written well of Eternity Psal. 117. 2. and 146. 6. Heb. 13. 8. Precious are the serious thoughts of eternity the treasures of eternity are opened in the times of the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Dicamus Deum immutabilem non modo mutatione substantiali quia esse vivere non modo nunquam definet qued Angelis competit animabus rationalibus sed fieri non potest ut definat Dicimus etiam ne accidentalis mutationis capacem esse quia transferretur à potentia ad actum aliquem accidentalem Twis Animadvers in Colat. Arm. cum Iun. propofit 6. Sect. 3. Vide Aquin. part 1. Quaest. 9. Artic. 1 2. Quaest. 9. Art 7. Iob. 4. 18. And his Augels he charged with folly the good Angels with possible though not actual folly * Geâ—h loc commune Martinus de Deo Wendelinus Christ Theol. l. 1. c. 1. Psal. 120. 27 28. Heb. 4. 13. Mat. 5. 18. * Cum nos paenitet destruimus quod fecimus Sic Deus paeâ—tuisse dicitur secundum similitudinem operationis in quantum hominem quem fecerat per diluvium à terrae facie delevitâ— Aquinas Quaest 19. Artic. 7. partis primae * Mutat facta non mutat consilia August Aliud est mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Aquinas Quaest. 19. Art Septimo partis primae * Jer. 18. 8. and 26. 2 3. Windelinus Christ. Theol. l. 1. c. â— Consectaries from Gods Immutability 1 Sam. 15. 18 19. Adam supported himself with that one promise Gods promises are faithful and firm words What good thing the Lord hath promised what grace or priviledge as Christians any ever received or succoâ— found the same may the faithful iook for Gal. 6. 9. 2 Tim. 3. 14. 1 Cor. 15. ult Queen Elizabeths word was Semper eadem Deut. 32. 3. Nihil magnum niâ—i magnus Deuâ— Of Gods Perfection Greatness is attributed to God metaphorically and denoteth an incomprehensible and unmeasurable largeness of all excellencies * The Apostle by an Hebrew pleonasm saith the same thing twice illustring it by the contrary Reasons of Gods Perfection 1. That which is the chiefest being and Independent is most perfect 2. That which is infinite in Essence can want nothing 3. The more simple a thing is the more perfect * Psal. 7. 10. and 7. 6 8. and 137. 9. Psal. 56. 3. and 11. 1. Rom. 12. 2. Perfect in the general is that to which nothing is wanting therefore that is most perfect to which agreeth no imperfection Little works of nature and of providence have a greatness in them considered as done by God 2 Sam. 22. 31. All Gods works are perfect Gen. 1. 31. Alphonsus was wont to say If he had been of councel with God in the making of his works he should have made some of them melius ordinatius Ezek. 36. 23. Iob 38. 34 35 37. Isa. 40. 12. Elihu alledgeth Gods works to Iob to shew his greatness Iob 36. 27. 28 29. and 37. 1. to 7. Reasons why Gods works are great 1. He that worketh most universally unlimittedly supremely must work great things 2. He that works most wisely must needs do great things Psal. 104. 24. 2. He that works most mightily and powerfully must needs do great things Isa. 43. 13. 4. He that does all this most easily must needs do great things Psal. 33. 6. God is great in his Authority He is King of Kings the only Potentate God is most high The Greatness of Gods authority standeth in two things 1. The universality of it Gods authority reacheth to all things the whole world and all creatures in it are subject to his will and disposing 2. The absoluteness of it what he willeth must be done Absolute Dominion is a Power to use a thing as you please for such ends as you think good God hath a double power and authority over the Creature 1. As an absolute Lord. 2. As a Judge according to which double power he exerciseth two kindes of acts Actus Dominii and Iudicii 1. He hath an absolute soveraignty over all the Creatures and hath no rule to govern the Creature by but his own will Dan. 4. 17 32. Ephes. 1. 11. He can do the creature no wrong in any of his dispensations Four things he doth to the creatures as an act of Soveraignty 1. He gives the Creature what being he pleaseth 2. He appoints it to what end he pleaseth Rom. 9. 22. 3. He gives it what law he will here come in acts of Justice and Mercy 4. Orders all their actions by his effecting or permitting will 2. He resolves to govern these creatures Modo Connaturali suitably to their own natures He gives reasonable creatures a Law which they must know and approve and the service they perform to him must be reasonable Gods Soveraignty here below is seen in ordering 1. Natural causes which act from an instinct of nature and are carried to their end by a natural necessity 1. In acting them according to their natures for the ends he appointed them 2. In restraining their acting sometimes that fire shall not burn 3. In acting them above their natures the rock shall yield water 4. In acting them contrary to their natures fire shall descend 2. Voluntary causes acting from a principle of reason and the liberty of will Prov. 16. 11. Psal. 33. 15. Prov. 21. 1. in ordering their thoughts apprehensions counsels affections Rom. 9. 17. Rom. 9. 20. Heb. 12. 9. Consectaries from Gods greatness in his nature Corollaries of Gods perfection Deut. 18. 13. Matth. 5. 48. Psal. 18. 22. 1 Cor. 13. 10. Consectaries from Gods great works There is a twofold greatnesse in the works of God 1. In the bulk or quantity of them as the work of Creation 2. Of quality or vertue Gen. 1. 16. The Moon is a great light in regard of light and influence excellency and usefulnesse to the world See Iob 37 38 39. Consectaries from Gods being most high Mihi verò dicendum videtur Nihil extra Deum esse absolutè necessarium sed tantum ex hypothesi Attamen esse necessarium secundum quid viz. ex hypothesi reicuique fateor vel contingentissimae poterat accidere Twiss Animadvers in collat Armin. cum Iun. IndepeÌ„dentia est proprietas Dei qua quoad essentiam subsistentiam actiones à nulla aelia dependet causa cum à seipso fit subsistat agat Wendelinus John 1. 3. Act. 17. 25. Ab independentia Dei non differt sufficientia qua ipso in se à se sibi nobis sat habet nullaque re indiget cum omnia alia uti à Deo dependent ita sibi ipsâ—s minimè sufficiant Proprietatem hanc indigitat nomen Dei Schaddai Gen. 17. 1. 35. 11. Wendelinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Il. β Rex unus est apibus dux unus in gregibus in armentis rector unus multo magis mundi unus est rector qui universa quaecunque sunt verbo jubet
then godlinesse and yet though carefull of keeping them they have not been able to preserve them from perpetual forgetfulnesse whereas on the other side these holy Writings hated of the most part and carelesly regarded of a number have notwithstanding as full a remembrance as they had the first day the Lord gave them unto the Church The Roman Empire for three hundred years set it self to persecute and extirpate this new Doctrine and in all these troubles the Church grew and inâ—â—cased mightily Acts 12. 1. Herod killed Iames with the sword yet v. 24. the Word grew and multiplied Calvin with all his Works since the time they were written scarce made so many Protestants in France as I have credibly heard it reported that the Massacre made in one night L. Falk reply about the Infallibility of the Church of Rome The Miracles wrought in the confirmation of Scripture differ much from the wonders wrought by the false Prophets Antichrist and Satan himself Mat. 10. 8. Mat. 24. 24. 2 Thes. 2. 11. Apoc. 13. 13 14 they are neither in number nor greatnesse comparable to these 1. They differ in Substance Divine Miracles are above the force of Nature as dividing of the red Sea the standing still of the Sunne the others seem wonderfull to those which are ignorant of the cause of them but are not true miracles simply above the ordinary course of nature but effected by the art and power of Satan or his instruments by natural causes though unknown to men and many times they are but vain delusions 2. They differ in the end those true miracles were wrought by the finger of God for the promoting of his glory and mans salvation these to seal up falshood and destroy men confirmed in Idolatry and Heathenism 2 Thes. 2. 9. See Deut. 13. 1 2 3. Those were not done in a corner or secretly but openly in the presence of great multitudes nay in the sight of the whole world by the evidence of which an unknown Doctrine before contrary to the nature and affections of men was believed Bainham said in the midst of the fire Ye Papists Behold ye look for miracles and here now ye may see a miracle for in this fire I feel no more pain then if I were in a bed of Down but it is to me as sweet as a bed of Roses The miracles done by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles received Testimony of the bitterest enemies they had 2. The Testimony 1. Of the Church and Saints of God in all ages 2. Of those which were out of the Church 1. Of the Church Both Ancient and Judaical And the present Christian Church 2. Of the Members of the Church 1. The Church of the Jews professed the Doctrine and received the Books of the Old Testament and testified of them that they were Divine which invincible constancy remaineth still in the Jews of these dayes who though they be bitter enemies to the Christian Religion do stifly maintain and preserve the Canon of the Old Testament pure and uncorrupt even in those places which do evidently confirm the truth of Christian Religion 2. The Christian Church hath also most faithfully preserved the Old Testament received from the Jews and the new delivered by the Apostles as a depositum and holy pledge of the Divine Will Col. 4. 16. 2. Of the Members of the Church the constant Testimony which so many worthy Martyrs by their bloud have given to the truth Rev. 6. 9. Four things are to be considered in this Argument 1. The Number which suffered for the same is numberlesse many millions that none can imagine it to arise from pride weaknesse or discontent More Christians were slain as hath been observed under the ten bloudy persecutions then Paschal Lambs were offered up under the State of the Old Testament 2. The Quality and condition of them which suffered noble and base learned and unlearned rich poor old young men women children those which were tender and dainty all these could not suffer out of vain-glory that stubbornly they might defend the opinion which they had taken up 3. The torments used were usual unusual speedy slow some hewed in pieces burnt with slow fire cast in to Lions given to be devoured by the teeth of wilde beasts some beheaded some drowned some stoned with stones 4. All this they endured constantly patiently with great joy even a chearfull heart and merry countenance singing Psalms in the midst of the fire so that the madnesse of the enemy was overcome by the patience of them which did suffer Luther reports of the Martyr St Agatha as she went to prisons and tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptials That Martyr Hawks lift up his hands above his head and clapt them together when he was in the fire as if he had been in a triumph So that their testimony was not only humane God enabling them so stoutly to die for the truth Phil. 1. 29. See the History of the Councel of Trent pag. 418. and Dr Taylors Sermon on Dan. 3. 22 23 24. stiled The Roman Fornace Martyrs of other Sects differ from the Martyrs of the true Church 1. They were fewer 2. They suffered not with joy of Conscience which the godly Martyrs did 3. They were punished for their errours discovered the Martyrs were burned for having any part of the Bible and the Bible sometime with them where the Inquisition reigns it is death to have any part of the Bible in the vulgar tongue The Gentiles also which were out of the pale of the Church did give testimony to sundry Stories and Examples in the Bible Suetonius and Tacitus speaks of the miracles of Christ Pliny of the miracles of Moses and of the wise mens Starre Macrobius of the slaughtering of the Infants Iosephus of the death of Herod the Poets of the Floud Plutark of the Dove which Noah sent out Iosephus a Jew saith in his time there was a monument of the pillar of Salt into which Lots wife was turned Of Sodoms destruction speaketh Sâ—rabo Diodorus Siculus Galen in his Book of Simples Pliny Solinus Polyst hist. Tacitus lib. ult Mela acknowledging that the remainders of Gods wrath are still to be seen there as the dead Lake the Fruit fair to the eye but falling to cinders and smoke in the hand The Oracles of the Sybillae were in greatest account among the Heathen and held as true of all men and if those be they which we have there is nothing which can more plainly set forth the birth of Christ his life and death Causabon makes it apparent that those prophecies of Sybil were counterfeited pieces and at first entertained by such as delighted in seeing the Christian Religion strengthned with forreign proofs Hereticks also prove the Scripture to be Divine for they quote that and therefore Luther cals the Bible Librum Haereticorum
of the course of nature and so is the Author of all things under himself under nothing and that is none but God The certain and plain predictions of future Contingents long afore whose events could by no wit of man be either gathered from their causes or conjectuced from their signs Miracles are wrought beyond and above the course of nature therefore some supreme power must work them Secondly Arguments may be drawn from the contrary to prove that there is a God Reasons From the contrary are two 1. From the being of Devils There is a Devil an Enemy to God which sets himself against God and desires and strives and prevails in many places to be worshipped as God therefore it must needs be there is a God to whom the service and honor is due of being confessed and adored as God which these do unduly affect and seek Again the Devil is a Creature for strength wisdom nimbleness able to destroy all mankinde quickly and out of his malice and fury very willing to do it Yet he cannot do it it is not done of this restraint there is some cause therefore there must be something which over-commands and over-rules him and that can be no other then a God that is something of higher Power and in Wisdom far beyond him Now there are Devils it is apparant by the horrible temptations which are cast into the hearts of men quite against and beyond their natural inclinations as Blasphemous suggestions and as appeareth by the practices of Conjurers and Witches who practise with the Devil and of those Countreys which worship him instead of God Vide Lod. Viu de Ver. Fid. Christ. l. 2. c. 16. 2. From the slightness of the Reasons brought to disprove this truth or to shew the contrary The Reasons produced to shew there is no God are fond and weak and what is opposed alone by weak and false Reasons is a truth 1. If there were a God some man should see him and sensibly converse with him This is a brutish Reason What cannot be seen is not then man hath no soul God is above sense more excellent then to be discerned by so poor weak and low a thing as sense is 2. God daily makes himself after a sort visible to men by his works 2. If there were a God he would not suffer wicked men to prosper and oppose better men then themselves nor himself to be so Blasphemed as he is Those things that to us seem most unjust and unfit if we could see the whole tenor of things from the beginning to the ending would appear just and wise Look on the whole story of Ioseph and then it is a rich peice All Divine Religion say the Atheists is nothing else but an Humane invention artifically excogâ—tated to keep men in aw and Scriptures are but the device of mans brain to give assistance to Magistrates in Civil Government This Objection strikes at the root and heart of all Religion and opposeth two main principles at once 1. That there is a God 2. That the Scripture is the word of God which though it be but a meer idle fiction yet it prevailed too much with some learned men Tullie and Seneca were the chief Patrons of that conceit Thaâ— Religion is no better then an humane invention 1. Religion is almost as ancient as man when there were but three men in the world we read that two of them offered up their sacrifices unto God 2. The Universality of Religion declareth that it is not a Humane invention but a Divine impression yea and a Divinity-Lesson of Gods own heavenly teaching Lactantius accompteth Religion to be the most proper and essential difference between a man and a Beast 3. The perpetuity of Religion proveth also that it was planted by God For the second part of the Objection about the Scriptures I answer Nothing is more repugnant to prudence and policy What policy was it in the Old Testament to appoint circumcision to cut a poor childe as soon as he comes into world two and twenty thousand Oxâ—n and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep were spent by Solomon at the dedication of one Altar To slaughter so many Oxen and Sheep such useful creatures was enough to bring a famine They were to give away the seventh part of their time to God Christ was not the Son of the Emperor Augustus to commend him to the Grandees of the world but the supposed Son of a poor Carpenter a Star leads the wise men to a stable though that shined gloriously without yet there was nothing within but what was base and contemptible Christ fell on the Pharisees the great Doctors Mat. â—3 called them fools and blinde and threatned them with hell he cryed down the Ceremonial Law the Ministry which had been practised divers hundred years the Jews were naturally tenacious of their Customs Christ chose silly unlearned men to propagate the Gospel Nothing crosseth humane wisdom more then the whole Scripture from the beginning to the end Martin Fortherby Bishop of Salisbury who wrote Atheomastix addes another reason to prove that there is a God and it is taken from the grounds of Arts There is no Art saith he neither liberal nor illiberal but it cometh from God and leadeth to God 1. From Metaphysicks he urgeth that the bounding of all natural bodies is the work of God to be unlimitted and boundless is onely the Prerogative of the Maker of all things Every finite body being thus limited must needs have those bounds prescribed unto it by some other thing and not by it self For every thing by nature seeking to inlarge it self as far as it is able if it had the setting of its own bounds it would set none at all but would be as infinite as God himself is who hath the setting of limits unto all things Who could circumscribe all things within their limits but onely God himself who is both the Maker and Ruler of all things Psal. 33. 7. Iob 38. 11. 2. From Philosophy Every thing that is must needs have a cause and nothing can be the cause of it self and among all the causes there can be but one first and principal cause which is the true cause of all the rest and of all those effects which proceed from all of them Then the first cause can be nothing else but God for what can that be which giveth being unto all things but onely God 2. All motion depends on some mover the motion of sublunaâ—y things depend on the motion of the Heavens and their motion must needs be caused by some supreme first mover Therefore we must necessarily come at last to some first mover which is moved of no other and that is God This was the common argument of Plato Aristotle and all the best Philosophers Every thing hath a peculiar end appointed whereunto it is directed by nature as the Bird to build her nest and the Fox to make
Religio Medici 3. Ordination and Appointment whereby he assigned unto all creatures their use Ier. 52. 15. He made nothing in vain 4. A Sanction of a Law and Decree which the creatures must alwayes observe called a Covenant with day and night Hitherto of the efficient cause and the matter there followeth the form of Creation which may be considered either in respect of God or in respect of the things created 1. The manner of Creation in respect of God is this He did not create the world by a necessity of nature but according to the Eternal and Immutable yet most free decree of his will 2. By his word and beck alone without any change weariness or toil he made and established all things The form of Creation in respect of the things created is two-fold 1. Internal viz. the very force and power of nature imprinted by God both in all things in a common manner and respect and in the several kinds according to the particular essence and condition of every thing by which they are made powerful to proper or common operations 2. The external form is two-fold partly a suddain and momentary production of all things partly a most beautiful disposing and excellent order of all things produced both in themselves and among one another Gen. 1. 3. There is order 1. In making them In simple things as the Elements God began with those that are most perfect the light or fire the purest creature Psal. 104. 2. and then went on to the lesse perfect in mixt bodies he began with things more imperfect First made things that have being and no life then plants after beasts and men 2. In disposing all things in their proper places for the beauty and service of the whole the beasts in the earth the fishes more in number and greater in bulk in the Sea The world hath its name in Greek from beauty God could have created them all at once but he made them in the space of six dayes that he might shew 1. His power in producing whatsoever effects he would without their general causes while he enlightened the world made the earth fruitful and brought plants out of it before the Sun and Moon were created 2. His goodnesse and liberality while he provides for his creatures not yet made and brings the living creatures into the earth filled with plants and nourishment men into a world abundantly furnished with all things for necessity and delight 3. That we might thereby more easily conceive that the world was not made confusedly or by chance but orderly and by counsel and might not perfunctorily but diligently consider the works of Creation How should we deliberate in our actions which are subject to imperfection since it pleased God not out of need to take leisure So much for the form of Creation there remains in the last place the End which is two-fold 1. The last and chiefest the glory of God the Creator in manifesting his Goodnes Power and Wisdom which excellencies of God shining forth in the existence order and wonderful workmanship of all creatures and in the wise Government and administration of them God would have acknowledged and praised by reasonable creatures Psal. 19. 1. 10. 24. Prov. 16. 5. Isa. 40. 26. Rom. 1. 20 36. 2. The next End for the work it self that all things should serve man and be useful to him especially to further the salvation of the Elect Gen. 1. 20. Psal. 8. 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. It serves to confute sundry errors 1. The Arians which said the world was made by Christ as the instrument and secondary cause that place Rom. 11. 36. doth not prove an inequality of persons 2. The Manichees which held two beginnings contrary to themselves God the author of good things and the Devil the author of evil this is blasphemy against God and is contrary to what Moses saith Gen. 1. 31. 3. Aristotle that held the world was eternal as Ludov. Viv. de veritate Fidei Christ. l. 1. c. 10. saith though some say he did not Democritus who held that the world was made by a casual concourse of Atomes and that there were infinite worlds when the Scripture speaketh but of one God sent his Sonne into the world not worlds See the Discovery of the World in the Moon Proposit. 2. Mr Rosse opposeth those Atomes Refutat of Dr Browns Vulgar Errors c. 17. Ubi sunt aut unde ista corpuscula cur illa nemo praeter unum Leucippum somniavit à quo Democritus eruditus haereditatem stultitiae reliquit Epicuro Lactant. Divin Instit. l. 3. de falsa sapientia p. 190. Vide plura ibid. 191. Galen who having read the fifth Chapter of Genesis said That Moses said much but proved little 2. It condemns 1. Those which set their affections on the creature If there be beauty in that what is in the Creator 2. Those that abuse the creatures by cruelty or pretended Lordship 3. Those which mock at the parts of any man if born lame or deformed this is to despise the Workman to murmur at the Potter 3. It shews that God hath first chief absolute and perpetual Soveraignty over all his creatures so that he can use command and do with them as in equity seems good to his henvenly wisdom 4. When we'behold the Heavens the Earth Air and Sea how they are filled what use and commodities they have we should contemplate God in these things we see with our eyes 2. We should learn what a one God is 1. Eternal He that made Heaven and Earth is ancienter then both 2. Almighty Great works cannot be brought to passe without great strength he must needs be infinite in power which made Heaven and Earth and hangs the Earth as a Ball without any pillar to support it 3. Most Wise strength separated from wisdom is little worth God knows all things the nature of the Heavens Earth Water perfectly because he put such a Nature into them Tell your selves that God is a wise understanding Essence can order all to the best 4. Exceeding Good He hath infused goodness into the Heavens Waters Earth they are helpful and serviceable to man how much more goodness is there in God! He is good and doth good Psal. 119. 5. See his Love in making man best of the creatures here below we should honour God in our mindes account him the chiefest and onely good and his favour the chiefest felicity bring our wils to long after him to desire him above all other things chusing him as our happinesse loving him and desiring to enjoy him fully Learn to fear him above all not daring to offend him Acts 4. 24. and obey and please him what more agreeable to reason then that the Maker of all should be Ruler of all We are more his then a childe his Parents a servant his Masters We should also acknowledge that he made us Psal. 100.
