himself or how the Grace of God which came by Christ did abound and was made more efficacious then sin For if the sin of Adam destroyed and slew more than the Death and Passion of the Lord Christ made alive then were Sin of a larger extent and more potent than Grace 〈◊〉 v. and the Apostle could not truly affirm That where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound CHAP. IV. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation taken from the Evangelical Dispensation wherein is shown the purport and design of the Gospel which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end THere is no Man that knows himself and discerns the true frame of his own Being what sublime and noble perfections the soul is capable of and withal reflects upon the weak and imperfect state of the Sons of men how uncertain and fluctuating their judgments are at the best and how frequently obscured with prejudice how impotently stubborn their wills to the election of substantial good and how broken and disordered the faculties of their whole man but will assuredly conclude that all Mankind however it comes to pass are extremely alienated and apostatiz'd from that innate purity and excellent state in which they were created for no Man that believes himself made by an Alwise and infinitely perfect Author can imagine that he came thus lame and maimed out of his hands and sunk as low as the capacities of their Nature will permit being only vivacious and active to trifling low and bodily interests and concernments carrying on such poor and momentary designs as are unworthy the native generosity of their minds in a word so devoid of that life in the possession of which consists their true felicity that they are past hopes of recovering by their own solitary endeavours their pristine and ancient glory But although Man by that venturous and bold revolt from the blessed Kingdom of Light dispossessed himself of Gods favour and forfeited all right and title to his ordinary care and Providence yet that ever-to-be-magnified Goodness which made him at first Lapsable beheld him as a calamitous object of compassion and designed the erecting and reedifying that glorious Temple which sin and unrighteousness had miserably defaced and ruined and the repossessing his own life of it's rightful Government and Dominion in the Souls of Men which however they come into the World the subjects of bruitish lusts and passions are yet capable of Angelical accomplishments and a Vital Union with the Creator of all things God therefore being the highest and most perfect life and feeling and knowing his Nature to be the most pretious thing in all the World and the utmost perfection of every Rational Being could not but intend graciously to his lapsed Creatures and seek the extension and dispreading of his goodly Attributes over all capable subjects of the World of life For he that shall look upon the diligence and activity of the dark Powers in enlarging the bounds of their usurped Kingdom and consider the contagious and disseminating Nature of every pitiful and degenerate lust how every crazie and sickly vice attempts and offers at a further explication of it self and every small Exarchat of that Hellish Principality endeavours dayly to make new additions and take in fresh supplies to maintain the general cause of unrighteousness and augment their petty Royalties can never think that God will sit as a disinteressed spectator but promote and advance his own good life to the command of the whole Creation and brake down the power of that great Arimanus who captivates the sons of Men in the fetters and shackles of Mortality and Death The life of God is a strong and powerful principle and hath alwayes the arme of Heaven to aid and assist it but all sin and unrighteousness is a meer poverty and deficiency not able to exist in the World did not the self-wills of men uphold it and can never stand against the potent assaults of the Heavenly Nature Which holy life that God might reestablish in the World he hath delivered the Gospel the last and most perfect dispensation that ever was or shall be communicated to Men which consists not in an external and dead form of words nor is it a meer systeme and compendium of such precepts that like the Mosaical Law sanctifie only to the purifying of the flesh but cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect him that doth the service as pertaining to the Conscience that is Purge and cleanse his mind from dead Works and make way for the consummation of the life of God within him whereby he shall no longer be in bondage and servility to every caitive lust but act spontaneously under a free and generous principle and become a law to himself but such a Method of perfect Righteousness and Virtue as shall purifie refine and exalt the spirits of Men from all feculent concretions and subdue every irregular motion and unruly desire that would tempt and sollicit their choice of corporeal joyes and beget in them so true a relish of unblameable Goodness and Holiness as should at the end of their mortal life instal them in the full possession of everlasting Tranquility and Peace Of which glorious contrivance though we have a Scheme and Model drawn out in the Holy Gospels yet there is a life and spirit in Christianity that cannot be blotted on paper but lives and acts in such hearts as are framed and squared according to those Rules contained in the Sacred Writings And this he who is the Author of our Faith and Blessedness testified when he said that his Words were Spirit and Life such as were able and designed to revive the dead and sensless minds of Men and propagate a vital heat and motion through the torpid and benummed World and accordingly the Apostle St. Paul tels us that Christianity is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the Spirit of life Rom. viii 2. 2 Cor. 3. and in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of Righteousness in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The dispensation of Death and Condemnation intimating that under the Gospel men shall not have a Mechanical and Artificial Religion but such as frames the life and spirit of God in their hearts and becomes a Vital forme tuning their souls into an Universal consent with Gods own Will whereby they send forth most harmonious and Divine accents not only when they are stricken and beaten upon by an external hand like Memnon's statue whose Musical notes ceased so soon as the Sun-beams were withdrawn from it but from an internal Power incorporated and made one with their own spirits It is true when God at first made Man and sent him into this lower World he left him to be governed by those innate prescriptions and rules of Righteousness
the nutrition and augmentation of the parts of their Natural bodies 3. The usual way and method by which the first disseminators of the Gospel implanted and begot the image of Christ in the minds of men was by exhorting them in the first place to the plain and obvious duties and exercises of Morality such as Justice and Equity Temperance and Chastity great love and compassion towards all men relieving and comforting the necessitous and calamitous according to their several wants and indigencies and such like acts of Virtue and Reason which are the preparatory qualifications for the introducing the Divine Spirit to attempt the formation of the living Image of Jesus Christ and between these and the Divine life there is the same cognation as between the blade and the full-ear'd corn For it is utterly impossible to conceive the life of God without them or to imagine that he can be really Baptiz'd into the life and spirit of Jesus who is unjust to his Neighbour and unpitiful and contemptive of the compassionate needs and sighs of his poor Brother It is sufficiently seen and the sad experience of every man will declare it to him how deplorably Apostate our Natures are when we first come into the World and how vitiously inclined our souls when they begin to exert themselves in acts of Reason and Intellect so that they appear almost breathless and inactive to the concerns of Immortality or whatever offers to better their condition and pull them out of the mire and clay wherein their feet are held And to think that God will forcibly draw them out and hale them like unwilling captives into a state to which they have no cognation or vital congruity awakened in them beside that it is derogatory to his spotless and pure Nature it is likewise inconsistent with the nature of the thing it self considering mens minds so vitiated and totally discomposed by a long and assiduous inflexion and distortion to degenerate Vice For Divine generations as well as Natural require a sutable proportionateness and as every matter is not capable of conciliating and uniting with every formative principle so neither is every temper of humane souls congruously disposed for the inaction of that Divine Spirit which never falls to work but where the subject is rendred plyable and sequacious by timely preparations and fit dispositions and capacities And if it were otherwise that meer Power or the Naked Presence of the Divine Essence dispreading it self through the whole Creation were sufficient to give us any hopeful expectation of our Spiritual Regeneration by it without any precedent assimilation or fitting dispositions I do not see how this boundless and compassionate Goodness can behold the World in so sad and miserable a plight the whole Earth being filled with Violence and the Habitations of cruelty and Oppression and mens spirits so degenerated that saving their outward shape and a little more cunning and craft in contriving and executing self-designs and interests they are hardly distinguishable from the Beasts of the field I do not see I say how that Love which is the inmost centre of the Deity and from whence flow all the perfective irradiations of his blessed Nature can behold the sons of men so unlike himself and yet not reform and change them since the business lies wholly upon the exertion of his Almighty Power But we finding no such thing we may confidently averr that there are some precedaneous qualifications required to the perfection of the Divine birth and these can be no other then Justice and Righteousness purity and abstracted affections from Mundane forms Chastity and moderation of bodily pleasures and a dear and tender regard of the whole Creation Which things have so near an affinity with the Divine life that the one necessarily inferres the presence and existence of the other these requisites being the basis and foundation upon which the heavenly building is framed 1 King vi 7. now as in the structure of the material Temple there was neither sound of ax nor hammer in like manner that heavenly edifice which the Eternal Architect endeavours to erect in the soul of every man is compleated and perfected without any sound or noise the Holy Jesus neither crying nor lifting up his voice in the streets to give a sign of his approach when he renews and forms his image in the sons of men For that image which God shapes out in our Natures is not any thing different and distinct from our moral and inherent Righteousness or any new infused quality but the exaltation and freeing of that principle which though weak and depressed by a load of corruption yet being immortal and incorruptible bears a Divine stamp and exerts it self in acts of Sobriety Justice and Goodness and being assisted and corroborated by the powerful conduct of the Spirit of God successively displayes it self and continually arises to greater measures till the living efformation of Christ be perfectly compleated An instance of this we have in Cornelius Acts x. and the more devout and religious Heathens in whom the life of God was in a good measure radicated and discovered it self in his frequent Prayers and Charitable actions who when he was renewed and sanctified by the gracious illapse and descent of the Holy Ghost was not devested of those Moral accomplishments of his Nature or endued with any thing different from them but his Righteousness and perfections of his mind were increased and sublimated and fitted for the rellishing such delicate and tender impressions which things being seriously considered it cannot be that any one should perceive the beginning or determine the time of the vegetation and increase of the Divine Image and Nature 2. The second illation which concludes the infallible certainty of his Perseverance who is once in a state of Grace and collects himself to be under the immutable decree of life by those Characteristicks delivered from the mouth of no mean Dictator of that pleasing Doctrine as it is destructive of Piety and casts a malevolent aspect upon true Religion and Virtue so it hath not the least print or footstep in the Holy Scriptures nor can alledge any thing but fancy and the prejudice of impotent affections to maintain it's credit in the world as will appear from these subsequent Propositions 1. That the Decrees of God whether of life or death look upon men according to the exigency and import of their present states and conditions not of their potential or future Beings As suppose God foresee and discern that this man righteous at present will hereafter forsake his righteousness and apostatize from the holy Commandement and do wickedly yet so long as he continues righteous he is under the favourable eye of Heaven and is treated as one whose name is written in the Book of Life Whosoever doth righteousness is righteous but he that committeth sin is of the Devil 1 Joh. iii. 7 8. And more plainly yet The righteousness of the righteous shall
not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness Ezek. xxxiii 12 13 14 15. The result of these places is this That particular men or the persons of men from time to time come under the Eternal Decrees of Love or Hatred according to their actual and present state of righteousness or unrighteousness For if God decreed life and death upon the consideration of future sin and holiness he may as well decree a reward and punishment respectively for that which men would have been engaged in had they lived in this World to all eternity which directly contradicts that Scripture wherein we are said to give an account for the things which we have already done not which we should have done had we continued longer in the body And hence it is that the righteous man who is now in the love and favour of God being hardned again through his own negligence and the deceitfulness of sin may relapse into that state which the Decree of death takes hold of and of such a man is that of St. Peter to be understood 2 Peter ii 21. It had been better for such a man not to have known the way of righteousness then after he hath known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to him And when the righteous man degenerates from his former faith and the enemy takes advantage and oppresses the Divine life through his carelessness and folly God charges all his past sins upon him and recals his justification whereby he was before esteemed as righteous in his sight which is intimated in the Parable Matth. xviii where he that had the debt forgiven him because he dealt so harshly and ungently with his Fellow-servant was again called in question and the whole summe charged upon him and Christ applies it to our present purpose verse 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses For we must know that God pardons our iniquities by parts and as we grow in Virtue and Holiness so his displeasure decreases and is taken off and he that is justified becomes yet more justified and walks in the light and the breath of God enkindles the heavenly fire and fans it into flames and ardors and so long the man is safe but if he return to folly the anger of God is renewed as at the beginning and the last state of that man is worse then the first 2. That true and real Believers may relapse and be confined and brought in bondage to the strait and narrow laws of their own self-wills and fall from the life of God and become settled and radicated in a life of self-seeking and guided by the parsimonious principles of Pleasure and Interest is the voice of Scripture and Reason the former of which palpably and undeniably concludes and determines the case Heb. x. 38 39. Now the just shall live by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if he not any man as our Translation improperly supplies it i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just man who before is said to live by his faith if he draw back Gods soul shall have no pleasure in him and what this drawing back is we may collect from the subsequent words But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition So again Heb. vi 4 5 6. For it is impossible i. e. very difficult and hard for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who were once enlightned i.e. Baptized for Baptism was called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the world to come if if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame And if this were to be understood of Hypocrites what need the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For unto what should they be renewed and reinstated their former condition being in it self so deep an unregeneracy and from what is it they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall away when their distempered natures were never recovered by the practice of any real and substantial holiness Wherefore this must necessarily be meant of those who had in a good measure subdued the motions of the inferior life and left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principles and rudiments of Christianity and were arising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perfection For the tasting the heavenly gift and the good word of God and the powers of the world to come are no more to be understood of a slight touch and transient perception then the same phrase when it is used of the Lord Christ that he tasted death for every man Chap. ii 9. But that as he did really feel and experience the effects of death conquering his mortal life so these here spoken of did truly rellish and apprehend the sweetness of Christianity from a clear discriminating sense of it's native excellency and felt the Divine Spirit destroying the irregular appetites of the inferior life and sanctifying their Natures by a blessed inhabitation To these we may add Ezek. xviii 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live All his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned What can be more manifest than this if men would clear up their apprehensions and look upon things as things and not content themselves with bare names and shadows For that the righteous man in the Text should signifie an Hypocrite and one seemingly righteous is the most distorted gloss that can be put upon it 1. Because the righteous is here opposed to the wicked person but if it were to be expounded of one seemingly righteous who is so much worse then an open profane person in that he acts impiety under the cover of Religion the words must run thus When the righteous man i. e. the Hypocrite turns away from his Hypocrisie and acts according to the abominations of the wicked man and if by the righteous be meant an Hypocrite what is to be understood by the wicked to which 't is opposed 2. This righteous man is said to live by his righteousness but the Scripture no where sayes That the Hypocrite shall live by his counterfeit holiness but directly the contrary The hope of the Hypocrite shall perish And I must confess I do not at all understand the intent and purpose of God in inserting so many Cautions and Exhortations to Watchfulness and Diligence in the Gospel if there be no possibility of a true Believer's desertion of the Faith which questionless the Illustrious Compilers of the Church of England's Confession of Faith
of the reach of danger and if he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for God will raise him up The gates of hell shall never pluck him out of Gods hands nor separate him from his eternal Love for having loved his own he loveth them unto the end The thickest cloud of sin and darkness arising from his polluted and rotten heart though it may suspend for a while yet can never totally divest him of Gods paternal Love and favour because he is one of Christ's Sheep of his little flock and he knows him and is confident he is known of him and though he have lived in vice and rolled in the dirt and mire of the Earth till the utmost Period of his life yet the holy Spirit will infallibly and irresistibly at the very Exit of his soul change and renew it and cast the robes of Christ's spotless Righteousness upon it and then 't is impossible the man should miss of heaven And is this a Doctrine adapted to the carrying on the design God intended in the Gospel namely the Reduction of the world to a conformity to the Divine will to forsake and abandon all their sinful and false wayes and to live in a universal submission and resignation to his holy Laws and Commands What proof or evidence doth it bring that it aims at any such thing Is it in that it declares to a man that Faith and Repentance and every good motion of the soul is the irresistible work of God and that 't is no more in his Power to confer any thing to his being a good Christian a just and Righteous person than to add one cubit to his bodily stature but if he be not as yet regenerated he must stay and wait till that good time come wherein the Spirit of the Lord shall enter into him and make him a New Creature for the wind bloweth where it listeth Or is it in that it affirms That Christ dyed for the Elect and though the value of his Satisfaction were infinite and sufficient to redeem the whole World for them only and that his death hath satisfied for all their sins and that now God imputes the Righteousness of the Lord Christ to them and upon his account they are esteemed as righteous as if in their own Persons they had fulfilled the whole Evangelical Law though in the mean time their hearts are very corrupt and unsound Are these the Demonstrations by which this Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees manifests it self to come from God If it bear the Superscription and Image of God upon it it is then as he himself is Light and there is no Darkness no mixture of impurity and humane imagination in it for God cannot patronize any thing but what is holy as he is holy and pure as he is pure But if we consider well such Positions will appear very obscure and frightful horrid and amazing savouring of the Prince of Darkness by whom they were breathed into the minds and spirits of unsanctified Persons and by them communicated to the World as the Arcana of Christianity but tending in reality to the eversion of it and the augmentation and increase of the Devils Kingdom For when Men shall hear that upon such and such Pulpit-signs which their Impertinent Preachers deliver to them they may gather their Election from all Eternity and that maugre all the Oppositions of Men and Devils they shall never fall quite away by a final Impenitence but assuredly recovered by an uncontrollable and peremtory power when they shall be told likewise That Gods calls are at certain times and seasons and that till they perceive themselves forcibly inacted and carryed away by the impulse of the Divine Spirit all their previous actions are to no purpose Will not these things cause them to sit down in laziness and take their ease without troubling themselves with the renovation of their minds sith that God will take care for that and soak themselves in terrestrial joyes and pleasures till the dead-awakening trump which when it will be they know not call them from the Grave of sin and death as Christ did Lazarus and bid them come forth Will not the imputation of Christs Righteousness and the mantle of his Satisfaction damp the endeavours of men after real and inward Righteousness and inherent Holiness by which they attain to a participation of the Divine Nature since they can have anothers at so cheap a rate which will likewise be as beneficial and stand them in as much stead as if they had of their own Men are prone to palliate their sin and take hold of any pretence to stop the mouth of their accusing consciences and need no such artifices to lead them into those paths that go down to Hell and the comfortless chambers of death Their evil Natures and the examples of others and temptations of Satan are sufficient to draw them into Vice and Irreligion that none need disseminate such doctrins as shall invite them to immorality and iniquity from the Authority and Countenance of Gods word But it is supposed that every Christian Mâ—stagogus who acknowledges himself to have a Master in heaven to whom he must give an account for the souls committed to his charge if not for theirs yet for his own felicities sake will have so much prudence and circumspection as not to build on the foundation of the Gospel Wood Hay or stubble any such Doctrins as will not abide the test of Reason but prove both to God and Mens souls very mischievous and injurious for though he does it ignorantly his work shall be burnt but he himself shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet so as by fire that is with extreme difficulty as he that hardly escapeth out of the fire 2. The second Instance wherein the Doctrin of Irrespective Decrees inverts and destroyes the end and purpose of God in the Gospel is by leading Men into desperation I do not mean that they should despair of mercy so long as they continue in their sins for this every Criminal ought to do that he may be induced to come out of them the sooner but by Desperation here I mean a disbelief of Gods will or power to save them whereby they go on carelesly and resolutely in a course of Rebellion and Iniquity For being perswaded on the one hand that the number of the Elect is but small in comparison of Reprobates and that both the one and the other are particularly designed and marked out by name for the Lord knows who are his and that all the labours of men after the Kingdom of Heaven will prove unsuccessful and abortive till God by a high and mighty hand come upon them and powerfully convince them of the evil of their wayes and astonish them with the weight and multitude of their sins laying them low and bringing them down as they phrase it to the gates of Hell and shewing them the worm that never dies and the fire which never shall
way and live He would have all his Creatures know that he is no way accessary to their destruction Hos xiii 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And when he sees what froward and untoward Creatures we are that readily forsake what he loves and run after that which his soul delighteth not in making such unhappy choices for our selves as if we studied how to be our own Executioners then he begins to reason with us O my people what have I done unto thee Mich. vi 3. or wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me Jer. ii 5 31. What evil have ye found in me Have I been a barren Wilderness unto you or a Land of darkness and if any shall yet be so presumptuous as to cast the blame of their wretchedness and misery upon so benign a Father he stands ready to acquit himself and calls heaven and earth to record against them that he hath set before them Life and Death Deut. xiii 19. Blessing and Cursing and requested them to chuse that which may make them for ever happy Joh. v. 40. But they will not come unto him that they may have life Nay further that God might take away all manner of excuse from the Sons of men and mannage his cause in a way of Reason and Equity he hath not onely shewed his Righteousness to the Heathen and declared his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth but asserted it possible for men to perform his Will so that his yoke is in it self easie and his burthen is really light and his service is reasonable * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is agreeable to the dictates and sentiments of our rational Nature Rom. xii 1. For the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise the Word is very nigh thee Rom. x. 6 8. in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it No man can complain of any hard usage that God commands impossibilities and injoyns things that are above his reach For the Spirit of God that mighty principle of Life and Vigour which pervades the whole World of intellectual agents is ready to assist the generous and hearty attempts of all sincere persons after the Divine Life and Nature for so he who gave that gift to his Apostles and assured mankind of the continuance of it till the end of the World hath long since made known to us that if Earthly Parents know how to give good gifts to their Children Luk. xi 13. God our heavenly Father should much more give his Holy Spirit to all that ask it of him He would have all the Creation take notice that it is not for any ends of his own that he is at such pains with us My people sayes God have forsaken me the fountain of living waters Jer. ii 13. and have hewn out to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold no water Methinks the words signifie thus much as if God should thus bespeak us O my people if you could mend your selves by forsaking me the fountain of living Waters then I could be content and reason would that I should bear with you but that you should betake your selves to broken Cisterns which can hold no water and are then dryed up when ye most stand in need of them this argues your lightness and folly Isai xxx 18. God waits to be gracious and with infinite patience and long-sufferance expects our Repentance and suffers that tempestuous whirlwind of enraged Vengeance which Sin and Vice have fed and congested to roll long within the Orbe of Mercy before it burst forth and bear down the sinner into the horrors and agonies of Eternal ages And this is sufficiently evidenced by those Pathetical expressions of his unwillingness to punish his Creatures till at last being compelled to it he sets about it with a kind of reluctancy of spirit and is as it were grieved to the heart that he must use such rigorous means to reduce them to himself Hos xi 8 9. How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together This is Gods gracious Expostulation with himself as if he should have thus said What shall I do unto thee O my people or how should I behave my self toward thee Should I make thee an example of my judgment as Admah Or should I consume thee in a moment like Zeboim No surely my heart is quite averse from such harsh proceedings they are even extorted from me therefore my heart yerns after thee O Ephraim my bowels are turned and melted within me an expression of the dearest love and affection that possibly can be Jer. xxxi 20. I am even overcome with those deep-fetcht breathings of affectionate Love which I bear unto thee therefore I will not execute the fierceness of my anger for I am God and not Man I bear no malice against any of the Creation but had rather my kindness then my displeasure should endear men to the consideration of their own happiness And at last he appeals to our own Reasons and Consciences and is content to submit himself and his Dispensations to our own thoughts whether we can imagine any better course then that he hath taken to reform us Isai v. 4. Judge I pray you between me and my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard then I have not done So that it is only when all means prove ineffectual that the God of Love turns to a consuming fire and makes us the proper objects of his direful Vengeance To take yet a more direct view of that fair Perfection the very root and centre of the Deity I mean Goodness or Love let us behold God manifest in the flesh and look upon him who being the brightness of his Fathers Glory the express Image and Character of his Person encircled with the loving armes of Heaven and folded up in the bosome of Blessedness yet left those sacred Mansions of Happiness out of pure good will to the race of Mankind and put off the robes of Glory that he might be capacitated to dwell in a body of flesh to the intent that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life That pure soul which shone with an Ethereal brightness farr surpassing the glory of the Sun being vitally united with the Eternal Logos and full of the Divine Life did inwardly pity and commiserate the lapsed posterity of Adam wherefore that he might more abundantly demonstrate the riches of his grace he declared himself the Saviour not of some few only but of the whole World that the design of his appearing was to scatter an healing influence upon the broken and distracted Sons of men and that the effects of it should be good tidings of great joy to all people assuring guilty
teach and instruct mankind in the true knowledge and worship of the Deity Hence it is that in the Gentile Theology Love is made the most ancient of the Gods and the Sire of all things * Plutarch tells us that for this reason Hesiod made Love the most ancient of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is described by Simmias Rhodius in a pair of Wings which suited well with the Symbolical representation of the Chaos by an Egge which was brooded and hatched under these wings of Love Something of this we find Aristophanes in Avibus sporting withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Love therefore according to their Divinity being the benigne Creator of all things the Father of Men and Angels from whose bounteous fecundity the vast spaces of the external Creation became replenished with suitable inhabitants must needs be ever present with every thing he hath brought into being and communicate himself to all his Creatures so far as their respective Natures are capable of receiving the influxes of his Paternal Goodness What was therefore obscurely and imperfectly delivered by the Heathens concerning the production of things we have fully declared in the Mosaical history of the Creation where we find the Holy Spirit of Love by his fostering incubation bringing into being and cherishing under his extended wings the new-born World Which manner of production surely denotes a tender care and dear regard of whatever is brought into being and therefore the Metaphorical expression of Wings is often used in Sacred Writ to set forth Gods loving care and providence Psal xci 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers when thou betakest thy self under the shadow of his wings And when the blessed Jesus would denote that dear love wherewith he would have embraced Jerusalem had she returned unto him he tels us that he would have gathered her children together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a bird gathereth her young under her wings Mat 23.37 God cannot be separated from any of mankind but as he brought them into being for no other end but that they might taste of the communications of his Nature so he takes care that none of them shall fall short of this desirable end but through their own default 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That mind which is the Father of all things being life and nature it self produced man like unto himself and loved him as his own off-spring But far short of this comely Idea of the Divine Nature is that of Calvin who had he been to describe the barbarous stratagem of some cruel Nero or one more inhumane than the World hath yet known contrived to slay the innocent under colour of Justice could scarce have done it with more horror and amazement than that wherein he layes down the eternal counsel of God against Reprobates Instit lib. 3. cap. 24. Sect. 12. Quemadmodum suae erga electos vocationis efficacia salutem ad quam eos aeterno consilio destinaret perficit Deus ita sua habet adversus reprobos judicia quibus consilium de illis suum exequatur Quos ergo in vitae contumeliam mortis exitium creavit ut irae suae organa forent severitatis exempla eos ut in finem suum perveniant nunc audiendi verbi sui facultate privat nunc ejus praedicatione magis excaecat obstupefacit i. e. As God by the efficacy of his Vocation towards the Elect compleates that Salvation to which he designed them by an eternal decree so he hath his determinations against Reprobates by which he executes his decree concerning them Those therefore whom he created for the reproach of life and perdition of death that they might become the instruments of Anger and examples of his Severity those that they may arive to their end he sometimes deprives of the means of hearing his Word and othertimes more blinds and amazes by the preaching of it But is the Name of a Creator nay of a Father no more promising Why was Man made in the Image of God unless he intended to deal with him according to that relation he stood in unto him We do not read that God hath dealt thus with any of the rest of the Creation for the rebellious Devils were not cast down from the higher regions of light and glory till they apostatiz'd from God and drew with them the race of Mankind And shall Man alone the noblest part of that Creation to which God once vouchsafed that cheerful Elogium and Approbation that it was very good shall he only I say be banished from the participation of that All-comprehensive Goodness I can sooner therefore believe that the proud Gyant the fanciful Poets have placed under mount Aetna should by his own native effort throw of that heavy burden from his oppressed breast or that the spirit of Nature should convert a flinty rock into a heap of fragrant flowers than that God should create any of Mankind on purpose to make them the pitious objects of others scorn and his own powerful and implacable vengeance I can never believe any thing I say that savours of such irrational and unjust proceedings but rather affirm that the Eternal benignity of the Holy one diffused and communicated through the whole Orbe of beings and comprehension of Nature will so certainly take hold of every thing that is capable of enjoying it that it shall not fail of being happy so long as it acts evenly and regularly in that place and state infinite Wisedom hath allotted to it Hence Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymn 3. What wonder is' t if God Who did the World create From his own works repel All sad and evil fate As if it were contradictory to the very Nature of God to be the Demiurgus and Maker of all things and yet not to render his productions as happy as the capacities of their natures will admit For nothing advantageth him ought and all the happiness or misery the Creatures run through in the course and order of things is neither an addition nor detraction of his felicity only he being Essential Love which envies not nor thinks any evill delights to communicate of himself in effects of kindness tenderness and beneficence to all beings round about him The whole Creation tastes of it having all it's parts cemented with Goodness and it's foundation lay'd in Love The Heavens the Earth and Sea and whatever moves within the compass of them bear witness to this Truth This is that All-mighty Love which feeds the young Ravens when they open their mouths towards heaven and provides for the Lybian Lyons when their souls are pincht with hunger and they roar after their prey He it is that opens the windows of heaven and refreshes the dry and parched Earth causing the grass to grow for the Cattel and herb for the service of Man All things in
can no way doubt but that the blessed Author of our Beings is infinitely Veracious this most pretious Attribute of his will be sufficient security to us that we are not made perpetually and inevitably fallible but that there is a due proportion and harmony between our faculties and those objects whereof we have a cleer and distinct apprehension And there is no reason or plausible pretence we should think otherwise 〈…〉 arising from impotency and weakne 〈…〉 in us is nothing but the sickness of our minds it is wholly repugnant to the most perfect Being so to work a deceit in the intimate frame of our Natures that we should alwayes be deluded in what we imagine we have the clearest evidence of Wherefore we being assured of the Truth of our Faculties from the Veracity of God we have a sure guide to lead us in the contemplation of his Nature and Perfections and may give a rational account of them from what we find in our selves From these foregoing Considerations we may by an easie and natural deduction inferr that God never destinated any of mankind to Destruction but that all the calamity and misery they undergo either in this World or the next is the proper issue and product of their wilful Apostacy and defection from him For God being Infinite Love and this Love the most pretious Attribute of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the cause of all things else it must necessarily follow that whatever designs or projections were intended in reference to mankind they must spring and derive from Goodness which as it is Best so it cannot but act that which is Best and most behoofeful to the things for which it acts I confess though this way of Argumentation from the Nature and Attributes of God appear to me as convictive as any Mathematical Demonstration and I feel a more irresistible and captivating force in it than in any other way of arguing whatever yet because there is required a peculiar Crasts of soul to be convinced by it I do not wonder that so many look upon it as weak and invalid For my own part I fully believe that should God by his Absolute Will and Pleasure place any such conceptions of himself within my mind as that he hates the greatest part of Mankind for no other reason but because he Will it is impossible I should ever credit those stranger guests to be sent from him whose Name is Love and glories most of all in that fair and noble title for those apprehensions having no affinity or alliance with the ancient and first inscriptions of heaven upon my soul would grow there but as strange Plants in a forced and unnatural soil being destitute of that proper and radicating moisture which should dispread them in a flourishing and kindly growth There are some indeed who by reason of the penury and straitness of this Noble and Heroick qualification of Universal Goodness and Love within their own breasts and confining themselves to particular Interests and Engagements shape the Idea of God as suitable to and resembling their contracted Spirits as they can and therefore attribute Love to him only secundum effectum not affectum whereby they would make us believe that there is no such real propriety or affection as Love existing and living in the Deity but only a bare indication of it by certain effects which because our short and steril understandings know not how to express otherwise we give them the denomination of Love or Goodness Now although the Deity be not subject to those variable passions which in our selves we style Love and Hatred and which are seldom grounded but upon Humour and Fancy yet to deny that there is any such thing really and formally in God as Love and Goodness such a principle as carries him out to the production of all possible Beings and whereby he takes an Eternal Complacency and Delight in whatever acts regularly within it's sphear is in it self but a groundless fancy For that beloved Disciple of the blessed Jesus St. John who leaned on a breast never void of Love and Pity to the Sons of Men and had a very potent and vigorous sense of this Divine passion within him when he would set out and express the Nature of God to us in the most significant and yet Evangelical and attractive manner tels us that he is Love which doubtless denotes something real and certain not a bare notion or airy Idea and fantastick dream known only by some effects being something only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Conclusion That the Divine estimate of things and persons is according to the truth and reality of their respective Natures and that when God makes judgment of Intellectual Creatures he does it by viewing their moral frame and constitution and accordingly stands more or less affected towards them We fond Mortals being prone to Love and Hate at our pleasure beholding things through the vitiated and corrupt Medium of our lusts and passions are very apt to make to our selves false representations of them by dressing them up in the filthy shape of our own distorted fancies like Icterical persons who imagine all the approximate objects of sight tinctured with yellow when as the colour is all the while in their own eyes and made only by the motion or striking of certain vapours upon the Optick Nerves thus many contaminating and defiling their reasons by a familiar converse with sin and wickedness and setting their own Self-will in the Throne and transacting the whole business of their Religion upon the stage of Fancy never looking higher then to the gratification and satisfaction of the Animal powers and by that means making Vice connatural to them and losing the true distinction between Good and Evil Calling Good Evil and Evil Good putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter they frame an Image of the Deity by an Idolum of their own and think that God hath the same good apprehensions of their persons and the same conceptions of all things else as they themselves have But that immutable Goodness which gave being to the Heavens and the Earth and every thing contained in them and is not subject to humours and partialities but pervades the Essences of all created Beings and feels all the intrigues and mysteries of each of them by a stable and Omnipresent Knowledge judges of them according to their present state and capacities As suppose this man righteous and holy at present should afterward apostate from that perfect state albeit his future lapse be an object of the Divine Knowledg yet is he not denominated from that but from the exigency and import of his present condition and from hence is approved of God and under the decree of life and happiness but when he actually prevaricates and commits iniquity he fals under the decree of death and damnation notwithstanding all his former righteousness There are some
of an unlimited Will and Power how and when he pleaseth and declaring their effluxes and emanations to be the rule of reason and measure of all Moral Actions and the grand Law of the whole Creation or else in those Hymns and Hallelujahs which are offered up to him by intellectual Beings from all quarters of the Universe Whereas in truth his Glory is nothing without himself nor any acquisition and purchase to augment his happiness for he being an Infinite Plenitude of all Perfection is incapable of receiving any complement of Glory or Blessedness but then he most of all elevates and raises his glory and lustre when he most of all communicates his Nature and shines in with a full and uninterrupted light of Truth and Goodness upon all the intellectual Creation He never seeks his Glory in respect of us in any other way than by dispreading and imparting those Soveraign Attributes of Love Mercy Patience Wisdom and Justice And we in the most proper sense do then advance the Glory of God highest and discover it to the World in the most ample and transcendent manner when the life of God becomes a Vital Principle in us carrying us beyond the reach of corporeal exsudations and defilements which render the soul inept for a conformity to his blessed Image and when Truth Holiness and Righteousness in which the Divine Nature is copyed out become not empty and insignificant Names and sounds of words but actuating and quickning Principles and we studiously endeavour to engrave those beautiful Forms in our minds and spirits In a word then do we glorifie God when we converse with him in the Temple of an unspotted heart and derive from him in whom there is no blemish of iniquity such an Universal Holiness as lives within us and pervades and sanctifies all our actions And this the Lord Christ who best knew how to glorifie God hath intimated to us Joh. xv 8. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit I have now finished this Argument from the consideration of the Divine Nature and have deduced such genuine and legitimate Conclusions that if rightly estimated and weighed cannot but implant for the future in every unprejudic'd mind more generous and serene Apprehensions of the Deity then are offered in any Scheme of the Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian Doctrins both which concurr in that which appears most deformed to every pure and defecate eye viz. The Eternal Reprobation and Confusion of the greatest part of Mankind the one upon pretence of Gods sole Will and Pleasure and the other under the mantle and cover of Adam's transgression in whose loins the whole race of Mankind was included when he fell and lost his Paradise Both which opinions though never so fairly guilded over do really make God put on the mask of cruelty and rigour that he might appear just in his Oeconomy and Administration of the affairs of the World and that which is most barbarous and infamous in the eye of reason is made to speak the glory of the Deity And that God might bring about this dismal and black design of Damning his Creatures he must compass it by injurious artifices and tyrannical contrivances rot unlike that inhumane fraud Tiberius used to Brutus and Nero the sons of Germanicus Suet. in Vit. Tâ—…b c. 54. Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur How deep a stain doth this cast upon the lovely rayes and efflorences of the Divine Goodness and Mercy making him to become the Executioner to his own off-spring and rend that dear life in pieces which his own hands gave Being to And although the Sublapsarian Dogma be entertained of some on purpose to mollifie that harsh decree of the Supralapsarian Reprobation yet if we divest it of those terms and artifices of words wherewith it is mantled over to appear more specious to the World we shall find it cast as great a blot upon the Divine Nature as the other For whether is it better to say That God by his Eternal Prerogative of Absolute Dominion over all his Creatures has adjudged the greatest part of Mankind to inevitable misery for no other reason but upon the impulse of his own Will and to shew the glory of his Power Or to say That God for the sin of one Man whom he made the Representative of the succeeding Generations of Men to the end of the World committed some thousands of years ago and imputed only to his Posterity who were no more able to help it than to hinder their being born into the World should take the advantage of his lapse and decree the greatest number of Mankind to Everlasting destruction And if we impartially view this latter it will appear no less precarious and absurd than the former For though it be true that we are really and formally guilty of Original Sin yet to say that God did physically predetermine Adam's fall or in the mildest sense That he looked upon man as fallen for the Reprobationists are not consistent with themselves and so took the opportunity which he foresaw would offer it self by his lapse to bring about his design of ruining the greatest number of Mankind is to bring Almighty God the Father of compassions upon the stage of the World speaking unto the calamitous Off-spring of Adam like the Wolfe when he intended to devour a Lamb Ante hos sex menses ait maledixisti mihi Respondit agnus Equidem natus non eram Pater hercule tuus inquit maledixit mihi Atque ita correptum lacerat injustâ nece Should God take the souls of men being yet innocent so soon as he set them upon acting in the World according to those Principles and Powers he bestowed upon them at their first production and cast them into everlasting burnings they would have this comfort left to them that they suffered innocently and never in the least measure violated any of the sacred Laws of Heaven But when they shall hear that their Creator and Father who upon that very account could not inflict a greater evil than the good he bestowed on them hath contrived their death and drawn them into sin that he might with the fairer shew of equity punish them with infinite tortures both in body and soul this injustice must needs appear unspeakably grievous For although some would seem to excuse this Oeconomy from all harshness iniquity and rigor by substituting the softer termes of Preterition or negative Reprobation yet if they will unmask their apprehensions and speak plain sense the difference will appear only in words not in the thing it self and is all one as if a man should seek to alleviate the calamity of a condemned Malefactor by telling him he should not die by Common but Noble hands For the event declares Gods intention and the denial of his help to extricate them from misery is equivalent to a positive Reprobation Let us consult a little our own faculties and reason
magnifies the riches of his free and undeserved Grace to his chosen and selected ones But to leave these light and aiery fancies I shall lay down that which I judge to be the proper and genuine sense of the Apostles words In order to which we must know That the scope and intent of almost this whole Chapter is to comfort the Afflicted and calamitous and to exhort them to continue stedfast and unmoved in the love of God and obedience of his commands adding several weighty Reasons and Considerations to incite them to it amongst which these two have their strength and cogency 1. That all the troubles and molestations they suffer here shall work together for their good ver 28. 2. In that they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ who through many hardships and afflictions made his way unto glory ver 20 30. So that the Predestination here mentioned is to be understood of a destination to the Cross and not of any ordination to Faith Life and Glory The sum of all is this That all afflictions and crosses however burdensome and grievous they may be shall work together for the good of those that love God and sincerely and cordially adhere and cleave unto him and though now for the present they may be exercised with many hardships and environ'd with calamitous accidents yet the event should be glorious and the Sun of comfort at last arise and dispel those thick clouds of sorrow and bring on a serene and perpetual day of felicity and joy For whom he did approve of as faithful he determined should arrive to their felicity by the same way that Christ did who by suffering entred into his Glory to the intent that he might be the first-born among many brethren Moreover whom he did thus approve of them he intended to call to a conformity to his Son and whom he thus calls he will likewise justifie that is account them as righteous and whom he thus justifies he will hereafter glorifie if they desert not the signs and tokens of the Cross as he said before ver 17. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For though there be no condition expressed yet it is evidently implyed in the nature and matter of the thing it self See Exposition of Eph. i. 3 4. infra That this is the scope of the Text will be further evidenced from the use of the words and phrases in other places of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are no more then the real and unfeigned servants of God is manifest in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in several places of the Old Testament used to signifie a Follower Adherent or Servant especially in an Army as 1 Kings i. 41 49. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts xi 23. With full purpose of heart that is willingly unfeignedly and constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the same import with the simple Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies no more then an approbation and firm love of those who are thus conformable to Christ is evident from these and such like Texts of Scripture Rom. xi 2. God hath not cast away his people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he foreknew that is which he owned for his So 1 Cor. viii 3. But if any man love God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same is known of him that is him God approves and likes of Hence it is said that God knows not wicked men Mat. vii 23. And our faith and obedience of Gods commands is called our knowing of him Joh. xvii 3. 1 Joh. ii 3. By Gods calling here is undoubtedly meant his Vocation to the Cross to which all Believers are destined as appears from 1 Pet. ii 20 21. But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for hereunto were ye called And 1 Thess iii. 3. That no man should be moved by these afflictions for your selves know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we are appointed hereunto And if it were understood of Gods Vocation to faith it would follow 1. That he foreknew that is approved and delighted in sinners before he called them to the faith and so before they were in Christ 2. That not only Vocation but Justification and Glorification must belong to those that are only foreknown or Elected Which absurdities and insipid illations are avoided by the former Exposition Ephes i. 3 4 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having Predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will The sense and scope of these Verses will be very easie and conspicuous by the illustration of those two Phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 5. The Election therefore spoken of here seems to denote Vocation by the Gospel not simply so but imports and includes the Decree of calling the Jews and Gentiles by the Gospel as 2 Tim. i. 9. Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Now the subject matter of this Election are Believers as such and whoever actually believes comes under that grand Decree of Election to life and immortality designed and intended in the Lord Christ before the foundation of the World and whoever believes not falls under the dint of the other Decree of death and destruction According as our Saviour himself hath delivered to us Mark xvi 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And for a further elucidation of this we may take notice that it is not said simply in the Text that God hath blessed us but in Christ and as he hath chosen us in him therefore Blessing v. 3. and Chosen v. 4. belong both to the same matter for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a term of proportion makes the connexion thus That God hath blessed us in Christ that is His actual present blessing them at that point of time was correspondent to what God had decreed before the foundation of the World Now what the blessing here spoken of is appears 1. In general by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual blessing or blessing in things pertaining to heaven 2. By the Predestination in order of nature precedent to it which is
Platonists Now the Ruling part being more Noble and better then that part which was made to be subject and to obey hence it comes to pass that in the true and natural state of the Soul the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtains the chief place in operation although possibly there may be something in mans soul more pretious then Reason and is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flower and summity of the mind which we may term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faculty of the soul which perceives the rellish savour and goodness of Virtue and naturally embraces and joyes in that which Right Reason approves as Good For as there is a kind of sense in the lower or Plastick Powers of the Soul whereby they dislike ungrateful and unsutable objects even when our will and perception has nothing to do in it so there is something in us that exults and triumphs and naturally joyns it self with infinite satisfaction and delight when our Intellect and Reason only give a judgement of the Essence and Truth of moral objects Axiome IV. That what is best in any Being is the Rule and measure of all other qualities HEnce Man having a double life within him Intellectual and Animal which the Sacred Writings call Flesh and Spirit and both these having different inclinations and objects the higher life ought to controul the lower and reduce all it's appetites and motions to a conformity to it's severer Dictates and Prescriptions which in a moral sense is the meaning of Mans having Dominion over the Fowls of the Air and Fish of the Sea In like manner Will and Power and Soveraignty are all resolved into Goodness and if at any time they are exercised without it they loose their Natures and degenerate into selfishness and Tyranny And it is absolutely necessary that the Best should be the measure of all other faculties and modes in us because our chief happiness consisting in our conjunction with the most Absolute and Perfect Good and that which is Best in us uniting with it it will infallibly follow that that which is the most Divine in us should command and rule all other Faculties whatever And this holds good in the Moral Essence of God for Goodness being more pretious and soveraign then any other Attribute it must needs be by the foregoing Axiome the measure of all the rest Axiome V. That Being is no longer Eligible then it is tolerably happy THat a Misery or Calamity exceeding the happiness of our Beings is worse then not Being is plain at first sight for bare Existence though it be a term of Perfection yet when it is charged with a surplusage of misery above the benefit that accrues by it it destroyes the Reasons of Being which are chiefly the conveniences and opportunities of acting according to the proper faculties of any Being And common experience shews us how unable and unfit we are for the exercise of any functions of life when a sharp and acute pain seazes on us and if this dolorous sense be fierce vehement and durable it is a question Whether it will not perfectly extinguish all Vital congruity and reduce us to a condition altogether the same with Non-Entity For to be and not to be conscious of and perceive our own Beings are one and the same thing And he that well considers this will not be apt to pain and excruciate any Being howsoever vile and contemptible unless upon good Reasons and Causes For certainly though in a moral sense we may piously say That all things were made for man yet to say There is no other Physical Reason of their Beings is too bold and presumptuous an Assertion they being so many I mean as are capable of sense endued with faculties in whose use they enjoy and solace themselves Axiome VI. A present Evil that brings with it a Good greater then what that Evil deprived us of is to be looked upon as Good THus an untimely death is to be accounted an Evil in it self but yet ought to be looked upon as Good by him who is thereby raised to the participation of a higher and more exalted life This Consideration made Socrates say That Death would indeed be hard and sharp to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such are all the Afflictions that befal a man in this World Evil for the present forasmuch as they are accompanied with trouble and pain but yet are to be esteemed Good because they teach us the lubricity of all mundane joyes and inflame our Love of Virtue and fix our desires upon an immortal Good which amidst all the uncertain revolutions of this Region of death and misery will never leave us but conduct us to the blessed mansions of life and peace The constant belief of this drew that Generous and Noble speech from Socrates Epict. Enchirid c. 79. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having laid down these Moral Principles which are nothing but the plain and genuine productions of Right Reason I shall now examine the Authors Discourse by them and shew wherein his Arguments are weak and inconclusive in reference to bis main design The first thing therefore that I shall take notice of is his stating the true ground and foundation of Gods Sovereignty and Dominion over man page 20 21 c. which he does by Arbitrating the Dispute between the Arminians and Calvinists the one assert That it bottoms upon the Benefit of Creation and the other groud it upon the unlimitedness of Gods Power The first of these he sayes are evidently mistaken because God was from all eternity invested with a Power of doing any thing that was not misbecoming his Divine Perfections but God being alwayes Infnitely Perfect could not acquire any new Excellence from the Worlds Creation and therefore the Collation of Benefits cannot beget any new Power in him because the Power which he had antecedently to all his benefits was not capable of being made greater To which I Reply 1. That Dominion and Power as it signifies Sovereignty are Relative terms and therefore if we could suppose or imagine any time wherein there were no Creatures in Being Dominion would then be improperly attributed to God because if he had Dominion there must be some Subjects existent of his Dominion and therefore though God by creating the World acquired no new Excellence or Perfection yet he had some new Mode or Qualification which he had not before as that he was the Father of the Intellectual and Maker of the Corporeal World which would be improper terms before he had brought any thing into Being Thus although God know and have as it were a perfect Scheme of all future things possible to be known yet his conception or knowledge of the same thing when future and possible and actually existent is not the same for when it is actually brought into Being he acquires a new manner of knowledge of it for it is impossible that the conception of futurity and actual Existence should be the same