all the desire the perpetual Enjoyment of Him will also love him most hereafter for exactly according to the measure of the Manifestation of Gods Glory both to the Saints and Angels is the Measure of their Love of Him or Delight taken in the Contemplation of his Excellence and in this consists their Felicity which though it is sufficient and satisfactory to every one of them inasmuch as they all love him with their entire Affection or are delighted in him with all their might and so are happy to their own Desire yet do they not however enjoy equal Happiness because the love of God in some of them is more intense than in some others as answering to a fuller manifestation of his Glory to them Object 4. If the formal Cause of Justification be inherent Righteousness or Charity then doth every degree thereof truly justifie so that man's Righteousness may be greater or less and consequently either every degree of Righteousness will not give a just Title to Heaven so as Possession shall ever ensue thereupon or else imperfect Charity shall estate men in everlasting Felicity which is contrary to what hath been often said Solut. In Answer to this Objection I grant that every degree of habitual Charity from the highest to the lowest if either it be not lost or being lost be renewed entitles men so truly to Heaven I that they shall not departing this life therewith finally fail of the full possession of Bliss but sooner or later shall certainly obtain the same sooner or later I say because such an absolute full desire to enjoy the Presence of God as totally excludes all appetite to earthly Enjoyments and Satisfactions of this Life is the sole immediate disposition which prepares the Soul for Bliss so that those alone who through their ardent desire to be with God are weary of this World shall strâ—ight upon their departure hence go to pure and simple Joy but yet so intense as they shall afterwards have at the last upon the re-union of Soul and Body I do not say All the rest that depart this life not having the like ardency of desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ their God and Saviour will in all appearance of Reason retain the mixture of Affection to God and the World which they left the later with for how a meer separation of Soul and Body should root out all Affection to the World is I think a thing unaccountable till the Resurrection from the dead If it be said as indeed it is by some that Christ's appearing to the Souls of good men that departed this Life before his Death must needs have been a Motive and Cause of Change unto them whence it came to pass that the Graves were opened and many Bodies of the Saints which slept arose c. Matth. 27. 52 53. I answer that since it is here supposed that there had been no Motive offered before that his shewing himself to them which had altered the state into which they entered at their separation from the Body it is reasonable to think that there will likewise be no Motive to cause a Change in those which have left or shall leave this World after that his appearing till his coming to Judgment at the last day which in that it must needs in some degree or other be both dreadful and amiable to every one that hath not totally rooted out all Affection to the World according to their different Measures of Fear and Hope arising from their finding themselves more or less clogged with terrene Desires will be a Motive rightly adapted wholly to purge out all the Dreggs of impure Affections and so cause them to fix their Minds for ever upon God. But in the intenim they 'l continue in that condition which they left the World with and so each of them as their Love to God is greater will have more and purer Delight yet not be altogether void of anguish of Spirit by reason they cannot go immediately to God through the load of Sin which though not so heavy as to press them down to Hell yet will not suffer them to soar up to Heaven For we see even in this Life the more Pious that men are the more serene Joy and greater inward Contentment they enjoy but have not withstanding their Groans and Sighs and trouble of Spirit because they find the Old Man is not throughly conquered and subdued and however brought low is nevertheless often giving check to their Spiritual Joy and causing their Grief Nor is an incompleat imperfect State after this Life till the Day of Doom only consonant to Reason but the Sacred Scripture also and Catholic Tradition appear to make for it for what mean these Expressions of being recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just Luke 14. 14. Of the Spirit being saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. Of finding Mercy of the Lord in that Day 2 Tim. 1. 18. but that something is to be received at the Day of Judgment not to be obtained before Which the practical Tradition of the Church both Eastern and Western give Testimony to by their praying for the Dead but not for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory a Practise so universal that the Learned Mr. Thorndike saith It hath been a Custom so general in the Church to pray for the Dead that no beginning of it can be assigned no time no part of the Church where it was not used Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England Book 3. Ch. 29. P. 333. And another of our Learned Country-men Dr. Hammond writeth thus 'T is certain that some measure of Bliss which shall at the Day of Judgment be vouchsafed the Saints when their Bodies and Souls shall be reunited is not till then enjoyed by them and therefore may safely and fitly be prayed for Annotat. on 2 Tim. 1. 16 17 18. For besides that it is evident from Holy Writ that there shall be a general Resurrection The hour is coming in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5. 28 29. it is manifest likewise to our Reason that there must be a Re-union of every Soul and Body at the last Day for since Christ shall then appear in his Humanity Ye Men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1. 11. corporeal Eyes will be necessarily requisite to behold Him with and that not only because the Organs or Sense are the proper Means instituted by God for the giving notice of corporeal Objects to the Souls of Men but for this farther reason also that there may be a manifest equal Distribution of Justice to the whole Generation of Mankind for
