or at least of the increase or abundance of it in the world The Apostles meaning is that the Law was given as a praeparative Physick or medicine to let such as were sick of sin as all were before the Law was given understand in what danger they were or to give them notice of the abundance of corruption which was so deeply seated in their Nature that it could not be throughly purged by the Law which only set sin a working that men might seek more eagerly after a Better medicine to wit Faith in Christ That this was our Apostles true meaning in this place is apparent from the Parallel-passages to these Romanes Chap. 7. 7. what shall we say then is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin that is I had not taken true notice of the measure or danger of it but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet The Law to which these words referr is the tenth Commandement wherein the Coveting of some few particulars as of our Neighbours Wife or of his goods is only expresly forbidden But sin taking occasion by this Negative Commandment wrought in our Apostle as he himself testifies all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead that is He did not feel the Motions or Paroxysmes of sin untill the Law was laid unto him as a Preparative Medicine unto better Physick And againe ver ninth I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sâ—n revived and I died And againe ver 11. 12. 13. Sin taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me Wherefore the Law is Holy and the Commandement Holy and just and good Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appeare sin working dâ—ath in me by that which is good that sin by the commandement might become exceeding Sinfull It is a Point observable and fully paralel to our Apostles doctrine That the Easterne part of the world did rather loath then long after Circumcision Vntill our Saviours Resurrection and the Apostles peremptory forbidding the practise of it From the former doctrine of our Apostle I have learned satisfaction to a Probleme which had often and long Perplexed my thoughts The Probleme was this Why Men Unto whose care and fidelity a man might safely commit his Fortunes or his life upon their honest word became most carelesse and unfaithfull in matters whereto they are punctually tyed by oath The reason is Because the interposition or obligation by oath is as the coming of a Law which provokes the Corruption of Nature whose longing or lust after things forbidden rather then it should be unsatisfied drawes men otherwise morally honest to become like wayward intemperat Patients which rather chose to nourish the longing humours of the disease or infirmity then to observe the prescription of the Chirurgeon ready to pull off the plaister though with the live-skin or flesh rather then to endure the working of it for a moment 4. But here some have Questioned Whether this Chapter be meant of the Regenerate or Vnregenerate Man A Captious Interrogatorie if Regeneration were but one Act or a resultance of some Few Acts or Conflicts between the Flesh and the Spirit But seeing Regeneration in true Theologie includes Acts almost numberlesse or a Combate somewhat longer then Mortification doth This Chapter if we speak of Christians must be Meant not of the Man truely Regenerated or perfectly Mortified but of a Man Inter Regenerandum during the intermediate Acts or conflicts betwixt the beginning and the Consummation of his * See the 9 Article of the Church of England Regeneration Or if we speake of One that beleeves the Old Testament better then the New as of a Jew or Mahumetane it cannot be meant of a Lawlesse Man but of a man under the hammer of Gods Law given by Moses For there must be a Laying of some Law or Other to the heart before the Conflict here Mentioned can begin or Sin inherent be so Provoked as our Apostle tells us it is 5. Why Sin Originall is more provoked by the Negative then by the Affirmative Precepts He that will diligently peruse our Apostles forementioned Passages Romans 7. in the Language wherein he wrote will easily observe with me That the occasion which Sin tooke By the Law to deceive him as it doth yet to deceive us was from the Negative Precepts or Commandements of the Law not from the Positive or Affirmative Now why the Negative Precepts that one especially Thou shalt not Lust Thou shalt not Covet should a great deale more provoke or more forcibly revive the seeds of Originall Sin inherent in us then the Affirmative Precepts usually doe the Reason is Evident because nothing is nominated or proposed unto us in the Affirmative Precepts but that which in its nature is truely and sincerely Good without the mixture of Evill And being such is more apt to revive or quicken the Notions of the Law of Nature or Reason or those Reliques of Gods Image which remaine in our Nature since our first Parents fall then to Enlive the seeds of sin or to provoke our inclinations unto Evill On the contrary In every Negative Precept there is a Proposall or representation of those things which be in their Nature truely Evill and therefore most apt to incite or provoke our natural Inclinations unto the evill forbidden or to enrage the Reliques of our first Parents sin inherent in Us after the same manner and for the same reason that the representation of red Colours without any other Provocation given is to provoke or stirre the blood of beasts or Cattel which are of a more pure or sanguine Constitution Thus some tame Beasts as Bulls or Kine are aptest to turne man-keen upon such as are cloathed in bright red or Scarlet And a grave Learned ‖ Scortum Hispani generis lepidum ut serebatur formosum mula ut Romae meretrices cum Amatoribus solent animi gratia gestabatur Haec cum venisset ad Thermas Diocletianas Vivarium ferarum ingressa nec contenta cicures vagantes Spectasse precibus contendit aegâ—è impetrat à beluarum Magistro ut ingenti urso cavea separatim incluso sed quem constabat in Neminem antea desaevjisse exitum aperiret Facta potestate ursus erumpit mulam terresacit excussam mulierculam Caeteris qui aderant diffugentibus invadit dictoque citius strangulat contrito capite primùm avulsa ubera deinde natem alteram devorat unguibus dentibus laceratam Esseratam bestiam existimo colore coccineae vestis quam induerat misella speciem sanguinis Praeferentem Sepulveda Epist lib. 2. ep 15. Historian sometimes Chronicler to Charls the Fift in an Epistle of his to his friend relates a sad accident of a Beare which had never been observed to have raged upon Any yet being let loose from
command him to do and such an eager pronenesse or appetite to do those things which the Law of Reason or of Nature forbids him to do and those things with greatest Eagernesse which the same Law of Reason or other positive Laws derived from it most peremptorily and upon severest penalties forbid him to do It hath been observed by many Authors that the Unnatural sin of Parricide wilful Murther of Father or Mother or of Superiour Kindred did not become rife or frequent amongst the Romans until they had upon particular sad accidents enacted a publick Law and ordained a special kind of torment for transgressors in this kind Lucius Ostius was the first amongst the Romans that did commit this Unnatural sin And He lived almost six hundred years after the City was founded a little after the second Punick War Some good ‖ See Plutarch in the Life of Romulus Laertius in the Life of Solon and Tully in His second Oration Pro Roscio Amerino who gives the true Character or Expression of that speech of Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untowardly rendred by the Latin Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Rom. pag. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Lacrt. l. 1. in Solone Is Solon cùm interrogaretur Cur Nullum supplicium constituisset in Eum qui Parentem necâsset respondit se id neminem facturum putasse Sapienter fecisse dicitur cùm de eo nihil sanxerit quod antea commissum non erat ne non tam Prohibere quà m admonere videretur Tull. Orat. 2. Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino Writers ascribe the long abstinence from this unnatural sin unto the wisdom of Romulus their Founder who enacted no Law against much lesse appointed any peculiar kind of death unto this Crime which He expected should never be committed by His Posterity Certain it is that Solon for the like reason did not so much as mention this Crime in His otherwise most severe Laws But this observation was taken from the Heathen Romans in times ancient and far more remote and doth not as happily will be objected hold in these times or places wherein we live Yet the Ingenuous and Learned French †Thuanus Historian who meddles with the History of his own times only tels us that the like unnatural sin towards Children or Infants did never come to so high and far-spreading a Flow in the great City of that Kingdom until the State or Parliament had erected a peculiar Court to be held for examination or trial of such Cruel Mothers as sought to salve the breach of one Commandment by the violation of another to cover the shame of their own wantonnesse by murthering the tender fruits of their folly as if the Damme which the Law had set for repressing or stopping the Course of this bloudy sin had but provoked the stream or Current to swell higher and greater to overburst all obstacles or inhibitions which the Laws of God the Laws of Nature and of the Kingdom had set against it 2. Again why Pulpit-pride why Clergie-cunning insolency or malice should grow into a Proverb throughout most Christian Kingdoms or Provinces as if these or like transgressions in our profession were of such a scantling as could hardly be matched by the Laitie I cannot give a more probable reason if the imputation be true or the occasion of the Proverbe just then this That Men of our profession who are Gods peculiar Inheritance are bound by the Lawes of God to more strict observance of our Saviours praecepts concerning Humility Meeknesse Brotherly-love and Charity or peaceable disposicion towards all then ordinary Men or men of other Callings or professions are And we know whose saying it is That if we do not continue as we are by the place wherein he hath set us the Salt of the Earth and Light of the World We shall become the most degenerate unprofitable members of the Land and Church wherein we Live And if the whole Tribe were to beare peculiar Armes as some other ingenuous Professions doe No Device could so well befit us as Jeremiah's two Baskets of Figges Then saia the Lord unto me What seest thou Jeremiah and I said Figgs the good Figgs very good and the evill very evill that cannot be eaten they are so evill Jer. 24. 