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
truly he so intended his Faithfulness also in so far only as that it is expected he will punctually and readily perform without Compulsion and he were unfaithful if he did not so perform untrue if he did not intend to perform when he engaged as well as unjust by not performing These may all concur in God but his Justice in performing his Promise and his Truth in intending to perform it can never be separated yet his Faithfulness may be without them in particular Acts so may his Justice in Rewards and Punishments be without any Word and consequently without Truth in that Word and both may be without exerting Faithfulness The Ground and Warrant of Faith is the excellent Disposition of the Person trusted whereby it were incongruous to him to disappoint the Expectation and Confidence which he knew were placed in him and were not rejected by him The Psalmist saith They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Here the Knowledg of God's Name which signifies his excellent Nature is the ground of Trust and specially that Divine Perfection that he will not forsake them that seek him Here is no relation to a Promise the Psalmist founds his Prayer both on God's Faithfulness and on his Justice in performing his Promise and not on this alone when he saith Hear my Prayer O Lord give Ear to my Supplications in thy Faithfulness answer me and in thy Righteousness where these are clearly distinguished The same Psalmist saith in another place Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reaches unto the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains where God's Faithfulness and his Righteousness are clearly diversified If one should trust in a powerful vertuous Person if he did not make his Trust known to that Person he could not be said to disappoint him or to fail in Faithfulness yet the Manifestation of Confidence may be without Words and sometimes it is unfit to be by Words and it may be abstract from Particulars and be left to the Discretion of the Person trusted So the Attendance the Dependance the humble and kindly Countenance may better express Confidence than Words which are more frequently false Courtiers do manifest their Confidence in Princes Souldiers in their Generals and Creatures may so express their Considence in God but it is more proper to pray to God in Faith for particular Favours as being more the Homage and Dependance of his Creature than the urging his Justice on general Promises It is not Faith but Folly to trust in any but those that are indued with Vertue and moral Perfections or in these for things that the Person trusted hath not or which were unbecoming for him to bestow therefore there is no Creature on which there can be laid entire and absolute Faith because the Inconveniency may occur that they cannot satisfy In this Sense God may be said to be only Faithful as well as only Wise and Good one may trust when he is not wise in trusting yet he may become unfaithful that admitted the Trust they were very unwise that would trust a Secret to a Liar or the managing of an Affair to an imprudent Person or Money to a Prodigal yet if they did admit of the Trust they were unfaithful if they failed It is very evident that it is highly congruous and worthy of the Divine Perfections to be faithful and it were inconsistent with these to disappoint the Faith of his Creatures trusting in him for things fit for him to give and them to receive without consideration of any Promise or Declaration of his purpose so to do It is fully evident that it were unsutable to him to give Happiness to them that love not Holiness or to pardon Sin to those whose Souls cleave to it or to give the highest Favour to such or Glory to any in the next Life to whom he never gave Grace in this in Act or Inclination which by the very Light of Nature do appear but by Revelation God hath clearly declared in what Things he will not allow of Trust or Faith in him or Hope from him especially for obtaining Reconciliation Forgiveness and Happiness and hath expresly declared when Faith is saving God bestows many good Things out of Commiseration or meer Goodness upon those that have not saving Faith nor can I say that he doth not bestow some good Things upon such even upon consideration of their trusting in him for them as by the Faith of Miracles upon whose Confidence he exerted his supernatural Power though at the great Day he rejects them who had that Faith Those who do not by Word or Sign signify that they allow not the Confidence or Hope of these who pertinently signify it do fail in their Faithfulness if they disappoint them My Thoughts upon God's Faithfulness do exceedingly clear me in that eminent Point that Faith is the only Consideration on which God gives Pardon Reconciliation and Happiness and not upon Love or any other good Work as never to be claimed upon rewarding Justice or Merit but of free Favour and Grace alone Albeit Love to God or Reverence and Obsequiousness to him be more excellent Perfections than Faith for in Faith the Creature hath Consideration of the return to it self and much more in Fear but Love is terminated alone upon God himself and upon no return from God which would make it defective The Love of Gratitude is for what is already received but the Love of God purely on consideration of his infinite Perfections is the highest moral Perfection of Creatures If Happiness had been by the Creatures Love Reverence or Obedience it would have been by Justice and Debt not by Grace as the Apostle says to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt but being by Faith there can be no pretence of Debt or Justice There is no more ground for him that hopes or trusts to attribute the Effect to himself as deserving it by his Faith than if the Miserable should imagine his Misery were the Cause of Mercy shown him I never find a Reward attributed to Faith for tho it be said cast not away your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Confidence there is not Faith but Forwardness and Boldness for in the Original it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though Faith were in the Power of fallen Man he could have little more ground to boast of Happiness on occasion of it than the Beggar of his Poverty which is the occasion of Alms or the Oppressed of Oppression as the Cause of his Relief or than the Infant or Idiot of his Salvation God could have given all good Things without either Prayer or Faith as he doth to Infants but it is a far greater Measure of Benignity to give that which is longed for and desired by Prayer and which is hoped and trusted by
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