woodden thigh or dry arm to the body of a natural man For they want life sense and motion and receive no influence from the Head they are as is commonly said in the Church not of the Church 1 Iohn 2. 19. Hence arose the distinction of the Church into Visible and Invisible The Invisible Church consists only of those who are endued with true faith and holinesse but these are known to God and Christ alone 2 Tim. 2. 19. Iohn 10. 14. therefore in respect of us that Church which alone truly and properly is the Church on earth is called Invisible The Church is a society of men not as men for so a number of Turks or a nest of Arians might be the body of Christ but as beleevers and therefore the Church as the Church cannot be seen but beleeved Bellarmine himself saith Videmus coetum hominum qui est Ecclesia sed quod ille coetus sit vera Christi Ecclesia non videmus sed credimus and what say we more That is the visible Church which consists of men professing the true Faith and Religion any way whether in truth or counterfeitly and falsly of good and evil of elect and reprobate This Church is mixt whence it is compared to a great house in which there are not onely vessels of gold and silver but also wood and clay some for honour some for reproach 2 Tim. 2. 20. To a field in which there are Tares as well as wheat Matth. 13. to a net in which fishes of all kinde good and bad are gathered See Dr Featley against Fisher about the visibility of the Church Iacksons raging Tempest on Matth. 8. 23. p. 25. Dr Taylor on Rev. 12. p. 294. Mr Baxters Infants Church-membership pag. 176. Par. on Rom. 11. vers 4. pag. 160 161. Again The Church is either Particular viz. a company of the faithful which is contained in some particular place 2 Cor. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Or Universal Catholick which consists of all that every where call upon the name of God 1 Cor. 1. 2. The Apostle cals it The general Assembly Heb. 12. 23. It is General 1. In respect of time it had a being in all times and ages ever since the giving of the promise to our first parents in Paradise 2. In respect of the Persons of men it consists of all sorts and degrees of men Act. 16. 34. 3. In respect of place because it hath been gathered from all parts of the earth specially now in time of the New Testament Revel 5. 9. 4. In respect of Doctrine therein professed This name Catholick is not given to the Church in Scripture but was imposed by men yet consonant to the Scripture The Church was first intituled Catholick in opposition to the visible Church of the Jews Act. 10. 15 34. the full importance of this term Catholick is set down Revel 5. 8 9. This Catholick Church is called Holy 1 Cor. 14. 33. Revel 11. 2. because Christ the Head of it is holy Heb. 7. 26. and he makes the Church partaker of his holinesse Iohn 17. 19. because it is called with a holy calling and is separated from the world 2 Tim. 1. 9. because the holy Word of God is committed to it Rom. 3. 2. Object But the Church doth not only contain in it those that are holy but also hypocrites and such as are openly wicked How therefore is it holy Answ. Hypocrites and prophane persons are but in name and outward profession of the Church indeed and in truth they are not those which are truly of the Church are holy and therefore the Church is rightly called and is holy 2. Although the visible hath good mingled with evil yea almost overwhelmed with their multitude yet it is deservedly denominated from the better part As we call that a heap of corn where there is more chaff then corn It is the priviledge as well as duty of Gods people to be holy Deut. 26. 18. 28. 9. it comes in by way of Promise Reward Priviledge Revel 20. 6. The Reasons of this are taken from the Cause the Nature and Effects of Holinesse First From the cause of it it flows from Union with God Iohn 17. 17 21. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 4. 14. Secondly The Nature of Holinesse consists in a likenesse and conformity to God Be ye holy as I am holy Levit. 26. 44 45. There is a four-fold Holinesse 1. Of Dedication so the vessels of the Temple and Tabernacle were holy 2. Of Exemplification so the Law being the Epistle or exemplification of Gods will was holy Rom. 7. 12. 3. By Profession as 1 Cor. 7. 14. 4. By Participation or Communion The people of God are holy all these wayes 1. They are dedicated to God Rom. 1. 1. 2. By Exemplification They are the Epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. By Profession 4. By Participation Thirdly If we consider the Effects of Holinesse 1. Upon our selves it is the end of our Election Ephes. 1. 14. of our Vocation 1 Thess. 4. 17. Redemption Luke 1. 74. 2. Upon others even the Enemies of it wicked men 1. Affectation the hypocrite affects it that there are so many pretenders to it though but in shew discovers the dignity of it 2. That awfulnesse which it strikes in the hearts of wicked men Saul stood in awe of Samuel Herod of Iohn Baptist Mark 6. 20. 3. Envy it works this in the worst 1 Iohn 3. 17. Quest. Whether every one which sincerely professeth the belief of this Article of the holy Catholick Church be bound to beleeve that he himself is a true lively member of the same Church Answ. No all men are not bound to beleeve that they are actual or real members of the Catholick Church for none can truly beleeve thus much of himself but he that hath made his election sure and is certain that his name is written in the book of life A note mark or character is that whereby one thing may be known and differenced from another That which is proper to a thing and peculiarly found in it may serve as a note or mark of distinction The marks of the Church are An entire profession of the Gospel and saving truth of God the right use of the Sacraments Holinesse of conversation the sound preaching of the Word of life servent and pure calling upon Gods Name subjection to their spiritual guides mutual communion in the Ordinances of Worship Christian Fellowship with all Saints and true visible Churches of Jesus Christ. All these are proper to the Church but not perpetually to be found in it noâ— alike pure in all ages Where all these notes are to be found purely the Church is excellent for degree pure and famous where any of these are wanting or impure the Church is so much defective or impure though it may be pure in comparison of others But all these things be not of equal necessity to the being of a
alwayes bound not to deny his faith and religion either by word or deed A man is noâ— bound alwayes to speak the truth but he is bound never to lie seign or play the hypocrite All the Commandments are delivered negatively save the fourth and the fifth 5. The Lord that gave us his Law made none for himself and being the Law-giver he is above his own Law and may dispense with it upon his own will and pleasure as he did to Abraham commanding him to offer up his onely Sonne in Sacrifice which being commanded was to him just and honest by speciall prerogative which in another had been dishonest and unjust 6. The meaning of every precept must be taken from the main scope and end for which it was given and all those things to be included without which the precept cannot be performed therefore one and the same work may be referred to divers precepts as it pertaineth to divers ends 7. Under one vice expresly forbidden all of the same kinde and that necessarily depend thereon as also the least cause occasion or incitement thereunto are likewise forbidden Mat. 5. 21 22 27 28 29. 1 Thess. 5. 22. Under one duty expressed all of like nature are comprehended as all meanes effects and whatsoever is necessarily required for the performance of that duty The cause is commanded or forbidden in the effect and the effect in the cause 8. Where the more honourable person is expressed as the man let the woman understand that the precept concerns her where the duty of one man standing in relation to another is taught there are taught the duties of all that stand in like relation one to another as when the duty of one Inferiour toward his Superiour is taught there is taught the general duty which all Superiours owe to those that be under them which Inferiours owe to those that are over them and which Equals owe one to another 9. The Law forbids the doing of evil in our own persons and the helping or furtherance of others in evil though but by silence connivence or slight reproof and it commands not onely that we observe it our selves but that we preserve it and what lieth in us cause others to keep it Thou thy Sonne and thy Daughter must go over all the rest of the Commandments as well as the fourth 10. The Law is set forth as a rule of life to them that be in Covenant with God in Jesus Christ God in Christ is the object of Christian religion and of that obedience which is prescribed in that Covenant That immediate worship and service which we owe to God and must perform according to his prescription which is usually called Piety or Godlinesse is taught in the Commandments of the first Table Our Saviour reduceth the summe of these Commandments to this one Head Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul strength and thought that is whatsoever is within thee or without thee even to the losse of thy life goods and good name all must yeeld to the Lords calling whensoever he will make trial of thy love towards him This particular duty may well comprehend all the rest for as is our love so is our faith and obedience God is loved above all things when in all that he promiseth he is believed and in all that he commandeth he is obeyed The general sins against the Commandments of the first Table are 1. Impiety which is a neglect or contempt of Gods true worship and service inward and outward Isa. 43. 22 23. 2. Idolatry which is the worship of false gods or of the true God after a devised manner of our own Amos 5. 26. That duty which we owe unto men by the Lords Commandment and for his glory which is usually called honesty or righteousnesse is taught in the Commandments of the second Table Our Saviour bringeth them to one head Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self that is without fainting coldnesse delay or feigning from the heart fervently when and so long as occasion is given By Neighbour is meant not only our Friend or Kinsman but whosoever and of what Countrey soever that wanteth our help especially he that is of the houshold of faith The general sins against the Commandments of the second Table are 1. Inhumanity and injustice when we disregard our neighbour or deal injuriously with him 2. Partiality in affection when we love our friends but hate our enemies favour some for carnal respects contemn others that are to be respected Six Commandments are set down in many words and four nakedly in hare words as the sixth seventh eighth and ninth because men will easily be brought to yeeld to them The Scripture shews to man two wayes of attaining happinesse one by his own works called the Law the other by faith in Christ called the Gospel The Law driveth us to Christ and faith doth establish the Law Rom 3. 31. The Summe of the Law is abridged in the ten Commandments which God delivered on Mount Sinai and after wrote in two Tables This declareth our whole Duty 1. To God immediately which is in the first Table 1. Principal to make him our God Command 1. 2. Lesse principal in regard of 1. Sorts of worship to be performed unto him which are two 1. Solemn Command 2. 2. Common Command 3. 2. The giving of a set time to him Comman 4. 2. To God mediately and immediately to man for Gods sake in the second Table here his duty is shew'd 1. Severally to 1. Some kinde of persons specially Command 5. 2. To all generally in regard of 1. Their Persons for 1. Life Command 6. 2. Chastity Command 7. 2. The things of their Persons both Goods Command 8. Good Name Command 9. 2. Joyntly to all these in regard of the first motions of the minde and will in Command 10. CHAP. II. Of the first Commandment THou shalt have no other Gods before me SOme Divines judge that those words I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt do contain the affirmative part of the first precept and the latter Thou shalt have no other Gods before my face the negative For these two sentences are elsewhere often joyned together as they be here and our Saviour citing the first Commandment rehearseth it thus Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Besides say they if the words be not conceived as a form of commandment yet it must necessarily be understood to command the Worship of the true God and it so pertains to the understanding of the Precept that it cannot be separated from it Other Divines hold the first words to be a Preface to all the Commandments Buxtorf de Decalogo saith these words contain an Enunciative not an Imparative speech therefore they are not a Precept but rather a general Preface to the whole Decalogue in which reasons are brought why we are bound to obey him
comes in all manner of Divination Fortune-telling and the like by certain odde and idle Observations from the stars from the Aspects of the heavenly bodies Natural effects which are grounded upon certain causes may be fore-told by the knowledge of these bodies but contingent effects depending upon the will of men as their cause cannot so be fore-told or those which depend upon other as uncertain causes as mans will Here comes in also all observing of the flying of Birds and of such like things as are taken fondly for ominous presages of good or evil for God hath forbidden these kindes of foolish observations to his people Also there was other supernatural effects which men may misapply things to as to drive away devils by holy water imagined to be holy by the sign of the Crosse or the like and to cure diseases in a supernatural way as to cure an Ague by some baubling toyes which some have invented of paring ones nails and putting the parings in a dunghill and let them rot and so shall the disease go away All which be but Sacraments of the Devil either no effect can follow upon them or if any do it is from the operation and work of the Devil which blindes mens eyes from seeing himself by these trisling observations But most of all if a man deem to merit remission of sins by these natural actions of casting holy water of crossing himself of abstaining from food of whipping himself or of going in course attire or the like this is the most superstitious and fond abusing of them that can be for then they become as it were Competitors with the bloud of Christ which is the only Sacrifice for sin by offering of which he hath made perfect for ever them that do obey And this is the superstitious abuse of these things Now follows the last and that is excessive prodigal and licentious abusing of them The chief things abused by intemperatenesse are meat by surfeting drink by drunkennesse sports by voluptuousnesse attire by sumptuousnesse When a man contents not himself to take such a quantity of any of these as agree to the end which God hath in nature appointed them for viz. meat to feed and refresh his body drink to quench thirst and comfort his body apparel to cover his nakednesse and adorn the body according to the difference of degrees amongst men and shelter from the cold and sports to fit the tired minde for the calling and exercise of the body that diseases may be prevented but seeks to content his own inordinate appetite or follows the fond custom and example of others or the like then doth a man shamefully abuse one of Gods works which is his name for he serves the Devil and the flesh with those things which God hath made and hinders himself from being able to do good by that which should further him and doth expose himself to many evils by that which should not be a snare unto him Here the riotous voluptuous prodigall liver specially the drunkard which must drink healths till he have no consideration of health and pledge as much as any man will drink to him till he have inflamed himself and be unable with discretion to consider any thing is a grosse abuser of the name of God for he takes no notice of God in his creatures nor doth serve him in using them as he ought for in the end and measure of using Gods creatures whose directions should we follow but Gods CHAP. V. The fourth Commandment REmember the Sabbath-day or the day of Rest to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work Thou nor thy Sonne nor thy Daughter nor thy Man-servant nor thy Maid servant nor thy Cattle nor the Stranger which is within thy Gates For in six dayes the LORD made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it THese words contain the fourth Commandment of the Decalogue being the last of the first Table concerning our duty to God immediately The Summe of it is to appoint unto men a set and solemn time wherein they should wholly give themselves to the study of holinesse and to the performance of holy exercises necessary for that purpose The Sanctity of the whole man required in the first Commandment is the chief thing which God looketh for to the attaining and increasing whereof the Lord saw good to require some special kindes of services viz. solemn in the second Commandment and common in the third and the addicting and bestowing of a special time viz. every seventh day The end therefore of this Commandment is the maintaining and increasing of sanctity in men the Summe that every seventh day must be specially set apart to this purpose Let us proceed to handle this Commandment and to that end 1. Explicate the words of the Commandment 2. Speak something of the perpetuity of the Commandment 3. Shew the duties herein required and the sins forbidden For the first the Commandment hath two parts as the words themselves do plainly shew to each attentive reader First The Precept is briefly propounded Secondly It is somewhat inlarged It is propounded in these words Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Remembrance is properly of things past but here according to the usual acceptation of the word it signifies a diligent consideration of the thing before hand as where the young man is commanded Eccles. 12. 1. To remember his Creatour in the dayes of his youth that is seriously to consider of him It is all one as if he should say diligently observe for so he interprets himself Deut. 5. 12. Think upon and accordingly provide for the observation of this holy rest by dispatching all the works of thy calling that nothing might be undone which providence and diligence might prevent that might hinder thy rest on the seventh day Men are apt to forget the Creation of the world therefore the Lord appointed the fourth Commandment and to forget Christ therefore he appointed the standing Ordinance of the Lords Supper Luk. 22. 19. The Sabbath-day or the day of rest and ceasing from labour as the word properly signifieth which is repeated again in the conclusion of the Commandment It must not be bestowed as other dayes but then they ought conscionably to forbear those things which on other dayes they might lawfully perform for rest is a cessation from doing things To sanctifie it or keep it holy that is to imploy the day in holy duties of Gods immediate worship to sanctifie it to set it a part to holy uses and purposes So two things are required 1. The remembrance of the time which is a serious preconsideration to prepare for it 2. A carefull celebration consisting in resting and sanctifying it for a bare rest is not enough but such
Scripture except it agree with his reason what is above reason cannot be comprehended by it Bernard in 192 of his Epistles speaks of one Petrus Abailardus which vented the Socinian Doctrine in his time Christianae fidei meritum vacuare nititur dum totum quod totum Deus est humana ratione arbitratur posse comprehendere Cum de Trinitate saith he loquitur sapit Arium cùm de â—ratia Pelagium cùm de persona Christi Nestorium He was a man of a fair carriage professing holinesse conversatioâ—es doctrina venenum But Abailar dus denies this in his Works lately published Tertullian called the Philosophers who followed reason Patriarcâ—as haerâ—tiâ—orum pessimum est illud principium recta ratio non potest statuere de â—ulâ—u divino There are these uses of reason 1. To prepare us that we should hearken to the Word 2. After we have believed it will help us to judge of things 3. To prevent fanatick opinions Mysteries of Religion are not repugnant to reason 4. That we may draw necessary consequences from truths revealed The Philosophers called the Christians by way of scorn Credentes Iulian derided the Christian belief because it had no other proof then Thus saith the Lord. There is an obedience of faith Rom. 1. 5. 6. Another Argument is taken from the experience of the truth of the Predictions and Prophecies thereof For seeing it is generally confessed that only the Divine Essence can certainly foresee things contingent which are to come many ages after and which depend upon no necessary cause in nature therefore in what writings we meet with such things fore-told and do finde them fully and plainly accomplisht these writings we must confesse to have their birth from Heaven and from God Now in the Scripture we have divers such predictions The two principal and clearest which are most obvious and evident are 1. The Conversion of the Gentiles to the God of Israel by means of Christ. For that was fore-told exceeding often and plainly In him shall the Gentiles trust and he shall be a light to the Gentiles Iacob lying on his death-bed said The obedience of the Gentiles shall be to him And David All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God and Isaiah In him shall the Gentiles trust and Malachy My name shall be great to the ends of the earth See Isa. 49. 6. 60. 3 5. Scarce one of the Prophets but have spoken of the conversion of the Gentiles Now we see the Gentiles turned from their Idols a great number of them and imbracing the God of the Jews and the Scriptures of the Jews by means of Christ whom they see and acknowledge to be the Messias fore-told to the Jews Again it was fore-told that Christ should be a stone of offence to the Jews that they should reject him and so be rejected by God from being a people Do we not see that to be performed The accomplishment of these two main Prophecies so long before delivered to the world by the Pen-men of holy Writ shews manifestly that they were moved by the holy Ghost That Promise Gen. 3. 15. was made 3948 years before it was fulfilled as Scaliger computes it It was fore-told of Christ that they should cast lots about his Garments and that his bones should not be broken Look upon this in the inferiour causes the souldiers that brake the other mens bones and it seems to be a very hap and chance yet there was a special ordering of this in Gods providence The predictions of Satan were doubtfull and ambiguous but these are distinct and plain Satans predictions are of things which might be gathered by conjecture for the most part false though Satan cover his lying by likelihoods but these are above the reach of Angels most true and certain Satans end was confirmation in sin and Idolatry 7. The Commandments are 1. Most righteous and equal 2. Impartial they binde all men and all in men the affections thoughts and consciences and that perpetually The severest Law-givers never made Laws for the thoughts because they had no means to discover and controll them Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur We say commonly Thoughts are free therefore it is the Word of God which searcheth the heart Exod. 20. 17. True love to our selves is required and we are to love our neighbour as our selves The Laws of men do not binde the conscience at least primarily and immediately Conscientia immediatè Deo tantùm subjicitur He onely can command the conscience that knows it and can judge it Secondly The Threatnings are general 1. In respect of Persons 2. In respect of things Deut 28. 59 60. 3. The Promises are comprehensive blessings of all kinds Lov. 26. and strange Exod. 34. 24. of eternal life Mark 10. 29 30. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 8. Another reason may be taken from the Antiquity of the Scripture many wonder at the Pyramids of Aegypt being the most ancient structure in the world The Bible contains a continued History from age to age for the space of four thousand years before Christ even from the beginning No Writer of any humane Story can be proved to be more ancient then Ezra and Nehemiah who wrote about the year of the world 3500. Amongst the Grecians some say Homer is the most ancient Author that is extant who lived long after Troy was taken for that was the subject of his Poem Now those times were not near so ancient as those in which the Scripture was written Homer was after Moses six hundred and odde years saith Peter du Moulin That which the Aegyptians brag of their Antiquity is fabulous by their account they were six thousand years before the Creation unlesse they account a moneth for a year and then it maketh nothing against this Argument History is an usefull and delightfull kinde of Instruction Among Histories none are comparable to the Histories of sacred Scripture and that in their Antiquity Rarity Variety Brevity Perspicuity Harmony and Verity Dr Gouge on Exodus 13. 13. That Song of Moses Exod. 15. was the first Song that ever was in the world Orpheus Musaeus and Linus the most ancient of the Poets were five hundred years after this time 9. The Power and Efficacy of the Scripture upon the souls of men sheweth it to be of God and the wonderfull alteration that it makes in a man for God when he doth entertain and believe it in his heart it makes him more then a man in power to oppose resist and fight against his own corruptions it brings him into a wonderfull familiarity and acquaintance with God It puts such a life and strength into him that for Gods sake and his truth he can suffer all the hardest things in the world without almost complaining yea with wonderfull rejoycing Psal. 119. 92. The holy Ghost by means of this word works powerfully in changing and reforming a man 1. It overmasters the
there promised is happinesse It is a wonderful thing that all the particulars which the Canticles contain being taken from marriage are handled so sincerely that no blemish or spot can be found therein Therefore the Scriptures should be preached read and heard with holy affections and should be reverently mentioned The Jews in their Synagogues will not touch the Bible with unwashed hands they kiss it as often as they open and shut it they sit not on that seat where it is laid and if it fall on the ground they fast for a whole day The Turk writes upon the outside of his Alcorar Let no man touch this Book but he that is pure I would none might meddle with ours Alcoran signifieth but the Scripture you need not be afraid of the word but such as indeed are what other men do but think themselves 6. The Scripture is Perfect The perfection of the Scripture is considered two ways 1. In respect of the matter or the Books in which the holy doctrine was written all which as many as are useful to our salvation have been kept inviolable in the Church so that out of them one most perfect and absolute Canon of faith and life was made and this may be called the integrity of the Scripture 2. In respect of the form viz. Of the sense or meaning of these Canonical Books or of Divine truth comprehended in them which Books contain most fully and perfectly the whole truâ—h necessary and sufficient for the salvation of the Elect and therefore the Scriptures are to be esteemed a sole adequate total and perfect measure and rule both of faith and manners and this is the sufficiency of the Scriptures which is attributed to it in a twofold respect 1. Absolutely in it self and that in a threefold consideration 1. Of the principle for every principle whether of a thing or of knowledge ought to be perfect since demonstration and true conclusions are not deduced from that which is imperfect therefore it is necessary that the holy Scripture being the first onely immediate principle of all true doctrine should be most perfect 2. Of the subject for it hath all Essential parts matter and form and integral Law and Gospel and is wholly perfect Both 1. Absolutely because for the substance it either expresly or Analogically contains the doctrine concerning faith and manners which is communicable and profitable for us to know which may be proved also by induction that all necessary opinions of faith or precepts of life are to be found in the holy Scâ—ipture 2. Relatively because as it hath a perfection of the whole so of the parts in the whole that perfection is called essential this quantitative For all the Books are sufficient with an essential perfection although integrally they have not a sufficiency of the whole but onely their own yet so that at distinct times every part sufficed for their times but all the parts in the whole are but sufficient for us 3. In its effect and operation it makes men perfect 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. Rom. 15. 4. Iohn 2. ult 5. 39. 2. As opposed to unwritten Traditions all which it excludes by its sufficiency but we do not understand by Traditions generally a Doctrine delivered in Word and Writing but specially all Doctrine not written by Prophets or Apostles whether Dogmatical Historical or Ceremonial for a perfect reason of the primary opinions belonging to Faith and Manners is delivered in Scripture and those things which are out of beside or against the Scripture do not binde the Conscience 2. Historical the Sayings and Deeds of Christ and the Apostles are perfectly contained in the Scriptures as many as suffice us for our salvation Iohn 20. 30 31. Those things which are delivered out of Scripture are to be esteemed mans writings 3. Ceremonial or secondary opinions concerning Ecclesiastical Rites and Customs are for Essentials Substantials and Fundamentals generally contained in the word of God the accidentals accessaries and circumstantials are free and mutable If Traditions agree with the Scripture they are confirmed by it if they oppose it they are disproved by it The perfection of the Scriptures is not First Infinite and unlimitted That is an incommunicable property of God every thing which is from another as the efficient cause is thereby limitted both for the nature and qualities thereof Secondly we do not understand such a perfection as containeth all and singular such things as at any time have been by Divine inspiration revealed to holy men and by them delivered to the Church of what sort soever they were for all the Sermons of the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles are not set down in so many words as they used in the speaking of them for of twelve Apostles seven wrote nothing which yet preached and did many things neither are all the deeds of Christ and his Apostles written for that is contradicted Iohn 20. 30 31. and 21. 25. but we mean onely a Relative perfection which for some certain ends sake agreeth to the Scripture as to an instrument according to which it perfectly comprehendeth all things which have been are or shall be necessary for the salvation of the Church Thirdly The several Books of Scripture are indeed perfect for their own particular ends purposes and uses for which they were intended of the Lord but yet not any one Book is sufficient to the common end the whole Scripture is compleat in all the parts thereof one speaking of that which another doth wholly pass over in silence one clearly delivering what was intricâ—te in another Paul speaks much of Justification and Predestination in the Epistle to the Romans nothing of the Eucharist or Resurrection Fourthly Since God did reveal his will in writing those writings which by divine hand and providence were extant in the Church were so sufficient for the Church in that age that it needed not Tradition neither was it lawful for any humane wight to adde thereto or take therefrom but when God did reveal more unto it the former onely was not then sufficient without the latter Fifthly The holy Scripture doth sufficiently contain and deliver all doctrines which are necessary for us to eternal salvation both in respect of faith and good works and most of these it delivereth to us expresly and in so many words and the rest by good and necessary consequence The Baptism of Infants and the consubstantiality of the Father and of the Son are not in those words expressed in Scripture yet is the truth of both clearly taught in Scripture and by evident proof may thence be deduced That Article of Christs descent into Hell totidem verbis is not in the Scripture yet it may be deduced thence Acts. 2 27. Some Papists hold That we must not use the principles of Reason or Consequences in Divinity and require that what we prove be exprest in so many words in scripture These are opposed by Vedelius in
it could not continue if each of the parts did not so work as to help and uphold the other in some respect or other Now these several parts could not so work for one common end if they were not guided thereto by some common and understanding guide which were acquainted with and had power over each of them therefore it hath one ruler and upholder That which is effected by the constant orderly and subordinate working of innumerable particulars for one common end whereof no one of them hath any knowledge or acquaintance must needs be wrought by some common Ruler and Governor which knows the motion and working of each and rules all and each to that end in their several motions What upholds the world is but God upholds the world Therefore he is 1. This is Aquinas his reason Natural bodies which want knowledge work for a certain end because they frequently work after the same manner therefore there must be a minde understanding and governing all things and directing them to that special and chief end The whole world doth aptly conspire together for the attaining of one end the good and benefit of man All creatures incline to their proper operations the stone down-ward the fire upward the seasons of the year constantly follow each other 2. Particular Effects the framing and maintaining of each creature in the world the Heavens and Man especially these two were most artificially made as the Scripture shews The Psalmist calls the heavens The works of Gods fingers Psal. 8 4. because they were made with greatest ease and with exquisite Art Heb. 11. 10. whose builder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artifex is God speaking of the Heavens David spends the 139 Psalm in admiring Gods goodness to him in the framing of his body there is a multitude of members and they have distinct offices and one member sympathizeth with another I am fearfully and wonderfully made ver 15. curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth The Hebrew word is very emphatical it signifieth embroidered or wrought with a needle that is cunningly wrought with Nerves Veins Arteries Galen upon the contemplation of the admirable workmanship in the body of man breaketh out into an Hymn in the praise of him that made g him The infusing of the soul Eccles. 11. 5. and sustaining the infant in the womb where it cannot breath and the taking it out of the womb are wonderful Psal. 22. 9. and 71. 5. 1. The creation of the Heavens proves that there is a God The largeness roundness pureness solidness the continual and constant motion of the heavens doth excellently declare the glory of God The very name of Astronomy whose object is the motion of the heavenly Orbs and Stars in exact signification importeth that the stars observe a Law in their motion which Law is given unto them onely by God himself who is their true Law-giver Suidas affirmeth that even Abraham himself was first occasioned to seek after God by considering the motion of the stars for he being by nation a Chaldean who as Aristotle observeth are naturally given to that kinde of contemplation and observing in their motion a wonderful order and variety and yet no less a constancy he presently collected that these strange revolutions were directed and guided by some God The Sun is a representative god the brightness of his beams shews the majesty of God his influence the omnipresence of God his indefatigable motion the eternity of God 2. The Creation of man proves this truth that there is a God 1. A man may reason from his own framing in the womb and preserving in the world Man is framed in the womb by some most noble wise and excellent workman The Parents frame him not there for they know nothing of his framing neither when nor how he was so formed therefore some more excellent thing then a man did frame him there and doth daily and hourly frame other men and that is a wise worker which is alike wise and potent in all places of the world at all times seeing there is something more excellent then man which hath set down this order for producing of men and so a God 2. The Nobility and Excellency of the soul sheweth plainly that it is of Divine Original it being spiritual and incorporeal could not but proceed from that which is incorporeal The effects cannot be toto genere better then the cause Divers works are done by man arts invented Zach. 12. 12. The immortality of the soul proves that there is a God the soul is quick and lively when the body is sick and dying 3. The being and preservation of each particular man Each particular man in the world may reason from his own being thus either there must be an infinite number of men or else there must be a first man which was the beginning of all men but an infinite number of particular men is not possible seeing there can be no infinite number at all for every number begins with an unity and is capable of being made greater by the addition of an unity therefore there cannot be an infinite number of particular men Therefore we must come to some first man and that first man could not make himself nor be made by any inferior thing to it self therefore it must be made by some thing more excellent then it self viz. One infinite thing from which all particulars had their original 4. God is manifested in the consciences of men as was touched before 1. By the Ministry of the word by which he powerfully worketh on their consciences 2. By the inward Checks of conscience after sin committed 1. In the godly 1 Sam. 24. 5. and 2 Sam. 24 10. 2. In the wicked Matth 27. 3 4 5. 2. Civil Effects States and Kingdoms consist and are governed by a few Magistrates and Rulers There are innumerable more men that wish and desire the overthrow and ruine of the State then that would live under Government and be subject to Order This effect must have some cause either the wisdom and goodness of the governed or of the Governors or of some higher cause then they both Now it cannot be attributed to the wisdom of the Governors as being often times foolish and men of mean understanding at the best such as cannot prevent the conspiracies of those under them Nor yet doth it arise from the goodness of the persons governed most of which most times are wicked and unwilling to come under government Therefore it must be of God that is a common Superior which holds all in awe 2. Extraordinary Effects Miracles There is a work of miracles for all stories both of Scripture and other Countreys do agree in relating divers Miracles Now the worker of a miracle is he that can lift nature off the Hinges as it were and set it on again as seemeth best to himself and therefore is above the course of nature and the Commander
and maintaining of their full strength and Nature and the propagating of their kinde according to their severall kindes The second is the life of sense whereby things are inabled to discern things hurtfull to them and things good for them to shun the one and to seek the other These are imperfect kindes of life because they are inherent after a sort in the bodies of things accompanying a corporall being which is the meanest being But thirdly there is a more worthy and noble kinde of life called reasonable such as is seen in men and in Angels which is an ability to proceed reasonably and understandingly in all actions for the attaining of good and shunning of evils fit for the welfare of the person endued with reason Now we must not conceive in God any such imperfect thing as growth or sense for he is a spiritual a simple and immaterial Essence but his life is to be understood by the similitude of the life of reason for he is a perfect understanding To the being then of God adjoyn reasonablenesse in our conceiving of him and we conceive his life somewhat aright Gods life differs from the life of the creature 1. His life is his Nature or Essence he is life it self their 's the operation of their Nature he is life they are but living 2. His life is his own he liveth of and by and in himself their life is borrowed from him in him we live and move Acts 17. 25 28. He is life and the fountain of life to all things 3. His life is Infinite without beginning or ending their life is finite and had a beginning and most of them shall have an end 4. His life is entire altogether and Perfect their 's imperfect growing by addition of dayes to dayes He liveth all at once hath his whole life perfectly in himself one infinite moment 5. He liveth necessarily they contingently so as they might not live 6. His life is immutable their 's mutable and subject to many alterations First This serves to blame those which carry themselves no otherwise to God then if he were a very dead Idol not fearing his threats or seeking to obey him Secondly To exhort us all often to revive in our selves the memory and consideration of his life by stirring up our selves to fear his threats respect his Promises obey his Commandments decline his displeasure and seek his favour Let us serve fear and trust in him which liveth for evermore Provoke not the Lord by your sinnes For it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. Thirdly Here is comfort to all the faithful servants of this God which desire to please him for they have a King which liveth and hath lived for ever a King Eternal Immortal Invisible and onely Wise in his life they shall enjoy life though friends die God ever liveth His life is the preserver upholder and comforter of your life God living of himself can blesse you with natural spiritual and eternal life Iohn 14. 10. Rom. 8. 10. 17. Life is better then all the comforts of it Men will give skin for skin and all that they have for life It is reported of one that he offered to redeem his life thrice his weight in Silver twice in Gold once in Pearl But we do little for the living God and communion with him in the life of grace and for obtaining eternal life It were better we had never had any life at all then only the life of nature Mat. 26. 24. and 18. 5. Eccles. 6. 3. God is Immortal and Incorruptible he liveth for ever in like perfection The Scripture confirmeth this 1. Negatively when it removes mortality and corruption from God Rom. 1. 23. 1 Tim. 1. 17. and 6. 16. 2. Affirmatively when it giveth life to God Genes 16. 14. Deuter. 5. 26. Ier. 2. 13. The property of Gods life is it is Endlesse Incorruptible Deut. 32. 40. Life is essential to God he is life it self but the life of other things is accidental His life is also effective he gives life to all living creatures 2. God is of himself Eternal of himself and absolutely Immortal and Incorruptible He only hath immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. Angels are not immortal in and of themselves they have not original or absolute immortality their immortality is dependent and derivative 3. Because he is void of all composition therefore he is free from corruption 4. Because he is simply and every way Immutable 5. This is proved from the Nobility and perfection of the Divine Essence Living bodies are more perfect then such as do not live but God is the most perfect and noble being Iohn 5. 26. 6. Because he is blessed therefore he is Immortal Ezek. 37. 14. 1. This comforts all Gods people who have the living God for their friend who liveth for ever and they shall live eternally with him the life of God comforted Iob 19. 25. Let them trust in the living God This should comfort us against spiritual weaknesse and deadnesse though we be dull and dead in Prayer God is life and will quicken us 2. We miserable men for sin are all subject unto death 2 Sam. 14. 14. Psalm 144. 4. Psal. 90. 6. Iob 14. 1. Iob describes there the brevity frailty instability and manifold miseries of this life therefore let us place all our confidence and hope in God who is Immortal and Incorruptible our soul is immortal and made for immortality it is not satisfied with any thing nor resteth but in God who is Immortal and Incorruptible A thing may be said immortal two wayes First Simpliciter absolutè per se suaque Natura so that there is no outward nor inward cause of mortality so only God Secondly which in its own nature it may be deprived of life yet ex voluntate Dei neither dies nor can die so the soul and Angels are immortal CHAP. IV. That GOD is Infinite Omnipresent Eternal GOD is truly Infinite in his Nature and Essence actually and simply by himself and absolutely he is Infinite It is a vain conceit that there cannot be an infinite thing in Act. He is not Infinite 1. In corporal quantity and extension but in Essence and Perfection 2. Not privativè but negativè he hath simply no end 3. He is Infinite not according to the Etymon of the word which respects an end only for he is both without beginning and end although the word be negative yet we intend by it a positive Attribute and perfection The Scripture demonstrates God to be Infinite 1. Affirmatively Psal. 143. 3. 2. Negatively in the same place 3. Comparatively Iob 11. 8. Isa. 40. 12 15. Dan. 4. 32. 2. Reason proves this The perfection of God whatsoever thing hath not an end of its perfection and vertue that is truly and absolutely Infinite Infinitenesse is to be without bounds to be unmeasurable to exceed reason or capacity it is
therefore Gen. 17. 1. when God was to make a Covenant with Abraham to leave all earthly things and so trust in him onely he brings this argument that he is such was sufficient God 2. Gomer The verb is used five times in the Psalms as much as perfect from the effect because God doth continually preserve to the end 3. Tom Iob 37. 16. It signifieth both Simple and Perfect 4. Calil à Col. omnis that in which all good things are God is perfect 1. Essentially he is perfect in and by himself containing in him all perfections eminently Matth. 5. 48. he hath all needful to a Deity 2. Nothing is wanting to him he hath no need of any other thing out of himself Iob 22. 2 3. Psal. 16 2. 3. Originally he is the cause of all perfection what hast thou which thou hast not received Iames 1. 17. 4. Operatively all his works are perfect Deut. 32. 4. A thing is perfect 1. Negativè which wanteth nothing which is due by nature to its integrity 2. Primativè which wanteth no perfection and so God onely is Perfect 2. God is great in his works Deut. 4. 36. Psal. 111. 2. Iob 5. 9. Gods perfection stands in an infiniteness of goodness Matth. 19. 17. wisdom Rom. 11. 33. power Gen. 17. 1. perfect wisdom goodness righteousness moderation holiness truth and whatsoever may possibly be required to grace and commend an action that is found in the whole course and frame of Gods actions the work of Creation is a perfect work he made all things in unsearchable wisdom no man could have found any want of any thing in the world which might be reasonably desired no man could have found there any evil thing worthy to be complained of The work of providence is perfect all things are carried in perfection of wisdom justice and goodness So is the work of Redemption likewise perfect The perfectest measure of justice wisdom truth power that can be conceived of doth shew it self forth in that work Reason Such as the workman is such must the work be a perfect Artists workmanship will resemble himself The perfection of God is his incomprehensible fulness of all excellencies he is absolutely and simply perfect Object Why doth God use the help of others Ans. Not out of need as the Artificer his Instruments so that he cannot work without them but out of choice and liberty to honor them the more Hence sometimes he will use no means at all sometimes contrary means to shew that they help not and that we should not rely upon them Object Why is there sin in the world seeing God needs not any glory that comes to him by Christ and by his mercy in pardoning of sin Why doth he suffer it Answ. Because sin is not so great an evil as Christ is a good and therefore God would not have suffered sin if he could not have raised upto himself matter of honor God makes an Antidote of this poyson Object How comes it to pass that God makes one thing better then he did at first as in the Creation all things had not their perfection at first Answ. Those things were perfect ex parte operantis he intended not they should have any farther perfection at that time the essence of nothing can be made better then it is because it consists in indivisibili God makes not our graces perfect in us because he aims at another end Gods perfection hath all imperfections removed from it 2 Tim. 2. 13. Titus 1. 2. Iames 1. 3. There be six imperfections found in every Creature 1. Contingency 2. Dependence 3. Limitation 4. Composition 5. Alteration 6. Multiplication Now God is free from all these He is 1. A necessary Essence 2. Independent 3. Unlimited 4. Simple 5. Unchangeable 6. Wholly one Three of these viz. Gods Simplicity unlitedness in respect of time and place and unchageableness I have handled already I shall speak of the other three when I have dispatched this Attribute of Gods Greatnes or Perfection 3. God is great in his Authority I have shewed already that he is great in his Nature and Essence and also in his works now his greatness in Authority is to be considered He is a great King he hath soveraign absolute and unlimited Authority over all things they being all subject and subordinate to him for at his will they were and are created This is signified by the Title of The most high so frequently given him in Scripture He is the high and lofty one Isa. 57. 15. 1. In respect of place and dwelling he is in heaven Eccles. 5. 2. above the clouds 2. In respect of Essence he is high indeed unexpressibly high the high God Gen. 14. 22. the Lord most high Psal. 7. 17. 3. In respect of Attributes he hath more wisdom power justice mercy then all creatures 4. In respect of State and Dominion he is exalted in Authority power jurisdiction he is above all as Commander of all God hath supreme dominion and power over all creatures to order them as he pleaseth Iob 9. 12. and 33. 12 13. and 34. 13 14. Ier. 16 6. Isa. 45. 9. Dan. 6. 26. Rom. 11. the 4. last verses and 9. 15 16 17 18. Dominion in the general is twofold 1. Of jurisdiction whereby he ruleth all subject to him as he pleaseth 2. Of propriety whereby he having a right to every creature may order it as he pleaseth The first is implyed in that of Iames 4. 12. there is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy The second in that he is called the Lord of the earth and all the beasts of the field are said to be his Gods Dominion is that absolute right and power whereby he possesseth all things as his own and disposeth of them as he pleaseth God over all Rom. 9. 5. Ephes. 4. 6. Reason The supreme excellency of his nature whereby he is infinitely above not onely those things which are actual but likewise possible Gods first dominion of jurisdiction hath these parts 1. To Command 2. To forbid as Adam the eating of the tree 3. To permit thus he suffers sin to be being Supreme Lord. 4. To punish or reward Secondly his dominion of propriety consists in these particulars 1. That he can order every thing as he pleaseth for his honor and glory Psal. 8. 1. the strange punishments laid on Pharoah were for this God raised him up to shew his glory 2. He is bound to give none account of what he doth that is true of God which the Papists attribute falsely to the Pope none may say to him Cur ita facis 3. He can change and alter things as he pleaseth Dan. 2. 21. as when he bid Abraham kill his Son and the Israelites take the Egyptians goods 4. He can distribute his goods unequally to whom and when he pleaseth to one health sickness to another The adjuncts of this dominion 1. It is Independent on
before another and ought not to do so now that God chooseth some it is of his meer grace for all deserve eternal damnation Vide Dav. Dissert Praedest p. 132 133. Obj. Predestination or Election is grounded on Gods foreknowledge Rom. 8. 28 29 1 Pet. 1. 2. Ergo say the Papists God out of the foresight of mans good works did elect him And the Arminians say that God elected them out of the foresight of mens faith and perseverance so Election and Predestination shall be grounded on the will of man Answ. The foreknowledge of God is 1. Permissive so he foresaw all mens sinnes the fall of Angels Adam 2. Operative so he foreknows all the good that is in men by working it God foresees to give men faith and then they shall beleeve perseverance and then they shall hold out There can be no difference till elective love make it When God hath decreed to give grace he foreknows that man which beleeves 2. Predestination is not onely an eternall act of Gods will but of his understanding Ephes. 1. 5. Act. 2. 23. 3. There is a twofold foreknowledge of God 1. Generall whereby he foreknew all things that ever were 2. Special a foreknowledge joyned with love and approbation as 1 Pet. 1. 21. Mat. 7. â—8 Arguments against the Papists and Lutherans That which is the effect and fruit of Election that cannot be a cause or condition for then a thing should be a cause to it self But these are effects Ephes. 1. 4. It should be according to them he hath chosen us because we were foreseen holy Acts 13. 48. A man is not ordained to eternal life because he beleeveth but he beleeveth because he is ordained to eternal life Acts 2. 27. and 13. 48. Rom. 8. 30. Secondly then we should choose God and not he us contrary to that Ioh. 15. 19. Thirdly Infants are elected who cannot beleeve or do good works This argument saith Rivet Disputat 4. de causa electionis although it be puerile by reason of the Subject yet it is virile if we respect its weight for the Adversaries cannot avoid it without running into many absurdities by denying that Infants are saved against that of Matthew 18 and by affirming that some are saved which are not elected against Rom. 11. Fourthly If man were the cause of his own election he had cause to glory in himself election should not be of grace See Master Bailyes Antidote against Arminians p. 26. to 46. All the sonnes of Adam without exception are not elected for election supposeth a rejection He that chooseth some refuseth others See Esay 41. 9. Iohn 13. 8. Whom God electeth he doth also glorifie Rom. 8. 30. but all are not glorified 2 Thess. 1. 10. 2. 13. Chosen out of the world John 15. 19. therefore he chose not all in the world but some 2. Saving faith is a true effect of Gods election peculiar to the elect and common to all the Elect which live to be of age and discretion but many are destitute of faith for ever therefore they must needs be out of Gods election 3. The Scripture saith expresly that few were chosen Matth. 20. 16 Rom. 11. 5 7. Few saved Luke 13. 23. The Elect considered apart by themselves are a numberlesse number and exceeding many in comparison of the wicked they are but few even a handful Mat. 7. 13 14. 22. 14. Luke 12. 3â— Though some of the places of Scripture may be expounded of the small number of Beleevers in the daies of our Saviour yet some are more generally spoken shewing plainly that onely few do finde the way to life At this day if the world were divided into thirty parts nineteen of them do live in Infidelity without the knowledge of the true God The Mahometans possesse other six parts of the world Amongst them which professe Christ scarce one part of those five remaining do embrace the true religion And many more do professe with the mouth then do with the heart beleeve unto salvation The Arminians say there is an election axiomatical not personal they acknowledge that there is a choise of this or that particular means to bring men to salvation God say they hath revealed but two waies to bring men to life either by obedience to the Law or by faith in Christ. But they deny that there is an election of this or that particular man God hath set down with himself from all eternity not onely how many but who shall lay hold on Christ to salvation and who not â— Pet. 1. 10. speaks of an election personal Rom. 9. 11 12. of both elections axiomatical and personal See Iohn 10. 3 2 Tim. 2. 19. Some hold that Gods election is so uncertain and changeable as that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobate elect There is say they a constant and frequent intercourse of members between Christ and Satan to day a member of Christ to morrow a member of Satan Rom. 8. 28. All things work together for their good then nothing shall work for their greatest hurt that is their damnation And ver 30. he saith Those whom he predestinated he hath called justified glorified not others but those whom he hath predestinated these he called and justified Gods election is most firm certain and unchangeable Iohn 6. 37. 10. 28. Matth. 24. 24. By the Arminian Doctrine there can be no certainty of election for they hold that absolute election onely follows final perseverance in faith and that faith may be totally lost and faile finally So much concerning Election In the Scriptures reprobate and to reprobate are referred rather to the present conditions of wicked men then Gods eternal ordination concerning them But the decree of reprobation is exprest in such tearms as these God is said not to have given them to Christ not to shew mercy on some not to have written the names of some in the Book of Life Reprobation is the purpose of God to leave the rest of men to themselves that he may glorifie his justice in their eternal destruction Est decretum aliquod quo destinavit alicui Deus damnationem Twiss The Schoolmen and others distinguish between a negative and positive or affirmative act of Reprobation The negative act is called preterition non-election or a will of not giving life The positive or affirmative act is called pre-damnation or a will of damning the reprobate person So there are two parts of election viz the decree of giving grace by which men are freed from sin by faith and repentance 2. of rewarding their faith and repentance with eternal life The word Reprobation is taken three waies saith B. Davenant out of Iunius 1. For preterition and damnation joyntly 2. For the alone decree of damnation so to be reprobated is to be appointed to eternal torments 3. As it is opposed contradictorily to election so it is taken for preterition onely or non-election Daven Dissertat de Praedestinat c.
