hence several Nations that we know not ever to have had correspondence one with another yet agree in many Natural
Reason hath a privative opposition to the knowledge of them viz. an absence of a necessity of assenting not a positive opposition or a 〈…〉 by necessity of Reason to disassent to them 〈…〉 4. That though these Truths are 〈…〉 â—ry of Reason and beyond the 〈…〉 sent yet they carry 〈…〉 gr◠〈…〉 alt◠〈…〉 up◠〈…〉 p◠〈…〉 wi◠〈…〉 infra 〈…〉 Thus the Fall of Man 〈…〉 Truths unimaginable by Natu◠〈…〉 â—itness one to another and the Ju◠〈◊〉 Mercy of God bears witness to both The mâ—â—y of the Soul and the last Judgment bear witness each to other And as there is that mutual attestation by way of Congruity of one of these sublime Truths to another of the same nature so the Congruity that these Truths have to those Truths which rationally challenge an Assent from us That all things had a beginning from the First Cause is a Truth evident in Nature but in what way or by what manner is not possible to be known without a discovery How excellently doth that discovery of the manner of the Creation serve as I may say that Principle So again that Man being endued with a rational and immortal Soul was ordered by the First Cause to an immortal End by a rational Means prescribed by God may be concluded by rational inferences and deductions but what that Means was or clearly what that End was is not discoverable by natural Reason for it depends upon the Will of God. How admirably doth the Scripture discover that Means viz. the Law of God and that End the Vision and Fruition of God especially in the point of the Resurrection Again That the Violation of that Rule must incur a Guilt irreparable a loss of that End is rationally evident yet although that Man by that Guilt is justly deprivable of that End is clear yet that God should be disappointed in this End seems somewhat hard How clearly doth the Point of our Redemption by Christ a point inconceptible by Nature serve to extricate and untwist this difficulty gives God the Glory of his Justice and of his Mercy of his Wisdom and of his Creature Thus the subservience of a Truth more difficult to the exigence of a Truth that is more clear to Nature renders the former not only possible but probable 3. The third Evidence That this is the Word of God are those strange Predictions of most contingent Events fulfilled in their several times the Prediction in one Age and declared by one Instrument of God the fulfilling in another Age declared by another or seen by our selves This gives testimony both to the Truth and Divinity of the author or inspirer of it To omit those Predictions of Joseph concerning the removal out of Egypt The Prediction of the Jewish Captivity and the Restitution by Cyrus by Name The four Empires The destruction of Jerusalem take notice but of these two viz. The Prophecies of the coming of Christ describing his Nature Gen. 3.15 his Linage of Abraham Gen. 22.18 of Judah Gen. 49.10 of David Isa 11.1 the place of his Birth Micah 5.2 his Office Isa 61.1 his Mother Isa 7.14 his Death and the Ends of it Isa 53. the time of his Death Dan. 9.2 and divers other Circumstances fulfilled precisely in our Saviour 2. The Rejection of the Jews and Calling of the Gentiles to the Faith of Christ Deut. 31.29 and 32.21 Isa 11.10 Isa 42.6 Isa 49.6 this Prophecy fulfilled even in our own view yet upon such disadvantage of natural Reason as had not the same power effected it that at first declared it it could never have been effected considering 1. The utter Enmity between the Jews and Gentiles 2. The extream contrariety in Religion to it 3. The small and inconsiderable means of effecting that Conversion 4. The great Scorn and Sufferings of those that professed it 5. The visible impossibilities of making any temporal Advantages by it c. 4. The Consent and Harmony among the several parts of it When several Men in several Ages not brought up under the same Education write It is not possible to find Unity in their Tenets or Positions because their Spirits Judgments and Fancies are different but where so many several Authors writing or speaking at several times agree not only in matters dogmatical of sublime and difficult Natures but also in Predictions of future and contingent Events whereof it is impossible for humane Understanding to make a discovery without a superiour discovery made to it I must needs conclude one and the same Divine Spirit declared the same Truths to these several Men. 5. This Book alone and none besides but by derivation from it containeth matters of the most noble and useful nature The generality of all humane Learning do either in their Object or Use or both expire with this Life and none ever arrived to the discovery of the great and adequate End of Man. This is not only evident in these Arts or Sciences of Natural Philosophy the Mathematicks Physicks Politicks Laws c. all which at their highest are but only subservient to this Life but in those two great and noble Sciences that Speculative of Metaphysicks that other Practical of Moral Philosophy The former though it arrive to as high Truths as Nature can discover yet it rests in the knowing of them and in a meer Speculation and doth not shew wherein consists Man's true Happiness much less what is the way to attain it for the latter the most sublime piece of it is framed only for the Meridian of this Life both in the Use and End. Without all question the Great and Wise God did write in Man's Nature Habits exactly conducible to his internal Contentment and Felicity in reference to his living in this World as those which were of a higher Constitution and End as his communion with his Maker The wisest of Moral Philosophers though they have imperfectly copied out divers Positions of the former as Justice Temperance Contentedness Undervaluation of the World Patience yet they never arrived at the latter no Book in the World but this shews a Man the adequate End of his Being his Supream Good his Happiness nor directs the Means of acquiring it This doth not only inforce the nobleness and value of the Book but also the original of it for when I shall see a world of the most exact humane Wits turning every stone as it were within the reach of humane discovery and yet none of them all lighting upon this great Subject the way to eternal Happiness I must needs conclude That this discovery is of a higher extract than a meer humane invention and although when we have discovered that subject we begin to wonder that Mankind hath thus long roved and wasted its labour in those other impertinent inquiries and were so far from discovery of this Vnum Necessarium that they scarce so much as imagined there was any such Business yet we may justly forbear that wonder for this is a Path which the
latter to love our Enemies The right temper of our Minds in reference to all things without us or befalling us in any Affliction and Trouble It teacheth us to improve it in discovery and repenting of the cause of our sin in adhering to God in whom there is no variableness in keeping a loose And remiss Affection to the World in Contentedness and chearful resignation of our selves to God that is Lord of his Creature and though it should not be meritoriously deserved might be justly inflicted In times of Prosperity and Comfort it teacheth us to look to the Author and take more delight in the hand that gives it than in the Blessing it self to value the measure of my Comfort more by the favour and good will of the Giver than by the extent of the Gift In the enjoyment to be Watchful that I be not insnared by it to forget the Giver to be moderate humble wise In the whole course of our Lives to look above this World to another Country and so we may enjoy the the Favour of our God and the Fruition of that Country to be at a point with all the Pleasures Profits Preferments Honours Comforts and Life of this Life to be so fixed in our Obedience to our God as not to go out of the Path he hath put us in though it be strewed with all the Scorns Miseries Torments and Deaths that Men or Hell could scatter to hinder us These and the like Precepts are given in that Word and these and the like Effects it doth by the concurrence of God's Grace work in the Heart which are as far beyond the most sublimated Documents of the most exact moral Philosopher in the World as theirs are beyond the most gross Paganism These do proclaim therefore their original from a higher Principle than humane Authority or Invention And it is observable that these are not only Principles of a high and noble extract but of a singular use in this Life If all Men were of this Constitution it would questionless reform all those Inconveniences which do happen either from one Man to another as Enquiries breach of Contracts or from Man to himself of discontent vexation and unquietness of Mind or disorder in any Condition Now if it be said That it seems strange that God who could have preserved Man in the same Integrity of Mind in which he was created and could have supplyed Man with as uniform a motion to his End by a constant Means as other Creatures by their Instincts which are fixed and constant in them should take this Circuit in restoring lost Man by such a Means it is answered That God having endued Man with Reason Understanding and Will doth rather chuse to bring about his purposes concerning him by Rational Means conform to those Faculties of Understanding and Will putting Light into the one and Regularity into the other by such means as is suitable to his Condition and Nature and not by the actual exercise of his extraordinary Power though not without the concurrence of his special Grace and Providence as in those other actions of Men in preserving the natural or civil Subsistence of Men and Societies he doth use the instrumental means of natural and politick Provisions rationally or naturally conducing to such preservation By what hath past before these things are rationally concluded 1. That there is a First Cause of all things 2. That this First Cause is Infinite Incomprehensible c. 3. That this First Cause as he was the first and only Cause of all Beings so he appoints in his Wisdom and Justice the several Ends or Perfections of all things 4. That the several particular Ends of all things are proportionable to their several Natures 5. That every thing is carried to his several End by Rules proportionable to the End and Nature of the Creature given by the great Governour of all things 6. That Man is a Creature of higher Constitution than other Creatures principally in respect of the Immortality of the Soul the Immateriality of it the Faculties of it Understanding and Will. 7. That therefore he was at first ordained by the wise God to an End proportionable to these Excellencies an immaterial immortal intelligible desirable God. 8. That there is no other Object of this Happiness but God himself 9. That the same Wisdom of God that ordained all things to their End and planted in every thing conducible Motions and Rules for that End hath likewise appointed unto Man a Rule leading him up to that End and without the observation whereof it is impossible to attain it 10. That this Rule depends meerly upon the Will of God what it should be and that in the Conformity to this Will consists Man's present Enjoyment and Hopes and Means of future Happiness 11. That as things stand with Man he is at a Fault and knows not what his End what his Rule is nor hath a Will to obey it 12. That consequently he can never attain his End till his Understanding and Will be reformed and the Guilt contracted by the violation of that Rule be taken off 13. That the Discovery Reformation and Cure can be by no other Means than by God himself 14. That this Book of the Old and New Testament are that Means which God himself hath given in his Mercy Providence and Wisdom to be the means of the discovery unto Man what his End what his Means to attain that End was how lost how to be restored and contains most effectual and rational Means conducible to it PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Existence and Attributes of God. AND now we have drawn down the great Business of Man by dark and intricate steps and windings to a clear Light which doth not only clearly and compendiously unmask and unfold these Truths which with so much difficulty of discourse and search by Reason we dimly arrive unto but divers other Truths which all the Reason and Learning of the Sons of Men could never attain unto yet such as without which all the Passages even of this Life are dark and obscure and uncomfortable We shall therefore now fall to the consideration of those Truths which are contained in that Book that are of the greatest concernment to the Sons of Men in order to their supream End and to evidence their Congruity with sound and rectified Reason 1. This Book teacheth us That there is a God which although it be deducible by natural Evidence yet this declaration in the Scripture is of singular use as well for the speedy and easie discovery of it as also for the ratifying and confirming of this Principle as we mâ—y observe even in Truths of an inferiour nature which though by the discursive operation of the Understanding they may be discovered and assented unto yet these discoveries and that consent is facilitated and strengthened when in the Writings or Dictates of others they are set forth as in the several discourses of Men in matters Natural Metaphysical
work of Natural Reason working Opinion or at most knowledge differs as much as knowledge and Opinion Those things of God that are discoverable by natural Reason receive another kind of impression upon the Soul by the work of God as is evident by the Effects and Operations each have upon the Soul Rom. 1.21 When they knew God yet they glorified him not as God. 3. Of Love therefore so called because the Principal part of the Message that the Soul is acquainted with is a Message of Love and Goodness and so the Will inclined and ingaged to love that Goodness And this is the fruit of the work of God's Spirit 1. Mediately and naturally presupposing the former work of Illumination for some Objects are of so light a nature that when they are known all the work of the Soul is done so they are only known that they may be known But these objects of our Faith they do include a Goodness and Conveniency for the Soul and therefore being known they are desired so that in natural Consequence the Spirit of God if it demonstrates these Truths to the Soul it doth by consequence engage the Love of the Soul to them It is true that Education Instruction and Discipline may make us know these Truths speculatively and yet our Soul not affected with them but the Conviction which is wrought by the Power of God's Spirit is not so thin or jejune a union of these Truths to the understanding but deeper and more radicated and consequently doth more effectually work upon the Will and therefore it is the Logick of the Apostle 1 John 2.4 He that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see The Argument is from the Negation of the necessary Effect or Consequent to the Negation of the Cause or Antecedent as if he should have said Wheresoever there is no true Obedience to the Will and Command of God there is certainly no Love of God. It is the conclusion of Truth and Reason Joh. 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words And wheresoever there is a true knowledge of God there must of necessity be a true Love unto God because it doth represent God as the chiefest only and most suitable Good to the Soul. It is true that notional and speculative knowledge of God that is wrought by natural discourse cannot or at least seldom doth arrive to that full apprehension of the Goodness of God and consequently doth not raise up the Heart to that height of Love and Obedience for our Reason is weak and the disproportion between Him and our Understanding is infinite and therefore he hath chosen to reveal it unto us in his Word and Son and by his own Power working Knowledge in us And by this we see why the renovation and conversion unto God is sometimes expressed under the name of Knowledge John 17.3 This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God c. Colos 3.10 Having put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ c. Sometimes under the name of Trusting and depending upon God Galat. 