considerable part of the Divine Workmanship were at first made in the highest invigoration of the spiritual and intellective Faculties which were exercis'd in Virtue and in blissful Contemplation of the supream Deity Here we see the chief Faculties of the Soul are supposed to have once enjoyed the perfectest Bliss for quality that their Natures were capable of which if in truth it had ever been so their Condition would have been in all reason eternally happy For First The Intellect and the Will being in their highest inactuation and exercise they could not purely of themselves without some Argument or Motive desert the Beatific Object because the one most perfectly understanding and the other most perfectly loving being in their highest invigoration the same they should otherwise without regard had to any Object withdrawing them from God have left and forsaken what was most clearly known by the Intellect to be the Soul 's chiefest Good and as such practically delighted in with all the strength of the Will which is a thing impossible the Intellect being never drawn but by some Argument true or false nor the Will inclined without a Motive really or apparently good Neither Secondly could the Souls copartner the Body nor the inferior Powers of the Soul relating to the Body have drawn the supream Faculties from that which they fully experienced to be amiableness it self and the only true Felicity to gratifie any or all of them for the Soul was united with the most subtil and aethereal Matter that it was capable of inacting and the inferior Powers those relating to the Body being at a very low ebb of exercise were wholly subservient to the Superior and employed in nothing but what was serviceable to that higher Life so that the Senses did but present occasions for Divine Love and Objects for Contemplation and the Plastic had nothing to do but to move this passive and easie Body accordingly as the Concerns of the higher Faculties required Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. Whence it plainly appears that the Souls inferior Powers and the Body were so far from having a stronger propensity to Objects of Sense than the superior Faculties had an inclination to God that those were wholly subservient unto these in the exercise of their proper Functions and so could be no inducement to make them forsake their enjoyed Felicity Nor Thirdly could long continuance through Torpitude or Defatigation in performing their Offices be a Cause why the Soul should desert its Bliss because when it shall be re-estated therein to Eternity it shall according to the Praeexistentiaries have a Body of the like pure aethereal Matter and the same innate triple congruity for ever which it had at first For since the supream Faculties were by Creation in their highest inactuation exercise and invigoration that their Natures rendred them capable of and the Soul united to the most tenuious pure and simple Matter as the fittest instrument for the most vigorous and spiritual Faculties as the Author of Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. expresly says they were the first and last state of Soul and Body will not be different which if really so then if ever we had been in perfect Bliss we should have continued therein to Eternity for the last Estate of the Blessed shall abide the Praeexistentiaries grant for ever The Annotator upon Lux Orientalis I know offers pag. 116 117 118. several things to evade this Consequence That if the last estate of the Blessed be unalterable the first would have been so also for he says First That it may be a Mistake that the Happiness is altogether the same that it was before For our first Paradisaical Bodies from which we lapsed might be of a more crude and dilute Aether not so full and saturate with Heavenly Glory and Perfection as our Resurrection-Body is I answer that tho the Annotator makes some scruple whether the Body was by Creation such as the Author has described it to be yet I do not find that he differs from him as to the state of the Soul which in regard it was in its highest inactuation exercise and invigoration the Body that it might be adapted thereunto was of necessity to be of the most subtil and pure aethereal Matter that the Soul was capable of inacting as the Author we have seen says it was or else there would have been that disproportion between the Soul and Body as that the praeexistent state should not have been the best that Rational Nature was capable of which the Praeexistentiaries cannot admit of to be true without yielding the very Foundation of their Hypothesis to be subverted thereby since they lay it as hath been seen in this That 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 rendred them capable of The Annotator's first Reason why happy Souls might formerly fall albeit they shall never hereafter in the future world do so again being you see of no validity let 's proceed to examine the rest for he saith 2ly The Soul was then unexperienced and lightly coming by that Happiness she was in did the more heedlesly forgo it before she was well aware and her Mind