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
laboured but one Hour as to those that laboured a whole Day saying Why are you evil because I am good Is it not free for me to do with my own what I please But the Folly of this Pretence I see further cleared that it was not possible to evade it for though he should have made a Million of Worlds and far more perfect than this yet still he could have made more and more perfect otherwise his Omnipotence had been exhausted and his Power as well as his Freedom behov'd to cease Besides that Revelation shows the Design of glorifying Man by the Mediator Christ. It had been exceedingly unsutable to his Merit that a Part of glorified Men should have owed nothing to him and so he ought either to have suffered in every Habitation of Mankind or they ought all to be in one Habitation and of one Nature and Blood of both which he was Partaker My Design is to clear up to my self the Divine Perfections and thence to exalt the Loveliness of God and to vindicate the same against these and other Errors and Mistakes by methodical Meditations thereupon according to the natural Order of the Divine Perfections which Order doth very much contribute to distinct Conceptions of them all The Divine Perfections are either natural and absolutely necessary or voluntary free and moral And though they be without all Composition in the fullest Simplicity yet they must necessarily be conceived by Creatures as some being prior and others being posterior in order of Nature the Divine Dispensations must be posterior even in time to his Purposes or Decrees his Decrees being free must presuppose his Freedom and his Will and these must presuppose his Understanding and Wisdom and all must be conceived as into or from a Subject to which they are relative His moral Perfections must relate to his natural Perfections as being prior in order of Nature that he intends and acts all things sutable to worthy of and becoming such natural Perfections and therefore the best Method in meditating upon them is by following their natural Order MEDITATION II. Upon God's being a Spirit 1. GOD's being a Spirit is the only Attribute of God that presupposeth nothing anterior Being a Spirit is the Subject of all the Divine Attributes for the being God doth essentially comprehend all God's Self-existence importeth something that is Self-existent which is his being a Spirit so doth his Independance his Knowledg his Will his Freedom All run up to bring us to consider him as a Spirit We must not consider the Divine Attributes as different Parts of the Divine Nature which were inconsistent with a Spirit which is without all Parts Extension or Composition so that God is altogether Immaterial hath none of the Properties of a Body in whom there is neither Matter nor Form Parts essential or integral which is an incommunicable Property of God It is also incommunicable that there are no Accidents in him he acteth all Things immediately without a superadded Power or Capacity of which no Creature is capable For it 's inconceivable that one Creature should act one way and another another way without superadded Powers freely given of God for if any Creature acted in that it is a Creature or as a Creature then all Creatures behoved so to act or if it act as a Substance a Spirit or a Body then all Spirits all Bodies behoved so to act 2. God's acting without a superadded Power without any accession to his Substance is his incommunicable Perfection implied in all his Divine Perfections neither doth it follow that other Spirits must so act as Angels or the Souls of Men for they are only analogous Spirits by resemblance there is no synonymous degree of Nature common to Finite and Infinite God and Creatures othertherwise that Inference were inevitable Substance and Ens are but abstracted metaphysical Notions and there are no Individuals immediate to these as there are in Man and to the several Species of Brutes Some to avoid this difficulty have supposed the Angels not to be pure Spirits but to have aerial or aetherial Bodies so thin as to be insensible and that pass through the Pores of all solid Bodies which the Air cannot do but then the separate Souls of Men should be pure Spirits yet some have thought that even then they have aerial or aetherial Bodies but certainly the Angels and Souls of Men by the Power of God were separable from such Bodies and yet active and so the immediate actings of God as a Spirit should be competent to these Spirits I know no other way to extricate that Difficulty but that there is nothing purely Spirit but God and therefore Angels and Souls tho they have not Extension and Bulk as Bodies yet they have not that Property that they can co-exist with any other created Substance in the same space so that the Essence of a Body consisteth not in Impenetrability but in Extension and God alone can co-exist with all created Substances This is much confirmed by the chief and most express place in Seripture where God is said to be a Spirit John 4. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which tho it be rendered God is a Spirit the Words are a Spirit the God And in Scripture Indefinits are equivalent to Universals This way of expression is not to be supposed an accidental Conversion without a very convincing Reason neither is there in it a Copulative but the words are placed as two Synonyma a Spirit and God being one thing The Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not import that God is the Subject and a Spirit is the Attribute but a true Spirit is the God excluding all false Gods and others that are by participation called Gods as in the demonstration of the true God by Elijah the People being fully convinced cry out Jehovah is the God that is the only God The Name of God is comprehensive of all his Perfections from which that conception or Idea doth arise so that it would not be eminently significant to say that Being that hath all possible Perfection is a Spirit but rather a true Spirit must have in it all Perfections and there is nothing in the Attributes of God presupposed to being a Spirit of which a Spirit should be an Attribute but a Spirit is that which in our Conception doth only represent a Substance and therefore the natural Order of this highest Expression is as in the Original a Spirit the God The same is confirmed 2 Cor. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord is the Spirit importing not only that God is a Spirit but that he is the Spirit that is the only Spirit In this I am further confirmed considering that all Philosophers are at a loss to give any rational Account how a Spirit moveth Matter or how Matter acteth upon a Spirit seeing all agree that the efficacious Fiat is proper to God alone and therefore a Spirit cannot move Matter by willing it to
natural Affection would incline to the forbidden Fruit tho it might easily have been overcome by minding Gratitude to God who did forbid it and the Penalty of the Breach of that Command Therefore the Choice of eating the forbidden Fruit was with Inclination but the Choice of forbearing it had been against the Inclination of the sensible but with the Inclination of the rational Appetite Before the Fall Adam had the Scales of Good and Evil superable but after the Weight of Sin made it insuperable to him and to all his sinful Posterity till they were restored by Grace then the Inclination became superable but the Choice of Good is ordinary contrary Inclination yet there is still in things meerly indifferent a Liberty of Indifferency but in the State of Glory there shall be always a Choice of Inclination which through the Grace and Power of God shall never alter There is no small Contention among different Perswasions concerning the Freedom of Men whether in Mortality they have any Freedom and in what Subject it resides whether in the Understanding the Will or the Affections Some will have Man to have a Freedom in all things and that it is essential to the Will that God cannot determine it by infusing any Habit or Inclination but by Perswasion which it may effectually resist and reject Others attribute a Freedom to Man in indifferent things and in the choice of one Sin rather than another and in the forbearing or not forbearing a particular Act of Sin but that before Grace supervening there is a moral Impossibility of doing any good and holy Work and never a Freedom against the Divine Influence which may be sufficiently proved by Reason and Revelation but it is not proper here to be debated All do agree that a Man is not fully free as to his outward Acts which are liable to Restraint and Constraint and there is thence no small Influence on the inward Acts for thereby Self-love excludes the thoughts of these Motives which are opposite to Force in doubtful things but in things evident and certain no extrinsick Force can alter or hinder the inward Impressions or Acts but the more a Man is constrained or restrained the opposite Desire is the stronger tho outward Dissimulation be procured Then comes the Question In what inward Faculty or Power Liberty resides Some place it in the Affections when they become pliable to the Will some in the Will only without Dependance on the Understanding but that the Will commands the Understanding if not what to judg at least when to judg or think Others place it in the Will with Subordination to the last Judgment determining that it 's now fit to act or forbear But where there can be no real or imaginable Difference the Mind doth not by a positive Act suspend its Choice but privatively cannot choose because there can be no Judgment of Preference but that which appeareth indifferent may with more Attention and Meditation appear not indifferent Some also place Liberty all in the Understanding yea some apprehend the Will to be nothing different from the last Act of the Understanding determining what is fit to be chosen done or forborn at the time of the Resolution I need not now insist in discussing these but I conceive the Enumeration is not full for there are some Acts which are neither from a Power in the Understanding Will or sensible Appetite but are immediately subjected in the Soul or Spirit as Pleasure Grief or Pain which result from the Perception of certain Objects and are not the Acts but the Objects of the Understanding Will and Appetites yet certainly are Acts of the Soul such are all the Acts which the School-men call actus suppositi and therefore a Man is only simply free when he is neither outwardly nor inwardly overpowered and yet that Freedom can neither be an Act of his Understanding or Appetite for these being unchanged outward Force may hinder his Freedom The Understanding is a contemplative but not an active Power The Will or Appetite cannot compare and so cannot prefer one thing to another but the Spirit by the Understanding perceives and compares and the Spirit chooseth by the Will for it understands by the Understanding and wills by the Will The Will of Creatures hath no Activity without it self and cannot suspend the Judgment unless the Judgment be unclear and suspend it self in not concluding what is best to do or forbear yet may it determine what is best to profess or to prosecute by Meditation or by Action I shall now return to the Freedom of God which can no otherwise be known but by Revelation or by Reason from his Works Hence it is evident that God doth not act all that he could by his absolute and infinite Power for then there should be continual and infinite Alterations of all Creatures new Worlds should be every moment created and those that were created annihilated new Kinds new Individuals new Perfections should be continually multiplied and destroyed Therefore God doth not act by an intrinsick Necessity but determines the Effects of his own Omnipotence This may confute their vain Curiosity who enquire why God did not sooner create the World Why he created but one World Why no more Kinds no more Individuals no more Perfections And thence are brought to conjecture that there must be more Men than are upon this little Clod of Earth not descending from Adam and it may be not by Generation yet in other things like to us which may be without Sin as the Angels and live upon the Moon or other dark Planets like the Earth yet still Millions of these would have no Proportion to the Infinite Power of God therefore Creation must be an Act of God's Freedom of Indifferency and so must be the Life and Endurance of the brute and inanimate Creatures and there is no Parity in God's acting in these and in the Acts of his Justice and of his other Moral Perfections They are more brutish that imagine any Creature to have had its Being from God by Necessity or Emanation as many have thought the World to have so been eternally from God which would also import that God hath not Power to create more than he hath created or less than he hath created which some have been so absurd as to imagine besides those that quibble upon the Impossibility of any other thing in respect of the Decrees Seeing God executeth all his Decrees by his sole Will his Will must be necessarily distinct from his Omniscience or any Act of his Judgment in which he differs from all Creatures whose Will alone hath no extrinsick Operation God's Freedom in the Acts of his Moral Perfections are not by Indifferency but commonly by Inclination and yet are free from absolute Necessity albeit not from conditional Necessity or necessary Consequence for so whatsoever is acted while it is acting is necessarily acted not simply but conditionally because it cannot be both acted and
would not have omitted to plead that when he pleaded fo weak a ground as the Invitation of his Wife not that he spared the Soveraignty of God for he insinuates a too harsh Reflection against God not only blaming the Woman but that she was given of God It was a farther degree of the Bounty of God that he had given a mutual Affection between Angels and Men that their Converse was both profitable and pleasant By these Principles that God gave Man he was not only innocent without Vice or Sin but he was holy and morally good till he fell from his Integrity by disobeying God and brought Sin into the World if he then being innocent became sinful tho he was ripe in his Capacities so soon as he was created and had the Love of God awakned in him in so high a degree having freshly received so great and so high Favours of God how much more capable behoved his Posterity to be of Defection that were to be born and live so long an animal Life unless God had given him a Promise or declared unto him a Purpose to confirm him and his Posterity if he had continued to give Proof of his Obedience in his innocent fallible State as it is commonly believed that the elect Angels were confirmed The Bounty of God doth yet further manifest it self in giving Man the Dominion of all the Creatures in this inferior World not peculiarly to Adam as if all Right of the Creatures had been to be derived from him but God gave Right to subdue and possess them which could not be done by Adam but by Mankind and therefore the first Title of Right was the Possession of that which was void and possessed by none and the Fruits thereof not only the Profit but the Pleasure of the Creatures was given chiefly to Man The variety of Shapes and Colours of Animals Trees Herbs and Fruits the beautiful Verdure of Trees and Herbs the various Painture of the Fruits of Trees of the Flowers and Blossoms of Plants and of the Feathers of Birds were of little use to themselves but of much use to Man by an innocent Pleasure arising from the Sight of them leading to the Admiration of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God their Author In which I doubt not that the Angels are Sharers so that it was not in vain that the Earth brought forth all these things tho for a long time Man possessed but a small part of it for the Wisdom of God could have so ordered that the Seeds disseminate in Earth and Waters should only spring as Man had use of them It does not diminish the Bounty of God that there is a great Inequality in the Perfections of these Creatures and that some of them bred Horror and Hurt unto Man because they set off the Lustre of the rest which otherwise would be less valued if we never had Darkness we would little value Light The hurtful Creatures are Instruments of God's Justice and none of them want their peculiar Vertues It is also the Goodness of God that the Discovery of the Natures of the Creatures and all experimental Knowledg hath proceeded from the beginning and shall to the end encrease that there might never be wanting a sutable Exercise Diversion and Delight to the more ingenious and inquiring Men. The Sun the Moon and Stars and all their Courses and Motions are designed to manifest to Angels but chiefly to Men the Majesty and Glory of the Omnipotent Creator and for the Pleasure and Profit of Men. It is a general Effect of the Bounty of God that he preserveth all these things in their Existence Power Vigor and Action but more particularly he preserves Man and Beast in over-ruling their Inclinations whereby they shun those things that might destroy them and attain those that may preserve them Without God's Preservation no Creature could subsist nor have any Activity For in him we live and move and have our Being God needs no positive Act to destroy any Creature if he withdraw his Support they would return into nothing out of which they came Yet I do not think that Preservation is a continual Creation otherwise God should create the Souls of the wicked full of actual Wickedness and even the damned Spirits in all their Malice I know not how this Difficulty could be shunned by any but those who think that Accidents can subsist being separate from Subjects or transmitted from one Subject to another Nor could the same Individual be continued but as every moment one is created another behoved to be annihilated so that all Creatures were deceived of themselves and all others thinking they were the same and yet they were an innumerable Multitude of in-coexisting Individuals Preservation is more properly expressed by a continued Support as Creation is an Elevation to Existence from nothing Preservation is the Support from receding into nothing a thing supported will certainly fall if the Support be removed The Bounty of God is crowned by God's Government of the World especially of Angels and Men How unhappy should Man be if they had an Epicurean God that were not concerned in the Actings of Men leaving them wholly to themselves The Goodness of God extends it self not only to the Natural Capacities of Men but to supernatural Powers as the Gift of Prophecy of Language not learned and the Interpretation thereof and of other miraculous Works which in distinction from saving Graces are called Gifts These are the Graces whereby God gives the supernatural Faculties of the Regenerate in Conversion or doth encrease the same thereafter yet that Term is otherwise taken and is extended to a graceful Countenance or Deportment making the Person having it to have a special kind of Amiableness for it is not every Beauty or Comeliness that is esteemed Gracefulness but that which shews a Nobleness or Excellency of Mind which therefore is very sutable to Princes and is frequently attributed to them without sufficient Ground The highest degree of this Gracefulness is called Majesty appropriated to Kings yea every signal Favour having eminent Effects is called Grace whence ariseth the distinction of Gratia gratis data and Gratia gratum faciens upon both accounts the Capacities given in Conversion are called Graces being freely given of the greatest Import and making the Receivers acceptable and lovely to God and it is chiefly in respect of these that he takes the Title of Most Gracious God and thereby also the Converted are called Gracious MEDITATION XIII Upon the Truth of God NExt unto the Goodness of God is his Truth Nothing can be more evident than that it is most congruous to and becoming the Divine Nature to be true nor could any thing more inconsistent be imagined than lying or deceiving in God The Truth of God is the first Ground-stone of his Creatures Happiness and if it were not sure it were impossible to know that they were not in all things deluded even in the concurring Testimonies of Sense
Curiosity but thereby to know what is the Moral Duty of Men as to Truth which is a part of God's Image and to be regulated according to the Divine Pattern The Conformity of God's Thoughts to things extrinsick is rather to be understood a Conformity of these things to God's Thoughts than of his Thoughts to these things as the Impression is conform to the Seal not the Seal to the Impression A Conformity to any thing imports a Priority and Preference of that to which the other is conform yet there is a likeness betwixt both and therefore the Truth of God's Thoughts is better expressed by a Conformity with things than to things Yet God's Thoughts are conform to his Natural Perfections which in the Order of Nature are prior to his Thoughts of them but his voluntary or moral Perfections are in the Order of Nature posterior to his Thoughts for he chooses them because he knows them to be congruous to his Natural Perfections as being comprehended in his Godlikeness or Holiness The Truth of God's Thoughts is incommunicable to Creatures whose Thoughts are only true because conform to the things thought of Therefore the Truth of God's Thoughts as to the things signified is Natural not a Moral Perfection more than is his Knowledg or his Will Whence I conceive the Conformity of Creatures Thoughts to Things is a Natural not a Moral Perfection and therefore Errors in them are not simply by that Disconformity Sins For I know no ground to believe that the Angels are not capable of Mistakes of Things not necessary to be known or believed but erroneous Thoughts are only sinful by a supervening Command to have such Thoughts as are necessary for Holiness and so Mens Thoughts contrary to the Divine Perfections and contrary to the Dependence and Duty of Creatures are not only false but injurious Inadvertance or Mistake in this Point hath bred many sharp Debates and Divisions among the more Judicious and much Disquiet to the Godly of lesser Capacity apprehending every Error in their Judgment to be a Sin wherein they have stumbled much upon the frequent Expressions in Scripture containing so high Elogies of the Truth for which weare bidden to contend not adverting that by the Truth is not meant every Truth but the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of Excellency the Truth which makes us free which surely is not every Truth but the Truths requisite for Holiness and Happiness I am perswaded there are no Errors so pernicious as those which give an unamiable Aspect of God and his Divine Perfections hindering or abating the Admiration Delight and Trust in him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure The Truth of God is oft-times attributed to the Performances of his Promises as it is also unto the Promises of Creatures but the Obligement to Performance doth not depend upon the Truth of the Promise but from Justice arising from the Promise made which obligeth tho there were not a Purpose to perform yet there is a Truth in Promises when they are conform to the Thoughts and Purpose to do as they say who make them I adore and bless thee O God of Truth whose Expressions can never be disconform to thy Thoughts or to the things expressed who never canst delude or deceive thy Rational Creatures not by any fatal Necessity but because with unalterable Certainty as sure as the strongest Necessity thou wilt ever be true and sincere and fore I may safely and securely rest upon all that thou hast proposed purposed or promised for Heaven and Earth may pass away but one Iota of thy blessed Will shall never pass unfulfilled I know there have been great Thoughts of Heart upon God's general Commands Perswasions and Expostulations to Faith and Holiness how these could be sincere when God knew that they would not be effectual and that it was not in the Creatures Power to make them effectual which is not proper to be cleared here but will be clear by the right understanding of the Oeconomy of God's Dispensations towards Men. I shall only now say that a Physician may sincerely intreat and expostulate with a Patient to admit of a Cure for a Wound otherwise incurable which he wilfully refuses to admit tho he knew that the Patient himself is not able to cure himself and that no other Physician can come in time to do it Nor do I think that ever God did send his Gospel to a People where he knew that all would be absolute Rejecters of it or of the Offers made in it MEDITATION XIV Upon the Justice of God BEside that Goodness of God which is absolute and boundless presupposing nothing in Creatures as the Consideration or special Occasion of it I perceive there is a Goodness of God which hath a special occasion in his Creatures and keeps an exact Proportion with the Actings of Rational Creatures which is the Goodness of Remuneration or Reward which is essentially different from the former and is remunerative Justice which cannot be distinctly understood alone without considering the punitive Justice of God and therefore I apply my Thoughts to the Justice of God which in the natural Order falls nearest to his Goodness and Truth For Mercy presupposeth Misery incurr'd by Justice and Faithfulness is the ultimate Attribute relative to Rational Creatures Wisdom and Dominion reach all Creatures Nothing is more necessary to Rational Creatures than the distinct Knowledg of God's Justice which is the Pattern of their own Justice and is necessary to have right Affections towards God I may doubt or be ignorant of some Acts of the Divine Dispensations that have natural Evil in them whether they be Acts of Goodness or not or whether Acts of Soveraignty or not without Blame but I am sure they cannot be without Justice I doubt not but the damned Spirits are convinced of God's Justice in their own Damnation their Temptation was not about the Justice but the Goodness of God they were not content with nor abode in the Station wherein God placed them Satan did on the same ground tempt Adam as if God envied Man's Good by hindering him to eat that Fruit that would make him wise like God I know not whether the inbred Principle of God's Mercy was in Man before the Fall but I doubt nothing that it was in all Mankind after There is a greater Indifferency in God in giving Mercy than in doing Justice He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy he never said so of Justice he hath acknowledged himself Debtor and obliged by Justice Mercy is of the most eminent Bounty which not only punisheth not where Punishment is deserved but provides a Mediator to satisfy Justice Justice is diversly understood sometimes for all the Acts of Godliness and Morality even for some Acts indifferent as when any exact that which is due to them they are said to do justly tho more properly that they do not unjustly for they are not always obliged to exact what is
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
and diligent heed to keep all his Goodness and all his Perfections ever in remembrance left they should be perverted by Satan Self-love and Sensual Pleasure The Terms of the Covenant of Grace are much more fully represented in the Scripture than was the Covenant of Works The Covenant of Grace was first published to Adam and Eve after their Fall in these Words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent Where by the Serpent is understood Satan who under the appearance of a Serpent deluded them and by the Seed of the Woman is meant the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace who is to bruise that Serpent's Head and to deliver from the Power thereof such as should obtain the Benefit of the Covenant of Grace which for my more distinct understanding I do conceive as if it had been more fully exprest and as if God after the Fall had said to our first Parents thus I made a Covenant with you for your selves and your Posterity that if you continued innocent during the time of your Trial I would have given you supernatural Grace whereby you should never sin but should be eternally Happy I gave you sufficient natural Capacity to fulfil that Covenant but you have distrusted my Kindness and have believed an Apostate Spirit and therefore have lost to your selves and your Posterity the Benefit of that Covenant without being in any necessity to break it by my Decrees or Dispensations I might justly cut you off without having any Posterity or might leave you and them to follow your own ways and I will no more make a Covenant with you for them but I will raise up a second Adam who shall take upon him your Nature and be like you in all things Sin only excepted who will be for ever Innocent and Holy and so not only perform that which by the former Covenant you might have performed but will submit himself to Sufferings for you and your Posterity of greater value than if you had all suffered eternally the just Reward of your Sins And for his Sake I do offer you and will offer to all your Posterity who shall be capable to know an offer of Mercy and Grace that I will make you new Creatures enduing you with supernatural Powers and Inclinations making you Holy and Happy and will not suffer you to continue in Sin if you be not so addicted to your Sins as to reject my Offer to make you Holy and therefore I will continue with you and your Posterity the Light and Law of Nature written in your Hearts whereby you may know Sin the Transgression of it and that you may know that there is Mercy for the Penitent and none for the malicious while obstinate Sinner whereby you may also know that if you repent and betrust your selves to my Mercy and Conduct that I will make you Holy and Happy And albeit neither you have nor will they have Ability to repent and trust yet with the Offer I will give Strength to perform these Acts if the Offer be not rejected and will bring them to the Means of Grace to follow out the same This Offer becomes a Covenant by acceptance thereof the Accepters betrusting themselves to God's Grace and Direction by his Word and Spirit trusting to obtain Pardon of all Sin and of Excitation to Repentance for obtaining of it and for obtaining eternal Happiness by infusing the Habits of Grace here and perfecting them in Glory hereafter in the beatifick Visions of God's Perfections and the shining of his Face for ever without fear of Sin or falling from that happy State I do conceive that in this Representation all the Requisites of a Covenant are comprehended For the Difference between a Covenant and any other Favour done or promised whether absolute or conditional is no Covenant albeit there may be therein mutual Prestations required but this is special in an Offer that it hath no Obligation till it be accepted whereby the Accepters become obliged to perform the mutual Prestations on their Part. God making the general Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation to Sinners if they repent and betrust themselves to him for all things necessary for their Happiness for even the natural Conscience of all Men of Discretion is capable to know and represent to them that God is Just and will punish obstinate Sinners and yet is merciful to penitent Sinners throwing themselves upon him tho without Revelation they cannot know how a just God can pardon Sin without Satisfaction to his Justice but the same is manifested by the Gospel as by the first Adam all his Posterity were capable of Happiness if they sinned not so now by the second Adam all are again capable of Happiness upon far easier Terms of Repentance and Faith and even these performed by supernatural Grace If Adam or his Posterity had the making of the Covenants of Grace they could not without Impudence make them larger for there could be no more added but that even all the obstinately Wicked and Impenitent should enjoy the Pleasure of their Lusts on Earth and thereafter the Joys of Heaven so that I do and all considering Persons might cry out with the Apostle O the Height the Breadth the Length the Depth of the Love of God! And yet his electing Love is even larger than this Offer for albeit it be inconsistent with his immaculate Holiness to make any happy whom he doth not first make holy yet some Rejecters he maketh holy and happy pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire which maketh none of the obstinate and rejecting Sinners excusable who continue to refuse to be made holy and tho they may deceive themselves thinking they would be willing to be holy yet while they are addicted to their Sins in reality their Will is not to quit them In my most serious Thoughts I can perceive nothing in this Conception of God's Covenants with Men that is impossible inconsistent with or incongruous to any of the Divine Perfections but highly illustrating them all and becoming the Majesty and Glory of God as the King and Ruler of his rational Creatures as to their eternal State Thereby he shews himself to be the most excellent King not only in a just Distribution of Rewards and Punishments but in great Goodness providing all things requisite that might have made them all happy without making any one miserable but by their own particular Fault Thereby also his great Wisdom is manifested designing or doing nothing in vain but ever choosing fit Means for the best Ends whereby his Mercy doth eminently appear that even against Merit he gives Grace and Glory to those Creatures of whom he had no need and who had willingly and ungratefully offended and injured him that he hath left nothing undone that could consist with his Domion his Wisdom his Purity and Holiness to extend his Goodness to his rational Creatures He doth not only govern the Elect towards their Happiness after their Conversion
of Children from the Covenant of Grace yet the Covenant of Grace is one for all the Son having covenanted from Eternity for all the Elect to bring them into the Covenant of Grace by Regeneration exerted according to their Capacity by actual believing of those who are capable so to act which also is an Evidence that the Act of Faith is not saving by any thing absolutely necessary in it self but by the free Choice and Institution of God The third Point proposed is what Act of Faith that is by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace and which is their Part of the Covenant Many hold it to be a Perswasion of the covenanting Person that Christ died for him whereby it must be an Act of the Understanding but I see not how that can hold for covenanting must be by an Act of the Will promising or otherwise performing the Covenanter's Part which is oftentimes in the one Party no more than an Acceptance as in a Trust or Commission the one Party gives the Trust or Commission which doth make no Covenant but an Offer but when the other Party accepts then the Contract is compleat and the Accepter is thereby bound to follow the Trust and Commission and make an Account and the Giver is obliged to refund the Expences Albeit Contracts be by mutual Consent and that Consent signifies to have the same Thought yet Agreement in one Mind makes no more a Covenant than when two are of one Opinion in Contemplation but a Covenant is ever somewhat practicable and therefore tho Acts of Understanding precede the Covenant it self is by Acts of the Will The Description of saving Faith by Perswasion is but by a Consequent which ought to be endeavoured by all yet is not attained by all for many are in the Covenant of Grace that come not the Length of Perswasion that Christ died effectually for them and that thereby they are reconciled to God and shall be saved for tho they were perswaded that Christ died for all and every Man that would import nothing to saving Faith for it were much more evident that the Effect of Christ's Death for all Men were not the same seeing so many trample under Foot the Blood of the Covenant and so few are saved Therefore no Man hath just Ground to be perswaded that Christ died effectually for him or with Intention to make him holy and happy or any further than to put him in a Condition to be holy and happy if he himself did not hinder it Therefore tho believing in Christ were not only proposed to all but imposed on all as a Duty yet it is only a Duty in the Order God hath imposed it to wit that all Men should consider their sinful natural Estate and that the just Reward of Sin would be eternal Death without Repentance which none could escape who cleaved to any kind of Sin and hated to be reformed and that therefore they should be willing and endeavour to be reformed and use the Means appointed by God for that End and should throw themselves upon God's Mercy through Christ's Merit if thereby they found that the delighting in Sin in those Kinds especially which did most easily beset them did cease and that the Love to and Delight in God did in some measure take Place But to think to reach the highest Step of the Scale per Saltum were altogether without warrant unless it were extraordinary as in Paul's Conversion Paul to the Romans gives the true Warrants of that Perswasion As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ. Hence it is evident how little Moment is in that Arminian Quibble so much magnified by them that Christ must have died for all Men because all Men are bound to believe he died for them We must therefore yet enquire the particular Convenanting Act of Faith which being so necessary is many Ways expressed and set forth in Scripture that it may be reached by several Capacities it is called a Looking to Christ for Salvation Look unto me all ye Ends of the Earth and be saved A turning to God Turn ye turn ye for why will you die O House of Israel A coming to Christ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest to your Souls And to the Refractory it is said Ye will not come to me that ye may have Life A drawing near to God Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you An answering of God's Call Thou saidst Seek ye my Face my Heart answered Thy Face Lord will I seek hide not thy Face from me A receiving of Christ He came to his own but his own received him not but to all that did receive him he gave Power to become the Sons of God So then the saving Act of Faith must imply all these not that he who entereth in the Covenant must have expresly all these Acts but that the Act he must have must imply and import them all and be virtually as much as they all The Spirit of God in this Branch of the Covenant of Grace does not proceed in one way with all the Elect As the Wind moveth whither it listeth and no Man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is the Spirit of God Some are chased in by the Thundrings and Terrors of the Law running as a pursued Man to a Rock a Fortress a Tower or a Strength or as in the hazard of Shipwrack running into an Harbour As those who by Peter's Sermon convincing the Jews that they had denied the Holy One and the Just and had killed the Prince of Life Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their Hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do And God opened their Ears and their Hearts to receive Instruction But God gaineth others by the sweet and still Voice of the Gospel alluring their Hearts to trust in his Mercy and Faithfulness as being so gracious that he delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that they should repent and live that he will not disappoint those who becomingly trust in him He sometimes begins with the Light of Nature to lead in the revealed Light of the Gospel as Paul dealt with the Athenians and saith to Timothy God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind With some the Spirit proceeds by degrees giving a Spirit of Bondage to fear before the Spirit of Adoption as Paul saith We have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but we received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba
no probability of imbracing may yet hear Communing and Reasons So it is said This evil People which refuseth to hear my Words tho I have caused to cleave unto me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah saith the Lord that they might be unto me for a People and for a Praise and for a Glory but they would not hear They are turned back to the Iniquity of their Fore-fathers who refused to hear my Words They refused to hearken and pulled away their Shoulder and stopped their Ear that they should not hear Yea they made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law therefore as I cried and they would not hear so they cried and I will not hear saith the Lord of Hosts If they escaped not who refused him who spake on Earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven And as they rejected to hear the Word of God so they rejected the Counsel of God and they rejected his Statutes and Covenants that he made with their Fathers Behold I will bring Evil upon this People even the fruit of their Thoughts because they have not hearkened unto my Words nor to my Law but rejected it They have refused my Judgments and my Statutes Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I even I am against thee and will execute Judgment in the midst of thee And the Lord said unto Moses How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws As they refused to hear so they refused to know through Deceit they refused to know me saith the Lord. They refused to obey neither were they mindful of thy Wonders that thou didst among them but hardened their Necks They do also refuse to come to God to be saved Ye will not come saith Christ to me that ye may be saved Which is more than a meer Negative for it is not a willing to come but a willing not to come They hold fast Deceit they refuse to return no Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Every one turneth into his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth Wherefore bath the Lord done this unto this great City then they shall answer because they have forsaken the Covenants of the Lord their God they and our Fathers dealt proudly hardned their Necks and hearkened not to thy Commandments They hardned their Necks they did worse than their Fathers This is a Nation that obeyeth not the Voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth Correction Behold I will bring upon this City and upon all her Towns all the Evil that I have pronounced against it because they have hardned their Necks that they might not hear my Words Exhort one another while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin To day if you will hear his Voice barden not your Hearts By these it is sufficiently evident that God's hardening Mens Hearts is but by permission Yea God saith of Israel That they would have none of me But there is no place more apposite and clear than that of the Psalmist unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy Mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Word behind thee They hated to be reformed The Soul of the wicked cleaveth to his abominable Things and it is said of Jehoram that he cleaved to the Sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat And Job saith of himself If my Blot hath cleaved to my Hands then let me sow and let another reap And it is said of Ephraim He is joined to Idols let him alone By which and by all the former places and many more the not being brought into the Covenant is attributed to the positive Acts of Sinners against the Offer of Grace and Means of it whether by neglecting so great a Salvation by refusing or rejecting the Offer of it but chiefly by contemning and despising of it therefore it is said Behold you Despisers and wonder and perish Christ explaining the Parable of the Sower and why it is so much ineffectual shows the Cause to be That their Eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Hearts and should be converted and I should heal them Where they are active in closing their Eyes but not in converting themselves but therein they are passive that they should be converted and Christ active that I should heal them God Almighty convincing Job's Mistakes by a lively Voice vindicateth not only his Power but his Bounty and Justice saying He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his Ways The fourth Point proposed was Whether the saving Act of Faith be only one individual Act or if it require a Course or Continuation of the same or the like Acts or a Reiteration thereof as to which I am perswaded it must be one single Act receiving imbracing accepting or assenting to the Spirit 's inward Call to be willing to be converted from the Bondage of Sin and from the Power of Satan unto the Life and Liberty of the Children of God which are the express Terms of the Commission to the Ministers of the Gospel who can only give an outward Call and there may be also an inward Call by the Conscience both which may be resisted and refused and in relation to these Calls many are called but few are chosen If the saving Act of Faith required a long Continuance or Reiteration the Covenant of Grace could never be compleat till all these were performed So that it behoved either to be but a conditional Covenant which cannot consist with the Omniscience of God the very nature of a Condition requiring Uncertainty or otherways no Man could be in the Covenant of Grace till his last Breath It is true through the Ignorance or Doubtfulness of Believers they frequently renew their Desire and Trust to be converted thinking that they are but then to enter into the Covenant of Grace But if they knew they were in it it were not only a Folly but a Fault to desire that to be which already is When the Soul saith Draw me and I will run after thee Convert me and I shall be converted it doth import that it is not able to convert it self but that God is able nor doth it imply that as yet it is willing to be converted which is indeed the converting Act unless by Conversion Regeneration be meant Common Experience teacheth that Men may be sensible of the Hardness of their Heart and their unwillingness to part from their beloved Sins and yet do