so far bear with one another as is consistent with the peace of the world and every man ought to endeavour so far as Religion and virtue will permit to render his humour and his manners as agreeable as he can to those with whom he converses for the greater comfort of Humane life for the preservation of friendship and charity in the world and for the mutual benefit and advantage of Mankind And now I see nothing that remains which hath not been sufficiently considered upon this Argument of Liberty and Necessity either in this introduction or in the book it self unless it be one of these three things which I shall pass over very briefly The first is the case of the divine Prescience which is pretended to be inconsistent with humane freedom To which it is sufficient to answer that extend the foreknowledge of God as wide as you please yet knowledge is but knowledge all this while and can have no external Physical causality for this were to confound the notions of knowledge and of power together so that the only reason why there can be no such thing as a free agent is not because this freedom is inconsistent with the divine Prescience which can have no Physical influence upon it and there is no other influence in the nature of things but because the notion of a free agent considered by it self is an impossible notion that is it is impossible there should be any such thing as an immaterial being for I have proved at large in one Part of this Discourse that an immaterial and a free agent are the same and this being a point upon which all Religion depends I leave the Calvinists to consider of it Secondly Mr. Hobs his Arguments against Freedom are objected and those Arguments as I remember for I have not his Book by me are these two which follow the first is contained in this syllogism Every Cause is a sufficient cause Every sufficient cause is a necessary cause Therefore every cause is a necessary cause Which is no more then to say in fewer words Every cause is a cause Which being an Identical Proposition must needs be true for nothing is a cause till it have produced an effect and then indeed it is necessary that the effect should have been because that which is past can never be to come but yet it does not follow but that there might be a causality or causability residing in a subject or substance though it do not yet exert it self by any express or actual operation and Mr. Hobs in this sence might have been said to be a cause of the Leviathan and the book de Cive many years before he wrote the Books themselves His second argument is taken from the nature of a disjunctive proposition concerning an action which is supposed to be future and contingent as thus Either Socrates shall dispute to morrow or he shall not dispute to morrow and it is certain that this Proposition is unquestionably true because it consists of contradicting parts which contain the whole circuit of things within themselves for everything in the world besides disputing is not disputing and if Socrates should dye or should be annihilated to morrow yet to be annihilated or to dye is not to dispute so that the whole Proposition is unavoidably true but it does not follow that either of its parts are so determinately at this time and that was Mr. Hobs his mistake as I will prove by altering the Proposition a very little Either Socrates shall dispute freely to morrow or he shall not dispute freely Now the nature of a Disjunctive Proposition is this that all the parts taken asunder cannot be true at the same time because they are supposed to be incompetible and inconsistent with one another otherwise there is no disjunction further it is certain that there can but one part of a Disjunctive Proposition which concerns the present be true at the same time and in a Proposition de futuro there can be but one part eventually true but this depends upon the nature of the thing and upon the issue of the expected event not upon the nature of the Proposition to which it is necessary that it should consist of several parts and therefore the truth of it as such must depend upon the just and full enumeration of all those parts of which it ought to consist so that whatever becomes of the nature of the thing the Disjunctive Proposition hinders not but Socrates may be free since freedom is supposed in one of its members but yet if it be necessary that he shall dispute freely to morrow as Mr. Hobs must own if he will be consistent to himself then he will be free and necessary at the same time which is absurd The third and last thing which may be and is usually objected concerns those places of Scripture wherein the days of a man are said to be numbred and the time of every respective personalities continuance upon the earth predetermined and preordained which if it be true then it will follow unavoidably that the actions of a mans life are necessary and fatal for there may be a thousand several actions that may conspire to bring a man into a Chronical distemper which shall be the cause of his death if he be predetermined to dye at such a time of the Plague it must likewise be so ordered that he shall necessarily reside there where it is or repair thither that he may catch it and if his fate be to be knockt on the head by the fall of any Stone or Timber from an House it is necessary that he be abroad and passing by that place where the Stone or Timber may be sure to meet him in its fall and the like But I do absolutely deny that the days of a man are any where in Scripture affirmed to be thus limited or predetermined but that which is called the appointed time is the utmost distance of time from the day of a mans birth to which the stamina vitae will extend or to which the respective constitutions will last if they be well used and what that time is God certainly who is the Author of nature and hath all causes and effects perpetually present to him and always in his sight cannot chuse but understand very well but yet it does not follow but a man may anticipate this time by intemperance or by want of skill or want of care nay I suppose we may affirm it for a certain truth that no man ever did yet live so long as he might possibly have done had he understood his own constitution and the respective usefulness or annoyance of all other things to it together with the true proportions in which they are to be taken and avoided and had he lived a life answerable to so exact a knowledge and yet after all humane life would be but of short continuance and after all we should have reason to pray with the Prophet David that
but a perpetual warefare with bad desires from within with importuning Temptations from without with our own frailties and with the Solicitations of others and with the crafty inveiglements of the Devil who will be sure to accost us on that side which is weakest and least defensible in us by motives of Pleasure profit applause or Power or whatever else he shall judge most likely to prevail upon us But now I beseech you who is there or who ever was there or will ever be of humane race so perfectly pure and untainted that he could not yeild to the importunity of any Temptation or what Combate could there be if he could not resist Besides it is necessary there should be such a thing as the Schools are pleased to call libertatem contrarietatis a liberty of determining either way in an Action or Case given one of which said determinations shall be Culpable the other meritorious or praiseworthy because to suppose otherwise is to deprive the divine Justice of any Foundation to exercise it self upon Justice in the person punishing and liberty in the person offending do naturally suppose one another for to Condemn one who could not avoid what he did or to reward another who could not so much as endeavour to merit what he enjoys may be called Arbitrary but can never be just For what Judgment is there where there is no difference And what Justice can there be where there is no Judgment made of the merit of the persons that appear before it Both of which reasons of the divine permission of Sin are excellently pointed at by an ancient Writer published among the works of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is God permits us to commit those evils which we wilfully chuse not that he is not able to hinder it but because we have a liberty of doing otherwise and because by this means he displays his own patience and forbearance with us But yet notwithstanding though it be true that God does and must be supposed to permit Sin in the world yet to interpret all those places which are the Subject of our present debate only of a bare Permission will appear very harsh and uncouth to any that shall peruse the places themselves wherein a great deale more than this seems manifestly to be contained and is ascribed to God in as plain words as it is possible for