Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
kept his Native Integrity yet our Blessed Saviours Incarnation Doings and Sufferings occasioned by the Laps were as primarily intended by God as the very Creation it self For the All-wise and All-good God infallibly knowing what Use Man would make of the Freedom of his Will designed his Creation no sooner than he did a Way which should not only prevent the defeating of the End for which he made man but would also be a means to advance it to an higher degree of Perfection than it could have had without it whilst man has by the Blessed Incarnation of the Son of God of which hereafter in the 9th Section and the gracious Sequel of it far greater Motives to the Love of God in which Felicity consists sect 4. par 13. than by the Creation and all other things besides whatsoever and consequently a certain Means of augmenting the intensness of his Affection to God and thereby the greatness of his eternal Bliss as will hereafter be made out sect 11. 6. This occasional interruption over I go on to shew that Grief Fear Discord Damnation and the Torments of Hell are so many several Branches of the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil For as for Grief it is a Passion which arises from the Sense of an incumbent Evil and Fear from the apprehension of an evil approaching so that in regard there could have no evil happened if Man had continued innocent there would have been neither Fear nor Grief in the World. Nor should Discord or Wars have been found amongst men if their Appetites had continued regular and subject to Reason for generally it is because that several men desire the same single thing which one alone can but enjoy at the same time that differences arise which if the Parties concerned be Sovereigns often grow to Wars But whatever other cause of Dissentions there be 't is the effect of immoderate Desires which sprouted from the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil There is then no Misery incident to Man if Damnation and the Pains of Hell be within the List but derives its Origin from thence which that they are shall be the Work of the following Section to make appear SECT VII Eternal Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows from the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affections from God. Eternal Torments or the Pains of the Damned necessarily for ever accompany their impious Desires of preferring worldly Vanities before the Enjoyment of God. Hence by these two an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature Man makes himself eternally miserable 1. SInce it has been proved Sect. 4. par 13. that eternal Felicity consists in the immense Pleasure Joy and Contentment that flows from the Beatific Vision or Intellectual Sight of God and that the same Pleasure Joy and Contentment is the Love of Complacency or Delight whereby the Soul inseparably adheres to God with all its might sect 4. par 14. 't is plain that such Alienation of the Soul's Affections from God as shall for ever deprive it of such adherence to him must of necessity deprive it of everlasting Bliss 2. And in regard an everlasting deprivation of Bliss is that eternal Misery which the Schools call Poena Damni 't is clear that Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affection from God. 3. And whereas it is impossible to alienate the Souls Affections from God upon his own account because in him is no appearance of evil 't is manifest that for the gratifying of some inordinate Desire as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or Pride of Life man's Soul is alienated in affection from God. 4. Wherefore if the Souls Affections be in this Life so bent upon Riches Honour Luxury Revenge or other worldly Contentment that it prefers any of them before the enjoyment of God and thence makes choice thereof as its chief Good and Felicity or the thing wherein it is above all others delighted it must needs be that whatsoever Soul departs this Life so affected must either forsake and leave off that its desire or be satisfied with the Fruition of the Thing desired or else be eternally tormented for to be for ever deprived of that which the Soul perpetually longs for will be an endless affliction 5. And first That a Soul departing this Life with an habitual affection to some worldly Vanity wherein it delights cannot ever shake off that its Desire is apparent from this that the Will which is an essential Faculty of the Soul can never be void of some Desire or other and that it is unconceivable how it should part with those it is habitually possessed of when it leaves the Body since it is certain that the love of God in pious Souls begun here on Earth continues after Death and accompanies them to Heaven as will be seen sect 13. par 2. and that the Nature of Qualities or habitual Dispositions whether good or bad as to their inherence in the Soul is in all men alike And secondly That those Lusts which inseparably adhere to mens Souls after death can never with the enjoyment of what they desire be satisfied is as certainly true as that their Return to the Earth to enjoy the Pleasures of this World shall never come to pass And thirdly that men who have inordinate desires shall after death endure Torments answerable to the strength of Affection which they have for the Things they lust after and cannot possibly enjoy may be gathered from the afflicted miserable condition of those Persons upon Earth whose Hearts are irrevocably set on Riches Honour Luxury Revenge c. when they find themselves totally disappointed of what they earnestly desire For does not Experience shew us that the Heart of many a covetous Wretch is so cemented to his Gold that when it is stollen from him his Life which before he would not have exchanged for Heaven becomes his Hell so as that he hastens by the first thing in his way to be delivered from it And are not the Thoughts of some vain-glorious and ambitious men so intent upon Honour that falling into Disgrace their very Hearts burst for grief of the want of that alone amidst the affluence of almost all other worldly Goods besides As sad distress befals not a few forlorn Lovers whose Affections are so fast glewed to their Mistresses that they judge no Pain like that of frustrated Love insomuch that they chuse the readiest for the best way of offering violence to their restless wearisom Lives What shall I say of envious and revengeful wishes not accomplished than which no Viper can more cruelly gnaw mens Hearts If then mens Desires may be so violent and the frustrating of them so grievous as hath been said while the Soul is involved in a Body of Clay how fierce will the one and how intolerable will the other be when its Operations are not damped thereby Object
assisted by the Spirit of God they are as apt to convert as a Knife being employed by the Hand is to cut cannot actually convert but when they are applied to a Subject fitly prepared to take impression from them and therefore when they meet not with a due Disposition or right Preparation of Heart to receive them Conversion will not ensue And forasmuch as such Disposition or Preparation of Heart is not in the Power of Mans Free Will as Pelagius impiously held it was but is the undoubted work of God every ones Conversion is truly attributed to the Power of the Holy Ghost in that he works the mentioned Disposition in the Soul by causing it to give due Attendance to the means of Salvation offered as may be clearly collected from the Instance of Lydia's Conversion whose Heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul Acts 16. 14. For through that her attention the Word of God delivered by St. Paul took effect and converted her There is then no Scruple at all to be made but that every man's Conversion is the Work of Gods Spirit in the heart both in respect of the Application of the Means of Grace and of giving due Attendance thereunto The only difficulty lies in this how the Attention to the Doctrine of Salvation requisite on Man's part to his Conversion is wrought whether by some physical Influence or real Emanation issuing from God and penetrating the Heart of Man as Fire warms by sending forth Heat into the thing warmed by it or by the sole force of the Divine Will without any such either Influence or any intermediate Cause whatsoever or lastly that through the Almighties Government of the World in ordering second Causes which are all in his disposing man's mind becomes inclined to give due heed to Instruction and Exhortation by Motives offered several ways such as are pain of Body loss of Estate or Friends Plagues Desolation sudden and violent Deaths great and unexpected Mercies and Deliverances with divers other things seen heard or read of The first of the three rehearsed ways the absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature makes impossible for how should any Physical Influence or real Emanation proceed out of him whose Being is Immutable one essential Act and entirely simple Sect. 1. Par. 8 9 10. The second Way would be as miraculous as the creating of all things out of nothing and the Attention given to the Means of Grace would be irresistible in all Men. The third Way therefore I take to be truth and am confirm'd therein from St. Paul's Conversion which though strange and unusual yet was it not effected by the immediate Will of God without all intermediate Means from his becoming all things to all men over and above his zealous preaching of Christ and indeed from the constant manner and method of God's dealing with Mankind since the very Creation If it be replied that I seem to place the sole and whole immediate Cause of Man's Conversion in the Means and only the remote Cause thereof in the Spirit of God which yet is held by Divines actually to reach and work by its immediate Inspiration the Effect I answer that the Divine Will which instituted and orders the Means as well for Conversion as for the Preparation of the Heart goes still along therewith to make them effectual not unlike to a mans Mind which after he hath made a Pen to write with and prepared Ink and Paper continually goes along with the Pen to effect the intended Writing so that I plainly maintain what answers to that which others call the immediate Operation or Inspiration of the Holy Ghost or Divine Influx or Concourse with the Means of Grace whilst I hold that as the Pen cannot write without the continued assistance of the Hand moved by the Will so neither can the Means of Grace convert a Sinner or cause any other holy Act without the perpetual Aid of the Divine Will or Power of the Holy Ghost enabling them thereunto If it be said that albeit Man's Mind guide and go along with the Hand and Pen yet the Pen alone immediately touches the Paper and makes the Impression in it my Answer is that both the Mind and the vis impressa conveyed by the Hand to the Pen reach as far as the Pen it self otherwise the Pen could not write what it doth either as to the Character or the Matter for what knows it of the difference of any Figure or Subject whatsoever and even so doth the Spirit of God no less than the Means of Man's Salvation reach the Heart both to prepare it and convert it unto God but with this difference that the Writing on the Paper is an Impression necessarily received by it but the preparative Disposition and Conversion of the Heart are Effects wrought therein by a voluntary Compliance and Concurrence of the Will of Man with the Author and Means of Grace SECT XVI Praise and Thanksgiving to God are proper and efficacious Means for procuring and augmenting Charity Vocal Prayer Musick and Gestures of Body betokening Humility and Reverence towards the Divine Majesty are useful and advantageous for begetting inward Devotion and Affection towards God. 1. AS Prayer hath been shewn to have its proper effect in procuring the Moral and Theological Virtues in order to the uniting the Soul to God by Charity and by causing the frequent exercise of it and them when they are acquired by which Charity is confirmed enlivened and augmented in us Sect. 15. so likewise will it appear that the virtue and good of Praising and Lauding God for the Excellency of his Essence Power and Wisdom and of his great and noble Acts in creating and governing the World is terminated in setling and confirming the Love of God in Mens Souls for whose Cause and not for his own as he commands Prayer to be made unto him so doth he enjoyn Honour Laud and Praise to be perpetually given unto Him. 2. For since every Command whether of God or Man must of right tend to and design the obtaining some good by fulfilling of the same and that it is impossible for the Almighty who was all Perfection within himself to receive any good either of Profit or Pleasure from abroad Sect. 8. it necessarily follows that God requires Honour Laud and Praise to be given unto him not for any accession of Advantage to himself but solely for the Benefit of his Creature 3. And because the uniting the Soul to God by Charity is the alone Good whereunto all that can be truly said to be good to Man tends Sect. 11. every one is required to praise God in his Holiness to praise him in the firmament of his Power to praise him in his noble Acts to praise him according to his excellent Greatness Psalm 150. ver 1 2. by reason the often hearty doing thereof cannot chuse but exceedingly advance the Love of God and cause a longing in the Soul to