of the Knowledg of Good and Evil so doth Actual Sin from Original as the Source and Spring from whence it flows For Original Sin being a Want of Original Righteousness by reason of an Habitude or Proneness to the Love of the Creature in the Soul that Habitude or Proneness when the Intellect is once capable of actually apprehending an Object of sensual Delight will be apt to proceed to an actual Desire which is actual Sin unless some rational Motive be offered by the Understanding which shall prevail with the Will to prefer the Spiritual Joy of the Mind before the sensual Pleasure of the Body which for cause that shall be shewn Sect. 9. cannot generally if at all be but by virtue of supernatural Helps from God. 5. And not only Sin both Actual and Original but all sorts of Miseries likewise which befall Mankind proceed from eating of the forbidden Fruit. For as for Infirmities Diseases Sickness and Death they at first sight almost shew whose ugly Brats they be For what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and whence comes this but from some either excess or defect of Humors in the Body and neither of these had been found in the World if the same Constitution of Body had still continued in all Mankind which was in our first Parents till they were induced to eat of the forbidden Fruit. For since in these words Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return Gen. 3. 19 is contained part of Adams Doom it appears that if he had not sinned he had not died that is if he had not eaten of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil he had not been deprived of that Constitution of Body which would always have preserved him alive And for Diseases and Sickness what else are they but Male-dispositions of the Body arising from an undue Mixture of Humors or from some Obstruction both which the State of Innocency was clear and free from tending to Death So that a Disease or Sickness as such may be rightly said to be Death or a Dissolution begun which verifies in a literal sense over and above the mystical the words spoken by God to Adam On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die for the just Temper of his Body was then corrupted when the Temptation prevailed the first cause of all the succeeding Alterations which brought it by degrees to dissolution And as to Infirmities whereunto add corporal Exuberances and Defects do they not all come from an unequal Quantity and Disproportion of Seed or elementary Principles which befel Mans Body at first from eating of the Apple or Fruit Grief then together with Discord Damnation and Hell remain only to be spoken of which when I have first answered an Objection that here offers it self I shall make known whose foul and cursed Off-spring they likewise be Object 3. 'T was said Sect. 4. Par. 12. that Man was created to enjoy the Beatific Vision which how he could have done if so be our first Parents had continued innocent and never have died is not easie to conceive Solut. It is easier to conceive that then how if Mankind had been immortal the Earth should have born them for the Multitude of Men by a perpetual Generation would have exceeded the number of Atoms in the Universe But in case we reflect how that the State of Innocency was not a State of Perfection Sect. 4. Par. 15. and yet that Man was created to attain Perfection in the full Fruition of God by Intellectual Vision Sect. 4. Par. 12. 't is not difficult to gather that Adam and his Posterity if they had persevered in Innocency should have been exercised for a time in such Duties Ways and Means as would have only prepared them for the Everlasting Enjoyment of God which because it is placed in the perfect Love of God clearly seen Sect. 4. Par. 13. those Duties Ways and Means must have been such as would from time to time have excited and encreased their Affection to God as namely observing admiring and lauding his excellent and wonderful Power Wisdom and Godness manifested in the admirable Works of the Creation and the continual Preservation of them which when they had so long and effectually done that they could have been no longer satisfied with beholding the Creator in the Glass of the Creature their Desire of seeing him in Himself would have grown so vehement that they could have had no Rest without seeing him face to face and consequently since the Almighty had made them for that End and appointed those Means they had used to fit them for it 't would have been altogether becoming and consentaneous to his unchangeable Goodness to translate them from the Earthly to the Heavenly Paradise their Natural Bodies being changed into Spiritual Bodies and thereby made unmeet to live on the Terrestial Globe like as St. Paul says of those that shall be found alive at the day of Judgment Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Corinth 15. 51. And again Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them i. e. the Dead in Christ Vers 16. in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall be ever with the Lord. 1 Thess 4. 17. Why all this should not be rationally enough offer'd in answer to the Objection I apprehend not But yet if we seriously reflect that God is Omniscient and knows at once and always every thing and by consequence had as primarily in his Knowledg the Fall of Adam as his Creation we must conclude that God from Eternity determined how Adam should be dealt with after his Fall rather than what his Progress to Bliss should be in case he fell not when as he inerrably knew he would certainly fall And therefore he had no earlier Thoughts of creating Man than he had of calling him to Repentance and of providing him a Saviour the Necessity whereof will be shown in the 9th Section there being no succession of Thoughts in God concerning those things whereof there is a Succession in themselves whence he at once eternally saw the Creation and End of it with all the Means whereby it was to be successively brought to pass of which we have some imperfect Resemblance in a skillful Architect who about to build a stately Palace has the whole Model of the Building together in his Mind although the Parts thereof be successively framed and the Materials fitted for the Work one after another For the Omniscient saw together in his Thoughts the noblest Universe of Creatures which all Created Beings could possibly constitute for producing the most Excellent End that could be Sect. 3. Pag. 8. Among those Creatures some were to operate necessarily some voluntarily towards procuring the general grand Effect to be produced of the latter sort of which Man was ordained to bear a considerable share who though by original Constitution he might have
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
