without a meritorious Cause deserving Damnation it doth no way follow that he doth save and glorify the Elect upon foresight of a meritorious Cause in them God's Independence cannot exclude the consideration of the Object of his Decree as it must be considered in his Decree He cannot decree to give Mercy but to a Creature that is in some measure miserable He cannot decree to relieve a Creature unless he consider it as distress'd He hath clearly declared and consequently decreed that he would never pardon the Sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore he behoved to foresee who would commit that Sin for he doth nothing in vain and would never decree any thing relating to a Case that were never to exist he could not decree to elect any Creature but upon Foresight and Consideration that he was to create that Creature and that he was never to suffer it to have Hatred and Despight against him In that Golden Chain Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son and whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified The first Link is Foreknowledg of the Object to be predestinated which with congruity to the Divine Natural Perfections were predestinable prior in order of Nature to Predestination Yet in none of these is the Independence of God incroached on Could a miserable or distressed Creature be so impudent as to pretend that its Misery or Distress were the cause of God's Mercy or Relief but only the Object or Occasion thereof the true Cause being God's Mercy and Goodness and so God's Decree to inflict eternal Punishment upon his rational Creature that he foresaw would hate him or be obstinate in Sin is his own Justice and Purity 2dly It is said In God we live we move and have our being And therefore all the Motions of our Minds and Bodies must be his Motions acted by him which Inference is no better than this in him we have our Being therefore our Being is his Being but the true meaning is cleared by those Things which are frequently said of Christ That they are in him and yet are the Creatures importing no more but that they are by Virtue and Power derived from Christ and so we move in God that is by Virtue and Power derived from him 3dly It is objected That if in the worst of Actions God were not Actor he could not be the first and universal Cause but thence it will not follow that the first and universal Cause must still be the immediate and total Cause which is necessary to an universal Predetermination 4thly The main Reason against universal Predetermination is to vindicate the Purity of God which it doth not for whosoever permitteth Evil that he could hinder is accessary thereto and guilty thereof And so God judgeth his Creatures which will not conclude against God because Creatures are not only subject to the moral and unchangeable Laws of God but to his positive Laws neither are Creatures universally obliged to hinder all evil Acts that they were able to hinder For God having set up Civil Authority thereby obligeth Subjects to suffer the Legal Executions thereof though unjust albeit they have sufficient Strength to hinder the same This Reason hath been the chief Inducement of the Error of those who to maintain the Purity of God incroach upon his Power and Wisdom holding that the Will of a free Creature is essentially undeterminable by any other than by it self and therefore God can do no more but perswade and bring Motives into the Mind and so is blameless having done all he could do to hinder Sin For certainly God could have been so powerful a Perswader as to make Prophets and Preachers go to all Nations which he hath not done and this Ground encroacheth on God's Omnipotence that he cannot effectually over-rule his Free Creatures and encroacheth on his Wisdom who having no need of any Creature created such which he could not govern but behoved only to supplicate and perswade The 5th Reason assign'd for universal Predetermination is brought from the accurate arguing of that Case by the Apostle Paul in the 9th of the Romans where it is said of Esau and Jacob That the Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the Purpose or Decree of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Against which he brings this Objection Is there Vnrighteousness with God To which he answers with a strong Denial God forbid For be saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy And thence concludeth That it is not of him that runneth or of him that willeth but of God that sheweth Mercy Whence he doth conclude Therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Against which Conclusion he brings a new Objection thus Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his Will To which he answereth thus Nay but O Man Who art thou that replies against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay of the same Lump to make one Vessel unto Honour and another unto Dishonour Thence the Authors of universal Predetermination or Excitation of God to the worst Acts think they have unanswerable Grounds to infer That God is not only the Permitter but the Actor of Hardening as well as of Mercy Yea that he hath no more Consideration of what the Creatures were to act in Reprobation and Damnation than in Election and Glorification but that of the same Lump or Mass of Mankind he doth as indifferently make the Vessels of Dishonour that is the Reprobate as the Vessels of Honour that is the Elect. But the Context sufficiently cleareth the Mistakes of these Inferences for it inferreth nothing as to Reprobation that the Children being not yet born had done nothing of Good or Evil the Inference is only that Election might not be of foreseen Works But where it is said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau tho they had yet done nothing it doth not infer That as there is no foreseen Merit or cause of Love of the Elect fo that God hates the Damned without a meritorious Cause deserving his Hatred there is no Consequence from the Freedom of God's Election and Love which are Acts of Bounty to infer the Freedom of his Hatred and Reprobation which are Acts of Justice for Bounty and Mercy are absolutely free but so is not Justice But the main Mistake is that the Vessels of Dishonour are supposed to be the Reprobate and the Vessels of Honour the Elect As if God as indifferently reprobates and elects as the Potter doth of the same Lump make one Vessel to Honour and another to Dishonour
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
created any Creature why he created not more Individuals more Kinds more excellent Perfections why he suffered Sin to come into the World why he saved so few and permits the Devils to tempt And therefore upon pretence to vindicate the Purity and magnify the Goodness of God they represent him as having done all that was possible for him to do especially in relation to his rational Creatures who could not possibly be created with Reason and free Choice so that he could in all Cases effectually over-rule them by hindring them to do Evil or make them to do Good but that he could only perswade them and bring into their Thoughts and Remembrance the best Motives yet so as they could reject them all and choose the contrary at least that he had decreed to have no farther Influence on them but by Perswasion wherein they fortify themselves by God's Intreaties and Expostulations and by his express Declaration What could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done This doth no less derogate from the Power and Wisdom of God than the former does from his Goodness and Justice There are innumerable other Mistakes yea and pernicious Errors prejudicial to the Amiableness and Perfection of God It is not proper here to vindicate the Divine Perfections against these Errors but in the Explication of the particular Perfections on which they incroach I shall only in general observe how these Opinions can subsist with the common Conception of God unto which all that use unprejudicate Reason do agree that he is a Being absolutely perfect that the Mind of Man could not conceive him more perfect than he is and consequently more amiable if that he acted by absolute Necessity It were easy to conceive him more perfect if in his Intentions Purposes and Performances he acted freely It is an inbred Principle in the Soul of Man that nothing can be morally good vertuous or praise-worthy that is done of necessity and not freely and therefore the Light of Nature as well as Revelation do represent the Divine Intentions and Actings as free not by the Freedom of Indifference but that there was Sufficiency of Power and Strength in God to have done otherways or to do any thing that doth not import Inconsistency with it self which only is absolutely impossible But there is another kind of Impossibility not absolute by Inconsistency but eventually impossible For Example that all Mankind should be of one Opinion Suppose a Man to aim and shoot at a Mark and hit it at a great Distance it hath no Inconsistency that the same Man with the same Instruments should ever hit that Mark and yet eventually it is impossible So it is said that it is impossible for God to lie and that he hath done all that he could do for his Vineyard The Meaning whereof is not because of his Decree and Immutability for so all things are impossible to be otherwise than they are but because God will never do any thing not worthy of and becoming his infinitely glorious natural Perfections It was in the Power of God and not inconsistent that he should have given his rational Creatures such Inclinations as they could not possibly act contrary thereto wherein he has convinced us that it is impossible for rational Creatures to choose but under the Notion of some kind of Goodness and that it is impossible for them to desire that which they conceive would be their own Misery or not to desire their own Happiness when they think upon it but he hath never proposed a Reward for such Acts because they proceed like the Instincts of Brutes which may do things naturally good as well as naturally evil but are not capable of Punishment or of Reward