and Reason No Man could know there were any real thing existent beside himself nor what or whence himself were Atheists are come to that height of Impudence as to pretend that they are the Wits of the World who will believe nothing but what is certain and evident and will not believe that there is a God because they see it not evident in which they are evidently the grossest Ignorants as well as the most imprudent Fools Ignorant they are because they found all their Interest upon an inconsistent Lie supposing certainty of Knowledg from themselves when yet they find themselves often deceived yea supposing themselves undeceiveable whereas it is impossible to attain to any certain Rule of Man's Life without supposing a Deity abounding in Truth and which cannot lie or deceive How could any be sure of any outward Impression of Sense for the same Impression may be in the Sense or Brain not from an extrinsick but from an intrinsick Cause Those whose Eyes are vitiated with any unnatural Tincture think they see all Objects painted with certain Colours but falsly Yea the Hypochondriack think they see not only false Colours but even Bodies and Shapes without any extrinsick Impression What strange Sounds doth the disordered Ear represent Taste and Smell may not only be depraved but deprived how then could Certainty be inferred from Sense if it were not presupposed that the Author of Sense were true and would not deceive and therefore hath given his reasonable Creatures Understanding distinct from Sense which can reflect upon its own Apprehensions and perceive the Condition of the Organs and Medium of Sense and make use of the concurring Testimonies of other Senses and the natural self-evident Principles in the Mind and thereby rest in perfect assurance which must explicitly or implicitly rest upon this ground that God the Author of these Faculties is true and cannot deceive and therefore the Creature may securely rest in the Concurrence of them This is yet more evident in the inbred first Principles of Knowledg contemplative or practical How could any certainly believe that these were true if he did not believe the Truth of God that gave them The concurring Testimony of Men through the World could not suffice for that Testimony is known by Sense by Word or Writing yea tho one Man could travel through the whole World and speak with all the Persons in it that were yet by Sense which needs those inbred Principles of Reason to secure it against Error there could no more be firmly concluded than that these Notions being common among People that keep no Intercouse they cannot be from Men but from a superior Cause which yet would not conclude if that Cause were not infallible which could neither be deceived nor deceive As the Truth of God is a necessary Foundation of the Certainty of natural Knowledg it must be no less necessary for the Certainty of revealed Knowledg For if God could lie or deceive how were it possible to know the truth of Revelations and distinguish them from the Illusions of Devils or Men not from Miracles which might be from God's Omnipotence and could not conclude without his Veracity not from the Assertion of the greatest Apostle and most glorious Angel For Paul saith If we or an Angel from Heaven shall preach another Gospel to you let him be accursed which necessarily implies that if a contrary Doctrine were preach'd from God it behoved to overturn his Veracity for otherwise the posterior Testimony of Paul or of an Angel would be derogatory and preferable to the prior It were not possible to know that God were Holy Benign Just Merciful Faithful Wise and Soveraign if he were not absolutely true for it is clear that these could not be believed because God said it if he were not unchangeably true nor could any part of his Holiness or Godlikeness be believed without believing that he is true there being nothing more sutable to the Deity than Truth which being surely believed all his other Perfections must be believed because God that cannot lie hath declared them by Reason and Revelation I am not moved with that Objection against the Apostle's Assertion that God altered the Constitution and Order of the Jewish Church and why might be not then without incroaching upon his Veracity alter the Christian Church The Reason is clear because in the Christian Religion it is a chief part that there is no Name given under Heaven by which Salvation can come but by the Name of Jesus and that there is never another way to be accepted or expected tho by the Annunciation of an Angel from Heaven this was never said of the Jewish Oeconomy The Truth of God being so fundamentally necessary to be believed God in his Wisdom and Goodness hath given the strongest Evidences of it There can be nothing more contrary to the Principles of natural Light than to imagine a lying or deceiving God There is nothing so powerfully and peremptorily asserted in the Scripture as the Truth of God who is called the God of Truth and Christ calleth himself the Truth in abstracto In the Character and Description God gives of himself to Moses he declareth himself merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth and he is a God full of Compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in Mercy and Truth his Mercy is everlasting and his Truth endureth to all Generations Seldom is the Truth of God mentioned but with his Mercy for Mercy could be of no moment if God's Truth were not absolutely sure By Mercy and Truth Iniquity is purged saith Solomon and Mercy and Truth preserve the King God's Word is frequently called the Word of Truth But that which is most signal to convince us of the Truth of God is that he declareth it is impossible for God to lie Truth doth import 1. The Conformity between the Signs instituted to express Thoughts and the Thoughts whether these Signs be by Word or Writ or by other Signs as beckning with the Hand or the Head or the raising a pleasant Aspect in the Countenance to signify Assent Approbation or Acceptance which is more properly called Sincerity and Truth by such Signs is called Veracity Truth doth also extend to the Conformity between the Thoughts and the Objects thereof and so Truth is said to be in the Heart and to the Conformity of Words spoken or written or other Signs unto things signified tho not conform to the Thoughts or Judgment of him that expresseth them so there may be Veracity without Verity when Words are conform to the Judgment of him that speaketh but not to the thing signified yet both may concur with design to seduce or lead into Error or evil Practice when the Premises are expressed and the Conclusion is left to the Hearer whose Principles or Opinions are known that thence they would infer a wrong and inconsequent Conclusion which when done with design to seduce is no less Deceit than
Unjust he openeth his bountiful Hand and bestows what is necessary for every living thing while he allows it Life He is merciful and pitieth the very Ravens when they cry for want of Food and much more supplies the Necessities of Men even when they do not trust or expect it All these Perfections respect his Creatures and it is evident that they are without Obligation and in that differ from his Justice and so is also his Providence and Government of the World but his Truth and his Wisdom are Perfections terminated on himself as their peculiar End they are free for none can be obliged to himself yet they are more necessary than the Acts of Bounty which he might forbear but they are comprehended under the Decency proper to God on his own account tho there had never been a Creature he would ever have been true his Thoughts being ever conform to their Objects The Faithfulness of God then is comprehended in his Bounty or Benignity respecting his Creature as warrantably trusting in him As the Term Faithfulness is variously taken so the thing is commonly very indistinctly and sometimes erroniously understood confounding Faithfulness with Justice and Truth and supposing there is no Warrant for Faithfulness but upon Promise and upon the Truth of God in that Promise which is a great Mistake for the Performance of a Promise is an Act of Justice and Truth is not an Object of Trust but when Words or Signs to express it are emitted but Faith may warrantably be where God hath made no Promise nor expressed any Word When God created Angels and Men before he made any Promise to them they did know from his excellent Nature and firmly trust that if they did not offend him he would never make them miserable and they might have trusted for particular Favours not in the way of Reward I know no clear Evidence from Scripture that God promised to Adam that he should never be annihilated only I see that he threatneth Death if he transgressed his Command in eating the forbidden Fruit whence it is collected that God promised him Eternal Life and even Immortality and that he entered into Covenant with him wherein Adam willingly ingaged himself to the Obedience of God and God did promise Life and Immortality to him to his Wife and their Posterity and to raise them from an Animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven without the Dissolution of Soul and Body by Death and as it is commonly believed the good Angels after they had given proof of their Obedience were confirmed that they should never fall There is no less ground to believe that the like Favour would have been granted to Man not only for himself that he should not fall but that a greater measure of Perfection should be given to his Posterity that they might not be under the Necessity of falling and it is evident and certain that by his Transgression in eating the forbidden Fruit he lost these Benefits both to himself and his Posterity but by the infinite Mercy and Benignity of God Christ the second Adam perfected and performed what the first Adam had lost Can any Man pretend that the particular Favours that the Saints have always prayed for from God were all promised by God or did he express his Purpose to give them No certainly and yet they did warrantably trust and prayed in Faith for them and obtained that which they prayed for whereof there are innumerable Examples in Scripture and Experience And therefore it is said that the fervent Prayer of the Godly availeth much If the Import of Mens Prayers should only be that God should be just in the performance of his Promise and be as good his Word I see not how Prayer could be said to avail much for God would be true and just whether any Creature prayed or not But God granteth many things upon the earnest Prayer of his People which were neither promised nor necessary and had no other Conveniency but to satisfy their longing Desire which if it be not incongruous for God to do or them to receive as being hurtful to them if Faith be not wanting the Effect will not fail Was there either Necessity or Promise for the Prophet's stopping the Clouds of Heaven for three Years and six Months and for obtaining Rain when there was no second Cause for it Is it not warrantable to pray to be inclined or directed in the Choice of a Calling a Match or any lawful Undertaking or for the Success of the Choice Is there any Promise for these Particulars Yea tho it be said by Christ to the Apostles That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will do it I take it rather to be a Declaration of God's Faithfulness and of the Effect of faithful Prayer not signifying an Engagement but a Resolution And I think it were a very unbecoming manner of praying to say Lord Thou hast promised that whatsoever I demand in Christ's Name thou wilt grant it this I demand and therefore I claim it as due by thy Justice and Truth which thou canst not refuse With God's Grace that never shall be my strain God hath declared that he will give Salvation and Glory to all that shall have saving Faith trusting to obtain these with Sutableness which cannot be towards those who resolve to cleave to and pursue their Sins Suppose this were not only a Declaration but a proper Promise and that the Performance were an Act of God's Justice and Truth yet where hath he promised that he will give Faith to this or that Man that believeth And should he that believeth claim Salvation as an Act of Truth and Justice and not as a free Act of God's Mercy and Benevolence and specially as an Act of God's Faithfulness that he will not disappoint the becoming Hope or Trust of his Creature Trust among Men is not accounted when they obtain a clear Obligation tho it had been granted freely because the Obliged can be compelled to perform but it is accounted a Trust when there is no Promise but that from the Nature of the Deed it is to be presumed not to be a Donation in favour of the Person trusted but with Intention and Expectation that he would restore to the Truster or those who derive Right from him upon demand God of his Benignity to further the Faith of his Creatures does not only promise where no Promise was necessary but gives Seals and Oaths not so much to secure the Effect as to produce Faith and therefore the Effect should ever be attributed to God's Faithfulness and to the Creature 's Faith resting on that Faithfulness I know that God's Justice Truth and Faithfulness have been oftentimes joined as Man 's also may When a Man obtains a written valid Obligation suppose it were for a valuable Consideration there concurs the Justice of that Person who may be compelled to perform his Truth that as he expressed his Purpose to perform so
Apostles but to others Was either Reason or Will made use of in the producing of these or was it a brute Way unbeseeming God Are not the Principles of reasoning inbred in Nature and freely given of God Is therefore Man's reasoning a brute Way Nothing can be more express against this Opinion than that of Ezekiel A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and give you a Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. There is a great Inclination in Man to put Works upon Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace and that as deserving by Justice the Performance of God's Part. The Semi-Pelagians after the Pelagians were baffled and exploded that they durst no more profess the Powers of Nature to be sufficient for Salvation said there behoved to be supernatural Grace given of God at Conversion yet there were preparatory Works such as the Sense of Sin and of its deserving the Spirit of Bondage the use of Ordinances which they thought deserved Grace which God in Justice could not but give these were also exploded and were called Semi-Pelagians All the Apostle Paul's Arguments against Righteousness by the Law strike as fully against these as against any Merits or Works on Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace and he is accurately positive That by Faith only we are sav'd without any thing on our part in which we might glory or attribute our Salvation to our selves in whole or in part 4. There is of late an Opinion vented in England that tho the Covenant of Works is now become impossible which required perfect Obedience yet God in his Goodness hath entered into the new Covenant or Covenant of Grace in which Man's Part is not a legal and full Obedience but through Christ's Mediation he hath accepted an Evangelical Obedience being a sincere Endeavour to fulfil all God's Commandments and a Course of Life without continuing in any kind of known Sin Their main Ground is that it cannot be thought that God entering with Men in the Covenant of Grace would not have Men as a Part of their Engagement to resolve and promise to have respect to all God's Commandments and to endeavour so far as humane Frailty could allow to fulfil them all if it were not so that Holiness were Man's Part of the Covenant we behoved to take the Antinomian's Interpretation that we were no more under the Law but under Grace that the Law had no more Obligation on Believers therefore the new Obedience must be Man's Part. This Opinion hath been held by some Pious and otherwise Orthodox Divines and therefore it ought rather to be cleared as a Mistake than prosecuted as a stated Profession It must therefore be adverted that God's Moral Law is indispensable and behoved to be binding tho there had never been a Covenant as hath been shown before God's Dispensation might have been without taking Man's Consent by way of Covenant but by the Law written in his Heart obliging him to Obedience under the just and proportioned Punishment of eternal exclusion from God's Favour the breach or loss of no Covenant could take away that it became indeed Man's Part of the Covenant of Works but that Covenant is broken yet the Obligation of the Law which was anterior to that Covenant stands In theCovenaut of Works there was partly Merit partly Favour but the Covenant of Grace excludes all Merit and Man's Part is by Faith only so that Faith is not considered in its moral Goodness for in that Consideration Love is a far more excellent and disinterested Vertue than Faith but Holiness is on God's Part of the Covenant of Grace as in the former Conception is expressed he infuses the Habits of all the Christian Vertues in Conversion Man's Engagement to endeavour to keep God's Law were of no Import unless he did keep it and so God's Part should not be at the time of Conversion but at the time of Death after the Course of Man's Life did appear The Scripture makes no mention or moment of Man's Resolution which is as the early Cloud or Morning Dew which quickly passeth away Neither would the Terms of the Covenant of Grace be equal to all the Endeavour of some would go much further than the Endeavour of others 5. Some Divines in England have made Man's Part of the Covenant to be Faith as it is a good Work because it is said Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is it was held sufficient as if all Righteousness had been performed But this had been still a Covenant of Works accepting one Work in place of entire Obedience but Abraham's believing in that Place was not the Act of Faith as it is Man's Part of the Covenant for it relates to a former Place of Scriptnre as the Scripture saith Abraham believed which was concerning his Son Isaac who was promised to him in his Old Age and therefore he staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief which was a particular Act of Belief of that Promise and was properly an Act of Holiness and was so imputed or reputed as an Act of Righteousness but the Act of Faith in which Abraham entered in the Covenant of Grace was believing in God through the Messiah to be justified sanctified and glorified 6. Some Reformed Divines in France and England bring good Works on Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace as perfecting and compleating Faith for only a lively Faith working by Love is saving for there is a Faith that worketh not by Love The Devils believe and tremble and Faith without Works is dead Abraham was justified by Works when he offered Isaac Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works And Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Yet Paul's reasoning is much more full and accurate discussing the Point of Justification by Faith only without the Works of the Law which could not consist if James spoke of Faith as Justifying whereas James takes off an Error of those that thought they might be saved by believing the Gospel without Holiness which he redargues as a wrong Consequence from Paul and shews that not to be true Faith but such a Faith as the Devils have which cannot be that Act of Faith whereby Man entereth in the Covenant of Grace which is not believing the Truth of the Gospel but relying on God for Salvation through Christ according to the Gospel and on the contrary Abraham's Faith is brought in as true Faith which yet was not the justifying Act nor is the Justification there meant the Justification in Conversion which maketh a Man just but that which manifests his Justification to himself and other Men For Paul saith If Abraham were justified by
Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
Covenanters by their Choice and Consent both as to the Matter and Manner There be Covenants where the Performances are of equivalent Value deserving each other but it were Arrogance enough for Adam to have thought the Covenant of Works were such and it were Insolence to imagine the Covenant of Grace to be such As in the Covenant of Works there were two Branches a Covenant between God and Adam for himself and his Posterity and if he had stood there behoved to have been a Covenant between God and each of his Elect Posterity particularly for himself The Word makes it appear to be so in the Covenant of Grace the Father did covenant with the Son foreknowing Adam's Fall to become the second Adam to restore and exceed that which was known the first would lose by assuming the Nature of the first Adam and with it not only performing that in which Adam failed by not continuing in Integrity performing the whole Will of God and thereby putting all Mankind in a nearer Capacity to Blessedness than Adam had done tho he had stood for there is no ground to think his Posterity would have been confirmed without their own Trial more than he but the second Adam put not only all Mankind out of the Necessity of Misery but it became effectual unto all so far as it was congruous to the Divine Perfections which could not admit of Reconciliation with Sinners cleaving to their Sin or of those who partaking of Divine Illumination and of the Tastes of the Powers of the World to come should despightfully hate the Spirit the Worker of these All the rest of Mankind as the Father foreknew them and predestinated them to be conformed to the Son so the Son undertook effectually to redeem them and glorify them and the Holy Ghost to call them sanctify and preserve them The second Adam did undertake yet much more than the First to satisfy the Justice and manifest the Purity of God more than if all Mankind had perished This Branch of the Covenant of Grace is compleat as to the Elect that could not through Incapacity covenant for themselves but those that could were to have the Offer of the Covenant of Grace made to them by their Vocation tho not to all in equal Fulness and Clearness It was not sutable to the Wisdom of God that those who rejected the first Operations of the Spirit intimating to them that they were Sinners deserving Exclusion from God's Favour and yet that God was merciful to Penitents and would make them Holy and Happy if they did not obstinately cleave to their Sins and reject that Motion but in the rest and even in some of these Rejecters God carrieth on the Work of Sanctification and Salvation in his own Way bringing such to the Light of the Gospel or the Light of the Gospel to them and opening their Eyes to see the Wonders of his Law and to discern spiritual Things and giving them the Inclination to accept of the Offer of the Covenant of Grace and to enter in it for themselves by that saving Act of Faith which is all their Part in the Covenant of Grace Of this we have two eminent Examples in Scripture the one Personal the other National by Miracles manifested to the two great Apostles Peter and Paul That of Peter was from Cornelius who neither was a Jew nor a Proselyte but was come the Length of natural Religion to worship only the one God to whom an Angel was sent from God to show him how he should worship the true God aright The other was by a Vision to the Apostle Paul of a Man of Macedonia beseeching him to go to that People to help them who for ought doth appear were then Heathens It doth not suffice to a distinct Knowledg of the Covenant of Grace to know that by Faith we are saved but those who have Capacity ought to enquire what that Faith is whether it be the Habit of Faith or an Act of Faith whether it be a special Act of Faith and what that is whether it be one single Act only or if to be renewed and whether it be saving by any thing in itself and if we may perceive any Consideration why God made that Act of Faith Man's Part of the Covenant rather than any other As to the first Point to have Faith and to believe are used as equivalent Terms both in common Use and in the Scripture but in a great Latitude for to believe doth oftentimes signify a Judgment of the Truth of any Proposition Men do believe that is they think likely or probable whatever the Ground of their Opinion be but more strictly Belief is taken for a Judgment which hath for its Motive the Perfections of some Person expressing it endued with such Perfections as may warrant an Assent without any other Reason That Person must be a vertuous Person from whose Actings it appears that he doth own the Principles of Morality and hath no Tentation to fail in the Application of them in that Point so not only a Liar but a vitious Person or one in Necessity or biassed by Favour or Hatred in Prudence is not a credible Person or if the Matter be that which is not the particular Object of that Sense which he hath in Vigour it is but a Matter of