against all that live after the Flesh 4. But even Perseverance it self is a Term Indefinite and illimited it admits though not altogether so many determinate degrees or portions as Mortification doth for there must be some set degrees of Mortification before there can be any Perseverance in Mortification yet a great many Degrees or parts And all the degrees of Perseverance are measurable by Continuance of Time Some there be who require a Perseverance in Mortification unto the hour of death before a man can be Infallible Heir of the blessing here promised They say of This the like blessings or Prerogatives or promised as Solon did of Happines or Feliâ—ity Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera debet No man can be said to be Thus Happy as to be in the assured state of Life untill he hath Persevered in this Duty of Mortification unto death And in this Tenour many of Gods Promises seem to run As when it is said He that continues unto the End he shall be saved c. This Limitation though true is not satisfactory to the Point in Question This Negative is true He that doth not Persevere in this duty of Mortification unto the End of his Life can have no Interest in this promised Life But this being granted it may be further Questioned Whether a man may not have the Gift of Final Perseverance Infallibly collated upon him by the Vertue of this Promise before he come neer to the End of his mortal life Whether some may not have it collated a longer time before some a shorter time some not untill the last day of their life or hour of death 5. A double Inquirie about Perseverance This Point again admits of a Double Inquisition The one De Certitudine Objecti The other De Certitudine Subjecti The One Concerns the Certainty of the Object or Gift of Perseverance it self as whether this Gift be immutably bestowed upon any man before his death The Other concerns the Certainty of our Apprehensions or perswasions that this Gift of Perseverance is or may be bestowed upon us in Particular Or if any man in this life can be thus Certainly perswaded the last Querie is By what Degree or kind of Certainty he can be assured that he shall finally Persevere in this Duty of Mortification or that he shall so Persevere in it as he shall not finally fall from Grace To begin with the First Branch of this Inquiry to wit Whether the Gift of perseverance or Certain Estate in Grace may be infallible or Immutable in this life Our First Proposition shall be this There is a Degree or measure of Mortification best known unto God which may be obtained before the hour of death by some later by others sooner unto which whosoever doth attain he is not only actually instated in this Promise of life but confirmed in Grace and endued with the Gift of Perseverance The Measure is not the same to all Some may be Confirmed in Grace before they attain unto the same height of Mortification which others must Exceed To whom much is given of them much shall be required The second Proposition is This There is a Degree or Measure of living after the Flesh best known unto God which may be made up in this Life by some sooner by others later which measure whosoever doth make up or go beyond it doth hereby become lyable to the Sentence of death hereby denounced and falls into the state of Reprobation The truth of both Propositions may be inferred from the Analogie of Faith or points of Doctrine heretofore delivered concerning the Certainty or continuance of Publick-Weal or Prosperity See his Sermons upon 2 Chr. 6. 39. And upon Jer. 26. 19. preach't before the King and the Certainty or Infallibility of Ruine and Destruction to States and Kingdomes Sauls Kingdome was upon the point of being perpetually Confirmed unto him 1 Sam. 13. 14. but by his Folly and disobedience his own Ruine and utter Deposition of his Line became inevitable and irrevocable The Rule often mentioned in other Treatises was Gener all That Blessings promised to any Nation whilest they were only promised not confirmed by Oath were but Mutable and Conditional and the Promise revocable That Cursings likewise only denounc'd by way of Threat Promises or threats without Oath Revocable under Oath irrevocable not ratified by Oath were but Conditional were Evitable and the Sentence revocable That Plagues or Blessings denounc'd by Oath were Inevitable unpreventable Instances were then given in Saul and in the Children of Israel which were cut off by Oath from entring into the Land of Promise as others were assured by Oath that they should enter into it 6. Now albeit the Interposition of Gods Oath was alwayes an Infallible Argument that The Thing which he did sweare were that matter of Promise or of Threat blessing or cursing was Immutable yet the Interposition of the Oath did not first make mens Estates whether in his Promises or in his Threates to be Immutable but rather declare them to be such Their Estates were the one way or the other Immutable before the Lord did so declave them and Immutable their Estates alwayes became not by any Specifical Qualities of the Duties performed or of the Iniquities committed by them but by the Just measure or full Degrees whether of dutiful Obedience or of disobedience and Transgression The best Argument in this Case we can use must be drawn from the Type unto the Antitype from the Legal Shadow unto the Evangelical Body This kind of Argument our Apostle hath warranted and in a manner fully drawn unto our hands Heb. 3. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts ver 13. but exhort one another dayly whilst it is called to day i. e. whilst there is time left for repentance lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the End 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what End doth he mean the End or utmost Period of Life This End may be comprehended under this Phrase which notwithstanding is not necessary to be restrayned unto this End For so the Instances alledged by the Apostle would not Conclude his main Allegation yea they include the Contradictory to this restraint thus much at the least that some of whom he speaks were confirmed in the promise and declared to be so confirmed by Oath others of them were sentenced by Oath unto death without revocation or appeal long before the End of life or approach of death Some when they had heard saith the Apostle did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses ver 16. Not all that were above twenty years old for Caleb and Joshua being at that time 40 years of Age did enter into the Land of Promise after all the rest which were above twenty
children of Israel died not one ver 5. 6. Pharaohs experience of the former Plagues fore-told by Moses and accomplished in his own sight did perswade him so farr to believe his Prediction of this that he sent into Goshen to know the truth of that part of it And behold there was not one of the cattel of the Israelites dead v. 7. And yet as it follows in the same verse The heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go 17. All or most of the former signs were respectively rather more noysome and terrible then detrimental unto Pharaoh and his People We do not read before this time of the death or destruction of any useful creatures besides of Fishes when the waters were turned into bloud And this calamitie was neither so grievous nor so universal as the murrain of cattel was It extended only to that part of the River or those waters that were nigh to Pharaohs Court otherwise the Magicians or Inchanters could have had no Place to practise their skill in But this murrain of the most useful creatures was very general Nor would the Magicians have attempted the like if it had been apprehended as facible by them seeing both the Egyptians and themselves should have been greater Losers by the Practise of their own cunning But seeing this Plague did not infect Pharaohs coffers or treasure Cities which the Israelites were enjoyned to build or to prepare materials for their building nor yet Pharaohs Chariots or Stables hence haply it is that he is not so much affected with the wonder as he had been with some of the former And yet because this wonder did give little or no check unto his proud stubborn thoughts the Lord instantly and without further Commission as being now in Processe of Sentence commands Moses to bring another Plague upon the Egyptians more terrible noysome then any of the rest had been ver 8. Then the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron Take to you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace c. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven and it became a boyl breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boyles for the boyl was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians ver 10 11. Whether Pharaoh did resume or continue his former Resolutions without any relentance the Text is silent but expresse enough to this purpose That the Lord did from this time harden the heart of Pharaoh after a more extraordinary manner then it had been hardened before for so the words do run ver 12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had spoken unto Moses But what was it that the Lord had spoken unto Moses Or where did he specially speak to this purpose The place whereto these words As the Lord had spoken unto Moses do punctually referr is as our English margin directs us Exod. 4. 21. And the Lord said unto Moses when thou goest to return into Egypt See that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go In most of the former Treaties between Moses and Pharaoh Or in the relation of the successe or effect of his speech or works this Epiphonema or Close comes often in That Pharaoh hearkened not to Moses and Aaron as the Lord had spoken But in none of them besides this present is it so expresly added that the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh as he had spoken unto Moses This different Character of this Close from the rest gives us to understand or intimates at least That this plague of blaines was the first of all the plagues in which the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh after any extraordinary manner But after what manner did he now harden it Not by Infusion of any bad Qualitie or new unhallowed Resolutions but by giving him up to his own lusts or by leaving him more open and exposed to the temptations of Sathan then he had been From this time and not before doth That of our Apostle Rom. 9. 17. For this very purpose have I made thee stand that I might shew my power in thee Commence or begin to take place Now thus to infatuate Pharaoh or suffer him to infatuate himself after he had so often hardened his own heart and slighted Gods forewarnings was a true Act of justice and withall a Prognostick that the just Lord was now Purposed to destroy him So the heathens out of their broken Speculations of Divine Providence have observed Quos Jupiter vult perdere prius deâ—entat Infatuation is commonly the Usher of fearful destruction God in all this deals no otherwise with Pharaoh then pharaoh had done with the poor oppressed Israelites immediately after the delivery of Moses first Embassage unto him Pharaoh upon this occasion as was observed before severely exacts the same Tale of bricks after he had prohibited the Task-masters to afford them any straw which they performed before when they had plenty of straw allowed them The Lord in like manner requires but the same obedience of Pharaoh after he had deprived him of understanding and of the sweet influence of his ordinary general Providence which he had required of him before or at the exhibition of the first signs or wonders And this only is it which ministred the occasion or matter of that question made by our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he yet chiâ—e unto which I have no more to say for the present then may be found in the Treatise upon that place Rom. 9. 