because they have not Freedom God hath also given to Mankind the natural Affection to love their Children distinct from that Love which ariseth from their Perfections This Inclination is very strong yet some do counteract it and thereby their Crimes are most horrid but their Rewards are least in the Sight of God or of Men. These Actions are most praise-worthy whereby the contrary strong Inclinations are overcome as to hazard Life without rational Hope of Escape for the Good of a Country or City to lay it down when Escape is impossible and yet a contrary Word would save it upon Love and Obedience to God as the Martyrs have suffered the most cruel Death when a contrary Acknowledgment would both have given Life and Reward 13. When therefore I consider and compare these two Ways that were both possible and good that God should have created all his rational Creatures with such Inclinations that they could not counteract and thereby were neither capable of Punishment nor Reward not having any Freedom or that he should create them with sufficient inbred Principles and Inclinations to Good not of necessity but of free Choice and which they could counteract and so did govern them by Rewards and Punishments I am convinced as clearly as of the Light that in this way Creatures were more like to their Creator and that his Choice was more sutable worthy of and becoming his infinitely glorious Nature than the former way Nor do I think that the confirmed Angels or glorious Saints are in an absolute Impossibility to counteract their Inclinations God so assists them in all their Choices that it is only eventually impossible as our Saviour encouraged his Apostles not to be anxious what to say when they were brought before Judges for it should be given them what to say in that Hour Therefore both Angels and Men were at first created in a State of Innocence and Holiness but mutable for after-Proof of their Faithfulness and Diligence God did confirm the elect Angels by greater Grace than tho rest and the first Man and Woman did fall freely and by no Necessity imposed either by the Decree or Dispensation of God How foolish then is it to imagine that God who stood in need of no Creature would create such Creatures as either by the Necessity of their Nature or by his Decree he could not govern but only perswade request and expostulate A Supposition little agreeable to that of his Fore-knowledg or the Use he might make of it I see no Difficulty that he could foresee what they would do if left to themselves But seeing he could hinder and prevent whatever he foresaw that were inconsistent with his Glory and that he could inable and excite them to whatever he pleased that were good I see no more necessary for governing them and for glorifying himself It is more foolish and faulty to murmur that God hath thus created his rational Creatures and so not excluded Sin from entring into the World or that he design'd and performed the Creation and Providence of the World as he did without making more Kinds or Individuals or sooner But as he put to Silence the clamorous Labourers in the Vineyard that he had given as much to those that
not acted at once So also all the Acts of God's Moral Perfections become conditionally necessary by his immutable Decree or Promise and some others are necessary by the Congruity with his Natural Perfections Therefore he hath said that he cannot deny himself not in relation to his Existence but to his Perfections and therefore tho he hath Strength and Force sufficient for the contrary Acts yet he will certainly and unchangeably ever act as is becoming and worthy of his natural Divine Perfections and therefore he hath said that it is impossible for God to lie Revelation gives us Evidence that some of God's Actings are not so with his Inclinations as others so it is said of his Punitive Justice That it is his strange Work and that he delights not in the Death of a Sinner and that he delighteth in Mercy above all his Works There is an evident difference between the Acts of God's Justice and his Truth and between his Bounty and Mercy his Truth is precise without all Latitude his Justice holdeth exact Proportion with deserving but his Bounty and Mercy have no Bounds nor any respect to deserving And therefore his Grace is free by way of Eminence as being more free than his Justice and Truth I know some make no difference between Liberty and Spontaneousness and make it consist with absolute Necessity and that such is the desire of Happiness which some think the freest Act but without ground for then the brute Creatures should yet be more free than the rational and the inanimate than these and the Difficulty is not loosed by adding a rational Spontaneousness that is which follows an antecedent Judgment for then there were no place for Justice Rewards or Punishments and yet Rewards are greatest when the good Acts are most against Inclination There is no Reward or Punishment for indifferent Choices scarce any Reward for the desire of Happiness little for the Compassion of the miserable less for the Love of Children Self-love and others as they are nearer or further from Necessity The Martyrs that would not deny God before Men to save their Lives from Torture have the greatest Glory in Heaven I know Liberty uses commonly to be defined a Power all things requisite to act being ready to do or not to do which can only extend to that plenary Liberty of outward Acts but not to the inward Acts Choice Desire or Intention which come not under the Term of doing and suppose the Term might be stretched even to these the chief Requisite is the Act of the Judgment determining it fit to do or to intend desire or to attempt to do If we suppose these to proceed without an antecedent Judgment determining it fit that they should proceed then it could only be a brute Appetite and not a rational which implieth an antecedent Judgment which yet may be so prompt without Hesitation or Deliberation as if the Will acted without an antecedent Judgment preferring one side of the Contrariety or Contradiction I conceive Liberty may be better defined the Hability of Self-determination upon a rational Motive This will agree both to the Liberty of God and of Rational Creatures and to the plenary Power both of the outward and of the inward Acts or to the Liberty of the inward Acts only wherein Liberty doth chiefly reside and which are exempted from Force and Necessity I call it an Hability which imports more than a Power which sometimes is not in a present Capacity to act and in the Schools is called a Power in actu signato or in actu primo as a sick Man hath a Power to walk The Rule by which the Power is determined is the last practical Act of the Judgment about that which is in Consideration whether it be the doing attempting desiring intending or choosing of something that is in the natural Power whether it be in the lawful Power or not which therefore I understand to be a Judgment not of what is judged to be just but what is judged to be fit in the present Circumstances or to be either good as just prositable or pleasant Liberty consisteth not by one single Act but by different Acts upon different Occasions or Objects There is also a Freedom preferring one thing to another in choosing it and rejecting the other or the rest if more than two be in the Thought and this the Learned call a Liberty ad contraria as the former is called a Liberty ad contradictoria the acting as is judged fit comprehends both And it is always even in the most inconsiderate Acts for tho there be no Deliberation or Hesitation yet there must be a Judgment that the thing is fit to be chosen or done which differenceth these Acts from the Acts of Brutes whose Appetites follow immediately upon their Perceptions without any Deliberation or Judgment God alone is intirely free against whose Choice there can be no Resistance but he can always hinder Creatures not only to effectuate their Choice but even to choose diverting their Thoughts from any particular Object and as he is free from all Force so from all Necessity in reference to Creatures for an Hypothetick Necessity to choose or act sutable to himself or as he hath decreed or promised is not a Necessity more than every thing is necessary while it is But he hath given Creatures Inclinations importing an absolute Necessity and he can and oft doth so incline them to any particular Act. God's Freedom is ever determined by his Moral Perfections fo that he will never do any thing which is not sutable to and becoming his Natural Perfections which thereby is called worthy of him not by the worthiness of Demerit but by the worthiness of Congruity or Condignity God's Freedom in timing the doing that which is sutable to his Divine Perfections is nearer to his Freedom of Indifferency than his for bearing things unsutable to his Divine Perfections for all his Workings relative to his Creatures are congruous to his Natural Perfections yet he did not work the same from Eternity nor till the Time determined by his Decrees He was eternally blessed in himself before any thing was created and would have so been tho nothing had ever been created Yet the time of Creation the number of the Kinds or Individuals the Kinds and Degrees of their Perfections Powers Faculties and Inclinations or the Extent and Endurance of his Creatures are all from his Liberty of Indifferency Such a Freedom was incommunicable to Creatures for if God had created Angels and Men with such Propensions as thereby all their Actions had been necessary as are the Acts of inscient Matter and of Brutes tho all their Actions had been good yet they were neither capable of Vertue Praise nor Reward nor had they been sitted Objects upon which the Divine Perfections might have been displayed and glorified nor had they had natural Powers to have acted otherwise and therefore their Freedom had not been like to the Freedom of God
