II. the individual actions which he hath done, then he ought not DISCOURSE to accuse or condemn any man for what he hath done: for, according to his grounds, neither he nor they did any thing but what was the secret and irresistible will of God that they should do; and when the secret will of God is made known by the event, we ought all to submit unto it. Much less can any man accuse or condemn himself without hypocrisy for doing that, which, if his life had lain a thousand times upon it, he could not have helped, nor done otherwise than he did. The very same reason holdeth for the time to come. There is the same necessity in respect of God's decree, the same inevitability on our parts for the future, that is for the time past; the same submission is due to the secret will of God, when it shall be declared by the event. How ill he hath been able to reconcile his principles with the truth and goodness and justice and power of God, and with those Christian duties which we owe unto God, as vows, repentance, and praising of God's Holy Name, the hearing of His Word, the receiving of His Sacraments, I leave to the judgment of the reader. The next thing which I disliked was his description of What rerepentance; "It is a glad returning into the right way after is. the grief of being out of the way." Who ever heard before this of 'gladness' or joy in the definition of repentance? He telleth us, that it is not "Christian repentance" without a purpose of amendment of life". That is true. A purpose of amendment was comprehended in the old definition of repentance; a godly sorrow for sins past, with a stedfast purpose to commit no more sins to be sorrowed fore. St. Peter found no great sense of joy, when "he went out and [Matt.xxvi. wept bitterly;" and some tell us, that so long as he lived, he xxii. 62.] did the same, so often as he heard the cock crow': nor Mary Magdalene, when she washed the feet of Christ with her tears, [Luke vii. 37, 38.] and wiped them with her hairs; yet she was a true penitent, and purposed amendment: nor David, when he "washed his [Ps. vi. 6.] C [See above in the Defence, T. H. Numb. xv. p. 103.] d [Qu., Animadv. upon Numb. xv. p. 177.] e ["Pœnitentiam quippe agere, est et perpetrata mala plangere, et plangenda non perpetrare.' Greg. Magni in Evang. Hom. xxxiv. Op. tom. i. p. 1609. C.] f [This is asserted as upon the authority of S. Clement of Rome by Corderius (Annot. in c. xxii. v. 62. of the Catena in S. Lucam edited by him). See also the Life of S. Peter by Sanctorius in Bollandi Acta SS., June 29, c. i. § 16.] pentance 75.-Luke III. PART bed" night by night, and "watered his couch with his tears." St. Paul reckoneth all the parts of the repentance of the 2 Cor. vii. Corinthians; "godly sorrow-carefulness-clearing of themselves indignation-fear-vehement desires-zeal - revenge;" here is no word of joy or 'gladness' in all this. Joy 11. is a consequent of repentance after reconciliation, but it is not of the essence of repentance; no more than a succeeding [Luke xv. calm is of the essence of a storm, or the prodigal's festival joy 24.] after his re-admission into his father's house was a part of his conversion. He is afraid, that "this doctrine" of fasting, and mourning, and tears, and humicubation, and sackcloth, and ashes, "pertaineth to the establishment of Romish penance"." Or rather they were natural expressions of sorrow, before Joel ii. 12. Rome was builded. "Turn ye to Me with all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning." Neither the [Jonah iii. Ninevites, nor the Tyrians and Zidonians, did learn their sackcloth and ashes" at Rome. But many men love to serve Luke x.13.] God now-a-days with as much ease as they can; as if God Almighty would be satisfied with any thing, 'vel uvá vel fabá’— [Matt. vii. either with a grape or with a bean.' And 'with the same 2.] measure they mete to God, He measureth to them again.' 6-8.-Matt. xi. 21. Man's con currence grace. 66 6 He chargeth me, that I "labour to bring in a concurrence with God's of man's will with God's will, and power in God to give repentance if man will take it, but not the power to make him take it." Hola! It is one question, utrum possiť— 'what God can do ;' another, 'utrum sit'—'what God will do.' God can determine the will irresistibly, but He doth not Acts vii. 51. do it ordinarily. "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Prov. i. 24. heart, . . ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ;" and, "I have called and ye refused," &c. The concurrence of God and man in producing the act of our believing, or conversion to God, is so evident in Holy Scripture, that it is vanity and lost labour to oppose it. If God did not concur, the Scripture [Phil.ii.13.] would not say, "It is God that worketh in" us, 'both the will and the deed.' If man did not concur, the Scripture [Phil.ii. 12.] would not say, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." If our repentance were God's work alone, God [Joel ii. 12.] would not say to man, "Turn ye unto Me with all your heart." h [Ibid.] [Qu., Animadv. upon Numb. xv. p. 178.] II. And if repentance were man's work alone, we had no need to DISCOURSE pray, "Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned." We are [Jerem. commanded to "repent" and to "believe." In vain are xxxi. 18.— Lam. v.21.] commandments given to them, who cannot at all concur to Mark i. 15. the acting of that which is commanded. Faith and repent801 ance are proposed unto us as conditions to obtain blessedness 3, 5.] and avoid destruction :-" If thou shalt confess with thy [Rom. x. 9. ] mouth and believe with thy heart," &c., "thou shalt be saved;" and, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." [Luke xiii. To propose impossible conditions, which they to whom they are proposed have no power either to accept or to refuse, is a mere mockery. Our unbelief and impenitence is imputed to us as our own fault ;-" Because of unbelief thou wert broken Rom.xi.20. off;" and, "After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou Rom. ii. 5. treasurest up unto thyself wrath." Their unbelief and impenitence were not their own faults, if they neither had power to concur with the grace of God to the production of faith and repentance, nor yet to refuse the grace of God. The Holy Scripture doth teach us, that God doth help us in doing works of piety;-"The Lord is my helper;" and, "The [Heb. xiii. Spirit helpeth our infirmities." If we did not cooperate at viii. 26.] all, God could not be said to 'help' us. There is therefore, there must be, cooperation. Neither doth this concurrence or cooperation of man at all intrench upon the power or honour of God, because this very liberty to cooperate is His gift, and this manner of acting His own institution. 6.-Rom. Those words "Behold I stand at the door and knock'," Rev. iii. 20. -are not understood only of the minister's outward knocking at the door of the ear with persuasive words, but much more of God Almighty's knocking at the door of the heart by His preventing grace. To what end doth He knock to have it opened, if He Himself had shut it by an irresistible decree? God first knocks at the door of our hearts by His preventing grace, without which we have no desire to open unto Christ; and then He helps us by His adjuvant or assisting grace, that we may be able to open. Yet the very name of God's adjuvant,' or 'assistant,' or 'helping' grace, doth admonish us, that there is something for us to do on our parts; that is, to open, to consent, to concur. Why should [Quoted by T. H., ibid.] PART J Cor. iii. 9. our cooperation seem so strange, which the Apostle doth assert so positively? "We are labourers together with 1 Cor. xv. God;" and, "I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I" (that is, not I alone), "but the grace of God which was with me." 10. Confidence in prayer, and the it. The last part of [t]his section is concerning prayer, which he manageth no better than the rest. First, he accuseth me for saying, that "prayer is a signification, that we expect" that which we pray for from God; efficacy of which he calleth "a presumption" in me, and "a detraction from the honour of God." But it is so far from being a presumption, that it is a necessary requisite in prayer. St. James Jam. i. 6. will have us pray without "wavering ;"-" Let him ask in faith 1 Tim. ii. 8. nothing wavering." St. Paul will have men to "lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting." And our Saviour comMark xi. 24. mands, "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them." I cited many texts of Scripture to prove the efficacy of prayer; whereof he is pleased to take notice of three, and to deny, that helping, means, efficacy, availing, do "signify any causation';" contrary both to the words and scope of those texts, and contrary to the tenor of the whole Scripture. Jam. v. 15. “The prayer of faith shall save the sick;" and, "I know Phil. i. 19. that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayers." [1 Sam. i. Hannah prayed and the Lord granted her request. We see the like in Ahab, in Zachary, in Cornelius, and many others. XX 22. Hezekias prayed, and the Lord said, "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, behold I will add unto thy Isa.xxxviii. days fifteen years." Nothing can be plainer than Solomon's 1 Kings prayer at the dedication of the Temple ;-" If there be viii. 37. &c. famine in the land, if there be pestilence," &c., "if their 27.1 [1 Kings Lukei.8-11. 2-4.] 5. 2 Chron. vii. 12. enemy besiege them in their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoewer sicknesses there be, what prayer or supplication soever be made by any man, or by all Thy people Israel," &c., “and spread forth his hands toward this house, hear Thou in Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do," &c. To all which God Himself condescended, and promised to do accordingly. [Qu., Animadv. upon Numb. xv. pp. 178, 179.] 1 [Ibid., p. 179.] II. His reason to the contrary, that "no creature living can DISCOURSE work any effect upon God","-is most true; but neither pertinent to his purpose, nor understood by himself. It is all one as to the efficacy of prayer, if it work upon us, as though it had wrought upon God Himself; if it render us more capable of His mercies, as if it rendered Him more merciful. Though the sword and the crown hang immoveable, yet prayer translateth us from one capacity to another, from being under the sword to be under the crown. Lastly, he telleth us in great sadness, that "though our prayers to man be distinguished from our thanks, it is not necessary it should be so in our prayers and thanks to God 802 Almighty"." Prayers and thanksgiving are our acts, not God's acts; and have their distinction from us, not from God. Prayer respects the time to come, thanksgiving the time past. Prayer is for that we want, thanksgiving for that we have. All the ten lepers prayed, "Jesus, Master, have Luke xvii. mercy on us;" but only one of them returned to give God thanks. St. Paul distinguisheth prayer and thanksgiving, 2 Cor. i. 11. even in respect of God. By granting the prayers of His people, God putteth an obligation upon them to give thanks. He might as well have said, that faith, hope, and charity, are the same thing. He passeth over the rest of this chapter in silence. I think him much the wiser for so doing. If he had done so by the rest likewise, it had been as much credit for his cause. 13. and 18. CASTIGATIONS OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS;-NUMBER XVI. Here are three things questionable in this section; first, whether "He who maketh all things, make all things necessary to be," or whether it be "a contradiction of" me to myself "to say so°?"-First, this is certain, there can be no formal contradiction where there is but one proposition; but here is but one proposition. Secondly, here is no implicit contradiction; first, because there is a vast difference between making all things "necessary to be," and making all things to be necessary agents. The most free or contingent agents in the m [Qu., Animadv. upon Numb. xv. 。 [Ibid., Auimadv. upon Numb. xvi. p. 183.] p. 179.] |