express Notion of pains or torments which the wicked after this life were to suffer we may gather from Aristotle Poster lib. 2. cap. 11. For so he tels us that the Pythagoreans did assign this final cause of thunder namely to terrifie such as were reserved in infernal prisons And in assigning this Final Cause of thunder whose Material and Efficient Cause with its properties they were not ignorant of they did acknowledge an Higher Guide or Governor of these natural Effects then nature her self We may perhaps rectifie this Notion by saying The thunder was created by this Guide or Governour of Nature rather to terrifie such as live here on earth that they come not into these infernal prisons And to avoid or prevent their coming into them Nature her self which taught Pythagoras this Philosophy might teach all That there can be no means so safe or so compendious as the making of our peace with that divine Power who speaks to men in this terrible language The thunder of his power saith Iob cap. 26. 14. Who can understand But the less we understand It in Particular the better we understand Him to be a Terrible Judge That this Notion which the thunder did suggest to the Pythagorean Philosophers of the Divine Power as avenger of Evil was not a Philosophical Phancie but implanted by Nature in the heart may be further evinced for that the thunder did imprint the like fear in such as in words or opinion did deny the Divine Providence or sought to shake off all conceit of future Judgment Witness the Emperor Caligula who so demeaned himself in his Empire and tyrannie over others as if he never looked to be called to any account for his Regencie and yet this man as Suetonius tels us would rise from the table when it thundred and oft times for fear run under his Bed He knew himself exempt from the censure or controll of man and had enough about him to instruct him in the natural causes of thunder and yet by this strange fear he did acknowledge a superior Judge from whose presence or apprehension he sought to hide himself as Malefactors do themselves from the eyes or hands of earthly Judges or from the ministers of civil Justice 2. But might not this strange fear arise rather from some peculiar disposition in Caligula then from any instinct of nature universal to all such as he was upon the like or equivalent Summons or admonitions From whatsoever disposition we can imagine this servile or slavish fear should proceed it was a timorous disposition and could not have wrought or inclined such men as he was unto such manifest documents of imminent fear but from a feeling consciousness of a foul and beastly life For he was a man that in other cases had gotten as full a Conquest over his Conscience as any Man Prince or Subject in this life can possibly get He had with much care and cost lull'd his conscience with varietie of all pleasures incident to sense or earthly affections into so dead a sleep that no voice of man though Embassador from God no voice of God known to men besides this terrible voice of his thunder could have awaked it But amongst ten thousand such as he was that is of such as for the most part have lived as beasts and for this reason could desire to dye like beasts without any account or reckoning how they had spent their Lives it will be hard to find one that in some or other particular did not give A true Crisis or proof of this Truth which now we teach that is of a Iudgement after this life by nature implanted in their hearts albeit most of them in words would not confess it albeit many of them used their own and their Parasites wits by natural reasons to overthrow or enervate the force of it But as in Cases of civil Justice the unwitting acknowledgement of some material or pertinent Circumstances drawn from such as otherwise seek to conceal or smother the Main truth upon which they are directly examined is with intelligent Judges of more force then one or two voluntary testimonies of men suspected to be Accessaries in the business or partial favourers of the principal Actor So in this controversie betwixt God and our own Consciences The unwitting practises or passionate expressions made in some extremitie of such heathens as either denied or knew not the truth of a Final Iudgment do give more powerful and more authentick testimonies for it then either the authoritie or express testimonie of other heathens which did expresly or directly affirm it save onely so farre as their testimony was grounded upon the like instinct of nature or implanted Notion which did move the others to confess it indirectly or in practise although in words they did deny it or not confess it do for it or then the avowed denials of any more debauched Heathens in their Jollity do against it 3. In many Cases as well natural and moral as divine there may be a real and solid truth or ground of truth in the practise without any apprehension of it in the practitioner oft times with opposition to it in his Conceipt or Opinion Most men when they desire to call things forgotten to mind will rub or scratch the back part of their head The Ground or Reason of their Practise is from Nature her self which hath placed the facultie of memory in that part of the brain or at least in some other part betwixt which and that which they so handle there is special intercourse Howbeit most men observe this practise or custom by meer instinct of nature without so much as once questioning or thinking whether their faculty of memory be seated in the brain or in the brest And some perhaps do use this custom being of a contrary opinion viz. That the memory is seated in the fore-part of the Brain But their manifest conformity to others in this custom will in any indifferent Moderators Judgement prevailingly prescribe against their Opinion Few there be again so destitute of natural reason but would be able as occasion requires or exigents impel to give warmth to some things that were cold and to cool other things that be hot by blowing or breathing upon them Yet this custom is practised by most out of meer instinct of nature without thought or question how such two contrarie effects as heat and cold could possibly issue from one and the same mouth or breath There is a true and real cause of this diversity or contrariety in the effects and a true reason in nature how they are wrought albeit this cause or reason be neither in whole nor in part apprehended by such as practise it with success Yea of such as have their senses exercised in the study of Philosophie scarce one of five there is but if he should on the suddain be put thus to practise by rule of Art would fail of his purpose more then such as thus practise by
imagining the stars or host of heaven to be the adaequate or total causes of Sublunary Effects or alterations They might err again in Calculating the Course of the Starrs and for ought I know they did err in denying or not avouching the Immortalitie of the soul But herein they come the nearest to us Christians in this Article That they held it possible and agreeable to Nature for one and the same body for one and the same man consisting of body and soul which had been dissolved for many thousand yeares before to be restored to life again But whereas they thought the conjunction of stars to be the full and total cause of sublunary effects let us suppose Gods Will or Powerfull Ordinance to be the sole cause of all things and there will be no contradiction or impossibilitie in nature why the self same men which have been may not bee again albeit they had died more then 5000. years ago For his Will as it is more powerfull then all the influence of stars so is it more truly One and the same then any conjunction or aspect of stars can be yea His Will or His Power was the true immediat or total Cause of the Matter of every thing as well as of its forme or soul The true cause likewise of the conjunction of the soul and body 6. It being then admitted that the Genethliaci did deny the Immortalitie or perpetual duration of the reasonable Soul which to deny is a gross heresie in Christianitie yet this Errour in them was more pardonable by much then the Inference which some Christians make who holding the Immortalitie of the soul hold it withall to be an Antecedent so necessary for evincing the future Resurrection of the body or restauration of the same man who dyes that if the soul were not immortal there could be no resurrection of the body no Identical restauration of men that perish and are consumed to dust They which deny the Immortalitie of the soul do therefore erre because they know not the Scriptures nor the Will of God revealed in them concerning the state of the soul after death For if the soul of Christ as man were as we must believe it was of the same nature that our souls are of if his soul did not die with his body our souls shall not die with our bodies Now Christ at the very point of death or dissolution of soul and body did commend his soul into his Fathers hands And God the Father took a more special care of his soul then either Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea did of his body That God likewise did take the souls of the faithful into his custody at their departure from their bodies our Saviour long before had taught us in his Answer to the Sadduces Matth. 22. 31 32. As touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living And as St. Luke addeth Chap. 20. ver 38. All live unto him not alwayes in their bodies but alwayes in their souls which alwayes expect a second conjunction or re-union to their proper bodies And St. Stephen when his persecutors did destroy his body commends his soul into Christs hands as Christ had done His Soul into the hands of his Father So that no man can doubt of the Immortality or perpetual duration of the soul unless he be altogether ignorant of these and many like passages in the Scriptures But they which deny all Possibilitie of the Resurrection or Identical restauration of the same man to bodily life in case his soul were mortal or might utterly cease to be with the body do err not only out of ignorance of the Scriptures or of The Will of God revealed in Scriptures but this their ignorance supposeth an ignorance or denial of the Power of God For God who is able out of stones to raise up children unto Abraham is no less powerful perfectly to restore the self same body and soul which now are and really to represent the self same man which now is albeit both body and soul should at his death not only die but be utterly annihilated that is although no more either of body or soul did remain after death then was extant before the first Creation of all things Now before the first Creation there was not so much as a particle or least portion either of mans soul or body For all things were created out of Nothing and all things might be created the same again that now they are albeit they were by Gods power or by substraction of his influence totally resolved into nothing 7. All these Propositions following are most true 1. That as God did make all things of nothing so he is able if it should please him to resolve all things into nothing This is essentially included in the Article of Omnipotencie So is this Second likewise Although all things created were resolved into nothing God is able to make them again the self same substances that they sometimes were or now are So likewise is this Third Albeit the bodies of men be not utterly resolved into nothing when they die but into the Elements of which they consist or are compounded as into the Earth Air Water c. yet every mans body at the day of final appearance before our Judge may be Numerically the same that now it is All these Propositions are Objectively Possible that is they imply no Contradiction in nature and not implying any contradiction in nature they are the proper Objects of Omnipotent Power That is God is able to work all these Effects in nature which unto Nature or natural Causes are impossible But that either the souls or bodies of men shall be annihilated or resolved into nothing we are not bound to believe because the Scripture doth no where testifie Gods Will or purpose so to resolve them Their annihilation or dissolution their re-production or re-union meerly depends upon the Will or Powerful Ordinance of God And albeit the Resurrection of one and the same man may be demonstrated to be in Nature possible Yet That this Possibilitie shall be reduced into Act That every Man shall undoubtedly rise again in the body to receive that which he hath done in his body Or With what manner of body for qualifications they shall arise This cannot be taught by Nature but must be learned or believed from Scripture To begin with the Second Proposition Although all things created were resolved into nothing God is able to make them again the self same numerical substances that they sometime were or now are For Proof of this Proposition I take as granted That all things which by Creation took their beginning had a true Possibilitie of being numerically what they were before they actually were otherwise it was impossible for them actually
work let us still call to mind that it now is in Executione Officii and its Office is to be our Remembrancer of that which our Apostle admonisheth us 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged In this Judgment or examination of our selves Nature her self would teach us thus much so we would be observant of the Process That seeing Conscience is not onely the Lamp of the Lord but also a part of our selves a principal Ray or beam of our souls it could not be so suspitious of our actions or so inquisitive after every circumstance that may make against us when we do evil unless it were deputed by a supreme Judge to bring us to a Judgment and either in this life to acquit us by perswading us to judge our selves or in that last day to accuse and condemn us It would teach us again That albeit there be a General day for final Judgment appointed wherein Christ himself shall sit as Judge yet he every day holds or cals A private Sessions within our brests wherein Conscience sits his Atturney or Deputy Again let us still remember that albeit the work of the Law be written in our hearts so it was in the hearts of the very heathens that albeit we give Conscience full Audience and leave to examine us by the Law of God whether written in our hearts or in the sacred Book yet is it but a small part of our accounts which we shall be able to read in the Register of our own Consciences in respect of what is to be found written in that Book or Scrowl which shall be opened and unfolded in the day of final Iudgement Rev. 20. 12. Howbeit even so much as every man which will diligently hearken to his own Conscience shall in this life be able to read and hear distinctly will make deep impression in his heart and wound his very spirit And as Solomon speaks a wounded Spirit who can bear rather who can heal it None but he that shall be our Judge Yet may we not look that when he shall come to judge all he will vouchsafe to heal any He healeth all our infirmities as he is our High-Priest not as he is our Judge And so healed by him our Consciences must be in this life otherwise the wound will prove deadly and incurable in that last day Nothing besides the wounds of Christ can cure the wounds and sores of our spirits and consciences Therefore was he smitten and bruised therefore was he wounded unto death that his blood poured forth might be as a Fountain of Oyl or Balm to cure and heal the broken hearted For The broken hearted onely are his true Patients All of us one time or other must feel the sting of Serpents more fiery then such as stung the Israelites in the wilderness even the sting of death and of that old Serpent which in our first Parents envenomed our nature before we can thirst after this fountain of life with that fervencie of spirit which he requireth in his Patients without this thirst thus occasioned by this sting of conscience and poyson of sin in some measure apprehended by us we cannot drink the water of life or suck in the balm of health and salvation which issued out of Christs wounds in such a plentiful measure as may cure the festered wounds of our souls and consciences and purge us from that corruption which we and our Fathers have sucked from our first Parents or contracted by the incessant overflow of our actual and daily sins 10. Yet is not this apprehension of our actual and daily sins or the smart or sting of conscience so perpetually uncessant in any one of us but that we may feel or perceive some interposed gleams of joy and comfort some Gratulations of our Consciences for businesses sincerely managed by us or for those particular actions or good deeds which in respect of some one or other circumstance we have done amiss but for their substance well and with a good intention and without a sinister respect to our own private temporal ends or to the prejudice of others with whom we live So that no man unless he be much wanting to himself can want undoubted Experiments in himself of a future and Final Judgement or of the Two-fold sentence which in it shall be awarded to all according to the diversity of their ways As often then as any of us shall feel the sting or perceive the check of our consciences for the evils we have done let us take this irksomness or indisposition of our minds and souls not for a meer effect of natural Melancholie though that perhaps may concur as a cause to increase our heaviness but rather take all together as a Crisis of that disease growing upon our souls which unless it be cured by our heavenly Physician in this life will prove incurable in that last and dreadful day and will bring upon us perpetual weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If our Consciences again at any time shall Congratulate us for well doing we may take these Congratulations or Applauses of our souls and spirits as so many undoubted pledges or earnests of that unspeakable and uncessant joy which the supream Iudge shall award to all that by constancy in well-doing acknowledge him for their Soveraign Lord and expect him as their supream Iudge If we cease not to continue these good actions or performances he will not cease to renew the undoubted pledges or earnests of eternal Joy unto us daily For so S. Paul saith He will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortalitie eternal life But unto them that are contentious indignation and wrath tribulation anguish c. 11. The best use which the Heathens as meer Heathens made of such Notions as nature had implanted in them of a future Judgement or rather their misapplications of what nature did rightly suggest unto them to this purpose cannot better be resembled then by the use or applications which men naturally make of Dreams Now of Dreams some are vain and idle as arising onely from the Garboils of the Phantasie most frequent in men sick or distempered or from such thoughts discourses or speeches as we have entertained by day or been entertained with for some short time before Of these Dreams and of their serious observation that of The Son of Sirach Eccl. 34. 1 2 3. is most true The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false and dreams lift up fools Who so regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow and followeth after the wind The vision of dreams is like the resemblance of one thing to another even as the likeness of a face to a face Howbeit even such Dreams may be resolved into some natural Causes precedent Nor do men fail in the apprehension of particulars represented
manner or ground of his inference would be impertinent if not contradictory to the principal conclusion intended by him which we are bound explicitly to believe For it is not enough to believe that the bodies of men which are committed to the grave shall not utterly perish but be quickned again as the corn which is covered with the ground but we are bound further to believe That every man shall arise with his own body with the same very body wherein he lived that he may receive his doom according to that which he hath done in the body whether it be good or bad This conclusion is not included in the Apostles inference or Experiment drawn from the corn which groweth out of the putrified seed for he expressly affirmes in the ver 37. that the body which springeth out of the ground is not the same seed that is sown 2. In Answer to the former difficultie some good Commentators there be which grant that our Apostles instance in the seed which first dies and is afterwards quickned is not a Concludent proof or forcible Reason but rather a similitude or Exemplification and it is the property or character of similitudes or examples illustrant non docent they may illustrate the truth taught they do not teach or confirm it Tertullian with other of the Fathers have diverse illustrations or exmeplifications of the Resurrection in the course of nature out of all which it would be hard to extract a full Concludent proof Lux quotidie interfect a resplendet The light dayly vanisheth and recovers brightnesse again darknesse goes and comes by an interparallel course to the removall of light Sidera defuncta reviviscunt The stars dayly set or fall and rise again The seeds of vegetables do not fructifie untill themselves be dissolved and corrupted All things sublunary are preserved by perishing their reformation or renewing supposeth a defacing Many of these and like observations taken out of the book of Nature may serve as Emblemes or devices for emblazoning or setting forth our hopes or belief of the Resurrection But concludent proofs they cannot be unlesse we grant that the Book of nature hath by Gods appointment Types or silent Prophecies of Divine mysteries as well as hath the book of Grace But shall we say or believe that the Apostles inference in this place is only Emblematical or Allegorical or rather a Physical or Metaphysical Concludent Proof Aproof not only against such as acknowledge the truth of the Old Testament or written word of God but a proof so far as it concerns the possibility of a Resurrection contained in the Book of nature His conclusion he supposeth might by observant Readers be extracted out of the Instance or Experiment which he brings For unlesse out of the Instance given in the Corn which first dies and afterwards is quickened the Possibilitie of the Resurrection of such a Resurrection as he taught might concludently be proved they which doubted of or denyed this truth had not incurr'd the censure of folly they had not deserved the Title or name of fools But not to be able to read that which was legible in their own books that is in the works of nature was a childish folly a folly which in men of years and discretion could not proceed but from insufferable incogitancy or negligence If we examine the Apostles inference according to the Rules of true Philosophie which never dissents from true Divinitie his Instances are concludent his Argument is an Argument of proportion a majore ad minus from the greater to the lesse All the difficultie is in framing or setting the Termes of it aright 3. All the exceptions which are taken against his proof are reducible to this one general Head That he argues or makes his inference from the works of nature unto a work supernatural or from the generation of vegetables ordinary in the course of nature unto the Resurrection of our bodies which can be no work of nature no generation but a work as supernatural as Creation But they which thus Object should consider that those works which we term works of Nature as generation of vegetables the increase of the earth the fruit of trees and the like are not in our Apostles Philosophie any way opposite to the works of God or to works miraculous and supernatural This Proposition is in his Divinitie and in true Philosophie most certain Whatsoever nature works God doth work the same and he works the same immediatly though not by himself alone for nature worketh with him though immediatly by him But the former Proposition is not convertible that is we cannot say that God works nothing without the Co-agencie of nature as we say that nature worketh nothing without the co-operation or Power of God Nature worketh nothing cannot possibly work without the power and direction of God God worketh many things since the world was made by him or nature created by him without the association or co-operation of nature or any causes naturall And the works which he worketh by himself alone either without the association or interposition of causes naturall or contrary to the ordinary course of nature are properly called works miraculous or supernaturall and Miraculous they are called not because they alwayes argue a greater or more immediate exercise of Gods Power then is contained in the works of nature but in that they are unusuall and without the compasse of ordinary Observation Sometimes those works which are truly miraculous may less participate of the Almighty Power then the usual works of nature do It was a true miracle that the Sun should stand still in the vale of Aialon but not therefore a Miracle in that it did argue a greater manifestation of Gods Power then is dayly manifested in the course of nature or works of other creatures But a great Miracle only in that it was so rare and unusual The dayly motion of the Sun about the earth if we search into the true and prime causes of it includes a greater measure or more branches of the Almighty Ceators Power then the standing still of the Sun did in the dayes of Joshua or the going back of it did in the dayes of Hezekiah For in our Apostles Divinitie Act. 17. 28. We live and move and have our being in God that is all things that are have their being in him and from him their being is but a participation of his infinite being The life of all things living is but a participation or shadow of his Life The Motion of all things that move is but the participation of his Power so that when the Sun did cease to move or stand still in the dayes of Joshua it was partaker only of his Power sustentative or of that power by which he supporteth all things It ceased to move only by meer substraction or cessation of his motive Power by whose vertue or influence it dayly like a Gyant-runs his course Thus dayly to run
