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-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
pardoning Mercy reaches so far that he hath even had Mercy upon frequent and long Rejecters pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire whose Souls did cleave to their Abominations and he continueth many such Sinners in Life without kindling Hell in their Consciences with design to magnify his Mercy upon them wherein Consideration may be had of the Kindness he had to their Ancestors or of their extraordinary Temptations or simply by his absolutely free and unbounded Grace but these Firebrands are but some and few and ought not to encourage Sinners to cleave to their Sins and reject the Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation We have one clear Example of Pardon to the Thief on the Cross at the point of Death that none might despair and but one that none might presume God's long-suffering Patience and Forbearance of Sinners are Acts of his Mercy whereby the Effect of his Justice is delayed which are never in vain for either forgiving Mercy doth at last take place or at least the Glory of God's Goodness is manifested upon obstinate inexcusable and self-condemned Sinners not that he delights or designs to make them such but to manifest the superabundance of his Grace in giving them a sincere and true Offer of Reconciliation and not by causing them to reject it but by not causing them to entertain it when his Glory did not require it The Mercy of God is a most eminent and most amiable Moral Perfection his other Goodness doth either presuppose something in the Object not as a Merit but as a Mean His Faithfulness supposeth the Faith of his Creatures trusting or hoping for that Good which he hath not promised nor shown that he hath purposed it His Goodness in Creation supposeth nothing in the Object for it yet nothing against it but his forgiving Mercy and Reconciliation presuppose those things which are extreamly opposite sometimes the most irrational Injury and Enmity actually in some and habitually in all by natural or acquired Inclinations Mercy is the most amiable Divine Perfection that provoketh the most fervent Love to God as Christ said to the Woman who washed his Feet with her Tears and wiped them with her Hair Her Sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same love little There is more of Mercy expressed in the whole course of Scripture than of all the other Divine Perfections the main Scope thereof being to shew the Mercy of God towards Mankind which he foresaw lapsed in a miserable Condition and of his inconceivable Mercy he designed the way of their escape from Misery and their becoming Heirs of Glory through the Satisfaction of his Son Christ Jesus whereby he might give Mercy and Forgiveness without incroaching upon his Justice and so made both Mercy and Justice to meet together and attain both their Effects When God manifested himself to his beloved Moses and proclaimed his Name before him by which he would be designed as his most proper Character he said The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and that will in no way clear the Gulilty Mercy is the leading and inculcate Attribute thrice repeated Justice is last The Paths of the Lord are not only said to be merciful but Mercy in abstracto and his Mercy is plenteous he is full of Mercy his Mercy is multiplied Mercy belongeth to him he desireth Mercy rather than Sacrifice his Mercy is tender he is rich in Mercy his Mercy is everlasting it is his Saints Joy who sing of his Mercy MEDITATION XVI Upon the Faithfulness of God FAithfulness is that Perfection whereof Faith or Trust doth immediately lay hold and rest The Term is diversly taken there is not another proper Word but it to signify both the being worthy of Trust and Faith and the having Faith But when it is applied to God it imports not the Subject but the fitted Object of the Faith which doth import an Inclination to do that Good which is believed or hoped for sutably to the Giver and Receiver freely without Right to claim it where-ever there is a Right to claim there is an Obligement or Tie to perform and the Performance is an Act of Justice not of Benignity or meer Decency The moral Perfections of Men are of three sorts Justice Benignity and Decency Justice implies an Obligement or Tie to perform and a Right or Power to claim and exact Benignity is an Inclination to do good to another freely without Necessity or Obligement to do it or Right to claim it which sometimes respects its Object under no other Consideration than that it 's capable of that Good and this is specially called Goodness Such is God's Goodness in Creation Preservation and giving those good things which are not believed or expected such as Acts of meer Liberality but other Acts of Benignity are upon special Considerations beside the Capacity to receive as Mercy to the Miserable tho they do not trust or expect it but Faithfulness considers the Object as trusting or hoping not simply for one may trust or