I mean not only Whether some other acts as Intellectual perception and belief be not in order of nature before it and in time with it and real parts of the same new creature but also Whether aâ— Alvarez and others say there be not such a divine motion or Impulse on the soul tending to this love and antecedent to love it self in nature love being an effect of Gods will and mâ—â—s which Jâ—â—sâ—nius denyeth But 4. If it be not so but really love be the first effect of God on the soul then the controversies are all at an end about the difference of sufficiâ—â—t and effectual equal and unequal grace For then it would be as Jaâ—senius saith and there is no grace but the effect it self and so there would be no question but Whether all men love God and all alike But I yet believe that there is soe preparatory grace of Christ which tendeth to the love of God XVI I believe that the will is the prime seat of Morality and that love or complacency is as the spirit of all saving special grace But yet it is ill said that Christs grace is necessary only to love or delight For the soul of man hath three faculties which must be conjunctly sanctified viz. Vital active power Intellect and Will and sin is in all And the Spirit reneweth them by a threefold effect Vivification Illumination and Conversion or love And hatred of sin and fear of sinning and of God are graces of Christ also as are obedience patience c. though below love 2. There is an Analogical good that is done by self-love and fear which hath a tendency to mans recovery though not such good as is true holiness and hath a promise of salvation XVII I. Here we come to a difficult case 1. Whether indeed any ungodly man or Infidel do love God sincerely amore amicitiae propter se The doubt is because to love him less than sinful pleasures and the creature seemeth to be a loving him as less amiable or good And to love him as such is not to love him as God nor indeed to love God but an Idol of the imagination I think we must say 1. That no man loveth God adequately for no man hath an adequate conception of him 2. But yet that there are some essentials of such true love as is necessary and suitable to our dark and weak condition which all must have that will be saved either distinctly or confusedly As to know and love him as the Infinite Spirit the first cause and last end of all most powerful wise and good our Owner our Ruler and our Benefactor and chief good Father Word and Spirit the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Author of Nature Grace Glory 3. That no wicked or unholy person truly loveth God thus viz. As his own Governour to make him holy and save him from the Flesh and World and as the Author of those holy Laws by which he governeth and a righteous Judge according to those Laws 4. Therefore Jansenius's little sincere Love in sensual men is but a love of aliquid Dei somewhat of God and not properly of God as God speaking of God as the object of love it self 5. Yet the same person may have all the â—orâ—said Notions of a Deity and may notionally call them all good and laudable but his Practical Judgement is not such of God as his holy Governour Judge and End as to bring him truly as such to love him 6. Yet this may be called a Love of God analogically as he is said to love the King who loveth him as great and good to the Common-wealth though not as a governing restrainer of his lusts By this I would have that explained which I have said of this subject in my Saints Rest II. But here I am at â— further loss Did he mean that this love called sincere is in none but those that are saved oâ— not As I said before If he did then a common Drunkard Adulterer c. may have this love and be saved But I suppose he meant Negatively And if so methinks hence all his opposition to sufficient Grace turneth back upon himself And to him it may better be said Why do you feign Christ and the Holy Ghost to give men such a Grace such a Love to God as no man ever was or will be saved by without more Is it any more dishonour to Christ to give men some such Power to do some more good â—han actually they do as Adâ—m had to have continued innocent than effectually to give so many persons sincere love which shall never save theâ— Whether these be they that he will adjudge to Purgatory I know â—â— If so he will stretch the rank of Venial sins to those that other men call Mortal III. But yet my greatest difficulty remaineth I am in doubt Whether he that denyeth common sufficient grace and extendeth the grace of Christ seemingly but to few do not really either make it the same thing with Nature or extend it to all For I suspect that all or almost all men on earth till they have sinned themselves into diabolical desperate malignity have this which he calleth Amor amicitiae and sincere imperfect love to God and Justice For Intellectus est Entis veri intellectus Voluntas est Boni Good apprehended such is the Wills necessary natural object And a simple complacency in apprehended good is the wills first necessary act Nature telleth man that there is created goodness and that the Creator who giveth it must needs have more than all his creatures And nature tells men that the World or millions are better than one person and their good to be preferred And how can it be then that he that taketh the World to be so much better than himself and God to be better that is more amiable than all the World should not have the least simple complacency in thinking of him All men take Wisdom and Goodness and Beneficence for amiable And they that believe that God hath most of these must needs have some Love to him not only as good to them but as most excellent in himself Insomuch that as Adrian the sixth before cited saith in some sort a bad man may love God better than himself and he is scarce worthy the name of a man that would not rather be annihilated or wish that he had never been born than that there were no World or no God if per impossibile he supposed he could live without them And if you tell every man that he hath that sincere love to God which is Gratia Christi who hath the least love to God and Justice propter se though he have more love to his fleshly interest and sinful pleasures I doubt you will not much differ from Pelagius and will have no way left but to say that it is not of Grace by Christ that Nature is reprieved and supported Or at least that this is of a common
and believe or not is never the more ascertained for Grace if it give men but a power For you leave it still to Free-will to use that power or not use it I speak but of some of you 2. And hereby you contrive Grace into this conception that it is but some common thing like nature and as a man that hath power to sit or stand or go may use that power as he will himself so all men where the Gospel cometh have a power to obey it which they may use as they will But to the Will it self Grace giveth but this power And if that were true that a habit of the Will were but a power to will fair fall Pelagius A. It 's well you charge us not all with that Opinion But I confess I am not yet satisfied that it is false and that the Will hath any thing but power and act But power facilitateth the act B. You may say it facilitateth because â—it maketh it possible which is easier than that which is impossible Is that facility But mark 1. If that Opinion be true then 1. Gods inward workings are not suitable to his outward means For his means are Perswasions and Exhortations and Mercies and Corrections which are not only to make men able but willing And if they make them willing they do in primo instanti dispose them to be willing and then procure actual willingness and then fix the Will in an habitual propensity 2. If that Doctrine be true then a habit hath no moral good or evil in it it is no Virtue or Vice And then there is no Virtue or Vice that is no such thing as moral Habits but only Acts. For no man should call meer power or impotency which is neither habitual dispositive or actual willingness or unwillingness by the name of Virtue or Vice It is not goodness meerly to be able to do good nor evil to be able to do evil unless as eating walking may be good or bad materially by participation so far as voluntary 3. If that Doctrine be true the Will as a Will should be an unsanctified or unrenewed faculty further than it is found in action For its disposition is its holiness and rectitude 4. And a man should have no Grace in his sleep or when he is minding natural things alone unless you will say as I hinted before that sleeping and waking he hath still a Latent insensible Volition in act which is it that we call a habit But if you acknowledge such a habit even a fixed latent deep constant act inclining to other holy acts the strife then is but about a name 5. It is certain that the Soul hath in it besides power and observed acts a natural inseparable inclination The form of the Soul is not only potentia but potentia seu vis vel virtus inclinata Man is not only able to love good as good and felicity as such and sensible Pleasure as such but he is inclined to it And if there be such a thing as natural inclination or propensity besides power and act then 1. It is possible and probable there may be a gracious inclination 2. Yea and if the whole Soul be sanctified must not its inclination be sanctified 6. Why else are we said to be New Creatures and have soft and tender hearts and to be made partakers of the Divine Nature Nature in active things is a principle inclined to action and not only able for it And surely a Divine Nature can signifie no less than an inclination to holiness and the love of God 7. Whence can you imagine that a wicked man should rise every morning so ready to go on in wickedness again that sleep doth not end his sin yea that he is so obstinate in such acts if besides the act he hath nothing but a power to do evil If you say that it is also a disability to do better or forbear 1. You will extenuate his sin by saying that he can do no better 2. Experience telleth you that his sin is sensuality And Appetite inordinate which ruleth him is more than Power Impotency or Act It is also an inclination to that Act. 8. No doubt but each faculty hath Grace suited to its nature and use And therefore as the potentia vitalis activa executiva hath its power and vivacity so the Intellect hath Illumination and the Will holy Love in disposition and in act 9. Lastly The Scripture calleth that which is given us by the name of the Spirit of God and I would the Church would hold to that name and say Men have or have not the Spirit of holiness But the word Spirit cannot be judged to signifie nothing but power and act Yea it is expresly named in reference to our three sanctified faculties the Spirit of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. And the Spirit of Love or Adoption Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 18. 16 26. is not only a power to love A Child hath more than a power to love a Father It is a filial loving nature which is called our regenerate state And if it were only the Act also why is it called a Spirit and Nature A. To confess the truth you have said much to prove that we have ill managed this Controversie about Power and Impotency to repent and believe And for my part I mean hereafter to use most the common and Scripture phrase and say as to the efficient that men have or have not the Spirit and as to the effect that Power Disposition or Inclination Act or Habit are things to us observable in the Soul and that cannot and will not must not be confounded And if it be moral or logical Power that I speak of I will mention it properly as it is in the effect or event called Possible or Impossible rather than as it connoteth the faculty called Potent or Impotent thereto lest I deceive men And I will let them perceive an impossibility of consequence from an impotency of sufficiency For I know that when it 's true that logically in ordine dicendi it cannot be that is be true that God fore-seeth or decreeth that Peter will not sin and yet that he will sin yet it is not true that Peter had not power to sin But I proceed The third Crimination A. They make man so corrupted and that by Adam's sin without his own consent as that there is no good in him But he is dead in sin And so all men should be utterly and equally wicked B. * Melanct Loc. Com. de lib. arb c. 7. Etsi peccatum Originis vitiat naturam non prorsus aufert eam nec delet nec mutat eam in aliam speciem Et sp sanctus non abolet sed adolet naturam non destruit sed sanat Et Ambros de Voc. Gent. l. 1. c. 3. Nec quia spiritu Dei agitur ideo putet se libero arb carere quiae nec tunc perdidit quando
d. 17. q. 1. â— 2. Gabr. ibid. Radâ— 2. p. Cont. 19. Suarez in 3. p. To. 4. Disp 9. Sect. 3. n. 8. all for this opinion And against it Aureol in 1. d. 1â— Ruard a. Sect. 5. That a man cannot be just sine Justitia inhaerente por potentiam Dei absolutam Pet. de Lorâ—a saith in 2. 2. q. 24. a. 12. d. 22. as the Protestants do that Peocatum Mortalâ— actuale meaning some one act of a heinous Sin may consist with Grace and the Habit of Charity but not the Habit of such a Sin that is in predominancy See Malderus opinion 1. 2. q. 113. a. 2. 8. p. 574 c. who saith that Dâ—us remitâ—endo offersam delet peccati maculam and that Macula is but the privation of Grace quatenus facit hominem Dâ—o gratum that is of Acceptability or Loveliness And accordingly he expoundeth the nature of Remission of Sin as I said before And Brianson in 4. q. 8. fol. 115. C. D. diligently enquiring what it is that remaineth after the Sin committed can find nothing but 1. The Habit or privation of a good habit 2. And the Guilt which he calleth Reatum culpae quae est qâ—â—dam obligatio ad poenam debitam illi culpae Illa n obligatio est quâ—dam Relatio realis non fundata super actum culpae sed super essentiam aâ—imâ— non nisi ut culpae actualis est praevia which is just the Protestant opinion who say that the Guilt is done away by forgiveness and the Habit by Renovation calling one Justification and the other Sanctification But we better distinguish Reatum câ—spae in sâ— Reatum pâ—â—ae sâ—u culpae ut ad poenam One is the Reality of my being a Sinner or one that did Sin This is never done away The other is the obligation to punishment for that Sin This is remitted and virtually containing all good actions and being the operation of the Spirit by which he is said to dwell in believers 306. 2. That this Rectitude or Holy Nature is first and radically active in our Complacency or Displicency Love or Hatred And that what a man Habitually loveth that his Will is habitually inclined to And against that which he habitually hateth 307. 3. That yet in acting this inclination worketh freely and always is specified by the conduct of the Intellect which must tell us what is Good and Evil Amiable and Hateful 308. 4. That Love and Hatred being practical Habits do ever engage the will in such Practical Resolutions as are answerable to their nature and degree 309. 5. That no Resolution will prove Holy Love and Inclination but that which is fixed as proceeding from a fixed principle which is like a new Nature in us 310. 6. That this Resolution is first de fine The Soul loving God and its own felicity in his eternal Love and Glory is first firmly Resolved to adhere to God and that felicity and to prosecute it to the last in all necessary means 311. 7. That next the Soul firmly resolved of the use of means in general is resolved also to choose and cleave to Jesus Christ as the Head and Summary of all means as the Physician is as to Physick And â—o resolveth to adhere to all the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity 312. 8. That all this is done by the Intellects discerning of those solid Reasons which prove to us the excellency necessity and possibility of all the foresaid ends and objects And he that knoweth not fixing and â—olding Reasons for his Resolutions cannot be expected to have fixed Resolutions 313. 9. That these general Inclinations Love and Resolutions for God for Means in general for Christ and all the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity are constant in the Godly and virtually contain a Love of and Resolution for every known duty and against every known Sin but not actually And these continue to shew themselves in adhering practically to these Objects and in the Practice of a Godly Life 314. 10. That therefore Sin as Sin is hateful to every true Christian and Godliness as such lovely And that in respect of this radical general Habit every true Christians love to God and Good is more than his averseness and his hatred to Sin more than his love or Inclination to the created Good for which it is loved For no man loveth Sin as Evil 315. 11. That the Inferior sort of Means and Good appear not always in their worth or necessity to the believer Besides his Ignorance the remnants of Concupiscence may pervert his Judgment so far as to doubt of some means whether they are absolutely necessary or at least mihi hic nunc And this failing of the Intellect may embolden the Will to some degrees of negligence even of known duties And so we may doubt of some Sins whether they are Sins and of others whether they are so great as to be inconsistent with Gods love and our Salvation and by that failing of the Intellect to be emboldened to commit them while yet we adhere to God and holiness in the main as such And so small Sins are ofter committed and with less reluctancy than greater because we think that their badness and danger is not so great And though at other times we be more sensible of both yet in the time of Temptation that apprehension may be altered For the mind of a Godly man is more mutable about the Means than about the End and about the smaller sort of Means and Sins than about the greater And when the opinion changeth not yet the practical judgment may change or when it is not turned it may be suspended Or truth may be apprehended with less quickening lively feeling and then it will not sufficiently work As a loud call doth suscitate us to action when a negligent whisper is neglected And upon some of these accounts known sins when small may more stand with Grace and be ofter committed and more dully repented of than greater 316. 12. And as we must distinguish of Sins as more or less dreadful and dangerous and of duty as more or less necessary at least in our apprehension so also of Sins which are more or less within the power of a willing mind to leave them Some Sins are such as that the forsaking of them requireth little more than a willing mind As to forsake lewd Company Taverns Play-houses Harlots Drunkenness Theft Oppression Persecution Perjury Deceit c. Meer will though instigated by lust committeth them And a will that is but truly bent against them may easily as to power cast them off Whoever committeth them doth it because he will do it And to live in the frequent committing of these is a greater sign of want of Holy habits or Grace than of others For there are other Sins which besides willingness require great power and care and labour to forsake them As to keep a just order in our Thoughts to keep them from vain objects to keep
is less than a good habit 10. That every man hath a moral proper power to do more good than he doth and forbear more evil 11. That every man is commanded to use some means in order to his salvation which he is morally able to use 12. That God useth to bear long with the abusers of their Power before he forsake them 13. That many have many perswasions and helps to use their power that abuse it 14. That it 's just with God to forsake such 1â— And great mercy to the elect not to be so forsaken All â—â—â—â— will be made cleareâ— in their due â—â—â—â— which I shall now here offer you § 2. AS for the five Articles I. The Article of Predestination II. And the Article of Redemption contain no difference between the parties but only as they relate to the Articles of Free-will and effectual Grace as is aforesaid For all must agree that God Decreed and Christ procured all that Grace or Mercy for men which he giveth them Of which the Conditional gift of the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit in the Covenant of Grace with a Commission to his Ministers freely to offer it to all Believing Consenters and to seal it and deliver it by Baptism is a great part And many mercies teachings perswasions and motions tending to draw them to Consent is another part God decreed not to deny men that which he giveth them and Christs Death procured them all that he giveth them To which add what elsewhere I have opened that there is no necessity of ascribing to God any Positive Decrees of Negations or nothings Else there must be a Decree against the existence of all the myriads of possible animals atomes names words c. And remember that to Permit is not-to hinder and so is a meer negation or a doing nothing and that not-to-give faith repentance grace the Gospel c. is a negation or a nothing and so need no Decree seeing a not-decreeing to give c. is sufficient so that the whole of the Controversie about these two Articles is clearly devolved to the Controversies of Grace and Free-will III. And concerning Free-will it cannot be denyed but that Natural Free-will is part of that excellency or Image of God by which man is differenced from bruits and that it is such a faculty by which man can in some instances determine his own will to this rather than that without Divine predetermination which is certain in the â—ase of sin yea and of some good For Adam's will could without any other grace than he had have forborn his sin Or else still all is but resolved into Gods meer will And it is agreed on as is said before that all men can do more good than they do and forbear more evil than they forbear and that without any more grace or help than they have when they use it not so that it is not abhorrent from the nature of Free-will for a man to make a good use or an ill of the same measure of grace at several times or for several men to make several uses of the same measure Therefore it is no unjust answer to the question Why did he forbear this sin to day and not yesterday or Why did this man forbear sin and not that supposing them to have the same measure of assisting grace to say Because this man at this time used that power which God had given him in stirring up his own will to concurt with grace and the other man or this at another time did not what he could Not that this answer is good in all cases where more grace is necessary to the effect but in this forementioned So that it is no Deifying of the will of a Rational free-Agent to say that it is essentially a self-determining faculty made by God in the Image of his Liberty and depending on him and not able to Act without him as the first Cause but yet on supposition of his Natural preservation and universal concurse and of his directions and Laws it is able to make choice hic nunc to will or not will to will this rather than that without Divine necessitating predetermination and without any more Grace or help than sometime it hath when it doth the contrary All which shewing the natural power of mans will and its liberty must be readily acknowledged by all sides that will not say that Adams first sin and every sin of all men else are all resolved into Gods causation in case of commissions and Gods non-causation in case of omissions and into Gods will in both and that man can no more do any thing but what he doth than he can be God or overcome God or live and act without God And as we must thus agree that natural Liberty consisteth in a self-determining power peculiar to Rational free agents so we are all agreed except the Pelagians that mans nature is vitiated by Original sin and therefore that the will which is naturally free from force and necessitation except from God who never necessitateth it to evil is yet in servitude to our own concupiscence and is not free either from the enticements of sense or the erroneous conduct of a blinded mind or from its own vicious habits averseness to God and holy things and proneness to things sensual and seeming good And therefore that this Holy or Moral Liberty of the will must have the Medicinal Grace of Christ to heal it of which next IV. And as to the Article of Effectual Grace it is agreed on and cannot I speak not of Grace as it is Gods favour but the effect â—e gratia data non de gratia dantâ— with sobriety be gainsayed without subverting the main doctrine of the Scriptures that whereas besides the Preparatory or Promeriting Grace of Christs own performance there is yet a three-fold Grace necessary for the application or conveyance of the Benefits purchased by Christ in the measure hereafter mentioned all this is common I. The first sort of Grace lyeth in the enacting of a new Law of Grace called also in several respects The new Testament the new Covenant and the Promise And as to this it is agreed 1. That God made this Law Covenant or promise in the first Edition with Adam and Eve after the fall Gen. 3. 15. the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head and did by Actual Remission of their sin and not-punishing them as the first Law threatned yet more plainly manifest to them the pardoning Grace of this Covenant And that he made this new Law or Covenant to all mankind in and by them And that he again renewed the same Covenant of Grace with all mankind in Noah after the deluge Those few inconsiderate persons that deny this are not so valuable as to be an exception to our Concord It is an intolerable conceit of any to think that the tenour or sence of the
the Threefold Divine Excellencies Communicated and the Threefold humane Receptive faculties viz. LIFE LIGHT and LOVE or spiritual Vivification Activity and Power spiritual Illumination of the Intellect and spiritual Conversion or Sanctification of the Will by holy Love § 21. It is certain that it is not only on believers that Christ operateth by the spirit For he draweth men by it to believe and many wicked men that are not his elect have common even miraculous gifts of the spirit * * * Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Gal. 3. 1 2 3. Heb. 6. 5 6. 1 Cor. 14. which are all communicated by Christ § 22. As Nature it self is in his Political power and is delivered to him so far as it is reparable and belongeth to the reparation of man so all gifts and operations Received by any in the world which are Mercies contrary to commerit are the effects of Christ Even as the Sun shineth in the night by the Moon and in the dawning of the day by it self unseen and after by it self appearing so Christ shineth to the Heathen world in abundance of natural and providential mercies and by the help of many Creatures and experiences and to some by nearer approaches as well as to the Church by the manifestation of himself All which is evident 1. Because the whole lapsed world in Adam and Noe were brought under his own Covenant of Grace according to which he operateth 2. In that so much mercy after sin will not stand with Gods regiment by the meer Law of Innocency violated 3. In that Christ is expresly called the Saviour of the World and the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe who dyed for all in that all were dead that they that live should live to him who tasted death for every man c. And Joh. 1. 9 10 11 12. That was the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world or coming into the world lighteth every man He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not And v. 4 5. In him was life and the Life was the Light of man and the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not c. § 23. This threefold Influx of Christs Spirit for LIFE LIGHT and LOVE is not equally effectual on all nor equally effectual on the same person at several times nor each part of the influx equally effectual on the same person at the same time The Reasons anon SECT III. Of the Operations and Principles as compared § 1. THough Power Wisdom and Goodness or Love all co-operate by the spirit of Christ yet in the work of Mans Recovery their Impressions are not equal But as POWER with Wisdom and Love more appeared in the CREATION as is aforesaid so WISDOM with Power conveying Love appeareth more in our Redemption and LOVE with Power and Wisdom is most conspicuous and illustrious in our Renewed state begun indeed by Sanctification but perfect in our GLORIFICATION * * * As to the Question between the Schoolmen define beatitudin undoubtedly the Thomists err in placing it chiefly in the Intellect And Medina and others give silly reasons for it and the Scotists of whom Rada well handleth it are far righter And Agid. Romanus briefly and clearly tells us the truth Quodlib 3. q. 18. p. 187. Btatitudo est in aliquo finaliter in aâ—â—quo formaliter Naâ— si ipsum objectum principaâ—â— Voluntatis prout habit rationem finis sit beatitudo oportet quod beatitudo principaliter sit in hoc objecto coâ—sequenter formaliter in actu Voluntatis Nam Voluntas in suum objectum tendit finaliter sed per suum actum teadit in objectum formaliter Ex quo apparet quod be â—titudo sit magis in ipso objecto Voluntatis quam in actu quia ratio finis est magis in objecto quam in actu This is clear truth if you put but finis alone for beatitudo For Beatitudo qua talis is not the principal end of man but God as God in his perfect Goodness and the fulfilling of his will next and then our own beatitude with that of the blesâ—ed And he maketh Vision and not Love to be the secondary final object of all The Omnipotent Father as is said Createth Nature with the Son and Holy Spirit The Son the Wisdom of the Father is the Physicion of souls and healeth them by SKILL with Power and Love The Holy Ghost called by the Schoolmen The LOVE of God dwelling and working peculiarly in us to and in perfection with power and Wisdom is the PERFECTION of the soul And so Natura Medela Sanitas are the various effects of the Divine operation § 2. Therefore the SONS operation in procuring and communicating the SPIRIT of Love and Holiness is eminently sapiâ—â—tial § 3. The Impressions of all the Divine Virtues are excellent in their several kinds And it 's hard for us to say that this is simply more excellent than that But we can say which is more suitable to the nature of man to be esteemed and Loved by him And so we esteem the Impressions of Wisdom and Love as most suitable to us § 4. A Horse or Oxe excelleth Man in strength and a Bird or Hare or Dog in swiftness and a Mountain and an Oak in Greatness And yet we account the Wisdom and Moral Goodness of man to be a greater excellency and to make him the more noble Creature § 5. And God seemeth to tell it us 1. By calling these his Image 2. And by making man the Lord of these stronger Creatures § 6. And among men we take him not for the most excellent who is the strongest but who is the Wisest and the Best And therefore the Wisest and Best are by Aristotle said to be born by Nature to Rule the rest and by all sober men are thought to be the Fittest to Guide and Rule others how seldom soever it cometh to pass while the Robuster sort are Labourers and Mechanicks § 7. Yet I deny not but the effect is answerable to the Cause And as Active-Power causeth Action and Wisdom and Government causeth the Order and Rectitude of action and Love and Goodness the Perfection of it and the agent so Gods Vital-Power Wisdom and Goodness are equal which are the Principles of all As the Father Son and Spirit are coequal And God is indeed glorious in the Motion of Sun and Stars c. as well as in the Wisdom and Holiness of man But besides the foresaid suitableness this difference must be considered that as Life Intellect and Will Power By special Grace some mean two distinct things viz. 1. Our Love to God and other holy Habits and acts or an Inclination to them 2. Gods favour to us and acceptation of us and that as relating to the Glory which he will give us so that the first they call the Habit of Grace quâ— ens qualitas
B. Great is this mystery of Godliness there is more in Christ than you take notice of even the Spirit which must work Grace in mens souls is two ways given first to Christ 1. In that as Administrator general the power of giving out the Spirit to mankind is now given to Him even in his humane Nature And he giveth it out in manner and measure suitable That Grace habitual is participatio naturae divinae and how and in what sense Vide Caceres sum Theol. 2. 2. cap. 1. And abundance of Jesuites and other School-men go as far in asserting its supernaturality and some in ascribing it to Christ as Protestants do But Vasquez and many go farther than many Protestants in supposing Christ the cause not only of Grace but of our Election to Grace And yet even there the difference is most if not only in words The Thomists maintain even that Christs humanity is the Instrument of the Deity in operating Grace in us which the cause of the Eucharist leadeth them to 1. To himself 2. To us 3. To his established means and Ordinances by which he worketh So that now the Spirit with its aid common or special is not given to any sinner immediately from God as Creator and as it was given to Adam before his fall but by the Mediation of Christ the Redeemer I mean not only the moritorious and procuring mediation but also the powerful conveying mediation Though God the Holy Ghost be still proximately the cause of Grace yet Christ as Mediator is made by office the Mediator and authorized giver of that Spirit and all its Grace and so the measurer and orderer of his helps and appointer of the conditions 2. And Christ is first filled with this Spirit personally himself that he may be a fit Head of vital Influence to all his Members who by the previous operations of his Spirit are drawn and united to him C. How prove you all this universal power in Christ B. You have heard the express proof And study further 1 John 5. 11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this life it in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Rom. 8 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Mark that it is The Spirit of Christ John 15. 26. The Comforter or Advocate whom I will send to you from the Father John 16. 7. If I depart I will send him to you John 14. 26. The Comforter whom the Father will send in my name Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me John 5. 21 22. The Son quickneth whom he will for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to have life in himself And that you may see that he giveth the Spirit with and by means he saith Verse 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life John 6. 27 32 33. Labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man will give you For him hath God the Father seated that is openly owned as appointed to this Office He giveth life unto the world Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life Dwelleth in me and I in him My Flesh is meat indeed As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Verse 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John 3. 34. God giveth not the Spirit to him by measure John 7. 39. This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe in him should receive John 1. 5. 4 5. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me or out of me ye can do nothing Matth. 28. 20. I am with you always to the end 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Phil. 1. 19. Through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Col. 3. 3 4. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Ephes 1. 22 23. And gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Do you need more to prove this great Office of Christ C. Here is more than I have well thought on But I find more to prove Christ the vital Head to his Church than to prove him the universal dispenser of all Grace whatever is given to the world B. Read them over again what would you have more than all Power all things all Judgment given or committed to him And to be by Office the Redeemer Saviour and light of the world coming as such even to them that neither comprehend him know him or receive him I add another Text Prov. 1. 20. to the end Wisdom crieth without she uttereth her voice How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Because I have called and ye refused see the rest Ver. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them And two things more I offer for your conviction 1. That to shew both his Power and that he will exercise it orderly by means Christ impowred his Apostles and Ministers under him to give the Spirit And if the extraordinary Gifts were given by the laying on of their hands no wonder if the ordinary were given by their Doctrine 2. That on this ground Christ shall be the universal Judge of all the world as he was the universal Law-giver and light to all But what need I more when it is his very Office as Christ as Prophet to be the universal Teacher by Spirit and Word and as Priest to sanctifie by Spirit and Word and as King to rule by Spirit and Word C. I am amazed to think how little we well understand of our very Fundamentals and Catechism which we teach the ignorant Methinks in this universal Light
will be an universal Concord in very MANY or UNCERTAIN UNNECESSARY things And O that I could write it on all mens hearts or doors at least that The Christian world will never have Concord but in a FEW CERTAIN NECESSARY things Therefore Paul said to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. I am jealous of you with Godly jealousie For I have espoused you to one husband c. But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve though his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in or towards Christ O mark these words all ye contentious Church TYRANTS DOGMATISTS and SUPERSTITIOUS ones Read and study them well God laid down the terms of the Churches Concord in seven Unities 1. One Body or Church Catholick 2. One Spirit or Holy Ghost as the soul of that Church 3. One Hope or Heavenly felicity hoped for 4. One Lord of the Church our Head and Saviour 5. One Faith or Creed or Symbol of our belief and Belief thereof 6. One Baptismal Covenant 7. And one God and Father of us all who is above all through all and in us all Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. And it is the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that on these terms we are charged to keep v. 2 3. with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love But now cometh the Serpent note 1. The author and by subtilty 2. Note the means even as he beguiled Eve 3. Note the precedent which was by promising her more knowledge and exaltation to be as God and he corrupteth mens minds 4. Mark the effect though it is knowledge and advancement of mind that he promiseth and pretendeth Even by drawing them as to higher POWER KNOWLEDGE or HOLINESS from the Christian simplicity 5. Mark what the Corruption of Religion is And what is this Christian SIMPLICITY which they forsake and how are they thus Corrupted from it I. The Church TYRANT departeth from the SIMPLICITY of Church Government first and will not hear Christs vehement charge Luk. 22. With you it shall not be so He cannot understand such Texts because he would not Hence how unlike is the Secular-Papal and Patriarchal state to the Ministry appointed and described by Christ To reduce them to that they think is to be enemies to the Church And do they not then take Christ for their Capital enemy because they are enemies to humility mortification and the Cross Phil. â— 18. To cross bearing not to cross making The Papists think that Greg the seventh that took down Princes was the most glorious instrument of the Churches exaltation And by turning all to corporeal Glory they lose hearts and destroy the souls whom they profess to save And having first corrupted GOVERNMENT from the Primitive simplicity and made Princes their Lictors as Grotius speaks in that excellent Epistle newly translated by Mr. Barksdale they next corrupt DOCTRINE and WORSHIP consequently For TYRANTS must have their Wills in every thing and numerous and needless Laws and Canons must be made to shew their power and fulfil their wills that they may be Law-givers and a Rule to all the World And when they have made a seeming Necessity of doing things unnecessary then to plead the Necessity which they have made is the summ of all their arguments And they that are against strict and precise adhering to the Scriptures or observance of Gods own commands are yet so strict for obedience to their proud imperious wills that they perswade themselves and others that without it there can be no order no unity no peace but rebellion and confusion And so they cry up Obedience Obedience that their Idol wills may be bowed to by all without controul And when they are meer Usurpers and use no Power given them by God they yet get the advantage of making all odious that obey them not in the least and greatest matters by the names of schism unruliness or such like O say the Papal Usurpers The Church must be obeyed or there will be no order Disobedience in small matters is no small sin when they have set up an Idol power against Christ as if to disobey him whose Laws they make void by their Traditions and Usurpations were a lesser fault And when they have departed as far from the Christian simplicity in Doctrine Government and Worship as their voluminous Councils and Decretals and Missals differ from the ancient simple Christianity and have made as many snares and engines to divide and tear the Church of Christ as there are noxious that I say not Needless Laws Canons and Decrees imposed as necessary to peace and concord then no mens mouths are more opened against schism when they have unavoidably caused it yea are the greatest schismaticks And no men call so loud for Unity and Concord as they that have first made it a thing impossible Let none think that I am speaking against any true Church-Government or faithful Pastors But I appeal to the Consciences of these Papal Tyrants 1. Whether it would not be far easier for Christians to Agree in A FEW PLAIN and NECESSARY things of Christs own Institution than in a multitude of humane decrees and articles composed in words more lyable to Controversie Will not more subscribe to the Creed than to all the Councils 2. Have they not room enough to shew their Power and work enough to do in seeing to the execution of Christs own Universal Laws and preserving meer Order and Decency in undetermined circumstances that all may be done to edification 3. Doth not every needless Oath and Subscription by which they would tye men faster to themselves in controvertible cases plainly tend to undermine themselves and keep up still a conscientious party against them For while men have nothing to do but live quietly under a Government they will be glad of peace But when they are put to Subscribe Declare Covenant and Swear that all this is good or lawful or that they will never be against it it sets men unavoidably on the deepest studies of the case and so all the people are set on trying and judging of that which else they would never have meddled with For what honest man will say swear or promise he knoweth not what Even as some crafty Rebels would undermine Princes by drawing them to put the controverted parts of their Prerogative into the Subjects Oaths that so they may make all the people Students and Judges of the cause and unavoidably make factions and dissenters that else would have lived quietly if they might so do the Papal Clergie ruine themselves by such over-doing impositions I remember Lampridius tells us that Alexander Severus that great enemy of injustice was so severe that he would have made a Law to regulate mens Apparel But Ulpian changed his mind by telling him that Many Laws cause Divisions and make occasions of disobedience They cry out There will be no order if Ministers and people be
which is not likely To perform one act of Love and Obedience is not so hard as to do it to the death though we lose our lives in the expressions of it Object But our first Faith giveth us Right to the Spirit of Confirmation and Immutability though more must be done for Perfection Answ 1. It appeareth then that Perfection and Glory is more than Confirmation 2. It is certain that the Regenerate are mutable as to the degrees of Grace and are far from Perfection at the first 3. The generality of the Fathers and ancient Churches thought that true Justification and Right to Heaven and true Love to God was lost by many And Austin himself and his Followers so thought 4. And they that think otherwise yet know that Glory is still given us quoad jus in the Promise on condition of our perseverance And we should hardly find so many Threatnings against them that fall away if all might so easily know that the first act of Obedience doth so fix us and give us in justice a Right to Immutability § 19. M. S. The Arguments to prove that any one Act had the pròmise of Immutability and Glory are these Argument 1. If God were to declare his rewarding Justice then he must reward one act Thus Bradwardiâ—â— also chideth his Master Lombard as inclining to Pelagius for holding that Adam could have forborn Sin by his Free-will without Gods spâ—dâ—l Grace that is his Will that so it should be which he saith was necessâ—ry before the Fall as well as since and that else Adam by once not sâ—â—ning when tempted had merited Confirmation as he saith the Angels did being tempted by Leviathan lib. 2. c. 10. An. 1. God was not obliged to any Reward but according to the tenor of his Law Prove that his Law promised Glory or Immutability for one act 2. Bonum est ex causis integris one act is but a small paâ—â— of a mans life The Promise was to the whole course only 3. God did reward every act His acceptance and the continuance of all â—he blessings of that Paradise and the comfort of his Love was a greâ—â— Reward § 20. M. S. If one act of Obedience deserved unchangeable Happinesâ— then God must bestow it But c. An. I deny the minor One act deserved it not No act deserved in Commutative Justice And no act deserved it of governing Justice but such as the Law antecedently made it due to § 21. M. S. Merit it is a fuitableness of the work to the wages â—â—â— that please God are under his good pleasure the fruit of which must be â—â—â— enjoying of his Spirits infinite assistance This Adam might have claimed â—â— Justice and gloried for one act deserveth a Reward An. This is sufficiently answered 1. Wages strictly taken is Mâ—â—â—â— given by a Proprietary commutatively It 's blasphemy to say that God can owe any Creature such for he can receive nothing but his own The word when used to us is improperly taken But praemium a Reward we have but no work deserveth that but by the ordinate Justice of the Law Some few Papists talk of a dignity ex proportione operâ—â— but the Scotists and the wisest of them deny any but 1. Ex congruitate 2. Ex pacto Your suitableness may signifie either 1. A congruity ad fines regiminis or else ad praemium qua promissum And thus it 's true But it 's not proved that any one act was such 2. Or it may â—ignifie a suitableness in proportion ex simplici dignitate operis obliging the Governor antecedently to his Law 2. Or obliging God as Proprietor to compensation And so it is untrue that Merit is a suitableness of the work to the wages here 2. It 's unproved that Gods pleasedness must ever be shewed by the Spirits infinite assistance or that one act deserved this It 's unlike that the Angels that kept not their first state did never one act of Obedience nor were never under Gods approbation Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his Enemies to be at peace with him God saith This â—is a Reward You say less than eternal life is none 1 King 3. 10. The speech of Solomon pleased the Lord And yet one would think by his filthiness and Idolatry and forsaking God that he was not glorified nor made immutable With the Sacrifice of Alms God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. and with Relation-Duties Col. 3. 20. And yet all that did them even sincerely were not glorified then nor absolutely immutable § 22. M. S. Arg. 2. Unchangeable misery would have been the reward of one sin Ergo c. An. I deny the consequenâ—e Misery was threatned to one sin Glory was not promised to one act of Obedience Obedience during life is certainly due from Man to God He that denieth it him in one act denieth him his due But he that giveth it him in one act giveth him but little of his due Your Argument is like these The Souldier that is a Traytor in one act deserveth death Therefore he that watcheth or fighteth but once deserveth all his wages and honour The Son that curseth his Father once deserveth punishment Therefore he that obeyeth him once deserveth the Inheritance He that is bound to pay an hundred pound forfeiteth his Bond if he leave a penny unpaid Therefore he forfeits it not if he pay but a penny The Servant that is hired for a day or year doth forfeit his wages if he be idle or rebel an hour or a day Therefore he deserveth his wages if he do Service but an hour or a day The disease of one part may kill a man Therefore the health of one part only will keep a man alive He that is hired to build a House or a Ship well forfeits his wages for one hole or gross defect Therefore he deserveth his wages if he lay but one Brick or Board But bonum est ex causts integris § 23. M. S. His Sin is more his own than his Obedience Ans The assistance of the Spirit could not take place in the first act because not deserved And his Obedience would have been as much his own as his Sin An. This is quite beyond the Jesuites 1. It 's true that the rewarding gift or help of the Spirit for confirmation was not given Adam to his first act But it 's not true that he had no help of the Spirit If you will not call Gods necessary Grace which you said did sanctifie all his powers by the name of the Spirits help you must say It was the help of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit without which he could have done nothing 2. But can you think that God did as much to his Sin as to his Sanctification and caused it as much as he was ready to cause his first Obedience Should he have been no more beholden to God for his Holiness than for his Sin This is too indifferent
be Believed in and as they were to be subject and devoted to him And what mouth can surelier reveal him And Heb. 11. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Act. 10. 34 35. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him And John's and Christ's Preaching were Repent And Except ye Repent ye shall all perish And Christ was a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of Sins 26. The belief of the pardoning Mercy of God to the penitent and the recoverable state of Souls and the duty of Repenting and seeking pardon and mercy of God in order to Salvation in opposition to despair and neglect of all endeavours for recovery is so common to all Mankind that though self-love may make them hope inordinately for that which they would have to be true yet it is most apparent that it proceedeth from some Natural notion of God and is to be numbred with the Notitiae Communes which are past controversie with all Mankind 27. Therefore though the Law of Innocency was the Law of Nature in the first and eminent sence yet this Common notice of Gods pardoning Mercy and man's duty to Repent hope and seek Salvation may well be called The Law of lapsed Nature as the other is the Law of Innocent Nature For the Nature of God and the nature of Man with all circumstant Natures and the course of natural Providence running so much in the way of great restoring mercy do certifie mankind of the foresaid hopes and duties 28. For it is not as some have said an absurdity but a certain Truth that the Law of Nature is as far mutable as Nature it self is mutable For the Law of Nature commonly mis-described is nothing else but the Nature of Man and all other Creatures of God so far as per modum signâ— they notifie to us Gods Will appointing what shall be Due from us and To us as the instrument of Gods Government of Mankind Now this Notification is most by the Resultancy of duty from the Nature of Man compared with God and all the Creatures that he hath to do with And the very variety of circumstances as in the case of Adam's Childrens Marriages and ours c. may alter Nature's signification obligation and Law 29. That which is called the Covenant of Nature or Innocency was in the Main the very Law of Innocent Nature in all the parts of it 1. Nature being perfect revealed Man's Duty perfectly to obey 2. Nature declared Punishment to be due to sin yea to all sin And this punishment to be suitable to the nature of the Offender compared with the God offended and the injury done Especially that if men will undoe themselves by forsaking Life and Love and Joy and casting themselves into darkness diseasedness and misery when it is foreshewn them God is not bound to hinder or recover them 3. Nature telleth man that God who made his Soul a simple Intellectual spirit and Life it self though created and dependant intended not to annihilate it and that its noble faculties fitted to know God and Love him and Live to him perfectly in Immortality were made for this employment in Immortality and not in vain And that he that Naturally maketh it mans duty to hope and seek for Immortal happiness hath not made this hope or duty in vain Nor will fail or frustrate or destroy them that forfeit not their hopes So that the Covenant depends not alone upon supernatural Revelation 30. But that which Nature revealeth about the penalty is 1. Not that God of necessity must punish the loss of Innocency as highly as he may do 2. But that he may justly punish the Sinner in rigour by temporal spiritual and eternal miseries 3. And that the Ends of Government the honour of his Wisdom Goodness Power Truth and Justice and the order of the humane world do require that sin scape not free but some exemplary punishment be a Vindication of God and a warning to Man which our death afflictions and spiritual sufferings manifest in part and the sufferings of Christ more fully So that pardon and dispensing in part with his Right to punish us according to the Law first broken is no falshood in God nor any injustice nor any violation of his Law of Nature 31. The Law which God put all mankind under after the fall and the world without the Church is under still is the Preceptive part of the Law of Innocent Nature as de futuro the promise of it being ceased and the penalty not totally nullifyed but made remedyable by an act of oblivion or Conditional Covenant of Grace q. d. Thou shalt perfectly obey me for the time to come and every sin shall deserve everlasting punishment so far as that I might justly inflict it and will do it if it be not remitted But all thy sin shall be forgiven thee and thou shalt have the free gift of pardon and salvation if thou Believe in me thy merciful Saviour and repent and give up thy self to me to be saved and to be Mine by sincere obedience and Love 32. The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt by Moses and their imbodying into a new Common-wealth with a Theocratical Government in a peculiar manner and a new body of Divine Laws were all done in performance of Gods Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob separating their seed as Holy from all the world Not as if no other were Holy in the world but as the Priests and Levites were sanctified to stand nearer to God than the people and so specially Holy even so Israel was a Holy Nation as being nearer God by separation than the rest of the Nations of the world 33. The entire Law of God which the Israelitish Nation was under had all these parts 1. The remaining preceptive and directive part of the Law of Nature 2. The Universal Covenant of Grace made with all mankind in Adam and Noah and personally renewed to Abraham for himself and his posterity 3. The special promise to Abraham and his seed as a peculiar people of whom the Messiah should come 4. The body of the Law of Moses as a Law for that Common-wealth or Politie which was not so given to any other Common-wealth or Nation * * * Lâ—g Suarez de Lâ—g l. 9. who c. 6. distinguisheth of the Law strictly taken and so it hath not saith he promises of eternal felicity and the Law as including the promise to the Fathers and so it had such promises But those promises being the Soul of the Law should not by the Jews have ever been separated from the rest in their conceits of it 1. The first of these undoubtedly is still in force 2. The second is turned into the
after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For in him we live and move and have our being For we are also his off-spring Act. 17. 25 26 27 28 29. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved But have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10. 12 13 18. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal life Glory honour and peace and to every man that worketh Good to the Jew first and also to the Greek For there is no respect of persons with God For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel If the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the Law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision He is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. SECT III. Of Christ's Incarnation and our Redemption 36. In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Rom. 4. 4. But not them only for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him He redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us For he is the Saviour of the world and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world He is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2. 2. For he tasted Death for every man Heb. 2. being the Saviour of all men but especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. For if one dyed for all then were all dead And he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 37. As the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father in his Divine nature only was the interposing Redeemer by undertaking before his Incarnation and governed the faln world by the fore-described Law of Grace so upon his Incarnation initially and upon his performance plenarily all things are delivered into his hands even all the world so far as it was defiled and cursed by Man's sin Man as the Redeemed the Creatures as his utensils and goods and Devils as his and our Enemies All Power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 26. 19. Joh. 13. 1 3. and 17. 2 3. All judgment was committed to him and the Father judgeth no man but by him But hath given him to have life in himself and to raise the dead Joh. 5. 22 23 24 25. For he hath made him Head over all things to his Church Eph. 1. 22 23. And for this end he dyed rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and the living Rom. 14. 9 10. For God hath exalted him and given him a name above every name that in the name of Jesus every knee should â—ow Phil. 2. 7 8. And as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. 38. Christ upon his Incarnation performed but what God had Decreed before the foundations of the world and had obscurely and generally promised after the fall at the first making of the Covenant of Grace Which Decree of God is after the manner of men called by some a Covenant between the Father and the Son especially because the Prophets have sometimes as Isa 53. described it by way of prediction as a Covenant between the Father and Christ incarnate If we conceive of it properly under the notion of a Decree first and a Promise after unto the world so the Will and Mercy of God the Father and Son with the Holy Spirit are the cause of mans Redemption Pardon and Salvation even the fundamental Principal total Cause And the Promise was man's security and Christ as promised was the primary great meanâ— which was to procure us the rest by doing that upon the fore-sight and fore-decree whereof God did before-hand pardon and save Sinners But if you had rather mention it as in the form of a Covenant which before the Incarnation must be improperly taken being only of God to himself or a promise of and to Christ as to be incarnate then the undertaking of the Father and the Son herein must be carefully distinguished and described The Father giveth up to Christ as Redeemer the whole lapsed cursed reparable world the several parts to several uses and especially his chosen to be eventually and infallibly saved and promiseth to accept his Sacrifice and performance and to make him Head over all things to his Church and by him to establish the Law of Grace in its perfect Edition and to give him the Government respectively of the Church and world and to Glorifie him for this work with himself for ever And the second person undertaketh to assume man's Nature to do and suffer all that he did in perfect obedience to his Fathers Will and Law of Redemption to fulfill all Righteousness conquer Satan and the world to suffer in the flesh and be a Sacrifice for sin and to conquer Death and teach and rule and purifie and raise and justifie and glorifie all true believers 39. Before the Incarnation Christ's future death and obedience being * * * Eadem suit sides in antiquis patribus modernis qui alio modo credebant in specialia alia credibilia quam nos Immo aliquid eredebant quod nunc est salsum Alliaco in 3. q. 1. not existent were no real existent Causes in themselves of men's Justification But that Wisdom which foresaw them and that Will of God which Decreed them as such and not they without that fore-sight and Decree as existent were the cause 40. Nor were they either before
that his Wisdom and Mercy and repent of their sins and unfeignedly give up themselves to God as their merciful Redeemer Thus far we are agreed about the Grace of the Covenant II. And as to the second sort of Communicative Grace that is The Promulgation of this Law of Grace and offers of the Covenant-Benefits to man we are and must be all agreed 1. That besides what Tradition sacrificing did intimate the first Edition of the Covenant of Grace as is said is universally promulgate by Providence For whereas by the violation of the Law of Innocency all blessings were forfeited and all miseries deserved and no man had any notice by that Law of any hope or means of his recovery on the contrary all the world hath great abundant mercies and are not punished according to the first Law and therefore have sensible forgiveness of sin and all have an inward testimony or conviction that they are obliged to gratitude for these mercies and also to the use of certain means as Repentance Prayer c. in order to their farther pardon and salvation And all this fully demonstrateth that God hath so far promulgated the old Edition of the Covenant of Grace as to make it notorious that the world is not under the meer Law of Innocency And to believe in a Merciful pardoning God as he was Exod. 34. proclaimed to Moses is become even the Law of lapsed Nature 2. And as I said the last Edition of the Covenant is commanded by Christ in his Ministers commission to be proclaimed to all the world Yea Magistrates parents neighbours all men in their several capacities are bound to promote it 3. And the world hath actually heard so much of the Gospel as that Paul in his dayes said That their sound went into all the Earth and their words to the end of the world Rom. 10. 18. when it had gone but a little way in comparison of what it hath since done Thus far we are agreed of the Promulgation III. The third sort of Grace is the Internal operation of the Spirit of God upon mens hearts And here it is that the heart of all our difference seemeth to lie SECT I. The presupposed Principles § 1. THe way of Gods operation on souls yea or bodies or any creature is so unsearchable that I had rather silence than pretend to decide abundance of the Controversies long agitated about it And had not mens audacious decisions and furious contentions not yet allowing the Churches peace made it accidentally necessary to repress their presumption and their error I should reverently have passed by much that I must now meddle with But the cure must be suited to the disease § 2. So much as is * * * See a notable discourse of Bradwardint of mans little knowledge of God li. 1. c. 1. cor 32. contrae philos which excellently rebuketh audacity in this case intelligible herein is divine and honourable and amiable and the prospect of Gods Providence is delectable to the wise For his works are great and wonderful sought out of them that have pleasure therein § 3. The nature or the order of them cannot be known by the single consideration of particular effects but by beginning at the original and proceeding orderly from the superiour Causes to the inferiour and seeing how every thing worketh in its proper capacity and place which man can do but very defectively and therefore knoweth but little or in part § 4. It is necessary therefore that I briefly look back to the Principles of Providence and Action which were partly mentioned before where UNITY in TRINITY shineth to us in God and in his works § 5. * GOD is ONE INFINITE SPIRIT in THREE ESSENTIAL VIRTUES or PRINCIPLES LIFE or ACTIVE POWER UNDERSTANDING and WILL †††Bradwardine li. 1. c. 1. cor 8. p. 5. Deus est Substantia Potentia rationalis habens intellectum liberam voluntatem cognoscens actualiter â—olens which are wonderfully ONE in ESSENCE yet THREE we know not perfectly how but as the Scotists say formaliter or rather as the Nominals by connotation of their objects and operations ad extra and so by Relation and extrinstck Denomination Not that Life Intellect and Will are formally the same in God as in the Creature or can formally be conceived by us But that while we must know God in a Glass mans soul must be this Glass and the Scriptures must be our Onomasticon and Logick Books and we must use such Notions and Names of God or none § 6. * * * Bradwardines language is Deum esse Omnipotentem active nullipotentem passivâ— li. 1. cap. 1. corol 1. n. 7. p. 5. These Principles as Transcendent in PERFECTION are called GREATNESS †††Communitâ—r antiqui Scholasticâ— agunt de intâ—llâ—ctu Voluntatâ— Potentiae operativae Dâ—â— quasâ— dâ— Potentiis ratione distinct is instâ—tâ—â—ntque de â—llis peculiares tractatus cum Magis Thom. c. Ruiz de Vohâ—â—â— Dei disp 14. â— 4. pag. 158. And he contradicting it saith as much Nihilomiminus intra â—asdem lineaâ— gradus intellectus voluntatis distinguimus Potentiam executivam â—â— partem â—arundem Potentia rum But less aptly or OMNIPOTENCE WISDOM and GOODNESS or LOVE by names borrowed from their effects upon the creatures § 7. This ONE GOD is revealed to us in THREE PERSONS The FATHER the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom Word and Son and the HOLY SPIRIT One in Essence incomprehensibly Three ad intus but discernibly Three in their Operations ad extra and Relations thereto § 8. As we must conceive of GODS ESSENCE by INADAEQUATE Conceptions as aforesaid or not at all so must we of his EXISTENCE as in the Creature we call it Modally viz. His ESSENCE being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance VIRTUS PERFECTIO which in the Creature is MATTER or substance FORM and DEGREE and his FORMAL VIRTUS being Potentia-Vitalis Intellect and Will so his Existence is considerable 1. In VIRTUE it self radically which is Potentia Activa Inclinata 2. As in Act IMMANENT objectively as Gods self living self-knowing and self-loving 3. And as in ACTION ad extra either objectively or effectively TRANSIENT And in this third respect Gods Essence is the Operator of all his works § 9. The Three Divine Principles Vital-active Power Intellect and Will and the Three Divine Persons Father Word and Spirit do alwayes inseparably co-operate But so as that there is a Trinity also of their Impressions or Vestigia which are answerably to have a Trine attribution each Principle being eminently apparent in his own impression though with the rest § 10. Gods WORKS are CREATION GOVERNING and PERFECTING And so he is 1. The first EFFICIENT OF ALL BEING Ex QUO by creating and continuing which are as one 2. The DISPOSING or GOVERNING Cause PER QUEM 3. The END AD QUEM IN QUO perficiuntur § 11. God having given a BEING to the
same help that is now sufficient to salvation as then 2. Consider the great difference between perfect Innocency and some one commanded act And 3. Consider that the helps afforded by grace are very great and that Habitual Grace doth in some measure heal lapsed nature or else what is it He that is Habitually Prompt to Love and duty hath some cure and some ability For to be prompt is more than to be able And therefore it is an incredible thing and a reproach of habitual grace that Adam was more able to live and persevere without any sinful thought word or deed than a Holy soul is to think one good thought or speak one good word or restrain one blasphemy or other sin Therefore it is as credible that Christs repairing habitual Grace enableth godly men and his commoneâ— grace common men to think or do somewhat better than they do as that Angels and Adam had no other grace and could without other live without any sin Therefore I take Jansenius to do well in opening Original pravity and the power of Gods grace and his special intent to save his chosen But I think he so earnestly studied for that side alone that he injuriously overlooketh the whole frame of sapiential Government and the common grace which is presupposed to the special and greatly wrongeth Christ and his grace by denying him to give to men in common that which our experience assureth us they possess Ad X. When he maketh uneffectual Velleities to be Christs unresistible grace either he thinketh that men are saved with such only or not for he speaketh not his mind plainly in that that I can find If yea then he abaseth the grace of Christ to think that many are saved by it that love a Whore or any sin much better than God and Grace and Glory If not as I think he held then he holdeth that most that have the effectual grace of Christ are damned and had no possibility properly of escape And why doth he make so harsh a thing of mens asserting a sufficiency of some uneffectual grace and say to what purpose is it and yet assert that to most men the grace of Christ had not so much as any sufficiency to save them nor put them into any true possibility of life Ad XI I. It seemeth to me a contradiction to say as in the second branch of his distinction that Homo potest Velle and yet that aliud adhuc adjutorium necessarium est ut de facto velit For necessarium est sine quo res esse non potest Therefore the non potest is present wherever the necessarium is wanting But if they talk only of a passive or obediential power and say Man can believe because God can make him believe and so denominate man Able to do that which they mean God is able to make him do this is but to play with words II. His saying that now there is no sufficient grace is before disproved and by him not proved That it is the same with that of the state of Innocency is vainly said It is the same in general as man is the same and Intellect and will the same But to be able to live without sin and to be able to forbear one sin or to hear a Sermon or do one commanded act are not the same And to hold none but this with Pelagius is not all one as to hold this with a more special grace And that it is pernicious to the lapsed is rashly said For in the reprobate it doth them no harm but good and in the elect it tendeth to higher grace And he mistaketh in saying that it supposeth nature sound For if it were proved that nature without grace hath no good inclination yet why may not unsound nature receive grace ad posse Is not that grace some cure of its unsoundness and tends to more III. But as to his saying that the more men have of it the more miserable they are and the more damnable and that no man ever used sufficient grace or will do I answer 1. The good man it seemeth forgot that all the same may be said as truly of his special Grace both in them that come short of faith and Justification and them that apostatize from it as he holdeth many do 2. But it is not true that having it maketh them damnable any more than having life health and riches but it 's the abusing it 3. That never any used sufficient grace by his leave and the School-mens is unproved viz. that no man since the fall ever did any good or forbore any evil obediently by such grace as left him able to have done otherwise in the instant before the act or as inferred not his volition as necessary exviillius causae 4. And that all that which cometh short of the effect is none of the Grace of Christ is unproved unless he mean only the adequate immediate effect The Law doth make Duty and so hath its effect And Gods motions make their various Impressions on the soul and so have their effect But whether a Godly mans will could not by that same motion have produced a better effect in his will than was produced by it he must better prove Ad XII I. Whereas Paul opposeth the Law of works and the Grace of Christ he opposeth or too far distinguisheth the Law of Christ and the Graâ—e of Christ Just as Sir H. V. in his Meditations He taketh all spoken and written precepts or Laws to be the Law which is distinguished from Grace which is meer Alteration of the soul But this is confusion and subverteth true Theologie For the Law is the instrument of signifying Gods mind and the Spirit worketh with and by it on our minds And both go together both before the fall and under Christ And both are Grace now even as body and soul are one man The Gospel is oft called Grace in the New Testament It 's true that a Law meerly as a Law may be distinguished from the Spirits operations on the soul And so Paul and Augustine oft shew that the Jewish Law as a Law could not make men righteous without grace And we deny not but the Law of Christ meerly as a Law is insufficient without the Spiritâ— Grace But to conclude hence that this is the difference between the Old â—ovenant and the New and the Righteousness of each of them of men under them that one is obedience to a written Law and the other is the effect of the Spirit is not sound For under each Covenant there was both Law and Spirit though with difference Adam had Grace as Jansenius confusseth And the Fathers before the Flood had Law and Spirit And the Godly â—ews had Law and Spirit And all Christians are subject to Christ their King and obey his Laws though by the Grace of his Spirit And it is not two Righteousnesses that relate to Law and Spirit but one as an effect of two concauses The
doctrine of faith and Law and promises of Christaâ—e the Means which the Spirit useth in operating our Faith Love and Obedience And it is not two Covenants that give these two but as soul and body make one man so the Word of Christ and his Spirit make up one total cause of our sanctification The Spirit causeth us to believe that which the Word revealeth and to love the good which it proposeth and to obey the Precepts of the Word Therefore the Gospel is Grace and the Spirit is Grace that is a free gift of God to miserable sinners for their recovery and inward holiness is the effect of both And to feign that all obedience as it is performed to Christs Law upon its proper motives is therefore not of the Spirit or is our own Righteousness opposed to Christs because our own reason and free-will is exercised in it is Phanaticism and subverteth the Gospel and the Prophetical and Kingly Office of Christ II. God never gave a Law no not to the Jews only to convince them that they could not keep it but to be the Rule of their obedience And the Just did keep it in sincerity But the Law of Moses as separated by the ignorant Jews from the promise and grace of Christ could not be kept by any to Justification To say that Christs Laws now have no higher end than to tell us that we cannot keep them is Antichristianity Are we commanded to repent believe love God only to tell us that we cannot do it It 's true that without the Spirits help we cannot But it 's as true that the Command is the Rule of our duty and all the Gospel and Covenant of Grace is the means of exciting us to our duty by which the Spirit worketh in us faith repentance love and obedience But saith Jansenius the Law of Christ is to humble men in the sense of their disability and drive them to seek to Christ for his grace I answer 1. Is not humbling men and driving them to Christ a good effect If so then his Law is the means of all that good 2. Were the Gospel and all the Apostles Epistles written only to drive men to Christ and not to edifie them and make them perfect to salvation Were not the Precepts of Love and Holiness means of working Love and Holiness in men Is not the Word the seed that begetteth men to eternal life and is not the receiving of this seed into good and honest hearts made by Christ the cause of holiness and salvation Were not the Disciples clean by the word that Christ spake to them and doth he not say that his Word was spirit and life as being the concause of the Spirits vivification He that never received more benefit by Christs Doctrine Law and Gospel than to be convinced that he cannot believe repent obey or love God hath not yet the benefit which they are principally intended for But suppose that by Law he had meant the meer penal part or threatning as some words would make a man suspect 1. It 's a strange description of a Law to exclude the precept and premiant part and include only the penal part which is the last and least 2. As it is the same Man that hath Love and Hatred Hope and Fear so it is the same Law of Christ which hath precept and prohibition promise and penalty And it is the same Holiness or New Creature which is a conformity to all together Of which more anon III. He can never prove that all unbelievers have no Power to â—â—e any means which tendeth to â—aith by a preparatory grace nor that the use of all such means is Impossible to them XIII His distinction of Natural and Moral Impotency is good But then that Moral Impotency it self must not be made the same with the Natural else there will be the same reason for excusing sin by it If mans Will had been made by God such as could not possibly love him or holiness it would not have left a man unexcusable in judgement that his enmity was Voluntary It is reason enough for a man to kill a â—oad or Serpent as malum sibi naturale because it is a hurtful creature But this is no Moral Evil in them nor is their death their punishment nor yet in any ravenous creature which preyeth on the rest that are innocent And so would it be with bad men if God had made them bad Indeed if Adam have made them all bad and God have given no Saviour Grace or Remedy they are conâ—emnable and unexcusable as they were virtually in Adam if judged only by the Law of Innocency as made to Adam But they are excuseable if judged by Christ by the Law of grace which condemneth no man meerly as not innocent or a sinner but as a rejecter of grace These things are so plain and weighty that Jaâ—senius should not joyn with the Antinomians in opposing them XIV While he confesseth that Christ so far dyed for all as to procure them all the mercy which he giveth them I have no further quarrel with him but to prove that a Condition pardon of sin and grant of Life eternal with much means and help to make men perform the Condition which is but a suitable Acceptance is indeed mercy XVI That Christs grace is Love or Complacency in good is a truth which I highly value but with all these exceptions to his doctrine 1. It is the Heart of the new Creature and that which must communicate it self to all the rest or else they are lifeless and unacceptable For the will is the man in Gods account And complacency or love or appetite is the first act of the will which is it that he calleth with Augustine Delectation Grace lyeth principally in a Placet But the man hath more parts than his Heart And all other parts of sanctification are graces of Christ in their several places and not love only 2. Though no man is to love himself as God nor instead of God nor above God nor as the noblest ultimate object of his love yet all men are necessitated by nature to love themselves and therefore to desire their own felicity in loving God next to God as the final object of that love And so our end is finis amantis vel amicitiae which includeth mutual complacency and union though not in equality And to such an end grace causeth us to use the means And Christ is proposed to us as our Saviour and all his grace as for our good and all Gods commands as necessary for our happiness and sin is described to us to be hated as our oâ—â— evil and destruction and against our good as well as against Gods will and honour And with us this is denyed scarcely by the Antinoâ—ians themselves Much less by any judicious Christians 3. It is past the reach of any of us to prove that our actual love is the first effect of the sanctifying Spirit on the soul
Enemies and Unbelievers Christ died not for them as such but as in their antecedent recoverable pardonable sin and misery THE Fifth Days Conference WITH AN ARMINIAN Of mans natural sinfulness and impotency to good and of FREE-WILL A. You have hitherto perswaded us that all the Controversies of the Decrees and Redemption between the Synodists and Remonstrants being resolved into those of the Execution we should there expect the solution of all To this therefore we are next to come And first about mans Sinfulness Impotency and Free-will And there all these things following offend me The first Crimination That some of them deny all true Free-will and others deny all Free-will to good and others to all spiritual good by which man is made uncapable of being a moral Agent and so uncapable of moral Good or Evil any more than a Tree or Beast seeing Free-will is the seat of moral Virtues and Vices which necessitated Natures are uncapable of B. I hope you are willing to understand your self and to be understood Tell me then what mean you by Free-will A. I know that the true nature of Liberty is much controverted but I mean that Qua positis omnibus ad agendum requisitis possumus agere vel non agere * Alvarez hath these conclusions hereof de Aux l. 12. d 115. p. 469. 1. Ad liberum arbitrium necessario requiritur quod positis omnibus antecedenter secundum ordinom rationis vel temporis ad actum praerequisitis possit operari vel non operari Ita viz. ut cum iisdem praerequisitis stet simul in libero arbitrio facultas potentia qua possit operari si velit vel non operari si velit But the question is de posse velle 2. Non est de ratione aut definitione liberi arbitrii quod positis omnibus secundum ordinem causalitatis antecedenter praerequisitis ad operandum talem actum possit eundem actum non operari in sensâ— composito si compositio fiat inter hujusmodi requisita carentiam talis actus seu actum contrarium 3. Legitima liberi arbitrii definitio ita se habet lib. arb est facultas voluntatis rationis ad utrum libet agendum vel non agendum ad agendum unum vel alterum But I suppose his predetermination inconsistent with his potentia ad contrarium in the first proposition Because it is antecedent to the wills self-determination and the Will is not able to determine it self against the predetermining causality of God nor as he holdeth without it neither and so hath no true power but on supposition of the premotion of God predetermining B. 1. Do you mean by agendum imperate Acts only or also Volitions A. Both All moral Acts of Body and Soul B. That which is requisite to extrinsick moral Acts is that they be commanded by a determined will You mean then that it is Liberty for the Tongue or Hand to be able to Act when the Will forbiddeth it and not to Act when the Will commandeth it A. I mean it only of imperate Acts as voluntary for it is the Will and not the executive power that is the seat of Liberty B. 2. By Agere what Action of the Will do you mean you know that mans Soul is an active nature and can no more cease all action than cease to be You may as well say that fire with fuel can forbear to burn as a Soul to be active A. I mean only moral Acts of Virtue and Vice B. All that a man doth by Reason is Actus humanus a moral Act either good or bad And a man at the use of Reason liveth among thousands of intelligible Objects necessarily presented to his Intellect by sense and among thousands of Objects good for us or bad for us desireable or hateful And is it possible for such a sensitive intelligent Creature to live continually with intelligible amiable or odible Objects and to suspend all rational apprehensions Volitions and Nolitions of them A. I mean it not of all moral Action in general but of this or that singular Act â—ic nunâ— B. I will not entangle you with an enquiry whether he that câ—n do every particular good act cannot do all universally and whether he that can forbear every singular evil or good act cannot forbear all when all is nothing but all singulars But 3. What mean you by requisitis All things of meer necessity to the Act sine quibus non Or also all things that can possibly be put to ascertain the Act A. Of the first I am most fully resolved Of the second there is much doubtfulness If I include it I know you will ask me whether it be impossible for God so to determine the Will as to make the contrary act impossible without taking away its Liberty And whether Christ could commit every sin or else was not free And whether Heaven take away all Liberty if it make sin impossible But briefly I answer you that the Libertas Viatoris differeth from that in Heaven and that Ours still supposeth a possibility of the Contrary but Theirs doth not B. But if it be their Liberty to be past a posse peccare why should it not be ours to come as near it as may be especially when we have the fore-tasts and first-fuits of Heaven on Earth and Grace is the seed of Glory A. It is our Liberty to be as far from sin as may be But this is another kind of Liberty and not to be confounded with that which is a meer power of doing or not doing B. 4. But that a man can act positis omnibus ad agendum requisitis is no wonder so can a Stone or Bruit but how say you potest non agere when non-agere is not an effect or exercise of Power There needs no Power ad non agendum A. Yes when Nature or Vice and Temptation draw us to a forbidden Act it is a work of Power to resist them and forbear it B. But sure Nature Vice or Temptation do not so draw us to love God perfectly to hate all Sin perfectly to be heavenly-minded to consent to suffer Death for Christ c. as that we should need any power to resist such drawings or forbear such acts How then do you make this a part of your power A. But when the Spirit of God draweth us to love him it is an act of natural abused power to resist him And also in this and the former case I say that by possumus here we do not mean a moral or physical power always but in this instance only a logical power And our meaning only is that we are not necessitated to Act or not Act to love God or to hate him or not to love him As Privations are reduced to Entities in Descriptions so are Impotencies to Powers B. The word Posse then in your definition is equivocal and signifieth both Power and No Power What a definition is that But
to anything in our duties in his reward tell me 1. Why are they said so oft to Please him and we are commanded to do those things that Please him and 1 Joh. he heareth us because we do those things that Please him 2. And why then doth he not as well for Christs merits or Righteousness reward our sinning our folly and vanity our idleness our dreams or all our natural indifferent actions as our Love and holiness 3. And why do you and all men regard or reward a loving thankful obedient child more than one that will scorn you and spit in your face And why do all Princes and Rulers make any difference between the righteous and the wicked a rogue and an honest man And why do Churches so strictly try the Godliness of their members Why do you make any difference in your Communion What meaneth Church discipline And why are you your selves so desirous to be esteemed Godly persons and differenced from others if God himself do make no difference And how is the righteous more excellent than his neighbour and called Gods jewels and the apple of his eye his peculiar people a holy Nation and his treasure And why is it made the mark of a faithful man Psal 15. 4. that a vile person is contemned in his eyes but he honoureth them that fear the Lord if there be nothing in holiness and obedience any more than in sin for God to reward Lib. You delight to make me seem foolish by your Cavilling You might easily understand that I did not mean that good works are no more Rewardable than Idleness or Evil But that they are not rewarded for their proper worthiness as being faulty and so unjustifiable with God but it is for the merits of the Righteousness of Christ imputed to believers P. When you understand what you should say you will speak intelligibly But be not angry that your confusion is laid open to you About Merit and Imputation we must speak distinctly afterwards That no works of ours are Rewardable till their faultiness is pardoned nor Rewardable according to the Law of Innocency nor upon any terms but those of the Covenant of Grace which freely giveth salvation to penitent believing accepters which free gift and acceptance of our duties is purchased by the meritorious righteousness of Christ all this we hold as fast as you do We dream not of any access to God but by a Mediator nor of any acceptance of our selves or our duties works or righteousness but on the account of Christs merits and intercession by which the sins of our best works are pardoned and life eternal freely given to obedient believers Of the worthiness of our works we must speak more anon Lib. I smell whereabout you are You make us hear the Pope that is in your belly You mean as the Papists that Christ hath merited that your works shall be meritorious P. Hath not Christ Merited that our holy Love and obedience be Rewarded Lib. Yes but what 's that to Merit P. Hath he not by his Merit made them Rewardable Lib. Yes or else how can they be Rewarded P. Do you not know that by Merit the Papists themselves profess that they mean nothing but Rewardableness At least do we Protestants mean anything else by it Lib. What the Papists or you mean you best know your selves but I know what you say And you both talk like the ignorant enemies of Grace P. Do you include the Jansenists who say that all Christs Grace now is nothing but his irrestible efficient operation of Holy Love in the soul and that God moveth us to it necessarily or insuperably and that he now giveth no Grace meerly sufficient which is not effectual or meerly effectual to make us Able but also to make us Act and that now he leaveth nothing to our Free-will in Christs gracious operations but giveth in act all the Will and all the merit that men have and that Fear and obedience of a Law written is our own Legal Righteousness though it respect the new Law but Christs Righteousness which he giveth us as distinct from our Legal Righteousness is only his Spirit or Love put into the heart Lib. I do not believe that any Papist is so much for free grace P. But if you deny it and the book be opened and it found there written is it nothing to you to be found in falshood Lib. But I say not as Jansenius that it is the Law written in us but Christs Righteousness imputed to us which is our Righteousness P. Did you not even now confess an Inherent Righteousness Lib. Yes but not to our Justification P. Of that more anon By Justification they mean Making us holy Lib. But Jansenius is not a common Papist why tell you me of him P. My business here is not to justifie the Papists but to understand your mind I do not think you know what the Papists hold in it Lib. I am not ashamed to be a stranger to their Books But I will bring one when you will that shall open the abomination of their doctrine of merit Till then it 's you to whom I speak P. Content we will make another dayes work of that Tell me then whether it be Names or Things that you make so much ado about Lib. Both we like not ill names and worse false doctrine P. What are the Names that displease you Is Reward or Rewardableness one Lib. No if you will understand them well For they are Scripture words P. Is worthiness one of them Lib. Yes if you will say that we are worthy of the Reward or of salvation P. Do you not know that the Scripture usually so speaketh Rev. 3. 4. They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy 2 Thes 1. 5 11. Worthy of the Kingdom of God 1 Thes 2. 12. Walk worthy of God Luke 20. 35. That are accounted worthy to obtain that world 21. 36. That you may be counted worthy to scape all these things and to stand c. Matth. 10. 11. Enquire who in it is worthy 13. If the house be worthy let your peace remain If it be not worthy let your peace return 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me Matth. 22. 8. They which were bidden were not worthy Acts 13. 46. Ye judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life Is not this Scripture Lib. By Worthy the Text meaneth not merit but fitness to receive P. Our question is not now of the Meaning but the Name you know Lib. I am not against the Scripture names if well understood P. Merit is a name I perceive that you are against And we make so small a matter of words that you shall choose any other name of the same signification and we will forbear this rather than offend you But yet tell me Q. 1. What if the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were translated Deserving and Merit would it not be as
to perswade men that we are not of the same body and to own a sinful dishonourable separation 17. And by all these means these Over-doers do greatly increase Atheism and Infidelity and prophaneness among us while their zeal against Truth and reproaches of sound doctrine do make men think that our Religion is nothing but proud humour and self-conceit and while they see us so boldly condemn almost all the world except our selves they will think that so few as we deserve not to be excepted 18. By this injurious extremity against the Papists we do but kindle in them a bitterer enmity to us and hatred of them breedeth hatred in them of us and so we set them on plotting revenge against us as implacable injurious enemies when we should deal soberly and righteously with all men and seek to win them by truth and gentleness 19. I And such dealings with them do draw Persecution on the Protestants that live under their Dominions and if we refuse to use them here as Christians no wonder if abroad they use not the Protestants as Men. 20. And by such great abuses of Reformation men hinder Reformation for the time to come and do their part to make it hopeless while they discourage such attempts by dishonouring the Reformation which is past Even as David George and Muntâ—er and the Munster Doâ—ages and Rebellions do hinder the â—eviving of Anabaptistry in the world and the shame of their old practices and successes is as a Grave stone upon the Sepuleher of their Cause so do these men do their part to make it with the whole Reformation that none hereafter may date to own or meddle with such work These that I have opened briefly to you are the real fruits of false injurious and ignorant zeal and over-doing against the Papists And if Popery revive it 's like to be by such men S. But Popery is an heinous evil and corrupt nature is so prone to evil thaâ— you need not thus disswade men from going too far from it or from over-doing against it no more than from being overmuch religious P. You may say the same as truly of the errors on the contrary extream All of them are evil and men are prone to evil But 1. Little know you how common it is in the world to spend mens zeal against the real or supposed evil of other mens Opinions and thereby to strengthen the mortal evil of their own carnal affections and passions and worldly lives and to take a zeal for Truth and Orthodoxness for real Holiness while usually such miss of Truth it self 2. And you know not the wiles of Satan how ordinarily he betrayeth a good Cause by the ill management of its most zealous friends and doth undo by over-doing When he will play the Devil indeed with Eve he will seem to be more than God himself for Knowledge of Good and Evil and for the advancement of mankind to be like God and God shall be accused by him as if he were untrue and envyed our perfection When he will play the Devil indeed with Christ he will seem to be more for valiantness and trusting God than Christ was and pleadeth Scripture for tempting God When he will play the Devil indeed in the Pharisees he will be stricter for the â—abbath and for Discipline in avoiding the company of the Publicans and sinners and stricter in fastings and dyet and other observations than Christ himself And he will be a zealous enemy to Blasphemy and a zealous Royalist for Caesar and a zealous honourer of the Temple and the Law when Christ or Paul or other Apostles are to be destroyed by it And when he will play the Devil in the Nicolaitans Simonians and Gnostick Hereticks he will seem to be for higher knowledge and greater liberty than the Apostles were And so when he would sow discord among Christians and would kill their Love and divide Christs Church and set them in a mental and oral War against each other he will aggravate the errors and faults of others and he will seem a more zealous friend of Truth and enemy to Popery Heresie Error Superstition false Worship or other faults than Christ is But he knoweth why S. But God telleth us himself that he is jealous about his Worship and hath in Scripture more severely executed his Justice upon the corrupters of his Worship than almost any other crime P. No doubt but God is jealous against Idolatry He that knoweth not the true God from Idols cannot honour him And he that worshippeth him not as a most Great and Holy God dishonoureth or blasphemeth him on pretence of worshipping him And to worship him by an Image is to perswade men that God is like that which that Image doth represent which is to deny him to be God And no doubt but the Jews great temptations to Idolatry from the Nations about them were to be oppugned by great severities of God And no doubt but Moses Law was to be honoured by Gods severe executions on the breakers of it But when you come to Christs preaching you find how oft he teacheth the Pharisees to go learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice When he conferreth with the Woman of Samaria John 4. she presently turneth from the doctrine of faith as Sectaries do among us to the Controversies of the times Our Fathers say In this Mountain and you say At Jerusalem men ought to worship But Christ calleth her off such low discourse and teacheth her to worship God as a Spirit in spirit and truth if ever she would be accepted of him S. But it is a time now when Popery is striving to rise again and how unseasonably would you abate mens zeal against it P. No more than he was against his Lawyers Zeal who grew hoarse with senseless bawling for him saying I am glad he hath lost his voice or else I might have lost my Cause I am so much against Popery that I wish it wiser and abler adversaries than self-conceited unstudied Zealots who will honour Popery by entitling it to the Truths of God and the Consent of the Antient or Universal Church or would make people believe that it consisteth in some good or indifferent things as in some Doctrines Forms or Government which others can see no harm in And so teach men to say If this be Popery we will rather be Papists than of them that rave as in their sleep against they know not what Could these men be perswaded to lay out their Zeal and diligence in propagating the practical knowledge of Christianity it self and let things alone which they understand not and SUSPEND TILL THEY HAVE THROUGHLY STUDIED or at least to forbear hindering wiser men and calumniating and backbiting those that would by wisdom defend that truth which by folly and rashness they go about to betray they might be meet for their share of that honour which now they forfeit S. You strive against Gods Judgements by which he