any Language to speak Besides that it is needless to the design for which it is done because necessity destroys the nature of Sin and just so much as there is of freedom in any Action so much of moral good or evil there may be in it but no more he that is necessitated is passive in what he does neither are those Actions which he commits in such a state to be considered as his but they are the Actions of that Agent by whom he himself is Acted The case is this one man kills another lying in wait for him out of Malice forethought because he bore him a grudge and had vow'd Revenge or being in a cooler humour than this he does it out of a wicked frolick resolving for a jest to kill the next man he meets now it so happens that this man himself is afterwards destroyed by the goring of a mad Bull in his passage through the Streets or by the fall of a Beam from an House all on fire or the like here is the same event on both hands a man kill'd but yet to the Destruction of the one there is a guilt belonging to the other there is not what is the reason of this why the reason is plain because the first is the effect of a free the latter of a necessary Agent If therefore a man by some external impulse be so far overrul'd that he is not himself his Actions are not his own neither but he is in the nature and quality of the mad Bull or the Beam he does these things because he cannot help it and therefore they are no Sins Or if sometimes there be a Complexion of the free Cause and of the necessary together as I have shown there may be yet the common Action resulting from them both partakes only of so much guilt as it borrows of Causality from the Free It is impossible therefore that God should be the Authour of Sin in any other Sense than as he is the Authour of that freedom by virtue of which we commit it but yet to speak properly it is not the freedom it self which is the cause of Sin but it is the abuse of that freedom which is wholly owing to our selves and God is no otherwise concurring to it than as a causa sine quâ non in as much as we could not have sinned if we had not abused our freedom and we could not have abused our freedom if God had not made us free From all which it appears that to talk of God's being the Authour of Sin in men is to talk not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that neither can nor ought to be believed but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that are utterly impossible to be done For my part I am so far from favouring any such opinion that if any man should by way of excuse lay his Sins to the charge of God Almighty as necessitating him to what he did I think it is a plain Argument he is sensible of his having done amiss and consequently might have done better if he had pleased and shall therefore very heartily joyn in Philo's imprecation against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He that shall presume in his own excuse to lay his misdeeds to the charge of God Almighty let him be punished without mercy and let no Sanctuary afford him its protection Sanctuaries not being intended for such as defend their Sins but for such as do humbly acknowledge and bewail them The second Reason if indeed it may be called a second and be not rather the same why some have been so extreamly scrupulous in the interpretation of such places of Scripture as are now under Consideration is to be taken from their deserved hatred and utter Abomination of Calvinistical Doctrines by which God is represented to be so cruel and sanguinary a being but the exposition of these texts according to their first and most natural sense is so far from bordering upon Calvinism that it perfectly destroyes it since every such Text is a new Argument for the liberty of the humane nature and will in as much as it would be ridiculous to say God hardens or blinds men by a particular Judgment if before that in their natural and best Estate they had neither the use of their reason nor the liberty of their will There be four instances made use of in the ensuing Papers for the Confirmation of this Doctrine which it will be requisite for the more compleat satisfaction of all those scruples which either too much nicety or too
than of any other part of the Creation and it would seem as if God had sent them into the World only that he might triumph over the infirmities and sport himself in the misery of his Creatures for this as I have said is the usual effect of that freedom for which I am now contending But now if at the end of this Race there be a Prize proposed if this laborious Combat which we are perpetually obliged to maintain with so many unruly Lusts and headstrong Passions be but to fit and refine our tempers for the enjoyment of a better and a more exalted condition of life nay if the very nature of that happiness do in a great measure consist in a comfortable remembrance of and reflexion upon that successful Conflict which we in this life have maintained with the brutish and beastly part of our selves then all is made good sense again and here is a very clear account given of the reason of that spontaneous principle which we find within our selves and of its Connexion with the happiness or misery of another Life Whereas on the contrary if all humane actions be necessary and fatal the nature of rewards and punishments is utterly destroy'd For though a Man may be plagued or tormented yet he can never properly be said to be punished for what he could not avoid for all punishment is either for the amendment of the offending party or for an example to others Now where there is no fault there can be no amendment and where there is no choice there can be no fault Again that Calamity which being inflicted upon one is intended for an example to others must have its effect upon us either by the way of a rational motive or of a necessary cause if the first that supposes that freedom for which we contend for deliberation without freedom is the greatest non-sense in the world if the latter then I demand whether before the appearance of this necessary cause there were an Antecedent liberty or no if you say there was then I do by no means understand why the punishment of one or more voluntary Agents should destroy the freedom of all Mankind invert the order of things and alter the natural constitution of the world and if you will not grant it then here are two contrary necessities contending with one another as a Body moved any determinate way will continue the same motion and the same determination if it be not hindered from pursuing its course and turned another way by another more powerful than it self whether quiescent or in motion which it shall meet or overtake in its passage but then how either of these determinations shall be either culpable or meritorious is another thing which I do not understand and I am afraid it will puzzle a wiser head to give a tolerable account of it Again the pains of the Damned in the life to come consist as I have said in a great measure to be certain in a troublesom and uneasie remembrance of the miscarriages of this But how can I be troubled for what I could not avoid Or if I may be troubled yet it is plain I am troubled without reason and consequently this is but the effect of another necessity and so here is one necessity punished by another which is certainly the most unreasonable and the most unjust thing in the world so that we must unavoidably grant either that there can be no such thing as Injustice or that this is that very thing aggravated with all the circumstances that can make it most unworthy of God or most hateful to Men. For here is the greatest injury and the greatest deceit together the greatest injury for a Man to be tormented to all Eternity for what he could not avoid and the greatest deceit for a Man to think all the while that he might have acted otherwise than he has for that is the case of every Man who is possessed with a sense of Guilt Repentance or Shame For what is Shame but a troublesom reflexion upon Folly And how can Folly and Necessity be consistent together What is Guilt but a certain pain and anguish of the Mind arising from a sense of Sin And how can that Action be sinful which it was not in our power to eschew Or why may we not as well conclude that the Sun commits a Sin when it parches the Earth with an immoderate heat Or the Rain when it poaches it with intemperate showres What room can there be for such a passion as Repentance where there is nothing to be repented of And how can any Man repent of that which it was utterly impossible for him to avoid And which being placed in the same circumstances he must with the same necessity act over again There are those whose dejection of Spirit is so great under the perpetual weight and pressure of misfortune that they curse the unhappy day wherein they were born into a