hope for that that is not sutable for him to receive or for the Person trusted to give and so it is an unwarrantable Expectation and not Faith but Presumption Such was the desire of the Mother of Zebedee's Children to Christ That the one might sit on his Right-hand and the other on his Left-hand in his Kingdom and such is commonly the Hope of the Hypocrite who trusts to obtain Happiness without Holiness But Faith must be a well-grounded Faith hoping or trusting for such things as are becoming the Person trusted to give and the Truster to receive and that upon Consideration that trusteth for tho the Good done were both sutable to the Giver and Receiver yet were not given to the Receiver as trusting and hoping to receive it were an Act of Goodness but not an Act of Faithfulness The third sort of Moral Perfections is Decency which respects the Actor only and not any other and is done alone because it is sutable and becoming that Person so to behave Every Vertue or Moral Perfection consisteth in a Congruity to the Actor and so is Decency whether the Act be terminate on the Actor or on another But there is no special Name to signify that Decency that terminates on the Actor but it retains the common Name and so is Decency strictly taken As Man beareth the Image of God the Light of Nature shews that all those Perfections which he gave Man are originally and eminently in God He is just and acknowledges himself Debtor so to be in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments in the performance of his Promises whence there is a Right to claim them tho there be no Power to exact them He is good and doth good in some kind to all he makes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Just and
and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan 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
tho the Debitor were not able to pay it Would ever a rational Creditor exhort his Debitor to pay when he knew he were altogether insolent Hence it is that Pelagians Semi-Pelagians Lutherans Arminians and Papists have all run to a Freedom in Man's Will to perform the saving Acts and many of them have held that Freedom essential to and inseparable from the Will And others have held that Freedom as a Purchase of Christ giving that Capacity to all Mankind by their Birth or to many of them by their Baptism The Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians thought the Powers of Nature were sufficient without any Purchase of Christ as to that The Lutherans and Arminians attribute it to a general Purchase of Christ to all Mankind that they were in a Capacity to believe to be holy and to be saved by their Birth or their Baptism and the Papists hold the same by Baptism administred in that Church and do condemn all others not so baptized What can be more useful satisfying and quieting Mens Consciences in this matter or more illustrating the Wisdom and Justice of God than to extricate these Difficulties and to show the true way of reconciling these apparent Inconsistencies by the wonderful Wisdom of God Showing that by the Covenant of Grace all Men were to be in a Capacity to be saved and none under the absolute necessity of inevitable Misery but through their own deserving fault whereby the Damned shall eternally accuse themselves as the only Authors of their own Damnation and the Glorified shall attribute it wholly to God that they are saved and that it may be well consistent with the Veracity and Sincerity of God to exhort and expostulate with any whether Elect or Reprobate to repent believe and to be holy All which to me is convincingly cleared in that God sincerely offers to all that come to Discretion by their natural Conscience by his Word or by the Motions of his Spirit to give them the Grace of Repentance Faith and Holiness if they do not reject the Offer And so he doth by all Expressions possible expostulate with them why they will not hear and accept but will reject that Offer and so die and perish which is seldom or never ascribed to any other Sin but Misbelief hardning the Heart or rejecting the Counsel of God All which may well consist without any Power in the Person to whom the Offer is made to perform these Duties by themsélves either by the Powers of Nature or any universal Grace given in their Birth or Baptism This will evidently appear and the Consistency will be clear by several Examples First If a King should make a Proclamation of Pardon to all his Rebellious Subjects if they did not reject it might he not sincerely and warrantably expostulate with them if they did reject it might he not exhort them to accept it And yet nothing more evident than that they could not pardon themselves or escape Condemnation being guilty of Death without that general Pardon Secondly If a Person had in Despair drunk down Poison a Physician comes and hath in his Hand an Antidote which he offers and which the Patient continuing in Despair refuses to accept May not this Physician tho he knew the Patient were inflexible exhort him to accept the