〈◊〉 previous Images of the moral Beauty â—nd congruity or deformity and inconâ—â—uity of things in the Soul The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rudimental Princiâ—les of the Rational Nature There are 〈◊〉 well indubitable maximes of Reason â—elating to Moral Practice as there are â—elating to Science and these not only stand â—pproved by the universal assent of manâ—ind but they demonstrate themselves 〈◊〉 their agreeableness to the Rational Faculty It is not more certain that one â—nd the same thing cannot at once be and â—ot be That if equals be substracted from equals what remains will be equal c. Than that of whomsoever we hold our Beings Him we ought to love and 〈◊〉 That God being Veracious is to be belâ—â—â—ved That we are to do by others as 〈◊〉 would be done by our selves c. And 〈◊〉 deny these is in effect to deny Man to 〈◊〉 Rational for as much as the faculty 〈◊〉 call Reason exists in us necessarily 〈◊〉 these Opinions Now these Deterâ—â—â—nations being the natural Issues of 〈◊〉 Souls in their rational exercise in coâ—â—paring Acts with their objects come to 〈◊〉 called ingraft-Notions and universal Câ—â—â—racters wrought into the essential Coâ—â—position of our Nature And besidâ— what we have already said to demonstraâ—â— that some things being compared 〈◊〉 the Holy Nature of God and the relâ—â—tion that we stand in to him are intriâ—â—secally Good and other things intrinsâ—â—cally Evil It is inconsistent with the peâ—â—fections of the Divine Being particâ—â—larly with his Sanctity Veracity anâ— Goodness to prepossess us with such conâ—ceptions of things as are not to bâ— found in the Nature of the things themâ—selves In a word the Effluvia of the ranâ—kest and worst-scented Body do not strikâ— more harshly upon the olfactory-Orgaâ— nor carry a greater incongruity to thâ— Nerves of that Sensatory than what we call moral Evil doth to the intellectual â—aculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are some things â—hich all men think or wherein all Men agree and that is common Right or Inâ—ustice by Nature although Men be not â—ombined into Societies nor under any Covenants one to an other Arist. Rhet. â—ib 1. c. 14. Paul tells us that there are some â—hings which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ust and honest in all Mens esteem Rom. 12.17 The Third is this There being some â—hings so differenced in themselves with â—espect to the nature of God and our dependance on Him as hath been said and man being created capable of knowing what is so It is impossible that God should allow us to pursue what is contrary to his nature and the Relation we stand in to him or to neglect what is agreeable to it and the dependance we have on him God having made man with faculties necessarily judging so and so He is in truth the Author of those judgments by having created the faculties which necessarily make them Now what-ever judgment God makes a man with must needs be a Law from Goâ— given to man nor can he ever depart froâ— it without gainsaying and so offendiâ—â— Him that was the Author of it Whatevâ—â— judgment God makes a man with concerâ—â—ing either himself or other things it 〈◊〉 Gods judgment and whatsoever is his judgâ—ment is a law to man nor can he negleâ—â— or oppose it without sin being in his exiâ—stence made with a necessary subjection tâ— God Such and such dictates being the nâ—â—tural operations of our minds the Being 〈◊〉 essential Constitution of which in right reâ—â—soning we owe to God we cannot but esteeâ— them the voice of God within us and conseâ—quently his law to us saith Sr. Ch. Wolseley oâ— Scripture belief p. 32 33. And accorâ—dingly these dictates of right Reason witâ— the Superadded act of conscience are stileâ— by the Apostle the Law written in the heart◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For when the Gentiles whicâ— have not the Law viz. in writing as the Iews had do by Nature natural light or the dictates of right Reason the things contained in the Law those things which the Moral Law of Moses enjoyned these having not a Law a written Law or a Law â—ade known to them by Revelation are a â—aw to themselves have the Law of naâ—â—re congenite with them Which shew the â—ork of the Law that which the Law inâ—â—â—ucts about and obligeth to Written in â—â—eir Hearts Rom. 2.14 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ational Beings do in the light and through â—he conduct of Reason chuse and pursue â—â—ose very things which the law of God the Divine Law enjoyns saith Hierocles 〈◊〉 vers 29. Pythag. Sponte sua sine lege â—â—dem rectumque colebant as the Poet â—â—ith Hierocles in vers 63. 64 Pyâ—hag assigns this as the cause why men â—o not escape the entanglements of lust â—nd passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they attend not â—o those common notions of Good and Evil which the Creator hath ingrafted in rational Beings for their conduct and Government It is of this Law that Austin speaks lib. 2. confess cap. 4. Lex Scripta in cordibus hominum quam ne ipsa delet iniquitas A Law written in our hearts which sin it self cannot expunge The Fourth and last is this that God for the securing the honour of his own wisdome and sanctity the maâ—â—â—taining his rectorship and the preserviâ—â— the dependance of his creature upon hiâ— annexed to this natural Law in case of meâ— failure a penalty The constituting of the â—â—â—ness of punishment on supposition of traâ—â—â—gression doth so necessarily belong 〈◊〉 Laws that without it they are but luâ—â—crous things Tacite permittitur quod 〈◊〉 ultione prohibetur what is forbidden witâ—â—out a Sanction is silently and implicitely aâ—â—lowed Tertul. Where there is no penalâ—â— denounced against disobedience Goverâ—â—ment is but an empty notion The fear 〈◊〉 punishment is the great medium of Moâ—â— Government coaction and force wouâ—â— overthrow obedience and leave neitheâ— room for Vertue nor Vice in the worlâ— The means of swaying us must be accomâ—modated to the nature of our Beings noâ— are rational Creatures to be otherwise inâ—fluenced than by fear and hope Thâ—â— Ruler governs at the courtesie of his Subâ—jects who permits them to rebel with imâ—punity Not only the Poets placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the throne with Jupiter for the punishment of disobedience but the Moralist makes Justice to wait on God to avenge him on those that Transgress his Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—lutarch As every law then must have penalty annexed to it so had this of which â—e are treating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their conscience also bearing â—itness and their thoughts in the mean â—hile accusing or else excusing one another saith the Apostle Rom. 2.15 of those â—ho were under no other law than the law of Nature Conscience is properly nothing else but the soul reflectâ—ng on it self and actions and judging of both according to Law Now where there is no Law there â—an be no guilt
that essentially belonged to them â— Interrogas quid petam ex virtute ipsamâ— nihil enim est melius ipsa pretium sui estâ— Senec. de vit beat vid. etiam de Clement cap. 1. Epist. 113. But first it is 〈◊〉 palpable contradiction that any action or habit should be Morally beautiful otherwise than as it respects God whose Nature and Will is the measure of all its Moral pulchritude and therefore it ought to be referred to the honor of its Model Yea not onely the Will of God but his Nature requires that what-ever derives from him either as its idea or source should be ultimately resolved and terminated in him as its Center Secondly It is most false that either Habit or Act can be Rationally chosen or finally rested in for it self But either some benefit to our selves and friends or the honor and glory of some other must be proposed and intended by them For as all Habits are desired in reference to actions and operations so if in every action we design not an end in order to the attainment of which we so act we declare our selves brutish and irrational Though Brutus was as far tinctur'd with a persuasion that Vertue was its own End and Reward as any man else whatsoever yet it is most certain that he reckoned upon the accruement of something else by it whereof judging himself disappointed he proclaim'd Vertue to be but an empty Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall shut up this with a sentence or two of Austin Virtutes cum ad seipsas referuntur nec propter aliud expetuntur inflatae ac superbae sunt When Vertues are sought onely for themselves they degenerate into Pride and become Idols and the prosecution of them is Idolatry Proinde virtutes quas sibi videtur habere homo nisi ad Deum retulerit etiam ipsa vitia sunt potius quam virtutes Therefore the Vertues which a man thinks he hath if they be not referred to God they are Vices rather than Vertues de Civit. Dei lib. 9. cap. 25. vide Jansen de Stat. Natur laps lib. 4. cap. 11 12 13. It appears then from the whole of what we have said that the Law of Creation or of Reason as it is subjective in Man is so far from being the Rule of Religion in its utmost latitude that it is not a sufficient measure of Moral Vertue § 7. We come next to consider the Law of Nature or Right Reason as 't is Objective in the Decalogue which we have declared to be a transcript of the Law of Creation chap. 2. § 4. and have also demonstrated its perfection and sufficiency for the Regulating the Duties we are under by the said Law chap. 2. § 13. We cannot without very unbecoming thoughâ—s of the Wisdome of the Legislator but judge it a compleat Measure of all Moral Offices and performances seeing God designed it for a Law of Morality For as Plato says it belongs to a Law-giver not only to have an eye to a few things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to have an Universal respect to all and to every Vertue de legib 10. Nor can this be denyed of the supreme Rector presupposing him supernaturally to reveal a Law of Manners without reflexion both on his Nature and Government We will allow the Orator to complain latius patere officiorum quam Juris Regulam That there is more belongs to our Duty than ever was enacted by any Civil Law but we dare not entertain the like thoughts of the Divine Law especially when it was given by God for this very end that we might be illuminated and conducted by it in the offices of Morality It is no part of my concern at present to enquire whether the Decalogue comprehend any more in it than a transcript of the Original Law or whether besides its being a Collection of Natural Laws there may not be some positive precepts as well as arbitrary appendices added to it It is enough to me that it contains an Epitome of the Dictates of Right Reason and that 't is a compendious Draught and Model of the Law of Nature nor will I at this time interest my self in that Controversie whether there by any thing else required in it yea or not I withal readily grant that Obedience to all the Duties of Instituted Religion is bound upon the Soul by the Law of the Ten Commandments seeing that obligeth us to obey God in all the declared Instances of his Will As there is nothing in positive Religion repugnant to any principle of Nature so these very duties which do immediately fundate in Gods Will do challenge our obedience in the Vertue of a Natural Law I crave also to have it observed That the Decalogue may be considered either as it is a meer Draught and Delineation of the Law of Creation or as having annexed to it a Remedial Law to which in its most exacting Rigor it was made subservient Though the Law of the Ten Commandments for the matter and substance of it be one and the same with the Law of Creation being in this respect only Renovatio antiquae Legis not Latio novae and still Natural with reference to the things enacted though positive as to the manner of the promulgation Yet as given by Moses there is a Law of Grace couched in it which no wise appertain'd to it as communicated at first with our Natures Hence the Lord in the very Preface of the Decalogue treats with them as their God Exod. 20.1 i. e. as their everlasting Benefactor which in the Vertue of the Covenant of Works and in Reference to the meer Law of Creation he neither was nor could be since the first ingress of sin In this sense David takes the Law in most of his Encomiums of it And in this acceptation I acknowledge the Law to be the measure of all the main Duties which we owe to God either in the way of Natural or Instituted Religion It is true there are some Duties of peculiar New-Testament institution but those as they are in themselves of a subordinate Nature to the great demands of the Law of Faith being chiefly stipulations of our performing the conditions of it So both the constituting practising of them had been unsuitable to the Old Testament oeconomie The like may be said concerning those obligations which we are manumitted and set free from which the Mosaick Church were under the Sanction of That which I undertake the Justification of is this that the Decalogue as it is a meer transcript of the Law of nature or right Reason is not the measure of the whole of Religion nor as it is Christian of the most momentous parts of it Nor can the contrary be affirmed without renouncing of the Gospel which I am afrai'd too many as being weary of it are ready to doe For First if the Decalogue as it is a meer new Edition of the Original Law of nature be the sole and only Measure
the same Mint that the former term did and we are beholding to the schools of the Philosophers for it Aristotles books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave the principal rise to this word Quintilian denies that there is any Latine word by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be expressed lib. 6. cap. 3. But Tully renders them by mores manners Lib de fato and Orat. de lege Agrariâ ad Quirites The Schoolmen brought this exotick phrase as they did many other first into Divinity And it must be acknowledged of most of them that they seem to have traded more in the writings of the philosophers than in the sacred Scriptures and to have taken their measures of the notions and apprehensions of things rather from Aristotle than the Bible You may see this laid open at length both as to matter of fact and the mischievous consequences which have ensued thereupon by that great and incomparable man Dr. Owen De natur ort c. verae Theolog. lib. 1. digress lib. 6. a pag. 509. ad p. 521. However it being now universally taken up and having harboured it self both in the minds and discourses of men it would be in vain for us to contend against it we shall sufficiently approve our selves if we can manifest the just acceptation of it Moral as it relates to vertue is capable at most but of a threefold signification First to denote the conformity of our minds and actions to the whole law of God regulating our practical obedience But this description whether we take our measure from vertue to which it is an adjunct and of which it is predicated or from law which first claiming the Denomination of Moral doth afterwards impart it to certain habits of the mind and its operations is much too large If we determine of the meaning of it by vertue Then for as much as in all true affirmative propositions there must be an identity betwixt the subject and the predicate Moral must relate onely to an observation of these things and a practice of those duties which vertue refer's to namely an observance of what Reason without any superadded declaration can conduct us in and natural endowments and self acquirements inable us to the performance of Nor could the first Authors of this Term mean any more by it being at once strangers to all external Revelation Subjective grace Or if we should choose to decide the import of Moral as it refers to Vertue by taking our measure of its signification from Law as that to which the stile of Moral primarily belongs and by analogy only to habits and operations we shall still find that the foresaid signification of Moral is too wide for according to this method of proceed Moral as referred to vertue can be of no larger extent than Moral as referred to law is Seeing then it were against ordinary sense and the custome of mankind to stile every law of practical obedience moral it is no less irrational to stile the conformity of our minds and actions to those laws by the name of Moral Vertues A Second signification put upon Moral as it hath reference to Vertue is to intimate thereby the observation of the precepts of the Second table of the decalogue and this is the common acceptation of it among practical Divines whereof I judg this to be the reason either because the Philosophers in their writings vulgarly called Ethicks and Morals do principally treat of the duties which men owe to themselves and one another which are likewise the subject of the Second Table or because they discourse of those only with any consistency to reason and commeâ—â—dableness while in the mean time in what soever we owe immediately to God the imaginations are vain and their sentiment dark and ludicrous But this acceptatioâ— of Moral Vertues I take to be as much toâ— narrow as the former was wide nor dâ— any that handle these matters accurately so straiten and restrain them For whether we state the meaning of Moral by its Habitude to Vertue or to that Law which is so denominated We must admit it a greater latitude of signification than meerly to imply Second-Table duties If we judg of its import by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Vertue we must then allow it the same largeness of sence whâ—ch we allow that namely to declare whatsoever is required of us by the Law of Nature in the Light of Reason and I suppose it will be readily acknowledged that there are some duties which we owe immediately to God and which respect him alone as their object that can be demonstrated by principles drawn from Nature and the foundations and grounds of them discovered in the Light of Reason and by consequence Moral Vertues ought not to be confined to the observation of the precepts of the Second Table Or if we determine the sense of Moral by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Relation to that law which is so called and with respect to conformity to which the Habit 's and Operations of our minds are afterwards denominated Moral it will with the same evidence follow that the Duties of Morality consist not alone in obeying the commandments of the Second Table forasmuch as the Precepts of the First constitute a part of the Moral Law as well as these of the Second do There is a Third sence which Moral as it belongs to vertue is capable of namely to declare those habits and operations of the mind required by the law of creation And this sence of Moral will prove either stricter or larger according as we take the measure of the term from vertue or from law If we define the meaning of it by its habitude to vertue it will then signify only those duties that we are under the obligation of by the law of creation which we are able to discover by the light of Reason But if we determine the sence of it by that law which is commonly called moral it will then express all those duties either to God or Man which we are obliged to by the rule of creation whether there reside in man in his lapsed state an ability of discerning them by Reason yea or not Now this being the most comprehensive notion of moral vertues or duties of morality that any one who have treated those things with exactness have pitched on and being the largest sence which in any propriety of Speech the Term can be used in I shall be willing to admit this as the true notion and idea of it Morality then consistâ— in an observance of the precepts of the law of our creation that by the alone strength and improvement of our natural abilities whether the particular duties we are under the sanction of by the foresaid law be discoverable by and in the light of Reason yea or not § 5. Besides these moral vertues whereof we have been discoursing and whose nature we have fixed and stated There is frequent
