thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee Why may not this God be trusted with thy children too Sure I am he should Tell me Who provided for them before they were born Who put care and tender affections into their mothers heart milk into their nurses breasts Did not God Is not he that made provision for them all before they came into this world and hath comfortably maintained them ever since fit to be trusted with them still though thou beest gathered to thy fathers and seest Corruption Doubtless he is § 7. The better to help us in the performance of so important a duty as this take along with us the following directions I. Get and keep assurance of a peculiar interest in the love and favour of God in Christ We neither trust known enemies nor doubtfull friends with what we account pretious They that know God to be their enemy they that doubt whether he be their friend or no cannot with confidence cast their whole care upon him But he that can groundedly say with David I am thine may go on as he doth Lord save me He that Psal 119. 94. can say with assurance of faith The Lord is my shephard may confidently Psal 23. 1. add I shall not want The spouse may go leaning upon her beloved with all her Cant. 6. 3. 7. 10. 8. 5. weight when she hath first been enabled to say My beloved is mine and I am his I am my beloveds and his desire is towards me II. Continue in well-doing Let them that suffer according to the will of God saith S. Peter commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Look how much care a man hath to please God so much confidence may he have to cast all his care upon him Whilest the people of Israel went up to the place of Gods publick worship all the males that were of age thrice in a year leaving none but women and children at home so giving the enemy fair oportunity for invasion God undertakes they shall not so much as desire or think of such a thing Neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before Exod. 34. 23 24. the Lord thy God thrice in the year III. Treasure up the promises chiefly such as are made on purpose to assure us of Gods caring for us that in particular Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with Heb. 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Where there is in the Original an accumulation of many negatives to make the assertion as strong as may be it is as much as if he had said I will never in no wise in no case forsake thee We are wont to call the bils and bonds of able men good security The promises of God all-sufficient are certainly so IV. Reflect upon former experiments and let them be encouragements for time to come The Psalmist did so when he said I have considered Psal 77. 5 10. the days of old the years of ancient times I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Some enquire why David when he asked for a sword and Abimelech told him there was none at hand but that of Goliah called for it and said There is none like to that it is 1 Sam. 21. 9. probable he might have found some of better mettal or as good and some perhaps fitter for his strength but yet prefers this above all because of his experiment God had formerly blest him in the use of that § 8. Against the fourth and last proposition of Providence her activity even in sin it may be objected and usually is that this tenet cannot be maintained without making God the Authour of sin which opinion is an abhorrencie to the mindes of all sound Divines I answer so it is and ought to be neither doth that assertion want the attestation of this State Witness a modern but pregnant occurrence yet not generally known and therefore inserted here in perpetuam rei memoriam In the year of our Lord 1645. there was published in London an English book wherein God was expresly made the Author of his peoples sins though not without some limitations The Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster took offence at this though some of them being acquainted with the man whose name it bore were ready to say of him as Bucholcerus Habuit cor bonum sed non caput regulatum Sculter Annal. Dâ—c did of Swenckfeldius He had a good heart yet without a well regulated head made complaint of it to both houses of Parliament They both censured the said book to be burnt by the hand of the common hangman and the Assembly of Divines agreed upon a short Declaration Nemine contradicente by way of detestation of that abominable and blasphemous opinion which was also published under that Title July 17. 1645. and in which we meet with these among other expressions That the most vile and blasphemous Assertion whereby God is avowed to be the Authour of sin hath hitherto by the general consent of Christian Teachers and Writers both ancient and modern and those as well Papists as Protestants been not disclaimed onely but even detested and abhorred Our Common adversaries the Papists have hitherto onely calumniously charged the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches with so odious a crime in the mean time confessing that we do in words deny it as well as they themselves now should this book be tolerated might insult over us and publish to the world that in the Church of England it was openly and impudently maintained That God is the Authour of sin then which there is not any one point whereby they labour in their Sermons and popular Orations to cast a greater Odium though most injuriously upon the Reformed Churches We are not for the Reverence or estimation of any mans person to entertain any such opinions as do in the very words of them asperse the honour and holiness of God and are by all the Churches of Christ rejected This premised I now assert positively and considerately yet without obliging my self to make good every phrase that hath fallen unadvisedly from the pen of every wâ—ter that what Protestant Churches say in their publick Confessions and allowed Protestant writers in their books concerning Gods having a natural influence into the sinfull acts of creatures but without a moral influence into the sinfulness of their acts his inflicting hardness of heart as a punishment to former sins his directing and ordering great sins to great good as Joseph's vendition to the Churches preservation yea the crucifixion of Christ to the salvation of the Elect do neither really nor in due construction amount to the making of God the Author of sin To what hath been elsewhere further said of this copious argument I refer the capable reader to my Tactica Sacra Lib. 1. Cap. 1. § 5. ibidem cap. 6. § 4. FINIS
Quae omnia saptens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata Sic adorabimus ut meminerimus cultum magis ad morem quà m ad rem pertinere c. August De Civit. Dei lib. 6. cap. 10. will keep them all as things commanded by our laws not as things acceptable to the Gods for custome rather then conscience sake Thereby shewing as Austine observeth that he himself misliked what he practised and did not approve his own adoration What else was this but mock-worship And although it must be granted that some of them were more serious in that way of superstition which the Gentiles Theology prescribed yet was not their worship in Truth for being destitute of Christ who is the way the truth and the life they John 14. 6. Psal 51. 6. wanted that Truth in the inward parts required by God in all holy services The Pelagians indeed were of opinion that those vertues which appeared in heathen Philosophers and others of eminent note for morality though they had not received the knowledge of Christ were true graces But if Austin may be credited this above all their Hoc est unde vos maximè Christiana detestatur Ecclesia Contr. Julian pelag lib. 4. cap. 3. corrupt tenents was that for which the Christian Church did most abominate them their doctrine Yea Paul whom we are bound to beleeve in the fourth Chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians is thought to have concluded the contrary we finde there the life of the Gentiles Ephes 4. vers 17. 18. 21. 24. clearly opposed to the life of God which they saith he were alienated from as also to the truth as it is in Jesus and to that true holiness or holiness of truth wherewith every spiritual worshipper is endued And so far is the Apostle in that place from excepting their philosophers that as Grotius thinks he aims especially at them because his phrase in the seventeenth verse That ye Vide Grotium in Ephes 4. 17. in Rom. 1. vers 21 22. walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minde is fully parallel with that in his epistle to the Romanes They became vain in their imaginations which is certainly meant of their philosophers for it follows professing themselves to be wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name whereby that sort of men were commonly known witness the seven wise men of Greece before Pythagoras invented that other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of wisdome as more modest § 4. The second grand direction about the manner of worship is that it be performed in the name and through the mediation of Jesus Christ who saith of himself I am the way No man Joh. 14. 6. comes to the Father but by me And of whom Paul saith Whatsoever ye do in Coloss 3. 17. word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus whereupon Luther was bold to Quicquid oratur docetur vivitur extra Christum est idololatria coram Deo peccatum Luther tom 3. edit Jenens p. 300. assert That all the prayings teachings and actings of men are out of Christ idolatry and sin in the sight of God Now although the first direction were not altogether unknown to some of the Gentiles as may be gathered from sundry passages in their writings cited by Grotius in his notes upon John the fourth at the four and twentieth verse and by Doctour Meric Casaubon in his second book De cultu the third chapter yet of this second they had no knowledge at all for it is not a lesson to be learned in Natures school The heavens indeed and so the earth with all the creatures in them both declare the glory of God in himself but the glory of God in the face of Christ as mediatour is not declared by any of them Insomuch as Paul tells the Ephesians that while they Ephes 2. 11 12. were Gentiles they were at that time without Christ although Ephesus then was full of Philosophers and eminent scholars witness the proverb of Ephesian letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 19. 19. and that story in the Acts which mentions the burning of books there to the value of fifty thousand pieces of silver by such as were taken off from the study of curious arts upon their conversion to the faith As for Jews and Mahometans the former we know have espoused long since another Messias and the latter set up that impostour Mahomet for their mediatour § 5. Now the argument built upon the foundation of these premised considerations stands thus No religion or doctrine can bring us to the fruition of God but such as instructs us how to worship him aright No religion or doctrine but Christianity teacheth the right worship of God Therefore none but it can bring us to enjoy him The proposition is bottomed upon that necessary connexion which is between the fruition of God and his adoration he being wont to communicate himself in or after acts of worship according to these and the like places He that hath Joh. 14. 21. my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Behold I stand at Rev. 3. 20. the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me The Assumption hath been already cleared But if further proof be needfull I shall add one argument more So far is the light of nature from making a full discovery of what belongs to divine worship that the wisest Philosophers in their morall tractates have not onely been silent as to faith in Christ and repentance from dead works and such other eminent duties of religion but commended to their readers some habits and actions for vertues and duties which in Scripture are represented as vices and sins For example Aristotle one of Natures high priests in his Ethicks one of the choicest pieces of morality extant maketh a vertue of Eutrapelia which Paul under that very term prohibits as a thing inconvenient for Christians Neither filthiness nor Ephes 5. 4. foolish talking nor Eutrapelia Jesting which are not convenient So also Nemesis that is grief and indignation at the prosperity of unworthy men is by him reckoned among such affections as are near of kin to vertues but condemned at large by David in Psalm the thirty seven and by Solomon in the Proverbs saying Fret not thy self because of evil Prov. 24. 19. men neither be thou envious at the wicked Another of his vertues is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnanimity which he describeth to be the judging of a mans self worthy of great things when he is so Whereas our Saviour directeth us even when we have Luke 17. 10. done all things that are commanded us yet to say we are unprofitable
thou finde in thy self any beginnings of salvation any hopes that it shall be perfected Remember what that great asserter of free grace hath left upon record to all posterity By grace Eph. 2. 8. ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Remember it so as § 3. First to beware of receiving the grace of God in vain it being ordained for better ends to wit purging and cheering of such as receive it The grace of Titus 2. 11 12. God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world All partakers of grace should not onely denie that gross ungodliness of conversation which the very sons of moralitie decrie and abhor but also worldly lusts which others are secretly indulgent to Neither should they content themselves with a negative purity such as that of the Pharisee was I am not as Luke 18. 11. other men not as this publicane not an extortioner not an adulterer Logicians say of this particle Not that it is of a malignant nature Divines know that the malignant Church is much built up by such negatives but also practise positive holiness by living soberly righteously and godly and that too in this present world not putting on a vizard of these as the manner of some is on a sick bed or death bed when they can no longer look at themselves as men of this world but of another As for cheering remarkable is that prayer made in behalf of the Thessalonians Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God 2 Thess 2. 16 17. even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts It implieth that whereas we cannot possibly raise from our selves any ground of hope or have any lasting much less everlasting consolation from the creatures Grace is a firm foundation for both And this is it which hath put the prince of darkness whose desire it hath always been to keep men in as hopeless and comfortless condition as he can upon using his utmost endeavours in all ages of the Church either to obstruct the doctrine of free grace as by Pelagian and Arminian tenents or to poison this fountain with corrupt deductions and inferences as by Antinomians and Familists Wherefore remember it so as § 4. Secondly In all thy tenents and discourses to magnifie and exalt that to which thou owest so very much indeed thine All that good is Think it not enough with some of a Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum thousand parts to ascribe nine hundred ninety and nine to free grace reserving but one for free-will for as Prosper resolves the case well It is not devotion to give almost the whole to God but deceit to retain the least part And again Grace is Gratia Dei tota repellitur nisi tota suscipiatur wholly repelled where it is not wholly entertained I list not now to dispute the point Onely let me have leave to commend to thy reading and observation a paper of verses inserted by certain Divines that were present at the Synod of Dort into their suffrage and comprehending a brief decision of the five Articles there debated with a pious inference from