Apostles but to others Was either Reason or Will made use of in the producing of these or was it a brute Way unbeseeming God Are not the Principles of reasoning inbred in Nature and freely given of God Is therefore Man's reasoning a brute Way Nothing can be more express against this Opinion than that of Ezekiel A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and give you a Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. There is a great Inclination in Man to put Works upon Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace and that as deserving by Justice the Performance of God's Part. The Semi-Pelagians after the Pelagians were baffled and exploded that they durst no more profess the Powers of Nature to be sufficient for Salvation said there behoved to be supernatural Grace given of God at Conversion yet there were preparatory Works such as the Sense of Sin and of its deserving the Spirit of Bondage the use of Ordinances which they thought deserved Grace which God in Justice could not but give these were also exploded and were called Semi-Pelagians All the Apostle Paul's Arguments against Righteousness by the Law strike as fully against these as against any Merits or Works on Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace and he is accurately positive That by Faith only we are sav'd without any thing on our part in which we might glory or attribute our Salvation to our selves in whole or in part 4. There is of late an Opinion vented in England that tho the Covenant of Works is now become impossible which required perfect Obedience yet God in his Goodness hath entered into the new Covenant or Covenant of Grace in which Man's Part is not a legal and full Obedience but through Christ's Mediation he hath accepted an Evangelical Obedience being a sincere Endeavour to fulfil all God's Commandments and a Course of Life without continuing in any kind of known Sin Their main Ground is that it cannot be thought that God entering with Men in the Covenant of Grace would not have Men as a Part of their Engagement to resolve and promise to have respect to all God's Commandments and to endeavour so far as humane Frailty could allow to fulfil them all if it were not so that Holiness were Man's Part of the Covenant we behoved to take the Antinomian's Interpretation that we were no more under the Law but under Grace that the Law had no more Obligation on Believers therefore the new Obedience must be Man's Part. This Opinion hath been held by some Pious and otherwise Orthodox Divines and therefore it ought rather to be cleared as a Mistake than prosecuted as a stated Profession It must therefore be adverted that God's Moral Law is indispensable and behoved to be binding tho there had never been a Covenant as hath been shown before God's Dispensation might have been without taking Man's Consent by way of Covenant but by the Law written in his Heart obliging him to Obedience under the just and proportioned Punishment of eternal exclusion from God's Favour the breach or loss of no Covenant could take away that it became indeed Man's Part of the Covenant of Works but that Covenant is broken yet the Obligation of the Law which was anterior to that Covenant stands In theCovenaut of Works there was partly Merit partly Favour but the Covenant of Grace excludes all Merit and Man's Part is by Faith only so that Faith is not considered in its moral Goodness for in that Consideration Love is a far more excellent and disinterested Vertue than Faith but Holiness is on God's Part of the Covenant of Grace as in the former Conception is expressed he infuses the Habits of all the Christian Vertues in Conversion Man's Engagement to endeavour to keep God's Law were of no Import unless he did keep it and so God's Part should not be at the time of Conversion but at the time of Death after the Course of Man's Life did appear The Scripture makes no mention or moment of Man's Resolution which is as the early Cloud or Morning Dew which quickly passeth away Neither would the Terms of the Covenant of Grace be equal to all the Endeavour of some would go much further than the Endeavour of others 5. Some Divines in England have made Man's Part of the Covenant to be Faith as it is a good Work because it is said Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is it was held sufficient as if all Righteousness had been performed But this had been still a Covenant of Works accepting one Work in place of entire Obedience but Abraham's believing in that Place was not the Act of Faith as it is Man's Part of the Covenant for it relates to a former Place of Scriptnre as the Scripture saith Abraham believed which was concerning his Son Isaac who was promised to him in his Old Age and therefore he staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief which was a particular Act of Belief of that Promise and was properly an Act of Holiness and was so imputed or reputed as an Act of Righteousness but the Act of Faith in which Abraham entered in the Covenant of Grace was believing in God through the Messiah to be justified sanctified and glorified 6. Some Reformed Divines in France and England bring good Works on Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace as perfecting and compleating Faith for only a lively Faith working by Love is saving for there is a Faith that worketh not by Love The Devils believe and tremble and Faith without Works is dead Abraham was justified by Works when he offered Isaac Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works And Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Yet Paul's reasoning is much more full and accurate discussing the Point of Justification by Faith only without the Works of the Law which could not consist if James spoke of Faith as Justifying whereas James takes off an Error of those that thought they might be saved by believing the Gospel without Holiness which he redargues as a wrong Consequence from Paul and shews that not to be true Faith but such a Faith as the Devils have which cannot be that Act of Faith whereby Man entereth in the Covenant of Grace which is not believing the Truth of the Gospel but relying on God for Salvation through Christ according to the Gospel and on the contrary Abraham's Faith is brought in as true Faith which yet was not the justifying Act nor is the Justification there meant the Justification in Conversion which maketh a Man just but that which manifests his Justification to himself and other Men For Paul saith If Abraham were justified by
when a consequent Conclusion is inferred from false Grounds But it is no deceit to express Truth for good Ends tho the Speaker may know that the Hearers will make bad use of it unless the Speaker be obliged not to suffer the Hearer to make that use Deception also may be without Words or Signs signifying Thoughts as when a tempting Object is brought unto the Sense Mind or Memory with design to tempt or seduce In all these ways God is perfectly true he never expresseth Words or Signs but such as are both conform to his Thoughts and the thing signified he never designs to deceive by any Words or Signs nor doth he tempt by these or any other Objects represented for God can neither tempt nor be tempted to Evil he may represent Objects to prove the Firmness and Faithfulness of his Creatures but with the Temptation he giveth always Strength either effectual or at least sufficient to escape He made the forbidden Fruit very pleasant to the Eye and it is like to the Smell also which being appointed a Badg of Man's Obedience to God's Will alone it could not reach the End if it were altogether indifferent but it was just and fit that it should have a contrary Excitation in the Sense which might be over-ruled by a more powerful Inclination of the Mind but requiring Attention and Diligence to keep that Principle of the Mind in remembrance thereby to over-rule the Incitation of the Sense Therefore it may warrantably be thought that the forbidden Fruit was more pleasant than any other in the Garden for it was an unsutable sign of Affection and Obedience unto God if God had forbidden the eating of the Fruit upon the one side of the Tree and allowed the eating of it on the other Circumcision and the most of the Jewish Rites were of the like nature and had all a great Contrariety to the Pleasure of Sense Yea tho God permitted Satan to tempt to the eating of the Fruit not only from the Pleasure of Sense but from a false Expectation of greater Wisdom there was a Principle in the Mind fully sufficient to resist both that God could not be envious and that there could be no Advantage to transgress his Command and therefore tho God foreknew the Event he was not nccessory to the Transgression nor put any necessity upon the Man or Woman to commit it and therefore did justly and severely punish them both nor did they even by their after-thoughts plead that the Temptation was insuperable and that they had not sufficiency of Strength to resist it tho they omitted not very insufficient Excuses There is no ground to stumble at the Prophet Jeremiah's Saying Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived nor the words of the same Prophet saying Ah! Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul which are no more than the weak Rovings of Saints in the Extasy of Trouble Such as were many of Job's Expressions and David's saying That in vain had be washed his Hands in Innocence when he saw the Prosperity of the wicked It is evident that God never said to Jerusalem Ye shall have Peace simply but if ye follow the Paths of Peace and so there was no Inconsistency with the Event that the Sword reached unto the Soul seeing they followed not the ways of Peace Neither doth the Parabolical Representation of Micah the Prophet That the Lord said Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And when a Spirit said He would go out and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets and the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Now therefore behold the Lord hath put a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets These and the like Expressions such as God's hardening Mens Hearts must be understood according to the Analogy of Faith in Consistency with the infinite Perfections of God and they are elsewhere explicated in Scripture that the wicked harden their own Hearts and that God giveth Men up who have refused the Offer and Means of Grace to follow their own Ways and unto strong Delusions to believe Lies because they received not the Truth in Love and therefore they can be attributed no other way to God than that they cannot be without his Permission and his permissive Will and Decree and his over-ruling Providence bringing Good out of Evil. Some very learned have held Truth not to be distinct from Goodness or Bounty but a Branch of it and where that is not to be used Lies may be used as well as Stratagems against Enemies If this were true it were not impossible for God to lie but Truth is a Perfection wholly distinct from Bounty and from Justice and is rather a Point of Decency How unbecoming were it and incongruous to the infinitely blessed and glorious God to express a Lie For Creatures may be blameless in expressing Words not conformed to the thing signified which is not a Lie because not disconform to their own Judgment but the Omniscient God can never use Expressions disconform to the things signified but they must also be disconform to his own Thoughts I know there are too many who to uphold their Philosophick Notions do suppose that God in the Scripture speaketh many things according to the vulgar Errors of Men and not according to the Truth of the things signified which is a gross Error derogatory to the Truth of God and to be abhorred tho there were no other evil Consequence but there be many For instance a way is thence opened to innumerable Errors which when redargued by Expressions in Scripture though they be proper and plain yet there is still an Evasion that these are but spoken according to the vulgar Error and Prepossession of Men which in some things they think evident and take the Authority to extend to the like so far as they please neither is there any Evidence or Rule in Scripture where to stop God useth figurative and parabolical Speeches but never any Falshood is spoken by the Motion of his Spirit I admired and abhorred to see a Professor of Divinity in a Treatise heap up so many places of Scripture and of so great moment as spoken by erroneous Prepossession of Men but not true and conform to the things signified which yet may easily be answered God speaketh often to Man's Capacity as to the Manner but never untrue the Matter Kings and States may infer Good from the false Prepossessions of People which they presuppose but do not assent to or approve at least should not tho they may suppress their Disapprobation Who should then imagine that God would approve false Opinions to infer true unless they were related not as his Opinions but expressed as theirs It may be doubted whether God's Truth be wholly his Moral Perfection or if partly Natural which I do not inquire out of
the measure of the Distinctness of the Object is the Degree of the Delight in it It will not be sufficient to rest in the general Knowledg of God that he is endowed with all possible consistent Perfections but there ought to be a diligent Search of the several Divine Perfections in that Order that the Mind of Man can best apprehend them For who can search the Almighty to Perfection IT is the most common and uncontroverted Sentiment of Mankind that every Man feels in himself an earnest and stedfast Inclination to promote his own Well-being to his full Satisfaction which alone can justly be called his Happiness and must comprehend not only the having of all things that might do him good but the Certainty that they shall not be taken from him This natural Inclination is a perpetual Monitor to put him in mind to consider what things may be for his Good and in what way he may retain or attain them and though Men be frequently mistaken in the Application in the Matter or Manner of their own Good yet they do ever desire and if there be a Probability of Attainment endeavour after that which they apprehend to be for their own Happiness which is excellently set forth by the Psalmist There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Insinuating that the most common Apprehension of Happiness is the Increase of Corn and Wine and the Joy arising from the Accommodations of an animal Life expressed by Corn and Wine which are the prime Means of that Injoyment 2. But declaring also his own Sentiment which is true Happiness the Joy arising from the shining of God's Countenance that is the evident Favour of God for Favour is chiefly indicated by the Countenance as well as Aversion by Discountenance and the shining of God's Countenance signisies the highest Favour which is the Fountain of Happiness and all Goodness requisite thereto absolutely secured by God's Unchangcableness The Countenance of Man is the chief Seat of his Beauty and Loveliness and therefore sittest to represent the Amiableness of God arising from the clear Perception and Attention of his infinite Perfections exciting an unparallelable Delight So then Man's Happiness is the Joy arising from such a State as can never want the shining of God's Countenance but the Means to attain that State are not so obvious the finding them requires the most serious and diligent Meditations for therein the greatest Wits of the World though not seduced with the Biass of Self-Interest that State being the greatest Self-Interest have yet grosliest erred herein so that there are hundreds of opposite Opinions of Philosophers wherein Happiness doth consist 3. The Favour and shining of the Countenance of God cannot be upon any other State of Man than that which is pleasing and acceptable to God which cannot be without a sufficient measure of the Knowledge of God For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Which seeking him must be an Endeavour to know his Divine Perfections more than by knowing that he is by knowing what he is wherein the believing that he is a Rewarder of those that believe in him is specially express'd as of the chiefest Moment as it is immediately subjoined Without Faith it is impossible to please God Which Faith is not only that contemplative Faith whereby the Faithfulness of God is known that is that excellent Perfection of his Nature that he will not disappoint the Hope or Trust of a Creature created after his own Image in what is worthy of him to give and is fit for them to have but that actual Trust and Hope for Pardon Reconciliation and Glory in that way which is sutable to God which cannot be to those that hate him contemn or neglect him or that cleave to their Sins which he doth abhor or to those who do not love him above all things and from Love have not only a tender Fear and Reverence to do nothing that may offend him but an earnest Desire and Endeavour to do all things for his Glory which is the Manifestation of his Divine Perfections devoting the Soul unto him in endeavouring to do all things that are pleasant and acceptable in his Sight This is that true Holiness without which it is impossible to see God which by equivalent Terms is called Godliness Piety and Devotion 4. That Favour of God which is manifested by the shining of his Countenance is not in his Love of Benevolence or good Will which he had in Election and still hath before Conversion but in that Love of Beneplacence or Delight which he hath not till Conversion nor doth his Countenance always shine after it but he frowns upon the commission of presumptuous Sins until they be repented of and pardoned 5. The Scripture makes a clear Distinction and Difference between Godliness and Honesty which in equivalent Terms is made betwixt Piety and Probity the same may be an Act of either or of both or of neither whereof the Scripture giveth a clear Instance in giving Alms to the Poor which some may give upon the Interest of Mankind in compassion of the Miserable without considering it as pleasing to God and then it is an Act of Honesty and Probity but no Act of Godliness or Piety Others may give it because it is acceptable to God without considering the Interest of Man and then it is an Act of Piety only Others may give it upon both Accounts in their due Subordination and then it is an Act both of Godliness and Honesty And others may give it out of Vain-glory to be seen of Men and then it is an Act of neither Piety is called Religion à religando from tying or binding again the Soul to God and is also called Devotion à devovendo from vowing or consecrating the Soul from common Use to God and so all things consecrated are said to be holy being separated from common Use as to their chief Use without excluding consisting subordinate Uses 6. The necessary and chief Acts of Religion and Devotion are Confidence in God and Love to God Faith and Love are the Fountain-Graces from whence the rest flow neither of them are attainable without the Knowledg and Consideration of their proper Objects so qualified as may excite these Affections which must be by the Perfections in the Object on which these Affections lay hold and by which they are mov'd 7. Faith is described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is best rendred the Subsistence of things hoped for and so the same Act is Faith as the Promise or Faithfulness of God is present and Hope as the Performance is expected The proper Object of both is Faithfulness of the Person trusted upon knowledg that he is able and willing at least by
burn with Revenge or Envy do relent when they see the Misery of that Creature to which they wished the worst of Evils and their Misery may become so great that there ariseth thence a Compassion and suffering with the miserable Creature with a desire to relieve it Mercy therefore implies a Displeasure or Grief for a Miserable Creature and a desire to relieve it whether from Misery incumbent or imminent so a merciful Man shelters a Creature from the Avenger This natural Inclination of Mercy may be and often is much abated and eradicated by contrary evil Inclinations and Custom as those that murder for Gain and too many become not only void of Compassion but cruel contrary to Mercy delighting to behold the Misery of others but then they are reckoned to put off Humanity and that Pain that 's felt in the Heart and Bowels upon the sight of Misery Misery is not every Evil of Suffering and Want but the Prevalence of them to which alone Mercy is applicable which being an innate Inclination given to us of God cannot but be pleasant to God the Giver and is a Remainder of his Image in the Natural Conscience he delighteth much in the Mercifulness of his Creatures and it is an eminent Sign of those that are in his Favour which appeareth by that Article of the Lord's Prayer Forgive us our Sins as we forgive them that sin against us intimating that none can with hope ask Mercy of God who are not merciful The Mercy of Creatures may often be exercised in Fellow-feeling or Compassion when they are not able to help but still there is a desire to help Mercy when effectual consists in giving and forgiving which is a giving of Remission or Pardon of that which may be exacted or inflicted by the Forgiver in so far as it 's in his Power as when a Creditor forgives his poor Debtor whom he might throw and detain in Prison which is the Forgiveness of a Debt or when an injured Person forbeareth to insist against the Injurer for Punishment or absolutely passeth from him which may be where there is a Debt of Reparation beside the Punishment and may be also without these Punishment is not properly a Debt as I have cleared my self in the preceding Meditation and therefore Mercy in Forgiveness of Punishment is Forgiveness of a Crime or Fault which God hath allowed the Injured to forgive to the Penitent even to seventy and seven times But there be Crimes which do more concern the Common-wealth than a particular Interest whereunto the Example is pernicious these cannot be forgiven by private Persons and ought only to be forgiven by the Common-wealth when the Punishment would give more Inconvenience to the Common-wealth than the Forbearance Mercy even in Creatures is not of Justice as a Debt but of Benignity for tho it be very necessary for Mankind and therefore God hath given a strong natural Propension to it before it be perverted yet he hath not imposed it as a Debt to be punishable for the Omission but rewarded for the Performance and therefore it is said to the Merciful he will be merciful for all that is due by Justice stateth a Power to claim or exact in the Person to which it is due It is an eminent Office of Humanity to relieve the Distressed to give Alms to the Poor yet they have no Power to claim or exact it By the Divine Vestige of Mercy in the Creature I am helped to the more distinct Knowledg of the infinite Mercy of the Creator wherein the Difference will easily appear both by Reason and Revelation I shall therefore compare the two in what they agree and in what they disagree The Mercy of God and the Mercy of the Creature agree in this that both respect a miserable Object yet not so that it must be infinite and eternal Misery For God hath Mercy on many of his Creatures to whom he doth not forgive their Sins for he hath Mercy upon Nations and Communities who are not capable of that kind of Pardon How often hath he recorded his Mercy to Idolatrous Israel when they cried to him in their Misery and perhaps had Sorrow for that particular Sin whereby they did nationally provoke but it was not a Repentance unto Life for that must be of all Sin tho of some more eminently than of others God had Mercy on wicked Ahab and said to the Prophet Dost thou not see how Ahab humbleth himself yet Ahab was far from saving general Repentance God hath Mercy on the Wicked generally in delaying the inflicting of his Judgments against them sometimes during the course of a long Life and many think that he hath Mercy on the Devils till the Day of Judgment It hath puzled many eminent Divines how it can consist with God's Justice to shew any Mercy to the Reprobate for if without Satisfaction to his Justice he might be merciful he might have forborn for ever to punish any Sin much more to punish the Sin of the Elect and if he might forbear Punishment of Sin for an hundred Years no Man can determine when he behoved to begin so that he might delay for a Million of Millions of Years The Difficulty is increased because many good Men through the hatred of the Socinian Popish and Arminian Opinion that Christ died equally for all Men and procured them universal Grace that they might repent or not repent at their Option run into the other Extream that Christ purchased nothing but to the Elect and therefore endeavour to loose the Knot by the resemblance of Civil Powers whom Justice obligeth to punish but leaves the Time to their Discretion This Solution importeth nothing for the Justice of Civil Powers is not to expiate but to suppress Crimes That which deserves eternal Punishment can never be expiated by all that they are able to do but God's Justice is for Expiation I doubt not that the Mediator hath procured Temporal Mercies even for the Reprobate and that tho by his Purchase there is no Grace given them yet that it is sincerely offered to all that come to Discretion and that it was the Reprobates fault that they did reject it and will be their eternal Accusation against themselves else how could it be said Turn ye turn ye Why will ye die Nor could it be complained by God That they would have none of him that they hardened their Hearts and stiffned their Necks against him Nor on the contrary That his long-suffering Patience leads unto Repentance Tho this may be said only for the Elect it is also said I gave them time to repent and they repented not which could only be meant of the Reprobate who are frequently said to be inexcusable that is they have no Excuse that they have thrown themselves into Misery yea their own Natural Conscience shall not suffer them to think that they were inevitably miserable It is not enough to say that the Reprobate are inexcusable because there are many