19. See Chapter 42. of this Book Number 6. 18. But to finish this present Survey of the Mosaical Story concerning this proud and foolish Pharaoh it is a witty Character which * Kaì 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. Antiq. Iud. Cap. 5. Josephus hath made of his humorous wilful disposition That after he had seen and in some measure felt three or four several plagues he had a kind of itching humour or longing desire to have more variety of experiments in the like kind This the diligent reader may with me easily observe That upon his sight of the first signs and experiments of the Plagues which did accompany them he demeand himself like a proud Phantastick Humorist and did many waies bewray such a temper as it was impossible for him to become wise untill he had abandoned his former dispositions or resolutions But after the Plagues of the Murrain of cattell and of the blaines upon the Inchanters themselves this proud Phantastick falls into a Phrenzie and fares like a distracted Bedlam and raves as if his brains had been blasted by the fumes or steames of his cauterized heart or seared conscience Witnesse those Passages following Exod. 9. 27. And Pharaoh
after the same manner some good Writers maintain the universal Negative God never hardens positively but privatively only only by substracting or not granting Grace or other means of repentance or by leaving nature to the Bent of its inbred corruption Vide Lorinum in vers 51. cap. 7. Act. Apost pag. 322. Colum. 1. Others of as good note and greater desert in Reformed Churches better refute this defective Extreme than they express the Mean between it and the contrary extreme in excesse with the maintenance whereof they are deeply charged not by Papists only but by their brethren How often have Calvin and Beza c been accused by Lutherans as if they taught That God did directly harden mens hearts by infusion of bad qualities or That the production of a reprobate or impenitent temper were such an immediate or formal Term of his positive action as heat is of calefaction or drought of heat But if we take Privative and Positive Induration in this sense and set them so farr asunder the Division is altogether imperfect the former member comes as farr short of the Truth as the Latter overreacheth it God sometimes hardens some men neither the one way nor the other that is as we say in Schooles datur medium abnegationis between them And perhaps it may be as questionable whether God at any time hardens any man merè privativè as it is whether there can be Peccatum purae omissionis any sin of meer Omission without all mixture of Commission But with this question here or elsewhere we are not disposed to meddle God sometimes hardens privatively only being rather willing to grant what is confessed by all or most That he sometimes hardens privativè if not by meer substraction of Grace or utter denyal of other meanes of repentance yet so especially by these meanes as may suffice to verifie the truth of the Proposition usually received or to give the denomination of Privative hardning But many times he hardens Positivè not by infusion of bad qualities God usually hardens positively but not by his Irresistible Will but by disposing or inclining the Heart to goodness that is by communication of his favours and exhibition of motives more than ordinarie to repentance not that he exhibits these with purpose to harden but rather to mollifie and organize mens hearts for the receiving of Grace The natural effect or purposed issue of the Riches of Gods Bounty is to draw men to repentance But the very attempt or sway of meanes offered provokes hearts fastned to their sinnes The manner of Gods positive hardening to greater stubborness in the Rebound Hearts thus affected treasure up wrath against the day of wrath in a proportioned measure to the riches of bountie offered but not entertained by them And such a Cause as God is of their treasuring up of wrath he is likewise of their hardening no direct no necessary Cause of either yet a Cause of both more than privative a positive cause by Consequence or Resultance not necessary or necessary only ex Hypothesi Meanes of repentance sincerely offered by God but wilfully rejected by man concurre as positively to induration of heart as the heating of water doth to the quick freezing of it when it is taken off the fire and set in the cold aire Both these Actions or rather both these qualities of heat and cold have their proper influence into this effect If a Physician should minister some physical drink unto his patient and heap clothes upon him with purpose to prevent some disease by a kindly sweat and the Patient throughly heated wilfully throw them off both may be said positive causes of the cold which would necessarily ensue from both actions albeit the Patient only were the true moral Cause or the only blame-worthy Cause of his own death or danger following Iust according to the importance of this supposition or similitude is the cause of hardening in many cases to be divided betwixt God and man The Israelites did harden their own hearts in the wilderness and yet their hearts had not been so hardened unless the Lord had