roved after new Adventures although she knew not what 3ly It is to be considered whether Regeneration be not a stronger Tenure for enduring Happiness than the being created happy For this being wrought so by degrees upon the Plastich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with ineffable groans and piercing desires after that divine Life that the Spirit of God co-operating exciteth in us When Regeneration is perfected and brought to the full by these strong Agonies this may rationally be deemed a deeper tincture in the Soul than that she had by meer Creation whereby the Soul did indeed become holy innocent and happy but not coming to it with any such strong previous Conflicts and eager Workings and Thirstings after that state it might not be so firmly rooted by far as in Regeneration begun and accomplished by the operation of God's Spirit gradually but more deeply renewing the Divine Image in us 4ly It being a renovation of our Nature into a pristine state of ours the strength and depth of impression seems increased upon that account also 5ly The remembrance of all the hardships we underwent in our lapsed condition whether of Mortification or cross Rancounters this must likewise help us to persevere when once returned to our former Happiness 6ly The comparing the evanid Pleasures of our lapsed or terrestrial Life with the fulness of those Joys that we find still in our heavenly will keep us from ever having any hankering after them again 7ly The certain knowledg of everlasting punishment which if not true they could not know must be also another sure bar to any such negligences as would hazard their setled Felicity Which may be one reason why the irreclaimable are eternally punished
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
amorous Gestures often overrule their kind Husbands of which sort Adam was undoubtedly one and induce them to do what otherwise they would abstain from And if Secondly we consider that the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil being sweet and delicious and for that greedily fed upon by Eve would not only quicken and augment her animal Spirits but would also by its too much Nutriment enflame and overheat her Body of an equal Temper till she had listened to the Tempter and thence excite Venereal Desires which are apt to enliven the Luster of the Eyes the Briskness of the Countenance and the Amorousness of the Gesture in her and so render her more delicate and taking than she had formerly appear'd to be 't will be the less wonder that Adam should be surprised and hearken to the Voice of his Wife especially if withal it be minded that the State of Integrity consisted more in the even and unbyass'd Frame and Constitution of the Body and Soul of Man than in the strong Habit of Virtue which was by degrees through the frequent Exercise of pious Duties perform'd to grow to perfection in the Soul as is manifest by this that diverse both Men and Women under the Gospel Dispensation have through the Power of Christian Virtues encountred far sharper Tryals of their Obedience to Gods Commands and victoriously triumphed over them than those which our Prime Parents were at the first assault easily vanquished by as the Multitude of Holy Confessors and glorious Martyrs abundantly testifie 6. Thus our first Parents fell that is they eat of the forbidden Tree by which they were deprived of that Estate which if continued in would have made them at length for ever happy seeing that before their consenting to eat their Minds were placed chiefly on God and so only on other Things as subservient and tending to further the full Fruition of him by loving him with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Strength and with all the Mind But as soon as their Desires were ardently set on the coveted Fruit their due Conformity of Mind to God was violated thereby in that their Affections were turned away from the due Love of God to the inordinate Love of the Apple by which they departed from their Original State in preferring the Vanity of a Sensual Pleasure before the Spiritual Delight of the Soul. 7. After the forbidden Fruit was eaten and digested our Prime Progenitors were yet more estranged from their Maker by strong Venereal Desires which it raised in them strong I say because if they had continued in their first Estate those Desires would have been wholly regulated by their Rational Faculties and not at all violent whereas after the Digestion of the Fruit they were inflamed with immoderate Lust to each other whence looking towards the satisfying of their Carnal Appetite their Spiritual Love to God as their Sovereign Delight stood at a still greater distance thereby For that the Fruit through its deliciousness and nutritive Nature excited them to Venery besides that Physitians inform us that Sweet being compounded of what is moderately hot and moist is very nutritive and generative Seed the Superfluity of Nutriment may be easily gathered from Gen. 3. 7. compared with Gen. 3. 11. whilst it is said in the seventh Verse And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed Fig-leaves together and made themselves Aprons and in the eleventh Verse God replying to Adam who had rendred this Excuse for hiding himself that he was afraid because he was naked said Who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat fairly intimating that the eating of the Tree was that which discovered to our first Parents their Nakedness not so much by putting them in mind of their Sin as by manifesting of their Shame the latter of which it was that troubled them not the former as seems evident by their covering of their Nakedness and excusing their eating of the Fruit. So that this which was their Fault gave them not their Disturbance but 't was the Effect thereof that caused their Trouble to wit their Nakedness or the swelling Motion of their Generative Parts not then under the absolute Power and Command of their Wills as they had formerly no less then the rest of the Members of the Body always been which thing being ashamed of they sought to cover those unruly Parts by sewing Fig-leaves together and making themselves Aprons to hide them with Nor is this a new Interpretation of the Passage as the great St. Austin will witness whose Words are these Posteaquam Praecepti facta est transgressio confestim gratià deserente Divinâ de corporum suorum nuditate confusi sunt unde etiam foliis ficulneis quae forte a perturbatis prima comperta sunt pudenda texerunt quae prius eadem Membra erant sed pudenda non erant senserunt ergo novum motum inobedientis Carnis sitae tanquam reciprocam poenam inobedientiae suae Aug. de Civitate Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 13. i. e. After a Transgression of the Precept was committed the Divine Grace straightway deserting them they were troubled for the Nakedness of their Bodies whereupon they covered with Fig-leaves which haply they first in their Perturbation met with their undecent Members which before were the same Members but were not undecent they felt therefore a new Motion of their disobedient Flesh as a reciprocal Punishment of their Disobedience SECT VI. Original Sin the natural Consequent of eating of the forbidden Fruit and how What Original Sin is God cleared from being the Author of it Actual Sin is excited by Original All Miseries incident to Man as well as Sin are the bitter Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil 1. AFter the Equability of Temper in the Bodies of our Common Parents was corrupted Sect. 5. Par. 4. the same Objects which had no power to move the sensible Appetite of themselves before more than was convenient would now raise a different Motion in it by reason the same Causes in a Subject diversly disposed will have different Effects Wherefore since there would be a perpetual Commerce between the Senses of our first Parents and corporal Agents from every hand incessantly almost beating on them with Objects grateful to the now corrupted sensitive Appetite the Inequality of their Bodies Temper once begun could not chuse but still continue And in regard the Seed of Generation is an Extract from the Body participating of the Nature and Qualities of it the male Disposition of our Prime Progenitors Bodies never to be restored to their primitive Constitution would be transmitted by propagation to their Children and from them to their Off-spring and so successively downward to the Worlds end 2. Wherefore since we are convinced by constant Experience that Mans Body by reason of its close
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
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
hearty Affection unto God Par. 6 7 8. Object 2. The sincere habitual Love to God above all things cannot of it self alone justifie any one because the Divine Law requires that a Man love his Neighbour also as himself Solut. True it doth so but since it is impossible but that he who cordially desires and accordingly stedfastly endeavours to enjoy God eternally should also unfeignedly wish the like to his Neighbour which comprehends all Mankind and assists him when occasion serves in what is necessarily conducible thereunto so far as he well can in doing of which the Duty of loving a Mans Neighbour as himself is fulfilled as will be at large set forth in the Explanation of the Decalogue Sect. 18. and 19. 'T is plain that he who loves God above all things doth in consequence thereto of necessity love his Neighbour like as himself If a Man love me he will keep my Words John 14. 23. And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 21. But of this more hereafter in the three last Sections Object 3. If Men be formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness then are they not formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them But Men are formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them Christ is made unto us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Therefore Men are not formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness Solut. In answer to the proof of the Minor Proposition viz. That Christ is made unto us Righteousness I return that in the same Text he is likewise said to be made unto us Wisdom and Sanctification and Redemption and therefore if Christ's Righteousness can be proved from thence to be the formal Cause of man's Justification or that man is formally just thereby by the same Text it may be equally and as well proved that man is formally wise and formally holy by the Wisdom and Holiness of Christ which if he truly were then would a justified Person be as just wise and Holy as Christ himself and consequently he ought to have no remorse for any thing he ever did nor to crave pardon for his Sins and by consequence since Sin is a Transgression of the Law unless he no more transgress God's Law than our Blessed Saviour himself did he 'l be a Transgressor of the Law and not a Transgressor of the Law a Sinner and no Sinner at the same time which is impossible Christ's Righteousness therefore in the quoted Text is Metonymically to be understood for the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness even as his Wisdom and Holiness likewise are in respect of our being wise and holy In this sense all the meritorious Doings and Sufferings of Christ may be rightly said to be ours whilst by virtue of them Grace is wrought in our Hearts by which we overcome the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil so that the Benefit of them really redounds to us and whatever Righteousness we have here or shall have hereafter it is the very effect of the righteousness of Christ For since rational Arguments Motives are the proper inducements whereby a Rational Creature is inclined to Good whilst through them the Understanding is illuminated with Truth and the Will excited to the love of it 't is evident that nothing possibly besides except the immediate irresistible Will of God could so effectually work on mens rational Souls to cause them to forsake the love of the World for the love of God as Arguments and Motives fetcht from the consideration of Christ's love to man his Incarnation Doctrine Conversation Passion Resurrection Ascension Session at the right hand of his Father and his coming to Judgment Whence in very truth those men who in attributing man's formal Righteousness to the Righteousness of Christ made his by imputation through Faith think they attribute more to Christ and give him greater honour than they do that hold the sincere habitual love of God to be the formal cause of Justification are under a manifest Mistake For since Christ is personally God and not personally Man and that the infinite value of his precious merits is from the hypostatical Union of his Manhood with the Deity 't is plain that it is far more excellent and glorious that Christ's righteousness which comprehends the whole merit of all his active and passive Obedience should be the efficient Cause of man's Justification by producing a real habitual Righteousness in his Soul than the formal cause thereof by a meer imputed Righteousness because such imputed Righteousness in case it were possible would be the Righteousness of Christ as man for otherwise a righteous person would be infinitely righteous and consequently be God since nothing is infinitely perfect in any respect whatever but he alone whereas if his Righteousness be the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness it is proper to him as he is both God and Man. But indeed it is impossible that Christ's Righteousness should become formally man's for seeing it is personal and thence a thing extrinsecal to every one but himself 't is not possible to become a formal Cause to others in that a formal Cause whether it be substantial or accidental is an internal Cause and essentially constitutive of the thing whereof it is a Cause For instance Man's Soul is the formal Cause and a substantial essential part of man as man or a rational Animal Prudence is the formal Cause and an accidental essential part of man as he is prudent and so is Temperance of a temperate man and every Abstract else of the Concrete to which it is appropriated For what is a prudent man but one habitually indued with Prudence or a temperate man but one whom the habit of Temperance formally makes such And must not a righteous person by parallel Reason be one habitually possessed of Righteousness If it were not thus but that on the contrary a prudent man could be prudent by the Prudence of another without the Habit of Prudence within himself then were it possible that a man might be prudent though really imprudent in all his doings and so be prudent and utterly imprudent at once And if a man could be temperate without the Virtue of Temperance inherent in him he might possibly be temperate when he wallowed in the Sink of all filthy Pleasures and thence be temperate and not at all temperate at the same time And so in like manner if a man could be righteous by the Righteousness of another without any inherent Righteousness of his own he might possibly at the same instant be righteous and a notorious Transgressor of God's Law and consequently be a just and unjust person a Sinner and no Sinner both together If it were replied that God always in the very moment wherein Christ's Righteousness through Faith is imputed to any man infuses entire holiness into his Soul so that he exactly keeps every Divine Precept I would make this
therefore shall Christ's Appearing when he comes to judge the World be with Power and Great Glory Then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory Matth. 24. 30. to the end that the Wicked on the one hand beholding plainly with their Eyes his Glorious Appearance may be convinced of the justness of their Condemnation in being rejected and cast for ever from the Presence of God which is that Portion of their Misery called Poena Damni Sect. 7. because they preferred the Satisfaction of their sinful Lusts and vain Desines the perpetual Frustration whereof is that other share of their Torment named Poena sensus Sect. 7. before the Fruition of their great and glorious Maker and Redeemer And that the Godly on the other hand seeing Christ coming in his Glory may meet him with ineffable Joy to enter upon the Possession of his Beatific Presence to be everlastingly enjoy'd because they despised the fulfilling of their Lusts and wicked Desires here for the Fruition of Him hereafter to Eternity If it be objected that Christ shall at length deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. And that therefore it seems that the Father alone shall be the sole Object of Mans Bliss in Heaven I answer that Christ delivering up the Kingdom to his Father signifies his leaving off or ceasing from his Mediatory Office whereby he was constituted King for the Protection of the Church and not that He shall not reign eternally together with his Father for otherwise why is it said that of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luke 1. 33. The Word God therefore in the 1 Cor. 15. 28. is not to be understood of the Father alone but of the whole Trinity accordingly as Doctor Hammond explicates it in his Paraphrase on the Place When all is subdued to Christ then shall Christ lay down that Office viz. of his Mediatorship which till then he exerciseth and then shall God the Father Son and Holy Ghost fill all the Elect with Glory and Bliss eternally Object 5. Although formal Righteousness be that Love of God in the Soul which expels out of it mortal Sin here and all Sin hereafter Yet if Christ came into the World only to take away Sin by introducing Charity into the Soul what doth Satisfaction Redemption Salvation Propitiation and Reconciliation made and obtained by Christ intend and signifie Solut They intend and signifie that God the Father through the gracious Intervention of his eternal Son consubstantial and co-equal with Himself wrought Salvation for lost Mankind whilst his Incarnation and the Consequents of it which he undertook for Man are the intermediate efficient cause proceeding from Gods Love of Benevolence the Principal Cause by which the Salvation of every one that comes to Bliss is really and powerfully effected and contain that Worth Virtue and Vigor as would be of efficacy enough to save the whole World yea infinite Worlds if they were possible besides But notwithstanding this seeing Man is neither converted nor perseveres in Grace nor goes to Bliss that is neither obtains Charity nor keeps Charity nor is perfected in Charity without his own voluntary Consent 't is apparent that the Merits of Christ are the efficient Cause of Mans eternal Welfare by really and effectually working preserving and perfecting the Love of God in the Soul whilst by Christs Heavenly Doctrine Mans understanding is divinely illuminated with the Knowledg of saving Truth and through that and the serious Consideration of his gracious and wonderful Actings and Sufferings in behalf of Man his Will is powerfully converted to God. Forasmuch then as sincere habitual Charity destroys mortal Sin Par. 6. and thereupon so far brings Man in favour with God or so near to him that he is freed from everlasting Destruction Par. 7. and that perfect Charity wholly extirpates all Sin Par. 9. and thereby constitutes Man in full favour or throughly unites him to God is it not clear and evident that Christ in cleansing the Soul through his Merits from Sin makes up the Breach it had caused between God and Man and so reconciles and brings them again together And is he not an effectual Mediator by whose means they are reconciled together who would otherwise have been at as great difference and distance as Heaven and Hell could make them And in regard unrighteous men are the Servants of Sin Rom. 6. 20. and that St. Peter speaking of the Servants of Corruption saith of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in Bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. and that our Blessed Saviour himself testifieth that Whosoever commiteth Sin is the Servant or Slave of Sin John 8. 34. is it not plain that Christ inasmuch as by his Merits he effectually working Charity in the Soul doth truly deliver thereby from the Bondage and Slavery of Sin has really wrought through his Merits mans Redemption and is thence rightly called his Redeemer And because everlasting Damnation and the Pains of Hell are the unavoidable Consequents and Result of Sin unrepented of is not Christ in that he works Repentance and thereby saves men from eternal Destruction a true and real Saviour And in regard the Breach and Distance caused by Sin between God and Man could not be made up but by means sufficiently powerful to effect the same and that Christ did that by his Merits or Doings and Sufferings which was sufficiently powerful to make up the Breach and Distance between God and Man and that when nothing else was able to do it Sect. 9. is he not on good grounds said to have made a full Atonement and Satisfaction for Sin Not that God was ever affected with Anger and his Wrath really appeased it being impossible that there should be any alteration or change in God who is immutable Sect. 1. Par. 8. and without all variableness or shadow of turning James 1. 17. So that God loved us even when we were Sinners and Enemies Rom. 5. 8 10. and St. John says Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins 1 John 4. 10. Wherefore since there was no want of Love to wit of Benevolence for with the love of Complacency or Delight God cannot affect Sinners in the Almighty towards the making up the Breach and Distance between himself and man the whole failure of Love was on mans side whose Heart in that it was so fast wedded and glued to the World that neither the Consideration of the glorious and gracious Work of the Creation nor of the great and daily Mercy of Divine Providence proved Motives prevalent enough to make a Divorce and Separation between them some more potent Motive was necessary for the doing of it And because every Creature must needs fall infinitely short of affording such a Motive man
read with diligence and devotion the holy Scripture to frequent the hearing of the Word preached and to meditate often on the Contents of Sacred Writ how can it otherwise be but that he should by so doing acquire a firm and stedfast pious Belief of Divine Truths revealed by Christ and his Apostles 13. And in regard that he whose Petition to God is unfeigned and ardent and withal frequently used for obtaining of Hope and putting his Trust and Confidence in God that he will be graciously pleased to excite his Desires and prosper his Endeavours for the attainment of Bliss will doubtless be induced thereby to refrain from those things which he knows must destroy all hope of Salvation and to addict himself to a stricter Course of Life than he had formerly led and so by the daily Use and Exercise of such Ways and Means as are conducible to Felicity he 'l increase his Hope till it grow by degrees into an Habit. 14. And as for Charity whosoever heartily and with earnestness and constancy of Desire to attain to the Love of God above all things makes his humble address to the Heavenly Throne for the same it cannot otherwise fall out but that he must often be put upon the serious consideration of the unmerited great Love of God to Man in creating preserving and redeeming him of the transcendent value of the immense and endless Joys of Heaven and of the Vanity of the short and transitory Pleasures of this World which if pursued will bring him to intolerable and perpetual Misery whence he 'l learn to despise all sublunary fading Delights in comparison of the everlasting enjoyment of his most gracious Maker Sustainer and Saviour the greater and greater desire of which in his Heart cannot chuse but grow by an ardent constancy in Prayer for the same till Charity be habitually seated in the Soul. 15. Thus we see that Prayer if it be such as God commands doth certainly as a subordinate Cause under himself who is the principal Author of all good whatsoever always prove an effectual Means of instilling every Virtue both Theological and Moral into the Soul of Man so that all other Virtues not here particularly treated of as Humility Patience c. are as effectually got by fervent and frequent Prayer proceeding from a sincere affection and desire of them as those which have been handled be Yea and temporal Blessings both for our selves and others are also obtained of God by devout Prayer when the Divine Wisdom sees the bestowing of them will be a Means to improve in Godliness for the Prayers sake the Souls of those for whom the Prayer is made 16. And if Prayer rightly made be so potent and prevalent to procure the Habits of Virtue as we have seen it is how much more easily will it preserve them being once obtained since every time we seriously pray after the Soul is possessed with the habitual Love of God we are exercising and cultivating Faith Hope and Charity whilst he that loves God above all things firmly resolves that the grand and main Design of his whole Life shall be a continued Tendency through God's gracious Assistance towards the perpetual Fruition of him in Heaven so that whenever he makes his pious Addresses to God in Prayer they are always performed in Faith or a stedfast Belief of the Truth and faithful Performance of all Gospel Revelations and Promises and in an assured Hope and Confidence in the Mercy and Goodness of God towards him from the unfeigned Love he finds