were more extraordinarie sinners then others were who neither were blind themselves nor had children that were blind from the birth The true cause of this defect in natures work in framing this man the true reason why he was born blind as our Saviour expresseth in the next words was that the works of God should be made manifest in him So true it is which the heathens had observed Deus et natura nihil frustrà faciunt It was not in vain nor to no purpose that nature did not effect or accomplish her work in this poor man for by this means Gods works in him were more manifest to himself and others then if he had been born with Eagles eyes He was not only cured miraculously of his native blindness but the eyes of his understanding by this miraculous cure were opened and inlightned to see more for his souls health then the learned Scribes and Pharisees did in whom neither nature nor Art had been defective 4. Galen that great Physician and curious searcher into all the secrets of the humane nature had well observed That there is no part nor parcell in the whole body of man which hath not its proper use And from contemplation of this undoubted Truth he was inforced to acknowledge what otherwise he seemd to deny Divinum Opificem A Divine Artificer or worker even of the least and most contemptible parts of mans natural bodie And of This work of God though much defaced by our first parents sin he gave the like verdict that God himself did of all his works That every part of mans body was good exceeding good and admirably framed to its proper use or function The most artificial works of man of the most exquisit and most industrious Artificer will alwayes admit some errours and defects no work of man is good in its kind That is the best which hath the fewest faults or oversights or is adorned with the fewest impertinent or unuseful beautifications Whereas the works of nature even the defects of particular nature are useful and profitable for the setting forth of Gods glory and for procurement or advancement of the publick good Now if the ordinary works of nature which be likewise the works of God be never vain idle or impertinent but have a correspondent use or End to which without errour they serve Much more must the extraordinarie works of God be presupposed to have some special End or extraordinary use as proportionable to them as the end or use of ordinary works of nature are to the ordinary operations or indeavours of nature Now our Apostle supposeth That our Saviours Resurrection from the dead was an extraordinary work of God The most remarkable work of God that had been manifested to the world and by necessarie consequence it must have an effect or end most remarkably correspondent unto it and what was that The resurrection of such as live and die in Christ or rather the manifestation of Gods glory and unspeakable goodness in their Resurrection unto immortal glory and happiness 5. The former principle Deus nihil frustrà facit being thus far improved That all Gods special and admirable works tend to some special and admirable use and purpose both parts of our Apostles mutual inference as well the Negative If the dead rise not then is not Christ raised as the Affirmative If Christ be raised then shall the dead arise will appear to be as Firm and sound as the mutual Inference of the Cause from the Effect and of the Effect from the Cause or as firm and sound as the mutual Inference of the Final Cause by the Efficient and of the Efficient by the Final Albeit to speak properly and in the exact terms of the Schools The necessity of the Efficient Cause depends upon the necessity of the End The End makes the Efficient to be necessary The Efficient doth not make the End to be necessarie The immediate proper Effect of the Efficient is not the End or final Cause it self but Medium proximè destinatum ad finem some Mean immediately destinated to the end without which the End or scope at which Nature in her operations aimed cannot be obtained If one should ask why man and other terrestrial creatures have Lungs when as fishes as most men and more probably think have none The reason were good and the answer satisfactory to say That man and other like creatures stand in need of Respiration and so of Lungs to temperor cool their blood with whose excessive heat or distemper life otherwise would quickly be choaked The preservation then of life is the End or Final Cause why man and other like creatures have Lungs But why life should be preserved no Cause can be given in nature This is a Principle presupposed Howbeit of respiration or breathing without which the life of man cannot be preserved or continued the Lungs are the true and proper Efficient Cause This Mutual Inference is good Quicquid pulmones habet respirat Quicquid respirat pulmones habet Whatsoever creature hath lungs hath also the benefit of breath or respiration This is an Argument from the Cause And whatsoever hath the benefit of breathing or respiration hath lungs This is an Argument from the Effect And again Negatively Whatsoever hath no lungs hath no benefit of breath or respiration Whatsoever hath not the benefit of respiration hath no Lungs In St. Pauls Divinity The manifestation of Gods Glory and Goodness in the Redemption of man is the End or Final Cause of all the Articles which we believe concerning Christ as God and man of which even for this reason we are to seek no further Cause or reason But the manifestation of this His Goodness being presupposed as made necessary by His Omnipotent Will The Mutual Inference between the Son of Gods Incarnation or between the several parts of his Sacerdotal or Regal Function and the several parts of our Redemption will be as perspicuous and firm as any Inference included in the former or like Instances First Unless Gods Will and Pleasure had been set to manifest His Goodness in the Redemption of mankind the Son of God had not been Incarnate had not Died had not been Raised from the dead The manifestation of Gods Glory in our Redemption was the true Cause why the Son of God was to be incarnate His Incarnation was not the Cause why Gods Goodness was to be manifested or why His Will and pleasure was set to redeem us For This as we said is the Final Cause and can have no other Cause of its necessitie but rather imposeth a necessitie upon other Causes subordinate as upon Christs Incarnation Passion and Resurrection But however Christs Incarnation was not the Cause why Gods Glory and Goodness was to be manifested in our Redemption yet the actual manifestation of Gods Goodness in our Redemption and our Redemption it self is procured by the Incarnation and Sacerdotal function of Christ as by a true and proper Efficient
