be excogitated more infallible for the Exploration of whatever falls under humane cognizance which is in some measure made good in the following Discourse they likewise put a certain stop to the progress of Christianity throughout the World and are the greatest impediment to the dissemination of the Gospel to them that are without it being given to be the Religion of all mankind to run and be glorious and to conquer and subdue the Nations to the entertainment of it For unless we will imagine men so stupid and ignorantly devotional that they will embrace any thing though never so disagreeing with the native sentiments of their own minds it is impossible they should ever give any real and unfaigned assent to such Dogmata of Christianity as pretend to no other Author but the Eternal Logos and Wisdom of God and are propounded to rational and intellectual creatures endued with a discriminative sense and perception between truth and falshood and yet by all the reason that is in them cannot make them to appear so And though the Doctrins themselves should not be in their whole frame and contexture irrational yet if we give absurd and inconcinnous explications of them there will be as small hope and expectation that any man should be convinced and perswaded by them as if they were altogether false Such is the intellectual Fabrick of mens minds that they cannot believe or disbelieve what they will but there are certain laws and principles interwoven in the essential frame of their Natures by the great Architect of all things by which they are bound up and limited and which are the foundations of all Knowledge whether Natural Moral or Metaphysical And 't is very strange to think that infinite Wisdom which alone works constantly and evenly and according to the capacities and measures of creatures should now in this grand Mystery of the recovery of the World which of all things is the most like that high and incomprehensible intellect which gave birth unto it so deviate from the unchangeable laws of it 's own being as to propound such Articles and Propositions to the World which without the greatest reluctancy and violation of their Natural Powers and Faculties they can never fully credit or believe And questionless such a way and method of proceeding would so miserably confound the beautiful Order and Symmetry of things that beside it must necessarily engage the Divine Power to the production of a perpetual Miracle for the begetting Faith and Assent in men it likewise layes them open and obnoxious to inevitable Errors Falsities and Delusions and there will be no means left for the attaining to the truth of any thing And now let any man consider what little probability or plausibility of reason there is that such a Doctrine as this whether positively declared so in it self or made so by the perverse Glosses and Paraphrastical Expositions of others should win and gain ground upon the World and effect that purpose for which it was at first intended It was the advice and counsel of the Apostle 1 Cor. x. 32. that we give no offence either to the Jew or to the Greek whereby to alienate their minds from so excellent a Religion for there is nothing so much obstructs the diffusion of any Principles or Dogmata be they of what sort they will as when they contain something which may administer just cause of scruple and beget an aversion to it in the mind of a rational and unprejudic'd person He therefore that would bring over a free and ingenuous Spirit whether Jew or Heathen to Christianity must be sure that he assert nothing Dogmatically or positively lay it down as an indispensable Article of the Christian Faith which the other can reject upon clear and solid grounds of Reason for assuredly no part of Christianity can be repugnant to Right Reason Therefore to begin with the Jew who taking just exceptions against many Dogmata of Christianity as they are in common vogue amongst us but particularly disgusting that harsh and rigid Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation expresses his dislike and dissatisfaction in such like terms as these That God gave Statutes and Judgments and delivered a Law to Moses on Mount Sinai I am sufficiently convinced of from the constant and uninterrupted Tradition of our Fathers and that I am equally obliged to perform due obedience to it is in my apprehension a truth as indubitable as the other But that I should desert the Religion of my Ancestors and embrace a Novel Doctrine wholly repugnant to and inconsistent not only with the common principles of Reason but the Law of Moses and Prophetick Writings and manifestly tending to the eversion and extirpation of all Religion in the World for who will put his trust in that God who takes greater pleasure in Destroying than in Saving of his Creatures will argue as great Impiety as it will appear Fantastickness and Imprudence in the eyes of all that believe a God and Providence in the World For under the Mosaical Oeconomy God like a just and prudent Legislator makes the ground and foundation of all his Promises and Menaces to be the Obedience or Disobedience of his Subjects and Benefits are not conferred but hypothetically and with respect to the condition annexed to them nor Punishments executed but upon the actual breach and violation of a Law And beside this you tell us that when the Messias comes he will bring into the World such a Religion and Service as will most suit with our rational and intellectual Natures such as may approve it self to our inward and divine sense as truly excellent and lovely comprehending the flower and summe of whatever is Worthy Noble and Generous which you say is most lively depainted and set out to us in that which you call the Christian Religion the great Arcanum and Mystery of which according to the principles of your Doctrine