to Mans Nature which is Rational and ought in all things to act according to Reason 5. To put Man therefore in the Way to glorifie God eternally and to be for ever happy in loving him with all the Heart with all the Soul and with all the Mind is to clear his Understanding by convincing it that God alone is ans Sovereign Good and to purifie his Will by affording Motives of a nature more powerful to incline it to the Love of God then all the Motives which the World can exhibit are to win it to the Love thereof 6. Wherefore since on the one side Mans Soul is sensually affected with Objects ever at hand and esteems nothing able to bring Contentment but some or other Enjoyment of this Life not only by reason of its own native and acquired corrupt Inclination but also from the Opinion of the World round about confirming it therein and that on the other side the Object of Mans Felicity is Spiritual not obvious to sense and afar off it follows that unless the Object of Felicity should become such as to be put into a Condition whereby it might be capacitated to draw Mans Affections in a way agreeable and familiar to his Nature from the Love of the World to the Love of it self Man could never be brought back again to the Path of Life but would go perpetually on in the Way which leads to Perdition 7. Seeing then the goodness of God is such that it was inconsistent therewith not to afford Means whereby Man might be recovered from his lost Condition and yet not to violate his Rational Nature 't was necessary that God being the Object of Mans Felicity should become Incarnate and be made Man to the intent he might familiarly converse with Man softly instil through his Senses his Divine Precepts and to do and suffer such things on his account and for his sake as that considering the Dignity of the Person the unmerited and unspeakable Kindness and unvaluable Worth of the Benefit it could not possibly otherwise fall out but that as many as should seriously and frequently reflect and meditate thereon would be induced to despise the World and all its alluring Enticements for the perpetual Enjoyment of so great and excellent an Object as so gracious and good a God must needs appear to be 8. It was therefore the Almighties great Kindness to condescend to Mans Frailty and be cloathed with his Flesh in the second Person of the blessed Trinity because in that he is the Wisdom of his Father and Word of God Sect. 2. 't was an Office peculiarly proper for him to manifest and declare unto the World the Love which God had to Man in reconciling or drawing him to Himself again 9. To which End Christ the Eternal Son of God did many signal Miracles to give irrefragable Testimony that he was sent from the Father was One with him and that the Design of his coming into the World was to make up the Breach and Distance between God and Man which he accordingly on his Part did by Teaching by Doing and by Suffering For by his Doctrine he infallibly shewed not only the miserable Condition which Man would eternally incur unless he forsook the World and turned to God but also that God himself was Mans Felicity and what Course he should take that he might for ever fully enjoy him And seeing it was not enough that Man should have his Understanding aright informed unless his Will were likewise inclined to do what he ought in order to the full Enjoyment of God Christ was graciously pleased to undertake the doing and suffering such beneficial and stupendious things for him that nothing but want of Consideration and due Reflexion on them could possibly frustrate their prevalent Virtue and Power over the Will effectually to incline and turn it unto God as the sovereign good thereof For since God is Man's Felicity could any thing possibly be parallel'd hereunto for the meriting of his Love consequently for inducing him to use the means available to Bliss that the omnipotent Creator of all things should become clad with human Flesh subject to Infirmities for the sole good of his Creature That he should familiarly converse with his Vassals and call them Friends and Brethren and really treat them as such That he should toil himself both night and day in travelling from place to place to preach the glad Tidings of Salvation to heal the Sick to give Sight to the Blind to make the Deaf to hear the Dumb to speak and the Lame to walk to comfort the Sorrowful to pardon the Penitent and in a word to do all manner of good Yea and as if all this had been a small Token of his Love to man that he should be willing to suffer Banishment Heat Cold Hunger Thirst That he would endure to be buffeted spit upon reviled mocked scourged That he refused not to undergo an Agony which caused his precious Body to sweat drops of Blood and to suffer a most ignominious and painful Death And that all this should be done and suffered not for the least advantage to the Deity but wholly for the benefit of man to save him thereby from intolerable endless misery and to bring him if he embraced his Kindness and followed his Instructions to everlasting unspeakable Joy and Happiness For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. Object We hear nothing in all this of appeasing the fierce Wrath of an angry and incensed God nothing of satisfying Divine vindicative Justice nothing of making recompence for the Wrong done to a sovereign Power by the breach of his most righteous Laws Solut. That the Almighty neither doth nor can suffer Wrong by any Act of the Creature has been sufficiently seen before sect 8. Solut. of Object 1 3. And where no Wrong is what necessity there 's of Satisfaction and Recompence is unconceivable so that by granting Christ's Passion not to be an infinite Satisfaction for an infinite Offence committed against God by Sin in that sense as Satisfaction for an Injury done by one man to another is made there 's no danger at all of touching upon Socinianism it being plainly absurd to infer from the non-necessity of an infinite Satisfaction by the suffering of Christ that he is not God co-essential with the Father since it is through the Incapacity of God's being offended and not for want of Merit in Christ's Death that his Passion is not an infinitely satisfactory Recompence to God for Sin. But nevertheless there is ground enough for an Orator so to expatiate upon the Mystery of Man's Restauration by Christ as elegantly to use the Allegories mentioned in the Objection whilst there are two Parties God and Man a Law given by God and Man the Transgressor of it that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons and that the latter
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
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA