only sufficient but inefficacious and that its Efficacy must be by the Creature I do conceive that the entring into the Covenant of Grace may be in the way of Adoration thus My God I do believe that thou delightest not in the Death of Sinners but rather that they should repent and live in thy Favour eternally who feel Sin to be a Burden and do not cleave to any known Sin but betake themselves to thee to be delivered from it and to become thy Servants trusting in thee for all things necessary for Holiness and Happiness I am sensible of the Bondage of my Sin and that I am not able to free my self from that Bondage yet I believe thou hast offered to enable me and do humbly accept thy Offer purchased through Christ the Mediator and do resign my self to be directed by thy holy Spirit in the way of Holiness to Happiness Here are all the Essentials of a Covenant God's Offer manifested to the Conscience believed and accepted wherewith the Believer as by the Offer he was called so the Call is made effectual by Justification Reconciliation Pardon Conversion Regeneration Adoption and by giving the Habits of Holiness never to be eradicated This Act of Faith is by the Apostle Paul to the Romans called the embracing the Atonement and to the Hebrews the embracing the Promises by the Apostle John the coming to Christ to be saved All the Terms of God's Offer and his enabling the Sinner to accept are at once and together and tho there be many Expressions thereof in Scripture they are not all different nor is there necessity of an express Thought of them in entering the Covenant of Grace neither is this exclusive of what other way God may take to glorify those who cannot expresly thus believe for it is not necessary for us to know it seeing the Scripture is all directed to Hearers and Believers and doth not specially reveal God's other ways of Salvation tho what was said of Children in Scripture is all to their Advantage yet nothing is specially express'd of the manner or measure of it I know not any Conception possible which could so much exalt the Justice the Mercy and the Faithfulness of God leaving nothing to the Creature to attribute any part of its Happiness to it self which could be consistent with a Covenant between God and the saved Soul which is confirmed by the whole stream of Scripture In this Act all the former Expressions in Scripture of Conversion and Regeneration are implied Yet this Objection ariseth that this Conception makes the saving Act of Faith to consist without the Habit of Faith and makes the Habit of Faith to be on God's part of the Covenant of Grace This will easily be cleared by considering that God works in and by Creatures by giving and preserving in them Inclinations which are the Principles of their Actings No considerate Man dare say that God cannot give an operative Inclination for one single Act as well as for one Species of Acts without which it were impossible to explicate his Dominion and therefore he may well give the effectual Inclination to imbrace the Offer of Conversion without giving the Habit for exerting all the Acts of Faith which is no less a Christian Vertue or Grace than Love or any other and there is nothing can more clearly difference the saving Act of Faith from being an Act of Holiness or a Work of the Law yea if any require the Accuracy of the Schools they will find there is a Disposition differenced from an Habit. This Objection doth also occur that Acceptance of an Offer is no Act of believing for which there is no ground For the Acceptance must imply the sense of a Motion to repent or return or to admit of Conversion which is an Act of the Understanding and is such an Act of Faith as is the believing the Scripture to be the Word of God but the Acceptance implies also a Trust or relying upon God that he will make good his Offer to the Person trusting This Difficulty did also offer it self to me that this way of Salvation and of the Covenant of Grace makes too much to depend upon the Creature If all that do not reject the Offer of Conversion and Holiness be elected Election is not so free as the Scripture holdeth it forth and one Creature makes it self to differ from another whereas the Scripture saith Who hath made thee to differ There is a necessity either to refuse or to choose and if there can be a middle Condition between refusing and choosing there is no Warrant to make such Difference between refusing and not refusing I thank God that hath fully cleared me in all these for as to God's Freedom in Election it is not incroached upon by his acting like himself he was under no Obligation or Necessity to have elected or recovered any of the Race of fallen Adam but to manifest the exceeding abundance of the Riches of his Grace he did freely elect all that with Congruity to his Nature were eligible rejecting none but those that would refuse his Offer and not all those but prevailing by the superabundance of his Grace against the Resistance of some of those especially upon his Kindness to their Fathers How often doth he shew Mercy to rebellious Israel remembring Abraham Isaac and Jacob his Servants tho by many Generations distant from them How much more the nearer Seed of his eminently faithful Servants and yet freely for these Fathers could not merit Happiness for themselves much less for their Children and the saying Who hath made thee to differ cannot be opposed to a Difference in a greater degree of Evil For certainly he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost makes himself so to differ from another obstinate Sinner so that it can only be meant of doing any good and holy Deed in order to Salvation That there is a middle State between accepting and rejecting any Offer is without question First Negatively by not noticing or considering it which requires no positive Act. 2. By a positive Act resolving to take it into Consideration presently or at a convenient time when there shall be most opportunity without Diversion to ponder it 3. By inventing collecting and comparing the Reasons and Motives on both parts which in the most weighty Cases may require long Time and much Deliberation 4. By Irresolution vacillating and doubting what is to be preferred And lastly by suspending the Resolution or Choice when yet there appears Reasons of Preference and therefore God saith to the Church of Thiatira of Jezebel That he gave her space to repent of her Fornications and she repented not There is nothing more clear and frequently inculcated in Scripture than the attributing of the Misery and perishing of the Wicked to their refusing the Offer of Grace or equivalent Expressions And 1. There can nothing signify more Aversion to a motioned Offer than not so much as to hear it for those who see
move So that they are forced to say that God hath made such a Connection between certain Thoughts of Spirits and certain Motions of Matter Whence all that are ingenuous come also to confess that Creatures have no Activity at all but that God alone moves Matter as the Spirit willeth it to be moved and yet that Will is universally effectual so that the Motion was never hindred but by extrinsick Force There can nothing more evidently make God pedissequous and dependent not only upon Angels and Men but also upon Devils and even in the worst of all their Actions But if created Spirits be but so called in resemblance to God as well as the Air or the animal Spirits yet cannot coexist with another Spirit or Body then they can thrust upon Matter or Matter upon them and so a Spirit in the Juncture of the Nerves can act the Body in all the ways that we perceive it to move though it had no innate Inclination never to part with that Station of the Body while it could serve it which is the only intelligible Account of the Union of the Soul and Body So that an assistent Spirit possessing the same Place can act an intire Body as an informing Spirit doth these who are possessed speak and move not only without their Will but against their Will 4. I consider then what a truly immaterial Spirit doth imply And 1 A Spirit must necessarily have Cogitation not that it is Cogitation which no Man can conceive without presupposing something that thinketh but it needs not be said that a Spirit presupposeth any thing but that it is absolute Modern Philosophers glory much in sinding a clear Distinction betwixt a Body and a Spirit that a Spirit thinketh and a Body is extended and there is nothing common to these two which indeed is very clear and not improbable But they throw all down by making a Spirit only a Thought for then pure Matter may think inasmuch as there is nothing within the whole Universe of Beings that can be supposed capable of thinking but either Spirit or Matter not Spirit if Spirit be but a Thought for a Thought doth not think therefore it would be consequent that either Matter doth think or nothing doth and yet the Idea of a Thought is as distinct from the Idea of Matter as can be and so an Act shall serve for a separable Substance and it shall be an Act without an Agent and shall act it self But it is a bolder Attempt to hold God to be but a Thought and yet it agreeth well with their Opinion that say God is the Cause of himself and by his Will preserves his Being And one hath lately too consequently said that God by his Will could annihilate himself which is blasphemous enough But I wish the Train of these Consequences would open Mens Eyes to speak more becomingly of God 5. 2. If a Spirit by its Essence must think then it must necessarily be without Parts and indivisible for if it hath Parts the Cogitation must either be in the whole or in more Parts or in one Part only If in the whole then the Separation of any Part loseth the Cogitation and so the Spirit is annihilated Nor is it conceivable how a Thought can be in many Subjects Parts are many though they cohere in one Body If in more Parts severally then there are as many Spirits as Parts in which the Cogitation is If Cogitation be but in one the rest were superfluous Matter 6. 3. A pure self-existent Spirit must be Omniscient for there can be no imaginable Reason why it knows one thing more than another 4. A self-existent thinking Spirit cannot want Capacity to determine it self and to choose 7. 5. A self-existent thinking Spirit determining it self cannot otherwise act upon Matter but by the Determination of the Will and therefore it must either be able to act nothing upon Matter or any thing and so all extrinsick Action must cease for a dependent Spirit must have far less Activity than a self-existent and independent Spirit If then it must have Capacity to act and act of it self there can be no Reason rendred why the Action should be more of one kind than of another and therefore such a Spirit must be Omnipotent but created Spirits act nothing but by Activities freely given of God and no further 8. They are not excusable though far more subtile who apprehend a Substance without Proportion far more pure than the purest Air which is beyond this sensible World so far that it is impossible to conceive how far and therefore is truly infinite in Extension which they do erroneously apprehend to be a true Body or Substance and that it is not possible but that without