Antidote wherein he performeth a vertuous Act congruous to his Nature If this Patient continue obstinate were he not a Self-murderer Could he excuse himself from being the Author of his own Death If he should desire the Physician to put the Antidote in his own Hand and in his Choice that he might drink it or throw it upon the ground were it Prudence or Kindness in the Physician so to do Yet nothing is more evident than that this Patient could not cure himself and yet is inexcusable that he was not cured For tho it was not in his Power to cure himself yet it was in his Power not to hinder his Cure These Examples do abundantly show not only the Consistency but the Wisdom of Divine Dispensations towards Mankind All Men are poisoned with Sin yet God convinces all that have the use of Reason that they are Sinners and yet he is merciful to Penitents which is the first step to the Covenant of Grace wherein God will make farther Progress unless the first Motions be rejected which is much clearer as to those to whom the way of God's Dispensations is revealed and inculcated and the Offer of Regeneration Repentance and Faith sincerely made Can any of these pretend that they have not Power to repent or believe seeing the All-sufficient Power of God is offered if it be not rejected and tho God foreknows that the Offer will be rejected yet it is congruous to his gracious and benign Nature to exhort the Acceptance of it and to expostulate for the wilful Rejection thereof as he saith Turn ye turn ye why will ye die O House of Israel As it were not becoming the Physician to put the Antidote in the obstinate Patient's Hand knowing that he would pour it out and lose it So it is not congruous to the Divine Wisdom to give universal Grace knowing that most that were to receive it would throw it away There is indeed this difference between the Offer God the Physician of Souls makes and the Offer of the Antidote by a Physician of the Body that the Power of God is insuperable and can overcome the strongest Aversion and the most wilful Rejection of Sinners And therefore even some of these are in the Election of Grace but that it is not congruous to his glorious Nature to exercise his Power upon all This is evident because he applieth it to none who sin against the Holy Ghost who having tasted of the Powers of the World to come do Despight unto the Spirit of God Nor do any of his Divine Perfections incline him to overcome the Resistance of all other obstinate Sinners and therefore God may justly say Behold ye Rejecters and wonder and perish This way doth well quadrate with and is much confirmed by the signal Sentence of the most universally applauded of all the Fathers and the greatest Antipelagian Augustine saying Deut neminem deserit nisi à quo prius deseritur God forsaketh none but those that first forsake him This must import more than forgetting neglecting or not obeying God It must imply an Application to God and Consideration whether to cleave to Sin or endeavour to return to him with Consideration of a possibility of it and an Offer of Mercy upon Repentance and after all a rejecting of the Offer and resolving not to repent but to cleave to Sin either absolutely or for a time as most do who leave Repentance to old Age or Death-bed that in the mean time they may enjoy their beloved Sins I shall conclude with craving humble Pardon for what through the Weakness of my Capacity I have thought or said unsutably to the Infinite Perfections of my most glorious God and with this Acknowledgment and Exaltation of the Bounty Mercy and Faithfulness of God towards Mankind in the most profound Veneration adore Him saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Heaven and Earth are full of the Glory and of thy Grace which thou freely and effectually givest to all Men capable of the Offer of Grace who do not reject that Offer by sinning against the Holy Ghost or cleaving obstinately to their other known and predominant Sins from which they refuse to be reclaimed yet thou savest some of these by thy superabundant and insuperable Grace pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire And all by the Merits and Mediation of thy only Son our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. To the Father Son and Eternal Spirit consubstantial in Personal Trinity and individual Unity be Glory eternally World without end Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS NEwly printed The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New with Annotations and Parallel Scriptures To which is annexed the Harmony of the Gospels As also the Reduction of the Jewish Weights Coins and Measures to our English Standards And a Table of the Promises in Scripture By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Printed in Folio of a very fair Letter and excellent Paper the like never besore in one Volume The four Last Things viz. Death Judgment Heaven Hell Practically consider'd and applied in several Discourses By William Bates D. D. Both printed for B. Aylmer Zanchius More
Curiosity but thereby to know what is the Moral Duty of Men as to Truth which is a part of God's Image and to be regulated according to the Divine Pattern The Conformity of God's Thoughts to things extrinsick is rather to be understood a Conformity of these things to God's Thoughts than of his Thoughts to these things as the Impression is conform to the Seal not the Seal to the Impression A Conformity to any thing imports a Priority and Preference of that to which the other is conform yet there is a likeness betwixt both and therefore the Truth of God's Thoughts is better expressed by a Conformity with things than to things Yet God's Thoughts are conform to his Natural Perfections which in the Order of Nature are prior to his Thoughts of them but his voluntary or moral Perfections are in the Order of Nature posterior to his Thoughts for he chooses them because he knows them to be congruous to his Natural Perfections as being comprehended in his Godlikeness or Holiness The Truth of God's Thoughts is incommunicable to Creatures whose Thoughts are only true because conform to the things thought of Therefore the Truth of God's Thoughts as to the things signified is Natural not a Moral Perfection more than is his Knowledg or his Will Whence I conceive the Conformity of Creatures Thoughts to Things is a Natural not a Moral Perfection and therefore Errors in them are not simply by that Disconformity Sins For I know no ground to believe that the Angels are not capable of Mistakes of Things not necessary to be known or believed but erroneous Thoughts are only sinful by a supervening Command to have such Thoughts as are necessary for Holiness and so Mens Thoughts contrary to the Divine Perfections and contrary to the Dependence and Duty of Creatures are not only false but injurious Inadvertance or Mistake in this Point hath bred many sharp Debates and Divisions among the more Judicious and much Disquiet to the Godly of lesser Capacity apprehending every Error in their Judgment to be a Sin wherein they have stumbled much upon the frequent Expressions in Scripture containing so high Elogies of the Truth for which weare bidden to contend not adverting that by the Truth is not meant every Truth but the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of Excellency the Truth which makes us free which surely is not every Truth but the Truths requisite for Holiness and Happiness I am perswaded there are no Errors so pernicious as those which give an unamiable Aspect of God and his Divine Perfections hindering or abating the Admiration Delight and Trust in him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure The Truth of God is oft-times attributed to the Performances of his Promises as it is also unto the Promises of Creatures but the Obligement to Performance doth not depend upon the Truth of the Promise but from Justice arising from the Promise made which obligeth tho there were not a Purpose to perform yet there is a Truth in Promises when they are conform to the Thoughts and Purpose to do as they say who make them I adore and bless thee O God of Truth whose Expressions can never be disconform to thy Thoughts or to the things expressed who never canst delude or deceive thy Rational Creatures not by any fatal Necessity but because with unalterable Certainty as sure as the strongest Necessity thou wilt ever be true and sincere and fore I may safely and securely rest upon all that thou hast proposed purposed or promised for Heaven and Earth may pass away but one Iota of thy blessed Will shall never pass unfulfilled I know there have been great Thoughts of Heart upon God's general Commands Perswasions and Expostulations to Faith and Holiness how these could be sincere when God knew that they would not be effectual and that it was not in the Creatures Power to make them effectual which is not proper to be cleared here but will be clear by the right understanding of the Oeconomy of God's Dispensations towards Men. I shall only now say that a Physician may sincerely intreat and expostulate with a Patient to admit of a Cure for a Wound otherwise incurable which he wilfully refuses to admit tho he knew that the Patient himself is not able to cure himself and that no other Physician can come in time to do it Nor do I think that ever God did send his Gospel to a People where he knew that all would be absolute Rejecters of it or of the Offers made in it MEDITATION XIV Upon the Justice of God BEside that Goodness of God which is absolute and boundless presupposing nothing in Creatures as the Consideration or special Occasion of it I perceive there is a Goodness of God which hath a special occasion in his Creatures and keeps an exact Proportion with the Actings of Rational Creatures which is the Goodness of Remuneration or Reward which is essentially different from the former and is remunerative Justice which cannot be distinctly understood alone without considering the punitive Justice of God and therefore I apply my Thoughts to the Justice of God which in the