A discourse of the freedom of the will by Peter Sterry ...

A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedome of the Will. The SECOND PART.

Wherein the Arguments for it are considered and answered.

HAving finished those Arguments ranked under their several Heads, in opposition to that Liberty of the Will, which is placed in the determining of its power, received from the first cause, unto a Contrariety or Contradiction in its actings, with an independency upon the first cause, the order and connexion of Causes, and the Understanding,

We pass now to a consideration of the Reasons, upon which that Opinion of this Freedome is established. These Reasons are taken,

• 1. From the Will it self.
• 2. From the nature of Sin, and the Divine Justice.
• 3. The Language of the Scripture.
• 4. From the end of Laws.
• 5. From the order and nature of things.

1. Reason. The Prerogative and Excellency of the Will consisteth in this Liberty.

1. How otherwise doth man excel bruit Creatures and natural Agents?

2. How otherwise is man free, and not necessitated in all his Actions? To that I shall give two several Answers.

1. Answ. This Freedome of the Will, of which we speak, and which is opposed to necessity, is no perfection.

I shall make way for the explanation and confirmation of this by distinguishing necessity into a

• 1. Necessity of Coaction.
• 2. Necessity of Nature.

1. A necessity of Coaction is from an outward power, restraining the subject from acting according to the principles of its nature, or con∣straining it to Actions besides, or against its nature. This necessity is indeed contrary to true freedom. A freedom from this necessity, or from a capacity of being thus necessitated is the perfection or excel∣lency of man.

2. The necessity of nature is that, which is founded in, and flows from the Essence it self, the essential and internal principles of each na∣ture. This necessity is so far from being inconsistent with Liberty, that it is the establishment and firmness of the subject in its proper freedom. The demonstration of this is clear in the Divine Nature; for as God alone is Ens perfectè liberum, A Being most perfectly free; so is he according to the Doctrine of all the Schools, alone, Ens absolutè neces∣sarium, A Being absolutely necessary. And as is his Being, such is his Un∣derstanding, such is his Will, such are all his Acts, necessary and neces∣sarily good, as they are most perfectly free. For his Being in the absoluteness, and simplicity of it, is his Understanding, his Will, one pure, simple, and eternal Act, goodness it self.

The learned Prideaux, in the Chair at Oxford, rightly teacheth us this, That God in those his first Acts of Election, although he be not moved by any Causa 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; that is, any cause from without, giving occasion for these distinguishing Acts; is yet determined to them by a Causa 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. A reason from within, from the glorious secret of his own Essence which hath so much the more of a Di∣vine force in it, by how much the more it is incomprehensible to us.

2. Answ. The freedom of the Will, if it be rightly understood and stated, will, as I humbly conceive, appear far more beautiful, glorious and divine in these three Circumstances.

1. The Liberty of the Will is truly Divine in the amplitude of its Object, which is goodness in its utmost latitude, and fulness, in its ut∣most heighth and glory. The Will of Man is not determined or confined to a particular good, or an inferior good, to that of meer nature or of sense. It hath its freedom to range through the flowry and spacious Field of all good, in its richest Variety; yea to soar up to that blissful Paradise of the supream good it self in the third and highest Heavens, there to spread it self, and roul it self in the midst of all the Treasures, of all the distinct Beauties and Joys of every good, as all meet here with the highest lustre, with the purest and most perfect sweetness in the bosome of this first and chief good.

2. The Will of man is in this, divinely free, that it always acts after an irresistable manner, according to its own proper Nature, so that nothing can move it, but per modum interni principii, and secundum morem objecti propositi, after the manner of the inward Principles, of its own Essence, and the proposal of its Object. As the Divine

Will is goodness it self, in its greatest amplitude and perfection: so is the Will of Man, which is the Birth and Image of the Divine Will, goodness in the seed, which as the Divine Goodness is presented in various appearances, so it can by no means, by no power, beneath a power of creating, and annihilating be restrained from springing up and flourishing, and flying into the bosom of that appearance, to become perfectly one with it, as a most chast and affectionate Bride, with her most beautiful and beloved Bridegroom. If this Bride, the Will of Man, embrace a Stranger, or an Enemy in the place of her own Beloved, it is by being first deceived, by his coming and presenting himself to her in the appearance of her Bridegroom. The woman being deceived, was first in the Transgression. Sin deceived me, and so slew me, saith St. Paul. Thus is the Will of Man not like to that figure in the Poet, Monstrum informe, cui lumen ademptum. A rude, un∣formed power, acted without Light, without Order, without Prin∣ciple or End, by a rash uncertainty, in an unformed darkness. This were no liberty, but the greatest servitude of a Spirit, bound in Chains of Darkness, and hurried by the Power of Darkness it knows not how, nor why, nor whither. No, the Will of Man is in its own un∣corrupt state a beautiful Virgin, with fair eyes like Doves, washt in Milk by a Divine Love, carried in a Divine Light to the Arms of her Beloved, the Divine Beauty and Goodness.

In its faln Estate, while in the midst of false Lights, and false ap∣pearances, raised by that great Inchanter, the Prince of Darkness, it is held in the Serpentine embrances of false Lovers, as in nets and bands; yet is it its own Beloved and Bridegroom, which she loves and seeks in all these.

It is also its essential inclination and love to the Divinity of the true loveliness, the true good, which is abused, and by which advantage is taken for it self, to be abused by all these Impostures and false loves. Good is that which all things desire, saith the Philosopher. That God whom ye ignorantly worship, that God preach I (saith St. Paul) to the Athenians. The highest piece of Worship is the inclination and motion of the Will, our Love.

Object. But you will say, What preheminence hath man by his free∣dome? the inclination and sensitive Appetite of bruit Creatures may be allured, but cannot be forced no more than the Will of Man?

Answ. I give two Answers to this,

1. The Civil Law saith, That he is free, who is sui juris, in his own power; the freedom of each thing is a power of acting, according to the Principles of Nature, and the Law of its own Essence. As then the excellency and preheminence of each Essence, or Nature is, such is the dignity of the freedome or liberty of working, according to that nature. As Reason, the essential form of man, which is the Universal Harmony of all good, transcends the life of sense confined to the inferior and shadowy Image of good in its immortal substance: So doth the rational Appetite in its freedom, which is as ample, as reason it self, and diffuseth it self at liberty upon the blissful Bosom

of the Universal Good, excel the sensitive Appetite, tyed up to the narrow and fading Objects of sense.

2. The Will of Man is a rational inclination to the rational, intel∣lectual, eternal, and supream good. This is the Coelestial Love, which is born up upon its two wings of Rational; that is, Coelestial delight and desire. While it continues in its naked state of Innocency and true Freedom, it hath a liberty and power in it self, in despight of all im∣pressions of outward force, to fly above them all, upon these golden wings, into the Bosom of the Divine Will, which is the universal and supream good; there cleaving to, and becoming one with that blessed and triumphant Will, it hath no more any sense of opposition or force; all things now round about it make a pleasant Musick to it in the Harmony of the Divine Will, and shine upon it with a most ravish∣ing and heavenly lustre, as they lie together in the Divinely-beautiful Form of the first and universal good.

This is that true Liberty of the Will of Man, in which he transcends all other Creatures here below, by which he triumphs over all Chan∣ces and Changes, over all Confinements and Com•…•…lsions, over all the extremities of Force and Fury, while it keeps these wings unlimed, uncloged, unclipt by the filth or guilt of fleshly lusts, while it pre∣serves it self from the Chains of Vice.

3. I come now to the third Circumstance of the Liberty of the Will.

Man is to be considered in three states,

• 1. Of pure Nature.
• 2. Of the Fall.
• 3. Of the restitution by Christ.

1. Man in the state of pure Nature, is an Image of God, an earth∣ly Image, Gen. 1. God said, let us make man in our own likeness, after our own Image let us make him. Some interpret this of God, in the three Persons; others of God, Cum indumentis suis, as the Jews speak, of God in his holy Angels: Both together make a proper and full sense. God in the holy Trinity, God in all the various Virtues of the Di∣vine Nature, spread first through the innumerable company of Angels, and by them through the whole Creation, sets himself as a seal upon man, in whom, as the Consummation and Crown of his whole Work, by this impression, he unites all into one Nature and Essence, which is a compleat Image of himself, and a comprehension of the whole Creation.

Thus now the Essence, the Faculties, the Operations of Man, are a shadowy similitude and figure of the Divine Essence, the Divine Virtues, and the Operations of the Divine Nature. Thus the Will of Man is a shadowy figure of the Divine Will; and its freedom, a shadowy resemblance of the Divine Liberty, like the colours of a Rainbow in the Cloud, which are so many reflections of the light of the Sun.

That which we say in natural Philosophy, Exiisdem nutrimur, ex quibus gignimur; We are bred and nourished, composed and continued by the same things, is most true in its application to the first or uni∣versal cause, with its effects. As the Sun is the formal, efficient

cause of its beams, which are its shadowy Image in the air, and as the living face is the formal efficient cause of the face in the Glass, so is God to man, his Image and shadow. The continued out-shinings and Operations of the Sun, make, maintain, and act anew its beams every moment. The continued stream of Species, or beams from the living Face, every moment, form anew the Face in the Glass, with all its meen and motions. So doth the Divine Essence, the Diviue Under∣standing and Will every moment, by the continual influences of each moment, compose and conduct their Image, the Essence, the Under∣standing, the Will of Man, as the Face in the Glass, in their whole make, manner, and motions.

This is not a diminution, but the perfection of Liberty in the Will of Man; For God in his holy Angels, as superior and universal Causes, works upon the Will of Man, or rather in it, after the manner of an internal Principle. So that well known Maxim of the first Philosophy assures us, That the first and universal Cause, is of all Causes most intimate, with every effect. As in logical Definitions, the summum genus, or the highest nature, enters into the Definition, and so into the Essence of the lowest Species, or kind of things, inasmuch as it enters into, and constitutes the next genus, or nature, together with all the intermediate natures. For examples sake, Substance, and so Being it self, in its highest and most absolute form, is comprehended in, and constitutes the nature of man, descending into it, by the inter∣mediate steps of Corporiety and Animality; that is, becoming first a Corporeal Substance, then a living Corporeal Substance, lastly, a ra∣tional, and so a man.

In like manner, so is the first and universal Cause the most internal and essential Principle of every effect, of all humane Operations, of all the acts of the Will. For it is the Essence of every Essence, the Being of every Being, the Act of every Act, the first, the formal Cause, the most immediate, the most intimate Cause of every Effect.

Let me add to this, for a Conclusion, as the Crown upon the liber∣ty of man in pure nature, that his conformity to God, as an Image to his Original, is his Perfection; in this doth his Will become a most beautiful figure of the ever-glorious life, the Divine Will, that its Liberty is the free-springing, flourishing, and fruitfulness of it in all good, through the whole Latitude and Amplitude of the most spa∣cious and blissful sphere of good; and so that a most pleasing and agreeable necessity of being good is inseparable from this sweet and ample freedom, while it continues in the state of a Divine Image and Figure.

2. In the Fall of Man we read, according to the Language of the Scripture, of his being deceived, being brought into servitude, be∣ing a Captive, in bondage to Vanity and Corruption, and of being dead. While they boast of Liberty, saith St. Peter, they themselves are servants to sin. For to that, of which a man is overcome, he is a servant. It is the Observation of Plato, That the names importing any thing of good, natively, signifie a freedom of motion, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, good, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to run swiftly. On the otherside, the names of

evil, express a restraint from motion, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, malice, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to lie down upon the ground. In like manner, the Hebrew word for Dark∣ness signifieth restraint, and confinement by force. All Liberty being an enlargement of Being, is comprehended in the nature of good alone. Neither is there any thing so inconsistent with Liberty, as evil, which is a privation of Being. Plato therefore rightly expresseth the Soul in her faln state, by the loss of both her wings, which are an Intellectual Light, and an Intellectual Love; or the Light of Reason in the Mind, spreading it self with a clear brightness, as one of the golden wings; and the force or freedom of the rational Ap∣petite to good in the Will, extending it self in a pure flame, as the other of the golden wings.

To this I might add the testimony, which the Scripture gives of another seed, that of the Serpents springing up in the Soul unto its fall, in its fall, and through its fall; of the Soul being now the Child of the Devil, being implanted into the Powers of Darkness, of being acted by the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit, which is now become its Root, its Head, its inward Principle.

3. The Soul of man in its Restitution by Christ, hath Jesus Christ as a quickning Spirit in him, as the principle of its Life, as its life it self. I (saith Christ) am the Resurrection and the Life. I (saith St. Paul) by the Law am dead to the Law. I am crucified with Christ, and now I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He (saith St. Paul) that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit. Man is now become the hea∣venly Image of God, and one Spirit with Jesus Christ in Glory. As he hath now the Understanding of Christ, according to St. Paul; so hath he also the Will of Christ. This heavenly Bridegroom and hea∣venly Bride are one Divine Spirit, bear one Divine Image, have one Life, one Righteousness, one Glory, one Understanding, one Will, and dwell together in one Light, as God is Light, in one Love, as God is Love, in one immortal Joy, unspeakable and glorious.

The Soul now is a chast and spotless Bride, which bringeth forth all the rich and heavenly fruits of her Spirit, her Understanding, her Will, her whole Life, inward and outward, by her own heavenly Husband alone, by the sweet force of her Union with him, and the Divine Virtue of his embraces, that they may be fruits to God; that is, Divine Fruits, having the life, virtue, and sweetness of the Divine Nature in them, the form, and beauty of the Divine Nature upon them for a feast of Joys and Glory to God himself, to feast both his Eyes and his Heart.

If then the Soul restored be one Spirit with Christ, as in the Spirit of Christ, so in the Spirit of a Saint, the most pleasant liberty, and most potent necessity meet in one. The Divine Harmony of the su∣pream and universal good is at once the spacious and blissful Field of this Paradisical freedom, and the golden Chain of this most grateful and most glorious necessity.

The Spirit of Christ is eternity it self, which as it spreads it self beyond and above all consinements to a Variety, endlesly fresh and flourishing, is the sweetest Liberty: As it comprehends all things

in a most entire undivided Unity, the supream Crown and Circle of all true Life and Glory, is the highest necessity. Eternity hath nothing past, or to come, in respect to it self, being far above all Changes, all Beginnings and Ends of things. It is the supream Power, which rules them all, and the supream Wisdom which measures them.

The Soul then now become one Spirit with Christ, is in that Spirit, together with Christ, seated upon the Throne of Eternity; by its Union with this Spirit, it reigns upon this Throne over all things; by having this Spirit in it self, by being one Spirit with this Spirit, it hath in it self that soveraign Power and supream Wisdom, it is one with that soveraign Power and supream Wisdom which rules and measures all things.

Thus the glorious Bride of Eternity, having her heavenly Bride∣groom in her embraces, cloathed and crowned with the same hea∣venly Image, being now in the true state of her own proper person, in her sirst and last state, in her own proper unvailed Substance, and Original here with her Bridegroom, is her own rule and measure in this heavenly Image, which is her true substantial self, her Eternity. She is also a rule and measure to her self in the earthly and shadowy Image, and in all her Pilgrimage, through the Regions of time be∣low, whether they be the sweeter shadows of the Light above, or the melancholy shades of a deeper Darkness.

This is the true Liberty of Man, and the freedom of his Will, which is as the liberty and freedom of the true eternal good, diffusing it self into all the unsearchable riches of its manifoldly various Varieties, varying, setting off, sweetning and heightning it self by all the ravish∣ing excesses of Harmony, of Light, of Love, by all the extreams of Darkness, Discord, Contrariety, and hate, reducing, and binding up these also into a most ravishing Harmony, by the excesses; by the victories and triumphs of the Divine Light and Love: So keeping together with this sportful Liberty, the golden, the firm Adamantine necessity of being it self still through all, that is good, the true and eternal good.

This Divine Liberty of the spiritual Bride, which is her Kingdom in her self over all, is divinely expressed by the blessed Bridegroom him∣self, in that most mysterious Song of himself, and his Love composed by himself in the Person of Solomon. He there in one place chargeth the Daughters of Jerusalem; that is, all the holy Angels and spotless Spirits, by which the affairs of the whole Creation are administred. By the Roes and Hindes of the field; that is, by all those Pleasures, Loves, and Lovelinesses with which he sports himself in the midst of them, in the Paradise above, who alone is the lovely Roe, and the lovely Hind, That they awake not, nor stir up his Love until he please, Cant. 2. 7. Thus it is manifestly in the Hebrew, although our Translators have changed the Feminine into the Masculine, and set the Bridegroom in the place of the Bride. But the sense which the words grammatically import is this; That, as the heavenly Bride is one Spirit with her Bridegroom, she sits above together with him upon his Throne in eternity from thence together w^th him, gives to all the heavenly Ministers their Commissions,

that nothing moves in her own person, or round about her here below, as she is in her shadowy disguise and pilgrimage, but as it is ordered by her self above in the bosome of her Bridegroom. And according to that order executed by the heavenly attendance, which wait continually round about the Throne of her Bride∣groom.

2. Reason. If the Will of Man be not free, and do not freely de∣termine it self in all moral Actions, being undetermined in its own Principles, or by any superior Causes, what entrance doth sin find? How doth any thing of a stain or guilt lie upon the Soul? How is God just in the effects of his Wrath upon those that sin, if they sin by an inevitable necessity of Nature, and a predetermination by the con∣nexion of Causes, or by the immediate and intimate operation of the first and universal Cause?

I shall give my Answer by several steps.

1. Sin hath no positive being; if it hath, God, who is the first and universal Being, the Fountain of Being, is directly, by himself, and not by accident only the Author of Sin, in its formality, as Sin. Other∣wise we must with Manes set two Gods upon two distinct Thrones; one of Light or Good, the other of Darkness or Evil. Or we shall be forced with some Heathen Philosophers to establish two first Be∣ings equally Uncreated, and eternal; One, God the Agent; The other, Matter the Patient. So where the Agent subdues the matter to it self, all Forms of Goodness, Beauty, Life, and Joy spring forth: where the matter invincibly resisteth the power of the Agent, there are the Regions of all Evil, Darkness, Death and Hell.

But this Heathenism and Manicheism are exploded, as by the uni∣versal consent of all sober Christians; so by the voice of reason it self. For if there be two first Beings, these agree in Being, they differ in being two. Being it self, as it is One, making both these one in its self, as it is pure, is before and above that state, in which it is allayed and abased, by being mixt and compounded with those diffe∣rences which make it two. This then alone is the first and supream Being, the eternal One, the only true God.

2. If God then be not properly and directly the Author of Sin, Sin is no positive Being, but a privation only. So the Scriptures express it, which call it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an irregularity, a falling short of the Glory of God, a missing of the mark, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Divines generally teach us, That the Sin consisteth not in any Act, but in the Deordination, in the privation, a want of the due order, appertaining to the Act.

Sin then being nothing positive, but a meer privation, can have no efficient, but a deficient Cause only. This deficient Cause is that defectibility, which is inseparable from every created Nature. Dark∣ness is the privation, or absence of Light, which naturally and ne∣cessarily accompanieth obscure and opact Bodies, as the Air, the Water, and the Earth. While the Sun shines upon them, this de∣ficiency, or want of Light, discovereth not it self. All things are illuminated, and the natural obscurity of these Bodies illustrated by the Sun-beams; when these beams are withdrawn, or intercepted,

then the defect of Light natural to these substances appeareth, and so the darkness is predominant. Thus every Creature hath in it self a tendency to annihilation; being of it self like the Earth before the beautiful work of the first day, which was light, void, and without form. Thus the Soul of Man in its Understanding, and in its Will, hath naturally of it self a tendency to unreasonableness, which is a degree of Annihilation, the privation of that two-sold Beauty; Truth in the Understanding, and goodness in the Will. While the Face of God shines upon the face of the Soul, by a continued irradiation, as in the first moment of the Creation, these Intellectual Forms of Di∣vine Beauty, Truth, and Goodness flourish in the Soul, binding up the natural defectibility both of the Understanding and the Will, in the golden Chains of an heavenly Light, and heavenly Love; but in that moment, in which God turns away his Face, with-draws his beams, in the same moment the Soul of Man is left naked, its natural defectibility prevails; the privation, or absence of Truth, is now the darkness, the deformity of folly and falshood. The privation or ab∣sence of Goodness, is now the evil, and the disorder, into which, as a bottomless pit, the Understanding, and the Will, and the whole Soul with these miserably, endlesly sinks.

This is that horrible pit, out of which sin ariseth, the defectibility or nothingness of the Creature in it self. This is the way by which it ariseth upon the Soul, over-spreading it, and carrying it back into that pit of horrour, the deflectibility or nothingness of the Creature, prevailing in the absence of the Divine beams. The Royal Prophet divinely sings the penury of the Creature, and the Praises of the great Creator in this Mystery, Psal. 104. 29. Thou hidest thy Face, they are troubled, thou takest away their Breath or Spirit, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the Earth.

It is a truth, asserted by all Philosophers and Divines, That the Understanding acteth necessarily, being infallibly and irresistably re∣duced into act by its Object duly presented. The Scripture mani∣festly teacheth us, that sin entreth into the Soul by the Understand∣ing. Those two places which I have cited above, are clear. The woman being deceived, was first in the Transgression. Sin deceived me, and so slew me. St. Paul speaketh in both these places of the first en∣trance of sin into the World, in the person of the first Woman, and in his own person, set, as a figure of all Mankind, as it was collectively and representatively in the first Adam.

Musaeus joyns these together, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Light going out, and Leander perishing. Man is deceived, and so slain by sin. As the Light of Truth goes out in the Understanding, the Life of Goodness dies in the Will. As the sight and light of the eye from the natural composition of the eye faileth, as the irradiati∣ons from the Sun, which it enjoyeth, either mediately, or immedi∣ately from the body of the Sun it self, or from other luminous bodies depending upon the Sun are obscured: So is the Souls eye the Un∣derstanding obscured, according to the proportion, in which the

Divine illuminations in the way of Grace or Nature cease.

In these two first steps, I have endeavoured to make clear the na∣ture of Sin, and the way of its entrance into the World, in which we see a most genuine conformity to the dependance of the Will, and of the whole Soul in all its changes and motions upon the first Cause, as a link in the mystical Chain of the order of Causes. The beauty and goodness of the Soul in its Understanding and its Will, flow in the golden Pipe of the order of Causes, as golden Oyl from the first cause, as the Olive-Tree flourishing upon the Mount of Eter∣nity. As this golden stream from its Well-head fails, beauty and goodness are no more in the Soul. The deficiency or privation of these, is the evil of Darkness, Deformity, Sin and Death, to this in∣tellectual and immortal Spirit.

But the knot seems to be tyed stronger: by this discourse man sins inevitably by the necessity of his nature. The first and free with∣drawings of the Divine influence give way for the deflectibility of the Creature, to spring up into those defects, which are properly and formally the evils of Sin, the first and greatest evils, the fountains of all evils. How then doth shame or guilt lie upon the Creature? Why is God yet angry? How is he just in punishing? Is not the evil of sin from these grounds clearly cast upon God, as the Author of it? I shall endeavour to answer these Objections, and to remove these Difficul∣ties in the three following steps.

3. I shall endeavour here to bring in some clear light into the ob∣scure shades of this doubt, how shame and guilt lie upon the Soul, when it falls inevitably from the necessity of its nature.

Shame is a fear of Infamy, from a sense of Deformity. Deformity is the absence of the Divine Form originally present, and so proper to the subject. The subject of the form or beauty, while it is pre∣sent, is also in its absence the subject of the privation and deformity. To the deformity is annexed the reproach or disesteem.

Esteem or disesteem is a right judgment, and so a value of each thing according to its proper state or nature. Where the sense of deformity is, there will also be the fear of infamy, and so the shame.

When Venus and Mars were discovered in Vulcan's Net, an im∣mortal laughter arose among all the Gods, who were Spectators, as we read in Homer. When the Soul once, in its first Creation, cloathed with a Divine Beauty, and so placed in the Paradise of a Divine Light and Joy, seeth it self despoiled of this heavenly Robe, in the nakedness of those deformities, of the darkness into which, as hid∣den in the depth of its own nature, it sinks, when the Divine beams, that raised it out of that dark Deep, and enriched it with its heavenly Ornaments are retired, can it be without a sense of this deformed nakedness? without shame, without impressions made upon it, by the apprehension of that state, in which the innumerable company of heavenly Spectators now behold it, with a disesteem and aversion suitable to that state?

Neither is the justness of the aversion and disesteem in all the hea∣venly Spirits, or of the shame in this faln Spirit lessened, but rather encreased and heightned by this, that the deformity springeth up with an inevitable necessity from its own proper nature; for the discovery of that, which this faln Soul is in it self, together with every Creature; and the distinction now manifested between that, which is of God, as the Fountain in Eden, whence alone all Paradisical Beauties and Joys flow in the Creature, and that which is of the Creature it self, which is in it self a dark, horrid, and bottomless pit, where all wast∣ness, woe, disorder, deformity, confusion, desolation, Deaths and Hells dwell together, and whence in swarms they break forth, as from a cursed womb, like the smoke and the locusts from the bottomless pit in the Revelation; the discovery of this, in the faln Spirits, makes their shame and abhorrency of themselves more just and high, as also the Songs of Praise which the heavenly Spirits day and night sing to their Creator and Preserver, as more highly just, so more highly sweet and glorious.

Thus much for the shame, let us now pass to the guilt. Guilt is the obligation of the Sinner to the Justice of God. Justice, and so most eminently the Divine Justice, which is the measure of all Justice, is that which giveth to every thing its due, that which is proper to it, its own. That is due to every thing, which is proper and suitable to it according to its place in the whole, for the preservation, re∣strauration, or perfection of the Order in the whole. When a Spirit, by the abstraction of the Divine Beauty and Virtue, is now sunk into its natural weakness and deformity; nothing now is any longer its own, nothing now is suitable to it, but that power of darkness, that principle of waste emptiness, of even dreaded and hateful nothings. Now the path in which the supream Justice, presiding over the Uni∣versal Order and Harmony of things, acts most pertinently towards it, is to abandon it to those powers of darkness, which rise up from its own proper Root, to display themselves more fully upon it in their ugly and hateful shapes, in their tormenting horrors, in their horrid torments, the dissolutions of the blissful Unity, in distracting divisions and confusions; the extinguishing of the sweet and beautiful Light in affrightful shades of amazing darkness.

The chief skill in Pictures consisteth in the evenness and just∣ness of placing the shades, that according to the degrees of the declining Light, the shades may gradually increase, until they sink into the deepest obscurity, or be bounded by a new light spring∣ing up out of these shades: Such is the Law of the Divine Justice, which is the great and wise Spirit of the Universal Harmony, in this Divine Poem or Picture, the work of the Creation, as the heavenly form of goodness or beauty in the best and most beautiful season which draws it self from any part of this work. Privation, the principle and form of all evil, spreads its black-wings over it, en∣creasing its hellish shades and darknesses upon it, in the bosome of which it hatcheth all the ugly Births of deformity, woe and horror, with an amazing interminating infiniteness, until the sacred Light of

the Divine goodness and beauty arising upon it, bound those unformed shades, reducing all to, and binding up all with the Adamantine Chains of a triumphant Harmony in the Glory of God.

In this third step we have endeavoured to fix the shame and guilt of sin upon the Sinner, but glory upon the Divine Justice in the suf∣ferings which come by sin.

4. Step. We are in our next step to give an answer for God to those, who in their Expostulations ask, why he is yet angry? The solution of this doubt is obvious and common. Anger resteth in the bosome of Fools. Fury is not in him, who worketh all things according to the coun∣sel of his Will. His Wisdom and his Will are both one. His Justice and his Power are both one, and one with the other two, his Wis∣dom and his Will. As he is one pure Act of Omnipotency, of Beau∣ty, of Love, of Joy, of all Excellencies, at their greatest heighth, and in one, so is he Wisdom, Will, Justice, Power, all in one. He is Power, as he is a pure Act of Almightiness. He is Wisdom, as he is a pure Act of highest and most Universal Harmony. He is Justice, as he is a pure Act of entire and most perfect Order. He is Will, as he is a pure Act of highest and most diffusive goodness, of the richest, sweetest, and fullest loveliness, which are the proper Objects, and so perfections of the Will. He is Will, as he is a pure Act of most heightned and comprehensive Love, Joy, Complacency, which are the most proper and perfect Operations of the Will. Fury then is not in him, who thus worketh all things according to the counsel of his Will, where Justice, Power, Wisdom and Will meet in one, at their purest heights, in their greatest freedoms, in their most proper and perfect Operations. Anger is then attributed to God, per An∣thropopathiam, while by the suiting of the Language to the capacity of the Hearers; God is represented to us in the form, and in the fa∣shion of a man. It is also a metonymical way of speaking, which ex∣presseth the effect by the cause. So the Scripture speaking with the Tongue of a Man, as the Jews express it, representeth those effects of the Divine Providence, by the names of the anger of God, the wrath of God, which answer to those effects that commonly proceed from anger and wrath in men. Job faith in one place, When the scourge falleth alike upon the innocent and the wicked, God laugheth at it. When wicked men suffer for their sins, when innocent persons are refined by their sufferings; the Eye of God is fixed upon his own Divine Loveliness and Glory alike in both. The purest and most perfect Love acteth him toward this most pure and perfect Loveli∣ness and Glory alike in both, from the meeting and blissful embraces of these two; this Love and Loveliness in the Divine Nature, his Joy and Complacency is alike in both, equally full, equally at the heighth. A Divine Philosopher, with a pleasant and beautiful Al∣legory, teacheth us, That the expansion of Light, in the heavenly Bodies, which is the Act of the Angelical World, in this their most beautiful Figure, is Risus Coelorum, the laughter of the Heavens. God maketh every thing beautiful in its proper place and time, to kill, as to make alive, unformed, deformed privations, as the fairest

and most flourishing forms. In every Act of Providence, in every accident from the beginning to the end of things, he equally pre∣serveth and perfecteth the Divine Order and Harmony. This gol∣den Harmony, extended like the sweet Light of Heaven over all things, is as a Divine laughter, the complacency of the Divine Nature in its Work, in its Image, in it self.

I have yet one thing more to say, before I take my other step. We learn from Philosophers, That heat and cold, which continually fight in the Elements below, are in the heavenly Bodies, but after so eminent a manner, that there they meet and enfold each other with a most harmonious agreeableness. By the Laws of Divinity we are answerably taught, That Anger and Love, as all forms of things, most discordant in the Creatures, are first in the Divine Nature. But they are there with an eminency, with a transcendency, in which they are refined and heightned far above all imperfections. Here they all meet, as most grateful and most agreeable Varieties in the entire and undivided Unity of the same eternal Light, of the same eternal Love, of the same eternal God. As from this heighth of a most perfect Unity, these Divine Varieties bring forth their various effects in shadowy resemblances here below, they make the figure of the whole divinely one, and divinely beautiful. As Divine Seals, they likewise impress the figure of their own Divine Unity upon each single effect.

Thus the whole work in general, each single effect in particular, is a divinely beautiful figure of the Divine Beauty shining with de∣lightful beams upon those Eyes and Spirits, which anointed with a Divine Knowledge, see the golden and secret Seal, this glorious and sacred impression of the Divine Unity upon it.

Thus we have spoken of the shame and guilt of Sin, as also of Anger, and in part of the Justice of God; concerning which there remaineth more to be said.

5. Step. We have yet before us that great Deep, which swallow∣eth up all Understandings, the face of which seemeth covered with a thick and impenitrable darkness. Let us pray to the Father of Lights for irradiations from his eye, that so this unfathomable Deep may discover it self to us, as a blissful Deep of purest, clearest, and sweetest Glory.

If God first from the counsel of his own Will alone withdraw those beams, which are all our Light and Beauty, and we then by the in∣evitable necessity of our Natures wander as deformed shades in a wild darkness, through the Regions of Sin, Death and Hell: Is not God, now in a moral sense clearly and fully, the sole Author of Sin and Evil? This is the knot which indeed standeth in need of the Rosy Fingers of the heavenly Morning, the beams of the eternal Day to unty it. How shall we in this place vindicate the Justice and Goodness of God? I have here three things to propound.

1. Let us impartially and ingeniously consider whether the free∣dome of the VVill, to determine it self absolutely in all its Acts, reflect a greater Glory upon the Justice and Goodness of God, than the VVill

predetermined in its Essence, in its superior Causes, in the first and universal Cause. That we may make a clearer judgment in this case, let us compare these two different states of the VVill, together with several Antecedents and Consequencies, by placing them both in our view, one by another, as plainly, within as narrow a compass as we can.

Let us set that Free-will in our eye after this manner. God brings forth an Intellectual Spirit, with a Divine Light of Truth in its hea∣venly Beauties, shining upon its Understanding, with a Divine Love of the true Good, with all its heavenly Sweetnesses springing in its VVill. He now sets down the will of this Spirit upon such a ground of indifferency and absoluteness in it self, that being undetermined into any forms of good or evil, the most heavenly, or the most hellish, it is equally free for it in the face of all this blessed Light shining in the Understanding, in the midst of all the heavenly sweetnesses flowing from the bosome of the true Good, through the VVill it self, to cast it self forth from the bosome of the eternal Good. Appearing thus in its own naked and Divine Form, and to cast it self into the em∣braces of the foulest evil, the fountain of all evil; presenting it self, as evil, in its own most direful and haggish shapes. A great part of Intellectual Spirits, far the greatest part of humane Spirits, placed by the Divine Providence in this state, refuse the good, choose the evil, so render themselves obnoxious to the Divine Justice, and be∣come by the pursuits and inflictions of that Avenger, the lost Subjects of all horror and woes without end.

Let us now in the like manner cast our eye upon the Will, prede∣termined in its Causes. God brings forth an Intellectual Spirit com∣pounded, Ex aliquo Dei, & ex aliquo sui; With something of God, something of its own. That of God in it, is all the good of it, the clear Face of the eternal Truth shining in its Understanding, as in a Christal Mirror, the sweet flame of pure Goodness, and as pure a love to this Goodness, burning in its VVill, as upon the golden Altar in the Temple of God, the beams of this Beauty, and the flames of this Love unitedly spreading, varying, and forming themselves through the whole Person and Life of this Spirit, into all Divine Virtues and Joys, by which it becomes as God himself descended into a God-like Image of God himself. This is that of God in the Creature.

That, which is ofits own in this Intellectual Spirit, is beneath all this heavenly beauty and goodness, a deflectibility inseparable from the na∣ture of the Creature, bound up only by the heavenly charms of this Divinity resting upon the Person of this Spirit. God in the depth of a design, perhaps too blessed, and too glorious to be penetrated and fathomed by us; as the eternal Sun ascends up on high, going away from this Spirit, and carrying away with him his whole train of im∣mortal beams with a Divine Light, Heat and Virtue. Now like a mournful and hated darkness from below, the natural defectibility of this Spirit covers the whole face of it, making it like Hell it self, the seat of all evils both of Sin and Suffering, which lie eternally

upon innumerable multitudes. Let us now consider the two-fold Law, or rule of Justice and Goodness, by which this is to be tryed. The general Rule, or Law of Justice is this, To give to every thing its due, or its own. Solomon expresseth this Rule of Justice from the Mouth of God in his Proverbs, after this manner, With-hold not good from them to whom it is due, or from the Owners thereof, when it is in thine hand to do it. Divines interpret those Owners, to be all persons in want, all Subjects in any capacity of receiving any good from us. Beneficence, or a disposition to do good to all, is with the Heathen Philosphers a branch of this Vertue of Justice.

The Law of God, which is the Rule of Justice, commands to love our Neighbour as our self. St. Paul interprets this Neighbour to be every other, Rom. 13. 8. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law. The Jews teach us, that the Law is founded in the Name; that is, in the Nature of God. Man was made in the Image of God. The Per∣fection then of the humane Creature, is the Image of that Perfection, which is in the Divine Nature; the Law of the humane Nature is the transcript of the Divine Nature. Our Lord Jesus interprets this Universal Law of humane Commerce and Justice among men, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, after this manner, Love your Enemies, do good to them that hate you. He layeth the ground of this Universal Justice in the Divine Nature, That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven. He adds for a clearer Conviction, If you love them that love you, do not even the Publicans the same. He concludes, by referring the perfection of men to the Divine Perfection, as its Original and Law; Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Thus we see the Rule of Justice with God, and with men, to give our Love, and all good according to our utmost power to every other, as to the Owner of that love and good, to whom they are due.

2. The second Rule or Law is, that of Goodness. The Law of Goodness and its Essence is to diffuse and communicate it self. The law of each thing is to act according to its nature, of Light to shine; of sweet Waters, to send forth sweet waters; of good, to do good. This Law is most deeply rooted, and highly radiant in the Divine Nature, inasmuch as God is the Chief, the Universal, the only good. Accordingly he makes his Rain, his Sun, both Coelestial and Super∣coelestial in their season, to fall and to shine upon the Just and the Unjust.

Having stated the Case between Free-will, and the Will predeter∣minated in its Causes, and having set the Rule, by which the Case is to be tryed; Let us come to the Point, in which we must joyn Issue.

1. Both Cases agree in four grand Circumstances.

First, In both Cases, God makes man, and the Will of Man from nothing, according to the absoluteness of his Will and Power.

Secondly, The event, which is eternal ruine and torment to the greatest part of Mankind, is alike certain to both, by a certainty of infallibility.

3. God before, and in the making of his work, clearly seeth, and perfectly understandeth, that this will be infallibly the event of his Workmanship.

Can it then with any reason be thought that the event of the work of an infinite Wisdom fore-seen, should not be agreeable to the design of that Wisdom, and the Will of that infinitely Wise Spirit, whose Power is as infinite as his Wisdom?

4. God could have made man otherwise in a Divine necessity of being good and blessed like himself, in a confirmed state of Grace and Glory, like the Elect Angels and Saints. These are the Circumstances in which both Cases agree.

2. The grand d•…•…fference between the two Cases, where they joyn Issue is this. In that Case of Free-will Man perisheth, because God with-holds the good which he hath in himself, and might have given to him, that is a confirmation in good. In the other case of the Will predetermined, Man perisheth, because God withdraws the good which he had once given him.

There are two Fathers, with their two little Children; one Father setteth his Child down so, that he may run into a pleasant Field, or a devouring Flood. He fore-seeth, that he will certainly run, not into the Field, but into the Flood, he suffers him to run and perish in the Flood, when he may as easily prevent him, by laying his hand upon him, or taking him into his arms. The other Father holdeth his Child fast and safe in his arms for a while over the cruel Flood, then he cast∣eth him not in, but he taketh away his arms, and leaves him by his own weight necessarily to drop into the Flood and perish there.

I appeal now to every equal and impartial Judge, whether both these Fathers seem not both guilty or innocent? Whether they be not both likely to be cleared or convicted, if they be tryed by those fore-mentioned Rules of Justice and Goodness? Is not the two-fold Plea of both these Wills of equal force against the Justice and Good∣ness of God? 1. Why hath he made me thus certainly to perish? What is it to me, whether this certainty be a certainty of infallibility, only from the mutability of my nature; or a certainty of inevitableness from the necessity of nature, while I certainly perish? 2. Why is he yet angry? who hath resisted his Will? Is not the certain event of his Work clearly fore-seen by him from the beginning, interpretatively his Will?