this sensible World there should be a real Substance seeing it is capable of real Attributes because there is found all the Dimensions of a Body when yet these also are found in a Centaur made up of a Man and a Beast which they acknowledg to have no true Existence but to be impossible and of a Shadow which we conceive to have Dimensions beside the Dimensions of that Body in which the dark Shadow is imagined to be subjected yea it hath clear Figure like unto the Body which intercepts the Light of which there may be true and certain Propositions as that the Shadow of the Head is distant from the Shadow of the Feet and that the Shadow of the Bulk is larger than either where there is a true Connection or Consequence that as the one is so is the other true supposed or imagined There is no more Reality in these imagined Spaces or of their Dimensions yet the Deception they are in doth more easily seduce their Thoughts to apprehend God under the Notion of this immense Substance which is but the Birth of the Brain They are more foolish and hateful that apprehend God under the determined bounded Figure of a Man or of any other Creature as there were a Sect of Men that not by Resemblance but in Reality did believe that God had a Body like to the Body of a Man and were therefore called Anthropomorphitae They are next unto those who though they believe not that God is corporeal or hath a Body yet will make bodily Figures to represent him as the Rays of Light in a round or triangular Figure or in such Shape of a Man as he was represented to the Apostle John in the Revelation but it is clear it was not a Representation of God simply but of the Mediator Christ who lived then and was dead and his being call'd the first and the last is an evident Demonstration of his Deity But all Mens quibbling may cease when they have had so antient an Advertisement to beware to conceive or represent God under the Shape of any thing who saith Take ye therefore good heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of Similitude on the Day that the Lord spake to you in Horeb out of
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
glorious Excellency of God in relation to a particular Creature and his Glory shining forth to the whole Creation and must produce a far greater measure of Love and Reverence which are much weakened by attributing any thing to him unworthy of him However none can justly blame me to clear my own Thoughts and raise them as high as I can and I do bless God for the increase of Love and Reverence he gives me thereby I am perswaded that the rise of most of God's Decrees and Dispensations are from the Congruity thereof to his natural Perfections as becoming and being worthy of such a Being I say it is a Congruity to his natural not to his moral Perfections for he is not just because he is true nor true because he is just nor gracious or merciful because he is just or true But when I consider what is congruous to worthy and becoming a Spirit omniscient omnipotent self-existent all-sufficient infinitely blessed free and independent and then put the Question to my self Must not such a Being be just exactly fulfilling all his Promises incouraging and rewarding the Good discouraging and punishing the Evil according to their Merit I am fully perswaded he must be such not by a fatal Necessity nor by meer Indifferency but by a voluntary and free Choice And when I further pose my self whether such a Being will only perform his Promises reward and punish according to Merit I am convinced it is congruous to him to be good bountiful gracious and merciful beyond what his Justice requires and that without any Bounds as in his Justice which precisely follows his Promise or what is congruous for him to do upon occasion of the good or evil Actions of his Creatures When I consider Whether such a Being will always express his Mind truly and never deceive I can have no doubt of it If again I consider Whether such a Being will ever choose fitted Means for all his Purposes and do nothing in vain I am assured that he is infinite in Wisdom and will do nothing in vain And lastly when I consider Whether such a Being will ever be constant in his Purpose and be unchangeable therein and in his Justice Bounty Truth and Wisdom I know he cannot change in these because they are all congruous to his unchangeable Nature By this Congruity I understand God's Holiness or Godlikeness that is that God acteth always like himself There is nothing more frequently inculcated in Scripture than Godliness and Holiness which are originally and principally attributed to God and in Analogy to his Rational Creatures it shall be the eternal Exclamation of all God's happy Creatures Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty I do not take Holiness to be as a Metaphysical Abstract from all God's Moral Perfections but that it is the precise and formal Reason why they are morally good Holiness in the Creature or Godlikeness which is the same consists chiefly in the Creatures being Godlike that is imitating the Divine Moral Perfections in being just being true prudent and constant but in other Duties of Holiness the Likeness to God is more analogical and less proper The Analogy consists in this that as God acteth always congruously to the Divine Nature so the Rational Creatures ought to act congruously to that Nature and those Principles that God hath freely imprinted in their Minds so they ought to adore God to obey him in all his Commands to trust in him and to be temperate in every thing and to subordinate Self-love to the Love of God Holiness is also taken