God did create Man and Angels with Principles and Capacities to act acceptably to God and sutably to their own natural Perfections yet having natural Power to do Evil by Omission or Commission but they were not capable of Infallibility that they could never act unsutably to the Divine Perfections or their own Natural Perfections whereby they would have been wholly independent in their actings on Divine Assistance which had been inconsistent with the Infinite Perfection of God which could be no greater Therefore in neither case were Rational Creatures capable of such a Freedom as that of God's Tho no Rational Creature could be thus infallible by its own intrinsick Perfections God in his free Bounty hath manifested that he did decree that many of his Rational Creatures having a Freedom to do Good or Evil should never do Evil and that only by his own assistant Bounty whereby he increases their Propensions to Good and their Aversions to Evil in every Circumstance wherein they were in hazard to have erred after they were glorified or confirmed The glorified Angels and Saints are in themselves yet fallible and if they did fall were punishable for the Obligation to Duty is not abolished or abated nor the Punishment due for Transgression thereof It is justly and truly said If the righteous Man depart from his Righteousness his former Righteousness shall not be remembred which doth not import that he shall depart For it is still as true that if it were possible even the Elect would be deceived and fall from Grace which imports that it is not possible Therefore the Impossibility of the Elects falling from Grace is but an Impossibility by the Event and not by the proper Capacities of the Creatures not by simple Impossibility from their intrinsick Perfections but from the Goodness of God exerted by his Omniscience that he knows all the Circumstances in which they were in hazard to fail and by his Omnipotence that in these Circumstances he could so increase their Propension to Holiness and Aversion to Sin that they would not fail and that freely and not by a natural Necessity These things appear to me very clear and consonant to Reason and Revelation and inconsistent with that perverse but too prevalent Error that the Freedom of Creatures does essentially imply that they can only determine themselves and may counteract all Perswasion these Men admit of no intrinsick Alteration which in opposition to Perswasion is called a Physical Influence of God Hence also it is further evident that there is a manifest Difference between things that must be by an intrinsick Necessity and things that shall be by Divine Bounty and Providence and things that only may be and that all these are clearly and distinctly known and foreseen by God MEDITATION IX Upon the Blessedness of God implying his Self-sufficiency Self-comprehension his infinite Love to and Delight in Himself THE Divine Perfections which I have hitherto contemplated fall all under single Apprehension without implying different Considerations and there is nothing voluntary in them but they are absolutely necessary and do import no Act of the Will or Pleasure of God But there are many other Divine Perfections immediately flowing from his Will or Pleasure relative to himself or to other Beings designed to exist by his Purposes or Decrees All these Perfections in distinction from the former are called Moral Perfections and are morally good as being the Perfections of God in all his Acts flowing from his Will or Pleasure The first and chief of these voluntary Perfections is God's Love to himself comprehending both his Good-will to himself and his Delight in himself supposing the Comprehension of his Nature and all his Divine Perfections natural and moral and all his Decrees and Dispensations Albeit there be no real Difference of the Divine Attributes or Perfections yet there is that kind of Distinction which is called formal which is not from meer Imagination or alone from the Act of our Understanding but hath a true Foundation yea Revelation hath manifested a personal Distinction of the Trinity in Unity of one only God and of the Actings of these Persons with and towards one another and of the order of their acting in Decrees or Dispensations towards Creatures which God hath revealed not by single Expressions but by the whole Context and Current of the Scripture There are three Divine Attributes frequently mentioned in Scripture the Blessedness the Glory and the Honour of God all these import more than what can fall under one single Apprehension The Blessedness of God must imply God's Love to and infinite Delight in himself his Glory must import his Divine Perfections as they are manifested to knowing Creatures who give him Glory in acknowledging his Divine Perfections his Honour also must imply the high Esteem of knowing Creatures of his Divine Perfections Decrees and Dispensations God's Glory and Honour need not several Meditations distinct from the Divine Perfections in himself and the Duty of his Creatures in acknowledging and magnifying the same But the Blessedness of God ought to have a more clear and full Consideration and is proposed as the Subject of this Meditation that it may be more clearly apprehended wherein the Blessedness of God doth consist Blessedness or Happiness hath become a Subject of much Doubt and Disputation in relation to Rational Creatures which hath mainly arisen from not adverting the Difference between a compleat State of Blessedness wanting nothing requisite thereto and between the chief and ultimate Ingredient thereof Nothing can be called Blessedness which wanteth any thing that might breed Dissatisfaction or Grief to the Subject of it For even tho that which is apprehended to be wanting be impossible and not reasonably to be expected or endeavoured yet the very apprehension of its being requisite and the desire and endeavour to have it marreth full Satisfaction and Blessedness There be many things the having of which gives Pleasure but the want thereof doth not raise Grief and therefore cannot mar Happiness and the more generous Minds are more easily happy than others because they value less minute Pleasures and so are happy by enjoying the greater The last Accomplishment of Happiness cannot consist in the Delight in or Enjoyment of any thing that is not certain either in its Existence or in its Perception The most glorious Angels could not be happy by all their present or preterit Enjoyments if they knew not surely that their Enjoyment would never be altered which they could not know from their own intrinsick Perfections but only from the Promise or declared Purpose of God perpetually to preserve that happy State It is very like that at the first Creation of Angels God did not assure any of them to preserve them from falling until they had given proof of their Faithfulness which might have been the first rise to the Fall of those Angels who were not content with their Station but thence became murmuring and malicious against their Creator Happiness
many not the meanest and ignoblest of Men have wilfully made their Bodies uncapable to serve their Souls that they might escape it and how many more would if without that Pain they could flee out of their Bodies few would suffer Misery in them but those who knew and did acknowledg the Trust and Command to preserve them given by God under an higher Pain than they could suffer by abiding in them A farther degree of the Goodness of God is manifested in the other inbred Inclinations which God hath freely given to the Soul beside that of cleaving to the Body which is not by fatal Necessity seeing the Soul is a separable Substance and might easily escape from the Body if it could please so to do Such Principles are the Love to God above all as being the Soveraign Good and incomparably most amiable Object the Love to Mankind preferring the Interest of Manking to the Interest of any part of Men and in most things to Self-interest Self-love also is a Gift of God and good in it self when kept within its Bounds tho by the Corruption of Sin it is become the Cause of most Evils Men do either wholly exclude the Love of God and of Mankind or do exceedingly abate them and subordinate them to Self-love For these Affections cannot arise before or without the Perception of their proper Objects Therefore it is that because it is long before the Perception of the Deity or of the common Interest arise in the Soul during which time Self-love doth wholly and solely possess the Soul and all its Affections are exercised without Restraint except what ariseth by the Fear of Chastisement or the natural or industrious Perception of the Uncomeliness of some extravagant Acts that Self-love becomes habitual and so strong that when the Perception of God or the common Interest of Mankind by the natural Conscience or Instruction is excited Self-love makes the Soul have a powerful Aversion from these Objects which would low or restrain it so that it can never be kept within Bounds especially in Subordination to God without supernatural Grace given by him It will sooner yield to the Love of a Family of a Society of a Country than to the Love of the common Interest of Mankind yet even Heathens have come a great length as to that but came never to any sutable Proportion of the Love to God as all their Writings and Actings do manifestly show There is another general inbred Principle and Inclination in Man to do that which is congruous to and becoming his Nature not only to what is essential to him but to what is superadded by the Divine Benignity which is more sensibly felt in the Aversion of things which are unbecoming Man and which all judg to be vicious and vile except in so far as they have eradicated their inbred Principles and debauched their Natural Inclinations so even natural Men love Temperance Sobriety Modesty Meekness Sincerity Constancy Courage and Comeliness and those whose Depravation make them love and practise the contrary in themselves do frequently hate them in others and never cherish them but when it is to lessen or abolish their own Shame by making their Vice more common or that they require the Concourse of others to practise them Beside these general Principles which require Attention and Ratiocination God by his Bounty hath