he pleased but that were to infringe that Law which he at first planted in Voluntary Agents Here is the Wisdom of the great God his Will shall be effected yet Man's Will not forced Psal 110. Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power So that the Conclusion is The Wills of Men are ruled by the Counsel of God for the producing of his Ends yet without violation of Man's Freedom This is done by a rational Means And the Courses that God's Counsel useth to work the Will of Men to his Purposes are most usually these 1. By propounding Rational Objects or Motives conducing to the winning the Will to act those things that are conducible to the Purpose of God. In that one Instance concerning the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart God had a Purpose to be honoured upon Pharaoh in the miraculous delivery of his People it is propounded to him to let the People go it was a rational occasion for him to deny it for then he should lose their Work which was beneficial to him Moses to confirm his Embassage casts down his Rod it becomes a Serpent the Magicians that were of a contrary Counsel to Moses did the like this Object hardens the Heart of Pharaoh The like we may say concerning Perswasions Afflictions and those other Dispensations of the Divine Will brought upon a Man in ictu opportuno 2. By giving and administring Extraordinary Aids and Inlightenings strengthening the Faculties of the Soul. 3. By withdrawing the ordinary Supplies and concurrence of God's Assistance We are to know that as the Being of all things is from God so the very natural supportation of all things in their several Powers and Activities is from him and if he withdraw his Concurrence and Assistance our Wills will move freely but to other objects or in another manner than they did when assisted by him Now these we must not imagine to be Expedients or Helps pro re nata as it happens among us that when a thing beyond our expectation is gone beyond our mastery then to devise some helps to reclaim it or allay it But the whole Plat-form of all and every Circumstance was laid and set by the Purpose of God before the being of any thing Man shall work freely yet I will draw out that Freedom of his into these and these actions by this and that rational means supply or subduction of my aid of his Will shall not elude or defeat my Counsel nor yet the fulfilling of that Counsel violate the Freedom of that Will which I purpose to allow him 3. Contingent Effects which are such as arise from the conjuncture of several Causes not subordinate one to the other and this casual conjuncture of Causes denominates the Event neither Voluntary nor Necessary although it perchance arise from Causes of both or either Nature but these having no natural conjunction or connexion one with the other the Event that ariseth upon this conjuncture is Casual or Contingent And this Consideration leads us to the third thing wherein the Wisdom of this Counsel is eminent viz. 4. In ordering marshalling and managing of several Causes of several Natures wholly independent and unsubordinate one to another to the fulfilling of his own Eternal Infallible Counsel And this consists in the drawing out of the several activities and causations of things at such a time and such a distance as may be subservient to the Effect wherein though the Causes apart perhaps move simply according to their Nature yet the meddling and mingling of them together is a clear Evidence of the Unity and Wisdom of that Counsel by which they are governed In that admirable Piece of the Execution of God's Counsel concerning Joseph this is ligible almost in every pasâ—â—ge of it tâ—is the Purpose of God he shall be advanced for the preservation of his Father and Bretâ—â—â—n see but the last act of this Counsel preceding h◠〈…〉 He is â—â—mmitted to Prison by the a◠〈…〉 the chief Butler by the Command of 〈…〉 and Pharaâ—â— were several Voluntary Aâ—â—nts yet these acts of theirs drawn out upon seveâ—â—l grounds and independent one upon the other occâ—â—ion a meâ—ting between Joseph and the Butler in Prison and there they might have continued unacquainted till their deaths an Act of Divine Providence draws out an occasion for their Acquaintance the Butler is delivered and his Promise forgotten another occasion given by Pharaâ—h's Dream this had not been useful for Joseph unless communicated by Pharaâ—â— to the chief Butler this Communication draws out another Act of his viz. the remembrance of Josephâ— thus these several Voluntary Acts of Agents independent one upon another are drawn out to meet together in such a conjuncture of time as serves to produce that Event which if any one had failed could not have been effected The like is easily observable in all the great and predicted Changes in Commonwealths and Kingdoms how several Causes are without straining as it were interwoven and married together for the production of such a change And the like for the natural motions of the Elements in the constitution of mixt Bodies Though every Cause apart movâ—â— according to that Causality and course of Nature that is in him yet that Activity is drawn out in such a distance at such a time and with such Concurrences that makes appear at once the Efficacy and Wisdom of the Counsel of God that whiles every Cause moves according to his own Nature yet they are strangely mingled in the production of such an Effect that neither of them did foresee or intend but only the God that guided them 5. It is an Active and Irresistible Counsel This is evident by what hath been before observed viz. because it is the cause and measure of the being and power of every thing without it it is therefore impossible to be resisted because that strength that any thing hath it hath meerly by the efficacy of this Purpose of God. Although in the Divine Nature there is no difference in the Power or Act of his Understanding and Will yet for our Conceptions sake they are propounded under a different Notion his Purpose or Counsel is referred immediately to his Will and is not only a Foreknowledge of what shall be but hath an operative influence into the being and operations of all things His Prescience or Foreknowledge we conceive as an act of his Understanding by which he actually knows whatsoever shall be This Prescience is not an objective impression of the things themselves upon the Divine Understanding for that were to suppose a kind of Passibility which is incompetible to the Divine Perfection and supposeth a kind of Priority in Nature of the Object to the Power and a kind of dependance of the Act upon it But as all things have their Being by the Act of the Divine Will or Purpose so in that Purpose of his he sees the things purposed and it is impossible to sever the act of his Purpose from the act
likewise in Experience Take but the instance of one Creature Man It is plain that the World doth every day grow fuller and fuller that which is now almost a Nation we can with a little help derive into one Man five hundred years since so that it is not imaginable but that at length we must necessarily come to a First Man If so how had that Man his being It is true that there be some living creatures that we may trace their beginning to the corruption of some preexisting matter which by its own temper and the concurrence of other second causes may produce a living creature as Worms Mice c. But if there should be such a production of Man at first why is it not so at some time since viz. that a Man should be produced out of the ground by some concurrence of the disposition of the matter with second causes If it be said that that is now needless and Nature doth nothing in vain the answer is unsatisfactory For 1. where such productions are as of Mice c. it is as needless because they propagate their kind as well as Man. And 2. if Nature doth nothing in vain it is plain that whatever is so called Nature is in truth the first cause though miscalled Nature for not to do any thing in vain is an act of a Voluntary and Rational Agent a mere natural Agent cannot but work uniformly whether in vain or not in vain when the matter is uniformly disposed Therefore we must needs have recourse to a First Voluntary and Intellectual Agent that did at first make Man and by his free Power did advance the piece of red Earth above its own disposition and beyond the causality of second Causes to produce Man and that hath not since done the like but as to those other imperfect creatures hath planted in second Causes such a strength and causality as out of a prepared matter to produce other living creatures without any concurrence of his immediate or extraordinary Power 2. In every Successive Motion it is necessary to arrive to some beginning of it and it is impossible it should be eternal as in case of the motion of the Sun which is successive it cannot in reason be but there must be a time or instant wherein it either was not or did not move for otherwise the revolutions would be actually infinite in number and yet that infinite number of revolutions be still augmented by dayly new revolutions which would be in it self a contradiction that that which was before actually infinite should yet receive an increase as necessarily it must if the motion of the Sun had never a beginning Therefore of necessity it had a beginning If it had a beginning of its motion it could not have it from it self for why did it not then move sooner But of necessity it must have the beginning from another for though animate creatures move themselves yet they receive still the original cause of their motion from something without them as well as of their being Who or what was it that gave it that motion or principle of its motion And if any could assign any other than the First Cause which is not almost imaginable yet still my enquiry must rise higher what was that that gave being or causality to that cause So that in summ the motion of the Sun or Heavens cannot be Eternal because Successive It must have a Cause of its motion from without it self that Cause if the First Cause then a First Cause must be granted if not the First yet by the same reason that in all Successive motions we must admit a beginning we may conclude in all Successions of Causes there must be a beginning because the being and causation or motion of second causes is likewise Successive and therefore can be no more infinite than the successive motions of the same subject can be infinite It is impossible that any thing should be Eternal that is not Indivisible ut videbitur infra So that the Succession of Causes and Motion is that which doth necessarily inforce a first cause To these we may add those Considerations which arise from the Observation of the created World the subservience of one thing to the perservation of another the inclinations of Creatures without choice to means conducible to their preservation the ordering and fitting of things whereby confusion and uselesness of creatures is avoided all which do bespeak the admission of a Voluntary Intellectual Supreme and Universal Cause of all things Now a First Cause being admitted we are to consider what may rationally be deduced from thence concerning this First Cause And those are of two kinds First such as absolutely concern his own Being Secondly such as concern him in relation to those Effects which proceed from him For the former of these we say That a First Cause of all things being granted I. It necessarily follows that he hath no bounds of his existence or being The bounds of Existence are either in Duration or Extension the exclusion of the bounds of Existence in Duration is Eternity that in Extension is Immensity Now first for Eternity Whatsoever is Eternal must be without Beginning without Succession without End. 1. Without Beginning For if it be a First Cause it cannot have a Beginning for then he must have a Cause of his Being which would be a contradiction Neither could he have a beginning from himself for that were to suppose a pre-existence in himself to himself which were also repugnant 2. Without Succession There is nothing past nothing to come for all is one indivisible Succession and those notions of Time past present and to come are only the consequences of a Successive Motion for Time is nothing else but that conception whereby we measure successive motion were there no successive motion in the World it would be impossible that there should be any of those affections of Time and consequently Time is not any thing real but a relation to Motion Now before that the First Cause did set a continued motion in the World there could be no Succession but all was wrapped up in one permanent instant for the Being of the First Cause and his Motion what ever it was or is is indivisible as shall be shewn Then when he produced second Causes and consequently those moved in their several causalities and courses and consequently their motions beings and causalities being successive there was a prius and posterius and succession yet this did not alter the indivisible nature of that duration which that indivisible being had before and at and with that motion which he after produced The First Being hath a co-existence with the Successive Motions of the creatures but his duration is not measured by it or co-extended with it but is of the same indivisibility as if there had been no successive motion produced and consequently no successive time 3. Without End For first what should or can
determine his being in as much as all things else are his productions and cannot have any causality upon him Secondly End is inconsistent with Eternity for that is a permanent and fixed indivisible and takes in all past present and to come without any difference of notion The present subsistence of the First Cause was the same numerical instant that he had a thousand years since So that End as well as Succession is but of those things that are measured by time not of an indivisible being To suppose him to have an end were to suppose him not ever to have been because past and present and to come are all indivisibly conjoyned in his duration This indivisibility of duration is proper only to the First Cause for nothing else can upon any sound ground be said to be of indivisible duration though it may be of a perpetual Suppose we the Being of an Angel or the Soul though admitted to be Everlasting yet that is rather a multiplyed extension of duration than any indivisible duration for of the First Cause I may say truly the instant of the duration that is now and that was a thousand years since or a thousand years after is the same but I do not think the same may be affirmed of any other thing whatsoever 1. because their essence is not indivisible and simple as is that of the First Cause for it is evident they are perfectible compounded of Act and Power not pure Acts 2. because some things might be affirmed of them in a time past which cannot now be affirmed of them as the creation continuance in the Body separation re-union c. 3. their being is dependent II. From this admission of a First Cause doth necessarily follow Immensity which includes three things 1. Exemption from Circumscription or bounds of his being There is a twofold exemption from Circumscription 1. That which ariseth from the disproportion between the thing that should circumscribe and be circumscribed thus a Spirit of what kind soever is not circumscribed nor is in any determinate place for that is proper to a Body that hath extension of parts yet though we cannot say It is here yet we are sure we cannot say It is every where There is 2. another exemption from circumscription which ariseth from Infinitude that it exceeds all place and circumscription Now that it is thus with the First Cause is evident for if he had a Being before any thing else nothing then could bound his Being if it should then he could not be the First Cause there being something else that had limited him which had a pre-existence to his causation and it is impossible for any thing to have a limited or bounded Being unless it were so limited or bounded by something without it That which is without a cause of his being must needs be without bounds of his being Neither could those effects which he after produced straiten the extent as I may call it of his Being or shut him out from them From whence follows 2. His Omnipresence not only vertually and potentially but essentially in and with all things though the manner of it be incomprehensible because a consequence of his Infinitude This is Exemption from Exclusion for it is not possibly imaginable that the production of new Effects should exclude or straiten that indivisible extent which that being had before those Effects were produced 3. Exemption from Succession or Division of Parts for otherwise he could not be Immense for whatsoever hath Succession of Parts as his Parts are measurable so is the whole and therefore cannot be actually Infinite in Extension as I may call it And this doth consequently exempt him from Materiality Succession of Parts being an affection of a material substance and therefore it is an indivisible Immensity What is said of the Soul may explain it Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte III. Hence it follows that the First Cause is Indivisible and that in a double opposition 1. In Opposition to Divisibility which is partly touched before and though this be common to all things that are incorporeal for Divisibility is an effect of Quantity yet it is most eminently to be affirmed of the First Cause 2. In Opposition to Multiplicity and this is the Vnity of the First Cause viz. that there is but one First Cause of all things for if there were two or more First Causes either all must be infinite in Being and consequently in Operation and that is impossible viz. that there should be two Infinites because one must of necessity bound and limit the other both in Being and Power 2. or else both must be finite and then of necessity each must have a Cause of his Being for what is it that should prescribe the bounds to these Beings unless the Cause of their Beings if so they can neither be the First Cause or 3. one must needs be Infinite and the other Finite and Subordinate and then of necessity those Finite Beings cannot be the First Causes but meerly Second Causes depending upon that Infinite Being both in their Essence and Operation for nothing can have limits of his being but what hath causes of his being which should prescribe those limits IV. From hence likewise follows that the First Cause is Ens Simplicissimum and excludes all Composition of what kind soever either of Power and Act of Substance and Accident or Matter and Form for every mixture doth of necessity suppose some pre-existing Cause to joyn these together and indeed the very membra componentia have in nature a pre-existence to the being so compounded and so the admission of any kind of Composition is inconsistent with a First Cause And from hence it is evident that all things that are affirmed concerning this First Cause are but improper and serve only as notions to render him unto our Understandings 2. From hence it also follows that whatsoever is affirmed of the First Cause is the same with his Essence and one the same with another though they are conceived by us under different notions and conceptions as for instance we see an effect of the First Cause which in case of a Man we derive from that habit in Man which we call Mercy and another effect which in Man we would conclude to come from such a quality or habit which we know by the name of Justice hence we stile the First Cause Merciful and Just yet in truth neither of these are proper for they signifie Qualities neither if they were proper were they distinct for they are the same one with another and both the same with his Essence otherwise it is impossible he should be Simple for should his Being and Attributes be several he should be compounded of Substance and Accident or should the same thing which we call Justice be the same with his Essence and not the same with his Mercy he must needs consist of several beings divided one from another the like for all the rest
compass them yet a wise Statesman according to the convenience or exigence of the Publick can manage and order this Ambition and the Satisfaction thereof unto a higher End which the other never so much as dream'd of As we therefore divide all Beings and Causes into First and Second so we distinguish all Ends into the Ends of the First Cause and of Second Causes Touching the End of the First Cause we say it is twofold 1. That which is the End in respect of himself This is nothing but the Satisfaction of his own Will. As we must resolve the being of all things into the Will of the First Cause in point of Efficiency so in this respect we must resolve all things into that same Will in point of Finality and this is the most adequate and Ultimate resolution of all things they are because he wills them to be For the First Cause being absolutely and infinitely Perfect and Good cannot originally be moved by any thing without him that would import a Passibility viz. to be moved and impulsed to any thing by any thing without him and an Imperfection which might be supplyed by the acquisition of that End for which he works both these are necessarily to be admitted in any case where any End extrinsecal to the Efficient it self is admitted for 1. the End hath an impulsion or action upon the efficient and 2. it necessarily supposes a vacuity or emptiness quoad hoc which shall be supplied with that End acquired be it an End of Supplement or Delight Neither of these are possibly to be admitted in the First who is an Infinite Good commensurate to the Infinite measure of his own Will. The Final Cause then of all things is He wills because He wills His Glory is a consequence of his Work in the Work not the ultimate End of his Work because nothing that he made can contribute ought to his Glory or Happiness 2. In respect of the thing produced the ordination of every particular thing to its particular End either in order to it self or to some thing else or both the Intermediate Ends of all things being different according to their several natures and the several dispensations of the Divine will. That this may be so is evident upon the consideration of that Infiniteness of Wisdom Power and Presence of the First Cause which before is considered and that it must be so is likewise evident upon the consideration before expressed viz. that the Will of the First Cause is the Cause of all beings and operations in the World Nothing can be unless he wills it to be and this will must needs be extended to every individual thing and motion in the World for as well as any might evade the determination of his will all things might There be three degrees of things Natural Contingent and Voluntary Now the Means of carrying things merely Natural to their several Ends ordinarily is that Rule and Order which he hath set in things Natural and those Propensions and Inclinations which are planted in things to the observance of that Law. Now this hath a threefold reference to the First Cause 1. Of Position or giving for it is not imaginable that this Rule was taken up by the things themselves the Law of Nature and the Frame order and Course of thing according to that Law doth most necessarily conclude a Lawgiver and although the motion of the Law or Rule of Nature is for the most part uniform yet it doth in no sort follow that therefore it moved not from a voluntary Agent But though it infinitely speaks his Wisdom that did so foresee and order all things that one uniform Law or Rule should serve without any alteration for a change of a Rule imports Imperfection in the Rule and a want of foresight in him that makes it of those emergencies that induce such an alteration Now in as much as nothing could be but it was first in the Will of the First Cause and consequently in his Knowledg all those Propensions Rules and Orders of Nature which he hath put into things are exactly subservient to those purposes and consequently to the effects produced by it 2. Of Concurrence with it all things depending upon the First Cause as well in the support as in the Original of its subsistence 3. Of Subordination to it Hence it is that extraordinarily the Ordinary Rule of Nature is intermitted for though the most exact uniform Rule unalterable in the least point may nevertheless proceed from a Free Agent because the uniformity of the Rule proceeds not from it self but because the First Cause wills it to be so and yet hath exactly fitted it to the bringing about his Ends yet because Mankind is apt to mistake sometimes there is an intermission or interruption of that Course of Nature this Subordination likewise appears by the Direction and forming of it to special purposes wherein whiles the Second Cause moves according to the Rule of Nature that is set in it yet by the Concatenation and Conjuncture of other things which happily moved naturally thither some strange effect is produced beyond the reach of that Natural Agent as when an Artificer by conjuncture of several things together makes use of the natural motion of the Lead poise to work a circular or other strange motion in a Clock or Engine Now the Law or Rule of Nature as in divers other particulars so in these it most evidently sheweth it self to be nothing else but the Course that the great Master of the World hath put in things 1. Those Propensions that are in things for their own Preservation and Protection Hence those motions of Inanimate things as it were to their several homes and stations appointed by the First Cause Multiplication of their kinds Specifical Inclinations incident to a whole kind 2. The Subserviency of one thing to the use and exigence of another wherein for the most part the more Imperfect is still subservient to the more Perfect and all to Man. 3. The Disposition of things in those places and ranks as may be most usefull and as may best prevent that disorder and confusion which contrary qualities would produce as appears in the Elements in hurtful creatures 4. The Subordination of the particular Inclinations and Dispositions of any particular to the prevention of that which is contrary to the Law of the universe 5. The admirable Concurrence of things indued with contrary qualities and destructive each to other in tâ—â—â—onstitution of mixt bodies shewing a hand that tempers and overrules them in their operations and causalities 2. Contingent Effects In reality there is nothing in the World Contingent because every thing that hath bin is or shall be is praedetermined by an Immutable Will of the First Being But we therefore call a thing Contingent because either we find no constant Rule or determination of the immediate cause to the production of the effect or an effect resulting out of the conjunction of
causes that have no natural connexion one with another When the Prophet that prophesied against Bethel returned back met the Lion and the Lion slew him here was a Voluntary Act in the Prophet viz. to go a Contingent Act in the meeting with the Lion a Natural Act in the Lion to kill him now because this death of the Prophet had no necessary connexion with all the causes that concurred to it neither had the journey of the Prophet any necessary connexion with the walk of the Lion that they must needs meet the death of the Prophet though it had a kind of natural connexion with the next cause that preceded it was in the estimation of Men Contingent yet in respect of that predetermination that was of all this business which was not therefore predetermined because spoken by the old Prophet who had only a revelation of That counsel the whole frame of this business was necessary yet note that this predetermination did not alter the nature of the intermediate causes the journey of the Prophet was nevertheless voluntary the meeting with the Lyon Contingent the death of the Prophet by the Lyon in effect necessary So the Divine Predetermination of Effects predetermines them in their several Causes and takes not away the truth of the denomination of Necessary Contingent and Voluntary it predetermines the being of each but the being of the first but to be necessarily because it predetermines it to depend upon a necessary cause as the Eclipse of the Sun it predetermines the being of the second but to be contingently because it predetermines it to be upon contingent and unconnexed causes it predetermines the third to be but to be voluntarily because it hath predetermined it to be upon a voluntary cause All things to him have the same necessity of being though distinguished in their manner of being which are represented to our understanding under the notions of Necessary Contingent and Voluntary 3. We have considered the influence of the First Cause upon the creature in actu primo which is giving it a being or creation and as to things Natural and Contingent in actu secundo which is Providence or Government Now concerning the relation that Man the only visible Intellectual and Voluntary being in the World hath We must premise to this consideration what hath been partly observed viz. 1. That the first disposal of every thing to its several End doth of right belong to the First Cause 2. That this End is twofold 1. In respect of the First Cause the mere fulfilling of his own Will 2. In respect of the Creatures 1. relatively one to another a Subordination of one thing to and for another as the more imperfect to the more perfect 2. absolutely the End that is planted in every thing is its own Preservation and Perfection 3. That as the implanted End of every thing is his own being and perfection so the being of things being different both in nature and degrees of Excellence so are their Perfections different the Perfection of Animate above the Inanimate the Perfection of the Sensitive above the Animate and of the Rational above the Sensitive 4. That as the several Creatures are moved to their several Preservations and Perfections as to their several Ends so they have suitable Inclinations Dispositions and Motions placed in them conducible to those Ends as the Motions of Bodies to their several stations the generation of Vegetables and their attraction of supplies of nourishment answerable to their tempers the fading of Sensitives and assimilation of the nourishment to their own nature supplying the decays thereof Natural Instincts of every species to avoid those things places and foods that are destructive providing for varieties of Seasons multiplication of their Species and infinite the like which is nothing else but that Rule Law or Means that the First Cause hath put in them for the attaining that End which he hath put in them viz. their Preservation and Perfection And this is the great Wisdom as I may call it of the Creature that it pursues that End by that Law which the First Cause hath given it Mankind hath some things in him common with other inferiour Beings and in respect thereof hath the same Natural End viz. the Preservation of his Subsistence by the same Law of Nature which he doth and may and ought to preserve as other Creatures do But if he have a higher degree of Being than other Creatures then consequently he hath these two things different from other Creatures 1. A higher End than other Creatures planted in him by the First Cause whereinto he is or should be carried 2. A higher and different Law given by the First Cause in order to that End which whiles he follows he is most wise because most conformable to the Will of his Maker and moves to a suitable End to himself by a suitable Means and which when he declines he is more bruitish than the Beast because he either moves to no End or by such a Rule by which it is impossible he should attain it The Conclusion then is That Man was by the First Cause made for an End answerable to his own Perfection by such a Rule or Law as was by the First Cause ordained to be conducible to this End That therefore all other Ends and Perfections that are below the uttermost hight and Perfection of Man may consist with this End for we are not to conceive so improvidently of the First Cause that he should put a thing in such a degree of being that the Ends and Rules incident to any consideration of him should be inconsistent with his Supream End all stood together but if by any casualty it should fall out that there were an inconsistency all the Subordinate Ends must give way to this Supream End That the pursuit of this great End whatsoever it is by this Rule is exactly conformable to the Will of the First Cause by this Man doth two works at once God's work and his own That this is the Great Business of Man the highest act of Wisdom deserves all his labour study and endeavour and all the rest of his Business in the World is either lost labour or worse if not subservient to this great End. We are therefore to enquire into these three things 1. Wherein consists the Eminence of the being of Man above other Creatures for without this we cannot know that Perfection which must be the object of his desire 2. What is this Perfection that is thus to be desired and attained 3. By what Means and how it is attainable CHAP. III. Of Man his Excellence above other Creatures THE Goodness of the Wise Creator was communicated to his Effects 1. in giving them a Being 2. in assigning to every thing a portion of Perfection in themselves answerable to the degree of their Being 3. a Motion or Desire to the attaining and conserving that Perfection and consequently of their Being which is the Vessel wherein that
though all Good be the Object of the Will in its Latitude yet the Will fastens particularly upon that Good which by the Understanding is presented to be his Chiefest Good and in order to the Union unto this Good is the Motion of the Will and subservient to this Motion are the several Passions and Affections of the Soul which are but the impressions of the actions of the Will upon the Blood and Spirits whereby the Will exciteth and produceth those external actions in the body which tend to the execution of its commands and therefore I omit them Upon what hath been said may appear wherein lies the immediate Cause of Man's miscarriage to his Supream End It lies in the Defects of his Understanding and his Will. 1. For his Vnderstanding If this hath either no Light or a false Light the Will is misguided The Soul of Man will be moving to some thing or other under the notion of Good this sets the Understanding a work which if not rightly Principled takes up that for his Good which either the temper and constitution of the body and fleshly appetite or the present opportunity suggests and affects and puts the intention of the Will upon it as Pleasures or Profits or Honours or empty Speculations and yet in the pursuit of these a Man that hath almost any Intellectuals though it may be he arrive not to the true and positive Knowledge of what is his Supream End most commonly finds that this is not and though sometimes he knows not why yet he is sick and weary of them as unsatisfying and deceiving things wheraas the true cause is that disproportion they bear to the nature of the Soul and are not that End to which it is ordained and would move if it knew it and how to attain it Again though the Understanding doth sometimes find that these are not the things will make me happy but I spy the true and Everlasting Happiness yet the Conviction is not so strong and evident that it dares conclude the pursuit thereof to be preferred before the present Enjoyment of those delights which we are sure of and from hence it comes to pass that the competition of these present Enjoyments will soon starve and famish these uncompleat Convictions and all pursuits in the Will of them These and the like defects happen in the Understanding 2. In the Will which hath lost her Liberty to follow her Light and is captivated by the Sensual Appetite The Understanding being rightly inlightned presents to the Will several Ends the Subordinate Ends Preservation of the Compositum by Meat and Drink acquisition of Wealth to provide these Conveniences obtaining of Power to secure that Wealth the Supream End Blessedness and that wherein it consists shews the Will that the Value of these Ends must be the measure of her pursuit of them viz. with subordination to the Supream End in order to it and bids her beware of turning the Subordinate Ends to Ultimate Ends But the Sensual Appetite either before the Counsel of the Understanding hath precipitated the Will into a violent pursuit of those present and sensible Goods or so bewitched her after in the enjoyment thereof that it can no more listen to the entertainment of the pursuit of a future Spiritual Good than if it had no Reason the Beast in Man hath got the Man upon his Back and runs away with him contrary to the cries and dictates even of Reason that should rule it And of these and the like defects all Mankind is sick both in his Understanding and Will and cured we must be before we can clearly and uniformly move to our Supream End which what it is as the next Inquiry CHAP. IV. Of the Supream End of Man. WHAT is that Good for the Sons of Men as it was the greatest Inquiry of the Wisest of Men so it is that Problem that hath tortured the Wits and wearied the pursuits of most of the Children of Men that have been in the World. The universality of the question grows from that restless motion in the Soul of Man after some End which puts every Man at last upon the prosecution of somewhat as his End though it may be not upon the speculative and critical inquiry concerning it As the ordinary rational faculty of the Soul teacheth a Man to conclude rationally though he have not that artificial Reason of Reason which is acquired by speculation and study And as this is the cause that puts many upon the Inquiry and all upon the Prosecution of some End so the difficulty of the Decision doth produce that variety of Judgements and Practice concerning this which are impossible all to be sound and true but possibly they may be all false in as much as there can be but one Supream Good and adequate End of Man which is his Happiness And from hence it is that amongst the several determinations of Men concerning this matter each do abundantly convince the other to be errors and mistakes and though none do sufficiently satisfie and convince a Man that it is the right yet doth abundantly satisfie that the adverse Opinion is mistaken concerning this Point because the Truth is but one the rest are all Errors and though some carry more likelihood of Reason than others yet it carries so much distance from Truth that it is discernable not to be the Truth and the mistake is not only evident to Reason but even to Sense it self That Man that would go about to perswade me that Happiness consists in Corporal Pleasures outward good of Body or Fortune Wealth or Honours Knowledge of all created Beings practice of Moral Virtues c. I need no other conviction of the falsity of these but this That in the midst of any or all of these I still find those affections in my Soul that cannot consist with Happiness but mingles Misery with this thin and empty Happiness 1. Desire of somewhat more or somewhat else which I have not which ariseth not from the Goodness of what I enjoy but from the Emptiness and Narrowness of it 2. Consequently Grief for what I want and have not 3. Fear of Loss of what I have And never any Man in this World in all the Enjoyments he ever had or was capable of except that which we now intend to speak of but in the midst of all had these three Affections about him actually working which can never consist with Happiness Now the general Grounds of these mistakes in the practice of Men is 1. The Error of their Judgment 2. The Impetus or force of the Sensual Appetite which precipitates and captivates their Judgment The Speculative Error ariseth from Ignorance 1. Of the Subject Man for let it be but once granted that the Soul of Man is an Intellectual Immortal Substance all those Opinions which place Happiness in this Life will be convinced clearly false and vain But though the Knowledge of this be sufficient to tell me what is not my
as things stand with Man he hath not this means of his Cure in or from himself but must derive it being now lost from him who at first gave it him the next Enquiry is Whether God hath appointed any Means for the cure of Man's Ignorance Perverseness and Guilt and consequently to lead him to Happiness and what it is wherein we conclude 1. That God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness hath revealed and conveyed to the Children of Men the Means of their Happiness in several times by several ways and in several degrees in all successions of times 2. That this Discovery and Means of Happiness he hath by the course of his Providence put together and diffused to Man-kind in the Compilation of the Old and New Testament wherein are contained not only the clear Discoveries of things to be Known and Believed conducing to Man's everlasting Happiness but likewise things to be Done and effectual Perswasions for the doing of it 3. That in the Use thereof there are not only the natural Means of discovery of Truths necessary to be known of things to be done and most effectual and powerful Perswasions beyond all other moral Arguments to the Obedience thereof but likewise a strong Concurrence of the Power of God according to his Will subduing the Understanding to believe and the Will to obey 4. That by this Belief of those necessary Truths and Obedience to the Will of God thus revealed Man shall be conducted to his everlasting Happiness which was the great End of his Creation CHAP. VI. 〈◊〉 the Credibility of the Sacred Scriptures THESE things be of easie consequence if once this be clearly proved to be the Word of God for then we argue demonstratively and à priori from the Cause to the Effect viz. Because that whatsoever is the express Word of God himself which is the God of Truth cannot chuse but be infallibly true and beyond all disputation But the question will be upon the Assumption viz Whether this be in truth the Word of God which if once granted all the rest will need no proof The Understanding of Man hath wrought in it a four-fold Assent to every Truth whereunto it assents 1. An Inherent Assent that is of such Principles if any be which are connatural to Man. Thus the Understanding assâ—â—ts not to this Proposition That the Old and New Testament are the Word of God. 2. Knowledge wrought by Demonstration or Scientia per causam Thus though there be many Truths in the Scripture that are demonstrable yet that these Scriptures are the infallible Word of God is not naturally demonstrable 3. Belief which is the taking up of a Truth upon the Testimony of him that asserts it This that it may be firm requires two qualifications First a firm and absolute perswasion That what the Author affirms is trâ— And thus a Man once admitting That this is 〈◊〉 â—ord of God doth most unquestionably believâ— because the truth of the Author is demonstrably unquestionable 2. A firm and clear Assent That this is the Word of that infallible Author And this is wrought only by a secret and immediate work of the Power of God upon the Soul and is as firm Assent if not more firm than Science it self 4. Perswasion or Opinion which riseth upon probable grounds And although this can never arrive to Belief or Knowledge yet according to the strength concurrence and multiplicity of Arguments concurring to the Perswasion it may arrive to the very next degree to Belief or Knowledge Thus it may be firmly concluded That this is the Word of God and the Means which he in his Providence hath appointed to guide Man to the attaining of his last Happiness This Perswasion though it be not Faith it doth prepare the Heart for that high and noble Assent and mighly strengthens it being attained These are in the next place to be considered 1. It doth discover those Truths clearly and satisfactorily which hath perplexed all the Labours and Enquiries of the wisest Men and thereby unriddles and renders easie most of those difficulties and doubts in natural and moral Philosophy which could never or not without strange uncertainty and reluctation be so much as guessed at by them The abstrusest Truths are hardly discovered and found out which is one cause of those several absurd Opinions and Positions which have been invented and imposed by Mens Fancies to make out supply and reconcile those Difficulties which the Ignorance of it may be one Truth doth most necessarily occasion but when that Truth is once discovered it doth most clearly resolve those Difficulties and scatter those Absurdities and procure an easie Assent from that Reason in Man which could not at first easily discover it To consider this in some Particulars In Matters Natural Whence grew all those strange Chimera's concerning the first Matter Its Eternity Its undeterminateness and a thousand disputes Whether it is What it is and all end in nothing but unsatisfactory and unresolving Disputes concerning Eduction of Forms out of the power of it and by what Agent concerning the eternal succession and concatenation of Causes concerning the beginning of Motion especially of the Heavens the endeavouring to reconcile an eternal duration to a successive motion concerning the different activities and qualities of simple Bodies their mutual actings one upon another the cause of the disgregating of the simple Bodies one from another unto that convenient distance and of their concurrence in production of mixt Bodies the production of Creatures especially Man the nature of the Soul the fitting of Objects and Powers in the Senses and Intellect All these and millions of Disputes rise from the ignorance of that Truth which at one view we may with satisfaction read resolved in the First of Genesis and in no Book in the World beside but what hath been borrowed from thence Again Touching the orderly Position of the Creatures The conveniency of one thing to the exigence and necessity of another The moderation and government of things endued with destructive qualities each to other The concurrence of several contingent Causes to the producing of Mutations in States Religion c. as if those contingent Causes had been as it were animated with one Soul or Spirit and the like The observation of these and the like things and the want of true knowledge have put Men to those exigences of invention which resolve them into Fate or Destiny into the power of the Stars into the Law of Nature and yet we are still where we were not knowing What that Fate is What that Order or Power of Heaven is Whence that Law of Nature came or was given But if we look into this Book of God we find all these difficulties extricated we find the preservation of this Order in the Creatures to proceed from and depend upon the Wisdom and Power and Government of an infinite and intellectual Being who whiles his Creature for the most part moves according to the Rule
436 1. Natural Page 436 437 2. The Word of God absolutely in it self Page 438 1. The Law 1. Moral Page 438 2. Ceremonial Page 441 3. Judicial ibid. 2. The Prophets Page 442 3. The Gospel which contains a most excellent Rule of Righteousness in 1. The Example of Christ Page 443 2. The Precepts and Counsels Page 444 Page 1. General 1. Love of our Neighbour Page 448 2. Doing as we would be done unto Page 456 2. Particular things Page 1. To be done Page 2. To be suffered 3. Parts 3. God. A Brief Abstract of the Christian Religion Page 461 Seasonable Considerations for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life Page 473 A DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves PART I. By the Light of Nature CHAP. I. Of the Existence and Attributes of God. I. ALL things but the Soul it self are extrinsecal to the Soul and therefore of necessity the Knowledge of all other things is extrinsecal to the Soul for Knowledge is nothing else but the true impression and shape of the thing known in the Understanding or a conception conform to the thing conceived And although the Soul in its own nature be apta nata to receive such impressions and doth therefore naturally desire and affect it yet it is as impossible for the Soul to know till the Object be some way applied to it as for a Looking-glass to reflect without first uniting of a Species of some Body to it that may be reflected The Means whereby the Scibile or thing to be known is united to the Soul and consequently Knowledge is wrought is threefold viz. 1. Supernatural Thus Almighty God in the first Creation of Man did fasten certain Principles of Truth in Man by his immediate discovery especially the Knowledge of Himself and his Will which was properly the Image or Impression of God in his Understanding This was not essential to the Soul but a Habit or Quality which God put into his Understanding and therefore though his Knowledge decayed by his Fall yet his Soul continued the same 2. Artificial Thus Knowledge is derived from Man to Man by signs of those impressions of Truth c. that are wrought in his Understanding that communicates it Thus Knowledge is acquired by Writing Speech and other Signs that are agreed upon to communicate Intelligence from the understanding of one Man to the understanding of another though mediante sensu Thus the Reliques of the knowledge of God in Adam were derived to his Posterity though still it grew for the most part of Men weaker and corrupter 3. Natural And this may be divided into these three branches viz. 1. Simple Apprehension Thus when any object singly by the Ear or Eye or other Sense is let into the Phantasy and so shewn to the Understanding without either affirming or denying any thing concerning it 2. Complex Apprehensions whereby either duo scibilia are joyned together in an Affirmation or Negation and this is a Proposition which again is of two kinds viz. either that which is most universal and therefore the first proposition that is framed in the understanding viz. that it is or est or est ens For that notion doth necessarily and upon the first view of any object joyn it self with it in the understanding Other propositions are more complex or remote as that God is good c. For the first question in the Understanding is Whether it be to which that general proposition answers and in the next place What it is to which the second sort of complex notions answer Now of this second kind of complex notions there are two kinds viz. either such as without the help of any Discourse or Ratiocination present themselves from the object to the understanding as this The Man is red the Man and the red being both objects of Sense and meeting in the same subject or else such as either the thing affirmed or the thing whereof the affirmation is or both are things that do not immediately fall within our Senses as the Man is a substance or the Spirit is a substance These though originally derived from sense yet they are refined by the help of Discourse 3. Conclusions drawn either from these simple or complex apprehensions which flow into our understanding immediately by our Senses and this is Rational Discourse a Faculty or Power put into Man whereby he is beyond all other visible Creatures and whereby all his actions whether Civil or Religious are and ought to be guided This is that Power whereby we may improve even sensible Objects Apprehensions and Observations to attain more sublime and high discoveries and rise from Effects to their Causes till at last we attain to the First Cause of all things So we may conclude that the Knowledge of our Creator though it fall not within the reach of our Sense and so falls not immediately within the reach of our Understanding yet by the ascents and steps of Rational Discourse so much may be gathered as may leave an Atheist without excuse God having given to Man even in his lapsed condition besides other Providential helps a stock of Visibles and a Rational Faculty to improve that stock to some measure of the Knowledge of himself For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom 1.20 Therefore as on the one side we are to avoid curiosity in measuring the infinite Mysteries of Truth by our own finite Understandings so on the other side we must beware of Supineness and Neglect of imploying that treasure of God's Works and his Light or Reason in us to that end for which it was principally intrusted with us even the knowledge of our Creator yet still humbly concluding with Elihu Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me II. The first and most Magisterial Truth in the World upon which all other truths do depend is this That there is a First Being and Cause of all other Beings This is evident by clear Reason 1. Either we must admit a First Cause or else an actual infiniteness of Succession of Causes The latter is impossible in Nature because it is impossible there can be that which is infinite and yet successive for then it would follow That that which is actually infinite in number should be yet more infinite because there are new Successions on Causes and Causations Again it is impossible that there should be an eternal dependance of Causes one upon another without a First because then the whole Collection of those Causes taken all together must needs likewise be actually depending and if so then upon themselves and that is impossible for the immediate Cause of the Effect doth not depend upon its Effect but immediately upon its Cause Therefore this bundle of dependent causes must depend upon some one among them which is independent And impossible
of his Attributes by the same Essence he is and he is what he is they are divided notions in us but in him neither divided from his being nor one from another And hence it likewise follows that though the emanant Actions that flow from this First Cause are different and represented unto us under different Notions as this is an act of Power this of Goodness this of Knowledge or Wisdom and upon these we frame notions to our selves whereby we represent that from whence these acts move by several Names or Attributes of Mercy Power Wisdom yet these proceed not in truth from several Qualities in the First Cause but from one simple absolute unqualified Being V. From this consideration that he is the First Cause and Being it follows that he is Ens Perfectissimum For that is Perfect to which nothing is wanting Now it is impossible that any thing can be wanting to the First Cause for there can be nothing besides him but what proceeds from him and that which proceeds from him cannot possibly either add any further degree of Perfection to him or include that Perfection which was not in the First Cause most eminently The First Cause had a pre-existence to all things else nothing then could be wanting to his Perfection because there was nothing else but himself The production of the Second Causes could not possibly include any greater Perfection than what was derived to them It is true in the working of Second Causes there may be a production of an Effect that may be more perfect in its kind than the Cause that immediately produced it as the production of a Worm out of putrefaction a Plant out of the Earth c. but there the Effect is not purely due to the Second Cause but to the Original Operation of the First Cause that did put that activity in the Second Causes to produce such Effects for every Second Cause worketh and moveth in the virtue and efficacy of the First Cause and hath its causality from it as well as its being without which though it had its being it is impossible it should be operative This Perfection in the First Cause is in truth inconceptible because impossible for humane Understanding to receive it without Divine Revelation and much more impossible to comprehend it because Infinite Therefore to help our selves herein we do and that rationally attribute to the First Being that manner of Being that we find most Perfect Therefore from this Perfection it follows 1. That the First Cause is a most pure Act without any mixture of Passibility or Power for if there were any Power as it signifies a susceptibility of some further act or impression that were an Imperfection for whatsoever is susceptible of some further act as all Power is it is impossible it should be perfect And from hence follows his Omnipotence for all inability to do any thing proceeds from the want of activity in the agent to overcome that resistance that it finds in the thing to be done Now in the First Cause there wants no activity for it is a most pure Act and were it not a most pure and Infinite Act it were impossible it should be the First Cause because that supposeth a priority of being in the Cause to the Effect and consequently requires an Infinite Activity in the First Cause because it must produce that which before was not at all and the motion between being and simply not being is infinite and therefore requires an infinite activity 2. From the consideration of this Perfection it follows that this First Being is a Substantial Act not an act that flows from another thing or depends upon another thing for then he could not be Ens Primum nor yet Ens Perfectissimum but it is an Act subsisting by it self 3. From this consideration of this Perfection it follows that he is Ens Vivens Life adds a degree of Perfection to the substance in which it is and the more Perfect the Life is the more perfect the Being hence the Sensitive Life is perfecter than the Vegetative and the Rational Life than the Sensitive and the Life of a Spirit than the Life of a Body Now this First Cause being an Infinite and Pure Act he hath an infinite perfect Life 4. From hence it follows that he is an Intellectual Being and as all his Works bespeak him so so doth this consideration of his Perfection necessarily evidence it for otherwise he should not be Perfect because an Intellectual Being is a more Perfect Being than that which is not so And this Understanding of the First Cause is commensurate to his Essence viz. Infinite and Eternal whereby he perfectly seeth himself and all things else that are or can be in one Eternal Indivisible act And from hence riseth the Omniscience of the First Cause without which he could not be Perfect for if any thing that is or might be were hid from him then by the discovery of that to him he would receive a degree of Perfection that he had not before And this Knowledge hath a threefold Object 1. His own Essence which requires an Infinite Knowledge to comprehend it because an Infinite Essence 2. All things that are for his Knowledge being Infinite it must necessarily extend to all other things 3. All things that may be because otherwise upon a further act of his Power that should be a new extension of his Knowledge which stands not with his Perfection And all this with one Eternal Indivisible act not by Succession not by mediate representation Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me 5. From hence it follows that he is Ens Liberrimum though he be most necessarily what he is yet he is free first for that the Freedom in agency is a degree of Perfection above a necessary agent and therefore this Liberty must of necessity be attributed to the First Cause Again it is impossible but that the First Cause must be a Free Agent for whatsoever works necessarily hath that necessity put upon it by somewhat without it which is inconsistent with the First Cause for if any thing else did put that necessity of working in him then that which imposeth that necessity was the First Cause Again every Necessary Agent omnibus aequè dispositis works uniformly now nothing was as equally disposed to become something from Eternity as at the first production of any thing the motion from not being to a being being the adequate effect of the First Cause therefore if there were not a Freedom in the First Cause the first Effect had been as ancient as the First Being Therefore we must necessarily affirm concerning the First Being that he is Ens Liberrimum Voluntarium and that according to his Will he worketh 6. From hence it follows that he is Ens summè Bonum Concerning this Goodness of God we affirm 1. That it is an Essential Goodness and his Goodness is not any thing divided from his Essence for that is
whereby we are bound and whereunto all Humane Justice is to be resolved both in point of Conformity as to its Pattern and Obligation as to its Law. But how these Laws were at first given to Man whether by a formal Command or whether by an immediate Impression in the understanding and will or whether by an implanted Propension or inclination in the will or partly by one partly by another it is not easy to determine Sed vide infra But what ever way it was it is impossible to have any notion or imagination of just or unjust among Men without resolving it in its original into the Rule or Law that was given to Men by the First Cause of our being 9. From the consideration of the First Cause and of the premisses it must needs follow that he is Immutable for Mutability is inconsistent 1. With his Perfection It is impossible that a Pure Act can have any Change for all Change doth necessarily infer Passibility and Receptibility of what it had not before and to suppose that were to conclude he were not Actus Simplicissimus Perfectissimus for all Receptibility imports Potentiam or Passibilitatem 2. It is inconsistent with his Eternity for all Changes too of necessity suppose a Succession of Duration in the thing changed it is not to every intent the same simply that it was before it had that change which doth of necessity import Succession which is inconsistent with Eternity for whatsoever is Eternal hath no Succession and consequently whatsoever is affirmed of it at one instant must necessarily be affirmed of it Eternally this cannot stand with any change for before that change that could not be affirmed of him which might be affirmed after if it should be admitted 3. It is inconsistent with his Simplicity Some things have accidental changes which yet in Essence continue the same as from ignorance to knowledge from one colour to another but such accidental changes cannot be in that which is Ens Simplicissimum because there can be nothing in him which is not his Essence 4. It is inconsistent with his Infinitude for to whatsoever any thing can be added that it had not before that cannot be Infinite because still capable of a farther accession And as this Immutability is affirmed of the First Cause in point of his Essence and Nature so in some respects it is concerning his Acts. These are of two kinds viz. the Immanent Acts such are the Acts of his understanding and Will and these are Immutable as well as his Essence for indeed they are but notionally divided from it In us our Will is one thing and our willing another but that is inconsistent with the Simplicity of the First Cause hence it is that as his Essence so his Will is immutable he wills nothing now but what he ever willed and understood from Eternity what he now knows for Eternity hath neither now nor then in it 2. The Emanant Acts those are nothing else but the Execution of that Immutable Will these are subject to mutation but without the least mutation either in the Essence or will of the First Cause 1. Not in his Essence It is true here is a new relation that was not before for when the First Being produced an Effect it is true the Relation of a Cause and an Effect is now produced which was not before and so when more Effects are produced the Relations are multiplied but Relations breed no Change at all in the subject concerning whom they are affirmed the being was the same before it put forth it self in a causation as it was before it doth of necessity import a change in the thing effected viz. a motion à non esse simpliciter or à non esse tale but not in the Cause which had an absolute being before though not actually as a Cause before 2. Not in his Will. It is true when any Effect is produced that was not before here is an execution of what was not before but the will of that to be then was from all Eternity Again when a being is either changed or annihilated that is not by a Change of the will in the First Cause but only in the term or execution of that Will for by the same indivisible and eternal act of his Will he willed this or that to be made and after to be annihilated in time the Change is in the terminus or execution of his Will not in the Will or the Immanent Act of it But how can we then conceive that there should be one Immutable Act of his Will when a thing is past How can he be said to will that which is already executed and past For which we must return to what hath been said viz. that past and to come are but the measure of Successive Motions and therefore though they are applicable to them yet they are not applicable to an Indivisible Being or Act the measures of successive motion do not fit Eternity which though it be a Duration that consists with the Successive Motion and Duration of the Creature yet it holds no proportion with it The Motion of the Heavens though 10000 times swifter than the motion of a Tortois have yet a proportion one to another because both successive and so Time measures both But the Duration of the First Cause is the Duration of an Indivisible Being and consequently holds not proportion with Succession And hence it is that it is but our gross conception that do imagine any part of Eternity past or any part to come or that Time doth divide the fore part of Eternity from the future part of Eternity It is an indivisible permanent Duration nothing past nothing future but the same fixed instant consequently the Act of the Divine will always one always present This Knowledge is too wonderful for me CHAP. II. Of the Works of God of Creation and Providence THUS far have we proceeded in those inquiries which rectified Reason suggests to us concerning the Nature of the First Cause Now we consider the Emanant Acts of his Will and Power upon things without him for from this consideration that he is the First Being it likewise follows that All things besides him must needs have their being and subsistence from him This falls into these two Conclusions 1. That all thing besides himself have their being from him 2. That all things are directed and governed unto their several Ends by him Touching the former viz. That all things besides him have their original being from him that is a necessary consequent of the admission of a First being for whatsoever is not first there was a time when it was not for otherwise it must be eternal the contrary whereof is before evidenced That then which once was not and now is and consequently had a beginning of its being could not have it from it self for nothing hath a power or activity of it self to produce any thing therefore that second being must needs
be produced by the First Being the consequences whereof are these 1. That all things except the First Cause had a beginning of their being and consequently there was no Eternal Matter out of which any thing was made 2. That all Beings had their first being from him that is the First Being This is evident by what goes before 3. That the first production of all things by the First Being is purely and solely by way of Efficiency and not by derivation of substance from himself for that is impossible his Essence is Immaterial and Indivisible 4. The manner of this Efficiency or his Causality is not any act distinct from himself but only the meâ—e act of his mere Will which is essentially the same with himself and with his Infinite Power And herein the first production of second Beings differs from that manner of causation which is ordinary in subsequent productions of things for the first production of beings was an infinite motion viz. from a simple not-being to a being and therefore was acted immediately by the Infinite Power and Will of the First Cause there being no instrument to be used or if it had been yet any instrument had been infinitely disproportionable to such a motion But in the subsequent production of most things the matter pre-existing and so the motion not being à non esse simpliciter the causation of the First Cause is by instruments and second Causes 5. That as the first production of all things was the immediate act of his will so the disposing of all things into that Order and frame wherein they now are was the immediate Act of his Will and Power and Wisdom This is evident upon a double ground viz. First because whatsoever had its being from another had its esse tale from him 2. It is not conceptible that if all the things in the World had been put together they being all irrational substances they should ever have marshalled themselves into that order they are in unless the First Being had so willed it And if it should be admitted that the Forms and Qualities of the several beings would naturally have inclined them to their several places and stations which though all things had been wrapt together would by degrees have severed and taken their places That as it is impossible to imagine would ever have been unless the substances themselves as well as their active qualities had been divided so if it were granted it were equally to be resolved into the Will of the first Being to put such Forms Qualities and Inclinations in things conducing to and effecting such an order as if that Order and Fabrick of things had been by the immediate call of every thing into its Order and Rank by the First Cause 6. That the production of Mankind especially was the immediate work of the First Being This is touched before 7. That all these Activities that are in Second Causes are put into them by the First Cause and they work in the virtue of the First Cause so that although the Effect be not the immediate production of the First Cause yet the Activity and Power that is put in the second Cause to work is originally due to the First Cause And hence it is that a more ignoble being doth produce sometimes a being of a higher nature than it self as the Earth produceth Vegetables Putrefaction Sensibles because the vigor and Activity that causeth it was at first put into the second causes by the First so that though they move uniformly omnibus rectè dispositis yet they act in virtute Primae Causae 8. Though Second Causes work naturally and uniformly for the most part where all things are equally disposed and this by the virtue of that Activity which by the will and Power of the First Cause was at first put in them yet this Activity is managed and ordered so that it neither breaks the Law of its causality or motion that was at first put into it nor yet disturbs or disorders the universal fabrick of Nature things being at first framed in that order that each should be a corrective to the other in case of exorbitancy de hoc infra 9. From hence it follows that the constant and uniform Course of Nature is not to be attributed to it self but only to the Will of the First Cause that wills it to continue in that frame though he hath ordained Means subservient to that end 10. From hence it follows that as all things in actu primo owe their being to the will of the First Cause constant and uniform Course of Nature is not to to be attributed to itself but only to the Will of the First Cause that wills it to continue in that frame though he hath ordained Means subservient to the will of the First Cause so in actu secundo viz. their continuance and subsistence is due only to that Will they were made because he willed it and they continue because he wills it And this as it is most true in respect of the whole frame of Nature which hath no adequate means of its subsistence but the Will of the First Cause so it is true likewise as in the beings so in the continued subsistence of Second Causes which though they are and are supported immediately by Second Causes Qualities and concurrences yet the Activity and Power that is in these Second Causes to produce or continue these Effects is due to the First Cause and continues in them by virtue of that Will that at first planted it in them 2. The Disposing of all things to their several Ends whether remote or near belongs to this First Cause Every Intellectual Agent works for some End or other the First Cause we have shewed to be an Intellectual Agent therefore what he works he works for some End answerable to the Work and Worker and it must of necessity be that he that is the First Cause or Efficient of all things must needs be the appointer of his own End in that Work. The End though it be last in execution is first in intention for it moves the Agent to the work or otherwise though he work not without an Event he doth it without an End. Now that which is first in Efficiency must needs be the first designer of his own End which is but the result of his Work A Second Cause though he may have an End in his Causation proportionable to the causality wherewith he is indued yet as his Efficiency is subordinate to and derived from the Efficiency of the First Cause so must his End be it may be an Ultimate End in respect of it it is but interlocutory or rather no End at all in respect of the First Cause but only a means conducing to the Execution of the End of the first Cause When a passionate Ambitious or Covetous Man drives mainly and wholly at the satisfaction of those lusts as his End and that End draws out his activity and strength to
be an Infinite and Vniversal Good. The former qualifications though each exclude something yet none excludes all Creatures from being the Supream End of the Soul Angels and Spirits are Immaterial Immortal Intellectual Good yet they want this one qualification without which it is impossible that there can be the Object wherein consists true Happiness The reason is this because nothing below an Infinite Good can satisfie the infinite motion of the Soul. The motion and comprehension of the Understanding though actually it doth not understand all things finite it may comprehend all finite things in the World which is clearly evidenced by Experience the most knowing Man in the World hath as much room for more Knowledge as he had before he knew any thing if a Man therefore knew all the finite things in the World yet were not the Understanding so filled but were there more to be known he would have room for it and consequently a desire to it Nothing then can fill and satiate the Understanding but Infiniteness yet we are not therefore to conclude that the Understanding is commensurate to the infinite nature of the First Being no that hath an actual Plenitude beyond the comprehension of the Understanding but the meaning is God hath placed in the Soul of Man an Understanding potentially infinite that cannot be filled with what is actually finite as all Creatures are And as the Motion of the Understanding is infinite and restless till it be filled with him that fills all in all so is the Motion of the Will nothing below an infinite Good can satisfie it And now as we have argued upward from the Capacity and Vastness of the Soul and its Faculties that nothing below an infinite Good can be its End so we must argue downward too The Great and Wise Creator who hath the disposition of all things to their Ends and who in his Infinite Wisdom hath put motions and capacities in all things conducing and fit for those Ends for which he hath ordained them hath appointed himself to be the End of his Immortal Creature and therefore hath put in the Soul a Capacity too large for any thing below himself and Motions restless in any thing but himself The Conclusion therefore is the Immortal Invisible Creator of all things that is infinite in Goodness and Truth hath been pleased to appoint himself to be the End of Man wherein consists his Supream Good. But it may be here considerable How God can be the adequate Object of Man's Felicity seeing Man consists of a Soul and Body united which was ordained to an End of Happiness as well as the Soul To omit the consideration of the Resurrection de qua infra I do conceive that God is the adequate Object of Man's Happiness in respect of his Compositum as well as singly of his Soul though in a different way of Communication The Communication of himself to the Soul is more immediate and sublime the Communication to the Body and Compositum mediate by Second Causes enabling and blessing their operations And I cannot question but in the first Creation when the Soul enjoyed God as the Object of her Happiness the whole Compositum did partake of that influence in communications of Happiness answerable to every exigence and degree of its being Sed de hoc infra Now in as much as the First Cause is the last End of Man and the only Object of his Happiness it remains to be inquired what this Happiness is or the Formal Reason of it for it is possible that there may be a Subject capable of Happiness and a Being that may be proportionable to that Capacity yet the Subject not truly happy The Beatitude therefore of the Soul consists in the Vnion of the Soul unto this Object of his Happiness and this Union presupposeth a double act 1. An act or Propension in the Soul moving it unto God as to its End and Perfection and as the Great Creator did appoint himself to be the End of this his rational Creature so he implanted in him a Propension and Motion in him to that End and that Propension and Motion is not a meer natural Inclination but ariseth from the fitness of those high Faculties of Understanding and Will for so excellent an Object In these he hath placed a Capacity or Receptibility in some measure of himself and as every Power is ordained in reference to something else that may actuate and perfect it and consequently moves after that Object whereunto it is ordained so this Receptibility which God hath placed in the Soul doth or at least naturally should move to that Object which alone can fill its vacuities and receptiveness 2. In as much as God is a Free Agent though he gave the Soul these Faculties yet so much is his Being and Perfection beyond the reach and attainment of any finite Being that this Motion of the Soul can never overtake his Happiness unless there be likewise an act of Condescension and Communion of himself to the Soul therefore there is necessarily required to the Happiness of the Soul a Communication by God unto the Soul And by this reciprocal act 1. of the Soul to God as the only perfection of it 2. of God to the Soul filling the desires thereof with himself this Union and Happiness is wrought This Communication by God is not of his Essence or Being for that is incommunicable and cannot be mingled with any Creature but as objective and for a fuller explication of this God is pleased to communicate himself to the Soul according to the nature of these great Faculties which he hath planted in it viz. the Understanding and the Will. And as without relation to both these it is impossible that Man should be truly happy so if both these be fully satisfied there cannot want any thing to compleat his Happiness because there is no other Faculty in the Soul which can receive any further portion of Happiness 1. The Communication of God to the Vnderstanding is that whereby he fills the same with the Knowledge and sight of himself Here the Understanding hath an object that satisfies and fills all the restless motions of it wherein he reads the satisfaction of all his doubts and inquities wherein though upon the first view it finds more than enough to fill its vastest comprehension yet every atome of its duration makes new discoveries of what iâ— thought it wanted not the Object being infinitely too large for all the successive actings of created Understanding to attain unto much less in one act an Object wherein the Understanding finds not only amplitude but unimaginable delight whiles it gazeth on an infinite Perfection an Object which by the same act fills and inlargeth the Faculty and Capacity of the Understanding wherein the Understanding though it enjoy his Object is not satiated but it rests in it is not tired with it Every Power in the enjoyment of its full and adequate Object hath complacency and acquiescence
Principles concerning other matters yet in matters of Religion the differences have ever been wonderful The reason is not only from the defect of our Understanding but likewise from the nature of the Object which falls not easily within the reach of those Mediums whereby the understanding arrives to the attainment of other Truths and therefore stands in need of some extrinsecal help to set him right in this It is true that the great points of Religion viz. the knowledge that there is a God and some things concerning his Essence that he is the Cause of all things that he made all things for his own End and those other things before mentioned may be acquired by the Light of Nature and Reason yet such is the heighth and remoteness of the Subject that it requires much Industry and Consideration to carry us step by step unto this heighth But when we have arrived to this which few attain unto yet there is so much confusion in these Notions and they are so far fetcht that they make not that clear impression upon the Understanding as is fit But admit they did yet we are still to seek what is that Rule whereby to lead us to attain to our great End and this we rove at In the ways of the Children of Men concerning Religion we may observe these Several steps of Ignorance 1. An Ignorance whether there be any God or no This is the grossest Ignorance because it is against the first and most universal Principle for the affirmation of the being of any thing is the first foundation whereupon every Inquiry is built this is Atheism and meer Brutishness 2. When a Man hath once stated that question affirmatively That there is some Superior Power the next question and the next step of Man's Ignorance is concerning the Nature of this God What he is Whether one or more Whether visible and if so What visible c. This though it may by natural Reason be stated very far as appears before and so this Ignorance receive a cure in a great measure yet so far are our Intellectuals darkened in this matter that Men are hardly set right in this And hence grew those strange varieties of Gods in the World this is the cause of Idolatry and Polytheism 3. When a Man is rightly Principle'd concerning God and consequently concludes that he is the Cause of all things the next special question is Whether God hath given to every thing his several End and Rule or Law conducing to that End and consequently Whether he hath appointed to Man any End and Rule conducing to that End different from other Creatures or Whether he be left to do as he pleaseth and not confined by the Will of God to some End and Rule conducing to it the Ignorance of this is the Cause of Supineness Epicurism Impiety and professed Injustice 4. When a Man finding that God is a free and intellectual Agent and sees as he may by natural Reason every thing ordered to a suitable End to his Being and by a suitable Means or Rule conducing to that End and finds a higher degree of being in himself than in other Creatures and consequently an higher End and consequently an higher Rule conducing to that End he doth most naturally resolve this Rule into that Law which by the Will of God is given to Man conducing to that End the Subject of which Rule must be all his Internal and External Actions both in reference to God to himself and to others but here then is the next question and the next degree of Ignorance in Men viz. What that Law or Will of God is concerning Man and from hence grow those Varieties and Errors in Worship of God. And though haply most Men knowing the true God may by the same Light of Nature concur in the general and fundamentals of Worship viz. That God is to be feared with all Reverence loved with all intention obey'd with all sincerity chearfulness and exactness all which are but natural conclusions from the Nature of God the Nature of Man and the Relation that he beareth to God as his Creator Lord and Preserver yet because we know not what that Will of God particularly is we frame several ways and Rules of Worship according as our several Fancies perswade us to be agreeable to that Will which are either unnecessary and superstructive or erroneous and offensive and which is the most dangerous Ingredient conclude both his own way necessary and the other dangerously Erroneous These Defects in the Understanding must needs be the cause of much Error and Obliquity in the whole Man and his Actions And these defects are most clearly visible in the whole World nay in the most knowing Climates Times and Persons thereof In the last part concerning the Worship of God we see several sorts of Men highly opinionated concerning their own particular Way or Worship and most Magisterially condemning the way of others as bad as Paganism when it may fall out and so for the most part it doth that what is superadded beyond the plain and sincere Fear of God Subjection to his Will Thankfulness for his Mercy Belief of the great Means he hath provided for our Salvation and those other grand Principles whereof before and anon are but meer Superstructions of Humane Invention Ignorance Imbecility or Policy and yet made the greatest part of the business and inquiries and differences among Men in matters of this Nature 2. In the Will we find several Defects 1. Those that are consequential to the Ignorance or darkness or impotence of the Understanding whose Decisions doth or should preceed the act of the Will Were the Understanding truly principle'd with the knowledge of God of his Perfection Power and Will with the knowledge of our selves our Nature and the Dependence we have upon him in our being and continuance those practical Conclusions that would most clearly and necessarily arise from these viz. of Love to his Majesty Fear of Offending Care to conform to his Will Dependance upon him Thankfulness to him Contentedness and Chearfulness in him Valuation of the World according to its true Estimate c. would most effectually follow in the Will and those Affections that are subservient to it and consequently in the Life and Actions of Men one Divine Principle soundly and clearly seated in the Understanding would improve it self into infinite practical deductions for the regulation of the Will But where these are wanting the motions of the Will must needs be excentrick But where they are but weakly and doubtfully received in the Understanding the operation of the Understanding upon them is but weak the inclinations in the Will weaker and easily overmatcht with the least difficulty and seldom arrive to action or constancy in the life for according to the measure and intention and clearness of the Conviction of the Understanding concerning any Object the more fruitful rational and powerful are those practical Conclusions deduced from it and
Reason hath a privative opposition to the knowledge of them viz. an absence of a necessity of assenting not a positive opposition or a 〈…〉 by necessity of Reason to disassent to them 〈…〉 4. That though these Truths are 〈…〉 â—ry of Reason and beyond the 〈…〉 sent yet they carry 〈…〉 gr◠〈…〉 alt◠〈…〉 up◠〈…〉 p◠〈…〉 wi◠〈…〉 infra 〈…〉 Thus the Fall of Man 〈…〉 Truths unimaginable by Natu◠〈…〉 â—itness one to another and the Ju◠〈◊〉 Mercy of God bears witness to both The mâ—â—y of the Soul and the last Judgment bear witness each to other And as there is that mutual attestation by way of Congruity of one of these sublime Truths to another of the same nature so the Congruity that these Truths have to those Truths which rationally challenge an Assent from us That all things had a beginning from the First Cause is a Truth evident in Nature but in what way or by what manner is not possible to be known without a discovery How excellently doth that discovery of the manner of the Creation serve as I may say that Principle So again that Man being endued with a rational and immortal Soul was ordered by the First Cause to an immortal End by a rational Means prescribed by God may be concluded by rational inferences and deductions but what that Means was or clearly what that End was is not discoverable by natural Reason for it depends upon the Will of God. How admirably doth the Scripture discover that Means viz. the Law of God and that End the Vision and Fruition of God especially in the point of the Resurrection Again That the Violation of that Rule must incur a Guilt irreparable a loss of that End is rationally evident yet although that Man by that Guilt is justly deprivable of that End is clear yet that God should be disappointed in this End seems somewhat hard How clearly doth the Point of our Redemption by Christ a point inconceptible by Nature serve to extricate and untwist this difficulty gives God the Glory of his Justice and of his Mercy of his Wisdom and of his Creature Thus the subservience of a Truth more difficult to the exigence of a Truth that is more clear to Nature renders the former not only possible but probable 3. The third Evidence That this is the Word of God are those strange Predictions of most contingent Events fulfilled in their several times the Prediction in one Age and declared by one Instrument of God the fulfilling in another Age declared by another or seen by our selves This gives testimony both to the Truth and Divinity of the author or inspirer of it To omit those Predictions of Joseph concerning the removal out of Egypt The Prediction of the Jewish Captivity and the Restitution by Cyrus by Name The four Empires The destruction of Jerusalem take notice but of these two viz. The Prophecies of the coming of Christ describing his Nature Gen. 3.15 his Linage of Abraham Gen. 22.18 of Judah Gen. 49.10 of David Isa 11.1 the place of his Birth Micah 5.2 his Office Isa 61.1 his Mother Isa 7.14 his Death and the Ends of it Isa 53. the time of his Death Dan. 9.2 and divers other Circumstances fulfilled precisely in our Saviour 2. The Rejection of the Jews and Calling of the Gentiles to the Faith of Christ Deut. 31.29 and 32.21 Isa 11.10 Isa 42.6 Isa 49.6 this Prophecy fulfilled even in our own view yet upon such disadvantage of natural Reason as had not the same power effected it that at first declared it it could never have been effected considering 1. The utter Enmity between the Jews and Gentiles 2. The extream contrariety in Religion to it 3. The small and inconsiderable means of effecting that Conversion 4. The great Scorn and Sufferings of those that professed it 5. The visible impossibilities of making any temporal Advantages by it c. 4. The Consent and Harmony among the several parts of it When several Men in several Ages not brought up under the same Education write It is not possible to find Unity in their Tenets or Positions because their Spirits Judgments and Fancies are different but where so many several Authors writing or speaking at several times agree not only in matters dogmatical of sublime and difficult Natures but also in Predictions of future and contingent Events whereof it is impossible for humane Understanding to make a discovery without a superiour discovery made to it I must needs conclude one and the same Divine Spirit declared the same Truths to these several Men. 5. This Book alone and none besides but by derivation from it containeth matters of the most noble and useful nature The generality of all humane Learning do either in their Object or Use or both expire with this Life and none ever arrived to the discovery of the great and adequate End of Man. This is not only evident in these Arts or Sciences of Natural Philosophy the Mathematicks Physicks Politicks Laws c. all which at their highest are but only subservient to this Life but in those two great and noble Sciences that Speculative of Metaphysicks that other Practical of Moral Philosophy The former though it arrive to as high Truths as Nature can discover yet it rests in the knowing of them and in a meer Speculation and doth not shew wherein consists Man's true Happiness much less what is the way to attain it for the latter the most sublime piece of it is framed only for the Meridian of this Life both in the Use and End. Without all question the Great and Wise God did write in Man's Nature Habits exactly conducible to his internal Contentment and Felicity in reference to his living in this World as those which were of a higher Constitution and End as his communion with his Maker The wisest of Moral Philosophers though they have imperfectly copied out divers Positions of the former as Justice Temperance Contentedness Undervaluation of the World Patience yet they never arrived at the latter no Book in the World but this shews a Man the adequate End of his Being his Supream Good his Happiness nor directs the Means of acquiring it This doth not only inforce the nobleness and value of the Book but also the original of it for when I shall see a world of the most exact humane Wits turning every stone as it were within the reach of humane discovery and yet none of them all lighting upon this great Subject the way to eternal Happiness I must needs conclude That this discovery is of a higher extract than a meer humane invention and although when we have discovered that subject we begin to wonder that Mankind hath thus long roved and wasted its labour in those other impertinent inquiries and were so far from discovery of this Vnum Necessarium that they scarce so much as imagined there was any such Business yet we may justly forbear that wonder for this is a Path which the
latter to love our Enemies The right temper of our Minds in reference to all things without us or befalling us in any Affliction and Trouble It teacheth us to improve it in discovery and repenting of the cause of our sin in adhering to God in whom there is no variableness in keeping a loose And remiss Affection to the World in Contentedness and chearful resignation of our selves to God that is Lord of his Creature and though it should not be meritoriously deserved might be justly inflicted In times of Prosperity and Comfort it teacheth us to look to the Author and take more delight in the hand that gives it than in the Blessing it self to value the measure of my Comfort more by the favour and good will of the Giver than by the extent of the Gift In the enjoyment to be Watchful that I be not insnared by it to forget the Giver to be moderate humble wise In the whole course of our Lives to look above this World to another Country and so we may enjoy the the Favour of our God and the Fruition of that Country to be at a point with all the Pleasures Profits Preferments Honours Comforts and Life of this Life to be so fixed in our Obedience to our God as not to go out of the Path he hath put us in though it be strewed with all the Scorns Miseries Torments and Deaths that Men or Hell could scatter to hinder us These and the like Precepts are given in that Word and these and the like Effects it doth by the concurrence of God's Grace work in the Heart which are as far beyond the most sublimated Documents of the most exact moral Philosopher in the World as theirs are beyond the most gross Paganism These do proclaim therefore their original from a higher Principle than humane Authority or Invention And it is observable that these are not only Principles of a high and noble extract but of a singular use in this Life If all Men were of this Constitution it would questionless reform all those Inconveniences which do happen either from one Man to another as Enquiries breach of Contracts or from Man to himself of discontent vexation and unquietness of Mind or disorder in any Condition Now if it be said That it seems strange that God who could have preserved Man in the same Integrity of Mind in which he was created and could have supplyed Man with as uniform a motion to his End by a constant Means as other Creatures by their Instincts which are fixed and constant in them should take this Circuit in restoring lost Man by such a Means it is answered That God having endued Man with Reason Understanding and Will doth rather chuse to bring about his purposes concerning him by Rational Means conform to those Faculties of Understanding and Will putting Light into the one and Regularity into the other by such means as is suitable to his Condition and Nature and not by the actual exercise of his extraordinary Power though not without the concurrence of his special Grace and Providence as in those other actions of Men in preserving the natural or civil Subsistence of Men and Societies he doth use the instrumental means of natural and politick Provisions rationally or naturally conducing to such preservation By what hath past before these things are rationally concluded 1. That there is a First Cause of all things 2. That this First Cause is Infinite Incomprehensible c. 3. That this First Cause as he was the first and only Cause of all Beings so he appoints in his Wisdom and Justice the several Ends or Perfections of all things 4. That the several particular Ends of all things are proportionable to their several Natures 5. That every thing is carried to his several End by Rules proportionable to the End and Nature of the Creature given by the great Governour of all things 6. That Man is a Creature of higher Constitution than other Creatures principally in respect of the Immortality of the Soul the Immateriality of it the Faculties of it Understanding and Will. 7. That therefore he was at first ordained by the wise God to an End proportionable to these Excellencies an immaterial immortal intelligible desirable God. 8. That there is no other Object of this Happiness but God himself 9. That the same Wisdom of God that ordained all things to their End and planted in every thing conducible Motions and Rules for that End hath likewise appointed unto Man a Rule leading him up to that End and without the observation whereof it is impossible to attain it 10. That this Rule depends meerly upon the Will of God what it should be and that in the Conformity to this Will consists Man's present Enjoyment and Hopes and Means of future Happiness 11. That as things stand with Man he is at a Fault and knows not what his End what his Rule is nor hath a Will to obey it 12. That consequently he can never attain his End till his Understanding and Will be reformed and the Guilt contracted by the violation of that Rule be taken off 13. That the Discovery Reformation and Cure can be by no other Means than by God himself 14. That this Book of the Old and New Testament are that Means which God himself hath given in his Mercy Providence and Wisdom to be the means of the discovery unto Man what his End what his Means to attain that End was how lost how to be restored and contains most effectual and rational Means conducible to it PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Existence and Attributes of God. AND now we have drawn down the great Business of Man by dark and intricate steps and windings to a clear Light which doth not only clearly and compendiously unmask and unfold these Truths which with so much difficulty of discourse and search by Reason we dimly arrive unto but divers other Truths which all the Reason and Learning of the Sons of Men could never attain unto yet such as without which all the Passages even of this Life are dark and obscure and uncomfortable We shall therefore now fall to the consideration of those Truths which are contained in that Book that are of the greatest concernment to the Sons of Men in order to their supream End and to evidence their Congruity with sound and rectified Reason 1. This Book teacheth us That there is a God which although it be deducible by natural Evidence yet this declaration in the Scripture is of singular use as well for the speedy and easie discovery of it as also for the ratifying and confirming of this Principle as we mâ—y observe even in Truths of an inferiour nature which though by the discursive operation of the Understanding they may be discovered and assented unto yet these discoveries and that consent is facilitated and strengthened when in the Writings or Dictates of others they are set forth as in the several discourses of Men in matters Natural Metaphysical
his Glory by the death of Christ who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Man is created in a glorious happy free Estate he hath a Covenant made with him which he may keep or break at his own liberty he is left in his own hands and not necessitated to break that Covenant which he but even now made with his Maker if he had done so the sending of Christ had been needless Man falls now is Christ promised Gen. 3.15 and after confined to the Line of Abraham Gen. 18.18 and after to the Line of David See what a World of Interventions of Accidents and Success interposed between the Promise and the Event the Birth of Christ any one whereof if it had miscarried had disappointed the whole Success When he was born what strange Events happen for the fulfilling of all the Prophecies concerning him So in the fulfilling of the Prophecy made to Abraham that after four hundred years bondage his Posterity should enjoy the Land of Canaan Gen. 15. ver 13 18. What a world of strange Interpositions were there conducing to the fulfilling of it between that and Exod. 12.40 and Joshua 18.1 The Births of Isaac Jacob and the Patriarchs the Dream of Joseph that caus'd envy against him and that very Envy conducing to the fulfilling of his Dream he is sold to the Ishmaelites by them to the Egyptians he is injured and imprisoned Pharaoh's Butler is imprisoned in the same Prison and then dreams this interpreted by Joseph the Butler delivered Pharaoh dreams Joseph is mentioned and interprets it is advanced furnisheth Egypt to be the Magazine of Africa the Famine pincheth Jacob's Family this lead his Sons to Egypt Joseph is discovered Jacob sent for he and his Family sixty six Persons go down into Egypt What a Circle is here of the Divine Counsel managing these seeming Casualties to fulfill that part of the Prophecy to Abraham That his Seed should be Strangers in a Land that was not theirs Well for their Deliverance from thence they must be oppressed that 's not enough the Males must be killed had not this been Moses had not been exposed Pharaoh's Daughter must come just to prevent his drowning and to give the opportunity of a learned Education this was the Instrument of their Deliverance The like we might pursue in the following Passages wherein we may see the Wise God by his Wise Counsel marshalling the Means fitting them most admirably with Circumstances and strange Conjunctures for the fulfilling of his purposed Ends. And herein is the Excellency of the Scripture that shews us a Hand ordering and disposing by a most Wise Counsel these seeming tumultuary and disorderly Passages in the World to most admirable and fixed Ends. This is the first thing wherein the Wisdom of this Counsel of God is seen in chaining all things one to another by the very same purpose whereby he determined the End. 2. That in the disposing of Means and Ends every thing notwithstanding moves according to that Law that he hath given to its particular Being We usually distinguish the actions or successes of things within our observation into three Ranks or Ranges viz. Necessary Voluntary Contingent 1. Necessary Effects are such as their Causes being admitted have a necessary conjunction therewith or consequence thereupon according to the usual course of Nature Such are the Consequences that rise upon the motions of the Heavens as the positions of the Planets the Consequents that arise upon the contiguity or conjunction of the Elements and divers such things that hold a constant course in Nature These although the great God may and sometimes doth interrupt by the extraordinary acts of his Power and to shew his Freedom yet most admirably he doth not hinder but useth them to the production of his own most sure Counsels And this evidenceth the Infinite Wisdom of the great God that hath so admirably framed his Works and his Counsels that while the former move uniformly according to that prescript Rule and Law which the God of Nature hath put into them yet the latter shall not be interrupted but effected by them though they know it not nor mean it not As when we see in a curious Watch the uniform motion of the Spring serving to produce several artificial motions as of the hour of the Day the day of the Month the age of the Moon and the like we commend the Wisdom of the Artist that hath so tempered the Spring that by one uniform motion it may be useful for all these and hath likewise so directed and managed this natural motion of the Spring to serve exactly those different intellectual motions and do conclude that the contrivance of this piece of Work was all at one time otherwise it were impossible that every part should hold that order So when we see the natural motiâ—ns of the Creatures conducing to the production of those rational Ends which God hath appointed we may justly admire the Wisdom of God that while he intends a Purpose above the conception or drift of a natural Agent he bringeth it about without the violation of the Rules or Laws which he hath appointed to be constant in Nature and may most justly conclude That the Law of Necessity in the natural Agents is but the Effect of that â—â—ry Counsel that hath predetermined his own Purpâ—â—â—s by them and that they are all of a piece all laid at the same time And from thence grows the subservience of the natural Agent in the most rigid Law and Rule of his Operation unto the free Counsels of the great God that doth most sweetly and infallibly â—ffect the latter without the violation of that Rule which he hath given to the former And hence it is that those Effects which are produced naturally by natural Causes we do and may call Natural and Necessary and yet it excludes not the Counsel of the Divine Will in the production of it for it is the same Counsel that hath made this necessary connexion between the Cause and the Effect that did predetermine the Effect to be produced Here then is conspicuous the Wisdom of God that while his Creatures in whom he hath placed an uniform Course of Working fulfil his Will yet they keep their Law of Unformity and Necessity 2. Voluntary And this is admirable that whiles Voluntary Agents do most necessarily fulfil the Counsel of God yet they do it without the least diminution of their Freedom The Jews did most freely crucifie Christ yet it was by the predeterminate Counsel of God Pharaoh did most freely refuse to let Israel go yet Almighty God tells him for this purpose had he raised him up to shew his Power upon him Exod. 9.16 And from hence we may observe the reason why Almighty God in all times hath used rational ways for the reducing of Men to the Obedience of his Will not but that he could if he pleased force the Wills of all Mankind to what Dispositions or Actions
therefore must needs take up the highest and choicest Desires to attain and keep him God is pleased to communicate himself to these Desires his acceptation of them and intimate Expressions of Love to his Creature This as it is the highest Happiness and the Rest of the Creature so it cannot chuse but ingage the Soul to return Love and Obedience to the Will of his God especially when all those Engagements to Obedience are likewise presented to the Soul that it owes its Being to him that his will is most righteous and fit to be obeyed And this Obedience arising from these Principles of Love to God as it was without all Hypocrisie so it was without all pain and tediousness for it did arise from an inward and active Principle and was acted by most obedient and active Faculties Man took no less delight in his Obedience which was the fruit of his Love and Duty to his Maker than he did in the knowledge of the Beauty and Goodness of his Maker which was the cause of that Love and Duty And as the actings of the natural Appetite upon a proper and seasonable Object when they exceed not their proportion are delightful so the actings of the rational Appetite consisting in Love and Obedience to God wherein they could not exceed their just proportion were the delight of the Soul his Holiness consisting in the returns to his Maker of Love and Obedience and the Goodness of his God in communicating himself and his favour exciting and accepting those returns did both conduce to the fulfilling of his Blessedness All this as it was derived from the Blessing of God 1 Gen. 28. so it ended in the Perfection of the Creature And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very Good. Ib. Ver. 31. 2. The Means whereby he attained or rather preserved this state of Happiness which was in effect congenite with though not essential to his Being This was only Obedience to the Will of his Maker In all inferiour Creatures we see a kind of inclination or instinct to follow the Rule of their Nature This conducts them to that degree of Felicity and Beauty which is commensurate to their Nature herein though they follow the Will of their Creator in the Law of their Creation it is not properly Obedience nor that instinct properly a Law the latter is only given and the former only performed by such a Creature as hath Liberty and Choice and consequently Knowledge and Understanding without which it is impossible to have the other Man alone of all visible Creatures is endued with both and so fitted to receive a Law and to obey it Being thus fitted he hath a double ingagement of Obedience viz. of Duty and of Profit 1. Of Duty he received his Being from his Maker and that Being furnished with Happiness This is an infinite and boundless engagement of Duty even to the utmost of his Being 2. Of Profit or Advantage this stock of Happiness that was but now freely conferred upon him is put into his hands under this Condition if he break his Condition he forfeits and that most justly his Happiness But yet if this Law were beyond the capacity of his Nature then there might be some excuse of his Disobedience But as this Happiness was fully commensurate to his Nature so was this Law which was the subject of his Obedience We shall therefore consider these three things 1. What was the Law of Man's Creation 2. Whence the Obligation of it 3. What the Sanction or Penalty 1. What the Law was Obedience was the Duty of Man to the Will of his Creator the Law was the Specification of that Will in this or that particular Command or Prohibition The Laws that God gave to Man therefore were of two kinds 1. Such as did bear a kind of proportion or convenience to the Nature of Man such are all those moral Dictates which we call Laws of Nature as keeping of Faith worshipping God and most if not all those Precepts in the Decalogue are but Expressions of these Laws These though they have no Obligation but by the Command of God yet they have a kind of Congruity with the very Nature of Man. 2. Such as though they have their original Justice of Obligation upon the same ground as the former hath viz. The subordination of the rational Creature to the Will of God yet in hoc individuo there doth not appear that Congruity of Nature of Man with this Command such was the Command of forbearing the forbidden Fruit and answerable to this in all times God hath been pleased to give Commands of these two several kinds Gen. 9.14 At the same time God forbids Murder which holds Congruity with Humane Nature and eating of Blood which doth not appear to hold such Congruity Gen. 17.2 to Abraham Walk before me and be perfect which is a Rule of natural Justice and a Command of Circumcision the reason whereof doth not so naturally appear so to the Jews not only the Moral Law but divers Ceremonial Rites which have no such necessary conformity to Reason The reason of this and why the first Man's Obedience was tried upon this Precept was because that in the Obedience to such a Command is given the clearest and most free Obedience to God for we hereby acknowledge his Freedom to command what he pleaseth and our just Obligation to obey what he commands meerly because he commands Now because it is impossible that any Law can bind unless it hath some Promulgation or discovery from him that gives it or somewhat equivolent unto it we are to consider How these Laws came to be published As for the latter it is most certain and clear that it was by express injunction from God. And the Lord God commanded Man saying c. Whether this was by an audible Voice or by an immediate infusion of the knowledge of it into the Mind it will not be material to enquire But certain it is that in as much as the Obligation of this Precept doth not arise from any intrinsecal conformity of the thing to Humane Nature there was an express injunction and command of God in it But as touching the former though they were discovered to Man to be the Will of God yet they did hold a kind of intrinsecal proportion and conformity to the very Nature of Men. And hence it is that though by the Fall a general deficiency was in Man yet the tracks and foot-steps of those Laws remain in his very constitution Though this cannot be the cause of their Obligation yet questionless this was part of the means of their Publication to Man Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles not having the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law. And although much were due to Education and Tradition and the course of God's Providence in propagating the Knowledge of the Moral Law yet such a convenience it hath with the nature and use of Men that when they once come to
in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the Hope of Righteousness by Faith for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing noâ— uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth Faith Hope and Love c. But of these distinctly and how any or all of these do either unite or move us unto Union with our Saviour 1. Faith which is taken in a double sense 1. For that firm and sound Assent of the Mind to Divine Truths wrote by the Spirit of God and so differs little or nothing from supernatural Knowledge and thus Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen and hath for its Objects all Divine Truths And as Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith thus taken Ephes 3.17 so other Truths dwell in the Heart by this Faith viz. objectively so that Faith thus taken is more properly an act upon the Soul than an act of it for in our Assent to any Truth our Soul is in truth passive the strength of the Conviction conquers the Soul. 2. For that motion of the Soul whereby it rests casts and adventures it self upon the Promises of God in Christ for Remission and Salvation and so differs from the former in these three respects 1. In the Latitude of its Object it is more restrained than the former 2. In the Order of its Being it is subsequent in the Order of Nature to the former and produced by it 3. In the Manner of its working In the work of supernatural Knowledge or Assent the Soul is passive in this though it be the work of God yet the Soul is more active As the Sun when it shines upon a solid Body doth cause a reflection of his own beaâ—s so when the Light of Grace falls upon the Heart in this special act of Faith as in that or Love there is a reflection from the Soul back to God. And therefore those Expressions of Faith in the Scripture import a motion in the Soul Christ comes into the Soul by his Light and Spirit and the Soul again comes to Christ Joh. 6.45 He that hath learned of the Father cometh unto me As Christ abides in the Heart by the former act of Faith so by this latter the Soul abides and incorporates into him and both these we have joyned together John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you Now this act of the Soul is the most natural result upon the true discovery of a Man 's own Condition God's promise and Christ's mediation unto the Soul. When a Man finds that the Sentence of Death is passed upon him that nevertheless God in infinite Love and Mercy hath sent his Son to be his Satisfaction and Righteousness and hath promised and proclaimed by him and in him and only by him Peace and Reconciliation and that without exception of any person though laden with never so much guilt and sin and without any difficult Conditions Whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 John 6.40 That he is appointed a Sacrifice by him whom we offended John 3.16 God so loved the world c. The Son of God and able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 The most genuine and natural motion of the Soul in such a condition and thus convinced is Trust Affiance and Divolution of the Soul upon this Promise of God in Christ And it is an observable thing how the Wise and Merciful Providence of God hath ordered all things so that we might be even necessitated to the right way of our Salvation and to cast our selves upon it All were concluded under a common guilt by the voluntary offence of Adam Rom. 5.12 And if we could derive our Being from another then we might escape the Guilt and that Guilt brought with it Death in the World both eternal and temporal bound upon us by irreversible Sentence of an omnipotent God. But cannot I by my future obedience emerit this guilt No. What thou doest for the future is but thy Duty and thou canst not out-act it But grant thy future obedience might satisfie for the guilt under which thou liest thou shalt have the Copy of that Rule which I required from thee and once enabled thee to perform Do this and live But be sure thou do it without turning to the right hand or the left with thy whole Might and Mind and Soul without the least aversion and that out of the meer Principle of Love and Duty and Obedience and thy future observance may expiate that original guilt yet our Condition had been still dâ—sperate because as the Obedience was impossible so the least miscarriage had been fatal for cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 So we find an universal Guilt and Curse gone over all and all this discovered to drive us to a Saviour Galat. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under a sin that the promise by the â—aith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We find a righteous Law given to our Nature but as the Obedience is unsatisfactory for a past Guilt so the Observance is become impossible by reason of our Corruption whereby our disobedience is rather excited than abated Rom. 7.8 When the commandment came sin revived and I died And all this still to drive us to the necessity of a Saviour Rom. 8.12 What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Thus in the midst of all those difficulties a Saviour presents himself with the suffrage of God the attestation of Types and Prophecies with reconciliation of all the difficulties which perplexed our Inquiries with Ability to save to the uttermost with Mercy and Acceptation and Pardon and Righteousness and Happiness offered and proclaimed to all and that upon most unhazardable and easie terms only believe him and trust on him So then Faith is nothing else but that result of dependance upon and confidence in and adherence unto Christ which follows upon the sound Conviction of the Truth of God concerning him It is true the Faith of the Ancients differed much in the distinctness of its acting and object from the Faith which is now required as Abraham's Faith Caleb's Faith c. But in this they both agreed 1. That it was a Confidence and Trusting upon God in that which was revealed unto them by God. The Promises of a Son was made to Abraham and he rested upon God for the performance The Promise of Canaan to the Jews and Caleb and the believing Jews rested upon the Power and Truth of God to perform it So with us God hath promised Mercy
in the Water and it shall not come near us Therefore O King we value not thy Power nor thy Rage for our Dependance is above them But this is not all If that great God whom we serve deliver us over to the swing of thy Rage we have learnt yet a higher Lesson our Faith and Experience hath taught us to trust in him and our Love hath taught us to obey him though he seem to disappoint our trust by delivering us unto thy Fury yet we will not forget to obey him he hath taught us to make his Will the measure and rule of ours both in what we suffer and in what we do we owe our Lives to him and thou art but his Instrument to take them from us when his Will commands our Lives we shall resign them with Patience but now his Glory requires them we will give them up with Chearfulness If we cannot live but upon so dear a rate as to offend our bountiful God farewell Life with Guilt and welcome Death with Innocence Know O King that the Presence and Love of our God hath taught us how to fear to offend yet to dare to die CHAP. XXI Of Watchfulness over our Hope Confidence and Joy. SET a Watch upon thy Hope and Confidence Place it aright and remember thou art essentially depending upon the great God and upon him only and all things below him have no more worth or strength in them than he derives to them and when they take up his place he ever breaks and disappoints them Yet such is the Atheism the Pride and Folly of our Hearts that it will place its confidence in any thing rather than where it should The distemper of this as of all other our Affections hath its beginning in the Blindness of our Judgments the want of a deep and practical knowledge of God and from hence our Confidences and Hopes fix and rest oftentimes in most vain and deceitful Objects Have therefore a watch and a corrective upon the motion of thy Soul towards any thing which thou hast wherein there seems any though never so little strength thy evil Heart will make it thy confidence and so a snare unto thee Is thy Wealth increased take heed to thy Confidence thy evil Heart will make it all one to have and to trust in Riches it will make thy Gold thy Confidence Job 31.24 to trust in thy Wealth and boast thy self in the multitude of thy Riches Psal 49.6 Psal 52.7 to make it thy strong Tower Prov. 10.15 to set thy Heart upon them Psal 62.10 And then this thy Confidence shall be thy Fall Prov. 11.28 Hast thou a fair Success in Externals look to thy Confidence though thou seest thy Creator in them yet thy evil Heart will make thee at least share thy Confidence between thy God and the Creature to conclude with Job that now thou shalt die in thy Nest Job 29.18 to behold the Sun when it shineth Job 31.26 to conclude with David that thou shalt never be moved Psal 30.6 and the jealous yet merciful God will hide his face and thou art troubled thereby to unsaâ—n thy Confidence upon the Creature and to teach thee to fix it upon thy Maker only Hast thou a Friend a Prince or Nation Confederate take heed to thy Confidence thou art apt to make this thy Friend thy Confidence Psal 41.9 my own familiar Friend in whom I trusted to put Confidence in this Prince Psal 118.9 Psal 146.3 And then he makes Egypt a broken Reed Isa 36.6 Ezek. 29.6 sends a Vengeance to pursue and overtake thee in the midst of thy Confederates Jer. 42.16 pours contempt upon thy Confidence Job 12.21 Hast thou Munitions Provisions for War take heed to thy Confidence thou wilt be ready to make thy Chariots and thy Horsemen thy Trust Psal 20.7 the multitude of thine Host thy Salvation Psal 33.16 â—o vaunt that thou art mighty and strong for the War Jer. 48.14 and then the great Lord rejects thy Confidences and writes disappointment upon them all Jer. â— 37 Hast thou a strong Body a dexterous deep foreseeing preventing Wit thy Counsels and Purposes followed with Successes answerable to thy Mind take â—eed to thy Confidence thy Heart is blind and cannot see rather than the next Causes not observing the great and fast Mover who manageth all things and will swell thee up into a self-confidence and dependance But suppose thy Confidence be right set â—eâ—ect of the Object yet see that it be grounded upon right Principles otherwise thy Confidence may be thy Presumption Examine thy very Recumbence upon thy Creator The immediate ground of any Confidence in God is a perswasion of his Power and a perswasion of his Love and in both these the corruption of our Nature doth discover it self and is fit to be considered 1. Touching his Power the Errors of our Trust on either hand in the Defect and in the Excess 1. Diffidence in his Power Psal 78.19 Can God furnish a table in the wilderness therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth Upon any Extremity though never so black and inevitable look upon the Power of God as able most easily to over-match it 2. Resting upon his Power without consulting with his Will This is Presumption when a Man without any Commission from his Maker shall entertain any desperate attempt This is for a vain Man to go about to ingage the Power of the great God against himself his Will his Purity his Wisdom his Purpose See thou hast a Commission from the Will of thy Creator for what thou art about and if so then cast thy self upon his Power when thou art acting by his Command doubt not but thou shalt act by his Power 2. Touching his Love this likewise yields Errors on both hands 1. In the defect principally when a Soul that doubts not of his Power because she knows him nor hath cause to doubt of his Love because her Peace is made yet such black storms and pre-apprehensions of dangers are gathered round about her that she cannot see the Love or Care of God towards her Psal 77.9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he shut up his tender mercies 2. In the Excess an ungrounded Presumption of the Love and Favour of God and herein are divers Mistakes 1. When a Man shall argue a personal and special Love of God unto him from External Successes and Events It is true that the Mercy and Love of God is over all his Works and the Happiness of Externals is the fruit of the Love of God as to his Creature but not a sufficient evidence of that special Love of God as to his Child they are fruits of his Bounty not always evidences of his Favour Experience of former Mercies in external successes and deliverances may and ought to strengthen that Confidence which is well grounded upon the Love of God Psal 77.11 1 Sam. 17.37 But they are not always infallible arguments of that Love When Blessings in Externals
Rule whereby God justifies the equality of his ways Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dyeth in them for his iniquity that he hath done he shall dye Again When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness c. he shall save his Soul alive which is but the same under the Gospel Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds Though the great God be absolute Lord of his Creatures to do with them what he pleaseth yet the various conditions of his Creatures in the course of Judgments and Mercies are not from any change in God but in us it is the same Holiness and Purity of God that is uniform and constant to it self that works these different effects upon the Creature as the same uniform heat of the Sun works seeming contrary effects according to the diversity of the subject so that his ways are still equal streight and righteous And this consideration as it may strengthen our hearts in the Promises of God so it will make the Histories of the Book of God of singular use to us upon all occasions when we shall with David Psal 77.10 I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord I will remember thy wonders of old and together with it consider that the same Lord that did thus or thus in former times is the same God yesterday to day and for ever And by this consideration every History in the Book of God is as a measure for all the present or future concernments of my self and others and will teach me how to behave my self in the like occasions and to judge even of future Events In the passages of Nature we see a wonderful order and constancy for the most part for all things conform themselves to those Rules which God hath put into them and that is the best and highest resolution we can give for them for when we come to make a particular inquiry into the particular causes of those things there is not the easiest part of his Work and that which long and constant continuance hath made obvious to all men but the wisest of men notwithstanding all these advantages are puzled and confounded in because the God of Nature hath not revealed it to men Psal 77.19 His way is in the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known There we see a certainty but we cannot find the immediate Instrument or Cause of it But in the passages of Mankind we are to seek for any certainty at all or the Causes of that uncertainty whch made the Wise man conclude that God had set the one against the other that men should find nothing after him Eccles 7.14 which is most certainly true as to a bare natural or rational observation Yet even these Works of God are sought out of all them that have pleasure in them Psal 111.2 and though his Judgments are a great deep Psal 36.6 unsearchable and past finding out Rom. 11.33 till he is pleased to discover them yet he is still Unchangeable and the same yesterday and to day and for ever So much even of those secret ways towards men as is expedient for our knowledge and use he hath discovered in his Book to those that will diligently observe it Thus the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 The most of the varieties that happen to the Children of men do arise from the Immutability of God in his Purity and in his Justice If a streight Line be drawn parallel to another though they be infinitely extended they will keep the same distance one from another but if the Line be crooked it will be in some places nearer some places farther off and it may be will cross the streight Line God hath given to man a Liberty of his Will and so long as his Will and the Actions of his Will ran parallel in a streight Line to the Will of God there was still a communication of Good from God to his Creature But when man chose crooked ways he is drawn thereby sometimes away from God and so is removed from his Blessings and Communion sometimes it crosseth and thwarts him and then it meets with his Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be so unless we should with the presumptuous Fool in the Psalmist Psal 50.21 think that God is such a one as our selves and his Will as crooked as ours If a bare reasonable man had looked upon the state of the Jews from the time of their going out of Egypt until their final Captivity he would easily see as much variety as in any state of men and perhaps see as little cause for it But yet that very changeableness of their condition doth most admirably set forth the Immutability of God and instruct us how to judge of things and men They were a People in Covenant with him and he was pleased to enter into Covenant with them and so long as they kept to their undertaking not one tittle of all his Promise failed them But when they once forsook him he warns and if they repent not he forsakes them if they walk contrary to him he walks contrary to them and if after all this they return and repent he returns to them see Psal 106 107. the abbreviation of their Vicissitudes And when at last they were wholly corrupted then the wrath of God arose and there was no remedy All these varieties justifie the Equality and Evenness of the ways of God and manifest the crookedness and inequality of the ways of Men. And is God the same now that he was then his ways then are the same now that they were then Art thou one that hast entred into Covenant with God beware thou keep to it and walk humbly with thy God if not be sure thou shalt meet with the like measure as his People of old did his Justice is the same still he will scourge thee with the rod of men though if thou hast a heart to return he will not utterly take his loving-kindness from thee And hast thou met with the fruit of this sin in a temporal punishment consider it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from the Living God. What madest thou wander from thy strength and thy safety as well as thy Covenant and thy Duty What couldest thou expect to find when thou straglest from him but that some evil should overtake thee Get home again as fast as thou canst and as thou hast found that he is the same God of Justice that ever he was so thou shalt find that he is the same God of Mercy and Tenderness upon returning that ever he was Psal 106.45 And he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his Mercies It is true the same thing may befal