natural Order falls nearest to his Goodness and Truth For Mercy presupposeth Misery incurr'd by Justice and Faithfulness is the ultimate Attribute relative to Rational Creatures Wisdom and Dominion reach all Creatures Nothing is more necessary to Rational Creatures than the distinct Knowledg of God's Justice which is the Pattern of their own Justice and is necessary to have right Affections towards God I may doubt or be ignorant of some Acts of the Divine Dispensations that have natural Evil in them whether they be Acts of Goodness or not or whether Acts of Soveraignty or not without Blame but I am sure they cannot be without Justice I doubt not but the damned Spirits are convinced of God's Justice in their own Damnation their Temptation was not about the Justice but the Goodness of God they were not content with nor abode in the Station wherein God placed them Satan did on the same ground tempt Adam as if God envied Man's Good by hindering him to eat that Fruit that would make him wise like God I know not whether the inbred Principle of God's Mercy was in Man before the Fall but I doubt nothing that it was in all Mankind after There is a greater Indifferency in God in giving Mercy than in doing Justice He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy he never said so of Justice he hath acknowledged himself Debtor and obliged by Justice Mercy is of the most eminent Bounty which not only punisheth not where Punishment is deserved but provides a Mediator to satisfy Justice Justice is diversly understood sometimes for all the Acts of Godliness and Morality even for some Acts indifferent as when any exact that which is due to them they are said to do justly tho more properly that they do not unjustly for they are not always obliged to exact what is
burn with Revenge or Envy do relent when they see the Misery of that Creature to which they wished the worst of Evils and their Misery may become so great that there ariseth thence a Compassion and suffering with the miserable Creature with a desire to relieve it Mercy therefore implies a Displeasure or Grief for a Miserable Creature and a desire to relieve it whether from Misery incumbent or imminent so a merciful Man shelters a Creature from the Avenger This natural Inclination of Mercy may be and often is much abated and eradicated by contrary evil Inclinations and Custom as those that murder for Gain and too many become not only void of Compassion but cruel contrary to Mercy delighting to behold the Misery of others but then they are reckoned to put off Humanity and that Pain that 's felt in the Heart and Bowels upon the sight of Misery Misery is not every Evil of Suffering and Want but the Prevalence of them to which alone Mercy is applicable which being an innate Inclination given to us of God cannot but be pleasant to God the Giver and is a Remainder of his Image in the Natural Conscience he delighteth much in the Mercifulness of his Creatures and it is an eminent Sign of those that are in his Favour which appeareth by that Article of the Lord's Prayer Forgive us our Sins as we forgive them that sin against us intimating that none can with hope ask Mercy of God who are not merciful The Mercy of Creatures may often be exercised in Fellow-feeling or Compassion when they are not able to help but still there is a desire to help Mercy when effectual consists in giving and forgiving which is a giving of Remission or Pardon of that which may be exacted or inflicted by the Forgiver in so far as it 's in his Power as when a Creditor forgives his poor Debtor whom he might throw and detain in Prison which is the Forgiveness of a Debt or when an injured Person forbeareth to insist against the Injurer for Punishment or absolutely passeth from him which may be where there is a Debt of Reparation beside the Punishment and may be also without these Punishment is not properly a Debt as I have cleared my self in the preceding Meditation and therefore Mercy in Forgiveness of Punishment is Forgiveness of a Crime or Fault which God hath allowed the Injured to forgive to the Penitent even to seventy and seven times But there be Crimes which do more concern the Common-wealth than a particular Interest whereunto the Example is pernicious these cannot be forgiven by private Persons and ought only to be forgiven by the Common-wealth when the Punishment would give more Inconvenience to the Common-wealth than the Forbearance Mercy even in Creatures is not of Justice as a Debt but of Benignity for tho it be very necessary for Mankind and therefore God hath given a strong natural Propension to it before it be perverted yet he hath not imposed it as a Debt to be punishable for the Omission but rewarded for the Performance and therefore it is said to the Merciful he will be merciful for all that is due by Justice stateth a Power to claim or exact in the Person to which it is due It is an eminent Office of Humanity to relieve the Distressed to give Alms to the Poor yet they have no Power to claim or exact it By the Divine Vestige of Mercy in the Creature I am helped to the more distinct Knowledg of the infinite Mercy of the Creator wherein the Difference will easily appear both by Reason and Revelation I shall therefore compare the two in what they agree and in what they disagree The Mercy of God and the Mercy of the Creature agree in this that both respect a miserable Object yet not so that it must be infinite and eternal Misery For God hath Mercy on many of his Creatures to whom he doth not forgive their Sins for he hath Mercy upon Nations and Communities who are not capable of that kind of Pardon How often hath he recorded his Mercy to Idolatrous Israel when they cried to him in their Misery and perhaps had Sorrow for that particular Sin whereby they did nationally provoke but it was not a Repentance unto Life for that must be of all Sin tho of some more eminently than of others God had Mercy on wicked Ahab and said to the Prophet Dost thou not see how Ahab humbleth himself yet Ahab was far from saving general Repentance God hath Mercy on the Wicked generally in delaying the inflicting of his Judgments against them sometimes during the course of a long Life and many think that he hath Mercy on the Devils till the Day of Judgment It hath puzled many eminent Divines how it can consist with God's Justice to shew any Mercy to the Reprobate for if without Satisfaction to his Justice he might be merciful he might have forborn for ever to punish any Sin much more to punish the Sin of the Elect and if he might forbear Punishment of Sin for an hundred Years no Man can determine when he behoved to begin so that he might delay for a Million of Millions of Years The Difficulty is increased because many good Men through the hatred of the Socinian Popish and Arminian Opinion that Christ died equally for all Men and procured them universal Grace that they might repent or not repent at their Option run into the other Extream that Christ purchased nothing but to the Elect and therefore endeavour to loose the Knot by the resemblance of Civil Powers whom Justice obligeth to punish but leaves the Time to their Discretion This Solution importeth nothing for the Justice of Civil Powers is not to expiate but to suppress Crimes That which deserves eternal Punishment can never be expiated by all that they are able to do but God's Justice is for Expiation I doubt not that the Mediator hath procured Temporal Mercies even for the Reprobate and that tho by his Purchase there is no Grace given them yet that it is sincerely offered to all that come to Discretion and that it was the Reprobates fault that they did reject it and will be their eternal Accusation against themselves else how could it be said Turn ye turn ye Why will ye die Nor could it be complained by God That they would have none of him that they hardened their Hearts and stiffned their Necks against him Nor on the contrary That his long-suffering Patience leads unto Repentance Tho this may be said only for the Elect it is also said I gave them time to repent and they repented not which could only be meant of the Reprobate who are frequently said to be inexcusable that is they have no Excuse that they have thrown themselves into Misery yea their own Natural Conscience shall not suffer them to think that they were inevitably miserable It is not enough to say that the Reprobate are inexcusable because there are many
Unjust he openeth his bountiful Hand and bestows what is necessary for every living thing while he allows it Life He is merciful and pitieth the very Ravens when they cry for want of Food and much more supplies the Necessities of Men even when they do not trust or expect it All these Perfections respect his Creatures and it is evident that they are without Obligation and in that differ from his Justice and so is also his Providence and Government of the World but his Truth and his Wisdom are Perfections terminated on himself as their peculiar End they are free for none can be obliged to himself yet they are more necessary than the Acts of Bounty which he might forbear but they are comprehended under the Decency proper to God on his own account tho there had never been a Creature he would ever have been true his Thoughts being ever conform to their Objects The Faithfulness of God then is comprehended in his Bounty or Benignity respecting his Creature as warrantably trusting in him As the Term Faithfulness is variously taken so the thing is commonly very indistinctly and sometimes erroniously understood confounding Faithfulness with Justice and Truth and supposing there is no Warrant for Faithfulness but upon Promise and upon the Truth of God in that Promise which is a great Mistake for the Performance of a Promise is an Act of Justice and Truth is not an Object of Trust but when Words or Signs to express it are emitted but Faith may warrantably be where God hath made no Promise nor expressed any Word When God created Angels and Men before he made any Promise to them they did know from his excellent Nature and firmly trust