are wholly passive in our Conversion as a man naturally dead is passive in his being restored to life again and assert that our natural impotency and inability to good which we contracted by the fall of Adam is curable by Gospel Grace by these powerful Motives and Arguments of the Gospel and the internal assistances of the Holy Spirit which yet do not work irresistibly but require the concurrence of our endeavours we must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling because God works in us both to will and to do according to his own good pleasure as the Apostle speaks But I never in my life yet met with any man who was not distracted who durst affirm that no man could so harden himself in sin as to be incurable by all the Methods of Gospel Grace and if men may sin themselves into such an incurable state we have some reason to think the Devil may and has And therefore our Author did not observe a good decorum when he brings in the Devil hoping that he may hereafter govern his life by the Revelations of the Gospel for the Devil scorns any such hopes or he is so mean a spirited Devil that many of our Town Hectors will scorn him but I wonder our Author did not consider that he has by this spoiled one very considerable sign of Grace which is the desire of Grace for if the Devil may hope for Grace which always includes a desire of Grace it can give no great comfort to doubting Christians And by the way he has spoiled another very good sign of Grace too when he brings in the Devil going to Conventicles what recompence he will be able to make the Brethren for taking away two such good signs and thereby spoiling so many good Sermons let him consider But to proceed V. That though this holinesse be not perfect yet God will accept it if sincere This is the current Doctrine of the Gospel that God will accept our sincere but imperfect obedience for the sake of Christ but what is this to the Devil who is not concerned in it as you have already heard whose final doom is past and neither can nor will be holy But let all good Christians consider whether this be not to expose the Gospel of our Saviour by making the plain and undeniable Doctrines of it to give as much incouragement to the Devil as to mankind and by that goodly medium to prove that they are unfound and false if this be not the Doctrine of the Gospel I will burn my Bible and never Preach more and if it be I suppose no body will thank M. Danson for this but the Devil not that he is so silly as to hope for Salvation upon these terms but he knows it is the ready way to make men despise Holiness and thereby bring them under the same condemnation with himself for that he is more concerned for that mankind may be damned with him than that he may be saved with them VI. This acceptance of my sincere Holiness I have reason to believe and hope for though I have no promise for VII 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 VIII De Facto Abel Enoch and Abraham are saved without a Faith in Christ because no man could believe in Christ till he come Answ. Our Author must account for these calumnies and many others before we part but for the present let us suppose these to be my Principles and see what incouragement they give to the Devil For though mankind had reason to hope for acceptance without any promise or any other assurance than Gods gracious nature though they might be saved without a Saviour and though Abel Enoch and Abraham were what is this to the Devil whose sentence of damnation is irrevocable is there no difference between those who are in a state of probation and those who are actually condemned May not a servant who is diligent in his business and does the best he can more reasonably expect to be accepted and rewarded by a kind and good natured Master without any promise from him than one who for his past villanies is already actually condemned to the Gallies to continue there for his whole life He who sees no difference between these two Cases may give the Devil some hope of Salvation but in the mean time gives very little to mankind IX 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 always the same Person but for the same reason because they are either good or bad Answ This is very foolishly represented and so as to contradict it self but what he intends in it is certainly true that though God be unchangeable in his love yet he does not always love and hate the same individual Persons but he always loves and hates for the same reason that is he always loves good men and hates the wicked but what comfort is this to the Devil whose nature is incurably wicked and therefore must eternally continue the object of Gods hatred as you heard above But then though Gods love and hatred in it self considered is not immutably fix'd upon particular Persons upon a supposition that they may change and alter yet Gods Just and Righteous Decrees of executing judgment upon particular Persons may be and often are immutable and irreversible and this is the Devils case that he is under an irreversible Decree whereby he is reserved in Chains of Darkness to the judgment of the last day and this certainly gives him no great hope of Salvation X. God never designed the Glory of Mercy and Justice in saving some and not others in the permission of his creatures sins Answ. This is such a horrid piece of Knavery as I thought the Devil himself would have blush'd to be the Author of for who ever said that God did not design the Glory of his Justice in the Damnation of men Nor the Glory of his Mercy in the Salvation of true Penitent Believers Who ever said that God does not permit sins Or that he does not serve his own Glory by it And yet our Author has worded it so on purpose as to bear this sense and if this be not the sense of it it cannot serve the Devils turn whoever understands the nature of God which is infinite goodness or the Gospel of Christ which makes such Glorious discoveries of the Divine Love can never believe that God from all eternity did decree to make Angels and Men and to damn some and save others without any respect to the good or evil they should do for no other reason but to Glorifie his Justice in the Damnation of some and his Mercy in the Salvation of others and that
Devil believe all the Articles of Faith Does he belive that God will forgive his sins and bestow on him eternal Happiness Then he is a perfect Fanatic in his Faith for he believes without any Reason unless our Author can show that the Gospel promises of forgiveness of sin and eternal life which are two great Articles of our Faith do as much belong to the Devil as to men and I am sure without the belief these the belief of all the other Articles of our Creed can neither better his life nor administer any comfort to him XVIII The last ground of the Devils hope of Salvation is the nature of our Union to Christ by Faith which is not mystical that is analogical to a natural Union between Vine and Branches nor therefore are we passive in the reception of Grace to believe and live accordingly but a Mediator is only a Minister of Grace i. e. one who by powerful Motives persuades us to be gracious come by Grace as we can and so it is not impossible but I may get Grace though I be not United to Christ. Now if all this were true it is only a repetition of what was said in his Fourth ground of hope and there you may find the answer but he proceeds The Union made by Faith is Political consisting in a belief of Christs Revelations which I have already though you have now heard that he neither has nor can have that Faith and government of our actions which I am in hopes of in time for Christ is the Minister of this Grace by proposing powerful arguments to it this has been already answered and if he have no more to say for himself he is like to be a Devil still but we may observe how hard the Devil is put to it to make out his evidences sometimes he hopes he may be saved without being United to Christ and sometimes he begins to hope that he is United to Christ in part already and may be perfectly United to him hereafter Thus you see that though we liberally grant M. Danson whatever he asks and suffer him to represent my Principles just as he pleases which as he represents them are so unlike to mine that I should never have known them had he not said so yet no such thing can follow as he pretends that the Devil has the same grounds to hope for Salvation that Mankind has But indeed this is not M. Dansons talent to reason and argue and draw consequences he knows much better how to imitate the Devil than to defend him lies and slanders and misrepresentations are the best weapons he has and therefore having got rid of the Devil I shall now come to Danson and take him to task for that abuse and cheat he has put upon his credulous Readers and that great injury he has done to me in perverting my words and sense And to make this as short and useful as I can I shall reduce it to certain Heads which may offer some occasion for profitable discourse First then one great artifice of our Authors is to represent me as attributing that knowledg wholly to the Light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence which I expresly ascribe to Revelation also as the most certain and infallible means of knowing the nature and will of God this we had one instance of in the very beginning concerning Gods goodness to all his Creatures which he often repeats without the least mention of Revelation Thus p. 29. The Light of Nature assures sinners that God is so good that he hath a natural love for all good men and will not fail to reward them though he never made them a promise Knowledg of Christ p. 42. 43. as he cites the place though whoever looks there shall find no such thing that last Clause though he never made them a promise being his own addition though Printed in a different Character as my words Thus p. 10. The Light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence assure us that God is so Holy that he hath a natural love for good men and will not fail to reward them and had Christ never appeared in the world yet we had reason to believe that God is thus good and holy and merciful The Appearance of Christ did not first discover the Nature of GOD to us but confirms us in the belief of what we had learn'd before from Nature pag. 42 43. 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 pag. 43. Now any one who reads this might conclude that I very much slight the Revelations of the Gospel and resolve all our Faith into the Light of Nature and therefore to discover the gross Knavery of this for I know not what gentler term to give it I shall transcribe that whole Paragraph which runs thus The Light of Nature and the Works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations GOD hath made of himself to the world especially that last and most perfect Revelation by JESUS CHRIST our Lord assure us that God is infinite in all Perfections that he is so powerful that he can do whatever he pleases so wise that he knows how to order every thing for the best so good that he desires and designs the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures so holy that he hath a natural Love for all good men and will not fail to reward them but hates all sin and wickedness and will as certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is very patient and long-suffering towards the worst of men and useth various methods of Kindness and Severity to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal These Properties of GOD are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further Acquaintance with the Person of Christ that is without reasoning from a pretended Acquaintance with the Person of Christ which is Dr. Owen's way of discovering those Gospel-Mysteries which cannot be learn'd from Revelation only against which this whole Discourse was levelled and which you may see fully stated and explained in pag. 38. of my Defence but to proceed and had Christ never appeared in the world yet we had reason to believe that GOD is thus wise and good and holy and merciful because not only the works of Creation and Providence but the Word of GOD assures us that he is so The appearance of Christ did not first discover the nature of GOD to us but only gave us a greater Expression of Gods Goodness than ever we had before confirms us in the belief of what we had learn'd before from Nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another Life confirms us in
Ages was more or less obscure according to the different Revelations which God made to the World as it must necessarily be It was but little that Adam understood from that promise The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head nor could that promise made to Abraham In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed instruct him who this seed was or what he should do or by what means he should bless the world as I shewed particularly in my first Discourse to which I shall refer my Reader The promise made to David of a great Prince that should come of his Race and sit upon his Throne and those other magnificent descriptions of the Kingdom of the Messias by the Prophets betrayed the Jews into an expectation of a temporal Prince which was the reason why they rejected Christ when he came And though the Prophesies of Isaiah and Daniel concerning the Sufferings of the Messiah seem very plain to us now the event has expounded them yet it is as evident that the Jews did not understand them and must we be forced now to please Mr. Danson to say that Adam and Enoch and Abraham and the whole Jewish Nation did understand that their promised Messiah was to be no less Person than a God incarnate that he was to live in a mean condition to preach the Gospel to suffer Death upon the Cross to rise again from the dead and ascend up into Heaven there to intercede for us and that we are to be saved by a fiducial relyance and recumbency on the Merits and Righteousness of his Life and Death truly I would do something to gain his favour but I cannot renounce my senses and assert that to be which is so plain never was I believe that the true Light of the Gospel never shone upon the World till the day-spring from on high visited us but this is no hindrance to Gods accepting and rewarding good men for the sake of Christ for why may not God accept us for reasons which at present he thinks sit to conceal from us The vertue of Christs death to procure our pardon and reward does not depend upon our knowing but Gods accepting it and why may not God if he pleases accept it unknown to us Thirdly the terms and conditions of Salvation were always the same viz. such a sincere and hearty Faith as governs our lives and actions The objects of this Faith alter according to the different degrees of revelation The belief of the being and providence of God was all that could be required of those who had no more revealed to them but every new revelation God made enlarged the objects of their Faith till it grew up to the perfection of the Gospel Revelation and now our Faith in Christ whereby we are justified is of the same kind with the Faith of Abel and Enoch and Abraham but enlarged and perfected by a more perfect revelation as those good men believed whatever discoveries God made to them and governed their lives accordingly so must we believe all the Revelations Christ hath made to us of the Will of God and the way to Salvation and govern our lives by them and this is the righteousness of Faith as I have at large proved in the Knowledge of Christ pag. 252. c. Were the only condition of our justification a fiducial reliance and recumbency on Christ a rowling and resting our Souls on him and a fancyful application of his Merits and Righteousness to our selves these good men could never have been saved by Christ because this requires a particular knowledge of what Christ was to do and suffer which they had not but such a Faith in God as teaches us to love and serve him is of the same kind with the Christian Faith whereby we are now justified such a Faith in Christ as makes us obedient to the Gospel This our Adversaries are very sensible of and therefore nothing will serve them but to assert that Abraham and other good men before Christ had an explicite knowledge of Christ and were saved by resting on Christ for Salvation as they hope to be but it is evident that this is false and therefore it is as evident that their notion of Justification is false or else they must say that these good men were not saved by Christ. Fourthly the evidence these good men had of their acceptance with God did vary also according to the different Dispensations they were under that natural knowledge we have of God from the natural impreffions on our minds or from the works of Creation and Providence give us some assurance of Gods love to good men and of his readiness to pardon and reward those who are sincere Worshippers of him but this knowledge is not certain as that which is founded upon an express promise confirmed by our Saviour Christ himself the arguments from Nature without the help of Revelation are sufficient to incline honest minds though they are not without all possibility of a mistake as it was in the belief of a future state we see Mankind did generally agree in it though the evidence was not so great but that it needed a farther confirmation and therefore notwithstanding that evidence the World had of it yet Christ is said to have brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel because he has given us such assurance of it as the World never had in former Ages And therefore till the appearance of Christ in the World God gave them some additional confirmation of his acceptance of good men above what the light of Nature afforded as the frequent apparitions of Angels who possibly might make some greater discoveries to them than are recorded and the peculiar expressions of his goodness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and to all their Posterity for their sakes all the promises of the Law of Moses which though according to the letter were but temporal yet were designed to typifie and represent spiritual and future blessings and were understood so by good men And since God for wise reasons reserved to himself was pleased to make but an imperfect Revelation to these good men he accepted also of a more imperfect obedience than the Gospel of our Saviour requires of us according to our Saviours known Rule To whom much is given of them shall be much required And since God was pleased to accept of good men for the sake of a Saviour whom they did not know with a distinct and explicite knowledge and to accept of meaner attainments when they wanted those powerful motives and assistances which were necessary to raise them to the Evangelical Heights of Goodness it brings it to such an equal balance that we cannot say that God was wanting to these good men But yet fifthly it was necessary that Christ should actually come into the World and suffer and dye because these good men were accepted upon account of that atonement which Christ was to make in the fulness of