World so full of misery and sorrow but there are none repent their being born because Repentance is a reflection upon a Man 's own action not upon the action of our Parents or upon the consequence of it â— No Man can be said to repent that he was born blind or that he became so by the virulence of a Distemper which it was not in his power to prevent he may wish it had been otherwise or he may be sorry that it was not but this desire or this sorrow of his is not accompany'd with a sense of guilt or shame which is always requisite to fill up the notion and constitute the nature of Repentance No Man repents his having had the Rickets in his Childhood or his being afflicted with the Gout in his old Age so far as these Distempers depend upon spermatick and hereditary Causes but if by Lewdness and Intemperance he shall contract a crazy and infirm habit of Body and shall derive a sickly and diseased Constitution down to his Issue then he may and has reason to repent for his own sake and for theirs too to whom he is the occasion of so great misfortune he must needs look back with blushes and confusion of face upon his own personal follies and it will be still a farther aggravation to the trouble of his mind that he has poison'd Ages and Generations to come that his name shall either perish with himself or dye together with his Children or live with infamy and disgrace in the infirmity of those that shall succeed them What hath been said concerning Guilt Repentance and Shame passions that do unavoidably suppose and prove a freedom the same is likewise applicable to the business of Temptation Watch and pray said our Blessed Lord to his Disciples that ye enter not into Temptation Mat. 26. 41. But now in all Temptations liberty is plainly supposed for if a Man cannot yield how is he tempted And if he cannot resist it is more than a Temptation So that the nature of a Temptation
the real Merits of a Cause whether I have not very fairly and clearly expounded those places of St. Paul which I have produced upon this head together with all others of a like meaning and signification which it is not necessary accurately to insert so as that no advantage can be reaped from them to the Calvinistical Doctrine The Second Account which I shall give of the origine and progress of this Opinion and of its Continuance among us to this Day shall be taken from those Texts in the Epistles of St. Paul where he describes the Lucta or Contention which is to be found more or less in every man for it is not equal in all between the two principles of the Flesh and Spirit or between the natural tendencies and desires of the humane Soul as it moves from its self by an inward spring or principle of self activity abstracted from all Intanglement or Encumbrance from the Body which are all regulated by the sober and steady deliberations of right reason without any Prejudice Humour Interest or Passion and between those desires which are owing to the union of the intellectual or spiritual principle with matter from whence it comes to pass that our nobler part is perpetually sollicited and frequently overborn by the importunity of sensual Pleasures by yielding too frequently or too grosly to which it follows unavoidably that the natural strength and activity of the mind will be by degrees impaired as Elastical Bodies by moysture lose their Spring or as the Bodies of men or other Animals by want of exercise and too much ease are used to grow Scorbutick resty and unactive but on the contrary by constant breathing activity and motion they acquire new strength and arrive to an Athletical firmitude and vigour as it is also with the Mind which is not more impaired by a tame and cowardly submission to Animal and fleshly desires than it is improved and strengthned by a stout and resolute resistance of them In this continual combat between concupiscence and reason consists that spiritual Warfare which we are obliged to maintain with the World the Flesh and the Devil in the conquest of which Enemies or in our utmost endeavour towards it as being an effect of the natural strength and activity of the Soul shaking off the Cloggs and Encumbrances of the sensual or lower Life which is wholly governed by gross and corporeal Impressions from without the nature of Virtue consists a on the otherside Vice is nothing else but an unnecessary yielding to so mean impulses or it is that decay or infirmity of mind which is the consequence of such a yielding This Combat is excellently described by St. Paul in the Seventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans from the 14th verse to the end of that Chapter in these words We know that the Law is Spiritual but I am carnal sold under Sin For that which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not I consent unto the Law that it is good Now then it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin Much such a Description as this we have likewise by the same Apostle in his Epistle to the Galathians c. 5. v. 17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Where he also acquaints us what are the distinct works of the Flesh and the Spirit the First consisting mainly in the gratification of sensual Appetites and desires or in an ambitious pursuit after the Pomp and Vanities of this world or in that turbulent and uneven constitution of mind in those either private or publick Mischiefs which are the usual consequences of Lust and Passion as the latter are chiefly discernible by such a calmness and serenity of Mind and Will as does perpetually accompany the Soul of man when it is moved from it self from an inward spring and principle of its own and when its streams are not troubled or turned back with violence upon their Fountain by the tempestuous winds of Passion such a calmness and serenity as makes a man most easie to himself most acceptable to others and most fit to enjoy an intimate Friendship and Communion with God Now the works of the Flesh saith he v. 18 19 20 21 22 23. are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And from this distinction of the Flesh and the Spirit men are denominated according to the respective Predominancy of either sometimes Carnal or Natural and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritual men So in the next Chapter v. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are Spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self lest tho◠also be tempted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye which are Spiritual that is ye who have mortified the Flesh with its affections and Lusts ye who have given your selves up to the guidance and conduct of the inward-man whose Souls are as far as may be retired within themselves freed from the Dominion of Prejudice and Temptation and making no further account of any thing without than it is necessary to the support of Life or serviceable to the noble ends of Happiness and Virtue ye who measure all things by a steady and impartial reason according to their true estimate and value and not as they are falsly and unskilfully represented by the specious flatteries of a deluded fancy and so those things or truths of which
THE MIDDLE WAY BETWIXT Necessity and Freedom THE SECOND PART BEING AN Apologetical Vindication of the Former By JOHN TURNER late Fellow of Christs-College in Cambridge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for Samnel Sympson Bookseller in Cambridge and are to be sold by him and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate-street London 1684. Revâ—â—â—â—do admodum Patri ET ILLUSTRI VIRO ERYCIO COMPTONIDAE Splendidissimorum Northamptoniae Comitum Filio Fratri Patruo Nepoti Non minùs propriâ Virtute Sapientiâ ac Doctrinâ quà m Titulis Imaginibus Majorum claro Augustae quae est in Trinobantibus Praesuli Amplissimo Oratorii Impâ—â—â—alis Decano KAROLINAEQUE MAJESTATIS in Concilio sanctiori intimae admissionis Consiliario JOHANNES TURNER Hanc suam tramitis qui nuper medius dicebatur Apologeticam defensionem Idem scriptor jusdem operis continuat or assértor eidem faventissimo Patrono ac Mecoenati humiliter offert cùm perpetuâ gratiarum actione vovet consecratque TO THE READER IT may seem for ought I know preposterous to some to call that which I now publish an Apologetical Vindication for why should I vindicate that which is not accused or make an Apology for that which no man censures But when I consider how strong the current of the best Writers upon the subject I have undertaken hath run against that notion which I have endeavoured to establish I could not think it modest to dissent from so many and so Learned men without giving a more particular account of my self and without endeavouring to explain illustrate and confirm what I had written by a more distinct review of the whole matter and by an addition of new Arguments and Circumstances to strengthen mine opinion which I hope I have done with that clearness of expression and that force of reason that will convince the most obstinate and abundantly satisfy the most doubting mind For my part I declare I have no other concern in it then that I would have the truth to appear the truth which I have always and which I shall always prefer before any private interest or consideration whatsoever as I am indispensably obliged to do by my duty as a man and as a Christian and by my profession as a Divine by which I am under a still more particular and pressing obligation to promote encourage and propagate all those notions whose belief hath a tendency to the happiness of the world and to discountenance and discourage as much as in me lies all that have a tendency to destroy its peace and welfare for I am either very much mistaken in my sentiments of things or there is nothing practically or politically true which it is not very much for the interest of the world that it should be known Indeed if Divinity were nothing but an Art a meer Trick and a Juggle to impose upon the People and to enrich its Professors then it would be true in another sence than that in which it is usually taken artis est celare artem and an oath of secrecy ought to be taken of every man that enters into Orders that he should not betray the Arcana of his Function which it would be impossible for any man to do without bringing ruin and disgrace upon it but since we intend nothing but the good of the world in the first place and do not aim at any private advantage any further then is consistent with that why should we not be frank and open in what we do It is for them to cant and talk mysteries that cannot preach useful sense or speak intelligible English them that uphold a Party by flights of Enthusiasme and certain uncouth absurdities of expression and decry carnal reason for no other cause but only that either they do not understand it or else that they are sensible it is no friend of theirs but Nature and true Religion are always of a mind and this is the great fault of the Calvinistical doctrines that they contradict experience and bid a perpetual defiance to humane faculties and to common sense which if the Scripture it self should always do it would be no Argument that Calvin was in the right but only that they themselves were very much out of the story and were not really the word of God as they pretend to be I mention the Calvinistical doctrines because there is a connexion betwixt the divine obduration and the humane and I call it the humane because the Calvinistical necessity is a necessity of mans making and they have both of them the same effect that is they do things they know not why and they act after such or such a manner because they cannot help it only they differ in the cause that is to say one of these necessities is acted from without and the other from within one is a real necessity of providence and the other pretends to be a necessity of nature It was therefore very suitable and congruous in a discourse of the former to take so fair an occasion to consider the latter likewise and the rather because those very Texts of Scripture which do so plainly evidence and demonstrate the one are produced by those that assert the reprobation for the defence and maintenance of the other with how much disingenuity and how little skill I think I have sufficiently manifested to the world and have so fairly explained the beloved ninth of the Romans about which so much noise hath been made and so much hath been written to so little purpose by the contending Parties Nay I have turned their own Cannon upon themselves I have engaged this very Chapter in the quarrel against them and Jacob and Esau the younger and the Elder Ishmael and Isaac the seed of the Bondwoman and the promised seed however disagreeing and angry with each other have upon this occasion joyned all their Forces and laid a formal Siege to Geneva neither is it at all to be doubted but they will carry the place whether you consider the strength and courage of the Assailants oâ—â—he one side or on the other the weak and defenceless condition of the Town its want of Provision to hold out or Ammunition to defend it self and annoy the confederated leaguer of nature and revelation by which it is so closely begrit That which I now publish was intended as you will see by the beginning and by several passages up and down in it only by way of preface to that other discourse which is already abroad but it grew so long before I was well aware that it was much bigger than the Discourse it self to which it was intended to be prefixt it was therefore beter that it should be published by it self and consequently after the other for it would have been absurd to refer to a Discourse which was not yet in being besides that it will be much better it should come out as it does for this reason that the other having been already perus'd and digested you will
have such power over the Elements as Satan is represented to have had at that time and it was a convincing argument to the Disciples that our Saviour was an extraordinary person and had his mission from above when the Winds and the Sea did hearken to his voice Matth. 8. 27. What manner of man is this that even the Winds and the Sea obey him Thus when the destroying Angel smote the Host of the Assyrians when Moses with his Rod divided the Red-Sea and when Gideon with his Trumpets blew down the Walls of Jericho We must not think that it was the power of that Angel that wrought that execution the natural strength or skill of Moses or of Gideon by which those miraculous effects were brought to pass which are so plainly above the activity and beyond the sphere of all humane efficiency and power but it was the will of God overruling the ordinary course of Nature and positively concurring to make its laws give place to the will of these Instruments commissioned and employed by him neither is this any more than what Satan himself acknowledges in the parable of Job where although God is pleased to say Behold all that he hath is in thy power v. 12. Yet Satan plainly acknowledges v. 11. That he had no power to do that mischief which he did but what was truely and properly the power of God v. 11. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face My opinion therefore is that real miracles that is effects far surpassing the regular strength of Nature and as much exceeding the power of those at whose will those effects are brought to pass may be and have been actually allowed by God to false Apostles and false Christs as well as to true to the Magicians as well as to Moses and to the Devil himself who is the Prince of darkness as well as to an Angel of light and sure they were not mere Juggles and impostures which our Saviour honours with the Majestick titles of great signs and wonders so great that if it were possible for such to be deceived they should deceive the very Elect and yet this was a power with which the false Christs and false Prophets were to be indued by the express prediction of him who was truth it self Matth. 24. 24. Neither is it at all prejudical to such a supposition as this that the wonders of Antichrist and his adherents are called lying wonders 2 Thes 2. 9 For I do not deny that many have pretended to a power of miracles who really had it not and besides if you take the whole place together you will perhaps look upon this place instead of doing any prejudice to be a confirmation of my opinion in the Greek it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose coming or appearance is after the working or activity of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of a lie Now it may seem very strange that perfect Tricks and Juggles the Cheats of Hocus Pocus and Legerdemain should be called not only by the magnificent names of power and signs and wonders but of all power all signs all wonders for the word all is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be referred to each of these It will therefore be better to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders of a lie as if the Apostle had said wonders to confirm a lie or in confirmation of a false Doctrine as those works may be said to be works of Darkness which are done at Noon-day because they tend to the confirmation and Establishment of the Kingdom of Darkness or to the promotion and encrease of Satan's usurped rule and Soveraignty over the minds of men In Miracles there are three things to be considered the nature of them as to their Causes the nature of them as to their Effects and the tendency of them as to their design First As to their Causes it is necessary they stould be such as plainly carry along with them the marks and signatures of a supernatural power otherwise they are not miracles but Tricks and Juggles Secondly As to their effects if they do nothing but Mischief in the world or if they are calculated only for wonder and amazement not for use these are not sufficient grounds to rely upon that they are intended by God as a testimony to the truth but it is on the contrary justly suspicious without some further reason for our belief that it is a doctrine of Devils not of God whereas the excellence of our Saviours miracles consisted in this that setting aside his Doctrine they themselves were so useful and beneficial to mankind he healed Diseases he cleansed Lepers and he cast out Devils and he went about continually doing good which was a very strong argument that he had no ill design to bring any damage or prejudice to the world which is the whole tendency of Diabolical wonders when all his miracles were so full of Love so full of Charity and Goodness to mankind But Thirdly The tendency of these miracles is to be considered we must examine carefully those Doctrines which they pretend to advance if they be inconsistent with right reason or with natural Religion they are either Juggles and Impostures or at best they are but Diabolical wonders or it is the power of God cooperating with the wicked Insinuations of the Devil for the Sins of men to harden and to blind the world but it is impossible the Elect should be deceived they who are truly pious and sincere God will not suffer them to be so fatally imposed upon and men of rational and sober minds will easily conclude that these miracles are wrought in the name of Belzebub because they tend to the promotion of his interest and to the advancement of his Kingdom in the world Whereas if the Doctrine be consonant to reason and useful to mankind then these miracles are divine miracles then the Doctrine and the miracles do mutually confirm and strengthen one another because by our Saviours invincible argument it would be an absurd thing for the Devil to cast out himself since a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand St. Paul seems to have foreseen that false Prophets might be and would be endued with a power of working real miracles and that the Devil might and would put on the appearance of an Angel of light when he so straightly charges his Galathians Gal. 1. 8. If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Nay the same Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 17. 1 2. That though a man have the gift of prophecie though he speak with the Tongue of men and Angels though he understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and have all Faith so that he could remove Mountains yet if he have not Charity he is nothing that is he is nothing in himself and to others he ought to be looked
Sons of God The second Assertion I prove from those words of St. John's Gospel c. 13. v. 27. And after the Sop Satan entered into him that is he was actuated by an evil Spirit of Envy and Madness and immediately went forth in a turbulent and outragious humour to sell his Lord and Master to his Enemies the Jews that by Satan such a violent spirit of anger and revenge is signified will not I suppose by any be denyed or if you understand it of the person of that wicked Angel who is called in Scripture Satan and the Devil it comes to the same thing either way and it will seem either way very reasonable to believe that Judas was necessitated to what he did Therefore all the question will be by whom this necessity was imposed that it was immediately from the Devil is plain if you take the words in the latter sense but yet that hinders not but he might be commissioned or employed by God But I confess I am rather enclinable to interpret it in the former for Satan is from a word that signifies enmity and hatred and so may properly enough denote a malicious and revengeful temper from whomsoever it proceeds whether from the naughtiness of a man 's own heart or by the permission of God from the Devil or by his immediate Judgment from himself However St. John tells us expresly that our Saviour gave him that Sop after the eating of which Satan immediately entered into him which manifestly implies that he was at least more than consenting to it not that this Sop is to be looked upon in the nature of an efficient or instrumental cause any more than spittle was a cause of restoring the blind man to his sight but together with the delivery of this there was a concurrence of the Divine Power by which the Devil that is a Spirit of masterless and ungovernable rage immediately entered into him which is very agreeable to the Language of the Scripture very consonant to my Hypothesis and to reason to suppose if you consider how bad a man Judas had always been St. John's own Character of him is that he was a Thief John 12. 6. And you may add safely that he was an Hypocrite too otherwise he had never pretended to be a Disciple nay which is more than all this the Devil had already put it into his heart to betray his Master John 13. 2. And he had actually covenanted with the chief Priests for thirty pieces of Silver Matth. 26. 14 15. So that after all this it was no wonder if he were punished with a necessity of doing what he had so wickedly designed but was as yet under some kind of hesitancy betwixt resisting and yielding to the importunity of the Temptation Neither is it at all to be wondered if by Satan the Person of the great Apostate Angel or of one of his Missionaries be to be understood that the same effect should seem to be ascribed to God and to the Devil to Christ who gave the Sop and to Satan who immediately after it entered into him because in this case one may be considered as the impulsive cause the other as the immediate Instrument Satan necessitated Judas by God commissioned or employed Satan as it is said in the case of David 2 Sam. 24. 1. That the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say go number Israel and Judah and yet notwithstanding 1 Chron. 21. 1. Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel where by the way it is an unpardonable presumption in Junius and Tremellius who have inserted the word Adversarius into the body of their Translation of the former place to make it answer the more exactly with the latter The words of their Translation are these Perrexit autem ira Jehovae accendi in Israelitas quum incitasset Adversarius Davidem in eos dicendo age numera Israelem Jehudam I say it is an unpardonable presumption to take such a liberty of Translation as this is since these two things are so consistent together as I have shown them to be but it is still more unpardonable in them according to whose principles there is nothing which God cannot do or may not decree his power being the only bounds that can be set to his will and his power being infinite that is no boundary at all It is further observable in the instance of David that he had no sooner numbred the people But immediately his heart smote him And David said to the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done 2 Sam. 24. 10. that is when this necessity was off he was sensible that he had done amiss and he seemed to himself to have committed a great Sin as not being sensible of that necessity by which he was compelled to do it which is every man's case who is blinded or hardened by God and indeed without a supernatural Fatality it is impossible to suppose that David the man after God's own heart who was used to put so great confidence in his God and so little in the number or strength of his Armies who was used to overthrow multitudes with an handful of men and had done such incredible wonders by such despicable external means I say it is impossible to suppose that such an one so long as he had the use of his reason and the full exercise of the rational faculties of his mind should ever distrust so gracious or go about to disoblige so good a God so far as to measure his strength by his numbers as if he doubted the power of the Almighty for the future or had forgotten what signal deliverances had been wrought for him by such inconsiderable and weak Instruments as in which no humane expectation could be placed and all this notwithstanding the dissuasions of Joab and of the Captains of the Host who all unanimously addressed themselves to him to divert him from so fatal an intention 2 Sam. 24. 4. But it is said the King's word prevailed and notwithstanding the apparent unreasonableness and ingratitude of the thing yet there being no express law of God against it the King was of necessity to be obey'd I am afraid there are those in our days who would think a less reasonable pretence than this sufficient to excuse and justifie their disobedience What has been said of Davids numbering the people may be said of Pete'r denying his Master and of Judas his betraying him that at that time when they did it they were not sensible of what they did but were hurried on by an irresistible force which it was utterly impossible for them to withstand but afterwards when that impetus was abated and they came perfectly to themselves they both of them relented and being altogether insensible of that divine Judgment by which they were violently compelled to what they did they imputed the whole action entirely to themselves wherefore the one wept bitterly and the
you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the just and on the unjust And then concludes that Chapter with this general rule to make God the universal pattern of our Imitation v. 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect But now if the reprobating Doctrine be consonant to reason and to truth then we must invert these exhortations from the example of God and perswade men to the mutual hatred and detestation of one another because God who is the most perfect being and the most worthy of our Imitation so hated the World that he made the infinitely greatest part of Mankind out of a design to destroy them not that they had or that they could ever offend him being acted by a resistless Necessity in all they do but only to reak his everlasting vengeance and gratifie the eternal malignity of his Nature For though it be pretended and it is very true that Adam acted freely in the Commission of the first Offence yet it is true likewise Qualis causa talis effectus such as the cause is such is the effect that very offence being an effect and instance of his Freedom it was impossible that a free action in him should be the natural and proper cause of a necessary Nature in us or indeed that any one action which it was possible for him to Commit especially that for which the Son of Sirach tells us he made some amends by his Repentance should so far alter both his Nature and ours who are descended from him as that we should be quite another sort and species of Creatures from what we should have been before for Necessity and Freedom do toto genere distare Heaven and Earth East and West the Northern and the Southern Poles are not more Diametrically opposite or more remotely distant from one another Since therefore God did at least forknow that Adam would commit that offence which was so fatal to himself and his Posterity and since upon supposition of that offence he did preordain that all Mankind should be tainted by such an universal and irresistible Corruption which was impossible to be effected by any natural means it is the same thing as if he had simply preordained it without any respect to the fall of Adam at all because a simple Decree and a Decree founded upon a condition that will certainly come to pass are to all intents and purposes the same But we need not be so nice and subtle in bringing our Adversaries to an inconvenience since Mr. Calvin himself is pleased expresly to acknowledge that God did not only foreknow the fall of our first Parent but that by a positive act of his will he did absolutely preordain it as well as all the Mischiefs and Calamities which are consequent upon it and he refers it all to God's arbitrary Soveraignty and lawless will which he makes to be the only square and measure of all his actions in the Government of the world Since therefore it is clear according to the Calvinistical Hypothesis that God pursues Mankind with such an exquisite and immortal hatred and since he is certainly the best and the noblest example of our imitation how can we better imitate and resemble him than by hating one another by persecutig and tormenting every man his Neighbour by arming and equipping our selves to the mutual Ruin and Destruction of each other neither is it any argument in this ease that such a course of life is against our own interest as well as against that of those with whom we contend there being no man who could promise himself one minutes safety when once he had made himself the common Enemy of all Mankind For if God hate us how can we better express our imitation of him than by hating our selves or how can we better express that hatred than by doing those things which tend to our Destruction And though it be true that a Remnant shall be saved that is as our Adversaries do very impiously and very unreasonably interpret those words that a very small and inconsiderable party shall be culled out of the gross of Mankind to be the Objects of the divine Favour while the rest are for no reason but his arbitrary pleasure Condemned to everlasting Torments yet de non entibus non apparâ—ntibus eadem est ratio it being impossible for us to have a real and inward sense of a nother Man's Conversation or to feel those influences and intercourses of the divine Spirit which are reciprocated with the Spirit of another man the best way of imitating God will be without any respect or distinction of Persons to proclaim an open War against all Mankind lest by a too sollicitous pity for the Elect who by the worst that can happen will but be dispatched to a better place we spare the Reprobate whom God hath forsaken and who to gain quarter will be sure to make large pretences to the Seal of the Spirit whether they have received it or no. And is not this a precious way of imitating God which yet is the most proper inference that can be made from that topick if the Calvinistical reprobation be to be admitted are these the words of Peace the Laws and Ordinances of the Prince of Peace the Doctrine of the Meek and Humble Jesus or is it not rather a perfect Burlesque and Mock-song to the Bible an Infamous Pasquil and a most scandalous Lampoon upon the Gospel Was it for this that Isaac the Type and the Progenitour of the Messias was called the promised and the Holy seed the happy Man from whose auspicious Loyns that Bright that Glorious that Majestick Babe was in the fulness of time to be descended in whom all the Families of the Earth were to be blessed For this that as the watchful Shepheards were guarding of their sleeping Flocks the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid when the blest Spirit Cloth'd with a gentle and refreshing Light uttered these words of Peace and Comfort to them Fear not said he for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all People for unto you is Born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord For this the Beautiful and immortal Quire that sing perpetually before the Throne of God fill'd Heaven and Earth with their triumphant Song Glory be to God on High on Earth Peace and good will towards Men For this old Simeon hugg'd the mighty Infant and welcom'd his approaching Fate with Notes more Charming than the dying Swan or Nightingals contending for the Mastery with the most delicate and tender touches of the fainting string Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart
the Prophets had usually the Garbe and deportment of Mad and Frantick Persons Saul being amongst them stript himself stark Naked and lay without his Clothes for an whole Night and a Day together It is the Character which one gave of the young Prophet who was sent by Elisha to Anoint Jehu 2 Kings 9. 11. Wherefore came this mad Fellow to thee and whoever shall read the Stories of Elijah and Elisha and his Servant Gehazi will without much difficulty be induced to believe that the Spirit of Prophecy was usually attended with a sort of Madness insomuch that it was the usual Opinion both in the Jewish and the Heathen Nations that there was somewhat Sacred and Divine in Frantick Persons as it is still among the Turks to this day which was therefore so far from being a disadvantage to the Message of a Prophet that it rather gave new Authority and Recommendation to it But since these extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit are now wholly ceased together with the reason of them there being no new Revelation to be expected and there being sufficient reason especially in these parts of the World to render every man inexcusable who does not believe this What folly is it to talk of irresistible Grace when the influences of the Spirit are so Gentle that they cannot be distinguished from the motions of a Man 's own Mind When we can give a reasonable Account of what we do and are not sensible of any Violence from without by which our natural Propensities are forcibly over-ruled though that there may be sometimes and in some particular Cases such an unaccountable and perhaps irresistible bent of our Minds which cannot well be attributed to any other Cause then to the spirit of God is a thing which I will not deny but since the Apostles themselves were not always in the Spirit and under the influences of such an irresistible Grace what Madness is it to affirm it of these Times when there is not the same occasion for it or do not Mens Consciences give the Lie to their Tongues when they talk of an irresistible Spirit in those very actions in which they seem to themselves and others to be the most perfectly free and unrestrained Thus much is sufficient if not too much in answer to the first Advantage which may be taken from the consideration of that Lucta or Contention which there is betwixt the two principles of the Flesh and the Spirit The second possible advantage which may be made is this that the Spiritual principle there mentioned may be pretended to be no part of the humane Nature but that it is only a supernatural influence of Divine Grace from above Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you and vers 13 14. For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God But to this it may be answered First That there are plainly in every Man if we will believe the express affirmation of St. Paul himself two distinct principles of Action which he calls the Flesh and Spirit and the latter of them sometimes the inward Man which is a sign that it is a part of our Selves c. 7. v. 22. For I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man and sometimes the Mind v. 23. But I see another Law in my Members Warring against the Law of my Mind Secondly This Spiritual principle in us is that which is properly the Image of God and the resemblance of his Nature betwixt which and the Divine Spirit there is a marvellous Harmony and Agreement For as the Carnal Mind is at Enmity with God Rom. 8. 7. So betwixt the spiritual Mind and him there is a wonderful Concord and Friendship he Cooperates and concurs with it in all its virtuous Endeavours and Undertakings And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit as it is v. 16. That we are the Children of God From whence it comes to pass that the that the same Effects are attributed to the Spirit of God and to our Spirit as their Cause because there is a Concurrence of both these for their Production and because the utmost perfection of Holiness is scarce attainable in a single Instance while we carry these fleshly Tabernacles about us and much less in the whole course and tenour of our Lives without the assistance of the Divine Spirit These are the two advantages which may be taken from the consideration of that strife or contention betwixt the two principles which is described by St. Paul which what Service they are like to do to the Predestinarian Cause we have already seen but it is now further to be considered that the very supposition of a Mind or inward Man or immaterial principle of Action for all these are one is at the same time an assertion of humane Freedom and a shaking off those Clogs and Fetters which the Calvinistical Fatality would put upon us For when things come to be examined to the Bottom it will be found that an immaterial Nature and a free Agent are the same Extension is the common attribute of all Substance whatsoever it being impossible to have any conception of any thing which is not somewhere or to have any notion of Place The School distinction betwixt Locus and Ubi being a very idle unintelligible Distinction which is not extended by real Parts and such as are at least by Cogitation separable from one another It being therefore so clear that no Man can possibly conceive otherwise but that all Substance is extended it follows in the next place either that there is but one sort of Substance or that there are several sorts of Extension If the first be granted the consequence of this will be First That matter must be self-moved for that there is such a Substance as Matter will not come into dispute And Secondly That all Matter hath a power of moving it self because what ever is of the essence of Matter must belong in common to all Matter whatsoever And Thirdly That all Matter may be moved with an equal celerity and degree of Motion because the Essences of things are indivisible and therefore if Motion be of the Essence of Matter considered barely as such and be not owing to some other principle from without it must belong equally to all Matter whatsoever And therefore in the Fourth place the reason why all Matter is not equally moved must be that it is indued with a power of exerting or suspending its Activity either pro arbitrio for no reason at all or by the measures of Prudence for the good of the World But if it be absurd ridiculous and contrary to experience to attribute so much Understanding Will or Power to every Stick and Clod to every seemingly
for what is past when they consider they could not help it and then being listed into such a Party where all take themselves to be of the Elect added to this other comfortable consideration that the Elect cannot possibly fall away from Grace This makes them look not only without remorse but with satisfaction and pleasure upon the enormities of their past life they will repeat them and chew them with a Gusto as I have seen many of this sort of People do as being the unavoidable consequences of the beastly and as I may call with a great deal of reason the unnatural state of nature But now they tell you their pardon is seal'd and they are sure 't is impossible for them to miscarry which is Milk and Honey without Money and without Price a Calvinistical Dispensation at once more cheap and more effectual then any his Holiness can afford at Rome which was thought for many years to have been the only staple of that profitable Trade for it is profitable to the cause of Calvinism and to the interest of a separation that might be justifyed upon other grounds though it be more effectually promoted by this and though the Pope indeed in point of ready money have perhaps the start of the Doctours of Geneva Which brings me to the fifth thing and that is that this Doctrine of Election on the one hand and of absolute rejection and reprobation on the other is apt to fill men with insolence and pride with an high opinion of themselves and with a contempt and hatred of others and so is at once a natural cause of separation and of an obstinate and inveterate continuance in it Whether the grounds of such separation be reasonable or no which as it did confirm and strengthen the separation from the Church of Rome a thing that was otherwise necessary to be done without fancying any such eternal decrees to make themselves proud and to breed an hatred and contempt of those from whom they separate for justifyable reasons so I reckon likewise that it is the great Pillar of the Schisme from our Church at this day which as it pretends to greater purity so it proceeds upon an opinion that the Separatists for it are the Elect of God while we from being peaceable and sincerely honest without terms of art â—or being good Subjects without any reserve and for being good Christians without censuring all as Reprobates that differ from us are sometimes pityed and at other times despised as unregenerate Wretches being yet in our sins and in the state of nature that is in such a state in which there is no salvation and in which there is no other prospect but of Eternal death and a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour the Adversaries This if it be examined will be found to be the general Ear-mark and Characteristique of the Separation and I am of opinion that there cannot be a better service done to the Church or to Mankind then by exposing such pernicious doctrines so injurious to God and so destructive to the peace and quiet of the world to that disgrace and infamy which they deserve But sixthly and lastly the last thing which I shall mention as having given occasion and encouragement to so dangerous a doctrine is the overheated zeal of St. Austine St. Jerome and others of that age against Pelagius who though it neither can nor must be denyed that he was much to blame that he attributed too much to the Powers of Nature and too little to the helps and Assistances of Grace yet it is equally certain that those who opposed him both in that age and afterwards went too far into the other extreme it must likewise be acknowledged to the credit of our Country in which he had his birth that he was a very wise as well as virtuous person and that for the clearness of his reason he had incomparably the advantage of all his adversaries put together and upon supposition that his last concessions were not extorted from him by the violence of his opposers but by the evidence of truth and by a more serious enquiry into the sense of Scripture and into the nature of things for our belief of these divine assistances is founded in both I should make no very great scruple to affirm that he was a tolerably Orthodox Divine And thus much shall suffice to have written upon this weighty Subject concerning Freedom and Necessity and concerning their several bounds borderings and interfering mixtures together with the genuine causes and effects of the one and of the other FINIS THE CONTENTS of the Two SERMONS THat those places wherein