from the exercise thereof by some special Compact or Promise But it is not so certain and undoubted a Truth as it is taken by the quoted Author to be for since he himself tells us that Dominium est libertas propriis facultatibus secundum rect am Rationem utendi and rightly it is evident that no Authority has a Right to exercise Dominion otherwise than according to Right Reason and therefore it is not only injurious to revoke a free Gift contrary to Compact or Promise but also if in any other Respect whatsoever it be not according to Right Reason to do it this being the absolute Rule for the exercising Dominion by as from the following Instances will I think be evidently made appear the first of which shall be in a matter of small moment A Pinner makes a Wire-pin and when he has done clips it into pieces and throws it away meerly because he will or for his sole Pleasures sake in doing this he neither wrongs any Person nor the Pin because it is his own and he made it yet in that he does an irrational Act in regard that Reason obliges every man to act in every thing for some good End whereas this is plainly a vain and frivolous Action tending to no good he violates thereby his Rational Nature and so injures himself which because Reason tells him he ought not to do he exercises his Dominion over the Pin not according to but against Right Reason which he is not impower'd by the Right of Dominion to do The second Instance shall be in a matter of moment as follows A Sovereign Prince has a just occasion to make War against a potent Enemy and after due Consultation had with his most wise and faithful Counsellors resolves at length on a Person undoubtedly the fitest in all the Kingdom to be his General and thereupon makes him so The Prince afterward notwithstanding he still upon prudent grounds esteems him a Person in every respect for Fidelity Valour and Conduct more requisite to be employed than any other in that Service yet nevertheless out of Fancy takes his Commission from him and bestows the Command of the Army upon another who through his ill Management is occasion of its Overthrow in this case though the Sovereign does his Subject no wrong in removing him from the high and honourable Trust of being General and conferring it on a Person far less worthy yet nevertheless he wrongs his own Reason and to be injurious to ones own Reason is the principal Wrong if well considered that any man can do because of the most intimate Concern to every one as being that which does Violence to Man 's very Natural Constitution which is Rational and thence becomes the Original of all Injury which any one does either to himself or others The third and last Instance of many that might be brought shall be in God himself in manner following Suppose the Almighty when he created the World to act therein as sure 't will be readily granted he did according to exact Wisdom and that there is no less Reason to continue it being made then there was at first to make it God in this case could not reduce it again to nothing without contradicting his own Reason which because it is impossible for him to do it's impossible likewise to annihilate the Universe upon the account of its being the free Product of his Will not but that he has strength infinitely more then is sufficient to do it but forasmuch as the Universe is the Result of his immutable Wisdom and Goodness that it can never enter into his Thoughts to do it If it be asked what advantage a Man has by Propriety in a thing above another Person that has no Right thereto at all if he may not dispose of it as he pleases I answer this advantage that he may make use of it according to Right Reason at his Pleasure whereas any other who is not the Proprietor cannot without the Owners Leave first had ever lawfully use it at all Objection 6. From the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God Divines usually prove the Necessity of the Eternal Communication of his Divine Nature to the Son and Holy Ghost and thence infer that the World was not a necessary but free Product of the Divine Goodness since otherwise the Almighty should have communicated Being to the Creature no less necessarily then he did his Essence to the Second and Third Person in the Blessed Trinity and consequently an infinite Perfection contrary to what is demonstrated Sect. 3. Answer Though I speak of Gods being necessitated to create Sect. 3. Yet I expresly there say that it is only by his Eternal immutable Wisdom and Goodness and that they no otherways engage his Will save only to make the best Choice not that God was ever undetermined in his Will since it is impossible that his Wisdom being essential to him should not perpetually necessarily know and his Goodness no less essential to him should not perpetually necessarily incline him to will what is best or most agreeable to both and equally impossible that his will not really but notionly only distinct from either whatsoever is in God being God Sect. 1. Par. 11. should not act according to them so that as all the internal Actings of God are essentially wise and essentially good so are they likewise essentially necessary whilst the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Will are essentially the same and his internal Actings nothing else but his very Will essentially actuated with Wisdom and Goodness and by consequence eternally and necessarily so actuated And therefore the Instance from the necessity of communicating the Divine Nature by the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit for proof that the World was not necessarily