and consequently he might have dismissed the Israelites sooner if he had pleased Hence it will also follow that there could be no secret Influence nor any predetermining Concourse from God to bind his Faculties or take away his Free-agency only the Pride of his Heart despising God's Message to him and his domineering Ambition to keep the People in Slavery did out-weigh in his unjust Ballance the other Motives he had to dispense with them And herein consisteth the nature of Election that of two things proposed with Motives on either part a man freely chooseth that which likes him best in his present Apprehension tho' at the same time if he thought good he might choose the other Thus did Pharaoh choose to detain the People there 's his Choice yet before ever the matter was propounded to him God himself says * Exod. 3.19 I am sure he will not let you go here is Fore-knowlege Therefore Divine Prescience and Humane Liberty are consistent and have been conversant about the same individual Action But here an Objection may arise from the seventh Chapter and the third verse where God says †Exod. 7.3 He will harden Pharaoh's heart From whence it might be supposed that Pharaoh could not act voluntarily nor be said to have any real Freedom of Will To this I answer 1. I will not deny but that in consideration of Pharaoh's former Wickedness in dealing so barbarously with the People of Israel God might sorsake him and give him over to hardness of Heart But then 2. I deny that this hardness of heart by whomsoever or in what manner so ever it was wrought could deprive him of the Liberty of doing a Civil Act within his power He might for some self End or with some ill design have dismissed the Israelites and yet still have retained his hard heart it was but a word speaking and the business had been done And it is observable that while the smart was upon him he could say * Exod. 9.27 28. I and my People are wicked and promised too to let the Israelites go but still as he found respite thinking perhaps the storm was over he retracted On the one hand there was the danger of perishing or having at least his Kingdom ruin'd by those Judgments God sent upon him On the other hand there was the lust of tyrannizing over an enslaved People and the benefit of their Labours in making Brick These two weights being opposed each to other in the Scales sometimes the one and then presently the other preponderates And this purely is deliberation the result whereof is choosing and choosing is the undoubted property of a free Agent 3. Concerning the hardening of Pharaoh's heart the Apprehensions of Learned Men are different that which to me appears the most reasonable is to this effect namely that this induration is not to be understood as any positive Act or immediate Efficiency from God whereby Pharaoh's heart was made hard much less his Will Predetermin'd directly and properly no more than it is to be understood that our Saviours coming was directly and properly to fill the World with Dissentions because he himself saith expresly that * Luke 12.51 52. He came not to bring peace on the Earth but rather division The primary intention of the Gospel no doubt was Peace and Good Will towards men but meeting with various tempers and sundry degrees of Corruption in the hearts of men it could not choose but occasion dissention and a sword upon the Earth In like manner the primary intention of God's Judgments is to reform the World and bring men to Repentance whilst in some Persons they have a quite contrary effect So that as the Gospel of Peace was the accidental cause of War so might God's dealing with Pharaoh tend to harden his Heart and yet to sosten a less rebellious one as the same Sun beam melteth Wax and hardeneth Clay And as sin by the commandment becomes exceeding sinful * Rom. 7.11 13. in so much that the Commandment it self which was ordained unto life is found to be unto death So Pharaoh's stubborness under the Divine Hand becomes the more exceeding stubborn and that Chastisement which was ordained unto Reformation did the more effectually promote his destruction Hence it is highly probable that I will harden his heart may import no more than this I will bring such things to pass and in such a manner as shall through his own Corruptions render him much more obdurate That the natural and direct tendency of God's dealing with Pharaoh was to convince him seems very apparent from these Considerations 1. He orders Moses to try him with Innocent Miracles afterwards with smarting ones by such degrees till it come at last to the death of his First-born 2. While the Plagues lay heavy upon him he gave some signs of a yielding and relenting temper but ever in the Intervals he contracted a greater obdurateness 3. The Judgments of God had their proper Effect upon the Egyptians so far that they would gladly have the Israelites dismissed sooner and at last were not only urgent to have them gone in haste but willing to part with