freely given us without any merit precedent therefore the Kingdom of heaven it self or life eternal although it be truly merited yet is called by our Apostle The gift of God not the stipend or wages of God In giving this Reason they speak very consequently to their former Position that we are justified by Christ only as by the Efficient Cause but immediatly and formally justified by grace inherent in us though merited for us by Christ But would to God they would learn at length to speak as consequently to the truth delivered here Rom. 6. 23. verse by our Apostle as they do to their own Tenets or to the Canon of the Trent Councill concerning Justification which Tenet or Canon neither Calvin nor Chemnitius which examined that Canon could more punctually have crossed after it was made then our Apostle here in this verse did almost 1500. years before it was made For he doth not say that Eternal Life is the grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Christs sake or for his merit which might denote only the efficient Cause but that it is the grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or through Jesus Christ our Lord. This imports not the efficient only but the immediat and next Cause of this gift of God it excludes the interposition or intervention of any Causality whatsoever besides Christ And thus much here Of the state or issue of the controversie betwixt us and the Romish Church concerning merits The Appendix or second Branch whereof according to the order proposed in the twentie seventh Chapter Section 1. was The state of this very Question Betwixt God the righteous Judge of All and our own souls or Consciences or if you will betwixt our Consciences and us And this being rightly stated will put into our mouthes That true confession which every Christian soul must make so often as it shall become A Petitioner unto God who made it 7. This we know and all do grant That God made the First Man righteous Whether this Original righteousness were a supernatural Grace or no is A question betwixt us and the Romish Church and it hath been touched by us if not throughly handled in the very entrance or begining of the tenth Book Certain it is that it was A Grace and either a part of mans Being or of our nature as it was the workmanship of God or A Grace conferred upon our nature with its First Being And A Grace which could no way be Merited either De condigno or de congruo Their very First Being was the meer gift of God So were all the Qualifications and Graces wherewith it was indued Suppose man had continued in this first estate this had been but a continuance of that free Gift of God which was bestowed upon him with his beginning If he had been advanced or translated to a better or more perfect estate this likewise had been a new Free Gift or Grace of God which could not be Merited by man For his very First Estate was more worth then all the Labor and endeavors which God required at his hands for the preserving of it so that he was still indebted unto God as well for every moment or hour of life in such an happy estate as he was for his first Creation and if he had been advanced to any better estate this had made him a new Debter unto his Maker it had been more then A Continuance of the former Debt The utmost issue or best effect of all his endeavors could only have made him Capable or not unworthy of the Continuance of Gods Favour and grace which he most freely extends to all that do not make themselves Unworthy of them That the First Man then was endowed with grace this was Gods sole Work That he made himself unworthy of this First Grace and so lost it this was his own work Yet after he had made himself and his posterity thus Unworthy of the First Grace God bestows a Second upon him the Grace of Redemption and this Grace could not be merited by him it was A more Free gift of God then his first Creation was That was an Act or gift of his Bounty this later was An Act of his abundant Mercie Bounty extends it self to such as are not worthy of it but Mercie reacheth to such as are most unworthy of Bounty to such as deserve the severity of punitive Justice What shall we say then that the Second grace which was promised to mankind in the womans seed though it cannot be merited by any yet being freely and actually bestowed upon them may merit the Continuance of it the Increase of it or advancement to a better Estate 8. To be freed from the Sentence of Death which was denounced against our First Parents is an extraordinary Grace or Blessing of God and This Blessing we all receive by the Grace of Baptism and this Blessing we all enjoy so long as we continue in Grace and the longer we enjoy this Grace or blessing the more still we are indebted to our Gracious God then they are which never receive it which want it Now it is not possible that we should merit any thing at Gods hands by the long enjoyment of that blessing which the longer or in greater measure we enjoy the more still we are indebted unto him that gives it To what use or end then doth this Grace serve Only to make us more indebted to God then we were for our natural Being Nay But to make us see the misery of our First Estate better then we could possibly see it whilst we continued in it and to enable us to make a better and more thankful acknowledgment of our Debt to God for all his blessings then without this Grace or this blessing of Redemption we possibly could do Let the Advocates then of the Romish Church extol the excellency of Grace unto the Skies or Heavens whence it descends we will not in this contradict them but only request them to consider that the more excellent Grace in it self is the greater should their condemnation be that make no better use of it then they do if God should enter into Judgment with them And certainly that man hath received but a mean portion or Talent of Grace which sees not his accounts to God to be much encreased if God should call him to a strict account for not imploying his Talent or not stirring up that Grace of God which is in him 9. But suppose we did stir up this Grace or suffer our selves to be stirred up by it to good works to what use or end doth our fruitfulness in Good Works serve To this end only that we may not be found unworthy either of the Continuance of Gods Gracious Favour or of the Continual Increase of it To acknowledge the First Receit of Grace to be the sole work of God and yet to ascribe in part the Increase of it to our own Merits or right use of it is no
deep touch of Pity or Compassion would raise our spirits to an higher point of service unto Christ then any relief or supply of their bodily wants can amount unto You may if you will for Christs sake be pleased to do it distribute so unto their bodily necessities as you may lay a necessity upon their souls of coming to the ordinary knowledge of Christ and of Gods mercies in him towards man You may by authority put the Precept of our Apostle in execution Such as will not work let them not eat or such as will not work the ordinary works of God that will not labor to be instructed in his fear and in his Laws let them not be partakers of your Bounty and Pity To constrain the poor the halt and lame to enter into the Lords house were a matter easie if as the Law of God and man requires none were permitted to remain amongst us but such as were confined to some certain dwelling or abode where they might live under the inspection or cure as well of Civil as of Ecclesiastick Discipline And consider with your selves I beseech you how either the Civil or Ecclesiastick Magistrate will be able to answer the great King at the last day through whose default whether joyntly or severally many children have been by Baptism received into Christs Church and yet permitted after to live such a roving and wandring life that no Tie can be laid upon them to give an account of their Faith or Christian conversation to any Church or Embassador of Christ But as Bodies while they are in motion are in no place though they pass through many so these wandering Meteors are of no Church though they be in every Church If I should in private perswade You Magistrates to seek some Redress of this Enormitie and blemish to the Government of this place I doubt I should be put off with the Exception to which I could not easily replie That you have better experience then I or others of my opinion or profession have And out of that experience see greater difficulties then we can discern But now having express warrant from our Saviour's words and this Fair opportunitie of Time and Place You must give me leave to reply unto you as an ingenuous and learned Scholar once did to a Christian Emperour which pretended greater difficulties in a good work which he commended to his Princely care then you can do in this Yet a work not all together so necessary nor so acceptable unto God as this work would be In rebus pijs aggrediendis nefas est considerare quantum tu potes sed quantum Deo fidis qui omnia potest Think not when you are about works of Pietie so much of your own Abilitie or weakness but examine how much you relie and trust in Almightie God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we conceive or think CHAP. XXXI MATTH 25. 34. 41. Come ye Blessed of my Father FOR I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie Go ye Cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie Jansenius his observation and disputation About merit examined and convinced of contradiction to it self and to the Truth The definition of Merit The State of the Question concerning Merit Increase of Grace no more Meritable then the First Grace A Promise made Ex mero motu sine Ratione dati et accepti cannot found a Title to Merits Such are All Gods promises Issues of Meer Grace Mercy and Bountie The Romanists of kin to the Pharisee yet indeed more to be blamed then He. The objection from the Causal Particle FOR made and answered 1. AGainst such as denie the merit of humane works Thus much saith Jansenius an ingenuous and learned Bishop though a Papist is diligently to be observed That Christ in this place deputes this Kingdom to the righteous FOR their works sake hereby giving us to understand that Life Eternal is bestowed upon them FOR their works by which the righteous Merit Life Eternal even as the wicked by their evil works Merit everlasting punishment The only ground or reason of this Assertion is For that our Saviours Form of speech in both Sentences is the same and Causal in both As he saith unto the wicked Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat c. ver 41 42. So he saith unto the righteous or them on his Right-hand v. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Yet least any man should except against him as dissenting from the Doctrine of Christ elsewhere delivered and from the Apostolick and Catholick Church By which Our salvation is ascribed to Gods Grace and mercy he adds this salve to the wound which he had made Non tamen Sic merit is nostris putetur dari vita aeterna c. Let no man think that life eternal is So bestowed upon our merits as All may not be given to the mercie of God from which we have our good works or merits He grants withal That the salvation of the Righteous depends upon Gods Blessing and Predestination upon which likewise their Good works depend Lest any should glory in himself A sin forbidden by Gods Prophet Jer. 9. ver 23. That All then is to be attributed to Gods mercie that no man may glorie in himself or in his works is true Our enemies in this Point being Judges is confessed by our Adversaries even in this place from which they seek to establish Merits And This we may conclude is A Point of Catholick Doctrine taught by Christ Prophets and Apostles stedfastly imbraced by all Reformed Churches and expresly in words acknowledged by the Romish Church With this Point of Catholick Faith we mingle no Doctrine no Opinion which may but questionably pollute or defile it We avoid all occasions of incurring the least suspition of contradicting it and for this cause We abandon the very name of Merit as now it is used or rather abused by the Romish Church Although in some Ages of the Church it were an indifferent and harmlesse Term Mereri importing no more as was shewed Chapter 27. then to Get or Obtain But Merit in the language of the modern Romish Church Est actio cuijustum est ut aliquid detur is An action or work to which something or any thing is due by Rule of Justice Yet doth the Romish Church not only Enjoyn the Use or Familiarity of this Name in this Sense or signification but Require the Assent of Faith unto the Reality Expressed by it 2. The Points then which lie upon that Church to prove if she will acquit her self from polluting the holy Catholick Faith are Two The One That this Doctrine of meriting heaven by works doth not contradict the former part of Catholick doctrine acknowledged by her to wit that
hungred c. The Form of it is Causal and it necessarily imports some Cause as either the Cause of the Preparation of the Kingdom or of the righteous their Admission into it Otherwise the same form of speech ver 41. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat should not import the true Cause why the wicked are sentenced to hell But the Protestants say they generally grant that this Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR ver 41. doth import that the true Cause why the wicked are condemned to hell is The Omission of these works and hence they inferre that the true Cause why the righteous are admitted into heaven is the performance of those Works which the wicked neglected and that our Saviour did note out this Cause unto us in the manner of his speech Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was hungry and you gave me meat I was naked and ye cloathed me Hence saith Jansenius The righteous do merit eternal life by their Good works as the wicked do everlasting punishment by their bad works This is his Note upon the words and the only Ground or Reason of this Inference is Because the Form of our Saviours Speech is One and the same in both Sentences as well in the Sentence of Life as in the Sentence of Death But though the Phrase or manner of speech be the same will Jansenius therefore stand to the Inference or Observation which he makes upon them viz. That the Good works of the righteous are altogether as true Causes of inheriting the Kingdom of heaven as the bad works of the wicked or their Omission of good works are of their damnation to hell That this was his meaning any honest plain dealing man that should read him only upon those words of this Text would easily be perswaded howbeit in the Process or Sentence against the wicked ver 41. he expresly unsayes the most part of that which he here seems to say being thereto inforced by the Real circumstances of the Text. He ingeniously acknowledgeth what Origen and Chrysostom had observed before him That our Saviour saith unto those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but unto those on his left hand though he say Depart ye Cursed yet he saith not Ye cursed of my Father This implyes as Jansenius acknowledgeth That God the Father is the Author and Donour of everlasting bliss but every one that doth wickedly is the Author of his own Wo or cursed estate God then not our works is the Cause of our Bliss or Salvation Mens evil works not God is the Cause of damnation Again in the other Sentence of Condemnation our Saviour doth not say That the everlasting punishment is prepared for unrighteous men but for the Devil and his Angels What doth this in the Judgment of Jansenius imply First That the condemnation of men is not so to be ascribed unto the Ordinance of God as mens salvation is For God created no man to the end that he should perish but men by their Free-will or Wilfulness in sin do make themselves liable or obnoxious to those torments which principally were prepared for the Divel and his Angels For this Reason saith the same Jansenius Christ doth not say that the Kingdom unto which he cals the righteous was prepared for the Good Angels as the fire is prepared for the Divel and bad Angels lest we should hence collect that men might by Good works deserve or merit the societie of Good Angels after the same manner that they do merit the company or fellowship of evil Angels or Divels For as he adds The merits or Good Works of men do not depend only upon our Free will but they issue from the Grace and bountie of God And our Saviour as this Author concludes in saying That this Kingdom was prepared for the righteous since or from the foundation of the world and in saying hell was not prepared for wicked men but for the Divel and his Angels doth hereby give us to understand That the salvation of the righteous is to be ascribed unto the mercie of God and the condemnation of the unjust not unto God but unto their own iniquity 10. But doth not this plainly contradict his Former Assertion upon the Text when he saith Justi suis operibus merentur vitam aeternam sicut impijsuis operibus aeternum merentur supplicium That the righteous deserve eternal Life by their works as well or after the same manner that the wicked by their works deserve hell All that can be said for him or for his Acquital from contradicting himself is that he put no set Quantity to his First Proposition but leaves it Indefinite a fault common to the Romanists that they may have some excuse for their palpable Contradictions To say That Good Works deserve Heaven even as bad Works deserve Hell and to deny That the one deserves Heaven as well as the other deserves Hell seems to imply a Contradiction Yet if any man should press Janfenius too farre upon these Terms he hath this Evasion Non omnino similiter merentur The one doth not merit Heaven altogether by the same manner that the other doth merit Hell because mens Good Works or Merits do not depend only upon the Freedom of Will But this favourable construction being permitted or allowed him yet to say as he doth That the best works of men how much or how little soever they depend upon mans Free-will do in any sort either in whole or in part merit the Kingdom of Heaven this directly contradicts his former Assertion that Totum deputandum est misericordiae Dei That all is to be imputed to the Mercie of God Quod totum est a Deo non potest vel in parte ascribi meritis nostris That which is wholly from Gods mercie cannot so much as in part or at all be ascribed unto our merits For what is the Reason why the First Grace cannot in their doctrine be Merited is it not because it is wholly from the mercy of God now if this Kingdom of heaven or mans salvation be wholly from the mercy of God it can no more be Merited by any increase of Grace or Good Works then the First Grace it self can be Merited 11. But what shall we punctually answer to the Grammatical Inference drawn from the form of our Saviours speech Inherit the Kingdom c. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me c. The usual Answer is that this Conjunction or Illative For Because and the like do not alwayes denote the Cause of the thing it self but sometimes only the Consequence of what is spoken But seeing the Form of this speech is as Grammarians speak Causal to say that a Conjunction Causal doth not alwayes import some Cause were to deny Principles and affirm that the Grammar Rule were to be corrected But admitting that this Conjunction doth always import some Cause it will not hence follow that it alwayes
imports the Real Cause of the thing it self which is known But oftentimes the Cause only of our knowledge of it Again such Causal Particles do not alwayes import some Efficacious Causalitie but only Causam sine qua non some necessarie means or condition without which the prime and principal Cause especially if it work freely doth not produce its intended effect To give you Examples or instances of these Observations If a stranger coming into a Citie should say surely yonder Gentleman is the chief Magistrate because the sword is born before him No wise man would hence collect that the bearing of the sword before him is The Cause why he is the chief Magistrate For his lawful Election is The Cause of that and that is the Cause why the sword is born before him Yet may we not for this reason deny that the former speech doth necessarily import a Cause for the bearing of the sword before him is the true True Cause of his knowing him to be the chief magistrate And in as much as we oftentimes come to know the Cause by the Effect this word For or other Conjunction Causal doth oft-times point out the Effect rather then the Cause of the thing it self So it doth in the speech of our Saviour Luke 7. 45. Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much However some Romanists whose delight it is to set Christian Charitie and faith at odds would hence collect that Charitie is the Cause of the forgiveness of sins yet their greatest Scholars acknowledge their error or oversight and ingenuously acknowledge their understanding being convinced by the evidence of truth that This womans Love was not the Cause why her sins were forgiven but that the Free forgiveness of her sins which were many was the True Cause why she loved so much however her extraordinary love being testified in such solemn sort was a true Cause or reason by which all that saw her might know both that her sins had been many and that she had an internal feeling or apprehension of their forgiveness And the true reason why the Pharisee did neither bear such love unto our Saviour nor exhibit the like signes of respect unto him was because he did not feel himself sick much lesse did he feel or apprehend the cure of his sickness as the woman did For if he had known either the measure of his own sins or that our Saviour was the Physician of his soul he would have given better Testification of his love and respect unto him then he did by a Complemental Invitation of him 12. To instance again If of two parties equally suspected of Felonie a man admitted to hear their examination or tryal should say This is the thief For Two competent witnesses have given evidence against him no man would hence infer that the evidence given in against him by two honest men was the Cause why he was a thief and yet was it the true Cause why he knew him to be the thief Every Revelation or authentick Declaration of any truth before unknown is the true Cause of our knowledge of it but not of the Truth it self for that is the Cause why the Declaration or our knowledge of it is true Now amongst such as professe Christ and call him Lord it is unknown to us who be the true heirs of this heavenly kingdom who be not but in the day of Final Judgement in which all shall be judged by their works the sheep shall be known from the goats and the first certain knowledge which we shall have of this difference shall be from The Declarative sentence of the Judge who cannot erre and his Declaration as you see shall be made according to their works The ones performance of the Good works here mentioned declared and testified by the Judge shall be the True Cause by which men and Angels shall know them to be heirs of the everlasting Kingdom the others Omission of the like works testified likewise by the same Judge shall be