Conjunction and Union with the Soul has such an Influence on it that it certainly inclines it to all manner of Affections which the animal Parts excites it to except when Reason prevails with the Will to resist the Motions of the sensitive Appetite which cannot be while the Intellect is uncapable of the Exercise of Reason 't is manifest that seeing Children in the Mothers Womb have not at all the use of Reason there will be in their Souls an Inclination or Habitude agreeable and correspondent to the Disposition of their corporeal Part which in that it is begot and conceived of Seed issuing from disordered Bodies will it self be in disorder and thereby cause an unanswerable disorderly Disposition in the sensitive Faculty inclining it to Objects of sense and that again work a proportionable inordinate Habitude in the Will which bereaving it of the due Inclination it ought to have towards the true Object of Felicity causes a Want of that Original Disposition of Soul which should and would have been in Children if so be Man had continued in the State of Integrity which Want is that Malady of the Soul Men call Original Sin or Privation of Original Righteousness and is the Consequent in the manner above explain'd of eating the forbidden Fruit. 3. By this Explication of Original Sin God is justified and cleared from all Suspicion of being cause thereof whereas if the Sin of Adam was transferred to his Posterity because their Wills are included as some say in his I see not how the Almighty could be cleared from being the Author of it For since the Wills of Children are not really and truly by Nature in the Wills of their Parents for otherwise all Children should of Right be guilty of all the Sins of their Parents the Wills of Adams Progeny could not be included in the Will of Adam unless God in whose Power the Wills of all Men are would for his Preasures sake have it so If therefore by Gods meer voluntary Constitution the Wills of Adams Posterity be included in Adams Will it follows that by the same Constitution the Sin of Adam is his Posterities Sin also in that the very Reason why the Sin of Adam becomes the Sin of his Posterity is because their Wills are voluntarily constituted by God in his Will which if it were true would make God the Author of Original Sin. Object 1. If Original Sin be derived from Adam by Propagation it cannot be a Privation of Original Righteousness because Privation is the meer want of a thing and not a Positive thing which may be propagated Solut. There are two things to be considered in Original Sin an Habitude or Proneness in the Will towards the Enjoyment of the Creature and a Want of Original Righteousness or Disposition of the Soul towards God which it had by Creation Now although the Want of Original Righteousness be truly and properly Original Sin because if there were no want of that there would be no Original Unrighteousness yet in that the native Habitude or Proneness of the Will towards the Creature Par. 2. instead of God is the reason why the Soul becomes deprived of Original Righteousness that Habitude or Proneness of the Will is also called Original Sin which that and how it proceeds by means of natural Generation was shown in Par. 1. 2. And it is so in all manner of Vice that the irregular Act or Habit is not Vice formally taken but the Privation of the opposite Virtue which ensues upon that irregular Act or Habit and yet nevertheless the irregular Act and Habit are both called Vice Metonimically because it is a necessary Result of each For instance an intemperate Act or Habit is said to be a Vice and yet the formal Reason of their Vitiousness confists in this that the one at least weakens the other destroys the Virtue of Temperance or in case a Man be intemperate before they render it more difficult for him to become Temperate by strengthening or encreasing his Intemperance for it is impossible that any thing should be morally evil but as it deprives of some moral Good or weakens it or puts a Man farther from it for if by Intemperance a Man were not a whit the less Virtuous he would not be one jot the more Vitious than if he were not Intemperate at all And the like may be as truly said of any other irregular Act or Habit of the Will. If it be urged that in case Original Sin descend in the manner before described by propagation it would rather be derived to us from our immediate Parents than from our First since another Temper of Body is communicated by them to us then what was derived from Adam to his own Children as is evident from the manifold different natural Dispositions we meet with in young Children and yet Original Sin is solely fixed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit my Answer is that though it be very true that Infants receive another Disposition from their more immediate Progenitor than what has been perpetually derived from Adam and consequently that some of them also have a greater propensity to Vice through the personal Faults of their nearer Ancestors and Parents yet in that the whole Stock of Mankind ever since Adam has had a proneness from their Conception to the Creature in room of the Creator by reason of the first Transgression Original Sin is rightly imputed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit it being certain that from that Fault alone though there had never been any other therewould have ensued a Want of Original Righteousness in all Mankind Object 2. If Original Sin proceed from a Proneness in the sensitive Appetite towards the Creature and that from the unequal Temper or male Disposition of the body unless the Body be restored to its primitive Constitution which is not to be expected no Man shall ever be quit or clear from Original Sin in this Life Solut. Although Concupiscence be never totally rooted out of the sensitive Faculty in this Life yet it doth not always as it does Infants who have not the use of Reason necessarily so influence the Will as it does the sensitive Appetites and the Will is the only proper Seat of Sin but may through a virtuous Course of Life be so far mastered and subjugated to the Power and Command of the Will that it shall be able to give but small and ineffectual disturbance to the Rational Faculties which actually falls out so often as the Soul acquires the Habit of Virtue whereby it obtains a sincere Affection to God as its Sovereign Good for such Affection or Charity as shall be shown afterward Sect. 11. not only frees the Soul from Original but all other mortal Sin likewise whilst it is thereby formally justified and put into a State of Grace and Salvation 4. The mentioned Difficulties about Original Sin removed I go forward to shew that as Original Sin proceeds from our first Parents eating of the Tree