their * Exod. 12.33 35. Jewels into the bargain These considerations I say seem very much to favour the forementioned sense of the Place but whether that be the only true meaning of it I shall not contend so long as I can make it good that Pharaoh was a Free Agent in that particular thing which was foretold by God Almighty The next double Testimony shall be out of †Ezek. 3.4 Ezekiel where the Prophet is sent to the Israelites and words put into his Mouth to warn and dehort them from their wicked ways lest they should dye Hence I argue thus either the House of Israel might have obeyed God's message to them by the Prophet or else not If not how shall we clear the sincerity of God's dealings with them Or will his message to them appear any more than a Complement Let us have a Care of intrenching upon Blasphemy But if they might have humbled themselves at the Prophet's voice as Nineveh did in the like case it will follow that they were not by any previous necessity divested of their Liberum Arbitrium as is also evident from these words so often repeated in the Prophet's Commission Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear which is as much as to say they have their free choice And what follows * Ezek. 3.7 But the House of Israel will not hearken unto thee God doth not only afford Liberty and Opportunity of Repentance but he urges the same by strong pleadings and inducements and yet at the same time he foresees a contrary Event And this is what I undertook to assert from the Scriptures Again in the 5th of Hosea †Hos. 5.5 God foretells that Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity Judah also shall fall with them yet in the 6th Chapter
to wait upon God in the use of those means appointed by him in his word and we have his promise for success And that no man can truly say now or shall be able to plead at the last day that he hath used his utmost endeavours and found them unsuccessful These and the like considerations may be ground enough for men to be doing good at present and for their Relyance upon the Goodness of God for the future But on the other hand since there is a spiritual as well as a fleshly Wickedness and Satan is transform'd sometimes into an Angel of Light and lest Man should be lifted up with an apprehension of certain fine things that he can do let him remember that 't is God who worketh in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure that of himself he can do nothing and that all his righteousness is but filthy raggs And this will help to poise him at the Center between the two Extreams of fainting and presuming and will discover a necessity of an humble attendance at the Throne of Grace that God would supply unto him those Divine Aids and Spiritual Powers by which he may be enabled to encounter opposition and find acceptance in Christ Jesus And herein perhaps may consist the narrowness of the way that leads to life For one man supposing he can do nothing acceptable to God resolves to take his ease until the Spirit that Wind which bloweth where it list breath upon him another thinks he is able and willing to do all that God requires he admires his own good husbandry in the improvement of his Talent and thanks God he is not like other men Now the way lying in the middle betwixt these Extremities the least step towards a Carnal Liberty one the one hand or a Pharisaical Righteousness on the other must needs be a deviation from the right path as this collateral Discourse is a digression from what I intend But I now return and do say that let men establish what Doctrine they please concerning Grace it will not import the matter in hand since I shall confine my Notion of Free-Will to those things that are on all hands acknowledged to be within Man's power supposing only the ordinary concurrence of God's providence thereunto I consider then that Man above other Creatures hath knowledge to judge and distinguish of things commodious or inconvenient beneficial or noxious to him in the concerns of his Life and it would be a strange Solaecism in Nature if he had not the Liberty of choosing the one and refusing the other What doth it advantage a Man to know the difference between a Sheep and a Wolf if he want the Power or the Will to make a benefit of the one and avoid the mischief of the other Nay I do not see but this might render Man of all Creatures most miserable since his knowledge of Good could be no other to him than Gall and Bitterness whilst he finds himself fatally carried on to Evil. And suppose he had been always predetermined to Good his knowledge of Evil then had been in vain or rather indeed it had been impossible since Man could not have come to the knowledge of Evil but by doing it And what could Man under a necessity of always doing good signifie more than a good Watch which tho' it moves regularly yet is it altogether involuntary cannot do otherwise knows not that it moves at all and consequently is incapable of Praise or Encouragement