he has to God so that the more a pious man pray the more he exercises the Graces of Faith Hope and Charity whence their Habits must needs be confirmed and strengthened accordingly 17. The like is also true of the Moral Virtues whose Habits are corroborated and more firmly fixed by the devout Prayers of a godly person for the better one is established in Faith Hope and Charity the greater Vigilancy and Diligence will he use to subdue and keep under by Temperance his carnal appetite to do right by Justice to every one and to strive through Fortitude against all sinful Temptations and the practice of those Virtues cannot fail to invigorate and fortifie them proportionably to the measure thereof Object 1. Why may not you 'l say the meer Consideration of the necessity of Virtue for the obtaining of Blis put men upon the practice of all such things as are apt either to procure it or to keep it when it is procured And if it may what peculiar Excellency or benefit is there in devout Prayer Solut. That the sole Consideration if serious and frequent of the necessity of Virtue in order to Felicity will excite men to desire and seek after it and if already acquired to preserve it there 's no doubt to be made But nevertheless there is a Benefit peculiar to Prayer above and beyond the Utility of such Consideration For First in applying our selves to God who is our sole supream Good we fix our Thoughts more steadily on the Means available to the gaining thereof when we earnestly beg them of him to that end yea and the very Consideration of the Necessity of Virtue will it self be much improved and heightned thereby Secondly Whenever we devoutly pray we comport our selves with great reverence and Humility as before the Throne of God which rendring the Action of Prayer serious and sacred makes it to work a deeper impression of the Virtue prayed for in our Thoughts than the bare consideration of the Virtue without such Prayer would do Thirdly When with earnestness of Desire we petition our heavenly Father to grant us his merciful Assistance for the obtaining any Virtue we on our parts plainly engage our selves thereby to him to employ our own Care and Endeavours towards the acquiring thereof which must needs cause a stronger inclination in the Soul and a more sedulous diligence in our Actions to obtain the Virtue petitioned for than the sole Consideration of the Benefit thereof towards Bliss could possibly do Fourthly There is nothing more quickens the Desire and encourages the Endeavours after any thing we highly value than a well grounded Hope to obtain it by the Means used to obtain it by and we have his Promises who is no less faithful than able to perform that if we ask not amiss as we never do when we pray for Virtue with Sincerity Fervency and Constancy of Mind as is clear by what has been said in this Section we shall most certainly have our Request Object 2. If Sincerity Fervency and Frequency of Prayer be necessary for the acquiring of Virtue it is but rarely I fear attain'd unto for although many pray frequently and with a real desire of what they pray for yet are there but few that do it with much earnestness or fervency of Spirit Solut. There are several degrees of Fervency or Earnestness the lowest of all which and Sincerity of Affection always implies some degree thereof if
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
namely that it may the better secure eternal happiness to others 8ly Though we have our triple vital congruity still yet the Plastick Life is so throughly satisfied with the Resurrection-Body which is so considerably more full and saturate with all the heavenly Richness and Glory than the former that the Plastick of the Soul is as entirely taken up with this one Body as if she enjoyed the Pleasures of all the three Bodies at once Ethereal Aereal and Terrestrial Since the Annotator in the first Argument he offers why Souls will not lapse in their future state as they did in their first says only that our first Paradisiacal Bodies might be of a more crude dilute Ether not so full and saturate with heavenly Glory and Perfection as our Resurrection-Body but in his eighth Argument positively affirms that the Resurrection-Body is considerably more full and saturate with all the heavenly Richness and Glory than the former yet without any reason alledged for the same and that also in his fourth Argument he calls our last state the renovation of our pristine state and in his fifth Argument our former happiness his Assertion in the eighth Argument appears to be precarious besides that it plainly contradicts the Author's description of the first Paradisiacal Body backed with Reason unconfuted by the Annotator as in my Answer to the first Argument was observed Yea considering that Man's Nature is capable of all the Glory of the Resurrection-Body if the Glory of our first Bodies was inferior to it the Foundation of the Praeexistentiarian Hypothesis is totally razed which is That the Almighty made all Creatures in the best Happiest and most perfect Condition that their respective Natures rendred them capable of