in peace according to thy word for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of thy people Israel Was it for this the blessed and Immaculate Virgin the Royal consort of the Eternal Spirit the happy Mother of the Son of God broke out into that thankful Rhapsodie of Joy and gladness My Soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low Estate of his Handmaiden for behold from henceforth all Generations shall call me Blessed and more to the same or like effect But to what purpose is all this joyful this triumphant Noise this sound of Peace and Happiness and Salvation what reason have all the Generations of the world to call the Virgin Mother Blessed how did the Angel bring good tidings of great Joy which were to be to all People how was he a light to lighten the Gentiles and how a Glory to his people Israel or is he not rather a Reproach to that Stock from which he is descended when he came into the World not so much to save as to destroy Mankind for if so vast a proportion of those miserable Mortals who are born into this world are irreversibly consigned to everlasting Torments without any offence or provocation given on their Parts and if Christ himself be that Unmerciful that Unrelenting Judge who at his second coming the Circuit of the world is to pronounce that cruel Sentence against it and if this second coming cannot be without the intervention of a first then what was his first appearance instead of bringing health and Happiness to men but the beginning of our Sorrows the Introduction to eternal Misery and Pain the mournful Prologue to the Tragedy of Hell and is he not more fitly stiled the Destroyer than the Saviour and the Redeemer of Mankind Again If it be demanded for what reason our ever blessed Lord is said to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the World I answer there are three ways especially by which he may be said to have purchased to himself those Glorious and Magnificent Titles First In that he came into the world to Redeem us from the more than Egyptian Bondage of Sin and Darkness of Ignorance by the precedent of his Example by the light of his Gospel and by the Grace of his Spirit working in the Hearts of his true and faithful Disciples now all Example is in vain of which there can be no Imitation and there can be no Imitation where there can be no Endeavour nor any Endeavour without an inward Principle of Self-activity and Self-motion nor any Self-activity without Freedom they being indeed but two words for one and the same thing Secondly He redeems us from punishment by his Satisfaction or by the merit of that propitiatory Sacrifice which he made of himself upon the Cross for the Sins of all Mankind the atonement of which Sacrifice is apply'd to all who by a lively Faith sincere Repentance and hearty endeavour to please God by obeying his Commandments fulfill those Conditions by virtue of which this application is made but now where there is no Sin there needs no satisfaction and where there is no Liberty there can be no Sin St. Paul himself tells us Rom. 4. 15. That where no Law is there is no Transgression And the 1 St. Joh. c. 3. v. 4. That whosoever committeth Sin transgresseth also the Law for Sin is the transgression of the Law but every Law does manifestly suppose a freedom in him to whom it is prescribed for Laws are given in vain to them that cannot Obey and where men must Obey whether they will or no there the promulgation of a Law is needless because our obedience is not paid to the Law it self but it is an unavoidable submission to that irresistable Grace by which our non-complyance is rendered an impossible thing if then there can be no Law without a supposition of Liberty nor any Transgression without a Law then it is manifest according to St. Paul's own Concession that without the same liberty there can be no Transgression which was the thing to be proved And indeed how can it ever seem a likely matter that the Blood of the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of the Sin and the Trespass Offerings of the Passovers the Peace-Offerings and the Holocausts or Burnt Offerings the Blood of Rams and Bulls and Goats the Blood of Beasts and of Birds should with so great cost and expence such indefatigable toyl and labour so much address and ceremony be streaming perpetually under the Mosaick Law as a pompous and magnificent Introduction to that great Sacrifice which was in the fulness of time to answer and abolish the shadows of the legal Administration and all this by way of expiation for those who never had offended Or did the Jews undergo all this troublesome and ceremonious Fatigue Did Christ himself suffer upon the Cross only for the Sin of our first Parent imputed without any proper guilt of ours to his Posterity No certainly God is too just to condemn all the World for what they could not avoid and the Blood of Christ was too precious to be spilt only for the single Transgression of one single Man How absurd How ridiculous is it to say that he dyed for those Sins which we never committed Or that he rose again for that justification which by reason of our innocence we did not need Or is it not better to acknowledge as the Scripture does that upon account of our own personal Guilt as well as that of our first Parent we all lay in Darkness and in the shadow of Death and that we all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God and that for this reason God himself took our Flesh and dwelt amongst us that he might be to us in the nature of a legal Redeemer who was always to be of the Kindred of the party to be redeemed Which custom of the Jews God could not any way so properly imitate as by taking our Flesh and our Nature upon him Neither will the intercession of Christ which is the third way of saving Mankind according to this Hypothesis make any better sense than his satisfaction does for if we will believe these very Writers themselves the satisfaction of Christ is alone available for all the Elect and for the Re-Probate it is in vain to make use of any intercession Therefore I speak it not only with a becoming reverence but scarce without trembling what a ridiculous thing do these Men make of the Mediatory Office of Christ in Heaven who spends so many Ages in a sollicitous but fruitless intercession at the right hand of God either for those that cannot do amiss or for those that cannot possibly be saved Whereas if we follow the truth it self rather than the fancies of particular Men of how great name or authority soever nothing
is more plain than the reason and the usefulness of his Intercession for Salvation being annext to Faith and Repentance and a good Life and the satisfaction of Christ being apply'd to the person of a Believer upon these conditions which conditions are not so fully performed by any as they might be nor equally by all it is manifest there must needs be very many whose performance is so weak and imperfect that without any breach of that Covenant which God has entered into with Mankind he might very justly abandon them to eternal Flames to be tormented for ever with and by the Devil and his Angels but that the intercession of Christ extends and enlarges the benefit of his satisfaction and makes it more operative and available than otherwise it would have been But besides the Prophetick Office of Christ under which I include his example and his preaching and the Priestly to which his Sacrifice and his Intercession in virtue of that Sacrifice belong there is also his Kingship to be considered one great part of the exercise of which consists in his sitting in Judgment at the last day to pronounce the irreversible sentence of Death or Life upon all Men but there can be no Judgment where there is no difference made betwixt the Moral good or evil of things for to judge is to act with reason and Fate and Morality are inconsistent together which Fate if it were the only principle and spring of Action the Reprobate at the last day need not stand in justification of themselves from other Topicks as they are made to do in Scripture but they need only say that what they had done they could not avoid which being a very reasonable excuse and yet not urged where the Pleas of the Wicked are set down by our Saviour himself it is a very powerful and convincing Argument that he will at that day proceed by other measures and that he will not much less did he design it from all Eternity condemn the meanest Wretch that ever wore the shape and title of a Man for any but voluntary and wilfully committed Sins Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right said Abraham to his God Gen. 18. 25. That be far from thee to do after this manner Which Expostulation and Appeal of his to the Divine Justice must either be acknowledged to be very frivolous and nothing at all to the purpose or else we must be forced to confess that Christ when he sustains the person and character of a Judge and a Judge of all the Earth as he will do at the last day he will not proceed by Arbitrary measures which know no distinction of Persons or of Causes but condemn or save by unaccountable methods without any regard to reason or to justice the exercise of which is founded upon the differences of Moral good and evil all which differences must come to nothing where the liberty of humane Actions is destroyed but he will act with us upon a supposition of Freedom for the improvement or abuse of which we shall reap a proportionable punishment or reward And as nothing is or can be more contrary to the whole current of the Scripture than the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation so neither is there any thing more destructive of that meek charitable and humble frame of Mind which it was the design of the Gospel to establish in the World the natural and immediate tendency of such Doctrines in the minds of inconsiderate Men though if they consider all they have no reason to be proud being to create a Spiritual Pride and overweaning Conceit of themselves together with a contempt and hatred of all others whom they call the Reprobate and are pleased to look upon as the Dross and Off-scouring of the World There neither is nor can be any other opinion which is so naturally fitted to make distinctions and parties amongst Men or to preserve those distinctions when they are made for what greater or what wider difference can there possibly be thought of than between the Reprobate and the Elect Those who are irrecoverably given over to everlasting Torments and those who are out of all danger of miscarrying and past the possibility of not being as happy as God and happiness themselves can make them Or what greater indignity or reproach can be cast upon one Man by another than for some to separate from the rest under pretence that they are rejected and forsaken by God This being if those that separate would speak their minds one of the true reasons of their separation as it is likewise the strongest Prop and Pillar by which that uncharitable Schism is supported for I reckon that there are six accounts especially to be given of the first rise of this absurd and impious Doctrine of absolute Reprobation and of its continuance in the World to this day The first of which is that inconsiderate Interpreters not minding the whole scope and drift of the Writings of St. Paul but looking only to the immediate seeming sense of one single Proposition and not considering that neither so well as they should have done have stretched the interpretation of those places beyond their natural extent wherein St. Paul sets himself in opposition to the Jews who expected Justification from the Law of Moses or to the Judaizing Christians who would have retained that Law either in whole or in part as thinking that Justification could not be had without it or lastly to any other who expected Salvation from an exact observance of the Duties of natural Religion or of the Law of Nature For by the Law in the Writings of St. Paul both these are promiscuously understood as might be shewn from several places but that of Gal. 5. 