Reward or Punishment Thus if we take away from Man his Faculties of Judging and Choosing we make the Lord of the Creation the most contemptible thing in Nature and put him under the Feet of those Brutes he was made to rule over So that without voluntary Agency that is without a Will and the proper Exercise thereof Man becomes little better than a Sensless Machine But now on the contrary we see plainly that by the good Providence and Disposal of Almighty God men have power to do many things as namely to cultivate the Earth to build Houses to provide against Hunger and Cold to educate their Children to exercise several Arts and Trades for the Benefit of Humane Life and to manage all these according to certain Rules Methods and Observations arising partly from Experience and partly from Mens consulting one another I say in all these and a thousand more particulars Men do consider and deliberate and then pursue their several Designs some with greater others with a lesser share of Prudence but each Imploying his Measure and accordingly determining to choose this and refuse the other In short I conceive that God having indued Man with an Understanding to judge and a Will to choose and continually supplying him with power to act according to his Nature he doth not ordinarily over-power or impel his Faculties but leaves him to the free Use and Exercise thereof in things within his proper Sphere And this is what I mean by Free-will Now I address to my Province which is to assert this together with God's Fore-knowledge of future Events from the Scriptures The first pair of Scriptures that I imploy for this Service shall be out of Exodus * Chap. 3.18 Chap. 3.19 where Moses is appointed of God to go unto Pharaoh and say unto him Let us go we beseech thee into the Wilderness c. It is not easily to be imagined but that Pharaoh had power to have granted this Request at first and the very Request it self doth strongly imply a Liberty of granting it No good Master will require any thing of his meanest Servant with intention to punish him severely for not doing it and yet secretly contrive means to prevent and disable him that he cannot do it To say that God should send Moses to make a request unto Pharaoh saying Let us go we pray thee that he should destroy him at last for refusing and in the mean time should bind up his heart by some irresistable influence from all possibility of granting it This would not only excuse Pharaoh from the guilt of sin but make an odious representation of the Ever blessed God as if his Wisdom were exercis'd in laying snares for the innocent and his power in their destruction Should a Writing-Master guide his Scholars hand to make a blot or some ill Character and then beat him for it whereas being left to himself he would have done better what could be thought of such behaviour in a Master and how just would be the Scholar's indignation against him The sinfulness of an Action consists in this that it is voluntary and against the Command the nature of a voluntary action is that 't is done out of choice and deliberation when otherwise it might be forborn Now either Pharaoh sinn'd in detaining the People or he did not if not wherefore was he destroy'd * Gen. 8.2 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right If he did he acted out of Choice
Events and Issues of all Things and Actions from Everlasting to Everlasting and since he knows most perfectly the Heart of Man the Bent of his Affections his measure of Grace and prevailing Motives he must of necessity Foreknow the various Results of Man's choice and Liberty of Will without the least obstruction to the free Course and Exercise thereof He Foresees the End together with the Means and the Effect depending on its proper Cause He foresees that some Men shall not live out * Psal 55.23 half their days but they are such as are bloody and deceitful He foresees that †Prov. 10.27 The Years of the Wicked shall be shortned but then he shall fall by his own wickedness And to conclude he foresees that ‖ Prov. 11.5 A righteous Man shall prolong his days not by daily attempts to destroy himself but as the Wise Man saith by the fear of the Lord and in the way of Righteousness Obj. One Objection more and I have done It hath been often said in this Discourse that the Event Foreseen of God is certain and will come to pass and again it hath been asserted that some Events which have been Foreseen might possibly not have come to pass how can these two Notions agree together I answer first that any thing can be certain and uncertain at the same time and in the same respects is granted to be a contradiction but a thing barely Possible which may either be or not be implies no contradiction at all For as there are many things Possible to be which shall never came to pass Actually so other things shall Actually come to pass which yet Possibly might not be Thus it is Possible I may go to Rome but 't is a thousand to one I shall never