created in stead of disproving the necessity of the Worlds Creation is clearly an Argument for it For seeing the Communication of the Divine Nature is rendred by the Objection and truly the necessary Result of the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God it plainly argues a greater Perfection in an intelligent Being to act out of necessity of Nature then to act with that Freedom which supposes a Liberty of acting or not acting or pleasure and consequently in regard there are no degrees of Perfection in God who is essential Perfection it self that the Creation was as well a necessary as voluntary Product of the Divine Will and that the reason why the Universe is not of infinite Perfection answerable to the Maker of it is from the Incapacity of the Subject accordingly as was shewn Sect. 3. Par. 1 2 3 8. the World being a Complex of Things the perfectest that could be created ibid. Objection 7. If the World could not have been eternal as it is said in Sect. 3. Par. 4. that it could not the reason thereof must be either because God could not have created it from Eternity for want of Power or because the World it self was incapable of existing eternally But
therefore shall Christ's Appearing when he comes to judge the World be with Power and Great Glory Then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory Matth. 24. 30. to the end that the Wicked on the one hand beholding plainly with their Eyes his Glorious Appearance may be convinced of the justness of their Condemnation in being rejected and cast for ever from the Presence of God which is that Portion of their Misery called Poena Damni Sect. 7. because they preferred the Satisfaction of their sinful Lusts and vain Desines the perpetual Frustration whereof is that other share of their Torment named Poena sensus Sect. 7. before the Fruition of their great and glorious Maker and Redeemer And that the Godly on the other hand seeing Christ coming in his Glory may meet him with ineffable Joy to enter upon the Possession of his Beatific Presence to be everlastingly enjoy'd because they despised the fulfilling of their Lusts and wicked Desires here for the Fruition of Him hereafter to Eternity If it be objected that Christ shall at length deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. And that therefore it seems that the Father alone shall be the sole Object of Mans Bliss in Heaven I answer that Christ delivering up the Kingdom to his Father signifies his leaving off or ceasing from his Mediatory Office whereby he was constituted King for the Protection of the Church and not that He shall not reign eternally together with his Father for otherwise why is it said that of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luke 1. 33. The Word God therefore in the 1 Cor. 15. 28. is not to be understood of the Father alone but of the whole Trinity accordingly as Doctor Hammond explicates it in his Paraphrase on the Place When all is subdued to Christ then shall Christ lay down that Office viz. of his Mediatorship which till then he exerciseth and then shall God the Father Son and Holy Ghost fill all the Elect with Glory and Bliss eternally Object 5. Although formal Righteousness be that Love of God in the Soul which expels out of it mortal Sin here and all Sin hereafter Yet if Christ came into the World only to take away Sin by introducing Charity into the Soul what doth Satisfaction Redemption Salvation Propitiation and Reconciliation made and obtained by Christ intend and signifie Solut They intend and signifie that God the Father through the gracious Intervention of his eternal Son consubstantial and co-equal with Himself wrought Salvation for lost Mankind whilst his Incarnation and the Consequents of it which he undertook for Man are the intermediate efficient cause proceeding from Gods Love of Benevolence the Principal Cause by which the Salvation of every one that comes to Bliss is really and powerfully effected and contain that Worth Virtue and Vigor as would be of efficacy enough to save the whole World yea infinite Worlds if they were possible besides But notwithstanding this seeing Man is neither converted nor perseveres in Grace nor goes to Bliss that is neither obtains Charity nor keeps Charity nor is perfected in Charity without his own voluntary Consent 't is apparent that the Merits of Christ are the efficient Cause of Mans eternal Welfare by really and effectually working preserving and perfecting the Love of God in the Soul whilst by Christs Heavenly Doctrine Mans understanding is divinely illuminated with the Knowledg of saving Truth and through that and the serious Consideration of his gracious and wonderful Actings and Sufferings in behalf of Man his Will is powerfully converted to God. Forasmuch then as sincere habitual Charity destroys mortal Sin Par. 6. and thereupon so far brings Man in favour with God or so near to him that he is freed from everlasting Destruction Par. 7. and that perfect Charity wholly extirpates all Sin Par. 9. and thereby constitutes Man in full favour or throughly unites him to God is it not clear and evident that Christ in cleansing the Soul through his Merits from Sin makes up the Breach it had caused between God and Man and so reconciles and brings them again together And is he not an effectual Mediator by whose means they are reconciled together who would otherwise have been at as great difference and distance as Heaven and Hell could make them And in regard unrighteous men are the Servants of Sin Rom. 6. 