Person Hypostasis or Subsistence of the Divine Nature It is too great Presumption for any in the State of Mortality to determine the manner of the Oneness of the Father Son and Eternal Spirit which is so clearly declared a Mystery near the close of the Canon of Scripture never unfolded after in it The Trinity hath been asserted and owned with the greatest Firmness and Forwardness in the purest State of the antient Christian Church and the least Derogation attempted against it by the Arians hath been condemned with Abhorrence by the most Eminent and Orthodox Fathers and by the Determination and Solemn Confession of Faith by the Council of Nice and it is amongst the most incontestably Catholick Doctrines of the Universal Church owned by all National Societies of Christians in the World above the course of a thousand Years Augustine and some others of the Fathers have attempted to give some Resemblances of the Trinity in Unity though he still acknowledgeth it to be a Mystery they could not fully comprehend So Augustine in his 15th Book of that Treatise he wrote upon the Trinity saith That we have a Representation of the Generation of the Son by the Father in that he is called the Word of God as all Idea's are conceived by Words of the Mind so God's Idea of himself and his Decrees is his Word essential and substantial For all that is in God is God The Son is also the Character of his Person his Image the Brightness of his Glory his Wisdom that was with him from Eternity He says also That the Procession of the Holy Ghost is his Love to Himself by his Idea of Himself with his whole Decrees and that all the Persons of the Trinity are Wise and Powerful by the same Power and Wisdom because they have but one Godhead The Generation of a Son doth not import an Imperfection or Inequality of the Nature of the Son more than of the Father much less doth the Generation of the Eternal Son imply an Inequality of the Son with the Father or a dependance of his Being from the Father as if he needed Preservation like Creatures Yea all the Persons are increated without any Cause and so Self-existent and Coeternal The Errors of Socinians are much more abominable than those of the Arians the Socinians acknowledg nothing of the Son before he was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin The Light of Nature was ever sufficient to confute the Multiplicity of Gods and to convince that there could only be one God Albeit the Multiplicity of Gods did far prevail in the World it was long before it did prevail and not until God had given Men up to their own Ways because of their Wickedness against the clear Light of Nature for they were given up to believe Lies because they did not receive the Truth which by the Light of Nature they knew in Love to live according to it The knowledg of one God was not alone among the Hebrew or Jewish Nation as the Scripture maketh evident in Job and his Friends among whom there was so much clear Knowledg of the Divine Perfections and even of a Saviour and of a Resurrection which are not deducible from any inbred Principle by the Light of Nature and therefore they could not want Revelation yet we have no ground to know any Communication between the Hebrews and them Neither were there a few Persons indued with that Light but a City and Common-wealth having Judges and Counsellors that sate at their Gates Balaam also knew and acknowledged the only true God not by Communication with the Israelites there being a vast distance and no Communication between Aram and Egypt The three Wise Men of the East that were led by a Star to come to Bethlehem when Christ was born could not possibly by Astrology have discovered the Birth of the Mediator and therefore did neither want Revelation nor a miraculous Sign Neither is there any ground to believe that they were Idolaters but that they knew and worshipped the true God and it is highly probable that they were not the only Persons of their Country that did so Yet they did not desire for ought I know to become Proselytes of the Jews Neither is there ground to doubt that Moab or Ammon the Sons of Lot or Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons by Keturah or Esau their nearest Posterity were convinced that there was but one God nor could their Posterity be soon brought to believe a Plurality of Gods So that we have no ground to doubt that the Knowledg of the one God did long and largely propagate it self in the World though through defect of History the Particulars be little known I do not hear of Idolatry before the Flood the cause of it in God's just Judgment is attributed to Mens corrupting of their Ways and the wickedness of their Works After the Flood the Notion of one God did long remain as appears by the common Name of Baal or Lord which was long almost universal and the several Nations that worshipped Baal gave him different Epithets according to their apprehension of his Attributes of which there is frequent mention in the Scripture So the Moabites God was Baal without addition the Sidonians also called their God Baal so did the Canaanites Some Nations called their God Baal Berith that is cursing Baal others Baal Gad Baal Hamon Baal Meon Baal Peor Baal Hanan Baal Hazor Baal Hermon Baal Perazin Baal Zebub the God of Ekron Places also were denominated from Baal as Baal Perazin Baal Shalisha Baal Zebub Baal Zephon and Bell of the Babylonians is but a different Dialect of Baal but that which was the Name of one God with different Epithets did easily come to be apprehended as so many Gods yet the several Nations did not worship many Gods but their own So after the Captivity of the ten Tribes those that were planted in their places being plagued conceived it was by the Anger of the God of that Place and therefore sent for the Jewish Priests to appease him The Greeks were the first that worshipped many Gods and after them the Romans for then the Souls of Men eminent upon Earth were supposed to be cooptated among the Gods in different Orders and as the Nations and Places had Interest in them they had Confidence in them and became forgetful of the true God After arose Images and the relative Honour and Worship attributed to them not only to the Images and Pictures of these Deified Men but also to those Bodies wherein the Gods were supposed to delight and to reside It is not imaginable that so many Men of Discretion and Spirit could with direct Worship adore inanimate Creatures or the meanest Brutes or Plants but that they thought they were delightful to and resided in by Deities and so the Sun the Moon Planets came to be worshipped even by those who did not believe that they had Life or Understanding or were Bodies informed by a Deity but that
yet at his right Hand there is Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore that is in the State of Glory But there may be even here so much Joy from meditating upon God which all other Objects cannot parallel much less exceed or extinguish 9. The Scripture doth frequently inculcate the Benefit of knowing God of remembring him of meditating upon his Perfections his Laws and Dispensations and gives it as the Character of the Wicked that they know not God that they remember not God that they have him not before their Eyes whom to know is Life everlasting This is Life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The Knowledg of God cannot formally be Life eternal but it is the Mean necessary to attain it because it doth excite that Joy in which it doth chiefly consist It is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their Thoughts that is so far as they can shun and that they will have no Thoughts of the most High the Thoughts of God crush their sinful Inclinations and Pleasures which fall before them as Dagon did before the Ark of God Job gives it as a discriminating Test between the Godly and the Hypocrite only knowable by every Man of himself when he says of the Hypocrite Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he always call upon God 10. There is a Knowledg of God by the Light of Nature by Acquisition in Improvement of the Light of Nature and Experience by Revelation of that which hath no Principle in the Light of Nature by spiritual Illumination whereby spiritual things are discernable which the natural Man cannot know because they are spiritually discerned and his Notions of them are but as those of a Country from a Map and according to these several kinds of Knowledg must the different kinds of Meditation and the different Degrees of Joy Love Reverence Obsequiousness and Confidence in God arise and the true Humility of the Soul of Man not so much by debasing it below its true Value but by exalting God and perceiving the Infinite Distance of Perfection betwixt the two which may equally be between two Objects by heightning the one or by depressing the other The Monkish Humility is much in disgracing humane Nature which is not without reflecting upon its Author and doth not only loath humane Nature in so far as sinful The Stoicks fall into the like Fault by looking upon all Affections as vitious Perturbations not endeavouring to rule and use them but to root them out as if a Horse should not be made use of because some ill-managed Horse will kick off his Master or break his Bridle and run away or as if a Sail should not be used because sometimes it oversets a Ship Indeed weak or vitiated Minds were better if they wanted all Affections to be their Servants than having them to be their Masters 11. The natural Knowledg of God improved by Industry and Experience goeth a great way even in Religion for the Light of the natural Conscience convinceth a Man that there is one and only one God who is the just Judg of all rational Creatures and knoweth their most secret Thoughts and that he rules them and the whole World and that they find in their Souls a Rule of their Life a Quiet and Pleasure in their Conscience when they keep it and a Terror when they break it yea they have the natural Notion of the Mercy and Forgiveness of God to penitent Sinners and they think that every Man can repent if he please but they are utterly confounded and at a loss when they consider the Consistency of the Justice and Mercy of God how all might repent and all be forgiven and yet that God is entirely just and fully abhors Sin The Entry of Reveal'd Religion discovering a Messias or Mediator delivering his People from their Sins by his Sufferings is no small Confirmation of the Truth of that Religion inducing a strong Probability of it though nothing but the Divine Illumination can breed a full Perswasion of it nor give Warrant to force the imbracing and professing it as may be done for the Light and Law of Nature as well for Religion as far as it goes as for other Ends. Something of Religion will arise from the Notion of a Deity convincing that God is to be adored by Acknowledgment of his Power Bounty Justice and Mercy by Supplication for his Favour and the Requisites of Life by Deprecations of his Displeasure Justice and Wrath Praise and Thanksgiving for Benefits received or hoped Much more will result from the improved Knowledg of God by the Light of Nature and yet more by the Probability of his revealed Will. Whereby it cannot but be acknowledged that if these things be true which are contained in Scripture God's Bounty and Mercy to Mankind is far greater than what could be dreamed of from the Light of Nature But all this is far short of the Knowledg arising from the Illumination of the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the Regenerate by which they are capable of a far more glorious and firm Apprehension of the Divine Perfections and Dispensations and a quite other and far greater Joy therein and in the Perswasion of Peace and Reconciliation with God and in the Hope of that Glory which is greater than Ear hath heard or Eye hath seen or hath entred into the Heart of Man to consider 12. The Knowledg of God even in the Renewed hath great Variety of Degrees and it is both the Interest and Duty of all of them to extend it so far as their Capacity and Opportunities do enable them that they may increase their Comfort and strengthen their Faith against the Suggestions of Satan and the Seductions of weak or wicked Men misrepresenting God not so much in his Power and Wisdom as in his Goodness and Purity whereby they do exceedingly incroach upon that Infinite Loveliness whereby he draws and ravishes the Souls of Men and doth not only drive them by the Power of his Soveraignty Some represent God as if his Soveraignty were his highest Perfection and his greatest Interest as despotick Soveraigns represent themselves to be above all Law and to be indifferent whom to save or whom to destroy without any consideration of their Actings but to shew their absolute and arbitrary Power and that they neither love their Subjects nor care for the Love of their Subjects but for their Fear that may make them obey without Reserve How strange is it that so many eminent Divines should represent God as if the Order of his Decrees were not only to glorify some and not for their foreseen Performances by their own Power but to eternally torment the greatest part of his rational Creatures without the consideration of their Sin as coming in not as a Motive from the Foresight thereof but as a Mean to that End Others are amaz'd when they consider the Goodness of God why infinite Duration pass'd before he
laboured but one Hour as to those that laboured a whole Day saying Why are you evil because I am good Is it not free for me to do with my own what I please But the Folly of this Pretence I see further cleared that it was not possible to evade it for though he should have made a Million of Worlds and far more perfect than this yet still he could have made more and more perfect otherwise his Omnipotence had been exhausted and his Power as well as his Freedom behov'd to cease Besides that Revelation shows the Design of glorifying Man by the Mediator Christ. It had been exceedingly unsutable to his Merit that a Part of glorified Men should have owed nothing to him and so he ought either to have suffered in every Habitation of Mankind or they ought all to be in one Habitation and of one Nature and Blood of both which he was Partaker My Design is to clear up to my self the Divine Perfections and thence to exalt the Loveliness of God and to vindicate the same against these and other Errors and Mistakes by methodical Meditations thereupon according to the natural Order of the Divine Perfections which Order doth very much contribute to distinct Conceptions of them all The Divine Perfections are either natural and absolutely necessary or voluntary free and moral And though they be without all Composition in the fullest Simplicity yet they must necessarily be conceived by Creatures as some being prior and others being posterior in order of Nature the Divine Dispensations must be posterior even in time to his Purposes or Decrees his Decrees being free must presuppose his Freedom and his Will and these must presuppose his Understanding and Wisdom and all must be conceived as into or from a Subject to which they are relative His moral Perfections must relate to his natural Perfections as being prior in order of Nature that he intends and acts all things sutable to worthy of and becoming such natural Perfections and therefore the best Method in meditating upon them is by following their natural Order MEDITATION II. Upon God's being a Spirit 1. GOD's being a Spirit is the only Attribute of God that presupposeth nothing anterior Being a Spirit is the Subject of all the Divine Attributes for the being God doth essentially comprehend all God's Self-existence importeth something that is Self-existent which is his being a Spirit so doth his Independance his Knowledg his Will his Freedom All run up to bring us to consider him as a Spirit We must not consider the Divine Attributes as different Parts of the Divine Nature which were inconsistent with a Spirit which is without all Parts Extension or Composition so that God is altogether Immaterial hath none of the Properties of a Body in whom there is neither Matter nor Form Parts essential or integral which is an incommunicable Property of God It is also incommunicable that there are no Accidents in him he acteth all Things immediately without a superadded Power or Capacity of which no Creature is capable For it 's inconceivable that one Creature should act one way and another another way without superadded Powers freely given of God for if any Creature acted in that it is a Creature or as a Creature then all Creatures behoved so to act or if it act as a Substance a Spirit or a Body then all Spirits all Bodies behoved so to act 2. God's acting without a superadded Power without any accession to his Substance is his incommunicable Perfection implied in all his Divine Perfections neither doth it follow that other Spirits must so act as Angels or the Souls of Men for they are only analogous Spirits by resemblance there is no synonymous degree of Nature common to Finite and Infinite God and Creatures othertherwise that Inference were inevitable Substance and Ens are but abstracted metaphysical Notions and there are no Individuals immediate to these as there are in Man and to the several Species of Brutes Some to avoid this difficulty have supposed the Angels not to be pure Spirits but to have aerial or aetherial Bodies so thin as to be insensible and that pass through the Pores of all solid Bodies which the Air cannot do but then the separate Souls of Men should be pure Spirits yet some have thought that even then they have aerial or aetherial Bodies but certainly the Angels and Souls of Men by the Power of God were separable from such Bodies and yet active and so the immediate actings of God as a Spirit should be competent to these Spirits I know no other way to extricate that Difficulty but that there is nothing purely Spirit but God and therefore Angels and Souls tho they have not Extension and Bulk as Bodies yet they have not that Property that they can co-exist with any other created Substance in the same space so that the Essence of a Body consisteth not in Impenetrability but in Extension and God alone can co-exist with all created Substances This is much confirmed by the chief and most express place in Seripture where God is said to be a Spirit John 4. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which tho it be rendered God is a Spirit the Words are a Spirit the God And in Scripture Indefinits are equivalent to Universals This way of expression is not to be supposed an accidental Conversion without a very convincing Reason neither is there in it a Copulative but the words are placed as two Synonyma a Spirit and God being one thing The Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not import that God is the Subject and a Spirit is the Attribute but a true Spirit is the God excluding all false Gods and others that are by participation called Gods as in the demonstration of the true God by Elijah the People being fully convinced cry out Jehovah is the God that is the only God The Name of God is comprehensive of all his Perfections from which that conception or Idea doth arise so that it would not be eminently significant to say that Being that hath all possible Perfection is a Spirit but rather a true Spirit must have in it all Perfections and there is nothing in the Attributes of God presupposed to being a Spirit of which a Spirit should be an Attribute but a Spirit is that which in our Conception doth only represent a Substance and therefore the natural Order of this highest Expression is as in the Original a Spirit the God The same is confirmed 2 Cor. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord is the Spirit importing not only that God is a Spirit but that he is the Spirit that is the only Spirit In this I am further confirmed considering that all Philosophers are at a loss to give any rational Account how a Spirit moveth Matter or how Matter acteth upon a Spirit seeing all agree that the efficacious Fiat is proper to God alone and therefore a Spirit cannot move Matter by willing it to
being fellow-Servants None of these did insist with a Distinguo that they were not worshipping them with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither is there any Precept or one Example in all the Scripture of praying to an absent Creature I know nothing can be pretended but that when the Scripture was published there was no canonizing of Saints and it 's very far from evidence that all who were canonized were truly Saints much less that their supposed Relicks were true if then Men be worshipping some damned Spirits if that be not Idolatry I know what can be but there is no ground of Confidence that no Pope hath err'd in canonizing which being a matter of Fact they do not pretend Infallibility in it I wish these Men would seriously consider how it is possible to shun the attributing of the incommunicable Perfections of God to Creatures the same Hours of publick Devotion being common through that whole Saint-worshipping Church If some Millions be at once praying to the same Saint can meer Human Nature be raised to that height to hear all those at once when there is not the least ground to believe that they can hear any one of them And suppose their groundless Invention that they see all in speculo Trinitatis yet they cease not to be such a Multitude reflected to their Knowledg at once so that they must make them Gods or else they must acknowledg themselves Idolaters And on their own Grounds it is yet more strange that they wholly neglect Abraham Isaac and Jacob Job Samuel and Daniel whom God hath singled out as the strongest Intercessors and Moses and Aaron whom God hath canonized the Scripture calling him the Saint of God If any Creature were to be worshipped in absence there were most to be said for worshipping Angels which yet is expresly forbidden and with the same Breath all Worship which God hath not required As the Heathens divided among their Gods the several Offices by which they might be useful to Men so they do exceed them in attributing to particular Saints their several Offices not only to Men but to Beasts to all the parts of Men and all their Diseases without the least Pretext of Reason they do not pretend even by their unwritten Traditions that God hath declared any such thing or that these Saints have so declared so that they must not only order all the Saints upon Earth but all the Saints in Heaven If the Saints be adorable how comes it that every one adores what Saint he pleases and neglects the rest And by what Warrant do they assign them their Tasks if it were their Duty to worship all as they do some The Burden of the Jewish Ceremonies were a small matter to theirs The Singularity of the Deity is not incroached upon by the blessed Trinity being in Unity in one individual God as the Word of God hath fully expressed it It is indeed a Mystery for the Knowledg of which we have no inbred Principle but it is a proper Object of our Faith In many Points of the Christian Religion the Light of Nature goeth a great length in the way of Science by a rational Deduction from self-evident Principles and the exact Harmony between the Light of Nature and the Scripture gives a mutual Confirmation of the truth of both yet both are rather Science than Faith until God by his free Grace endue Men with a sense of Spiritual Things which the natural Man cannot discern because by Nature he hath not that Sense by which they are perceivable There might have been other Objects of Sense and other Senses of these Objects and therefore we need not think it strange that God giveth a new inward Sense to the Regenerate only by which they believe the Trinity in Unity and the Incarnation of the Son of God the Covenant of Redemption and Grace the Mediator's willing and free Submission of himself to suffering in his Human Nature even to Death for Man that God's Justice might so be satisfied and his Purity and Abhorrence of Sin vindicated that free electing Love might take place in which the Elect could attribute nothing to themselves but all unto the free Grace of God The Light of Nature doth or may perswade all Men that God is merciful to penitent Sinners and yet that he is also essentially just and if it could have consisted with his Justice without Satisfaction thereto to pardon one Sin there could be no reason why to pardon one more than another and therefore God might have been without Punitive Justice Justice also differs from Benignity that it keeps a just Proportion between the Sin and the Punishment and therefore if all Sinners deserved Exclusion from God's Favour none of them could satisfy for himself much less could any one receive Pardon and Reconciliation by the Sufferings of all the rest but here the sharpest Natural Reason is confounded and left in the dark till Revelation and Faith step in discovering the Mediator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Humanity made him capable to suffer and the Dignity of his Person gave his Suffering an infinite Value and the outward Revelation of it might induce a strong Perswasion that supposing God had so done the Consequence were good and that it were likely that he had so done but to have a true Faith and full Perswasion of it upon Tradition written or unwritten requires more than Reasoning can infer Hence it is that Compulsion is adhibited for Religion so far as the clear Light of Nature goeth because there is the strongest Evidence beyond any other natural Duty in which none are spared from Coaction and Punishment but they are rather heightened by pretending the want of Perswasion because the Light of Nature is full and clear and the diverting the Thoughts or shutting the Eyes of the Understanding can no more excuse than if a Man should deny that there were Light at Mid-day because he would not open his Eyes to let it enter But we are not in that Capacity as to supernatural Light and therefore it is both against Religion and Humanity to compel Men to supernatural and institute Religion where they believe not these revealed Principles from which ordinary Capacities cannot refuse clear Inferences which require not long Deductions Those who pretend the Unity against the Trinity of the Deity because they cannot comprehend it must deny the Incomprehensibility of God which his Word so often asserts yea the whole Tenor of the Word And their pitiful Evasions do too strongly evidence that they only own the Scriptures lest they should be odious and that they have no more than Natural Religion but not the Christian Religion because they imagine God can forgive Sin without all Satisfaction to his Justice which is against the Light of Nature which can neither admit of an injurious God nor of a Justiceless God Those who from the Trinity wave all Reasons against a carnal Presence in the Eucharist
glorious Excellency of God in relation to a particular Creature and his Glory shining forth to the whole Creation and must produce a far greater measure of Love and Reverence which are much weakened by attributing any thing to him unworthy of him However none can justly blame me to clear my own Thoughts and raise them as high as I can and I do bless God for the increase of Love and Reverence he gives me thereby I am perswaded that the rise of most of God's Decrees and Dispensations are from the Congruity thereof to his natural Perfections as becoming and being worthy of such a Being I say it is a Congruity to his natural not to his moral Perfections for he is not just because he is true nor true because he is just nor gracious or merciful because he is just or true But when I consider what is congruous to worthy and becoming a Spirit omniscient omnipotent self-existent all-sufficient infinitely blessed free and independent and then put the Question to my self Must not such a Being be just exactly fulfilling all his Promises incouraging and rewarding the Good discouraging and punishing the Evil according to their Merit I am fully perswaded he must be such not by a fatal Necessity nor by meer Indifferency but by a voluntary and free Choice And when I further pose my self whether such a Being will only perform his Promises reward and punish according to Merit I am convinced it is congruous to him to be good bountiful gracious and merciful beyond what his Justice requires and that without any Bounds as in his Justice which precisely follows his Promise or what is congruous for him to do upon occasion of the good or evil Actions of his Creatures When I consider Whether such a Being will always express his Mind truly and never deceive I can have no doubt of it If again I consider Whether such a Being will ever choose fitted Means for all his Purposes and do nothing in vain I am assured that he is infinite in Wisdom and will do nothing in vain And lastly when I consider Whether such a Being will ever be constant in his Purpose and be unchangeable therein and in his Justice Bounty Truth and Wisdom I know he cannot change in these because they are all congruous to his unchangeable Nature By this Congruity I understand God's Holiness or Godlikeness that is that God acteth always like himself There is nothing more frequently inculcated in Scripture than Godliness and Holiness which are originally and principally attributed to God and in Analogy to his Rational Creatures it shall be the eternal Exclamation of all God's happy Creatures Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty I do not take Holiness to be as a Metaphysical Abstract from all God's Moral Perfections but that it is the precise and formal Reason why they are morally good Holiness in the Creature or Godlikeness which is the same consists chiefly in the Creatures being Godlike that is imitating the Divine Moral Perfections in being just being true prudent and constant but in other Duties of Holiness the Likeness to God is more analogical and less proper The Analogy consists in this that as God acteth always congruously to the Divine Nature so the Rational Creatures ought to act congruously to that Nature and those Principles that God hath freely imprinted in their Minds so they ought to adore God to obey him in all his Commands to trust in him and to be temperate in every thing and to subordinate Self-love to the Love of God Holiness is also taken for the Destination of things to the Service of God and separated from common Use which therefore is called Consecration I know the immediate Rule of the Creatures is the Will of God obliging them to obey not only what is congruous to the Divine Nature or to their own Nature but whatsoever positive Law or Precept God doth command tho the Matter be indifferent and that they may sufficiently be assured that he will never command any thing incongruous to himself yet it is of great use to know the difference between Moral and Positive Commands for the Glory and Amiableness of God appeareth far more in the one than in the other albeit the Positive Commands of God do indispensibly require full Obedience which is from an inbred Principle in the Mind of all Rational Creatures I am not troubled that it may be said that the Scripture Phrase is most of the Perfection of God and of his Justice Goodness Mercy and Truth for all is still mentioned as his Holiness and Godlikeness and many Cases do and may occur that we cannot so clearly refer to these particular Terms as we can know whether it be congruous for God so to do or not neither doth the Scripture express and define wherein Holiness consists but by the Expression of Godliness or Likeness to God And altho Perfection be frequently attributed to God yet Godliness is a more distinct Term for we must not explicate Godliness by Perfection or Goodness lest we should fall in the Apprehension that hath misled many that God would have shown more Goodness to have prevented all Sin and that there must be more Worlds than this at least more Species of Creatures than upon the Earth but we must explain God's Goodness with Congruity to his Nature which comprehends his Freedom whereby it is not congruous to him to communicate all the Good he can which would never terminate nor be stable but that he acteth freely and that it were impossible for us to know what Good he hath done or will do if he had not revealed it Some of the Fathers and many since have fallen into that Error that God's Goodness doth not admit that he should punish any Creature eternally and tho the Scripture says the contrary expresly they produce other places to prove that Eternity is sometimes taken for a very long Time Becomingness or Decency is vulgarly attributed to the Modes or Forms of Behaviour and so it is said by the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order which doth neither declare nor constitute that Decency as a kind of a Christian Vertue but as a Recommendation of what is expedient The Scripture maketh an express Distinction between that which is unlawful and that which is inexpedient so that kind of Decency is a part of Civility No serious Man can imagine that every undecent Gesture or Expression is a Sin Hence it may seem that the precise Nature of Holiness cannot consist in Becomingness or Congruity to the Nature of God or of Creatures which could only amuse the Vulgar who lay too much weight upon Words and Terms as if the appropriating the Name of Decency or Comeliness to the least of Civil Vertues in which there is no Speciality did import that there were not an higher degree of Decency but if Words import those of the Learned must be of the most Importance The Greeks which were the learnedst of Nations
Sins that they might have omitted and did not if the Remainder were inevitably effectual for their Damnation I do not think that the outward Privileges of the Church and the Tastes of the Powers of the World to come and that Illumination that even Reprobates attain who never had true and saving Grace in which they exceed the finest Heathens are otherwise accountable than by the Purchase of Christ Nay I do not believe that the damned Spirits having liberty of going to and fro in the Earth is from Mercy as if their Damnation were allayed or abated till the general Judgment but that they are sent out as the Executioners of God's Justice being still in that Torment of Conscience wherein Hell doth consist tho it be allayed by accidental Consequences being by their acting somewhat diverted from the full poring on their Misery God only knows the exact Proportion of Punishment and Sin according to Merit and as the Damned always continue and encrease in their Hatred against God so their Misery may be increased There is also a Resemblance between the Mercy of the Creator and the Creature that neither is extended to every kind of Evil some Punishments may be so great that will not breed Pity in the most merciful because of the Atrocity of the Crimes so the Mercy of God extends not to the Sin against the Holy Ghost which must imply a high measure of Knowledg of the Divine Perfections and yet by the Exorbitancy of Self-love a Hatred and Despite against God as not bestowing so much as these malicious Wretches think he should And I think that was a main Difference in the Fall of the damned Spirits and Adam's Fall tho he was innocent and had a great measure of Knowledg and Happiness yet far short of theirs they abode not in that Station God placed them in for by their Sin they desired to rise higher and therefore in God's Justice they were brought exceeding much lower How far they have lost of their Natural Perfections I know not but sure they have lost their Moral Perfections and that Joy wherewith once they were blessed they tempted Man by the same Bait by which they deceived themselves inducing them to be discontent with what God had given and that he had forbidden to eat of that Fruit not as a Badg of their Obedience in an indifferent thing as to which they had no inbred Principle to prompt them on either side but because he envied the Happiness they would attain to by eating that Fruit which would make them wise to know both Good and Evil therefore the Devils seem to have sinned against the Holy Ghost which Man being of a less Capacity did not and none but those Men that attained to the Gifts of Illumination and the Taste of the Powers of the World to come and yet do despite against God cannot be restored nor are not to be prayed for in whom no doubt Hell is begun by the tormenting of their Conscience and therefore God's Way is equal both as to Angels and Men yet in Justice he was not obliged to have Mercy upon any Sinner but it was not congruous to his glorious Nature to receive into Favour such horrid Sinners There is another Resemblance of the Mercy of the Creator and the Creature that it is not equally to be applied to those who have the Offer of a Reconciliation upon Repentance and do obstinately reject that Offer and will continue to insist in and approve the Injuries done By Reflection on our own Mind we find it to be so in Men and yet it is evident to be no part of our Essence or Nature and therefore it must be an inbred Principle freely given of God and a part of his Image God hath incited us to forgive those that offend us to seventy and seven times yet still it is upon their Return Mercy may take place by Forgiveness simply given without an Offer of Reconciliation but it exceeds Humanity to forgive so far as not only not to endeavour Punishment but to offer Reconciliation when it is obstinately refused There is yet another Resemblance of the Mercy of God and Man that there is no Right in the Injurer to claim it tho he may implore it but it is an Act of Benignity and Goodness God hath injured no Creature if he had never received into Favour any Sinner But he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth that is he giveth the Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation and permitteth the Wicked to reject the Offer whereby they become more hardened in their Sin and Impenitence But infinite is the Distance and the Difference between the Mercy of God and the Mercy of Men. For 1. Man's Mercy may by contrary Custom be eradicated and Cruelty succeed in its place Man's Mercy may be overcome with the frequency of Injuries nothing like these can befal in the Mercy of God which is unchangeable and no multitude of Sins can be so great as should give Despair 2. Man's Mercy if it be obtained and violated in the same kind is hardly renewed but where God hath once given Pardon no new Breach doth exclude it yea he gives Repentance exciting the Sinner thereto that he may forgive sutably to his Nature and oft accepts general Repentance of inadverted Sins and even habitual Repentance where actual cannot be exerted as in those that die before they have time to have an elicite Act of Repentance for Sins committed immediately before Death 3. Man's Mercy doth oft go no further than Compassion and desire to help without Ability God's Omnipotence does ever make his Mercy effectual and compleat 4. Man doth often forgive one Fault and retain others God's Forgiveness of Sin is ever entire and universal where it is for all Sins preceding are ever forgiven where there is Repentance for all Sin but where some Temporal Punishment is only forgiven the Sin is not forgiven simply 5. Man may repent that he did forgive whether by the mutability of his Nature or by the discovery of aggravating Circumstances unknown when he forgave nothing of this can occur to the Omniscient God 6. Injuries may be so atrocious that exceed Man's Mercy without supernatural Grace in which he will never offer Reconciliation No Sin can be so hainous but that the Merit of Christ is sufficient for remitting it not excepting the Sin against the Holy Ghost which is not unpardonable by the Insufficiency of Christ's Merit neither yet because there is less Power in Man to repent for that Sin than others because he is utterly incapable to repent for any Sin till God give him the Grace of Repentance but because it is incongruous to the Divine Nature and to the Glory of God to receive into favour such Sinners But in all others tho they were as Crimson God offereth Pardon and Reconciliation and will effectually give them if the Offer be not obstinately rejected yea the height of God's
Christian Crown the Perseverance of Saints when Christ hath said That no Man can pluck his Sheep out of his Hand and God hath said That whom he loves he loves unto the end Or why are we bidden to make sure our own Salvation Why is a Plerophory or full assurance of Salvation held forth in Scripture if these be unattainable in this Life It is a pitiful Evasion that Men may be sure they have Grace but not sure they will keep it for the Assurance relates not to Grace but to Glory and Salvation It is true If the righteous Man depart from his Righteousness it shall be remembred no more But it is as true that the gracious God who freely gave Righteousness will not suffer the Righteous to depart from it either in this Life or that which is to come There is another way of universal Grace maintained by some of those of the Augustan Confession and it seems to be so held in the Liturgy of the Church of England that Grace is given to all who are baptized at the time of their Baptism The Church of Rome excludes all from Mercy and Glory that are not actually baptized tho they give them a more easy Quarter which they call Limbus Infantum than those of riper Age and certainly they must place Idiots there as well as Infants yet they are more cruel that condemn these Infants and Idiots to eternal Torment No Protestant excludes Salvation by the want of Baptism and none of them do include Salvation by Baptism but only Regeneration nor do they hold that that Regeneration doth always or for the most part continue but that these Infant-Saints may fall away yet all that die in Infancy must be saved for they cannot fall away The Liturgy saith we do not doubt that all that are baptized are truly regenerate which I would rather interpret as a Presumption in the Judgment of Charity than as a positive Assertion in the Judgment of Verity As if one saw a Man of Age giving Signs of his Belief baptized said I doubt not this Man is regenerate yet some of the Learned understand it otherwise who yet are not for amissible Grace and therefore perplex themselves indeavouring to invent a Sacramental Grace of Regeneration being conditional upon Faith at the time of Discretion The Papists are more puzled to clear how the Water of Baptism regenerates for they think it not enough that God hath promised to regenerate all at that time but they hold that the Water sacramentally used doth it opere operato by a Power given it by God I know no reason to confirm this Opinion it is true Christ saith Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God This would exclude all that were not baptized from Heaven if there the Kingdom of God signified Heaven which none hold but Papists And therefore many by the Kingdom of Heaven understand the Christian Church as it must be understood in several other places so that the meaning will be no Man can be a Member of the visible Church but he that is or is rationally supposed to be regenerated by the Spirit of God and likewise consecrated to God by Baptism So that it is of the same import with these words Whosoever shall believe and be baptized shall be saved The joining of Water to the Spirit can no more infer the necessity of Water than of Fire which is elsewhere joined to the Spirit It is from this Opinion tho without Warrant that Baptism is called the Laver of Regeneration because a Laver imports Washing but Regeneration is to be attributed to the sanctifying of the Spirit the Baptized are consecrated by the Water of Baptism not as antecedent to Regeneration but more frequently consequent thereto I see no reason to prove Baptism to be a converting Ordinance but the quite contrary in the very Institution of it He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved So that there is no warrant to baptize any but such as in the Judgment of Charity may be accounted Believers either by actual or habitual Faith Therefore Baptism doth not confer the Grace of believing nor hath God shown that he will ordinarily confer that Grace at Baptism This is much confirmed by Circumcision which was the Seal of the Covenant which could not be meant of the actual sealing and confirming which was in every circumcised Person for it were inconsistent with the Wisdom of God to have designed a Seal for that use which were only applicable to Men and not to Women But it was a Seal confirming that Society in which it was used to be the Society wherein ordinarily the Covenant of Grace was to be found as it was also the solemn Inauguration and Entry into the Church so is Baptism which is now the solemn Entry into the Christian Church and is in place of Circumcision and therefore the Anabaptists have no just ground to scruple at the baptizing of Infants born to be Members of the Church which have not only a presumptive inward Holiness but a federal Holiness or such a Holiness as all things consecrated to God have much more Children consecrated by the Members of the Church and dedicated to God by their Parents or in case of their Death or Incapacity by their nearest Relations or even by others from the presumptive Will of their Parents I see no Warrant for any under the pretence of being God-fathers or Godmothers to baptize the Children of Infidels tho they were in their Power All these ways of general and amissible Grace do much incroach upon the Wisdom of God Why should he give Grace to so many who he knew would not make use of it were not that Grace in vain But if Grace be given always and effectually at the time of Conversion it is both sufficient and quadrant with the Wisdom of God who doth nothing in vain It will breed no Difficulty that God calleth many whom he doth not choose because that is necessary to put them in a possibility of Salvation and to render those inexcusable that do refuse it But to give actual Grace to those who would throw it away were to cast Pearls before Swines All these ways of conceiving the Covenant of Grace and the Divine Dispensations of Election and Reprobation shew that generally Christians agree that it is an eminent part of the amiable Aspect of God that he hath put no Rational Creature under the Necessity of Damnation tho most Part do overdo holding more than what is necessary or convenient for that Effect There can be nothing more clear and there is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than that the Way of Salvation is by the way of Covenant which implies in its Nature mutual Prestations of the Parties covenanting towards each other but doth not imply that these Prestations must be of equal Value or of any Merit but that the Force of the Covenant is from the Engagement of the
of Children from the Covenant of Grace yet the Covenant of Grace is one for all the Son having covenanted from Eternity for all the Elect to bring them into the Covenant of Grace by Regeneration exerted according to their Capacity by actual believing of those who are capable so to act which also is an Evidence that the Act of Faith is not saving by any thing absolutely necessary in it self but by the free Choice and Institution of God The third Point proposed is what Act of Faith that is by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace and which is their Part of the Covenant Many hold it to be a Perswasion of the covenanting Person that Christ died for him whereby it must be an Act of the Understanding but I see not how that can hold for covenanting must be by an Act of the Will promising or otherwise performing the Covenanter's Part which is oftentimes in the one Party no more than an Acceptance as in a Trust or Commission the one Party gives the Trust or Commission which doth make no Covenant but an Offer but when the other Party accepts then the Contract is compleat and the Accepter is thereby bound to follow the Trust and Commission and make an Account and the Giver is obliged to refund the Expences Albeit Contracts be by mutual Consent and that Consent signifies to have the same Thought yet Agreement in one Mind makes no more a Covenant than when two are of one Opinion in Contemplation but a Covenant is ever somewhat practicable and therefore tho Acts of Understanding precede the Covenant it self is by Acts of the Will The Description of saving Faith by Perswasion is but by a Consequent which ought to be endeavoured by all yet is not attained by all for many are in the Covenant of Grace that come not the Length of Perswasion that Christ died effectually for them and that thereby they are reconciled to God and shall be saved for tho they were perswaded that Christ died for all and every Man that would import nothing to saving Faith for it were much more evident that the Effect of Christ's Death for all Men were not the same seeing so many trample under Foot the Blood of the Covenant and so few are saved Therefore no Man hath just Ground to be perswaded that Christ died effectually for him or with Intention to make him holy and happy or any further than to put him in a Condition to be holy and happy if he himself did not hinder it Therefore tho believing in Christ were not only proposed to all but imposed on all as a Duty yet it is only a Duty in the Order God hath imposed it to wit that all Men should consider their sinful natural Estate and that the just Reward of Sin would be eternal Death without Repentance which none could escape who cleaved to any kind of Sin and hated to be reformed and that therefore they should be willing and endeavour to be reformed and use the Means appointed by God for that End and should throw themselves upon God's Mercy through Christ's Merit if thereby they found that the delighting in Sin in those Kinds especially which did most easily beset them did cease and that the Love to and Delight in God did in some measure take Place But to think to reach the highest Step of the Scale per Saltum were altogether without warrant unless it were extraordinary as in Paul's Conversion Paul to the Romans gives the true Warrants of that Perswasion As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ. Hence it is evident how little Moment is in that Arminian Quibble so much magnified by them that Christ must have died for all Men because all Men are bound to believe he died for them We must therefore yet enquire the particular Convenanting Act of Faith which being so necessary is many Ways expressed and set forth in Scripture that it may be reached by several Capacities it is called a Looking to Christ for Salvation Look unto me all ye Ends of the Earth and be saved A turning to God Turn ye turn ye for why will you die O House of Israel A coming to Christ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest to your Souls And to the Refractory it is said Ye will not come to me that ye may have Life A drawing near to God Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you An answering of God's Call Thou saidst Seek ye my Face my Heart answered Thy Face Lord will I seek hide not thy Face from me A receiving of Christ He came to his own but his own received him not but to all that did receive him he gave Power to become the Sons of God So then the saving Act of Faith must imply all these not that he who entereth in the Covenant must have expresly all these Acts but that the Act he must have must imply and import them all and be virtually as much as they all The Spirit of God in this Branch of the Covenant of Grace does not proceed in one way with all the Elect As the Wind moveth whither it listeth and no Man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is the Spirit of God Some are chased in by the Thundrings and Terrors of the Law running as a pursued Man to a Rock a Fortress a Tower or a Strength or as in the hazard of Shipwrack running into an Harbour As those who by Peter's Sermon convincing the Jews that they had denied the Holy One and the Just and had killed the Prince of Life Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their Hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do And God opened their Ears and their Hearts to receive Instruction But God gaineth others by the sweet and still Voice of the Gospel alluring their Hearts to trust in his Mercy and Faithfulness as being so gracious that he delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that they should repent and live that he will not disappoint those who becomingly trust in him He sometimes begins with the Light of Nature to lead in the revealed Light of the Gospel as Paul dealt with the Athenians and saith to Timothy God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind With some the Spirit proceeds by degrees giving a Spirit of Bondage to fear before the Spirit of Adoption as Paul saith We have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but we received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba