till the Bridegroom's Coming also from his seasonable Caution to the Unbelieving Jews to walk while they had the Light Joh. 12. 35. together with his assertion to the same obstinate Jews dying in their sins Joh. 8. 21. Whither I go ye cannot come As Death leaves Judgment finds us For if there had been any middle state of probation doubtless the Apostle Paul would not have been altogether silent in this case when he tells us 'T is appointed for all men once to dye but after this the Judgment Heb. 9. 27. And if St. Peter had thought the work of Faith and Repentance so indifferent in this Life or attainable in another 't is scarce probable he would have pressed it so earnestly in his Advice to the scattered Saints to use all diligence that they might make their Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. Solomon advises to an industrious improvement of the present time because there is no knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither we are all hastening Eccl. 9 10. The good King Hezekiah in his thankful acknowledgments to God after a signal Reprieve from the Jaws of Death and we may suppose him to have had as right apprehensions of that dark and silent state as any Man utters these expressions The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy Truth Isa 38. 18 19. What can be understood by that Scripture Metaphor as the Tree falls so it shall lye whether c. but that this Life is the only acceptable time the only day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. and if once pass'd is irrecoverable for ever and that death when ever it strips us of these Tabernacles will fix our Souls in an unchangeable state either of Happiness or Misery according to the bent of our hearts and lives in this World And notwithstanding T. M's sophistical Inference and confident Conclusions I heartily wish that neither he nor any others may neglect the great and essential work of Faith whilst conversant in the paths of time lest a future remembrance of the present opportunity prove an aggravation of Torment when all hope and comfort shall be cut off for ever Secondly 'T is very absurd to imagine that Faith shall be given to Souls already possessed of an eternal state since this imperfect state of Mortality is the only proper time for the exercise of it Faith is indeed the most pretious Jewel to poor bewildred Mortals on this side Jordan Hereby they may sometimes like Moses from the top of Pisgah get a glimpse of the promised Canaan for their present consolation and support whilst sojourning in the Tents of Kedar Psalm But when they are once safely arriv'd on the other side and have reach'd the sweet Air of the upper Regions leaving behind all the filthy Garments and heavy cloggs of corruption Faith which was before so valuable becomes swallowed up in fruition and they will no more need or make use of it than a Man restor'd to perfect strength will the Crutches with which he was formerly supported in an accidental Lameness And for such as dye wholly without Faith what middle state shall we imagine them to be lodg'd in that can capacitate them for the exercise of this essential Grace Since the Scriptures mention but two Receptacles for the spirits of all Men when dislodg'd from their earthly Prisons viz. the eternal bosom of Divine Love where Faith ceases as having attain'd its end and the Society of accursed Angelical Spirits where Faith if present could not be less unsuitable Therefore waving further Arguments in so clear a case I proceed to consider the third Assertion of the same blasphemous strain often repeated in the several Writings of the said T. M. viz. That there is no Hell or future state of Eternal Punishment but by those terms we are to understand only the troubles of this Life It seems needless to enumerate the many undeniable Testimonies in holy Writ for clearing the certainty of a future eternal Punishment Since nothing can be more plain though T. M. is not afraid to smooth over with inconsistent Glosses some of the most Remarkable Luke 16. as the Parable of Dives and Lazarus and of the Goats on the left Hand Sentenced to everlasting Punishment Mal. 25. ult verse 41. together with the Form of that dreadful Sentence Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Advice to Pluck a right Eye c. rather than to have the whole Man cast into Hell Fire where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched The Lake of Fire and Brimstone mentioned in the Apocalypse into which all whose Names are not written in the Book of Life shall be cast c. All which he will have to be no more than Bugbears to frighten the World or at most but figurative Expressions to signifie the Troubles of this Life His suggesting a Double Eternity or everlasting Clav. Aur. p. 12. one during the Continuance of the Body on Earth and the other hereafter in the unbodied State is so ridiculous as also his Application that it needs no Answer Without running into nice Disputes about the Locality of Hell or the Kind of Fire c. which are at best but opposing Humane Reason to Divine Wisdom and Authority and a very dangerous Step towards Atheism It is most certain from the whole Scope and Harmony of the sacred Records both of all the old and new Testament that there is a real not imaginary Hell or State of eternal Punishment allotted to all obstinate and finally impenitent Sinners And whether we ought to esteem the Scriptures of unquestionable Verity a Cheat and Christ himself who is the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14. 6. an Impostor or T. M. is not difficult to Determine But First If there be no other Hell than the Troubles of this Life Then the most eminent Servants of God have generally been the greatest Objects of his Wrath and many of the most hardened Sinners felt little or nothing of it What do we find more frequent than that the best of Gods Children have been most sorely exercised with Afflictions in this Life and yet out of a gracious End and as a Badge of his Paternal Love Heb. 12. 6 7. Rev. 3. 19. to Purge away their Dross that they may come forth as tryed Gold and be better fitted for the highest Manifestations of his Grace and Favour whilst others who make choice of their good things in this Life have been suffered to go on in an uninterrupted Course of sensual Pleasures without any remarkable Check Crosses or Calamities to the Period of their Lives Something of this Nature the Royal Psalmist observed and records as a stumbling Block to him for a time When he beheld their Eyes standing out with Fatness That they were not in Trouble c. but had
believe c. ch 4. v. 10. shall be considered hereafter under the fourth Head Thirdly This Doctrine of Universal and Inevitable Salvation not only subverts the many harmonious Testimonies of Sacred Writ but the Dictates of right Reason inasmuch as it ranks the most pertinacious Miscreants hardened Sinners and inveterate Persecutors with the truly pious regenerate and faithful Professors of Christianity The scattered Relicts of Reason implanted in Humane Nature have in all Ages suggested the punishment and reward of Vice and Vertue among such as had not the advantage of the Divine Oracles And some of them who lived in those dark Times and Places have been so exemplary in Moral Attainments if Humility Mortification c. may not deserve an higher Epithete as to shame the far greater part of Christians though dignified with more excellent yea inestimable Priviledges Rom. 2. 14 15 26 27. What can be more absurd than to equal a bloody Nero living in the height of wickedness against God and Man as his only Element and dying wholly void of remorse with a pious self-denying I had almost said Divine Seneca or St. Paul that great Apostle of the Gentiles and unwearied Instrument in propagating the Christian Faith with a malicious apostatizing and persecuting Julian If it be objected that this Argument centers Man's Salvation in Works and lessens the Glory of God who intends only the exaltation of Free Grace this will be found but a very weak Subterfuge For as on the one hand the beginning progress and accomplishment of the Blessed work of Salvation in every Soul is wholly supernatural and none of the concurring faculties of Man's most noble rational part when truly subjected to Divine Grace may have the least claim or pretence in the matter of Justification Rom. 3. 23 24. Eph. 2. 8 9. So on the other hand that Faith which doth not work by Love and incline the Soul to sincere returns of Universal Obedience or at least desires after it is but empty fictitious and unprofitable The genuine tendency of the New Birth is to breathe in the heavenly Air. Grace effectually operating will endeavour to return some streams at least droppings of Love towards the immense Ocean from whence it came Though the imperfect Obedience of finite Creatures cannot add to nor their most obstinate Disobedience detract from the Divine Perfection yet we may as well imagine that the Scriptures of undoubted truth are no better than one aggregated fallacy and design'd for no other use than to amuse the World as that Mankind shall be saved upon terms differing from or contradictory to what God himself hath prescribed If he hath enjoyn'd Faith and Obedience and made them so essential that without the former which also includes the latter it is impossible to please him Heb. 11. 6. Doubtless there can be no greater indignity offered than to imagine yea promise and as it were insure Salvation to all such as stubbornly persist in Unbelief Disobedience and open Hostility against both the Author and the Terms of Grace Fourthly Such a Doctrine tends to the utter subversion of all good Principles and Practices whether Moral Legal or Evangelical and rendring the World as wicked as Satan or corrupt Nature can suggest Though it must be acknowledged that Evangelical Obedience is or ought to be grounded on the ennobling Principle of Love rather than a servile fear of Wrath and Damnation yet so great is the Degeneracy of Humane Nature that there is no small need of those terrifying Methods as preparatory to the sweet Consolations of the Gospel And indeed most commonly the work of Regeneration begins with the Terrours of Legal Convictions which nevertheless do often prove abortive either as they grow remiss and suffer a backsliding into former sensuality or fix Man upon the sandy foundation of his own feeble Performances as the ground of his hope and confidence But if all Mankind shall necessarily be saved without any respect to their Obedience or Disobedience Faith or Unbelief what need then of all the pains in Preaching or propagating the sweet and delectable sound of the Gospel or of the care study zeal or endeavours about Religion in the World To what purpose did Christ leave that clear and positive assertion That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3. or enjoyn us to enter in at the strait Gate c. or tell us that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Mat. 7. 13. What need of seeking first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Mat. 6. 33. of becoming new Creatures 2. Cor. 5. 17. or of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 3. 18. How greedily would the practical Atheist i. e. every profane dissolute and licentious person catch at such a Doctrine had he not a secret Remembrancer in his own bosom that deals more faithfully with him when suffered to speak and sometimes without leave To such T. M's Notions would be the most welcome they ever met with if they could but arrive at the same pitch of certainty as to their future Happipiness and so take first a full carouse in the sweets of this World as they erroneously esteem the height of wickedness and sensuality and afterwards possess the unthought of Joys of the World to come May the laudable and united Endeavours of Superiours at this time prove effectual to the suppressing both of speculative and practical Atheism blasphemous Libels and fundamental Errours so audaciously propagated of late Years to the great shame and detriment of Reformed Christianity The second Head to be examined is That Faith is given after this Life to such as dye in Vnbelief This is but a superstructure upon the same Foundation For if all Men are necessarily saved if Faith be essential to Salvation and if a great part of literal Israel and many others dye in Unbelief then Faith must be given after this Life This is T. M's own way of arguing Clav. Aurea p. 9. But that this is no less absurd and contradictory to the scope of the holy Scriptures will easily appear For First The short and uncertain Life of Man in this World is and ought to be esteemed the only time of probation in order to his future state And indeed 't is no small favour to have such a gracious Reprieve from the Sentence of Eternal Death due to Adam's Transgression To have the Tree of Life though forfeited freely exhibited again and the former loss in the first Adam recovered with unspeakable advantage in the second by all that through Faith lay hold on him That this Life is the only season of Grace is evident from the five rejected Virgins in that well known Parable of Christ who had slipt the proper time for furnishing their Lamps and securely deferr'd it
28. that he who was the first born of every Creature the corner stone the beginning of the Greation of God by and for whom all things were made is also the Restorer of the fallen state of Mankind that he is indifferently exhibited to all both Jews and Gentiles as the free Gift of Divine Love and not only invites every Soul that is weary and heavy laden to come unto him for Rest but is both able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him In a large acceptatiâ—n he is the Saviour of all Men by purchasing that gracious and general Reprieve before hinted at and not only upholding the sinful State of this World but exhibiting the Terms of Salvation indifferently unto all Mankind and setting them as it were once more upon their own Feet in a way of temporary Probation And to all those who from the sinful Life of fallen Nature attain not only to the restored Life of Reason but become united to him by Faith and Love which necessarily include Obedience he is an effectual Saviour Thus far all agree But then what unhappy Controversies have ensued about the extent of the humane Power and Capacity in moving towards embracing or improving the Means of Grace thus freely offered And whilst some are ready to center all in the strength of Man's natural Will and so to make him a compleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both as to the first reception and progressive Acts of Faith T. M. with an unparallel'd boldness runs into the contrary Extream and would have him but a meer Machine wholly destitute of Will Power Choice c. or at least of the voluntary Exercise of all those ennobling Endowments tho' rectified by and made subservient to a supernatural Principle of Divine Grace and in all his Efforts towards good or evil acted meerly by Compulsion and fatal Necessity He affirms Myst of Iniq. p. 30. Judas inevitably betrayed Christ and destroyed himself And ibid. Men are predestinated and compelled to die in Unbelief before they are born And Blasphemies Murthers c. are compelled on Men Addit to Clav. Aurea p. 21. When the grand Enemy of Mankind can no longer hold the World in Atheism and open Hostility against the exhibited Means of Salvation he will not stick to put on a more plausible disguise but like an Angel of Light transforms himself into any shape that he may if possible carry on his own Work with equal Success And no wonder if he drive unwary and aspiring Man whilst resting in his own Wisdom into many dangerous Delusions What need is there of soaring so high into the Arcana of Heaven or to ravel the Divine Councils for Predestination c. since all things essential to Faith and Practice are made plain and by a wonderful Condescention suited to the meanest Capacity if Man will but first lay aside that over-wise Serpentine Subtilty which is the proper effect of the forbidden Fruit and with a genuine Sincerity submit to the Divine Teachings The former is that infernal Wisdom branded by St. James with the Epithetes of sensual and develish Jameâ—…◠15. which always either wholly rejected or perverted the true Simplicity of the Gospel and tends to nothing but Strife Discord and Confusion 1 Cor. 1. 19 20 21. The latter is of an higher and more noble Extract takes the Word of God upon its own Authority silences all Carnal Reasonings compares the more abstruse Part with what is more plain and always tends to Union Love and Harmony As to what T. M. so often blasphemously urges of God's being the Author or positive Cause of all and every particular sin c. so many far more Learned Pens having sufficiently cleared that Point and solv'd all T. M's Objections which he deduces from Scripture as the hardning of Pharaoh c. to touch thereupon seems but actum agere and therefore rather to be omitted in so brief a Discourse as this That the Omnipotent Creator could have anticipated Mans Fall and endow'd him with an unchangeable Perfection never liable to fall or be corrupted is past all Question but that it pleased the unsearchable Wisdom of the Supream Being to place him in a mutable Station pronouncing Happiness or Misery upon such and such Conditions and certainly foreseeing his voluntary Deviation to provide an All-sufficient Medium for his recovery thereby centring the whole Work of Salvation in the Riches of Free-Grace by and through a Redeemer should lead us to the highest Returns of Love and Gratitude that we are capable of and not into Critical much less Sensorious Animadversions What the Fall of Angels was what the Cause thereof and why Irreparable as also by what means the blessed Ones were sustained are Points almost too lofty to meddle with especially since not very material to the present purpose Though the Eternal Fountain and Primary Cause of all things must be supposed to have perfectly foreseen as it were uno intuitu all particular Motions and Events before the birth of Time it will not thence follow that he must be the efficient or enforcing Cause of Sin He is indeed after a sort the Causa sine quâ non for without him Angels and Men had never had a Being and consequently never sinn'd Yet this can in no wise make him the positive Cause Sin is a Non-entity at least till committed a privation defect disorder or preternatural State of rational Beings as might be illustrated from many plain and familiar Comparisons 'T is sometimes represented by Darkness and what positive Cause is there of that When the Sun recedes from our Hemisphere the Night and Darkness ensue and must the Sun therefore be the Cause of Darkness The Supream Being having no Law but his immense Perfections can no more swerve from his own rectitude than cease to be That there is an admirable Connexion in the whole Course of his Providence not inconsistent with the Creatures Liberty yet still harmoniously accomplishing his immutable Decrees That all kinds of ataxy quoad hominem proceed from the Free-Actings of the Humane Will yet by Divine Permission That God forces not the Will in Conversion but by a supernatural Work graciously inclines it yet neither forces nor inclines the Heart in any measure to sin but only leaves it to that corrupt Frame and those vicious Habits wherein 't is settled And that there is an excellent agreement between the Primary and all second Causes to the glory of the Divine Justice as well as the unsearchable Riches of Free Grace hath been so amply and learnedly Discuss'd by others that to insist further thereupon would savour highly of Ostentation From our Saviour's Parable of the Talents and an impartial comparing of many other parallel Scriptures 't is most evident that God's expectations of obediential Returns from every Man are proportioned to the measure of Grace which he gives and that the faithful Improvement of that measure is not only accepted by him but