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
beneficial if sincerely obeyed to every one for promoving his everlasting Welfare and not meerly because it is according to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Mind for so is also every positive Command of God for whatever God once approves of he eternally approves of as good for what and so long as he intended it for the longer or shorter Continuance of any of Gods Ordinances or Institutions or the more or less usefulness they are of towards the End to be obtained by them makes them neither more nor less agreeable to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Wisdom which exactly fits every thing the Almighty institutes for the Occasion he intends it with irreversible Council the whole Change which ever happens in Divine Commands being wholly for the Creatures Sake to whose variable Condition in several Ages of the World several different Institutions and Dispensations have been suited by the eternal immutable Wisdom and good Will of God Opera mutat Deus sed non consilia St. August SECT IX Mans Recovery from his laps'd and lost Condition wherein it consists and how wrought Natural ways and means unable of themselves to procure it Supernatural Causes chiefly prevalent to that End. Of these the Free Love of God to Man and the Incarnation of his eternal only begotten Son with the Consequents of it are the chief 1. SInce it has been made apparent First that the Honour wherewith God requires to be eternally glorified is the loving him with all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and that so to love him is Mans ultimate End and everlasting Bliss Sect. 4. Secondly That Man by Creation was placed in a Condition through the Rectitude of his Intellect and Integrity of his Will and the due subordination of the inferiour Faculties together with a good Constitution of Body which put him in the direct Way towards the obtaining of that his Ultimate End and chiefest Good. Sect. 4. Thirdly That by eating of the forbidden Fruit Man fell from that Condition wherein he was created into a State of Sin and Misery the latter of which is the necessary conseqent of the former Sect. 5 6. and 7. and Fourthly That Sin is an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature or the deserting the Love of God for the Love of the World Sect. 8. 't is plain that to cause Man to withdraw and take off his Affections from the World and so to place and fix them again on God that he shall at length attain to the full Enjoyment of him in loving him with all his Heart and with all his Soul and with all his Mind is to restore him or to put him again into the Way which shall bring him to the End for which he was created 2. That this could never have been effected by any Natural Means is plain from hence that ever since the native Temper of our first Parents Bodies was corrupted the Objects of sense which before contributed Help and Assistance in their Kind towards the Souls Progress in the Love of God wrought a contrary Effect by alluring the Sensitive Appetite to the immoderate Love of themselves not through any newly acquired Malignity in them but because the Subject receiving them was changed from its first Constitution which being once corrupted the Distemper consequent upon it if not by some means corrected would grow worse For Children by the frequent beating of corporeal Objects on their Senses would be much addicted to those which were grateful to the Carnal Appetite before they grew up to the use of Reason And when they had attained to riper years their Bodies would be grown so hot and their Passions thereby especially being often fomented so strong and violent that they would commonly overbear and sway their Rational Faculties Add to this that Men being prone to be led by the Example of those they converse with the Vices of one another would mutually debauch and confirm them in their inordinate Lusts from all which a general Neglect of God and consequently a gross Ignorance of him would at length ensue The truth of this was so evidently seen among the Gentiles that the Knowledge of the one true God was mostly lost Yea and even those of them who had some right Notions of him did not very well consider the Enjoyment of him by Love to be the sole Sovereign Good of the Soul. Nor were Mens Understandings only exceedingly darkened but their Wills likewise very much vitiated whilst every one through a natural inbred desire to be happy frequently persuing some particular fancied good or other as Wealth Honour Sensual Delights c. which the Constitution of their Bodies their Education Conversation with others or some Occasion or Temptation they met with in the World inclined them to more than to any other Object because so eagerly bent upon their miserable mistaken Felicity that tho the truly chief Good had been demonstrated to their Understandings yet would they not have been induced thereby to endeavour after the Fruition of it as their only Bliss Motives being as necessary for a thorow Amendment to incline the Will as Arguments are to convince the Understanding For as a setled Judgment concerning any supposed Truth cannot be reversed without stronger Reason at least in appearance given than that whereby it is established in the Mind so neither can an Affection rooted in the Will be eradicated but by more powerful Motives than those by which it is fixed there 3. Wherefore seeing then that the Objects of Sense and almost every thing Man is concerned with since the Fall are apt by reason of his corrupted State to alienate his Affections from God 't is clear that Causes not within the Limits of Nature would be necessary to withdraw his Heart from the Love of the World and the false Delights thereof to the Love of God if ever he should arrive at Bliss and such Causes as are not within the Bounds of Nature are supernatural Supernatural Causes therefore are necessary to reduce Man to the Way which leads to the End for which he was created 4. And forasmuch as Man is a Rational Creature and cannot be moved but in a Way agreeable to his Nature without violence offered to the same those supernatural Causes must not force him but connaturally draw and win him by convincing his Understanding of the Truth and by inclining his Will to the Love thereof which are not to be effected but by Arguments and Motives For as the impression of Force is a proper Means whereby to move a Corporeal Substance from one place to another so are Arguments and Motives proper means whereby to draw the Mind off from one Object to another For to say that a Man either assents to or chuses with Reason that for which he sees no Reason general or special so to do appears to be a Contradiction and either to assent unto or to make choice of any thing without Reason is repugnant
Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
assisted by the Spirit of God they are as apt to convert as a Knife being employed by the Hand is to cut cannot actually convert but when they are applied to a Subject fitly prepared to take impression from them and therefore when they meet not with a due Disposition or right Preparation of Heart to receive them Conversion will not ensue And forasmuch as such Disposition or Preparation of Heart is not in the Power of Mans Free Will as Pelagius impiously held it was but is the undoubted work of God every ones Conversion is truly attributed to the Power of the Holy Ghost in that he works the mentioned Disposition in the Soul by causing it to give due Attendance to the means of Salvation offered as may be clearly collected from the Instance of Lydia's Conversion whose Heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. For through that her attention the Word of God delivered by St. Paul took effect and converted her There is then no Scruple at all to be made but that every man's Conversion is the Work of Gods Spirit in the heart both in respect of the Application of the Means of Grace and of giving due Attendance thereunto The only difficulty lies in this how the Attention to the Doctrine of Salvation requisite on Man's part to his Conversion is wrought whether by some physical Influence or real Emanation issuing from God and penetrating the Heart of Man as Fire warms by sending forth Heat into the thing warmed by it or by the sole force of the Divine Will without any such either Influence or any intermediate Cause whatsoever or lastly that through the Almighties Government of the World in ordering second Causes which are all in his disposing man's mind becomes inclined to give due heed to Instruction and Exhortation by Motives offered several ways such as are pain of Body loss of Estate or Friends Plagues Desolation sudden and violent Deaths great and unexpected Mercies and Deliverances with divers other things seen heard or read of The first of the three rehearsed ways the absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature makes impossible for how should any Physical Influence or real Emanation proceed out of him whose Being is Immutable one essential Act and entirely simple Sect. 1. Par. 8 9 10. The second Way would be as miraculous as the creating of all things out of nothing and the Attention given to the Means of Grace would be irresistible in all Men. The third Way therefore I take to be truth and am confirm'd therein from St. Paul's Conversion which though strange and unusual yet was it not effected by the immediate Will of God without all intermediate Means from his becoming all things to all men over and above his zealous preaching of Christ and indeed from the constant manner and method of God's dealing with Mankind since the very Creation If it be replied that I seem to place the sole and whole immediate Cause of Man's Conversion in the Means and only the remote Cause thereof in the Spirit of God which yet is held by Divines actually to reach and work by its immediate Inspiration the Effect I answer that the Divine Will which instituted and orders the Means as well for Conversion as for the Preparation of the Heart goes still along therewith to make them effectual not unlike to a mans Mind which after he hath made a Pen to write with and prepared Ink and Paper continually goes along with the Pen to effect the intended Writing so that I plainly maintain what answers to that which others call the immediate Operation or Inspiration of the Holy Ghost or Divine Influx or Concourse with the Means of Grace whilst I hold that as the Pen cannot write without the continued assistance of the Hand moved by the Will so neither can the Means of Grace convert a Sinner or cause any other holy Act without the perpetual Aid of the Divine Will or Power of the Holy Ghost enabling them thereunto If it be said that albeit Man's Mind