is elevated adapted and brought into a disposedness of living to and acting for Him Now this Habitual Grace is twofold Gratia sani hominis and Gratia aegroti the Grace of innocency and the Grace of Recovery The first is stiled by Austin nâ—â—turae sanitas animae sanitas adjutorium robâ—â—ris naturalis The Health of the soul thâ— concreated aid communicated at first to and with our Nature the Second he callâ— Gratia medicinalis medicinale salvatori auxilium Medicinal Grace the Souls cure These two differ no less than health anâ— Physick do This acceptation of Grace iâ— frequent in the Scripture Joh. 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt amonâ— us full of Grace and truth ibid. v. 16. Oâ— his fulness have all we received and Gracâ— for Grace Eph. 4 7. Unto every one of uâ— is given Grace according to the measure oâ— the gift of Christ c. This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Divine Nature whereof we are madâ— partakers 2 Pet. 1.4 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of his Son to which we are preâ—destinated to be conformed Rom. 8.29 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of him that created us Col. 3.10 Thirdly It is used Passively to intimatâ— those actual supplies of ability and strength which from time to time are ministreâ— unto us This Austin calls adjutorium actioâ—nis in contradistinction from the formeâ— which he calls adjutorium possibilitatis This is the import of it 2. Cor. 12.9 â—nd he said unto me my Grace is sufficient 〈◊〉 thee for my strength is made perfect in â—â—akness And Heb. 4.16 Let us thereâ—â—re come boldly unto the throne of Grace 〈◊〉 we may obtain mercy and find Grace to 〈◊〉 in time of need Through this it is 〈◊〉 we are not at any time tempted beyond â—hat we are enabled to encounter and unâ—â—rgo 1 Cor. 10.13 And according 〈◊〉 the proportion of assistance afforded us 〈◊〉 this kind we are more or less vigorous 〈◊〉 duty victorious over temptations enâ—â—rged in our communion with God Fourthly it is made use of to express â—ose acts and operations of ours which proâ—eed both from habitual and actual Grace Col. 4.6 Let your Speech be always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Grace i. e. Gracious pious â—uch as may appear to be from Grace Col. â— 16 Singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Grace in â—our heart i. e. after the manner of pious persons Eph. 4.29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may Minister Grace unto the Hearers i. e. some spiritual advantage And I suppose the Apostle in his using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Contribution intended not only to declare the freeness of the donation but to intimate the Principle whence 〈◊〉 relieving of others should flow 1 Cor. 1â—3 Whomsoever yee shall approve by 〈◊〉 letters them will I send to bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Liberality to Jerusalem 2 Cor. â—6 7. We desire Titus that as he had begâ—â— so he would also finish in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Grace also Therefore as ye 〈◊〉 bound in every thing in faith in utterancâ— and knowledg and in all diligence and 〈◊〉 your love to us see that ye abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Grace also Nor is it aâ— exception of any import that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occuâ— in other Authors expressive only of benevâ—â—lence without relation to a vital reneweâ— principle whence in order to an acceptatioâ— with God it ought to proceed as in thaâ— of Aristole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is charity wheâ— he that hath relieveth him that wants Rheâ— lib. 2. cap. 9. For alas How should they look farther than the Substance of thâ—â— action who as they did not throughly understand the corruption of Nature so they knew nothing aright of the renovation of it But their use of a word or phrase is no ground for the circumscribing and confining the Holy Ghost in the application of them These are all the acceptations of Grace â—hich have any affinity to the present â—ubject I know not whether all this will â—ot be called Gawdy Metaphors childish â—llegories Spiritual Divinity a prating of â—â—rases empty schemes of Speech But â—esides that all these acceptations and disâ—â—nctions have been received by Fathers â—choolmen and Divines of all ages and â—erswasions we have found them also â—arranted by the Holy text so that to imâ—each any one of them is not only to arâ—aign Divines of all sorts but to remonâ—trate to the Scripture it self The Terms â—hen being thus open'd and explain'd The Question to be debated is Whether Moral Vertue be all one with Grace Whether Morality and Holiness be Universally the same thing Or whether the whole of that Obedience which we owe to God be nothing else but the practice of Moral Duties Now the negative is that whereof we undertake the defence and justification in the following Chapters CHAP. II. Several things premised in order to 〈◊〉 decision and the determination of 〈◊〉 question 1. All Moral actions receive thâ— denomination of Good or Bad from their câ—â—â—formity or difformity to some Rule 2. 〈◊〉 alone Rule of Morality is Law 3. Man oâ—â—â—ginally created under the Sanction oâ— Law 4. The nature of that Law with 〈◊〉 manner of its promulgation 5. Man endâ—â—ed at first with strength and ability for 〈◊〉 observance of all the Precepts of it 6. Sâ—â—posing an observation of all the duties mâ—â—â—kind was obliged to by the said Law 〈◊〉 he could have lay'd no claim to immortaâ—â— and â—ife without a superadded stipulatâ—â—â— from God 7. The Law of Creation beiâ—â— ratified into a Covenant God took 〈◊〉 therein to secure his own Glory what evâ—â— should be the event on mans part 8. 〈◊〉 through the fall forfeiting all title to Liâ—â— abode nevertheless under the obligation 〈◊〉 the Law of his Creation 9. Every Law 〈◊〉 Nature is of an unchangeable obligatiâ—â— 10. A twofold mischief with refereâ—â—â—â— to that Law arrested mankind through 〈◊〉 fall 11. Some knowledg of moral Dutiâ—â— and an ability to perform the substance of â—hem still retained 12. The introduction of a remedial Law with the relations and duties which thence emerge 13. The subordination which the Law of Creation is put in to the Law of Grace 14. Our inâ—â—ptitude to the Duties required in the remedial Law and the Nature of it 15. Grace communicated to us to relieve us against this impotency 16. where ever it is wrought it is not onely attended with but it is the principle of all moral Vertue 17. Through the renovation and assistance of Divine Grace such an observation of the commands of God is possible as according to the Law of Faith doth entitle us to Life § 1. HAving in the former Chapter sufficiently explained the terms belonging to the question under consideration we now proceed to make a neerer approach to
the matter it self And that what is afterwards to be offered may be the more clearly apprehended and the lines measures principles of Vertue and Grace the more duly stated I shall in this Chapter propose and endeavour to establish several conclusions which as they are of considerable import in themselves so of no less influence to the enlightninâ— of what we have undertaken First then All moral actions become Good â— Bad from their agreeableness or disagreeableâ—ness to some Rule which is as their measâ—â—â— and standard to which being commensurâ—â—â— they appear either equal or unequal As in mâ—â—terial and sensible things we judg of theâ—â— streightness crookedness by their agreeâ—ment or disagreement to a material rulâ— which is the measure of their Rectitude anâ— Obliquity so in things Moral we judg wheâ—ther a thing or action be Good or Evil bâ— their agreement or disagreement to somâ— moral Rule For an Action then to bâ— good or bad it imports two things thâ— entity of the Action the Rule to whicâ— it is commensurate They greatly misâ—take who state the moraâ—lity of an action As Compton doth de bonitate malitiâ humanorum actuum Disp. 89. Sect. 1. N. 4. formally to consist in its being spontaneous voluntary and free for though no action can be Moral that is not free yeâ— its morality doth not lie formally in its freeâ—dom Hence those very Philosophers who made Vertue and Vice to be thingâ— only Arbitrary founded alone in the imaginations of men did nevertheless acknowledg man to be a free agent and that â—iberty is inseparable from every Humane â—ction Freedom intrinsecally belongs to eâ—ery action as it is an human action whereâ—s morality is but partly intrinsecal namely â—s it imports and includes the entity of the â—ction and partly extrinsecal viz. as it deâ—otes the measure by which it is regulated § 2. The second thing we premise is That â—he immediate and formal Rule of Moral â—ood or evil is Law or the constitution of the Rector as to what shall be due I â—â—ant that the fundamental measure of â—ctions unchangeably Good or Evil is 〈◊〉 Divine Nature and of things and â—ctions indifferent and variable the Diâ—â—ne Will But the formal and immeâ—â—ate Rule of both is Law No action 〈◊〉 otherwise Good or Bad than as it is â—â—ther enjoyned or forbidden It is imâ—ossible to conceive any action or omisâ—â—on to be a duty abstracting from obâ—â—gation and it is as impossible to conâ—â—ive obligation secluding Law This â—â—nd's abundantly confirmed by that of â—he Apostle John 1 Epist. chap. 3. ver ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is the transgresâ—â—on of the Law An illegality or deviation â—â—om law To which accords that of Paul Rom. 4 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where no Law is there is no transgressioâ— It is a great mistake which yet I find toâ— many guilty of to make either the objecâ— or circumstance of an aâ—ction In hoc hallucinantur Iâ—sâ—ite fâ—re omnes vid. Vâ—sâ— diâ—p 57. Compt. dist 84. Sect. 2. de act Ham. the rule of its Moâ—rality or to constituâ—â— them the measure whâ— we judg an action gooâ— or evil An action is â—ot otherwise Gooâ— or Evil with respect to its circumstances then as cloathed with them it is either prâ—â—hibited or enjoyned It is true the cirâ—cumstances of an action conduce and coâ—â—tribute towards the discerning and defiâ—â—ing when it is forbidden when commanâ—ded when allowed and when disallowed But still the Law permitting and enjoyâ—ning the action in such cases and circumâ—stances disapproving and prohibiting it iâ— other is the proper and immediat Rule oâ— its morality § 3. The Third premise it this that maâ— being created a rational creature was uâ—â—der the Sanction of a law It is a contraâ—diction for man to be such a creature as hâ— is and not to be obliged to love fear anâ— obey God All creatures according tâ— their respective and several natures anâ— necessarily subject to him that made them â—t is impossible that whatever owes its enâ—â—re being to God should not also be in â— suitable subjection to him Man then â—eing a Rational creature must owe God â— rational subjection and on supposition â—hat his being is of such a Species and kind â— necessarily follow 's from the constituâ—â—on of his nature and his Habitude to God as his Maker that he should be acâ—ordingly bound to love reverence and â—â—rve him that made him so this being 〈◊〉 only Reasonable subjection But forâ—â—much as not only Pyrrho Epicurus c. â—f old but Hobbs and some other wild â—theistically disposed persons of late have â—anaged an opposition to all natural Laws â—ontending that all things are in themâ—elves indifferent that Moral Good and Evil result only from mens voluntary reâ—training and limiting of themselves and â—ow that antecedently to the constitutions â—ppointments and custom's of Societies â—here is neither Vertue nor Vice Turpiâ—ude nor Honesty justice nor injustice That there are no laws of Right and Wrong previous to the laws of the Commonwealth but that all men are at liberty to do as they please I say matters standing thus I shall discourse this head a little 〈◊〉 amply That there have been some who eithâ—â— through a supine negligence in not exâ—â—â—cising their faculties or through have defiled and darkned their Reasons by coâ—â—verse with sin have lost the sence 〈◊〉 distinction of Good and evil as well 〈◊〉 memoir's of ancient times as the sad â—â—â—perience of our own do evidently 〈◊〉 Diogenes Laertius in the life of Pyrrho 〈◊〉 us that he denyed any thing to be just unjust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature But that all this were so only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by positive law 〈◊〉 Custom Nec Natura potest justo secernere 〈◊〉 quum There is no difference betwixt what 〈◊〉 call good and what evil by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forasmuch as there are different lawes 〈◊〉 different places it thence follows that theâ—◠〈◊〉 nothing in it self honest or dishonest but that according to occasion the same thing may be sometimes the one and sometimes â—he other In Fragmentis Pythagoreorum â—nter opuscula edita a D. Theoph. Gale Seâ—eca as well as others chargeth the same â—pon Epicurus and saith that therein he will dissent from him Ubi dicit nihil esse â—ustum naturâ where Epicurus affirmeth â—hat by nature or natural law there is noâ—hing just and honest And this indeed â—ecessarily follows from Epicurus his disâ—harging God from the Government of the World For if there be no Government â—here is no law and if no law there is neither moral Good nor Evil As Good and Evil are relatives to law so is law the â—elative of Government and all these â—tand and fall together With those already produced doth Mr. Hobbs fully agree Ubi nulla Respublica nihil injustum where there is no Common-wealth there is
things in Brute creatures to which theâ—â— are directed by instinct may conduceâ— instruct men what becomes us that are Raâ—tional particularly Parents may learn thâ— obligation they are under to their childreâ— and the care they ought to take for theâ—â— education and subsistence in the worlâ— from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Affection whiâ—â— we find in Brute Animals to their young yet this is no certain much less sufficieâ—â— Indication of Natural Laws For Bruâ— creatures being under no Law at all it 〈◊〉 unreasonable and ridiculous to judg of 〈◊〉 is a Law of Nature and what is not 〈◊〉 them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They devour one another because they havâ— no right nor law amongst them says Hesiod Beasts may do hurt but they cannoâ— sin They may exercise cruelty in pursuing the satisfaction of their appetites but they cannot be injurious And therefore when God commands that the beaâ—â— which hath killed a man should be put to death Exod. 21.28 It is to shew the horridness of the fact of murther not the â—â—ligation of the beast to Law nor is it â—â—tended as a punishment to it but to deâ—â—re Gods detestation of the like in us â—here are many things generally practised 〈◊〉 the Brute Animals the imitation of â—hich would be abominable in men That which in us would be incest is not so in them For I suppose there are few of Diogenes and Chrysippus mind who from the example of Cocks Treadding their own â—ames in fer the Lawfulness of the like copâ—lations in Men. The Poet hath determined much better in this case then the above-named Philosophers Coeunt amimalia nullo Caetera delicto nec habetur turpe Iuvencae Ferre patrem tergo fit equo sua filia conjunx Ovid. Others judg of the Law of Nature by the consent and harmony of Mankind what men universally agree in is accounted by some if not the only at least the best medium of arriving at a sure knowledg of the law of nature In re consensio omnium gentium jus natura putanda est The consent of all nations in any thing is to be thought the Law of Nature Cicero 1. Tusculan But neither is this a sure indicatâ—â—â— of Natural Laws nor shall a Person 〈◊〉 attain to satisfaction in this method of pâ—â—â—ceed For the Laws and customs of 〈◊〉 have been so different and opposâ— that what hath been accounted vâ—ce one nation hath been held for vertue â—â—nother The Athenians punished theft 〈◊〉 the Egyptians Lacedemonians alloweâ— When God forbade the Iews the imitatâ— of the customs of their neighbouring Nâ—â—tions He reckon's up vile and abominaâ—â— lusts as their national customs Deut. â—â— 30 31.14.1 2.18.10 11. There 〈◊〉 been vices not only countenanced but 〈◊〉 commended by Laws in the wisest and bâ— policyed Commonwealths of the Worlâ— In the Third Place the dictates of rigâ—â— Reason are contended for by others to 〈◊〉 the Law of Nature Lex est ratio insitaâ— Naturâ quae jubet ea quae facienda sunt prâ—â—hibet que contraria Law is natural Reasâ—â— commanding what ought to be done 〈◊〉 forbidding the contrary Cicer. de Legiâ— lib. 1. But I cannot acquiesce in this account either For right Reason is ratheâ— the instrument of discerning the Law of Nâ—â—ture than the Law of Nature it self The Law of Nature is not so much a Law which 〈◊〉 nature prescribes unto us as a law â—â—scribed unto our nature It is the table which this law was originally written and exercising of which in its rational funcâ—â—â—s we came to understand it Law â—he will of the Rector signified but this 〈◊〉 knowing and perceiving of it and â—his our Reason was originally 〈◊〉 But Alas Reason is now so 〈◊〉 by sin and misled by prejudice 〈◊〉 and self-interest that it frequently 〈◊〉 Evil Good and Good Evil. Hence men pretend to right Reason in 〈◊〉 contradictory Nor do we in any 〈◊〉 find the great improvers of 〈◊〉 at greater variance one with another 〈◊〉 about what is just and what is unjust 〈◊〉 man determining as humour 〈◊〉 lust or profit swaye's him but 〈◊〉 of this chap. 3. Though there be 〈◊〉 evident congruity betwixt some acts 〈◊〉 their objects that if we exercise our 〈◊〉 in comparing the one with the 〈◊〉 it is impossible but that we should discern it yet there are others wherein we arrive at the knowledg of that proporâ—â—â—n only be deduction and long haranâ—â—â—es of argumentation By the Law of 〈◊〉 then we understand the whole Law given by God at first unto our Natures Whereof our Reasons exercising themselves in the consideration of the Nature of God our own Nature the relation we were created in to him the habitude we stood in to our Fellow-Creatures and the Divine method and order in the production of all was a sufficient Instrumental conveyance while we abode in the state of Integrity It is true since the fall it is otherwise many Dictates of the Law of Nature being grown inevident obscure subject to controversie not easy if at all to be defined without the advantage and assistance of Scripture-light There are various degrees of evidence in those things which relate and appertain to the Law of Nature in some the Moral congruity betwixt the Act and the Object is manifest apparent in other it lye's more remote and out of view So that now the only sure universal perfect System of natural Law is the Decalogue of Moses This is a true draught of what by the Law of Creation we were under the Sanction of A transcript and written impression of the whole Originall Law not at all differing in its nature from what was imposed on man in innocency but distinguished only in the the manner of its Promulgation that which was formerly internal and subjective being now external and objective But though we affirm that never any since the fall did so act his Reason as to comprehend Universally the Law of Nature with the bounds and consequences of it yet we also readily grant that our Reason at first was a sufficient Instrument of conveying the knowledg of the whole Law of Nature to us Seeing then that no man can justly come under obligation by a Law unless it be sufficiently promulgated promulgation being an essential qualification of a Law for Law can have influence upon none that do not know it Leges quae constringunt hominum vitas intelligi ab omnibus debent Those Laws which have influence upon mens lives ought to be understood by all say Civilians We shall in the next place therefore endeavour to lay open the several fountains in which the whole Law of Nature was at first fully understood Now there were Five ways which our Rational Faculties exercising themselves in should before that sin had darkned the mind and disordered the creation have attained to a full and perfect knowledg of the Law of Creation by The First was by considering the nature of God and the habitude we