imprinted on the Soul of Man special Principles for eminent Cases which operate like Instincts without necessity of reasoning as the desire of Happiness the care to preserve Life the abhorrence of Cruelty the desire to relieve the Innocent opprest Gratitude to Benefactors Faithfulness to those that do rationally rely and trust Love to those in Society and Friendship that especially which is most entire and absolute by Marriage and the mutual natural Affection of Parents and Children and of those which are of one Kindred and Blood The Institution of Marriage was a farther degree of the Bounty of God appointed in Innocency that betwixt one Man and one Woman by the free Choice of both there should be so intimate a Society and Friendship as could be no greater having all their Interests common perpetual and most part incommunicable that each of them had more Right to and Enjoyment of all than when they had them alone excluding the other tho the unsutable Choice of some hath marred this Blessing it diminisheth not the Bounty of God being by the fault of the Parties at least is a Judgment for their other Faults and it was their Interest that this Society was indissolvable even by the Consent of both but only by Adultery or Desertion which gave a strong Inducement to compose their Humours tho naturally discrepant rather than to be in a continual Disquiet It was a great Addition to the Happiness of this Conjugal Estate that there was given them so strong an Inclination of these Imbraces necessary for Posterity which otherwise have nothing of Comeliness in them and Women would never have endured the Trouble and Pain of Child-bearing if this Affection and the natural desire of having Children did not over-master them How great Addition to Adam's Pleasure behoved it to be when awakening from his Sleep God presented him Eve the only Creature like to himself which was the first Glass in which he did behold the Beauty of his own Body as well as hers who was fitted for him in all things that he could desire not only passionately loved but even more passionately loving both being endued with the same Principles and Inclinations and requiring no need of farther Acquaintance than the first View both being innocent and void of all Vice and able to communicate their Thoughts by that Language with which God did endue them without their own Industry by which they might communicate their Knowledg of God their Admiration Confidence and Delight in him their Love and Reverence to him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure in all things which they knew by the Moral Law written in their Hearts and which it is like he did explain and declare unto them as he did his positive Command of the forbidden Fruit to be a Test of their Obedience by restraining their Appetite from so pleasant a Fruit for which Restraint they had no inbred Inclination as they had to the Moral Duties but rather contrary except his Pleasure and Prohibition for if he had willed that they should not eat of it it would certainly have been effectual but he did only declare what they might eat and what they might not eat and denounced the Punishment if they did eat what was forbidden which sufficiently shews that their forbearing would have been acceptable to him which was sufficient to lay the strongest Obligation upon them and yet he expressed the heaviest Penalty if they trangressed which was implied by their knowledg of his Justice tho it had not been expressed which could not consist with his moving exciting or necessitating them to it Adam whose Knowledg was so great
would not have omitted to plead that when he pleaded fo weak a ground as the Invitation of his Wife not that he spared the Soveraignty of God for he insinuates a too harsh Reflection against God not only blaming the Woman but that she was given of God It was a farther degree of the Bounty of God that he had given a mutual Affection between Angels and Men that their Converse was both profitable and pleasant By these Principles that God gave Man he was not only innocent without Vice or Sin but he was holy and morally good till he fell from his Integrity by disobeying God and brought Sin into the World if he then being innocent became sinful tho he was ripe in his Capacities so soon as he was created and had the Love of God awakned in him in so high a degree having freshly received so great and so high Favours of God how much more capable behoved his Posterity to be of Defection that were to be born and live so long an animal Life unless God had given him a Promise or declared unto him a Purpose to confirm him and his Posterity if he had continued to give Proof of his Obedience in his innocent fallible State as it is commonly believed that the elect Angels were confirmed The Bounty of God doth yet further manifest it self in giving Man the Dominion of all the Creatures in this inferior World not peculiarly to Adam as if all Right of the Creatures had been to be derived from him but God gave Right to subdue and possess them which could not be done by Adam but by Mankind and therefore the first Title of Right was the Possession of that which was void and possessed by none and the Fruits thereof not only the Profit but the Pleasure of the Creatures was given chiefly to Man The variety of Shapes and Colours of Animals Trees Herbs and Fruits the beautiful Verdure of Trees and Herbs the various Painture of the Fruits of Trees of the Flowers and Blossoms of Plants and of the Feathers of Birds were of little use to themselves but of much use to Man by an innocent Pleasure arising from the Sight of them leading to the Admiration of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God their Author In which I doubt not that the Angels are Sharers so that it was not in vain that the Earth brought forth all these things tho for a long time Man possessed but a small part of it for the Wisdom of God could have so ordered that the Seeds disseminate in Earth and Waters should only spring as Man had use of them It does not diminish the Bounty of God that there is a great Inequality in the Perfections of these Creatures and that some of them bred Horror and Hurt unto Man because they set off the Lustre of the rest which otherwise would be less valued if we never had Darkness we would little value Light The hurtful Creatures are Instruments of God's Justice and none of them want their peculiar Vertues It is also the Goodness of God that the Discovery of the Natures of the Creatures and all experimental Knowledg hath proceeded from the beginning and shall to the end encrease that there might never be wanting a sutable Exercise Diversion and Delight to the more ingenious and inquiring Men. The Sun the Moon and Stars and all their Courses and Motions are designed to manifest to Angels but chiefly to Men the Majesty and Glory of the Omnipotent Creator and for the Pleasure and Profit of Men. It is a general Effect of the Bounty of God that he preserveth all these things in their Existence Power Vigor and Action but more particularly he preserves Man and Beast in over-ruling their Inclinations whereby they shun those things that might destroy them and attain those that may preserve them Without God's Preservation no Creature could subsist nor have any Activity For in him we live and move and have our Being God needs no positive Act to destroy any Creature if he withdraw his Support they would return into nothing out of which they came Yet I do not think that Preservation is a continual Creation otherwise God should create the Souls of the wicked full of actual Wickedness and even the damned Spirits in all their Malice I know not how this Difficulty could be shunned by any but those who think that Accidents can subsist being separate from Subjects or transmitted from one Subject to another Nor could the same Individual be continued but as every moment one is created another behoved to be annihilated so that all Creatures were deceived of themselves and all others thinking they were the same and yet they were an innumerable Multitude of in-coexisting Individuals Preservation is more properly expressed by a continued Support as Creation is an Elevation to Existence from nothing Preservation is the Support from receding into nothing a thing supported will certainly fall if the Support be removed The Bounty of God is crowned by God's Government of the World especially of Angels and Men How unhappy should Man be if they had an Epicurean God that were not concerned in the Actings of Men leaving them wholly to themselves The Goodness of God extends it self not only to the Natural Capacities of Men but to supernatural Powers as the Gift of Prophecy of Language not learned and the Interpretation thereof and of other miraculous Works which in distinction from saving Graces are called Gifts These are the Graces whereby God gives the supernatural Faculties of the Regenerate in Conversion or doth encrease the same thereafter yet that Term is otherwise taken and is extended to a graceful Countenance or Deportment making the Person having it to have a special kind of Amiableness for it is not every Beauty or Comeliness that is esteemed Gracefulness but that which shews a Nobleness or Excellency of Mind which therefore is very sutable to Princes and is frequently attributed to them without sufficient Ground The highest degree of this Gracefulness is called Majesty appropriated to Kings yea every signal Favour having eminent Effects is called Grace whence ariseth the distinction of Gratia gratis data and Gratia gratum faciens upon both accounts the Capacities given in Conversion are called Graces being freely given of the greatest Import and making the Receivers acceptable and lovely to God and it is chiefly in respect of these that he takes the Title of Most Gracious God and thereby also the Converted are called Gracious MEDITATION XIII Upon the Truth of God NExt unto the Goodness of God is his Truth Nothing can be more evident than that it is most congruous to and becoming the Divine Nature to be true nor could any thing more inconsistent be imagined than lying or deceiving in God The Truth of God is the first Ground-stone of his Creatures Happiness and if it were not sure it were impossible to know that they were not in all things deluded even in the concurring Testimonies of Sense
