The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees

by Edward Polhill

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I: That god is

CHAPTER II: That god hath a will

CHAPTER III: Of the decrees of god in general

CHAPTER IV: Of god's decree of election as touching men

CHAPTER V: Of god's decree of reprobation, as touching men

CHAPTER VI: Of the work of creation

CHAPTER VII: Of the works of conservation and gubernation

CHAPTER VIII: Of the work of redemption

CHAPTER IX: Of the work of conversion

CHAPTER I: THAT GOD IS

THAT God is, is a primordial verity, from whence all other verities derive their original. If God were not (which is the highest contradiction), there could be nothing but perfect nullity; because nullity can never pass that infinite vast gulf, which lies between itself and being, without an infinite God. If God were not, he could not be; a mere possible God is utterly impossible: for a God he cannot be, unless he be supreme perfection, a pure act, immovable eternity, and eternal necessity, in suprema essendi vehementia. This glorious truth, that God is, can no where be doubted of; not in heaven, where his glorious face is opened to the blessed spirits; not in hell, where his righteous breath, as a river of brimstone, doth kindle the fire unquenchable; nor on earth, whilst any glimpses of heaven irradiate the godly, or any sparks of hell flame out in the guilty consciences of the wicked; whilst the candle of the Lord shines within men, or the heavens and the earth (those natural preachers) declare a Deity without, and wonderfully render the invisible power and Godhead as it were visible unto them. Every particle of being in heaven and earth leads us to the infinite Being of beings; every motion within the sphere of nature and grace draws us to adore a first immovable Mover; every breath of life in the old and new creature tells us of the great Fountain of life; every beam of light in the natural and spiritual world owns the high Father of lights; every drop of rain, natural on the earth, and spiritual on the heart, witnesses a Deity, This truth is so indubitable, that none but a fool in his greatest folly can deny it. Cur dixit stultus, non est Deus? cur, nisi quia stultus est?

CHAPTER II: THAT GOD HATH A WILL

GOD's being, being laid down as a sure foundation, I proceed to prove that God hath a will; which may be evinced by these reasons.

1. God is an immense sea of infinite perfections, or rather one infinite transcendent perfection; and a will (the fountain of liberty) cannot be wanting in him, but there will be a maim in his perfection. Liberum Arbitrium (saith Luther) est nomen planè divinum: solùm competit divinæ Majestati: si hominibus tribuitur, nihilo rectiùs tribuitur quàm si divinitas ipsa eis tribueretur, quo sacrilegio nullum esse majus possit. Sovereign and supreme liberty is a perfection too high for any creature; for that, by natural and intrinsical justice, owes subjection to its Maker. This is one of God's crown-jewels, who sitteth king for ever and ever, dwelling in that light, which no creature can approach unto, and in that liberty, which no creature can attain unto.

2. God is blessed for evermore, blessed in all perfection, and perfect in all blessedness in the fruition of himself: he is infinite light, to see his own infinite perfection; he is infinite love, to embrace his own infinite loveliness. As he cannot comprehensively know his own infinite perfection, unless he have an infinite understanding, so neither can he adequately embrace his own infinite loveliness, unless he have an infinite will. God hath but one simple nature, and therefore but one simple pleasure, which is no other than the intellectual and amatorious reflection of the divine understanding and will, on the divine goodness for ever.

3. If there be no divine will at all in God, then the divine arm must needs be shortened, so that it can produce no creature at all; for if it produce anything, it must do it either freely, or necessarily: not freely, for want of a divine will; nor yet necessarily, for then it must produce things ad extremum virium, and so must produce all the possible worlds and creatures lying in the bosom of Omnipotence (which would be infinite actual beings), and produce them all as early as eternity itself; and all those infinite actual beings, so produced, should be necessary beings, as well as God himself; in all which many great contradictions are involved.

4. If there be no divine will in God, then the glass of the divine prescience must needs be broken; because, as God knows all essences in his own glorious essence, all possibles in his own wonderful omnipotence, and all congruities and tendencies to his own glory, in his own unsearchable wisdom; so he knows all futures in his own will. For all things future were in their own nature but mere possibles, and could never of mere possibles become futures without the divine will: and unless they become futures, they could never be known as such, no, not by the divine intellect itself: for, as infinite omnipotence cannot effect that which is not possible, and potenter non potest; so infinite omniscience cannot know that which is not knowable; for this were to err, and not to know, and consequently a blemish in the clarity of the divine intellect.

5. The glory of God (which passes before the faith of his children) is his grace and mercy; and the glory of his grace and mercy is the freeness and self-movingness of it; and this freeness and self-movingness can no where be found but in the divine will alone, into which all grace and mercy is resolved by God himself, who saith, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy." (Exod. 33:19.)

6. God is a living God, and lives the most perfect life, because he is the most perfect being; and this divine life doth not merely consist in the comprehension of his infinite understanding, nor only in the exertion of his infinite power; but also in the volition of his divine will. With thee, (O divine will!) is the pure fountain of life, the precious well-head of grace and glory; all the saints and angels must stand still and adore thee, in the embraces of free election, and crown of eternal glory, in every drop of Christ's redeeming blood, and gale of his gracious spirit.

CHAPTER III: OF THE DECREES OF GOD IN GENERAL

HAVING proved that God hath a will, I proceed to the acts thereof. The divine will (although one pure act) is considerable under a double notion; either as it is voluntas complacentiæ, or else as it is voluntas decreti. Voluntas complacentiæ is that whereby God doth love himself and his own image. Himself, for himself, as infinite love doth by an amatorious reflexion embrace himself as infinite goodness: and his own image; for wherever that is found, whether shining out in holy laws, or living in holy creatures, there is his delight. Voluntas decreti is that whereby God doth foreordain events. Both these are acts of his will, and free acts; because they spring out of his divine knowledge. Even God himself, through the intuition of his own beauty, loves himself, as well as he makes his decrees out of the treasury of his wisdom: but herein they differ, that God's act of loving himself is such as cannot be otherwise; but his act of decreeing (if he had been so pleased) might have been otherwise framed than it is. Pretermitting his complacential will, I shall direct my discourse to his decretive.

The decrees of God may be thus described; viz. that they are the wise, eternal, immutable, immanent acts of his will, whereby for his own glory he decrees whatsoever comes to pass in time. Every decree of God is an act of his will; hence it is called θέλημα, "the will of God," (Acts 21:14:) it is an immanent act? hence it is called πρόθεσις ἐν αυτῷ, "a purpose in himself," (Eph. 1:9:) it is a wise act; hence it is called βουλὴ τοῦ θελὴματος "the counsel of his will," (Eph. 1:11:) it is an eternal act; hence it is called πρόγνωτις, and προορίζειν "a foreknowing and foredetermining," (Rom. 8:29:) it is an immutable act; hence it is called τὸ ἀμετάθετον της βουλῆς, "the immutability of his counsel," (Heb. 6:17:) it is an act definitive of events; hence it is called ὠρισμένη βουλὴ, "the determinate counsel of God," (Acts 2:23:) and the end of all is his own glory, whereby the whole will of his decrees circulates into that will of his complacence, whereby he loves himself; himself being the ultimate end, all meet there as in their true centre. Now in the decrees of God there are four things to be chiefly considered.

1. That they are founded on infinite wisdom.

2. That they are situate in eternity.

3. That they are cemented with immutability.

4. That they are crowned with infallibility as to the event.

1. The decrees of God are founded on infinite wisdom. God hath a mass and treasury of all wisdom in himself, and from thence he draws out all those orders and series of things, which through his decrees are poured forth into being. Extra Deum there is no reason of his decrees, but within there is summa ratio; God, even as decreeing, dwells in light, though to us unapproachable; every decree is irradiated with infinite wisdom, though our eyes cannot enter into it. The apostle calls the world "the wisdom of God," (1 Cor. 1:21,) and no wonder; for all the rare artifices and harmonies in the sphere of nature, are but the shadows and pictures of his wise decrees: all the excellent shows in time are but the apocalypse or revelation of the wise contrivances in eternity. God possessed wisdom in the beginning of his way, even in the framing of his eternal decrees; not only when he prepared the heavens in creation, but also when he prepared all things in his ideal council; not only when he set a compass on the face of the depth, but also when he set the compass of his decrees upon the face of all futuritions. Every one of his decrees is most wise and rational; hence it is called his counsel, and the counsel of his will. In the eternal rolls, causes and effects, means and ends, modes and methods of being, are all set down, but not a tittle without the advice of an infinite understanding; there is no such thing as mere will in God; no cæcus impetus, but a βάθος, a depth of knowledge in every one of his decrees.

2. The decrees of God are situate in eternity. Mutable creatures and their acts are measured by time, which is a perpetual flux; but God and his immanent acts have no other measure but eternity, which is a perpetual instant. Scripture and reason will both assert this.

1. Scripture will do it. When that speaks of the decree of election, it saith that God hath chosen us πρὸ καταβολῆς, "before the foundation of the world." (Eph. 1:4.) Heaven was made ἀπὸ καταβολῆς, "at the founding of the world." (Matt. 25:34); but God's choosing of us to it was long before, his mercies are "from everlasting to everlasting," (Psalm 103:17,) reaching (as I may say) from one end of eternity to another. So also when it speaks of other pieces of providence, it intimates an eternal preordination of things before the great hour-glass of time was set up. There were προτεταγμὲνοι καιροὶ, foreappointed times. (Acts 17:26.) Not a sand of time, but it runs out according to an eternal decree; not a member in the body, but it is written in the eternal book, (Psalm 139:16); not a place of habitation, but it was eternally bounded, (Acts 17:26); not a sparrow falls to the ground but by an eternal will; not a hair, but it was numbered in eternity; not a particle of being among all the hosts of creatures, but it was registered in eternity. All God's works are known to him, ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, eternally. (Acts. 15:18.) Known eternally as essences they might be in the divine essence; known eternally as possibles they might be in the divine power: but known eternally, as works to be done by God, they could not be, but only in his eternal decree, which is rerum omnium amantissima genetrix, et suavissima nutrix.

2. Reason will also make out the eternity of his decrees; for,

1. The act of God's will is all one with God's will, and his will is all one with his essence, and his essence is one pure simple act; God is love, essentially love: Amat Deus, nec aliunde, hoc habet, sed ipse est unde amat, et ideo vehementiùs, quia non amorem tam habet, quàm ipse est. All the decrees of God are but Deus volens; and, as God being, and God knowing, inhabit eternity, so likewise doth God willing: the very creatures willed, as they are in God in esse ideali, are eternal. Notable is that of Anselm, Creaturæ, prout sunt in Deo, sunt essentia creatrix. Suitable is that of St. Austin, who, on those words, (in ipso vita est) distinguishes between arca in arte et arca in opere; arca in opere non est vita, sed arca in arte est vita, quia vivit animâ artificis: sapientia Dei, per quam facta sunt omnia, secundùm artem, continet omnia, antequam fabricet omnia; terram vides, est in arte terra; cœlum vides, est in arte cœlum; solem et lunam vides, sunt et ista in arte; sed foris corpora sunt, in arte vita sunt. Videte, si quo modo potestis: magna enim res dicta est. Oh, the comprehensions of the divine essence, wisdom, power, and will! Essences are life and eternity in the divine essence; congruities are life and eternity in the divine wisdom; possibles are life and eternity in the divine power; and futuritions are life and eternity in the divine will.

2. The eternity of futures doth demonstrate the eternity of the divine decrees; it is impossible that anything should begin to be future. Si aliquid nunc non futurum, saith Bradwardine, incipiet esse futurum, ergo post aliquod instans futurum erit, ergo erit, ergo est futurum, ergo aliquid non futurum est futurum. Now if it be impossible that anything should begin to be future, then all futures must needs be eternal; and if so, whence are they? Not from themselves, for in their own nature they were but mere possibles; and if one possible might by a self motion become future, all the infinite possibles lying in the bosom of Omnipotence might also become such; nor from any creature, for that which is but temporal cannot be the cause of that which is eternal. The spring, then, of eternal futures cannot be found anywhere but in the eternal God; and where, in him? Not in the divine essence, for that in itself, and abstractively from the divine will, worketh no change in anything at all; not in the divine prescience, for that doth suppose and not make its objects. And how then, without eternal decrees, can there be any foundation of futures I may conclude with that of Anselm, Nihil est futurum nisi in summa veritate. If, then, God should make any decree in time, the thing decreed would begin to be future, which is impossible.

3. The decrees of God are cemented with immutability. Aristotle, by the light of nature, saw the simplicity of God's nature, and from thence rationally concluded the simplicity of God's pleasure. The eternal and immanent acts of his understanding and will are ever immovably the same, or else infinite simplicity could not take pleasure in them. God saith of himself, (Mal. 3:6,) "I am the Lord, I change not." Should he change, he would lose his name, "I am that I am." "I know," saith the wise Preacher, "that whatsoever God doth, it shall be for ever," (Eccl. 3:14.) His decrees are unchangeable. The apostle, speaking of the decree of election, saith, "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his," (2 Tim. 2:19.) Every word hath its weight; election is not a structure upon faith, but a foundation; human foundations may be destroyed, but this is the foundation of God, laid by him, nay, in him, in the bosom of the divine will: there is no standing, much less sure standing, in the flux of time and matter; but this foundation, because of God and in God, "standeth sure;" it standeth in God's eternity, which is nunc stans; it is sure in God's immutability, which is ever the same; and the seal upon all this is God's unerrable and infallible knowledge, including within it unvariable and unchangeable love to his people: "God is the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning," (James, 1:17.) The visible corporeal sun rides circuit round the world; but whilst he salutes one hemisphere in the turn, he leaves a dark shadow on the other: but God is an immutable and supercelestial sun, there can be no shadow in his eternal and unconvertible light. Neither are the various changes among the creatures shadows cast by any turn in God or his will, but events ordered and disposed by him. And because the apostle speaks in this verse of perfect gifts, and in the next of regeneration by God's will, therefore there is a further sense in it, that if the Father of lights purpose to make the day-star arise in any poor soul, his gracious purpose never turns away from that soul, nor leaves it in the dark shadow of death. The names of the elect are all indelibly written in God's book; and if "the Scripture cannot be dissolved," (John, 10:35,) surely the book of life must be irrasible. St. Austin, on those words, Deleantur de libro viventium, et cum justis non scribantur, (Ps. 69:28,) raises an objection, si homo dixit, quod scripsi, scripsi, Deus quemquam scribit et delet? quomodo isti inde delentur, ubi nunquam scripti sunt? To which he answers, Hoc dictum est secundùm spem ipsorum, quia ibi se scriptos putabant. Quid est, deleantur de libro viventium? Et ipsis constet non illos ibi esse. Deleantur ergo secundùm spem ipsorum, secundùm autem æquitatem tuam non scribantur. In a word; whatsoever God doth in his decrees is immutably the same, "his decrees are as mountains of brass," (Zach. 6:1), unremovable by any creature, because situate in the eternal will. "The strength or eternity of Israel will not lie or repent." (2 Sam. 15:29.) If God's time cannot lie, but will infallibly shew forth the verity of his promises and prophecies, surely God's eternity cannot lie, wherein he decrees and knows all. The world is full of vicissitudes, matter is in a perpetual flux, the glass of time is running out, and τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως, the wheel of nature is running round: but all the while God's will is immoveable; it doth not roll about with the heavens, rise or set with the sun, or ebb and flow with the sea, but sits king for ever and ever upon the throne of its own immobility. Apud te, Domine, rerum omnium instabilium stant causæ, et rerum omnium mutabilium immutabiles manent origines, et omnium irrationalium et temporalium sempiternæ vivunt rationes. Now besides what hath been said out of scripture, to prove the immutability of his decrees, these reasons may be offered.

1. The decrees of God are immanent and eternal acts in God, therefore cannot but be unchangeable. God in framing his decrees non egreditur extra seipsum, goes not out from his own eternity.

2. As the eternity of futures proves an eternity in God's decrees, so the immutability of futures proves an immutability in his decrees. If the decrees (which are the basis of futurition) may be changed, then that, which was future by the decree, may yet cease to be future, sine positione ejus in esse actuali, which is impossible. If a new decree be made in succession after a former, then the thing decreed begins to be future, which is also impossible.

3. If the divine decrees should change, oh! what amazing changes? what a horrible tempest must needs ensue? Must not God's own dwelling-house, even his glorious eternity, sink and fall to the ground. Non enim est vera æternitas, ubi oritur nova voluntas, nec est immortalis voluntas, quæ alia et alia est. Must not God's eternal prescience fall a doubting and faultering about every future? Seeing God cannot now know his own works, no, not a moment before their actual existence; because even then their being may be prevented by a change in his will. May not eternal grace and truth lose their glorious light, and Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness, drop out of the gospel-orb, and all the starry promises in the word, and lightsome comforts in the saints, go out in a moment, leaving all in darkness and confusion? May not the evangelical banquet let down to poor worms be called back again into heaven, and the precious blood of Christ return again into its veins, and his human nature be cast away into nothing, and every saint, instead of grace and peace in his heart, may have a lie in his right hand, and lie down in sorrow? Nay, in such a case, must there not fall a change upon the very being of God himself? And seeing every change is a kind of death, must not the Deity suffer, and as it were die in this mutation? All which astonishing catastrophes being to be for ever abhorred, I conclude that God's decrees must needs be immutable, as long as there is any stability in his eternity, infallibility in his prescience, sureness in his grace and truth, or immortality in his life or essence.

4. The decrees of God are crowned with infallibility as to the event; the event is so certain, that the Spirit of God in scripture speaks of future things as if they were already done. "Behold," saith Enoch in the morning of the world, "the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints," as if he had been then in the clouds coming to judgment. Jesus Christ cries out of "God forsaking and men piercing him," (Ps. 22:1, 16), as if he had then been upon the cross with all the wrath of God and fury of men upon him. "Whom he did predestinate," saith St. Paul, (Rom. 8:30) "them he called; whom he called, them he justified; whom he justified, them he glorified;" he speaks as if all the elect were already in heaven. Hence God is said to be (Isa. 45:11), as the Septuagint there hath it, ὁ ποιήσας τα ἐπερχόμὲνα, a Maker of things to come; the event is as certain as if it were already done. Now for the understanding of this point, we must distinguish of events: either they are good things, or else evil, viz., sins. Touching the first, the decree of God is effective; touching the last, the decree of God is permissive. The first come to pass, Deo efficiente; the last, Deo permittente; but both do fall out infallibly.

1. Those events which fall under his effective decree do fall out infallibly. This is clear upon a double account.

1. The will of God is causa causarum, an universal supreme cause, having all things under it; "It reigns over all the armies in heaven and the inhabitants of the earth," (Dan. 4:35.) The poor sparrow is no more forgotten by it, than the great image of worldly monarchy. Natural agents must be under it, as the primum movens; free agents must be under it, as the primum liberum: the lot is the greatest casualty, and yet wholly disposed of by it: sin is the most monstrous ataxy, and yet it is reduced into order thereby. Now albeit particular and inferior causes may fail of the intended issue; yet the universal and supreme cause cannot be frustrated, because it governs all.

2. The effective decree of God is backed with his omnipotence. Who ever resisted his will? He that doth it must first grapple with omnipotence. "The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isai. 14:27.) Can any creature hinder the purpose of the Lord of hosts? All creatures are ready pressed for his service. But if one creature could steal away all his fellow-creatures from him, yet who shall turn back his Almighty hand? "None can stay his hand, nor say to him, what dost thou?" (Dan. 4:35.) His power is insuperable, therefore none can stay his hand; his sovereignty is unaccountable, therefore none can say, What dost thou? "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," (Eph. 1:11,) and "if he work, who can let it?" (Isai. 43:13.) Surely none. When God's hand and God's counsel go together, the effect cannot fail.

2. Those events which fall under his permissive decree, do also fall out infallibly. As on the one hand, without God's permission, no sin can come into being; if God suffer it not, no man can wrong Israel, (Psal. 105:14,) and (which is less than an injurious act) Balaam cannot curse her, (Numb. 22:38,) and (which is yet less than a cursing word) the idolatrous nations cannot so much as desire her land, (Exod. 34:24.) So on the other hand, upon God's permission sin doth follow. All nations will "walk in their own ways," (Acts 14:16.) Nay, and the Israel of God (if but suffered) would do so too, (Deut. 18:14.) If God permit it, the wicked will do wickedly, the Jews will fill up the measure of their sins, (Mat. 23:32,) wickedness will build her a house in Shinar, in the reprobate world, there it will be established and set upon her own base, (Zach. 5:11.) And what would not a saint do, if but left in manu consilii sui? Jeremy falls from praising his God, to cursing his birth-day, as it were in one breath, (Jer. 20:14, 15.) Peter falls from his profession of martyrdom, to the denial of his master, (Matth. 26) If God permit sin, sin follows upon it; I say, upon it, not from it, as an effect from a cause, but upon it, as a consequent upon an antecedent. To shut up this point: the decrees of God, whether as effective of good, or as permissive of evil, are still infallible as to the event.

CHAPTER IV: OF GOD'S DECREE OF ELECTION AS TOUCHING MEN

HAVING spoken of God's decrees in general, I pass on to his decree of election in particular; this is respective either of angels or men: pretermitting it in the first respect, I shall treat of it in the second. God's decree of election, as touching men, is set forth in Scripture under various words, which do not a little illustrate the nature of it: it is called πρόθεσις, because God's purpose; πρόθεσις καὶ χάρις, because his gracious purpose; ἐκλογὴ), because he separates or singles out some to mercy, in a way of choice; πρόγνωσις, because he knows them as his own, in a way of singular love; προορισμὸς, because he infallibly predestinates them to grace and glory; and ουδοκία τοῦ θελήματος, because all is out of the pure self-motion of his own good will. Election is that gracious decree of God, whereby, out of the mere good pleasure of his own will, he chooses some certain individual men out of the corrupt mass of mankind, unto the infallible attainment of grace and glory, in and through Jesus Christ. Now, in the opening of this description, there are several things considerable, viz.:—

1. Who is the great agent?

2. What are the things designed?

3. To whom these things are designed?

4. What is the impulsive cause thereof?

5. In and through whom it is done?

1. Who is the great agent? It is no other than God himself: He chooses us, (Eph. 1:4.) he predestinates us, (ver. 5.) Hence the elect are called God's elect, (Tit. 1:1.) and election is styled God's election, (1 Thess. 1:4.) the elect are said to be God's own, (John 17:6.) and election is named God's own purpose and grace, (2 Tim. 1:9.) He that frames this high design must be a God indeed, a creator of souls, and infuser of graces; one able to provide an infinite ransom for the satisfaction of justice, and a glorious heaven for the patefaction of mercy; no less than an Almighty potter, able even out of the mass of perdition to make vessels of mercy, and fill them with glory. All divines will, at least in words, confess God to be the great agent; but how the Remonstrants, according to their principles, can own him as such, is well worthy their consideration: for they assert that the object of God's election is a believer; and whether there shall be a believer or not, after all the operations of grace, ultimately depends upon the will of man; and if so, how can God choose at all? seeing the act of his election depends upon the object, and the object upon the will of man. The Remonstrants will contend, that man, with his petty created liberty, cannot choose as a man, if he be under the pre-determining will of God; and can God, with his sovereign supreme liberty, choose as a God, if he be under the pre-determining will of man? And what is he less than under it, when, whether he shall have an election or not, depends upon the object; and whether there will be an object or not, depends upon the will of man? Man's will must go before, and make the object, or else for want of one, God's will must stand still and not choose at all. And is this for God to choose like himself? Are not all souls his own, and may he not choose which he pleases? Is not all grace and glory his own, and may he not do with his own what he pleases? But how can he do so, if as to the act of election he be under the pre-determining will of man? But you will say, God is not under it for all this: for he first, and antecedently to any foreseen faith in man, did decree in general to save believers, and believers only, as appears in the Gospel; and thereby did, out of his mere good pleasure, set down this law or rule to himself, that believers, and believers only, should be the object of particular election; and so he is not pre-determined by man's will, but his own, and chooses particular persons in his own way: unto which I answer two things.

1. That God hath set such a law or rule unto himself, That believers, and those only, should be the object of his election, is utterly untrue: for then all infants, dying such (because no believers), must be out of the sphere of election, and by consequence, out of the sphere of salvation also; unless (which is very strange) we could imagine those to be actually saved, whom yet God never elected or decreed to save. Neither is there any such law or rule manifested in the gospel: there God's will is thus set forth, "Whosoever believes shall be saved;" which imports that believers are the objects of salvation, but not in the least that they are the objects of election. It is written in the gospel, "Believe and thou shalt be saved;" but in what gospel is it written, Believe and thou shalt be elected?

2. That law or rule (if supposed) doth not answer the argument; for still (as to particular election) God is under the pre-determining will of man. If that say, Nay, God shall have never a chosen vessel in all the world to fill with grace and glory; and how then is he the great agent in election? Solomon set a law or rule to Shimei, That if he passed over Kidron, he should die for it; he passes over and dies: what now was the chief cause of his death? Solomon's law or execution, or else Shimei's passage? Clearly, it was Shimei's own act; Solomon was but as a legislator. Pari ratione; If God set a law or rule, that believers should be elected; if a man believe and be elected, that which chiefly determines the business is not God's first law or after-choice, but man's faith; God is no agent therein, but as a mere legislator. So naturally do the Remonstrant principles run out into that of Theophylact: "It is God's part to call, but man's to be elect or not:" which principles must be renounced, or else God cannot be owned as the great agent in election.

2. What the things designed? And here a three-fold inquiry offers itself.

1. What the things themselves are?

2. In what order these are designed?

3. In what manner these are designed?

1. What the things themselves are? These are grace and glory, or faith and salvation.

1. Grace is designed: hence we are said to be called according to purpose, (Rom. 8:28), and chosen that we should be holy. (Eph. 1:4.) Do we see a saint in his spiritual glory, clothed with humility, arrayed with righteousness, girt with truth; his eyes flowing with repentant tears, his heart burning with holy love, and his hands laden with good works? All these were prepared in eternal election, as well as wrought by the Holy Spirit in time; there was decretum Dei in the fore-ordaining, as well as digitus Dei in the forming of them. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King of heaven will honour. In election there is a designing of grace, nay all grace; faith itself not excepted. The Remonstrants shut out faith from this design, inasmuch as they pre-require faith thereunto. But how unscriptural is this? Paul was chosen to know God's will, (Acts 22:14); not to a bare notional knowledge, but to a saving practical one, such as justifies, (Isai. 53:11.) such as is eternal life, (John 17:3.) which must needs include faith. The apostle calls faith "the faith of God's elect." (Tit. 1:1.) If faith had been precedent to election, he would have told us, that election is of believers; but because it is consequent, he saith, that faith is of the elect. And how irrational is it also? Election is a design of secretion; it is ἐκλογὴ, a choosing or singling out of some to grace and glory; the elect are said to be "chosen out of the world," (John 15:19.) and "chosen unto God," (Acts 9:15.) Σοὶ ἦσαν, (saith Christ) "thine they were," (John 17:6.) thine in a select peculiar manner: and faith is the choice and prime grace of secretion, it is not πάντων, "of all," (2 Thess. 3:2.) If all men did believe without any διασολὴ, or difference, "the righteousness of God would be upon them all," (Rom. 3:22.) "the rivers of living water would flow in them all," (John 7:38.) but faith is not of all; whereby it appears, that of all inherent graces, faith firstly and properly makes the secretion. Now that such a prime grace of secretion as faith should not be decreed, in such a great design of secretion as election, seems to me incongruous even to absurdity. If faith go before election, then how doth God choose them out of the world, who by faith are out of it already? How doth he choose them unto himself, who by faith are his own before? If man's will in believing make the first and proper secretion, then God's will hath no room to make one by electing; wherefore, if we will allow God his choice indeed, we must confess faith itself to be designed in election.

2. Glory is designed in election; "We are chosen to salvation," (2 Thess. 2:13), "and before prepared to glory," (Rom. 9:23;) the names of the elect are written in heaven, and registered in the book of life. All the glory above rays out of the bosom of election, and every crown of bliss is set on by God's good pleasure.

2, In what order are these things designed? No doubt, by one pure simple act in God. But what is our most congruous conception thereof? Some divines assert, that God first decreed salvation and then faith. Salvation is the end, and therefore first; faith the means, and therefore last in God's intention. But this reason is not cogent: for neither can any thing in the creature, no, not its utmost perfection (such as salvation is) be God's end, all whose decrees do circulate into himself: neither (if it were such) should God therefore will it in the first place, and in order before faith; for he wills the end and means with one simple act. Excellent is that of Aquinas; Sicut Deus uno actu omnia in essentia sua intelligit, ita uno actu omnia in sua bonitate vult; unde sicut in Deo intelligere causa, non est causa intelligendi effectus, sed ipse intelligit effectus in casua; ita velle finem, non est ei causa volendi ea quæ sunt ad finem, sed tamen vult ea quæ sunt ad finem ordinari ad finem. Vult ergo hoc esse propter hoc; sed non propter hoc vult hoc. Other divines conceive thus; that God first decrees faith and then salvation, and that upon this account: such and in such order as God in time doth save, such and in the very same order, doth God in eternity decree to save: but God in time doth save only believers, therefore God in eternity did decree to save only believers, that is, such as were so considered by him; and so considered by him they could not be, without a precedent decree of giving faith unto them. Wherefore faith is first decreed, and then salvation; and thus the decree and its execution harmonize, and both suit with the gospel method, which sets faith in order before salvation. But neither hath this colourable reason any nerves in it: for that proposition, such, and in such order, as God saves, such, and in the very same order, he decrees to save, may be taken two ways: either thus; God decrees to save in the very same order as he saves, that is, as in time faith goes before salvation, so in eternity he decreed that faith should go before salvation; and this is true. Thus the decree harmonises with the execution, and both with the gospel; but thus faith is not made first in the decree, but first in the execution according to the decree. Or else thus: there is the very same order observed in God's decreeing as in his saving; that is, as faith is first in time, so it was first in God's decree; and thus it is untrue; for it stands upon this false bottom in general. There is the very same order in God's internal intention, as there is in the external production, that which is first in the one is first also in the other. This bottom is such, as neither the harmony between the decree and the execution, nor yet the gospel-way: and method doth require. The harmony between the decree and the execution doth not require it; for that only requires that that, which is decreed to be and exist first, should accordingly be and exist first; but it requires not that that, which is first in production, should be first in intention. In production the sun was first before the beams; but was it first also in intention? Then God decreed a sun, and in that instant meant no beams. In production, the chaos was first before; the complete world, but was it so in intention? Then God decreed a chaos, and in that instant meant not a complete world. Neither can it avail to say, that these instances are in natural; for the harmony between the decree and the execution is as accurate in naturals as in spirituals. Neither doth the gospel-way or method require it; for that only requires, that faith be and exist first, but not that it be first intended or decreed. In order of nature, faith is first before adoption; but was it first also in intention? Then God decreed faith to some persons, and in that instant meant not their adoption, which yet by the gospel is a necessary resultance from their faith. In order of existence, faith is first before salvation; but was it first also in intention? Then God decreed faith to some persons, and in that instant meant not their salvation, which yet by the gospel is a necessary consequence of their faith. And this is the rather to be marked, because the Remonstrants assert, That God first, and antecedently to his decree of giving faith, did decree in general to adopt and save all believers; and if so, then how doth God decree faith to a person, and not in and by the same decree, decree adoption and salvation to him? These are a conclusion naturally flowing from faith, by virtue of the general decree; and therefore that decree, which designs faith to a person, cannot but design these also to him. In order of nature faith is before perseverance, yet both are by one and the same decree: for God in decreeing faith, decrees the duration thereof, which is but mora in esse a kind of stay in being; else his decree would be very imperfect. In point of existence, perseverance is not simultaneous or all at once, but successive, one sand as it were dropping after another, and one instant drawing on another; yet all perseverance is in one and the same decree. To imagine a succession of decrees in eternity, suiting with the succession of instants in time, were strangely to metamorphose eternity into time. Thus it evidently appears, that there is not the same order in the internal intention, as in the external production; that which is first in existence here, is not first in contrivance there. Wherefore the argument for faith's firstness in the decree, because of its firstness in the execution, falls to the ground. In brief; waiving both these opinions, as built on sandy foundations, I conceive it is most congruous to say, that God decreed faith and salvation in the very same decree, yet so, as that withal he intended, that in the execution, faith should go before salvation. As in naturals, God decrees the sowing and harvest in the very same decree, yet so, as that in actual existence the sowing shall precede the harvest: so in spirituals God decrees grace and glory, the sowing to the Spirit, and reaping of life eternal, in the same decree, yet so, as that in actual existence, first there is grace and then glory; first sowing to the Spirit, and then reaping life eternal. Wherefore in God's decree faith is not before salvation, nor salvation before faith, but both are simultaneous: nevertheless, in time faith comes forth first, according to the gospel-method, and afterwards salvation crowns it.

3. In what manner are these things designed? I answer, in an infallible way, such as never fails. Hence election is called προορισμὸς, an infallible predestination, or predefinition of grace and glory to the elect. Thus the apostle: "Whom he did predestinate, them he called; whom he called, them he justified; whom he justified, them he glorified." (Rom. 8:30.) The first link of predestination and the last of glorification are surely joined by the middle links of vocation and justification. The Remonstrants, to decline the force of this golden place, tell us, that the apostle here speaks only of believers such as love God (v. 29), and of a predestination and vocation to the cross, and of a justification and glorification after it patiently endured. But what is this, interpretation but a mere perverting of scripture? The apostle speaks of believers, such as love God: but did they believe and love antecedently to God's election, or consequently, and as the fruit thereof? If antecedently, What is the calling according to purpose? What purpose is this, but the purpose according to election? (Rom. 9:11) the purpose according to which God saves and calls us? (2 Tim 1:9.) What calling is this, but that efficacious one, which makes a man hear and learn of the Father, so as to come to Christ by faith and love. (John 6:45.) Wherefore faith and love stream out of the fountain of vocation, and vocation comes down out of the bosom of God's purpose. To say, that the called, according to purpose, are those which are ready to obey all the will of God, is against the usage of scripture, to turn God's call into man's obedience, and God's purpose (which is the measure of his own acting) into his command (which is the measure of man's). Again, if antecedently, what becomes of the οὕς προέγνω, (v. 29.)? How could God foreknow, that is, forelove them who loved him before? If they loved first, the προ must out, it is not predilection but postdilection. It remains then that they did believe and love consequently to God's election, and by a divine influence from thence. But to go on; What is the predestination here, but to a conformity to the image of Christ? And are sufferings all the image of Christ? Are grace and glory no part thereof? What divine will not blush to say so? And how then is not predestination to these? But if sufferings were all Christ's image, yet are all sufferings his image? What if they be mere sufferings, such as have no tincture of faith and holiness upon them? Are these his image also? If not, the predestination to his image must include in it a predestination to faith and holiness. And what is the calling following upon predestination? Is it a calling to sufferings? Such a calling uses to be particularly expressed: Hereunto were you called, saith St. Peter, (1 Peter 2:21); and We are appointed hereunto, saith St. Paul, (1 Thess. 3:3.) But where in all the scripture doth the word (calling) being put absolutely and without such addition, ever signify a call to sufferings? κλητοῖς ἁγίοις we meet with therein, but not κλητοῖς θλιβομένοις. Wherefore the calling is to faith and holiness. And what is the justification which hangs upon calling? If the calling be to sufferings, are they not justified before that calling? No doubt they are in the instant of believing; and how then is calling set first and justification last? You will say, this place speaks not of the justification of their persons, but of the approbation of their cause. And where in all this epistle is the word [justify] so taken? And why so here? Lastly, the called are justified, and the justified glorified, saith the apostle. And are all those which are called to sufferings justified and glorified? The experience of thousands denies it. You will say, they are all justified and glorified if they bear the cross with faith and patience. But who dares add an [if] to God's word, and in this text to the two links and not to the former? The apostle saith expressly, "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." In the original the words τούτους καὶ fasten every link to its precedent, and that with appropriation to the very same persons; καὶ fastens calling to predestination, and justification to calling, and glorification to justification: and the τούτους appropriates all throughout the whole chain to the same persons. If therefore any person predestinated or called within this text be not also justified and glorified, the chain is broken, and the truth of the text cannot (for ought I see) be salved. Wherefore I conclude that this text doth not treat of predestination and calling to sufferings, notwithstanding which many fall short of justification and glorification; but of predestination and calling to grace and glory, such as doth infallibly bring them to justification and glorification. God's electing mercy towards his chosen ones is sure and unfailable: before they had any being, free grace embraced them in an eternal decree, and laid them in its bosom; and when they left the common nullity, and in the first moment of their being, lay in the blood of their natural enmity and iniquity, free grace would not pass them by, but there must be καιρὸς καταλυὸντων, (as the Septuagint hath it, Ezek. 16:8,) a time for love to let out and dissolve itself in gracious operations; to cast its skirt over them, wash them in the blood of the covenant, anoint them with the Holy Spirit, and put a chain of graces about their necks. And after all this, when their faith wavers like a wave of the sea, his faithfulness is as a mountain of brass; when their love cools and slacks, his love is ever the same, and inflames theirs afresh; when their holiness is full of creature-weakness and imperfection, there are with him τὰ ὅσια τὰ πισὰ, holy mercies and compassions which never fail; when they sin and go on frowardly in the way of their hearts, yet he will see their way and heal them, as the expression is, Isaiah 57:18. How many millions of times, after their conversion, might he have seen their way and damned them? but because of his unchangeable love he will see their way and heal them. His covenant is as the waters of Noah, (Isaiah 54:9.) When they sin again and again, yet his pardoning mercy and healing grace will never suffer them to lie under water, nor the deluge of sin to overwhelm them for ever. In a word, his electing love never leaves off till it hath lodged them safe in heaven. Thus the foundation of God standeth sure, and the election infallibly obtaineth grace and glory.

3. To whom are these things designed? I answer in two things.

1. These are designed to some certain individual persons.

2. These certain individual persons are considered as lying in the mass of perdition.

1. These are designed to some certain individual persons. The Lord knoweth them that are his, (2 Tim. 2:19.) Their names are all down in the book of life, (Phil. 4:3,) he called them κατʼ ὄνομα, by name, (John. 10:3.) οὗτος (saith God to Ananias), this individual person, this very Paul, who but now was breathing out blood against the church, this is a vessel of election, (Acts 9:15.) The elect are a determinate number: what else were the 7000, which bowed not to Baal? (1 Kings 19:18.) What the 144,000, which were sealed in their foreheads? (Rev. 7:4.) If there were no set number, why are they called a remnant according to the election of grace? (Rom. 11:5.) What remnant can there be, unless made up of individual persons? What election but of such? A choosing or singling out, if not of individuals, is no choosing or singling out at all. And this is one remarkable difference between the will of God's complacence, and the will of his benevolence: the will of his complacence is properly respective of graces, and that wherever those graces are, without any distinction of persons, in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him, saith St. Peter, (Act. 10:35.) If Cain do well, shall he not be accepted? If a Judas believe, shall he not be justified? Without any διασολὴ, the righteousness of God is upon all them that believe, (Rom. 3:22); "His pleasure is in them that fear him," (Psal. 147:11.) A good man (wherever he be) draws out favour or complacence from the Lord. (Prov. 12:2.) And the reason is, because this will of complacence, issuing out of his perfect sanctity, cannot but embrace his image wherever he finds it; but the will of benevolence (such as election is in the supreme degree) is distinctive of persons: for this is decretive of certain blessings, and (unless the persons to whom those blessings shall be given, be designed also) the decree is very imperfect: and this is decretive of certain blessings out of supreme and sovereign liberty; and to this as a flower of its crown, it appertains to define all persons as well as blessings. Wherefore, in election, not only grace and glory, but the very individual persons, who shall have and receive the same, are punctually designed. In heaven there are many mansions, and the elect vessels must fill them up: or else there might be a vacuum in that blessed place: wherefore those elect vessels are all numbered in God's decree.

2. These certain individual persons are considered as lying in the mass of perdition: this (as I conceive) is most congruous to Scripture. Their election is styled voluntas miserendi, a will of shewing mercy, (Rom. 9:18), and the elect are called vessels of mercy, (Rom. 9:23), there we are said to be chosen in Christ, and chosen that we should be holy, (Eph. 1:4), there we are said to be appointed to obtain salvation, and that in and by Jesus Christ, (1 Thes. 5:9.) But if God electing did not consider men as sinners lying in the corrupt mass, what need was there of mercy where there was no misery? What room for a Christ, a mediator, where there was no transgressor? Why should holiness be designed, which was yet in being and unforfeited? Why should salvation be appointed, when as yet there was none lost, or in the state of perdition? Wherefore I conceive, that in election men are considered as sinners lying in an undone condition: such only are objects capable for mercy to embrace, Christ to redeem, holiness to sanctify, and salvation to crown. The Remonstrants assert, that men in election are considered not merely as sinners, but as believers; but the Scripture doth pregnantly contradict them: for predestination is set before vocation, (Rom. 8:30), and yet vocation goes before faith. Christ calls the elect his sheep, before their bringing home, (John 10:16), and yet that bringing goes before believing. Again, Christ tells us, Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, (John 17:6), which passage, if compared with that other, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, (John 6:37), doth evidently point out to us the true method of these things: election, imported in that phrase [thine they were] is antecedent to giving, and giving to coming or believing. Whence it appears clearly, that faith is not antecedent to election as a condition prerequisite in its object, but consequent thereunto, as a stream flowing out of its fountain. Wherefore I conclude, that in election men are considered not as believers, but as sinners.

4. What is the impulsive cause of election? I answer, there is no other impulsive cause but his own good pleasure. It was the saying of Plato, that the first mover moves himself. God, in the volition of himself, doth as it were move himself; the divine essence, as volent, being ravished with itself as infinite goodness. But in other volitions he moves other things, himself remaining unmoveable. Learned Bradwardine distinguishes the objects of God's will into Volita priora et posteriora; priora ut Deum esse, posteriora ut mundum esse: volita priora sunt aliqua causa divinæ volitionis, volita autem posteriora non sunt causa ejus; voluntas Dei est causa omnium posteriorum: si ergo aliquid esset causa volitionis divinæ, illud esset causa sui ipsius. But to speak in particular: the decree of election hath no other cause but the divine pleasure only. This is evident in Scripture; we are predestinated "according to the good pleasure of his will," (Eph. 1:5;) "To the praise of the glory of his grace," (ver. 6;) "According to the purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," (ver. 11.) If we ask, why God will call a church out of the common mass, Samuel will tell us, "It hath pleased the Lord to make him a people," (1 Sam. 12:22.) But if we ask, why it pleased him so to do, Moses will tell us, "God loves his people, because he loves them," (Deut. 7:8.) When God will set forth the self-beingness of his essence, he styles himself by that wonderful name, "I am that I am." When he will magnify the self-movingness of his grace, he gives a wonderful reason, I love because I love. God is an immense sea of being and love; let the elect vessels sail by the plerophories of faith and holy contemplation, as far as they can, still there will be a boundless sea of being and love before them. He that will presume to spy out the cause of either of these, must first pass over immensity, and through eternity. When Moses desired to see God's glory, God proclaims the absolute sovereignty of his will, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." Methinks these words, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, import a perfect absoluteness and incausability in God's will; even as that name, "I am that I am," imports a perfect absoluteness and incausability in God's essence. Some have grounded election on good works foreseen; but this is utterly exploded by the apostle, who tells us, that "God hath saved and called us, not according to our works, but his own purpose," (2 Tim. 1:9,) and that there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and if it be by grace, it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace," (Rom. 11:5.) Canaan, the land of promise and type of glory, was divided by lot, and suitably the apostle saith, that ἐκληρώθημὲν, we inherit by lot, (Eph. 1:11.) Now, in the disposal of a lot, what reason or cause can be assigned, ex parte creaturæ? Is not the whole disposing thereof of the Lord? (Prov. 16:33.) Can any thing in the world hang more purely on the will of God than a lot? Why have such and such worms a lot in light, and not in utter darkness? The apostle answers in that place, ἐκληρώθημὲν προορισθέντες, predestination lots them in; the Lord shows whom he hath chosen by giving grace and glory, according to his good pleasure. When Ahasuerus could not rest, he calls for the records, and reading there of Mordecai's service, he thereupon resolves to honour him, (Esth. 6) this was done like a man: but it is not so with God, who doth not honour after the manner of men, (2 Sam. 7:19.) but in a way becoming his glorious sovereignty and bounty, he purposes in himself, (Eph. 1:9.) Perinde valet (saith Calvin) ac si diceretur, nihil extra se considerâsse, cujus rationem in decernendo haberet; he rests in his love, (Zeph. 3:17.) and unless that complacential rest, which he takes in his own will, could be broken, we cannot imagine, that he should fall a searching the records of his prescience; and for the good works written therein, make a decree of election unto glory; for such an election would not be an election of grace but of works: and the elect vessels would be vasa meritorum, and not vasa misericordiæ. But where is the holiness and obedience of the saints recorded, but in the very decree of election? Therein God doth not only choose men to glory, as the end, but also unto faith and holiness, as the way leading thereunto. God hath chosen us that we should be holy, (Eph. 1:4.) Non quia futuri eramus, sed ut essemus sancti. "I have chosen you (saith Christ) that you should go and bring forth fruit," (John 15:16.) and "happy are ye if you do these things," saith he, (John 13:17.) But would all the apostles bring forth fruit? would they all do so and be happy? Our Saviour answers plainly, (ver. 18.) "I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen. He speaks not of election to the apostleship, but of election to grace and glory; for it is such an election as shuts Judas out of the number. Neither doth he say, I know which of you will be holy and obedient, but I know whom I have chosen, because all the holiness and obedience of the saints is built upon free election. Inter gratiam prædestinationem hoc tantùm interest, saith St. Austin, quòd prædestinatio est gratiæ præparatio, gratia verò est ipsa donatio. Quod ait apostolus, Ipsius sumus figmentum creati in Christo Jesu in operibus bonis, gratia est; quod autem sequitur, quæ præparavit Deus ut in illis ambulemus, prædestinatio est. Si propriè appellentur, saith St. Bernard, ea quæ dicimus nostra merita, sunt quædam spei seminaria, charitatis incentiva, occultæ prædestinationis indicia futuræ fœlicitatis præsagia, via regni, non causa regnandi.

Others build election on foreseen faith and perseverance, as if these were the moving causes, or at least the antecedent conditions thereof. Thus the Remonstrants, herein outstripping the Jesuits themselves. Prædestinatio, saith Ruiz, tota est ex voluntate Dei, et quantùm ad merita, et quantùm, ad retributionem. And in another place: Deus dat ut velimus, facitque ut faciamus, and withal gives an instance in faith and perseverance. Bellarmine spends some chapters in proving this thesis, Prædestinationisnulla est causa in nobis: Electio, saith he, non pendet ex ulla prævisione operum nostrorum, sed ex mero beneplacito Dei. Si spectes, saith Gregory de Valentia, prædestinationis rationem, nihil est in prædestinato, sed potius in ipso Deo; imò est ipse Deus, à quo (quæ sua est infinita perfectio) nulla ejus operatio reipsâ distinguitur. And, Prædestinationi sunt ascribenda omnia Dei dona quibus salus nostra continetur. Deus suos electos, saith Suarez, ante prævisa merita suâ gratuitâ voluntate elegit, non tantùm ad unum vel aliud beneficium gratiæ, sed ad totam seriem mediorum, quibus infallibiliter perducuntur ad regnum. And again; Electio non est ex præscientia perseverantiæ futuræ, sed est origio illius. Who can but blush at these passages, wherein the Jesuits themselves attribute more to free grace, than the Remonstrants? But for the thing itself; the very same Scriptures, which overthrow election as founded on foreseen works, do overthrow it as founded on foreseen faith. That place (Rom. 11:5,) is very pregnant against it; "There is," saith the apostle, "a remnant according to the election of grace:" the reservation there spoken of is not man's act but God's, κατέλιπον ἐμαυτῷ, saith the holy oracle, (ver. 4.) Non dixit, saith Austin, relicta sunt mihi, aut reliquerunt se mihi, sed reliqui mihi. The word in the Old Testament is very emphatical, וְהְשִׁאַרְתְּו faciam remanere, "I will cause or make to remain," (1 Kings, 19:18.) And how doth God reserve or make men to remain unto himself?—how, but by giving of faith unto them? This is that which puts them into the ark of salvation, neither is there any other way of reserve found in the gospel. Now this reservation, which imports in it the giving of faith, is, saith the apostle, "according to the election of grace;" election, therefore, is not according to faith, but faith according to election. But, as if the apostle had not yet spoken enough in calling it the election of grace, he goes on, "and if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace;" where he doth include faith within the word "works." Indeed, in other places, treating of justification, he opposes faith to works; but here, speaking of election, he includes faith within them, and the reason is evident; faith hath a peculiar organicalness or receptivity to receive the free grace of God, that the believer may be justified, (Gal. 2:16;) but it hath no organicalness or receptivity to receive the free grace of God, that the believer may be elected: wherefore, as to justification, it is opposed to works; but as to election, it is included within them. It is written in the gospel, "Believe, and thou shalt be justified;" but in what gospel is it written, Believe, and thou shalt be elected? Now, that election is not bottomed on foreseen faith and perseverance, I shall demonstrate divers ways.

1. From the glory of election, which breaks forth in its eternity, sovereignty, grace, and efficacy. If election be founded on foreseen faith and perseverance, where is the eternity of it? No man, according to the Remonstrants' doctrine, is completely elect until he believe, nay, not until the last instant of perseverance, wherein he ceases to believe. But if this may be salved by the divine prescience, yet where is the sovereignty of it? "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?" (Rom. 9:21.) To order different vessels out of the same lump to different ends is glorious power, but to sever out believers from unbelievers is not so much power as skill. Whether God in predestination look on men in statu integro, or in statu lapso, it is out of the same lump still; but if he elect out of foreseen faith, it is not out of the same lump with the unbelieving world, for he looks on them in statu reparato. To elect out of skill, according to the goodness of the object, becomes a rational creature; but to elect out of sovereignty and supreme liberty becomes the great God, who can make and meliorate the object as he pleaseth. But if this also might be satisfied, yet where is the grace of it? If God do but eligere eligentes, if man's faith be earlier than God's grace, then we choose God before he chooseth us, contrary to that of our Saviour, (John 15:16); then we loved God before he loved us, contrary to that of the apostle, (1 John 4:19,) To love, as moved by the attractive goodness of the object, is to love like a man; but to love blackamores, and then give them beauty; to love enemies, and then overcome them with love, is to love like God, whose grace is pure grace, whose love is all from himself, which is emphatically implied in that remarkable reduplication, (Mark 13:20), "The elect whom he hath chosen;" as if our Saviour should have said, In election there is nothing but pure election; like that speech of God, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious," in which there is nothing but will and grace, will and grace doubled, as the only reason of itself. But if all the rest might consist, yet where is the efficacy of it? If election be founded on foreseen faith and perseverance, then it affords no help at all to any man in the way to heaven. How can that, saith a learned bishop, be the cause leading infallibly in the way to eternal life, which cometh not so much as into consideration, until a man have run out his race in faith and godliness, and be arrived at heavens' gates? Such a falsely-named predestination might more truly be called post-destination: but call it as they please, it enacteth only per modum legis, that men thus living and dying shall be received into heaven: but it doth not, per modum decreti operantis, infallibly work those graces whereby men are brought unto heaven. If election take its rise from the last gasp of persevering faith and holiness, then how came the poor church by the chain of graces on her neck, the bracelets on her hands, the crown of gold on her head? Whence had she her fine linen, wedding garment, gold tried in the fire? These are not nature's riches, but pearls of grace; common providence gives no such gifts; wherefore they are the love-tokens of election, sent indeed in time unto the church, but prepared for her in eternity. O how much better were it that the sun should be snatched out of the world, than that the influences of electing love should be suspended from the church! All her light and life, holiness and comfort come down from God in these precious beams. But the Remonstrants (instead of these heavenly influences) have framed such an election, as hath no more influence on the faith and holiness of the church, than a sun set up at doomsday would have upon the world that was before it: it is so far from working, that it presupposes all the faith and holiness of the church, even to the last minute of perseverance.

2. It is evident from the predestination of Jesus Christ, who was "God's chosen servant." (Matt. 12:18.) "The Lamb foredained," (1 Peter 1:20), and (as St. Austin styles him) Præclarissimum lumen prædestinationis et gratiæ, he was, as man, predestinated unto the superlative glory of the hypostatical union, and this high predestination was not out of any foreseen holiness in his human nature, for all that did flow out of the hypostatical union, but it was ex mera gratia. Respondeatur quæso, saith the same father, ille homo, ut à verbo patri coæterno in unitatem personæ assumptus filius Dei unigenitus esset, unde hoc meruerit? quid egit ante? quid credidit? quid petivit, ut ad hanc in-effabilem excellentiam perveniret? Nonne faciente et suscipiente verbo ipse homo, ex quo esse cœpit, filius Dei unicus esse cœpit? Nonne filium Dei unicum fœmina illa gratiâ plena concepit? Nonne de Spiritu sancto et virgine Mariâ Dei filius unicus natus, non carnis cupidine, sed singulari Dei munere? Respondeat hic homo Deo, si audeat, et dicat, Cur non et ego? et si audierit, O homo! tu quis es qui respondeas Deo? nec sic cohibeat, sed augeat impudentiam, et dicat, quomodo audio, tu quis es, O homo! cùm sim quod audio, id est, homo, quod est et ille de quo ago, cur non sim quod et ille? At enim gratia ille talis et tantus est, cur diversa est gratia, ubi natura communis est? Certè non est acceptio personarum apud Deum. Quis non dico christianus sed insanus hæc dicat? Apparuit itaque nobis in nostro capite ipse fons gratiæ, unde secundùm uniuscujusque mensuram se per cuncta ejus membra diffundit; sicut est prædestinatus ille unus ut caput nostrum esset, ita multi prœdestinati sumus ut membra ejus essemus. Humana hîc merita conticescant, quæ perierunt per Adam, et regnet quæ regnat Dei gratia per Jesum Christum. Surely the members must not be set above the head. The members were not elected to the beatifical vision out of foreseen faith and perseverance, when the head was elected to the hypostatical union out of mere grace. The elect stones in Zion were not laid for their orient lustre and beauty, when the precious cornerstone (who bears up all the building,) was laid with a Behold! in a wonder of grace and love.

3. It is utterly impossible that faith and perseverance should be the causes or antecedents to election, when these are the fruits and effects thereof. If we search the scripture for the wellhead of these, we shall find it to be in the decree of election. Therefore, when the apostle blesses God for the work of faith in the Thessalonians, he elevates his praises as high as election itself, "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." (1 Thess. 1:4.) And in the very same strain of praise, blessing God for blessing the Ephesians with all spiritual blessings in Christ, (amongst which faith cannot but be a prime blessing,) he sets forth the eternal rule of dispensing them, He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, καθὼς ἐξελέξατο, according as he hath chosen us. (Eph. 1:3, 4.) Where it is plain, that those whom God blesses with faith and perseverance, he chooses unto faith and perseverance, because he blesses according as he chooses. The Remonstrants strangely interpret these words, he hath chosen us in Christ, that is, say they, being in him in the divine prescience. But this interpretation cannot stand; the apostle saith not, he hath chosen us ὄντας ἐν αὐτῷ, or τοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ, but he hath chosen us ἐν αὐτῷ in him, that is, in Christ; now where in all the Scripture do the words [in Christ] import our being in Christ in the divine prescience? The words [in Christ] in such Scriptures as relate to justification or adoption, do import our being in Christ by actual faith; but in such scriptures as relate to election, they do import that all the grace and glory, prepared in election, is conferred in and through Christ: this appears in that famous place, (2 Tim. 1:9.) "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:" here the words [in Christ] relating to election, do not import our being in Christ; for the text saith, that he called us according to his grace given us in Christ, and calling goes before faith or being in Christ, and is the immediate cause or fountain thereof: but they import that vocation and salvation, with all the blessings thereof, are communicated unto us in and through Christ, and that the eternal decree or design was so to communicate them. Neither doth the apostle simply say, he hath chosen us in him, but he hath chosen us in him εἶναι, that we should be holy: thereby pointing out unto us Christ as the designed fountain of all the holiness in the elect. Moreover, the apostle saith, that he hath chosen us in him, that we should be holy, and faith is a choice part of holiness; and that he hath blessed us in him with all spiritual blessings, and faith is a prime spiritual blessing; and that he hath blessed us according as he hath chosen us, and therefore he chooses us to faith as well as blesses us with faith: but if he choose us for faith, and bless us with faith, he doth not bless us according as he chooses us. By all which it appears that the Remonstrants' interpretation is an arrow shot besides the text. But to go on to other Scriptures; "Blessed is the man," saith the Psalmist, (Psal. 65:4), "whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee;" and what approach can a sinful worm have to the holy one, what but by the faith of Christ? and whence is this approach; but from God and God electing? He chooseth and causeth to approach unto him. If faith were antecedent to election, the approach must have been before the choosing, the contrary whereof appears in the text. As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed, (Acts 13:48.) The apostle saith not as many as believed were ordained to eternal life, but as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. But here the Remonstrants tell us, that in the text it is not προτεταγμένοι, but τεταγμένοι, and that imports not God's eternal preordination, but man's present condition or disposition; so that the meaning is, as many as were disposed or well-affected to eternal life, believed. Should it (say they) import God's preordination, then all of that assembly (which were elected) did believe at that one sermon, and all the rest were absolutely reprobated; for the [ὄσοι] in the text is an universal particle: now that all the elect of that assembly did believe that day, or that all the rest were reprobates, is not imaginable. I answer; first, as to the word τεταγμένοι, the import thereof will best appear by taking notice in what sense St. Luke doth use this word, in the book of the Acts, (Acts 15:2.) ἔταξαν, They decreed or appointed that Paul should go up. (Acts 28:23.) Ταξάμενοι, Having appointed him a day. (Acts 22:10.) God promises Paul that it should be told him of all things ὧν τέτακται, which are appointed or ordained for him to do; and what these were, Ananias sets forth by προεχειρίσατο, God hath chosen thee to such and such things. (Ver. 14) Now in all these places of the Acts, the word signifying appointing or ordaining, why should it be taken otherwise in this controverted text? Nay, where in all the scripture doth this word import an inward quality or disposition? In that place (which seems most of any to speak that way) ἔταξαν ἑαυτούς, They addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, (1 Cor. 16:15.) there this word imports no less than a certain purpose of mind in them to do that work. Wherefore I conceive that the τεταγμένοι, in the text, doth import an ordination, and that of God: neither doth the absence of πρὸ at all hinder it; for the ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ, (Acts 2:23.) doth without a πρὸ import God's eternal counsel, and the τεταγμένοι ἦσαν designs an antecedent ordination, and that ordination must be God's; unless (which is the grossest pelagianism) it be said that they were ordained by themselves to eternal life. But to pass over the word; the Remonstrants take the text thus, As many as were disposed to eternal life, believed: but can a man without faith, who neither lays hold on Christ the Prince of life, nor yet hath anything of the Spirit of life, can such a man be disposed to eternal life? Every disposition to eternal life must be such, either because it hath some intrinsical dignity meriting eternal life, or else because it hath some evangelical congruity, to which eternal life is annexed by promise. As to the former, the Remonstrants, as Protestants, cannot own it; and as to the latter, they cannot in all the gospel shew forth one promise of eternal life made to a man void of faith; and how then can a man void of faith be disposed to eternal life? But if he could, the Remonstrants of all others must not say so, for they assert that none but a believer can be the object of election; because (say they) God cannot will eternal life to any but to a believer, to a man in Christ; and how then can an unbeliever, a man out of Christ, be disposed to eternal life? Such a man's disposition to eternal life, if it be not such by its meriting condignity, must be such divinâ ordinatione; and if so, what is that but to say, This is the man to whom God wills eternal life; and if, before faith, God may will eternal life to him, why may not he before faith elect him? Again, this disposition to eternal life must be either some moral virtuousness, or else some better grace of the Spirit; if but a moral virtuousness, how can it dispose to eternal life? if a better grace of the Spirit, how can it precede such a mother-grace as faith? But let us hear how the Remonstrants paint out this disposition in words of scripture. These disposed ones (say they) are the sheep of Christ, (John 10:4.) the drawn of the Father, (John 6:44.) such as do the truth, (John 3:21.) such as will do God's will, (John 7:17.) such as have honest and humble hearts, apt and idoneous to embrace the gospel. But what a perplexed labyrinth of words is here? To he the sheep of Christ, argues a being in the state of election, which is antecedent to all good dispositions in us; they are called sheep before their bringing home to God, (John 10:16.) and their bringing home goes before all gracious dispositions. The Father's drawing imports God's action, and not man's disposition; the doing of the truth is man's action, and not his disposition; the willing to do God's will is a gracious disposition, but such as goes not before faith. Indeed the young man (who yet had no true faith) had some kind of will to walk in God's commandments, (Mark 10:20), but it was not of the true stamp; but with a reserve of his darling covetousness. To have a right will to do God's will, is to be one spirit with the Lord, which without faith is unimaginable. It is not to be conceived that an heart can indeed be either honest to God, which is not purified by faith, or humble before him, which is not irradiated by faith. As for the last objection, That if these words import God's preordination, then all the elect of that assembly did believe at that one sermon, and all the rest were reprobated, it is, built upon two false hypotheses: the one as if the evangelist spake only of one sermon, whereas the apostle had now preached two sabbath days there; so that these words are most properly to be understood of the continued success of the gospel, according to that, (Acts 2:47), "The Lord daily added to the church such as should be saved;" which continued success is also hinted out in the διεφέρετο, immediately following after the words, ver. 47. The other as if the word [ὅσοι] were always an universal particle; when as in some scriptures, as Acts 4:6., it doth not design universality, (for all the high priest's kindred were not at that meeting) but quality: also in the text in question, the ὅσοι rather points out the condition of believers than their number. Wherefore I conclude, that this famous text holds out such an eternal preordination of God, as is the very well-head of faith in men. Every believer is an Isaac, a child of promise, wonderfully begotten, Begotten of God's own will, saith St. James, (Chap. 1:18.) And begotten according to his abundant mercy, saith St. Peter, (1 Pet. 1:3). And what is this will and mercy but God's gratuitous design of grace and glory to his elect? The will in St. James is such a will as designs grace and consecration to God in holiness, even as the first fruits were holy; and the mercy in St. Peter is such a mercy as designs glory, even an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance in heaven: and both places demonstrate that the believer is generated out of electing love. And as faith is an effect of election, so also is perseverance, which is no other than fides continuata, Faith standing in the power of God, (1 Cor. 2:5.) and fulfilled by the same power, (2 Thess. 1:11.) God, saith the apostle, shall confirm you unto the end, (1 Cor. 1:8.); and as a reason, he subjoins, God is faithful, (ver. 9.) faithful, as in his gracious promises, so in his gratuitous election; therefore he confirms his own unto the end. There are rivers of living water in the godly, but the eternal spring thereof is election; there is the seed of God in them, but the vital root of it is election. Hence the false Christs and false prophets cannot seduce them, (Mark 13:22). The canker of Hymenæus and Philetus cannot eat into them, (2 Tim. 2:19). Now if faith and perseverance are the fruits of election, they cannot be the causes or antecedents thereof. Let me shut up this reason with that of Fulgentius: Deus prædestinatione suâ et donum illuminationis ad credendum, et donum perseverantiæ ad proficiendum et permanendum, et donum glorificationis ad regnandum, quibus dare voluit, præparavit; nec aliter perficit in opere, quàm in sua sempiterna et incommutabili voluntate habet dispositum.

4. My last reason shall be taken from the grand scope and design of the scriptures, which is to exalt God and abase the creature. There God's glory is revealed, and all flesh is but grass; there God is all in all, and all men are nothing; the willer and runner are nothing, and God's mercy is all; the planter and waterer are nothing, and God's giving the increase is all. There all men lie very low in a dungeon of darkness, grave of sin, and miserable chains of hardness and unbelief; and God sits very high, and out of the sovereign self-motion of his own will, shines into one heart and not into another; opens one grave and not another; frees one spiritual prisoner and not another. There Zion's dust, I mean the creature-weakness, and defectibility of the church and all her inherent graces, appear on the one hand, and the sureness of God's mercy, and the everlasting immutability of his love and counsel shines forth on the other: and what is the meaning of all this, but to cut off boasting and stain pride, abase the creature and exalt God? In nullo nobis gloriandum quando nostrum nihil est. But if (as the Remonstrants assert) election be built on faith and perseverance, and this faith and perseverance be wrought by God in a superable way only, so as men may believe or not, or believing, may persevere or not; then the crown is plucked off from free grace and clapt upon free will; God is dethroned and man is exalted, and so may fall a boasting in some such language as that of Theophylact; It is God's part to call, but mine to be elect or not; it is God's part to reveal gospel, but mine either to believe and persevere, and so found the decree of election, or else not to believe and persevere, and so to impede it. And if, to silence such swelling words of vanity, God should put forth such astonishing questions to him about the spiritual world, as he did to Job about the natural, yet might man return an answer to his Maker. Should God ask, Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of my church in my divine decrees? when I laid the measures of her graces in my eternal purpose? Man may say, my faith was there stretching out the line, and fastening the corner-stone of election. Should he ask, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of predestination, that it shall not cause a spring of faith and holiness in my church? Man may say, I can so bind them up, that (if I please) God shall have never an elect vessel to fill with mercy, nor Christ any where to lay his merits among all the sons of men. Should he yet ask, Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or been his counselor? Man may answer, My free will was consulted with from time to time, even to the last gasp of perseverance, before the decree of election was concluded in heaven. Should he ask on, Who made thee to differ from another? The believer may answer, Adam did not difference me, for he left me in the common mass; neither did God difference me, for he gave me only the common grace: but I myself have made the difference, by freely embracing the very same grace which others freely rejected. In a word, should he expostulate with his church as with Jerusalem, (Ezek. 15:2, 3.) "What is the vine-tree more than any tree? Will men take a pin of it to hang a vessel thereon?" The church may answer, My own free will is such a pin, that my faith and perseverance chiefly hang upon it; and my faith and perseverance are such pins, that God himself hangs up the eternal rolls of his election upon them. Thus and much more may the will of man, by the Remonstrants' principles, sit as a queen glorifying herself, and opening her mouth in blasphemies against the sovereignty of God's will, and the freeness and power of his grace. But all this while a deaf ear is turned to the scriptures, which cry aloud, "No flesh must glory in itself: he that glorieth must glory in the Lord; 'tis not of the runner or willer, but of God who sheweth mercy: he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardneth:" And if any man reply to this, he must hear his own nullity; Nay, but O man who art thou? and God's sovereignty, Hath not the potter power over the clay? that so he may fall down astonished at the glory of God, and cry out, ὦ βάθος, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Indeed, according to the Remonstrants' doctrine (which bottoms God's election on man's faith and perseverance) there is no βάθος at all in it, all is ultimately resolved into the shallow will of man; there is no unsearchableness or untraceable difficulty at all in it, all is plain and easy, every jot of it carries a clearness and visible equity. Election being only God's decree to save believers, there is no more scruple or intricacy in it, than there will be in the judicial proceeding at the last judgment, when all things shall be as obvious to every eye, as if they were represented in a sea of glass. But if, according to the apostle's scope, we do consider the absolute sovereignty of God's will in that expression, "He will have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth," there is a very glorious abyss in it, such as may justly astonish us into eternal admiration. Oh, the heights and depths of divine love! All the elect of God may here lose themselves in holy mazes and trances. My God! my God! (may every one of them say) why hast thou chosen me? I know, and not without wondering, that heaven is mine through Christ, and Christ is mine through faith, and faith is mine through the election of grace: but my God! my God! why hast thou chosen me? I know that thy blood was shed for me, and thy Spirit is shed into me, and thy glory is reserved for me; and all this out of love: but my God! my God! why hast thou loved me? Oh, that I could adore calling, justifying, glorifying grace, from the top of predestination! Thou hast loved me because thou hast loved me; thou hast chosen me because thou hast chosen me: even so (holy Father!) because so it seemeth good in thy sight.

5. Having dispatched the impulsive cause of election, I proceed to the last thing, viz. in whom God doth elect us; I answer with the apostle, "God chooseth us in Christ." (Eph. 1:4.) But because these words are variously taken, it is to be considered how Christ may be styled the purchaser of election; whether only quoad res in electione volitas el præparatas, or also quoad actum volentis: to which I answer.

I. Affirmatively; Jesus Christ as God-man our glorious Mediator, did purchase election, quoad res in electione volitas. All the church's grace and glory, sanctity and salvation, faith and fruition must sing hosannahs and hallelujahs to him whose precious blood (more worth than a thousand worlds) is the glorious price of all these. God, in the decree of election, did not only design the communication of these to his own elect, but also he did design that communication to be in and through Christ.

2. Negatively; I conceive that Jesus Christ as God-man our Mediator did not purchase election, quoad actum volentis: and that for these reasons.

1. That phrase [chosen in Christ, Eph. 1:4.] doth not evince Christ to be the cause of election; for in another place we are said to be chosen to salvation ἐν ἁγιασμῷ Πνεύματος, in the sanctification of the Spirit, (2 Thes. 2:13.) Which sanctification is for all that, not a cause but an effect of election.

2. Christ was delivered up to death, ώρισμένῃ βουλῇ, by the determinate counsel of God (Acts 2:23.) First he was delivered βουλῇ, by a counsel or decree of God; and if being delivered by God's decree, he merited the decree of election, then God made one decree, that Christ should come and merit the making of another. Christ our mediator stands in the midst between God and man; but that he should stand so between the two decrees of God, as a fruit of the one and a cause of the other, seems very incongruous. But further, he was delivered ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ, by the determinate counsel of God, that is, by a decree perfectly designative of his death and the fruits thereof, and in a special manner perfectly designative of those individual persons, who should have grace and glory in and through him. If it be not so perfectly designative, how is it a determinate counsel? If it be so perfectly designative, is not the decree of election at least included therein? Undoubtedly it is. Now this determinate counsel (which is inclusive of the decree of election) was not merited by Christ; for he was delivered by it, and did not merit that by which he was delivered.

3. Christ came to do his Father's will, (Heb. 10:7,) all that he did and suffered was a faithfulness, τῷ ποιήσαντι αυτὸν, to him that made him a mediator to do and suffer the same, (Heb. 3:2.) Now aliud est facere voluntatem Deo, aliud facere voluntatem Dei. Christ did not make a new will in God, but do the will of God: if he had made a new will in God, then at his death there was not only a passion in the flesh of God, but (as it may seem) in the very will of God too; wherefore he not making a new will in God, did not merit the decree of election. But further: how did he do the will of God? Did he not do it by laying down his life for his sheep? (John 10:15,) by redeeming a people out of every nation? (Rev. 5:9,) by purifying to himself a peculiar people? (Tit. 2:14,) by bringing many sons unto glory? (Heb. 2:10.) And what is all this but the executing of the decree of election? And if Christ's errand into the world was to execute election, then how did he merit it.

4. God might have exacted satisfaction from poor sinners in their own persons, he was not bound to accept payment from another; wherefore Christ's blood and righteousness are meritorious as for us; not merely by their intrinsical dignity, but by the divine acceptation; God receiving them as on our behalf. Whence it clearly appears that the divine will doth guide the merit of Christ in all its procurements; and how then doth the merit of Christ guide the divine will in its eternal election? Can it guide its guide? Can it go before its leader? Surely that divine will which goes before those meritorious procurements by its acceptation, doth not follow after them in its eternal decrees.

5. The Father is the first person in the sacred Trinity, and works from himself; the Son is the second, and works from the Father. Thus he tells us, that he can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do, (John 5:19.) And in his prayer to his Father, he saith: "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me." (John. 17:6.) Thine they were by election, and thou gavest them me, as the peculiar purchase of my passion. But now if Christ by his merits do found the very decree of election, is not the order of working in the sacred trinity inverted? Is not the Son the first origin of our salvation? Doth not the Father, even in his eternal election, work from the Son? Might not the scripture rather have said, that the elect were given by the Son to the Father, than by the Father to the Son? Wherefore to me it seems most congruous to say, That the Father's love laid the first plot of our salvation, and then the Son's blood purchased grace and glory for us.

I shall shut up all with an answer to an objection. This thesis [that Christ did not merit the decree of election] seems to abase Christ, as if he were a mere medium for the executing of election; nay, to nullify his merits, for it supposes that God doth amare peccatores ad salutem etiam extra Christum, that God doth destinate eternal life to them, even without a Mediator: and then what necessity is there at all of Christ's merits?

I answer: Far be it from every christian to abase and nullify the merits of Christ; but (as I take it) the thesis aforesaid doth neither of these. Not abase Christ as a mere medium under the decree of election; for though he merited not the decree of election, yet must his praise be ever glorious, and his name above every name; in that he is both the glorious head of the elect, and the meritorious fountain of all the blessings and good things of election. In eternity the elect are predestinated to be conformed to his image, as the first-born of all, and in time they are called, justified, sanctified, and glorified in and through him, as the purchaser of all. Neither doth he vilify Christ, who calls him the grand medium for the executing of election: the apostle cries up Christ by those glorious titles, "The head of the church, the beginning, the first-born from the dead, one who hath the primacy or preeminence in all things," (Col. 1:18), yet immediately after puts all under the Father's εὐδόκησε, (verse 19.) His decree or good pleasure did preordain and direct all. Neither doth this thesis nullify the merits of Christ; for these consist not in procuring the decree of election, but in procuring grace and glory; and these he procured, though not the decree itself. Neither doth it at all follow, that, if Christ merited not the very decree, then God doth amare peccatores ad salutem extra Christum, or destinate eternal life to them without a mediator. For seeing Christ is predestinated to be the head of the elect, and the fountain of all grace and glory unto them; and the elect are predestinated to be the body of Christ, and to receive all grace and glory in and through him; and both these predestinations are simultaneous in the heart of God, and framed together in the same instant of eternity. There is not, nor cannot be, any colour at all to say, that God doth love sinners extra Christum, or destinate eternal life to them without a mediator. When God in free election resolves with himself, such individual persons shall, by an effectual call, be united to Christ as members of his body, and being such, shall be washed in his blood, filled with his Spirit, and at last crowned with his everlasting salvation; when he resolves, every grain shall come through Joseph's hands, every particle of grace, every income of the Holy Spirit, every glimpse of divine favour, every beam of glory in heaven, shall pass through Jesus Christ's hands; nay, through his very heart-blood and crucified flesh unto the elect, Doth he now love them extra Christum? Doth he yet destinate them to eternal life without a mediator? Undoubtedly he doth not. If therefore you ask me, what necessity there is of Christ's merits, I must answer, that all grace and glory, sanctity and salvation, faith and fruition are thereby purchased and procured for the elect. The pure fountain of election rises of itself in the will of God, but the gracious streams thereof issue forth through the bleeding wounds of Christ.

CHAPTER V: OF GOD'S DECREE OF REPROBATION, AS TOUCHING MEN

HAVING treated of the decree of election, as respective of men; I proceed to the decree of reprobation, as it relates to them. In the old testament we find בָחַר which is opposed to the Septuagint rendered by ἀποδοκιμάζει, and importing as much as reprobare, to reprobate or reject. In the new testament we have ἀδόκἰμος, importing a rejectaneous or disallowed person, and rather pointing out man's state than God's act. But to pass over the word; reprobation is that eternal decree of God whereby he purposes in himself not to give grace and glory to some individual persons lying in the mass of human corruption, but to leave them to final sin, and for the same to punish them with eternal damnation. In this decree the divine will hath, as I may so say, a triple act: for

1. It purposes, not to give grace and glory to some persons, and this is called among divines, Preterition or Non-election; and is of all others the most proper act of reprobation, as it stands in opposition to election. Hence reprobates are called the οἱ λοιποὶ, rest or residue, in opposition to the elect, (Rom. 11:7.) the nunquam noti, or never known, (Matt. 7:23.) in opposition to the fore-known; and the not written in the book of life, (Rev. 13:8.) in opposition to the written ones, whose names are enrolled in heaven.

2. It purposes to leave them to final sin. I say final sin; for God permits sin even in the elect, but final sin only in the reprobate. Thus God suffered the nations to walk in their own ways, (Acts 14:16.) and thereby gave them pereundi licentiam. Thus he hardeneth whom he will, (Rom. 9:18.) and hardening in that place imports a not giving the mollifying graces of faith and repentance, and withal a permission of final sin in the reprobate; for it is set in opposition to that mercy which bestows those mollifying graces, and thereby prevents final sin in the elect.

3. It purposes to punish them with eternal damnation for their sin; and this is styled among divines, pre-damnation, or positive reprobation. And hence reprobates are said to be vessels of wrath, (Rom. 9:22.) made for the day of evil, (Prov. 16:4.) and of old ordained to condemnation, (Jude, ver. 4.) In the original we have οἱ, πάλαι προγεγραμμὲνοι εἰς τοῦτο τὸ κρῖμα, of old fore-written or registered to this condemnation; fore-written, not, as some would have it, in scripture prophecies, but in the eternal decree of God; the ordained event whereof is notably pointed out by the εἰς in the text. To say that men are fore-written in a decree to condemnation is very proper, but to say that they are forewritten in a prophecy to condemnation, is very incongruous; for a prophecy is of an event, and not to it as a decree is. In that place where it is said that Christ προεγράφη, (Gal, 3:1), προεγράφη imports not a decree, but a setting forth or lively painting out of Christ; for there is no εἰς at all as in the former text, but οἷς κατʼ ὀφθαλμοὺς, to whom before the eyes Jesus Christ was set forth. But the plain meaning of the former, text is, they were decreed to this condemnation, viz. to spiritual judgments (which the τοῦτο specially points at) and by consequence to eternal damnation also.

Now touching this triple act of reprobation I shall enquire,

1. Who is the author thereof?

2. What are the things decreed therein?

3. To whom those things are decreed?

4. What is the impulsive cause thereof?

1. Who is the author thereof? Even the same great God who is the author of election; he, who chooses some, passes by others; he, who hath mercy on some, hardens others. Grace and glory are at his disposal; the keys of heaven and hell are in his hands alone. In some he prevents final sin, by the mollifying graces of faith and repentance; others he leaves to final sin, actual or at least original. Some he raises up out of the hell of their corruption into a heaven of glory; others he tumbles down from one hell to another, from the hell of iniquity to the hell of misery. This is the Almighty potter, who, out of the same lump of corrupted mankind, makes one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour: and all the while the earthen pitcher must not strive with his Maker, or say, Why hast thou made me thus? but rather hasten down into the abyss of his own nullity and pravity, and from thence adore the infinite heights of sovereignty and equity in the divine decrees.

2. What are the things decreed therein? These I shall consider according to the triple act thereof?

1. As for the first act of preterition or non-election, the thing decreed is the not giving of grace and glory to the reprobates.

1. It is the not giving of grace unto them. Not that there is a preterition of them as to all kind of grace; for reprobates may be Children of the kingdom, (Matth. 8:12.) Called to the marriage supper, (Matth. 22:12.), and coming, may Eat and drink in Christ's presence, (Luke 13:26); they may be enlightened and partakers of the Holy Ghost, and taste the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, (Heb. 6:4, 5); and (which is a very high expression) they may be said ἐπίστευσαν εἰς τὸ ὅνομα, to believe in the name of Jesus, (John 2:23.) But that there is a preterition of them as to the τὰ κρείττονα καὶ ἐχομένα σωτερίας, those better things which accompany, and by a near contiguity touch upon salvation, (Heb. 6:9) as to such a precious faith, love in incorruption, holiness of truth, repentance unto life, real and thorough conversion, as are found in the elect. There is not then a preterition as to all kind of grace, no, nor all kind of preterition as to saving grace; for God doth will the conversion of reprobates in a double manner.

1. God wills their conversion, Voluntate simplicis complacentiæ; Conversion even in a reprobate would make joy in heaven, it would be τὸ εὐάρεσον, grateful and well-pleasing to God; if we believe him swearing by his life, his pleasure or delight is in the wicked man's turning, (Ezek. 33:11). God delights in his image, wherever it be.

2. God wills their conversion Voluntate virtuali vel ordinativâ Mediorum; for the right understanding whereof I shall lay down four things.

1. The proper end and tendency of all means is to turn men unto God: within the sphere of the church, such is the end and tendency thereof. Why did Christ come, but to turn every one from his iniquities? (Acts 3:26.) Why did he preach, but that his hearers might be saved? (John 5:34.) Why did the apostle warn and teach every man, but to present every man perfect in Christ? (Col. 1:28.) John's baptism was εἰς μετάνοιαν, (Matth. 3:11). Church-censures were εἰς οἰκοδομὴν, (2 Cor. 10:8.) Even the delivering to Satan was for the destruction of the flesh, (1 Cor. 5:5.) Conversion is the true centre of the means. Nay, without the sphere of the church, the true end and tendency of things is such, that God might be seen in every creature, (Rom. 1:20.) Sought and felt in every place, (Acts 17:27.) Witnessed in every shower, (Acts 14:17.) Feared in the sea-bounding sand, (Jer. 5:22.) Humbled under in every abasing providence, (Dan. 5:22.) Turned to in every judgment, (Amos 4:11). In a word, the end and tendency of all God's works is that men might fear before him, (Eccles. 3:14.) The whole world is a great ordinance, as it is in itself, preaching forth the power and goodness of God who made it; and as it is the unconsumed stage of so many crying sins, preaching forth the clemency and mercy of God who spares it, and dashes it not down about the sinner's ears. All the goodness and forbearance of God leads men to repentance, (Rom. 2:4.) That piece of gospel [Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy] seems legible in his patience; for it may be naturally and rationally concluded, that that God, who in his clemency spares men though sinners, will in his mercy pardon them when repenting and returning. This is the true duct and tendency of his patience, even that men might turn and repent.

2. The tendency of the means to conversion is such, that if men under the administration thereof turn not unto God, the only reason lies within themselves, in their own corrupt hearts. If God purge, and men are not purged, it is because there is lewdness in their filthiness, (Ezek. 24:13.) If he would gather, and men are not gathered, it is because they will not, (Matt. 23:37.) If he spread out his hands, and men come not in, it is because they are rebellious, (Isa. 65:2.) If he be patient and long-suffering, and they repent not, it is because of their hardness and impenitent heart, (Rom. 2:5.) The apostle calls the heretical seducers in his time μετατιθέντες, such as did turn or transfer the grace of God from its true end or scope, Jud. 5:4. And what those seducers did doctrinally, that do all sinners practically; so far forth as they live under the means and turn not, they do thereby transfer and remove the means from their genuine end.

3. God doth by a formal decree will the means with their tendencies. All ordinances are sealed by the divine will, and go out in its name, and are what they are from its ordination. Without this, means are no longer means, but mere empty names and vain shadows.

4. Out of God's formal decree of the means doth result his virtual will of men's conversion. That God, who doth formally will the means with their tendencies, even unto reprobates, doth virtually will their conversion as the true scope and end of those means. Hence it is said, that Christ would have gathered the unbelieving jews, (Matth. 23:37,) and God would have all men to be saved, (1 Tim. 2:4,) viz. in respect of his virtual or ordinative will. Hence God is brought in, wishing, Oh! that there were such a heart in them. (Deut. 5:29.) Oh! that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments. (Isai. 48:18.) And what are these wishes? Surely all the diffusions of light, promulgations of laws, expansions of gospel grace, waitings of divine patience, and strivings of the Holy Spirit are (as I may so say) God's Oh's after conversion, in as much as they have a tendency thereunto; and God in willing that tendency, doth virtually will men's return also. Excellent is that of learned Ames; "Deus eminenter et virtuali quâdam ratione eatenus vult salutem hominum, quatenus vocat ipsos ad salutem." Thus with this virtual will God doth will the conversion of reprobates. But then you will say, If so, God's will is frustrated; for reprobates are never actually converted. I answer, that God's formal decree is only of the means with their tendencies; and therefore is not frustrated, but fulfilled, in the actual exhibition of such means. And God's virtual will (though it be of the conversion of reprobates) yet in their non-conversion is not frustrated, because it is not an absolute but conditional will, nisi per ipsos steterit, unless their own voluntary corruption do impede the effect; which in reprobates it always doth. But you will yet reply, Then God's will is conditional, and by consequence imperfect. To which I answer, with the judicious bishop Davenant, That volitions merely conditional agree not with the perfection of the divine nature; for that were to suspend God's will for a time, and then post purificatam conditionem, to make it become absolute. But mixtly-conditional volitions, that is, such as are grounded or some absolute decree, may be allowed: as for example, that mixed conditional decree, that if Cain or Judas believe they shall be saved, is grounded on that absolute decree, that whosoever believes shall be saved. Now this virtual will of the conversion of reprobates is not purely conditional, but mixtly conditional, for it results out of God's absolute decree of the means with their tendencies. Wherefore, notwithstanding these objections, I conclude, That God doth virtually will the conversion of reprobates, so far forth as the means have a tendency thereunto.

These things being thus laid down, I conceive that the thing decreed in preterition or non-election, is the not giving or working saving grace or thorough conversion in reprobates, in such a sure 'and insuperable way as in the elect. Reprobates have not such intimate in-shining, efficacious drawing, law-engraving, and heart-opening and melting grace as the elect. And this not giving or working conversion in such a way, clashes with neither of the aforesaid wills. Not with the will of complacence; for still if a reprobate did turn or convert, he should be accepted with God, nor yet with the virtual or ordinative will of God, for still means are means, and ordinances are ordinances, and their true end and tendency is to turn men unto God: I say their true end, for there is a vast difference between an infallible ordination of means for the working of conversion in men, and a true ordination of means for the same purpose. As to the elect, there is an infallible ordination of means thereunto; and as to the reprobate, there is a true, though not infallible, ordination of the same. The perfection of the non-elect angels was truly ordinated to their perseverance, but not infallibly. The integrity of Adam in innocency was truly ordinated to his continuance in obedience, but not infallibly. Wherefore non-election or preterition, though it stand not in conjunction with an infallible ordination, yet it carries no contradiction to a true ordination of the means. Notwithstanding the decree of non-election or preterition, God may still expostulate with a reprobate, as the apostle did with the Galatians, Quis te impedivit? "Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Gal. 5:7.) Have you not had many awakenings of conscience, thunderings from the fiery law, wooings from the gracious gospel, strivings from the Holy Spirit, and long waitings of infinite patience and forbearance; and all these to draw you to repentance? And what hindered you from turning unto me? What, but your own perverse rebellious heart? How often have I called and you would not hear? knocked and you would not open? moved and you would not stir? offered Christ and heaven and you I would not accept? And why would you not? Let conscience say, if it were not for some base indulged lust, which, when I had searched after, you have hid it in the secret of your heart; when I have stript and laid it naked before you, you have sewed fig-leaves and covered it; when I would have slain and crucified it, you have spared it and laid it in your bosom. Well, I can truly say, perditio tua ex te thy destruction is from thyself alone; it is not because thou hadst no means of grace; it is not because those means were not ordinated to thy conversion; it is not because thy conversion should not have been accepted with me; no, 'tis merely from thy voluntary corruption.

2. Another thing decreed in preterition is the not-giving of glory unto reprobates. But this is not such a not-giving, as if God would upon no terms at all give glory unto them: no; for the promise [whosoever believeth shall be saved] doth both import God's will, and extend in general to all, reprobates as well as others; but it is a not-giving glory to them in such a sure infallible way as to the elect. Heaven is seriously offered to the reprobates, and offered upon the very same terms as to the elect; but here lies the difference: God gives special effectual grace to the elect, clothes them in the fine linen of righteousness, makes them meet for the inheritance in light, (Col. 1:12.) works them for this very thing, (2 Cor. 5:5.) and at last causes them to arrive safe at heaven. But thus he deals not with reprobates; for he leaves them without that effectual grace which infallibly leads to glory.

2. As to the second act of reprobation, viz., the permission of final sin, the thing decreed is double.

1. The permission of sin in reprobates.

2. The permission of the finality of sin.

1. The permission of sin in them is decreed. Now what is this permission? It is not an ethical permission, as if they might sin by a law; for this were to unsin sin. It is not a mere dreaming speculation, as the sleeper suffered tares among the wheat; for divine providence never slumbers nor sleeps. It is neither a simple nolition, for then God would hinder sinful actions from coming into being, nor yet a simple volition, for then God should be the cause and author of sin. It is not such a permission of sin, as if reprobates had no remoras at all in their sinning, for every beam of light, item in conscience, rod of affliction, striving of the Holy Spirit, and particle of holy means is a kind of impediment cast in their perverse way. But permission is an act of providence issuing forth from God, not as he is a righteous legislator, but as he is the supreme rector and provisor, moderating in all events. Hence the scripture owns God's mission in Joseph's sale. (Gen. 45:5.) God's commission in Ahab's seduction. (1 Kings 22:22.) God's bidding in Shimei's cursing, (2 Sam. 16:11), and God's hand and counsel in Christ's crucifixion. (Acts 4:28.) More particularly, it is such an act of providence as carries with it, first, an administration of such objects and circumstances, which are good in themselves; yet occasionally, like Achan's golden wedge, draw out men's corruption into act; then a suspension or nondonation of such grace and means as would effectually and de facto prevent the commission of sin: next an actual concurrence of the Holy One to the material act or entity of sin, though not in the least measure to the antomy or sinfulness thereof; and withal a bounding sin in its measure and duration, and ordering sin to his own glory. Thus God permits sin, and permits it volent, for none will say that he doth it nolent; therefore, all must say, that he doth it volent. And in all this, neither can the reprobate cry out of hard measure, for in the same manner God permits the sins of the elect: nor can the least blot light upon the Holy One, for which of all these may he not justly do? May not he marshal objects? Then he may do nothing in his own world, not so much as proclaim his law, for sin will take occasion thereby. No, nor his gospel neither, for grace will be turned into wantonness. May not he suspend his efficacious grace? Then grace is not his own; but if it be, by what law is he bound to give it? If there be no such law, why may he not suspend it? But if there be, how can he permit sin, seeing he is bound to give such grace as will actually prevent it? But you will say, permission is no such suspension of grace, but a leaving a man in manu consilii sui, a dimission of him to his own genius and free will; if so, then how doth God hinder sin? Doth He in hindering sin, offer violence to man's liberty, as in permitting it, he leaves him thereunto? Surely, if God hinder it, it must be by some kind of grace or other; and therefore, if he permit it, it must be by some suspension of grace, or not at all. But to go on. May not he concur to the material act of sin? Then how much motion is there independent from the first mover? How much entity is there independent from the Being of beings? May not also the great clock of the world stand alone without the everlasting arms, and all the creature-wheels therein go alone, without any touch of providence? Lastly, if God did not bind sin, would not that moral monster soon devour all religion and humanity? And if he did not order it to his own glory, how should light come out of darkness, and order out of confusions? In a word: God in great wisdom permits the folly of sin; in providential power the weakness thereof; and in unspotted purity the pollutions thereof.

2. The second thing decreed, is the permission of sin's finality; and this is the critical difference between the elect and reprobate. God permits sin in the elect, but sin's finality only in the reprobate. Now how doth God permit sin's finality, but by that blinding and hardening of reprobates, which is so frequent in scripture? But how doth he blind and harden them? Not by infusing the least drop of malice into their hearts: no, darkness may sooner issue from the sun, than blindness from the Father of lights; and drought may sooner issue from the sea, than hardness from the Father of mercies: but he doth it in a double manner.

1. Deserendo, or by way of negation. Dicitur Deus, saith St. Austin, excæcare quando non illuminat, indurare quando non emollit. Every reprobate is born with a veil upon his eyes, and a stone in his heart; and in that condition God leaves him, not imparting to him such enlightening and mollifying grace as he doth unto the elect. Not such enlightening grace; and hence reprobates are called blinded ones, (Rom. 9:7.) nor such mollifying grace, and hence they are called hardened ones, (Rom. 9:18.) In this negative blinding and hardening, doth properly and formally consist the permission of final sin. For as God doth impede final sin in the elect, by irradiating and softening them by his grace, so he doth permit final sin in the reprobate by not irradiating and softening them thereby.

2. Judicando; or by way of penal infliction. After many rebellions against light, God at last gives men up to a reprobate mind, void of all spiritual judgment; to a fat heart, void of all spiritual sense; to a spirit of slumber, such as wakes not under the loud calls and roaring judgments of heaven; to a πύρωσις, a brawny hardness and senseless obduration, such as feels nothing, no not the weighty mountains of sin and wrath lying on the soul. And this he doth partly by a tradition to Satan, who rules in darkness and hardness, and hath a wonderful art to promote and aggravate both these in the children of disobedience; partly by a giving them up to their own lusts, which are the most intimate devils of all, and by degrees put out the eyes, and obstinate the hearts of men; partly by presenting such objects as occasionally prove snares and stumbling blocks to them. Hence we find in scripture an ensnaring table, (Psal. 69:22,) a destroying prosperity, (Prov. 1:32,) a sin-irritating law, (Rom. 7:8,) a death-savouring gospel, (2 Cor. 2:16,) an enraging adversity, such as makes them like a wild bull in a net, (Isai. 51:20,) with many more like providences, which occasionally harden and blind men into further degrees of sin and wickedness. Now this judicial hardening and blinding is neither to be found in all reprobates, but in the grand rebels; nor yet only in reprobates, but in the elect, at least some of them. Hence that outcry, "O Lord! why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear?" (Isai. 63:17.) Only here is the difference; this judicial blinding and hardening in the elect is but partial; all the holy light is not out, all spiritual tenderness is not gone. Wherefore in that place they groan after a return; but in the reprobate it is more total. Again, in the elect it is but for a time; through auxiliary grace the closed eyes will open again, the stony heart will melt again: but in the reprobate it is final, the darkness is upon them till they come to utter darkness, the stone is in them till they come to hellish obstinacy. Wherefore in them it is a kind of sealing up of damnation. Negative blinding and hardening suffices to the permission of final sin, but judicial is an earnest of final perdition.

3. As to the third act of reprobation, the thing decreed is eternal damnation; hence reprobates are said to be made for the day of evil. Neither can any man doubt that there is such a decree; for God doth actually condemn them in time, and both reason tells us, that whatsoever God doth, even in his judgments, he doth it volent; and scripture tells us, that whatsoever he doth, he doth it according to the counsel of his own will; wherefore both assure us that there is such a decree. But you will say, doth not that promise [whosoever believeth shall be saved] both import God's will, and extend even to reprobates, and how then can God decree their damnation? Which way can both these wills stand together in the heart of God? I answer: It is true that the promise doth both import God's will, and extend to reprobates; nevertheless it very well consists with the decree of damnation, and this will appear by a double distinction.

1. Let us distinguish the decrees of God: some of them are merely productive of truths, others are definitive of things which shall actually exist. The first are accomplished in connexions, the last in events. To clear it by scripture instances: the decree, that David should be king of Israel, was definitive of a thing; but the decree, that if Saul obeyed, his kingdom should have continued, (1 Sam. 13:13,) is but productive of a truth. The decree that David should not be delivered up by the men of Keilah, was definitive of a thing; but the decree, that if he had staid there they would have delivered him up, (1 Sam. 23:12,) was but productive of a truth. The decree, that Jerusalem should be burnt with fire, was definitive of a thing; but the decree, that if Zedekiah did go forth to the king of Babylon it should not be burnt, (Jer. 38:17,) was but productive of a truth. Moreover, that there are decrees definitive of things, is proved by the events; that there are decrees productive of truths, is proved by the connexions; if there be no such connexions, how is the Scripture verified? but if there be, how are these things connected? There is no natural connexion between Saul's obedience and his crown; David's stay, and the Keilites treachery; Zedekiah's out-going, and Jerusalem's firing: wherefore these connexions do flow out of God's decrees as productive of truths. Now, to apply this distinction to our present purpose: The decree of damning the reprobate for final sin is definitive of a thing; but the decree imported in the general promise, is but productive of a truth, viz., That there is an universal connexion between faith and salvation; such a connexion, that reprobates themselves, if believers, should be saved. Now these two decrees may very well stand together; for decrees definitive of events, contradict not decrees productive of truths, unless the event in the one decree contradict the truth in the other. Wherefore if (which is not) there were a decree of damning reprobates, whether they did believe or not, it could not stand with the general promise; for the event of that decree would contradict the truth of the promise. But the decree (such as indeed it is) of damning reprobates for final sin, may well consist with the general promise; for the event of that decree no way crosses the truth of the promise. Reprobates are damned for final sin, that is the event of one decree; and reprobates, if believers, shall be saved; that is the truth of another: both which may well consist together.

2. Let us distinguish the objects of these decrees; the objects stand not under the same qualifications as to both of them. The decree of salvation upon gospel terms respects men as lapsed sinners; but the decree of everlasting damnation respects them as final sinners; and so there is no inconsistency between them.

Thus much, by way of answer to the objection: yet withal, before I pass on to the next thing, suffer me a little to stand and adore the stupendous abyss of the divine decrees. The elect arrive at heaven, yet by the way see hell flaming in the threatening: the reprobate sink to hell, yet by the way see heaven opening in the promise. The elect cannot live and die in sin, but they will be sub gladio; the reprobates cannot repent and return, but they will be sub corona. Tremble, work and watch, O saints, for the Holy One thunders out from heaven in that sacred sentence, "If you live after the flesh you shall die." Repent, return and believe, O sinners! for the divine philanthropy woos you in those real undissembled offers of mercy, "Whosoever believes shall be saved; Whosoever forsakes his sins shall find mercy." Here, O here, is πολυποίκιλος σοφία, the manifold wisdom of God; a fit reserve for the apocalypse of the judgment day, whose clear light will display these wonderful consistencies before men and angels.

3. Having dispatched the things decreed in reprobation, I proceed to speak of the persons to whom these things are decreed; and here I shall consider—

1. What they are for quantity.

2. What they are for quality.

1. What are they for quantity? They are certain individual persons. As some certain individual persons are chosen, so others are passed by; as some are by name in the book of life, so others are by name left out of it. There is a great difference between the reprobation of sin and the reprobation of sinners: the reprobation of sin issues from the sanctity and holiness of God's will; but the reprobation of sinners issues from the sovereignty and justice thereof. The reprobation of sin is universal, and without any distinction of persons; God hates sin whereever it be, be it in his own beloved Jedidiah's; it is an abominable thing, such as his soul abhors: but the reprobation of sinners is particular; Esau, and not Jacob, was hated; Judas, and not Peter, was a son of perdition. Indeed, he that denies particular reprobation, must by necessary consequence deny particular election; and he that asserts an election of some individual persons, doth, in eodem rationis signo, assert a reprobation of others.

2. What are they for quality? I answer in two particulars.

1. Reprobation, as to the first and second acts thereof, viz., preterition, and permission of final sin, respects them as lying in the corrupt mass. This appears by those names and titles whereby reprobation is set forth and described in Scripture; there it is hatred, and God hates none but sinners; it is hardening, and God hardens none but such as are in a corrupt estate; it is abjection or casting away, and God doth not cast away an upright one, or a man standing in integrity; it is, not knowing, and God knows and approves every sinless creature; it is, not shewing mercy, and that supposes men to lie in a state of misery, or else they are not capable of mercy, or the denial thereof. Wherefore I conceive that in preterition, and permission of final sin, men are considered as lying in a corrupt and undone condition.

2. Reprobation, as to its third act, viz. the decreeing of damnation, respects them as final sinners. It is true, every sin, as sin, is in itself intrinsically meritorious of damnation; but through gospel grace in Jesus Christ, no sin but such as is final, doth actually produce damnation. God condemns none but for final sin, and decrees to condemn none but for it. Those vessels of wrath κατηρτισμένα εἰς απώλειαν, fitted to destruction, (Rom. 9:22.) are, as I take it, final sinners only. Great sinners may be vessels of mercy, and repent unto life eternal; but final sinners are vessels of wrath and fitted to destruction. God swears by his life, that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, (Ezek. 33:11.) not unless he be a final sinner, in whom there is no true turning or repenting: not in such a way as to leave no place or room at all for conversion; for the sinners turn is in the text opposed to his death, and opposed as a thing more desirable to God than his death. Should the decree of damnation objectively terminate on a sinner, merely as a sinner, there could be no place or room for repentance; but if it terminate on him as a final sinner, there is no such obstruction at all. Wherefore I conceive, that as God condemns none but for final sin, so he decrees to condemn none but for the same; and by consequence, that decree respects them as final sinners, that is, they are first considered as final sinners, and then the decree of damnation terminates on them.

Object. But here an objection meets me; God condemns none but final sinners, and decrees to condemn none but such; yet hence it follows not, that the decree of damnation respects them as final sinners, or that they were considered as such antecedently to that decree: for God saves none but final believers, and decrees to save none but such; yet from thence it follows not, that the decree of salvation respects them as final believers, or that they were considered as such antecedently to that decree: for, as hath been laid down before, faith and salvation are comprised in one and the same decree; and therefore there is no antecedency of faith to salvation in the very decree, but only in the execution thereof.

Ans. To which objection I answer, That between the two cases there is a triple difference, which, if considered, will make it appear that the consequence which fails in the one case doth hold good in the other.

1. These two propositions [God decrees to save none but final believers, and God decrees to damn none but final sinners] must be taken in a different meaning. When we say God decrees to save none but final believers, the meaning is not, final believers so preconsidered antecedently to that decree, for faith and salvation are comprised in one decree; but final believers so to be made by force of that decree. But when we say God decrees to damn none but final sinners, the meaning is not final sinners so to be made by force of that decree, for God's decree makes no man a final sinner, but final sinners so preconsidered antecedently to that decree; wherefore, from that proposition, [God decrees to save none but final believers,] it cannot be concluded that the decree of salvation respects them as final believers, but (because of the different meaning) from that other proposition, [God decrees to damn none but final sinners,] it may be rightly concluded, that the decree of damnation respects them as final sinners.

2. There is an immediate contact between grace and glory; hence these two may very aptly be comprised in one decree, and if so, final faith is not preconsidered to the decree of salvation; but between preterition or permission of sin and damnation there is no immediate contact, for the act of the creature, even his final sin, comes between: hence preterition or permission and damnation cannot, according to our understanding, be congruously comprised in one decree, but in distinct decrees; and if so, final sin is preconsidered to the decree of damnation. For no sooner doth the decree of preterition and permission pass in the divine will, but therein, as in a glass, there is a prescience of final sin, and thereupon passes the decree of damnation. But you will say, Neither is there such an immediate contact between grace and glory as you assert, for between the donation of grace and glory the act of the creature, viz. final faith, doth intervene. I answer; It is true it doth intervene, but as a fruit or effect of that donation, it doth intervene, but that donation hath a causal influence and attingency into the creature's act and its perseverance; wherefore, it so intervenes, as not to break the immediate contact in the least measure. But between preterition or permission and damnation, the creature's act, viz. final sin, doth intervene, not as an effect of preterition or permission, but as a fruit of man's corrupted and depraved will, and that intervention cannot stand with an immediate contact. Wherefore, there being distinct decrees, first preterition and permission are decreed, and then, upon the prescience of final sin, damnation.

3. The third difference is that of the apostle; "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 6:23.) Eternal life is a gift freely given, therefore the consideration of final faith is not a pre-requisite to the decree of salvation, but death is wages exacted by the intrinsical merit of sin, and paid only to a final sinner; therefore, the consideration of final sin is a prerequisite to the decree of damnation; without that consideration I see not how it can be decreed as wages. But you will say, Is not eternal life also a reward of faith and holiness? and how then can that be decreed as a reward without a preconsideration of these? I answer, Eternal life is a reward, but it is a reward of pure grace, it is grace upon grace, glorifying grace upon sanctifying; therefore, to the decreeing thereof, as a reward, it suffices that it be decreed to believers and saints. Not believers and saints so preconsidered to that decree, for grace and glory, being both mere gifts, and gifts of immediate contact, are comprised in one decree, but believers and saints so to be made by force of that decree, and so to be made before they wear the crown. This is enough in the decreeing of a reward so purely gratuitous. But in eternal death there is nothing at all gratuitous; all is mere wages and pay for sin, sin doth really and intrinsically merit it. Wherefore eternal death, as such wages, is decreed only to final sinners. Not final sinners so to be made by force of God's decree, for that makes no man a final sinner; but final sinners so preconsidered to the decree of damnation: for, without that preconsideration, it is not, as I conceive, decreeable as wages or pay due unto them.

To shut up this point in a word. Reprobation, as to the decree of preterition and permission, respects men as lapsed sinners: and as to the decree of damnation, respects them as final sinners.

4. What is the impulsive cause of reprobation? To which I make answer.

1. As for the decree of preterition and permission of final sin, it is from God's will, as cloathed with supreme sovereignty. God passeth by and hardeneth whom he will. This appears in two particulars.

1. First, God doth not give so much as the gospel-means unto some men. He suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. (Acts 14:16.) Some sin and perish without law or gospel; all the law they have is the dark glimmering of nature, and all the gospel they have is the patience and goodness of God leading to repentance. The sun, moon and stars are divided to all nations, (Deut. 4:19,) but Jesus Christ, a sun of infinite light and lustre, shines in a narrower compass on the earth than the finite sun; the moon is lesser than the earth, the visible church than the world of men. The apostles, those stars of light, must not shine in Asia and Bithynia. (Acts 16:6, 7.) By what way is this evangelical light parted? Surely by the divine will alone; the difference is not from the worthiness or unworthiness of men: for those in Asia and Bithynia were as good as others. Christ was manifested to a thief, and not to a Socrates or Plato. Rebellious Israel hath the light of the word in it, and a more flexible nation, which would hearken thereunto, wants it. (Ezek. 3:6, 7.) Impenitent Corazin and Bethsaida have a visible Deity before them in Christ's miracles, when poor Tyre and Sidon, much nearer to repentance, hath it not. (Matth. 11:21.) In all which the sovereign will of God is to be adored; for that is it which divideth between the light and the darkness.

2. In the visible church, the orb of gospel light, God doth not give saving grace unto all. It is true, the mercy of God is so immense, that all the sins of men are but as the drop of the bucket to it; the blood of God is so meritorious, that all the crimson crimes in the world are as nothing to it; and the Spirit of God is so almighty, that all the chains of hardness and unbelief fall off before his converting grace. Nevertheless, this immense mercy doth not pardon all; this meritorious blood doth not wash all; nor this almighty Spirit doth not convert all unto God. Oh, the wonderful abyss of the divine, counsel! All men naturally lie in bloody pollution, and God saith to one, Live! and not to another. All are, as it were, one entire rock of obstinacy against God; and he calls Abraham's children out of one part of the rock, and leaves all the rest to be rock still. All are dead in sins and trespasses, nay, and sealed up in their graves with a stone of hardness and unbelief; and one grave-stone is rolled away, and the dead under it raised up by almighty grace, and not another. External revelation is all over the church; why is not the inward holy unction so, too? The gospel sounds in every ear; why do not all hear, and learn of the Father? The gospel calls, and knocks at every door; why are not the demonstrations of the Spirit, and the drawings of the Father in every heart? The gospel says in general, Whosoever will, may take the water of life freely; why doth not God work the will in all? Why are any dimissi libero arbitrio, left to the miserable servitude of their own free will? Here there is no other resolution but that of the apostle, "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth;" and beyond this we can only wonder, and in quodam mentis excessu cry out, Oh, the depth! Cur hoc illi operetur, saith St. Austin, illi non operetur, metuentem me et trementem judicia ejus inscrutabilia et incomprehensibilia nolo interroges, quia quod lego credo et revereor, non autem discutio. And, Ne dicas Deo interrogando, Quæ est voluntas tua? sed tremendo, fiat voluntas tua. And again; Posset Deus, saith he of wicked men, ipsorum voluntatem in bonum convertere, quoniam Omnipotens est; posset planè, cur ergo non fecit? quia noluit; cur noluerit? penès ipsum est. If there were anything extra Deum moving him to the decree of preterition and permission, it must needs be sin, either original or actual, or final impenitency and infidelity therein; but none of all these moved God thereunto: not original sin, for this is the common blood wherein all men, elect as well as reprobate, lie by nature. And this is St. Ambrose's Mirum, touching infants; Ubi actio non offendit, ubi arbitrium non resistit, ubi eadem miseria, similis imbecillitas, causa communis est, non unum esse de tanta parilitate judicem; quales reprobat abdicatio, tales adoptat electio. Indeed, original sin makes all men reprobable; for all are by nature children of wrath, transgressors from the womb, an unclean and corrupt seed, lying in bloody and abominable pollution, fit and worthy to be put away from the Holy One as dross, and for ever to be cast out into utter darkness; but it makes no man a reprobate; for the elect are as deep in this filthy mire as others. Nor yet doth actual sin do it; for Jacob was loved and Esau hated before they had done good or evil. Artaxerxes decreed that Jerusalem should not be built again, because upon search of his records he found that it had been a rebellious city, (Ezra, 4:19, 21.) Should God have founded his decree of preterition and non-election on a prescience of human rebellion, the holy city of the church had never been built, nor the divine image ever repaired therein: all men had eternally lay as Sodom and Gomorrah in the dust and rubbish of Adam's fall, with a line of spiritual confusion stretched upon them. Who is there that lives, and sins not? What man on earth hath not rebelled, and vexed God's Holy Spirit? Even little infants rebelled in voluntate Adæ; and besides, Imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est, non animus infantium. Neither yet doth final impenitency and infidelity do it; for there is no final impenitency and infidelity but such as is permitted;—and permitted it is not, but out of the decree of preterition and permission; wherefore that decree cannot be caused thereby. Final impenitency and infidelity may be considered two ways; either as being in actual existence, or else as foreseen by the divine prescience; but neither way doth it cause the decree of preterition and permission, but presuppose the same. Not as it is in actual existence; for final impenitency and infidelity come into being after permission, and permission flows out of the decree; wherefore final impenitency and infidelity coming after permission, are not the cause of the decree out of which permission doth issue. Nor yet as it is foreseen by the divine prescience; for the decree of preterition and permission is that very glass wherein final impenitency and infidelity are foreseen: for had God made no decree of preterition and permission, he had seen all men repenting and believing, as the fruit of his effectual grace unto all; had he made that decree universally touching all, he had seen no man repenting and believing. Wherefore final impenitency and infidelity, as foreseen, do not cause but presuppose the decree. In a word; I conclude, that the decree of preterition and permission doth merely depend upon the supreme and sovereign will of God. Neither is there any colour of injustice in all this; for.

1. Non-electio (as Suarez hath it) non est pæna, ut culpam prærequirat; sed est quædam negatio gratuiti beneficii, quod Deus ut supremus Dominus negare potest. God may do what he will with his own; election (the primum indebitum) is God's own, therefore he may pass by whom he pleaseth: the Holy Spirit (the fountain of all faith, and repentance) is God's own, therefore it may breath only where it lists. All souls and graces are God's own; therefore he may infuse or not infuse graces into souls ad placitum. Neither is it imaginable that God should be obliged to give restituent grace to fallen man, when he was not obliged to give custodient grace to the innocent angels. If faith and repentance are the gifts of God, may he not suspend them? If he be bound to give them, why is there a peradventure put upon some men's repentance? (2 Tim. 2:25.) Why a cannot upon some men's faith? (John 12:39.) Why a perhaps upon some men's forgiveness? (Acts 8:22.) Why a forbidding upon the means of grace? (Acts 16:6.) Why a manifestation to disciples and not to the world? (John. 14:22.) Why a revelation to babes and not to the wise and prudent? (Matth. 11:25.) In short, God's election must be either arbitrary or necessary; if necessary, how is his election free? If arbitrary, how is non-election unjust? The donation of faith and repentance must be grace or debt; if debt, why is not the veil off from every eye, and the stone out of every heart? Why is not grace as common as nature, and saintship as humanity? But if grace, then where it is conferred, it is freely conferred out of self-moving mercy; and where it is denied, it is justly denied out of unaccountable sovereignty.

2. In the permission of final sin there is much of sovereignty, but nothing of injustice; the great God is absolutus faber suæ permissionis; he could let legions of angels at once drop out of heaven into hell; he could let innocent Adam (as rare a piece as he was) break himself all to shivers by a fall; and what may he not permit sinful worms to do? What are creatures to him? If they miscarry, how many thousand worlds are there in the bosom of his omnipotence? If he suffer all nations to walk in their own ways, he doth but let a drop fall off the bucket, or a small dust fly off the balance; he doth but leave vanity to its own lightness, and a quasi-nothing to its own nullity and defectibility. If he suffer sinful man to run into sin, and that finally, he doth but leave the dog to his own vomit, the swine to his own mire, the viper to his own poison, a corrupted piece of old Adam to act ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων, out of his own, as the expression is. (John 8:44.) He doth but let the fountain of blood flow out, the corrupt flesh putrify, the vicious womb of concupiscence conceive and bring forth, and the depraved will of man forge out its own iniquities, and fetter and intangle itself with the cords and bonds of its own voluntary rebellions; and what injustice can be in all this? especially seeing this permission is not a subtraction of any inherent grace, but only a suspension of assistant grace as de facto would impede sin. If God be bound to afford such grace, where is the charter of that engagement? If he be not bound thereunto, where is the injustice of that suspension? The saints before a temptation, cast down their souls before God and cry out, Nè inducas, Lead us not into temptation; and after a victory, they cast down their crowns before him, and sing out, Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ. Wherefore when sin is prevented, God's free grace is to be praised: and when sin is permitted, God's absolute sovereignty is to be adored.

3. Justice in God is agere juxta condecentiam bonitatis et veracitatis suæ; therefore the decrees of preterition and permission must needs be just, because they cross not either his goodness or his truth. Not his goodness, for that doth not necessitate him either to diffuse one drop of grace unto fallen man, or to prevent one jot of sin in him; nor yet his truth, for notwithstanding the decrees of preterition and permission, all the promises in the great charter of the gospel are yea and amen, not a tittle thereof fails or falls to the ground.

2. As the decree of preterition and permission is from God's will, as clothed with sovereignty, so the decree of damnation is from God's will, as clothed with justice. In the former, God acts as supreme Lord, according to his transcendent sovereignty; in the latter, God acts as a righteous judge, according to his vindictive justice. Now here I shall offer my thoughts in two positions.

1. The final sin of reprobates is not properly the very cause of the decree of damnation: it is the proper very cause of damnation, but not of the decree itself. That passage in Scotus is remarkable: Non est aliqua causa propter quam Deus effectivè reprobat, in quantum est actio in Deo; quia tunc Deus esset passivus. What is moved by a thing ab extrà, seems in order of nature before that motion to be in potentia, and in that motion to be passive in some degree. But God's will in all its decrees, even in that of reprobation, is a pure act, perfectly excluding passiveness and potentiality, and by consequence motion ab extrà.

2. The final sin of reprobates, though it be not properly the cause of the decree itself, yet it is conditio in objecto necessaria, making men meet objects for the decree to terminate upon. The vessels of wrath are fitted to destruction. Final sin, as produced in actual existence, fits them for actual destruction; and final sin, as foreseen in the divine prescience, fits them for a decree of destruction. Where final sin is foreseen, there the decree of damnation terminates; and where final sin is not foreseen, there the decree of damnation terminates not. "After all thy wickedness, woe, woe unto thee, saith the Lord." (Ezek. 16:23.) Hell's woes are after final wickedness, and the decree of hell's woes is after the prescience of final wickedness. In a word; that which causes men to be capable objects for the decree of damnation to terminate on, is the final sin which is in the unrighteous will of man; and that which causes the decree of damnation to terminate on them, is the vindictive justice which is in the righteous will of God. In Tophet the torments are as unquenchable fire. The final sin is as much wood, and that which kindles it is vindictive justice breathing out from the rightous will of God, in all which there is nothing at all but exact righteousness. God may say to man, Thy perdition is of thyself; and man must say to God, Thou art righteous, O Lord, in all thy ways.

I will shut up all with an answer to an objection. You will yet say, God's justice is not cleared in this point, for the decree of preterition and permission is merely out of sovereignty, and upon this preterition and permission doth infallibly follow final sin, and upon final sin doth infallibly follow eternal damnation; wherefore, hereby God is made the great author of the reprobate's sin and damnation.

To which I answer in three propositions.

1. It is true that upon preterition and permission final sin doth infallibly follow. When God gave them up to their own lusts, "they walked in their own counsels." (Ps. 18:12.) When he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, "they did so." (Acts 14:16.) If upon God's permission man's sin follow not, then, which is very strange, God may permit that which yet will never be. But

2. Upon preterition and permission final sin doth infallibly follow, but not as an effect from a true cause, but as a consequent upon its antecedent. Hence God is no more the author of sin, than the sun is of the darkness which follows upon its departure. Also the objectors may be asked, Doth not God foreknow that the creature set in such a state and order of things will finally sin? Foreknowing this, doth not he willingly and actually set the creature in that state and order? From or upon this setting the creature in that state and order, doth not its final sin infallibly follow? I suppose they will deny nothing of all this; yet they will by no means say that God is the author of sin, neither need they say so, for in sins following there is only sequela ordinis, and not sequela causalitatis. Moreover, God, in preterition and permission, doth not subtract from men any creature due, but suspend such special effectual grace as is undue unto them. This is clear; for preterition and permission respect men as sinners lying in the corrupt mass, and to sinners God owes nothing but punishment. Verbum [Debet] venenum habet, nec Deo propriè competit, qui non est debitor nobis nisi fortè ex promisso, saith Peter Lombard. If God be bound to give special effectual grace to all, shew me a promise for it; if he be not bound, the suspension of that grace can in no wise make him the author of sin. Wherefore, final sin is indeed no fruit of God's reprobating will, but the proper issue of man's perverse will. And this is one grand difference between election and reprobation; election doth effectually work final faith and holiness in the elect, but reprobation doth not effect the least drop of sin or malice in the reprobate. Faith and holiness come down from heaven, out of the bosom of free grace; but sin and malice grow at home in the reprobate's own heart, Deo non operante sed permittente.

3. Hence it follows, that God is the author of the reprobate's damnation only as a just judge inflicting the same for final sin. God's vindictive justice is the inflicting cause of damnation; but man's final sin is the proper meritorious cause thereof. And thus God is perfectly justified in the decree of reprobation, because that final sin of reprobates, which follows consequently upon God's preterition and permission, doth flow effectively from man's perverse and corrupt will; and that everlasting damnation of reprobates, which is inflicted by God as a righteous judge, is also merited by a man as a final sinner.

CHAPTER VI: OF THE WORK OF CREATION

HAVING treated of the divine will as to its eternal decrees, I proceed to speak thereof as to its external works, which are (as it were) the royal display thereof. And that there may not be a chasm in my discourse, I shall first touch upon creation as the first of God's ways. There are besides the ens entium, three several worlds or ranks of beings, viz. spiritual, material, and mixed. The first is the intellectual world, made up of those invisible glories, spirits by nature, angels by office, principalities and powers, spiritual stars of light and flames of love, all of them at first inhabitants of that pure spiritual body, the heaven of heavens; but afterwards part of them were, for their proud apostacy, cast into hell. The second is the world of visible wonders: the stupendous heavens eyed with a glorious sun, and spangled with moon and glittering stars, encircling all the rest with their spherical stories, and wheeling round about with an indefatigable motion, spinning out time for all the world, and with admirable influences, hatching and hovering over all the living creatures. Under these is the vast air, encompassing the earth and sea, coated with woolly clouds, and those sometimes laced with the curious rainbow; every morning putting on the bright shining robes of light, and at evening exchanging them for the black mantle of the night: now all on a flame with flashes of lightning, and anon all in a sea with the bottles of heaven; sometimes rent in pieces with thundering tempests, and then made up again into serenity, and clear as a molten looking-glass. This is the fan of all creatures breathing on the earth, and itself is fanned with various winds; this is the inn where the visible species, the imagery of the world's beauty and glory, and the audible species, the multiplied progeny of sounds and voices, lodge together; this is the common road where the influences of the heavens, and the vapours of the earth, the beams of the sun, and the sweet perfumes of herbs and flowers meet and embrace each other in their passage. Within this is the massy earth, the centre of the world, hanging upon nothing; inwardly bowelled with rich minerals and precious stones, and outwardly teeming with numberless births of grass and corn, shaded with trees and woods, and laughing with odoriferous herbs and flowers, bubbling with lively springs and fountains of water, and admirably interlaced with gliding streams and rivers, inhabited with strange variety of beasts, and lorded with man. And the girdle of this earth is the wonderful sea, swaddled with clouds, swarming with fishes, lodged and locked up in the hollows of the earth, and from thence secretly winding and straining its moisture into the inward veins thereof: now swelling with the pride of winds and waves, as if it meant to swallow up heaven and earth, and then sinking down again into its den, as if it were afraid to be drunk up by the little sands. The third is the mixed world, the marriage or copula of the other two, made up of men, whose immortal souls claim kindred with the world of angels, and whose earthern bodies are the breviaries and epitomes of the visible world; virtually summing up the elements in their harmonious mixture, the plants in their life, the beasts in their senses, and the heavens, with the sun, moon, and stars in their heads, eyes, and beautiful faces. Now touching all this catalogue of beings, I shall briefly demonstrate three things.

1. That all these beings had a beginning.

2. That their beginning was from God.

3. That it was from God as a free agent, and according to the counsel of his own will.

1. All these things had a beginning; and this I prove three ways.

1. I argue ex absurdo; if they had no beginning of being, then every one of them is a God by nature, a Jehovah in self-beingness, and an Alpha in primacy: if they had no beginning of duration, then are they all inmates in God's eternity, copartners in his immutability, and (which is a step higher) possessors of his infinity, and boundless beings, without any limits of being: for what imaginable limits of being can they have, which want a beginning, which is the first limit of being?

2. The motions of the creatures evince this; the elements have their interchanges, the earth its seasons, the sea its tides, the air its winds, the stars their courses, the moon her variations, the sun runs its race between the tropics, the heavens, the common carriers of all the rest, turn about with an incessant motion; nay, the immaterial angels and rational souls are never without some motions in their understanding and will; neither can they do anything without a change, because their being and their doing are two things. Now what do all these motions speak, but a first mover, a beginning at some first point, and a measure of time ever since? Such moveable beings cannot be measured with eternity; for that is unmoveable and unvariable, but these are in motions and mutations; that is instantaneous and simultaneous, but these are under a flux of priority and posteriority in their motions and mutations: wherefore it must needs be that these had a beginning.

3. If these had no beginning, then what shall we say of the years, days, and minutes past? Are they finite or infinite? If finite, then numerable, and there was a beginning; if infinite, then how past? Infinity cannot be passed over, but, and if it could, then there are infinite numbers of minutes past, infinite numbers of days past, and infinite numbers of years past, and because there cannot be infinito infinitius, by most necessary consequence, there are as many years past as days, and as many days past as minutes, which is utterly impossible; therefore, these things must needs have a beginning.

2. The beginning of all these was from God. The scripture speaks evidently, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1:1.) "Of him and through him and to him are all things." (Rom. 11:36.) "He that built all things is God." (Heb. 3:4.) When we look upon the stately palace of the world, roofed with the glorious heavens, floored with the fruitful earth, chambered with the cloudy air, watered with the stupendous sea, and furnished with all variety of creatures, we cannot dream of any other architect but God alone. And because Job bids us "speak to the earth," (Job 12:8), and the Psalmist tells us that there "is a language in the heavens," (Ps. 19:1, 2, 3,) and the apostle asserts that there is "a witness of God in the rain," (Acts 14:17), therefore suffer me to parly their original out of their own mouths. Creatures, whence came you? Ex nihilo. What, ex nihilo? How then came you over that vast infinite gulf which lies between nothing and being? Infinite power filled it up to make our passage. But since you came over, where do you stand? In a being betwixt two nothings, nothing negative, and nothing privative. And who set you there at first? The first and chief being, who is ipsum esse, suum esse, infinitum esse, infinitè elongatum à non esse. But whence had you all that truth and goodness which is in you? Our truth is but a beam from his infinite verity, and our goodness the redundance and supereffluence of his infinite goodness. And whence came all these numbers and hosts of beings? Out of perfect unity; every one of us is numbered by our finiteness and composition, and every number is from infinite, simple unity. Monus est principium et radix omnium; there is but one God, of whom are all things. But how came you into such ranks? Why have not the elements life, the plants sense, the beasts reason, and men angelical perfections? When infinite power brought us out of nothing, infinite wisdom shut up every one of us within the bounds of his proper being. But your beings being of such different sorts, how came you to be so kind each to other? The clouds drop down rain on the earth; the earth brings forth grass; that feeds the beasts; and these serve for man, the breviary of all, and steward of all. All these, and innumerable more links of amity were made by the God of order. But if you be of God's own make, shew me your tokens. It is most apparent that all beings must be from the chief being, all truth from the first truth, all goodness from supreme goodness, all numbers from perfect unity, and all ranks and orders from infinite wisdom; and this chief being, first truth, supreme goodness, perfect unity, and infinite wisdom, can be no other than God alone. But if this satisfy not, you may yet further see God's glorious immensity in the vast, capacious heavens; his invariable immobility in the unmoveable earth; his faithfulness in the great mountains; his unsearchable judgments in the great deep; his dreadful justice in the devouring fire; his wonderful omniscience in the sun, the rolling eye of the world; his transcendent beauty in the varnish of the light; the plain footsteps of the eternal power and godhead in every creature, and the glorious impress of his own image and likeness in men and angels. Thus, the very creatures themselves tell us, that their beginning was from God.

3. Their beginning was from God as a free agent, and according to his own decree; for either God did produce them naturally and necessarily, or else freely and voluntarily. Not naturally and necesssarily; for then he should produce things ad extremum virium, and so (besides these beings) produce all the possible beings producible by his glorious omnipotence; all the possible orders and congruities contrivable by his unsearchable wisdom; all the possible goodness effluxive out of his infinite goodness; and all the possible numbers which his infinite unity can bring forth into being, and produce them all as early as eternity itself; and all of them so produced must be necessary beings as well as God himself; in all which many great contradictions are involved. Wherefore, it remains that he did produce them voluntarily, and according to his own decree; the will of God was the first mover in this great work. It is true that the world is, as Damascene styles it, ὑπερβολὴ τῆς ἀγαθότητος τοῦ θεοῦ, a kind of redundance of God's infinite goodness; but not a drop of this goodness runs out ad extrà, but by his good pleasure. It is true that there is the various and admirable wisdom of God in this work, but that wisdom shows forth never an order or rank of being, unless it be taken into the divine decree, and so become "the counsel of his will, according to which he worketh all things." It is true that the eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen in the creation: but these had never shewn themselves at all, if the divine will had not spoken the word. God made all things "by the word of his power;" that is, the divine will eternally expressed to the divine power, what beings it should produce in time. It is true that all the numbers and hosts of beings τοῦ ἑνὸς μετέχει, they flow from him who is perfect unity; but not in the way of natural necessity, but of his free decree. Qui dicit, quare Deus fecit cœlum et terram? Respondendum est ei, quia voluit; qui autem dicit, quare voluit? majus aliquid quærit quàm est voluntas Dei: nihil autem majus inveniri potest. When the Psalmist made that general summons to the angels, heavens, sun, moon, stars, waters, dragons, deep, fire, hail, snow, vapours, wind, trees, beasts, cattle, creeping things, flying fowls, even all the hosts of nature to sing praises to their great maker, he added this as the supreme reason of all, "he commanded and they were created," (Psalm 148:5.) Sermo Dei voluntas est, opus Dei natura est. Unto whatsoever his will speaks a fiat, it comes forth into being; but if that be silent, not the least atom can appear. The Egyptian magicians cannot produce so much as the shadow or counterfeit semblance of a louse, but as men mazed and nonplused, they are forced to cry out, "This is the finger of God." (Exod. 8:19.) And what these wicked atheists mutter out touching this poor creature upon the rack of conviction, that the Catholic church confesses touching all the world in a triumphant gratulation. The twenty-four elders, in the name of all saints, falling down and worshipping before the throne of the everliving God, cry out, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created," (Rev. 4:11.) O thou divine will! thou art worthy to be adored in the angels above, and men below; in the luminaries of heaven and fruitfulness of earth; in the meteors of the air, and wonders of the deep; in the life of the plants, and senses of the beasts: at thy imperial word all these came pouring out of the barren womb of nothing; the births of their existence were all dated by thine hand; the dowries of their goodness were all given by thy love; the proprieties of their being were all stamped on them by thy ideal truth; and the various ranks and orders of their standing were all set out by thy glorious wisdom! O glorious Creator! who hast made all these things, go on one step further; create in us an admiring heart, which, by the scale of creatures, as by Jacob's ladder, may ascend higher and higher in the adorations of thee; when we are at the lowest step of all, I mean mere being, let us remember thee, the chief and first of beings; when at the second step, which is being with life, let us praise thee, the only fountain of life; when at the third, which is being and fife, crowned with sense, let us tremble at thee, the all-seeing and all-hearing Deity; when at the fourth, which is being, life and sense, irradiated with beams of reason, and empowered with liberty of will, let us adore thy infinite wisdom which contrived, and thy almighty will, which created all these things, and us to see thy glory in them; when at the highest step of all, angelical perfections, let us be lost in holy mazes and trances at thy infinitely purer glory, in comparison whereof, the very angels themselves are but as spotted lamps and duskish beauties. In a word; from the sublimest seraphim to the poorest worm, let us admire thee, humbly confessing that none can shew forth all thy praise.

CHAPTER VII: OF THE WORKS OF CONSERVATION AND GUBERNATION

HAVING briefly touched upon creation, I proceed to its appendants, conservation and gubernation. The almighty and allwise Creator is not as man, who builds a house or ship and leaves it, but like a faithful Creator, he repairs the house of the world by his conservation, and steers the ship of it by his gubernation, and that according to the counsel of his own will; aliter mundus nè per ictum oculi stare poterit, as the father expresses it.

And first, as touching conservation, I shall demonstrate four things:—

1. That no creature can preserve itself.

2. That no fellow-creature can preserve another.

3. That the preservation of all is from God.

4. That it is from God according to his decree.

1. That no creature can preserve itself; and this is clear.

1. From the creature's station; even the highest seraphim stands juxta non esse, at the brink of nullity, his being is between two nothings, nothing negative and nothing privative; and as his passage from nothing into being could not be without an infinite power creating; so his natural fall from being into nothing, would certainly be without an infinite power conserving. Creatura habet redire ad non esse à se; if God should but say to the highest angel, Tolle quod tuam est et abi, he must immediately away into nullity. All creatures by their natural vanity press downwards towards nothing, as their own centre, and none but the Almighty shoulders can bear them up in being.

2. From God's royal prerogative, which the scripture most emphatically deciphers out, as it were in figures of glory, "He only hath immortality," (1 Tim. 6:16.) as if there were none at all in angels and rational spirits: nay, there is None besides him, (1 Sam. 2:2.) as if there were no being at all in the creature. And the reason of these expressions is this: God hath being and immortality originally from himself, but the creature hath them but derivatively and in a dependence upon him; wherefore in comparison of his being, creatures are but nullities, and, in comparison of his immortality, angels are but smoke. But now if a creature could preserve itself in being, and so immortalise itself, it would become a self-subsistence, and consequently a God unto itself.

2. That no creature can preserve another, (I mean as a principal agent) and this is evident; for—

1. If one creature might so preserve another, it should be a God to it, yet so weak as not to preserve itself: but if it could preserve another, it must be by some transfusion of virtue into it, and that but finite, (for more a creature cannot give); and then if God transfuse as much virtue into the creature conserved as the creature conservant did, the creature conserved might subsist of itself, and be a God to itself.

2. The nature of conservation evinces this: what is it but an influx of being? Now suppose all the angels in heaven would try to guard the poorest worm in the earth, and that but for one moment only, what could they do towards an influx of being? Being only streams from God, as light from the sun. If the sun be gone, who can keep light in the air? If Jehovah withdraw, who can keep being in the creature? All the creatures are, as I so may say, sensible of this dependance, and look up to God for their preservation, (Psal. 104:27), which leads me to the next thing—

3. That the preservation of all is from God; as of him, so through him are all things, (Rom. 11:36), and this appears,

1. By a survey of all the creatures; angels are under God the strongest of spirits, but cannot subsist one moment without him; he is ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἁγγέλους, (Heb. 1:7), he is making the angels even to this day by a daily conservation; their immortality is a continual spiration from the Father of Spirits. The heavens are the strongest of bodies, yet cannot stand alone; God is הַבּיֹנֶה building his stories in the heavens, (Amos. 9:6), he is still a building of them, or else all those glorious arches would totter down; if he be but angry, the pillars of heaven tremble and are aghast (Job. 26:11). If he withdraw his hand, all the heavenly volumes pass away as a scroll, and out go the fair letters of sun, moon, and stars, in the twinkling of an eye. The earth is the centre of the world, and as to sense it hangs upon nothing, as if it were only poised by its own gravity; but this created centre is borne up by the infinite centre of all being, and as to faith and reason hangs upon him; "The pillars of it are the Lord's," (1 Sam. 2:8); "He by his strength setteth fast the mountains," (Psal. 65:6), or else they would be wavering towards nullity. The sea is a vast spreading element, but (lest it should be contracted into nothing) it is held in the hollow of his hand, (Isa. 40:12), and that imports no less than a preservative comprehension. All the numberless birds in the air, beasts in the earth, and fishes in the sea, wait on him for their preservation; the sending forth of his Spirit is their being, the opening of his hand their provision, and the shadow of his wings their protection; not a sparrow forgotten before him; not a poor fly without an infinite preserver. Man, who is the epitome of all the rest, cannot but own him. O how soon would the earthern pitcher break, if he did not keep it! how soon would the lamp of the soul go out, if he did not light it even every moment! Hence God is styled "the preserver of men," (Job 7:20), a most universal preserver, even from the utmost hairs which are numbered by him, (Matth. 10:30), unto the inmost spirit which is preserved by his visitation, (Job 10:12). Thus running through the whole catalogue of creatures we must conclude with St. Austin, Deus est per omnia diffusus, non ut qualitas mundi, sed ut substantia creatrix; sine labore regens, et sine onere continens omnia.

2. By the very nature of preservation, what is it but continuata creatio? God is still making the angels, and building the heavens; "My Father worketh hitherto, saith Christ," (John 5:17). He doth per intimam operationem continuò facere. Creatura (saith a famous schoolman) quamdiu est, creatura Deo, quia pro quolibet instanti habet esse à Deo. Preservation is but the ekeing out of creation, and therefore can be from no other but God alone. Omnia in illo subsistunt à quo creata sunt. But to pass on;

4. The preservation of all is from God, according to his decree; and this is evinced by these reasons.

1. Either God preserves creatures naturally or freely: not naturally, for then he should preserve them perpetually, and so every fly must run parallel in eternity with an angel; nor naturally, for then he should preserve them uniformly, and so every mortal body would subsist without food as well as the immaterial spirits; therefore, he preserves them freely. There are various ways of preservation, viz:—preservation of creatures as to their being, and as to their adjuncts of order, beauty, goodness, and truth; preservation of them as to their individuals and as to their kinds; preservation of individuals by means and without means: preservation of them in perpetuum, and for certain periods of time. Now, all this variety of preservations doth evidently display the glorious liberty of the divine will in the dispensing thereof. Angels are preserved in their individual beings, and that in perpetuum, and that without means; but the nodus perpetuitatis is the divine pleasure; or else their immortality would dissolve in a moment. Men, beasts, and vegetables are preserved in their individuals, but it is by means, and but for a time, and lest the kind should perish with the individuals; generation is a supplement to their mortality, and the ruler in all this is the will of God. As for preservation by means, it is God "who bringeth food out of the earth," (Psalm 104:14), and when it is in our hand we cannot eat thereof "unless God give us a heart," (Eccl. 6:2), and when we do eat thereof, it will not be the staff of life to us "without the word of his blessing," (Matt. 4:4): without this we may "eat and not be satisfied, drink and not be filled," (Hag. 1:6, 9). Every creature saith, The blessing is not in me, but in the will of God. As for the periods of preservation, they are all fixed in the divine decree: there the days of men are determined, their months numbered, and their unpassable bounds appointed. (Job 14:5). Hezekiah had fifteen years added to his days; but there was no addition to the divine decree. "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," (Ps. 55:23), yet they live out all the days set down in the divine decree. If a sparrow fall not without God's will, (Matt. 10:29), much less can a man do so; if our very hairs are all numbered, (Matt. 10:30), much more are our days. As for the preservation of kinds, all propagations are from that primitive benediction, Crescite et multiplicamini, which dropped from the divine will. Vegetables multiply, but it is God who gives to every seed his own body. (1 Cor. 15:38). Men and beasts generate their like, but it is God who sows a land with the seed of man and the seed of beast. (Jer. 31:27). The man written down childless in God's book, must be without the blessing of posterity; the member unwritten or left out in that book, must never be extant in nature. When monsters are brought forth, there is an aberration in the particular nature, but none in the will of God: when bastards are generated, (which cannot be without a moral monstrosity,) the sin is man's, but the creature is God's. In brief; if we run through all varieties of preservation, either as to the being of creatures, or as to the adjuncts of order, beauty, goodness, and truth, we must resolve all into the will of God. Alas! what is the mutable being of creatures, unless fixed by the will of the necesse esse? What are all the orders and harmonies of things, unless kept in tune by the counsel of his will? By him all things συνέστηκε, (Col. 1:17), not only subsist in their beings, but consist in their orders. His will is the virtus unitiva, which glues and tacks the whole system of heaven and earth together, or else all would unframe, and fall asunder in a moment. What an empty nothing is creature-beauty, unless shined upon by his gracious pleasure? It is he that reneweth the face of the earth, (Psalm 104:30), or else the spring would lose her fresh complexion; nay, and the face of heaven too, or else all the starry beauty-spots would drop off. What is all the goodness in the creature, unless supplied from the great original? It is but as water in a broken cistern, soon running out, and never to be gathered up again. What is all the truth in the creature, but an impress made from his ideal truth? The impress the creature can no more preserve in itself, than it could at first stamp it there. Wherefore the will of God is that vas conservativum, which preserves and contains all things within their beings and modes of being, or else they would immediately run into nullity.

2. Preservation is but continuata creatio; if creation had been natural, so must conservation have been too; but seeing creation is voluntary, such also is conservation: hence the twenty-four elders attribute both to God's pleasure; "For thy pleasure they are and were created." (Rev. 4:11). They were by his creation, and are by his conservation, and both were and are for his pleasure.

3. Whatsoever God preserves, he preserves rationally, and for some end; as he made all for himself, so he preserves all for himself. The heavens and the earth are by God's word kept in store, (2 Peter 3:7); his word, that is, his will, is the great storier, which treasures up the world with all its furniture for its own ends, God preserves all rationally, and by just consequence freely also. Thus far of God's conservation; but to proceed.

2. God's gubernation is also to be considered by us. Now here I shall touch on two things.

1. That God rules and governs all creatures and events.

2. That God doth it according to his decree.

1. God rules and governs all creatures and events. He is King of kings, (1 Tim. 6:15); his kingdom ruleth over all, (Psalm 103:19); διακυβερνᾶ, (Wisd. 14:3); he steers the ship of the world, and all the passengers in it; διοικε͂ί, (Wisd. 12:18); he orders the great house of the world, and all the families of creatures therein. All the hosts of the universe are ruled by him: the spiritual world is ruled by him, the holy angels are still a doing of his will; sometimes they are guarding the godly, sometimes destroying the wicked; sometimes transporting souls to heaven, sometimes striving with devils; but they are always beholding God's face, (Matt. 18:10), waiting for his imperial command as their perpetual rule. These have a great share in turning about the wheels of the world; when these stand still, the wheels stand also; when these go, the wheels go too: but these go not one step of their own heads, but whither the Spirit of God goes, they go, (Ezek. 1:12); and when they go, they go straight on to the period of their work, and then they return, (Ver. 14). that is, to the face of God for a new commission, and till that come, they let down their wings, (Ver. 24,) listening to his voice, and adoring at his footstool; all that they do is subordinated to his pleasure. Nay, not only the good angels, but the devils (will they, nill they) are subject unto him. They lost their obediential wings in their fall, and since that he never trusts them to go without their chains. Hence, without his divine sufferance, these, though princes of the air, cannot raise a storm; though gods of the world, cannot enter into a swine; though rulers of darkness, cannot inject a temptation: indeed, they would undermine the Father's election, cheat Christ of his purchased possession, and murder all the new creatures made by the Holy Spirit; but they cannot get off their chains; and when their chains are a little loosened, yet their actings fall under Providence. An evil spirit troubled Saul, but it was "from the Lord as a righteous Judge." (1 Sam. 16:14). Satan afflicted Job, but it was with a commission to try his graces; the devil tempted Christ, but it was "that he might succour the tempted." (Heb. 2:18). Which way soever Satan turns himself, still he is under God, as the supreme moderator. But the spiritual world is not all, the material world is also under his dominions; the τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως, the wheel of nature is all turned about by his counsel; the heavens, with all their luminaries, rapid wheelings, spinnings of time, and hovering indulgent influences are under his ordinance, his immense hand "spans them," (Isa. 48:19), at once twirling them about with an indefatigable motion, and squeezing out their quickening influences into the lower world; it is he ἀνατέλλει, (Matt. 5:45), raises up the sun to rule the day, and the moon and stars to rule the night; the air with all its meteors is at his command, he "maketh the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth," (Ps. 135:7), and forms them into clouds in an admirable and exact proportion, the airy and watery parts "balancing each other." (Job 37:16). These are the bottles of heaven; when he breaks a bottle, down comes a refreshing shower; when he turns and tosses a bottle, it is "by his counsel." (Job 37:12). The winds are all in God's hand, (Prov. 30:4); and when he lets out any of them, it is by weight, (Job 28:25); just so much, and no more; and it is to fulfil his will, (Ps. 148:8); and when one command is done, it returns by its circuits to execute another, (Eccl. 1:6). Thunder is God's majestic voice, and lightning his glittering arrow; both are at his beck, and say to him, Here we are, (Job 38:35). The treasures of snow and hail he purses up in the clouds, and those pay them out again according to his pleasure. The stupendous sea is but a little babe in his Almighty arms, clouds and darkness are its swadling-band, (Job 38:9), and the hollow of the earth its cradle; there he rocks and rules it as he pleaseth; if it cry and roar, he stills and rebukes it, till he lull it fast asleep in a calm. The vast earth is but instar puncti before him; at his command are all the living creatures; the greedy ravens were caterers for Elijah; untrained kine faithful carriers of the ark; the dumb ass a reprover to the prophet; clamorous dogs moved not their tongues at departing Israel; Laban's cattle change colour to pay Jacob's wages; Peter's fish brought tribute-money in his mouth; and when proud Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? an answer was sent him by wonderful hosts of frogs and flies, lice and locusts, proclaiming the sovereignty of their great Maker and Master. In sum, man is the epitome of all the rest, and in governing him God governs all; man hath an inward principality of reason and will, yet still he is under the Almighty and All-wise Moderator, who rules and disposes the hearts of men as he pleaseth. It was but his touch on their hearts, and Saul had a band. (1 Sam. 10:26). It was but his turning the key in Lydia's heart, and the gospel had entrance. (Acts 16:14). Titus went to the Corinthians αὐθαίρετος, (2 Cor. 8:17), a word importing high liberty, yet God put it into his heart, (Ver. 16). "The king's heart (and who can be freer than he?) is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters he turneth it whither he will," (Prov. 21:1). He turneth it whither he will, there is the sovereignty of providence; yet he turneth it as the rivers of waters, there is the salving of human liberty. For as when the husbandman leads the waters this and that way by channels and trenches, they lose nothing of their natural fluency; so when God turns the hearts of men to such and such objects, they part with nothing of their natural liberty. God is infinitely greater than our hearts, wiser than our reason, and freer than our liberty; therefore he is able and worthy to rule over us in our freest actions. Lastly, as his gubernative providence is over all creatures, so it is over all events, the greatest events are not above it. When kingdoms are tossed and bandied up and down like a tennis-ball, (Isa. 22:18), not one event can fly out of the bounds of providence; the smallest are not below it, not a sparrow falls to the ground without it, not a hair but it is numbered by it; he is maximus in minimis, the most natural effects are but casual, till his free concourse makes them certain. The iron with all its gravity is not sure to sink, (2 Kings 6:6), the fire with all its fury is not sure to burn, (Dan. 3:27). The most casual effects are not casual to him; when the lot is cast into the lap, "the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," (Prov. 16:33). When a bow was "drawn at a venture," (1 Kings 22:34), providence sent it as a certain messenger of death to the king of Israel. Thus far I have been surveying the hosts of creatures and events; I now proceed to demonstrate that God is the great and universal governor over them all; for

1. He hath an absolute authority over all; his just title is King of kings and Lord of lords; all the sphere of nature and world of creatures was of his making; he that ruled over nullity itself in their creation, is worthy to rule over all creatures by his providence, but because authority is liveless without presence, therefore,

2. His presence is everywhere; creatures lie in the shell of time and place, angels have their definitive ubi; the body of Christ, which subsists in an infinite person, is circumscribed by a finite place; but God is everywhere present, he is higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than time, and greater than place; and who like him to be universal governor? If he were only on the throne of heaven, how should the footstool of the earth be ordered? If his hand only spanned the celestial spheres, what should the sea do? But he is everywhere; where ever any creature is, there is I AM supporting and governing it. But, because power is the crown of presence, therefore,

3. He is Almighty, "the only potentate," (1 Tim. 6:15), "power belongs to him, nay, ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος," (Eph. 1:19)," a pleonasm of power, such as can do ὑπὲρ πάντα ὑπὲρ ἐκ περισσοῦ," (Eph. 3:20), super-excessively above all thoughts of men. No wonder then if the omnipotent reign; who should reign else? He can "call things that are not," (Rom. 4:17), even a world of creatures out of the barren womb of nullity, and a church of new creatures out of the dead womb of nature. He is a God "doing wonders," (Exod. 15:11). Wonders to us, but none to himself, for all things are easy to omnipotence: his government can have no blemishes, because his power can have no obstacles. But because power's hands cannot be without wisdom's eyes, therefore,

4. He is infinite in wisdom to manage all. He is a God of knowledge, (1 Sam. 2:3), seeing the thoughts afar off, even from the high arch of eternity. He hath treasures of wisdom, such as cannot be told over; Sapientiæ ejus non est numerus, (Ps. 147:6), and who should rule but the only wise? If we cast our eyes on the millions of creatures, angels above, and men below; stars in heaven, and living creatures in earth and sea; and all these pouring forth millions of acts, and falling under millions of events, and that from the morning to the evening of the world; surely nothing less than an infinite understanding can comprehend all these, and reach à fine usque ad finem. (Wisd. 8:1). If we ponder the beautiful timings, harmonious orders, and sweet compaginations of things: the heavens hear the earth, the earth hears the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and these hear man, (Hos. 2:21). Surely it must be an allwise artist who made these golden chains, and stands at the uppermost link ordering all. I will hear the heavens, saith he, or else all the creatures would turn a deaf ear to one another. He guides every wheel in nature, and when there is a wheel within a wheel, never so much intricacy and crossness of motion, yet the wheels are full of eyes, (Ezek. 1:18), directing them to their journey's end, and those eyes are always open to perpetuate that direction. St. Austin derides the gods in the Roman capitol, Dii dormiebant, Anseres vigilabant; but divine providence is ἀκοίμητος ὀφθαλμὸς, an eye that never slumbers nor sleeps; his waky wisdom claims an universal government over all: but that which makes up his imperial crown is.

5. His perfect unity. His sovereign authority, glorious omnipresence, almighty power and infinite wisdom are his crown jewels; but that which completes and makes up all these into a crown is his unity; he is Unus, nay Unicus, nay Unissimus, his singularity cannot bear a compeer, nor his simplicity a compound; if there were either of these, what would become of the government of the world? Suppose a compeer; then one omnipresent might resist the other, one Almighty counterwork the other, and one all-wise counterplot the other. Suppose a compound; then his power might go one way, his wisdom another, and his presence might withdraw from both. But now he being one God, one in singularity, so that there is none else, and one in simplicity, so that his presence, power, and wisdom are but one essence in him, he and only he is worthy to govern all: Omnis multitudo revocanda est ad unitatem, and perfect unity is no where to be found but in him alone. Thus much for the first point; but to go on;

2. God rules all according to his decree, he works all things according to the counsel of his own will, (Eph. 1:11); he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth, (Psa. 135:6.) That which escapes the pleasure of his will, must first fly out of the sphere of nature. Now this I evince by these reasons:

1. All those rare jewels of his imperial crown, cemented in his perfect unity, do shew forth their lustre according to his will; because his will put forth a world out of nothing, therefore doth his sovereign authority give laws to it, and his glorious omnipresence fill and cherish it, his infinite wisdom ministers to the making of his gubernative decree, and his almighty power ministers to the executing of it. There are infinite orders and congruities lying in wisdom's breast, but his will chooses out of them all what it pleaseth, and so makes up its decree; there are infinite possibles within power's arms, but his power only exerts itself according to his decree: wherefore it is plain that God governs all according to his decree.

2. The various ways of government set forth the freedom of the governor; all things are not ruled in the same way: matter is ruled by forms, bodies by spirits, inferior bodies by celestial, the visible world by invisible angels, angels and spirits immediately by God himself. Neither do the same things always keep the same track; in Joshua's time, the glorious sun did make a stand; in Daniel's time, the fire did not burn; in Elisha's time, the iron swam, as if it had forgot its centre; in Moses's time, the floating sea stood up as a rock, and the flinty rock flowed as a sea; in Christ's time, oh, what excesses of nature! what actings by prerogative! what epiphanies of divine glory! How many wonderful ways did the divine will triumph over the order of nature, evidently demonstrating that the supreme order of all was in itself alone? If the God of nature did govern naturally, all the wheels would move one way, and in one road; wherefore the variety of motions doth display the liberty of the first mover or governor.

3. The government of all things is no other than the efficacious direction of them by congruous means to their supreme end, and that is done by the divine will alone; the end of all is the manifestation of his glory, and this his will freely embraceth. I say, freely; for the all-sufficient God was under no necessity to manifest himself, the congruous means are all of his own choice, and that out of the infinite mass of 'wisdom in himself; and the efficacious direction of all by those means to that end is according to his decree. God had designed preferment to Joseph; but first he lay bleeding under the murderous intentions of his brethren, then he was sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites, afterwards he was wretchedly accused by his mistress, rashly imprisoned by his master, and ungratefully forgotten by the chief butler; and yet after all these windings and turnings of providence, this is the worshipful sheaf, the ruler over Egypt, and the wise preserver of Jacob and all his posterity in the famine. There are millions of creatures which know not what an end means, but a divine intelligence conducts them thither; millions of events casual, as to us, but the divine will hath fixed them; millions of acts free, as to us, but the divine liberty is above them: millions of confusions dark, as to us, but the divine decree orders them. In all, God is alpha and omega, the first mover and the last end, the wise contriver and sure moderator of every thing for his own glory, according to the counsel of his own will.

O thou divine will! the tender nurse and sweet disposer of all, thou bearest up the pillars, and turnest about the wheels of the universe; the guide of every creature to its journey's end is thy wise ordination, and the safe conduct of it thither is thy gracious preservation. The swiftest angel cannot fly out of thy dominions, and the poorest worm hath a safe abode within them. Thou hast an eye in every wheel, an order in every ataxy, and a line in every confusion: without thee all beings would moulder into nothing; congruous means prove vain abortions, and nature's harmonies jangle into sad confusions. Without thee the breath of the living is but a puff of vanity, the reason of the intelligent but a snuff in the socket, and the liberty of the free but a dead broken idol. Shouldest thou but for one moment withdraw thy hand, oh! what a tumbling cast would there be among the angels! what a crack in the heavenly orbs! what a chaos in the elements! what a strange doomsday by the blending of sun and sea, heaven and earth together! Thou, O Divine will, art all in all; thy wisdom is a wakeful eye, thy power a supporting centre, thy presence a lively cherisher, thy authority a supreme law-giver, and thy pleasure an universal orderer to all the world. Oh, that there were such a heart in us as to eye thy wisdom in every wheel, own thy power in every preservation, awe thy presence in every place, acknowledge thy authority in every law, and submit to thy pleasure in every event; always praying, Fiat voluntas tua, which cannot be perfectly prayed sine infimâ humilitate et attissimâ charitate.

CHAPTER VIII: OF THE WORK OF REDEMPTION

I HAVE now passed over the work of creation, with its appendices of conservation and gubernation; but behold! a greater than creation is here,—stupendous redemption, the wonder of angels and envy of devils; at which creation starts back and gives up its sabbath. I am come to the tree of life growing in paradise, hanging full of pardons and graces, and spreading forth a broad and indefective shadow of merits over sinful worms. I am now at the pure well of salvation, springing out of the deity of the Son of God, issuing through the bleeding wounds of his humanity, and filling every vessel of faith. I am now to open my eyes upon the most tremendous mystery that ever was; God in the flesh, the brightness of glory under a veil, the fulness of the Godhead tabernacling in dust, and a sun of infinite light and lustre clothed in sackcloth in his incarnation, and turned into blood in his passion. Oh! for some illapses of that holy Spirit which takes the things of Christ and shews them in their spiritual glory.

Redemption may be thus described; it is the procuring of freedom for a captive by a price paid by him who is to redeem, and accepted by him who is the supreme detainer in that behalf, that the captive may be delivered out of a state of captivity into a state of liberty, according to the wills of the payer and receiver of that price. I say, it is the procuring freedom: actual freedom is the crowning issue of redemption; but the procuring of freedom is an essential ingredient in it. Hence Christ is said to "obtain eternal redemption for us," (Heb. 9:12). It is the procuring of freedom for a captive; free men are not capable of it, but captives only; and such are all men become by sin. They owed ten thousand talents to God as the great creditor; and, traitor-like, they rebelled against God as the great law-giver; and for those debts and rebellions, God, as a righteous judge, συνέκλεισε, "shut them up in the prison of wrath," (Rom. 11:32.) It is the procuring of freedom for a captive by a price, not by mere power, but by a price: when it is procured by mere power, it is but a naked deliverance; but when it is procured by a price, then it is a true proper redemption. Hence, in the Evangelical Charter we find λύτρον, a price; and that which issues from it is ἁπολύτρωσις, true proper redemption. Again; it is the procuring of freedom for a captive by a price paid by him who is to redeem, and accepted by him who is the supreme detainer in that behalf; for if it be not paid, it is no price; if it be not paid by him who is to redeem, he cannot be a redeemer; the detainer must accept of it in that behalf, or else no freedom can be justly procured; and the supreme detainer must accept of it, for not the jailor or fetters, which are but under detainers, but the creditor and law-giver, who is the supreme detainer, must receive satisfaction, or else the captive cannot be justly released. And all these are couched together by the apostle; "Christ gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour," (Eph. 5:2). Christ! there is he who was to redeem; gave himself an offering and a sacrifice, there is the price paid down by him; to God, there is the supreme detainer; the jailor, Satan; and the fetters of guilt are but under-detainers, but God is the supreme, and must have satisfaction; and for a sweet-smelling savour, there is the price accepted by God in that behalf. Lastly; the end of all is, that the captive may be delivered out of a state of captivity into a state of liberty, according to the wills of the payer and receiver; redemption moves towards the actual deliverance of the captive, as its proper centre; and that actual deliverance comes forth according to the wills of the payer and receiver, as its rule and measure. If their wills be, that upon the very payment and acceptance of the price the captive should be ipso facto delivered, then he is delivered without any more ado; but if their wills be that the captive should be delivered but upon certain conditions to be by him first performed, then he is not delivered till after the performance thereof. Thus the redemption wrought by Christ moves towards the actual deliverance of sinful captives, and that actual deliverance, according to the will of the Father and the Son, comes forth not immediately upon the payment and acceptance of the price, but upon faith and repentance, which are the terms of the gospel. Hence the apostles testified, "Repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21). Hence, also, those expressions of "Propitiation through faith in his blood," (Rom. 3:25), and of "receiving the atonement," (Rom. 5:11); which, with many more, shew us the terms upon which actual deliverance comes forth into being. Now in this discourse of redemption, I shall gather up all under four heads:

1. The captive.

2. The captivity.

3. The redeemer.

4. The price.

1. The captive is fallen man; and here two things are considerable.

1. Man fallen, in opposition to man standing.

2. Man fallen, in opposition to fallen angels.

1. Man fallen, in opposition to man standing; Man, as he came out of his Maker's hands, was a spotless creature, his mind a pure lamp of knowledge, his will a throne for the Holy One, his heart a sanctuary of all graces, his affections all in harmony with the rational faculties, the image of God sparkling within him, and the favour of God sunning him round about. Here all was freedom, no chain but that of graces, no bands but cords of love, no prison but a paradise, no captive but the Lord's freeman; the least drop of wrath could not fall on him here. But alas! how soon was this star shot; man turned from God, and God departed from man, and instantly the captive appeared all in chains of sin and wrath; his lamp went out in obscure darkness, Satan ascended up into the throne, the fire of lust rose up in the sanctuary, the affections were all in a mutiny against the upper powers, and the whole man became a prisoner under sin and wrath; and all this because he left τὴν ἄρχην, his original state of rectitude and holiness.

2. Man fallen in opposition to fallen angels: when man, though but an earthen pitcher, fell from God, the whole Trinity seemed to be moved at it: the bowels of the Father yearned over him, and as not content with inward compassions, grace breaks out at the lips of the Son, "Unto you, O men, do I call," saith the eternal Word, (Prov. 8:4), and because words, such as made a world, could not do it, ἐπιλαμβάνεται, (Heb. 2:16), he catches hold of the human nature, and rather than fail, he would live and bleed and die in it for our redemption; and lest after all this man should not catch hold of his own salvation, out comes the Holy Spirit to make sure work of it in an application of it unto us, Φεύγουσαν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πόῤῥω φεύγουσαν, ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν Χρισὸς καταδιώξας κατέλαβεν, saith St. Chrysostome. When mankind fled, and fled far from Christ, he pursued and caught hold of it; but when those vessels of gold, the angels dropped out of heaven, there was no such matter; the Father's bowels, though of immense largeness, were shut up, not a thought of mercy rose in his heart towards them; the Son's lips, which dropped sweet-smelling myrrh unto men, let fall never a syllable of comfort unto them, he saw them tumbling down from heaven, yet caught not hold of them: the Holy Spirit would not stir a foot to recover τὴν ἅρχην, their original rectitude for them again, that so they might be capable of staying in the holy heavens, but down they must into chains of darkness, such as for ever shut out every glimpse of mercy. But why a philanthropy rather than a philangely? Why a redemption for men and not for devils? Here men give their conjectures. Man, say some, sinned by seduction, but devils by self-motion: in the fall of men, say others, all the human nature fell, but in the fall of angels, all the angelical nature fell not. Others allege, that the sin of angels was more damnable than man's, because their nature was more sublime than his. Others yet affirm, that men are capable of repentance, but devils not, because whatever they once choose, they do immobiliter velle; the devil sinneth from the beginning, (1 John 3:8.) it is not said, he sinned, but he sinneth; because, from his first apostacy, he sinneth on incessantly. But alas, who can limit the Holy One? Might not his boundless mercy have saved the self-tempted devils? What, if his devouring justice had broke out against devil-seduced men, nay, against all the race of men? Who should accuse him for the nations that perish, which he hath made and sin hath marred? (Wisd. 12:12.) Could not the blood of God have washed out the blackest spots of fallen angels? Was not the Almighty Spirit of grace able to melt a devil into repentance? Had we poor worms been to dispute with the devil about the body of Christ, as Michael did with him about the body of Moses, O how easily would he have reasoned us out of our Redeemer! What, would he have said, shall the tender bowels of God be let down to you on earth and restrained to us in heaven? Will the all-wise God repair his clay images in the dunghill of the lower world, and neglect his fairer pictures once hung up in his own palace of glory? May not the Son of God be a Redeemer at an easier rate, without stepping a foot out of his Father's house, and will he travel down so far as an incarnation? How much better were it for him to spot himself with an assumed cherubim, than to take flesh into his glorious person? But the great God hath neither given angels a day to plead for a Redeemer, nor man a licence to pry into his ark. Wonder then, O man, at this astonishing difference made by the divine will alone! Angels must be damned, and men may be saved; golden vessels are irreparably broken, and earthen pots are set together again; inmates of glory drop to hell, and dust and ashes fly up to heaven. When I consider thy heavens and the stars glistering there, "Lord, what is man, that thou mindest him?" (Psa. 8:4); but when I consider thy heaven of heavens, and thy angels dropping from thence into utter darkness, Lord, what is man that thou savest him? Misericordiâ Domini plena est terra; quare; nun dictum est, plenum est cœlum? quia sunt spirituales nequitiæ in cœlestibus, sed non illæ ad commune jus indulgentiæ Dei, remissionémque peccatorum pertinent, as holy Ambrose expresses it. Even so gracious Father, because so it seemeth good in thy sight. Thus having found the right captive I pass on,

2. To the captivity; and this I shall set out in three things.

1. The chains.

2. The prison.

3. The jailor.

As for the first, I shall first touch upon the chains themselves, and then upon the distinct links thereof.

1. The chains themselves are no other than original and actual sin.

1. Original sin is a very heavy chain; and here I shall view,

1. The upper end of this chain, I mean, that first sin of eating the forbidden fruit, called in the schools peccatum originale originans: here there was truly magnum in parvo, a vast world of sin in a small act. There was an idol of self-excellency a framing, and to adorn it, a concupiscencial stealth of the forbidden fruit; and in this stealth a bloody homicide, a slaying of all human nature at one blow; and which is more, a kind of deicide too, a slaying (as much as in man lay) even of God himself; the pride of this primordial sin snatching at God's excellency, the unbelief stabbing at his truth, the rebellion fighting against his sovereignty, the ingratitude trampling his goodness under foot, and the presumption, as it were, daring out his justice into warlike arms; and all this contra præceptum tam breve ad retinendum, tam leve ad observandum. This is the upper end of this chain, and it reaches down to us all; for in him we all sinned. (Rom, 5:12). The sweetest Bonaventure cannot say, In Adamo non peccavi: for Adam was not here considered as a private person, but as the root and head of mankind; Adam's person was the fountain of ours, and his will the representative of ours; we were all in him naturally as latent in his loins, and legally too as comprised within the covenant made with him; therefore we all sinned in his sin. "Omnes nos unus ille Adam," saith one father; "Genus humanum in primo parente velut in radice computruit," saith another. But that of Nazianzen is fullest of spiritual sense, who cries out, "O, infirmitatem meam! meâ enim duco primi parentis infirmitatem." If any reply, But how could we sin in Adam? I answer, that our human nature was in him, and why might it not sin there? You will say, it could not, for want of a will; I answer, that our wills were put into Adam's by that covenant which was made with him for himself and all his posterity. If one man may put his will into another man's will in a compromise, why may not God, who is more lord of our wills than ourselves, put all our wills into Adam's by a covenant? and here God did it with abundant equity, because our wills were put into Adam's as well for the obtaining blessedness upon his obedience, as for the incurring punishment upon his disobedience.

2. The lower end of this chain, the universal depravation of nature, called peccatum originale originatum; this hangs upon the former, all habitual sin hath an essential relation to some actual sin precedent. It is impossible that one should be a sinner habitually, who in no kind sinned actually. If Adam had not sinned actually, he had never been habitually vitiated; nay, if we had not sinned in his sin, we had never been so. This original depravation is the sinning sin, the body of sin, a body in our souls, flesh in our spirits, a veil on our eyes, a plague in our hearts, and a root of bitterness in our whole nature; this turns our minds into dungeons of darkness, our wills into gulphs of sin, our memories into leaking vessels, our fancies into forges of vanity, our affections into chambers of imagery, our members into weapons of unrighteousness, and our whole man into a man of sin; insomuch that, "To be carnal is to walk κατʼ ἄνθρωπον," (1 Cor. 3:3). When we are formed in the womb, this chain lies upon us, even in primo ardore, in the first warmth of natural conception, (Psalm 51:5). And when Christ is formed in our hearts, this chain presses so hard upon the spiritual embryo, that as soon as ever it begins to live, it falls a sighing and groaning with tears, Oh, my hard heart! Oh, my unbelieving heart! Oh, my carnal, sensual heart! "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:24). Nay, the very philosophers themselves, (who never kenned so far as the top of this chain, I mean Adam's sin,) yet seem to feel the weight of it. Wherefore sometimes they complain of a sepulchrum corporis, as if σῶμα were become σῆμα, a grave to the soul; and sometimes they cry out of a defluvium pennarum, as if the soul had lost her wings. Whither also may be referred the Trismegists indumentum inscitiæ, pravitatis fundumentum, corruptions vinculum, velamen opacum; with many such like expressions touching the weight and pressure of this chain, involving men in a horrid slavery and captivity.

2. Besides the chain of original sin, there is that of actual; the whole world ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται, (1 John, 5:19), lies in wickedness, as a slave in his chains. Oh! the open profaneness, secret hypocrisies, spiritual wickednesses, carnal pollutions, daring presumptions, faltering infirmities; impieties against God, unrighteousness against men, vast armies and hosts of sin which cover the world. As original sin turns man into a man of sin; so actual sin turns the world into a world of sin. This is a long chain reaching from Adam's fall to the world's period, and from first to last enwrapping captives all along.

2. The links of the chains are considerable, and those are three great ones.

1. The first link is macula peccati, the stain of sin; this is the filth of the chain, a brand of deformity on the naked captive. God is the beauty of holiness, and there is no turning from him without a blot: God is a sun of infinite light, and there is no holding up our hands against him without casting a dark shadow on our faces. Every sin is a filthiness; if it be a brutish lust, it is μολυσμὸς σαρκὸς, filthiness of flesh; if a spiritual wickedness, it is μολυσμὸς πνεύματος, filthiness of spirit, as the apostle distinguisheth, (2 Cor. 7:1.) Nay, that which is filthiness of flesh in the external commission of the act, is yet filthiness of spirit in the internal commaculation of the soul. The wicked cast out mire and dirt, and the more they cast out in the transient acts of sin, the more there is within in the abiding spot of it. When the act of sin is passed and gone, the spot and stain thereof stays behind, and denominates us υίοὺς ἀπειθείας, children of disobedience.

2. The second link is reatus peccati, the guilt of sin, a dreadful link chaining the naked captive to divine wrath, fastened within him by the desert of sin, and bound upon him by the justice of God; and hence he becomes τέκνον ὀργῆς, a child of wrath. No sooner doth he turn from God as his law-giver, but he meets him as his judge, and that in the face; The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Whilst he flies, extra ordinem præcepti; he falls, intra ordinem justitiæ, the wages of sin is death.

3. The third link is regnum peccati, the reign of sin; sin is an absolute tyrant over us; his laws are all writ in letters of blood, his strong holds are in our very reasons. (2 Cor. 10:4, 5.) His throne is in our wills, his winged chariot in our affections, his weapons in our earthly members, and our whole man is δοῦλος ἁμαρτίας, the slave of sin, (John. 8:34.)

2. The next thing in the captivity is the prison, and that is the wrath of God. But here we must distinguish the walls from the dungeon, the walls are very strong and dreadful, infinite justice and holiness are the flaming cherubims that guard them; and the hand-writing upon them is, A curse to the sinner and woe to the works of inquity. The poor captive, as long as his chains are unbroken, lies within these walls ὑπόδικος τῷ Θεῷ, under the judgment of God." (Rom. 3:19). "Wrath abides upon him," (John 3:36), a sad state. Nevertheless, whilst but here, he is a prisoner of hope, a captive capable of redemption. The dungeon is hell itself, a place of darkness, a gulf of unquenchable fire, a bottomless pit of perdition, into which impenitent sinners are still a sinking deeper and deeper, without any hope of ascending out of it; when the captive is once here, the utmost farthing will be exacted of him.

3. The last thing in the captivity is the jailor, even Satan, and he doth three things.

1. He takes the captive into his custody, the natural man's heart becomes his palace, and every room in it is full of hellish furniture; not the turret of reason, nay, not the relics of the divine image left free, but have, as a learned bishop speaks, habitatorem diabolum; and it appears that a proud devil dwells under the same roof, because men seek to be justified thereby.

2. He keeps on the captive's chains, he soothes up the old man, as if there were no such thing as a new creature, and natters the earthly members as if there were no such place as heaven; he blows up the miserable captive into proud reflexes, as if he had reason enough to span all mysteries, and will enough to teem all graces out of the dead womb of nature. He stands at the right hand of original corruption, brooding and fly-blowing corrupt nature into concupiscences, concupiscences into acts, acts by iteration into habits and customs, which are a second corrupt nature; and all this while he keeps the house in peace, that the captive may sleep on in his chains. And if the chains rattle too much in crying scandals, he lines them with some moralities; if legal convictions make them too hot, he sprinkles and cools them with some presumptions of mercy; if they be weighty and pressing upon conscience, he lightens them with some forms of Godliness; if, after all this, the captive will yet awake, he shall, if Satan can do it, Dives-like open his eyes in torments, and desperation shall swallow him up for ever. He works all manner of ways in men, that he may keep on their chains, and add one link of filth and guilt to another.

3. He keeps the captive, as much as in him lies, within the walls of the prison. Oh, what serpentine windings! what circumventing methods! what untraceable depths! What lying promises! what shews of happiness doth he use to keep them there! He is well content to allow the ambitious one his pinnacles of honour, the covetous his bags of mammon, the voluptuous his paradise of carnal pleasures, the curious his fine-spun cobwebs of school notions, every captive his peccatum in deliciis, his beloved corruption, so as they will but stay where they are, in a state of wrath.

3. Having seen the captive and captivity, let us pass on to consider the Redeemer; and here I would first premise that no creature could redeem us out of this captivity. Sin is an infinite evil, objectively infinite; it is a fighting against an infinite majesty, a striving against infinite sovereignty, an enmity to infinite holiness, a provocation to infinite justice, a Deicidium, a striking at the very life and being of God; God hath no other opposite but sin, and were it possible that the least drop of it could get into him, he would instantly cease to be God; and now where shall God have satisfaction for such an evil as this? Shall the brutal world be a sacrifice for the rational? Alas! "the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin." Can the captive do ought in it? Can he wear off his chains with repentant tears, or work them off with after-holiness? Alas! the captive is in love with his chains, and therefore at a vast distance from repentance and holiness. But if he had both, doubtless those repentant tears would be black or salt in some measure, and therefore want a laver; that holiness, in comparison of spotless perfection, would be but as a filthy rag, and therefore want a cover. But suppose he had such tears as are the pure blood of a filial heart without any blackness or saltness in them, and such holiness as is pure linen, fine and white, without any spot in it; yet all this must be of free grace, and nothing of his own; and then, how can he who sins ex proprio, satisfy ex alieno? But admit that these graces were his own, too; yet how can finite graces satisfy for an infinite evil? There is no proportion at all between finite and infinite. But you will say, Sin is infinite objectively; and so are repentance and holiness, too; therefore they may satisfy for sin. I answer; The difference is vast, for sin is measured by the object; and therefore, being against an infinite God, is in a sort infinite; but satisfaction is measured by the subject, and therefore repentance and holiness being subjectively finite cannot satisfy for sin. But you will yet reply, These graces flow from an infinite Spirit, and therefore may satisfy for sin. I answer; This is the grand disproportion between those works which Christ works for us as a surety, and those works which the Spirit works in us as a sanctifier: in the first, there is God and man in one person, and therefore they are of an infinite dignity; but not so in the second, and therefore they are but of a finite value. The forlorn captive can by no means help himself, and what shall he do? Shall he pray in aid of the holy angels? But Oh! what trembling fits would there be in them! What paleness in the cherubims at such a task! But suppose they could all be induced to become a sacrifice for us, would the Holy One open his eyes upon such a satisfaction? But if he did, what would become of them? How soon would our debts empty all their coffers, and God's wrath break all their backs, and who should redeem these redeemers? Therefore every creature must say, it is not in me to redeem. This premised, the Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Immanuel, the Word made flesh, the man God's fellow, the great Trismegist, a royal priest, priestly prophet, and prophetical king, all in one; a priest upon his throne, a conqueror on his cross, a healer by his wounds. Oh! could we see his glory, his head is a fountain of holy oil, his hairs woolly with eternity, his eyes flaming with omniscience, his feet brassed with invincible power, his robe of righteousness as long and broad as the law, his girdle of truth all of pure gold, his heart graven with the names of saints, and his tender bowels shewing themselves through his bleeding wounds. This is the Saviour of the world, and Redeemer of man, this is he; and he hath a threefold right to be so.

1. Jus proprietatis, as God.

2. Jus idoneitatis, as the Son of God.

3. Jus conjunctionis, as man, as a surety for men, and as a head to his church.

1. Jus proprietatis, as God, who should redeem a creature but the true owner? And who is he but God the Creator? Ovem perditam quis requirit, (says Tertullian) nonne qui perdidit? Quis autem perdidit, nonne qui habuit? Quis autem habuit, nonne cujus fuit? Homo non alterius res est quàm Creatoris. He that is ἀληθῶς ὁ σωτὴρ, truly a Saviour (as the expression is, John 4:42,) must be God indeed. Should one mere creature redeem another, he should ipso facto pluck away a creature from his creator, inasmuch as redemption is a greater tie than creation. Now Jesus Christ, who came to redeem us, is very God, not a metaphorical but the true God, (1 John 5:20), not a petty, but the great God, (Tit. 2:13), not an under subordinate God, but over all God blessed for ever, (Rom. 9:5), not a God by office but a Jehovah, (Jer. 23:6), a God by nature; though not αὐτουιὸς, as to his subsistence, yet αὐτοθεὸς, as to his essence. God's name is in him. (Exod. 23:21.) One great letter of that name is eternity, and his going forth was from everlasting, (Mic. 5:2); another is immutability, and he is yesterday, to-day, and for ever the same, (Heb. 13:8); another is omniscience, and he knoweth all things, (John 21:17); another is omnipotence, and "he hath all the power in heaven and earth," (Matt. 28:18); another is immortality, and "he hath life in himself," (John 5:26); another is immensity, and he whilst on earth was in heaven," (John 3:13), and though long since ascended to heaven, "is still on earth." (Matt. 28:20.) All these golden letters are graven on the Godhead, and πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα της θεότητος, "all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him," (Col. 2:9), all these shed forth a divine glory and majesty, and he is ἀπαύγασμα τες δόξης, "the brightness of divine glory," (Heb. 1:3), and what need we more witnesses of his Deity? His name is wonderful, (Isa. 9:6), far above all creatures; his generation is unutterable, being ἰδιος υἱὸς, "the proper Son of the Father," (Rom. 8:32), not as creatures made ex nihilo, but as a proper Son begotten out of his very substance: his standing is ἐν μορφῆ θεοῦ, "in the essential form of God, the very divine nature," (Phil. 2:6), and his special ubi there is "the Father's bosom," (John. 1:18), and from thence together with him he breathes forth the Holy Ghost. His works are divine and all one with the Father's. (John 5:19.) He sat in counsel with him in framing his eternal decrees, and since wrought with him in making first a world of creatures and then a church of saints; and still he works with him in the preservation and gubernation of both. Lastly, his two testaments, which face each other as the cherubims upon the ark, by their sweet glances and respective aspects upon each other do disclose his Deity. For in the Old Testament it is said, that "Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt," (Exod. 20:2), in the New Testament it is said, that "Christ did it," (Jude 4, 5 v.); in the Old, "Jehovah circumcises the heart," (Deut. 30:6), in the New, "Christ doth it," (Col. 2:11); in the Old, "Jehovah poured out the Spirit," (Joel 2:28), in the New," Christ," (Acts 2:33); in the Old, "every knee bows to Jehovah," (Isa. 45:23), in the New, "to Christ," (Rom. 14:11); in the Old, "miracles were done in Jehovah's name," (2 Kings 2:21); in the New, "in Christ's," (Acts 9:34); in the Old, "Jehovah is the first and the last," (Isa. 44:6), in the New, Christ is alpha and omega," (Rev. 1:11); in the Old "there is, Deus absconditus," (Isa. 45:15), in the New, "Deus manifestatus in carne," (1 Tim. 3:16). All which do most pregnantly prove the Deity of Christ unto us. Nevertheless, proud reason will be babbling, How can the Father beget the Son ex proprià substantiâ? Can any part of the divine essence be discinded in such a generation? or if not, can the whole be given to the Son? and if so, how is it retained to the Father? I answer: the Father gave unto the Son the whole Essence, non alienatione sed communicatione, non generatione emanante, sed immanente; the Father so begets the Son, as that he still possesses him, (Prov. 8:22), the Son so goes forth from the Father as that he still abides in him; his eternal egress, (Micah 5:2), is κατὰ μονὴν, not by defluxion, but immansion; "I am in the Father and the Father in me," saith Christ, (John 14:10.) Indeed, if we speak accurately, the Father begets the Son out of himself, rather in essentiâ divinâ, that ex essentiâ divinâ. Hence the entire essence is in the Father, and the entire essence is in the Son too: and what if it could not be thus in a finite essence? yet why may it not be so in an infinite? What if reason cannot fathom it? must therefore faith reject it? I conclude then, that Christ is very God, and as God, hath a light to redeem us his creatures.

2. Jus idoneitatis, as the Son of God, he was most fit to be our Redeemer; what can be more perfectly congruous than reconciliation by God's beloved one, adoption by his natural son, reparation of his gracious image by his substantial, a shine of favour by the brightness of his glory, beams of light by his wisdom, restitution of life by the prince of life, and mediation between God and man by the middle person in the sacred Trinity? There be three great goings forth of God, into which all others may be resolved: the first is that fundamental one of creation, and upon sin's entry, which is but an apostacy from creation, in comes the second, viz. redemption, and out of this, as out of a fountain, flows the third, and that is sanctification; these hang in order one upon another. Unless there had been a creature, and that apostate, there had been no place for redemption; and unless there had been a redemption, there had been no room for sanctification; for God would never have re-implanted his image of holiness in a creature left under the eternal stroke of his justice, nor have plucked away the spot of sin there, where the guilt of sin is left behind. Now albeit it is a most sure rule, that opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa; yet among divines, creation is in a sort peculiarized to the Father as the first, redemption to the Son as the second, and sanctification to the Spirit, as the third person in the glorious Trinity. Thus in these three goings forth of God, each person in the Trinity hath his special shine, and that in the very order of his subsistence; wherefore it was very congruous that the Son, of all the persons in the Trinity, should be our Redeemer.

3. Jus conjunctions; he that redeems a captive must be persona conjuncta with him, and so was Christ with us in a three-fold respect.

1. Conjunctione naturali, he was our goel, (Isa. 59:20), that is, our next kinsman by his incarnation, and our Redeemer by his passion; he assumed our nature into himself that he might redeem us; μέγας θεὸς was made μικρὸν βρεφὸς, the great God a suckling child; regens sidera, yet sugens ubera, he that ruled the stars sucked the breasts. "The word was made flesh," (Joh. 1:14), and a strange making it was; all other creations are, as it were, extra Deum, but here was a creation in the very person of God. The glorious Trinity in the very instant of drawing the human nature ex nihilo interweaved it with the person of the Son, so that it never was any where but there; all other creations stand under the roof of providence and preservation, but here the human nature is an inmate in the very same person with the divine: all other creatures have their proper suitable seats and ubi's in the sphere of nature, but here is the sackcloth of an human body cast upon, and the rush-candle of a reasonable soul lighted up in the sun itself. The glorious Son of God espoused flesh and blood, and the bride-chamber, where the knot was tied, was the Virgin's womb; there was he made of a woman, consubstantial with us as to his humanity, who was consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity. O how great is this mystery, God manifest in the flesh! O Domine! quàm admirabile nomen tuam! non modò mundi hujus staturam admiror, non stabilitatem terræ, nun lunæ defectum et incrementum, non solem semper integrum et laborem ejus perpetuum: miror Deum in utero virginis, miror Onmipotentem in cunabulis, miror quomodo Verbo Dei caro adhæserit, quomodo incorporeus Deus corporis nostri tegumentum induerit; in cæteris aliquæ satisfaciant rationes, hîc solus me complectitur stupor. God never came so near to us as in this wonderful conjunction. In the creatures we see God above us, in the law we see God against us; but here we see Immanuel, God with us: he is one with us by a natural conjunction, but that is not all; for being in our nature, he became one with us.

2. Conjunctione legali, he was our sponsor or surety, and so in law one person with us; his stile is ἔγγυος διαθήκης, surety of the covenant, (Heb. 7:22), and the covenant being mutual on both parts, from God to man, and from man to God, he is in both respects a surety of it: a surety on God's part that his promises should be performed to us, and a surety on our parts that our debts should be paid to God. We were double debtors to God; as rational creatures we owed perfect obedience, and as sinful creatures we owed eternal sufferings; the first is a debt to God's holiness, and the second to his justice. Now Jesus Christ was our surety for both, a surety to fulfil all righteousness for us, and the fide-jussorial bond which he gave for this was his circumcision: for he had no sinful flesh to be cut off, but would become a debtor to the whole law for us; and in circumcision he signed security for it with his own blood: and also a surety to take our sins on him. Hence the righteous God (who cannot but judge according to truth) charged our iniquities upon him, (Isai. 53:6), and he as our surety accepted the charge, and those words, My sins are not hid from thee," (Psal. 69:5), are (as St. Jerom thinks) spoken ex personâ Christi, for he was though not commissor, yet susceptor delictorum; our flesh and blood was taken into his divine person, and our sins (which could by no means enter in there) were yet cast upon him, and being cast upon him, God exacted satisfaction of him, נִגַּשׂ וְהוּא נַעֲנֶה it was exacted, and he answered. (Isai. 53:7.) Satisfaction was exacted from him as our surety, and he answered for us; and what was his answer? Why, I will lay down my life, I will pour out my soul, saith he; let all the wrath due to those sins be squeezed into one cup, and I will drink it up to the bottom; let the fire of God's anger drop down from heaven, and I will be the paschal lamb roasted init. Thus Jesus Christ was a surety, nay, ἀντἰψυχος, the noblest of sureties, putting his soul in our souls' stead, to bear our sins and God's wrath; and for this very purpose was he one with us in nature, that he might be one with us in law too. But neither is this all, for both these conjunctions are crowned with a third, and so he is one with us.

3. Conjunctione mysticâ, Christ is the head, and the church is the body, and both together make up one mystical Christ, (1 Cor. 12:12), the head in heaven, and the body on earth; and the spiritual continuity between both is one and the same Holy Spirit, which is on the head without measure, and on the members according to measure. If the Jew ask us where is Christ? we can truly answer, he is at the right hand of God in heaven; and on earth, lo! here is Christ, and there is Christ, living and breathing in his saints; every saint is a piece of him, and all together are his fulness, (Eph. 1:23), so that he doth not count himself complete without them. This conjunction is so near and full of spiritual sense, that a poor member cannot suffer on earth, but instantly the head in heaven cries out of persecution, (Acts, 9:4), and even the suffering member reckons himself sitting in heaven, as long as his head is there, (Eph. 2:6.)

Thus our Redeemer comes very near unto us in a three-fold conjunction, and in each conjuction there is a rare condescension. In the first he came down into our natures by a stupendous incarnation, in the second he came down into our hell by a fide-jussorial passion, in the third he comes down into our hearts by the Spirit's inhabitation; the first opens a way to the second, the second is the purchase of the third, and the third, as in design, was a motive to, and, as in existence, is a crown upon the work of redemption.

4. Having considered the Redeemer, I pass on to the price; and here I shall reduce all to three questions.

1. What this price is?

2. What manner of price it is?

3. For whom it was paid?

1. What this price is? and this is the human nature of Christ, as subjected to the law. When the Son of God came forth to redeem us, he was "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us that were under the law," (Gal. 4:4, 5). "Made of a woman," there is his human nature; "made under the law," there is his subjection to the law, and the end of all is our redemption. Christ, "through the eternal Spirit, offered up himself to God," (Heb. 9:14), and that in a way fully answering the demands of the law. The law demanded of the captives two things; perfect obedience from them as rational creatures, and penal sufferings from them as sinful creatures; and Christ gave up his human nature a price both ways, in doing and in suffering; he gave himself, that is, his human nature, for us an offering and a sacrifice, (Eph. 5:2); an offering in his active obedience, and a sacrifice in his passive, and both these together were the entire price of our redemption.

1. Christ gave up himself in his active obedience. That holy thing, his human nature, as soon as it came out into the world, fell a breathing forth of holiness, burning with zeal for God, melting in compassions over men, bowing itself down in miraculous humility, and in a rape of love doing all the will of God, even to the last gasp upon the cross. His thoughts were all births of holiness, his words oracles of truth, his works a fulfilling all righteousness, and his meat and drink was to do his Father's will. He ascended up to the top or pinnacle of the moral law in the sweetest strains of love, and fetched about the breadth or vast compass of it in the largeness of his obedience, and passed down to the very hem or border of it in the lowness of his humility. Rather than fail, he would be, subject to his own creature, (Luke 2:51); pay tribute to his own subject, (Matt. 17:27); and wash his disciples' feet with those very hands which had all the power in heaven and earth in them. (John 13:3–5.) Nay, he stooped down as low as the fringe of the ceremonial law; his sinless flesh was circumcised, (Luke 2:21); his holy mother purified, (Luke 2:22); the true passover kept the typical one, (Matt. 26:20, 21), and so obedientially stood under his own shadow. In every respect he was obedient unto death. His obedience was a fair commentary on the whole law, written in glorious characters of holiness and righteousness all his life long, and at his death clasped and sealed up with his precious blood. Thus the mandatory part of the law was answered; now for the minatory.

2. He gave up himself in his passive obedience, he was in some sense crucified in the womb, in that he was made of his creature: and coming forth into the world, all his life was a perpetual passion. The gospel shows us the immense God in swaddling clothes, the builder of all things working as a carpenter, the holy one hurried up and down by a tempting devil, the filler of all things hungry, the fountain of living water thirsty, the power of God weary, the eternal joy of the Father weeping, the owner of all things extremely poor, and not knowing where to lay his head in his own world. Thus as a man of sorrows he passes on towards his cross; one of his own apostles betraying him, another denying him, the rest forsaking him, the chief priests bloodily conspiring against him, false witnesses unjustly accusing him, the tumultuous rabble crying out, Crucify, crucify, and Pilate first confessing his innocency, and then condemning his person. And now arriving at his cross, sorrows break in upon every part, his head raked with thorns, his face besmeared with spittle, his eyes afflicted with the tears of friends, his ears filled with the blasphemies of enemies, his lips of grace wet with vinegar and gall, his hands and feet nailed to the cross, and his sacred body hanging between thieves, racked and tortured to death in a Golgotha of stench and rottenness. But all this is but the outside of his passion; at the same time hell was let loose, and from thence the devils as so many roaring lions came with open mouths to devour him, and (which is much more) heaven thundered over his head, and the righteous God, as angry as our sins could make him, fell a smiting of him, (Isai. 53:4), and smote him in his soul too, (verse 10), and with smiting wounded and bruised him, (verse 5); the smart and anguish whereof was so great that he was afraid (Heb. 5:7), and his fear was so high, that he began ἀδμκονεῖν to faint away, and ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι, to be sore amazed, (Mark 14:33), and in this amazement, the eclipse was so dark, that he was περίλυπος surrounded with sorrows even unto death, (verse 34), and in this spiritual siege, he falls a praying, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," (Matth. 26:39), and in prayer he sinks into an agony. His soul became like that poor ship, that fell into a place where two seas met, the fore part sticking fast, and remaining unmoveable, and the hinder part broken with the violence of the waves, (Acts 27:41). Even so here were two seas met, a sea of wrath storming against him as our surety, and a sea of love breathing in him after our redemption. His human will as nature shrunk at the sense of God's wrath, but as reason it stedfastly pointed at the work of our salvation. Redemption stood fast and unmoveable in his heart, yet the same heart; though without the least spot of sinful contrariety, was broken with the waves of amazing horrors, and so dreadful was this agony, that it cast this grand hero, the strength of all the martyrs, into a bloody sweat, "there fell from him great drops of blood." (Luke 22:44). The sins of the world ascending up as a vast cloud before God's tribunal, now came dashing down upon hid in a horrible tempest of incomprehensible wrath, and this makes him cry, nay, as the Psalmist hath it, (Ps, 17:1), roar out upon the cross, "My God! my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46.) One would have thought at the first blush, that the human nature had been dropt out of his divine person; but though that were not, yet the sense of God's favour was for a time suspended from his human nature. Never was sorrow like to his sorrow. In all the legal sacrifices there was destructio rei oblatæ, and all those destructions were summed up in his sufferings. As the corn he was braised, as the wine and oil poured out, as the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of God's wrath, and as the scape-goat driven into the dismal wilderness of desertion. He did as it were sport in creation, but in redemption he sweats, suffers, bleeds, and dies.

Now his human nature thus made under the law, both in his active and passive obedience, is the complete and integral price of our redemption; I say, both in his active and passive obedience, for these were not sundered either in existence or merit.

1. Not in existence, for there was passion in his actions, and action in his passions: from first to last, his obedience was with suffering, and his suffering with obedience. There was passion in his actions; it was a great suffering for the great lawgiver to be under the law, for the lord of the sabbath to observe it. The noblest and purest piece of the law is the knowing and loving of God, and yet even in that there was a great suffering: for he who eternally knew the Father in an infinity of light, now knew him as it were by candle-light in a finite reason; he who eternally embraced the Father in an infinity of love, now loved him in the narrow compass of a finite will; and therefore, even in these ἐκένωσε ἑαυτὸν "he emptied himself," as the apostle speaks, (Phil. 2:7). And on the other side, there was action in his passion; his passions were with knowledge, he shut not his eyes when he drunk off the cup of wrath; his passions were free-will offerings,—"Lo, I come," saith he, "to do thy will, O God," (Heb. 10:7). God's will was, that he should suffer, and his will runs before, and as it were, anticipates his sufferings. "Lo, I come;" nay, in his passage he breaks out, πῶς συνέχομαι, "How am I straitened till it be accomplished?" (Luke, 12:50). He was, as it were, in pangs of forward obedience to be baptised in his own blood, and posted on towards an agony of wrath in an agony of love; and when he arrived at his extremest sufferings, his signal willingness turned his suffering into doing, and his cross into a triumphant chariot; "he triumphed in it," saith the apostle, (Col. 2:15); even there his obedience and love rode in triumph; triumphant obedience spread out his hands upon the cross, and triumphant love opened his naked heart to the wrath of God. His soul was not snatched away, but poured out, (Isa. 53:12); his life was not merely taken away, but laid down, (John, 10:18). He was willing to be forsaken of God himself for a time, that thereby he might fulfil the will of God; and before the fire of God's wrath could fall on him, he was all in a flame with his own love. Thus, the active and passive obedience of Christ were not severed in their existence, but like his seamless coat, were interwoven from the top throughout, even to his last gasp upon the cross.

2. Neither were these severed in merit; Christ is not so to be divided as if his sufferings apart by themselves were the price of remission, and his righteousness apart by itself the price of glory. If the active obedience of Christ apart, make us perfectly righteous, where is the glory of the passive? if the passive obedience of Christ apart purchase all for us, where is the glory of the active? But if both together make up the total sum, the glory of both is preserved. Our Redeemer was made under the law that he might redeem us; now, as he was under the whole law as to the command, and as to the curse of it, so his active and passive obedience adequately answering both, is the entire price of our redemption.

But here I am obviated by two objections.

1. Saith the Socinian, there is no price at all.

2. Say some of our divines, the passive obedience of Christ is all the price, and the active no part at all of it.

As to the first, I shall not need spend many words about it, because the scripture is so pregnant in it, ἠγοράσθητε τιμῆς, Ye are bought with a price, saith St. Paul, (1 Cor. 6:20); and this price (as St. Peter tells us) is not corruptible things as silver and gold, but the precious blood of Christ, (1 Peter 1:18, 19), a transcendent price able to purchase as much, nay far more in the spiritual world, than silver and gold can in the material; and it is not merely a price of emption, but of redemption; Christ gave his life, λύτρον, a price of redemption, (Matt. 20:28), and which is more emphatical, he gave himself ἀντίλυτρον, a counterprice of redemption, (1 Tim. 2:6), doing and suffering in the room of poor captives; and this price was paid into the right hand, viz. into God's, (Eph. 5:2), and hence issues out, ἀπολύτρωσις proper redemption, the prison doors are opened, and the poor captives may go out ὅντως ἐλεύθεροί free indeed, (John 8:36.) That then there is a price is as clear in scripture, as if it were written with a sunbeam; but yet the Socinian shuts his eyes, and cries out, all is but a metaphor. God redeemed (saith he) Israel out of Egypt, and Moses is called λυτρωτὴς, (Acts 7:35), and yet there was no price at all paid. But alas! that ever such vain consequences should drop from the masters of reason; redemption in some scriptures is metaphorical, therefore it is so in all; Moses was but a naked deliverer, therefore Christ is not a proper Redeemer; Moses' redemption was a redemption by power only, therefore Christ's redemption is no redemption by price; redemption out of the hands of an unjust Pharaoh was without price, therefore redemption out of the hands of a righteous God was so too. But on the other side, how cogent is the argument? If Moses paying down no price was but a naked deliverer, then Christ paying down one was a proper redeemer. If I believe that to be but a metaphorical redemption, because the scriptures speak of no price paid for the same; pari ratione I must believe this to be a proper redemption, because the Scriptures tell us of a price. If there must be power to redeem a captive from human oppression, surely there must be a price to redeem him from divine justice. We were all as captives locked up under the curse of the law and wrath of God, and Christ was λυτρωτὴς and λύτρον, both a redeemer and a ransom for us: wherefore, concluding that there was a price, I pass on.

2. As to the second objection; I conceive that the active and passive obedience of Christ do both together make up the perfect price of our redemption; I say, both together. The active is part of the sum; and this I shall demonstrate,—

1. In general, by those Scriptures which set out the managery of redemption. Long before our Saviour Christ came about it, the Father calls him "his servant," (Isa. 42:1); and one part of his service was his active obedience; and just at his entrance into the world he expresses himself, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," (Heb. 10:7). He came in his incarnation; his errand was redemption, and the way to compass it was by doing God's will, and that he did partly in his active obedience; being come, his state was subjection, "he was made under the law to redeem us." (Gal. 4:4, 5). His human nature was so far a price as it was made under the law, and that it was in part as to his active obedience; this being his state, "his ear was bored," (Ps. 60:6), which the apostle renders, "a body was prepared." (Heb. 10:5). His human nature was, as I may so say, all ear to the commands of God; among which one was, that he should fulfil active obedience; this obedience, he fulfilled all along, even unto death, nay, and in death; and by this entire obedience, accomplished in doing and suffering, we are "made righteous," (Rom. 5:19), and so righteous, that "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us," (Rom. 8:4), and so fulfilled, that "the law hath its end," (Rom. 10:4), and this so accurately, that "one jot or tittle doth not pass from the law, but all is fulfilled." (Matt. 5:18). In all which series of Scriptures, his active obedience concurs as part of the price.

2. In particular, I evince this truth by three reasons.

1. Because he fulfilled his active obedience not merely for himself, but mainly for us; he was our surety, and so received the obligation of obedience on himself. Hence he would be baptized, because it was τὸ πρέπον, "it became him to fulfil all righteousness," (Matt. 3:15): it became him, not as for himself, for he was the spotless lamb, and needed no baptism at all; he could baptise with the Holy Ghost, and needed no water baptism; but it became him, as our surety, to be subject to God's command even in this. And so in all other his active obedience; for the impletion of the law was by God translated upon him: "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." (Rom. 8:3, 4). Here all the obligations of the law are cast upon Christ as our surety; we could not satisfy for our sins, Christ did it; we could not fulfil righteousness, Christ did it. But you will say, this place only concerns his passive obedience; for it speaks of condemning sin, and that was done in his passive only. I answer, that this place extends to all Christ's obedience, active as well as passive, and this seems clear by the first and last part of the words compared together: the first are, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh; and what was that? Could it not curse the sinner? Yes, undoubtedly; and here the flesh, that is, sin, was the strength of the law; but for want of perfect obedience, it could not give life, (Gal. 3:21); and here the flesh, that is, sin, was the weakness of the law. Now Christ, the power of God, came to supply this weakness: but how doth he do it? The latter words tell us, Sin was condemned in his flesh, that is, his human nature; and it was condemned there, not only by his passive obedience, but by his active too. Every act thereof did as it were sit in judgment on sin; even as every knock of Noah on the ark condemned the old world: sin was so condemned, that δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, the law hath its rightful demands, one whereof is perfect obedience; the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, that is, for us, in our stead and room: wherefore Christ's active obedience being fide-jussorial and on our behalf, must needs be part of the price. But you will say, Christ's active obedience was not fide-jussorial, for it was the debt of his human nature, as a rational creature; and therefore being due as for himself, it could not be paid down as for us. I answer, that Christ's human nature was but a creature, and so its will could not possibly be supreme, but indispensably subject to the will of God; yet nevertheless his active obedience was paid down for us, and was part of the price; and this will appear, if we view it in these four particulars:

1. As to the spring of it, it was freedom, his human nature was necessarily subject to the will of God, but it was freely assumed into the person of God; Christ as man was bound to the law, but as God was not bound to become man. As he freely took a body with its circumscriptive dimensions, so he freely took a soul with those legal obligations, which are, as it were, the moral circumscriptions of it; he freely assumed the humanity, and with it all incident duty.

2. As to the circumstances of it, it was unobliged. Christ was bound by the law as man; but he was not bound to perform it in such a debased manner, for such a space of time, in such a place as earth, unless as our surety; for he might have carried up the human nature into heaven in the first instant of its assumption.

3. As to the end of it, it was for us, it points at the same end with the human nature to which it was incident: as he was made man for us; To us a son is born, (Isai. 9:6), so his active obedience was for us. Hence the apostle joins both these together; he was made of a woman, made under the law; and then superadds as the end common to both,—that he might redeem us. (Gal. 4:4, 5,)

4. As to the value of it, it was infinite; a finite righteousness may serve for its single performer, but Christ's righteousness stamped with his Deity amounts to an infinite sum, enough for himself and a world besides. Hence the very same righteousness is Christ's, (Rom. 5:18), and ours too, (1 Cor. 1:30). St. Bernard sweetly expresses it. Domine, memorabor justitiæ tuæ solius, ipsa est enim et mea, nempe factus es mihi tu justitia à Deo; nunquid mihi verendum, nè non una ambobus sufficiat? Non est pallium breve, quod non possit operire duos; justitia tua in æternum, me et te pariter operiet, quia largiter larga et æterna justitia. To sum up all in one word, though Christ as man were under the law, yet his active obedience performed in a human nature freely assumed, and in a way as to that nature unobliged perioding in our redemption, and elevated into a kind of infinity by his Deity, was paid down for us, and was part of the price.

2. Because Christ's whole obedience, active as well as passive, being fulfilled for us, makes us righteous before God; famous is that place, (Rom. 5:19). "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." But you will say, the passive obedience is only meant there; but if so, why doth the apostle oppose it to Adam's actual disobedience? and why doth he say obedience in general? and when he says so, who may pare off ought, and say, it was not all, but some? Why doth he call it Christ's righteousness, (5:18)? and where are his sufferings alone so styled in Scripture? or what is so properly such as his active obedience? Nay further, he speaks of such a righteousness as "brings justification of life," (5:18). The promise of life was, Do this and live, and Christ's active obedience fully answered the terms of it; wherefore Christ's active obedience is within this text, and jointly with the passive makes us righteous, and consequently is part of the price. But here it will be objected, that if Christ obeyed the law for us so as to make us righteous, then we need not obey it in our own persons. To which I answer two things:—

1. This argument presses as much upon those that are for his passive obedience only, as upon those that are for his active also; for they assert that the passive alone purges away all sin, as well of omission as commission, and consequently makes us as righteous before God, as if we had done all and omitted nothing; and then by their principles, what need we obey in our own persons? But

2. That Christ obeyed for us, and therefore we need not obey, is as vain a consequence as to say, Christ died for us, and therefore we should not die. But the different ends reconcile all: Christ died that there might be satisfaction for sin as to the guilt of it, and we die that there may be a destruction of sin as to the being of it. Also, Christ obeyed that our justification might be effected, and we obey that our sanctification may be promoted; Christ obeyed that we might reign in life, and we obey that we may be more and more meet for it. Nay, Christ obeyed that we might obey; for one fruit of redemption was, that we might be a peculiar people, zealous of good works, (Titus 2:14); and we obey that his obedience may not be in vain as to us; for he is the author of eternal redemption to them that obey him. (Heb. 5:9). Hence it appears that Christ's obedience and ours may as well consist together as justification and sanctification, life and the way to it, redemption and the fruit thereof.

3. Because the price of our redemption is a thing of super-excellent fulness and super-imaginable glory redeeming captives in a way completive and perfective of the law broken by them.

Do we make void the law by faith, or by its object our Redeemer and redemption? Nay, we establish the law. (Rom. 3:31). When man was in innocency, the royal law sat in glory, commanding upon its throne, holding forth in its right hand a crown of life in the promise, and in its left a sword of vengeance in the threatening: but when monstrous sin entered into the world, the very throne of the law seemed to shake, and the crown in its right hand to wither, only the sword was glittering and fiery in the left, the minatory part of the law stood fast, captivating and cursing the sinner; but the mandatory and promissory parts thereof fell a trembling and staggering, as if their natural and primary end, viz. perfect obedience and all the ensuing bliss were utterly lost. Now Jesus Christ our wonderful Redeemer redeemed us in such a way as that he established the law in every respect; by his active obedience he fastened and new-pinned the very throne of the law, and made the old promise to bud again with life; and in his passive obedience the fiery sword of God's wrath did awake against him, (Zach. 13:7), and smote and wounded him for our iniquities; he paid down his human nature in doing and suffering, and what could the law desire of him more? Thus Jesus Christ became the end, the fulness, the perfection of the law. (Rom. 10:4). But if the passive obedience of Christ be only the price, then indeed the curse or wrath, which is in the left hand of the law, and which comes accidentally by sin, is satisfied, But where is the primary and natural end of the law? Where is that perfect obedience which is in the right hand and right eye of the law? You will say, it is in the person of Christ our Redeemer. But how is it there? The apostle says, that Christ is the end of the law to the believer; now if it be there only personally as for himself, then as to that he is the end of the law only for himself; but if it be there also fide-jussorially as for us, then it is part of the price, and so he is the end of the law to us also. But you will reply, that though Christ's active obedience be no part of the price, yet his passive suffices, for that takes away sin and death from us, and sin being removed, righteousness follows, and death being removed, life follows, and so the law hath its end. I answer, I might deny these consequences, for Adam in innocency was free from sin and death, yet in that state had neither all the righteousness performable, nor all the life attainable by him. But if I admit, that upon the remotion of sin and death righteousness and life do follow, yet these may follow from Christ's whole obedience as their total principle, and not only from the passive. If they follow from the passive only, the glory of redemption is much darkened; for who sees not that the law is not, nor cannot be so completely accomplished by the mere sufferings of Christ, as if over and besides those he also performed perfect obedience for us? Who sees not more glory shining out when perfect righteousness is a part of the price, than if it be only an effect thereof issuing by consequential resultance from the remotion of sin? Wherefore the Messiah is set out to us in the prophet not only as making an end of sin, but as bringing in everlasting righteousness, (Dan. 9:24), and in the evangelist, not only as giving his life, but as fulfiling all righteousness, (Matt. 3:15), and in the apostle, not only as made sin, but as made righteousness too, (1 Cor. 1:30), and thus the law hath its perfect accomplishment by our Redeemer. Wherefore, concluding that the human nature of Christ paid down in his active and passive obedience is the entire and integral price of our redemption, I pass on to the second query:

2. What manner of price this is? and this I shall open in three things.

1. It is a price redemptive from evil.

2. It is a price procurative of good.

3. It is a price sufficient for both.

1. It is a price redemptive from evil, even from all the evils of our captivity, viz., the chains of sin, the bloody jailor Satan, and the prison of wrath; our great Reedeemer by laying down this price hath broke off our chains, vanquished the jailor, and opened the prison doors for us; only here is an observable difference; for,

1. As to the guilt of sin and the wrath of God this price is redemptive in a more immediate way by itself.

2. As to the stain of sin, the power of sin, and the tyranny of Satan, this price is redemptive in a consequential way by procuring the Holy Spirit for us.

1. This price is redemptive from the guilt of sin and wrath of God; and this in a more immediate way by itself. Now, albeit the entire price concur herein, yet because as to this there is a special relucency in some parts thereof, I shall only insist on five things, viz.

1. Our sins were laid upon Christ.

2. He suffered the same punishment, for the main, that was due for these sins.

3. He suffered it in our stead.

4. Suffering in our stead, he satisfied God's vindictive justice and minatory law.

5. These satisfied, God is reconciled.

1. Our sins were laid upon Christ. Whilst the chains are upon the captive, captivity is unavoidable; whilst sin is on the sinner, redemption is impossible: God therefore gave sin a remove from its proper Ubi. "I will remove iniquity in one day," saith he, (Zech. 3:9), that is, in the day of the Messiah, (v. 8). But how far will he remove it? The Psalmist tells us, "as far as the east is from the west," (Psalm 103:12), and so he did: he removed it from us, who were in occasu Adami, as far as Christ, who is oriens sol justitiæ; by this remove, "all our sins met upon him," as the prophet speaks, (Isa. 53:6.) Never such a concourse of sins as here; sins of all weights, pence and talents; sins of all magnitudes, gnats and camels; sins of various degrees, frailties and presumptions; sins of vast distances, as far remote in place as the parts and quarters of the earth, and in time as the morning and evening of the world, met all together upon him; he is "the Lamb of God that takes or bears away the sin of the world," (John, 1:29); he saith not sins, but sin; because all the sins of the world were as it were made up into one burthen, and so laid upon him. Sins past were present to him; for there was a πάρεσις, a transmission of them unto him, (Rom. 3:25), there was indeed an ἄφεσις, a remission, as to the faithful, but a πάρεσις, a transmission as to the surety; sins future were all one to him as if already existent, all our sins met upon him. Hence he cries out, "My iniquities have taken hold upon me." (Psal. 40:12). My iniquities, (a strange word to drop from the holy one of God); but the apostle clears it, "God made him for us to be sin," (2 Cor. 5:21); there was no sin in him by inhesion, but God made him sin by imputation; not only a sacrifice for sin (which yet includes that imputation) but sin itself: the double antithesis in the text carries it this way he was made that sin he knew not, and that was sin itself; he was made that sin which is opposite to righteousness, and that was sin itself. Hence Luther brings in the Father casting all our sins on him with these words, Tu sis Petrus ille negator, Paulus ille persecutor, David ille adulter, peccator ille in paradiso, latro ille in cruce, persona illa quæ fecerit omnium hominum peccata, all our sins were imputed unto him. But you will say, How can these things be? Can the righteous God, who judges according to truth, impute sin to his holy One? I answer, as there are in the apostle two distinct comings of Christ; in the first he bore our sins, in the second he appears χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας, without sin, (Heb. 9:28); so in his first coming, he sustained two distinct persons, his own and ours: as he was in his own person, he was without sin; but as he was our surety, and sustained our persons, so our sins were imputed to him, and imputed to him according to truth, because he was such. The holy One was righteously made sin, because first he was a surety for sinners; a world of sins was justly cast on the innocent Lamb, because he stood in the room of a world of sinners. In eadem persona Christi (saith Luther) congrediuntur illa duo, summum et maximum peccatum, et summa et maxima justitia; this is one of the wonders in theology. Reason and philosophy can shew sin in the sinner, but the sublimer gospel shows sin on a spotless Lamb; here darkness seized upon the sun; here the abomination of iniquity stood where it ought not; I say, where it ought not, because upon the holy place; yet withal where it ought, because of a holy imputation. God can by no means clear the guilty, (Exod. 34:7), that is, the guilty remaining such, therefore he first translated the guilt upon Christ, and then he justifies the ungodly through him. (Rom. 4:5). Oh the glory of the divine will! Its purity cannot but hate sin, yet its power removes it; its justice cannot but punish sin, yet its mercy translates it from the sinner to the surety, that it may be condemned there, where it was never committed, even in the flesh of Christ, (Rom. 8:3).

2. Our sins being laid on him, he suffered the same punishment, for the main, that was due to us for them. For how doth the scripture express the punishment of sin? It is death, (Gen. 2:17), and he died for us; it is the second death, (Rev. 20:14), or death unto death, (2 Cor. 2:16), and he suffered deaths, (Isa. 53:9), not the death of the body only, but all the deaths in moriendo morieris, as far as his holy humanity was capable thereof; it is wrath, (Rom. 1:18), and he was ἄνθρωπος ἐν πληγῇ ὧν, a man set in the stroke of God's wrath, as the Septuagint hath it, (Isa. 53:3); it is a curse, (Deut. 27:26), and he was made a curse, (Gal. 3:13), not only a ceremonial but a real curse, even that which he redeems us from. Tu Christe, saith Luther, es peccatum meum et maledictum meum, seu potius ego sum peccatum tuam et maledictum tuam. It is hell, (Ps. 9:17), and he descended thither, though not by a local motion, yet by an immense passion, his soul travelling under the wrath of God. He began to descend into hell, when he sweat drops of blood; and he descended yet further into it when he cried out, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me? There are two essentials of punishment in hell, pœna sensûs, et pœna damni, and he suffered both: when the fire of God's wrath melted him into a bloody sweat, there was pœna sensûs; and when the great eclipse of God's favour made him cry out of forsaking, there was pœna damni. Christ suffered the same punishment, for the main, which we should have suffered; the chief change was in the person, the just suffering for the unjust, the surety for the sinner. But you would say, Christ did not suffer the same punishment, for he neither suffered eternal death, not yet the worm of conscience.

As to that of eternal death, I answer by two distinctions.

1. In eternal death we must distinguish between the immensity of the sufferings and the duration; the immensity is essential to it, but the duration is but mora in esse and accidental. Christ suffered eternal death as to the immensity of his sufferings, though not as to the duration of them; he paid down the idem as to essentials of punishment, and the tantundem as to the accidentals: what was wanting in the duration of his sufferings, was more than compensated by the dignity of his person, for it was far more for God to suffer for a moment, than for all creatures to suffer to eternity.

2. We must distinguish between punishment as it stands in the law absolutely, and punishment as it stands there in relation to a finite creature, which cannot at once admit a punishment commensurate to its offence; and so must ever suffer, because it cannot satisfy to eternity. Punishment as it stands in the law absolutely, is death; punishment as it stands there in relation to a finite creature, is eternal death: the first was really suffered by Christ, and the second could not be justly exacted of him; for he paid down the whole sum of sufferings all at once, and so swallowed up death in victory.

As to that of the worm; I answer, the worm attends not sin imputed, but sin inherent; it is bred out of the putrefaction of conscience, and that putrefaction is from the in-being of sin. Now Christ being without spot, suffered punishment, not as it follows sin inherent, but as it follows sin imputed; and so he suffered the same punishment (for the main) as was due to us.

3. Christ suffered this punishment in our stead, he died ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, for us, (Rom. 5:8), and which is more emphatical, ἀντὶ πολλῶν, instead of many, (Matt. 20:28), the particle, ὐπὲρ doth sometimes in scripture signify only the utility or benefit of another, but ἀντὶ properly imports a subrogation or substitution of one in the room of another; and so Christ, as our surety, died in our room or stead. Hence the apostle argues thus: If one died for all, ἄρα οἱ πάντες ἀπέθανον, then all died, (2 Cor. 5:15), all died in the death of one, in as much as that one died as the surety of all. Hence our sins were condemned in his flesh, (Rom. 8:3), and so condemned there, that upon gospel terms they are remitted to us. But unless he had stood in our room, divine justice could neither have adjudged him to punishment, nor yet have admitted us to an absolution from sin.

4. Suffering thus in our stead, he satisfied both God's vindictive justice and minatory law.

1. He satisfied God's vindictive justice. God is a righteous God, a God that loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity; nay, he so perfectly hateth it, that his pure eyes cannot look upon it; and his righteous hands cannot but punish it; "he will by no means clear the guilty," (Exod. 34:7), not unless his justice be satisfied, for he is "a righteous Judge, (2 Tim. 4:8), so righteous, that he "cannot but do right," (Gen. 18:25); his judgment is righteous judgment, (Rom. 3:8), and every sin must have a righteous recompense, (Heb. 2:2); and no wonder, for sin is a horrible ataxy, and God will not inordinatum dimittere; the subjection of a rational creature to its Creator is indispensable. God, whilst God, must be above; and the creature, whilst a creature, below; and this dependance, so far as it is broken off by sin, must be salved up by punishment, or else God loses his dominion over his creature. This is that which the apostle calls δικαίωμα θεοῦ, "the righteousness of God," (Rom. 1:32); and this is so naturally in him, that the very heathens knew it by the light of nature. The viper upon Paul's hand made the barbarians cry out of a δίκη, (Acts 28:4). Now what doth this vindictive justice require? Not precisely that the sinner himself should be punished, for then redemption should be impossible; but that the sin should be punished, and so it was in Christ; he for our debt was cast into prison, and paid every farthing of it. The damned in hell pay a little, and a little, and can never satisfy; but he paid down the total sum of sufferings all at once; they are always striving with God's wrath, but he wrestled with it and prevailed: hence, in Isaiah, 49:3, he is called Israel, a prince with God. His sufferings were so satisfactory to divine justice, that "the pains of death could not hold him," (Acts 2:24), neither could the prison of wrath detain him, (Isa. 53:8), and all because there was ἀπολύτρωσις παραβάσεων, "a redemption of transgressions," (Heb. 9:15), that is, a compensation or satisfaction made to divine justice for them. "I go to my Father," saith he, "and ye shall see me no more," (John 16:10). Justice did not stop him in his passage to heaven, neither did his Father send him back again to mend his work. You shall see me no more, no more bleeding under the burthen of sin, no more paying down sufferings to divine justice, for all is discharged; and to assure us of it, God, who received the sum, pawns heaven and earth in mortgage, that he will forgive our sins without any further satisfaction, (Jer. 31:34–36). By all which it appears that justice was fully satisfied.

But here it will be objected, That the innocent should suffer for the nocent is unjust, and that which is such cannot satisfy justice.

I answer; It is unjust if the innocent suffer compulsorily, but not if he suffer freely; it is unjust if the innocent sink under his sufferings, but not if he be able to bear them; it is unjust if there be no good in his sufferings commensurate to the evil, but not if the evil be exceeded by the subsequent good; it is unjust if the innocent stand in no relation to the nocent for whom he suffers, but not if he stand in relation to him. Suppose a natural relation; Saul's sons were hanged up for Saul's sins, (2 Sam. 21:9). Suppose a political relation; seventy thousand fall for David's sin, (2 Sam. 24:15), which makes him cry out, "Lo, I have sinned! but these sheep, what have they done?" Suppose a voluntary relation; sureties must pay for their principals, and that not only in money matters, but in capital punishments: thus the ἀντιψυχοὶ engaged life for life, which the apostle seems to insinuate in that passage, "Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die," (Rom. 5:7); and why then may not Christ, who by all these ways is conjoined to us naturally as a man, legally as a surety, and mystically as a head, justly suffer for us? Especially seeing there was free action in his passion, victorious strength under his burden, and the penal evil crowned by such a grand good as redemption is, why may not he justly suffer for us? The Scriptures are positive in it, "Christ died for the ungodly," (Rom. 5:6), "the just for the unjust," (1 Pet. 3:18), and "one for all," (2 Cor. 5:14). Wherefore if human reason will not subscribe, it fights against God himself.

2. He satisfied the minatory law; for this is no other than the voice of vindictive justice uttering death and a curse against sinners; and to satisfy this he died, and died an accursed death in their room. But you will say, Though he died for us, yet the law is not satisfied, because it requires that the sinner himself should die, "Thou shalt die the death," (Gen. 2:17), and, "cursed is he that doth not all the words of this law," (Deut. 27:26); in which places, he and thou, relate to the person of the sinner; and therefore, though vindictive justice as in itself might have been satisfied with punishing sin in another, yet the minatory law (which is the voice of justice) cannot be satisfied, unless the punishment fall on the sinner himself; and the reason is, because in this minatory law the veracity of God is engaged, which it was not before; now justice speaks out, which it did not before, and that which it speaks must be true. For answer whereunto—

1. Some (as the learned Grotius) say, that here was Dispensatio Legis, quâ Legis manentis obligatio circa quasdam personas tollitur: but I take it, that God's threatnings are indispensably yea and amen as well as his promises; for albeit God doth not dare aliquod jus creaturæ in his threatenings, as he doth in his promises, yet is he debitor sibi-ipsi in both, and not one jot or tittle of either can fail, because of his infinite veracity; God will not call back his words of threatening, (Isai. 31:2), neither will he himself turn back from them, (Jer. 4:28), his words stand surely for evil, (Jer. 44:29). That threatening that Nineveh should be destroyed, had a tacit condition in it; which had it been expressed, the threatening would have run thus: It shall be destroyed except it repent; therefore it repenting, there was a remotion of the judgment, according to the tenour of the threatening, but no dispensatio juris at all. Wherefore—

2. I answer, that here God did interpret his law κατʼ ἐπιείκειαν in an equitable way; equity is nothing else but ἀναπλήρωμα νόμου, a filling up of a general law by a benign interpretation in that part which was not precisely determinate. The divine sanction was, the sinner shall die; but it was not precisely determinate, that he should die in his own person; for then God's unalterable truth should have barred out a surety: neither was it precisely determinate that he should die in his surety, for then the threatening should originally have been a promise, and a promise unto sin, such as God never made: but the sanction was general, the sinner shall die, and two interpretations lay before God; the first, that the sinner shall die in his own person; the latter, that he shall die in his surety; the first is τὸ ακριβοδίκαιον, just severity; the latter is τὸ ἐπιεικὲς, condescending mercy; in the first there is more of the sound of the law-letter, in the latter more of the sounding of the lawgiver's bowels; the first the first is much like the first delivery of the law with thunderings and lightnings and devouring fire, (Exod. 19:16, 17, 18), the latter is like the second delivery of it with a proclamation of grace and goodness and pardoning mercy for thousands, (Exod. 34:6, 7). Now these two interpretations lying before God, he, as the supreme lawgiver, in order to redemption interpreted his law according to a merciful equity,—the sinner shall die, that is, in his surety, Christ. Oh the immense love of the Father and the Son! The Father's love fills up the law by a gracious interpretation, and then the Son's love fulfils it by a perfect satisfaction; mercy and truth are met together, mercy in a favorable construction of the law, and truth in the evident veracity of the lawgiver; the person of the sinner may be saved, and yet the truth of the threatening is salved, through Christ's satisfaction, καθηργήθημεν ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου we are abrogated from the law, (Rom. 7:6), and yet we do not καταργεῖν τὸν νόμον abrogate the law but establish it, (Rom. 3:31), because it is fulfilled in Christ. Neither doth this equitable interpretation suppose any defect in the divine law, as it doth in human laws; for human laws are made general for want of providence in men to foresee all particular cases which fall out; but this law was made general out of the perfection of providence in God, that there might be room for a surety to come in and satisfy it. But you will say, If God interpret the threatening in such an equitable way, the sinner shall die in his surety, then no sinner is in a state of wrath here, nor can be condemned in hell hereafter; for both these issue out from the first interpretation, thou shalt die in thine own person, and that is now waved by the judge. I answer, that God doth not totally and absolutely either waive the first rigorous interpretation; for the elect are under wrath till they believe and repent, and the reprobate not believing and repenting are cast into hell, and both by virtue of the first interpretation; but he waives the first and makes the second interpretation in order to redemption, and only so far forth as redemption requires it: now what doth that require? It requires that all that embrace Christ should be saved from the death in the threatening, and therefore thus far the first interpretation is waved and the second takes place; but it requires not that any person should either be out of a state of wrath before faith, or be saved without faith, and therefore the equitable interpretation doth not go thus far, and so far as that goeth not, the rigorous interpretation takes place, because pro tanto it is consistent with redemption; redemption is the end, and the all-wise God measures and proportions out the equitable interpretation in such a way as serves unto it, and the rigorous interpretation in such a way as stands with it. In a word, according to this equitable interpretation, Christ hath so satisfied the threatening, as that all believers shall be saved from it; yet this satisfaction hinders not, but that the rigorous interpretation should abide upon unbelievers whilst such; for whilst such, they embrace not that satisfaction, and therefore are justly cursed by the law till they receive the Gospel.

Fifthly, God's vindictive justice and minatory law being thus satisfied, he becomes reconciled. There are two degrees of reconciliation; the first is that whereby God is ready to receive men into grace and favour if they believe; the second is, that whereby God is actually reconciled to them upon their believing. The apostle mentions both these, (Col. 1:20, 21), for first he tells us, (v. 20), that "God did reconcile all things to himself by the blood of his cross," and then it follows, (v. 21), "Yet now hath he reconciled you," you, O believing Colossians! All were reconciled in the first degree, and believers in the second; the first was done all at once upon the cross, and the second is yet now a doing, and so will be till the believers are all come m; therefore the apostle says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," (2 Cor. 5:19). Reconciling, which imports a continued act, a carrying on the work of reconciliation from one degree to another by particular applications. Now both these degrees of reconciliation are wrought by the death of Christ; the first was wrought by it ipso facto, without it God would have breathed out nothing but wrath, but through it he is "ready to forgive," (Psalm 86:5). As full of mercy as he is, he could not forgive in a way opposite either to his justice, which in its nature calls for satisfaction for sin, or to his truth which in the law pronounces death on the sinner; but justice and truth being satisfied by Christ's death, he is ready to forgive. "The mercy-seat was covered with a cloud of incense," (Levit. 16:13), and the reason there rendered is very remarkable, "Lest he that was before it should die." What, die before the mercy-seat? Yes, even there, unless the merits of Christ be as a cloud round about it. Mercy as of itself alone would not save us, but every sinner must have died before it, had it not been surrounded with the incense of Christ's merits. God out of Christ is a consuming fire to sinners, but in Christ he is reconciling them to himself. The second is wrought by Christ's death as applied by faith, therefore it is called, "Propitiation through faith in his blood," (Rom. 3:25), and both these were typified by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice under the law. That blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, (Levit. 16:15), prefiguring the first degree of reconciliation by Christ's death in itself; and it was sprinkled on the people, (Exod. 24:8), prefiguring the second degree of reconciliation by Christ's death as applied to us by faith. But you will say, If God be first angry, and then reconciled, reconciled by degrees, there must be a change in God and his will, which cannot be admitted.

I answer, that reconciliation is not an immanent act but a transient, not so properly abiding in God, as passing from him upon the creature: as when the scripture saith, the wrath of God at such a time was kindled or arose, it is not meant that the will of God was novelly inflamed, but that the flame of wrath then broke forth in transient effects from thence; so when it saith, God is reconciled, it imports not a cooling alteration in the will of God, but a gracious effluxion of love breaking out from thence. As in punishment wrath goes out from the Lord against sinners," (Num. 16:46), and is upon them, (2 Chron. 29:8), so in reconciliation love goes out from the Lord towards believers, and is upon them; so that the change is not in God but in the creature. Proportionably to the nature of reconciliation as a transient act, Christ reconcileth us unto God, not by making a new will in God, but by doing his will: for so he himself saith, when he came about the work, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." God's will as to this point may be considered under a double notion; either as naturally pregnant with vindictive justice, and decretively issuing out the minatory law, both requiring that sin (if committed) should be punished, or else as decreeing within itself the way and manner how this justice and law should be satisfied by a surety in order to the redemption of sinners. Now Christ perfectly fulfilled God's will in all these respects; in him our sins were punished according to the exaction of justice, and the equitable interpretation of the law, and that in such a way as was pre-ordained by God's will for our redemption. This will being thus satisfied, God is truly reconciled, not only, as the Socinian would have it, we reconciled to him, but he to us; and this appears in three things.

1. In that sin is not objected before God's will as it would have been, had not Christ satisfied; it would have been objected before it, as that just cause for which God might, nay, according to the naturality of his justice and veracity of his law must have punished us sinners to all eternity. But now it is not so objected before it; for albeit there be an intrinsical and inseparable desert of wrath in the nature of it, yet now its obligation or redundancy upon the sinner appears not, because expiated in the surety; this the apostle calls "the reconciling of sin," (Heb. 2:17). Without Christ's death, sin like a fury would have cried and clamoured for wrath and vengeance to be poured down on the sinner; but through his death, sin as one reconciled hath nothing to say against him, but that he may have life and salvation on gospel terms.

2. In that the effects of wrath do not issue out from God's will against the sinner as they would have done. God, who is infinite holiness and essential rectitude, cannot but hate sin, and in this hatred there is nothing less than a velle punire; and from thence condign punishment must have poured down on the sinner, if it had not by the will of God been derived upon the surety; but being derived thither, that righteous will is satisfied, and the merited wrath comes not forth against the sinner, but instead thereof.

3. Effects of love break forth from God's will towards him; "Grace appears to all men," (Tit. 2:11), to all men in a gracious reconcilability, and to believers in actual reconciliation: believers are actually "accepted or ingratiated in the beloved, (Eph. 1:6), and so shall all others, as soon as they become believers. Thus God is truly reconciled, yet without any change, in his will; only sin doth not cry to that will against the sinner, punishment doth not break out of that will upon him, and grace beams and sparkles out of that will towards him; whilst in all these his will remains unchangeable. Hence in Scripture we are rather said to be reconciled to God than God to us; not, as the Socinian would have it, because we only are reconciled to God, and not God to us; but because God is reconciled to us in such a way as is not alterative, but perfective and completive of his unchangeable will.

Thus Christ bore our sins and God's wrath, in a way so satisfactory to God's justice and law; that thereby God is reconciled to us, and we are redeemed from sin and wrath. But here I am obviated by an objection.

If there be such a compensatory price paid for sin, where is free remission? Free remission cannot stand with plenary satisfaction; what is fully paid cannot be at all remitted.

I answer; it cannot, if there be a solution by the debtor, but it may, if there be a satisfaction by a surety; it cannot, if that surety were of the debtor's own providing, but it may, if he were of the creditor's procuring; it cannot, if the surety's payment be irrecusable, but it may, if the creditor's acceptance be free: it cannot, if the remission were to the same person who makes satisfaction, but it may, if one person make satisfaction and another find remission. And thus it is in this case; our debts were paid to God, but by a surety,—Jesus Christ; and this surety was of God's own sending, and that his payment went for ours was of God's own grace: and hence it comes to pass that God hath full satisfaction, and we free remission, and this without any repugnancy: for Christ, who satisfied, had no remission, οὐκ ἐφείσατο, (Rom. 8:32). God did not spare or bate him a farthing, and we who are remitted make no satisfaction; all our tears, prayers, sorrows, services, pay not a mite to divine justice. Why should corrupt reason mutter as if satisfaction and remission, which are matches in Scripture, were inconsistencies in nature? What saith God, (Levit. 4:31), "The priest shall make an atonement," there is satisfaction; "and it shall be forgiven," there is remission? What saith the great apostle, (Rom. 3:24), "We are justified freely by his grace," there is remission; "through the redemption that is in Christ," there is satisfaction? Take both in three words, ἐν Χρισῷ ἐχαρίσατο, "God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," (Eph. 4:32); for Christ's sake, there is satisfaction; hath forgiven you, there is remission, and free remission; for it is not only ἄφεσις, a dismission or discharge of sin, but it is ἐχαρίσατο, a dismission or discharge of it in a gracious way. In Christ our surety there was ἔνδειξις δικαιοσύνης, (Rom. 3:25), but towards us there was ἐπιφάνεια χάριτος, (Tit. 2:11). Christ may say, totum exsolvi, and God may say, totum remisi; there was nothing forgiven to Christ, for he paid all; but there was all forgiven to us, for we paid nothing.

Thus this price is redemptive from the guilt of sin and wrath of God; but this is not all.

2. This price is redemptive from the stain of sin, the power of sin, and the tyranny of Satan, and that by procuring the Holy Spirit for us; "We are saved by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and that is shed on us through Jesus Christ," (Tit. 3:5, 6), and where it is shed, there it redeems.

1. From the stain of sin; sin is the dross or rust of the soul, (Isa. 1:22), but the Spirit refines and purifies from it; sin is the wrinkle of the old man," (Eph. 5:27), but the Spirit smoothes and removes it. "Christ came by water and blood," (1 John 5:6), and the water sprung out of the blood; the Spirit is that clean water, (Ezek. 36:25), which fetcheth out the spots and stains of sin, and that "healing water coming out from the side of the temple," even the pierced side of Christ, (Ezek. 47:1), which by degrees cures all the ulcers and plague-sores of the heart. The Corinthians were all over mire and dirt, but they were "washed in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God," (1 Cor. 6:11); the Spirit washed them, and washed them in the name of Jesus, that is, for his merit's sake. The soul in sinning runs to the cabul of the creature, dirtying and fouling itself, but the Spirit brings it back again to the Holy One; and as it approaches nearer and nearer to him, the macula peccati goes off, and the nitor animæ appears.

2. It redeems from the power of sin. Sin merited Christ's crucifixion and Christ's crucifixion merited the crucifixion of sin; and upon this account out comes the Holy Spirit and nullifies the law of sin, batters down the strongholds of it, plucks up the very throne of it, and crucifies the old man with all his members, by outward restriction nailing his hands and his feet, and by inward circumcision cutting and piercing into his heart, and from thence gradually letting out his vital blood, even the love of sin; hence his motions wax feeble, his members weak, his natural heat of original lust spent and exhausted, and his whole body drooping and languishing to his dying day; and all this by a secret virtue from Christ's death. We are planted together τῷ ὁμοιώματι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, saith the apostle, (Rom. 6:5), he saith not ὁμοιότητι, in the conformity, but ὁμοιώματι, in the conformation of his death, because his death procured that conformity in us. Hence sin doth not reign in us as a prince upon his throne, but die as a man upon the cross; "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ.

3. It redeems from the tyranny of Satan. Christ in his own person spoiled principalities and powers on the cross, (Col. 2:15), and Christ by his Spirit spoils them in the hearts of men; Satan hath his palace there, but Christ hath bought him out, and the Spirit will cast him out; Satan would keep on our chains, but Christ dissolves them. (1 John, 3:8). As he by his Spirit enlightens, off go the chains of the mind; as he converts, off go the chains of the will; as he spiritualizes, off go the chains of the affections; and as he sprinkles his blood upon us, off goes the weighty guilt of all these: Satan would keep us within the prison, but Christ comes with a habeus animam, translating us from the power of darkness into his own kingdom. (Col. 1:13.) A region of grace and light, where Satan, the ruler of sin and darkness cannot have the victory; because Christ, the wisdom and power of God, fights against Him who is, as I may so say, the wisdom and power of sin. Hence he falls "As lightning from heaven," (Luke 10:18), falls and breaks his serpent's head, even his design against poor souls; the ruin of souls is a heaven to him, and in falling short of that, he falls as it were from heaven. "The prince of this world shall be cast out," saith Christ, (John 12:31), and he adds, as a reason, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." (Ver. 32.) Lifted up upon the cross, he purchased the Spirit, and lilted up into heaven tie sends down the Spirit, which draws men out of Satan's world into Christ's, where the gates of hell can never prevail. The God of peace bruises Satan under foot, (Rom. 16:20); the apostle saith not, the God of mercy or power shall do it, but the God of peace; because unless peace had been made through the blood of the cross, Satan would have kept us in everlasting chains. But now justice being satisfied, the spirit comes forth with a quo jure; first rescuing the captive soul, and then treading down Satan under its feet. Thanks be unto God for this victory also through Jesus Christ.

Thus this price is redemptive from evil, but

2. This price is procurative of good. Infinity is a boundless ocean, and may run over in effects as far as it pleaseth; infinite power might have run over in making millions of worlds more, and infinite mercy might have run over in saving millions of sinners more. The price of redemption hath a kind of infinity in it; no wonder then if after remotion of evils, it run over by its transcendent excess of value in the procuration of good; such was the glorious redundance and super-effluence of its merit, that it paid divine justice to the last mite, and over and besides made a purchase of three worlds; I mean the lower world of nature, the middle world of grace, and the upper world of glory.

1. As to the world of nature, Christ procured two things.

1. The standing of it.

2. The deliverance of it.

1. The standing of it, and that in a threefold respect.

1. The standing of it in being. Sin filled it with so much spiritual stench and rottenness, that the power of the Holy One would not have endured to have been there supporting and bearing it up in being, if the death of Christ had not been ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας, a sweet-smelling savour, (Eph. 5:2), to perfume and sweeten it; the world was as it were new founded by the cross, or else sin, that abomination of desolation, would have dashed it down about the sinner's ears; justice (if unsatisfied) would not have spared so much as the stage whereon sin was acted, but hurled it down into its first nullity. Christ upholdeth all things by the word of his power, (Heb. 1:3). Before sin's entry they stood merely by the word of his power; but since, they stand not without the blood of his cross. Redemption is the great buttress of creation; as it rears up the little world after its fall, so it keeps up the great world from falling.

2. The standing of it in order. When the prophet describes God's judgments, he speaks as if the whole chaos were come again; "Lo! the earth was without form and void," (Jer. 4:23). All the orders and harmonies in nature were at first set by the wisdom of God, and afterwards cemented by the blood of God, or else sin would have unframed all. By Christ all things consist, (Col. 1:17), not only subsist in their beings, but consist in their orders.

3. The standing of it in its usefulness to us. Sin was the blast and forfeiture, but Christ is the purchaser and heir of all things, (Heb. 1:2), and in and through him all are as it were new-given to us. We became such wretches by sin, that the earth would not have bore our persons, if Christ had not bore our iniquities? the sun in the firmament would not have lighted the material world, if the sun of righteousness had not appeared in the spiritual; these lower heavens would not have spun out a day for us, if Christ had not purchased the upper ones of glory; the blood of creatures should never have been shed for the life of our bodies, if the blood of God had not been poured out for the life of our souls. Under the law, before harvest began the pass over was killed; at harvest a sheaf of the first fruits was brought to the priest to be offered to God; and after harvest there was the feast of tabernacles to bless God for the fruits of the earth, which by the Jews was kept with booths and hosannahs. Had not Christ our passover been sacrificed for us, there would have been no harvest of creature-blessings at all; and now that there is one, the praise of every sheaf must be brought to Christ the high-priest of good things, and in and through him offered up to God; therefore, there is a spiritual feast of tabernacles under the gospel, (Zach. 14:16). Whilst we sit under the booths of the creature, we must sing hosannahs to the Son of God, who tabernacled in our flesh, and in it merited all comforts for us. Every bough of nature hangs upon his cross, every crumb of bread swims in his blood, every grape of blessing grows on his crown of thorns, and all the sweetness in nature streams out of his vinegar and gall. A right-born christian is the best philosopher, for he sees the sun of righteousness in the luminaries of heaven, the waterings of Christ's blood in the fruits of the earth, the word incarnate in creature-nourishment, and the riches of Christ in all the riches of nature. All are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

2. Christ by this price procured the deliverance of it. God made the house of the world for man, and whilst there is sin in the inhabitant, the curse-mark is on the house: the heavens wax old, as if there were moths in them, the stars have their malignant aspects, the earth hath its thorns and thistles, and the whole creation groans and travels with an universal vanity; the sun groans out his light on the workers of darkness, the air groans with vollies of oaths and blasphemies, and the earth groans forth its corn and wine into the lap of the riotous; and as sin grows heavier, so the creature-groans wax louder every day. But at last in and through Christ, there shall be ἁποκατάσασἰς πάντων, a restitution of all things, (Acts 3:21), the balm of his blood will perfectly heal all the stabs and wounds in the body of nature; the groaning and travailing creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, (Rom. 8:21); there shall be "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," (2 Pet. 3:13), and all the steps and traces of the old curse shall be razed out of the world.

Thus Christ hath purchased the world of nature; but this (as appears by the purchaser's own προστεθήσεται, (Matth. 6:33), is not the main bargain, but the casting in or overplus thereof; therefore,

2. Christ by this price purchased the world of grace. Grace may be considered two ways; either as it is in the map or charter of the gospel, or as it is in the subject or receptacle of the heart; and both ways it is Christ's purchase.

1. Grace in the map or charter is the covenant of grace, comprised in the promises, called the covenant of promise, (Eph. 2:12). In this covenant there are promises reaching down as low as the world of nature, and promises reaching up as high as the world of glory, and betwixt these two run the promises which water the world of grace, and these are either promises of grace such as those, "I will give an heart to know me, (Jer. 24:7); "I will circumcise the heart to love me," (Deut. 30:6). "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts," (Heb. 8:10); "I will give a new heart and a new spirit: I will take away the stony heart, and give a heart of flesh." (Ezek. 36:26); or else I they are promises to grace, such as those, God will justify the believer, (Rom. 3:26), beautify the meek with salvation, (Psal. 149:4), dwell in a broken heart, (Isai. 57:15), comfort the mourners, fill the hungry, and be seen of the pure in heart, (Matth. 5:4, 6, 8). Now all these promises are the purchase of Christ, and the whole covenant made up of them is the New Testament in his blood, (1 Cor. 11:25). Without his satisfactory blood there would have been no room for promises, no, not for the least twinkling of a promise to the sons of men; for unsatisfied justice would have hurried all to hell. All the promises issue out to us in and through Christ, the rivers of life gushed out of the true rock, the gospel-wine ran forth from the true vine; if God meet us and commune with us in words of grace, we must thank the true propitiatory, or mercy-seat, for every syllable.

2. Grace in the proper seat or receptacle of it is Christ's purchase; and this I shall make out,

1. In general. Christ purchased the Spirit of all grace. There is a double oblation of Christ: a personal oblation on the cross, and that is meritum spiritûs; and a doctrinal oblation in the gospel, and that is ministerium spiritûs; and so the "Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ," (Tit. 3:6); "Christ ascended up on high that he might fill all things," (Eph. 4:10). One would have thought that his descent should rather have done it; but he ascended up in the glory of his merits, he carried up all the purchase-money to his Father's house, and from thence the Spirit came pouring down upon men; some droppings of it were before, but then it was richly poured out; it came down in cloven fiery tongues, and a rushing mighty wind, (Acts 2:2, 3); tongues to utter magnalia Dei, and above all, the master-piece of redemption, and cloven tongues to utter them to all nations, in their own language, and fiery tongues to enlighten and inflame the auditors' hearts with the knowledge and love of Christ, and a mighty rushing wind to blow home that fire strongly and insuperably in a thorough conversion; and all this was shed forth from Christ. (Ver. 33.) Never any tongue truly preached Christ, but by a secret touch from him; never any holy fire kindled on the heart, but by a coal from his altar; never any gales of grace on the soul, but from the breathings of his Spirit; not one drop of his blood is spiritless, but full fraught and flowing with the spirit of life.

2. In particular; and so Christ hath purchased three things:—

1. The radical grace of faith.

2. All other graces of the Spirit.

3. All the crowns of these graces.

1. Christ hath purchased the grace of faith; the apostle is express in it, "To you it is given, ὑπὲρ Χρισοῦ, for Christ's sake not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake," (Phil. 1:29); the apostle evidently points out the merits of Christ as the spring of faith, and faith persevering unto suffering. And in another place he saith, "We joy in God through Jesus Christ, διʼ οὗ, by whom we have now received the atonement," (Rom. 5:11); he doth not only say, that by and through him the atonement was made, but that by and through him the atonement is I received; and what is this receiving of the atonement but faith itself? That, therefore, is part of Christ's purchase. These express places might suffice us; but because the Remonstrants oppose this truth, I shall propose two queries unto them.

1. Is not faith comprised within the covenant of grace? Let us come to the touchstone; Is it not written there, "I will give a heart to know me," and is not faith a justifying knowledge, a sight of the Just One, and a beam or dawning of eternal life? Is it not written there, "I will take away the heart of stone," and is not unbelief a part of that stone? doth it not directly resist the blood and righteousness of Christ? and can there be a worse stone than this? Is it not written there, "I will give a new heart," and is not unbelief the heart and life of the old man, and faith of the new? Is it not written there, "I will put my Spirit within you," and is not the Spirit a spirit of faith, and faith a fruit of the Spirit? Is not unbelief of our spirit, and faith of God's? Is it not written there, "I will circumcise the heart," and is not unbelief flesh? God saith, there is life in his Son; and the unbeliever saith. No! and does what in him lies to make God a liar; and can there be any filthier or rottenner flesh in the old man than this? and unless this be cut off, can there be a true circumcision? By all this it clearly appears that faith is within the covenant, and if so, is not the whole covenant sanction à sanguine, the New Testament in Christ's blood? Is not he the mediator and purchaser of the whole? Are not all the promises yea and amen in him? Who dares distinguish, and say, Christ purchased part of the promises, and not all? He purchased notional knowledge, and not justifying; he breaks the stone in the heart, all but that which opposes his own blood and righteousness; the old man is crucified with Christ, all but his heart and life of unbelief; the spirit of grace flows out from Christ, all but the spirit of faith; the circumcision of Christ, (Col. 2:11.), so called because it is procured by the merits, and produced by the Spirit of Christ, cuts off the flesh of the heart, all but that of unbelief, which upbraids God with a lie? Who dares thus tear in sunder the covenant, mangle the promises, dimidiate Christ, and divide the Spirit by unscriptural distinctions? such shuffling is unworthy of Christians; wherefore I conclude my first query thus: Faith is within the covenant, and the covenant is Christ's purchase, therefore faith is such also

2. Is not faith a grace of the Spirit? It seals to the gospel, sanctifies the heart, works by love, waits by patience, overcomes the visible world, and sensibly presentiates the invisible; for shame let it be a grace, and if so, it must be Christ's purchase. The Spirit never effected that grace m fallen man which Christ never merited. As every creature in the world is of God's making, so every grace in the church is of Christ's meriting. He that saith, Yonder is a precious stone, but it is not of God's making, blasphemes the Creator; and he that saith, Yonder is a precious faith, but it is not of Christ's meriting, does no less to the Redeemer. But further, Is not faith the grace of union with Christ? Doth not Christ dwell in the heart by faith? Is not faith the mother-grace of all? First faith gives a touch to Christ, and then love is inflamed with him, joy triumphs in him, and obedience follows him. Where do all the rivers of living water flow, but in the believer's belly? (John 7:38,) What holds all the starry graces of the church but σερέωμα πίστεως, the "firmament of faith," as the apostle calls it? (Col. 2:5) Now will it not grate thine ears, O Christian, to hear that the spirit of holiness is from Christ, but not the spirit of faith; all the starry graces are Christ's, but the firmament of faith is our own; we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, but not with the mother-grace which broods and teems out all the rest, not with the grace of union which lies nearest to Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood; that faith which is nearest to the merits of Christ in its union, is furthest off from them in its origination. What is this but to darken the sun of righteousnesss, dam up the well of salvation, and trample the blood of the covenant under foot? at which every sober christian cannot but tremble. Therefore I conclude my second query thus: faith is a prime and excellent grace, wrought by the Spirit and purchased by the merits of Christ.

2. Christ hath purchased all other graces; for all graces are the fruits of the Spirit, and the Spirit is shed on us through Christ. But instead of proving, let me parly with the saints. Speak, O ye excellent ones, whence came your lovely meekness, your undissembled love, your untired patience, your holy unction, your melting compassions, your broken hearts, your repentant tears, your law engraven spirits, and all your sweet-smelling perfumes of grace? Speak for the glory of Christ. Methinks I hear them all with one consent cry out, thus, O thus it is; all our meekness came from the Lamb, our love from the beloved One, our patience from the Captain-sufferer, our unction from the Christ of God, our compassions from the bowels of Christ, our broken hearts from a broken Christ, our repentant tears from his bleeding wounds, our law-engravings are the epistle of Christ, and all our sweet-smelling graces are the powders of the Merchant, (Cant. 3:6), even of Jesus Christ who bought them all with his sweetest blood. The church is the house of God made up of lively stones, floored with humility, roofed with knowledge, cemented with charity, warmed with the fire of zeal, and filled with the spiritual glory of heavenly graces; but Christ is the chief corner stone which Dears up all: all the church's humility is from Christ's ἐκένωσε or self-emptying, all our knowledge from Christ the sun of righteousness, all its charity from the hyperbole of his love, all its zeal is from a coal of his altar, and all the spiritual glory which fills it, comes by the way of the east, (Ezek. 43:2), even from Jesus Christ who is ἀνατολὴ, the east or day-spring of all graces, (Luke 1:78).

3. Christ hath purchased all the crowns of these graces, I mean such as are set on the saint's head in this life; the believers shall be justified, but it is by the righteous Christ; the meek shall be beautified with salvation, but it is because of the Lamb; the broken heart shall have God dwelling in it, but it is for the merits of a broken Christ; the mourners shall be comforted, but it is by the consolation in Christ; the hungry shall be filled, but it is from the fulness of Christ; the pure in heart shall see God, but it is through Christ, the brightness of his glory; all the crowns of grace must be cast down at the feet of Jesus Christ, the great purchaser of them.

Thus Christ hath bought the world of grace, but yet we are not at the top of the purchase; for,

3. Christ hath purchased the world of glory; that is the none-such, the world of worlds, to which all nature's glories are but a shadow, and the church's graces but a portal; there are plenitudes of joy, crowns of life, weights of glory, treasures of bliss and oceans of sweetness, and all of Christ's purchasing: all the mansions of glory are of his preparing, (John 14:2), all the wine in heaven is for his marriage-supper, (Rev. 19:9), his blood is the key to open the holy of holies, (Heb. 10:19), the pure river of life clear as crystal, issues out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, even out of God's grace and Christ's merit, (Rev. 22:1). Christ on the cross purchased a heaven for us, Christ in the gospel proffers it unto us, and Christ in the heart gives us an actual hope thereof. Had it not been for Christ, we could never have entered into such a place as heaven, where the walls are pearls, the rivers pleasures, the hills frankincense, the air purity, and the light, life, love, and all in all God himself. Now Christ did not only purchase heaven for us, but purchased it in a way completive of the law. The old promise of the law was, Do this and live, and that seemed quite blasted and withered by our sins; but Christ, by his perfect obedience, made it revive and bud again with life. God would not give eternal life, but upon a Do this: and Christ fulfilled all righteousness for us, and by that righteousness we come to have δικαιωσιν ζωῆς, justification of life, (Rom. 5:18), such a justification as is crowned with eternal life.

But you will say, that old "Do this" required obedience in our own persons; and, therefore, Christ could not fulfil it in our stead, and so purchase life for us.

I answer, that God did here also interpret his law in an equitable way; the divine sanction [Do this] on which life did depend, was not precisely determinate that we must do it in our own persons, for then a surety's obedience should have been totally excluded; neither was it precisely determinate that we should do it in our surety, for there was a "Do this" in the state of innocency, where there was no need of a surety; but the sanction was general, "Do this," and two interpretations lay before God: the first that it should be done in our own persons, the second that it should be done in our surety; the first a rigorous and literal, the second an equitable and merciful interpretation. Now these two interpretations lying before God, he, as supreme lawgiver, takes the equitable interpretation; had he taken the rigorous one, there would have been no room for a surety, nor life for the sinner; but in rich mercy he takes the equitable one, and so through a surety's obedience eternal life is purchased for us. These two interpretations of the law seem to me to be figured out by the double making of the tables; the law in the rigorous interpretation is like the first tables which were broken: for as the law was first written in those tables, so the rigorous interpretation firstly rises out of the letter of the law; and as those first tables were broken, so sin made such a breach upon the law, that the apostle puts a τὸ ἀδύνατον upon it, (Rom. 8:3), it could not give life according to the rigorous interpretation. And the law in the equitable interpretation is like the second tables which were put into the ark: for as those tables were kept inviolate in the ark, so the law was kept inviolate in the equitable interpretation; and as the mercy-seat covered the tables in the ark, and from the mercy-seat so covering them God manifested his presence; so Christ, the true ἱλαστήριον or mercy-seat, did by his perfect obedience cover the law all over, and in and through him so covering it God manifests his presence, not only his back parts on earth, but his face in heaven. Thus by the admirable wisdom of God heaven was purchased, and yet the law established; the "Do this" turned upon the surety, and the promised life made good to us sinners.

But you will object further, if the law be thus interpreted in an equitable way, viz. to be done by a surety, then it is not so much as a rule of life to us; for that issues out of the first interpretation, viz. the doing of it in our own persons.

I answer, that still the law is a rule of life to us; and the reason is, because God doth not waive the rigorous and take the equitable interpretation totally and absolutely, but in order to redemption, and so far only as redemption requires it. Now what doth that require? It requires that the obedience of a surety should be admitted for the impletion of the law; and therefore thus far the rigorous interpretation is waived, and the equitable takes place. But it requires not that the redeemed ones should be exempted from the law as a rule; and therefore the equitable interpretation doth not go thus far; and so far as that goes not, the rigorous one takes place; because, pro tanto, it is consistent with redemption. Hence it comes to pass that Christ, as our surety, fulfilled the law for us, and yet still the law is a rule of life to us; Christ is the end of the law to the believer, and yet the believer is, ἔννομος Χρισῷ, under the law to Christ, (1 Cor. 9:21.)

Thus this price is redemptive from evil and procurative of good, but the crown of all is yet behind.

3. It is a price sufficient for both the former. There is a double sufficiency, sufficientia nuda, and sufficientia ordinate; the first consists in the intrinsical value of the thing, the thing in value transcending, or at least equalizing the thing to be redeemed; the second consists in the will of the payer and receiver, the one intentionally paying, and the other intentionally accepting that thing as a price of redemption; the first is that radical sufficiency whereby the thing may possibly become a price; the second is that formal sufficiency whereby the thing doth actually become a price. Let the thing be in itself of never so vast a value, the former without the latter doth not constitute it a price. Now the glorious price of our redemption hath both these sufficiencies in it.

1. It hath sufficientiam nudam; the active and passive obedience of Christ have intrinsical value enough to equalize, nay, infinitely super-exceed all our debts, and over and besides to purchase three worlds for us; and the reason is, because his deity poured out a kind of infinity into his doings and sufferings. The righteousness which he fulfilled was the righteousness of God, (Rom. 1:17); the blood which he shed was the blood of God, (Acts 20:28); and the life which he laid down was the life of God. (1 John 3:16). And what nakedness cannot the righteousness of God cover? What debts cannot the blood of God pay for? And what worlds cannot the life of God purchase? Remember, O poor trembling soul, remember, he that was pierced for thee was Jehovah, he that was smitten for thee was the man, God's fellow; and he that obeyed for thee was in the form of God. O what manner of actions and passions were those wherein the Lawgiver stood under his own law, and the Creator suffered in his own world? How was his obedience elevated into infinity, and transfigured into glory by his Godhead! What a mass of sweet-smelling merits must that be, into which the Deity itself transfused riches and odours! This may be one reason why Christ is styled the heir of all things, (Heb. 1:2); though he be the purchaser of all, yet he is heir of all, because he received his divine nature from his Father, and that divine nature stamped an infinite value upon the purchase-money which bought all. May I shadow it out by an imperfect similitude: A son receives vast sums from his father, and with them purchases an estate in lands to himself; that son is the purchaser of those lands in respect of his own payment of the money, and yet in a sense he is heir to them in respect of his receipt of the money from his father. So the eternal Son of God is the purchaser of all, for he paid down his own blood and righteousness as the price; and yet he is heir of all, for that price had its value from the divine nature, and that divine nature was received from his Father in the eternal generation. There is no doubt then (as long as Christ is God) but that his obedience hath value enough in itself.

2. It hath sufficientiam ordinatam, and this appears—

1. By the will of Christ, who paid down the price.

2. By the will of God, who received it; both their wills concentre in the work of redemption, and the counsel of peace is between them both. (Zach. 6:13).

1. It appears by the will of Christ: when he paid down his obedience, what was his meaning? Surely, not a tittle of his obedience was irrationally done, nor a drop of his blood irrationally shed; what, then was his meaning in it? Was it not to dissolve the chains of sin, open the; prison of wrath, and spoil and triumph over the bloody jailor, Satan? Was it not to procure the standing of the body of nature, the shedding down of the Spirit of grace, and the opening a door to heaven and eternal life? These were the things on which the divine and human will of Christ were both set: his divine will was set upon them; for before the foundations of the world, even in his joyous eternity with his Father, "his delights were with the sons of men," (Prov. 8:31), and when the world was up, he appeared to Abraham in a human shape, and to Moses, to usher in a temporal redemption; the first as a præludium to his incarnation, and the latter as a præludium to our redemption, and both as a demonstration that the work of salvation was in his heart. And afterwards in the days of his flesh, his human will never parted from his divine, but in a rape of love always run upon redemption; this he sought for in a long circuit of obedience, and sought with a πῶς συνέχομαι till it was finished; this he sought for in his bloody agony, and when his human will as nature shrunk back from the cup of wrath, yet the same will as reason kissed and drunk it off to the bottom in order to redemption; this he ardently pursued after through cross-tortures and soul-travails, and rather than fail of it, he would for a time be forsaken even of God himself; and when he cried out, I thirst, his greatest thirst of all was after this, and could never be quenched till he came to a consummatum est. Thus stood the mind of Christ in the business.

2. It appears by the will of God, and that in two things.

1. God decreed this price to be paid, for the ends aforesaid.

2. God accepted it being paid, for the ends aforesaid.

1. God decreed this price to be paid; "Christ did not glorify himself in making himself a I high priest or surety; but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee," (Heb. 5:5). Christ's person was begotten out of the substance of God, and his office, as it were, begotten out of the will of God, God eternally ordained him to that office, (1 Pet. 1:20), and in the fulness of time called him to it, (Heb. 5:10); and for more assurance, superadded his seal to his call, (John 6:27); and his oath to both, (Heb. 7:21); and all to show forth his immutable purpose touching the same. Christ was booked down for a Redeemer in the eternal volumes, and slain above in the decree, long before he was slain below in time. Infinite love impregnated the divine will with the decree of redemption, and that decree sent forth our Redeemer, and put a τὸ πρέπον upon his righteousness, (Matt. 3:15); a διὰ τοῦτο upon the cup of wrath, (John 12:27); and a δεῖ upon his death and sufferings, (Matt. 14:21); and all this that the mystery of; redemption, hid from ages in the will of God, (Col. 1:26), might come abroad into the world; "When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law," (Gal. 4:4, 5). O what a fair window is here opened into God's heart! Redemption was decreed, and therefore God sent forth his Son; the time was decreed, and therefore he sent him forth in the fulness of time; and the price was decreed, and therefore he sent him forth made of a woman, made under the law, that is, to take a human nature, and pay it down in all obedience as the price of our redemption.

2. As God decreed this price to be paid, so he accepted it being paid, and this includes in it two things.

1. That this price was paid to him.

2. That this price was accepted by him.

1. This price was paid to him; Christ offered himself to God, (Heb. 9:14). Whether we consider this price as redemptive from evil, or as procurative of good, both ways it was paid to God; as redemptive from evil, it was paid to him as a righteous lawgiver and judge; and as procurative of good, it was paid to him as a great remunerator and faithful promiser. God is the lawgiver, against whose laws we rebelled; and God is the judge, who for our rebellions against his law, συνέκλεισε τοὺς πάντας, "shut us all up in prison," (Rom. 11:32); there we lay ὑπόδικοι τῷ Θεῷ, "under the judgment of God," (Rom. 3:19); and his wrath abode upon us, (John 3:36); therefore this price, as redemptive from evil, was paid to God as the lawgiver and judge. That Socinian cavil, that if this were a proper redemption, the price should be paid to sin and Satan, because we are redeemed from them, is but a mere trifle; for God is the supreme lawgiver and judge, he only hath the keys of death and hell; strictly and properly sinners are prisoners only to him, Satan is but as the jailor or under-officer, acting under the authority of this judge; the guilt of sin is but as the chains or fetters, binding under the justice of this lawgiver; and who ever read or heard of a price of redemption paid to the jailor or fetters? and yet upon the payment thereof the captive is delivered from them both. Hence it is that our Saviour Christ was both Mercator and Bellator; Mercator as to God to whom he paid the price, and Bellator as against Satan whom he conquered; and both these the apostle expresses together, "he blotted out the handwriting, nailing it to his cross, and spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them in it," (Col. 2:14, 15). He paid God the price and not Satan, he spoiled and triumphed over Satan, and not over God. Again; as this price, as redemptive from evil, was paid to God as a lawgiver and judge, so this price, as procurative of good, was paid to God as the great remunerator and faithful promiser. God is a great remunerator, for he rewards according to the condecency of his goodness; and a faithful promiser, for he will not suffer one jot or tittle of his promises to fall to the ground: he engaged himself to Christ, that his blood should be returned in all good things, he gave him the promise of a seed, and to raise it up, the promise of his Spirit; and to crown it, the promise of eternal life; he bound himself by express compact to make him a light to the Gentiles, a covenant to the people, and salvation to the ends of the earth, (Isa. 49:6, 8). Wherefore, this price as procurative of good was paid to God as a remunerator and promiser.

2. As this price was paid to God, so it was accepted by him for the ends aforesaid. Indeed simply and abstractively from his own decree he was not bound to accept of this price (though of an immense and infinite value) as for us; I say, as for us; for he might have stood upon the rigour of the law, Do this and live, transgress this and die in thine own person; the tables of the law might never have been put into the ark, nor covered with a mercy-seat, but this is the joy of our faith, that he hath accepted it. When Christ was baptised, there was a voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, ἐν ᾦ εὐδόκησα, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:17). Duo grata vocabula filius et dilectus, saith an ancient, and that sweet word εὐδόκησα makes up the third. When Christ was sacrificed, there was a sweet smell to God, (Eph. 5:2); God cries out, I have found a ransom, (Job 33:24); and Christ, It is finished. (John 19:30). Afterwards, when he came into the grave, off flew the bands of death, (Acts 24:24), as a pregnant evidence that justice was satisfied; he was taken from prison and from judgment, (Isaiah 53:8), because all was paid; God's power raised him up, and God's justice could say nothing against it. And when he was risen from the dead, he raises up the faith of his disciples, "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" saith he, (Luke 24:38). Do you doubt whether I am he who paid down the price of redemption? Behold my hands and my feet; fossus est saccus, et manavit pretium orbis, the sack of my humanity was broke, and out run the price of redemption. Do you scruple whether that price were accepted of God or not? Lo! here are the returns of it, I will breathe the Holy Ghost upon you, I will betrust the gospel with you, go preach it to every creature, make the world know that redemption, remission, grace, peace, sanctity, salvation, are the returns of my blood. And afterwards, just at his parting, he blessed them, and ascended up into heaven; he blessed them to show that the curse was gone, and ascended up into heaven to possess the purchase of glory, and being there, he sat down at God's right hand; his work was now done, and therefore he sat down, and his work was now accepted, and therefore he sat down at God's right hand; there he received gifts for men, and from thence he gave them out again; he gave out what he received, and received what he purchased. Christ's sacrifice was so sweet a savour to God, that the minister who preaches it is a sweet savour to him, (2 Cor. 2:15), and the believer who accepts it is accepted of him, (Eph. 1:6); nay, so far accepted, that he becomes a priest, (Rev. 1:6), and his good works pleasing sacrifices, (Heb. 13:16), his prayers are turned into odours, (Rev. 5:8), and his charity into a sweet smell, (Phil. 4:18), and all this by a perfuming touch from Christ's merits. In a word, all the proclamations of mercy in the Scripture, all the pardons of sin in the conscience, all the influences of grace on the heart, and all the openings of heaven in the promises, are as so many pregnant proofs unto us that God accepted the price.

Thus, having shown what manner of price this is, viz. redemptive from evil, procurative of good, and sufficient for both, I pass on to the last question.

3. For whom was this price paid? And this I shall cleave asunder into two queries.

1. Whether Christ died for all men?

2. Whether he died equally for all men?

In both which, whilst I name the death of Christ only, according to the usual language of divines, I comprehend his whole obedience, active and passive, whereof his death was the complement and extreme act.

1. As to the first query, Whether Christ died for all men? I answer affirmatively, that he did, and here I shall do two things.

1. I shall lay down the reasons of my opinion.

2. I shall answer the objections made against it; and in both it will appear how far, or in what sense, I assert that Christ died for all men.

1. I shall lay down my reasons for it, and these are drawn—

1. From the will of God, as the fountain of redemption.

2. From the covenant of grace, as the charter of it, and the promises comprized therein.

3. From the ministers' commission who publish it.

4. From certain blessings which are the fruits of it.

5. From the unbelief of men, which is the denial of it.

6. From the fulness and glorious redundance of merit in Christ's death, which paid for it.

7. From the large and general expressions in scripture concerning the same.

1. I argue from the will of God. God's will of salvation as the fontal cause thereof, and Christ's death, as the meritorious cause thereof, are of equal latitude. God's will of salvation doth not extend beyond Christ's death, for then he should intend to save some extra Christum. Neither doth Christ's death extend beyond God's will of salvation, for then he should die for some whom God would upon no terms save; but these two are exactly co-extensive. Hence it is observable, that when the apostle speaks of Christ's love to the church, he speaks also of his giving himself for it, (Eph. 5:25), and when he saith God will have all men to be saved, (1 Tim. 2:4), he saith withal, Christ gave himself a ransom for all, (v. 6). Therefore, there cannot be a truer measure of the extent of Christ's death, than God's will of salvation, out of which the same did issue; so far forth as that will of salvation extends to all men, so far forth the death of Christ doth extend to all men. Now then, how far doth God will the salvation of all? Surely thus far, that if they believe they shall be saved. No divine can deny it, especially seeing Christ himself hath laid it down so positively, "This is the will of him that sent me, saith he, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life," (John 6:40). Wherefore, if God will the salvation of all men thus far, that if they believe they shall he saved; then Christ died for all men thus far, that if they believe they shall be saved. But you will say, that promise, Whosoever believes shall be saved, is but voluntas signi, and not voluntas beneplaciti, which is the adequate measure of Christ's death. Unto which I answer; If that promise be voluntas signi, what doth it signify? What but God's will? What will but that good pleasure of his, that whosoever believes shall be saved? How else is the sign of the true God a true sign? Whence is that universal connexion betwixt faith and salvation? Is it not a plain efflux or product from the decree of God? Doth not that evidently import a decree, that whosoever believes shall be saved? Surely it cannot be a false sign; wherefore, so far God's will of salvation extends to all men, and consequently so far Christ's death extends to them.

2. I argue from the covenant of grace, and the promises comprised therein. Christ is the mediator of the covenant, and the covenant is the new testament in his blood; Christ's death doth not extend beyond the covenant, for then there should be less in the charter than in the purchase, neither doth the covenant extend beyond Christ's death, for then there should be more in the charter than in the purchase; but both these run parallel in extent. Therefore, so far forth as the covenant extends to all men, so far forth the death of Christ extends to all men. Now then, for the extent of the covenant. Are not those promises [Whosoever believes shall be saved; whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely] with the like, a part of the covenant? and are they not extensive to all men? Both are as plain as if they were written with a sun-beam: wherefore, so far doth Christ's death extend to all men, as the covenant in any part thereof doth extend unto them. Moreover, these general promises undeniably extend to all men, and in that extent are infallibly true; they are all faithful sayings, and words of truth, and their truth is sealed up by Christ's blood; wherefore as these promises extend to all men, so the death of Christ, in which they are founded, doth extend to all men. If Christ did no way die for all men, which way shall the truth of these general promises be made out? "Whosoever will, may take the water of life." What, though Christ never bought it for him? "Whosoever believes, shall be saved." What, though there were no λύτρον, no price paid for him? Surely the gospel knows no water of life but what Christ purchased, nor no way of salvation but by a λύτρον, or price paid. But you will say, that albeit Christ died not for all men, yet are those general promises very true, and that because their truth is founded upon the sufficiency of Christ's death, which hath worth enough in it to redeem millions of worlds. I answer, there is a double sufficiency; sufficientia nuda, consisting in the intrinsical value of the thing, and sufficientia ordinata, consisting in the intentional paying and receiving that thing as a price of redemption; the first is that radical sufficiency, whereby the thing may possibly become a price: the second is that formal sufficiency, whereby the thing doth actually become a price. Let a thing be of never so vast a value in itself, it is no price at all, unless it be paid for that end, and being paid, it is a price for no more than those only for whom it was so paid; because the intrinsical worth how great soever, doth not constitute it a price. Hence it is clear, that if Christ's death, though of immense value, had been paid for none, it had been no price at all; and if it were paid but for some, it was no price for the rest for whom it was not paid. These things premised, if Christ no way died for all men, how can those promises stand true? All men, if they believe, shall be saved; saved, but how? Shall they be saved by a λύτρον or price of redemption? there was none at all paid for them; the immense value of Christ's death doth not make it a price as to them for whom he died not; or shall they be saved without a λύτρον or price? God's unsatisfied justice cannot suffer it, his minatory law cannot bear it, neither doth the gospel know any such way of salvation; take it either way, the truth of those promises cannot be vindicated, unless we say, that Christ died for all men. But you will yet reply, that albeit Christ died not for all, yet is the promise true; because Christ's death is not only sufficient for all in itself, but it was willed by God to be so. I answer, God willed it to be so, but how? Did he will that it should be paid for all men, and so be a sufficient price for them? then Christ died for all men; or did he will that it should not be paid for all men, but only be sufficient for them in its intrinsical value? Then still it is no price at all as to them, and consequently either they may be saved without a price, which is contrary to the current of the gospel, or else they cannot be saved at all, which is contrary to the truth of the promise. If it be yet further demanded, To what purpose is it to argue which way reprobates shall be saved, seeing none of them ever did or will believe? Let the apostle answer, "What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid; yea, let God be true, but every man a liar." (Rom. 3:3, 4). And again, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, and cannot deny himself." (2 Tim. 2:13.) No reprobate ever did or will believe, yet the promise must be true, and true antecedently to the faith or unbelief of men; true, because it is the promise of God, and antecedently true, because else it could not be the object of faith. Wherefore, I conclude, that Christ died for all men so far, as to found the truth of the general promises, which extend to all men.

3. I argue from the minister's commission, which is, "Go, preach the gospel to every creature;" by virtue of this, they command all men everywhere to repent, and to induce them thereunto, they open a door of hope to them, and to raise up that hope, they set forth Jesus Christ evidently before their eyes, as if he were crucified among them, opening his bleeding wounds, and through them showing his naked heart, and the inward bruises there made by God's wrath for man's sin; they lift up their voices and cry, Come, O poor sinners! come, for all things are ready, here is Christ and his redeeming blood ready, here is an act of free grace and pardon sealed in that blood, here is an haven of reconciliation, and at the end thereof a heaven of glory open before you; come, O come without delay; behold! now is the accepted time, the day of salvation: come, and your sins shall be blotted out; come, and your souls shall live for ever; whilst it is called today, we beseech you, be you reconciled unto God; why should your immortal souls, saveable through Christ, be choked with worldly thorns, or enchanted with base lusts, or inhabited by unclean devils? "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" And in all this they bespeak not the elect only, but others too, for their commission reaches to every creature: neither do they utter their own human passions, but pursue their divine commission: for in all their pathetical beseechings, God himself beseeches, (2 Cor. 5:21); in all their loud outcries, wisdom itself cries out, (Prov. 8:1, 4); in all their earnest expostulations, Christ himself stands at the door and knocks, (Rev. 3:20); in all their holy doctrines, the kingdom of heaven comes nigh unto men, (Luke 10:11); and in all their invitations to the evangelical feast made up of Christ's flesh and blood, which is meat indeed and drink indeed, God himself invites, and bids men eat and drink for his heart is with them. These things being so, it necessarily follows that Christ died for all men; because the oblation of Christ in the gospel is founded on his oblation on the cross, and the ministry of reconciliation is founded on the mystery of it. Hence the apostle joins both together; "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19). And in another place, "Christ gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim. 2:6). The word of reconciliation is extensive to all, therefore so is the work; the price of redemption may be testified to all, therefore it was paid for all, so far as to found that testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. But if Christ no way died for all men, how came the minister's commission to be so large. They command men to repent that their sins may be blotted out, but how can their sins be blotted out for whom Christ was not made sin? They beseech men to be reconciled to God, but how shall they be reconciled for whom Christ paid no price at all? They call and cry out to men to come to Christ that they may have life, but how can they have life, for whom Christ was no surety in his death? If then Christ died for all men, the ministry is a true ministry as to all; but if Christ died only for the elect, what is the ministry as to the rest? Those exhortations, which as to the elect are real undissembled offers of grace, as to the rest seem to be but golden dreams and shadows. Those calls, which as to the elect are right ministerial acts, as to the rest appear as extra-ministerial blots and erratas. Those invitations to the gospel feast, which as to the elect are the cordial wooings and beseechings of God himself, as to the rest look like the words of mere men speaking at random, and without commission; for alas! why should they come to that feast for whom nothing is prepared? How should they eat and drink for whom the Lamb was never slain? Wherefore, I conclude that Christ died for all men, so far as to found the truth of the ministry towards them.

4. I argue from the blessings purchased by Christ's death, one great blessing is salvation on gospel terms. Lapsed angels must be damned, but men, nay all men may be saved on gospel terms. There is κοίνὴ σωτηρία, a common salvation to them; and O, what a blessing is this, especially to such as live under the gospel! There is nothing stands between them and heaven but their own will. "They will not come to Christ, that they may have life." Oh! what would the damned spirits in hell give for such a door of hope, as hath no other bar but what is in their own hearts! How would they sweat and strive with tears and strong cries to enter in at it! A second blessing is the patience of God, which waits upon sinners, and by some glimmerings of mercy leads them to repentance. A third blessing is the dispensation of gifts; even in the wilderness of the pagan world there are moral virtues, and in the Eden of the church there are even in those that perish some touches of the Holy Ghost, tastes of the heavenly gift and feelings of the powers of the world to come, and whence are these but from the death of Christ? As David called the water of Bethlehem, the blood of his worthies, so I may call these blessings, the blood of Christ. Wherefore Christ died so far for all, as to procure some blessings for them.

5. I argue from the unbelief of men, which is wonderfully aggravated in scripture: through Jesus Christ there is a real offer of grace made, but unbelief receives it in vain, (2 Cor. 6:1); great salvation is prepared, but unbelief neglects it, (Heb. 2:3); eternal rest is promised, but unbelief comes short of it, (Heb. 4:1); the kingdom of heaven comes nigh to men, but unbelief draws back from it, (Heb. 10:39); God himself bears witness that there is life in his Son, even for all, if they believe; but unbelief saith No to it, and doth what it can to make him a liar, (1 John 5:10); Christ is set forth before our eyes as the great expiatory sacrifice, and evidently set forth as if he were crucified among us, his blood runs fresh in the veins of the gospel, but unbelief re-crucifies the Son of God, (Heb. 6:6), tramples his precious blood under foot, (Heb. 10:29), and doth as it were nullify his glorious sacrifice; so that as to final unbelievers οὐκ ἔτι ἀπολείπεται θυσία, there no more remaineth a sacrifice, (Heb. 10:26), as to their salvation, it is as if there were no sacrifice at all for them: but if Christ died not for all men, how can these things be? How can those men receive grace in vain for whom it was never procured? or neglect salvation, for whom it was never prepared? How can they fall short of eternal rest, for whom it was never purchased? or draw back from the kingdom of heaven, which never approached unto them? How can there be life in Christ for those for whom he never died? and if not, which way doth their unbelief give God the lie? How can they re-crucify the Son of God, for whom he was never crucified? or trample on that precious blood, which was never shed for them? The devils, as full of malice as they are against Christ, are never said to do it, and why are men charged with it? I take it, because men have some share in him, and devils none at all.

6. I argue from the death of Christ, which hath a super-excellent redundance of merit in it, not only because of its intrinsical value, but because of the divine ordination; there are unsearchable riches in Christ, enough to pay all men's debts; there are pleonasms of grace in him, ὑπερεπλεόνασε χάρις, grace superabounded, saith the apostle, (1 Tim. 1:14). Salvation flows out from him actually upon all believers, and by a glorious supereffluence it would run over upon all men if they did not believe: as it was with the widow's little pot of oil, (2 Kings, 4:6), the oil did run till all the vessels were full, and then it staid; the widow called for another vessel, and if she had had many more there, the oil in the pot would have filled them all; even so (pardon the comparison) it is with the immense sea of Christ's merits, it actually fills all the vessels of faith, and then it stays, as it were, for want of vessels; meanwhile Christ calls and cries out for more, and if all men would come and bring their vessels to him, he would fill them all; doubtless if all men did believe, all would see the glory of God, all would have the rivers of living water flowing in them, all would feel spiritual miracles wrought in their hearts, by that Christ who sits at the right hand of power, and consequently all would find an experimental witness m themselves, that Christ died for them all.

7. I argue from the general and large expressions in scripture touching Christ and his death: Christ died for all, (2 Cor. 5:15), for every man, (Heb. 2:9); he gave himself for the world, (John 6:51), for the whole world, (1 John, 2:2); he is styled the Saviour of the world, (1 John, 4:14); and his salvation is called a common salvation, (Jude, ver. 3), a salvation prepared before the face of all people, (Luke 2:31), and flowing forth to the ends of the earth, (Isai. 49:6); the gospel of this salvation is to be preached to all nations, (Matth. 28:19), and to every creature, (Mark 16:15); there is χάρις σωτήριος, grace bringing salvation to all men, (Tit. 2:11); a door of hope open to them, because Christ gave himself a ransom for all, (1 Tim. 2:6); I know not what could be more emphatical to point out the universality of redemption. But you will say, all these general expressions do but denote genera singulorum, some of all sorts, the world of the elect, or the all of believers.

In answer to which I shall only put two queries.

1. If those general expressions denote only the world of the elect, or the all of believers, why is it not said in scripture, that God elected all and every man, the world and the whole world? In that sense it is as true that God elected them all, as it is that Christ died for them all; why, then, doth the Holy Spirit altogether forbear those general expressions in the matter of election, which it useth in the matter of redemption? Surely it imports thus much unto us, that redemption hath a larger sphere than election; and therefore, the scriptures contract election in words of speciality only, whilst they open and dilate redemption in emphatical generalities.

2. If those general expressions denote only the world of the elect, or the all of believers, why doth the scripture use such very different language in the same thing? Sometimes Christ is called the Saviour of the world, and sometimes the Saviour of the body; sometimes it is said, that Christ died, or gave himself for all, or for the world, and sometimes it is said that he died, or gave himself for the church, or for his sheep. Who can imagine that such words of universality, and such words of speciality should be of the same latitude? that one and the same thing should be imported in both? Moreover, the scripture doth make a signal distinction; when it speaks of his giving himself or dying for all, it says only that he died for all, or gave himself a ransom for all. But when it speaks of giving himself for his church, it says that, "He sanctified himself that it might be sanctified through the truth," (John, 17:19); and that "he gave himself for it, that he might purify to himself a peculiar people," (Titus, 2:14); and that "he gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the word, and present it to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle," (Eph. 5:25, 26, 27). Never in all the scripture, is it said that he gave himself for all, or for the world, that he might sanctify or cleanse it, or make it a peculiar people, or glorious church; which yet might have been truly said, if the all were no more than the all of believers, or the world than the world of the elect; wherefore, to me it seems clear from those various expressions and the observable distinctions in them, that the all for whom Christ died is larger than the all of believers; and the world for whom Christ gave himself, larger than the world of the elect.

2. Having laid down my own reasons, I proceed to answer the objections made against this opinion.

Object. 1. If Christ died for all men, then all would believe; for Christ's death procures all graces, and in particular, faith; seeing then all men have not faith, either Christ did not die for them all, or else he loseth part of his purchase.

I answer, that Christ's death is procurative of all graces, and particularly of faith, so far as it is a price; and it is a price so far, as it was paid down by Christ and accepted by God for that purpose; for in a price there must be, both sufficientia nuda, consisting in the intrinsical value of the thing: and sufficientia ordinata, consisting in the intentional paying and receiving that thing as a price. Now Christ's death was paid down by him and accepted by God as a price with a double respect. As for all men it was paid and accepted as a price, so far forth, as to procure for them a ground for their faith, viz., that they might be saved on gospel terms. And as for the elect it was further paid and accepted as a price, so far as to procure the very grace of faith for them. Thus our Saviour Christ, who best knew both upon what terms he paid down the price, and upon what terms his Father received it, opens this mysterious dispensation; "I came down from heaven, saith he, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me," (John 6:38), and what was that? As to all men, it was that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, (v. 40); and as to the elect, it was that all those should by faith come unto him, (v. 37), and never be lost, (v. 39). Christ then died for all men, not so far forth as to procure the grace of faith, but so far forth as to procure salvation on gospel terms for them; therefore, albeit all do not believe, it follows not either that Christ did not at all die for them, or that he loseth part of his purchase; Christ's death is procurative of faith, not in reference to all, but to the elect.

Object. 2. If Christ died for all men, why is not the gospel revealed to them? many pagan nations have no glimpse of a Christ.

I answer two things.

1. God hath not left himself altogether without witness, no, not in the pagan world; the invisible Spirit renders himself visible in the glass of the world, (Rom. 1:20); and as it were palpable in the body of nature, the very heathens may see and feel him in every creature, (Acts 17:27), nay, and in themselves too, for his presence is not far off from them, and his candle burns within them, (Prov. 20:27); and when by this candle it appears, that there is justice in God and sin in them; yet that they may still seek after him, he lets out some glimmerings of mercy and placability towards them; the very standing of the world utters somewhat of this. The Psalmist tells us of "a line in the heaven," (Ps. 19:4). God in the creation drew lines of power and wisdom over the sphere of nature, but Christ in redemption struck a line of mercy quite through it, and that legible even to the heathens; forasmuch as they know to τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ θεοῦ, the vindictive justice of God, (Rom. 1:32), and yet see the world standing, and not dashed down about the sinner's ears; they know there is a δίκη, a divine vengeance, (Acts 28:4), and yet they are not consumed; they see justice as it were winking, (Acts 17:30), judgment slumbering, (2 Pet. 2:3), and infinite patience and longsuffering waiting and leading them to repentance, (Rom. 2:4); they have some glimpses of pardoning mercy; where there is no pardoning mercy at all, there is no room for repentance; but the patience of God is a kind of temporal pardon of the punishment, and that temporal pardon of the punishment points out that mercy which can give an absolute pardon of the sin, and the true duct and tendency of that mercy is to lead men to repentance; and if there were any man in the pagan world who did in truth repent and convert to God, I make no question at all, but that he should be saved, and probably not without the express knowledge of Christ indulged to him; for "upon all that fear God's name will the Sun of righteousness arise with healing under his wings," (Mal. 4:2). Here, then, is aliquid evangelii, though not the express knowledge of Christ.

2. As to the argument, let us weigh what may I be deducted from Christ's death as universal: If Christ died for all men, it follows from thence that Christ may be preached to all, but it follows not from thence that Christ shall be preached to all: it follows that Christ may be preached to all, for he, who was offered for all on the cross, may be offered to all in the gospel; there is no pagan in the world to whom Christ may not be offered. And if there were but one great ear or organ of hearing common to all, now would Christ's ministers always be filling it with gospel! But it follows not that Christ shall be preached to all; for the gospel is God's own, and he may do with his own as he pleaseth; and Christ, who purchased for all the being of the gospel, as far as the general promises go, yet purchased not for all the publication thereof. In a word; the pagans have some glimmerings of the gospel, and may be saved on gospel terms, which shews that Christ so far died for them; and that they have not the express knowledge of Christ, is a deep abyss much fitter to be adored than dived into by us.

Object. 3. If Christ died for all men, then he intercedes for all; but he intercedes only for the elect, therefore he died for them only.

I answer that Christ doth in some sort intercede for all men; and this I shall clear several ways.

1. From the nature of Christ's intercession; that is not a formal prayer, but an appearing in the holy of holies before the face of God as an advocate, and there presenting his blood and righteousness in their freshness and endless life of merit, with a will that all the grace purchased thereby may be dispensed to the sons of men; therefore Christ even in glory stands we ὡς ἐσφαγμένος, as one slain, (Rev. 5:6), shewing his bleeding wounds to make intercession with God. Hence it follows, that his intercession (being a kind of celestial oblation) perfectly answers to his oblation on the cross; he is an advocate above, so far as he was a surety here below; his blood speaks the very same things in heaven as it did on earth, and his will stands in the same posture towards sinners there as here. Now how far was Christ a surety for all? Surely thus far, that all may be saved if they believe; else either they cannot be saved at all, which is contrary to the truth of the promise, or they may be saved without a surety, which is contrary to the current of the scriptures. But if he were so far a surety for all, then he is so far an advocate for all; for he appears an advocate in heaven for all those for whom he appeared as a surety on the cross. Hence the apostle saith in general, If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, (1 John 2:1); he saith not strictly, if the elect sin, but at large, if any man sin we have an advocate; and as the true groundwork of this general advocation, he adds, he is the propitiation for the whole world, (v. 2). So far forth as he was a propitiation for the world, so far forth he is an advocate for it. And another apostle affirms, that Christ is a mediator between God and men, (1 Tim. 2:5); he saith not, betwixt God and his church, but betwixt God and men; and the following words give the true reason of it, "Christ gave himself a ransom for all," v. 6), he is no less a mediator for all, than he was a ransom for all. Christ's blood shed on the cross spake thus far for all men, that they might have their pardon on gospel terms; and afterwards being carried to heaven, it speaks the very same language for them; for the voice or speech of that blood is its merit, and that merit is of an indeficient virtue. Hence that blood cannot be speechless, because it cannot be meritless; and so far on earth as it merited for all, so far in heaven it speaks and intercedes for all. Moreover, as Christ's blood speaks the same things for them in heaven as it did on earth, so Christ s will in heaven stands in the same posture towards them as it did on earth; wherefore, in a sort, he intercedes for all.

2. From the patience of God, which waits on men, even such as at last perish. If Christ did not stand with the incense of his sweet-smelling merits between the living and the dead; between the reprieved sinners on earth, and the damned spirits in hell, the patience of God would not wait one moment upon them.

3. From the working of God's Spirit; for as Christ is our paraclete or advocate in heaven, (1 John, 2:1), so the Holy Spirit is God's paraclete or advocate on earth, (John, 1:6, 7). Surely, if the advocate in heaven spake nothing for the non-elect, the advocate on earth would not woo them to salvation; if the blood of Christ did not at all plead for them, the Spirit of Christ would give no touches at all upon them, much less such touches as to make them taste the powers of the world to come.

4. From the liberty of prayer. Simon Maggus, even whilst in the gall of bitterness, was commanded to pray, (Acts, 8:22), but what, without a mediator? No, surely; that sinful man who hath no mediator in heaven, must not presume to pray on earth. I see no reason why a man merely mediatorless should have more leave to pray than a devil, who is therefore without hope because without a mediator. The apostle commands men to pray everywhere, (1 Tim. 2:8), but a little before he lays down this as the ground-work;—"There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all," (v. 5, 6). The mediation of Christ opens the door to prayer.

Wherefore, as to this objection, I answer thus:—Christ intercedes for all men in such sort as he died for them; I say in such sort, for there is a vast difference between his general intercession for all, and his special intercession for the elect. For as Christ by his blood shed on the cross, merited for all in general, that they might be saved on gospel terms, and merited for the elect in special, that they should believe and be saved, so by the same blood presented in heaven, he intercedes for all, that they may be saved on gospel terms, and intercedes for the elect that that they may believe and be saved. And thus he is the complete mediator of the covenant; as the general promises extend to all, so answerably he intercedes for all; and as the special promises point only at the elect, so proportionably he intercedes for the elect.

Object. 4. If Christ died for all men, then he was a surety for all, and satisfied for the sins of all, and consequently God hath a double satisfaction; one in Christ the surety, and another in the persons of the damned, which is against the nature of his justice.

In this argument are two consequences to be weighed.

1. If Christ died for all, then he was a surety for all, and satisfied for the sins of all.

2. If Christ so satisfied for the sins of all, then God hath a double satisfaction, which is against justice.

As to the first consequence, I admit it as a very truth, that Christ was a surety for all, and satisfied for the sins of all; for if all did believe and repent, the sins of all should be remitted, and remitted they could not be without a surety, and a surety making a satisfaction; therefore, such a surety was Christ for them all.

As to the second consequence, if Christ satisfied for the sins of all, then God hath a double satisfaction, and that is against justice. I shall first premise some distinctions, and then answer.

1. I shall premise three distinctions.

1. Either the first satisfaction was made to the creditor or law-giver by the debtor or offender himself, or else it was made by a surety; if it was made by himself, justice forbids a second satisfaction.

2. The first satisfaction being made by a surety, was either made by a surety of the debtor's or offender's own procuring, or else by a surety procured by the creditor or law-giver; if it was made by a surety procured by the debtor or offender himself, justice forbids a second satisfaction; for it is all one as if he had satisfied by himself.

3. When a surety provided by the creditor or lawgiver makes the first satisfaction, either he makes satisfaction in such sort, as that the debtor or offender shall be thereby immediately, ipso facto, without any more ado, discharged; or else he makes satisfaction in such sort, as that the debtor or offender shall be thereby discharged, but upon the performance of some conditions, and not otherwise; if the surety make satisfaction in the former way, still justice forbids a second satisfaction; but if he make satisfaction in the latter way, then upon the final non-performance of those conditions, justice may admit a second satisfaction. I will illustrate this by two instances. Suppose a man indebted to another in £1,000, the creditor procures his son to lay down the money in satisfaction of the debt, but withal it is agreed between them, that the debtor shall be discharged from his debt if he assent to this payment and not otherwise; if then the debtor dissent, the creditor may justly demand of him a second satisfaction. Again, suppose multitudes of attainted traitors be shut up in prison, and the king procures his son to suffer punishment in their stead, but withal the king and his son proclaim it as a law, that none of the traitors shall be thereby absolved, unless such as honour and do homage unto them; if any traitor refuse to do it, the king may justly exact a second satisfaction; and the reason of both is this, because the debtor or traitor not performing the conditions, can have no benefit by the first satisfaction, and therefore must be subject to a second, as if there had been no first at all.

2. These distinctions premised, I answer, men's sins are debts and rebellions, and satisfaction for them is due to God as the great creditor and lawgiver; but this satisfaction was not made by men themselves, but by Jesus Christ as their surety, and this surety was not procured by men, but provided by God himself; and being provided by God, he did not pay down his satisfactory blood in such sort, as that men should be thereby immediately, ipso facto, absolved from their debts and rebellions, but in such sort, as that men may be acquitted from their debts and rebellions if they repent and believe; wherefore, if they do neither, they can have no benefit by Christ's satisfaction, and by consequence a second satisfaction may be justly exacted from them.

Now for the more distinct clearing of this momentous objection, I shall propose four things.

1. God out of mere grace procured Christ to be a surety for men; and therefore it was in his power to prescribe the conditions, upon the performance or non-performance whereof men should have or not have benefit by Christ's satisfaction.

2. According to this power, God hath plainly set down the conditions in the gospel, viz. "He that believes shall be saved, and he that believes not shall be condemned."

3. These conditions being thus set down by God himself, no man falling short of them can have benefit by Christ's satisfaction. If men will not receive the atonement, (Rom. 5:11), how can they be at peace? If they will not receive remission of sins, (Acts 10:43), how can they be pardoned? We are all in a worse dungeon than Jeremy's, and if we will not put the cords of grace under our arms, we cannot get out; we are all servants of sin, and if we say to it, we love thee and will not go out free, we must be bored for eternal slaves. Christ hath opened the fountain of his blood, but we must wash in it, (Zach. 13:1); Christ hath made a purchase of souls, but we must believe εἰς περιποίησιν ψυχῆς, to the purchasing of the soul, (Heb. 10:39): not that faith is part of the purchase-money, but that it is the condition of the gospel, without which the glorious purchase of Christ profits not; if men live and die in unbelief, οὐκ ἔτι ἀπολείπεται θυσία, there remaineth no more sacrifice for them. (Heb. 10:26). Indeed Christ offered a sacrifice for them, but οὐκ ἔτι, the benefit of that sacrifice doth no more remain unto them; upon their final unbelief they have no more benefit by it than if there had been none at all for them: in which sense I understand that of the father, Si non credis, non tibi descendit, non tibi passus est Christus.

4. If final unbelievers can have no benefit by Christ's satisfaction, then God may justly require a second satisfaction of them, because they cannot plead the first; and so it is in law as to them as if there had been no first at all. Shimei had a pardon from Solomon, but passing over Kidron lost it; and therefore (notwithstanding the same) was justly put to death for his offence: Jesus Christ as a surety made satisfaction for men, but they through their final unbelief lose the benefit of it; and therefore (notwithstanding the same) God may justly require a second satisfaction from them. If Shimei had pleaded his pardon, Solomon would have told him, That is nothing to thee, ever since thou didst pass over Kidron; and if unbelievers should plead Christ's satisfaction, God would tell them, That is nothing to you, seeing you have lived and died in unbelief.

Object. 5. Millions of men in the world reject Christ, and drop into hell, and God eternally foresaw that it would be so; if then Christ died for these, there seems to be a blot upon the divine wisdom, a failure in his efficacious will, and a loss in the precious purchase made by Christ.

I answer, It is true that God eternally foresaw those rejecters of Christ, and that Christ in time died for them, nevertheless there is no blot hereby cast on the divine wisdom; it is no disparagement to the all-wise God to bestow means of eternal bliss on such as he eternally foresaw would abuse the same to their own destruction. Oh, what rare perfections did he set up in the angels, and yet he eternally foresaw a great part of them apostatizing and dropping to hell; what an excellent image of holiness did he stamp upon Adam! and yet he eternally foresaw him falling, and breaking all his glory by the fall; what waitings of patience, wooings of the gospel, and touches of the Holy Spirit doth he dispense to such men as he eternally foresaw would abuse all these! and yet in all this, God's wisdom suffers not. The very same I may say of Christ's dying for such as abuse this great blessing; neither is there here any failing in the efficacious will of God; for he wills that the elect shall believe and be saved, and he wills that the rest shall be saved if they believe, and both these wills are accomplished; the first in the event of faith and salvation, and the latter in the connexion between faith and salvation, even as to all men. God may be said to will the salvation of men through Christ's death two ways; either because he wills that Christ's death should be a price infallibly procuring their faith and salvation, or else because he wills that there should be in Christ's death an aptness and sufficiency to save them on gospel terms; the former will points only at the elect, and is fulfilled in their grace and glory; the latter extends to all men, and is fulfilled in the aptness and sufficiency of Christ's death to save them on gospel terms; in both God's will hath its effect. Neither, lastly, is there any loss in Christ's purchase, for what did he purchase? As for the elect, he purchased faith and salvation; and as for the rest, he purchased salvation on gospel terms, in both he hath what he paid for; for the elect believe and are saved, and the rest may be saved if they believe: therefore when men by their unbelief bar themselves of the benefit of Christ's death, and make him in that respect cry out, "I have laboured in vain," yet he adds, "Surely my judgment is with the Lord," (Isa. 49:4), as if he had said, For all I this, never a drop of my blood is irrationally shed, for God (with whom my judgment is) knows that I purchased salvation for them on gospel terms, although they, by their unbelief, deprive themselves of the benefit of the purchase. If final unbelievers should be saved, Christ should have more than his purchase; but if they are not saved, he hath no less; for he purchased salvation for them on gospel terms, which they do not perform through their own voluntary unbelief.

Object 6. If Christ died for all men, then he loves all with the greatest degree of love; for "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," (John 15:13); and this must needs be the greatest degree of love, because it draws all other things after it; "If God gave his own Son for us, how shall he not with him freely give us all things"? (Rom. 8:32). But Christ doth not love all with the greatest degree of love, neither doth God give all things to them; therefore Christ did not die for all.

I confess that Christ doth not love all men with the greatest degree of love, neither doth God bestow all blessings on them: wherefore we must examine these places from whence these inferences are made. As for the first place, "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," it doth import one of these two things: either it doth import that he that dieth for his friends hath the greatest degree or height of internal love towards them, or else it imports that a man's death for his friends is the greatest external effect and proof of his love: the first cannot be the meaning of the place; for if it be the greatest and most intense degree of love to die for our friends, what is it to die for our enemies, as Christ did? If it be the height and top of love to lay down our lives, how can that be done without any love at all, as the apostle supposeth, (1 Cor. 13:3)? The apostle commands us to lay down our lives for the brethren, (1 John 3:16); but when a man doth it, he is not to have the same degree of love towards all the brethren; for he is to love those most in whom there is most of God, and to whom he is nearest in nature. Jesus Christ laid down his life for all the elect, yet, without doubt, his love was greater to his apostles than to ordinary christians; nay, and among the apostles, there was one dearly beloved, one who lay in his bosom, (John 13:23). Wherefore the meaning of the words is not, that he that dieth for his friends hath the greatest degree or height of internal love towards them, but that such a death is the greatest effect and proof of his love. Christ, in the 12 verse, exhorted his disciples to love one another; and in this, 13 verse, he shews what is the greatest, outward evidence of love, viz. to die for our friends. Now, albeit Christ died for all men, and that death was a great and high proof of his love, nothing hinders, but that Christ, over and besides his common philanthropy to all, may bear a special affection to the elect; the universality of his death infers not a parity in his love. If Jacob had died for all his sons, yet he might have loved Joseph and Benjamin above the rest, and left them some special legacies: if Christ died for all men, yet he may and doth love his elect above others, and leave some secret love-tokens upon their hearts. As for the second place, "If God delivered up his Son for us, how shall he not with him freely give us all things," (Rom. 8:32); the key to unlock this text is the word [Us;] who are the Us in the text? Who but the elect of God, (ver. 33)? Who, according to election, are effectually called, (ver. 28.) and upon their callings are justified and glorified, (ver. 30)? These are the Us in the text; wherefore the plain meaning of it is, not that if God gave his Son for all men, he would give them all things, but that if God gave his Son for the elect, he would give them all things, viz. all things necessary to salvation; the text extends not to all men. But you would say, though the text extend not to all men, yet the argument doth: for if the argument be good, that if God gave his Son for the elect, he would give them all things; then the argument is as good, that if God gave his Son for all men, he would give them all things. I answer, that if God's intention and love in giving his Son for all were one and the same towards all, the consequence were undeniable; but seeing God in giving his Son, had towards the elect a special love and intention to bestow grace and glory on them, and towards the rest but a common philanthropy and ordination that they might be saved on gospel terms, hence it is clear, that albeit the giving of all things to the elect may be inferred from his giving his Son for them, yet the giving of all things to all men cannot be inferred from his giving his Son for them all; because in that gift there was not the same love and intention towards all: wherefore I conclude that Christ died for all, and yet neither are all loved with the greatest degree of love, nor yet are all blessings conferred upon them.

Object. 7. If Christ would not pray for all men, then he died not for all; but Christ would not pray for all, for he saith, "I pray for them, I pray not for the world." (John 17:9.)

Ans. This argument must be formed one of these two ways: either thus, If Christ prayed not at all for the non-elect, then he did not at all die for them; but he prayed not at all for them, ergo, he died not for them. Now here I must deny the minor, for even upon the cross he prayed for his crucifiers, "Father, forgive them," (Luke 23:34); not that he would have them forgiven though final impenitents and unbelievers, for that would have been against his Father's purpose and his own purchase, but that he would have them forgiven if they did believe and repent, which was congruous to both. But suppose there had been no vocal prayer of Christ for them, yet surely there was a mental one; for he could not but desire of God to have all the fruits of his passion, amongst which one was, that all men might be saved on gospel terms; that grand gospel axiom, "Whosoever believes shall be saved," was no doubt one of his desires, for it cost his precious blood; wherefore the non-elect were not totally excluded from his prayers. Or else the argument must be formed thus: If Christ prayed not for the non-elect, in that famous prayer, (John 17), then he did not die for them: but he prayed not for them in that prayer, therefore, he died not for them. Now here the consequence fails; for what kind of prayer was that, (John 17). It was a prayer peculiarly fitted for apostles and believers; a prayer for their perseverance in faith, (v. 11), for their perfection in unity, (v. 23), for their growth in sanctification, (v. 17), for their abode with him in glory, (v. 24), and in all respects a prayer which could be congruously prayed for no other but believers, (v. 20). Now that Christ did not pray such a prayer for all men as was only proper for believers, doth not conclude, either that he did not at all pray for them, or that he did not at all die for them. Thus much in answer to the first query, Whether Christ died for all men? I pass on to the second.

Query 2. Whether Christ died equally for all men? I answer, that albeit Christ died in some sort for all men, and, by virtue of his death, all men, if believers, should equally be saved; nevertheless, Christ did not die equally for them all, but after a special manner for the elect, above and beyond all others; and this I shall demonstrate by several arguments drawn

1. From the will of God.

2. From the covenant of grace.

3. From the issue of Christ.

4. From the working of the Holy Spirit.

5. From the blessings purchased.

6. From the intercession of Christ.

7. From the event following upon Christ's death.

8. From the special expressions in scripture.

1. I argue from the will of God. Christ's death is the meritorious cause of salvation, and respects men more or less proportionably as God's will, which is the fontal cause thereof, doth more or less respect them. God wills that all men should be saved if they believe, and proportionably Christ died for them all; God wills that the elect should infallibly believe and be saved, and suitably Christ died for them in a special way; there is a peculiarity in Christ's redemption answering to the peculiarity of God's love. God eternally resolved with himself that he would have a church and a peculiar people, and Christ gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, (Eph. 5:25, 26, 27). He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, (Tit. 2:14). If Christ had given himself thus far for all, all would have been his church and people. You will say, unbelief is the only obstacle. I answer, that if Christ had given himself for all, that he might wash them as he washes the church, and redeem them from all iniquity as he redeems his peculiar ones, there would have been no such thing as unbelief left among men; that Christ, who washes out every spot and wrinkle, would not have left unbelief; that Christ, who redeems from all iniquity, would not have left unbelief, no, not in any one man's heart; nay, I may truly say, he could not leave it there, because he could not lose his end, nor shed one drop of his blood in vain. There are among men some chosen ones, such as are chosen out from among men, and chosen out of the world, (John 15:19), and Christ in his death had a special eye upon these: hence, proportionably to their election, they are said to be redeemed from among men, (Rev. 14:4), and redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," (Rev. 5:9). Now, how is it possible that all men should be thus redeemed? Christ's death as it respects all men, redeems them, as I may so say, from among devils, for that it renders them capable of mercy, which devils are not; but Christ's death as it respects the elect, redeems them even from among men, for that it procures faith for them, and thereby pulls them out of the unbelieving world; and what is peculiar redemption, if this be not? But you will say, These are said to be redeemed from among men, not because Christ specially died for them above others, but because these particularly applied his death by faith, which others did not. I answer, that either this application by faith was merited by Christ's death, or not; if so, then Christ redeemed them in a special manner, because by his death he impetrated faith for them, which he did not for all; if not, then they were redeemed from among men by themselves and their own free will, and not by Christ and his death, which (I tremble to think) puts the lie upon the church triumphant, who sing the new song to the Lamb in these words: "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," (Rev. 5:9). How can that blood of Christ, which merited alike for all men, redeem one man from another? How can it redeem some from among men, unless it merit for them that faith which is the grand distinction between man and man in the matter of salvation? Christ περιεποιήσατο, "purchased the church with his blood," (Acts 20:28), and purchased it in a special manner: hence λαὸς εἰς περιεποίησιν, a purchased people, is not a title common to all, but proper to the church, (1 Peter 2:9). God's children lay scattered up and down the wide world, and Christ died that he might gather them all together, εἰς ἒν, into one, one faith here and one glory hereafter, (John 11:52). If Christ had died so for all, all should have come into the same unity. We find in Scripture many signal distinctions made among men; there are some on whom God will have mercy, and others whom he will harden, (Rom. 9:18); some written in the Lamb's book of life, and others left out of it, (Rev. 13:8); some given unto Christ, (John 6:36), and others left to themselves; some are God's own jewels, (Mal. 3:17), and others but as dross. Now, how incredible is it that Jesus Christ, who came to do his Father's will, should in his death respect those whom God will harden, as much as those whom he will have mercy on; those that are out of the book of life, as much as those that are in it; those that are left to themselves, as much as those that are given to him, and those that are the dross of the world, as much as God's own jewels? Believe it who can, it is a monstrous opinion, worthy of nothing but exile from christians. Seeing God's will hath so distinguished men, it is no more possible that Christ should die alike for all, than that he should dissent from his Father's will, which to do was his great errand in the world. Christ suffered between two thieves, a type of the elect and reprobate world; but who dare say that he had as much respect to the one as to the other?

2. I argue from the covenant of grace. Christ is the mediator of the covenant, and the covenant is the New Testament in his blood; as then, the covenant is more or less respective of men, so the Mediator's death is more or less respective of them. There are in the covenant two sorts of promises; the one general and conditional, such are those, "Whosoever believes shall be saved; whosoever will, may take of the water of life; if any man come to Christ he will not cast him out:" the other special and absolute, such are those, "I will circumcise thy heart to love me; I will put my fear in their hearts; I will take away the heart of stone and give an heart of flesh; I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people;" there is a vast difference between these promises: for,

1. The general and conditional promises are as it were the hands of the covenant, pointing out the true way and path leading to salvation, but the special and absolute promises are as it were the veins of the covenant, carrying in them the blood and spirit of life and power to enable us to walk in that way. Here God himself engages to work all-saving graces in us: are our hearts hard? he will roll away the stone from them; do our hearts resist holy impressions? he will give us hearts of flesh capable thereof; are our hearts void of God's law? he will write it there and turn them into the epistles of Christ, and for the effectual doing hereof, he will put his Spirit into us, and as a real proof of it, he will cause us to walk in his ways; and in this walk, love shall be the motive, for he will circumcise the heart to love him, and fear the bridle, for he will put his fear in the heart never to depart from him; and, which is the crown of all, he himself will be a God to us, and we shall be a people to him, in an everlasting covenant. Stand still, O saints! and adore; here, lo! here is the ministration of the Spirit indeed, (2 Cor. 3:8), here are words which are spirit and life, (John 6:63); here is the supernal Jerusalem, the mother of spiritual freedom, (Gal. 4:26); here is the immortal seed which begets all the sons of God, (1 Pet. 1:23); here is that vis πλαστικὴ, or formative virtue, which moulds us into the divine nature, (2 Pet. 1:4); here is the day of God's power, which makes his people willing to serve him in the beauties of holiness, (Psa. 110:3). Happy, yea, thrice happy they, who dwell in this land of promise, and drink of these wells of salvation.

2. The general and conditional promises are extensive to all men, but the special and absolute promises respect the elect, and them only, for they are fulfilled in them, and them only; had these extended to all, that God, who cannot lie, nor deny himself, would have fulfilled them in all. You will say, He would have fulfilled them in all, but that men themselves will not. But what a strange word is this [they will not]? Will they not, if God give them a will, a new heart, and a new spirit? Will they not, if God take away the nilling and resisting principle, the heart of stone? Will they not, if God write his laws in their hearts and inward parts? O what is this, but by an absurd blasphemy to change God's truth into a lie, his omnipotence into weakness, and his glory into the old broken idol of creature freedom? Surely if God, who is truth and power, engage to make a new heart, the old one cannot hinder it; if he promises to remove hardness, hardness cannot resist it; if he say that he will write the law in the heart, the heart will not say Nay to his Almighty fingers. Seeing, then, these promises are not fulfilled in all, but in the elect only, I may safely affirm that they respect not all but the elect only. These things being so, it appears how and in what manner Christ's death respects men, even more or less, as the promises of the covenant founded on his blood do more or less respect them. As the general promises extend to all men, so the death of Christ the mediator proportionably extends to them all; and as the special promises point only at the elect, so the death of Christ, the mediator, hath a peculiar respect to them. Christ, by his death, over and besides the general promises, founded those special promises for the elect; hence they come to be τέκνα ἐπαγγελίας, sons of promise, (Gal. 4:28), begotten by it to spiritual life, which others, standing only under the general promises, are not. All the saving graces of the elect suiting to those special promises are no other than the fruits of Christ's merits; they are renewed with the renewings of the Holy Ghost, but that is shed on them through Jesus Christ; they have the law written in their hearts, but that is the epistle of Christ; their filthy flesh is cut off from their hearts, that they may love God, who is a pure Spirit, but this is the circumcision of Christ, (Col. 2:11). In a word, all the saving graces of the elect are as so many legacies of the New Testament, and the New Testament is founded in his blood: wherefore, it is clear from the covenant of grace, and its special respect to the elect, that Christ died in a special and peculiar manner for them.

3. I argue from the issue of Christ; Christ was to have a seed, and this I shall demonstrate three ways.

1. From the preciousness of his blood.

2. From the purpose of his Father.

3. From the promise of his Father.

1. From the preciousness of his blood. That there should be a laver made of God's blood, and never a sinner washed in it; that such a vast sum of precious merits should be paid down, and never a captive released by it, is to me no less than prodigious blasphemy; every little grain in nature doth confute it; if that do but fall into the ground and die, it bringeth forth much fruit; and shall the Son of God bleed and die in his assumed flesh, and be fruitless? God in his waky providence gives to every little seed his own body; and shall the peerless flower of heaven sow his blood and righteousness, and have none at all? A cup of cold water given in charity, shall in no wise lose its reward; and can it be so with the blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love, and glorified into an infinite merit by his Deity? When Christ fed the multitude but with barley-loaves and small fishes, nothing was lost; and can all be lost when he makes a feast of spiritual marrow and fatness, and gives his flesh to be meat indeed, and his blood to be drink indeed? Oh, far be the thought from every Christian!

2. From the Father's purpose, which, as the scriptures hold forth, clearly was, that his Son should be a king, a captain, a shepherd, a husband, a head, and a father: and what is a king without subjects, a captain without soldiers, a shepherd without a flock, a husband without a spouse, a head without a body, and a father without posterity? Empty names are below him whose name is above every name. Wherefore this King must have a Sion, a mountain of holiness to reign in, (Ps. 2:6); this Captain a militia, an army with banners to fight under him, (Cant. 6:4); this Shepherd, a flock to hear his voice and follow him, (John 10:4); this Husband a spouse, a queen, in gold of Ophir, married to him, (Ps. 45:9); this Head a body to be animated with his spirit and filled with his life, (Col. 1:18); and this Father a numerous issue, begotten and brought forth into the spiritual world to honour and serve him, (Heb. 2:13).

3. From the Father's promise which was in terminis, That he should have a seed, (Isai. 53:10); a seed begotten by his spirit, and by that generation bearing his image, and in that image serving of him; and to make it sure, God engages, by special promises, to take away the stony heart, to write the law there, to put his Holy Spirit into them, and so infallibly to raise up a seed to him; and for the continuance of this seed successively, filiabitur nomen ejus, "His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation," (Psa. 72:17). The special promises shall be ever budding and blossoming, and bringing forth the fruits of grace; thus Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, (Isai. 53:11); and as a sign of this satisfaction, he breaks out, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me," (Heb. 2:13). Should he miss but one of his seed or children, his heart would not rest or be satisfied; for they are in a peculiar manner the travail of his soul.

But now if Christ died alike or equally for all, what becomes of his precious blood? How can the purpose and promise of God stand? Which way shall Christ have a seed? Shall his seed be begotten out of man's will? No such generation ever was there, (John 1:13). "It is not of him that willeth," (Rom. 9:16). Nothing less than the Holy Spirit, which formed Christ in the womb, can form him in the heart: but shall they be begotten by the Holy Spirit? That Spirit doth nothing in the work of regeneration but what Christ merited in his passion; every new creature which is efficiently begotten by the Spirit, was first meritoriously begotten by the death of Christ, or else it would not be the seed of Christ, at least not the travail of his soul. Now Christ did not travail or merit for all men that they should be begotten again by the Holy Ghost; for then either all would be so begotten, which experience denies, or else the merit and travail of Christ must be lost, which the preciousness thereof abhors: and if Christ did not merit it for all, then neither did he, if he died alike for all, merit it for any, and how then shall he have a seed? His seed must be begotten by the Spirit, and the Spirit begets no new creatures but what Christ merited, and Christ dying equally for all did not merit such a thing for any, because not for all. Moreover, when God promised Christ a seed, either the meaning of that promise was, that some men should become his seed, or that all should be so; if that some, then Christ died not equally for all; if that all, then all must be begotten by the Spirit and renewed after Christ's image; the stone must be cut out of every heart, and the law written there, for in these things is the very spirit and life of regeneration. But seeing these things are not wrought in all, it appears that the promised seed is not all, but some, for whom Christ merited the very work of regeneration.

4. I argue from the working of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son in his personal subsistence, so he goes forth in time from the Father and the Son in his working in men. Hence he is called the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son; the Father sends him, and the Son sends him; and as the Holy Spirit works in men from the Father and the Son, so he works in them more or less, as the love of the Father and the merits of the Son do more or less respect them. The Father doth in some sort love, and the Son did in some sort die for all men. Hence the Holy Spirit hath some workings in the non-elect. Within the church, many of them taste the powers of the world to come; nay, in the pagan world the Holy Spirit drops some moral virtues and beams of light, from whence have issued many excellent sayings, some of which the Holy Spirit hath so far owned as to quote them in his own book. But the Father doth in a special manner love, and the Son did in a special manner die for the elect. Hence, proportionably, the Holy Spirit works in them alter more glorious strains of power and grace; as a Spirit of grace and supplication he melts them into repentance; as a Spirit of faith he makes them catch hold upon Christ for righteousness and life; as a Spirit of wisdom he unveils their hearts, and makes the light to shine out of darkness; as a Spirit of liberty he unshackles and unbinds their wills, and makes them free indeed in the ways of God; and as a Spirit of truth and holiness he leads them into truth, and by inward law engravings moulds and changes them into it. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, after such glorious workings on them, comes and dwells in them, and that intimately in the very secrets of their hearts, ἐνοικήσω ἐν αὐτοῖς, "I will indwell in them," saith he (2 Cor. 6:16), there are two [in's] to denote an intimate inhabitation, as if God could never be near enough to them: as in Christ personal, who is the head, there is God in the flesh by an hypostatical union; so in Christ mystical, which is the body, there is God in the flesh by a gracious inhabitation; and to shew that he is there, he cries Abba Father in their devotions; he is a Spirit of love in their charities, a Spirit of power in their infirmities, a Spirit of comfort in their distresses, and a Spirit of glory in their sufferings. Seeing then the Holy Spirit (who works in men more or less according to the Father's love and Son's merits) works in such a special way in the elect, it is as clear as if it were written with a sunbeam, that the Father loves them, and the Son died for them in a special way. Hence we find these three folded and wrapt up together by the apostle, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," (1 Pet. 1:2). And again: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all," (2 Cor. 13:14). If the Father's love and the Son's blood had respected all men as much as the elect, doubtless the Holy Spirit (who in subsistence proceeds, and in operations works from them both) would have converted all as well as the elect; why then are not all men actually converted? Is it because the Holy Spirit works not equally in all, or because the Holy Spirit is resisted in some? Is it because the Holy Spirit works not equally in all? I answer, that the Spirit is sent forth from the Father and the Son, and works exactly according as it is sent; the inward impulsive cause of pouring out the Spirit is the Father's love, and the outward meritorious cause of it is the Son's blood: wherefore, if the Father equally love all, and the Son equally died for all, the Spirit works equally in all; for there can be no breach in the sacred Trinity. Or is it because the Spirit is resisted in some? I answer: their resistance is a grand obstacle to the work, but if the Spirit did roll away the stone, and new-mould the heart, and work the will in all, as he doth in the elect, that obstacle would at last be removed out of the way.

5. I argue from the blessings purchased. Christ's death is more or less respective of men, as it is more or less procurative of blessings for them: Christ purchased a salvability for all, but over and besides he purchased many choice blessings for the elect; he purchased repentance for them, for he is a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel. (Acts 5:31). He purchased a room for repentance even for all men, but he purchased repentance itself for his chosen Israel; he purchased faith for them, "Unto you it is given for Christ's sake to believe in him. (Phil. 1:29). For others he purchased a ground-work for faith, but for them he purchased the very grace of faith; he purchased effectual vocation for them: others have a call by the gospel, but these have a call by the gospel coming in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; he purchased holiness and sanctification for them. Indeed there is no man living on the earth, but (if he did really believe) he should have the rivers of living water, the Spirit of holiness flowing in his heart, (John 7:38); but the elect were destined and chosen in Christ to be holy, (Eph. 1:4); and Christ sanctified himself in a special manner for them, that they might be sanctified ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, in truth, actually and truly. (John 17:19). Lastly, he purchased heaven and glory for them; others may have heaven upon believing, but these shall certainly arrive at it, these are the sheep, to which Christ gives eternal life, (John 10:28); these are the sons which without fail shall be brought to glory. (Heb. 2:10). Now seeing Christ purchased so many blessings for the elect, it is evident he died for them in a special way.

6. I argue from the intercession of Christ. Christ intercedes for men more or less proportionably as he more or less respected them in his death, for his death is the foundation of his intercession; the very same blood of Christ, which as shed on earth made satisfaction, as presented in heaven makes intercession. Now how far doth Christ intercede in heaven? What doth his blood speak there? For all men it speaks thus, Father, let them all be saved on gospel terms; but for the elect it speaks thus, Father, let them have repentance: this the apostle hints out, "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel." (Acts. 5:31). Israel's repentance on earth comes from Christ exalted in heaven; for there he intercedes for it by his merits, and from thence he works it by his Spirit. Again it speaks for them thus, Father, let them be made a willing people; this I gather from the 110th Psalm, where we find Christ sitting at the right hand of God, (ver. 1), and sitting there he intercedes for us; and from this session and intercession comes forth a willing people, (ver. 3). Here is the true original of spiritual willingness; the right hand of God (which is a right hand of power) works it in our hearts, and works it at the instance of Christ, who sits and intercedes there for it. Again, it speaks for them thus, Father, sanctify them with thy grace, preserve them with thy power, and crown them with thy glory in heaven. Thus Christ, in his sweet prayer a little before his bitter passion, interceded for them for their sanctification, Sanctify them through thy truth, (John 17:17); for their perseverance, Keep them through thine own name, (ver. 11); and for their glory, I will that they be with me where I am, to behold my glory, (ver. 24). And what he spake for them by his oral intercession on earth, that he speaks for him by his real intercession in heaven. Thus Christ doth in a special manner intercede for the elect, which proves that he died for them in a special manner; because his intercession is but the presenting of the merits of his death to his Father in heaven.

7. I argue from the event following upon Christ's death; some men do believe, when others draw back, and whence comes this distinguishing faith? Either it comes merely of man's free-will, or of God's free-grace; if we say the first, it is the very mire and dirt of Pelagianism, it is to set up free-will as an idol to cast lots upon Christ's blood, whether any one person in the world shall be saved thereby or not; if we say the latter, then God and Christ had a special eye upon some above others; for God ordained that Christ should be the grand medium to salvation, and that faith should be the only way to Christ. If then he gave Christ for all, and faith but to some, it is because he did in a special way intend their salvation; and, consequently, Christ (who came to do his Father's will) had in his death a special respect to them.

8. I argue from the special expressions in scripture. As the death of Christ is set out there in words of universality, so it is set out there in words of special peculiarity: Christ died for the elect, (Rom. 8:33, 34); died for the children of God scattered abroad, (John 11:52); gave himself for the church, (Eph. 5:25); gave himself for a peculiar people, (Tit. 2:14); laid down his life for the sheep, (John 10:15); sanctified himself for the given ones, (John 17:9 and 19); purchased the church with his own blood, (Acts 20:28); redeemed a people from among men, (Rev. 14:4); is a Jesus to his own people, (Matt. 1:21); and a Saviour to his own body, (Eph. 5:23). And is there no emphasis of love; Are there no strains of free grace? Is there no import of singular respect and affection in all these expressions? We cannot say so without dispiriting the scripture. Experience itself tells us, that all are not Christ's elect, children, church, peculiar people, sheep, given ones, body, and redeemed ones from among men; wherefore, when the scripture saith that he died for these, it imports that he died for them in a peculiar manner. But you will say, these scriptures speak rather of the application of Christ's death, than the impetration, and though the impetration be equally for all, yet the application is proper to believers only. I answer, that if those phrases, of dying for the elect or children of God; giving himself for a church or peculiar people; laying down his life for his sheep; purchasing the church with his blood, and sanctifying himself for the given ones, do not import impetration, I know not what can import it. You will reply, that these expressions import not impetration as it is barely and nakedly in itself, but as it hath application following upon it, and this is the emphasis of them. But if these expressions import impetration, with application following upon it, whether doth that application follow upon impetration as a fruit thereof or not; if so, then Christ merited that application for the elect, and consequently died in a special manner for them; if not, then there is no emphasis of special love and grace in all those expressions or his dying, giving himself, sanctifying himself, and laying down his life for them: for there was no merit in all this to procure the application of his death unto them. But let us further enquire, what these elect children, church, peculiar people, sheep, given ones, and redeemed ones, from among men, were before or without the purchase made by Christ; were these elect called and justified without Christ or not? If so, why did he die for them? If not, then he died for them that they might be so called and justified. Were these children meritoriously begotten by Christ's blood or not? If so, then that blood did more for them than for others; if not, then they were not the seed of Christ. Was that church an actual church, before or without Christ's purchase? or was it a church in his intention? If an actual church, what need he purchase it? If a church in intention, then the special design of his death was to make it an actual church. Was that peculiar people such without the merit of Christ's death, or not? If so, why did he give himself for it? If not, then he gave himself for it that it might be such. Were those sheep brought into Christ's fold without his death, or not? If so, why did he lay down his life for them? If not, he laid it down to bring them thither. Were those given ones actually sanctified without the virtue of Christ's sacrifice, or not? If so, then why did he sanctify himself for them? If not, then he sanctified himself for them, that they might be sanctified. Were those redeemed from among men, redeemed by Christ, or not? If so, then he redeemed them in a special manner. If not, then they are the redeemed ones of their own free will. But let the texts themselves breathe forth their own native strains of love and grace; he so died for the elect, as to effectually call and actually justify them, (Rom. 8:30–33); he so died for his children as to gather them together into one, one faith on earth, and one fruition in heaven, (John 11:52); he so gave himself for the church, as to make it a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, (Eph. 5:25–27); he so gave himself for his people as to make them his peculiar ones, (Titus 2:14); he so laid down his life for his sheep as to bring them into his fold, and make them hear his voice, (John 10:15, 16); he so sanctified himself for the given ones as to sanctify them through the truth, (John 17:19); he so redeemed his chosen ones from among men as to make them first fruits to God and the Lamb, (Rev. 14:4). In all these special scriptures, it evidently appears, that Christ in his death had a special respect to his elect. Wherefore I will shut up all with that of an ancient, Etsi Christus pro omnibus mortuus est, pro nobis tamen specialiter passus est, quia pro ecclesia passus est.*

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CHAPTER IX: OF THE WORK OF CONVERSION

HAVING passed over redemption, I come to conversion; there we had Christ formed in the womb, here we have him formed in the heart; there we had Christ coming in the flesh and working miracles on men's bodies, here we have him coming in the Spirit, and working miracles in men's souls; there we had Christ pouring forth his blood and reconciling us to God's justice, here we have him pouring forth his Spirit and reconciling us to God's holiness. Now in my discourse touching conversion, I shall reduce all to three queries.

1. What is man's state before conversion?

2. What is the nature of the work?

3. Who is the worker thereof?

In the first we shall meet with the extreme necessity of the work; in the second with the intrinsical excellency thereof; and in the third, with the power and grace of the great agent.

1. What is man's state before conversion? I mean man fallen, for man standing needed no conversion; and this I shall consider two ways.

1. What it is in general, in relation to the whole man?

2. What it is in particular, in relation to the several parts of man?

1. What it is in general? and this I shall open in two things.

1. It is a state of estrangement from God.

2. It is a state of enmity against God.

1. It is a state of estrangement from God: a natural man is estranged from the womb, (Psalm 58:3), without God in the world, (Eph. 2:12). God is all round about him in the witnessing creatures, and yet he is without God in the world. God is in him, in the lamp of conscience, and yet he is without God in his heart, for there he saith, There is no God, (Ps. 14:1.) Which way soever God comes forth to meet him, whether from Mount Sinai in the fiery law, or from Mount Sion in gospel charms of free grace, still he flies away from God's presence; and if God pursue after him, he will say to God in plain terms, Depart from me, (Job 21:14), and if any relics of light will not depart, but stay behind in his heart, he shuts them up in the prison of unrighteousness, (Rom. 1:18.) His ubi is with Cain in Nod, the land of wandering and demigration, and with the prodigal in a far country, where he is far off from God, (Psa. 73:27), and God far off from him, (Prov. 15:29); and if ever he be saved, he must be brought from far. (Isa. 43:6.) Now upon a distinct view, this is a deplorable condition, for.

1. A natural man being estranged from God, the fountain of life, must needs be a dead man, dead in sins and trespasses? (Eph. 2:1), because alienated from the life of God; he is not only as the man in the gospel, half dead, (Luke 10:30), who is there set forth not as a figure of original corruption, but as an object of charity, as is very evident by the scope of the parable, which is ushered in with that question, And who is my neighbour? (v. 29), and at last closed up with the like, Which of the three was neighbour to him? (v. 36), but he is altogether dead in spirituals; there are no true vital spirits of faith in him, no true motions of obedience, no pulse of heavenly affections, no breath of spiritual prayer, no taste of the gospel wine and marrow, no feeling of all that massy sin and wrath which lies upon him; all his life is a death wandering, all his rest is in the congregation of the dead, (Prov. 21:16). Give him all the statures of natural excellencies, strew him over with the flowers of sweetest morality, and spangle him with the notions of sublime theology, yet still he is but a dead man, his soul a dead soul, his faith a dead faith, his works dead works, and his hopes and comforts but as the giving up of the ghost. But you will say, Is not man a living creature? Hath he not a reason and relics of light in it? Hath he not a free will and seeds of moral virtue in it? And why then do you call him dead? I answer; man is a living creature, alive in naturals, but dead in spirituals; he hath a reason, but, because there is no light of life in it, it is but a dead reason; his relics of light argue no more spiritual life in him, than knowledge doth in devils; he hath a free will, but for want of the freedom indeed, it is only free among the dead, I mean, to this or that carnal or natural work, and not to the will of God: he hath some seeds of moral virtue in him, but alas! these are of too low an extraction to be any particles of spiritual life. Mere moral virtues are by God's blessing on human industry struck as sparks out of natural principles, but spiritual life is a fire dropped down from heaven into the heart; mere moral virtues descending but from natural principles never ascend up to God as their end, but spiritual life as it is originally born of God, so it is ultimately terminated in him. Wherefore, a man may be naturally, nay, morally alive, and yet be spiritually dead.

2. A natural man being estranged from God, who is an infinite Spirit, must needs be flesh. Thus, God calls the men of the old world flesh, (Gen. 6:3); thus our Saviour sets out regeneration by its opposite, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," (John 3:6). As the body separate from the soul is flesh, such as moulders into dust, and putrifies into worms, so the soul separate from God is flesh too, such as turns into the dust of earthly things, and rots in those lusts which breed the never-dying worm in hell; neither is this flesh only in the lower rooms of the soul, but in the upmost faculties of reason and will. In the reason there is the cankered flesh of errors and heresies, and in the will there is the dead flesh of impotency, and the proud flesh of obstinacy against the will of God. Hence the apostle tells us of a νοῦς σαρκὸς, a mind of flesh, (Col. 2:18); and of θελήματα σαρκὸς, wills of flesh, (Eph. 2:3). And therefore the true circumcision is in the heart and in the spirit, (Rom. 2:29), even in the highest faculties and powers of the soul.

3. A natural man being estranged from God, who is the beauty of holiness, must needs be very impure; he is filthy or stinking, (Psalm, 14:3); an unclean thing, (Job, 14:4); he lies polluted in his blood, with a leprosy in his head, and a plague in his heart, clothed m filthy rags of sin, and rolling in the mire and vomit of corruption; so great is his filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, that he taints whatsoever he touches; his very prayers are an abomination, and his services as dung before God. Neither is this pollution only in the sensitive soul, but also in the rational; there is filthiness of spirit, (2 Cor. 7:1), and defilement in the very mind and conscience, (Tit. 1:15); there is no sound part, but all over wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.

4. A natural man being estranged from God, who is Jehovah or beingness, must needs be a very nullity in spirituals. If a creature be separate from the God of nature, it is a nullity in naturals; and if a rational creature be separate from the God of grace, he is a nullity in spirituals. Sure, if he were anything at all, he might speak or think, but he can do neither. As running a fountain of words as his tongue is, he cannot say, Jesus is the Lord, (1 Cor. 12:3); and as swarming a hive of thoughts as his heart is, he cannot think anything as of himself, (2 Cor. 3:5). The great apostle gives a double account of himself, an account what he is in himself, "I am nothing," saith he, (2 Cor. 12:11); and an account what he is by grace, "by the grace of God I am what I am," (1 Cor. 15:10); all his nothingness is in and of himself, and all his spiritual essence is in and of grace. A mere natural man is nothing in spirituals, his eyes are on that which is not, (Prov. 23:5); his joy is in a thing of nought, (Amos 6:13); and all the false gods in his heart are אֱלִילִים nihilitates, nothingnesses, (Psalm 96:5). As they are creatures in the world, they are beings; but as they are idols in his heart, they are nothing,—nothing to make a God of; and he who makes them such, is like unto them, even nothing in spirituals.

2. It is a state of enmity against God; he is not only a stranger, but an enemy, too, (Col. 1:21); nay, which is more, his carnal mind is enmity against God, (Rom. 8:7). Enmity is irreconcileable, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, not unless the enmity be slain in it; nay, further, the apostle calls the Gentiles θεοσυγεῖς, haters of God, (Rom. 1:30); and hatred is enmity boiled up to the height. Hatred, saith the philosopher, seeks in μὴ εἶναι, the not-being of the thing hated; and such is man's wickedness that strikes as it were at the life and being of God, it had rather that God should not be, than that lusts should be restrained. The scripture sets out some grand enemies as opposing God openly and upon the stage of the world, and by what they did openly, we may discern what spirit and mystery of iniquity is working in every natural man's heart secretly; there is in him some of the corrupt flesh of the old world; somewhat of Pharaoh's spirit, which secretly saith, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? Somewhat of the bloody Jew, which is ready to crucify the Son of God afresh, and trample his precious blood under foot; somewhat of the proud antichrist, the man of sin, which exalts itself above God, its own reason above the wisdom of God, and its own will above the will of God. The very same venom and poison of enmity which the grand enemies of God pour out openly, privily lurks and works in every natural man.

Thus, in general, man's state is estrangement and enmity. But to proceed.

2. What is man's state in particular, in relation to his several parts? Now, here the same estrangement and enmity shews forth itself according to the nature of each part.

1. As for the understanding, it is turned away from God, the first and essential truth, and so become a forge of lying vanities; it is turned away from God, the first and essential light, and so becomes a dark place, nay, darkness itself, (Eph. 5:8); and if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness? So great it is, that a natural man sets a higher estimate on the follies of time than on the blessedness of eternity, and rates the broken cisterns above the fountain of living waters. Ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος, the souly man, who hath nothing but a rational soul, the spirit of a mere man in him, οὐ δέχεται, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, (2 Cor. 2:14). One would think that all truths should be welcome to a rational soul, and above all, the mysteries of heaven; but he receiveth them not. And this the apostle lays down distinctly; The spirit of man knows the things of man, because they are within his own line: but the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God, because they are above the sphere of natural reason, As the things of man are above the sphere of sense, so the things of God are above the sphere of reason; and yet as if they were below it, the natural man counts them foolishness, which evinces an extreme foolishness in his own heart; he is not a man, not an understanding creature in spirituals. Agur is a brute in his own eyes, I have not the understanding of a man, saith he, (Prov. 30:2). The apostle proving all under sin, asserts that there is none that understandeth, (Rom. 3:11). Millions of rational creatures in he world, and yet there is none that understandeth; and his proof is invincible,—there is none that seeketh after God; which sure would be done, if there were any spark of spiritual understanding in him. It is true there may be a mass of notions in a man unconverted, but not a dram of spiritual knowledge. Seeing he sees not, he sees the things of God in the image or picture of the letter, but he sees them not in their liveliness and inward glory. Just as the carnal Israelites, who saw their manna and sacrifices only in the outside, but saw not Christ in them; or as those false seekers, of whom Christ saith, "Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled," (John 6:26). There was a miracle in those very loaves, but they saw only the carnal and grosser part of the miracle, and not the glory and power of Christ's deity sparkling out in it. An unconverted man knows nothing as he ought to know it; no, not in the midst of his notions, there is no savouring, tasting or practical knowledge in him, nothing but a husk, shell or form of knowledge, and in the midst thereof, a real enmity against the things known. Whilst the light of truth shines only in the notion; he likes it well enough; but if it waken conscience, check lust, press duty, or any way offer to assume its supremacy in his heart or life, he instantly hates it as an enemy.

2. As for the will, the principle of freedom, it is turned from God the primum liberum, and from his service the vera libertas; and so it is become servum arbitrium, an arrant slave, bound in the bonds of iniquity, and, which is the height of slavery, it is in love with its bonds; and, which is the intenseness and intimateness of that love, when Christ comes to break these bonds, it is loth to be made free indeed, the iron is so entered into his soul; the bondage is so intimate in the forlorn will, that it looks on God's service as bondage, and sin's bondage as freedom: and hence it is dead and lame to God's ways, but runs and flies in sins. Again, the natural will is turned away from God the holy One, and so it is become desperately wicked, (Jer. 17:9); a fountain of blood, out of which "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies naturally proceed," (Matth. 15:19); a forge of iniquities. כָל־יִצֶר All the forming or framing of the heart; every purpose and desire effigated there is only evil continually, (Gen. 6:5), all is marred upon the wheel of man's corrupt will. Nay further, the natural will is turned from God who is being, and so it is become a nullity in spirituals. What God says of Israel, he may well say of every natural man, לֹא־אָבָה לִי, he hath no will to me, (Psal. 81:11); the object of the will is good, and yet all the fontal goodness in God moves it not. Nay, lastly, there is an enmity in the will against God; every natural man, as a part of the corrupt world, lies ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ, in the devil, (1 John, 5:19), and his heart, as a hell, sets his tongue on fire, (James 3:6). Deum ipsum (quantum in ipsâ est) perimit voluntas propria, saith one; clearly, it would, if it could, abrogate God's holiness, blindfold his omniscience, and chain up his justice in order to the fruition of its lusts.

3. As for the affections, there is nothing but monstrous ataxy in them. Love in a natural man dotes upon abomination, and hatred breaks out against goodness itself; hope hangs upon a broken reed, and fear starts and trembles at its fellow mortal; joy triumphs in the pleasures of sin, and therein virtually sports itself with the flames of hell; and sorrow, which should wait upon sin, pours out itself over worldly crosses; all the affections are out of frame and place. At first they were born subjects to the kingdom of reason, but the rational faculties (which are the man) rebelling against God, in the first Adam, the affections (which are the brutal part) mutiny and rise up in arms against reason, and by an unnatural violence depose it, and so unman the man. Hence he becomes ὡς τά ἄλογα, as the unreasonable beasts that perish. What Asaph was in his envy at the foolish, that is every man in his inordinate affections; he is בְּהֵמוֹת a great beast before God. (Ps. 73:22.) Here Dinah, that is the judgment, is deflowered by the son of Chamor, that is an ass (as the name imports.) A generation of brutish lusts ravish the soul. Here are the πάθη ἀτιμίας, the vile affections, which debase the immortal soul to the dust of the earth. Here the גִדּוּלִים Dii stercorei, those dungy gods of sensual lusts, carnal profits, and worldly honours, ascend up into the heart, and as gods assume the throne of it, command the power of it, and by a kind of omnipresence fill the whole circumference thereof. Here is the troubled sea of passions and affections, where Satan, the great leviathan, raises up the winds and waves of all inordinate motions, making the heart boil as a pot, and sporting himself in the sinful tossings thereof.

4. As for the members of the body, they are ὅπλα ἀδικίας, weapons of unrighteousness. (Rom. 6:13.) The law of sin issues out its commands in the soul, that speeds them to the members of the body, and these are ready to put them in execution.

Thus, deplorable is man's state before conversion, which if duly weighed, is enough to make every one cry out, Oh! what shall I do to be saved? Wherefore, I proceed to consider the second query.

2. What is the nature of the work? And here I shall unfold two things:

1. What are the preparatives to conversion?

2. What is the work of conversion itself?

1. What are the preparatives to conversion? For as God makes a way to his anger in punishing, so he makes a way to his mercy in converting sinners. First, the fallow ground of the heart must be broken up before the seed of God be cast into it: first, Moses must hew the tables of the heart, and then God writes the law upon them. Manasseh will not humble and turn unto the Lord, till he be in chains. Every natural man is a Manasseh, a forgetter of God (as that name imports), and will not remember and turn unto the Lord, till the spirit of bondage lay him up in chains, under deep convictions of sin and wrath. As when Christ came in the flesh, John the Baptist prepared his way by the doctrine of repentance. So when Christ is formed in the heart, John, that is God's grace, prepares his way by legal humiliations. Now the preparatory works to conversion are these:—

1. There is a conviction of sin; the Spirit ἐλέγξει shall convince the world of sin, (John 16:8); not only of sin in general, but in particular. The law, as it is in the letter, only operates little, but as it is in the Spirit's hand it is ἐντολὴ ἐλθοῦσα, (Rom. 7:9); it comes home to the heart, and gives it a full charge, as Nathan to David,—"Thou art the man." These are sins, saith the law, and these hast thou done, saith conscience; and from particular sins, the Spirit leads up the sinner to the fountain of blood in his nature, it shews him a seminary of corruption in his own heart, it makes him smell the sink of sin in his own bosom; neither is this conviction only rational and notional, but real and intuitive. Sin with all its hosts is as it were mustered and set in order before his eyes, (Ps. 50:21). Nay, it takes hold upon him, and he is made to possess it as his own, which forces him at last to cry out, guilty, guilty.

1. There is a conviction of wrath. When Satan gave man his first fall, he instilled this principle into him, Thou shalt not surely die, (Gen. 3:4). No, though thou eat the fruit, thou shalt not. On the contrary, when God comes to recover a soul out of its fall, he speaks in the same language as to Abimalech, "Behold, thou art but a dead man," (Gen. 20:3). "The wages of sin is death;" and because such sins are found in thee, thou hast the sentence of death in thyself. In conviction God sets up a judgment-seat in the heart; and there, after law-accusations and conscience-proofs, the sinner is sentenced to death, and after sentence, he is drawn into the valley of Achor, or trouble, to be stoned with the curses of the law, and scourged with scorpions of wrath; he hangs by the thread of his life over the bottomless gulph of perdition, and out of the fiery law hell doth as it were flash in his face.

3. Out of these convictions there ariseth legal fear. God's judgments, which before were far above out of his sight, now approach near unto him; qualms come over conscience, and hell-pains begin to seize the soul: this fear hath torment, a kind of hell in it, and out of this legal fear issues a flood of legal sorrows for sin, as procurative of wrath; God's arrows stick fast in the soul; and hence men are pricked in heart, (Acts 2:37), and which is more, wounded in spirit, (Prov. 18:14), and these wounds stink and are corrupt, till the balm of Christ's blood be poured into them. Such is the weight of these fears and sorrows, that it presses the soul into a self-weariness, and by degrees breaks it all to pieces, that there is scarce left a shard thereof to take a little fire from the hearth, or water out of the pit of any creature comfort.

4. In the midst of these fears and sorrows, some glimmerings and appearances of mercy in Christ offer themselves to the soul, and the soul begins to have some velleities and imperfect wouldings after mercy; anguish and bitterness make it cry out, Oh! "What shall I do to be saved?" The scorching flames of God's wrath leave a thirst in the heart after the coolings and refrigerations of pardoning mercy, and in proportion to these wouldings and velleities, there are some light touches and tastes of free grace, some flashes of joy in the word, and Christ the marrow thereof; and yet all this while there is no root of spiritual life in the heart. These are the preparatories of conversion, only we must not conceive them to be such formal immediate dispositions as infallibly infer conversion after them; for such prepared ones, though not far from the kingdom of heaven, may yet possibly never enter into it: neither must we look on these preparations, though God's usual method, as necessary on God's part; for if he please to use his prerogative, he can make even dry bones to rattle and come together again, without any previous dispositions. He can say unto men, even when they are in their blood, Live; and that word, as with child of omnipotency, shall instantly bring forth the new creature.

2. What is the work of conversion itself? I answer, It is that inward principle of grace, whereby a man is made able and willing to turn from all creatures unto God in Christ. Conversion is a motion of the soul, and, therefore, there must be an inward principle, called in scripture a root. The root of the matter is in me, saith Job, (Job 19:28). Friends, you look upon me as if I were nothing but leaves of hypocrisy, but the inward root of holiness is in me. Conversion is a supernatural motion, and, therefore, there must be an inward principle of grace, called by the apostle the divine nature, (2 Peter 1:4); the human nature cannot elevate itself so high as conversion, but the divine nature can do it. By this inward principle of grace man becomes able, he hath an active posse convertere, and which is more, a velle too, he becomes able and willing to turn. Conversion is called in scripture תְּשׁוּבָה a returning unto God. Man's natural state wants a turn, and God's supernatural grace effects it. Motion is between two terms; the terminus à quo in conversion is all creatures. Creatures as creatures are the footsteps of God's power and goodness; and so we must not turn from a worm, but see God in it: but creatures as they are deified and idolized in the heart, become lying vanities and empty nothings, and so in conversion we turn from them all. The world without us is a glass of the divine wisdom and goodness, and so conversion gives a sanctified use of it: but the world within us, the world in the heart, is nothing but a lust, (1 John 2:16), sitting in the place and throne of God, I mean, the chief and uppermost seat of the soul, and so conversion casts it out of the heart. The soul in conversion moves towards God as its true centre, and, therefore, must leave all the world behind its back. The terminus ad quem in conversion is God. A man before conversion, walks in an image, (Ps. 39:6); he thinks that he moves towards happiness in this or that creature, but all the while he is but in an image or picture of happiness; but in conversion he moves really to God the centre and Sabbath of souls. Lastly, in conversion there is a turning unto God in Christ. To turn to God is a most rational act, for he is the only true end of the soul; and to turn to God in Christ is a most regular act, for he is the only true way to that end. The way into the holy of holies is only through the vail of Christ's flesh. If we go to God out of Christ, we go to a consuming fire; but if we go to God in him, we go to a reconciled Father, who is ready to fall upon our necks, and kiss and welcome us with his love, revealed in the face of Christ.

Now in conversion there are two instants or moments to be distinctly considered.

1. The first instant is habitual conversion, or the habits or vital principles of grace, which incline and dispose the soul to actual conversion.

2. The second instant is actual conversion, or the actuation and crowning issue of those principles in an actual turn to God.

1. As to the habits or vital principles of grace, I shall do two things.

1. I shall demonstrate that there are habits or principles of grace.

2. I shall particularly unfold what they are.

1. I shall demonstrate that there are such things. The Remonstrants mince the business; There is, say they, potentia supernaturalis concessa voluntati ad hoc ut credere et bene agere possit; but as for any habitual grace, they tell us, Scholasticorum figmentum est, et eorum qui simul et semel optant infundi omnes illos habitus, quos actibus crebris comparare nimis laboriosum esse arbitrantur. Now there is a vast difference between a mere posse convertere, and those habits or principles of grace which dispose and incline the soul to actual conversion. A mere posse convertere doth not include in it any inward disposition or inclination in the soul to turn to God, no more than the posse peccare in innocent Adam did include in it an inward disposition or inclination in the soul to depart from God; but the habits or principles of grace do incline and dispose the soul to actual conversion. Again; a mere posse convertere doth not denominate a man gracious, no more than the posse peccare in innocent Adam did denominate him sinful; but the habits or principles of grace do denominate a man gracious. And the reason is, a mere posse may be abstract from the nature or essence of the thing into which it is reducible, but the habit or vital principle hath something of the nature or essence of the thing in it; nay, it is virtually and seminally the thing itself. A mere posse peccare in Adam before his fall did not denominate him sinful, because it had nothing of the nature of sin in it; but the habits and seeds of corruption after the fall did denominate him very sinful, because they were virtually and seminally all sin. A mere posse convertere doth not denominate a man gracious, because it is abstract from the nature and essence of the thing; but the habits or principles of grace do denominate him such, because they were virtually and seminally all grace. Now that there are such habits or principles of grace, and not only a naked power, I shall thus demonstrate.

1. Out of the scriptures, which do elegantly and emphatically decypher out those habits or principles to us. Wonderful is the variety of expressions to this purpose. These habits or principles are called, the new heart, and new spirit, (Ezek. 36:26); the new man, (Eph. 4:24); the new creature, (2 Cor. 5:17); the hidden man of the heart, (1 Pet. 3:4); the good treasure of the heart, (Matth. 12:35); the glory within, (Psal. 45:13); eternal life abiding in us, (1 John, 3:15); a well of water springing up into everlasting life, (John 4:14); the teaching and abiding anointing, (1 John, 2:27); the renewing of the Holy Ghost, (Tit. 3:5; the seed of God remaining in us, (1 John, 3:9); the life of God, (Eph. 4:18); and, which is the sublimest word of all, the divine nature, (2 Pet. 1:4). And is all this glory of words poured out upon a mere posse, which doth not so much as incline to conversion? Are not here the noblest and highest inclinations set forth unto us? Hath not the new heart, which hath eternal life in it, a propensity to acts of spiritual life? Will not the new creature renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sweetened by the holy unction, have some odours and fragrancies breaking forth from it? Can the hidden man be ever hid, the good treasure ever sealed, and the glory within ever shut up? Must not the well of life break forth, the seed and life of God spring up, and the divine nature show forth itself? And do not these denominate him gracious in whom they are? What doth a new heart speak him? How doth the good treasure enrich him, the glory within illustrate him, the holy unction perfume him, the life and seed of God quicken him, the renewing of the Holy Ghost alter him, and the divine nature glorify him? Here are pregnant denominations indeed, but there is not a tittle of this in a mere posse convertere; wherefore, these expressions are of a nobler emphasis than so. You will say, It is true, these expressions show forth habits or principles of grace, but not such as go before the actual consent of the will to God's call, but such as follow after it, nay, after frequent acts thereof.

Unto which I shall answer two things:

1. The habits and principles of grace deciphered in the scriptures aforesaid, are there set out as the royal acts of pure free grace, and not as pendents upon man's will; and for this I shall give two eminent instances, omitting others: The first is in that famous place, (Ezek. 36), where God promises a new heart, (v. 26), and his own Spirit, (v. 27); but withal he enters a double protestation, one before the promise, "Thus saith the Lord, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine own holy name's sake," (v. 22); and another after it, "Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel," (v. 32). What could be more said to exalt God and his free grace, and to annihilate man and his works? How could the true God enter such protestations, if the great promise of a new heart hang in suspense upon man's actual consent? When a man without the new heart gives that actual consent, there is something, which instead of shame and confusion, is worthy to be noted as a matter of praise and glory. But you will say, these protestations respect not the way or order of working these gracious habits, but exclude man's worth or dignity in the business. Now albeit God do not give the new heart for man's consent, yet he may do it upon or after man's consent; I answer, these protestations shew, that before the new heart there is nothing in man but what is matter of shame and confusion, and by consequence the actual consent of the will, which is a matter of praise and glory, cannot so much as in order exist before the new heart. The second instance is that, (Tit. 3:5), where the apostle opens the fountain of regeneration: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. We are saved by washing and renewing, but in what way or method is this wrought? The apostle tells us, not by works of righteousness, but of mere mercy. Surely, if there be any righteousness in man, it must be in his will, and if any work of righteousness be in the will; an actual consent to God's call must be such a work. Yet the apostle asserts, that our regeneration was not by works of righteousness, but of God's mercy. Again, it is observable, that the apostle doth not say, Not for works of righteousness, as only excluding the meritorious dignity thereof; but he saith, Not by works of righteousness, as denying the very existence thereof in order to regeneration.

2. If the actual consent of the will to the calls of God do indeed precede the habits or principles of grace, then what is that which gives an actual consent to God's call? What else but the stony heart, the old creature, the wisdom of man, and the human nature? For the mere posse convertere doth not include in it a heart of flesh, a new creature, a holy unction, or divine nature; therefore, the consent precedent to these gracious principles must be given by the stony heart, old creature, human wisdom and nature, which is very incongruous. Let us hear Anselm's determination in this case, Voluntas non rectè vult nisi quia recta est: sicut non est acutus visus, quia videt acutè, sed ideò videt acutè quia acutus est; ita voluntas non est recta, quia vult rectè, sed rectè vult, quoniam est recta. To the same purpose is that of our Saviour; "A corrupt tree οὐ δύναται cannot bring forth good fruit," (Matt. 7:18), that is, whilst it is corrupt, it cannot. A corrupt tree may become a good tree, but whilst it is corrupt, it cannot bring forth good fruit; as when the apostle saith, "The carnal mind cannot be subject to God's law," (Rom. 8:7), the meaning is, that whilst it is carnal it cannot; and how then can the will, whilst it is a corrupt tree, bring forth so precious a fruit as an assent to God's call? How can such a grape of heaven grow upon the thorns of an unregenerate heart? You will say, I must not call the will a corrupt tree, when there is a posse convertere supernaturally poured into it; but if that posse do not denominate it gracious, surely it is as yet but corrupt, and whilst it is such, it may be so called.

2. I argue from the glory of free grace; one of its crown-jewels is, that it makes gracious principles where there were none before; it new creates in Christ, and so gives principles of spiritual being; it quickens the dead, and so gives principles of spiritual life: thus free grace is blessed from the fountain of Israel, from the fontal principles of the new creature. But those who deny gracious principles, darken free grace in that which is its prime lustre. But here I shall be asked, whether that posse convertere be not such a principle? I answer, No! a principle is more than a bare posse. There was in Adam in innocency a posse peccare, and yet there was no principle of sin in him; after the same manner there is, say the Remonstrants, a posse convertere given to fallen man, but this is no principle of grace in him. But not to strive about words; suppose it might be called a principle, yet what a grand disparagement to free grace is it to say, that there was as much of principle in innocent Adam by nature towards his sinful transgression, as there is in fallen man by grace towards his actual conversion! Such as deny gracious habits, and grant only a naked power, must say so.

3. I argue from the sweetness of providence. As it is the glory of free grace that there are gracious principles made, so it is the sweetness of providence that those principles are made first; and then congruous acts issue from thence. The only wise God disposes things in the sweetest method. In the body of nature, first a sun, and then a beam; first a fountain, and then a stream; first a root, and then a fruit. In the soul of man, vegetative faculties precede acts of life, sensitive acts of sense, and intellectual acts of reason. Hence those acts issue forth in an easy connaturalness to their principles. And can there be less of the beauty of providence in the spiritual world than in the natural? Should there not be as sweet an order in the new creature as in the old? Ought not supernatural acts to issue forth in as great connaturalness to their principles as natural? If so, then there must be habits of grace to precede the acts; if not, then those acts, which are above nature in facto esse, as to their essential excellency, must be below it in fieri, as to their procedure from causes; nay, it is hardly imaginable that those acts should at all come forth into being without gracious principles. If the will be not changed by regenerating grace, how is it constituted in ordine agentium, supernaturalium? And if not, how can it actually turn to God, seeing that is actus ordinis supernaturalis? "Every one that doth righteousness is born of God," (1 John. 2:29). To turn unto God is a prime act of righteousness, and how then can it be done before regeneration? Wherefore the scripture method is clear; first a good tree, and then good fruit, (Mat. 7:17); first a good treasure in the heart, and then good things out of it, (Mat. 12:35); first we are created in Christ, and then we walk in good works, (Eph. 2:10). And thus spiritual acts are done in the easiness of the new creature, because in a way connatural to spiritual principles.

4. If there be no habits or principles of grace, what is that that makes the grand difference between a godly and an ungodly man? Surely, either it must be the acts of faith and other graces, or else the habits and principles thereof. It is not the acts of faith and other graces, for two reasons:—

1. Because that which makes the difference must be somewhat permanent; such was Caleb's other spirit, which differenced him from the murmuring congregation, (Numb. 14:24). Such was Job's root, which differenced him from the leafy hypocrite, (Job, 19:28). But the acts of faith and other graces are transient; wherefore, if these be all the difference, what becomes of a godly man in his sleep or frenzy, wherein no such acts are put forth? Doth he drop out of the state of grace without any apostacy, or continue in it without any differencing quality? neither is possible; he backslides not from God, and how can he be out of the state of grace? he is but as other men are, and how can he be in it? It remains, therefore, that the habits of grace make the difference; for by reason of these he is not as other men are, no, not when the acts of grace are suspended, because he hath another spirit in him.

2. All men being by nature ungodly, that which chiefly makes the difference must denominate a man changed. Now in every change, the terminus is somewhat permanent; in alteration it is a permanent quality, in augmentation it is a permanent quantity, in generation it is a substantial form, and in regeneration it is "a new creature, born of the incorruptible seed of the Word," (1 Pet. 1:23). The terminus of this gracious change is set out in scripture as a permanent thing; sometimes it is called light; "Ye were darkness, but now light in the Lord," (Eph. 5:8); sometimes life; "this my son was dead and is alive again," (Luke 15:24); sometimes the new man; "old things are passed away, behold all things are become new," (2 Cor. 5:17); still it is somewhat permanent. Hence it appears, that the acts of faith and other graces, (which are transient) do not so properly denominate a man changed, as improve the change already made. The wild tree is changed by the graff, and not by the after-fruit; the natural man is changed by the ingrafted word, and not by the fruits of faith and other graces, which naturally grow upon the root of habitual grace. That a corrupt tree is made good, is a great change; but that a good tree brings forth good fruit, is altogether connatural.

If there be no habits or principles of grace, how can the natural man's deadly wound, I mean original corruption, ever be healed? Habitual corruption cannot be healed but by habitual grace, the plague of the heart cannot be healed but by the holy unction; instead of the old heart there must be a new one, or else there is no healing, and without healing, how can such a sound act as conversion come forth? It remains, therefore, that there are habits or principles of grace.

2. Having proved that there are such habits or principles, I come to unfold what they are; and this I cannot better do, than by showing what they are in the several faculties. Wherefore,

1. As to the understanding, there is a principle of excellent knowledge; I say, excellent, not only in respect of the matter of it, being heavenly mysteries, but also in respect of the nature of it; it is too high for a fool; nay, it is a story higher than the knowledge of all the unregenerate rabbies in the world: it is not a mere literal knowledge, a knowing of Christ after the flesh, but a spiritual, a revealing spiritual things in their spiritual glory; it is not a dead knowledge, called by the apostle, μόρφωσις γνώσεως, a form of knowledge, (Rom. 2:20), such as is but a lifeless figure or appearance, but it is a lively knowledge, called by the wise man, "a well-spring of life," (Prov. 16:22), and by our Saviour, "the light of life," (John 8:12). It is not a knowledge without sense, but such as hath sense, nay, all the senses of the inward man in it; it is a seeing of the just one, (Acts 22:14); a hearing and learning of the Father, (John 6:45); a smelling and savouring the sweet odours of the gospel, (2 Cor. 2:14); a tasting how good and gracious the Lord is, (Psa. 34:8); a tactual knowledge, a spiritual touching and handling of the word of life, (1 John 1:1); here are seminally and virtually all those spiritual senses which discern good and evil. It is not a dark and duskish knowledge, but clear and lightsome; it is seeing with the veil off and face open, (2 Cor. 3:16, 18); it is the day dawning and the day-star arising in the heart, (2 Pet. 1:19). Here God shines into the heart, and things are seen eye to eye, as the expression is, (Isai. 52:8), that is, in a clear evidence of the truth. It is not a knowledge at a distance and afar off, as Dives saw Abraham, and as every natural man sees the things of faith, but a near and intimate knowledge. It is wisdom in the hidden parts, (Psa. 51:6); it is wisdom entering into the heart, (Prov. 2:10); it is a reason delivered over to the power of holy truths, (Rom. 6:17); it is λόγος ἕμφυος, the word engrafted or innaturalized in the mind, (James 1:21). Hereby the truth approaches and presentiates itself to the soul in so clear and near a manner, as that it works a firm assent and persuasion thereof, and that upon the divine authority shining and sparkling out in the same. This principle saith amen to all the truths in scripture; by it we come to know truths in ourselves, (Heb. 10:34), and to carry the witness thereof within us, (1 John 5:10). As Jesus Christ is the amen, the faithful and true witness, who sealed the truths of the gospel outwardly by his blood, so the holy unction dropping down from Christ is an amen, a faithful and true witness sealing up those truths inwardly in the heart. And this clear and near knowledge, as it assures and persuades a man of those truths, is faith in the understanding; for this sets to its seal that God is true in them, (John 3:33). It is not a mere notional knowledge floating in the brain, vaunting in the tongue, or flourishing in a leafy profession; but it is a practical knowledge influxive into the will, inflammative to the affections, and directive to the whole life. This is that principle of excellent knowledge whereby the soul is enabled to see God as the only supreme end, Christ as the only true way, and sin as the only great obstacle thereunto.

2. As to the will, there is a principle of holiness and rectitude, such as makes the heart pure and right, such as sets the will into a right frame and posture in a threefold respect.

1. In reference to the true end of man.

2. In reference to the right means.

3. In reference to the grand obstacle.

1. It sets the will into a right posture in reference to man's true end. Man's true end is God alone, for he is fontal goodness, allness of perfections; the primum amabile, and ultimus finis, the great alpha and omega of spirits, perfectly able to still all the desires, and fill all the crannies thereof. Now this rectifying principle in the will, as respective to this supreme end, shows forth itself three ways.

1. In that it is a desiring principle. Desire is the first-born of the will, the first opening of the rational appetite, and this principle sanctifies it and sets it apart for God, as its supreme end; it inclines and disposes the will to pant and thirst after God, to faint and cry out for him, to enquire and seek after him with all the heart. Before, the will, Cain-like, did go out from the Lord's presence: but now David-like it desires to dwell in his house, and behold his beauty. Before, the will lay dead in the grave of creature-comforts, but now it hath the life of God in it quickening it to holy breathings after him: before, there was such a gravedo liberi arbitrii, such talents of carnality upon the will, that it could in no wise lift up itself, but lay among the pots, and embraced dunghills; but now it hath the wings of a dove to elevate itself to God. Here is the first resurrection of the will; here are the ἀναβάσεις ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ, ascensions in the heart, as the Septuagint hath it, (Ps. 84:5). The nature of this principle is to ascend up to God, and leave all the world behind its back. As the principle of persuading knowledge is faith in the understanding, so this desiring principle is love in the will in its primordial propensities; there is spiritual life in primo radio, in its first light; and here is spiritual life in primo ardore, in its first heat.

2. In that it is a purposing principle, such as inclines and disposes the soul to pitch by a serious determination upon God as its only happiness, and to "cleave unto him with purpose of heart," (Acts. 11:23). This renders a man a true spiritual Levite, who (as his name imports) is "joined to the Lord, and become one Spirit with him," (1 Cor. 6:17). And as the first-born were dedicated to God, and afterwards the Levites; so the desiring principle first dedicates the desires, the first-born of the will to God, and then this purposing principle makes a man a spiritual Levite, consecrated to God by a holy conjunction with him. This is that key of David or love (as David imports), which opens the everlasting doors of the will that "the King of glory may come in," (Psalm 24:7). This is that sweet voice of David or love, which upon mature deliberation is ready to break out,—"Whom have I in heaven but thee? whom on earth besides thee?" (Psalm 73:25). In heaven, there are glorious angels, and on earth multitudes of good creatures, but none of them all are my end or happiness; none, none but God alone. Were heaven and earth emptied of all their furniture, still I should have my end as long as I have my God, who fills them both with his presence; whilst he is with me there can be no such thing as emptiness, for he is all in all; waiving all the world, I pitch upon him alone as my only end. I can truly say to the covetous, God is my gold, (Job. 22:25); to the ambitious, God is my glory, (Psalm 3:3); to the voluptuous, God is my delight, (Isa. 58:14); to the soldier, God is my buckler and high tower, (Ps. 18:2); to the mariner, God is my broad rivers and streams, (Isa. 33:21); to the potentates and emperors of the world, God is my crown and diadem, (Isa. 28:5); and to those who, with Esau, have enough of the world, Jacob-like, I have all, (Gen. 33:11), all in one, even in God alone. Such resolutions as these are the proper issues of this purposing principle, this makes the will free indeed; before it was free in naturals, but now in spirituals, which is freedom indeed. When the will fixes itself upon the creature as its end, it is in straits in a house of bondage. Take the world in its own place, it is a spacious looking-glass of God's power and goodness, but take it as a man's end and happiness, it is too strait and narrow for the immortal spirit to breathe in. Hence carnal men, even In the fulness of sufficiency, are yet in straits, (Job 20:22); but when the will through this purposing principle fixes itself upon God as its end, it is free indeed. The rabbins call God מָקוֹם place, and a large one he is; no less than an infinity and immensity of goodness, such as no desire or outgoing of the will can ever pass through. Here there is room enough for an immortal spirit, goodness enough to satiate the rational appetite for ever. Now, as the desiring principle is love in the will in its first plantation, so this purposing principle is love further rooted and grounded in the same faculty.

3. In that it is a resting principle, such as inclines and disposes the will to a double rest in God.

1. To a rest of innitence.

2. To a rest of complacence.

1. To a rest of innitence; it inclines the will to lean and roll itself upon God, and to set its faith and hope in him: hereby the heart hath an access unto God, and casts and ventures itself upon him for all its happiness, as being fully resolved in itself to be happy only in him. And this is no other than faith in the will considered ut in ultimo termino, in God its only resting-place. "We which believe," saith the apostle, "do enter into rest," (Heb. 4:3). Faith makes a man cease from himself and enter into rest, by a fiducial repose on God's all-sufficiency.

2. To a rest of complacency: it inclines the will to delight in the Almighty, (Isa. 58:14); and count him its exceeding joy, (Ps. 43:4). Hereby the soul dwells at ease, or lodges in goodness (as the original hath it), (Ps. 25:13); hereby it lies down in the bosom of bliss, and hath peace for its tabernacle, (Job 5:24). God was the Levite's inheritance, (Deut. 18:2). As the purposing principle makes a man a spiritual Levite, so the resting principle gives a man an inheritance in God; and this is love in its triumph and joy, inheriting all things in God's mercy and glorious all-sufficiency.

2. This principle of rectitude or holiness sets the will right in reference to the true means. The true means is Jesus Christ the mediator; the only way into the holy of holies is through the veil of his flesh. We are in a treble incapacity of returning unto God our ultimate end: we are in the darkness of sin, and see not the right path thither: and as to this, Christ is the way, as a prophet, teaching us by his Spirit and word: we are in the guiltiness of sin, and dare not approach thither; and as to this, Christ is the way, as a priest offering up his blood and righteousness for us: we are in the impotency and enmity of sin, and cannot, will not, of ourselves, return thither; and as to this, Christ is the way as a king, subduing and ruling us by his gracious sceptre. God hath sealed Christ to all these offices for this very end, to bring us home to himself. Now this principle sets the will right in reference to Christ in all his offices.

1. Take him as a Prophet, this principle sets the heart right in a threefold respect.

1. It is a principle of humble teachableness. God, who is the soul's centre, dwelling in light unapproachable, and Christ, who is in the Father's bosom, being the great revealer of him, this principle inclines the will to hearken to Christ; the ear is opened or revealed to hear the great Prophet in all things. There is a προθυμία, or readiness of mind to let in every beam of light, and catch at every drop of truth which falls from Christ. Before, man was a wolf and a lion for brutish untractableness, but now a little child may lead him, (Isai. 11:6), even the least truth or message from Christ; he will not be unruly, or break away from it, for a world; but meekness and humility make him as a little child, ruleable by every word of Christ.

2. It is a principle of faith, ready to receive Christ in the name of a prophet. Christ doth no sooner usher in a truth into the soul, but this principle clasps about it with fiducial embraces, and says, This is a beam from the Sun of righteousness, this is a message from the Angel of the covenant, sent on purpose to fetch me away to God. Hereby the soul is disposed to believe Christ's words, and receive his testimony.

3. It is a principle of love, ready to embrace Christ as the angel of God's face or presence, and kiss the Son, as revealing holy secrets from the Father's bosom. This principle hangs upon Christ's myrrh-dropping lips, and when he speaks, it catches up his words as the words of eternal life; every truth is received in love as from Christ's hand; and above all, Christ himself is very precious, because he is the brightness of glory.

2. Take him as a Priest, this principle sets the heart right towards him. Under the law the Levites were given to the priest; under the gospel those who are spiritual Levites, are given to Christ, the high-priest. Now the principle, whereby they are given to Christ as a priest, is double.

1. It is a principle of faith inclining the soul to wash in the laver of Christ's blood, and wrap up itself in the robe of his righteousness. This is called in scripture, trusting in Christ's name, (Matt. 12:21); faith in his blood, (Rom. 3:25); receiving the atonement, (Rom. 5:11); and receiving the gift of righteousness, (Rom. 5:17). When a soul comes up out of the wilderness of sin to return to God, all the way it leans upon Jesus Christ, (Cant. 8:5).

2. It is a principle of love inclining the soul to love Jesus Christ as its priest. When once there are faith-glances in the understanding at Christ crucified, and faith-rollings in the will upon him, the holy fire, called a vehement flame, or, as it is in the original, the flame of God, (Cant. 8:6), kindles upon the heart and makes it burn with true love to Christ: Oh! says the soul, this is he who made the robe of righteousness for me, and how much love was there in every thread of it? This is he who drunk off the cup of trembling for me, and how much wrath did my sins squeeze into it? When on earth, he bore my sins upon the cross, and now in heaven, he bears my name upon his heart; his person is all desires, his blood all preciousness, his righteousness all glory, his love all heights and depths and breadths, surpassing knowledge, and who can choose but love him? There is no high priest or sacrifice but himself, no balm or healing, but in his wounds; no intercessor above, but his blood and righteousness; no beauty or glory in all the visible world, like that in his cross; and how can the heart refuse his espousals? This is a principle of sweet closure with Christ; this makes the soul breathe after, nay approach to Christ, and when it hath a being in him, such is the holy aspiration of this principle, that still it desires to be more perfectly and intimately in him; no embraces near enough, there is too much distance in every union: when the soul is brother and sister and mother to him, still it would be nearer, nothing less than one spirit, (1 Cor. 6:17): and when it is so in some measure, still it presses hard after more oneness with him: Oh, that the veil of darkness were quite off! that the remnants of separating corruption were quite out! Oh, for more gales of faith and prayer to blow up this holy fire! for more effusions of the holy unction to feed and enflame it! Thus this principle is hiatus voluntatis, the opening or thirsty gaping of the will for more and more of Christ, and all that it may dwell in God, who is love itself.

3. Take him as a King, this principle sets the heart right towards him. Hence a man becomes ευθετός εἰς βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, in a fit posture towards the kingdom of God, (Luke 9:62), and that in a threefold respect.

1. This principle is a principle of faith. God made Christ a king, and faith owns him as such; God gave him all the power in heaven and earth, and faith gives him all the power in the upper and lower faculties of the soul. This principle rests upon him as a king, able to put all his enemies under his feet. Are there strong holds of sin in us? This principle rests on him as the power of God to cast them down. Are there armies of temptations round about us? This principle rests on him as the captain of salvation to scatter them. As soon as this principle is in the soul, the soul is no longer where it was, but translated into the kingdom of Christ, (Col. 1:13). Before it was in a region of darkness, but now in a place of marvellous light; its native soil was spiritual Sodom and Egypt, where sin is a law, but now it, is in the dominions of Christ, where the law of the Spirit frees from the law of sin; and because, after the law or reign of sin is broken, the remnants or relics of corruption are still in us, therefore, this principle doth in a wonderful manner rest upon Christ for a more thorough purging out thereof.

2. This principle is a principle of love, disposing the soul to love Christ as a Melchisedeck, a king of righteousness, and to kiss his sceptre as a sceptre of righteousness. This principle desires and delights above all places to dwell in Immanuel's land, and by a holy acquiescence under his law, it sits down, as it were, in the kingdom of God. Hence the heart is willing that Christ should reign over it, and that all his enemies should be made his footstool, even those that dwell in its own bosom; if he come and search for darling lusts there, this principle will open every fold, and unlock every secret place of the heart to discover them. If he come and slay them with the sword of his mouth, this principle will be consenting to their death, and pray, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord, even all the remainders of corruption lying in my heart.

3. This principle is a principle of obedience; and this is no other but the two former principles of faith and love conspiring together to do the will of Christ. Christ is at the right hand of God; and the soul, by faith and love, is at the right hand of Christ, (Psalm 45:9), ready to hear and do all his pleasure, (v. 10). Faith hath two eyes, and whilst one is upon the propitiatory cross, the other is upon the holy crown of Jesus. Love hath two hands, and whilst one is thrust into his side and bleeding wounds, the other is busy in keeping his righteous laws and commands. No sooner doth a command drop down from him, but faith catches it up. Oh! says faith, this comes from the King of kings and must be done; and this great King, says love, obeyed for me, even to the cross, and how can I do less than obey him? His commandments are all right, his yoke easy, his service freedom, and his love constraining.

3. This principle sets the will into a right frame in respect of that great obstacle, Sin. Sin separates between God and the soul, but this principle separates between the soul and sin, and this in three respects.

1. As it is a principle of evangelical sorrow. Sin is contracted with pleasure and must be dissolved with sorrow, and this dissolution will not be kindly, unless the sorrow be evangelical; legal sorrow is a preparative to conversion, but evangelical is an essential ingredient in it; in legal sorrow, the heart breaks under the fears of hell and death, but in evangelical it thaws under the beams of free grace; it melts for the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it bleeds over the bleeding wounds of Christ, it grieves at the grievings of the Holy Spirit; it blushes and shames itself for the stains cast upon God's glory, and it is offended, and full fraught with displiceney at its many and great offences of the divine Majesty. This is λύπη κατα τον Θεὸν, "sorrow according to God," (2 Cor. 7:10). Sorrow for sin as sin, such as God would have. This turns the sweet morsels of sin into bitter herbs, and the pleasant streams of lust into blood; hereby sin is in some degree loosened out of the heart.

2. As it is a principle of hatred inclining the will to hate every false way. The scripture sets out sin as a very odious thing; it is the poison of asps, (Rom. 3:13); the dogs' vomit, (2 Peter. 2:22); a menstruous cloth, (Isaiah, 30:22): περισσείαν κακίας, the superfluity or excrement of all evil, (James, 1:21); enmity to God, (Rom. 8:7); the abominable thing which God hates, (Jer. 44:4); and that with great hatred, (Hos. 9:7). Now the heart, when this principle is in it, hates and abhors the taste of this poison, the smell of this vomit, the touch of this menstruous cloth, the sight or appearance of this filthy excrement, the thought of this enmity to God, and the very presence of this abominable thing; this hatred is the very life and spirit of repentance: as the love of sin, is the vinculum unionis or vital spirit, whereby the soul and sin are intimately united together; so the hatred of sin is the solutio vinculi, or the extinction of that vital spirit, whereby the soul and sin are separated one from another.

3. As it is a principle of actual reformation, or forsaking of sin; and this is no other than the two former principles of sorrow and hatred conspiring together to make away with sin. Sorrow nails the old man with all his members upon the cross, there to die in pains and agonies, and hatred pierces into his very heart, and lets out his vital blood, I mean, the love of sin, that he may be sure to die, and not revive again; where these two are, a man suffers in the flesh, and ceases from sin, (1 Pet. 4:1); he cannot ποιεῖν ἁμαρτίαν, commit sin, (1 John, 3:9), not so as he did before. Sorrow forbids it to be the joy of his way, and hatred forbids it to be the love of his heart, and both cast it out as an unclean thing, causing God's departure from the soul.

3. As to the affections, there is a principle which tunes and harmonizes them, and that in a threefold respect.

1. It is a principle reductive of the affections to the rule of reason. God in creation made man a Lord over brutes, and anointed reason to reign over the affections; but as soon as man rebelled against God, all within him and without him was hurled into confusion: without, the brute beasts rebelled against his person; and within, the brutish lusts rebelled against his reason; but when converting grace reduces man into order again, then the beasts of the field are at peace with him, (Job 5:23), and the affections of the heart throw down their arms and confess their homage to the kingdom of reason. This principle makes a man able to rule over his own spirit, (Prov. 16:32); and say with authority to one affection, Go, and it goeth; and to another, Come, and it cometh. It is true, moral virtue doth in its way subject the affections to reason, but this supernatural principle doth it in a more excellent manner; there the subjection is to reason as the supreme faculty of the soul, but here it is to it as the candle of the Lord, even for his sake who lighted it up for the guidance of the blind faculties; there it is to reason as a natural light, but here it is to it as supernaturally illuminated. The Holy Spirit makes the truths of the gospel to become the law of the mind, and this law of the mind rules over the affections; the affections are the τὸ θῆλυ, the woman-part in us, the head of this woman is the man or reason, and the head of this man is Christ and his holy unction.

2. It is a principle moderative of the affections as to the things of the world. Before conversion the earth hath its throne in the heart, but this principle shakes the earth out of her place; before, the affections are as sails spread open to the gales of the world, but this principle contracts and folds them up, lest the spirit of the world should fill them. Earthly things are τὰ ἐλάχισα, the smallest things of all, (1 Cor. 6:2); and where this principle is, a very small portion of them will suffice; Agur's dimensum, Daniel's pulse, our Saviour's daily bread, Paul's food and raiment, Luther's herring, anything with the word of blessing will serve the turn; when there is little or nothing without, still there is an αὐτάρκεια, a self-sufficiency of holy content within; and when there is a concourse or affluence of all outward blessings, this principle is as ballast to keep the heart from drowning and overwhelming itself therein; there is such a holy allay upon the soul, that in the lowest ebbs of adversity it possesses all things in its God: and in the highest tides of prosperity it will not be possessed by anything in the world. Alas! saith the soul, all this is but thick clay, and why should I lade my eagle-affections with it? All this is but πολλὴ φαντασία, much fancy, and why should an immortal soul be set upon it? The whole world is but σχῆμα, a figure or shadow, and that time, which envelopes it, is but καιρὸς συνεσαλμενος, time contracted, and contracted into a το νῦν, for so the apostle calls the world τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα, the new world, (2 Tim. 4:10). Wherefore, a shadow of affections is big enough for a figure, and the shortest glance of the heart long enough for a τὸ νῦν, a transient and momentary thing which perishes with the very using. The world in scripture is set out as a nullity, a thing that is not, (Prov. 23:5), and this principle deals with it as such; it makes a man rejoice as if he rejoiced not, and buy as if he possessed not; the affections, like translated Enoch, are not found here below, because God hath translated them.

3. It is a principle inflammative of the affections towards God and the things of God; before, the affections run down to the world as their centre, but this principle turns the stream of the soul upward towards God; now love, which is the key of the heart, opens and unlocks it unto God; desire, which is love in motion, goes out in holy breathings and thirstings after him; and if he stay away from the soul, hope, which is love in expectation, looks and waits for his approaches to the soul; and when he doth approach thither, delight, which is love in rest or acquiescence, joys and keeps sabbath in his presence; and lest this sabbath should be broken, fear, which is the soul's sentinel, watches against sin, as the great make-bate and incendiary; and when sin offers to enter the soul, hatred, which is the soul's guard, shuts the doors against it with a holy displicency and antipathy; and if it do enter there, anger, which is the soul's sword, strikes at it with indignation; and sorrow, which is the soul's issue, vents and lets out the corrupt blood and humours out of it; and, which is the heat and height of all, zeal sets the soul on fire and makes it burn ἐν καλῷ, in that which is good, for the glory of God, who is the supreme good, and against the commission of sin, which is the supreme evil. Thus the whole πολίτευμα trade or converse of the affections is in heaven, (Phil. 3:20). This principle sets the heart upon God above all; it may and doth love creatures as the prints of his power and goodness; ordinances as the conduit-pipes of his grace and spirit; and saints as the lively pictures and resemblances of his holiness, but it sets the heart upon God above all. This principle is a fire dropped down from heaven into the heart, to consume the dross of corruption, and inflame the affections towards God; it is a touch from Christ, risen and sitting in glory, to raise up the affections out of the tombs and graves of earthly vanities, and to quicken and inspire them with the life of God, that God may be all in all therein.

2. Having shewed what conversion is in the first instant, I proceed to the second; in the first instant the lamps of grace are made; in the second, they are lighted up; in the first instant the new creature is begotten of God in all its parts and proportions; in the second, it is born into the spiritual world: in the first instant the tree of righteousness is planted; in the second, it buds and blossoms, and brings forth precious fruit; there is an actuation of gracious principles, an actual turning of the soul to God. The understanding doth actually see God as the supreme end; Christ, as the true way; and sin, as the great obstacle. The will, as to God the supreme end, doth actually breathe after him in holy desires, fix on him by serious purposes, and rest in him fiducially and complacentially for all happiness. As to Christ, the true way, it doth actually embrace and receive him as a prophet, for guidance and instruction; as a priest, for satisfaction and intercession; and as a king, in the government of his spirit and word. And as to sin, the great obstacle, it doth actually surround it with sorrow, fight against it with hatred, and overcome it by a real reformation. The affections do actually bow down under reason's sceptre, come off from the world's breasts, and ascend up in holy flames towards God; and under this sanctified and actually returning soul, the members of the body become ὅπλα δικαιοσύνης, weapons of righteousness, actually performing and executing the commands thereof. Thus all the habits and principles of grace are actuated, and all the powers and faculties of man are actually returned unto God. Now this actual conversion comes into being, three ways.

1. As from the inward vital principles of grace; there is a divine life and vigor in them, putting forth the soul to acts congruous and connatural thereunto; the divine nature will be shewing forth itself, the well of living water will be springing up, the seed of God will be shooting forth, the kingdom of heaven, though but as a grain of mustard-seed, will at last become a tree. When there is a principle of right knowledge in the understanding, it is a well-spring of life, (Prov. 16:22); and the wise, who have it, shall understand, (Dan. 12:10). When there is a principle of rectitude in the will, integrity will guide it and direct its way, (Prov. 11:3–5); the מֵישָׁרִים the rectitudes or rightnesses will love Jesus Christ, (Cant. 1:4); that is, such hearts as have right principles in them will assuredly love him, for the bias of those principles draws to it; converting Israel will cast forth his roots, (Hos. 14:5), the root of faith casts forth itself in actual believing, the root of love in actual loving; "the root of the righteous yieldeth its fruit, (Prov. 12:12). The very nature of these principles is to dispose the soul to actual conversion. Even moral virtues dispose to moral acts, how much more do supernatural principles dispose to spiritual acts? Moral habits are of our own house, but supernatural principles are of a higher extraction, coming down from heaven, and styled the virtues of God, (1 Pet. 2:9), therefore there must needs be more virtue and vigour in them than in moral habits, which come forth out of principles of reason, and are the virtues of men.

2. Actual conversion comes into being, as from the assistant and auxiliary grace of God. When the apostle gives account of himself as to the principles of grace, he saith, "By the grace of God I am that I am;" all his spiritual essence was from free grace: when he gives an account of himself as to the exercise of grace, he saith, "I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me," (1 Cor. 15:10); auxiliary grace, which was with him, moved the principles of grace, which made up his spiritual essence, into actual exercise. The new creature can no more do ought of itself than the old: as natural agents five and move in the God of nature, so spiritual agents live and move in the God of grace. Wherefore, that there may be actual conversion indeed, there is help from the holy one, a quickening virtue from God, (Psalm 119:37); a stirring up and fluttering over the nest of gracious principles, (Deut. 32:11); a supply of the Spirit, (Phil. 1:19); and grace with our spirit, (Philem. ver. 25); nay, in a sober sense, Immanuel, God with us; the Lord with us, to incline our hearts to him. (1 Kings, 8:57, 58). God himself is as dew to Israel, and then the roots of grace cast forth themselves, (Hos. 14:5). God blows and breathes upon his garden by auxiliary grace, and then the spices thereof flow out in the actual exercise of grace. (Cant. 4:16).

3. Actual conversion comes into being as from the soul itself. Timothy must ἀναζωπυρε͂ιν, stir or blow up his grace, (2 Tim. 1:6); auxiliary grace stirs and blows up the principles of grace, the principles of grace stir and blow up the soul, and the soul, by virtue of those principles and assistances, stirs and blows up itself unto actual conversion. Anima, as a learned man hath it, priùs actu agit, et priùs mota movet, et priùs à Deo conversa convertit se ad Deum. Hence in scripture conversion is styled man's act, he believes to righteousness, (Rom. 10:10); he returns to the Lord with all his heart, (1 Sam. 7:3); he gives himself unto the Lord, (2 Cor. 8:5): he obeys to the form of gospel doctrine, (Rom. 6:17); still it is man's act, where we may note a remarkable difference between habitual and actual conversion. In the production of actual conversion man is active, but in the production of gracious principles he is passive. We read in scripture of men believing and repenting, but we never read of any man who made himself a new heart, and a new spirit: these are of God's make only, but being made, the man, in whom they are, through auxiliary grace, doth actually turn to God.

Having showed what conversion is in the first and second instant thereof, I pass on to the next and last query, viz.,

3. Who is the worker of conversion? and this I shall cleave asunder into three questions.

1. Whether God be not the author of conversion?

2. After what manner it is wrought?

3. Whether God's will be not always accomplished therein?

1. Whether God be not the author of it? and to this scripture and reason answer in the affirmative.

1. Scripture asserts it; there conversion is painted out under various notions. With reference to our old corruption, it is called a new heart; with reference to the seed of the world, it is a generation; with reference to our natural birth, it is a regeneration; with reference to the law in the letter, it is the law in the heart; with reference to the world, it is a heavenly call out of it; with reference to Satan, it is a translation out of his kingdom; with reference to Christ, it is a coming to him by faith; with reference to God, it is a returning or conversion to him; with reference to our death in sins, it is a resurrection, a quickening of the dead; with reference to our nullity in spirituals, it is a creation or a new creature. The scripture phrases it many ways, but still it sets forth God as the supreme author of it. Be it a new heart, God is the giver of it, (Ezek. 36:26); be it a generation or regeneration, God is the father of it, (James, 1:18); be it the law in the heart, God is the writer of it, (Heb. 8:10); be it a call out of the world, God is the caller, (2 Tim. 1:9); be it a translation out of Satan's kingdom, God is the translator, (Col. 1:13); be it a coming to Christ, God is the drawer, (John. 6:44); be it a turning or returning to God, God is the converter; to him the church prays, "Turn us, O Lord and we shall be turned," (Lam. 5:21); be it a resurrection, God is the quickener, (Eph. 2:5); be it a new creation, God is the creator and we are ποίημα αὐτοῦ, his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, (Ephes. 2:10). Every way, God is the author of conversion; even in actual conversion, whilst the act is man's, the grace is God's; for he worketh the will and the deed.

2. Reason evinces this, and that three ways.

1. Creature-weakness needs it, man cannot convert himself; the natural man οὐ δέχεται, "receiveth not the things of God," (1 Cor. 2:14); nay, οὐ δύναται, "he cannot be subject to God's law," (Rom. 8:7); as to God, חֲסַרלֵב he wants a heart, (Prov. 9:4); a stone he hath, which resists God's will, but a heart he hath not to obey the same. His will is tota cupiditas, a lust rather than a will; no wonder if he cannot by his own power, convert himself. Conversion is a thing above the sphere of lapsed nature, nay, beyond the line of angels; man's heart is so dark, that those stars of light cannot irradiate it, and so cold, that those flames of love cannot warm it; there is such an iron sinew in it, as the heavenly hosts (which excel in strength) cannot bow, but must leave it to the arms of the Almighty, and when he doth it, they joy over the convert as a wonder of power and grace.

2. The excellency of the work calls for it. The body of nature is a rare piece, but the soul of man is of a nobler value, and in the soul, converting grace (which is but an accident) is worth more than the soul itself; it is the soul's rectitude, it is glory within, it is the precious hidden man of the heart, it is the very image of God, it is Christ formed in us, it is anima in centro, the soul centred in God, joined unto him, and after a wonderful manner becoming one spirit with him; it is faith in the true one, love in the essential love, a mind light in the Lord, and a will at liberty in the will of the primum liberum, and who can be author thereof, but God alone? God made all things, ab angelo usque ad vermiculum, from the angel in heaven to the worm on earth, but in conversion, he makes a poor worm angelize: God must be owned in every atom of nature, how much more in the great work of grace? This is one of the τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ, the wonderful works of God, (Acts 2:11). St. Austin tells a story of one, who was seduced at first but to deny God's creatorship in the fly, afterwards came to deny it in the bird, and then in the beast, and at last in man: but if any one should proceed so far as to deny him in conversion, it would be more prodigious blasphemy than all the rest. Saving grace is a ray or sparkle of the Deity, a thing merely κατα θεὸν, according to God, (Eph. 4:24); there is more of God to be seen in it, than in all the world of creatures besides; and by consequence, to deny him in that, is more than to deny him in all the rest.

3. The almightiness of grace can only effect it. As the scripture sets out conversion as a great work, so it sets out an almighty grace as the cause thereof. He that believes, according to some scriptures, that in the work of conversion there is a resurrection of the soul from the dead, a transformation of a stony heart into flesh, and a creation of a new heart and new spirit, must also believe, according to other scriptures, that in the production of that work, there is put forth a divine power, excellency of power, and exceeding greatness of power, such as raised up Christ from the dead. In conversion, there is not only a light shining round about the sinner, but a light shining into him; not only a waking of a sleepy will, but a quickening of a dead one; not only a proposal of divine objects, but an infusion of divine principles: therefore the grace effecting it must be almighty. That in the prophet, "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes," (Ezek. 36:27), is as much a word of power as the fiat which made the world; that in the gospel, "the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," (John 5:25), sounds out as great an efficacy as that other, "Lazarus come forth;" nothing less than almighty power can effect it.

2. After what manner is it wrought? Our Saviour sets out the mystery of regeneration by the wind, "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," (John 3:8). In regeneration the Spirit blows with such a sound as breaks the stone in the heart, and with such lively gales as quicken the dead soul; but the manner of this work is in a great measure secret and incomprehensible by us. If we know not how the bones grow in the womb, how much less how Christ is formed in the heart. No man perfectly knows the least atom or dust in nature, how much less the grand mystery of grace! Here, then, we must proceed with great modesty and sobriety, keeping as close as may be to the line and level of scripture. Now here I shall make a threefold inquiry.

1. Whether the word of God be the means or instrument of conversion.

2. Whether the will of man be converted by the intervention of the enlightened understanding?

3. Whether the work of conversion be wrought in an irresistible way?

1. Whether the word be the means or instrument of conversion? And here I shall endeavour two things.

1. I will prove that it is so.

2. I will inquire how far, or in what sense it may be called so.

1. I shall prove that it is so, and that by three arguments.

1. Plain scripture asserts it.

2. Successive experience shews it.

3. The analogy between the principles of the new creature, and the properties of the word induces it.

1. Plain scripture asserts it. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," (Rom. 10:17); "The Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation," (2 Tim. 3:15); "The law is perfect, converting the soul," (Ps. 19:7); "The gospel is the power of God to salvation to the believer," (Rom. 1:16); and for the unbeliever, who accounts it foolishness and weakness, the apostle assures us, that "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," (1 Cor. 1:25); so much wiser as to out-reason their carnal understanding, and so much stronger as to out-wrestle their carnal wills and affections. The gospel it is, ministerium spiritûs, the ministration of the Spirit, (2 Cor. 3:8); the golden pipe, through which the oil of grace is emptied out into men's hearts, and the great organ, through which the Holy Ghost breathes spiritual life into them; it is the seed of the new creature, We are begotten by the word of truth, (James 1:18); "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever"; (1 Pet. 1:23); it is the white horse upon which Christ rides, conquering, and to conquer, (Rev. 6:2). Conversion is a conquest over the minds and wills of men, and for the obtaining thereof, Christ rides עַל־דְבַר upon the word of truth, (Psalm 45:5); and, because there be high things and strong holds in men's hearts, the word is as a mighty engine in his hands, to cast down those heights and holds, and captivate every thought to himself. (2 Cor. 10:4, 5.) The apostle taking notice of the work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in the Thessalonians, (1 Thes. 1:3), gives us a clear account whence those choice graces came, the fontal cause of them was election, (ver. 4), and the instrumental, the gospel, (ver. 5). "For" (saith he) "our gospel came unto you not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." In a word: all the current of scripture seals up this truth.

2. Successive experience shows it. St. Peter at once caught three thousand souls in the net of the gospel. (Acts 2:41.) St. Paul came to the Romans ἐν πληρώματι ευλογίας, in the fulness of the evangelical blessing, Rom. 15:29); the Corinthians were his seal, (1 Cor. 9:2), and the Thessalonians his joy and crown, (1 Thess. 2:19.) In all ages of the church, God's ministers have had a proof of Christ speaking in them, and God's people have felt the word to be spirit and life to them; in all places where God's name hath been recorded, his blessing hath been afforded; where the seed of the word hath been sown, new creatures, more or less, have sprung up out of it. Were there a general assembly of the first-born, what stories would they tell us about the power of the word? One would say, hell flashed in my face out of such a threatening; another, heaven opened to me in such a promise; a third, the beauty of holiness appeared to me in such a precept: every one, in the language of his own experience, would speak forth the wonders of the word. How many nave been forced by the power of it to fall down, and worship, and say, "God is in it of a truth?" How many have experimentally felt it, pointing out their darling lust, plucking again and again at the iron sinew in their wills, lifting and thrusting hard at the world in their hearts, and at last carrying away their souls in a fiery chariot of holy affections towards God in Christ. The common sense of Christians bears witness to the efficacy of it.

3. The analogy between the principles of the new creature, and the properties of the word, induces it. If we compare the understanding of the new creature with the word, there is a principle of excellent knowledge, and here is the word of truth, (Eph. 1:13); there is a lively and spiritual knowledge, and here are lively oracles, (Acts 7:38); and words which are spirit and life, (John 6:63); there is a near and intimate knowledge, and here is a word quick and powerful, piercing into the very soul and spirit, (Heb. 4:12); there is a divine faith or persuasion, and here are faithful sayings worthy of all acceptation, (1 Tim. 4:9); there is a clear vision, an open-faced knowledge, and here is a clear revelation, a pure glass reflecting the glory of God upon the heart, (2 Cor. 3:18): there is a practical knowledge, and here is a doctrine according to godliliness, (1 Tim. 6:3). Again, if we compare the will of the new creature with the word, there are holy desires breathing after, and holy resolutions fixing upon God as the ultimate end, and here are the goads and the nails, (Eccl. 12:11), which stir up those desires, and fasten those resolutions in the heart; there is freedom indeed, spiritual liberty in the ways of God, and here is free-making truth, (John 8:32), and a law of liberty, (James 1:25); there is a fiducial and complacential rest in God, and here are λόγοι πίσεως, words of faith to lean upon, (1 Tim. 4:6); and דּבְרֵי חֵפֶץ, words of delight to take pleasure in, (Eccl. 12:10); there is a closing with Christ in all his offices, as prophet, priest, and king; and here is this prophet speaking to us, this priest dying, and, as it were, crucified before our eyes, and this king upon his throne with a sceptre of righteousness in his hand; there is a sorrow for, and hatred of sin, and here is that which pricks us at the heart, and shows us sin as an abominable thing. If we compare the affections of the new creature with the word, there is a reduction of the affections unto reason, and here is reason in its height and pureness; there the world hath but a very low place, and here it hath but a very mean character; there the affections are inflamed towards God, and here is the holy fire which makes our hearts burn within us towards him. Every way there is a wonderful analogy between the principles of the new creature and the properties of the word, which plainly speaks forth the aptness and congruity of the word, to be a means or instrument of conversion.

2. How far or in what sense may the word be called a means or instrument thereof? In answer whereunto, I shall first lay down two things as common concessions, and then come to the main query.

The two concessions are these.

1. That the word is a means or instrument of the preparatives to conversion; it is as a fire and a hammer, (Jer. 23:29). When the Holy Ghost blows in this fire upon the conscience, every sin looks like a spark of hell; when the Almighty arms set home this hammer, it breaks the rocky heart all to pieces. No sooner doth the commandment come home to the heart, but sin revives and the sinner dies, (Rom. 7:9); the sin, which before lay as dead in the sleepy conscience, now lives and gnaws upon the heart, as if the never-dying worm were there; the sinner, who before was alive in his own self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, now is a dead man, one who hath the sentence of death in himself, and feels as it were the pangs of hell in conscience.

2. That the word is a means or instrument to reduce the principles of grace into actual conversion. When God stirs up and flutters over the nest of gracious principles, it is by the wings of the Spirit and word; when the spices of the garden flow out, it is from the north and south wind, the Spirit blowing in threatenings or promises. That which makes the roots of graces cast forth themselves into acts, is the dew of auxiliary grace, and that dew falls with the manna of the word. That grace with our spirit, which stirs up the principles of grace into exercise, comes in the clothing or investiture of some holy truth or other. Hence the apostle counts it one of his master-pieces, διεγείρειν, to stir up pure minds by his epistles, (2 Pet. 3:1).

These two concessions being laid down, the main query is, touching the production of gracious principles, whether as to that, the word may not be an instrument in God's hand? Many learned divines speak of the word as operating only morally and objectively. Mr. Pemble distinguishes thus; Instruments are either co-operative or passive, and the word must be one of the two; co-operative it is not, moving or working on the soul by any inward force of itself, it is therefore in itself a passive instrument, working only per modum objecti; now no object whatsoever hath any power, per se, to work any thing on the organ, but is only an occasion of working. And a little after, he saith thus, I cannot better express the manner how the Holy Ghost useth the word in the work of sanctification, than by a similitude; Christ meeting a dead corpse in the city of Nain, touches the bier and utters these words, Young man, I say unto thee, arise; but could these words do any thing to raise him? No, it was Christ's invisible power that quickened the dead; not his words, which only declared what he meant to do by his power: so in this matter of conversion, Christ bids us believe and repent, but these commands work nothing of themselves, but take effect by the only power of God working upon the heart. Thus that learned man. But me-thinks this is too low; the word of itself operates morally and objectively, and shall it do no more as clothed and accompanied by the Holy Spirit? Surely the scripture-strains touching the word's efficacy are so high, that it cannot be nudum signum, no, not as to the production of gracious principles; St. James is express, Of his own will begat he us, λόγῳ ἀληθείας, with the word of truth, (Jam. 1:18); and St. Paul is more emphatical; in Christ Jesus I have begotten you διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου by or through the Gospel, (1 Cor. 4:15); it is not κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, according to the Gospel, but διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, by or through Gospel, as pointing out the instrumentality of it in the generation of the new creature. And St. Peter is yet in a higher strain; We are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, διὰ λόγου, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, (1 Pet. 1:23); where, besides the emphatical διὰ, the word is styled no less than the incorruptible seed; not only a sampler externally shewing the figures and lineaments of the new creature, but a seed too, springing up into, and for ever living in the new creature. Faith (which is the new creature's head) is ἐξ ἀκοῆς, by or out of hearing the word, (Rom. 10:17), and so are all those sanctifying graces, which, as it were, make up the new creature's body: For thus our Saviour prays; "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth," (John. 17:17); and thus he practises too, He sanctifies and cleanses his church by the word. (Eph. 5:26.) Surely those scriptures which are able σοφίσαι, "to make wise to salvation," (2 Tim. 3:15), must do somewhat as to the principles of knowledge in the understanding; that law, which is מְשִׁיבַת "converting or restoring the soul," (Psalm 19:7), must do somewhat as to the principles of grace in the will; that word, which is δυνάμενον σῶσαι, "able to save the soul," (James 1:21), must also be able to sanctify it, because without holiness there is no seeing of God; that doctrine, which is ὑγιαίνουσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ, healing doctrine, (1 Tim. 1:10), must operate somewhat as to the principles of grace which heal the deadly wound of original corruption. The converted Corinthians were "Christ's epistle, and the apostle's too, written by the Holy Spirit, and ministered by the apostle also," (2 Cor. 3:2, 3). The apostle's weapons were mighty through God "to captivate every thought to Christ," (2 Cor. 10:4, 5); which could not be if they were not also mighty through God to set up Christ's throne in the heart. These scriptures constrain me to believe, that the word doth operate in the production of gracious principles, only not as it is alone or separate from the Holy Spirit, for so it operates only morally and objectively; but as it is clothed in the power and virtue of the Spirit, for so it becomes spirit and life to the soul. As for the similitude used by Mr. Pemble, I conceive that the raising of the young man from a natural death, and the raising of a sinner from a spiritual death, are not every way parallel. For in that, there was no capacity at all, in the naturally dead to receive the words of Christ; in this, there is a passive capacity in the spiritually dead to take in the word of God as from a divine impression; in that the words of Christ entered not at all into the naturally dead, in this the word of God enters into the spiritually dead, even intimately into his very heart; in that the words of Christ were transient and passed away, in this the word of God, though it may pass away as to its sounds and syllables, yet as to its substance it lives and abides for ever in the new creature. Wherefore, (these differences considered), I conclude, that Christ's words were only declarative in that resurrection, but God's word is operative also in this. The manner how God works gracious principles in and by his word as an instrument, is a secret which I dare not pry into; only for a little more illustration of the word's efficacy in the production of gracious principles, there are two instants or moments to be distinctly considered.

1. The first instant or moment is that wherein there is a close application and intimate inning of the word in the heart; in common auditors, the word is upon the heart, but here it is in it; in temporary believers, the word is in some degree in the heart, but here it is in it intimately. This close application is excellently set out in scripture; it is a nail fastened, (Eccles. 12:11); it is a word engrafted, (James 1:21); it is instruction sealed, (Job 33:16); it is the law put and written in the heart, (Heb. 8:10); it is wisdom entering into the heart, (Prov. 2:10); it is the apostle's ἔισοδος, or entrance into his auditors, (1 Thess. 2:1); it is the word having a place in us, (John 8:37); and such a place as to root in our hearts; thus Job says of himself, שֹׁרֶשׁ דָבָר the root of the word is found in me, (Job. 19:28); and this root is such as will abide in us, and become the incorruptible seed of the new creature. This close application is a glorious work of God, and the word is not altogether passive therein, but in the hand of the Spirit it is quick and powerful, as a sharp sword piercing and cutting its way into the heart, (Heb. 4:12); and as a mighty engine, casting down imaginations and high things there, (2 Cor. 10:5), that itself may have a place and throne in the same.

2. The second instant or moment is that wherein God in and by the word, so intimately inned in the heart, doth produce the principles of grace there; in the first moment, the indwelling word makes the heart a spiritual Bethlehem, a house of bread; in the second, Christ is spiritually born there; in the first moment, the incorruptible seed is sown in the heart, in the second, it springs up into a new creature. The scripture seems to me to hold out this method very clearly, The engrafted word is able to save the soul, (James 1:21); the word saves the soul, but not merely as outwardly expressed, but as inwardly engrafted. Faith comes by hearing the word, (Rom. 10:17); but is that a mere outward hearing? No surely, there is a hearing of the Father, and so a coming to Christ, (John 6:45). There is the powerful and intimate demonstration of the Spirit, and so faith stands in the power of God, (1 Cor. 2:4, 5); that is to say, in that power of God, which intimately demonstrates and closely applies the word unto the heart, as its true cause and foundation. When the apostle speaks of the Thessalonians' faith and love, (1 Thess. 1:3), he there opens the causes thereof, viz., the fontal cause, God's election, (ver. 4), and the instrumental cause, the gospel, (ver. 5); but how could the gospel be an instrument? The apostle tells us, that it came to them "not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost;" it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the heart, and from that impress came faith and love. The wise man would have the word kept in the midst of the heart; and his reason is, because it is life, (Prov. 4:21, 22). The word in the ear only is but a transient sound, but the word in the midst of the heart is spirit and life. Job proves the truth of his grace thus, "The root of the word is in me," (Job 19:28). The word, as shining on the head, lights up notions; but, as rooted in the heart, springs up in graces. St. John tells the young men, that they are strong; and for a reason adds this, "the word of God abides in them," (1 John 2:14). St. Paul first speaks of his ἔισοδος, or entrance into his auditors, and then of their turn to the living and true God, (1 Thess. 1:9). The entrance of the word into the understanding giveth light, (Ps. 119:130); and when it passeth from the understanding to the will, it is spiritually a word upon the wheels, and inwardly becomes free-making truth, (John 8:32), ennobling the will with true liberty in the ways of God. Epaphras was in an agony of prayer for the Colossians, that "they might be filled in all the will of God," (Col. 4:12); the more filling with God's will, the more true liberty in ours. St. Peter clearly asserts, that "we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the word," (1 Pet. 1:23). In which words his plain meaning is, that the word being intimately sown in the heart doth, under the warming influences of the Holy Spirit, spring up into the new creature; and to make this the plainer, he adds, that "the word lives and abides for ever," speaking, as I take it, not of the words living and abiding in itself, but of its living and abiding in the new creature. As it is with natural seed or grain sown, the husk or outward part passes away, but the lively or substantial part springs up into the stalk, blade, and ear; so it is with the seed of the word, the letters and syllables, the noise and sound of words pass away, but the lively and substantial truth springs up into the new creature, and in it lives and abides for ever. God made two great promises of regeneration; the one, "That he would write the law in the heart;" and the other, "That he would give a new heart;" and the latter he fulfils by the former.

In these two instants, distinguishable at least in nature, doth God by his word bring forth the principles of grace. Now here I would conclude this point, but that I am obviated by two objections.

The one absolutely against the word's instrumentality.

The other against the method proposed in the two instants.

1. Object. That against the word's instrumentality is this: the production of gracious principles is a creation, and in creation there can be no instrument at all, and therefore the word cannot be an instrument in that production.

In answer to which objection, founded on philosophical principles, I think it were enough I to say, with the Psalmist, "Thy testimonies are wonderful," (Psalm 119:129); or with the convicted man, "God is in it, of a truth," (1 Cor. 14:25); or with the apostle, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," (1 Cor. 1:25). The scriptures asserting this instrumentality, what if this philosophical objection could not be answered, must therefore the holy oracle be rejected? What if reason cannot comprehend it, must therefore faith renounce it? How much better is that old gloss, taceat mulier in ecclesia, Let reason be silent in the church. But for some satisfaction, I shall offer four things to your consideration.

1. Consider who is the principal agent, who but the Almighty? And if he will appear in the word, (as the expression is, Acts 26:16), what may not be done by it? The apostle was but an earthern vessel, yet a minister of the quickening Spirit, because God ἱκάνωσεν, made him sufficient to be such a one. (2 Cor. 3:6.) If he make the word sufficient to regenerate, who can gainsay it?

2. Consider what the instrument is, it is the word of God; the two grand truths therein are the law and gospel, and what are these in their eternal idea? The law is an ἁπαύγασμα or eternal off-shining from the divine will as righteous; and the gospel is an ἁπαύγασμα or eternal off-shining from the divine will as gracious, and what are they in their external revelation? The scripture is θεόπνευστος, breathed out from the very mind and heart of God, and, therefore, cannot be less than a lively picture or image of the divine will: wherefore, that such a word, as is the image of the divine will, should instrumentally produce the new creature, which is the image of the divine nature, seems to me rather congruous than impossible.

3. Consider what the principles of grace are, they are not substances, but accidents, depending upon their subject, in esse et operari, and may more properly be said to be increated than cretated: now if there could be no instrument in the creation of substances, yet why may not there be one in the increation of accidents?

4. Consider what a kind of creation the production of gracious principles is. Is it every way pure creation? how then is it generation? how resurrection? pure creation can be neither of these: you will say, it is generation and resurrection, but metaphorically only; very well, if it be but so, the metaphor must be founded on some true likeness or analogy between these and the production of gracious principles, which is altogether unimaginable in a pure creation. It remains, therefore, that the production of gracious principles is styled all these in scripture, partly to import the excellency of the work, such as cannot be fully expressed by any single one of these, and partly to hint out the nature of the work, such as hath in it somewhat analogous to every one of these: wherefore, I take it to be thus, it is a creation, because a real production of gracious principles by Almighty power; it is a generation, because of the immortal seed of the word, and it is a resurrection, because a man spiritually dead is raised up to divine life. Now if there could be no instrument in a pure creation, yet may there be one in the production of gracious principles, because that is not purely creation, though there be a creating power put forth therein.

2. Object. The other objection is against the method proposed in the two instants, viz., That first in nature the word is put into the heart, and then the principles of grace are produced, which is contrary to that, The natural man receives not the things of God, (1 Cor. 2:14); and contrary to that, The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith, (Heb. 4:2); and also contrary to the scope of that parable, where the seed of the word only fructifies in a good and honest heart, (Luke 8:15), for according to the method of the two instants, the natural man doth receive the things of God, the word doth profit before it is mixed with faith, and the seed doth fructify in a heart not good or honest.

In answer whereunto, I conceive that the method proposed in the two instants doth not contradict any of these scriptures. As for the first place, The natural man receives not the things of God; I answer, that the things or truths of God may be received in the heart two ways; either passively, by way of impression from the Holy Spirit, or actually, by way of actively discerning them in the understanding, and embracing them in the will: the former is a reception of them according to the obediential capacity of the heart, the latter a reception of them according to the spiritual faculty thereof: the former doth at least in nature go before the principles of grace, in order to their production; the latter doth follow after the principles of grace, as the fruit thereof. The former is that which is done in the first instant above-mentioned, the latter is that which is spoken of by the Apostle in the text above-named: for there he saith, that "the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," where evidently he speaks of such a receiving as is an actual knowing and spiritual discerning of the things of God: wherefore, according to the Apostle, this active receiving doth presuppose the principles of grace already in being; but the other passive receiving (of which the Apostle there speaks not) doth only pre-suppose an obediential capacity in the soul. There is a double obediential capacity in the soul to receive the truths of God as by way of impression; the ultimate and radical capacity is the rationality of the soul, and the next and immediate capacity is that softness of heart which is wrought in the preparatory work of conversion. The soul as rational is capable to receive an impression of truths from God, and as softened, it is yet further disposed thereunto. This is that obediential capacity which is required in the method of the two instants, and which the Apostle in that place doth not so much as touch upon.

As for the second place, The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith; I answer, that the word may be considered under a double notion, either as it is operative of faith, or as it is promissive of rest to believers: take it as operative of faith, and so it profits, not being mixed with faith, otherwise faith could not come by hearing, as the apostle asserts, (Rom. 10:17); but take it as promissive of rest to believers, and so it doth not profit, not being mixed with faith; that is, faith, which is the condition of the promise, not being performed, the eternal rest, which is the thing promised, cannot belong to them: and this is clearly the apostle's meaning; for having spoken of a promise of rest, (Heb. 4 ver. 1), he adds, (ver. 2), "The word" (that is, the promise of rest spoken of before) "did not profit them, not being mixed with faith," that is, the promised rest was of no effect to them, because they were unbelievers; and in this sense the words no way oppose the method in the two instants.

As for the parable where it is said, that "the seed of the word fructifies in the good and honest heart," I answer, that the seed of the word may be said to fructify two ways, either internally in the production of inward graces, or externally in the production of outward good works: now our Saviour's scope in this parable, at least in the latter part thereof, touching the good ground, was to show how the word did fructify in the production of outward good works; this is clear, because it is such a fructification as pre-supposes a good and honest heart: so that our Saviour doth not here deny the word's fructification in the production of graces; but asserts the word's fructification in the production of good works. Nay, in the former part of the parable touching the three sorts of bad ground, laying down the impediments of the word's fructification, and those impediments being in themselves impediments to all kind of fructification, as well that which is in the production of graces, as that which is in the production of good works; he seems, by way of implication, to hint out the word's fructification in the production of graces, according to the method of the two instants; for he saith, that the word did not fructify in the stony ground, because they had no root, (Luke 8:13), intimating that the word must first root, before it can fructify at all: so that if we might gather out of this parable the whole method of the word's fructification, it seems to be thus; first, the word must be notionly understood, which was wanting in him by the way-side; then it must be inwardly rooted, which was wanting in the stony ground; then it must cast the choaking world out of the heart, which was wanting in the thorny ground; then it makes the heart a good and honest heart; and lastly, it makes that good and honest heart fructify in all outward good works; wherefore this parable is so far from contradicting, that it seems rather to illustrate the method proposed in the two instants abovesaid.

Having passed the first query, I proceed to the second.

2. Query, Whether the will of man be converted by the intervention of the enlightened understanding?

In answer to which, I shall lay down two positions.

1. That the will of man doth infallibly and necessarily follow the practical understanding.

2. That the will of man doth so in the matter of conversion.

But that there may be a clear foundation, I shall first lay down some differences between theoretical knowledge, and practical, as to the truths and things of God. And,

1. These differ subjectivè; not as if these were not both in the same understanding, but that their way of inhesion there is different. Theoretical knowledge is in the understanding but superficially, a flash and away, a light taste, such as was in those apostates, (Heb. 6:5); a word sown but unrooted, such as that in the stony ground, (Matt. 13:21); but practical knowledge is deeply radicated in the understanding; it is truth in the hidden parts, wisdom entering into the soul, and a word sinking down into the heart; and, which is a second difference springing out of the former, theoretical knowledge, being but superficial, hath much of doubtings and fluctuation; it sees and sees not, it is a dark and half vision, a persuasion ἐν ὀλίγῳ, in a little, as the expression is, (Acts 26:28); but practical knowledge being deeply radicated, hath much of certainty and assurance in it; it is instruction sealed, a vision unveiled, and with open face: a man need not say, Who shall ascend into heaven? or who shall descend into the deep? the word is in the heart in such a sensible presentiality, as makes a thorough persuasion of the truth thereof.

2. These differ objectivè. Theoretical knowledge represents things as good or evil only in the general, but practical knowledge represents this or that as good or evil in its individuality, and as clothed with all its circumstances. In Herod's theoretical knowledge it was evil to kill John the Baptist; but in his practical judgment, with the circumstance of his oath, it was good in his eyes to do so. The theoretical knowledge in the stony ground pronounces the word to be good, but the practical judgment sentences it evil with persecution. But to carry on the difference a little further: theoretical knowledge, representing things as good or evil only in the general, speaks little or nothing to practice, but practical knowledge, representing this or that as good or evil in its individual circumstances, speaks absolutely and with a kind of authority; this must be done, and that must not not be done: when it says, This must be done, it is promotive of the duty; they that know thy name will trust in thee, (Ps. 9:10), and by the same reason will do other duties required by thee: when it says, That must not be done, it is preventive of sin; "If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory," (1 Cor. 2:8), that is, a practical knowledge would effectually have impeded that sin, and by the same reason will it impede other sins; both ways it hath a great influence into practice.

3. These differ essentially. Theoretical knowledge is in some sense but knowledge falsely so; called, because it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known; those things are proposed to be known not as mere notions, but as practical things, to be above all other things chosen, loved, embraced and practised: wherefore a theoretical knowledge, knowing them notionally only, even whilst it is materially true, hath a secret lie in it, because it judges of them theoretically only, of which it should judge practically. Thus the Apostle, "He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him, (1 John 2:4), not in him as it should be; for in the midst of all his puffing knowledge, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know, (1 Cor. 8:2), because not in a practical way; but practical knowledge is a true knowledge, it knows the things of God as they are proposed to be known, that is, not as mere notions, but as things to be practically improved in heart and life; it knows them as it ought to know them. And out of this difference arises a second: theoretical knowledge being but a false knowledge, is but a weak and dead thing, able to put forth no vital or spiritual action; just as a flash of lightning in the night, it makes all the way plain, but before one step can be taken, all is in darkness; such a vanishing vapour is mere notion, which puffs the head but penetrates not into the heart. But practical knowledge, being a true knowledge, hath strength and life in it, it puts forth vital and spiritual actions. Hence our Saviour calls it no less than eternal life, (John 17:3); it forges out the blood and vital spirits of the new creature, strengthens him with spiritual bones and sinews, and sets him in motion towards the crown of life in heaven.

These differences premised, I proceed to prove the two positions laid down.

1. The first was this, That man's will doth infallibly and necessarily follow the practical understanding, and this I shall endeavour to make out,

1. From God's ordination, in which there are two things to be considered.

1. God never made the will of man to stand alone.

2. God never made it to go alone: both which may yet be, if it follow not the practical understanding.

1. God never made the will of man to stand alone, but he would have it depend upon the understanding: as he made the sensitive appetite to depend upon the senses, so he made the will to depend upon the understanding. Hence the will, which is in itself, but cæca potentia, a blind power, in its dependance, is ὅρεξις μετά λόγου, a rational appetite. If the will do not depend upon the understanding, where doth it stand but upon the base of its own independency? You will say, No, not so; for still it is under the guidance of Providence. I answer; that providence, which rules all things in a sweet congruity to their natures, rules the will, not as a brute, but as a rational appetite; and how that can be without its dependance on the understanding, I know not.

2. God never made it to go alone; it is in itself but a blind power, and God never made the blind to go alone. Even in brutes there is sense to light the appetite, much more in man understanding to light the will. Hence the understanding is called τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, the leading or ruling faculty, and lucerna Domini, the candle of the Lord, (Prov. 20:27): without it the will is all in the dark. If the will can go alone in any acts, surely it must be in acts of sin, which have much of darkness in them; but even there, whilst the holy law of God is violated, the dictates of the corrupt understanding are observed. If the will can go alone in any acts of sin, surely it must be above all in such acts as are most against knowledge; but even there, whilst theoretical knowledge is opposed, the practical judgment is fulfilled. Hence such presumptuous sinners as rebel against the light, are yet said to walk in their own counsels, (Ps. 81:12), because they follow their practical judgment; and to err in their hearts, (Ps. 95:10), because that practical judgment which they follow is corrupt and erroneous; and to make them idols according to their own understanding, (Hos. 13:2), because first the understanding frames the idol, and then the will falls down and worshippeth.

2. I argue from the will itself, which may be considered two ways, either as it is in itself, or as it is in dependance upon the understanding.

1. As it is in itself, and so it is an appetite; its object is good, real, or at least apparent, for malum, quà malum, non est appetibile; and that good must be proposed by the understanding, for that is instead of eyes to the will. Suppose, then, that the understanding do show forth to the will such a thing as good pro hîc et nunc, and that so good, that it is immediately to be embraced, and cannot without a present evil be neglected, no, not for a moment: if in this case the will may refuse this object, it may appetere malum sub ratione mali, that is, appetere non appetibile, and in so doing it may cease to be, what it essentially is, an appetite.

2. As it is in dependance upon the understanding, and so it is a rational appetite, and, which results from thence, it is a free appetite; the root of its freedom is in the understanding. Why hath a will a liberty of spontaneity to some objects, but because the understanding represents them as good, pro hîc et nunc? Why a liberty of contradiction to other objects, but because the understanding looks on them as matters of little or no moment? One would think so odious and detestable a thing as sin, could not be chosen by the will; but the erring understanding gilds and glosses it over with a show of good. One would think, such glorious and all-desirable objects as are in the gospel could not be refused by the will, but the blind understanding sees little or no worth at all in them. But now if the practical judgment propose a thing as good, and the will reject it, it is no longer a rational appetite, but a brute; neither is it any longer free, but cut off, and in statu separato from the root and fountain of its liberty; neither is its act a free act, but beluinus impetus, a brutish violence, for it hath no understanding at all at the root and bottom of it, no more than the act of a beast hath. What, then, shall we say? Can the will cease to be a rational and free appetite? Or may it be rational and free without an understanding? Neither of these can be: wherefore it remains that it must follow the practical judgment, and so continue free and rational.

3. I argue from the effect, which shows much of harmony between the posture of the understanding, and the posture of the will. Is the understanding determinate? So is the will: hence if the understanding represent a thing as good, the will embraces it as such, if as a greater good, it embraces it the more; if as a summum bonum, it embraces it summo conatu. On the other hand, if the understanding represent a thing as evil, the will starts back from it; if, as a greater evil, it flies yet further from it; if, as malum maximum, it can never fly far enough from it. Is the understanding pendulous? So is the will too: hence, if the understanding represent a thing as a matter indifferent, having little or nothing of moment in it, one way or other, the will doth not infallibly will it as it doth the good, nor nill it as it doth the evil, but in a pendulous way it hangs off and plays on, because the understanding doth not pronounce it good or evil, but only indifferent. The will observes every motion of the practical judgment; if that say, Yonder is such a good, the will cleaves to it, as Ruth to Naomi; if that say, There is such an evil, the will flies from it, as Moses from the serpent; if that say, Such a thing is indifferent, the will stands as the king of Babylon, at the parting of the way, (Ezek. 21:21); it may will or not will; for there is an equilibrium in the will, answering the equilibrium in the understanding.

4. I argue from the consequent absurdity: if the will do not follow the practical judgment, then, although the practical judgment be never so right, yet may the will transgress, and by consequence a man may be a sinner and no fool, which is impossible. In scripture, sin is חַטָּאָה, an aberration, (Isai. 5:18); ἁμαρτία, a missing of the mark, (1 John 3:4); ἀγνόημα, an ignorance, (Heb. 9:7); πλάνη, an error, (Rom. 1:27); error in heart, (Heb. 3:10); and error of way, (James 5:20); and, which is the fullest expression of all, folly, foolishness, and madness, (Eccl. 7:25); as if all words were too little to express the folly thereof: also sinners are stragglers orwanderers, (Isai. 53:6); ἀνόητοι, without mind, (Tit. 3:3); simple ones, such as want heart, (Prov. 9:4); ἄτοποι, unreasonable men, (2 Thess. 3:2); fools, nay madmen, (Acts 26:11); nay, as if there were nothing of man in them, ἄλογα ζῶα, brute beasts, (2 Peter 2:12). Even in the first sin of man, the apostle tells us, That the woman ἀπατηθεῖσα, being deceived, was in the transgression, (1 Tim. 2:14). First, there was an error, a false end in her mind, and then the forbidden fruit was embraced by her will. But now after all this, if the practical judgment be right set, and yet the will may turn away unto sin, then that which is impossible in scripture, may be possible in nature; there may be a sinner and no fool, sin and no folly, wandering without error, missing the mark without any false end, transgression and nothing of deception in it; a man and a brute coupled together in the same act, the understanding playing the man in its right directions, and the will playing the brute in its irrational aversation: all which absurdities are unavoidable by such as assert, that the will doth not follow the practical judgment.

2. Posit. Leaving the first position, I proceed to the second, viz., That the will of man doth infallibly follow the practical understanding in the matter of conversion.

And here again I might re-inforce the former arguments with an emphasis: if the will cannot stand alone and upon the bottom of its own independency in other matters, much less can it do so in conversion, to which the working and I drawing of Almighty grace is requisite: if in other matters, the will cannot go alone without the torch of reason, surely in conversion it cannot go alone without the torch of supernatural illumination. If the will, by deserting a lesser good proposed by the understanding, do appetere malum sub ratione mali, then the will by deserting God proposed as the summum bonum by the understanding, doth appetere summum malum so; if the will, by rejecting an inferior good proposed by the practical judgment, must become brutish and irrational, how much more brutish and irrational must it become by rejecting the summum bonum so proposed? If the will may be determined by the understanding as to a lesser good, nay, as to a false lying good, as in the case of sin, how much rather may it be so determined as to the summum bonum? If by the will's turning away from the understanding right set, there may be sin in the will, and no folly in the understanding, which is impossible; then by such turning away there may be no charity in the will, and yet true faith in the understanding, which is also impossible. But pretermitting these, I come more closely to the thesis, that is, That the will doth follow the understanding in the business of conversion. Now, whereas the conversion of the will is double; either it is the production of gracious principles in the will, or it is the actual conversion of the will: in the first, the will is passive, in the other active. The will's following the understanding is double also; as to the principles of grace in the will, the understanding is as the channel through which those principles are infused into the will; as to the actual conversion of the will, the understanding is as a potent persuader inducing the will unto actual conversion. In the first the will follows the understanding passively only and by way of reception of principles; in the second, the will follows the understanding actively and by way of free actuation of those principles.

I shall speak somewhat to both these.

1. As to the principles of grace in the will, the understanding is as the channel through which those principles are transfused into the will. God doth not infuse the principles of grace into the will ἀμέσως, but he puts in his hand "by the hole of the door, and so the church's bowels are moved for him," (Cant. 5:4): he puts in his grace at the understanding, and so the will and affections are turned to him; he purifies the heart by faith, (Acts 15:9); that is, through faith in the understanding he influences holiness into the will, and this holiness is called by the apostle, holiness of truth, (Eph. 4:24); not only because it is a real holiness, but especially because it is wrought through the truth, first entering in at the understanding, and so passing on to the will: and that this is the apostle's meaning appears, because he opposes holiness of truth, in the 24th verse; to the lusts of deceit, in the 22nd verse. As those are lusts of deceit, because the lusting will follows upon the erring understanding, so this is holiness of truth, because the holy will follows upon the true understanding. The practical knowledge of God is styled eternal life, (John 17:3), and a well-spring of life, (Prov. 16:22); and the reason is, because through it all quickening graces do, as a river of life, flow into the will. Above all, that of the apostle is most pregnant, "Beholding as in a glass the glory of God, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," (2 Cor. 3:18). The glory of God is reflected from Christ upon the gospel, and from the gospel upon the understanding, and from the understanding upon the will, and so we are changed into his glorious image. In man's first transgression death entered in at the windows of the mind, and so got into the secret closet of the heart, and in man's first conversion life comes in at the mind, and so passes down into the will. All the grace that a man hath, saith Dr. Preston, passes in through the understanding; and if it were not so, how could the word be an instrument of the will's regeneration? There is no passage for it into the will but through the understanding. In regeneration the law is writ in the heart, and how can that be but through the understanding? The appetitive faculty is naturally crooked, and if ever it be made right, it must be through the apprehensive faculty: all the things of godliness are given διὰ της ἐπιγνώσεως, through the knowledge of God, (2 Peter 1:3); that is the great channel by which all grace passes into the will.

2. As to the actual conversion of the will, the understanding is as a potent persuader, effectually inducing the will thereunto. There are three principal things in the will's actual conversion, viz., a turning to God as its supreme end, an embracing Christ as the only way, and a rejection of sin as the great obstacle; and in all these the will doth follow the understanding.

1. The will doth follow the understanding in its turn to God as the supreme end, and this appears divers ways.

1. The scriptures clear it to us; there we find in conjunction, bethinking and turning, (2 Chron. 6:37); remembering and turning, (Ps. 22:27); considering and turning, (Ezek. 18:28); understanding and turning, (Matt. 13:15); and opening the eyes and turning, (Acts 26:18); in all which places the understanding goes before, and the will follows after. There we find conversion to be a thing wrought by persuasion, "God shall persuade Japheth," (Gen. 9:27); by inshining, "God hath shined in our hearts," (2 Cor. 4:6); by teaching, "They shall be all taught of God," (John 6:45); by anointing, "You have an unction from the Holy One," (1 John 2:20); and by coming to a man's self, (Luke 15:17); first the prodigal came to himself, and then he returned to his father: the import of all which, is plainly thus much, That God doth actually draw home the will unto himself through the understanding; "Thy people," saith the Psalmist, "shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth," (Ps. 110:3); here are a willing people like the dew for multitude, but whence are they? Whence, but from the womb of the morning? The morning of supernatural illumination is the womb out of which they issue: as long as there is "no morning" in men, as the expression is, (Isa. 8:20), there is no will at all to God; but as soon as the day dawns in their hearts, out comes a willing people, as dew from the morning.

2. The nature of the will holds forth thus much: the will naturally wills blessedness, or the ultimate end in general, because it is a good perfective and expletive of the soul; but the will doth not naturally fix on this or that thing as its blessedness or ultimate end in particular. One man fixes on mammon as his chief good, another makes his belly his God, a third is all for the pride of life; whence is the will thus determined? Either it must be determined by itself, or else by the understanding; not by itself, for it is a blind faculty, and cannot of itself judge anything to be a chief good, much less can it fix itself on it as such; wherefore it must be determined by the understanding. One man chooses mammon to be his chief good, because, as the Psalmist hath it, "his inward thought is, that his house shall continue for ever," (Psalm 49:11); that is lasting happiness, saith his carnal understanding. Another makes his belly his God, because "his inward thought is, eat, drink, and be merry," (Luke, 12:19); there is nothing better, saith his brutish understanding. A third is all for the pride of life, because his inward thought is, to be a Lucifer in self-excellencies; that is the top of bliss, saith his soaring understanding. In every one of these, first the understanding makes the idol, and then the will doth fall down and worship. Now if the will may be determined by the understanding to such false beatitudes as these, how much more may it be determined by the understanding to God, who is the true blessedness?

3. This appears from the excellency of that practical understanding which draws the will unto actual conversion. It is an excellent understanding for the object of it; being in the mount of transfiguration, it shews forth unto the will, not creatures, chips of being in the shell of time, but a Jehovah of self-beingness, a God of all-sufficiency dwelling in eternity; not streams of life or goodness in the creature-channel, but a fountain of living waters, an ocean of immense goodness, such as cannot be sailed over by faith or vision; not golden or pearly mountains, but an infinite mass of free grace, unsearchable riches of mercy, such as cannot be told over to all eternity; not shadows or little portions of being, but the ὸ ὢν, (Rev. 1:4), the true, I am; the τὰ πάντα, or the all things, (1 Cor. 15:28), in whom are all the rich mines of universal blessedness; and (which is the sweetness of all) it shews forth this God, not as reserving himself only to himself, but as freely offering himself to poor worms. Oh, my soul! stand still and adore the opening of his bowels, and self-motion of his grace; this Jehovah of self-beingness and all-sufficiency will make over himself to thee; this fountain of life and goodness will flow out to thee; this rich mass of grace and mercy will portion thee; this, I am, and ever-blessed All, is an inheritance for thee; and in inheriting him thou mayest after a wonderful manner inherit all things. This is the infinite excellency of the object; but after what manner doth the understanding show it forth unto the will? Surely, though as much below his worth as finite is below infinite, yet in an excellent way; the understanding shows forth God unto the will, not in a dead or literal manner, but with spiritual liveliness, and, as I may so say, in sparkles of glory; for it is eternal life, and heaven itself dawns in it, not darkly or at a distance, but clearly and closely; the day-star is up in the heart, and God approaches near unto the will, his goodness passes before it, and leaves some holy touches and savours thereupon, not in a weak and languishing manner, but powerfully and effectually. The apostle joins the demonstration of the spirit and power together, (1 Cor. 2:4). There is such a demonstration of the spirit in the understanding as cannot be denied, and from thence such a power upon the will as cannot be frustrated; not notionally only, but practically; it seriously presseth in upon the will. Here, O rational appetite! here is a God indeed; his grace free, his mercy self-moving; take him, and thou hast all; lose him, and thou hast nothing. Now, Oh! now is the accepted time, the day of salvation; in his favour there is life, in his wrath nothing but death: if he bless thee, none can curse; if he curse thee, none can bless; now or never, turn and live. After this manner doth it practically press in upon the will. Now when the understanding holds forth such an excellent object in such an excellent manner unto the will, already principled with grace, how can it choose, but actually close in with it? Such a knowledge being really actuated, can the will turn aside to other objects for its happiness? The simple one may turn away, (Prov. 1:32), but shall a man of understanding do so? A deceived heart may turn aside, (Isa. 44:20), but shall the wise in heart do so? A heart of unbelief may depart from the living God, (Heb. 3:12), but shall a man of precious faith do so? But whither can he turn? What, to the riches of the world? It is but dross to the unsearchable riches of Christ, saith the understanding: What, to honours? It is but a blast to the true honour which cometh of God only, saith the understanding: What, to pleasures? These are muddy puddles, to the pure rivers of pleasure above, saith the understanding. This understanding doth as it were blast all the world, crucify the universe, and, by a prospect of faith, see the heavens on fire, the earth burnt up, and the elements melting with fervent heat, and can the will fall in love with the dust and cinders of it? Surely it will not. But if the will cannot turn aside to such false beatitudes, yet may it not suspend its act as to the true? Suspend! What from its own blessedness, verily, thoroughly believed? What from God, the all in all, plainly, powerfully demonstrated to be such? And what for just nothing, for a sic volo? Can it be so brutishly free at so dear a rate as to be eternally miserable? Will it hang off from perfect blessedness? or can it do so, and the summum malum not fall into its embraces? And may a will renewed with the Holy Ghost, and right set by gracious principles do thus? Surely it cannot, "They that know thy name will trust in thee," (Ps. 9:10); and (which follows upon trust) will love thee: and (which streams from love) will obey thee: and (which is the crown of obedience) will resign up themselves to thee for all their happiness. Where such an excellent understanding goes before, there the will doth infallibly follow after, even in actual conversion unto God as its supreme end.

2. The will doth follow the understanding in its embracing of Christ as the only way, and this appears

1. From several scriptures. To know Jesus Christ is eternal life, (John 17:3); it quickens the will to embrace him. Christ told the woman, "If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water," (John 4:10.) A true knowledge of Christ would have inflamed her desires after him, and those desires would have breathed out prayers for the living water. Our Saviour quotes that in the prophets [and they shall be all taught of God], and what follows upon that teaching? Every man therefore (saith he) that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me, (John 6:45.) True knowledge makes a man come to Christ, and that without fail, for it is so in every man that hears and learns of the Father; not in one or two, but in every man: and how doth knowledge do this? How, but by glorifying Christ unto the will? The Spirit (saith Christ) shall glorify me; how so? He shall take of mine and shall shew unto you, (John 16:14, 15); the Holy Spirit takes Christ and shews him after a wonderful manner; it glorifies him in the understanding, and through the understanding it glorifies him before the will, and so the will is sweetly and strongly drawn unto him.

2. From the will itself. If the will be determined by the understanding, unto God as its ultimate end, then is it also determined by the understanding, unto Christ as the only way thereunto. Indeed, if the understanding did propose an end, and withal two distinct ways of equal tendency thereunto, then the will might be free to either of those ways: but when the understanding proposes God as the end, and Christ as the only way to that end, then the will must infallibly close in with Christ; it must, or lose its end or blessedness; it must, or the summum malum will fall into its arms. When the understanding tells the will in good earnest, there is no other way but one, there is no other name under heaven but Jesus only, the will is sweetly constrained into his embraces.

3. From the understanding, which shews forth Christ to be the perfect way suitable to all our wants in our passage to God the true end. Thou wouldst come to God, but for the weight of sin and wrath; lo, here is an High Priest with expiating blood; thou wouldst come to God, but thou knowest not the way thither, here is a Prophet with words of light and life; thou wouldst come to God but for the pressure of thy reigning lusts, here is a King with a sceptre of righteousness to subdue them; thou wouldst come to God, but for want of a gracious heart, here is a Treasury of all grace and holiness. The understanding still points at Christ. Art thou in darkness? he is a sun of righteousness; art thou in death? he is the resurrection and the life; art thou a withered branch? he is a root of fatness and sweetness; art thou a lost and half-damned creature? he is a Saviour able to save to the uttermost. Tins understanding glorifies Christ in all his offices, sings the song of the Lamb, and cries him up for altogether precious; this is the window or lattice at which his all-fair person looks in upon the will; the conduit through which the sweet ointment of his name is poured out unto the will, and the crucifix, which shews forth his bloody passion in lively colours before the will. This understanding practically presses the will to embrace him; O my soul! now hear and live; take him, and everlasting mercy meets thee; leave him, and devouring justice overtakes thee; catch hold on this Prince of life, or die for ever; look up to this Brightness of glory, or be in utter darkness; wash in his blood, or bleed in eternal flames; put on his righteousness, or be naked to all eternity; there is no way into the holy of holies, but through the veil of his flesh; enter, and thou hast an ever-blessed God to make thee happy; neglect, and thou hast a righteous God to make thee for ever miserable. When Christ, through the understanding, thus pours out his precious name as an ointment unto the will, how can it choose but love him? When through this hole of the door he thus drops in his sweet-smelling truths upon the will, how can it choose, but rise and open to him? If it do not, whither will it turn? What, to the creatures? they are all blackamoors to this all-lovely Jesus. What, to repentant tears? those want washing in his blood. What, to its good works and righteousness? they are but a filthy rag. There is such a τὸ ὑπερέχον, such a transcendent excellency in the knowledge of Christ, that it makes all other things but as dung before the will, (Phil. 3:8). Hence the will hath no whither else to turn. But if it turn no whither else, may it not suspend its act as to Christ? Suspend! What, from the only way to blessedness evidently pointed out? What, from him who is all desires really believed to be such? Can it thus waive happiness, and embrace mere nothing in the room thereof? and can it do thus when a right-set understanding is really actuated, and itself truly principled with grace? Surely, it cannot be. No sooner did Christ see the budding graces of his church, but his soul made him like the chariots of Amminadib, (Cant. 6:11, 12); and no sooner do christians see the lovely excellencies of Christ, but they will become an Amminadib, a willing people, and their wills as so many swift chariots to convey them unto him. Thus the will follows the understanding in its embraces of Christ as the way.

3. The will follows the understanding in its rejection of sin as the great obstacle, and this also appears,

1. From several scriptures; there we find on the one hand, that folly is the root of the commission of sin; "The foolishness of man perverteth his way," (Prov. 19:3). Why doth the atheist say in his heart, there is no God? Because he is a fool, (Psalm 14:1). Why do the mammonists boast and trust in their uncertain riches? Because their way is their folly, (Ps. 49:13). Why doth the blind idolator fall down to the stock of a tree? Because a deceived heart hath turned him aside, (Isai. 44:19, 20). Why did the rebellious Israelites grieve their good God forty years together? Because they did err in their hearts, (Ps. 95:10.) On the other hand, there we find that true wisdom or understanding is the root of the rejection of sin, "To depart from evil is understanding," (Job 28:28); the pollutions of the world are escaped through the knowledge of Christ, (2 Pet. 2:20); "Through thy precepts (saith David) I get understanding," what then? "therefore I hate every false way," (Ps. 119:104); and again, "I esteem all thy precepts to be right," and what follows? "I hate every false way," (v. 128). First, there was a right judgment in his understanding, and thence issued a hatred of sin in his will. For all the wolves and the leopards, yet (saith God) "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;" why so? "Because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord," (Isa. 11:9); that saving knowledge should turn them into lambs and little children, and make them leave off their barbarous and inhuman cruelty. Hence repentance (which includes in it an hatred and rejection of sin) is stiled μετάνοια, a transmentation or postmentation; because, when a man comes to himself in a right understanding, he hates and rejects sin.

2. From the will itself: If that follow the understanding in turning to God as its supreme end, and in embracing of Christ as the only way, then by necessary consequence it must needs follow the understanding in the rejection of sin as the great obstacle; for if it follow not here also, it must waive its supreme end and the way thither, it must resolve upon a happiness without God and Christ. If the understanding say to the will, There is no other cloud betwixt thee and the Father of lights, no other distance betwixt thee and the fountain of living waters, none but sin alone, surely the will must bid it be gone for ever.

3. From the understanding, which so represents sin, as that the will doth turn away from it, and this it doth three ways.

1. The understanding doth represent sin as a grand evil; it sets it forth as an ataxy in man, rebellion against God, spears and nails to Jesus Christ, quench-coal to the Spirit of grace, blur and stain to the soul, groaning burthen on the back of the whole creation, venom and perfect quintessence of all evils, a thing of such monstrous deformities, as, if it did appear in its own prodigious shape, would not be touched upon by man; and how can the will, being a rational appetite, doat upon such a thing? Surely, upon it as such it cannot; wherefore sin, that it may be welcome to the will, covers itself with fig-leaves as Adam; it veils its face like Tamar; it paints and tires like Jezabel; it disguises and feigns itself to be another, like Jeroboam's wife; it courts and flatters to steal away hearts, like Absalom; it comes like Agrippa and Bernice, with great pomp, in fancy of some apparent goodness. Offering itself to our Saviour, it wrapped up itself in all the glories of the world, nay, in the mantle of scripture, and angelical protection; coming to Adam, it held forth an apple, and promised no less than a godhead: ever it hath a lie and a cheat in it. Hence it is called a false way, (Psal. 119:104), and פְּעֻלַּת־שֶׁקֶר "the work of a lie, (Prov. 11:18); there is in it κυβεία, a sleight, as in cogging dice, (Eph. 4:14); it makes every sinner believe that he shall have the cast of happiness, but coggs away his soul. This is that deceitfulness of sin, by which it insinuates itself into the will; but this right understanding hath a counterwork, it unleaves and unveils sin, it unpaints and undresses it, it plucks off its false appearances and disguises, it disrobes it of all its pomps and fancy, it discovers the lie and cheat in it, and makes it appear in its own ugly hue and shameful nakedness; Achan's sin was wrapt up in a Babylonish garment, but unclothe it, and it was an accursed thing; Saul's sin was covered over with sacrifices, but unveil it, and it was witchcraft-like rebellion; Judas's sin about the precious ointment was painted over with charity, but unpaint it, and it was arrant thievery; Paul's sin wore a cloak of zeal, but undress it, and it was bloody persecution. This right understanding plucks the lie out of sin's mouth, and the paint off from its face, and all the robes of apparent goodness off from its back, and so constrains it to go naked before the will, and thereby it appears what it is, ἁμάρτωλος ἁμαρτία, sinning sin, (Rom. 7:13); רַעַת רָעַתְכֶם the evil of evils, (Hos. 10:15), altogether evil, and nothing but evil; and now how can the will embrace it as good? How can it choose but reject it as evil? Now, if ever, shall sin be crucified. Malefactors were first stripped, and then crucified: sin in its attire, is a king in its robes, sitting on the heart as a throne; but sin, stripped naked by the understanding, is a malefactor ready for the cross, and there the will surely nail it; "the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing," saith the Prophet, (Isa. 10:27), Sin is a yoke upon the will fastened there by a lie, an appearance of some false good, but the anointing, which is truth, (1 John 2:27), reveals the lie, and then off comes the yoke. Doth sin proffer a world? This anointing is an inward Ecclesiastes, crying out, "All is vanity!" Doth it proffer honours, or riches, or pleasures? What for a soul, a Christ, a God? No cheat like that, saith the anointing. Doth it promise happiness? You do but flatter and lie, saith the anointing; you have nothing but death and hell to bestow. Christ was manifested, ἴνα λύσῃ, that he might dissolve the works of the devil, that is, sins in men, (1 John 3:8); and he dissolves them by this anointing. Sin is in union with the will, because sin is in composition with some seeming good; break the composition between sin and the seeming good, and you dissolve the union between sin and the will. The worldly man's will is in union with his sin, because his sin is in composition with the world; break the composition by a right understanding, make him indeed see that the world is but σχῆμα, a figure or fashion, and riches but a thing that is not; dissolve the world by faith, and instantly the sin will drop out of his will, for sin, as mere sin, will not down with the will. If therefore the compound of apparent goodness be once broken by the understanding, the will must needs cast it out as altogether evil, because it is no object capable of its embraces.

2. The understanding doth represent sin as the devil's work. Should the devil visibly appear, and offer to the covetous his bags, or to the drunkard his cups, surely they would hardly take them at his hands. Wherefore Satan transforms himself into many shapes, and puts on changes of raiment that he may act invisible. But on the other hand, Christ ἀπεκδυσά μενος, spoils, or, more properly, unclothes him, (Col. 2:15); he spoiled him meritoriously on the cross, and unclothes him efficaciously in the hearts of men. Christ was so quick of understanding, that he found out Satan even in Peter's tender indulgence; and Christ gives such a true understanding unto the heart, that it sees Satan lurking in every sin: Oh! says the true understanding, there is a bloody devil in all thy malice, a blasphemous devil in all thy profaneness, a lying devil in all thy hypocrisies, a proud devil in all thy self-excellencies, a devil in the swine in all thy sensualities, and in every sin Satan stands at thy right hand. Now when the devil thus appears in sin, surely the will must needs turn away from it.

3. The understanding doth represent sin as the only obstacle of happiness. The understanding views the all-blessed God with his infinite bowels, and the all-precious Jesus with his infinite merits; it lets in some glimpses of glory, and takes as it were a prospect of eternity; it travels over the land of promise, and tastes the milk and honey of free grace flowing there; and after all this, it cries out, Oh! my soul, nothing can hinder thee from all these but sin, nor sin neither, unless indulged; this is the only gulph between thee and thy God, the only distance between thee and thy sweet Jesus, the only bar to the heaven of glory, and the only flaw in thy title to the land of promise. When the understanding shews sin to be such indeed, surely the will cannot but reject it.

Thus the will follows the understanding, in turning to God the supreme end, in embracing Christ the only way, and in rejecting sin, the great obstacle, which are the three grand things in actual conversion.

Now here I would have closed up this point, but that there are two main objections to be solved.

Object. 1. This thesis of the will's following the understanding, takes away the necessity of gracious principles in the will.

Object. 2. This thesis overturns the liberty of the will.

1. This thesis takes away the necessity of gracious principles in the will; what need of any there, seeing the will is so good a follower.

As to this I shall answer two things.

1. This thesis is so far from taking away the necessity of gracious principles in the will, that it discovers the way how those gracious principles come to be wrought there. It is in this case between the understanding and those gracious principles, as it is between the beams of light and the accompanying heat: as heat comes down from the sun into the lower world in the vehicle of natural light, so holiness comes down from the Sun of righteousness into the will in the vehicle of supernatural light. When the day dawns in the heart, the heart waxes warm with spiritual life; "Give me understanding," saith David, "and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart," (Psalm 119:34). Why is he so earnest for understanding? Is the understanding all? May not the will hang back for all that? No, give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart: that will set all my soul in a right posture towards the law of God.

2. Notwithstanding this thesis, there is yet a treble necessity of gracious principles in the will; for,

1. God calls for them.

2. The will itself stands in need of them.

3. The perfection of the new creature cannot stand without them.

1. God calls for them; above all things he calls for a heart, a pure heart, such as works out the mixtures of corruption; a right heart, such as lies level to the rule of righteousness; this he desires; "he desires truth in the inward parts," (Psalm 51:6); this he delights in, "he hath pleasure in uprightness," (1 Chron. 29:17); where this is found, he passes by many infirmities; "I have eaten," saith Christ, "my honey-comb with my honey, wax and all, wax and all," (Cant. 5:1). Infirmities do not hinder acceptance; but where this is wanting, he sets a black mark upon men, even whilst they do that which is materially good. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart, (2 Chron. 25:2); there is a black mark set upon him for want of integrity. But now, without gracious principles in the heart, how can the heart be right or pure? which way can God's call be answered, or his desire or delight attained?

2. The will itself stands in need of them. The will of fallen man, what is it but a very shoal of inordinate affections, a womb of evil concupiscence? Here is the ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦσα, the conceiving lust, (James 1:15); that which teems out a generation of wickednesses. Here is an abyss, a bottomless pit of evils, such as smokes and vomits up all manner of abominations. Every carnal heart hath in it a plague of rottenness which is still starting from God, and an iron-sinew of rebellion which is still contradicting God; and how can this hell of lust in the will ever be quenched, but by the clean water? How can this deadly wound of corruption there ever be healed but by gracious principles?

3. The perfection of the new creature cannot stand without them. The new creature is a new man, all over new, new in its desires as well as in its intellectuals; it is a perfect man in Christ, perfect in all its parts; it hath a heart as well as a head. Should the will want gracious principles, the new creature must want a heart, the old heart will not serve the turn; the new man is but half a man without a new heart. There was put into the breast-plate of judgment the urim and the thummim; that is, lights and perfections; both were in it, or else it had not been perfect. The full substance of this type was only in Christ, who was full of all grace and truth; but there is a measure of it in every true christian, who puts on the breast-plate of faith and love, (1 Thess. 5:8). Faith is a kind of urim in his understanding, and love a kind of thummim in his will; and both together make up his complete breast-plate. But if there were no gracious principles in his will, he should have an urim without a thummim, light in the mind without integrity in the heart; and by consequence he could be but one-half of a christian.

Object. 2. This thesis overturns the liberty of the will; for if the will be determined by the understanding, how is it free? and if free, how determined?

I answer; There are three things, which well weighed, give a perfect solution to this objection.

1. This objection carries in it a great absurdity.

2. This objection stands upon a false notion of liberty.

3. This objection vanishes by the true stating of liberty.

1. This objection carries in it a great absurdity. If the will being determined by the understanding lose its freedom, then it loseth its freedom by an adhesion to the root of its freedom; and it cannot be free unless it can turn brute, which is a great absurdity. You will say, Is this so absurd? Doth not the will turn brute in closing with sensual lusts? and doth not the scripture call men beasts upon that account? I answer, that the will in closing with its sensual lusts is brutish as to the matter of its choice, but not as to the manner of it, because it hath a human understanding, though corrupt, going before it; but if it can turn away from the understanding, it can turn brute even as to the manner of its acting; for then its act hath no understanding at all at the bottom of it, no more than the act of a beast, which is very absurd in a rational appetite.

2. This objection stands upon a false notion of liberty, viz.: That the liberty of the will doth essentially consist in an ἰσοῤῥοπία or ἁδιαφορία, in an equilibrium or indeterminate indifferency, whereby it may will or not will a thing; for why, according to this objection, is the will not free? Why, but because it is determined? And why is it not free, if determined? Because its freedom doth consist essentially in such an equilibrium, as cannot stand with any determination but what is merely from itself. Now that this is a false notion of liberty, doth appear many ways: for,

3. If liberty do essentially consist in such an indifferency, then what shall we say to Jesus Christ on earth? Had not he, as man, all the essentials of liberty? Was not all his obedience perfectly free? And yet did not his human will indeclinably follow his divine? Was there a posse peccare in that spotless Lamb? Could that human nature, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and inseparably united to the Godhead, could that also transgress? Surely, it could not. "I do nothing of myself," saith Christ, (John 8:28), nay, οὐ δύναμαι, "I can do nothing of myself," (John 5:30), nothing; in such perfect dependance was his human will upon his divine, not the shadow of an equilibrium there, and yet the substance of perfect liberty.

2. If liberty do essentially consist in such an indifferency, what say we to the blessed saints in heaven? Have not they all the essentials of liberty? Are those spirits made perfect in everything else but that? Is that the thing that is wanting in heaven? No, surely; glorious liberty cannot but be there, and yet what of an ἀδιαφορία; there God is all in all, and the saints cannot take off their eyes from him for ever; his will is perfectly triumphant over theirs, and their will is perfectly determined by his, so determined, as not to glance aside from it to all eternity: and yet in this determination liberty is not destroyed but perfected; the will is not in straits or bonds, but in a sabbath of rest and joy. Here is nothing of an equilibrium; that kind of liberty is so magnified on earth, that it shall never be glorified in heaven; and if it be not glorified there, sure it is no essential here.

3. If liberty do essentially consist in such an indifferency, then how shall the divine prescience be salved? God knoweth all the free acts of men, even the thoughts afar off, from the high tower of his eternity: but if the will be in equilibrio, its acts, before they come into being, must be mere contingencies, and without any determinate verity at all in them, and how then are they knowable as certainties? To know contingencies as certainties, is to err and not to know.

4. If liberty do essentially consist in such an indifferency, then what becomes of divine providence? Providence hath a kingdom over men's hearts. We find in scripture, God touching the heart, (1 Sam. 10:26); stirring up the heart, (2 Chron. 36:22); opening the heart, (Acts 16:14); inclining the heart, (1 Kings 8:58); and turning the heart whithersoever he will, (Prov. 21:1). And after all this, is the will in equilibrio? If not, where is the supposed liberty? If so, where is the divine providence? All its touching, stirring, opening, inclining and turning the heart, signifies little or nothing. Infinite wisdom and power seem to have posed themselves in making such a creature as they cannot govern, or at least not govern without destroying its faculties; the infinite Spirit hath then nothing to rule over but the brutal world, and the rational is lost out of his dominions; men must subsist like creatures, and yet may act as gods; their being is within the realm of providence, and their acting without it. In a word; when we read of God over all, we must ever except the rational creature. Wherefore, that is no true notion of liberty, which is so opposite to the sceptre of divine providence.

5. I shall add but one thing more. Every man is born under a futurition of all the acts which he will produce, or else those acts should be present in time, which never were future, which is impossible; and every futurition implies in it a necessity of immutability, or else that which is future might cease to be such without coming into actual being, which is impossible: hence it appears, that human liberty doth well consist with a necessity of immutability; nay, it cannot stand without: take away all necessity, and you take away all futurition; take away all futurition, and you take away all the free acts of the creature; for those free acts could not be acts, much less free acts, in time, unless they were future before; and future they could not be without such a necessity: therefore, liberum and necessarium may, nay, must stand together; and if so, the will may be determined by the understanding, and yet be free without an equilibrium, and by consequence, an equilibrium is not essential to its liberty. This false notion of liberty maintained, upholds the objection, but dissolved, breaks the same in pieces.

3. This objection vanishes quite away by the true stating of liberty. Liberty is double; ethical, as to that which may be done, de jure; and physical, as to that which may be done, de facto. God is perfectly free both ways; ethically, because under no law but the perfection of his own nature, and physically, because Almighty. Man is not ethically free, because under a law; nor yet altogether physically free, for some things he cannot do, if he never so much will the doing thereof, because they are not within his power. Libertas, as the learned Camero hath it, est facultas faciendi quod libet, or more largely, facultas quâ quis tantum possit quantum velit, tantúmque velit quantum esse volendum judicavit; It is that faculty in man, whereby, within his own sphere, he can do as much as he wills, and will as much as in his understanding he judges fit to be willed. Now that this is a right definition of human liberty doth appear three ways.

1. It is bottomed upon scripture.

2. It is commensurate to the nature of the thing.

3. It is proportionable to both the acts of the will.

1. It is bottomed upon scripture. In scripture there are various expressions touching liberty, congruous to the several parts of this definition. In the definition liberty is a faculty of doing, and in scripture it is a having a thing in our power, (Acts 5:4); or in the power of our hand, (Gen. 31:29). In the definition it is a faculty of doing as much as we will; and in scripture it is a doing according to our will, (Dan. 11:36), or all that is in our heart, (2 Sam. 7:3). In the definition it is a power of willing as much as in our understanding we judge fit to be willed; and in scripture it is doing what is right in our own eyes, (Judg. 17:6), or what seemeth good and meet unto us, (Jer. 26:14). Thus all the definition is founded on scripture.

2. This definition is commensurate to the nature of liberty. What is liberty in man in the full compass of it, but that whereby he becomes κύριος της πράξεως αὐτοῦ, lord of his own act, and such he truly is, when within his own line he can do as much as he will, and will as much as in his understanding is fit to be willed. When the scripture paints out that glorious τὸ αὐτεξούσιον, or supreme liberty in God, what doth it say, but that "he worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," (Eph. 1:11), and "doth what he pleaseth in heaven and earth," (Ps. 135:6). Wherefore if a man can work according to the counsel of his will, and do what he pleaseth within his own sphere, he must needs be truly free; and so much is allowed by this definition.

3. This definition is proportionable to both the acts of the will. There is actus imperatus, an act commanded by the will, such as speaking or walking, or the like; there is actus elicitus, an act produced in the will, such is the act of willing. Now quoad actum imperatum, the definition says, that a man can do as much as he wills; and quoad actum elicitum, it says, that he can will as much as he judges fit to be willed. These two acts must be carefully distinguished, for the will is not alike free in both: as to the imperate act, the will is the mistress and commandress mandress of that, proceeds from it, per modum imperii, and it is truly said to be done quia volumus; but, as to the elicit act, the will is not properly the mistress or commandress of that, that proceeds not from it, per modum imperii, for then it should be actus imperatus, rather than elicitus; neither can we be said truly to will quia volumus, for so the same act of willing should be the cause of itself: wherefore the liberty of the will, as to the act of willing, doth not consist in a self-motion, for the will doth not move itself. To which purpose I shall quote two testimonies, one out of Camero; "Nulla mera potentia semetipsam propellit in actum; quicquid enim ejusmodi est, id in actu esse necesse est. Voluntas autem (id est, volendi facultas) mera potentia est; ergò non potest semetipsam excitare ad agendum: si enim hoc facit, facit per aliquem actum; at quod est in mera potentia, illud non agit." And again: "Non potest dici quæ sit voluntatis seipsam determinantis actio; non est volitio ipsa, est enim volitio ipse terminus; ergo non ipsa determination." Another out of the French divines, in their Theses Salmurienses: "Nulla potentia sesemet educit in actum; sensus moventur à rebus sensibilibus, phantasia à phantasmatibus, intellectus ab objectis intellectualibus, locomotiva à voluntate, voluntas quîpote à seipsa?" And indeed, if the will do move itself to the act of willing, then (because it cannot move itself, as quiescent) it must move itself by some act, and what is that act but an act of willing? Therefore, by an act of willing it moves itself to an act of willing, which is very absurd. Wherefore the will is free in the act of willing, not in respect of its self-motion, but in respect of its lubency and spontaneity; what it wills, it doth incoactively will according to the dictate of the understanding. Now this being the true nature of liberty, the determination of the will by the understanding doth not overthrow it; for (notwithstanding this determination) man is free still, because he can, within his own sphere, do as much as he wills, and will as much as he judges fit to be willed. His will is free, because in its imperate acts it commands what it pleases, and in its elicit acts, it wills what it wills spontaneously, according to the dictate of the understanding; therefore the determination of the will by the understanding doth not at all destroy the nature of liberty.

Thus, passing over the second query, I proceed to the third.

Query 3. Whether the work of conversion be wrought in an irresistible way?

I am for the affirmative in a right sense. A work may be said to be done irresistibly two ways; either when there is no resistance at all: thus the Apostle saith, "Ye have killed the just, and he doth not resist you," (Jam. 5:6); that is, not resist at all; or else when there is no such resistance as to impede the work; thus they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit of Stephen, (Acts 6:10): there is an irresistibility; but what, without any resistance at all? No, they disputed against him with might and main, but because their disputes could not impede his work in propagating the Gospel, therefore it is said, that they were not able to resist him. Thus, when I say that conversion is wrought in an irresistible way, I mean not, that there is no resistance at all, for even in the regenerate, there is flesh lusting against the spirit, the old man and the new struggle in the same faculties, like Esau and Jacob in the same womb; but I mean, that there is no such resistance as to impede the work of conversion. "In meekness," saith the apostle, "instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance," (2 Tim. 2:25); here is a resistance, but for all that, the work will be done, if God give repentance: "He went on," saith the prophet, "frowardly in the way of his heart," but what saith God? "I have seen his ways and will heal him," (Isai. 57:17, 18): here was a great resistance, but for all that, God will heal him. God works conversion in such an insuperable way, that, notwithstanding all the opposition made thereunto, it doth infallibly come to pass. Now this I shall endeavour to demonstrate first, in general, and then in particular, with respect to the two instants of conversion.

1. I shall demonstrate it in general, and that by these arguments taken,

1. From God's election. He hath chosen some before the foundation of the world, chosen them to holiness as the way, (Eph. 1:4); and chosen them to salvation as the end, (2 Thess. 2:13). But if conversion be not wrought in an insuperable way, how doth the foundation of God stand sure, (2 Tim. 2:19)? How is that golden chain kept entire, "Whom he did predestinate, them he called: whom he called, them he justified and glorified," (Rom. 8:30)? were not these called ones, who have predestination going before them, and justification and glorification coming after them, called in an insuperable way? If not, the chain cannot hold together. The apostle makes a plain difference between men; he opposes those of the election of grace to the οἱ λοιποὶ, who were blinded, (Rom. 11:7); and those on whom God will have mercy, to those whom he hardens, (Rom. 9:18). But if conversion be not irresistibly wrought, this difference falls to the ground; those of the election may be blinded, and those on whom God hath mercy, may be hardened as well as others: for my part I should as soon believe that a little child may put up his finger and roll about the spheres, as that the will of man may stay or turn aside the influences of electing grace.

2. From Christ's redemption. If we consider the preciousness of his blood, surely he must have a body; every little seed in nature hath a body given to it, and the Son of God sowing his blood and life, cannot want one: if we consider the promise of God, surely he must have a seed, (Isa. 53:10); and what else is the fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Jews, but this promised seed? But if grace be not wrought in an insuperable way, Christ might sow his blood and life in a wonderful passion, and yet have no body springing out of it; nay, God might engage himself in the promise of a seed, and yet nothing at all come of it; if the grace of God be resistible, leave must be asked of man's will, that Christ's blood may be fruitful, and God's promise faithful.

3. From the Spirit's work. The three glorious persons in the sacred Trinity show forth themselves in three glorious works; the Father hath a special shine in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Holy Spirit in sanctification. In the first work we have God in the world; in the second, God in the flesh; and in the third, God in the heart, or spirit. When God came forth in creation, Oh! what a heaven and earth full of admirable creatures, and harmonies, issued forth! When God came in the flesh, what outbreakings of glory were there? What sparklings of the Deity, in miracles, upon the bodies of men? The blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf did hear, the dead were raised, and the devils were ejected, with power: and when God comes in the heart or spirit, what planting of a new heaven and a new earth? How much of glory and spiritual miracle breaks forth in the souls of men? Even here also the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the devil is cast out with power. The very same miracles which Christ in the flesh, did do on the bodies of men, in a visible manner; the very same doth Christ, in the spirit, do on the souls of men, in a spiritual way. This is the proper work of the Spirit, to sanctify men's hearts; the Spirit doth not appear anywhere in all the world so much as in a true saint. Look into a godly man's understanding, there is the spirit of revelation; look into his will, there is the spirit of holiness; look into his affections, there is the spirit of love and joy; look into his conscience, there is the spirit of consolation; look into his prayers, there is the spirit of supplication; look into his conversation, there is the spirit of meekness and all righteousness. Thus the Holy Spirit shows forth its glory, and flows in men as rivers of living water: and this glory and out-flowing is so precious, that before it came, in esse, according to the rich measures of gospel-grace, it is said of the eternal Spirit, οὕπω ἦν Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, "the Holy Spirit was not yet," John 7:39); as if the Spirit's flowing in men were a kind of second being to it. But now, after all this, if conversion be not wrought in an insuperable way, the Holy Spirit may be barred out of every heart, and then how shall his work be done? Where shall his glory and spiritual miracles appear? The Father hath a world to appear in, the Son hath flesh to tabernacle in, but possibly the Holy Spirit can get never a heart to inhabit in, never a temple to fill with his glory; the Holy Spirit would tabernacle with men, but what if the iron sinew in the will not come out? What if the stone in the heart will not break? Then the Holy Spirit is robbed of his glory. But is this so strange a thing? will you say. What saith holy Stephen? "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye," (Acts 7:51). To which I answer; That the Spirit may be said to be resisted two ways; either as it is in the external ministry, or as it comes in the internal operations. It may be said to be resisted in the external ministry: "He that despiseth you despiseth me," saith Christ, (Luke 10:16). "He that despiseth, despiseth not man but God," saith the apostle, (1 Thess. 4:8). When, therefore, it is said, that they resisted the Holy Ghost, the meaning is not, that they resisted him as to his internal operations, but that they resisted him as to the external ministry. This appears by the context, for they resisted him as their fathers did, (v. 51), and how was that? The next verse tells us; which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, (v. 52)? Their resistance of the Spirit was in persecution of the prophets. But you will say, might they not also resist him as to his internal operations? I answer, so much doth not appear in the text; but however, the internal operations of the Spirit are twofold; some are for the production of common graces, some for the production of saving graces, such as the new heart and new spirit. Now, if the Holy Ghost may be resisted as to the former operations, yet it cannot as to the latter; for in these it takes away the heart of stone, the resisting principle, and gives a heart of flesh capable of divine impressions.

4. God doth insuperably remove the obstacles of conversion. What, is thy mind dark, nay, darkness itself? God can command the light out of darkness, and shine into the heart, (2 Cor. 4:6). Is thine ear deaf? He can say Ephatha to it, and seal instruction, (Job 33:16). Is thine heart hard and stony? He can take away the stony heart, and in the room of it give a heart of flesh, (Ezek. 36:26). Is thy heart barred and shut up against God? He can open it as well as Lydia's, (Acts 16:14); he opens and none can shut, (Rev. 3:7). Doth thy will hang back? He can draw thee, (John, 6:44); and reveal such day of power upon thy heart as shall make thee truly willing, (Ps. 110:3). Dost thou go on frowardly in the way of thy heart? Yet he can see thy way and heal thee, (Isa. 57:17, 18). Dost thou oppose the precious gospel? Yet peradventure he will give thee repentance, (2 Tim. 2:25). Whatever the obstacle be, he can remove it, he can cast down πᾶν ὕψωμα, every height in the heart, (2 Cor. 10:5); and then what obstacles can remain? Now if God do insuperably remove the obstacles of conversion, then he doth insuperably produce the work of conversion.

5. If God do not work conversion in an insuperable way, then what doth he produce towards it but a mere posse convertere? According to the Remonstrants' doctrine, he doth not infuse habits or vital principles of grace, neither will they in plain direct terms assert, that he doth produce actual conversion; what, then, doth he produce towards it, but a mere posse convertere? and is not a posse peccare from him also? "Voluntatem," say the Remonstrants, "comitatur proprietas inseparabilis, quam libertatem vocamus, à qua voluntas dicitur esse potentia, quæ positis omnibus prærequisitis ad agendum necessariis, potest velle et nolle, aut velle et non velle." And again: "Semper et in omni statu hujus vitæ, ubi legislatio, præmiorum promissio, pœnarum interminatio, hortationes, preces et similia locum habent, voluit Deus libertatem voluntati adesse, quâ objectum ad intellectu monstratum velle potest et nolle, aut velle et non velle." Surely if the nature and inseparable property of the will be such, and such by the will of God, then, according to the Remonstrants' doctrine, a posse peccare is from God as the author of nature, as well as a posse convertere is from him as the author of grace; and by consequence it follows, that he doth act as far towards transgression, as towards conversion. No, by no means, will you say, it cannot be; for God by his commands, promises, and the Spirit's motions, doth promote conversion; but by his prohibitions, threatenings, and the Spirit's counter-motions, doth beat back transgression. Very well: these things shew that God's actings touching conversion and transgression are not the same as to the manner; nevertheless, they still remain the same as to the terminus or product: for, after all the commands, promises, and motions towards conversion, still the terminus or product is but a posse convertere; and, notwithstanding all the prohibitions, threatenings, and motions against transgressions, still there is the terminus or product of a posse peccare; and by consequence, he acts as far towards transgression as towards conversion. Will you yet reply, that God gives a posse convertere, and without this man could not convert, and when he doth actually convert, God concurs thereunto? I answer; that, according to the Remonstrants' doctrine, God gives a posse peccare also; and without this, man could not sin; and when he doth actually sin, God concurs to the material act thereof; and where, then, is the difference? By the doctrine of resistible grace, God seems to act as far towards transgression as towards conversion.

6. If God do not work conversion in an insuperable way, then he works it in a dependent way, putting man's will in equilibrio, as it were in an even balance, that it may turn or not turn to God, ad placitum. Now that this last is none of God's method, clearly appears, because God (as beseems his infinite wisdom) works conversion in such a way, as is most depressive of the creature, and exaltative of himself; the man (whom he indeed converts) doth lick the dust; the fountain of blood in his nature is broken up, and the superfluity of naughtiness in his life set in order before him; he falls down in self-abhorrencies, and cannot deny but that he is a beast in his sensual sins, and a devil in his spiritual; he perceives his spiritual poverty to be extreme; so many thousand talents owing to divine justice, and nothing at all to pay; a shameful nakedness in his soul, and not a rag of righteousness to cover it: as a wretched half-damned creature down he goes to the brink of hell, and from thence he hath a prospect of heaven; down he goes into the abyss of his own nullity, and from thence hath some glimpses of Christ's allness. His first breath of spiritual life is a groaning under the weight of sin: oh! the intimate love of sin, says he, it will never out, unless my heart be broken all to pieces; oh! the obdurate stone in my heart, it cannot be mollified but by Almighty Grace; oh! my dead heart, nothing can quicken it but a resurrection; oh! my nothingness in spirituals, there must be a creation, or I shall never be anything; oh! the miserable down-cast, when I fell from God into myself, I can never get up again unless I be unhinged and unselved, unless the Spirit lift me up out of my own Iness and egoity; oh! that I were once out of my own carnal reason, and in the light of life, that I were once out of mine own rebellious will, and in the will of God: if ever I live, it is not I but Christ in me, if ever I labour, is it not I but grace in me; I can write an [I] upon nothing but my sins; if ever I be true to God, it is the holy anointing; if ever I be willing, it is the day of God's power. Oh! the crossbars in my perverse heart, none can shoot them back but the Almighty fingers; oh! the plague of apostacy in my lying heart, nothing can heal it but the holy unction; if God do not write his law in my heart, there will be nothing but wickedness there; if he do not let down some holy fire into my affections, there will be nothing but earth there. Flesh is grass, and God glory; man nothing, and grace all; God's mercy is all, and the willer or runner nothing; God's increase is all, and the planter or waterer nothing. Thus in conversion all glorying is cut off, and pride stained; God, as a God, is very high upon his throne of free grace; and man, as man, very low upon the dunghill of his own baseness: the little ones enter into the land of promise, the poor are evangelized, the dry wilderness gapes for distillations of grace, the poor weeping soul (which bears the precious seed of self-nothingness, and mourns after a supply from free grace alone) shall be sure of the sheaf of comfort at last. But now if God, in working conversion, doth only put the will in equilibrio, whether it will turn or not, then the method is quite another thing: Lie not, O man, upon thy face, shake off the dust of creature-weakness, talk no more of thy poverty and wretchedness, cry not out for a resurrection or creation, trouble not the Almighty Spirit and grace, all is in thine own power already: will, and live for ever in the sweat of thine own improvements; nill, and all the power of grace cannot change thee; will, and take the crown of thy self-differencing glory; nill, and all the breathings and inspirations of the Holy Spirit must fly away from the birth and from the womb. Adam left thee in the common mass—God gives thee the common grace; but thou, O man, must make thyself differ from others by a right use of that grace which they neglect. Beatæ vitæ firmamentum est sibi fidere; trust in thy own heart, thy way is in thyself; thy will is the great umpire, whether thou wilt be God's or not. After all the suasions of precepts and promises, after creating and quickening grace hath done its utmost, after the living Spirit hath tried to write the law in thee, shall all this be something or nothing? Shall the new creature come forth or not? Which shall abide in thy heart, law or lust? Thou thyself must determine the business. God made the heart and all the wheels therein, but the motion is thine own; Christ hath all the power in heaven and earth, but the actual turn is in thine own hand alone. Thus, according to this doctrine, man is exalted, and God is abased, free-will hath the throne, and free grace waits upon her. Man in his first trangression would have been a God in his understanding, and now in his conversion he becomes one in his will, turning the scale of grace one way or other, as he pleaseth.

2. Having proved in general that God works conversion in an insuperable way, I proceed to prove it in particular with respect to the two instants of conversion.

1. As to the first instant, God works the habits or principles of grace in an insuperable way; and to make this appear.

1. Let us compare them with the Remonstrant's posse convertere. They, because they would own somewhat more than mere moral grace in regeneration, tell us, potentiam credendi ante omnia conferri dicimus per irresistibilem gratiam. Now if the posse convertere be wrought in an insuperable way, why should not the habits or principles of grace be so wrought? How is the will's liberty impeached by the one more than by the other? Which way can the will resist the infusion of the one more than of the other? I know no difference between them as to these things: wherefore, supposing what I have proved before, that there are such habits of grace, it follows that they are wrought in an insuperable way.

2. There is in man's soul an obediential capacity to receive the habits or principles of grace; there is a capacity, and therefore God, who fills all things, can till it; there is an obediential capacity, and therefore God, whenever he fills it, fills it in an insuperable way: for this obediential capacity is no other than that, whereby the soul, as to the receiving of gracious principles, stands in obedience to God's power, and as it stands in obedience to God's power, it cannot resist. To have an obediential capacity and not stand in obedience to God's power, is one contradiction, and to stand in obedience to God's power and yet to resist, is another: wherefore the soul receiving gracious principles from God in its obediential capacity, receives them in such a way as excludes resistance. Add hereunto, that if the infusion of gracious principles can be hindered; then it must be hindred either by the habitual pravity of the soul, or by the sinful act of the will; but neither of these can do it: not the habitual pravity of the soul, for then it should hinder always and in all persons; for it is in all, and whilst it is there, it hinders, and whilst it hinders, it cannot be removed, because there is no other way of removing it but by those gracious principles; and by consequence, there should be no capacity at all in the soul to receive gracious principles; nor yet can the sinful act of the will hinder it, for the will doth not receive gracious principles by its act, and those which it doth not receive by its act, it cannot refuse by its act; but it receives them in its obediential capacity, and therefore in an insuperable way.

3. The covenant of grace evidences this to us. I shall instance in two famous places; the one is that, "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh; I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes," (Ezek. 36:26, 27). The other is that, "I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people," (Jer. 31:33). These promises do most signally set forth the production of gracious principles: here is the principles themselves,—a new heart and a new spirit; here is the principal efficient of them,—the Holy Spirit of God; here is a remotion of the obstacles unto them,—the taking away the heart of stone; here is the next immediate capacity of receiving them,—a heart of flesh; here is the way or manner of producing them,—a writing the law in the heart; here is the effectual fruitfulness of them,—a causing to walk in God's statutes; and here is the crown or glory of all,—God will be their God, and they his people. Now, when there is a worker, such as the Almighty Spirit; a remotion of the obstacles, such as the stone of hardness; an immediate capacity, such as a heart of flesh; a way of working, such as the intimate impression of truth; a fruit proceeding, such as obedience to God's statutes; and a crown of all, such as an interest in God; how can the grace be less than insuperable? You will say, these promises were not made to the Gentiles, but to the Jews; and not to any singular persons among them, but to the whole nation. I answer; These promises extend not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles; for these are promises of grace founded in Christ, and in Christ, Jew and Gentile are all one, (Gal. 3:28); so one, that the Gentiles are of the same body, and partakers of the promise, (Eph. 3:6). Indeed, before the middle wall of partition was broken down, they were strangers from the covenant of promise; but that being gone, they are fellow-heirs, partaking of the root and fatness of the olive. Neither do these promises extend to all the nation of the Jews, but to the true Israel, the elect people of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; for in them only are these promises fulfilled. Had these been made to all the Jews, the true God would have fulfilled them in every Jew. You will say, No, God's truth doth not exact such a performance, for he promised to do these things not absolutely, but conditionally, so as men did not resist the operations of his grace. I answer; If God only promise these things shall be done, so as men do not resist, then these promises run thus:—If thy stony heart do not resist, I will give thee a heart of flesh; if thy old heart do not resist, I will give thee a new one; if thy own spirit do not resist, I will give thee my Spirit; and if the law of sin do not resist, I will give my laws into thy heart. Which interpretation doth utterly evacuate the glory and power of these promises; for to be sure that stone, that old heart, that spirit of our own, that law of sin in us, will, what it can, resist the operations of grace. You will say, God gives unto man, a posse convertere, a supernatural faculty whereby he is able to turn unto God. Now God promises to do these things, not so as men in their mere naturals do not resist, but so as men furnished with that supernatural power do not resist. I answer; two things overthrow this interpretation.

1. In the text itself there is not a tittle of such a condition of non-resistancy, nor of such a supernatural power of conversion; nay, on the contrary, instead of the condition of non-resistancy, it speaks of a stony heart, which is a principle of resistancy, to be removed; instead of a supernatural power of conversion, it implies an old heart, which is powerless in the things of God, to be made new.

2. If God promise to do these things so as men, furnished with supernatural power of conversion, do not resist, then there is such a supernatural power in men before these things be wrought in them, that is, before there be a new or soft heart, whilst the heart is old and stony, there is such a supernatural power in them, which assertion is, as I take it.

1. Against scripture; that divides all men into two ranks, they are clean or unclean, new creatures or old, spiritual men born of the Spirit, or natural men born of the flesh; but this assertion ushers in a middle sort of men, such as hang by a posse convertere, between nature and grace; with the natural man they have an old stony heart, and with the spiritual man they have a new supernatural power; in the frame of their heart they are no better than natural, and in their supernatural power they are little less than spiritual.

2. It is against reason. All powers in the rational soul flow out of life; the power of knowing and embracing natural good things flows out of the natural life of the soul; and the power of believing and receiving spiritual good things flows out of the supernatural life of the soul; but this assertion supposes a supernatural power of conversion, without any vital root; nothing of a new heart or spirit, and yet a supernatural power of conversion: wherefore rejecting these interpretations, I conclude that those promises import the production of gracious principles in an insuperable way.

4. The production of gracious principles is in scripture set out in such glorious titles as do import insuperable grace: it is a creation, (Eph. 2:10); it is a generation, (James 1:18): it is a resurrection, (Eph. 2:5, 6); it is a traction, (John 4:44); it is an opening of the heart, (Acts 16:14); it is a translation into Christ's kingdom, (Col. 1:13). Now if this be not insuperable grace, then there may be a creation on God's part and no new creature on man's; a generation on God's part, and no child of grace on man's; a resurrection on God's part, and nothing quickened on man's; a traction on God's part, and nothing coming on man's; an opening on God's part, and all shut on man's; and a translation on God's part, and no remove at all on man's; and why then should such stately names of power be set on the head of resistible grace? You will say, all these are but metaphors; very well, but metaphors are metaphors, that is, they carry in them some image or resemblance of the things themselves, but there is not the least shadow of likeness or similitude between these things and resistible grace. What shadow of creation in that which a creature may frustrate? What of generation in that which produces nothing at all? What of resurrection when the dead need not rise? What of traction when there is no coming upon it? What of opening when there is a heart still shut up? What of translation when there is no remove by it? Take away the infallible efficacy of grace, and it can be none of all these, no, not so much as metaphorically, because it hath no print of likeness thereunto.

5. The scripture doth not only set out conversion under the glory of metaphors, but in plain terms it stiles it a work of power; The gospel comes in power and in the Holy Ghost, (1 Thes. 1:5); and in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, (1 Cor. 2:4); there is power in it, nay, excellency of power, (2 Cor. 4:7); nay, ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος, exceeding greatness of power, and ἐνέργεια τῆς κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος the working of the might of power, such as raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, (Eph. 1:19, 20). The entire words run thus: "What is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead: the apostle here doth not only denote God's power towards believers, but also God's power in making them such. As there is exceeding greatness of power towards believers, so those believers did believe "according to the working of his mighty power, such as raised up Christ from the dead." Every way a believer, in fieri, and, in facto esse, is surrounded with power and excellent greatness of power; Oh! what rare eloquence! What high strains are here? Too much and too high, in all reason, for resistible grace: if the weakness of God be stronger than man, surely the power of God in its might and excellency, put forth for the production of gracious principles, cannot be resisted and overcome by him.

6. The heart which hath gracious principles in it is God's tabernacle, and all God's tabernacles have been built in a sure way, such as cannot fail of the effect. God, besides the natural tabernacle of his eternity, hath, in his condescending grace been pleased to have three tabernacles built for him: first he had a worldly tabernacle or sanctuary, (Heb. 9:1), and then ἐσκήνωσε, he tabernacled in our flesh, (John 1:14); and last of all, he hath a tabernacle in the hearts of men, a sanctuary, בְּתוֹכֶם in the midst of them, that is, in the midst of their hearts, (Ezek. 37:26): the heart, which hath gracious principles in it, is God's tabernacle: Hence God says, ἐνοικήσω, "I will indwell in them," (2 Cor. 6:16). Now God himself undertook that all these tabernacles should be built: as for the first, God took care to have it made exactly to a pin; as for the second, God engaged that a virgin should conceive and bring forth Immanuel; as for the third, God binds himself, in a promise, to raise up the tabernacle of David, (Amos 9:11), that is, to convert the Gentiles, for so it is interpreted, (Acts 15:14, 15, 16.) New creatures are the tabernacle of David; there is David, the man after God's own heart; there Christ, the true David, dwells in the heart by faith and love. Again, God says, "I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them," (Ezek. 37:26), that is, I will by my sanctifying grace turn their hearts into a holy place for my own habitation. Moreover, all the tabernacles of God have been made in a sure way, because they have been made through the over-shadowing presence of the Holy Spirit. As for the first, the master-workman of it was Bezaleel, a man (as his name imports) in the shadow of God, filled full of the Spirit of God, in all wisdom for the doing of the work. As for the second, there is a Bezaleel, too; the Holy Ghost comes upon, and the power of the highest overshadows the blessed virgin, and so the holy thing, the pure flesh of Christ, was formed in her womb, (Luke 1:35). And as for the third, there Bezaleel again; they that dwell בּצלּוֹ in his shadow shall return, (Hos. 14:7); the Holy Ghost comes upon the soul, and the power of free grace overshadows it, and so Christ, or the holy thing, is formed therein. What is said of the apostles as to their sacred function? "The Holy Ghost came upon them," (Acts 1:8); the same is true of all true Christians as to their spiritual generation: thus, whilst Peter spake, "the Holy Ghost fell on them," (Acts 10:44), by his grace making them an habitation of God. "Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee," (Zach. 2:10); he comes by his Spirit, and makes their hearts a sanctuary for himself: thus this tabernacle is built in a sure way, because pitched by God himself; but now, if all the operations of grace be resistible, what becomes of this tabernacle? God may raise and raise by all the operations of his grace, and yet the tabernacle not go up; the Holy Ghost may overshadow men's souls, and yet no Christ be formed in them; a holy place in men's hearts may be sought for the Lord, and none at all found. All these precious promises of condescending grace may fall to the ground. You will say, What remedy for all this? God will not dwell in men whether they will or not: very true; but if almighty power cannot make men willing, what can do it? "Christ received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them," (Ps. 68:18). Observe, it is for the rebellious also; not that God doth dwell in them as such, but that by his gifts of grace he turns rebellious hearts into gracious, and so comes and dwells in them as his own tabernacle. Wherefore I conclude that God works the principles of grace in an insuperable way.

2. As to the second instant of conversion, God works actual conversion also in an insuperable way; so that, sooner or later, it always takes effect. And this will appear,

1. From the vitality of gracious principles as backed with auxiliary grace; there is a divine vigor in these principles, these are a well of living water ready to spring up, a seed of God ready to shoot forth, and a beam of the divine nature ready to sparkle out; wherefore, when auxiliary grace stirs up this well of living water, bedews this seed of God, and blows up this beam of the divine nature, it is no wonder at all, that actual conversion should infallibly follow. Auxiliary grace stirs up the principles of grace, these stir up the soul, and that by virtue of both the former stirs up itself unto actual conversion: and so actual conversion comes forth into being.

2. From the insuperability of grace in the illumination of the understanding. God doth enlighten the understanding in an irresistible way, "He shines into the heart, he puts wisdom into the hidden parts. Who teaches like him?" (Job 36:22.) "He teaches with a strong hand," (Isa. 8:11.) "He teaches in the demonstration of the Spirit and power," (1 Cor. 2:4.) A demonstration is such a thing as cannot be resisted by the mind of man; and of all demonstrations, the demonstration of the Spirit is most invincible. Now if the understanding be irresistibly enlightened, then the will (as I have before proved) doth infallibly follow it; they that know God's name will trust in it; the θεοδίδακτοι will come to Jesus Christ: truth, if but rightly known, will make us free; true wisdom dwells with prudence, and practically leads in the way of righteousness; it is a suada to the will, and draws it home to God in actual conversion.

3. From those scriptures which set forth God as the author of actual conversion. He gives τὸ πιστεύειν. the actual believing, (Phil. 1:29); he grants repentance unto life, (Acts 11:18); he works τὸ θέλειν, the very act of willing, (Phil. 2:13); he causes to walk in his statutes, (Ezek. 36:27. In every true convert there is more than a mere man, the grace of God is to be seen in him, (Acts 11:23); there is God in converting Paul, (Gal. 1:24.) In the temple of the new creature every thing speaks of his glory, every holy breath in the will must praise the Lord as its author: if God did not work the very act of willng, then (which I tremble to utter) all the prayers made to him for converting grace are but God-mockeries: all the praises offered up to him for the same, are but false hallelujahs; then they which glorified God in converting Paul, glorified but an idol of their own fancy; they which glorified God in the repenting Gentiles, (Acts 11:18), offered but a blind sacrifice. When we pray, that God's kingdom should come into our hearts, we do not mean that God should put our wills in equilibrio, but our wills should be subdued under God's. When David and his people offered willingly unto God, he falls into a kind of extacy: "Who am I, and what is my people," (1 Chron. 29:14)? And, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory," (Ver. 11); even the victory over hearts; and, "All things are of thee," (Ver. 14); not only our gold and silver, not only our hearts and will, but our very actual willingness also. You will say. All this is true; God works the very act of willing, but not insuperably, but so as men do not resist the work of grace. But what is the meaning of this? God works the will, so as men do not resist; not to resist is to obey: wherefore the plain meaning is, God works the act of willing, so as men do will, which is very absurd; because it makes the very same act of willing to be the condition of itself. Again; What is it for God to work the act of willing, so as men do not resist, but to work it in a way of dependance upon man's will? and what is that, but to contradict the apostle, who saith, that God works the act of willing, ὑπὲρ της ευδοκίας, of his own good pleasure; if he do it of his own good pleasure, surely not in a way of dependence upon man's will, but in a glorious insuperable manner.

4. From those scriptures, whose truth is so founded upon insuperable grace, that it cannot stand without it. "Turn thou me and I shall be turned," (Jer. 31:18); "Turn us unto thee O Lord, and we shall be turned," (Lam. 5:21). If man's actual turn do not infallibly follow upon God's turning grace, what truth is there in these [ands] which couple both together? "Other sheep I must bring," saith Christ, "and they shall hear my voice," (John 10:16); and, which agrees with it, "The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it," (Acts 28:28). What connection is there betwixt Christ's bringing, and man's hearing, or betwixt salvation sent, and man's hearing, without insuperable grace? Again, God says, "I will put my Spirit within you and you shall live," (Ezek. 37:14); and "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes," (Ezek. 36:27). What necessity of life or obedience in them, if the Holy Spirit be given in a resistable way? Again; God says to Christ, "Thou shalt call a nation, and nations shall run unto thee," (Isa. 55:5); and the church prays, "Draw me, we will run after thee," (Cant. 1:4). Where is the truth of these propositions, if God's calling and drawing do not infer man's running? Again, David prays, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end; give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law," (Psalm 119:33, 34.) Where is the consequence of David's obedience upon God's teaching, if grace be superable? Moreover, God says, "I will be as dew to Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon; his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree," (Hos. 14:5, 6). Here is Israel very florid, but that which secures all is insuperable grace; nothing could hinder their spiritual prosperity, who had God for their dew; I say, nothing, not lusts; for Ephraim shall say, "What have I to do with idols," (v. 8)? not backslidings, for God says, "I will heal their backslidings," (v. 4); not barrenness, for God tells them, "From me is thy fruit found," (v. 8); not deadness, for "They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine," (v. 7). But if the work of grace may be frustrated, then there is no certain root for all this holy fruit to stand upon.

5. From those scriptures which set forth actual conversion as a work of power, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," (Psalm 110:3): "God fulfils the work of faith with power," (2 Thess. 1:11); the principle of faith is incomplete without its act; but God, by his powerful grace, actuates it in us. When our Saviour, Christ, told his disciples that it was "easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into God's kingdom," they cried out with amazement, "Who, then, can be saved?" but our Saviour unties the knot thus: "The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God," (Luke 18:24, 25, 26, 27). God, by the power of his grace, can fetch off the world, the camel's bunch, from the heart, and so make it pass as it were, through the needle's eye into the kingdom of God. But now the assertors of resistable grace may turn the words thus: the things which, according to the ordinary working of grace, are impossible with God are possible with men; that crowning work of actual conversion, which is too hard and heavy for God's free grace, is absolved and dispatched out of hand by man's free will. In the parable of the lost sheep, we find God going after it until he find it, and then laying it upon his shoulders, (Luke 15:4, 5). He goes after it in the means of grace, he finds it by the intimate inshinings of his Spirit, and he lays it upon the shoulders of his power, that he may bring it home to himself in actual conversion. But now, if grace be resistible, the almighty shoulders are only put under man's will, to bear it up in equilibrio, to see whether it will go home to God or not; it may be it will, it may be it will not. God's power doth but attend on man's will as the umpire of all.

6. From those scriptures which show forth actual conversion as a conquest. Thanks be to God (saith the apostle) τῷ θριαμβεύοντι, that triumpheth us in Christ, (2 Cor. 2:14); that is, that subdues us to the gospel, and makes us instruments of his grace to subdue others thereunto. Christ rides upon his white horse, the word of truth, νικῶν καὶ ἴνα νικήσῃ, conquering and to conquer, (Rev. 6:2); he leads captivity captive, (Psalm 68:18); those men which were captives to sin and Satan before, now become captives to his Spirit and grace, and as captives, μετέστεσε, he translates them into his own kingdom, (Col. 1:13); he carries them away out of the native soil of their corruption, into the land of uprightness; and (which further shows the insuperability of his conquest) he binds the strong man and spoils his goods, (Matt. 12:29); he casts down πᾶν ὕψωμα, every height, and captivates πᾶν νόημα, every thought to the obedience of Christ, (2 Cor. 10:5); and that this may be surely effected, there are weapons δυνατὰ τῳ Θεῷ mighty to God, (ver. 4); to accomplish his will in that behalf, he circumcises, or (as the Septuagint hath it) περίκαθαριεῖ, he purges the heart round about, (Deut. 30:6); he baptizes it with the Holy Ghost and fire, (Matt. 3:11). Fire-like, he purges out the dross, and converts the heart into his own nature in a glorious way; he causes men to walk in his statutes, (Ezek. 36:27). Oh! what words of power! What triumphs of free grace are these! Here' is the day of God's power; here is the Jerusalem above, the mother of true freedom. Neither is there any shipwreck of human liberty in all this, for God can change the unwilling will into a willing will; or else, which is durus sermo, he, that made free will, cannot have mercy upon it; he, that made the horologe of the heart and all its pins, cannot move the wheels. But if God work conversion in a resistible way, then free grace must lose its triumph, and free will must take the crown; free grace works only a posse convertere, and free will completes it in an actual conversion; free grace may set the will in equilibrio, and that is all; but free will must do the business, and that in a self-glorifying way, not in the humble posture of the apostle, ἀφορῶντες, looking off from ourselves to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, (Heb. 12:2); but in the proud posture of the Pharisee, σταθεὶς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν, standing to himself. (Luke 18:11). Free grace must not act or move the will unto actual conversion; for all action or motion of the will, so far as it is action or motion, is a determination thereof; and a determination from grace cannot, according to the Remonstrant's doctrine, consist with the liberty of the will: wherefore, free grace having set the will in equilibrio, must act or move no further, but leave it to move and determine itself in actual conversion, that is, in plain terms, give up the crown and glory of all unto it. But how absurd is this? God says, No flesh shall glory in itself, and shall man's will vaunt it thus? God says, κατέλιπον, I have left or reserved so many to myself, (Rom. 11:4); and shall free will say so? Christ's manhood did not anoint itself, and shall free will turn itself? God by his grace begins to build a tabernacle for the Spirit, he begins in the understanding by illumination, in the affections by holy motions, and in the will by a posse convertere; and is he not able to finish the work by an actual conversion? All nations, saith the prophet, are but as a dust of the balance to him, (Isa. 40:15); and by the same reason, all their wills are but as the dust of the balance to his will; and shall this small dust turn the scales in the weighty business of conversion? Nay, shall it do so, after creating, regenerating, quickening, captivating, conquering, translating, renewing, drawing, powerfully working, grace hath done its utmost? Surely it cannot be: wherefore, I conclude, That God works actual conversion in an insuperable way.

Having; thus debated the manner of conversion, I proceed to the last thing proposed, viz.;

Query 3. Whether the will of God touching conversion be always accomplished therein?

For answer whereunto, I must first lay down a distinction as a foundation. God may be said to will the conversion of men two ways; either by such a will as is effective, and determinative of the event, or by such a will as is only virtual, and ordinative of the means tending thereunto: both parts of this distinction are bottomed upon scripture.

1. God wills the conversion of some by such a will as is effective and determinative of the event. There are some chosen to holiness, (Eph. 1:4), called κατα πρόθεσιν, according to purpose, (Rom. 8:28); predestinated to be conformed to Christ's image, (ver. 29); begotten of God's own will to be first-fruits to him, (Jam. 1:18); and within that election of grace which doth ever obtain, (Rom. 11:5, 7). Touching these, the will of God is effective and determinative of the event, in these, conversion is wrought after an irresistible and insuperable manner.

2. God wills the conversion of others by such a will as is only virtual and ordinative of the means tending thereunto. Thus God would have healed Israel, (Hos. 7:1). Thus God wills "the turning of the wicked, who yet dieth in his sin," (Ezek. 33:11), because the true tendency of the means is to heal and turn them. Thus the apostle asserts, that God "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth," (1 Tim. 2:4). In which place, as I take it, the word "all" extends further than to the elect; for those words of the apostle are laid down as a ground of that exhortation to "pray for all men," (ver. 1); and that exhortation to prayer extends further than to the elect: wherefore, the "all" whom God would have to be saved, being parallel and co-extensive to the "all" whom we are to pray for, must also extend beyond the elect. Wherefore, I conceive that the latter part of the words, viz., "and to come to the knowledge of the truth," is a key to the former, viz., "that God would have all to be saved." God would have all to be saved, so far, as he would have all to come to the knowledge of the truth, and he would have all to come to the knowledge of the truth, so far, as he wills means of knowledge unto them; for the true end and tendency of the means (and that from the will of God ordaining the same thereunto) is that men might be turned and saved: wherefore, in respect of that ordination, God may be truly said, by a kind of virtual and ordinative will, to will the turning and salvation of all men. This I shall explain,

1. With reference to those in the bosom of the church.

2. With reference to those out of it.

1. God by a virtual or ordinative will doth will the turning and salvation of all men within the bosom of the church; for they have Jesus Christ set before their eyes, and what was the true end of Christ's coming, but to turn every one from his iniquities, (Acts 3:26). They have the gospel preached unto them: there we have God spreading out his hands all the day, standing and knocking at the door of the heart, crying out with redoubled calls, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" Wooing and beseeching men, be ye reconciled unto me; making his salvation bringing grace appear unto all men, even to the non-elect themselves; and causing the kingdom of God to come nigh unto men, even to such as; for the rejection thereof have the dust of their city wiped off against them; and what is the meaning of all this, if God no way will their conversion? Take away God's ordinative will, and then God (as to the non-elect) spreads out his hands of mercy that he may shut them: knocks, that he may be barred out; cries and beseeches, that he may not be heard; makes his grace appear and kingdom come nigh, that it may be rejected, and not received: all which is to evacuate scripture and put a lie upon the offers of grace. Neither will it salve the business, to say, there is a voluntas signi in all this; for what is voluntas signi, if it be not signum voluntatis? If it be only an outward sign or appearance, and; there be no counterpane or prototype, thereof, within the divine will, how is it a true sign? which way could it be breathed out from God's heart? When God makes his great gospel-supper, and says, Come, for all things are ready; he is not, he cannot be like him with the evil eye, who saith, Eat and drink, but his heart is not with thee, (Prov. 23:6, 7.) No, God's heart goes along with every offer of grace; he never calls, but in a I serious manner. And therefore, unbelieving and impenitent persons are in scripture said not only; to reject the means, but "to receive the grace of God in vain," (2 Cor. 6:1); to "reject the counsel of God against themselves," (Luke 7:30), and to "make God a liar," (1 John 5:10), as if he meant not really in the offers of his Son, Jesus Christ. When God threatened the the Jews with his judgments, "they belied the Lord, and said, "It is not he," (Jer. 5:12); and when God offers men grace in the gospel, they by their unbelief belie the Lord and say, It is not he; it is but only the minister or outward sign; God's heart or mind is not in it. Under such weighty words as these doth the scripture set out the rejection of means, because of God's I ordinative will. That God who will one day mock at the rejectors of his call, (Prov. 1:26), doth not now mock them in the grace of his call; the true end of his call is their conversion, and that that end is not attained, the only reason lies within themselves, in their own corrupt, unbelieving hearts. Moreover, it is worthy of our consideration, that those scriptures (which the Remonstrants urge, to prove that all the operations of grace, even those in the very elect who actually turn unto God, are resistible) do signally set forth this ordinative will of God. As first, they urge that, (Matt. 23:37). "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Here, say they, is resistable grace. Very well; but what grace doth the text speak of? It speaks only of the grace afforded to those Jews which were never gathered or converted thereby, but not a tittle of the grace afforded to those Jews which were thereby actually gathered or converted; and how then can it prove that this latter grace (of which it speaks not at all) was resistible? If it prove this grace resistible, it can be upon no other ground but this only; That the grace afforded to the Jews which were not gathered, and the grace afforded to the Jews which were gathered, was one and the same; but how can that be made good? Can that text assert an equality of grace to both sorts of Jews, which speaks only of the grace afforded to one of them, viz. to the ungathered ones? It is impossible. But if it be not the truth of the text, is there yet any truth in the thing? Had all the Jews equal grace with the Jews given to Christ, with the Jews drawn by the Father, with the Jews chosen out of the world? It is incredible. The Remonstrants allow, that God doth irresistibly enlighten the understanding, excite the affections, and infuse a posse convertere into the will; but was it thus with all the Jews? Were the blind leaders of the blind thus enlightened? Were the malicious scorners thus affected? Were those which could not believe, (John 12:39), endued with a posse convertere? It cannot be. Wherefore, this text speaking only of the grace given to the ungathered Jews, proves not the grace given to the other Jews to be resistible, but it genuinely proves a will in God to gather them all under his wings of grace; I say, a will in God, for it cannot be interpreted of Christ's human will; for the gathering willed was not only a gathering by Christ's ministry, but by the mission of prophets before his incarnation, to which Christ's human will could not extend, because not then in being: wherefore, this will is God's ordinative will, imported in the ministry of Christ and the prophets, the proper end and tendency whereof was to gather them into the bosom of his grace. This Calvin, in his commentaries upon this place calls, "mirum et incomparabile amoris documentum:" and withal adds, "significat nunquam proponi nobis Dei verbum, quin ipse màternâ dulcedine gremium suum nobis aperiat." Again, they urge that, (Isa. 65:2). "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people;" but this place speaks only of the grace afforded to the rebellious, and, therefore, it proves not that the grace afforded to the elect was resistible. Neither is it imaginable, that the same measure of grace is signified in this expansion of God's hand, as in the revelation of his arm," (Isa. 53:1). The apostle quoteth this place, (Rom. 10:21), yet withal asserts, "that there was a remnant according to the election of grace," Rom. 11:5); not a remnant according to the better improvement of the same grace, but a remnant according to the election of grace; such as pure grace had reserved to itself, by those special operations which were not vouchsafed to the blinded ones," (v. 7). "God's stretching out his hands is all one with his call," (Prov. 1:24); but all men are not called after the same rate as the called according to purpose: wherefore, this place proves not, that the workings of grace as to the elect are resistible; but that the offers of grace as to the non-elect are serious, God in the means really spreading out his arms of grace unto them. Again: they urge that of our Saviour, "These things I say, that you might be saved," (John 5:34); which words were spoken to them, which "would not come to Christ," (ver. 40); but that the Holy Spirit spake as inwardly and powerfully to them, as to the elect who "hear and learn of the Father;" what chemistry can extract it out of this text? or from what other scripture can it be demonstrated? God "commands the light to shine out of darkness in some hearts," (2 Cor. 4:6); but doth he so in all? Whence then are those blinded ones? (ver. 4). If there be any such, where is the Remonstrants' equality of grace? Where, when they say, that illumination is wrought irresistibly? These things cannot consist together. Wherefore our Saviour's words shew not forth the weakness or superableness of grace as to the elect, but the true end and scope of Christ's preaching as to the non-elect; what he spake to them was in order to their salvation. Again: they urge that, "The pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him," that is, of John, (Luke 7:30). Here, say they, is their thesis in terminis: but this place is so far from proving that the internal grace vouchsafed to the elect is resistible, that from hence it cannot be proved that these rejecters had any workings of internal grace at all in them; for internal grace runs in the veins of ordinances, and the ordinance here spoken of was John's baptism, and that these rejecters would not partake of at all; for so saith the text, "They were not baptized of him," and then which way should they come by internal grace? could they have it quite out of God's way? 'No; surely there is little, or rather no reason, to imagine that these rejecters so far scorning I God's ordinance, as not so much as outwardly to be made partakers thereof, should yet have the workings of internal grace in them. But suppose they had some internal working, must it needs be the "baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire," such intimate and powerful working as is in the elect? Not a tittle of this appears in the text: wherefore this place proves not that the working of grace in the elect is resistible, but it signally shews forth the nature of divine ordinances. Every ordinance is an ordinance from the will of God; it is an appointment dropt down from heaven; it is divinely εἰς οἰκοδομὴν, for edification and not for destruction; it is the place where God records his name; it is the way where God would be met withal; it is the oracle where God would be heard; it is a kind of tabernacle of witness, where God attesteth the riches of his grace. John's baptism was not a mere external sign or shadow, but imported God's ordinative counsel to bring men to repentance; it was εἰς μετάνοιαν, to repentance, as its proper end, (Matt. 3:11). Gospel-preaching is not a mere sound or voice of words, out it importeth God's ordinative counsel to turn men unto himself. Hence every true minister is said to stand in God's counsel, and for this very end, to turn them from the evil of their doings, (Jer. 23:22). Every ordinance speaks an ordinative counsel for some spiritual end, a serious ordination for the good of souls. Oh! that every one would think so indeed, how surely would they find that God is in it of a truth; whosoever comes to an ordinance so thinking, justifies God's institution and meets his benediction; but he who comes and thinks otherwise, doth, by that very thought, forsake the ordinance of his God, and reject his counsel, though not in so high and gross a manner as the Pharisees and lawyers did, who would not so much as outwardly partake of John's baptism. Again: they urge that, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes," (Isai. 5:4)? Here, say they, were omnia adhibita, not a tantillum gratiæ wanting; here seems to be the ultimus conatus, the utmost acting of grace, even equal to those operations of grace which were in the converts of the Jewish church, and that upon a double account; first, because God says, "What could be done more?" Secondly, because God had done so much, that he expected the grapes of holiness and obedience from them; and yet after all this, they brought forth wild grapes: hence the Remonstrants conclude, that conversion is wrought in a resistible way. I answer; those which will take the true measure of the grace set forth in this text, must first consider to whom this grace was afforded; it was to the Jewish church in common, even to every member thereof: this granted, as it cannot be denied, I proceed to answer, first as to that expression, "What could have been done more?" Either the meaning of it is, what could have been done more in a way of internal grace, or else it is what could have been done more in a way of external means; the first cannot be the meaning, that God could do no more in a way of internal grace; if God had said so in that sense, the Jewish church might have aptly answered, Lord! couldest thou not write the law in every heart? Couldest thou not make a new heart in every one of us? O how many unregenerate souls are there found in me! But if not that, Lord! couldest thou not, at least, have inwardly enlightened every one? Couldest thou not have given him some inward dispositions to conversion? O how many ignorant souls are there, which call "evil good, and good evil, and put darkness for light, and light for darkness!" (Isa. 5:20.) These are not so much as inwardly enlightened. O! how many atheists are there which jeer and scoff at the threatenings of God, saying, "Let him hasten his work, that we may see it, let the counsel of the Holy One draw nigh, that we may know it." (Ver. 9.) These are so far from any dispositions to conversion, that they scarcely have the sense of a Deity in them. Lord! thou, who didst plant me a vineyard or visible church, could'st have planted saving graces in every heart; thou, who didst gather out the stones of public annoyance out of me, could'st have took away the privy stone of hardness out of every heart; doubtless thou art Almighty, and therefore thou canst do it; thou art true, and therefore thou wilt do it, if thou hast said it. Hence it appears that that expression, "What could have been done more?" relates not to internal grace, but external means: it is as if God had said, "O Israel! I have planted thee in a Canaan; I have set thee my only visible church in the world; I have manured thee by my prophets; I have betrusted thee with the lively Oracles of my law; I have fenced thee in with my waky providence and protection. What nation is there so great, who hath me so nigh unto them, who hath judgments and statutes so righteous? What national or church-privileges is there yet behind? What could have been done more for a church under the legal pedagogy, and before the Messiah's coming in the flesh?" This I take to be the proper meaning of the words. Secondly, as to God's expectation, neither doth that imply that there were omnia adhibita; for when God came and sought fruit on the fig-tree, the seeking there was as much as the expecting here, and yet there were not omnia adhibita, no, not as to external means; for after his seeking, he digged about it and dunged it, that it might be fruitful, (Luke 13:6, 7, 8, 9). Now, by all this it appears, that that parable of the vineyard proves, not that the internal grace afforded to those Jews which were thereby converted was resistible; but it proves that the proper end and tendency of the means afforded to the Jewish church, was that they might bring forth good fruits to God; and in respect of that ordination, God is said to expect those good fruits from them.

2. God, by a virtual or ordinative will, doth will the turning and salvation even of the very pagans. According to that will, God would (as I have before laid down) be seen in every creature, sought and felt in every place, witnessed in every shower and fruitful season, feared in the sea-bounding sand, humbled under in every abasing providence, and turned to in every judgment. This the very Philistines saw by the light of nature; "Give glory to God," say they, "peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you," (1 Sam. 6:5). Also, the Ninevites' counsel was, "to cry mightily to God, and turn from their evil ways; who can tell," say they, "if God will turn and repent," (Jonah 3:8, 9). In a word; the meaning of all God's works is "that men should fear before him," (Eccl. 3:14). The goodness and patience of God leads them to repentance, (Rom. 2:4). Hence the apostle tells us, "The Lord is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," (2 Peter 3:9). "Mirus hîc erga humanam genus amor," saith Calvin on the place, "quòd omnes vult esse salvos, et ultrò pereuntes in salutem colligere paratus est." God, in indulging his patience and long-suffering to men, doth virtually will their repentance and salvation. I know some interpret this place otherwise: God is long-suffering to us, that is, the ἀγαπητοὶ, in the former verse, not willing that any, (viz. of us,) should perish, but that all, (viz., of us,) should come to repentance. But I conceive that there is no necessity at all that the text should be so straitened, nor yet congruity for long-suffering towards the beloved, that they, who have already repented, should come to repentance. Neither doth this answer the scope of the place, which asserts, that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, upon this ground, because of his long-suffering: and his long-suffering extends to all, and in that extent its true end and scope is to lead them to repentance and salvation. Wherefore, the meaning is, God is long-suffering to us, not to us beloved only, but to us men, not willing our perdition but repentance. The true duct and tendency of his long-suffering is to lead men to repentance and salvation; and, therefore, in willing that long-suffering, he doth virtually and ordinatively will their repentance and salvation.

Having thus at large laid down this distinction with its parts, my answer to the query proposed is this: God's will of conversion, as effective and determinative of the event, is accomplished in the actual conversion of all the elect by insuperable grace; and God's will of conversion, as virtual and ordinative of means, is accomplished in this, That there is a serious exhibition of the means in order to conversion, as their proper end, and, that that end, but for man's voluntary corruption, would be thereby attained, even in all.

MONERGISM BOOKS

The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees by Edward Poolhill, Copyright © 2019

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER I: That god is

CHAPTER II: That god hath a will

CHAPTER III: Of the decrees of god in general

CHAPTER IV: Of god's decree of election as touching men

CHAPTER V: Of god's decree of reprobation, as touching men

CHAPTER VI: Of the work of creation

CHAPTER VII: Of the works of conservation and gubernation

CHAPTER VIII: Of the work of redemption

CHAPTER IX: Of the work of conversion