Gods Goodness Vindicated, For the help of such, (especially in Melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind with respect to the Doctrine of Reprobation and Damnation.
TO help all such persons out of the snare of this dangerous and troublesome temptation, as are described [Page 2] in the propounded case, we must have respect. I. To the special case of the Melancholy, who are more lyable than others to such disturbances▪ II. To the common cause of their trouble and perplexity, as it consisteth in such opinions as you describe.
I. With the Melancholy, the greatest difficulty lyeth, in making them capable to receive plain truths. For it will work, not as it is, but as it i [...] received. And Melancholy doth breed and seed such kind of thoughts, as naturally as a dead Carkass feedeth Vermine: Of forty or fifty Melancholy [Page 3] persons that I have to deal with, there is scarce four that are not burried with suggestions to Blasphemous thoughts, against God or the Sacred Scriptures; and scarce two that are not under dismal apprehensions that they are miserable, undone creatures, (except only some that are all carryed to conceits of Prophecies, Revelations, and some rare exalting communications of light unto themselves.) This unhappy disease of Melancholy is first seated in the Organs of Imagination and Passion both, that is in the spirits, and thereby in the very Imagining faculty [Page 4] it self: Though the Natural parts being without pain or sickness, they will not believe that it is a disease at all. It inclineth them usually to solitariness, to Musing and to dismal thoughts, that they are undone, graceless, hopeless, &c. which because they passionately seem to feel, no words, which silence them, will satisfie them; or if you seem a little to satisfie them to day, its all gone to morrow: For a Melancholy man is like the eye that looketh on all things through a coloured glass, or in an ophthalmie, and seeth them according to the medium.
[Page 5]The Disease in some few beginneth with overstretching thoughts and troubles about things spiritual; But in most that I have met with (ten to one) it beginneth with some worldly cross, loss or trouble, which grieveth them and casteth them into troublesome anxieties and cares; and then when by these the spirits are diseased, it presently turneth upon Conscience; first against themselves aggravating sin and misery, apprehending calamity from every thing which they see, hear, or think of, and next against God and Scripture; perplexed [Page 6] in every thing that cometh before them, and quarrelling with all; and offended in all; And usually they are importuned, as if it were by something else within them, to say some blasphemous word against God, or do some mischief against themselves. No doubt through Satans special instigation, who can work on men according to the advantage of their bodily and sensitive distempers, and can do that on a Melancholy [...]man (though a Godly man) which he cannot do on another; as he can also work on the Chollerick, Flegmatick, &c. according [Page 7] to their temper.
1. The cure of this must be by these means, (1.) You must not suffer them to be much alone. (2.) You must divert them from all musing, and turn it to Discourse. (3.) You must keep from them displeasing things and persons, and help them to suitable pleasing company and converse. (4.) You must change their aire and company sometimes, that strange objects may change their imagination. (5.) Above all, if they have strength, you must not suffer them to be idle, to lie in bed longer than they sleep in the day; nor to sit musing, but must [Page 8] get them upon the work of a lawful Calling, and drive them on to so much diligence, that body and mind may be closely employed. This will be more than all other ordinary means. (6.) In most, meet physick also will do very much, which must be ordered by an experienced Physician that is with them, or well knoweth them. (7.) Lastly, their false thoughts also must be confuted, and their minds have due satisfaction. And if you cannot have all, or most of these done, you can hardly expect a cure, unless time wear it off, which is doubtful.
[Page 9]II. The falshood and vexation of such mens thoughts, whether the Melancholy or others are brought to pass, 1. By a false method of Reasoning, 2. By false opinions which they have before received: (I.) It is a grosly deluding and subverting way of Reasoning, to begin at dark and doubtful consequents, thence to argue against certain, clear fundamental Principles: As if from some doubts about the position and motion of the Starrs, or of the nature of light heat and motion, men should argue that there is no Sun, or Moon, or Starrs at all: or [Page 10] that they have no power of Light, Heat or Motion: or as if from the many difficulties in Anatomy, about the circulation of the blood, the oleum nervosum, the Lympha, and its vessels, the passages and succus of the panereas and gall, the transcolation through the intestines into the venae lacteae, the chylie glandules, and such like, one should arise to a conclusion that there is no blood, no chyle, no veines, no glandules, no head no body: or from the Controversie, whether the Heart be a meer Muscle without any proper paronchymae, one should grow to conclude that there is no [Page 11] heart: so such persons from points beyond mans reach, about Gods decrees and intentions and the mysteries of providence, conclude or doubt against Gods Goodness; that is, whether indeed there be a God: I have spoken so fully to this case in my Reasons of the Christ. Rel. p. 95. and in that whole Chapter, that I would desire you to peruse it. I shall now only give you twenty Questions which the tempted person may challenge all the subtilty and malice of Hell to answer; for it is easie to Justifie the Goodness of God.
Quest. 1. Is it not certain [Page 12] that there is a world, in which is abundance of Created Goodness? The Earth is but a point as to all the World: There is a Sun, and Moon, and multitudes of glorious Starrs, which are many of them manifold greater than the Earth. There are Angels, there are men, there are variety of Creatures in this low part of the Creation, which have all their excellency; All the men on Earth cannot by any contribution of their counsels, discern the ten thousandth part of the excellency of this little parcel of Gods works: And as to the whole, it is next to nothing which [Page 13] we comprehend: Every Worme, every plant, excelleth the highest human apprehension: Is there no Physical Goodness in all this unmeasurable, this harmonious, this glorious frame? Look about you, look upwards, and deny it if you can: And is there no Moral goodness in holy men and Angels: And is there no felicity and Glorious Goodness in all the Heavens? What mind can be so black, as to deny all Created Goodness?
Quest. 2. Is not all the Goodness of the whole Creation communicated from God? Did it make it self? or [Page 14] who else made it? Are not all effects from their causes? And is he not the first cause? see what I have said to prove this fully in the aforesaid Treatise.
Quest. 3. Hath God made a world that is better than himself? Could he give more goodness than he had to give? Must not he needs be better than all his works?
Quest. 4. Is he fit to be quarrelled with for want of Goodness, who hath infinitely, more Goodness than the whole world besides: More than Sun and Starrs, Heaven and Earth, Angels and Men, all set together in all their single [Page 15] and their united, harmonious worth? If he be better than all, is he not most beyond accusation or exception?
Quest. 5. Must not God necessarily excell his works? must he needs make every worm a God? or must he make any God, or equal to himself? Is not that a contradiction? And is there not necessarily an Imperfection in all that is not God? Nothing can be so great, so wise, so good, so holy, so immutable, so self-sufficient, so blessed, as God.
Quest. 6. Is not Gods Creation a harmonious Ʋniverse, of which Individuals are but the parts: Are not the [Page 16] Parts for the whole, and their worth to be valued for the whole, or for the common ends; must every pin in a Watch or every stitch in your Garment or every part of your house, or every member of your Body and every humour or excrement in it, have that excellency which may simply dignifie it self in a compared or separated sense? or rather must it not have that excellency with belongeth to it as a part of the whole, for the common end of all together? Is not that best, that is best to the order, beauty, and usefulness of the universal frame?
Quest. 7. Is it necessary to [Page 17] [...]his end, or to prove Gods Goodness that all Individuals, or species of Creatures must be of the highest rank or excellency? Is God wanting in Goodness, if every Man be not an Angel, or every Angel made unchangeable, or every unlearned man a Doctor, or every Star a Sun, or every cloud or clod a Star, or every beast a man, or every Worm an Elephant, or every Weed a Rose, or every Member a Heart or Head, or every excrement, Blood and Spirits: will you think that a man doth reason like a man who thus disputeth, [He that doth not do that which is best when he can do it, is not perfectly [Page 18] good, and therefor [...] is not God. But he tha [...] maketh Toads and Serpents and maketh the guts the passage of filthy excrement when he could have mad [...] them equal with the heart doth not do that which i [...] best when he can do it Therefore he is not perfectly good, Therefore he is no [...] God: Therefore there is no God: Therefore there i [...] no Creator, Therefore th [...] World hath no cause, o [...] made it self and preserveth it self: Therefore I made my self, and must rule and preserve my self▪] Conclude next, [Therefore I will never suffer, nor die, [Page 19] [...]nd thus prove the wisdom of such reasoning, if you can.
Quest. 8. If God made man and all things, Did he not make them for himself, for the pleasure of his own will? Must be not needs in reason be the end of all, who is the Beginning and cause of all? And is not that means the Best, which is aptest to the End? And doth not the proper Goodness of a means consist in its aptitude to promote the End? And then is not that the Goodness of all Creatures, (partly to be what the Creatour efficiently maketh them, and partly) to fulfil [Page 20] his will, and what Creature hath not this Goodness a [...] to the absolute will of his Decrees which all fulfill.
Quest. 10. Are not now both these conclusions of infallible certainty, and therefore not at all contradictory, 1. That God is most Good, because he is the cause of all the Good in the whole Creation, 2. And yet that there are Toads, Serpents, Darkness, Death, Sickness, pains, &c. which therefore are no whit inconsistent with his Goodness? neither of them being capable of a denyal, or of a sober doubt.
[Page 21]Quest. 10. Is not an Angel, and Man, endued with Reason and Free-will, and left to choose or refuse his own Rectitude and Felicity (or misery,) capable of Knowing, Loving, Serving and Enjoying God, if he will; and instructed by a Perfect holy Law (with Rewards and Punishments) to choose aright, I say, Is not such a Creature as noble and as meet for God to make as a stone or a toad or worm, or Serpent? If God choose to please his own holy will, by making a world of such Intellectual free agents, whom he will (ordinarily) rule by the way of Moral Lawes and [Page 22] Motives, is this any disparagement to his Wisdome and Goodness? It is true, that such a mutable free-will is below a confirmed immutable will. But it is as true, that a Toad is below a man. And that Infinite wisdome thought not meet to make all his Creatures of one rank or size, not to make all faces alike, nor all the stones in the street alike, but in wonderful variety. It is not then unbeseeming God to make a world of Rational free agents; under such a moral Government by Laws.
Quest. 11. If all these free agents have abused [Page 23] their Liberty and undone themselves, if he so far shew mercy to them all, as that they may be all happy if they will, and none of them shall perish but for wilfull and final refusing of the saving means and mercy which is offered to them; and if they will, they may live with God himself, and Christ and Angels in endless Glory; and none shall lose this free-given felicity but for final refusal and contempt, preferring certain vanity and dung before it, And if officers be commissioned and means provided, to acquaint all, in several measures with the [Page 24] reasons why they should choose Heaven and Holiness before the dirty pleasures of sin, and to importune them daily to such a choice; And if a life of mercies be granted to allure them, and afflictions to drive them, and examples to invite them to choose aright. I say after all this, have any of these persons cause to complain, that God dealeth not mercifully with them? Shall they, that will not accept of life and mercy offered them, accuse him as cruel that importuneth them to accept it?
Quest. 12. Is the Goodness of a King to be judged of [Page 25] by the Interest of Murderers in the Goal? when he restrained them by Laws, when he warned them by legal penalties, when he encourageth and protecteth all the Good, When the lives of the Innocent need this severity against the wicked; when the Common Wealth would take him to be bad, that would not restrain Thieves and Murderers by penalties: Yea though this King could if he would, have set a constant guard on these men to have kept these men from Murdering, but he thinketh meet only to Govern them by Laws: Will [Page 26] you rather argue, (That the Goal is a place of misery, Therefore the King is cruel) Then (The rest of the Kingdom flourish in prosperity and peace: Therefore the King is wise and gratious.) And is not this little dirty spot of Earth, the next door to Hell, a place defiled by wilful sin, and unfit to be the Index of Gods benignity, from whence we should take an Estimate of it?
Quest. 13. Do not all men in the World confess Gods Goodness first or last? Do not all true believers (that are themselves) acknowledge, that he is Infinitely [Page 27] Good, and Good to them, and that his mercy is over all his works, and endureth for ever? And do not the Consciences of the Damned grind and tear them for the contempt of Goodness, and setting against mercy, even mercy to themselves? This is the fewel that feedeth Hell not by way of delusion, but experimental conviction. If the man that doubteth of Gods Goodness and mercy to him, do despair, or fear damnation, he foolishly contradicteth himself. For Hell and Damnation is a state of misery and torment, in the loss, and in the Conscience and sense of refused [Page 28] and abused mercy. If therefore God be not merciful to you, then you need not fear being damned, for sinning against and refusing mercy: For that which is not, cannot be sinned against, or abused: If God be merciful, you may be saved if you will accept this mercy: If he be not, you cannot in Justice be damned for rejecting that mercy which was none. And if God be not merciful and Just, he is not God. And if there be no God, there is none to damn you. But all confess in Heaven and in Hell, some with Joy and some with self-tormenting anguish that [Page 29] God was unconceiveably Good and merciful.
Quest. 14. What if it were but one or two in a whole Kingdom that were damned, and that only for obstinate unperswadable final refusal of grace and salvation, and all the rest of the World should be saved; tell me, would you then still suspect God of cruelty, or deny his Goodness? If not, I further ask you;
Quest. 15. Have you so good acquaintance with the extent of the universe, the superiour World ▪ the number of Angels and blessed spirits, as that you are sure that it is proportionably more in the [Page 30] whole universe, that are miserable? Though some pievish men have wrangled at what I have said of this in my forecited Books, I am so far from flattering their self conceited Wisdom that I will say it over again, That it is agreed on by Philosophers that the Earth as to the universe, is no bigger than a point or inch is to the whole earth; we see over our heads, a wonderful Sun, a multitude of fixed and unfixed Stars, of wonderful magnitude, divers of them many times bigger than all the earth; besides the vast Ethereal interspaces; we see in a Tube [Page 31] or Telescope a marvellous Likeness of the Moon to this Earth, with Shades, inequalities, &c. Multitudes of Starrs in the Galaxie and elsewhere, are discernable in the Telescope, which without it no eye can see; Little know we how far the World extendeth it self, beyond all these Starrs and Sun which we can see: or whether there be Millions of the like beyond our sight: The Scripture telleth us of innumerable Angels, Holy and Glorious spirits that attend Christ in the service of this lower World. No Scripture telleth us whether all the Glorious [Page 32] or blessed Spirits be thus imployed as Angels for Mankind, or whether ten Thousand Thousand fold more be otherwise employed. No Scripture or Reason telleth us whether Sun or Moon, Starrs and intermediate Aether, be inhabited or not? It is temerity to affirm that they are. And it is as great temerity to say that they are not: It is lawful to doubt: And it is lawful to conjecture that it is most probable they are, Considering, 1. That l [...]fe is the excellency of the Creation, and the deadest parts are the basest, 2. That the Earth, and Water, [Page 33] and Aire are full of Men, Beasts, Fishes, Birds, Worms, Flies, &c. 3. That it is incredible to him that looketh upward, that Sun, Moon, Starrs and Aether, are baser Regions than this dirty Earth; and consequently that they are baser as to their use and inhabitants: These thoughts of an uncertain thing, are lawful, to him that will go no further than he hath evidence, and not make an uncertain thing seem certain; And certain it is, that spirits are innumerable. And though some of these are fallen to be Devils, God hath not told us how many: Nor can [Page 34] we know that it is one to a million of happier Creatures. And can that man then, who is offended with God, not for damning a very few, but for the proportion of the damned in comparison of others, tell what he saith: can he say, if God had cast off all this Earth; that it had been more than one of a million of millions as to the whole Creation. Its true I cannot tell the number: But it is as true that when our foundation is sure; that God is infinitely wise and Good, it is madness to accuse him as unwise, or evil, or cruel, for that which we [Page 35] must confess we do not know; and to talk against him in the dark. Stay till you see who dwelleth in all the superiour Regions and then take your selves for fitter discerners of your makers wayes.