Sins that they might have omitted and did not if the Remainder were inevitably effectual for their Damnation I do not think that the outward Privileges of the Church and the Tastes of the Powers of the World to come and that Illumination that even Reprobates attain who never had true and saving Grace in which they exceed the finest Heathens are otherwise accountable than by the Purchase of Christ Nay I do not believe that the damned Spirits having liberty of going to and fro in the Earth is from Mercy as if their Damnation were allayed or abated till the general Judgment but that they are sent out as the Executioners of God's Justice being still in that Torment of Conscience wherein Hell doth consist tho it be allayed by accidental Consequences being by their acting somewhat diverted from the full poring on their Misery God only knows the exact Proportion of Punishment and Sin according to Merit and as the Damned always continue and encrease in their Hatred against God so their Misery may be increased There is also a Resemblance between the Mercy of the Creator and the Creature that neither is extended to every kind of Evil some Punishments may be so great that will not breed Pity in the most merciful because of the Atrocity of the Crimes so the Mercy of God extends not to the Sin against the Holy Ghost which must imply a high measure of Knowledg of the Divine Perfections and yet by the Exorbitancy of self-Self-love a Hatred and Despite against God as not bestowing so much as these malicious Wretches think he should And I think that was a main Difference in the Fall of the damned Spirits and Adam's Fall tho he was innocent and had a great measure of Knowledg and Happiness yet far short of theirs they abode not in that Station God placed them in for by their Sin they desired to rise higher and therefore in God's Justice they were brought exceeding much lower How far they have lost of their Natural Perfections I know not but sure they have lost their Moral Perfections and that Joy wherewith once they were blessed they tempted Man by the same Bait by which they deceived themselves inducing them to be discontent with what God had given and that he had forbidden to eat of that Fruit not as a Badg of their Obedience in an indifferent thing as to which they had no inbred Principle to prompt them on either side but because he envied the Happiness they would attain to by eating that Fruit which would make them wise to know both Good and Evil therefore the Devils seem to have sinned against the Holy Ghost which Man being of a less Capacity did not and none but those Men that attained to the Gifts of Illumination and the Taste of the Powers of the World to come and yet do despite against God cannot be restored nor are not to be prayed for in whom no doubt Hell is begun by the tormenting of their Conscience and therefore God's Way is equal both as to Angels and Men yet in Justice he was not obliged to have Mercy upon any Sinner but it was not congruous to his glorious Nature to receive into Favour such horrid Sinners There is another Resemblance of the Mercy of the Creator and the Creature that it is not equally to be applied to those who have the Offer of a Reconciliation upon Repentance and do obstinately reject that Offer and will continue to insist in and approve the Injuries done By Reflection on our own Mind we find it to be so in Men and yet it is evident to be no part of our Essence or Nature and therefore it must be an inbred Principle freely given of God and a part of his Image God hath incited us to forgive those that offend us to seventy and seven times yet still it is upon their Return Mercy may take place by Forgiveness simply given without an Offer of Reconciliation but it exceeds Humanity to forgive so far as not only not to endeavour Punishment but to offer Reconciliation when it is obstinately refused There is yet another Resemblance of the Mercy of God and Man that there is no Right in the Injurer to claim it tho he may implore it but it is an Act of Benignity and Goodness God hath injured no Creature if he had never received into Favour any Sinner But he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth that is he giveth the Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation and permitteth the Wicked to reject the Offer whereby they become more hardened in their Sin and Impenitence But infinite is the Distance and the Difference between the Mercy of God and the Mercy of Men. For 1. Man's Mercy may by contrary Custom be eradicated and Cruelty succeed in its place Man's Mercy may be overcome with the frequency of Injuries nothing like these can befal in the Mercy of God which is unchangeable and no multitude of Sins can be so great as should give Despair 2. Man's Mercy if it be obtained and violated in the same kind is hardly renewed but where God hath once given Pardon no new Breach doth exclude it yea he gives Repentance exciting the Sinner thereto that he may forgive sutably to his Nature and oft accepts general Repentance of inadverted Sins and even habitual Repentance where actual cannot be exerted as in those that die before they have time to have an elicite Act of Repentance for Sins committed immediately before Death 3. Man's Mercy doth oft go no further than Compassion and desire to help without Ability God's Omnipotence does ever make his Mercy effectual and compleat 4. Man doth often forgive one Fault and retain others God's Forgiveness of Sin is ever entire and universal where it is for all Sins preceding are ever forgiven where there is Repentance for all Sin but where some Temporal Punishment is only forgiven the Sin is not forgiven simply 5. Man may repent that he did forgive whether by the mutability of his Nature or by the discovery of aggravating Circumstances unknown when he forgave nothing of this can occur to the Omniscient God 6. Injuries may be so atrocious that exceed Man's Mercy without supernatural Grace in which he will never offer Reconciliation No Sin can be so hainous but that the Merit of Christ is sufficient for remitting it not excepting the Sin against the Holy Ghost which is not unpardonable by the Insufficiency of Christ's Merit neither yet because there is less Power in Man to repent for that Sin than others because he is utterly incapable to repent for any Sin till God give him the Grace of Repentance but because it is incongruous to the Divine Nature and to the Glory of God to receive into favour such Sinners But in all others tho they were as Crimson God offereth Pardon and Reconciliation and will effectually give them if the Offer be not obstinately rejected yea the height of God's
truly he so intended his Faithfulness also in so far only as that it is expected he will punctually and readily perform without Compulsion and he were unfaithful if he did not so perform untrue if he did not intend to perform when he engaged as well as unjust by not performing These may all concur in God but his Justice in performing his Promise and his Truth in intending to perform it can never be separated yet his Faithfulness may be without them in particular Acts so may his Justice in Rewards and Punishments be without any Word and consequently without Truth in that Word and both may be without exerting Faithfulness The Ground and Warrant of Faith is the excellent Disposition of the Person trusted whereby it were incongruous to him to disappoint the Expectation and Confidence which he knew were placed in him and were not rejected by him The Psalmist saith They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Here the Knowledg of God's Name which signifies his excellent Nature is the ground of Trust and specially that Divine Perfection that he will not forsake them that seek him Here is no relation to a Promise the Psalmist founds his Prayer both on God's Faithfulness and on his Justice in performing his Promise and not on this alone when he saith Hear my Prayer O Lord give Ear to my Supplications in thy Faithfulness answer me and in thy Righteousness where these are clearly distinguished The same Psalmist saith in another place Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reaches unto the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains where God's Faithfulness and his Righteousness are clearly diversified If one should trust in a powerful vertuous Person if he did not make his Trust known to that Person he could not be said to disappoint him or to fail in Faithfulness yet the Manifestation of Confidence may be without Words and sometimes it is unfit to be by Words and it may be abstract from Particulars and be left to the Discretion of the Person trusted So the Attendance the Dependance the humble and kindly Countenance may better express Confidence than Words which are more frequently false Courtiers do manifest their Confidence in Princes Souldiers in their Generals and Creatures may so express their Considence in God but it is more proper to pray to God in Faith for particular Favours as being more the Homage and Dependance of his Creature than the urging his Justice on general Promises It is not Faith but Folly to trust in any but those that are indued with Vertue and moral Perfections or in these for things that the Person trusted hath not or which were unbecoming for him to bestow therefore there is no Creature on which there can be laid entire and absolute Faith because the Inconveniency may occur that they cannot satisfy In this Sense God may be said to be only Faithful as well as only Wise and Good one may trust when he is not wise in trusting yet he may become unfaithful that admitted the Trust they were very unwise that would trust a Secret to a Liar or the managing of an Affair to an imprudent Person or Money to a Prodigal yet if they did admit of the Trust they were unfaithful if they failed It is very evident that it is highly congruous and worthy of the Divine Perfections to be faithful and it were inconsistent with these to disappoint the Faith of his Creatures trusting in him for things fit for him to give and them to receive without consideration of any Promise or Declaration of his purpose so to do It is fully evident that it were unsutable to him to give Happiness to them that love not Holiness or to pardon Sin to those whose Souls cleave to it or to give the highest Favour to such or Glory to any in the next Life to whom he never gave Grace in this in Act or Inclination which by the very Light of Nature do appear but by Revelation God hath clearly declared in what Things he will not allow of Trust or Faith in him or Hope from him especially for obtaining Reconciliation Forgiveness and Happiness and hath expresly declared when Faith is saving God bestows many good Things out of Commiseration or meer Goodness upon those that have not saving Faith nor can I say that he doth not bestow some good Things upon such even upon consideration of their trusting in him for them as by the Faith of Miracles upon whose Confidence he exerted his supernatural Power though at the great Day he rejects them who had that Faith Those who do not by Word or Sign signify that they allow not the Confidence or Hope of these who pertinently signify it do fail in their Faithfulness if they disappoint them My Thoughts upon God's Faithfulness do exceedingly clear me in that eminent Point that Faith is the only Consideration on which God gives Pardon Reconciliation and Happiness and not upon Love or any other good Work as never to be claimed upon rewarding Justice or Merit but of free Favour and Grace alone Albeit Love to God or Reverence and Obsequiousness to him be more excellent Perfections than Faith for in Faith the Creature hath Consideration of the return to it self and much more in Fear but Love is terminated alone upon God himself and upon no return from God which would make it defective The Love of Gratitude is for what is already received but the Love of God purely on consideration of his infinite Perfections is the highest moral Perfection of Creatures If Happiness had been by the Creatures Love Reverence or Obedience it would have been by Justice and Debt not by Grace as the Apostle says to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt but being by Faith there can be no pretence of Debt or Justice There is no more ground for him that hopes or trusts to attribute the Effect to himself as deserving it by his Faith than if the Miserable should imagine his Misery were the Cause of Mercy shown him I never find a Reward attributed to Faith for tho it be said cast not away your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Confidence there is not Faith but Forwardness and Boldness for in the Original it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though Faith were in the Power of fallen Man he could have little more ground to boast of Happiness on occasion of it than the Beggar of his Poverty which is the occasion of Alms or the Oppressed of Oppression as the Cause of his Relief or than the Infant or Idiot of his Salvation God could have given all good Things without either Prayer or Faith as he doth to Infants but it is a far greater Measure of Benignity to give that which is longed for and desired by Prayer and which is hoped and trusted by
which all his Perfections are displayed and manifested It is Omniscience and infinite Wisdom in the Contrivance of the World and of all that was to occur in it unto Eternity His Omnipotence in bringing all his Purposes to pass His Goodness that all he did and was to do is very good and nothing he made is without some Perfection for it self and Usefulness for some other Creature and that even from the evil Actions of Men he taketh occasion to increase the Exercise of his Goodness Bounty and Mercy His Justice Truth and Faithfulness are exercised upon all his Rational Creatures who only are capable of them and his most eminent Goodness in that Resemblance he gave them of his own Perfections and in those Principles wherewith he hath endued them beside his Image congruous to their Natures but not perfectly correspondent to his own to whom none of his Creatures can be like but with infinite Unlikeness Yet with that real tho imperfect Likeness of him his Reasonable Creatures were originally formed whereby he made them all capable of Blessedness and by Resemblance thereof to conceive Thoughts of his own Blessedness in being the only pure Spirit self-existent everlasting self-sufficient independent free unchangeable in all his Perfections Purposes and Performance of them fully delighting in himself and thereby infinitely blessed The Dominion of God comprehends his Dominion of Property and his Dominion of Soveraignty By the former he is Lord of all his Creatures by the latter he is Sovereign Ruler of all his Rational Creatures and so is King Law-giver and Ruler of the whole World There is a clear and known difference between Dominion of Things and a Dominion over Persons The Dominion of Things is a Right and Power to dispose of them at Pleasure without any Restraint This Right is founded in their Creation and Preservation for he that gave Being and that freely might give it with what Perfections he pleased and might at full Arbitrament annihilate or alter whatever he gave and in that Consideration even his Rational Creatures are part of his Property more at his disposal than the Clay is at the disposal of the Potter who can but mould and varnish his Clay and may mar it at his Pleasure but could neither give it its Being and Capacities nor can take them from it In this Relation there can be no Obligement or Debt from God to any Creature and it is by this Dominion that he hath stated all his Rational Creatures in their different Degrees not only of the Kinds but of the Individuals No other account ought to be inquired of the different degrees of Knowledg Wisdom Power Beauty Health Dexterity Length of Days Riches Pleasure or Honour tho these may be used as Means of Justice Truth Faithfulness and Mercy and as the Means of Government yet may they be absolutely without respect to these and it can hardly be discerned when they are otherwise and therefore in them all things befal alike to all and no Man can judg Love or Hatred of God from any thing that is so before him Some Men have thought they magnified God by magnifying this as the only Dominion of God and that there is no other distinct Dominion of Persons which would altogether make void the Justice Truth and Faithfulness of God which are no less essential to God and much more glorious than his Right of Disposal or Property A Proprietor in making use of his Goods doth not govern them no not in the ordering of his Beasts but where-ever Government is there must be Law Liberty Rewards and Punishments by the Government of Persons only can there be a Kingdom He that had the Property of a whole Country could be Lord of it tho there were not a Man on it but himself but he could not be King of it God takes to himself the Title of King in a more proper Sense and it is so acknowledged by all his holy Creatures He is called the King of the whole Earth of all the World The Lord has prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all He is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth they are but his Deputies and Vicegerents Yea the greatest of them are but as Grashopers in his Sight The Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness he sits on a Throne of Holiness he is a great King and he is King of Glory his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom of his Dominion there is no End Yea he is the only Potentate He doth what he will in Heaven and in Earth and who can say what dost thou David at the Dedication of the Temple saith to God Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty Thine is the Kingdom O God and thou art exalted as Head above all And Jeremiah saith Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain The Psalmist saith The Lord is a great King above all Gods The Sea is his and he made it The Sea is mentioned as his Property only because the vast Ocean is capable of no humane Dominion None can or ever did claim a local Soveraignty over the whole Sea nor a Property in it The Psalmist saith The Heavens are thine the Earth also is thine as for the World and Fulness thereof thou hast founded them For his Pleasure all things are and were created Is there any other Soveraign can pretend these Titles He rules in the Kingdom of Men and gives it to whomsoever he will even unto the vilest of Men who can neither pretend worth nor deserving If then Gods's Dominion over Persons be not arbitrary as over things what impudent Presumption must it be for Creatures tho they were Angels much more for Men of like Infirmities with others and of more impetuous Passions to give no other reason for their Commands than Such is our Pleasure There are three common innate Principles written in the Heart of Man the Love of God the Love of Mankind and Self-love which in their due Subordination and in their proper Limits are all Good as Christ hath said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Mind with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self These are the chief Means of the Divine Government by which Mankind might be happy in all Conditions Stations and Relations as Men as Married as Parents or Children as Masters and Servants as Soveraigns and Subjects as Fellow-Citizens as Neighbours and Friends who have all their special Principles and Rules by Reason and Revelation which when they forsake and follow the swing of their own Lusts and Passions God in his Justice might give them up to their own Counsels to follow their own Ways and oftentimes doth so as he declares by his Word as to their eternal Interest yet so great is his Goodness as he doth rarely utterly abandon them but as to their outward Condition
