Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable

[In that interspace which is between the guilt of sin contracted by a grievous sin, and the renewed act of Faith and Repentance, such a Sinner standeth a person to be damned by his own desert, but by Christ's Merit and God's firm purpose a person to be saved; but not before by excited Faith and Repentance, he hath obtained pardon, is he actually absolved.—But in such guilt the condition of the Faithful and of the Wicked is not the same.—To the Unbelievers is wanting the inward principle of Faith, without which the remedy is as far off, and cannot be made their own and applied.—If any would know the very moment in which a man that had contracted guilt by a heinous sin, is actually absolved, Cyprian seemeth to have determined it clearly in these words, [When I see thee sighing before the Lord, I doubt not but the Holy Ghost is breathing on thee: when I see thee weeping, I perceive him pardoning.]

The like you have, Judic. Theol. Bremens. de persevere. ib. pag. 233. n. 9, 10, 11. vid. & rejecta, pag. 237.

267. The British Divines in that Synod, Judic. de perseverant. p. 188. begin with this explication, that it is only the perseverance of the Adult that are actually Believers, (and not of Infants) which is intended: For some of them (as Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward) have written that an Infant state of Grace and title to Salvation may be fallen from and lost.

268. They add, ibid. p. 108. Thes. 3. [This persuasion of perseverance hath not that degree of certainty, which always excludeth all fear of the contrary: but is sometime lively, sometime languid, sometime, as in greatest Temptations, none—The first debility ariseth from the fundamental dependence of this personal affiance, which seemeth to come below the certainty of dogmatical Faith. For the Articles of Faith do affect our assent as immediate and first principles. But the truth of special Faith is not thence deduced as a necessary consequent, but is only subjoined by way of assumption. Ergo the firmness of that conclusion which maketh this persuasion, cannot be greater, than that which is in the weaker of the premises. But that sumption resteth on experimental signs, weighed by man's private Conscience: which being sometime doubted of, whether they are true signs, and sometimes hid by temptations, that they cannot shine out to our comfort, what wonder if Believers persuasion of their eternal Salvation be not always vegete and valide. Besides that the very Principles of the Catholic-Faith, though by revealed light clear in themselves, yet being not known to us, by certainty of evidence, but only of Adhesion, they beget not in us so firm an assent, as mathematical demonstrations, and common notions. But in beholding them, from the relicts of carnal diffidence, some vapors, as it were, sometime arise, by which the light of divine immutable verity, seemeth to us to be resringed, and to waver. How much greater and daily is the error of every Believer in the beholding of their own personal affiance.

269. It is too certain, by sad experience, that a true Believer may lose much of the Grace which he once had, and may die in a worse and weaker state.

270. It is certain by God's Word, that the justified have need of warnings, that they fall not away, and of threatenings if they fall; and that they are obliged to fear it, by a cautelous preventing fear that they may escape it.

271. It is certain therefore that if the thing be denominated possible in relation to our own power, it is not only possible that we should fall away, but too certain that we should.

272. But if the event be denominated possible or impossible in relation to God's mere Decree or Fore-knowledge, which as such do nihil efficere ad extra, without respect to his operative power, so the Apostasy of the Elect is impossible logically, or their perseverance necessary necessitate consequentiae in ordine probandi, it being impossible that both these should be true, [Paul will apostatize] and [God decreeth the Paul shall not, or fore-knoweth that he will not apostatize]. But posita nulla operatione divina ad extra, it would be nevertheless possible in re & in causis, that such a one should fall away. For all possibles are not futures: Therefore as God may both fore-know and decree the nonfurity of a thing, (if a Negative needed a Decree) and yet decree that it shall be possible. So God may decree the futurity of a man's perseverance, and yet decree that it shall be possible, as to all Causes, that • e persevere not. For he is supposed to decree only the determination of an undetermined Power, but not antecedently to take it away, and make it no free power.

273. But if the Relation of possibility be denominated from God's operative Grace effecting perseverance, then God hath various Operations: He can give his Grace by such an Omnipotent insuperable force, as shall predetermine the faculty so far as antecedently to take away the moral power (though not the natural) ad contrarium: And he can work in such a compliance with the liberty of the Will as shall only determine the power (natural or moral) to act, and not antecedently take it away; (unless as determining it, is a taking it away as to the contrary act at the same instant, as every man taketh away his own power by acting) when God operateth the first way (antecedently taking away the power a • contrarium) then the apostasy of a man is properly called Impossible, in relation to the impotency of all other Causes to overcome God, the cause of perseverance. But when God only worketh the latter way (not taking away the moral power ad contrarium, but determining it and the natural) then it is no proper expression to say that such a man's falling away was impossible antecedently; but only that 1. It is non futurum. 2. And logically impossible in order of arguing, that it should be so. And it is ordinary with high Antiarminians to say, That God's Decree and his Grace too, are such as only determine man's power, and that neither of them ordinarily make our Fall impossible, but only non-futurum. But when God worketh by a greater force of Omnipotency, taking away the moral power ad contrarium, and how oft, what man dare say that he can tell? the difference being in the effect, and not in God.

274. Therefore though the dispute of the event as future or not future have its place, yet the dispute de possibilitate is usually but vain, and darkening: especially as managed by those Confounders, who only say, It is impossible that God's decree or fore-knowledge be frustrate, and necessary that it be fulfilled, not distinguishing the necessity of a consequence in a syllogism from the premises, and the necessity of an effect as from its necessitating cause. God can cause without necessitating the second cause; much more decree and fore-know.

275. He that hath saving Grace in the least degree, cannot lose that degree, without losing all the species, or all saving Grace. But it's otherwise with him that hath a higher degree.

276. There have many of our acquaintance gone so far in a life of mortification, and diligence of suffering like Christians of the highest rank, who yet have fallen (to the death) to the denial of the very essentials of the Christian Faith, that from the very Doctrine of certain perseverance hath become a cause of doubting and trouble to some: who have said, [If a man could fall away from true Grace, I should not doubt but such and such a man did so, and I should hope that yet my heart may at the present be sincere: But seeing no man ever had true Grace who apostatizeth, these men had none, who in all proboble judgment of reason, were once far better than I now am: And I can never be sure that I have true Grace, till I go further than ever they did, which I almost dispair of ever doing, having intimately known them to be no dissemblers.] Thus both ways of this controverted Doctrine have their troubling difficulties.

277. If none censured the deniers of certainty herein, but only those who themselves ever attain to a certainty of their sincerity, perseverance and salvation, they would not be enough to make any great division or breach about it. And could we but be impartial, and bear with the dissent of Brethren herein, as well as we do of the ancient Doctors and Churches, our peace and concord would be less disturbed by this Controversy than it is. I have else-where cited some; Tertullian is too harsh in conceding a mutability in God, Contr. Marc. li. 2. cap. 23, 24. [Si vero etiam circa personas levem vultis intelligi quum reprobate aliquando probatos, aut improvidum quum probat quando{que} reprobandos, quasi judicia sna aut damnet praeterita, aut ignoret futura: Atqui nihil tam bono & judici convenit, quam pro praesentibus meritis & rejicere & adlegere, &c.] Yet this may have a good interpretation.

Eusebius Praeparat. Evangel. li. 6. pag. 289, 290. [Yea these would fight (or be a contradiction) that the same man should both become honest (or good) and certainly fore-know that he shall be honest.] But I am not of his mind.

But among those before Augustine, such passages are not so strange as these are in himself. De corrept. & Grat. cap. 13. pag. 539. [Quis enim ex multitudine fidelium quamdiu in hac mortalitate vivitur, in numero praedestinatorum se esse praesumat? Quia id occultari opus est in hoc loco: ubi sic cavenda est elatio, ut etiam per Satanae Angelum ne extolleretur tantus colophizaretur Apostolus—Nam propter hujus utilitatem secreti, ne forte quis extollatur, sed omnes etiam qui been currunt timeant dum occultum est qui perveniant. Propter hujus ergo utilitatem secreti credendum est quosdam de filiis perditionis, non accepto dono perseverantiae us{que} in finem, in fide quae per dilectionem operatur incipere vivere, ac aliquandiu fideliter ac juste vivere, & postea cadere, ne{que} de hac vita priusquam hoc eis contingat auferri. Quorum si nemini contigisset, tamdiu haberent omnes istum saluberrimum timorem, quo vitium elationis opprimitur donec ad Christi gratiam, qua pie vivitur, pervenirent; deinceps jam securi nunquam se ab illo esse casuros. Quae praesumptio in isto tentationum loco non expedit, ubi tanta est infirmitas, ut superbiam possit generare securitas.

Et Epist. 101. ad Vitalem [Utile est quippe omnibus, vel pene omnibus propter humilitatem saluberrimam, ut quales futuri sint scire non possint—.]

Et lib. 11. de Civit. Dei cap. 12. pag. 67. [Quis enim primos illo • homines in Paradiso negare audeat beatos fuisse ante peccatum? quam •• s de sua beatitudine quam diuturna, vel utrum aeterna esset incertos? esse • ante • aeterna nisi peccassent. Cum hodie non impudenter beatos vocemus quos videmus juste ac pie cum spe immortalitatis hanc vitam ducere, sine crimine vastante conscientiam, facile impetrantes peccatis hujus infirmitatis divinum misericordiam? Qui licet de suae perseverantia praemio certi sint, de ips • tamen perseverantia sua reperiantur incerti? Quis enim hominum se in action profectu{que} justitiae perseveraturum us{que} in finem sciat, nisi aliqua revelatione ab illo stat certus qui de hac re justo latenti{que} judicio, non omnes instruit, sed neminem fallit.

So Prosper Resp! ad Gallor. cap. sent. ad secundam. [Qui dic •• quod ab his qui non sunt praedestinati ad vitam, non auserat percepta baptismi gratia Originale peccatum non est catholicus. Sacrament •• enim baptismi quo omnia prorsus peccata delentur, etiam in eis verum est, qui non sunt in veritate mansuri, & ab hoc ad vitam aeternam non sunt praedestinati.

Et sent. ad septimum. [Qui dicit quod Deus quibusdam filiis suis quos regeneravit in Christo, quibus fidem, spem, dilectionem dedit, ob hoc perseverantiam non dederit, quia a massa perditionis praescientia Dei & praedestinatione non sint disereti, &c. Vid. caetera & sent. sup. 12.

Et Resp. ad object. Vincent. 12. [Praedestinatio Dei & si apud nos dum in praesentis vitae periculis versamur incerta est, apud illum tame • , qui fecit quae futura sunt immutabilis permanet.

I need not tell the learned that Fulgentius is of the same mind with Augustine and Prosper.

If this had not been Augustine 's Doctrine, the predeterminant Dominicans had never maintained it as his against the Jesuits, which you may see in Alvarez Dispute. 107. and many others.

Much less would Jansen the zealous Follower of Augustine (so perfectly acquainted with his Works) have so thought and said, and so propugned it. See him at large in his Augustine. de Grat. Christi, lib. 9. cap. 7. pag. 392, 393, &c. & lib. 3. c. 20. pag. 163, 164.

Though I make no doubt but our Divines at Dort knew this to be Augustine 's professed judgment, yet in their Judic. de Persever. I find three Sentences cited by them out of Augustine, as making for the contrary, by which I suppose they intended to prove him doubtful or wavering. But 1. Three doubtful passages as to the sense, are not to be set against a man's open frequently professed judgment, thus expounded and followed by all his Disciples. 2. Let us examine the Texts. 1. The last of the three is de Correp. & Grat. cap. 9. But though Davenant be that Divine whom I honor for judgment above all, or almost all since the Apostles days; yet I must say that in this they all dealt very negligently or partially: For in that place Augustine professedly distinguisheth of Sons of God, predestinate and not predestinate: and saith, [Nec nos moveat quod filiis suis quibusdam Deus not dat istam perseverantiam. Absit enim ut i • a esset si de illis praedestinatis essent, & secundum propositum vocatis, qui vere sunt filii promissionis. Nam isti cum pie vivunt dicuntur filii Dei: sed quoniam victuri sunt impie & in eadem impietate morituri, non eos dicit filios Dei praescientia Dei. And expounding ex nobis exierunt sed non erant ex nobis, &c. ait, [Quid aliud dicunt, nisi non erant filii etiam quando erant in profession & nomine filiorum? Non quia justitiam simulaverunt; sed quia in ea non permanserunt. Ne{que} enim ait, nam si fuissent ex nobis, veram non fictam justitiam tenuissent, uti{que} nobiscum: sed si fuissent ex nobis, permanissent uti{que} nobiscum. In bono illos volebat proculdubio manere: Erant ita{que} in bono, sed quia in eo non permanserunt—non erant ex nobis—non erant ex numero filiorum.—Nam non perit filius promissionis, sed filius perditionis.—Filiis suis non praedestinatis Deus perseverantiam non dedit.—Et rursus quos dicimus inimicos ejus, vel parvulos filios inimicorum ejus, quoscun{que} eorum sic regeneraturus est, ut in ea side quae per dilectionem operatur, hanc vitam finiant, jam & antequam hoc fiat, in illa praedestinatione sunt filii ejus, & dati sunt Christo filio ejus, ut non pereant, sed habeant vitam aeternam.—Quia ergo non habuerunt perseverantiam, sicut non vere Discipuli Christi, ita non vere filii Dei fuerunt, etiam quando esse videbantur & ita vocabantur.—Apud cum hoc non sunt, cui notum est quod futuri sunt, id est, ex bonis mali. Propter hoc Apostolus cum dixisset, scimus quoniam diligentibus Deum omnia co-operantur in bonum, sciens nonnullos diligere Deum & in eo bono us{que} in finem non permanere, mox addit, His qui secundum propositum vocati sunt, &c, vid. reliqua.

Now the words which our Divines cite are these afore-cited, which say, They were not the Sons of God that fell away. When nothing can be plainlier uttered by the pen of man, I think, than that Augustine affirmeth them to be Sons as to their sincerity of Faith which worketh by love, but not to be Sons by predestination; And that not all that are sincere in Faith and Love are Sons in the most eminent sense, but that part of them who are predestinated to perseverance and the inheritance; and that nothing but predestination and perseverance was wanting to their Salvation. He that doubteth whether this was Augustine 's sense, when he hath read him, may doubt of almost anything which he is unwilling to believe.

The next Text is cited as Cont. Adult; (I suppose they mean Adversarios, and it's false printed,) Legis et Prophet. l. 2. c. 2. But I can there find nothing of any such Subject, much less sense.

The only Text therefore of all cited by them out of Augustine remaineth, which giveth any show of favor to their Theses, and that is cited contra Julian. Pelag. l. 5. c. 3. In cap. 4. I find the words, viz. [Istorum (reproborum) neminem adducit Deus ad poenitentiam salubrem et spiritualem qua homo in Christo reconciliatur Deo.] This is all that I find dubious in him. Now whether these few words better declare his judgment than whole Chapters and Discourses, you may judge? And whether the constant tenor of his Doctrine do not direct us to conclude that this is here his sense, viz. that he calleth that poenitentiam salubrem, which effectually bringeth men to Salvation, and which endureth to the end (as such.) And by [a man in Christ] means not as aforesaid [a man given to Christ with a decree to save him]; and by [reconciliatur Deo] he mean not one that is so reconciled as to be a predestinate Son, decreed to Glory. Historical Truth must not be denied, nor doth doctrinal Truth need historical falsehood for its defense, nor can agree with it.

This undoubtedly was Augustine 's mind.

Only one more Text they cite out of Ambrose de Jacob & vil • beata, li. 1. cap. 6.

But Ambrose is of his Disciple (Augustine 's) mind: The words are, Quis audeat accusare quos electos divino cernis judicio? Nunquid Deus Pater ipse qui contulit, potest dona sua rescindere, & quos adoptione suscepit, eos a paterni affectus gratia relegare. But 1. There Ambrose expressly speaketh of the Elect only. 2. And if he had not, such words as these are usually spoken by the Fathers, who assert falling away; meaning that God will not reverse or rescind his Grace; if you cast it not away: As Prosper saith, God forsaketh none that do not first forsake him.

If any man would see more of Augustine 's judgment, the many Sentences cited by me in my Tract. Of Perseverance, pag. 5, 6. 7. and all those cited by Vossius Histor. Pelag. li. 5. pag. 559, 560, 561, &c. may easily put him past all doubt. See also VOSSIUS, ibid. pag. 563, 564. citing more of PROSPER to the same sense.