3. The bad Figs were the Emblem of the disobedient refractory as the good Figs were of the obedient and beleeving Jewes in the Prophets time Both parts of the Embleme are as applyable to the Sons of Levi in our dayes Such of this Tribe as suffer sin to raigne in their Mortall bodies are generally the worst of sinners Such as mortifie the workes of the flesh by the spirit by prayer and other good services of God and seeke their Freedome or manumission by the Son of God Working out their Salvation with feare and trembling are the Best of all Gods Saints on Earth 3. The proper effects or Symptomes of Sinâ— Original described by S. Paul But the greatest part of the Induction hitherto made for finding out the properties or Symptomes of Sin original will be excepted against especially by such as are meer strangers to their own Breasts or dispositions of their hearts because the particular observations or Experiments whereof the Induction consists have been made by the Heathen or related by Authors not Canonicall But the Exception will voyd it self if we shall make it cleer to men altogether unexperienced of themselves that the like Experiments or observations have been made and more fully expressed by one whose Authority is Canonical whose Testimony of Experiments made in himself and taken by himself is most Authentick it is St. Paul That sin Originall was in the world before the Law was given is cleer from this Apostle Rom. 5. 13. For untill the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law So our English and most other Modern translations render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of them altogether so well as it might be rendred Better thus There is not there cannot be any true estimate or full reckoning made of sin where there is no Law to give the * The Syriack reades it Usque enim ad Legem peccatii quum esset in mundo non reputabatur peccatum propterea quòd nâ—n erat Lex That is Sin though it were in the world untill the Law yet was it not reputed or reckoned for sin untill the law was given But if it be true which the Appostle Saith that sin raigned unto death untill the Law I hope it was imputed with a Witnesse Charge And againe Ver. 20. Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound This abounding of the offence whereof he speakes was the issue or effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or Finall Cause why the Law was given For so the Law-giver might be suspected to have been the Author of sin
heirs not therefore in the estate of absolute election because they are in the estate of the sons of God or heirs with Christ by Baptism For many whom God hath graciously accepted for his sons many who during the time of their Infancy have enjoyed the estate or Priviledge of the sons of God may in riper years turn Prodigal sons and disinherit themselves and none can be disinherited but he that hath been in the estate or Condition of an Heire or untill with Esau he have sold his birth-right Both parts of this Assertion That all that are Baptized in their Infancy become the Sons of God and during their Infancy do live to God 2. That Sin even in such may revive and wound some grievously others mortally are included in our Apostles dispute Rom. 7. 9. I was once alive saith the Apostle without the Law but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed Doth he speak this of himself only or of all men without exception or restraint that were without the Law Not Absolutely of all Men that were without the Law for so the Gentiles which were not under the Law which knew not God nor his Lawes should have been so alive as the Apostle there saith he sometimes was because they were more without the Law then he at any time was Nor doth he speake this of himself alone but of all such as he was That is of all such and only such as were the Seed of Abraham and had been circumcised the 8 th day and by Circumcision became under the Law though for the present without the Law So that as Baptism now so circumcision then did free the Children of Abraham from the curse of the Law did Translate them from the estate or Condition of the Sons of wrath to the Condition or Priviledge of the Sons of God But did the Apostle or his brethren which were made alive by Circumcision in their Infancy continue in the same estate of Life untill their mortal Lives end No The Apostle expresly adds But when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed So that sin before the Commandement came was dead and revived when the Law came And the Apostle before the same point of time was alive but then dyed When then did the commandement come which by its coming did bring life to sin and death to this our Apostle and such as he was It is an Observation of very good Vse which S. Basil hath to this purpose in his Comment upon the first Psalm See S. Basil's words at the End of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When our Reason comes once to ripeness or perfection That is fulfilled which is written Adveniente mandato revixit Peccatum when the Commandement comes Sin revives For when such as have submitted themselves to the Law of God come to the use of Reason or to take their Estate into Consideration they begin to examine their Consciences by the Law of God and sin which was before Inherent though quiet being called in Question grows desperate and rebellious against the Law by which it is examined against the Judge which condemns it against the Party which calls it in Question The Extract as well of our Apostles speech as of S. Basils Observation upon it confirms the Truth Chap. 29. n. 5. which was before delivered in the Treatise of Mortification That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth during the time of Infancy or Childhood sufficeth not to save the same Parties when they come to Use of Reason or Consideration for then the Commandement comes upon us a Commandement to Mortifie the deeds of the Flesh by the Spirit to enter the Lists or Combate with sin reviving in us which will certainly kill us unless we mortifie it as it reviveth in us or quell it as it rebells against us So that the estate or Condition of such as have been baptized after once they come to the use of Reason is an estate different from their estate in their Infancy or Childhood an estate likewise different ordinarily from the Absolute estate of Election But of this estate and of our Christian demeanour in it I shall now only say thus much in Generall This Mortification of the Flesh which our Apostle injoynes Rom. 8. 13. is that Reasonaâ—le Service which the same Apostle requires Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service But why a Reasonable Service In opposition to the Service of the Law which did consist in the Sacrifice of Buls and Goats and other Reasonless Creatures which yet were offered by the holy men of God in Testification of their Faith or Expectation of the promised Messias This Reasonable Service or Mortification of the Flesh must be performed by us in Testification of our Beliefe that he hath accomplished the Sacrifices of the Law by the Sacrifice of himself Again this sacrifice or offering of Our selves that is of Mortifying our Brutish or unreasonable affections by the Spirit Aurum Thus Myrrham Regique Hominique Deoque says Juvencus an old Poet and Father that lived An. xii 330. is a great deal more acceptable to God then the offerings which the three Kings or Wise men offered unto our Saviour Jesus Christ They offered Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense in testimony or acknowledgement that the child then born was the King of the Jews But in as much as we know that we are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish we cannot either Symbolize with the Sacrifice of our High Priest or attain to that live Sympathie with him by the offering of silver gold or any other kind of offering besides the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit If as He offred himself by the eternall Spirit to God the Father for us So we again offer up our selves to him by Mortifying our earthly man by the Spirit then his Bloud as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 14. shall throughly purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God and finally cleanse us from all our sins Unto this Reasonable service or offering up of our selves We were consecrated by Baptism This was a Sermon preacht upon the Epiphanie as I take it and bound by solemn vow then made and if we continue constant in performing this Vow after we come to riper years we shall continue in the state or Condition of the Sons of God which we had by Baptism and by continuance or Progress in this estate we shall arrive at the Immutable state of grace or absolute election For the end of the Son of Gods appearance or manifestation was that he might thus lead us on from strength to strength untill we appear before our God in Sion The Doctrine of Mortification and the consequences thereof were it thus Taught and Laid to the
this Sentence of death till he commit the Fact at which the Law doth immediately strike not at his Person Again there is ordinarily required to Excommunication not only Sententia Iuris but Sententia Iudicis Though the Canon by which he is Excommunicated were made Long before yet he that offends against the Canon is not forthwith Excommunicated by it until he be refractory or Contumacious The Judge may admonish before he give Sentence without his sentence judicially given the party is not excoÌ„municated by the Law But some peculiar Cases there be wherein a man may stand Immediatly Excommunicated by the law or Canon without the sentence of the Judg there is no place left for Admonition or recanting The Fact being once proved either by witnesses or by its own Evidence the Judge hath no more to do but to read the Canon and to pronounce that the party hath fallen upon it So that he is said to be excommunicated by the Law or Canon which was made perhaps a thousand years before he was born yet not born an excommunicate person or in the State of excommunication into this estate he falls by doing some Fact or other at which the Rule or Canon doth immediately strike without further Processe or Conviction Now in as much as the Sentence was given before he was born it cannot be denyed but that he was excommunicated before he was born and yet had not been excommunicated at all unlesse he had done that Fact which requireth Excommunication by the Law 7. Some Founders of Colledges appoint a Process or Formal proceeding against Offenders even in grosser Crimes as for Adultery Murther manifest Perjury or the like before any man can be expelled for these and the like Crimes Such as they appoint Judges must give Sentence Viva voce upon the examination not of the Fact only but of the Quality of the Fact as whether it be Scandalous in so high a