22 23. is sufficient The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law that is whether of Moses or of Nature And the same may very well be the sense of all those places where he says That the knowledge of Sin is by the Law and that if it had not been for the Law he had not known Sin and that by the works of the Law no Flesh can be justified and that where there is no Law neither is there any Transgression All which may very well be understood of the Law of Nature as well as of that of Moses it being equally true of both Now the reasons why Justification could not be obtained by the works of the Law of Moses were these two First That that Law containing the Types and Shadows of things to come when once their Antitypes appeared in the World they could be of no longer value or signification And Secondly That besides that those legal Rites and Ceremonies had a respect to future events which events were now exactly fulfilled they did also under them contain a shadow of that inward sincerity and purity of Mind without which notwithstanding all the accuracy of external Observations
the real Merits of a Cause whether I have not very fairly and clearly expounded those places of St. Paul which I have produced upon this head together with all others of a like meaning and signification which it is not necessary accurately to insert so as that no advantage can be reaped from them to the Calvinistical Doctrine The Second Account which I shall give of the origine and progress of this Opinion and of its Continuance among us to this Day shall be taken from those Texts in the Epistles of St. Paul where he describes the Lucta or Contention which is to be found more or less in every man for it is not equal in all between the two principles of the Flesh and Spirit or between the natural tendencies and desires of the humane Soul as it moves from its self by an inward spring or principle of self activity abstracted from all Intanglement or Encumbrance from the Body which are all regulated by the sober and steady deliberations of right reason without any Prejudice Humour Interest or Passion and between those desires which are owing to the union of the intellectual or spiritual principle with matter from whence it comes to pass that our nobler part is perpetually sollicited and frequently overborn by the importunity of sensual Pleasures by yielding too frequently or too grosly to which it follows unavoidably that the natural strength and activity of the mind will be by degrees impaired as Elastical Bodies by moysture lose their Spring or as the Bodies of men or other Animals by want of exercise and too much ease are used to grow Scorbutick resty and unactive but on the contrary by constant breathing activity and motion they acquire new strength and arrive to an Athletical firmitude and vigour as it is also with the Mind which is not more impaired by a tame and cowardly submission to Animal and fleshly desires than it is improved and strengthned by a stout and resolute resistance of them In this continual combat between concupiscence and reason consists that spiritual Warfare which we are obliged to maintain with the World the Flesh and the Devil in the conquest of which Enemies or in our utmost endeavour towards it as being an effect of the natural strength and activity of the Soul shaking off the Cloggs and Encumbrances of the sensual or lower Life which is wholly governed by gross and corporeal Impressions from without the nature of Virtue consists a on the otherside Vice is nothing else but an unnecessary yielding to so mean impulses or it is that decay or infirmity of mind which is the consequence of such a yielding This Combat is excellently described by St. Paul in the Seventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans from the 14th verse to the end of that Chapter in these words We know that the Law is Spiritual but I am carnal sold under Sin For that which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not I consent unto the Law that it is good Now then it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin Much such a Description as this we have likewise by the same Apostle in his Epistle to the Galathians c. 5. v. 17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Where he also acquaints us what are the distinct works of the Flesh and the Spirit the First consisting mainly in the gratification of sensual Appetites and desires or in an ambitious pursuit after the Pomp and Vanities of this world or in that turbulent and uneven constitution of mind in those either private or publick Mischiefs which are the usual consequences of Lust and Passion as the latter are chiefly discernible by such a calmness and serenity of Mind and Will as does perpetually accompany the Soul of man when it is moved from it self from an inward spring and principle of its own and when its streams are not troubled or turned back with violence upon their Fountain by the tempestuous winds of Passion such a calmness and serenity as makes a man most easie to himself most acceptable to others and most fit to enjoy an intimate Friendship and Communion with God Now the works of the Flesh saith he v. 18 19 20 21 22 23. are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And from this distinction of the Flesh and the Spirit men are denominated according to the respective Predominancy of either sometimes Carnal or Natural and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritual men So in the next Chapter v. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are Spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self lest tho◠also be tempted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye which are Spiritual that is ye who have mortified the Flesh with its affections and Lusts ye who have given your selves up to the guidance and conduct of the inward-man whose Souls are as far as may be retired within themselves freed from the Dominion of Prejudice and Temptation and making no further account of any thing without than it is necessary to the support of Life or serviceable to the noble ends of Happiness and Virtue ye who measure all things by a steady and impartial reason according to their true estimate and value and not as they are falsly and unskilfully represented by the specious flatteries of a deluded fancy and so those things or truths of which
be thought to have been borrowed from the Platonick School is that St. Paul in his use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mind which was the second Person in the Trinity of Plato takes it every where in the same sense which those Philosophers are used to do for a pure and unprejudic'd reason or understanding furnish'd with multiplicity of Ideas of whose objective perfection and of the motives which may induce it either to pursue or avoid those Objects which they represent it considers with a sound and impartial Judgment So Rom. 7. 23. I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again v. 25. So then with my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin where the same word is still observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of the New-Testament that which is carnal and sensual is to be understood will appear no less plainly from several other places than from that which hath been already produced So James 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Wisdome descendeth not from above but is Earthly Sensual Devilish And in the Epistle of St. Jude v. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same so also are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two first being taken for the sensual and concupiscible as the two latter for the more intellectuall abstracted and speculative life in man for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in propriety of Speech do not signifie an immaterial substance but only a more subtile and tenuious matter yet that this is the signification of it in many places of Scripture cannot be questioned especially in that of the Acts c. 23. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Sadducees say there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit it is plain an immaterial Nature must be understood for that there was such a thing as a Cogitant or thinking Substance in general they could not question without contradicting themselves the very doubt of it being a proof of its Existence neither could they any more dispute the Existence of a subtile or Aetherial matter of which common sense and every Moments experience would undeniably convince them And this was the reason why they would not grant the liberty of the humane Will because Matter and necessity are exactly the same as I shall shew more largely by and by wherefore looking upon the Soul of man as the Stoicks and Epicureans likewise did to be nothing else but a Collection of subtile Matter disposed conveniently for the exercise of Cogitation and Perception they could not think it capable of Freedom which implyes some principle distinct from matter and for the same reason they deny'd the Resurrection and the immortality of the Soul because as life according to the Sadducean principles was nothing but a Collection of subtile Matter disposed and modifi'd after a certain manner so Death was nothing else but the Dissolution or Dissipation of that collective Substance and therefore the Soul after Death must of necessity cease to be Lastly From this Notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit we may frame to our selves a clearer Explication of that famous Place of St. Paul to the Corinthians than has hitherto been thought of where speaking concerning the Resurrection he says thus 1 Cor. 15. 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sown a natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body there is a natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body Where though it be true that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spiritual Body may be understood such a Body as is of a more fine and subtle Contexture than that we now carry about us if we regard only the Propriety of the Greek Language without respect to the peculiar Idiome of the New-Testament and though it be likewise true that the Glorified Bodies of the Saints will actually consist of a more tenuious and Aetherial Substance because the Scripture tells us that in that State there will be neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage that is no sensual gratifications nor any sensual Desires which cannot well be if we carry these Bodies of Flesh about us which administer perpetual Food to so many disorderly Passions and in which St. Paul expressly tells us there dwells no good thing yet this does not depend upon the signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but upon the Nature of things themselves wherefore he that would rightly understand the true meaning of this Place must consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritual Body as it stands in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Natural Body and it being manifest from what hath been said already that by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be understood such a Body as is fittest for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Animal life to exercise its Functions and operations in nothing is more clear than that by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritual Body such an one in General must be understood as is best fitted for the operations of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the pure immaterial and immortal Nature in us Having thus given an Account of that Contention which we find within our selves between the two principles of the Flesh and Spirit as that Contention is described by St. Paul let us now see what advantage may be made from it to the Calvinistical Doctrine and those advantages are chiefly two First That he seems to speak in such a manner of the Spiritual principle as if it were perpetually overborn and kept under by the Carnal so as it could not possibly bring any thing to Effect of it self nor were in the least wise able to resist the perpetual Impulses of the Animal or Bruitish Nature I am carnal sold under Sin saith he Rom. 7. v. 14 15. For that which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not But what I hate that do I. Again v. 17 18. Now then it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good Thing For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is Good I find not and more to the same purpose to v. 23 where he has these words But I see another Law in my Members Warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members Which difficulty is Capable of a fourfold Solution First That even in profane Authors there are Expressions to be found which may seem at first sight to infer a natural Impossibility of doing Well by which notwithstanding no more than
placing us in a State if not of perfect Innocence yet of Forgiveness and Justification ARTICLE XII Of good Works ALbeit that good works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of Gods Iudgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith in so much that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit In this Article there is nothing which I have not already sufficiently asserted and insisted upon in what I have said above about Justification and in what I have just now observed upon the Article of freewill And Lastly In what I have said concerning Perseverance and of the case of St. Peter and that confession which he made that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of the Living God ARTICLE XIII Of Works before Justification WOrks done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath Willed and Commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of Sin In which last recited Article though more difficulty may seem to lie then in the two foregoing yet upon a more particular survey of it it will appear that there is nothing which is not very consistent to those principles which I have laid down For First This Article asserts plainly that good Works may be done but that they are not pleasant to God before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ of which I have already spoken Secondly This Article does not deny that there is such a thing as Grace of Congruity and consequently that there may and must be some manner of preparation in our selves by which we are made capable of receiving it but only that we cannot deserve this grace of Congruity and that is very true for it is still an infinite condescention in the Spirit of God that it will stoop to our Infirmities and enter into so strict a Friendship with such polluted Beings as the best of Men of themselves are found to be Lastly When the Article tells us that before the Reception of this Grace even our good Works themselves have the nature of Sin it is not so to be understood that good Works proceeding out of an honest Heart and a pious Intention are or can be displeasing to God so far forth as they are done to good Purposes and out of good Designs for this would be to make them good and bad at the same time but before the Reception of this Grace they are tainted with much of imperfection in themselves and by their having the nature of Sin may be also meant that before the Reception of this Grace and without the satisfaction of Christ for the transgressions of our Lives they are no more available for our Justification than if they had been bad or wicked Works because no future innocence or virtue can be a proper Attonement or satisfaction for the guilt that is past so it being no more than we are always obliged to it cannot expiate for our former Sins Neither is it affirmed as I conceive in the tenth Article that we cannot turn or prepare our selves at all or in the least degree but that Article is rather to be explained by this expression in the thirteenth that we cannot so turn or prepare our selves as to deserve the grace of Congruity which I have already granted to be True and I have shown the Reason why it is so St. Paul tells us Rom 8. 7. That the Carnal Mind is at Enmity against God by which it is imply'd at least that there is a friendship and Congruity betwixt the spiritual mind and the mind of God And the case of the Heathen world in the first Chapter of that Epistle who were deserted by the spirit of God and given over to their own beastly Lusts and Affections to defile themselves with all manner of Wickedness and Uncleanness shews plainly that there is a common Grace or Influence of the Divine Spirit running through the World and that it never forsakes us till we by many acts of willful Sin have broken and violated those Congruities to which its presence is inseperably united according to the greater or lesser proportions in which those Congruities exert themselves though since no Man by the Assistances of this common Grace did ever live up to the perfection of the law of Nature I shall neither be so Uncharitable as to exclude them from all benefit in the Passion of Christ nor so presumptuous as to determine how far the Merits of that Passion may be applicable to them However if it be granted as it is all the reason in the World that it should what we find contained in the twentieth Article that it is not lawful for the Church it self to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another then it is easie to perceive what we are to pronounce of the Doctrines of irresistable Grace and of absolute Reprobation if we will adhere either to the Judgment of right Reason or to the sentiments of the Church of England it being impossible to maintain either of these Doctrines without explaining one Text after such a manner as to make it flatly contradictory to another and consequently to invalidate the Authority of the Scripture which if it be not consistent to its self can be of no force or obligation to us Besides what hath been already largely represented of the inconsistency of these Doctrines with the constant tenour design and current of the Scriptures if in the place of St. Paul so lately mentioned where he exhorts us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling it be but granted as it cannot be avoided but it must be that there is a Power or ability of working supposed in them to whom this exhortation is made otherwise it would be a very impertinent Exhortation and if it be affirmed of the very next words for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do that they are so to be understood as if he had said that we are able to do nothing of our selves but that God does all by an irresistable Grace then it is manifest that these two places though immediately Joyned are yet plainly contradictory to one another How is it possible then if we will follow the Counsel of the Church of England but we must expound this latter so as I have done since any other way they cannot be consistent together And what can be a greater disparagement to
stupid and insensible Block if the communication of Motion from one body to another be a manifest proof that those numerical degrees of Motion are not essential to either Body and consequently not to Matter in the general considered then we must look still further abroad for some other Substance wherein this Power of self-activity shall reside which Substance because it is not Matter must be immaterial neither must we be content to say only that selfactivity is an attribute belonging to some immaterial Substance but that it flowes immediately from the very essence and constitution of it because if you take away this you will then have nothing left but passive or passible Extension which is the Idea of Matter It is plain then and will be plainer from what I shall say in an Appendix to these Discourses that there are two sorts of Substance and by consequence two sorts of Extension a passive and an active Extension in the World The First of which has no manner of activity or motion but what is communicated to it from without The Second hath a power of selfactivity or selfmotion within its self which it can impress upon the matter about it and which it can either exert or suspend as it pleases or as it shall see cause For that Being whatever it is which cannot suspend its motion is passive in it and consequently is moved from without and that which cannot exert it from it self hath no power of self-activity from within but that which can do either of these when ever it pleases as it hath been proved that it can be no other then an immateriall so it must be granted to be a free Agent and therefore to deny that there is such a thing as freedom of Will or liberty of Action in Men is in effect to assert that they are as very Clods as the Dirt they tread on and that they are not partakers of an immaterial Nature The Antients were so sensible of the Truth of what I have here asserted that matter implies Necessity and mind self-activity and by consequence Freedom That Plutarch in his de placitis Philosophorum lays it down as the General sense of the Philosophers of the earliest Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is it is impossible that matter should be the only principle from whence all things proceed but we must also add to this an active or intellectual principle which shall be the cause of Order Beauty and diversity in the matter For this reason it was that the