of the Knowledg of Good and Evil so doth Actual Sin from Original as the Source and Spring from whence it flows For Original Sin being a Want of Original Righteousness by reason of an Habitude or Proneness to the Love of the Creature in the Soul that Habitude or Proneness when the Intellect is once capable of actually apprehending an Object of sensual Delight will be apt to proceed to an actual Desire which is actual Sin unless some rational Motive be offered by the Understanding which shall prevail with the Will to prefer the Spiritual Joy of the Mind before the sensual Pleasure of the Body which for cause that shall be shewn Sect. 9. cannot generally if at all be but by virtue of supernatural Helps from God. 5. And not only Sin both Actual and Original but all sorts of Miseries likewise which befall Mankind proceed from eating of the forbidden Fruit. For as for Infirmities Diseases Sickness and Death they at first sight almost shew whose ugly Brats they be For what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and whence comes this but from some either excess or defect of Humors in the Body and neither of these had been found in the World if the same Constitution of Body had still continued in all Mankind which was in our first Parents till they were induced to eat of the forbidden Fruit. For since in these words Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return Gen. 3. 19 is contained part of Adams Doom it appears that if he had not sinned he had not died that is if he had not eaten of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil he had not been deprived of that Constitution of Body which would always have preserved him alive And for Diseases and Sickness what else are they but Male-dispositions of the Body arising from an undue Mixture of Humors or from some Obstruction both which the State of Innocency was clear and free from tending to Death So that a Disease or Sickness as such may be rightly said to be Death or a Dissolution begun which verifies in a literal sense over and above the mystical the words spoken by God to Adam On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die for the just Temper of his Body was then corrupted when the Temptation prevailed the first cause of all the succeeding Alterations which brought it by degrees to dissolution And as to Infirmities whereunto add corporal Exuberances and Defects do they not all come from an unequal Quantity and Disproportion of Seed or elementary Principles which befel Mans Body at first from eating of the Apple or Fruit Grief then together with Discord Damnation and Hell remain only to be spoken of which when I have first answered an Objection that here offers it self I shall make known whose foul and cursed Off-spring they likewise be Object 3. 'T was said Sect. 4. Par. 12. that Man was created to enjoy the Beatific Vision which how he could have done if so be our first Parents had continued innocent and never have died is not easie to conceive Solut. It is easier to conceive that then how if Mankind had been immortal the Earth should have born them for the Multitude of Men by a perpetual Generation would have exceeded the number of Atoms in the Universe But in case we reflect how that the State of Innocency was not a State of Perfection Sect. 4. Par. 15. and yet that Man was created to attain Perfection in the full Fruition of God by Intellectual Vision Sect. 4. Par. 12. 't is not difficult to gather that Adam and his Posterity if they had persevered in Innocency should have been exercised for a time in such Duties Ways and Means as would have only prepared them for the Everlasting Enjoyment of God which because it is placed in the perfect Love of God clearly seen Sect. 4. Par. 13. those Duties Ways and Means must have been such as would from time to time have excited and encreased their Affection to God as namely observing admiring and lauding his excellent and wonderful Power Wisdom and Godness manifested in the admirable Works of the Creation and the continual Preservation of them which when they had so long and effectually done that they could have been no longer satisfied with beholding the Creator in the Glass of the Creature their Desire of seeing him in Himself would have grown so vehement that they could have had no Rest without seeing him face to face and consequently since the Almighty had made them for that End and appointed those Means they had used to fit them for it 't would have been altogether becoming and consentaneous to his unchangeable Goodness to translate them from the Earthly to the Heavenly Paradise their Natural Bodies being changed into Spiritual Bodies and thereby made unmeet to live on the Terrestial Globe like as St. Paul says of those that shall be found alive at the day of Judgment Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Corinth 15. 51. And again Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them i. e. the Dead in Christ Vers 16. in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall be ever with the Lord. 1 Thess 4. 17. Why all this should not be rationally enough offer'd in answer to the Objection I apprehend not But yet if we seriously reflect that God is Omniscient and knows at once and always every thing and by consequence had as primarily in his Knowledg the Fall of Adam as his Creation we must conclude that God from Eternity determined how Adam should be dealt with after his Fall rather than what his Progress to Bliss should be in case he fell not when as he inerrably knew he would certainly fall And therefore he had no earlier Thoughts of creating Man than he had of calling him to Repentance and of providing him a Saviour the Necessity whereof will be shown in the 9th Section there being no succession of Thoughts in God concerning those things whereof there is a Succession in themselves whence he at once eternally saw the Creation and End of it with all the Means whereby it was to be successively brought to pass of which we have some imperfect Resemblance in a skillful Architect who about to build a stately Palace has the whole Model of the Building together in his Mind although the Parts thereof be successively framed and the Materials fitted for the Work one after another For the Omniscient saw together in his Thoughts the noblest Universe of Creatures which all Created Beings could possibly constitute for producing the most Excellent End that could be Sect. 3. Pag. 8. Among those Creatures some were to operate necessarily some voluntarily towards procuring the general grand Effect to be produced of the latter sort of which Man was ordained to bear a considerable share who though by original Constitution he might have