above others The Doctrine of Creation is a mixt principle partly discovered by nature and chiefly in the word Consider it 1. Ex parte rei so the thing it self was known to the Heathens 2. Ex parte modi faith onely teacheth what it is the manner and circumstances of the Creation how and wherefore the world was made was wholly unknown to them because these things are not matters of sense but depend on the limitation of Gods will nor matters of reason but depend on the exuberancy of his power The same individual assent to the same truth may be both Cognitio Scientiae and Cognitio Fidei By Faith we know that the worlds were made and assent to it And by demonstrations it may be proved that the world was made and these also are sufficient to perswade assent Now we from both grounds jointly assent to this proposition that the world was made The which Assent in respect of the Ground propter evidentiam rei is an assent of Science or natural knowledge In regard of the other Ground propter anthoritatem dicentis is an assent of Faith or supernatural knowledge Mr. Wallis Truth tried ch 8. Secondly and probably the light of nature shining in these reasons 1. The original of Nations laid down by Moses Gen. 10. and elsewhere which could not be fained by him since some memory of them was then extant among many which yet in progresse of time was extinguished 2. The beginning of Arts the first inventers whereof are known and in what time they flourished for it is not probable that so many ages before mankinde lived without Arts and that in these last times they were all both invented and perfected 3. The newnesse of all Heathenish Histories the ancientest of which tell of nothing before Noah's flood or the beginning of the Assyrian Empire under Ninus The holy History it self is only of 4000 yeers or thereabout which neverthelesse is the greatest mouument of antiquity Now it would be a most unworthy reproach and contumely cast upon all those men who had lived so many infinite ages ago to say they were so ignorant that they could not or so slothful that they would not deliver in writing what was done in their times 4. The decay of mans body and age which from a great strength quantity bignesse and time of life is now come down to a narrow scantling which if had decreased so alwaies in infinite ages it would by this time have been brought almost to nothing 5. The certain series and order of causes and impossibility of their proceeding in infinitum for it must needs be that there should be one first which is the universal cause but first it is not unlesse it be One nor One except it be God 6. As a thing is so it works but God doth not depend upon another in his being therefore neither in working doth he require a pre-existent matter 7. Art presupposeth nature and nature matter but God in working is a more excellent cause then art or nature therefore presupposeth nothing in working 8. The first cause viz. God is infinite therefore he can do whatsoever implyeth not a contradiction but the Creation of things in time implieth it not 9. Whatsoever perisheth hath a beginning the world doth perish because all its parts decay and are subject to corruption therefore the whole The Angles and souls of men are changeable by nature as appears by the fall of the Devil and mans fall 10. Either the world was eternal or had a beginning It could not be eternal 1. Because it is compounded of divers parts and those in nature contrary one to another which could not meet together in that order themselves therefore it was made by some-what and then either by it self which could not be for that which makes is before that which is made and the same thing cannot be before it self or else it was made by some creature which could not be because that is but a part of the whole and therefore meaner then it considered as whole and not able to make it 2. The world could not be eternal because it is limited in respect of place quantity power therefore it is not infinite in time That which is eternal is the first thing and consequently the best therefore God is only so having no parts nor being subject to corruption By these reasons it is evinced that the world is not eternal but was created by the chief work-man of all things in time But concerning the time of the yeer when the world was made whether in Summer Autumn or the Spring we will not raise any curious and unprofitable questions See Sarsans Chronologia vapulans page 123. Let it suffice to know that it was created by God in the beginning Gen. 1. 1. that is in the beginning of time or rather together with time then in time for the instant and moment of Creation was the beginning of all following but not the end of precedent time Hitherto concerning the efficient cause there followeth the matter of Creation Of the first and immediate Creation there was no matter at all the Divine power drew out nature it self not out of any Pre-existent matter but out of meer nothing Materiam noli quaerere nulla fuit Nothing but nothing had the Lord Almighty Whereof wherewith whereby to build this City Thus were created all incorporeal and immaterial Substances the Angels the reasonable soul and the highest Heaven as some say for those things which are void of matter cannot be framed out of matter 2. The mediate Creation is when a thing is brought forth of a praeexistent matter yet so rude and indisposed that it may be accounted for nothing so Adams body was created of the dust or slime of the Earth Gen. 2. 7. Beasts and birds out of the Earth Gen. 1. 19. which God did meerly of his good pleasure no necessity compelling him nor the matter he took any way helping him in working it was nothing privatively as they call it Divines observe four things in Gods Creation 1. His Command whereby he said Let there be light and there was light Gods words are things 2. His Approbation whereby all things are acknowledged as good God saâ— they were good They were so in respect of their own kinde and nature 2. In respect of the universe that is apt for the end for which they were made free from all defect and deformity God made all the creatures to be serviceable one to another especially to man 1 Tim. 4. 4. I cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad a Bear or an Elephant ugly they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best expresse those actions of their inward forms And having past that general visitation of God who saw that all that he had made was good that is conformable to his will which abhors deformity and is the rule of order and beauty D. Browns
receive heat light and cold heavier then the fire lighter then the earth or water placed in the midst of them fit for breathing seeing smelling and moving This Element also leads us to God For 1. It truly and really subsisteth though it be not seen So also the Lord the Maker of it hath a real but invisible existence 2. It is every where within and without us so is God every where present 3. It is the preserver of my life and we may say of it truly as the Apostle of God himself in it under God we live move and have our being 4. Fire which is some say to be understood in light an adjunct and quality of it Scaliger would prove a fiery Element because fire tends thither First God made the Elements of the Earth and Water which in Geography make one Globe Others say light neither is that Element nor proceeds from it but the Sun however I shall handle it here among the works of the first day Without light Gods other works could not have been discovered by men Light is an excellent work of God tending to manifest his excellency to men it is a comfortable thing to behold the light Psal. 104. 2. Who coverest thy self with light as with a garment that is createdst the light thereby shewing his excellency as a man doth by making and wearing a rich and glorious suit of cloths he made and doth maintain the light in its perfection God expresseth his greatnesse above Iob in that he could not make light nor knew not what it was q. d. Iob thou art a mean Creature thou dost not create nor order the light neither dost thou know the nature and working of it The greatnesse of this work appears principally by two considerations 1. The hidden abstruse and difficult nature of it Philosophers cannot tell what to say of it whether it be a substance or accident and if a substance whether corporeal or incorporeal and spiritual it is a quality say they which makes other things visible that is the effect of it This word light in English signifieth both that which the Latines call lux and that which they call lumen which yet are two distinct things The first being in the Sun or Moon properly the second in the aire and an effect of the other Some think that it is a substance and one of the simple substances which they call Elements of which compounded substances are made by mixing them together and is nothing but the Element of fire which Philosophers speak of being more subtil theu the aire And as the water compassed the earth and the aire the water so did light the aire and was far greater then the aire as that was then the water and earth so as this is the highest of all the Elements See Sir Kenelmâ— Digb Treatise of Bod. c. 7. 2. It is very useful needful and beneficial For first it carrieth heat in it and conveigheth heat and the coelestial influences unto all other things 2. It distinguisheth day and night each from other without it what were the world but a dungeon 3. It is exceeding necessary for the dispatch of all businesse 4. To make the beautiful works of God visible Heaven and Earth and dissipate those sad thoughts and sorrows which the darknesse both begetteth and maintaineth 1. We cannot see light without light nor know God without his teaching 2. This serves to condemn our selves which cannot see God in this light though we see it with content we should lament this blindnesse When the day begins to peep in at your windows let God come into your thoughts he comes cloathed and thus attired tell your selves how beautiful and excellent he is 3. It may exhort us to labour to raise up our hearts to God in hearty thankfulnesse for the light How merciful and gracious art thou who givest me light and the sight of it take heed of abusing it to sin and thy eyes whereby thou discernest it especially magnifie God that giveth you spiritual light and sight Christ is the light of the world natural darknesse is terrible light comfortable what is spiritual Light is so pure faire and cleare that nothing can pollute it a resemblance of Gods infinite purity The creation of day and night and the distinction and vicissitude of both is the last thing in the first daies work Day is the presence of light in one half of the world and night the absence of it in the other So that the dispute whether day or night were first seems superfluous seeing they must needs be both together for at what time the light is in one half of the world it must needs be absent from the other and contrarily for all darknesse is not night nor all light day but darknesse distinguished from light that is night and light distinguished from darknesse that is day unlesse we will take day for the natural not the artificial day that is the space of 24 hours in which the Sun accomplâ—sheth his diurnal motion about the earth Darknesse is nothing but the absence of light Night is the space of time in every place when the light is absent from them Day is the space of time in every place when the light is present with them it is not simply the presence of light but presence of light in one half of the world when the other is destitute of it and night is not simply the absence of light but the absence of it from one half of the world when the other half enjoyeth it God made the Sun the chief instrument of continuing the course of day and night for ever by its diurnal and constant motion This is a wonderful work of God and to be admired The Scripture notes it The day is thine and the night also is thine saith the Psalmist and the ordinances of day and night cannot be changed The greatnesse of this work appeareth in the cause of it and the beneficial effects First for the cause it is the incredibly swift motion of the Sun which goeth round about the world in thes ace of 24. hours that is the space of 60 miles every houre in the earth but how many thousand 60 miles in its own circle or circumference for the earth is a very small thing compared to the Sun The body of the Sun is 166 times as it is thought greater then the earth therefore the circumference that it goes must needs be at least so much larger then the compasse of the Earth therefore its course must needs be at least 160 times 60 miles every houre that is almost 16000 miles every houre that is 166 miles every minute The celerity of this motion * is incredible it goes beyond the thoughts of a man to conceive distinctly of the passage through every place if a man should divide the circumference of the circle of the Sun into certain parts he could not so soon have thought of them as
of aire as winds 3. Watery which retain the nature of the water as snow and rain 4. Earthly which being begot of earthly vapours are also digged out of the Earth as metals stones The efficient cause is God according to that of the Psalmist haile snow ice winde and storm do his will The remote matter of the Meteors are Elements the next matter are exhalations which are two-fold fumus vapor smoak is of a middle nature between earth and fire vapour between water and aire If it come from the earth or some sandy place it is fumus a fume or kinde of smoak if it come from the water or some watery place it is a vapour Vapours or exhalations are fumes raised from the water and earth by the heavenly bodies into one of the three Regions of the aire whence divers impressions are formed according to the quality and quantity of the exhalations Thunder is a sound heard out of a thick or close compacted Cloud which sound is procured by reason of hot and dry exhalations shut within the cloud which seeking to get out with great violence rend the cloud from whence proceeds the tumbling noise which we call Thunder The earth sends out partly by its own innate heat and partly by the external heat and attraction of the Sun certain hot and dry steams which the Philosopher cals exhalations and these going up in some abundance are at last enclosed within some thick cloud consisting of cold and moist vapours which finding themselves straightned do with violence seek a vent and break through the sides or low part of the cloud There is first a great conflict and combate there of the contrary qualities a great rumbling and tumbling and striving of the exhalations within the cloud until it break forth into a loud and fearful crack Then the exhalation by its heat incensed in the strife proves all on a slame as it comes in the aire and that is Lightning Lastly the exhalation falling down upon the earth is so violent that sometimes it breaks trees sometimes it singeth and burneth what it meets with it kils mâ—n and living creatures and in the most abundance of it there is a Thunder-bolt begotten through exceeding great heat hardning the earthly parts of it God hath power over the Thunder He commands it rules it orders it for time place manner of working and all circumstances the Thunder in Egypt at the delivering of the Law proves this Therefore in the Scripture it is called the voyce of God and the fearfulnesse and terriblenesse thereof is made an argument of the exceeding greatnesse of God that can at his pleasure destroy his enemies even by the chiding of his voyce in Egypt he smote them with haile lightning thunder and with stormy tempest At the delivering of the Law mighty thunder-claps made way to the Lords appearance and were his harbingers to tell of his coming and prepare the hearts of the people with exceeding great awfulnesse and obedience to receive directions from him The Lord puts down Iob 40. 9. with this question Canst thou thunder with a voyce like God speak terribly and with as big and loud a voice as thou canst and if thy voice be answerable to loud thunder either in terriblenesse or loudnesse then will I confesse my self to be thy equal and Elihu reasoned for God by consideration of this great work David Psal. 29. sheweth the greatnesse of God in the greatnesse of this mighty sound But it pleaseth God to effect this work not immediately but mediately using natural and ordinary causes according to his own good will and pleasure for the effecting thereof There do arise from the ends of the earth as the Scripture speaks that is from all quarters of this inferiour part of the world consisting of earth and water certain steams or fumes partly drawn up thence by the heat and influence of the Sun and other Planets or Constellations partly breathed out of the earth by the natural heat thereof Whereof some are hot and moist being us it were of a middle nature betwixt water and aire some hot and dry being of a middle nature betwixt fire and aire as some Philosophers think of which two as of the matter are brought forth these strange things which we see in the aire and among the rest Thunder Though thunder be first in nature being by the violent eruption it makes out of the cloud the cause of fulgurations yet we see first the lightning before we hear the Thunder because of the swiftnesse of the fire above the aire and because the eye is quicker in perceiving its object then the ear This is done for the benefit of the world that by shaking of the aire it might be purged and made fit for the use of man and beast being cleansed from those ill and pestilent vapours which otherwise would make it too thick grosse and unwholsome for our bodies for this is one special end of winds thunders and the like vehement works that are in the aire besides the particular work for which God assigneth them and therefore with thunder likely is joyned much rain because the cloud is dissolved at the same time and sometimes violent winds and tempests because the exhalation inflamed snatcheth with it self such windy fumes as it meets withal in the aire and so by violent stirring the aire purgeth it and openeth the parts of the earth by shaking and moving it 1. We must turn all this to a spiritual use viz. to instruct us in the fear of him that is Lord of Hoasts who shews his greatnesse in these mighty deeds of his hand to which purpose alwaies the Scripture speaks of it exhorting the mighty to give unto the Lord glory and strength in regard of this 2. We must observe God so in this and all his great works as to cause our minds to increase in the knowledge of his excellency and our hearts in the love and fear of him All his works are therefore exhorted to praise him because we by all should learn his praise and greatnesse How able is God to destroy sinners how quickly and in a moment can he bring them to ruine let him but speak to the thunder haile tempest and they will beat down and consume his adversaries before his face O then tremble before him 3. We must learn to put our confidence in God and boldly to promise our selves deliverance when he promiseth it God is wonderful in making and ruling the clouds This is a work which God doth often alledge in Scripture to prove his greatnesse Iob 37. 26. He binds the waters in a garment Prov. 30. 4. that is makes the Clouds How as it were by an even poysing of one part with the other God makes these Clouds to hover a great while over the earth before they be dissolved is a thing worthy admiration and greatly surpasseth our knowledge Iob 38. 34. Psal. 14. 78. and Prov. 8. 28. Psalm 104. 3. The
cloud is water rarified drawn upward till it come to a cold place and then it is thick and drops down They are but nine miles say some from the earth but they are of unequal height and are lower in Winter then in Summer when the Sun hath the greater force then they ascend higher and in his smaller force they hang the lower Vide Vossium de orig progress Idol l. 2. c. 83. Let us consider the causes of these clouds and the uses of them The efficient causes are thought to be the heat and influence of the Sun and the Stars which doth rarifie the water and draw thence the matter of the clouds as you shall perceive if you hold a wet cloth before the fire that a thick steame will come out of it because the fire makes thin the thicknesse of the water and turns it into a kinde of moist vapour and the earth hath some heat mixed with it through a certain quantity of fire that is dispersed in the bowels of it which causeth such like steams to ascend out of it and the coldnesse of the middle region doth condensate and thicken these steams or breaths and turn them again into water at length and at last to thick clouds 2. The matter is the steams that the waters and earth do yeeld forth by this heat The uses of it are to make rain and snow snow is nothing but rain condensated and whitened by the excessive cold in the winter time as it is in descending for the watering of the earth and making it fruitful or else for the excessive moistning of the earth to hinder the fruitfulnesse of it if God see fit to punish The earth without moysture cannot bring forth the fruit that it should and some parts of the earth have so little water near them below that they could not else be sufficiently moystened to the making of them fruitful God hath therefore commanded the Sun among other offices to make the vapours ascend from the Sea and Earth that he may poure down again upon the forsaken wildernesse or other places whether for punishment or otherwise Obj. How can it be conceived that the clouds above being heavie with water should not fall to the earth seeing every heavie thing naturally descendeth and tendeth down-ward Ans. No man by wit or reason can resolve this doubt but only from the word of God which teacheth that it is by vertue of Gods Commandment given in the Creation that the Clouds fall not Gen. 1. 6. Let the Firmament separate the waters from the waters by force of which commanding word the water hangeth in the clouds and the clouds in the aire and need no other supporters Iob 26. 7 8. setting out the Majestie and greatnesse of God in his works here beginneth that He hangeth the Earth upon nothing he bindeth the waters in the Clouds and the Cloud is not rent under them Philosophy is too defective to yeeld the true reason of this great work of God which commonly attributeth too much to Natura naturata Nature and too little to Natura naturans the God of nature Now we must here also blame our own carelesnesse and folly which forbear to consider of this work that hangs over our heads The Clouds are carried from place to place in our sight and cover the Sunne from us They hinder the over-vehement heat of the Sunne from scorching the earth and yet we never think what strange things they be and what a merciful Creator is he that prepared them Not seeing God in the works of nature shews great stupidity and should make us lament Let us endeavour to revive the thoughts of God in our minds by his works When we see the Clouds carried up and down as we do sometimes one way sometimes another swiftly then let us set our heart a work to think there goes Gods Coach as it were here he rides above our heads to mark our way and to reward or punish our good or bad courses with seasonable rain for our comfort or excessive showers for our terror O seek to him and labour to please him that he may not find matter of anger and provocation against us When the Clouds either favour or chastise us let us take notice of Gods hand in these either comfortable or discomfortable effects and not impute it all to the course of nature By means of the Clouds God waters the earth yea the dry wilderness without moisture there can be no fruitfulness without clouds no rain without that no corn or grasse and so no man or beast Rain is as it were the melting of a Cloud turned into water Psal. 104. 13. It is a great work of God to make rain and cause it fitly and seasonably to descend upon the earth It is a work often named in Scripture Deut. 11. 14. 28. 12. Levit. 26. 4. Ier. 5. 24. It is noted in Iob divers times ch 36. 27. He maketh small the drops of water God propounds this work to Iob as a demonstration of his greatness Iob 38. 25 34. See Ier. 30. 13. Psal. 137. 8. Now this work is the more to be observed in these respects 1. The necessity of it in regard of the good it bringeth if it be seasonable and moderate and the evil which follows the want excesse or untimelinesse of it 2. In regard of mans utter inability to procure or hinder it as in the dayes of Noah all the world could not hinder it and in the dayes of Ahab none could procure it The Hebrews say God keeps four Keys in his own hand 1. Clavis Pluviae the Key of the Rain Deut. 28. 12. 2. Clavis Cibationis the Key of Food Psal. 145. 15 16. 3. Clavis Sepulchri the Key of the Grave Ezek. 37. 12. 4. Clavis Sterilitatis the Key of the Womb Gen. 38. 22. 3. In regard of the greatness of the work in the course of nature for the effecting of which so many wonders concur First Without this drink afforded to the fields we should soon finde the world pined and starved and man and beast consumed out of it for want of food to eat It is the cause of fruitfulnesse and the want of it causeth barrennesse and so destruction of all living creatures that are maintained by the increase of the earth As mischievous and terrible a thing as a famine is so good and beneficial a thing is rain which keepeth off famine Secondly It procureth plenty of all necessaries when the Heavens give their drops in fit time and measure the earth also sends forth her off-spring in great store and fit season and so both men and beasts enjoy all things according to their natural desire this so comfortable a thing as plenty is so worthy a work of God is the effect of rain I mean rain in due season and proportion Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga Mercis Aut Iovis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo Lucan Egypt no
rains nor merchandize doth need Nilus doth all her wealth and plenty breed The Romans accounted it their Granary Lastly The greatnesse of the works which must meet together for making and distributing of ram doth magnifie the work The Sunne by his heat draws up moist steams and breath from the earth and water these ascending to the middle region of the Air which is some what colder then the lower are again thickned and turn into water and so drop down by their own heavinesse by drops not all together as it were by cowls full partly from the height of place from which they fall which causeth the water to disperse it self into drops and partly because it is by little and little not all at once thickned and turned into water and so descends by little portions as it is thickned So the Sun and other Stars the earth the water windes and all the frame of Nature are put to great toil and pains as it were to make ready these Clouds for from the ends of the earth are the waters drawn which make our showrs God is the first efficient cause of rain Gen. 2. 5. It is said there God had not caused it to rain Iob 5. 10. Ier. 14. 22. Zech. 10. 1. 2 The material cause of it is a vapour ascending out of the earth 3. The formal by the force of the cold the vapours are condenâ—ed into clouds in the middle region of the Air. 4. The end of rain to water the earth Gen. 2. 6. which generation and use of rain David hath elegantly explained Psal. 147 8. The cause of the Rain bow is the light or beams of the Sun in a hollow and dewy cloud of a different proportion right opposite to the Sun-beams by the reflection of which beams and the divers mixture of the light and the shade there is expressed as it were in a glasse the admirable Rain-bow We should be humbled for our unthankfulnesse and want of making due use of this mercy the want of it would make us mutter yet we praise not God nor serve him the better when we have it Ier. 14. 22. intimating without Gods omnipotency working in and by them they cannot do it If God actuate not the course of Nature nothing is done by it let us have therefore our hearts and eyes fixed on him when we behold rain sometime it mizleth gently descending sometimes fals with greater drops sometime with violence this ariseth from the greater or lesse quantity of the vapour and more or lesse heat or cold of the Air that thickneth or melteth or from the greater or smaller distance of the cloud from the earth or from the greater purity or grosnesse of the Air by reason of other concurring accidents either we feel the benefit or the want of rain likely once every moneth Let not a thing so admirable passe by us without heeding to be made better by it Want of moisture from above must produce praying confessing turning 1 King 8. 35 36. The colours that appear in the Rain-bow are principally three 1. The Cerulean or watery colour which notes they say the destroying of the world by water 2. The grassie or green colour which shews that God doth preserve the world for the present 3. The yellow or fiery colour shewing the world shall be destroyed with fire Dew consists of a cold moist vapour which the Sunne draweth into the Air from whence when it is somewhat thickned through cold of â—he night and also of the place whether the Sunne exhaled it it falleth down in very small and indiscernable drops to the great refreshment of the Earth It falleth only morning and evening Hath the rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of Dew Out of whose womb came the rain and the hoary frost of Heaven who hath genared it saith God to Iob Chap. 38. 28 29. A frost is dew congealed by overmuch cold It differs from the dew because the frost is made in a cold time and place the dew in a temperate time both of them are made when the weather is calm and not windy and generated in the lowest region of the Air. Hail and ice is the same thing viz. water bound with cold they differ only in figure viz. that the hail-stones are orbicular begotten of the little drops of rain falling but â—ce is made of water continued whether it be congealed in rivers or sea or fountains or pools or any vessels whatsoever and retains the figure of the water congealed Though Ice be not Crystal yet some say Crystal is from Ice when Ice is hardned into the nature of a stone it becomes Crystal more degrees of coldnesse hardness and clearness give Ice the denomination of Crystal and the name Crystal imports so much that is water by cold contracted into Ice Plinie in his natural History saith The birth of it is from Ice vehemently frozen But Dr Brown in his Enquiries into Vulgar Errors doubts of it The windes are also a great work of God he made and he ruleth the windes They come not by chance but by a particular power of God causing them to be and to be thus he brings them out of his treasures he caused the windes to serve him in Egypt to bring Frogs and after Locusts and then to remove the Locusts again He caused the winds to divide the red Sea that Israel might passe He made the winds to bring quails and the winds are said to have wings for their swiftness the nature of them is very abstruse The efficient causes of them are the Sun and Stars by their heat drawing up the thinnest and driest fumes or exhalations which by the cold of the middle region being beaten back again do slide obliquely with great violence through the air this way or that way The effects of it are wonderful they sometimes carry rain hither and thither they make frost and they thaw they are sometimes exceeding violent and a man that sees their working can hardly satisfie himself in that which Philosophers speak about their causes The winde bloweth where it listeth we hear its sound but know not whence it cometh nor whether it goeth It is a thing which far surpasseth our understanding to conceive fully the causes of it They blow most ordinarily at the Spring and fall for there is not so much winde in Winter because the earth is bound with cold and so the vapour the matter of the winde cannot ascend nor in Summer because vapours are then raised up by the Sun and it consumes them with his great heat These windes alter the weather some of them bringing rain some drinesse some frost and snow which are all necessary there is also an universal commodity which riseth by the only moving of the air which air if not continually stirred would soon putrifie and infect all that breath upon the earth It serves to condemn our own blindnesse that cannot see God
earth is 4. Whether Islands came since the floud See Dr Browns Vulgar Errors refuted by Mr Rosse c. 13. 5. What is the cause of the saltness of the Sea The water of the Sea is salt not by nature but by accident Aristotle refers the saltish quality of the Sea-water to the Sun as the chief cause for it draws up the thinner and fresher parts of the water leaving the thicker and lower water to suffet adustion of the Sun-beams and so consequently to become salt two things chiefly concurre to the generation of saltishnesse drowth and adustion Therefore in Summer and under the torrid Zone the Sea is salter Our Urine and Excrements for the same reason are also salt the purest part of our nourishment being imployed in and upon the body Lydiat attributes it to under-earth or rather under-sea fires of a bituminous nature causing both the motion and saltnesse of the Sea Vide Voss. de orig progress Idol l. 2. c. 68. The Sea is salt 1. To keep it from putrifaction which is not necessary in the flouds because of their swift motion 2. For the breeding and nourishing of great fishes being both hotter and thicker 6. What is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea There have been many opinions of the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea De quo plura pro ingeniis differentium quam pro veritatis fide expressa Some say it is the breathing or blowing of the world as Strabo Albertus Magnus One said it was because the waters getting into certain holes of the earth were forced out again by Spirits remaining within the earth Macrobius said it was by meeting the East and West Ocean Cicero seems to ascribe it only to the power of God others for the most part ascribe it to the various light or influences of the Moon which rules over all moist bodies Some attribute it to certain subterranean or under-sea fires The final cause of the Seas motion is the preserving and purging of the waters as the Air is purged by windes Isaiah alludes to the ebbing and flowing of the Sea chap. 57. 2. Coelius Rhodiginus Antiq. Lect. lib. 29. cap. 8. writeth of Aristotle that when he had studied long about it at the last being weary he died through tediousness of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion seven times a day at least adding before that his precipitation Quoniam Aristoteles non coepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem Since Aristotle could not comprehend Euripus it should comprehend him But Dr Brown in his Enquiries seems to doubt of the truth of this story And Vossius lib. 2. de orig progress Idol cap. 69. denies that Decumani fluctus are greater then the other nine for he saith that he and his friends often observed it at the Sea that they were no greater then the others Other Questions there are concerning Rivers What is the original of Springs and Rivers What manner of motion the running of the Rivers is whether straight or circular As one part of the waters and the far greater part is gathered into one place and much of it hidden in the bowels of the earth and there as it were imprisoned or treasured up by making the Sea and dry Land so another part of them was appointed to run up and down within the earth and upon it in Springs and Rivers which Rivers are nothing but assembling of the waters into divers great chanels from the fountains and springs which the Psalmist describeth by its matter and use or effect Psal. 104. 10. He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run along the hils that is He made the Springs and Fountains to conveigh waters from place to place the use of this is to give drink unto the beasts even unto the wilde Asses who quench their thirst there vers 11. There be many other uses of Springs and Rivers but this is noted as the most manifest and evident Another use is for the Fowls which have their habitation in the Trees which grow near and by means of these Springs and there they sit and sing vers 12. These Springs bring up so much moisture to the upper parts of the earth as causeth Trees to grow also for Fowls to build and sing in * Some of the waters were drawn up into the middle region of the world and changed into Clouds that so they may be dissolved and poured down again from thence upon the hils also and other places which cannot be watered by the Springs that so the whole earth may be satisfied with the fruit of Gods works Iohn Baptista Scortia a Jesuite hath published two Books of the River Nilus Wendeline hath written a Book which he calleth Admiranda Nili It seemeth not without cause that the name Paper is derived from Papyrus growing in Nilus so much Paper hath been written thereof Purchas his Pilgrimage lib. 6. cap. 1. The soyl of Aegypt is sandy and unprofitable the River both moistning and manuring it Yea if there die in Cairo five thousand of the plague the day before yet on the first of the Rivers increase the plague not only decreaseth but meerly ceaseth not one dying the day after Id. ibid. The name Nachal a Torrent is given to this River in the Bible Numb 3. 5. Iosh. 15. 47. Isa. 27. 12. 2 Chron. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the name Nilus is derived from it The Poets feigned that Iupiter Neptune and Pluto divided the Universe and that Neptune had the Sea for his part which is called Neptunus either à nando from Navigation or a à nubendo from Covering because the Sea covers the earth and Pontus the Nations about Pontus thought no Sea in the world like unto their own and doubted whether there were any other Sea but that whence Pontus was used for the Sea in general The Sea is a wide and spacious place Psal. 104. 25. The great deep the womb of moisture the well of fountains the great pond of the world The reason of the greatnesse and widenesse of it is the multitude of waters which were made by God at the first which because they did cover the earth and inclose it round it must needs be farre greater then the earth and therefore when God saw fit to distinguish the dry land from the earth must needs have very great ditches cut for it in the earth and caverns made to hold it and therefore the earth in the Scripture is said to be spread out upon the Sea because a great part of it is so in respect of the waters that are under it Again The principal use of the Sea and waters thereof was that it might supply vapours for making of the Clouds by the attraction of the Sun and native heat of the Sea in respect of some fire which God
hath mixed with the earth and waters that they may be more fit to give life to living things Now if the Superficies of the Sea were not very large and wide the Sun could not have power enough by its attractive heat and warmth by which it doth attenuate and make thin the waters into vapours which after the cold of the air when they come into the middle region of it doth again thicken and turn it into waters I say The Sunne could not else have power to draw out of the Sea sufficient store of these vapours for watering the earth with showrs So the multitude of the waters and the necessity of having much of them drawn up for rain required that they should not have little receptacles but one so great and spacious a receptacle which we call the Sea Oceanus the Ocean is that general collection of all waters which environeth the world on every side Mare the Sea is a part of the Ocean to which we cannot come but by some strait In the Sea are innumerable creatures small and great there walk the Ships there play the Leviathans What living monntains such are the Whales some of which have been found six hundred foot long and three hundred and sixty foot broad rowl up and down in those fearful billows for greatness of number hugeness of quantity strangeness of shapes variety of fashions neither air nor earth can compare with the waters Another use of the Sea is That there go the Ships as the Prophet speaks in a kinde of wonderment The whole art of Navigation is a strange Art the Lord fitted the Sea for this purpose that it might be useful to transport men from place to place and other things from Countrey to Countrey Men build moveable houses and so go thorow the waters on dry ground they flie thorow the Sea by the help of windes gathered in fitly with sails as birds do thorow the air and having learnt of birds to steer themselves in the Sea they have an Helm at the which the Master sitting doth turn about the whole body of his Ship at his pleasure The swiftnesse of the motion of a Ship is strange Some say that with a strong winde they will go neer as fast as an arrow out of a Bow The Lord hath given understanding to man to frame a huge vessel of wood cut into fit pieces and to joyn it so close with pitch and rozin and other things mixt together that it shall let in none or but a little water and it shall carry a very great burden within and yet will not sink under water and hath given wisdom also to man to make sails to receive the strength of the wind and cords to move them up and down at pleasure and to make masts to hang on those sails and hath given men a dexterity to run up to the tops of these masts by means of a cord framed in fashion of a ladder that can but even amuze an ordinary beholder and all this for a most excellent use viz. of maintaining commerce betwixt Nation and Nation and of conveighing things needful from one place to another that all places might enjoy the commodities one of another To this Art of Navigation do Kingdoms owe most of their riches delights and choise curiosities a great part of Solomons riches came in this way it is the easiest safest and quickest way of transportation of goods How obnoxious are we to God therefore we should not be bold to offend him how much danger do we stand in if he should let the waters take their own natural course and exalt themselves above the mountains At the floud he gave leave to the great Deeps to break their bounds and permitted the waters to take their own place and the waters were some seven yards higher then the tops of highest mountains He can do as much now for the demonstration of his just wrath for though he hath promised that the waters shall never overflow the whole earth yet not that they shall never overflow England which stands also in the Sea 2. Let us praise the goodnesse of God which preserveth the whole world alive by a kinde of miracle even by keeping the water from overflowing the earth God would convince us that we live of his meer favour and that his special power and goodnesse keeps us the waters if they were left to their own natural propensity would soon overwhelm the earth again but that God locked them up in the places provided for them This work is mentioned in divers places Iob 38. 8. 26. 10. Psal. 37. 7. Prov. 8. 29 Ier. 5. 22. First It is absolutely useful for the preservation of the lives of all things that live and breathe out of the Sea Secondly It is a strange and hidden work God effecteth it by some setled reason in the course of nature but we cannot by searching finde it out Perhaps this may be it the natural motion of every heavy thing is toward the Center and then it will rest when it hath attained to its own proper place Now the earth is stretched over the flouds and it may seem that a great part of them doth fill the very bowels and concavity of the earth in the very place where the Center or middle point of it is seated Hence it is that they will not be drawn up again nor follow the upper parts which tosse themselves up and down but rather pull down those rising graves again especially seeing it is most evident in nature by many experiments every day that it is utterly impossible there should be any Vacuum as they call it any meer empty place in which nothing at all is contained because that would divide the contiguity of things and so cause that the world should be no longer an orderly frame of divers things together for the parts would not be contiguous and united together if such a vacuum should fall out therefore water will ascend air will descend and all things will even lose their own nature and do quite contrary to their nature rather then such a thing should be Now it may seem the Lord hath hidden the water in the earth with such turnings and windings some places in which it is being larger some lesse large that the larger places having no open vent for air to succeed the water cannot be so soon filled from below as they would empty themselves upward and so there must needs be vacuity if they should not return back again and stop their course and therefore they must needs stop as it were in the midst of their career And this also may seem to be a great and principal cause of the flux and reflux of the Sea which if it were not the waters having their course alwayes one way must needs by little and little return again to cover the earth If this be the cause as is probable it is wonderful that God should set such an inclination into all
a wonder some are hot in operation some cold some in one degree some in another some will draw some heal some are sweet some four some bitter some of milde tasts In the bowels of the earth the Lord created gold silver precious stones and the face of the earth above was beautified with grasse herbs and trees differing in nature qualities and operations Plants grow till they die whence they are called vegetables At the first Herbs were the ordinary meat of men Gen. 1. 20. and they have continued ever since of necessary use both for meat to maintain life and for medicines to recover health Solomons wisdom and knowledge was such that he was able to speak of the nature of all plants From the Cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall not that he spake of the greatest tree and lest plant as some interpret it because some trees are greater than the Cedar and some plants lesser than the hâ—sop but because he discoursed of noble and baser plants It is likely saith Bartholinus de latere Christi cap. 8. Salomonem ad crucem Christi ejusque per hysopum contemptum respexisse That Solomon had respect to the Crosse of Christ and his contempt by hysop We must here condem our stupidity and blindness of minde that are not provoked many times by this particular to magnifie the name of God When a man hath occasion to travel thorow a close or ground how great store of herbs seeth he whose nature yea names he is ignorant of yet admireth not God in them nor confesseth his power and goodnesse Secondly We are to lament the fruit of our sinne which hath made us blinde there is nothing hurtful to mans body but some herb or other rightly applied would cure it It is a great and worthy work of God to make grasse on the earth Psal. 104. 14 15. 147. 8. He maketh grasse to grow upon the mountains The omnipotent power of God was exercised to make this creature else it could not have been and at his appointment it came forth This is one of the benefits which God promiseth to his people upon their obedience Deut. 11. 5. Zech. 10. 16. There are many things considerable in this work of making grasse First The plenty store and commonnesse of it It groweth every where and in abundance covering the face of the earth and hiding the dry and naked face thereof Secondly The colour of it It is of a green and somewhat of a dark green colour which is neither over-light nor over-dark but of an indifferent and middle nature and so most fit to content and delight the eye refresh and preserve the sight Thirdly The usefulnesse of this creature for the Cattel it is a soft covering to make the lodging of the poor beasts more easefull for them even as it were a matteresse for them to lie upon It hath a sweet juyce and verdure in it by which it is pleasant to the tastes of the beasts as any dainty meat can be to us and is fit to nourish them to be turned to bloud and flesh so to make them fat and well liking Fourthly The wayes means and manner for bringing it forth for this use the whole course of the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars which run a large race daily with great swiftnesse and the great works done in the air for producing divers Meteors do tend in great part for the bringing forth of this grasse The grasse it self hath a life and vigour in the root of it by which it draws from the earth that moysture which is agreeable to it and disperseth it likewise 1. We are dull and blinde and behold not God in this great work when we go into the fields and can scarce tread beside it We do not consider Gods greatnesse and goodnesse in making so beneficial a thing so common We let this work of God perish in respect of any spiritual use we make of it to make our souls the better 2. Let us stirre up our selves to observe Gods hand in this work with others and confesse our debt to him that gives us Commons and Pasture for all our Cattel Trees are certain plants springing from a root with a single Trunk or Stemme for the most part shooting up in height and delineated with lims spâ—igs or branches Leaves are Ornamenta Arboris munimenta fructus they serve to grace the Tree make it pleasant to behold and defend the fruit from the injury of the weather The Philosopher saith Homo est arbor inversa a man is a Tree turned upside down for a Tree hath his root in the ground and his branches spread above ground but a mans root is in his head therein is the fountain of sense and motion and there doth he take in nourishment but the arms and legs are branches of this Tree they spread downward The Psalmist compares a good man to a Tree Psal. 1. 3. The Palme-tree grows in Aegypt all along the shores of the red Sea It is said to yeeld whatsoever is necessary to the life of man The pith of it is an excellent Sallet better than an Artichoake which in taste it much resembleth Of the Branches they make Bedsteds and Lattices Of the Leaves Baskets Matts Fanns of the outward half of the Codde Cordage of the inward Brushes It is the nature of this Tree though never so huge or ponderous a weight be put upon it never to yeeld to the burden but still to resist the heavinesse thereof and to endeavour to lift and raise it self the more upward for which cause it was given to Conquerours in token of victory Hence figuratively it is used for the victory it self Plurimarum Palmarum homo and for the sign of it Palmaque nobilis Terrarum Dominos evehit ad Deos. Revel 7. 9. With white robes in token of their innocency and palms in their hands in token of their victory It is reported that the Arms of the Duke of Rhoan in France which are Lozenges are to be seen in the wood or stones throughout all his Countrey so that break a stone in the middle or lopa bough of a Tree and one shall behold the grain thereof by some secret cause in nature diamonded or streaked in the fashion of a Lozenge Fullers Prophane State l. 5. c. 6. It was a great work of God in making all sorts of Trees to proceed out of the earth Psal. 104. 16 17. The nature of the Trees is wonderful in these respects principally First The way and manner of their growing and being An Oak comes from an Acorn an Apple-tree from a Kernel What a kinde of power and vertue is that which God hath put into a kernel being so small a thing that it should pull to it self by an unknown way the juyce of the earth and should send some of it downward into little small strings as it were to fasten it self in the earth
indeed it was in some respect a false notion for they conceived them to be a certain kinde of petty Gods and did perform worship unto them the evil angels beguiling them and if there be evil angels there must needs be likewise good The Angels are diversly called in Scripture Spirits Psal. 104. 4. to express their nature and Angels to express their Office as Messengers sent from God They are called Sons of God Job 1. 6. 38 7. Yea Elohim Gods Psal. 8. Cherubims Gen. 3. 24. Ezek. 10. 1. from the form they appeared in viz. like youths Caph is a particle of similitude and Rabiah signifies a young man in Chaldee witness R. David But Ludov. de Dien in his Animadversions upon Mr. Medes Clavis Apocalyptica saith Hoc est puerile frivolum Seraphim Isa. 6. 2. Burning quasi accensi ardore justitiae divinae they execute those things which God commands when he sits in the Throne of his justice and according to it judgeth mankinde Not from their burning love toward God as some imagine Watchmen or the watchfull ones Dan. 4. 10. 13. being in heaven as a watch-tower and keeping the world Starres of the morning Job 38. 7. from their brightness of nature A flaming fire Psal. 104. 4. because God useth their help to destroy the wicked In the New Testament they are called Principalities for their excellency of nature and estate and Powers for their wonderfull force Reasons why God made Angels The will and power of God therefore they are because God saw it fit to make them yet two reasons may be rendred of this work 1. God saw it â—it to raise up our thoughts from meaner to more excellent creatures till we came to him First things say some were made which had no life then living things without fense as plants and trees then sensible then reasonable 2. It was convenient that every part and place of the world should be fill'd with inhabitants fit for the same as the air with birds the earth with beasts and men the sea with fishes and the heavens which we behold with stars and the highest Heavens with Angels God is the maker of Angels These glorious Creatures which shall have no end had a beginning as well as the silliest beast bird or fish and they are equally beholding nay more because they have received more excellent endowments unto God for their Being with the silliest worm And though Moses mentions not in particular either the act of creating them or the time yet St Paul saith that By him were all things made visible and invisible and it is evident by discourse of reason that the Angels were made by God That is too bold an assertion of Mr. Hobbes his in his Leviathan part 3. c. 34 Concerning the creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in the Scriptures See more there What can be meant but the Angels by Thrones and the words following Col. 1. 16. Vide Grotium in loc For either they must be made by God or some other maker or else they must be eternal for whatsoever is not made by some maker cannot be made at all and whatsoever is not at all made is eternal Now if the Angels were eternal then were they equal with God in self-being they might be called self-subsisting essences and so should be equal with God standing in no more need of him then he of them owing no more service homage and praise to him then he oweth to them and so they were Gods as well as he and then we should have multitude of Gods not only one God and so should not God be the first and best Essence there being so many others beside him as Good and Omniscient as he wherefore they must be made by some Maker because they cannot be Eternal and if made then either by themselves or some other thing besides themselves not by themselves because that implies an absolute contradiction and if by some other thing then by a better or worse thing not by a more mean for the lesse perfect cannot give being to a more perfect thing for then it should communicate more to the effect then it hath in it self any way which is impossible that any efficient cause should do not by any better thing then themselves for excepting the Divine Majesty which is the first and best there is no better thing then the Angels save the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ which could not be the Maker of them because they were created some thousands of years before the humanity was formed in the Virgins womb or united to the second person in Trinity We are not able to conceive of their Essence they are simple incorporeal Spiritual substances therefore incorruptible An Angel is a Spiritual created compleat substance indued with an understanding and will and excellent power of working An Angel is a substance 1. Spiritual that is void of all corporeal and sensible matter whence in Scripture Angels are called Spirits Psal. 104. 4. Heb. 1. 14. Therefore the bodies in which either good or evil Angels appeared were not natural to them but only assumed for a time and laid by when they pleased as a man doth his garments not substantial but aerial bodies they were not Essentially or personally but only locally united to them so that the body was moved but not quickned by them The Hebrew Greek and Latine words for Spirit signifie breath there is no more subtill being that we are acquainted with then breath being condensed by the cold indeed it may be seen The Angels good and bad are Spirits because 1. They are immaterial and incorporeal 2. Invisible 1 Tim. 1. 16. That was a foolish fancy of the disciples Luke 24. 37. If Christ had been a Spirit he could not have been seen 3. Impalpable Luke 24. 37. compared with vers 39. 4. Incorruptible and immortal they end not of themselves and no creature can destroy them God alone hath immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. Origine in himself so as to communicate it to others 5. They are intellectual beings all understanding 6. Their spirituality appears in the subtilty of their moving It is a question whether they do transire ab extremo ad extremum without going through the middle parts yet they â—ove like lightening 7. In respect of their strength and power there is a great deal oâ—â—orce in a natural spirit extracted Isa. 31. 3. 2. Created By which name he is distinguished from the Creator who is an infinite Spirit Iohn 4. 24. Nihil de Deo creaturis univocè dicitur 3. Compleat By which an Angel is distinguished from the reasonable soul of man which also is a spiritual substance but incompleat because it is the essential part of man 4. Indued with 1. An understanding by which an Angel knoweth God and his works 2. A will by which he desireth or refuseth the things understood 3. An excellent power of working by which he effects what the
and weaknesse the Tree of life would have preserved him from that 3. The whole person consisting both of soul and body was conformable to God in respect of his felicity and dominion over the creatures Gen. 1. 26 28. The image of God doth not principally consist in this but secondarily therefore though the man and woman were created perfectly after Gods image in other respects yet in this respect the woman had not the image of God as the Apostle sheweth The power which Adam had over the creatures was not absolute and direct that God reserved to himself but it was for Adams use then the stoutest and fiercest beasts would be ruled by Adam this dominion since the fall is lost for a great part because of our rebellion against God the creatures rebellion should minde us of ours we may see sometimes a little childe driving before him an hundred Oxen or Kine this or that way as he pleaseth For the infusing of the soul it is most probable that the body was first made as the organ or instrument and then the soul put into it as God did make Heaven and Earth before man was made God did not create all the souls of men at once but he creates them daily as they are infused into the body for that the reasonable soul is not ex traduce Baronius in his Philosophia Theologiae Ancillans Exercit. 2. Artic. 3. proves it well There are these two Questions to be resolved 1. Whether immortality was natural to Adam 2. Whether original righteousnesse was natural to Adam For the first A thing is immortal four wayes 1. Absolutely so that there is no inward or outward cause of mortality so God only 1 Tim. 6. 16. 2. When it is not so by nature but immortality is a perfection voluntarily put into the constitution of the creature by the Creator so Angels are immortal 3. Not by any singular condition of Nature but of Grace so the bodies of the Saints glorified 4. When it is mortal inwardly but yet conditionally it is immortal that is if he do his duty and so Adam was immortal For the second Question The properties of it are these First It is original righteousnesse because it is the natural perfection of the whole man and all his faculties for distinction sake we call it original righteousnesse It is so both in regard of it self for it was the first in the first man Secondly In regard of man because he had it from his very beginning Thirdly In regard of his posterity because it was to be propagated to others Secondly It is universal it was the rectitude of all parts it could not else be an image of God unlesse it did universally resemble him in all holinesse His understanding had all things for truth his will for good his affections for obedience Thirdly Harmonious every faculty stood in a right order the will subject to the understanding and the affections to both Fourthly It was due to him not by way of desert as if God did owe Adam any thing but conditionally supposing God made Adam to enjoy himself and by way of means Fifthly Natural 1. Subjective that which inwardly adheres to the nature of a thing from its beginning 2. Perfectivè that which perfects nature for its end and actions 3. Propagativè when it would have been propagated in a natural way if man had continued in innocency but Constitutivè and Consecutivè supernatural The Papists deny that that was natural to man in innocency and therefore they say mans nature is not corrupted by the fall because a supernatural gift only is taken from him all his naturals being left which is the opinion of the Pelagians who affirm That the nature of man fallen is perfect before the committing of actual sins Paradise is spoken of in Gen. 2. Some of the Ancients as Origen Philo yea and of later Authors have turned all this into an Allegory but now that it was a real corporal place we may prove 1. Because God planted a Garden and put Adam into it and there went a River out of it which was divided into four streams but these were visible and corporeal as Euphrates and Tigris and in the third Chapter it is said That Adam hid himself with the leaves of the Tree therefore the Trees in Paradise were real and not allegorical and lastly Adam was cast out of it The ground of allegorizing all these things ariseth from the vanity of mans mind which thinketh these things too low for the Spirit of God to relate and therefore endeavours to finde out many mysteries 2. In what part of the earth it was Some have thought it to be the whole world but that cannot be for it is said God took Adam and put him into it and likewise that he was cast out of it Others thought Paradise to be a very high place reaching to the very Globe of the Moon but that cannot be habitable for the subtilty of the air Others as Oleaster and Vatablus think it was in Mesopotamia only and that it hath lost his beauty by the floud A Lapide Willet Rivet Zanchius and others say it was about Mesopotamia and Armenia because 1. There are the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris 2. Because Eden is part of Babylonia and this part of Mesopotamia as is manifest from Ezek. 27. 23. Isa. 37. 12. 3. These Regions are in the East and most pleasant and so agree with the description of Paradise Gen. 2. But the safest way is not to trouble our selves any further then Moses Text which saith it was in the Region of the East in respect of Iudaea Egypt or Arabia and as for the limits and bounds of it they cannot now be known Vide Bellar. de gratia primi hominis c. 12 13. Homer had his invention of Alcinous Gardens as Iustin Martyr noteth out of Moses his description of Paradise Gen. 2. And those praises of the Elysian fields were taken out of this story Ver erat aeternum c. Ovid. Metam lib. 2. And from the talk between Eve and the Serpent Aesops Fables were derived Thirdly Whether the waters of the Floud did destroy it Bellarmine and generally the Papists will not admit that it was destroyed by Noahs Floud and it is to maintain a false opinion for they say That Enoch and Elias who are yet in their bodies are the two Witnesses spoken of and that they shall come when Antichrist shall be revealed and then he shall put them to death and therefore they hold that Enoch and Elias are kept alive in this Paradise which they say still remaineth but that this is a meer fable appeareth because Iohn Baptist is expresly said by Christ to be the Elias that was to come because he came in the spirit of Elias Therefore we hold that wheresoever Paradise was yet in the great Floud it was destroyed not but that the ground remaineth still only the form beauty and fruitfulnesse is spoiled
103. 104. first and last We should love our souls Psal. 22. 26. David calleth his soul his darling it is the immediate work of God CHAP. IX Of GODS Providence TWo things are to be discussed about it 1. That there is a Providence whereby the world is governed 2. What it is 1. That there is a providence which governeth the world and that nothing is done in the world without the certain and determinate counsel of God is thus proved First Faith which leans and rests on testimonies of holy Writ Psal. 14. 2. 33. 13. the 104 Psalm wholly and Psal. 91. 8 9 10 11. Act. 17. 25 28. Eph. 1. 11. Heb. 1. 3. At the Feast of Tabernacles the Jews were wont to reade the Book of Ecclesiastes principally because it speaks so much of the Works of Gods Providence 2. Certain demonstrative reasons taken 1. From the causes viz. the Attributes and Nature of God 1. There is a God therefore providence because he is a most powerful and wiâ—e King Isa. 44. 6 7. Epicurus granted that there was a God yet he denied providence then which saith Lactantius what can be more repugnant Etenim si est Deus utique providens est ut Deus nec aliter ei potest divinitas attribui nisi praeterita teneat praesentia sciat futura prospiciat Lactant. de ira Dei 2. The omnipotent will of God whereby all things are done without which nothing can come to passe 3. His infinite wisdom whereby he can be present with all things which are done in his Kingdom Ephes. 1. 11. 4. His Justice in distributing rewards and punishments and goodnesse whereby he communicateth himself to the creatures 5. His fore-knowledge of all things unchangeably depending on the counsel and decree of God Prov. 15. 3. 6. He regards the ends of things therefore also the means to those ends 7. He is the first cause therefore on him depend the second causes There is a concurrence of the first cause with all the acts of the second causes Causa prima concurrit immediatè cum omni agente creato say the Schoolmen Dan. 3. 27. The Lord took not away actum primum the nature of fire but actum secundum suspended his own concurrence 2. From the Effects the Works of God Iob 12. 7. 1. The most wise order of things both natural and politick which could not be setled much lesse preserved by blinde nature chance or fortune Aristotle judiciously observes if any one should come out of darknesse into this light of the world which he never saw before nor heard of and should consider the courses of things he could not doubt that all these things were ordered by the care and counsel of a most wise and powerful Prince Secondly Natural notions or the law of Nature in the difference of honest and dishonest things Thirdly Peace or torment of Conscience from keeping or violating the Law Fourthly Punishments and rewards agreeable to mens deeds which prove there is some Judge of the world and revenger of sins whose severity we cannot shun Psal. 58. 11. Fifthly Heroick Motions Vertues and singular Gifts given by God to Princes Magistrates Inventers of Arts Artificers and others for the common benefit of mankinde Lastly By the same reasons it is proved that there is both a God and Providence 2. What Providence is It is an external and temporal action of God whereby he preserveth governeth and disposeth all and singular things which are and are done both the creatures and the faculties and actions of the creatures and directeth them both to the mediate ends and to the last end of all after a set and determinate manner according to the most free Decree and Counsel of his own will that himself in all things may be glorified 1. The matter or object of Gods providence is the whole world and whatsoever is in it for God eares for and governs all things Substances Accidents things great and little necessary and contingent good and evil Heb. 1. 3. Nehem. 9. 6. The care of God for the bruit beasts living creatures all Meteors is described Psal. 135. Iob. 37. 2. 38. Matth. 6. 26. Also concerning voluntary things and actions of men good and bad as Prov. 26. 1 9. Ier. 10. 23. Psal. 139. 1. Psal. 33. 15. Concerning things that are contingent Exod. 21. 13. Prov. 16. 33. Matth. 10. 29 30. The least and smallest things are by the God of Heaven ordered and disposed of according to his own pleasure and wisdome for very good purpose not so much as a Sparrow fals to the ground without Gods providence he saith The hairs of our head are all numbred Qui numeravit porcarum set as multò magis numerabit sanctorum capilles Tertul. He feeds the young Ravens and hears them when they cry Some say when the young Ravens are a little grown up and too numerous for to feed the Dam casts them off and that the Lord by his providence feeds them so cast off Therefore Cicero was out when he said Magna Dei curant parva negligunt and the Poet Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Iovi Qui curat Angelos in Coelo curat vermiculos in coeno The Reasons of this are these First God is Infinite in all excellencies infinite in wisdom there may as much wisdome be seen in little as in great things all things in the world yea even all things which might have been as well as those that have fallen out are subject to his wisdom and power nothing so small but it is a fit subject of knowing and ordering Secondly There is a necessary connexion and mutual dependance between great and small things the one supporting and upholding the other so that it is not possible to conceive how any thing should be ordered by God if all things were not the little things being like the pins of a house which hold the building together or the hinges of a great gate upon which the whole is moved Thirdly The meanest creature works for an end which it understands not Amos 9. 3. a Serpent doth not bite without a command the Lion that slew the Prophet but medled not with his carcase Object These things are so small as it is an abasement to the Divine Majesty to intermeddle with them Answ. It is his highest commendation to be Infinite so that nothing can be hid from his knowledge the Lords manner of working in the smallest things is so wise and excellent as it serveth sufficiently to free him from all imputation of basenesse in regarding them No Philosopher would count it a base thing to be able to dispute accurately of the nature of a flea and to give a reason of its making and working why therefore shall it be an impeachment to Gods glory in a more perfect manner then we can conceive of both to know and guide them Object 1 Cor. 9. 9. Doth God take care for Oxen Answ. He doth not
take care for Oxen chiefly and principally but subordinatly as his care is toward the other bruit creatures Psal. 36. 7. 147. 9. Paul doth not simply exempt the Oxen from Gods care but denieth that the Law Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn was especially written for Oxen but rather for men that they may understand what their duty is to the Ministers of the Gospel whose labours they make use of The government of the world is in the hand of Christ as Mediator Isa. 49. 8. Iohn 5. 22. When Adam fell by the breach of the Covenant the world must else have perished lying under the curse of the first Covenant God the Father looking on man as a sinner could not dispense himself immediately any more He therefore hath committed a two-fold Kingdom to Christ as Mediator First A spiritual Kingdome whereby he rules in the hearts of his Saints Revel 4. 3. Secondly A providential Kingdom whereby he is the King of Nations Ephes. 1. 22. Christ rules and governs the world by his Spirit which Tertullian cals Vicarium Christi Ezek. 1. 20. He hath as great a hand in the providential as spiritual Kingdom in the government of Kingdoms and Nations as well as in the hearts of his people Zech. 4. 7. The Angels are the instruments of the Spirit and used by Christ in his providential Kingdom these are the living creatures compare Ezek. 1. 13. with 10. 20. They 1. rule all things for the Saints Heb. 1 they make one Church with them 2. They pray for them Zech. 1. 11. 2. The kinds of Gods Providence 1. The Providence of God is either 1. General and common to all creatures that whereby God taketh care of the world and all things therein according to their nature Acts 17. 25. Heb. 1. 3. Gen. 9 1 2 3 Psal. 36. 6. 2. Special that which doth peculiarly appertain to creatures endued with reason and understanding viz. Men and Angels and among them he looks chiefly to his Elect with a fatherly care 1 Tim. 4. 10. and of this Providence is that place before-noted 1 Cor. 9. 9. to be understood The Lord hath promised his people a special interest in temporal salvation Isa. 26. 1. 60. 8. the Devil envies this and complains of it Iob 1. 20. This peculiar providence in temporal salvation consists in these things 1. Their temporal salvation slows from electing love the same principle that their eternal salvation Isa. 43. 4. 2. It is grounded on the highest relation Exod. 4. 22 23. Ier. 31. 20. 24. 3. 3. It is grounded on a promise Psal. 119. 41. 4. It flows from the Headship and Priesthood of Christ Acts 7. 56. Ezek. 4. 19. 5. It comes out of Sion Psal. 14. 7. 53. ult they have it as a return of Prayer and a fruit of their communion with God in Ordinances 6. It is a reward of their graces Ps. 91. 9 14. 7. They have the presence of God with them Isa. 43. 2. Dan. 3. 25. 8. All their salvation works for their good Isa. 4. 3. Rom. 8. 28. 2. Gods Providence is either 1. Mediate when God governeth creatures by creatures as by means and instruments But God useth them 1. Not necessarily for want of power in himself but of his own Free-will in the abundance of his goodnesse Whatsoever the Lord works by means he can work by his own immediate hand without means He is Independent in working as well as being The Effect shall be more gloriously produced by his own hand immediately then by the concurrence of second causes 2. God well useth evil instruments besides and beyond their own intention as the Jews Act. 2. 23. and Iosephs brethren Gen. 45. 5. 2. Immediate when God himself without the ministry of the creatures doth preserve and govern things this is called the making bare of his arm Isa. 52. 2. Thus the Apostles were called Gal. 1. 1. thus God made the world immediately without any instruments Though the Lord delights to use means in his providential administrations yet he worketh sometimes without them First To discover his own almighty power the hearts of men would else be apt to be terminated in the creature Secondly To keep up in the remembrance of his people a creating power God hath the same power in the administration that he had in the Creation of all things Thirdly To shew that he useth the creatures voluntarily not necessarily Hab. 3. 17 18. Fourthly To accustome our hearts in the meditation of heaven when all means shall cease and God shall be all in all 3. Gods Providence is 1. Ordinary and usual when God governeth the world and things of the world according to the order and laws which himself set in the Creation 2. Extraordinary and unusual when he worketh either against or beside that order so appointed as in working miracles Psal. 36. 6. Rom. 11. 36. 3. The Degrees and Parts of Gods Providence 1. Conservation Ioh 12. 14 15. Psal. 44. 2. It is that whereby God doth uphold the Order Nature Quantity and Quality of all and every creature both in their kinde and in particular untill their appointed end Psal. 19. 1 2. 36. 6. 65. 2. Psal. 135. 6 7. 136. 25. He conserves those things quoad species which are subject to death in their individua as Trees Herbs bruit Beasts Men He preserves things quoad individua which are incorruptible as Angels Stars This sustentation or preservation of all things in their being is rightly by the Schools called Divina manutenentia Act. 17. 28. 2. Government it is that whereby God doth dispose and order all things according to his own will and pleasure so that nothing can come to passe otherwise then he hath determined Psal. 33. 13 14 15. Eccles. 8. 6. Psal. 75. 6 7. Gubernatio quâ prospicit actioni rei ad finem Dan. 4. 30 31 34. conservatio quâ prospicit esse rei It is a great work of God to continue a succession of living creatures in the world Psal. 104. 30. This is that for which God took order in the beginning when having made the several things he bad them Increase and multiply and fill the face of the earth Gen. 1. 22. God challengeth this work to himself in his speech to Iob 39. 1. One generation comes and another goes It is noted as an act of Divine blessing to increase the fruits of the Cattle and the flocks of sheep and kine Deut. 28. 4. Psal. 107. 38 Reason 1. If this work were not wrought the world would be empty of living creatures within one age Beasts Birds and Fishes and all would fail within a few years and so should men be deprived of that help and benefit which they enjoy by them Secondly The power of propagating kindes is a wonderful work no lesse then that of Creation done by a wisdom and power infinitely surpassing all the wisdom and power of all
praise God if against us to be humbled If thou beest hungry and in penury murmur not nor repine but say with the blessed Martyr If men take away my meat God will take away my stomack Merlin during the massacre at Paris some fortnight together was nourished with one egg a day laid by an hen that came constantly to the hay-mow where he lay hid in that danger The whole power almost of France being gathered together against the City Rochel and besieging them with extremity who defended the Town God in the time of famine and want of bread did for some whole moneths together daily cast up a kinde of fish unto them out of the Sea wherewith so many hundreds were relieved without any labour of their own Be of good comfort Brother said Ridley to Latimer for God will either asswage the fury of the fire or else strengthen us to abide it In the time of the Massacre at Paris there was a poor man who for his deliverance crept into a hole and when he was there there comes a Spider and weaves a cob-web before the hole when the murtherer came to search for him saith one certainly he is got into that hole No saith another he cannot be there for there is a cob-web over the place and by this means the poor man was preserved Let us observe the signal acts of Gods providence amongst us He studies not the Scripture as he should which studies not providence as he should we should compare Gods promises and providences together What we hear of him in his Word with what we see in his Works There is a three-fold vision of God in this life In his Word Works and in his Son answerable to our vision of God will be our communion with him The very Providence of God is sometimes called Prudence Nullum numen habes si sit Prudentia sed nos Tefacimus Fortuna Deam Coeloque locamus Juven Sat. 10. Prudence in man is a vertue some way like Providence in God Prudens dicitur quasi porrò videns Isid. in lib. Etym. Austin preaching once forgat what he had purposed to utter and so made an excursion from the matter in hand and fell into a discourse against the Manichees Possidonius and others dining with him that day Austin told them of it and asked them whether they observed it They answered that they observed it and much wondered at it Then Austin replied Credo quòd aliquem errantem in populo Dominus per nostram oblivionem errorem curari voluit Two daies after one came to Austin before others falling at his feet and weeping confessing also that he had many years followed the heresie of the Manichees and had spent much mony on them but the day before through Gods mercy by Austins Sermon he was converted and then was made Catholike The End of the third Book THE FOVRTH BOOK OF THE Fall of Man OF Sin Original Actual CHAP. I. Of the Fall of Man HAving in my Treatise of Divinity handled three principal heads there viz. the Scripture God and the Works of God I shall now proceed to speak of mans Apostasie and Restauration or of the Fall and Recovery of Man There is a four-fold Estate of man to be considered 1. That happy estate wherein he was made Ecc. 7. 31. 2. That miserable estate whereto he fell Rom. 3. 23. 24. and 5. 12. 3. That renewed estate whereto by grace he is called 1 Pe. 1. 3. 4. That glorious estate which is in Heaven reserved for him 1 Ioh. 3. 2. Having spoken already of his estate of Innocency or primitive condition I shall now speak of his corrupt estate in which I shall consider 1. The cause of it the Devils temptation and our first Parents yeelding to it 2. The parts of it sinfullnesâ—e of nature and life and the punishment of sin here and hereafter 3. The properties of it 1. Generall 2. Irremediable Though I shall not perhaps handle the last The Apostasie of man is his fall from the obedience due to God or the transgression of the Law prescribed by God In which two things are conâ—â—derable 1. The transgression 2. The propagation of it Our first Parents being seduced by Satan sinn'd against the known Law of God in eating of the forbidden fruit Adams sinne was against his own light and therefore a presumptuous sin so some interpret that place Rom. 5. 14. Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression that is those which had not the Law clearly revealed to them yet he was seduced by Satan whereas Satan sinned without temptation thence he is called the old Serpent because by the Serpent he seduced Eve When God saith Gen. 3. 22. Behold Adam is become like one of us knowing good and evill it confuteth S. Augustines conjecture that he beleeved not the Serpent but consented to his wife out of matrimoniall indulgence Etsi credendo non sunt ambo decepti peccando tamen ambo capti sunt diaboli laqueis implicati and sheweth manifestly that Adam also was circumvented with errour wherefore doth God else upbraid him so ironically that he is now like unto God That Sarcasmus in my understanding is a taxation of his credulous temerity in beleeving the Serpents promise When S. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 14. saith that Adam was not deceived but the woman he meant not to extenuate the mans offence or to exempt him from the fraud of the devil but to shew whether sex was more credulous or like to be seduced Doctor Hampton on Rom. 5. 9. The consummation of that transgression was the eating of the forbidden fruit or of the tree of knowledge of good and evill by Adam Gen. 2. 17. as the beginning of it was looking on it by Eve saith Paulus Fagius on Gen. 3. 6. 2. The tree was no better then the rest only God forbad him to eat of it for the triall of his obedience The lesser the thing was required to shew his obedience the greater was his fault in disobeying It is called disobedience Rom. 5. 19. and offence or fall Rom. 5. 15 17 18. Some say the devill as an unclean Spirit could not have accesse to Adams inward man to tempt him therefore he tempted him by a Serpent and audible voice as he did Christ by a visible Landskip of the world The time of Adams fall is not certain Some say he fell the same day he was created Neither Angels nor men did fall the sixth day before the Sabbath for then God looked upon all his works and they were very c good Gen. 1. 31. and therefore could not as yet be bad and evill by any sin or fall The objections against this from Iohn 8. 44. and Psa. 49. 12. are easily answered Some learned Divines as Simpson in his Chronology observes conjecture that Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise the eighth day after
the fall and therefore good 1 Tim. 4. 4. Regeneration restores not the substance of man but the qualities Dr. Ames saith that Grevinchovius denied original sin and Dr. Twisse proves by this argument that the Arminians deny it As many as teach that all the posterity of Adam have as much power to every thing that is good as Adam in innocency they deny original sin But the Arminians teach that all the posterity of Adam have as much power to every thing that is good as Adam had in the state of innocency for they hold that all Adams posterity have such power to every good work that they want no other help but the perswasion and the concourse of God which Adam himself needed to every good work The Semipelagians also the Socinians and Anabaptists deny this original venome or blot to be a sin the Anabaptists that they might wholly take away Pedobaptisme denied original sin that there might not be a cause why infants should be baptized The denying of this fundamentall Article of Original sin is dangerous What need then of the Gospel what need of Christ himself if our nature be not guilty depraved corrupted these are not things in quibus possimus dissentire salva pace ac charitate Aug. about which we may dissent without losse of peace or charity The Papists say 1. Original corruption hath not rationem peccati but is only a privation of original righteousness The Councel of Trent decreeth it not to have the nature of sin Bellarmine saith it is a simple thing to be humbled for original sin Pighus saith it is no sin at all Andraedeus it s the least of sin 2. That the concupiscence and lust which riseth from the corruption of our nature the motions unto evil that we feel in our selves are no sins but are called so abusively or metonymically because they are from and incline to sin till we consent unto them and obey them till they reign in us See the Rhemists in their Annotat. Rom. 7. 7. and Iames 1. 15. Bellarm de statu peccati c. 9. 10. When our Divines urge that concupiscence is called sin several times in the sixth seventh and eighth Chapters to the Romans Bellarmine saith the Apostle doth not say it is peccatum propriè De statu peccati c. 8. 3. That original sin after Baptism is done away Si quis asserit non tolli in baptisâ—â—ate totum id quod veram propriam rationem peccati habet anathema sit Decret 5. Sectionis Concil Trid. 4. That the Virgin Mary was not conceived in sin Piè ac rectè existimatur B. virginem Mariam singulari Deo privilegio ab omni omnino peccato fuisse immunem Bellarm. de Amiss grat statu pecc l. 4. c. 15. The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture expressely calleth the corruption of our nature sin as Psal. 51. 5. and in the sixth seventh and eight Chapters of the Romans fourteen times at the least Heb. 12. 2. 2. The Scripture saith expressely our original corruption is the cause of all our actual sins Iames 1. 14. 2 Peter 1. 4. 3. Infants that are baptized which have no other sin but original and who never consented to it nor obeyed it in the lusts thereof do dye Rom. 5. 14. therefore it must needs be sin and may be truly and properly so called for sin is the only cause of death Rom. 5. 12. Whatever holdeth not conformity with the rule of righteousnesse the law of God is sin it hath the nature of sin in its irregularity and defect of good and the effects of sin 2. The Scripture expressely teacheth us that this concupiscence even in the regenerate these evil motions that rise in us though we consent not unto them though we resist them are yet a swerving from the law of God and a breach of it Luke 10. 27. nay in the regenerate this corruption of our nature doth not only swerve from the law of God but opposeth and resisteth the Spirit of God Rom. 7. 23. Gal. 5. 17. therefore it must needs be sin This argument convinced Pauls conscience Rom. 7. 7. He means those motions unto evil which the heart doth not delight in nor consent unto When the Apostle saith Rom. 6. Let not sin reign in your mortall bodies By sin saith their Cardinal Bellarmine all men understand concupiscence and Ribera on Heb. 12. 1. saith That by sin the Apostle understandeth concupiscence calling it so with an article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the sin a note of singularity Cajetan in Rom. 7. calleth it formally a sin Vide Cassand Consult art 2. Tit. de Concupisc p. 4. The proper definition of sin being this a transgression of Gods law therefore concupiscence is sin see Exod. 20. 17. Object Cant 4. 7. Iohn 13. 10. Ezek. 36. 25. Ephes. 14. Therefore the regenerate have no sin left in them Answer The Church in this present world is said to be all fair as it wholly shines with its Spouses beauty which it puts on Concupiscence in respect of its own nature is a sin but in respect of the person who is a party regenerate in whom the guilt is pardoned it is as no sin When the Fathers say that lust is taken away in the regenerate they understand according to the guilt not the thing 3. Original sin after Baptism is not done away children are perverse death cannot seize where there is no sin How comes it to passe that infants baptized die before they come to actual offending if Baptism have abolished in them their original stain 4. The Virgin Mary was not conceived without original sin in her song she rejoyceth in God her Saviour Luke 1. 47. 2. 22. Christ came to save that which was lost Matth. 18. 11. See Iob 14. 4 1 Cor. 15. 22. Rom. 5. 12 16. 3. 9. Gal. 3. 22. All the ancient Fathers as far as we can learn out of their Writings believed that the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in original sin Vide Rivet de Patrum autoritate c. 7. Daille Of the right use of the Fathers l. 2. c. 6. The Dominicans generally hold that she was conceived in sin All are infected with Adams sin 1. The Heathens Pagans Infidels Rom. 1. 18 21 24 26 28 to the last 2. The Jews Rom. 2. latter end 3. Christians Rom. 3. from 9. to 19. 4. Infants Rom. 5. 12 13. They are innocent in respect of actual transgression not in respect of original pollution are born blinde lame 5. Children of beleeving parents All men are equally guilty of original sin 1. In reference to Adam Rom. 5. 12 14. 2. They are equally deprived of Gods image Rom. 3. 9 11. Reprobate to every good work 3. Are equally depraved and corrupted Rom. 3. 12 13 14. Reasons 1. All men are equally in Adam one was not more in his loyns then another Rom. 5. 12 19. 2. All men equally partake of
full of doubts fears and horrours and make him grow worse and worse 3. With due care and diligent observing of our selves a godly man may much prevail to keep himself innocent from great transgressions and unspotted of the world Secondly The Saints can and will keep themselves from sin Reasons 1. Because they have received the divine nature by which they shun the pollutions that are in the world through lust by which they are made sensible of the evil of sin and framed to a loathing and hatred of sin every true Christian hath the spirit which will make him lust against the flesh The wisdom of the world is to keep themselves from misery the wisdom of Saints is to keep themselves from that which is the cause of all misery and the worst of all misery from iniquity The godly will not only be carefull to abstain from evil acts but to subdue their lusts to crucifie sin in the thoughts and desires Rom. 7 8 9. 1. The chief dominion of sin is in the heart there is the evil treasure the root 2. This is contrary to the chief part of the law the letter of the law is against the acting of sin the spirit of it is against lusting 3. This is the strongest part of sin and hardliest subdued 2 Cor. 10. 5. The way to keep our selves from sin 1. Often and earnestly call upon God to keep you by his Spirit of wisdom and strength for you are not able to keep your selves 2. Often renew and settle in your own hearts a resolution of not sinning and that upon spiritual grounds and considerations taken out of Gods word 1 Pet. 4. 11. David saith I hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee This hiding the word is a calling to minde and serious pondering the commandments threats promises exhortations examples and reasons of Gods word against sin in the generall and against such and such sins in particular and pressing them upon our selves till they have wrought in us a setled and determinate resolution I will not sin I will not do this and this evil 3. It is requisite to observe and oppose the first rising of sin in the motions and desires thereof in the thoughts of it with a sigh groan ejaculation calling to minde some text of Scripture against it and stirring some detestation of it and calling upon our selves to keep our former resolutions against it The conception of sin is by the stirring and moving of ill desires within 4. Shun the occasions of evil Gen. 39. 10. Prov. 11. 14. all those things which our selves have found in our experience to provoke and stir our corruptions and to give them advantage against us Solomon saith Look not on the wine when it is red Prov. 23. 31. Secondly Our care of avoiding sin must shew it self specially against our own sins Ezek. 18. Cast away all your transgressions by which you have transgressed Psal. 18. 23. Reasons 1. Where the danger is greater the care of preventing must be most used Every man is soonest and most easily overtaken with these sins 2. What will be a greatest proof of his truth and sincerity and so the surest foundation of his comfort that should he be most carefull to practise this will make it appear that he strives against sin because it is sin when he striveth against those evils that are most pleasing to him 3. What will most further him in the works of sanctification and amendment of life that ought he most diligently to indeavour now in prevailing against ones corruptions he shall most further the work of grace and holiness in himself kill that sin and the rest will be more easily killed 4. There we should bestow most pains in which if we do not use care we lose our labour in other things Means were prescribed before to be used against sin in generall you must apply these in particular against your particular sins Pray often against these meditate and resolve most against these observe and resist most the first rising of these shun the occasions of these first A diligent and constant care to resist a mans own corruption is a sure proof of uprightnesse and such a one shall enjoy the comfort of his sincerity in due time CHAP. XIV Of the cause of forbearing Sin of abhorring it and of small Sins THe main cause of our forbearing any sin should be the sinfulnesse of it that is because it is repugnant to Gods will and offensive to him Isa. 59. 2. So Ioseph How shall I do this great evil and sin against God Loe what did curb him from that wickednesse which in the verdict of carnall reason he had so much cause to have committed and he might have done with so much safety and assurance even this It was a sin against God Ier. 44. 4. Nehem. 13. 27. Psal. 51. 3. Psal. 97. 10. Reasons 1. This is the very proper cause of all the other evil effects of sin and herein doth the very evilnesse and vilenesse of it consist The foul nature of sin stands in this that it is offensive to God and opposite to the will of that excellent Majesty to whom all creatures ought to be subject 2. Our forbearance of sin is no otherwise a fruit and effect of love to the divine Majesty then if we forbear it on this ground and further then it ariseth from this ground it is nought worth to our comfort nor shall bring us any everlasting reward Ezra 9. 14. Eadem velle nolle ea demum firma est amicitia 3. Unlesse this thought make us flye from sin we shall never forbear it constantly nor universally because no other motive will still and every where hold We must not only avoid sin but abhorre it Psal. 97. 10. Isa. 30. 22. Rom. 12. 9. David saith I hate vain thoughts Paul mentioning divers evils saith God forbid The wicked and much more wickednesse is an abomination to the just 1 Sam. 26. 11. Rom. 6. 2. Sin is often exprest by abomination 't is so to God it should be so to men Reasons 1. Because our affections must be conformable to God's Prov. 6. 16. He hateth nothing simply but sin and sinners for sins sake 2. Sin in it self is most hatefull because most hurtfull to man and injurious to God The ground of hatred of any thing is the contrariety of it to our welfare as we hate wilde fierce and raging beasts for their mischievousnesse a toad and serpents for their poisonousnesse which is a strong enemy to life and health so we hate thieves and murderers Sin is the most mischievous and harmfull thing in the world Our hatred against sin must have these properties 1. It must be universall we must hate all sins Psal. 119. 104. Iames 1. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 1. our own as well as others sins gainfull and profitable sins as well as others Hatred is of the whole kinde See Iob 34. 32. 2.
and blaspheming of it Mr. Bedford Of the sin unto death out of 1 Iohn 5. 16. Mr. Deering on Heb. 6. 4 5 6. saith It is a general Apostacy from God with wilfull malice and an unrepentant heart to persecute his truth to the end Mr. White in his Treatise of this sin thus describes it It is a wilfull malicious opposing persecuting and blaspheming the truths of God against knowledge and conscience without ever repenting and grieving for so doing but rather fretting and vexing that one can do no more It is a totall falling away from the Gospel of Christ Jesus formerly acknowledged and professed into a verball calumniating and a reall persecuting of that Gospel with a deliberate purpose to continue so to the end and actually to do so to persevere till then and so to passe away in that disposition It is a spitefull rejecting of the Gospel after that the Spirit hath supernaturally perswaded a mans heart of the truth and benefit thereof It is a sin committed against clear convincing tasting knowledge with despight and revenge Heb. 10. 29. 1. It must be a clear knowledge an ignorant man cannot commit it 2. Such a knowledge as le ts in a tast of the goodnesse as well as discovers the truth of the Gospel Heb. 6. 3. yet goes against this knowledge with despight opposeth the motions of Gods Spirit with rage this puts a man into the devils condition Compare Heb. 6. 4 5. with 10. 26 27. It is a voluntary way of sinning after one hath received not only the knowledge but the acknowledgement of the truth so much knowledge as subdues the understanding The will is chiefly in this sin he sins wilfully he trampleth under his foot the blood of the Son of God sins maliciously and with revenge The Jews put Christ to death with the greatest malice The conditions of that sin are 1. Hatred of the truth 2. A settled malice 3. An obstinate will 4. An accusing conscience Therefore this sin is distinguished from other sins by three degrees 1. That they all fall toti 2. Ã toto 3. In totum 1. Toti Because they fall from God and his gifts not out of infirmity or ignorance but out of knowledge will and certain purpose 2. A toto Because they cast away and oppose the whole doctrine his authority being contemned 3. In totum Because they are so obfirmed in their defection that they voluntarily oppose and seek to reproach the Majesty of God But the specificall difference of this sin is that they reproach those things which the holy Ghost hath revealed to them for true and of whose truth they are convinced in their minde This sin necessarily supposeth the knowledge of the Mediator wheresoever there is any mention of it in the new Testament there comes with it some intimation of the works of the Mediator In Matth. 12. they opposed Christ in his miracles in Heb. 6. Paul instanceth in their crucifying again of Christ Heb. 10. speaks of their trampling under foot the Son of God The devils sinned against light and with revenge but not against the light of the second Covenant this sin is purely against the Gospel Heb. 4. 10. 27 28 29. Objectum hujus peccati non est lex sed Evangelium Matth. 12. 32. He that commits this sin shall neither be pardoned in this world in foro conscientiae nor in the world to come in foro judicii neither in this world per solutionem ministerii by the Ministry of the word nor in the world to come per approbationem Christi When once the means of recovery by the Gospel are neglected contemned and despised then there is no place for remission see Heb. 1â— 26. The sacrifices in the old Law were effectual in their time to the expiation of sin if joyned with faith The sacrifice of Christs death was alwaies effectuall but if this also be despised this being the last there is no more sacrifice for sin and yet without sacrifice no remission It is called the sin unto death not because it may kill for no sin but may kill if it be not repented of but because it must kill Divines observe two sorts subject to this sin Some have both known the truth and also professed it as Saul Iudas Alexander the Copper-smith all these made profession of the Gospel before they fell away Others have certain knowledge of the truth but yet have not given their names to professe it but do hate persecute and blaspheme it such were the Pharisees Matth. 13. All they who fall into this sin first do attain unto a certain and assured knowledge of the truth though all do not professe it Absolutely to determine of such a one is very difficult neither is there any sufficient mark but the event viz. finall impenitency But the grounds of suspition are such as these 1. Prophannenesse 2. Doubting of every saving truth and impugning it 3. Envying anothers grace and happinesse 4. Blasphemy 5. Want of good affections Many Christians are ready to suspect that they have sinned against the holy Ghost Some Divines give this as a rule If the Lord give you a heart to fear that you have sin'd against the holy Ghost then you have not Boasting A man boasts when he is full of that which he thinks excellent and to adde worth and excellency to him Psal. 34. 2. 44. 8. 64. 10. It is one of the sins of the tongue 1 Sam. 2. 3. a high degree of pride see Ezek. 28. 3 4. Rom. 2. 17. there is vera and vana gloriatio the highest act of faith is to glory in God we make our boast of God all the day long Psal. 44. but to boast of God when one hath no interest in him is vain Bribery A bribe is a gift given from him which hath or should have a cause in the Court of justice to them which have to intermeddle in the administration of justice Bribery or taking gifts is a sin Exod. 23. 8. the same is repeated Deut. 16. 19. Isa. 1. 23. Prov. 17. 23. Psal. 26. 10. Hos. 4. 18. Amos 2. 12. Micah 3. 11. Reasons 1. From the causes of it 1. Covetousnesse Samuels sons inclined after lucre and took gifts 2. Hollownesse and guile 3. A want of love of justice 4. A want of hatred of sin 2. The effects 1. In the parties self that offends 2. In others 1. In himself The bribe blindes the eyes of the wise 1 Sam. 12. 3. Exod. 23. 8. it makes him unable to see and finde out the truth in a Cause 2. It perverts the words of the righteous that is it makes them which otherwise would deal righteously and perhaps have had an intention of dealing righteously yet to speak otherwise then becomes it exposeth the offender to condigne punishment Solomon saith A gift prospers whither ever it goeth and it makes room for a man meaning that otherwise deserve h no
brought to a sense of his sin and to repentance for it Matth. 21. 31. 2. In the life to come because they have sinned against greater means and light they shall receive the greater damnation Matth. 11. 24. Many an hypocrite will 1. Constantly hear and frequent the best Ministry Isa. 58. 2. Ezek 33. 31 32. 2. Will keep a constant course in prayer and that not in ordinary prayer only but even in extraordinary too Luke 18. 12. compare Zach. 7. 5. 8. 19. together 3. Is a strict observer of the Sabbath day Luke 13. 14 15. Iohn 5. 10. 4. Loveth the sincerity of Religion and hateth Popery will-worship and idolatry with all the reliques and monuments of it Rom. 2. 22 23. 5. Goeth a great deal farther in the reformation of his life then the civil man doth 2 Pet. 2. 20. Luke 11. 42. We should labour for a spirit without guile Psal. 2. 2. That spirit is 1. An humble spirit before in and after duty 2. An honest spirit carried equally against all sin 3. A plain spirit Idlenesse Idlenesse is a vice of spending time unprofitably It is vivi hominis sepultura Salomon often condemneth sluggishnesse Prov. 6. 9 10 11. which saying he repeats again Proverbs 24. see Proverbs 20. 13. An idle man is a burden to himself a prey to Satan the devils cushion semper aliquid age ut te diabolus inveniat occupatum A grief to Gods Spirit Ephes. â— 28. 30. Bodily sloth you cannot bear and soul-sloth Christ cannot bear Matthew 25. 26. Sins accompanying idlenesse 1. Inordinate walking 2 Thess. 3. 11 12. 2. Talebearing 1 Tim. 5. 13. Prov. 11. 13. 3. Theft Ephes. 4. 28. 2 Thess. 3. 12. 4. Drunkennesse Amos 6. 1. 5. Filthinesse see 2 Sam. 11. Ezek. 16. 49. Idlenesse is the mother and nurse of lust Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat Otia si tollas periere cupidinis arcus Ovid. Water standing still will putrifie and breed toads and venemous things so ease will breed diseases The punishments of idlenesse 1. Diseases Cernis at ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus 2. Dulnesse idlenesse is the rust of wit 3. Poverty Prov. 10. 4. 20. 13 19. 6. 10 11. 24. 34. 4. Shame Prov. 10. 5. 6. 6. 12. 11. It is against the order of nature which God set in all his creatures at the first the heavens stand not still but by miracle Adam laboured in Paradise much more since the fall Iob 5. 7. The rust fretteth unused iron and the mothes eat unworn garments This is the sin of great persons who â—â—ve received great mercies from God Cretians idle slow-bellies This sin is condemned 1. Exceedingly in the word by Salomon Prov. Eccles. Isaiah and by Paul and in morall Philosophy 2. It is a mother-sin as was shewed before 3. Produceth many plagues rheums obstructions and other inconveniences as hath been also shewed and exposeth one to great danger A good remedy against idlenesse is diligence in some honest calling Iacob and his sons Moses and David were shepherds 1 Sam. 12. 1 2. Let him that hath an office wait upon it This humbleth the minde profits the estate and makes a man able to do good to himself and others interests a man to the things of this life he that labours not must not eat in all labour there is abundance It fits him for religious duties if it be moderate makes the life cheerfull prevents evil fancies Impenitence Impenitence is a great sin under the Gospel Acts 8. 22. The longer one lies in any sin the more is the heart hardened Ier. 16. 1. Ephes. 4. 18 19. He which hardeneth his heart against many reproofs shall surely perish obstinate impenitent sinners shall be destroyed 1 Sam. 12. 25. Impenitence perfectly conforms one to Satan who is in malo obfirmatus and sins without remorse In malo perseverare diabolicum Reasons 1. Repentance is Gods gift therefore denying of it is Gods curse 2. Hereby the highest favour of God is despised the offering of repentance is a mercy that belongs to the second Covenant obstinacy in sinning is a denying of Gods justice and abusing his mercy 3. So long as one lives in any sin without repentance so long God looks on him as continuing in that sin his minde is not changed 4. Without repentance there is no remission Acts 5. 31. Luke 24. 47. therefore the sin against the holy Ghost is unpardonable Heb. 6. 6. because one cannot repent 5. Final impenitency is a certain evidence of ones reprobation Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 12. 17. 6. Under the Gospel there are the greatest arguments and motives to repentance Matth. 3. 2. Acts 17. 30. Christ himself sent Iohn before him to preach the doctrine of repentance and he himself did also preach it he bad men amend their lives because the Kingdom of God was at hand and his Apostles also preacht the same doctrine of repentance He is a wilfull sinner which either holds in himself a purpose that he will sin or is irresolute and not settled in a firm purpose of not sinning or that purposeth to mend but not till hereafter Injustice Injustice is a sin Every man is to have his own and to be permitted the quiet enjoyment of that wherein he hath interest They execute no judgement Salomon saith in the place of judgement there was iniquity I looked for judgement and behold oppression Isaiah Reasons 1. The excellency of the thing abused judgement is a part of Gods authority It is Gods judgement which you execute saith Iehosaphat therefore it is a foul thing to abuse a thing so sacred and of such high respect 2. The causes of it are covetousness distrust of Gods providence shaking off the fear of God and extinguishing the light of nature denying Gods Lordship over the whole world 3. The effects of it are bad 1. It defiles a mans conscience Iudas cast away the thirty pieces which he came unjustly by 2. It will ruinate his state and family A man shall not rost what he caught in hunting 3. It blemisheth the name and stains a mans reputation The Publicans were in such hatefull esteem among the Jews that they were ranked with the very harlots and most notorious sinners because they cared not what nor from whom they gat 4. Riches deceitfully gotten is vanity tossed to and fro by them which seek death a man shall be damned for unjust gain unlesse repentance and restitution come between The Apostle saith God is an avenger of all which do such things Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Intemperance It is an inordinate appetite or immoderate desire and use of meat and drink and this is when a due mean is exceeded either in the costly preparation of them for our selves or others or in the too liberall and excessive use of them so prepared Degrees of intemperance 1. More secret
another I. The rectitude of it In the state of Innocency there was little use of it while man did not offend God nothing offended him Christ was perfectly holy and yet angry at the hardnesse of mens hearts and the pollution of the Temple so man might have been angry at the sin of the devils when he knew it Then it would have been no perturbation to his spirit nor blinding of his minde II. The corruption of it Wherein observe 1. The Object this corrupt anger is conversant about and the measure of it 2. The Causes which produce it 3. The many cursed Effects it produceth in mens lives Of the first There are many Objects of anger The right object is dishonour done to Gods name sin that only displeaseth God The object of it is mistaken 1. When I am angry with God he is exempted in regard of his excellency and spotlesse holinesse Ionah was faulty this way and Salomon notes it of men who have perverted their wayes that they fret against God 2. When I am angry with my Superiours it being the passion of correcting punishing the faults of such should grieve us not anger us therefore Ionathan was not altogether blamelesse for being angry against his father Saul in the behalf of David 3. When I am angry with an innocent party where there is no fault there should be no displeasure Lastly In most cases to be angry with unreasonable or senslesse creatures which are too mean to be the objects of anger as Balaam was wroth with his Asse so to be angry with a horse for stumbling or starting unlesse when they be exorbitant from their natural goodnesse as when the Lion and Bear would worry a sheep Secondly One offends in the measure or quantity of anger when he is angry more then enough The proper end of anger is to awaken courage and set it a work to chastise evil or to resist and beat it down that the minde may not be surprized with it such a moderate stirring of this passion as doth serve thus to set the minde a work to resist and oppose a fault or evil thing is allowable but if it come to a greater heat or flame then so then it exceeds and is naught If it be more vehement where the offence is less then it is excessive There may be a fault in the defect when we are not moved a just occasion of anger being offered as in admonishing reproving or correcting Secondly The Causes which produce it Since the fall the natural humours of the body The immediate cause of it is pride and arrogancy the fruit of self-love Proud and haughty scorner is his name that deals in fierce wrath Should such a one as I be thus dealt with 2. Our low esteem of others in comparison of our selves 3. Those things which should cause us to be meek and quiet as learning wisdom any affront done to that excellency which God hath given us whereas these should cause us to be meek our weaknesse which should also make us meek puts us into passion simple and sick folks are most passionate Thirdly The cursed Effects and fruits of this passion of anger 1. It produceth a great deal of sorrow and woe in this world The angry man never wants woe who hath reproaches enemies 2. It disarms the soul of its own force and layes it open to be invaded by an enemy In patience possesse your souls Prov. 25. ult 3. Puts out the eye of our reason Ira furor brevis Eccles. 7. 9. Impedit ira animum ne possit cernere verum Ionah said to God I do well to be angry to death 4. It hurries all the other passions of the soul it s own way 5. It is destructive to one of the principal ends of mans being to humane society Prov. 22. 24. 6. It sets the tongue on fire whence comes reviling raging Moses when he was angry spake unadvisedly with his lips 7. It produceth abundance of wicked actions swearing cursing quarrelling hurting and rude carriage crying stamping staring 8. It hinders a man from any communion with God 1. From hearing Receive the ingrasfed word with meeknesse 2. Prayer 1 Tim. 2. 8. Unbelief and anger hinder our prayers 3. The Sacrament that is a feast of love 9. It quencheth all the motions of Gods Spirit and closeth with the devil he by it possesseth the very soul Ephes. 4. 26 27. Mans nature is enclined to causlesse ungrounded and excessive anger 1 Sam. 20. 30 31. Eliab was angry with David when he spake valiantly Nebuchadnezzar raged against the three children for not worshipping his golden Image and against the Wise-men of Babel for not being able to declare his dream Herod also was wroth against the Wisemen because they returned another way and brought him not word back again concerning the childe Jesus whom they came to enquire of and worship A godly man may fall into passionate fits be over-cholerick as David and Ionah Reasons why man is so prone to this unreasonable distemper 1. The abundance of those vices in every one which concur to the working of unjust anger 1. Self-love which makes one prone to anger because it is so wakeful jealous observative 2. Folly Anger rests in the bosom of fools A fool in the day of his wrath is known An angry man exalteth folly gives it a high room in his heart makes it a great ruler and commander within him now all men are in the corruption of nature fools and have that title given them by the holy Ghost 3. Pride By pride alone cometh contention saith Salomon 2. Anger is a common fault therefore Salomon saith Make no friendship with an angry man lest thou learn his wayes 3. Men make small account of it a little passion choler they say 4. The bodily temper in the farre greater number furthers it the fiery choler which is in a mans body is the instrument of this hot vice So having a soul defiled with those vices which beget anger a body consisting of such humours as will set anger on work finding many examples of it and making little account of it no wonder if a man do prove a wrathfull creature This anger is greatly disgraced in Scripture Prov. 12. 16. 14. 17 29. 21. 24. 19. 19. 22. 24. 29. 22. it is a fruit of the flesh Lastly The work of grace in sanctifying anger 1. The efficient cause of holy anger The principal cause is the Spirit of God in planting a new nature in the soul and so in this affection Morall Philosophy may go a great way in moderating anger but the Spirit of God only makes it holy 2. Sanctified reason is the immediate caller of it out and orderer of it if it be holy anger it is a grace and therefore must be called out by reason Secondly The motive or occasion of it we are angry for what we should 1. Grosse and presumptuous sins done wilfully openly as Christ was angry
so absolute a Soveraign that when he hath manifested his good pleasure all should be husht and ended and therefore after that he which will fume and take on doth offer indignity to God and neglect his due subjection to that Soveraign Prince of his life whom he ought above all things to regard And so much for the abuse of those holy things which are intermingled with our common affairs Now it follows to speak of the dishonour done to God in disordering of our common actions so far as they touch himself and the things by which he hath manifested himself to us Now these are 1. Inward 2. Outward Inward in regard of Gods Works or our own In regard of Gods works first by ascribing them wholly and principally to other causes without taking any notice of him at least any diligent notice As for example First To Fortune or Chance good or bad if a man go and finde a thing of price to his enriching or so have any other sudden and unexpected benefit coming unto him this he doth in his minde ascribe to good luck and saith that he had great good fortune Contrarily if he go on the way and there lose something of value and price he storms and saith he had bad luck or if any occurrent fals out that disappoints his present hopes he in his minde looks no higher but thinks it ill luck as the Priests of the Philistines told the Princes that if the Kine did not carry the Ark directly towards the way of Bethshemesh then all the misery which had befaln them by Mice and Emerods was but some chance that had befaln them Again men impute Gods works sometimes to the course of nature so as to thrust out him the Authour of Nature or else to tie him to any inferiour cause in nature Thus the Atheist saies it comes by nature that some years are unseasonable and some again seasonable Nature is Gods instrument being nothing else but that common course which he hath established in things if men therefore would from nature ascend higher to the Authour Maker Ordainer of nature which hath by his great wisdome established that course herein they would not sin for God doth work things according to his own determination by usual and natural means most commonly but to be so intentive to nature as to have no thought or but weak few and slender thoughts of God this is a grievous profaning of his Name A third thing which men do impute Gods works to to his dishonour is their friends and foes their benefactors out of good will and their malicious adversaries out of their uncharitableness as the Israelites looked to Assur not to God in whose hand Assur was as a rod and contrarily being succoured by their well-willers they ascribed all to their policy wisdome and friendship Lastly Men ascribe things to their own wisdome care industry pains courage thinking within themselves that their hand hath gotten much that their sword hath saved them as the King of Assur boasted what great matters he had done and Nebuchadnezzar boasted that it was great Babel which he had built Now when any of these things fortune nature our friends our foes our selves are so thrust betwixt God and us that we see not God because of our fond doating on these either feigned or subordinate causes here God is exceedingly dishonoured Another way of dishonouring God in his works is by perverting them to evil and vile purposes and ends 1. By hardening our selves in our sins from his long-suffering patience and forbearance as Solomon saith most men do because sentence against sinners is not speedily executed therefore are they fully bent upon mischief and as the Apostle chargeth them Rom. 2. to heap up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath by turning Gods grace thus into wantonness 2. When men charge Gods actions with unjustice and so either deny or blemish his providence especially in case of crosses befalling them so taking occasion to murmure and be impatient as Iob was by fits and as it is often seen in good men but most of all in bad as they said Where is the God of judgement When men take occasion from any of Gods works to repine against or entertain hard conceits of him this is a grievous sin and a dishonouring of him in his works 3. When men grow proud of his benefits thinking highly of themselves because of those good things he hath undeservedly bestowed upon them and are lifted up as if they had not received them for God gives his mercies to better purposes then to swell the heart as some man because he hath wealth thinks himself better then all that have less thinks that he may be dispensed with in sins that he should not be called upon to such and such duties and contemns others in comparison of himself So did Nebuchadnezzar abuse Gods advancement of him to be lifted up yea Davids heart was somewhat lifted up and be grew secure and therefore proud and Uzziah also for this is a disease marvellous hard to escape which is the true cause why the Lord is fain to be narrow-handed toward his servants in regard of these things because he would not have this pernicious disease to grow upon them and sees that out of abundance it would come forth such is their weaknesse The last abuse of Gods works is by hardening our hearts against them and a wilful refusing to be brought unto that amendment which we might if we would see plainly that he intends as Pharaoh hardened his heart against the wonderful works done by Moses and the wicked Pharisees hardened their hearts against all Christs miracles then which what greater despight can we offer to God to resolve we will not go though he leade and though he drive us or that we will go on though he hold us back with a kinde of violence And these be the principal waieâ— of dishonouring God in his works 2. We dishonour him in our works by mis-intending them either to ends lawful in excessivenesse or to unlawful ends as for example when men labour in their calling onely or chiefly to be rich when men do eat onely to fill the belly most of all if men do these for wrong ends as to do a work in ones calling to anger another or the like for herein we do sinfully pervert the order that should be observed and cast our eyes from him upon whom they should alwaies be fixed as Iehu in exalting of justice in Ahabs family aimed at nothing but the lifting up of himself and establishing the Kingdome to his own house This is a living to ones self and a serving of ones self whereas we ought no longer to live to our selves but to him which hath redeemed us The common sin of mankinde and that which doth stain and defile all the Moralities of unsanctified men causing that those things of theirs are abominable before God which to men carry the most glorious appearances
19. and Psal. 19. beg seem to prove it Cardinal Perron having in an excellent Oration before Henry the 3 King of France proved that there was a God and his Auditory applauding him he offered if it pleased the King the next day to prove the contrary whence saith Voetius de Atheismo He was commanded to depart the Court Because saith Vedelius in his Rationale Theologicum l. 1. c. 3. He favoured that opinion of not admitting the principles of reason in arguments of faith Hence it was easie for him from that foundation to plead for Atheisin since it is impossible to prove that there is a God without the principles of Reason Principles can onely be demonstrated testimonis effectis absurdis shewing the absurdities that will else follow There are two kindes of Demonstrations or proofs 1. A demonstrating of the effects by their causes which is a proof à priori Principles cannot be demonstrated à causa and à priori because they have no superior cause 2. A demonstrating of causes by their effects which is a proof drawn à posteriori So principles may be demonstrated All principles being Prima and Notissimae of themselvâ—s are thereby made indemonstrable Vide Aquin. part 1. Quest. 2. Art 2. 3. Quod fit Deus c The weightiest Testimony that can be brought to prove there is a God is to produce the Testimony of God speaking in his word None other in the world can have equal authority Iohn 8. 13 14. Yet this Testimony is not allowed by the Atheists For as they deny that there is a God so they deny likewise that the Scripture is his word Atheomastix l. 1. c. 2. See Rom. 1. 20. Nulla gens tam effera ac barbara quae non cognoscat â—sse Deum Cicero de natura Deorum Epicurum ipsum quem nihil pudendum pudet tamen Deum negare pudet Mornaeus Numen esse aliquod sumitur à manifestissimo consensu omnium gentium apud quos ratio boni mores non planè extinctâ— sunt inducta feritate Grotius de rel Christ. l. 1. Inveniuntur qui sine regâ— sine lege vivunt qui sub dio degunt qui nudi ferarum instar sylvas oberrant avia quaerunt obvia depascuntur Qui religionis specie qui sacris qui numinis sensu planè carerent nulli inventi sunt nulli ctiammon inveniuntur Mornaeus de veritate Christianae relig c. 1. * The most pregnant and undeniable proof of the God-head with the Heathen was the voyce of conscience The Scripture sheweth that the wicked were much terrified in their consciences after the committing of hainous sins Rom. 2. 15. Isa. 57. 20 21. Mark 6. 14 16 So doth common experience teach in Murtherers Theeves and the like Richard the third after his murthers was full of horror and fear the night before he was slain he dreamed that the Devils were tormenting him Credo non erat somnium sed conscientia scelerum Polyd. Virgil. Wicked men may be without faith they cannot be without fear Isa. 33. 14. they are afraid after committing of sin though in secret because they know there is a Supreme Judge who can call them to account Psal. 53. 5 6. Quid resert veminâ—m scire si tu scias Vide Grot. de relig Christiana l. 1. * Acts 16. 25. and 12. 6. Psal. 3. 6. and 46. 1 2. Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Horat. Every effect hath its cause whatsoever is wrought or done is wrought or done by some thing which hath ability and fitness to produce such an effect seeing nothing can do nothing and what hath not sufficiency to produce such and such effects cannot produce them Of whom there be works and effects he is of God there be works and effects therefore there is a God As God is to be felt sensibly in every mans conscicience so is he to be seen visibly in the Creation of the world and of all things therein contained Man the best of the Creatures here below was not able to raise up such a Roof as the Heavens nor such a floor as the earth Doctor Preston Iob 12. 9. Serviunt omnia omnibus uni omnia Mundi Creatio est Dei Scriptura cujus tria sunt folia Coelum terra mare The Sun Moon and Stars move regularly yea the Bee and Ant according to their own ends wonderfully The creatures which have no reason act rationally therefore some supreme reason orders them Finis in sagittâ— determinatur a Sagittante say the Schoolmen Vide Bellarm. de Gratia libero arbitrico l. 3. c. 15. Vos de â—â—ig Progres Idol l. 3. c. 31. The preserving and ordering of the world and humane societies in it the planting and defending of the Church A number of wheels in a Clock do work together to strike at set times not any one of them knowing the intention of the other therefore they are ordered and kept in order by the care of some wise person which knows the distance and frame of each and of the whole An Army of men could not meet together at one time and in one place to fight for or against one City if the wisdom of one General did not command over all A number of Letters cannot all fall orderly together to make perfect sense without some Composer Protogenes by the smalness of a line drawn in a Table knew Apelles the chiefest Artificer He that sees but the shape and effigies of man presently thinks of a Painter Nec terram propter se vel Sol calefacit vel nubes irrigat nec terra vel tepefacta à Sole vel madesacta à pluvia sui gratiâ herbas ac fructus producit sed propter muta animantia ac hominem imprimis qui mentis altae capax in â—oetera dominatur Non suo id confilio faciunt Alius igitur est qui dirigat universum Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 1. par 1. c. 1. Pulchra sunt omnia faciente te Et ecce tu inenarrabiliter Pulchrior qui fecisti omnia Aug. Confess l. 13. c. 20. Hic compoâ—o canticum in Creatoris nostri laâ—dem Sâ— Humani corporis admirabilem constructionem intus extráque conspicimus ut omnia ibi etiam minima suos usus habeant nullo studio nulla industria parentum arte verò tanta ut philosophorum ac medicorum praestantissimi nunquam eam satis possint admirari Ostendit hoc opificem naturâ— esse mentem excellentissimam Qua de re videri potest Galenus praesertim qua parte oculi manus usum examinat Grotius de relig Christ. l. 1. * Astrology is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the speech of stars Astronomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of the stars The Sun is moved by another by whom he is tyed unto such a strict and unaltâ—rable morion that Astronomers can surely tell unto the very minute all the Eclipses that shall ever fall out so long as the world
