from God since the Consent of the People which is de Jure Naturae cannot be resum'd and transferr'd upon any succeeding Capacity as long as that 's in being on which they conferr'd their Right at first CHAP. VIII Of God's Influence on Human Actions AND here I must beg my Readers leave to digress a little from the Method I propos'd viz. Not to meddle with Arguments of Sacred Authority till such time as by the Thread of this Discourse I should be brought to speak of reveal'd Religion and particularly the Christian But so it is that I cannot make any further Progress till such time as some Difficulties be remov'd which seem to obviate our intended Method under an appearance of being founded or to speak more properly confounded in God's Providential Order For whosoever shall look back a little upon the Government of the late Usurper cannot but meet with many pretended Luminaries I should say Incendiaries of those times who endeavour'd to father the Revolution upon God's singular and gracious Providence and so making it to be of Divine Authority And because such Revolutions may happen again it will not be amiss to examine this Doctrine by the Weights and Measures of the Sanctuary and that we may do this it will be proper to enquire a little as far as our shallow Reason will permit into the manner of God's Operations in the Minds and with the Actions of Men. That we may understand the Question therefore aright I shall premise Two Things First That I shall not in this place discourse of Evangelical Works or Graces but of Moral Duties nor yet of such as are morally good but of such rather as are morally bad and of the Causes from whence they rise In the next place that in regard to Human Actions the efficient Causes are of Two sorts First Physical or such by which the substance or matter of the Action as I may say with leave from Logick is produc'd There is also another kind of efficient Cause and that is Moral as where one invites another to an Action by proposing a Reward or by counselling or exciting his Will and Affections to make such a Choice Also the final Cause which is term'd by some the Objective comes under this denomination forasmuch as the End or Object in all Animal and Human Actions does influence the Action and excite move and by a kind of secret force impell him to act for the obtaining of such an End or Object Now for the Physical Influence of God on Human Actions it is no way to be doubted that he concurs to them forasmuch as being the Creator of all things they cannot act without him but this kind of influence is general and regards all Human Actions not as good or bad but purely as the Actions of his Creatures like the influence of the Sun which indifferently shines upon the Earth and serves to nourish and to mature hurtful as well as wholsome Plants The stress then of the Question is conversant about a moral Agency as whether God does excite the Will and Affections to sinful Actions by impelling them thereunto by proposing undue Objects or by obstructing them from making any other choice The Great Doctor and Divine of his time and who drew great numbers after him John Calvin seems to have laid the Foundation of those many Erroneous Opinions touching Providence in some bold and Heterodox Assertions of God's being the Author and first Mover of Man to all sinful Actions denying him not only a liberty of doing good but of declining Evil so that whatsoever Sin any man commits does not proceed from the man 's own free Choice for then he might have declin'd it but from a Predetermination in God who does actually excite him to the commission of it This he professedly and strenuously affirms in teaching That Men do nothing Calv lib. 1. Institut c. 18. Sect. 1. but by the secret Approbation of God nor act any thing with deliberation but what he himself hath before decreed and by his secret Direction hath constituted as is fully proved by innumberable and clear Testimonies And a little before he saith It may seem absurd perhaps that by the Will and Command of God a Man should be made blind for which blindness he afterwards suffers punishment this they endeavour to evade by saying That is done by the Permission not by the Will of God but whilst God declares openly that he himself does it this Evasion is baffled Likewise speaking of the Assyrians whom God made use of for the Chastisement of Judah he says They were impell'd by the Will and Appointment of God I confess says he Ibid. Sect. 2. God many times acts in the Reprobate by making use also of Satan's Labour but yet so far only as 't is permitted to Satan to move in it by the impulse of God! O strange we had thought that Satan had been forward enough of himself to tempt us to Sin and that he needed not to be pushed on to it by God! But to proceed he exempts Satan from being any other than the Tool or Instrument which God makes use of to effect wicked purposes It is said 2 Cor. 4. continueth Calvin That Satan Lib. 2. Inst cap. 4. or the God of this World hath blinded the Minds of those who believe not but how can this be unless the efficacy of the Error proceed from God And in this Sense 't is that Calvin expounds that place of St. Paul 2 Thes 2. That the Efficacy of Error Lib. 1. Inst cap. 18. Sect. 2. or of being seduc'd was infus'd by God to the end that they might believe a Lye who obeyed not the truth And in this Sense also 't is that he explains that Passage of the Fourteenth of Ezekiel And if a Prophet be deceiv'd when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that Prophet As for Examples he produces that of Shimei's cursing David of Absalom's lying with his Father's Concubines of the lying Spirit which deceiv'd the Prophets and by them Ahab to the end he might perish at Ramoth-Gilead of Satan's misusing Job with many other Passages of the like Nature all which he pretends to have proceeded effectually from God and that the Devil was only the Instrument as was said before to execute what God had commanded And to prevent that Answer which Divines commonly make to such Objections viz. That God may be said to harden the Hearts of Men and to infatuate and darken their Understandings and Minds by withdrawing his Spirit and Grace and to leave Men to their natural blindness and imperfection This he rejects as unsound standing stiffly to his Doctrine to wit That God by the help of Satan does destine Lib. 2. Inst Cap. 4. Sect. 3. the Counsels of wicked Men as he pleases and that he does excite their Wills and confirm and strengthen them in their Purposes And for those who are of another Opinion he looks upon them as
Rewards and wicked Men due Punishments from the hands of God most just it follows of course to be enquir'd into how far this Belief of theirs might make them capable of such Happiness or of Salvation And here I shall promise as a foundation or first Principle to what shall follow that the Efficient or Meritorious Cause of procuring Salvation to Mankind can be no other but Jesus Christ who by his Obedience and Passion hath redeemed good Men and made them capable of Eternal Happiness Next that all good Motions vertuous Inclinations and intellectual Improvements are not acquirable by any Natural strength but by the help and concurrence of God So St. Paul says expressly Rom. 1. where speaking of the Heathen he declares how that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it to them Our present enquiry then will be of the instrumental Course or of the means by which the Merits of Christ's Life and Passion may be applied to Men in order to their Salvation For the more Methodical Prosecution of which Point 't will be expedient to consider First The State of Mankind before the coming of Christ Secondly the State and Circumstances of Mandkind after his coming Before the coming of Christ as hath been already shewn the Gentiles though they had solid Notions of the Nature and Perfections of a Deity yet there is little or nothing extant which can countenance any Expectation they had of such a Deliverer as we are now discoursing of And as to the Jews for what appears from the Old Testament they knew but little and obscurely of another Life as we have also before spoken-unto They expected a Deliverer or Messiah 't is true but then they figur'd him to be a Temporal Conqueror such as Caesar or Alexander who should erect their Nation also into a vast Empire and bring the World under their Subjection A thing indeed which they earnestly hoped for having been themselves under heavy Oppressions for many Ages Nay so deep was this Opinion rooted in the Jews that even the Disciples of Christ who were daily taught by and convers'd with him could hardly be wean'd from this Belief as appears by the Address or Petition on the behalf of Zebedee's Children that they might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of Christ in his Kingdom as also from their constant enquiry of Christ when he would restore the Kingdom or Empire unto Israel But this as having been already discours'd of and being a thing which will admit of little dispute I shall readily leave and pass on to take a glance of Mankind after the coming of Christ and his Ascension into Heaven They who have had the Happiness to be born within the Church where the Mysteries of the Christian Religion are suck'd in with their first Milk and grow up into their Nature such I say cannot but have a distinct knowledge of what the Christian Religion teacheth concerning Christ and his Merits so that if they do not act suitably to that knowledg they are verily inexcusable But then for those who never had such an Education nor ever heard of Christ or his Gospel and yet retain true Notions of the Nature Power and Justice of God and live justly and conformably to that knowledg retaining a disposition to receive farther Instruction with all propensity to Vertue I cannot see but that they may justly be ranked with those great and wise Men amongst the