Moral Rectitude and Obedience Though the Gospel strengthen the Duties of Morality by new Motives and improve them upon New Principles yet it no where gives us any New Precepts of Moral Goodness It is true Christ once and again particularly in the fifth of Matthew vindicates the Moral Law from the corrupt glosses and flesh-pleasing expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees who had restrained and perverted it from and besides the meaning of the Law and the intent of the Law-giver But he no where superinduceth any New Moral Duty that was not designed in the Sanction of it at first He hath retrived the old Rules of Nature from the evil customs of the World and rebuk'd the false expositions put upon the Decalogue by those who both then and for a considerable time before sat in Moses's Chair But he hath no where made new additions to them by putting his last hand as some men take upon them to say to an imperfect draught And indeed to affirm that the Decalogue was an imperfect and defective edition of the Natural Law is to assert that which no way accords with the design of God's Wisdom and Goodness in giving it For God's intendment in giving the Law of the Ten Commandments being to relieve us against the Darkness of Moral Good and Evil which had seized us by the Fall we must suppose it a sufficient draught of the Original Law of Morality otherwise we must conclude it not proportionable and adequate to the end it was given for which to assert is no less than an impeachment of the divine Sapience Faithfulness and Goodness Nor doth the bringing up such a report upon the Moral Law accord with that account which the Scripture every where gives of it The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal. 19.7 Not onely essentially perfect in respect of its purity and holiness but integrally in respect of its plenitude and fulness As it is in nothing superfluous which it ought not to have neither is it deficient in any thing that it ought to have Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119.96 This it could not be if it were not a perfect measure of all Moral Duties Shall I add that the institution of New Moral precepts seems not at all consonant to the design that Christ came upon The Holy Ghost entirely allots the giving of the Law to Moses telling us that the work errand and business of Christ was of another Nature The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Christ's work was to bring into further light the Law of Faith and to redeem us from the Curse of the Moral Law not to augment the number of Natural Duties This may suffice to perstringe among others a late Author whose words are that the Decalogue was never intended for a perfect System of the Moral Law That â—e cannot imagine that by thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image is meant Thou shalt not institute Symbolical ceremonies or that by thou shalt not Murther alms and fraternal Correption are enjoyned c. Def. Continuat p. 312. It is likely that he and those of his persuasion would take it ill if I should tell them with whose Heifer they here Plow Therefore I shall irritate no man onely recommend those who desire farther confirmation in this matter to such who have debated the Socinian Controversies Now with respect to Christs having made the Moral Law of the Family of the Christian Religion in the place already assigned it a threefold subordination of that to this is easie to be manifested 1. That it is upon the alone score of the Law of Grace that God will accept any service at the hands of Sinners For though the Law as to the Obligation of it remain still in force and for the substance of it will do so to all Eternity yet that God will accept the service of Sinners is to be wholly attributed to God's transaction with them in the Covenant of Grace by Jesus Christ. 2. It is in the alone vertue of the Law of Faith and God's Mercy and Faithfulness therein displayed and declared that an ability is ministred to us of performing any part of Moral Obedience so as to be accepted with the Lord and afforded ground of expecting a reward thereupon This Grace comes not by Moses The Law as such administers no strength for the performance of what it requires this comes alone by Jesus Christ out of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 17. 3. Though the Original Law continue both to claym perfect Obedience and to threaten Death in case of the least faileur yet because of the introduction of the Law of grace over it the penalty shall not be executed provided we be sincere Christians flie to the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 Rom. 8.1 Not-withstanding both our manifest faileurs in that Obedience which the Law exacts and its severe denunciation of wrath upon the least sin yet our condition is not left hopeless providing we fulfil the terms of the Law of Grace Secondly The Original Law is brought into subserviency to the Law of Grace in this That though in it self and abstractedly considered it be only shapen to drive us from God and to fill us with thoughts of fear and flight and accordingly that was the effect of it upon Adam as soon as he had sinned yet through the introduction of the Remedying-Law it is become a blessed means in the hand of the Spirit to conduct us to Christ and God through him Hence it is stiled our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 And Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the Law for Righteousness c. Rom. 10.4 The scope and drift of the Law He to whom the Law guides and conducts Thus the word is used likewise elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the end i. e. finis intentionis the scope of the Commandment is Charity 2 Tim. 1.5 And not as Moses who put a vail over his face that the Children could not stedfastly look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of that which is abolished To that which God aym'd at in and by the Mosaick Ceremonies 2 Cor. 3.13 That Righteousness which the Law becoming weak through the flesh cannot confer upon us Rom. 8.3 It conducts and leads us to Christ for the obtaining of This is a blessed subserviency that all that is frightful and perplexing in the Original Law whether the amazing strictness of its precepts or the severe dreadfulness of its denunciations is made contributory and influential to bring us to Christ and to God by him Thirdly Herein also is the Original Law subjected and made subservient to the Law of Grace That Faith in the Messiah is constituted an ingredient in every Moral act in order to its acceptance with God 't is this which mainly gives every action its Moral specification Though the foundation
of all Moral Duties be laid in the Law of Nature yet the practice of every Duty with respect to acceptance with God since the fall is regulated by that great positive Law of the New Covenant which enjoyns the tendring of all things through the Messiah Now the manner of performance being an essential ingredient into the determination of the Moral quality of an action and the New Covenant determining this as the manner in which every Moral action ought to be performed it naturally follows that Faith in Jesus Christ is become an ingredient into and a part of every Moral Duty § 14. Having intimated the introduction of a Remedying-Law and the subordination of the Original Law thereunto That which we are next to address to is the unfolding our impotency and inability for the performance of the Duties and Conditions of this Law of Grace We here suppose that the New Covenant hath its terms and conditions as well as the Old Every Covenant of God made with us as with parties Covenanting doth by vertue of the Nature of the thing require some performance or other of us antecedently to our having an interest in and benefit by the promises of that stipulation We take likewise for granted that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.21 are the terms and conditions of the New Covenant The state and condition of Weakness Alienation and Enmity that we are in to these great Duties of the Gospel is what I intend a little farther to treat First then The terms of the Gospel together with the foundations on which they bear were not discernable by Natural Light They take their alone Rise in the soveraign will and pleasure of God nor is there any medium by which we can know the free determinations of the Divine Will but his own Declaration These things have no foundation in the imagination of any Creature They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not possible to be found out by sense or reason It is only Faith on the Word of God that gives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evidence and convincing demonstration of them and that begets an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or confidence and full assurance concerning them Heb. 11.1 Hence it is that the Gospel is so often stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mystery see Math. 13.11 Rom. 16.25 Eph. 1.9 6.19 1 Cor. 4.1 c. Some take the word to be of a Hebrew Original and to be equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a secret or a thing hidden others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nicto clausos oculos habeo Whencesoever we fetch it the unsearchableness and hiddenness of the Gospel is intended in it The New Covenant both in the Doctrines and Duties of it lies in a higher Region than humane Reason in its most daring flight can mount to The matters and concerns of it are omni ingenio altiora out of the reach of Reason to discern till brought nigh by the Revelation of them in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world by all their Natural and Metaphysical Wisdom knew not God viz. as reconciling Sinners to himself by Christ till by the Gospel and the Preaching of it he made it known 1 Cor. 1.21 How should it come under the Apprehensions of men when it lay out of the reach of the Angelical Understanding Eph. 3.10 Unto Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places is made known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Had it not been for God's revealing it to the Church the Angels themselves had abode in everlasting ignorance of it There are no footsteps of it in the whole Creation nor evidence of it in the works of Providence The Placability of God through Christ is no part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that which maybe known of God by the things that are made Alas How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 That sin is pardonable we can only learn it there where we are taught how it is actually pardoned Before we can be sure of the Reconcileableness of God or the remissableness of Sin upon Faith and Repentance We must first be perswaded of one of these three 1. Either that God both can will forgive Sin without any satisfaction But this according to the Amyraldians themselves contradicts that idea of Righteousness Holiness and Justice which we have of God Or 2. That the Sinner himself can make satisfaction but that is repugnant to Natural light as much if not more than the former Or 3. That God hath found out a way of satisfying himself and that either by the death of his Son or by some other means not the first for as much as there is not one Iota of the incarnation death satisfaction c. of Christ in the whole book of Creation and Providence neither the second because notwithstanding the advantages which we through the enjoyments of the Scripture have beyond the Heathen of knowing what could have been and what could not have been we are yet so far from any clear certain grounds of believing the possibility of Salvation in any other way that we are furnished with very momentous arguments to the contrary Besides if I should not not be counted Young Raw Petulant c. I would ask the Disciples of Amyrald whether the works of God do naturally and by a vertue intrinsecal to them declare this Placability of God and Pardonableness of Sin on Faith and Repentance or whether they do it by vertue of a Divine Institution If they affirm the last pray how come the Heathens without a Revelation acquainted with that Institution Where and by whom had God told the world so much If they assert the first which alone carries probability in it Then 1. Adam from his own and his Wifes not being instantly destroyed upon the commission of Sin had sufficient assurance of the Placability of God and pardonableness of Sin previously unto and abstracting from all promulgation of the Covenant of Grace 2. How is it that seeing there are in the Government of the World as manifest instances of God's severity as his Lenity that forgetting all thoughts of the Wrath and Anger of God they should only possess a perswasion of his Mercy and Kindness 3. Suppose that God had preserved the Creation in Being without transacting with Sinners in a Covenant of Grace which I think implies no Contradiction pray what then of the Placableness and Compassion of God could it have taught us In a word all the Notices which the Heathen have or at any time had of the Reconcileableness of God they had it by Tradition from the Church nor do they resolve themselves into any other Original Shall I add in the last place that I never understood the consistency of the Amyraldian Hypothesis either with the Wisdom or Goodness of God A Reconcileableness on terms which according to those we are dealing
Commandments of God with a performance of the superadded Duties which respect the Mediator is the qualification required in every one that would escape legal Wrath. And if it were not thus the most wicked might lay claim to Pardon and Salvation as well as the most Holy And the Gospel in stead of being an engagement to duty were an indulgence to sin Christ is the Author of Salvation to none but to them who thus obey him Heb. 5.9 And that we may not here deceive our selves and think that we are sincere when we are not I will only mention two things leaving the prosecution of them to practical discourses 1. That to live in the constant allowed neglect of any duty or prosecution of any sin is inconsistent with sincerity 1 Joh. 3.6 10. Rom. 6.12 14 20. 2. There are some sins which the very falling into argues the heart never to have been upright with God 1 Joh. 5.16 17 18. Secondly Improvement in all habits of Grace and degrees of Holiness with endeavours after a most exact strictness are likewise required of us Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect see 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. 2 Pet. 3.18 2 Cor. 7.1 And though damnation be not denounced here in case of faileur yet hereupon we miss much comfortable communion with God are liable to the withdrawments of the sense of his love and are exposed to what paternal castigations he thinks fit in his Wisdom to inflict Psal. 89.31 32 33. Thirdly There is provision made in the New Covenant for the promotion of our strength and growth if we be not wanting to our selves There is a fulness of Grace in Christ out of which we have ascertainment of supply providing we attend unto the means appointed for the Communication of it An unshaken Faith in the power of God and in the assistance of the Spirit a watching unto prayer with diligence and constancy Meditation of the ugliness of every sin and amiableness of Universal Righteousness c. are exceeding useful hereunto Here mainly lies a Believers Province and the attainment is not onely possible but easie if sloth negligence love of ease indulgence to the flesh superficialness in Duty unbelief of the promises do not preclude and bar us But then we are only to blame our selves not to slander the provisions of the Gospel Fourthly In the vertue of Gods furnishing us with a principle of Grace the heart is immediatly imbued with a sincere Love to God and becomes habitually inclined to walk in his Laws Obedience is connatural to the New principle And though through remains of indwelling sin and the souls hearkning to temptations we be not so uniform in our Obedience nor at all times alike disposed to Holy exercises yet partly from the struglings and workings of the vital seed it self and partly through the supplies ministred by the Spirit according to our exigences we are so far secured that we shall not disannul the Covenant see 1 Joh. 3.9 Jer. 32.42 1 Cor. 10.13 1 Pet. 1.5 So that now upon the whole Christs yoke is an easie yoke Math. 11.30 nor are his Commandments grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 CHAP. III. 1 The Question reassumed Two Great Instruments of Duty The measure regulating it and the principle in the strength of which it is performed The first of these discoursed in this chap. 2. All that Relates to Religion belongs either to Faith or Obedience so far as Natural Light is defective in being the measure of that so far is it defective in being the measure of this 3. All Obedience refers either to Worship or Manners Natural Light not the measure of Religious Worship 4. An inquiry into the Original of Sacrifices not derived from the Light of Nature nor taken up by Humane Agreement their foundation on a divine Institution justified at length 5. Manners either Regulated by Moral Laws or by Positive Natural Light no Rule of positive Duties 6. As it's subjective in Man not a sufficient Rule of Moral ones 7. Considered as objective in the Decalogue only an adequate Rule of Moral performances not of Instituted Religion § 1. I Cannot think that I have digressed from the subject which I have undertaken while I have been discoursing Principles which have so great an influence as well upon the due Understanding as the right deciding of it These being then proposed and confirmed in the former Chapter We are now not only at leisure but somewhat better prepared for the prosecuting the assertion at first delivered viz. That Morality doth not comprehend the whole of practical Religion nor do'th all the Obedience we owe to God consist in Moral Vertue For the clearer stating and determining of this it must be observed that there are two great Instruments of Duty the measure Regulating it which we call Law and the Principle in the strength of which it is to be performed which we call Power That directs and instructs us about it this adapts and qualifies us to the performance of it By the first we are furnished with the means of knowing it and by the second with strength to discharge it Both these were at first concreated with subjective in our Natures There resided in us Originally not only an ability of mind of discerning the whole of our Duty which the Law of Creation exacted of us but a sufficient power to fulfil it Whether since the Fall we abide qualified as to either of these is yet farther to be debated The first we shall Discuss in this Chapter having designed the following for the examination of the other We have already demonstrated the Law of Creation commonly called the Law of Nature to be the alone Rule and measure of Moral Vertue This is granted by a late Author The practice of Vertue saith he consists in living suitably to the Dictates of Reason and Nature Eccl. Polit. p. 68. Now the Law of Nature may be considered either as 't is Subjective in man or as 't is Objective in the Decalogue As 't is Subjective in man 't is vulgarly stiled Right Reason The Light of Nature The Philosophers who were the primitive Authors of the Term Vertue knew no other Rule by which it was to be regulated but Reason This they made the alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of vertues Mediocrity The Mediocrity of Vertue saith Aristotle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Right Reason dictates Eth. lib. 3 cap. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is a Habit measured by right Reason idem Eth. lib. 4. cap. 3. Other testimonies to this purpose we have elsewhere produced viz. cap. 1. Now I affirm that the Law of Nature is no sufficient Measure of Religion and consequently that all Religion consists not in the meer practice of Vertue but that there is something beyond the bounds of Moral Vertue besides Chimera's and flying Dragons Eccl. Pol. p. 69. def and continuat p. 338 339. ibid. p. 315. And that the Christian Institution is not a