it self shall last h The Heathens called the soul of man divinae particulam aurae a parcel of the divine essence but that speech must be taken cum grano salis Civil Effects â—olitiae Leges proâ—ant menâ—em esse divinam intelligentem illas hominibus tum monstraâ—tem tum consâ—â—vantem ne Diaboli impiooum oâ—io machinationibus dissolutae corruant Deus enim est â—eus ordinis Miraculous Effects Exod. 15. 11. Psal. 72. 18. and 136. 4. Iâ—a 41. 23. A Miracle is a work of infinite strength or omnipotency surpassing the wholâ— power of created nature as to turn water into wine to multiply seven loaves to the â—eeding and satisfying of 4000 meâ— to give the use of sight to one born blinde to raise up a man indeed dead to cure a leprosie with the word Miraculum proprie dicitur quod sit praeter ordinem totius naturae creatae Aquin. part 1. Quaest. 114. Artic. 4. ibid. quaest 110. Artic. 4. The bridling of wicked spirits and men Plutarch saith some men were converted from Atheism by seeing of Ghosts and Apparitions Attende totum laudabis totum Aug. Non est judicandum de operibus Dei ante quinâ—um actum Pet. Mart. The Atheists third objection that Religion is but an humane invention It is the actual acknowledâ—ement of God which preserveth his respâ—ct in the world Gen. 3. 3. Gâ—n 3. 3. Soâ—â—â— homo sa 〈…〉 uctus est ut religionem Solus intelligat haec est hominis atque mutorum vel praecipua vel sola diâ—â—antia Lactantius de Ira Dei Mat. 15. 1â— i He spends his whole second Book about this Reason The Greeks insinuate that all Arts come from God in making Mineroa the daughter of Iupiter and to have had her generation in his Divine brain as God the Son is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Grammer Logick Rhetorick carry upon them the same name There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbum that is Grammer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ratio that is Logick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oratio and that is Rhetorick The sea is bound up in a sandy girdle All second causes depend on the first and we cannot proceed in Infinitum All the Reasons of the Natural Philosopher for this purpose may be reduced to three principal heads viz. Ex Motu ex sine ex causa efficiente arguments drawn from the motions ends and the efficient cause of Creaâ—uâ—es Bunnys Resolut part 2. Ch. 2. Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur Some derive Deus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear because the fear of him is planted in the very natures and consciences of all reasonable Creatures others a dandâ— in English God quasi good his daily mercies and blessings shew that there is a God Acts 14. 17. The pure Atheist according to the propriety of that name is he which generally and constantly denieth all Deity and believeth as he saith The stoutest Atheist that ever lived cannot resolutely and constantly believe there is no God a Diagoras made a very eloquent Oration that there was no God but the people coming to him applauded him saying that in his oration â—e had almost perswaded them but he did iâ— so eloquently that they thought he was the god b Morneus cap. 1. de verit Relig. p. 16. Anonymus quidam qui praesente Calvino iâ— Hospiâ—io omnem Dei cultum spem melioris vitae deridens subiâ—de nefariè ingâ—minabat blasphemam Scripturae detorsionem Atheis uâ—itatam Coelum Coeli Domino terram autem dedit filiis hominum à Deo diris torminibus repâ—â—e dercussus est quo sactum ut â—â—binde magno boatu vociferaretur ô Deus ô Deus cui quidam ex hospitibus homo probut sed facctus Tune Deum invocas an Philosophiae tuae oblitus es Cur non in suo Coelo sinis Deum quiescere Et quotiâ—s ille toâ—abat ô Deus hic alter subsannans regerebat ubi nunc est illud tuum Coelum Coeli Domino Sic Calvin Comment in Psal 115. Voâ—t Theses de Atheismo part 2. c When he wanted fire he took one of Herculâ—s wooden Images and made a fire of it saying Go to Hercules thou shalt now go thorow thy thirteenth labour * Clement the seventh Psal. 14. 1. and 53. 15. So Genebrard and Muis expound that Ps. 14. of indirect Atheists who deny Gods Providence Heb. 11. 6. It is not only innatum sed etiam in animo insculptum esse Deos. Cic. l. 2. de natura Deorum No Atheists almost can be named neither in the holy Scriptures nor in Ecclesiastical Histories nor in Heathen writings which came not unto some fearfull end See Atheomastix lib. 1. c. 15. The Saints of God have still stuck to principles Psal 73. 1. and Jer. 12. 1. * Marbury on Gen. 9. 27. d So Demitian Dominus Deus noster sic fieri jubet Suetonius Edictum Domini Deique nostri Martial More Caligulae Dominum se Deumque vocarâ— coegit Aurelius Victor e Psal. 48. 14. f Isa. 40. 5 8. Quid sit Deus a â—ùm dicunt multi ex antiquis paâ—iter recentioribus Deâ—â— esse à seipâ—o hoc intelligâ—â—â—um est negâ—â—ivè ad ex cludendum principium externum ita ut Deus dicitur esse à seipso hoc est ab alio nullo habeat esse non autem positivè seu affirmativè ponâ—ndo principium internum quasi revera à se duceret originem cùm manifestum sit Deum esse absolutè initium omnino nullum habere posse vel à se vel ab alio Barlo exercit 5. b Intelligences are acts not pure acts because it may be said Potuerunt esse Job 11. 7 6. and 26. 24. * In the Epistle to my Hebrew Critica Sacra and in the Book it self Being is Gods Excellency The being of the creatures is no being compared with God Isa. 40. 17 Iudaei in legendis scribâ—ndis nominibus Dei oppidò quam superstitiosi sunt interpretantur tertium praeceptum nomen Iehovae non esse pronunciandum librum in quo integrè scriptum est nudis manibus non esse contrectandum Of those two Greek names see my Greek Critica Sacra * As Iehovah Iah Ehâ—eh Exod. 13. 19. * Vocantur Attributa quia ea sibi attribuit Deus nostrâ causâ Zanchius de Attributis l. 2. c. 11. Attributa illa Dei dicuntur vel negativa ut immensus immutabilis c. vel relativa orta ex Dei variis extra se tendentibus actionibus ut Creator salvator c vel denique absoluta positâ—va Deo extra relationem ordinem ad creaturas sem â—r convenientia qualia esse sapientem bonum c. Hoornbeeck Antisocin l. 2. c. 4. Attributum est Divinae simplicissimae essentiae pro diversa agendi ratione diversa vera habitudo conceptio nobis expressa Mr Stock of Gods Attributes * Proprietates Divinae Naturae seu Essentiae sunt
vide plura ibid. c. 17. Plinies Naturali history l. 32. c. 1. Id. ibid. Iohnstoni Thaum atographia * Pliny Ibid. Four Acres long in the Indian Sea Idem l. 9. c. 3. Amama Antibarb Bib. l. 3. Chamierus tom 2 l. 9. c. 11. Plin. ib c. 2. Ante omnia nihil velocius habent maria ut plerumque saliente transvolent vela navium Solinus c. 21. * Pisces Deus noluit sibi offerri tum quod extra aquam non vivant nihil autem mortuum ex animalibus offerri sibi Deus velit tum etiam quod ex Serpentum genere censeâ—tur Pisces Serpentum vero genus universum damnatum est à Deo proptereà quod per serpentem deceptus fuerit homo fuitqâ— serpens organon Diabelt Gen. 3. Danaeus Isag. Christ. l. 2. c. 23. The orderly course of birds in breeding their young ones is most remarkable After they have coupled they make their nest they line it with mosse straw and feathers they lay their egges they set upon them they hatch them they feed their young ones and they teach them to fly t all which they do with so continuate and regular a method as no man can direct or imagine a better Sir Kenelm Digbies Treat of Bod. c. 37. Job 12. 7. One cannot say of the Phoenix being only one in the world Encrease and multiply there were two of all creatures went into the Atk therefore there is no Phoenix Aldrovandus and Pliny Vide Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 3. c. 99. c Job 39. 13 14 15 16. Lam. 4. 3. Ier. 8. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a She is somewhat like a Hern having a long neck and feet Doctor Twisse against Doctor Iackson Petronius Arbiter Solinus call the Stork pictatis cultricem They count it there a happy Omen for the Stork to build in their houses Job 39. 27 28 29. See of the Nightingales singing Pliny l. 10. of naturall History c. 29. and Famianus Stradas Prâ—lusions Inter omnia Infecta principatus apibus jure praecipua admiratio solis ex eo genere hominum causa genitis Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 5. Nomen Insectis datur ab incisuris quas habent quasi annulos Vossius de orig progres Idol l. 4. When bees are most angry in swarming cast but a little dust upon them and they arâ— presently quiet and leave their humming Practise the fedulity of the Bee labour in thy calling and the community of the Bee beleeve that thou art called to assist others and the purity of the Bee which never settles upon any foul thing D. Donne on Prov. 25. 19. See Butler's history of Bees Vide Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 4. c. 72 de apum prudentia in fabricando alveari deque tota corum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * See Plinies natural history l. 11. c. 17. Vide Moufetum de Insect is l. 2. corpora bello objectant pulchramque petunt per vulnera mortem Virg. 4. Georg. Corollaries There are not known to be of beasts and creeping things above the number of 150 kinds probably there are not many nor great that are not known Plin. nat hist. l. 10. Gesn. de animal There are diveâ—s kindes of brute beasts differing in nature qualities figure colour quantity voice * Utrum ea vox Elephas ab Eleph bos aâ— verò potius ab Alaph quod Syris Ebraeis discere est derivata sit meritò dubites adeò verisimi lis utraque sententia est Nam quod primam attinet in confesso est apud Graecos Latinos nobilitatam semper faisâ—â— bovis pra ceteris terrestribus animantibus magnitudinem Ita credibile est Ebraeos Syros Phaenices cum hoc animal mole figuratione corporis ad bovem quà m proxime accedens primò vidissent bovis nomine appellasse Quod ad alteram attinet quis ignorat ea quae de hujus belluae docilitate narrat Plinius l. 80 c. 1. 3. 7. Cicero Epist. Famil 1. 7. plena manu Lipsius Centuria prima Epist. 5. Amama Antibarb Bibl. l. 3. Vide Plin. hist. l. 8. The Elephant is for growth and understanding chiefest of unreasonable Animals They go two sometimes three years with young and havn extream tormâ—â—â—â—â— in their labour They grow till fifteen in that time mounting to 24. foot yet lie down dance and prove very active Herberts Trav. l. 3. Plinies nat hist. l. 8. c. 40. See Camerar Hist. meditat l. 2. c. 6. Id. ib. Pliniesâ—â—â— â—â—â— hist. l. 8. c. â—0 A memorable story of the punishment of buggery * Topsell de quadrupedibus * Bucephalus signifieth an oxe head Vide Vos Instit. orat l. 4. c. 7. Sect. 11. Plin. nat hist. l. 8. c. 42. l. 6. c. 20. Aul. Gel. Noct. Att. l. 5. c. 2. This horse is also celebrated by Plutarch and Q. Curtius a Sir Walter Rawleigh b Hic est leo hospes hominis hic est homo medicus leoâ—is See D. Willet of the Camell on Lev. 11. quest 14. The ape is so docible that he will learn to play at Chesse See Plin. nat hist. l. 8. c. 54. vide plura de Simia Voss. c orig prog Idol l. 3. c. 59. Angelorum nomen Graecum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim est nuncius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nunciare Graecum nomen Angeli Europaeae gentes ferè retinent nisi quod id inflectart ad terminationem suam Galli id 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicunt ange Germani a in â— mutato engel Martinius de Creatione Angeli ex ministerio quod regi suo praebent nuncupantur Ludov. Viv. de verit Fid. Christ. l. â— c. 14. That there are Angels Omnes apparitiones veteris testamenti ad illam apparitionem ordinatae fuerunt qua filius Dei apparuit in carne Aquin. part 1. quaest 2. art 2. a Esse Angelos vel hâ—â—c lâ—quet quòd sint in rerum naturâ— quae nullis possint adscriâ—i causis Physicis unde necesse est Spiritus esse unde illa proficiscantur Tum etiam videtur ipse ordo universi id requirere ut sint Angeli nempe certum est naturam esse corpoream certum â—â—em est mediam esse naturam quae nempe partim corporea partim incorporea sit consequens igitur est â—â— sit natura quemadmodum mâ—re corporea sic etiam merè incorporea Scriptura vero â—on probat esse Angelos quemadmodum neque probat ammam â—sse immortalem sed hoc sumit Cameron â—om 2. Praelect The Peripaterick call them Immaterial substances Intelâ—igences abstracted and separated forms The Angels are material 1. They are perfect effects therefore must have all the four causes 2. Finite therfore terminated in their essence nothing terminates things but matter form Barlow in Hierons last farewell Zanchy others hold otherwise b Col. 1. 16. 2. 10. c Angels are a mean betwixt God and man as man was betwixt the
parts of the world that they will suffer any crossing of their own particular natures rather then not maintain the general course of nature in the close joyning together of things for if they might be sundred one from another at length the whole must needs be quite out of frame and a general confusion would follow We must even chide and reprove our selves for our extream stupidity that are so little if ever a whit affected with this work so great in it self and so behoveful for our very life and being How are we daily and hourly preserved from the swelling waves how comes it that in all this length of time the Sea hath not broken in upon us and over-topped the earth We do not tell our selves of our debt to God for commanding the waves not to be so bold as to drown us It may exhort us to fear him that hath appointed the Sands for a bound of the Sea and will not let the waves prevail over us for all their tossing and tumbling He is of great power and can over-rule so furious an Element and fear not though the waters roar and though the Mountains were cast into the midst of the Sea This commends unto us Gods greatness who doth so infinitely surpasse the Seas greatness and who hath made so much water for it and it a place for so much water Let us think of it in particular and dwell a little upon it that we may also know our nothingness What a great thing is the Sea in it self considered What is this Island in comparison of the Sea and yet we call it Great Britain It must needs be greater then the earth for the waters did round about involve and encompasse the Earth what then is the whole Globe of Earth and Water and yet that whole Globe is a thing of nothing in comparison of Heaven and yet all that is nothing in comparison of God Oh how great is he and how much to be admired Great not in quantity and extension of dimensions but in perfection of Essence How great is he that is beyond Earth Sea and World and all more then these are beyond Nothing And let us a little compare our selves with this great and wide Sea The Sea is but part of this Globe yet hath in it water enough to drown all the men that are in the world if either it were suffered to overflow as once at Noah's floud or else they were cast into it so that all men are but a small trifling thing in comparison of this Sea and then What am I must every one say to himself and what compared to God the maker of the wide Sea and this wide world Oh how nothing is man am I my self among other men and why am not I humble before God Why do I not cast down and abase my self in his presence and carry my self to him as becometh so poor mean and small a creature to so infinite and great a Creator Let us morally use the things we see else the natural knowledge will do us no good at all We may see in the Sea a Map of the misery of mans life it ebbeth and floweth seldom is quiet but after a little calm a tempest ariseth suddenly So must I look for storms upon the Sea of so troublesom a world For the great work of Navigation and so of transportation of things by Sea and for the fitnesse of the Sea to that use we must praise God every man hath the benefit of it By vertue of it we have Pepper Cloves and Mace Figs and Raisms Sack and Wines of all sorts Silks and Velvets and all the Commodities of other Kingdoms distant a thousand of miles from us and by this they have from us such Commodities as our Land affords above theirs There is no art which helps more to enrich a Nation and to furnish it with things for State pomp and delight And yet how is it abused by Mariners who behold Gods wonders in the deep being the worst of men and never good but in a storm and when that is gone as bad or worse then ever The materials of a Ship are wonderful First It is made of the strongest and durablest Wood the Oake and Cedar Now it is a strange work of God to make such a great Tree out of the Earth Secondly The Nails in it are made of Iron that the pieces may be closely compacted Thirdly Tarre and Pitch to stop every crevise that no water or air might enter this they learned of God himself who bid Noah to plaister the Ark within and without with pitch Fourthly Cords made of Flax a multitude of strange things concurre to this work What pity is it that Souldiers and Mariners as was said who are so subject to dangers and have such frequent experience of Gods goodness and mercy to them in their preservation should generally be so prophane and forgetful of God For the Souldier it is an old saying Nulla fides pictasque viris qui castra sequuntur And for the Mariner Nautarum vota is grown into a Proverb In the third dayes work were likewise created Grasse Herbs Plants and Trees The first is Grasse or green Herb which is that which of it self springs up without setting or sowing 2. Herb bearing seed that is all Herbs which are set or sown and encrease by mans industry The third Trees and Plants which are of a woody substance which bear fruit and have their seed which turns to fruit in themselves God by his powerful word without any help of mans tillage rain or Sunne did make them immediately out of the Earth and every one perfect in their kind Grasse and Herbs with Flowers and Seeds and Trees with large bodies branches leaves and fruits growing up suddenly as it were in a moment by Gods word and power The great power of God appears in this He is able to work above nature without means the fruitfulnesse of the Earth stands not in the labour of the Husbandman but in the blessing of God He also caused the Earth to yeeld nourishment for such divers Herbs and Plants yea Herbs of contrary quality will grow and thrive close one by another when those which are of a nearer nature will not do so The Herb was given at first for mans use as well as beasts Gen. 1. 9. Psal. 104. 14. Herbs are one wonderful work of God The greatnesse of the work appeareth in these particulars 1. The Variety of the kinds of Herbs 2. The Variety of their Uses of their shapes and colours and manner of production and of their working and growth Some come forth without seed some have seed some grow in one place some in another some are for food some for medicine and some for both That out of the earth by the heat of one Sun with the moisture of one and the same water there should proceed such infinite variety of things so differing one from another is
that thou hast heard me Reasons why the people of God should specially observe the returns of their praiers First Praiers are the chief actions of our life the first fruits of our Regeneration Acts 11. 15. Paul being a Pharisee praied before that was no praier to this Secondly The greatest works of God are done in answer to praier all the promises and threats are fulfilled by it Revel 8. 5 6. 16. 1. Thirdly Whatsoever is given to a man in mercy is in the return of praier 1 Iohn 5. 14 15. Fourthly Every return is a special evidence of our interest in Christ and of the sincerity of our hearts God answers his peoples praiers sometimes in kinde he gives the very things they ask as to Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 20 27. Sometimes he denies the thing yet grants the praier First When he manifests the acceptation of the Person and Petition Gen. 17. 8 9. Secondly When he gives something equivalent or more excellent as strength to bear the crosse Heb. 5. 7. a heart to be content without the thing Phil. 4. 5. 1 Sam. 1. 18. Thirdly When he upholds the heart to pray again Psal. 86. 4. Lam. 3. 44. Fourthly When thy heart is kept humble Psal. 44. 17. Fifthly When he answers Cardinem desiderii the ground of our praiers 2 Cor. 12. 8. When God hath heard our praiers we should return to him 1. A great measure of love Psal. 116. 1. 2. Praise What shall I return to the Lord I will take the cup of salvation 3. We should fear to displease him Psal. 6. 8. 4. We should be careful to pay our vows 1 Sam. 2. 27 28. 5. We should pray much to him Psal. 116. 2. CHAP. VI. Of the Lords Prayer CHRIST delivered the Lords praier at two several times and upon several occasions in the former he commands it as a patern and rule of all praier saying Pray after this manner but in the later say some he enjoyneth it to be used as a praier When ye pray say Our Father If so then would it not follow that whensoever we pray we should necessarily necessitate praecepti use that form Robinson in his Treatise of publick Communion and his Apologia Brownistarum cap. 3. saith Neither do the two Evangelists use the very same words neither if that were Christs meaning to binde men to these very words were it lawfull to use any other form of words For he saith When you pray that is Whensoever you pray say Our Father yet he adds Though I doubt not but these words also being applied to present occasions and without opinion of necessity may be used What is objected against using this as a praier may be said of using the precise words of our Saviour in Baptism and the Eucharist As a just weight or balance serves both for our present use to weigh withall and also for a patern to make another like the same by it So the Lords Prayer serves for a patern of true praier and also for our present use at any time to call upon the name of the Lord with those words The Reformed Churches saith D. Featley generally conclude their praiers before Sermon with the Lords Praier partly in opposition to the Papists who close up their devotions with an Ave Maria partly to supply all the defects and imperfections of their own Object We never reade that the Apostles used this prescript form of words in praier Answ. It is absurd negatively to prove from examples of men against that which God in his Word so expresly either commanded or permitted for we may as well reason thus We do not read that the Apostles or the Church in their times did baptize Infants Ergò They were not then baptized Or thus We do not reade that the Apostles did pray either before or after they preacht Ergò They did it not Though the Apostles did not binde themselves to these words yet this doth not prove that they never used the same as their praier they might pray according to their several occasions according to this rule and yet with the words of the rule so Paget Here two extremities are to be avoided The first of the Brownists who think it unlawful to use the prescript form of these words The second of the Papists who superstitiously insist in the very words and syllables themselves Unlesse it be unlawful to obey the expresse Commandment of our Saviour Christ Luke 11. 2. it is lawful to use these words yet when Christ Matth. 6. commandeth to pray thus he doth not tie us to the words but to the things We must pray for such things as herein summarily are contained with such affections as are herein prescribed B. Downam on the Lords Praier Object 2. This praier say some is found written in two books of the New Testament viz. Matth. 6. Luke 11. but with diversity of termes and the one of these Evangelists omits that which the other hath written How then ought we to pronounce it Either by that which is expressed in S. Matthew or that which is couched by S. Luke Answ. If this Argument might take place when we celebrate the Lords Supper we must never pronounce the words which Jesus Christ spake in that action for they are related diversly in four divers books of the Scripture When one of the Evangelists saies Remit us our debts the other expounds it by saying Forgive us our trespasses It is indifferent to take either of these two expressions both of them were dictated by Jesus Christ. Our Saviour Christ propoundeth this Praier as a brief summe of all those things which we are to ask For as the Creed is Summa credendorum the summe of things to be believed the Decalogue Summa agendorum the summe of things to be done So the Lords Praier is Summa petendorum the summe of things to be desired Tertullian cals it Breviarium totius Evangelii Cyprian Coelestis Doctrin◠compendium If a man peruse all the Scripture which hath frequently divers forms of praier he shall finde nothing which may not be referred to some part of the Lords Praier Luther was wont to call it Orationem orationum the praier of praiers In this form are comprized all the distinct kindes of praier as Request for good things Deprecation against evil Intercession for others and Thanksgiving These Rules are to be observed in the exposition of the Lords Praier 1. Each Petition doth imply some acknowledgement or confession in respect of our selves 2. Where we pray for any good there we pray against the contrary evil and give thanks for the things bestowed evils removed bewailing our defects with grief 3. If one kinde or part of a thing be expressed in any petition all kinds and parts of the same are understood Petit. 4. 4. Where any good thing is praied for in any Petition the causes and effects thereof and whatsoever properly belongs to the said thing is understood to be praied for in
that Petition and so when evils are praied against their causes occasions and events are praied against 5. What we pray for we ask not for our selves alone but for others specially our brethren in the faith There be three parts say some of the Lords Praier the Preface the Praier it self and the Conclusion Others say two the Preface and the Praier it self consisting of Petitions and the conclusion containing a confirmation of our faith joyned with the praising of God and also a testification both of our faith and the truth of our desire in the word Amen The Preface is laid down in these words Our Father which art in heaven The Petitions are six in number all which may be reduced unto two heads 1. Gods glory 2. Mans good The three first Petitions aim at Gods glory as this Particle Thy having relation to God sheweth The three last Petitions aim at mans good as these Particles Our Us having relation to man imply Of those Petitions which aim at Gods glory The first desireth the thing it self Hallowed be thy name The second the means of effecting it Thy Kingdome come The third the manifestation of it Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Of those that aim at mans good the first desireth his temporal good Give us this day our daily bread The two last his spiritual good and that in his Justification Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us 2. In his Sanctification And leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evil In the Conclusion or form of praise three things are acknowledged 1. Gods Soveraignty Thine is the Kingdome 2. Gods Omnipotency And the Power 3. Gods Excellency And the Glory All these are amplified by the perpetuity of them For ever which noteth out Gods Eternity The entrance or preparation to the praier contains such a description of God as is meet for us whensoever we addresse our selves to praier to have him in our hearts Christ leads us here to direct our Petitions in the terms of affection faith and fear in the terms of affection while we call God Father in the terms of faith whilst we call him our Father and by faith make him to be ours in Christ Jesus and in the terms of fear whilst we acknowledge his power in heaven and earth M. Wischart on the L. P. The Preface containeth a description of God to whom we pray taken 1. From his relation to us that he is Our Father 2. From the place where his Majesty principally appears that he is in heaven The former signifying especially his love the other his power the one his goodnesse the other his greatnesse therefore he is both able and willing to grant our requests A due consideration of these both together is a special means to preserve in us both confidence and reverence Our Father Father is taken 1. Personally My Father is greater then I. 2. Essentially so here God is a Father to us only in Christ and in him only w◠are adopted and born again Ephes. 1. 5. Iohn 1. 12. Gal. 4. 4 5. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God the Father upon a believer accounting him a Sonne through the Sonship of Christ. All by nature are strangers and enemies to God have lost their Sonship Adoption is to take a stranger and make him his Son Extranei in locum liberorum samuntur saith the civil Law 2. It is an act of the free grace of God the Father none but he hath power to adopt Ephes. 1. 5. 1 Iohn 3. 1. Men adopt because they want a posterity God had a natural Sonne and the Angels which never sinned were his Sonnes by Creation 3. An act of God upon a believer none are adopted but believers Iohn 1. 12. Gal. 3. 26. till then we are enemies to God 4. The nature of Adoption lies in accounting a man Sonne and that by God 1 Iohn 3. 10. 5. Through the Sonship of Christ imputing Christs righteousnesse to us makes us righteous God accounts you also sons through Christ he gives you the priviledge of sons Iohn 1. 12. It is lawful and sometime profitable for a childe of God to say in his praier My Father to declare his particular confidence not his singular filiation yet it never ought to be so used exclusively in respect of charity but we ought usually to call upon God as our Father in common In secret praier which a man makes by himself alone he may say My Father or my God but not in publick or with others yet in secret praier there must be that love and affection toward others which must be expressed in publick and with others If God be your Father know your priviledges and know your duty 1. Know your priviledges a Father is full of pity and compassion Psal. 103. 13. a Father is apt to forgive and passe by offences Father forgive them said Christ Matth. 6. 14. a Father is kinde and tender good and helpfull you may then expect provision protection Matth. 6. 32. an inheritance from him Luke 12. 32. As he gave his Sonne in pretium for a price so he reserveth himself in praemium for a reward Tam Pater nemo tam pius nemo saith Tertullian Gods love towards us is so much greater then the love of earthly parents as his goodnesse and mercy is greater Isa. 49. 15. 63. 15. Psal. 27. 10. Luke 11. 13. 2. Know your duty Where is the filial disposition you expresse towards him do nothing but what becomes a childe of such a Father Rules to know whether I am the childe of God or have received the Spirit of Adoption First Where ever the spirit of Adoption is he is the spirit of Sanctification 1 Iohn 3. 8 9 10. Secondly Where the spirit of Adoption is there is liberty 2 Corinth 3. 17. Psal. 51. 12. Thirdly The same Spirit that is a Spirit of Adoption is a Spirit of Supplication Rom. 8. 15. Fourthly This works in that mans soul a childe-like disposition makes one tender of his Fathers honour willing to love and obey him Fifthly It raiseth up a mans heart to expect the full accomplishment of his Adoption Acts 3. 19. 1 Iohn 3. 16. Rom. 8. 32. He desires to partake of the inheritance to which he is adopted Heaven is a purchase in reference to the price Christ hath paid an inheritance in reference to his Sonship Isa. 63. 15. Which art in Heaven In Heaven sets forth his Greatnesse Psal. 12. 4. Gods Being Majesty Glory Ioh 4. 19. Heaven is all that space which is above the earth of which there are three parts Coelum Aëreum Gen. 1. 8. Aethereum Gen. 1. 14. Empyreum Acts 3. 21. The first Air in which are the Birds Fowls of Heaven The second is that Heaven wherein the Stars are which are called the hoast of Heaven The third is the seat of the blessed and throne of God called