Ancients whether Philosophers or others in whose Lives and Writings we find so many remains of the true apprehensions they had of a Deity together with their great Pregnancy in Vertue Now of both these sorts of Men whether before or after Christ the question will be the same for as much as both were under the same State and Guidance of Natural Illumination and Moral Vertues I know it is granted and with very good reason too that such as were contemporaries with the Patriarchs though they were not of the same Lineage with Abraham had such a knowledge of the true God as made them capable of Salvation Such a one was Melchisedech of whom we read so great things such a one also Job who liv'd probably about the time of the first Patriarchs for we read that he liv'd in the time of the Chaldean greatness also Jethro the Father-in-law of Moses having such an extraordinary and infallible Information of the Divine Will from the Mouth and Miracles of Moses and being himself also a Person of great Conduct and Wisdom as appears from Scripture he could not but transmit the like Instructions to his Posterity as did Melchisedech and Job without all question the same likewise we may conclude of the descendents from Abraham by Ishmael and of his Off-spring by Keturah Nor was it unusual in those days whilst Men liv'd under that unpolish'd but golden Age for God to manifest his Will by singular Revelation to wise Men even long after the Covenant made with Abraham as appears by the History of Balaam who though an Alien from the House of Abraham had a free Communication with God upon occasions of Moment and prophesied as clearly of the coming of the Messiah as any other ' of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets Now for those whose Doctrine and Actions are not recorded in sacred Writ as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Solon Lycurgus Numa and amongst them I know not why I may not reckon that strenuous Defender of his Country's Liberty Tullius Ciccro I say these and many others of the same class as they are known to have had noble Notions of the Deity and to have been great and prudent Masters in matters of Morality so likewise are they famous for their own exemplary Lives and Government and are by the most impartial and learned Writers held to be in a State of Salvation But for such of the wiser and more vertuous Gentiles who liv'd after Christ Writers generally seem a little more severe though in Truth the same Reason concludes favourably for both alike it being no less difficult for many great Men of former Ages though after Christ to know the History and Doctrine of Jesus as 't is for any of the present Age to know the Transactions in the Dominions of Prester John or of the Emperour of China Nay much more difficult for of these Countries so remote as they are we have by the help of Navigation and Commerce some sort of Account but the Jews as they were to the Romans but an inconsiderable part of their Government so the Romans themselves held no such Communication by Sea as now a-days being surrounded with Germans Dacians Parthians Indians and the like with whom they were in perpetual Hostility and what Countries and Kingdoms lay beyond these were utterly unknown to them by any kind of Correspondence So that we may as rationally conclude that every Man now a-days is an ignorant Idiot who does not know perhaps some new and great
accident in Japan or the Regions beyond the Mountains of the Moon as that all were damn'd though otherwise never so wise and vertuous who did not know the History of the Gospel when yet we find how the Disciples themselves who convers'd with Jesus were ignorant of the Nature of his Government expecting a temporal Messiah nor were they fully instructed till after the descent of the Holy Ghost and even then too we find Peter doubting whether it were lawfull to converse with the Gentiles as appears by the case of Cornelius It remains therefore that the Gentiles of this latter Age of the World could have no other ways of knowing the Christian Mysteries but by such ordinary methods as other matters of Fact are brought to Light which failing the only Medium of Knowledg and Information must be by an extraordinary Revealer And this was the true State of the World in the first Age of the Church when the Disciples of Jesus furnish'd with supernatural Gifts and Graces were made the Apostles and Messengers of these glad Tidings of Salvation nor did they doe all this in one Age but succeeding Ages and Nations became Converts to the Christian Faith as new Discoveries and Men of an Apostolick Spirit did present themselves as all Histories do testifie This then being the greatest Point in Controversie I shall endeavour to pursue it more fully by such Arguments as Natural Reason and Scripture can afford us First then that such Men as we now speak of having not by any Means receiv'd Information of the Christian Mysteries should yet be capable of Salvation is