never-failing principle of life both in this World and the other Thus we see that notwithstanding the infinite fulness of the Divine Goodness abundantly shed abroad upon the whole Creation yet was not God at all obliged to create man impeccable 2. To determine by an absolute and positive act the Happiness of some Prop. 2. and the Misery of others and yet to Decree the same upon condition of their Obedience or Disobedience is inconsistent with the light of Reason That the same thing be both Absolute and Conditional is as great a contradiction as can be imagined and therefore to decree a benefit to any person absolutely and without any respect whatever and yet to propose the same under certain terms and conditions of acting must needs be of the same Nature But here that the Asserters of Gods Absolute Decrees concerning the Salvation and Damnation of particular persons might save the credit of their Doctrin from those absurdities it lies obnoxious to they have invented a pretty Subterfuge and they tell us That God doth irresistably work the condition in those whom he intends to save And what is this but to make God a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that acts upon such arbitrarious Principles as every wise man would be ashamed to own in the conduct of his life and actions 'T is very stange to see how men will labor and toil to support and keep up a ruinous fabrick which if let fall would assuredly prove an advantage to the Christian world but surely God needs no such Patrons to defend the righteousness and equity of his dealing with the sons of men and I may say to them as once Job expostulated with his Friends Will ye speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him will you accept his person This is as he afterwards tels them to mock God as one man mocketh another For if he determine salvation to men hypothetically that is with respect to their obedience and he himself work the condition in them by a supervenient and irresistable force How can they be said in propriety of speech to have performed it and how can their Obedience if it can be called so be termed an act of their duty which is alwayes in respect of a Superior when they themselves are wholly passive Wherefore according to this rate of speaking God must be said to reward himself Lastly He that promises a reward upon condition of Obedience supposes the person to be in a capacity of disobeying and the reward is added as an incitation to quicken and actuate his Obedience otherwise it will be as ridiculous as to confer a benefit upon a man if he will breathe for the man is no more able to disobey then a stone not to fall downward or flame not to ascend Now if God transact the whole business by his Almighty and never-failing Power without any the least attempts or offers of man towards it how is he left in a possibility of disobeying and What need there any reward be adjudged to man for the performance of that which God intends to bring to perfection without his co-operation or endeavours So on the other side Is it not a strange dispensation and wholly unworthy the God of Truth thus to deceive his Creatures by telling them that tey are the cause of their own ruine and that it is only their own obstinate and perverse wills which deprive them of that Blessedness he prepared for them and cause them to inherit bitterness and sorrow when he did by an Antecedent and Inconditionate Decree destinate and mark them out to an Eternal Misery The truly knowing Spirit will not be put off with Pageantry and fair shows but will look for something solid and substantial which may be indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of that Excellen◠Goodness and Wisdom which brought into being the beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth If such shifts therefore as these may pass for currant at the Great day of God I cannot see how Wicked mens mouths can be stopped and the whole unrighteous World become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subject and obnoxious to the just Judgment of God For how easie is it for them to plead an exemption from Punishment although they never performed the conditions of the Gospel because the same absolute and peremptory Will which of old designed their destruction did likewise perfectly disable them from doing any thing that might conduce to their Happiness and What were they that they could withstand God 3. Prop. 3. To command men to Act according to a Law under a certain and severe Punishment and yet to take away all Power and Ability of Acting according to the Tenor of that Law is contrary to the dictates of Right Reason That I may fully clear this Proposition I shall go by these Gradations 1. That men may reasonably come under any Obligation by a Law it is necessary that that Law be Promulgated otherwise it is no Law nor can it reach or have influence upon any mans person for the Promulgation of it is an Essential qualification of a Law according to that known Maxime of the Canon Law Leges Constituuntur cùm Promulgantur Laws are then Constituted when they are Promulgated And that of the Civilians Leges quae constringunt hominum vitas intelligi ab omnibus debent Those Laws which have influence upon Mens lives ought to be understood of all Thus among the Romans the manner of publishing a Law after it had been approved and recorded was by hanging it up in Tables of Brass in their Market-places or at their Church doors as Tacitus in his Annals reports whence legem figere is to Enact and Establish a Law Hence it is that the Jewish Law has no obligation upon Christians because it was Promulgated only to them and so became peculiar to their Nation Audi Israel Hear O Israel and if any part of it have influence now upon the Christian World it must be because it is repeated anew by the Son of God the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Christian Oeconomy for whatever is contained in it beside conformable to the laws and dictates of Nature obliges us not as given by Moses but by virtue of that antecedent Universal law common to all rational beings Nor was the Heathen World at all concerned in the Jewish Discipline upon the same account because it was restrained and confined to the Judaical Republick for had it been of an Universal extent there is no doubt but it would have been published to the Pagans also and the Jewish Prophets when they reprehended the Heathen Kings for their enormities would likewise have taken notice of this in especial manner that they did not conform to the Discipline of the Jewish Church and accordingly sharply reproved them for it which we never find they did at any time 2. That a Law may have force and obligation upon Men and they be reasonably punished for the transgression of it
Therefore I say though the Creation of an Intellectual Being do not formally beget any new Power in God which was not antecedently in him yet it begets a new mode and qualification of his Power whereby the Creature may justly expect to be dealt withal according to the Nature and capacities which that Infinite Power placed in it 2. The Collation of Benefits invests the Creatures with a Right or Priviledge of justly hoping for all such fair and equitable dealings from God as shall best sute with those faculties he endued them withal For Gods very Donation of Being to the Creatures is as it were a silent contract or promise That his whole Oeconomy towards them shall be equal and righteous and that he will never take from them any the least degree of that felicity and beatitude he was graciously pleased to conferr upon them at the first moment of their Existence without their own sin and fault Upon these grounds our Author might with greater plausibility of Reason have founded Gods Dominion upon the Right of Creation then upon Gods absolute and unlimited Power which he confesses page 24. to be bounded by an internal Principle of Goodness which may be said to tye and restrain God not to do any thing repugnant to this Principle of Goodness So that if the exercise of Power be limited and confined by this precious Attribute of Goodness this were a more sure ground of Gods Dominion over the Creatures in my apprehension then that which he hath pitched upon as will appear from Axiome III. And to say that the Reason why God cannot do any thing repugnant to his Goodness proceeds from a circumscription set and choose by himself which he cannot transgress because he will not is to introduce an Arbitrary Deity and very much Derogatory to his spotless Nature whose Goodness Justice and Holiness are as necessary as his Existence therefore that God cannot act any thing indecorous and unbecoming himself arises not from any Restraint or Confinement arbitrarily imposed upon himself but from the necessary Perfection of his Nature and from those Eternal and Immutable laws of Justice and Righteousness which are nothing but his own Moral Being That I may therefore more fully declare the weakness and invalidity of this conceit of our Author viz. That Arbitrary Power is the ground of Gods Sovereignty and Dominion over his Creatures I shall endeavour to enervate those Propositions by which he would strengthen and confirm it 1. First then sayes he page 5. God has Power either utterly to destroy our Beings or to inflict upon us so many calamities as shall leave us in a condition only preferable to that of Non-Existence When we speak of God our conceptions of him ought to be Generous and Noble and we ought to look upon him as an Eternal Rectitude and Perfection who never acts any thing but in conformity to his own blessed and righteous Nature Now that pregnant Womb which brought forth the whole Creation being Infinite Goodness by Axiome III. it will follow that the same Goodness is infinitely concerned to keep in Being the productions of it's own fertile Nature for though it be true that our very Beings are the issues of Infinite Power yet it is as certain that this Power is surrounded with Immense Goodness which from the Reasons of it 's own Nature will infallibly do all that Good which at any time lies in it's Power to do and is consistent with the Nature and Capacities of the subject about which it is exercised Since then Being is better then Not-being and all Creatures capable of an Eternal Duration as well of continuing one day or year Infinite Goodness is obliged to keep all things in Being The further proof of this shall be shewed anon I might here likewise suggest to Mr. P. that Things are the blessed emanations of Gods exuberant Goodness and depend upon him as emanative effects upon their causes nor will this be invalidated by Objecting That then God could not properly be said to have Created the World For besides that Aquinas himself defines Creation by Actus Emanativus there is no Incongruity say they to affirme that all things are the Emanative effects of Gods pregnant Goodness because to Create is nothing but to give Being or Existence to things and this is true though every thing be an Emanative effect of Gods Life and Essential Vigour This I look upon to be as Rational and Concinnous an Hypothesis as that wherein Mr. P. attributes such a Sovereignty and Dominion of God over his Creatures the basis of which is Unlimited Power as that he may at any time either annihilate them or inflict upon them so many calamities as shall render their conditions only preferable to Non-Existence 2. His second Proposition is only a further Enlargement and Explication of his first For if God sayes he have an Absolute Power over an innocent Persons life and all it 's appendant Priviledges to take them away he may certainly do the same upon any occasion Thus he visits the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children by bringing their Posterity into those evil circumstances into which he might have brought them by vertue of his Supreme Dominion though not only themselves but their Progenitors had been faultless To which I answer That there is no instance in Scripture wherein God punishes an innocent Person by vertue of his Supreme Dominion 'T is true when God inflicts Calamities upon the Children for their Parents faults the Posterity are innocent of those particular Crimes of their Progenitors which caused the Judgment or Calamity but they were criminal otherwise and therefore if God take away their lives it is upon this account that they have rendred themselves obnoxious by their Personal faults and by that Oeconomy serves other designs of his Providence Wherefore when God takes away the life of a Virtuous Son to punish a Wicked Father it is not properly to be accounted an Evil to the Son because Gods righteous Providence compensates it with a greater Good See Axiome VI. From these particular instances he descends to the consideration of Original sin which he places in nothing but in the evil and irregular crasis and temperament of our bodies which Punishment might have been inflicted upon us though Adam had never sinned But 1. Can this sute with the eternal Righteousness of the just Governour of the World to Create Intellectual Beings holy and good and then without any fault of theirs to thrust them into such cadaverous bodies where they shall be almost necessitated to trade with Hell and Damnation and it may be never recover themselves from that Lethargick state of sin and vice or regain their ancient and virtuous freedom And though Mr. P. shift this off upon Adam's Prevarication and Transgression yet he sayes The Consideration of Gods Sovereignty and Dominion will warrant such an Act upon guiltless Persons Sure Mr. P. has a very mean conceit of Gods most Blessed Nature if he think
be excogitated more infallible for the Exploration of whatever falls under humane cognizance which is in some measure made good in the following Discourse they likewise put a certain stop to the progress of Christianity throughout the World and are the greatest impediment to the dissemination of the Gospel to them that are without it being given to be the Religion of all mankind to run and be glorious and to conquer and subdue the Nations to the entertainment of it For unless we will imagine men so stupid and ignorantly devotional that they will embrace any thing though never so disagreeing with the native sentiments of their own minds it is impossible they should ever give any real and unfaigned assent to such Dogmata of Christianity as pretend to no other Author but the Eternal Logos and Wisdom of God and are propounded to rational and intellectual creatures endued with a discriminative sense and perception between truth and falshood and yet by all the reason that is in them cannot make them to appear so And though the Doctrins themselves should not be in their whole frame and contexture irrational yet if we give absurd and inconcinnous explications of them there will be as small hope and expectation that any man should be convinced and perswaded by them as if they were altogether false Such is the intellectual Fabrick of mens minds that they cannot believe or disbelieve what they will but there are certain laws and principles interwoven in the essential frame of their Natures by the great Architect of all things by which they are bound up and limited and which are the foundations of all Knowledge whether Natural Moral or Metaphysical And 't is very strange to think that infinite Wisdom which alone works constantly and evenly and according to the capacities and measures of creatures should now in this grand Mystery of the recovery of the World which of all things is the most like that high and incomprehensible intellect which gave birth unto it so deviate from the unchangeable laws of it 's own being as to propound such Articles and Propositions to the World which without the greatest reluctancy and violation of their Natural Powers and Faculties they can never fully credit or believe And questionless such a way and method of proceeding would so miserably confound the beautiful Order and Symmetry of things that beside it must necessarily engage the Divine Power to the production of a perpetual Miracle for the begetting Faith and Assent in men it likewise layes them open and obnoxious to inevitable Errors Falsities and Delusions and there will be no means left for the attaining to the truth of any thing And now let any man consider what little probability or plausibility of reason there is that such a Doctrine as this whether positively declared so in it self or made so by the perverse Glosses and Paraphrastical Expositions of others should win and gain ground upon the World and effect that purpose for which it was at first intended It was the advice and counsel of the Apostle 1 Cor. x. 32. that we give no offence either to the Jew or to the Greek whereby to alienate their minds from so excellent a Religion for there is nothing so much obstructs the diffusion of any Principles or Dogmata be they of what sort they will as when they contain something which may administer just cause of scruple and beget an aversion to it in the mind of a rational and unprejudic'd person He therefore that would bring over a free and ingenuous Spirit whether Jew or Heathen to Christianity must be sure that he assert nothing Dogmatically or positively lay it down as an indispensable Article of the Christian Faith which the other can reject upon clear and solid grounds of Reason for assuredly no part of Christianity can be repugnant to Right Reason Therefore to begin with the Jew who taking just exceptions against many Dogmata of Christianity as they are in common vogue amongst us but particularly disgusting that harsh and rigid Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation expresses his dislike and dissatisfaction in such like terms as these That God gave Statutes and Judgments and delivered a Law to Moses on Mount Sinai I am sufficiently convinced of from the constant and uninterrupted Tradition of our Fathers and that I am equally obliged to perform due obedience to it is in my apprehension a truth as indubitable as the other But that I should desert the Religion of my Ancestors and embrace a Novel Doctrine wholly repugnant to and inconsistent not only with the common principles of Reason but the Law of Moses and Prophetick Writings and manifestly tending to the eversion and extirpation of all Religion in the World for who will put his trust in that God who takes greater pleasure in Destroying than in Saving of his Creatures will argue as great Impiety as it will appear Fantastickness and Imprudence in the eyes of all that believe a God and Providence in the World For under the Mosaical Oeconomy God like a just and prudent Legislator makes the ground and foundation of all his Promises and Menaces to be the Obedience or Disobedience of his Subjects and Benefits are not conferred but hypothetically and with respect to the condition annexed to them nor Punishments executed but upon the actual breach and violation of a Law And beside this you tell us that when the Messias comes he will bring into the World such a Religion and Service as will most suit with our rational and intellectual Natures such as may approve it self to our inward and divine sense as truly excellent and lovely comprehending the flower and summe of whatever is Worthy Noble and Generous which you say is most lively depainted and set out to us in that which you call the Christian Religion the great Arcanum and Mystery of which according to the principles of your Doctrine seems to be this That God hath eternally Elected a certain number of persons to inherit Blessedness with him and sent his son to signifie the same to them and to publish this his decree but to cast away the rest upon the pretence of his Soveraignty and Dominion over them either therefore the coming of Christ is upon rational grounds yet expected or if he have been already manifested to the World your Religion is none of his nor was he ever the Author of it but the spurious results and effuxes of fanciful persons obtruded as necessary Articles of faith upon the World It is impossible I should ever believe that the great Creator of the Vniverse who in our Law declared himself to be The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and who so often forgat the Crimes and Apostacies of our Forefathers when they returned and sought him with their whole heart should now so change his Nature and suspend the rayes and benign emanations of his communicative life in this which you affirm to be the last and