efficacious Cause of Mans Eternal Felicity the truth of which shall hereafter God assisting be shown in particular as it hath already been in general SECT XI Faith Hope and Charity are necessary Means for procuring everlasting Bliss Sincere habitual Charity formally expels Mortal Sin and is therefore formal but in compleat Righteousness Perfect Charity formally expells all Sin and is therefore perfect formal Righteousness or the absolute fulfilling of the Divine Law. 1. SInce it is clear by Sect. 8. Solut. of Object 1. that God created Man and gave him a Law not in expectation of any Profit or Pleasure to be acquired to himself but altogether for the Benefit and Delight of Man and that it is likewise proved in Sect. 4. that the End for which Man was created and had a Law given him is the full Fruition of God by perfect Love it necessarily follows in regard the End cannot be obtain'd but by Means available for procuring of it that the Knowledge of the Means available thereto no less than of the End it self is requisite to be had in order to the Acquisition of the perfect Love of God or that full Enjoyment of him which is Mans Ultimate End and eternal Felicity 2. And because Men arrive not at the certain Knowledg of things but either by Demonstration which begets Science or by an inerrable Testimony which creates an infallible Belief 't is clear seeing a Demonstration wherein Felicity consists tho it be a thing in it self demonstrable as appears by Sect. 4. cannot by the generality of Mankind be attained unto much less wherein all the Means available to the obtaining of Felicity some of them being positive and supernatural are placed that a Revelation from God who alone is inerrable was necessary for the Discovery both of the Means of Bliss and of Bliss it self to the World in order to Man's acquiring of Beatitude 3. And forasmuch as that Knowledg which proceeds from and is caused by Divine Revelation is Divine Belief or Faith 't is plain that Divine Faith is required on Man's part towards the obtaining of Felicity 4. And in regard it is ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity to have firm Belief only wherein it truly consists and what the Means available to procure it are without some farther Progress made towards the getting possession of it which will never be unless a man have Hope by reason of the Divine Promise that in the due use of the means of Bliss he shall acquire the same 't is plain that Divine Hope is likewise requisite as well as Faith for every one that shall eternally be saved 5. And forasmuch as he that has a right Belief both of Bliss and the Means available to it and withal an Assurance that in the due use of the Means Felicity will be attainable by him shall reap no Benefit thereby if he never enter upon a resolved serious Course of making a constant diligent use of those Means which he most certainly will not do unless he first have an unfeigned ardent desire to enjoy the End whereto they tend the eternal Fruition of God 't is evident that the sincere and hearty love of God or Charity proceeding from Faith and Hope for no good Man stedfastly desires what he believes not to be true or has no Hope to obtain is moreover necessary for the acquirment of Felicity 6. And seeing the habitual Love of God above all things is utterly inconsistent with the habitual Love of the World above God 't is manifest that by the accession of the habitual Love of God above all things into the Soul the habitual Love of the World above God is necessarily expelled and consequently that Sin whether taken privatively as an Aversion from God or positively for a Conversion to the Creature which brings everlasting Death and Damnation Sect. 7. whence it is called mortal and damnable Sin. 7. Hence in regard as well Paena sensus as Paena damni are the natural and necessary Result of the perpetual Continuance in sin in the manner before shown Sect. 7. it is manifest that Charity possessing the Soul and thereby freeing it from mortal Sin by formally expelling it out of the same Par. 6. secures it from the Danger both of the loss of Heaven and of incurring the Pains of Hell. 8. And forasmuch as he that is secured from the Danger of Damnation and the Pains of Hell is freed from the Guilt of mortal Sin which is a liableness to be eternally damned and tormented for Sin and that he who is freed from the Guilt of mortal Sin is blameless and innocent in respect of the mortal Breach of the Law which alone creates a mortal Guilt and that he who is blameless and innocent in respect of the mortal Breach of the Law is a righteous Person or acquit by the Law from the Punishment due in respect of such Breach it necessarily follows that Charity in regard it formally expells mortal Sin the mortal Breach of the Law is formal Righteousness or the formal Cause of Justification being that which formally justifies and makes Righteous 9. And as every degree of sincere habitual Charity formally expells mortal Sin and thereby frees the Soul from mortal Guilt and the Consequent of it eternal Pain as well that of the Torments of Hell as of the loss of Heaven so doth perfect Charity formally expel all Sin and consequently remove all Guilt and thence exempt from all Pain and Misery whatsoever For he that loves God with all the Might and Power of his Soul hath thereby of necessity totally rooted out of it all the love of the World and so hath no Sin but is perfectly Righteous and hath fulfilled the Great Commandment or Royal Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind which to do is compleat Righteousness the highest Act of glorifying God and eternal Felicity Object 1. When the Act whereby the Law of God is transgressed be it Adultery Theft or any other Enormity is over the Sin is past and yet the Guilt remains which is contrary to what hath been said Solut. The Sin is not past when the Act of Adultery Theft or any other Enormity is over For since Sin formally taken is a Want or Privation of that sincere hearty Affection which the Soul ought to have unto God as its Sovereign Good Sect. 8. Par. 3 4 't is evident that the Sin still remains tho the materially sinful Act be over so long as there is a Want of the due Love of God in the Soul which there always is till it be habitually endued with Charity And while the Sin remains the Guilt must needs do so but no longer for 't is only while a Man is in the State of mortal Sin that he is obnoxious to eternal Misery and not when he is in the State of Grace or ready Way to Bliss as he evermore is when he has an habitual
