with what is false and light 'T is also probity of mind they want who being licentiously given and no great friends to any Religion or Truth either which may lay any restraint upon them in their opinions or practices gladly take any advantages against them That men look upon all professing Religion and Conscience to be Ignorant Superstitious or Cunning so that their Example or Reason are of no Authority with them Neither doth this humour stop among this sort of men but it is soon conveyed into the vulgar too who soon learn to contemn Religion and the Priest especially in times of liberty Wherefore it is to be advised and sincerely Religious men wise and honest who heartily desire the Advancement of true Religion will so do that we be first assured of the truth of our belief and opinions in Religion and be now carefull and just to appear for nothing but what is so and for that reason And when we cannot fairly maintain any thing to be such tho' it appear never so much for the honour and interest of Religion as many very false and forged things have let it rest and go as it is till time may further discover And as for the vulgar it is surely their safest way to rely upon the Conduct of such wise and honest Men though they may be even exhorted to see with their own Eyes too if they can For it is much more easie for them to know who are such than to judge themselves of the truth and falshood Universal conveniencies and inconveniencâ—es of things to know who are the best Guides than to guide themselves This plain dealing without fraud or force will surely much advance the just Esteem of Religion and its Ministers and consequently its influence and efficacy We have but too much proof of this Cause of Infidelity from experience We have seen some Men and that of the first rank who have taught us such a God and that out of his own Books which others judge to be an absolute impossibility And yet after all they will be the only Orthodox and reprobate all those who will not be of their opinion Many also are those who have made the Holy Scriptures the most excellent Collection of Writings which were ever extant to speak such things which hath caused others not brooking their Interpretations nor being sufficient to find out better themselves to have mean and injurious thoughts of them And yet if any pious Man with the sincerest intentions and endeavours to preserve and vindicate their due honour by salving difficulties which seem to check Reason do advance any thing inconsistent with their settled Opinions and Systems he is presently irreligious and a severe Atheist too severe Censures whatever their mistakes may be But they are much more numerous still who have made up such an Hotch-potch in Religion by their Additions to the Holy Scriptures from pretended or enthusiastical Revelations forged or false Miracles Traditions Ecclesiastical Authority and Infallibility as first to turn men's Stomachs against it and at last to cause a great many quite to discharge themselves of it altogether But of these and such like I shall say no more at present But go on to the next general Head 2ly To propose some remedies proper to prevent or repress the influences of these Causes of Infidelity whereof some are more general some more particularly relating to some Causes and Circumstances The first of these is 1st To advise and assist Men to improve and advance their Knowledge to the highest Degree they are capable of For it seems just to deal so uprightly and plainly with the World as not to make use of mere Authority instead of understanding and reason where men are truly capable and honest though where they are ignorant but yet conceited self-willed or dishonest in things of importance and consequence Authority must be allowed to interpose for their own and the publick good which otherwise would greatly suffer Let therefore Men know as much as they can and examine these great verities with the greatest severity Assuredly the more they know the more reason they will see to believe them seriously and resolutely to live according to them Search the Scriptures saith our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews John 5. 39. to convince them that he was the promised Messias and the Person to whom all his Characters there did agree So say we Search the Scriptures Nature it self and Reason too for they bear witness of all these great Truths But then search them throughly examine them to the bottom see clearly reason carefully and justly weigh all things with indifferency and impartiality which will be presently a direction by it self Otherwise as the Jews did erroneously interpret the Holy Scriptures and conclude from them So may Men here through want of patience and attention and apprehension err and mistake in their Conclusion concerning the great Truths of Morality and all Religions We heartily desire that men's Faith and Belief may be the effect of a plain serious and deliberate Conviction more than of Custom where it may be And truly then as well as when it is wrought in the heart by the grace of God which is another Cause mentioned in the Scripture great is its Power and forcible its Operation and life it self is at its devotion and service Such was the effect of it in all the Apostles and particularly such is the Faith in Jesus Christ mentioned of Saint Thomas and Saint Peter when one cries out my Lord and my God and the other Lord whither should we go thou hast the word of Eternal Life Let that then be the first remedy against Infidelity viz. the utmost improvement and best exercise of our knowledge and reason 2ly Possess we our minds with a sincere and zealous Honesty and Probity By which I mean a strong habitual propension and inclination to that which is right and just This will have three Effects very proper to beget or confirm a right belief of the Truth and to preserve us in it The First A fervent love of the Truth The Second A free and ingenuous acknowledgment of it where-ever we discover it be it for us or be it against us Thirdly A desire to act suitable and live according to it I say a sincere and resolute Probity hath these effects For surely never any honest man doubted whether it was material more fit and just of better effect for a good man who will make good use of his knowledge to be knowing rather than ignorant or to believe the truth rather than a lye in order to direct him in all his inward Motions and outward Actions Without the first we shall not trouble our selves to search or find the truth Without the second when we know it we shall either not believe or deny it if possible or if by the clearness and evidence we cannot do that yet we shall turn our minds away from it Finally without the third we shall little esteem or
rarely comes before we arrive at an Age thought fit to manage an Estate and it is well if we then see it So that we have been under the power of Examples and are formed usually by them before we are capable of the Discipline of an Instructor or Tutor Whence it is that men seldom much change the Inclinations they have contracted to that time and generally if by good example and government we are well season'd and temper'd to that Age or some few years beyond we seldom prove at least very bad Although by long and frequent ill company and example too great a part may be undone again and sometimes all spoiled which is very rare because it is very difficult to obliterate those early characters and impressions so often repeated Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of Darkness but rather reprove them saith the Apostle in that excellent Epistle Eph. 5. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. From the good you 'll learn good among the bad you 'll surely grow worse like to that of the Wise man Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but the companion of fools shall be destroyed Aspice quid faciunt commercia venerat obses The Youth once was very innocent behold what he is now how strangely changed by lewd company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Associate not thy self to a wicked man These and such like are the Sayings of the Scripture and the wiser sort of men which do but remind us of the efficacy of examples upon our manners and that far beyond the power and force of all Precepts Instructions and Directions Nor do I yet know how this prevalency of example may be prevented or remedied but either 1. by a more than ordinary felicity of temper from the birth whereby we are enclined to use our Reason more than our Senses and are capable of giving Precepts and Examples too or 2. by the providence and grace of God which may happily order the condition of our lives or even immediately work upon our minds and particularly by afflictions or finally which is most in our own power by some considerable retirement from too frequent and tumultuous conversation and accustoming our selves to Reading and Thinking That be spoken to the First General viz. the Reasons of the Efficacy of Examples against Precept II. The Second is the Reasons of the prevailing influence of bad Examples against good ones Why ill Examples do so much more harm than good ones do good we may observe these among others 1. Evil examples are infinitely more numerous We can hardly light upon a good one we can hardly miss a bad one Good ones we can hardly see any bad ones we cannot but see many The High and the Low the Rich and the Poor and the Middle too It hath been thought indeed that this last sort of men are generally the most Sober and Religious because great and rich men think themselves above God and Religion poor men below it The one behave themselves as if God Almighty dared not to take notice of them the other as if he would not both equally mistaken But suppose it so yet Bad examples far out-number the Good among all ranks and conditions of men though of different vices according to their respective temptations of different particular Vices but the same general want of the sense of Vertue of Conscience and the fear of God in all And now if the number of Good Examples be so small in proportion to Bad ones how much greater will the influence of these certainly be For if we observe 't is frequency and repetition of thoughts and affections and actions which form our Manners Those Objects which we most frequently and generally converse withall which possess our thoughts have the command of our affections and consequently our inclinations and actions We seldom think or talk of love hate desire delight in any but them And this is the reason why in a Family small or great and in Palaces themselves the single example even of one or two of the greatest in it though deservedly honour'd and beloved too doth so little good upon all the rest though it would otherwise be far worse It is because they are very many against one And how much less is it to be expected that in a place consisting of many scores or hundreds of Families the example of one or two whose business it should be to back their instructions with good ones should have any visible good effect unless their number be increased which would become the Ecclesiastical and Civil care too or some more be pleased to give their assistance and make up a number 2. But Secondly the Greatness of bad Examples is another cause of their greater influence I do not know but that in proportion to their number there may be as many Religious and Vertuous persons in the Superiour as in the Inferiour Ranks of men and that with more judgment and generosity But still the greatest part of the Great the Potent the Honourable the Rich the more is the pity are of the bad side Though in the whole lump of all sorts of men put together infinitely the Major part in their practices at least should vote for the licentious and vicious side yet it would not have near the influence it now hath were not the Major part of the Great on that side too and of the same Party to head and lead them So that it appears it is not only the number of Voters but also the power and greatness of them that makes ill example go so far and prevail so much Were it the property of the vulgar and inferiour sort only to be Irreligious Immoral and Dissolute we should soon see that Party decrease and generally desert both in inward Principles and outward Practices One excellent example of a great Man would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outweigh a great number of small ones The generality of men far from wise first esteem the Men and then the Manners At least the dignity and height of a vicious man makes that Vice seem little and tolerable if not honourable which were it only seen in those of lower place would be thought contemptible and punishable Alea turpis Turpe adulterium mediocribus haec tamen illi Omnia cùm faciant hilares nitidique vocantur We admire men for their power pomp and wealth and then all that belongs to them leaving not out their very vices too Like as the Pagans of old not only deify'd their Heroes but built Temples and erected Altars to some of their flagitious actions and abominable crimes as Tully somewhere complains On the contrary the poor and mean man's actions according to the Wise-man's little History Eccl. 9. 14. though never so wise and beneficial too for that very reason are not heeded or soon forgotten Indeed it is Truth and Reason and not vulgar opinion only that Power and Greatness Ability to effect and bring to pass
chearfull with others Such then be the second Answer to the plea of the extreme difficulty pains and pain in conversion and reformation in correcting this propension of depraved Nature and quitting the most numerous evil examples Namely that we have the Grace of God to assist us and render it more easie that the difficulty is principally at the beginning and first onset and yet that even there the pleasure and ease far out-weigh the pain and labour and finally that in the suite of a virtuous state of Soul exercises and actions there are pleasures sincere deep constant and durable and but the sample and commencement of infinitely greater still The difficulty and pain will lie on the side of Vice and that it is most true that a sincere and generous good Man may find it more hard and vexatious to him to be brought to do an evil thing than the most bold and accustomed sinner to do a good one Go we on further and 3. Suppose if we please that which is false the utmost difficulty labour and suffering throughout the whole course of a virtuous and conscientious life nay suppose we may lose life itself for their sake and in their cause have we never heard of any thing hereafter or have we satisfied our selves with a demonstration that we are not concern'd in that Will there be no reward for the righteous no vengeance for the wicked had not these very Gentiles themselves their Elysian Fields for the just their Tartara Styx and Acheron and various sorts of never ending punishments for their wicked too Had not the Jews many of whom were infected with the Heathen Manners their Paradise for the Holy and their Gehinnom for sinners if they did not believe the Fable they assuredly did believe the moral of it viz. the happy state of the good and the miserable one of the bad and that everlasting too as might be shown As for Christians do they not know that in the day when God shall judge the World by Jesus Christ he will render to every Man according to his deeds to those who patiently continue in well-doing eternal life and to those who obey unrighteousness indignation wrath tribulation and anguish Hath not Truth itself told them that there is a time when the righteous shall go into everlasting life but the wicked into everlasting punishment we need not stand to reason upon such concessions The case is plain what we ought to do if we have but common sense and understanding Is it not a most contemptible and pitiable condition we are in if we suffer our selves to perish everlastingly because we will not take the pains of a few days to be saved to fall into a state of meanness and misery whence no redemption through mere laziness or cowardice having not the heart to encounter some difficulty or courage to bear some present pains and pain though it were the pulling out of an Eye or cutting off an Hand Oh! where is the wisdom of such who easily swim down in a pleasant stream which runs into a dead Sea or a lake of Fire and Brimstone Where is their reason who forewarned dance on merrily with a jolly croud in a smooth way till at last they tumble altogether into the mouth of a Volcano when they were an hundred times advised and entreated to take a certain path at its entrance indeed more solitary rugged and a little toilsome if you please But which in a short time would bring them into a place beyond all imagination delicious furnished with the most agreeable and excellent company eternally secure from any disturbance from within or without Whose part is it now to wonder are the riotous dissolute and vicious to wonder at the folly and weakness as they think of the pious vertuous and well-governed or these at the willfull madness or sottishness of the former These no doubt if all be true that hath been said But some who have the greatest reason to fear will not believe so great severity so they term it of Almighty God to sinners though they are willing to believe his kindness and bounty to the good Men can believe almost what they please and that against the most universal Tradition Reason and Conscience of Mankind But they have some reason what 's that Sinners cannot hurt God and do but enjoy themselves Is this said in earnest or is it only because they will not openly own Infidelity But 1 They would hurt God Almighty if they could and every one else were their power answerable to their will God himself would not be safe or happy Every knowing and willfull Sinner who opposeth or complies not with God's most wise and beneficial Government of the World by his Laws and Decrees by his Commands and Appointments hath the Insolence and doth what he can to make God and all the World besides the Ministers of his Personal pleasures and lusts and is the Enemy of God and all that he hath made And I think such an one deserves the severest punishment and so doth all humane Government judge and act too The very will and purpose alone is a tendency to such mischief it is a partial and inchoative cause and is accordingly to be used of which further reasons may be still given But 2. According to this reasoning God must not reward his faithful Servants who love him for they can as little profit God as the rebellious and malicious hurt him If God accept the will for the deed and reward it too why may he not punish the will for the deed likewise And 3. I do not see but that the Act of will is the only proper Act of a Man and that all external effect is from God when and in what measure he pleaseth So that in proper speaking a sinner hurts no body but wills to do it He is indeed inwardly malicious proud careless of every one but himself or gratifying his own lusts that these have any external effect more or less comes from another hand Lastly he can hardly seem in earnest who asks why vicious Men should be punished so severely only for enjoying themselves Nevertheless because we do not know how childish trifling and foolish Vice may indeed render some Men even in things of the vastest importance we say that to take the three capital and general ones malice pride and sensuality impiety injustice covetousness and an hundred others being only their kinds or instruments the malicious Man delights in mischief and would do nothing else too if God would permit or rather lend him his power for such a purpose The proud Man and the envious which seems compos'd of pride and ill-nature would have every one under his feet and may affect superiority in every thing to such a degree as to permit none to enjoy any good thing but himself if his will and desires were attended by an equal power to execute them The sensualist who seems most intended in this excuse if he will
use it And indeed the first is always attended with the other two For he that hath a great affection for truth will readily embrace it where ever he discovers it endeavour to recommend and make the best use of it he can shewing what influences it hath upon his heart and life This excellent quality of our Spirits is more than once commended and commanded in the Holy Scriptures 'T is this which our Saviour means in his Parable by the honest and good heart which having received the word keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience Luke 8. 15. It was the want of this which was one of the Causes of the seduction from the Verity of the Gospel in those who perished viz. Because they received not the love of the truth i. e. Not only the Gospel particularly called the truth but of truth in general 1 Thess 2. 10. And it was this our Saviour above all things required in men to become his Disciples And 't is for this reason together with the incomparable evidence of the truth of Christian Religion that it is to be believed that never an honest man of capacity who hath been rightly instructed in the principal Doctrines of it hath long held out against it and finally disbelieved it We may add to this natural effect of probity the extraordinary and supernatural one even in those who may be for some time doubtfull or erroneous in those greatest Verities so perhaps may God permit It procures God's especial care to enlighten and encline such to the reception of truth 3ly Another cure of this Infidelity is a branch of modesty that is but a just and true esteem and value for our selves and therefore particularly to be carefull we entertain not too great a Conceit of our own ability and sufficiency above other mens to find out the falsity or weakness or uncertainty in common receiv'd opinions of consequence If we seem to our selves to observe it let us still be diffident of our own Judgment and believe we may be mistaken and that there may be something in them or for them which we do not yet see and therefore reserve the alteration of our belief to further consideration Those who are strongly conceited of their knowledge and sufficiency in judgment above other men and are hugely pleased with it are very forward and ambitious to shew it to themselves first and then to other men more especially in contradicting and correcting what is generally taught and believed and that by the most esteem'd and of the best Reputation and Authority The Holy Scripture hath given us this general advice also Rom. 12. 3. Not to think too highly of our selves but soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith But because some men in their Infidelity may rely more upon the Wit and Learning of one whom they much esteem than upon their own it is to be advised 4ly To have a great deference and respect to the most publick Testimony or to the most general received Opinion so much the more still by how much it is larger in respect of places and ages The least effect this consideration ought to have upon us is to make us cautious and suspicious when we are inclined to believe and advance any Opinion contrary because it appears true to our selves or some few other really knowing men We ought diligently and impartially to examine what it is in the common Opinion we cannot perswade our selves to be true and how such a general mistake should come to pass He that contradicts an Universal belief had need be the wisest of men and he that rejects a very general one should be very wise The first is not to be done without a Demonstration and even that which so appears to us is reasonably to be suspected though till we see otherwise it cannot be denied by us because in a thing a thousand times considered and debated it may seem much that none before hath light upon this Demonstration though I do not say it is impossible And as for those perswasions which are very general in things judged of great concern and consequently most frequently brought into conversation writing and practice it had need be a very great evidence and having lain long under variety of examination is at last also generally approved that should entirely remove or displace them Yet I deny not but a man may have sometime a reason sufficient at first to suspect to doubt to say that the new Opinion looks with a good countenance and seems not to want a fair probability And then it seems no more than Justice and a thing becoming the publick Care that it should have a fair hearing But here too that we be not imposed upon we are to take a true account of the Universality or Generality of received perswasions not call those of one Nation or Country or perhaps one quarter of the World introduced and maintained by mere interest cunning and force or of one or some few Ages I say we must not call these universal or more general than indeed they are This is the fault and folly of the Roman Church which will needs have Transubstantiation Purgatory Image and Saint Worship and an hundred others to be the Catholick Opinions and Practices in the Church of Christ when we can produce whole Countries and Nations greater than theirs now and many more Ages and the best even of their own Church which neither believed nor practised such things This remedy is proper against blameable singularity whether out of ignorance or affectation I will add but one more and so have done with this general head also And that is 5ly That as it hath been already a general Advice to possess our minds throughly with probity and plain honesty and consequently a prevalent love of the truth So it will much help and assure the effect thereof to purge them of all prejudices which may oppose it and to leave truth and honesty as few and as weak Enemies in our Breasts as it is possible for us We must therefore turn out and send away all unreasonable Inclinations Humours Appetites and Passions which may have any influence upon our understanding and judgment in our enquiring or assent to any truth We are to keep our minds sincere and upright This will prevent or repress the Influences of many Causes of Infidelity at once For in pursuance and application of this general Direction we shall free our minds from the love of any lusts from the extravagant and most unreasonable desire of liberty uncontroulableness and independency from pride vain self-conceit and affectation of singularity from the humour of setting our selves in good earnest to oppose and contradict from wrath and impatience against God Almighty and his Providence from spite and envy against knowledge and goodness and good men against their reputation and interest in the World and finally from Scepticism it self or as I now take the word from timidity
pray that he went away rather justified than the other or justified and not the other according to a known Hebraism justified i. e. accepted approved by God in that particular Act of his Prayer to God as useth or ought to be done to him who is just and doth well The same is the Sense of the word Rom. 8. 33. 'T is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth We know the World doth condemn reproach hate us Christians for our Religion for our believing upon Jesus but that we despise because we know too that we have the favour and approbation of God for so doing Thus also it is recorded of Phinehas Psalm 106. 30 31. that he executed judgment slew Zimri and Cozbi in the Act of Uncleanness and it was counted to him for righteousness or for justification or the effect of it was justification for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have often the same signification as Gal. 2. 21. i. e. he was and ought to be and ever shall be unto all Generations greatly approved and highly praised for that Action in so eminent a degree righteous and just done with so much Zeal and Courage for the Honour of his God and the good of his People And we read too how he was rewarded by God for it with the high Priest-hood in his Family Nay the justification of Abraham himself is said sometimes to be in the same sense for some one particular eminent Act of Obedience to God Rom. 3. 18. Heb. 11. 8 17. Jam. 2. 21. though at other times for his general Faith and Piety or obediential Temper to God And of this justification he is set forth as an eminent and extraordinary Example Rom. 4. So it is in like manner with all good men who walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham as the Apostle phraseth it viz. who are religious obsequious to the Will of God in what manner and whensoever he shall sufficiently make it known to them and consequently men of sincere Probity of Spirit devoted to all that is good and just Of which hereafter This usage of a just man or justification may be distinguished into 1 negative or doing him no harm 2 positive doing good to him bestowing certain benefits and positive favours upon him But there are three more remarkable instances of both these and frequently mentioned in the Scripture The first is remission of sins upon repentance or an omission of punishment for them like as one that hath been just and never committed any sin useth to be treated He suffers no evil from God for sin and this is negative The second is the Holy Spirit 's influences operations in the Souls of Men. And the third is Eternal Salvation upon perseverance in a good and holy life All these are more particularly regarded by St. Paul in the Text As if he had said Therefore being by Faith of which presently restored to the Favour of God particularly expressed in the forgiveness of sins the gift of the Holy Spirit the promises and assurances of Eternal life we have peace with God We are in a state of Amity and Friendship with him and we have Peace and Tranquility in our own Consciences which do not now threaten us with God's Anger or Punishment and that through our Lord Jesus Christ Now if this be the true notion of justification when it is joined with Faith as I think it is Then first it is not the same with sanctification or making a man inherent holy and just Justifying the ungodly through Faith in the Scripture-style is not making an ungodly man godly as the Papists Socinians and Grotius would have it A mistake in that learned Man which hath led him into many other Misinterpretations of Scripture Nor 2 is it in a strict Sense an accounting or reckoning a Man perfectly just or more than he really and truly is for that were to say that God may be deceived and judge things otherwise than they are It is true the Church of England in one of her Articles hath used the words accounting righteous for the merits of Jesus Christ by faith and not for our works But there needs no force to make them signifie the treating or using as righteous for the Merit of Christ upon the condition of Faith without any Merit on our part which is the true Christian Doctrine of Justification as we shall presently see Nor 3 is Justification to pronounce or declare a Man inherently just as it were in a solemn Sentence who is not so for this were to make God give a false sentence Nor 4 is it to cover or cloth a Man even a penitent sinner with the pure Robes of Christ's perfect Righteousness and then to appear to God pure and spotless as Jesus Christ himself For this were to suppose God to look no further than the outside and represent him like old Isaac deceived by Rebekah and Jacob. These are the notions of men who seem never to attend to the proper Nature of things but are content to talk only in Figures And in truth they might do much more harm if they were not antidoted by other plain Scripture Doctrines such as that of the necessity of Holiness of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting Salvation Nor 5 is Justification God's imputing the Righteousness of Christ to Man who lives in any sinfull Breach or Neglect of God's Law There is indeed a comfortable and true notion under those phrases and that is That sinners fare the better for the compleat Righteousness or perfect Obedience of Christ Great and many indeed were the benefits God was pleased to afford sinfull mankind for the sake of Jesus Christ No less than such as these his long suffering and forbearance all sorts of temporal Blessings all the inward and outward means of Vertue and Goodness All this even to sinners while sinners which some learned men have called degrees of remission of sins I should rather say instances of justification or dealing by men as useth to be done to the innocent and just who had never offended Then further upon true repentance entire pardon for all past sins All in the other life and all in this except what God in his fatherly Wisdom may think fit for our discipline and means of further improvement in Vertue and Holiness constant forgiveness upon constant repentance for the interfering faults of good Men and finally Everlasting life All this Men owe to the compleat Righteousness of Jesus Christ from the beginning to the End of his life It was for his sake God was pleased to have any regard to or compassion upon the degenerate Race of Mankind that God might by so eminently rewarding him shew the World how acceptable to him Holiness and Vertue were and encourage to the Attainment of the highest Degree of them possible All this is true and a reasonable Administration of God in the Government of the World But yet it is not
Latin Fathers we may observe that that is signified more fitly by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former part of the Sentence And if the Author had meant no more he had used the same word But it is sufficiently known to those that are acquainted with the Talmudical and Rabbinical Language that properly and strictly to merit by being Righteous and Just is the first signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Targums of Jon. and Hieros Gen. 22. Abraham is brought in praying to God That when the Sons of Isaac were in straits and distress and made their Address to God they might have deliverance and remission of their sins for the meritorious Piety of Isaac their Father in submitting himself voluntarily to be bound and offered by his Father Abraham And Psalm 60. 7. the Chal parap introduceth David praying for the sake of the Truth of Abraham the Righteousness of Isaac and the Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Jacob. And in Targ. Cantic 1. 9. The passage of the Israelites through the Red-sea is attributed to the Merits of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 'T is true the Holy Scripture it self telleth us that God did oft-times do good to Men yea and forgive some punishments of some sins for the sake and at the request of some other eminently holy and righreous Man so Pharaoh's Steward was blessed for Joseph's sake the Israelites at Moses's humble Request were spared the Sodomites for ten Righteous Persons at the request of Abraham had escaped that dreadfull Destruction and we believe he doth so still But the Jewish opinion extends this privilege of good men beyond its bounds even to the utmost They expected all punishment for all sins here and hereafter to be remitted for their sakes What we Christians are taught to be the just and due honour only of the Messias even Jesus of Nazareth Besides we believe that this very great favour afforded to the best of Men is bestowed upon them for the sake of Jesus the Christ which the Jews never thought of In their own Books it is common that all Israel shall have a portion in the World to come that not one of them shall perish or go to Hell except Apostates and such who deny some fundamental Articles of their Religion otherwise wicked enough So we find it in the Treatise Sanhedrin cap. 11. misn 1. 4. I know they do not all say just the same things in this matter as well as in others But from their own Books and the Scripture it seems most probable that the Generality of the Doctors and People did believe that their very relation to Abraham and being the Disciples of Moses did deserve very good usage from God Much more surely their external Penances and strict Observance of their Law The Holy Scripture confirms all this For in Jes cap. 58. we read there were those who challenged God's Favour for their meer external performances and in the Evangelists how much did they vaunt themselves for being the Children of Abraham and the Disciples of Moses Moses himself seems to intimate what an insolent and arrogant People they were and would prove Deut. 9. 4. when he tells them that they were rather worse than other Nations and that God's Choice of them was only from his own free Goodness e We do not as I remember meet with any acknowledgment of Divine Grace any supervenient additional Influence or Assistance either in the Scripture or in their own Writings as necessary to Repentance Reformation or becoming a good Man by any Pharisaical Jew such as St. Paul disputes against And it seems to me the most genuine Sense of that known and ancient saying amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. all things are in the Power and disposal of Heaven except the fear of God The sense I take to be that that dependeth not at all upon God s Will not solely on Conc ad Exod. 7. 3. God's Will as Men. Ben. Israel expounds it A Man may do it or not do it merely of himself by his own natural Power if God hinder it not that is enough It is true there may be met with in some of their Prayers extant among them a Petition for God's help to keep his Commandments to serve him and keep them from sin but not as necessary without which they could not perform it So we find in their Office for the Day of Expiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purifie their Hearts to serve him that it would please God they might not sin But it is more than I know if they any where use it as an Argument for this their Prayer that they cannot possibly obtain those their Desires without God's special help and aid We meet with no such expressions among them as We who cannot do any thing that is good without thee And again for as much as without thee we are not able to please thee and many such like in our own Liturgy This opinion of their natural strength sufficient like Pelagianism so called amongst us to repent and be converted might induce them to their opinion about Merit though indeed it was no sufficient proof supposing it true For what if they had so much Power of Nature left whence had they it was it their own originally did they give it themselves or was it not the gift of God who made them did not God continue this natural Power and the Liberty of using it But such thoughts and reasonings never came into the head of a Scribe Lawyer or Pharisee f Every where in the Scripture but more especially in the Epistles Sanctification Regeneration Renovation Salvation c. are ascribed to God and the Holy Spirit the beginning and improvements of goodness in us and of the spiritual life are attributed to the grace or influence of God preventing concurring exciting strengthening our Resolutions and Endeavours So as to give us to understand that a Man cannot reform or convert himself without God and that God will not without himself ordinarily speaking for God no doubt can and hath irresistibly and physically as they speak converted some such as St. Paul for eminent Examples of the Power of Divine Grace when God pleaseth and particularly when he designeth a Person for some present great and special Service Mans nature as it is now corrupted cannot recover the Rule and Dominion of Reason Conscience Vertue and Goodness in his Soul without the powerfull Aid of Divine Grace tho' when it is offered it may refuse it too Such places are Eph. 2. 8 9 10. By grace are ye saved c. not of works least any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works And Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done c. but by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Rom. 8. 13. If ye through