the true cause by which we shall know them to be altogether unworthy of Gods favour or mercy most worthy of everlasting death We shall then truly know that the one sort are crowned as Saint Cyprian saith according to Gods Grace and that the other are condemned according to Justice That the ones omission of Good Works is the true Cause of condemnation and that the others performance of Good works is not the Cause of their salvation but the Declaration only or a Testimonie that they are the Sons of God and that they did Good works by the secret Operation of the spirit of Grace in them And thus much if you observe it is implyed in the Reply or Answer of them that be saved to their Judge Lord When saw we thee an hungred c So farre they shall be from conceiting their works to be meritorious or worthie of eternal bliss that they shall be ready to disclaim them as not worthie of it ready to blame their sluggish backwardness or want of chearfulness to have done much better seeing what they did unto their poor brethren as now they perceive shall be so graciously accepted that Christ in his Throne of Majestie will acknowledge that he takes them as kindly as if they had been done unto himself The Case is the same as if a Gracious Prince of his own free motion and goodness should proclaim a general Pardon to a multitude of Rebels Thieves and Traytors so they would accept of it and make their peace with their honest neighbors whom they have wronged All of them in shew accept the Pardon but some of them in the Interim secretly practise treason or disturb the publick peace If at the general Assize or at their Arraignment the Judge upon certain notice of their several demeanors should say to the one sort I restore you to your former state and dignity Because since the Proclamation of your Pardon you have demeaned your selves as becomes Loyal Subjects and thankful men And to the other you I condemn to death Because you have abused your Soveraigns Clemency No man would ascribe the restauration of the one unto their good demeanor in the Interim betwixt the getting of their Pardon and their Arraignment but unto the Princes Clemencie Albeit the condemnation of the other were wholly to be ascribed unto their misdemeanors not unto any want of Clemencie in the Prince towards them The good demeanor of the one could but be at the most Causasine qua non A necessary Condition without which the Princes Clemencie in his Pardon exprest could not profit them And so we say of Good Works They are Causae sine quibus non necessary Conditions or means without which no man shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but no Positive or meritorious Causes of our inheritance in it To conclude If any one should ask me Why all men that profess they beleive in Christ shall not be saved Albeit Christ
hearing the word Life The life of man is short And The Text of the Law wherein the precepts are contained is long The Commentaries of the Prophets and sacred Histories necessarie for the Exposition thereof are voluminous and large The true sence or meaning of either in some points not easie to be found out unless we be well instructed how to seek it so as what the Jesuite saith absolutely but falsly of all Scripture is Comparatively true of This advice of Solomons It is a plain and easie way a light of mans life after it be once well learned but it is hard to Learn without a good Guide to directs us Wherefore behold a greater then Solomon Christ Jesus himself directs us in One and that a very short Line unto that Point whereunto the large discourses both of The Law and the Prophets do as it were by the Circumference Lead us Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets that is The Summe of the Law and the Prophets is contained in this short Rule 3. Because our Saviour gives it we may believe it that this is the best Epitome that ever was given of any so large a Work Or rather not an Epitome of the Law and the Prophets but the whole Substance or Essence of the Law and the Prophets Herein all their particular Admonitions are contained as Branches in their Root Out of the practise of this Principle or Precept all the Righteousness which the Law and the Prophets do teach will sooner spring and flourish much better then if we should turn over all the Learned Comments that have been written upon them without the practise of this Compendious Rule This Abridgement is a Document of His Art that could draw a Camel through the eye of a Needle that spake as never man spake Sure then if any place of Scripture besides those which contain the very Foundation of Christian Faith as Christs Incarnation Passion or Resurrection be more necessary to be learned then other then is this most necessary and most worthy the Practise Seeing all Doctrines of good Life of honest and upright Conversation are derived hence as particular Conclusions in Arts and Sciences from their Causes and Principles 4. For any Coherence of these words with any precedent or consequent we need not be sollicitous It sufficeth to know They are a principal part of our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount in which He delivered the true meaning of the Fundamental Parts of the Law purging the Text from the corrupt Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees Every Sentence therein is a Maxim of Life and as it were an intire compleat Body of it self not a limb or member of any other particular Discourse Every full Sentence of it This Main Rule especially may be anatomized by it self without unripping any other adjoyning For which Reason some Learned have thought that St. Matthew was not curious to relate every sentence in that Rank and Order as it came from our Saviours Mouth but set them down as any one would do all the memorable good sentences he could call to mind of a good Discourse read or heard placing that perhaps first which was spoke last or that last which was spoke in the middest Yet if as in Description of Shires men usually annex some parts of the Bordering Countries any desire to have the Particular words or Speeches of our Saviour whereunto this Illative Therefore is to be referred he must look back unto the fifth Chapter of this Gospel verse 42. Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow turn thou not away For so St. Luke who is more observant of our Saviours method in this Sermon then St. Matthew in the sixth Chapter of his Gospel verse 30 31. Couples these two Sentences together which St. Matthew had set so farre asunder And immediately after the words of the Text he inferres by Arguments that Duty of loving our Enemies which he had set down the precept for before verse the 27. though St. Matthew place both Duty and Arguments immediately after the Sentence before cited viz. Give to him that asketh c. So that this Precept Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you c. as is most probable came in between the matter of that 42 and 43 verse of that fifth Chapter And yet it might be repeated again in the latter end of that Sermon by our Saviour At least for some special Use or Reason placed there by St. Matthew because being the Foundation or Principle whence all other Duties of Good Life are derived it seems the Evangelist would intimate thus much unto us That of all our Saviours Sermon which contained the very Quintessence of the Law this was the sum And for this Reason he adds that Testimonie concerning the Excellencie of this Rule which St. Luke omits namely That in it is contained the Law and the Prophets 5. The Method which I purpose by Gods Assistance to observe is This. First To set down the Truth and Equitie of the Rule it self Whatsoever ye would that men c. with the Grounds or Motives to the practise thereof Secondly To shew in what sense or how farre the Observation of it is The Fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets Doctrine with such Exceptions as may be brought against it Thirdly Of the meanes and method of putting this Rule in practise It was A Saying of the Father of Physiicans Natura est Medica let Physicians do what they can Nature must effect the Cure The Physician may either strengthen Nature when it is Feeble or ease it from the oppression of Humors But Nature must work the Cure This is in proportion true for matters of Moralitie or Good Life Natura est optima Magistra All that the best Teachers can perform in natural or moral Knowledge is but to help or cherish those natural Notions or Seeds of Truth and Goodness which are ingrafted in our Souls Art doth not infuse or pour in but rather ripen and draw out that which lay hid before And it is the skill of every instructor to apply himself to every mans nature and to begin with such Truths as every one can easily assent unto as soon as he hears them albeit without help of a Teacher he could not have found them out himself And yet the more easily we assent to any Truth the lesse we perceive how we were moved thereto and the lesse we perceive it the more ready we are to imagin that we did more then half move our selves or that we could have found out that by our selves which we have learned of others Whereas in truth there is nothing more hard then to speak to the purpose and yet so in matters of Morality and Good Life as every man of ordinary capacitie shall think upon the hearing of it that he could have invented or said the like Ut sibi
Lord to utter these words Or which is all one The fulfilling of his imprecation according to the Mystical sense Third The discussion of such Cases of Conscience or controversed Divinity as are naturally emergent out of the Mystical or Literal sense and are useful for this present or future Ages To begin with the Circumstance of the time wherein they were uttered That apparently was the dayes of King Joash Heir and Successor unto Ahaziah King of Judah who was next Successor save one unto good Jehoshaphat by lineal direct descent but no Successor at all to him in vertue or goodness or happiness of Government For Ahaziah was Pessimi patris haud melier proles a very wicked son of a most wicked father and too hard to say whether he or his Father Jehoram were the worse King or more unfortunate Governour But Joash the Orphan Son of Ahaziah hath the Testimonie of the Spirit of God That he ruled well whilst Jehiiada the High-Priest did live 2 King 12. 2. And his zeal to the House of the Lord recorded at large in this chapter as also in the 2 Kings 12. 4. was so great as more could not be expected or conceived either of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah or good Josiah And thus he continued from the seventh year of his Age until the five or six and thirtieth at the least A competent time a man would think for a full and firm growth in goodness But amongst the Sons and Successors of David we may observe that some begun their Reign very well and ended ill Others being extream bad in their beginning did end better then the other begun So Manasses in the beginning and middle of his Reign filled the City with innocent blood and died a Penitentiary This present King Joash begun and continued his Reign for thirty years or thereabouts in the spirit but ended in the flesh or rather in blood leaving a perpetual stain upon the Throne and Race of David This strange Apostacie or Revolt argues that his fore-mentioned goodness and zeal unto the House of the Lord was Adventitious and not truly rooted in his own brest That the fair Lineaments of a pious man and noble Prince were drawn not by his own skill but by the manuduction of Jehoiada the High-Priest as Children oft-times make fair letters while their Tutors guide their hands but spatter and blot and dash after they be left to their own guidance Jehoiada saith the Text waxed old and was full of dayes an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died and they buried him in the City of David among the Kings because he had done good in Israel both towards God and towards his House The solemnization of his death was a strong Argument of the respect and love which both Prince and People did bear unto him whilst he lived and much happier might both of them have been had they continued the same respect unto his Son and Successor But they buried their love unto Jehoiada and which was worst the zeal which he had taught unto the House of God in his Grave For so it followeth verse 17 18. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princes of Iudah and made obeysance to the King Then the King hearkened unto them and he left the House of the Lord God of their Fathers and served Groves and Idols Yet Gods love to them doth not determine with the beginning of their hate unto the House of God and to his faithful Servants For notwithstanding that wrath came upon Iudah and Ierusalem for this their trespasse yet he sent Prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord and they testified against them but they would not give ear And the Spirit of the Lord came upon or cloathed Zechariah the Son of Iehoiada the Priest who stood above the people and said unto them Thus saith God Why transgress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the Commandment of the King in the Court of the House of the Lord. Thus Ioash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done unto him but slew his Son and when he dyed he said or inter moriendum dixit The Lord look upon it and require it 3. But did the Lord hearken to him or require his blood at the Kings and Princes hands which slew him Yes that he did oftner then once For it was required of their posterity But for the present he did visit both the King and his Princes most remarkably by an unexpected Army of the Syrians unto whose Idolatrous Rites they had now conformed themselves complying too well with them and with their neighbors the Heathen in all sorts of wickedness But here the Polititian will reply That the Syrians did upon other occasions intend to do some mischeif to the King the Princes and People of Judah For it was never unusual to that Nation to vex or molest Israel or Judah Nunc olim quocunque dabant se tempore vires As often as opportunity served as often as they could spy advantage And to assign the Probable or meritorious Causes of such Plagues as befal any Nation by their inveterate enemies unto the Judgment of God for this or that sin is not safe specially for men not endued with the Spirit of Prophecie In many Causes I confess it is not yet in this particular we need not be afraid to say as much as the Spirit of God or sacred authority of his Word hath taught us We say no more as indeed we need not for the point is so plainly and punctually set down by the pen-man of this Book from verse 23. to the 26. as it needs no Comment no paraphrase or marginal conjecture any of which would rather soyl then clear the meaning of the Text. And it came to passe at the revolution of the year that the hoast of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Ierusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people from amongst the people and sent the spoyls of them to Damascus c. 4. The Observations or plain Uses which these Literal Circumstances of this Story afford are many I shall touch upon some principal ones As First To admonish Kings or other supreme Magistrates to reverence and respect their Clergy seeing Ioash did prosper so well while he followed the advice and counsel of the High-Priest Iehoiada but came to this fearful and disastrous end first by contemning the warning of Zechariah the Cheif-Priest and afterward by shedding of the innocent blood of this great Prophet of the Lord. But this will be a common place not so proper to this time and place wherein we live wherein there is such happy accord between the supream Majestie and the Prelacie and Clergie of this Kingdom as no good Patriot can desire more then the continuance of it
Womans seed And whereas they thought themselves of all men most free from stain of the Prophets blood whose tombs they garnished our Saviour in my Text layes that especially to their Charge indicting them of all the murther committed from the beginning of the world until that present time or at least till Zechariahs death 3. The Indictment we must believe to be most true and just because framed by Truth it self But what the true meaning of it should be is not expressed by any Interpreter we have hitherto met with Such as a man in reason would soonest expect best satisfaction from for the most part pass it over in silence Others like young Conjurers which raise spirits they cannot lay cast such doubts as they are not able to assoil For acquainting you with as much as my reading or Observation upon late desires to satisfie my self in a point so difficult and useful have attained unto give me leave to reflect upon 2 Chron. 24. 22 and to look fore-right also into the words of St. Luke chapt 11. verse 51. Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation Which few words include the greatest measure of righteous blood most unrighteously shed that ever was laid to any People or Nations Charge And yet laid to the charge of the Jewish Nation not indefinitely taken or according to several successions or generations but to the present Generation of this People and so laid by One that could not erre either in giving of the Charge or in point of Judicature upon any matter within the Charge For the Charge is laid by the Wisdom of God by the supreme Judge of quick and dead as you may see from the forty ninth verse Therefore also saith the wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall or will slay and persecute that the righteous blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this Generation from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah which perished between the Altar and the Temple Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation The same Charge though with some variation of words yet with full Aequivalencie of sense we have in my Text Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and Wise men and Scribes c. But however the Charge and the Emphatical Ingemination for laying this Charge upon this Generation of Serpents in both Evangelists be for equivalency of sense the very same Yet St. Luke as I take it reherseth the Charge in the self-same words wherein our Saviour uttered it It shall be required of this Generation And in thus saying he declared himself to be Vates tam preteritorum quam futurorum better knowing the true meaning or importance of Zecharias his Imprecation or Prophecy and the time wherein it was to be fulfilled then Zecharias himself although both an High-Priest and a Prophet did when he uttered it The Imprecation or Prophecie of that Zecharias unto whom as I suppose the words recited out of St. Matthew and St. Luke have a peculiar Reference are recorded the 2 Chron. 24. 22. And when he died or as the Original hath it when he was a dying or in the very moment of death he said The Lord look upon it and require it The Exposition of which words First according to the Literal or Grammatical Sense with the Historical Circumstances precedent and subsequent And Secondly according to the Mystical Sense or the Emblematical Portendment of that Prodigious Fact which provoked that Godly High-Priest and Prophet to utter the fore-cited Imprecation Lord look upon it and require it hath been the Subject of my meditations of late delivered in A less and yet a greater Audience The Third General then proposed but left untouched comes now to be handled in this learned Auditory upon another Text. And that was The Discussion of such Questions or Cases of Conscience as were emergent whether out of the Literal or Mystical Sense of Zacharias the son of Jehoiada his dying words especially of such as be useful either for this present or future Times 4. And of such Questions the first is Who this Zachariah in St. Matthew and St. Luke is Whether it be He that was slain as is told 2 Chron. 24. 22. or some other of that name The Second supposing the same Zecharias to be meant in all three places Why the Wisdom of God after he had laid the blood of all the righteous men and Prophets whom their fore-fathers had slain or haply whom they intended to slay should instance in Zachariah the son of Jehoiada or of Barachiah as the last man whose blood was to be required The Third Whether the blood of Zecharias or other Prophets or righteous men slain by their fore-fathers or the blood of the Son of God himself or of his Apostles of whom this present Generation were the murtherers was in strict and Logical Construction of these words required of this present Generation Or in other Terms thus Whether the murther of Our Saviour or of his Apostles plotted or practised by this present Generation or rather the cruelties practised by their Fore-fathers upon the Prophets and other righteous men were the true and Positive Cause of all those unparalleld Plagues and Calamities which befel the Jewish Nation within forty or more years after our Saviours death of the desolation of Jewry and the Jews utter extirpation thence by Titus and Adrian The Fourth In what Cases or how farre the posterity or successors of any people or nation are liable to the punishment of their Ancestors sins or what manner of repentance is required for the known and grosse sinnes of their Fathers The Fifth VVhether it were lawful for any of Christs Apostles or other of his followers at this day upon the like provocations as Zacharias had to curse their persecutors in such manner as he did his upon their death-beds or when they are a dying The Sixth which might as well have been the First is VVith what Intent or to what End The Wisdom of God did send Prophets Apostles and VVise men unto this present Generation or their fore-fathers As whether to rescue them from the Plagues denounced against them by Zachariah and other Prophets or to bring their Righteous Blood upon them 5. To the first Question VVho this Zacharias was Some have questioned whether He was Zechariah Coaeval to Isaiah and witness of his Espousal Isai 8. Others there be of opinion this Zachariah here meant should be Zachariah the Prophet whose Prophesie is extant in the Sacred Volume the last in order but one as he was one of the last in time and prophecied about this peoples return from Babylon And it is true indeed that this Prophet was the Son of Barachiah as appears from the very first words of his Prophecie But this opinion is obnoxious to the same exceptions the former is viz.
Kiriath-jearim who for prophesying against Hicrusalem was put to death 240. years after Zechariah by Jehoiachim King of Judah and by his Council of State and of Warre and was fetcht back from Egypt whither he had fled for refuge by Elnathan the son of Achbor a great Counsellor of State and other Commissioners for this purpose unto Iehoiachim who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people And this Prophets blood and other indignities done unto him and to his Calling after his death were Required of that Present Generation of the King especially For as Ieremie perhaps taking his hint from this Bloody Fact had foretold so it came to pass that Iehoiachim was cast out of Ierusalem not into the Graves of the Common people but into the Open Fields for he had no other burial then the Burial of the Ass or other like contemptible creature But however the blood perhaps of this Prophet amongst many others was to be further Required of this Present Generation Yet Zacharias was the Last and I think the First of all the Prophets which at the moment of his death did beseech God to Require his blood and to revenge his death And this I take is the true Reason why Our Saviour after he had indicted the Jews of the blood of all the Prophets and righteous men shed from the foundation of the world should instance only in Abel the son of Adam and Zacharias the son of Iehoiada or Barachiah Christs Instance in Abel literally and punctually referres to that Dialogue betwixt God and Cain Gen. 4. 10. The Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy Brother And he said I know not Am my brothers keeper And he said what hast thou done The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth to me from the ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand But did the voyce of Zacharias his blood cry in like manner unto the Lord after his death or sollicit the like Curse or vengeance upon them which shed it or their posteritie as Abels did yes besides the fore-mentioned Imprecation Lord look upon it and Require it which was uttered by him after a great part of his blood and Spirits were spent his blood spake as bad things as that of Abels For so the Iewish Rabbins besides that Cluster of seven deadly sins committed by their fore-fathers at once in the murther of Zacharias mention another Circumstance subsequent not recorded in Scripture or not so plainly as a Christian Reader without their Comment or Tradition would take notice of it which in my Opinion doth better illustrate that passage of Scripture whereon they ground or seek to countenance it then any Christian Commentator hath done Our Fathers say they in shedding Zacharias's blood did not observe the Law of the blood of the Deer or Hart For so it was commanded Levit. 17. 13. Whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that so journ among you which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten he shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust But Zacharias blood though shed in the Temple was not so covered it was apparent To this purpose they allege that of the Prophet Ezekiel chap 24. 6. Wo unto the bloody City Her blood is in the middest of her she set it upon the top of a rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance No question but the Prophets entire purpose was to indict Jerusalem as our Saviour doth in my Text of all the Innocent blood that had been shed before his time within her Territories and withall to note her Impudence in committing such foul sins so openly without care to cover the conspicuous marks of her own shame Yet this no way argues that the Prophets did not point out some Memorable and Prodigious Fact which might serve as an Emblem of her shameless carelessness in all the rest Such Allusions to particulars sufficiently known in their own times are very usual in the Prophets This is the special Reason why their Writings in General are so obscure to us why some of their Metaphors seem harsh or farre fetcht because in truth their speeches in these Cases are not meerly Metaphorical but include Historical References to some famous Accidents present or fresh in memory From the same Cause all antient Satyrists or such as tax the capital vices of their own times are hardly understood by later Ages without the Comments of such as lived with them or not long after them as our Posterity within few years will hardly understand some passages in the Fairie Queen or in Mother Hubbards or other Tales in Chaucer better known at this day to old Courtiers then to young Students It may be these murtherers sayd of Zachariah as their posteritie said of our Saviour His blood be on us and on our Children It is not likely they would be careful to cover it with dust or wipe the stain of it whilest fresh out of the wals or stones of the Temple because they had solemnly forsaken the House of the Lord and made a league to serve Groves and Idols willing perhaps to let the Print of his blood remain to terrifie others from beeing too forward in reproving the King and His Council for their offences against God But whether the marks of it were left on purpose or through mere forgetfulness of this people God in his Providence as the Prophet intimates suffered it so to remain To cause fury to come and to take vengeance For whereas this fact or forgetfulness to cover it was in the words before attributed to Jerusalem Her blood is in the middest of her she set it up on the top of the Rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust The Prophet after intimation of the Cause why it so remained To cause fury c. Immediately adds in the Person of God I have set her blood upon the top of a rock that it should not be covered Of these words no meaning can be rendred more natural then This To wit That God did suffer the print of Zachariah's righteous blood to remain in the Temple as it were to sollicit vengeance for all the rest that had been or should be shed in Jerusalem to crie unto him as Abel's did from the earth which as it seems was not covered certainly the voice of it was not smothered with dust How long the stain of blood especially dashed out of the body by violence will be apparent upon stones or moist wals experience doth not often teach because it is usually covered or wiped off whilest it is fresh Yet some prints of blood have longer remained unless Domestick Traditions be false on stones then the blood it self could have done by course of