3.6 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness sometimes under the name of Love Jud. 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God 1 Tim. 1.14 with faith and love which is in Christ 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Thes 2.10 Receiving the Love of the Truth sometimes under the name of Obedience James 1.27 Pure religion and undefiled c. James 2. per tot 1 John 2.29 Every one that doth righteousness is born of him so sometimes under the name of Repentance Fear of God c. For all this is but one work of this Spirit of Grace and but the several Emanations of the same work of the Spirit of God upon the Soul diversified only in the faculties or objects the first act in Nature is Light and when it convinceth the heart of the sinfulness of sin that works Repentance when of the Promises of God that breeds Dependence and Confidence when of the Goodness and Love of God in Christ that breeds Love unto him Watchfulness over our selves Obedience to his Will when of the Majesty and Justice of God it breeds Fear and Reverence when of our own vileness it breeds Humility so that all these are but the bringing home and joyning of those Convictions wrought in our Understanding unto the Will and Affections and thereupon these Effects do as naturally follow upon this work of Illumination and Conviction wrought by the Spirit of God as the like Effects do arise upon natural convictions of Objects of inferiour kinds and goodness 2. But this is not all there is a work of strength and power upon the Will Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure As the death and disability was in both Faculties so the Life is conveyed into both universally And this Power of God's Spirit is not only in the first acts of our Conversion to him but it goes along with us All those actions which are pleasing to God are wrought by the same Spirit of Christ by which they were at first animated It is a Spirit of Supplication in our Prayers Rom. 8.26 The Spirit maketh intercession c. A Spirit of Access for our Prayers Eph. 2.18 A Spirit of Assurance and Sonship Gal. 3.6 Eph. 1.16 A Spirit of Wisdom to direct us in our difficulties Ephes 1.17 A Spirit of Comfort and Joy in our Distresses Rom. 14.17 A Spirit of Fruitfulness in our Conversation Galat. 5.22 25. A Spirit of Perseverance 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are preserved by the power of God through faith unto salvation CHAP. X. How our Vnion with Christ is wrought on Man's part viz. By Faith Hope and Love. HITHERTO we have seen the motion of the Love of God to his Creature by which it may appear the whole Business of Man's Salvation is the work of God and Man appears in a manner passive in all the parts of it In the sending Light into his Understanding he is passive In the enabling the Understanding to receive this Light he is still passive In the subduing the Will to the entertainment of it he is still passive Yet there is some kind of motion in us which though it be the Work of our Creator in the first giving of it and againâ— his Work in reviving quickening and enabling it yet he is pleased to require it from us and to expect it of us Mori movemus And that are principally these three Faith Hope and Love we find them oftentimes joyned together 1 Tim. 1.14 The Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
and consequently the Life to the Will of God the Mind of Christ for the same Spirit of Christ which dwells in Christ our Head dwells likewise in those that are the Members of the same Body and as the oneness of the Soul in Man makes that oneness of motion in all the Body and that Conformity that is in all its motions to the mind of the Soul so that oneness of the Spirit in Christ and his Members makes that Conformity of the Members of Christ unto the Mind and Will of Christ which is the uncreated Image of God This is Regeneration the birth of the Spirit the forming of Christ in us the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes 2.13 2. That whereof before is spoken Love unto God which is always the Soul of all true Obedience The Soul finds the Goodness and Rectitude and Beauty of God and of all his Commands and therefore out of a Judicial Love it is sensible of the ingagement that it ows to God and therefore out of Gratitude it will as far as the strength of the Soul can reach obey the Commands which are so Righteous of her God that is so Gracious It finds that it was the Purpose of God he created us unto good Works Ephes 2.10 that as many as are in Christ ought to walk as he walked 1 John 2.5 That the Son of God died to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 to purifie unto himself a People zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14 That Christ hath ordained that his Disciples should bring forth Fruit John 15.16 That for this cause Christ died c. that from thenceforth they that live should not live unto themselves c. 2 Cor. 5.15 Now the true Love of God makes the Will of God to be his Will and the Glory of God his End if there were no Beauty in the thing commanded yet shall I dispute his Will that hath redeemed me shall I go about to disappoint him in the End of his Death for me ordinary Reason teacheth me to subscribe and yield Obedience to the Commands of God for they are all most Wise and most Just Commands and though I see not the Wisdom Usefulness and Justice of them yet the same Truth that tells me his ways are unsearchable and past finding out teacheth me to obey when I discern the Authority though not the Reason of the Command But if it were not so suppose I could be a loser by my Obedience I cannot lose so much as I have freely received from him that commands me When Abraham received a Son from the Goodness of God and God required him again Abraham obeys though his Obedience had left him as Childless as the Promise found him But the greatest Command that I can receive from my Saviour cannot return me to so bad a Condition as his Pity and Mercy found me in If he require my Riches my Liberty my Life yet he leaves me somewhat which without his Goodness I had lost and doth more than countervail all my other Losses even my Everlasting Soul When he requires these of me he pays me interest for them Matth. 