thy Father's Children shall bow down before thee c. Gen. 49.48 Whence and from several other Scriptures may appear That Judah had the first place in the Love of God before any other Tribe or Family then upon Earth yet God would not bear their Wickedness but was provoked by it so as he slew Er the First Born Son of this great Father of the Tribe and from whom it took its Denomination And in After-time when their Kings did wickedly God was provoked with it as appears particularly in the Instance of Manasseh who did evil above all that the Amorites did which were before him for which cause God said He would bring such Evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever should hear of it both his Ears should tingle And further I will forsake the Remnant of mine Inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their Enemies and they shall become a Prey and a Spoil unto all their Enemies because they have done that which is Evil in my sight and provoked me to Anger c. And notwithstanding the great Reformation soon wrought in Judah by that good King Josiah who was this wicked King's Grand-Child of whom 't is Recorded That like unto him was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his Heart neither after him arose there any like him Yet so far was the Lord provoked upon so great a defection of the People that he turned not from the Fierceness of his Wrath wherewith his Anger was kindled c. but said I will remove Judah also out of my sight as I have removed Israel and I will cast off this City Jerusalem which I have chosen and the House of which I said My Name shall be there c. § 3. So 't is clear People in great Favour with God could forsake him by Disobedience and forfeit their share in his Love and instead thereof draw down his Displeasure and Wrath upon them For no Man shall please the Lord or continue long in his Favour who does not Love Honour and Serve him and it hath been in many Instances observable That the nearer God takes any People unto himself the more need they have to be humble reverent and holy as they are nearer the Divine Presence For the Lord hath said He will be sanctified in them that come nigh him which when Moses expounded of the sudden and miraculous Death of Nadab and Abihu Aaron held his Peace this high Priest could not deny the Exposition Levit. 20.1 2 3. So for People to take a greater liberty in their Words Actions and Conversation because of an Opinion of their being more Beloved of God and his People in a more peculiar manner than others is exceeding foolish and erroneous this hath introduc'd that evil Licenciousness with some People that they could think those things tolerable in themselves which they condemn in others and hath found out that hurtful distinction between the Sins of the Saints and the Sins of the Wicked and hath brought a strange Species of Sin for they 'll not allow it to be of the common fort into the Prayers and best Duties of the Saints which many will plead for as though it were either necessary or unavoidable Whereas the Man that is thus stated with respect to the Divine Favour should rather shew it forth out of a good Conversation with Holiness of Truth Next Amos the Prophet saith in God's Name unto this Select People Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the Fumilies of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your Iniquities which hath come to pass on this once Honourable Tribe as well as on the rest of the Jews whose Government is overturn'd their Country inhabited by another People and they under a more visible Dispersion into other Lands than any other People or Nation under Heaven and remain to this day as a sort of Vagabonds and Fugitives scattered up and down upon the face of the Earth having neither King or Nation of their their own for as Levi hath lost his Dedicate things so hath Judah his Regalia the Scepter is departed from him the Lawgiver from between his knees CHAP. V. Being 1. An Inquiry into the Infamous Race and Posterity of wicked Ham whom their Father Noah Cursed with great Bondage and Servitude notwithstanding which Curse and Rejection many good People were found amongst them 2. That their General Restoration is held forth in Scripture § 1. HAving taken a view of the two most honoured and beloved Families upon Earth let us next take a view of the most Accursed and Infamous Family upon Earth that of Ham's not Excluding even those that wear the black Badge of Darkness in the surface of their Skin the Posterity of him who blush'd not at his Father's Nakedness became as it were uncapable of a Blush Our Saviour himself speaks of this People in comparison of the aforementioned as Dogs to Children Mat. 15. So that if there had been such a special Election according to which some had been sav'd without any respect to their Faith Obedience c. it would have been found among those or if there had been such an absolute Reprobation according to which some had been cast headlong into Perdition without any respect to their good or evil Deeds we should find it among these But in the trace of the former it 's shewed how that notwithstanding their special Election many of them were rejected and fell away So it may appear concerning these that such of them as walked according to the Grace given them were received and accepted for good For Instance 1. Vriah the Hittite one of David's Worthies a Man of great Zeal and Vertue who was with Israel in their Wars against Ammon and his Zeal for God was such as coming on an Errand from the Army he refused the King's Order to go home unto his Wife saying The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in Tents 2 Sam. 11.11 and my lord Joab and the Servants of my lord are incamped in the open Field shall I then go into mine House to eat and to drink and to lie with my Wife As thou livest and as thy Soul liveth I will not do this thing 2. The Widow of Zarepha or Sarepta to whom Elijah the Prophet was sent after he had prophecy'd against Ahab King of Israel and she was a Woman of great Faith as the following Passages shew At that time there was a sore Famine in the Land and she was run to the last extremity having left her but an handful of Meal in a Barrel and a little Oil in a Cruise and she was gathering Sticks to bake it for her and her Son being resign'd unto Death after that their last Cake was eaten And yet even in this extremity she was perswaded to feed the Prophet with this her Food and to believe him contrary to the common course of things that her Barrel of Meal should not waste nor
the Destruction of the Wicked to be of God and not of themselves and that Evil is no cause of it but God's Decree c. hides and conceals the Malignity and Poison of Sin which of its own Nature is pernicious and destructive to Man's Soul tainting and infecting it with Corruption and Rottenness by which it slides into the deep Abyss of Death and Misery as a due Reward This Doctrine searcheth not into the Wound of the Soul made by Sin which decays it and of its self brings Death and Ruine if not timely cured And this Doctrine makes the Physitian the Malady the Healer the Destroyer the most Soveraign Balm the Canker of the Wound So if we can admit of all these Absurdities and abundance more we may admit of Decretal Reprobation which cannot be § 6. For the Scripture declares 1 Thes 4. v. 3. That this is the Will of God even your Sanctification Vers 4. That every one should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and Honour Vers 7. That God hath not call'd us unto Vncleanness but unto Holiness Ezek. 18. v. 32. That he hath no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth Chap. 33. v. 11. That he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Luke 15. v. 7. That there is Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that Repenteth c. Now as Holy Writ hath given us this true Account of God's Will for us to conclude him Acting quite contrary to it is to affront the Scripture and oppose God against himself making him Will one thing and Act another Who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will But for us to conclude him Decreeing any Man's Eternal Destruction from all Eternity or from the Fall or from before his Birth without any respect to his Deeds c. is to conclude him Acting quite contrary to his declared Will in Scripture c. Then he that worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and willeth not nor hath pleasure in the Destruction of the Wicked he hath not without any respect to their manner of Life decreed it But God works all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and willeth not nor hath pleasure in the Destruction of the Wicked therefore he hath not absolutely Decreed it c. Object But they say God hath his Declared Will and his Secret Will and that Men are Decreed to Election or Reprobation according to his Secret Will c. Answ As to this we read of Secret things that belong unto God Deut. 29.29 Psalm 25.14 and of his Seerets that are with the Righteous and with them that fear him This Secret Will of which they talk Job 15.8 must be the one of these two sorts if of the first how do they know it Do they understand the Secrets of God And do they restrain Wisdom to themselves If of the latter what Proof give they of it Or how do they reconcile it that there should be in God two opposite Wills the one Secret the other Reveal'd and these contradictory to each other the one preservative the other destructive of Men According to the one he hath Sworn He wills not the Death of a Sinner according to the other He both Wills and hath Decreed it because of his Will not because of their Sin And thence come so many Thousand innocent Infants to be in Hell according to them among the Damned A witless graceless merciless gospel-less Opinion a most staring Piece of Confusion and Blasphemy which either chargeth Schism upon God or reconciles Contradictions There have been none so bad but what have had Offers of Salvation Cain had it the Old World had it Sodom and Gomorah Gen. 4.7 and 6.3 and 18.30 c. Jonah 3. Jer. 51.8 9. Rev. 2.21 Nineveh c. Nay even Babylon God call'd to Mourning for 'em saying Howl for Babylon take Balm for her Wound if so be it may be healed he would have healed Babylon And of Jezebel he saith I gave her time and space of Repentance but she Repented not In the next Chapter I shall take account of some general Relations of God to us and shew from them That our Preservation not our Destruction is his Work Will and Delight c. CHAP. II. Being a further Refutation of the Doctrine of Reprobation by Arguments deduced from some General Relations of God to us viz. 1. From his Regal Office and Power 2. From his being the Everlasting Father 3. From the Office of Jesus Christ as our High Priest c. § 1. THe Lord most High is a great King over all the Earth Psalm 47.1 2. Mal. 1.14 Rev. 19.16 And Regis est Regnare it is the Property of a King to Reign According to which there are several Powers or Prerogatives belonging to him the Power of Soveraign Rule Power to execute Justice and Judgment Power of Life and Death of Punishing and Pardoning Offenders c. Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What doest thou But all this Power is lodg'd in him not for the hurt but good of his Creatures for their Benefit not Detriment His Office is not to Destroy but to Preserve and Defend them against the Violence and Spoil of foreign Enemies and the Injuries of one another their Safety is his Law Salus populi suprema lex He is the Terror of the evil doer and Praise of them that do well Now should a King use his Power to an evil end to bereave the greatest part of his Subjects of their Properties and Lives not because of their Fault but of his own Arbitrary Will and Pleasure and had only this to be said for him That he was extraordinary kind to a few Or suppose he agreed with his Rebelling Subjects on these terms 1. To forgive all past and accept them still on Condition they behave themselves well and dutifully for the time to come 2. That their Treason should not attaint their Children or subject them unto any Forfeiture or Punishment and should pass these Covenants into Laws Yet should notwithstanding all this without Provocation by any new Offence break out into Fury against them and should utterly Kill the far greatest part of them and their Children meerly for his own Will or to shew his great Power over them or to set forth the Terribleness of his Wrath or to spread his Name abroad c. In an Earthly King this would be accounted and that truly the height of Persidiousness Cruelty and Tyranny and yet these Predestinarians consequentially lay all this at his door and aver it to be the way and manner of the great King § 2. God is called in Scripture the Everlasting Father and we are called his Off-spring The Off-spring of God c. For he is the Father of us all by Creation Now this is not a Destructive but a Preservative
Favour with God nevertheless by their wilful Disobedience and repeated Provocations fell under God's great Displeasure and Rejection 3. Shewing from thence the Nullity of their or any others Election when falling short of Honouring God and Performing Covenant with Him HAving spoken of Israel in general that Elect People whom the Apostle Paul differs from other People in his Comparisons as the true Olive-Tree from the wild Olive-Tree and as the Natural Branches to them that are not Natural Branches of the true Olive-Tree but in a way above Nature might be grafted in I shall now say something of the Two Principal Tribes amongst them and the most Select Families amongst those Tribes because if ever any were saved without any respect to their Walking with God c. they would be found here we should meet with them among these Beloved and Honoured People And 1. First of Levi that Priestly Tribe in that same Night in which God slew all the First Born of Egypt he sanctified to himself all the First Born of Israel and he made choice of and accepted this Tribe in lieu of them and separated them unto the Priests Office and none were to bear the Tabernacle or Ark or come near to touch the holy things but them and their incampment was round about the Tabernacle c. And of this Tribe the Dignity and first Honour fell upon Aaron and his Sons Eleazer and Ithamar and they were distinguished in their Consecration with Water Oil Hysop and Blood in their Offerings made for them in their Vestments Food Services their Incamping next the Tabernacle Eastward where if any Stranger came he was to be put to Death Now Aaron the first High Priest confirmed in his holy Office against the Contenders for that Dignity by a great Miracle the Budding of his Rod in one Night its Blossoming and bringing forth Almonds he died in Mount Hor. And Moses put his Robes upon Eleazer his Son and Successor in the Honour of the high Priesthood which was confirmed to him and Phineas his Son when he slew Zimri and Cosbi by way of the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood yet a period was put to the descent of this Honour in Eleazer's Line at the Death of the Fourth High Priest after him and it appears it had been of more duration by the Promises made unto the next Family had they kept God's Covenant For the fourth High Priest from Eleazer being dead that Dignity devolved upon Eli the first High Priest of the Line of Ithamar whose Sons were Sons of Belial and knew not the Lord but committed great Wickedness and their Father restrained them not And there came a Man of God unto Eli and said unto him Thus saith the Lord Did I plainly appear unto the House of thy Father when they were in Egypt 1 Sam. 2.33 c. And did choose him out of all the Tribes of Israel to be my Priest c. Wherefore kick ye at my Sacrifices c. And honourest thy Sons above me c. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith I said indeed that thy House and the House of thy Father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith Be it far from me For them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Behold the days come that I will cut off thine Arm and the Arm of thy Father's House c. And the Man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine Altar shall be to consume thine Eyes and to grieve thine Heart c. Soon after this Israel was smitten by the Philistines the Ark of God taken the two wicked Priests the Sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas slain in one day and Eli upon the News thereof falling from his Seat broke his Neck and died c. Hence it is plain the exceeding Love of God to this Family and how perpetually Happy they might have been if they had Honour'd God and how Wretched and Miserable they made themselves by provoking him with their Wickedness and Abominations So as this high Honour was quite remov'd out of their Line in the time of King Solomon when he expell'd Abiather from the Priesthood 1 Kings 2.26 who was the last of the high Priests of the House of Ithamar in whose place he constituted Zadock and in him was again restored the Line of Eleazer to the possession of that Dignity to which as that Prophecy here fulfilled teacheth they now ascended by the steps of the Trespass of the other From whence 't is clear that Sin is Sin in the most Beloved People and that God may be provoked by it to forsake 'em and instead of the purposed Blessing to bring a Curse upon them So there is no continuing Sanctuary in Election if we make it not sure after the above-mentioned Gospel-manner but in Vertue and keeping the Covenant there is Sanctuary in Faith and Holiness is an Invincible Shield To which agreeth the Prophecy of Malachy who in his day told the Priests on this manner If you will not hear if you will not lay it to heart Mal. 2.1 2. to give Glory to my Name saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a Curse upon you and I will curse your Blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart I will corrupt your Seed and spread dung upon your Faces c. So here God will be Glorify'd in the House of Eleazer For want of this we see Ithamar's House long since rejected and cursed and now the Curse entering upon the House of Eleazer for the same cause of not giving Glory to the mighty Name of God And they were a select People and had great Promises concerning the first God had said indeed Thy House and the House of thy Father shall walk before me for ever and to the latter he had long since given his Covenant of Life and Peace even the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood but is now beginning to corrupt his Seed and to spread Dung on his Face and what 's become of their Priesthood their Tabernacle their Temple their Mercy-Seat Ark Altar Sacrifices and all their holy things How is Levi this day cast off scattered rejected c And as it is Glorious on the one hand to consider their high Dignity and Honour so is' t on the other hand Astonishing to consider their Privation of it their Debasedness and Misery 2. I come next to speak of Judah the most Enobled and Royal Tribe of the whole Earth if distinction is to be made of Blood it 's to be found here the most Royal Blood that ever run in Humane Veins if of Lineage and Families the World affords us instance of none so Great so Renowned as this Honoured with the Birth of Christ his Name imports Praises and his Excellency was held forth in his Blessing Judah thou art He whom thy Brethren shall Praise thy Hand shall be on the Neck of thine Enemies