Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A39377
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An Abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person concerning the excellency of the Book of common-prayer, &c.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing E7; ESTC R23206
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15,276
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30
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AN ABSTRACT OF SOME LETTERS TO AN Eminent Learned PERSON Concerning the EXCELLENCY Of the BOOK of COMMON-PRAYER c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 8.1 LONDON Printed for William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar 1679. SIR I Humbly entreat you to tell me whether you do not Judge it Sinful to stay at home on the Lords Day rather then go to Church only to hear the Common Prayer Preaching doubtless is in no wise to be Neglected but this I must say that I cannot apprehend that that person has any Actings of that Faith which worketh by Love without which All the Knowledge we gain by Hearing Sermons does not Edify but only Puff up the Mind who when he comes to the Place of God's publick Worship knowing that he may not expect a Sermon there is not Confident that he shall be as much Edified by the Prayers Chapters c. as he should be by never so good a Sermon But however by reason of the Rarity of the Habit of True Christian Faith even in that part of the World which we call Christendome and the frequency of the long Interruptions of its Actings where it is Various fresh Expressions of Saving Truths which are apt to Excite the Minds of the Vnsanctifyed by the Phantasie to give heed to the Sense they import are very Necessary But This is most evident that People are exceeding apt to take the Sensible Workings of their Soul stir'd up by the Novelty of Expressions in Sermons the Emphatical Pronunciation of the Preacher c. for Fervency of SPIRIT which Sensible Motions I presume you will grant are of no value otherwise than as they are Subservient to Rational Abhorrence of all Sin of all Inordinate Affection to Finite Objects or to a Rational or Spiritual Inclination to the ONE INFINITE GOOD through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD the Effectual Notices of which INFINITE GOOD how is it possible but we should be continually stir'd up unto in the Hearing of the Common Prayer if we would Apprehend the Free Offers of the Spirit of Truth which the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ makes unto us in an Vnlimited Abundance in the Use of all such Means of Grace as He calls us unto Here I could Run out with much Fervor of Indignation against the Despisers of these Means of Grace Strong Guards from those Accursed Errors Socinianism c. which whilst I liv'd in Oxford seem'd to me to be coming in like a Mighty Torrent upon this Distracted Kingdom whilst the Frequent Professions of Belief of the TRINITY Gloria patri and the Three Creeds were cast out of Our Churches If it be say'd what Reformation have we now c. I Reply that one Reason of his Kingdom 's Miscarriages I might say Abominations is that some of those that are syncerely Learned Pious have not such an Esteem of our Liturgie as they Ought to have And hundreds of those that are thought by the Vulgar to be so do themselves Despise it or Countenance others in so doing You give me not any punctual Answer to my Question whether you do not Judge it Sinful to stay at home though to read Good Books c. on the Lords Day rather than come to Church when nothing is to be heard there but the Common Prayer You say you are more against spending the Lords Day in Idleness or in any thing which is worse than in Hearing that alone I thank God I was never so Mad as to make a question of This I have nothing to say to it but that I dislike these words worse than the Common Prayer which seem to insinuate that It is not Good I am not guilty of slighting Preaching as 't is taken in contradistinction to Reading c. as you seem to Conceit I Affirm that to Suit or Proportion our Expectations of Grace in the Use of All Means whereunto we are Called to the Apprehensions of INFINITE Bounty c. is a Property of Saving Faith But say you GOD who appointeth several Means doth usually work according to them and when he withdraweth them it is a Judgment which it were not if he had promis'd as much Grace without them as with them I grant that God who appointeth several Means doth usually work according to them But I utterly Deny that when he withdraweth any Particular Means of Grace it is a Judgment to Him who is in the Act of syncere Love to the Blessed Jesus for such a one is at All Times and in All Places Under the Gracious Influences of the INFINITY of Light and Love directing him how by Submission to the Divine Will withdrawing any Particular Means of Grace and by the Renewing his Resolutions to make a Right Use of all such Means as God shall at any time call him unto c. He may Receive of the Fullness of Christ in as great Measures as he could have done in the Use of the Means withdrawn from him The LORD give us both Understanding in all Things Now I have found the way by your Letter to discover your Thoughts concerning the Common Prayer in your Printed Papers I shall not trouble you with any more Post-Letters on that Subject but shall stick to the Defence of this Great Truth that the withdrawing of any particular Means of Grace is not a Judgment to him that is in the Act of Divine Love Against which you Argue thus That which tendeth to hinder his continuance in that Act of Love is a Judgment but such is the withdrawing of some Means of Grace I Answer the withdrawing c. is so far from being Directly and in its own Nature that which tendeth to hinder c. that as It is in its own Nature viz. the work of the Infinitely Good GOD It is the Means of Grace and he takes it for Such that is in the Act of Divine Love as I endeavour'd to shew you in my last We question not say you Gods bounty but his Will shew us a Promise that when a man is deprived of the Preaching of the Gospel the Communion of the Church the Company of all good men and cast amongst impious deceivers and haereticks he shall have his love continued and encreas'd as much as if he had better Means I Answer This Promise of Our Saviour Whatsoever ye shall Aske the Father in my Name he will give it you John 16.27 would Ingage the Heart of any one in the Act of Divine Love if God should put him into such a Condition as you express to expect from GOD through Our LORD JESUS as much Grace or Improvement of his Divine Temper under that Dispensation of Providence as he knows he could have grounds to Expect in the Use of those Means of Grace which the Only Wise GOD has thought fit to Withdraw from him But I am ready to say with you If God should take away the Bible and Preaching from the Land I would take it for a Judgment though the Common
Aversion of the Heart fro Our HOLY ONE My using these words Secundum Naturam Bonitatis Infinitae was not as you say to hide the Sense but to prevent your Opinion that I should hold such an Absurdity as this that God Acts any thing ad ultimum Posse which words can in no wise be spoken of God but it seems I had not my Aim For in the Close of your Letter you tell me that you think my work is to Prove that God communicateth Good Naturally to the utmost of his absolute Power as the Sun doth its influence of Light Heat and Motion God Forbid that I should undertake to Prove that God acts like a Finite Agent as Finite as having any Vtmost or Limited Power Whether I misunderstand Goodness which is another Passage in your Letter I shall entreat you to Consider by what I shall say of it in my present Reflexions upon these words of yours His Goodness even his infinite Perfection and Love to Himself This is GOD Himself He is His own infinite Joy and Life and Glory He is All in all Things and events Sin only excepted Enjoying Himself in these small Creatures which are so contemptible in the Sight of Men no less than in the most Glorious of the Heavenly Hosts And the more we Partake of the Divine Nature the more we Delight Ourselves in all the Works both of Creation and Providence Here I cannot but tell you that I Hate as the Gates of Hell the Folly and Madness of some of the Adversaries of Our Liturgie which prompted them to speak contemptuously under Pretence forsooth of Zeal for the Pure Service of God of that Excellent Hymn O all ye Works of the Lord Bless ye the Lord Praise him and Magnifie Him for Ever O all ye Angels of the Lord Bless ye the Lord c. There is say you a Negative Limitation which is not in Gods Power and you seem to grant it to be in his Wisdom which you truly call the Councell of his Will But what Wisdom doth it doth as the Guide of the Will and therefore as Wisdom is the reason of it I suppose you mean of a man 's not being Actually better than he is for you say in the next Page that our want of Goodness is the consequence of a meer Non Velle negatione Directionis so the Will must needs be the cause of it negatione Volitionis To this I Answer that the cause that any man is not better than he is is not that God cannot make him Better i. e. that there is any Defect of Power in God neither can it be rightly said that God can make him Better than he is For I understand those words as you rightly conjecture in sensu composito But perhaps you will say God could have made him Better than he is To this I Answer that the making him better than he is was never the Object of the Divine Power of which there can be no other Object ad Extra but what is judg'd fit to be brought to pass by that Wisdom which is Essentially the Same with Infinite Goodness This deep thing let me presume to tell you in all Humility requires your Utmost Attention Neither are these Negations if we may put a Periphrasis of Nothing in the Plural number of Wisdom to Direct of Will to Execute the Cause c. For of meer Negation there is No Issue or Consequence All that you say Reflecting upon my words concerning the Object of Gods Volition or Nolition c. I do most Affectionately Approve as importing very much of the same Truth for want of which Dr. Twisse whom you mention seems to me in many Passages of his Controversial Writings to Rave and Talk indeed like a Scholar but like one out of his Right Wits rather than to Dispute But you seem to Faulter very much when you come to say that our want of Goodness is the Consequence of meer Non Velle For as I said but now of a meer Negation or Nullity i. e. of Nothing there is no Issue or Consequence at all I think say you that it is not true that Volitio quà Talis efficit ad Extra sed tantùm quatenus per Potentiam Operatur To this I Answer Volitio Divina ad Extra quà Talis Divina inquam Efficit ad Extra nam Essentialitr includit Sapientiam Potentiam Infinitam To these words Omnis Volitio non est Efficiens for God willeth himself much less omnis Nolitio I Answer thus Gods Willing of Himself may not properly be term'd Efficient but it is Effectual or to the Purpose that is which He Willeth to Be And every Object of His Volition ad Extra Is or Shall be Through the Efficacy of His Power set on work by the Infinite Goodness of the Councel of his Will As for the Divine Nolition this I say By it we mean not the Negative of Volition but an Adverse Act of the Will which Essentially implying Infinite Wisdom and Power can never be Frustrated but alwayes Effects the Opposite to that to which it is Adverse So that if any man's being Actually Better than he is were the Object of Divine Nolition it must needs follow that God would be the Direct Cause of the Opposite thereof viz. that the man is Actually so Bad as he is What then is the Cause c I say again Onely the Preverseness of his own Will Sin only can be the Cause of Sin What Cause than had the first Sin why as in effect I have say'd already none at all Man 's own Perverseness of Will say you was not the Cause of his First Perverting or Sin When we speak of Perversness of Will with Reference to the First Sin we mean nothing but the First Sin under that Notion not that this Perverseness of Will is Really Distinct from the First Act of the Will Perverted I cannot translate OPTIMA into any English so suitable to my Conceptions as these words FVLL of Goodness I did not retire into Silence as you speak at the Instance of the Heathens but Told you this Certain Truth That we Ought not to Deny our Assent to such Evident Propositions as this that 'T is Essential to Infinite Goodness to Fill the Capacities of all Creatures so that properly and in the strictest sense there is no Evil but the Aversion of the Will of the Creature from the Will of the Infinitely Good and Wise and Powerful Creator To this I say we ought not to Deny our Assent because we cannot give an account of some Particular Wayes of Providence i. e. of the Modes or several Kinds of the Influence of Infinite Goodness upon some Parts of the Creation Modes c. we Attribute only ab Extrinseco to the Divine Providence they being only in the Creatures The Reason or Proof of this Consequence if God cannot be the Direct cause of Stainting c. is this because if He cannot be the Direct Cause of Stinting his