Opinion Faith upon account of credibility is to be attributed to God alone absolutely who can neither be ignorant err be biassed mistaken or deceived and is Infinite in moral Perfection Creatures may also be trusted in defferent Degrees according to the Moment of the Matter But no Man ought to trust any Creature as to the Necessaries of his Salvation but God alone immediately or by Mediation of those that have his evident Credentials This kind of Faith is a Prerequisite to the Covenant of Grace but no Part of it For the Devils do thus believe and tremble they know God to be certainly true and that all he expresseth is true whatever improbability might arise against it There is yet a stricter Sense of Believing or Faith whereby one expects good from another when it is sutable to him to give or do it and to the other to receive it In this Sense we do not say one believeth another but he believeth in him he trusteth to him he leans relies and rests upon him The Object of this Faith is Faithfulness It doth not arise alone upon the Veracity or Truth of the Person trusted but requires many other Perfections that he be Benign and Gracious that he be Powerful and Plentiful as to that wherein he is trusted It does not require his Promise which would make the thing expected an Act of Justice but the Excellency of his Nature so Creatures may and do trust to Creatures according to their Perfections A Secret may be trusted to a faithful Person tho neither Powerful nor Rich and if Experience hath shown him to be trusty it will be a Confidence without all doubt he is
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
when a consequent Conclusion is inferred from false Grounds But it is no deceit to express Truth for good Ends tho the Speaker may know that the Hearers will make bad use of it unless the Speaker be obliged not to suffer the Hearer to make that use Deception also may be without Words or Signs signifying Thoughts as when a tempting Object is brought unto the Sense Mind or Memory with design to tempt or seduce In all these ways God is perfectly true he never expresseth Words or Signs but such as are both conform to his Thoughts and the thing signified he never designs to deceive by any Words or Signs nor doth he tempt by these or any other Objects represented for God can neither tempt nor be tempted to Evil he may represent Objects to prove the Firmness and Faithfulness of his Creatures but with the Temptation he giveth always Strength either effectual or at least sufficient to escape He made the forbidden Fruit very pleasant to the Eye and it is like to the Smell also which being appointed a Badg of Man's Obedience to God's Will alone it could not reach the End if it were altogether indifferent but it was just and fit that it should have a contrary Excitation in the Sense which might be over-ruled by a more powerful Inclination of the Mind but requiring Attention and Diligence to keep that Principle of the Mind in remembrance thereby to over-rule the Incitation of the Sense Therefore it may warrantably be thought that the forbidden Fruit was more pleasant than any other in the Garden for it was an unsutable sign of Affection and Obedience unto God if God had forbidden the eating of the Fruit upon the one side of the Tree and allowed the eating of it on the other Circumcision and the most of the Jewish Rites were of the like nature and had all a great Contrariety to the Pleasure of Sense Yea tho God permitted Satan to tempt to the eating of the Fruit not only from the Pleasure of Sense but from a false Expectation of greater Wisdom there was a Principle in the Mind fully sufficient to resist both that God could not be envious and that there could be no Advantage to transgress his Command and therefore tho God foreknew the Event he was not nccessory to the Transgression nor put any necessity upon the Man or Woman to commit it and therefore did justly and severely punish them both nor did they even by their after-thoughts plead that the Temptation was insuperable and that they had not sufficiency of Strength to resist it tho they omitted not very insufficient Excuses There is no ground to stumble at the Prophet Jeremiah's Saying Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived nor the words of the same Prophet saying Ah! Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this People and Jerusalem saying Ye shall have Peace whereas the Sword reacheth unto the Soul which are no more than the weak Rovings of Saints in the Extasy of Trouble Such as were many of Job's Expressions and David's saying That in vain had be washed his Hands in Innocence when he saw the Prosperity of the wicked It is evident that God never said to Jerusalem Ye shall have Peace simply but if ye follow the Paths of Peace and so there was no Inconsistency with the Event that the Sword reached unto the Soul seeing they followed not the ways of Peace Neither doth the Parabolical Representation of Micah the Prophet That the Lord said Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And when a Spirit said He would go out and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets and the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Now therefore behold the Lord hath put a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets These and the like Expressions such as God's hardening Mens Hearts must be understood according to the Analogy of Faith in Consistency with the infinite Perfections of God and they are elsewhere explicated in Scripture that the wicked harden their own Hearts and that God giveth Men up who have refused the Offer and Means of Grace to follow their own Ways and unto strong Delusions to believe Lies because they received not the Truth in Love and therefore they can be attributed no other way to God than that they cannot be without his Permission and his permissive Will and Decree and his over-ruling Providence bringing Good out of Evil. Some very learned have held Truth not to be distinct from Goodness or Bounty but a Branch of it and where that is not to be used Lies may be used as well as Stratagems against Enemies If this were true it were not impossible for God to lie but Truth is a Perfection wholly distinct from Bounty and from Justice and is rather a Point of Decency How unbecoming were it and incongruous to the infinitely blessed and glorious God to express a Lie For Creatures may be blameless in expressing Words not conformed to the thing signified which is not a Lie because not disconform to their own Judgment but the Omniscient God can never use Expressions disconform to the things signified but they must also be disconform to his own Thoughts I know there are too many who to uphold their Philosophick Notions do suppose that God in the Scripture speaketh many things according to the vulgar Errors of Men and not according to the Truth of the things signified which is a gross Error derogatory to the Truth of God and to be abhorred tho there were no other evil Consequence but there be many For instance a way is thence opened to innumerable Errors which when redargued by Expressions in Scripture though they be proper and plain yet there is still an Evasion that these are but spoken according to the vulgar Error and Prepossession of Men which in some things they think evident and take the Authority to extend to the like so far as they please neither is there any Evidence or Rule in Scripture where to stop God useth figurative and parabolical Speeches but never any Falshood is spoken by the Motion of his Spirit I admired and abhorred to see a Professor of Divinity in a Treatise heap up so many places of Scripture and of so great moment as spoken by erroneous Prepossession of Men but not true and conform to the things signified which yet may easily be answered God speaketh often to Man's Capacity as to the Manner but never untrue the Matter Kings and States may infer Good from the false Prepossessions of People which they presuppose but do not assent to or approve at least should not tho they may suppress their Disapprobation Who should then imagine that God would approve false Opinions to infer true unless they were related not as his Opinions but expressed as theirs It may be doubted whether God's Truth be wholly his Moral Perfection or if partly Natural which I do not inquire out of
Father These are the ordinary ways of the Spirit in which the saving Act of Faith is always in the order of Nature anterior to God's part of this particular Covenant of Grace whereby he regenerates Believers begetting in their Souls the Habits of Grace and Holiness which is a new Creation which these and they that receive them are called new Creatures and ordinarily both parts of the Covenant go together Believing and Regeneration yet some are sanctified from the Womb who come afterwards actually to believe The ordinary Procedure of the Spirit held forth in the Scripture hath some Operations of the Spirit anterior to the entering into the Covenant of Grace which are called Preparatory Works And first the Spirit convinceth every Man that cometh to have the use of Reason that he is a Sinner by comparing his Life with the Light and Law of Nature written in his Heart that he hath broken that Law that thereby he deserveth Punishment tho his Transgression were never so secret which neeessarily imports that there is an invisible Judg that can inflict it and who certainly knoweth it and will not pardon it while it is approved and the same Light of Nature shews that there is hope of Pardon to those that do not approve their Transgressions and are grieved for them I doubt not but all this is wrought upon the most barbarous and ignorant Savage for tho by Prepossession and Custom many of the Laws of Nature are never adverted yet ever so much ariseth in the Mind as maketh the Natural Conscience perceive the Transgression of them and a Difference between those who continue and delight in the Transgressions of them and those who grieve for them upon account of Punishment tho they have no distinct Perceptions of that invisible Power from which they fear Punishment or tho their mistaken Interest and the Opinion of their Neighbours seduce them to believe that that fear of Punishment of secret Transgressions is but from a groundless Fancy such as they have in the Darkness and not in the Light That which perswadeth me of this general Operation of the Spirit of God is that otherwise tho greater part of the World were in inevitable necessity of eternal Misery and could never accuse themselves even when awakened in Hell and made clearly to know that through their own fault they were in that Misery which they might escaped if they had followed these Motions by their Natural Conscience to repent I have before cleared my Mind that the blessed and benign Conception of God doth import so much that he condemneth none to eternal Torment but for that Sin which they might have escaped as to the Punishment of it Tho there be no necessity that the Spirit should further follow those who hate to be reformed yet to magnify the Justice and Benignity of God the Spirit proceeds frequently further even with Rejecters clearing up in them the Light of Nature bringing them to know the Word of God in which not only the Light of Nature is revived but much revealed that hath no Foundation in the Light of Nature whence there arises a Perswasion of the Truth of that Word and all revealed in it He gives also frequently the Perception of the hazard and horror of Sin the forbearing of the outward Acts of some Sins and the inward Inclination to some others a natural Pleasure in some Vertues and thence oft-times follows an unwarrantable Perswasion of having obtained Grace and Right to Glory If these or some of them were not the Reprobate would become without all hope of Mercy and as malicious as the Devils yet these are given not for their own sakes but for the common good of Mankind and the special good of the Elect but by none of these is the Covenant of Grace entered The Act of Faith by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace is not in their own Power nor can they exert it at any time they please even when they hear or meditate upon the Word of God or when they hear read and meditate upon the most convincing and perswading Preaching or when they do most earnestly pray to be pardoned and accepted All these are but the Ordinances of God with which he doth ordinarily confer Regeneration and which are therefore Mens Duty to use them and it were to tempt God to desire or expect Convorsion in another way Neither are these meer Formalities or Solemnities but have their proper Effects especially in loosning the Soul from its Addictedness to Sin for it is said expresly By Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God There must therefore be a present inward Vocation Motion or Excitation of the Spirit offering to the Soul to turn it from cleaving to Sin unto God and to give Pardon Reconciliation Holiness and Happiness but not conferring these until the Soul be willing to accept them There will be little difficulty to embrace that Offer as to the Pardon of Sin nor to have the general Notion of Happiness tho if the particular way of Happiness were explicated to be the Delight in God and Spiritual Things and not in Carnal Delights The prepossessed Soul by sensible Pleasures might readily loath that as light Food yet the greatest Difficulty would be in being willing to be made holy that is consecrated and devoted to the Love of and to the Delight in God above all things with an Opposition to all known Sin This therefore must be the Gift of God freely given at the time of that Motion of the Spirit to such only as are elected whether they be such as are not positively resolved to cleave to Sin or reject such Motions or such whom God even against that Reluctancy will overcome and maketh willing to embrace and accept the Offer and Motion of the Spirit This is that inward Call which is one of the Links of the Golden Chain of Salvation for whom he predestinated them he also called justified and glorified and which therefore is called effectual Calling to which there is never made effectual Resistance it being ever stronger than any Resistance yet not so that the Soul could not possibly resist but that God had made the Call so strong that though it was willingly imbraced not necessarily but freely yet always effectually Albeit God might give such an Inclination to accept Holiness as he gives to desire Happiness yet there is no ground to think that he doth so for such Acts which are absolutely necessary deserve not so much as Praise being but as the Instincts of Brutes It is a great Mistake to think that God's inward Call cannot be effectual unless it gave as strong an Inclination as is the desire of Happiness For he knows certainly the Effect of every Condition by Nature or Grace and by his Wisdom he does no more than what is requisite for his Purposes They highly derogate from the Glory of God that imagine his Call to the Elect is