in this present Life he continues to overrule them by his Providence in all these Relations for in some Measure he is good to all in this Life The Providence of God useth to be handled apart by Divines as it doth not only comprehend his Dominion and Government of his rational Creatures but his Wisdom and Goodness in his Preservation Provision and Direction of every Creature towards the End which he designed I have chosen rather to consider the Wisdom and Dominion of God apart as being thereby the more able to apprehend them distinctly and clearly The Dominion of God reacheth unto all his rational Creatures even unto the damned Spirits not only as they are Executioners of his Justice against Men as he sends them out wherein tho their End be always wicked the Act it self is ever just and good so an evil Spirit from the Lord vexed King Saul when he had forsaken the Rules of his Government but these Spirits are only permitted while they tempt to Acts which no Intention can make good or indifferent but most of all God doth overrule these Spirits by restraining their Malice from tempting or troubling Men and even in the Permission of their Temptations he puts no Man under an inevitable Necessity of being overcome but those that voluntarily or habitually have rendered themselves weak whether by positive Choice or by Neglect and Inadvertence It is a needless Curiosity to enquire how God doth over-rule damned Spirits who are scarce capable of farther Punishments being already condemned and in a continual Torment of Mind nor can they expect Rewards It would be no Punishment to them to annihilate them yet they have some Diversion by compassing the Earth going to and fro therein and endeavouring to bring Men unto the like Condition with themselves and they are still capable of greater Torment and therefore they tremble Men are much more governable in this Life being far more passable than Spirits and being seldom in absolute Despair but ever capable of Rewards and Punishments and the greater they are the more are they capable Single Persons that have no near Relations are far less liable to Shame or Suffering than the Masters of Families or Rulers of States and the Noble than the Ignoble who are liable to Shame Affront and Disgrace which they regard more than their Lives There are three sorts of Men the Godly the Honest and the Prophane the Godly are governed by the Love of God which is the Principle of true Piety and Religion reaching not only to Divine Worship but even to the Acts of Honesty and their own Happiness In all which the chief Reason and Motive is the Love of God whereby they determine themselves in every thing towards his Glory and Pleasure These are governed by eternal Rewards and Punishments after this Life and by internal Rewards in the Peace of a good Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and internal Punishments in the Doubts and Disquiets of their Souls beside the other ways of Rewards and Punishments common to the rest Those that are only Honest are governed by the Love to Mankind which for that very End God hath placed in the Nature of Man whereby till they be depraved they are inclinable in every Case to do that which if it were done by all Men they would live happily And therefore the Wicked are ashamed to profess that in things in their Power they would prefer the Interest of a single Person to the Interest of their Family or the Interest of a Family to the Interest of a Nation or any of these Interests to the common Interest of Mankind Those that are prophane and wicked God overrules even by their Self-love for tho they would subordinate all things to their Selfinterest if securely they could and when with probability they can yet supposing others to be of the same Inclination their own Interest obligeth them to profess if not Piety in Hypocrisy at least common Honesty wherein God's Wisdom and Goodness is eminently seen for otherwise most Men would be as malicious and openly wicked as the damned Spirits God hath Rewards and Punishments sufficient and suted to the Condition of all Men tho their Rewards be not by exact Justice Prosperity and Peace are the common Encouragements to Good Trouble and Affliction are the common outward Punishments and more particularly Disquiet and Anguish of Spirit when the special Cause thereof is not known These are dispensed to particular Persons but the Punishments of Societies use not to be inflicted but upon atrocious common and avowed Vices for which God sendeth common Calamities as Plague Famine Inundation Sterility Shipwrack and the Destruction by ravenous Beasts which was more frequent when the World was less planted The Scripture doth frequently mention God's four sore Judgments God exciteth War about which there is no doubt when it is for just Causes and overrules it when upon unjust but rather uses the other Plagues God exercises his Dominion partly by the Law of Nature written in Man's Heart partly by Diyine Institutions revealed to Men. By the Law of Nature is the Government of Parents over their Children by the natural Affection of the Parents to the Children whereby they take Pleasure to preserve direct and provide for them and by the natural Affection of the Children to reverence and obey their Parents which Affections arise in both from their belief of these Relations even where they are mistaken and by the Law of Nature the Contracts and Pactions of Parties to govern and to obey as between Masters and Servants between Rulers and Subjects for the Force of these Pactions is by the Law written in Man's Heart by which his Conscience convinces him that he is obliged to perform God exerciseth his Dominion not only by the Laws of Nature but by positive Laws and Institutions which are not known by the Light of Nature but by Revelation such is the Government of the Husband over the Wife by the Divine Institution of Marriage and the Government of Common Wealths by God's Institution of a publick Judgment to order and determine all Controversies concerning such as should unite themselves in Civil Societies The former was propagated by an universal Tradition to all Nations from Adam till the Flood and from Noab and his Posterity after the Flood But Civil Government was only instituted after the Flood when Mens Lives became short God allowed the Fathers of Families to unite themselves and their Families into Civil Societies and to transmit the Power and Burden of the Government of their Families in most things upon the Governours of those Societies So that tho there be mutual Pactions in Marriage and Government yet the Essentials of both are by Divine Institution which cannot lawfully be altered Persons may choose whether they will marry or not and with whom but the Degrees within which they may marry are instituted The Power of the Husband and the Indurance and Dissolution of the Marriage are instituted
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
Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
Eve Death was the due Punishment of the Breach of that Prohibition tho it had not been expressed for the Obedience of a Rational Creature to the Creator is indispensible not only by the Immutability of the Divine Decree not to dispense but simply by the nature of the Thing It could not consist with God's infinite Love to himself to make a Rational Creature that owed him no Obedience and if he could renounce Obedience in one thing he might in all But tho the Prohibition had been after the Covenant yet it was no part of it nor did God by it restrain his own Freedom to command what he pleased for which he had given an Ability to perform For it was a chief Law written in Man's Heart to obey all God's Commands The Institution of Marriage was also before the Fall and even before the Covenant of Works and the Breach of it or any of God's Moral Laws would have annull'd that Covenant God did both in Wisdom and Goodness express the Sanction of Death to the eating of that Fruit as that which Man might be most readily deceived in the Matter being in it self indifferent and of small moment abstract from the Command and therefore the Devil tempted to break it rather than any other God made the Covenant of Works with Adam and when Adam had broke that Covenant and made it ineffectual God did publish to him the new Covenant of Grace There is but little of either expresly related by Moses yet doubless both were largely revealed and made known to Adam and now when the Canon of Scripture is full the Analogy of Faith may thence sufficiently be collected both as to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works and of the Covenant of Grace It were a vast Task to gather in order all that might be deduced from Scripture concerning these Covenants But that which I find necessary for my Satisfaction and for clearing to me the beautiful Representation of the Divine Decrees and Dispensations towards Mankind by Grace and Glory to the Elect and just Judgment against the malicious and obstinately wicked I will digest my Thoughts of both these Covenants between God and Adam that the Parallel may the more clearly appear by expressing the Terms of both in the Form of a free Offer made by God and accepted by Adam for himself and all his in the way Covenants used to be entred in as if God had said to the Protoplasts I have made you after my own Image Innocent and Holy and have endued you with Understanding whereby you can judg and reason and have written my Laws in your Hearts in the Principles of Knowledg to which you cannot but give assent and the Knowledg of necessary Consequences which you may thence certainly deduce I have also endued you with Capacities of Pleasure and Grief whereby upon the Preception of these Objects which may most concern your Well-being Pleasure or Grief will result and from Pleasure Appetite and from Grief Aversion and have made the purest and powerfulest Joy to arise from the Perception of my glorious Perfections and next from these things which conduce to the Well-being of your Kind and then the Pleasure that is peculiar to every one All which are good when kept within their Limits and in due Order I have given you that capacity of Freedom that you need not be under the Power of