Hearers in the most difficult and many times disputable points of the Christian Religion and fill their heads with unprofitable opinions while they neglected the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more serious and weighty matters of Justice Mercy and Compassion From hence came it that in their Catechisms and Confessions of Faith they crowded so many unnecessary and fruitless Doctrines under the name and notion of Indubitable Articles of the Christian Faith and which were necessary to be believed in order to Salvation such as are the Positions concerning Gods Decree of Election and Reprobation c. And here I cannot but with all due regard and honour commend the great Prudence of the Compilers as of the whole Liturgie and Service so particularly of the Catechisme of the Church of England for the Instructing of the younger sort in the Rudiments and Principles of Christianity wherein as there is nothing propounded as indispensably necessary to be believed but what is undoubtedly so in like manner they modestly contented themselves in inserting only such things as were by all the reformed part of Christendome looked upon as unquestionably true and the contrary condemned as false and adulterate so that I may say of it as David of Goliahs Sword There is none like it Thus Reader I have given thee a full Account and Reason of the following Discourse and of the Necessity of some such way and method of Instructing the People as I have here described which certainly is not to fill their brains with puffie Opinions and jejune Disputations but a zealous cautioning them against all Vice and Immorality whatever and a serious exhorting them to the practice of Holyness Justice and Equity Obedience to their Lawful Prince and to all inferior Magistrates to do good and communicate to the Necessities of the Indigent and Calamitous and when the case requires a further instruction in the Mysteries of Religion such a full and easie Explication of the several Articles and Doctrines contained in it as may best suit with their Capacities and the plain Texts of Holy Scripture which as it is recommended as most useful for the promotion of Piety by our Mother the Church of England so it is most agreeable with the Nature of the thing it self GODS GOODNESS VINDICATED Against Absolute Reprobation CHAP. I. Inconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture THERE is scarce any Doctrine or Opinion maintain'd in the World be it never so Monstrous and Irrational but pleads Scripture to countenance and authorize it and though Truth be but one yet every Sect and Faction claims an Interest in it and that Error may pass more freely disguised and undiscerned amongst men it is now-become a fashion to alledge the Divinely-inspired Writings as an unquestionable Evidence for the reasonableness and Truth of whatever strange and uncouth conceits men please to divulge in the World Such is the Hypothesis of Absolute Reprobation we have in hand And he that shall peruse the Writings of those who desire to maintain it and consider with what wonderful confidence they assert it and how thick-set the Margins of their Treatises are with citations of Scripture to patronize and defend it and yet how little or nothing there is in that Sacred Volume that in good earnest looks that way will be soon perswaded that it is an inveterate prejudice rather then any probability of Truth which makes them such pertinacious Adherents to so ill-framed a Doctrine And that I may make good what I have affirmed I shall begin with Divine Revelation wherein God declares his gratious Oeconomy and Dispensation with mankind and Vindicates the glory and honour of his Nature and Attributes from the aspersions and imputations of cruelty and injustice asserting his Rule and Dominion in the World to be Righteous and Equal and perfectly agreeable to the highest Wisdome and Goodness so that none of his Creatures unless it be such who are desperately forlorn and wicked can possibly wish his Not-being in the World This is his Name whereby he proclaims himself to Moses The Lord the Lord God Exod. xxxiv 6. merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth and this Name God hath verified in the whole Oeconomy of his Providence to the lapsed World Deut. v. 29. Oh that my people had such an heart in them sayes he that they would fear me and keep my Commandements But why doth God wish this not for any self design or particular interest for our goodness extendeth not unto him nor can our sins detract any thing from the sedate and composed happiness of his everblessed Nature but that it might go well with them and their Children for ever Behold here the flagrant love and intense affection of the God of Israel to a stiff-necked and disobedient people Do not these passionate streins proceed from his whole heart and are they not Arguments of the greatest seriousness How then can he unfeignedly desire that they should walk in the wayes of life when his own good Pleasure from the out-goings of Eternity hath irresistibly determined their motion into the pathes of destruction Can a tender Mother expose her innocent Babe to be devoured by wilde Beasts or sawn asunder before her eyes Isai xlix 15. Can she forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion upon the Son of her womb Suppose there may be some so obdurate and unrelenting that their bowels will not yern over such a dismal spectacle yet they are but few that have degenerated so deeply into this more then brutish stupidity and can we think the compassionate Father of Spirits who is infinitely more pitiful in all the degrees of intension and extension then the best of the Sons of Men will betray his own dear off-spring or prove so unnatural to design them to the most acute torments the wit and subtilty of Men or Devils can invent and that to eternal ages before ever their Existence gave them the least opportunity of offending him 1 Joh. iv 16. God is Love it self whose nature is ever to be diffusive and communicative to all the possibilities of beings and therefore glories not in this that he is powerful to slay to damne and excruciate in unheard and perpetual torments Isa lxiii 1. but that he speaks in righteousness and is mighty to save And that he might fully convince the World of this gracious property of his he hath pronounced Judgment to be his Strange work and his Strange act which mens Impenitencies only force him to for he will not that any perish but that every Creature should be happy in it's measure and capacity And lest we Sons of Darkness should entertain any such thought of the God of Light as if he pleased himself in our ruin he hath joyned an Oath to it Ezek. xxxiii 11. and hath sworn As he liveth he hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his
sinners of the love of their offended God and that yet they had not sinned out of the reach of Mercy but that now while 't is called to day if they would hear the God of love speaking to their consciences and gently mollifying their obdurate hearts they should run unto him by a speedy repentance and he would melt and thaw their frozen spirits into a plyable ductility by the warm gleams of his Eternal Love loosen the wings of their entangled Souls and secure their flight into the quiet regions of Peace and Joy When this Son of Love who was alwayes going about doing good saw the Multitude scattered abroad like Sheep that have no Shepherd it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. ix 36. He was moved with compassion on them which word sayes a Learned Critick denotes Summam vehementem commiscrationem ex intimis visceribus profectam Such an inward feeling and yerning of the heart and soul as melts the very bowels into a pitiful commiseration of the object they are affected with which intense affection is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bowels of the mercy of God Luk. i. 78. And when he came to Jerusalem how did he weep over her and moisten his fresh Laurels with a shower of Tears O Jerusalem Matth. xxiii 37. Jerusalem thou that killedst the Prophets and stonedst them that were sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not His heart was so full of grief that it could hold no longer but must empty it self in a sympathizing flood of tears over that incorrigible City softning that ground with his watry eyes which shortly after should be bedewed with blood Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Surely there is no man so blasphemous as to think Christ wept tears of deceit and treachery No they were the very breathings of his heart to a people that were going into inevitable destruction For if we look into the whole History of the Gospel we shall find that our blessed Lord was of as tender and passive a constitution as ever the world had any cognizance of and in this very instance which was Christs last solemn visit for the recovery of those rebellious Jews he hath left upon record to all succeeding ages of the World the fervency of his Love and the greatness of their Obstinacy and Rebellion He rode in triumph the children sang Hosanna to him and he cured many impotent and diseased persons that at least that miraculous and wonder-working Power residing in him might extort this confession from them that he was the Son of God and the promised Messiah and after all this he weeps for their Infidelity and pities them with tears and having his heart and spirit full of love that is stronger then death he leaves no way untryed but spends the whole day amongst them and looks round about him towards evening to see if any would invite him home being unwilling to depart till their Ingratitude forces him away And now that he is exalted in Glory and sits at the right hand of his Father invested with Majesty and Power his Compassions are no whit abated nor is that benign care and Providence which in the dayes of his Humiliation and condescent he exercised over the fallen generations of Men at all lessened by the augmentation of his Blessedness and Felicity but dayly woes and beseeches us by his Ministers and Servants to enter upon terms of amity and friendship with God who in him hath been pleased to reconcile the World unto himself Should we now cast our eyes upon the whole frame and fabrick of the Gospel we shall find it to be the most effectual engine that infinite Wisdome could contrive for the winding of the minds and spirits of men from their too eager pursuit of the pleasures and gratifications of the lower life and working them up to those noble and high purposes for which they were made And doubtless there is no man in whom prejudice doth not outbalance reason but will readily set his seal to this truth there appearing in the Gospel such sweet condescentions to our capacities and complyances with the frailty of our condition such infinite aversness to our misery and destruction and such powerful endearments and attractives to Holiness and Righteousness that he cannot judge it to proceed from any other then a principle of Infinite Goodness Love and Wisdome I might here further tell you that the Gospel being designed to be the Religion of men of all sorts and conditions of all ranks and qualities and so adapted to our rational powers and in the main drift and scope of it so plain and easie even to the most illiterate capacities Divine Wisdom could not but highly approve of it and by a favourable benediction suffer it to have that Universal effect it pretends to that is the full and compleat renovation of all mankind that would not wilfully reject the counsel of God against themselves and the perfecting every one without exception or limitation that would faithfully and cordially to his utmost powers adhere unto it CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason wherein is set out the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil Truth and Falshood And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions THere is nothing that can lay any claim or pretence to the decision of Questions of a Moral Nature and Import but will appear very lame and ineffectual without the aid and assistance of Right Reason which is so noble and generous a principle that if we take a serious view of it it will soon discover to us it 's Royal Pedigree and Divine Extraction There is a near alliance and consanguinity between the Reason of Man and that Eternal Goodness which at first sealed it as an impression of his Nature upon our souls and therefore there need be no such distance between true Christianity and it For assuredly that Divine Wisdom which at our first production implanted in us the apprehensions and Idea's of things did so order the business that if we used our discriminative faculties aright we should have no other conceptions of them then what did really and significantly express the Natures of the things themselves and such as were Eternally lodg'd in the All-comprehensive Intellect of the Deity There being then no Judge on Earth whose Dictates and Determinations may be credited as Authentick and Infallible and every man being commanded to prove all things to try the Spirits whether they be of God and to look carefully and diligently to himself that he fall not nor be led into Error and the Reason and understanding of man if rightly manag'd being the Candle of the Lord whereby he is inabled to examine and judge of Doctrines it will follow
that it must determine of whatever dictates shall be propounded to him He therefore that considers we were made by an Eternal mind that the original of our beings is from an All-prefect Author who at our first Creation stamped the impresses of his Nature upon us and every thing that derives from him being in some measure and degree like himself will without any hesitancy assent to this Truth viz. That whatever offers it self to our rational Nature by a clear and distinct perception is infallible so and we are no longer to doubt of the truth of it And unless we grant this it is impossible we should ever come to any certain knowledge of any thing in the World Now that those Idea's which thus offer themselves to us that is by a clear and distinct perception are certainly so in the nature of the things themselves we are no longer to doubt of because Veracity is an Essential mode and Attribute of the Author of our beings and therefore 't is impossible he should deceive us in those things which we have an evident and distinct apprehension and cognizance of and further we may take notice that that Power in us which discriminates between the Beings and Modes of things is the same that is in | This made the bold Stoick affirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian God and participates of his Nature and is nothing but a ray and beam let down from Heaven by whose light we discover and apprehend the various kinds of objects whether Moral Physical or Metaphysical according to that of Epicharmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being so the cause of all our Errors and Mistakes must be attributed to our selves not that we want those faculties which should give us a faithful and true representation of things but because we abuse them whether by an inadvertency and anticipation in judgment or by an inveterate prejudice contracted from an evil Education or by what other means soever it comes to pass Reason therefore is the Vicarious Power of God in the Soul and to refuse it's Authority in such things as of right belong unto it to judge of is to reject the light of God shining within us as Hierocles excellently discourses In Carm. Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is To act according to the dictates of Right Reason is the same as to obey God for the rational Nature being once raised to the possession of it's native brightness wills and acts according to the determinations of the Divine Law and pleasure and the holy Soul that thus participates of the Deity becomes in every thing conformable to the mind of God and frames the whole System and comprehension of it's actions by the conduct and guidance of that Eternal Splendor All our knowledge in this our state of degeneracy and imperfction may not unfitly be called according to the Platonists a Reminiscency or an awakening those multifarious Idea's either by her own internal Energy or by the occursions of sensible Phantasms which are treasured up in the essence of the soul her self for now that the soul is sent into this World and rouz'd out of her long sleep and state of Inactivity she acts over again her former life and recals those Idea's and Notions of things which upon occasion she exerted somewhere else But whether we give heed to this Hypothesis or no it is certain that our souls as they come out of the hands of God are not like transparent Globes of pellucid Chrystal or fair and white sheets wherein nothing is written but essentially stored and filled with the indelible Characters and Idea's of Truth to whose light so long as we faithfully attend though we wander in abstruse rugged and dark pathes we need not question but that at last by their safe conduct we shall arrive to the regions of light where all the mists and difficulties which before enveloped us shall vanish into perfect day and all things appear in their own proper dress and essential Characters but when we neglect to give heed to these sure and infallible guides we are distracted and miserably confounded in the contemplation of things and are at a loss where to bottom or settle our selves which the fore-mentioned Author took notice of in these words Hierocles in Carm. Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Essential formes and Idea's of things are centrally co-united to the soul and not then first begotten when brought into actual Existence upon the several emergences of life but the effects of that innate and pregnant Fecundity the kind and liberal hand of God bestowed upon her is a Noematical truth and cannot but appear so to those who attentively consider and weigh the various animadversive acts and discriminative judgments the soul makes of things Not to instance in those relative notions of similitude and proportion and the consideration of Universals which have no foundation in any thing beside the mind it self what is it that can conclude the true magnitude of objects For though we grant that there is some picture or representation of the object drawn in the bottom of the eye yet that being farr less then the real proportion and magnitude of the external object it will be necessary that the soul exert some innate Idola whereby to give an exact and perfect judgment of it These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first notions and apprehensions are the foundations of all Arts and Sciences and of all Knowledge in the World and whatever affects us from without doth but administer several instances and due occasions to the soul of working and unravelling her own Uniform essence for the bringing into actual existence this or the other Phantasm Wherefore in this the soul of man resembles that ancient fountain of Blessedness which brought her into being and as he by his Almighty Fiat gave actual being to the multifarious forms and Idea's eternally comprehended in his Infinite Wisdome so the humane soul by the energy of her will commands from her central pregnancy and fecundity such Images and Idea's as by their gentle light fairly lead her to the knowledge of her self and the whole Creation These are the glass which represents the lively Images of things and from their convenience or disconvenience to these common notions arise their several differences and reasons As for example the denominations of good and evil pulchritude and deformity and all those moral Entities spring not from any arbitrarious power which upon the impulses of humour and will can make them cease to be what they are nor do their Natures change and correspond to the different modes of our conceptions but remain Eternally and Immutably what we find them to be for if they were so only to appearance and not really and substantially as some Philosophers of old affirmed all Moral Goodness and Righteousness would vanish into empty names and words and Wickedness and Evil would have nothing but a
them And will you think this worthy and becoming the Majesty of that Good and Just God who hath taken such strange and unimaginable wayes to make his Creatures happy and who dayly woes the Sons of Men with arguments of the greatest weight and seriousness to accept his offered Salvation I cannot but speak and it were a crime to be silent when the glory of heaven thus lies at stake the honour of my Creator trampled in the dust and the spotless purity and holiness of his Nature sullyed and defiled by the impure conceptions of unhallowed judgments Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth while I plead the cause of the holy One who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity against the ignorant zeal of inconsiderate persons who under pretence of doing honor to his Name do really render that admirable contrivance of God in the Gospel than which nothing was ever communicated to the World more full of incomprehensible Wisdom the most unreasonable project in the choicest parts of it that ever was set on foot among the Sons of men Do you think the Eternal Logos or Reason of God would declare a Doctrine to the World that should be in all points of all his numerous issue only unlike the Father that is that the Gospel alone among all the projections and contrivances of that All-comprehensive Wisdom should be found unreasonable Reflect a while upon the Heroick Generosity and Innate Nobility of your own Spirits and let not your conceptions of God and his Works dwindle away into childish Words and Names nor stifle and suppress any noble sentiments by perverse altercations about terms but let a manly spirit possesse your breasts and look upon men as rational Creatures the composure of whose souls I mean their Intellectual frame is such that every thing is not a congruous and proportionate object of their inward sense and it is not in their power to receive Truth and Falshood alike but as the eye cannot behold the sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some resemblance of the Sun it self so neither can the soul without a great deal of molestation and regreat embrace what is not congenerous to it 's rational Nature And as it is in Nature every Plant is not adapted to entertain every particle that comes to nourish it but admits only such as are consimilar to it 's own pores so the spirit of man being rational in all the ducts and lineaments of it's moral structure cannot acquiesce in any thing that is irrational nor receive any Doctrine but what is homogeneal to it's inward temper Consider this I say and judge of the Doctrins you so earnestly contend for by this Index and Rule and remember that so often as you propound any of the Dogmata of Christianity either as unreasonable in themselves or make them appear so to others by your unwary and irrational Explication of them you become treacherous to your Saviour by hindring as much as in you lies those good effects he intended by the Propogation of the Gospel throughout the World and you likewise do violence to the Nature of Mankind by imposing upon them what is plainly repugnant thereto But I fear I have been too luxuriant in this sudden though not wholly impertinent Excursion I shall therefore immediately fall upon the last Proposition which is 4. Prop. 4. That to Create and bring into Being on purpose to destroy and make miserable is most irrational There is no Being whether meerly Sensitive or Rational too but by a natural sympathy and propension loves and takes care for it's own off-spring The Beasts of the field and the Fowls of the air bear a tenderness and affection towards their young and never cast of the care and protection of them till time have enabled them to shift for themselves The Hircanian Tygers never discover the fierceness of their cruel natures more vehemently and passionately than when they are in danger of being bereaved of their whelps Thus have I seen a Serpent pull down the nest and devoure the young ones of a little Bird before her eyes while the innocent damme not daring to come nigh and yet unwilling to flie away suffers a pretty controversie between love and fear within her breast continually environing her more powerful adversary by many circular flights and powring out in vain her pitiful complaints into those insensible ears till the cruel beast hath eaten up her loving care and charge and then she mourns and makes the trees participate of her grief and often with sad notes visits the place where lay the tragick Scene of her latest sorrows Should we ascend to men who bear the similitude of heaven even the most barbarous not excepted they all have a more regular care and love to their off-spring than brute Animals inasmuch as they partake of a higher degree of life and have the principles of Reason seated in them And can any tender and compassionate Father behold without a relenting and bleeding heart his only Son racked or massacred before his eyes to satisfie the brutish passion of some blood-thirsty Tyrant Shall frail men then be a precedent of love and tenderness to his Maker Shall God whose love is alwayes amiable and serene without the least disturbance or cloud of passion be less pitiful to what he hath brought into being then frail and imperfect mortals It was a prevalent argument which Moses used in the behalf of the murmuring and discontented Israelites That if God proceeded against them in fury to their utter undoing Numb 14.15 16. the Nations which had heard his fame would say Because the Lord was not able to bring his people into the land which he sware unto them therefore he hath slain them in the Wilderness and may not the same infamous obloquie with a farr more specious pretext be cast upon the righteous Providence of God while in displeasure he persecutes to the death his innocent Progeny That because he was not able to maintain them in that happiness he designed them for he hath by an unalterable law fixed their eternal misery and destruction The ancient Philosopher Pherecides taught that God transformed himself into Love when he brought into being the whole Creation and surely that Love which moved him first to act cannot be thought to degenerate so far from it's Nature as to be busied in contriving the ruin of what is so newly brought forth And though the Ancients did veil and obscure their choicest Mysteries in Fables and Aenigmatical Symbols yet the intelligent inquirer may gather many substantial truths from them which being in themselves so coherent with the Divine Oracles seem to be a firm indication of Gods love and affection to the Sons of Men and that Providence being never excluded from any time or place did in all ages and parts of the World raise up such considerable persons and every way furnish them with gifts and abilities as might serve as instruments in her hand to
their order wait upon him and he scatters his bounty in the midst of them and by a provident care looks down from Heaven and tends all his charge so that not a Sparrow closeth it's wings on Earth but that watchful eye observes it's fall And 't is very strange that those armes which fold and embrace every thing that exerts any faculty and degree of life should be employed in plunging humane souls while innocent and undefiled into woe and misery * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that to Eternal ages Where is that love and pity which all Creatures proclaim to be in their Soveraign Lord and Maker And if it were an Almighty Goodness that brought them into being surely the same Goodness being never disjoyned from an All-comprehensive Wisdom which beheld the Natures mutual relations and dependences of all Creatures would have judged it fitter never to have brought them into being then that they should be made perpetually unhappy so soon as ever they were created To conclude this Argument Our Religion being in all the parts of it highly reasonable as being propounded to rational natures in whom there are manifest Idea's and notions of Eternal verity and they being so deeply sealed upon them that it is neither in their power to obliterate nor without great reluctancy receive any thing repugnant to them it will appear from the nature of the thing it self that there can be no such absolute Decree of Reprobation as some pretend CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation TO speak worthily and becomingly of that adorable Being to whom we and all creatures else owe not only our Existence but our present subsistence and conservation in the several states of life wherein we are and to have right apprehensions of his Nature * This is made by Epictetus â—…p 38. a Prolepsis of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is a great piece of our duty so it spirits and invigorates our minds to manly and generous attempts and leads us to the knowledge of the most considerable Theories in Nature and Providence For whether we consider the exuberant plenitude and fecundity of the Divine Goodness which cannot but communicate it self to the utmost capacities of things or the fathomless depth of that Wisdom which hath framed the whole world with such curious and exquisite Artifice that the most perspicacious wit cannot find the least flaw in that beautious structure and yet was able to produce it after another manner beyond our conceptions if he had so pleased or whether we weigh the infinity of the Divine Power which is able to effect any thing that implies no contradiction in Naturals or deformity in Morals Or lastly whether we contemplate the vast fetches and circuits of Providence which though to the low and contracted spirit seem to clash and interfeer yet to the noble and capacious soul are all concentrick and harmonious and make that still and sweet Musick in his ears which the mistaken vulgar thought Pythagoras heard from the motion of the Sphears whereas it was nothing in reality but that admirable and enravishing consent of Providence which God the great Harmostes orders in such tunable and methodical proportions whether I say we attend to any of these things the contemplation of them cannot but widen and enlarge that which is the flower and summity of our souls I mean their Intellectual Natures and fill them with such raised and sublime Notions and Idea's that it will be almost impossible for us to miss of finding out some material Truth which shall be worthy the Author of all things and gratifie and reward our diligent inquisition Now that we may have a true and genuin conception of the Nature of God it is altogether necessary that we free our minds from all prejudice and anticipation of judgment and purge them throughout from the gross and impure steams of the Corporeal life lest when we think we have an Idea of him it be only an Image of our unclean fancies and imaginations but as that Holy One is altogether Spiritual and immaterial so must our apprehensions of him be spiritualiz'd and removed as far from the vile commerce with matter as possibly we can that our eyes being freed from the dust and soil of the earth we may behold him as he is that is as a Being absolutely perfect For he that thus judges of that ever-blessed Being not only removes from him all imbecility and imperfection but invests him in the most infinite manner with whatever the mind of Man doth rationally repute to be an excellency and perfection And whatever the prophane Atheist may object who under pretence of honoring God with the title of Incomprehensible removes him so far that he professes he can have no certain conception of him at all and therefore concludes that he is not and perversely laughs all incorporeal substances out of the World as if there were a contradiction in the very terms yet he that will discard the perplext dictates of Fancy and Imagination and keep close to the sure Deductions of free and solid Reason will I doubt not ingenuously confess that the Idea of God is as easie and natural as of any thing else in the World But it is no wonder if he whose mind is perpetually enveloped with a cloud of vice and sin cannot behold the Eternal Existence of that glorious Being which we call God or acknowledging of him yet deciphers him to the World by such strange Characters as no reasonable man can believe to be a true copy of his Nature It is an indubitable Truth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing is best known by that which is most analogical to it and as the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some picture and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it no more can any Man have a true notion of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless he be made God-like and partake of his image and similitude There is a certain congruity and harmony between Truth and the Soul of Man and however that ancient league by our unhappy lapse came to be violated and broken yet still there are some strokes and impresses in our minds which claim a cognation and affinity where-ever they meet with it And those few sparks which yet remain after the extinction of that great fire of Divine life whose harmless and innoxious flame burnt bright within us and by it we saw our selves and beheld the Natures and proprieties of things till we suffocated and choaked it by casting an heap of dust and rubbish upon it these I say though faint and glimmering yet retain their alliance with heaven and God owns them as the projections and rayes of his own good life and whoever sincerely
can no way doubt but that the blessed Author of our Beings is infinitely Veracious this most pretious Attribute of his will be sufficient security to us that we are not made perpetually and inevitably fallible but that there is a due proportion and harmony between our faculties and those objects whereof we have a cleer and distinct apprehension And there is no reason or plausible pretence we should think otherwise 〈…〉 arising from impotency and weakne 〈…〉 in us is nothing but the sickness of our minds it is wholly repugnant to the most perfect Being so to work a deceit in the intimate frame of our Natures that we should alwayes be deluded in what we imagine we have the clearest evidence of Wherefore we being assured of the Truth of our Faculties from the Veracity of God we have a sure guide to lead us in the contemplation of his Nature and Perfections and may give a rational account of them from what we find in our selves From these foregoing Considerations we may by an easie and natural deduction inferr that God never destinated any of mankind to Destruction but that all the calamity and misery they undergo either in this World or the next is the proper issue and product of their wilful Apostacy and defection from him For God being Infinite Love and this Love the most pretious Attribute of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the cause of all things else it must necessarily follow that whatever designs or projections were intended in reference to mankind they must spring and derive from Goodness which as it is Best so it cannot but act that which is Best and most behoofeful to the things for which it acts I confess though this way of Argumentation from the Nature and Attributes of God appear to me as convictive as any Mathematical Demonstration and I feel a more irresistible and captivating force in it than in any other way of arguing whatever yet because there is required a peculiar Crasts of soul to be convinced by it I do not wonder that so many look upon it as weak and invalid For my own part I fully believe that should God by his Absolute Will and Pleasure place any such conceptions of himself within my mind as that he hates the greatest part of Mankind for no other reason but because he Will it is impossible I should ever credit those stranger guests to be sent from him whose Name is Love and glories most of all in that fair and noble title for those apprehensions having no affinity or alliance with the ancient and first inscriptions of heaven upon my soul would grow there but as strange Plants in a forced and unnatural soil being destitute of that proper and radicating moisture which should dispread them in a flourishing and kindly growth There are some indeed who by reason of the penury and straitness of this Noble and Heroick qualification of Universal Goodness and Love within their own breasts and confining themselves to particular Interests and Engagements shape the Idea of God as suitable to and resembling their contracted Spirits as they can and therefore attribute Love to him only secundum effectum not affectum whereby they would make us believe that there is no such real propriety or affection as Love existing and living in the Deity but only a bare indication of it by certain effects which because our short and steril understandings know not how to express otherwise we give them the denomination of Love or Goodness Now although the Deity be not subject to those variable passions which in our selves we style Love and Hatred and which are seldom grounded but upon Humour and Fancy yet to deny that there is any such thing really and formally in God as Love and Goodness such a principle as carries him out to the production of all possible Beings and whereby he takes an Eternal Complacency and Delight in whatever acts regularly within it's sphear is in it self but a groundless fancy For that beloved Disciple of the blessed Jesus St. John who leaned on a breast never void of Love and Pity to the Sons of Men and had a very potent and vigorous sense of this Divine passion within him when he would set out and express the Nature of God to us in the most significant and yet Evangelical and attractive manner tels us that he is Love which doubtless denotes something real and certain not a bare notion or airy Idea and fantastick dream known only by some effects being something only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Conclusion That the Divine estimate of things and persons is according to the truth and reality of their respective Natures and that when God makes judgment of Intellectual Creatures he does it by viewing their moral frame and constitution and accordingly stands more or less affected towards them We fond Mortals being prone to Love and Hate at our pleasure beholding things through the vitiated and corrupt Medium of our lusts and passions are very apt to make to our selves false representations of them by dressing them up in the filthy shape of our own distorted fancies like Icterical persons who imagine all the approximate objects of sight tinctured with yellow when as the colour is all the while in their own eyes and made only by the motion or striking of certain vapours upon the Optick Nerves thus many contaminating and defiling their reasons by a familiar converse with sin and wickedness and setting their own Self-will in the Throne and transacting the whole business of their Religion upon the stage of Fancy never looking higher then to the gratification and satisfaction of the Animal powers and by that means making Vice connatural to them and losing the true distinction between Good and Evil Calling Good Evil and Evil Good putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter they frame an Image of the Deity by an Idolum of their own and think that God hath the same good apprehensions of their persons and the same conceptions of all things else as they themselves have But that immutable Goodness which gave being to the Heavens and the Earth and every thing contained in them and is not subject to humours and partialities but pervades the Essences of all created Beings and feels all the intrigues and mysteries of each of them by a stable and Omnipresent Knowledge judges of them according to their present state and capacities As suppose this man righteous and holy at present should afterward apostate from that perfect state albeit his future lapse be an object of the Divine Knowledg yet is he not denominated from that but from the exigency and import of his present condition and from hence is approved of God and under the decree of life and happiness but when he actually prevaricates and commits iniquity he fals under the decree of death and damnation notwithstanding all his former righteousness There are some
things which are of an immutable and indispensable necessity and are eternally unalterable even by God himself such are the notions of God and Evil Justice and Injustice and all Moral Rectitude and Deformity and according to the importance of these so is Gods Estimate of all rational Agents without respect to any external qualifications or natural endowments And where-ever he finds the least measure of his own good life springing up he is so far from destroying it that he upholds and nourishes it by the vital streams of his Immense Plenitude and quickens and causes it to distend it self through the powers of the soul by a gentle and divine heat and knowing it to be his own genuine off-spring by those Sacred Hieroglyphicks and impressions it bears upon it he can never forsake or cast it of as a contemptible and worthless thing but embrace it as that which hath the truest and most undoubted right to the Government of the whole World and take the greatest pleasure in dispreading it throughout all the lapsed Creation as being nothing but his own blameless Nature displayed and taking hold of so many several subjects to unite them to it self as to the most absolute and self-originated Good And this is no more then what the sacred Writ gives it's suffrage for Act. 10.34 35. God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him As our growth and increase is in the Life and Nature of God so do we proportionably come under his favour and acceptance For we must not think that so soon as ever this Potent and Divine principle begins to set us free from that heavy slavery and captivity we were detained under by our Tyrannous self-wils that we are immediately so far advanced into the Divine Favour as will admit us into the sacred Adytum or Holy of Holies in the highest Heavens to see and enjoy the glory and presence of the Divine Schehinah and recreate and refresh our selves with that adorable splendor but we are to reckon our selves so far under the benign aspect of heaven as the Holy Life of God rules and bears sway within the Empire of our minds Heaven is not taken with the Grandeur and Blandishments of the world nor is a man so accounted in the ballance of the Divine judgment and approbation as he is valued in the fallacious estimate of frail mortals for God sees not as we see nor are his thoughts as our thoughts but such is the man as is the inward frame and temper of his spirit unbared from that swelling pride and ostentation and the painted gloss and varnish of Hypocrisie which set him off in the eyes of men There is nothing God takes greater joy and contentment in than the expansion and dilatation of his own Nature and Attributes and he never suffers his blessed Life solitarily to contest with the Rebellious and Gygantick lusts in mens souls and then to be vanquisht and die in the midst of enemies for want of his powerful assistance but perpetually aides and succours it making it victorious to the casting down Principalities and Powers and everting and conquering the whole Kingdom of Darkness and every thing that opposes it's Crown and Dignity leading the soul as a glorious spoil taken out of the hands of the airy-Apostate Legions who are but Usurpers and Intruders upon the Rights and Proprieties of the Kingdom of light into it's native Country that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the land of Truth and Righteousness All sin and unrighteousness is directly contrary and opposite to the eternal Rectitude of Gods blessed Nature and being so it is impossible he should ever be reconciled to it or cast a favourable aspect upon it He will ever be chasing pursuing and beating it out of the World and never suffer it to rest any where in peace but will alwayes lay siege against it and will at length prevail and settle his own life upon it's rightful Throne and put all the Powers of Hell and Darkness under his feet These are the two mighty Empires which have been ever since the revolt of Men and Angels from God and are still contending for the Government of the World and industriously promoting the amplitude and enlargement of their respective Dominions and to one of these every man associates and adjoynes himself in this life either by a manly courage and resolution in the wayes and practice of virtue or a pusillanimous declension to iniquity and vice And therefore the Philosopher spake well and agreeable to the sense of Christianity Porphyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The more we neglect the extirpation of our passions and exorbitances the stronger hold has the unrighteous nature upon us and the nearer are we conjoyned with it The sum of all is this God looking upon and judging men according to their moral habitudes and capacities and beholding them all upright and perfect as the workmanship of his own hands before our great Protoplast Adam transgressed in Paradise could not but intend graciously to them and treat them according to the innocent purity of their Natures and therefore never conceived any such dismal purpose of damnation against them because they were not then in the nature and reason of the thing objects of his hatred and displeasure nor could they become obnoxious to punishment till they had actually violated some Law and Command 4. Conclusion That all the results operations and designs of the Deity relating to and terminated upon something without him are the emanations and effects of Absolute and Compleat Goodness It was not any benefit or addition to his stable glory and felicity which Men or Angels might contribute that first moved and incited the great Creator or the Universe to bring all things into Being but it was to communicate his Nature and display his Goodness in the production of all things capable of existing The whole frame of Nature depends upon him and he upholds it in the circle of his benigne Armes and his exuberant Love like an eternal spring is perpetually sending abroad it's streams and watering all the parts of the Creation with a Divine influx God is not like ambitious Man who acts that he may make himself great and purchase a few swelling titles by sucking in the aiery breath of Popular Applause and like proud Haman contrive and design the ruine of every one that will not bend the knee and adore with humble prostrations the vainer Image of a more conceited Majesty or like those self-will'd aspiring Spirits of whom it 's affirmed Porphyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. Sect. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they will do mischief if once they are incensed by neglect of their due worship and service but will presently become beneficial if flattered and collogued by Prayers Supplications Sacrifices and other accustomed Rites and Ceremonies He never acts out of such scant and
confident and stedfast belief of her future happiness and immortality and though for the present she be cloth'd and entomb'd in an earthly body yet is she wholly and perfectly Divine bearing about with her the regenerated characters and impresses of the blessed Image of the Son of God an indissoluble union with whom she incessantly breaths after and being thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mortal God she is no sooner disengag'd and set free by the Divine Providence from the weight and burden of terrestrial encumbrance but she passes secure through the caliginous fumes of this lower world into the flowry tracts of bliss and glory And from this state there is only left a possibility of lapsing the Divine Life being so fully and compleatly settled and repossessed of it's ancient throne that it will maugre all the opposition of the Powers of darkness undoubtedly instate the soul in all that happiness God made her for Some REFLECTIONS On a late Discourse of Mr. PARKERS Concerning The Divine Dominion and Goodness I Should now have concluded this Discourse but that I thought my self obliged to take notice of some Positions of this Ingenious Author which seem to interfere and clash with what I have written In pursuance of which I shall lay down these subsequent Axiomes or Moral Truths which will need no Probation but appear full of their own natural Light and Evidence to any sober and unprejudic'd mind and by them I shal examine the main things contained in his Discourse Axiome I. That there is something immutably and Eternally Good WHat I mean by Moral Good and Evil I have declared elsewhere and therefore shall only in brief add That Moral Goodness is nothing but an agreeableness harmony or convenience so that things are then Morally Good when they correspond and unite with the inward sense of our souls that is with our Intellectual or Rational Natures which congruity when we feel in our selves we call those things good And whatever is really and truly Good is immutably and eternally so not made so by any positive sanction of command but the result of Gods own Moral Being which he can no more swarve from then destroy himself This is called an Eternal Law and is nothing but Right Reason whence God being the highest Reason he is called by Aristotle de Mundo Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Tully Phil. 1. sayes Lex nihil aliud est quam recta à numine Deorum ratio imperans honesta prohibensque contrari And by this there is an affinity between God and all his Intellectual productions forasmuch as Right Reason is the same in us as in him and Tully intimates Lib. 1. de legibus it is that Eternal Law which is common to Gods and Men and begets the similitude between God and them Quid est enim non dicam in homine sed in omni coelo atque terra Ratione divinius quae cùm adolevit atque perfecta est nominatur ritè Sapientia Est igitur quoniam nihil est ratione melius eáque est in homine in Deo prima homini cum Deo Rationis societas Quae cùm sit lex lege quoque consociati homines cum Diis putandi sumus This harmony therefore and agreeableness of Moral Objects to our Intellectual parts is antecedent to the things themselves so that they are not good because God for example commands them but therefore they are injoyned because there is an innate Goodness in them As that a Triangle hath three Angles I learn indeed from sense but more perfectly from that innate Idea which I have in my own mind which would certainly have concluded so though it had never been the object of my senses Axiome II. That of that which is good one is better then another THis is evident from the difference and gradual declension of lives from the first root and center of all Beings There is no life so languid and unactive but ought to be reckoned among those things that are good because Being simply considered is better and more desirable then not Being although the more noble any Being is so much the better it is accounted And as there is this difference in respect of Beings themselves so likewise in reference to their felicity both in regard of it's magnitude and duration Thus the felicity of men is better then that of Brute Animals for the Happiness of any creature consists in the free enjoyment and exercise of it's natural faculties and endowments and the larger and more comprehensive the the faculties and capacities of any Being are the greater is it's felicity As to duration that a longer is better than a shorter Duration it is so palpable that it needs no further mentioning And this rule holds good in Moral qualities and affections Power it self is a Perfection though as to it's exercise it be indifferent either to Good or Evill but Wisedome is more excellent then Power forasmuch as it is able to direct guide and steer the results of Power otherwise Wisdom and Knowledge would include no more perfection then the force of a Thunderbolt or the furious agitation of a whirlwind And Goodness is more excellent and pretious then Wisdom for Wisdom without Goodness degenerates into Craft and Subtlety Moreover the properties and effects of Goodness are more diffusive and desirable then Knowledge and more perfective of the subject they reside in Axiome III. That the best or highest Quality Mode or Attribute in any Being will obtain the first place in operation FRom hence it came to pass that the Platonists considering Goodness Wisdom and Power as distinct qualities in created Beings and discerning so great an inequality between them they grew confident they would likewise retain their Essential differences when exalted into Substantial life and therefore the Supreme Deity the first root and fountain of all things Cyril lib. 8. advers Julian they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 each one abating something of the perfection of the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we need not ascend so high for the Explication of this Axiome for if we do but look into our selves we may plainly discern the Truth of it All the Powers of any Being are not alike some are more capacious and lively others steril narrow and contracted but that faculty which is the most pretious and Soveraign hath alwayes the first and chiefest place in acting Man as Aristotle observes consists of a double Nature Moral Eudem l. 7. c. 15. according to which his whole life is governed and framed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls that which the Stoicks express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soveraign and Imperatorial Powers of the Soul and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ferine and brutish part with the
those beautiful Daughters of Heaven the souls of men can be thus murder'd by those Benign Hands that first gave them life Had he considered that glorious beauty wherewith the soul of Man was once possessed and of which now that she is born into the World she retains but a very slender memory conversing with it as it were in a Dream and beholding a glimpse of it through the cranies of Mortality and had he beheld this Eternal Pulchritude thrown from it's Celestial Mansion and all those living rayes of Virtue and efflorescences of Divinity plunged into an obscure and dull piece of Earth and that by the Blessed Author of all things he could not but infinitely resent such an harsh Act. 2. Are not all our faculties very much depraved and vitiated insomuch that there is in us a natural proclivity to Vice and we dayly make choice of forbidden instances Are not our Understandings very dark and blind our Wills refractory and stubborn and our Affections violent and head-strong for the most part in the prosecution of base and unworthy objects And if this be our Case as we come into the World as certainly it is and much worse Original sin must be a real depravity of our souls and not an ill temperament of our bodies The Author having determined the Measure and Extent of Gods Sovereignty and Dominion according to his own fancy and humour he endeavours page 25. to frame such an Idea of Divine Goodness as may correspond with the Notion he hath pitched upon of Gods Dominion and therefore he tells us That the Idea of God consists mainly in his Dominion and Sovereignty and that the Notion of him in Scripture never refers to his Essence but alwayes to his Power and Empire But he must give me leave to take the same liberty in rejecting so bold an Assertion that he does in obtruding it upon the World however I shall be so fair and candid to him as not to contradict what he sayes without shewing him a Reason for it The most consistent Idea that we can frame of God is That he is a Being endued with Absolute Perfection now there are no Perfections in the Deity but what may be referred to these three Infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power which being not of equal worth and excellency by Axiome II. it will follow That what is most pretious is likewise most active and energetical and therefore must be the standard and measure of all the rest by Axiome III. and IV. Wherefore when we frame any Notion or make any Representation of God Reason it self will tell us That we ought to express him by that which is most pretious and Sovereign in him which is not Will and Power but Perfect Goodness And methinks the Scripture mightily favours this 1 John iv 16. God is Love sayes the Apostle which Notion if it refer not to Gods Moral Essence I am sure it hath no relation to his Power and Empire It is true when the Jews dwelt under a Theocracy and God went forth as their Captain against their Enemies he owned the Title of the Lord of Hosts and the Expressions of his Sovereign Power Majesty and Dominion were more frequent but when the Evangelical Oeconomy was set on foor God laid aside these Titles and now he expresses himself by no other Attributes but what carry abundance of sweetness along with them and wholly refer and lead us to the consideration of that which is the Flower and Summity of his Being that is Love Therefore I may subjoyn Mr. P's own words with a little Transposition Pag. 26. That no Property which complies not with Goodness can be attributed to God and consequently that that 's a false Notion of his Dominion that interferes with his Goodness Let us see now how he confutes the Platonists with whom he is very angry for asserting That God being Infnite Goodness will necessarily do that which is best page 27. His first Argument to prove the falsity of this Position he sets down page 29 30. c. the sum of which in brief is this That the necessity of Infinite Wisdom doing that which is best takes away the liberty and freedom of the Divine Will To which I answer That the liberty of the Divine Will consists not in an Arbitrary Indifferency of acting or not acting but in acting alwayes sutably and conformablely to his own Infinite Rectitude and Perfection As the true Excellency and Freedom of our wills consists not in an indifferency or dubious suspension between Good and Evil for this is a debility and imperfection in us but in a constant Election of that which Right Reason and Intellect propound to them as Best So that when once that Eternal Providence which sent us down upon Earth shall reinstate us in the Possession of our Native Glory our Wills which shall then obtain their freedom in it's greatest latitude and dimensions yet shall not be left to a bare Indifferency but will as certainly adhere to that which is Good as a wise and prudent man will alwayes give the same judgment of the same thing in the same circumstances Wherefore to answer in short I say that Gods actions are not so fatal and necessary as the motions of an Automaton or Engine because he is endued with an Energetical Power of Reason and Intellect but are free and unconstrained by any external Principle but because his Nature is infinitely Good it will alwayes do that which is Best because Goodness is the chief and first active Principle in it The proof of this lies in Axiome II. III. IV. His second Argument is this That if the Divine Goodness or Beneficence be necessary it would then destroy it 's own Nature because 't is absolutely necessary to the Nature of Beneficence that it proceed from a free and elective Principle page 33. I suppose this Argument is only cast in as a surplusage and not with any intent to convince any of his Readers unless Mr. P. imagine them so unwary and credulous as to be imposed upon by fallacies and sophisms For if by Gods Bounty and Beneficence he mean his gracious Donations and Benefits above what may render his Creatures happy in their several states and capacities then I say it is most free because when any Beings have forfeited their Felicity God is not obliged to re-instate them in all the circumstances of it again But if we take Bounty or Goodness for the Eternal Perfection of Gods Blessed Nature whereby he communicates himself to all capable receptacles this is as necessary as his Being and against this Mr. P. ought properly to have levell'd his Argument Nor does this make the Divine Goodness ever a whit the less Moral because then none of Gods actions would be capable of Being Morally Good for this impossible and blasphemous to assert That the Divine Will is indifferent either to Good or Evill God doth necessarily Love himself as the highest and most Absolute Good and cannot but
embrace every thing that is like himself nor is the Divine Will Indifferent either to Love or Hate it 's own Image and Similitude And if the Communications of the Divine Goodness to such Beings as bear his Impresses upon them and never defiled themselves with the least contagion of sin and vice be not necessary then he is left free to destroy them and consequently he can destroy something of his own Life and Nature which no sober Person will affirm And if this Hypothesis of his be true I know no ground Mankind can have setting aside those Declarations God hath made of himself in Holy Scripture to believe and trust in him and depend upon him for the advancement of their happiness after Death But we find the sober and wise Heathens who believed the soul of man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hermes and Plato speak constantly relying upon the Almighty Goodness of God which they confidently believed did alwayes that which was Best and thence became assured and raised a strong foundation for their hopes that it should go well with them in the other World and that that Eternal Providence would take their better parts into it's tutelage and care when they laid down their bodies in their beds of Earth I hasten now to dispatch his last Argument which is this If the Exertions of the Divine Goodness be necessary God can never act otherwise but that he frequently does is manifest in all the Instances of his Anger and Severity which not only Reason but Scripture opposes to Benignity To which I return That Gods anger and severity are only several modifications of his Goodness which is not alwayes displayed and manifested after the same manner because of the different capacities of the subjects upon which it is exercised and have no other distinction then that of divers Modes of the same Subject between one another And when God makes use of those sharper dispensations they are as necessary results of his Goodness as his milder and gentler Oeconomy So that I cannot see what Mr. P. would evince from this I have now sufficiently tired my self in so prolix a Refutation which yet is not altogether unnecessary considering that if those Positions be true which Mr. P. hath laid down they will enervate all those Arguments I have made use of and render my design useless which is no other then to beget in mens minds the most noble and generous Conceptions of God to promote real Piety and Religion by shewing a true Idea of God and declaring the real intent and purpose of the Gospel contrary to that Hypocritical and Artificial kind of Religion which many frame to themselves thereby to palliate their sin and stop the mouth of Right Reason and Conscience THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. INconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture page 1. CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason wherein is set out the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil Truth and Falshood And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions page 15. CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation page 64. CHAP. IV. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation taken from the Evangelical Dispensation wherein is shewn the purport and design of the Gospel which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end page 115. CHAP. V. A fift and last Argument wherein is shewn that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Mans Will and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue or punishment of Vice page 171. CHAP. VI. An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants page 189. Some Reflections on a late Discourse of Mr. Parkers concerning The Divine Dominion and Goodness page 253. FINIS