had never been recovered from his lost Condition to have attained the end of his Creation if God himself had not undertaken the great and otherwise insuperable Work of his Recovery by being made Man and in doing and suffering what he did to regain his Love. And therefore lastly whereas Christs bloody Death and Passion was the strongest and most endearing Argument and Motive of all other Testimonies of his stupendious Love to man for drawing his Affections off from the Love of the World to the Love of God which is the purging away of Sin the shedding of Christs pretious Blood on the Cross is said to be a Sacrifice for Sin that is for the putting or taking away of Sin even as the sacred Text it self directly asserteth He appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Hence it is that mans Redemption and Salvation are so frequently attributed to Christs Death on the Cross it being the most remarkable Instance of his Love and thereupon the potentest Motive of all others to win mans firm Affection to himself For that our Blessed Saviours Incarnation and whatsoever he either did or suffered in his Manhood are likewise real Causes of mans Redemption and Salvation the Churches Litany assures us in which we pray to be delivered from all Sin and Mischief from the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil from the Wrath of God and from everlasting Damnation by the Mystery of Christs holy Incarnation by his holy Nativity and Circumcision by his Baptism Fasting and Temptation by his Agony and Bloody Sweat by his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by his sending of the Holy Ghost aswell as by his Cross and Passion Object 6. If after all the Endeavour that hath been used to frame Arguments to solve Objections and to explicate how mans Redemption Reconciliation and Salvation are in a true scriptural Sense wrought by Christ for clearing the Assertion that the sincere habitual Love of God or Charity is the Formal Cause of Justification it be found that the Assertion it self is repugnant to the 11th Article of our Religion wherein it is said that we are justified by Faith only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ all that has been done is nothing better not to say worse then labour in vain Solut. That Christ's Doings and Sufferings which constitute his Merit are a real Cause of mans Justification has been both asserted and proved in this Section so that if any difference be between what the 11th Article teaches and what is averred by me concerning Justification 't is only after what manner the Merit of Christ justifies a Sinner namely whether as an Efficient or a Formal Cause And yet even as to this also there will be found no difference when the matter is well discussed For I stedfastly hold and maintain together with the Article that Christ's Merit is apprehended and applied to a Sinner for his Justification by Faith only whilst he firmly believes that God through them will according to his free Promise in the Gospel deliver him from the Slavery of Sin and the Consequent of it everlasting Misery so that in regard it is the Grace of Faith alone which draws the Merit of Christ home to a Christians Soul whence it becomes an effectual Motive to gain his Affections in turning them from the false Pleasures of the World unto God the sole true Delight of the Soul which is to be an efficient Cause of cleansing the Heart from Sin through Charity it must needs be that in this sense we are justified for the Merit of Christ by Faith only And that the 11th Article of Religion is to be understood in this sense seems clear both from the words wherein it is expressed and from the Churches Homily referred to for a fuller explication of what they intend The words of the Article are these We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholsome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Here 't is plain that our Blessed Saviour is affirmed to be the meritorious Cause of Justification and it is undeniably true that aswell Divines as Philosophers place a Meritorious Cause among the efficient Causes whence the learned Prelate Forbesius writeth thus Justitia Christi nos justificari ut Causa formali atque etiam meritoria ut asserunt qui priorem tuentur sententiam nempe Christi Justitiam esse Causam formalem Justificationis dici non potest nequit enim fieri ut eadem res sit simul Causa efficiens ad quam Meritum reducitur Formalis ejusdem effecti quia sic simul de essentia effecti foret non foret cum Causa formulis sit interna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efficiens autem externa uti constat Considerationes modestae pacificae Lib 2. Cap. 3. Paragr 5. Seeing then it is impossible that a Meritorious Cause should be a Formal Cause and that in the 11th Article no mention is made of a Formal Cause it remains that the Merit of Christ spoken of in the Article is either an efficient Cause of Mans Justification or else none at all And the same is likewise manifest from the Churches Homily referred to in the Article in which we read Part 2. Par. 4. as follows You shall understand that in our Justification by Christ it is not all one thing the Office of God unto Man and the Office of Man unto God. Justification is not the Office of Man but of God or Man cannot make himself righteous by his own Works neither in part nor in the whole for that were the greatest Arrogancy and Presumption of Man that Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that Man might by his own Works take away and purge his own Sins and so justifie himself What can well be more plain unless it were expressed in the very Language of the Schools then that God is here affirmed and Man denied to be the efficient Cause of his Justification But Justification is the Office of God only and is not a thing which we render to him but which we receive of him not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free mercy and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son our only Redeemer Saviour and Justifier Jesus Christ Here the free Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ are put together as Causes of the same kind and who is ignorant that the free Mercy of God is an efficient Cause only of Justification so that the true understanding of this Doctrine We be freely justified by Faith without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is
therefore said to nourish the Body because being digested by the Stomach they afford Chyle which sanguified immediately refresheth and strengthens it so the Body and Blood of Christ crucified are there said to nourish the Soul because being applied to it by Faith they confirm it in Charity which is the Spiritual Nourishment and Strength thereof being that which immediately unites it to God Sect. 11. and in the Souls Union with God is the Spiritual Life Strength and Vigor thereof 6. That then the Sacrament of Baptism is the Sacrament of Initiation and introduces Charity into the Soul and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Sacrament of confirming and strengthening the same is in general made manifest And how each of them in particular effects what it was instituted for shall be briefly seen 7. Baptism which is the initiating Ordinance is not to be administred to any that are capable to understand to what intent it was ordained till they give an account of their Belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith and make a serious and solemn profession of their unfeigned desire and stedfast resolution to forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and to lead a godly righteous and sober Life in which if they be sincere and understand as they ought to do that the external washing with Water or dipping therein denotes the inward cleansing of the Soul from Sin or a dying to Sin and rising again to newness of Life and is a Seal likewise and Means thereof how can it be doubted of but that the Sacramental Action of Baptism being duly performed should to one so prepared have the Effect it was intended for and improve his holy purpose and resolution of leading a new Life into a real performance of the same For to suppose the Soul rightly prepared and immediately disposed to receive Baptism and Baptism duly administred and yet the Effect of Baptism or Res Sacramenti not to follow were to suppose an entire adequate Cause actually causing without its proper Effect ensuing or a thing actually to cause and yet nothing answering thereto actually caused which is impossible 8. And as to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is an Ordinance for Confirmation and strengthening of Grace in that it represents unto us the bloody Passion of our Saviour in a more solemn sacred and venerable manner by Christ's own intendment and designation than any other divine Institution doth it must certainly to him who comes with due Reverence and Devotion to that august Mystery and stupendious Token of God's immense and endearing Love to Man be the most effectual Means possible to cause a deep impression of Charity in his Soul and even ravish and transport him with the Love of so good and gracious a God and Benefactor Object 1. If the expulsion of Sin by the accession of Charity be the Effect of the Sacrament of Baptism then can no man be justified without being actually baptized with Water although he really repent and be truly converted to God. Solut. If so be that external Baptism were the only Cause of the Remission or taking away of mortal Sin the consequence would be good but the desire of Baptism for the washing away of Sin may be so ardent and operative in some that Charity will be obtained before the actual administration of the Sacrament and whensoever and by what means soever Charity is introduced into the Soul Mortal Sin is necessarily cast out thereby sect 11. par 6. But few without the Sacramental washing with water though piously disposed have the habit of Charity compleated in them Neither is Baptism given in vain even to those whose mortal Sin is expelled out of the Soul before it be administred for since there are as many degrees of Righteousness as there are of Charity sect 11. par 8 9. the actual receiving of that Sacrament will cause in them an encrease of Charity and so of Righteousness which is never perfect till the Love of God be so ardent that it wholly burns up all the dross of carnal and earthly Affections in the Soul Sect. 11. Object 2. If the Belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith and an earnest desire and a stedfast resolution to forsake Sin and to lead a godly Life be Dispositions necessarily required in those who are to be baptized then is Infant-Baptism a fruitless and insignificant thing Solut. It is evident as well by the Office of Baptism as by the Church-Catechism that Infants through their Sureties are engaged before the Church will admit them to Baptism except in imminent danger of Death in which Case the Church enjoyning speedy Baptism becomes it self Surety thereby and therefore orders that the Child if it live be brought into the public Congregation and that the Godfathers and Godmothers undertake for it like to what is done in public Baptism to believe themselves the Articles of Christian Faith and to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil when they come to Age no less than such as are of ripe years are obliged to declare they already do unfeignedly all those things by which it appears that the Benefit which accrues by Baptism to both has a reference to and proceeds on their part upon the account and ground of a true profession of Faith and a real endeavour after Holiness of Life So that although Baptism be administred to Children before they understand it yet the effect and benefit of it more than this that they obtain thereby the grand Privilege of becoming Members of the visible Church whence they are brought to enjoy the great Blessing of Christian Education takes not place nor is reaped till they do And thus it is easie to apprehend as to those Children that live till they have the use of Reason how Baptism becomes profitable to them whilst if they get benefit thereby they must perform what their Sureties promised for them which if they unfeignedly do by cordially believing the Christian Doctrine and by taking a firm resolution through the Grace of God to live a godly Life the Consideration of the gracious Design of Christ's instituting of Baptism to take away Sin and of the solemn Celebration of it by the Church for their sake to that end will if the Consideration be such as it should be cause a loathing of Sin and a real forsaking thereof for the Love of God. For why Baptism already past should not through a serious reflecting on it especially when Confirmation is duly according to the great importance of it administred be an effectual Means of cleansing the heart from Sin as well as it is by the earnest desire thereof before it be had will not be easily I believe resolved The main difficulty to unfold is how Baptism can profit Children that die young Those who say that Grace is immediately infused by God will be hard put to 't to give a tolerable Reason to what good purpose the Use of Means is when the Effect receives
end to make the Earth so barren as that without the Sweat of their Brows it should not yield them necessary Maintenance And then forasmuch as God works not Miracles where natural causes are sufficient to effect his Purpose 't is most reasonable to think that the Earth was made less fruitful in the way which in the Objection it is supposed that it might fall out to wit by causing that Motion of the Earth or Course peradventure of the Sun it matters not whether which makes difference of Seasons and alteration of the Air whence also Sicknesses and Diseases would be apt to grow and so constant causes of Misery and Mortality be in all Ages ready at hand to put Men in mind of their frail and sinful Condition and thence become not tormentive Revenges but connatural Means Motives and Inducements to make them fly with sorrow of Heart and full purpose of amending their Lives for Wickedness even in the apprehension of the very Pagans was the Cause of the Calamities which befel Men to God for Succour Help and Comfort and so to build their Hopes and put their Trust in him and consequently to love him as their Sovereign Benefactor If it be replied that what has yet been said falls short of resolving the main difficulty which is how the eating of the Fruit could be the connatural Cause or a necessary Motive to God for altering either the Course of the Sun or the Motion of the Earth by which the Air became distempered for the Sin of Man My Answer is first that admitting there was a Change either of the annual course of the Sun or of the Motion of the Earth from what it was at first it will I think be hard to give any other good account why the Change was made save only that which has been given already namely for embarrening the Earth and bringing Distempers and Diseases on Mankind to drive them in a manner to have a sense of their sinful sad Condition to the end they might cast themselves upon the Mercy and Goodness of God and place their Affections on him for the same But I answer secondly that there is in truth no necessity to grant there was any different Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth from what it was annually afterward for the Omniscient eternally comprehending at once what will ever be the Effects as well of all voluntary as necessary Causes could not chuse but know that Adam would voluntarily fall from the State wherein he created him and exactly at what time and therefore ordered from Eternity such a successively various Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth as would be congruous both to the Estate of Mans Integrity and of his lapsed Condition for helping him on towards Felicity For that Adams Continuance in Paradise was but short may be rationally inferred from hence that the crafty Serpent could not be ignorant that the longer our first Parents persevered in the Practice of Obedience and frequent pious Duties seriously performed to God the harder still it would be for him to overcome them by his designed Temptation in that Habits are evermore strengthened and confirmed by the iteration of Act and therefore questionless he would not omit especially considering his violent restless Desire to do Mischief the very first opportunity of assailing them and we do not read of any more Temptations of his offered to them but only one so that their Fall might very well be before the Airs Distemper could happen though the annual Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth was never different from what it is at present If it be alledged that such Knowledge in God as has been mentioned must either be the cause of Adam's Fall and consequently of Sin which would be Blasphemy to affirm or else it must proceed from and depend upon the Fall as the Object whence it is derived which would be absurd to assert I answer there is no necessity of granting either for as to Sin since it is a meer Privation Sect. 8. Par. 3 4. 't is impossible there should be any efficient cause thereof And in that every Man knows his own Thoughts and Actions without a Monitor or receiving notice of them from any thing besides himself is it not evident that if God be as primarily intimate to a Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself is he 'l as primarily know immediately of and from himself the Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself doth from himself And that God is as primarily intimate to every Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself is appears from hence that in whatever any of them is distant from pure nothing it has the same by the Divine Power Will or Mind intrinsically concurring to the Production of it and so God must of necessity as primarily know it and as intimately as the Man knows it himself Nor is the mentioned Divine Concurrence let Man's Thoughts and Actions be what they will any cause at all of Sin for Thoughts and Actions are never sinful as such they are only sinful when and as they are directed and tend to a wrong end and such Direction and Tendency proceeds wholly from Man and not in the least from God by which the Mind is alienated and turned away from the Object of Felicity for in the Alienation and Aversion of the Mind from God in whose Fruition Felicity is placed doth Sin formally consist Sect. 8. Par. 3 4. Objection 11. You assert Sect. 4. par 14. That if Man had once enjoyed the Beatific Vision he could never have fallen from Bliss for which though you produce there such reason as to me I confess appears sufficient to make it out yet the plausibleness of the Praeexistentiarian Hypothesis makes me somewhat doubt of the certainty of the Truth of your Assertion especially considering your agreement with it in this that God does what is best for his Creatures and that it seems reasonable to think that such a praeexistent state as is described in Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. p. 113. was best for Rational Souls Of which Opinion I greatly desire to know what your Sentiments are Answer You put me upon a very ungrateful Task for I love not to intermeddle with other mens Writings yet to afford you what satisfaction I can in a single Sheet I will give you my Thoughts concerning the mentioned Hypothesis so far as relates to my Assertion That the Beatific Vision once fully enjoyed can never be deserted or lost in pursuance of which it will be convenient to transcribe the place you direct me to which contains these express Words The Eternal and Almighty Goodness the blessed Spring and Root of all things made all his Creatures in the best happiest and most perfect condition that their respective Natures rendered them capable of and therefore they were then constituted in the inactuation and exercise of their noblest and most perfect Powers Consequently the Souls of men a
other World will by being eternally separated from its Pleasures convert into a hopeless desire and upon that account grow more furious impatient For of all the torments of the Mind I know none that is comparable to that of an outragious desire joyn'd with despair of satisfaction which is just the case of sensual worldly-minded Souls in the other Life where they are full of sharp and unrebated desires and like starved men that are shut up between two dead Walls are tormented with a fierce but hopeless hunger which having nothing else to feed on preys and quarries on themselves and in this desolate condition they are forced to wander to and fro tormented with a restlefs Rage and Hunger and unsatisfied desire oraving Food but neither finding nor expecting any and so in unexpressible Anguish they pine away a long Eternity And though they might find Content and Satisfaction could they but diver their affections another way and reconcile them to the heavenly Enjoyments yet being irrecoverably pre-engaged to sensual Goods they have no Savour nor Relish of any thing else but are like Feverish Tongues that disgust and nauseate the most grateful Liquors by reason of their own over flowing Gall. Lastly if in any thing I have writ about Christ's meritorious Satisfaction I peradventure fully accord not with some Divines the difference when the Matter is duly weigh'd will prove I hope to be only verbal For I assert sect 11. First That Christ's death on the Cross was of infinite value and merit Secondly That by and through the same Remission of Sin Justification and every other Good whether of Grace or Glory are obtain'd Thirdly That Christ's Crucifixion was as real and proper an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin as any under the Law of Moses but of infinitely more value ever was Fourthly That God's Justice is de jure prevented thereby from being exerted agaist Sinners in their everlasting Destruction The only difference then if any remaining is in this That I cannot apprehend what some others perchance think viz. That Christ's Merits operate upon God and work an Effect of Mercy and Favour in his Will whereas I humbly conceive them to be a secondary efficient Cause subservient to God's Love to Man for conveying and applying the same unto him by being an effectual Means of converting his Affections from the Vanities of the World unto God that he may be eternally saved for which I offer to serious consideration these following Reasons inducing me thereto 1. That Christ's most gracious doings and sufferings for Man are held by all Christians to be a Meritorious Cause 2ly That a Meritorious Cause is an efficient Cause 3ly That it is the Property of an Efficient Cause to work some real Effect 4ly That it seems plainly impossible that any real Effect should be wrought in God who is impassible and immutable sect 1. par 8 9. for otherwise seeing whatsoever is in God is God sect 1. par 11. such an Effect would be God himself and so the Merits of Christ would be the efficient Cause of the Deity 5ly That Christ's Merits therefore are not an antecedent but a subsequent Cause to the merciful-lovingkindness of God to Man by which the eternal Goodness actually confers all the happy Effects of divine Favour and Grace on him whereby he is delivered from Sathan Sin and Damnation and brought to everlasting Bliss If it be replied that however plausible yea certainly true this arguing be yet there is something more in Christ's Suffering for the Sin of Man than what hath hitherto been said namely the satisfying Divine Justice I answer that strictly speaking neither Justice nor Mercy nor other Attributes of God are formally distinct either from one another or from the very Essence of the Deity Sect. 1. Par. 11. and therefore albeit I willingly grant that Christ died for all men even the Reprobate as to me seems plain from these Words of the Apostle But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Damnation 2 Pet. 2. 1. yet it was not to this very intent and purpose that he should undergo those Pains and Punishments which were allotted for Sin the everlasting Torments of Hell but to put Mankind thereby into a Way State and Condition that not any one should finally perish save only such as embraced not the Mercy of God in Christ manifested to the World in his Holy Gospel for what Justice is it that the Damned should suffer the Pains of Hell in case Christ had as truly and fully satisfied for them as if they had already undergone them themselves If it be answered that the actual Benefit of Christ's Satisfaction only reaches to those who believe in him and obey his Word so as that they shall not perish but have everlasting Life I readily own that Christ's Merits and more especially his bloody Death and Passion did in this sense abundantly satisfie Divine Justice for by these he really affected that none can justly be damned to whom they are applied by a lively and efficacious Faith Sect. 11. so that at the last day it will be equally just for God to render some for and through the Merits of Christ eternally blessed as it will be to give up others for their Sins to be for ever miserably afflicted and contrariwise it would be alike unjust to save the Wicked in that day who do not believe in Christ and obey him as to destroy the Godly who believe and put their Trust and Confidence in him whose Death on the Cross was as real a propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin but of infinitely more value as the annual expiatory Sacrifice under the Law as by the explanation of the Nature and Efficacy of it will appear The Sacrifice of Expiation was never compleat and perfect nor had the designed and due Effect of its Institution by the sole slaying and offering of the Beast however rightly and solemnly performed both by the Priest and People unless they added thereto the afflicting of themselves as is plain by Levit. 16. ver 29 30 31. In the seventh Month in the tenth Day of the Month ye shall afflict your Souls and do no Work at all whether it be one of your own Country or a Stranger that sojourneth among you For on that day shall the Priest make an Atonement for you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your Sins before the LORD It shall be a Sabbath of Rest unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever And again Chapt. 23. ver 27 28 29 30 31 32. On the tenth Day of this seventh Month there shall be a Day of Atonement it shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls and offer an Offering made by Fire unto the LORD And ye shall do no work in that
same day for it is a day of Atonement to make an Atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from among his People And whatsoever Soul it be that doth any Work in that same day the same Soul will I destroy from among his People Ye shall do no manner of Work it shall be a Statute for ever throughout your Generations in all your Dwellings It shall be unto you a Sabbath of Rest and ye shall afflict your Souls on the ninth day of the Month at Even from Even unto Even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath Lo how strictly it was commanded by God that every one should afflict himself to wit with Fasting and other pious Signs of Sorrow as Interpreters agree and to what end but that their afflicting themselves should work Contrition in them for their sins that the Lord might be propitious to them for without Contrition the inward Sacrifice of the Heart and a real turning from Sin unto God to which the very External Rite of Sacrificing did contribute something I say something for the Law made nothing perfect Hebr. 7. 19. whensoever it was seriously perform'd with calling to mind and detesting their Sin which the Institution necessarily required the offering of the Victim was not at all grateful to God but rather an Abomination to him though in the sight of the People who are not privy to the thoughts of the Heart the Law was fulfilled thereby and Offenders freed from Judicial Punishment as diverse Places of Holy Writ plainly shew To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the LORD I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the Fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an Abomination to me new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn Meeting Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a Trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your Hands I will hide my Eyes from you yea and when ye make many Prayers I will not hear your Hands are full of Blood. Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your Doings from before mine Eyes cease to do Evil Isa 1. ver 11 12 13 14 15 16. To what purpose cometh there to me Incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your Burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me Jerem. 6. 20. I hate I despise your Feast-days and I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies Though ye offer me Burnt-offerings and your Meat-Offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the Peace-offerings of your fat Beasts Amos 5. 21 22. But of the inward Sacrifice of the Heart Contrition thus saith the Royal Prophet The Sacrifice of God is a troubled Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God shalt thou not despise Psal 51. 17. And in all sincere Contrition a renouncing of Sin is always necessarily implied for whoever in good earnest bewails his sin cannot while so doing continue in a voluntary course of sinning There was then no Remission of Sin before God even under the Law of Moses but that Transgressors notwithstanding their observance of its external Ordinances were liable to Punishment yea and that Temporal also as well as Eternal as is evident from the Almighties afflicting the Jewish Nation with Plagues Famines and Captivity for their sins to prevent the sinning still anew and consequently the Aggravation of the Pain of such as he knew would never be reclaim'd and to be a Motive to the rest to leave their wicked ways in this World and transmitting those that continued obstinate and impenitent to everlasting Misery in the World to come for no Repentance no Pardon He that covereth his Sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have Mercy Prov. 28. 13. Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the Vnrighteous Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the LORD and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. 7. It may be that the House of Judah will hear all the Evil which I purpose to do unto them that they may return every Man from his evil Way that I may forgive their Iniquity and their Sin Jerem. 36. 8. If the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his Transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his Righteousness that he hath done he shall live Ezek. 18. 21 22. Neither are Sins remitted in the time of the Gospel any more than they were in the time of the Law unless forsaken as might be proved from many Texts of the New Testament of which for brevities sake I will produce some few plain ones Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13. 3. 5. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. But shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the Coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn unto God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26. 20. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. as if the Apostle had said Let no Man presume that Christ will save any one who is a Christian unless by virtue of his Christianity he depart from iniquity Since then it is apparent that there is no Pardon of sin without Repentance and Conversion unto God and that the design of the Sacrifice of Expiation in Moses's Law was to be a Motive and Cause to incline Men to call their sins to remembrance to be sorry for them and to forsake them without doing of which that Sacrifice had not the Effect intended by its Institution as is clear from the Scriptures above recited it remains only to make it manifest that Christ's Crucifixion was a proper Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin to shew these two things First That he purposely came to suffer Death upon the Cross to the end that he might convert men thereby from their sins to God. And Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those that are so converted First That Christ came on purpose into this World to die the Death of the Cross for this very end that he might turn Mens Hearts from Sin unto God these following Texts of Sacred Writ will irrefragably I doubt not evince When our Blessed Saviour told his Disciples of his Death near at hand he said Now is my Soul
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA