must he be the ultimate end of our Actions But in this case we must distinguish betwixt what God is and what we apprehend him to be a Sinner is not presently brought to lay aside the fear of Gods revengefull hand and to imbrace and depend upon him for the mercie that is offered to him Ordinarily I conceive God doth manifest his love goodness and mercy to penitent Sinners gradually and with proportion to future experience of the truth and sincerity of their Repentance I mean such a manifestation of himself in these Attributes of complacency and benignity to Mankind which one may term the overshadowing of the Spirit of Love upon the Soul inlightning refreshing and comforting her against the terrors of the Divine Justice due to Sin without a Propitiation by Christ Let me therefore advise you to wait with patience till the day break and the shadows flee away Cant. 1.17 till this Sun of Righteousness arise upon your Soul with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and to endeavour to be perswaded as of other mens so of your own filiation and that you may the better believe it to bless God most frequently for the inestimable gift of his Son Jesus Christ by whom alone a Reconciliation was wrought betwixt God and mankind by the Faith whereof holy Men and Women look for the inheritance of Sons and Daughters and do not stand in fear of stripes as vassals and Bond-slaves being emancipated from the Spirit of Bondage through the freedom they have by the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father Rom. 8 15. meditating upon the greatness and excellency of that love the ever-blessed and glorious Trinitie hath exprest unto our Souls engraven before our eyes in eternal Characters of Blood even the Blood of the only Son of God largely described by all four Evangelists in their Histories of the Gospel though sundry yea innumerable other passages of our Saviours life are omitted S. Jo. 21 yea even the birth of Christ by two of them intimating unto us not only the certain truth of his Passion which had been unquestionable if but recorded by one of them and the great concernment of it to all mankinde as well in the example as necessity thereof but likewise recommending by that variety of describing the last tragical Act of his Blessed Life the frequent perusal of it in all times and kindes of Trial and Temptations What therefore you want of felicity at present and content in your New life do not despair of but expect assuring your self that you shall one day know and feel that the Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 God alone knowes how much of Heaven 't is best to give you in this Life that Angelical state which you aim at might be much more dangerous for you then you imagine When St. Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard things impossible to be uttered because he should not be elated by the abundance of Revelations there was given unto him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.7 some humiliating Temptation that might make him know that as yet he was lock't up in an earthly Tabernacle as lyable to the Assaults and Invasions of Satan and his Complices as to a final dissolution by death OBJECT XXV But still me thinketh if God had such a Love to my Soul he should vouchsafe me some manifestations thereof St. Paul rejoyced in his Infirmities desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ but nothing is so terrible to me as Death as if I had either no Christ to go unto or no such Christ as Saint Paul had SOLUTION 31. THe Consideration of the World to come and expectation of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgement of God dispensed by Jesus Christ according to the things that men have done in their bodies whether it be good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10.11 is questionless a very terrible thing even to such Christians as shall never have their share in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for evermore But is it not the same Word of God which promiseth a Pardon to the Penitent and threatneth damnation to the impenitent Sinner Why do you not believe him when he promiseth Mercy as well as when he threatneth Vengeance He that believes not the Divine Majesty in any one branch of Faith revealed plainly in his Word doth not believe him in the rest because the ground of Faith viz. the Veracity of God is the same in all the same Truth in Promises of Mercy as in Threatnings of Punishment the same Fidelity in performance of Good things as in the Execution of Evil. As for your instance in St. Paul I think I have already intimated unto you that he being a Saint of most eminent and exemplary piety of a Charity and Love to Christ and his Church even unto Extasie and Frenzy in the eyes of the World you ought not to expect the extraordinary favours vouchsaf't him by Heaven A lass why should you or I look for so much of Heaven to be delivered to us before hand or else must judge our selves wholly unconcern'd in the distribution of those heavenly Mansions I am confident either of us would be well content for such an assurance as had St. Paul to lye mouldring in our graves a million of years after the rest of our Brethren are crown'd with Glory yea perhaps as long in the Refining Flames of the Romish Purgatory But I mention not this as the faint Ejaculations of men that live without Hope but as expressions suitable to a sad Reflection upon our own Demerits Remember therefore that if God think fit to give you no Assurance yet he hath vouchsaf't unto you with the rest of Believers Promises of Glorification much fitter to be look't after and relyed upon then any sensible and experimental Consolation for what is tendred to us in the Holy Scriptures is immutable and permanent but such conclusions as are drawn only from experimental knowledge of our own obedience are very transjent and incertain never as is the Word of God infallible and eternal As for your Fear of Death which you are so far from meeting with St. Pauls alacrity of Spirit that you dare not encounter the thought of it in your breast the sound of a passing Bell or the Sight of a Friend strugling with the pains of Death being next to your remembrance of your own last end the formidablest thing imaginable no question the moral causes thereof ought to be heeded and the effects prevented I say moral causes because I presume there is in all creatures men not excepted a natural cause of fear of death which may be as innocent in men as the affections of Joy Delight Grief Anger c. and this can no more be alike in all men in the world then it can be imagined there should be the same degrees of other Affections in all constitutions and complexions of
whereof is the divers Methods that God hath made use of in delivering the System or Rules of either dispensation unto both People A 3d sence may be this the Apostle may intend by the Testimonie of the Spirit in Gods Children that Inclination and duct of Obedience which Gods Children do though not all of them in the same measure feel in their hearts sweetning their natures and bringing them gently to a complyableness with the Precepts of the Gospel and a putting their necks most willingly into the yoke of Christ his Commandments being no whit grievous to them 1 Jo. 5.3 like as yokes are very troublesome to Beasts not accustomed thereto as the Prophet speaks of the Jews Jer. 31.18 I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke but to such whose necks have been used to draw in them yokes are no way dreadful or troublesome In the first of these senses the word Spirit must be taken personally for the third Person in the ever Blessed and Glorious Trinity in the 2d it must be taken tropically the word not signifying in the natural and proper sense thereof but yet not without example Rom. 8.2 2 Cor. 3.6 Gal. 4.29 in the 3d sense it must signify metonymically the effect of the Spirit being called by the name of him that works that blessed effect in the Souls of Gods Children In the first and second of these senses the Testimony of the Spirit is communicated to all true Christians but in the third I know lyes the ground of your exception but because I shall have occasion to speak somewhat afterward directly to this point be pleased for the present to remember that I have told you that this inclination to obedience the duct of the Gospel is not alike efficacious upon all the children of God this Spirit being not given in the same measure to all the Sons of God As to the third branch of your Objection rather but one part of it viz. the want of the Testimony of your own Spirit that might witness together with the other that you are the Childe of God to give full satisfaction therein we must inquire into 1. the meaning of the word Spirit in this place 2. What the Testimony thereof is And of 3. what Authority in a business of this Importance the Testimony of a mans own Spirit is For the first the word Spirit in this place must signify I conceive one of these two things either first some noble and sublime Essence presiding in a Christian either as a Distinct subsistence from that which is one of the essential constitutive principles of every man or else as the Celestial and more Seraphical part of the Soul informing ordering and governing the rational faculties in all Spiritual and Divine things And in this sense it must be conceived to have some Resemblance with the office of the Imaginative faculty which being seated betwixt the outward senses and the Vnderstanding conveyes the Species of all sensible objects to the Intellectual facultie being it self of a middle nature betwixt rational and sensible To one of these senses I judge those Divines referre their opinions who assert man to consist of 1. Spirit 2. Soul and 3. Bodie unless by Soul in this tripartite division they understand an Essence capable of no other offices in Man but the performance of sensitive and vegitative operations Or 2ly the word Spirit in this place may signify and me thinks not at all incongruously some excellent gift of the Holy Ghost infused from above in our Baptism into the Souls of Christians whereby they are not only made capable of receiving divine Revelations and things above Reason but likewise inclined and encourain the performance of all those things which God requires at their hands to render them capable of obtaining the further inestimable degrees of his Love and Favour to Mankinde And therefore 2ly the Testimony of any mans Spirit is that Evidence which it gives concerning the whole Series of his conversation in reference to those principles of Faith and Obedience which God hath given him in his revealed Will as the Grounds and Rules of his Practice The 3d Authentickness of which Testimony doth manifest it self to every man partly by the known truth of the things attested which are not concealed from him but represented as the things of himself and partly from that power which God hath over it not only in rectifying any Errors thereof but likewise in shewing himself merciful toward us in such things wherein such a Testimony is not for but against us This Testimony you say you want because you finde not any Witness in your self that you are a Childe of God I conceive it is not impossible for your Spirit to give this Testimony though you have deafned your ear to it and take it for some deception of flesh and blood or a delusion of Satan using all the Devices he can to insnare you in carnal security but whether it be thus or no I shall advise you to endeavour to elicite and call up this Testimony by that which is the Test of it Do you continue in any wilful course of deliberate sin what know you by your self are you still guilty of any of those sins which in the judgment of the Apostle render a man uncapable of any inheritance with the Children of God if you are then look not for this Testimony till you have repented and amended your life nor then neither for it presently until such time as you have good experience of your Resolutions how they have held out in the time of tryal and Temptation and that the greatest and sharpest that in all likelyhood may happen unto you But if you are not thus guilty as for my part I believe you a re not of any mortal sin reigning in your bodie go to the Rule with this argument in your mouth The Holy Spirit of God saith Whosoever is born of God doth not sin willfully and deliberately Joh. 3.9 But upon a strict survey of my self I finde that I do not commit any such sin Therefore I am borne of God Upon the Truth of the middle Proposition depends the validity of this Testimony of your Spirit for the major is infallible and the Conclusion is undoubtedly true upon supposition that there be no such sin either of omission or commission in your conversation which may exclude you from your Sonship But yet for as much as the Apostle doth tell us that though he knew nothing by himself yet was he not thereby justified we ought in reason to lay no more weight on this disquisition and search of our selves then it will bear for our Knowledge being imperfect this search and inquiry into our own wayes cannot be absolutely perfect and consequently we subject to errors therein yet is it most certain that if we do it in sincerity of heart without partiality to our selves not only not allowing in our practise any the smallest sin but by deeds of Mortification
their Works expresly contrary to that of Saint Paul Gal. 2.6 where the Apostle sayes that God respects no Mans person the Gentiles being as eligible in Gods eye as the lineal seed of Abraham of which the Jews could not easily be perswaded neither Iames nor Peter who seemed to be Pillars being preferred and respected before Saint Paul a late abortive Convert by Him who seeth not as Man seeth And therefore if God hath not elected some and reprobated others without prevision and Intuition of their Qualifications as foreseeing what good or what bad or what nouse men would make of Grace given and consequently thereby assure or divest themselves of the Advantages and Priviledges of Gods common Love to Mankinde your fear of not being accepted because God hath from all Eternity some Quarrel or No Love to your Person is not only frivolous but dangerous and in it self destructive of all your Labours and Endeavours for eternal Life keeping them under the dismal and false Apprehension of Tyranny in the Divine Majesty which the Heathens themselves rejected under the Notion of Superstition To be short I shall only confront the Answer of God to Cain Gen. 4.7 whom I believe the Assertors of that Doctrine have ever held to be a Reprobate against the strongest Argument that may be used for inducing and confirming the belief of this prosopoleptical way of electing and reprobating men without any intuition of their good or evil deeds If thou do well shall thou not be accepted from whence are inferred these two things First that Cain himself might have offered an acceptable Sacrifice to God as well as Abel and Secondly if he had done so he had been accepted by God as well as was his brother So that it was not any Quarrel and Hatred that God had to the Person of Cain irrespectively considered but either to the evil that he had formerly done for we cannot presume Cain to have lived without sin till the time of the offering that Sacrifice nor doth the Text assert that to be the first Sacrifice that either he or Abel offered or that which he had now committed in offering a Sacrifice not worthy Gods acceptance at his hands What reason therefore you should have to fear the success of your Labours in the Lord upon Misprision of Personal Acceptance with God you see by what hath been said as also of your groundless fears of not being able to enter in at the straight Gate our Saviour having if you mark it threatned not them who strive because he hath commanded that active industrious way of attempting but them who only seek Luk. 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of getting Heaven very different from the former importing very little more though no more to the purpose than Balaams Wish that he might dye the death of the righteous Numb 23.10 OBJECTION VIII But though it will follow from hence that Personal Assurance of Remission and Pardon of Sin be not alwayes a necessary effect of Gods pardoning of us or our being in a way to be pardoned yet surely it is somewhat unlikely say you that the clean contrary viz. a perswasion that I shall not be pardoned should flow from so happy a condition as you would make me believe I am In. SOLUTION 13. IF you should throughly examine your self that you do thus perswade your self will undoubtedly appear to be false For to what purpose do you then pray fast and give alms lead a strict and severe life c. if you were indeed perswaded that you shall not be saved would any one but a mad man keep on his pace in rough and almost impassable wayes if he were certainly assured that he should never come to his journeys end his feet must needs be thought to confute his tongue if he should do thus Besides how preposterous a thing were it if you should take such sharp and severe courses as you do to enlarge your score supposing all these Actions of yours should be charged by God upon your account as so many guilded sins as you lately termed them But this I think you will have little reason to be afraid of seeing our Saviour hath told you that the Alms-deeds and Prayers of the Pharisees themselves were so rewarded as they desired they should be viz. with the Praises and Commendation of men Math. 6.16 and are not by him either stil'd sins or threatned with any punishment more then with the no-ground of expecting a Reward from God But as concerning the pardon of our sin it will be very useful to observe these four things 1. That the point of Faith concerning Remission of Sin is That by Christ Remission of Sins is given to Mankinde through Faith in his Blood 2. That this Remission is not absolutely though freely given but doth depend upon certain Conditions or Qualifications whereby men are made fit and capable of receiving it 3. That the Rules as well for the means of conveying this Donation to us as for our aptitude and capacity to receive the benefit thereof are to be sought out and taken from the Scriptures 4. That because many things of Importance concerning this doctrine are to be deduced from the Scriptures by the Mediation of humane understanding it is a mark both of Piety Wisdom and Humility to take the Catholique Church for our Guide and relyance therein False Interpretations of Scripture prove either full of Perplexity or Danger or both to our selves and others but most especially in such Doctrines so nearly importing our Salvation as this of Remission of Sin doth Therefore it is not to be regarded by what Medums or from what Principles your conclusions are drawn if they be only your own if you mean to sayl securely amidst the Tempests raised in the World by such diversity of Judgements and Imaginations embarque your self in the Vniversal Consentient and Ancient Interpretations and Doctrines of the Church and do not adventure so pretious a Fraught as is your soul redeemed with the bloud of Christ in the tottering Boat of your own or other mens private Interpretations of Scripture The Church teacheth you this doctrine viz. 1. That you are pardonable upon your Faith and Repentance 2. That God hath promised who cannot lye Heb. 6.18 that he will pardon you if you believe and and repent 3. That the Manifestation of Gods pardoning your sins is at present but imperfectly and inchoately wrought in your Heart by the Holy Ghost and the use of Sacraments but the full Evidence thereof is to be expected from Christ the Judge and to be patiently and chearfully waited for by Faith in the promises 4. That the Testimony of your own Spirit arising from your sincere conversation in the doctrines of the Gospel is the most certain Evidence that you or any man can ordinarily expect in this life and all this from pregnant Testimony of Scripture For you who hold a lawful and uninterrupted Succession of Ministers in the Church of Christh you
Most-holy once only in every year Heb. 9.8 doth consist of two branches because it supposeth that we have need of two things Justification and Sanctification therefore doth our High-Priest intercede with his Father for two things for 1. pardon of Sin for 2. grace of Obedience or holy living and these not intermitted but continued Acts of intercession for us to the end of our lives and for all unto the end of the world And this Act of Christs Intercession for pardon is two fold First a preventive act of Intercession or rather the beginning of an Act continued to higher degrees whereby Christ doth intercede with God for us that the Legal forfeiture of our lives by sin may not be taken immediately after the Fact and also that Grace of Repentance may be given us of this nature I conceive that Intercessional prayer of our Saviour Luk. 23.34 Father forgive them they know not what they do Where though the giving to such men Repentance be not exprest yet is it questionless implyed because without Repentance they cannot be pardoned The second branch of this Act is a subsequent mediatorie act of prayer or Plea with God for so much the word Advocate will bear if any man sin we have an Advocate c. on the behalf of the sinner repenting whereby Pardon is procured for him upon Gods Foresight that his Contrition and Repentance will be sincerely continued by the vertue and efficacy of the grace of perseverance which is interceded for by Christ and obteined upon the Penitents using the former measure of assisting grace and this as a blessing upon and a reward of his sincere endeavours of obedience This later branch of Christs intercession for pardon is that whereby Christ the Mediator doth receive into his protection the humiliating acts of a penitent soul perfuming the Tears and prayers of such a one with clouds of his own most precious Incense and together with his own offering them to Allmighty God as the fruits of his former Mediation and an earnest of that enlargement of his Church which as it is the travail of his soul Iai. 53.11 which he delights to see so will it be the joy of the holy Angels in the presence of God 16. Upon this Intercession of Christ depends our pardon of Sin and renovation by Grace from hence it is that all but Apostates and such as cease not to do despight to the Spirit of God by a continued presumptuous and malitious course of Sinning receive a benefit apportionate to their several Stations and Degrees And that you have no reason to think your self rejected into the fatal portion of them being indeed the purchase of the sinner himself thus cruel to his own soul who have no advantage nay not the greatest of all by this Intercession of Christ your Eyes fill'd with your Tears and your Ears deafned with your own Sighs your Hands so busy in distributing Alms your Feet so Active in visiting the Sick and your Knees made callous like the Primitive Saints with frequent Prayings are a sufficient witness to your self and to all the world beside OBJECT XIII But you Reply Did not Esau seek the Blessing with Tears and yet miss'd of it SOLUTION 17. BUt I presume you think St. Paul hath put this Objection into your mouth but if you please to survey the place in Hebr. 12.16 17. you shall finde that this doth not reach you unless you have at any time sold the blessing for a mess of pottage i. e. renounc't your interest in the land of Promise the pretious promises of the Gospel for the enjoyment of that Plenty Honour peace c. the Pomps and vanities of this wicked World I say renounc't your part and interest in the Merits and Mediation of Christ and that not indirectly and remotely as all who are guilty of wilful sins in some measure do but orally scandalously and treacherously which I presume you will not forge and charge upon your self though your fancy hath a large Shop and many Tools to work with Seeing then that by vertue of that preventional act of intercession lately mentioned you have not been cut off in your sins but have your life given unto you for a prey and withal Grace for Repentance unto life which like good Physick by reason of a mass of crude humors in the Stomack doth thus work somewhat violently in your soul why should you doubt that other subsequent Act of Christs Intercession whereby your pardon will be obtained hath God pleasure in the death of him that dyeth doth not he swear he hath not Ezek. 33.11 and hath the Divine Majesty so far lost his credit with you as not to be beiveled upon his oath can he which is Love it self not only scorn but hate the Prostrations of a Sinner that Sinner whose eyes would be content to pour out Rivers of bloud before the throne of Grace to obtain a Reconciliation with the offended Majestie of Heaven even that Reconciliation which Himself prayes from us men by the Ambassadors of his Holy Gospel as St. Paul hath told us 2 Cor. 5.20 O do not thus struggle to deprive your self of your interest and share in those merciful imbraces which hasten to meet and not fly from Repenting Sinners OBJECT XIV But yet still me thinketh my Sins are such as God cannot in Justice pass by his promises are too pretious to belong to me more temperate Sinners and such who have not so violenced the Law of God and provok't his Long-fuffering may doubtless have the benefit of them but as for me why should not my Lot be with them who but for ten times provoking were for ever secluded the Land of Promise SOLUTION 18. YOur Charity is very commendable that can make you believe so much for others and so little for your self but you should do well to remember that the Attributes of the Divine Majesty may not be limitted by us not that I think any one so foolish as to attempt it in respect of their nature which is impossible but in respect of their effects which to do is sinfull they are infinite in their own nature and must be so in our esteem to say God cannot forgive your sins is a sin against his power and justice to say he will not where he hath promised is a sin against his truth and goodnesse His goodness hath made him promise that he will do it and that he might make this promise good he hath provided a full satisfaction to his justice and all this as much before us as without us and this limited as fully and as largely to you as to any other Christian in the world This you cannot but see in that most comfortable and full affirmation of the Apostle Heb. 2.9 When he tells you plainly that it was the design of Gods Grace That Christ should tast death for every man and God so loved the World saith St. John cap. 3.16 That he gave his only begotten son
suggested to the contrary you may safely suppose any one that asketh capable of your charitable Benevolence 6. in giving ever have regard to that your Eye informs you the poor Wretch stands most in need of and which others are not so likely or so well able to supply as your self I need not mention to you any caution against vain glory the forfeiture of your Reward in Heaven upon our Saviours own caution against it will be your daily Remembrancer thereof 7. To constant Prayers and other holie Duties in your Familie though there be no Positive command in Scripture for it I believe you hold your self obliged Yet would I not have you so wedded to any form as not being able to please your self therein you should wholly discharge the Dutie it self that which best opens your Wants as a Christian and cometh home to the concernments of your own Family is the most proper and in all likelyhood may best suit with the temper and perswasion of everie Person in your House which in this Age we live in may not be so unanimous as you desire 8. In the performance of any of these as of all other Duties labour to shew your self of an alacrious Spirit For being they are Free will Offerings at least manie Acts of them may be so it is true in all the rest which the Apostle speaks of one of them God loveth a chearfull Giver 2 Cor. 9.7 9. I shall conclude with this caution which I desire you to make use of as a cordial and not as a conserve to make other things glib and palatable in swallowing remember that there is great difference betwixt the certain punishment annext to the breach of Law and a lesser degree of Glory in the life to come he that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully 2 Cor. 9.6 7. though where there is no sowing at all no Harvest in Justice can be expected yet where there is this spiritual sowing the crop shall be answerable to what is sown Though it should be every mans designe to aim at the highest degree of Glory and yet believe that he deserves not the least yet I would have such as are of your sad temper to consider that there is no danger incurred by being only capable of receiving a less reward then other men OBJECTION XIX But I think my self bound in Conscience to do the most and best I may and therefore I condemn my self of sin as ost as I fail of doing that which is best SOLUTION 27. YOur condition may be such as that you may be utterly uncapable of doing that which is best and consequently you ought not in reason to think your self bound to all that is best A single life is best in comparison of Wedlock supposing the Person qualified for Coelibate yet if you are entred into the state of Marriage though you found your self capable of living without Lust of burning yet you must now content your self with that state of life and therein abide with God 1 Cor. 7.24 doing the Duties agreeable and proper to that kinde of life But you mean perhaps of such things as are yet in your choice as to Pray in Canonical hours as do the Regulars or Religious of the Roman Perswasion or to give so much Alms as may quadrupliate the proportion you have hitherto given being able so to do I confess I do not take it to be a fault but a piece of Heroical Charity if any one doth by this means so lessen himself in respect of his former quality that the Place and Dignity he formerly enjoyed as his Civil Right provided he be no publick Magistrate which perhaps may alter the Case the Port and Equipage of his living is thereby deprest and made inglorious in the eyes of worldly men But as I take this to be no fault but much otherwise so I must take leave to scruple your scruple you raise from your private belief in this point viz. that you are obliged thus do because your Conscience tells you you are capable of doing it Your Argument stands thus Such an Heroical piece of Religion I am capable of performing therefore my Conscience tells me I am bound to perform it Two things must here be enquired into 1. Whether my capacity of doing that which I am not apparantly commanded to do be a sufficient ground to inferre my obligation thereto in case this be not so whether 2. my belief that it is so hath a power of obliging me thereto as in matters of Indifferency That the first Proposition cannot be held for an universal Affirmative may be clear to any one from these two Instances 1. There be divers persons in the world that are capable of performing the Ministerial Function in point of Parts and Moral Behaviour which yet never did conceive themselves nor any body else believe that they were indispensably bound by this aptitude of theirs to enter into Holy Orders I must confess that in the first Plantation of the Gospel or in an intolerable scarcity of Ministers the case may possibly be otherwise especially if such persons perceive in themselves an unusual acquisition and improvement of their abilities under common means and a greater violence and stirring of Spirit in them toward that Profession especially if under persecution or very slender encouragements to imbrace it together with the remarkable desires of others that they would engage therein the Concurrence of which are very neer to an extraordinary Calling But generally I conceive the case to be as is afore determined Again 2ly t is clear from 1 Cor. 7. That a single Life is better in many respects then Marriage now if a Virgin living in her Fathers house should finde in her self no necessity to marry but rather strong inclinations and for the best reason of all that she might serve the Lord without distraction by worldly business to continue a Virgin supposing she were actually obliged so to do upon finding in her self this capacity of living unmarried I desire to know whether her Father if he sees it necessary for himself estate or Family that she should marrie may compell by his Fatherly Authority such a one to accept of a fit Husband tendered to her by her Father on the one side here is the Command of a Father on the other on that supposition the Command of God this to abstain that to marrie into what a sad perplexitie will such a one be cast if that supposition were true But I desire him that holds the first opinion that his capacity of doing that which he is not apparantly commanded to do is a sufficient ground to inferre his obligation thereto to consider this reason to the contrary the capacitie of doing any thing whether precedaneous concomitant or subsequent to the command is no more then a Qualification or obediential power and passivity in the object by which the Law becomes suitable to the Creature to whom it is given and without which the Command can neither be reasonable