God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharoah are to be understood in their naked and Grammatical sense that is that God did really harden the heart of Pharaoh as the Scripture affirms him to have done Pag. 1 2 A short and true survey of the behaviour of the Aegyptians towards the children of Israel from their first entrance into the Land of Aegypt till their departure out of it and the drowning of the Aegyptians in the Red Sea from p. 2 to 7 From whence a true account is given of the reason why God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and it is likewise shewn that this hardening is not to â—e looked upon under the notion of a sin but of a punishment for former sins from p. 7. to 10 God cannot with justice condemn a man to everlasting torments merely because be did not or could not understand his duty p. 10 11 Part of the ninth Chapter to the Romans relating to this matter explained and the true extent of Gods dominion over his Creatures assigned from p. 11 to 22 The hardening of obstinate and inveterate sinners is so far from being any injustice that it seems absolutely necessary to the due administration of the divine justice in the government of the world from p. 22 to 25 There is nothing in it for which a Sinner can justly expostulate with God as having suffered any wrong because it is a thing perfectly of his own choosing from p. 25 to 27 It is the same thing in effect with the taking away Sinners by untimely deaths before they have made their peace with God by repentance which no man denies but God may justly do p. 27 28 In what sence God may be said to be the cause of obduration or hardness in a Sinner p. 28 29 A Parallel of the Story of Nebuchadnezzar with that of Pharaoh from p. 30 to 35 The same was the case of the Builders of Babel and in what sense their Language may be said to have been confounded p. 35 36 37 The same notion confirmed from Deut. 28. p. 37 To the same cause must we refer all those divine or Panick terrors infused into the minds of men by a supernatural way by which the Philistines the Midianites the Ammonites Moabites inhabitants of Mountseir Canaanites c. were
practice upon himself for a man to extinguish the natural tenderness of his mind and will so far as to be compleatly wicked without remorse or shame from p. 303 to 305 Besides the natural congruitiâ—s which are planted in our minds betwixt virtuous actions and a reflecting Nature all the instances of Virtue and Religion whether they relate to our selves to our Neigbour or to God are founded upon such plain and such undoubted principles of reason that it is rather a Miracle that Men are so bad as they are then that they are no worse which Mr. Calvin makes to be the effect of a perpetual Miracle by ascribing it wholâ—y to an irresistible Grace overpowreing the ungovernable impurities of our Nature largely represented from p. 305 to 320 But for all this the Author does not pretend that the Grace of God is useless or that it is not of absolute necessity in order to the right conduct and governance of humane Life and for the more full understanding of the case and the avoiding the two equally dangerous extreams of Calvin and Pelagius he layes down in Seven particulars what his opinion is concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of Men. p. 320 First there is no instance of our duty which may not in some sort and degree be performed by our selves p. 320 Secondly there is a common Grace or Spirit diffused over all the World which exerts it self according to the several capacities and fitnesses of things and persons from 320 to 322 Thirdly there is a more peculiar Grace and influence of the Holy Spirit Watching over the Church then over the rest of Mankind p. 320 321 Fourthly even the particular instances of our duty in their uttermost perfection are owing to a concurrence of the Spirit of God from p. 323 to 332 But yet this hinders not but that the whole action in such cases may in some sense be ascribed to our selves as is largely represented upon several accounts p. 325 326 327 329 330 331 That after all it must be confessed that our justification is wholly owing not to our selves but to the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ applied to us by Faith and Repentance and this whether we consider our actions singly by themselves or whether we reflect upon the whole course of our lives p. 331 332 â—or what hath been said of single Actions in the fourth particular that without the Grace of God they will want their utmost perfection integrity and consummation the same is much more true in the fifth place of the whole course of our lives that this can much less be managed as it ought to be without the conduct and assistance of the Spirit of God from p. 332 to 336 Sixthly though God afford to all sufficient Grace and to the Church more than to the rest of the World yet he dispenses it sometimes in a more plentiful proportion as a proprietor may do by Arbitrary measures for no reason at all but what is foundâ—d in his own will and pleasure p. 336 337 Seventhly and lastly a Historical or notional Faith in Christ is obtainable by the use of ordinary meanâ— reading and study and an impaâ—tial inquiry into the truth of things 〈◊〉 a practical influential and saving Faith cannot be obtained without the Grace of God as is farther exemplisyed in the different case of Peter from that of the Centurion and the generality of the Jewish Nation from p. 377 to 341 The Tenth Twelfth and Thirteenth Articles of the Church of England explained and proved that they are no such friends to Calvinistical Doctrines as the Calvinists would make the world believe from 343 to 351 But if the Articles of the Church should happen to interfere as they do not with the Scriptures we are excused by the Twentieth of those Articles themselves from acquiescing in their Authorities neither hath the Church any power if we believe that Article to expound any place of Scripture after such a manner as to make it repugnant to another both of which things happen in the Calvinistical Doctrines that they are repugnant to some Scriptures and they expound some Scriptures after such a manner as to make them perfectly inconsistent with others from p. 251 to 253 The main inconvenience of the Doctrine of Reprobation is that if it were admitted to be the constant sense and tenor of the Scriptures themselves yet this instead of doing any Service to that Doctrine would but destroy the authority of the Scriptures themselves as well as the veracity of God and the nature of all Morality and Religion from p. 353 to 359 The Articles of our Church acknowledge that even General Councils may err much more would it have been pâ—ssible for a rational Synod to do so though our Church had asserted as it does not the Doctrine of Reprobation To which is added a recapitulation of what hath been said upon occasion of the Articles of the Church of England p. 355 356 But yet the Author does not after all deny but there may be such a thing as an irresistible Grace nay he proves it both from the reason of the thing and from very many instances to be met with up and down both in the old Testament and the new though those instances were peculiar to those miraculons Ages in which they happened and have nothing to do with our times wherein those miraculous effusions of the Holy Spirit are unquestionably ceased from p. 356 to 368 The second advantage to be made from the consideration of the Lucta or contention betwixt the Flesh and Spirit is that the spiritual principle mentioned by S. Paul may be pretended to be no part of the humane nature but only a supernatural influence of Divine Grace p. 368 To which the answer is twofold fiâ—st more directly that St. Paul does manifesâ—â—y assert two opposite Principles in the nature of man considered by it self and secondly more remotely and consequentially but no less pertinently and truly then the other that there is such an harmony and agreement betwixt the Divine Spirit and the spiritual or immaterial and abstracted principle in man that the same effâ—cts are attributed to both because they are both of them causes of a like nature and because they do both usually concurr to the production of the same effect p. 369 370 To all which it is to be added that the very notion of a mind or inward Man or immaterial Principle of Action includes in it an assertion of Freedom likewise an immaterial and a free agent being termes convertible and to all intents and purposes exactly the same and so are a necessary and a material agent from 370 to 374 This notion confirmed from the testimony of Plutarch shewing that it was the opinion of all the Ancient Philosophers and from the Doctrine of the Sadduces and Pharisees from a citation of Lactantius and a precept of Pythagoras in the Golden Verses and lastly from a further survey