very insonant to the Nature of an All-mercifull and Righteous God viz. Not to punish Men for what was not in their Power to help or if in their Power they would have yielded all dutifull Compliance with it Now as this is consonant to God's Goodness so is it not derogatory to his Justice considering as I promis'd at first that such a knowledg of God and Practice of Moral Vertues as we find oftentimes amongst the Gentiles are the Gifts of God and not the Effects of Man's proper Will and Power neither yet are they derogatory to the Merits of Christ when we call to mind what was above promis'd that Christ's Obedience and Passion is the efficient and meritorious Cause of Man's Salvation so that Man's knowledge being only instrumental whatsoever influence it has it must be deriv'd also from God and resolv'd finally into the Merits of Christ according to my first two Axioms or Postulata's let us argue then the Point a little closer The King of England perhaps sends a considerable Summ of Money for the Redemption of all English Slaves throughout the Turkish Dominions those who hearing the joyfull News readily embrace it with all imaginable Thankfulness whilst others hearing nothing of it sit silent now would it not seem very hard and unjust that these should be excluded from all Benefit by this Act of Grace and Bounty and left in perpetual Bondage because they did not lay hold of that which they never heard of which yet doubtless they would have embrac'd also with the same sense of Gratitude with others had they had the same notice nay rather do we not account an unknown Act of Grace and Bounty done to a Man and before 't is sought for to carry Characters of greater Goodness and to lay a stronger Obligation also upon the Receiver when he shall come to have a knowledg of his most generous Benefactour So that I doubt not but Socrates Aristides Epictetus with other such like Heroes whom without Blasphemy or Heresie we may suppose capable of Mercy in the day of Judgment will exalt with great Joy and celebrate the Praises of their gracious Redeemer when they shall see him though in the Clouds yet far more glorious than the Sun and by whose Merits and Mercies they were brought into that luminous Region of Eternal Happiness And as this is the Voice of Reason so also is it of the Holy Scriptures The first is that of the 11th to the Hebrews where we read that he that cometh to God must believe he is and the Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Now this belief many of the Heathens had viz. of his Existence as also of a future State where after this Life good Men should be rewarded and the Wicked Men punished we see then that by these two Acts of Assent the Heathens were said to come to God or to be admitted to his Favour and Grace which yet cannot be verified of them unless they be accounted capable of Salvation nay farther this kind of coming to God is called Faith and such a Faith without which 't is impossible to please him when the Apostle tells us in the Context That without Faith 't is impossible to please God subjoining it presently as a Reason For he that cometh to God must believe that he is c. Another Argument from Scripture is that Passage of Cornelius the Centurion Act the 10th who though a Heathen yet by his Alms and Prayers and the devout Order he kept in his Family procur'd the Grace and Favour of God to have St. Peter sent to him for his farther instruction And of such force and conviction was this Truth that even St. Peter himself though the Apostle of the Circumcision could not forbear to make an open profession of it saying of a truth I find that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness as did Cornelius and many also of the illuminated Gentiles is accepted of him Nay St. Peter's Discourse does imply that in every Nation there might be some who feared God and wrought Righteousness and if so of a certain truth they are accepted of him To these Places we may add what St. Paul testifies of himself that though he had an historical Knowledg of the Life Doctrines and Sufferings of Jesus and was a violent Persecuter of those who believed on him yet obtain'd Mercy because he did it in Ignorance and Unbelief 1 Tim. 1. ought we therefore to exclude all from Mercy who never heard of Jesus and yet such too as would have been as ready as others to embrace him and to suffer for him had he been reveal'd unto them The last Argument which I shall take from Scripture is that of the 1st to the Romans For the invisible Things of him saith St. Paul 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 Here we see that the Apostle condemns the Gentiles not for Ignorance or not Believing but for their Idolatrous Worship and not living conformably to that knowledg they had by the Works of the Creation of God's Eternity and Power which Knowledg renders them inexcusable and yet they would have been excusable had not their Knowledg join'd with a suitable Worship of the same true