had never assumed the Sacerdotal Office which they did by their offering Sacrifices these two being Relates But I find I have been already too prolix upon this head and they who can withstand the force of the fore-going Arguments are not like to be influenced by any thing I am further able to subjoyne § 5. We have already shewn that the whole of Obedience which we owe to God belongs either to Worship or Manners We have also declared the insufficiency of Natural Light for the Regulating of Worship Our next task is to demonstrate the defectiveness of it as to the conduct of Manners Manners are either such Duties as in themselves are acceptable and good or such as derive all their goodness from a Command with respect to the first revealed Laws are only declarative of the goodness of the Duty The Absolute Bonity of it having an antecedent foundation in the Nature of God the Nature of man and the Relation that man stands in to God But with reference to the second supernatural Law is constitutive of the goodness of the Duty There being nothing in the thing it self previous to the Command rendring it so And here though obedience be a Moral Duty yet the Law prescribing it is not properly Moral Law For the Morality of Obedience ariseth not from the Nature of the Command but from the Relation we stand in to God and the Dependence we have on him whereas the Morality of Law hath its Reason in the Nature of God and the congruity or incongruity of things enjoyned or forbidden to it That there are acts of Obedience distinct from Natural Duties which yet are not properly acts of Worship might be demonstrated by innumerable instances Of this kind there are several Duties founded in personal commands whereby none were obliged but onely they to whom they were immediatly given Such was the Duty of Abrahams leaving his Fathers House being built on a precept wherein he only was concerned The like may be said of the Obligation laid on the young man in the Gospel of selling all that he had c. Of this sort also there are several Duties arising from Divine Laws which concerned only a particular Nation and yet emerged not from Laws properly Ritual Of which number we may reckon the Obligations proceeding from the Judicials given to the Jews at least where the Reason of them was not Natural Equity By these Laws they came under Obligations that the rest of man-kind were not concerned in Yea they became bound to some things which setting aside the positive Law of God could not have been lawfully done and which at this day no Nation or Person can practice with Innocency viz. The Marrying the Widow of a Brother dead without Issue Such Laws Gods Dominion over all men as his Creatures authoriseth him to make and that as a proof of his own absolute Prerogative and for tryal of his Creatures obedience Nor did God ever leave man since he first Created him singly to the Law of Nature for the payment of that Homage he owes him but even to Adam in Innocency he thought fit to give a positive Law a Law which for the matter of it had no foundation at all in Mans Nature further than that he was obliged by his Nature to do whatsoever God enjoyned him Now these Laws having their foundation in Institution not in Nature The Reason of them being not so much the Holiness of God as his Soveraignty Natural Light can no ways be suppos'd a due measure of them nor able to instruct about them All that Obedience that resolves into the Will of God must suppose Revelation in that nothing else can discover its Obligation to man-kind saith a late Author Def. continuat p. 427. How consistently to himself in other places where he tells that all Religion consists in nothing else but the practice of Vertue and that the practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the dictates of Reason and Nature I leave to himself to declare That there are positive Laws of God now in being and that in the vertue of them we are under Obligation to several Duties I shall God willing evince when I come to shew the insufficiency of the Law of Nature as it's Objective in the Decalogue as to being the measure of the whole Obedience we owe to God § 6. That there are Natural Laws as well as positive and that the latter are but accessions to the former we have else-where demonstrated Now these Laws being stiled Natural non respectu Objecti not because of their object many of the Duties we are under the Sanction of by them referring immediatly to God but respectu principii medii per quod cognoscimus because communicated to our Nature and cognoscible by Natural Light If the Light of Nature alone be of significancy in any thing 't is here And indeed the Writings of Heathen Philosophers such as Aristotle Plato Epictetus Seneca Plutarch Cicero Hierocles Plotinus c. The Laws of Pagan Common-wealths especially the Republicks of Greece and Rome the vertuous actions of persons not enlightned by Revelation of all ranks and qualities such as Socrates Aristides Phâ—cion Cato and many others not easie to be recounted shew that men left to the meer conduct of Natural Light can attain a better insight into the Duties of Nature than of Religion and know more of Vertue than of Piety For as both Amyrald and Sir Charles Wolseley besides others observe Cicero wrote to better purpose in his books de officiis than he did in those de Naturâ Deorum Yea even the Platonists the great Refiners of Religious Ceremonies who in stead of obscene and barbarous usages introduced civil and modest Rites discoursed much better of Vertue than Divinity Their Sentiments for the conduct of conservation being for the most part Rational and Generous whereas their Theological Notions are either obscure uncertain or romantick If we be then able to prove that Natural Light or the Law of Nature as it is subjective in man since the Fall is no sufficient measure of Moral Duties or of those Duties we are under the Sanction of by the Law of Creation we shall get one step farther in our design namely that Natural Light is a very inadaequate measure of Religion In confirmation of this I might in the first place take notice how the great pretenders to the conduct of Reason prevaricated in all those prime Laws of Nature which Relate to the Unity of the God-head Though not onely the Being but the Unity of the Divine Nature be witnessed to by every mans Reason and we need onely exercise our faculties against Polytheism as well as Atheism Yet the Universality of man-kind setting aside those who had the benefit of a supernatural Revelation not onely sunk into the belief and adoration of a plurality of Gods but into the worshipping those for Gods whom to acknowledg for such is more irrational than to believe that
any other way than by the efficiency of the divine Spirit upon ours Def. Contin p. 334. I Answer 1. 'T is not unusual with some men both virtually and formally to contradict themselves And the Author whom we are replying upon seems to be endowed with a particular faculty that way as might be justified in many instances 2 'T is known that both the Pelagians and Socinians profess themselves the Friends and Patrons of Grace and yet those who are acquainted with the mistery of their Principles know that saving the Revelation of God in the Scripture they meant no more by Grace but Nature and the Humane Faculties Fronte placent quae fine latent We readily grant that the Arguments proposed in the Scripture may in a certain sense be stiled Grace but what affinity hath this to the inward ingraft principle that we are inquiring after It were too plain a defiance of the Gospel to renounce all inward Grace in express Terms and yet as some who seem to extoll grace exceedingly explain it no less is intended See this proved by Mr. Trueman in his Discourse of Natural and Moral Impotency a pag. 60. ad pag. 69. and in his other discourse concerning the Rectifying of some prevailing Opinions a pag. 244. ad pag. 259. § 4. Having declared the Apprehensions of the Philosophers and Others concerning the Principle of Moral Vertue namely that both Habits and Acts proceed from the strength and improvement of our Natural Abilities Before we come to inquire how far Natural Abilities seconded with the assistance not only of Philosophy but of Revelation may carry men in Practical Obedience There are several things of great import both for the vindicating the Divine Goodness and Justice and the convincing us of our Guilt notwithstanding any Impotency which we labour naturally under which I design a little to unfold as well as to propose First then Notwithstanding any Congenite Original impotency that men labour under They might do more in the discharge and performance of the Duties of practical obedience were it not for contracted Evil Habits and customs Custom in any thing is commonly stiled another Nature and not much amiss the power and efficacy of it being so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Custome is an ascititious Nature say both Aristot. and Galen Tanta est corruptela malae consuetudinis ut ab ea tanquam igniculi extinguantur a Naturâ dati exorianturque contraria vitia so great is the infection of evil custom that the seeds of vertue communicated to us by Nature are choaked by it and vices contrary thereunto begotten Cicer. A Habit in any thing is as Galen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lasting and hardly dissolvable disposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Long use and exercise becomes at last Nature Evenus in Aristot. Consuetude in sin doth so corroborate men in it that a vicious person cannot do well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even if he would which I suppose is no more but that he cannot obtain of himself to do it Arist. ad Nicomach lib. 3. Through an inveterate inclination of Will men become so addicted to Evil and so averse and disaffected to Good that no Arguments to the contrary weigh with them They grow so alienated by impure Habits that all Vertue becomes distastful and wickedness grows a pleasure Much of our Impotency to good is derived upon us by a familiarity with sin Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do Evil Jer. 13.23 Secondly They that have the Gospel are thereby brought into a considerable capacity of doing more than they that want it can Nor do I mean this only extensively that they are instructed about those duties whereof these are wholly Ignorant For in that case God will proceed with men according to the measure of light that every one hath and as Austin says of those with whom the knowledg of Christ and the Gospel never arrived veniam habebunt propter infidelitatem damnabuntur verâ— propter peccata contra naturam and a greater than Austin tells us That as many as sinned without Law shall also perish without Law c. as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2.12 But I understand it with relation to those very Duties which the Heathen had some light concerning and various helps for the performance of For with respect to these We unto whom the Light of the glorious Gospel is come have advantages infinitely beyond them who never enjoy'd that vouchsafement The Declaration of our Duty is more clear as well as full The Religion of Nature and precepts of Moral goodness are unfolded with more perspicuity and plenitude in the Scriptures than in any or all the writings of the Philosophers Moral Vertues were never so established by the Light of Reason as they are by the Laws of the Gospel Here is no crooked line no impure mixture nor Vice obtruded for vertue In a word 't is only the Bible that gives us a compleat systeme of the Laws of Nature and therefore we who live under the dispensation of the Gospel have an advantage even of Moral Obedience ministred unto us that the Pagan world never had Our Obedience is also endeared to us by nobler promises than the Pagan Philosophers were ever made acquainted with and thâ—se promises are attended with all the motives of credibility 'T is likewise enforc'd under severer penalties than either Virgil or Homer in their Romantick description of Tartarus ever dream'd of Nor is there in all the Ethicks of the Grecians and Romans such an inducement and incentive to practical Obedience as the incarnation of the Son of God is nor such a matchless pattern of Universal Vertue as the life of the ever blessed Jesus sets before us So that upon the whole we who have the light of the Scripture are more inexcusable in our faileurs and criminal in our miscarriages than those who lived under the conduct of meer Reason were capable of being Thirdly How great soever the inability derived to and entayl'd upon us by the Fall be yet no man ever did what he might have done We complain of weakness but who acts the power he is imbued with We palliate our disobedience by pretences of Impotency but where is the man that ever exerted to the utmost the strength he had We put fallacies upon our Souls by seeming to bewayle our want of strength when in the mean time we neglect to exercise the Ability we are endowed with Though we cannot acceptably perform obedience save from a renewed principle yet may we not be found in the discharge of the Material part of Duties Though we cannot act holily as Saints yet we may act Rationally as Men. Though we be meerly passive in the reception of the first Grace yet may we not be found in an exercise of means prescribed by God in order to it We may read the
Remedial Covenant made in Christ as the Head of the New Creation that we are renued to the Image of God again And yet had there never been such a Transaction it had been still our Duty to have had it and our sin to have been without it Having now made appear that God in the taking the measure of us and our actions hath a regard not only to the matter of them but the Rectitude of the Principles whence they proceed and having lay'd open the pollution of our Faculties and their unanswerableness to the holy Nature of God and the Holiness implanted upon the Law it is easie to infer an ataxy disorder taint and moral defect in those very duties which as to the substance and matter of them we are in the Discharge of This lies so plain and doth so naturally ensue upon the premises that he must be of very mean intellectuals that doth not perceive and discover it Yet that I may not be altogether wanting to the service of a Truth of such import I shall briefly intimate what necessarily ensues hereupon both with reference to the Credenda and Agenda of Religion so far as we are conversant in the Duties of either of them First with respect to the Credenda of it Though in the alone strength and through the improvement of our Natural Powers we may Grammatically understand and Dogmatically believe the Truths delivered in them Yet 1. We understand them not in that spiritual manner as we ought for as much as nothing can act beyond its own sphear Nor is there a due proportion between spiritual Objects and Natural Light This made the Apostle say That the Natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 Hence notwithstanding the acknowledgment of an Objective perspicuity in the Scripture Divines generally assert a Subjective darkness in the mind and besides the Light impressed upon the Word require an infusion of a principle of Light and sight into the Understanding Without this sayes Luther Ne jota quidem unum videri potest in Scripturis ea perspicacid quae salutaris est Not one jot in the Scripture can be understood in a saving way apud Rivet Isagog ad Script S. cap. 22. Hinc tantum quisque de sensu scriptuarum assequitur quantum de spiritu qui eas inspirâ—vit participat So far only as we partake of the Spirit who indited the Scriptures do we attain the true and spiritual sense of them Paraeus in prâ—aem ad 1 Cor. 1. Therefore Baronius in his Philosophia Theologiae ancillans tells us that Notitia Rerum Theologicarum qua praediti sunt impii non renati non est Theologia proprie dicta sed aequivocè dicitur Theologia Exercit. 3. Art 30. 2. These very Truths which unrenued men are in the Historical belief of they do not spiritually savour them Believers are endowed with a Gust that others know nothing of They are otherwise affected by and with Gospel-Truths than men of meer Natural Principles either are or can be Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis The same food hath a different relish with one and the same person according as the Organ of Tast is well or ill affected How insipid are the most comfortable doctrines of the Word to an Unrenued Soul they find no relish in them whilst on the other hand the mind in which there resides a Vital Principle feels and experiments what he Historically believes see Psal. 119.103 1 Cor. 2.12 Rom. 8.16 3. The mind being unrenued in its Habitude frame and disposition remains thereupon not only dark ignorant subject to mistakes error vain imaginations but lyable to scepticism unsetledness and at last a total disbelief of the things of the Spirit of God The certainty of spiritual sensation and experience being not only beyond the certainty of Reason and Argumentation but that whâ—ch alone gives a clear comprehension of Divine Mysteries and which only indubitates the Soul concerning them He that hovereth in the profession of Gospel-Truths and finds nothing of the Reality Power and Experience of them in himself becomes thereby wonderfully disposed not only to question the Truth of them but totally to reject them Nor is it imaginable how it should be otherwise when he experienceth nothing of all that he reads hears professeth and hath been by education or force of Rational Arguments in the belief of Being told that the Death of Christ will mortifie sin and that men are Sanctified by the Word and finding nothing of this in themselves they are not only under a temptation hereby to disbelieve these particular Truths but to disclaim the whole Revelation of the Word as a Fable And as these things through the loss of the Divine Image and that pollution which ensues in the Soul thereupon do naturally accompany us with reference to the Credenda of Religion notwithstanding our being in the Historical belief of them so there are several things deducible from the same premises with Relation to those Agenda of Religion in the performance of the material duties of which we are found 1. Nothing of all that is done or performed hath its rise in or proceeds from a sincere effectual superlative love of God That this ought to be the principle motive and inducement of our obedience I suppose few will deny and that where the foresaid pollution and disorder of Soul through the loss of the Divine Image is this sincere superlative love to God is not is of easie demonstration I know some of the late Jesuits in their casuitical Divinity affirm it to be enough if we be in the observation of the Commandments though without any affection towards God or the Resignation of our hearts to him provided that we do not hate him But I hope no Protestant is yet arrived at this and indeed I wonder how any professing himself either a Christian or a Man can entertain a persuasion so subversive of all Religion and repugnant as well to Reason as Scripture I do not say that any man on earth hates God to that degree as those in Hell do nor do I assert that there is an explicit hatred of God in every act of an unrenued person I believe otherwise But this I affirm that love to God is not the Universal governing Principle of an Unregenerate man nor is it exalted to that Degree in any action he performes as to give him the denomination of a lover of God Now it is the sincerity prevalency and perfection of love that among other things gives the Moral specification to Obedience Whatever resemblance the performances of one destitute of this Love may have of holy and Religious obedience yet all is loathsome to God as wanting one chief ingredient of its constituent form Nor is this love in any one in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells not Gal. 5.22 1 Joh. 4.7 Faith in Christ is the only root on which it grows Gal. 5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
A SOBER ENQUIRY INTO The Nature Measure and Principle of Moral Virtue Its distinction from Gospel-Holiness WITH Reflections upon what occurs disserviceable to Truth and Religion in this matter in three late Books VIZ. Ecclesiastical Policy Defence and Continuation AND Reproof to the Rehearsal transpros'd By R. F. Vnus tamen scrupulus habet animam meam ne sub obtentu priscae literaturae caput erigere tentet Paganismus Erasm. London Printed for D. Newman at the Kings-Arms in the Poultry 1673. TO Sir CHARLES WOLSELEY Baronet SIR DEdications are so often abused to flattery commenced upon so low motives and so unsutably addressed that unless they be rescued from these vulgar abuses they will deservedly grow into contempt And indeed were it not that I am conscious to my self both of the congruousness of this Address and that I am influenced by none of those inducements that commonly prevail to Inscriptions of this nature and that there is nothing here of the wonted strain of Epistles Dedicatory I should have superceded the Dedicating of this at all Sir you have been so happy in your choice of the Theams that you have designed to Illustrate and Vindicate and so matchless in the performance of what you have undertaken that whoever hath a Reverence for Religion oweth you not only thanks but Veneration Whilst others combat Atheism with Drollery and Satyr you have encountred it with Demonstration and whilst they only mock and jeer the Atheists you have baffled and refuted them By vindicating also the Scriptures to their Divine Author you have justified our belief of them Whilst you degrade Reason from that Supreme Judicature that some would erect it into you have rightly vested it in whatever belongs to it as an Instrument of discerning and conduct As he must either have a design to betray Religion or Himself who oweth it to any thing less than a rational choice So he must have very irreverent apprehensions of the Authority and Veracity of God who will embrace nothing but what himself can frame adequate Notions of Whereas then the Socinian on the one hand and the Papist and lazy Protestant on the other rendered it necessary that both the Reasonablness of Scripture-Belief and yet the mystery of Particular Doctrines should be equally asserted and secured We ow a Homage to Sir Charles Wolsâ—ley for employing himself about so Noble a Subject and without incurring the censure both of injustice and ingratitude we cannot but acknowledge his success in it And truly the testifying my own thankfulness was the main though I cannot say the only incentive to this Address For having Sir assumed the liberty to arraign the Writings and some of the Notions of a Person considerable at least for his confidence self-esteem the contempt which he treats all men with that he may not think himself ill dealt withal to be fallen upon by so mean a Man and so illiterate a Divine as my self I am willing to do him that right as to refer the Umpirage of the Debate between him and me to a Person as far above either of us in Learning as in Quality And if he should decline your Award as I am confident he dare not stand the Verdict of so Competent and Impartial a Judge I have the satisfaction of having committed the whole Cause into such hands as wherein soever either as to Argument or Stile I am defective knows how to substitute better in their Room And I acknowledge this to have been one reason among others for the prefixing your Name to the ensuing Discourse that by recommending the Subject to your care I might thereby call forth a Person of so strong and clear a Judgment so Masculine and Celebrated an Eloquence as well to rescue so excellent a Theam from so short a Reason and dull a Pen as mine as to vindicate it from the declamatory assaults of such whose skil and strength lies next to their Railing in their Rhetorick and Picquancy There is one thing more Sir that contributed to the concerning your name in this Dedication namely to tell you that whereas you have promised an account of the admirable contrivement of saving Men by Jesus Christ we can no longer excuse the delay of it It would have been welcom and useful before but it is now become necessary The Opinions brought to the Bar in the following Discourse are modest and innocent in comparison of some others vented by the same Author viz. That small sins God takes no notice of and that great Sins Repentance expiates them Religion as well as your own Promise challenge from you that you would help to check this growing boldness Nor do I know a Subject wherein you may more advantagiously serve both Truth and your own Fame The Accession of Light derivable from so great Accomplishments to that will infallibly reflect a luster upon your self Sir whilst most Books serve only to betray their Authors to an universal contempt and to expose their pride and folly which might have been concealed had not themselves taken a course to divulge it you have already by your Writings not only further endeared your self to your Friends and raised your estimate among such as have the honour and happiness to know you but withall you have obliged strangers to pay you a Veneration and won your self a number of secret Votaries and unknown admirers among whom I presume to reckon my self and am SIR Your most faithful and most humble Servant R. F. To the Reader HAving in the following Treatise mentioned the motives that induced me to this Undertaking I shall not entertain thee here with what thou wilt meet with hereafter Only this I may say that as it was not to gratifie the Entreaties of a Bookseller such mens Importunity weighing little with me if the Advantage and Interest of others be not concerned so neither was it upon the solicitation of Friends who perhaps had they known of it before it had proceeded too far would have been loth to have trusted so great a Concern in so weak hands No one is responsible for it but my self whatever mistakes failures c. are in it I am onely accountable for them As for the main of the Discourse I leave it to stand or fall as it shall be found in the judgment of Christians and Scholars I know I have not been able to wed the Graces to the Muses it satisfies me if the Sword have a good Edge though the Handle of it be not so well gilt Nor do I despise any thing more than Rhetorick putting an Ostracism upon Logick though otherwise I like the meat the better for having a pleasant Sauce I hope I may say that the whole is managed in a Spirit of Meekness and Terms of Modesty I am none of those who affect to be offensive or who endeavour to grow remarkable by being saucy There is nothing more disgusts me in the Writings of others than to find them stuft with Satyr and Scurrility Men do
mention in Christian writers both ancient and modern not only of Evangelical ones which they make specifically and essentially different both Quoad Substantiam Quoad modum from the former as may be seen in Aquin. prim 2. quest 62. Banes in 2m. 2â— passim c. Which Evangelical Vertues they call supernatural partly because they are Supra debitum naturae beyond what was required by the law of creation and partly because viribus naturae acquiri non possunt they are not attainable by the strength and endeavours of Nature These are not my words but Becanus the Jesuits sum Theol. Scholast p. 238. Among those they reckon faith in Christ. So that not to mention the other heterodoxies wrapt up in an expression of a late Author I dare say he speak's dissonantly to what either Fathers or School-men ever said while he affirms that in the primitive Ages of Christianity the righteousness of Faith onely implyed a higher pitch of moral goodness Def. Continuat p. 305.306 I say moreover that there are not onely Evangelical Vertues contended for as distinct from the moral ones we have been unfolding but they also mention moral Vertues infused different from the other moral ones which are only acquired so Aquinas prim secund quest 63. act 3. 4. And these by the very Jesuits are confessed to differ specifically from one an other quoad modum while moreover they are acknowledged by the Dominicans to differ essentially quoad substantiam see Alvarez de auxil lib. 7. disp 65. So that I cannot but be amased at a late Author that dare tell us that Evangelical Graces are the same for substance with Evangelical Vertues and Evangelical Vertues the same with moral ones Def. Continuat p. 305. And I must needs say that he hath betrayed Ignorance or something worse in reckoning the distinction of moral Vertue from Grace among the tricks and frenzies of a new-fangled Divinity that was scarcely heard of fifty Years ago Def. Continuat p. 307. And whereas he challengeth that great Man who replied to his first Book to produce one ancient Author that makes any difference between the nature of moral Vertue and Evangelical Grace Def. Continuat p. 304. I who know my self unworthy to be mentioned in one day either as to Reading or Learning with that Reverend Person am able if need were to produce him a hundred It is not many Years ago that the like question was debated with some warmth by persons of great learning among our selves and though the controversie was not concerning a specifical difference betwixt the acquired habits which are in unregenerate men and the infused habits which are in believers nor yet whether the acts proceeding from infused habits differ essentially from those acts which proceed from acquired habits the parties contending being herein at full agreement but the alone quarrel was whether this Specifick Difference was to be called a Specifick Physical difference or a Moral only yea the debate was not so much about the Habits of the one sort and the Habits of the other a Specifick difference even in Kind being as good as on all sides acknowledged for as much as the roots and principles of the one were confessed by both parties to be Physically different from the roots and principles of the other but the contest was chiefly in reference to the acts which proceed from Acquired Habits and are found in unregenerate men whether the Specifick difference between them and the acts which proceed from infused habits be only Moral or also Physical Now though this was the whole and the alone ground of quarrel between the contending parties yet we remember what keen resentments appeared in some learned men against a holy and worthy person for his stating the difference betwixt the Acts of the one sort of Habits and the acts of the other sort to be onlâ— Gradual or a Specific Moral difference See Dr. Kendal's Sancti sanciti digress against Mr. B. Durham on the Revel from p. 125. to 145. Thâ— theam I am treating lay me under no necessity oâ— declaring my self on either side in thâ— controversie nor was that my design iâ— mentioning of it all that I intended waâ— to intimate how novel the doctrine of thâ— universal coincidence of Moral Vertue anâ— Grace is and what entertainment it waâ— likely to have met with if it had beeâ— started some Years sooner Yet I care noâ— if I add that where there are positive quaâ—lifications concurring in the act of the onâ— habite which are not in the act of the oâ—ther as when they proceed from differenâ— Principles are exerted with respects tâ— different ends and influenced by differenâ— motives I should not scruple to call that Specifick Physical difference and shoulâ— hope to justify my self by Philosophy as well as Divinity in doing so There is only one thing more that I intend here to subjoin namely that whereas Suarez contendâ— that without grace there may be and are some Dispositions to true habits of Vertue though he confess at the same time that Perfect and Firm habits of Moral Vertue Sine Gratia acquiri non possint cannot be acquired without grace lib. 1. de grat cap. 7. n. 20. Which though much more modest than what is alledged by our late Author yet Iansenius for that alone notion severely rebukes him See his Augustinus de stat nat laps lib. 4. p. 238 239. § 6. The last Term to be explained and whose signification so far as it hath any concern in this discourse we are to determine is Grace Now this being a word which we are peculiarly indebted to the Scripture for It is but just and reasonable yea it is necessary that we should take the measure of our conceptions and notions about it from what the Word of God delivers to us concerning it It is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the N. T. we commonly render Grace occurs in other Authors but not in any of the principal senses that the Scripture instructs us of There is not one of the Philosophers who gives us the least acquaintance with those notions of Grace which the Gospel chiefly unfolds As we have then confined our selves to the Philosophers in the declaring the meaning of Vertue and Morality they being the first Authors and users of those terms so we judg it but equal that both we and others should be limited to the Scripture in our conceptions about Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace is a word of various acceptation to discourse the several senses in which it is used would be both tedious and in a great part alien to the Theam in hand I shall therefore only meddle with such significations of it as are either properly applicable to or have some affinity with the design I pursue Grace then is taken either actively or passively the first is call'd Gratia gratis dans Giving Grace The second Gratia gratis data Grace Given Now each of these doth
its own acts and keeps a Jubilee in its self Had there been no other reward annexed to Obedience the pleasure of â—cting conformably to Reason would have been a sure and momentous one Whatever calamities God in Soveraignty might have inflicted on us and whatever comforts of life he could have taken from us yet anxiety and remorse would never have arrested us Yea the continual recognition of that nothingness out of which by the arbitrary fiat of our Creator we were taken would have rendred all our thoughts of reducibleness back into that state again both satisfactory and delightful The apprehensions of our disposableness at the will of our Maker would not have grated upon our innocent mind In a word we should have esteemed the very observance of the Law of Creation a considerable reward And the innocent soul should have been satisfied from its self For as the Poet saith Ipsa quidem virtus sibi pulcherrimamerces Sil. It is likewise confessed that there is a great condecency and admirable suitableness in it to Divine Wisdome and Goodness that a perfect and spotless innocency should be attended with a happy and unafflicted life But yet all that carries such a proportion is not necessary For there is an admirable condecency to Divine Sapience and Benignity that the whole race of mankind should not be utterly lost that God should not loose active glory in way of thanksgiving and praise from a whole Species of Rational Creatures and yet I suppose it will not be affirmed that God was obliged to re-instate fallen man in all the circumstances of that felicity which by his disobedience to the Law of his Creation he had forfeited Surely no property of the Divine Nature had been impeachable had God suffered Mankind to perish under the guilt they had wilfully contracted All that I contend for then is this that had not God ratified the Law of Creation into a Covenant and thereby set bounds to his own Dominion we could have had no foundation of expecting any thing from him after the utmost exactest of obedience save the pleasure of having performed it There is no property in God which antecedently to his own pleasure obligeth him to remunerate our obedience nor precluding a Covenant could we warrantably have expected any such thing from him First not his Justice For 1 There is strict Distributive Justice observed where God taketh no more away than he freely gave Every superior Authority if it hath not abridged it self by some promise or Covenant hath still liberty to revoke all the free issues of its own power and bounty Where benefits are freely bestowed there the Donor retain's a right of rescinding his own donations God having therefore made us of his Meer will and for his pleasure Rev. 4.11 He had full power arbitrariously to destroy the Beings he had conferred The whole interest that we have in our selves is from the free gift of our maker and by resuming what he hath given he may cancel that interest when he pleaseth Nor is God's donation of being to the Creatures any silent contract as is alledged by the Author of Deus Justificatus p. 266 That He will never destroy them For we have the experience of Brute Animals to the contrary who in the vertue of their Beings conferred on them cannot plead a title to continuance Perceptive capacities they have as well as we though not of that kind and are allowed Gratifications suitable to them yet this hinders not but that without the least fault in them or injury in God they are at once deprived both of the Delights of the Animal life and of Being it self 2 For Commutative Justice there neither is nor can be any such thing betwixt God and Creatures For that supposeth an equality between what is performed and what is received and only there where there is an equalitas dati accepti can Commutative Justice take place We can therefore neither plead nor enter a claim upon this foundation unless we could have brought as much benefit to God as we had received as well in his conferring our beings on us as in the after-reward Gods raising us out of nothing by his alone power and goodness and furnishing us with those faculties which made us fit for Moral Government did sufficiently entitle him to the utmost service we could perform without laying him under any obligation in point of Justice of remunerating it when we had done Merit from a Creature to its Creator is a Contradiction not only to Scripture Job 22.3 35.7 but to Reason I am sure that of the Apostle is enough to render it indubitable For if Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God Rom. 4.2 Justification could not be strictly merited no not by works The very Law of Works excluded glorying before God and let me add that the Law of Faith excludes not only that but also glorying before men which is enough if carefully attended to to overthrow some of the chiefest Pelagian and Arminian notions Secondly not his Mercy and Goodness forasmuch as all the effects of Goodness as Goodness is taken for Beneficence and Bounty which is the only proper notion of it here are free and elective And indeed it is necessary it should be so Because no kindness can oblige but what proceed's from one who is vested with Power and Right not to bestow it Nor do we pay thanks for what is derived to us by the necessity of an Agents Nature but only for what arriveth with us from the choice of his will Though the Holy and Rational nature of God determines him as to Moral Good without the least infringement of his liberty yet the case is not the same in reference to Physical good There being no property in God obliging him to produce all the creatures he can and to do them all the Good he is able But the application of his Omnipotence and exercise of his Beneficence depend as to both on the choice of his will To drive the opposite notion to its issue would prove the world to have been if not from eternity at least many Myriads of ages sooner than it was and that every Creature is as perfect as it was possible for Omnipotent power and infinite Fecundity to make it and that that there are no more Creatures possible than what are already with a hundred absurdities more which contradict not only Reason but Experience I shall Subjoin but one thing farther in proof of the conclusion I am establishing but in my Opinion such a one as may stop the mouths of the Amyraldians in this particular who affirm that for the bare performance of what was antecedently our duty Amyrâ—ld in Animadveâ—s Speciaibus contra Spanhemium part 4 ad Eroâ—ema 13. God is not only obliged to continue our existence but to recompence us with the reward of Heaven and Eternity And it is this namely that Gods Covenanting with mankind in the
state of integrity to reward them provided that they persevered in their dependance on him by obedience to the Law of their Creation This doth abundantly testifie that He was under no antecedent obligation to it For the very Nature of a Covenant and Covenanting supposeth the thing Covenanted about to be free and in his power to do or forbear that makes the Covenant Where there is an Eternal and natural necessity a Covenant is not only superfluous but absurd What-ever accrueth to us either from intrinsick Equity or Essential Goodness we neither need nor do derive it from Graunt and Agreement Now that there was such a Covenant no man that hath read either his Bible and believes it or a System of Divinity though but a Dutch one can deny However see Heb. 8. from the sixt verse to the end and Heb. 12.24 All essentials to the constitution of a Covenant occur in that transaction as might be with ease evinced if we did but suspect that it came into question Now all this as it declares the wonderful condescension of God that He should humble himself to set bounds to his own Dominion and come to terms of agreement with a puff of precarious breath and a little enliven'd dust So it enhanceth the guilt of the first transgression being as well against Love as Soveraignty an act not only of Rebellion but Ingratitude § 7. Seventhly God having ratified the Law of Creation into a Covenant by annexing a Reward to the observance and keeping of it He took special care therein for the preserving and securing his own Glory what-ever should be the Event on Mans Part. Though he trusteth us with the mannage of our own happiness yet he would not trust us with the mannage of his Glory In case we should make an invasion on his Honour by transgressing the Law of our Creation and violating the terms prescribed us He did not leave himself to the necessity of retrieving it but provided for it in his first transaction with mankind Though the felicity of the Creature depend necessarily on its obedience yet the Glory of God doth not God having then in the Covenant of Works provided for the exaltation of the Glory of his Faithfulness and Goodness in the rewarding of man had he persevered in obedience to the Law appointed him He likewise in the same Covenant by constituting a penalty proportionable in his Justice to the demerit of sin took care for the securing of his Glory in the exaltation of his Holiness Righteousness Rectorship c. in the punishment of man supposing him to transgress the terms prescribed him However things should fall out no prejudice was to ensue thereon to God's Glory Had he therefore left us to stand or fall accordingly as we should demean our selves in reference to the tenor of that Transaction Though misery would have fallen out to be our Lot yet no dâ—triment would have arisen thereby to the honour of Gods Perfections of Government On the one hand then as man supposing his perseverance in integrity had groâ—nd afforded him of expecting good things from God on the account of his Fidelity and Righteousness his promise making life a debt though even in that case God did not become properly a debtor to us but what he was of that kind was to his own Veracity Which made one say Reddit debita nihil debens donat debita nihil pendens So on the other hand being once fallen the whole of our recovery can have had its rise in nothing but in the free and meer mercy of God For had he left us in our forlorn state He had lost no more honour by us than he doth by the Angels who kept not their first Habitation § 8. Man falling and thereupon forfeiting all that title to life which he had settled on him by the Covenant we have been discoursing of abode nevertheless still under the obligation of the Law of Creation For that resulting from the Nature of God and the Nature of man and the relation that man stood in to God as hiâ— Creator c. so long as those continue the Sanction of that Law must continue What-ever obligation ariseth upon us from our Nature must be as perpetual as our Nature is Now though the Lapse hath deprived us of the Rectitude of our Natures yet it hath taken nothing from us that is essential to our constitution as men Though we be transformed into Beasts and Demons in a Moral sense yet not in a Physical Though we have lost our Souls legally in that they are obnoxious to under the wrath of God yet we are not brought forth deprived of them nor of any thing essentially belonging to them Such a loss would render us unfit for Moral Government nor should we be so any longer men or that species of the Creation which supposing that we are at all we necessarily must be What we have said in proof of a Natural Law § 3. is all applicable to that we have now in hand so that all farther confirmation of it might have been here superseded But having met with a late Book of one Mr. George Bull stiled Harmonia Apostolica and therein with some principles altogether inconsistent with the proposition we have now asserted it will not be amiss to prosecute it a little farther Now the doctrines in the foresaid Author subversive of what we have been affirming are mainly two First That there is no Law of God now requiring perfect obedience or that any man is bound to live free from sin and his reason is quod justitiae Divinae repugnet ut quisquam ad plane impossibilia sub periculo presertim aeternae mortis teneatur Because it is repugnant to the Righteousness of God that any man should be obliged to that which is impossible And that a spotless sinless life is so to every one in the circumstances we now stand Dissertat posteâ— cap. 7. p. 105 106. 2. That there is no Law now in being threatning future death but the Law of Faith That the promises and threatnings of the Law of Moses were only Temporal and Earthly p. 210. If either of these be true that which I have affirmed must needs be false A refutation of these is so far then from being superfluous that it is a necessary service to the design which I have in hand First then If there be no Law now in Being threatning future death but the Law of Faith then of all men in the world the condition of the Heathen is the most eligible And the enjoyment of the Gospel is so far from being a priviledg that it is a snare For seeing where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 Then for as much as the Gentiles are not under the obligation of the Law of Faith it naturally follows that what-ever courses they pursue or what-ever sins they are found in the practice of yet eternal Death they are not obnoxious to Instead therefore of pittying and
bewailing the condition of the Gentiles for their want of the Gospel we ought rather to lament their case that have it being brought only thereby under a hazard of Damnation which antecedently they were free from Secondly If there be no Law threatning Eternal Death but the Law of Faith then is there no such thing as forgiveness and remission of sin in the world The Reason is plain because all pardon supposeth guilt nor can any properly be discharged from that to which he is not obnoxious Now the Gospel denounceth damnation only against final Impenitency and Unbelief As on the one hand therefore these are neither pardoned nor pardonable so on the other hand if there be no Law threatning eternal death besides the Gospel then is there no other sin that we either need or are capable of having forgiven And by consequence there is no such thing as remission of sin in the World Thirdly If there be no Law threatning eternal Death but the Law of Faith then Christ never dyed to free any from wrath to come For it is non-sence to say that he hath freed us from the Curse of the Gospel yea it is a Repugnancy unless you will introduce another Gospel to relieve against the terms of this nor will that serve the turn unless you likewise find another Mediator to out-merit this If Christ then have at all delivered us from wrath to come it must be that of the Law and if so there must be a Law besides the Gospel that denounceth future wrath vid. Gal. 3.13 Fourthly To say that there is no Law now in Being requiring perfect Obedience and that no man is bound to live wholly free from Sin is in plain English to affirm a contradiction For There being nothing that is sin but what is forbid or what we are under obligation against all sin being a transgression of some Law 1 Joh. 3 4. To say that no man is bound to live free from sin is to tell us that he is not obliged to that that he is obliged to See Mr. Truman his endeavour to rectifie some prevailing opinions c. pag. 4. 14. I know well enough that some of these Consequences are things which the foresaid Author doth plainly detest but they are naturally the issue and birth of his Assertions For I would not fasten an odious inference upon any mans discourse if the cohaesion were not necessary and clear I reckon it an Unmanly as well as an Unchristian thing to wring conclusions out of others premises Nor would I drive the doctrine of any farther than it is apt to go and with the greatest Gentleness may be led § 9. That we are still under the Sanction of the Law of Creation hath been already demonstrated That which come's next to be declared is How that every Law of nature is of an Unchangeable obligation A late Author tell 's us that there are Rules of Moral Good and Evil which are alterable according to the accidents changes and conditions of humane life Eccles. polit p. 83. And accordingly a power is pleaded to belong to the Magistrate over the consciences of men in the essential duties of Morality Eccles. polit 68. And it is affirmed that He hath power to make that a particular of the Divine Law that God hath not made so ibid. p. 80. And from the power of the Magistrate over the consciences of men in Moral vertues which our Author tell 's 〈◊〉 are the most weighty essential parts of Religion the like power is challenged as appertaining to him over our consciences in reference to Divine Worship Eccles. polit p. 67 77 78 def continuat p. 356 357 358 371. c. I shall not at present meddle with his Consequence nor indeed can I without a digression Though I think it easy upon the Grounds that he states the Alterableness of Natural Laws to evidence the impertinency and incoherence of it For if either the matters of worship be already stated by God or if God should have precluded the magistrate by a declaration of his will as to medling in this matter and bequeathed that trust into other hands his Consequence falls to the ground But it is the Antecedent that I am to deal with and it is some comfort to me that there are men of equal learning with the foresaid Author who have been of a perswasion widely different from his Grotius a person of some account in his day and who will continue so while Learning is had in reputation judged otherwise in this matter Est autem jus naturale adeo immutabile ut ne a Deo quidem mutari queat De jure Belli Pacis lib. 1. cap. 1. § 10 Natural Right or Law is so unchangeable that it cannot be altered by God himself And that it may appear that he mean's those Rules of Good and Evil which have reference to contracts and positive Laws and in some sence depend upon them He adds a little after fit tamen interdum ut in his actibus de quibus jâ—s Naturae aliquid câ—nstituit imagâ— quaedam mutationis fallat incautos cum reverà non jus naturae mutetur quod immutabile est sed res de qua jâ—s naturae constituit quaeque mutationem recipit It comes to pass sometimes that a kind of resemblance and shadow of change in those acts which the Law of nature hath determined and unalterably fixed imposeth upon unwary men While indeed the Law it self is not at all altered as being immutable but the things which the Law regulates and about which it determines undergo an alteration ibid. It was of this Law that Philo gives us this character Lex corrumpi nescia quippe ab immortali naturâ— insculpta in immortali intellectu A Law neither subject to decay nor abrogation being engraven by the Immortal God into an immortal soul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in men or not distracted there remains an immoveable unalterable Law which we call the Law of Nature Andron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing determined by Nature can be any wayes altered Arist. lib. 2. Eth. Hence he stiles the Laws of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immoveable and immutable For the further demonstration of this we desire it may be observed that Law is nothing else but the will of the Rector constituting our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl made known to us by sufficient promulgation Now in order to the obtaining a signification of the Rector's will enacting what he exacts of us 1 a Rational faculty and a free use of it is necessary that being the only instrument by which we discern what the will of the Soveraign is Hence meer ideots children and men totally deprived of the use and benefit of Reason are under the actual Sanction of no law Not that there is any cessation abrogation or alteration of Law thereon but because through the incapacity of the subject it was never the Rector's will in those circumstances to oblige
Natural Impotency and that the impotency under consideration is such were easie to demonstrate from what our Divines have proved against the Papists viz. That Grace was Natural to man at first not Supernatural 2. As the strength and malignancy of a Disease is best known by the powerful remedies which are necessary to conquer it So the quality of our inability will be best understood by considering the Nature of the means which can relieve us against it That inability then which Moral means are not sufficient to relieve us against is more than a Moral inability Now that Moral means are not sufficient to relieve us against the impotency we labour under might be easily proved by producing the arguments for Inward Efficacious Grace against those who admit only a Moral Suasion but this I suppose sufficiently done against Pelagian Jesuits and Arminians and in the matter both of the necessity of efficacious Grace and the way in which it is wrought we have both Amyrald and Truman harmonizing with us 3. Let us measure our thoughts by the report which the Scripture makes of our inability and we shall find abundant cause of judging it a Natural Impotency For the better clearing of this we may observe that in order to our readier conceiving our ineptness and indisposition to the things of God the Lord is pleased to represent it under such Metaphors and Similitudes as are of a familiar and easie perception and to wave others which possibly may be more Emphatical I shall only take notice that the Holy Ghost upon this occasion frequently stiles us Blind Now Blindness properly is affirmed of the eyes of the body and thence transferred to the Soul As we do not call him blind who wants a visible object Intellectus humanus non est id quâ—d in oculis corporis est facultas videndi cui satis est si lux exâ—erna offeratur Muscul. in Isa. 42. Caecitas est privatio Luminis interni cui tamen deest externum privatur quidem actu videndi cui vero internum deest privatur potentiâ videndi quantum ad organum spectat Strang. de Volunt Dei lib. â—4 cap. 8. or who wants an enlightned medium nor yet who wilfully shuts his eyes in the Meridian shine but him that wants an Organ so in spiritual things we are not to stile him Blind who by shutting his eyes precludes the light but he only is so that wants the faculty of seeing Other arguments to this purpose I supersede at present for the pursuing of this controversie is not that which we are much concerned in And indeed while such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is on all hands acknowledged which only the immediate inward efficacious working of the Spirit of God can relieve us against other debates are of small moment Only seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature requires that words be adapted to Conceptions not Conceptions moulded to words Dionys. Halicarn I will always prefer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a clear expression to that which is doubtful and equivocal which I reckon Moral Impotency to be § 15. The necessity of Grace for the succouring us under and relieving us against this impotency is pleaded by all But it is withal too true that under the most specious pretences of it there is nothing more meant by some but our Natural faculties or at most the Objective assistances of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel That all the Jesuits and Arminians intend in effect no more were easie to demonstrate if that now lay before us All that we intend on this head at present we shall reduce to three conclusions First The operation of the Holy Ghost upon our faculties is always in agreement with and in conjunction with the Word We allow no man to pretend to the guidance of the Spirit who cannot justifie what he pretends to be conducted in by some Scripture-Text The inward energy of the Holy Ghost presupposeth the outward teaching of the Scripture There is always a sweet harmony betwixt the subjective and objective teaching of the same Spirit Jam. 1.18 Rom. 10.17 As upon the one hand tolle Spiritum a verbo remanet mortua litera so on the other hand tolle Verbum a Spiritu non amplius remanet Spiritus Dei sed Sathanae potius Take away the Spirit from the Word and the Word is but a dead Letter so take away the Word from the Spirit and it is not the Spirit of God but of Sathan rather Heming in Rom. 11.27 And therefore we require both an assiduous study of the Word and an examination of all impressions by it 1 Joh. 4.1 1 Thes. 5.21 As less will not secure us from unaccountable impulses so there is no fear of Enthusiastick phrenzies where this method is attended to Secondly There are thâ—se arguments impressed on the Scriptures as are every way fit to sway our Rational minds The Spirit doth not hurry us against Light and Reason but leads us by discovering a prevailing evidence in the things that it frames and moulds us to There is conviction goes along with the Spirits efficacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 1 Cor. 2.4 When-ever the Holy Ghost by a vital presence perswades the soul to disengage it from sin and attract it to holiness he doth it in a way that is congruous to our Nature the soul divorceth that and espouseth this upon plenary conviction Flectiâ— Deus voluntates non invitas sed volentes August He doth not reduce us to himself by overthrowing our Wills but by the irradiations of truth and efficacy of Grace he makes us willing The Spirit when he comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will convince the world of Sin and of Righteousness c. Joh. 16.8 He will manage it in way of demonstration Now the Topicks of these Arguments are partly the precepts of the Word which are all holy just and good agreeable to the Dictates of Reason and the distinguishing taste we retain of Good and Evil. Approving themselves to our understandings if they be not enslaved to our lusts and sensual appetites Courting us to our interest as well as obliging us to our duty Arguing the Mercy of the Legislator as well as his Soveraignty Partly the promises of the Word which as they are in their Nature suitable to the immaterial quality of our souls and in their duration to their perpetuity and immortality So they are propounded to us upon the strongest grounds and motives which can engage our hopes and faith namely the Promise and Oath of God the death and merit of Christ the earnest and pledg of the Spirit Partly the threatnings of the Word which as they are dreadful in reference to things they denounce whether we consider the Nature of them or their continuance so they are unavoidable unless we repent and believe Thirdly There is an immediate powerful operation upon the Soul it self by which our Opposition is conquered
