Commands and Exhortations in Vain - Argument Three
IV. ARGUMENT THREE
If conversion be wrought only by the unfrustrable operation of God, and man is purely passive in it, vain are,
First, all the commands and exhortations directed to wicked men 'to turn from their evil ways, to put away the evil of their doings, to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well, to wash and make themselves clean,(Isaiah 1:16)' to circumcise their hearts, and be no more stiff-necked,(Deuteronomy 10:16) to circumcise themselves to the Lord , and take away the foreskins of their hearts, to wash their hearts from wickedness that they may be saved,(Jeremiah 4:4, 14) to put off the old man and put on the new (Ephesians 4:22-24) to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and to. receive with meekness the ingrafted word.'' (James 1:21)
For to suppose that God commands the duty, or imposes that as our duty, under the penalty of everlasting wrath, which he both knows, and, according to this hypothesis, hath declared we never can do without that mighty aid which He neither does nor ever will vouchsafe to the greatest part of those to whom these precepts are directed,— is to require them in vain to do these things, and in effect to declare they are to look upon themselves as inevitably damned, and that even for not doing that which it is no more in their power to do, than to create a world.
To say here that " the end of these commands and exhortations is to declare, not what we can do, or God would have us do, but what we ought to do," is, (I.) to suppose we ought to do what we cannot do, yea that we ought to do what God would not have us do, which is a manifest contradiction, seeing we only ought to do it, because his will requires it.
(2.) It is in express terms contrary to the tenor of those numerous scriptures which say, He hath commanded men to do his commandments, and given them such precepts that they may keep and do them.
And, (3.) it is repugnant to the plainest reason, for that one end of the precepts, prohibitions, and exhortations contained in God's law is obedience, is therefore evident because they are there enforced with promises to the obedient, and threatenings to the disobedient; the only end of which is to move us to obedience by the inducements of hope and fear.
Now obedience is one thing, and knowledge another; therefore knowledge is not the only end of God's precepts and exhortations, and so the only end of them is not to declare to us what we ought to do. Moreover that is to be deemed the principal end of the law and of exhortations grounded on it, without which all other ends of the law, being attained, do not profit, but do rather hurt.
Now thus it is with respect to knowledge of what we do not; 'for he that knoweth his master's will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes;''(Luke 12:47) and he that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin ;'(James 4:17) therefore obedience and not knowledge, is the principal end of these things.
Moreover, would not God 'have all men to obey his commands? Are they not declarations of His will concerning what he would have them do, or leave undone? Would He not have us to comply with his exhortations, and hearken to the voice of his word? Is not obedience to them styled '"the doing of his will?" Do not all the world conclude that they should do what he commands? Do they not look upon His precepts as a sufficient indication of his will and pleasure?
Are not all men obliged to believe God would have them do what He requires of them? And can they be obliged to believe this if it be not true? Can any person rationally think that an upright God in whom is no hypocrisy or guile, should seriously command that which he is not willing men should do, especially when his commands are so agreeable to his nature, and so beneficial to the souls of men, as the commands of faith, repentance, and obedience are?
The only instance produced to the contrary from God's command to Abraham, to offer up his only Son, is both impertinent and inconclusive: It is not pertinent, because it is not paralleled to the case in hand.
Had indeed God after these precept given a contrary command to the sinner not to repent and obey him, as in this case he did to Abraham; had he complained of Abraham, as he does of them, for not obeying his command; had he threatened to and executed his judgments on him, on that account, as he doth on them, then, and then only, would the case have been parallel.
(2.) It is inconclusive; for as precepts of this nature are never made but to private persons, so neither are they made concerning things which have a real goodness and suitableness to reason in them, as the fore-mentioned precepts have; for then they would be no temptations. Add to this that Abraham obeyed upon this very principle, that God would have him do what he commanded, and ceased to continue in and to complete this act, only by virtue of a contrary command; we therefore must, even by this example so much urged, conclude we must repent and obey his precepts till he is pleased to give us a command to the contrary.
Now it being thus evident that obedience is the end of God's precepts, laws, and exhortations, it is also evident that those precepts which are impossible to be performed, even as impossible as for the dead to raise themselves, are vain and ludicrous, and they are yet more so when they are backed with promises and threats; for where the thing required is impossible, it is as vain to hope or fear, as to think of doing it. But most of all are those exhortations ludicrous which are grounded on the law, if the matter be utterly impossible; for exhortations carry the appearance of a serious and charitable intention, and some hope of prevailing; whence God so frequently declares he presses them upon his people for their good, and that it may be well with them; but nothing of this nature can really be implied in an exhortation to another to do that which he knows he never can do, and therefore in such cases his exhortations can be nothing better than hypocrisy and mockery.
Secondly, according to this hypothesis, vain also are all the threats denounced in the scripture against them who go on without amendment in their evil ways, and who persist in their impenitency and unbelief, as v. g. that of the Psalmist, ' The Lord is angry with the wicked; if he turn not, he will sharpen his sword. He has prepared for him the instruments of death:' (Psalm 7:11-13) — That of the prophet in God's name, 'I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways:' (Jeremiah 15:7) And again, ' Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a, device against you; return ye therefore from your evil ways, and make your ways and your doings good;'(Jeremiah 18:11) and those of Christ himself, 'If you repent not, you shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3) If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.' (John 8:24)
For (1.) either those threats are proper to move the elect to faith, repentance, and obedience: and then, (i.) they may move them so to do, and then an unfrustrable action cannot be necessary to their conversion. Then, (ii.) seeing threats only move by exciting fear of the evil threatened, they may be moved, and God must design to move them, by the fears of perishing and dying in their sins; that is, God must design to move them by a false and an impossible supposition.
Or, (2.) they are proper to move those who are not elected; but this they cannot be, because then they must be moved to endeavor to believe, repent, and turn from the evil of their ways by the hopes of avoiding this death and ruin threatened by so doing; whereas seeing it is the same thing to have God's decree of preterition past upon them, and to be left inevitably to perish, they must, by virtue of it, be left without hopes that they may not perish.
True it is, that these decrees are secret, and so neither can the elect know certainly they are of that number, nor they who are not elected, that this act of preterition has been past upon them; but yet this alters not the case, seeing upon supposition of such eternal decrees, they must know disjunctively, either that they cannot die in their sins because they are elected; or that they cannot avoid it, because they are not elected.
Thirdly, vain upon this supposition, are the promises of pardon, life, and salvation made to them who do consider and turn from their evil ways, and who repent of their iniquity, as, v. g. 'wash ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your doings; then though your sins be as crimson, you shall be white as wool, though they be red like scarlet, ye shall be as snow.' (Isaiah 1:18) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7) O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayst be saved. How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? (Jeremiah 4:14) Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin; for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, therefore turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18:30-32) For no promises can be means proper to make a dead man live, or to prevail upon a man to act who must be purely passive.
Nor can I seriously design to induce him by them to do what I know he can never do himself, and which, whenever it is done, must be done by me alone. To promise therefore, and give no strength for the performance; or to promise on an impossible condition, or on a condition which I only can perform, and which I have determined never to enable him to do, is indeed to promise nothing, because it is to promise nothing that I can obtain; and nothing of this nature being ever done by any wise and upright governor. How absurd is it to impute such actions to a God infinite in righteousness and wisdom, and who is doubtless serious, and not delusory, in all his dealings with the sons of men!
When therefore these men say, " God promises pardon and life seriously even to those who are not elected, but lie under an act of preterition, because He does it upon condition that they believe, repent, and be converted, and will, if they perform them, give this pardon and salvation to them;" this is as if I should say, " God threatens damnation to his elect seriously and in good earnest, because He threatens it to all, and therefore to them also, if they do not turn to him, if they continue in impenitence and unbelief, or if they persevere not to the end:" Whereas if, notwithstanding, he hath in his word of truth declared concerning them that He has from eternity prepared for then that grace which will unfrustrably produce faith, repentance, and conversion in them, and stands engaged by promise to make them persevere unto the end, no man can rationally conceive He threatens damnation to them seriously, because then He must only do it on a condition which He Himself by His decree and promise hath rendered it impossible for them to be subject to.
So, in like manner, if God doth only promise this pardon and salvation to the non-elect, on a condition which his own act of preterilion, and leaving them under the disability they had contracted by the fall of Adam, hath rendered impossible for them to perform; this being in effect no promise, a promise only made on an impossible condition being equivalent to none at all, how can a God of truth and of sincerity be said to promise to them pardon and salvation seriously and in good earnest, who are by His own act of preterition infallibly and unfrustrably excluded from it?
If conversion be wrought only by the unfrustrable operation of God, and man is purely passive in it, vain are,
First, all the commands and exhortations directed to wicked men 'to turn from their evil ways, to put away the evil of their doings, to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well, to wash and make themselves clean,(Isaiah 1:16)' to circumcise their hearts, and be no more stiff-necked,(Deuteronomy 10:16) to circumcise themselves to the Lord , and take away the foreskins of their hearts, to wash their hearts from wickedness that they may be saved,(Jeremiah 4:4, 14) to put off the old man and put on the new (Ephesians 4:22-24) to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and to. receive with meekness the ingrafted word.'' (James 1:21)
For to suppose that God commands the duty, or imposes that as our duty, under the penalty of everlasting wrath, which he both knows, and, according to this hypothesis, hath declared we never can do without that mighty aid which He neither does nor ever will vouchsafe to the greatest part of those to whom these precepts are directed,— is to require them in vain to do these things, and in effect to declare they are to look upon themselves as inevitably damned, and that even for not doing that which it is no more in their power to do, than to create a world.
To say here that " the end of these commands and exhortations is to declare, not what we can do, or God would have us do, but what we ought to do," is, (I.) to suppose we ought to do what we cannot do, yea that we ought to do what God would not have us do, which is a manifest contradiction, seeing we only ought to do it, because his will requires it.
(2.) It is in express terms contrary to the tenor of those numerous scriptures which say, He hath commanded men to do his commandments, and given them such precepts that they may keep and do them.
And, (3.) it is repugnant to the plainest reason, for that one end of the precepts, prohibitions, and exhortations contained in God's law is obedience, is therefore evident because they are there enforced with promises to the obedient, and threatenings to the disobedient; the only end of which is to move us to obedience by the inducements of hope and fear.
Now obedience is one thing, and knowledge another; therefore knowledge is not the only end of God's precepts and exhortations, and so the only end of them is not to declare to us what we ought to do. Moreover that is to be deemed the principal end of the law and of exhortations grounded on it, without which all other ends of the law, being attained, do not profit, but do rather hurt.
Now thus it is with respect to knowledge of what we do not; 'for he that knoweth his master's will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes;''(Luke 12:47) and he that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin ;'(James 4:17) therefore obedience and not knowledge, is the principal end of these things.
Moreover, would not God 'have all men to obey his commands? Are they not declarations of His will concerning what he would have them do, or leave undone? Would He not have us to comply with his exhortations, and hearken to the voice of his word? Is not obedience to them styled '"the doing of his will?" Do not all the world conclude that they should do what he commands? Do they not look upon His precepts as a sufficient indication of his will and pleasure?
Are not all men obliged to believe God would have them do what He requires of them? And can they be obliged to believe this if it be not true? Can any person rationally think that an upright God in whom is no hypocrisy or guile, should seriously command that which he is not willing men should do, especially when his commands are so agreeable to his nature, and so beneficial to the souls of men, as the commands of faith, repentance, and obedience are?
The only instance produced to the contrary from God's command to Abraham, to offer up his only Son, is both impertinent and inconclusive: It is not pertinent, because it is not paralleled to the case in hand.
Had indeed God after these precept given a contrary command to the sinner not to repent and obey him, as in this case he did to Abraham; had he complained of Abraham, as he does of them, for not obeying his command; had he threatened to and executed his judgments on him, on that account, as he doth on them, then, and then only, would the case have been parallel.
(2.) It is inconclusive; for as precepts of this nature are never made but to private persons, so neither are they made concerning things which have a real goodness and suitableness to reason in them, as the fore-mentioned precepts have; for then they would be no temptations. Add to this that Abraham obeyed upon this very principle, that God would have him do what he commanded, and ceased to continue in and to complete this act, only by virtue of a contrary command; we therefore must, even by this example so much urged, conclude we must repent and obey his precepts till he is pleased to give us a command to the contrary.
Now it being thus evident that obedience is the end of God's precepts, laws, and exhortations, it is also evident that those precepts which are impossible to be performed, even as impossible as for the dead to raise themselves, are vain and ludicrous, and they are yet more so when they are backed with promises and threats; for where the thing required is impossible, it is as vain to hope or fear, as to think of doing it. But most of all are those exhortations ludicrous which are grounded on the law, if the matter be utterly impossible; for exhortations carry the appearance of a serious and charitable intention, and some hope of prevailing; whence God so frequently declares he presses them upon his people for their good, and that it may be well with them; but nothing of this nature can really be implied in an exhortation to another to do that which he knows he never can do, and therefore in such cases his exhortations can be nothing better than hypocrisy and mockery.
Secondly, according to this hypothesis, vain also are all the threats denounced in the scripture against them who go on without amendment in their evil ways, and who persist in their impenitency and unbelief, as v. g. that of the Psalmist, ' The Lord is angry with the wicked; if he turn not, he will sharpen his sword. He has prepared for him the instruments of death:' (Psalm 7:11-13) — That of the prophet in God's name, 'I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways:' (Jeremiah 15:7) And again, ' Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a, device against you; return ye therefore from your evil ways, and make your ways and your doings good;'(Jeremiah 18:11) and those of Christ himself, 'If you repent not, you shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3) If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.' (John 8:24)
For (1.) either those threats are proper to move the elect to faith, repentance, and obedience: and then, (i.) they may move them so to do, and then an unfrustrable action cannot be necessary to their conversion. Then, (ii.) seeing threats only move by exciting fear of the evil threatened, they may be moved, and God must design to move them, by the fears of perishing and dying in their sins; that is, God must design to move them by a false and an impossible supposition.
Or, (2.) they are proper to move those who are not elected; but this they cannot be, because then they must be moved to endeavor to believe, repent, and turn from the evil of their ways by the hopes of avoiding this death and ruin threatened by so doing; whereas seeing it is the same thing to have God's decree of preterition past upon them, and to be left inevitably to perish, they must, by virtue of it, be left without hopes that they may not perish.
True it is, that these decrees are secret, and so neither can the elect know certainly they are of that number, nor they who are not elected, that this act of preterition has been past upon them; but yet this alters not the case, seeing upon supposition of such eternal decrees, they must know disjunctively, either that they cannot die in their sins because they are elected; or that they cannot avoid it, because they are not elected.
Thirdly, vain upon this supposition, are the promises of pardon, life, and salvation made to them who do consider and turn from their evil ways, and who repent of their iniquity, as, v. g. 'wash ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your doings; then though your sins be as crimson, you shall be white as wool, though they be red like scarlet, ye shall be as snow.' (Isaiah 1:18) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7) O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayst be saved. How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? (Jeremiah 4:14) Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin; for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, therefore turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18:30-32) For no promises can be means proper to make a dead man live, or to prevail upon a man to act who must be purely passive.
Nor can I seriously design to induce him by them to do what I know he can never do himself, and which, whenever it is done, must be done by me alone. To promise therefore, and give no strength for the performance; or to promise on an impossible condition, or on a condition which I only can perform, and which I have determined never to enable him to do, is indeed to promise nothing, because it is to promise nothing that I can obtain; and nothing of this nature being ever done by any wise and upright governor. How absurd is it to impute such actions to a God infinite in righteousness and wisdom, and who is doubtless serious, and not delusory, in all his dealings with the sons of men!
When therefore these men say, " God promises pardon and life seriously even to those who are not elected, but lie under an act of preterition, because He does it upon condition that they believe, repent, and be converted, and will, if they perform them, give this pardon and salvation to them;" this is as if I should say, " God threatens damnation to his elect seriously and in good earnest, because He threatens it to all, and therefore to them also, if they do not turn to him, if they continue in impenitence and unbelief, or if they persevere not to the end:" Whereas if, notwithstanding, he hath in his word of truth declared concerning them that He has from eternity prepared for then that grace which will unfrustrably produce faith, repentance, and conversion in them, and stands engaged by promise to make them persevere unto the end, no man can rationally conceive He threatens damnation to them seriously, because then He must only do it on a condition which He Himself by His decree and promise hath rendered it impossible for them to be subject to.
So, in like manner, if God doth only promise this pardon and salvation to the non-elect, on a condition which his own act of preterilion, and leaving them under the disability they had contracted by the fall of Adam, hath rendered impossible for them to perform; this being in effect no promise, a promise only made on an impossible condition being equivalent to none at all, how can a God of truth and of sincerity be said to promise to them pardon and salvation seriously and in good earnest, who are by His own act of preterition infallibly and unfrustrably excluded from it?
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