20. and that St. Peter speaking of the Servants of Corruption saith of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in Bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. and that our Blessed Saviour himself testifieth that Whosoever commiteth Sin is the Servant or Slave of Sin John 8. 34. is it not plain that Christ inasmuch as by his Merits he effectually working Charity in the Soul doth truly deliver thereby from the Bondage and Slavery of Sin has really wrought through his Merits mans Redemption and is thence rightly called his Redeemer And because everlasting Damnation and the Pains of Hell are the unavoidable Consequents and Result of Sin unrepented of is not Christ in that he works Repentance and thereby saves men from eternal Destruction a true and real Saviour And in regard the Breach and Distance caused by Sin between God and Man could not be made up but by means sufficiently powerful to effect the same and that Christ did that by his Merits or Doings and Sufferings which was sufficiently powerful to make up the Breach and Distance between God and Man and that when nothing else was able to do it Sect. 9. is he not on good grounds said to have made a full Atonement and Satisfaction for Sin Not that God was ever affected with Anger and his Wrath really appeased it being impossible that there should be any alteration or change in God who is immutable Sect. 1. Par. 8. and without all variableness or shadow of turning James 1. 17. So that God loved us even when we were Sinners and Enemies Rom. 5. 8 10. and St. John says Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins 1 John 4. 10. Wherefore since there was no want of Love to wit of Benevolence for with the love of Complacency or Delight God cannot affect Sinners in the Almighty towards the making up the Breach and Distance between himself and man the whole failure of Love was on mans side whose Heart in that it was so fast wedded and glued to the World that neither the Consideration of the glorious and gracious Work of the Creation nor of the great and daily Mercy of Divine Providence proved Motives prevalent enough to make a Divorce and Separation between them some more potent Motive was necessary for the doing of it And because every Creature must needs fall infinitely short of affording such a Motive man
hearty Affection unto God Par. 6 7 8. Object 2. The sincere habitual Love to God above all things cannot of it self alone justifie any one because the Divine Law requires that a Man love his Neighbour also as himself Solut. True it doth so but since it is impossible but that he who cordially desires and accordingly stedfastly endeavours to enjoy God eternally should also unfeignedly wish the like to his Neighbour which comprehends all Mankind and assists him when occasion serves in what is necessarily conducible thereunto so far as he well can in doing of which the Duty of loving a Mans Neighbour as himself is fulfilled as will be at large set forth in the Explanation of the Decalogue Sect. 18. and 19. 'T is plain that he who loves God above all things doth in consequence thereto of necessity love his Neighbour like as himself If a Man love me he will keep my Words John 14. 23. And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 21. But of this more hereafter in the three last Sections Object 3. If Men be formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness then are they not formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them But Men are formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them Christ is made unto us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Therefore Men are not formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness Solut. In answer to the proof of the Minor Proposition viz. That Christ is made unto us Righteousness I return that in the same Text he is likewise said to be made unto us Wisdom and Sanctification and Redemption and therefore if Christ's Righteousness can be proved from thence to be the formal Cause of man's Justification or that man is formally just thereby by the same Text it may be equally and as well proved that man is formally wise and formally holy by the Wisdom and Holiness of Christ which if he truly were then would a justified Person be as just wise and Holy as Christ himself and consequently he ought to have no remorse for any thing he ever did nor to crave pardon for his Sins and by consequence since Sin is a Transgression of the Law unless he no more transgress God's Law than our Blessed Saviour himself did he 'l be a Transgressor of the Law and not a Transgressor of the Law a Sinner and no Sinner at the same time which is impossible Christ's Righteousness therefore in the quoted Text is Metonymically to be understood for the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness even as his Wisdom and Holiness likewise are in respect of our being wise and holy In this sense all the meritorious Doings and Sufferings of Christ may be rightly said to be ours whilst by virtue of them Grace is wrought in our Hearts by which we overcome the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil so that the Benefit of them really redounds to us and whatever Righteousness we have here or shall have hereafter it is the very effect of the righteousness of Christ For since rational Arguments Motives are the proper inducements whereby a Rational Creature is inclined to Good whilst through them the Understanding is illuminated with Truth and the Will excited to the love of it 't is evident that nothing possibly besides except the immediate irresistible Will of God could so effectually work on mens rational Souls to cause them to forsake the love of the World for the love of God as Arguments and Motives fetcht from the consideration of Christ's love to man his Incarnation Doctrine Conversation Passion Resurrection Ascension Session at the right hand of his Father and his coming to Judgment Whence in very truth those men who in attributing man's formal Righteousness to the Righteousness of Christ made his by imputation through Faith think they attribute more to Christ and give him greater honour than they do that hold the sincere habitual love of God to be the formal cause of Justification are under a manifest Mistake For since Christ is personally God and not personally Man and that the infinite value of his precious merits is from the hypostatical Union of his Manhood with the Deity 't is plain that it is far more excellent and glorious that Christ's righteousness which comprehends the whole merit of all his active and passive Obedience should be the efficient Cause of man's Justification by producing a real habitual Righteousness in his Soul than the formal cause thereof by a meer imputed Righteousness because such imputed Righteousness in case it were possible would be the Righteousness of Christ as man for otherwise a righteous person would be infinitely righteous and consequently be God since nothing is infinitely perfect in any respect whatever but he alone whereas if his Righteousness be the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness it is proper to him as he is both God and Man. But indeed it is impossible that Christ's Righteousness should become formally man's for seeing it is personal and thence a thing extrinsecal to every one but himself 't is not possible to become a formal Cause to others in that a formal Cause whether it be substantial or accidental is an internal Cause and essentially constitutive of the thing whereof it is a Cause For instance Man's Soul is the formal Cause and a substantial essential part of man as man or a rational Animal Prudence is the formal Cause and an accidental essential part of man as he is prudent and so is Temperance of a temperate man and every Abstract else of the Concrete to which it is appropriated For what is a prudent man but one habitually indued with Prudence or a temperate man but one whom the habit of Temperance formally makes such And must not a righteous person by parallel Reason be one habitually possessed of Righteousness If it were not thus but that on the contrary a prudent man could be prudent by the Prudence of another without the Habit of Prudence within himself then were it possible that a man might be prudent though really imprudent in all his doings and so be prudent and utterly imprudent at once And if a man could be temperate without the Virtue of Temperance inherent in him he might possibly be temperate when he wallowed in the Sink of all filthy Pleasures and thence be temperate and not at all temperate at the same time And so in like manner if a man could be righteous by the Righteousness of another without any inherent Righteousness of his own he might possibly at the same instant be righteous and a notorious Transgressor of God's Law and consequently be a just and unjust person a Sinner and no Sinner both together If it were replied that God always in the very moment wherein Christ's Righteousness through Faith is imputed to any man infuses entire holiness into his Soul so that he exactly keeps every Divine Precept I would make this
Return Admitting it were so which yet I think may modestly enough be denied the Doctrine of imputative Righteousness would be never a whit the more true because inasmuch as it necessarily implies in it that a man might possibly be if God would permit it an absolutely righteous and unrighteous person at once though it never actually fell out to be so it supposes a possibility of two contradictory Assertions to be both true together But it is farther argued against imputative Righteousness thus If man be made formally righteous by the Righteousness of Christ then is man truly righteous abstracting from every thing which he himself doth more than what is necessary on his part for applying Christ's Righteousness to his Soul viz. Faith or a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his according to some or a Recumbence or resting on Christ for Salvation as others will have it But man is not truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than what is necessary on his part for applying Christ's Righteousness to his Soul viz. Faith or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation Ergo Man is not made formally righteous by the Righteousness of Christ The truth of the Proposition being evident I prove the Assumption thus If a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God be necessary to Justification then is not man truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation But a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God is necessary to Justification ergo man is not truly righteous abstracting from every thing he himself doth more than a stedfast Belief that Christ's Righteousness is made his or a Recumbence on Christ for Salvation The Minor which alone can be doubted of proved If Christ's imputed Righteousness be not sufficient without a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God to free the Soul from deadly Sin and the Consequent of it eternal Misery then is a real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God necessary to Justification But Christ's imputed Righteousness is not sufficient without a real hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God to free the Soul from deadly Sin and the Consequent of it Eternal Misery Ergo A real and hearty turning from Sin or the love of the world to the love of God is necessary to Justification The Major needs no Proof and the Minor is evidently true if deadly Sin be nothing else but the preferring the Enjoyment of the World before the Enjoyment of God or an Aversion from God and Conversion to the Creature and that everlasting Misery is the necessary Result of the perpetual Continuance in Sin according to what is said in the 7th and 8th Section Lastly The Doctrine of imputative Righteousness seems erroneous from what here follows If men be formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ made theirs then are all men justified alike or have equal Righteousness because Christs Righteousness is one and the same and if justified alike then also glorified alike seeing Glory depends on Righteousness or rather is compleat Righteousness it self or the perfect love of God in Heaven Par. 9. But all men are not glorified alike therefore neither justified alike That all men are not glorified alike I gather thus The perfect or entire love of God without any mixture of Affection to any thing besides as the Souls Sovereign Good being Mans Felicity for tho the Blessed Saints and Angels mutually delight in each other and more or less according to every ones Excellency yet it is only as they are and appear so many bright Rayes issuing from the Sun of Glory and not as having any proper independent Loveliness of their own or Excellency which is not totally derived from God it will be so that if of two enjoying Bliss the one love God more intensly and vigorously than the other tho both with their whole Affection for so do all the glorified Saints and Angels he will be the more happy for he that more intensly and vigorously affects or takes Delight in the Object he enjoys must of necessity have more Joy Pleasure and Contentment then he that adheres to what he loves with less ardency of Affection This being clear let 's compare in our Minds the Intensness or Vigor of Love to God wherewith the Holy Virgin the Blessed Apostles and Pious Martyrs or any of them particularly the Virgin Mary departed this Life with that remiss but sincere Affection which some other good Christian has to God when he leaves this World and we shall easily perceive there must needs be a great Disproportion of their love to God. When therefore the Beatific Object shall be presented to both their Affections will be encreased proportionably to what they wâ—â—t from hence with as for Example suppose the Blessed Virgin departed this Life with an Affection to God in comparison of what the other had at his Departure as five is in proportion to two then in case his Affection which stood in proportion to the Virgins as two to five be raised by the fight of God to the degree of five hers will be advanced thereby to the degree of eight for why the Beatific Object since it is able to give infinitely more satisfaction than Mans Nature is capable of should augment the one and not the other proportionably I see no appearance of reason Affections thereof for as the Strength of the Body is placed in the Nerves so is the strength of the Soul in relation to Objects of the Will in its Affections the Vigour of which the more the Mind is set upon any thing it desires and employed in the Contemplation of it is the more augmented like as the strength of the Sinews is encreased by the Exercise of the Body Wherefore since our gracious God will reward every one according to his Works Matth. 16. 27. and that no Work is acceptable to him which is not done for the love of him or out of a desire to enjoy him eternally it follows in all reason that seeing God himself is the Reward of the Ever-blessed and that therefore the difference of Rewards must proceed from the difference of the manifestation of his Glory he will manifest Himself proportionably to the Ardency of desire which every one has to enjoy him and consequently that they who love him most here in that they most son likely to be given If it be said that every glorified Saint loves God with all his Might and consequently that seeing one mans Soul differs not in Effence from another every one will love God alike in Heaven I answer that to love God with all the Might of the Soul is to love him with
Annotator's Answer to one who would needs prove the Sovereignty of God's Will over his Goodness from hence that it would have been better to have created the World sooner than he did the Answer is this If the World could not be ab aeterno which the Annotator had elsewhere made good it could not but must commence on this side of Eternity and be of finite years I leave to the Opposer to prove that it has not been created assoon as it could be and that is sufficient to prove that its late Production is not inconsistent with that Principle that God's Goodness always is the measure of his Actions For suppose the World of as little continuance as you will if it was not ab aeterno it was once of as little and how can we discern but that this is that very time which seems so little to us Annotations upon Lux Orientalis Chap. 9. pag. 59. This I take to be no less a solid than ingenious Answer to the Objection but withal think that it affords a sufficient ground of Argument whereby to evince that no Hypothesis whatsoever of a praeexistent happy State can be rationally founded on this Presumption that it was better or more agreeable to the Divine Wisdom that it