degree as deserves Amotion without further Admonition or expectation of amendment And every one that is in these Cases amoved or expelled is expelled by his present Judges not immediatly by his Founder or his Statutes though the Judges must proceed according to their intent or meaning But in case any of the same society the very Governours themselves should obtain a Licence or Dispensation for their Oath there needs no sentence of any Judge there is no place for Admonition or Traverse because the Founders themselves even when they made these Lawes and statutes inflicted these punishments upon all such as in this kind transgress their statutes Now upon whomsoever the Founder of any Society which dyed some two or three hundred years agoe did inflict the punishment of Expulsion by vertue of this present Statute he did inflict it before the party offending was born and yet this punishment had not at all fallen upon him unless he had committed that Fact which the Founder in his life time did thus severely censure whensoever it should by any of his Society be committed See the Note at the end of this Chapter Now in this case we may truly say that the party thus offending doth * expell himself by committing that Fact for which he was expelled by his Founder The Founder then expels him before he was born without any respect unto his Person â—or no Lawgiver makes any Decree or Law against any mans Person but against mens Misdemeanours but the party cannot be said to expell himself before he doth dash against the inflexible Law or statute 8. And if no Law-giver on earth how partial soever make any Capital Decrees against any mans person Far be it from us to think that the Eternall Law-giver who is himself the Everliving Rule of Justice and Equity should sentence any mans Person to everlasting death albeit whosoever is sentenced to everlasting death be so sentenced from Eternity because God himself who is Eternal is the very Rule or Law a Law or Rule inflexible which cannot alter and yet rewards every man according to all his wayes and works not according to his Person or Individual Nature Whosoever then is reprobated by God is Reprobated by him before he be born even from Eternity and yet no man Baptized is born a Reprobate or becomes so untill he reprobate himself by committing those sins or rather that measure of sin unto which the Eternall Law-giver did before all Times award finall exclusion from the Benefits of Christs Death and Passion Now unto such ungodly men as St. Iude here speaks of this Award was allotted from Eternity thus they were ordained to Condemnation But their Persons were not created or made to ungodlinesse Taking them as now they are there was a Necessity from Eternity that they should perish but there was No necessity from eternity that they should be such ungodly men as now they are This necessity did accrue in time they wilfully and freely brought it upon themselves Thus much of the First Part of the Second General to wit In what sense it is true That whosoever is reprobated or ordained to everlasting death in time was so reprobated or ordained from Eternity The meaning is that the Law or Rule by which he is reprobated or ordained to death hath no beginning of Date it was unchangably set from Eternity Yet was this Law or rule an Immanent Act that is conteined in him only who is Eternal it dit did not produce any Reall effect answerable unto it either for the creature before he was made or in the creature after he was made until he have made up that measure of Sin unto which everlasting death was by this Eternal living Rule awarded But the measure of sinne being made up then as the Lawyers speak Indicium transit in rem judicatam that is the eternall Law or sentence produceth a Transient Effect in the Creature so qualified and that is an Ordination Passive the beginning of that death which shall have no end 9. The Second Part of the Second General Second part of the second General which was the last Doctrinal point was Whether St. Iude in this place be to be understood of Gods eternal design or Ordination unto death or of some written Ordination or Ruled Case which did as truly fit these men taking them as now they are as it did other ungodly persons of old against whom the Sentence of Condemnation here meant was denounced or declared by other of Gods Embassadours That these ungodly men here in S. Jude were Fore-ordained to this condemnation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth literally and clearly evince but whether this Fore-ordination were in S. Iudes intent or meaning a Fore-ordination from Eternity the literall importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old doth make it questionable or rather puts it out of question that he did not so mean For it is an Adverb of Time and never reaches to my observation so farre as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉
by his Blood were the Deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Light 4. The Parallel between the Institution of the Passover and of the Lords Supper or of the two Inheritances bequeathed the one by Moses the other by Christ is so plain that it needs no Comment It only requires a diligent Reader or Hearer or what is wanting on the ordinary Hearers part may be supplied by every ordinary Catechist before the receiving of the Sacramental Pledges One point yet remaines more pertinent to the unfolding of our Apostles meaning Heb. 9. ver 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth And it is this As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance or take possession of the Land of Canaan till after Moses the Testator or Mediator of the old Testament was dead so neither was the Kingdom of Heaven our everlasting inheritance set open to all or any Beleivers until Christ Jesus the Testator or Mediator of the new Testament was crucified dead buried and raysed again to immortal Glorie Since which time as is the King so is the Kingdom or inheritance bequeathed so is the Testament it self being sealed by his bloody death All and every of them Truely Everlasting CHAP. XLVIII The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and The One Sacrifice of Christ And The high praeeminence and efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrin that in the Masse Christs Body is Identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 1. THe principal Termes of proportion in this Parallel which serve as so many several Kens or Markes for the right survaying of it are The services of the Law or the Offices of Legal Priests and the Perpetual Function of our High Priest The services of the Law wherein our Apostle instanceth are the Principal and most Solemn Sacrifices which were injoyned to the Priests after the order of Aaron The One Sort whereof were Anniversaries as of Bullockes and Goates and to be offered every year upon the day of Attonement and so to be offered from the First Erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness so long as the Law of Ceremonies was de Jure to continue untill our Saviours death upon the Cross since which time all Bloody Sacrifice have lost their Legal Vse The Other service was That Sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the Consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her Ashes which perhaps was not Anniversarie nor often put in practice from the time of Moses his Death untill the Ascension of our Saviour into heaven Now our Apostle takes it as granted that if these choice Sacrifices of Attonment and of the Red Cow were altogether unsufficient to purifie the Hearts and Consciences or the Soules and Spirits of sinful men the Ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the Law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifices of our high Priest was Alsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifice of our high Priest was Alsufficient and most Efficacious for The Eminency of Christs bloudie Sacrifice upon the Cross in respect of all Legal sacrifices of what rank soever consisteth First in the Efficacy which it had and hath for Remission of all sins committed against the Moral Law of God that is of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable Soul and Conscience The least degree of such Purification no Legal Sacrifices could immediatly effect reach or touch To what Use then did they directly serve or what was the proper Effect unto which they were immediately terminated That was the Purification of mens Bodyes from meere Legal uncleannesse that is from all such negligences Ignorances or Casual Occurrences as not being expiated by the Priest did exclude the parties so offending from the Tabernacle of the Congregation Or as our Apostle speakes to Purifie them from such uncleannesses of the flesh as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul or the dead works of sinne All which being not expiated by a more excellent Priest then any was after the order of Aaron will exclude all from entring into the heavenly Tabernacle 2. Such Legal uncleannesse as did exclude the Parties polluted with it from the Tabernacle of the Congregation was many waies contracted as by touching of the dead by eating of Meats forbidden by the Law or by not eating meates allowed of by the Law according to the Rule or Prescript for such Ceremonial Services or by the like Omissions or Practises which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful but sinful in the Seed of Jacob only to whom they were Evill only because forbidden not forbidden because they were evill in their own nature Even in regard of such shadows or Typical Offices for Purifying men Legally unclean the best and most solemn Sacrifices of the Law though offered once at least every year and otherwise as often as dayly Occasions or Occurrences did require were no way so efficacious or Effectual as the One Sacrifice of the Son of God offered by himself but Once for all is for the perpetual Purifying of our Soules from the Dead works of sin and for our Consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God which is that Freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such Free as Believe in his Name and Abide in his word John 8. 3. The Eminencie of Christs Priesthood and Sacrifice above the Priesthood and Services of the Law is deeply wronged by the Doctrine and Practise of Secular and Regular Roman-Catholick Priests as they do term themselves and so is our Apostles Doctrine in the ninth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews more peremptorily contradicted by them then it was by the Incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his life time The Western Anti-Christ so the Lutherans distinguish them hath in this particular so farr out-bid the Antichrist of the East that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Law-opposer or man of sin were to be followed close with Howant-Cry or his Footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years by the Christian Kingdoms or States the Chase and Cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent then into Constantinople though That no question be now the seat of Gog and Magog or of the Eastern Antichrist That Contradiction of Sinners which our Saviour Christ did indure here on Earth Heb. 12. 3. improved by the Roman Church in later dayes against all such as
justly be allowed in any Academicall Act or Commencement albeit the Answerer or Defendant were furnished with no other grounds or occasions of his Theses besides that usually avouched Distinction between the Act and Obliquitie of the Act specially if the Distinction were applyed unto the First Sin of our First Parents In that sin whether we refer it to our Father Adam or to our Mother Eve the Act and the Obliquitie are altogether as unseparably annexed as Rotunditie or roundnes is with a Sphere or moulded Bullet And to imagine there should be one Cause of the Act and another of the Obliquitie or sinfulness of the Act would be as gross a Soloecisme as to assigne or seek after any other Cause of the Rotunditie or roundnesse of a Sphere or Bullet besides him that frames the one or moulds the other or as it would be to enquire any other Cause of the equality between two bodies before unequall besides him that makes the quantity to be of one and the same-size or scantling or of the similitude between the Fleece of a black sheepe and of a white sheep perfectly dyed black besides the Dyer Now the similitude betwixt that which is perfectly dyed black and that which is black by nature doth inevitably result from the Dyer without the intervention of any other Cause imaginable Easie it were to produce a volume of like instances in the workes of nature or of mens works and practises upon them all of them concludently enforcing the resolution of the former Probleme to be allowable in Schooles by most perfect and absolute Induction if Arts or Sciences were once so happy as to have none but true and accurate Artists to be their Judges As indeed they are the sole competent Judges in like Cases and Judges they are within these precincts as Competent as the Reverend Judges of this or any other Land are in Causes Civil Municipal or Criminal 2. Admit then a man were found guilty of murther by a Jury of his honest Neighbours upon the Authentick Testimonies of two or three witnesses which had seen him run his Neighbour through the body in some vitall part or to cleave his head in two and a Philosopher or Physitian should undertake to arrest the Judgement or make Remonstrance to the Judge that the Delinquent arraigned and convicted by the Jurie was not the true or immediate Cause of the others death upon these or the like allegations out of his own facultie That death properly consists in the dissolution of naturall heate and moysture whereas the party arraigned did never intend to make any such dissolution or to terminate his Action to the point of death but onely to thrust his sword through him or to knock him in the head which Actions can have no direct Terme besides the Vbi or Terme of locall motion Can we imagine that any Judge could be so milde as not to censure such an Apologizer for a saucy Artificiall Foole or a Crack'd-brained Sophister And yet this Apologie is not cannot be in vulgar judgments so Censurable of Artificiall folly as the former Apologie for salving the Escapes Errors or ill Expressions of some Learned and Pious Men by nice distinctions betwixt the Act and the Sinfulnesse of it in our First Parents Case was For there is not so immediate or so absolute or necessary connexion between death and the deadliest wound that can be given to any man as there is between Acts peremptorily forbidden by the Law of God and the Obliquitie or sinfulnesse of them For there is not neither is it possible there should be any minute of time or which is less then the least part of a minute any moment of time betwixt such Acts and the Obliquitie resulting from them Both of them come together both in respect of order of time and of nature by absolute indispensable Necessity Whereas between death and wounds given meritorious of Capital punishment there usually is a distance of time and oftentimes no absolute or unpreventable necessity that the one should follow within a year and a day of the other 3. But the best Method to convince such as Invented or used the former Distinction of gross error and somewhat more then so will be to retort their own Illustrations or justifications of it upon themselves as I have learned by successefull Experience upon some learned Ingenuous students which have revoked their own opinions and reclaimed others upon the reading of my meditations upon this argument in another Dialect In solenni Lectione One of the most usuall Illustrations or intended corroborations of the former distinction is borrowed from a Man that rides a Lame or halting horse Such a rider say they especially if he ride with switch and spur is the Cause why the horse goes or runs as fast as he can but not the Cause of his lamenesse or of his halting Of his lamenesse supposed he was lam'd before the Rider I confess is no Cause yet of his actuall halting down-right or of the increase of the lameness which will follow upon the unseasonable riding or over-riding he is the only Cause For if the poor Beast might have rested his bones when he was enforced to trot or gallop he would not have halted at all at that time nor would he have been so grievously lame as by such unseasonable usage he is But this instance or Illustration suppose it were not much amisse in respect of men now living can no way sute or fit the Question concerning the sin of our First Parents For Adam at his creation was no way lame or defective either in soul or body before he tasted of the forbidden Fruit. Now if the Almighty Creator had been the cause of this Act he had been as true a Cause of the First sin or of Adams halting in his service as he that bestrides a sound and lusty horse and runs him upon the spur in a rugged and stony ground or in a deep way is of the lamenesse of the death or any disease which ensues such desperate riding 4. Many commit more gross Idolatry with their own fancies then the Heathen did with their Idols To imagin that God should deal so hardly with the First Adam as to give him a Law which he intended to make him break and yet to punish him with death for the breach of it Or that the Second Adam the wisdom of God should send wise men and Prophets to Jerusalem to the intent or End that She should stone or put them to death or for this purpose that their bloud should in later dayes be required of Her as some in our times have publickly taught is an Imagination in it self much worse and more dangerous then the erection of Images though Roman-wise in Reformed Churches A greater Abomination then any Idol of the Heathens For Images or Idols are but the External Objects of or enticements unto grosse Idolatry Nor was it the Carpenter or Statuary that did make the Heathen gods
Lands or Goods or of his own Actions or Imployments Every one likewise is a Servant that being come to full yeares is deprived of this Right or power to dispose of himself of his Lands of his Goods of his Actions or imployments either in whole or in part As for Children or such as are under Yeares though borne to be Lords over others yet whilest they are under yeares they are properly neither Free-men nor Servants Although as the Apostle teacheth us Gal. 4. 1. 2. they participate more of the Nature of Servants then of Free-men Now I say that the Heire as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of All but is under Tutors and Governours untill the time appointed of the Father For this Reason one and the same word in the Original is promiseuously used for Children and for Servants because Neither of them are at their own disposals but at the disposals of their Guardians or masters 3. According to the severall Extents of this want of Power or Right to dispose of themselves of their Actions or Imployments Or rather According to the Extent of others Right or Power to dispose of them in all these there be severall Degrees of Servitude and divers sorts of servants Some as the great Philosopher in his Politicks would have it are Servi à Natura were framed by Nature only to serve or to be at other mens disposals as not being able to dispose of themselves Such as had strong Bodies but weake Braines were in his judgment more fit to be governed by Others then to govern themselves But this kind of servitude is improper For Omnis servus est alicujus Domini Servus Every Servant is the Servant of some particular Lord or Master whose Interest whether in his Person or imployments must be grounded upon some Speciall Title Such as by Nature are destitute of witt or Reason Qui ubique est nusquam est He that is every where is no where do not thereby become Servants unlesse we should say they were every mans Servants that are disposed to imploy them And this Priviledge they have of others That they are not capable of any Contract or Legall Title by which they may make themselves or be made This or That mans servants And being no mans servants they can be no servants 4. Though our English Servant be derived from the Latin Servus yet servants in our English tongue we call many which a good Latinist would rather call Famuli then Servi being indeed Servants that is at other mens disposals but in part only not in whole whom for Distinction sake we call Apprentices or Hired Servants Over whose Actions or Imployments their Masters during the time of their hire or Apprentiship have full right and Interest and Authority likewise over their Bodies or Persons to correct or punish them if they take upon them to dispose of their Actions or Imployments otherwise then for their Masters Behoof or as they shall appoint But over their Persons their Bodies their Goods or Children their Masters have no Right nor Interest They may not take upon them by our Laws to dispose of These as they do of their Day-Labours or bodily Imployments Yet are these properly called Servants as having made themselves such or are so made by their Parents or Guardians upon some Contract or by some Branch or Title of Commutative Justice in which there is alwayes Ratio dati accepti somewhat given and taken that binds both the Parties As in this particular case The Master gives and the Servant receives meat drink and wages And in Lieu of these Benefits received the Servant yields up and the Master receives a Right or interest in his bodily and daily Labours and a Power to dispose of these Yet are they Servants as we said only in part not meer servants 5. Meer Servants or servants absolutely or in whole were such as the Latines called Mancipia such as we call in English Slaves or Bondmen or such as sometimes out of a superfluity of speech or expressing our selves in our Native Dialect we term Bondslaves For a Slave is as much as a Bondman and no Bondman can be any more then a slave A Bondslave is a Name which hath no Reality answerable or fully commensurable unto it Unto this state or Condition of life that is of being a Slave or Bondman no man is bound or subject by Nature No Man will willingly or voluntarily subject himself Such as heretofore have been and in divers Countries yet are Servants in this sense were made such by others from a pretended right or Title of Conquest and were called Mancipia quasi manu Capti because they had been taken in War and might by rigour of Justice at least by rigour of Hostile Law be put to Death as men convicted of Rebellion by taking Armes Now the price of their Redemption from death was losse of Civil Liberty as well for themselves as their posterity These were truly and properly called Servi according to the native Etymologie of this name in Latin Servi quasi Servati They were again wholly and meerly Servants according to the utmost extent of the Nature and of the Real Conditions or properties of Civil Servitude that is Their Lords or Masters had an absolute Right or Interest not only in their Bodily Actions or Imployments but over their very Persons their Bodies their Children and whatsoever by any Title did belong unto them The Interest Power or Dominion which Masters by the Civil Law or Law of Nations had over their Servi or Mancipia their Slaves or Bondmen was altogether such and as absolute as a Free-holder hath over his own Inheritance or Fee simple that is a power or Right not only to reap or take the Annual Fruits or Commodities of it but full Right to Let or Sett for Term of years or to alienate or sell the Propertie For so were Bondmen and their Children bought and sold as Lands and Goods or Cattle are with us All the Right Dominion or Interest which Masters with us have over their Servants or Apprentices is only such as a Tenant or Lease-holder for some limited time or Terme of years hath over the ground or soyl which he payeth Rent for that is a Right or Property in the Herbage a right or power to reap the Fruits or increase of it during the time of his Covenant but no right to alienate or sell so much as the Earth or Gravel much lesse to alienate or make away the Fee-Simple or Inheritance which is still reserved unto the Owner Thus the Bodies or persons of hired Servants are their own Their mindes and Consciences are Free even during the time of their service But the Use or imployment of their Bodies in services Lawful and Ingenuous is their Masters So are the Services of their wit for accomplishing with care and diligence what by duty they are bound to perform CHAP. XVI That the former
a Servant but to one Lord besides his Bellie Whereas his Master had subjected himself to many unruly Appetites and enormous desires all contrary to the Dictates of his own Reason or Conscience in his more private and retired thoughts So much of the Law of Reason and of Nature was implanted in this his Master that he could highly commend the manners and practises of the Ancient Romans And yet if any good spirit did invite or move him to follow their example he was as ready to kick at the motion or the practise in Particular as he had been to commend the pattern set him by the Ancient Romans considered only in the General Being not invited by his betters abroad a moderate homely dish of broath of herbs c was most applauded by him and his family free from molestation But if Mecaenas or any other great Potentate had upon short warning invited him to supper he instantly declared himself to be a Slave both to his Belly and to his Superiors and a Tyrant withal to his Servants chiding one for not bringing him Oyl beating another for not bringing him water or other preparatives with more speed then could in reason be expected From these and the like Inductions Davus concludes his Master to be more then a Slave or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an instrument indued with Life and motion a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wooden Picture of a Man which had no mastery over his own motions or resolutions having subjected his Will and Reason to dance attendance upon Every Great mans will or pleasure like a puppit upon a string which it hath no power to wag or move but is moved upon it at the pleasure of the master or practiser of this kind of childish sport The rest of this Slaves Arguments all concludent to prove his Master or such men as he was to be more sottish slaves then himself the Reader may find briefly set down in the eighth book of these Commentaries Sect. 2. Chap. 7. page in Quarto 63. CHAP. XX. Of the Fruitlesnesse of the former Notions in the best Heathens 1. BUt what did it boot this Satyrist to know all this or to mark the most of the Romans his Country-men to be indeed true Servants Horace and Tully both true Servants though they knew not tò whom He himself laid nothing of all this to Heart The best use we can in discretion presume to be made of this Observation was to make himself and Others merry setting down his observations by way of Play or Enterlude He lived and for ought we know dyed an Epicure not in Practise only but in Opinion One that accounted it the greatest part of misery or Servitude to be wedded to one kind of Bodily Pleasure or carnal delight And the greatest Happiness he aimed at was to be Free to taste and try all kind of Pleasures so far as they were not hurtful unto his body 2. As for Tully though he handled his matters a great deal more gravely and soberly and were much better in Opinion Yet in the issue of his discourse He seems rather to change his Master then any way to set himself Free He was not indeed such a Servant to his own Imagination or Fancy not such a Servant to Covetousnesse to Lust perhaps not to Ambition or Superiority of dominion as He observed the most other Romans to be Yet he was a greater Servant to His Owne Will then others were to their inferior desires His very Will it self was in Servitude as having no Rule to rectifie it unlesse it were the Romane Lawes which though in many particulars they were Good yet Such as were too much addicted unto the intire Frame of them Or Such as gloried in the wisdome or Excellencie of them were brought unwittingly to exercise Enmitie against God and his Annoynted Christ. Such as the Romanes accounted their Godliest Patriots or Common-wealths-men were alwayes the Greatest Enemies unto the Jewes or Professors of Moses Law before our Saviours time as unto the Christians after our Saviours death God in his just Judgements did send them such cruell Kings as Tiberius and Nero because they were so cruelly bent against the Professors of his Gospel What could it advantage these or any other Heathens to know themselves to be in Servitude not knowing unto whom they were in Servitude or whose Servants they were de Facto nor by whom they were to be made Free Some good Notions they had of vice or of Sin But of Satan or his wicked Angels they had not so much as heard or at least what they had heard of them they accounted but Toyes or Fables And that which was the Root of their misery and strongest bond of their Slavery was that they worshipped Friends or Devils as if in their opinion they had been Gods because able to do them bodily harm or bodily good Now in offering Sacrifices as our Apostle saith unto Devils they did solemnly and publikely professe them to be their Lords and Masters So that they were not only professed Servants unto Sin but professed Servants unto Satan In worshipping them and doing them Service they did that which was worthy of stripes and were to be beaten yet with fewer stripes then the wicked Jew or such as confesse Christ to be their Lord and yet will not learn to deny ungodlinesse For these Heathens did not know that they had such a Lord or Master whom they were bound to serve And not knowing him to be their Master how was it possible that they should know his will But we acknowledge him to be Our Lord We know his will We know the End of his coming into the World was to destroy the works of Satan Now if we shall labour to build up that which He came to destroy we shall prove our selves not only to be servants to sin and by Sin Servants unto Satan but professed Enemies and Traytors unto Christ 3. Many that call Christ Lord true Servants to Satan Our Saviours Sentence is Universal Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin As you shall think or meditate upon the same let me request you to take this addition or Supplement into consideration with it Whosoever is the Servant of Sin is the Servant the Slave or Bondman of Satan ☜ Let no man therefore flatter himself with this or the like Conceit That because he professeth Christ to be his Lord he cannot therefore be so true a Slave and Bondman unto Satan as the Idolatrous Heathen were which offered sacrifice unto him They did indeed unwittingly implicitely and really acknowledge him to be their Lord and themselves his Servants by paying Rent or Tribute unto him But such as deny all such Rent or Service may make him their Lord Vid. Salvianum 1-6 and themselves his slaves or Bondmen by Prescription or continual possession 4. The Heathens which offered sacrifice unto Bacchus as to a supposed god of riot or Good Fellowship or a Patron
could have had none in respect of Gods Decree or Ordination if it were true that God had ordained him to eat the Forbidden fruit For the Rule is most certain That God is the Cause and Author of whatsoever he Ordains men to do and hence we read that God hath Ordained us to good works to newness of Life to the performance of all those duties which are commanded But we never read in Scripture and let it never be read in any other Book but with indignation let it never be spoken or thought upon by any Christian but with detestation that God should ordain men to walk in the ways of Cain or to tread in the pathes of ungodliness The Conclusion then is firm and sound That these men here mentioned in St. Jude The conclusion of the first point were not ordained to trouble the Church but ordained and that of old unto that Condemnation which is due to such as trouble the Church or to ungodliness And that is a fearfull condemnation as St. Jude expresseth it ver 13. For to them saith he is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever And if this were reserved unto them or for them they were first ordained unto it the Sentence was already past upon them albeit the Execution be deferred untill the Judgment of the great day But unto this condemnation they were ordained because they had followed the ways of Cain and run greedily after the error of Balaam as St. Iude tels us ver 11. But farre be it from us to think that they were ordained to follow the ways of Cain who was the first troubler of the Church that they might be condemned And thus much of the First point what Condemnation is here meant or unto what they were ordained That was not to trouble the Church but to everlasting torments for troubling the Church by wicked Lives and Lewd Opinions 5. The second Point The Second Generall was What Ordination is here meant or in what manner these men are said to be ordained to this Condemnation Many take it as granted that Ordination to everlasting death is the very same that Reprobation is Yet if this were a time or this a place fitting for discussion of this point it might be easily made to appear that although Reprobation include surely an Ordination to death yet every ordination to death doth not include Reprobation For Ordination to life and Predestination and Ordination to death and Reprobation differ as much as Genus and Species as a Reasonable Creature doth differ from a Sensitive Creature But to let this pass This place of St. Iude is in the opinion of many good Writers Equivalent to that of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2. Cap. 8. ver They stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were Appointed But for that place I suppose he means Mr. Byfield who is far from the Rigidness of some in that point it is ingenuously and discreetly expounded by a late English Writer in his Comments upon that Epistle And it were to be wished that his Exposition were sincerely imbraced by such as had the man in esteem while he lived and are much beholding to his writings especially upon this Epistle since he dyed I shall only now give you notice that the Originall word in this place of S. Jude rendred by ordained is not the same with that in St. Peter That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is well rendred Appointed Nor is it the same with that of St. Paul Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto eternal Life believed S. Judes word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as some render it Praescripti prescribed Of whom it was forewritten to this condemnation But as Beza descripti that is as men designed taxed or proscribed to this condemnation It includes then an Ordinance or somewhat more to witt an Ordinance upon Record but in what Record In Gods everlasting Book of death or may we say that he hath such a Book It is evident that there be more Books then One out of which men shall be Judged at the last day according to their works The 2. General subdivided as St. Iohn tells us Rev. 20. 12. The Points then Remaining to be discussed are Two First In what Sense these men are said to be fore-ordained to everlasting death or in what Sense men are said to be Reprobated from everlasting or from Eternity The Second Whether our Apostle in this place did expresly and punctually mean Gods eternal Decree of reprobation or some other ordination to death 6. In handling the first Point I shall only explicate that which I haue elsewhere delivered See the 37. Chap. to wit That albeit whosoever is reprobated is reprobated from eternity yet no man at the time of his Baptism is a Reprobate Numb 16. and Pharaohs hardning few or none are born in that estate or condition but such as finally perish do fall into it The Case may be made clear by divers Instances wherein men even by humane Lawes may be sentenced to death or other punishment before they be born and yet at the time of their birth or within some few days before their death or punishment be no more lyable to the Sentence of the Law then other men are For unto death or other grievous punishment there is required for the most part as well the Sentence of the Judge as the Sentence of the Rule or Law And yet in some peculiar Cases no more is required then the Sentence of the Law or Rule Sententia Judicis Sententia Juris which was made and given many hundreds of years before the Party was born which is sentenced by it Every one that committeth murther is lyable to death by the Law But besides the Sentence of the Law or the Rule which is Generall to all there is required the Sentence of the Judge to apply the Law to this Particular and before he give sentence there is further required a Formal Processe not only for proof of the Fact it self but of the Quality of it And untill this Processe be observed the Judge himself may not give Sentence although he himself saw the the Fact committed Nor may the Party be executed or put to death by any untill the Judge have given Sentence He is condemnable before the Jurie passe upon him but not condemned when the Jury finds him guilty untill the Judge passe sentence upon him But if a private man shall take up Arms against his Soveraign Lord or the state wherein he lives he is rebellious Ipso Iure he is a Rebell by Law there needs no other Tryall or Formal Processe besides the Evidence of the Fact The Martial or General is only to put the Law in Execution and the Party thus rebelling is sentenced to death by the Law which was in force many hundreds of years before the party offending was born who not withstanding is not lyable to
a sin was incest in Lot such are all the sins committed by the Elect And so were all the sins of the Elect remitted before they were committed But the Question is Whether God did so absolutely decree the remission of any mans sin from eternitie as that their remission was from eternitie absolutely necessarie If God did absolutely decree that the sins of the Elect should be remitted Sin not remitted before committed then he did absolutely decree that they should be committed For even in Gods eternal Foreknowledge of all things that fall out in time the Commission of sins hath precedencie of their Remission and if their Remission were in respect of his Foreknowledge or decree absolutely necessary their Commission was as necessarie It is impossible there should be any Remission of sins without a presupposal of their Commission Yet are the former Conclusions not muttered in corners but maintained as part of that holy doctrine which hath been delivered unto us by the masters of Israel approved by the best writers in reformed Churches These and the like Doctrines are held in so precious esteem that if the lawful Pastor seek to root them out where they have been planted by others or to prevent their growth or spreading he shall be traduced for an Arminian and as they hope be so censured by the high Court of Parliament But my hope is that no Loyal Elder of Israel shall ever so far forget himself as either to attempt or seek to have those and the like Conclusions ratified by our great Josuahs Royal consent Sure I am these are no branches of that Ancient Catholick Apostolick Faith of which we acknowledg our Soveraign Lord to be the defender and God grant that he may ever defend and keep it pure and undefiled from these and the like Conclusions that it may defend him and his people from their adversaries 12 Yet to seek the Correction of these and the like Conclusions though malapertly maintained by some of the Flock against most of their Pastors or the punishment of those which so maintain them until the Principles from which they naturally issue be checkt or inhibited were but Tyrannie These here related are the least not the worst part of those noysom branches which spring from this one root That Gods irresistible decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others is immediatly terminated to the Individual Natures Substances or Entities of men without any Logical respect or reference to their qualifications This Principle being once granted what breach of Gods moral Law is there whereon men will not boldly adventure either through desperation or presumption either openly or secretly For seeing Gods Will which in their Divinitie is the only Cause why the one sort are destinated to death the other to life is most immutable and most Irresistible and seeing the Individual Entities or natures of men unto which this irresistible Decree is respectively terminated are immutable let the one sort do what they can pray for themselves and beseech others to pray for them they shall be damn'd because their Entities or Individual Substances are unalterable Let the other sort Live as they list they shall be saved because no corruption of manners no change of morality breeds any mutability or change in their Individual Natures or Entities unto which Gods immutable Decree is immediatly terminated Whatsoever become of good life and manners so the Individual Nature or Entity fail not or be not annihilated salvation is tyed unto it by a necessity more indissoluble then any chains of Adamant 13. This Assertion Whosoever is Elected from Eternity was never the child of wrath save only in the esteem of men I found delivered in certain papers at my first entrance upon my Pastoral charge in the Town of Newsastle written by one that had been a great Rabbi in some private Conventicles in and about that Town And for the refuting of this Opinion and the Principles out of which it doth most necessarily follow it was presently conceived by some of my Auditors that I went about to refute the Doctrine of all Reformed Churches concerning Election and Reprobation And Amongst the Doctrines of Reformed Churches which it was vehemently suspected I went about to refute this was expressed for one That the sins of the Elect or Regenerate were remitted before they were committed A doctrine which for my part I dare not charge any one reformed Church with though some in reformed Churches have stifly maintained the Principle out of which this Conclusion will necessarily follow and some few have in expresse Termes delivered the Conclusion but so hath not to my knowledge any reformed Church or entire Congregation besides the Familist to which this errour properly belongs The Council of Dort hath expresly delivered the contrary so have others which write against the Arminians But in this Point a Reverend and Learned Pastor in the City of London hath saved me a Labour The false Principle from which both these Conclusions 1. The sins of the Elect are remitted before they are committed 2. Whosoever is Elected being elected from eternitie never was never could be never can be the child of wrath will most necessarily follow is the forementioned Errour which tyes or terminates Gods Eternal and irresistible Decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others to the Individual Natures persons or Entities of men elected or reprobated But to omit for the present the question concerning such absolute Election not the most Tyrannical Lawgiver that to this day hath breathed on earth did ever declare himself to be so farre the son of the Divel as to make solemn decrees against mens persons without respect or reference to their Qualifications It is the propertie of the enemy of mankind to delight in mans punishment as he is a man or a reasonable creature to desire to have any man as he himself now is but sometimes was not a vessel capable only of vengeance or punitive justice alltogether uncapable of Gods free bounty mercy or favour And seeing this most Honourable Court of Parliament now happily assembled to make wholesome Lawes doth not intend to make any Punitive Lawes or decrees specially capitally punitive against any mens Persons or Nature but against mens ill Qualifications misdemeanors I am confident that every member of it doth firmly believe that our heavenly Father did never make any such Decree or Law Again seeing God hath revealed his good Will and pleasure to be this To reward every man according to all his wayes I shall find no opposition or Contradiction to this Conclusion as I hope among good Christians God did from eternity decree to reward every man not according to his Individual Nature but according to his wayes his works or qualification which he did no lesse certainly foresee then he did his Individual Nature He hath decreed from eternity to revvard the vvicked and the ungodly for their vvicked vvorks
from their Doctrinal Error For whilest this vail is spread over their hearts envious or malitious slander whilest it exonerates it self upon such as they suspect for Achans and Arminians will be interpreted zeal violent passions will be taken for the Power of the Spirit such nastie Soloecismes or rude scurrilitie as would seem loathsom to heathen Artists will go current with themselves and their associates for sanctified eloquence and so will ignorance in Philosophie or School-Divinitie be applauded for holy Simplicitie But seeing their tongues and pens are their own seeing they have cast off the yoke of obedience and begin to proclaim not mutter with our tongues we will prevail we are they that ought to speak and print books Who is Lord over us Let them use what language they please the Print-houses in this interim possessed and imployed by them shall but exercise my patience as some I hope by usurpation not by just Warrant pulpits here and there ever and anon for these three and twenty years have done during which time whilest such Schediasticks as these have preached of absolute Election or Reprobation I still have prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they said And so I suppose many more of my profession in this Kingdom have done God in the mean while hath enlightened the hearts of many by our prayers and ministry to see their error and hath made me a witnesse of many mens sorrow for being misled And whensoever the vail shall be taken from the heart of such now living in this land as still maintain that Rigid Doctrine their sorrow and compunction will be no less then the sorrow and compunction of those Jews which had through ignorance consented to the crucifying of the Lord of Glory 18 The practise of the Jews was in the issue more desperate then men in this age no less zealous of that which they apprehend for truth can have opportunity to attempt But the error which led the Jews to that desperate practise against the Son of God is no way impaired but rather enlarged by some Christians of these times Our onely comfort is that however the common error of both times be rather strengthened then any way enfeebled by such in our times as nurse it yet is it neither so general nor so inveterate in this land as it was in the Jewish nation before their final destruction The Governours of our Church and State the learned Pastors or conformable Layity are not so infected with it as the Pharisees Scribes and Elders in Judea were in our Saviours time Their excessive pride and Hypocrisie made them so extraordinarily impatient of reproof and contradiction and their extraordinary impatience of reproof in matters of practise and of contradiction in point of opinion hatched that cruel and murtherous hate against the Son of God The setled matter of their deadly malice was pride and hypocrisie of heart that wherewith this corrupt matter was continually fed was passionate zeal to maintain the Absolute Election of their Nation and the Absolute Rejection of the Gentiles humorous perswasion of their own immutable estate in Gods promise first occasioned or strengthened by reflecting upon the accurate reformation which to their seeming they had made of their forefathers Idolatry of Sabbath-breaking other palpable transgressions of Gods Law But however crueltie and fury have no such Objects to practise upon in these latter dayes as the Jews and as the Scribes and Pharisees had yet is not bodily death a more Usual effect of pestilent feavers then slander persecution crueltie and murderous hate are in all Ages of ignorant zeale and hypocrisie Nor do putrified or malignant humours more usually breed pestilent feavers or other dangerous diseases in mens bodies then immature perswasions of their own Immutable estate in Grace or indigested resolution concerning absolute Election or Reprobation do hatch pride and hypocrifie in mens soules And the most infallible Symptome of pride and hypocrisie is Jealously of being contradicted by such as contradict them not or impatiency of meer Logical Contradiction without gallor bitterness in point of Opinion Another Accidental Improvement of the Jews murtherous hate against our Saviour was the hotness and blindness of their zeal to Moses's writings Yet were not Moses's writings in higher esteem with them then St. Paules Epistles are deservedly with us And would to God some amongst us did not further mistake or pervert his scope and aim in that 9. Chapter to the Romanes then the Jewes did Moses's meaning But the Parallel between the Jewish misperswasions of love and zeale to God and his servant Moses and the misperswasions of many Modern Christians presumed love to our Saviour and his Apostles is elsewhere S See his Tiâ—eatise of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Ch. 14. page in quarto 245. handled in the general and shall by Gods assistance be further prosecuted in some particulars My purpose for the present is to shew how neerely it concerns my self and all that seek to prevent the Resubmission of this people unto the Roman yoke to beware of peremptory resolutions concerning Absolute Reprobation 19. It was well observed by Oecolampadius that the ordinary Pictures of God or of his enemy Puerorum major pars nescit quid sit Deus quid Sathan quid bonum quid malum idque firmitèr credo Neque talis Deus vel Sathan quemadmodum Pictores in tabellas aut parietes pingunt Si nosti quomodo Deus misericors sit benignus mitis mansuetus Longanimis patiens justus c. verè Deum agnoscis per illas enim res propriè quid sit Deus discimus E contrario Sathan nihil aliud est quam immiserâ—cordia odium invidia homicidium mendacium irrisio proximi omne malum Oecolamp concione ad adolescent pag. 349. were no good Books for instructing Laymen or Children in the nature of God or of Sathan The truest representation that can be made of God would be to teach them what truth is what mercy what Love or Goodness is The best Picture that can be taken of Sathan would be the true Characters of Falshood malice hatred crueltie envy Yet by this Good Authours leave however Sathan be the Father of lyes the Author of malice the hatcher of envy and hatred the Com-plotter of cruelty yet can he not so truly and properly be called falshood it self envy it self hatred it self cruelty it self in the abstract as God is said to be Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self and Goodness it self For though falshood hatred envie cruelty c. be now become Natural to the old Serpent yet were they adventitious to his prime nature and substance he was not from the beginning invested with these or the like habits But if the Opinion of some men amongst us concerning absolute Reprobation were from above He whom we professe to be the Almightie Creatour of heaven and earth should be as truly and properly falshood it self hatred it self cruelty it self as he is
was now by Gods decree irrevocable I have heard of a Malepert Courtier who being rated of his Soveraign Lord for committing the third murther after he had been graciously pardoned for two made this saucy Reply One man indeed I killed and if the Law might have had its course that had been all For the death of the second and of the third your Highness is to answer God and the Law Our Apostle being better acquainted then we are with the forementioned Circumstances of time and with the manner of Pharaohs hardening foresaw the malepert Jew or Hypocrite especially when Pharaohs Case came in a manner to be their own would make this or the like saucie Answer to God If Pharaoh after the time wherein by the ordinary course of justice he was to dye were by Gods special appointment not only reprived but suffered to be more out-ragious than before yea imboldened to contemn Gods Messengers the ensuing evils committed by him and the miseries which by his stubbornness befall the Egyptians may seem to be more justly imputed unto God than unto him at least the former expostulation might seem now altogether unseasonable 9. The Apostles first Answer to the former Objection explicated To this Objection our Apostle opposeth a two-fold Answer First he checks the sauciness of the Replicant Nay but O man who art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui Deo respondes saith the Vulgar Beza as he thinks more fully qui responsas Deo our English better than both that replyest against God The just and natural Value of the Original doubly compounded word will best appear from the circumstances specified First God by Moses admonisheth Pharaoh to let his people go But he refuseth Then God expostulateth with him As yet exaltest thou thy self against my people that thou wilt not them go The Objection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made by the Hypocrite is as a Rejoynder upon Gods Reply to Pharaoh for his wonted stubbornness or as an Answer made on his behalf or others in his Case unto the former Expostulations For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Respondenti respondere to Rejoyn upon a Reply or Answer Now this Rejoynder to speak according to the Rules of modestie and good manners was too saucie out of what mans mouth soever it had proceeded For what is man in respect of God any better than an artificial body in respect of the Artificer that makes it or then an earthen vessel in respect of the Potter Now if we might imagine a base vessel could speak as Fables suppose beasts in old time did and thus expostulate with the Potter When I was spoiled in the making why didst thou rather reserve me to such base and ignominious uses than throw me away especially when others of the same lump are fitted for commendable uses it would deserve to be appointed yet to more base or homely uses For a By-stander that had no skill in this facultie for the Potters Boy or Apprentise thus to expostulate on the Vessels behalf with his father or Master would argue ignorance and indiscretion The Potter at least would take so much authority on him as to reply I will appoint every vessel to what use I think fit not to such use as every idle fellow or malepert Boy would have it appointed Now all that our Apostle in this similitude intends is that we must attribute more unto the Creators skill and wisdom in dispensing mercy and judgment or in preparing vessels of wrath and vessels of honour than we do unto the Potters judgment in discerning clay or fitting every part of his matter to it 's right and most commodious use Yet in all these The Potter is judge saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom Wisdom 15. 7 That very vessel which ministred the matter of this similitude to our Apostle Jer. 18. 4. was so marred in the Potters hand as he was inforced to fashion it again to another use than it was first intended for That it marred in the first making was the fault of the clay So to fashion it anew as neither stuffe nor former labour should be altogether lost was the Potters skill And shall we think our Apostle did intend any other Inference from this Similitude then the Prophet from whom he borrowes it had made to his hand O house of Israel cannot I do with you as this Potter saith the Lord Behold as the clay is in the potters hand so are ye in mine hand O house of Israel Jer. 18. 6. 10. The true and full Implication is thus much and no more Albeit God sought to prepare them to glorie yet had they a possibilitie or libertie utterly to spoile themselves in the making Howbeit if so they did he was able to form them again to an end quite contrary unto that whereto he first intended them So the Prophet explicates himself vers 9 10. And here we must request our Reader alwaies to remember that the Apostle compares God not to a Phrantick or Phantastick Potter delighted to play tricks to his losse as to make a vessel scarce worth a grâ—at of that piece which with the same ease and cost might be made worth a shilling only to shew his Imperial Authoritie over a piece of clay He Imagineth such a Potter as the Wise man did that knowes a reason why he makes one vessel of this fashion another of that why he appoints this to a base use that to a better albeit an unskilful By-stander could perhaps discern no difference in the stuff or matter whereof they are made The summe then of our Apostles intended Inference is this As it is an unmannerly point for any man to contest or wrangle with a skilfull Artificer in his own facultie of whom he should rather desire to learn with submission so it is damnable presumption for any creature to dispute with his Creator in matters of Providence or of the worlds regiment or to debate his own case with him thus Seeing all of us were made of the same Masse I might have been graced as others have been with wealth with honour with strength with wisdom unless thou hadst been more favourable to them then to me Yet that which must quell all inclination to such secret murmurings or presumptuous debates is it our stedfast Belief of his Omnipotent Power or absolute Will No but of his infinite Wisdom Equitie and Mercie by which he disposeth all things even mens infirmities or greatest crosses to a better end in respect of them so they will patiently submit their wils to his than they could hope by any other meanes to atchieve 11. In what sense Gods Will is said to be the absoulte infallible Rule of equitie or justice Gods Will to have mercie on some and to harden others or howsoever otherwise to deal with men is in this sense most absolute Whatsoever we certainly know to be willed by him we must acknowledge without examination to be truly good Whomsoever we assuredly believe
work and Labour of Love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and dâ—minister Had it been any injustice in God to have forgotten their former works if it had their works were truly meritorious or capable of reward by plea of justice For that work unto which reward without injustice cannot be denyed is meritorious or worthy of the reward yet the Apostle implies that God should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unjust If he had so utterly excluded these Hebrews from entring into his Rest as he did their Forefathers from entring into the land of Promise For albeit their later works had been much like their forefathers yet their former works had been much better But in what sense doth the Apostle say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not unjust 7. This word Injustus is sometimes no more than non benignus or non misericors that is See Book 9. Ch. 12. Numb 3. not bountiful or not merciful to such as are in miserie Though works of pitie of bountie be not works of justice or equitie yet sometimes he that shewes pitie or favour though in Cases wherein the positive Law of God requireth Justice or severe execution if the case come before the Magistrate is said to deal justly that is not rigorously not hardly So the Holy Ghost when he gives the reason why Joseph did not seek publickly to be divorced from his espoused wife THE BLESSED VIRGIN saith he did thus resolve because he was A Just Man that is a Courteous and mild-hearted man Not a just man according to strict and Legal justice For by the positive Law of God the crime which he suspected was punishable not with divorce only but with death If Joseph then in resolving to put away his espoused wife privately did the part of a just and upright man he had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an unjust man in our Apostles sense if he had resolved to use the remedie or benefit of the Law Yet can no man be said strictly or properly to be unjust for using any lawful remedie but non benignus or non mitis he may be said to deal rigorously or hardly or uncourteously in using the extremitie of the Law To apply this Distinction to the Point in question If God had excluded these Hebrewes from entring into his Rest after they had accomplished such a measure of works as the Apostle there intimates he had not been so merciful and bountiful unto them as the Scripture teacheth he is to all he had not shewed himself so gratious a Lord nor given such incouragements to his other servants of not being wearie of weldoing as he alwaies useth to do Briefly when the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Phrase in the Original is as much as if he had said so farr is God from being unjust that you shall find him a most gratious and Loving Father so farr will he be from forgetting your works and labour of Love so farr from cutting you off from entring into his Rest that he will remember you with his best blessings even with the blessing of Salvation however your late backslidings have deserved the contrary But however God be a Gratious and loving Father to all that call upon him to all that are within his Covenant but especially to his Elect albeit this his Gratiousness consists in the not imputing or in remitting of their sinnes yet is there not the least sinne which any within his Covenant or which any of his Elect do commit whose Pardon must not be sought for after the Commission of it and must actually be obteined otherwise they should dye in their sinnes for though the Son of God did take away the sinnes of the whole world by his sufferings upon the Crosse yet were no mans sinnes so taken away by him or so dissolv'd as that he from that time did cease or yet doth cease to dissolve them whensoever they are committed and their dissolution by repentance sought for Unlesse he did yet dissolve the works of the Divel in us unlesse he did yet in peculiar manner remit sinnes even our pettie sinnes would inchain us unto the servitude of Satan St. Jâ—hn no way excludes the Elect but speakes to men regenerate albeit not to them alone when he saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2. 1. Now the Office of an Advocate is to plead his Clients Cause before his Judge as either for Justice if his Cause be good or for mercy or mitigation of Justice if his Client be delinquent God we know is as well a God of Justice as of mercy and hath as well one ear open to the Accusations which are brought against us as another attentive to the Intercessions which are made for us Satan is our professed Adversarie and after he hath inticed us to do his work he never ceaseth to sollicit the Execution of Gods Justice or vengeance upon us Not the best of Gods Saints may at any time plead their own cause or ioyn this Issue with him Lord Let Justice be awarded with speed either for us or against us either let our Adversarie be condemned for accusing us falsely or let us be condemned with him if we have done unjustly This were to become not our own Advocates which yet were presumption but to turn Satans Sollicitors even to suplicate for wo and vengeance upon our own soules David hath taught us the Form of our Plea with God even whilest we stand upon best termes Lord enter not into Judgement with this thy servant for no flesh is righteous in thy sight 9. But will the Almighty Judge of all the world be so unmindfull of his Great Attribute as to deny Execution of Judgement upon such as have deserved it being thereunto sollicited and importuned by his professed Adversarie or will The Son of God be so Partial as to plead for their acquittal which confess themselves Guiltie of the Crimes Objected To this we Answer 1. God hath Two Covenants One of Justice Another of Mercy And albeit God The Father should do us no wrong no injustice but do Himself right if he did upon Every accusation instantly Condemn us yet seeing His Onely Son hath by a full and alsufficient price purchased a Reconciliation for us He may maintaine the plea of Justice even before the Almighty Judge against our Adversarie for us Or haveing satisfied the Justice of God for all the sinnes of mankinde He may Remove our Tryal from the Barre of Justice to the Throne of Grace and mercy 2. Neither God the Father could deny Execution of Justice upon us nor could God the Son plead so much as for our Reprival if we should stand upon our own integritie or our own Justification so that Our Confession of Guilt is so farre from doing us preiudice that it is a most necessary Condition of our Acquittal If God the Father