as the author of nature, according to the exigence thereof, rather than the will co-operate with God, as its firft determiner.

Dio. That opinion doth cast fetters upon the divine liberty and providence: for if man's will doth freely determine itself before the divine determination, then it would follow, that the power and providence of God can difpofe nothing, till the affent of the created will be expected and first had, with which it may concur as a partial cause to produce the effect: and fo God fhould not be the first, but the second cause of this aft; and the will fhould not fo much depend upon him,. as he depend upon the first motion of his will.

PAG. If God preferves to his rational creature its natural propriety and manner of working, I suppose he doth ordinarily allow it the liberty of a felf determination: and I understand not how this fhould be any derogation to God's power or providence; for the creature ftill acts, not only under the general concourse of his providence, but also under the special egreffions of it; and God can, and doth, as it feemeth good to him, put in an immediate and extraordinary finger of power, to over-rule and order the actions of it. The creature therefore is not exempted froin the conduct of his providence, by this means, as you pretend.

DIO. "We look upon all created beings as fo many emanations from the first cause, upon which they depend in their being and working, as the rays depend upon the fun: neither is the intellectual creature, in the actions of free-will, exempted from this order; for it is neceffary, that every creature, and every action of it, be reduced unto God, as unto the first most perfect, and therefore moft effectual caufe." We conclude therefore, that our wills are tied up fo close to the will of God, that, like leffer wheels, they move only as that Great Mover doth guide them.

PAG. Methinks this doctrine fhould be very apt to tempt men to believe, that God doth very much promote and affist them in their moft prodigiously finful courfes.

ways

Dio. The acts of God's omnipotency are carefully to be diftinguished from his legislative acts: by these last God alforbids fin; but by thofe former, he fecretly incites men unto it, either by moving their wills, tongues, and members unto fin, or else by not moving them to the contrary virtue; but withdrawing his grace and neceflary affiftance; whence it comes to pass, that they cannot but fin.

PAG. This makes God the author of the finful act, and confequently the cause of all fin in the world.

DIO. Though it founds ill to weak and tender ears, yet Mr. Calvin hath openly avouched it: "I have clearly fhewed (faith he) that God is called the author of all thofe fins, which thefe cenfurers would have come to pafs only by his idle permiffion : but that we may clear God of all imputation, we are taught to diftinguish (when we speak of fin) betwixt the act and the finfulness; or betwixt the act which is finful (called by fome materiality) and the finfulness thereof (which is called the formality :) God is the cause of the former, but only the permitter of the latter."*

PAG. This permiffion then, by which you endeavour to free God from the imputation of being the author and caufe of fin, must not be an action by which God makes us to operate; but only negatio impedimenti, the denial of his impedition, or hindrance, in refpect of that operation, which depends upon our free determination.

IF

A

[To be continued.]

SERMON

[By the Rev. VALENTINE NALSON, M. A.]

PROV. xxiii. 26.

My fon, give me thine heart.

F God fhould vouchsafe to speak to any of us from heaven, and fhould condefcend to requeft, and even intreat what be might abfolutely command; how, think you, would our fouls

* Dr. Twifs, ubi fupra.

be

be affected in fuch a cafe? Would not our Hearts burn within us, while he talked with us? Luke xxiv. 32. Would they not even melt and diffolve, while he that is a confuming fire came fo near, Deut. iv. 24. as to commune with us? Should we not be all humility, all adoration, all acknowledgment, all love, all duty and obedience? We should defire nothing more, than to understand his mind clearly, that we might perform his will exactly.

God has in effect done thus; he speaks to every one of us by his holy word, and though this way of speaking be different in the manner, yet it is the fame in substance, and qught to have the fame fubftantial effects. God's fpeaking to us in his word has not indeed the fame effect upon our senses, as a voice from heaven would have; but it ought to have the fame effect upon our fpirits: for it carries the fame authority, it is the effect of the fame condefcenfion, it proceeds from the fame love, it is defigned to do us the fame good; and therefore ought to be received with the fame reverence and humility, the fame love, duty, and obedience.

Let then the livelinefs of our faith fupply the want of sense; let us think we hear God himself fpeaking to us in his holy word, and saying to every one of us, My fon, give me thy heart; and let us attend to it with the fame devout and holy dif pofitions and affections, let it have the fame bleffed influence upon us, as if God had fpoken it to every one of us particularly by an immediate voice from heaven.

The words are a request from God to man; upon the granting or denying of which, man's happiness, or misery, entirely depends, and the fulfilling or defeating the great end of our creation and redemption.

Since, therefore, it is a matter of fo high importance, it cannot but be highly defirable to know it, and to do it ; to contribute to both which is the defign of this prefent difcourfe, in which I propose,

1. To fhew you the meaning of the request, and what it is to give our hearts to God.

II. To urge you to comply with the request, by the strongest, and moft forcible arguments and motives.

The heart is figuratively used in Scripture, fometimes for the foul in general, and fometimes for fome one principal or ruling faculty of it in particular; fometimes, though not often, it fignifies the intellect, or understanding; but more frequently, and indeed most commonly, it fignifies the will, and its attendants and dependants, the affections; defire, love, fatisfaction, pleafure, joy, and delight.

But because the free-will is the abfolute monarch in man, and all the other faculties are either attendants, affifters and counsellors; as the fenfes, memory, and judgment; or, they are officers and fervants, as the bodily powers, which readily execute what the will refolves, and pun&tually obey what it commands confidering this, we may take the heart to fignify the whole man, and principally his foul, and in the foul the principal faculty, which is the free-will, which is to the foul what the heart is to the body, the first mover, communicating motion, heat, and life to all the other faculties and members.

To give our hearts then to God is to give our whole felves, our fouls, bodies, fpirits, and all the capacities, faculties, and powers of them; all that we are, and all that we have, without exception or reserve, into the hands, as it were, of God; to be disposed, and made ufe of by him for his glory, according to his good will and pleasure, both in this world and the next, in time and to eternity.

Now if we defire a fuller view of the meaning of this requeft; the expreffion, which is the introduction to it, will furnith us with the most proper confideration for this purpose: My fon, fays he, give me thy heart; intimating that we ought, by grace, to do to our heavenly Father, what children do, by nature, to their earthly parents. 3 L

VOL. XIV.

And

And no doubt, as outward and vifible things are copies and images of inward and invifible, which is the very foundation of the frequent comparifons in Scripture of heavenly things to earthly; fo we may plainly discover our duty towards God in our duty towards man, and fee a lively picture of the fpiritual affection we ought to bear to the Father of our Spirits, in the natural affection children bear to the fathers of their flefh.

Let us fee then, how a child of the sweetest difpofition is afa fccted towards its moft tender and indulgent father; and thence we may learn, how to give our hearts to God our heavenly Father.

1. First, it has the greatest reverence and efleem for its father; it believes all he fays, and obeys all he commands; it believes without reafoning, and obeys without difputing: thus it gives its heart by giving its understanding to him.

2. Again, it does not only reverence but love its father; it delights in his prefence, it would be always with him, and would be always fhewing demonftrations of its affection; but elpecially it fhews its love, by a defire to please, and fear to offend its father, by fubmitting and conforming its will to his; and readily and immediately doing whatever it is bidden: thus it gives its heart, by giving up its will to its father.

3. Again, as it loves its father, fo it trufts him wholly with the care and provision for itself; both for the present and the future. It is entirely refigned to him, to be fed and cloathed, to be guided and governed, to be inftructed and corrected, as his father fees fit; it wholly depends upon its father for its future inheritance, and for the preparing and cultivating his mind, and making it fit to poffefs and ufe it, fo as to be an honour to his father, and an ornament to his family; and all this, without any other care, than that of fhewing itself a loving, dutiful, and obedient child..

To give our heart to God then, according to this model, is ift. To give up our underflandings to him, to think upon and contemplate, to adore the infinite excellencies, and perfections