its course it could not without a positive force or power communicated unto it from The Creator in whom as the Apostle speakes it moves But it ceased for a while to move without any positive force or power to inhibit or restrain its course But as we said by meer substraction of that power by which it moves So long as it continues its course it both moves and hath its Being in God and it is partaker of two branches of His Almighty Power But when it stood still it onely had its Being in him The influence of the other branch of Power was intercepted Now the Argument drawn from those works which we call The works of nature unto works miraculous or supernatural would in this case hold a majore He that dayly makes the Sun to compasse the world is able to stay its course when he pleaseth 4. A miracle likewise it was and a great one too that The three Children should be untouched in the midst of the flaming furnace yet neither was there a greater nor more immediate positive effect of Gods Power in the restraint of that fire then then was in the sustaining other Fire which at other times devoured the bodies of his Saints The Holy Martyrs who loved not their lives unto the death but gave them up for the Testimonie of the Lord Jesus For Without the co-operation or concurse of Gods Power the fire could not have touched their bodies Wherein then did the Miracle Recorded in Daniel and experienced in the three children properly consist Not so much if at all in fencing their bodies from the violence of the flame by imposition or infusion of any new created qualitie into their bodies as in substracting or withdrawing his ordinary Co-operation from the fire whose natural propertie is to consume or devour bodies combustible such as the bodies of the three Children by nature were The only cause why the fire did not burn them was the substraction or withdrawing of Gods Co-operative Power without whose strength or assistance the hottest furnace that Art or experience can devise cannot exercise the most natural operation of fire For as the substance of the fire cannot subsist or have any place in the Fabrick of this universe unless it be supported by Gods Power sustentative So neither whilst it subsists or hath actual being amongst Gods creatures can it work or move without the assistance of Gods co-operative or all-working Power In Him both these Powers are one both as he is are infinite But as communicated unto his creatures they are not altogether one but two participated branches of his infinite Power And in the burning of the Martyrs or in other destructions made by fire both branches as well of his sustentative as of his co-operative power are manifested Whereas in the preserving of the three Children from the violence of the flaming furnace the one branch only to wit His Power sustentative was communicated to the fire the other branch to wit the participation of his co-operative or working Power was for the time being lop't off from the body or substance of the fire Now this withdrawing of his co-operative Power from the fire was a true document or proof that he is the God and guide of nature That without him the fire even whilst it is for nature and substance most compleat cannot perform the proper work or exercise of its nature The necessary consequence of which Proof or experiment is this That he is the Author or fountain as well of all the works or exercises of natural causes as of natural bodies or substances themselves And if we consider his Power not in it self but as communicated to his Creatures or natural Agents it is and ought to be acknowledged greater in those works which we call works of nature and of which we have dayly experience then it was in either of these two Miracles before mentioned Both of them were for this Reason only Miraculous in that they were most unusual and without the circuit of any experiment or observation in the course of nature before the times wherein they hapned 5. To raise Mens Bodies out of the Grave or out of the Elements into which they have been dissolved is far more unusual then to raise up Corn out of putrified seed and in this respect the Resurrection which we hope for must be acknowledged a work more Miraculous and wonderful then the yearly springing of Corn of fruits of herbs or grass But may we say in this Case as in the former that the Power of God is no less but rather greater in these ordinary works of nature as in causing herbs fruit or corn to sprout or fructifie with advantage of increase then it shall be in the Resurrection of the dead which is a work not of Nature but miraculous and supernatural a work in which natural Causes shall not be entertained nor imployed by God No there shall be a manifestation of greater Power then either of Gods Sustentative Power by which all things that were created are still preserved or of His Co-operative Power without whose participation nothing which is so preserved can work at all or perform the exercises of its proper nature The Power indeed by which He Preserveth all things is the self same Power by which He Made all things out of nothing The Preservation of things that are is but a continuation or proroguing of the first Creation As all things are made of Nothing so would they instantly return into Nothing were they not continually supported and preserved by the self same Power by which they begun to Be when they were not Creation and preservation differ onely in sensu connotativo only in relation not in substance Creation includes a Negation of Being before For all things that are took their beginning by Creation Conservation supposeth a beginning of things that are and includes a Negation of their returning into nothing These Two Negations being abstracted or sequestred the Creation of all things and their Conservation are as truly and properly the same Power or work of one and the same party as the way from Athens to Thebes and from Thebes to Athens is the same But if the Continuation of things that are be a Creation or if the self same Almighty Power be still manifested in the preservation of things temporal that was manifested in the first Creation what greater power can be manifested in the Resurrection from the dead then is daily manifested and ought to be acknowledged in the preservation and daily increase of herbs of fruits of corn sown and springing out of the earth Or if any greater power shall be manifested in the Resurrection from the dead then is daily experienced in these works of nature how shall we justifie our Apostles Argument in this place to be an Argument of proportion or an Argument as we said before from the greater to the lesse or an Argument à pari from The like Case or Instance The Argument
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
which is alwayes more lively by night then by day but in the application or composition of such representations whilest they dream This commonly is as imperfect or monstrous as if one should be able to name his Letters right but not able to spell or make a syllable otherwise then by rote or guess or apt to put those syllables ill-favouredly together which he had severally spelled not much amiss Like to mens apprehensions of these Dreams were most speculations of the Heathens concerning the truth or manner of a final Iudgment or future Resurrection whose indefinite Notions Nature had implanted in their hearts So vain and idle they were for the most part in their Collections or applications of what they conceived that no more credence was to be given unto their particular speculations or doctrine then unto a sick mans apprehensions of his present Dream But however many of them did write and speak of a future Iudgment more out of Art and imitation of others then out of any solid Experiments yet was it not possible that the wits of all or most of them of the Antients especially should have been set a working in this Argument without some undoubted and experienced impulsions of nature seeking to lead or drive them upon that Truth which we Christians are expresly taught by a Better Master then Nature 12. Other Dreams there be which are reputed natural whose observation is very useful because they have real Causes in nature and alwayes exhibit either a true Crisis or notice of mens present estate of body or some right Prognosticks of some disease growing upon them whose original or progress is to their waking thoughts unsensible or unapprehended Howbeit the right interpretation or signification of such suggestions or intimations as nature gives to men in Dreams is usually unknown or much mistaken for the present by the parties to whom they are immediately made by nature They must be expounded or Judged of by the Physician or Philosopher Some men no way distempered nor disquieted in thought have dreamed that some part of their Legs or Arms have been turned into a stone or into an Icie substance The apprehension or composition was vain and false yet not without a true and observable Cause The Physician did by the relation of the circumstances perceive as the Event did prove a cold humor beginning to settle in that part of the body whose transformation was represented in the Dream and gather'd withall that the humor not thence removed would breed a numness or oppression of the nerves in that part Others oft times dream not from any thoughts or discourses to that purpose that they are flying in the air or can jump from one place to another further distant then any man can conceive it possible for himself or other terrestrial creatures to leap or skip The Philosopher or Physician knows this or the like representation made in sleep not occasioned from any late waking thoughts to be a token of a clean stomack of pure blood or lively spirits Others I have heard of in the midst of their quiet sleep have suddenly cryed out as if they had been stabbed under the ribs Themselves after they awaked and such as heard them before they were awakt knew the conceit or apprehension to be altogether false yet not vain or idle in respect of the Cause or observation The skilful Physician from this their mis-apprehension rightly apprehended a salt humor violently distilling upon the lungs ready to breed a dangerous Consumption whose removal would have been more difficult had not Nature given this imperfect advice or forewarning for the speedy prevention of it This secret advice or forewarning of Nature was so much the more to be credited because no occasion of any quarrel no thought or discourse tending to the representation of any such fear had presented it self to the waking thoughts of the party thus dreaming for a long time before Every real occasion of joy or fear the very least annoyance or pleasance that can befall our bodies in night-sleep or slumber as the Philosopher long ago observed is apt to misinform our Common sense or Judicative faculty being now surprised by sleep with representations or conceipts of the greatest delight or fear that is of the same kinde with that which is really represented as if a drop of sweet flegm do distil upon the swallowing place it raiseth an apprehension of honey or other sweet meat to which the tast of the party thus dreaming hath been accustomed and from this Original hungry men in their sleep feed their Phantasies with apprehension of pleasant Banquets Abundance of choler oft-times raiseth an apprehension of some great fire And nothing more common then for men troubled with flux of Rheum from the brain to dream of drowning or danger by floods or water The least oppression of the motive faculty will occasion the Ephialtes or Gigas that affection which we commonly call The Mare In all these and the like affections Nature doth her part however the Parties to whom she secretly suggests these signs or tokens of their bodily estate or constitution do for the most part grosly erre in their constructions of them until they be rectified or better instructed by the Physician or Philosopher who onely know the natural causes of such representations by sleep which is as a false glass wherein every thing appears much greater to the Phantasie then in nature it is or would appear to our vigilant senses 13. In like manner the best apprehensions or collections which the Heathens made of those Real Notions which are by nature implanted of a Final Judgement were erroneous their Doctrinal speculations or expressions were no better then an ignorant mans apprehension of his natural Dreams howbeit even the speculations of such Heathens as did most erre in particular do minister much matter of true and useful Contemplation unto the Christian Divine part of whose office it is or should be to search the original of others errors whose rectification must be made by the Scripture which is the Rule of Life without whose Aphorisms or directions the apprehension of natural Notions or Suggestions even when they work most strongly would lead or push the Physicians of souls themselves into Heresie Of all the Sects of Heathen Philosophers the Sect of Epicures did seek most earnestly to exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction and their actions from the Cognizance of A divine Providence yet could they not so dead the working of the Notion of it in themselves or hood-wink their own understandings so close as not to apprehend or observe the working of it in others Epicurus himself albeit he placed felicity in the moderate pleasures of this life though not in bodily pleasures onely for he was not so gross as to exclude the delights or pleasures of the soul or minde but rather required a competency of bodily pleasures for the fruition of this delight yet however he failed in his apprehensions of
felicity or in his application of those good Lessons which Nature did suggest unto him he found himself tyed by bond of Conscience to observe the Law of Nature The Original of his positive error was an ignorance or blindness common to him and most Heathen in some degree or other in not being able to discern the corruption of nature from Nature her self or to distinguish between the suggestions or intimations of Nature as it sometimes was and universally might have continued and the particular suggestions or longings of Nature as it was corrupted or tainted in himself or others more or less in all It was a Principle of his Doctrine as Seneca tells us That Nature which he profest to follow as his guide did abhor all vice or wickedness It seems he held those courses or habits of life onely vicious which we Christians account unnatural or prodigious vices as Tyranny Cruelty or excessive Luxury And such vices as these the most Heathens whom corruption of Nature did lead blindfold into many grievous sins and cast such a mist before their eyes as made unlawful pleasures appear unto them as parts of true happiness did by the light of Nature detest as contrary to the unapprehended Remnants or Reliques of Gods Image yet inherent in them though mingled with Corruption or much defaced with the Image of Satan But from what Grounds of Nature or Experiments did this Author or first Founder of the Sect of Epicures collect that Nature did detest all wickedness Thus he did reason and collect Quia sceleratis etiam inter tuta timor est Because he saw such as had polluted their Consciences with wicked and prodigious practises to live in fear even whilest they seemed to have safety her self for their guard against all external Occurrences whose probable assaults or annoyances humane Policy could possibly forecast And none more subject to this slavish fear which their Consciences did inwardly suggest then such as for their greatness and confidence in Tyranny and Cruelty were most terrible to others What was it then which these men did so much fear No other men nor any revenge that man could attempt upon them What then The company of themselves or solitary conference with their own Consciences Yet no mans conscience can make his heart afraid unless the conscience it self be first affrighted What is it then which the consciences of supream earthly Judges or Monarchs absolute by right of Conquest can so much fear in the height of their temporal security The Censure doubtless or check of some superior Judge If this fear had been vain or but a speculative Phansie it could not have been uinversal or general in all or most wicked men specially in such as were by nature terrible and stout and wary withal to prevent all probabilities of danger from men Yet was this check of Conscience or this unknown Doom or Censure which Conscience whilest it checkt the hearts of wicked men did so much fear so universal and constant that Epicurus a man of no scrupulous Conscience did observe it to be implanted by nature in all and upon this observation did ground his former general Principle That nature her self did abhor or detest wickedness The suggestion then or intimation of a future Judgement was natural but the apprehension or construction which Epicurus made of these suggestions was but such as ordinary men make of representations in natural Dreams before they be throughly awaked or before they consult the Philosopher or Physician The Christian Truth which nature in these Heathens being in respect of any supernatural use or end of her own suggestions altogether dumb did seek by these signs or intimations to express was that Lesson which the Author of nature great Physician of our souls hath expresly taught us Fear not them which after they have killed the body can do no more but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Matth. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4. 14. As the wicked amongst the Heathens could not by any earthly Guard or greatness exempt themselves from that Dread or Fear which their corrupt Consciences did internally suggest So that confident Boldness which the integrity of conscience doth naturally suggest unto every man in his laudable actions was sometimes represented by the more civil and sober sort of Heathens after a manner more magnificent and in a measure more ample then it usually is by most Christians Their expressions or conceipts of such confidence as integrity of conscience doth arm men withal did as far exceed our ordinary apprehensions of it as the representations of natural Causes working within us which are made unto us in sleep or dreams do our waking apprehensions of the like workings or suggestions of nature Si Fractus illabatur orbis saith Horace a profest Disciple of Epicurus Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 3. impavidum ferient ruinae Albeit the Heavens should rend assunder above his head and this inferior world break in pieces about his ears yet a man of an intire and sound conscience would stand unmoved unaffrighted like a pillar of brass or marble when the roof which it supporteth were blown away or fallen from it This Hyperbolical expression of that Confidence which integrity of Conscience in some measure always affords was in this Heathen if he had been put upon the tryal but as the representation of a mans bodily estate made in a Dream whose true cause is unknown unto the Dreamer As in men that dream so in this Heathen Poet the apprehension of that which Nature did truly and really suggest is most full and lively but full and lively in both without Judgement without true use or right application That Confidence then is the companion of a good Conscience is a truth implanted by Nature and freely acknowledged by the oppugners of Divine Providence But from what original or fountain this truth should issue or to what comfortable Use it might serve were points which Nature could not distinctly teach or points at least which the meer natural man without help of Scriptures or instructions from those Heavenly Physicians of the soul whom God hath appointed Interpreters of this Book of life could not learn But we Christians know and believe that when the Heavens shall be gathered as a Scroul when the Elements shall melt with heat and when the earth shall be removed out of his place that even in the midst of these terrible spectacles such as have their Consciences purified by Faith shall lift up their heads for joy as knowing these and the like to be undoubted Prognosticks or fore-running signs of their Redemption drawing nigh unto them A Crisis rather a kinde of First-fruits of this Holy Confidence was most remarkably attested to have been in the Primitive Christians So Antoninus the Emperor as in our 1. Book chap. 24. out of Eusebius his 4. Book of Hist Eccles chap. 13. we did
Wolves of Lyons or Tygers Such as had been given over to beastly pleasures were to take up their habitations in the bodies of Swine The souls of others less harmful yet stupid and dull had their transmigration allotted by this Philosopher into Sheep or Calves This Metempsychosis or flitting of mens souls into the bodies of beasts is described by Ovid in the 15. of his Metamorphosis seeking to give some countenance to his poetical fictions from Pythagoras his Philosophical opinion plausible in ancient times And from this conceit or opinion it was that Pythagoras and his followers did abstain from eating of any flesh whether of birds or beasts and laboured by all means to perswade others to like abstinence lest by killing or devouring them they might indeed kill or devour their dearest friends kinsfolks or neighbors Mandere vos vestros scite sentite colonos The souls of vertuous or good men or of better spirits did in this Philosophers opinion either go into some place of happiness or else return into some humane body again So as one and the same man might be often begotten born or die Thus Pythagoras himself thought that Euphorbus his soul was come into his body that he himself had been present at the siege of Troy in the shape and likeness of him that was called then Euphorbus whose body was turned to dust long before any part of this Pythagoras his body was framed And in the confidence of this opinion or imagination he laid claim unto Euphorbus his Shield as the Right Owner of it This Opinion or Imagination though gross and foolish doth yet include These Two Branches of Truth First That Animus cujusque est unusquisque The soul or mind of man is the man himself And Second That the Soul remains in Being after the Body or visible part which is but as the Case or Husk be dissolved Both These Tully had Collected as he professes in his Book De Senectute from the followers of Pythagoras of Socrates and Plato These Both he or the Person he makes Speaker there repeats in his piece De Somnio Scipionis Tu vero sic habeto Te non esse mortalem sed corpus hoc nec enim is es quem forma ista declarat sed mens cujusque is est quisque non ea figura quae digito monstrari potest Deum te igitur scito esse Yet were it possible or had God to whom all things are possible so appointed that one and the same immortal soul of man should have its habitation in two three or more distinct bodies they should not be so truly many men as one and the same man for the unity or Identity of mans person depends more immediately and necessarily upon the unity or Identity of the soul then upon the unity or Identity of the body This progress of one and the same soul through divers bodies was not in the opinion of such as first conceived or nurst it to continue for ever For Pythagoras did not deny an eternal Rest unto mens souls after this pilgrimage or progress were ended Now this progress or pilgrimage as some avouch was to endure but unto the production of the third or fourth Body 4. From Pythagoras and the Druides whom Pythagoras did rather follow then teach Plato did not much differ All of them in some Points hold good consort with Christianity In these especially First That the soul of man doth not perish with the body from which it is by death dissolved Secondly That it should go well with such as lived well and ill with such as lived amiss after the dissolution of soul and body But how often one and the same soul by Plato's opinion might become a widower how long it might so continue or with how many several bodies it might successively match we will not question In this and the like particulars Pythagoras and Plato might many wayes err without any gross inconsonancy to their general principles And one of Plato's general Principles was That the humane soul was in the body tanquam nauta in nave after such a manner as the Master Mariner is in the ship to direct and guide it And as a Mariner may without loss undertake the government of divers Ships successively so one and the same reasonable soul might guide or manage sundry bodies In the opinion of Pythagoras or Plato diversity of actions of manners of dispositions did no more argue diversity of human souls or spirits then variety of musical sounds in various wind-instruments as in the Sackbut Cornet Shalm or Trumpet doth argue diversity of breath or of Musicians One and the same musician may wind them all successively and yet the musick shall be much different because of the diversity of the instrument In all these opinions they did only err not knowing the Scriptures They did not err against at least their error includes no opposition unto the Power of God For if it had pleased him thus to place the soul in the body or to take it out of one body and put it into another as these Philosophers dreamed so it might have been so it must have been Nor did their error include any denial of the Power of God but rather an approach or step to the discovery or acknowledgement of it against modern Atheists Others there were who held a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Regeneration or new production of one and the same man again These were the Genethliaci or Nativitie-Casters of whom S. Augustine out of Varro speaks Lib. 22. De Civitate Dei Cap. 28. The time which as That Father there saies they prefixed for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or re-production of the self-same men which formerly had been was 440. years Though as you will soon see other Authors make it far above that proportion This particular errour of theirs took its original from an errour common to most Philosophers whose generally affected custom it hath been to assign some External cause of every External or visible Effect And some modern Astrologers make the heavens such total causes of Sublunary Effects that if the position and conjunction of stars should possibly come to be the self same again as they formerly have been the self same bodies should be produced again which formerly had been And 16000 years I take it in the account of these ancient Astrologers did make up the full period or circuit of all celestial motions Now it is a general Maxim in Philosophie Idem secundum Idem semper producit Idem If the influence of the stars were the full and total cause of the Sublunary Effects it would follow directly that when the conjunction of Stars which 〈…〉 his influence returned the same again which it had been 〈…〉 years more or fewer the Sublunary Effects or events should be the same as they then had been and the same men which had formerly dyed should revive again 5. The Genethliaci did foully err in
it is fitting that we refer the particular manner how our bodies shall be intirely restored unto God himself We will not dispute whether the Resurrection of every man in his own body shall be wrought de facto by recollecting of the dust into which men are turned or of the same material parts which every man had when he died or whether it shall be wrought by Creation of some new matter or only by preparing some other Elementary matter prae-existent and working it into the same individual temper or constitution into which our bodily food or nutriment was wrought whilst we lived It sufficeth to have shewed that every man may arise with his own body by any of the former wayes or partly by one partly by another Lastly the Recollection of the same material fragments or reliques into which our bodies are dissolved is no more necessary by the Principles of nature or true Philosophie unto the constitution of the same bodies at the day of the Resurrection which before have been then the recollection or regresse of the same matter or nutriment whereof our blood or flesh was made or by which our life was preserved in childhood is unto the continuance or constitution of the same life flesh or blood in old age The life of every man in old age is the same the body the same the flesh the same the blood the same which it was it childhood albeit the blood or greatest part of our bodies in childhood was made of one kind of nutriment and the blood which we have in mature or old age be made of another much different nutriment Yea albeit we alter our food or diet every year yet our bodies remain still the same every finger the same whilst it continues in the body and whilst this bodily life continues For albeit the nutriment be of divers kinds yet nature or the digestive facultie works all into one temper and this temper continues the same in divers portions of the matter which is continually fluent and the same only by Equivalencie Now if nature by Gods appointment and co-operation can work divers kinds of food or nutriment into the same form or constitution it will be no improbable supposall to say that The God of nature can work any part of the Element of water of ayre or of earth any fragment or relique of Adams body into the same individual form or mould wherein the bodily life of the man that shall be last dead before Christs coming to Judgement did consist Yet will it be no hard thing for God to make Adam the self same body wherein he died out of the reliques of this mans body To work this mutual exchange between the material parts of several mens bodies without any hinderance or impeachment to the numerical Identity of any mans body or without any prejudice to this truth That every man shall arise with his own body which we Christians believe is impossible to nature or to any natural causes they can be no Agents in this work yet it is no wayes impossible for it implyeth no contradiction for nature thus to be wrought and fashioned by the Creator and preserver of mankind In avouching thus much we say no more then some I take it meer Philosophers have delivered in other Termes Quicquid potest prima causa per secundam idem potest per se sola Whatsoever the first cause doth by the instrumental Agencie or service of second causes the same he may do by his sole Power without the service of any instrumental or second cause Now God by the heart by the Liver and by the digestive facultie as by causes instrumental or secondary doth change the substance of herbs of fruits of fish of roots into the very substance of mans body without dissolving the unitie of his bodily life and therefore if it please him may change the material parts of one man into another mans body or substance without the help or instrumental service of the nutritive or digestive faculty or any other instrumental cause All this he may do immediatly by His sole Power But whether it be His Will so to do or no at the last day be it ever reserved with all reverence and submission to his infinite wisdom alone 9. One scruple more there is wherewith ingenuous minds and well affected may be sometimes touched The doubt may be framed Thus. Although it be most true and evident from the Book of nature that the natural or digestive faculty of man doth preserve the unitie of bodily life entire by diversitie of mater or nutriment yet the living body so preserved is one and the same by continuation of existence or duration His dayes whilst natural life continues are not cut off by death he doth not for a moment cease to be what he was But when we speak of Resurrection from death when we say the dead shall arise with their own bodies here is a manifest interruption of bodily life or of mans duration in bodily life His body ceaseth to be a living body as it was And therefore if he must live again in the body the body to which his soul shall be united at his Resurrection may be called his own body because it shall be inhabited or possessed with his immortal soul but how shall it be The same body which he formerly had seeing the existence or duration of him or of his soul in the body is divided by death and division destroyeth unitie This leaf or paper is one yet if we divide it in the middle it is no more one but two papers The question then comes to this short and perspicuous issue Whether the uninterrupted continuance of duration or existence or unitie of time wherewith the duration of mans life is measured be as necessary to the Unitie or Identity of his bodily Nature or Being as Unitie or Continuation of Quantitie is unto the Unitie of Bodies divisible or quantitative The determination or Judgment is easie The Book of Nature being Judge it is evident That Unitie of Time or continuation of mans life without interruption is but Accidental to the unitie of bodily nature or being It is a circumstance only no such part of the Essence or nature as continuation or unitie of quantitie is of the unitie of bodies divisible for time and quantitie are by nature divisible whereas the nature of man or other things that exist in time is indivisible It is true Division makes a pluralitie in things that are by nature divisible but not in natures indivisible Every thing that is divisible though it be unum actu yet it is plura in potentiâ In that it may be divided it is not purely simply or altogether one but may be made two or more And whilst it remains one it is one by conjunction of parts The entire substance of any natural bodie as it is divisible or subject to dimension cannot be contained under one part of quantitie but part of it is
23. verses That this is our Apostles intent and meaning there can be no question All The difficultie is how either the Negative inferences or inconveniences which he presseth upon such as deny the Resurrection of the dead or the affirmative points which he chargeth these Corinthians and in them us undoubtedly to believe can be concludently gathered from the principles of our beleif 2. To begin with the Negative Inferences and in particular with the third Branch ver 15. Yea and We are found false witnesses of God c. Let us examine wherein did wherein could the falshood of this Testimonie consist Some perhaps would reply that We are not to say any thing of God though not benefitting his Majestie but that which is most true We are not indeed so far as we know or believe But albeit we fail in that we speak of him yet this is not enough to convince us of bearing false Testimony of Him To say or speak that of any which we take to be the Truth and to say it not with purpose to caluminate or slander but rather to his praise or commendations is not to bear false Testimonie of him much less against him albeit we be out of charitie mistaken in that which we say of him Admit then That the Apostle had been in some errour concerning the Resurrection when he first taught the Romans and these Corinthians That As Christ was raised from the dead to life immortal so we also in good time shall be raised to the same or like imortal life and that as he So we also should be raised by the immediate power of God his supposed mistake in the latter could not convince him of bearing false Testimonie on Gods behalf seeing that which he saith concerning the Resurrection of others besides Christ from the dead doth tend to Gods glory For to bear false Testimony of or against any Doth alwayes include some mater of imputation of aspersion or prejudice Whether we bear such testimony of God or of man What imputation or prejudice was it then to affirm that God had raised up Christ from the dead if there were no general Resurrection of others from the dead or wherein doth the falshood of the testimonie which our Apostle seeks to avert from himself punctually consist Did it consist in saying That he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if so be the dead rise not The Apostle doth not suppose it as questionable much lesse simply deny it That God did raise up Christ from the dead but only deduceth his adversary to this inconvenience or absurditie that if the dead were not raised up then Christ was not raised and that he had born false witness of God in saying that he had raised up Christ So that The ground of the false Testimony lies in the denying of others Resurrection from the dead Yea to avouch that God did raise up Christ from the dead although the fact were true and unquestionable that God did raise him up were in our Apostles Divinitie to lay an imputation or slander on God if so be that such as beleive in Christ and die in Christ should not be raised up unto blisse and glory Better it were or at least less evil in our Apostles Judgement to deny that Christ was risen from the dead then granting This to deny The Resurrection of such as sleep in Christ For to grant the former and to deny the Latter were to cast an imputation of folly upon God and an aspersion of imposture upon the Son of God Christ Jesus our Lord. What imputation then is it unto God or how doth this Aspersion rise and fall upon Christ or his Apostle by granting that Christ was indeed raised up and yet denying that the dead shall be raised up again 3. It is a Maxim in Philosophie generally acknowledged if not first conceived by the heathens Deus et natura nihil frustra Faciunt God and nature work nothing in vain From this principle such of the heathens as knew not God such as denyed His providence or knew not how to distinguish him or it from nature held it an impietie or prophaness to slander nature either of Errour in her working or of folly in producing effects to no good end or purpose Some there were which did question whether Monsters as children which are born with two heads with more Toes or fingers then are usual c. were not Errata naturae errours imperfections or oversights of nature But they finally resolve that albeit such events might fall out by the errour or contrary to the intentions or indeavours of That particular nature wherein these misfigurations were found yet they were intended by a more General nature and intended by it to some good use and purpose As commonly prodigious births do portend somewhat whose knowledge is usefull and good for others Now the Heathens erred in ascribing that to general or universal Nature which was peculiar unto God who is the Author Moderator and guide of Nature whether general or particular And if by general or Universal nature they meant no other thing then we do by the guide and God of nature Mentem teneant Linguam corrigant their meaning was good but their expression of it much amiss This we know that God doth suffer or cause nature oft times to miscarry in her course or projects for ends best known to himself No man is born blind or deaf or dumb without some errour or defect in that particular nature whereof or by which his body is framed All these and the like effects are besides the intention or contrary to the endeavour of nature which alwayes aymes at the best Hence our Saviours Disciples as we read John 9. ver 2. When they saw a man which was blind from his birth asked of their master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind They had not moved this Question unless by light of nature they had known that blindness from his birth was contrarie to the ordinarie and common course of nature though not contrarie but consonant to the Will of God in this particular For it is more then probable that they had read though then perhaps they did not actually remember who made the dumb or the deaf him that seeth or the blind Have not I the Lord Exod. 4. 11. God they likewise knew did for some good end or just cause either suffer or cause nature to miscarry in this man And they likewise knew sin to be a just cause of many miscarriages in the humane nature And hence they question Whether God had punished this man with blindness from the birth for his own or for his parents sins But they themselves did erre in collecting That extraordinarie blindness had befallen him either for some extraordinarie sins of his own or of his parents and this error our Saviour rectifies ver 3. Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents that is neither of them
Cause And we may safely Infer First That unless the Son of God had been incarnate Gods Goodness to us had not been so admirably manifested Secondly Unless the Son of God had become man man could not have been delivered from the fetters and chains of sin much less restored to his first dignitie And yet more in that the Son of God became man this is an Argument evident to us from the Effect that man by sin had become the Son of Satan Sin then was the cause of Christs Incarnation and Christs Incarnation is the cause or means of our deliverance or Redemption from sin Again Unless man by Sin had become the servant of sin and bond-man of Satan the Son of God had not taken upon him the Form of a Servant But in as much as the Son of God was found in the true Form of a Servant this is an Argument from the Effect evident to convince our consciences that we Sons of men were by nature the servants or bond-men of Satan Lastly Unless the wages of sin and of our service done to Satan by working the works of sin had been death the true and natural Son of God had not been put to death Our sins then and the wages due to our sins that was death were the Causes of his death And in that he truly dyed for us This is an Argument evident from the Effect Therefore we were dead in our sins Be it so Yet seeing the Son of God died for our sins before he was raised from the dead how saith our Apostle in the 17. verse If Christ be not raised ye are yet in your sins Could these Corinthians or any others be still in their sins after their sins were taken away Or will any man deny that their sins were taken away by Christ's death at the very instant of his souls departure from the bodie or when he said Consummatum est it is finished What was finished The work which he undertook and that was the Taking away of our sins or the work of our Redemption Now if this work were finished when our Saviour Christ said It is finished these Corinthians sins were taken away before Christs Resurrection And if sin by Christs death had been actually and utterly taken away our Apostles Inference in this place had been unsound none had remained in their sins albeit Christ had not risen again Sin then even the sins of the world were taken away by Christs death but not actually and utterly taken away If sin had been so taken away by Christs death there had been no such necessity of Christs Resurrection from the dead as our Apostle here presseth upon the Corinthians not as matter of Opinion but as a Fundamental Principle of Faith It remains then to be declared In what sense or how far sin was taken away by Christs death In what sense it hath been or how far it shall be taken away by his Resurrection 7. First then Christs death was a Ransome all-sufficient for the sins of the world the full price of redemption for all mankind throughout the world from the beginning to the end of it But did not many who died before Christ die in their sins They did yet He was promised to our first Parents To the end that even these might not die in their sins How these come to forfeit their Interest in the Promise made to Adam and to all that came after him That we leave to the Wisdom of God Of this we are sure That the Wisdom and Son of God did die for all men then living and for all that were to live after unto the worlds end And in as much as he dyed for all he is said to take away the sins of all that is he payed the full Ransome for the sins of all and purchased A General Pardon at his Fathers hands and he himself by dying became an universal inexhaustible soveraign Medicine for all sins that were then extant in the world or should be extant in man untill the worlds end So then by his death he took away the sins of the world in a Twofold Sense First In that he payed the full Ransome for the sins of all men Whatsoever sins were past could be no prejudice to any so they would imbrace Gods Pardon sealed by Christs death and proclaimed by his Apostles and Disciples after his death In this sense we may say The Kings General Pardon takes away all offences and misdemeanors against his Crown and Dignitie albeit many afterwards suffer for such Misdemeanors only because they do not sue out their Pardons or crave allowance of them Christ is said again to take away the sins of the world by his death in as much as by his death he became the universal and soveraign medicine for all mens sins But many dyed in Israel not because there was no Balm in Gilead as many do amongst us not so much for want of good Physick or soveraign Medicines as for want of will to seek for them in due time or for wilfulness in not using Medicines profered unto them So then it will not follow That no man dies in his sin since Christs Death Albeit we grant that the sins of all were taken away by his death For They were not so taken away as that men might not resume or take them again And the greatest condemnation which shall befal the world will be That when God had taken away their sins they would not part with their sins That when God would have healed them they would not be healed But had these Corinthians been any further from having their sins taken away by Christs death if Christ had truly died for them and yet but only died for them and not risen again Yes Though Christ had dyed for All yet all had died in their sins if He had only died and had not been raised again This Inference is expresly avouched by our Apostle in the 17 and 18 verses If Christ be not raised then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished and yet he supposeth that they believed in Christs Death But though the Inference be most true because avouched by our Apostle yet is it not Universally but Indefinitely true How far and in respect of what sins or in what degree of perishing it is true That is the Question 8. Christ was delivered saith the Apostle his meaning is He was delivered unto death for our sins and he was raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. Are we then Otherwise Justified by His Resurrection then we are by His Death So our Apostles words import And if otherwise Justified by His Resurrection then by His Death Then are our sins Otherwise taken away by vertue of His Resurrection then by vertue of His Death they were taken away What shall we say then That Christs Death did not Merit all the benefits which God had to bestow upon us God forbid all this notwithstanding We do not receive
Heaven and if those of Sardis were to walk with him in white robes Because they were Worthie The Controversie may seem Concluded That Good Works are meritorious of heavenly Ioyes or of Eternal Life 5. To the latter Objections or frame of Arguments drawn from these and the like places For I was an hungry and you gave me meat c. Calvin makes Answer That these and the like particles Quia Etenim For or Because do not alwayes import or denote The true Cause of things but sometimes only the Order or connexion betwixt them But However this may be True it is not so Punctuall but that Bellarmine and others take their advantage from it as having the Authoritie of the Grammer Rule against it For the particles used in all the places alleged by them are Conjunctions not Copulative or Connexive but Causal And it may seem harsh to say That some conjunction causal doth not import a causalitie It is true Yet sometimes they import no cause at all of the thing it self but onely of our knowledge of it Oft-times again they import no Efficacious causalitie of the thing it self but only Causam sine qua non that is some necessary means or condition without which the Prime and Principal cause doth not produce its Effect To give you examples or Instances of both these observations If there should come into This or the like Corporation A stranger who knowes not any Magistrate by sight he would say surely this is the chief Magistrate Because all others give place unto him because the Ensignes of Authoritie are carried before him Here the word Because must necessarily denote A true cause but not the cause why he is the chief Magistrate for that is only his true and just Election What cause doth it then denote The cause of his knowledge of him to be the chief Magistrate Thus when we come to the knowledge of the cause by the Effect The effect is the cause of our knowledge of the cause As others giving place unto him or the carrying of the Ensignes of Authority before him is not the cause why this or that man is the chief Magistrate for the time being but rather his being the chief Magistrate is the cause why all others give him place and why the Ensignes of Authoritie are born before him Yet these and the like Effects are the true cause or reason of a strangers knowledge of him to be the chief Magistrate And by this Rule we are to interpret that saying of our Saviour many sins are forgiven her for she loved much In which speech it may not be denied but that the Particle For imports A true cause yet no cause of the thing it self to wit of her love For this were utterly to reverse or thwart our Saviours meaning which was no other then this That the forgivenesse of her sins was the cause of her love so was not her Love the cause of the forgiveness of her sins which by our adversaries confession being of Free Grace and of the First Grace which was bestowed upon her could not be merited or deserved Howbeit the manner of expressing of her loue by washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hairs was The true cause of every understanding or Observant mans knowledge that many sins were forgiven her and unlesse she had an apprehension of her manifold sins thus freely forgiven her she could not have loved him so much or made such expression of her Love 6. Sometimes again this Particle For or the like causal speech imports only a subordinate or instrumental cause or A necessary means or condition required without which the Positive the Principal and only efficacious cause especially if it work freely doth not produce its intended Effect To put the case home in this present business Suppose a great and potent Prince out of his own meer motion and free grace should proclaim a pardon to an Army of Traytors and Rebels which had in Justice deserved death if a man should ask What is the cause or reason why the Law doth not proceed against them no other cause could be assigned besides the gracious favour of the Prince But if one should further ask Why the pardon being freely promised to all the principal malefactors it may be are pardoned or restored to their blood or advanced to dignities whereas others which were included in the same pardon are exiled or put to death The speech would be proper and in its kinde Truly causal if we should say the one part submitted themselves and craved allowance of their pardon whereas the other stood out and rejected it For it is to be presumed that no Prince being able to quell his rebellious adversaries will suffer any to enjoy the benefit of a General Pardon how freely soever it be granted unlesse they submit themselves unto it and crave the benefit of it with such humility as becomes malefactors or men obnoxious Much lesse will he restore any to blood or advance them to dignities whom he knowes or suspects still to continue ill affected or disloyal in heart So then the not-submission or continuance in rebellion is The true and Positive Cause why the one sort enjoy no benefit of the General Pardon but are more severely dealt withall for rejecting the princes Grace then they should have been dealt withall if no Pardon had been granted The humble submission of the other and their penitence for their former misdeeds is Causa sine qua non that is a necessarie means or Condition without which the Prince how gracious soever would not suffer them to enjoy the benefit of their Pardon would not restore them to their blood would not advance them to greater dignities This is the very Case of Adam and all his sons All of us were Traytors and Rebels against the Great God and King of Heaven who is better able to quell the whole host of mankinde than any Prince his meanest Rebellious subjects yet it pleased him to pardon us more freely then any earthly Magistrate can do a malefactor If then the reason be demanded Why any of mankinde are saved Why they are restored unto their blood and advanced to greater dignitie then Adam in Paradise enjoyed no other true cause can be assigned of these Effects besides The meer grace and mercy of the Almighty Judge But if it be further demanded Why some of mankinde enjoy the benefit of this Pardon and inherit Eternal Life Why others are sentenced to everlasting death When as the free Pardon with its benefits were seriously and sincerely tendred to all The Answer is Orthodoxal and True Because some in true humilitie accepted of the Pardon and craved allowance of it whereas others rejected it and sleighted such Proclamations or significations of it as the God of mercy and compassion had given out not to this or that man only but To all the World So that the Omission of those good works which our Saviour mentions in the
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
died for All albeit the Pardon General be proclaimed to all The best Cause or Reason I could render would be This Because All that profess they believe in Christ do not truly believe in Him For if they did They would be careful to maintain Good Works and glorifie God by being Fruitful in them The End of the Fifth Section The sixth SECTION A Transition of the Publishers WE have by Gods Good Blessing dispatched The main of this Book the Five first Sections so many Commentaries or Expositions of such Points or Articles of Christian Faith as are most proper by way of Dread and Terror to awake the Conscience and stirre the Affections To perswade men to reflect seriously upon all their Actions or Omissions Failings or Atchievements and to prepare themselves for that Account which must shortly be Rendred To God the Judge of All who will respect no Persons nor endure Pretences If these have their kindly perfect work They will Produce Judging our selves to prevent the Judgement of the Lord Repentance and Restitution of all things Circumspect walking for the Future and passing the Remnant of our Pilgrimage here in Fear To inrich the volume and to benefit the Reader I have thought good to annex this sixth Section which is A Collection of such Sermons of this Authors as I conceive likely to prove most effectual to the ends above mentioned and be most proper not only for this Place in the Body of His works but for these Times also which may perhaps be startled to see their present sins so flagrantly reproved many years ago by one who knew not any of their persons that commit them Our great Author had in his Eighth Book and third Chapter sadly complained of some that made this Great Rule of Charitie Equitie and Justice Do as you would be done unto This Law of nature and Precept of our Law-giver A nose of wax A verie Lesbian Leaden Rule He had more sadly complained in his Tenth Book Chapter 23. That not only the Practise of this Transcendent Rule was extinct amongst men But that the very Sense of it was if not utterly lost among the Learned Casuists or Expositors yet most shamefully decocted and Piteously shrunk up for want of improving and deducing it into several pipes and Branches of Good Life Lastly in the 29 Chapter of this Book amongst other useful things concerning this Rule He told us That God would Judge the world by it So then This next Discourse I mean the three Sermons upon this Text Comes not in unseasonably And I hope the next but One will follow this as sutably as a silver Thred can follow a needle of Gold And I shall endeavour to pick chuse and so place the rest that the Reader shall not deny their Consequencie to the five precedent Sections treating Of Christs Power to raise the Dead to judge the quick and dead and finally to sentence Both according to the things done in the Body be they Good or Bad. At which day God send this present sinful Generation and amongst them my Soul A Good deliverance and in order thereto a Timely unfeigned Repentance especially of their applauded and avowed transgressions This for Jesus sake who is our Ransom would be our Peace and shall be our Judge Amen The First Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXII MATTH 7. 12. All things Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them For this is the Law and the Prophets Prov. xx 22. Say not thou I will recompence Evil Wait on the Lord and He shall save thee Prov. 24. 29. Say not I will do to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work The miserie of man of the wisest of men in their Pilgrimage to be wanderers too The short way to Happiness The pearl of the Ocean The Epitome Essence Spirits of the Law and Prophets Do as you would be done unto The Cohaerence The Method Christ advanceth This dictate of nature into an Evangelical Law Fortifies it and gives us proper motives to practise it Two grounds of Equitie in this Law 1. Actual equalitie of all men by nature 2. Possible equalitie of all men in Condition Exceptions against the Rule Answers to those Exceptions This Rule forbids not to wage or invoke Law so it be done with Charitie Whether nature alone bind us to do good to our enemies God has right to command us to love them Plato 's Good Communion The compendious way to do our selves most Good is to do as much good as we can to others The Application IT is whether you list to term it A follie or A Calamitie incident to all sorts of men that when they take a perfect Survey of all their former courses they find their wandrings and digressions far larger then their direct proceedings The more excellent the End is whereat we aim the greater commonly is our Error the more our By-paths from the right way that leads unto it Because The greatest Good is alwayes hardest to come by Thus such as hunt most eagerly after the knowledge of Best matters seeing the Best are worst to find after natures Glass is almost run out and most of their spirits spent whilst they look back upon their former labors like weary Passingers that have wandred up and down in unknown coasts without a Guide desirous to see the way they missed in a Map when they come to their Journeys end begin to discern what Toyl and pains they might have saved had they been acquainted with such good Rules directions at the first as now they know Nor have we so great cause to be ashamed of our folly as to bewail The common miserie of our nature seeing the wisest among the sons of men either for Civil knowledge or speculative learning Solomon himself had almost lost himself in this Maze never finding any other issue of his Tedious course but only this All is vanitie and vexition of Spirit Untill he had almost come to the End of his dayes Then he found out That short compendious way of godly Life Eccles 12. 13. Let us hear the End of all Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole dutie of man In this is contained all we seek 2. Had Solomon in his yonger dayes fixed his eyes upon this Rule which he hath left us as the Mariner doth his upon the Pole or other Celestial sign he might have arrived in half that Time at that Haven which He hardly reached in his old Age after continual danger of Shipwrack by his wandring to and Fro. But how-so-ever This fear of God and our observation of his Commandments be the Readiest the safest and the shortest Cut that Solomon knew unto that True Happiness which all men seek but most seek amiss yet these Commandments cannot be kept unless they be known And known they cannot be without good studie and industrie either in reading or
other passages of Scripture is evidently extended unto such as perish In stead of many words unto this purpose uttered by him that canot lye those few Ezek. 33. 11. shall content me As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye O ye house of Israel If God will the safetie of such as perish yea even of most desperate stubborn sinners no question but he wills all should be saved and come unto the knowledg of his truth The Former distinction then will not stop this passage Howbeit some Learned amongst the School-men and other most religious Writers of later times have sought out another for intercepting all succour this or the like places might afford to the maintenance of that truth which they oppugn and we defend That God doth not will the death of a sinner Voluntate signi they grant but that he wills it Voluntate beneplaciti they take as granted That is in other termes God doth not will the death of him that dies by his Revealed Will but by his Secret Will Not to urge them to a better declaration then hitherto they have made in what sense God being but One may be said to have two Wills That he wills many things which we know not that he hath divers Secret Purposes we grant and believe as most true indefinitely taken But because these Wills or Purposes are Secret man may not man cannot without presumption determine the particular matters which he so willeth or purposeth otherwise they should not be secret but revealed to us whereas things secret as secret belong only unto God Deut. 29. 29. In that they oppose Gods Secret Will to Gods Revealed Will they do as it were put in a Caveat That we should not believe it in those particulars whereto they apply it For we may not believe any thing concerning the salvation or damnation of mankind or the meanes which lead to either save what is revealed But this Secret Will is not Revealed therefore not to be believed Nor are we by the Principles of Reformed Religion bound only not to believe it but utterly to disclaim it For admitting what was before granted an Indefinite Belief that God wills many things which he keeps secret from us yet we must absolutely believe That he never wills any thing secretly which shall be Contrary or Contradictory to that whereon his Will Revealed is set or to that which by the expresse warrant of his written Word we know he wills Now every Christian must infallibly and determinately believe That God wils not the death of the wicked or of him that dies seeing his written Word doth plainly register his peremptorie determination of this Negative therefore no man may believe the Contradictory to this to wit That he wills the death of him that dies otherwise this Distinction admitted untwines the very bonds of mans salvation For what ground of hope have the very Elect besides Gods Will Revealed or at the best confirmed by oath Now if we might admit it but as probable That God Voluntate Beneplaciti or by his Secret Will may purpose some things contrary to what he promises by his Revealed Will who is he that could have I say not any Certainty but any moral Probabilitie of his Salvation Seeing God assures us of Salvation only by his Word Revealed not by his secret will or purpose which for ought we do or possibly can know may utterly disanul what his Revealed Will seems to ratifie Lastly It is an infallible Rule or Maxime in Divinitie That we may not attribute any thing to the most pure and perfect Essence of the Deitie which includes any imperfection in it much lesse may we ascribe any impuritie or untruth unto that Holy One the Author of all truth But to swear one thing and to reserve a secret meaning contrary to the plain and literal meaning professed is the very Idaea of untruth the Essence of impious Perjury which we so much condemn in some of our Adversaries who if this Distinction might generally passe for current amongst us might retort that we are as maliciously partial against the Jesuites as the Jewes were against Christ Jesus that we are readie to blaspheme God rather then spare to revile them seeing we attribute that unto his Divine Majestie which we condemn in them as most impious and contrarie to his Sacred Will who will not dispense with Equivocation or mental Reservation be the cause wherein they are used never so good because to swear one thing openly and secretly to reserve a contradictorie meaning is contrary to the very Nature and Essence of the First Truth the most transcendent sin that can be imagined Wherefore as this Distinction was lately hatched so it were to be wished that it might quickly be extinguished and lye buried with their bones that have revived it Let God be true in all his words in all his sayings but especially in all his oaths and let the Jesuite be reputed as he is a double dissembling perjured Liar 5 The former Place of Ezekiel as it is no way impeached by this distinction last mentioned so doth it plainely refute another Glosse put upon my Text by some worthy and Famous Writers How oft would I have gathered you and you would not c. These words say they were uttered by our Saviour manifesting his desire As Man But unlesse they be more then men which frame this Gloss Christ as man was greater then they and spake nothing but what he had in expresse Commission from his Father We may then I trust without offence take his words as here they sound for a better interpretation of his Fathers Will then any man can give of his meaning in this passage uttered by himself in words as plain as they can devise These words indeed were spoken by the mouth of him that was man yet by a mouth as truly manifesting the desire and good will of God for the salvation of his people as if they had been immediately uttered by the Godhead without the Organ or Instrument of humane voice But why should we think they were conceived by Christ as he was man not rather by him as the Mediator between God and man as the Second Person in the Trinity manifested in our Flesh He saith not Behold my Father hath sent but in his own Person I have sent unto you Prophets and Wise men c. Nor is it said How often would my Father but How often would I have gathered you This Gathering we cannot referre only to the three yeers of his Ministerie but to the whole time of Jerusalem her running astray from the Prophets Calls from the first time that David first took possession of it till the last destruction of it For all this time He that was now sent by his Father in the similitude of man did send
Rule of Gods Justice to make some feel his mercie and kindness before they seek it that others may not dispere of finding it he having assured all by an eternal Promise That seeking they shall find and that they which hunger and thirst after righteousnesse shall be satisfied 10. The second Suspition or Imputation is That this Doctrin may too much favour Free-will In Brief we answer There have been Two Extremities in Opinions continually followed by the two main Factions of the Christian world The One That God hath so decreed all things as that it is impossible ought should have been that hath not been or not to have been which hath been This was the Opinion of the Antient Stoicks which attributed all Events to Fate and it is no way mitigated but rather improved by referring this absolute Necessity not to second Causes or Nature but to the Omnipotent Power of the God of Nature This was refuted in our last Meditations because it makes God the sole Author of every sin The Second Extremity is That in man before his Conversion by Grace there is a freedome or abtliment to do that which is pleasant and acceptable unto God or an activity to work his own Conversion This was the Error of the Pelagians and is in part communicated to the modern Papists who hold a mean indeed but a false one betwixt the Pelagians and the Stoicks The true Mean from which these Extremities swerve may be comprized in these two Propositions The One Negative In Man after Adams Fall there is no Freedom of will or ability to do any thing not deserving Gods wrath or Just indignation The Other Affirmative There is in man after his Fall a possibility left of doing or not doing some things which being done or not done he becomes passively capable of Gods mercies doing or not doing the contrary he is excluded from mercie and remaines a vessel of wrath for his Justice to work upon For whether a man wil call this Contingencie in humane actions not a possibility of doing or not doing but rather a possibility of acknowledging our infirmities or absolute impotencie of doing any thing belonging or tending to our salvation I will not contend with him Only of this I rest perswaded That all the Exhortations of Prophets Apostles to work humilitie and true repentance in their Auditors suppose a possibility of Humiliation and Repentance a Possibility likewise of acknowledging and considering our own impotencie and misery a Possibility likewise of conceiving some desire not meerly brutish of our redemption or deliverance Our Saviour ye know required not only a desire of health of sight of speech in all those whom he healed restored to sight or made to speak but withal a kind of natural belief or conceit that he was able to effect what they desired Hence saith the Evangelist Mark 6. 5. Matth. 13. 58. He could not do many miracles among them because of their unbelief Yet Christ alone wrought the Miracles the parties cured were mere Patients no way Agents And such as solicited their cause in Case of absence at the best were but By-standers Now no man I think will deny that Christ by the Power of his Godhead could have given sight 〈◊〉 or health to the most obstinate and perverse yet by the Rule of his divine Goodnesse he could not cast his Pearles before swine Most true it is that we are altogether dead to life spiritual unable to speak or think much less to desire it as we should yet Belief and Reason moral and natural survive and may with Martha and Mary beseech Christ to raise their dead brother who cannot speak for himself 11. The third Objection will rather be preferred in Table-talk then seriously urged in solemne Dispute If God so earnestly desire or will the life and safetie of such as perish his will should not alwayes be done Why Dare any man living say or think that he alwayes doth whatsoever God would have him do So doubtlesse he should never sin or offend his God For never was there woman so wilful or man so mad as to be offended with ought that wen◠not against their present will nor was there ever or possible can be any breach of any Law unlesse the will of the Law-giver be broken thwarted or contradicted for he that leaves the Letter and followes the true meaning of the Law-givers will doth not transgresse the Law but observes it And unlesse Gods will had been set upon the salvation of such as perish they had not offended but rather pleased him by running headlong in the waies of death Yet in a good sense it is alwayes most true That Gods will is alwaies fulfilled We are therefore to consider That God may will some things Absolutely others Disjunctively or that some things should fall out necessarily others not at all or contingently The particulars which God absolutely wils or which he wills should fall out necessarily must of necessitie come to pass otherwise his Will could in no case be truly said to be fulfilled As unlesse the Leper to whom it was said by our Saviour I will be thou clean had been cleansed Gods Will manifested in these words had been utterly broken But if every particular which he wills disjunctively or which he wills should be contingent did of necessitie come to passe his whole Will should utterly be defeated For his Will as we suppose in this Case is that neither this nor that particular should be necessarie but that either they should not be or be contingent And if any particular comprized within the latitude of this Contingencie with its consequent come to passe his Will is truly and perfectly fulfilled As for Example God tells the Israelites that by observing of his Commandments they should live and die by transgressing them Whether therefore they live by the one meanes or dye by the other his Will is necessarily fulfilled because it was not that they should necessarily observe his Commandments or transgresse them But to their transgressions though Contingent death was the necessary Doome So was life the absolute necessarie Reward of their Contingent observing them 12. But the Lord hath sworn That he delights not in the death of him that dieth but in his repentance If then he never repent Gods delight or good pleasure is not alwayes fulfilled because he delights in the one of these not in the other How then shall it be true which is written God doth whatsoever pleaseth him in heaven and earth if he make not sinners repent in whose repentance he is better pleased then in their death But unto this Difficultie the former Answer may be rightly fitted Gods Delight or good Pleasure may be done Two Waies either by us or upon us In the former place it is set upon our repentance or obsequiousness to his Will For this is that service whereto by his Goodness he ordained us But if we cross his Good Will or pleasure