come there and if it Actually so fall out yet that does not take away the Possibility of going thither for Learned Men say * White de Mucao Multa futura esse quae non crunt multa posse fieri quae non fient On the other hand something will Actually that is certainly be done this day which possibly might be deferr'd till to morrow Illud enim possibile est quo posito nullum sequitur inconveniens But all this perhaps will better appear from the consideration of these Particulars 1. An Event may be certain with respect unto God which is not so to us for nothing can be uncertain to him that is Omniscient but to us that know but in part almost every thing Future is obscur'd with some kind of uncertainty 2. An Event may be certain in it self on Supposition of certain Causes and yet supposing other Causes it would fall out quite otherwise So that 3. The certainty of a future Event is absolute in respect of God Hypothetical in respect of it self but unknown or uncertain in respect of us That is to say it can never so fall out but that he who knows the whole train of Causes leading to it must of necessity Foreknow it But it is the Causes not the Foreknowledge which make it to be what it is which being supposed the Effect certainly follows Which Certainty extends not to us who are ignorant of the Causes Let us see now how this will appear by instances Suppose the French King before he dye turns Protestant whether it so fall out or not God knows for as Solomon saith * Prov. 21.1 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord. If Conviction or Interest oblige him to become a Protestant the Effect will certainly follow but this is Hypothetical that is upon Supposition of prevailing Causes and Motives it must follow But to us there can be nothing of Certainty whilst we are ignorant of that Princes Intentions neither know how it may please God to work upon him hereafter The Captivity of the Jews was certainly Foreknown unto God and together with a great Pestilence foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah in a very remarkable and particular manner And afterwards saith the Lord I will deliver Zedekiah King of Judah and his Servants and the People and such as are left in this City from the Pestilence from the Sword and from the Famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and into the hand of their Enemies c. And he adds further That their City shall be given into the hand of the King of Babylon and he shall burn it with Fire Yet the same Prophet is sent to call them to Repentance to prevent even this very Captivity and tells them ‖ Jer. 7.5 6 7 If ye throughly amend †Jer. 21.6 7 8 9 10. your Ways and your Doings if ye throughly execute Judgment between a Man and his Neighbour if ye oppress not the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widdow and shed not innocent Blood in this place neither walk after other Gods to your hurt then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the Land that I gave to your Fathers for ever and ever We see here a reserved Condition and fair possibility of preventing that Eminent Captivity so much noted in Scripture and so much Prophesied God grant that we by the same Method may earnestly endeavour to prevent another Captivity which has they say been Prophesied too and which severely threatens England at this day I conclude with Adam's Transgression before-mentioned which was most certainly Foreknown unto God forasmuch as * 1 Pet. 1.10 Redemption by the Precious Blood of Christ was Foreordained before the foundation of the World and 't is no less certain that Adam had Free Will and Power to have persisted Innocent which surely amounts at least to a possibility of not transgressing the Divine Command And this consideration alone is enough to answer the Objection and to silence any Argument that can be opposed in this matter I have now done the Uses I propound to my self from this Discourse are Specially these four 1. To read the Scriptures Impartially and to value them Equally upon the Account of that Sacred Authority stampt upon the whole and the Spirit that breaths in every part not to build an Hypothesis upon some few single Expressions further than it may appear to be consentaneous to the integral Body of Truth contained therein 2. In all mysterious Points wherein there appears a difficulty either to affirm or deny still to adhere to that side which hath the surer Evidence and wherein the Word of God is clear and unquestionable to esteem that the strongest Evidence of all and unto which all Arguments from humane reason and even Mathematical Demonstration must yield submission 3. But in such matters wherein there appears equal Danger in both extreams and wherein many Person have err'd on either hand to take the MIDDLE WAY and walk in it with such Caution and Moderation as to be Friends with them that tread not the very same steps and always ready to admit any further discovery of Truth 4. To represent the Ever-blessed