Imprimatur,  
Tho. Tomkyns R. R more. in Christo Patri ac Domino D no. GILBERTO Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episcopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis. Ex Aed. Lamb. Festo S ti Andreae, 1667.   

DEUS JUSTIFICATUS: OR, The Divine Goodness Vindicated and Cleared, against the Assertors of Absolute and Inconditionate REPROBATION.  
TOGETHER WITH Some Reflections on a late Discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the Divine Dominion and Goodness.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Plato. WISD. xi. 23. 
For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made; for never wouldst thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.  
LONDON: Printed by E. Cotes, for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in Duck-lane, 1668.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
IT cannot be unknown to any man who hath either carefully observed the manners of Mankind, or perufed the Writings of those of this present Age, who have made many sad Declarations against the general Corruption of the World; that either men are stupidly and blockishly Ignorant, even in these days wherein Knowledge so much abounds; or their Leaders have caused them to Err, by instilling into them such Principles, as may fairly consist with the practice of Vice and Immorality; which easing them of that tedious burden of severe Mortification, and sharp Conflicts with the irregular and inordinate motions of sense and the bodily life; soon captivated them to the embracing of them, and made a speedy conquest of their unwary Judgements; and so infinitely prejudiced their minds against the reception of better Sentiments and Notions, that they cannot believe either the sense of the most pious and venerable Antiquity, or of our own present Church to be Orthodox. And I wish I could say that this latter hath not been the greater cause of those monstrous Impieties, which in these late times so much prevailed amongst us; For certainly, men's natural Faculties and Capacities, are no whit worse for the entertaining of Truth, if it were rightly and duly propounded to them, than former ages: but might be much better, if every Preacher of the Gospel, and Steward of the Mysteries of God, had faithfully discharged the trust committed to him. But when those that took upon them the title of Evangelical Shepherds, came not in at the right door, but impudently challenged and usurped that Sacred Office and Dignity, of being Co-workers with Christ the chief Shepherd, in that great work of implanting his own life and lovely Nature in the lapsed and degenerate souls of men, it is no wonder if the Flock went astray, and became faint and weak through the unwholesomeness or undue order and proportion of their food. And doubtless the blessed Jesus who came into the World to heal and cement the broken ruins and decays of our Natures, did not intent to bring this Heroic undertaking to perfection by perpetual Miracles, but by a natural and orderly Method; and therefore, as he himself, before he left the World, breathed on his Apostles, and gave them Commission both to Teach and Govern his Church: So did they (having received Authority from the Prince and Head of the Catholic Church, the Lord Christ) Ordain and Constitute fit persons to succeed them in that Function; by which we are sufficiently instructed, that it is not for every man to take upon him the Office of a Minister of the Gospel, lest God take as little delight in him, as he did in those Prophets of old, who run before they were sent, (which too many did in the late times, upon the pretence of some inspired Excellency and Perfection above their Brethren) but only for those that come into their Office by a regular and due manner; and according to the Fundamental Laws, and Apostolic Constitutions of the Church wherein they live. I may therefore refer the Miscarriages observed amongst us, to these two General Heads.  
1. The great Pride and Self-conceitedness which reigns in vulgar spirits, whereby they make their vainglorious Minds the estimate of their Perfections, and by puffie conceits of themselves, crumble into infinite Sects and Divisions, and he that can best act the part of an inspired person, and cant most fluently in Scripture expressions, becomes the Ring leader of the Sect. And what gives greater occasion to this, than that pleasant Doctrine to carnal minds, which teaches them, that when they can but collect themselves to be heirs of heaven, and fancy their names enroled among the Stars, they are then safe enough; They shall tread upon the young Lion and the Dragon, and the enemy shall never be able to move or disturb their rest. And all this shall be conferred upon them without any attempts or endeavours of their own toward the attainment of it: This cannot but fill their sails, and blow up their light heads, when they consider how easily they have obtained heaven, and how God himself by a peculiar and discriminating love hath separated them from the rest of the polluted rabble of mankind, and dignified them with the title of his Beloved Ones. And (as the Nature of every Heresy is to diffuse and spread itself, and by a contagious affriction, savour all capable Subjects round about it: no sooner is this Doctrine propounded, but it finds good entertainment by the unstable and injudicious; because it complies with, and patronizes their darling Vices, and renders itself very grateful to the Animal Life; and withal requires no great pains or labour to be fully instructed in it; nothing that shall rouse them up from their deadly slumber, or molest their desired security; the whole business is nothing but an inactive and easy belief of certain propositions, and a delight some application of them to themselves; and then Heaven cannot fail of being their portion, and reward. Thus while they soar aloft, and fly in their vain dreams and imaginations, they are really sucked into a living Hell of woe and misery: and the unrighteous nature, whose counsels are the very inspirations of that bottomless-pit, takes greater hold upon them; and having no substantial foundation to bottom themselves upon, they perish in a storm, and the winds of adverse fortune sink them, even when they think themselves in the haven of Felicity. True goodness and righteousness cannot consist with a proud and haughty spirit, and is never found but in that humble Temper which the Blessed Jesus recommended to all his followers, when he said, Learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly of heart. And certainly 'tis the greatest Obex, and impediment to real and solid wisdom that possibly can be imagined, when we are impatient of instruction, and refuse such wholesome precepts and counsels, as tend to the building of us up in our most holy Faith; and by highflown imaginations climb to the highest boughs of the tree of knowledge, when we are yet unacquainted with the Rudiments of Christianity. The way to life and blessedness lies not in the self-chosen tracts of opinions, nor in sequestering ourselves from the rest of the world by an impertinent contention about words and names; things of no value or concern in comparison of those momentous and great aims of Religion in perfecting the soul in Justice, Righteousness, and Goodness; these only will give free access to Heaven, when the nice speculations of curious Wits, devoid of purity and innocency, whiter than the light and snow, are not able to waft the soul over the perturbed casualties and adverse occurrences which are the genuine productions of this inferior region of Mutability. God is not taken with shadows of Holiness, nor pleased with Enthusiastic heats, and Paroxysms of furious zeal: but with those mild and gentle motions, which are begotten and raised up by that internal Vestal fire, that perpetually burns bright within its own Orb, and spends it's Celestial vigour and activity, either in the consumption or conversion into its own nature, of whatever is stubborn and inobsequious to those laws which are the foundation of its being; and thus amplifies and enlarges its dominion by the new accession of superadvenient forces from its now-conquered enemies. The true Christian descends not so low, as to make himself a party against any one (be he of what Judgement or Opinion he will in matters of speculation and lubricous uncertainty) who sincerely follows the dictates of his great Lord and Master, whose Birth was ushered in with an Anthem of Peace and Goodwill amongst men, sung by an Angelic Choir, and his life spent in diffusions of Charity, and in uniting the hearts of all mankind to the first and ever-blessed Author of all things. The first cause of evil to the sons of men was, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That they would be their own, or themselves, as the Philosopher speaks: And now that we are Inhabitants of the earth, those wrinkles which we contracted from the aged and polluted brow of Adam, show themselves; and every man looks upon himself as a particular being, divided and separated from the rest of the World, and sent hither to manage and carry on the cause of self-interest; and being thus principled, hates all instruction to the contrary, and scorns to be reform: And through this excessive Fastus and swelling pride, the great fomentors of Debates and Contentions, the whole Earth is overrun with Cruelty and Barbarity; For, from whence come Wars and Bloodshed, but from that unquiet and turbulent spirit which cannot rest within its own Sphere; but by tumultuous and giddy motions, shakes the Peace and Tranquillity of all round about it? Those wounds which this Nation not long ago received in her body Politic, the scars of which are not worn out to this day, are too sad and sure an evidence of those direful effects which Pride and Ambition produce; especially when cherished by affected Knowledge, and the unruly and rapacious flames of mistaken Zeal. And when the unerring and Allcomprehensive Providence of God, which rules and governs the affairs of this inferior World, was pleased to permit the pride and malice of profane and immoral persons, to arise to that height of impiety and brutishness, as, in defiance of heaven, in despite of the loud clamours of their own consciences, and without any sense or regard to the common interest and Good of the Nation, whereof themselves made an unworthy part, to take away by wicked hands the life of our late Gracious Sovereign, thereby drawing a mask and veil over the beauteous face of our Church; which like the Heliotrope, must needs close up her leaves in pensiveness and sorrow, when the Sun that cheered and enlivened her by his kindly influence, was set and withdrawn from our Horizon; then, I say, did Wickedness and Irreligion, deluge and overspread the whole body Politic, like the wild Ocean breaking through its ancient bounds, and with a foaming rage swallowing up whole regions at once: and indeed little else could be expected when once the walls and banks, which restrained and curbed its luxuriant pride, were overturned and broken down: Then was Monarchy stigmatised with the infamous title of Tyranny, and Episcopacy (which excellent and well-tempered Constitution, both Reason and Scripture aver to be Apostolical) styled Antichristianism, and new-modeled Popery; and those, who out of a sense of faith and obedience to God, and generous Loyalty and Allegiance to their Prince, could not comply with those impious Designs, and unchristian Projects then set on foot, were accounted Schismatics and Dissenters from the public interest: And what was it gave birth to these tragic Scenes of sorrow and disorder, but only the restless and unstable spirits of injudicious persons, who being puffed up with aspiring thoughts, and the fantastic images of Glory and Ambition, cast an envious eye upon every transaction, whether in Church or State, that did not compromise with their interest, and suit with the ill-contrivances of things their busy minds had been working out? And that the Gospel which carries Peace in its forefront, and owns no other Parent but the Prince of Peace, all whose productions are like himself, should be made to give an alarm of Rebellion and War, is the most audacious piece of treachery to God, and uncharitableness to Men, in the World; as if God were more pleased with the title of the Lord of Hosts, then in being styled the Father of Mercies, order and consolation throughout the earth. Surely, he that once said, By me Kings Reign, and Princes decree Justice, did likewise command, to be subject to them, and honour them; as being accountable to him alone, for the management of the trust committed to them. And it cannot be a greater reproach and scandal, to that peaceable Religion we profess, then to see those that own it, and seem to contend most for it, to be such ill practitioners of those plain Precepts of Obedience to our lawful Magistrates, and by varnishing them over with the distorted Glosses of their corrupt minds, make them speak what they never intended in the least to countenance or favour.  
2. The second General cause of our Miscarriages, is the precipitant and inconsiderate Zeal and Fervour of those who took upon them to instruct the people, which draw along with it many evil and pernicious consequences. And though I have so much Charity as to think, that most of them directed their labours, in that kind, to the glory of God, and made that the ultimate end and result of their Preaching; yet, there is a zeal which is without knowledge and judgement, and the interest of Religion is not then best advanced, when her Priests (from whose lips should flow wisdom) are most ignorant. But that I may not seem to charge them only with Generals, I will descend to some more particular Considerations upon this head; by which it will easily appear, with what great indiscretion they managed that high affair they undertook.  
1. Therefore they exceedingly erred in propounding to their Charge, such crude and uncocted Doctrines, as (besides the inconsistency of them with the principles of Reason, and Truths of first inscription, and incoherence with the Divine Attributes, (than which, nothing can be excogitated more infallible for the Exploration of whatever falls under humane cognizance) which is, in some measure, made good in the following Discourse) they likewise put a certain stop to the progress of Christianity throughout the World, and are the greatest impediment to the dissemination of the Gospel, to them that are without; it being given to be the Religion of all mankind, to run and be glorious, and to conquer and subdue the Nations to the entertainment of it. For, unless we will imagine men so stupid, and ignorantly devotional, that they will embrace any thing, though never so disagreeing with the native sentiments of their own minds; it is impossible they should ever give any real and unfeigned assent to such Dogmata of Christianity, as pretend to no other Author, but the Eternal Logos and Wisdom of God, and are propounded to rational and intellectual creatures endued with a discriminative sense and perception between truth and falsehood; and yet, by all the reason that is in them, cannot make them to appear so. And though the Doctrines themselves should not be in their whole frame and contexture irrational, yet if we give absurd and inconcinnous explications of them, there will be as small hope and expectation that any man should be convinced and persuaded by them, as if they were altogether false. Such is the intellectual Fabric of men's minds, that they cannot believe or disbelieve what they will; but there are certain laws and principles interwoven in the essential frame of their Natures by the great Architect of all things, by which they are bound up and limited, and which are the foundations of all Knowledge, whether Natural, Moral, or Metaphysical. And 'tis very strange to think, that infinite Wisdom, which alone works constantly and evenly, and according to the capacities and measures of creatures, should now in this grand Mystery of the recovery of the World, which of all things is the most like that high and incomprehensible intellect, which gave birth unto it, so deviate from the unchangeable laws of it's own being, as to propound such Articles and Propositions to the World, which without the greatest reluctancy and violation of their Natural Powers and Faculties, they can never fully credit or believe. And questionless such a way and method of proceeding would so miserably confound the beautiful Order and Symmetry of things, that beside it must necessarily engage the Divine Power to the production of a perpetual Miracle for the begetting Faith and Assent in men; it likewise lays them open and obnoxious to inevitable Errors, Falsities and Delusions, and there will be no means left for the attaining to the truth of any thing. And now let any man consider, what little probability or plausibility of reason there is, that such a Doctrine as this, whether positively declared so in itself, or made so by the perverse Glosses, and Paraphrastical Expositions of others, should win and gain ground upon the World, and effect that purpose for which it was at first intended.  
It was the advice and counsel of the Apostle 1 Cor. x. 32. that we give no offence either to the Jew, or to the Greek, whereby to alienate their minds from so excellent a Religion; for there is nothing so much obstructs the diffusion of any Principles or Dogmata, be they of what sort they will, as when they contain something which may administer just cause of scruple, and beget an aversion to it in the mind of a rational and unprejudiced person. He therefore that would bring over a free and ingenuous Spirit, whether Jew or Heathen to Christianity, must be sure that he assert nothing Dogmatically, or positively lay it down as an indispensable Article of the Christian Faith, which the other can reject upon clear and solid grounds of Reason; for, assuredly, no part of Christianity can be repugnant to Right Reason. Therefore to begin with the Jew, who taking just exceptions against many Dogmata of Christianity, as they are in common vogue amongst us: but particularly disgusting that harsh and rigid Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation, expresses his dislike and dissatisfaction in such like terms as these; That God gave Statutes, and Judgements, and delivered a Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, I am sufficiently convinced of, from the constant and uninterrupted Tradition of our Fathers, and that I am equally obliged to perform due obedience to it, is in my apprehension a truth as indubitable as the other: But that I should desert the Religion of my Ancestors, and embrace a Novel Doctrine wholly repugnant to, and inconsistent not only with the common principles of Reason, but the Law of Moses, and Prophetic Writings, and manifestly tending to the eversion and extirpation of all Religion in the World (for, who will put his trust in that God who takes greater pleasure in Destroying, than in Saving of his Creatures?) will argue as great Impiety, as it will appear Fantastickness and Imprudence in the eyes of all that believe a God and Providence in the World. For under the Mosaical Oeconomy, God like a just and prudent Legislator, makes the ground and foundation of all his Promises and Menaces, to be the Obedience or Disobedience of his Subjects; and Benefits are not conferred but hypothetically, and with respect to the condition annexed to them; nor Punishments executed, but upon the actual breach and violation of a Law: And beside this, you tell us, that when the Messiah comes, he will bring into the World such a Religion and Service as will most suit with our rational and intellectual Natures, such as may approve itself to our inward and divine sense as truly excellent and lovely, comprehending the flower and sum of whatever is Worthy, Noble, and Generous; which, you say, is most lively depainted and set out to us in that which you call the Christian Religion, the great Arcanum and Mystery of which (according to the principles of your Doctrine) seems to be this, That God hath eternally Elected a certain number of persons to inherit Blessedness with him, and sent his son to signify the same to them, and to publish this his decree: but to cast away the rest upon the pretence of his Sovereignty and Dominion over them; either therefore the coming of Christ is upon rational grounds yet expected, or if he have been already manifested to the World, your Religion is none of his, nor was he ever the Author of it, but the spurious results and effuxes of fanciful persons obtruded as necessary Articles of faith upon the World. It is impossible I should ever believe, that the great Creator of the Universe, who in our Law declared himself to be The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness; and who so often forgot the Crimes and Apostasies of our Forefathers, when they returned and sought him with their whole heart, should now so change his Nature, and suspend the rays and benign emanations of his communicative life, in this which you affirm to be the last and most perfect manifestation of himself, as not only without any regard had of their just provocations, but even before they became sons of sense and were born into the World, to Reprobate the far greatest part of Mankind, and make them the unhappy objects of his endless displeasure. And surely if he himself once judged it a less merciful and benign Oeconomy to use his Prerogative of Absolute Dominion in visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the Children though otherwise culpable, and therefore confirmed it with an Oath, that As he lived, there should be no more cause of using that Proverb in Israel, The Fathers have eaten sour Grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge; he will not in these last days, wherein you tell us, he hath clearly explicated and unfolded his Everblessed Nature, so far derogate from his illustrious Goodness, as to become more harsh and severe, in making Innocency itself feel the heavy weight of an implacable vengeance. Was he once so gracious as to accept of an atonement for sin, and pardon iniquities upon the Oblation of an Expiatory Sacrifice; and will he now have no mercy and compassion upon the blameless works of his own hands, who never offended unless it were in acting according to those principles his own good hands placed in them? The first man was not turned out of Paradise, and condemned to manure the Earth, till he rebelled against his Maker, and tasted of the tree of Knowledge: but according to your Doctrine, the souls of men are no sooner created, but immediately thrown out of those arms which then embraced them, into a state of bitterness and sorrow, a region of malediction which both God and man abhor. In a word therefore, if the long-expected Messiah have propagated this Doctrine in the World, I dare not be so treacherous to God and Reason as to entertain what in my apprehension they both plainly deny.  
Having seen the just exceptions of the Jew against Christianity, occasioned by that precarious Assertion of Irrespective Decrees, which to every discerning eye appears a mighty impediment and hindrance to the planting in them a true value and esteem of the Doctrine of the Holy Jesus, We may in the next place attend a while to the Heathen, who though he be deprived of those clear Declarations of the Nature and Mind of God, which Christians do plentifully enjoy; yet having the principles of good and evil, just and unjust, displayed upon his Nature by the bountiful maker of all things, and Truth being always like itself in however various subjects it may reside, thus bespeaks those vain Theologasters who out of an imprudent zeal, think no man well till he entertain their nice and impertinent Doctrines.  
When I look into the outward Fabric of the corporeal world, and revolve the exact Order, Symmetry and Beauty of the external Creation, how every thing acts regularly within its own Sphere, and all conspire to the mutual good and perfection of the whole, I cannot but acknowledge the existence of an Eternal mind, from whose pregnant fecundity this great ball of the Earth, the blue Ethereal sky, and whatever lies hid and undecerned within the vast capacities of immense space, received their being and subsistence. From this exuberant source of Goodness did mine and the souls of all mankind flow, and those various orders and degrees of rational beings which taste the bounty of their Creator in their several stations and capacities: and all these, though in different measures and proportions he loves and cares for, and takes an infinite delight and complacency to see them all exert those ●ital powers he was pleased to bestow upon them; For I cannot think that God made any of his creatures to be miserable, or that he should so much darken the early rays of his Paternal benignity in bringing them into being, by making their Existence a burden to them, and serve for no other end then for a protraction of their miseries; least of all can I, without a manifest violation of my faculties, yield my assent to that horrid Doctrine which you maintain and propound as necessary to be believed by every one who expects a blessed immortality with the Gods above, viz. That the Benign and Alwise Maker of the World did resolve from the outgoing of Eternity, to destroy the greatest part of his noblest Creation; and therefore decreed, that out all mankind whom he intended to send down upon Earth, he would oull out a small number, known to him by name, whom he would irresistibly (without respect to their future Faith or Obedience) make happy in the fruition of himself: but determined (without consideration or prevision of their sin and disobedience) to damn and excruciate with interminable torments, mee●ly upon his own will and pleasure, all the rest of the World, so soon as Death should deliver them from the infelicities and burdensome circumstances of a painful ●ife here upon Earth. This, I say, which you exact of your Converts, I have not fith enough to receive; For, can any ratinal person imagine, That God should become a Tyrant to his creatures? That he should have no compassion toward the works of his own hands? Nay further, That he should introduce them upon the stage of being on purpose to reproach and make them miserable; that let them do what they can in order to their future Blessedness, they should be befriended of none, nor ever pitied by the tender bowels of that Almighty Goodness which first brought them forth, but lie as unfortunate marks against which the arrows of Divine vengeance are perpetually levelled, and their cries no more regarded by the Father of Spirits, than the groans of dying Victims by those insolent and unpitiful Deities to whom they are offered; and which yet casts a greater stain and blot upon the Oeconomy of your God, that he might not seem to condemn the innocent, but to act under the specious pretext of Justice, you make him first design, than plot and contrive their ruin; which to effect, that he might set the better face upon it, he enacts a Law, entailing a sure and severe punishment upon the breach of it, and in the mean time not only not affords those whom he intends to destroy, the least strength imaginable to perform it: but on the contrary, by an overruling and  power (which some of your Authors magnify as the fairest gem in his beautiful Crown of Glory) necessitates them to have a vile commerce and correspondence with Sin and Hell, that the beams and rays of his Justice may shine with the more dazzling Lustre in their perdition and destruction: but as for those whom his discriminative love selected to the participation of his own pacate felicity and beatitude, the same unlimited power most effectually carries them on through all states and conditions, winking at their most enormous and heinous lapses, perhaps into Adultery and Murder, or other course Impieties, and never forsakes them till they they are brought to the quiet possession of what was theirs by an unchangeable Decree before the World began. How deeply will the whole Creation of Rational beings resent such an act as this? and what small reason can any man have to cast his care, and erect a foundation of his hope upon that God who notwithstanding the greatest expressions of love and kindness to them, the most pathetical invitations of them to accept the gracious overtures of his Goodness, the highest sense of aversion to their misery, accompanied with Oaths and Protestations against it, and the fairest promises of Rewards and Blessings to them if they will obey, shall yet underhand lay an inevitable train of causes to entrap and foil them? I find that my dear spirit affectionately breathes after a freer participation of the Divine Life and Nature, and makes many little sallies and attempts to arise beyond the straight and narrow laws of corporeal life, into a state of true freedom and liberty; and I cannot but hearty complain of the charming and alluring Magic of the Earthly and Brutish life in me, that I am too much awake and alive to the effluxes and emissions of the material World, whereby the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Divinity that is enwrapped and as it were incarnate within me, becomes weak and unactive: but my hope is, that through the mighty Power of that Divine Love which upholds the Creation with extended arms, the heavenly part within me shall prevail, and gain a complete Conquest and Victory, and that when this mortal life shall perish, I shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, An immortal God, no more depressed with the weight of Terrestrial encumbrance. But alas, according to your Doctrine, if this be all, it is but like the Prelude to a fatal Tragedy, or the sudden blaze of a dying Lamp, and I may for all this fall short and be deceived; for if you attribute a Power to your God of Simulation and Fraud, he may evacuate all my expectations, notwithstanding the pretended Declarations of his Will and Veracity to the contrary. To say no more than this, Can he punish those effects or operations in me which his own immediate and energetical concourse was the cause of? Am I become guilty because I acted under the irresistible impulses and motions of his will? If this therefore be a true description of the Nature of God, there is no reasonable man but would judge him to be rather some flaming Erynnis with curled Snakes and knotted whips to chastise the World, than an Almighty, Good and Wise Numen.  
We see then what little hope there is of ingratiating and recommending Christianity to those that are without, while we either positively maintain, or consequentially introduce such Doctrines as Christian, which in their very frame and complexion are repugnant to Right Reason, and inconsistent with the Oeconomy of Providence in the World. And while the Preachers of the Gospel impose upon men such crude notions, they not only do them the most uncharitable piece of service that lightly can be imagined: but likewise block up the way and passage of truth to others who may be in very forward degrees of preparation to receive it.  
2. They were very much mistaken in the Order and Method of propounding the Articles and Doctrines of Christianity to their Auditors, and by that means (supposing the truth of those Notions they desired to implant in them) rendered them far less acceptable than otherwise they might have been. The ever-blessed Son of God, the eternal mind and wisdom of his Father, when he descended from his glory and became a Man, that he might teach the World that salutary Knowledge which should instate them in their pristine Blessedness, did not communicate to them that recondite Mystery all at once, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they were able to hear it; that is, according to their Measure and Proportion. Every man's Criterion and discriminative faculty is not in a due and fit disposition for the reception of high and raised Speculations, no more than every ear is fitly qualified for the judging of Harmony. As in all Arts and Sciences there are some Rudiments and Principles to be learned before we can arrive to a considerable measure of perfection in them; so in Religion there are some Catechetical Instructions and Cognate Preparations to be used before we enter upon the Sublime and Theoretical Doctrines contained in it. For considering the great degeneracy and Apostasy of mankind from their true Happiness, and with what exorbitant and unlimited desires and passions they come into the World toward the things of this present life, and how hardly they are wrought of to the entertainment of what is truly good and holy, the propounding of intricate Mysteries to them, while their distinguishing sense of good and evil is so monstrously depraved and out of order, is but (to use our Saviour's similitude) to put new Wine into old Bottles, offensive to the hearers, and corruptive of the Truth itself: and we may with as great reason expect a Substantial and stately Edifice without any foundation, or full eared-Corn so soon as the bare Grain is cast into the ground, as look for the perfect and complete Image of Christ in him who does not yet understand the Principles and Rudiments of Religion. For what specimen doth that man give of the pure and undefiled Nature of God living in him, who can knowingly injure his Brother, or pass by with an unconcerned look the calamitous objects of Pity and Compassion? Or, what proof can he bring that he is acted by that Almighty Spirit of Holiness and Righteousness, and renewed into the blameless Image of the blessed Jesus, who omits no opportunities of Injustice and Oppression? These things therefore which are the very groundwork and foundation of that Evangelical Building which Christ came to erect in the souls of men, aught with all dure care and diligence, and with great earnestness and seriousnese to be pressed upon men by the Preachers of the Gospel, that the People may be convinced their Teachers are real and sincere in the business, and that what they so inculcate upon them is for the future and unspeakable benefit of their immortal souls. And by the frequent use of these Monitory Cautions and Exhortations it is to be hoped that men will grow more holy, and practice with greater circumspection the plain duties of Morality, by which means they will be more apt to conceive and judge of the other more Speculative Doctrines and Articles of Christianity, which ought to be let alone till their proper-time come, wherein they may with some advantage be propounded to the hearers, they being by the constant exercise of the Precepts of Justice, Equity and Goodness prepared and competently well fitted for the reception of the Mysterious and Recondite part of Religion. It cannot therefore but be acknowledged a piece of great inadvertency and opinionative Curiosity in the generality of Preachers in these late times, to make it their business, in the first place, to instruct their Hearers in the most difficult, and many times disputable points of the Christian Religion, and fill their heads with unprofitable opinions, while they neglected the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the more serious and weighty matters of Justice, Mercy and Compassion. From hence came it, that in their Catechisms and Confessions of Faith, they crowded so many unnecessary and fruitless Doctrines under the name and notion of Indubitable Articles of the Christian Faith, and which were necessary to be believed in order to Salvation; such as are the Positions concerning God's Decree of Election and Reprobation, etc. And here I cannot but with all due regard and honour, commend the great Prudence of the Compilers, as of the whole Liturgy and Service, so particularly of the Catechism of the Church of England, for the Instructing of the younger sort in the Rudiments and Principles of Christianity, wherein as there is nothing propounded as indispensably necessary to be believed, but what is undoubtedly so; in like manner they modestly contented themselves in inserting only such things as were by all the reformed part of Christendom looked upon as unquestionably true, and the contrary condemned as false and adulterate: so that I may say of it as David of Goliahs' Sword, There is none like it.  
Thus (Reader) I have given thee a full Account and Reason of the following Discourse, and of the Necessity of some such way and method of Instructing the People as I have here described; which certainly is not to fill their brains with puffie Opinions, and jejune Disputations: but a zealous cautioning them against all Vice and Immorality whatever, and a serious exhorting them to the practice of Holiness, Justice and Equity, Obedience to their Lawful Prince, and to all inferior Magistrates, to do good and communicate to the Necessities of the Indigent and Calamitous; and when the case requires a further instruction in the Mysteries of Religion, such a full and easy Explication of the several Articles and Doctrines contained in it, as may best suit with their Capacities and the plain Texts of Holy Scripture, which as it is recommended as most useful for the promotion of Piety by our Mother the Church of England; so it is most agreeable with the Nature of the thing itself.   

GOD'S GOODNESS VINDICATED, Against Absolute Reprobation.  

CHAP. I. Inconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture.  
THERE is scarce any Doctrine or Opinion maintained in the World (be it never so Monstrous and Irrational) but pleads Scripture to countenance and authorise it; and though Truth be but one, yet every Sect and Faction claims an Interest in it; and that Error may pass more freely disguised and undiscerned amongst men, it is now-become a fashion to allege the Divinely-inspired Writings, as an unquestionable Evidence for the reasonableness and Truth of whatever strange and uncouth conceits men please to divulge in the World. Such is the Hypothesis of Absolute Reprobation we have in hand: And he that shall peruse the Writings of those who desire to maintain it, and consider with what wonderful confidence they assert it, and how thick-set the Margins of their Treatises are with citations of Scripture to patronise and defend it, and yet how little or nothing there is in that Sacred Volume that in good earnest looks that way, will be soon persuaded, that it is an inveterate prejudice, rather than any probability of Truth, which makes them such pertinacious Adherents to so ill-framed a Doctrine. And that I may make good what I have affirmed, I shall begin with Divine Revelation, wherein God declares his gracious Oeconomy and Dispensation with mankind, and Vindicates the glory and honour of his Nature and Attributes, from the aspersions and imputations of cruelty and injustice, asserting his Rule and Dominion in the World to be Righteous and Equal, and perfectly agreeable to the highest Wisdom and Goodness; so that none of his Creatures, unless it be such who are desperately forlorn and wicked, can possibly wish his Not-being in the World. This is his Name whereby he proclaims himself to Moses, The Lord, the Lord God, 
Exod. xxxiv. 6.  merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth: and this Name God hath verified in the whole Oeconomy of his Providence to the lapsed World, 
Deut. v. 29.  Oh that my people had such an heart in them (says he) that they would fear me and keep my Commandments! But why doth God wish this? not for any self design or particular interest (for our goodness extendeth not unto him, nor can our sins detract any thing from the sedate and composed happiness of his everblessed Nature) but that it might go well with them, and their Children for ever. Behold here the flagrant love and intense affection of the God of Israel, to a stiffnecked and disobedient people! Do not these passionate strains proceed from his whole heart, and are they not Arguments of the greatest seriousness? How then can he unfeignedly desire that they should walk in the ways of life, when his own good Pleasure from the out-going of Eternity hath irresistibly determined their motion into the paths of destruction? Can a tender Mother expose her innocent Babe to be devoured by wild Beasts, or sawn asunder before her eyes? 
Isai. xlix. 15.  Can she forget her sucking Child, that she should not have compassion upon the Son of her womb? Suppose there may be some so obdurate and unrelenting that their bowels will not yern over such a dismal spectacle, yet they are but few that have degenerated so deeply into this more than brutish stupidity; and can we think the compassionate Father of Spirits who is infinitely more pitiful in all the degrees of intention and extension than the best of the Sons of Men, will betray his own dear offspring, or prove so unnatural to design them to the most acute torments the wit and subtlety of Men or Devils can invent, and that to eternal ages, before ever their Existence gave them the least opportunity of offending him? 
1 Joh. iv. 16.  God is Love itself, whose nature is ever to be diffusive and communicative to all the possibilities of beings, and therefore glories not in this that he is powerful to slay, to damn and excruciate in unheard and perpetual torments: 
Isa. lxiii. 1.  but that he speaks in righteousness, and is mighty to save. And that he might fully convince the World of this gracious property of his, he hath pronounced Judgement to be his Strange work, and his Strange act, which men's Impenitencies only force him to; for he will not that any perish: but that every Creature should be happy in its measure and capacity. And lest we Sons of Darkness should entertain any such thought of the God of Light, as if he pleased himself in our ruin, he hath joined an Oath to it, 
Ezek. xxxiii. 11.  and hath sworn As he liveth he hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked, but that the Wicked turn from his way and live. He would have all his Creatures know that he is no way accessary to their destruction, 
Hos. xiii. 9  O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help. And when he sees what froward and untoward Creatures we are, that readily forsake what he loves, and run after that which his soul delighteth not in, making such unhappy choices for ourselves, as if we studied how to be our own Executioners, than he gins to reason with us, O my people, what have I done unto thee, 
Mich. vi. 3.  or wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me? 
Jer. two. 5, & 31.  What evil have ye found in me? Have I been a barren Wilderness unto you, or a Land of darkness? and if any shall yet be so presumptuous as to cast the blame of their wretchedness and misery upon so benign a Father, he stands ready to acquit himself, and calls heaven and earth to record against them, that he hath set before them Life and Death, 
Deut. xiii. 19  Blessing and Cursing, and requested them to choose that which may make them for ever happy; 
Joh. v. 40.  But they will not come unto him that they may have life. Nay further, that God might take away all manner of excuse from the Sons of men, and manage his cause in a way of Reason and Equity, he hath not only showed his Righteousness to the Heathen, and declared his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: but asserted it possible for men to perform his Will, so that his yoke is in itself easy, and his burden is really light, and his service is reasonable 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ; that is, agreeable to the dictates and sentiments of our rational Nature; 
Rom. xii. 1.  For, the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise; the Word is very nigh thee, 
Rom. x. 6, 8.  in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. No man can complain of any hard usage, that God commands impossibilities, and enjoins things that are above his reach; For the Spirit of God, that mighty principle of Life and Vigour which pervades the whole World of intellectual agents, is ready to assist the generous and hearty attempts of all sincere persons after the Divine Life and Nature; for so he who gave that gift to his Apostles, and assured mankind of the continuance of it till the end of the World, hath long since made known to us, that if Earthly Parents know how to give good gifts to their Children, 
Luk. xi. 13.  God our heavenly Father should much more give his Holy Spirit to all that ask it of him. He would have all the Creation take notice, that it is not for any ends of his own that he is at such pains with us; My people (says God) have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, 
Jer. two. 13.  and have hewn out to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold no water; Methinks the words signify thus much, as if God should thus bespeak us, O my people if you could mend yourselves by forsaking me the fountain of living Waters, than I could be content, and reason would that I should bear with you: but that you should betake yourselves to broken Cisterns which can hold no water, and are then dried up when ye most stand in need of them, this argues your lightness and folly. 
Isai. xxx. 18.  God waits to be gracious, and with infinite patience and long-sufferance expects our Repentance, and suffers that tempestuous whirlwind of enraged Vengeance which Sin and Vice have fed and congested, to roll long within the Orb of Mercy before it burst forth, and bear down the sinner into the horrors and agonies of Eternal ages. And this is sufficiently evidenced by those Pathetical expressions of his unwillingness to punish his Creatures, till at last being compelled to it, he sets about it with a kind of reluctancy of spirit, and is as it were, grieved to the heart that he must use such rigorous means to reduce them to himself; 
Hos. xi. 8, 9  How shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. This is God's gracious Expostulation with himself, as if he should have thus said, What shall I do unto thee O my people? or how should I behave myself toward thee? Should I make thee an example of my judgement as Admah? Or, should I consume thee in a moment like Zeboim? No surely, my heart is quite averse from such harsh proceed, they are even extorted from me; therefore my heart yerns after thee O Ephraim, my bowels are turned and melted within me, (an expression of the dearest love and affection that possibly can be, Jer. xxxi. 20.) I am even overcome with those deep-fetched breathe of affectionate Love which I bear unto thee; therefore I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, for I am God and not Man, I bear no malice against any of the Creation, but had rather my kindness then my displeasure should endear men to the consideration of their own happiness. And at last he appeals to our own Reasons and Consciences, and is content to submit himself and his Dispensations to our own thoughts, whether we can imagine any better course than that he hath taken, to reform us; 
Isai. v. 4.  Judge I pray you between me and my Vineyard; what could I have done more to my Vineyard then I have not done? So that it is only when all means prove ineffectual, that the God of Love turns to a consuming fire, and makes us the proper objects of his direful Vengeance. To take yet a more direct view of that fair Perfection, the very root and centre of the Deity, I mean Goodness or Love, let us behold God manifest in the flesh, and look upon him who being the brightness of his Father's Glory, the express Image and Character of his Person, encircled with the loving arms of Heaven, and folded up in the bosom of Blessedness, yet left those sacred Mansions of Happiness out of pure good will to the race of Mankind, and put off the robes of Glory, that he might be capacitated to dwell in a body of flesh, to the intent that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. That pure soul which shone with an Ethereal brightness, far surpassing the glory of the Sun, being vitally united with the Eternal Logos, and full of the Divine Life, did inwardly pity and commiserate the lapsed posterity of Adam; wherefore that he might more abundantly demonstrate the riches of his grace, he declared himself the Saviour not of some few only, but of the whole World, that the design of his appearing was to scatter an healing influence upon the broken and distracted Sons of men, and that the effects of it should be good tidings of great joy to all people, assuring guilty sinners of the love of their offended God, and that yet they had not sinned out of the reach of Mercy, but that now while 'tis called to day, if they would hear the God of love speaking to their consciences, and gently mollifying their obdurate hearts, they should run unto him by a speedy repentance, and he would melt and thaw their frozen spirits into a pliable ductility by the warm gleams of his Eternal Love, loosen the wings of their entangled Souls, and secure their flight into the quiet regions of Peace and Joy. When this Son of Love who was always going about doing good, saw the Multitude scattered abroad like Sheep that have no Shepherd, it is said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Mat. ix. 36.  He was moved with compassion on them: which word (says a Learned Critic) denotes, Summam & vehementem commiscrationem ex intimis visceribus profectam, Such an inward feeling and yerning of the heart and soul, as melts the very bowels into a pitiful commiseration of the object they are affected with: which intense affection is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The bowels of the mercy of God, Luk. i. 78. And when he came to Jerusalem, how did he weep over her, and moisten his fresh Laurels with a shower of Tears, O Jerusalem, 
Matth. xxiii. 37.  Jerusalem, thou that killed'st the Prophets, and stonedst them that were sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! His heart was so full of grief, that it could hold no longer, but must empty itself in a sympathising flood of tears over that incorrigible City, softening that ground with his watery eyes which shortly after should be bedewed with blood. Oh that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. Surely there is no man so blasphemous as to think Christ wept tears of deceit and treachery; No, they were the very breathe of his heart to a people that were going into inevitable destruction. For if we look into the whole History of the Gospel, we shall find, that our blessed Lord was of as tender and passive a constitution as ever the world had any cognizance of; and in this very instance, which was Christ's last solemn visit for the recovery of those rebellious Jews, he hath left upon record to all succeeding ages of the World, the fervency of his Love, and the greatness of their Obstinacy and Rebellion: He road in triumph, the children sang Hosanna to him, and he cured many impotent and diseased persons, that at least that miraculous and wonder-working Power residing in him might extort this confession from them, that he was the Son of God and the promised Messiah; and after all this, he weeps for their Infidelity and pities them with tears, and having his heart and spirit full of love that is stronger than death, he leaves no way untried: but spends the whole day amongst them, and looks round about him towards evening, to see if any would invite him home, being unwilling to departed, till their Ingratitude forces him away. And now that he is exalted in Glory, and sits at the right hand of his Father invested with Majesty and Power, his Compassions are no whit abated, nor is that benign care and Providence, which in the days of his Humiliation and condescent he exercised over the fallen generations of Men at all lessened by the augmentation of his Blessedness and Felicity: but daily woes and beseeches us by his Ministers and Servants to enter upon terms of amity and friendship with God, who in him hath been pleased to reconcile the World unto himself. Should we now cast our eyes upon the whole frame and fabric of the Gospel, we shall find it to be the most effectual engine that infinite Wisdom could contrive for the winding of the minds and spirits of men from their too eager pursuit of the pleasures and gratifications of the lower life, and working them up to those noble and high purposes for which they were made. And doubtless there is no man in whom prejudice doth not outbalance reason, but will readily set his seal to this truth, there appearing in the Gospel such sweet condescensions to our capacities and compliances with the frailty of our condition, such infinite averseness to our misery and destruction, and such powerful endearments and attractives to Holiness and Righteousness, that he cannot judge it to proceed from any other, than a principle of Infinite Goodness, Love and Wisdom. I might here further tell you, that the Gospel being designed to be the Religion of men of all sorts and conditions, of all ranks and qualities, and so adapted to our rational powers, and in the main drift and scope of it so plain and easy even to the most illiterate capacities, Divine Wisdom could not but highly approve of it, and by a favourable benediction suffer it to have that Universal effect it pretends to; that is, the full and complete renovation of all mankind that would not wilfully reject the counsel of God against themselves, and the perfecting every one without exception or limitation that would faithfully and cordially to his utmost powers adhere unto it.   

CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason: wherein is set out the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil, Truth, and Falsehood. And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions.  
THere is nothing that can lay any claim or pretence to the decision of Questions of a Moral Nature and Import, but will appear very lame and ineffectual, without the aid and assistance of Right Reason, which is so noble and generous a principle, that if we take a serious view of it, it will soon discover to us it's Royal Pedigree and Divine Extraction. There is a near alliance and consanguinity between the Reason of Man, and that Eternal Goodness which at first sealed it as an impression of his Nature upon our souls, and therefore there need be no such distance between true Christianity and it. For assuredly, that Divine Wisdom which at our first production implanted in us the apprehensions and Ideas of things did so order the business, that if we used our discriminative faculties aright, we should have no other conceptions of them then what did really and significantly express the Natures of the things themselves, and such as were Eternally lodged in the All-comprehensive Intellect of the Deity. There being then no Judge on Earth whose Dictates and Determinations may be credited as Authentic and Infallible, and every man being commanded to prove all things, to try the Spirits whether they be of God, and to look carefully and diligently to himself that he fall not, nor be led into Error, and the Reason and understanding of man if rightly managed, being the Candle of the Lord, whereby he is enabled to examine and judge of Doctrines, it will follow, that it must determine of whatever dictates shall be propounded to him. He therefore that considers we were made by an Eternal mind, that the original of our beings is from an All-prefect Author, who at our first Creation stamped the impresses of his Nature upon us; and every thing that derives from him being in some measure and degree like himself, will without any hesitancy assent to this Truth, viz. That whatever offers itself to our rational Nature by a clear and distinct perception, is infallible so, and we are no longer to doubt of the truth of it. And unless we grant this, it is impossible we should ever come to any certain knowledge of any thing in the World. Now that those Ideas which thus offer themselves to us, that is, by a clear and distinct perception are certainly so in the nature of the things themselves, we are no longer to doubt of, because Veracity is an Essential mode and Attribute of the Author of our beings, and therefore 'tis impossible he should deceive us in those things which we have an evident and distinct apprehension and cognizance of; and further we may take notice, that that Power in us which discriminates between the Being's and Modes of things, is the same that is in 
| This made the bold Stoic affirm, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arrian.  God, and participates of his Nature, and is nothing but a ray and beam let down from Heaven, by whose light we discover and apprehend the various kinds of objects, whether Moral, Physical or Metaphysical; according to that of Epicharmus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being so, the cause of all our Errors and Mistakes must be attributed to ourselves; not that we want those faculties which should give us a faithful and true representation of things: but because we abuse them, whether by an inadvertency and anticipation in judgement, or by an inveterate prejudice contracted from an evil Education, or by what other means soever it comes to pass. Reason therefore is the Vicarious Power of God in the Soul, and to refuse its Authority in such things as of right belong unto it to judge of, is to reject the light of God shining within us, as Hierocles excellently discourses, 
In Carm. Pythag.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is, To act according to the dictates of Right Reason, is the same as to obey God; for the rational Nature being once raised to the possession of its native brightness, wills and acts according to the determinations of the Divine Law and pleasure: and the holy Soul that thus participates of the Deity, becomes in every thing conformable to the mind of God, and frames the whole System and comprehension of its actions by the conduct and guidance of that Eternal Splendour. All our knowledge in this our state of degeneracy and imperfction, may not unfitly be called, according to the Platonists, a Reminiscency, or an awakening those multifarious Ideas either by her own internal Energy, or by the occursions of sensible Phantasms, which are treasured up in the essence of the soul herself; for now that the soul is sent into this World, and roused out of her long sleep and state of Inactivity, she acts over again her former life, and recals those Ideas and Notions of things which upon occasion she exerted somewhere else. But whether we give heed to this Hypothesis or no, it is certain, that our souls, as they come out of the hands of God, are not like transparent Globes of pellucid Crystal, or fair and white sheets wherein nothing is written, but essentially stored and filled with the indelible Characters and Ideas of Truth, to whose light so long as we faithfully attend, though we wander in abstruse, rugged, and dark paths, we need not question but that at last by their safe conduct we shall arrive to the regions of light, where all the mists and difficulties which before enveloped us shall vanish into perfect day, and all things appear in their own proper dress, and essential Characters: but when we neglect to give heed to these sure and infallible guides, we are distracted and miserably confounded in the contemplation of things, and are at a loss where to bottom or settle ourselves, which the  Author took notice of in these words, 
Hierocles in Carm. Pythag.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That the Essential forms and Ideas of things are centrally counited to the soul, and not then first begotten when brought into actual Existence upon the several emergences of life; but the effects of that innate and pregnant Fecundity the kind and liberal hand of God bestowed upon her, is a Noematical truth, and cannot but appear so to those who attentively consider and weigh the various animadversive acts, and discriminative judgements the soul makes of things: Not to instance in those relative notions of similitude and proportion, and the consideration of Universals which have no foundation in any thing beside the mind itself, what is it that can conclude the true magnitude of objects? For though we grant, that there is some picture or representation of the object drawn in the bottom of the eye; yet that being far less than the real proportion and magnitude of the external object, it will be necessary that the soul exert some innate Idola, whereby to give an exact and perfect judgement of it. These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or first notions and apprehensions are the foundations of all Arts and Sciences, and of all Knowledge in the World, and whatever affects us from without, doth but administer several instances and due occasions to the soul of working, and unravelling her own Uniform essence for the bringing into actual existence this or the other Phantasm. Wherefore in this the soul of man resembles that ancient fountain of Blessedness which brought her into being; and as he by his Almighty Fiat, gave actual being to the multifarious forms and Ideas eternally comprehended in his Infinite Wisdom: so the humane soul by the energy of her will commands from her central pregnancy and fecundity, such Images and Ideas as by their gentle light, fairly lead her to the knowledge of herself and the whole Creation. These are the glass which represents the lively Images of things, and from their convenience or disconvenience to these common notions arise their several differences and reasons: As for example, the denominations of good, and evil, pulchritude and deformity, and all those moral Entities spring not from any arbitrarious power which upon the impulses of humour and will, can make them cease to be what they are, nor do their Nature's change and correspond to the different modes of our conceptions, but remain Eternally and Immutably what we find them to be; for if they were so only to appearance, and not really and substantially, as some Philosophers of old affirmed, all Moral Goodness and Righteousness would vanish into empty names and words, and Wickedness and Evil would have nothing but a 
* Pyrrho denied that there was any turpitude or honesty, justice or injustice, or any truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Laert. in vita Pyrrhonis.  Fantastic being. We are therefore to conceive an innate Goodness and Evil in things antecedent to our apprehensions of them 
† 
Thus Tully speaks de Leg. 1. Nos ad justitiam esse natos, neque opinione sed Naturâ constitutum esse jus.  
And Seneca Epist. 97. Illic dissentiamus cum Epicuro, ubi dicit nihil justum esse naturâ, & crimina vitanda esse, quia vitari metus non potest.  : By the Goodness of Moral objects, I mean, their congruity, conveniency and harmony; and by Evil, their dissonancy, disconvenience and disagreement with those Eternal Verities or common notions God hath interwoven in the Essential contexture of our beings. Now because the soul of men (not only in his lapsed and degenerate estate, wherein sin hath defaced the workmanship of Gods own hands, and spread a cloud of death and deformity over heavens brighter Image, but in his greatest innocency and glory, before he knew what Rebellion meant) consists of a double Nature, the one merely Animal, governed by sense and the principles of pleasure, and relishing nothing but the grateful and alluring motions of the body; and the other Intellectual and perceptive, a ray and beam let down from the Sun of heaven, and of a near cognation and affinity with the Deity; therefore I say, we are not to discriminate Moral acts by their harmony and dissonancy with the Animal, but Intellectual man; for the proper object of the first is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whatsoever is pleasant and delightsome, luscious and sweet, dispreading all its powers into the luxuriancy and exorbitancy of corporeal life: But the other more severe and castigate part of the souls dictates, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what ought to be done, that is, what contains in it an eternal and indispensable necessity. Since therefore all those Moral Axioms and Propositions which we find treasured up in the soul, are not Thetical and positive, as depending upon the efflux of Gods will and power; but natural and immutable, and can no more be altered by him then he can die or put a period to his Existence, and the intellectual faculties of men being gradual derivations and declensions from the Divine Nature, and made up of such unalterable principles, it must needs follow, that whatever bears an amicable correspondence with them, should be accounted as indubitable and certain, and their determinations revered as sacred and holy. For such is the frame and furniture of our Spirits, that they cannot become indifferent to the reception of every thing propounded to them, but are fatally and necessarily bound up to certain Laws and Conditions, which (as I said) are the transcripts of the Moral Nature of God, and both guide us through the Labyrinth of the abstrusest Theory, and serve for the exploration of whatever Doctrine either is known already, or we have great reason to suspect to be adulterate. These are the very constitutive and fundamental Principles of our being men, and he that is throughly conscious of the innate Generosity and Manlyness of his own mind, can no more violate any of them, then endure a painful discission and dilaceration of his bodily life. I confess there are some so strangely perplexed and confounded within themselves, partly from their own depraved tempers, and partly from the distortion of those genuine forms by an evil education, that they can scarce assent to a Mathematical Demonstration: but yet if they would give themselves liberty of a free enquiry into Truth, they are not uncapable of a Divorce and Separation from those perverse Principles; which can no better way be done then by suspending their assent, and laying aside all their old Phantasms and Prepossessions, till they attain to a clear and distinct apprehension of whatever it be that they converse with; and by so doing they shall at last put a final stop to the importunate incursions of those false Judges, and clear themselves from all their formerly imbibed Prejudices, and Truth will shine forth arrayed and decked with her own native beauty and lustre, and we shall find a lasting peace and calm within us. In the management therefore of this Argument we shall follow the clear dust of Reason, and guide ourselves by those Sacred Laws we find indelibly engraven in the centre of our beings; and in conformity to this, we shall lay down several Propositions, by which the unreasonableness of this rigid Doctrine we are Impugning, will manifestly be detected.  


Prop. 1.  1. To render any being in a far worse condition, and more miserable state, then it's nature and capacities were intended for, without any consideration of an antecedent Crime, or Subsequent advantage accrueing, merely upon will and pleasure, is repugnant to the light of natural Reason.  
There is no life so fallen out or dissatisfied with itself, as to seek it's own ruin and torment, but studiously endeavours to assert itself into the highest happiness its nature is capable of, and exerts and displays all its powers for the acquisition of what is most congruous and suitable to it's internal frame and complexion: Now to disturb the kindly actings of such a being by a perverse dislocation of its contexture and capacities, raising thereby the most exquisite sense of pain and torture, merely for the satisfaction of an unaccountable fancy and petulant humour, what is it but to act according to the principles of the highest cruelty and oppression? For what greater act of freity and barbarity can be imagined then to vex and hurt the innocent, and that upon no other account but because we will have it so? yea, it is judged so high a piece of depravity and degeneracy, that wise men have thought it inconsistent with the very nature of the Devil, to do mischief for mischiefs sake. Yet such a face of things do these Absolute Reprobationists represent to the World, while they make the benign Father of humane souls, to be so far displeased with his own dear offspring, as without any fault of theirs, to detrude them from that happy state wherein at first he made them, being capable of the reception and communication of his own Nature, into a condition of intolerable and endless misery, and all this merely upon his will and pleasure. For surely the souls of men as they come out of the benign hands of God, are fitted for very noble and excellent purposes, and may if God so please, acting according to their intrinsic powers, become the capable subjects of his boundless Goodness, and rejoice in a cheerful contemplation of their own powers and faculties, and the Theory of the outward Creation, and in beholding the Symmetry of all things with that first and Architypal Idea according to which all things in their proportion were framed. And if beside this, we consider what high improvements the soul is capable of, and the excellency and glory of her Nature when divested of the rags of Mortality (an obscure subindication of which we have, as well in those conflicts she hath with the body, wherein she aspires and elevates herself to the obtaining something better than she now possesses, and also in those high and raised presages she makes of a transcendent, free, and enlarged life when she takes her flight from this lower world) if I say, we consider the extent of her capacities, and the exquisite pulchritude and beauty of her frame and structure, it will appear an act of the highest unreasonableness, that I may not say extremest rigour and injustice in the World, to render her being innocent and blameless the more miserable by being once happy, and to make her condition infinitely worse than that wherein she was at first created, or to which she is in a possibility of attaining. Nor can this be salved and cured by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God's unlimited and uncontrollable Power and Dominion over his Creatures, whereby he may do with them whatever he pleases; For beside that 'tis no way dishonourable to Gods everblessed Nature to say, that his Will and Power are not arbitrarious and ungovernable; but regulated and ballasted by a Supreme Goodness: we are not in this case to look for bare Will, which is in itself a mere blind principle; but for something more Sovereign, for Wisdom and Counsel, and for ends worthy of that adorable Majesty which not only brought into being, but perpetually interesses itself in the affairs of the whole Creation. God cannot act below himself, or slain the beauteous productions of his fertile Nature with the base alloy of self-advantage and accruments; but always works conformably to Absolute Goodness, in which all his Actions are terminated and concluded. It was from this fertile womb that the whole Creation issued forth, and God can deal no otherwise with his Creatures then may be consistent with the Eternal and Unchangeable Laws of so Majestic a principle: and if it were once concluded against the proud Pharisees, by him who is the Essential Wisdom of God, That it is better to save life then to destroy; we may be sure that Almighty arm which sustains and governs the World, will never hurt any of mankind before they ruin and undo themselves. Sooner may those bright Lamps of Heaven, which are perpetually circling us, keep back and suspend their beams, than the Divine Goodness be separated from any thing that is willing to be united to him. God's Rule and Dominion over the World is good and just, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Hierocles speaks out of Plato; that is, God being naturally and essentially Good, cannot possibly conceive any envy or hatred at the condition of any thing he has made. He is not like the Ostrich, which (as Job tells us) leaves her eggs in the sand, and forgets that the foot may crush them, and hardens herself against her young ones as if they were not hers: but exercises a tender care and loving Providence over the whole Creation, and sheds a benign influence upon his numerous issue. And to this the inward sense of every good man bears witness, whose felicity is multiplied by seeing others as happy as himself: and if it be a perfection in our Natures to be propense to mercy and compassion, and to do all that good which lies in our powers, then surely if we take a prospect of God's infinite and complete Goodness from the benign and harmless temper of a virtuous and good man, we must necessarily conclude, that he cannot make any of the Creation miserable without consideration of their own default. A good man looks not upon himself as some particular being divided from the rest of the World; but as a member of the whole Creation, which in conformity to his Great Maker, he accounts a part of his care, and grasps every degree of life within his boundless mind; and if it lay in his breast he would invest them with all that happiness God made them for. And beside, what every bountiful and benign man experiences in himself, we have some instances of this Universal Charity left upon record. What passionate eruptions of spirit do we find in the holy men of old? Blot me out of thy book, says Moses; and, I could wish myself accursed from Christ, for my Brethren and Kinsmen according to the flesh, says St. Paul: Yea further, I am persuaded, that if it were possible for a good man to be slain a thousand times; yet so often as he revived, he would still forgive the hand that struck him: and which is yet more, he could be content (if it might stand with the goodness of God) to lie in Hell to all Eternity, so that he might be without sin, rather than that any of the sons of men should be forever excluded and debarred from the love and favour of God. And now do but compare this Noble and Heroical Spirit, with that inexhausted fountain of Goodness which is concentred in the Essence of the Deity; and we shall soon see, that God is so far from making any of his innocent Creatures miserable; that, acting according to the eternal laws of his own Nature, he must necessarily consult the good and welfare of them all. God is Essential Goodness, an immense Ocean of love, which knows no bounds nor limits: Man is only good by participation, and his greatest perfection is but a derivative ray from that spotless Orb of light and glory. Man can but wish and desire the accomplishment and perfect establishment of every thing in that happiness 'tis capable of; but it is in the Power of God not only to wish all things happy: but if he please, to make them really so. What is there then left but the malignity and bitterness of peevish Spirits to hinder or discountenance the Universal happiness of the whole World? I wish therefore that the strenuous asserters of Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and unaccountable Dominion over his Creatures, would take heed, that under pretence of magnifying his Power, they do not derogate from those more excellent perfections of his Nature, Wisdom and Goodness. There are certain immutable and unchangeable laws fixed and radicated in the very centre of the Deity, and which he can no more swerve from, than he can cease to be; and Goodness being the first pregnant root of all things, cannot fail of acting according to it's Essential plenitude and exuberancy; that is, of communicating its self to all capable subjects, as the light cannot withhold from darting its beams through the pervious air.  
And here I cannot omit to recite those blasphemous Positions which have been maintained by some rigid Calvinists, that the World may see how far men may put out the light of their Natural Reasons by prejudice and passion, and yet avouch their Dogmata as Oraculous.  
Amyraldus apud Curcellaeum de jure Dei in Creature as innocentes, Cap. 7. Hoc igitur ex istâ Jobi historiâ colligimus; licere Deo si vellet, ab illo jure quod positum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ea facere quae ab Arminianis injusta esse judicantur— Causa enim certè illius erit in Majestatis eminentiâ immensâ; quae quia immensa est, praestabit ex aequo, ut quae minus & quae magis injusta sunt, facere possit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Statue igitur quantamlibet injustitiae magnitudinem in ●o quòd creatura insons addicitur cruciatibus aeternis: attamen id si Deus faciat, Majestatis quae in ipso est magnitudo, actionem ab omni reprehensione aut coërcitione vindicabit.  
So likewise Szydlovius in Praefat. ad Vindic. as he is cited by the same Author, Dico hic ingenuè, qd. scil. Deus & possit unius peccatum alteri imputatum morte aeternâ punire, & possit ad interitum ordinare, obligare hominem ad impossibile, & ob non praestitum hoc quod ei dare non decrevit, eundem punire: Quod velit peccatum: Quod prohibendo aliquid, contrarium ejus facere ipsemet possit: Quod quae velit ideò justa sint, quia vult, non verò ideò velle quia justa sint, etc. Quae omnia cùm verissima sint; ideò tantò periculosius negata fuerûnt, quantò propius (ut sic dicam) Dei potestatem extenuabant & enervabant.  
These Positions are so full of horrid consequences, so inconsistent with the blessed Nature of God, and so contrariant with the natural and easy Ideas of our minds, that it shall be enough to have transcribed them. In the mean time it highly concerns every Good man to think as honourably of God as possibly he can, and render his apprehensions of that adorable Being, amiable and lovely; for the time will come when God will unmask all the false and unworthy conceptions men have entertained of him, and vindicate his abused Glory from all the defiled spots they have sullied it with, and discover to them their perverse and obstinate Errors, by a light clear as the noon day, and every one shall be ashamed that hath not thought so magnificently of his Nature as he ought to do.  
But here I foresee it will be Objected by some, That since none of mankind can be good to God as advantaging him any thing, and the sole end of their Creation being for their own good and happiness, that benign Author considering what and how he had made them, and what was likely to be the sad doom of most of them by revolting from his blessed life through the necessary imperfection of their Natures (Lapsability being essentially interwoven in the very contexture of their beings) he should be obliged through the infinite fertility of that principle of Love out of which he made them, and which delights not in the calamity of any of the Creation, to have made them impeccable, that so they might never have lost those beautiful forms he engraved in them, and consequently never incurred the severity of his displeasure.  
And here, that I may keep myself within the bounds of sober Theology, and determine nothing inconsistent to those Sacred Oracles whose Authority ought to be tenderly regarded: I answer,  
1. That God making all things according to their respective Ideas, which eternally shone in his All comprehensive Wisdom, it became necessary that he should bring into being such lapsable Creatures as the souls of men; for there being a fair possibility of such intermediate Essences as humane souls, which should be something below the Nature of Angels, and yet superior to Bruts; and the Divine Fecundity being such as (to speak with reverence) did necessarily constrain him to expand his infinite Plenitude in the production of whatever included no incomposibility of Existence, it is not to be imagined that his Nature should be less fruitful than the conceptions and apprehensions of men, who can distinctly and rationally place another Species of Being's, and fill up that empty Chasm between those two so vastly distant degrees of life, Angels and Beasts. And therefore if men had been made Impeccable, there would want such an order of Creatures in the World, as might with those glorious Morning-starrs actuate a body of an Ethereal and heavenly consistency, and yet with Brute-Animals be furnished with a congruity to inform courser matter, and appear upon the earth clothed with flesh and blood.  
2. God who is in himself a full and complete Happiness, did likewise grant to all the productions of life, a power of exerting those faculties his bountiful hand bestowed upon them, and so of enjoying themselves in the free use and exercise of them, and like an indulgent Father permitted them the pleasures and gratifications of every degree of life he had placed in them; so that it seems a Benefit or Sacred Donative collated on mankind, that they were not stated in an inamissible Happiness. For though we should say with some, that such is the Nature and Fabric of humane souls, that unless we engage Divine Power in a perpetual Miracle, they could not be constituted in an Illapsable condition; yet that All-knowing mind foresaw, that the calamity which many of them were like to undergo by deserting their primitive Happiness, was not sufficient to out-ballance the good which might accrue to themselves and the rest of the Creation in their production; for albeit they were made Lapsable, yet it was no ways necessary that they should actually recede from their blessed life, and it was only their careless and negligent use of God's paternal bounty in taking to themselves too great a liberty of enjoying the pleasures resulting from Corporeal life, which were allowed them in due measures and degrees, whereby the Animadversion was too far called off from a steady observance of the Commands and Laws of the Divine life, that turned Adam and the rest of his Offspring out of a Paradisiacal felicity into a World of briers and thorns. But beside this, God eternally beholding in himself the Ideas of such mutable creatures, which being brought into Being, would afterwards ruin themselves, did as it were on set purpose interweave many acerbities and incommodities in the structure of their beings, which might check and restrain their otherwise exorbitant lusts, when they are seducing them to an easy descent, and seasonably remind them of that better state they are apostatising from. Lastly, God beholding the lapse and degeneracy of humane souls, and considering that it somewhat proceeded from that incompossibility he himself had wrought in their Essential structure, he determined to send down upon earth the Messiah, whose pure and immaculate soul never left the bright Mansions of Innocency with the rest of his degenerate Brethren, to the intent that he might declare to fallen men, the unfeigned desire and will of God, to reinstate them in the possession of their ancient glory; and in pursuance of this good intention of his, to assure them of the powerful conduct of his everblessed Spirit, which should be in them a neverfailing principle of life, both in this World, and the other. Thus we see, that notwithstanding the infinite fullness of the Divine Goodness, abundantly shed abroad upon the whole Creation; yet was not God at all obliged to create man impeccable.   

2. To determine by an absolute and positive act the Happiness of some, 
Prop. 2.  and the Misery of others, and yet to Decree the same upon condition of their Obedience or Disobedience, is inconsistent with the light of Reason.  
That the same thing be both Absolute and Conditional, is as great a contradiction as can be imagined; and therefore to decree a benefit to any person absolutely and without any respect whatever, and yet to propose the same under certain terms and conditions of acting, must needs be of the same Nature. But here that the Asserters of Gods Absolute Decrees concerning the Salvation and Damnation of particular persons, might save the credit of their Doctrine from those absurdities it lies obnoxious to, they have invented a pretty Subterfuge, and they tell us, That God doth irresistably work the condition in those whom he intends to save. And what is this but to make God a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one that acts upon such arbitrarious Principles, as every wise man would be ashamed to own in the conduct of his life and actions? 'Tis very strange to see how men will labour and toil to support and keep up a ruinous fabric, which if let fall, would assuredly prove an advantage to the Christian world: but surely God needs no such Patrons to defend the righteousness and equity of his dealing with the sons of men, and I may say to them as once Job expostulated with his Friends, Will ye speak wickedly for God? or talk deceitfully for him? will you accept his person? This is, as he afterwards tells them, to mock God, as one man mocketh another. For if he determine salvation to men hypothetically; that is, with respect to their obedience, and he himself work the condition in them by a supervenient and  force, How can they be said in propriety of speech to have performed it? and, how can their Obedience (if it can be called so) be termed an act of their duty (which is always in respect of a Superior) when they themselves are wholly passive? Wherefore, according to this rate of speaking, God must be said to reward himself. Lastly, He that promises a reward upon condition of Obedience, supposes the person to be in a capacity of disobeying, and the reward is added as an incitation to quicken and actuate his Obedience; otherwise it will be as ridiculous as to confer a benefit upon a man if he will breathe; for the man is no more able to disobey, than a stone not to fall downward, or flame not to ascend. Now if God transact the whole business by his Almighty and neverfailing Power, without any the least attempts or offers of man towards it, how is he left in a possibility of disobeying? and, What need there any reward be adjudged to man for the performance of that which God intends to bring to perfection without his co-operation or endeavours? So on the other side, Is it not a strange dispensation, and wholly unworthy the God of Truth, thus to deceive his Creatures, by telling them, that tey are the cause of their own ruin, and that it is only their own obstinate and perverse wills which deprive them of that Blessedness he prepared for them, and cause them to inherit bitterness and sorrow, when he did by an Antecedent and Inconditionate Decree, destinate and mark them out to an Eternal Misery? The truly knowing Spirit will not be put off with Pageantry and fair shows; but will look for something solid and substantial, which may be indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, worthy of that Excellent Goodness and Wisdom, which brought into being the beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth. If such shifts therefore as these may pass for currant at the Great day of God, I cannot see how Wicked men's mouths can be stopped, and the whole unrighteous World become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Subject and obnoxious to the just Judgement of God. For, how easy is it for them to plead an exemption from Punishment, although they never performed the conditions of the Gospel; because the same absolute and peremptory Will which of old designed their destruction, did likewise perfectly disable them from doing any thing that might conduce to their Happiness? and, What were they that they could withstand God?   

3. 
Prop. 3.  To command men to Act according to a Law under a certain and severe Punishment, and yet to take away all Power and Ability of Acting according to the Tenor of that Law, is contrary to the dictates of Right Reason.  
That I may fully clear this Proposition, I shall go by these Gradations.  
1. That men may reasonably come under any Obligation by a Law, it is necessary that that Law be Promulgated, otherwise it is no Law, nor can it reach or have influence upon any man's person; for the Promulgation of it is an Essential qualification of a Law, according to that known Maxim of the Canon Law, Leges Constituuntur cùm Promulgantur: Laws are then Constituted when they are Promulgated: And that of the Civilians, Leges quae constringunt hominum vitas, intelligi ab omnibus debent; Those Laws which have influence upon men's lives, aught to be understood of all. Thus among the Romans, the manner of publishing a Law, after it had been approved and recorded, was, by hanging it up in Tables of Brass in their Market-places, or at their Church doors, as Tacitus in his Annals reports; whence legem figere, is to Enact and Establish a Law. Hence it is that the Jewish Law has no obligation upon Christians, because it was Promulgated only to them, and so became peculiar to their Nation, Audi Israel, Hear O Israel; and if any part of it have influence now upon the Christian World, it must be because it is repeated anew by the Son of God, the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Christian Oeconomy; for whatever is contained in it beside, conformable to the laws and dictates of Nature, obliges us not as given by Moses, but by virtue of that antecedent Universal law common to all rational beings. Nor was the Heathen World at all concerned in the Jewish Discipline, upon the same account, because it was restrained and confined to the Judaical Republic; for had it been of an Universal extent, there is no doubt but it would have been published to the Pagans also; and the Jewish Prophets when they reprehended the Heathen Kings for their enormities, would likewise have taken notice of this in especial manner, that they did not conform to the Discipline of the Jewish Church, and accordingly sharply reproved them for it, which we never find they did at any time.  
2. That a Law may have force and obligation upon Men, and they be reasonably punished for the transgression of it, 'tis requisite that it be so framed, that every man who hears of it, may know by some general or particular notices whether he be concerned and interessed in it or no.  
Our blessed Lord having finished all things committed to him on Earth, and being now to enter into his glory, gave command to his Disciples and Apostles to Preach the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to the whole Creation of mankind; by which he sufficiently evidenced, that it was his mind and will, that all the World, to whom it should come, should yield obedience to this his Evangelical Institution; for he adds, Whoever believes and is Baptised, shall be saved: but he that believes not, shall be damned: wherefore every man must look upon himself concerned in this holy Dispensation. But according to the Calvinistical Doctrine, Reprobates cannot in reason be punished for their non-submission or violation of the Evangelical Law, because they are no way included under it; not in their personal capacities, as being not by name specified in it; nor under any general terms, for the Gospel (say they) was not given to Reprobates, to the intent that they should be saved by their obedience of it: but the ministra on of it is continued merely upon the account and interest of those few Elect, whom the Divine Pleasure intended by a fair and  gale to carry into the Port of Eternal Bliss and Felicity. Wherefore this new and perfect Law, seems not at all obligatory to Reprobates; for, how can they be said to be damned for not obeying the Gospel, when they were from all Eternity destined to destruction by an irrespective and irrevocable Decree?  
3. That a Law may be Obligatory, 'tis necessary that it enjoin nothing but what is possible to be performed 
* Solon apud Plutarchum, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. , both in reference to the present capacities of the interessed persons, and in respect of the matter or things themselves commanded in it.  
That no man is bound to impossibilities, is as indubitable in Morals, as the circulation of the blood in medics, or the regular motion of the Planets around their centre in Natural Philosophy: God cannot therefore in Equity command, nor in Reason expect, that an impure and unholy person who is alive only to the brutish life, should of a sudden leap from this frail and perishing state of Mortality, into that exalted and Deiform condition of the Spirits of just men made perfect; because there is an impossibility contained in the command, considering the incapacity of the Person for such a sudden undertaking, his faculties being broken and disjointed, which require time to be set in order, and recover their strength again; and withal bearing in mind, the power and vigour of the life of sense and corporeity, which is so great that it's lovely contrary like an oppressed Prince, can only continue it's just and rightful claim to the Empire and Sovereignty of the man's mind, but cannot attain to the full and complete possession of its dominions, till after a long and tedious dispute with the unrighteous Nature, and it's treacherous Adherents. Should the Alwise Governor of the World command men to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, Reason itself would admit of their Apology, in that the matter would not admit it, there was an impossibility in the case, considering the Natures and Proprieties of things. In like manner, to apply this to the Decree of Absolute Reprobation: Can God in justice expect the fruit of Righteousness from those forlorn creatures, whom he hath made a prey to a certain ruin, when his blessed hands never vouchsafed to sow the seed of his preventing and exciting Grace toward the completion of any living formation? Can he expostulate with them that they did not walk in the ancient paths of Truth and Virtue, when he himself turned them out of that good way by a fatal Decree, into the dark and miry tracts of sin, where yet his benign eyes saw them lie grovelling, and refused to put under his compassionate arm to raise them up? Can he, without Hypocrisy, invite them to drink of the waters of life freely, and punish them for not coming to those salutary streams when he has deprived them of their legs, the principles of spiritual motion, which should convey them thither? The good Samaritan in the Gospel, was commended for lending a Charitable heart and hand to the calamitous person that fell among Thiefs: But these make God to be less pitiful to his Creatures; nay, to have less Justice than an ordinary man, by representing him coming to the Wounded souls of Reprobates, and commanding them to perform his will, and act their parts in the Family of the New Creation, when he himself had afore contrived to send them as a prey to Thiefs, who stripped them of their raiment, and so deeply wounded them, as that they quickly became destitute of all sense and motion, and almost life itself. How unreasonable a thing is it, if any thing in the World deserve that Name; for God to punish men for not lifting up themselves upon the wings of faith and love, and taking their flight towards the New Jerusalem, when he himself has made them Apterites, and despoiled them of their plumes, and yet will not scatter the dewy influences of heaven, nor suffer his clearing life to fall on them, that they may spring again? Can it be suitable to that blessed Being all whose actions are just and righteous, and whose Nature is that living law of Equity, according to which the whole World is governed, to command Impossibilities, and call men to an account for what was not in their Power to perform? The Stoic judged this unworthy the Deity, in that interrogation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
Arrian. Epict. l. 1. c. 12.  and if it may pass for a piece of warrantable Justice in the Righteous Governor of the World to require that at our hands, which we never were enabled to do, there will be no security left of our future subsistence, much less that we shall be happy in the other life. Yet in such an Aspect as this we may behold the Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation, and being such in the main parts and lineaments of it, there is no man but may easily judge of the whole. And if you will have a cast of something to this purpose Mr. Calvin himself will furnish you, 
Instit lib. 3. cap. 24. Sect. 13.  Ecce vocem ad eos dirigit, sed ut magis obsurdescant; lucem accendit, sed ut reddantur caeciores; doctrinam profert, sed quâ magis obstupescant; remedium adhibet, sed nè sanentur: that is, He calls to them, (viz. God to Reprobates) but 'tis on purpose that they may be more deaf; he sets a light before them, that by that lustre they may be more blind; he lays down a Doctrine, that he may more confound and amaze them; lastly, he applies a remedy, but with this intent, that it may not heal them. And will you think this worthy and becoming the Majesty of that Good and Just God, who hath taken such strange and unimaginable ways to make his Creatures happy, and who daily woes the Sons of Men with arguments of the greatest weight and seriousness to accept his offered Salvation? I cannot but speak, and it were a crime to be silent, when the glory of heaven thus lies at stake, the honour of my Creator trampled in the dust, and the spotless purity and holiness of his Nature sullied and defiled by the impure conceptions of unhallowed judgements: Hear O Heavens, and give ear O Earth, while I plead the cause of the holy One, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, against the ignorant zeal of inconsiderate persons, who under pretence of doing honour to his Name, do really render that admirable contrivance of God in the Gospel, than which nothing was ever communicated to the World more full of incomprehensible Wisdom, the most unreasonable project in the choicest parts of it, that ever was set on foot among the Sons of men! Do you think the Eternal Logos or Reason of God, would declare a Doctrine to the World that should be in all points, of all his numerous issue only unlike the Father; that is, that the Gospel alone, among all the projections and contrivances of that All-comprehensive Wisdom should be found unreasonable? Reflect a while upon the Heroic Generosity, and Innate Nobility of your own Spirits, and let not your conceptions of God and his Works dwindle away into childish Words and Names, nor stifle and suppress any noble sentiments by perverse altercations about terms; but let a manly spirit possess your breasts, and look upon men as rational Creatures, the composure of whose souls, I mean their Intellectual frame, is such, that every thing is not a congruous and proportionate object of their inward sense, and it is not in their power to receive Truth and Falsehood alike; but as the eye cannot behold the sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unless it have some resemblance of the Sun itself; so neither can the soul, without a great deal of molestation and regreat, embrace what is not congenerous to it's rational Nature. And as it is in Nature, every Plant is not adapted to entertain every particle that comes to nourish it, but admits only such as are consimilar to it's own pores; so the spirit of man being rational in all the ducts and lineaments of its moral structure, cannot acquiesce in any thing that is irrational, nor receive any Doctrine but what is homogeneal to its inward temper. Consider this I say, and judge of the Doctrines you so earnestly contend for by this Index and Rule, and remember, that so often as you propound any of the Dogmata of Christianity either as unreasonable in themselves, or make them appear so to others by your unwary and irrational Explication of them, you become treacherous to your Saviour by hindering as much as in you lies, those good effects he intended by the Propogation of the Gospel throughout the World, and you likewise do violence to the Nature of Mankind, by imposing upon them what is plainly repugnant thereto. But I fear I have been too luxuriant in this sudden, though not wholly impertinent Excursion; I shall therefore immediately fall upon the last Proposition, which is,   

4. 
Prop. 4.  That to Create and bring into Being on purpose to destroy and make miserable, is most irrational.  
There is no Being whether merely Sensitive or Rational too, but by a natural sympathy and propension, loves and takes care for its own offspring: The Beasts of the field, and the Fowls of the air, bear a tenderness and affection towards their young, and never cast of the care and protection of them, till time have enabled them to shift for themselves: The Hyrcanian Tigers never discover the fierceness of their cruel natures more vehemently and passionately, than when they are in danger of being bereft of their whelps. Thus have I seen a Serpent pull down the nest, and devour the young ones of a little Bird before her eyes, while the innocent dam, not daring to come nigh, and yet unwilling to fly away, suffers a pretty controversy between love and fear within her breast, continually environing her more powerful adversary by many circular flights, and pouring out in vain her pitiful complaints into those insensible ears, till the cruel beast hath eaten up her loving care and charge, and then she mourns and makes the trees participate of her grief, and often with sad notes visits the place where lay the tragic Scene of her latest sorrows. Should we ascend to men who bear the similitude of heaven, even the most barbarous not excepted, they all have a more regular care and love to their offspring than brute Animals, inasmuch as they partake of a higher degree of life, and have the principles of Reason seated in them: And can any tender and compassionate Father behold without a relenting and bleeding heart, his only Son racked or massacred before his eyes, to satisfy the brutish passion of some bloodthirsty Tyrant? Shall frail men than be a precedent of love and tenderness to his Maker? Shall God, whose love is always amiable and serene, without the least disturbance or cloud of passion, be less pitiful to what he hath brought into being, then frail and imperfect mortals? It was a prevalent argument which Moses used in the behalf of the murmuring and discontented Israelites, That if God proceeded against them in fury, to their utter undoing, 
Numb. 14.15, 16.  the Nations which had heard his fame would say, Because the Lord was not able to bring his people into the land which he swore unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the Wilderness: and may not the same infamous obloquy, with a far more specious pretext, be cast upon the righteous Providence of God, while in displeasure he persecutes to the death his innocent Progeny: That because he was not able to maintain them in that happiness he designed them for, he hath by an unalterable law fixed their eternal misery and destruction. The ancient Philosopher Pherecides taught, that God transformed himself into Love, when he brought into being the whole Creation; and surely that Love which moved him first to act, cannot be thought to degenerate so far from its Nature, as to be busied in contriving the ruin of what is so newly brought forth. And though the Ancients did veil and obscure their choicest Mysteries in Fables and Enigmatical Symbols, yet the intelligent inquirer may gather many substantial truths from them, which being in themselves so coherent with the Divine Oracles, seem to be a firm indication of God's love and affection to the Sons of Men, and that Providence being never excluded from any time or place, did in all ages and parts of the World, raise up such considerable persons, and every way furnish them with gifts and abilities, as might serve as instruments in her hand, to teach and instruct mankind in the true knowledge and worship of the Deity. Hence it is, that in the Gentile Theology, Love is made the most ancient of the Gods, and the Sire of all things 
* Plutarch tells us, that for this reason Hesiod made Love the most ancient of the Gods, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. , and is described by Simmias Rhodius in a pair of Wings, which suited well with the Symbolical representation of the Chaos, by an Egg which was brooded and hatched under these wings of Love. Something of this we find Aristophanes in Avibus sporting withal, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
This Love therefore, according to their Divinity, being the benign Creator of all things, the Father of Men and Angels, from whose bounteous fecundity, the vast spaces of the external Creation became replenished with suitable inhabitants, must needs be ever present with every thing he hath brought into being, and communicate himself to all his Creatures, so far as their respective Natures are capable of receiving the influxes of his Paternal Goodness. What was therefore obscurely and imperfectly delivered by the Heathens, concerning the production of things, we have fully declared in the Mosaical history of the Creation; where we find the Holy Spirit of Love, by his fostering incubation, bringing into being, and cherishing under his extended wings, the newborn World. Which manner of production surely denotes, a tender care and dear regard of whatever is brought into being; and therefore the Metaphorical expression of Wings is often used in Sacred Writ, to set forth Gods loving care and providence; Psal. xci. 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers, when thou betakest thyself under the shadow of his wings. And when the blessed Jesus would denote that dear love wherewith he would have embraced Jerusalem, had she returned unto him, he tells us, that he would have gathered her children together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as a bird gathereth her young under her wings, Mat, 23.37. God cannot be separated from any of mankind, but as he brought them into being for no other end but that they might taste of the communications of his Nature, so he takes care that none of them shall fall short of this desirable end, but through their own default. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith Trismegist.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That mind which is the Father of all things, being life and nature itself, produced man like unto himself, and loved him as his own offspring. But far short of this comely Idea of the Divine Nature is that of Calvin, who had he been to describe the barbarous stratagem of some cruel Nero, or one more inhuman than the World hath yet known, contrived to slay the innocent under colour of Justice, could scarce have done it with more horror and amazement, than that wherein he lays down the eternal counsel of God against Reprobates; 
Instit. lib. 3. cap. 24. Sect. 12.  Quemadmodum suae erga electos vocationis efficacia, salutem ad quam eos aeterno consilio destinaret, perficit Deus: ita sua habet adversus reprobos judicia, quibus consilium de illis suum exequatur. Quos ergo in vitae contumeliam & mortis exitium creavit, ut irae suae organa forent & severitatis exempla; eos, ut in finem suum perveniant nunc audiendi verbi sui facultate private: nunc ejus praedicatione magis excaecat & obstupefacit: i. e. As God by the efficacy of his Vocation towards the Elect, completes that Salvation to which he designed them by an eternal decree; so he hath his determinations against Reprobates by which he executes his decree concerning them. Those therefore whom he created for the reproach of life and perdition of death, that they might become the instruments of Anger, and examples of his Severity; those, that they may arrive to their end, he sometimes deprives of the means of hearing his Word, and othertimes more blinds and amazes by the preaching of it. But is the Name of a Creator, nay of a Father no more promising? Why was Man made in the Image of God, unless he intended to deal with him according to that relation he stood in unto him? We do not read, that God hath dealt thus with any of the rest of the Creation; for the rebellious Devils were not cast down from the higher regions of light and glory, till they apostatised from God, and drew with them the race of Mankind: And shall Man alone, the noblest part of that Creation to which God once vouchsafed that cheerful Elogium and Approbation, that it was very good, shall he only, I say, be banished from the participation of that All-comprehensive Goodness? I can sooner therefore believe that the proud Giant, the fanciful Poets have placed under mount Aetna, should by his own native effort, throw of that heavy burden from his oppressed breast, or that the spirit of Nature should convert a flinty rock into a heap of fragrant flowers, than that God should create any of Mankind, on purpose to make them the piteous objects of others scorn, and his own powerful and implacable vengeance. I can never believe any thing, I say, that savours of such irrational and unjust proceed; but rather affirm, that the Eternal benignity of the Holy one, diffused and communicated through the whole Orb of beings, and comprehension of Nature, will so certainly take hold of every thing that is capable of enjoying it, that it shall not fail of being happy, so long as it acts evenly and regularly in that place and state infinite Wisdom hath allotted to it. Hence Synesius: 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉;   

Hymn 3.  
What wonder is't, if God  
Who did the World create,  
From his own works repel  
All sad and evil fate.   As if it were contradictory to the very Nature of God to be the Demiurgus and Maker of all things, and yet not to render his productions as happy as the capacities of their natures will admit: For nothing advantageth him aught, and all the happiness or misery the Creatures run through in the course and order of things, is neither an addition nor detraction of his felicity; only he being Essential Love, which envies not, nor thinks any evil, delights to communicate of himself in effects of kindness, tenderness and beneficence to all beings round about him. The whole Creation tastes of it, having all its parts cemented with Goodness, and its foundation laid in Love. The Heavens, the Earth and Sea, and whatever moves within the compass of them, bear witness to this Truth: This is that Almighty Love which feeds the young Ravens when they open their mouths towards heaven; and provides for the Lybian Lions when their souls are pinched with hunger, and they roar after their prey: He it is that opens the windows of heaven, and refreshes the dry and parched Earth; causing the grass to grow for the , and herb for the service of Man: All things in their order wait upon him, and he scatters his bounty in the midst of them, and by a provident care looks down from Heaven and tends all his charge, so that not a Sparrow closeth its wings on Earth, but that watchful eye observes its fall. And 'tis very strange, that those arms which fold and embrace every thing that exerts any faculty and degree of life, should be employed in plunging humane souls while innocent and undefiled, into woe and misery 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. , and that to Eternal ages: Where is that love and pity which all Creatures proclaim to be in their Sovereign Lord and Maker? And if it were an Almighty Goodness that brought them into being, surely the same Goodness being never disjoined from an All-comprehensive Wisdom which beheld the Natures, mutual relations and dependences of all Creatures, would have judged it fit never to have brought them into being, then that they should be made perpetually unhappy so soon as ever they were created.  
To conclude this Argument, Our Religion being in all the parts of it highly reasonable, as being propounded to rational natures, in whom there are manifest Ideas and notions of Eternal verity, and they being so deeply sealed upon them, that it is neither in their power to obliterate, nor without great reluctancy receive any thing repugnant to them, it will appear from the nature of the thing itself, that there can be no such absolute Decree of Reprobation as some pretend.    

CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God; from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation.  
TO speak worthily and becomingly of that adorable Being, to whom we and all creatures else own not only our Existence, but our present subsistence and conservation in the several states of life wherein we are, and to have right apprehensions of his Nature 
* This is made by Epictetus, ●…p. 38. a Prolepsis of Religion. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. , as it is a great piece of our duty, so it spirits and invigorates our minds to manly and generous attempts, and leads us to the knowledge of the most considerable Theories in Nature and Providence. For whether we consider the exuberant plenitude and fecundity of the Divine Goodness, which cannot but communicate itself to the utmost capacities of things; or the fathomless depth of that Wisdom, which hath framed the whole world with such curious and exquisite Artifice, that the most perspicacious wit cannot find the least flaw in that beauteous structure, and yet was able to produce it after another manner beyond our conceptions, if he had so pleased; or whether we weigh the infinity of the Divine Power, which is able to effect any thing that implies no contradiction in Naturals, or deformity in Morals; Or lastly, whether we contemplate the vast fetches and circuits of Providence, which though to the low and contracted spirit seem to clash and interfeer, yet to the noble and capacious soul are all concentric and harmonious, and make that still and sweet Music in his ears which the mistaken vulgar, thought Pythagoras heard from the motion of the Spheres, whereas it was nothing in reality but that admirable and enravishing consent of Providence, which God the great Harmostes orders in such tuneable and methodical proportions; whether, I say, we attend to any of these things, the contemplation of them cannot but widen and enlarge that which is the flower and summity of our souls, I mean their Intellectual Natures, and fill them with such raised and sublime Notions and Ideas, that it will be almost impossible for us to miss of finding out some material Truth which shall be worthy the Author of all things, and gratify and reward our diligent inquisition. Now that we may have a true and  conception of the Nature of God; it is altogether necessary that we free our minds from all prejudice and anticipation of judgement, and purge them throughout from the gross and impure steams of the Corporeal life, lest when we think we have an Idea of him, it be only an Image of our unclean fancies and imaginations: but as that Holy One is altogether Spiritual and immaterial, so must our apprehensions of him be spiritualised and removed as far from the vile commerce with matter as possibly we can, that our eyes being freed from the dust and soil of the earth we may behold him as he is, that is, as a Being absolutely perfect. For he that thus judges of that ever-blessed Being, not only removes from him all imbecility and imperfection; but invests him in the most infinite manner with whatever the mind of Man doth rationally repute to be an excellency and perfection. And whatever the profane Atheist may object, who under pretence of honouring God with the title of Incomprehensible, removes him so far, that he professes, he can have no certain conception of him at all, and therefore concludes that he is not, and perversely laughs all incorporeal substances out of the World, as if there were a contradiction in the very terms; yet he that will discard the perplexed dictates of Fancy and Imagination, and keep close to the sure Deductions of free and solid Reason, will (I doubt not) ingenuously confess, that the Idea of God is as easy and natural, as of any thing else in the World. But it is no wonder if he whose mind is perpetually enveloped with a cloud of vice and sin, cannot behold the Eternal Existence of that glorious Being which we call God: or acknowledging of him yet deciphers him to the World by such strange Characters, as no reasonable man can believe to be a true copy of his Nature. It is an indubitable Truth, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Every thing is best known by that which is most analogical to it; and as the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unless it have some picture and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it; no more can any Man have a true notion of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unless he be made Godlike and partake of his image and similitude. There is a certain congruity and harmony between Truth and the Soul of Man; and however that ancient league by our unhappy lapse came to be violated and broken: yet still there are some strokes and impresses in our minds, which claim a cognation and affinity wherever they meet with it. And those few sparks which yet remain after the extinction of that great fire of Divine life, whose harmless and innoxious flame burnt bright within us, and by it we saw ourselves, and beheld the Natures and proprieties of things, till we suffocated and choked it by casting an heap of dust and rubbish upon it; these, I say, though faint and glimmering, yet retain their alliance with heaven, and God owns them as the projections and rays of his own good life, and whoever sincerely follows their conduct, shall be led to the knowledge of their inexhausted source and origine. Having therefore such a determinate notion of God before us, we shall descend to some particular Deductions from the consideration of his Nature. As  

1. That there is something Sovereign in the Deity, which is the root and spring of all his other perfections, and that this is Absolutely full Goodness.  
That the Attributes of God are arbitrarious, and like loose-hanging adjuncts to be put off and on at pleasure, I think there is no man who knows what he says, so blasphemous as to affirm, but God is what he is by the necessity of his Nature; for he cannot be God, except he be immutable in all his essential proprieties: which immutability of his is such, that he can neither cease to be, nor act any otherwise then may be consonant to the fundamental laws of his own Being. Wherefore God being the highest and most incomprehensible life and activity, cannot fail through the Essential fecundity and plenitude of his blessed Nature of communicating himself to all possible and capable subjects; for the more perfect and complete any life is, the more diffusive it is of itself; and the reason why Creation is not compatible to any Being below the Deity, arises not from any positive will of God to the contrary, but from the impotency and imperfection of its Essence. But God being no sterile and barren principle, but every way full and absolute, is not only carried forth to the production of things, but to the order and management of them in such a way as may most correspond and suit with their intrinsical natures. Whether therefore these operations of God ad extra (as the Schoolmen phrase it) be guided and steered by an explicit and arbitrary Will, or whether they have not some other primary foundation, from which it is impossible they should at any time swerve, and in which they are all terminated, comes now to be demonstrated. For to say, that they are all bounded in the Divine Essence, and swallowed up in that immense Abyss, introduces such a confusion in the Divine Attributes that our minds can have no particular or distinct apprehension of this or the other mode, and beside gives no satisfaction to a rational inquirer, who would be apt to question, Whether there were not a subordination in the Divine Idiomata? and, Whether they be all equally active and operative? and lastly, Whether the Holy Scriptures do not universally magnify and extol some one Attribute above the rest? For the Solution of these Difficulties we must examine our own faculties, and consider what we mean by that Idea and representation we have of the Divine Nature; and, what it is that principally confers to the formation of that notion and conception we entertain in our minds of God. That there is in us naturally an Idea of a Being absolutely perfect, which we neither derived from sense, nor framed by the power of Fancy and Imagination, but is indelibly wrought and engraven in our souls by a Divine principle, and of the sense of which we can never totally rid our minds, however impiously diligent we may be in debauching our Spirits, and Sacrilegiously racing the venerable Name of the Deity out of his Temple, I shall take for granted: But there are some perfections which do more signally appear in the Deity, and which peculiarly constitute the Nature of a God; such as absolute and complete Goodness, which being so boundlessly diffusive and communicative of itself, is necessarily attended with an infinite Wisdom to govern and direct, and Power to execute and bring into being, whatever this fertile womb of Love shall travail withal. These are the constitutive Principles of a Deity, and all other proprieties are but those three grand Attributes severally varied and modified. Now that they are not all of equal worth and excellency, will appear, if we look upon them as so many distinct qualities in created Being's, wherein there appears such pain dissimilitude, that a man can scarce withhold himself from concluding, that they will likewise retain their differences when exalted into the Nature of God himself. Goodness is of an universal latitude and extent, and all other excellencies and perfections of humane Nature are indiscriminately complicated in it. For a good man is not only excited by the innate generosity and goodness of his mind to do that which is best, but summons his Wisdom and Knowledge to project and contrive, and then uses his utmost Power to bring it into act. Goodness is the rule and measure of his actions, and Wisdom and Power receive their worth and excellency from the degree of Goodness they partake of. Knowledge and Power are more particular and straight, and more in a lower sphere, and our actions receive no moral denomination from them, but as they participate more or less of Goodness. For a clearer illustration of the present Theme, we will suppose Power to have actual Existence, and carried out to the effecting of whatever lies within its sphere and comprehension, and being infinite and unlimited, to be utterly incapable of any hindrance or impediment in its operations, and it will amount to no more than a furious and Gygantick self-will, wholly indeterminate to good or evil, and as indifferent to destroy and remand back again into nonentity what it hath made, (if we can without a contradiction attribute to it the Power of Creation) as at first to make it, whose blind and impetuous self-will, is the sole rule of all it's exorbitant actions, which being no knowing principle they may oft prove as ridiculous as the vain attempt of those mighty Giants to scale heaven by throwing mountain upon mountain. We see then, that Power alone though we imagine it to have actual Existence, speaks no more perfection than that great and mighty wind which rend the Mountains, and broke in pieces the Rocks, when God passed by before the Prophet Elijah: And as the Lord was not in the wind, so neither is he to be found in such boisterous effects whose productive cause is mere selfishness and inconsiderate Will. God works not after any such unaccountable impulses, nor are we to look for mere Will and Power in the Creation of things: but for Wisdom and Counsel deriving from immense benignity and love, which never acts but for worthy and decorous ends, and for the behoof of things themselves. This being therefore the Nature of Power considered in its distinct capacity, let us add to it the principles of Wisdom, and then it will suggest to us the Idea of the Manichean God, whom they make the Author of all the evil in the World; For Wisdom and Power disjoined from the blessed fountain of Goodness, is nothing else but armed wickedness. There is no Being can communicate any thing to another which itself is not invested withal; and if we suppose the Existence of a Being of infinite Subtlety and Power, it is impossible it should be the Author of any Good in the World, because it is possessed of nothing but an unlimited desire of doing mischief; and for this reason alone, Wisdom and Power are no further good, or speak perfection than they are in conjunction with Absolute Goodness: and consequently must depend upon it as the beams of light dispersed through the air upon the Sun, or faculties and actions upon the principles from whence they flow. That Wisdom which is devoid of Goodness, is nothing but a higher degree of craft, something of the Nature of that cunning and wilyness we may discover in voracious Beasts and Birds when they deceive and pray upon the more innocent and harmless sort of Animals; so that we plainly perceive, that Wisdom and Power separated from Goodness, offer no notion of perfection at all to our minds; and therefore there is something in the Deity more amiable and lovely, and which as it speaks perfection itself, and is the most desirable and excellent thing upon earth, so it is the spring of all other Attributes in the Deity, which are no further morally good, than they are united with this prime and noble quality. Hence Tully introducing C. Cotta disputing against Velleius the Epicurean, tells him, that Epicurus by taking away Love from the Deity, Tollit id, quod maximè proprium est optimae, 
Lib. ●… de Nat. Deorum. Seneca Epist. 95. Primus est Deorum cultus, Deos credere: deinde reddere illis Majestatem suam, reddere bonitatem sine quae nullae Majestas est.  praestantissimaeque naturae. Nihil enim melius aut praestantius bonitate & beneficentiâ. Let us now reflect upon that Archetypal Image according to which man was made, and if we do not wilfully blind our eyes, we cannot but see that it was neither Wisdom nor Power (though we partake in some measure of both) but Goodness and Love, whose glorious forms and Ideas are disseminated through the intellectual World, and impressed upon every rational Being: The Angels themselves, who far exceed us in Power and Wisdom, yet should they exercise them without the ballast of Goodness would prove more exorbitant and ungovernable than the Apostate Devils. For wherein consists the height of that degeneracy and revolt of Men and Angels from God, but only in this that they are departed from the eternal laws and rules of Goodness, and strive to sustain and prop up themselves by their unlimited self-will? and hence it comes to pass, that having no sure and steady foundation to bottom themselves upon, they fluctuate and are tossed to and fro by every unruly passion and desire. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all good is governable and uniform; and it is immutable Goodness above that (to speak with reverence) makes the Divinity a Uniform Being: for Wisdom and Power are in themselves so arbitrarious, multiform and uncertain, that without the poise of Goodness, they cannot settle and radicate themselves upon any permanent Centre. This great Truth the ever-blessed Son of God verified, when he left the glory and beatitude of Heaven, and pitched his Tabernacle amongst men. For wherein consisted the flower and excellency of his Divine Perfections? Was it not in that Universal Love and Benignity he expressed to the whole World? and in that tenderness and compassion he shown by going about doing good, and casting an healing influence upon the bodies and souls of Men? This surely was the brightest ray of Divinity that ever shone from God manifested in the flesh; and to this, every holy man's experience bears witness, who then finds himself most peaceable and calm, and most conformable to the Divine Image and Pourtraicture, when he is doing the most good, and his love most enlarged and comprehensive; which Love never ascends more acceptably to Heaven, than when it overflows all capable subjects here below, and strives to unite and draw them up to God their great Source and Parent. Wherefore by what hath been said for the explication of this Proposition, it sufficiently appears, that Goodness is the inmost Centre of the Deity, and Wisdom and Power ray forth from thence like the beams of light from their lucid Centre, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

2. That that which is most precious and best (as I may so speak) in the Divine Nature, will be sure to work first, and extend itself to all the capacities and possibilities of things.  
We have already proved, That the Deity is no Arbitrary Being, but that all his Actions and Determinations relating to us, have their Original in Infinitely full Goodness; which being the most precious thing in the Nature of God, and the measure and rule of all his other Attributes and Perfections, it cannot but seem most easy and natural to conceive, that this Sovereign property, as it is the best, so it should likewise obtain the first place in working. For infinite Power never acting but in subordination to directive Wisdom; nor Wisdom and Power exerting themselves but in the way of, and according to the laws of Goodness, which being in its own Nature so fruitful and communicative, that all other Modes and Attributes are tinctured with it, and lie in a lax and diffuse manner within the sphere and comprehension of its Energy, it must also obtain the first place of acting as of right belonging to it. And if we look out and take a view of the several ranks and orders of intellectual Being's, we shall find in every of them something of greatest value and excellency, which as it exceeds in worth all other perfections of their Natures, so it will be most energetical and of the largest extent in acting; and contrarily, that what is of less excellency, is more contracted and circumscribed, and of less efficacy and virtue. The soul of man, though one entire Orb in the whole latitude and comprehension of her Essence; yet is made up of distinct powers and faculties, which are not all of equal value and excellency, nor do they all operate in the same order and manner. The lowest power which we take notice of in humane souls, is that Plastic or Formative virtue wherein consists the Vital Union between soul and body, and whose peculiar office it is to conserve the motions and keep in play all the Engines of the whole corporeal Machine: and this being so stupid, languid and inert, is perpetually transfixed by the inevitable motions and variegations of matter, and fatally bound up to those operations which are common to us with brute Animals. But as we ascend higher, the Powers of the soul are more explicate and large, and according to their worth and excellency, obtain a more or less ample sphere of Energy and Life: Thus they gradually arise till they come to that which is the Quintessence and choicest perfection of humane souls. Reason or Intellect, which being sanctified by the Divine Life, blossoms and rays forth on every side to the circumference of its Essence, and hallows all the Corporeal and Animal powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Platonist speaks, with an Intellectual touch and Divine emanation that in a sense pervades the very lowest of them: For as Intellect becomes more refined and sublime, and the Divine light by its silver cords takes greater hold upon it, so the exorbitancy of the lower powers decreases, and they are made more castigate and obedient to the dictates of the Superior Faculties. When therefore Reason is perfectly released from the burden and encumbrance of this sluggish and earthly body, and freed from the noxious fumes ascending from that cadaverous Dungeon, and shines in it's own native and irreprehensible beauty, it cannot be doubted but that as it is the most precious part, the eye and glory of the soul, so it will have a full and absolute Sovereignty and command, and be the first mover and productive cause of all those operations itself is conscious of. And though now we have almost lost the genuine sense and relish of Truth and Righteousness, and Interest or Passion and the satisfaction of a base appetite, dethron our despotic and Lordly powers, and usurp the Government of our minds; yet who so manfully resists this tyrannical Dominion, and strives to reinstate himself in his former liberty shall find that those moral Ideas of Goodness, Beauty, Truth, and Righteousness do more frequently, constantly and evenly display themselves than any other whatever; and these being likewise more excellent than the Universal notions of any other Science or Knowledge, they are also impressed deeper and more indelibly sealed upon our minds and spirits.  
But here I find it will be objected, That although according to this way of raticionation, Goodness seems to be the highest perfection of the Moral Essence of God, and consequently to have the first place in operation; yet God being Essentially all these perfections, that is, Infinite Goodness, Wisdom and Power, he might impress upon us what notion and Ideas he pleased; and though he have so signally engraved that universal Idea of Goodness upon us, yet notwithstanding he himself is free from all Law and Rule of acting, being in himself an Infinite Will and Authority, and hath bestowed on us those perfections we find in ourselves by his own arbitrary pleasure, and therefore we cannot give any satisfactory account of his Nature by what we find in ourselves.  
In answer to this, I affirm,  
1. That those Universal Characters or Notions wrought into the Essential composition of our Natures, and which render us Intellectual Creatures, are a sufficient guide to lead us to the true and certain knowledge of the Nature of God. For those common and rudimental principles of Knowledge being placed in us by something far more excellent than ourselves, and not then first begotten when some apt and fit instances and occasions from without lead us to particular considerations and applications of them to this or that singular Mode or Being; and since we ourselves cannot without a manifest repugnance to our Natural Powers and Faculties, contradict and oppose any of those general Sentiments, it must needs follow, that we must survey all things falling under our cognisance by those easy and natural rules and measures; and if now we remind ourselves, that the Notion of a God, that is, of a Being infinitely perfect, is one of those indelible Characters impressed upon our minds, and that we can not otherwise signify our conception of so illustrious an object, than by removing whatever speaks an imbecility and imperfection, and adorning it with all those glorious attributes which in the nature of the thing itself and in the judgement of all rational men, design the highest accomplishment and perfection; it will unavoidably follow, that either we in this our state of weakness and degeneracy, can never attain to any settled and firm notion of the Deity (which I look upon as a wide inlet to Atheism and Irreligion) or we must necessarily frame his Idea according to those immutable notices and Images of perfection, we find in the survey of the innate Treasure and intellectual Furniture of our minds. Now what is there the mind of man can possibly excogitate more expressive of a Being of infinite Perfection, than Infinite Goodness, Wisdom and Power? which Perfections appearing not to us of equal worth and excellency, we are led by the plain laws and dictates off reason to ascribe to that the first place of working, which includes the highest and largest Energy and Virtue. God therefore acting according to the essential measures of an Universal and Almighty Goodness, cannot be looked upon as such an Arbitrary Being as the Objection presupposes: Beside, that it is highly improbable in the nature of the thing itself, that there is any such thing as infinite Will and Authority, that is, as I understand it, such a Being whose operations are steered and conducted by no other principle but Will and Power, it is certain that we judging of things according to those innate Notions we have of them, cannot frame any such conception of the Deity; for although it be true, that God might have placed other Ideas in us (and had his Nature been as Arbitrary as some conceit, no question but he would have done so) yet it being likewise evident, that he hath not stamped any such Characteristical Notes of his Essence upon us, it is impossible we should entertain any other Notion of him then what plainly and apparently arises from that natural Idea of himself he hath signed upon every individual person of Mankind. Thus although we should affirm, that God might so have ordered things at the first Creation of Men, and so attempered and disposed our Faculties in reference to the objects both of the Corporeal and Intellectual World, that our Ideas of them should be quite contrary to what we now find and feel in ourselves, e.g. That the Idea of Matter should agree to Spirit, and that of Spirit to Matter; yet they being the facto otherwise, we can assign no other difference then what is now in the things themselves.  
2. It is altogether inconsistent with the Eternal and immutable Veracity of God to invest our souls with such Notions and Apprehensions as were not truly significative and expressive of his Nature. For this Eternal Mind intending the good and happiness of all created Being's, endued them with Powers and Faculties agreeable to their respective Ideas, and so contrived all things by an unerring Wisdom, that nothing should want its part of that pleasure and happiness for which it was at first made. Wherefore the noblest satisfaction and felicity of humane souls lying in the exercise of their intellectual powers, and the delight accrueing thence, being more or less intense, according to the nature of the object they conversed with; as it could not stand with the Goodness of God to deprive them of any innocent gratification of their minds in the contemplation of the outward World: so neither could it fairly accord with his Veracity, to prepossess them with such conceptions of things as are not where to be found in the natures of the things themselves. Since than we can no way doubt but that the blessed Author of our Being's is infinitely Veracious, this most precious Attribute of his, will be sufficient security to us that we are not made perpetually and inevitably fallible: but that there is a due proportion and harmony between our faculties and those objects whereof we have a clear and distinct apprehension. And there is no reason or plausible pretence we should think otherwise; 〈…〉 arising from impotency and weakne 〈…〉 in us, is nothing but the sickness of our minds, it is wholly repugnant to the most perfect Being, so to work a deceit in the intimate frame of our Natures, that we should always be deluded in what we imagine we have the clearest evidence of. Wherefore we being assured of the Truth of our Faculties from the Veracity of God, we have a sure guide to lead us in the contemplation of his Nature and Perfections, and may give a rational account of them from what we find in ourselves.  
From these foregoing Considerations, we may by an easy and natural deduction infer, that God never destinated any of mankind to Destruction; but that all the calamity and misery they undergo, either in this World or the next, is the proper issue and product of their wilful Apostasy and defection from him. For God being Infinite Love, and this Love the most precious Attribute of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the cause of all things else, it must necessarily follow, that whatever designs or projections were intended in reference to mankind, they must spring and derive from Goodness, which as it is Best, so it cannot but act that which is Best, and most behooveful to the things for which it acts. I confess, though this way of Argumentation from the Nature and Attributes of God, appear to me as convictive as any Mathematical Demonstration, and I feel a more irresistible and captivating force in it, than in any other way of arguing whatever; yet because there is required a peculiar Crasts of soul to be convinced by it, I do not wonder that so many look upon it as weak and invalid. For my own part I fully believe that should God by his Absolute Will and Pleasure place any such conceptions of himself within my mind, as that he hates the greatest part of Mankind for no other reason but because he Will, it is impossible I should ever credit those stranger guests to be sent from him whose Name is Love, and glories most of all in that fair and noble title; for those apprehensions having no affinity or alliance with the ancient and first inscriptions of heaven upon my soul, would grow there but as strange Plants in a forced and unnatural soil, being destitute of that proper and radicating moisture which should dispread them in a flourishing and kindly growth. There are some indeed who by reason of the penury and straitness of this Noble and Heroic qualification of Universal Goodness and Love within their own breasts, and confining themselves to particular Interests and Engagements, shape the Idea of God as suitable to and resembling their contracted Spirits as they can, and therefore attribute Love to him only secundum effectum, not affectum; whereby they would make us believe, that there is no such real propriety or affection as Love existing and living in the Deity, but only a bare indication of it by certain effects, which because our short and sterile understandings know not how to express otherwise, we give them the denomination of Love or Goodness. Now although the Deity be not subject to those variable passions which in ourselves we style Love and Hatred, and which are seldom grounded but upon Humour and Fancy; yet to deny that there is any such thing really and formally in God as Love and Goodness, such a principle as carries him out to the production of all possible Being's, and whereby he takes an Eternal Complacency and Delight in whatever acts regularly within its sphere, is in itself but a groundless fancy: For that beloved Disciple of the blessed Jesus St. John, who leaned on a breast never void of Love and Pity to the Sons of Men, and had a very potent and vigorous sense of this Divine passion within him, when he would set out and express the Nature of God to us in the most significant and yet Evangelical and attractive manner, tells us, that he is Love, which doubtless denotes something real and certain, not a bare notion or airy Idea and fantastic dream known only by some effects, being something only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

3. Conclusion. That the Divine estimate of things and persons, is according to the truth and reality of their respective Natures; and that when God makes judgement of Intellectual Creatures he does it by viewing their moral frame and constitution, and accordingly stands more or less affected towards them.  
We fond Mortals being prone to Love and Hate at our pleasure, beholding things through the vitiated and corrupt Medium of our lusts and passions, are very apt to make to ourselves false representations of them by dressing them up in the filthy shape of our own distorted fancies; like Icterical persons who imagine all the approximate objects of sight tinctured with yellow, when as the colour is all the while in their own eyes, and made only by the motion or striking of certain vapours upon the Optic Nerves: thus many contaminating and defiling their reasons by a familiar converse with sin and wickedness, and setting their own Self-will in the Throne, and transacting the whole business of their Religion upon the stage of Fancy, never looking higher than to the gratification and satisfaction of the Animal powers, and by that means making Vice connatural to them, and losing the true distinction between Good and Evil, Calling Good, Evil, and Evil, Good; putting Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness; Bitter for Sweet, and Sweet for Bitter; they frame an Image of the Deity by an Idolum of their own, and think that God hath the same good apprehensions of their persons and the same conceptions of all things else as they themselves have. But that immutable Goodness which gave being to the Heavens and the Earth, and every thing contained in them, and is not subject to humours and partialities, but pervades the Essences of all created Being's, and feels all the intrigues and mysteries of each of them by a stable and Omnipresent Knowledge, judges of them according to their present state and capacities. As suppose this man righteous and holy at present, should afterward apostate from that perfect state, albeit his future lapse be an object of the Divine Knowledge; yet is he not denominated from that, but from the exigency and import of his present condition, and from hence is approved of God, and under the decree of life and happiness: but when he actually prevaricates and commits iniquity, he falls under the decree of death and damnation, notwithstanding all his former righteousness. There are some things which are of an immutable and indispensable necessity, and are eternally unalterable even by God himself; such are the notions of God and Evil, Justice and Injustice, and all Moral Rectitude and Deformity; and according to the importance of these, so is God's Estimate of all rational Agents, without respect to any external qualifications or natural endowments. And wherever he finds the least measure of his own good life springing up, he is so far from destroying it, that he upholds and nourishes it by the vital streams of his Immense Plenitude, and quickens and causes it to distend itself through the powers of the soul by a gentle and divine heat; and knowing it to be his own genuine offspring by those Sacred Hieroglyphics and impressions it bears upon it, he can never forsake or cast it of as a contemptible and worthless thing: but embrace it as that which hath the truest and most undoubted right to the Government of the whole World, and take the greatest pleasure in dispreading it throughout all the lapsed Creation, as being nothing but his own blameless Nature displayed and taking hold of so many several subjects to unite them to itself, as to the most absolute and self-originated Good. And this is no more than what the sacred Writ gives its suffrage for; 
Act. 10.34, 35.  God is no respecter of persons: but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness, is accepted of him. As our growth and increase is in the Life and Nature of God, so do we proportionably come under his favour and acceptance. For we must not think that so soon as ever this Potent and Divine principle gins to set us free from that heavy slavery and captivity we were detained under by our Tyrannous self-wils; that we are immediately so far advanced into the Divine Favour, as will admit us into the sacred Adytum or Holy of Holies in the highest Heavens, to see and enjoy the glory and presence of the Divine Schehinah, and recreate and refresh ourselves with that adorable splendour: but we are to reckon ourselves so far under the benign aspect of heaven, as the Holy Life of God rules and bears sway within the Empire of our minds. Heaven is not taken with the Grandeur and Blandishments of the world; nor is a man so accounted in the balance of the Divine judgement and approbation, as he is valued in the fallacious estimate of frail mortals (for God sees not as we see, nor are his thoughts as our thoughts) but such is the man as is the inward frame and temper of his spirit, unbared from that swelling pride and ostentation, and the painted gloss and varnish of Hypocrisy which set him off in the eyes of men. There is nothing God takes greater joy and contentment in, than the expansion and dilatation of his own Nature and Attributes; and he never suffers his blessed Life solitarily to contest with the Rebellious and Gygantick lusts in men's souls, and then to be vanquished and die in the midst of enemies for want of his powerful assistance: but perpetually aides and succours it, making it victorious to the casting down Principalities and Powers, and everting and conquering the whole Kingdom of Darkness, and every thing that opposes its Crown and Dignity, leading the soul as a glorious spoil taken out of the hands of the airy-Apostate Legions (who are but Usurpers and Intruders upon the Rights and Proprieties of the Kingdom of light) into its native Country, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the land of Truth and Righteousness. All sin and unrighteousness is directly contrary and opposite to the eternal Rectitude of God's blessed Nature; and being so, it is impossible he should ever be reconciled to it, or cast a favourable aspect upon it. He will ever be chase, pursuing, and beating it out of the World, and never suffer it to rest any any where in peace, but will always lay siege against it, and will at length prevail and settle his own life upon its rightful Throne, and put all the Powers of Hell and Darkness under his feet. These are the two mighty Empires which have been ever since the revolt of Men and Angels from God, and are still contending for the Government of the World, and industriously promoting the amplitude and enlargement of their respective Dominions, and to one of these every man associates and adjoins himself in this life, either by a manly courage and resolution in the ways and practice of virtue, or a pusillanimous declension to iniquity and vice. And therefore the Philosopher spoke well and agreeable to the sense of Christianity, 
Porphyr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 2.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The more we neglect the extirpation of our passions and exorbitances, the stronger hold has the unrighteous nature upon us, and the nearer are we conjoined with it.  
The sum of all is this; God looking upon and judging men according to their moral habitudes and capacities, and beholding them all upright and perfect as the workmanship of his own hands before our great Protoplast Adam transgressed in Paradise, could not but intent graciously to them and treat them according to the innocent purity of their Natures, and therefore never conceived any such dismal purpose of damnation against them, because they were not then in the nature and reason of the thing, objects of his hatred and displeasure; nor could they become obnoxious to punishment, till they had actually violated some Law and Command.   

4. Conclusion. That all the results, operations and designs of the Deity, relating to and terminated upon something without him, are the emanations and effects of Absolute and Complete Goodness.  
It was not any benefit or addition to his stable glory and felicity, which Men or Angels might contribute, that first moved and incited the great Creator or the Universe, to bring all things into Being: but it was to communicate his Nature, and display his Goodness in the production of all things capable of existing. The whole frame of Nature depends upon him, and he upholds it in the circle of his benign Arms; and his exuberant Love, like an eternal spring, is perpetually sending abroad its streams, and watering all the parts of the Creation with a Divine influx. God is not like ambitious Man, who acts that he may make himself great, and purchase a few swelling titles by sucking in the airy breath of Popular Applause, and like proud Haman, contrive and design the ruin of every one that will not bend the knee, and adore with humble prostrations the vainer Image of a more conceited Majesty; or like those self-willed aspiring Spirits of whom it's affirmed, 
Porphyr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. l. 2. Sect. 37.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they will do mischief if once they are incensed by neglect of their due worship and service: but will presently become beneficial if flattered and collogued by Prayers, Supplications, Sacrifices, and other accustomed Rites and Ceremonies. He never acts out of such scant and parsimonious principles, nor is he such a mutable and peevish Being, as to be overcome with Anger and Revenge upon every slight occasion; and yet so easy, and fond, and thirsty after the praise and glory of his Creatures, as to be appeased with a few trivial performances and demure submissions: but his Holy Nature is steady and unchangeable Goodness, which exerts not itself precariously and arbitrarily, being never disjoined from an All-comprehensive Wisdom, nor ever subject to the passions of Envy and Vainglory, or clouded by inadvertencies and surprisals of pettish Wrath; but like the Sun beyond the Planetary regions, communicates his amiable life by ever serene Radiations, and uninterrupted influences. There is nothing in the Deity which ariseth out of Poverty or Indigency, but of infinite Plenitude and Fullness; and no creature can augment his Felicity, who is in himself a perfect Selfsufficiency and complete Happiness. 
Strom. 5.  Wherefore Clemens Alexandrinus well observes out of Plato, That God brought not the glorious Fabric of the World into Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, out of indigency, or that he might receive praise and glory from Men and Angels, as a tribute to be paid him by his Creation. It is the impotency and effeminacy of men's intellectual powers which lessens and straitens their apprehensions of the Deity, that they cannot frame any other conceptions of him then they do of themselves, as if he sought for Honour and Advantage, and something without himself, which he was not as yet possessed of by bringing his Creatures upon the stage of Being. And if these uncouth Ideas chance to light upon a subtle and unhewn temper, he will easily be provoked to deny the very Existence of God in the World, whom he cannot imagine to be Almighty Love and Immense Fullness; when he plots and contrives to augment the revenues of his glory by those ignoble and dishonourable ways of destining his Creatures to misery, to the end he may appear potent and magnificent in their destruction. For as the great Proplastes of the Universe beginning the efformation of a plant, and meeting with stubborn and inobsequious matter, gives it a different signature and impression from its natural Idea; and instead of adding to it it's due proportions and lineaments, despoils it of its native form and beauty by many misshapen botches and protuberances: In like manner these direful and harsh apprehensions of the Deity, meeting with a rough and unmalleable disposition, instead of forming any consistent notion, beget in it by their contagious affriction an utter aversation and malice against the thing itself, and exasperate it so far that it bends all its strength of wit and subtlety, to eradicate the very Being of a God out of the World. For undoubtedly if the minds of men be too untractable to become Devotional and Religious, the next step will be to take away all sense and veneration of a Supreme Numen as being something which otherwise would too much curb and restrain them from prosecuting that liberty their corrupt and debauched Natures assume to themselves. And what is it that gives occasion to such dismal thoughts, and renders the lovely Idea of God such a Mormo and bugbear to men, that they endeavour by all possible ways to extirpate it out of their minds; but only because they see those who pretend to be the great lights of the Gospel and Religion, and instructors of others in the ways of Righteousness, make such dreadful representations of his Nature, and set him forth in so frightful a dress, that they think the World had better be without, then groan under the Tyranny of such a bloodthirsty Deity, who like churlish Saturn, destroys his offspring so soon as brought into Being; nay before they were any thing but Ideas in the Divine Intellect, designed them by an irrevocable law to most sharp and uneasy torments? This certainly is the very inward sense of the Atheist, who finding very contradictory and unaccountable explications as well of many other grand pieces of Christianity as of the Nature of God, made by many who took themselves to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the late times, wherein true Religion dwindled away into nothing but formal performances, long and pompous Devotions, tedious and anxious Confessions, as well of the Articles of their Faith as Obliquities of their lives, and pedantic niceties, took a fair occasion to disbelieve all, and by a hellish kind of policy, contrived at once a total eversion of Christianity, by taking away the object of Religious Worship and expunging the notion of a Deity out of men's minds. What Plutarch somewhere speaks of a barbarous sort of people, the Atheist retorts upon those rigid masters of Theology, that it were much better to have no notion or conception of God at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than to think that he takes pleasure in the blood of slain men, and accounts this the most perfect and consummate Sacrifice and Devotion. But this need not have driven the Atheist so far as to deny the Existence of God; for had he looked into the inbred forms and characters of his own mind, and withal viewed the original draught of God in the Holy Scriptures, he might have taken a far more true, lively, and amiable resemblance of the Deity, than that which scared him from the very thoughts of his Being. God is one who carries on no self-interest or particular design: but that which he most of all aims at and intends shall take place upon Earth, is the propagation of his own Life and Nature, and the general good and welfare of all the sons of Men. Fond and unreasonable Man indeed, when he hath gotten power into his hands, delights himself in making happy or miserable at his pleasure: but that steady and immutable Goodness which neither rises nor sets, nor admits any variation or shadow of turning, glories not so much in the displaying of his power and making himself formidable to the Creation, as in the expansion and dilatation of his Love, as the glory and beauty of the Sun are those pleasant rays that flow from him. God's power is nothing but Goodness arming and exerting itself for the bringing about some design of Love; nor can he ever Will any thing but what is every way suitable and correspondent to his invariable Goodness, which is the measure of his Will. And therefore to think that God takes any complacency in the sole exercise of his Sovereignty and Dominion over his Creatures, or advances his glory by exalting and casting them down, and making them the objects of his Love or Hare, according to his arbitrary Will and Power, is all one as if a Man should seek for a name and glory by going about and treading upon a few poor Worms. We all talk much of the glory of God, but many of us have very short and contracted conceptions, and too oft adopt our own fancies for genuine and natural apprehensions of it, as if it consisted in the putting forth the acts of an unlimited Will and Power how and when he pleaseth, and declaring their effluxes and emanations to be the rule of reason and measure of all Moral Actions, and the grand Law of the whole Creation, or else in those Hymns and Hallelujahs which are offered up to him by intellectual Being's from all quarters of the Universe: Whereas in truth his Glory is nothing without himself, nor any acquisition and purchase to augment his happiness (for he being an Infinite Plenitude of all Perfection, is incapable of receiving any compliment of Glory or Blessedness) but than he most of all elevates and raises his glory and lustre, when he most of all communicates his Nature, and shines in with a full and uninterrupted light of Truth and Goodness upon all the intellectual Creation. He never seeks his Glory in respect of us in any other way, than by dispreading and imparting those Sovereign Attributes of Love, Mercy, Patience, Wisdom and Justice. And we in the most proper sense do then advance the Glory of God highest, and discover it to the World in the most ample and transcendent manner, when the life of God becomes a Vital Principle in us, carrying us beyond the reach of corporeal exsudations and defilements, which render the soul inept for a conformity to his blessed Image; and when Truth, Holiness and Righteousness in which the Divine Nature is copied out, become not empty and insignificant Names and sounds of words, but actuating and quickening Principles, and we studiously endeavour to engrave those beautiful Forms in our minds and spirits: In a word, then do we glorify God, when we converse with him in the Temple of an unspotted heart, and derive from him in whom there is no blemish of iniquity, such an Universal Holiness as lives within us, and pervades and sanctifies all our actions: And this the Lord Christ who best knew how to glorify God, hath intimated to us, 
Joh. xv. 8.  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.  
I have now finished this Argument from the consideration of the Divine Nature, and have deduced such genuine and legitimate Conclusions, that if rightly estimated and weighed, cannot but implant for the future in every unprejudiced mind more generous and serene Apprehensions of the Deity, then are offered in any Scheme of the Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian Doctrines; both which concur in that which appears most deformed to every pure and defecate eye, viz. The Eternal Reprobation and Confusion of the greatest part of Mankind, the one upon pretence of God's sole Will and Pleasure, and the other under the mantle and cover of Adam's transgression, in whose loins the whole race of Mankind was included, when he fell and lost his Paradise. Both which opinions, though never so fairly guilded over, do really make God put on the mask of cruelty and rigour, that he might appear just in his Oeconomy and Administration of the affairs of the World: and that which is most barbarous and infamous in the eye of reason is made to speak the glory of the Deity. And that God might bring about this dismal and black design of Damning his Creatures, he must compass it by injurious artifices, and tyrannical contrivances; rot unlike that inhuman fraud Tiberius used to Brutus and Nero the sons of Germanicus, 
Suet. in Vit. T●…b. c. 54.  Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia, & concitati perderentur. How deep a stain doth this cast upon the lovely rays and efflorences of the Divine Goodness and Mercy, making him to become the Executioner to his own offspring, and rend that dear life in pieces, which his own hands gave Being to? And although the Sublapsarian Dogma be entertained of some, on purpose to mollify that harsh decree of the Supralapsarian Reprobation; yet if we divest it of those terms and artifices of words wherewith it is mantled over to appear more specious to the World, we shall find it cast as great a blot upon the Divine Nature as the other. For, whether is it better to say, That God by his Eternal Prerogative of Absolute Dominion over all his Creatures, has adjudged the greatest part of Mankind to inevitable misery, for no other reason but upon the impulse of his own Will, and to show the glory of his Power: Or to say, That God for the sin of one Man (whom he made the Representative of the succeeding Generations of Men to the end of the World) committed some thousands of years ago, and imputed only to his Posterity, who were no more able to help it, than to hinder their being born into the World, should take the advantage of his lapse, and decree the greatest number of Mankind to Everlasting destruction. And if we impartially view this latter, it will appear no less precarious and absurd than the former. For though it be true, that we are really and formally guilty of Original Sin; yet to say, that God did physically predetermine Adam's fall: or in the mildest sense, That he looked upon man as fallen (for the Reprobationists are not consistent with themselves) and so took the opportunity which he foresaw would offer itself by his lapse to bring about his design of ruining the greatest number of Mankind, is to bring Almighty God the Father of compassions upon the stage of the World, speaking unto the calamitous Offspring of Adam, like the Wolf when he intended to devour a Lamb: 
Ante hos sex menses, ait, maledixisti mihi;  
Respondit agnus: Equidem natus non eram.  
Pater hercule tuus, inquit, maledixit mihi:  
Atque ita correptum lacerat injustâ niece.  Should God take the souls of men being yet innocent, so soon as he set them upon acting in the World according to those Principles and Powers he bestowed upon them at their first production, and cast them into everlasting burn, they would have this comfort left to them, that they suffered innocently, and never in the least measure violated any of the sacred Laws of Heaven: But when they shall hear that their Creator and Father (who upon that very account could not inflict a greater evil than the good he bestowed on them) hath contrived their death, and drawn them into sin, that he might with the fairer show of equity, punish them with infinite tortures both in body and soul, this injustice must needs appear unspeakably grievous. For although some would seem to excuse this Oeconomy from all harshness, iniquity and rigour by substituting the softer terms of Preterition or negative Reprobation; yet if they will unmask their apprehensions and speak plain sense, the difference will appear only in words, not in the thing itself, and is all one as if a man should seek to alleviate the calamity of a condemned Malefactor, by telling him he should not die by Common but Noble hands; For the event declares God's intention: and the denial of his help to extricate them from misery, is equivalent to a positive Reprobation. Let us consult a little our own faculties, and reason the case; Is it at all consentaneous to that communicative Goodness, wherein God takes most delight to glorify himself, to make those souls the desolate Victims of enraged Vengeance, who never had any more than a capability of Existence when their first Parent sinned against heaven, and could no more prevent their defilement by that diffusive contagion, then hinder themselves from being first made? Arrian makes a very near cognation and affinity of the souls of Men with God, 
Cap. 14. lib. 1. in Epictet.  as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, particles and avulsions from him; and when Moses made intercession for the Israelites upon the Rebellion of Korah, he uses this Title or Appellation, 
Numb. xuj. 22.  The God of the spirits of all flesh, as the most prevalent Argument to induce him not to be wrath with the whole Congregation for one man's sin; forasmuch as he was their Creator, and therefore could not but pity the works of his own hands: And the Author to the Hebrews styles this everblessed Being, 
Chap. xii. 9  The Father of Spirits, who for that very reason, can never cast of that Relation, and become unpitiful to his own lovely Offspring, who in their lowest state and greatest degeneracy were vouchsafed to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Sons of God. 
Joh. xi. 52.  And now what other can these things signify, but that there is a very near alliance and consanguinity between God and the souls of Men? and that it is only the corrupt imaginations of men which introduced those horrid Decrees, and represented God as a hater of Mankind, and desirous of the death of his Creation? But to carry on this a little further: That God should hang the everlasting interest of millions of souls upon the frail and mutable Will of a single Person, whom he foresaw would lapse, and by it ruin and undo the greater part of his yet uncreated Posterity, is an Oeconomy too harsh and rigid ever to be put in execution by the God of Love, and unworthy the Nature of him who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him the Father of Mercies and Compassions. Let us be wise unto sobriety, and act like men who care not for Words and Names, but Things: Suppose an hundred Persons condemned to die, equally culpable, equally criminal; and it be in the Power of some Good Man to save ten, twenty, or all if he please, will he not rather deliver all, than only redeem twenty or a less number, especially when he may do it with the same expense and cost? and shall we imagine God to be less Good than a charitable and kindhearted Man? Do God and his holy Angels take an infinite complacency and delight, and rejoice at the Conversion of one sinner, and can we think they take pleasure in the destruction of Myriad, even before they ever actually offended? This made Mr. Calvin betake himself to the defence of the Supralapsarian cause, because he knew not how the Personal sin of Adam should be derived upon his Posterity, and make them formally guilty, so as God might Saluâ bonitate & justitiâ, Reprobate them as sinners, and cast them into the lowest hell: Wherefore he ascribes all to the Divine Preordination, and doubts not to say, 
In Resp. ad Calumn. Nebul. ad Art. 1.  Nihil ad nos unius hominis culpa, nisi nos coelestis judex aeterno exitio addiceret. But let us hear him speak out his mind more fully to this purpose, Instit. lib. 3. cap. 23. §. 7. Disertis verbis hoc extare negant, decretum fuisse à Deo ut sua defectione periret Adam; Quasi verò idem ille Deus, quem Scriptura praedicat facere quaecunque vult, ambiguo fine condideret nobilissimum ex suis Creaturis. Liberi arbitrii fuisse Dicunt ut fortunam ipse sibi fingeret: Deum verò nihil destinasse nisi ut pro merito eum tractaret. Tam frigidum commentum si recipitur, ubi erit illa Dei Omnipotentia, quâ secundum arcanum consilium, quod aliunde non pendet, omnia moderatur? Atqui Praedestinatio, velint, nolint, in posteris se profert. Neque enim factum est naturaliter ut à salute exciderent omnes unius parentis culpâ. Quid eos prohibet fateri de uno homine, quod inviti de toto humano genere concedunt? Quid enim tergiversando luderent operam? Cunctos mortales in unius hominis personâ morti aeternae mancipatos fuisse Scriptura clamat. Hoc cùm naturae ascribi nequeat, ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minime obscurum est. Bonos istos justitiae Dei Patronos perplexos haerere in festu â, altas verò trabes superare nimis absurdum est. Iterum quaero, Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio, nisi quia Deo ita visum est? Hic obmutescere oportet alicqui tam dicaces linguas. Decretum quidem horrible fateor; inficiari tamen nemo poterit quin praesciverit Deus quem exitum esset habiturus homo antequam ipsum conderet; & ideo praesciverit, quia decreto suo sic ordinarat. It cannot be denied then, but that the Scripture abundantly testifies, and our daily experience asserts the Lapse and Apostasy of Men from God, and that they are really guilty of an Original contagion: but that it came by any Ordination and Decree of God, neither Scripture not Reason will assent unto. And for this Degeneracy God might justly have punished all the World, since that every man had made himself obnoxious by departing from him, and violating his Sacred Law: But God whose Goodness never fails, was so far from taking advantage of the deplorable state of Mankind, that he had a design of Good towards them, and sent the Lord Christ into the World, who taking upon him to become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of men, took of all that displeasure which was conceived against them, according as the Apostle tells us, 
2 Cor. v. 19 Col. i. 19, 20.  God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself: And again, It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell, and (having made peace through the blood of his Cross) by him to reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things in Earth, or things in Heaven. By which Reconciliation is meant Gods taking into grace and favour lapsed Man, and forgiving their foul degeneracy from him, and assuring them that their past obliquities shall never ruin them, if now they will endeavour to become New-creatures, and that now he hath entered upon a Covenant of Peace, wherein he promises to them all the assistance that possibly can be given Rational Being's; so that now no man is damned for his Original, but Actual Transgressions: otherwise it cannot be understood how God through Christ should reconcile the World unto himself, or how the Grace of God which came by Christ did abound, and was made more efficacious than sin; For if the sin of Adam destroyed and slew more, than the Death and Passion of the Lord Christ made alive, then were Sin of a larger extent and more potent than Grace; 
〈◊〉 v.  and the Apostle could not truly affirm, That where Sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.    

CHAP. IU. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation, taken from the Evangelical Dispensation; wherein is shown, the purport and design of the Gospel, which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature, and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end.  
THere is no Man that knows himself, and discerns the true frame of his own Being, what sublime and noble perfections the soul is capable of, and withal reflects upon the weak and imperfect state of the Sons of men, how uncertain and fluctuating their judgements are at the best, and how frequently obscured with prejudice, how impotently stubborn their wills to the election of substantial good, and how broken and disordered the faculties of their whole man, but will assuredly conclude that all Mankind (however it comes to pass) are extremely alienated and apostatised from that innate purity and excellent state in which they were created (for no Man that believes himself made by an Alwise and infinitely perfect Author, can imagine that he came thus lame and maimed out of his hands) and sunk as low as the capacities of their Nature will permit, being only vivacious and active to trifling, low, and bodily interests and concernments, carrying on such poor and momentary designs as are unworthy the native generosity of their minds; in a word, so devoid of that life in the possession of which consists their true felicity, that they are past hopes of recovering by their own solitary endeavours their pristine and ancient glory. But although Man by that venturous and bold revolt from the blessed Kingdom of Light, dispossessed himself of God's favour, and forfeited all right and title to his ordinary care and Providence; yet that ever-to-be-magnified Goodness which made him at first Lapsable, beheld him as a calamitous object of compassion, and designed the erecting and re-edifying that glorious Temple which sin and unrighteousness had miserably defaced and ruined, and the repossessing his own life of its rightful Government and Dominion in the Souls of Men, which however they come into the World the subjects of brutish lusts and passions, are yet capable of Angelical accomplishments, and a Vital Union with the Creator of all things: God therefore being the highest and most perfect life, and feeling and knowing his Nature to be the most precious thing in all the World, and the utmost perfection of every Rational Being, could not but intent graciously to his lapsed Creatures, and seek the extension and dispreading of his goodly Attributes over all capable subjects of the World of life. For he that shall look upon the diligence and activity of the dark Powers in enlarging the bounds of their usurped Kingdom, and consider the contagious and disseminating Nature of every pitiful and degenerate lust, how every crazy and sickly vice attempts and offers at a further explication of itself, and every small Exarchat of that Hellish Principality endeavours daily to make new additions, and take in fresh supplies to maintain the general cause of unrighteousness, and augment their petty Royalties, can never think that God will sit as a disinteressed spectator; but promote and advance his own good life to the command of the whole Creation, and broke down the power of that great Arimanus, who captivates the sons of Men in the fetters and shackles of Mortality and Death. The life of God is a strong and powerful principle, and hath always the arm of Heaven to aid and assist it: but all sin and unrighteousness is a mere poverty and deficiency, not able to exist in the World, did not the self-wills of men uphold it, and can never stand against the potent assaults of the Heavenly Nature. Which holy life that God might re-establish in the World, he hath delivered the Gospel, the last and most perfect dispensation that ever was or shall be communicated to Men, which consists not in an external and dead form of words, nor is it a mere system and compendium of such precepts, that like the Mosaical Law, sanctify only to the purifying of the flesh, but cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Perfect him that doth the service as pertaining to the Conscience; that is, Purge and cleanse his mind from dead Works, and make way for the consummation of the life of God within him, whereby he shall no longer be in bondage and servility to every caitive lust, but act spontaneously under a free and generous principle, and become a law to himself: but such a Method of perfect Righteousness and Virtue as shall purify, refine and exalt the spirits of Men from all feculent concretions, and subdue every irregular motion and unruly desire that would tempt and solicit their choice of corporeal joys, and beget in them so true a relish of unblameable Goodness and Holiness, as should at the end of their mortal life install them in the full possession of everlasting Tranquillity and Peace. Of which glorious contrivance, though we have a Scheme and Model drawn out in the Holy Gospels; yet there is a life and spirit in Christianity that cannot be blotted on paper, but lives and acts in such hearts as are framed and squared according to those Rules contained in the Sacred Writings. And this he who is the Author of our Faith and Blessedness testified, when he said, that his Words were Spirit and Life; such as were able, and designed to revive the dead and senseless minds of Men, and propagate a vital heat and motion through the torpid and benumbed World: and accordingly the Apostle St. Paul tells us, that Christianity is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Law of the Spirit of life: 
Rom. viij. 2. 2 Cor. 3.  and in another place, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The ministration of the Spirit, and the ministration of Righteousness, in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The dispensation of Death and Condemnation; intimating, that under the Gospel men shall not have a Mechanical and Artificial Religion, but such as frames the life and spirit of God in their hearts, and becomes a Vital form, tuning their souls into an Universal consent with Gods own Will, whereby they send forth most harmonious and Divine accents, not only when they are stricken and beaten upon by an external hand, like Memnon's statue, whose Musical notes ceased so soon as the Sunbeams were withdrawn from it; but from an internal Power, incorporated and made one with their own spirits. It is true, when God at first made Man, and sent him into this lower World, he left him to be governed by those innate prescriptions and rules of Righteousness he interwove in the constitution of his Nature at his first production; and while he followed this light, and turned not aside to the false fires of his depraved will, he walked in safe and secure paths: But when Men began to multiply upon earth, Sin and Vice increased, and the infectious steams of Iniquity soon grew into a cloud and obscured the light of the day, and men forsook their ancient Guide, and wandered about in Darkness and Error; and the voice of Reason was not heard when Self-interest and Passion became the sole principles of action. Hence it came to pass, that in succession of time men's discriminative faculties growing insensate and dull through the life and vigour of their Animal powers, and their Criteria abating and losing their quick and nimble taste and relish of true good and happiness, they choose only the present satisfaction and pleasure of their corrupt Appetites, and embraced blindfold every inordinate motion and passion; and it was too late now to curb and restrain their lawless and rampant Desires. For although Divine Goodness which was never absent nor withdrawn from the World, did in all Ages and Places raise up considerable and holy Persons to instruct the perverse Sons of Men in the ways of Righteousness; yet their Precepts and Admonitions were entertained by very few, the rest of the World still slumbering in their old wickedness and stupidity, and choosing such faint and glimmering flames to guide themselves by, such weak and sickly Principles as might lest distrub their fancied Peace, and molest their desired Security. Wherefore when this way proved unserviceable and unfit for Man's Restauration, God entered upon a new Dispensation, and revealed himself more plainly to the Jews, selecting Jacob for his Portion, and Israel for the lot of his Inheritance, conducting them by an infant Religion which should make way and prepare their minds for the reception of that glorious Mystery which in due time should be communicated to the World; and delivering to them Laws, Statutes and Judgements, fencing and hedging in the impure eruptions of their debased Natures by Judicial Decrees, and besiedging Vice and Iniquity by the actual promulgation of a Law. But the main of this Oeconomy was only Thetical and Positive, deriving its obligation merely from the Divine Command, and adapted for the most part to the Plastic Powers of the soul; for it consisting chief in external Performances which had no intrinsic Goodness contained in them, nor any other Reason of their injunction, but the will and pleasure of the Imposer, it could not ascend higher than the Fancy or Imagination, nor contribute any thing to the sublimating Reason and Intellect, while all its motions were determined in so low a spear. And hence arose the great imperfection of the Mosaical Law, in that it had only an Adumbration, and presented a Landtschap of good things, and not the very image and substance, 
Heb. x. 1.  and consequently was altogether destitute of a Vital and Energetical Power to promote true and substantial Holiness, or extirpate and mortify the exorbitant passions of corporeal life. For indeed the whole body of the Judaical Service was only a Prefiguration of something more perfect and illustrious to be discovered to the World, the most mysterious part of it being Typical and Emblematical, carrying an abscondit signification under an External Symbol; which the Author to the Hebrews seems to allude to, when he says it was necessary that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Heb. ix. 23, 24.  The patterns of things in the Heavens, should be purified with these— And again, Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The figures of the true— But when notwithstanding this careful Discipline men were still corrupt and satisfied themselves with the bare observance of the letter of the Law, neglecting the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the weightier and more principal matters, such as Justice, Righteousness, Truth and Goodness, God grew weary of this Oeconomy, and called more for the performance of the Moral then Ceremonial part of the Law, and when the fullness of time was come resolved to bring about his last and most perfect determination, which was to send down his wellbeloved Son with full Power and Authority to communicate an Everlasting Righteousness, and deliver to the World the Gospel, which is the sum and substance, the flower and quintessence of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, exterior modes and schemes, wherewith he instructed the Jewish Church of old, and which retains only such Ceremonies as are necessary in regard of our frail and mortal state (in which we are more affected with the propulsions and motions of sense, then with Truths of a refined and intellectual constitution) and is compounded and made up of such things as are naturally and immutably good, such as have an eternal and indispensable obligation, being nothing but the Ideas of our own souls which we had buried and obscured by our fall, raised and brought to light again, the results of Gods own Nature imprinted upon our minds, and his moral Being explicated and dispread throughout our spirits. The Gospel is nothing but God manifested in the flesh, his Goodness, Wisdom, Justice, and Mercy veiled under the Cortex of words and expressions adapted and fitted to our mean capacities, and it's highest aim and design is to make us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Partakers of the Divine Nature, and perfect us according to his own Image of Righteousness and Truth, and in our due time invest us with the immortal robes of life and glory. This was the Noble end of the Pythagorean Philosophy, 
Hierocles in Carm. Pythag.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And questionless a Divine and Heroic spirit moved in those Philosopher's veins, and they knew and felt the irradiations of that Heavenly life, which quickens and informs every Rational Being that puts no wilful stop and impediment to its kindly operations: But whether ever they obtained that high and excellent achievement they aimed at, by living up to the Precepts and Principles of their Philosophy, I shall not now inquire. Sure I am, there was never any Oeconomy yet divulged to the World, which more illustriously propagated the Divine Life and Nature, or more effectually conduced to the drawing Men from Sin and Wickedness, and weakening the Diabolical Kingdom, then that Evangelical Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and Generations; but is now made manifest to Mankind by the appearing of Jesus Christ. That we are deeply lapsed and degenerated from God, is the universal consent of all Men, although they differ in the manner of its explication: Plato taught that the Fall of Man consisted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the defluxion of the souls pinions; whereby not being able any longer to bear herself up in the higher Regions, she fell to the Earth, and inhabited a Mortal body, which the above named Author thus Paraphrases upon, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is, As our departure from God, and the defluxe and moulting of our plumes, whereby we soared aloft, caused our descent into the region of Mortality and Wretchedness; so it is the rejection of our bodily passions, and the growth and springing of virtue as of new wings, which will carry us to the pure habitations of Holiness and Divine felicity. But whether our lapse were thus or not, it makes little; however it was, this is certain, that our Reascent to God, must be in all points contrary to our Apostasy from him. As we have polluted our Natures by a boundless regard and Adhesion to corporeal pleasures, and sunk ourselves deep into the material World; so on the other side, our reversion to our lost happiness must be effected by refining our souls from terrene dregs, and conversing with our mind and intellect, and subjugating our Animal powers to the dictates and Imperium of Reason. As our descent came by listening to the impure whispers and titillations of the bodily life; so our ascent and Resurrection must come by harkening to the suggestions of the Intellectual Man. And what more effectual and powerful means can be excogitated to recover mankind from the thraldom and bondage of sin, than that sacred method divulged to the World in the manifestation of the Gospel, whose great tendency and scope is to enforce the necessity of a good and virtuous life, and mortify all irregular and inordinate desires, and reinthrone Divine Righteousness to its just rights and possession in the hearts and minds of men? To what other purpose are we commanded in the Gospel to extirpate every extravagant lust and passion, and crucify the spurious productions of Vice, and prosecute with all diligence and affection their lovely contraries: but because the one depresses our minds from their true state by subjecting them to a base and ignoble drudgery, and the other recovers them to their first and genuine freedom, and puts them into a capacity of immortality? For all passions, the more corporeal they are and participate of the body, the more they draw and wind the soul to the centre of the Animal life, which by a copious emission of fuliginous rays, obnubilates the intellectual and perceptive powers, and whoever purges himself from these, shall be a vessel unto honour. This purgation of Soul and Spirit was judged indispensably necessary for the recuperation of the Divine Image by the Pythagorean Philosophers, and is called by Porphyry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the ablation of every thing extraneous, leaving only such forms in the soul as be congenit with its own Nature. It's true, as we come into the World, we relish little else but the fond gratifications of the body, and are taken up and enamoured with the inescations and allurements of the plastic life, whereby our better parts are dulled and stupefied, and in this degenerate state the soul is truly said in the Pythagorick sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass into brutes, not by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, transfusion of the humane soul into Beasts, but by its descent into the brutish life, and assimilating itself to ferine passions and inclinations; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; as Arrian expresses it. The great work therefore of the Gospel is to beat down and conquer the brutish and irrational part in us, to eradicate our vile and depraved affections, and to place the Divine life in a full and entire command over all our inferior faculties. To the bringing about which blessed design, and to complete and perfect a through Purgation of our minds, we are enjoined in the Gospel great Temperance, Sobriety and Moderation of all terrestrial desires, as the most conducive means to spiritualise and attenuate our minds, whereas the contrary drowns 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Porphyr. l 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  them in corporeal effluxes and exsudations: And moreover we are commanded an Universal abstinence from all wrong and injustice, and a hearty love and good will to all mankind; to hold fast that which is good, and abstain from all appearance of evil; to abstract our hearts from Mundane and Temporal felicities, and make treasures for ourselves in heaven, and to be no more solicitous for terrene concernments than the Lilies of the field, or the fowls of the air; to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, and to depend upon his Fatherly Care and Providence for the necessities of our lives; to keep ourselves pure and undefiled not only from outward and grosser, but internal and more refined pollutions; to be ready to do good and distribute to the necessities of our Brethren; to live peaceably if it be possible, with all men; In a word, Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever are pure, whatsoever are lovely, whatsoever are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise to think on those things. These are the proper food and nourishment of our intellectual man, and bring a present pleasure in the exercise of them, far surpassing the choicest entertainments of sense. For what truer and nobler delight can accrue to our spirits, then to have done an act of Charity, to have bound up an aching head, dried up a watery eye, and relieved a naked and hungry body? How sordid and base is the narrow and contracted mind that never looks beyond itself, but moves in a sphere distinct from all the World beside, as if it were some particular Being, and not a part and member of the Universe? What is there more noble and Divine than Love, which neither envies nor seeks its own, but fills the mind of man with a solid peace and contentment? and, How broken and troublesome is the state of that man, whose heart is continually corroded with Envy and Malice, and cannot look upon his Neighbour without an evil eye? What serenity and quietness of life is he possessed of, who following the Precepts of the Gospel, makes himself master of his passions, and never suffers any impure and brutish lust to creep up into the bed of Reason and defile it: but lives in a clear exercise of his discriminative faculties, and subdues all his lower powers to the obedience of his mind and Intellect? while he that renders himself captive to the passions and various motions and inclinations of sense which God gave to be his servants, never possesses any true and real tranquillity, but carries a Tempest within his breast, which perpetually tosses him to and fro, like those disconsolate spirits our Saviour mentions, Matth. xii. who walk through dry places, seeking rest but finding none. He that sincerely conforms himself to the Evangelical method of Truth and Righteousness, forsakes the muddy and grosser World, and ascends above the clouds in Divine and peaceful Contemplations, and finds himself out of the reach of the storms and thunders of the troubled air he hath left behind him. He apprehends God as the most lovely and desirable object in the whole World, and then feels himself most at ease when he endeavours to unite and become one with that ever-blessed Being, subtracting his affections from all earthly vanities, as finding something more noble and worthy to bestow them upon; 
Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  & thus as Porphyry speaks of the Egyptian Priests, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, He hath given up his whole life to Divine Contemplation and search after the Deity. Such Power have Evangelical Truths over the minds of men, that they transform them into their own native image and similitude, and the more they are looked into, the more they enravish them with their heavenly beauty and pulchritude. And because afflicted and persecuted Virtue could not be thought eligible merely for itself, nor be a sufficient argument to induce us to the love and practice of it who were so fatally addicted to the concerns of sense; therefore God who knew our frame and how far, and to what degrees we had apostatised from his holy Nature, did not only propound good things to our choice, but solicit our wills to the embracing of them by the strongest evidences and most attractive motives that our Natures were capable of receiving. The life of sense being more powerful and laying a greater, though not a juster, claim to our minds as we are born into this World, God was pleased to deal with us after a sensible manner, and in a way of condescending Wisdom, proportioning the Truths he delivered to us to our capacity of reception: And this was that the Apostle called the Foolishness of Preaching, wherein God stoops down and puts on the garb and frailties of humanity, and suits the results of his will with our mean and shallow apprehensions. Great is the Mystery of Godliness, God was manifested in the flesh, and cradled in the circle of a Virgin's arms: which clearly demonstrates, even to outward sense, the exceeding Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty God, that he hath not cast off the care of Mankind, but is at peace with the World, and hath put on the bright robes of Lovingkindness and Mercy, which he hath given a large Specimen and full proof of in the Mission of the Lord Christ from heaven. God would have all men lay aside their hard thoughts and causless-jealousies and suspicions of his Nature, as if he did not from his heart intent them good, but only suspended his anger for a time, which might again break out upon them in prodigious floods of vengeance and fury. For this is the most certain sign that God wills and desires our happiness and welfare, in that he hath united himself to our Nature, and sent down his only begotten Son for no other purpose, but to seek and to save that which was lost: And if he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? What is there now can lay a greater tie upon ingenuous spirits, than the discovery of so much undeserved kindness and love? What heart is there so obdurate and rocky, that this will not dissolve into the tears of love and joy, to behold the blessed Jesus hanging between heaven and earth upon the Cross, that he might reconcile all things that are in heaven and earth, and become a propitiatory Sacrifice for all men's sins in the World? It is said of Socrates, that he was so enamoured with this Divine passion of Love, that he styled himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A servant of Love: Let therefore Love, which is the Proxenet of Nature, the great instrument of conciliating hearts, beget in thee a return and retribution of Love, and never think of those streams of blood which so copiously flowed from the wounded body of thy dying Lord, without a passive and melting spirit; but be likewise a servant of Love, and act under that generous principle, for Love is of God: And every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  
And that we may not think we are set to remove mountains, or perform impossibilities when we are exhorted by the Gospel to the participation of God's holy life, we shall never be left alone to sink under our load and die; but shall have the assistance of that Almighty and Demiurgical spirit of Love, who hovered over the dark Chaos, and brought into Being the goodly frame of heaven and earth, and replenished all the immense tracts of space with suitable inhabitants. 
Wisd. ch. seven.  This is that Wisdom which is the brightness of the Everlasting, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the Image of his Goodness; which remaining in herself makes all things new, and in all ages entering into holy souls makes them friends of God and Prophets. She will not lodge in a sinful body, nor abide when unrighteousness cometh in; For she is more beautiful than the Sun, and above all the order of stars, being compared with the light, she is found before it. This kind and loving spirit will God bestow upon every one that asks it of him, to repair his broken and decayed Nature; to raise up the Divine Image, to joint and confirm every perverse dislocation in the frame of his soul, and to perfect and complete the living efformation of Christ within him. Let no man then despair of attaining to a state of Blessedness under the Gospel; for this Benign Spirit, whose delights are with the Sons of Men, pervades the whole World, and touches and overshadows every man with outstretched wings, who is willing to have the Divine Image and Portraiture form in him, and doth not by impurity and uncleanness chase it away. Though our enemies are mighty, and our souls weak; yet let none despair of Victory; for through the assistance and conduct of that Almighty, we shall be able to overcome them. He is ever cherishing and fostering the life of God wherever it's born into any soul, and sweetly insinuates into our minds, and hallows and sanctifies all our powers, and excites us to a serious and hearty pursuit after the indispensable laws of Truth, Righteousness and Goodness. We are not fallen and degenerated beyond the power of God, but his Spirit is able to raise and bring up our souls from the lowest Hell, and to renew and reform our debased and wretched Natures. For what cannot he do, who at first made us faultless and happy, till we ruined and defaced his blessed Image, and rendered ourselves the miserable objects of his compassions? What is there in our frame so stubborn and insequacious that he cannot rectify and redress, who at first created all things, and brought into Being all the Beauty and Harmony of Heaven and Earth? He will never leave us destitute and forlorn, but will take hold of every fitness and capacity till he have perfected in us the Divine life and brought us unto Glory.  
But because Examples are more prevalent with mankind than Precepts and Instructions; that God might not leave any thing undone which would in any kind conduce to our Interest, he hath recommended to us the Example of his Blessed Son, as the fairest copy of Holiness, Justice, Compassion and Self-resignation, that ever was yet discovered to the World. For should we compare him with the greatest lights that ever shone upon the Gentile parts of the Earth, they would appear as foils and shadows to set off his glorious lustre and Divine splendour, as hath already been made good by a Reverend and profoundly Learned Person. There is none can hold any equality with the Lord Christ; not Moses himself, the Divine Lawgiver of the Jews, who indeed was faithful in all his house, 
Heb. ch. iii.  as a Servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after: But Christ is a Son over his own house, being the Heir of all things, and therefore is counted worthy of more glory than Moses. And though we read, that Moses was meek, above all that dwelled upon the Earth; yet when he was to fetch water out of the Rock for the murmuring Israelites, his spirit was so far provoked, that he spoke unadvisely with his lips; and after forty years' troubles and vexations in the Wilderness, he brought not his people into the land of Canaan, but died after he had taken a prospect of the Promised Inheritance, which he must not go to possess. But on the contrary, the Lord Christ whose lips were full of Grace and Truth, and in whose mouth never was any guile found, not only promised a spiritual Canaan, a Land of immortal peace and rest, but went also himself and took possession of it, and signified the same to the world by sending down his holy Spirit upon his Church. All the time that he dwelled upon Earth and conversed with Men, he was full of the Spirit of Love, Tenderheartedness and Compassion, perpetually going about doing good, binding up the , gathering the Lambs in his arm, and carrying them in his bosom, and gently leading those that are with young, healing all their infirmities, curing their diseases, and easing them of their painful sorrows. He that was purer than the Sun, and whiter than the Robes of Angels, yet was content to veil his Glory, and put on the dark and course mantle of our flesh and blood, that he might teach us humility and submission to the will of God. He whose the Earth was, and the fullness thereof, would not be born in a Prince's Court among the Sons of Nobles; but in a Stable, at a small Town, and among the meanest of his Creatures, that he might abate our Pride and Grandeur in ostentation of ourselves to the World. His life, though a perpetual Tragedy, encompassed with hardships and afflictions, and drawn out into many Scenes of trouble and sorrow; yet was always holy and harmless, and never stained with the least sin or unwarrantable action. His Soul was a pure and spotless Temple, eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in him: His Heart the holy Altar upon which no unchaste flames ever burnt, but the fire of Zeal and Love which was kindled from Heaven, and daily sent up clouds of Incense as a sweet smelling savour thither again: His Meekness and Patience were no less conspicuous, than those other radiant virtues which rendered him acceptable to God and Man; for being reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously, and thereby he became glorious in the eyes of God, who recompensed his Indignities, by giving him a Name above every Name. If we look at his outward condition, he became poor and needy for our sakes, that we through his poverty might be made rich; for though we read that Judas bore the bag, yet his holy Lord and Master was forced, by the expense of a Miracle, to pay his Tribute penny to the Roman Governor. The Foxes had holes, and the Birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man had oft no no where to lay his Sacred Head, but on a pillow of grass, and his covering was the bright and spangled Canopy of Heaven; and yet we never find him murmuring or disobliging Heavens Care and Providence by a repining spirit: thereby teaching us, that our happiness lies not in the abundance of earthly Goods, but in the Godlike temper and frame of our minds, and that having food and raiment we ought therewith to be content. When he was entering into the shadow of Death, and beginning his bitter Passion, with what manly courage did he behave himself? and, How illustrious did he appear in a patiented and magnanimous suffering all those Ignominies and Disgraces that were put upon him, beholding through the cloud or shame and reproach, the good effects of the travel of his soul, and confidently believing, that though he sat in Darkness for a while, yet his Light should break forth from obscurity more glorious than the Sun when he rejoices as a strong man to run his race. And when his Humanity began to sink, and that which was Natural in him cried for ease and relief from the heavy pressures of that doleful Agony, so that he desired if it were possible that that cup might pass from him; yet through the life and vigour of the Divine Spirit by which he was acted, he resigns over his whole will and desires to the wise disposal and pleasure of his Heavenly Father, Not my will, but thy will be done: Hereby giving us a Sacred Method and Rule whereby to demean ourselves, when the Divine Providence brings us into Calamities and Afflictions; namely, to imitate the Holy Jesus and follow his steps. Let us now accompany him to his painful bed of sorrows the Cross, where his friends forsake him and stand aloof of, and his enemies compass him round, where his holy ears that used to hear the melodious accents of Angels, are grated with the profane obloquys of disobedient sinners; and his eyes which beheld the glories of Heaven, and the beauty and lustre of Divinity, are now forced to see the instruments of his misery and sorrow; yet when his Crucifiers meant him the most evil, he breathes forth from a heart which never knew what it was to hate, this passionate Prayer for them, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. This also was written for our instruction, that we might love our enemies, bless those that hate us, and pray for them who despitefully use us, and persecute us; and by so doing, become the children of our Father which is in heaven, who maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  
But all this would yet have proved weak and ineffectual for the promoting the Divine life in the World, if Christ had not visibly ascended into heaven, and given us a sensible assurance of a blessed state in the immortal Regions above, that he will take up Humane Nature after due purifications and refinements into a participation of that transcendent felicity he is fully possessed of. For if men had been left in suspense and uncertainties, it would cast a fatal damp upon their attempts and endeavours after righteousness; but being fully convinced as well of the Existence, as that God will take care of their souls when they depart this obscure and evanid life, and recompense their labour and trouble here with such great degrees of Happiness as shall far surpass the highest calamity they can suffer in this World, it cannot but inspirit their minds with life and resolution to break through all difficulties and discouragements, and with a manly valour fight the good fight of Faith, and never give over till they lay hold on Immortality, and God Crown them as Victorious Conquerors with wreaths of immarcescible Glory. It is but a groundless fancy in some to think, that the intuition of the reward proposed to us, in order to our further progress in Holiness and Virtue, is acting upon Mercenary principles, since that Christ himself in his greatest Agonies and conflicts supported the weakness of his Nature with the consideration of the reward he should receive as the compensation of his humiliation and sorrows; for so we read, That he endured the Cross, 
Heb. xii 2.  and despised the shame, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for the joy that was set before him. Besides, they understand not the nature of the Reward promised to us in the Gospel; for Glory, Blessedness, and Felicity are not Other things from Piety and Holiness, but the consummation and perfection of that Divine Nature, whose efformation is begun in this life. Grace and Holiness is but Happiness wrapped up and closed, and Glory is nothing but Holiness explicated and unfolded to its due latitude and dimensions. Piety is Heaven masked with a cloud of flesh, and begirt with sorrow; and Heaven is Virtue shining in its native brightness, and clothed with a Celestial splendour. And that Ethereal and Paradisiacal body, with which all believers shall be arrayed through the gracious bounty of the Lord Jesus at the Resurrection of the Just, is the necessary appendage of our felicity, and by its easy and obsequious motions will raise in the exalted powers of the soul, the highest sense of love and joy, and delightful enravishments of spirit. He than that loves Virtue for its appendent reward, does in effect love it for itself, and is no whit behind him that is attracted by the naked pleasure resulting from it, and thinks it eligible amidst the hoarse bellow of Phalaris his Bull, because the Reward hath a very great affinity and cognation with Virtue, and is no otherwise attainable then by a full and perfect exercise of it. This great happiness therefore accrueing to the soul of Man when refined and purified from the dregs of Earth and Mortality, is very rationally set forth in the Gospel to invigorate the minds of men, and raise them to the free exertions of the Divine life, and to animate their dying resolutions when they walk through a troublesome wilderness, and are called to resist even unto blood. And if it were not for the expectation of future Blessedness, all Religion would fall to the ground, (the inward sense and feeling of the soul being so much weakened and debilitated by her continual imbibition and attraction of the dregs of the Earthly and mortal Nature, whereby she is become sluggish and inactive, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, her passions and apprehensions being in a manner wholly corporeal) and Truth and Virtue be but idle names or dreams of a shadow, existing only in the tongues and fancies of Men, but never descending into the depth of the soul, and impregnating it with their living Image.  
These are the grand Instruments which the Spirit of God makes use of in the Gospel, to induce and persuade the World to act under the Government of the Divine life; which if skilfully applied and managed, will undoubtedly complete and perfect that blessed work which Providence intended them for. For we cannot think that Heaven would alarm the World with a false report, or raise the expectations of Men by a great sound and noise of something extraordinary, when in the conclusion it amounts but to some inconsiderable and trifling design. The Eternal Son of God, who was that Wisdom which is the delight of Heaven, and rejoiced in the habitable parts of the Earth, brought down with him from the seat of Majesty, that Sacred and recondit method of recovering lapsed mankind, which was carried in the pregnant womb of Goodness from the days of Eternity, and he became our Redeemer, and pervades the very Centre of our Being, and shapes and frams his Image of Wisdom and Righteousness there, strengthening our decays, and supporting our weakness, and consuming and expelling all our dross and corruption by a subtle and powerful Energy, which in Scripture phrase is, to be Baptised with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire. We are fallen into a narrow and contracted state, and those Divine forms in our union and fruition of which consisted our blessedness, are quite defaced by our fond longing after, and adhesion to, corporeal features: Now God manifesting himself in our flesh, renews and perfects those glorious Images again, and stamps his impress upon us; and, as the great conciliating Principle of the corporeal World, figures and shapes out of prepared matter the body of a plant; so the Holy Spirit frames and shapes out the Divine Nature in the lapsed World of Mankind.  
But this great purpose of the Gospel, this great design and plot which God hath laid to reduce Mankind to that blessed state from whence they fell, is wholly frustrated and evacuated by the Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees. And that I may not charge it with what it stands not guilty of, I shall make it good by these two Instances:  
1. It renders ineffectual the purpose of God in the Gospel, by lulling Men asleep in the lap of Security and Presumption of their good estate, upon the groundless fancy of their Absolute Election from all Eternity. For Men being once initiated and instructed in the Mystery of this profound Doctrine, will with much anxiety and vehemency of mind, contend for the truth of that which they so passionately desire to be so, and having withal so amorously courted and espoused their lusts and unruly passions, and yet being terrified and affrighted with the lashes of their own Consciences, they will with great easiness and zeal take sanctuary in so pleasing an opinion which both gives them a fair countenance to enjoy and reap the pleasure of their sensual passions, and secures them from those domestic furies which perpetually hurried and tormented them, and over and above soothes them up with a confidence of eternal bliss and felicity. And he that can attain to this Plerophory or full persuasion of his Election from before the foundation of the World, hath the White Stone given to him (though he be so far from eating of the hidden Manna, that he feeds upon nothing but husks and vanities) and his name is enroled among the Stars, and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, out of the reach of danger, and if he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for God will raise him up: The gates of hell shall never pluck him out of God's hands, nor separate him from his eternal Love; for having loved his own, he loveth them unto the end. The thickest cloud of sin and darkness arising from his polluted and rotten heart, though it may suspend for a while, yet can never totally divest him of God's paternal Love and favour, because he is one of Christ's Sheep, of his little flock, and he knows him, and is confident he is known of him: and though he have lived in vice, and rolled in the dirt and mire of the Earth till the utmost Period of his life; yet the holy Spirit will infallibly and irresistibly at the very Exit of his soul, change and renew it, and cast the robes of Christ's spotless Righteousness upon it, and then 'tis impossible the man should miss of heaven.  
And is this a Doctrine adapted to the carrying on the design God intended in the Gospel, namely, the Reduction of the world to a conformity to the Divine will, to forsake and abandon all their sinful and false ways, and to live in a universal submission and resignation to his holy Laws and Commands? What proof or evidence doth it bring that it aims at any such thing? Is it in that it declares to a man that Faith and Repentance and every good motion of the soul is the irresistible work of God, and that 'tis no more in his Power to confer any thing to his being a good Christian, a just and Righteous person, than to add one cubit to his bodily stature: but if he be not as yet regenerated, he must stay and wait till that good time come, wherein the Spirit of the Lord shall enter into him, and make him a New Creature, for the wind bloweth where it listeth? Or is it in that it affirms, That Christ died for the Elect, and (though the value of his Satisfaction were infinite, and sufficient to redeem the whole World) for them only, and that his death hath satisfied for all their sins, and that now God imputes the Righteousness of the Lord Christ to them, and upon his account they are esteemed as righteous as if in their own Persons they had fulfilled the whole Evangelical Law, though in the mean time their hearts are very corrupt and unsound? Are these the Demonstrations by which this Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees manifests itself to come from God? If it bear the Superscription and Image of God upon it, it is then as he himself is, Light, and there is no Darkness, no mixture of impurity and humane imagination in it; for God cannot patronise any thing but what is holy as he is holy, and pure as he is pure. But if we consider well, such Positions will appear very obscure and frightful, horrid and amazing, savouring of the Prince of Darkness by whom they were breathed into the minds and spirits of unsanctified Persons, and by them communicated to the World as the Arcana of Christianity, but tending in reality to the eversion of it, and the augmentation and increase of the Devil's Kingdom. For when Men shall hear, that upon such and such Pulpit-signs which their Impertinent Preachers deliver to them, they may gather their Election from all Eternity, and that maugre all the Oppositions of Men and Devils, they shall never fall quite away by a final Impenitence, but assuredly recovered by an uncontrollable and peremptory power: when they shall be told likewise, That Gods calls are at certain times and seasons, and that till they perceive themselves forcibly enacted and carried away by the impulse of the Divine Spirit, all their previous actions are to no purpose; Will not these things cause them to sit down in laziness and take their ease, without troubling themselves with the renovation of their minds, sigh that God will take care for that, and soak themselves in terrestrial joys and pleasures, till the dead-awakening trump (which when it will be they know not) call them from the Grave of sin and death, as Christ did Lazarus, and bid them come forth? Will not the imputation of Christ's Righteousness, and the mantle of his Satisfaction, damp the endeavours of men after real and inward Righteousness and inherent Holiness, by which they attain to a participation of the Divine Nature, since they can have another's at so cheap a rate, which will likewise be as beneficial and stand them in as much stead as if they had of their own? Men are prone to palliate their sin, and take hold of any pretence to stop the mouth of their accusing consciences, and need no such artifices to lead them into those paths that go down to Hell, and the comfortless chambers of death. Their evil Natures and the examples of others, and temptations of Satan are sufficient to draw them into Vice and Irreligion, that none need disseminate such doctrines as shall invite them to immorality and iniquity from the Authority and Countenance of God's word. But it is supposed that every Christian M●stagogus, who acknowledges himself to have a Master in heaven, to whom he must give an account for the souls committed to his charge (if not for theirs, yet for his own felicities sake) will have so much prudence and circumspection, as not to build on the foundation of the Gospel, Wood, Hay, or stubble, any such Doctrines as will not abide the test of Reason, but prove both to God, and men's souls very mischievous and injurious; for though he does it ignorantly, his work shall be burnt, but he himself shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet so as by fire; that is, with extreme difficulty, as he that hardly escapeth out of the fire.  
2. The second Instance wherein, the Doctrine of Irrespective Decrees inverts and destroys the end and purpose of God in the Gospel is, by leading Men into desperation. I do not mean, that they should despair of mercy so long as they continue in their sins (for this every Criminal aught to do that he may be induced to come out of them the sooner) but by Desperation here, I mean, a disbelief of Gods will or power to save them, whereby they go on carelessly and resolutely in a course of Rebellion and Iniquity. For being persuaded on the one hand, that the number of the Elect is but small in comparison of Reprobates, and that both the one and the other are particularly designed and marked out by name, (for the Lord knows who are his) and that all the labours of men after the Kingdom of Heaven will prove unsuccessful and abortive, till God by a high and mighty hand come upon them, and powerfully convince them of the evil of their ways, and astonish them with the weight and multitude of their sins, laying them low and bringing them down (as they phrase it) to the gates of Hell, and showing them the worm that never dies, and the fire which never shall be quenched, and then making bare his arm and demonstrating his Power by lifting them up from thence into the warm Sunshine of his favour, where they shall remain as secure of Heaven as if they were there already, till God please by death to translate them unto glory: And being taught on the other hand that whoever finds not this mighty work of Grace within him, and feels not this great change wrought in his spirit, it is a certain sign he is in the state of Reprobation, and one of those who were of old ordained to condemnation: Men, I say, being thus instructed and misguided by Pragmatic zeal, that sets up itself in the place of Reason, and not knowing that ever they had any sense or perception of those forementioned effects being wrought in them, presently conclude, that there is nothing to be expected for them but a sure and inevitable Damnation. They never heard the sound of that breath of heaven which quickens dry bones, and makes them stand up and live; nor ever were acquainted with those impetuous agitations and convulsions of spirit, whereby the New-birth is form in them: they never took notice of any such audible Voice behind them, saying unto them, this is the way, walk in it: Nor ever felt any such black tempest of horror and trembling seizing on them, which presently (the cloud being blown over) was turned into a serene gale of quietness and peace. Now it being thus with them, what other conclusion can they draw from such Premises, but that they are the objects of God's hatred, and are utterly excluded from all hope of happiness by a Decree unalterable as the Laws of the Medes and Persians? For God hath determined (say the Reprobationists) and purposed in himself (and he is not as Man that he should lie, or the son of Man that he should repent) that he will show mercy to none but those few whom he hath preordained to Salvation for the illustration of the Glory of his free Grace. What shall I now comfort those despairing and disconsolate souls withal? Should I tell them, that God hates nothing that he hath made, that he is the Father of Spirits, and no Parent will tore out the tender bowels of his own dear offspring; they will presently reply, that though the number of souls be as the sand of the Sea, a remnant only shall be saved; a little flock, a tenth, as the shaking of an Olive tree, two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches; and though it be true, that God is the Father of Spirits; yet he is likewise the Supreme Lord of his Creation, and May he not do what he will with his own? hath not the potter power over the clay? and therefore they are certainly vessels of dishonour, and included in that great multitude which shall inherit bitterness and sorrow. Should I declare to them, that God is merciful, and will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth, and to this end hath sent down the Lord Christ from heaven to declare to mankind, that he is reconciled unto them, and thinks thoughts of Love and Goodness towards them, and that if they will repent and turn to him, he will blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more; that Jesus Christ is become an Alsufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole World, and hath taken away that anger and displeasure that was conceived against the Sons of Men, having tasted Death for every Man, and that now he invites all in the most condescending terms to come unto him, and hath promised that Whosoever comes unto him, he will in no wise cast out: And what return now shall I have to these persuasions? they will tell me that it's true, God is merciful, and would have All, that is, some of all sorts and conditions of men to be Saved, and to this end Christ came down from heaven, and was made man, that he might gather together the World of his Elect, and tasted Death for every one of them, and these he invites, and these shall come to him, but none else, for no man can come unto Christ, except the Father draw him; and we have no evidence, or but plausible grounds, to think, that he either hath or will draw any of us: his Sheep only know his voice and follow him: but we have no proof whereby we can collect ourselves to be of his fold. Wherefore all our arguments are fruitless and vain, and you can give us no solid and substantial comfort to uphold our weak and dying hopes that we are not in a state of Reprobation.  
I might here, before I leave this Argument, demand of the stout Champions and Promoters of this rigid Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation, What they think of those general calls and invitations of all lapsed Mankind in the Gospel? and, How they will make them consistent with that sour Dogma? for, to what end or purpose were these and such like expressions inserted? 
Mat. xi. 28.  Come unto me all ye that are weary and heaven laden, and I will give you rest. If any man thirst, 
Joh. seven. 37. Isai. lv. 1.  let him come unto me and drink. Ho every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, Come ye— Behold I stand at the door and knock: 
Rev. three 20.  if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Wisdom cryeth without, 
Prov. i.  she uttereth her voice in the streets: How long ye simple ones— Turn ye at my reproof— The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, 
Revel. xxii. 17.  Come, and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Why doth Christ invite Reprobates to come to him, when he denies them his gracious Assistance, and intends they shall not come? For that they are included here, I think none can question that attends how general the terms are, and if the balance be cast on either side, the advantage will accrue to Reprobates; for Christ came not to call the Righteous (those who presume themselves to be Elected) but Sinners (such as the World judges castaways) to repentance: and besides, the Text plainly implies the same; for who are more weary and heavy laden, than those who are daily burdened and know not where to rest? Who are more thirsty than those who are scorched with perpetual heats, and travel in unknown deserts and solitudes, panting, and gasping, and lifting up their dying eyes to Heaven, and yet cannot obtain so much as one drop of cooling dew to allay the flames and ardours of their parched souls? And if it be certain (as it cannot be denied) that all men whatever are interessed and concerned in these passionate invitations, it is likewise clear as the Noonday Sun, that all may come and receive the benefit designed in them. If it be otherwise, can it consist with the Goodness, Justice, and Veracity of Almighty God thus to tantalise and deceive his helpless Creatures in things of so great weight and moment?  
Wherefore to avoid the dint and stroke of this Dilemma, the Reprobationists have still a reserve, a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to creep out at, and it is this, That the Gospel is offered to Reprobates to leave them inexcusable. But they are deceived if they imagine this will serve their turn, and stand when assailed by the shocks of severer Reason. I must confess it is a very impertinent piece of work to go about to confute every petty Nicety and Evasion, which scant and straitened spirits invent to patch up their ruined and decayed opinions; yet because it comes in my way, I shall take the pains to examine it, that men may extricate themselves from prejudice and error, and see where their unwary credulity and innocent simplicity hath been betrayed into the Sacrilegious hands of unfaithful persons, who have (as much as in them lies) hindered the Progress of the Gospel, stifled the life of God, and bedwarfed Men in their spiritual growth and stature, by making them stand at a stay, or rather go backward in Christianity, through their administering to them such vicious and unwholesome nutriment. But to reply to this frivolous Answer; I say then, the Gospel which is confessedly offered to Reprobates, cannot be said to leave them inexcusable, and that upon these accounts.  
1. That Reprobates may be left inexcusable for not embracing the Gospel, 'tis necessary that God should put them into a capacity of yielding and condescending to those terms and proposals he shall make to them. But God hath not dealt thus with the greatest part of the World (according to the Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation) and therefore is so far from taking from them all excuse, that he hath left sufficient arguments, whereby according to the strictest rules of Reason and Equity they may plead an exemption from punishment, though they do not perform that which he commands them. For can it enter into the heart of any good and rational Man to think that God does not only command and exact such things of his Creatures which he never endued them with power to do, but also punishes them for not performing of them, when yet by his secret will he determined they should disobey him? It was once said of the proud Pharisees, that they rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and all impenitent sinners do the same: but Mr. Calvin will have their refusal of the Gospel to proceed primarily from the unsearchable Decree of God, who first determined their Destruction, and then to accomplish this, designed their contempt of the means of their Salvation. 
I●…s●…t. lib. 3. c. 24. §. 4.  His words are these, Quod igitur sibi pat●facto Dei verbo non ebie● perant Reprobi, probè id in malitiam pravitémque cordis eorum rejicietur, modò simul adjiciatur, ideò in hanc pravitatem addictos quia justo, sed inscrutabili Dei judicio suscitati sunt, ad gloriam ejus suâ damnatione illustrandam. But moreover, should God declare a Peace and Agreement with the Rebellious Sons of Adam, and not only offer to the World a Treaty of Grace and Salvation (as 'tis granted he doth to multitudes who die in impenitency, and never embrace those blessed terms of life) but press upon them with the strongest motives and incentives of Love and Tender-heartedness that infinite Wisdom can contrive in order to their felicity, having deprived them (though justly) of that power whereby they might have rendered themselves capable of Heaven, by accepting those gracious overtures of Peace, if it had not been taken from them, and should confer none other upon them in the stead, This would be such a strange Oeconomy and dispensation towards objects of misery, as can in no wise be deemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, worthy and becoming the Majesty of heaven to interess itself in. I cannot think that God will allow that in himself which he condemns in his Creatures: And if he judge it an unprofitable and ineffectual piece of Charity, 
Jam. ●. 15, 16.  and which in itself is no better than a mockery, supposing ourselves able to do otherwise, to bid an indigent Person be warmed and filled, and yet give him not wherewithal he may be so; he will certainly esteem it below the Dignity of his everblessed Nature, to invite the Sons of Men to be happy, and inherit the treasures of a never-fading Glory, when notwithstanding he never affords them the least help or assistance in their attempts and offers towards it.  
2. The external application of the Gospel to Reprobates, cannot leave them without excuse, unless it be rejected, which in them cannot be denominated a crime, because 'tis inevitable and no more in their power to help, then to alter whatever Decree God will pass upon them. Heaven had before irrevocably determined, and so implicated and entangled them in such a train of causes as should necessarily make them rebel against and resist the offers of the Gospel, and therefore they did but act under the more forcible impulse of Gods will: Now those actions of Reprobates are so far from deserving the name of Crimes, that they rather merit the title of Obedience, forasmuch as their wills are fatally determined by an external Power enacting them, and irresistibly exerting such and such motions. A Doctrine long ago maintained by the Stoics, who ascribed every thing to the dispensation of a sure and inevitable Destiny: 

Fatis agimur: cedite fatis  
Non sollicitae p●ssunt curae  
Mutare rati stamina fusi.  
Quicquid patimur mortale genus,  
Quicquid facimus, venit ab alto.  
Omnia certo tramite vadunt,  
Primúsque dies dedit extermum. Senec. in Oedip.   

Fates guide us, unto Fates yield we,  
Care cannot alter their Decree.  
For what we suffer, what we do,  
Celestial Orbs proceeds from you.  
All go in a prefixed way,  
The first prescribeth the last day.   And for this Reason Fools and Mad men are not found guilty, nor made obnoxious to punishment, either in foro externo, or in foro conscientiae (though they commit such things as otherwise were punishable) because their faculties are overacted by the inordinate motions and rude agitations arising from the body, and the souls instruments whereby she spontaneously moves the corporeal Fabric, being vitiated and rendered inept, she hath no power to countermand them. To this purpose Lucian brings in Sostratus reasoning with Minos the Judge of Hell concerning the Justice and Equity of his proceed; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the external oblation of the Gospel to Reprobates, is so far from rendering them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that (if we consult those faculties God hath given us to be the Judges of right and wrong, good and evil) we shall find their Apology to be as reasonable, as if God should expostulate with them for not creating the World, or raising the dead.  
3. The Gospel in propriety of speech, cannot be said to be offered at all to Reprobates without the greatest Hypocrisy and Dissimulation imaginable, much less that by it they should be fairly rendered without excuse. For by the Gospel we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the New Covenant which God hath made with the world in the Lord Christ, to which both God and Man have set their Seals; God hath promised for his part, that he will give a free pardon and indulgence for all their sins upon their true Repentance, and will assist them in the performance of his Commands with his Divine Spirit and Benediction, and at last upon their perseverance in Holiness bestow upon them Immortality and Life. And Man engages that he will faithfully perform the conditions according to the utmost of his power and ability which on his part he is obliged to; which are expressed to be Faith and Repentance; a putting off the Old man, and putting on the New; a being buried with Christ in his Death, and rising again with him to Newness of life. And this Notion seems to be intimated by the Apostle, 2 Tim. two. 19 The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which our translation renders [foundation] signifies here the Compact or Covenant of God, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, stability or firmness whereof there enforced, assures us, that there is no salvation to be expected, but according to the contents of that Great Indenture once for all sealed in the blood of Christ, of which, as that indeed is one part, which is inscribed on one side of the Seal [the Lord knoweth who are his] that is, he will never fail to own those who continue faithful to him; so on the other side is most Emphatical [let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart form iniquity] which if he do not, he hath forfeited all the privileges of Christianity. And it may further be observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is also expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Isay 30.1. as a Learned Critic notes. This being then the Nature of the Gospel, it cannot without deceit and fraud be offered to Reprobates: for God cannot in his Word command them to believe in Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer, without enjoining them to believe a lie; nor can he exhort them to Repentance without Hypocrisy, having by a peremptory Decree secluded them from a participation of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, free and gracious donations, whereby they should be impowered to forsake their sins, and which he hath obliged himself to extend to all the World on his part of the Covenant. If God therefore intended not to own them for his, nor give them his Grace and assistance to conquer and subdue their rebellious Natures, they are not included within the terms of it; And how can any man be convinced of Contumacy, and so left inexcusable for rejecting a Doctrine not at all belonging to him? for conviction supposes a man to have done otherwise then he might have done, and to have left undone something which was in his power to perform, which cannot be affirmed of Reprobates.  
To conclude this Argument, if this Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation may be admitted as true and genuine, the whole Ministry of the word is but a more solemn kind of Pageantry and flattery, and Gods Ambassadors, by whom he beseeches mankind to be reconciled unto him, treat with the greatest part of them upon false grounds and beside God's will and intentions, bearing them in hand that God desires their welfare and happiness, 

— tolluntur in altum  
Ut lapsu graviore ruant—   till they have brought them to the confines of Hell, where they shall feel those acute pains to never-dying ages, which were their destined portion from before the foundation of the World. And now let any rational man judge, whether this Doctrine, as it is here represented all along (and 'tis no otherwise then may easily be proved out of the writings of the favourers of it) do not infinitely obstruct the progress of real and unfeigned Righteousness in the World, and scatter a malignant influence upon men's practice in order to Holiness and a good life, while some (as if they had been of Heaven's counsel, and seen their Names enroled above) cannot look upon themselves under any other position, but that of God's peculiar and selected ones; and for that very reason believe themselves out of the reach of Apostasy and miscarriage, than which there can be no greater allay to a diligent search after the true and living Nature of God: for while their endeavours after it cool like the air by intervening showers, and they swallow every bait, and neglect to excite their powers and faculties by a timely care and industry, upon the stock of a secure confidence of heaven, the enemy forages and spoils, and makes daily inroads upon their hearts, and they are upon the margins of destruction ere they are ware. Others despairing of life, and believing every thing adverse to their felicity, have no heart to go forward, and either wear out their lives in a sottish senselessness and stupidity, or spend them in jollity, and crown their heads with rosebuds and forget God, resolving to make as good use of the present time as they can, knowing that when this fleeting and perishing life is ended, they shall be plunged into everlasting misery.   

CHAP. V A fift and last Argument, wherein is shown that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Man's Will, and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue, or punishment of Vice.  
THat there is a free principle in Man, a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a self-moving power and life which is able to segregate Truth from Falsehood, Good from Evil, 

Hence the Stoics say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
And the Greek Fathers add to those Epithets, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   and accordingly elect as the Arguments shall appear more or less convictive, is not only the judgement of Reason, but the sense of the most Orthodox Antiquity, whether Theology or Philosophy; although the Truth is, in this diseased and distempered condition all men lie under, the manner of the Wills election shows, that it is in the greatest measure inclinable to evil, as will appear further hereafter. And that I may not seem barely to assert what others so strenuously oppugn, I shall allege some plain and perspicuous testimonies out of the ancient Fathers and Philosophers, who have manumitted the will of man, and left it free to choose Good or Evil, though when it is determined to one, it may be drawn by weightier grounds and reasons to the election of the contrary part; and when the Arguments on either side are equally balanced, it hangs in an equilibration and hovers in suspense till something intervene, which represents one of them to be the more eligible.  
Tertull. advers. Martion. 2. Tota ergo libertas arbitrii in utrámque partem concessa est illi, ut sui dominus constanter occurreret, & bono sponte servando, & malo sponte vitando: quoniam & alias positum hominem sub judicio Dei, oportebat justum illum efficere de arbitrii sui meritis, liberi scilicet. Caeterùm nec boni nec mali merces jure pensaretur ei, qui aut bonus aut malus necessitate fuisset inventus, non voluntate. In hoc & lex constituta est non excludens, sed probans libertatem, de obsequio sponte praestando, vel transgressione sponte committendâ, ita in utrumque exitum libertas patuit arbitrii.  
Again, Igitur consequens erat, uti Deus secederet à libertate semel concessa homini, id est, contineret in semetipso & praescientiam & praepotentiam suam, per quas intercessisse potuisset, quominus homo malè libertate suâ frui aggressus, in periculum laberetur. Si enim intercessisset, rescidisset arbitrii libertatem, quam ratione & bonitate permiserat.  
Origen. Contra Cells. lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Tatianus: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Justin Martyr in Apol. ad Senatum. 1. where he tells us, the Christians rejected the Stoical Fate upon this ground; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
And a little above, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Et in Apol. ad Imper. Antoninum; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
August. lib. 3. de liberto Arbitrio. cap. 5. Motus quo huc aut illuc voluntas convertitur, nisi esset voluntarius atque in nostra potestate, neque laudandus esset homo cùm ad superiora, neque culpandus cùm ad inferiora deiorquet quasi quendam cardinem voluntatis.  
Et in Epist. 41. ad Valentin. Obedientiam nostram requirit, (Deus) quae nulla potest esse sine labero arbitrio.  
And Calvin himself acknowledges that it was a tradition for many ages, Hoc modo à Deo moveri voluntatem ut nostrae sit electionis motioni Dei obtemperare aut refragari.  
To these I shall add Hierocles, who is thought by many Learned Persons to be a Christian, in Comment. super Carm. Pythag. which he tells us were not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some one Pythagorean, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So that in this one testimony we have the sense of the whole Pythagorean School or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; and it is this, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
But for our better understanding the nature of Man's , and in what degrees it is seated in him, we must consider all Mankind under a threefold Law or Dispensation (which if duly examined, will help us not only to the explication of many difficult texts in Holy Scripture, but to the solution and determination of many Theological Controversies) treated of by the Apostle in the seventh and eighth Chapters of his Epistle to the Romans.  
1. First there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The law of sin which is in the members, Chap. seven. 23. and under this Law are comprehended all such as the Apostle, v. 14. by a figment of his own person represents,— I am carnal, sold under sin. For though the Apostle throughout this Chapter speak in the singular number, yet he understands not himself, nor expresses his particular state; but by a fiction translates the business to himself, and by it describes the several states and conditions of men in order to God and Religion; which way of Locution he makes use of in several other places, as 1 Cor. x. 29, 30. & iv. 6. & vi. 12. & xiii. 2. Gal. two. 18. For surely the Apostle, when he wrote this Epistle, was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, carnal, which in the mildest sense is to be but in the dawning and infancy of Religion, and is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the spiritual man, who is strong and well grown in Christianity; 1 Cor. three 1. And I, Brethren could not speak unto you, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto Spiritual, but as unto Carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. Nor can the other expression [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sold under sin] agree and suit with a Regenerate Man, as we suppose the Apostle to be; for, to be sold under sin, is to be the Vassal and bondslave of sin, to be under its command, and totally subject to its licentious dictates: A phrase peculiarly attributed to Ahab, of whom 'tis said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Septuagint, he sold himself, or was sold to work wickedness, 1 King. xxi. 25. Now unless we will say, the Apostle was sold under sin after this manner (as the Romans of old made their captives pass sub hastâ, as a token of their servility and slavery) we cannot imagine he speaks this of himself. To this we may add, v. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and captivating me to the law of sin— All which expressions if they be understood of St. Paul when he wrote that Epistle, the Character of a Regenerate Man must be this, viz. That he is one who is carnal, and sold under sin, omitting the Good which he would, and doing the Evil which he would not, and through the Prevalency of that other law in his members which wars against the law of his mind, he is at last overcome and brought into captivity to the law of sin: which is the very description of an unregenerate and wicked person; for he that is born of God sinneth not, neither can he sin, because he is born of God; and he that is become the servant of God is made free from sin, which is directly contrary to being sold under sin. Now those who are in captivity to this law of sin and vice have very poor and exile remains of liberty in their souls, as is sufficiently apparent, in that every pitiful vice enslaves them, and every importunate lust usurps the Authority of Right Reason, and leads them to the commission of the most shameful and vile actions imaginable. For surely if there were such great degrees of liberty of will in this which is the lowest state of Man's degeneracy, the habitations of the earth would never look so squalid and uncomfortable, nor justice and mercy be out balanced by cruelty and oppression, filling every place with the calamitous objects of pity and compassion. The World could never have been so universally overspread with a Deluge of sin and unrighteousness as now it is, (For the arguments inciting to Virtue and Goodness, being far more ponderous than any can be brought for the patronising sin and vice, the wills of Men would not fail to be inclined to them) but the fair and spotless image of Truth would take place in men's minds; and that Divine Wisdom which descendeth from the Father of Lights, exert itself in pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful and impartial actions: But we finding all things go contrary, and Autaesthesie the Grand principle of our deviation from God so mischievously powerful, leading men to a life of self-seeking, and inamouring them with the fading beauties of this inferior World, making Intellect and Reason drudge in unjust policy and subtlety for the promoting self-interest, and carrying on little and private designs for the treasuring up Riches, though by the greatest Extortion and Rapine, and consuming and overrunning the poor and innocent like a sweeping Torrent that leaves nothing behind it but the miserable tokens of ruin and desolation: This being the state of men (and far worse than I have here represented it) under the brutish life and law of sin, what signs can they show that they are arrived to any considerable measure of liberty? For it is not some one particular lust, but the whole unrighteous and Diabolical Nature which mingles and insinuates itself with the whole frame of the soul, and enthralls it to it's imperious dictates. But yet there is some freedom left still, and men are not destitute of a light though languid and glimmering to lead them to greater degrees of Virtue, if they would suffer themselves to be guided by it: There is yet in every man in his greatest Apostasy and lapse from the Divine life a Principle of Conscience accusing and condemning him for the perpetration of evil; and that regret and shame a man finds in himself after the commission of impiety, is a manifest evidence that he had Power to avoid it.  
2. Again, there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the law of the mind or conscience, ver. 23.— Another law warring against the law of my mind. And this is the second state and condition of mankind. For as while they were under the Law of sin, they were wholly alive unto themselves, and disjoined from the Universal Spirit of life and true freedom, they became at last strangers to their own Being's, and ignorant of their high and noble extraction: so under this Dispensation of the mind or conscience, there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or double-livedness within them, being partly alive unto themselves, and partly unto God, sometimes lending a patiented ear to the soft whispers of Divine wisdom, and at other times carried away with the loud murmurs and noises of that worse Principle; as Medea in Euripides complains: 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   

My Conscience tells me that I act amiss,  
But fury stronger than my Reason is.   And now they begin to awake out of their lethargic drowziness and sleep, and open the windows of their souls, and receive in some beams of the Sun of Righteousness that hath long circled about them, and by his light they see themselves in a broken and unhappy plight, and fain would come out of it, but dare not put themselves to any trouble or pain, so they lay themselves down again to slumber. But conscience being once forcibly roused up, is not so easily lulled asleep, but alarms them with fatal cries, and shows them the guiltiness that lies upon them, and the mortiferous and dangerous state they are in by reason of the certain punishment all sin draws along with it; thus being affrighted they become Religious out of fear, and account Christianity as a task and burdensome service, imposed upon them only to deprive them of their liberty and abridge them of that freedom they before possessed, and still they bear a love and liking to their lusts, and often visit them with dear embraces. And while they are here, they carry a perpetual war within them between the Law of sin, and the Law of the mind, sometime the one, and sometime the other prevailing, the life of the body struggling against the mind or reason, and the light endeavouring to chase away the darkness and night. And of this state are to be understood these and such like places of Scripture, For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would that do I not; 
Rom. seven.  but what I hate that do I. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; 
Gal. v. 17.  and these are contrary one to the other; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that ye cannot do [or that ye do not] the things that that ye would. Now the liberty of Man's will gins to spread and enlarge itself under this Oeconomy; for though men's strength be but small: yet God whose Goodness both Earth and Sea and the whole community of life partake of, cannot behold his own dear life contending with the Powers of darkness and never countenance nor abet it, but will lead it victoriously through the midst of hell, and secure it from all the Magical spells and enchantments of the inferior World; and as this Divine life grows more potent in the soul, so the liberty and freedom of the will arises to a greater latitude and perfection. But if we prove false to the Divine light, and notwithstanding the great helps and means vouchsafed us, pretend still our disability and infirmity, we may easily lapse again into the brutish life, and lie under the Power of the law of sin, out of which we began to be delivered; and the freedom of our will which was in some measure enlarged, will be again contracted into narrowness and exility, and our last state will be worse than the first.  
3. But he that makes good use of God's gifts, and behaves himself as a good Soldier of the Lord Christ, and conquers and subdues his rebellious lusts by the power of his Spirit, descendihg into the grave with the holy Jesus by a profound humility and mortification, and becoming perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, dead to all the self-feeling and the luscious relishes of the corporeal life, he is arrived to the highest dispensation of Christianity, which is to be under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Rom. viij. 2.  Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Such a man is wholly alive unto God, and though he be encumbered with many hardships, afflictions and outward calamities which threaten approaching ruin to his body of earth, yet his life is holy, harmless and innocent, like the life of Christ upon Earth, and his soul is so affected as his was, having but one only will in the World, which is to annihilate himself that God may be all in him. And whoever is arrived to this high pitch of Divine perfection hath attained an enlarged and boundless freedom, his life being melted into the Divine life, and his will fitted and adapted to the comprehension of the Divine Will. For the true liberty of our wills consists not in an uncertain indifferency and dubious fluctuation between two different objects presented to our choice (For this arises out of the darkness and imperfection of our understandings) but when our wills are conformable to reason, and spontaneously elect that which the Intellect propounds to them as best, and in itself most eligible.  
Having thus declared the amplitude and extent of the liberty of man's Will in all it's respective capacities, I shall now manifest and show how it's taken away by asserting and maintaining of Inconditionate Decrees; which will be no hard matter to evince, if we consider that both the Predestination of the Good to life, and of the Reprobates to destruction, necessarily pervades and casts a fatal influence upon their whole lives, I mean that that eternal decree invincibly orders and disposes the actions of men to their respective ends, so that he who is preordained to happiness shall certainly and necessarily be good, and the other who is destined to perdition shall inevitably be wicked and vicious. A cast of which Doctrine we have delivered to us by Zanchy in these words, 
De Nat. Dei cap. 2. in Resp. ad Sophism.  Non dubitamus itaque confiteri ex immutabili Reprobatione necessitatem peccandi, & quidem sine resipiscentia ad mortem usque peccandi, eóque & aeternas poenas dandi, reprobis incumbere: that is, We doubt not to profess that from the immutable Decree of Reprobation there lies upon Reprobates a necessity of sinning, and that without Repentance even unto death, and consequently of suffering eternal punishments. 
Ad amicdupl. Vorst. p. 175.  Piscator likewise will aver the same, and more if you desire it; In summa se tueri fatetur, Deum absolutè decrevisse ab aeterno & efficaciter, ne quispiam hominum plus bont faciat quàm reipsâ facit, aut plus mali omittat quàm reipsa omittit: that is, That he defends this conclusion, that God hath efficaciously from all eternity so predetermined the will of man to every individual action, that none can do any more good than really he doth; or omit any more evil than ipso facto he omitteth. To these I shall add Szydlovius as the worst of the three, 
Apud Curcellaeum de jure Dei in creaturas innocentes, p. 25, 26.  Fateor & ipse ad communem sentiendi consuetadinem crudum nimis hoc videri; Deum posse blasphemiam, perjurium, mendacium, etc. imperare:— quod tamen Verissimum est in se, etc. that is, I confess that according to common sense, it seems very crude to assert that God can command blasphemy, perjury, lying, etc. which yet is most true in itself. Now following these Principles, it is impossible there should be any such things as Virtue and Vice existing in the World; for all our ations, whether Good or Evil, are the necessary effects of an external principle acting and overruling our wills, and we are but the instruments which that invincible Power makes use of for the doing such and such actions, and can no more withstand it, than the Sun cease to make day and night. 
1 Cor. iv. 5.  The Apostle speaks of men's receiving praise of God for their good deeds, which reason cannot fathom, if their wills are necessarily determined ad unum (as the Moralists speak) and acted by a supernatural and irresistible power. No man ever praised the Sun for circling the Earth, or the Moon for keeping her course, because it is impossible they should do otherwise, being destitute of any spontaneous principle, and carried by the violent stream of matter: No more can any one praise or dispraise the actions of Mankind, when they have no power to do otherwise, but are inevitably determined to such and no other, and can no more resist, than the Planets stop their constant gires in the vast whirlpools of heaven. He that merits praise for doing well, it is upon this account, that he might have done otherwise: but when God by a Physical application of his Power determines the soul to act thus, and leaves it not any power or ability of resisting, all the praise of that action must be due to God himself, not to Man who was but the instrument, and could not avoid it. Nemo peccat in eo quod vitare non potest, says St. Austin. Neither can any action whatever be called a sin in Man; because he is not left a free agent, but acts fatally and unavoidably, and cannot be disobedient to that superior force that inacts his will: so that Murder, Adultery, Oppression, contempt of Government, and whatever brutish action there is else, cannot come under the denomination of crimes, but he that commits them may justly plead that he could not avoid them, his will being never undetermined, and it was not possible that his weak soul should hinder the stronger and more powerful bent and resolution of heaven. How then can God in justice punish any man for doing that which he could not help? and, How can that be called a sin, which is the effect of a necessary cause? The distinction between the act, and the pravity of the act the former of which God wills (say they) and works in us, but not the latter, will stand them in no stead; for in many actions the formality of sin consists in the very act itself, as in Murder, Adultery, and such like: Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was a sin in itself, and we cannot distinguish between the act and the vitiosity; for the very act was forbidden, and the formality of the crime consisted not in Adam or Eve's eating after any undue manner: but simply and barely in the very act of eating. And so in sins of Omission, this distinction likewise fails, nor will it free Almighty God from the imputation of being the Author of Iniquity and Vice. And it is no wonder to see this unworthy Doctrine take such deep footing in some men's minds, when they are so obstinately set and fixed upon it, that they will entertain any absurdity, rather than free and unprejudice their understandings: Yea so hot was this Dispute grown at Geneva, that Melanchton in an Epistle to Caspar Peucerus amongst other things relates this, Scribit ad me Lelius de Stoico fato usque adeo litem Genevae moveri, ut quidam in carcerem conjectus sit, propterea quod à Zenone differret. O misera tempora! Doctrina salutis peregrinis quibusdam disputationibus obscuratur. And truly if Men would leave off these dry reasonings and altercations about words, and entertain Truth in the love and simplicity of it, and as it is in Jesus, in that Divine and Meek Spirit, it is to be hoped that God would soon put an end to the days of unrighteousness, of formal and outside profession; and the glory of the Lord would cover the Earth, as the waters cover the Sea.   

Chap. VI An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees; together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants.  
I Have now finished the principal and most material Arguments I shall at this time make use of, which I have not closely and Syllogistically connected, but loosely propounded and discoursed of, as well for the delight and pleasure of the Reader, as that he who is in a good measure prepared for the entertainment of them, may light upon something agreeable to his own mind, which will appear to his inward sense as Apodictical as a Mathematical Notion or the evidence of his external sense. For there is something in us which will not fail to embrace whatever it finds suitable and congruous to it's own nature; and ofttimes an accidental hint proves more advantageous for the establishing and confirming a Truth before but weakly impressed upon the mind, than a sapless argumentation form after the rules of mood and figure. But that I may yet give more light to the precedent discourse, I shall bring into view the chief places and Texts of holy Scripture which have been by some distorted and wrested to the upholding a Doctrine they are not at all acquainted with, that this Obex being removed by rendering the plain and genuine sense of them, there may be nothing remaining to hinder men's free and full assent unto it.  
John vi. 37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me— From hence some draw such an unexpected conclusion as this, 
Solent praeparationes ad fidem patri tribui, (Mat. xuj. 17.) ut fidei operatio filio, obsignatio spiritui. G●ot.  viz. That there are some particular persons known to God by name, whom he hath from all eternity given to Christ; and that all others are devoted to destruction. For the explication therefore of this we must know that God once promised the Lord Christ (Psal. 2.) that he would give him the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession; by which we may discern, what kind of giving this is which is mentioned here, viz. the giving for an inheritance or possession, That Christ may reign over them; which God doth by his Vital presence pervading their souls, and laying hold of every disposition and capacity, and preparing their hearts by his softening and preventing grace, for a benign reception of the Divine Image of the Lord Jesus: And this Act of God in fitting and qualifying them, is called, His drawing, Vers. 44. No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; which attraction is no ways involuntary and irresistible, as if he who knows all the secret recesses and intrigues of our Natures, were put to his shifts, and had no other means to reduce men to righteousness, but by the destruction of their powers and faculties: but his drawing is with the Cords of a Man, 
Hos. xi. 4.  and the Bands of Love, with gentle and persuasive arguments, far different from those unaccountable impulses and violent motions attributed to God's Spirit by the Calvinists, as Jer. xxxi. 3. and Cant. i. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Clem. Strom. 4.  Now the persons given unto Christ must needs be such who are fitly disposed, qualified and prepared to receive Christ being offered, such who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, set in order and ranked to life, Act. xiii. 48. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fitted and capacitated for the Kingdom of God; Such as are like that subactum solum, 
Luk. ix. 62.  good and mellow ground in the Parable which is fitted for the receiving the seed of God's Words. For if by God's donation of men to Christ, were signified his Electing a certain number to eternal life without any consideration of their future obedience, it would follow:  
1. That that number could never be diminished: but we read that one of those who was given to Christ was lost, Joh. xvii. 12. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but the Son of Perdition.  
2. It would follow, that those who are already elected to Eternal life, and in the favour and love of God, are yet given to Christ, which is very crude and improper; for to what purpose should they be given to Christ, when they are already reconciled to God?  
3. Christ here speaking to the incredulous Jews, if by this exclusive form of Locution he had meant that only some few particular persons preordained from eternity, should come to him (that is, Believe on him, Heb. xi. 6.) he would not only have extenuated the sin of the Jews in not believing on him, but wholly taken it away by rendering them an account and reason of this their incredulity, viz. That they were destitute of that vital influence and grace which streams from a particular Election, and is given only to some certain persons known to God by Name from all eternity.  
Acts xiii. 48.— And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Here the Contra-Remonstrants, as their manner is, whenever they meet with any such word as Ordained, Elected, or Predestinated, presently fancy, that it concludes their absolute Decrees; and so obstinately and wilfully blind are they, that they cannot see any other sense but their own, and obtrude it upon Men as Infallible and Authentic. Such is the Text here in hand, which they they imagine makes much for their cause; but the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, hath no such signification or import that they should put upon it, but is a Military term, and signifies to Marshal, to stand ready in rank and file; and accordingly denotes here, those who are fitted and aptly disposed to eternal life: so it is used 1 Cor. xuj. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposed or devoted themselves to the function of ministering to the Saints. So the Greeks express a well-governed and disposed life by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and those that live not so, the Apostle calls, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, disorderly persons, 1 Thess. v. 14. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore here, hold proportion with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the forementioned place, Luke ix. 62. and denotes such who are fitted by due preparations for the reception of the Gospel. And if the Text were to be expounded of such an absolute Predestination of certain particular persons, undoubtedly the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have been used (which had made more for that purpose) and not such a Phrase which is no no where in the whole Scripture found to signify Gods eternal Decrce. For a further confirmation of this, I will annex Grotius his Observations upon the place against the Calvinistical Exposition: 1. Praedestinati omnes unius loci non eredunt eodem tempore. 2. Neque & omnes qui credunt, sunt e● sensu praedestinati. 3. Neque id arcanum de singulis, qui ad salutem perventuri essent, qui non, Lucae erat revelatum.  
1 Pet. two. 8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.  
That which our Adversaries collect from hence is, That there are some ordained and destined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Infidelity, and consequently to Damnation, as the effect of it; therefore there is such a Decree as Absolute Reprobation; referring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
But the invalidity and absurdity of this Explication will appear:  
1. That it is a manifest contradiction to say, that the persons here mentioned were Predestinated to Disobedience; for in that it was destinated and decreed of God, it ceases to be disobedience, and is properly an acting according to that immutable will and purpose of God, which is passed upon the inobedient persons: if therefore God wills and determines that they shall reject and contemn his precepts and commands, how are they criminal?  
2. It makes God the Author of sin, by predestinating and forcing men to the commission of it. These words therefore [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, into which they were appointed] must be referred to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those which stumble, fall, and bruise themselves at the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disobeying and rejecting it when preached: So that the sense is, that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those which stand out obstinately against the Gospel, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, were decreed and appointed (See Joh. xv. 16. Act. xiii. 47. 1 Thess. v. 9) to fall at that stumbling stone, and be destroyed, which is not that they should be incredulous or disobedient; but that since they would not believe, they should be most justly punished. Thus the Gospel is said to be the savour of death to them that perish, 2 Cor. two. 16. And Christ is said to be Set 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  for the fall of many, that is, of these that believe not on him, Luk. two. 34. not that God appointed Christ to come into the World and set on foot the Gospel to destroy men, but that he primarily intended by that sacred Dispensation the Salvation of all the World, and decreed that whoever would be disobedient and contemn those means should perish by their contempt.  
Prov. xuj. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil.  
That there is no mention here of an eternal Decree, appears:  
1. That the Praetertense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here put by an usual manner in Hebrew for the Present, Worketh, Maketh, or Provides.  
2. There is no necessity it should be rendered impium the Wicked, in the Accusative case; for the Text may very well be read by an Ellipsis, And the wicked at the day of Evil, supply, shall fall by the just judgement of God.  
3. The clause [for himself] may very well be translated (since the Hebrew Version will bear it) according to his word; or as the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The sense therefore of the whole verse briefly is this, That God by his perpetual Providence and Government of the world, not only takes notice of, and regards good and holy men, that all things may tend to their welfare: but likewise beholds and observes the actions of wicked persons; and that they may not think they shall go unpunished, and say in their hearts, There is no God, most wisely orders, that a just Nemesis shall overtake them for their sins and impieties, and at last a final vengeance and destruction seize upon them.  
John xii. 39, 40. Therefore they could not believe, because that Esayas said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.  
I cannot see how this Text makes any thing for the Calvinistical Reprobation; but there are some men so subtle and acute, that they espy something or other for the patronising and defending their self-chosen opinions almost in every verse of the holy Scriptures. That which they most aim at and would enforce from hence is, That this Excaecation and obduration is a Physical Action of God upon the mind, arising from his peremprory Decree of Reprobation 
* Sicut credere nolunt Reprobi, ita certum est non posse velle credere, quia tenebrae in quilus nati sunt, lucem comprehendere non possunt. Deus autem (inquit Paulus) quos vult miseratur, & quos vult indurat. Beza in Annot. in Joh. xii. v. 39 : than which nothing is more inconsistent with or unworthy of the Divine Majesty: But the Excaecation here mentioned seems not to be an Act of Gods, because it is said Excaecavit, he hath blinded, in the third Person; and presently subjoined, Ne ego sanem, lest I should heal them, in the first; Excaecavit therefore may be taken impersonally for their eyes are blinded, by whomsoever, or by what means soever it came to pass; as Act. xxviii. 24. Some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not. But we will suppose it to be an action of Gods, yet that action can be no other than penal, which by the just judgement of God is inflicted on them for their precedent crimes, and not from any Absolute Decree; as is expressed vers. 37. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. And in Mat. xiii. 13. their incredulity is put as the cause and reason of their blindness, Because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; which clears the like expression in Mark iv. 12. That seeing they may see and not perceive; as if their Excaecation were primarily intended by Christ; for whereas it is said that seeing, it is a plain indication that they did either understand those things which were propounded to them, or at least might, but would not understand them. Whereas 'tis said likewise they could not believe, it is not to be understood as if they wanted Power and ability, but that their minds and inclinations were wholly averse to it, being addicted and carried after self-interest, as 'tis said, vers. 43. Many did not confess Christ, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God: For ofttimes those are said not to be able, whose mind is altogether averse to this or that, although they might easily do it if they would. Thus a Candid and Ingenuous person cannot Lie, a Liberal person cannot be sordid and base; and, he that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cannot sin, 1 John three 9 and Christ himself once could do no mighty work, Mark vi. 5. See 2 Cor. xiii. 8. Acts iv. 20. John viij. 43.  
Judas ver. 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation—  
The great stress of the Calvinists Argumentation from hence lies in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we (though something improperly) render [of old ordained] but might better have translated predicted, for so the word ought to be taken here, for a prediction or description aforehand, by which these kind of men, and also their Impostures and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have been long ago described, denoted and depainted out in their proper colours and lineaments. Such is the propriety of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, only here by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies Prophesy, as is intimated in ver. 17, 18. of this Epistle. [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] to this judgement, that since they rejected the truth, and turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denied the Lord Christ that bought them, they might be as instruments for the exploration of Saints and true Believers; (as God is said to make use of false Prophets to try his People, Deut. xiii. 3.) and after be destroyed with all false Christians and Rebellious Jews.  
Mark xiii. 22. For false Christ's and false Prophets shall rise and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible even the Elect.  
Hence the Contra-remonstrants collect an Absolute and peremptory Decree, because 'tis utterly impossible to seduce or draw the Elect from the Faith: but while they argue thus, they declare to the World, that they neither understand the [impossibility] nor [Elect] here mentioned. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place doth not denote an absolute impossibility (otherwise Christ's exhortation to them ver. 23. to take heed, had been wholly useless and supervacaneous) but is used to express the intent and design of the False-christs' and false-Prophets; as if he should say, They will omit nothing nor leave any means untried, whereby to compass their pernicious and wicked purpose. The same form or speech we have, Rom. xii. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, If it be possible, as much as in you lies, live peaceable with all men: that is, do your endeavour, do what lies in you, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as much as lies in your power, being an Exegesis of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if it be possible. But why must the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be such as are absolutely and immutably Elected? Sure I am, the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is used where there is no denotation of any Election from all eternity. To avoid multiplicity of quotations, we may instance in two or three more remarkable passages: The Hebrew word to which this answers is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies, to approve, examine and choose; and accordingly Prov. seven. 3. the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our English Version reads, The Lord tryeth the heart, and the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, hearts elect before the Lord. And in Esay xxviii. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is rendered a tried stone. To this purpose Eccles. xlix. 7. Jerusalem is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an elect City; that is, preferred and esteemed before others. Sometimes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the designing and choosing to some office and peculiar employment, a sequestering some from others, Luke vi. 13. And when it was day, he called unto him his Disciples, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and of them be chose twelve. To add no more, Rufus is called by St. Paul, Rom. xuj. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Chosen in the Lord, that is, a special Believer; for as to his particular person, what Decree had passed on him was unknown to the Apostle, therefore it must be that he receive this Elogium from his visible Christian deportment.  
2 Thess. two. 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.  
That the Apostle treats of no such absolute and eternal Election as our Antagonists imagine, appears:  
1. In that this form of speech being directed to all the Thessalonians, it would follow, that the whole visible Church of them were elected unto glory, which were a very precarious Assertion.  
2. This kind of Election being absolute and irreversible, it were impossible that any of the Believers mentioned in the Text, should fall and desert the faith of the Gospel, which is altogether inconsistent with that solicitous and earnest Exhortation, twice inculcated in this Chapter, ver. 1, 2, & 15. wherein he beseeches them by the coming of the Lord Jesus, that they be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled; and again, That they stand fast, and hold the traditions which they have been taught by word or Epistle.  
3. This Separation of them from the rest of the Heathen World, was grounded upon their good conversation and belief of the Gospel, which directly thwarts an Inconditionate Decree— Through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Chosen or separated you from the beginning] that is, from the beginning of the Preaching of the Gospel: so that they were among the first of those that gave up themselves to the obedience of the faith: This is all the import of this phrase: the former part of it we have Deut. xxvi. 18. The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his people; in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which respected Temporal benefits: but here by the Apostle 'tis added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to Eternal Salvation, which is reserved only for Christians. Now as the Jews by their disobedience might become non populus; so Christians may disinherit themselves, and frustrate by their evil ways, Gods intentions of bringing them unto glory. As for the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it no way extends it to an Eternal, but Temporal Election or Separation, and is used in Scripture to denote the beginning of the Preaching of the Gospel, as in 1 Joh. two. 7, 24. I writ no new Commandment to you, but an old Commandment which ye had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the beginning: the old Commandment is the word which ye have heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the beginning. Again, Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the beginning. See Joh. xv. 27. The old Latin translation reads it Primitias, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, that they were set apart and consecrated to God as first-fruits by the Preaching of the Gospel; which phrase the Apostle likewise useth, Rom. xuj. 5.— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Who is the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ.  
Rom. viij. 28, 29, 30. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  
Here (say the Calvinists) you may see the chain of Salvation, and behold how the beloved of God are drawn by each golden link, till they are brought to their appointed bliss and happiness. This is the sacred method of God's Predestination, in which he goes by certain steps and degrees, and in every one of them magnifies the riches of his free and undeserved Grace to his chosen and selected ones. But to leave these light and airy fancies, I shall lay down that which I judge to be the proper and genuine sense of the Apostles words. In order to which we must know, That the scope and intent of almost this whole Chapter is, to comfort the Afflicted and calamitous, and to exhort them to continue steadfast and unmoved in the love of God, and obedience of his commands, adding several weighty Reasons and Considerations to incite them to it, amongst which these two have their strength and cogency. 1. That all the troubles and molestations they suffer here, shall work together for their good, ver. 28. 2. In that they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, who through many hardships and afflictions made his way unto glory, ver. 20, 30. So that the Predestination here mentioned, is to be understood of a destination to the Cross, and not of any ordination to Faith, Life and Glory. The sum of all is this, That all afflictions and crosses however burdensome and grievous they may be, shall work together for the good of those that love God, and sincerely and cordially adhere and cleave unto him; and though now for the present they may be exercised with many hardships, and environed with calamitous accidents: yet the event should be glorious, and the Sun of comfort at last arise and dispel those thick clouds of sorrow, and bring on a serene and perpetual day of felicity and joy. For whom he did approve of as faithful, he determined should arrive to their felicity by the same way that Christ did, who by suffering entered into his Glory, to the intent that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did thus approve of, them he intended to call to a conformity to his Son; and whom he thus calls, he will likewise justify, that is, account them as righteous; and whom he thus justifies, he will hereafter glorify, if they desert not the signs and tokens of the Cross, as he said before, ver. 17. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For though there be no condition expressed, yet it is evidently employed in the nature and matter of the thing itself. See Exposition of Eph. i. 3, 4. infra. That this is the scope of the Text will be further evidenced from the use of the words and phrases in other places of Scripture: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are no more than the real and unfeigned servants of God, is manifest, in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in several places of the Old Testament used to signify a Follower, Adherent or Servant, especially in an Army, as 1 Kings i 41, 49. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts xi. 23. With full purpose of heart, that is, willingly, unfeignedly and constantly. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the same import with the simple Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and signifies no more than an approbation and firm love of those who are thus conformable to Christ, is evident from these and such like Texts of Scripture, Rom. xi. 2. God hath not cast away his people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which he foreknew, that is, which he owned for his. So 1 Cor. viij. 3. But if any man love God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the same is known of him, that is, him God approves and likes of. Hence it is said, that God knows not wicked men, Mat. seven. 23. And our faith and obedience of God's commands is called our knowing of him, Joh. xvii. 3. & 1 Joh. two. 3. By God's calling here, is undoubtedly meant his Vocation to the Cross, to which all Believers are destined, as appears from 1 Pet. two. 20, 21.— But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for hereunto were ye called. And 1 Thess. iii. 3. That no man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that we are appointed hereunto. And if it were understood of God's Vocation to faith, it would follow:  
1. That he foreknew, that is, approved and delighted in sinners before he called them to the faith, and so before they were in Christ.  
2. That not only Vocation, but Justification and Glorification must belong to those that are only foreknown or Elected: Which absurdities and insipid illations are avoided by the former Exposition.  
Ephes. i. 3, 4, 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love: Having Predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.  
The sense and scope of these Verses will be very easy and conspicuous by the illustration of those two Phrases, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, verse 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, verse 5. The Election therefore spoken of here, seems to denote Vocation by the Gospel, not simply so: but imports and includes the Decree of calling the Jews and Gentiles by the Gospel; as 2 Tim. i 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but according to his own purpose, and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now the subject matter of this Election are Believers as such, and whoever actually believes, comes under that grand Decree of Election to life and immortality, designed and intended in the Lord Christ before the foundation of the World; and whoever believes not, falls under the dint of the other Decree of death and destruction. According as our Saviour himself hath delivered to us, Mark xuj. 16. He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned. And for a further elucidation of this, we may take notice, that it is not said simply in the Text, that God hath blessed us, but [in Christ] and [as he hath chosen us in him] therefore Blessing, v. 3. and Chosen, v. 4. belong both to the same matter; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a term of proportion makes the connexion thus, That God hath blessed us in Christ, that is, His actual present blessing them, at that point of time, was correspondent to what God had decreed before the foundation of the World. Now what the blessing here spoken of is, appears:  
1. In general by the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a spiritual blessing, or blessing in things pertaining to heaven.  
2. By the Predestination (in order of nature precedent to it) which is specified to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to Adoption.  
3. By what is here added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all which specify the matter of Election here spoken of, to be the same as of his blessing us, viz. our holy and blameless conversation, a Spiritual and Christian obedience; and so 'tis said, Chap. two. 10. that Good Works are the things to which God had before prepared (elected) us that we should walk in them. So that from hence we may note, that the subject of God's Election is not Mankind simply considered as Creatures, nor yet as fallen, but as actual and persevering Believers.  
4. By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Christ, specifying Christ to be the means of bringing all to a holy life; which he did by coming into the World, and dying and rising again. Where we may likewise observe, that our Election even as our Blessing, is in Christ: but no man can be in Christ, unless he be considered as faithful: and hence also we may likewise see the vanity of that Doctrine which makes Christ only the executor of God's absolute Will and Decree, but not the foundation of Election, contrary to the Apostles assertion, that God hath chosen us in Christ.  
The other phrase remains, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Predestinated us. By which we are given to understand that the Apostle both here and elsewhere, makes it his business to show that the temporal dispensation of things, was long before determined and decreed upon; which antecedent constitution is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to predetermine, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, purpose, and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, foreknowledge. The first of these is used, Acts iv. 28. (where Gods permission and provident direction of whatever happened to the Lord Christ is denoted) To do whatever thy hand and thy counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 determined before to be done. See 1 Cor. two. 7. The Verb of the second is used Rom. iii. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whom God hath set forth, or foreordained to be a propitiation— The Verb of the last we have, 1 Pet. i 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the World— The Noun we have, Acts two. 23. where likewise God's permission and provident direction is denoted, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, him being delivered (or given out) by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken— So 1 Pet. i 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, According to the foreknowledge of God the Father— Now these antecedent Constitutions are sometimes absolute, and sometimes conditional; and although the condition be not always affixed, yet may it sufficiently be understood when 'tis employed, by the nature of the matter itself, and ofttimes by the preceding words, and subsequent Admonitions and Exhortations. Thus the purpose and Decree of God to send Christ into the World, is to be understood absolutely; but his Election of men to salvation in Christ is hypothetical and conditional, viz. If they believe and persevere in the faith. Of these conditional Constitutions we have several instances; Rom. i. 13. St. Paul says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I purposed to come unto you, viz. if other important affairs did not hinder me. See Rom. viij. 29. St. Paul was separated of God to the Apostolical function, Gal. i. 15. but it was, if he were not disobedient to the heavenly vision, Act. xxvi. 19 So here, the Apostle declares to the Ephesians, that God had predetermined not only to make them of enemies, friends; but to adopt them as his children, and to deal with them as Sons, viz. if they obeyed their Vocation as they ought.  
Rom. ix. 11, 13, 16, 18, 22. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of Works, but of him that calleth. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his Power known, endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.  
Verse 11. This verse inserted in a Parenthesis, is only a proof of what the Apostle declares to the Jews, viz. That the ground and foundation of God's Election of Jacob, and prelation of him before Esau (under the Persons of whom are denoted the Jews and Gentiles, the one considered without any respect of their Legal Services, the other of their Idolatries) was not upon consideration of the future Goodness of the one, and stubborn Refractoriness of the other, but merely an act of his own free will and pleasure, forasmuch as the choice was pitched upon before either of them were born.  
By the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is meant no more than the design or purpose of God in preferring one before the other; as Rom. xi. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Beloved as touching the Election, i. e. In respect of the undeserved promises made to them of peculiar favour for Abraham's sake. And the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for the most part is rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is also denoted by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Deut. seven. 6. Prov. i. 29.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] By [Calling] here, set in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, doing any thing on intuition of merit, is meant Gods peculiar favour and act of his special Providence and Grace, in the dispensation of which he refers to himself a freedom and liberty without respect tp any qualifications.  
Verse 13. That the Text doth not denote in its proper extent and signification the persons of Jacob and Esau, simply considered, but their Posterity, appears:  
1. From the Response of God to Rebecca, when she complained upon the children's struggling in her womb. Gen. xxv. 23. Two Nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels: and the one people shall be stronger than the other: and the elder shall serve the younger. Now 'tis plain, that the elder's subjection to the younger never had any completion in their life-time, but rather the contrary, as appears by their story.  
2. This Expression [Jacob have I loved, etc.] was not delivered or spoken before the birth of Jacob and Esau, but some hundreds of years after; for it is not where else to be found in Scripture, but in Mal. i. where the Prophet treats not of the persons of Jacob and Esau, but of their Posterities, the Edumeans and Israelites, it being no new thing to call whole Nations descending from the same lineage, by the Brother's names from whom each sprung, as Numb. xx. 14. Thus saith thy Brother Israel— and Deut. xxiii. 7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy Brother.  
Again, Neither the love nor hatred of God in this place has any relation to a peremptory Election to, or Reprobation from Eternal life and happiness: For  
1. If this were loving from eternity, God could not afterward have given Jacob and the people of Israel a Law, annexing a conditional benediction to it: For that which God had decreed to them by an immutable and special Decree, could not be promised to them under the condition of obedience; for it implies a contradiction that a thing should be absolute and conditional at the same time, and to the same persons.  
2. If this love were absolute and eternal to Jacob and his Posterity, they could not then have fallen from God's grace and favour, which we find some of them did, 1 Cor. x. 5. Heb. iii. 19  
As therefore the love here mentioned cannot signify an Election to eternal life, so neither can the Hatred denote eternal Reprobation.  
1. Because 'tis often taken otherwise in Scripture, comparatively for a less degree of love, and therefore may admit of a more candid interpretation: Deut. xxi. 15. If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, i. e. If he have one that he loves less than the other; For it being lawful at that time to divorce their wives, it would scarce ever happen, what the text implies, if hating were taken properly: for who would retain a wife that he really and truly hated, when he might put her away, and take another which he loved better. So Gen. xxviii. 31. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, i. e. as in the precedent verse, loved with a less degree of affection than Rachel. After the same manner must the words of Christ be expounded in the Gospel, Luke xiv. 26. If any man cometh to me, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and hateth not his Father and Mother— i. e. if he love not me more than them, he cannot be a true Christian.  
2. That cannot be the object of such an eternal and implacable hatred, which hath no cause of hatred in it; but Esau had no cause in him, that God should thus hate him: Before the children had done good or evil.  
Vers. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] we may here observe that they do very much misconstrue and misapply the words of the Apostle, who make this the sense of them, as if it were not at all requisite for obtaining life and eternal Salvation, that we should live well, and diligently attend to the exercise and performance of faith and good works: This I say, is a dangerous error and mistake, and every holy man experiences the effects of the contrary to be most true. For 1 Cor. ix. 24. all Christians are plainly and distinctly commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to run that they may obtain the heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and reward of their labours; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— all run, but one obtains the prize; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so run that ye may obtain. So likewise Heb. xii. 1.— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Let us run with patience— And there is the same reason of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Job. seven. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, If any man will do his will, he shall know of the Doctrine— And upon this account, incredulous and unbelieving persons are reprehended for this very thing that they Will not come unto Christ, John v. 40. And Christ complains of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I would, but ye would not. Wherefore when it is said here [It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth] we must not understand it of that Will whereby a man would do what God commands him: But the sense is this, That it is not sufficient for the acquisition of Divine favour and grace, that we seek it after any sort; but it necessarily lies upon us, and stands us in stead to endeavour after it by that way and means by which God hath declared to us it may be acquired. And hence the Apostle gives an indication of the fruitless attempts of the Jews in contending with so much zeal and noise for the obedience of the Law, when God required faith in his Son whom he had sent into the world of them, and had openly declared that men should be accounted righteous, not by the works of the Law, but by the faith of the Gospel.  
Verse 18. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [hardens] is by many misunderstood, and therefore will need some explication: That God hardened Pharaoh's heart the Scripture testifies, but of the manner how it was done we are now to inquire. Some understand this hardening of the heart to be a positive act of God, either by conveying a new degree of obstinacy and refractoriness into it, or by intending and corroborating that which was in it before: But this is neither agreeable to the purity and simplicity of the Divine Nature, nor consentaneous to any Oeconomy which God has yet manifested to the World; for his Holiness is such that he cannot be the cause or Author of any Impurity or Rebellion, which this way of solution would certainly charge upon him. The Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond in his Annotations upon this place observes, That God is not said to harden Pharaoh 's heart (although he predicted it before in Chap. iv. 21. & seven. 3.) till after the sixth judgement, and the addition of a special warning given him by Moses before that, and then 'tis said, Exod. ix. 12. as it were in a new style, The Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart: By which computation of time when God hardened Pharaoh's heart, he thinks it will appear what is the proper intimation of hardening, viz. The total substraction of God's grace of Repentance from him, in the same manner as when one is cast into Hell, which Pharaoh at that time had been, had it not been more for God's Glory to continue him alive a while in that desperate, irreversible condition, which sure was no whit worse to him, but somewhat better and more desirable, then to have been adjudged to those flames all that time. But methinks (with submission to more excellent judgements) the main of this Explication is not so solid, so rational and coherent as might be desired: For,  
1. It may very well be questioned, Whether those plagues which were inflicted on him after the immission of the sixth judgement, and consequently after God is said to harden his heart, were not as efficacious for his amendment, and so designed of God, as any of the former? That they were sufficiently convictive, and of force and power enough to subdue and conquer his untamed spirit, if he would have made a right use of them, is evident, as well from Gods upbraiding the people of Israel of incredulity upon this very reason and account, that they refused to be wrought upon by those many notable miracles and signs done in the midst of them, Deut. xxix, 2, 3, 4. as from the temporarious penitence, and sudden sensibility of his miscarriage which the actual and present immission of judgement drew from him, Exod. ix. 27, 28. I have sinned this time— and so likewise Chap. x. 16, 17. That those after-judgments were also intended of God for the emendation of this obstinate King is I think as clear from the expostulation of Moses and Aaron with him, Exod. x. 3. 4. How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself? Let my people go— which plainly supposes, both that the designation of the Judgement was to humble him; and that there was a possibility still of reducing him to that pliable and sequacious temper. And if it were otherwise, these and the like menaces and threaten [If thou refuse to let my people go, I will do thus and thus unto thee] would be wholly supervacaneous and ineffectual: Nay they would argue an unworthy exprobration in God of his obstinate detention of the people, and refusal to submit to his will, when he had not strength and power sufficient to attempt the contrary.  
2. It may well be doubted, Whether that Divine Goodness which is always ready to breath upon the least spark of the life of God in every rational Being, and assists every good motion and forwardness towards the formation of God's holy image in every man, would not likewise have been as urgent and efficacious in Pharaoh, for the mollifying his obdurate spirit before he was taken out of the world, had he rightly and duly managed those heavy punishments in order to his melioration, i. e. if he would have complied with the will of God. The sum of all therefore seems to be this, That Almighty God the ever-wise and benign Creator of all things, being conscious to all the affections, intrigues and hidden recesses of the spirit of Man, only knows how and when to apply a sovereign remedy; and like a skilful Chirurgeon proportions his medicaments to the nature and quality of the wound, and seldom makes use of those more ungentle ways of cauterizing and excision, till necessity and the preservation of the whole urge him to it. And even in this singular instance of Pharaoh, we may trace the footsteps of God's benignity and love, as that Holy and Pious Father excellently well observes, 
Origen. Philocal. cap. 27.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Wherefore we may well interpret this hardening which is attributed to God, to consist not in any positive act, nor yet in the total subtraction of his grace: but to be an accidental effect of his kindness and mercy toward Pharaoh, in removing that sharp and uneasy though salutary discipline, which being not carefully and rightly made use of, became an occasion of a greater hardness and obduracy; As, saith the Father in the same Chapter, when a Master forbears to punish a wicked servant, he says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have spoiled you, and I have made you wicked, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. In like manner those things which proceed from God's benignity and goodness, as if they had been the cause of Pharaoh 's obduracy, are said to harden his heart. And the Philosopher spoke true when he said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the greatest evil that possibly can befall a Criminal, to be suffered to continue unpunished in wickedness.  
Verse 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] To show his displeasure, i. e. The effect of his displeasure, to punish by a notable and exemplary way, as he did Pharaoh; so the word is used Luke xxi. 23.— For there shall be great distress in the land, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Punishment and Judgement the effect of Wrath upon this people. So likewise Rom. iii. 5. Is God unrighteous, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who punisheth or taketh vengeance? So that this is far from what Beza and other Supralapsarians would infer, as if this Demonstration of his anger were the prime and ultimate end which God proposed in the eternal Reprobation of Men. For what can we imagine more inconsistent and unsuitable with the Divine Nature, then to be eternally angry with the innocent and undeserving? And what more contradicts the gracious Revelation of God, whereby he declares himself propense to Mercy, and slow to Anger against impenitent sinners, than this which makes him equally displeased with the guiltless and criminal?  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Suffered with much patience and longanimity, punishing them not so oft, nor when he might justly do it: but letting them take as it were the reins into their own hands, and break through all the fences and hedges whereby the Divine Goodness sought to restrain them, into exorbitancy and impiety; and so render themselves more uncapable of a mild and gentle Oeconomy. This being the genuine sense, we can in no wise approve of their extravagant conjecture, who take to themselves the liberty which they thanklessly give to God, of making their wills and fancies the rule of their interpretations and actions, that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is only a bare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forbearance of punishment complicated and conjoined with a peremptory purpose of eternally excruciating and damning those who were designed to destruction. For doubtless this longanimity of God contains and runs upon the supposal of antecedent Exhortations, Threaten and Promises, as so many gracious methods to reduce men to Repentance; which cannot without clear hypocrisy and dissimulation be affirmed of Reprobates in the Supralapsarian sense.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction] Hear the Supralapsarians endeavour to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Creari 
* Vide Beza in hunc locum. , whereby they would obtrude that God creates men vessels of wrath on purpose to destroy them, without any consideration had to any qualifications whatever; which being a Doctrine so absurd and unbecoming the Majesty of an Al-wise and good God, it will be confutation enough to any rational person to rehearse it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is an Hebraisme; for there being but few verbals in the Hebrew tongue, a Particle is used for a Verbal, and signifies no more than fit or ready, as Luke vi. 40. The Disciple is not above his Master; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but every one that is perfect, shall be as his Master. For the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies fit, and is usually rendered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, comes from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which sometimes is rendered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Psal. lxviii. 10. & lxxiu 16. & lxxxix. 38. By vessels of wrath, then are meant men who by their own voluntary and heinous transgressions become so far liable to God's judgement, that his wrath may without any appearance of injustice be poured on them, as vessels fit for no other use; and the adaptation or fitting of them for a severe destruction, must be attributed to themselves, and to the inflexibleness of their irreclaimable dispositions. Thus men are said in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to fit themselves to destruction, in the same sense as they are said to wrong their own souls, and to love death, Prov. viij. 36. to judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, Acts xiii. 46. To reject or render ineffectual the Counsel of God against themselves, Luke seven. 30. Not that they do directly and principally intent any such thing: but because they commit and act those things, which do either naturally, or by virtue of the Divine command, produce such an event and consequence. In like manner, on the contrary, Men are said to work out their Salvation, Phil. two. 12. To save themselves, 1 Tim. iv. 16. To save their own souls, Luke ix. 24. because they act and prosecute those things which have an indisputable tendency to such a desired end.  
For a Conclusion of this whole Discourse, I shall briefly examine these two following Illations and Deductions of the Contra-Remonstrants, from the Doctrine of Absolute and Irrespective Decrees.  
1. That none can be a true believer or sincere Christian, who knows not when nor how he was regenerated and born again by the Spirit; that is, (to speak in their language) who cannot tell when he felt the mighty and efficacious power of the Divine Spirit dashing asunder his strong heart, and gathering up the broken shivers, and uniting them together, and changing them into a heart of flesh, and infusing new qualities into the will, and raising the whole man from death to life. See XI. and XII. Canons of the Dort. Synod, De homonis corrupt. & convers● ad Deau.  
2. That every man who by those evidences, signs and marks of True Believers prescribed to him, can collect himself to be such; that is, to be in a state of Grace and Salvation, may assuredly believe, that he shall to the last Period of his life, remain and 〈◊〉 a living member of the Catholic Church, and undoubtedly partake of everlasting bliss and glory. Attic. IX. and X. of the Dort Synod. De Perseverantia Sanctorum.  
Against the first of these I shall lay down these Conclusions:  
1. That he is a true and sincere Believer, who hath to his utmost endeavours so mortified and subdued the body of sin, that he willingly harbours no vice, nor takes any complacency in the impure motions of the brutish life: but through a fixed belief in the Goodness of God displayed unto mankind through the Lord Christ, resolutely presses forward to higher measures and degrees of Christian perfection, and incessantly breathes after a fuller participation of the Divine Nature. Such a man I look upon to be truly regenerate and born anew of the Spirit of God, and to be affected, according to his proportion, as Christ himself was affected, when he dwelled on earth, and conversed with men. And though this Divine life, dispread and manifest itself by successive acts, and shine not so full and bright as when it is near its Centre: yet it is as truly a Godlike Nature, as an Infant is a Man, though he be not so in growth and stature. It is nothing but our self-will which stands out against heaven, and keeps such an impregnable fort against the grace of God; and whoever is truly dead to it, and receives the gentle impressions of the Divine Spirit into his soul, and acts correspondently to so holy a principle, he is certainly in the Land of Life and Truth, and partakes of that blessed Nature, which cannot rest among the dust and rubbish of this lower World: but separates whatever is heterogeneous in the soul of man, and by perpetual and successful attempts, restores again those Divine forms which shone gloriously in humane minds before their unfortunate recession and retrogradation from the lucid fountain of their everlasting joy and happiness.  
2. The first actings of Grace in such a Man as I have above described, are altogether undiscernible and imperceptible, being nothing else but the preparatory Exertions of that Almighty Goodness, the Source and Father of all things, for the fitting and adapting Men to receive the Divine Image and Form of the Holy Jesus, according to the words of the Lord Christ, John vi. 44. No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and in this the Nature of Man is wholly passive; and the only thing pertaining to him is to see that he do not obstruct and hinder the progress of that efficacious Love, by a cowardly submission to the importunate motions of iniquity and unhallowed actions. Now the effluxes and operations of this Vital Principle, are coeval with the first actings of Reason and discriminative Perception, and extend themselves according to the dimensions of the intellectual Powers: but no man is any more conscious of its energy, then of the growth of his bones; for so he that made the Nature of man and knows his frame, hath told us, Luke xvii. 20. The Kingdom of God, cometh not with observation: And Mark iv. 26, 27. So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. And when men are born again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of that incorrupible seed, 
1 Pet. i 23.  sown in their hearts by the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Christ calls his Father, John xv. 1.) it breaks through the clods and springs up, being cherished by the dew of heaven, and the warmth of that immortal fire which passeth through the intellectual world, and melts and refines every lapsed Being from the contracted filth of material concretions; and no man can say, Lo here I was caught by the breath of God, or lo there was my resurrection from the comfortless grave of sin and death; 
John. iii. 8.  For as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. But this I would have understood of the ordinary way of God's dispensing his Grace, and not of that supernatural manner whereby he converted Saul, casting him down to the Earth by a voice from heaven, nor of the diffusion of the Spirit to the Heathens when first converted to the faith: For such (as also notorious and gross sinners) may have some sensibility of Divine Vegetation, and apprehension of some external circumstances attending the New-birth unto righteousness. But for those who are born and educated under Christian Parents, our Church hath excellently well determined in the service and office of Baptism, That they are Regenerated and born again, not only of Water, but of the Spirit, by which their Natures are Sanctified; as we read of the Prophet Jeremy, and John the Baptist, who received the spirit of holiness, and were hallowed from their Mother's wombs; and for any man to inquire of such, or for them curiously to search after some preternatural stir and motions of the Divine Spirit in their souls, by which to discern the first dawnings of the grace of God upon them, is as impertinent as it would be to demand of them when first they heard or perceived the nutrition and augmentation of the parts of their Natural bodies.  
3. The usual way and method by which the first disseminators of the Gospel implanted and begot the image of Christ in the minds of men was, by exhorting them in the first place, to the plain and obvious duties and exercises of Morality, such as Justice and Equity, Temperance and Chastity, great love and compassion towards all men, relieving and comforting the necessitous and calamitous according to their several wants and indigencies, and such like acts of Virtue and Reason, which are the preparatory qualifications for the introducing the Divine Spirit to attempt the formation of the living Image of Jesus Christ; and between these and the Divine life, there is the same cognation as between the blade and the full-eared corn. For it is utterly impossible to conceive the life of God without them, or to imagine that he can be really Baptised into the life and spirit of Jesus, who is unjust to his Neighbour, and unpitiful and contemptive of the compassionate needs and sighs of his poor Brother. It is sufficiently seen, and the sad experience of every man will declare it to him, how deplorably Apostate our Natures are, when we first come into the World; and how viciously inclined our souls when they begin to exert themselves in acts of Reason and Intellect: so that they appear almost breathless and inactive to the concerns of Immortality, or whatever offers to better their condition, and pull them out of the mire and clay wherein their feet are held. And to think that God will forcibly draw them out, and hale them like unwilling captives into a state to which they have no cognation or vital congruity awakened in them; beside that it is derogatory to his spotless and pure Nature, it is likewise inconsistent with the nature of the thing itself, considering men's minds so vitiated, and totally discomposed by a long and assiduous inflexion and distortion to degenerate Vice. For Divine generations as well as Natural, require a suitable proportionateness, and as every matter is not capable of conciliating and uniting with every formative principle: so neither is every temper of humane souls congruously disposed for the inaction of that Divine Spirit, which never falls to work, but where the subject is rendered pliable and sequacious by timely preparations and fit dispositions and capacities. And if it were otherwise, that mere Power, or the Naked Presence of the Divine Essence dispreading itself through the whole Creation, were sufficient to give us any hopeful expectation of our Spiritual Regeneration by it, without any precedent assimilation or fitting dispositions, I do not see how this boundless and compassionate Goodness can behold the World in so sad and miserable a plight, the whole Earth being filled with Violence, and the Habitations of cruelty and Oppression, and men's spirits so degenerated, that saving their outward shape, and a little more cunning and craft in contriving and executing self-designs and interests, they are hardly distinguishable from the Beasts of the field; I do not see (I say) how that Love, which is the inmost centre of the Deity, and from whence flow all the perfective irradiations of his blessed Nature, can behold the sons of men so unlike himself, and yet not reform and change them, since the business lies wholly upon the exertion of his Almighty Power. But we finding no such thing, we may confidently aver, that there are some precedaneous qualifications required to the perfection of the Divine birth, and these can be no other than Justice and Righteousness, purity and abstracted affections from Mundane forms, Chastity and moderation of bodily pleasures, and a dear and tender regard of the whole Creation. Which things have so near an affinity with the Divine life, that the one necessarily infers the presence and existence of the other, these requisites being the basis and foundation upon which the heavenly building is framed: 
1 King. vi. 7.  now as in the structure of the material Temple there was neither sound of axe nor hammer; in like manner that heavenly edifice which the Eternal Architect endeavours to erect in the soul of every man, is completed and perfected without any sound or noise, the Holy Jesus neither crying nor lifting up his voice in the streets, to give a sign of his approach when he renews and forms his image in the sons of men. For that image which God shapes out in our Natures, is not any thing different and distinct from our moral and inherent Righteousness, or any new infused quality; but the exaltation and freeing of that principle which though weak and depressed by a load of corruption; yet being immortal and incorruptible, bears a Divine stamp, and exerts itself in acts of Sobriety, Justice and Goodness, and being assisted and corroborated by the powerful conduct of the Spirit of God, successively displays itself, and continually arises to greater measures, till the living efformation of Christ be perfectly completed. An instance of this we have in Cornelius, Acts x. and the more devout and religious Heathens, in whom the life of God was in a good measure radicated, and discovered itself in his frequent Prayers and Charitable actions; who when he was renewed and sanctified by the gracious illapse and descent of the Holy Ghost, was not devested of those Moral accomplishments of his Nature, or endued with any thing different from them; but his Righteousness and perfections of his mind were increased and sublimated, and fitted for the relishing such delicate and tender impressions: which things being seriously considered, it cannot be that any one should perceive the beginning, or determine the time of the vegetation and increase of the Divine Image and Nature.  
2. The second illation which concludes the infallible certainty of his Perseverance who is once in a state of Grace, and collects himself to be under the immutable decree of life by those Characteristics delivered from the mouth of no mean Dictator of that pleasing Doctrine; as it is destructive of Piety and casts a malevolent aspect upon true Religion and Virtue: so it hath not the least print or footstep in the Holy Scriptures, nor can allege any thing but fancy and the prejudice of impotent affections to maintain its credit in the world, as will appear from these subsequent Propositions.  
1. That the Decrees of God, whether of life or death, look upon men according to the exigency and import of their present states and conditions, not of their potential or future Being's. As suppose God foresee and discern, that this man righteous at present, will hereafter forsake his righteousness, and apostatise from the holy Commandment and do wickedly; yet so long as he continues righteous, he is under the favourable eye of Heaven, and is treated as one whose name is written in the Book of Life. Whosoever doth righteousness, is righteous: but he that committeth sin, is of the Devil— 1 Joh. three 7, 8. And more plainly yet, The righteousness of the righteous, shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness— Ezek. xxxiii. 12, 13, 14, 15. The result of these places, is this, That particular men, or the persons of men, from time to time, come under the Eternal Decrees of Love or Hatred, according to their actual and present state of righteousness or unrighteousness. For if God decreed life and death upon the consideration of future sin and holiness, he may as well decree a reward and punishment respectively for that which men would have been engaged in, had they lived in this World to all eternity; which directly contradicts that Scripture wherein we are said to give an account for the things which we have already done, not which we should have done, had we continued longer in the body. And hence it is that the righteous man, who is now in the love and favour of God, being hardened again through his own negligence and the deceitfulness of sin, may relapse into that state, which the Decree of death takes hold of: and of such a man is that of St. Peter to be understood, 2 Peter two. 21. It had been better for such a man not to have known the way of righteousness; then after he hath known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to him. And when the righteous man degenerates from his former faith, and the enemy takes advantage and oppresses the Divine life through his carelessness and folly, God charges all his past sins upon him, and recals his justification whereby he was before esteemed as righteous in his sight; which is intimated in the Parable Matth. xviii. where he that had the debt forgiven him, because he dealt so harshly and ungently with his Fellow-servant, was again called in question, and the whole sum charged upon him; and Christ applies it to our present purpose, verse 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses. For we must know that God pardons our iniquities by parts; and as we grow in Virtue and Holiness, so his displeasure decreases and is taken off, and he that is justified becomes yet more justified, and walks in the light, and the breath of God enkindles the heavenly fire, and fans it into flames and ardours, and so long the man is safe: but if he return to folly, the anger of God is renewed as at the beginning, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  
2. That true and real Believers may relapse, and be confined and brought in bondage to the straight and narrow laws of their own self-wills, and fall from the life of God, and become settled and radicated in a life of self-seeking, and guided by the parsimonious principles of Pleasure and Interest, is the voice of Scripture and Reason; the former of which palpably and undeniably concludes and determines the case; Heb. x. 38, 39 Now the just shall live by faith; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but if he (not any man, as our Translation improperly supplies it) i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the just man, who before is said, to live by his faith; if he draw back, God's soul shall have no pleasure in him: and what this drawing back is, we may collect from the subsequent words, But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition— So again, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. For it is impossible (i. e. very difficult and hard) for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those who were once enlightened (i.e. Baptised; for Baptism was called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, illumination) and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the Powers of the world to come; if if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And if this were to be understood of Hypocrites, what need the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? For unto what should they be renewed and reinstated, their former condition being in itself so deep an unregeneracy? and from what is it they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fall away, when their distempered natures were never recovered by the practice of any real and substantial holiness? Wherefore this must necessarily be meant of those who had in a good measure subdued the motions of the inferior life, and left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the principles and rudiments of Christianity, and were arising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to perfection. For the tasting the heavenly gift, and the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, are no more to be understood of a slight touch and transient perception, than the same phrase when it is used of the Lord Christ, that he tasted death for every man, Chap. two. 9 But that as he did really feel and experience the effects of death conquering his mortal life; so these here spoken of, did truly relish and apprehend the sweetness of Christianity from a clear discriminating sense of its native excellency, and felt the Divine Spirit destroying the irregular appetites of the inferior life, and sanctifying their Natures by a blessed inhabitation. To these we may add, Ezek. xviii. 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth Iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live? All his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned— What can be more manifest than this, if men would clear up their apprehensions and look upon things as things, and not content themselves with bare names and shadows? For that the righteous man in the Text, should signify an Hypocrite, and one seemingly righteous, is the most distorted gloss that can be put upon it:  
1. Because the righteous is here opposed to the wicked person: but if it were to be expounded of one seemingly righteous, who is so much worse than an open profane person, in that he acts impiety under the cover of Religion, the words must run thus, When the righteous man (i. e. the Hypocrite) turns away from his Hypocrisy, and acts according to the abominations of the wicked man: and if by the [righteous] be meant an Hypocrite, what is to be understood by the [wicked] to which 'tis opposed?  
2. This righteous man, is said to live by his righteousness: but the Scripture no where says, That the Hypocrite shall live by his counterfeit holiness; but directly the contrary, The hope of the Hypocrite shall perish. And I must confess, I do not at all understand the intent and purpose of God in inserting so many Cautions and Exhortations to Watchfulness and Diligence in the Gospel, if there be no possibility of a true Believer's desertion of the Faith; which questionless the Illustrious Compilers of the Church of England's Confession of Faith had an eye to, when in Artic. xuj. they express themselves thus, After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may departed from the grace given to us, and fall into sin: and this is the dictate of Reason; for Habits as they are acquired by assiduous and repeated acts, so they may likewise be lost by inobservance and negligence, according to that of the Poet: 
Neglectis urenda filex innascitur agris.  For the soul of man being a perpetual motion and activity, will be always catching at something, and if once it cool and flag in the ways of Righteousness, will undoubtedly be wrought off, and spend its strength and powers in the service of that other principle, which being not wholly mortified, will certainly revive and confirm its hold, when the Counsels and Inspirations of the Divine life are in any measure rejected, and it left free to regain the Dominion from whence it was most justly, by the powerful and efficacious influence of God's grace, detruded. And he that shall further consider that long and confirmed degeneracy the soul lay under, before a new and Divine principle began to act in it, and how agreeable the objects and impressions of sense are to be our present state, and how eligible by us, will perceive that the Nature of Man may oft be overcome, and the Divine life driven from its rightful throne, till by a sharp and persevering contention it be throughly settled and radicated in a quiet peace and tranquillity by putting all its enemies under its feet.  
But for a more clear inspection into this Doctrine of Perseverance, we must recur to what was said above Chap. V concerning the Liberty of Man's Will, and consider all true and sincere Believers under a threefold state; for the Divine life arises gradually, and increases in due measures and proportions, till it arrive to a full and complete perfection, and invest the soul of man with immortality and glory.  
1. The Scripture speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Infants, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Newborn babes, who are fed with the Milk of the Word, with the plain Doctrines and Principles of Christianity, their Criterion being not yet purged enough to have a true sense and relish of stronger meat, and the more sublime and Mysterious part of Christianity: And these are those Lambs which the Lord Christ the great Shepherd, when he was leaving the World, so affectionately bequeathed to the care and conduct of St. Peter, redoubling his request in those passionate terms, Feed my Lambs. And this is the sense of that Mystical Prophecy denoting the compassionate care of Christ, Gathering the Lambs with his arm, and carrying them in his bosom, and gently leading those that are with young, who are pregnant with the Divine form and Image of the Holy Jesus. From this infant-state of Grace the descent is easy, by reason of the strength and powerfulness of the adverse principle, which hath taken so firm and deep a radication, and watches all opportunities to propagate and dispread its infectious Nature; that the man is perpetually within the confines of danger, till by strong and continued habits of Virtue, he have totally mortified and extirpated every lust, passion and inordinate desire which hinders and obstructs his passage to that quiet and serene state, where all things are plain, easy and delightsome: Hence is that admonition of St. Paul to Timothy, 
1 Epist. c. iii. v. 6.  that he suffer not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Novice, one newly converted and brought into the faith of Christ, to take upon him the office of a Bishop; because that state of Grace is subject to infinite hazards and dangers by reason of the potenr opposition of the contrary life, and the prevalency of the Corporeal Nature, which till it be perfectly subdued, will always breathe a fuliginous steam, and more or less obnubilate Reason, the eye and guide of the soul.  
2. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young men which have overcome the wicked one, and which have in a great measure brought low and weakened the power of the unrighteous Nature; such who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perfect men, and through a faithful and constant exercise and uninterrupted habit of Holiness, have a true discriminating sense of good and evil, and have purified and sublimated their intellectual powers, by an assiduous mortification and eradication of every perverse desire and motion of the inferior life. To these well-grown Christians true Religion displays itself, and appears in its native beauty and excellency, and they embrace it with delight and joy; and looking beyond the Horizon of time and change, behold nothing but a bright and never-ceasing day: and this fills them with a peaceful consolation, that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will not fail to crown his own life witn that glory and felicity which he himself partakes of in the highest heavens. But though this state be so glorious and lovely; yet it is not wholly out of the reach of danger, but needs often admonitions, and great diligence, accompanied with frequent acts of Devotion, which may fan and kindle the heavenly fire, lest the dying and perishing principle of the contrary life revive and get the upper hand. This degree of grace, although it be able to overcome many and great difficulties, and defeat the latent stratagems of powerful enemies; yet it is sometimes, though not so easily or frequently as the former, captivated by the undiscerned force of Pride or Hypocrisy or some other refined sin. For it may so happen, that a good man, who cannot be drawn to the commission or acting of a gross impiety by any temptations in the world; yet may fall through the prevalency of an intellectual Vice, and court the shadow and fantastic image of sin, and yet never descend into the brutish and ferine life of action.  
3. There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Fathers, who are arrived to the highest perfection the nature of Man is capable of in this life, and these a Plantonist would call Heroically Good, although this Divine frame and Godlike temper be infinitely more precious and transcendent, than the highest reach and comprehension of pure Platonisme, and not attainable by the exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of Paradigmatical Virtues, which wholly extirpated the first motions of sin, and did in their sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Deify a man, and transform them into Intellect, and place him out of the noise and perturbations of the inferior life, in a quiet and serene contemplation of the first and ever-blessed Author of all things. Here the whole will and desires are so far conformable and resigned to the Will of God, as the ordinary course of things and the earthly state will permit, and the Man is perfectly dead to himself, and to every relish of bodily motions, and the life of God triumphantly seated in the mind, from whence it rules and governs every thought, word and action with unspeakable ease and pleasure, and replenishes the soul with a confident and steadfast belief of her future happiness and immortality; and though for the present she be clothed and entombed in an earthly body, yet is she wholly and perfectly Divine, bearing about with her the regenerated characters and impresses of the blessed Image of the Son of God, an indissoluble union with whom she incessantly breathes after, and being thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a mortal God, she is no sooner disengaged and set free by the Divine Providence from the weight and burden of terrestrial encumbrance: but she passes secure through the caliginous fumes of this lower world, into the flowery tracts of bliss and glory. And from this state there is only left a possibility of lapsing, the Divine Life being so fully and completely settled, and repossessed of its ancient throne, that it will, maugre all the opposition of the Powers of darkness, undoubtedly instate the soul in all that happiness God made her for.    

Some REFLECTIONS On a late Discourse of Mr. PARKERS, Concerning The Divine Dominion and Goodness.  
I Should now have concluded this Discourse, but that I thought myself obliged to take notice of some Positions of this Ingenious Author, which seem to interfere and clash with what I have written. In pursuance of which, I shall lay down these subsequent Axioms, or Moral Truths, which will need no Probation, but appear full of their own natural Light and Evidence to any sober and unprejudiced mind; and by them I shall examine the main things contained in his Discourse.  

Axiom I. That there is something immutably and Eternally Good.  
WHat I mean by Moral Good and Evil, I have declared elsewhere; and therefore shall only in brief add, That Moral Goodness is nothing but an agreeableness, harmony or convenience; so that things are then Morally Good, when they correspond and unite with the inward sense of our souls, that is, with our Intellectual or Rational Natures: which congruity when we feel in ourselves we call those things good. And whatever is really and truly Good, is immutably and eternally so, not made so by any positive sanction of command: but the result of Gods own Moral Being, which he can no more swarve from, then destroy himself. This is called an Eternal Law, and is nothing but Right Reason; whence God being the highest Reason, he is called by Aristotle, de Mundo, Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Tully, Phil. 1. says, Lex nihil aliud est quam recta & à numine Deorum ratio, imperans honesta, prohibensque contrari. And by this there is an affinity between God and all his Intellectual productions, forasmuch as Right Reason is the same in us as in him, (and Tully intimates Lib. 1. de legibus) it is that Eternal Law which is common to Gods and Men, and begets the similitude between God and them: Quid est enim, non dicam in homine, sed in omni coelo atque terra, Ratione divinius? quae cùm adolevit atque perfecta est, nominatur ritè Sapientia. Est igitur (quoniam nihil est ratione melius, eáque est in homine & in Deo) prima homini cum Deo Rationis societas. Quae cùm sit lex, lege quoque consociati homines cum Diis putandi sumus. This harmony therefore and agreeableness of Moral Objects to our Intellectual parts, is antecedent to the things themselves, so that they are not good because God for example commands them, but therefore they are enjoined, because there is an innate Goodness in them. As, that a Triangle hath three Angles I learn indeed from sense, but more perfectly from that innate Idea which I have in my own mind, which would certainly have concluded so; though it had never been the object of my senses.   

Axiom II. That of that which is good, one is better than another.  
THis is evident from the difference and gradual declension of lives from the first root and centre of all Being's. There is no life so languid and unactive, but aught to be reckoned among those things that are good; because Being simply considered, is better and more desirable than not Being, although the more noble any Being is, so much the better it is accounted. And as there is this difference in respect of Being's themselves; so likewise in reference to their felicity, both in regard of its magnitude and duration: Thus the felicity of men is better than that of Brute Animals: for the Happiness of any creature consists in the free enjoyment and exercise of its natural faculties and endowments, and the larger and more comprehensive the the faculties and capacities of any Being are, the greater is its felicity. As to duration, that a longer is better than a shorter Duration, it is so palpable that it needs no further mentioning. And this rule holds good in Moral qualities and affections: Power itself is a Perfection; though as to its exercise, it be indifferent either to Good or Evil: but Wisdom is more excellent than Power, forasmuch as it is able to direct, guide and steer the results of Power; otherwise Wisdom and Knowledge would include no more perfection, than the force of a Thunderbolt, or the furious agitation of a whirlwind. And Goodness is more excellent and precious than Wisdom, for Wisdom without Goodness degenerates into Craft and Subtlety: Moreover, the properties and effects of Goodness are more diffusive and desirable than Knowledge, and more perfective of the subject they reside in.   

Axiom III. That the best or highest Quality, Mode, or Attribute in any Being, will obtain the first place in operation.  
FRom hence it came to pass, that the Platonists considering Goodness, Wisdom and Power, as distinct qualities in created Being's, and discerning so great an inequality between them, they grew confident they would likewise retain their Essential differences when exalted into Substantial life; and therefore the Supreme Deity, the first root and fountain of all things, 
Cyril. lib. 8. advers. Julian.  they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, each one abating something of the perfection of the first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But we need not ascend so high for the Explication of this Axiom, for if we do but look into ourselves we may plainly discern the Truth of it. All the Powers of any Being are not alike, some are more capacious and lively, others sterile, narrow and contracted; but that faculty which is the most precious and Sovereign, hath always the first and chiefest place in acting. Man (as Aristotle observes) consists of a double Nature, 
Moral. Eudem. l. 7. c. 15.  according to which his whole life is governed and framed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he calls that which the Stoics express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Sovereign and Imperatorial Powers of the Soul, and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the ferine and brutish part, with the Platonists. Now the Ruling part being more Noble and better, than that part which was made to be subject and to obey; hence it comes to pass, that in the true and natural state of the Soul, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, obtains the chief place in operation, although possibly there may be something in man's soul more precious than Reason, and is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the flower and summity of the mind, which we may term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that faculty of the soul which perceives the relish, savour and goodness of Virtue, and naturally embraces and joys in that which Right Reason approves as Good. For as there is a kind of sense in the lower or Plastic Powers of the Soul, whereby they dislike ungrateful and unsuitable objects, even when our will and perception has nothing to do in it: so there is something in us that exults and triumphs, and naturally joins itself with infinite satisfaction and delight, when our Intellect and Reason only give a judgement of the Essence and Truth of moral objects.   

Axiom IU. That what is best in any Being, is the Rule and measure of all other qualities.  
HEnce Man having a double life within him, Intellectual and Animal, which the Sacred Writings call Flesh and Spirit; and both these having different inclinations and objects, the higher life ought to control the lower, and reduce all its appetites and motions to a conformity to its severer Dictates and Prescriptions; which in a moral sense is the meaning of Man's having Dominion over the Fowls of the Air, and Fish of the Sea. In like manner, Will, and Power, and Sovereignty, are all resolved into Goodness; and if at any time they are exercised without it, they lose their Natures, and degenerate into selfishness and Tyranny. And it is absolutely necessary that the Best, should be the measure of all other faculties and modes in us; because our chief happiness consisting in our conjunction with the most Absolute and Perfect Good, and that which is Best in us uniting with it, it will infallibly follow, that that which is the most Divine in us, should command and rule all other Faculties whatever. And this holds good in the Moral Essence of God, for Goodness being more precious and sovereign than any other Attribute, it must needs be by the foregoing Axiom, the measure of all the rest.   

Axiom V That Being is no longer Eligible, than it is tolerably happy.  
THat a Misery or Calamity exceeding the happiness of our Being's, is worse than not Being, is plain at first sight; for bare Existence, though it be a term of Perfection: yet when it is charged with a surplusage of misery above the benefit that accrues by it, it destroys the Reasons of Being, which are chief the conveniences and opportunities of acting according to the proper faculties of any Being. And common experience shows us how unable and unfit we are for the exercise of any functions of life, when a sharp and acute pain seizes on us; and if this dolorous sense be fierce, vehement and durable, it is a question, Whether it will not perfectly extinguish all Vital congruity, and reduce us to a condition altogether the same with Nonentity? For to be, and not to be conscious of, and perceive our own Being's, are one and the same thing. And he that well considers this, will not be apt to pain and excruciate any Being, howsoever vile and contemptible, unless upon good Reasons and Causes. For certainly though in a moral sense we may piously say, That all things were made for man; yet to say, There is no other Physical Reason of their Being's, is too bold and presumptuous an Assertion, they being (so many I mean as are capable of sense) endued with faculties in whose use they enjoy and solace themselves.   

Axiom VI A present Evil that brings with it a Good greater than what that Evil deprived us of, is to be looked upon as Good.  
THus an untimely death is to be accounted an Evil in itself, but yet aught to be looked upon as Good by him who is thereby raised to the participation of a higher and more exalted life. This Consideration made Socrates say, That Death would indeed be hard and sharp to him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such are all the Afflictions that befall a man in this World, Evil for the present, forasmuch as they are accompanied with trouble and pain; but yet are to be esteemed Good, because they teach us the lubricity of all mundane joys, and inflame our Love of Virtue, and fix our desires upon an immortal Good, which amidst all the uncertain revolutions of this Region of death and misery, will never leave us, but conduct us to the blessed mansions of life and peace. The constant belief of this drew that Generous and Noble speech from Socrates, 
Epict. Enchirid. c. 79.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Having laid down these Moral Principles, which are nothing but the plain and genuine productions of Right Reason, I shall now examine the Author's Discourse by them, and show wherein his Arguments are weak and inconclusive in reference to bis main design.  
The first thing therefore that I shall take notice of is, his stating the true ground and foundation of God's Sovereignty and Dominion over man, page 20, 21, etc. which he does by Arbitrating the Dispute between the Arminians and Calvinists; the one assert, That it bottoms upon the Benefit of Creation; and the other ground it upon the unlimitedness of God's Power. The first of these (he says) are evidently mistaken, because God was from all eternity invested with a Power of doing any thing that was not misbecoming his Divine Perfections— but God being always Infnitely Perfect, could not acquire any new Excellence from the World's Creation, and therefore the Collation of Benefits cannot beget any new Power in him; because the Power which he had antecedently to all his benefits, was not capable of being made greater—  
To which I Reply,  
1. That Dominion and Power, as it signifies Sovereignty, are Relative terms, and therefore if we could suppose or imagine any time wherein there were no Creatures in Being, Dominion would then be improperly attributed to God; because if he had Dominion, there must be some Subjects existent of his Dominion: and therefore though God by creating the World, acquired no new Excellence or Perfection; yet he had some new Mode or Qualification which he had not before: as that he was the Father of the Intellectual, and Maker of the Corporeal World; which would be improper terms before he had brought any thing into Being. Thus although God know, and have as it were a perfect Scheme of all future things possible to be known; yet his conception or knowledge of the same thing when future and possible, and actually existent, is not the same; for when it is actually brought into Being, he acquires a new manner of knowledge of it; for it is impossible that the conception of futurity and actual Existence should be the same. Therefore I say, though the Creation of an Intellectual Being, do not formally beget any new Power in God, which was not antecedently in him; yet it begets a new mode and qualification of his Power, whereby the Creature may justly expect to be dealt withal according to the Nature and capacities, which that Infinite Power placed in it.  
2. The Collation of Benefits, invests the Creatures with a Right or Privilege of justly hoping for all such fair and equitable deal from God, as shall best suit with those faculties he endued them withal. For God's very Donation of Being to the Creatures, is as it were, a silent contract or promise, That his whole Oeconomy towards them, shall be equal and righteous, and that he will never take from them any the least degree of that felicity and beatitude he was graciously pleased to confer upon them at the first moment of their Existence without their own sin and fault.  
Upon these grounds our Author might with greater plausibility of Reason, have founded God's Dominion upon the Right of Creation, then upon God's absolute and unlimited Power, which he confesses page 24. to be bounded by an internal Principle of Goodness, which may be said to tie and restrain God not to do any thing repugnant to this Principle of Goodness. So that if the exercise of Power be limited and confined by this precious Attribute of Goodness, this were a more sure ground of God's Dominion over the Creatures in my apprehension, then that which he hath pitched upon, as will appear from Axiom III. And to say, that the Reason why God cannot do any thing repugnant to his Goodness, proceeds from a circumscription set and choose by himself, which he cannot transgress because he will not, is to introduce an Arbitrary Deity, and very much Derogatory to his spotless Nature, whose Goodness, Justice and Holiness are as necessary as his Existence; therefore that God cannot act any thing indecorous and unbecoming himself, arises not from any Restraint or Confinement arbitrarily imposed upon himself: but from the necessary Perfection of his Nature, and from those Eternal and Immutable laws of Justice and Righteousness, which are nothing but his own Moral Being. That I may therefore more fully declare the weakness and invalidity of this conceit of our Author, viz. That Arbitrary Power is the ground of God's Sovereignty and Dominion over his Creatures, I shall endeavour to enervate those Propositions, by which he would strengthen and confirm it.  
1. First then (says he page 5.) God has Power either utterly to destroy our Being's, or to inflict upon us so many calamities as shall leave us in a condition only preferable to that of Nonexistence—  
When we speak of God, our conceptions of him ought to be Generous and Noble; and we ought to look upon him as an Eternal Rectitude and Perfection, who never acts any thing but in conformity to his own blessed and righteous Nature. Now that pregnant Womb which brought forth the whole Creation, being Infinite Goodness by Axiom III. it will follow, that the same Goodness is infinitely concerned to keep in Being the productions of its own fertile Nature; for though it be true, that our very Being's, are the issues of Infinite Power: yet it is as certain, that this Power is surrounded with Immense Goodness, which from the Reasons of it's own Nature, will infallibly do all that Good which at any time lies in its Power to do, and is consistent with the Nature and Capacities of the subject, about which it is exercised. Since then Being is better than Not-being, and all Creatures capable of an Eternal Duration, as well of continuing one day or year, Infinite Goodness is obliged to keep all things in Being. The further proof of this shall be showed anon. I might here likewise suggest to Mr. P. that Things are the blessed emanations of Gods exuberant Goodness, and depend upon him as emanative effects upon their causes; nor will this be invalidated by Objecting, That then God could not properly be said to have Created the World; For besides that Aquinas himself defines Creation by Actus Emanativus, there is no Incongruity (say they) to affirm, that all things are the Emanative effects of Gods pregnant Goodness; because, to Create is nothing but to give Being or Existence to things; and this is true, though every thing be an Emanative effect of God's Life and Essential Vigour. This I look upon to be as Rational and Concinnous an Hypothesis, as that wherein Mr. P. attributes such a Sovereignty and Dominion of God over his Creatures (the basis of which is Unlimited Power) as that he may at any time either annihilate them, or inflict upon them so many calamities as shall render their conditions only preferable to Nonexistence.  
2. His second Proposition is only a further Enlargement and Explication of his first; For if God (says he) have an Absolute Power over an innocent Persons life, and all it's appendent Privileges to take them away, he may certainly do the same upon any occasion. Thus he visits the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children, by bringing their Posterity into those evil circumstances, into which he might have brought them by virtue of his Supreme Dominion; though not only themselves, but their Progenitors had been faultless.  
To which I answer, That there is no instance in Scripture, wherein God punishes an innocent Person by virtue of his Supreme Dominion. 'Tis true, when God inflicts Calamities upon the Children for their Parents faults, the Posterity are innocent of those particular Crimes of their Progenitors which caused the Judgement or Calamity; but they were criminal otherwise, and therefore if God take away their lives, it is upon this account, that they have rendered themselves obnoxious by their Personal faults, and by that Oeconomy, serves other designs of his Providence. Wherefore when God takes away the life of a Virtuous Son to punish a Wicked Father, it is not properly to be accounted an Evil to the Son, because Gods righteous Providence compensates it with a greater Good. See Axiom VI From these particular instances, he descends to the consideration of Original sin, which he places in nothing but in the evil and irregular crasis and temperament of our bodies, which Punishment might have been inflicted upon us, though Adam had never sinned: But  
1. Can this suit with the eternal Righteousness of the just Governor of the World, to Create Intellectual Being's, holy and good; and then without any fault of theirs, to thrust them into such cadaverous bodies, where they shall be almost necessitated to trade with Hell and Damnation, and it may be never recover themselves from that Lethargic state of sin and vice, or regain their ancient and virtuous freedom? And though Mr. P. shift this off upon Adam's Prevarication and Transgression; yet he says, The Consideration of God's Sovereignty and Dominion, will warrant such an Act upon guiltless Persons. Sure Mr. P. has a very mean conceit of Gods most Blessed Nature, if he think those beautiful Daughters of Heaven, the souls of men, can be thus murdered by those Benign Hands that first gave them life: Had he considered that glorious beauty, wherewith the soul of Man was once possessed, and of which now that she is born into the World she retains but a very slender memory, conversing with it as it were in a Dream, and beholding a glimpse of it through the crannies of Mortality, and had he beheld this Eternal Pulchritude thrown from its Celestial Mansion, and all those living rays of Virtue, and efflorescences of Divinity plunged into an obscure and dull piece of Earth, and that by the Blessed Author of all things, he could not but infinitely resent such an harsh Act.  
2. Are not all our faculties very much depraved and vitiated, insomuch that there is in us a natural proclivity to Vice, and we daily make choice of forbidden instances? Are not our Understandings very dark and blind, our Wills refractory and stubborn, and our Affections violent and headstrong for the most part in the prosecution of base and unworthy objects? And if this be our Case as we come into the World, as certainly it is, and much worse, Original sin must be a real depravity of our souls, and not an ill temperament of our bodies.  
The Author having determined the Measure and Extent of God's Sovereignty and Dominion, according to his own fancy and humour, he endeavours page 25. to frame such an Idea of Divine Goodness as may correspond with the Notion he hath pitched upon of God's Dominion, and therefore he tells us, That the Idea of God consists mainly in his Dominion and Sovereignty, and that the Notion of him in Scripture never refers to his Essence, but always to his Power and Empire— But he must give me leave to take the same liberty in rejecting so bold an Assertion, that he does in obtruding it upon the World; however, I shall be so fair and candid to him, as not to contradict what he says, without showing him a Reason for it: The most consistent Idea that we can frame of God is, That he is a Being endued with Absolute Perfection; now there are no Perfections in the Deity, but what may be referred to these three, Infinite Goodness, Wisdom and Power, which being not of equal worth and excellency by Axiom II. it will follow, That what is most precious, is likewise most active and energetical, and therefore must be the standard and measure of all the rest, by Axiom III. and iv Wherefore, when we frame any Notion, or make any Representation of God, Reason itself will tell us, That we ought to express him by that which is most precious and Sovereign in him, which is not Will and Power, but Perfect Goodness. And methinks the Scripture mightily favours this, 1 John iv. 16. God is Love, says the Apostle; which Notion, if it refer not to God's Moral Essence, I am sure it hath no relation to his Power and Empire. It is true, when the Jews dwelled under a Theocracy, and God went forth as their Captain against their Enemies, he owned the Title of the Lord of Hosts, and the Expressions of his Sovereign Power, Majesty and Dominion, were more frequent: but when the Evangelical Oeconomy was set on forth, God laid aside these Titles, and now he expresses himself by no other Attributes but what carry abundance of sweetness along with them, and wholly refer and lead us to the consideration of that which is the Flower and Summity of his Being, that is, Love. Therefore I may subjoin Mr. P's. own words with a little Transposition, 
Pag. 26.  That no Property which complies not with Goodness, can be attributed to God, and consequently that that's a false Notion of his Dominion that interferes with his Goodness.  
Let us see now how he confutes the Platonists, with whom he is very angry for asserting, That God being Infnite Goodness, will necessarily do that which is best, page 27. His first Argument to prove the falsity of this Position he sets down page 29, 30. etc. the sum of which in brief is this, That the necessity of Infinite Wisdom doing that which is best, takes away the liberty and freedom of the Divine Will. To which I answer, That the liberty of the Divine Will consists not in an Arbitrary Indifferency of acting or not acting; but in acting always suitably and conformablely to his own Infinite Rectitude and Perfection: As the true Excellency and Freedom of our wills consists not in an indifferency or dubious suspension between Good and Evil (for this is a debility and imperfection in us) but in a constant Election of that which Right Reason and Intellect propound to them as Best: So that when once that Eternal Providence which sent us down upon Earth, shall reinstate us in the Possession of our Native Glory, our Wills which shall then obtain their freedom in its greatest latitude and dimensions, yet shall not be left to a bare Indifferency: but will as certainly adhere to that which is Good, as a wise and prudent man will always give the same judgement of the same thing in the same circumstances. Wherefore to answer in short, I say, that God's actions are not so fatal and necessary as the motions of an Automaton or Engine, because he is endued with an Energetical Power of Reason and Intellect; but are free and unconstrained by any external Principle: but because his Nature is infinitely Good, it will always do that which is Best, because Goodness is the chief and first active Principle in it. The proof of this lies in Axiom II. III. IU.  
His second Argument is this, That if the Divine Goodness or Beneficence be necessary, it would then destroy it's own Nature, because 'tis absolutely necessary to the Nature of Beneficence, that it proceed from a free and elective Principle, page 33.  
I suppose this Argument is only cast in as a surplusage, and not with any intent to convince any of his Readers, unless Mr. P. imagine them so unwary and credulous as to be imposed upon by fallacies and sophisms; For if by God's Bounty and Beneficence, he mean his gracious Donations and Benefits above what may render his Creatures happy in their several states and capacities; then, I say, it is most free, because when any Being's have forfeited their Felicity, God is not obliged to reinstate them in all the circumstances of it again: But if we take Bounty or Goodness for the Eternal Perfection of God's Blessed Nature, whereby he communicates himself to all capable receptacles, this is as necessary as his Being: and against this Mr. P. aught properly to have levelled his Argument. Nor does this make the Divine Goodness ever a whit the less Moral, because than none of God's actions would be capable of Being Morally Good; for this impossible and blasphemous to assert, That the Divine Will is indifferent either to Good or Evil. God doth necessarily Love himself as the highest and most Absolute Good, and cannot but embrace every thing that is like himself; nor is the Divine Will Indifferent either to Love or Hate it's own Image and Similitude. And if the Communications of the Divine Goodness to such Being's as bear his Impresses upon them, and never defiled themselves with the least contagion of sin and vice be not necessary, than he is left free to destroy them, and consequently he can destroy something of his own Life and Nature, which no sober Person will affirm. And if this Hypothesis of his be true, I know no ground Mankind can have (setting aside those Declarations God hath made of himself in Holy Scripture) to believe and trust in him, and depend upon him for the advancement of their happiness after Death. But we find the sober and wise Heathens, who believed the soul of man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Hermes and Plato speak, constantly relying upon the Almighty Goodness of God, which they confidently believed did always that which was Best, and thence became assured and raised a strong foundation for their hopes, that it should go well with them in the other World, and that that Eternal Providence would take their better parts into its tutelage and care, when they laid down their bodies in their beds of Earth.  
I hasten now to dispatch his last Argument, which is this:  
If the Exertions of the Divine Goodness be necessary, God can never act otherwise; but that he frequently does, is manifest in all the Instances of his Anger and Severity, which not only Reason, but Scripture opposes to Benignity—  
To which I return,  
That God's anger and severity are only several modifications of his Goodness, which is not always displayed and manifested after the same manner, because of the different capacities of the subjects upon which it is exercised, and have no other distinction then that of divers Modes of the same Subject between one another. And when God makes use of those sharper dispensations, they are as necessary results of his Goodness, as his milder and gentler Oeconomy. So that I cannot see what Mr. P. would evince from this.  
I have now sufficiently tired myself in so prolix a Refutation, which yet is not altogether unnecessary, considering that if those Positions be true which Mr. P. hath laid down, they will enervate all those Arguments I have made use of, and render my design useless, which is no other than to beget in men's minds the most noble and generous Conceptions of God, to promote real Piety and Religion, by showing a true Idea of God, and declaring the real intent and purpose of the Gospel, contrary to that Hypocritical and Artificial kind of Religion which many frame to themselves, thereby to palliate their sin, and stop the mouth of Right Reason and Conscience.   
THE END.   

THE CONTENTS.  

CHAP. I. INconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture, page 1.  
CHAP. II. Absolute Reprobation repugnant to Right Reason: wherein is set out, the Moral Nature of our Souls in reference to Good and Evil, Truth and Falsehood. And this Second Argument made good in Four Propositions, page 15.  
CHAP. III. The third Argument taken from the Consideration of the Moral Nature of God; from whence are deduced such legitimate Inferences and Conclusions as diametrally oppose the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation, page 64.  
CHAP. IU. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation, taken from the Evangelical Dispensation; wherein is shown the purport and design of the Gospel, which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature; and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end, page 115.  
CHAP. V A fift and last Argument; wherein is shown, that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation, takes away the liberty of Man's Will, and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue, or punishment of Vice, page 171.  
CHAP. VI An Explication of several Citations of Scripture suborned to attest the Doctrine of Inconditionate Decrees; together with a brief examination of some Positions of the Contra-Remonstrants, page 189.  
Some Reflections on a late Discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning The Divine Dominion and Goodness, page 253.   
FINIS.