Law of Faith is that which bespeaks our next enquiry The present existence of neither of them can be called into question for without the overthrowing the Nature of God the Nature of Man and the Decalogue of Moses we cannot suspect the Being and Obligation of the first Nor can the existence of the second fall under debate without disclaiming the Gospel not only in all the conditions of it but our hopes by it A consistency betwixt them must also be granted it being unbecoming and repugnant to the Wisdom of God to keep in establishment two several Laws whereof the one is wholly subversive of the other nor can Subjects in justice and equity be at one and the same time obliged to Laws which neither in their demands nor designs are consistent one with another The Apostle hath long agoe determined this Do we then make voyd the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make voyd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies inutilem inanem ignavam omnibus viribus destitutam reddere to render idle fruitless destitute of all binding power to evacuate the obligation of a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death Heb. 2.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we establish legem statuimus vulg stabilimus i. e. firmam efficacem reddimus Bez. We fix and settle it in its Sanction and force Think not that I am come to destroy the Law saith Christ I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Mat. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to dissolve the obligation of the Law to abolish and abrogate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overthrow the Democratie or popular Government Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leges tollere to evacuate or cancel Laws often in Greek Authors So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to maintain the obligation of the Law consistent then they are Yet coordinate they can not be their terms being not only different but opposite It is true each of them in their own kind sense and way requires perfect obedience For no Law can remit what it self exacts but then it is only perfect obedience to its own demands And with respect to its own terms the Gospel is as strict as the Law As the one denounceth Eternal death to all those who transgress its terms so doth the other to all those who violate its He that â—ailes in Repentance from dead works Faith towards Jesus Christ and sincere obedience to the Moral Law is left as remediless by the Covenant of grace as he that fails in obedience to the Law of Creation is brought and left under the curse by the Covenant of Works Only the terms of the one are not so severe and strict as the terms of the other The Remedying Law being purposely introduced for the pardoning our trespasses against the Original Law The Law threatens death absolutely repent or not repent The Gospel threatens that the legal curse shall be executed except we repent And herein they are not only so distinct and different but distant and opposite in their demands the one to the other that whoever pleads on a personal fulfilling the terms of the one is not at all capable of pleading on the terms of the other The Subject of justification by the Original Law must be one perfectly innocent The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom 10.5 Whereas the Subject of justification by the Remedying Law must be supposed a sinner and a criminal They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick I am not come to call the Righteous but sinners to repentance Mat. 9.12.13 The Original Law both as it was first Subjective in our natures and as it is now Objective in the Decalogue to our natures requires perfect obedience Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength Deut. 6.5 Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them Rom. 10.5 And accordingly in case of the least faileur it denounceth eternal death Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 Nor can sincere obedience give any title to life by the Law of Creation all the Right that it states us in to happiness is by the Law of Faith The obedience which gives a claim to life by the Original Law must be perfect and perpetual as well as sincere Seeing then none of the sons of Adam even in their best state doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7.20 1 Kings 8.46 But in many things we offend all Jam. 3.2 And if we should say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8 It Naturally follow 's that by the Deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight Rom. 3.20 But that as many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3.10 The Papists do here grosly erre by affirming that Mankind is still able perfectly to keep the Original Law But in order to this they are necessitated to hold that some sins are in their own Nature venial and that they are not contra sed praeter legem against but besides the Law Bellarmin lib. 4. de justif cap. 14. The whole of which as it is false so it is absurd and non-sensical For if they be against no Law they are not at all sins but acts in themselves indifferent and Lawful And if they be violations of any Law of God i. e. if they be at all sins they demerit eternal death That being the penalty annexed by God to the breach of every command Rom. 6.23 Gal. 3.10 Deut 27.26 Rom. 2.9 Besides did we remain able to fulfil observe the Law of Creation perfectly there could be no place nor room for the Law of Grace For as the Apostle saith if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3.21 It being then impossible that they should be Coordinate it remains that the one lye in a subordination to the other And seeing that the Gospel in all its super-structions supposeth the Original Law still in Being though not Universally to the same ends that it first served and for as much as the Law of Faith is provided and introduced of God to minister relief against the Law of Nature it likewise appears that the Original Law is now brought into a subserviency and subordination to the Remedial-Law How and wherein this is shall be farther laid open First then Our Lord Jesus hath in the Gospel adapted the Decalogue which is a compleat transcript of the Natural Law to be the alone measure of
also admit variety of significations The first or Giving Grace doth eminently resolve it self into one of three acceptations It is used 1 to intimate the purpose design and contrivance of Divine Goodness Wisdom and Love as the source and spring of our whole recovery together with all the means and instruments of it Or to declare the favour of God towards sinners in recovering them from sin and wrath by Jesus Christ. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the gift by Grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many Rom. 5.15 And if by Grace then it is no more by works otherwise Grace is no more Grace c. Rom. 11.6 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will To the praise of the Glory of his Grace c. Ephes. 1.5 6. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death Crowned with Glory and Honour that he by the Grace of God should tast Death for every Man Heb. 2.9 There are innumerable places where it is thus used And from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace in this sence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratiâ aliquem dono gratiâ afficio charum reddo gratis acceptum facio Graciously to accept freely to receive into favour To the praise of the Glory of his Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephe. 1.6 * Non tamen propterea Grecum non est sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecissimum cum Sp. S. metam à prâ—phanis sibi praesigi non sinat Schmiâ—ius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not so far as I know occur in any prophane Author Nor is it matter of any Wonder they being wholly ignorant of the thing it denotes From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this acceptation comes likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratuitously or frankly to give or forgive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having freely forgiven you all trespasses Col. 2.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remitto mulctam apud Graecos Authores And for as much as the Gospel is the Word of Gods Grace Act. 14.20 24. unfolding bringing into Light and displaying this Grace and favour of God to sinners by Jesus Christ. It is therefore frequently expressed by the term Grace Receive not the Grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 Whosoever of you are justified by the Law you are fallen from Grace i. e. Renounce the Gospel and the favour of God therein declared Gal. 5.4 See also Tit. 2.11 Jud. 4. 2 ly It is applyed to express the effectual working of the Spirit of God imprinting his Image on the Souls of men and thereby elevating moulding and disposing them to comply savingly with the Gospel This the School-men câ—ll Gratia operans and Gratia praeveniens Effectual and preventing Grace Gal. 1.15 When it pleased God who separated me from my Mothers Womb and called me by his Grace to reveal his Son in me c. 1 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am what I am and his Grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me Hence the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Grace Zech. 12.10 Heb. 10.29 Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit is once and again put for Grace These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit Jud. 19. see Luk. 1.80 3 dly It is made use of to declare the actual energetical working of the Spirit exciting assisting and enabling to every Gospel-performance working both to Will and to Do. This Austin stiles adjutorium quo in contra-distinction from the former which he calls adjutorium sine quo non lib. de Correp Grat. cap. 12. And the School-men call it Gratia co-operans Gratia adjuvans gratia * Nulla in homine bona fiunt quae non facit homo nulla vâ—rò facit hâ—mo quae non Dâ—us praestaâ— ut faciat homo Concil Arauâ—ic can 20. Cassi sunt omnes moâ—us si à gratiaÌ„ non adjuventur nulli si non excitentur Bern. applicans determinans ad agendum Grace determining the Will to act And in Scripture-phrase it is called The Lords upholding us by his free Spirit Psal. 51.12 The holding us up Psal. 119.117 The enlarging our heart Psal. 119.32 The standing by and strengthening us 2 Tim. 4.17 Bona conversa voluntas adjuvatur Sed perversa convertenda plusquam adjuvatur Spiritus aliter adjuvat inhabitans aliter nondum inhabitans inhabitans adjuvat fideles nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles Secondly Grace is taken passively for Grace given and in this passive acceptation it admits likewise variety of significations 1. It is put for favour and acceptance either with God or men The Angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou hast found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 favour with God Luk. 1.30 The same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly favoured v. 29. And Jesus increased in Wisdom and Stature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and favour with God and man Luk. 2.52 Thou hast found Grace in my sight says God to Moses Exod. 33.12 where the 70 render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Acts 47. having favour with all the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor are other Authors strangers to this acceptation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witness that passage of Herodian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by courage and skill in shooting he obtained favour with the people lib. 1. Secondly it is used to denote a quality impressed on the minds and souls of men whereby they became habitually disposed for God This â—s stiled by Divines Gratia habitualis habiâ—ual Grace It is true Habit and Habitual â—re no Scripture-terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habit occurs â—ut once in the N. T. viz. Heb. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there it signifies custome or â—ong use Erasmus renders it propter asâ—uetudinem Vulg. pro assuetudine Bez. propâ—er habitum Our old translation had it â—y Reason of Custome The New hath it â—y Reason of Use. The word is peculiar to Philosophers and with them it denotes a promptitude and facility of acting acquired and contracted by Custome or frequent repetition of acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disposition through length of time connatural Ammon Quintilian translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firma quaedam facilitas a certain stable facility Instit. Orat. l. 10. cap. 1. From Philosophy the Term is transferred to Divinity and as applied to Grace is put to declare the Image of God communicated to imprinted on the soul by which it
its own acts and keeps a Jubilee in its self Had there been no other reward annexed to Obedience the pleasure of â—cting conformably to Reason would have been a sure and momentous one Whatever calamities God in Soveraignty might have inflicted on us and whatever comforts of life he could have taken from us yet anxiety and remorse would never have arrested us Yea the continual recognition of that nothingness out of which by the arbitrary fiat of our Creator we were taken would have rendred all our thoughts of reducibleness back into that state again both satisfactory and delightful The apprehensions of our disposableness at the will of our Maker would not have grated upon our innocent mind In a word we should have esteemed the very observance of the Law of Creation a considerable reward And the innocent soul should have been satisfied from its self For as the Poet saith Ipsa quidem virtus sibi pulcherrimamerces Sil. It is likewise confessed that there is a great condecency and admirable suitableness in it to Divine Wisdome and Goodness that a perfect and spotless innocency should be attended with a happy and unafflicted life But yet all that carries such a proportion is not necessary For there is an admirable condecency to Divine Sapience and Benignity that the whole race of mankind should not be utterly lost that God should not loose active glory in way of thanksgiving and praise from a whole Species of Rational Creatures and yet I suppose it will not be affirmed that God was obliged to re-instate fallen man in all the circumstances of that felicity which by his disobedience to the Law of his Creation he had forfeited Surely no property of the Divine Nature had been impeachable had God suffered Mankind to perish under the guilt they had wilfully contracted All that I contend for then is this that had not God ratified the Law of Creation into a Covenant and thereby set bounds to his own Dominion we could have had no foundation of expecting any thing from him after the utmost exactest of obedience save the pleasure of having performed it There is no property in God which antecedently to his own pleasure obligeth him to remunerate our obedience nor precluding a Covenant could we warrantably have expected any such thing from him First not his Justice For 1 There is strict Distributive Justice observed where God taketh no more away than he freely gave Every superior Authority if it hath not abridged it self by some promise or Covenant hath still liberty to revoke all the free issues of its own power and bounty Where benefits are freely bestowed there the Donor retain's a right of rescinding his own donations God having therefore made us of his Meer will and for his pleasure Rev. 4.11 He had full power arbitrariously to destroy the Beings he had conferred The whole interest that we have in our selves is from the free gift of our maker and by resuming what he hath given he may cancel that interest when he pleaseth Nor is God's donation of being to the Creatures any silent contract as is alledged by the Author of Deus Justificatus p. 266 That He will never destroy them For we have the experience of Brute Animals to the contrary who in the vertue of their Beings conferred on them cannot plead a title to continuance Perceptive capacities they have as well as we though not of that kind and are allowed Gratifications suitable to them yet this hinders not but that without the least fault in them or injury in God they are at once deprived both of the Delights of the Animal life and of Being it self 2 For Commutative Justice there neither is nor can be any such thing betwixt God and Creatures For that supposeth an equality between what is performed and what is received and only there where there is an equalitas dati accepti can Commutative Justice take place We can therefore neither plead nor enter a claim upon this foundation unless we could have brought as much benefit to God as we had received as well in his conferring our beings on us as in the after-reward Gods raising us out of nothing by his alone power and goodness and furnishing us with those faculties which made us fit for Moral Government did sufficiently entitle him to the utmost service we could perform without laying him under any obligation in point of Justice of remunerating it when we had done Merit from a Creature to its Creator is a Contradiction not only to Scripture Job 22.3 35.7 but to Reason I am sure that of the Apostle is enough to render it indubitable For if Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God Rom. 4.2 Justification could not be strictly merited no not by works The very Law of Works excluded glorying before God and let me add that the Law of Faith excludes not only that but also glorying before men which is enough if carefully attended to to overthrow some of the chiefest Pelagian and Arminian notions Secondly not his Mercy and Goodness forasmuch as all the effects of Goodness as Goodness is taken for Beneficence and Bounty which is the only proper notion of it here are free and elective And indeed it is necessary it should be so Because no kindness can oblige but what proceed's from one who is vested with Power and Right not to bestow it Nor do we pay thanks for what is derived to us by the necessity of an Agents Nature but only for what arriveth with us from the choice of his will Though the Holy and Rational nature of God determines him as to Moral Good without the least infringement of his liberty yet the case is not the same in reference to Physical good There being no property in God obliging him to produce all the creatures he can and to do them all the Good he is able But the application of his Omnipotence and exercise of his Beneficence depend as to both on the choice of his will To drive the opposite notion to its issue would prove the world to have been if not from eternity at least many Myriads of ages sooner than it was and that every Creature is as perfect as it was possible for Omnipotent power and infinite Fecundity to make it and that that there are no more Creatures possible than what are already with a hundred absurdities more which contradict not only Reason but Experience I shall Subjoin but one thing farther in proof of the conclusion I am establishing but in my Opinion such a one as may stop the mouths of the Amyraldians in this particular who affirm that for the bare performance of what was antecedently our duty Amyrâ—ld in Animadveâ—s Speciaibus contra Spanhemium part 4 ad Eroâ—ema 13. God is not only obliged to continue our existence but to recompence us with the reward of Heaven and Eternity And it is this namely that Gods Covenanting with mankind in the
Moral Rectitude and Obedience Though the Gospel strengthen the Duties of Morality by new Motives and improve them upon New Principles yet it no where gives us any New Precepts of Moral Goodness It is true Christ once and again particularly in the fifth of Matthew vindicates the Moral Law from the corrupt glosses and flesh-pleasing expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees who had restrained and perverted it from and besides the meaning of the Law and the intent of the Law-giver But he no where superinduceth any New Moral Duty that was not designed in the Sanction of it at first He hath retrived the old Rules of Nature from the evil customs of the World and rebuk'd the false expositions put upon the Decalogue by those who both then and for a considerable time before sat in Moses's Chair But he hath no where made new additions to them by putting his last hand as some men take upon them to say to an imperfect draught And indeed to affirm that the Decalogue was an imperfect and defective edition of the Natural Law is to assert that which no way accords with the design of God's Wisdom and Goodness in giving it For God's intendment in giving the Law of the Ten Commandments being to relieve us against the Darkness of Moral Good and Evil which had seized us by the Fall we must suppose it a sufficient draught of the Original Law of Morality otherwise we must conclude it not proportionable and adequate to the end it was given for which to assert is no less than an impeachment of the divine Sapience Faithfulness and Goodness Nor doth the bringing up such a report upon the Moral Law accord with that account which the Scripture every where gives of it The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal. 19.7 Not onely essentially perfect in respect of its purity and holiness but integrally in respect of its plenitude and fulness As it is in nothing superfluous which it ought not to have neither is it deficient in any thing that it ought to have Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119.96 This it could not be if it were not a perfect measure of all Moral Duties Shall I add that the institution of New Moral precepts seems not at all consonant to the design that Christ came upon The Holy Ghost entirely allots the giving of the Law to Moses telling us that the work errand and business of Christ was of another Nature The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Christ's work was to bring into further light the Law of Faith and to redeem us from the Curse of the Moral Law not to augment the number of Natural Duties This may suffice to perstringe among others a late Author whose words are that the Decalogue was never intended for a perfect System of the Moral Law That â—e cannot imagine that by thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image is meant Thou shalt not institute Symbolical ceremonies or that by thou shalt not Murther alms and fraternal Correption are enjoyned c. Def. Continuat p. 312. It is likely that he and those of his persuasion would take it ill if I should tell them with whose Heifer they here Plow Therefore I shall irritate no man onely recommend those who desire farther confirmation in this matter to such who have debated the Socinian Controversies Now with respect to Christs having made the Moral Law of the Family of the Christian Religion in the place already assigned it a threefold subordination of that to this is easie to be manifested 1. That it is upon the alone score of the Law of Grace that God will accept any service at the hands of Sinners For though the Law as to the Obligation of it remain still in force and for the substance of it will do so to all Eternity yet that God will accept the service of Sinners is to be wholly attributed to God's transaction with them in the Covenant of Grace by Jesus Christ. 2. It is in the alone vertue of the Law of Faith and God's Mercy and Faithfulness therein displayed and declared that an ability is ministred to us of performing any part of Moral Obedience so as to be accepted with the Lord and afforded ground of expecting a reward thereupon This Grace comes not by Moses The Law as such administers no strength for the performance of what it requires this comes alone by Jesus Christ out of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 17. 3. Though the Original Law continue both to claym perfect Obedience and to threaten Death in case of the least faileur yet because of the introduction of the Law of grace over it the penalty shall not be executed provided we be sincere Christians flie to the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 Rom. 8.1 Not-withstanding both our manifest faileurs in that Obedience which the Law exacts and its severe denunciation of wrath upon the least sin yet our condition is not left hopeless providing we fulfil the terms of the Law of Grace Secondly The Original Law is brought into subserviency to the Law of Grace in this That though in it self and abstractedly considered it be only shapen to drive us from God and to fill us with thoughts of fear and flight and accordingly that was the effect of it upon Adam as soon as he had sinned yet through the introduction of the Remedying-Law it is become a blessed means in the hand of the Spirit to conduct us to Christ and God through him Hence it is stiled our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 And Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the Law for Righteousness c. Rom. 10.4 The scope and drift of the Law He to whom the Law guides and conducts Thus the word is used likewise elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the end i. e. finis intentionis the scope of the Commandment is Charity 2 Tim. 1.5 And not as Moses who put a vail over his face that the Children could not stedfastly look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of that which is abolished To that which God aym'd at in and by the Mosaick Ceremonies 2 Cor. 3.13 That Righteousness which the Law becoming weak through the flesh cannot confer upon us Rom. 8.3 It conducts and leads us to Christ for the obtaining of This is a blessed subserviency that all that is frightful and perplexing in the Original Law whether the amazing strictness of its precepts or the severe dreadfulness of its denunciations is made contributory and influential to bring us to Christ and to God by him Thirdly Herein also is the Original Law subjected and made subservient to the Law of Grace That Faith in the Messiah is constituted an ingredient in every Moral act in order to its acceptance with God 't is this which mainly gives every action its Moral specification Though the foundation
stood into him as our Creator Preserver and Benefactor There was in mankind an ability of soul of ascending unto the knowledg of the invisible Being and First cause by the effects of his Power Wisdome and Goodness of knowing as much of God as was needful for our living to him and our dependance on him in that state and under that Covenant that we then stood From which there could not but have resulted a clearer and more distinct knowledg than we can now imagine of that love Gratitude Reverence which we owed to him and these would have been attended with a recognition of our own nothingness a dependant frame of spirit and a resignation of our selves and all things to his will The Second was the consideration of our selves that amphibious kind of Nature we are made with it is Hierocles's expression being allied in our constitution and make to several Species of creatures And the observing the Subordinations of the parts of our Composition one to another That the Animal and sensitive powers are to be governed by the Intellectual and Rational From which would have arisen a plenary and steady knowledg of the unsuitableness of earthly things to constitute us happy That our Blessedness lay not in the pleasing of our senses and gratification of our Animal part In a word that the Soul was to be principally regarded and that Reason was to be our only conductor which I suppose was enough to have precluded all intemperance incontinence and the subjecting of our selves to the Animal life c. A third way was an ability of penetrating more fully than now we can into the natures of the several creatures their fabricks orderly operations various instincts relations both to us and one an other in all which as in a glass much of our duty had we abode in the state of integrity would have become plain and evident to us If notwithstanding the fall and all that darkness and confusion which hath ensued thereupon We abide still directed to the creatures for the learning many parts of our duty See Iob. 12.7 Prov. 6.6 Jer. 8.7 Deut. 32.11 Should we not have been capable of learning more from them and that more clearly and distinctly when there was no tincture of sin or shadow of darkness on the mind nor fallacious medium in the whole Creation A Fourth was an ability of mind of knowing the Relation which we stood in one to another How that we were not self-sufficient but brought forth under a necessity of mutual assistances and that we could not subsist without the mutual aids of love and friendship That we arose not like mushromes out of the earth nor were digged out of parsly-beds neither came into the World by a fortuitous Original That we sprung not Originally from diverse Stocks much less were created at first multitude of us together But that the whole race of mankind was propagated from one single Root That each of us was intended as a part of the Rational System and made for society and fellowship From all which we should have been able by easy deductions and short dependencies to have argued out the whole of those duties we are under the Sanction of either to parents children or neigbours In a word doing as we would be done by which epitomiseth the whole duty that one man oweth to another would have proved the natural issue of the foregoing considerations The Fifth and last way was through observing Gods order and method in the Works of Creation As the works of God themselves were to be instructive unto man not only of the Being Power Wisdome and Goodness of God but of the Moral duties that God expected from us Psal. 19.1 Rom. 1.20 21. So God's Order and Method in the Production and Disposal of his Works into their several Relations and Subordinations was likewise intended to be instructive to mankind and it was the will of God that we should learn our duty thereby Thus the Preeminence of the man over the Woman is confirmed by the Apostle from the order of the Creation I suffer not saith he the Woman to usurp over the man for Adam was first formed then Eve 1 Tim. 2.12 13. Christ himself establisheth Monogâ—my upon the same foundation namely God's Method of Creation at first From the beginning of the Creation he made them Male Female for this cause shall a Man cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh Marc. 10.6 38. Thus also with respect to God's order in the Creation did the observation of the Sabbath become a part of the Law of Nature And on the seventh Day God ended his Work which he had made and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his Work which he had made and God blessed the Seventh Day sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work See Dr. Owen of Sacred Rest Exâ—â—cit â— which he had created and made Gen. 2 2 3. All these instances do fully evidence that there was both a sufficiency of objective light in the things themselves to instruct man into his duty and of Subjective light in man to discern improve it to the ends aforesaid Nor doth it at all weaken what is said that the Light of Reason as it reside's in us now seems defective and insufficient to direct us unto the knowledg and observance of these things For it is enough that we have proved them to have been originally designed by God for these ends and that there is ground and evidence in the things themselves to conduct to them Nor is the exâ—ent and effects of Primitive light to be measured by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruines of it which remain in us since the fall Alas our present light is faint Languid Scant Superficial Distracted leaving us under uncertain guesses dubious hallucinations exposing us to fallacious and delusive appearances unable to minister due indications of vertue and vice even in such things as according to All come under the Sanction of the Law of Creation Witness the Idolatry Uncleanness Rapine c. that Nations and Persons pretending to the greatest improvement of Reason and natural Light have lived in But Original Light was pure clear certain not tinctur'd with false images and colours nor darkness by lust and sensuality capable if it had been exercised and attended to of preserving us secure as well from Doubt as Error § 5. God having thus prescribed a Law to man the Notices of which lay sufficiently plain in the exercising of his faculties He also endowed him with a proportionate strength for the observance of the precepts of that Law That a law be obligatory it is necessary that it enjoyn nothing but what is possible to be performed That none can be bound to impossibilities is an indubitable axiom It is not consistent with the Wisdome Justice Righteousness and Goodness of God to command that which we never had strength for the performance of nor can he
Rationalis facultatis arguunt similiter c. that as the operations of Brutes how sagacious soever they be yet being compared with the operations of men do manifest a want of a faculty in them that we are endowed with so the sublimest actions of Natural men being compared with the operations of such as are born of God do as plainly argue the lack of a faculty in those which these have Thes. Salm Tom. 1. p. 139. 3. Their knowledg of divine truths is not transformative Their assent is accompanied with a disaffected heart to the things they assent to Under all the imbellishments of knowledg they are not attempered into the likeness of what they believe and profess Their hearts are not changed into the vital Image of truth but remain Animal and Brutish notwithstanding all the Notions their heads are fraught with They are not cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the form and moâ—ld of the doctrine they believe Their hearts and affections are not framed into the similitude and figure of it The Word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ingrafted Word turning the whole stock into its own nature and likeness But they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold or imprison the truth in unrighteousness Inest homini sanctâ— legis scientia nec â—amen sanatur vitiosa concupiscentia Aug. lib. de gest Pelag. cap. 7. see Rom. 7.8 Fourthly Because of Weakness through the loss of the Divine Image and because of Enmity through indwelling lust we are altogether unable in our selves savingly to comply with the terms of the Gospel There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a want of power in every one of us to those things No man can come to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 To come is as much as to own Christ as the sealed and Anointed of God and to believe in him as the alone Mediatour and Surety Joh. 5.40 Joh. 6.35 37. And without the Fathers drawing i. e. without an efficacious work of God ingaging the Soul in a most sweet but powerful manner no one will be ever found in the practice and exercise of those things There is both that disproportion of faculty and that wicked aversation from the terms of the Gospel in every one which only the Divine Spirit can relieve and conquer Objective grace or the Moral Swasion of the word is not enough we need also subjective Grace and a new principle What a dead man is to vital operations that every one by Nature is to Spiritual acts The soul is not more necessary to the body for the functions of Life Sense and Reason than the Spirit of life in the New Birth is to all holy performances We not only need insinuations of Spiritual light to awaken our slumbring minds but to elevate and dispose them for the due perception of the things of God nor do we only need grace to court our perverse wills but to determine them to the choice of holiness An impotency is acknowledged by all who measure their conceptions about these things either by the declaration of the Word or the Universal experience of Mankind The Natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 The Carnal mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdom of the flesh i. e. the best thoughts affections inclinations and motions of the mind of a Natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being as much as homo corruptus Joh. 3.6 Gen. 6.3 is Enmity against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the abstract For it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 Fifthly How this impotency is now to be called is not of so great consequence as some men make it For on the one hand all are agreed that it consists not in a Deprivation of any Essential Power or Faculty of our Rational Being This Spanhemius as well as Amyrald Twiss as well as Truman are at an accord in And it is granted likewise on the other hand that it is not only Congenite with us and so in that sense Natural wherein we are said to be by Nature the Children of Wrath but farther that it implies both á want of concreated Rectitude and a connate pravity and aversation from God and that it is only God who can overcome our opposition and relieve our weakness and that secluding his work upon the soul we neither will nor can comply savingly with the terms of the Gospel so that whether it ought to be stiled a Moral or a Natural Impotency is for the most part but a strife about words There is a perfect harmony as to the sense and meaning the alone contest is about the manner of expressing and phrasing it Philosophy is only concerned in it not Divinity Nor is the question who speaks most truly but who speaks most properly It is the dispute of Divines not of Divinity The terms might have been avoided without prejudice to truth Nor do I know any reason for the use of them but to confound mens apprehensions I heartily wish that those Learned persons who have made so great a noise about Moral and Natural power would have been so ingenuous as to have told the World that they impeached no man of error but only of solecism and that their adversaries were as sound in the matter contended about as themselves only that they had not the luck of declaring it in so apt words as this would have contributed more to the peace of the Church so hereby private Christians would have judged their concern but small in these debates But seeing for Reasons that I think not fit to enquire into this needful Advertisement hath been neglected I hope it will not prove an unacceptable service that we have here suggested it presupposing then that Agreement in the Main which hath been intimated All that lies upon our hand is to enquire who express themselves most Philosophically in this matter And though I must confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Halicarn apt words are of great import to a clear apprehension of things yet I must withal add that I am no friend to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a coâ—ning of new terms when old ones will serve the turn And I am so far from seeing any solid ground why in the matter and case before us we should wave the word Natural for the word Moral that I think there is a great deal of reason for the contrary 1. The most likely way of arriving at a distinctness of understanding our present inability is by considering what at first was communicated to us and for what ends and according to this method of proceed I would argue thus That impotency which consists in the want of a principle not only concreated with us but Naturally due to our undefiled Natures in order to our living acceptably to God may I think not unfitly be called a