this Resolution or Determination in the Point proposed was intimated before the whole strength of it relyes upon those places of Scripture wherein it is said He that continues unto the End shall be saved or We are partakers of Christ and his promises if we Continue the Beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End But though it be True that no man which falls off from the Spirit unto the Flesh before the End of his bodily Life can be partaker of the promises yet is it never said That no man is or can be so confirmed in Grace before the End of his life that he cannot Totally or finally fall As for that Speech frequent in Scripture He that continues unto the End c. it doth not so punctually point out the End of Life as it doth the End or just Measure of this Duty here enjoyned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Language of the Holy Ghost oftimes signifies as much as ad victoriam and denotes that point of time wherein we get the Victory or Conquest over the Flesh or other enemies of the Spirit And the Apostles words Hebr. 3. 14. may well beare this Interpretation if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the End That is unto the End or full Measure of our Confidence And all the glorious promises which are made unto such as continue unto the End are as often made and conceived in this Tenour To him that overcomes So it is Revel 3. 5. He that overcometh the same shall be cloathed in white raiment and I will not blot out his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confesse his Name before my Father and before his Angels And again ver 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God And the writing of this Name of Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven upon men imports it shall be thus written whilest they live here on earth or whilest it comes down to them not when they ascend in soul unto it And when S. Paul saith that the Names of Clement and other his Fellow-Labourers were written in the Book of Life Phil. 4. 3. Questionlesse his meaning is that they were so written in it that they should never be blotted out and yet were they so written long before they dyed I saw saith S. John the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20. 12. But although men in this Life may attain unto an Immutable estate of Grace yet many finally misse of this Estate because they know not where to find themselves or in what Estate or Condition they should for the Present rank or esteem themselves 11 Some there be which either Expresly or by Inevitable Consequence of what they expresly affirme divide Mankind as formally into Reprobates and Elect The division of all mankind into Elect and Reprobates not right as Philosophers do Substances into Corporeal and Incorporeal By this kind of Division were it sound and Orthodoxal every man from his birth unto his death should be either a Reprobate or One Elect. Now were this Doctrine true We that are Christs Messengers should be at a Non-plus either for administring Comfort to our hearers in trouble of Conscience or for preventing and asswaging Presumption in such as are not conscious of any grosser Sin or not dejected by the Thundring Threats of Gods Law The Truth is There be Three Estates or Conditions of Men not only in Generall but of every man in particular which finally attains unto Salvation First The Estate or Condition of Man as he is the son of Adam For every man as he is the son of Adam is the son of wrath Second The Estate or Condition of Man as he is reconciled to God and admitted into the Priviledge of his Son by Baptisme or ingraftment into his Mystical Body the Church Third The Estate or Condition of Compleat Regeneration or of Election The First estate or condition is the Terminus à quo Eternal Salvation or admission into the Everlasting State of Bliss is the Terminus ad quem of every True Christians Progresse The Two Estates Intermediate that is the Estate of the Sons of God in General by Baptism and the Estate of Election which we have in this Life are the Two several Degrees or steps of our Progress in Christianity But in as much as all men be not at all times either in the Estate of Election or Reprobation and yet all in the end become either Sheep or Goats we must observe Foure Estates of men in General Four Estates of men in general The First The Estate of the Sons of Wrath. The Second The Estate of Reprobates The Third the estate of the Sons of God by Adoption or Baptism The Fourth The estate of the elect or compleatly Regenerate 12. That there is a Difference between the estate or Condition of the Sons of Wrath and the estate of absolute Reprobation A difference likewise between the Estate or Condition of the Sons of God the Estate of Condition of the Elect may be Demonstrated form the several Estates or Conditions of the First Man Adam in his First estate was the Son of God yet not then in the estate of election for so he could not have fallen so foully as he did After his Fall he was in the Sate or Condition of a Son of Wrath Yet not in the estate or condition of absolute Reprobation for so he could not have attained unto the estate of election or Salvation So then every Reprobate is the Son of Wrath but every Son of Wrath is not a Reprobate Every elect Person or every man after election is the Son of God but every Son of God is not in the number of the elect The Award allotted to every one of these estates is either an Act of Mercy or of Iustice Divine But unto the individual Nature or Persons of men no effect of Justice or Mercy can be awarded And therefore the Individual entity or Nature of Man cannot be the Immediate Object of the Divine Decree No part of misery can be determined upon any man or Decreed against him before he be the Son of wrath or a Reprobate For God doth never punish where he is not displeased and displeased he cannot be with our meer Natures Now to be the Son of Wrath in the lowest degree supposeth some work of Satan wrought in the party which is the Son of Wrath That only makes him the Son of Wrath. Adam could not have become the Son of Wrath unlesse he
AN EXACT COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF Doctor Iackson P. of C. C. C. Oxon Such as were not Published before CHRIST EXERCISING HIS EVERLASTING PRIESTHOOD Mans Freedom from Servitude to Sin effected by Christ sitting at the Right Hand of God and there Officiating as a most Compassionate High-priest in behalf of Sinners OR A TREATISE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST which Consists in the true Estimate or Experimental Valuation of his Death Resurrection and Exercise of his Everlasting Sacerdotal Function in the Heavenly Sanctuarie where he now sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father THIS ESTIMATE Cannot be rightly made without a Right Understanding of the Primaeval State of Adam Of the Nature of Sin How it first came How it still comes into the World Of Mans Servitude unto Sin Of Free-will How we are sett Free by Christ Of Mortification Election Reprobation All which with other Considerable particulars as of the Use of Reason and Arts in Controversies of Divinitie of Baptism the Lords Supper c. are As an Introduction to Christs Priesthood discoursed on in this Tenth Book of Comments on the Creed AND VSEFVLL TABLES ADDED Verily Verily He that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If the Son make you Free then ye shall be Free indeed LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothie Garthwait at the little North-Door of S. Pauls Church 1654. THE PREFACE To the Christian and Considerate Reader Grace Mercy c. AS to the Great Richness and Goodly Number of This Author's Writings I shall not here say much having spoken most of what I had to say anent Those two Points in The Account or Preface set before the First Volume of His Workes Printed in Folio the last year And yet Thus much I shall say That I am dayly more and more confirmed in my Judgement There passed upon them being likewise perswaded of This That though it be but the Addition of one Single Unitie to the former Number of his Bookes yet will it prove a Multiplyed Accession of Degrees to the weight and excellency of them I shall perhaps better gratifie The Reader if I can present unto his View any Observables worthy his Notice Concerning the Method and References both of This present and Those his other writings published in His Life-Time And such as I think may be usefull do here follow 1. Of this Great Author's Bookes of Commentaries upon the Creed with their Respective Appendices The Five First I Beleive in God viz. The 1 2 3. Of the Eternal Truth of Scripture c. The 4. Of Justifying Faith The 5. Of the Original of Unbeleif Misbeleif c. Relate unto or Explicate the first Words of the First Article of The Creed 2. His Sixt Book being A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes to which append his Sermons upon 2. God The Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth Chron. 6. 39. upon Jeremie 26. 29. His Treatise of the Signes of The Times and his Sermon upon Luke 21. 1. Referres to the next words of The Creed Now if any shall Object That nigh the One Half of these Treatises and Sermons too are about Divine Providence of which there is no explicit mention in the Creed The Answer is readie and easie So they ought to be it was meet and right they should be so The Good God that made the world with all the comely Ornaments and rich Furniture thereof did neither leave it to it self so soon as it was made nor transmit the Tuition of it to a Guardian or Locum-Tenens but ever did and still doth keep the Government in That Hand which with so great wisdom made the same And His verie Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Son our Saviour's Words Pater meus adhuc operatur teach us to depend upon and trust unto his Constant Providence and support for Conservation And This as a Clew leads or as a Terminus Communis Couples our Faith to his Creative power 3. His Two Sermons the Former of them Call'd Bethlehem and Nazareth upon Jeremie 31. 22. The later upon Galat. 4. 4. enstyled Mankinds Comfort from the weaker sex His Treatise entituled Christ's Answer to Iohn's Question or An Introduction to the Knowledge of Christ His 7. Book of Commentaries upon the Creed Call'd The Knowledge of Christ Jesus Containing The Principles of Christian Theologie And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord which was Conceived by the the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary qua Talis Christ's Eternal Sonship his Conception Birth and Circumcision in the Fulness of Time being if not the intire Subject yet the Main Scope of these last mentioned parcels respectively referre to that Portion of The Creed wherein we avouch our Faith in The Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ incarnate 4. The Subject of this Great Author's Eighth Book of Commentaries upon The Apostles Creed enstyled Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead and Buried The Humiliation of the Son of God is the same God and our Lord who was conceived by The Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Marie And The Scope of it is to shew That HEE according to the Scripture before Extant 5. His ninth Book Of the Consecration of the Son of God to his Everlasting Priesthood whereof His Agonie and Bloody Death His Rest in the Grave and in this Authors private opinion see Book 8. pag. 385 He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven His descension into Hell His Resurrection and Ascension were Respectively the several Giests or Moments some as preparations others as Continuations some as Accomplishments others as Consequents Lookes back somewhat towards the former and forward somewhat toward these Later particulars of the Creed 6. All the Tracts or Books mentioned in the three last Paragraphs for those be They which Directly Destinately and Immediately treat of Christian Theologie qua Talis make but up The First and more Easie Part of The Knowledge of Christ And This to use the Author 's own words Consists in the display of that most admirable Harmonie which ariseth from the Concent of Prophetical with Evangelical Writings or from the Correspondencie of Parallels between Matters of Fact recorded in the Old Testament and the Events answering in proportion to them in the New 7 This Tenth Book not published till now is addressed to The Second part of The Knowledge of Christ which Consists in the True Experimental Valuation of His Vndertakings for mans Redemption viz. Of His taking upon Himself the Form of a Servant of His Death Resurrection and Ascension Of all which several steps or progresses of His O Economie as also of the whole Volume of His other whether Actings or Sufferings for us The most precious Beneficial Effects and saving Influences are Actually and only Derived unto us by the Continued Acts and Constant Exercise of His Everlasting Priesthood executed dayly in The Heavenly Sanctuarie by Him there Sitting
Quarto's in this Volume we must tell the Reader before hand that the sixt Book of Divine Essence Attributes Providence will not administer to him either the delight or the profit we intended unless God move the hearts of them that have the MS. Copie of the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood which certainly was perfected by the Authour lent or lost in his life time to produce it that it may be annexed to the sixt Book to which of due it appertaines The 4. Particular will give the Reader notice what Subject Matters he is to expect handled in the 11. Book But before we name them he must be reminded that the Authour had in the 9. Book come as farre as the Article of Christs Ascension reckoning Inclusivé in the 39. Chapter of that Book had tackt That Article to the next of His Session at the Right-Hand of God Now the respective Ends or Effects of Christs Ascension into heaven and of His Session at the Right-Hand of Majestie were some of them of Immediate and if I may so say of a Transient dispatch And such I take it were His prepareing a place for his Elect Ones His Consecrating the heavenly Sanctuarie and setting open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers His sending the Holy Ghost in the Grace of comfort Gifts of tongues c. Some are of constant Vse and continue in Esse unto this day so shall unto the worlds end as the Providential Government of His Church and the rest of the world in order to the affaires of his Church which He administers as Lord the Exercise of His Sacerdotal Office which he executes as Christ some shall be manifested at the end of time of this sinfull world when He shall come in great power and Glory to Judge both quick dead What this Authour hath said upon any of these Heads in his Books already printed the Reader if he will take the paines to search may find Of the following Generals with their incident subordinate particulars doth the Eleventh Book treat Of Christs Session at the Right-Hand of God the Grammatical Sense of the words the Real Dignitie answering to them viz. The Exaltation of Christ And whether He was exalted as the Son of God or as the Son of David An excellent state of the question about Ubiquitie Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Of His Coming to Judgement Of the Final Sentence to be awarded by Him to All. Of the Resurrection of the Dead From thence He shall come to Judge the quick and the Dead Of Life Everlasting not the merit of man but the Gift of God and Death the wages of sin So that it is plain the Eleventh Book reflects upon The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting or resumes the Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-Hand of God and withall proceeds to the Next and to the Two last 16. I Expect the Intelligent Reader will Ask where He may find handld the Articles concerning God the Holie Spirit the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins I must referr the proposer of this rational question which deserves a better answer then I can give it to the Authors owne words Which he may find in the first page of His Treatise Of The Holy Catholick Faith and Church which in the Catalogues of his Works for orders sake is reckon'd the 12. Book of his Commentaries and whereof the first part of three intended was published 1627. In my Comments on the Creed Saith Hee I did Sequester Four points from the Body of the Work The First was the Doctrin Of the most Holie and most Blessed Trinitie So he did intend to Handle the Commandements by way of Catechism to be set down by way of Prayer Soliloquie not of Schoole-Dispute The Second The Holie Catholick Church The Third The Communion of Saints The Fourth The Remission of Sins Points which I cannot Handle in that order they be propounded in the Creed without Interruption of my Method intended So that I have out of Choice reserved these for peculiar Treatises THE AUTHORS Book then of the Holie Catholick Faith Church 't is more then plain The Holie Catholick Church referres to the Article of And for the rest of his Books or Tracts hereafter to be published when they come abroad they must bear some Tessera or Recognizance to signifie their Retainance or to which of the 12. Christian Predicaments they are to be reduced 17. I have yet Two things to recommend unto the Reader The One I humbly present to the Consideration of the Nobilitie Gentrie of the Land who have the Honour Blessing Longo Sanguine Censeri This Author as his manner all-a-long is to open the Earth shew the Out-Burst of the spring leave the Well to be digged by him that meanes to dwell upon the Plat hath page 19. 31. moved a Querie well worth their most exquisite indagation and pursuit 'T is This whether Parents of both sexes may not by frequent voluntarie Commission of some sinnes improve the Corruption of nature in their Children to an Height above the ordinarie Taint descending from Adam or coming from Sin meerely Original not intended by unnecessary affected actual or habitual Transgressing Would any of Them now in this their privacie or vacation please Philosophari to think upon it and Commend their meditations to the world they would be more acceptable and more imperative of practise Coming from themselves consequently be more Contributive to the Revival of virtue unto an Heroical Degree 18. The other is to those of the Clergie who teach the people Knowledge for that end do seek acceptable words out of writings upright and True as for the pretended Favorites of the Spirit it is in vain to speak to them He that has Compassion on the poor ignorant multitude even destroyed for lack of Knowledge of Principles contained in their Creed Catechism c. And a mind to tread in the Good Old way for Aedification of the poor of the Flock may find in this Authors Works matter proper for every Dominical Festival through the year especially for the special ones that is those that Commemorate the Great Benefits received by Christ As also for occasions of Administring Both Sacraments marriages Funerals Fasts c. But let me tell him The Gold he is to find beat out doth somtimes lie in so smal a Compass that unless he observe well he may over-run it For an Experiment he may see 1 grain taken by me beaten out into divers Leaves And for expounding Texts of Scripture this Author seems to have a felicitie not ordinary Oft-times when he pretends but to take One verse he illuminates the Reader in the Epicycle of the Context nay in the next Orbe I mean the Parallel be it in the old or new Testament But the Magisterium of his excellencie
is in Christologie in the display of the Mysteries of Christ which he never thinks done till he have layd the Type and shadow upon the substance and the Prophesie as the Prophet did his Body upon the Event Face to Face Hand to Hand Part to Part c. And his powerfulness in This hath gotten him so deserved esteem amongst divers Learned men though of different Judgment in some points that in their works they have quoted him as An Author 19. What unworthy paines my self have taken about the work in the space of 6. or 7. Months may be summ'd up in two lines The falts of the Presse be few smal yet I am not only to be blamed for them not undertaking more then to assist Any Error in the notes marginal or final is to be imputed to my weakness For the Authors Text I have not in the least degree alter'd intended or remitted his sense in any one Assertion or point of Doctrine But which is the Dutie of an Editour have been Scrupulously Carefull to deliver his Work as he left it meant it not attending to gratify either mine own or the Readers opinions 20. What Fate abides either my self or this orphan-Orphan-Book is only known to God It is of this Authors Works for number the Tenth for bulk larger then the most for learning Equal for Excellencie of subject matter superior to any of the other Nine for it is Of the Knowledge of our selves Servants to sin And of the Son of God by the exercise of His Everlasting Priesthood making us Free from sin And so in just Decorum as it affords Royal Dainties so it deserves the Choicest Patronage that any of his fellows had even of such as have Right to Receive Tithes yet seeing it so fals out by the ever to be Adored admired providence of God that such it may not have now It comes forth under the more Immediate Patronage of the Almightie God the Father the Word the Holie Spirit Especially I pray under the most Auspicious shelter of Him whose Office it describeth defendeth The Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession the Great Shepheard King Bishop of our soules Jesus Christ our Lord. He give it favour in the Eyes of the Reader and prosper it to those Ends for which the Author writ it and as the Prefacer wisheth it Who is the most unworthy of all those that share in His Office B. O. Tunc Desinent Donatistae esse Fratres Nostri si desierint dicere Pater Noster S. Aug. Tom. 8. in Psalm 32. Conc 2. A Table conteining the Principal Arguments of the several Sections and Chapters in this Book Sect. I. Of the First Mans Estate and the Manner how he lost it How Sin found entrance into the world Of the Nature of Sinne How it was and is propagated to Adams Posteritie pag. 3003 CHAP. 1. Of the Primae val Estate of the first Man and of the varietie of Opinions about it 3003 2. Wherein the Righteousness of the first man did consist 3004 3. Whether Original Righteousness were a Qualitie natural or a Mean between Natural and Supernatural 3005 4. Of the manner how Sin found entrance into the works of God and did seize upon all mankind the Man Christ Jesus only excepted 3007 5. Of the right use of Reason or Rules of Art for the determining controversies in Divinitie whereof the sacred Scripture is the sole Rule 3010 6. The usual distinction between the Act and Obliquitie of the Act can have no place in the first oblique Act of our first Parents 3013 SECT II. Of the properties or Symptomes of Original Sinne and of the nature of sin in General 3017 7. Containing the State of the Controversie or the debate betwixt our Saviour and the Iews Joh. 8. 30. 3017 8. Of the sin of the first man and of sin Original which was derived from him of sins Actual and the difference between them That of sin Original The Heathens had a Natural Notion 3019 9. Of the Properties of Effects of sin Original known by the Light of Nature and by Scripture 3024 10. Containing such description or Definition of Original sin as can be gathered from the effects or properties of it before mentioned 3028 11. Containing a Resolution of the main difficultie proposed viz. How the first Actual sin of our first Parents did produce more then an Habit of sin an Hereditary disease in all their Posteritie 3029 12. Containing the True and solid Definition of sin whether Original or Acquired by vitious Acts or Dispositions 3032 13. Calvin and Martyr c. Consent with Illyricus in the Description of Original sin How farr sin Original may be said to be The Pollution of the whole Nature and faculties of Man or the faculties of man as they are polluted 3036 Sect. III. Of Servitude unto sin who be properly servants unto it and by it unto Satan 3039 CHAP. 14. That even Those Iewes which in part did believe in Christ were true Servants unto sin 3039 15. Containing the General Heads of this whole Treatise and of the Distinction betwixt Slaves and those which are called Hired Servants or Apprentices or Free-born persons in their Nonage 3042 16. That the former difference of Servitude or distinction of Servants is set down and allowed by God himself 3044 17. What Analogie or proportion Civil servitude hath with True Servitude unto sin 3047 18. Of the several branches of servitude unto sin 3051 19. Of the excellent Notions which Tullie and some Heathen Romans of Lewder life then he had of Servitude unto sin or vice 3055 20. Of the fruitlesness of the former Notions in the best Heathens 3059 21. Of the manner how Satan brings men to be his Slaves 3062 22. A short discourse upon our Saviours words John 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you Free ye shall be free indeed 3063 23. The second Discourse upon John 8. 36. If the Son therefore c. That that sowre Replie We be Abrahams seed c. was made by those very Jews which are said ver 30. to believe on him And that men which for a while believe may in Temptation or strong assaults of passions fall away 3072 Sect. IIII. Of that faculty of the Reasonable soul which we commonly call Free-will Of the Root and several Branches of it in the Generalitie What Branches or Portion of this Free-will is in the Man altogether unregenerate or in debauched and heinous sinners 3080 24. Of the difficulties of the Controversies concerning Free-will with the Reasons why they have troubled the Church so long 3080 25. Of the divers acceptions or Significations of Freedom or Freenesse and of the several sorts or degrees of Freedom in Creatures Inanimate Vegetable Sensitive and Rational 3082 26. Conteining the Definition and Properties of Free Causes or Agents properly so called 3087 27. Of the difference betwixt Servitude and Freedom in Collapsed Angels and unregenerate men and of the inequalitie of
every Rational Christian man unto the former part of this determination That Original justice did consist in that image of God wherein the First man was created and did not imply any other work of God whether preccdent or consequent besides the speciall work of his creation no other Argument is either necessary or so available as the taking of the words of Moses where he describes the manner how the First man was created into serious consideration For Original Justice had more Essential dependence upon the image of God in Man then Rotunditie hath with a Sphere or Globositie with a Globe Now in the making of a Sphere or body perfectly round there be not two works nor two distinct effects of the Artificers skill one in making a Round-Body another in making Rotunditie And it is a grosser Soloecism in Divinity to say or think that the Image of God in man was One work of God and Original Justice Another then it would be to maintain that the Rotundity of a Sphere and the Sphere are two works of the same hand severally intended by the Artificer which makes the Sphere 3. To evince the later part of the former Assertion Original sin more then a meer privation That Original sin is more then a meer Privation more then a meer want of Original Justice a multiplicity of wounds or diseases in our nature any man living which hath so much memory or reason as to reflect upon his own disposition or untowardlinesse in his childhood or skill to contemplate the Estate or condition of poor Infants will easily subscribe unto that great Roman Naturalists judgement or observations Plinie in his Preface to the seventh book of his natural History to be insisted upon hereafter when we come to treat of the Symptomes or properties of sin Original The next Enquirie according to the Method proposed is How sin did enter into the world CHAP. IV. Of the manner how Sin found Entrance into the works of God and did seize upon all mankind The Man Christ Jesus only excepted 1. No Creature from the first moment of its Creation was altogether impeccable THe highest Offer of any which I have read for the resolution of this Problem is that inquisition made by some School-men An dari possit creatura impeccabilis so they render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The problem in distinct and plain English is thus Whether it be possible according to the Rules of Reason that any created substance should be from its creation totally secured or absolutely freed from all possibility of falling into sin Some of the Ancient and most Orthodoxal Fathers of the Church as their opinions are alledged by some School-men stand for the Negative Part of this Problem to wit That it is not possible for any meer Creature to be from the moment or first time of his creation altogether impeccable or secured from all possibility of falling into sin But whether the reasons or expressions of these Ancient Fathers will reach home or amount unto the Tenents of such School-men as avouch not only their reasons but Authority is not so clear but that the discussion whether of their Authorities Meanings or Expressions might breed more quarrels then the School-men have already begun However The disputes already moved about this Point must in the first place be restrained to meere Creatures rationall that is to Angels and Men. The Rational Creature or son of man who is likewise the Son of God must be exempted from this enquiry And this Additional must in the second place be admitted Whether it were possible that any man or Angel could be perpetually freed from all possibility of falling into sin and have been withall from the first moment of his creation intrinsecally just and righteous 2. That Men and Angels might by the power of God or special contrivance of his Providence have been secured from all possibility of falling into sin is a Position amongst rationall men unquestionable But it is not so whether men or Angels being so secured from all possibility of sinning could have been intrinsecally or formally righteous or by the eternall rules of Justice and Equity it self truly capable of everlasting punishments or torments or of joy and happinesse everlasting The Negative part of this Probleme is in my judgment far more probable then the Affirmative For if the First-man or Angels which fell had been either by the power of their Almighty Creator or by the undefeatable contrivance of his wisdome absolutely freed from all possibilitie of sin from the first creation unto this day they could neither have deserved any great blame or praise by continuing after this manner righteous or conformable to the divine nature for integrity of life The case of the First-man if he had lived to this instant without sin by such contrivance or necessitating guidance of Gods providence had been the same as if the child whiles his master leads his hand should write a Faire Copie being otherwise unable to cast a letter aright when his masters hand should betaken off from his Now if the Child or young Clerk should not in good time learn to cast his letters or draw his lines aright he could not pretend any title to commendation or reward how well so ever his work were performed the whole praise would of right belong unto the manuduction or guidance of his Master But if the young Clerk growing stronger should disturb or wrest the hand of his guide awry or not suffer him to rule his hand as before he had done by thus doing he would deserve both blame and correction 3. Our father Adam in his first Estate had a great deale more power to regulate his own thoughts and actions by the ordinary Guidance of Gods Providence then a child hath either to cast his Letters or draw his Lines aright by the sight of a Copie or ordinary direction of his master Yet this same First Man had a power withall to neglect the guidance or slight the directions of his Creator a power much greater to do both these wayes amiss then a child hath to refuse or resist the Manuduction of his writing-Master By the First womans ignorance or contempt through her husbands negligence or inadvertence to that First and Great Commandement which was given to both of them Of the tree in the middle of the garden ye shall not eat c. that which we call Originall sin or the maine roote of all sins found entrance into the visible world that is into the nature of man The extract of what we have said or have to say Concerning this point is very well set down by St. Austine and some others of the Ancients That the First Man was truly endowed with a Free-will or power not to have sinned at all That if he had used this power aright or implored the assistance of his Creator in competent time for so using it he should have been endowed with a perpetuall immunity
For the full resolution of this Question the Sacred Scriptures are not the sole Competent Judge or Rule Nor doth the determination of it belong to the Cognizance of such as are the best Interpreters of Sacred writ for the true Grammatical or Litteral sence of every proposition contained in it This Case must be reserved to the Schools of Arts or to the certain Rules of true Logick and Philosophy which are the best guides of Reason in all discursive faculties But here I am engaged to do that which in other cases I have endeavoured to avoid that is to make repetition of two great Problems in the Science or Faculty of Theologie heretofore in their several places handled and in some ensuing meditations to be hereafter inculcated The first Problem is In what sense or with what limitations the Scripture is held by all reformed Churches to be the only Rule of Faith The Second In what sense or how far it is true that Recta ratio Reason rectified or rightly managed may be admitted a competent Judge in Controversies belonging to the Faculty of Theologie 2. To the First Problem In what sence the Scripture is held by us to be the sole and competent Rule of Faith and manners I have no more to say for the present then hath been long ago published in the second book of these Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed Sect. 1. Chap. 11. The summe of all in that place delivered is to my best remembrance This No Christian is bound to admit or receive any Doctrine or proposition as an Article of his Faith unlesse it be contained in the Old or New Testament either Totidem verbis or may be Concludently or Demonstratively deduced from some Sacred Maxim or proposition expresly contained in the Canonical Books in the Old and New Testament Such Maxims as are expresly and plainly contained in Scripture Every Christian Man is bound to believe absolutely But such propositions or Conclusions as may be demonstratively inferred from Canonical unquestionable Maxims they only are bound absolutely to believe which have so much use of Reason or skill in Arts as may enable them clearly to discern the Necessity of the Consequence or concludent Proof of the Deduction The ignorant or illiterate are only bound to believe such Deductions Conditionally See the second Book chap. 2. chap. 4 c. or to practise according to their Teachers instructions with such Reservation or under such Conditions as have been expressed in the second and third Book of these Commentaries 3. But what Propositions though expresly contained in Scriptures be Negative or Affirmative Vniversal Indefinite Particular or Singular Or how any or all of these be Convertible whether Absolutely by Accident or by Contraposition or how to Frame a perfect Syllogism out of them These or the like are points which the holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets and other Pen-men of Sacred and Canonical Writ did never undertake or professe to teach The discussion or determination of Questions of this nature must be had from the Rules of Reason sublimated or regulated by good Arts or faculties And for the bettering or Advancing of Natural Reason in this search the most learned or most sanctified Christian this day living should be very unthankful to the only Lord his Redeemer and Sanctifier if he do not acknowledge it as an especial branch of his All-seeing Providence in raising up unto the World such Lights of Nature and Guides of Reason as Aristotle Plato and others of the Ancient Philosophers were True Reason in whomsoever seated Whether in the Natural or Regenerate man unlesse it be advanced and guarded by such Rules of Arts as these Sages of the old World have by Gods Providence invented or bettered can be no fit Judge but being so advanced and guarded is the most Competent Judge of Controversies in Divinity of such Controversies I mean as arise from Consequences or Deductions made by way of use or application out of the uncontroverted Maxims of sacred Writ And if we would sequester Grammatical or Rhetorical Pride and partialitie to the several Professions wherein respectively men glory we might easily discern all or most of those unhappy Controversies which have set the Christian World for these late years in Combustion to have been hatched maintained and nourished by such pretended Favorites of the Spirit as either never had faithfully Learned any true Logick Philosophie or ingenuous Arts or else had utterly forgotten the Rules which they had learned or heard before they begun to handle controversies in Theologie or entertain disputes about them 4. Obliquity can have no other Cause beside that which is the Cause of the Act whence it necessarily results The Hypothesis for whose clearer discussion these last Theses have been premised is this Whether it being once granted or supposed that the Almighty Creator was the Cause either of our mother Eves desire or of her Actual Eating of the Forbidden Fruit or of her delivery of it to her husband or of his taking and eating it though unawares the same Almighty God must not upon like Necessity be acknowledged to be the Author of all the Obliquities which did accompany the positive Acts or did necessarily result from them This is a Case or Species Facti which we cannot determine by the Rule of Faith It must be tried by the undoubted Rules of Logick or better Arts. These be the only perspective Glasses which can help the Eye of Reason to discover the truth or necessity of the Consequence to wit Whether the Almighty Creator being granted to be the Cause of our Mother Eves first Longing after the forbidden Fruit were not the Cause or Author of her sin Now unto any Rational man that can use the help of the forementioned Rules of Arts which serve as prospective Glasses unto the Eye of Reason that usual Distinction between the Cause or Author of the Act and the Cause or Author of the Obliquity which necessarily ensues upon the Act will appear at the first sight to be False or Frivolous yea to imply a manifest Contradiction For Obliquity or whatsoever other Relation can have no Cause at all besides that which is the Cause of the Habit of the Act or Quality whence it necessarily results And in particular that conformity or similitude which the First man did bear to his Almighty Creator did necessarily result from his substance or manhood as it was the work of God undefaced Nor can we search after any other true Cause of the First mans confirmity to God or his integrity besides him who was the Cause of his manhood or of his Existence with such qualifications as by his Creation he was endowed with In like manner whosoever was the cause whether of his coveting or eating of the Tree in the middle of the Garden was the true Cause of that Obliquity or crooked deviation from Gods Law or of that deformity or dissimilitude unto God himself which did necessarily result
or Idols Who then Qui colit ille facit He or they alone turn Images or Pictures into Idols or false Gods Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus which worship or adore them Non facit ille Deos qui colit ille facit But the former Opinion or imagination whether in respect of God as he was the First mans Creator or of the wisdom of God Martial as he is our Lord and Redeemer is Intrinsecal and Formal Idolatry or Idolatry in the Abstract without any external Object to dote upon or to entice men to bestow worship upon it The Heathens committed Idolatry in their Temples or in their houses but this Idolatry is committed within his Brain that entertains it The Essence of it formally consists in the Reflexion of the Imagination upon it self or in the complacency which men take in such Reflexions if any man happily which I much doubt can be delighted with such imaginations The very height of Heathenish Idolatry as our Apostle instructs us Rom. 1. 23 c. did consist in changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things Now if the wisdom of God had sent wise-men and Prophets unto the Jews unto the End that Jerusalem should be destroyed and righteous bloud required of them His weeping over Jerusalem had better resembled or expressed the disposition of a Crocodile then the Nature either of God or any good Man Nor was it greater Idolatry in the Heathen to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image or likenesse of a Crocodile as the Egyptians did then it is to ascribe the properties of this noysome beast or any such disposition as the Historical Emblem of the Crocodile doth represent unto the Son of God who came into the world not to destroy or hurt but to save sinners and to be consecrated to be the * Heb. 5. 