§. IV.
Proof 2. Its Inconsistency with the Justice of God.Secondly, It is inconsistent with the Justice of God. For since he requires Purity from his Children, and commands them to abstain from every Iniquity, so frequently and precisely as shall hereafter appear, and since his Wrath is revealed against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men, it must needs follow, that he hath capacitated Man to answer his Will, or else that he requires more than he has given Power to perform; which is to declare him openly unjust, and with the slothful Servant to be an hard Master. We have elsewhere spoken of the Injustice these Men ascribe to God, in making him to damn the Wicked, to whom they allege he never afforded any Means of being good; but this is yet an Aggravation more irrational and inconsistent, to say, That God will not afford to those, whom he hath chosen to be his own (whom they confess he loveth) the Means to please him. What can follow then from so strange a Doctrine?
This Imperfection in the Saints either proceeds from God or from themselves: If it proceeds from them, it must be because they are short in improving or making use of the Power given them, whereby they are capable to obey; and so it is a Thing possible to them, as indeed it is by the Help of that Power: But this our Adversaries deny: They are then not to be blamed for their Imperfection and continuing in Sin, since it is not possible for them to do otherwise. If it be not of themselves, it must be of God, who hath not seen meet to allow them Grace in that Degree to produce that Effect: And what is this but to attribute to God the Height of Injustice, to make him require his Children to forsake Sin, and yet not to afford them sufficient Means for so doing? Who will give their Children a Stone instead of Bread?Surely this makes God more unrighteous than wicked Men, who if (as Christ saith) their Children require Bread of them, will not give them a Stone; or instead of a Fish, a Serpent. But these Men confess we ought to seek of God Power to redeem us from Sin, and yet believe they are never to receive such a Power; such Prayers then cannot be in Faith, but are all vain. Is not this to make God as unjust to his Children as Pharaoh was to the Israelites, in requiring Brick and not giving them Straw? But blessed be God, he deals not so with those that truly trust in him, and wait upon him, as these Men vainly imagine; for such faithful Ones find of a Truth that his Grace is sufficient for them, and know how by his Power and Spirit to overcome the evil One.