That all the Fathers before Augustine were for uncertainty of Salvation, and falling away (de facto) of some that were in a state of true Grace and Justification, in which had they died they had been saved, this great Historian thoroughly versed in the Fathers, ibid. pag. 565, 566, 567. & pluribus sequent. showeth. For brevity, if you doubt, turn to these cited places, Irenaeus, li. 4. cap. 72. Justin. Martyr. Dial. cum Tryphon. pag. 206, 207. Clemen • Alex. Strom. li. 2. pag. 162, 166. Basil. Homil. in Psal. 114. & & homil. in Princip. Prov. Origen. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 li. 1. cap. 3. 13. ad Rom. li. 7. cap. 8. Macarius Homil. 14. 15. 24. 26. 28. Athanas. Contr. Arian. Orat. 4. Greg. Nazian. Orat. 40. de Baptis. Crysost. in Joh. 1. Hom. 1. & Epist. 5. & Homil. 77. ad Antioch. (ut vulgo). Et ex Latinis Tertullian. li. adverse. haeres. cap. 3. & li. de poenit. cap. 6. Cyprian. de unitate Eccles. cap. 12. & li. 1. Epist. 7. ad Rogat. & li. 4. Epist. 7. ad Mag. Ambrose. (ut vulgo) in Rom. cap. 9. Chronat. in Mat. 5. Besides those after Pelagius, cited by Vossius, ibid. pag. 567, &c. Among whom Bernard is large and earnest against possibility and convenience of PERSEVERANCE and SALVATION.

Vossius in his Thes. 12. saith thus of those that will deny this to be the ancients Opinion, [Quid quod Antiquitas tota indefectibilitati adversatur, nec quemquam quantum meminisse valemus, veterum invenire est qui sideles omnes omnimodam de perseverantia sui certitudinem habere arbitraretur. Fatentur quidem animos filiorum Dei dubitationis auxietate cruciari non debere cum spei fiduciam habeant, quae sufficienti consolatione, et lapsuros sustinet et lapsos levet; At nihilominus negant posse quemvis exinde quod impraesentiarum fidelium se in numero esse sciat, tantum sibi de reliquo vitae tempore favorem Dei certo polliceri, &c. —vid. caetera. Et addit [Communem fuisse antiquitatis sententiam quam diximus, soli hodie negare possunt, qui caetera fortasse viri sunt non ineruditi, sed in antiquitat • tamen plane sunt hospites: vel animum habent unius et alterius sententiis it a mancipatum, ut eorum oculis videre malint quam suis cum{que} iis errare praeoptent quam cum aliis been sentire.

278. As I have cited this unanimous consent of the Ancients only to prove that all that have the profession of Christianity and Charity should be far from thinking this an intolerable error which may not stand with brotherly love and peace, so to the same end only I shall tell you, that not only Calvinists have born herein with Lutherans, but also among the Roformed some have been of Augustine 's mind in this, whom yet the rest very highly honored. I will now instance only in Musculus, than whom few have been esteemed more sincere, impartial and sound in judgment. In his Loc. Commun. (for their great esteem translated into English) C. de Remiss. peccat. §. 6. pag. (mihi) 621, 622, 623. he saith [Discernendum est inter eam gratiam Dei quae nullas habet adjectas conditions: qualis est quod solemn suum producit super bonos & malos, pluitque super gratos & ingratos: & eam quae conditionaliter confertur; ad quem modum Peccatorum remissio nobis contingit. Posterior haec licet in Deo sit▪constans & firma (non enim ill mutatur ut homo) nostro tamen vitio irrita redditur, dum conditionibus illius non stamus—Siquis igitur praeterritorum peccatorum condonationem per gratiam Divinae Clementiae consequutus, usque adeo ingratus, & salutis suae negligens evaserit, ut instar canis ad vomitum reversus, caeptam resipiscentiam rumpat palam{que} ostendat Deum se contemnere magis quam timere; plane dignum se esse declarat a quo praeterritorum peccatorum a quibus fuerat absolutus, poenae exigantur.—Hactenus igitur fieri potest, & merito accidit, ut semel accepta gratia reddatur irrita: Verum non debetur hoc Divinae Clementiae instabilitatis quae locum in Deo non habet; sed nostrae pravitati—Posset mihi objici hoc loco, relapsum ejusmodi per quem peccata semel remissa reddantur irrita, locum in electis habere non posse; immo ne in reprobis quidem; quod illi remissionis peccatorum, capaces esse nequeant, eo quod vera & viva fide per quam illa acquiritur, praediti non sint; ideoque neminem esse prorsus, in quo peccata semel remissa irrita fieri possint. Verum eos qui hoc argumento ducuntur moneo, ut de reprobis quod dicunt diligentius perpendant; De Electis consentio: De reprobis vero nulla ne illis unquam peccatorum remissio contingat, disputari posse intelligo. Dantur illis in Ep. ad Hebr. 6. illuminatio per Christum, gustus doni coelestis, participatio Spiritus Sancti, gustus item boni Dei verbi, ac virtutum futuri saeculi; & cap. 10. Sanctificatio quae est per sanguinem Testamenti, & Spiritus gratiae. Et 2 Pet. 2. Comparantur sui, quae ubi lota fuit, rursus in caeno volutatur. Quomodo haec illis sine omni peccatorum remission contingere possint, non immerito quaeri potest in hac causa.]

279. But Alvarez telleth us (l. 10. de Auxil. Disp. 104. pag. 419. §. 1.) of some who hold that there is a Grace of Confirmation distinguished only by the degree of the same helps, which none can fall away from; and that a confirmed state is never lost, is ordinarily held by the Dominicans, though they agree not what this confirming Grace is: And many of the Jesuits confess such a state of Confirmation, making men impeccable as to Mortal sin. So that some are in statu and not only in decreto, secured from Apostasy, most confess.

280. And Vossius ubi supra copiously laboreth to prove that the Ancients held three degrees of true Grace: One which men might fall from easily, and oft did, though if they had died in it they had been saved: Another which men may lose as to the act at least, but scarcely as to all seeds and habits. And another state next to perfection, which none shall lose. I refer the Reader to his Collections, though I do not clearly perceive by them, that many had such distinctions of Believers: But the weak and the strong or confirmed all distinguish.

281. But the other side had need as much to be persuaded to pacifick moderation in their censures: And first, They say, that it is an intolerable opinion which is confessedly contrary to all the ancientest Churches of Christ: And by Vincent. Lerinens. rule, (quod ab omnibus, ubique & s • mper) such singularity or novelty must be heresy, or certain error at the least. I answer, 1. They that assert this certain perseverance of all the justified, do believe that the Churches planted by the Apostles, were of their mind; which they gather from the Scripture. 2. The foresaid Rule holdeth indeed in things so universally received as Essentials of Religion, and Necessary Articles of Faith and Practice, without which men cannot be saved; But Universality of Consent in a doubtful or unnecessary opinion, or practice, may possibly be erroneous, and may oft lawfully be deserted. It was once (and beyond the investigation of its original) the practice of the Universal Church, that there should be no Adoration by Genuflexion on any Lord's Day, or on any Week day between Easter and Whitsunday: And this commanded in the Great Council of Nice, and the Canons of Trull: And yet the Papists themselves have now forsaken it. To distinguish as is usual, between such Canons of Practice, and points of mere doctrine, and to make consent of Antiquity more obligatory in the latter, is but vanity. For where a point of Practice is founded in an oportet or supposition of Divine or Apostolical authority, it must needs be at least as obligatory as a mere Doctrinal so founded. For all Precepts include Doctrines, and all Obedience includeth Faith; Though all Doctrine be not Preceptive, nor all Belief for immediate practice. For every Divine Precept includeth this assertion [This God commandeth]. And that God commandeth it, is de fide; and then it must be obeyed for God's Authority, as it is first believed for his Veracity. All therefore that can be said is, that this practice was not taken to be by a Divine universal Law, unchangeable; but by universal Custom of the Church: And so may there be a consent in unnecessary and questionable Doctrinals (as there hath been for the peripatetick Philosophy almost). The opinions of the Souls corporeity, of the Millennium, of the lust of Daemons, that there were no Antipodes, (to say nothing of some that Augustine • opposed) were little less than universally owned of some ages: And I doubt many Texts of Scripture, for want of perfect Translations, and skill in the original Tongues, were universally misinterpreted.

282. And the common objection which maketh the greatest noise is a mere injurious peevish cavil or slander; viz. when they say [You lead men to all wickedness, by teaching, that let them commit never such heinous Sin, they are sure that they cannot fall from Grace, nor lose their Justification.] For it's commonly acknowledged, that if any man should fall into a state of Sin inconsistent, with the love of God, he would lose his justification and right to Heaven, and that without any change in God. And they constantly hold that God's decree de fine & mediis is one, and that he decreeth of his Elect, that [They shall persevere in love and holiness, and be saved;] and not that they shall be saved whether they persevere in holiness or not: And that they are no surer to be saved, than they are to persevere in holiness.

SECT. XIX. Of Mortal Sin, or what Sin will not stand with Saving Grace.

283. But as to the question, How great the Sin must be which is inconsistent with true love to God, or holiness? that belongeth to the Controversy about Mortal and Venial Sin: where the difficulty is as great to one side as another: so great, that not only Pious Gerson, but many another have confessed it too hard for them well to solve.

284. In general, It is certain that all Sin is so far Mortal as to deserve Death according to the Law of Nature and Innocency, and so far as to make us need a pardon: Though not so far as to be inconsistent with spiritual life and justification, and right to Glory, and to make damnation due to us according to the Law of Grace. And Pr • testants confess the distinction of Mortal and Venial Sin, under the name of Wickedness, or Reigning Sin, and Sin of Infirmity in this sense; that Mortal Sin is that which is inconsistent with true Faith, Repentance, Love, Justification and right to life, and is never pardoned till the person be changed by true conversion: But Venial Sin or Infirmity is that which consisteth with all these aforesaid, and is presently pardoned by the Covenant of Grace, upon the actual or habitual Repentance or hatred of it in the Sinners.

285. It is certain that the interruption of the Act of Divine Love, will not prove a Sin to be Mortal. For though I detest such conclusions as the Jansenist gathereth from the Jesuits Morals, that loving God once or twice in a man's life, or once a month, may save him, yet it is certain that the love of God is not always notably acted by any: It is interrupted in our sleep, and in common studies and businesses which take up the whole man; And therefore if a Sin (as sinful study) interrupt it, that will not prove it a Mortal sin.

286. And it is certain that a sin is not therefore Mortal because it diminisheth the Habit of Love. For that may be in those that still are the justified Children of God.

287. There are two Degrees of Mortality in Sin, as our Divines at Dort do more than intimate (and those of Breme there): The one is, when sin putteth a man into the same state, as to the Love of God, which he or any other was in, in the next degree before true Justification, or Sanctification or Conversion: which is when the Habit of Divine Love, and all other saving Grace is so far lost, as that Habitually the Creature▪ is more loved than the Creator: If any do fall thus far (which is the controversy) then it's granted that their Justification, Adoption and right to Heaven, is lost. But while God is habitually dearest to the Soul, and Sin is habitually more hated than loved, there sin is habitually repented of; And for my part I do not think that person is unjustified, or should be damned if he so died.

288. And I believe that this was the case of David and Peter: And its very improbable that they lost the very habits of love to God, and hatred of Sin.

289. The other degree of Mortality, the said Divines take to be some heinous Act of Sin like David 's or Peter 's, which destroyeth not the habit, but is so great, that the person, though he lose not his fundamental Right, yet is put into an immediate ineptitude and incapacity of Heaven, and his Right so suspended, as that he cannot have possession till that obex be removed by true repentance.

290. If you ask them whether that man shall go to Heaven or Hell if he so die; they tell you that it is not to be supposed; for God hath decreed that he shall not so die, but shall repent (which Austin will say of all the Elect) and sometime he half dreamed of Purgatory for some such.)

291. The true reason why such a heinous sin must be actually Repented of before full pardon and capacity for Heaven, and the true note to know what sins must have such actual Repentance (and so are thus f •• Mortal) is this; there are some Sins so easily known to be Sins, and so notoriously calling the Conscience to Repent, that to lie in them unrepented of long (when the sudden violent temptation and passion's over, and a man hath opportunity to act according to his settled habits) will not consist with the truth of such a Habit of love and holiness, and of hatred of Si • : So that though necessitate praecepti the Act of Repentance be as necessary as the Habit, yet necessitate medii ad salutem it is the Habit that is absolutely necessary in se, and the act so far as the absence of it cannot stand with such a habit. This is my judgment of this difficult case: He that can open it better, deserveth all our thanks.

But here the difficulty is exceeding great, what love to God that is which mortal Sin or ungodliness is inconsistent with: or by which a man may know that he hath saving Grace. I have contented myself hither-to with saying that It is a loving God above all: But that is still dark and short of satisfaction: Adrian (after Pope 6.) Quolib. 7. q. 3. 4. fol. 45, 46. hath called me to distincter thoughts. He concludeth, 1. A man that loveth a friend less than himself, may yet Sin mortally for that friend. (But that is no wonder, because, 1. He loveth his friend and self more tha • God. 2. And thinketh that he hurteth not himself so much as he profiteth his friend by Sin) 2. He inferreth that a Mortal Sinner doth not always love the Creature more than God; because he that loveth himself more may Sin mortally in love to his friend: For as a man may love himself more than the sole end for which he sinneth: So he may love God more.

Ans. I suppose it is mis-printed, for the sense should be [He may love God more]. But, 1. I doubt of the antecedent: That Sinner loveth himself as the End of his sinning for his friend: For it is to gratify that proud or selfish humor by which he loveth his friend for the Likeness, Love or Usefulness of that friend to himself; and so his love is finally for or to himself. 2. When he sinneth he doth not practically think that the hurt to himself or the wrong to God is so great an evil, as the pleasure of Sin is good.

But his instance more poseth me; viz. that a mortal Sinner (or ungodly man) may choose rather to be annihilated, and his friend too, than Christ should be blasphemed by all the world, or than God (per impossible) should perish, or lose his Omnipotency, &c. (for some Romans died for their Countrys): Therefore he concludeth, that Thus to love God above ourselves or all, is not enough to Salvation; but we must also love God above all ut sinem ultimum & qui sit ratio & mensura diligendi caetera; Ita, viz. quod omnia refer at homo in Deum, nolit{que} am are nisi quantum Deo placuerit, & eadem velit abdicare & perdere ut satisfaciat divino beneplacito & Sanctae ejus voluntati, ut sit ei quantum ad amorem liberum attinet Deus omnis in omnibus, & dicat, vivo jam; non ego, sed Christus vivet in me; against it, He must not only so love God as that he would die rather than God should die or suffer (were it possible); but so as to love him as the end of all our lives, and to love the pleasing of his blessed Will in the glorifying of him, better than all things that can stand in any competition:] And I think this to be a necessary truth: I dare not say that every man is Godly that had rather die than God, or the Sun, or the Earth, or his Country should perish. God's Being is not, as such, our End: But his Will (or his Essence as it is his Will) is the Beginning, Governor, and End of all; And it is the Pleasing of this Will of God (in the Glory of our holiness and obedience, in which his holiness and other perfections are resplendent) which must be loved above all. As a man may choose to die, or at least lose all that he hath, rather than his Father should die or be forever tormented; and yet will not forbear fornication and drunkenness to please his Father's will; because he practically thinketh that the bare displeasing of his Father doth not so much hurt him, as his sinful pleasure doth himself good; so is it in the present case. (And I may add that, God is not loved as God, that is, as perfectly holy and just in governing the world and him, by any bad man: But as he is the God and Preserver of Nature, Nature may love him; but not as he is a most holy Governor) which is essential to the Relative notion of our God.

He concludeth therefore truly [That this true sort of Love to God doth put us in a state of Salvation, and Mortal Sin consisteth not with it.]

But I agree not with him of the Impossibility of being certain that we have this Love, though I think his words worth the reciting to prove the difficulty of it: fol. 47. N. O. P. [Dico quod licet possit probabilem conjecturam habere, quod act us ill dilectionis insit; non tamen potest evidenter cognoscere & pro certo: Quomodo enim scire poterit, quod it a Deo se totum infundit propter se, i. e. bonitatem & Sanctitatem ejus, • t nec Vitam aeternam nisi in Deo & propter Deum diligat? animo paratus, & efficaciter volens, omnia & seipsum & alia, quum Deo placcbit perdere, ut impleatur Sancta voluntas Dei? Quod etiam nulli creaturae nec ips • sibi libero aliquo amore adhaeret in se in Deo & propter Deum; Quae volunt as multo est purior & laudabilior quam volunt as perferendi pro Christo Martyrium pro spe assequendi vitam aeternam. Et certe longe aliud est optare aut Velle, quam sic Deum amare, & de facto sic affectum esse, & sic efficaciter velle, sicut opto & desidero efficax Velle Scientiae, seu ad scientiam: Sed ubi efficaciter id vellem, manum ad aratrum mittens, labori, vigiliis & id genus operis non parcerem—Si ponatur per Revelationem certiorari, non nego sic certum fieri posse—Nec expedit hominem nisi valde sciens & doct us fuerit de his multum se tentare, quoniam difficilimum est proprias affections metiri.

But sure these fruits grow not on any common stock, and the Heirs of Heaven and Hell are not so like as to be undiscernable, nor God's promises such as no man can be sure that he hath a right to them. It is enough that these things do prove assurance difficult and rare.

SECT. XX. What Repentance for particular Sins is necessary to pardon.

292. But the very Act of Repentance hath such various degrees, that those also here deserve our consideration. For he that hath the habit of holiness no doubt hath some degree of Repentance secretly stirring in him before it cometh to deep repentance, and open confession; I do not think that David was without all remorse and repentance till Nathan spake to him, though his Repentance was not such as the quality of his sin required. And it is not every remorse nor every degree of Repentance which is sufficient to prove a Soul sanctified, that is, habitually possessed with that love of God, and the hatred of Sin. And such at least the act must be.

293. In gross known Sin, Repentance is not true unless it contain a Resolution presently to forsake it. He that is unresolved, though he have much remorse and trouble of mind, is not truly penitent: Nor he that is resolved only to forsake it sometime hereafter, or when he hath sinned once more, but not at the present.

294. And as this is true of actual Repentance, so a true Habit must be such as is the Habit of such acts: even a habitual love to present holiness, and a habitual hatred to present Sin; which in the course of our lives doth actually resolve us and preserve us, however a violent temptation do interrupt that course.

295. But whether every known Sin of the smallest sort in itself, have always such Resolutions of present forsaking it in all that are truly penitent, is a harder question. Many a godly man is frequently angry sinfully, and sluggish sinfully, and daily useth some idle words, and ungoverned and idle thoughts, and is sinfully remiss in the degrees of every duty, and knoweth all this to be Sin: And if he resolved presently to do so no more, he would not do so again so frequently as he doth. In such a case it is exceeding hard to judge of a man's repentance: And yet alas, whose case is it not? we have a dislike of the Sin, and a wish that we were delivered from it: But that is but a desire that we loved it less, and hated it more; and proveth not that our hatred is sufficient. For many a man that liveth in gross Sin, doth wish that his heart were turned from it, and did not love it, when it is not so turned. And why will the same wish then serve about lesser Sins? And yet if present Resolution against every small Sin be necessary to pardon (even of known Sins) alas, who is pardoned?

296. And if the case must be resolved by the material magnitude or smallness of the Sin, what bounds shall we ever be able to assign, and what understanding is able to distinguish between the Sin so great which must be presently resolved against ex necessitate medii to pardon, and the Sin so small as may be pardoned without such Resolution? whether in speech every idle word be such? If not, whether every idle jest, or every lascivious word? or passionate word? or backbiting word (the ordinary Sin of many strict Professors) or every sinful Oath, or Curse, or Slander? who can say, it is this, and not that? And so in all commissions and omissions?

297. And it will still remain exceeding difficult what Resolutions against Sin will prove true Repentance: For as many a child under correction, so many an adult Sinner on his Sick bed, or under a terrifying Sermon, or conviction, not only seemeth, but doubtless is, as passionately resolved at the present to forsake his Sin, as a Godly man is, if not more: and yet quickly loseth all that Resolution, and liveth in the Sin which he resolved to forsake.

298. By this it would seem that it is not true Resolution which causeth not the ordinary forsaking of the Sin. For to Resolve today, and Sin tomorrow, is but to play with Sin, and not to repent or mortify it. And yet if actual forsaking be necessary (of All Sin) who then is penitent or can be saved. For there is no man that doth good, and sinneth not: And in many things we offend all. Who leaveth all the idle thoughts, and words, and negligence, &c. which he knoweth to be Sin? And the most understanding men then would be very hardly saved, who know almost all Sin, in comparison of the ignorant, who know it not?

299. And yet no doubt, those Sins which are materially small, may have such circumstances, as may make them more malignant than some greater in the matter: As when they are committed through malignant contrivances and ends, or in gross contempt, or negligence. So that this also maketh the decision of the case more difficult.

300. And it will be hard, not only to know which and how great the Sins must be which are unpardoned if lived in without forsaking, or without resolving to forsake them presently if known; but also how great, and what Sins unknown may stand with saving Grace. For surely if men should ignorantly reproach or reject God, or Christ, or the Holy Ghost, or live in Murder, Adultery, Perjury, &c. not knowing them to be Sins, this would not stand with saving Grace: And yet to live in some unknown Sin may.

301. And it is as hard to know how oft a gross Sin may be committed in consistence with true habitual Grace? And how oft the Resolution of the will may change, without the loss of holy habits. The te •• pter will say to David or Peter, If once, why not twice? If twice why not thrice? And who but God can say, just how oft? And yet to set no bounds confoundeth the just and unjust, good and bad, and maketh Sanctification but a name. And to say that Peter 's Faith did totally fail, or that he was holy deprived of wholly love, or saving Grace, is rash and an unlikely thing.

302. And it must be remembered that the Will is always in the time of sinning, more for the committing the Sin, than against it, actually, or else it would not be committed; And in omissions, it is not prevalently for the Duty; else it would be done. And if it were Habitually so too, as to a holy or a sinful life, the person were unholy. And when the will (known by the practice) is sometime actually more for a gross Sin than against it, and daily actually more for some small Sins than against them, it is wondrous hard here to discern certainly that the contrary habit is our state.

303. And it addeth to the difficulty, that it is hard to be sure whether the Habit of Love and Holiness may not be predominant, and yet the very Habit of someone Sin (as well as the act) be stronger than the contrary habit: For a daily use of the acts seemeth to prove a prevalent Habit. As a Habit of Anger, of vain jesting, &c. And if a very Habit of one Sin may be prevalent, though not of all others, it will be hard to say either how great that Sin may be (and so whether a Habit of Lust, of Pride, of Covetousness, may stand with Grace, in that prevalency) or yet, how many Sins may be so habitually prevalent, in a sanctified man. But if no one, what shall those think of themselves that live in the daily act of smaller Sins before-mentioned? And that they err who tell us that all Sin is equally mortified in the Habit, common experience fully proveth. But such men use not to distinguish between the General habit of Love to Good and Hatred to evil (which is as the trunk of the Tree to the branches (which may have their particular Cankers and Diseases) and is indeed Virtually a Habit of all Good, and against all Evil); and the particular Habits of Good and Evil which are also found in every Soul.

304. Yea the difficulty is yet greater, by our ignorance of the very nature of a Habit of the will, or of that Inclination of it to Good or Evil which is antecedent to the Act: which, he that hath read the Schoolmen and Metaphysics, or ever well studied it himself, will discern to be tantum non out of the reach of our understandings. That it is a Dispositive promptitude to Act, we feel: But whether that Disposition be itself a secret unobserved Immanent Act, disposing to the more open perceptible Act; (for the Soul is never out of Action, and certainly hath at one instant several Acts, of which that de fine is oft unobserved, and yet most powerful? As a Traveler that is taken up with other thoughts and talk would never hold on his way if the end were not actually intended, though he feel it not); or whether it be the Natural Inclination of the Will corroborated? and what that Inclination is? whether it lie much in a Receptive disposition of the acted faculties, by which they are still ready to receive the Active motion of the Agent power; as the Receptivity of the fuel causeth the greatness and constancy of a flame; or the opening of the window, the shining in of the Sun, or the composition of the adapted wheels, causeth the Clock or Watch to be easily and truly moved by the poise or spring; or what else it is that we call a Habit, is not so easily known as unstudied confident Disputers think: So that judicious Mr. Truman (Tract. of Impaten. Nat. & Mor.) seemed to despair of clear understanding it.

And whether an Infants Principle of Holiness, be Quid morale, which never came from any act, nor is the particular Habit of any act, anymore than the Inclinatio naturalis ad bonum qua bonum? with abundance of other difficulties about Habits; These all make our case the harder to be resolved.

SECT. XXI. The solution of all the former difficulties, in part.

305. Of all these difficulties, I have no better solution (besides what is aforesaid) than as followeth. 1. That a Dispositive Inclination of the Will to God and actual Holiness, is like to the Inclinatio naturalis ad bonum & foelicitatem, saving that it is not ours ab origin in our lapsed state, and that it is more moveable and separable from the Soul; And so is quiddam naturae though not quaedam natura, called, The Divine and new nature in us; and is to the Soul what Health is to the man; And is the great Moral Principle within us; and is acceptable to God as being the Rectitude of his noble creature, and virtually containing all good actions; and being the operation of the Spirit, by which he is said to dwell in believers.

306. 2. That this Rectitude or Holy Nature is first and radically active, in our Complacency or Displicency, Love or Hatred; And that what a man Habitually loveth, that his Will is habitually inclined to: And against that which he habitually hateth.

307. 3. That yet in acting, this inclination worketh freely, and always is specified by the conduct of the Intellect, which must tell us what is Good and Evil, Amiable and Hateful.

308. 4. That Love and Hatred being practical Habits, do ever engage the will in such Practical Resolutions, as are answerable to their nature and degree.

309. 5. That no Resolution will prove Holy Love and Inclination, but that which is fixed as proceeding from a fixed principle, which is like a new Nature in us.

310. 6. That this Resolution is first de fine: The Soul loving God and its own felicity in his eternal Love and Glory, is first firmly Resolved to adhere to God, and that felicity, and to prosecute it to the last, in all necessary means.

311. 7. That next the Soul firmly resolved of the use of means in general, is resolved also to choose and cleave to Jesus Christ, as the Head and Summary of all means, (as the Physician is as to Physic.) And • o resolveth to adhere to all the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity.

312. 8. That all this is done by the Intellects discerning of those solid Reasons, which prove to us the excellency, necessity and possibility of all the foresaid ends and objects. And he that knoweth not fixing and • olding Reasons for his Resolutions, cannot be expected to have fixed Resolutions.

313. 9. That these general Inclinations, Love, and Resolutions for God, for Means in general, for Christ and all the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity, are constant in the Godly; and virtually contain a Love of and Resolution for every known duty, and against every known Sin; but not actually: And these continue to show themselves in adhering practically to these Objects, and in the Practice of a Godly Life.

314. 10. That therefore Sin as Sin is hateful to every true Christian, and Godliness as such lovely: And that in respect of this radical general Habit, every true Christians love to God and Good is more than his averseness, and his hatred to Sin more than his love or Inclination to the created Good for which it is loved (For no man loveth Sin as Evil).

315. 11. That the Inferior sort of Means and Good, appear not always in their worth or necessity to the believer: Besides his Ignorance the remnants of Concupiscence may pervert his Judgment so far as to doubt of some means whether they are absolutely necessary, or at least, mihi hic & nunc. And this failing of the Intellect may embolden the Will to some degrees of negligence, even of known duties. And so we may doubt of some Sins whether they are Sins, and of others whether they are so great as to be inconsistent with God's love and our Salvation; and by that failing of the Intellect to be emboldened to commit them, while yet we adhere to God and holiness in the main as such. And so small Sins are ofter committed, and with less reluctancy than greater, because we think that their badness and danger is not so great. And though at other times we be more sensible of both, yet in the time of Temptation that apprehension may be altered: For the mind of a Godly man is more mutable about the Means than about the End, and about the smaller sort of Means and Sins, than about the greater. And when the opinion changeth not, yet the practical judgment may change; or when it is not turned, it may be suspended: Or truth may be apprehended with less quickening lively feeling; and then it will not sufficiently work: As a loud call doth suscitate us to action, when a negligent whisper is neglected. And upon some of these accounts known sins when small may more stand with Grace and be ofter committed, and more dully repented of, than greater.

316. 12. And as we must distinguish of Sins as more or less dreadful and dangerous, and of duty as more or less necessary, at least in our apprehension; so also of Sins which are more or less within the power of a willing mind to leave them. Some Sins are such, as that the forsaking of them requireth little more than a willing mind. As to forsake lewd Company, Taverns, Play-houses, Harlots, Drunkenness, Theft, Oppression, Persecution, Perjury, Deceit, &c. Meer will, though instigated by lust, committeth them; And a will that is but truly bent against them, may easily (as to power) cast them off. Whoever committeth them, doth it because he will do it. And to live in the frequent committing of these, is a greater sign of want of Holy habits, or Grace, than of others. For there are other Sins which besides willingness require great power, and care, and labor to forsake them: As to keep a just order in our Thoughts; to keep them from vain objects; to keep our tongues from accustomed vain words, to restrain strong passions upon great provocations; especially to forsake Sins of privation and omission; such as are unbelief as mixed with a weak Faith, and fears mixed with hopes and coldness of desire and prayer, and sluggishness of labor and endeavor, &c. A man may be truly willing to be stronger in all Grace, and to do all duty better, and to forsake all such Sins as these, when yet through the mere weakness of his Graces or Spiritual life, he cannot so exactly watch, nor so diligently labor, nor so patiently hold out, as the case requireth. Though it be not a Physical, but a Moral power which he wanteth, and that culpably; yet such Sins may more consist with true Grace than the former; and therefore are called ••• s of Infirmity.

317. 13. When Ignorance of Truth, Duty, or Sin, cometh from an • willingness to know it, or an unwillingness to use the known means • help us to the knowledge of it, the neglect of such an unknown • ruth or Duty, and the committing of such an unknown Sin, is to be • dged of according to the measure of the foresaid willingness, or • nwillingness.

318. 14. For he is not sincerely willing to know a Truth, to do a • uty, to forsake a Sin, who is not willing to use the known necessary • eaus appointed for these ends. For he vilifieth God and Holiness who • inketh them not worthy the seeking by such means. To say, would love God and please him and be saved, if I could do it • ith a wish or without these means, is no saving desire.

119. 15. And to desire to be delivered from Sin, and to hate it • Sin, and yet to love it for the pleasure so much more, as that the • terest of God and Heaven in us, is not strong enough to make us ha •• tually willing both to leave it, and to avoid the temptations, and • se the pleasure, but men had rather keep it than leave it on these • rms; this is no sincere repentance, nor sign of a holy heart or life.

320. 16. Even the Habit of a particular lesser Sin (as of jesting, •• le words, idle thoughts, &c.) may be stronger than the contrary par •• cular habit, (I think) and thereby a man may habitually and actually live •• d die in the Sin; and yet that habit not prevail against the radical •• bit of Holiness, of Faith, Hope, Love, and Obedience in the •• ain.

321. 17. A present full Resolution against Sins that are Great and of • ie desertion to a willing mind, is essential to Repentance; as is also a •• esent Resolution for great and necessary Duties, and to forsake some •• aller Sins, though it be necessary necessitate praecepti, I think is not •• sential to saving Conversion and Repentance, and necessary necessitate • edii to Salvation.

322. 18. He that committeth a Gross sin, (that is, a Sin evidently • reat, and in the power of a willing mind to forbear) so often as • oth show that habitually he more loveth it than hateth it, and had • there keep it than leave it, doth show thereby that all his professed • epentance for it is unsound, and his heart unsanctified, and that he • ath yet no actual pardon from God.

323. Therefore those among the Papists who absolve such from their • ns, who commit Fornication or Drunkenness once a month (at least) • r once in many months, or often, and come between and say, I Repent, • o but delude them. For the nature of those Sins is such, that he that • converted to an habitual hatred of them more than he hath a love • o them, cannot return to them so oft: And he that doth not so hate • hem doth not truly repent. And even their Hildebrand (Greg. 7.) •• a Council at Rome expressly saith, that [neither false Baptism, nor false • a feigned and unsound) Repentance do put away Sin.

324. 19. The chief trial of a man's Holiness and Repentance is by • he main scope and business of his life, especially in the positive part, • nd next in the oppositive: when a man is conscious that God, and Ho • iness, and Heaven, are his great end, which are dearer to him and more • owerful with him than all things sensible, and the interest of the flesh, • nd when he can and doth deliberately forsake all, when they stand in • pposition to or competition with God and Glory, and so as to the course of his life, doth live by Faith, and not by sense, this is the true evidence of true Conversion; and no Sins are damning which consist with this.

325. 20. But because the truth of this must be discerned, not only by present Sense and Resolution, but by practice to prove that Resolution true, therefore no man can be certain of the sincerity of his own heart, and resolutions and repentance, but by the practice of willing universal obedience, forsaking gross and willful Sinning, performing •• cessary duty, striving to overcome infirmities, and heartily desiring perfect Holiness, upon terms of Mortification, Self-denial and dilig •• use of means.

326. Therefore much sinning will at least breed much doubtfulness and uncertainty of Justification and Salvation, and till it be forsaken no such certainty will be had.

SECT. XXII. Few certain of Salvation: The Consequents of this in order to our Concord herein.

327. I conclude therefore that certainty of Justification and sincerity is not the lot of the weakest or weaker sort of Christians, but of the strong confirmed Christians only. By weak Christians, I mean not those that have weakest natural parts and common gifts (as Learning, Memory, Utterance, &c.) But those that have the weakest Faith, Hope, Love, Humility, &c. For Grace is not certainly discernible. 1. In the least degree. 2. When it is little in action. 3. When it is much clouded and oft conquered by its contrary: But only when, 1. It is strong and in a good degree, 2. And much in act, 3. And conquereth opposition.

