Fruition of Good there is that in God which corresponds to the Will in Man by which he may enjoy good And seeing there is nothing in God which is not essential to him as he eternally necessarily primarily actually knows so doth he also eternally necessarily primarily actually will or love and since there is nothing which has an eternal necessary Being sect 1. par 6. to be so beloved save only God He eternally necessarily primarily actually loves himself And because this Love or Respect to the Object beloved is a Relation to another for another for Love and the Thing beloved are relatively distinct and mutually oppos'd there is another Relation besides the two former of knowing and being known found in God to wit Loving or Love which Relation in that it has an immediate Respect to Good for Good is the proper Object of Love Good known to be good ignoti nulla cupido is the Correlate to Love. Wherefore in regard that nothing but God himself can be the Object of his eternal-necessary primary-actual Love he alone being eternal God known to be good must be the Correlative of that Love. And forasmuch as Truth is the Good and Perfection of an intelligent Being God known to be Truth is that very Good. And seeing Truth known is the express Character of the Object in the Knowers Intellect without any dissimilitude whatsoever from it in it self God in God is God known to be Truth Since therefore God to be in God is the Father to be in the Son par 5 7. the Relative which is Love must be related to the Father and the Son directly according to their very joint-Relation and consequently seeing every Relate denotes Distinction from its Correlate LOVE which is the third Relative is distinct from the FATHER and the SON according to their very joint-Relation of Father and Son. Whence it must of necessity be that because nothing is in God which is not God sect 1. par 11. LOVE is God distinct from Father and Son and so an intellectual incommunicable Substance and consequently a Divine Person and thus a Third Person is found in God. 10. And because this Third Person is related to the Father and the Son as Father and Son whence they are both but one joint Principle of Love there are but three Relatives in the Deity and consequently three Persons only or a Trinity of Persons in Unity of Essence 11. But yet albeit the Third Person proceeds both from the Father and the Son he nevertheless proceeds principally from the Father because Good as Good is that which produces Love though it cannot be beloved unless known And therefore though Good known to be Good be the adequate Principle of Love yet the whole Force of moving in Good known is in the Good and Knowledge is but the application of it that it may move Whence appears a considerable Ground of Reason why our Blessed Saviour and some of the Primitive Fathers might very well be induced to speak of the Holy Ghost's procession from the Father without mention made of his procession from the Son. 12. Why the Third Person is called the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit and the Lord and Giver of Life seems to be in respect of the Church which is the peculiar Office of the Holy Spirit sent by the Son from the Father to enliven with Grace and to breath or inspire Sanctity into and not in respect of the other two Persons in whom Life and Holiness abound no less than in the Third 13. Lastly Whereas the Divine Essence is both Subjectum and Terminus of the Relations in God and that Relatives are simul natura cognitione it s plainly consequent in regard the Divine Essence is an eternal Being sect 1. par 4. and that the Divine Persons are eternally related to each other par 4 9. of this Section that the whole Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity are co-eternal together and co-equal Obj. 1. That God should necessarily know himself and be known by himself and likewise necessarily love himself appears not to be any such great Mystery as that of the adorable Trinity has been ever held by the Catholic Church to be Solut. The stupendious Mystery of the Trinity in Unity appears not so plainly in that as in the Consequent of it namely that God necessarily knowing himself and being necessarily known by himself constitutes two distinct Persons and that necessarily loving himself constitutes a third Person distinct from both the other two whilst every one of them by reason thereof as hath been shewn is an incommunicable Substance notwithstanding that there be no more but one only Substance in God. Object 2. Inasmuch as every one of the Three Persons is said to be an incommunicable Substance there seems rather to be Three entire Substances than only one Solut. It doth not necessarily follow that because the Father is an incommunicable Substance the Son an incommunicable Substance and the Holy Ghost an incommunicable Substance that therefore there are three several Substances for the Substance of any one of the three Persons is not a several Substance from the Substance of the other Two whilst the very same numerical Essence Nature or Being is God knowing himself God known of himself and God loving himself known And yet because there is nothing at all accidental in God sect 1. par 11. but every thing in him is substantial and that to know and to be known and to love what is known as such cannot possibly be the same we must of necessity hold that the Divine Nature is substantially One but relatively More or that the Substance of God is distinguished yet not into more Substances but into more Relations subsisting in the same Substance whence there are three Subsistences in one Substance or a Trinity of Persons in Vnity of Essence SECT III. The Vniverse was created by God. There was no prae-existent Matter whereof it was made It is not of the Nature and Essence of God. It neither could have been eternal for Duration nor infinite in Extension There is no Endless Number of Worlds The Vniverse is only one the best for Kind that was possible to be created 1. VVHereas it was proved sect 1. par 6. that there is only one First-Being whose Existence alone has no dependence on another it must needs be that the Universe is either God himself who is that first Being or that it was originally derived from him in every part and parcel thereof 2. And that the Universe is not God himself is plain from this that God is one simple uncompounded Being sect 1. par 10 11. whereas the Universe in every part of it is some way or other compounded as for example Body is composed of several material Atoms Man of Body and Soul and Angels of Essence and Existence and all these again of Substance and Accident The Universe therefore with all that therein is was originally derived from God alone 3. And since
Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
from the exercise thereof by some special Compact or Promise But it is not so certain and undoubted a Truth as it is taken by the quoted Author to be for since he himself tells us that Dominium est libertas propriis facultatibus secundum rect am Rationem utendi and rightly it is evident that no Authority has a Right to exercise Dominion otherwise than according to Right Reason and therefore it is not only injurious to revoke a free Gift contrary to Compact or Promise but also if in any other Respect whatsoever it be not according to Right Reason to do it this being the absolute Rule for the exercising Dominion by as from the following Instances will I think be evidently made appear the first of which shall be in a matter of small moment A Pinner makes a Wire-pin and when he has done clips it into pieces and throws it away meerly because he will or for his sole Pleasures sake in doing this he neither wrongs any Person nor the Pin because it is his own and he made it yet in that he does an irrational Act in regard that Reason obliges every man to act in every thing for some good End whereas this is plainly a vain and frivolous Action tending to no good he violates thereby his Rational Nature and so injures himself which because Reason tells him he ought not to do he exercises his Dominion over the Pin not according to but against Right Reason which he is not impower'd by the Right of Dominion to do The second Instance shall be in a matter of moment as follows A Sovereign Prince has a just occasion to make War against a potent Enemy and after due Consultation had with his most wise and faithful Counsellors resolves at length on a Person undoubtedly the fitest in all the Kingdom to be his General and thereupon makes him so The Prince afterward notwithstanding he still upon prudent grounds esteems him a Person in every respect for Fidelity Valour and Conduct more requisite to be employed than any other in that Service yet nevertheless out of Fancy takes his Commission from him and bestows the Command of the Army upon another who through his ill Management is occasion of its Overthrow in this case though the Sovereign does his Subject no wrong in removing him from the high and honourable Trust of being General and conferring it on a Person far less worthy yet nevertheless he wrongs his own Reason and to be injurious to ones own Reason is the principal Wrong if well considered that any man can do because of the most intimate Concern to every one as being that which does Violence to Man 's very Natural Constitution which is Rational and thence becomes the Original of all Injury which any one does either to himself or others The third and last Instance of many that might be brought shall be in God himself in manner following Suppose the Almighty when he created the World to act therein as sure 't will be readily granted he did according to exact Wisdom and that there is no less Reason to continue it being made then there was at first to make it God in this case could not reduce it again to nothing without contradicting his own Reason which because it is impossible for him to do it's impossible likewise to annihilate the Universe upon the account of its being the free Product of his Will not but that he has strength infinitely more then is sufficient to do it but forasmuch as the Universe is the Result of his immutable Wisdom and Goodness that it can never enter into his Thoughts to do it If it be asked what advantage a Man has by Propriety in a thing above another Person that has no Right thereto at all if he may not dispose of it as he pleases I answer this advantage that he may make use of it according to Right Reason at his Pleasure whereas any other who is not the Proprietor cannot without the Owners Leave first had ever lawfully use it at all Objection 6. From the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God Divines usually prove the Necessity of the Eternal Communication of his Divine Nature to the Son and Holy Ghost and thence infer that the World was not a necessary but free Product of the Divine Goodness since otherwise the Almighty should have communicated Being to the Creature no less necessarily then he did his Essence to the Second and Third Person in the Blessed Trinity and consequently an infinite Perfection contrary to what is demonstrated Sect. 3. Answer Though I speak of Gods being necessitated to create Sect. 3. Yet I expresly there say that it is only by his Eternal immutable Wisdom and Goodness and that they no otherways engage his Will save only to make the best Choice not that God was ever undetermined in his Will since it is impossible that his Wisdom being essential to him should not perpetually necessarily know and his Goodness no less essential to him should not perpetually necessarily incline him to will what is best or most agreeable to both and equally impossible that his will not really but notionly only distinct from either whatsoever is in God being God Sect. 1. Par. 11. should not act according to them so that as all the internal Actings of God are essentially wise and essentially good so are they likewise essentially necessary whilst the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Will are essentially the same and his internal Actings nothing else but his very Will essentially actuated with Wisdom and Goodness and by consequence eternally and necessarily so actuated And therefore the Instance from the necessity of communicating the Divine Nature by the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit for proof that the World was not necessarily created in stead of disproving the necessity of the Worlds Creation is clearly an Argument for it For seeing the Communication of the Divine Nature is rendred by the Objection and truly the necessary Result of the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God it plainly argues a greater Perfection in an intelligent Being to act out of necessity of Nature then to act with that Freedom which supposes a Liberty of acting or not acting or pleasure and consequently in regard there are no degrees of Perfection in God who is essential Perfection it self that the Creation was as well a necessary as voluntary Product of the Divine Will and that the reason why the Universe is not of infinite Perfection answerable to the Maker of it is from the Incapacity of the Subject accordingly as was shewn Sect. 3. Par. 1 2 3 8. the World being a Complex of Things the perfectest that could be created ibid. Objection 7. If the World could not have been eternal as it is said in Sect. 3. Par. 4. that it could not the reason thereof must be either because God could not have created it from Eternity for want of Power or because the World it self was incapable of existing eternally But
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA