it is done, I fhall anfwer that among the objections in the Second Tome; and I before fhewed, how little reason men have to expect that God fhould make every man as good as he could make him, or make man indefectible; or to argue from mans fin againft Gods goodnefs: The free Creator, Lord and Benefactor, may vary his creatures and bene- In vitia alter alterum fits as he feeth meet, and may be proved good, though he trudimus: quomodo make not man Angelical, and though he permit his fin, and ad falutem revocari puifh him for finning. poteft, quem nullus retrahit, & populus impellit? Senec.Ep.29. Serpunt vitia & conta&u nocent, & in proximum quemq; tranfil unt. Id. de Trang, vit. Nam vitiis nemo fine nafcitur; optimus ille Qui minimis urgetur. Horat. 1. Ser. 3. Unicuiq; dedit vitium natura creato. Propert. Quid ulcus leviter tangam? Omnes mali fumus. Sencc. Si cupis bonus fieri, primum crede quod malus fis. Epictet. Enchi." Novi ego hoc feculum moribus quibus fit: Malus bonum malum effe vult ut fit fui fimilis turbant, mifcent, mores mali, rapax, avarus, invidus, facrum profanum, publicum privatum habent: Hiulca gens: hæc ego doleo; hæc funt quæ excruciant; hæc dies noctefq; tibi canto ut caveas. Plaut. Nifi enim talis (mala) effet natura hominum, non anteponerent vindi&tam fan&itati & lucrum juftitiæ, invidentes alienæ potentiæ non lædenti: fed volunt homines vindi&tæ cupiditate communes leges diffolvere, &c. Thucid. l. 3. Sed & boni, dicetis, funt in rebus humanis; Viri fapientes, jufti, inculpati Ref. Sint licet perhonefti, fuerintq; laudabiles, fed audire depofcimus, quot fint aut fuerint numero,—— inus, duo, tres,-centum certe numero diffiniti--At genus humanum non ex pauculis bonis, fed ex cæteris omnibus æftimari convenit, ponderari: In toto enim pars eft, non totum in parteEt quinam ifti funt, dicite Philofophi credo, qui fe effe folos fapientiflimos autumant-Nempe illi qui cum fuis quotidie cupiditatibus pugnant-Qui ne in vitia proritari facultatis poffint alicujus inftin&u, patrimonia & divitias fugiunt, ne caufas fibi afferant lapfus. Quod cum faciunt & curant, apertiffime animas effe indicant labiles, & infirmitate ad vitia proclives: Noftra autem fententia, quod bonum natura eft, neq; emendari neq; corrigi fe pofcit: Immo ipfum debet quid fit malum nefcire, fi generis forma cujufq; in fua cogitat integritate perftare--Qui luftatur animorum ingenitas corrigere pravitates, is apertiffime monftrat imperfe&um fe effe, quamvis omni & pervicacia contendat. Arnob, adv. Gentes, lib. 1. in Auftuar. Bib. Pat. To. 1. p. 20. CHAP. XVII. What Natural Light declareth of the Mercy of God to Sinners, and of the Means and Hopes of Mans Recovery. Crede mihi miferis 9. 1.Nond mifery of man, and Justice of God, Experience Otwithstanding all this forementioned fin and guilt cæleftia numina par Gunt. Nec femper lafos & affureth all the Earth, that Great Mercy is still continued to fine fine premunt. them, and that they have to do with a Most Merciful God. Ovid. 3. de Pont. mum bonum, he pro Mens Lives are continued even while they fin: Patience endureth them: Time is vouchfafed them: Food and rayment, and Friends and Habitations, and health and cafe When Pifo in Cicero and liberty is given them: The Sun fendeth them its moSecketh after the fum- ving influence, its Light, and Heat; The Earth supporteth ceedeth by these steps, them, and affordeth them fruit and maintenance and plea1. Omnem naturam fure: The Clouds yield them rain; the Air breath; and the elle fui confervatri- Sea it felf is not unkind, and incommodious to them. Beafts, cem. Neminem effe Birds and Fishes, and all inferiour Creatures ferve them! qui ipfe fe oderit. And yet much more mercy they receive from God. 3. Neminem effe qui quomodo fe habeat, 0.2. It is therefore manifest that God deal th not with the nihil fua cenfeat in finfull World according to the utmost rigor of Justice, nor putereffe: 3. Hominum nifheth them as much as they deferve. è corpore & animo For all thefe Mercies they have forfeited, and deferved to deprived of them. "Obj. But it is no mercy, which hardeneth them in fin, and endeth in mifery: It is rather a punishment; as to agere femper, neq; "give cold water to a man in a Feaver. ulla conditione qui erem fempiternam Anfw. 1. If it hardened them of its own nature, and not poffe pati. 5. Bona meerly by their abuse, and if it ended in mifery by the decfle quæ naturæ con- fignment of the Giver and the tendency of the gift, then veniunt, eamq; per were it as you fay, no mercy but a Plaguc. But it is Mercy ficiunt. 6. Animi which in its nature and by the Donors will, hath a fitnefs duo genera effe virtutum; 1 Naturales, and tendency to mens recovery, and to prevent their mifeviz. docilitas, memo ria, ingenium: 2 Voluntarias quæ in Voluntate pofita magis proprio nomine virtutes appellantur. 7. In prima Claffe maxime excellens, confiderationem & cognitionem cœleftium. 8. Virtutes autem voluntatis effe præftantiffimas. 9. Et ita concludit, Virtutem effe maxime expetendam, This is the fumm of the lib. 5. de Finib. ry, ry, and they are commanded and intreated accordingly to ufe it; and are warned of the danger of abuse. "Obj. But God knoweth when he giveth it them, that "they will fo abuse it. Anfw. Gods fore-knowledge or Omnifcience is his perfection, and will you argue from thence against his Mercy? His foreknowledge of mens fin and mifery caufeth them not: What if he foreknew them not? Were it any praise to him to be ignorant? And yet the Mercy would be but the fame? If you will not be reconciled to Gods wayes, till he ceafe to be Omnifcient, or till he prevent all the fin and mifery which ke foreknoweth, you will perish in your enmity, and he will eafily juftific his mercy against fuch accufations. "Obj. But God could give men fo much more grace as "to prevent mens fin and mifery if he would. Anfw. True: he is not unable: And fo he could make every clod a tree, and every tree a beaft, and every beast a man, and every man an Angel,as I faid before:but must he therefore do it? Here note, that it is one thing to fay of any Punishment, [This is fo deferved, that God may inflict it if he please, without Injuftice, yea and thereby demonftrate his Juftice;] and another thing to fay [This is fo due that God muft or will inflict it, if he will be juft; unless a compenfation be made to Juftice.] It is of the firft fort that I am now speaking: For God may have variety of times, and mcafures, and kinds of Punishments, which he may ufe at his own choice, and yet not leave the fin unpunished finally: But whether he properly difpenfe with any Law, which is determinate as to the penalty, I am not now to fpeak, it being not pertinent to this place and fubject. 1.3. Therefore God doth in fome fort and measure, pardon fin to the generality of mankinde, while he remitteth fome measure of the deferved punishment. To remit or forgive the Punishment is fo far to forgive the fin; for forgivenefs as to execution, is but non punire proceeding from commiferation or mercy. And it is certain. by all the Mercy beftowed on them, that God remitteth fomething of the punishment, which in Law and Juftice he. might inflict. Though this be not a total pardon, it is not therefore none at all.. 5.4. The Sæpe levant pœnas, ereptaq; lumina reddunc 1.4. The Goodness of Gods Nature, with this univerfal E....perience of the World, poffeffeth all mens minds with this apprehenfion of God, that he is gracious, mercifull, long-f:ffering, and ready to forgive a capable fubject, upon terms confitent with his truth and honour, and the common good. Its true, that felf-love and felf-flattery doth caufe men to think of the Mercy of God, as indulgent to their lufts, and Cum bene peccati fuitable to their flefhly defires; and therefore their conceits poenituiffe vident, 0are none of the measure of his mercy: But yet it may be vid, I. de Pont. perceived, that this forefaid conception of God as Mercifull and ready to forgive a capable fubject, is warranted by the Diffenfio ab aliis; à fobereft Reason, and is not bred by fin and error: For the te reconciliatio inci- wife and better, and lefs finfull any is, the more he is inpiat: Cum ignofcis clined to fuch thoughts of God as of a part of his Per ita beneficium tuum fection. tempera, ut non ignofcere videaris, fed 0.5. This apprehenfion is increafed in Minkinde by Gods abfolvere; Quiagra obliging us, to forgive one another. pro viffimum pœnæ genus eft, contumeliofa veFor though it doth not follow, that God muft forgive all nia, Senec. that which he bindeth us to forgive, for the Reasons before Palchrum eft vitam expreffed; Yet we muft believe, that the Laws of God donare petenti ftatim. ceed from that Wifdom and Goodnefs which is his PerfectiTheb. on, and that they bear the Image of them; and that the obeying of them tendeth to form us more to his Image our felves, and to make us Holy as he is Holy: And therefore that this Command of God to Man, to be mercifull and forgive, doth intimate to us, that mercy and forgivencís are agreeable and pleafing unto God. Nec ex templo ara, nec ex humana na tollenda eft; inquit cura miferecordia Phocion, in Stobao. 9.6. God cannot caft away from his Love and from Felicity, any foul which truly loveth Him above all, and which fo repenteth of his fin, as to turn to God in Holiness of Heart and Life. Here feemeth to arife before us a confiderable difficulty. That God can finde in his heart to damu one that truly Facilius iis ignofcitur, loveth him, and is fanctified, is incredible: Because 1. then qui non perfeverare, fed ab errato fe revo. Gods own Image fhould be in Hell, and a Saint be damned. care moliuntur: eft 2. Because then the Creature fhould be readyer to love God, enim humanum pec- than God to love him. 3. Then a Soul in Hell should have care, fe beliuinum holy defires, Prayers, Praises, and other acts of Love. 4. And in errore perfeverare. Cicer, in Vatin, a Soul capable of the glorifying mercy of God, fhould miss of it: This therefore is not to be believed: For God cannot but but take complacency in them that love him, and bear his Image: And those will be happy that God taketh compla cency in. And yet on the other fide, Do not the fins of them that love God, deferve death and mifery, according to his Law? And might he not inflict that on men which they deferve Doth not Juftice require punishment on them, that yet fin Pænitenti optimus eft not away the Love of God, nor a ftate of Holiness? To this potus, mutatio confilii. Cicer.Phil. 1, 2. fome aufwer, that all those that confift with Love and Ho opiniones confequi liness, are Venial fins, which deferve only temporal chastisement, and not perpetual mifery: I rather anfwer, 1. That. Beatus eft cui vel in all tin confidered in it felf, abftracted from the Caufe which fenectute contigerit, counterballanceth it, and procureth pardoning mercy, doth ut fapentiam, verafq; deferve perpetual mifery; and therefore fo do the fins of the Beft in themfelves confidered: But that Grace which caufeth polit. Cicer. de fin.b. their Sanctification, and their Love to God, doth conjunctly Read Cato's speech in caufe the pardon of their fins; fo that God will not deal Cicer. de fin.l.3. that the Principle of selfwith fuch as in rigour they deferve. 2. And if the fin of love and prefervation any that Love God, fhould provoke him to caft them into is the feed of virtue ; Hell, it followeth not, that one that loveth God in fenfu and how every thing. compofito, fhould be damned: For God hath an Order in his abho reth its own hurt and deftrustion. Punishments: And firft he would withdraw his Grace from fuch a one, and leave him to himfelf; and then he will no longer Love God; and fo it is not a Lover of God that would be damned. 0.7. The finfull World is not fo farr forfaken of God, as to, be shut up under defperation, and utter impoffibility of recovery: and falvation: For if that were fo, they were not in Via, or under an obligation to use any means, or accept.of any mercy, in order to their recovery, nor could they rationally do it, or be perfwaded to it. There is no means to be used where there is no end to be attained, and no hope of fuccefs. 6.8. The light of Nature, and the forefaid dealings of God Scelerum fi bene pœ with men, continuing them under his Government in Via, and nitet, eradenda cupimanifold mercies, helps and means, do generally perfwade the dinis, prava funt ele Confciences of men that there are certain Duties required of menta. Hor.. them, and certain Means to be ufed by them, in order to pro cure their recovery and falvation, and to fcape the mifery deServed. Bb He |