Quest. 16. Are you well acquainted with the nature and degrees of the future miseries which tempt you to think that God is cruel? They are not all of one degree; What if much of them be still voluntary to the miserable souls? The Devils who are now tormented in Hell, are yet inhabitants of the air, and exercised in voluntary acts [Page 36] of Malice. I take it to be no small degree of Hell which the ungodly choose and love and possess among us here on Earth, and will not be disswaded from; They are without all holy Communion with God, and they would be so, They are out of Heaven and they would be so; They are debased and confined to sensual pleasures, and wordly vanities and they will be so; They are the drudges of the Devil and the servants of the flesh, and the slaves of men, and they would be so; They are defiled with sin, and imprisoned in their [Page 37] own Concupiscence and they would be so: They are corrupted and tantalized, and vexed, and tossed up and down by their irregular desires; In a word, they have the plague of sin and have neither holiness nor true happiness, and so they will have it to be and will not be cured; Now these tempted persons can see a misery in pain; but can see no such evil in sin, for which such pain should be inflicted: when as sin it self and that which they are willing of, is so great a part of their misery, as that in this life, the rest is as nothing to it. And [Page 38] though, no doubt, much will be involuntary hereafter, we know not what the proportion will be between the voluntary and Involuntary part.
And what makes these men that they do not pitty a Drunkard, a Fornicator, a Worldling, a sensual Lord or Gentleman that hath no better than the shadows which he chooseth? Neither the Tempted, nor they themselves would call God cruel if he would let them so live in health for ever; even a healthful Beggar would call God Merciful if he might never die, nor be more miserable. But [Page 39] Princes or Lords would call him cruel if he should put them into the Beggars or Labourers case: You accuse not God as Cruel for making Toads and Serpents, Worms and Vermine, because they are not troubled with their own condition; But if you could imagine them to have the knowledge how much happier Man is, the case would alter: Or if God should change men into Toads and Serpents, you would call him unmerciful; when yet he is no more bound antecedently [...]o man than unto them: Thus because these tempted [Page 40] persons have as Adam, when his eyes were opened, [...] disquieting knowledge, to know Good and Evil penally; their own apprehensions (as Adams of his Nakedness) maketh that seem cruelty, which seemed a fruit of Goodness before.
The summ is, when you come into another world, and see what manner of punishment it is that God exerciseth on the damned, (as well as on how many) you will then be perfectly satisfied, that there is nothing but that amiable Justice, which is the fruit of Holiness, Goodness and [Page 41] Wisdom in it all; and you shall see nothing in the punishment of the miserable which you shall either blame or wish were otherwise, if you come to Heaven.
To which let me adde, when you come to see the Heavenly Glory and how the God of infinite Goodness hath advanced such innumerable Hosts (if not Worlds) of Men and Angels into such wonderful felicity, and compare this with the sufferings of the Devils and of his damned followers, instead then of quarrelling with the Goodness of God, you will be wrapt up in the admirations [Page 42] and Praises of it with ful [...] delights, to all Eternity.
Quest. 17. And tell me, Is he fit to entertain suspicions and quarrels with God▪ who knoweth God to be God▪ and knoweth himself to be but a man; I speak not only in respect of our inferiority, as the Potsheard should not quarrel with the Potter: But in respect of our great and certain Ignorance: Are we not puzzled about the poorest Worm and pile of Grass (whose manifold mysteries no Mortal man can yet Discover) Are we not grosly ignorant about every thing (even visible and palpable) [Page 43] which we see, and touch and have to do with: Do we not know that we know but little, even of our selves, or of any thing about us in the world? And shall the darkened soul, while it must operate in such a puddle of brains and humours, be so madly proud, as to presume of a knowledge, which findeth out errours and badness in God, who is infinitely wise and good? Nothing is more sure than that God is most wise and Good; and nothing should be easilier known to us, than that we are very blind and bad: And if such wretches then cannot reconcile [Page 44] their thoughts about Gods works, should they not rather suspect themselves than him? suspect, did I say? should they not take it as the surest verity, that it is, God, that is not only Justifiable, but infinitely Amiable and Laudable, and that it is worse than bruitishness, for such Moles to be his accusers?
Quest. 18. Yea is this accusing God, a fit employment for that person, who liveth in a Land of mercies; who hath been bred up in mercy, preserved by mercy, [...] differenced by saving mercy from the ungodly; who hath been called from blindness, [Page 45] carnality and prophaneness, and entertained many a time in holy Worship with God; who hath been washed in Christs blood and Justified from so many and grievous sins, and made of an enemy an adopted Child, and of an heir of Hell, an heir of Heaven, and all this by the tender mercies of a provoked God, a gratious Redeemer, and a holy Sanctifier? Shall this person? I say, this, be one that instead of praising God with the raptures of continual Joy, shall turn his accuser? O let the guilty that readeth this, stop here, and fall down on his knees to God, [Page 46] and melt into tears in the sense of such unkindness.
Quest. But can a Child of God be possibly guilty of so great a sin as this?
Answ. I speak not now of the malignant Atheist: But of the Melancholy tempted person: Alas, it is the Melancholy disease, and the Devil, more than he: God pittyeth his Childrens frowardness, especially when necessitated naturally by Diseases: and he that pardoned pievish Jonas, that said, I do well to be angry to the death; and complaining Job; and excused his sleepy Disciples with [The Spirit [Page 47] is willing but the flesh is weak,] will not condemn an upright soul, for the effect of a feaverish deliration, or a Melancholy that overcomes his natural power of resistance.
Quest. 19. Would you thus argue or quarrel against Gods Greatness and Wisdom, as you do against his Goodness? You suspect him to be unmerciful, because he cureth not mens sins, and preventeth not their damnation. And have you not the like occasion to argue against his other perfections? Do you think he reasoneth soberly that saith, [He that maketh Asses when he might [Page 48] have made them men, or maketh Ideots, or maketh stones that know nothing; He that is the Governour of such a foolish, distracted, confused world as mankind is, is foolish himself or unskilful in Government or wanteth wisdome: But God doth thus] Is he not worse than a fool that will accuse his God of folly? Doth not the admirable harmony of all the world, and his wonderful work in every Creature, prove his incomprehensible Wisdom? And what would you say to him that should thus reason [He that maketh impotent wormes, that suffereth the Good to die, that suffereth [Page 49] the Tyrants of the Earth to persecute his Church and cause, is Impotent, and not Almighty: But so doth God] Would you not say, [I have the wonderful frame of Heaven, and Earth, the Sun and Staars, the Sea and Land to prove to me that he is Almighty. This therefore is a proved foundation truth, to which all doubts must be reduced:] And if you dare not be so impudent as to deny his Omniscience or Omnipotence, when you think there is errour or impotency in his works: Why will you any more deny his Goodness, when you dream that there is badness in his works? [Page 50] Do you not know that Power, Wisdom and Goodness are Gods Three essential Principles of Operation, Virtues, or Properties? And that they are none of them greater or less than other? And that his Goodness (though not as to be measured by humane Interest) is equal to his Wisdom and his greatness? And do you not know that to deny any one of the three, yea to deny the perfection of any one of them, is to deny that there is any God? And is he sober that will argue [There are Frogs and Toads there are Wormes and Asses there are fools and miserable [Page 51] sinners, Therefore there is no God.] When as there could neither be any of these, nor any world or being, if there were no God?
Quest. 20. Lastly, now Consider, whether evidently, the root of all this sin be not (besides Melancholy and Satan) the power of selfishness and sensual or fleshly Interest. Alas, poor men, that were made for their God, to rejoyce wholly in Pleasing him and to shew forth the lustre of his Glory, are fallen unto Themselves and Flesh; and now they that should wholly devote and referr themselves [Page 52] to God, do strive to make God a servant to themselves, and measure his Goodness by the Standard of their fleshly sence and Interest; And God shall be with them no longer Good, that is no longer God, than he will give them their wills, and serve their flesh, and keep them from crosses, and losses, and pains, and govern the World according to their fancies; And when they are committing this odious self-exalting Idolatry, and abasing God, even then will they Judge themselves both Wiser, and more merciful than he: Yea, when a Melancholy [Page 53] man despaireth in the sense of his own sin and badness, at that very time he thinketh himself more Merciful than the God of Infinite Goodness, and accuseth his God for being crueller than he himself. O man into what distraction and confusion art thou faln, when thou departest from thy God and sinkest into that blind and wretched self?
And tell me, what if but the wills of all the poor, the pained, the dying, &c. were but reconciled to their suffering-state? would that which pleaseth the will be matter of any complaint? You may see then that it is [Page 54] not Gods providence, &c. but the wills and waies of sinners that are the diseased causes of all their wranglings. And if our wills were cured and reduced to Gods will, we should find no fault with him; If I can but be truly willing of imprisonment, poverty, or death, how can I feel any thing in it to complain of? When even sinners (as aforesaid) do obstinately here take their misery for their happiness, and are contented with it so farr as it is voluntary.
By that time these twenty Questions are Answered, the accusations of God [Page 55] as wanting Goodness, will all turn to the accusers shame.
II. I am next briefly to detect the false opinions, which do ordinarily cause these persons errours,
1. It is false doctrine to affirm that God condemneth the greater part of his Intectual Creatures (as I have shewed) though he condemn never so many of this ungodly world.
2. It is not true that God decreeth to condemn any man but for sin (for sin, I say, as the cause of his damnation.)
3. God decreeth to condemn none at age (which [Page 56] I add but to exclude foolish cavils) for Adam's sin only; nor for any other sin only that is not conjoyned with an obstinate final impenitencie, and rejecting offered mercy, and neglecting means appointed for their salvation.
4. Gods Decrees do cause no mans sin, (nor his damnation any further than as as supposing sin:) for Dr. Twisse himself still professeth, 1. That Reprobation is an Immanent act, and nihil ponit in objecto, putteth nothing at all into the person. 2. And that Reprobation inferreth no necessity of sin or misery, but [Page 57] that which is called necessitas consequentiae, and not any necessitas consequentis; and Arminius and all confess that Gods bare foreknowledge causeth or inferreth a necessity consequentiae; which truly is but a Logical necessity in order of argumentation, when one thing is proved by another; and not by Physical necessity in order of causation, as one thing is caused by another.
And whereas they say [Then man might have frustrated Gods decree] I ask them, whether man can frustrate Gods fore-knowledge; suppose God to foreknow sin without decreeing [Page 58] it (of which more anon) is not this a good argument (All that God foreknoweth will certainly come to pass. But God foreknoweth, e. g. Judas sin, Therefore it will certainly come to pass) And what of all this? It doth not come to pass because God foreknoweth it, no more than the Sun will rise to morrow, because you foreknow it.
And if you say, That no power can frustrate Gods foreknowledge, I answer, They are delusory words of one that knoweth not what he saith: For it is one thing to have power to make God Ignorant, and another thing [Page 59] to have power to do otherwise than that which he foreknoweth you will do. No man hath power to make God ignorant: But all sinners may have power to do otherwise than that which God foreknoweth we will do. For God doth not foreknow that e. g. Gehezi, shall not have Power to forbear a lye; but only that he will not forbear it: Yea more, Gods foreknowledge doth prove that sinners have power to do otherwise; For that which God foreknoweth will be. But God foreknoweth that men will abuse their power to sin, or will sin when they had Power to do otherwise, Therefore [Page 60] it will be so in the Event.
Now if you will call their power to do otherwise, a power to frustrate Gods foreknowledge, you will but speak foolishly: For the Power it self is foreknown: And the object of knowledge in esse cognito, is not after the act of knowledge: And if the person will not actually sin, God could not foreknow that he will sin: So that foreknowledge is here (when it is not causal) but a medium in a Syllogisme, and inferreth only the necessity of the consequence in arguing and doth not cause the thing [Page 61] foreknown.
Now when Dr. Twisse saith that all the Schoolmen agree that no necessity Consequentis or of Causation, but only Consequentiae, doth follow the decree of Reprobation, see how far he and Arminius are in this agreed, (Though I know some give another fence of necessitas consequentiae:) But I come closer to the matter yet.
4. God Decreeth no mans sin: Neither Adams nor any others. He may decree the effect which sinners accomplish (as the death of Christ) And he may overrule men in their sin, and [Page 62] bring good out of it, &c. But sin is not a thing that he can will or cause, and so not Decree, which signifieth a volition.
5. God cannot be proved to Decree, or Will the Permission of mans sin: For to Permit is nothing. It is but, not to hinder; which is no act: And to Decree and Will is a Positive Act: And if you fain God to have a Positive Volition or Nolition, of every nothing, or Negative; then he must have positive decrees of every meer possible Atome, Sand, Worm, Name, Word, Thought of Man, &c. That such and such a nothing shall never [Page 63] be: whereas there needeth no more to keep any thing from being (in this case) than Gods not Causing it, not Willing it, not Decreeing it. The Creatures Active Nature, Disposition, Objects, and Circumstances, are here presupposed: And the Impedition necessary, is by Act, (or substraction of these aforesaid) And Gods nonagere needs no positive decree; I must tell the Learned Reader that this room will not serve to Answer his foreseen objections: but I hope I have done it sufficiently elsewhere.
6. God hath not only Decreed to give, but actually given a great deal of mercy to them that perish, which had a natural tendency to their Salvation. Christ hath so far dyed for all, as that none shall perish for want of a sufficiency in the satisfaction made; He hath purchased and given for all, a grant or gift of himself, with Pardon, Justification, Adoption and right to glory, on condition of acceptance (where the Gospel cometh.) In a word, so that none of them shall perish, that do not finally refuse the Grace and Salvation offered [Page 65] them.
7. Men are not Impenitent and Ʋnbelievers for want of that called natural faculty, or Power to choose and refuse aright; but for want of a right disposition of their own wills: And by such a moral Impotency which is indeed their viciousness, and the wickedness of their wills, and doth not excuse but aggravate the sin (see Mr. Truman of Natural and Moral Impotency.)
8. To rectifie mens wicked wills and dispositions, God giveth them a World of means; The whole Creation, and Documents of [Page 66] providence; all the precepts, promises, threats, of Scripture; Preaching, Example, Mercies, Judgements, Patience, and inward motions of the spirit: All which might do much to mens Conversion and Salvation, if they would but do what they could on their own part.
9. Adam could have stood when he fell, without any more Grace than that which he abused and neglected. Gods grace which was not effectual to him, was as much as was necessary to his standing, if he would have done his best: [Page 67] And it was left to his free-will, to have made that help effectual by improvement: He fell; not because he could not stand, but because he would not.
10. For ought any can prove, multitudes that believe not, now, but perish, may have rejected a help as sufficient to their believing, as Adams was to his standing.
11. All men have power to do more good, and avoid more Evil than they do; And he that will not do what he can do, Justly suffereth.
[Page 67]12. Heathens and Infidels are not left unredeemed under the remediless Curse, and Covenant of Innocency which we broke in Adam; but are all brought by the Redemption wrought by Christ, under a Law or termes of Grace. 1. God made a Covenant of Grace with all mankind in Adam, Gen. 3.15. who was by Tradition to acquaint his posterity with it, as he did to Cain and Abel the Ordinances of Oblation and Sacrifice. 2. This Covenant was renewed with all mankind in Noah. 3. This Covenant is not repealed, otherwise than by a perfecter [Page 68] Edition to them that have the plenary Gospel. 4. The full Gospel Covenant is made for all, as to the Tenor of it, and the command of Preaching and Offering it to all. 5. They that have not this Edition may yet be under the first Edition. 6. The Jewes under the first Edition were saved without believing in this determinate person of Jesus, or that he should die for sin, and rise again, and send down the spirit: For the Apostles believed it not before hand, Luk. 18.34. Joh. 12.16. Luke 9.45. Mark 9.34. Luk. 24.21, 25, 26. Act. 1.6, [Page 70] 7, 8. yet were they then in a state of saving grace as appeareth by Joh. 14. & 15. & 16. & 17. throughout. 7. The rest of the world that had not the same supernatural Revelation were not then bound to believe so much as the Jewes were, about the Messiah. 8. God himself told them all, that they were not under the unremedyed curse of the Covenant of Innocency, by giving them a life full of those mercies which they had forfeited, which all did tend to lead them to repentance, and to seek after God, Rom. 2.4 Act. 17.27. and find him [Page 71] yea the left not himself without witness, for that which may be known of him, and his invisible things are manifested and clearly seen in his works, so that the wicked are without excuse, Rom. 1.19.20. Act. 14.17. So that all Heathens are bound to believe that God is, and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him, Heb. 11.6. and are all under the duty of using certain means in order to their own recovery and salvation, and to believe that they are not commanded to do this in vain: So that Gods own Providence by a course of such mercies, [Page 71] which cannot stand with the execution of the unremedyed violated Law of Innocency, together with his obliging all men to Repentance, and to the use of a certain course of means, in order to their salvation, is a promulgation of a Law of Grace, according to the first Edition, and distinguisheth man from unredeemed Devils.
And they that say that all the Infidel World have all this Mercy, Duty, Means, and hope, without any Redemption or Satisfaction of Christ as the procureing cause, are in the way to say next, that the [Page 72] Churches Mercies too, might have been given without Christ. 9. Of a truth, God is no respecter of persons, but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him; Act. 10.34, 35. For God will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour and incorruptibility, eternal life, Rom. 2.6, 7. Glory, honour and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, v. 10. For there is no respect of persons with God. v. 11. For when [Page 71] [...] [Page 72] [...] [Page 74] the Gentiles which have not the Law, do by nature the things conained in the Law, these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves. Which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, v. 14, 15. And they shall be Judged according to that Law which they were under, (Natural or Mosaical,) even by Jesus Christ, v. 12.16. (And it is the work of the spirit promised, to believers, to write the Law of God in their hearts.)
[Page 75]10. Though a special promise was made to Abraham, as an Eminent believer, and the Jewish Nation were the peculiar people of God, advanced to greater priviledges than any others in the World; yet were they not the whole Kingdom of God the Redeemer, nor the only people that were in a Covenant of Grace, or in a state of Salvation: For Sem was alive after Abrahams death, who was not like to be less than a King, and to have a Kingdom or people Governed according to his Fidelity. And Melchizedock was a King of Righteousness [Page 75] and Peace (not like to be Sem by the Scituation of his Countrey.) And a Righteous King would govern in Righteousness: Job and his friends are evidences of the same truth. And we have no proof or probability that all Abrahams seed by Ishmael and Esau, and Keturah, were Apostates (for they continued Circumcision.) And what all the rest of the World was, we know not save that in general most grew Idolatrous, and the Canaanites in special. But that they all apostatized from the Covenant of Grace made [Page 76] with Adam and Noah there is no proof: We have not the History of any of their Countreys fully, so as to determine of such cases. In Nineve God ruled by that Law of Grace, which called them to repent, and spared them upon their Belief and Repentance; Because he was a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the Evil, Jonah. 4.2.
And that God dealeth not with mankind now as the meer Judge of the violated Law of Innocency, he declareth not only by the full testimony of his [Page 78] Providence or Mercies given to the sinful World, but also by the very name which he proclaimeth unto Moses (which signifieth his nature, and his mind towards others, and not what he is to the Jewes alone,] Exod. 34.6, 7. [The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for Thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin,] (All which is inconsistent with the Relation of God as a Judge of a people only under the Curse of an unremedied violated Law, and unredeemed, though [Page 79] he add, [and that will by no means clear the guilty, &c.] that is, will neither Judge them innocent that are guilty of the Crime, nor Judge them to Life, that are guilty of Death, according to the tenour of the Law which they are under; [Purificando non purificabit] as the literal version; that is, will not Judge unjustly by acquitting him that is to be condemned, or, as the Chaldee Paraphrase hath it, [not Justifying those that are not converted.]
It is enough for us therefore to know that the visible Chruch hath manifold [Page 79] priviledges above all others, Rom. 3.1, 2, 3. &c. And that salvation is more easie, sure and plenteous where the Gospel cometh than with any others, and that we have therefore great Cause to rejoice with thankfulness for our lot, and that the poor World lyeth in wickedness and must be pittyed, prayed for, and helped to our power, and that God is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe, and that he is good to all and his mercies are over all his works, and that he will never damn one soul, that loveth him as God. But [Page 80] what is in the Hearts of all men in the World, and consequently how they shall be used at last, he only that searcheth the heart can tell, and it is neither our duty nor our interest nor possible to us, to know it of all particulars; much less to conclude that none among them have such Love, who believe him to be infinitely good, and to be to them a merciful pardoning God. And we know withall, that all they that know not Jesus Christ as this determinate person that was Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, [Page 82] was Crucified, Dead, Bu [...]ied, Rose again, &c. do yet receive all the foresaid mercies by him, and not by any other Name or Mediation, nor yet without his purchasing Mediation.
13. And if besides all the mercy that God sheweth to others, he do antecedently and positively Elect certain persons, by an absolute Decree, to overcome all their resistances of his spirit, and to draw them to Christ, and by Christ to himself, by such a power and way as shall infallibly convert and save them, and not leave the success of his Mercy, and [Page 83] his Sons preparations to the bare uncertainty of the mutable Will of depraved man, What is there in this that is injurious to any others? or that representeth God unmerciful to any, but such whose eye is evil, because he is good, and as a free Benefactour may give more mercy to some than others of equal Demerits? If they that hold no Grace but what is universal, and left, as to the success, to the will of man, as the determining cause, do think that this is well consistent with the mercifulness of God; surely they that [Page 83] hold as much universal Grace as the former; and that indeed all have so much as bringeth and leaveth the success to mans will, and deny to no man any thing which the other give, do make God no less merciful tha [...] they, but more, if they moreover assert a special Decree and Grace of God, which with a chosen number shall antecedently Infallibly secure his Ends in their repentance, faith, perseverance and salvation; Is this any detraction from, or diminution of, his universal Grace? or rather a higher Demonstration [Page 84] of his Godness? As it is no wrong to man that God maketh Angels, more holy immutable and happy.
14. And what if men cannot here tell how to resolve the question, Whether any, or how many are ever converted and saved, by that meer Grace which we call sufficient, or rather Necessary, and common to those that are not converted; and whether mans will ever make a saving determining improvement of it; must plain truth be denyed, because difficulties cannot easily be solved? And yet in due place I [Page 86] doubt not but I have shewed, that this question it self is formed upon false suppositions, and is capable of a satisfactory solution.
15. I conclude in general, that nothing is more sure than that God is most Powerful, Wise and Good, and that, All his works, to those that truly know them, do manifest all these in conjunction, and perfect Harmony, and that as to his Decrees and Providences, he is the Cause of all Good, and of no sin in act or habit, and that our sin and destruction is of our selves, and of him is our [Page 87] Holiness and Salvation: And that he attaineth all his ends as certainly as if mans will had no liberty, but were acted by Physical necessitation: And yet that mans will hath as much natural Liberty, as if God had not gone before it with any Decree of the Event, and as much moral liberty as we have moral virtue or holiness.
And these Principles I have laid down in a little room that Tempted persons may see, that it is our dark and puzzled braines, and our selfish diseased hearts that are the cause of our quarreling [Page 87] with God, his Decrees, and Providences, and as soon as we come to our selves and are cured, these odious apprehensions vanish, and God appeareth, as the unclouded Sun, in the Lustre of his Amiable Goodness; And when we come to Heaven we shall see to our Joy and his Glory, that Heaven, Earth, and Hell declare him to be all perfectly Good, without any mixture of evil in himself, or in any of his word or works. And we shall find all our sinful suspicions and murmurings turned into a joyful consent to [Page 88] the Angelical praises; Psal. 136.1.2, 26, &c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is Good, for his mercy is for ever. O give thanks unto the God of Heaven, for his mercy is for ever. Rom. 4.8, 11. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come — Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory, and Honour, and Power: for thou hast Created all things; and for thy Pleasure they are, and were Created.— Rev. 7.12. Amen, Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and Thanksgiving, and Honour, and [Page 90] Power, and Might, unto our God for ever and ever Amen. The Lord is Good to all, and his tender Mercies are over all his works. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great Mercy. Psal. 145.8, 9. The Word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth: He loveth righteousness and judgements; the Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psal. 33.4.5. O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before [Page 91] the sons of men. Psal. 31.19. O therefore that men (instead of quarrelling with his unknown mysteries) would praise the Lord for his Goodness, and for his wonderful works to the Children of men, Psal. 107.8, 15, 21, 31.
In the Conclusion, I take it to be wholsome advise to those that are under this Temptation:
1. That they will oft read over the Psalms of Praise; and think when they read them, whether [Page 92] David and the ancient Church, were not like to know what they said, than a self-conceited, or a melancholy tempted sinner?
2. That they would consider who it is that is the Grand enemy of the Glory of Gods Goodness; And they shall soon find that it is no other than the Devil: None but he that is most evil, can most envy Infinite Goodness his honour: And is the Devil fit to be believed against God? And that after the [Page 93] warning of our first Parents ruine, which befell them for believing Satan when he slandered, both Gods Wisdome, Truth and Goodness to them?
3. That they would bethink them to what end it is that the Tempter and the Enemy of God doth thus deny his Goodness. Is it not a plain act of malice against God and us? Is it not that he may disgrace God as evil, and rob him of his Glory; and also that he may hinder man from Loving him, and so destroy all [Page 94] piety, and virtue, and goodness in the World? Who can Love him whom he believeth to be bad, and so unlovely? And what Grace or happiness can there be without the Love of God?
4. That they would think what horrid wickedness this sin containeth (where Melancholy and involuntariness doth not extenuate it.) Is it any better than a denying that there is any God? As is said before; To be God is to be Perfectly Powerful, Wise and Good: And if [Page 95] be none such, there can be no God: And then who made the World, and all that is Good in it by derivative goodness? Yea is it not to represent the most amiable blessed God, in Satans Image (who is most evil and a Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44.) that so men may hate him and fly from him as they do from Devils? And can you tell how great a crime this is?
5. That they would consider, how this impious conceit is calculated [Page 96] for the licensing of all manner of villany in the world, and to root out all the relicts of goodness from among mankind. For who can expect that any man should be better than his Maker; and that he should have any Good, which denyeth God to be Good?
6. That they would labour hard to be better themselves. For he that hath a true Created Goodness, is thereby prepared to relish and admire Gods primitive uncreated goodness. Whereas a wicked [Page 97] or a guilty sinner, cannot much value that which he is so unsuitable to, and which he thinks will be to him a consuming fire. Truly God is good to Israel, and to such as are of a clean heart, Psal. 73.1. But he that liveth in the Love of sin, will be doubting of the Love of God, and fearful of his wrath, and unfit to relish and delightfully perceive his goodness. Psal. 34.8. Taste and see that the Lord is Good▪ blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
7. Study Gods Love as [Page 98] manifested in Christ: Then you shall see what man on earth may see. But think not falsly, narrowly, basely of his office, his performance or his Covenant.
8. Dwell in the believing foresight of the Celestial Glory: The reflections of which may wrap up a believing soul on earth, into extasies of gratitude and delight.
9. Remember what Goodness there is in the Holiness of God, which is demonstrated in his severest Justice; Yea what mercy it is to forewarn men of the [Page 99] punishment of sin, that they may want no necessary means to scape it.
10. Remember how unfit the selfish Interest of obstinate despisers of Grace and salvation, is, to be the measure or index of the Goodness of God: And how much more credible the concordant testimony of the Heavenly Host is, who Live in the Love of Love it self, and are everlastingly delighted in the Praises of the Infinite, Greatness, Wisdom and Goodness of the most perfect, blessed, Glorious God.
FINIS.