328. Therefore few Christians have Assurance at the first (or of a considerable time;) because few are strong at first.

329. Yea, therefore few ever attain to certainty who are sincere, because most are still weak, and few come to strength and a great degree, and to much activity, and great conquest of all the contrary Sins, of heart and life.

330. This being the case about certainty of Justification; as to the certainty of perseverance might a man judge by the conveniencies, of the truth, it would draw us to think that the middle way of the Dominicans and some others were the right: viz. 1. That the least degree (or first) of true saving Grace is sometimes lost finally and such perish; But 2. That they who obtain confirming Grace, by a greater degree do never lose it. For so the Angels and Adam fell from the first degrees for want of Confirmation: And many think (though it is not proved) that had they overcome in the first (or some more) trial, they should have had confirming Grace for a reward. And the good Angels are confirmed (whether by reward or mere gift or nature we know not). 2. This would save Christians from that uncomfortable thought [I must go further th •• ever such and such a one did who fell away, and had lived strictly and suffered patiently, or else I cannot be saved. For if this be true, a man may be saved who goeth no further, or not so far as some have done that sell away. 3. This will keep men from security and presumption, in a state of weakness, and keep them in a necessary fear of falling away; that they may avoid it. 4. And yet it provideth a certainty of perseverance and Salvation, for strong Christians who are (and perhaps they only) fit for it and capable of it. 5. And it tendeth thereby to make men long for, and press towards a strong confirmed state. I only say that if this Doctrine be or were true, it hath or would have these conveniencies.

331. And I will boldly say, that (as I before said, The weakest Christians are not ordinarily capable of present certainty of Salvation, so) the weakest or worst sort of true Christians, are morally unfit for it. 1. He that sinneth as much as ever will stand with Grace, and as ever he dare for fear of losing all, is under so great obligations and necessity to be humbled, to fear, to be penitent and deeply sensible of his great ingratitude that he is not fit for the joy of Assurance of Salvation; and therefore not fit for assurance itself: He that is certain to be saved, must rationally be full of Joy; which is unseasonable to one that must lie in the tears of deep humiliation. 2. And such a one that loveth God and Christ, and Goodness, in the weakest measure consistent with Salvation, must have all other Graces and comforts proportioned hereto, or else there will be a monstrous inequality: But certainty of Salvation is a degree of applicatory Hope, quite above that very little Faith, and Love, and Obedience of such a one. 3. And this certainty must be the effect and product of other Graces (Faith and Love, &c.) And a feeble Cause will not bring forth an effect so much stronger than itself. 4. God's Wisdom in Government will not encourage even a child; in fits of contempt, neglects or disobedience by such Assurance. How can he more Reward and Encourage the best? And if every true Christian should have certainty of Salvation, when he sinneth as foully, as frequently, as grossly, and liveth as slothfully as ever will stand with sincerity, it would tempt such to go on in Sin, and be no better. 5. God hath his castigatory punishments for sinful Children: Even to death itself sometimes; and much desertion. And who should have such corrections, but the worst of his Children? But the certainty of their their Salvation, useth not to suit with such correction and desertion; or at least is forfeited in such a case. Lastly, experience telleth us, that it is not God's will that the worst of his Children (no nor any but the better sort) should have such Assurance: For, 1. De facto they have it not. 2. And in the nature of the thing it is quite out of their reach.

SECT. XXIII. More necessary Concessions.

332. But yet all this is not enough to prove that any of the justified do totally or finally fall away. The controversy must not be decided by arguments from convenience, but by Scripture assertion; where the difficulty is very great, because no small number of Texts seem to favor both the opinions, the reconciling of which is not the work of every ordinary understanding. Those that are brought for the certain Perseverance of all the justified may be seen in Zanchi 's Disputes with Marbachius, (the first hot and high agitation of this controversy as a matter of great moment and necessary determination, which I remember to have found among us). And those on the other side, Bertius, Thompson, and the Arminians commonly have collected. My own opinion about it I have so largely shown in a Book called My present Thoughts of Perseverance, before-mentioned, that I need not here again deliver it. Though between that and this last opinion, as wise a man as I may be in doubt when he hath done his best for a satisfactory resolution.

333. I take Augustine 's opinion so far as it is for Perseverance to be a certain Truth, viz. That All the Elect shall certainly persevere, and that the Grace of Perseverance is the consequent of Election, and not Election the consequent of foreseen Perseverance, (unless you mean only that part of Election which determineth of Glorifying, and exclude that which decreeth to give Perseverance.) But the difficulty is about the non-elect. And it is most probable that where God decreeth Perseverance, he decreeth to give Grace suitable thereto; As when he decreeth the Immortality of the Soul, he giveth it a Nature apt for Immortality. And therefore that such have Confirming Grace. But the controversy is, whether all true Grace do so confirm?

334. That an Argument cannot be fetched for Perseverance from the mere Nature of the Grace received, seemeth plain, by Adam 's fall, and probable from the Angels.

335. Some to avoid this, deny Adam to have been Holy, and suppose him only Innocent, and Neutral, and capable of Holiness (worse than those Papists who feign his Holiness to be a supernatural addition to his natural state, thereby preparing men to believe that man was not made Naturally with an Immortal Soul, for Immortal happiness). But, 1. If Adam had an immediate Moral disposition to love God as God, and acted this, he was Holy: If he had not, it must needs be a Privation in him, and not a mere Negation: For a rational creature must needs be naturally obliged to love his Creator; yea, this is the first and summary Law of Nature to him: Therefore not to do it must needs be Sin, and the sum of all Sin: Therefore Adam thus is made a great Sinner ab origin before his fall. 2. If Adam loved not God in his weakest degree of recovering Grace, he was unsanctified: But if he did (as certainly he did) then it is not like that in his least degree of his recovering Grace, he was Holyer than in Innocency (though he might stand on surer grounds). 3. And this opinion maketh unholiness of Nature to be no part of Original Sin: Because it would be no Privation, but a Negation: For our Nature in Infancy is not obliged to have that holiness which it never had and lost in Adam. And so Original Sin is almost all denied, and an unholy heart is made as innocent therein. 4. We are renewed according to the Image of him that created us, in wisdom, righteousness, and true holiness, Col. 3. 10. Therefore it was holiness which was the Image of God which we lost, and needs renewing.

336. The Argument for Perseverance from God's Immutability will hold as to all the Elect as such, but not to all the sanctified or justified as such. For the Angels and Adam 's fall did not prove God mutable. And God can judge a thing or person to be changed, without being himself changed; but only denominatione extrinseca a relatione ad mutatum, is variously denominated. And even his Law or Covenant which saith He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned, will not at all be changed if it justify a Believer today, whom it condemned as an unbeliever yesterday, and should condemn him again tomorrow if he should apostatize; or if it conclude us guilty every day anew of every new Sin which we commit.

337. It is a very hard thing to confute an Anabaptist, without granting that Infant Justification may be lost. For experience proveth that the Children of Godly Parents too often prove ungodly: And if they had Justifying Grace in Infancy, they lose it: And if they have not, then the Covenant in which they are entered doth not certainly Justify them. And if so, then it is either the very same Covenant which the adult are baptized into, or another. If it be another then their Baptism is another thing: For Baptism is but the celebration of our Covenant with God. And another Covenant in specie maketh another Baptism in specie. And if so, it seemeth to be no Baptism of God's appointing: For he hath but One Covenant of Grace to be entered by us, and sealed; nor but one Baptism: Indeed on man's part, there is a Covenanting with the Heart and with the mouth, an outward as well as an inward Covenanting, or Consenting: But it is all to one and the same Covenant of God. It is the same species of Faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost which baptized Hypocrites and true Christians do profess. And Infants have no Faith of their own to profess, but are dedicated by another's will; the title-condition of the Adult is their own consenting Faith; but the title-condition of Infants, is nothing in themselves, but their Parents consenting Faith without them, which dedicateth them to God. Now we suppose the Parents to do this sincerely. If then the Covenant ascertain not present Justification to the Infant, who hath all the condition required by the Covenant, how can we say that it anymore ascertaineth Justification to the adult, it being proved to be the very same Covenant and not another. But if it do ascertain it, then many lose it. I run not into their error, who tell us (and would have none of us Preach Christ's Gospel that will not say the same) that It is certain by the Word of God that Infants baptized dying before actual Sin are certainly saved] without excepting the Children of any Infidels, Pagans, or Apostates, which I cannot prove of the Infants even of Hypocrites or unsound Christians, or that the Child can he saved by that false Faith, which will not save the Parent or him that dedicateth him to God; or that the Children of Hypocrites or Infidels have the condition of Justification: And if that Word of God had been cited, that maketh the assertion certain, it would have been a great kindness to us from those whose Justice must go for such: (But we are thought unworthy of it.) For my part, I determine not the difficult case of Infants loss of Justification. Their case is left dark to us in the Scriptures: But my judgment is fulliest expressed by the words of the Synod of Dort, Art. 1. §. 17. And Davenant 's Treatise on that point is very judicious, and considerable, if wherever he speaketh of Baptized Infants, you will but suppose him to mean the Infants of true Christians, and not all.

338. It seemeth a hard saying that any member of Christ should be cut off, and become a member of Satan, and perish, though he were but an Infant member. But we must not let the Metaphor deceive us: It is not a Natural member of Christ's Person that perisheth, as if part of Christ himself fell off: But a Metaphorical Mystical Political Member. And Christ thought it no absurdity, Joh. 15. to warn his chief Members that they fall not off, and to speak by way of supposition of his branches as cut off, withered and burned. And Adam and the fallen Angels, before their fall, were the Beloved of God, and his Children, and yet fell from that love. There must be therefore stronger Arguments than this, to turn the Scales.

SECT. XXIV. The sum and end of this Discourse of certain Perseverance.

339. The end and sum of all that I have said of Perseverance is but this, that the controversy is neither, 1. Of such weight; nor, 2. Of such facility and certainty, as that it should be made necessary to our charitable converse or Church Communion to hold either this or that: But we should number it with the dogmata not to be imposed on others, nor fit to make any breach in the love and concord of Christians; and for my part, I profess that I take him for the worser Christian caeteris paribus, whom I hear with disaffection blotting the names of others with notes of unsoundness and culpability, for dissenting in this point on one side or other, either as holding or as denying the certain Perseverance of all the justified, than those that differ from me in the point itself, without any proud supercilious confidence. And that it is to be numbered with Tolerable Opinions, I have proved by these Arguments, in sum, 1. That which is so difficult that very few of the Learned and Godly Teachers of the Church in all ages could discern a certainty of it, cannot be a point so great or clear, as to be made necessary for all Christians or all Pastors of the Church to agree in: But such is this: For my part I profess that though my judgment incline more one way than the other, it is with no certainty that I am in the right, and I see so great difficulties after my hardest studies and search, that my inclination is not without much doubtfulness: And humility and modesty forbid me, to profess a certainty or too much confidence for a Doctrine, which I openly say, I cannot prove or find that any one Christian held of about 1000 years after the Apostles days, I have not read all Books, and therefore there may have been some such that I know not of: But I know of none, that I remember for a far longer time. I know the Learned Bishop Robert Abbot and others cite Augustine as on that side; But it's past all controversy, that it is not all the justified but only all the elect whose Perseverance he asserted. And I am not he that would be separated from the Communion of all the ancient Churches, and Doctors, and all the Greeks and Lutherans of these times. Methinks we should learn of the Papists at least to be moderate in our censures, when they who are so much for Impositions, do yet bear in part of this, with one another, in the controversies between the Dominicans and Jesuits.

340. 2. My other reason is, as to the comfort of men's Souls, how little is the difference between these two conclusions. [I am uncertain that every weak Christian shall persevere.] And [I am uncertain whether I myself shall persevere.] The first is the Arminians, and the second is all or almost all weak Christians conclusion in the world: For I have fully proved elsewhere, 1. That the sinfullest and worst sort of true Christians have not a certainty of their own Sincerity and Justification, nor are they fit for it: Nay, that it is only strong, active Christians who attain to such Assurance: 2. And that there are but few strong active Christians comparatively in the world. 3. Yea, but few that will say [I am certain that I am sincere and justified] (excepting those that speak it opinionatively or presumptuously, experience satisfieth us. 4. And that one that is uncertain that he is justified at all, • annot be certain that he shall persevere in Justification, I need not • rove. So that by our own common Doctrine and Experience, it is • ew true Christians that are certain of their own Perseverance and Sal • ation: And what doth this comfort them more than their Doctrine, who say that it is not certain in itself, that any besides the strong confirmed Christians, and the Elect shall persevere? and that we can • e certain of the Election of none but the confirmed and the per • evering.

341. I confess it is a great comfort to doubting fearful Souls, if they • an soundly thus argue, in their doubtful state, [I am sure I had true Grace once, and I am sure none fall quite away that have it: Therefore I am sure I have it still.] But, 1. Even this could be the comfort of none • ut those few that were once of the stronger sort of Christians: For no other can say [I am sure that I had true Grace once]. 2. And that present sense of sin which maketh them doubt of their present sincerity doth • sually make them as much doubt of their past sincerity. 3. And though such a comfort I think be due to a causeless and melancholy doubter, (who feareth unjustly) which is fetched from former perceived sincerity, yet it is not fit for all Christians that are fallen into such doubts. For if a man be fallen as sinful, as will stand with any sincerity, (even • n gross Sin) it is not safe for that man to argue, [I am sure that I once • as sincere in my obedience; therefore I am sure it is so still] for the reasons which I gave before But by Repentance he must make sure that he is truly obedient, that he may be sure he was so.

342. For my part I will labor as earnestly as I can to make sure both that I am sincere and justified and shall persevere, and I will be none of those that shall command, commend, or encourage causeless troublesome fears: But preventing fear is the means of perseverance: Heb. 4. 1. Having a promise left us of entering into his rest, let u • fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it, Joh. 14. 4, &c. Abide in me and I in you.— 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will—As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love— Joh. 8. 31. If ye continue in my Word, then are ye my Disciples indeed. So Col. 1. 23. & passim. And I will never reproach, or censure, or disaffect such men as holy Bernard (though I am not of his opinion) who said Serm. 1. de Septuages. [Quis potest dicere Ego de electis sum? Ego de praedestinatis sum ad vitam aeternam? Ego de numero sum filiorum Dei? Quis haec inquam dicere potest, reclamante nimirum, Nescit homo si amore dignus sit an odio? Certitudinem igitur non habemus: Sed spes fiducia consolatur nos, &c.

SECT. XXV. Degrees of falling, and danger.

343. Every degree of Grace that is true, is not to be supposed pr • portionable to the strongest Temptations: But God preserveth the weak effecttually by keeping them from Temptations too strong for them. And that which a strong Christian overcometh might overcome a weak one, were he assaulted by it. Therefore to avoid and pray against Temptation, is the way to be delivered from evil.

344. Yet the weakest true Christian, in choice, resolution and trial, forsaketh all for Christ, and loveth God, and preferreth Glory in Heaven before his Life, and is a Martyr in resolution. And yet there are Temptations which are too strong for him: For 1. He that habitually preferreth God to the Creature and his life, may yet fall into such an act as Peter did; And by acting contrary to his habitual disposition and resolution, may weaken the habit, and forfeit Divine assistance, and deserve desertion. 2. And he that valueth Heaven and the love of God before his life, may yet by the nearness of an alluring Object, by the violence of sense and passion be drawn to a fleshly sin, and thinking that he may have the pleasure of that particular sin, without losing God's love, he may be drawn first to less, and by degrees to greater. 3. And he that is resolved for God, and Glory, and Christ, and Holiness, may meet with such subtle Arguments of Infidels or Sensualists, which he is unable to answer, and consequently unable to overcome. And his Understanding being deceived, his Will may follow; so that perseverance must be by the avoiding of Temptations.

345. The greatest sins after Conversion, which are truly repented of, are pardoned by God: And must be pardoned by the Church in order to Communion, if the manifestation of Repentance be such as answereth the ends (the signification of its reality) and the removing of the scandal and the dishonor of Religion, of the Church, and of Christ.

346. The Sin against the Holy Ghost seemeth unpardonable by the Text, though the Papists expound it by [hardly pardonably]. And it is [an obstinate insidelity and rejection of Christ as a Deceiver, upon a settled conceit that he did his Miracles by the power of the Devil, when they are convinced that they were actually done; and so a blasphemous fathering of God's great attestation upon the Devil, and a rejecting his last Witness to the Truth, which must convince those that ever will be convinced.] But I have wrote a Treatise of this Sin, and so shall pass it by.

347. If a true Believer should be supposed to fall quite away from the belief of Christ, it seemeth hard to imagine how he can do it without this blaspheming the Divine attestation of the Spirit, by which before he was brought to believe. And it seemeth that therefore, Heb. 6. & 10. this Apostasy is made the same with the unpardonable blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, which yet proveth not that it ever cometh to pass, but what it would be if it did.

348. Repentance which cometh from fear alone, without the love of God and Holiness, is no sign of justification, nor consistent with it: nor is such attrition sufficient to forgiveness: For the heart is not changed to God without love.

349. Though where there is more love to the Creature than to God, there is no true Sanctification (speaking of rational and not of sensual love); Yet where there is more fear of God than love to God, there may be Grace, though weak, so be it God be loved above the Creature.

350. A Death-Bed, or late Repentance, is then acceptable, and sufficient to pardon, when it is the Heart or Love that is thus turned from the Creature to God habitually; so that if the person did recover, he would live to God: otherwise it is ineffectual; not because too late, but because unsound: But because fear is usually the principle of such men's Repentance, it is much to be suspected, though not dispaired of.

351. The day of Grace is never past with any man while life continueth, so as that if he truly repent, he shall not be forgiven: For that is contrary to the Gospel-Covenant. But it is so far past with some, as that after their obstinate forfeiture, the Means, Help, and Grace of Repentance shall not be given them, nor brought so near them as they were.

SECT. XXVI. Of final Justification, and how Paul and James agree about Justification by Works.

352. Having said this much of constitutive Justification, and the notlosing of it, and assurance of it and its continuance, and touched the second and third sorts of Justification, (sentential and executive) as they are here in the way, I need not say much of them as after this life, because it may be gathered from what is said of Pardon and Justification constitutive: Yet a little I will add. And 1. At death a particular doom is passed on the Soul as separated: But whether only by execution and selfconviction, we know not.

353. The Resurrection as such is a common effect of Redemption, in right antecedent to men's well or ill deserving: And therefore all are raised by Christ.

354. The Justification of Believers at the last day, will be that great Justification, to which all that went before were but means, and imperfect.

355. Christ will be here both Judge and Advocate, and as both justify Believers: And he will be the condemning Judge of the Wicked.

356. All men shall be then judged according to their Works or Deeds done in the Body, whether Good or Evil.

357. To be justified then will not be to be judged sinless, (as is aforesaid) but to be judged one that by God's Law (which must be the norma judicii) is not to be damned to Hell, but to be glorified in Heaven, or to be sentenced to endless life, and acquit from this Accusation that we are damnandi, or to be punished in Hell. And in order to this, to be sentenced such as have the true causes and conditions of Right to Impunity and Life: which are, 1. Immediately the gift of this Right by God himself in his Covenant, with Christ the Fountain of it.

2. A true Right and Relation to Christ as our Head and Savior, and the only Meriter of this Covenant-Gift, and Justification, and Adoption, by his habitual, active and passive Righteousness and Sacrifice, advanced in dignity by Union with his Divine perfection. 3. True Faith and Repentance, with Love, Obedience and Perseverance, as the title-conditions required by the donative and condonative Covenant.

358. As I have before said, that a man must be justified at that Day from the charge of Infidelity by his Faith itself (and not by Christ's Merits) and from the charge of Impenitence by his Repentance itself; So I add, that he must be justified from the charge of Hypocrisy by his sincerity, and from the charge of Rebellion by his subjection, and from the charge of wickedness by final godliness and obedience, and from the charge of Apostasy by perseverance; But from the charge of his wickedness before Conversion, and his pardoned sins and weakness since, only by Christ's Sacrifice and meritorious Righteousness, and the Pardon purchased thereby, and given in the New Covenant. And from the accusation that we are Sinners in general, we have no Justification at all.

359. Judgment is the Genus, and Justification, and Condemnation are the Species: Therefore to be judged according to our Works, is to be justified or condemned according to our Works.

360. As I said, that it is God's Justice and Mercy, and Christ's Redemption of us, which are chiefly to be glorified at that Day; but it is our personal Gospel-Righteousness, or performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant, which is then to be tried, and we, and not Christ, that are to be judged; So I add, that the New Testament referring to this foreseen, doth usually speak accordingly, of justifying us by Faith, by our words, or by our works, that he that doth righteousness is righteous, &c. And it speaketh of that same Righteousness as constituting us just first, by which we must be judged just at last.

361. It is very easy therefore where prejudice blindeth not men, to see the concord of Christ's saying, We are justified by our words, and Paul 's by Faith, and not by Works, and James by Works, and not by Faith only. Christ speaketh of a particular Justification, from a common great Crime, a wicked Tongue as the sign or product of a wicked Heart; And this must be part of the personal material Righteousness, by which we must be justified as true Christians. Paul speaketh of our being justified by being Christians, and not by keeping Mose's Law, or doing any Works which will be to us instead of a Christ or a free-given Pardon, and Righteousness by him. And James speaketh of the full condition of Justification, as continued final and complete, as it consisteth of its essential parts.

362. The Key of Understanding Paul 's Discourses of Justification is, to know, 1. That the grand question which he first manageth is, Whether the Gentiles may not be saved without keeping the Jewish Law, as well as the Jews with it? 2. To prove the Affirmative, he proveth that the Jews themselves cannot be saved or justified merely or primarily by the Law, notwithstanding the divinity and great excellency of it; but must be justified by a Savior, and free-given Pardon and Right to Life, and to which the sincere keeping of Mose 's Law was intended to be but subservient. 3. That therefore it appeareth, that the Jews did so fondly admire the Law, and their national privileges under it, that they thought that the exact keeping of it was necessary and sufficient to Justification and Salvation: And they thought the Messiah was not to be their Righteousness, as a Sacrifice for Sin, and Meriter of free Pardon, and the Gift of Life, but only a great King and Deliverer, to redeem them by Power from all their Enemies and Bondage. 4. That it was not Adam 's Covenant of Innocency or Perfection which the Jews thus trusted to, or Paul doth speak against as to Justification (though a minore ad majus, that also is excluded.) For the Jews knew that they were Sinners, and that God pardoned Sin as a merciful God, and that their Law had Sacrifices for Pardon and Expiation, with Confessions, &c. But they thought that so far as God had made that Law sufficient to political ends, and to temporal Rewards and Punishments, it had been sufficient to eternal Rewards and Punishments; and that of itself, and not in mere subordination to the typified Messiah. Therefore they thought that he that kept the Law so far as to comit no sin which the Law punished with death or abscission, and that for all his other pardonable sins, performed the required Penances and Sacrifices, was by this, which is called The Works of the Law; that is, the keeping of the Law, a righteous justifiable person. 5. That the thing therefore which Paul disproveth them by is, 1. That the Law was never made for such an end. 2. That even then it stood in subordination to Redemption and free-given life. 3. That the free Gift or Covenant of Grace containing the Promise of the Messiah, and Pardon and Life by him, was before the Law, and justified Abraham and others even without it. 4. That their Law was so strict, that no man could perfectly keep it all. 5. That every Sin deserveth death indeed, though their Law punished not every sin with death by the Magistrate. 6. That their Law was never Obligatory to the Gentile world, who had a Law written in their Hearts; and therefore not the common way of Justification. 7. That their Law, as such, discovered sin, but gave not the Spirit of Grace to overcome it: Insomuch as though he himself desired perfectly to fulfil it without sin, yet he could not, but was under a captivity, that is, a moral necessity of imperfection, or sins of infirmity, from which only the Grace of Christ could as to guilt and power deliver him. 8. That no man ever came to Heaven by that way of merit which they dreamed of, but all by the way of Redemption, Grace, free Gift and pardoning Mercy. Therefore their conceit that they were just in the main, and forgiven their sins, and so justifiable by the mere dignity of Mose 's Law which they kept, and by the Works of the Law, and not by the free Gift, Pardon and Grace of a Redeemer, and by the Faith and practical belief of that Gift, and acceptance of it, with thankful penitent obedient hearts, was a pernicious error. But the true way of Righteousness was to become true Christians, that is, with such a penitent thankful, accepting, practical belief or affiance to believe in God as the Giver of Salvation, in Christ as the Redeemer, and his Spirit as our Life and Sanctifier, and to accept Christ and all his procured Benefits, Justification and Life, as purchased by his Sacrifice and meritorious Righteousness, and given in the New Covenant on this condition, and so to give up ourselves to his whole saving-work, as to the Physician of our Souls, and only Mediator with God. This is the sum of Paul 's Doctrine on this point.

363. I say again therefore, for any man to say that someone physical act, either assent, or consent, or affiance, upon one particular Object (Christ's Righteousness as offered us) is the instrumental cause of our Justification; and that to look to be justified by any other act of Faith on Christ, or on the Father, or Holy Ghost, or on Heaven the final Object (God in Glory), or secondarily as subsequent parts of the condition of Salvation, by Repentance, by praying for Pardon, by forgiving others, by Obedience to Christ, &c. is to look to be justified by Works in the sense that Paul excludeth them; this is but to abuse the Gospel and the Church, by a scandalous misinterpretation of a great part of the New Testament.

364. St. James therefore having to do with some who thought that the bare profession of Christianity was Christianity, and that Faith was a mere assent to the Truth, and that to believe that the Gospel is true, and trust to be justified by Christ was enough to Justification, without Holiness and fruitful Lives, and that their sin and barrenness hindered not their Justification, so that they thus believed (perhaps misunderstanding Paul 's Epistles) doth convince them that they were mistaken, and that when God spake of Justification by Faith, without the Works of the Law, he never meant a Faith that containeth not a resolution to obey him in whom we believe, nor that is separated from actual Obedience in the prosecution; But that as we must be justified by our Faith against the charge of being Infidels, so must we be justified by our Gospel personal holiness and sincere Obedience against the charge, that we are unholy and wicked, or impenitent, or Hypocrites, or else we shall never be adjudged to Salvation, that is, justified by God.

365. All this then is past controversy among considerate understanding men, 1. That Works justify us not as perfect, according to the Covenant of Innocence, because we have them not. 2. That the Works or keeping of Mose 's Law, as conceited sufficient, or as set in opposition against, or competition with a Savior or free Gift, or any otherwise than as the exercises of mere Obedience under Christ (as Mary, •• chary, Elizabeth, Simeon, John the Baptist, David, &c. used them,) could justify no man. 3. That consequently no other Works set up either in the said opposition or competition, or as anything of Merit, or worth is ascribed to them, which is proper to Christ, or any part of the honor of God's free Gift, can justify no man; nor any other way, than as mere conditions, and exercises of thankful obedience or acceptance, in pure subordination to God's Mercy, and Christ's Merits, and the free Gift.

But that Works are not excluded from being conditions of our justification, or the matter of it in any of these following respects: 1. That Faith itself, which is our act, and an act of Obedience to God, and is the • iducial accepting belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, for the benefits of the Covenant, is the condition of our first Covenantright to these Benefits. 2. That this Faith is not actual Obedience to Christ as Christ (at first, but only to God as God). But it is the Souls subjection to Christ as Christ, which is our Covenant-consent to our future Obedience, and virtually, though not actually, containeth our future Obedience in it. 3. That there is somewhat of love, consent or willingness, of Desire, of Hope, of Repentance, which goeth to make up this moral work of Faith, as it is the condition; even our first Christianity itself. 4. That as the making of a Covenant is for the performing of it, and subjection is for Obedience and Marriage for conjugal Duties, so our said first Covenanting-Faith is for our future Faith, Hope, Comfort, and grateful Obedience and Holiness: And these are the secondary parts of the condition of Salvation: And so are the secondary parts of our Justifications, condition as continued or not-lost, and consummate: For to justify us, is, as is said, to justify our Right to Impunity and Glory. • . That, as is said, our own performance of the condition of the free Gift of Impunity and Glory, by the New Covenant purchased by Christ's Righteousness, is the thing to be tried and judged in God's judgment; And therefore we must so far be then justified from the charge of • ot performing that condition, of being Infidels, unsanctified impeni • ent Hypocrites, Apostates, and so of having no part in Christ and the free Gift, even by our personal Evangelical Faith, Holiness, Repentance, • incerity and Perseverance. And all this justification by Works St. James • s for, and it is undeniable by anything but prejudice, ignorance, and • ding pievishness. Let the Reader of quick understanding pardon my • epeating the same thing, which others will not yet understand.

366. Christ's Sermons, Matth. 5. & 6. 7. & 10. & 13. & 18. & 21. • nd Luk. 6. & 11. & 12. & 16. & 18. & 19. and Joh. 1. & 3. & 5. & 6, &c. with all the Sermons in the Acts, and all the Catholic Epistles of Peter, James, Jude and John, and Paul 's Epist. to the Rom. Chap. 1. 2. 4. 6. 7. 8. • 2, &c. Gal. 5. & 6. and a great part of the rest of his Epistles, are • ade up of this Doctrine of Grace which I have asserted; And the • eading of them will better instruct you in the true sense of Remission and • ustification, than most Treatises written on that Subject which I have seen.

367. The perfection of Justification and Pardon will be by the final executive act, the taking the justified into Glory.

SECT. XXVII. Of the fewness of the glorified, and the many that perish.

368. Though it be comparatively but a little Flock, and part of this world to whom God will give the heavenly Kingdom, yet the number will in itself be exceeding great. And it's very probable that (this Earth being a very little punctum of the Creation) that taking all God's rational Creatures together, the number of the damned will be found a very small number in comparison of the blessed; even as the Malefactors in the Jailes are to the Subjects of the Kingdom. For the worlds above us are incomprehensibly vast and glorious; And the Text telleth us, Heb. 22. 22. That we are come to an innumerable company of Angels: Though the proportions be unknown to us, I speak this again, that mistakes tempt not men to unworthy thoughts of the infinite amiable goodness of God, or of the Christian Faith.

369. And what the Saints do want in number, they shall have in excellency, to glorify the goodness of God. The little Flock which shall have the Kingdom, shall be all Kings and Priests, and shall judge the world (Judgment in Scripture is much put for Government): They shall be equal with Angels, and shining Stars in our Fathers Firmament, and shall sit with Christ upon his Throne: And shall in a word, in the perfection of their Natures, perfectly know, love and praise, obey and delight in God, in a perfect society in the sight of Christ's Glory, and be assured of this to all eternity. Amen.

And we see in God's Works of Nature, high Excellencies are rare. There are not so many Suns as Stars, nor Stars, as Stones, or Leaves, or Trees; nor so much Gold as Earth; nor so many Men, as Flies, Fishes, and other Animals; nor so many Kings as Subjects; nor so many Teachers as Learners; nor so many men of learning and wisdom as ignorance. And we see there are not so many godly as ungodly.

370. And, as I told you before, that as Israel was not all God's people in the world before Christ's Incarnation, and that the Chatholick Church now succeedeth them in their high and rare Peculiarities and Privileges above the rest of the world, and far exceedeth them in the greatness of our Mercies; and that Christ's Incarnation hath put the rest of the world into no worse a condition than they were before; and that all the world is under a Law of Grace, and none under the Law and Covenant of Innocency only: So I now add, that all shall be judged by that Law which they were under; They that have sinned without a (written) Law, shall be judged without that Law: And what state each particular Soul is in, the Judge only knoweth, and not we, who are insolently arrogant, if we will step up into his Throne, and judge his Subjects without his Commission. But this we know that God hath various degrees of Rewards and Punishments (as to Infants and Adult, so to the Adult among themselves.) And that he that gained but two Talents shall be Ruler of two Cities: And he that had but one might have improved one, though he could not have improved more than he had: And that they that have done good shall go into everlasting life, and those that have done evil to everlasting punishment. And the kinds and degrees of their different punishments hereafter, how great, and how far involuntary, they are beyond the very miserable case of their sinfulness itself, are things that are unknown to us. But certain we are, that the Judge of all the world will do righteously, and that all wise and righteous men's judgments, when they shall see what the number of Sufferers, and the sorts and degrees of their punishment are, shall be fully satisfied of the Goodness, Clemency, Wisdom and Justice of God, and never once wish it had been otherwise. And that the Servant that knew his Lord's Will, and prepared not himself, nor did according to his Will, shall be beat • with many stripes: But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall he much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him will they ask the more.

371. It is little understood by most how much man by sin itself is effectively his own Tormenter, (which tempteth man to doubt of Hell, as if it were God's too much severity so to punish.) How Sin is a punishment itself, and how God antecedently made man's nature such, that if he would sin, it should torment him and undo him of itself (like poison to the Body) I have opened in the first Chapter. See Gabr. Biel in 2. d. 36. that Omne peccatum est poena, and the four Reasons of Bonavent. recited by him.

372. The Stoics and Platonists Revolution, and the Pythagorean Re-incorporation, are so like the Christian Doctrine of the Resurrection, that (though we must not with Origin seek to make them liker than they are, yet) those Infidels are inexcusable who take this for incredible, and yet take the other for the most rational conjecture.

Bless, Lord, thy own reconciling Truths, to the healing of thy Churches, or at least of some dis-jointed minds. And teach me with patience to bear the Obloquy and Reproach of mistaken zealous Consurers: And forgive them that know not what they say or do. And wherein I err, forgive and rectify me, and better inform both the Reader and me.

THE CONTENTS.

• T HE Preface. Pag. 1.
• Sect. 1.
  The Presupposed Principles briefly repeated, p. 7▪
• Sect. 2.
  The Order of Divine Operations, p. 9.
• Sect. 3.
  Of the Operations and Principles as compared, p. 12.
• Sect. 4.
  How far God useth Means, p. 16.
• Sect. 5.
  Of the Causes of the different Effects of Grace (and Means), p. 18.
• Sect. 6.
  Of the Limitations of God's Operations on the Soul, p. 20.
• Sect. 7.
  Of the Resistibility of Grace, p. 21.
• Sect. 8.
  What is that Operation of God on the Soul, inquired of in many following Questions? And whether searchable by man? p. 22.
• Sect. 9.
  Whether God's Operation be equal on all? p. 31.
• Sect. 10.
  Whether it be Physical or Moral? p. 32.
• Sect. 11.
  What Free-will man hath to Spiritual Good. p. 35.
• Sect. 12.
  More of Predetermination by Physical Premotion, p. 37.
• Sect. 13.
  More of Mans Power, Natural and Moral, p. 43.
• Sect. 14.
  Whether the giving of Faith be an act of Omnipotency and a Creation? and a Miracle? p. 46.
• Sect. 15.
  Of the Sufficiency and Efficacy of Grace? p. 48.
• Sect. 16.
  Of Infused Habits and the Holy Ghost, even special Grace, p. 53.
• Sect. 17.
  Whether Man be merely Passive as to the first Grace? p. 55.
• Sect. 18.
  Whether the first Grace, and the New and Soft Heart, or Faith itself, be Promised or Given absolutely, or on any Condition to be performed by man? ibid.
• Sect. 19.
  How God may be said to Cause the Acts of Sin, p. 57.
• Sect. 20.
  How far God, and how far man himself, is the Cause of Hell and other punishments, p. 62.

The Conclusion.
• §. 1. The Concessions of the Synod of Dort, specially the British Divines: More of Divine Motion or Impress, p. 67.
• §. 2. The Epitome of Alvarez de Auxil. drawn up by himself in Epilogo in Twenty Conclusions, considered, p. 70.
• §. 3. A Censure of the other three ways described by him, viz. 1. The Jesuits de Scientia Media, p. 75.
• §. 4. 2. Durand 's Way, p. 76.
• §. 5. 3. That of the Scotists and Nominals: Of God's partial Ca • sality, p. 79.
• §. 6. The true face and Scheme of the Dominican Predeterminant way, in the Sense and Consequents, in Fifty Propositions, and the Reasons of my preferring any before this, p. 80.
• A Summary of all, to satisfy sober minds. p. 100.
• Additional Animadversions on Mr. Peter Sterrey 's Book of Free-will: making God the Author of Good and Evil, as he is of Light and Darkness, p. 106.

The Third Part: OF GOD'S GRACIOUS OPERATIONS ON MANS SOUL: AND THE SUB-OPERATIONS OF MANS WILL. For the Ending the Contentions about Sufficient and Effectual, Common and Special Grace, and Free-Will.

The Preface.

T HE first Part of this Treatise, though largest, and fullest of men's contentious Questions and opinions, is furthest from the true point of the difference and difficulty, which troubleth the Church▪ And is made large by accident, by way of disquisition and detection of the many ens • aring questions, and vain or hurtful wranglings of the Schoolmen.

The Second Part cometh nearer our chief Controversies, and resolveth many other on the by; and containeth the sum of that part of Theology, which is most clear, and sure, and necessary.

This Third Part which cometh up to the main Controversy, is short, and troubleth you less with other men's opinions, and Schoolmens Wranglings about Grace and Free-will: Partly because you had enough of them by the way before▪ And chiefly because I would not by tediousness, and recitation of Contentions, obscure that which I most desire to make plain, nor discourage the Reader by the length.

I think if I can manifest, that there is no real, or considerable difference among the Learned and Moderate on each side, (such as are the Synod of Dort on one side, and even Bellarmine, Suarez, Ruiz, &c. on the other, besides the moderate Lutherans and Arminians, (who may be ashamed if they go farther from us than the Jesuits) besides abundance of Schoolmen that are of a middle strain, between the Dominicans and Jesuits,) few understanding Divines would then think that there were any considerable difference remaining about Predestination, or the universality of Redemption; Those differences being but respective unto this.

But about Perseverance I confess that there doth a real difference remain: But that it is of less moment than most on both sides say, and such as is no way fit to quench Christian Love, or alienate Christians from each other, or hinder their liberties or peaceable communion, I have fully proved in the Second Part, and formerly in a peculiar Treatise entitled, My Thoughts of Perseverance.

If therefore I can truly disprove our pretended difference about the ••• rations of Grace, or at least prove it to be but as it is, no greater not more intolerable than that of Perseverance, I shall think that all is done that is (thus) necessary.

The main difference (seeming or real) is about the Power of Mans Will: Of which I have spoken much in the First Part, and purposely leave much to the Reconciling Praxis in the Second Book; which shall dissipate the cloud of ambiguous words: Till then it shall here suffice to manifest, 1. That we are agreed with them whose conciliation I endeavor, that •• is not the natural Powers▪ essential to a man which we are deprived of. 2. But that these Powers have by our common corruption, a sinful Disposition, unfitting them for a due exercise for God and against sin. 3. And that all men (at least at age) are not depraved in the same degree. 4. That this Ill disposition is called a Moral Impotency, when it is such as while it remaineth, the sinful Act is ever done, or the commanded act is never done. There is then no Moral Power. 5. That the vicious sinful impotency of the will, and its Habitual or dispositive unwillingness to good, and proneness to things forbidden, is all one. 6. That he is Morally Able, who without any other grace than he hath, can do the thing commanded, or forbear the thing forbidden. 7. That there is no Power but of God. 8. That Nature, common grace, and special grace, give several powers or dispositions. 9. That a moral power is less than a good habit. 10. That every man hath a moral proper power to do more good than he doth, and forbear more evil. 11. That every man is commanded to use some means in order to his salvation, which he is morally able to use. 12. That God useth to bear long with the abusers of their Power before he forsake them. 13. That many have many persuasions and helps to use their power that abuse it. 14. That it's just with God to forsake such. 1 • . And great mercy to the elect not to be so forsaken. All •••• will be made clear • in their due •••• , which I shall now here offer you.

§. 2. AS for the five Articles: I. The Article of Predestination,

II. And the Article of Redemption, contain no difference between the parties, but only as they relate to the Articles of Free-will and effectual Grace, as is aforesaid. For all must agree that God Decreed and Christ procured all that Grace or Mercy for men which he giveth them: Of which the Conditional gift of the Love of the Father, the Grace of the Son, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit in the Covenant of Grace, with a Commission to his Ministers freely to offer it to all Believing Consenters, and to seal it and deliver it by Baptism, is a great part: And many mercies, teachings, persuasions, and motions tending to draw them to Consent is another part. God decreed not to deny men that which he giveth them; and Christ's Death procured them all that he giveth them. To which add what elsewhere I have opened, that there is no necessity of ascribing to God any Positive Decrees of Negations or nothings. Else there must be a Decree against the existence of all the myriads of possible animals, atoms, names, words, &c. And remember that to Permit is not-to hinder, and so is a mere negation, or a doing nothing; and that not-to-give faith, repentance, grace, the Gospel, &c. is a negation, or a nothing, and so need no Decree, seeing a not-decreeing to give, &c. is sufficient: so that the whole of the Controversy about these two Articles is clearly devolved to the Controversies of Grace and Free-will.

III. And concerning Free-will it cannot be denied, but that Natural Free-will is part of that excellency or Image of God, by which man is differenced from bruits; and that it is such a faculty by which man can in some instances, determine his own will to this rather than that, without Divine predetermination; which is certain in the • ase of sin, yea and of some good. For Adam 's will could without any other grace than he had, have forborne his sin. Or else still all is but resolved into God's mere will. And it is agreed on (as is said before) that all men can do more good than they do, and forbear more evil than they forbear, and that without anymore grace or help than they have when they use it not: so that it is not abhorrent from the nature of Free-will, for a man to make a good use or an ill, of the same measure of grace at several times, or for several men to make several uses of the same measure. Therefore it is no unjust answer to the question, [Why did he forbear this sin today, and not yesterday] or [Why did this man forbear sin and not that, supposing them to have the same measure of assisting grace,] to say [Because, this man, at this time, used that power which God had given him, in stirring up his own will to concurt with grace, and the other man, or this at another time, did not what he could.] Not that this answer is good in all cases, (where more grace is necessary to the effect,) but in this forementioned. So that it is no Deifying of the will of a Rational free-Agent, to say that it is essentially a self-determining faculty, made by God in the Image of his Liberty, and depending on him, and not able to Act without him as the first Cause, but yet on supposition of his Natural preservation and universal concourse, and of his directions and Laws, it is able to make choice hic & nunc to will or not will, to will this rather than that, without Divine necessitating predetermination, and without anymore Grace or help than sometime it hath when it doth the contrary: All which showing the natural power of man's will, and its liberty, must be readily acknowledged by all sides, that will not say that Adams first sin, and every sin of all men else, are all resolved into God's causation in case of commissions, and God's non-causation in case of omissions, and into God's will in both; and that man can no more do anything but what he doth, than he can be God, or overcome God, or live and act without God.

And as we must thus agree that natural Liberty consisteth in a self-determining power peculiar to Rational free agents; so we are all agreed except the Pelagians, that man's nature is vitiated by Original sin, and therefore that the will which is naturally free from force and necessitation (except from God, who never necessitateth it to evil,) is yet in servitude to our own concupiscence, and is not free either from the enticements of sense, or the erroneous conduct of a blinded mind, or from its own vicious habits, (averseness to God and holy things, and proneness to things sensual, and seeming good:) And therefore that this Holy, or Moral Liberty of the will, must have the Medicinal Grace of Christ to heal it; (of which next▪)

IV. And as to the Article of Effectual Grace, it is agreed on (and cannot with sobriety be gainsaid without subverting the main doctrine of the Scriptures) that whereas besides the Preparatory or Promeriting Grace of Christ's own performance, there is yet a three-fold Grace necessary for the application or conveyance of the Benefits purchased by Christ; in the measure hereafter mentioned, all this is common.

I. The first sort of Grace lieth in the enacting of a new Law of Grace, called also in several respects, The New Testament, the new Covenant, and the Promise. And as to this it is agreed, 1. That God made this Law, Covenant or promise in the first Edition with Adam and Eve after the fall, Gen. 3. 15. (the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head,) and did by Actual Remission, of their sin, and not-punishing them as the first Law threatened, yet more plainly manifest to them the pardoning Grace of this Covenant; And that he made this new Law or Covenant to all mankind in and by them: And that he again renewed the same Covenant of Grace with all mankind in Noah after the deluge. Those few inconsiderate persons that deny this, are not so valuable as to be an exception to our Concord. It is an intolerable conceit of any to think that the tenor or sense of the Conditional Covenant of Grace (for I talk of no other) extendeth not universally to all men, but that any men are yet lest under no other Law or conditional-promise or Covenant, than that of Innocency. For if that were true, 1. Then God should be supposed to make men a promise of Life, on a condition of present natural impossibility; And to say to sinners [If you be not sinners, you shall live.] 2. And to oblige men to the same Impossibilities as the means of their salvation, saying still to sinners [I require you sinners that you be no sinners that you may be saved.] 3. Which is indeed to say that the case of all that are under the first Law of Innocency only is desperate, and they have no more hope or remedy than the Devils. 4. And then Christ had mistaken the matter himself, when he commanded his Ministers to Preach this Gospel or Covenant to all the world, and every (human) Creature, and tell them that If they believe they shall be saved, and to offer them Baptism if they consent. 5. And either Preachers must preach an untruth to many, or else not know what man to preach to. 6. But the actu-all force and obligation of the Covenant, puts all out of doubt, that the world is under a Law of Grace: For what man, that by siding hath not his understanding utterly distorted, to look only on one side, can say that none but the Elect are bound to Believe in Christ, or to Repent of sin, or to turn to God? and this as a means of their salvation? What man dare say, that any Heathens in the World, are under no obligation, to use any means at all, for the pardon of their sins, or the recovery and saving of their souls? What man dare say that it is no sin in them not to use any such means? And what duty or sin can there be without a Law? And what Law can bind men to accept of Grace, and to seek it, and use means for pardon, renovation and salvation, but the new Covenant or Law of Grace? Sure the Law of Innocency hath no such obligation. 7. Lastly, And God's usage of all the world, puts the case past Controversy. For he useth no man according to the mere Law of Innocency: All the world have a great proportion of the Mercies of the New Covenant; and therefore are not under the Covenant of Innocency alone.

Yet we maintain that the preceptive part of the Law of Innocency as to the future, is still in force to all men [Obey perfectly;] And that the penal part is so far in force as to make death in the first instant due for every sin: But we add, 1. That the Remedying pardoning Law being in force with it, doth immediately dissolve that obligation, and make it ineffectual to the punishment of believers: 2. And that the Promising part of the Covenant of Innocency is utterly ceased by the cessation of man's capacity: And therefore that the Preceptive part (for perfection) is now no Condition of Life to any man.

Two things I was wont in my Ignorance to say against the universal tenor of the new Covenant. 1. That God distinguished and excluded some at the first making of it, under the name of the Seed of the Serpent: But 1. No Scripture giveth us the least ground to think that men equally guilty, are some called the Seed of the Serpent, and some of the Woman, merely as denominated from or distinguished by God's own will or decree, without any real difference in the persons. 2. And if the Image of Satan in Original sin, were it that denominated the Seed of the Serpent, then all the world should be excluded, because all are such before they are regenerate. 3. Therefore it is plain that it is not mere Original sin that denominateth any one, the Serpents Seed, in the sense of that Text, but a consequent rejection and opposition of the Mediator or Grace of the new Covenant.

2. I was wont in my great Ignorance in my youth to think, that All men were merely under the first Covenant, till Conversion, and then they came under the second only. But this was but Confusion. To be under a Law or offered Covenant, as the terms of life or death, is one thing; And so all are under a Law or Covenant of Grace, and no man under the mere Law of Innocency; obliged to perfection as the sole condition of life: And to be obedient to this Law, and a Consenter to this Covenant, and so to be in the Covenant as Mutual, is another thing; And this is the case of Consenters only.

So that I may take it for granted that we are agreed, that as to the first Edition of the Law of Grace to Adam and Noah, it extendeth or is in force to all the world, at least, till by enmity against Grace, they have made themselves desperate as the Serpents seed: Yea then, the Law of Grace is in force to them, though they reject the Grace of it.

2. And as to the last Edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ, 1. The tenor of it extendeth to all; as is visible Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. Joh. 3. 16. 2. And Christ hath made it the office of his Ministers by his commission, to promulgate and offer it to all. 3. And whereas providence concurreth not to the universal execution, we must all confess, that Christ came not to put the world into a worse condition than he found them in. If he did any no good by his Incarnation, he would do them no harm. Therefore they that never hear the Gospel, are still under the first Edition of the Covenant made with Adam and Noah, so far as it is unaltered. I add that word, because, that so far as the Promise was to give salvation by the Messiah hereafter to be incarnate, none is now bound to expect his future Incarnation, because it is past. But the same benefits that were due to believers before Christ's incarnation, are due since upon the true performance of so much of the condition as is still in force, and not repealed.

3. And we must needs agree, that the Ignorance of the Apostles before Christ's sufferings, of his death, sacrifice, and resurrection, doth show, that the faith of the Godly Jews then, was far more general, and less particular, than the faith now required of Christians.

4. And also, that more was required then, to be known particularly by the Jews that had the Scripture and Tradition to acquaint them with the Messiah to come, than of the rest of the world, that had not those distinct discoveries, nor Abraham 's promises made known unto them: And how much Gen. 3. 15. might cause them to understand, we may conjecture by the words At least this much was required of all, that they believe that their sin deserveth punishment, and misery, and yet that God of his abundant mercy, by his Wisdom securing his Truth and Justice, will pardon sin and grant salvation to all that truly Believe and Trust in that his Wisdom and Mercy, and repent of their sins, and unfeignedly give up themselves to God as their merciful Redeemer. Thus far we are agreed about the Grace of the Covenant.

II. And as to the second sort of Communicative Grace, that is, The Promulgation of this Law of Grace, and offers of the Covenant-Benefits to man, we are and must be all agreed, 1. That (besides what Tradition sacrificing did intimate,) the first Edition of the Covenant of Grace (as is said) is universally promulgate by Providence. For whereas by the violation of the Law of Innocency, all blessings were forfeited, and all miseries deserved, and no man had any notice by that Law, of any hope or means of his recovery: on the contrary, all the world hath great abundant mercies, and are not punished according to the first Law, and therefore have sensible forgiveness of sin; and all have an inward testimony or conviction, that they are obliged to gratitude for these mercies, and also to the use of certain means (as Repentance, Prayer, &c.) in order to their farther pardon and salvation. And all this fully demonstrateth that God hath so far promulgated the old Edition of the Covenant of Grace, as to make it notorious that the world is not under the mere Law of Innocency. And to believe in a Merciful pardoning God, (as he was Exod. 34. proclaimed to Moses is become even the Law of lapsed Nature.

2. And as I said, the last Edition of the Covenant is commanded by Christ in his Ministers commission to be proclaimed to all the world: Yea Magistrates, parents, neighbors, all men, in their several capacities are bound to promote it. 3. And the world hath actually heard so much of the Gospel, as that Paul in his days said, That their sound went into all the Earth and their words to the end of the world, Rom. 10. 18. when it had gone but a little way in comparison of what it hath since done. Thus far we are agreed of the Promulgation.

III. The third sort of Grace is the Internal operation of the Spirit of God upon men's hearts; And here it is that the heart of all our difference seemeth to lie.

SECT. I. The presupposed Principles.

§. 1. THe way of God's operation on souls, yea, or bodies, or any creature, is so unsearchable, that I had rather silence, than pretend to decide abundance of the Controversies long agitated about it. And had not men's audacious decisions, and furious contentions (not yet allowing the Churches peace) made it accidentally necessary to repress their presumption and their error, I should reverently have passed by much that I must now meddle with. But the cure must be suited to the disease.

§. 2. So much as is intelligible herein, is divine, and honorable, and amiable; and the prospect of God's Providence is delectable to the wise. For his works are great, and wonderful, sought out of them that have pleasure therein.

§. 3. The nature or the order of them cannot be known by the single consideration of particular effects; but by beginning at the original, and proceeding orderly from the superior Causes to the inferior, and seeing how everything worketh in its proper capacity and place: which man can do but very defectively; and therefore knoweth but little or in part.

§. 4. It is necessary therefore that I briefly look back to the Principles of Providence and Action; which were partly mentioned before, where UNITY in TRINITY shineth to us in God and in his works.

§. 5. * GOD is ONE INFINITE SPIRIT, in THREE ESSENTIAL VIRTUES or PRINCIPLES, LIFE (or ACTIVE POWER) UNDERSTANDING and WILL, which are wonderfully ONE in ESSENCE, yet THREE we know not perfectly how, but as the Scotists say, formaliter, or rather as the Nominals, by connotation of their objects and operations ad extra, and so by Relation, and extrinstck Denomination. Not that Life, Intellect and Will, are formally the same in God as in the Creature, or can formally be conceived by us; But that while we must know God in a Glass, man's soul must be this Glass, and the Scriptures must be our Onomasticon and Logic Books, and we must use such Notions and Names of God, or none.

§. 6. These Principles as Transcendent in PERFECTION, are called GREATNESS (or OMNIPOTENCE) WISDOM and GOODNESS (or LOVE) by names borrowed from their effects upon the creatures.

§. 7. This ONE GOD, is revealed to us in THREE PERSONS, The FATHER, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Wisdom, Word and Son) and the HOLY SPIRIT. One in Essence: incomprehensibly Three, ad intus; but discernibly Three, in their Operations ad extra, and Relations thereto.

§. 8. As we must conceive of GOD'S ESSENCE by INADAEQUATE Conceptions, (as aforesaid) or not at all, so must we of his EXISTENCE as in the Creature we call it Modally; viz. His ESSENCE being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (substance,) VIRTUS & PERFECTIO (which in the Creature, is MATTER (or substance) FORM and DEGREE): and his FORMAL VIRTUS being Potentia-Vitalis, Intellect and Will; so his Existence is considerable, 1. In VIRTUE itself, radically, (which is Potentia Activa Inclinata.) 2. As in Act, IMMANENT, objectively, (as God's self living, self-knowing and self-loving.) 3. And as in ACTION ad extra, either objectively or effectively TRANSIENT. And in this third respect God's Essence is the Operator of all his works.

§. 9. The Three Divine Principles (Vital-active Power, Intellect and Will) and the Three Divine Persons, (Father, Word and Spirit) do always inseparably co-operate; But so as that there is a Trinity also of their Impressions or Vestigia, which are answerably to have a Trine attribution, each Principle being eminently apparent in his own impression, though with the rest.

§. 10. God's WORKS are CREATION, GOVERNING and PERFECTING: And so he is 1. The first EFFICIENT OF ALL BEING Ex QUO (by creating and continuing, which are as one;) 2. The DISPOSING or GOVERNING Cause PER QUEM; 3. The END, AD QUEM, & IN QUO perficiuntur.

§. 11. God having given a BEING to the Creatures, and their various species of being, is after by PROVIDENCE to manage them as Active or Passive in their several Capacities: And the ACTIVE Natures are threefold which he hath made to operate on the threefold Passives; viz. INTELLECTUAL, SENSITIVE and IGNEOUS (or VEGETATIVE in its proper matter) upon AIR, WATER and EARTH.

§. 12. GOD is so Active as not to be at all PASSIVE. All the Active Creatures are first Passive as receiving the Influx of the first Cause, and Inferiors from the Superior second Causes: But they are Naturally Active in that dependence, and supposing that Influx.

§. 13. The works of Providence about the Existent Creatures, are MOTION causing Motion: GUBERNATION causing ORDER: and ATTRACTION or meet objective Termination, satisfying their Appetites, and giving them their Ends.

§. 14. MAN being endowed by his Creator with his Image, in Vital-Active-Power, Intellect, and Free-will, a Threefold Virtue in One, as the formal Essence of his soul, is peculiarly fitted for such acts of Providence as he must be under.

§. 15. As the higher and Nobler Natures are under God the Immediate 1. Movers, 2. Governors of the Inferior; so also are they, 3. Their Immediate or nearest End; having a Goodness in them fitted to attract, terminate and satisfy the Appetites of the Inferior: God is not the only end of Appetites.

§. 16. The Acts of Divine PROVIDENCE about MAN-existent, are, 1. Action or Motion, 2. Special Government, 3. Love. From whence God is Related to Man (the fundamental Relation of CREATOR supposed,) 1. As ACTOR vel MOTOR, 2. As RECTOR, 3. As AMICUS, vel FINIS, Lover, Benefactor and End. 1. ACTION as such is from God in the first relation. 2. Action as ORDERED is by him in the second. 3. Action as TERMINATED FINALLY and in perfection, is in him in the third.

§. 17. Creation inferreth Propriety; and making us Good and inter b • na and ad bonum inferreth that God is our Benefactor: So that ab origin he standing in these three Relations to us, from what is past, he is to dispose of us by Providence accordingly.

§. 18. God's Omnipotence is most conspicuous in Creation (propriety), and Motion: His Wisdom in Governing and Order: and his Good will in our Benefits (efficiently) and our Perfection (finally) in mutual Love.

§. 19. MOTION is caused by Moving ••• ce impressed: ORDER (moral) by LAW or signification of God's Will de debito: And PERFECTION by attingency and union with our END.

§. 20. From the first resulteth NECESSITY properly so called: From the second Moral RECTITUDE: In the third is FELICITY; as to single persons.

§. 21. From the first (viz. God as Actor) upon Many or the Universe, ariseth CO-OPERATION or Concurse; All things work together, as the Wheels in a Watch. From the second (Divine ORDERING) ariseth HARMONY: and from the third, UNIVERSAL PERFECTION and Melody of the whole Creation; and to man, perfect Love.

§. 22. Motion is unresistible unless by a greater or unequal Contrary Motion, or passive impedition: and its effect as such not free, but Necessary. Government by Law is resistible, and obedience free. Final Goodness or Love, do perfect and felicitate, necessarily and freely, not effecting, (for so they are not now considered) but satisfying so far as they are enjoyed.

§. 23. The Creation being past, and Beings existent (except what Generation and Composition make, unfearchably▪) and God's fundamental RELATIONS settled, we shall confound and be confounded, if we distin-guish not God's after-actions according to the Relations in which he worketh them, and their foresaid differences in themselves.

SECT. II. The Order of Divine Operations.

§. 1. GOD is the Immediate Cause of all things and actions, caused by him, as to the Proximity of God to the effect. For he is everywhere present in Essence, and as near to every Being and Action as it is to itself. We must not conceive of God's using means, as we do of man's, where the Pen, the Saw, the Knife, &c. is between the hand and the effect: God is as near and as total a Cause of what he doth, as if he used no second cause.

§. 2. They that say God is thus Causa Immediata Immediatione & Suppositi seu Essentiae & Virtutis, speak true, but not aptly, because it ill insinuateth as if God's Virtus were not his Essence: when as in God they are all one: only as inadequate conceptions we may distinguish suppositum à virtute, but not otherwise; And it is not as quid creatum that we speak of Virtus.

§. 3. Since the Creation, in the Motions of Providence, God who at first made the Universe to be One by conjunction and co-operation of parts (as truly as a Clock or Man is one) hath settled a course of second Causes, that one thing may act upon and move another; and though he work upon the Highest of these Causes immediately without any other subordinate Cause, yet on all the rest he ordinarily worketh by superior created Causes: which are some of them Necessary and operate in one constant course, and some of them Voluntary and Free, and operate more mutably and contingently.

§. 4. The course of Necessitating Causes is commonly called NATURE, and the Influence of Angels and other Voluntary Causes distinguished from Natural: But they all operate as second Causes under the Influx and Government of God, upon us that are here on earth.

§. 5. There is no Place where any Corporeal being is, where some Active created Nature is not with it: so that considering the proximity and the natures, we may well conclude, that we know of no corporal motion under the Sun, which God effecteth by himself alone, without any second Cause.

§. 6. Joh. Sarisburiensis and some Schoolmen liken God's presence with the Creature in operation, to the fire in a red hot Iron, where you would think all were Fire and all Iron: But the similitude is too low. The SUN is the most Notable Instrument in visible Nature: And GOD operateth on all lower things by its virtue and influx; God and the Sun do what the Sun doth: and we know of nothing that God moveth here on earth (that's corporeal) without it.

§. 7. But the Sun moveth nothing (as the Cartesians dream) by a single Motive Influx alone; but by emission of its Threefold Influx (as every Active Nature doth;) that is, Motive, Illuminative and Calefactive; which are One- radically in Three- effectively.

§. 8. This Efflux of the Sun is universal and equal ex parte sui: But causeth wonderful diversity of effects, without diversity in God the prime Cause, or in itself. The same Influx causeth the Weed and Dunghill and Carrion to stink, and the Flowers of the sweeter Plants to be sweet; some things to live, and some to die; some things to be soft, and some hard, &c. In a word, there are few changes or various actions below (in bodies) which the Sun is not the Cause of, without difference in itself: But not the specifying Cause.

§. 9. The reason why one equal Influx causeth such wonderful diversity of motions, is the DIVERSITY of RECEPTIVE DISPOSITIONS and natures. Recipitur ad modum recipientis. So one poise maketh various Motions in a Clock, &c.

§. 10. God operateth on second Causes, as God, Omnipotently; but not ad ultimum potentiae, but Freely as he pleaseth.

§. 11. God worketh by second Causes, according to the said Causes aptitude; so that the operation of Infinite power is limited according to the quality of the second cause which God useth.

§. 12. There is a superiority and inferiority among Spirits as well as Bodies; And whether God work on all our souls by superior Spirits as second Causes, is unknown to us: It is not improbable, according to the order of his providence in other things: But we know little of it certainly.

§. 13. But certain we are that superior Voluntary Agents, Angels and Devils, have very much to do with our souls, and operate much upon them. It is a wonderful power, which wise observers perceive Satan hath upon the Imagination, or Thinking faculty; (of which I could give some instances enough to convince a rational Sadducee.) And it is not like that good Angels have less power, skill, or will.

§. 14. And we are sure that God hath ordained One Great Universal second Cause to convey his Spirit and Grace by; which is JESUS CHRIST. As the Sun is an Universal Cause of Motion, Light and Heat, to Inferior creatures, and God operateth by the Sun; So is Christ set as a Sun of Righteousness, by whom God will convey his spiritual Influx to men's souls: and there is now no other conveyance to be expected.

§. 15. Christ's Human Nature united personally to the Divine and Glorified, is by the Office of Mediator Authorized, and by Personal Union and the Fulness of the Holy Spirit enabled and fitted to this communication of God's Spiritual Influx to mankind.

§. 16. Object. A Creature cannot be a Cause of the Operation of the Holy Ghost, who is God the Creator; Sending is the Act of a Superior: But Christ's humanity is not superior to the Holy Ghost.

Answ. 1. Christ as a Creature is no Cause of any Essential or purely Immanent Act of God (for that hath no Cause.) But 1. He is a Cause of the Spirits operation, as it signifieth the effect; 2. And so the cause why his Act is terminated on the soul; and 3. Of the ordering of these effects; why rather on this soul than on that, and at this time, measure, &c. And 2. This Christ doth not as a superior sender of the Spirit, but a Ministerial, and a second cause: As a Master payeth his servants as his Steward determineth.

§. 17. It is certain that Christ is the Political Cause or Head of this spiritual Influx on souls: that is, As Mediator is Authorized to determine of the Persons, measure, time, conditions, of the Communication of the Spirit: But whether he be a Physical Head of this Influx, by proper efficiency giving the Spirit from himself, as the Sun giveth us its Influx, is all that is disputable. That is, Whether the Spirit be first given Inherently to Christ, and pass from his person (as his) unto us, as the Spirits do from the Head to the Members?

§. 18. This question may be put, either of all Natural Being and Motion, or only of Spiritual Motion in the soul of man. Whether Christ be so the Head of Nature, as that all Nature in Heaven and Earth, is sustained and actuated by him as the physical efficient Cause? or whether this be true of this Lower World which was cursed for sin? or whether it be true, at least of Human nature? or whether it be true only of Gracious operations?

§. 19. 1. That Christ hath the Political dispose of the whole Universe (contained in the words Heaven and Earth) the Scripture seemeth to assert. 2. That he hath the Political disposal of human nature, and of all other creatures that belong to man, so far as they belong to him (Angels, Devils, Sun, Air, Earth, &c. is past dispute. 3. That the real • hysical effects (acts and habits) of the Spirit on men's souls, are caused by Christ's Moral Causation by his Merit, and his Political Mission, is past dispute. 4. That besides all this, the Spirit itself by Baptism is in Covenant with all the members of Christ, and that as they are such, and is in a prior Covenant first Related to Christ himself, and so by this Covenant given us in relation as we are united to Christ, is past dispute. 5. And that Christ himself doth make such Physical changes on our souls by Means, and by the foresaid Political Mission of the Spirit, by which we are made Receptive of more of the Spirits operations, is past dispute. 6. But whether moreover, any Action of Christ's own Human soul glorified do physically reach our souls? or whether the Holy Ghost may in its own essential Virtue (which is everywhere) be said to be more in Christ than elsewhere and communicated to us as from the root, or the Spirits effects on the soul to come by Reflection from the first effects on Christ, as Light and Heat from the Sun by a Speculum or Burning-glass, are questions not for me to determine.

§. 20. Christ's spiritual Influx on souls is not single, but is ever Three in One (as the Sun 's aforesaid,) which are according to the Threefold Divine Excellencies Communicated, and the Threefold human Receptive faculties; viz. LIFE, LIGHT and LOVE: or spiritual Vivification, Activity and Power, spiritual Illumination of the Intellect, and spiritual Conversion or Sanctification of the Will by holy Love.

§. 21. It is certain that it is not only on believers that Christ operateth by the spirit: For he draweth men by it to believe: and many wicked men that are not his elect have common, even miraculous gifts of the spirit, which are all communicated by Christ.

§. 22. As Nature itself is in his Political power, and is delivered to him, so far as it is reparable, and belongeth to the reparation of man; so all gifts and operations Received by any in the world, which are Mercies contrary to commerit, are the effects of Christ: Even as the Sun shineth in the night by the Moon, and in the dawning of the day by itself unseen, and after by itself appearing; so Christ shineth to the Heathen world in abundance of natural and providential mercies, and by the help of many Creatures and experiences; and to some by nearer approaches, as well as to the Church by the manifestation of himself. All which is evident, 1. Because the whole lapsed world in Adam and Noah were brought under his own Covenant of Grace, according to which he operateth. 2. In that so much mercy after sin, will not stand with God's regiment by the mere Law of Innocency, violated. 3. In that Christ is expressly called the Savior of the World; and the Savior of all men, especially of them that believe; who died for all, in that all were dead, that they that live should live to him; who tasted death for every man, &c. And Joh. 1. 9, 10, 11, 12. That was the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world (or coming into the world, lighteth every man.) He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. And v. 4, 5. In him was life, and the Life was the Light of man: and the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, &c.

§. 23. This threefold Influx of Christ's Spirit (for LIFE, LIGHT and LOVE) is not equally effectual on all, nor equally effectual on the same person at several times, nor each part of the influx equally effectual on the same person at the same time. The Reasons anon.

SECT. III. Of the Operations and Principles as compared.

§. 1. THough Power, Wisdom and Goodness or Love, all co-operate by the spirit of Christ; yet in the work of Mans Recovery their Impressions are not equal. But as POWER with Wisdom and Love, more appeared in the CREATION, (as is aforesaid;) so WISDOM with Power, conveying Love, appeareth more in our Redemption; and LOVE with Power and Wisdom is most conspicuous and illustrious in our Renewed state, begun indeed by Sanctification, but perfect in our GLORIFICATION. The Omnipotent Father (as is said) Createth Nature, with the Son and Holy Spirit. The Son, the Wisdom of the Father, is the Physician of souls, and healeth them by SKILL with Power and Love. The Holy Ghost, called by the Schoolmen, The LOVE of God, dwelling and working peculiarly in us to and in perfection, with power and Wisdom, is the PERFECTION of the soul: And so Natura, Medela, Sanitas, are the various effects of the Divine operation.

§. 2. Therefore the SONS operation in procuring and communicating the SPIRIT (of Love and Holiness) is eminently sapi •• tial.

§. 3. The Impressions of all the Divine Virtues are excellent, in their several kinds: And it's hard for us to say that this is simply more excellent than that: But we can say, which is more suitable to the nature of man, to be esteemed and Loved by him. And so we esteem the Impressions of Wisdom and Love as most suitable to us.

§. 4. A Horse or Ox excelleth Man in strength, and a Bird or Hare or Dog in swiftness; and a Mountain and an Oak in Greatness: And yet we account the Wisdom and Moral Goodness of man to be a greater excellency, and to make him the more noble Creature.

§. 5. And God seemeth to tell it us, 1. By calling these his Image. 2. And by making man the Lord of these stronger Creatures.

§. 6. And among men, we take him not for the most excellent who is the strongest, but who is the Wisest and the Best. And therefore the Wisest and Best are by Aristotle said to be born by Nature to Rule the rest: and by all sober men are thought to be the Fittest to Guide and Rule others; (how seldom soever it cometh to pass:) while the Robuster sort are Laborers and Mechanics.

§. 7. Yet I deny not but the effect is answerable to the Cause; And as Active-Power causeth Action, and Wisdom and Government causeth the Order and Rectitude of action, and Love and Goodness the Perfection of it and the agent; so God's Vital-Power, Wisdom and Goodness, are equal, which are the Principles of all: As the Father, Son and Spirit are coequal: And God is indeed glorious in the Motion of Sun and Stars, &c. as well as in the Wisdom and Holiness of man. But besides the foresaid suitableness, this difference must be considered, that as Life, Intellect and Will, Power, Wisdom and Goodness, are Inadequate conceptions of One God, so all together are a more perfect expression of him, than one of them alone. Now in all these the former is still implied in the latter, as to the very sense of the word, but not contrarily. Power doth not always signify Wisdom or Love; but Wisdom signifieth the wisdom of one Potent, including power, (for there is Potentia Intellectiva.) And Will or Love include Power and Act. So Action may be without ORDER or Rectitude, and Perfection, but the order and perfection of Acts, include or suppose the Acts.

§. 8. It is therefore the glory of God's SAPIENTIAL work of Government which eminently shineth forth in the communications of Grace by the Spirit of Christ: But not that Government which was fitted to the state of Innocency; but that which stands nearer to the End, as more demonstrating Love, and tending more effectually to it.

§. 9. Therefore it is much to be noted that all this frame of Grace as tending to Glory, is usually called in Scripture, The Kingdom of God, and The Kingdom of Heaven, Matth. 13. 45, &c. which containeth the whole frame of Political Order and Government.

§. 10. This Kingdom is the state of Relation between God and the Mediator as the Head or Ruler, and Man as the Subject, as he is to be guided by Grace to Glory. God who is Physically neither Pars nor Totum maketh himself here as it were a Relative Part, being the supreme Head; and the Mediator the supreme official Head, or general Administrator: who hath under him a course of Political means for the accomplishment of this his work.

§. 11. As Christ himself is the Head Means or second Cause, so under him are Prophets and Apostles, eminently qualified to make them fit to do this work so as tendeth to success.

§. 12. These Prophets and Apostles were endued with that special infallible Spirit, by which they certainly delivered Christ's doctrine and actions, and faithfully discharged all their trust.

§. 13. They had the power of working Miracles many ways to confirm their doctrine as the Truth of God. (Besides Christ's M • racles.)

§. 14. The Scriptures are God's Record, which they left us to be the continual standing signifier of his will.

§. 15. In these Scriptures are his Doctrine to teach, his precepts to make duty and oblige, and forbid sin (by prohibition;) his own and servants examples to move; his threatenings to drive; his promises to draw, formed into a Covenant, strongly to engage; the Records also of his Judgments and Mercies upon others, that they might every way be fitted to their sanctifying use.

§. 16. He hath also instituted his Sacraments by which the mutual Covenant might be celebrated the more obligingly for its effects.

§. 17. He hath appointed his ordinary Ministers as his standing officers through all generations to preach this word; And he endoweth them with special gifts thereto; and chargeth them vehemently to preach in season and out of season, with urgency and importunity, even to all mankind, 2 Tim. 4. 1, 2. Mat. 28. 19, 20. whatever it cost them, and whatever they undergo.

§. 18. He hath appointed also Prayer as his Means to obtain Grace by preparing the heart to a due receptivity; by the excitation of desires after it: And Praise and Thanksgiving to sweeten it to us in the review when we have received it.

§. 19. He hath commanded exercises of humiliation, confession, bringing down the body, to fit us to receive it by a due sense of our sins, unworthiness and wants.

§. 20. He hath appointed the public assembling of his servants, that concourse might augment the Sacred flame, in the performance of all this Sacred work.

§. 21. He hath instituted the Lord's day, to be wholly employed in such works and helps, that it be not neglected and lightly done.

§. 22. He hath commanded every private Christian to be a helper to others, by conference, exhortation, and good example.

§. 23. He hath made Pastoral discipline a great ordinance to promote the due performance of all the rest.

§. 24. He hath commanded us by secret Meditation, Consideration, Examination, &c. to preach to ourselves, and night and day to think on Scripture, God, Christ, Glory, &c. and to stir up all God's graces in ourselves, and to reprove ourselves for all our sins.

§. 25. He hath made it the duty of Parents to teach their Children diligently his word, lying down and rising up, at home and abroad, Deut. 6. & 11. and to educate them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, having bound them first in Covenant to God and the Mediator.

§. 26. He hath made it the duty of husband and wife to help each other herein, and of masters to help their servants, and all relations to sanctify their places and opportunities to this use.

§. 27. He doth by multitudes of mercies and deliverances further all this work, to make known the more his Love to win the hearts of men.

§. 28. He greatly promoteth it also by seasonable afflictions, to humble the proud, and awake the sleepy.

§. 29. He maketh it men's great duty to tame the body, and mortify concupiscence, and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy the lusts thereof, Rom. 13. 13, 14. & 8. 13. Gal. 5. 21, 22.

§. 30. He commandeth us to avoid the company of the wicked, and to join in the Communion of Saints, and walk with such as will be our helpers toward Heaven.

§. 31. He commandeth us to avoid all Temptations of Satan, and the world and flesh, and to live in a continual war against them.

§. 32. He maketh all the world about us, the book or glass in which we may see our maker and his will; yea even our own natures; and every Creature doth preach him to us; and all things must be sanctified and used to this holy end.

§. 33. He setteth Death continually before our eyes, assuring us of the shortness of our lives, and showing us how we must leave this world, that we may read Vanity upon all, and not be deceived by it.

§. 34. By all this we see that this Kingdom of Christ, is a sapiential frame of Moral Causes, designed for the Government of man, in right ordering his internal and external acts, and glorifying eminently the wisdom of our Ruler.

§. 35. And he that will think rightly of this excellent frame must have all these things in his consideration: 1. That Christ himself is not only a Justifier and Actor of us, but a Prophet, Priest and King, and that the Government is laid upon his shoulders, Isa. 9. 6.

2. That we are not only Patients and pardoned sinners, but also Subjects, and engaged Covenanters.

3. That Christ's Church is not like a Statuaries shop, but a Kingdom, and a School, where all must learn and obey.

4. That Christ hath not only Motive power, but Laws, Promises, Threatenings, &c. to work by.

5. That his great blessings of Glory are his Rewards, and Hell at last after those here, are his punishments, foretold to work on souls.

6. That he hath a day, in which as Rector, he will judge the world in righteousness, according to what we have done in the body.

7. That faith is wrought by Preaching, and Love and Hope and obedience are the ends and uses of faith.

8. That the felicity of individuals, and in them of the Heavenly Society in one Glorified body with Christ, is the end of all, where God's Remunerating Justice is to be glorified, and his governing Wisdom and Love forever.

§. 36. From all this I conclude, That they that slight all this work of God, by the contemptuous name of Moral Suasion, and take it to be a diminutive term as to the honor of it, to call it Moral, and by Means, and talk of God's work of Grace on the soul, as if there were no more in it very honorable, than a physical Motion, and God Converted souls but as Boys whip their Tops, or Women turn their Wheels, or the Spring moveth the Watch, are Cartesian blind Theologues, and overlook the very nature of that Theology which they profess, which is the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God over man; And while they see little but Matter and Motion, they are fitter mechanically to treat of or deal with Stones, or Bricks, or Timber, than men • being unfit to treat of human Government, much more of Divine.

SECT. IV. How far God useth Means.

§. 1. CHrist who is the chief means is used in all the Conveyances of Grace, to any one in the world.

§. 2. God hath a double work in Illuminating and Converting souls: One by activity of exterior appulsive causes: The other within us on the faculties of the soul, without those causes. I cannot better illustrate it, than by the causing of sight, hearing, &c. The Light without us, is not only a terminating object (as some dream,) but an Active thing, or Action, which operateth by appulse upon the eye: And the Sun and Air are the causes of it. The eye is not only a passive Receiver (as some dream,) but an Organ where the visive spirits, and soul are Active: And God worketh internally on this visive faculty by his influx, to sustain it in its activity. And by a congress of these two fires or Active causes, the sensitive soul doth see. Now we all know that God giveth the external light only per media, by the Sun, &c. But how he sustaineth and actuateth the Visive faculty is more difficult. His own influx or Causation is undoubted: And that the same Sun ut causa universalis cherisheth and moveth the visive spirits: But whether God move the sensitive faculty or soul itself, by any superior spirit, or mediate cause▪ in its motion or action towards and on the exterior light, is past our knowledge: (Though the order observed in other cases, maketh it not improbable.)

Even so in the Illumination of the mind, and conversion of the will, we are sure that beside the terminative object, there is an external motion which by the foresaid means is made at least on the senses, and imagination, whatever it do further on the Intellect: But in the superior Influx on the soul itself, what use God may make of Angels or other superior spirits or causes, we cannot tell. We are sure (as is said) that if there be a second cause, yet as to proximity it is never the less nearly from God: And souls being Intellectual, and for ought we know of the highest nature of Creatures, though not the highest Degree, neither is improbable, that God moveth us by a second cause, or that he doth it without.

§. 3. But as Christ's fore-described mediate Causality is still supposed, so it is certain that God doth not only work (as some think) concomitantly with the word, but by it as his Instrument. Though his ways of co-operation are past the reach of man: yet this much is sure, 1. That he adap • eth the means to do their work, both word, Minister, &c. 2. And that his concourse maketh the due Impression on the sense and imagination. 3. And though no Philosopher certainly know whether the Images in the fantasy be merely passive as to the Intellect, or what use is made of them and the passions to Intellection and Volition; yet such use as is naturally to be made of them for these ends, God maketh, and manageth them accordingly by skill and power.

§. 4. But here MOTION the effect of Active force, and ORDER of motion, as the effect of GOVERNMENT, must be well distinguished: For it is not so much the second Causes of the souls Action, as such, that we are now enquiring after: But of the ORDER and Rectitude of its Actions, which is done by Government.

§. 5. That God doth work Grace on man by means, ordinarily, (as ordinarily he causeth natural effects by means; and Miracles are rare) may be proved by all these following evidences.

§. 6. 1. In that he hath made so large provision of means, and that in an admirable frame, which is as it were, a Moral world. Which he would never do in vain; nor if he ordinarily worked without them that work which he hath appointed them to do. It is the reason of the British Divines in their suffrages at Dort. Had not God decreed to work Grace by means, he could have done it with a fiat.

§. 7. 2. The Glory of this Kingdom or Sapiential Rule, which is so constantly and largely given him in the Scripture, Psal. 103. 10. and 145. and 119. throughout; and Matth. 25. As the Ship▪master or Pilot is praised who by a Helm can turn about the Ship as he will, Jam. 3. 4.

§. 8. 3. God worketh on all things according to their nature: And this is suitable to the nature of man: And the Causation is answerable to the effect: And ORDER is a moral effect, which needeth not a Creation but a moral ordering Causation.

§. 9. 4. Experience telleth us that those prosper best in grace that most faithfully and diligently use the means: And we never knew of any man in the world, that came to Actual knowledge, faith, or Love, without means; but all by the causality of them.

§. 10. 5. We find that the greatest neglecters and despisers of means, are everywhere most graceless, and the worst of men.

§. 11. 6. We have (Ministers and people) frequent and strict commands, to use means most diligently, constantly and carefully.

§. 12. 7. We have abundance of promises of God's blessing upon the use of means: Act. 26. 17. I send thee to open their eyes and turn them. Rom. 10. How shall they hear without a Preacher, &c. Isa. 55. 2, 3. Hear and your souls shall live. Matth. 28. 20. I am with you always, &c. Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you, heareth me. Psal. 19. 7, &c. The Law of the Lord is pure—Converting the soul. 1 Pet. 1. It is the incorruptible Seed that regenerateth us. Heb. 4. The word is powerful—and a searcher of the heart, &c.

§. 13. 8. When God will save a people he sends them the Gospel, and when he will forsake them he taketh it away.

§. 14. 9. The Devil showeth his malice to souls and grace, by opposing the means, depriving men of them, or keeping them from them, or from the faithful using of them.

§. 15. But it is none of my meaning that the bare means of itself doth change the soul, or that it is the principal cause: But only that God operateth Moral effects by Moral means, as he doth Natural by Natural means, being still the prime Cause of all himself.

§. 16. If we thus conjoin all Causes and separate not what God hath conjoined, it will help us the better to escape error in this matter. But if men will dream that all the honor or action that is ascribed to second causes, is a derogation from God and a dishonoring of him, they forsake the truth and injure him.

§. 17. For if this were true, that to honor the means or acknowledge second Causes, and their aptitude and efficacy, is to dishonor God, then God should be the greatest dishonourer of himself, by making and using such causes and means; And so many Creatures as there be in the world, so many dishonors are cast on God; and the excellentest Creatures would dishonor him most: which sottish conceit must needs be joined with Manichaeism, that an ill God was the Maker of the World. God is Glorious in all his works, and shineth to us in them all.

SECT. V. Of the Causes of the different Effects of Grace and Means.

§. 1. ALl that is Good in the Difference between man and man, is Willed by God, and Caused by him: But nothing that is Morally Evil.

§. 2. As in Nature, God seemeth to Cause Motion in genere by an equal universal Influx of the Sun, which maketh no difference per se, but per accidens; But the wonderful variety of motions and effects is otherwise caused: So it seemeth that Christ the Sun of Righteousness, affordeth by his Means of Nature (which he Politically manageth) an indifferent influx or help for Action as Action to the souls of men: which as Dr. Twisse frequently saith well, is to be called Nature rather than Grace (except as the repriving of Nature is Grace) so far as it is mere Power to Act; because it is equally indifferent to a good act as a bad, and to do or not do.

§. 3. The Power of Action as such, being given by an equal Natural Universal Influx, it is the ORDER of Actions, where we must inquire of the difference and its Cause.

§. 4. Action itself is not a proper substantial being, but a Modus Rei. But yet it is such a Mode as (by the Cartesians leave) requireth more Causation to it, than a mere non agere doth. But ORDO Actionum is but a modus modi.

§. 5. ORDO is the beauty of the World, and soul; the genus of all Relation in fundamento, and of all morality, and worthy to have had a notable place in the predicaments: And yet we know not what to call it, whether anything or nothing. The ORDO Rerum is not Res: And it is Rerum status; which we better know in se, than we know with what Logical Notion to cloth it.

§. 6. This excellent Nothing is the sum of Morality in its form; and the business of frail man on earth, and much of the glory of the Church triumphant in Heaven. It is God's work and not ours to make new substances; It is ours to keep ORDER in ourselves, as God's work, yea, in the Actions,