Which Opinion shall we prefer? That of the Will predetermined gives to God the full Glory of his Soveraignty, Absoluteness, Wisdom, Power, making his work in the whole, and in every part from the be∣ginning to the end, one entire piece, altogether dependent upon him∣self, wrought throughout by himself, and conducted from one supream principle, by one universal Form of the Divine Understanding, and the Divine Image, to one Universal and Ultimate end, the Divine Glory. But it seemeth to cast an imputation upon the Divine Justice and Goodness.

The other Opinion of Free-will seemeth to violate the Soveraignty and Absoluteness of God, making his actings dependent upon the

actings of Creature: The Power of God, in giving to the Creature the determination of it self with an independence upon him in these Cardinal Acts of the Will, upon which the whole Circle and Globe of things, in the Divine Love, Justice and Wrath, in the happiness or misery of Man from eternity, is turned about: His Wisdom, while his work hath breaches and gaps in it, like a Chain, whose links are not fastned one in another, while the Harmony is thus broken, while all the great effects and end of his work are casual, uncertain in their Causes and in their Nature, inasmuch as all depend upon the free and fortuitous motions of the Will, independent upon, and undetermi∣ned by all preceding, or superior Causes, even the first and universal Cause it self. Together with all this Cloud which the Opinion of Free∣will casts upon the Glories of God in these other Attributes, it doth not at all excel the other Opinion in clearing the Glory and Justice of the Divine Goodness. But while as with triumphant flourishes, by Rhetorical Reproaches, it insulteth upon the other Opinion, as equalling God in savage cruelness to the most arbitrary Tyrants, to the most inhumane and ferine Man-eaters; It leaveth God equally exposed to the same Reproaches, and it self to the imputations of the same Blasphemies. I have now finished the first thing which I had to propound in answer to that Argument against the predetermination of the Will, which is taken from the goodness and justice of God.

2. The second thing which I have to propound is this, the holy Scripture in many places seems plainly to assert the Divine Conduct, with a potent and irresistable efficacy, in this dark part of things, the evil, as also the Glory of the Divine Justice and Goodness in this conduct equal with that in the good. I will instance in three Scriptures only.

1. My first instance is, that of Solomon, Eccles. 3. There is a season for every thing, and a time for every purpose. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to kill, and a time to heal: A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embraces: A time to destroy, and a time to preserve: A time to love, and a time to hate, from the first to the ninth verse. He, that is, God hath made every thing good in his time, verse 11, I know, that all which God hath done, this shall be for ever.

I shall draw forth this Scripture into a few brief Maxims, which seem to arise naturally and clearly out of it.

1. There is all Variety in the Unity of the Divine work, a Variety extending it self to the remotest, the highest Contrarieties Affirmative or Negative, to the most distant perfections and privations. So the holy Spirit speaketh expresly in the general, every thing, every pur∣pose, all that can fall within the conception or comprehension of the vastest and most incomprehensible Spirit hath its season and time. So the holy Spirit speaketh in particular love and hatred, war and peace, embracing, and abstaining from embracing, life and death, destruction and salvation, have their time and season.

Do not these particular instances expresly define the highest Con∣trariety Affirmative, or Negative, of good, and evil, in their greatest Latitude, and most universal Nature?

2. God makes all this Variety and Contrariety, and that in the lowest Region also, even under the Sun, where it appears in a dark tempestuous scene of the greatest disorder and confusion; There is a time, saith Solomon, for all, and a season for every purpose. The word Season signifieth a set measured time, like the times in Musick; the time or season of each thing is its duration. Duration is the mode or measure of the Essence, and so really the same with the Essence, the Essence measured and bounded. As Essences and Habits, so also have privations their measure and bounds, as Rests and Stops have time in Musick. Every Essence is the Birth of an Understanding, of which it beareth the impression and Seal. It is the work of an Un∣derstanding alone to give measure and bounds to things. That then, which setteth the time for all Varieties and Contrarieties, Perfections and Privations, which consequently maketh and formeth them, can be no other than the Divine Understanding, God in his essential and eternal Word, which alone is above and before all things: So we read here, concerning all these Contrarieties, That God hath made them beautiful 〈◊〉〈◊〉 their time. God then hath made them.

God maketh all Contrarieties Affirmative and Negative, Perfecti∣ons and Privations; but after a contrary manner. He maketh Per∣fections, as the Sun maketh light in the Air, after an Affirmative manner, by a positive presence, power and influence.

He maketh privations, as the Sun maketh darkness and night, after a Negative manner by his absence, by a drawing in his power, and binding up his sweet influence. But this negation also, and so the privations, which flow from it are called here by Solomon, (the Ma∣ster of all Wisdom) Humane and Divine Purposes. There is a season (saith he) for every purpose; then he instances in the Contrarieties following, Privations then are Divine purposes; that is, Designs, Contrivances, Divine Forms, designed, contrived and measured in the Divine Mind. Upon this ground some Philosophers teach us, That God is a transcendent Good above all Beings, who compre∣hends Originally in himself not only all Beings, but all privation of Being, which themselves also, as darkness, night, absence and death in their place and time, are Forms of good, although not Forms of Being and Divine Forms, Forms in Divinity, although not natural Forms, nor Forms in natural Philosophy. But now I am passing to my third Conclusion.

Thirdly, God maketh all things, the Varieties and Contrarieties, beautiful in their time. They are the express words of Solomon, from the heighth of all created Wisdom, in its single state; They are the words of the Uncreated Wisdom it self, speaking by Solomon, God hath made all beautiful in his time, verse 11. This is manifestly spo∣ken with respect to the general All in the first verse, and the particular Alls of the highest Contrarieties, of the most distant privations, enu∣merated in the following verses; the time of each Being respecteth its relation to the whole. Beauty is an Harmony, and consisteth in the suitableness or conveniency of the several parts with each other, and with the whole. Suitableness is a similitude, similitude is an Unity

in Variety, an Unity of Form in distinct Subjects, as the same sweet∣ness and colour in several Flowers; The same beautiful light of knowledge, the same pure and lovely sweetness of Spirit, which makes a Divine Friendship, the highest suitableness and similitude. Philosophy teaches us, That the first Good, and the first Unity, are the most proper Names of the most high God, having both the same sense and force; It teaches us also, That the first Beauty is an efful∣gency from the first Good; the first Good, or the first Unity shining out into a distinct Image of it self, which is the first Distinction or Variety, and so the supream, the most ample Variety. All Beauty then in its kind and degree is an Unity, diffusing it self, and shining forth into a Variety, where from the whole, and from each part it reflecteth it self upon it self, with all its united Vertues, Proportions, and Sweetnesses, meeting every where in each point. Upon this ground we are taught, That the first Understanding is the first Beauty, and that every Beauty is the Birth and Object of that Understanding alone, at least in some impressions or foot-steps of it. For Beauty being the meeting of many parts or proportions in one undivided Point, or an Unity in Variety, can neither be, nor be discerned, where there is not a spiritual Form or Substance, which is it self an undivided Unity. Then doth the Beauty spring with a delightful sweetness both in the Subject and in the sense, and all the various perfections or proportions of the whole, and of the several parts con∣centring in each part, giving a perfection to it, and receiving a per∣fection from it; and thus reflecting the distinct and united perfecti∣ons of the whole, and of all the parts, mutually and endlesly upon each other, and so shine forth, carrying as in triumph upon every sparkling beam the multiplied reflections, as so many Coelestial Ve∣nus's exactly answering one another, and all in one, into the beholding and ravisht eye.

But this will be confirmed, and made more clear to us, in that which followeth.

Fourthly, God maketh all things for eternity, verse 14. I know that whatsoever God doth, that shall be for ever; God's ever is eternity. Eternity, as we learn from Philosophers and Divines, is a perfect Unity, comprehending all Variety within it self, even Time also, with all its successions, divisions, and distances without and above time, succession, division or distance. It is defined to be Tota totius boni simul, & semel possessio; A whole possession of the whole good at once, and in one.

Thus God worketh all things from eternity in eternity, and for eternity; Thus he maketh every thing beautiful, as it is seen in the light of eternity, which alone is the light of Truth: Time being the shadow of Eternity, and a Vail upon it, for in this light, in which the Works of God are all wrought, in which alone a true judgment may be made of them, every particular is seen, as it lies in the whole, as a part of the Variety in the whole Variety, and in the Unity: The whole Variety and the Unity appears entire and com∣pleat in every part, so the fulness of the Divine Work, the fulness

of the Divine Beauty and Glory, spread through the whole Work, is united in every part, and fulfilleth all in all.

Object. Perhaps you will say, Are moral privations as well as na∣tural, is sin also comprehended in this discourse? Hath God also set a season for that, and made that beautiful in its time? Then is it no more sin, if it be not a deformity; Then is it a grace, if it be a beau∣ty; A Divine Grace, if it be a Divine Beauty; And a Divine Work, if it be made by God? How genuinely does the Opinion of the Ranters flow from these Principles? That then only we see things in the Light of the Gospel, the only true and eternal Light, when we see no more any distinction between Good and Evil, Grace and Corruption, the deformity of Sin, and the beauty of Holiness, the Works of God, and the Works of the Devil, all (say they) seen by an eye truly illuminated is a Divine Work, a Divine Grace and Beauty.

Answ. I reply first in general to ranting Principles and Practices, as St. Paul doth with abhorency and detestation, God forbid, far be it, far be these Principles from the mind and life of every good man, as they are far from the Divine Truth, from the Mind, Life, and Work of God, formed by the Devil, from a Seed of enmity to God, unto the Glory of the Gospel, in the Womb of the blackest darkness, in the darkest depth of the bottomless pit. But my more particular and distinct Reply is this.

1. If sin be a positive Form of Being, then it is originally and eter∣nally comprehended in the first Being; the only Fountain of Being, it floweth from, it lieth in the frame and order of the Universal Being; It beareth upon it the impression and character of the first Being with its Beauty, it beareth a part with the whole or universal Being, ma∣king up the perfection of the whole, and cloathed with it, crowning it, and crowned by it. All this upon that supposition will necessa∣rily be true of it, most properly, most directly by it self, and not indirectly, or by accident only. But according to the narrow com∣pass of my knowledge or understanding, this supposition and conse∣quent both are contrary to the common current, and general stream, of Philosophy and Divinity.

2. If sin be a privation of Grace, it is to be considered two wayes:

• 1. In Principio. 1. In its Principle.
• 2. In Termino. 2. In its Term or Subject.

1. The privation of Grace is to be considered in its Principle. As a privation hath no Being, so it hath no Principle in a proper sense, if we may apply such language to it. Privation, which is no Being with its particular modification and bounds, hath for its proper Principle Non-entity, or not Being, in its universal sphere or compass, as the narrow and mid-land Seas are divided from the vast unbounded Ocean.

But the Principle, from which the privation of Grace ariseth in its Subject, by consequent and by accident, is Grace it self, in its first Principle, with-holding, or with-drawing it self. The Principle of

Grace is God alone, the Privation of Grace, as it is the with-draw∣ing, or the with-holding of this Principle, in its Operations or Influ∣ences, so it is immediately consequent to, originally comprehended in the Acts of the Divine Will, and the Divine Wisdom. This privation of Grace, lying thus in the Principle of Grace, compre∣hended in the Acts of the Divine Wisdom and Will, as their term and bound, hath its part and place in the Divine design: It is now and here in this Prospect, a part of the Variety, as a Contrariety; It lies within the embraces of the whole Variety, it lies in the bosom of the Unity, which is the Spring, the Seat, the Throne of the Variety. So the whole Variety in the Unity, the Unity in its full Variety, and at once, after the manner of eternity, spring up in it, shine through it, look forth clearly and compleatly in the face of it, richly cloath it all over. After this manner is the privation of Grace, in its Principle, in the Acts of the Divine Will, and the Divine Wisdom, a Divine Workmanship, a Divine Beauty. Agreeable to this, is that common Principle of our Divines, That God hath his influence upon Sin to order it, to bound it, in all its circumstances, to reduce the disorder of it into order, to make it serviceable to the order and the beauty of the whole.

In this sense Proclus affirms in his Divinity, That there is neither Privation or Corruption, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Totis, that is according to his sense. In Divine Intellectual Spirits, which by the light of Eternity comprehend in themselves in one view the whole Work of God, the whole nature of things, with all their Varieties and Contrarieties, as an entire piece, an entire Image. The Divine Workmanship, the Divine Beauty of the supream Spirit, whose Unity is figured upon. For, here the Divine Form and Beauty of the whole, resting upon every Privation or Corruption, makes that also in the whole a Di∣vine Unity and Perfection.

2. Privation is to be considered in Termino vel Subjecto; that is, in the Intellectual Spirit, as the Seat or Subject. Divines say, That the Act of creating, as it is in God, its Principle is God; as it is in the Creature, where it is terminated, is the Creature. In like man∣ner, the Privation of Grace, as it hath its beginning in the Author of Grace, from an Act of the Divine Wisdom and Will, designing, or determining the with-holding of it, is thus Divinely-beautiful and good. The same privation of Grace, as it is terminated and seated in a created Spirit, is an evil of Sin, the highest deformity, the first, the greatest evil, the fountain of all evils, most properly, in its own nature, and in the Eye of God; As being the first and foulest privation of the first Good, or the heighest Beauty, and the Fountain of all following Privations, extending their poisonous and baleful shades to the bottomless pit, to the nethermost Hell.

God saith in the Prophet Isaiah of Nebuchadnezzar, he is a Rod in my Hand, but he thinketh not so. Nebuchadnezzar was, as in the hand of God, but as a Musicians Quill. The Acts of Enmity, Tyranny and Cruelty exercised by him, and upon the people of God, were from the Divine Musician, the Master of the universal Musick, skilful

stroaks and tender touches upon his Harps or Lutes, which are his Saints, making the universal, the eternal Harmony compleat in their Persons, and in his whole Work. But the same Acts as they were from Nebuchadnezzar, were a disorder, a breach of the Harmony, a Contrariety of an enmity, which is the highest opposition to it. In the same sweet, and beautiful sense of Divine Love, that loveliest figure of our Lord Jesus saith to his Brethen concerning their savage∣ness, selling, sacrificing him to their envy and malice, directed against the Divine Glory, declaring it self in him by heavenly Visions; Ye thought evil against me, God meant it unto good, Gen. 50. 20. Thus he comforted them, concerning their greatest sins, who were now hum∣bled for them.

After the same manner, to the same end, the Truth himself, the Lord Jesus by his Spirit, striketh upon the heart of the Jews, who had crucified him, that now themselves might bleed inwardly from the sense of that precious blood of his, which they had shed, Act. 2. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands crucified. See that Act, the most bloody and direful that ever the Sun saw, by which the Suns Sun in Flesh, and on Earth suffered; the most mournful and tragical Ecclipse, attributed at once to the determinate Counsel of God, and to the wickedness of men. Here that was eminently true, which was represented by the former Scripture in the figure, that which men thought evil against their Jesus, their only Joy, their God, their only Good and Glory; the same thing (the cursed sale and cruel sacrificing of their God) he meant unto good, to bring to pass, as at this day, to save much people alive, to bring many Sons to eter∣nal Life and Glory.

A learned man cites from Aristotle in his Metaphysicks, a passage, in which he affirms, That all the several parts are referred to the good of the order in the whole as the end of all. Upon this he discants, that this good of order depends upon the vilest, as well as the most precious things, that it consisteth in the interval and proportion be∣tween these. That in respect to this order the vilest things are de∣termined and framed with the same most exact skill, as the most cu∣rious things: Thus the sufferings of Joseph, the crucifying of Jesus, as they lay eternally determinate in the determinate Counsel of God, designed and fashioned there unto good, the highest Good, the su∣pream End, the universal Order, the Divine Glory, which wraps up in it the blessedness of all the Saints; so it self was a part of the Or∣der, a part of the Glory, a Grace, a Beauty, a Perfection, in the uni∣versal Order and Divine Glory.

But as this proceeds from the hearts and hands of Men, the Instru∣ments of it, who like Nebuchadnezzar, thought not so, like Josephs Bre∣thren thought it for evil, like the Crucifiers of Christ, were wicked in it; It is a deordination, a disorder, a real evil, the worst of evils, not only a falling short of the Glory of God, which is the Divine Image and effulgency in the Harmony of things, as St. Paul describes Sin, nor yet a transgression and breach only of the Law, which is the rule

and measure of this Order, as another Apostle defines sin, but an Enemy to it, as all sin is in its root and essence, according to the Lan∣guage of St. Paul in another place. So the discord in Musick is truly in its own particular nature, and apart a discord; so a black crooked line, a dark shade, is in it self truly black, crooked, dark, offensive to the eye, contrary to Light, Rectitude and Beauty; although the discord be a part of the Harmony, this line and shade a part of the Beauty in the whole.

Object. But you will perhaps say, All these things seem hitherto to confirm the Ranters in their licentious Principles and Practices. For, why should not Sinners with the freedom of all sinful pleasures, rest and rejoyce in the absoluteness of the Divine Conduct, the Perfection of the Divine Order and Beauty, which giudes them through all, which accompanieth them in all, as the Motion and Musick of those hea∣venly Spheres, the Divine Wisdom, Power and Goodness, compre∣hending all things with their courses, as Stars fixed in them; what place is there here for shame, guilt, displeasure, or punish∣ments?

Answ. I am sensible of the weight of this Work, in which I have by degrees engaged my self, and how unfit my shoulders are for it. When that wise Queen of Sheba saw the attendance of Solomons Ser∣vants, and the order of his House, there was no more any spirit left in her: What then is the order in the House of God, in his Work from the beginning to the end of it? What the attendance and ministry of all the parts of this Work, as the Servants in this House, according to the Divine Order? What Cherubim or Seraphim would have any more any Spirit left in it, while it contemplates this Order, which at the height of its most ravishing Contemplations remains still, for the excess of Glory, incomprehensible to it? This is that Wisdom in a mystery, which the most princely Spirits, and Understandings of the whole Creations, in their natural capacities, are unable to take in. What then is my spirit? what my faculty? that I should be ca∣pable of taking off the Vail from this Divine Chain of heavenly Pearl, so closely and curiously set; to behold in my self, by any im∣perfect glimps; to present any glance of it, in its Divine lustre and order to other eyes, and to preserve it from the feet of Swine, or mouth of Dogs? What am I? that I should attempt to take the Cloud off from this heavenly Paradise, which is in the midst of us, before us, round about us, in which all things, and motions of things spring and flourish as Divine Plants, in a Divine Order, to open it to the view of the Sanctified Beholder, and at the same time to defend it from prophane Spirits, by the flaming Sword, by the sparkling, penetrating, consuming, or refining beams of a Cherubim?

We will, therefore, penetrate so far as we may into this bright Deep, which so delightfully swalloweth up the most Angelical Understand∣ing: may our dependance be upon that Spirit alone, which moveth upon the shining Face of this Deep, and is a Baptism of heavenly fire, purifying the beloved Soul, illuminating with an heavenly Light the purified Eye, enflaming with heavenly Love the purified Heart,

and so initiating him into these holy mysteries; But keeping off every profane Eye and Heart, by darkning, dazeling, affrighting, and burn∣ing upon them.

Divine Truth is as a Rose-Tree, which as it hath its beautiful and perfumed Roses, so it hath prickels to guard those Roses from rash and rude hands. My Answer then to the fore-mentioned Objection shall be divided into these gradual steps.

First, No Sinner in a sinful state, no Soul in any act of sin, can see the Divine Order in the Work of God, which Order is Jesus Christ, the Image, the Wisdom, the Glory of the invisible God, figuring himself upon the whole Work, from the beginning to the end, as one entire, lively, living Picture of himself, himself being the Life of it, and shining in the face of it. Sin is the Souls falling short of the Glory of God into the darknesses below, being unable to raise its Under∣standing to the Beauty of this Light. Sin is the violation or breach of this sacred Harmony, by which the Soul cuts off, and separates it self from it, by which it over-casts the Glory, with a deep stain and a black Cloud, which take it altogether out of its sight, all de∣filement is an undue mixture. Every sin confounds the Soul, it wraps it up in an universal confusion; sin is an enmity to this Har∣mony of things. It is a dark confusion from below, rising up as a poysonous vapour to over-spread the pure Light of this heavenly Order. The Divine Order then and all things, as they lie in the Di∣vine Order, fight against sin and the sinner, their common and only Enemy; As the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera. St. John, the beloved Disciple, having first declared God to be Light, without the mixture of any Darkness at all; Then testifieth, That if we say that we have fellow ship with him, and walk in darkness, we lye, and do not the truth. Sinners universally in the Scriptures are stiled Children of Darkness, and not of the Light. The Light of the Divine Order and Glory, the acting of a part in this Divine Order, in the light and truth of it, are inconsistent in any Spirit with the darkness of sin.

2. If any Spirit by the highest improvement of its Intellectual Pow∣ers, by Angelical assistances and heightnings, by the more sublime and supernatural, though common illuminations of the Spirit of Grace himself, form to it self an heavenl•…•… Image of this Divine Or∣der, and that anointed by the same Operations of the same Spirit with an heavenly Beauty, Sweetness and Virtue: This Spirit thus far will be sanctified by this sacred Light, being taken up out of the tempestu∣ous Seas of its sins, into the sweet and pure, the calm and clear stream of this Harmony, as into a River of Milk and Honey. But if this Spirit do take from hence arguments to sin, encouragements to sin; now it no more seeth a right Image of this heavenly Glory, no not in the notion of it. As St. Paul speaketh of the Gospel, that which shines in this Spirit now, this Image perverteth, and so the Order is changed into a disorder and confusion.

That Divine figure, sprung from the holy Spirit, is withdrawn, together with that Spirit, a Spirit from below is sprung up, as by an

hellish Magick or Inchantment, into a counterfeit but perverted re∣presentation of that heavenly Beauty. Thus sin deceives this Spirit, then defiles it, and so slays it, by extinguishing the sweet of sight of its true Light.

Let such Spirits tremble, lest they be found in the number of those unhappy Spirits, who having tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come, tread under their feet the Son of God; that good Word of God, that Wisdom of God, that golden Chain of heavenly Harmony, in Divine Providence, and offer injury and dispight to the Spirit of Grace, by which the Son of God sweetly lives, and shines in the sacred order of things, and by which they were once sanctified, having been washt in this Spirit of Grace, the Fountain of this lovely Order, from the Pollutions of the World. Are not these the Spirits upon whom wrath is to come so long as Christ shall Reign?

3. My two first steps have been as the preparatory to my Answer, like the Porch to the main Building; my third step will bring you into the House it self, which I shall endeavour to present to you as perfectly and perspicuously as I can. In this will consist the strength, the beauty of the Answer: If I be able to set it forth in its proper strength and beauty, I am sensible how far I am below this; I there∣fore intreat those that read or hear this Discourse, for their own sakes, and the Truths sake, to assist my weakness with the utmost strength of their candor, attention and understanding.

Dionysius the Areopagite saith in one place, That God reduceth into order those things which are out of order, and so establisheth all in good and beauty. There are two Rules and Maxims concerning Harmony and Order.

1. The Order and Harmony is there perfect, where the Variety is full. Contrariety is an eminent part of the Variety, which enlargeth the Variety, and heightens the Harmony. Contraria juxt à se posita magis elucescunt, Contraries illustrate and heighten one another.

2. The Order or Harmony is there most compleat, where the Unity is preserved most entire and conspicuous, in the fullest Variety. To this it is necessary, that there be no where any leap or gap. This makes the Beauty, this makes the Musick, to which all Spirits sensual and Intellectual on Earth, or in Heaven, spring and dance with sweetest and liveliest motions of delight and wonder, when the Uni∣ty unfolds it self into its amplest Variety by just degrees, even num∣bers, and exact proportions: When one extream passeth not to ano∣ther, but through all the middle terms that stand between these extreams. When one passeth not to three, but by two. Now the Unity is preserved, the middle term being as the band, or the con∣nexion of the two extreams which joyneth them in one. Now the Variety lies in the explication of the Unity, as it lies complicated in the Unity, when as the Ternary by being first gathered up into a duality, lieth folded up in the bosom of the Unity; so the Unity from the bosom of the duality, unfoldeth it self into the Ternary number. As in the blessed Trinity, the Father shines forth in the

Person of the Son, his Beauty, and beautiful Object. Both these breathe forth themselves into the Spirit, the mutual Love, the Mar∣riage-Bed of these two.

When thus the Varieties and Distinctions of things proceed by even and just degrees, springing up naturally and immediately out of the bosom of each other, as they lie naturally and nakedly in the bosom of each other, according to their Divine Love-sport and play in the Palace of their Father, the supream Unity; now the Unity shines and triumphs with a full Joy and Glory in the Face of the whole, and of each part. Now it flies, singing and sporting it self, upon the golden wings of a most ravishing Harmony over all. According to these two Rules, I shall proceed in my Answer, upon which it rests as upon its two Pillars, Jakin and Boaz, Establishment and Strength.

God is the God of Order, saith St. Paul. Order is the sacred Har∣mony of the Divine Nature; the Divine Nature, the Divine Beauty, the Divine Musick, all in one; first, in their Architype, then figuring themselves upon the whole Work of God; sweetly flowing through it all, shining, smiling, and playing every where upon the face of it. This Order with a Divine skill, by just degrees, and harmonious pro∣portions, slides into its contrary, which is disorder, by which it sets off, and heightens it self, making the Variety more full.

The first, the highest disorder, the fountain of all disorder is Sin. This is the disorder of Intellectual Spirits, the chief of all the Works of God, the Head, the Guide, the measure of all the rest. All the other Creatures are to these, as light cast forth from the body of the Sun, which is the Sun's shadow, or as shadows in this life, the sha∣dows of this shadow. St. Jude expresseth the Sin of Angels by their disorder, The Angels which kept not their first state, but left their own Habitation. State is in Greek Principle; they kept not their first Prin∣ciple, the supream Unity; They held not the Head, as St. Paul expresseth it. They left their proper Habitation, the Divine Image, the Di∣vine Order and Harmony, their proper place in that Harmony, where they were divinely-beautiful, and made an heavenly melody in the heavenly Consort and Quire. The Psalmist saith of man and his sin, Man being in honour continued not, but became like the Beast that perish∣eth. Honour is the delicate gloss, or sparkling lustre of a true Beauty, especially the beauty of Spirits, delightfully shining forth, and re∣flecting it self upon all Spirits round about it. The Divine Order and Harmony alone is the true beauty every where. This is im∣mortal.

Thus man by sin breaks himself off from, and so becomes like the Beast, without any sense of, or sensible subordination to the Order and Harmony of the whole. While he cuts himself off from this, he dies, his disorder is his death, the true life of man vanishing, together with the Universal and Divine Harmony.

Every contrary supposeth or constituteth its Correlate contrary: the contrary to disorder is order. That then which the Scripture speak∣ing with the tongue of a man, gives the name of Displeasure, Anger, Wrath in God is no other than love it self, in its naked and golden

smiles; the Divine Beauty in the purity and simplicity of its most native and unchangeable sweetness; the Harmony of the Divine Na∣ture, as a Glory eternal, calm, and Sun-shine, opposing themselves to the discord, deformity, enmity of Sin. As they say ill natures are tormented by Musick, as the evil Spirit in Saul was cast out by David's Harp: So is anger in God, the most delicious, the most transporting melody, sounding through the whole nature of things, from Jesus Christ, the Universal Image of the Divine Nature, and the golden Harp of God, which either charms the Spirit of disorder, or tor∣ments it.

Contrariorum remedium est contrarium, One contrariety is the cure and remedy of another. Disorder is reduced into order by the Di∣vine Harmony, setting it self in an opposition and contrariety to it. While the opposition between these contraries remains, they heighten one another. This state of opposition is in the Divine Poem, or Work, as the scene of storms and tempests of Blood, Confusion, of the blackness of Darkness, of Death and Hell. This scene coming in, as a part of the Variety, sets off with a greater heightning, even to an extasy of wonder and delight, the Sweetnesses, the Beau∣ties, the Glories of the Divine Harmony surrounding it, springing up, shining forth with a golden calm and lustre in the midst of it.

St. Paul divinely represents this to us, Rom. 5. ult. The Law came in, that Sin might abound; that where Sin abounded, Grace did super∣abound. That as Sin had reigned unto Death, so Grace might reign through Righteousness unto eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law which is the contrariety or opposition between the Harmony of Divine Love, and the disorder, the confusion of Lust (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) came in by the by, or by the way, in the course or stream of the heavenly Harmony, of the general and grand contrivance of Divine Love, to set it off and heighten it, to raise and transcend all expectations, to ex∣tend and surprise all Understandings, to make the melody of the whole more full, by the Variety, and more gloriously triumphant by the Discords.

The evils of Sufferings, according to the Law of the Divine Har∣mony, which is the Image of the Divine Wisdom, the first Beauty of Truth, the Image of the Divine Will, the first love and goodness in the Creature, have their entrance three ways.

1. Every Principle unfolds it self into all the powers and forms contained in it; so the evil of Sin, which is the root of Disorder, springeth up into all manner of disorders, through Spirit, Soul and Body, into all manner of evils, of blame, shame, pain, sorrow, tor∣ment. Lust when it conceiveth bringeth forth Sin, Sin when it is perfect bringeth forth death. All Disorders, all Evils, all Sufferings, are steps and forms of death.

2. The disorder of Sin, as it is the contrariety in the Harmony, is reduced into order, and made harmonious in the whole, by the opposition and contrariety of the Harmony, as in Musick, the set∣ting the Concord by the Discord, makes the Melody. Now as

the Harmony is all good, of Grace, Joy and Glory, every good, in every kind, being a particular Harmony, in the universal Harmony; so where the Universal Order, the Spirit of Order, which is the Spirit of Christ and God, setteth it self in a Contrariety to any dis∣orderly Spirit; there all good of every kind is withdrawn, all evil, as of loss, so of pain ariseth. God saith in Deuteronomy, If you walk contrary unto me, I also will walk contrary unto you. Then all Plagues are reckoned up, the natural consequencies of this Contrariety. Then saith he several times over, If you go on to walk contrary to me, I will yet bring seven times more Plagues upon you. As the opposition, and disorder, and sin encreaseth, so the Divine Harmony also is height∣ned in its contrariety to it. All this is done, that the evil of sin and disorder, the beauty and sweetness of the Divine Grace and Order, may set out the Contrariety. This also is, that the distinction be∣tween the Ceator and the Creature, the heavenly Image, the Original and Substance which is all pure Light and Good, without any mix∣ture of Darkness, or capacity of Evil. And the earthly Image, the shadow, which is composed of a figure of Light and true Darkness, from which sin, with all evils, spring and take life, according to the Language of the Apostle, may be more clearly discovered. Thus by the breaking in of sin, by blame and shame, and sufferings, which are as so many Glasses to set before sin the deformity and ugliness of its own face; the Creature, the shadowy Image is humbled, is broken to pieces, is brought into the dust, that it may give all glory, and attribute all good to the Creator, the Original, and eternal Image, that it may resign it self to it, seek its rest alone in it, and that it may finally return into the bosom of the Original Glory, which in these wayes, by these degrees, through the breakings of it, springeth up in it, breaketh forth through it, and bringeth it back again to lie down eternally in that Bosom of purest Love and Light, where it was at first from eternity, where it hath been eternally hid with Christ in God. All this God doth, that he may eternally display the un∣searchable Riches of that Variety and Fulness which is in himself, that he may swallow up the Understanding of every Creature, Man or Angel, into an admiration and adoration of the incomprehensible∣ness of his Wayes, his Wisdom, his Blessedness and Glory, who at once bringeth forth these Varieties (which like Morning-Stars and Sons of God in the purest unmixt Light and Love, dance and sing together in his Bosom) into such fighting Contrarieties, upon the stage of the earthly and created Image here below, making that the seat of deformity, shame, woe and death, while it figureth out the highest Joys and Glories of eternal Life above, who again gathers up all these jarring and tumultuous Contrarieties into the first state and supream Unity, where the Variety is far more vast and boundless in the whole, far more full and distinct in each branch of it, where the whole is all, an eternal Melody, an eternal Beauty, an eternal Joy, unexpressibly Divine, pure and ravishing, where each branch, in its own distinct Form, is a Beauty, a Melody, a Joy equally pure, per∣fect and ravishing with the whole, being crowned with the Unity

and Eternity, which is the highest Unity. This St. Paul representeth to us clearly and fully in the person of each Saint, when he saith, Heights and Depths, things present, and things to come, this World, Life and Death, all things are yours, and you are Christs, and Christ is Gods. All things are Divine, distinct eternal Glories in the person of a Saint, as a Saint is taken up into the Glory of Christ, as Christ is in the Glory of God.

3. The evil of Sufferings is the proper way, in the Universal Order, by which the disorderly Spirit, with its disorders, returneth into order, to possess and enjoy in it self the Divine Beauty and Musick of the whole. Guilt is the Obligation upon each Spirit, from every Act of disorder, unto the Divine Justice, which is the Law of the Divine Harmony, seated originally in the Divine Nature from the opposing it self to the disorderly Spirit, and the reducing it by the opposition into order.

This is done three wayes,

• 1. By Expiation.
• 2. By Compensation.
• 3. By Abolition.

1. Expiation or atonement is the bringing in of something Sacred, Divine and Perfect. The Heathen in their Expiations generally made use of brimstone, which seemed to have something Sacred and Divine in it, as appears by the Greek name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifieth both brimstone, and something Divine, perhaps the reason is its apt∣ness to take fire, and its resemblance in its pure and fiery flame to the Coelestial Bodies.

2. Compensation is of like to like by an equality, this turneth the Discord into a Concord, and gathereth it up into the Unity.

3. The Abolition is the effacing and blotting out the disorder, bringing it forth now into order, where the deformity of the dis∣cord is swallowed up into an amiable and beautiful Harmony. This is the chief part of the expiation or atonement in which the Ancients to this end made use of a living stream or fire, as things Sacred and proper for purification. But this whole work is comprehended in the mystery of Christ, it is begun and finished in his Person alone literally or mystically.

1. Expiation. Jesus Christ, the eternal Spirit of the Divine Or∣der and Harmony springs up in the midst of the disorder, and takes it all upon himself, by taking Flesh. This is the beginning of the Expiation, this is the truly sacred Divine and perfect thing, brought in to expiate the confusion and the abomination: This is the supream Unity, the supream Harmony, Love it self, the Prince of Peace and Harmony, the God of Order discovering himself, as a sacred and eternal Root at the bottom of the disorder, in whom that also stands after an orderly and harmonious manner, while he himself also is springing up through it. This is the beginning of the Expia∣tion.

2. Compensation. This Jesus, which is Divine Love it self, ap∣pearing in the enmity, the Divine Harmony it self, in the disorder,

seats himself, as the mark of the opposition and contrariety, by which the Divine Order, in the Spirit of Order, which is himself, sets it self against the Disorder, to subdue and reduce it; he receiveth himself into his own bosom and heart, all the invenomed arrows and fiery darts which the Justice and Wrath of God, that is Love it self, casteth forth in its highest opposition, and contrariety to the enmity.

This contrariety of the Divine Love to the enmity, which hath violated and slain this Love, in breaking the Harmony, is maintained by a War of Blood and Fire, till it come to its ut most height, till the contrariety of Love to the enmity be fully displayed and discharged, till the enmity and disorder, that work of the Devil, be subdued and destroyed, together with the dissolution of flesh it self. The earthly and shadowy Image, the seat and ground of sin and enmity, by the death of Jesus Christ, who hath taken our Sins and Nature upon himself, as the first root and ground of all.

O sweet and Divine Mystery! O musical Discord, and harmonious Contrariety! O peaceful and pleasant War! where the supream Love stands on both sides, where, as in a mysterious Love-sport, or a Di∣vine Love-play, it fights with it self, suffering for it self, dying by it self, and so it self sinking by death into its own sweetest bosom and dearest embraces, the fountain of Life, the center and circle of all Delights: O bitter Peace! disordering Melody! broken and unplea∣sant Harmony! where Love suffers all evil, and is slain on both sides, to make perfect the Harmony. But oh full Compensation! O full and sweet Harmony, arising out of the Discords, swallowing up the Discords themselves into the most pure, the most perfect, most plea∣sant melody; whereas Love first suffered, and was slain by the dis∣order and enmity of Sin; so now Love again suffereth, and is slain for the enmity, for sin, by the wrath of God against sin, that is, by the Love in its contrary to the enmity. Thus Love it self, in the place of us all, most lovingly, and beauty it self, most beautifully is become a Sacrifice for it self to it self.

3. Abolition. The last step in the way of reducing disorder into order, is the Abolition or Renovation; this is the finishing of all in the Person of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the compleat Image of the invisible God. Thus he comprehendeth the whole Creation in himself, for all the Creatures are so many expressive or manifestative figures of the Divine Glory. We read in Scripture, That the things which are seen; that is, all the created Objects of Sense or Reason, Humane or Angelical, stand up out of the things which are not seen. Jesus Christ then being the first, & highest Image of the invisible God, as he is in his own unaccessible Light, is the Root out of which, and in which the Creation stands; the Lord Jesus, as this universal Person, goes down into the Grave, and carries thither, into those lowest shades, at once with himself all Images of things, the Original and the Copy, the Substance and the Shadow, the Uncreated Glory and the created Figure. So Christ dies, and the whole Creation dieth with him, so he makes an end of Sin and Transgression. Here he

sings that triumphant Song, O Death, I am thy death. Here all the evil of Sin and Suffering, of Disorder and Contrariety, which, as a grave, had swallowed up the whole Creation, is swallowed up into Victory in the grave of Christ.

In this Divine Death, the whole Creation is dissolved, and comes to its last end, in its last end it meets with its beginning, falling quite out of it self, falling down out of its own empty, obscure shade and nothingness, it falls into the bosom of its heavenly and eternal Mother, the Original Glory.

The Original Glory in the Person of Christ hath descended thus low, together with its Birth and shadow; Here it finisheth its de∣scent in its shadow, here diffusing it self and its eternal Light through these shades of death, and through the whole Creation, in these shades it maketh it self perfectly one, by an entire and mutual commu∣nion in death with all the Creatures, whose life was a continual War with it. The Light of the heavenly Image poured forth in these shades of death, flowing through the created Image, overflowing and taking it into it self, is that precious and Divine Blood, which by its mysterious washings maketh the crimson and scarlet sins or stains upon this Image whiter than the whitest wooll or snow.

In this Divine Death, the shadowy Image, with all its evils of disorder and enmity, are now past away for ever, in respect to any reality, substantiality, or subsistence in themselves; they remain only as figures, in the Divine shade of this death, in which shade the hea∣venly Image bears all in its pure, although obscured bosom. It is now the Root of eternal Love, and eternal Life in Death, receiving into it self all the Creatures, with all their disorders and enmities. They all now do here put off their Realities, and become only mysterious shadows, through which the supream Beauty and Sweetness springeth and sporteth it self. But the Original Glory, in the Person of Christ, having now finished the mystery of its descent in the Creature, and in this final dissolution taken the Creature again into it self as its first and proper Root, beginneth now its return and ascent. As the Lord Jesus died, so he riseth again an universal Person, with both Images, created and uncreated, united in himself.

The eternal Glory, once in the first Creation, vailed it self beneath a shadowy Image, to die in that Image; accordingly he died with it, and for it. But now he riseth again, in the brightness of his hea∣venly Image, he raiseth the whole Creation together with himself, as his proper and immediate Birth, as its purest and loveliest Bride, in the most intimate, entire, and mutual Union with it self, in all its glo∣ries, thus to live for ever in the richest and closest embraces of each other.

Here now ye have a three-fold Resurrection in one:

1. The Divine Image, which is eternal Love and life it self, as it had been vailed, as it had suffered and died in the Creature, riseth sweetly and gloriously from beneath all those shades into its own freshest and fullest Beauties: Thus it riseth in the midst of the created Image.

2. The created Image, was once a fair entire Picture, of the eter∣nal Beauty, living a Divine Life, breathing a Divine Sweetness, be∣ing a Divine Paradise in it self, to it self, while it stood as a pure resemblance of its Divine Original. But by its fall into the inf•…•…rnal Deep of Sin, it stained it self, it broke it self all to pieces, it buried its Life, Beauty, and Sweetness in a dreadful and hateful death. Now having put off that death, in the death of Christ, it riseth again in the bosom of the Original Glory, not only in its fullest Beauty and Sweetness, but a Beauty and Sweetness far more excelling. It was be∣fore its fall, a sweet shade, an earthly Paradise. The shade vanished into darkness, the Paradise faded and disappeared. But now it riseth as the •…•…un-shine of the Godhead, as the sweetest Light, at once lying in the Bosom of the highest Glory embraced by it, and surrounding that Glory with its embraces, by a mutual, immediate, and eternal Union.

3. The fall, the disorders, the wounds and death of this shadowy Image, so dreadful and hateful as they stood in time, now also have their Resurrection, and put on a new appearance in eternity: Having now passed through the Death and Sufferings of Christ, where they put off all their evil, by putting off all their own proper reality; they stand in his Resurrection as figures of eternal Glories, which are them∣selves also Glories in the Bosom of their Glorious Original: They are seen now, as they eternally spring up and flourish in the Garden of the Divine Mind, as they bear their part, and shine in the uni∣versal Beauty of the Divine Image and Work. As the eternal Ori∣ginal with its Paradisical shadow lay hid in them, like a Flower in its Seed in the Earth, as both these Glories now are sprung forth through them, and bring forth them again, as eternal Lights, in the light and circle of their own Beauties: So is Christ in the circle of the Throne of God, as the Lamb that was slain, where his wounds appear in his glorified Person; not as Wounds, but as Beauties; not as Fractures or Stains, but as Diamonds or Pearls in the Crown of his Righteousness and Glory. Perhaps I may seem too long upon this part of my Discourse, but we read of a Sanctuary into which the Holy Spirit entreth, when it is perplext with the outward face of the Divine Providence in the evil of sin and Sinners, and of Sufferings to the Saints. There it seeth the end of all. There the mystery openeth it self into an universal Uniform piece, and prospect of Di∣vine Beauty and Delight, Psal. 73. If I be not deceived, Jesus risen from the dead, in this order and manner is this Sanctuary, this Temple of Grace and Truth. He hath now rent the Vail of his Flesh, and opened himself into an universal eternal Spirit. He now shines out with a sweet amiable clearness and glory, into an universal eternal Light.

In this Spirit, which is this Light of Life, the whole course of his Work in the Creation, and in Providence, his Incarnation, Suffer∣ings and Death, present themselves in all the smallest threads and con∣textures of them, as one Di•…•…ine piece, as full of Divinity every where. Here all in the whole, and in the parts, present themselves

to the spiritual Eye, as beautiful and blessed Spirits, in numberless troops, by a Divine sport figuring their immortal Glories in all Va∣rieties of lights and shades, hiding their Glories beneath these figures, breaking with their Glories out of these figures, as so many Suns out of their Clouds, shewing their figures themselves as Glories. Like the Palms, and Lilies, and Cherubims of the Temple, carved first in Cedar, and then covered with massy Gold. In the mean time all these numberless Spirits, in their whole play from the beginning to the end, are comprehended in this one Spirit, the universal Spirit of Harmony, Order, Beauty, and pleasantness in all. Jesus risen from the dead, the first, and the last, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.

O the Wisdom! the Power! the Grace! the Glory! the un∣searchable Riches of the mystery of God in Christ! What a depth is this without any bottom? What an heighth without any bound? What a breadth? what a length without any measure? How doth it stretch forth it self beneath all, above all, through all, beyond all things, or thoughts? Who can ever satisfie himself with any the richest, the fullest forms of words or conceptions, in conceiving or expressing this Mystery, this Jesus.

But I have now brought to an end, according to my weak manner, the reducing the disorder it self into order, in the Person of Christ, by these three sacred steps of Expiation, Compensation, Abolition, of the Disorder in the Order, or which is the same, the Renovation of the Order in all. I have endeavoured to shew how every thing of par∣t•…•…cular order and disorder, hath been made beautiful in its season, keeping its time in the Universal Harmony of this Song of the Lamb, in the Musick of the eternal Word.

I have also attempted to open that mystery, how this Work of God, in every part of it, with its Beauty, is for eternity, the light of eternity, being the only light of Truth, with a golden Calm, an unstained Sun-shine, of purest perpetual Peace, Pleasantness and Glory. In this light of eternity alone, is the Work of God seen aright, in the entire piece, in the whole design, from the beginning to the end. As all times appear in this Light, less than a moment, a point, nothing, being as eternity in the undivided Unity of eternity; so are all the disorders of time, no more, not so much as a shadow in a dream that is past, but as the highest and sweetest Harmony in the undivided Unity of the eternal Harmony.

All this is true in the Person of Christ, to which the Scriptures give a clear Testimony. All things are gathered together in one in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on Earth, Ephes. 1. 10. Having made peace through the blood of his Cross, God hath by him reconciled all things to himself by him, whether they be things on Earth, or in Heaven, Col. 1. 20. These are true in us, as Christ springs up in us. Then only are we our selves baptized. Then only do we see all things unto us, together with us, baptized into the sweet, shining, bound∣less, bottomless Sea of this universal a•…•…d eternal Harmony, when we are baptized into Christ. As many of us as are baptized into Christ,

are baptized into his Death, and into •…•…is Resurrection from the dead. How then can we live any longer in sin, being now dead to it? How can we live any life besides that of Holiness and Heaven, being now risen again with Christ into the Glory of God? Thus St. Paul excludes all pleas of the Flesh, for a licentiousness in sin, from this Doctrine of the free and rich Grace of God in Christ, Rom. 6. 1, 2, 3, 4.

I am now come to the end of my design upon this Scripture, Eccles. 3. I have been large in the prosecution of my design upon this Scrip∣ture; my purpose was to reconcile the absoluteness of the Divine So∣vereignty, Wisdom and Power, through this whole Work, with the Divine Justice, Goodness and Glory, in the determination of the Will, by its essential Principles, by the uninterrupted order, and connexion of causes; by the first and universal Cause, which is most intimate to every effect, and worketh most of all; Secundum modum naturae, in a natural way, as being the n•…•…tura naturans.

I promised two other Scriptures, for the making good of this de∣sign; I will lightly touch them, and so hasten to an end of my Discourse.

The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the Wicked for the day of evil, Prov. 16. 4.

There are four parts clear and distinct in this Scripture.

1. An efficient cause or beginning, The Lord Jehovah.

2. The final cause or end, For himself.

3. The universality of the effect, and influence of these Causes, The Lord hath made all things for himself.

4. A confirmation of this universal influence of these Divine Causes upon every Effect, by a particular and most eminent instance; Yea even the Wicked for the day of evil.

Three things are remarkable in this particular instance:

1. It is brought in as an anticipation of an Objection, and with a two-fold Asseveration; Yea, even. Here in this point men are apt most of all to doubt the continuation and universality of the Divine influence. What, say they, hath God made all things for himself? What the evils of Sin and of Suffering? Here men of greatest wit through all Ages have been at a stand, not knowing how to fasten the golden Links of the Divine Chain, in the Work of God, one within another. Here they have broken the Chain of the holy and heavenly Order. Here therefore the Divine Wisdom by Solomon peculiarly fasteneth the Links, and maketh the Chain entire, that he may enclose the whole Work, as one compleat piece, within the same Divine beginning and Divine end, knit together by the same Divine influence, running equally through all parts, and making all one; The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the Wicked for the day of evil.

2. The effect in this particular instance is remarkable. This effect is, every wicked person under the formality of a wicked person. As a Creature, an Angel, or a Man, he cannot be the subject of any question or doubt. The evil of sin, by which he is constituted, and

denominated wicked, is clearly designed by this emphatical instance. I have often already expressed the manner of the influence and ope∣ration of the Divine Power and Providence, upon the evil of sin, and so of a Sinner, under the formality of sin. All evil being a de∣fect, depends upon the first Cause, together with all intermediate Causes, in their deficiency only, and in the ordination of circum∣stances.

3. This instance brings in this particular effect in its inseparable connexion with its subordinate end; The day of evil. The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked person, who be∣comes wicked by the evil of sin. He hath made the inseparable con∣nexion between the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings. He hath made this evil person by an inviolable Order for the day of evil, the evil of Sufferings. He hath made this evil person, this evil of sufferings, the connexion between these two, as the effect and next subordinate end; For himself, the Ultimate and last end, the blessed, the glorious Crown of all. I will finish this Subject with two or three brief and clear Observations drawn from this Text.

1. The beginning and the end of all things, are the same. God in his most glorious Essence, the only, the supream, the universal, the essential Good, an infinite Good.

2. The end is the first and chief Cause, moving all other Causes, and directing their motions from the first, to the last motion.

3. All things are bounded by these two; The first beginning, and the last end. All things in every step of all effects, of all subordinate ends, are in motion, and in the way to the last end. They rest not, they attain not their mark, to which they are designed, from the beginning by the first and universal Mover, till they arrive at this their last end.

4. •…•…he last end gives amiableness, beauty and perfection to all things, as the means of bringing forth this end. It gives this beauty and perfection to them three wayes:

1. It self runs along through all things, in their whole way to it, as the first universal Mover, as the first and universal virtue and force which moves in all, and moves all throughout from the beginning to the end.

2. It comprehends all in it, as the bosom, or nest, in which the whole is designed and formed.

3. It rests upon all things in every part of the work, and step of the way, as the life and light of the universal Order and Harmony; which attracts, directs and conducts all to it self.

4. It gathers up all things at last into its self, as the term and mark to which all things move, in which alone all motions cease, and are changed into rest. Every thing in its Ultimate end gaineth its per∣fection, its true and proper self. Every thing is so far it self, as it is perfect; so far as it is imperfect, it falls short of it self; every im∣perfection being a privation of being, and so to each self a privation of it self, according to its degree. This is the sweet and musical close. This is the bright and beautiful crown of all things, the begin∣ning and the end meeting in one.

5. The end it self, as it is the first Mover, so doth it last of all cease from its motions, and terminate them in its own beatifical Rest. This is the end perfectly accomplished, when all things tending to this end, meet in the perfection of the end. The end therefore never returns to its rest, till it rests with its full perfection in every part of the Work, in every particular form directed to it self. Our Divines teach us, That the Glory of God is the Ultimate end of all things, not the essential, but the manifestative Glory; so the Glory of God, then only finds rests, when it rests with a full revelation of it self, unvail∣ing all its Beauties, unfolding all its Sweetnesses in the bosom and face of each part of the whole Work of God. So the Divine opera∣tion and motion ceaseth not in any part of this Divine Work, until all rest in the bosom of this Glory, perfectly displaying all its Plea∣sures and Delicacies upon it: For this manifestative Glory is the end of all. The end mutually gives to, and takes from all the means to the end, rest and perfection. Thus God hath made all things, all effects, with all their subordinate ends, yea, even the wicked also, for the day of evil, his subordinate end; for this Great and Ultimate end, himself, in the brightness and full out-shinings of his Glory.

I pass now to the third Scripture, Rom. 11.

If I deceive not my self, I seem to my self to discern in this Scripture a rich Mine of Divinity, of Divine Truth and Glory, in which no Workman hath yet laboured. But it is not agreeable to my present time, or purpose to open, or point out this Mine, if I were furnished with an heavenly strength and skill sufficient for it. I shall now only touch at some verses in this Chapter, which contibute to my present Design, verse 23. God hath shut up, or as it is in the Greek, God hath locked up together all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all. St. Paul in this Chapter sets before us, God as the most skillful Painter, sweetning and beautifying his Work in the whole, and in the parts of it, by the mixtures and interchanges of Light and Shades, Grace and Severity, still terminating all in the sweetness and light of the Divine Grace, as the end of all.

From this Contemplation he raiseth himself into, and loseth him∣self in the pleasant heighths of a Divine Extasy, verse 33. O the depth of the Riches, and the Wisdom, and the Knowledg of God: How un∣searchable are his Judgments, and his wayes past finding out? Every Work of God hath a three-fold Depth of Riches.

1. A Depth of Riches, the riches of Power, Purity, Beauty, Love, Goodness, Grace and Glory.

2. A Depth of Wisdom, of Divine Contrivance, of perfect Har∣mony.

3. A Depth of Knowledge, comprehending all endless and infi∣nite Varieties in a clear view at once.

In every part of the Work of God do all these Depths meet, which swallow up the most capacious Spirits of Saints and Angels in∣to themselves, but can be fathomed by no Spirit. The distinct judgment in which any one, the least piece of this Work is wrought, hath so boundless a depth, heighth and compass in it, that it is

altogether unsearchable. The way of God in it is a Divine secret, and mystery of Grace and Glory, which hath such recesses, such end∣less Varieties in it, that it cannot be traced by the Foot, or discovered by the eye of any Creature.

St. Paul foundeth this incomprehensibleness in the Work of God, upon the incomprehensibleness of the Divine Mind. He foundeth this un∣bounded Treasure of Divine Goodness and Glory in the Work of God, upon the absoluteness & freedom of the Divine Nature, ver. 35. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? and who hath been his Coun∣sellor? or who hath given first to him, that it may be given again to him, by way of return or exchange. As are the Riches of the Divine Mind, which first forms in it self the Ideas of all its work, and then forms eve∣ry work according to that Idea which rests upon every Work, as the Seal upon the Print in the Wax; such are the Riches of God in every part of his Work. As is the absoluteness & unlimitedness of the Divine Nature, which consulteth with nothing, considereth nothing in the Crea∣ture, but taketh the measure and the manner of all his Works from eternal patterns, in his most glorious Essence, and is put on, and taketh the rise of all his Works, from the ever-ful, ever flowing, over-flowing fountain and boundless Riches of his Godhead; such are all the operations and emanations of the Divine Nature. Thus St. Paul concludeth, and justifieth the Divine Wonders of incompre∣hensible Riches, Wisdom, Knowledge: The Divine Wonders of an absolute, unconfined freedom in all the Works of God, by the cause of all, verse 36. Because of him, and by him, or through him, and to him, are all things.

Plato maketh three Causes alone, the

• Efficient,
• Formal, or Exemplar, and
• Final.

St. Paul wraps up all these in one, in God alone. He is the be∣ginning, the way, the end of all. He is the Fountain, out of which they all arise in their several streams: He is the Chanel in which eve∣ry stream runs along; He is the Sea, into which they all flow; where they lose not their Distinctions, but rise up to the perfection of them, in this Marriage, with the first, the full and unbounded Glory.

To what unbounded expectations of Divine Riches, surmounting all expectations in every Creature, may we now raise our thoughts, when the beginning, the way, the end of every thing, thus lies in the Godhead? when this Bosom, the Treasures of all Glories and Sweetnesses, is to every thing its Fountain, in which it riseth; its Cha∣nel, in which it runs along; its Sea, in which it ends. How justly doth St. Paul set a Crown of Glory upon the Head of the Deity in all its Works, To him is glory in the Generations, so may we most pro∣perly read the words. How sweetly doth he seal up his own Faith, Understanding, Love, in sweetest Rest, and fullest Joy, with this Glory, Amen. Of him, through him, and to him, are all things; To him be Glory for ever, Amen.

Thus, this last Scripture in a clear Harmony, with the other two, seems to give a sweet and full close to the Divine Musick of this hea∣venly Truth, and leaves these divinely-delightful touches upon our Spirits.

1. God, the only Good, is equally absolute, entire, universal, in shutting, or locking up all men in Unbelief, the Prison, the Dungeon of deepest darkness; as in shewing mercy, which is the opening to them, the taking them into the Palace of eternal Light, the Light of Life, the Light of Love, the Light of Glory. He shuts, and none can open; he opens, and none can shut. These are the two Cardinal Acts, the shutting up under belief, and the shewing mercy. Upon which the whole work of the Divine Providence moves through Earth, through Hell and Heaven, through Time and Eternity.

2. Shewing mercy is the end, shutting up in unbelief is the means or way to this end. Mercy is one of the sweetest names of Love, the shutting up in unbelief is then an Act of Divine Love: For all motions to the end, are in the virtue of the end; the end is the light, the life, the loveliness of the means. All means and ways to the end, are first comprehended in the end. The end by it self immediately formeth them upon the Spirit of the Agent: The end through the Spririt of the Agent bringeth forth it self into them, as so many ten∣dencies to it self, as so many gradual, orderly springings forth of its self. The end at the last comprehendeth them all again in it self, as making up the perfection of the end, and having their perfection in the end. Thus the severity and wrath of God, in its severest Act, the shutting up men under unbelief, is Love, and divinely-lovely.

3. God, and Love, in this Work of his, appear to be both one. For Love is the end of Wrath; By being the end, it is also the be∣ginning, and the way. So also is God, For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom is the glory through all Generations. The highest expression of God, unto our capacity, as he is in the sim∣plicity of his Divine Essence, is Love. This is his Glory, as he is un∣vailed, unclouded. This is that that darkens and thickens it self into every Vail or Cloud. This is a sweetning, a gilding upon every Vail, every Cloud. God, as he is Love, is the beginning, the way, the end of every Work, through every Generation; and so the Glory in every Work, to all generations.

4. God in his Work is absolute, and absolutely free; He taketh no counsel, he is touched with no motive from any thing without him∣self. The reason and rule of all his Works, is alone from himself from within: All within is the Unity, the simplicity of the Divine Essence, uncapable of any mixture or composition; all meer, clear, pure Love.

5. The Work of God, in shutting up in unbelief, and shewing mercy, is an unfathomable Depth: But is a shining Depth of most perfect Beauty and sweetest Light. For it is a Depth of Divine Wisdom, it is a Depth of Glory and unsearchable Riches. It is a most delicious Depth of Divinest Love, the unsearchable Treasure of all the most lovely, and most loving Sweets and Joys. The work

of God is unsearchable, incomprehensible, infinite; but an unsearch∣able •…•…ncomprehensible, infinite Love and Glory. Let us therefore e•…•…pect in this Work to meet with Difficulties too great for our Un∣derstanding. Let us be content to say, Here is a Depth unfathomable, not to my Spirit alone, but to every finite Spirit of Man or Angel. Then let us add from our knowledge of whom, whose the design and the work is; It is a lovely, a delightful Depth; a Depth of pu∣rest Glories, and richest Loves: So let us gladly cast our selves into it, to be swallowed up by it; concluding all with these words, I cannot receive, nor comprehend thee. Do thou receive and comprehend me. O Depth infinitely too glorious to be comprehended by me! O my self infinitely blessed, in being comprehended by thee!

I come now to the third Reason I am to answer.

Reason 3, The Language of the Scripture, in the whole current of it, seemeth generally to run along upon this ground, of an undeter∣mined freedom of the Will of Man. The Divine Will is cleared from the evils of Sin and Suffering. The Will of Man is charged with them. Agreeable to this, are the Divine Precepts, Prohibitions, Promises, Threatnings, Admonitions, Reproofs, Complaints, Expostu∣lations, which compose a great part of the sacred Writings.

Answ. I answer by a distinction; This manner of Language, As I live, I desire not the death of a Sinner. Why will ye die, O house of Israel? with all expressions like to these, are either,

• 1. Proper and plain.
• 2. Figurative and mysterious.

1. If they be proper and plain, two great Difficulties arise.

1. The true and living God, thus represented, appears like Ho∣mers Gods, and the Gods of the Poets. Weak, querulous, passible, ever in contentions and combates.

2. While the Divine Will in that, on which it fixeth it self with so great truth and intention, is capable of being opposed and defeat∣ed, it appears destitute of Wisdom, Power and Blessedness.

2. If they be figurative and mysterious. The figures first are to be determined, and the mystery vailed, beneath the figure, to be discovered; before we can establish any certain, or clear sense upon them.

1. The figure made use of in this manner of Language, is, by the consent of Divines, complicated of an Anthropopathy, and a Meto∣nymy.

2. The Anthropopathy is then, when passions proper to man are at∣tributed to God.

2. The Metonymy is of the cause set for the effect; and the things signified in the place of the sign.

So those changeable passions in created Spirits, which bring forth and express themselves by changes of good or evil; the effects and signs of those passions are applied to the unchangeable God, when he bringeth forth the like changes in his Work. So the Jews say, That the holy Scriptures speak with the Tongue, and in the Language of a Man; But all such figurative expressions concerning God, are to be

understood with this Caution. Every thing indeed in the Creature is a figure, which hath its Original pattern answering to it in the Divine Nature: But all imperfections attending the figure, are to be re∣moved: All perfections in their utmost heights, and most absolute fulness, are to be attributed to the Original pattern, when by the shadowy figure in the Creature, you look to the exemplar and primi∣tive truth in God. So by these changeable and diverse passions in man, you are to represent to your selves in God, a Goodness, a Power, an unsearchable Riches of Variety, and manifoldly various Wisdom; and all these apart, and together, with the most absolute simplicity, and highest Unity in the Divine Essence, producing all diversities of accidents, all changes of good and evil in the Divine Design, which cometh forth at once, as one piece, divinely Rich, in all Va∣rieties from him, and as one entire Image filled with the riches of all distinct Beauties of him, who is unchangeable, and most perfectly one.

2. Having thus determined of the Figure; Let us try to lift up the Vail, and discover the Divine Mystery beneath this Figure.

I shall endeavour to take a Prospect of this Divine Secret, and hid∣den Glory, by several steps or degrees.

1. The letter of the Scripture, in the general •…•…ream and current of it, is the Ministry of the Law. So St. Paul in divers places distin∣guisheth the Law and the Gospel, or the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace, 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us able (speaking of God) Ministers of the New Testament, or the New Covenant, not of the Letter, but of the Spirit; for the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. In the following verse, the engraving of the Law in Tables of Stone, and Moses are mentioned. Again, in prosecution of the same Discourse, Moses with his Vail is brought in; To this are oppo∣sed in the 17. and 18. verses, The Spirit of the Lord, the liberty of the Spirit, the sight of the Glory of the Lord, with an unvailed Face, the tranfiguration of the Soul into the same Image, from glory to glory, and all this by the Lord, the Spirit.

These things laid together, seem to make it clear, that in the sense of the holy Apostle; the letter, the proposal and pressing of any truth or goodness upon us, in a literal and moral way only, whether out∣ward or inward, amounteth to no more then the old Covenant, the Ministery of the Law: on the other side the new Covenant, the Gospel is the Spirit himself ministring himself through the letter to us, taking off the Vail which lies upon the letter, and upon our hearts, bringing us forth into the Liberty, the open Light, and the Divine Life of the Spirit, giving us a naked view of the Face of Christ, in his spiritual and heavenly Glory, and by this view transforming us into living Images of the same Glory, springing up, and encreasing in us unto the perfect day of eternity. Suitable to this, is that of St. Paul, Rom. 10. 5. Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law, That the man which doth these things shall live by them. Whatever im∣poseth upon us any thing to be done by us, as an antecedent condition to any consequent good, is the Law opposed to the Gospel. The

Law maketh Precepts the ground of Promises; He that doth these things shall live by them. But the Gospel maketh Promises, the sure, the sweet, the precious pleasant ground of Precepts. So St. Peter, 2 Pet. 1. teacheth us, That by the Glory and Virtue of the Godhead calling us to it self, most great and precious Promises are given us, that by these we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature. So St. Paul engrafts Evangelical Precepts upon Evangelical Communications of the Divine Nature through Evangelical Promises. Work out, saith he, your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do, Phil. 2.

2. The proper end of the Law in the design or effect, is not Love, Righteousness, Life, and Blessedness; but Condemnation, Death, and Wrath, 2 Cor. 3. 7. It is called the ministry of Death. At the ninth verse, The ministry of Condemnation. St. Paul in another place speaketh plainly, That, if there had been a Law which could have given Life, Righteousness should have been by the Law. St. Paul instruct∣eth us in two eminent essential differences between the Law and the Gospel. First, The Law by Descriptions, Commands, Allurements, Ter∣rors, setteth Righteousness before us; but infuseth not a new Nature, a new Life into us, which may of its own accord bring forth Righte∣ousness, as Plants sp•…•…ing up out of the ground, and out of their pro∣per root. Secondly, the Law not giving Christ himself to us, to be a quickning Spirit in us, to be our Life, to be one Life with us, can∣not give us Righteousness, either to the acceptation of our Persons, or to the Sanctification of our Natures.

3. The Law which is the Ministry of Wrath, is not the first or chief design of God: that in which he begins, or with which he ends. The Divine Love, the Beauties of Holiness, and the Divine Nature, Immortality, the Glory of God, founded and wrapt up in that one Seed, which is Christ, from whom, together with whom, for whose Joy and Glory sake, they spring freely, fruitfully, irresistably, sub∣duing all things to themselves. These are the first and chief design of God, the good pleasure of his Will. So St. Paul teaches us, Gal. 3. That the promise in the Seed was first, and the Law came after that; which cannot therefore frustrate the design of the Promise and of the Seed.

There is a beautiful and rich Scripture opening the Glory of the Divine Design of the Lord to us, Rom. 5. 20, 21. But the Law came in by the by, that Sin might abound; but where Sin abounded, Grace hath abounded much more: That as sin reigned unto death, so Grace might reign by Righteousness unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Two things are remarkable here.

• 1. The way of the coming in of the Law.
• 2. The end of bringing in of the Law.

1. The way of bringing in of the Law, is most elegantly and am∣ply expressed in that one word (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.) The Law was not

brought in first from the beginning, nor for its own sake; that it should be the end. Grace, the Divine Love, the everlasting Righte∣ousness, eternal Life in the Seed, the eternal Son of God, the Image and fulness of the Godhead, the brightness of his Glory; Jesus Christ was the great design, for which all things are constituted, to which all things serve: In which God beginneth and endeth all his Works, all his Counsels, and in which he eternally resteth. In the stream and current of this Design, the Law it self is brought in as subservient to it. In Dramatick Poems, which have the design laid in some one entire, great, and glorious action; the continuance is set off, heightned by two eminent parts in it. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a knot tyed fast in the course of the action; then the uniting of this knot, which makes the action more full of Variety, more glorious, more delight∣ful. Thus in this great action of time and eternity, the bringing of the Sons of God to Glory, by their glorious Captain Jesus Christ; the Law is brought in, in the course ofit, as a knot tyed fast, which no created Power is able to unty, or to understand how it should be loosed. This is the way of bringing in the Law.

2. The ends of the Law are of two sorts:

• 1. The proper and next ends.
• 2. The extrinsecal and Ultimate ends.

1. The proper and next ends of the Law, are Sin, Condemnation, Death, and the Divine Wrath. So that St. Paul saith in this Scrip∣ture, That the Law came in, that Sin might abound.

1. The Law let in Sin, so St. Paul teacheth us expresly, Rom. 7. 8. Sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all concupi∣scence. Again, as the 11. verse, Sin taking occasion by the Command∣ment drceived me, and slew me.

2. The Law heightens Sin, so that expression testifieth, The Law came in, that Sin might abound.

3. The Law by bringing in Sin, bringeth in upon us a spiritual Death in Sin. St. Paul speaking as by a figure of all Mankind, in his own person, Rom. 7. 9, 10. I was alive once without the Law, (that is in Paradise) but the Law coming, sin revived or sprung up into life; but I died. These three ends of the Law flow from it, not by it self, nor from the nature of the Law; but by accident, from the weakness of the Flesh, and of the Creature. So you read, verse 10. The Com∣mandment which was unto life, in its own nature, was found to me unto death, in the effects of it, verse 13. The holy Spirit opens the design in these effects of the Law, Is then that which is good (namely the Law) made death to me. But sin, that sin might be made manifest, wrought death to me by the good, that sin might become excessively sinful by the Law.

God having a design which he intended to enrich with the fullest, the highest Glories of his Godhead, brings forth in the course of this design, a dark scene of all evils, Sin, Death, Wrath; The evil in this scene is carried on to its utmost extent and heighth; Thus the Variety becomes more full in the whole design, and the chief design is heightned in its sweetest Glory. God through his infinite Wis∣dom,

so bringeth in this scene of sin and evil, that himself is per∣fectly pure, and good in the contrivance and conduct of it. He setteth up a Law, good, holy, and spiritual, but such that sin inevita∣bly may take occasion from it through the frailty of Flesh, and of the Creature, to spring up by it unto an overflowing Flood, to display it self over all things in its fullest, foulest Forms and Births.

4. The Law hath for its proper end, the conviction, condemna∣tion and death of all men.

1. The conviction of the Law is two-fold:

1. Man is convinced of his frailty and consequent mutability in his Primitive state, before the Fall. So saith the Psalmist, Man in his best state is altogether Vanity: He is the shadow, not the very Image, the true Glory. He hath a shadow of Righteousness, of Wisdom, of Power; a shadow only of Life, a shadow of Being: Christ only in his heavenly Image, and eternal State, is the Life it self, the truth of all these. Man in Paradise had no Being, Life, or Motion of himself, or in himself: As a meer shadow is no more than it is in its proper substance on which it depends. If it be any thing in it self, it is no more a shadow, but the substance. The Spirit saith of the Heavens and the Earth, That God turneth them, as the Wax to, or by the Seal. The Divine presence and appearance in man newly crea∣ted, was the Seal to this Virgin Wax, which as it changed, changeth the impressions upon it together with its whole form.

2. The Law convinceth man of his faln state, of the evil of this state, that there is no good, or power of good at all in him. That the whole person and nature of man is only evil, and altogether evil. Thus St. Paul chargeth Mankind universally, Jews and Gentiles; There is none that doth good, no not one. The poyson of Asps is under their Tongue, they are altogether corrupt: They have not known the way of peace. He presseth this charge universally by these words; Now we know, That that which the Law saith, it saith to those that are under the Law. Now we know that all Mankind, according to the state of nature, and in the first Creation, is under the Law: if there be any difference found among men, it ariseth not from nature, or the principles of Creation; but from common Grace, supernaturally com∣municated by virtue of the heavenly Seed, all along sown and spring∣ing up in the nature of man.

Now to this conviction, as to their proper end, are directed; The precepts, the vehemency of exhortation, expostulations, commina∣tions, and allurements which God maketh use of to man through the whole Scriptures: That man may be sensible (if he be capable of any sense) that he is dead in sin, that there is no principle, no power of good at all in him, which may be a ground to receive this good seed cast from without upon him; that it may take root in it, and bring forth fruit by it.

2. The Law is a ministry of condemnation, so St. Paul expresly stiles it. This conviction and condemnation both, the holy Apostle presenteth clearly to us, when he saith, That the end of this whole ministry is, That every mouth might be stopped, and the whole world be∣come guilty before God.

3. The last end of the Law is Death. Death upon all Mankind, upon the whole person of man, a spiritual and natural death; Death here, where man is truly dead, while he seem to live: Death in the depar∣ture out of this life, death after this life, in Hell, in torments: This death is without any Ransom or Redemption within the compass or power of the whole Creation.

These are the proper and next ends of the Law: Before I come to the remote and Ultimate ends, I shall make my way clearer, by an∣swering an Objection, which may here set it self in our way.

Object. Is it not the proper and next end of the Law to be a rule of Holiness, and a guide to it?

Answ. Indeed not rarely, the form of each thing, being its per∣fection, is called the end of it. But if we distinguish the formal and the final cause, this is not the end, but the essential form of the Law. The true form and essence of the Law, is a proposal of good and evil to man, as the object of his choice. In the Law we have before us the good of Holiness, with its Divine Nature and Beauties, with its at∣tendant joys and blessedness; The evil of sin, with its hateful form, and the monstrous disorders in the nature of which an Angel becomes a Devil, and which is the proper constitutive form of a Devil, toge∣ther with the consequent horrors and torments extending themselves to the nethermost Hell. Thus is the Law (as now we speak) in its essential form, a convenant of works, presenting to man holiness and sin, with life and death accompanying them: that he may make his choice, by embracing holiness, taking life in it, and together with it. Or by entertaining sin, receiving death into his whole person, and all his solaces round about him.

From this essential form of the Law, see how the Law is directed to the fore-mentioned ends. Man is composed of the light of God, and his own proper darkness. These two, the Schools call the Act, and the potentiality; the form, and the matter; being, and not being, which constitute every Creature.

The darkness or nothingness, which is the Creatures own, is the pro∣per ground of sin; which is its own form, and is a privation, or deficiency, a falling to nothing. While the Divine Glory shines upon man, tempering, forming and confining this darkness, by its own light to an harmonious Union with it, it becomes the Daughter, and Image, and Spouse of this Light. Now sin lies dead in us, but the man lives. This Divine Life shining in the darkness, and through the darkness, is to him a Divine shadow of the Divine Light.

While these two stand undivided and undistinguished to man in the Unity of the Divine Image, and in the simplicity of this Divine Unity; sin finds no way, can take no occasion to bring forth it self into life. The Law comes, this distinguisheth between the Light of God, and the darkness of the Creature in man. This is the tempta∣tion, and the state of tryal. Abide, saith the Lord to man, with thy darkness in the Divine Light, as a shadow of the Divine Glory, in the simplicity of the Divine Unity; so shall this Unity, this Glory be a Tree of Life to thee; thou shalt eat of it, and live for ever: Thou

thy self shall be as the fruit upon this Tree, which shall never fail, nor fall. But if thou choose to thy self thine own darkness, if in this dark∣ness thou distinguish and divide thy self from the Divine Light, seek∣ing to captivate this Light in thy darkness, and to turn it to a glory to thy self, as if thou hadst in thy self, and in thine own darkness, the root upon which this Divine Light, with all its beauty, force and sweetness grew. This division in thy self will prove to thee the for∣bidden, and that cursed Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, in eating of it, thou shalt immediately die.

God thus in the Law presenteth this trial to man; That he may discover man in the earthly Image of the first Creation, with all his Strengths and Beauties to be altogether shadowy: That he may make way for the dissolution of this shadowy Image, (in order to the springing up of the heavenly Image, as its proper seed, through it, into its ripe fruit and perfect form,) God with-holds his Divine pre∣sence, appearances and influences from man, during this trial: Now the darkness which alone is mans own, discovereth it self in its own proper deformities and confusions; it predominateth in man, capti∣vateth man entirely to it self, becomes his choice, and his Lord.

Thus now sin springs up, thus it takes life to it self, bringing forth death together with it, which is the perfection of sin, and of the Ori∣ginal Darkness, dividing it self from the Divine Light, heightning it self to an enmity against the Divine Light, making it self by this means as a Mark and a Butt of opposition to the Divine Light, against which it shooteth all the fiery Arrows of the Divine Displeasure and Wrath.

This seemeth to be the proper meaning of St. Paul's words, before cited; I had not known concupiscence, if the Law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. I was alive once without the Law, and sin in me was dead: But when the Law came, sin lived, and I died. Sin taking an occasion by the Law, deceived me, and so slew me. That of mans own, the darkness, was the Womb, out of which sin, the delusion of sin, and death by sin, spring forth into life.

There is one note upon this Scripture, which is very necessary for the enlightning of the whole sense. Some Copies read in the 9. vers. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Sin revived; this supposeth a former life of sin, this seemeth uncapable of any sense agreeable to the Text, the Context, the Design of the Apostle in this place: But other Copies as that in∣terlineary Greek Testament of Arias Montanus readeth it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, sin lived, now first took life. This reading alone furnisheth us with a sense, in which all the expressions of the holy Apostle, scattered throughout this place, fall into a most beautiful Harmony.

St. Paul here setteth himself in the place of all Mankind, in Para∣dise. He describeth to us, as in a figure, the nativity of sin, its esssen∣tial form or life, (if we may have leave so to speak of a privation) the occasion and manner of its first appearance, and taking life.

I have now finished my Discourse upon the ends of the Law, which are of the first sort, proper and immediate: which are called by Logicians, the ends of the work. I pass now to the remote and Ulti∣mate

ends, which are stiled the ends of the Workman. I shall make my transition by this consideration.

A Poetical History, or work framed by an excellent Spirit, for a pattern of Wisdom, and Worth, and Happiness, hath this, as a chief rule, for the contrivance of it, upon which all its Graces and Beau∣ties depend. That persons and things be carried to the utmost extre∣mity, into a state where they seem altogether uncapable of any re∣turn to Beauty or Bliss: That then by just degrees of harmonious proportions, they be raised again to a state of highest loy and Glory. You have examples of this in the Divine pieces of those Divine Spi∣rits, (as they are esteemed and stiled) Homer, Virgil, Tass•…•…, our English Spencer, with some few others like to these; The Works of these persons are called Poems. So is the Work of God in Creation, and contrivance from the beginning to the end, named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, God's Poem. It is an elegant and judicious Observation of a learned and holy Divine, That the Works of Poets, in the excellencies of their imaginations and contrivances, were imitations drawn from those Original Poems, the Divine works and contrivances of the eternal Spirit. We may by the fairest Lights of Reason and Religion thus judge; That excellent Poets in the heighths of their fancies and spirits, were touched and warmed with a Divine Ray, through which the supream Wisdom formed upon them, and so upon their work, some weak impression and obscure Image of it self. Thus it seemeth to be altogether Divine, That that work shineth in our eyes with the greatest Beauties, infuseth into our Spirits the sweetest delights, transporteth us most out of our selves unto the kindest and most ra∣vishing touches and senses of the Divinity, which diffusing it self through the amplest Variety, and so to the remotest Distances, and most opposed Contrarieties, bindeth up all with an harmonious Order into an exact Unity; which conveyeth things down by a gra∣dual descent to the lowest Depths, and deepest Darknesses; then bringeth them up again to the highest point of all most flourishing Felicities, opening the beginning in the end, espousing the end to the beginning. This is that which Aristotle in his Discourse of Poetry, commendeth to us as the most artful and surprising untying of the knot, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or by a discovery. This is that which Jesus Christ pointeth at in himself, who is the Wisdom of God; The manifold Wisdom of God, in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom and Know∣ledge lie hid, in whom all the Divine contrivances are formed and perfected. What will you say, when you shall see the Son of Man return there, where he was at first.

In this God himself seemeth to place the highest Beauties, the sweet∣est Graces, the richest Glories of his whole contrivance and work, in bringing things down by the Ministry of the Law, to the last point, to the lowest state, to the most lost condition, to the nethermost part of the Earth, to the nethermost Hell; And in ways unexpected by, uncom∣prehensible to Men & Angels, to raise things again by the Gospel to that first supreamGlory, which was their Original Patern in eternity. The Law was brought in, that sin might abound; That where sin had abounded, grace

might superabound. So the Wisdom of the Heathen, and of the Scripture, both instructeth us, That God entertaineth himself universally, and divinely, with this great and pleasant Work of making high things low, great things little; of making little things great, and low things high. He sendeth the rich empty away, and filleth the hungry with good things. He grindeth man through pain to d•…•…st, and then he saith return again ye Sons of Men.

But I have made a long transition. I come now from these proper ends of the Law, which were the deepest descents, which compre∣hended the reign of sin by the Law unto Death, an Universal Death, the most killing death, a spiritual, never-dying death of immortal Spirits, as well the natural death of Bodies, separate from their Spirits, to the Ultimate ends of the Law, in which some glimmering lights begin to dawn of the most desired and delightful day shining from this black and hellish night.

All these Ultimate ends of the Law are generally comprehended in Christ, the Ultimate end of the Law. The end of the Artificer, and of the Agent, of the eternal Spirit in the Law, is Christ. So saith the Spirit in the Scriptures, The end of the Law is Christ, Rom. 10. 4. He may well be the end of the Law, who is the end of all things; for whom all things are made. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth were by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came full of Grace and Truth, saith St. John in the same Chapter, Joh. 1. 14, 17. Grace is the Divine Love opposed to the ministry of wrath by the Law: Truth is the naked Face and Beauty of the Godhead, the Light, the brightness of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ, as he is opposed to the Vails and shadows of the Law. Thus Christ, that is, God in the nakedness and simplicity of the Divine Essence, as he is Love, as he is Light, the Light of Immortality and Glory, in which there is no darkness, is the end of all the darknings, dividings, and destructions, of all the shadows and severities of the Law.

But this general end is to be subdivided into its several steps or degrees.

1. The end of the Law is to be a prison for faln man, till Christ comes. This is the language of St. Paul, Gal. 3. 28. But before the Faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, being shut up unto the Faith, to be revealed. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and the substance of things hoped for. The Divine Faith, is a Divine evidence of Divine things, divinely invisible from an excess of Divine Light and Glory, too great for every natural eye, or understanding. The Divine Faith is the Divine substance of Divine things, the objects of a Divine hope. Christ is said by St. Paul to be the hope of Glory, and the end of the Faith of all the Saints. He also is the Light and the Life. This then is the Faith, and the Revelation of the Faith of the Gospel in the Saints; Christ the Light of the Glory of God, eternal Life, the quickning Spirit, the fountain of Life, the heavenly eter∣nal truth and substance of all Good, our Hope, our End, compre∣hending all the Objects of our Hope, all our blessedness in himself. This Christ thus coming to us, forming a Divine Nature, a Divine

Light, a Divine Eye, a Divine Understanding in us, shining forth in the midst of us, setting all things good and desirable in an invisible and eternal Glory, in their heavenly truth and substance before us, open and manifest in the midst of us, with their naked shining flow∣ing Beauties and Sweetnesses to be possessed, to be enjoyed by us, to become one Spirit with us, to form themselves upon us, to transform and to translate us into one Spirit and Image with themselves, in the fore-tasts and first-fruits, as the earnest and pledge of our hopes springing up to a full fruition; This is our most holy, and most pre∣cious Faith, the Faith of the Gospel, opposed to the Works of the Law. This coming of the Faith in this verse, is expressed before, verse 9. by the coming of the seed, why then was the Law? It was added, because of Transgressions, until the Seed came. The Law then is a Pri∣son. In this P•…•…ison all men are kept bound in Chains, shut up with Locks, and Bolts, and Bars, which no force can break, until the Seed, which is Christ, come. This heavenly Seed alone springing up into a new Nature, a new Creature, a new Person, into an heavenly Image, and a Son of God in him, alone brings him forth into the Li∣berty of the Glory of the Sons of God. Now, before this Jesus thus springing up, and shining forth in him, the Prison of the Law is dissolved, and vanisheth like an enchantment. The place in which it stood is known no more, for all is covered and filled, with the Light, Liberty, and Love of the eternal Spirit over-flowing and encompassing this Son and Heir of God, this fellow-heir with Christ. So saith St. Paul to Timothy, 2 Tim. 1. The appearance of Christ in the Gospel abolisheth death, and bringeth life and immortality to light.

2. The end of the Law is to be a shadow of Christ, and a Vail upon Christ. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, That the Law had a shadow only of good things to come, not the very Image, Chap. 10. vers. 1. Jesus Christ the Image of the invisible God, is the very Image of all good things to come in the Spirit, and in eternity. The Law had a shadow of this Jesus, with these good things con∣tained in him: The Law was also a Vail upon this Jesus, who with all these invisible eternal beauties and blessednesses, lay hid and lived after an hidden manner in these shadows and figures of the Law, as beneath a Vail. You may see this, 2 Cor. 3. 15, 16. St. Paul saith of the Jews, While Moses is read, the Vail lieth upon their hearts. But when there is a turning to the Lord, the Vail is taken away. He goeth on, But the Lord is that Spirit; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; that is, freedom from the Vail: There is a beholding with open face, the Glory of the Lord Jesus; a transforming of the Soul into the same Image, with an encreasing Glory, by the Lord, this Spirit. Thus Jesus, with all his Glories, was vailed in the Law; By the removal of the Vail, the Law becometh Gospel: The naked Glories of our Jesus flow forth upon us, and form us into one Glory with themselves. St. Paul teacheth us, 1 Cor. 1. 10. That the Fa∣thers were all baptized into Moses in the same Cloud, and in the same Sea, eat of the same spiritual Bread, drank of the same spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. Upon the same account

that Bread, that Sea, that Cloud was Christ. Christ was shadowed upon all these, and vailed beneath all these. The Clouds, Thun∣ders, Fires, Tremblings, and Earth-quakes at Mount Sinai were sha∣dows of Christ, and vails upon Christ in his most glorious Person, suffering and dying. The top of Mount Sinai, where God and Moses conversed familiarly with Faces shining mutually one upon another, being mutual Feasts one to another, was a shadow of Christ, and a Vail upon him in his Resurrection and Ascension.

Divines teach us, That the Law is the Gospel vailed, and the Gos∣pel the Law unvailed. The Jews say, That the Ten Commandments are founded upon the Name of God. The Name is the Image of the thing; Christ who is the very Image, is the true Name of God, and of all true things comprehended in God. The Moral Law, with all the Precepts and Duties of it, is Christ in his heavenly and Divine Nature in us, but vailed with the Letter, with the darkness of the Letter, yet in that darkness doth the heavenly Image figure it self, making the darkness it self a shadow of its Glory.

How rich, and how sweet is our Jesus, and the mystery of God in him, through all his works? The Law it self hath no Darkness, no Death, no Fire; so full of Dread, Horror, and Destruction, which looked upon with a right eye, is not unexpressibly beautified and sweetned by this, that Jesus Christ, with all the treasures of eternal Love, Beauty, and Joy, is shadowed upon it, and vailed beneath it. The Fathers under the Law acquainted with this mystery, con∣versed with Christ, saw his day, grew up into him through this sha∣dow, beneath this Vail, seeing and embracing him shadowed also in their own persons, and lying hid as under a Vail in their Hearts and Loins, in their Flesh and Spirit.

3. The Law prepared the way of Christ. John the Baptist, who came to restore all things to their Primitive purity, in the Ministry of the Law, is represented as an Angel sent before the Face of the Lord, to prepare his way. The Law is a three-fold preparation for Christ.

1. By Conviction, Condemnation, and Death; which all disco∣ver a necessity of Christ, make him precious, make him the desire of all Nations, make all wait for him, as the only blessed One, and their only Blessedness, Crying, Blessed is he, blessed is the Messias, the Christ, blessed is Jesus, who alone comes in the Name of the Lord, in the Form, Power, and Glory of the Godhead.

2. The Law is a preparation for Christ by the Righteousness of Mo∣rality, and of the Letter.

3. By setting Christ before us in a shadow, and under a Vail. So the Law fills up the Vallies, and makes the Mountains plain. It humbleth and bringeth down every high thing, it raiseth up every de∣jected and dispairing spirit. It turneth all reliance or glory in our own Righteousness or Strength, in our own Reason or Will, into shame. It takes away our distrust and despair, turning that into hope, and a joyous expectation. It first burieth all the beauty, strength, excellency, and life of the Creature, in a grave of Sin, Death and Wrath, as deep as the nethermost parts of the Earth, as

the nethermost Hell; Then it shadoweth Christ upon this Grave, and sheweth him hidden beneath it, as under a Vail, and as a Seed of eter∣nal life sown in it.

4. The Law is an heightning to the sweetness and beauty of Christ. The Law came in, that sin might abound: That where sin had abounded, Grace might super abound. The Law is a three-fold heightning to the sweetness and beauty of Christ in the Gospel.

1. The Law heightens the Glory of Christ, by an Antiperistasis. As in hard Frosts, the Lights of Heaven shine brightest, and look with sweetest Glories upon us: As in the coldest season, the Fire burns brightest, and refeshes our Spirits with the liveliest warmth and heat: So Darkness, Death and Wrath, in the Ministry of the Law, by their opposition being carried to the greatest extremity, excite and stir up the Godhead to pour forth it self from all its richest and un∣confined Depths, in the most full, the overflowing Seas of all his sweetest, richest, most exalted Loves and Glories.

2. The Law heightens the sweetness and beauty of Christ, by being a soil to it. There is more joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth, than over ten righteous persons continuing in their Righte∣ousness. The Father of the Prodigal in the Parable giveth this rea∣son for the excess of Joy, the unwonted Triumphs, with all the heightnings of Feasts, and of Musick; This our Son, which was lost, is found; which was dead, is alive. The Violets and Roses of the Spring are the sweeter, and more beautiful for the Winter going be∣fore them. How sweet and amiable is the light of life arising upon those who sit in darkness, and under the shadow of death? As a foil beneath a Diamond, so do the darknesses and deformities of Sin, the hateful stains and insupportable guilt of Sin; the terrors, the hor∣rors, the torments of Death, and the Divine Wrath under the Law, make the freedom and fulness of the Divine Grace, the Righteous∣ness, the Life and Glory of God in the Person of the Lord Jesus appearing to a lost forelorn Soul, in the midst of these black shades, unvaluably precious, infinitely amiable, pleasant, far surpassing all the sweetness and beauties of the loveliest Morning, all the Lights and Glories of the purest Sun arising out of the darknesses of the most melancholy and tempestuous night.

3. The Law heightens the brightness and delightfulness of Christ in the Day of the Gospel, as fewel to that heavenly and blessed flame of Divine Love. As Sin hath reigned unto Death, (saith St. Paul) so Grace reigns through Righteousness unto eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin exalted its black and fiery Throne, by subduing to it self the first man in all his Primitive powers and purities; The first Para∣dise with its sweet peace and pleasantness, the first Creation in the whole Compass of its Divine Glories, sprung forth from, and re∣sembling the Divine World in eternity. How great and deep is that darkness, bottomless as Hell it self? How bitter is that death, as the poyson of Asps, as the poyson of the old Serpent, the Dragon him∣self, which hath extinguished the light of so much Beauty, which hath corrupted so much Sweetness, which hath devoured and

swallowed up into the black and bottomless Abyss of a first and se∣cond death, an unsearchable depth of confusion and woe, such a world of so Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties, with all their amiable light and life?

But now what Tongue can express, what Heart can conceive the un∣measurable heightnings of that Divine Grace and Love, the unparal∣leled unbounded Beauties and Glories of that Righteousness, the infi∣nite purities, pleasures, powers, perpetuities of that life, the inestimable, incomprehensible Sweetnesses, Beauties, Virtues, and force of that Person our Jesus, in whom all these united, who by all these uniteth in his own Person, reigneth over these devouring Powers of dark∣ness and death, subduing them all unto himself, and carrying this whole captivity, captive, into the Kingdom of Light and Love, unto which he himself returneth as he ascends.

The fire at once encreaseth its own force and flame by the great quantity of fewel on which it feeds, and converts the dead fewel into one glorious spreading ascending flame with it self. Shadows seen alone, have little grace in them, but skilfully mixt with the bright colours in a Picture, and presenting themselves to the eye in one view together with them, encrease the beauty of the Picture, are themselves a sweet part of the Beauty, and a rich Variety in it. Discordant touches upon a Lute offend the Ear, but in a Lesson of Musick, they are themselves harmonious, and enrich the Harmony of the whole Lesson.

Thus the first Adam (who was only an earthly Image, a shadowy similitude of the Divinity, and made under the Law,) the Fall, the whole reign of sin unto death, by the Ministry of the Law, with all its Clouds and Storms of shame, terror and torment, are in them∣selves a melancholy Image, filling us with the afflicting Forms of de∣formity, confusion, desolation and woe: But when these in the Gos∣pel become fewel to that pure, potent and pleasant fire of the Divine Love, the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of Grace and Glory; now they enlarge and heighten this beautiful and blessed flame, now them∣selves are become spiritual, immortal flames of highest sweetness and beauty in this Divine flame. Now these discordant notes, these dark lines and stroaks in the Evangelical melody of the eternal Word, in the unvailed Face of the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, in the Musick of the eternal Love, in the beauty of the Righteousness, the unvailed Glory of the Godhead, in the Person of Christ, become themselves most rich heightnings, most pleasant and beautiful parts, most dear and delightful Varieties in the eter∣nal Melody, and unfading Beauty of the Divine Loveliness and Love.

I have now finished my Reply to this Reason, for Free-will in man, taken from the Language of the Scripture. In which Reply, I have endeavoured to set before you in their clear distinctions, the diffe∣rence between the vail of the Letter, and the mystery of the Spirit, hid beneath this Vail. I shall now conclude this Discourse, by offer∣ing humbly to you three Rules, for the right understanding of those

expressions in the Scripture, which are most of all pressed, and pressing in this Point.

1. God planteth and establisheth man upon natural Principles of rectitude in the Divine Image; he leaveth him to the force, and to the trial of these Principles; he ministreth to him outwardly, in∣wardly all moral assistances, for the strengthning, actuating and heightning of these Principles to their utmost perfections. Thus God who properly hath no Will, nor any thing common to the Crea∣ture, or proportionable to the Creature; But as a Will with other faculties and forms, proper to the Creature are given to him, by a fit figure, and according to the manner of the Creature, saith of him∣self, I will not the death of a Sinner, but rather that he return and live.

2. When God appeareth unvailed in the Face of Christ, who is the brightness of his Glory, Righteousness, Love, Life, Immortality, Joy and Glory, attend upon, and flow from his unvailed Person, his naked presence and appearance; As the Sun carrieth along with him in his Circuit, a sweet flourishing Spring and Summer. When God withdraws himself behind clouds of darkness, and of night, when he withholds the sweet beams and pleasant influences of his own face and person behind thick coverings, strange forms and disguises. Now man withers and dyes away in all the beauties and sweetnesses of the Divine Image: in the place of these, Deformity and Death spring up from that deficiency which is inseparable, to the natural principles of the Creature, which then discovers it self and over∣spreads the whole man with the shadow of Death and Hell, when those principles are no more fed and supplyed from their eternal springs in the bosom of Christ. In this sense these words are most properly true, Thy destruction is of thy self, but thy Salvation is of me, O Israel, saith the Lord.

3. God in himself, and in the person of the Lord Jesus, as he is the essential Image of God, is a most simple Unity, comprehending all Varieties within himself. In this Unity, he is Love it self, the first, the supream, the most pure, the most potent unconfined love. All pleasantnesses are in his Face and Presence, he is the Bridegroom, entirely fair and pleasant, altogether delightful, the Object of all Loves, Desires, the Seat of all Delights and Glories, the Spring of Immortality and Eternity. As himself is, such in the highest affinity and resemblance is his work, as it springs immediately from him, his principal design and contrivance, with which he begins, in which he ends, and rests eternally, which he carrieth along as his first and Ul∣timate design throughout all things.

This then is one entire universal piece, comprehending all Variety in it self; this is one entire piece of sweetest Loves, of riches Lights, of purest Glories; All scenes, all forms of darkness and death are subordinate and subservient to this, are parts of this, are compre∣hended in this, drawn forth from it, terminated in it, by a Divine and delightful skill set with a shining amiableness in their proper pla∣ces, overspread with a sweetness and lustre in the Unity of the grand design, and finally in a manner most pure, most harmonious, most

ravishing, swallowed up into the eternal Lights, in which the whole piece terminateth. Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, who is blessed for ever. How true is it? how exceeding large now is this truth in all senses, in all languages, Humane or Divine, That God willeth not the death of a Sinner? That Destruction is not of him? As the Understanding of God is Truth it self, the highest and most universal Truth, the measure of all Truth; so is the Will of God, which is himself, the first, the highest, the most comprehensive, the un∣consined Good, the only reason and measure of all good.

We have passed through those Reasons which seem of greatest mo∣ment, and to have greatest difficulty in them. We hope that we draw near to our Haven, and that with easie and gentle stroaks, we shall now soon arrive at it. The Reasons on this part, which now remain, seem to be rather mistakes, arising from vulgar or general conceptions unexamined, undistinguished, than from the exercised judgments of wise and learned Spirits. They are derived from the nature of things, Moral, Physical, or Metaphysical; I shall continue them in the same order with the precedent Reasons.

4. Reason. If the Will of Man be not free, all Laws seem use∣less.

Answ. The force of this Reason seemeth to be entire and power∣ful on the contrary part. If the Will of Man be free, undetermina∣ted by the dictates of the Understanding, Laws have no more any signification or efficacy. For the intent of these, is clearly to work upon the Understanding. Precepts and Prohibitions are Rules pro∣pounded, Lights set up to the Understanding, to inform what road or course is to be followed, what to be carefully avoided in our Navigation through the Sea of this World, that we may pass safely, free from the danger of Rocks and Shelves to our desired Port. Re∣wards and Penalties are to be weighed and judged by the Understand∣ing, according to whose standard and estimate they have all their value. Vexatio dat intellectum. The proper end of Punishments and Rewards, is to excite the Understanding. The proper end of Precepts and Prohibitions, is to enlighten the Understanding.

The excellency and efficacy of every Law, is to impress upon us the sense of Good and Evil. So Moses the Law-Giver among the Jews, saith to them, I have set before you this day, Good and Evil, Life and Death. What effect hath the sense of Good and Evil seated in the Understanding, if the Will be guided by an absolute ungoverned arbitrariness within it self, without Order, without Harmony, with∣out Connexion, without respect to the dictates of the Understand∣ing? How useless, how fruitless are all impressions of Good or Evil, if the Will be not by the Law of its own Essence, by its own essential Principles determined to good, sub ratione boni, under the formal ap∣pearance of good?

5. Reason. Who meeteth not with this frequent experiment in him∣self, which the Poet expresseth in the person of Medea, (as I remem∣ber) Video meliora probo{que}, deterior a sequor.

Better things I see, approve; The evil yet I choose and love.

Answ. This thin mist is easily scattered and cleared into a pure Air, by the beam of one distinction between good, propounded in the The∣sis, in its abstracted and general nature, or in the Hypothesis, cloathed with all its practical and individuating circumstances. In the first, it is the subject of the Dictamen practicum intellectus, of the Under∣standing in its proposal of general Rules of practice to the Will; In the other, the good is the subject of the Dictamen practice practicum, of the Understanding in its dictates and directions to the Will in arenâ, upon the place, in the singular and individual action, now this mo∣ment lying before it, with all its circumstances. The Schools well distinguish between Act us signatus, and Act us exercitus. An Act mark∣ed out and described by the Understanding, or an Act now im∣mediately presenting it self unto a real existency out of all its Causes.

Whoever vieweth and distinguisheth exactly the sentiments of his Understanding, the commerce between those and the motions of his Will, maketh this clear discovery, if I be not very much deceived; That in the general conception and rule in the practical dictate and direction, in the exactest contemplation and description of a moral Act, one thing seemeth good to us, when after this, when we come upon the place to exercise the Act it self, our sense is altogether changed. The practically practical dictate of the Understanding, its sentiments now in the moment of action, in the presence and imme∣diate impressions of all Circumstances, differeth from the precedent Rules, and passeth quite to a contrary Point, to present that, as the present good, the good of the present moment to the embraces of the Will, which was condemned in the general Rules, as a most dangerous evil, a most certain ruine.

Two circumstances upon the place, and in the moment of action, are cast into the ballance upon the place, or in the moment of an action or temptation, which weigheth it down with a great force.

1. One is the difficulty and pain in resisting the alluring evil.

2. The other is a flattering hope of enjoying the false sweetness of the present Action, and being delivered from the unhappy con∣sequences threatned; while they are looked up, either as uncertain or contingent, or capable of being diverted by the Divine Goodness, or by a succeeding repentance and change especially for this one adventure.

We may seal up this Answer with the impression of this golden Truth mentioned formerly; Good under the form of good, is the Object of the Will. This alone attracteth the Will, this alone moveth it. The connexion then is inviolable and immediate between the Ultimate proposals of the Understanding, presenting any Object to

the Will under the formality or appearance of good, and the mo∣tions of the Will towards that Object, to receive it with mutual embraces.

6. Reason. What do most persons upon this Subject say? Can I not walk, sit, or stand, when I will, at my pleasure? Can I not choose or refuse? Can I not Will as I will? Is not my Will then free?

Answ. This Argument indeed is formed Crassâ Minervâ, from a very gross conceit, from the want of distinguishing between a spon∣taneity in the Acts themselves; and an vndeterminedness in the essen∣tial Principles, from which the Acts flow. The question is not con∣cerning the power or pleasure of the Will in Actibus imperatis, in go∣verning the Loco-motive faculty, and the Instruments of motion, the members of our Body: Neither is it about the Elicit Acts of the Will, its own immediate motions of loving or hating, whether these be in the power and pleasure of the Will. That which is the subject of the Controversie, is the root of this power and pleasure in the Will, which it putteth forth in its immediate or more remo•…•…e Acts, the Es∣sence, the essential form and principles of the Will it self. However the Will in its essential form and principle be determined by superior and universal Causes, which as essential Principles, and as nature it self are complicated in the essence and nature of the Will, yet doth the Will move in all its Acts with no less power and agreeableness. Yea, rather the sweet and harmonious concurrence of the superior and universal Cause, in the Essence and Operations of the Will, by the combinations of all Coelestial, Angelical, Divine Virtues, make the motions of the Will more potent and more pleasant. In truth, the Will of man in a temptation, may be like a Ship in a storm. The Ultimate dictates of the Understanding, the appearances of good and evil, in the moment of Action, cloathed with all its circumstan∣ces, may suddenly and violently vary; They may be like contrary Winds and Waves, carrying the Ship in several moments unto con∣trary motions. As the last gust of Wind, and the last motion of the Waves, so the last dictates, the last appearances of good, carry the Will away, whether it be upon a Rock, or in a safe course to its Haven. Yet still this is true which Aristotle saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Election or choice is a desirous Understanding, or an Intellectual Desire, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, A desire from delibera∣tion.

7. Reason. I have met with this Argument for the freedom of the Will from a learned pen. The chief ground on which the predetermi∣nation of the Will is built hath been this Principle, That sin is a priva∣tion, and no positive Being. Thus God is believed to be cleared from the evil of Sin, in the Acts and Motions of the Will, while evil being a deficiency, is capable of no efficient Cause. An instance is brought to overthrow this Principle, from a Spirit hating God. Here this Act of the Will, the hatred, as it is formally drawn forth by, and terminated in this Object, the Person and Nature of God, is formally, in its positive Being a sin.

Answ. 1. If sin in any Subject or Act, be a positive thing; I know not how by any skill or understanding, Humane or Angelical, God can be acquitted from being the Author of sin. For this is without controversie the sense of all Divines of all sorts, except the Manichees, and those who with them establish two co-ordinate Godheads of Good and Evil, that he who is the only true God, is the first, the universal Being, the Fountain of all Being, the Being of every Being.

2. Here seemeth to be a plain mistake, for want of distinguishing this individual Act of hating God, as it is considered in genere moris, and ingenereentis; In its moral, and in its natural capacity.

1. While we look upon this Act of hatred in a complex proposition, as it is determined upon this Object the Divine Essence; we consi∣der it not naturally, but morally, we rightly pronounce it to be mo∣rally evil: But this moral evil ariseth from a moral circumstance, which is the undue determination of the Act upon an undue Object. The evil here lies in the irregularity and obliquity of this Act mo∣rally considered in the determination to its Object. This irregula∣rity and obliquity is a privation of the due rectitude in which princi∣pally consisteth a right determination of the Act, upon a right Ob∣ject. Thus is the evil of sin, no more any thing positive here, but altogether privative.

2. If you consider this Act, ingenereentis, in its natural capacity, you abstract it from all its moral circumstances: you take a naked view of it, as it is a natural motion in the will of aversion or opposi∣tion. Thus it is clearly good. It hath a natural, or physical goodness, as it answereth the proper and immediate Principles of the Form or Essence from which it flows, and those formal essential Principles by which it is constituted. It hath also a metaphysical goodness, as every thing; that is, is good in its conformity to the Divine Will, which, as the Seal, setteth the impression of being upon every thing that hath Being.

3. There is also in this case before us, a deception of our Intel∣lectual sense, by a mist cast before our eyes, in which appearances are taken for realities. I humbly conceive, that there is no greater contradiction to all Principles of Truth and Knowledge, than this assertion; That any Spirit hateth God as God, as he appeareth in his own proper Form. God is that, which all things desire. God alone is Good, saith Jesus Christ. If God alone be good, he is the first, the supream, the universal Good; The general Good of the whole, the proper good of each particular; All Good in one, the only Good in all; the only Suitableness, the only Agreeableness to every Spirit, Person, and Nature; the Truth, the Perfection of each Being; That which all things desire, that which equalleth and transcendeth all desires. As St. Paul saith to the Athenians, That God whom ye ignorantly worship, I preach unto you. So by these un∣questioned Principles, it seemeth unquestionable, That God, as he is in his own proper Form, is alone that Object which all things in Hea∣ven, on Earth, and under the Earth, love, seek, and adore. If he

shall please to lift up his Vail, and discover his Face to be seen by all eyes of mortal or immortal Creatures, all casting away their se∣veral Idols, would run swiftly and unanimously into his Bosom alone; crying out with an universal shoot, This is he, whom our Souls love, This is our Beloved. This alone is the Good which we have pursued in all things, through all things: Here is our Rest for ever. If any Spirit then hate God, it directeth its hatred not against God, but a false Image, which it hath set up to it self of God, as an hater of him, as a cruel one, as extending himself to a larger compass in se∣verities and wrath, than sweetnesses and loves; as an hard Task-Master requiring Brick, when he affordeth no Straw; as an enemy or a neglecter of the joy and felicity of his Creatures, as raising a plea∣sure and glory to himself in the shame and ruine of his own Work; or at least from a want of natural goodness and kindly affection, leaving his own Work, his own Birth to shame and ruine, when it is every way in his Power to make it good and great in Blessedness and Glory. So now it is no more God, which this Spirit hateth; but an Idol set up within it self, in the place of God. So sin deceiveth it first, and then killeth it, by a misplaced hatred upon a mistaken Ob∣ject. So this Spirit sinneth, by falling short of the Glory of God; and manifesteth its sin by this to be nothing positive, but a privation only.

8. Reason. This predetermination of the Will placeth Man in the same rank with Automata, the self-moving Works of Art, as Clocks and Watches. These are determined by the Workman to a certain motion, which they cannot vary, and being put into motion by the hand of the Workman, they continue it without any power over it unto its designed period. Such a piece of work Man seemeth to be, if the motions of his Will upon which all other Humane motions de∣pend, be not in his own power.

Answ. What if Man be not allowed that Prerogative, in respect to the superior and universal Movers, which these works of Art have in respect to the Artificer? He frameth his pieces for their moti∣on, he putteth them into motion; they now continue their motions without any assistance from the Workman, the Author of their frame and motion. Man lives, and moves, and hath his Being in God: Every distinct moment of his Being, Life, and Motions, are new and distinct emanations from God, as in their first Beginning, as at their first Creation; yet are the preheminencies of this self-mover, the Soul of Man, many, great, and glorious, above the self-moving works of Art.

1. The motions of the Will are Intellectual. The Soul in the act∣ings of the VVill understandeth, reflecteth upon its own motions: It comprehendeth the beginning, the end of them, their causes out of which they arise, their nature and differences, their course and stream in which they run along, their effects and consequents in which they determine.

2. The motions of the VVill are with a relish and agreeableness. They all flow from Love, the love of Good, the love of Beauty,

which is good in its proper Image or appearance. This is the first and great wheel in the VVill, which puts all the wheels of the other affe∣ctions or passion sinto motion. The motions of the VVill tend all to delight and joy as their mark, to the delightful and joyous fruition of the beloved Beauty, the beloved Good, in the which the VVill, together with the whole Soul, and the whole Man, hath its rest and its end.

3. The Soul of Man in the motions of the Will is acted by superior and universal Causes, not as an external hand or power, but as inter∣nal Principles, as the springs of Being and Beauty, of Life and Light, of Activity and Motion, of all power, sense and relish, which are essentially comprehended in the Essence of the Soul and Will, which continually feed it.

Give me leave here again to cite those uncontroverted Maxims, in the Metaphysicks; the universal cause is most truly, is most of all the Cause in every kind of casuality: So is it most truly, most of all the essential, the formal cause of the Soul and of its Will. The univer∣sal Cause is most intimate to every effect. It is then most intimate to the Will, and to the operations of the Will.

VVe read in Proclus, That the Soul containeth all things in it self, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is after the manner of a Soul. The subordinate and supream kinds of things are comprehended in the inferior kind, en∣tring into the definition and essence of each specifical nature together with it. Thus man comprehendeth in his Essence the superior forms of a living Creature, of a corporeal substance, of substance it self in its abstracted eminency of Being, the Fountain and Head of all these. After the same manner, the Divine Ideas their eminencies and virtues, the Angelical forms in their powers and properties de∣scending and forming themselves into an inferior Image, in which they are all united, constitute the Essence of the Soul, and are compli∣cated in it.

But to conclude my Answer to this Reason. Doth this darken the glory of the VVill of Man? Doth this confine it, destroying its freedom and its Joy? that it acteth and moveth in conformity to, in communion and fellow ship with the Divine VVill, from the same Prin∣ciple, in the same amplitude, to the same end, by the same necessity of good alone, of the supream, the universal Good, comprehending all things in it self, unchangeable in all. This is the proper nature of Man, and of his VVill, that Divine Similitude and Image in which he was first created.

9. Reason. But the Variety of things, that it may be entire, requires it, that there should be in nature a free agent, undetermined to motion, or a cessation from motion; to this or a contrary motion, having the disposal of it self, of its own acts independantly, entirely in it self.

Answ. 1. I do not remember, that I have hitherto read or heard this pleaded, That the VVill is equally undetermined and free to Good, or to Evil, presenting themselves in the formalities or appea∣rances of Good, or of Evil. This were to affirm that evil equally

with good is the Object of the VVill: That all things desire evil in its own proper form, as much as good. Yet this Variety here asserted, clearly asserteth this.

2. A full Variety is directed to the most perfect Harmony, as its end. It is the Unity preserved entire in the Variety, which composeth the Harmony, and is the Soul of Harmony. Variety it self being a singular name, is an Unity. Things absolutely divided and separate one from another, make not a Variety: This ariseth from the Unity in which they agree, in which they are bound up together, like Flowers in a Posie, and presented in one Form, in one view to the eye, or to the mind. A part of the Variety then, which by its indepen∣dancy upon the whole breaketh the Unity, dividing it self from it, destroyeth both the end and the essence it self of the Variety, which are the Harmony and the Unity.

3. Nature is the Law of Being. Variety is Being varied. Is not this a contradiction in the terms? that the Law of Being, that Being varied, should call for as its Perfection, a Being independant upon Being it self, the first, the universal Being; that is, should call for a Non-ens, a not Being. Such doth that VVill seem clearly to be in its essence, motions, and actions, which in these, in any moment and point of these, in any circumstance, is absolute in it self, in∣dependant upon the first and Universal Cause, the Fountain of Being.

Being thus cast into the bosom of the Divine Variety, in which Nature and Grace, the Fall and the Exaltation of things, things visi∣ble and invisible, of the Creature and the Creator, lie and spring together, as in their Garden-Bed: Here with this Variety we will close our Discourse, and in this Bosom take up our rest. Jesus Christ in his Discourse to Nicodemus, representeth the spiritual Birth by this similitude, Joh. 3. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. St. John saith, 1 Epist. 2. Chap. 10. vers. He that hateth his Brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes. O that all the Lord's peo∣ple, O that all Mankind were enlightned with the heavenly bright∣ness and splendor of the Divine Love, anointing their Spirits with the heavenly perfume of the same love to their Brethren; that is, to every other Person or Spirit, as St. Paul explains it, Rom. 13. 8. He that loves another fulfils the Law. That which the other Scriptures call a Neighbour, a Brother, is here Another, every other person. This Love would be an anointing of light upon the eyes of our mind, giving us a clear and sweet prospect round about us, in which we should not only hear a sound or a voice, but see whence we came, whither we go, where we are, the truth of all this, and the way. By the practice of this Divine Command, To love one another, we should, as by a shining hand from Heaven dropping Mirth upon our Spirits, be lead to the reason and the root of this Love, which is the Divine Variety now mentioned, the Jerusalem above, the Mother of us all, free, and unconfined. This is to love another, according to the

heavenly Command, and to love another as my Neighbour, my Bro∣ther, to love every other person and thing, as a fellow Branch with me in this Variety.

But if we will see the sweet and glorious Light of this heavenly Love, we must not take the Variety alone, but joyn to it the Unity, and the Union of both these, which are integral, essential and pri∣mary parts of the Variety, which are every way equal to the Variety, and distinctly, essentially comprehend it in themselves. Thrice hap∣py is that Spirit, which by the Initiations, Sanctisications, and Anointings of the eternal Spirit, hath been admitted to this Sacred and Supream Mystery; To behold this Trinity, the Variety in its first, highest, and unbounded form; The Unity, most absolute, entire, and undivided; The Union of both these, every way mutual, and perfect. O what Joys? what Glories? how pure? how high? how universal? filling all in all, transcending all things and thoughts open themselves to this Spirit, who now sees himself a Variety of the same joy and glory, in these joys and glories, who now sees him∣self one eternal Joy and Glory, with all these Joys and Glories in their Divine Unity? What an eternal Marriage-day doth this Spirit now enjoy; while at once by the bond of this Divine Union, it seeth it self a distinct beauty and blessedness in the midst of all these innumerable glories, equally distinct from him, and one from ano∣ther, with the first, the highest, the most full distinction, which is the perfection, the compleatness, the life of the Variety; and yet in the same Scene, in the same appearance and person, one with them all, as they all are one in the first and highest Unity.

This Spirit now seeth those Divine beauties and truths shining up∣on it with a most ravishing amiableness, which we have toucht in our former discourse, as the Divine ground, on which the determi∣nation of the Will is built, from which spring up those great and Sacred mysteries of the Gospel and the Law, together with all the several Seeds or Forms of Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Nature, Sin, Grace, and Glory comprehended in them.

The Seed of God, which is the Seed of the Divine Unity, and by St. Paul called one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. Hath been first before the world was in the Bosom of the Father, in the Arms of Christ. So saith Jesus to his Father, Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. This Divine Seed is brought down into a shadowy Image, as a sleep, and a dream in a sleep. It still descends lower by the Fall, not only to the remotest distance from the Purity, Pleasantness, and Glory of its Ori∣ginal, but to the greatest estrangedness from it, and opposition to it, as a tragical dream of some excellent Person or Prince in a troubled sleep. God several times mentioneth it with several senses and ap∣plications, as a Sacred and Divine mystery, That he calleth his Son out of Egypt. It is his own Seed, his own Son which first descended into Egypt, the House of Bondage, a Land of darkness; and of De∣vils, where almost every Creature was an Idol-god, and so a Devil. By an heavenly and Divine Call, as by the returning of the Sun in the Spring to the Plants; This Seed of Glory and Eternity sown, and

sunk so low, by degrees comes up, and returns again through all the beautiful, the various, the encreasing Forms of Light and Love springing up out of Darkness and Wrath. So at length it arriveth at its first habitation of Glory and Delights in the Arms of Christ, in the Bosom of the Father. It now flourisheth in the prime, in the full blown Beauties and Joys of that life which it had at first, which it ever hath had hidden with Christ in God, the Life of eternity.

Thus is the Variety compleat, thus is the whole Variety fully dis∣played in the heavenly Seed, being carried along through all distincti∣ons, diversities, contrarieties of forms and states of Good and of Evil. Thus is the Seed it self preserved pure through its whole Pil∣grimage. Thus is the eternal Spirit and the Divine VVisdom un∣stained, conducting this heavenly Seed through all these diversities and contrarieties, while they keep their spiritual, their Divine Beau∣ties entire, by keeping the entire Unity, and so the Order, the Har∣mony of the Divine Variety.

VVe read, Rom. 8. That the Saints which are in the heavenly Seed, are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of the Son of God. Of this Son, we read Eph. 4. That he who ascended, is the same who descended first. That he descended into the nethermost parts of the Earth, and ascended far above all Heavens, that he might fill all. That the Variety might be full in his Person, and that he might fill each part of the Variety from the nethermost parts of the Earth, to an heighth above the highest Hea∣vens, by carrying the Unity, and so the full Variety, and so the Uni∣versal Harmony into each step and form of this Variety, whether it were as a shade or a light, as a crooked or streight line in this Divine Face, whether it were a Discord or Concord in this Universal Mu∣sick.

In this Divine Glass we see the Law, in the midst of the love, con∣trivance, and glory of the Gospel rising up as a tragical scene, with all the black and fiery shapes of sin and wrath, acting their parts to the uttermost in this shaded scene, spring up from the womb of dark∣ness, opening it self in the Bosom of the eternal Light, as it was now opening it self in the Gospel to an heavenly Marriage-day be∣tween the ever glorious Bridegroom, and this spotless Bride. All this was done that the Variety might be full, That he who cometh after this King, might find nothing to add to his Work.

Yet through this whole scene of the Law, with all its mournful and affrighting Apparitions, the purity, the sweetness, the life of the Gospel runs along sowing it self in it, vailing it self beneath it, cast∣ing it self into this shade, and sleep, and dream, springing up through it, making it all a shadow, a Divine, though obscure Figure of it self; by which also it heightens it self, while the Unity in this part of the Variety also preserveth it self entire, tuning it, and composing it, binding it up into one Universal Harmony of the Divine Beauty and Melody in the whole Variety, in which it is set, according to the Order, which is the Divine Unity, diffusing it self through all in its proper place and time.

Here the Author concludes the last part of his Discourse of the Free∣dom of the Will, but the Reader will in the following Pages find the the enlargement which was before promised, upon the Argument taken from Christ's Mediation, which is here continued under the same Title, because it aims at the same design with the rest of the whole Book.