seems to be this That God hath eternally Elected a certain number of persons to inherit Blessedness with him and sent his son to signifie the same to them and to publish this his decree but to cast away the rest upon the pretence of his Soveraignty and Dominion over them either therefore the coming of Christ is upon rational grounds yet expected or if he have been already manifested to the World your Religion is none of his nor was he ever the Author of it but the spurious results and effuxes of fanciful persons obtruded as necessary Articles of faith upon the World It is impossible I should ever believe that the great Creator of the Vniverse who in our Law declared himself to be The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and who so often forgat the Crimes and Apostacies of our Forefathers when they returned and sought him with their whole heart should now so change his Nature and suspend the rayes and benign emanations of his communicative life in this which you affirm to be the last and
theirs by an unchangeable Decree before the World began How deeply will the whole Creation of Rational beings resent such an act as this and what small reason can any man have to cast his care and erect a foundation of his hope upon that God who notwithstanding the greatest expressions of love and kindness to them the most pathetical invitations of them to accept the gracious overtures of his Goodness the highest sense of aversion to their misery accompanied with Oaths and Protestations against it and the fairest promises of Rewards and Blessings to them if they will obey shall yet underhand lay an inevitable train of causes to entrap and foil them I find that my dear spirit affectionately breathes after a freer participation of the Divine Life and Nature and makes many little sallies and attempts to arise beyond the strait and narrow laws of corporeal life into a state of true freedome and liberty and I cannot but heartily complain of the charming and alluring Magick of the Earthly and Brutish life in me that I am too much awake and alive to the effluxes and emissions of the material World whereby the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divinity that is enwrapped and as it were incarnate within me becomes weak and unactive but my hope is that through the mighty Power of that Divine Love which upholds the Creation with extended armes the heavenly part within me shall prevail and gain a compleat Conquest and Victory and that when this mortal life shall perish I shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An immortal God no more depressed with the weight of Terrestrial encumbrance But alass according to your Doctrine if this be all it is but like the Prelude to a fatal Tragedy or the sudden blaze of a dying Lamp and I may for all this fall short and be deceived for if you attribute a Power to your God of Simulation and Fraud he may evacuate all my expectations notwithstanding the pretended Declarations of his Will and Veracity to the contrary To say no more then this Can he punish those effects or operations in me which his own immediate and energetical concourse was the cause of Am I become guilty because I acted under the irresistible impulses and motions of his will If this therefore be a true description of the Nature of God there is no reasonable man but would judge him to be rather some flaming Erynnis with curled Snakes and knotted whips to chastise the World then an Almighty Good and Wise Numen We see then what little hope there is of ingratiating and recommending Christianity to those that are without while we either positively maintain or consequentially introduce such Doctrines as Christian which in their very frame and complexion are repugnant to Right Reason and inconsistent with the Oeconomy of Providence in the World And while the Preachers of the Gospel impose upon men such crude notions they not only do them the most uncharitable piece of service that lightly can be imagined but likewise block up the way and passage of truth to others who may be in very forward degrees of preparation to receive it 2. They were very much mistaken in the Order and Method of propounding the Articles and Doctrines of Christianity to their Auditors and by that means supposing the truth of those Notions they desired to implant in them rendred them farr less acceptable then otherwise they might have been The ever-blessed Son of God the eternal mind and wisdome of his Father when he descended from his glory and became a Man that he might teach the World that salutary Knowledge which should instate them in their pristine Blessedness did not communicate to them that recondite Mystery all at once but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were able to hear it that is according to their Measure and Proportion Every mans Criterion and discriminative faculty is not in a due and fit disposition for the reception of high and raised Speculations no more then every ear is fitly qualified for the judging of Harmony As in all Arts and Sciences there are some Rudiments and Principles to be learned before we can arrive to a considerable measure of perfection in them so in Religion there are some Catechetical Instructions and Cognate Preparations to be used before we enter upon the Sublime and Theoretical Doctrines contained in it For considering the great degeneracy and Apostacy of mankind from their true Happiness and with what exorbitant and unlimited desires and passions they come into the World toward the things of this present life and how hardly they are wrought of to the entertainment of what is truly good and holy the propounding of intricate Mysteries to them while their distinguishing sense of good and evil is so monstrously depraved and out of order is but to use our Saviours similitude to put new Wine into old Bottles offensive to the hearers and corruptive of the Truth it self and we may with as great reason expect a Substantial and stately Edifice without any foundation or full eared-Corn so soon as the bare Grain is cast into the ground as look for the perfect and compleat Image of Christ in him who does not yet understand the Principles and Rudiments of Religion For what specimen doth that man give of the pure and undefiled Nature of God living in him who can knowingly injure his Brother or pass by with an unconcerned look the calamitous objects of Pity and Compassion Or what proof can he bring that he is acted by that Almighty Spirit of Holiness and Righteousness and renewed into the blameless Image of the blessed Jesus who omits no opportunities of Injustice and Oppression These things therefore which are the very ground-work and foundation of that Evangelical Building which Christ came to erect in the souls of men ought with all dure care and diligence and with great earnestness and seriousnese to be pressed upon men by the Preachers of the Gospel that the People may be convinced their Teachers are real and sincere in the business and that what they so inculcate upon them is for the future and unspeakable benefit of their immortal souls And by the frequent use of these Monitory Cautions and Exhortations it is to be hoped that men will grow more holy and practice with greater circumspection the plain duties of Morality by which means they will be more apt to conceive and judge of the other more Speculative Doctrines and Articles of Christianity which ought to be let alone till their proper-time come wherein they may with some advantage be propounded to the hearers they being by the constant exercise of the Precepts of Justice Equity and Goodness prepared and competently well fitted for the reception of the Mysterious and Recondite part of Religion It cannot therefore but be acknowledged a piece of great inadvertency and opinionative Curiosity in the generality of Preachers in these late times to make it their business in the first place to instruct their
them And will you think this worthy and becoming the Majesty of that Good and Just God who hath taken such strange and unimaginable wayes to make his Creatures happy and who dayly woes the Sons of Men with arguments of the greatest weight and seriousness to accept his offered Salvation I cannot but speak and it were a crime to be silent when the glory of heaven thus lies at stake the honour of my Creator trampled in the dust and the spotless purity and holiness of his Nature sullyed and defiled by the impure conceptions of unhallowed judgments Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth while I plead the cause of the holy One who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity against the ignorant zeal of inconsiderate persons who under pretence of doing honor to his Name do really render that admirable contrivance of God in the Gospel than which nothing was ever communicated to the World more full of incomprehensible Wisdom the most unreasonable project in the choicest parts of it that ever was set on foot among the Sons of men Do you think the Eternal Logos or Reason of God would declare a Doctrine to the World that should be in all points of all his numerous issue only unlike the Father that is that the Gospel alone among all the projections and contrivances of that All-comprehensive Wisdom should be found unreasonable Reflect a while upon the Heroick Generosity and Innate Nobility of your own Spirits and let not your conceptions of God and his Works dwindle away into childish Words and Names nor stifle and suppress any noble sentiments by perverse altercations about terms but let a manly spirit possesse your breasts and look upon men as rational Creatures the composure of whose souls I mean their Intellectual frame is such that every thing is not a congruous and proportionate object of their inward sense and it is not in their power to receive Truth and Falshood alike but as the eye cannot behold the sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some resemblance of the Sun it self so neither can the soul without a great deal of molestation and regreat embrace what is not congenerous to it 's rational Nature And as it is in Nature every Plant is not adapted to entertain every particle that comes to nourish it but admits only such as are consimilar to it 's own pores so the spirit of man being rational in all the ducts and lineaments of it's moral structure cannot acquiesce in any thing that is irrational nor receive any Doctrine but what is homogeneal to it's inward temper Consider this I say and judge of the Doctrins you so earnestly contend for by this Index and Rule and remember that so often as you propound any of the Dogmata of Christianity either as unreasonable in themselves or make them appear so to others by your unwary and irrational Explication of them you become treacherous to your Saviour by hindring as much as in you lies those good effects he intended by the Propogation of the Gospel throughout the World and you likewise do violence to the Nature of Mankind by imposing upon them what is plainly repugnant thereto But I fear I have been too luxuriant in this sudden though not wholly impertinent Excursion I shall therefore immediately fall upon the last Proposition which is 4. Prop. 4. That to Create and bring into Being on purpose to destroy and make miserable is most irrational There is no Being whether meerly Sensitive or Rational too but by a natural sympathy and propension loves and takes care for it's own off-spring The Beasts of the field and the Fowls of the air bear a tenderness and affection towards their young and never cast of the care and protection of them till time have enabled them to shift for themselves The