Infancy Can it be thought that Man by his Merit could deserve Celestial Glory and Confirmation freeing him from the hazard of falling in Sin or losing that blessed State by Mortality or Annihilation and yet there is no ground to doubt that as the Angels were confirmed after their Trial so would Men have been which with the Immortality God had promised he lost and became mortal and miserable by eating the forbidden Fruit. Whence there is enough to satisfy the Consciences of Men of God's Dispensation in suffering Adam to fall whereby neither he nor any of his Posterity could ever by themselves recover that blessed Estate which he had lost to himself and them by his Fall albeit they could not conceive how God could eternally torment all his Posterity for his Sin tho they had none of their own But blessed be God that Christ was separate from Sin unto the end and became the second Adam expiating Sin and procuring for the Elect that Blessedness which through Adam's Fall they had lost How unreasonable then and odious must the Meritmongers of Rome be who not only hold that sinful Men acquire Heaven by their Merits but that they have so great store of Works of Supererrogation to which they were forced to flee when the horrid Grossness of the Pope's setting to Sale Indulgences for Money through most of the Dominions of his Obedience had awakened a great part of the World to see that it was impossible he could be Christ's Vicar on Earth but rather the Antichrist There was no Evasion with any pretence but that there was a Treasure of the Supererrogatory Merits of the Saints whereof the Pope was the sole Dispenser and yet tho that Treasure was not pretended to be infinite and inexhaustable the Popes neither knew what was the measure of it nor how much was exhausted and how much remained or if any thing at all for there was no Record kept of what Indulgences were given out or how much they needed that got them nor could there be seeing the Indulgences were not given by the Popes immediately and upon trial but were gifted and farmed to his Emissaries who were the vilest of Men who rendered that Religion absolutely ridiculous I pity the deceived Multitude of that Synagogue but I abhor their chief Leaders and without the breach of Charity I think I may safely say that many of them must be convinced of gross Errors in that Church but cannot acknowledg them because of the Canons already made unless therewith they quit Infallibilty which is the Pillar and Ground of their Faith God's Punitive Justice has not escaped dangerous Errors not only from those who make all God's Laws to be only obliging by his Will so that he may not only dispense with them without any Punishment but may abrogate them of which I have cleared my self before in meditating upon his Holiness but from those that think his Justice requires no exact Proportion between the Crime and the Punishment but that it is meerly Arbitrary that God might have accepted the Sacrifice of a Lamb for the greatest Sin or the Penance that Men inflict upon themselves and that the Mosaical Sacrifices did expiate Sin of themselves not as Types of the only one satisfying Sacrifice of Christ. I am convinced that the very Nature of the Justice of God imports an exact Proportion of Rewards and Punishments to the Objects of them and that therein God's Justice differs from the Justice of Man who neither can know the exact Proportion nor can adjust a Punishment to expiate any Sin Mens Justice in Punishments are not to satisfy Justice or to expiate Crimes past but to prevent and suppress them for time to come and therefore they become unjust and cruel by applying Arbitrary Punishments more than are needful to suppress the Crimes but God perfectly knows the just Proportion of Rewards and Punishments and he hath not that Indifferency in applying them as he hath in his Acts of Bounty Sin is so opposite and so odious to God that his Aversion to it is infinite and therefore it cannot be expiated but by a Punishment infinite in Value and therefore in the Damned Punishment is only eternal because in no Time the finite Natures of Creatures can bear an infinite Punishment The Sins of the Elect are expiated by the Sufferings of Christ which were short in Time but infinite in Value because of the Dignity of the Person that suffered yet God having denounced the Wages of Sin to be Death both by the Separation of the Soul and Body and by the Separation of both from the Joy arising from God's Countenance Justice required that the Mediator should suffer both tho but for a short time in his Agony in the Garden and on the Cross when innocent Nature made him cry out in the one that if it were possible that Cup might be removed yet with voluntary Submission and in the other when he said My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me They must be strangely deluded that attribute that Cry to the Pains or Sense of Death for therein he should have been exceeded by innumerable Martyrs none of which cried that they were forsaken of God and many have triumphed over their Tormentors and have sung in the midst of the Flames I think they are both bold and ignorant who presume to assert that any Suffering of Christ without Death had been sufficient to expiate the Sins of the Elect None but God can know the just Punishment of Sin Common Reason may assure that God would not afflict his innocent Son in vain but Revelation putteth it beyond doubt by the Apostle's arguing against the Possibility of Salvation by Works of the Law saying If Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain It is necessarily understood as in all such Arguments but that is impossible that Christ should have died in vain nor would it conclude if by dying in vain were understood dying to no purpose For tho it had been indifferent to God to have brought Salvation by the Law or by the Death of Christ yet neither of the ways had been in vain that is to no purpose which soever of the two God had chosen But then it would not have concluded that Righteousness could not have come by the Law therefore in vain must be understood as ordinarily it is that which is needless or unnecessary and then the Argument is clear and convincing thus If Righteousness had been by the Law then Christ's dying had been needless because the Law alone could have brought Righteousness but it is impossible that Christ should have died when there was no necessity for it therefore the Law nor no other way could do it There is another dangerous Mistake about God's Punitive Justice as if the Consideration of his Punishment were to compense the Displeasure he had from Sin by his Pleasure in the suffering of his Creature as Men commonly do but the true Consideration is
can comprehend them distinctly altogether Therefore it is that glorified Creatures will have an excellent and eternal Exercise of their Minds by apprehending distinctly the several Perfections of God and his manifold Decrees and Dispensations which will yield fresh and renewed Pleasures for ever We find by Experience that our Thoughts turning upon a few delightful Objects give a fresh continuance of Pleasure albeit the Perfection of the Objects be but low How fresh then and how great must that Pleasure be that hath the Variety of God's Existence and Nature in being a pure immaterial Spirit and all his Divine Perfections natural and moral and all his Decrees and Dispensations brought to an unalterable Condition Secondly The Delight and Pleasure of God in himself is infinite and is capable of no higher Degree but Creatures are incapable of any infinite Perfection therefore their Delight might by the Power of God be made still greater yet it is fully satisfactory in the degree that God freely gives it and tho there be different degrees of glorified Angels and Saints yet all of them are satisfied without Envy Emulation or desire of more than what they do receive after the Resurrection and Union of the Souls of Men and their glorified Bodies Thirdly The Delight of glorified Creatures is not upon Grounds from themselves but from the free Gift of God nor from Perfections wholly in themselves but in the Power and Love of God preserving them from falling in all occasions of Danger MEDITATION X. Upon God's Holiness or Godlikeness HAving meditated upon the glorious Divine Perfections of God which are natural necessary and immanent so far as my narrow Capacity doth reach and apprehend and in that natural Order whereby the Antecedent doth always make way for the distinct apprehension of the Subsequent the first and absolute Attribute being a Spirit all the rest being relative supposing a Subject to which they relate of which the nearest to the purely immaterial Spirit of God is Omniscience and next thereto Activity by his Will choosing and effectuating according to his Pleasure and then his Omnipotence extending not only to what he chooseth or willeth but to all that is possible and consistent all which are in himself without any Caufe whereby he is self-existent and eternal self-sufficient infinitely delighting in himself and thereby blessed and as to all transient Acts absolutely free and fully independent in his Being Power Choice or Operations I come now to apply my most serious and humble Thoughts to his voluntary Perfections the Effects whereof are terminate upon Creatures and I have earnestly endeavoured to find the natural Order of these as of the former which I perceive not only to be antecedent and consequent but that they are as Causes and Effects which doth not import that any thing in God hath an extrinsick Cause or a real Multiplicity or Difference I do conceive that God alone doth act immediately by his Being some have extended that to Creatures but if without Injury I think not without Error Supposing for instance that the Soul of Man perceiveth judgeth reasoneth chooseth by its own Substance as it is a Spirit and that it is but Mens Fancy that imagine superadded Powers such as the Understanding or Will wherein they seem as much to err in the Defect as the common course of the Schoolmen do in the Excess multiplying real Entities as they imagine as the eternal Essences and Attributes of these things that have existed or do exist and of the real being of things possible that do not never did nor never shall exist And supposing a multitude of Accidents really distinct from any-Substance and that the same individual Accidents are separable from one individual Substance in which they are subjected unto another and which consequently could subsist without any Substance and so not differ from a Substance by subsisting without a Subject but are differenced by having a fitness to perfect a Subject by actual inhering in it and differing also from Modes that these imply an individual Subject from which they are inseparable yet they durst not be so gross as to attribute such Accidents to God which indeed cannot escape to infer a Composition of separable things It seems inconsistent with a created Substance to act by its Substance or immediately It is true that if we suppose all the multitude of Species to differ by Substantials and consequently by separably subsistent Parts and so should conceive the Intellect and the Will to be such then the Soul would substantially comprehend the Intellect and the Will and must act immediately but tho the Capacity to Reason and Choice be no substantial Parts separable from the Soul they may still be essential tho not substantial Differences and then the Soul acts not immediately but by the addition of these and I conceive it an abusive Speech and if properly taken derogatory to God that he could not withdraw the Power of Reasoning or free Choice from the Soul of Man without annihilating its Substance but only changing it unto another kind which yet might essentially differ from a Brute which cannot judg nor compare no more than reason but only perceive by Sense and act by Instinct It doth much more quadrate to the Glory of God that he freely gave these Powers by which the Soul hath the special Nature of Man and not of Necessity That such Powers must be freely superadded to the Substance of Creatures I satisfy my self with this Reason that there are no Substances but Spirits and Matter that all the Species of Creatures are by superadded Powers or Modes which are not separable Beings and therefore if a Spirit by its Substance can reason choose worship or adore then all Spirits behoved necessarily so to do or if Matter as such could move or act all Bodies behoved so to do therefore something must be superadded to make the difference which is neither Body nor Spirit therefore it is the incommunicable Property of God to act immediately That the transient Acts of God's Perfections are Causes and Effects it doth sufficiently satisfy me that I do not unsutably think of God when I enquire Why doth God punish Sin and resolve that it is because he is just And if I yet further inquire Why is God unchangeably just I cannot but think it is either because it is congruous to his glorious Nature to be unchangeably just or that he is unchangeably just only because he will be so I see no reason for any third Ground or Rise whence all God's Decrees and Dispensations do flow I know there be some who think that it would be derogatory to the Freedom and Absoluteness of God if all his Dispensations did not arise only from his Will but that very Reason infers the contrary Conclusion because it brings a Reason why all must flow from God's Will to wit his Freedom and Absoluteness which yet are not his Will nor from his Will nor are they moral but natural Perfections
sweet to the Ear and others harsh than this free Gift of God For tho some Difference might arise from the grating of the Ear or the easy insinuating in it I see not how that could go the length of the Pleasure of Harmony or Displeasure of Discord nor can there another sufficient Reason be given of the Pleasure arising from certain Figures and Colours and of the Displeasure from others nor of that great variety of Smells and Tastes or of the Pleasure that arises from the Touch beside that Smoothness or Ruggedness of any pungent Impression It is a farther degree of God's Bounty that he gave Man so many Senses by which he might perceive the Impression of all bodily Objects and receive Pleasure and Profit by them and shun Displeasure and Hurt Food being necessary for the Subsistence of Man God hath placed three Senses as Sentinels at different distances warning what Food is convenient or inconvenient for him The Eye sees ordinarily at the farthest distance by which at the view his Appetite is moved the very Brutes at view discern their Food and Physick more exactly than Man because he hath the use of Reason and Experience but many things which cannot be discerned by the Sight being brought near the Nose will be discerned by the Smell and what cannot be so distinguished will be discerned by the Taste The Bounty of God hath yet further gratified Man by variety of Creatures affecting all his Senses not only for his Necessity but for an innumerable variety of Pleasures There is a several kind of Perfection by the Goodness of God given to Man in the wonderful Structure of his Body wherein there is such variety and multitude of Instruments serving for the use of the Soul that there is nothing in it or of it but what is befitted to be an Instrument of the Soul that all the Industry of Physicians till of late made a very small Progress by Inference from the sensible Effects of the Body of Man or by Anatomical Inspection and every day there are new Discoveries made wherein the late Invention of Microscopes helpeth much discovering these minute Vessels which are impossible otherwise to be seen so that the Psalmist cries out with Admiration I am fearfully and wonderfully made No Man hath yet given any probable account of the Formation of the Body of Man or other Animals nor how the Bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child Whence there is a great Check to Man's Presumption who is so slow in acknowledging a Being superior to himself and so apt to admire his own Knowledg as if there were nothing he could not reach when yet he knows so very little of his own Body The Comeliness and Beauty of Man's Body is a farther degree of the Bounty of God which tho it be much marred hath in some so much remaining whence it may be considered how great the Beauty of Man was before the Fall and shall be yet much more after the Resurrection of the Elect for they shall be like unto Christ's glorious Body It were but a vain Curiosity to inquire what Alteration in Man's Body would be congruous unto that State The Bounty of God is signally seen in the admirable Union of the Soul and Body which are two diverse Substances which can and do subsist apart and are of the most different Natures and yet are so firmly united that the Soul will never desert the Body were it never so unfirm and crazy while it can exercise its Faculties by it and doth so love it that it feels all things that make Impression upon it it hath Pleasure in all that befits the Body to be its Instrument and Grief or Pain on the perception of all that is hurtful to the Body Yea it apprehends not only that the Grief and Pain but that the Hurt that causeth it is subjected in the Soul it self the Excess and Abuse of which makes Men reflecting upon themselves to apprehend themselves much more as a Body than as a Spirit as if the Soul were subordinate to the Rody and its chief Use were only to enliven and preserve it And therefore in the sharp Pains confounding Terrors or excessive Joys arising from Sense or Imagination the Soul can hardly admit of another Thought by still reflecting upon these and therefore sensible Pleasures do divert and seduce the Soul from Objects and Delights which are more spiritual and sutable to it self more noble and sublime the increase or continuance whereof will never breed loathing or lessening of their Pleasure thence arising as sensible Pleasures do yet this is not to be imputed to nor doth it blemish the Goodness of God in giving sensible Pleasures which cherish and befit the Mind when rightly used The Stoical Severity doth not a little reflect upon the Wisdom and Goodness of God There is no small Debate among the Learned about the Cause of the Union of the Soul and Body which I am not now to prosecute but I cannot so well satisfy my self as by apprehending that this Union is by an Instinct freely given of God to the Soul by which it doth so cleave to the Body and delight in it that it can never leave it while it is able to serve it which is not in the Essence of the Soul tho it be comprehended in the Essence of Man implying more than a Soul and an organized Body by which it can receive Impressions and act accordingly which an Angelical Spirit can do and Experience hath shown that they oft-times have done acting by a fresh and incorrupted Body whence the Soul was departed that it was not discernable from a Man Yea evil Spirits have frequently possessed living Bodies and have overacted the Soul contrary to its Inclinations and Attempts as being a stronger Spirit When I consider the Strength of Self-love that is another inavoidable Instinct or even the fresh and tender Affection of Parents to their Children having nothing in them to breed Aversion which no reasoning can overpower I have no Hesitation that the Soul is capable of this Instinct and that it ceaseth not to have a desire to be reunited to the Body even in its glorious State of Separation else the Resurrection should not be a farther Perfection of Glory Neither do I like the excessive Expressions of the Soul 's being in the Body as in a Prison for tho the Soul be more happy when out of the Body when it is in a sinful State because a great part of Mens Sins arise from their bodily Affections whereof Angelical Spirits are not capable yet that is from Man's Corruption through Sin and doth nothing derogate the Goodness of God I do not believe that these Spirits acting a Body have Pleasure or Pain as Souls have by the Impressions or Actings through that Body If it were not for this inavoidable Instinct would not the Soul prevent the Pains of Torture and Death Oft-times with Ignominy and Cruelty to prevent which