for the Destination of things to the Service of God and separated from common Use which therefore is called Consecration I know the immediate Rule of the Creatures is the Will of God obliging them to obey not only what is congruous to the Divine Nature or to their own Nature but whatsoever positive Law or Precept God doth command tho the Matter be indifferent and that they may sufficiently be assured that he will never command any thing incongruous to himself yet it is of great use to know the difference between Moral and Positive Commands for the Glory and Amiableness of God appeareth far more in the one than in the other albeit the Positive Commands of God do indispensibly require full Obedience which is from an inbred Principle in the Mind of all Rational Creatures I am not troubled that it may be said that the Scripture Phrase is most of the Perfection of God and of his Justice Goodness Mercy and Truth for all is still mentioned as his Holiness and Godlikeness and many Cases do and may occur that we cannot so clearly refer to these particular Terms as we can know whether it be congruous for God so to do or not neither doth the Scripture express and define wherein Holiness consists but by the Expression of Godliness or Likeness to God And altho Perfection be frequently attributed to God yet Godliness is a more distinct Term for we must not explicate Godliness by Perfection or Goodness lest we should fall in the Apprehension that hath misled many that God would have shown more Goodness to have prevented all Sin and that there must be more Worlds than this at least more Species of Creatures than upon the Earth but we must explain God's Goodness with Congruity to his Nature which comprehends his Freedom whereby it is not congruous to him to communicate all the Good he can which would never terminate nor be stable but that he acteth freely and that it were impossible for us to know what Good he hath done or will do if he had not revealed it Some of the Fathers and many since have fallen into that Error that God's Goodness doth not admit that he should punish any Creature eternally and tho the Scripture says the contrary expresly they produce other places to prove that Eternity is sometimes taken for a very long Time Becomingness or Decency is vulgarly attributed to the Modes or Forms of Behaviour and so it is said by the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order which doth neither declare nor constitute that Decency as a kind of a Christian Vertue but as a Recommendation of what is expedient The Scripture maketh an express Distinction between that which is unlawful and that which is inexpedient so that kind of Decency is a part of Civility No serious Man can imagine that every undecent Gesture or Expression is a Sin Hence it may seem that the precise Nature of Holiness cannot consist in Becomingness or Congruity to the Nature of God or of Creatures which could only amuse the Vulgar who lay too much weight upon Words and Terms as if the appropriating the Name of Decency or Comeliness to the least of Civil Vertues in which there is no Speciality did import that there were not an higher degree of Decency but if Words import those of the Learned must be of the most Importance The Greeks which were the learnedst of Nations
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
when a consequent Conclusion is inferred from false Grounds But it is no deceit to express Truth for good Ends tho the Speaker may know that the Hearers will make bad use of it unless the Speaker be obliged not to suffer the Hearer to make that use Deception also may be without Words or Signs signifying Thoughts as when a tempting Object is brought unto the Sense Mind or Memory with design to tempt or seduce In all these ways God is perfectly true he never expresseth Words or Signs but such as are both conform to his Thoughts and the thing signified he never designs to deceive by any Words or Signs nor doth he tempt by these or any other Objects represented for God can neither tempt nor be tempted to Evil he may represent Objects to prove the Firmness and Faithfulness of his Creatures but with the Temptation he giveth always Strength either effectual or at least sufficient to escape He made the forbidden Fruit very pleasant to the Eye and it is like to the Smell also which being appointed a Badg of Man's Obedience to God's Will alone it could not reach the End if it were altogether indifferent but it was just and fit that it should have a contrary Excitation in the Sense which might be over-ruled by a more powerful Inclination of the Mind but requiring Attention and Diligence to keep that Principle of the Mind in remembrance thereby to over-rule the Incitation of the Sense Therefore it may warrantably be thought that the forbidden Fruit was more pleasant than any other in the Garden for it was an unsutable sign of Affection and Obedience unto God if God had forbidden the eating of the Fruit upon the one side of the Tree and allowed the eating of it on the other Circumcision and the most of the Jewish Rites were of the like nature and had all a great Contrariety to the Pleasure of Sense Yea tho God permitted Satan to tempt to the eating of the Fruit not only from the Pleasure of Sense but from a false Expectation of greater Wisdom there was a Principle in the Mind fully sufficient to resist both that God could not be envious and that there could be no Advantage to transgress his Command and therefore tho God foreknew the Event he was not nccessory to the Transgression nor put any necessity upon the Man or Woman to commit it and therefore did justly and severely punish them both nor did they even by their after-thoughts plead that the Temptation was insuperable and that they had not sufficiency of Strength to resist it tho they omitted not very insufficient Excuses There is no ground to stumble at the Prophet Jeremiah's Saying Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived nor the words of the same Prophet saying Ah! Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul which are no more than the weak Rovings of Saints in the Extasy of Trouble Such as were many of Job's Expressions and David's saying That in vain had be washed his Hands in Innocence when he saw the Prosperity of the wicked It is evident that God never said to Jerusalem Ye shall have Peace simply but if ye follow the Paths of Peace and so there was no Inconsistency with the Event that the Sword reached unto the Soul seeing they followed not the ways of Peace Neither doth the Parabolical Representation of Micah the Prophet That the Lord said Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And when a Spirit said He would go out and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets and the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Now therefore behold the Lord hath put a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets These and the like Expressions such as God's hardening Mens Hearts must be understood according to the Analogy of Faith in Consistency with the infinite Perfections of God and they are elsewhere explicated in Scripture that the wicked harden their own Hearts and that God giveth Men up who have refused the Offer and Means of Grace to follow their own Ways and unto strong Delusions to believe Lies because they received not the Truth in Love and therefore they can be attributed no other way to God than that they cannot be without his Permission and his permissive Will and Decree and his over-ruling Providence bringing Good out of Evil. Some very learned have held Truth not to be distinct from Goodness or Bounty but a Branch of it and where that is not to be used Lies may be used as well as Stratagems against Enemies If this were true it were not impossible for God to lie but Truth is a Perfection wholly distinct from Bounty and from Justice and is rather a Point of Decency How unbecoming were it and incongruous to the infinitely blessed and glorious God to express a Lie For Creatures may be blameless in expressing Words not conformed to the thing signified which is not a Lie because not disconform to their own Judgment but the Omniscient God can never use Expressions disconform to the things signified but they must also be disconform to his own Thoughts I know there are too many who to uphold their Philosophick Notions do suppose that God in the Scripture speaketh many things according to the vulgar Errors of Men and not according to the Truth of the things signified which is a gross Error derogatory to the Truth of God and to be abhorred tho there were no other evil Consequence but there be many For instance a way is thence opened to innumerable Errors which when redargued by Expressions in Scripture though they be proper and plain yet there is still an Evasion that these are but spoken according to the vulgar Error and Prepossession of Men which in some things they think evident and take the Authority to extend to the like so far as they please neither is there any Evidence or Rule in Scripture where to stop God useth figurative and parabolical Speeches but never any Falshood is spoken by the Motion of his Spirit I admired and abhorred to see a Professor of Divinity in a Treatise heap up so many places of Scripture and of so great moment as spoken by erroneous Prepossession of Men but not true and conform to the things signified which yet may easily be answered God speaketh often to Man's Capacity as to the Manner but never untrue the Matter Kings and States may infer Good from the false Prepossessions of People which they presuppose but do not assent to or approve at least should not tho they may suppress their Disapprobation Who should then imagine that God would approve false Opinions to infer true unless they were related not as his Opinions but expressed as theirs It may be doubted whether God's Truth be wholly his Moral Perfection or if partly Natural which I do not inquire out of
in this present Life he continues to overrule them by his Providence in all these Relations for in some Measure he is good to all in this Life The Providence of God useth to be handled apart by Divines as it doth not only comprehend his Dominion and Government of his rational Creatures but his Wisdom and Goodness in his Preservation Provision and Direction of every Creature towards the End which he designed I have chosen rather to consider the Wisdom and Dominion of God apart as being thereby the more able to apprehend them distinctly and clearly The Dominion of God reacheth unto all his rational Creatures even unto the damned Spirits not only as they are Executioners of his Justice against Men as he sends them out wherein tho their End be always wicked the Act it self is ever just and good so an evil Spirit from the Lord vexed King Saul when he had forsaken the Rules of his Government but these Spirits are only permitted while they tempt to Acts which no Intention can make good or indifferent but most of all God doth overrule these Spirits by restraining their Malice from tempting or troubling Men and even in the Permission of their Temptations he puts no Man under an inevitable Necessity of being overcome but those that voluntarily or habitually have rendered themselves weak whether by positive Choice or by Neglect and Inadvertence It is a needless Curiosity to enquire how God doth over-rule damned Spirits who are scarce capable of farther Punishments being already condemned and in a continual Torment of Mind nor can they expect Rewards It would be no Punishment to them to annihilate them yet they have some Diversion by compassing the Earth going to and fro therein and endeavouring to bring Men unto the like Condition with themselves and they are still capable of greater Torment and therefore they tremble Men are much more governable in this Life being far more passable than Spirits and being seldom in absolute Despair but ever capable of Rewards and Punishments and the greater they are the more are they capable Single Persons that have no near Relations are far less liable to Shame or Suffering than the Masters of Families or Rulers of States and the Noble than the Ignoble who are liable to Shame Affront and Disgrace which they regard more than their Lives There are three sorts of Men the Godly the Honest and the Prophane the Godly are governed by the Love of God which is the Principle of true Piety and Religion reaching not only to Divine Worship but even to the Acts of Honesty and their own Happiness In all which the chief Reason and Motive is the Love of God whereby they determine themselves in every thing towards his Glory and Pleasure These are governed by eternal Rewards and Punishments after this Life and by internal Rewards in the Peace of a good Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and internal Punishments in the Doubts and Disquiets of their Souls beside the other ways of Rewards and Punishments common to the rest Those that are only Honest are governed by the Love to Mankind which for that very End God hath placed in the Nature of Man whereby till they be depraved they are inclinable in every Case to do that which if it were done by all Men they would live happily And therefore the Wicked are ashamed to profess that in things in their Power they would prefer the Interest of a single Person to the Interest of their Family or the Interest of a Family to the Interest of a Nation or any of these Interests to the common Interest of Mankind Those that are prophane and wicked God overrules even by their Self-love for tho they would subordinate all things to their Selfinterest if securely they could and when with probability they can yet supposing others to be of the same Inclination their own Interest obligeth them to profess if not Piety in Hypocrisy at least common Honesty wherein God's Wisdom and Goodness is eminently seen for otherwise most Men would be as malicious and openly wicked as the damned Spirits God hath Rewards and Punishments sufficient and suted to the Condition of all Men tho their Rewards be not by exact Justice Prosperity and Peace are the common Encouragements to Good Trouble and Affliction are the common outward Punishments and more particularly Disquiet and Anguish of Spirit when the special Cause thereof is not known These are dispensed to particular Persons but the Punishments of Societies use not to be inflicted but upon atrocious common and avowed Vices for which God sendeth common Calamities as Plague Famine Inundation Sterility Shipwrack and the Destruction by ravenous Beasts which was more frequent when the World was less planted The Scripture doth frequently mention God's four sore Judgments God exciteth War about which there is no doubt when it is for just Causes and overrules it when upon unjust but rather uses the other Plagues God exercises his Dominion partly by the Law of Nature written in Man's Heart partly by Diyine Institutions revealed to Men. By the Law of Nature is the Government of Parents over their Children by the natural Affection of the Parents to the Children whereby they take Pleasure to preserve direct and provide for them and by the natural Affection of the Children to reverence and obey their Parents which Affections arise in both from their belief of these Relations even where they are mistaken and by the Law of Nature the Contracts and Pactions of Parties to govern and to obey as between Masters and Servants between Rulers and Subjects for the Force of these Pactions is by the Law written in Man's Heart by which his Conscience convinces him that he is obliged to perform God exerciseth his Dominion not only by the Laws of Nature but by positive Laws and Institutions which are not known by the Light of Nature but by Revelation such is the Government of the Husband over the Wife by the Divine Institution of Marriage and the Government of Common Wealths by God's Institution of a publick Judgment to order and determine all Controversies concerning such as should unite themselves in Civil Societies The former was propagated by an universal Tradition to all Nations from Adam till the Flood and from Noab and his Posterity after the Flood But Civil Government was only instituted after the Flood when Mens Lives became short God allowed the Fathers of Families to unite themselves and their Families into Civil Societies and to transmit the Power and Burden of the Government of their Families in most things upon the Governours of those Societies So that tho there be mutual Pactions in Marriage and Government yet the Essentials of both are by Divine Institution which cannot lawfully be altered Persons may choose whether they will marry or not and with whom but the Degrees within which they may marry are instituted The Power of the Husband and the Indurance and Dissolution of the Marriage are instituted