9. Author of Everlasting Salvation to all that Obey him These Two Branches of Idolatry The One planted in the Egyptian who worshipped the Crocodile for his god The other in such as worship or nourish such sinister imaginations of the Son of God as have been specified differ no more then the way from Athens to Thebes doth from the way from Thebes to Athens 5. The original occasion of the former errors or ill expressions The main head or source original whence all or most of the harsh expressions whether of Reformed writers or of Roman Catholiques whence all the aspersions which both or either of them indirectly or by way of necessary consequence cast upon our Lord Creator and Redeemer naturally issue is that Common or Fundamental Errour That all things the changes and chances of this inferior World not excepted are necessary in respect of God or of his irresistible Decree That nothing not humane Acts can be Contingent save only with reference to Second Causes Now if there be no Contingency in humanc Acts there neither is nor ever was nor ever can be any Free-will in man The original of this common Error That all things are Necessary in respect of the Divine Decree hath been sufficiently discovered in the sixth book of these Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed Sect. 2. Chap. 12. Where the Reader may find the Truth of this Proposition or Conclusion clearly demonstrated That to Decree a Contingency in some works or Course of Nature in Humane Acts especially was as possible to him unto whom nothing is impossible as it was to decree a Necessity in some others works or Courses of Nature As for instance To Decree or constitute that our Father Adam should have a Free power or Faculty either to eat or not to eat of the Forbidden Fruit doth imply no Contradiction and therefore was absolutely possible to the Almighty Creator so to ordain or Decree But many things as the observant Reader will except are possible which are not probable or never are brought into Act. True Yet that the Almighty Creator did de Facto or actually decree a Mutual Possibility of Adams Falling and not Falling or between his Fall and Perseverance hath been in this present Treatise and in some others demonstrated from the Article Concerning The Goodness of God or his Gratious providence by such Demonstration as the Case now in handling is capable of that is by Evident Deduction of the Contradictory Opinion to this Impossibility That God otherwise was the only Cause of our First Parents sins and of all other sins which necessarily issue from their sins unlesse it be granted and agreed upon that Adams Falling or not Falling should both be alike possible that neither should or could be necessary either to the First or Second Causes To deny that God did ordain or constitute a true and Facible Mean between the Necessity of Adams Perseverance in the State wherein he was created and the Necessity of his Falling into sin that is a mutual Possibility of falling or not of Falling into sin would imply as Evident a Contradiction unto or impeachment of his Goodness as it would do to his Omnipotency if any man should peremptorily deny that the Constitution or Tenour of such a Decree were possible to his Almighty power To say God could not possibly make such a disjunctive Decree or such a Tenour of mutual possibility betwixt things Decreed as hath been often mentioned would be a grosse Error yet an error I take it not so dangerous as to deny that he did de Facto make such a Decree For our Gratious Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier is doubtless more jealous to have his Goodness impeached or suspected then to have his Almighty Power questioned 6. Thus much of the main general Query Concerning the manner how sin or that evil which we call Malum culpae did find First entrance into the works of God and in particular into the nature of Man from the first moment of whose creation he and all the rest of Gods visible works had this Elogium or commendation that they were Exceeding Good No entrance of sin into the works of God into man especially was possible without the Incogitancy or Inadvertency of a Free Cause or Agent The true nature of the first sin and of its haynousnesse did especially consist in this that whereas our gratious Creator had endowed our First Parents with a Power or faculty to Doe well exceeding well and given them good encouragement to persevere in so doing they should so incogitantly and quickly abuse this power and the Divine Concourse or assistance that did attend it to do that which was evil that which the Lord their Creator had so peremptorily forbidden them to do under commination of a dreadful punishment to ensue upon the doing of it The difficulty or main Querie which remains all that hath been said being granted is principally this How this one sinful Act of our First Parents could possibly produce an Habit
Original Sin and describes or descryes surely the Being of man to be very Evill And Martyr upon the Rom Defining Original Sin and explaining that definition manifestly places it in the Evill essence of Man for he says That The whole man is most Corrupt And then defines it Thus Sin is the depravation of the whole nature of man Transmitted to posterity from the Fall of our First Parents and by Generation c. And then opening the Definition he Says In this Definition are found all Kindes of Causes For the subject Or Matter we have All the parts or powers of man The Forme is the Depravation of them all Lo you see that according to Him Martyr Sin Original Comprehends the parts powers of man so farr forth as they be corrupted and depraved Illyricus in a Book intituled Know thy self 2. But these Definitions or Descriptions though for ought I know or have to except against them they may be most Orthodoxal for their truth or substance yet the right Limitation of them or of the subject defined is not free from further Question as First Whether the Subject of them be Sin Original or Acquired as one or both of them are seated in the Natural or unregenerate man or as they are inherent in part in the Best Men after their Regeneration or Purification of their hearts by Faith If every Part if every Faculty or member of the Humane Nature be from the womb tainted with this Foul Leprosie it will be somewhat hard to conceive how any Part or Faculty should be absolutely freed from all degrees of corruption by Regeneration unlesse we grant that All are in some measure freed from it and acknowledge some Reliques of Sin Original to remain in every part or Faculty of the man truly Regenerate or renewed in the spirit of his mind It may in the First place be conceived that the Mind or Conscience of men so renewed may be throughly cleansed not only from the guilt but from the real stain or pollution of sin and yet the flesh or whole sensitive parts or faculties of the same man still lodge some Reliques of Original Corruption in them though in a Lower degree or Less measure then the same Corruption dwelleth in the Conscience or Spirit of the unregenerate or Natural man Or if we grant the Minde and Conscience of sanctified men to be yet subject to some Tincture or Reliques of Corruption Yet these we must acknowledge to be so weak and feeble that they cannot hinder or diminish the Raign or Soveraignty of the Spirit over the flesh by which the Yoak of servitude unto Sin or slavery unto Satan unto which all men before Regeneration are by Nature subject is utterly broken If we consider Man as he was first moulded by God he was for nature substance and Faculties of his soul like a sound Instrument well string'd and better tuned But by eating of the forbidden fruit and losse of Paradise his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted but distuned Our Nature by Regeneration is Restored to Life spiritual yet not to perfect health and strength so long as we carry this burden of Flesh and Mortality about with us By the same Spirit of Regeneration the Powers or Faculties of our souls and our sensitive Affections are better tuned then they were before yet not so sound or well tuned as in the First Creation they were but like to Asymmetral or harsh voices which never hold consort with sounds or voices truly Harmonical or like to those which we call False strings in a stringed Instrument which by no skill either of him that tunes or handles it can be brought to bear a part in exact Harmony Both such voices such strings will still retain some jarring sound or discord in an accurate observant Musitians Ear though much less when the string is stricken open or upon a Lower stop or the voice taken at a lower Key then whe they are stretched higher For with the height of either sound the discord or Dis-Harmony is still increased 3. Whether sin Original or Acquired have an influxe into every Act of the Humane Soul But when Calvin Martyr and Illyricus make Original Sin to be the whole Nature of Man and all his Faculties so far as they are corrupted and taintted I know not whether their meaning were that there is no Action or thought of man though Regenerate into which this Corruption of Nature or Taint of sin hath not some Influx or whether they did actually or expresly minde this or other like Inference when they exhibited unto us the former Definitions of Sin For my self as I make no question but that The Blessed Virgin her self was by nature the Daughter of Adam and therefore not so absolutely free from her Conception as her Son our Saviour was So I am afraid to avouch or think that either Sin Original or acquired it being supposed that she had some Reliques of both in her should have any influence into or commixture with that Good Thought or Actual consent which she yielded to the Angel Gabriel Luke 1. 38. Ecce Ancilla domini c. Behold the hand-maid of the Lord be it unto Me according to thy word 4. But these are Niceties which I would not have touched had it not been that Some whom I name not have gone too far in opposition to the Papist or Pelagian unto whom Others by coming too neer have fallen much wide or short of the Truth My aim and intention as I often professe is not to take upon me either by voice or pen to instruct such as are or take themselves to be pro modulo viatorum perfectly Regenerated much lesse men altogether certain of their own Personal Election or Salvation The utmost of my endeavours is to direct my self and the height of my desires in this work is to advise Others what we are to do for our selves or what is to be done for us after Baptism or Confirmation that we may be throughly Regenerated or which is in effect all one make our Election sure We are I take it in the First place to Calculate the number of our sins and to measure or weigh the Body of Sin inherent in us whether by Nature or invited by our selves not by a corrupt worldly Dialect but according to the scales or Standard of the Sanctuary And to this purpose no man hath given better hints or directions then Illyricus For as he often observes and wel illustrates In the Dialect of our Saviour himself of his Apostles and Evangelists whatsoever is repugnant to the Law of God or abominable in his sight is accounted sin and so are not Accidents or meer Abstracts or Relations only but specially the very sustance or Nature of man so far as that is polluted or corrupted with Sin or wrought and transformed into the image of Satan Now though it be true which was said before
that in exact Philosophical or Theological Calculation the Definitions of Sin given by S. Austin Calvin Martyr c. and Illyricus come in the Issue to One and the same reckoning yet to vulgar or ruder Apprehensions Illyricus his Definitions which for the most part are Causal but especially his Illustrations of them out of Scripture are far more dilucide and more powerful to work upon our affections and to encourage our spirits to undertake our Christian Warfare against the Old Man or Body of sin 5. Illyricus his Illustrations of sin more Consonant to Scripture then Calvins or Martyrs To what purpose were it to tell unletter'd or ordinary men that the Old Man or Body of Sin which we are to crucifie or mortifie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inordinatio or depravatio unlesse we could perswade them that these were names of Giants and paint them with far more hands then Briareus with ten times more heads and mouthes then Cerberus or Geryon had and with more snakes instead of hairs upon their heads then Medusa according to Poetical pictures is emblazoned with or make some representation of them in more ugly and horrible shape then the Devil and Infernal Fiends are pictured by old Monks and Fryers in their Books and Legends Albeit even these be but silly representations of infernal Powers with whom even Christian Children after they come to the use of Reason or to wage war as O Ecolampadius somewhere excellently observes For every man to whom God hath given Grace or power to Reflect upon his Younger Years or to survey ☜ his own Heart His Affections or Inclinations either past or present may respectively find a more exquisite Live Image of Satan within himself then any Painter can make Though few or none in this Age be bodily possessed with a Legion of Devils yet most men either by Nature ill breeding or bad Company if they would rightly examin Themselves their Actions their Passions or projects by the Rule of Scripture might easily discover more then a Legion of unruly lewd or vain Thoughts of unhallowed Desires or vitious Habits such as are Malice Pride Envy Vncharitableness c. which daily plead or fight for the Soveraignty of the Law of Sin or Lusts of the flesh over the Dictates or motions of the Law of the Mind or Spirit And these are the true and most exquisite pictures or images of the Diabolical Nature And it was a wish or Prayer worthy to be written with the point of a Diamond as I have seen it written though in no sacred place Lord deliver me from my self His meaning which wrote it I take it was that he might be delivered from vitious or unruly Thoughts or Habits or other like Souldiers of Satan which every man before Mortification of the Flesh or Renovation by the Spirit doth suffer to be Lodged or Billeted in his Breast 6. For Conclusion to give the Intelligent Reader a more full Definition ☜ of Sin or of the Old Man which we are to Crucifie It is or contains all the works of the Flesh or Inclinations contrary to the Law or Spirit of God necessarily resulting from our Nature or substance since it was corrupted in our first Parents by the subtilty or power of Satan as the Efficient Cause still Labouring to obliterate the Image of God wherein we were created and to mould us into his own Likenesse to the end that he may withdraw us from the Service of God which is perfect Freedom and make us everlasting Slaves to himself and his Infernal Associates 7. Likely it is I should have Slighted Illyricus as much as Many Other of my Profession do upon a prejudicial Noise or Cry raised against Him At least I should not have taken that care and pains in perusing and examining His Opinions which ◠have done unlesse the Book or Treatise had been long ago commended to a Learned Friend of mine upon very high Termes by that Reverend and Great Divine Doctor Field then Dean of Gloucester SECT III. Of Servitude unto Sin Who be properly Servants unto It and by It unto Satan CHAP. XIV That even those Jews which did in part Believe in Christ were true Servants unto Sin 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which Believed on him If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed 32. And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man How saiest thou ye shall be made Free 1. AS We rightly gather that part of mans body to be most corrupt Unsound or Ulcerous which is most afraid of the Chirurgions hand or Instrument which must heal or cure it So these Jews may hence be truly convicted to have been as our Saviour censures them truly Servants unto sin or in S. Peters Expression Servants of Corruption in that they are so Touchie and Jealous of the very mention of being made Free Albeit our Saviour if you marke his processe doth handle them as warily and tenderly as any skilfull Chirurgion could do the most dangerous sores or ulcers of his most impatient Patients For he did not say If you continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed and I will make you Free Although if he had thus said he had said the Truth For HEE it is and HEE alone that must make all the Sons of Adam Free A paraphrase upon John 8. ver 31. 32. 33. c. But as He had an Eagles Eye to discover their hidden sore and a Lyons Heart to unrip or Launce their sore unto the quick So he had likewise the Third property of an Excellent Chirurgion to wit a Ladyes hand to touch them gently and tenderly He tells them the Truth but in a placid and most inoffensive manner by soft and gentle degrees If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free And who could be offended or unwilling to be made Free by the Truth but such as were desperately sick of Falshood and Corruption Such and so affected were these Jewes which did in part believe on our Saviour For they had no sooner heard him making mention of beeing made Free though by the Truth but they instantly returne this repinning and impatient Answer We be Abrahams Seed and were never in bondage to any man How sayest thou ye shall be made Free 2. Many Good Interpreters do question the Truth of their Answer as whether they were not at this very time in Bondage to the Romans And Tullie in his Oration Pro Flacco whose crime was aggravated for that he had alienated or detained some Gold which had been gathered towards the adorning or beautifying the Temple at Jerusalem to Elevate or lessen that conceit which many Romans had of the Nation of the Jewes as of a People better beloved of the
Sensitives then any way supereminent to them Now there is not at least there ought not to be any scruple or Question Whether every man which hath attained to the use of Reason or of ordinary discretion have not the same Power or Faculty to correct or improve his own natural Dispositions ' or Sensitive Inclinations which Lycurgus practised with good successe upon his Two Whelps of the same kind No Question again there is or ought to be Whether Parents or other Instructers have not the like Power to correct or alter the inclinations of Children in their Minority or Nonage by good Discipline or Education Whence if we should grant that Postulatum or supposition which Galen that great Philosopher and Physitian with much diligence hath endeavoured to Demonstrate Mores animi sequuntur temper amentum Corporis that the manners or dispositions of men unto moral vertues or vices necessarily depend upon the Temperature of the body Yet can it never be evinced or made Probable that the Peculiar Temperature of any mans body may not be altered by the forementioned Reflective Power which every man hath and may exercise over his own senses humours or manner of dyet or to ruminate upon the Advertisments given him by Philosophers or Physitians either for correcting his inordinate appetites or dispositions or for improvement of such seeds of vertue as are in some degree or other by nature implanted in men or Children of the worst Temperature of Body And though Galen for ought we know did dye uncured of that Erronious or Heretical Opinion which was the scope of his Book or of that distemperature whether of body or of mind which did breed that Opinion Yet a Late Learned †Baptisâ—a Persona Commentator hath so cured his Book that sober young Students may peruse or visit it without danger of infection from it 8. But the Principal if not the only Stem of the fore-mentioned Freedom consists in mans Power to Reflect upon his own Rational Thoughts or Projects And this Power or Faculty no man no power on earth can alter or take from another how mean soever For it is truly said if it be rightly applied that Thought is Free not from Punishment if we think amisse For the Searcher of Hearts will Judge the most Secret Thoughts but Free from Coaction from constraint or inforcement We may be commanded or inforced to Do what another will have us to do but we cannot be compelled to think what another would have us think or to Will what they would have us to Will They may Propose some Particular unto us being in it self very Good and agreeable unto our desires yet the Goodness of it unlesse we please cannot constrain or enforce us to desire it for that time If we want some other Particular Good of the same kind to Counterpoyze or withdraw our Desire from it the very Goodness of the Free exercise of our own Will will suffice The very Trial or Experiment of this our Freedom and Power to abstain from many things in themselves desireable and with which most men are tempted and overswayed is oft-times more Pleasant then any Particular Sensitive Good 9. This is all I had to say Concerning such several Kinds or Degrees of Freedom or Power in Visible Creatures or of Free-Will a Faculty Peculiar to man as may be Learn'd from the Book of Nature All these several Sorts or Degrees of Freedom hitherto expressed in English are answerable to that which the Latines call Spontaneum Liberum or Libera Voluntas But whether Liberum Arbitrium an Expression used by many good Latin-Writers of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be a Style whereof men in this Life be capable Or what Ranks of Men be Capable of It is a Point which cannot be determined without Examination of the Properties of Free Causes or Agents CHAP. XXVI Containing the Definition and Properties of Free Causes or Agents properly so called 1. CAusa Libera est quae Freedome or Liberty of choice positis omnibus ad agendum requisitis potest agere vel non agere This Definition of a Free Cause so far as it concerns Man whether Regenerate or Unregenerate is Orthodoxal and Sound but not so Orthodoxal and sound in respect of all Free Agents at least not so unquestionable in respect of them For there is all Free Agrents an Agency as well Immanent as Transient That we call as our betters before us have done An Agency Immanent Which produceth no Effect save only in the Agent Agencie Immanent Transient But every true Cause whether Free or Natural is alwayes presumed able to produce some Effect Extra Se which shall not be terminated Within its Self Concerning this Definition See victoria in His 13. RelectioÌ„ upon that of Ecclus. cap. 15. Deus ab initio constituit hominem reliquit illum in manu consilii fui but such as doth or may appear in the Visible Book of the Creatures 2. The Omnipotent Agent or Supreme Cause of Causes throughout all Eternity can work or not work Whatsoever Whensoever it pleaseth him without any Matter Praeexistent to his Work or any Condition requisite or Praerequired to his working He Freely that is without Necessity made all things of Nothing without any Counsellor or Adviser either for proposing or solliciting much lesse for Limiting or prescribing the Laws or manner of all secondary Causes workings or of the Effects possible to be wrought by them The Bounds or Limits of all Secondary Agents Operations are Necessity and Contingency Such Agents as by the Laws respectively given unto them by the Supreme Agent and Lawgiver are said to produce their Operations by Necessity or by Determination to This or That purpose and to no other cannot without Solecism be accounted or called Free Agents or Causes The premised Definition then Causa libera estquae positis omnibus ad agendum requisitis c. must be restrained to the Angelical and Humane Nature The Former Definition restrained to the Angelical Humane Nature Neither of these two Natures or Agents can produce any Real Effect Extra Se Without Themselves unlesse they have some Matter praeexistent to work upon nor any Immanent Action Within themselves without such Concomitancies or Assistancies as are requisite to the Use or Exercise of their natural Freedom So that both of them are only so farr Free in their Actions or Choices as the Omnipotent Creator shall permit or give them leave to use or exercise their natural Freedome Now their Natural Freedom as it is opposed to that which we call Spontaneum or Lubency in Vegetables only or meer Sensitive Creatures is but a Branch as hath been intimated before of Contingency Contingertia est duplex Intrinseca ex Electione Extrinseca ex casu orta See Suarez Metaphys Disp 19. Sect. 10. Num. 4. so that we cannot annoy and hurt the One but we must annoy and hurt the Other Id Contingens est quod potest esse
Luk 14. ver 26. and many other places deny our selves and forsake all before we can be truely his Disciples And we must be truly his Disciples before we can be made Free by Him Indeed as is apparent from the words of our Saviour heretofore recited Ioh. 8. 36. Let us therefore beseech him which quencheth not smoaking Flax and crusheth not a bruised Reed to plant in us Good Intentions to grow by his Assisting Grace into Good Desires and good desires into firm and constant Resolutions of doing that which is good and acceptable in his sight and finally to Crown our best Endeavours wrought in us by his Grace with Everlasting Life and Glory through His Mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen The End of Chapt 36. and of the Fift Section Some Notes of the Publishers relating to severall Chapters preceding THough I hope the Strong and Learned will not boggle at those Terms Conversion Moral Mortification Moral in the 31. Chapter Yet my heart misgives me that They may be taken to Scandal by some Scrupulous but Wel-minded and Pious Reader And therefore though what follows of the Authors in that Chapt. c. might well quiet such Readers mind and ascertain him That there is no Snake nor other Brood of the old Serpent Latent under Those Herbs yet shall I out of my poor Talent Contribute a poorer Mite towards his Satisfaction though only by casting an handfull of dust into the Scale which may make some addition to the number none at all to the weight of what the Author himself hath already there spoken to that Point * Hor. Serm. L. 1. Sat. 8. 1. We see what power Art hath over Nature as to Materials Inanimate The Potter over foul Clay The Cutter over hard Stone The Carver or Carpenter over knotty Carkases of Trees which the Axe hath reduced to the Capacity of Stones the Finer and Founder over Oare and Metals first to work prepare and purifie them afterwards of them to make Olim truncus eram ficulnus inutile lignum Cum faber incertus scamnum facereine Priapum Masuit esse Deum Deus inde ego at pleasure vessels of honour or of Basest use to shape them into figures of Beasts or Men not to say of Gods though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Aequivocal * God 's only and yet hath besotted man adventured upon that Contradiction also Isai 44. 10. c. Which Formes or new Qualities introduced rather educed E Potentia materiae sive Naturali sive Obedientiali or perhaps only discovered by the Artist who seems to adde nothing to what was in the matter before give us cause to think and say There is a strange Alteration Change Tantùm non Conversion wrought in those Subject Materials And now I have Lâ—d the Reader thus farre out if yet it be Out of his way let me carry him one Stones-Cast further and it is to shew him Socrates's Meditation partly mixt of Admiration Diog. Laert. Lib. 2. at the singular Care of Artists partly of Indignation at the strange negligence of Men that Those should be so scrupulously carefull to make their statues so like unto men and that These should be no more careful least by their own sloth they should become as Theocritus calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto statues This Consideration the Satyrist has improved and fixt upon his Gilded Gallant whom having nothing good in him but his Parents-Bloud nor any thing like good about him but Clothes Wealth and Relations he thus taxes Juven Sat. 8. v. 53. Hic petit Euphraten armis industrius At Tu Nil nisi Cecropides Truncóque simillimus Hermae Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quà m quà d Illi marmoreum Caput est Tua vivit imago That Poor-man's vertuous Thus and So But you Are meer-sheer-Pedegree Hermes's Statue 'Twixt which and you there 's no'ther difference Save that It says nothing you speak Non-sense But though Mercuries statue according to this account had a little the Worse yet had Memnons Effigies something the Better of Him at least if that was true which Tacitus in 2. Book of Annals reports of it that Radiis icta solaribus vocalem sonum reddidit in Plain English I dare not say True It spoke and if it did we may not Count the words lesse then Apollo's Oracles * 2. A power equal to rather greater then the former hath Industrie and Culture over the next rank of Naturals Vegetables See the Lord Verulam's Nat. Historie Cent. 6. This is seen in such effects as spring from the Artificial modelling and qualifying of Plants farre otherwise then they by nature were or then if left to themselves and let alone they would have been Art hath made barren Trees fruitful sowre fruits sweet and Crooked Plants streight Art can form even These whose peculiar Tendencies till they be superseded incline more powerfully then the former quite another way into better Resemblances or Features then nature left to its course would have produced It can alter or better them so much from what they were or would have been as may give us reason enough to give the same Attributes of Change Alteration Conversion and that with more proper Verification to These then to Inanimates And surely he that carefully Reads the 11. Chapt. to the Romans and sees what use the Holy Ghost hath made of the Art of Ingraffing in Generall yet must it not though much to our present advantage be dissembled that the Metaphor is highly improved there and that the Antitype of Ingraffing is supernatural or Contrary to nature as that an Evil Ciens should be Inoculated into a Good Stock and by vertue thereof be changed into the Goodnesse of the Stock the Practise of Art being to graffe a Good Ciens upon an Evil Stock which shall meliorate overrule and change the ill juice of the Stock into the nature of the Impe will not grudge such Effects as are wrought by the Art of Ingraffing to be intitled so * 3. But what a Largenesse or Latitude of Power Humane Industry hath over the Memory the Imaginative and Loco-motive Faculties of Sensitives is most abundantly manifest 1. In the Training of Horses even to Admiration as hath been seen in our Time 2. * Of Oxen as those at Susae in Babylon which after they had gone so often or so many Turns for water could not with strkes be forced to stirre one foot more upon that Account 3. In the Tutoring of Elephants Plinie in his Nat. Hist 8. l. 3. c. tels it upon the report of a Creditable Roman that saw an Elephant write a sentence of 30. or 40. Letters Suetonius in Galba tels of a New Shew or Sight Elephas Funambulus one that danced upon the Rope Seneca Epist 85. says Domitores-feras docent pati jugum usque in Contubernium mitigant Leoni manum insertat Magister osculatur Tigrim custos Elephantem minimus Aethiops jubet ambulare per Funem 4. In the Discipling
could have had none in respect of Gods Decree or Ordination if it were true that God had ordained him to eat the Forbidden fruit For the Rule is most certain That God is the Cause and Author of whatsoever he Ordains men to do and hence we read that God hath Ordained us to good works to newness of Life to the performance of all those duties which are commanded But we never read in Scripture and let it never be read in any other Book but with indignation let it never be spoken or thought upon by any Christian but with detestation that God should ordain men to walk in the ways of Cain or to tread in the pathes of ungodliness The Conclusion then is firm and sound That these men here mentioned in St. Jude The conclusion of the first point were not ordained to trouble the Church but ordained and that of old unto that Condemnation which is due to such as trouble the Church or to ungodliness And that is a fearfull condemnation as St. Jude expresseth it ver 13. For to them saith he is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever And if this were reserved unto them or for them they were first ordained unto it the Sentence was already past upon them albeit the Execution be deferred untill the Judgment of the great day But unto this condemnation they were ordained because they had followed the ways of Cain and run greedily after the error of Balaam as St. Iude tels us ver 11. But farre be it from us to think that they were ordained to follow the ways of Cain who was the first troubler of the Church that they might be condemned And thus much of the First point what Condemnation is here meant or unto what they were ordained That was not to trouble the Church but to everlasting torments for troubling the Church by wicked Lives and Lewd Opinions 5. The second Point The Second Generall was What Ordination is here meant or in what manner these men are said to be ordained to this Condemnation Many take it as granted that Ordination to everlasting death is the very same that Reprobation is Yet if this were a time or this a place fitting for discussion of this point it might be easily made to appear that although Reprobation include surely an Ordination to death yet every ordination to death doth not include Reprobation For Ordination to life and Predestination and Ordination to death and Reprobation differ as much as Genus and Species as a Reasonable Creature doth differ from a Sensitive Creature But to let this pass This place of St. Iude is in the opinion of many good Writers Equivalent to that of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2. Cap. 8. ver They stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were Appointed But for that place I suppose he means Mr. Byfield who is far from the Rigidness of some in that point it is ingenuously and discreetly expounded by a late English Writer in his Comments upon that Epistle And it were to be wished that his Exposition were sincerely imbraced by such as had the man in esteem while he lived and are much beholding to his writings especially upon this Epistle since he dyed I shall only now give you notice that the Originall word in this place of S. Jude rendred by ordained is not the same with that in St. Peter That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is well rendred Appointed Nor is it the same with that of St. Paul Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto eternal Life believed S. Judes word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as some render it Praescripti prescribed Of whom it was forewritten to this condemnation But as Beza descripti that is as men designed taxed or proscribed to this condemnation It includes then an Ordinance or somewhat more to witt an Ordinance upon Record but in what Record In Gods everlasting Book of death or may we say that he hath such a Book It is evident that there be more Books then One out of which men shall be Judged at the last day according to their works The 2. General subdivided as St. Iohn tells us Rev. 20. 12. The Points then Remaining to be discussed are Two First In what Sense these men are said to be fore-ordained to everlasting death or in what Sense men are said to be Reprobated from everlasting or from Eternity The Second Whether our Apostle in this place did expresly and punctually mean Gods eternal Decree of reprobation or some other ordination to death 6. In handling the first Point I shall only explicate that which I haue elsewhere delivered See the 37. Chap. to wit That albeit whosoever is reprobated is reprobated from eternity yet no man at the time of his Baptism is a Reprobate Numb 16. and Pharaohs hardning few or none are born in that estate or condition but such as finally perish do fall into it The Case may be made clear by divers Instances wherein men even by humane Lawes may be sentenced to death or other punishment before they be born and yet at the time of their birth or within some few days before their death or punishment be no more lyable to the Sentence of the Law then other men are For unto death or other grievous punishment there is required for the most part as well the Sentence of the Judge as the Sentence of the Rule or Law And yet in some peculiar Cases no more is required then the Sentence of the Law or Rule Sententia Judicis Sententia Juris which was made and given many hundreds of years before the Party was born which is sentenced by it Every one that committeth murther is lyable to death by the Law But besides the Sentence of the Law or the Rule which is Generall to all there is required the Sentence of the Judge to apply the Law to this Particular and before he give sentence there is further required a Formal Processe not only for proof of the Fact it self but of the Quality of it And untill this Processe be observed the Judge himself may not give Sentence although he himself saw the the Fact committed Nor may the Party be executed or put to death by any untill the Judge have given Sentence He is condemnable before the Jurie passe upon him but not condemned when the Jury finds him guilty untill the Judge passe sentence upon him But if a private man shall take up Arms against his Soveraign Lord or the state wherein he lives he is rebellious Ipso Iure he is a Rebell by Law there needs no other Tryall or Formal Processe besides the Evidence of the Fact The Martial or General is only to put the Law in Execution and the Party thus rebelling is sentenced to death by the Law which was in force many hundreds of years before the party offending was born who not withstanding is not lyable to
did come to passe by Gods Irresistible Will His Error into which the greatest Clerk living especially if he be not an accurate Philosopher might easily slide consists originally in confounding Eternitie with Successive Duration and not distinguishing Succession it self from things durable or Successive He and many others in this argument speak as if they conceived that the necessary Coexistence of Eternitie with Time did necessarily draw every mans whole course of life Motu quodam raptús after such a manner as Astronomers suppose that the highest Sphere doth move the lower whereas if we speak of the course not of Pharaoh's natural but moral life it was rather an Incondit heap or confused multitude of durables than one entire uniforme duration And each durable hath its distinct Reference to the eternal Decree That which is eternally true of one was not at all much lesse eternally true of another Eternitie it self though immutable though necessarily though indivisibly co-existent to All was not so indissolubly linked with Any but that Pharaoh might have altered or stayed his course of life before that moment wherein the measure of iniquitie was accomplished But in that moment he became so exorbitant that the Irresistible Decree of induration did fasten upon him His Irregular motions have ever since become irrevocable not his Actions onely but his Person is carried headlong by the everlasting revolutions of the unchangable decree into everlasting unavoydable destruction 22. The Proposition or Conclusion proposed Pharaoh was hardened by Gods Irresistible Will indefinitely taken is true from all eternitie throughout all eternitie and therefore true from Pharaoh's birth unto his death but not therefore true of Pharaoh howsoever qualified or of all Pharaoh's Qualifications throughout the whole còurse of his life For so the Proposition becomes an Vniversal not onely in respect of the Time but of the Subject that is of all Pharaohs several qualifications The sense is as if he had said God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh howsoever qualified as well in his Infancie as his full Age by his Irresistible Will and thus taken it is False The Inference is the same with the fore-mentioned Adam in Gods foreknowledge was a sinner from eternitie Ergo Adam was alwaies a sinner a Sinner before he sinned during the time of his innocencie or with this God from all eternitie did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should die the death Ergo He did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should dye as soon as he was created or be a sinner all his life long To reconcile these two Propositions aright God from eternitie decreed by his Irresistible Will that Adam should dye God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should die otherwise than we have reconciled the two former God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will no Writer I presume will undertake The only reconciliation possible is this God did decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam sinning should die God did not decree by his irresistible-Will that Adam not sinning should dye nor did he decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should sin that he might die For as we said before God did neither decree his Fall nor his perseverance by his Irresistible will And his death was no more inevitable than his Fall Nor was Pharaohs final Induration more inevitable than the measure of iniquitie to which such Induration was from eternitie awarded by Gods Irresistible will Of Pharaoh thus considered the Conclusion was true from eternitie In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said universal universalitate temporis as to Pharaoh true in respect of every moment of Pharaohs life wherein the measure of his iniquitie was or might have been accomplished though it had been accomplished within three years after his birth And this accomplishment presupposed the Induration was most inevitable his Final Reprobation as irrecoverable as Gods Absolute will taking absolute as it is opposed to disjunct is irresistible 23. In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said to be universal universalitate subjecti The same Proposition in respect of Reprobation is universally true Vniversalitate Subjecti that is of every other person so ill qualified as Pharaoh was when God did harden him VVhosoever shall at any time become such a man as Pharaoh was then is a Reprobate from eternitie by Gods Irresistible will And seeing no man is exempted from his Jurisdiction he may harden whom he will after the same manner that he hardened Pharaoh although de facto he doth not so harden all the Reprobates that is he reserves them not alive for examples to others after the ordinary time appointed for their dissolution Nor doth he tender ordinary meanes of repentance unto them after the door of Repentance is shut upon them God in his infinite wisdom hath many secret purposes incomprehensible to man as VVhy of such as are equal offenders one in this life is more rigorously dealt withall than another VVhy of such as are equally disposed to goodness Moral one is called before another by his irresistible calling That thus to dispense of mercy and justice in this life See his Treatise of the Signs of the Time the 3. or moral part of it doth argue no Partialitie or respect of persons with God is an argument elsewhere insisted upon 24. The Point whereupon we are now to pitch is this Indefinite Men usually are Called Elected Reprobated or hardened by Gods Resistible will before they be called Elected reprobated or hardened by his irresistible will All these Termes are Indefinite and according to their different measures as truly mutable as Immutable from Eternitie or as in other * See Chapt. 37. Num. 5. 6. See 9. Book Ch. 18. c. Meditations we have shewed There is a State of Election under promise and a State of Election under Oath of which the latter only is Absolutely immutable The like we may say of Reprobation it is either under general Threat or upon Oath the Former is mutable so is not the Latter No man living shall ever be able to make his Inference good Pharaoh was absolutely reprobated from eternitie that is Whether granting that Pharaoh was a reprobate from eternitie we must grant withall that Pharaoh was a reprobate in his Middle age Youth or Infancie His reprobation was immutable from eternitie Ergo Pharaoh in his Youth or Infancie was a Reprobate To inferre the Consequence proposed no Medium more probable than this can possibly be brought Pharaoh from his Infancie to his full age was alwaies one and the self-same Man Et de eodem impossibile est idem affirmari negari The Consequence not withstanding is no better than this following The last Eclipse of the Moon was necessary from the beginning Ergo The Moon was necessarily eclipsed in the first quarter or in the
a choice fruit of zeal to presse those Rigid Opinions upon their Auditors which the first Authors of them would never have conceived or quickly would have abandoned if they could with safe conscience have subscribed unto the English Leitourgie And in very truth this peculiar Symptom of the crazed and ill-tempered Presbyterie I mean zealous adherents to Rigid Tenents of Reprobation hath been been an especial motive to withdraw manie hands and pens from subscription to our Common Prayer-book or book of Homilies It was a subject of much sadder contemplation to see as who sees not that hath not resolved to wink at the soloecisms of his good friends manie Divines well fitted and engaged for better imployments become anxious sollicitors for the admission or rather intrusion of that very error into Reformed Churches whose extirpation in the Synogogue the prevention of whose propogation throughout the Churches of the Gentiles by him planted was a great part of his labours who in sacred labours was more plentiful than any than all his fellow Apostles The attempt for this intrusion found no such furtherance from the pretended Title of Ancient Orthodoxal Truth as from present opposition to modern errors As if the parties of whom I speak had held it an Aphorism of sacred Policie to entertain any Heathenish Jewish or Turkish Fugitives able to do service against the Lutheran That sundrie Writers of greater note and name than here to be named by me have out of opposition to the Lutheran given more suspition of concurrence with the Stoick the Modern Turk or Jews that lived in our Apostles time than the Lutheran doth of any concurrence with the Papist or other Heretick whatsoever I shall be able to inform him that will friendlie and privately debate this seeming Paradox with me whether by writing or by word of mouth But as the world now is set openly and publickly to confront a countenanced error would breed greater dissention between brethren in profession and affection then the unseasonable publication of truth specially by so mean a messenger of truth as my self could recompence Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori It is one thing to give the way unto such fierce oppositions as daily meet us and another to be carryed headlong with them or to sollow them as their Patrons too often follow Princes Courts that is as we say afarre off Whilst I was an Artist I liked the Old Prescript well Loquendum cum multis Philosophandum cum paucis The medicine a little corrected is not much amisse in Divinitie Theologizandum cum paucis non loquendum contra multos unless it be unto some few and those no parts of the multitude or Vulgar sort either for judgment or affection Amongst my choisest acquaintance and most respected friends I had no choice left in Competition with your selves to whom in all congruitie I rather ought or more safely might communicate what I conceive of this or other like points of Divinitie more necessary to be enquired into by such as are intelligently ingenious than expedient to be published or communicated without distinction of Times and Persons For of my choicest meditations heretofore either published or privately perused I have ever liked the impression much better whilest I lookt upon it in your disposition and conversation than whilest I read it in mine own papers or from the Press Vos estis Epistola mea of all my labours in the Ministerie I have reapt no comfort like to this That it hath pleased God to use me sometimes as a Waterer of those precious seeds unto which he himself hath given plentiful encrease and to with-hold any thing that my conscience tels me may yeild wholesome nourishment though but rudely and homely dressed as this small Present is unto those sacred Plants which the right hand of our heavenly Father hath planted in your brests were to robb my self of my chiefest joy Thus I have adventured in a Case as it is commonly apprehended of great danger to be your Taster being more willing as I know you are perswaded of me to drink the deadliest bodily poison that could be ministred unto me than willingly to infect your souls with any poysonous doctrine Howbeit I profer not these brief Receipts as Mountebanks do their druggs or Tradesmen their waves upon Oath or confident Asseverations but rather referr them to the farther trial of your less partial more judicious tast faithfully promising on my part all readiness to recall amend or alter whatsoever upon better examination shall be found amisse whether in the Matter the Method or Manner of speech And upon these Termes I interest you by these presents in other Treatises of this Argument all which I have purposely consecrated as a Memorial Pledge of those Kind References which heretofore have been betwixt us of that respect which I will ever bear unto your persons and of the honour due from me especially to your virtues VALETE From my Studie in Corpus-Christ Colledge Jan. 1. 1619. Yours ever in all Love and observance THOMAS JACKSON SECT VII A Treatise concerning the Acts or Exercises of the SON of GOD his everlasting Priesthood OR Conteining the Manner or Meanes by which the Son of God through the continual Exercise of his everlasting Priesthood in his heavenly Sanctuary doth now De Facto sett Free indeed all such as seek for the working out of their own Salvation with fear and Trembling CHAP. XLIII 1. THe Manner how the Sonnes of Adam are set Free by the Sonne of God hath been in part heretofore or rather the First part of this Freedom hath been declared at large in the Eighth Book of these Commentaries Sect. 2. Chapt. 6. c. Amongst other Qualifications of the Son of God incarnate for destroying the works of the Divel it was a Special One That he should take upon him the Form of a Servant to the End he might without any wrong to His Person or any injustice done upon his Humane Nature by God the Father Dye the death of a Servant that is the Death of the Cross and by such death and sufferings pay the full Ransome of all Mankinds Redemption and set us all Free de jure The main business yet remaining to be discuss'd is Concerning the Manner the several Waies or Means by which he doth de Facto sett Free indeed that is Perfectly All such as seek to work out or rather industriously labour for the working of their own Salvation with Fear and Trembling That is I take it with such Fervent Prayers and Supplications to God the Father through Him and by Him as He tendred for Himself in his Agonie or in the dayes of his Consecration to that Everlasting Priesthood which he now exerciseth in the Heavenly Sanctuary where he now sitteth at the right hand of God the Father 2. With the Manner of Christs sitting at the Right hand of the Throne of of Majestie I am resolved not to meddle in this Book See
And in this sense that of St. Ambrose with whose Expressions of this Mysterie many in our times have been altogether causelesly much offended when thou hadest overcome the sharpness of death thou didest open the kingdom of heaven to all Believers ought to be taken Nothing can be more plain or more Concludently proved from our Saviours own words and his Apostles Comments on them than this That The Kingdom of Heaven it self was not Erected was not established untill that Jesus whom the Jews had Crucifyed was made both Lord and Christ and placed as Man at the Right Hand of his Father 3. To dilate further upon this Point for this Present I dare not lest I should lose my way or forget to return to the other Parallel proposed to wit What heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary the first Part of the earthly Tabernacle or Court whereinto the ordinary Priests went every day did represent or foreshaddow I shall not trespass against any Article of Faith or Rule of interpreting Scriptures nor I hope offend any ingenuous Conscience by delivering my Opinion in a Point wherein the Scripture as I conceive is silent or which can neither be enforced upon Us as any part of Christian Belief nor be refuted by any Rule of Faith To my apprehension of our Apostles meaning Heb. 8. ver 5. That place or Mansion in the heavenly Tabernacle wherein Abraham Lazarus c. did rest before The Kingdom of heaven was set open to all Beleivers was That Place or Court which Atrium Sacerdotum the Court of the Priests in the first Tabernacle or in Salomons Temple did Picture out unto us Or if the soules of the Faithful were not admitted into That Place before Christs death we cannot allot a Lower or Outermer Mansion in heaven it self than that which Atrium Congregation is that is the Court of the Congregation in Salomons Temple whereinto the Congregation of Israel which were no Priests were admitted and taught by the Priests did represent However it be That heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary which in proportion truly answered to the Sanctuary or Court of Priests in the material Temple was no such happy Seat of Bliss before Christs Death as it was made by it For by his Bloud it was finally Consecrated or dedicated to be what now it is a True Temple which was the Second Parallel proposed CHAP. XLVI A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating the Tabernacle the Vessels c. with Bloud of Beasts And of Consecrating the Heavenly Places with the most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ 1. THe Place or Station for drawing this Parallel aright is Hebr. 9. Neither was the first Testament dedicated without Bloud For when Moses had spoken every Praecept to all the People according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and of Goates with water and Scarlet wooll and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Moreover he sprinkled with bloud both the Tabernacâ— and all the vessels of the Ministerie And almost all things are by the Law purged with Bloud and without shedding of bloud is no Remission Ver. 18 19 20 21 22. All this he speakes according to the plain Litteral Sense of the Law concerning the Purifying or Consecrating of the Earthly Tabernacle with its Vessels or Implements The Mystical Sense or meaning of the Matters of Fact or Practises performed by Moses and Aaron when they consecrated the first Tabernacle with the bloud of Bullocks and Goates c. is litterally explained unto us by this our Apostle in the verses following It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purifyed with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these ver 23. These words admit no Metaphors or Tropes but have their proper and Real Logical Sense The Argument is most punctually Concludent The Similitude or paterns of heavenly things were purified with bloud therefore the heavenly things themselves that is the Caelestial Tabernacles were to be purged and consecrated with the bloud of Christ our high Priest which is now entred into them for our Sanctification and final Redemption To inquire what should become of all our Saviours bloud whether shed in his Agonie or upon the Cross will seem I know A Curious Question specially to slothful Students in Divinitie On the otherside it would argue a drowsie Fancie either voluntarily to imagine or to be by others perswaded That his most Precious bloud being shed in such abundance should be like water spilt upon the ground either swallowed up by the dry earth or mingled with dust or dispersed by the heat of the Sun and resolved into vapours Seeing every drop of it was truly The bloud of God It can be no Sin to suppose nay to believe that All of it was by his death made as his Body now is Immortal that All of it was preserved entire and sincere and brought either by his own immediate power or by the Ministery of his holy Angels into those heavenly Sanctuaries which were to be CONSECRATED by it to be the Seats or Mansions of everlasting bliss unto all true Believers and thus brought in at the time of his Entrance into Paradise in soule though not in Body which was immediately after he had commended his Spirit unto his heavenly Father 2. If unto all that hath been said in this Argument I should further adde That the most precious bloud of the Son of God which was shed for the Ransom of our Sins in the Garden or upon the Cross and brought into the Celestial Tabernacle upon his death whether reunited to his Glorified Body or glorified in it self and preserved apart from his body doth still retain an everlasting Efficacy for the daily Purifying of our hearts and working Sanctification in us I presume the Intelligent or ingenuous Reader will interpret this Assertion rather for a Point of speculation not much thought upon by others than any Paradox or Heterodoxal Doctrine of my own Invention But of the true Vertual presence or Real Operation of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ upon our Soules in so great distance as is between the most high and most holy Celestial Sanctuary and these material Temples here on earth wherein we Celebrate and Solemnize the memorie of his Death and passion more punctually and more fully if God shall be pleased to give leave In the 11. Book hereafter All which I have here affirmed or intimated will uncontrollably follow from our Apostles Doctrine in this Epistle and from other Passages of his Fellow Apostles To begin with that of Heb. 9. 11 c. Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the bloud of Goates and Calves but by his own bloud he entred in once into the holy place
work and Labour of Love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and dâ—minister Had it been any injustice in God to have forgotten their former works if it had their works were truly meritorious or capable of reward by plea of justice For that work unto which reward without injustice cannot be denyed is meritorious or worthy of the reward yet the Apostle implies that God should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unjust If he had so utterly excluded these Hebrews from entring into his Rest as he did their Forefathers from entring into the land of Promise For albeit their later works had been much like their forefathers yet their former works had been much better But in what sense doth the Apostle say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not unjust 7. This word Injustus is sometimes no more than non benignus or non misericors that is See Book 9. Ch. 12. Numb 3. not bountiful or not merciful to such as are in miserie Though works of pitie of bountie be not works of justice or equitie yet sometimes he that shewes pitie or favour though in Cases wherein the positive Law of God requireth Justice or severe execution if the case come before the Magistrate is said to deal justly that is not rigorously not hardly So the Holy Ghost when he gives the reason why Joseph did not seek publickly to be divorced from his espoused wife THE BLESSED VIRGIN saith he did thus resolve because he was A Just Man that is a Courteous and mild-hearted man Not a just man according to strict and Legal justice For by the positive Law of God the crime which he suspected was punishable not with divorce only but with death If Joseph then in resolving to put away his espoused wife privately did the part of a just and upright man he had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an unjust man in our Apostles sense if he had resolved to use the remedie or benefit of the Law Yet can no man be said strictly or properly to be unjust for using any lawful remedie but non benignus or non mitis he may be said to deal rigorously or hardly or uncourteously in using the extremitie of the Law To apply this Distinction to the Point in question If God had excluded these Hebrewes from entring into his Rest after they had accomplished such a measure of works as the Apostle there intimates he had not been so merciful and bountiful unto them as the Scripture teacheth he is to all he had not shewed himself so gratious a Lord nor given such incouragements to his other servants of not being wearie of weldoing as he alwaies useth to do Briefly when the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Phrase in the Original is as much as if he had said so farr is God from being unjust that you shall find him a most gratious and Loving Father so farr will he be from forgetting your works and labour of Love so farr from cutting you off from entring into his Rest that he will remember you with his best blessings even with the blessing of Salvation however your late backslidings have deserved the contrary But however God be a Gratious and loving Father to all that call upon him to all that are within his Covenant but especially to his Elect albeit this his Gratiousness consists in the not imputing or in remitting of their sinnes yet is there not the least sinne which any within his Covenant or which any of his Elect do commit whose Pardon must not be sought for after the Commission of it and must actually be obteined otherwise they should dye in their sinnes for though the Son of God did take away the sinnes of the whole world by his sufferings upon the Crosse yet were no mans sinnes so taken away by him or so dissolv'd as that he from that time did cease or yet doth cease to dissolve them whensoever they are committed and their dissolution by repentance sought for Unlesse he did yet dissolve the works of the Divel in us unlesse he did yet in peculiar manner remit sinnes even our pettie sinnes would inchain us unto the servitude of Satan St. Jâ—hn no way excludes the Elect but speakes to men regenerate albeit not to them alone when he saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2. 1. Now the Office of an Advocate is to plead his Clients Cause before his Judge as either for Justice if his Cause be good or for mercy or mitigation of Justice if his Client be delinquent God we know is as well a God of Justice as of mercy and hath as well one ear open to the Accusations which are brought against us as another attentive to the Intercessions which are made for us Satan is our professed Adversarie and after he hath inticed us to do his work he never ceaseth to sollicit the Execution of Gods Justice or vengeance upon us Not the best of Gods Saints may at any time plead their own cause or ioyn this Issue with him Lord Let Justice be awarded with speed either for us or against us either let our Adversarie be condemned for accusing us falsely or let us be condemned with him if we have done unjustly This were to become not our own Advocates which yet were presumption but to turn Satans Sollicitors even to suplicate for wo and vengeance upon our own soules David hath taught us the Form of our Plea with God even whilest we stand upon best termes Lord enter not into Judgement with this thy servant for no flesh is righteous in thy sight 9. But will the Almighty Judge of all the world be so unmindfull of his Great Attribute as to deny Execution of Judgement upon such as have deserved it being thereunto sollicited and importuned by his professed Adversarie or will The Son of God be so Partial as to plead for their acquittal which confess themselves Guiltie of the Crimes Objected To this we Answer 1. God hath Two Covenants One of Justice Another of Mercy And albeit God The Father should do us no wrong no injustice but do Himself right if he did upon Every accusation instantly Condemn us yet seeing His Onely Son hath by a full and alsufficient price purchased a Reconciliation for us He may maintaine the plea of Justice even before the Almighty Judge against our Adversarie for us Or haveing satisfied the Justice of God for all the sinnes of mankinde He may Remove our Tryal from the Barre of Justice to the Throne of Grace and mercy 2. Neither God the Father could deny Execution of Justice upon us nor could God the Son plead so much as for our Reprival if we should stand upon our own integritie or our own Justification so that Our Confession of Guilt is so farre from doing us preiudice that it is a most necessary Condition of our Acquittal If God the Father
Christ Consecrated to be an Everlasting Priest 3301 Sacrifice See Priesthood Sanctum Sanctorum a Type of the heavenly Sanctuary into which Christ ascended c. 3255 Salvation only from Gods Grace 3210 c. Satans two great Conquests 3067 Satans noose See proposition negative universal Sensual Doctrine 3274 Sepulveda's storie of a Bear 3027 Severitie without instruction Tyranny 3275 Schoolmen faulty 3012 3266 Schoolmen lose the Truth in second Notions 3019 Scepter in Homer 3236 Scripture sole Rule of Faith and Manners 3010 Scripture Stories and Examples Transcendent 3190 Sententia Juris sententia Judicis 3167 c. Christs Session at Gods Right Hand St. Austins Answer to Dardanus about the manner of it 3252 c. Socinians ignorant of themselves 3002 Socinians more dissonant from truth in point of our natural corruption then the meere Naturalist 302◠then Pelagius 3023 Soules of Righteous men not so high in Bliss before as they were after Christs Ascension 3255 c. These soules probably before it were in a Place of Heaven answering to the Atrium Sacerdotum or Congregationis in the Temple 3257 Spirit Mind Soul their difference c. 3118 c. Soul in St. Paul is Flesh ibid. Spirit of God Spirit of man their several importances and opposition 3116 c. Spirit of man is not to be mortifyed but to be quickned and renewed 3118 3124 Spirit and Synteresis probably both one 3119 Spirits working our working by the spirit the order of them 3120 Gods Spirit Transformes our spirits into the likeness of Christ's Spirit 3122 Soules cured whether by Symbolicals or by contraries 3120 c. Soul the Centre of the motions both of Flesh and spirit 3123 Sin see Adam How sin got entrance into the world 3007 c. Sin the Author of it 3012 Diabolus seducens Homo Consentiens 3019 Aquinas Bellarmin and the Thomists as strait laced in the point about Author peccati as Zwinglius and Piscator ibid. Sin Original 3017 to 3039 Sin Original pollutes our persons 3019 Sin Original is not a meer privation 3006 3028 3035 Of sin Original Heathen Notions 3019 c. 3100 3145 These consort better with the Truth then the Socinian Tenets about sin Original do 3022 St. Austin not the first teacher of sinne original 3023 Parents may by sin Actual improve the venom of sin Original in their Posteritie 3019 3030 3031 Two Symptomes of sin Original Loathing to do commanded or known Good Longing after what is forbidden 3034 c. Sin provoked by negative precepts c. 3025 c. Sin Original defined 3028 Fl. Illyricus his definition discussed 3032 c St. Austins Melancthons Aquinass 3035 Mr. Calvin and P. Martyr consent with Illyricus in the definition of sin Original 3036 How farr the nature Faculties Actions of men good or bad be tainted with sinne Original or acquired 3037 c. Sin Original not utterly taken away by Baptism 3100 c. Sins must be weighed in the Scale of the Sanctuary 3097 Servitude and servants to sin and Satan 3039 c. Sin against the holy Ghost 3282 Jewes in part believers servants to sinne and corruption 3040 c. 3072 c. A Civill Servant 3042 Degrees of Servitude Ibid. English servants Famuli rather then Servi or servants but in part or mixt 3043 Meere servants or slaves mancipia or servi servati ibid. Jewes might have Heathen slaves but might not remain slaves 3044 Our Saviours Parables as that Matth. 18. speake of meere slaves 3045 Servants Hired and Bond wherein they agree 3045 wherein they differ 3046 Serve two Masters no man can ibid. A servant may have a will more free or less servile then his Master 3130 3144 Between servitude civil and servitude to sinne the Analogie 3047 Servitude to sin the prime Analogate 3048 Of Servitude to sin four Branches 3051 Servitude to sin Natural and acquired 3052 What Freedom of will compatible with servitude to sin 3129 Servitus est obedientia fracti animi Tullie 3054 Heathen Notions of Servitude to sinne right 3055 c. but fruitless 3059 Christian Professours may be as great servants to sin to Bacchus Venus and Pluto as heathens were 3060 To obey our Lusts is to serve sin to serve sin is to serve Satan service to Satan is Treason against Christ 3061 How Satan works men into Slavery to himself 3062 c. His main Wile to enlarge or enflame our desires of things not simply evill 3063 Romish slavery 3066 Heathen Romans slaves 3056 Two Errors 1. The same Fact sin in one no sin in another 3182. 2. That some mens sins be remitted before they commit them 3182 c. 3282 An opinion of no pious use 3268 Worse then Popery or Novatianism 3283 A Question about it stated 3292 c. This Tenet Sin remitted before committed makes Christs Resurrection needless in respect of us and Baptism needless 3295 Sponte Malus nemo Plato how it may be true 3062 Our reasonable service is mortification 3159 Stoicks their Bruitish opinion 3080 Antient Fathers their disputes with them 3081 Sympathie 3119 Synteresis the same with Spirit ibid. Synteresis in it be the Reliques of Gods Image 3124 Synods their good use 3274 T. TEstimonies of the Heathen and ill men the use of them 3053 Threates of God under Oath Irrevocable without oath not so 3149 Transubstantiation a Modern Monster 3298 The pretense and use of it ib. The Tree of knowledge of Good and evill poysonous 3029 c. Turkish Divinitie All things come to passe by fatal necessitie 3181 c. Tyrannie to punish and not instruct 3275 V. VAlentinus jumpt with the Stoicks and Manichees 3081 Vbiquitie a modern Monster 3298 The pretence for it ibid. Vertue and value of Christs Sacrifice disparaged by the Romanist 3289 Value vertue of Christs Sacrifice See Sacrifice Vessel and Potter the debate or Dialogue betwixt them 3228 Vnregenerate man what freedom such a man hath 3092 Vertues of the Heathen 3134 c. Visitations or Synods of former times 3274 Vngodly men how ordained to Damnation 3164 Vniversal see Proposition Vnjust God is not unrighteous the sense of it 3286 Vse of vows an Argument of Freedom 3094 Vse of Christs Priesthood 3301 Vow in Baptism the first thing that young ones are to consider and be reminded of 3100 W. WAter of sprinkling The Resemblance between it and Christs Bloud 3300 See Parallels See Heifer Holy water See Holy Will of God how Rule of Equitie and Justice 3229 Will of God One Immutable Free Causeth Pluralitie Mutabilitie Necessitie Contingencie 3223 Gods Will Resistible or Irresistible ibid. Irresistible Will of God Pharaoh hardened by it 3225 c. God Wills Mutabilitie Immutably c. 3245 Wee St. John saith if any We have an Advocate 3288 c. Why Weeds grow so fast 3083 Whelps trained by Lycurgus 3085 3134 The Book of Wisdom Philo Judaeus Author of it 3205 Wisdom Christian three Points of it 3128 Woman with the Issue of Bloud touched by Christ really and vertually though not Locally 3303 Merit of Works see Merit We work out our Salvation Consecutivè non formaliter 3109 No man can be said to renounce the Good Works which he never did 3132 3161 Romish Sophism about Works 3218 Works foreseen or ex praevisis operibus 3113 3218 Opus quo renunciamus opera quae renunciamus 3219 Good Works of the Elect and of men within the Covenant how God regards them 3284 Good VVorks of the Heathen 3141 X. XEnocrates cured Polemo 3138 Xenocrates his Chastitie Contempt of Gold 3139 Y. SAtans Yoke of slavery put upon mens necks by the Pope 3068 Z. ZAcharie prophesied of the Efficacious vertue of Christs Body and Bloud 3300 Zachaeus had some degree of Free-will 3131 Zelots English improved Forraign Errors 3275 FINIS