neither is nor can be the Rule and Standard of the whole obedience we owe to God CHAP. IV. 1 The Principle in the strength of which Moral vertues are acquired and moral actions performed taken into consideration Determined by the Philosophers to be nothing but our Faculties and the improvement of them by objective helps 2 The same affirmed by the Pelagians 3 The Judgment of a late Author as to this particular Inquired into and found coincident with the former 4 Several Things lay'd down in order to the better discussion of the extent of the promised power 5 What we may arrive at in the meer strength and through the improvement of our Natural Abilities distinctly proposed 6 The deficiencies that occur in those Duties which Men in the vertue of the foresaid Principles do perform 7 several Duties to which by the best improvement of Natural Abilities we cannot arise 8 The Necessity of an infused Principle inferred thereupon and further demonstrated 9 The whole concluded § 1. The Rule Measure of Moral Habits acts was in the former Chap. Enquired into and if the reasons there produced hold good they yield us this result viz. that in order to our conduct in the Duties of Religion there needs an other light than that of Nature We come in the next place to consider the other great Instrument of Morality namely The Principle in the strength and power of which Moral Habits are acquired and Moral actions performed Now the Philosophers knew no other Principle of Morality but innate ability and Natural Power Natura beatis omnibus esse dedit si quis cognovâ—â—it uti Claud. Iudicium hoc omnium mortalium est fortunam a Deo petendam a seipso sumendam esse sapientiam all men are agreed that as we are to ask external good things of God so we are to trust only to our selves for the acquisition of vertue saith Cicero de Nat. Deor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The adeption of vertue is in our own power saith Alex. Aphrodis lib. de fato § 27. As men attain skill in Trade's by discipline and exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same manner do we attain Habits of vertue idem ibid. There is nothing more absurd saith Tully than to affirm that men may of their own accord be vicious also not vertuous Academ Quest. lib. 4. § 39. And therefore he tells us elsewhere Neminem unquam acceptam Deo retulisse virtutem propter virtutem enim jure laudamur de virtute recte gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum à Deo non a nâ—bis haberemus That no man ever thankt God for being vertuous c. de Nat. Deor. That this was the general opinion of the Philosophers we have demonstrated more fully chapt 1. § 3. Being unacquainted with the Revelation of the Word where supernatural and divinely communicated strength is only promised and unfolded no better could be expected from them nor do I know upon what ground they could have lay'd claim to more As for those expressions which we meet with in the Platonists concerning the Divine Infusion of Vertue It may be easily reply'd that they had these Notions either immediatly from the Sacred Oracles or from some who understood the Jewish Traditions or else that being convinced of their own ineptitude to Vertue and not knowing whither to betake for relief they referred themselves to the supreme cause tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one who only could relieve them at a dead lift And if this answer be not thought sufficient I dare undertake to produce as many testimonies out of the Platonists for the acquisition of Vertue as for the infusion of it which argues that they were wholly at a loss about the attainment of it And that they alledged a Divine Communication of it not because of any foundation they had in the light of Nature for such a persuasion but because they knew not how else to satisfie themselves in their enquiries about the adeption of it 'T is true all the Philosophers contend for objective helps by which we may be excited to exert our Natural strength for the adeption of Vertue but for any active subjective Principle of it besides connate ability they were so far from allowing it that they lookt upon it as rather meriting scorn and laughter Yea those very objective helps which they applied to were nothing else but the effects of their faculties improving Natural Light and the first principles of Reason Hence Seneca having said that we are more indebted to Philosophy than to the Gods for as much as we owe only our lives to them but are obliged to Philosophy that we live vertuously he adds cujus scientiam puta Philosophiae nulli dederunt facultatem omnibus whereof they have communicated the actual science to none though they have given faculties and powers whereby it may be attained to all Ep. 90. The great Objective Medium they trusted to for the getting of Vertue was Moral Philosophy as we have demonstrated chap. 1. § 3. Now this take it in all the parts kinds of it whether Dogmatick wherein the Aristotelians excelled or Exhortative wherein the Stoicks were most eminent or Characteristical wherein the Pythagoreans and Platonists transcended was nothing but the product of Humane Reason improving Natural Light and congenite Notions But for any subjective Principle besides their meer faculties they knew none § 2. With the Philosophers do the Pelagian as to the substance at least of their Dogmata agree Philosophy being the seminary of the Pelagian Heresie and their chiefest notions being derived from thence Virtutes non infundi divinitus sed bene vivendi consuetudine parari contendunt Pelagiani The Pelagians affirm saith Austin that Vertues come not by divine Inspiration or Infusion but that they are acquired by a sober course of life Epist. ad Demet. lib. de gestis Pelag. cap. 14. Non esi liberum Arbitrium si Dei indigeat auxilio quoniam in prâ—prid voluntate habet unusquisque facere aliquid vel non facere Did we need any internal subjective assistance from God humane freedom would be overthrown a power of acting and not acting belonging essentially to the Will decima propositio affixa Pelag. in Concil Diospolit 'T is true they pretended to own Grace but as Austin says it was ut Gratiae vocabulo frangerent invidiam That they might avoid envy and contradiction and escape these imputations that they were justly liable to lib. de Grat. Christi cap. 37. For by Grace they understood no more than Natural Power Dei Gratiam saith Austin concerning Pelagius non appellat nisi Naturam qua libero Arbitrio conditi sumus lib. de Nat. Grat. Notwithstanding the several alterations and amendments which they seem'd to make in their opinion yet as to the point of an inward subjective principle they never granted any more than the Essential faculties of our Nature Both the adjutorium
of Ability Slothful and Wicked Servant is the sentence we are all obnoxious to Under colour of not being able to get rid of all sin some men will set themselves against none § 6. The extent of Natural Power being briefly declared and having granted what ought not to denied neither is by any who understand themselves or this controversie We are in the next place to discourse the imbecillity of Nature and to deny what ought not to be granted For our more distinct proceed in this we shall first treat the defects that occur in those very duties which as to the substance of them men in the alone strength of their Natural Abilities either do or may discharge purposing afterwards to enquire whether there be not also some duties incumbent upon us which even with respect to the Matter of them men in the meer Vertue of the foresaid principles can no wise arise to a performance of The inward frame and disposition of the Soul as it is the vital principle of Moral actions is that which God in order to his acceptance of them mainly measureth them by Hence that of Christ himself That a Corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit Mat. 7.18 and that of the Apostle that they who are in the Flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 But that to the unclean all things are unclean Tit. 1.15 and that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 which occasioned Austin to say non benè facit bonum qui non bonus facit he performeth not an action though never so materially good well who is not first Good himself contr Julian lib. 4. cap. 3. And again Quid enim potestis facere boni de corde non bâ—nâ— What Good can you do who are not first Holy Austin lib. 4. ad Bonif. cap. 6. and again non enim in te placet Deo nisi quod habes ex Deo quod autem habes ex te displicet Deo 94 Serm. de temp Though the Quality of the Principle be extrinsecal to the Physical entity of an act yet it is of its Moral Essence and is as much of its Ethical Nature as any thing else whatsoever is So that a late Author proclaims his ignorance not only in Systematical Divinity but in Christian Ethicks while he laughs at the difference assigned between the Duties performed by one born of God and the Material actions of the same physical kind done by one unrenued in the Spirit of his mind telling us that this relates not to the Nature of the things themselves but to the Principles from whence they issue as if the principle had no influence upon the Moral denomination of an action Def. Contin p. 335. Of the same complexion and betraying the same ignorance are those other expressions of his where not only with all imaginable contempt of a learned man but with the highest irreverence towards the Word he introduceth Paul as one who if he should again revisit the Christian world would stand agast to find his Epistles brought upon the Stage to decide the difference between Moral and Physical Specification Reprof to the Rehers p. 99.100 Surely the thing is not so forraign either to other Sacred Writers or to Paul himself as that he should have cause to be startled at it It was this alone that constituted the difference between the Sacrifice of Cain and the Sacrifice of Abel Heb. 11.4 Doth not he inform us even with reference to himself that whilst he was blameless as to the material part of Duties both of worship and manners that yet through want of being performed from a due principle they were loathsome to God and became so afterwards to himself Phil. 3.6 7 8. So far is it from being destructive of all true and real Goodness as the same Author chargeth it Eccl. polit p. 73. to affirm that a man may be exact in all the Duties of Moral Goodness and yet be a Graceless person That abating the word exact which is ambiguous and the term all seeing no man ever was or will be so without Grace I do undertake to justifie the denyal of it to be no less than Gross Pelagianism Now that considered with respect to our meer faculties and the best natural improvement of them we are without that Rectitude of heart and conformity to the holiness of God implanted in his Law which we ought to have we shall for the further manifestation of what we have asserted endeavour to lay open and evince That over and above our being possessed of intellectual powers we were also imbued with superadded principles commonly and that according to the Scripture stiled the Divine Image in us and that the design of God in the communication of this to us and the implantation of it upon our Natures was that we might be adapted to live to him and that for the reaching and attaining this great End such concreated principles were naturally due hath been in all its several parts and branches demonstrated chap. 2. § 5. Of the loss of this Image and what thereupon ensues we have in part also treated in the same chapter § 10. Somthing farther remains yet to be subjoyned namely That by the loss of the Divine Images there is immediately and formally in us an unanswerableness to the holy Nature of God a difformity both to the holiness implanted upon the Law and that Sanctity that waâ— at first imprinted in our Natures God himself is the first Exemplar and Original Idea of all Holiness He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Beauty Holiness is in him essentially And from him it is Transcribed on the Law which is Holy Just and Good Rom. 7.12 There is in the Law as in a Copy a Transcript of the Holiness of God Answerable to both these there was at first a Rectitude and Holiness implanted in and imprest upon our Natures There was a concreated similitude in us to God Gen. 1.26 27. 'T is true That in us was not Univocally the same with the Holiness that is in God There cannot be an Identity in any thing between God and Creatures But there was an Analogie betwixt the one and the other Holiness is in God as his Nature and Essence in us as an accident adventitious to our beings yet so as that Originally it was both due to us and that we were thereby fitly laid to be like him Plato rightly stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sensible Image of the intelligible God in Timaeo Now this being concreated with us at first the same Philosopher calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Old Nature in Crit. Now upon the loss of this implanted Rectitude and Image we became formally and immediatly impure and unclean The meer loss and want of it is the very Deformity of the Soul Hence the Scripture reports us to come all Unclean into the World Joh. 14.4 and be born Flesh Joh. 3.6 and to be shapen in Iniquity Psal. 51.5
From this even abstracting from any thing else there results a loathsomness in our persons to God and that doth naturally and by necessity infer a detestation in God of what ever proceeds from us Hence Austin expresly affirms privationem malam esse per eam immundum fiâ—ri Spiritum The very privation of Rectitude to be an Evil and that thereupon the Soul becomes actually defiled and unclean lib. 1. de civitat Dei cap. 10. And again Naturae in tantum vitiosae sunt in quantum ab ejus a quo factae sunt arte discedunt That so far as our Natures recede from what they were at first so far they become tainted and impure idem de lib. Arbitr lib. 13. cap. 15. Yea Bellarmin sayes that carentia doni Originalis macula mentem Deo invisam reddens appellari potest The loss of Original Rectitude is a stain rendering our Souls loathsome to God de Amiss Grat. Stat. peccat lib. 5. cap. 17. This serves to perstringe a late Author who tells us that a decayed and ill-addicted Nature is not a Crime but an Infelicity That being an act of Gods Will it can be no fault of ours and that to impute to our selves as a Crime what was intended meerly as a punishment is new at least crudâ— Divinity Def. Contin p. 198. That it is not New were easie to shew by innumerable Testimonies out of the Ancients The Fathers generally being at an agreement herein And for the Crudeness of the Divinity of it it is as defensible as the imputation of Adams particular offence which our Author contends for and which is more therein with Pighius Salmeron Catharinus and some Arminians States the whole of Original sin which even the Jesuite Bellarmine stiles a heresie But for the thing it self viz. that the want of the Divine Image is not only an infelicity but a Crime I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 produce a few arguments in proof of it 1. The Scripture which useth not to Baptise things with undue names expresly stiâ—es it so see Psal. 51.5 Rom. 7.17 Heb. 12.1 2. That which renders us unclean and by consequence loathsome and abominable to God is in the strictest propriety of speaking a sin seeing God hates nothing simply but sin nor any thing but upon that account Meer disasters render us the Objects of Gods pitty and compassion not of his Wrath Hatred Now that we are impure hateful in the sight of God upon the account of the want of an inherent Rectitude hath been already declared 3. That which is opposite to Righteousness can be nothing less than sin these two only being immediate contraries for punishment formally as such is not in the same praedicament with Righteousness and so cannot in propriety be its oppositum 4. The want of that which the Law requires and which is naturally due and suitable to our Faculties must necessarily be sin for as much as only sin is a transgression of the Law Now that the Law requireth Habitual Holiness or Rectitude of Nature doth necessarily follow upon the consideration that the Sanction of it doth not only reach the outward and external Action but the Heart and Principle 5. Every Innocent Holy and Undefiled Nature is at the least a subject suitable and disposed for Communion with God here and Fruition of Him hereafter but that Naturally we are not so is written as with a Sun-beam Rom. 8.8 Heb. 11.6 Joh. 3.6 6. That which dissolveth the subordination of the Rational Creature to God and the Regular Harmony of the Soul in its actings is surely sin it lying in plain opposition to what we are especially obliged to Now the imputation of Adams meer single transgression precluding the corruption of our Nature could have no influence upon this no more than the Rebellious act of a Father in the forfeiture of whose Estate the Son is involved can have upon the Son to the alienating him from his loyalty But that the due subordination of Man to God and the Harmony of the Soul in its actings is dissolved every mans experience will inform him and if he please he may learn it from the Philosophers who generally tell us that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural to men to sin Many more arguments to this purpose lye in view which to avoid prolixity I at present wave And as to our Authors Objection That what is a Punishment cannot be a Crime 1. What if a clear solution could not be given to it Shall we therefore renounce a truth so strongly confirmed Nunquam ideo negandum quod apertum est quiâ— comprehendi non potest quod occultum est saith Austin lib. de persev Sanct. cap. 14. Turatiocinare ego credam idem I know not one Truth in Natural Philosophy but I could muster some one or other objection against that I think would puzzle our Author clearly to answer Doth it become us to be more immodest in our Divinity than in Human Sciences 2. What if I should say that it is only a Crime and not at all a Punishment I have no less person than Placeus not to name others preceding me in it Adam sinning did thereby shake off his dependance on God prefer a subordinate Good to him and thereby divest himself of that rectitude of Nature he was vested with upon a mutation as to his chief End there was a change in all his Moral Principles And thus becoming corrupt himself it was impossible that any but such as are corrupt should be begotten by him That which is of Flesh is Flesh nor can any bring a clean thing out of an unclean Nor supposing Adam to have sinned could it fall out otherwise without the substitution of a New Protoplast and subversion of the designed and declared order for the propagation of Man-kind But 3. What hinders but that one and the same thing materially considered may under different formal respects be both a Sin and a Punishment Was not Achitophels and Judas's hanging themselves both the one and the other Doth not God frequently threaten upon the commission of some sins to relinquish men in way of judgment to more see 2 Thes. 2.10 11. Rom. 1.21 24 26 28. Not only Philosophers will have sin to be also a punishment but the very Poet could say Invidiâ Siculi non invenere Tyranni Majus tormentum What absurdity to say that Adam divesting himself of the Divine Image God thereupon suspends the immediate Universal perfect restoring of it either to him or his Posterity and that as the denying to restore it is an act of Righteousness and Justice in God so the want of it is nevertheless a sin in us Is there any thing more easie to be proved than that according to the tenor of the Old Covenant it was impossible that it should be restored yet that by the tenor of that very Covenant the want of it is chargeable as a crime upon us It is only in the vertue of the
them For as Plutarch say's there are some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distempers infirmities of soul which do Unman us 2 Our obligation as to the exercise and discharge of some Natural duties is by the Law of Nature only bound upon us on supposition of some fundamenta or relations and circumstances that we are brought into Now though the thing be alway's a duty in it self and the Law requiring it unalterable yet antecedently to my entring into that Relation or those circumstances it was not my actual Duty For example the Law commanding a Husband to love and cherish his Wife or a Father to provide for his Children is immutable and invariable though in order to my being under the sanction of it as to the actual discharge of these duties it is needful that I have a Wife and a Child Si creditor quod ei debeo acceptum ferat jam solvere non tencor non quia jus Naturae desierit praecipere solvendum quod debeo sed quia quod debeb am deberi desiit If a Creditor should forgive me what I owe and am justly indebted to him I stand no longer under Obligation to payment not because the Law of Nature ceaseth to command me to pay my just debt but because that which was a debt is no longer so Grot. de jure belli pacis lib. 1. cap. 1. § 10. By what hath been said 't is easie to discover how weak and impertinent the Ecclesiastical Politician is in all the instances he brings of Natural Laws alterable as circumstances do require or as the Magistrate thinks fit It is well if upon every times changing our condition or upon every humour of the Magistrates altering the civil penalty of a moral crime the Law of Nature must change also Yea according to the rate that any Laws of Nature are alterable I will undertake to prove that they are all so We readily grant that a man by putting himself into new circumstances or new relations is thereon obliged to performance of many duties which as so circumstantiated he was not bound unto before but we altogether deny that therefore the Laws of Nature suffer the least alteration and the Reason is because they did never bind to such duties but on supposition of such Relations and Circumstances In a word the whole Law of Nature bearing upon the Nature of God and the Nature of Man while these are unchangeable it is unchangeable It is strange that we should envy the Pope to dispense with a Natural Law if the Magistrate at pleasure may § 10. That mankind notwithstanding the fall abode still under the obligation of the Law of Creation and that every Precept of the Law of nature is of an unchangeable unalterable obligation hath been already unfolded and made Good The evils which overtook us through the lapse in reference to that Law come next to be disclosed and manifested And besides what befel us in relation to it as it was ratified into a Covenant whereof I shall not now treat there were two mischiefs arrested us in reference to it under the reduplication of its being a Law namely Darkness and Ignorance that we do neither clearly nor fully discern it and Weakness and Enmity whence we neither can nor care to keep it First Darkness and Ignorance and these are grown upon us two ways 1 From an Eclipse of primigenial light in the mind it self The Soul at first was a lucid orb embellished with all the Rayes of light created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in knowledg Col. 3.10 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true holiness Eph. 4.24 that is in sanctitate voluntatis veritatem â—mplectentis Cocc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy with Wisdome Plat. in theat But Alas an Universal darkness hath arrested us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eye of the Soul is drowned or immersed in the barbarick gulf of Ignorance Plat. de Repub. lib. 7. The concreated beams of light are lost and vanished There remain none of those Radii Solis or lucida tela diei What the Poet says of dyed Wool Nec amissos colores Lana refert medicata fuco is applicable to the Soul deprived of the Image of God and tinctur'd with Sin and Lust. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is none that understandeth Rom. 3.11 We are born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Understanding Rom. 1.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blind 2 Pet. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darkned or benighted in our minds Eph. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darkness Joh. 1.5 Our light is not only too dim to preserve us from the mistakes of Error and Ignorance but abuseth us with false representations The Minde is now like an Icterical Organ which imagineth all the objects of sight tinctur'd with false colours 2. This Ignorance of the Law of Nature may be partly ascribed to that disorder and confusion which have invaded the Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Creature is subjected to Vanity Rom. 8.20 An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disorder hath overspread the Universe through the Curse inflicted upon the Creation for mans sin objective mediums are become in a great measure both dark and fallacious They have lost much of that fulgor by which the glory of God's Wisdome and Goodness and our duty to Him our selves and others was at first visible The present calamitous scene of things not only with reference to Brute Animals but inanimate Beings doth strangely impose upon our easie and distorted minds Secondly Weakness and pravity hath arrested us in all our faculties so that we are neither able nor careful to observe and perform what we know Impotency and corruption cleave to our very Natures by the loss of that Rectitude which was concreated with us and impressed upon our faculties the subordination and subjection of the appetite to Reason is in a great measure lost likewise so that the animal life doth now sway us our passion doth both baffle our Judgment and enslave our Wills we are at once not onely weak but corrupt Impotent and averse to Good and propense and disposed to evil As darkness doth naturally ensue on the withdrawment of light or as lameness doth necessarily attend the interruption of the Loco-Motive-faculty so doth inability and aversation to good and positive inclination and adaptedness to evil ensue on the loss of that Rectitude which disposed us to live to God Ungodly and without strength is the just and due Character of every one of the Posterity of Adam But more of this chapt 4. § 11. Notwithstanding the Ignorance Darkness Weakness Corruption c. that man was thus sunk into yet retaining still his Faculties he retain'd likewise some knowledg of the Duties he was obliged to by the Law of Nature and in the vertue of his abiding still endowed with Intellective and Elective powers he continued likewise able for the performance of the substance of these duties and that in his own strength A promptitude readiness and facility of
acting in reference to these is what we commonly call Moral Vertue And in many of them did some of the Heathen excel It were to be wished that as to Graveness of deportment Amiableness of Conversation Moderation in the pursuit and use of the Creatures Acquiescence in the dispose they were brought into Candor Fidelity Justice c. We who pretend our selves Christians did but equal them And as appears by what Paul asserts of himself The Pharisees were eminent in many of the instances of Morality Hence what he expresseth Phil. 3.5 by being in reference to the Law a Pharisee he stiles v. 6. Being touching the Righteousness of the Law blameless And now I must either contradict the Apostle or take the liberty of differing from a late Author who not onely assumes a confidence wherein none have preceded him of divesting them from all title to Moral Righteousness but attaques withal and that in a very pert and clamorous manner the Wisdom Honesty and Conscience of a Learned man for but presuming to say that the Pharisees were a People Morally Righteous See def continuat p. 350 351. Go thy way saies he for a woful guesser no man living beside thy self could ever have had the ill fortune to pitch upon the Scribes and Pharisees for Moral Philosophers c. This I dare say that on what-ever evidence the Pharisees are condemned in their claim to Moral Righteousness there is the same reason why the Philosophers should be cast also Did the Pharisees paraphrase the Law as regarding only the external act without deriving the Sanction of it to the mind intention and disposition The Heathen Moralists were no less guilty herein than they which made Tertullian say of their Moral Philosophy non exscindit vitia sed abscondit it cutteth not off but covereth vice◠lib. 3. cap. 25. See Rom. 7.7 I bad not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Covet Were the Pharisees defective in the true end of obedience designing instead of Gods glory ostentation and applause The best of the Philosophers were herein also criminal which made Austin say that cupiditas laudis humanae was that quae ad facta compulit miranda Romanos Pride had as much leavened the Spirit and way of the Philosopher as of the Pharisee What-ever grosser vices they abandoned Pride was congenial to them Hence Antisthenes seeing a Vessel wherein Plato's Vomit lay said I see Plato 's bile here but I see not his Pride meaning that his Pride stuck closer to him than to be vomited up Curius though he supped upon roots yet Ambition was his sauce Diogenes in censuring Plato's Pride by trampling on his Carpets discovered his own Did the Pharisees pretend to communion with God Did not the Philosophers the same What else was the meaning of Socrates's Demons Did not the most eminent of them neglect the conduct and guidance of sober reason and addict themselves to Magick and Divination Witness as well Pythagoras as those of the new Academy But to wave the further prosecution of this An ability notwithstanding the fall of discerning some considerable part of our duty and of performing it as to the substance and material part thereof was never gain-sai'd by any who understood whereof he spake and what he affirmed This we also acknowledg to be in it self desireable praise-worthy of wonderful advantage to humane societies and that which seldome misseth its reward in this World However it is always thus far useful to its Authors quod minus puniantur in die judicii that I may use a saying of Augustines lib. 4. contra Julian cap. 3. § 12. Man having brought himself into the condition of weakness and corruption already declared and having by sin lost all title to life in the vertue of the Covenant first made with him yet still continuing under obligation to all the duties of the Law of Nature and obnoxious to the Wrath and Curse of God upon the least faileur God might here have left him and have glorified himself in the same way and method upon the posterity of Adam as he hath done upon the Angels that sinned No property of his nature no word of promise bound him to the contrary The terms of the first Covenant being violated all was devolved upon the Soveraignty of God again If an end was not to have been put to obedience by the immediate destruction and perishing of the Creature yet at the least an end was put to God's acceptance of any Moral service from the seed of Adam and they lay under an utter incapacity of performing any such service as might with respect to the nature and quality of it be accepted with Him Matters being thus God out of his Soveraign pleasure and infinite free Grace proposed a Remedying-Law treating with us upon New terms and giving us a New standing in a Covenant-Grace And herein he engaged his Veracity providing we complyed with the overtures now made us for the pardoning of our sins the delivering us from Wrath to come and the stating us at last in the happy enjoyment of himself Now in the vertue of this transaction there arose New Relations betwixt God and us with new duties thereon So that henceforth the Law of Creation was but one part of the Rule of that obedience we owed to God the condition of the New Covenant making up the other part of it Whoever then shall now state the whole of Religion in Moral duties bids a plain defiance to the Gospel either by telling us that there is no Remedial Law at all or that the terms of it are universally the same with the terms of the Old Covenant Of this complexion are several expressions in a late Author viz. That Religion for the substance of it is the same Now as it was in the state of Innocence For as then the whole duty of man consisted in the practice of all those Moral Vertues that arose from his Natural Relation to God so all that is superinduced upon us since the fall is but helps and contrivances to supply our Natural defects and recover our decayed powers and restore us to a better ability to discharge those duties we stand engaged to by the Law of our Nature and the design of our Creation So that the Christian Institution is not for the substance of it any new Religion but onely a more perfect digest of the eternal Rules of Nature and Right Reason All its additions to the Eternal and Unchangeable Laws of Nature are but onely means and instruments to discover their Obligation Def. Continuat p. 315. That there are Duties to which we stand obliged by the Law of Faith which we were not under the direct immediate Sanction of by the Law of Creation yea the repugnancy of them to our Original state and the habitude we were at first placed in to God shall be afterwards God willing demonstrated cap. 3. § 13. The Relation and habitude of the Original Law to the
legis and the doctrina exemplum Christi with which they palliated and glossed their opinion concerning the Grace of God and which was the highest they ever arose in the explication of the Doctrine of Grace are only external Moral Principles Neither the one nor the other have any alliance to an inward physical Principle Which made the Fathers of the Council of Carthage say justly of them nullum relinquunt locum gratiae Christi quâ— Christiani sumus that they left no room for the Grace of Christ c. ad Innocent Pap. And others say of them totum quod Christiani sumus nituntur evertere that they endeavoured to overthrow the whole by which we are Christians Patres Concil Milevit ad eundem apud August Epist. 93. § 3. With these doth the opinion of a late Author seem to coincide Now for as much as this seems a charge of very great consequence if it be found true we shall search a little the more into his own writings for the proof of it I know not whether we are to ascribe it to a design in the Author of clouding his Sentiments or to an affection of a declamatory and flourishing way of writing but I am sure it is come to pass that as well in this particular as in some others he hath not declared his conceptions with that accuracy perspicuity and clearness that was fit But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Die is thrown we have entred our charge and 't is incumbent upon us to make it good Some possibly may think it enough to justifie the foregoing imputation that our Author making the whole of practical Religion to consist in Moral Vertue and that Grace and Vertue are but different names of the same thing That therefore seeing the Original Authors of those terms will have all Vertue to proceed from the strenth and improvement of our Natural abilities he ought if he will speak either consonantly to himself or to them to affirm the same Others may perhaps reckon it for proof enough that there are divers expressions scattered up and down his writings which seem calculated for no other end but to reflect tacit scorn and contempt upon the Spirit of God and his Work on the minds of men such is that passage Eccl. Polit. p. 57. Of the Worlds being filled with a buzz and noise of the Divine Spirit and that Def. Contin p. 343. That the Spirit of God and the Grace of Christ when used as distinct from Moral abilities and performances signifie nothing And that other Reproof to the Rehears Trans p. 101. That 't is an impertinent foppery to think of reconciling Gods Method of begetting Faith in the Elect by a power equal to that wherewith he Created the World and raised up the Dead with the power of Election and Free-will But this method of proceed I wave and therefore forbear producing several other expressions of a much worse complexion The same candidness I desire from an Adversary in the representation of my own opinion I profess my self ready to show in the taking the measure of anothers and therefore avoyding all collateral accidental expressions how much so ever accommodated to serve my design I shall confine my enquiry to those parts of his discourses where he purposeth and designeth the giving an account of his Sentiments in this matter Virtues saith he in the first ages of Christianity were stiled Graces because they were the effects of meer favor whereas now they are the joynt-issues of our own industry and the Spirit of God cooperating with our honest endeavours and therefore they cannot now with so much propriety of speech be stiled Graces because they are not matter of pure infusion though they may be allowed the title still in some proportion because they are in some proportion produced by the special Energie and cooperation of the Holy Ghost In the same manner as these Abilities bestowed upon the Apostles without the concurrence of their own industry were called gifts though now they might be more properly expressed by other Names notwithstanding that we owe them to the Blessing of God upon our studies and endeavours And what was then the gift of Tongues is now vulgarly called skill in Languages and what was then the gift of utterance is now the Art of Elâ—quence and Rhetorique Def. Contin p. 329 330. If these expressions being duely considered do not justifie what I have entred in charge against the said Author I shall be ready not only to acknowledg my own ignorance in judging of the sense and meaning of the commonest proposition but to crave him pardon for having injured him in a matter of so great import and to such a degree Surely if Grace be not a matter of pure infusion as our Author expresly affirms that it is not it can be nothing but an effect of our Essential powers and of the improvement of our Reasons and Natural abilities There is no other way besides one of these two in which it can be obtained To pretend any special Energy of the Holy Ghost in the production of Grace distinct from an infusion of a new principle determining elevating and adapting our faculties to concur as vital principles in the performance of those acts to which they were antecedently inept is to allow Him at most but a Moral influence which consists only in Objective Motives in the begetting of it 'T is true greater external helps do even in this respect fall to the share of those who live under the Gospel than the Heathen were priviledged with The inducements to Vertue laid down in the word vastly exceeding those proposed by Philosophers But as for any active inward principle of Obedience There can be none according to the Hypothesis of our Author besides Natural Power Again If Graces be no otherwise attained than skill in Languages the art of Eloquence and Rhetorique are and if that be the reason why in propriety of speech those ought not now to be called Graces no more than these ought to be stiled Gifts as our Author plainly affirms It necessarily follows that the only Principle of Grace and of all the obedience that proceeds from it is nothing else but Natural Power and connate ability of mind for as much as no man lays claim to any higher principle for the acquisition of Arts but his Faculties Men become not Philosophers or Physitians c. by inspiration nor are any infused principles pretended as necessary thereunto The Blessing of God upon our studies and endeavours implies no such thing as the communication of Habits of Learning and Science to us but is by all that I know of otherwise sensed and explained Though this one passage be enough to lay open the mind of the foresaid Author in this matter yet because to discover some mens sentiments is sufficient to refute them for as Hierome saith in a like case Ecclesiae victoria est vos â—perte dicere quod sentitis sententias vestras prodidisse