done so many wonders in their sight In every wonder his purpose was to beget Beleife but through their wilfull unbeleife the best effect of his greatest wonders was induration and impenitencie Now as it suits not with the Rules of good manners for Physicians to tie a mans hands of discretion or place lest he may use them to his owne harm so neither was it consonant to the Rules of eternal equitie that God should necessitate the Israelites Wills to a true Beleif of his wonders or mollifie their hearts against their will that is He neither hardens nor mollifies their hearts by his Irresistible Will nor did he at all will their hardning but rather mollification 5. All this is true of Gods ordinary manner of hardning men or of the first degrees of hardning any man But Pharaohs Case is Extraordinary Pharaoh was hardned by Gods Irresistible Will Beza rightly inferrs against Origen and his followers that this hardening whereof the Apostle here speaketh was Irresistible that the party thus hardened was uncapable of repentance that God did shew signes and wonders in Egypt not with purpose to reclaim but to harden Pharaoh to drive him headlong into the snare prepared for him from everlasting All these Inferences are plain First that Interrogation Who hath resisted his Will is equivalent to the universal negative No man no creature can at any time resist his will That is according to the interpretation premised Whatsoever particular Gods Will is to have necessary or so to be as the Contrary or Contradictorie to it shall not be the Existence of it cannot be prevented or avoyded Now that God did in this peremptory manner will Pharaohs hardening is evident from the Emphasis of that message delivered unto him by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euen for this very purpose and for no other end in the world possible have I raised thee up that I might shew in thee my power and his power was to be shewed in his hardening For from the Tenor of this message the Apostle inferres the latter part of this Conclusion in the Text Whom he will he hardneth yea he so hardneth as it is impossible they should escape it Whether Pharaoh were an absolute reprobate or created to be Hardened or his judgments due unto it In all these collections Beza doth not erre Yet was Beza with reverence be it spoken more fowly to blame then this filthy Writer for so it pleaseth him to entitle Origen in that he referres these threatnings For this very purpose have I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee not only unto Pharaohs Exaltation to the crown of Egypt as I think Origen did but we need not we may not grant but to his Extraction out of the womb yea to his first Creation out of the dust as if the Almighty had moulded him by his
Irresistible Will in the eternal Idea of Reprobation before man or Angel had actual Being as if the only end of his Being had been to be a Reprobate or vessel of wrath Beza's Collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than he hath left them make God not onely a direct and positive Cause but the immediate and onely Cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessary Cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of those or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable Cause that is he did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardening Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an Absolute Reprobate or born to the end he might be hardned we are hereafter to dispute in the third Point All we have to say in this place is this If as much as Beza earnestly contends for were once granted the Objection following to which our Apostle vouchsafes a double answer had been altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examin the Pertinencie of the Objection and unfold the Validitie of the Answers The second General Point concerning the Pertinencie of the Objection 6. VVHy doth he yet find fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth he yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth he chide See Lib. 7. Ch. 19. Numb 4 5 6. All that are reprobates doth he only chide them is this all that they are to fear the very worst that can befall them were this speech to be as farre extended as it is by most Interpreters no question but our Apostle would have intended the force and acrimonie of it a great deal more than he doth thus farre at least Why doth he punish why doth he plague the reprobates in this life and deliver them up to everlasting torments in the life to come seeing they do but that which he by his Irresistible Will hath appointed Or suppose the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might by some unusual Synecdoche which passeth our reading observation or understanding include as much or more than we now expresse all the plagues of this life and all the torments which befall the reprobates in the life to come That the Objection proposed hath referrence only to Pharaoh or to some few in his Case not al that perish or are reprobated yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to do It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturaly designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immoveable Sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of Gods everlasting wrath against Reprobates in General 7. These Queries which here naturally offer themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any interpreters have occasioned me in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usual for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historical Circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have special Reference or Allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet exaltest thou thyself against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them go Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yet chides and threatens him again how long wilt thou refuse to humble thy self before me Let my people go that they may serve me Else if thou refuse to let my People go behold to morrow I will bring the Locusts into thy coasts That which makes most for this interpretation is the historical circumstance of time and manner of Gods proceeding with Pharaoh For this expostulation whereunto our Apostle in this place hath reference was uttered after the seventh wonder wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh upon which it is expresly said that The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh that he hearkened not unto them Whereas of the five going before it is only said That Pharaoh hardened his heart or his heart was hardened or he set not his heart to the wonders See Chap. 40. Numb 15. The Spirits Censure likewise of Pharaohs stupiditie upon the first wonder may be read impersonally or be referred to the wonder it self which might positively harden his heart in such a sense as is before expressed Nor is it to be omitted that upon the neglect of the seventh wonder the Lord enlargeth his Commission to Moses and his threats to Pharaoh Exod. 9. 13 c. Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes Let my people go that they may serve me For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maiest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth or as Junius excellently rendreth it I had smitten thee and thy people with pestilence when I destroyed your cattel with murrain and thou hadst been cut off from the earth when the boyles were so rife upon the Magicians but when they fell I made thee to stand for so the Hebrew is Verbatìm to what purpose That I might shew my power and declare my name more manifestly throughout all the earth by a more remarkable destruction than at that time should have befallen thee 8. The true Occasion of the former Objection This brief survey of these historical Circumstances presents unto us as in a Map the just Occasion the due force and full extent of the Objection here intimated in transitu Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet find fault As if some one on Pharaohs behalf had replied more expresly thus God indeed had just cause to upbraid Pharaoh heretofore for neglect of his Signs and wonders for it was a foul fault in him not to relent so long as there was a possibilitie left for him to relent But since God hath thus openly declared his Irresistible will to harden him to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why doth he chide him any longer Why doth he hold on to expostulate more sharply with him than heretofore for that which is impossible for him to avoid For is it possible for him to open the door of repentance when God hath shut it or to mollifie his heart whose hardening
unto that full growth in grace and good workes in this life unto which absolute impossibilitie of Apostasie is as irresistibly assigned by the eternal and immutable decree as final induration or impossibilitie of repentance is unto the full measure of iniquitie 35. In what proportion these two contrarie possibilities may be mixt in all or most men before they arrive at the point of absolute impossibilitie either of Apostasie or of repentance we leave it to every mans private conscience to guesse or examin grosso modo and to infinite and and eternal wisdom exactly and absolutly to determin Unto whose examination we likewise in fear and Reverence referre it whether the impossibilitie of repentance be absolute or equal in all that perish or the impossibilitie of Apostasie be absolute and equal in all that are saved at one time or other before they depart hence or whether the mutual possibilities of becomming vessels of mercy or vessels of wrath may not in some degree or other continue their combination in some men untill the very last act or exercise of mortal life But unto one and the same man untill he come to one of these two full points or periods God alwaies speakes whether by his word preached or otherwise by his peculiar providence as unto two because every such man hath somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit For men as they are the sonnes of Adam are carnal and Gods words are all spiritual and alwaies leave some print or touch behind them whereby the soul in some degree or other is presently either hardned or presently mollified or at least disposed to mollification or induration Continual or frequent calcitration against the edge of this fierie sword breeds a Callum or compleat hardnesse or as the Apostle speakes it seares the conscience But where it entreth it causeth the heart to melt and makes way for abundant mercie to follow after 36. Men as yet not come to a fulnesse either of iniquitie or of growth of Faith are but children in Christ and God speaks to his children while they are children as wise and loving parents do to theirs Now if a kind loving father should say to one of his sonnes whom he had often taken playing the wag Thou shalt never have pennie of what is mine and to another whom he observed to follow his book or other good exercises well pleasing to him Thou shalt be mine heire a man of discretion would not construe his words though affectionately uttered in such a strict sense as Lawyers would do the like Clauses of his last Will and Testament but rather interpret his meaning thus that both continuing in their contrary courses the one should be disinherited and the other made heire Though God by an Angell or voice from