guide and go along with the Hand and Pen yet the Pen alone immediately touches the Paper and makes the Impression in it my Answer is that both the Mind and the vis impressa conveyed by the Hand to the Pen reach as far as the Pen it self otherwise the Pen could not write what it doth either as to the Character or the Matter for what knows it of the difference of any Figure or Subject whatsoever and even so doth the Spirit of God no less than the Means of Man's Salvation reach the Heart both to prepare it and convert it unto God but with this difference that the Writing on the Paper is an Impression necessarily received by it but the preparative Disposition and Conversion of the Heart are Effects wrought therein by a voluntary Compliance and Concurrence of the Will of Man with the Author and Means of Grace SECT XVI Praise and Thanksgiving to God are proper and efficacious Means for procuring and augmenting Charity Vocal Prayer Musick and Gestures of Body betokening Humility and Reverence towards the Divine Majesty are useful and advantageous for begetting inward Devotion and Affection towards God. 1. AS Prayer hath been shewn to have its proper effect in procuring the Moral and Theological Virtues in order to the uniting the Soul to God by Charity and by causing the frequent exercise of it and them when they are acquired by which Charity is confirmed enlivened and augmented in us Sect. 15. so likewise will it appear that the virtue and good of Praising and Lauding God for the Excellency of his Essence Power and Wisdom and of his great and noble Acts in creating and governing the World is terminated in setling and confirming the Love of God in Mens Souls for whose Cause and not for his own as he commands Prayer to be made unto him so doth he enjoyn Honour Laud and Praise to be perpetually given unto Him. 2. For since every Command whether of God or Man must of right tend to and design the obtaining some good by fulfilling of the same and that it is impossible for the Almighty who was all Perfection within himself to receive any good either of Profit or Pleasure from abroad Sect. 8. it necessarily follows that God requires Honour Laud and Praise to be given unto him not for any accession of Advantage to himself but solely for the Benefit of his Creature 3. And because the uniting the Soul to God by Charity is the alone Good whereunto all that can be truly said to be good to Man tends Sect. 11. every one is required to praise God in his Holiness to praise him in the firmament of his Power to praise him in his noble Acts to praise him according to his excellent Greatness Psalm 150. ver 1 2. by reason the often hearty doing thereof cannot chuse but exceedingly advance the Love of God and cause a longing in the Soul to
or sav'd in that his Safety proceeded from a present unstedfast Inclination 't is obvious that the former would have cause to be more intimately and cordially thankful and to love him more tenderly and affectionately that saved him alive than the latter would have reason to be unto the other who preserv'd him from perishing SECT IV Man was created by God. He has an immaterial Substance which is the Principle of Motion proper to him immortal and indued with the Rational Faculties of Vnderstanding and Will. He was created in a State of Innocency What the State of Innocency was The End for which Man was created In what his Chief Good and Felicity doth consist 1. THat God is the Creator of all things and therefore of Man was proved sect 3. par 2 3. Who in that it is evident by certain Experience that he moves himself whenever he pleases after what particular manner he pleases and to whatsoever Object he pleases without being necessarily agitated by Sense or Passion or Phantasie as Brutes always are he must have some Power or Principle within him which is not material especially since he doth sometimes with great Deliberateness and Reason set himself to oppose what the corporeal and animal part solicits and prompts him to and prevails thereby against the Allurements of Sense the Assaults of Passion and the Insinuations of Phansie which could not be if there were nothing but corporeal Substance or the animal Life in Man because Matter Sense Passion and Phansie make up the whole Animal and it is not possible that the same numerical Matter Sense Passion or Phansie should have at the same time quite contrary Motions Inclinations or Impulses crossing opposing and controlling one another and therefore it must be some other Power residing in Man which resists and masters their Motions Inclinations and Impulses 2. There is then in Man something besides corporeal Substance and consequently something which is not subject to Corruption but is of an indissoluble and immortal Nature For since Corruption is the dissolution of a thing compounded and dissolution is separation and separation division which cannot be made but in something that is divisible or may be divided into separate parts it is apparent in regard nothing is divisible into separate parts but what is corporeal and that Man has a Principle of Nature in him which is not so par 1. that there is something belonging to human Being which is incorruptible and immortal viz. the active Power or Principle in Man which we call the Soul since besides it and the Body there is nothing else conceivable that constitutes the whole Substantial Frame of Man. 3. Man's Soul then is of an immortal Nature And seeing we experience within our selves that it has a Faculty to frame Notions of things conceived to it by the Senses and from Notions put together to make Judgments and from those Judgments orderly disposed to infer or find out some Truth whereof it was ignorant before the Soul is said to be Rational or endued with Reason for by Reason is meant a Power in the Mind of Man which enables him to proceed from the knowledg of one thing to the knowledg of another by due Consequences made to that intent and purpose The Soul then has a rational Faculty or Ability whereby it discovers the Truth of things and this Faculty we usually call the Intellect or Understanding 4. And forasmuch as the End and Benefit designed by Nature to accrue to Man by the knowledg of things is to discern what is convenient or inconvenient or good or evil for him and that it would be to small purpose nevertheless to attain thereunto if he had not a Faculty or Power enabling him to apply himself to that which is good for the obtaining of it and to deeline that which is evil for the avoiding of it 't is clear that since God and Nature make nothing in vain there is in Man a Faculty by which the Soul is impower'd to desire good for the acquiring of it and to have an aversion to evil for the avoiding of it which Faculty is called the Will or rational Appetite because framed by the nature given it by God to follow the Dictate of Reason 5. Wherefore seeing the all-wise and all-good God was the Creator of Man who consists of Soul and Body 't is manifest that he had by Creation not only an Understanding and Will whereby he was capacitated to apprehend and desire what was truly good for him but had likewise a Body duly qualified to contribute its assistance towards the fruition of the same 6. And since nothing is good to Man as Man but either that which of all things is most convenient for him or which will do him most good and is therefore called his chief Good or else something that is useful and beneficial to him for procuring the same 't is plain that Man in the state wherein he was created understood what was his chief Good and what the proper Means whereby to procure it were and made use likewise of the same seeing his Intellect was clear his Will upright and his Body in a frame duly subservient to the same par 5. 7. Which chief good of Man in regard he is composed of Soul and Body must be something that is best either for the Soul alone or the Body alone or for both together That Man 's chief good cannot consist in what is best for the Body alone is evident from this that the Soul is undoubtedly the more excellent part of Man so that what is best for the Body be it what it will must of necessity be some good which is consistent with the good that is best for the Soul. 8. And what is best for the Soul the same must give the greatest and highest Perfection to it which it is capable of And the greatest and highest Perfection which the Soul is capable of must needs consist in that which will most of all perfect the prime Faculties thereof which being the Intellect and the Will par 3 4. 't is manifest that that which will most perfect those two Faculties is best for the Soul. 9. And since the Intellect is a Faculty of Knowing and the Will of Desire the utmost Perfection of the one will be the largest and highest Knowledg and of the other the greatest and noblest good which they are respectively capable of 10. Wherefore seeing the Object of the Intellect or knowing Faculty is Truth and that the more a Man knows he is both the more desirous and more capable still of farther and higher Knowledg 't is apparent that the Intellect could not be perfected to its utmost Capacity by the Knowledg of all created Beings if really possessed thereof because there would be a more excellent Object than all that still unknown to wit the prime independent Being which is the Origin and Cause of all created Being The Knowledg therefore of the prime independent Being so far as
is attainable by Man will alone be the utmost Perfection of the Intellect 11. And forasmuch as the Will is a rational Appetite desirous of good and consequently if it follow the Course of Nature imprinted in it first by God par 4. will certainly desire above all things that which the Rational Faculty of Knowing the Intellect directs unto as the greatest and noblest good it must needs be seeing the Intellect if it judge according to right Reason cannot chuse but determin that the highest Knowledg attainable of the most excellent Object is the greatest and noblest good which a Being whose nature is rational can possibly desire that Man's Will shall never arrive at its utmost Perfection and Satisfaction till the Soul be filled with the highest Knowledg attainable of the most excellent Object which is the prime independent Being or God sect 1. 