the Pleasure or Grief arising from perception of any Creature but that you may avoid or abate them by the Application of other Objects to your Senses or Mind by the Pleasure or Grief thence resulting especially by perceiving and considering my own Perfections whereby you may govern your selves and your Choices Appetites or Aversions as may be allowed and accepted by me and as may conduce for my Glory shewing my Divine Perfections in creating preserving and ruling such Creatures whereby as I have been the first Author so indispensibly I must be the last End of your Being to which you must subordinate and direct all your considerate Actions even the desire and endeavour of your own Happiness that thereby you may be in the fuller capacity to please and glorify me wherein if you transgress you must be punished by perpetual Exclusion from my Favour which neither you nor any Creature can ever be able to expiate and restore you my Aversion from Sin being infinite as my self If you improve the Capacities I have given you I will also reward you with greater Perfections as you shall deserve Your Obedience and Devotion to me must not be in trivial things but in such things as require Attention and Diligence yet such as by these shall still be in your Power while you remain innocent By careful Inspection of your own Minds you may find my Laws written therein most of them are evident to you without reasoning and I have endued you with this Principle to know all things that are congruous to and becoming my glorious Nature and yours as you bear my Image and as is congruous to and becoming that part of your Nature peculiar to your selves I am now pleased to enter with you into a Covenant by your willing Engagement in the Terms that I offer you wherein your part is no more than persevering in your Innocence during that time of Trial which I appoint you to which you are obliged by your natural Duty to which I propose the Accession of your voluntary Engagement and my part shall be to put you thenceforth out of hazard ever to offend or to lose that Happiness that I give you and to put all your Posterity in the like Condition that now you are in that each of them that shall continue innocent during his Trial shall be likewise confirmed and because they are to be born Infants carried only by sensible Pleasures before Discretion which will become habitual and strong and much more ready to exceed than you who were created in ripeness of Judgment I will enable them to be in like Capacity to stand as you are and I will exalt you and them from an animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven so that you shall be Immortal without any Separation of your Souls and Bodies I will put you in no Necessity to fall by my Decree or any Circumstances in which you shall be placed I will now add nothing to your Obedience by the Laws of your Nature but the For bearance to eat of the Fruit of one Tree in the midst of the Paradise that it may be an Evidence of your Obedience for my Command alone in a Thing in it self indifferent wherein you must take heed that you yield not to the Pleasure which will arise from that Fruit. Are you now content to enter into this Covenant for your selves and your Posterity wherein if you fail on your Part you lose all the Benefit of it To which Adam and Eve with Joy Acclamation and Blessing did engage and assent and God exhorted them to take good
and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan self-Self-love and Sensual Pleasure The Terms of the Covenant of Grace are much more fully represented in the Scripture than was the Covenant of Works The Covenant of Grace was first published to Adam and Eve after their Fall in these Words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent Where by the Serpent is understood Satan who under the appearance of a Serpent deluded them and by the Seed of the Woman is meant the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace who is to bruise that Serpent's Head and to deliver from the Power thereof such as should obtain the Benefit of the Covenant of Grace which for my more distinct understanding I do conceive as if it had been more fully exprest and as if God after the Fall had said to our first Parents thus I made a Covenant with you for your selves and your Posterity that if you continued innocent during the time of your Trial I would have given you supernatural Grace whereby you should never sin but should be eternally Happy I gave you sufficient natural Capacity to fulfil that Covenant but you have distrusted my Kindness and have believed an Apostate Spirit and therefore have lost to your selves and your Posterity the Benefit of that Covenant without being in any necessity to break it by my Decrees or Dispensations I might justly cut you off without having any Posterity or might leave you and them to follow your own ways and I will no more make a Covenant with you for them but I will raise up a second Adam who shall take upon him your Nature and be like you in all things Sin only excepted who will be for ever Innocent and Holy and so not only perform that which by the former Covenant you might have performed but will submit himself to Sufferings for you and your Posterity of greater value than if you had all suffered eternally the just Reward of your Sins And for his Sake I do offer you and will offer to all your Posterity who shall be capable to know an offer of Mercy and Grace that I will make you new Creatures enduing you with supernatural Powers and Inclinations making you Holy and Happy and will not suffer you to continue in Sin if you be not so addicted to your Sins as to reject my Offer to make you Holy and therefore I will continue with you and your Posterity the Light and Law of Nature written in your Hearts whereby you may know Sin the Transgression of it and that you may know that there is Mercy for the Penitent and none for the malicious while obstinate Sinner whereby you may also know that if you repent and betrust your selves to my Mercy and Conduct that I will make you Holy and Happy And albeit neither you have nor will they have Ability to repent and trust yet with the Offer I will give Strength to perform these Acts if the Offer be not rejected and will bring them to the Means of Grace to follow out the same This Offer becomes a Covenant by acceptance thereof the Accepters betrusting themselves to God's Grace and Direction by his Word and Spirit trusting to obtain Pardon of all Sin and of Excitation to Repentance for obtaining of it and for obtaining eternal Happiness by infusing the Habits of Grace here and perfecting them in Glory hereafter in the beatifick Visions of God's Perfections and the shining of his Face for ever without fear of Sin or falling from that happy State I do conceive that in this Representation all the Requisites of a Covenant are comprehended For the Difference between a Covenant and any other Favour done or promised whether absolute or conditional is no Covenant albeit there may be therein mutual Prestations required but this is special in an Offer that it hath no Obligation till it be accepted whereby the Accepters become obliged to perform the mutual Prestations on their Part. God making the general Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation to Sinners if they repent and betrust themselves to him for all things necessary for their Happiness for even the natural Conscience of all Men of Discretion is capable to know and represent to them that God is Just and will punish obstinate Sinners and yet is merciful to penitent Sinners throwing themselves upon him tho without Revelation they cannot know how a just God can pardon Sin without Satisfaction to his Justice but the same is manifested by the Gospel as by the first Adam all his Posterity were capable of Happiness if they sinned not so now by the second Adam all are again capable of Happiness upon far easier Terms of Repentance and Faith and even these performed by supernatural Grace If Adam or his Posterity had the making of the Covenants of Grace they could not without Impudence make them larger for there could be no more added but that even all the obstinately Wicked and Impenitent should enjoy the Pleasure of their Lusts on Earth and thereafter the Joys of Heaven so that I do and all considering Persons might cry out with the Apostle O the Height the Breadth the Length the Depth of the Love of God! And yet his electing Love is even larger than this Offer for albeit it be inconsistent with his immaculate Holiness to make any happy whom he doth not first make holy yet some Rejecters he maketh holy and happy pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire which maketh none of the obstinate and rejecting Sinners excusable who continue to refuse to be made holy and tho they may deceive themselves thinking they would be willing to be holy yet while they are addicted to their Sins in reality their Will is not to quit them In my most serious Thoughts I can perceive nothing in this Conception of God's Covenants with Men that is impossible inconsistent with or incongruous to any of the Divine Perfections but highly illustrating them all and becoming the Majesty and Glory of God as the King and Ruler of his rational Creatures as to their eternal State Thereby he shews himself to be the most excellent King not only in a just Distribution of Rewards and Punishments but in great Goodness providing all things requisite that might have made them all happy without making any one miserable but by their own particular Fault Thereby also his great Wisdom is manifested designing or doing nothing in vain but ever choosing fit Means for the best Ends whereby his Mercy doth eminently appear that even against Merit he gives Grace and Glory to those Creatures of whom he had no need and who had willingly and ungratefully offended and injured him that he hath left nothing undone that could consist with his Domion his Wisdom his Purity and Holiness to extend his Goodness to his rational Creatures He doth not only govern the Elect towards their Happiness after their Conversion