that if they did not offend him he would never make them miserable and they might have trusted for particular Favours not in the way of Reward I know no clear Evidence from Scripture that God promised to Adam that he should never be annihilated only I see that he threatneth Death if he transgressed his Command in eating the forbidden Fruit whence it is collected that God promised him Eternal Life and even Immortality and that he entered into Covenant with him wherein Adam willingly ingaged himself to the Obedience of God and God did promise Life and Immortality to him to his Wife and their Posterity and to raise them from an Animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven without the Dissolution of Soul and Body by Death and as it is commonly believed the good Angels after they had given proof of their Obedience were confirmed that they should never fall There is no less ground to believe that the like Favour would have been granted to Man not only for himself that he should not fall but that a greater measure of Perfection should be given to his Posterity that they might not be under the Necessity of falling and it is evident and certain that by his Transgression in eating the forbidden Fruit he lost these Benefits both to himself and his Posterity but by the infinite Mercy and Benignity of God Christ the second Adam perfected and performed what the first Adam had lost Can any Man pretend that the particular Favours that the Saints have always prayed for from God were all promised by God or did he express his Purpose to give them No certainly and yet they did warrantably trust and prayed in Faith for them and obtained that which they prayed for whereof there are innumerable Examples in Scripture and Experience And therefore it is said that the fervent Prayer of the Godly availeth much If the Import of Mens Prayers should only be that God should be just in the performance of his Promise and be as good his Word I see not how Prayer could be said to avail much for God would be true and just whether any Creature prayed or not But God granteth many things upon the earnest Prayer of his People which were neither promised nor necessary and had no other Conveniency but to satisfy their longing Desire which if it be not incongruous for God to do or them to receive as being hurtful to them if Faith be not wanting the Effect will not fail Was there either Necessity or Promise for the Prophet's stopping the Clouds of Heaven for three Years and six Months and for obtaining Rain when there was no second Cause for it Is it not warrantable to pray to be inclined or directed in the Choice of a Calling a Match or any lawful Undertaking or for the Success of the Choice Is there any Promise for these Particulars Yea tho it be said by Christ to the Apostles That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will do it I take it rather to be a Declaration of God's Faithfulness and of the Effect of faithful Prayer not signifying an Engagement but a Resolution And I think it were a very unbecoming manner of praying to say Lord Thou hast promised that whatsoever I demand in Christ's Name thou wilt grant it this I demand and therefore I claim it as due by thy Justice and Truth which thou canst not refuse With God's Grace that never shall be my strain God hath declared that he will give Salvation and Glory to all that shall have saving Faith trusting to obtain these with Sutableness which cannot be towards those who resolve to cleave to and pursue their Sins Suppose this were not only a Declaration but a proper Promise and that the Performance were an Act of God's Justice and Truth yet where hath he promised that he will give Faith to this or that Man that believeth And should he that believeth claim Salvation as an Act of Truth and Justice and not as a free Act of God's Mercy and Benevolence and specially as an Act of God's Faithfulness that he will not disappoint the becoming Hope or Trust of his Creature Trust among Men is not accounted when they obtain a clear Obligation tho it had been granted freely because the Obliged can be compelled to perform but it is accounted a Trust when there is no Promise but that from the Nature of the Deed it is to be presumed not to be a Donation in favour of the Person trusted but with Intention and Expectation that he would restore to the Truster or those who derive Right from him upon demand God of his Benignity to further the Faith of his Creatures does not only promise where no Promise was necessary but gives Seals and Oaths not so much to secure the Effect as to produce Faith and therefore the Effect should ever be attributed to God's Faithfulness and to the Creature 's Faith resting on that Faithfulness I know that God's Justice Truth and Faithfulness have been oftentimes joined as Man 's also may When a Man obtains a written valid Obligation suppose it were for a valuable Consideration there concurs the Justice of that Person who may be compelled to perform his Truth that as he expressed his Purpose to perform so