told me so at first then and then you might have escaped an hard censure I will go on Your great Objection was That the Gentiles who were without promise were eo nomine in that very respect without hope To that I answer When God chose the posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people he did not design to exclude the rest of the world from his care and providence and all possible means of salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3.29 Is he the God of the Jews only is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Which argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that natural relation God owns to all mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as the Jews an interest in his care and providence This plainly evinces that all these particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that people but the design of all was to encourage the whole world to worship the God of Israel who gave so many demonstrations of his Power and Providence p. 27. Satan If I understand you aright your meaning is that the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since had all possible means of Salvation and as much ground for hope of it as the Jews because God was their common merciful Creator and Governour And therefore loved them all alike And hence you would direct me to conclude as well I may if the premises be true that God being the common merciful Creator and Governour of Angels and Men therefore I have all possble means of Salvation and sufficient ground to hope for it as well as men If this be not the force of your Argument I will forgive your hard censure and think I begin to dote indeed But methinks the premises are liable to exception I might ask you Sir where were any Jews and Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel for I always apprehended that the Gospel was preached to Adam and Eve before they did operam dare ad liberos procreandos before they had any conjugall Society you see as old as I am I have not forgotten all my Latin in those words I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Sherlock I have obviated this Objection in my reply to a like instance of the promise made to Abraham In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed To which my answer is Christ was indeed the material object of Abrahams Faith that is he believed that promise which God made of sending Christ into the World But Abrahams Faith was not a Faith in Christ no Man could believe in Christ till he came that is could not believe any thing upon his Authority which is the true notion of believing in him p. 247. Satan The application I find easie That the promise made to Adam was of Christ that should be a Saviour Four thousand years after not that should be a Saviour to himself and Wife and their immediate Seed They were to be saved by a belief not in Christ but of the Principles of the Natural Religion founded upon Natural Demonstration or moral Arguments as that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him which was the faith of Abel and Enoch whereby they pleased God as you told me before Sherlock You have represented my Opinion in my own words and I like that very well Satan I thought I would please you if I could and put you in a good humour against I make some more objections And but that you start so many Hares at once that I am afraid by running after all to lose all I could please you better by putting you in mind that as to these Words of God to Eve a very good Friend of yours Valentinus Smalcius whom a Learned Calvinist calls insignis illefidei Socinianae hyperaspistes the Champion of socinianism does boldly affirm Christum minime respexisse nec aliquid in se promissionis Evangelicae continuisse They had no respect to Christ nor did they contain in them any Gospel promise Refut Thes Frantzii p. 94. But I will go on The Calvinists will object against your Logick in the Text now cited Rom. 3.29 and tell you that not the Relation which God as a Creator stands in to Jews and Gentiles but as a Covenanter with Abraham on the behalf of both is given as the Reason why both should be justified by Faith and not one only Sherlock This Objection Satan Hold Sir never give your self the trouble of answering it It was a disparagement to Domitian to employ himself in catching and killing Flies And in my mind you did discreetly in not answering E. P. H. H. and that Pert Man that called you Dirty-Fellow in the Title of his Book for so Anti-sozzo signifies whether you know it or no And it had not been amiss if you had let J. O. and R. F. alone too for none of them all were your match The most that can be said of them is never was any Brazen Serpent half so subtil p. 113. Sherlock I am not of your opinion That I had better have let all my Antagonists alone for then they would have said that I did not answer them because I could not Satan You have little to do sure to mind what they say To end this Chat pray ease me of this Objection against Gods loving all his Creatures alike That I find God hates me and therefore will never love me for his hatred is like himself immutable Sherlock To the Fanaticks fancy that when God once loves them he will never hate them because his love is like himself immutable I have answer'd Herein the immutability and unchangeableness of Gods love consists not that he always loves the same person but that he always loves for the same reason for it is no perfection to be so sixt in our kindness that where we love once we will always love whatever reason there may be to alter our affection for by this means we may love undeserving objects which is the greatest degeneracy of love but the perfection of love consists in loving deserving objects and in loving upon honourable reasons and the immutability of love consists in loving always for the same reason which is the only foundation of vertuous immutability pag. 404 405. Thou art not so dull but thou canst apply all this to thy satisfaction Satan I apprehend your meaning well enough that there is par ratio as your School-term is of Gods love and hatred And therefore therein the immutability of Gods hatred consists not that he always hates the same person but that he always hates for the same reason For it is no perfection
to be so fixt in our unkindness that where we hate once we will always hate whatever reason there may be to alter our affections for by this means we may hate undeserving Objects which is the greatest degeneracy of hatred c. In short your meaning is that God hates me for this reason because I am bad but he would love me if I were good and I should then as well deserve his love as I do now his hatred Sherlock I see you have not your name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing for nought you have wit enough if you will but make a good use of it Satan I am beholding to you Sir for your good word And I promise you I will not be wanting to my own interest The notion you have last given me does me a great kindness For I have been hitherto so simple though you are pleased to commend my wit as to think that Love and Hatred when ascribed to God in the Calvinists notion which you decry did import an eternal Decree or Will of God to shew or deny mercy to his Creatures and so were immutable but now I understand that they signifie variable affections as in the Creatures which as the Weather-cock shifts its corner with the wnd alter with the persons upon whom they are placed And I am now rid of a fear which the mention of Elect-Angels in the Scripture did often put me into I see nothing to the contrary but I may in good time be one of that denomination If I can but bring down my stout stomach to ask God forgiveness and repent of so long continued disloyalty and take a new Oath of Allegiance I understand I need not doubt the issue God will love me as much as now he hates me Sherlock 'T is a great mater to be freed from prejudice or prepossession of judgment You have often heard Calvinists preach and been dabling in their writings and have found them confident enough in their assertions and as I gather from your words been mislead into a conceit which they put into your head that because it could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it therefore God decrees that men shall sin that he may make some of them vessels of his wrath and others the vessels of his mercy Satan I must confess The sound and clink of words and phrases which you say is all the Calvinists understand by keeping a form of sound words p. 102. did so fill my ears that I could hear nothing else And because they were Scripture-words and phrases they kept me in some awe that I durst not absolutely conclude them a sound without sense Sherlock I but nature would teach us that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his creatures than in their sin and misery p. 51 52. For vindictive justice and pardoning mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without primarily designing the sin and misery of his creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his nature p. 52 53. Satan I know your meaning very well that there is in God an Antecedent will whereby he willeth some things in the first place and directly and a Consequent will whereby he willeth other things in the second place or by consequence thus whatsoever is good in it self as the repentance and salvation of a sinner God wills by his Antecedent will but whatsoever in it self is not evil but evil to the reasonable Creature which must suffer it as death damnation God willeth only by his Consequent Will The Objections of the Calvinists shall not give me any trouble That God wills that which never comes to pass and which he knows will not when he wills it by that Antecedent Will. This is enough for my comfort that my repentance and salvation being things good in themselves God wills them in the first place and directly my damnation he wills but in the second place and by consequence God is so good that he had much rather be glorious in my happiness who am one of his Creatures though I have lost it through my own default than in my misery And though Saint Paul seems to be of another mind yet I will remember that These men fetch all their mysterious Divinity out of some obscure passages of St. Pauls Epistles notwithstanding what St. Peter told us of St. Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 and make them the foundation of their faith p. 242. Sir I have given you a great trouble I have but two or three Objections more If God loves all his Creatures alike because he is their common Creator then there is no need of a Saviour the want of which was alway my greatest discouragement I have often heard that the Son of God took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham and that neglect of our nature made my case desperate in my own apprehension Sherlock To this I answer two things 1. That the only knowledg necessary to the purposes of Religion is such a knowledg of Gods nature and will as is sufficient to direct our actions and encourage our obedience p. 33. Various ways God attempted for the recovery of mankind but with little success at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the world to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls to seek and to save that which was lost p. 89. God hath now committed unto Christ all the secret purposes of his Counsel concerning the salvation of mankind which were concealed from ages p. 30. Satan I perceive you speak cautiously to prevent scandal but I undrstand you not unless you mean that the knowledg of a Saviour was concealed from the world till Christ came in the flesh which was not till the World was about four thousand years old and the reason of that concealment was because the knowledg of God in Christ was not absolutely necessary to the purposes of Religion whereof eternal Salvation is not the least considerable And if the knowledg of a Saviour be not absolutely necessary then not a Saviour himself for he gives salvation by giving the knowledg of Salvation and it is Eternal life to know Jesus Christ if Christ himself or his Prophets deserve any credit And now we are under the Rose I will tell you truly that I believe all your talk of a Saviour is but a Copy of your Countenance For if the World was saved for so long time without a Saviour why may it not for the remainder of its duration be it more or less And this I confess is no small Cordial to my dying hopes But let me ask you one Question If a Saviour be of no greater moment in the purposes of Religion why does the Scripture call the contrivement of
to when left in the dark There is nothing in Gods nature can give me cause of fear at least if I do but return to God but there is enough in it to give me cause of hope And though I have no acquaintance with Christ my acquaintance with God will serve my turn For Christ discovers nothing more of Gods gracious nature to sinners than we knew before by the light of nature as I well remember you instructed me awhile since In short it seems there is a naturalness of mercy in God but not of justice Sherlock No no of the naturalness of Gods Justice that he could not pardon sin without satisfaction I make this the import That he is so just that he hath not one dram of goodness in him till his rage and vengeance be satisfied which is a glorious kind of Justice I confess p. 59. Satan I perceive you are a merry Gentleman and so are all of your Club. And I hope hereafter I shall be merry too and be fit to make one of you I am sure I had almost pored out my eyes with seeking for these Gospel mysteries in the Gospel and could never find them p. 40. To borrow your significant words with your good leave but now I understand that I looked for them where they were not I should have learned to argue from the nature of God and his works of Providence and the nature of mankind and Angels though the Eanaticks call such arguings carnal reason p. 79. There is nothing now remains besides thanks for your pains but to sum up the heads of Argument upon which my hopes of salvation as well as mans are built And if I should misrepresent any of them you will please to correct my mistakes 1. That God is so good that he designs and desires the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures and therefore mine 2. That Gods will in that design is not arbitrary having no reason but it self For such a will would destroy all the perfections of Gods nature 3. That holiness in the Creature is the reason of the determination of his love to any particular person 4. That this holiness is not an effect of an Omnipotent Power but of powerful motives and arguments and so by the use of my free-will I may be holy if I will 5. That though this holiness be not perfect yet God will accept it if sincere 6. This acceptance of my sincere holiness I have reason to believe and hope for though I have no promise For 7. Gods gracious nature obliges him to reward all sincerely though imperfectly good actions God is merciful to all whose Creator he is and affords them all possible means of Salvation without a Saviour or any knowledg of one And accordingly 8. De facto Abel and Enoch and Abraham were saved without a Faith in Christ And needs they must because no man could believe in Christ till he came And 9. Though God hates me now yet he may love me hereafter For Gods love and hatred are not immutable nor does the immutability of them consist in loving or hating alway the same person but for the same reason because they are either good or bad And which may confirm me 10. God never designed the glory of mercy and justice in saving some and not others in the permission of his Creatures sins 11. Though a Saviour was brought into the world after it was about Four thousand years old yet he was not of absolute necessity for the only knowledg absolutely necessary to the purposes of Religion whereof Salvation is not the least is such a knowledg of Gods nature and will as is sufficient to direct our actions and incourage our obedience And hence 12. The wisdom of God was not discovered in sending a Saviour if there were no other way of redeeming the World For wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it 13. This Saviour being the Eternal Son of God we may reasonably conclude he came upon no less design than of universal goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all men and we cannot imagine why he should lay a narrower design of love in the redemption than in the Creation of mankind c. all which fits my case the Eternal Son of God being my Creator hath no temptation to partiality being equally concerned in my happiness and mans as we are his rational Creatures 14. That a Saviour is of no great use now he is come For he comes neither to fulfil the Law for sinners nor to die in their stead but only to confirm Gods promise of saving them that repent and forsake their sins which promise was needless Gods nature obliging him to save sinners upon those terms before any promise and the light of nature discovering that obligation nor was the confirming of it needful For the light of nature would teach us that God will not break his promise And so if it should happen that the Saviour was not intended for me yet I might be saved as Abel and Enoch were without one And I gather from hence that you make the blood of Christ no more satisfactory than the blood of Bulls and Goats were under the Law but that God was pleased with both upon the same reason because the shedding of his and their blood was an act of obedience to his will not a satisfaction to his Justice And so you have subverted the Gospel which stood in the way of my hopes of Salvation for which I con you hearty thanks And hence I collect 15. That whoever was or shall be justified were and shall be justified without any righteousness at all For righteousness importing a relation resulting from the conformity of dispositions and actions to their Rule sincerity is no righteousness at all supposing the righteousness of Christ not so far imputed as to take away its defects unless the Law as a Rule requires no more conformity to it self than the Gospel as a Covenant accepts which cannot be because then no deviations from the Law are sinful where there is sincerity 16. A Saviour is the less needful because Gods Justice is not natural though his mercy is And the fears of sinful men and so of Angels of Gods Justice are but the workings of heated fancy and religious distraction 17. If a Saviour be of use the way to come by an interest in him is not a fiducial reliance or recumbence on Christ For that Abraham had not and so nor his children but a believing his Revelations which the Church of England somewhere in her Homilies acknowledges I do and the chief of them The Articles of Faith and governing our lives by them which I hope to do hereafter So that Abrahams Faith and a Believers now are of a different kind but your faith and mine are of one kind we
him with it but he says This is the natural Interpretation of Gods loving all his creatures according to the capacity of their Natures and of Gods fetching the Reason of his Love to them from their holiness and that imperfect too and of making the creatures ground of hope of pardon and acceptance to be not an offer'd Saviour or a Promise but Gods gracious Nature which obliges him to receive a penitent sinner and to reward all his good actions which are sincerely though not perfectly good and the like Doctrines of a late date which Mr. Sherlock puts in the place of the whole mystery of the Gospel till Christs Incarnation as the Dialogue will more particularly inform the Reader And what is this by the by to retort Mr. Sherlocks unjust charge upon his Antagonists most justly upon himself but to renounce Christs Mediation and trust to the goodness of his Nature as God and to set up a new Religion which hath no Covenant and no Promise As for the choice odious enough of a Dialogist to hold Mr. Sherlock in Discoursâ— The Author could not avoid it in regard of the Medium he insists upon For who can be imagined a fitter Person to debate the Point with him whether there be any ground of hope for the Devils Salvation than the person concerned Satan himself 3. The last thing that some Readers may fault is That this Dialogue detracts from the Devils abilities of managing a Controversy For he is commonly introduced as acquiescing in Mr. Sherlocks grounds which are liable enough to exception To that the Author replies that there is a Fitness and a Necessity of representing the Devil as a mean Disputant A Fitness There being nothing so dishonourable to himself which the Devil will not submit to to attain his mischievous end the involving mankind into the same irreparable misery with himself as dayly experience assures us Satan may be presumed to be well enough contented to seem overcome by Mr. Sherlocks argumentation That sinful men may be induced to lean upon an house which will not stand to take up strong hopes upon weak grounds which will certainly fail them when they most need them A Necessity in regard of the deficiency of Mr. Sherlocks Book to which the Dialogue is confined which affords not answers to multitudes of exceptions which might have been put into Satans mouth against the Principles therein contained And perhaps some Readers may find a fourth fault that the Author brings in Satan as playing upon Mr Sherlock But hath not Mr Sherlock taken the same liberty with his Antagonists Yes and made an Apology for it The Author is content to do so too and to undergo the censure of a Fool Qui maluit culpam excusare quum non committere i. e. who had rather commit a fault and get a pardon by an Apology than to be innocent and so stand in need of neither And one Apology will serve us both only changing the persons Where he pretends to argue gravely I have examined his Arguments with all possible gravity and solemnity where he plainly toys and trifles I have so far complied with his humour as to smile sometimes though as modestly as any Man can desire Pref. p. 3. But the Reader hath been too long detained in the Porch he may now with the Authors good leave go into the House it self if he thinks there is any thing within that is worth the seeing A Friendly-Debate BETWEEN SATAN and SHERLOCK SHerlock Well met Satan I am sorry to see you look so sad pray What 's the matter Satan Sure Sir you cannot be ignorant of the cause of my sadness Alas I am a miserable creature and see no hope of mending my condition Sherlock I had thought you had understood your self better then to be so causelesly dejected The light of nature and works of Creation and Providence assure us that God is so good that he designs and desires the happiness of all his creatures according to the capacity of their Natures p. 42. Either therefore thou art none of his Creatures or thy Nature uncapable of happiness or God designs and desires thy happiness as well as of other of his Creatures Satan What assurance the light of Nature and works of Creation and Providence gives you I know not But to me it gives none of Gods pardoning Mercy to sinners I have heard That the Love of God to sinners and his pardoning Mercy eould never have entred into the heart of Man or Angels but by Christ And the Scripture which I believe against my will seems to countenance the assertion for this love is called a mystery hid in God and made known to Gentiles and to Principalities and powers That is to Angels Sherlock What! I perceive you have been an hearer at some Conventicle one J. O. tells us so indeed but I say He is a confident Man to tell us so when the experience of the whole World confutes him For whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God to be gracious and merciful to sinners And these natural Notions the Heathens had of God and all these discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it is not possible to understand what goodness is without pardoning Grace p. 44. You remember that passage I suppose for I doubt not but you read our Books as well as hear the Fanaticks Preachments Satan I am willing to resign up my self to your conduct seeing your design is so favourable to my interest or otherwise I might start a small objection against the last clause of your Discourse That it seems then that if Angels and Men had never sinn'd it had not been possible for either of them to understand what the goodness of God is But to let that pass I have read in your Bibles that God will be gracious to whom he will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom he will shew mercy It seems to me then by these passages that notwithstanding the graciousness of Gods Nature he uses a Soveraignty in the exercise of Grace and is not induced thereto by any reason out of himself Sherlock I confess the Calvinists make strange work with such passages But I am of opinion that it is a strange notion of an Independent being that he must have no other reason for what he does but his own arbitrary will which is so far from being a perfection that it destroys all other perfections of his Nature p. 402. The excellency of Christs Love consists in this that he loves for no Reason in their sense who make him love the Person of a Believer without considering any other Qualification than that he is such an Individual Person Now I confess this is a wonderful Love But wherein the excellency of a consists I cannot see I am
sure we account that Man a fool who loves at this rate and how that should come to be the perfection of the Love of God which is a reproach to Men is above my apprehension p. 399. Satan But I pray Sir tell me then what other Reason but his own arbitrary Will God could have for shewing mercy to sinners Sherlock The holiness of a Creature is the Reason why God determines his Love to any particular person p. 401. Satan If I be not much mistaken I have heard some such passages read in some or other of your Churches Second Lessons That God hath chosen men before the foundation of the World that they should be holy and that Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that it should be holy and without blemish which seems to make the holiness of a Creature the effect not the cause of Gods Love But I have told you I am resolved at this time to be a Learner and oportet discentem credere The Scholar must believe his Master is a Rule among Teachers It may be Paul was mistaken for I have heard some say that he was an hot-headed Fellow and now here 's no body but our selves you will excuse my freedom in telling you that as far as I have been able to observe none of your Club care much for him For their greatest trouble in dealing with the Fanaticks is to rid their hands well of the Allegations out of him But to our business supposing your Doctrine true I am an unholy Creature I cannot deny it and therefore God hath no Reason for the determination of his love to me Sherlock If you be unholy then you must make your self holy Satan I but I doubt that 's past my skill There is a spiritual impotency and inability in a sinner to do any good thing Sherlock Who told you so Sir Satan John Calvin I dare say or John Owen but I hope you have more wit than to believe them Satan No indeed I was told so by St. Austin and many a great man of your Church Fathers and Sons But before them all by your Arch-Adversary St. Paul who says that sinners are dead in trespasses and sins and that they are created to good-works and become new creatures and born again when converted Sherlock When they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own resurrection no more can we towards our conversion which is true of natural death but will be hard to prove of a moral death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of and is your case too Sir Satan which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue The other Argument is of the like nature that we are said to be created to good works and to become new creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it viz. our Conversion than we did to our first creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good-works did signifie the manner and method of our conversion and not the nature of the new creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the Image of God so we are renewed after his Image in the second which is therefore expresly call'd in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds p. 109 110 The fruitfulness of Gods love with respect to the methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an omnipotent and irresistible power for then sin and death could never have entred into the world but he governs and doth good to his creatures in such ways as are most suitable to their natures He governs reasenable Creatures by principles of Reason as he doth the Material world by the necessary laws of matter and bruit creatures by the instincts and propensities of nature p. 212. This I am sure is a new discovery whatever you say of St. Austin and the great men of our Church that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistibl power of the Grace and spirit of God p. 50. Satan I have heard your long Discourse with a great deal of patience and your meaning as well as I can take it up is that conversion is an effect of moral suasion a term of art which many of your good friends much delight to use and I listned to hear it out of your mouth so that if I do but attend to what God hath revealed of the excellency and necessity of Holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut puto Deus fio I shall be holy all on a sudden But I am not very apt to believe this because my mind hath been a great while illuminated with such Revelations and yet I do not find my Will moved by them As for what you object against sinners being wholly passive in the work of Conversion if you had to do with a Phanatick he would press you with this Argument If the Image of God was received by the will in the first creation without its own contribution to the production of it why may not that Image be restored to it without the wills cooperation to the restitution But because I perceive you have a kindness for me I will not personate any of that foolish troublesome sort of people who can ask more Questions than a wise man can answer Well Sir let us go on but suppose I should make my self holy yet if I be not perfectly such I am never the near to obtain my end Gods favour and acceptance For I well remember there is a passage in the Bible That God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity that is with approbation as I have heard Preachers expound it and you your self tell me that Gods natural love to holiness is the reason why he loves holy men p. 401. And by the like reason sure holy Angels whence I infer for I have pickt up a little Logick as well as Divinity in the Schools that perfect holinevs in the creature must be the reason of Gods natural love to it for that only is agreeable to his holy nature Sherlock Nay there you are out in your inference for the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them p. 54. God is as ready to pardon the worst of men and why not the worst of Angels when they return to their duty as a kind father is to receive an humble and penitent prodigal p. 43.