thence because with me they have ever been of great esteem since I first met with them in the Acts of that Synod Gratia sola Dei certos elegit ab aevo Acta Synod Dordrect in 4o. pag. 293. Dat Christum certis gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei fidei dat munera certis Stare facit certos gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei cùm nobis omnia donet Omnia nostra regat gloria sola Dei In English thus Free grace alone elected some to bliss Free grace alone gave Christ to death for some In some free grace works faith that saving is Some by free grace to perseverance come Since Gods sole grace doth all our good provide Let Gods sole glory all our motions guide § 5. A third branch of divine goodness is Long-suffering whereby God hath been pleased to put a notable difference between Angels that fell and the lapsed sons of Adam Of them Peter saith God spared not the Angels that 2 Pet. 2. 4. sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement This was quick and speedy work But the Lord saith 2 Pet. 3. 9. the same Apostle is Long-suffering to us-ward He exerciseth much patience very much even towards all though vessels of wrath For so Paul What if Rom. 9. 22. God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction How profane was the old world How wicked a place was Jericho yet was he one hundred and twenty years in warning those of that age before he brought the deluge upon them And he that made the world in six was seven days in destroying that one city The great Doctour of the Gentiles was not much more then thirty years old when God converted him yet we finde him looking at this as infinite patience as all long-suffering that he was born with so long I obtained mercy saith he that in me first 1 Tim. 1. â—6 Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering How sensible then ought they to be of this Attribute whom God hath born with fourty fifty sixty years and still continueth to cry unto as it is in Habakkuk Wo to him that increaseth that Habak 2. 6. which is not his How long as in Jeremy O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness Jerem. 4. 14. that thou maist be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee And again Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt Jerem. 13. 27. thou not be made clean When shall it once be All which places declare sufficiently that the long-suffering God doth in a manner long to see our conversion to him § 6. And that indeed is the most proper use we can make hereof according to Pauls expostulation Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance Rom. 2. 4. and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance Verily we cannot meet on this side hell with a worse temper of spirit then that which inclines a sinner to despise the forbearance of God and to kick against the bowels of his goodness As that profane Arian did who was executed at Norwich concerning whom Mt Greenham acquainteth us with this strange and prodigious narration Mr Greenham in his treatise intituled A sweet comfort for an afflicted conscience on Prov. 18. 14. circa medium This hellish heretick saith he for so were the deniers of Christs Divinity accounted of in those days whatever thoughts be had of
For as some of Gods promises are made with the condition of faith and perseverance so his threatnings are denounced with the exception of repentance which though concealed for the most part is always included and sometimes expressed as in that place of Jeremiah At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome Jer. 18. 7 8. to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Be we admonished from hence First What to practise in reference to God to wit Truth in our promises to and covenants with him that so our returns may be answerable in kinde to our receits All his ways are mercy and truth Psal 25. 10. to us-ward therefore all ours should be truth and faithfulness towards him Thrice happy we whatever our outward condition prove if we be able to profess in the sincerity of our hearts as they did in Psalm the fourty fourth All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our principal comfort flows from Gods keeping his Covenant of grace with us it should therefore be our principal care to keep touch with him § 8. Secondly What to look for in reference to our selves To wit an exact fulfilling of all promises and threatnings that are conditional according to their severall conditions Hath the faithfull and true witness said He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Let no unbeleever then whilest he continueth in that estate expect salvation neither any that beleeveth and walketh in Christ fear damnation seeing he hath Truth it self engaged for his safety and seeing the faith of Gods Tit. 1. 1 2. elect according to St Pauls doctrine should go hand in hand with the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Let all that wish well to Zion make full account that in due time The mountain of the Isai 2. 2. Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it because it hath been promised of old Let them also know assuredly that the Lord will consume Antichrist with the spirit 2 Thess 2. 8. of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming because this commination standeth upon the file in holy Scripture and is not yet completely verified Former ages have seen Antichrist Nascent when the Bishop of Rome first usurped authority over all the Churches Antichrist Crescent when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images and praying to Saints departed Antichrist Regnant when he exalted himself above Kings and Emperours setting up his mitre above their crowns yea Antichrist Triumphant when he once became Lord of the Catholick faith so as none might beleeve without danger more or less or otherwise then he prescribed To this observation made by one of our own learned countreymen let me add we our Dr Crakanthorp in his Vigilius dormitans chap. 13. § 24. selves have seen him Antichrist Cadent falling and waining ever since Luther Calvin Perkins and others were set on work by God to unmask him And no Exerc. 4. doubt if we do not our posterity shall see him Antichrist morient dying and giving up the ghost for the Lord faithfull and true hath not onely threatned his ruine but foretold that his day is coming EXERCITATION 4. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture-expressions setting out the pardon thereof Gods goodness therein Faith and repentance the way to it Pardon in the Court of Heaven and of Conscience The equity and necessity of forgiving one another We are to forgive as God for Christs sake forgiveth us viz. heartily speedily frequently throughly A twofold remembrance of injuries in cautelam in vindictam § 1. THe sixth branch of divine goodness is the Lords keeping mercie for thousands which phrase admitteth of sundry notions worthy of diligent consideration First Keeping it as in a store-house God is said to be rich unto all that call upon Rom. 10. 12. him and we reade of the riches of his goodness These riches are laid up with him and kept as in a magazine to be made use of upon all occasions according to the emergent necessities of his people Whence it is that we also reade of their obtaining mercie and finding Hebr. 4. 16. grace to help in time of need Secondly Keeping it for the present age as well as having dispensed it formerly to predecessours Our fathers were all liberally supplied out of Gods forementioned Treasury as it is in Psalm the two and twentieth Our fathers trusted in thee Psal 2◠4 5. They trusted and thou didst deliver them They cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded This should be no disheartning to us as if his Treasury were exhausted but encourage us rather as Pauls example did succeeding beleevers For this 1 Tim. 1. 16. cause I obtained mercie said he that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter beleeve on him to life everlasting Which is the next observable Thirdly Keeping it for time to come as well as dispensing it at present God hath mercy in hand and mercy in store We now say as it is in the Lamentations It is of the Lords mercy that Lam. 3. 22. we are not consumed because his compassions fail not The same will they have occasion to profess that shall come after us God keepeth mercy and mercy keepeth us Created goodness indeed being limited may be justly suspected of penurie Esau might have somewhat to plead for his saying Hast thou but one blessing my father But Divine goodness is like an ocean without either banks or bottome Our heavenly Father hath blessings reserved as well as bestowed many more blessings then one yea for many more persons then one as it followeth Fourthly Keeping mercy for thousands and that not of persons onely but as it is in the Chaldee for thousands of generations One generation goes saith the Preacher and Eccles 1. 4. another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever Not one of all these generations but coming and going tasteth of mercy and the whole earth during Psal 33. 5. the time of these revolutions are still full of the Lords goodness When the ark rested Moses said Return O Lord unto the many Numb 10. 36. thousands of Israel He that charged his providence with the thousands of Israel is ready to charge it with the thousands of England both in this and after ages if they do not apostatize from him and so forsake
Molanus Theol. practicae compend p. 211. of old in Austins time were wont to beat upon their breasts in a deep sense of their sins at the Nobis in the beginning of the forementioned Petition Forgive Us well may the most of men now adays beat their breasts for grief and hang down their heads for shame at the Nos in the latter clause As we forgive For how few are there that do it aright Seeing that § 8. Secondly we should forgive others as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us to wit First Heartily without dissembling Christ denounceth a terrible threatning against such as do not from their Matth. 18. 35. hearts forgive every one his brother It is not a making a fair shew in outward carriages not binding up as it were the broken bones of peace with good looks and sweet words that God accepteth if the heart be full of wormwood and gall Joab kissed and stabbed Judas kissed and betrayed Hail Master said the one to Christ Art thou well my brother said the other to Amasa How hatefull is such dissimulation to God and man Forgiveness is a fruit of love My little children saith St John let us not love so say I let us not forgive 1 Joh. 3. 18. in word and tongue but in deed and in truth Secondly Speedily without delay Be Nehem. 9. 17. Bis dat qui cito like God ready to pardon As in bestowing he doubleth his benefit that giveth betimes so in pardoning he forgiveth twice that forgiveth with speed his forgiveness receiveth a double welcome and shall have a double reward It is not for Christians to harbour animosities in the course of their lives and think to salve it by saying we forgive all the world when they lie upon their death beds For that may be applied to pardoning which Divines usually say of repenting True forgiveness is never too late but late forgiveness is seldome true Wherefore let not the sun go down upon Ephes 4. 26. your wrath as Paul adviseth his Ephesians If that which was but a mote at Ira festuca est odium trab◠August first be watered and cherished with the fresh suspicions of some few days it will turn to a beam and go near to put out the eye of love Thirdly Frequently without stint or limitation God multiplieth pardon so Isai 55. 7. should we When ye stand praying forgive Mark 11. 25. saith Christ and Paul bids us Pray 1 Thess 5. 17. continually We should therefore be inclined to forgive continually and to make actual performance whensoever there is an opportunity Peter thought he had offered fair when he asked How oft shall my brother sin against me and Matth. 18. 21 22. I forgive him adding till seven times as making account that surely that was often enough But our Saviour maketh nothing of that number would by no means have him stay there Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but untill seventy times seven putting a certain definite number for an indefinite and thereby intending to teach that his followers should forgive Toties quoties so oft as they shall be trespassed against § 9. Fourthly Throughly as without excepting so without remembring any offence God excepteth not any of our sins when he affordeth us pardoning grace 1 Jo◠1. 9. But if we confess he is faithfull just to forgive us our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Should he reserve but one unforgiven that one would sink our souls to hell It is our duty to imitate him herein Forgive saith Christ if ye have ought against any Whoever the person Mark 11. 25. and whatever the thing be you must forgive One of the Evangelists setteth down the petition thus in our Saviours form of prayer Forgive us our Luke 11. 4. sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us It must then be performed without excepting any either person or essence As also without remembring any God doth so forgive our sins as not to keep a register of them I even I am he saith the Lord that blotteth Isai 43. 25. out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Yet with us what more frequent then saying I forgive such a man such a wrong but shall never forget it or him A distinction that came not out of Christs school but Satans mint Paul was of a different spirit witness that remarkable passage of his to the Galatians Brethren I beseech you be as I am for I am Galat. 4. 12. Vide Bezam Grotium in loc as ye are ye have not injured me at all Where he seemeth to desire that every member of the Church in Galatia would be to him as an Alter ego another self seeing he was affected as another self to each of them But had they not injured him yes very much in preferring the false Apostles before him questioning his doctrine yea becoming his enemies and that for telling them the truth yet behold him professing here Ye have not injured me at all because these wrongs were as no wrongs in his estimation it was not his purpose to impute them he speaks as one that had really forgotten them by reason of his resolution to forgive them There is I confess a kinde of remembrance not inconsistent with true forgiveness when prudent men remember offences and offenders in cautelam so as to beware for the future of exposing themselves to the like injuries But Christians ought not to remember in vindictam so as to revenge themselves upon the delinquents for wrongs done in time past I say to revenge for otherwise a Christian may Exerc. 5. seek to right himself in a legal way yea and to bring offenders to condign punishment still retaining a charitable minde towards them even as God though he have forgiven justified persons may notwithstanding and often doth chastise them with his fatherly corrections EXERCITATION 5. The latter clauses of Exod. 34. 7. so translated and expounded as to contain an eighth branch of divine goodness viz. Clemency in correcting Equity in visiting iniquities of the fathers upon the children Clemency in stopping at the third and fourth generation A lesson for Magistrates A speech of our Q. Elisabeth Gods proclamation in Exod. 34. Improved by Moses in Numb 14. § 1. THe following clauses have somewhat more of difficulty in them then any of the former as being variously rendered and expounded by Interpreters The most reade as we do That will by no means clear the guilty visiting c. But amongst these that do agree in the translation there is some difference about the meaning of the words The major part of that combination apply them wholly to the Justice of God in taking vengeance upon obstinate sinners Some few whereof Mr Ainsworth is one respecting the scope of the whole context which is to set forth the Goodness of God consider this