This in Answer to the eighth Argument And as to the 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 all the Motives recited in them for causing the Soul to persevere in Bliss once again obtained by fixing its Affections unalterably on God fall so far short of the immense Power Force and Efficacy which the full Fruition of God by clear Vision affords to that end that the Disproportion between them in that very respect is unspeakable insomuch that if the Soul were capable of infinite influx the Beatific Vision would infinitely ravish it with the Delight thereof And therefore if ever we had been in that height of Felicity which the Author of Lux Orientalis chap. 4. p. 113. holds we once enjoyed we could not voluntarily have deserted the same and that God by whose meer Goodness it was bestowed should have thrust us from it is incredible and if neither we had forsaken God nor God us we should certainly have remained for ever happy If it be said that the triple vital Congruity would have been given by God in vain if it had never been exerted my Answer is that all good Souls did not lapse but that some still continue in Bliss Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. p. 119. And the Annotator in his eighth Argument we saw allows the triple vital Congruity to accompany us in the next world in case there be any such thing as that Congruity is said to be 9ly The Annotator concludeth thus And lastly which will strike all sure He that is able to save to the utmost and has promised us eternal life is as true as able and therefore cannot fail to perform it This I own strikes all sure indeed but to have recourse to the Divine Promise to do it is after all the high Efforts of Wit and elegant Philosophical Essays that have been used by the Praeexistentiaries to leave their fine Hypothesis to shift at length as it can for any help that 's to be had from Philosophy at the upshot of all when it should have received its consummation from it and might in reason have expected it if in truth it had been really founded on a sound Philosophical Bottom For though the Promise of God must of necessity stand firm yet in that he does not use to accomplish the same but by something which immediately brings it to pass and establisheth it there must be a more immediate Cause of fixing the Saints in everlasting Bliss than the Divine Promise and the Beatific Vision is as has been shewn that very Cause Angelic Nature you 'l say is a much more sublime and excellent Constitution than Humane and therefore the lapsed Angels fell from an higher pitch of Glory than the Praeexistentiaries suppose lapsed Souls to have done I answer That comparatively they did not for the Author of Lux Orientalis writes that Blessed Souls were in the highest Bliss their Natures rendred them capable of But the Angels that fell never attained to the highest Felicity they were capable of enjoying for though they saw in the Glass of the Creature and more especially in that most clear one of their own pure Natures the Divine Excellency yet they never saw it immediately in it self and to do that is the alone highest degree of Bliss that Rational and Intellective Beings can attain unto which Supream Glory if they had once been possessed of they could never have lost it For since Good is the proper and adequate Object of Desire it implies a Contradiction that what is immediately seen or known and experimentally found to be essential Goodness which God is should ever be voluntarily deserted by Men or Angels for otherwise they should decline good under the very Notion of good and thereby cease to be what they essentially are a thing impossible for it is the essential Nature of the Will to love good as good By what hath been said in this last Paragraph it is easie to apprehend the Cause of the different final condition of good and bad Angels for as the good Angels by reason of the free and full conversion of their ardent desires to enjoy the immediate sight of God were accordingly rewarded with the Beatific Vision which makes them eternally most happy so the bad Angels on the contrary through their voluntary aversion from God in preferring something in their Affections before the fruition of their Maker by immediate Vision deprived themselves for ever of that Blissful Sight and by their Conversion to the more valued Object of their inordinate desire violently affected but never to be obtained render their Condition most miserable to Eternity But after all this though the highest state of Bliss be an illapsible Condition and cannot after it is gained be fallen from may it not however be reasonably enquired whether there might not have been a lapsible praeexistent state of Men not unlike to that of Adam's in his Innocency but coming much nearer to Perfection than his did And if there might why considering that the almighty Goodness does always what is best for the Creature there really was not such a State My Answer is that from the seeming possibility of such a State it cannot be rationally evinced that the actual Existence of it would have been best as may be seen from the