19.29 But if he did not yet the Price of my Soul in ordinary Gratitude may deserve the life of my Body for what can a Man give in Exchange for his Soul Matth. 16 26. CHAP. XIII Concerning the putting off the Old Man and 1. What it is NOW concerning the putting off the Old Man two things are considerable 1. What this Old Man is 2. How we must put him off For the former it is nothing but that Ataxy Disorder and Corruption which by sin did fall upon our Nature It is not our Nature in its essentials for that is still good but the absence of the Goodness and Perfection of the reasonable Soul which consisted in the Conformity to the Will of God which is the Beauty and Perfection of every thing And from this disorder in the Soul proceeds the disorder in the Life and Actions And this Old Man hath a double strength and advantage uâ—on us 1. In it self the Corruption and Disorder is so universal that the whole Soul is bound under it it hath no supplies of its own to rescue it self for they are all corrupted it is therefore called a Dominion of Sin Rom. 6.12 a body of death Rom. 7.24 a Law of Sin bringing the Soul into captivity Rom. 7.23 2. Accidentally the Prince of the Power of the Air taking advantage of this confusion and disorder of the Soul gets as it were into it and so worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 inhabits it as his Castle and useth the Faculties of the Soul as the Weapons wherein he trusteth became a Ruler of Darkness in the Soul Eph. 6.12 Is Judas covetous the Devil gets into that covetousness and acts it even unto the betraying of the Lord of Life Luke 22.3 Is Peter lifted up upon his Master's atâ—estation of his Confession the Devil gets into that Pride and he becomes a tempter of our Redeemer Matth. 6.23 Is a Man immoderately angry the Devil gets into that Anger and will turn it into Malice Ephes 4.27 The Prince of the World could get no advantage upon our Redeemer he had nothing in him John 14.30 but so much of the Old Man as remains in us such a party hath the Devil in us to entertain nourish and actuate his temptations We shall therefore consider wherein this Corruptition or Deficiency in our Soul consists It is in every part and faculty of the whole Man as may evidently appear by tne enumeration of particulars 1. In the Vnderstanding there wants Light Rom. 1.21 Their foolish heart was darkened Ephes 4.18 And from hence the imaginations become vain Rom. 1.21 and not only vain but evil and continually evil Gen. 6.5 pursues unprofitable Curiosities Acts 19.19 Lusts of the Mind Ephes 2.3 Fables and impertinent Questions Tit. 3.9 1 Tim. 1.4 vain deceit Colos 2.8 It wants a capacity to discern things of greatest concernment 1 Cor. 2.14 the best habits of the Understanding are corrupt The Wisdom of the World is not only Foolishness 1 Cor. 3.19 but Enmity to God is earthly sensual devilish James 3.15 These and the like are the Old Man in the Understanding for the Light being either out or dim the actings of the Understanding are irregular and it is one of the great works of Christ in our renovation to give us the Spirit of a sound Mind 2 Tim. 1.17 2. In the Conscience This is the tenderest part of the Soul the receptacle of that Light and Authority of God which he hath left in us to be our Monitor and his Vicegerent Rom. 2.15 And yet the Old Man hath mastered and corrupted this also puts it awry or out 1 Tim. 1.19 defiles the Mind and Conscience Tit. 1.15 sears the Conscience so that it is insensible and past feeling Ephes 4.19 And if the Conscience be so vigorous as not to be stifled by means of this
so much of the Creatures inferiour to my self as observe the Law of their Creation enjoy a measure of Perfection answerable to their Being and if interrupted in that law of their Nature they lose their Beauty if not their Being The degree of my Being was higher than theirs and so was consequently the End of my Being my Happiness of a higher Constitution than theirs And as my Debt was greater to my Creator for allowing me so high an End so was my ability proportionable to the pursuit and attaining of that End which was thus given to me But what have I been doing all this while I have measured my Heart by that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and I have found my Heart full of the love of the World of Pleasures of Vanities but scarce a thought bestowed on him that gave me Power to think and which is worse my Heart hath held confederacy with all that he hath forbidden insomuch that I may justly conclude that surely nothing but a Heart hating God could so constantly and universally oppose his Will I have measured my Life by the Law of God and I can scarcely find one regular action in it my Heart hath not been so out of frame but it hath still found a full subservience of my whole Man unto it and that with greediness and yet I find all this unsatisfactory and I have cause to fear that is not all Sense doth tell me that in the pursuit of the ways of my Heart I spend my self for that which is not Bread and my labour for that which profiteth not I find no fulness in them but much vexation And Reason as well as Conscience tells me it will be bitterness in the end and the end is death I cannot but know that the great Lord of all Being hath measured out to all his Creatures their Beings and their Happiness suitable to their Beings and their Ways and Rules and Laws to attain their Happiness and if all this while I have been out of that Way I am travelling to another End If in the way of God I should have found Life and everlasting Life for my End out of that Way my End must be Death If I were now to begin my Life I should order it better Though I cannot expiate what is past yet my Soul looks upon it with Sorrow with Indignation with Amazement This is the first degree 2. That they are Vnbecoming Vngrateful and Vndutiful Returns It is implanted even in the sensitive Nature to return good for good We have received all the Good from the hands of that God against whom the practice of our Hearts and Lives hath been a continual Rebellion and upon this Consideration natural Ingenuity works a Shame in the Soul and a secret Condemnation and some kind of loathing so Ungrateful and Undutiful a Constitution 3. But hitherto the Soul looks only backward and these Considerations though they are enough to breed Shame and Despair in the Soul yet they are not strong enough to work Repentance because in those Considerations the Soul looks upon it self in an unexpiable and irrecoverable Condition The amendment will prove fruitless where the former guilt is irreversible and yet enough to sink the Soul Therefore the third Conviction is of the love of God that hath provided a means of pardon and acceptation when a Man throughly convinced of the unprofitableness and desperateness of his actions and condition his extream Ingratitude unto God shall for all this hear a voice after all those things Return back thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful and will not keep mine anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Jer. 3.12 13. This conquers the Soul not only into a dislike of sin past as dangerous and unprofitable but unto a hatred of it and of our selves for it as the enemy to such an invincible Love. The Consideration of our ways past and comparing them with the Law will enforce the Conscience to condemn them but it must be the sense of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ that can only incline us to change them as by the former he concludes his ways dangerous and unprofitable so without the latter he will conclude his Repentance unuseful And hereupon the Soul is cast into such Expressions as these O Lord I have been considering the present temper of my Heart and reviewed the course of my Life and have compared them with the Duty I owe unto thee and the Law which thou gavest me to be the Rule of that Duty and I find my heart and ways infinitely disproportionable to that Rule and thereby I conclude my self a most ungrateful and a miserable Creature But though I have sinned away that stock of Grace and Blessedness with which I was once intrusted by thee I find I have not out-sinned that Fountain of Goodness and Mercy that is in thee even whiles the sight and sense of my own Condition bids me despair either of repenting or acceptation of it yet I hear the voice of that Majesty which I have injured bids me Return and live Ezek. 18.32 Were there no acceptance of my turning from those ways of death and destruction yet it were my duty and though thy Justice might justly reject it yet it might justly require it But yet when thy merciful and free Promise shall crown my Repentance with Acceptation and Life This Love constrains beyond the sense of my own misery And when I hear the voice of my Lord calling to me to return and I will heal your backslidings that Love warms my Heart into that answer Behold I will come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer 3.22 But who can come unto thee unless thou draw him send therefore thy Power along with thy Command for it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth Turn me and I shall be turned I will engage the uttermost of my strength to forsake my ways but I will still wait upon the same Mercy that did invite me to enable me to forsake them By that which preceeds we see a double Repentance 1. That which is Preparatory unto the receiving of Christ which is nothing else but a sense of the unhappiness and evil of our ways as destructive unto our Happiness and dissonant from that Rule of Righteousness which we cannot but naturally subscribe to be Just and Good and this doth naturally breed a Sorrow for what hath been so done and a Purpose and Inclination of Heart to forsake those ways And this was the work of the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord his Doctrine was a Doctrine of Repentance and his Baptism a Baptism of Repentance a Seal of the Entertainment of that Doctrine to as many as received it Matth. 3.2 Luk. 3.16 Acts 19.4 2. That which is Subsequent to that entertainment of Christ in the Heart by Faith which is the sense of