Sadduces who denied the existence of any immaterial Principle subjected the Government of all humane Actions to a resistless Necessity and Fate but the Pharisees who looked upon themselves as made up of two distinct and contrary Natures or as consisting of an active and a passive Principle an immaterial Soul whose vigour was blunted and its activity diluted by the intimate union of a material gross and earthly Body did with better reason assert that there was a mixture of Freedom and Necessity in humane Life as Josephus and Abraham Zacuth have reported And that the Soul and Body are the two principles of Liberty on the one hand and Fatality on the other is likewise acknowledged by Lactantius in that Chapter which I have already cited in these words Tu quidem non peccas quia liber es ab hoc corpore non concupiscis quia immortali nihil est necessarium Lastly This blending or mixture of Necessity and Freedom is likewise acknowledged by Pythagoras or whoever was the Author of those truly Golden Verses that goe under his Name for Porphyry and Jamblichus do both of them assure us that he left no Writing behind him and besides the want of the Pythagorick Dorisme does sufficiently discover that it is a Poem of a much later Composure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a small fault do not thy Friend forgo But curb thine Anger ere it lawless grow For Fate with Freedom is together joyn'd But it is still further admirable to observe how exactly St. Paul jumps in his sentiments of Things with the opinion of these ancient Philosophers For he also makes the Flesh or the union of the Soul with matter to be the cause of all those inordinate desires whereby it is assaulted though otherwise when she is retired within her self and disintangled by cool and serious Meditation from this bodily Encumbrance all her natural tendencies are to Goodness or which is all one to the enjoyment of perfect Happiness and Rest It is and must always be the nature of every cogitant Being to be carried forth with a perpetual desire of being Happy which blessed End being only attainable by the measures of right Reason and Prudence it can be nothing but Ignorance and Blindness or want of due heed and attention or Lastly the disquiet and disorder of our Passions all which are owing to the matter which we carry about us and are in their several degrees so many approaches towards an absolute and uncontroulable Necessity which can be the cause of any Sin or folly of which we are at any time guilty So St. Paul Rom. 7. 14. The Law is Spiritual but I am carnal sold under Sin And v. 18. For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And v. 20. Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me And v. 23. But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the law of Sin which is in my Members In which and other places already mentioned and now needless to be again repeated he very truely and wisely asserts the mind or inward man to be a principle of Freedom whose nature and Business it is to determine its self according to what is most suitable to its true Interest of which when it is not violently carried away by the importunity of passion and sensual pleasure it is a proper and impartial Judge but being united to a Body which is the seed and source of every evil desire and Inclination it is by their perpetual sollicitation diverted from its proper course and imposed upon by false appearances of profit interest or pleasure so as it cannot so easily discern what is for its true advantage and before it has sufficiently considered of things proceeds to action which is so far sinful as it might have been avoided by care and circumspection and so far more or less an approach to absolute Necessity as it is more or less influenced by the tumult and disorder of the material or necessary principle in us So that in every virtuous action there is an instance given of absolute and untainted Freedom because in these the Mind considers wholly and indifferently of the true worth and value of things and determines concerning them with an equal and unprejudiced Judgment and proceeds all the way upon steady
be the better able as you read along to understand this and to make a judgment of both and therefore that you may the better compare both of them together I have added a common Index of the chief Heads of both at the latter end So that all you have to do is only by Preface in the beginning to understand Postscript and by the word following in several places to understand as much as if I had said foregoing which it is no great matter for one friend to do for another and then all is well and as it should be or if you do not like this way of interpretation though it be as good as many that come from very able Expositors and profound Divines then take your own way And though you laugh at the Title which you may do and welcome if you please yet be so just to the Argument notwithstanding as to give it that respect which it deserves I cannot pretend to add much in this place to what I have already written but because being lately injured by the malice of an ill man whom I know not and therefore forgive him unsight and unseen I did in the heat of my resentment draw up a just and true Character and representation of my self which upon second thoughts I have supprest as I have many other things to the great detriment and destruction of Pen Ink and Paper which might be imployed for better uses in which tumultuary scrible I did among other things declare my opinion as to the points in difference betwixt those whom they call in Holland the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants so far as those points are determinable upon the Principles of nature the inserting of which in this place may do some service to the cause I have undertaken therefore I have thought fit to insert it in the words that follow and to beg of you no greater favour than what in justice I may challenge at your hands that you would read it with the same ingenuity candor and good meaning with which it was written by me For the points in Dispute betwixt the Arminian and Calvinistical Doctors I make no manner of scruple to affirm that the former of these are certainly in the right and that the latter of them by turning men into Beasts and by making it impossible for a man by his natural strength to make the least attempt at any thing that is good or to harbour the least degree of a virtuous inclination but on the contrary to be carried forth by an irresistible propensity of will to all manner of wickedness and to the highest degrees of sin as well as to the most detestable instances of it as Mr. Calvin and his Followers in so many words are pleased to do have done a very great and a very unpardonable affront to humane nature and that it would never be endured if any one man should bespatter his Neighbour at that rate at which they have taken the confidence upon them to reproach and vilify the whole race of Mankind I reckon that they are every whit as bad Philosophers as they are Divines and that since men do naturally carry different constitutions and temperaments about them by which it appears plainly that some men are by nature and by the particular happiness of their constitution more vertuously disposed than others which dispositions may either be heightned or corrupted or perfectly destroyed by difference of Company different ways of Study different courses of Life and different methods of Education Again since as some constitutions are in the general more virtuously dispos'd than others so there is none so good as not to be carried forth with a greater or lesser inclination to sin and since it appears in every man's observation that one temperament is naturally inclined to one sort or species of evil and another to another which inclinations may likewise be heightened or in a great measure conquered and subdued by the same means by which the dispositions to vertue and good manners are either cultivated or lessened or destroyed I say since these things are so in the open view and appearance of all mankind since they are so plain so manifest so undenyably certain from the daily experience both of our selves and others what can be more foolish then to say that all men are irresistibly that is equally inclined by nature to all manner of vice or to affirm that nothing but an irresistible Grace can hinder the best of men from being worse than the most fierce untameable and savage Beasts themselves as Mr. Calvin expresly does and it is no more then what does unavoidably follow from his doctrine of irresistible pravity and corruption But yet I am very far from bidding defyance to the spirit of Grace very far from sinking into the Pelagian or so much as into the Massilian or Semi-pelagian error I do believe and am taught by the word of God and by my own experience of my self and others that without the Grace of God it is impossible to do that which is truly pleasing and acceptable in his sight I believe there will always be through the confessed pravity of the best natures such a mixture of corruption by the interposition or intervention of carnal or prohibited desires by which our zeal for Goodness will be always either cool'd diverted or destroyed that even our best Actions will not be accepted of God without the assistance of his Grace to give them a beauty consummation and perfection which they could not have received from our selves I believe that as virtuous actions or dispositions cannot be perfect so much less can virtuous habits be attained without the supernatural and perpetual though not irresistible assistance of the same spirit which is as necessary to create in us sometimes good dispositions and much more good habits but always to assure and perfect them as the Death of Christ was to attone for our bad ones or his intercession to apply the merits of that death and passion to the several imperfect degrees of our repentance or amendment of life I do believe and am verily in my conscience perswaded that God who in the Creation of the world and in the admirable contrivance of it for its own preservation and for the well-being and happiness of its inhabitants hath discovered so much goodness he that in the structure of the bodies of all Animals and in the provision which he hath made for the respective subsistence of them all according to their several natures and constitutions hath plainly shewed himself to be a very merciful and Gracious Being he that hath ordered and created all things in number weight and measure he that out of nothing hath rear'd this comely Fabrick of the World so full of usefulness as well as beauty both of which do almost equally declare him to be not an angry merciless and revengeful but a serene composed benevolent and Gracious mind I say I do believe and am verily perswaded that such a
follows v. 22. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly which it seems by this place he had done if after this severe usage he had charged God with injustice And what was true as to those goods of Life which are external to a Man's person such as are his Children and his Substance which it has been shewn may without injustice be taken away by God by virtue of his absolute Soveraignty over men the same is likewise acknowledged to be no less true by the same illustrious example of an humble Resignation to the will of the great Disposer as to those things in which a Man 's own proper person is more nearly concerned For when Satan had smitten Job with sore Blanes and Boils equally loathsome and painful all over his Body from the crown of his Head to the sole of his Foot c. 2. v. 7. and when his Wife upon so suddain occasion v. 9 said unto him Dost thou still retain thine Integrity Curse God and Dye he makes no other Answer v. 10 but Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive Evil and then it follows again in all this did not Job sin with his lips Thus far therefore it is Sin to accuse God of Injustice But this is not all neither but it is still further true by Authority as great and as sacred as that of the Book of Job and by the acknowledgment of Abraham the Father of the Faithful and the friend of God that this same absolute Dominion extends it self as far as to Life it self which it is at God's pleasure to take away by arbitrary measures without being accountable to his own Justice or his goodness for it For though it be indeed the expostulation of that Righteous Person with his Maker in the behalf of Sodom Gen. 18. v. 23 25. Wilt thou also destroy the Righteous with the Wicked that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the Righteous with the Wicked that be far from thee shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right And though it be further true that as a Judge God cannot slay the Righteous with the Wicked because considering him in that Capacity he must act according to the respective demerit of those that appear before him at his Tribunal yet as a proprietor and Soveraign Lord he may this being in truth the only proper exercise of his Soveraignty and absolute Dominion over us But yet notwithstanding how closely soever he pressed this argument with his God he did not dare for all that to interceed any further than that if there were ten Righteous to be found in the City he would be pleased to spare it for their sakes therefore by his own Concession and as it were in Complyince with that agreement and Stipulation which was at that time made betwixt God and himself he might justly have involved nine Righteous persons in the common Calamity of that wicked place but he that may justly slay nine innocent persons or at least without any injustice for Justice supposeth a Punishment and consequently a fault may likewise without any injustice slay nine Millions or an infinite number if it so pleaseth him for the injustice is not to be fetched from the repetition but from the nature of the fact which if it be once lawful it can never be repeated so often as to make it otherwise than it is in it self so that if he may destroy one innocent man without injustice it is manifest there can be no reason why he may not do the same to another and so in infinitum it being utterly impossible to set any Bounds or Limits to the exercise of this power It may seem something hard to involve good Men in those Calamities which the Sins of the bad have given casion to but it is next kin to an impossibility in this great Ship of the world where all Men's Concerns and Interests are carried together in the same Bottom and are so strangely perplexed and entangled with one another but the Righteous must needs partake in the sufferings of the Wicked Nay it is absolutely impossible as to Men's Fortunes or Interests or Affairs in the world but it must of necessity be so and as to the taking away of their lives or visiting them with any loathsome or painful Disease though it be not equally necessary that this should light in common as well as the other yet it is by no means inconsistent with the Justice or goodness of God that it should be so God is not obliged when he visiteth any Nation or pepple with a Plague or Epidemical Disease to order the matter so that the destroying Angel shall pick his way and make a distinction as he goes betwixt the good and bad such a choice as this would be contrary to the very nature of the Judgment it self which is as blind and impartial as the Grave to which it sends us and therefore that stroke which with respect to the wicked is a Punishment is in relation to the better sort of Men an exercise of that power which may justly take away all that it hath given us without doing the least wrong or injury at all and this must needs extend as far as life it self which together with all the Comforts and enjoyments that are consequent upon it is the immediate and only gift of God who is the sole proprietor of that vital warmth which awakens the stupid matter into an enjoyment of it self and from whom as from the root of life and the eternal source of all the inferiour perceptive powers that long meander of Energy and vital activity is derived that passes thorough all the spatious Provinces of this same Secondary created World watering the senseless matter as it goes with an enlivening and refreshing stream Thus much may be sufficient to have said concerning the lawful exercise of God's despotical or arbitrary power I come now to consider what he may do as an exercise of his Justice and I lay it down for a certain and self-evident Maxim that he cannot blind or harden Men from the Cradle all along to the day of their Death in order to their final Destruction and Damnation in the other world because the pains of that miserable State being supposed to be infinite both in degree and in duration one of these two things must be granted either that God can do no wrong let him do what he will or can what ever is most cruel or seems most unjust but that he is nothing else but arbitrary will and that infinite Cruelty is sufficiently warranted and justified by infinite power which is Mr. Calvins Doctrine and the avow'd opinion of Mr. Hobbs or else that in all instanc es of this nature where he first concludes men under a miserable and fatal necessity of doing what they do and then damns them for doing or believing what they could
evidently demonstrates a power either of yielding or resisting in him to whom it is offered but this power can never be conceived without a concession of freedom Again St. Paul tells his Corinthians Epist 1. c. 10. v. 13. There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Will he so will he enable us to bear it but how will he bring this good Effect to pass why he will do it partly by the natural Powers and Faculties which he has given us and partly by the blessed Influences of his merciful and good Spirit infused into our Hearts and strengthning the natural force and activity of our Minds But yet after all this we must make our escape our selves he will strengthen us with sufficient might in the inward Man whereby to repel the assault of any Temptation but yet he does not so strengthen us as to destroy that liberty by which we are still in a possibility of yielding and if there were not such a possibility then St. Paul instead of encouraging his Corinthians the more boldly and chearfully to encounter with temptations from this Consideration that they have such Assistances both natural and divine as cannot fail to make their warfare successful might have told them in short that they were now arrived to an impeccable Estate and that they need not trouble their heads any further with any idle apprehensions of the Devil or mistrusts of themselves with any scruples of Conscience from within or any fears of Danger from without for that they were now arrived at a degree of Perfection so high and yet so steady that it was impossible for them to fall away or to commit Sin any more and by this means he might have saved himself and them the needless trouble of a long Epistle Lastly when he tells them that no Temptation hath befaln them but such as is common unto Men it is as good as to say that all men who are not perfectly forsaken by God and hardened into a final impenitence for their former Sins though they are not assisted with those extraordinary influences of the divine Spirit which are peculiar to the Christian world yet they have still such helps both natural and divine as are at least sufficient to subdue any Temptation that can be offered and if they had not they could not be said so properly to be assaulted by a Temptation as compelled by necessity and irresistable fate But to what purpose does our blessed Lord command his Disciples and consequently us to Watch and Pray that we enter not into Temptation when if the Doctrine of Calvin and his Fellows be true that all humane actions are necessary and fatal and that they are predestinated from all Eternity to determine themselves to such and such Objects after such or such a manner in such and such periods of time then it signifies no more to Watch and Pray than to whistle against the Wind out of hopes to divert it into another Quarter We may as well sleep on and take our rest for any good we are like to do by Watching For at this rate all our Watching will be ineffectual all our Prayers to no end or purpose and all our Religion will be vain for the fatal Knots can neither be unti'd nor cut in sunder And whatever has been resolved in the utmost recesses of Eternity must come to pass in the predestinated intervals of time so that the best way for us when all is done will be to sit down passively consented under every thing that can befal us and sing the old Catch on Consort with one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But alas what do I speak of being contented for we can neither be satisfied nor displeased unless when the fit of necessity takes us It is now somewha◠more than sixteen hundred Years agoe since a very wise and a very witty man told the world ira furor brevis est anger is but a shorter kind of Madness but it seems the air of Rome is nothing so sharp and so judicious as that of Geneva and the Italians may cease hereafter to upbraid the Tramontani with want of understanding for had he known so much as the Religionists of our days and in these parts of the world he would have concluded that our whole life was nothing else but one continued frenzy wherein we always sail by the compass of Necessity and flow hither and thither without any Guidance and Conduct of our-selves by the Spring-Tide of uncontroulable fate he would have seen that our very thoughts are straitned and enlarged screw'd up and let down by the Eternal wheels and pulleys and that we speak like Puppets with Bay leaves in our Mouths to so little purpose is it that our Saviour exhorts us to Watch and Pray that we enter not into Temptation when we can do neither of our selves but when the necessity comes upon us we must do both whether we will or no. Duc me parens celsique dominator Poli Quocunque visum est nulla parendi mora est Assum impiger fac nolle comitabor gemens Malusque patiar quod Pati licuit bono But with your leave Cleanthes if the world be govern'd by such a Stoicall or Calvinisticall Fate there can be no such thing as good or Evil in it for Necessity admits of no such moral Distinction If all things come to pass because they cannot be otherwise than they are then he that Prays to God and he that Curses him are equally excused and it is true of the Rich and of all Men what Juvenal thought applicable only to the Poor Jurent licet samotheacum Et nostrorum aras contemnere fulmina pauper Creditur atque deos diis ignoscentibus ipsis For how can God with Justice blame us for stooping to those Laws of Fate which cannot possibly be resisted by us and by which he himself is govern'd For Eadem Necessitas deos irrevocabilis divina pariter atque humana cursus rehit alligat ille ipse omnium conditor ac rector siripsit quidem fata sed sequitur semel paret semper jussit said Seneca according to the opinion of the Stoick and I shall prove immediately that the Calvinists would be bound to defend the same opinion if it were capable as it is not of being defended It is a prodigious thing that an opinion not only so contrary to reason and to truth but to the usual Sentiments of those very men that defend it should ever find so much Countenance or protection among us For show me but one man the hottest Pedestinarian of them all who does not by most of the actions of his Life suppose and assert that freedom which in a fit of disputing he denies and I will yield
acceptable and perfect will of God For why should he exhort us to so great purity both of Body and Mind if God Almighty in the work of Justification had no manner of regard to those as the Conditions of his Favour or if indeed we cannot so much as endeavour to be transformed or renewed of our selves by the exercise of the natural Faculties and Powers of our own minds but all must be oweing to an irresistible Grace by which we are carried away as by a mighty Torrent without any the least ability or strength to stemme so rapid and so impetuous a stream Whereas if we go a middle way betwixt these two extreams it will be very easie to reconcile these places of St. Paul to themselves and to one another to the faculties of men and the nature of things and to the rest of the Evangelical and Apostolical writings Follow peace with all men saith the Authour to the Hebrews c. 12. v. 14. and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. But now if a man should say that the true and genuine sense of that place is this that no man shall see the Lord but he that cannot help it or he that must see and enjoy him whether he will or no this would certainly be looked upon by all men as a most absurd and impious Interpretation and yet this is no other than the necessary consequence of the Calvinistical Doctrine if Holiness be meerly owing to an irresistible Grace and if it be not then nothing can be plainer than that there is something of Endeavour or self-activity required on our parts But you will say then how comes it to pass that St. Paul tells us so often that we are justified only by Faith and by Grace and not by works why this with a very little attention upon what hath been said already will become very plain and easie For it is one thing to say that Repentance and good works are necessary to Salvation by way of merit and another to affirm that they are required as an indispensible Condition without which God will not impute Righteousness or make application of the passion of his Son to the person of a Sinner The first of these is manifestly false because as hath been said already all we can possibly do is no more than our Duty and our best performances are accompanied with so many and so great imperfections that instead of expiating for our grosser Crimes they themselves do stand in need of an Atonement But yet after all it is true that without Holiness and without Repentance no man shall see the Lord and it is so true that even in those to whom God is pleased to extend his Mercy at the very instant of Death which we have reason to believe to be but very few yet in these there is at least required an hearty sorrow and contrition for what is past out of a due sense of the foul nature of Sin or of the heinous malignity of Disobedience and ingratitude to so good and gracious a God and there is required also such a serious and devoutly fixt resolution of living better for the future if in case it shall please God to grant us a longer Life as may be not an obligation but a motive or inducement to his infinite Goodness which in such cases as these hath great latitude of operation to accept the will for the deed Neither does it follow in the least because Repentance and Obedience are required that therefore we are not justified by Grace or by Faith only for since our Repentance and our good works have no manner of merit or Atonement in themselves it is certain that that Atonement must be wholly oweing to something else and the Scripture tells us plainly what that is namely to the sufferings of Christ upon the Cross for our Sins the merit of which sufferings is by the Grace and favour of God without any pretence or title which we have otherwise to them appli'd to every true Believer as the reward of his Faith in him by whom that expiation is wrought which Faith though it can never be unaccompani'd with good works yet it implies in its very nature so perfect a reliance upon the merit and satisfaction of Christ for Justification and Redemption as does at the same time amount to an absolute Renunciation or an utter disowning of all kind of claim and title in our selves It is almost the same case as if a Malefactor having committed something worthy of Death should yet notwithstanding in pity to the innocence of his past Life before the commission of this offence have a Reprieve allowed him to put him upon a new Tryal and see how he would behave himself for the future and though neither his past nor future deportment be so absolutely blameless as that no advantage can be taken of them yet since he endeavours to make up in his Repentance what in his obedience is defective and since he plainly acknowledges himself a debter to the justice of the Law and reposeth his only confidence not in his own uprightness or sincerity but in the goodness of his Prince or Judge he is upon these Considerations pardoned which pardon though without such Considerations and Circumstances it had not been past yet the very nature of a pardon implies a guilt in him to whom it is given and a right of punishment in him that gives it so that notwithstanding these Conditions the offender's Life is merely and entirely an effect of Mercy because notwithstanding them he might very justly have been Condemned to Die This may be sufficient to have said concerning the first of those six accounts which I have promised to give of the first rise of the Predestinarian Doctrine that it is grounded upon a mistaken Interpretation of those places of St. Paul which are opposed only to those who had too high an opinion of themselves or were not so sensible as they ought to be of the grace and favour of God towards them by sending his Son into the world to be the propitiation for their Sins and of the necessity of that Grace in order to their Justification but were by no means intended to destroy the necessity of Obedience and a good Life or to discourage our honest endeavours at Perfection how short soever they be of that mark at which they are directed but it is rather on the contrary a new obligation to watchfulness and diligence in all our Conversation that God has been pleased to apply so mercifull and so effectual a remedy to those Diseases and Dangers to which either the frailty of our natures or the perversness of our wills assisted by the malicious and crafty insinuations of degenerate Spirits do continually expose us and I dare confidently appeal to any man let him be who he will who is not enslaved past all possibility of redemption to a Spirit of Bigotry and prejudice for a party without having patience to attend to
principles of Truth and Reason But in all Vice there is a mixture of Freedom and Necessity together Of Necessity because all Sin is owing to the predominance of the necessary or material cause and yet of Freedom because if that predominance cannot possibly be overcome by our utmost diligence or circumspection or power this perfectly destroys the nature of Sin and makes us only passive in what we do This is the meaning of those other places already cited v. 15. That which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. And v. 19. The good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do That is the Will of Man properly so called is a principle of action steared and directed by the Understanding and so is naturally carried forth to nothing but what is reasonable and fit to be done and therefore every wicked or which is all one unreasonable desire is a violence done to the natural bent and tendency of the humane Will and is the effect of that union which there is betwixt the necessary principle and the free by which it comes to pass that the latter of these if it be not perfectly overcome yet being perpetually and strongly sollicited it is morally impossible for it to keep so strictly upon its Guard as not sometimes to be imposed upon and still the more it yields the more weak and infirm it grows and the less able to make any tolerable resistance for the future Besides that it cannot be that considerations of Virtue should be warm upon our Minds at the same time when temptations of Lust and Pleasure from without have a powerful influence upon them for these two are inconsistent together and do as the Logicians are used to say by contraries expell one another out of the same Subject Now then saith St. Paul v. 17 and 20. It is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me No more I that is it is not the pure intellectual nature in me which is truly and properly my self and which hath no tendency but to reasonable Courses but Sin that dwelleth in me that is it is the animal or bruitish nature resulting from the union of the Soul with Matter which by perpetual importunity and sollicitation does by degrees overpower the guards of Reason and amounts almost to a necessity of doing evil But here it is to be taken notice before we pass any further that this Pronoun I in this Chapter is used by St. Paul in a threefold acceptation First It signifies the whole Person consisting both of Soul and Body of a purely immaterial and of an animal or fleshly Nature v. 15 16. For that which I do I allow not For what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I If then I do that which I allow not I consent unto the Law that it is good and v. 19 For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do Secondly It is taken for the pure intellectual and abstracted Nature v. 20 c. Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me And then Thirdly and Lastly It is taken otherwhile only for the animal or fleshly Life v. 18. For I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not It is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word the nature of it is very aptly signified and it is a very fit exposition of v. 19. The good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do For the Will as I have said is naturally directed towards Happiness which can only be obtained by reasonable and virtuous Courses so that all Sin hath something of involuntary in it because it is naturally productive of nothing but mischeif and inconvenience to us and by consequence is a missing of that Mark to which our Wills are intentionally directed which is exactly the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Etymologist whose words I will set down because they contain a very pat Interpretation of this place of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence it is plain that in the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is something of involuntary denoted and that it does very properly shadow cut unto us that mixture of Necessity and Freedom which there is to be found in every sinful action and what if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek should all of them be thought to owe their derivation to the Verb hamar Ligavit or Manipulos fecit in the Hebrew Language from whence homer Manipulus which was a Pledge or Earnest-penny or an acknowledgment that the rest of the harvest was equally due to him to whom the Homer it self was consecrated and offered up but this is a small Criticisme and indeed an improbable one into the bargain which I do not stand upon A third cause which I shall assign of the great prevalence and growth of Calvinistical Doctrines is this that notwithstanding when matters are examined to the bottom they are destructive of piety and holy living yet to the careless and unthinking view of many of Mr. Calvin's Disciples and Adherents they have an appearance of an extraordinary sanctity by vilifying a man's self at such a prodigious rate and by magnifying the Grace of God without which I acknowledge we can do nothing as we ought to so unreasonable a degree as includes in it the utter ruin and destruction of all the powers and faculties of the mind of man which nature will not permit and therefore God does not and cannot possibly be supposed to require A fourth reason which I believe to have been a motive to Mr. Calvin to propagate this Doctrine and I am sure in the nature of things it was not only a possible but a very probable reason is that in the Church of Rome there were such things as Pardons and Indulgences to be had upon occasion which gave an Artificial ease to the consciences of men when the reflection upon the past wickedness and follies of their life wou'd either have driven them into perfect despair or at least made them very uneasy and troublesome to themselves and the finding out a cheap expedient an expedient grounded in the very nature of things and consequently such as might be had for nothing such as was not exposed to the envy of the Papal Indulgencies and Dispensations could not chuse but be very serviceable to the Inventor of it and must needs draw abundance of Fishes into his Net for men do very easily excuse themselves
for what is past when they consider they could not help it and then being listed into such a Party where all take themselves to be of the Elect added to this other comfortable consideration that the Elect cannot possibly fall away from Grace This makes them look not only without remorse but with satisfaction and pleasure upon the enormities of their past life they will repeat them and chew them with a Gusto as I have seen many of this sort of People do as being the unavoidable consequences of the beastly and as I may call with a great deal of reason the unnatural state of nature But now they tell you their pardon is seal'd and they are sure 't is impossible for them to miscarry which is Milk and Honey without Money and without Price a Calvinistical Dispensation at once more cheap and more effectual then any his Holiness can afford at Rome which was thought for many years to have been the only staple of that profitable Trade for it is profitable to the cause of Calvinism and to the interest of a separation that might be justifyed upon other grounds though it be more effectually promoted by this and though the Pope indeed in point of ready money have perhaps the start of the Doctours of Geneva Which brings me to the fifth thing and that is that this Doctrine of Election on the one hand and of absolute rejection and reprobation on the other is apt to fill men with insolence and pride with an high opinion of themselves and with a contempt and hatred of others and so is at once a natural cause of separation and of an obstinate and inveterate continuance in it Whether the grounds of such separation be reasonable or no which as it did confirm and strengthen the separation from the Church of Rome a thing that was otherwise necessary to be done without fancying any such eternal decrees to make themselves proud and to breed an hatred and contempt of those from whom they separate for justifyable reasons so I reckon likewise that it is the great Pillar of the Schisme from our Church at this day which as it pretends to greater purity so it proceeds upon an opinion that the Separatists for it are the Elect of God while we from being peaceable and sincerely honest without terms of art â—or being good Subjects without any reserve and for being good Christians without censuring all as Reprobates that differ from us are sometimes pityed and at other times despised as unregenerate Wretches being yet in our sins and in the state of nature that is in such a state in which there is no salvation and in which there is no other prospect but of Eternal death and a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour the Adversaries This if it be examined will be found to be the general Ear-mark and Characteristique of the Separation and I am of opinion that there cannot be a better service done to the Church or to Mankind then by exposing such pernicious doctrines so injurious to God and so destructive to the peace and quiet of the world to that disgrace and infamy which they deserve But sixthly and lastly the last thing which I shall mention as having given occasion and encouragement to so dangerous a doctrine is the overheated zeal of St. Austine St. Jerome and others of that age against Pelagius who though it neither can nor must be denyed that he was much to blame that he attributed too much to the Powers of Nature and too little to the helps and Assistances of Grace yet it is equally certain that those who opposed him both in that age and afterwards went too far into the other extreme it must likewise be acknowledged to the credit of our Country in which he had his birth that he was a very wise as well as virtuous person and that for the clearness of his reason he had incomparably the advantage of all his adversaries put together and upon supposition that his last concessions were not extorted from him by the violence of his opposers but by the evidence of truth and by a more serious enquiry into the sense of Scripture and into the nature of things for our belief of these divine assistances is founded in both I should make no very great scruple to affirm that he was a tolerably Orthodox Divine And thus much shall suffice to have written upon this weighty Subject concerning Freedom and Necessity and concerning their several bounds borderings and interfering mixtures together with the genuine causes and effects of the one and of the other FINIS THE CONTENTS of the Two SERMONS THat those places wherein God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharoah are to be understood in their naked and Grammatical sense that is that God did really harden the heart of Pharaoh as the Scripture affirms him to have done Pag. 1 2 A short and true survey of the behaviour of the Aegyptians towards the children of Israel from their first entrance into the Land of Aegypt till their departure out of it and the drowning of the Aegyptians in the Red Sea from p. 2 to 7 From whence a true account is given of the reason why God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and it is likewise shewn that this hardening is not to â—e looked upon under the notion of a sin but of a punishment for former sins from p. 7. to 10 God cannot with justice condemn a man to everlasting torments merely because be did not or could not understand his duty p. 10 11 Part of the ninth Chapter to the Romans relating to this matter explained and the true extent of Gods dominion over his Creatures assigned from p. 11 to 22 The hardening of obstinate and inveterate sinners is so far from being any injustice that it seems absolutely necessary to the due administration of the divine justice in the government of the world from p. 22 to 25 There is nothing in it for which a Sinner can justly expostulate with God as having suffered any wrong because it is a thing perfectly of his own choosing from p. 25 to 27 It is the same thing in effect with the taking away Sinners by untimely deaths before they have made their peace with God by repentance which no man denies but God may justly do p. 27 28 In what sence God may be said to be the cause of obduration or hardness in a Sinner p. 28 29 A Parallel of the Story of Nebuchadnezzar with that of Pharaoh from p. 30 to 35 The same was the case of the Builders of Babel and in what sense their Language may be said to have been confounded p. 35 36 37 The same notion confirmed from Deut. 28. p. 37 To the same cause must we refer all those divine or Panick terrors infused into the minds of men by a supernatural way by which the Philistines the Midianites the Ammonites Moabites inhabitants of Mountseir Canaanites c. were
interitu aeternas à facie Domini à Gloria virtutis ejus Et quoties metum corporeis figuris incutiunt Prophetae quamvis nihil pro tarditate nostra hyperbolicum afferant praeludia tamen admiscent futuri judicii in sole luna totóque mundi opificio Quare nullam requiem inveniunt infoelices conscientiae quin diro turbine vexeÌ„tur ac dissipentur quin ab infesto Deo se discerni sentiant ' confixae mortiferis aculeis lancinentur quin ad Dei fulmen expavescant conterantur onere manus ejus ut abyssos voragines quaslibet subire levius sit quà m in illâ—s terroribus stare ad momentum quale hoc quantum est aeterna nusquam desitura illius obsidione urgeri i. e. Moreover because no description is sufficient to express the heaviness of the wrath of God upon the reprobate therefore the torments and calamities that are inflicted upon them are shadowed out by coreporal representations such as darkness and weeping and gnashing of Teeth and unquenchable fire and a Worm perpetually gnawing upon the heart For by such wayes of expression as these it is certain that the Holy Ghost designed to affect all our senses with horrour as when it is said Isa 30 33. That Tophet is ordained of old he hath made it deep and large the Pile thereof is fire and much Wood the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it By which mode of expression as we ought to represent to our selves in the best manner we can the miserable and deplorable condition of the damned so ought we most especially to reflect upon this how wretched and calamitous a thing it is to be banished for ever from the prescence of God and not only so but also to feel the avenging Majesty of God so set and bent against you that it is impossible for you to turn your self any way but you shall still be prest and prosecuted by it For first the wrath of God is like a consuming fire by which all things are devoured and swallowed up and then in the next place you are to consider that when God goes forth to judgment he can make all the Creatures attend him to execute his Vengeance so that the reprobate shall feel the Heaven Earth and Seas and all the Creatures in them whom God upon this occasion shall make use of as his Instruments to demonstrate the fierceness of his anger all of them as it were inflamed with indignation against them and armed for their destruction wherefore it is no slight sentence which the Apostle hath pronounced against them that know not God 2 Thess 1. 9. That they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And as often as the Prophets endeavour to move our passions by corporal terrours though considering the slowness of humane nature to be moved to that which is good they cannot be thought to have any thing excessive or Hyperbolical in them so often do they usher in the judgments to come with terrifying prodigies in the Sun and Moon and in the whole course of Nature Wherefore this is the meaning of all those terrible representations of the judgment to come that the souls and consciences of the Damned find no rest but are always vexed and as it were scattered and confounded by a direful tempest they feel themselves torn and mangled by an angry God and wounded all over by deadly darts sticking in them they are afraid of his Thunder and they are broken in pieces under his heavy hand So that it would be better to be plunged into the deepest pit or to ly suffocated under the most unfathomable depth then to indure those terrours of God and of conscience for one moment of time and how much more intollerable than must it needs be to be besieged and opprest by the same terrours for ever So that this is at least Argumentum ad Hominem against Mr. Calvin for he grants that the torments of Hell as they are described in Scripture under corporeal and sensible representations are indeed nothing else but the anguish and torments of a guilty-conscience and I say that necessity and and guilt are inconsistent with each other and that if they continue in the other world to have the same opinion concerning the nature and necessity of all humane actions which they have in this it will be impossible there should be any such thing as Damnation because thâ—re can be â—o such thing as guilt But that I may not be charged with stretching Mr. Calvins words beyond what they will naturally bear though no Man without predjuce can put any other sence upon them then I have done yet thus much is confessed on all sides that this is one part of the punishment of the Damned that they are perpetually stung by the painful reflections of a Guilty mind nay this must be confessed to be a main ingredient in that eternal Calamity and this is that which all interpreters make to be the meaning of those Passages of Scripture where Hell is described by the Prophet as the Worm that never dâ—es and by our Saviour himself by Weeping and Wailing and gnashing of Teeth So that it is on all sides abundantly clear and manifest that the Calvinistical reprobation is utterly inconsistent with the nature and notion of that miserable state P. 189. There is a perpetual need of an irresistible Grace to hinder the worst of men from being worse than he is And P. 190. It is certain that all necessary agents do and must always act to the uttermost of their respective strengths and powers These two things shall be made good against Mr. Calvin in his own words in the Citations that folâ—oâ— Instit l. 2. c. 1. s 8. Speaking of Original sin he sayes Haec perversitas nunquam in nobis cessat sed novos assiduè fructus parit Ea scilicet quae antè descripsimus opera carnis viz. Adulteria scortationes furta odia caedes contentiones non secus atque incensa fornax flammam scintillas efflat aut scaturigo aquam sine fine egerit Quare qui peccatum originale definierunt carentiam justitiae originalis quam inesse nobis oportebat quanquam id totum complectuntur quod in re est non tamen satis significanter vim atque energiam ipsius expresserunt Non enim natura nostra boni tantum inops vacua est Sed malorum omnium adeo fertilis ferax ut otiosa esse non possit Qui dixerunt esse concupiscentiam non nimis alieno verbo usi sunt si modò adderetur quod minimè conceditur à plerisque quicquid in homine est ab intellectu ad voluntatem ab anima ad carnem usque hac concupiscentia inquinatum refertúmque esse Aut ut brevius absolvatur totum hominem non aliud exseipso esse quà m concupiscentiam That is this perversity
or depravation of the will in Man is never idle but is perpetually fruitful with new effects of it self such as those that have been already described Adulteryes Fornications enmities Murders and intemperance And it breaks out as naturally and as violently into such works as these as a red hot Furnace belches out Flames and sparkes or a Spring continually gushes with an endless ebullition of Water Wherefore they that have defined original sin to be the want of that original Righteousness which â—â—ght to have been in us though they do in effect comprehend the whole matter yet they have not exprest it so aptly and significantly as they should have done for the nature of Man is not only void of every thing that is good but also so fruitful and ripely pregnant with all manner of evil that it cannot sit still without doing or designing some mischief or other though it would never so fain They that say original sin is concupiscence have described it by a word which is not far from the business if they would but add further what some will be by no means be induced to allow that whatsoever is in Man whether you consider his understanding or his will his Soul or his Body or all of those together is all of it polluted and laden with this concupiscence or to sum up the whole within a shorter compass that the whole Man all over is nâ—thing else but concupiscence and lust And again in the same book c. 2. s 26. Homo verò nec id quod verè sibi bonum sit pro naturae suae immortalis excellentia ratione diligit ut id studio persequatur nec rationem adhibet in contelium nec mensium intendit sed sine ratione sine consilio naturae inclinationem instar pecudis sequitur That is man by his own reason or understanding cannot chuse that or apply himself to a prosecution after it which is best for himself and suitable to the excellence of his immortal nature He does not call reason into his Counsells neither does he bend his Mind to consider of any thing but utterly destitute of reason and of Council he follows the instincts of nature like a Beast and a little after in the same place Nihil ad probandam arbitrii libertatem facit naturale omnibus bene habendi desiderium noâ— magis scilicet quam in metallis lapidibus ad essentiae suae perfectionem inclinans affectio that is the desire of happiness which is natural to all men does not prove the liberty of the will any more than it proves the same in stones or metalls which tend by degrees by a certain affection or affectation of nature which love to be perfect in all it 's several productions from their first Principles to their just consistence and to the utmost perfection of themselves Ib. c. 3. s 13. Speaking of the good lives of some among the Heathens themselves he sayes Omnibus saeculis extiterunt aliqui qui naturâ duce ad virtutem totâ vitâ intenti essent then a little after adds Exempla igitur ista monere nos videntur ne hominis naturam in totum vitiosam pureims quòd ejus instinctu quidam non modò eximiis fac ac moribus excelluerunt sed perpetuo tenore vitae honestissimè se geserunt Sed hîc succurrere nobis debet inter illam naturae corruptionem esse nonnullum Gratiae Dei locum non quae illam purget sed intus cohibeat Nam si singulorum animos laxis habiens Dominus in libidines quaslibet exultare pâ—rmit teret nemo haud dubiè esset qui non reipsâ fidem faceret verissime in se competere omnia mala quibus universam naturam damnat Paulus Quid enim Téne eorum numero eximas quorum pedes ad sanguineÌ„ effundendum veloces manus rapinis homicidiis foedatae guttura sepulchris patentibus similia linguae fraudulentae venenata labia opera inutilia iniqua putrida let halia quorum animus sine Deo quorum intima pravitates quorum oculi ad insidias animi ad insultandum elati omnes denique partes ad infinita flagitia â—oncinnatae Si omnibus ejusmodi portentis obnoxia est unâ—quaeque anima quemadmodum audacter pronuntiat Apostolus videmus certè quid futurum sit si Dominus humanam libidinem pro suâ inclinatione vagari sinat Nulla est rabiosa bellua quae tam praecipianter feratur nullum est quamlibet rapidum ac violentum flu men cujus adeo impetuosa sit exundatio In electis suis morbos istos curat Dominus eo quem mox exponemus modo in aliis injecto fraeno duntaxat coercet tantùm ne ebulliant quatenus exped re providet ad conservandam rerum universitateÌ„ Hinc alii pudore alii legum metu retinentur ne in multa foeditatis genera prorumpanâ— utcunque suam magna expartâ— impuritateÌ„ non dissimulent alii quia honestam vivendi rationeÌ„ conducere ducant ad eam utcunque aspiraÌ„t Alii supra vulgarem sortem emergunt quo sua majestate alios contineant in Officio Ita sua providentia Deus naturae perversitatem refraenat ne in actum erumpat sed non purgat intus That is there have been some in all Ages who by the conduct of nature have followed Virtue all their lives long and these examples may be thought by some to inferr as if the nature of Man were not wholly corrupt and depraved since by the natural instinct there have been so many who have not only done many good and worthy actions but have persisted in a steady course of Virtue from one end of their lives to the other But here it is to be considered in the midst of all this natural pravity there is still room left for the Grace of God I do not mean a purging and cleansing but only a preventing and restraining Grace for if God should let the Minds of all Men loose every one to pursue every Man his own hearts desire there is no doubt but that every Man would give an experiment in himself of all those evils with which Saint Paul hath charged humane Nature For what how can you pretend to exempt your self from the number of those whose feet are swift to shed blood whose hands are foul with rapine and besmeared with slaughter whose Throats are an open Sepulcher tongues full of deceit and Lips tainted with Poison whose works are unprofitable unjust rotten and deadly whose Mind is without God whose inward parts are very wickedness whose eyes are watchful for Treachery and mischief whose Minds are puft up with insolence and Pride and all whose Members are made and fitted as it were or set on purpose to commit infinite Villanies and crimes without number end or measure and if every Soul be naturally addicted to all these monstrous impieties as the Apostle makes no bones to pronounce it is then we may know for certain what the consequence would be if God