all the Benefits which God for his Deaths sake bestows upon us by believing only in his death But even This benefit of our Iustification we receive more immediately by our Belief of his Resurrection from the dead This is the doctrine of our Apostle even in that place wherein he handles the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone or by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness Ex Professe as Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake to wit Abrahams alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleive on him that raised up Iesus from the dead And he gives the Reason why our Belief of this Article should be imputed unto us in the next words Seeing he was delivered to death for our offences and raised again for our Justification Howbeit even This Belief of His Resurrection is a Grace or Blessing of God which Christ did merit by His Death yet a Grace conveihed unto us by the vertue of His Resurrection or by Christ himself by his Resurrection exalted unto glory in his human nature We were Justified by his Death in as much as The Pardon for our sins was by it purchased and the hand writing or obligation against us cancelled If Christ then had only dyed for us and not risen again we might by Belief in his Death have escaped the Second Death or everlasting pains of hell We should notwithstanding as our Apostle here supposeth have been detained perpetual prisoners in the grave Our bodily or corporal being should have been utterly consumed by the first Death without hope of recovery or restitution And so far as the first Death had dominion over men so far had these Corinthians remained in their sins So long as the first Death remains unconquered sin remains Now if Christ had not been raised from the dead the first Death or death of the body had remained unconquered Belief in Christs death could not utterly have freed them from all the wages of sin For death of the body is in us part of the wages of sin and it was to Christ part of the burden of our sin But in as much as Christ is risen from the dead and raised to an immortal life over which bodily death hath no Rule or dominion but must be put in absolute subjection to Him all that truly believe such a Resurrection are justified not only from the eternal guilt of sin nor only freed from everlasting death but are made heirs by adoption unto a life over which death shall have no power So then by Christs Death we are freed from the everlasting Curse by his Resurrection we are made free Denisons of the heavenly Jerusalem heirs by promise of an everlasting and most blessed life And thus far all that are partakers of the Word and Sacraments are said to be justified by his Resurrection that is they are bound to believe that as He died for their Sins to redeem them from the second death so he rose again for their further Justification to free them from the death of the bodie He therefore rose from the dead that we by believing this Article might receive the Adoption of the Sons of God But yet there is a further degree of Justification that is an Actual Absolution from the Reign or Dominion of sin in our Bodies which is never obtained without some measure of Faith or Sanctifying Grace inherent albeit the true use and end of such Grace and Faith inherent be to sue out the Pardon for our sins in particular not by our works or merits which are none but meerly and solely by the Free-Grace and Favour of God in Christ True it is that even This Gift of Faith by which we must sue out our Pardon in particular and supplicate for the Adoption of the Sons of God was purchased by Christs death nor may we sue for it under any other Stile or Form then propter merita Christi for the merits of Christ Yet after this plea made we may not expect to receive this blessing otherwise then per Jesum Christum through or by Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead This Grace this Faith and whatsoever other blessing of God which Christ by his death hath merited for us whatsoever is any way conducent to our full and final Redemption descends immediately from the Son of God exalted in his human nature as from its proper Fountain He was consecrated by his death and his Consecration was accomplished by his Resurrection to be an inexhaustible fountain of life and salvation to all that truly believe in his death and Resurrection from the dead Thus we are fallen into the Affirmative Inference If Christ be risen from the dead then such as die in Christ shall be raised from death to immortal Glory The same Almighty Power by which Christ was raised unto glorie shall be manifested even in these our mortal bodies But now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept 9. The Inference or implication is That seeing Christ whose mortalitie was clearly testified by his death was raised up to an endless and immortal life Therefore such as die in Christ whatsoever in the mean time become of their bodies shall be raised up to the like life against which death shall never be able to make any attempt or approach For as the Apostle saith Rom. 11. 16. If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches But we are to remember that there were Two sorts of First fruits appointed by the Law the One of the first corn that was reaped being ground and made up into loaves which were offered at the feast of Pentecost And unto this sort of First fruits the Apostle Rom. 11. 16. hath Reference The other was the offering of green corn when it first begun to bud or ear And unto this sort of First fruits our Apostle here in the twentieth verse hath Reference Christ then is the root and we are the branches he is the First fruits and we are the after-crop and harvest Now as the offering of the First fruits that is of the green corn was the hallowing of the whole crop So the Resurrection of Christ from the grave was the hallowing or consecration of these our mortal bodies unto that glory and immortalitie which shall be at the finall Resurrection If God did accept the offering of the First fruits it was a pledge unto his people that he would extraordinarily bless the after-crop with large increase his people might with confidence expect a joyfull harvest To manifest the meaning or fulfilling of this Type or legal Ceremonie in our Saviour He was raised up from the dead upon that very day in the morning wherein the first fruits of green corn were by the priests of the Law offered unto God His resurrection as was said before was the accomplishment of his
the Son of God more then other men are some in our dayes have taught That Christ did not only suffer all for them but as for them in particular all others being not such as they deemed themselves to be that is not truly Elect being excluded from the Benefit of his sufferings This is the best Use and most Charitable construction that can be made of so unuseful and uncharitable a Doctrine Though to gather any good Use from it is as impossible as to reap Figgs of Thistles Howbeit as well as they who hold That Christ died for the Elect only as they which teach That he dyed for all must beware lest they mis-apply That Rule of Seneca's touching ordinarie benefits or Common courtesies unto that Extraordinarie loving kindnesse of Christs sufferings Quod debeo cum multis solvam cum multis That which I owe amongst others I will not pay alone His meaning is That for Common benefits he is only bound to pay his share or portion Far be it from any one that nameth the Name of the Lord Jesus to reason thus in his heart or secret thoughts Christ died for the many hundreds of thousands now living and for the more hundreds of ten thousands late or long since dead as well as for me therefore I owe him love and thankfulnesse but pro ratà suppose the exact number was certainly known I am but to acknowledge such a part of his sufferings to have been undertaken for me as I am of that great multitude Every humane soul is indebted to Christ for the whole not every single man for his part of mans Redemption That which St. Bernard speaks in a Case not altogether the same is most true of the Benefits of Christs sufferings Nec in multitudinem divisa sunt nec ad paucitatem restricta If Gods love to mankind be infinite and if the value of Christs blood or sufferings be truly infinite as they truly be they cannot be divided amongst many much lesse can they be restrained to some few both these being against the nature of Infinitie And if the value of Christs sufferings cannot be divided into parts Everie one must acknowledge that He paid an infinite price for his Redemption in particular A price lesse then infinite could not have Redeemed any one of us and a price more then infinite could not be given for all If Christ became a second Adam to die and suffer for redeeming man he dyed and suffered for all men for every man albeit the number of men which proceed from the first Adam could be infinite Had it been the Will or Purpose of the Son of God to have taken upon him the Form of a Servant immediately upon the First Woman's sin of Disobedience his sufferings for her could not have sufficed unlesse they had been of value infinite And being of value infinite for her they had been of the same value for everie living Soul that issued from her to the Worlds end If then the price he laid down for thee were infinite that is without measure or Bounds thy Love and thankfulnesse to Him must be without Stint or limit Though He died for others as well as thee yet art thou bound to love Him no lesse then if he had died for thee alone Thus must Thou think of Christ's Death and Passion if thou remember it aright And as often as thou Readest Hearest or makest Confession with thy Lips That Christ's Blood was shed for thee make this Comment or Paraphrase in thine heart He shed his whole Blood for me every drop that fell from Him either in the Garden or on the Crosse or elsewhere was poured out for my sake for me in particular Yea every one which hears of Christ is bound to believe that he dyed for him and as for him that the benefit of his Passion redounds et mihi et tanquam mihi and charitie if it spring from Faith will teach us to exclude none from Title to the benefits of Christs Death and sufferings 14. This Doctrine of Christ's Dying for All of His purpose to dissolve the works of Satan in all I am bold to professe in every place where Christ's Name is called upon in every place where I have or may have oportunitie to make Christ known The bolder because it sets forth not only the Love and Mercie but the Justice of God a great deal more then the contrarie Doctrine can do It makes mans sinfulnesse and unthankfulnesse appear much greater then by the contrarie Doctrine can be apprehended or acknowledged Besides it makes our Ministrie of preaching more useful then otherwise it could be For if we grant That Christ dyed only for the Elect we might acquit our selves with safetie of Conscience from the burden of preaching or Catechizing save only in those Congregations which we know to be of the number of the Elect or men alreadie regenerate Howbeit even in respect of Them our preaching could not be so useful as it would be harmful to others We could but testifie that to the Elect which they already know that is that they shall be saved But if once we teach that the Elect only or some few perhaps one of a Thousand not one of five hundred have any interest in Christs sufferings every man which is not as yet regenerate nor in the state of Election would forthwith conclude that it is a thousand to One more then five hundred to One that he can receive no benefit from Christs sufferings having no interest in the everlasting inheritance purchased by them And were it not much better to be silenced then by our preaching to put such stumbling-blocks in their wayes whom we are sent to call unto Christ For we are not sent to call the righteous or men alreadie regenerate but sinners to repentance to the state of regeneration How true soever in the Event it may prove That but a Few shall be saved in respect of them that perish though the most part of men do die in their sins yet their blood shall be required at their hands who have taught that they could not be saved that Christ did not die did not suffer for them But if we teach as God in his Word hath taught us That Christ Dyed and suffered for all men no man can doubt whether Christ dyed for him or no and not doubting that Christ dyed for him he need not Dispair of Salvation by him we leave him without excuse for not repenting and seeking Christ Again This same Doctrine sets forth the Glorie of God much more then the other can For albeit Gods mercies unto One man be truly infinite or rather infinite in themselves yet if according to this infinitie they be extended unto all they are extensively much greater If God had created only these inferior Elements and man their creation would necessarily infer the infinitie of his power for without infinite power nothing could have been made of Nothing but yet his praise or glorie would
as immediately from Christ or from God the Father and the Son in the same manner as Saint Peter did though not in the same measure But the Difference of the measure in which we receive it or the difference of our growth in Christ doth not argue a different manner either of our receiving it or of growth by it 7. But is this the worst Practise of the Romish Church that she adds one Article more unto our Creed than Saint Peter knew or taught others to believe or that she makes Peters successors to have a Foundation which he had not If thus she did and no more this were enough to convince her of Grosse Heresie But this one Article of faith or this second foundation of faith which she pretends is of such a transcendent nature that it devours all the rest and doth if not overthrow the First foundation of our faith yet which is all one it draws us from it For as many successions as there be of Popes or of Peters pretended successors so many several foundations there be of their faith which successively adhere unto them Nor are these several or successive foundations either immediately cemented or firmly united to the first Foundation which is Christ or one to another They are as so many Rows or Piles of stone laid one upon another without any juncture or binding than loose sand And all that absolutely unite themselves to the present Romish Church that is to Peters pretended successors must of necessity fall off from the First Foundation Christ God and man and flote with these secondarie foundations to wit Peters succcessors when the floods of temptations do arise The point then to be proved is this That the present Romish Church to wit the present Pope or such as rely upon him as a second or intermediate foundation in this structure cannot possibly be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets they cannot grow up together as living stones firmly united in Christ Jesus as in the Corner-stone Now the proof of this Point is clear because none can be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles unlesse they absolutely believe as they believed and firmly acknowledge that which they have commended unto us in their writings to have been delivered unto them by God himself for so they expressely teach us to believe Believing then as they believed we must believe that albeit the Apostles and Prophets be not the Foundation here meant in the Text yet that they were Master Builders appointed by God for squaring and fitting all that lived with them or that succeeded them for this foundation and that the Rule by which as well the Pastors and Teachers as the people taught by them must be fitted and squared for this foundation is the doctrine of faith conteined in their Writings Both these parts of truth to wit that the Books of the Old and New Testament are their Writings or Dictates and that in these Writings the Doctrine or Rule of Faith is contained must be absolutely believed and taken for unquestionable before any modern pastors in the Church can be fram'd or fashioned to be true stones in this building But no man which absolutely believes the present Romish Church can have any absolute belief that the Old and New Testament or the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are infallibly true or contain the Word of God The best belief that any Romanist can have is but Conditional and the Condition is this If the present Romish Church to wit the Pope and such as rely upon his authoritie be absolutely infallible and cannot err in matter of faith But it will be Replyed In as much as the Roman Catholicks take it as a Principle most unquestionable that their Church cannot erre they for this reason must beleeve the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Christ to be infallible and the bookes of the Old and New Testament to conteyne the word of God because the Church their Mother which they firmely beleeve cannot erre doth tell them so or as their owne writers speake because the Church their mother doth Canonize these bookes for the bookes of God This indeed is the chiefe advantage which they Presume their Lay-people have of ours in that they believe the Churches testimony concerning the bookes of God to be infallible and if they beleeve the Church to be in this point infallible they cannot doubt but that these bookes are the word of God But if wee look more narrowly into this mysterie of iniquitie and take their full meaning with us it will further appear that this absolute belief of this present Churches absolute infallibilite doth overthrow or undermine the whole frame of faith For they extend this supposed infallibilitie of the Romish Church so farre and make the belief of it so necessarie that without this fundamentall principle as they say wee cannot infallibly believe or know the bookes of the Old and New Testament to containe in them the word of God And in avouching this it is evident that they leave both the Authoritie of the Apostolical and Prophetical writings and the Authoritie of the Present Church altogether uncertaine so uncertaine that nothing avouched by either of them can be by their doctrine so certain as to become any Foundation of their faith If wee cannot infallibly believe the bookes of the Old and New Testament to be the bookes of God himselfe and of divine Authoritie otherwise then by believing the present Romish Church to be infallible let them tell us how they can possibly believe or prove that the Romish Church or any other Congregation of men hath any such infallible authoritie This authoritie must be either believed or known by light of nature or by Divine Testimonie or Revelation That the infallibilitie of their Church can be known by light of Nature they do not they dare not say For that Peter on whom that Church as they pretend is founded was an Apostle of Christ cannot be known by light of Nature or by sense it cannot be infallibly believed but by Divine Authoritie Revelation or Testimonie By what Divine Testimonie then do they know that Peter was an Apostle or that the Church was to be builded on him or on his successors You know they pretend that place of S. Matthew Chap. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and that of S. Luke Chap. 22. 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail And yet they deny that we can possibly know these words to be the words of God or to have any such meaning as they make of them unlesse we will believe the Churches Authoritie in avouching them to be the words of God and her interpretation of them to be infallible But leaving them wandring in this Round or Circle as we found them long agoe let us further consider the manner how we are built upon Christ the Chief Corner-stone and how we must
bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself
very Bodie and Blood to be locally present in every place where and at all times when that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated This we deny And the former Principle or Antecedent That God is able to create the self same body as often as it pleases him will never infer their intended Conclusion Not to question what God can do we further add For Christs body or whole Christ God and man to be bodily present by this means in many places at once or in all places at all times wherein that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated is one of those things which according to their rules as well as ours cannot be done as implying an evident Contradiction in nature It may not be believed nor imagined because God did never bind any man to believe such an impossibilitie or Contradiction as is involved in this doctrine It is altogether without the compass of the most miraculous work which God hath at any time wrought or ever promised to work All the former Instances or Cases possible concerning Gods Power to make one and the same man again after he had been annihilated are most unlike to their intended Conclusion All the former Instances or suppositions are free from all color or suspition of Contradiction in nature This supposed Creation of Christs Body often since his death implies as many and as manifest Contradictions as there have been Masses in the Romish Church Not only these Assertions but the dissimilitude also of the Case in question to the former Cases will be immediately made clear from the very Definition of Creation To create a body is to make it of nothing and to make the self same Body which formerly had been but is resolved into Nothing out of Nothing again is but a second exercise of his Creative Power and whatsoever God before hath done he is able to do the same again But the Body of Christ they acknowledge to be immortal and absolutely exempted not only from Annihilation or resolution into Nothing but from all danger of Corruption or diminution Again whatsoever is Created whether at the first second or third time hath no Actual being until it begin to be by Creation Now to make that very thing begin to be or to begin to be out of nothing which already actually is is something is immortal and more glorious then any other creature implies a manifest Contradiction But Christs Body they grant to be immortal since his Resurrection more unalterable then the heaven of heavens so immortal that it can never cease to be what it is therefore it is impossible that it should begin to be by a new creation or be created again For that which is created or may be created again must first be resolved into nothing or cease to be before it can be created again seeing creation is the making of that which is not out of Nothing or be made again by means miraculous If then Christs Body be locally present in the Sacrament it must either be created again and this supposeth either annihilation or dissolution of it or else it must be brought out of the heavens into the Priests hands or else the presence of it in many places must be created but Local Presence is altogether uncapable of Creation for it is a Meer Relation which can neither be created nor made but resulteth from or followeth upon the motion of things created from one place to another or from their creation or beginning to be in that place wherein they are said to be created 12. So it fares with our Adversaries in this Argument as it doth with Boot-halers or night-riders which have caught an unlawful prey being hotly pursued by the right owners Now their manner is to divide the spoil and their company that they may carry one part one way and another part another way that so whilst one is pursued others may escape without pursuit or rescue of the prey Through the ignorance or carelesness of Gods people which should have kept a better watch over their own souls the Romish Priests had made a gainful prey by transporting the native sense of our Saviours Words in the institution of the Sacrament to justifie the doctrine of Transubstantiation And since they have been pursued by reformed Writers as Cozeners and Cheaters of Gods people some of them run one way some another Some of them seek to maintain Christs local presence or Transubstantiation by the former doctrine of Gods Almighty Power which is able to create one and the same body often Others seek to maintain the same doctrine and carry away the prey by the manner of Angelical motion from one place to another in an instant or moment of time And if they could draw such as pursue them into these straits and subtilities they hope to make their part good against such as are not much conversant in the School-mens nice disputes concerning the nature or motions of Angels or know not the difference between the nature and motions of Spirits and Spiritual Bodies Others seek to maintain the same doctrine by the infinitie of divisible quantities as if it were possible for a flies wing to overspread the whole earth as a hen doth her chickens And that Christs Body may by this kind of Infinitie be in many places at once in as many as God shall appoint hoping by this means to cast a mist before the eyes of such Readers as know not the difference betwixt a real material or substantial and a mathematical or imaginary quantitie But all these fictions or suppositions they cast forth only to offer play unto their adversaries or to gain some time for invention of new shifts None of them dare pitch upon any or all of these wayes or imaginations or put the Case upon this issue Whether any of them be in nature possible or agreeable to the Analogie of Faith The only point wherein they agree is the submission of their judgments or imaginations to the authoritie of the Church which is no better agreement then if amongst a multitude of unlearned men one of them should maintain that snow is white another black another pawn his estate that it is blew and a fourth that it is green and yet in the end refer themselves to be tried by some Philosopher which had written of the nature of Snow in a language that none of them understands whose books they know not where to find For what the Church is that cannot err or of whom it consists the French and Italian Catholicks do not agree Or if we take the Church for the Trent Council confirmed by the Pope the Jesuites themselves cannot agree about the meaning of it in this point Divers of them do in Effect deny any Transubstantiation in this Sacrament albeit that Council under pain of curse enjoyneth all Christians to believe That there is a true Conversion of the bread into the substance of Christs Body and of the wine into the substance of his Blood and
Parents were It is true though that they through want of awful respect or reverence unto the divine Majestie were the Authors of sin and propagators of shame to their posteritie All of us are prone to think that they deserved ill not of God only but of us and yet the truth is that we lay a great deal more blame upon them then they deserved They indeed were the first yet not the greatest sinners Many of their posteritie in this qualitie go beyond them all of us imitate them too well in their sin but not in being ashamed when we sin 8. They had but one Commandement given by God and having transgressed that their Consciences did accuse them their very looks and gestures gave evidences against them We transgress all Gods Commandements and one and the same Commandement over and over God onely knows how often yet are not dejected are not confounded but bear out sail as if there were no danger Though every thing which God in his written Law hath prohibited is a branch of the forbidden tree He hath as peremptorily forbidden all To have any Gods but Him to worship any graven Image to take his Name in vain as he did our first Parents to taste of the Tree of good and evil Yet even such as would be held the only true Catholiques Worship Images and such again as would be accounted the pure Worshippers of God in truth and spirit worship their own Imaginations and transform the unchangeable nature of the Deitie into unfit similitudes Little Children amongst us are mightie Swearers and nothing more common in publique or private then to take Gods holy Name in vain to abuse it more grosly then the Jew or Heathen could who knew not God incarnate And all this they do without any sign of shame Women rail upon revile and curse one another in the open streets until their faces grow red indeed but with a redness which betokens no shame which bears no tincture of blush but rather of revenge and malice boyling in the heart or of heat in their tongue set on fire by Hell But these for the most part are of the meaner and baser sort Others there be as far transported with mis-guided Zeal from that modestie which becomes their Sex and this Zeal they offer up as strange fire unto God without blushing taking the Priests office upon them to be more then Teachers censurers of their Teachers swift to hear any doctrine that shall contradict the publique voice of the Church alwayes listening after the whisperings of such private Spirits as invert the Tenor of the Gospel no less then the old Serpent did the first Commandement which God gave unto mankind God had said unto them Gen. 3. ver 3. Ye shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil neither shall ye touch it lest ye die But the Serpent whispers ver 4. 5. Ye shall not surely die For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil A plausible Comment to her which was now giving the raines to her longing appetite As plausible a doctrine it is to many of her Daughters to meddle with the marks of Election and Reprobation secrets which God hath reserved unto himself Points full of great difficultie and greater danger and wherein such as have waded farthest have as I said before inverted the Tenor of the Gospel For it is the perpetual voice of the Gospel If thou believe thou shalt be saved if thou believest not thou canst not be saved The very sum and final resolution of the doctrine of Election as it is vulgarly taught is this If thou must be saved that is if thou be of the number of the Elect or predestinated thou shalt believe If thou be not of the number of the Elect thou canst not believe To listen after such whisperings as these the weaker Sex take from their Mother Eve but to be confident or presumptuous upon such misinterpretations or to be censurers of their Superiors this they learn not from their Mother Eve but from her false Teacher This is a prodigious disposition in Women whom the Apostle commands to learn in silence with all subjection but will not suffer them to teach or to usurp authoritie over the man 1 Tim. cap. 2. ver 12. This silence and modestie is injoyned them as a Pennance for their Mother Eves transgression Ver. 13 14. For Adam saith the Apostle was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression Notwithstanding she shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the promised Seed If they continue in faith and charitie and holinesse with Sobrietie These are the meanes to make their Election sure 9. All of us both men and women are too prone to imitate our first Parents in doing that which is evil and forbidden by the Law of God And seeing better cannot be expected it were well if we could as truly imitate them in being ashamed of the evil which we have done They no sooner knew that they were naked but they sought a covering for their nakedness of fig-leaves but this would not serve For when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden they hid themselves from his presence amongst the trees All of us have an experimental pledge of this which Moses relates concerning them in our selves unless we choke or stifle the instinct of corrupted nature by long custom or continuance in sin That our consciences do accuse us that the sight of men whom we know or suspect to be conscious of our mis-doings deject us both these argue that we must appear before a Judge even before that Judge from whose presence our first Parents hid themselves at whose appearance we shall be confounded if we come before him polluted with such blots and stains as our souls are ashamed sinful men such as our selves are should look upon For even that redness or blushing which appears in mens faces upon consciousness of their infirmities or misdeeds is but a mask which our souls do naturally put before them as being afraid lest others should see the stain or blemish of sin As our first Parents sought to hide themselves from God after they had transgressed his Commandements So Offenders hide themselves from his Deputies or Vicegerents on earth not only for fear of punishment but for shame And if we should give you the real or physical Definition of shame It is no other then the striving of Nature to hide the stain of our souls by sending out blood into the face or visage And men do but second this dictate of Nature when they put their hands or other covering before their faces So Disarius one of the Discoursers in Macrobius Saturn lib. 7. cap. 11. saith Natura pudore tacta sanguinem ante se pro velamento tendit Thus both corrupted nature and we our selves
were much better then their present in mercie favour and loving kindnesse 5. But whilst they thus contend for the merit of works done by Grace do they not derogate from the merits of Christ who is the only fountain of all Grace We say They do But They Reply They do not but rather magnifie the merits of Christ more then we do who deny the merits of Saints For Christ as they alledge did not only merit Grace for us but this also that we by Grace might truly Merit Now grace itself and the merit of grace is a more Magnificent Effect of Christs Merits then grace alone Here is a Double Effect of Christs Merits by their Doctrine whereas we admit but a single One. Thus they reply But if the One of those two effects which they imagine or conceive doth derogate more in true construction from the merits of Christ then the supposal or admission of it can add unto them We attribute more unto his merits by the admission of One single Effect only to wit meer grace then they do by acknowledgment of Two to wit grace it self and the merit of grace in us But the more we are to merit by grace for our selves the less measure of merit we leave unto Christ For as that which he merited for us is not ours but his so that which we merit for ourselves is not His but Ours The merit of grace supposeth a Fulnesse or Fountain of grace and Fountain of grace there is no other but Christ himself nor is there any Fulness of grace but in him only For of his fulnesse as the Evangelist saith Iohn 1. 16. we all have received grace for grace that is grace upon Grace Every degree or greater measure of Grace which we receive doth flow alike immediatly from the fulness of this inexhaustible Fountain of Grace without any secondary Fountain or Feeders Grace doth not grow in us as Rivers do which although they have one main spring or fountain yet they grow not to any greatness without the help of secondary Fountains or concurrence of many springs or feeders Grace doth so immediatly come from Christ as the Rivers do from the sea Increase of Grace doth come as immediatly from Christ as the increase of Rivers from rain or as the increase of light in the waxing Moon comes from the Sun 6. The state of this Question concerning The merits of works comes to the same issue with that other Great question concering Justification As whether it be by faith alone or by faith and works The Romish Church grants that we are justified by faith in Christs blood or merits Tanquam per Causam efficientem as by a true efficient Cause seeing all the Grace which we first receive is bestowed upon us for Christs sake But they hold withall that it is the Grace which for Christs sake is bestowed upon us by which we are formally justified that is As water poured into a vessel doth immediatly expell the air which was in it before so the infusion of Grace for the merits of Christ doth expell sin whether Original or actuall out of our souls And this in their Language is The remission of sins for the attaining whereof There needs no imputation of Christs righteousness after Grace be once infused The formall Cause of every thing requires some efficient or Agent for the production or resultance of it but being once produced or existent it excludes the interposition or intervention of any other Cause whatsoever for the production or existence of its formall Effect To produce heat in the water it is impossible without the Agency or Efficiency of fire but the water being made scalding hot by the heat of fire will heat or scald the flesh of of man or other living creature although it be removed from the fire although it work only in its own strength or of the heat inherent in it Thus say the Romanists that grace cannot be produced in us but by the vertue and efficiency of Christs merits but being by them once produced it doth justifie us immediatly by the strength and vertue of it inherent in us and by the same strength and vertue working in us it doth produce its formall effect to wit the increase of grace and lastly eternal life But if this Doctrine of theirs so far as it concerns Justification or the Remission of sins were true then this inconvenience as I have elsewhere shewed would necessarily follow That no man already after this manner justified could say or repeat that Petition in our Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us without a mockerie of God or Christ For if our sins be formally remitted by the infusion of grace and if by the infusion of the same grace we be formally justified the only true meaning of this Petition is in true Resolution This Lord makes us such or remit our sins after such a manner that we shall not stand in need of thy remission or forgivenss of them or that we shall not stand in need of the mediation of thine only Son For if they be remitted immediatly by grace so long as this grace endures all mediation is superfluous is impossible This Inconvenience is farther improved by the same Doctrine so far as it concerns the merits of works done in charitie And prophanes those Two other Petitions in the same our Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven no lesse then their Doctrine of Justification doth that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us For if works done by grace or charitie could truly merit eternal life the effect of all the three Petitions should be but this Lord let thy Kingdom of Grace so come unto us Lord let thy will be so done by us here on earth that as we have been long debters unto thee for giving thine only Son to die for our sins and for the purchasing of the First Grace unto us so let us by this grace be inabled to make both Thee and Him debters to us by the merit of this grace and debters in no meaner a sum then the retribution or payment of Eternal Life For if that life can be merited by our works then God doth owe it unto us for our works And if it be due unto us by merit or by debt then it is not as our Apostle hath it in this 23. verse the gift of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original hath it the Grace of God The Apostle might as well have said that Eternal Life was as truly the wages of our righteousness as death is the wages of our sin And so the best Scholars in the Romish Church do grant he might have said What then is the Reason why he did not say so Of this they give us This Reason Inasmuch say they as the First grace by which we merit the Kingdom of heaven is
it is then a continuance or Overplus of this abundant mercy to increase this Grace of Adoption in us yearly dayly and hourly Lastly to crown this continuance of his Grace and mercy towards us with an Everlasting Kingdom is but an abundant excess of the same mercy and loving kindness out of which he first promised the Grace of Adoption and dayly increased it Si merita nostra aliquid facerent ad damnationem nostram veniret Non venit ille ad inspectionem meritorum sed ad remissionem peccatorum Non fuisti et factus es Quid Deo dedisti malus fuisti et liberatus es Quid Deo dedisti Quid non ab eo gratis accepisti merito et Gratia nominatur quia gratis datur Briefly in that Gods Mercie and Goodnes is absolutely infinite it can admit of no External Motive or inducement either for bestowing the First Grace upon us or for increasing it or for the perpetuation of it we may deserve or merit the withdrawing of his mercies from us or the decrease of his blessings but deserve or merit their increase we cannot for merit supposeth more then a motive or inducement it necessarily includeth a Tie or Obligement whereas no obligement or inducement can be laid upon infinite goodness whose continuation and increase is likewise successively infinite without all period or restraint unto all such as do not merit or provoke the substraction or diminution of it 8. Difference in this point of merit between the doctrine of the modern Romish Church and the doctrine or rather the conceipt of the Pharisee I for my part could never conceive any save only secundum magis et minùs A difference of defect and Excess The nature and qualitie of their opinions and conceipts is the same The excess of pride or self conceipt of their own works and of their worth is on the Romanists part not on the Pharisees The Pharisees mere wen of more strict life then most either of the Romish or Reformed Churches now living be They abstained from many Enormities in which the Publicans with whom they lived did wallow They were zealous followers of many Good works which the Publicans did not so much as approve much less practise least of all practise with zeal and constancie But were they therefore nearer to the Kingdom of heaven here promised or were they more justified by their works then the Publicans were which did not work The Parable of the Pharisee and Publican Luke 18. doth witness the contrary I tell you saith our Saviour verse 14. this man went down unto his house rather justified then the other to wit the Pharisee What was it then that made the Pharisee more uncapable of justification then the Publican want of works No! As he alledgeth and no man could disprove his allegation He fasted twice in the week and gave Tithe of all that ever he possest What then Only The opinion of merits or over-weening conceipt of the worth of these his Positive works or of his abstinence from grosse and mortal sins But it may be he ascribed all this to His own Free-Will not to the favour and grace of God Not so For if we compare him with the modern Papists in this Point we are bound in conscience to pronounce the same sentence of them that our Saviour did of the Pharisee and the Publican The Pharisee that very Pharisee which our Saviour said was less justified then the Publican is more justifiable then any modern Romanist which beleeves the doctrine of merits as now it is taught or despiseth our Church as less holy then the Church of Rome for denying the merit of works For even this Pharisee albeit he thought himself a great deal better then the Publican yet did he not ascribe this to himself or to his Free-will for so he makes his confession ver 11. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican In saying thus he did acknowledge not only his Positive good works as fasting and paying tithes but his Abstinence from evil as from extortion c. to be from God For he thanks him that he was not an extortioner and his solemn Thanks include an acknowledgment that it was his gift whom he thanks that he was no extortioner no unjust or adulterous person That the Pharisee did conceive as the Romanist doth that the First Grace by which he began to be more observant of Gods Lawes then the Publicans or other men were was only from God and that the increase of this Grace or his proficiencie in good life and works was from himself or the effect of his Free-will this is more then can be laid unto his charge For he saith not God I thank thee that thou hast converted or reclaimed me from so sinful paths as this Publican walks in To have said thus much and no more might have left a suspition that he did acknowledge the First Grace of his conversion to be Gods meer Gift not so the Second or Third Grace or the increase of Grace or his proficiencie in good Life But now he saith God I thank thee that I am not as other men are nor as this Publican This includeth an acknowledgment that all the Perfection whereof until this very day he deemed himself possest was from God was his Free Gift So that it would be very hard to fasten any part of the doctrine of merits which is now stiffely maintained by the Romish Church upon this Pharisee Seeing then he boasts of nothing which he doth not acknowledge that he had received from God wherein doth his pharisaical pride or conceit or as the Evangelist stiles it his Trust in himself consist Only in that he Glories in Gods Graces as if he had not received them in that he was not humbled by that Grace which by his own acknowledgement he had received from God therefore is he lesse justified then the Publican So then the true End and use of all our works of all the Graces which God bestows upon us in this life is to teach us true humility and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as men that seek for the Kingdom of Heaven not by Works much lesse as due to our works but by acknowledgement of Gods Meer Mercie and our own unworthiness Many which in words disclaim the doctrine of Merits as for ought I know this Pharisee did may secretly trust in themselves or in their Merits but none which make the doctrine of Merits a point of Belief as the Romanists do but must of necessity trust in themselves and in their merits as this Pharisee did Hence saith St. Augustine Vis excidere a gratia jactes merita Wouldst thou fall from Grace Boast of thy merits 9. All that they have to Object against us from this place is from the Form of our Saviors Speech Inherit the Kingdom of God prepared for you FOR I was an
of quick and dead But he that by vertue of his Commission as Son of man did freely forgive all other sins did as my Text imports remit all personal offences as they only concerned himself and did not suffer the fruits or effects of these later Jews malice to come upon Jerusalems score for shedding of righteous blood It was not his Will to have any more greivously punished for being malitiously bent against him then they should otherwise have been for the unrelenting habitual bent of their malice against whomsoever it had beene set Never was bitter enmitie practised against any so little desirous of revenge or so unwilling to accuse his enemies as he was for so he protests unto the Jews which sought his life Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust John 5. v. 45. Moses though till Christ came the meekest man that had been on earth had foretold and solemnly threatned those plagues whose execution most of the Prophets had sollicited But this Great Prophet beyond all measure of meekness and patience whereof humanity so but meer humanity is capable seeks by prayer by reproof by admonitions and exhortations by all means justly possible to prevent them he often fore-warns what would be the issue of their stubbornness which he never mentions but with greif and sorrow of heart he often intimates that the most malicious murtherer amongst this people was not so desirous of his death as he was of all their lives witness his affectionate prayers seasoned with sighs and tears even whiles they plotted the execution of their long-intended mischeif against him 4. That which first moved me to make and must justifie the interpretation of these words here made is a remarkable Opposition expresly recorded in Scripture betwixt our Saviours and his Disciples desires uttered at their death for this peoples good and the cry of Abels blood and Zachariah's dying voice both solliciting vengeance from Heaven against their persecutors When they were come to the place called Calvarie they crucified him Then said Iesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. ver 33. This Infinite Charity notwithstanding some alwayes jealous least God should shew any token of love towards such as they mislike or Christ manifest any desire of their salvation whom they have markt for Reprobates would have restrained unto the Garrison of Souldiers that conducted him to the Cross But Reasons we have many to think or rather firmly to believe that he uttered those Prayers Indefinitely for all that either were Actors in this business or Approvers of it whether Jews or Gentiles And if both his Doctrines and Miracles whiles he lived on earth as all must acknowledge did why should not his dying Prayers in the first place respect the lost sheep of Israel Roman Souldiers they were not but Jews of the most malignant stamp which martyred St. Stephen yet after he had commended his spirit unto Iesus in near the same terms that Jesus did his unto his Father he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge And when he had said this he fell asleep Acts 7. 60. It is no sin I hope to suppose that the Master was every way as charitable at his death as his Disciple It is requisite that he which bids us bless our persecutors should set us a more exquisite patern then we are able to express His prayers for his greatest persecutors were more fervent and unfeigned then ours can be for our dearest friends St. Stephen in thus praying for his enemies did but imitate his Master and bear witness of his loving kindness towards all But when Cain had killed Abel the voice of his blood cried unto the Lord from the earth and the cry procured a curse upon him for the earth became barren unto him and he was a fugitive and vagabond from the Land wherein he lived before Herein as St. Augustine excellently observes a Type of the Jewish Nation who having the prerogative of birth-right amongst Gods People for the like sin became fugitives and vagabonds on the face of the earth whilest the good Land which God gave unto their fathers hath been curst with barrenness and desolation for their sakes And this Cry of Abels blood against his brother God would have registred in the beginning of his book as a Proclamation against all like impious and bloody Conspiracies until the worlds end Whereby the Iews to whom the manner of Gods process with Cain was sufficiently known were condemned Ipso Facto without any further folicitation of Gods judgments then their own attempts of like practises No marvel if his punishment foreshadow theirs when as never any did so manifestly and notoriously revive his sin as this Generation here spoken of did Cain saith St. Iohn was of that wicked one and slew his brother And wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 John 3. 12. Ye are of your father the divel saith our Saviour to these Iewes and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murtherer from the beginning Iohn 8. v. 44. And why did they go about to murther him Because he had told them the truth which he had heard of God ver 40. And as he had taught before in the third of S. John They would not receive him although he came as a light into the world because their deeds were evil Moses had foretold That the Great Prophet was to be this peoples Brother and in that they would not hearken to him they stood condemned by Moses's Sentence Deut. 18. 18. Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him v. 19. Abel as pleasing God by his sacrifice and as being slain by his ungratious brother was the live Type of Christ as man whose murther by his brethren though most displeasant yet his sacrifice was most acceptable unto his God The same God which in the fourth of Genesis admonisheth Cain partly by threatning partly by promises to desist from his wicked purposes doth here in my Text as lovingly and yet as severely dehort these Jews from following his foot-steps least his punishments fall heavier upon them And they not taking warning by Cain's example to repent them of their envie and grudging against their brother the Crie not of Christs blood which they shed but of Abel's overtakes them for Christ was consecrated as the Sanctuary or place of Refuge whereto they should have fled And Abel was the Revenger of blood which did pursue them So likewise doth the Cry of Zacharias's at his death for that was quite contrary to our Saviours and St. Stephen's When he died he said The Lord look upon it and require it 2 Chron. 24. 22 The present Effect of this his dying speech compared with St. Lukes narration of Our Saviours Admonition affords the
of Truthes The Philosophers Rapt with Joy in Contemplation and Invention * The former of the Two Philosophers was Pythagoras The later was Archimedes Of both see Plutarch in his Book intituled Non posse hominem suaviter vivere secundum Epicurum Much more Joy in the knowledge of saving truths How this tast'd of eternal life is preserved Of questions touching falling from Grace See the Authors Opinion more fully about Sin against the Holy Ghost Book 8. Chap. 3. which Book though published 21. years since I suppose was written after This. They only enjoy and keep this Tast that diligently seek after it and truly prize it The danger of seeking to enjoy worldly Contentments together with this heavenly Tast See this Fallacie in Aristotles Rhetor. Tast of unlawful pleasures deads and looseth the heavenly Tast Unlawful pleasures and sinful acts destroy the heavenly tast both by Efficiency and Demerit How worldly pleasures and temporal contentments come to prevail against the tast of Eternal life Faculties natural and Grace Two Scales Moderating of worldly desires and natural affections necessary for gaining and preserving the heavenly tast ☜ ☜ Seneca Watchfulness and sobrietie also are necessary Sobrietie consists not only in temperance of meat and drink but in Ruling our thoughts and words The final Recompence of our doings Good or bad Chemnitius's Rule The Romanists Allegation from the force of the word merit Hor. de Arte. The Romanists second proof of Merit The Answer The Rom-third Argument Bellarmine his Reasons The Causal Particles For Because and the like imply not merit of Works And see more of them Book 8. Chap. 15. The Freenesse of the Pardon excludes not all qualification but rather requires sincere performance of good Duties Works not properly meritorious but indeed Unworthy of eternal life How Christs temporal sufferings were of infinite merit Why the pleasures of sin though temporary deserve eternal punishment See this Book Fol. 3498. Of the word Gift or Grace Whether the Grace of God or the Effects of his Eternal Favour can be merited by us See Book 10. Fol. 3285. Gods Justice and righteousness in rewarding us does not imply the merit of our works The divers acceptions of Justice or righteousness Should such a thing be our meriting derogates from Christs merits See the fourth Book Chap. 11 16. c. About merit and justification The place perhaps related to in the next paragraph Of Justification the doctrin whereof is corrupted by the doctrin of Merit ☞ How works are excluded from Justification Two rocks to be avoide here Confid in merit of Works and Praemature conceit or presumption of our Election ☞ Eternal life a most Free Gift of God Gods infinite Freedom The true way of laying hold on General Promises It follows not God cannot deny himself ergo I am in and shall persevere in the state of Salvation Equally dangerous to confide in Merit and to presume of Election See Book 10. Chap. 42. Fol. 3228. The Free Gift of eternal life excludes not due Qualifications in the receiver * This was preached at Newcastle upon Tine For whom was the Kingdom of heaven prepared See the 10. Book Chapt. 42. Fol. 3236. c. Humilitie a necessary qualification The third Point The Qualification for receiving this Free Gift Why Christ instanceth in the Scribes and Pharisees Turkish mercie See the discourses following upon that precept Do as you would be done to Two Generals 1. A sentence and that Twofold 2 The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Positive verities or Conclusions See The Fathers cited by this Author in his fourth Book Chap. 11. c. about the inseparableness of Faith and works Good works necessary to Salvation Omission of Good Works forfeit our interest in the promises Damnation awarded for Omissions The Romanists wresting Hebr. 11. 6. to maintain merit of Works The third Positive truth mentioned §. 1. handled Chap. 31. ☞ See this Authors Treatise of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. See this Authors Treatise Of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. A Sinister exposition of Saint James 2. 10. ☞ Why Christ instances in works of Charitie rather then of Pietie ☞ ☞ * About Newcastle upon Tine where these were preached The worse the poor be the more we may be charitable unto them All neglect of the poor is sin This spiritual neglect is a sin exceeding sinful Jansenius his Observation A Catholick verity The Definition of merit The state of the Question Consider three things Increase of Grace no more merited then the First Grace About Free-will See an elaborate Treatise Book X. Chap. 24. c. A Syllogism If there be not Ratio Dati Accepti A promise is no Ground of merit How the Papists and Pharisee agree in this point rather how they exceed him The Objection drawn from the Causal Particle For in the text framed and answered Jansenius his Argument The Author his Answer See the 27th Chapter of this Book where this Argument is most fully answered and that with some variation of what is here The miserie and mistakes of man The short or summe of mans Dutie The Coherence The Authors Method Severus Two Grounds of this Rule or Law of Nature Cyrus Scipio Exceptions against these two Rules The Answer to the former Exceptions ☞ More exceptions against that Rule and Answers to them This Rule must be understood of a 〈◊〉 Will. Rigid censuring a Pronostick of falling Q. If nature alone binde men to do good to their enemies How Christ fulfilled the Law * See §. 8. Rom. 12. 20. The Application ☜ Ps 35. 13 Esai 22. 12. Ezek. 21. 10. How this Precept Do as you c containeth all the Second Table So Christ said to St. Peters Lovest thou me Feed my sheep So David said to God Psal 16 My goodness extendeth not to thee But to the Saints that are in earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight See St. Aug De Civit. Dei Lib. 10. Cap 4. and 15. Cap. 22. and Lud. vives's Comment An Objection against this precept thus improved and expounded An Answer to the Objection A Second Objection Mens affections are right balanced when they be as ready to do as to receive good A double oversight ☞ Good things are only pleasant whilst they rellish of Gods Goodness ☞ Pro. 16. 8. See the 6. Book 2 part chapt 11. page 95. Titus 2. 11 A Dutie semblable to every desire See §. 13. ☜ See St. Basil de 40. Martyr * See the Sermons upon that Text. Chapt. 35 36. The bestmeans to put the dutie in practise Keep an exact Register or Calendar of our Good and evil dayes Deu. 24. 19 ☞ ☞ Ecclus. 11. 25. 27. Psal 41. 1. Beatus qui intelligit super pauperem ☞ Two great inconveniences of wealth and greatness unduly sought See Fol. 3586. ☞ Such mixt deeds are like a Linsy-wolsey Garment or plowing with an Ox and an Ass yoked or lowing miscellan See Chap.