Hircanian Tygers never discover the fierceness of their cruel natures more vehemently and passionately than when they are in danger of being bereaved of their whelps Thus have I seen a Serpent pull down the nest and devoure the young ones of a little Bird before her eyes while the innocent damme not daring to come nigh and yet unwilling to flie away suffers a pretty controversie between love and fear within her breast continually environing her more powerful adversary by many circular flights and powring out in vain her pitiful complaints into those insensible ears till the cruel beast hath eaten up her loving care and charge and then she mourns and makes the trees participate of her grief and often with sad notes visits the place where lay the tragick Scene of her latest sorrows Should we ascend to men who bear the similitude of heaven even the most barbarous not excepted they all have a more regular care and love to their off-spring than brute Animals inasmuch as they partake of a higher degree of life and have the principles of Reason seated in them And can any tender and compassionate Father behold without a relenting and bleeding heart his only Son racked or massacred before his eyes to satisfie the brutish passion of some blood-thirsty Tyrant Shall frail men then be a precedent of love and tenderness to his Maker Shall God whose love is alwayes amiable and serene without the least disturbance or cloud of passion be less pitiful to what he hath brought into being then frail and imperfect mortals It was a prevalent argument which Moses used in the behalf of the murmuring and discontented Israelites That if God proceeded against them in fury to their utter undoing Numb 14.15 16. the Nations which had heard his fame would say Because the Lord was not able to bring his people into the land which he sware unto them therefore he hath slain them in the Wilderness and may not the same infamous obloquie with a farr more specious pretext be cast upon the righteous Providence of God while in displeasure he persecutes to the death his innocent Progeny That because he was not able to maintain them in that happiness he designed them for he hath by an unalterable law fixed their eternal misery and destruction The ancient Philosopher Pherecides taught that God transformed himself into Love when he brought into being the whole Creation and surely that Love which moved him first to act cannot be thought to degenerate so far from it's Nature as to be busied in contriving the ruin of what is so newly brought forth And though the Ancients did veil and obscure their choicest Mysteries in Fables and Aenigmatical Symbols yet the intelligent inquirer may gather many substantial truths from them which being in themselves so coherent with the Divine Oracles seem to be a firm indication of Gods love and affection to the Sons of Men and that Providence being never excluded from any time or place did in all ages and parts of the World raise up such considerable persons and every way furnish them with gifts and abilities as might serve as instruments in her hand to
endeavours to unite and become one with that ever-blessed Being subtracting his affections from all earthly vanities as finding something more noble and worthy to bestow them upon Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus as Porphyry speaks of the Egyptian Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath given up his whole life to Divine Contemplation and search after the Deity Such Power have Evangelical Truths over the minds of men that they transform them into their own native image and similitude and the more they are looked into the more they enravish them with their heavenly beauty and pulchritude And because afflicted and persecuted Vertue could not be thought eligible meerly for it self nor be a sufficient argument to induce us to the love and practice of it who were so fatally addicted to the concerns of sense therefore God who knew our frame and how far and to what degrees we had apostatiz'd from his holy Nature did not only propound good things to our choice but solicit our wills to the embracing of them by the strongest evidences and most attractive motives that our Natures were capable of receiving The life of sense being more powerful and laying a greater though not a juster claim to our minds as we are born into this World God was pleased to deal with us after a sensible manner and in a way of condescending Wisdom proportioning the Truths he delivered to us to our capacity of reception And this was that the Apostle called the Foolishness of Preaching wherein God stoops down and puts on the garb and frailties of humanity and suits the results of his will with our mean and shallow apprehensions Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh and cradled in the circle of a Virgins arms which clearly demonstrates even to outward sense the exceeding Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty God that he hath not cast off the care of Mankind but is at peace with the World and hath put on the bright robes of Loving-kindness and Mercy which he hath given a large Specimen and full proof of in the Mission of the Lord Christ from heaven God would have all men lay aside their hard thoughts and causless-jealousies and suspicions of his Nature as if he did not from his heart intend them good but only suspended his anger for a time which might again break out upon them in prodigious floods of vengeance and fury For this is the most certain sign that God wills and desires our happiness and welfare in that he hath united himself to our Nature and sent down his only begotten Son for no other purpose but to seek and to save that which was lost And if he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things What is there now can lay a greater tie upon ingenuous spirits then the discovery of so much undeserved kindness and love What heart is there so obdurate and rocky that this will not dissolve into the tears of love and joy to behold the blessed Jesus hanging between heaven and earth upon the Cross that he might reconcile all things that are in heaven and earth and become a propitiatory Sacrifice for all mens sins in the World It is said of Socrates that he was so inamour'd with this Divine passion of Love that he styled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A servant of Love Let therefore Love which is the Proxenet of Nature the great instrument of conciliating hearts beget in thee a return and retribution of Love and never think of those streams of blood which so copiously flowed from the wounded body of thy dying Lord without a passive and melting spirit but be likewise a servant of Love and act under that generous principle for Love is of God And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And that we may not think we are set to remove mountains or perform impossibilities when we are exhorted by the Gospel to the participation of Gods holy life we shall never be left alone to sink under our load and die but shall have the assistance of that Almighty and Demiurgical spirit of Love who hovered over the dark Chaos and brought into Being the goodly frame of heaven and earth and replenished all the immense tracts of space with sutable inhabitants Wisd ch vii This is that Wisdom which is the brightness of the Everlasting the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his Goodness which remaining in her self makes all things new and in all ages entring into holy souls makes them friends of God and Prophets She will not lodge in a sinful body nor abide when unrighteousness cometh in For she is more beautiful then the Sun and above all the order of stars being compared with the light she is found before it This kind and loving spirit will God bestow upon every one that asks it of him to repair his broken and decayed Nature to raise up the Divine Image to joynt and confirm every perverse dislocation in the frame of his soul and to perfect and compleat the living efformation of Christ within him Let no man then despair of attaining to a state of Blessedness under the Gospel for this Benign Spirit whose delights are with the Sons of Men pervades the whole World and touches and overshadows every man with out-stretched wings who is willing to have the Divine Image and Pourtraiture formed in him and doth not by impurity and uncleanness chase it away Though our enemies are mighty and our souls weak yet let none despair of Victory for through the assistance and conduct of that Almighty we shall be able to overcome them He is ever cherishing and fostring the life of God wherever it 's born into any soul and sweetly insinuates into our minds and hallows and sanctifies all our powers and excites us to a serious and hearty pursuit after the indispensable laws of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We are not fallen and degenerated beyond the power of God but his Spirit is able to raise and bring up our souls from the lowest Hell and to renew and reform our debased and wretched Natures For what cannot he do who at first made us faultless and happy till we ruined and defaced his blessed Image and rendred our selves the miserable objects of his compassions What is there in our frame so stubborn and insequacious that he cannot rectifie and redress who at first created all things and brought into Being all the Beauty and Harmony of Heaven and Earth He will never leave us destitute and forlorn but will take hold of every fitness and capacity till he have perfected in us the Divine life and brought us unto Glory But because Examples are more prevalent with mankind then Precepts and Instructions that God might not leave any thing undone which would in any kind conduce to our Interest he hath recommended to us the Example
would cast a fatal damp upon their attempts and endeavours after righteousness but being fully convinced as well of the Existence as that God will take care of their souls when they depart this obscure and evanid life and recompence their labour and trouble here with such great degrees of Happiness as shall farr surpass the highest calamity they can suffer in this World it cannot but inspirit their minds with life and resolution to break through all difficulties and discouragements and with a manly valour fight the good fight of Faith and never give over till they lay hold on Immortality and God Crown them as Victorious Conquerors with wreaths of immarcescible Glory It is but a groundless fancy in some to think that the intuition of the reward proposed to us in order to our further progress in Holiness and Virtue is acting upon Mercenary principles since that Christ himself in his greatest Agonies and conflicts supported the weakness of his Nature with the consideration of the reward he should receive as the compensation of his humiliation and sorrows for so we read That he endured the Cross Heb. xii 2. and despised the shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the joy that was set before him Besides they understand not the nature of the Reward promised to us in the Gospel for Glory Blessedness and Felicity are not Other things from Piety and Holiness but the consummation and perfection of that Divine Nature whose efformation is begun in this life Grace and Holiness is but Happiness wrapped up and closed and Glory is nothing but Holiness explicated and unfolded to it's due latitude and dimensions Piety is Heaven masked with a cloud of flesh and begirt with sorrow and Heaven is Virtue shining in it's native brightness and clothed with a Celestial splendour And that Ethereal and Paradisiacal body with which all believers shall be arrayed through the gracious bounty of the Lord Jesus at the Resurrection of the Just is the necessary appendage of our felicity and by it's easie and obsequious motions will raise in the exalted powers of the soul the highest sense of love and joy and delightful enravishments of spirit He then that loves Virtue for it's appendant reward does in effect love it for it self and is no whit behind him that is attracted by the naked pleasure resulting from it and thinks it eligible amidst the hoarse bellowings of Phalaris his Bull because the Reward hath a very great affinity and cognation with Virtue and is no otherwise attainable then by a full and perfect exercise of it This great happiness therefore accruing to the soul of Man when refined and purified from the dregs of Earth and Mortality is very rationally set forth in the Gospel to invigorate the minds of men and raise them to the free exertions of the Divine life and to animate their dying resolutions when they walk through a troublesome wilderness and are called to resist even unto blood And if it were not for the expectation of future Blessedness all Religion would fall to the ground the inward sense and feeling of the soul being so much weakned and debilitated by her continual imbibition and attraction of the dregs of the Earthly and mortal Nature whereby she is become sluggish and inactive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her passions and apprehensions being in a manner wholly corporeal and Truth and Virtue be but idle names or dreams of a shadow existing only in the tongues and fancies of Men but never descending into the depth of the soul and impregnating it with their living Image These are the grand Instruments which the Spirit of God makes use of in the Gospel to induce and perswade the World to act under the Government of the Divine life which if skilfully applyed and managed will undoubtedly compleat and perfect that blessed work which Providence intended them for For we cannot think that Heaven would alarm the World with a false report or raise the expectations of Men by a great sound and noise of something extraordinary when in the conclusion it amounts but to some inconsiderable and trifling design The Eternal Son of God who was that Wisdom which is the delight of Heaven and rejoyced in the habitable parts of the Earth brought down with him from the seat of Majesty that Sacred and recondit method of recovering lapsed mankind which was carryed in the pregnant womb of Goodness from the dayes of Eternity and he became our Redeemer and pervades the very Centre of our Being and shapes and frams his Image of Wisdome and Righteousnes there strengthning our decayes and supporting our weakness and consuming and expelling all our dross and corruption by a subtle and powerful Energy which in Scripture phrase is to be Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire We are fallen into a narrow and contracted state and those Divine forms in our union and fruition of which consisted our blessedness are quite defaced by our fond longing after and adhesion to corporeal features Now God manifesting himself in our flesh renews and perfects those glorious Images again and stamps his impress upon us and as the great conciliating Principle of the corporeal World figures and shapes out of prepared matter the body of a plant so the Holy Spirit frames and shapes out the Divine Nature in the lapsed World of Mankind But this great purpose of the Gospel this great design and plot which God hath laid to reduce Mankind to that blessed state from whence they fell is wholly frustrated and evacuated by the Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees And that I may not charge it with what it stands not guilty of I shall make it good by these two Instances 1. It renders ineffectual the purpose of God in the Gospel by lulling Men asleep in the lap of Security and Presumption of their good estate upon the groundless fancy of their Absolute Election from all Eternity For Men being once initiated and instructed in the Mysterie of this profound Doctrine will with much anxiety and vehemency of mind contend for the truth of that which they so passionately desire to be so and having withal so amorously courted and espoused their lusts and unruly passions and yet being terrified and affrighted with the lashes of their own Consciences they will with great easiness and zeal take sanctuary in so pleasing an opinion which both gives them a fair countenance to enjoy and reap the pleasure of their sensual passions and secures them from those domestick furies which perpetually hurried and tormented them and over and above sooths them up with a confidence of eternal bliss and felicity And he that can attain to this Plerophory or full perswasion of his Election from before the foundation of the World hath the White Stone given to him though he be so farr from eating of the hidden Manna that he feeds upon nothing but husks and vanities and his name is enrolled among the Stars and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out
with them for not creating the World or raising the dead 3. The Gospel in propriety of speech cannot be said to be offered at all to Reprobates without the greatest Hypocrisie and Dissimulation imaginable much less that by it they should be fairly rendred without excuse For by the Gospel we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the New Covenant which God hath made with the world in the Lord Christ to which both God and Man have set their Seals God hath promised for his part that he will give a free pardon and indulgence for all their sins upon their true Repentance and will assist them in the performance of his Commands with his Divine Spirit and Benediction and at last upon their perseverance in Holiness bestow upon them Immortality and Life And Man engages that he will faithfully perform the conditions according to the utmost of his power and ability which on his part he is obliged to which are expressed to be Faith and Repentance a putting off the Old man and putting on the New a being buryed with Christ in his Death and rising again with him to Newness of life And this Notion seems to be intimated by the Apostle 2 Tim. ii 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translation renders foundation signifies here the Compact or Covenant of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stability or firmness whereof there enforced assures us that there is no salvation to be expected but according to the contents of that Great Indenture once for all sealed in the blood of Christ of which as that indeed is one part which is inscribed on one side of the Seal the Lord knoweth who are his that is he will never fail to own those who continue faithful to him so on the other side is most Emphatical let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart form iniquity which if he do not he hath forfeited all the priviledges of Christianity And it may further be observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isay 30.1 as a Learned Critick notes This being then the Nature of the Gospel it cannot without deceit and fraud be offered to Reprobates for God cannot in his Word command them to believe in Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer without injoyning them to believe a lie nor can he exhort them to Repentance without Hypocrisie having by a peremptory Decree secluded them from a participation of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free and gracious donations whereby they should be impowered to forsake their sins and which he hath obliged himself to extend to all the World on his part of the Covenant If God therefore intended not to own them for his nor give them his Grace and assistance to conquer and subdue their rebellious Natures they are not included within the terms of it And how can any man be convinced of Contumacy and so left inexcusable for rejecting a Doctrine not at all belonging to him for conviction supposes a man to have done otherwise then he might have done and to have left undone something which was in his power to perform which cannot be affirmed of Reprobates To conclude this Argument if this Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation may be admitted as true and genuine the whole Ministery of the word is but a more solemn kind of Pageantry and flattery and Gods Ambassadors by whom he beseeches mankind to be reconciled unto him treat with the greatest part of them upon false grounds and beside Gods will and intentions bearing them in hand that God desires their welfare and happiness tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant till they have brought them to the confines of Hell where they shall feel those acute pains to never-dying ages which were their destin'd portion from before the foundation of the World And now let any rational man judge whether this Doctrine as it is here represented all along and 't is no otherwise then may easily be proved out of the writings of the favourers of it do not infinitely obstruct the progress of real and unfeigned Righteousness in the World and scatter a malignant influence upon mens practice in order to Holiness and a good life while some as if they had been of Heavens counsel and seen their Names enrolled above cannot look upon themselves under any other position but that of Gods peculiar and selected ones and for that very reason believe themselves out of the reach of Apostacy and miscarriage than which there can be no greater allay to a diligent search after the true and living Nature of God for while their endeavors after it cool like the air by intervening showers and they swallow every bait and neglect to excite their powers and faculties by a timely care and industry upon the stock of a secure confidence of heaven the enemy forrages and spoils and makes dayly inrodes upon their hearts and they are upon the margins of destruction ere they are aware Others despairing of life and believing every thing adverse to their felicity have no heart to go forward and either wear out their lives in a sottish senselessness and stupidity or spend them in jollity and crown their heads with rosebuds and forget God resolving to make as good use of the present time as they can knowing that when this fleeting and perishing life is ended they shall be plunged into everlasting misery CHAP. V. A fift and last Argument wherein is shewn that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Mans Will and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue or punishment of Vice THat there is a free principle in Man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-moving power and life which is able to segregate Truth from Falshood Good from Evil Hence the Stoicks say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Greek Fathers add to those Epithetes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly elect as the Arguments shall appear more or less convictive is not only the judgment of Reason but the sense of the most Orthodox Antiquity whether Theology or Philosophy although the Truth is in this diseased and distempered condition all men lie under the manner of the Wills election shews that it is in the greatest measure inclinable to evil as will appear further hereafter And that I may not seem barely to assert what others so strenuously oppugn I shall alledge some plain and perspicuous testimonies out of the ancient Fathers and Philosophers who have manumitted the will of man and left it free to chuse Good or Evill though when it is determined to one it may be drawn by weightier grounds and reasons to the election of