actually should be because in appearance convenient and possible that it might be For supposing the Creation of the World to be good for the Creature as no doubt it is it being impossible that the Creator should be bettered thereby how apt will Man's narrow Reason be to suggest from thence that the sooner it was created the better it would be for them And yet nevertheless considering that Wisdom and Goodness are essential to God so that he cannot but do what all things reckoned upon is absolutely best and that we are ascertain'd by inerrable Testimony of the late Creation of the World we must of necessity conclude that we are deceived in thinking that it had been better that the World should have been of long continuance And therefore we can be no more certainly assured that there really was a praeexistent happy state of Souls because it seems to our short Reasoning that it would have been better for them then it doth follow that the world had continued longer than the holy Scripture assures us it hath because in appearance it would have been better for the Creature for whose Benefit it was made that it had done so Objection 12. If the only end designed by God in creating the World was to communicate and to do good to the Creature and that being immutable he still retains the like Kindness and Good-will to them which he did at first I see no possibility of giving any good account why the Almighty whose Will is irresistable either created not Men and Angels in an indefectible State or at least preserved not all as well as some of them from endless Misery But the difficulty in that respect vanisheth if it be indeed true which is usually said that Gods ultimate Intent in creating the World was to glorifie himself in the final Condition of Men and Angels and that either by shewing his absolute Soveraignty and uncontroulable Dominion in making a Decree of Election and Reprobation antecedent to any Covenant between himself and the Creature Or else by making known his Justice executed upon some Offenders and his Mercy exhibited to others after Terms of Reconciliation had been propounded by the Creator but could not be observed on the Creatures part save only by some few predestinated ones Or lastly by executing due Vengeance after sufficient however inefficacious Grace tendred to all upon the wilful Rejecters thereof and by rewarding with Beatitude the cordial Embraces of it All which Opinions though different from each other yet they every one of them centre in this that the Almightie's great and ultimate End in creating the World was to glorifie himself eternally in the final Estate of the Elect and Reprobate Men and Angels Answer Since every thing done by God as well as Man ought to be done for some good End and that the Divine Nature is totally incapable of any good either of Profit or Pleasure save only what is eternal and essential to him Sect. 8. Solut. of Object 1. it necessarily follows that God created not the World to acquire any good at all to Himself and consequently that it was wholly framed to procure the Benefit of the Creature This allowed of to be true there must be some other cause known to God why he created not Men and Angels in an indefectible State or at least prevented not every ones eternal Ruine than that he sought to acquire to himself everlasting Glory by the manifestation of his Power Justice and Mercy in the final Salvation of some and Damnation of others of his Creatures albeit the same could in no respect whatsoever be discerned by Man what it is But yet it is not I think a thing totally estranged from Human Reason to conceive and apprehend how and in what respect it is better for the Creature that the World was created then otherwise notwithstanding that some both Men and Angels perish everlastingly For let it be considered that it was agreeable to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to communicate Being and withal that it was impossible to create any single Creature or Species of Creatures however excellent Sect. 3. Par. 8. and our reason will straightway lead us to discover that the infinitely wise and good God propounded to himself the creating such a Complex and Universe of Beings as that the most comprehensive and excellent End which whatsoever could be created should in its whole Latitude be possibly able to aspire to might be attained Which great and noble End each part of the Universe in its proper Station was by the Almighties admirable Disposal and ordering to concur together to produce under himself the principal Cause always promoting the same on his part yet so as that he leaves every second intermediate Cause to act according to its own Nature save only in some cardinal Instances where the Divine Wisdom sees a necessity of an extraordinary or miraculous working above Nature to prevent a Failure too great in respect of the grand designed End to be permitted since otherwise the World would have been made to small or no effect Wherefore seeing Man of all the Creatures upon Earth is alone Rational and determins himself to Action his Nature would be violated which were in effect to unman him if he should be otherwise moved or wrought upon to act than according to his own voluntary Choice founded in the Rational Faculties of the Soul the Intellect and the Will. Which Choice if it be made according to Right Reason in an hearty preferring the Love of the Creator before the Love of the Creature or in placing the Souls Affections upon God as its sole Supream Good and on all other things as subservient to the Enjoyment of him will bring every Man in