Dio. There is no more ready way to overfhoot yourself, as you speak, than by your delays. Hereupon the Holy Ghoft faith, To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart;" and, "To-day, while it is called to-day; left your heart be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin:* wherefore he saith, "I have heard thee in an accepted time, and in the day of falvation have I fuccoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of falvation!”† PAG. Well then, if the prefent time be God's accepted, time, and the day of falvation, I am content to take God's time; and the happiness that comes along with it being fo tranfcendant, as you have reprefented it, the fooner the better. But all the queftion now is, whether it be in my power to turn and believe? Dio. No, by no means; for you are yet in your natural flate, and "the natural man receiveth not the things of the fpirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned:" nay, "the carnal mind is enmity against God."§ PAG. How then comes this faith to be wrought in him? DIO. It is not of himself, but it is the gift of God: he doth infufe it irrefiftably, and worketh it in us without us, and that "by an operation for mightinefs not inferior to that whereby he created the world, and raifeth up the dead."-Synod of Dort chap. iii. and iv. art. 12. PAG. If faith be the gift of God, and wrought in us after fuch an irresistible manner; and likewife, if now be God's accepted time, and the day of falvation, as you have told me; why is not that faith even now wrought in me? The delay seems, by your difcourfe, to be rather on God's part, whose work this is, than on mine, to whom it is impoffible without him. I hope you would not have me perfuade myfelf that I am not of that feed of Chrift you mentioned, in whom this work you fay is peculiar. *Heb. iii. 13. t 2 Cor. vi. 2. 1 Cor. ii. 14. § Rom. viii. 7. DIO. No, Sir, I would not have you disheartened; for a whole fynod of divines have determined, that "those who as yet do no not effectually perceive in themselves a lively faith, or a fure confidence in Christ, the peace of conscience, an endeavour of filial obedience, a glorying in God through Chrift; and nevertheless use the means by which God hath promised that he will work these things in us; fuch as these ought not to be caft down at the mention of reprobation, nor reckon themselves amongst the reprobate; but must diligently go forward in the ufe of those means, and ardently defire, and humbly and reverently expect, the good hour of more plentiful grace."-Synod of Dort. chap. i. art. 16. PAG. Expect the good hour, did you fay? Why this is a perfect contradiction to what you faid before, viz. that now is the accepted time, and the day of falvation. And if I be commanded to believe [now] certainly, to make that command juft, and much more to make it not grievous, but light and easy, (as the gofpel commands are faid to be) there goes a power along with that command to make it poffible [now,] and fo my duty; elfe what will become of your "Moving confiderations to convince men of the folly of delay ?" But I remember you faid, it was every man's duty, living under the difpenfation of the gofpel, to believe. Now, if to make a man believe, be God's irresistible work, and accomplished by his almighty power, "not inferior in mightiness, to that whereby he did create the world, and raiseth up the dead;" how can this be a poor creature's duty? Could we think it equal in a good man, or confiftent with his goodness, to impose an infupportable burden upon a child's fhoulders, and to whip him because he doth not carry it; when fuch is his weakness, that he finks under it? Sure, we fhould account this extreme feverity: and fhall we attribute the like to God? God forbid. DIO. God may give what laws he please; for his fovereignty is abfolute, his dominion uncontroulable: he is bound to none, and gives account of his actions to none. PAG. I know, Sir, it is impoffible God should be obliged to his creature, whether upon the account of any law made by it, or of any benefit received from it; but yet the very nature of God, and that natural equity which is super-eminent in him, God efteems as a law to himfelf, and doth never tranfgrefs the dictates of it. And befides, God doth freely enter into bond unto his creatures, as well by giving them a law, as by making them a promise: for if he prescribes a law, he is (in his own natural equity) bound to beftow grace and affiftance neceffary to the obfervance of it; and if he promifeth a thing abfolutely, he ought absolutely to perform it; if he promiseth a thing conditionally, the condition being fulfilled, he is tied, upon the honour of his truth and justice, to make that promife good: as appears plainly by that which you call and value as his own word.-Matt. xxv. 24. Heb. vi 10. 1 John i. 9. Dio. I beseech you, Sir, have you been inftructed in God's word? : PAG. I fhall deal ingenuously with you. I have been long acquainted with your Bible, which you make the ground of your religion and I obferve, it speaks very much of heaven, and glorious things of a life to come, and calls upon you very earnestly to defpife the world, and lay up your hearts and your hopes in heaven; but obferving withal, what infatiable avarice, ambition, and luxury, there is amongst you that profefs chriftianity; and how much more carefully (notwithstanding your demure pretences) you lay out yourselves for earth than heaven, and what factions you drive on to compafs your ends; I have been drawn into a fufpicion, that few of you do cordially believe your own religion; or elfe that you think it is fuch a religion as will fave you by a verbal profession, though your practice be at utter defiance to all the rules and precepts of it. Befides, I have ftumbled at fome doctrines which I have found in other of your books; and it hath given me no finall fcandal to read (what I now hear from your your mouth) that the God you worship fhould make such a fevere law (as you say he hath) for the regulating of his creature, and yet deny that creature a fufficient ability to perform it. How this can confift with justice, by which the true God is fuppofed to govern the world, I confess I understand not. Dro. God help us ;--in many things we offend all. But you must not impute the fault to our religion, which is holy, juft, and good; but to the profeffors of it, who refuse to square their practice according to the gofpel-inftitution. But for the offence you take, that God enjoins a law, which is become impoffible; you must know we hold the juftice of God excufable in this cafe; because he gave all mankind a fufficient power in their first parents, whom he created after his own image in righteousness and true holiness; and had they perfifted in their obedience, their pofterity had been furnished with the fame abilities, and had had the fame image ftamped upon them, in as fuil and fair a character as they had: but becaufe, upon the fuggeftion of the devil, they broke the covenant of their Maker, therefore were they punished with the lofs of that image, original juftice, and supernatural abilities; and this fin of theirs being imputed to their whole offspring, the very fame penalty is also derived unto them, upon that account. PAG. When fin is committed, and a guilt contracted, admit, God be not tied to his own creature; yet he may be tied to his own natural equity, to proportion the penalty to the crime, and not to aggravate the affliction beyond the creature's demerit. And therefore, if they became delinquents in the perfon of another, that the penalty may hold correfpondence with the fault, they fhould alfo receive their punishment in the perfon of another. Dio. The punishment, as I have already hinted to you, was impofed upon another perfon, even upon the Son of God: for God "Laid upon him the iniquity of us all, and he was pounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our ini quities; quities; the chafifement of our peace was upon him, and by his firipes we are healed."* PAG. But, Sir, I remember you faid, He died according to the counsel and purpose of his Father, only for a certain feed which he had given to him. The rest he did not redeem, or die for: and yet he commands them to believe in him, and rely upon him, and denies them power to do it, too; which I cannot but think to be extreme feverity. Dio. I told you before, that the juftice of God is excufable, because he gave them power to believe in their first parent, in Adam; and to this prodigality they must impute this their impotency. PAG. The tenor of your difcourfe hath led me to look upon faith, or which is all one, believing under this notion; viz. a laying hold upon Chrift the Mediator, as the means to help us out of fin and mifery; and if it be fo, I am apt to conclude, that as Adam had no need, fo neither had he power, (though he had fo much as was fuitable to his condition) in his flate of integrity, to lay hold on Chrift. And if I apprehend your fenfeight, faith contains, or implies, a power to arise after our fall. If, therefore, Adam before his fall had this power; then after he was fallen he might have drawn it forth to his reftitution; and fo there fhould have been no need of that omnipotent and irrefifible operation of God unto this work, which for mightinefs is not inferior to the creation of the world, or raifing up of the dead, as is pretended. Befides, the queftion is not concerning the historical belief of a Mediator, in cafe God had made the revelation upon fuppofition of the fall (as he did not) but whether Adam had a power to believe in Chrift favingly? This he could not do, because saving faith implies a renouncing of one's own works, and a relying upon Chrift's merits and mediation, for grace and pardon. This, in the fate of innocency, Adam * Ifaiah liii. 5. could |