12. Wherefore seeing it is evident by the two last Paragraphs that the Objective Perfection both of the Intellect and the Will is the prime Being under the Notion of Truth and Goodness it plainly follows that seeing it was proved in the Paragraph above that whatever is the Perfection of the Intellect and the Will the same is the Perfection of the Soul God known and beloved is the chiefest Objective Good of the Soul called by Divines the Beatific Vision or Light of Glory 13. And forasmuch as from the Fruition of the Chiefest Good the greatest and purest Joy Pleasure and Contentment which Man's Heart is capable of must of necessity flow 't is clear that the greatest and purest Joy Pleasure and Contentment must accordingly flow from the clear Knowledg of God or the Beatific Vision and such Joy Pleasure and Content is formal Perfection the chiefest Bliss and ultimate End of Man. 14. Hence it is manifest that Man was not made to enjoy immediatly upon his Creation the Beatific Vision for if he had once enjoyed it he should have been for ever confirmed and established in Bliss For the Beatific Object once clearly seen will most certainly be beloved and delighted in with all the might and power of the Soul as fully satisfying the whole Desire thereof And being so beloved and delighted in the Soul cannot otherwise chuse but with its whole force and strength of affection perpetually desire the sight of it and consequently there can be no Divorce between the Soul and Object of Felicity after it is once fully possessed thereof by either withdrawing its Affections or placing them on any thing besides 15. Although therefore Man by Creation as was proved par 6. understood what his chief good was and wherein the Means convenient to procure the same were placed and withal made use of the latter to obtain the former by yet in regard he was not fully united to God in perfect Love thro' the best Knowledg of him 't is plain that tho the state of Creation was a state of Innocency Uprightness or Integrity in that Man's Heart was right towards God yet was it not a state of Perfection from which he could not depart or fall Object If Man 's own Felicity be the ultimate End for which he was created as was said above Paragraph 13. how is it that God's Glory is so universally held as we know it is to be the Final Cause of the whole Creation Solut. Man's Felicity and the glorifying God for ever by the Saints in Heaven are not two several distinct things but one and the self same thing For since Felicity is the greatest and purest Joy Pleasure and Contentment flowing from the Beatific Vision which Man's Soul is able to contain par 13. and that this very Joy Pleasure and contentment doth not at all differ save only in Words from loving God with all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind for what is it so to love God but to take delight in him with the whole power and strength of the Soul 't is plain that such Love or perpetual firm and full adherence to God as the most desirable Object with plenary satisfaction being the sublimest perfectest Act which Man's Soul can exhibit to God is to give him the greatest Honour and Glory or to own his transcendent Excellency above all other things in the best and noblest manner which the Soul is able to do And to this only Act of glorifying God all other Acts of Honour to be given unto him as inferior to it do by Divine Designment directly tend For to love God upon Earth above all things is only a lower degree of the glory which is to be consummated in Heaven Neither is that great and just Opinion and Reverence which every created intelligent and rational Being ought to have to and for the Almighties adorable Excellence Attributes and Counsels the final Honour which God requires for an Assent of the Understanding however strongly and reverently given to the Truth of all those is but a subordinate and subservient Act of Honour intentionally designed by the Requirer of it to procure and effect a correspondent Act in the Will of taking Delight in them as the only ultimate and perfect Act of glorifying God whilst every Act of Honour whatsoever done by the Intellect is not only eminently contain'd therein but is also rendred in a more excellent way thereby than immediatly in it self for to place ones whole Delight in the contemplation of the Divine Excellence Attributes and Counsels is evidently a more noble Act of honouring God than only to give a full and reverent Assent to their Truth since he that does the latter does the former also and with all the advantage which the operation of the Will most vigorously re-enforcing and elevating the operation of the Intellect by the Souls strongest Affections can perform To which supream and comprehensive Act of glorifying the Divine Majesty since it is nevertheless impossible that the Almighty and All-sufficient should have any regard at all in respect of an Advantage either of Benefit or Pleasure expected to accrue thereby to himself because Perfection being essential to the Deity sect 1. par 7. the Divine Nature is even to contradiction incapable of acquiring or receiving any manner of Profit or Pleasure from the best Performance of his Creature it is manifestly plain that God's Design in creating Man was not to receive but to communicate good Nor indeed is that Course of doing good without expecting a requital unagreeable to Human Nature it self which in that it is Rational would prompt every one to do good to others without expectation of any Return to be made for the same provided that he himself should not suffer any harm loss or want thereby as the Almighty most undoubtedly can never in bestowing Benefits possibly do who when he has given all that he can will have nothing less himself than if he had not given any thing at all SECT V. Man is fallen from the State wherein he was created The manner of the Fall explicated The