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free-will in spiritual things, what could have been more easy to an Omnipotent God, than to cause all mankind to believe in the Lord? Would it not have been in His power to have conferred this faith on every man, both immediately and mediately? immediately by His absolute power, and by making that operation of it, which is continually at work to effect man's salvation, irresistible, or mediately by exciting the pangs of remorse in his conscience, by inflicting mortal convulsions on his body, and keeping him under the constant alarms of death if he refused to receive that faith? Might he not also have used other means to produce this effect, such as laying open the infernal kingdom and terrifying him with the presence of devils holding burning torches in their hands, or raising up from the dead his friends and acquaintances to alarm him under the shapes of terrible apparitions? But to this reasoning we may reply in the words of Abraham to the rich Man in hell; "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead," Luke xvi. 31.

501. It may possibly be asked, why miracles are not wrought in our days, as they were formerly; from a presumption that, if they were wrought, every man would instantly give a hearty assent to the truths of religion. But the reason why miracles are not wrought now as in former times is, because miracles carry compulsion with them, and take away man's free-will in spiritual things, and change him from a spiritual into a natural agent. Since the time of the Lord's coming into the world, every one that is born in a Christian country hath a capacity to become spiritual, which is effected solely by the Lord through the Word; but this capacity would be destroyed if his faith were influenced by miracles, since these, as just observed, carry compulsion with them, and take away his free-will in spiritual things, and all compulsion in such matters only influences the natural man, closeth up the spiritual man which is the

true internal man as with a door, and depriveth it of all capacity of seeing any truth in the light; the consequence of which is that the man afterwards reasons respecting spiritual things from the natural man alone, which sees every thing truly spiritual in an inverted view. Miracles indeed were wrought previous to the Lord's coming into the world, and the reason was, because the members of the church at that time were mere natural men, to whom spiritual things, such as are those of the internal church, could not be opened, for if so they would have profaned them; hence too all their divine worship consisted in rituals, which represented and signified the internal things of the church, and to the exact performance of which there was no possible method of engaging them, but by miracles; but that even these were insufficient for the purpose, by reason that those representative rituals contained within them a spiritual internal, is plain from the case of the children of Israel in the wilderness, who though they had witnessed so many miracles wrought in Egypt, and afterwards that greatest of all on mount Sinai, yet when Moses was absent from them for about a month, danced around a golden calf, and cried aloud that that idol had brought them forth out of Egypt: equally rebellious was their behaviour in the land of Canaan, notwithstanding the extraordinary miracles wrought by Elijah and Elisha, and lastly the truly divine miracles wrought by the Lord. There is also this especial reason why they are not wrought at this time, which is, because the church hath taken away from man all freedom of will, by insisting that he cannot possible contribute any thing towards the reception of faith, nor towards conversion, nor in general towards salvation, as may be seen above, n. 464. The effects of such a belief are, to render him more and more natural; and the natural man, as just observed, beholds every thing of a spiritual nature under an inverted aspect, and consequently in thought opposeth it where this is the case, the superior region of the human mind, where free-will

in spiritual things principally resides, is closed up, and if miracles were then to be wrought, and spiritual things to appearance confirmed by them, they would only occupy the inferior region of the mind, which is merely natural, whilst all sorts of false notions respecting faith, conversion, and salvation, would remain in the region above; the consequence of which must be, that satans would have their habitation above, and angels beneath, like vultures over poultry; and after some time the satans would break down the barrier between, and would rush with all fury upon the spiritual things below, and would not only deny, but would also blaspheme and profane them; hence the latter state of such a man would be worse than the first.

502. The man who is rendered merely natural by imbibing false notions respecting the spiritual things of the church, must needs conceive of the divine omnipotence as being above order, consequently as independent of it; wherefore in the wildness of imagination he would ask, "To what purpose did the Lord come into the world, and adopt this mode of accomplishing the work of redemption, when God, by His omnipotence, might have effected the same redeeming work in heaven, without coming down here on earth? Why was not the whole race of mankind, without exception, saved by redemption, and why is the devil permitted to prevail in man over the Redeemer? Why is there such a place as hell? Hath not God, by virtue of His omnipotence, power to destroy it, to rescue thence its inhabitants, and make them angels of heaven? For what purpose is the final judgment? Could not God translate all the goats on the left hand to the right, and there change them into sheep? Why did God cast down the angels of the dragon, and the dragon himself, from heaven, when He might have converted them into angels of Michael? Why doth He not give faith alike to all, and impute to them His Son's righteousness, and so remit their sins, justify and sanctify them? Why doth He

not endow the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, with the gift of speech, and give them understanding, and introduce them together with men into heaven? Why did He not originally, or doth not still, make the whole face of the earth a paradise, where there should be no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, nor any serpent; but every hill should run down with generous wines, and should produce gold and silver, each in its native state; and where all the inhabitants might live as images of God in singing and jubilee, and thus in perpetual festivity and joy? Would not all this be worthy of an Omnipotent God?" These are the questions he would ask, with many more idle ravings of a similar kind. But, my friend, these fancies are all vain and futile: the divine omnipotence doth not exist without order: God Himself is order; and since all things were created from God, they were also created from order, in order, and for it. There is likewise a certain order for which man was created, and this is, that his blessedness or misery should depend on free-will in spiritual things: for as was observed above, without free-will it would have been impossible for man to have been created, or even beasts, birds, or fish; the brute creation however enjoy only natural free-will, whereas man enjoys both natural and spiritual together.

503. To the above I shall add the following MEMORABLE RELATIONS.

FIRST. I was once informed that a meeting was convened in the spiritual world, in order to deliberate on man's freewill in spiritual things. The learned from all quarters, who had thought much on the subject in the world where they had formerly lived, and many of whom had been present at councils, either greater or lesser, held both before and since the council of Nice, were there assembled. The place of meeting was a kind of round temple, not unlike that at Rome, called the Pantheon, which had formerly been

consecrated to the worship of all the gods, but was afterwards dedicated, by the Pope's order, to the worship of all saints and martyrs. In this temple, close to the walls, were species of altars, and at every one seats, on which the members of the assembly reposed themselves, leaning with their elbows on the altars, as on so many tables. There was no president appointed to regulate their proceedings, but each person, as his fancy directed, stood forth in the midst of the council, and disclosed the sentiments that he cherished in his breast; and, what appeared to me surprising, all the members of the assembly were full of confirmations in favour of man's utter impotence in spiritual things, and consequently ridiculed the notion of free-will. When all were assembled, a certain person stepped forth into the middle of the assembly, and with a loud voice delivered himself to the following effect: "Man possesseth no more free-will in things spiritual, than Lot's wife did after she was turned into a pillar of salt; for supposing him to enjoy any greater share of free-will than this, he would of himself seize and lay claim to the faith of our church, which teaches, that God the Father giveth faith gratis, out of His free-will and good pleasure, to what persons soever, and at what times soever, He sees meet; which good pleasure and free grace could in no wise belong to God, in case any freedom or good pleasure be allowed unto man, so that he may claim that gift unto himself; and the consequence of this must be, that our faith which is a bright star, shining day and night before us, would be dissipated, as a falling meteor is dissolved into air." After him another rose hastily from his seat, and said," Man enjoyeth no more free-will in spiritual things, than a beast, nay, than a dog, for supposing him possessed of free-will, he would do good of himself, when nevertheless all good is from God, and no one can take any thing except it be given him from above." After him another started from his chair, and with a loud voice exclaimed, "The free-will of man in spiri

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