heaven should speake to one man at his devotions Thou shalt be saved and to another at the same time blaspheming Thou shalt be damned his speeches to the one were to be taken as a good encouragement to go forward in his service his speeches to the other as a faire warning to desist from evill and not as ratifications of immutabilitie in either course not as irrevocable sentences of salvation or damnation in respect of their individual persons but in respect of their present qualifications in whomsoever constantly continued Saul the Persecutor was a reprobate or vessel of wrath but Paul the Apostle a Saint of God a chosen vessell It is universally true The seed of Abraham or Israel was Gods people and yet it is true that the Jews though the seed of Abraham and sonnes of Israel were not partakers of the promise made to Abraham For they became those Idumaeans those Philistines and those Egyptians against whom Gods Prophets had so often threatned his judgements whom they themselves had excluded from Gods temple One principall cause of their miscarriage was their ignorance of the Prophetical language whose threats or promises are alwayes immediately terminated not to mens persons but to their qualifications In their Dialect onely true Confessors are truly Jewes every hypocrite or backeslider is a Gentile an Idumaean a Philistine None to whom God hath spoken by his prophets were by birth such obdurate Philistines as had no possibilitie of becomming Israelites or true Confessors The children of Israel were not by nature so Undegenerate sonnes of Abraham as to be without all possibilitie of becomming Amorites 37. The true scantling of our Apostles up-shot He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth rightly taken reacheth exactly to these points following and no farther First to admonish these Iewes by Gods judgements on Pharaoh not to strive with their Maker not to neglecte the warnings of their peace upon presumption that they were vessels of mercy by inheritance seeing they could not pretend any priviledge able to exempt them from Gods general jurisdiction of hardning whom he would as well of the sonnes of Abraham as of the Aegyptians or of diverting those beames of glory which had shined on them upon some other nation It secondly reacheth to us Gentiles and forewarnes all and every one of us by Gods fearefull judgements upon these Jewes not to tie the immutabilitie of His Decree for Election unto any hereditarie amiable national disposition much less unto the Individual entities of our persons as if it were like a chain of Adamant to draw us out of the womb into the grave out of the grave into Paradise Our Apostle makes a quite contrarie Vse of this Doctrine his division of hardening and shewing mercy holds true as hath been declared in one and the same person and every one of us for this reason is bound alwayes to fasten one eye as stedfastly upon Gods severitie towards the Jew as we do the other upon the riches of his glorie and mercy towards our selves For if he spared not the natural branches let us take heed left he also spare not us who have been hitherto the Flower and Bud of the Gentiles Behold therefore the goodness and severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards thee goodnesse if thou continue in his goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cut off And they also if they bide not still in unbeleife shall bee grafted in for God is able to graft them in againe The one aspect breedeth feare the other bringeth forth hope and in the right counterpoise of hope and feare consists that uprightness of minde and equabilitie of affections without which no man can direct his course aright unto the Land of promise This manifestation of Gods mercy to one people or other after a kinde of equivalent vicissitude perpetuated from the like revolution of his severitie towards others was the object of that profoundly divine contemplation out of which our Apostle awaking as out of a pleasant sleep cryes out O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out
to be true and proper Servants Slaves in a higher degree and larger measure according to a more base and odious slavâ—rie then such as by Legall Title were slaves or Bondmen unlesse these also were equally subject to the like base conditions or lewd dispostion of mind However This lewd disposition of mind or corruption of manners and affections whether in Bondmen or in their Masters was adjudged by the very Heathen to be more base and servile then the Legall estate or condition of known Slaves or Bondmen ☜ But before I acquaint the Reader with the opinions of Heathens in this point I must request him not to mistake my meaning or intention as if I esteemed the Verdict or Testimony of the best Philosophers amongst them to be in themselves of any credit or authority in matters sacred in mysteries of Faith or Divinitie I would rather request him to consider with me That many testimonies which are of no credit in themselves nor can borrow any authoritie from their Authors may be notwithstanding of very good use for the confirmation of better Authoritie or for the discovering or bolting out the truth whose Authoritie by what meanes soever once discovered or from whom soever it do proceed is alwaies great and ought to prevaile as in the end it certainely will prevail against ignorance and error in whomsoever they be found though patronized by men otherwise of extraordinary parts and deserved authority For example The testimony of a known Lyar whose Oath we would not take for six pence is good and lawful against himself A notorious Thief or Malefactors own confession especially if it be deliberately made and judicially taken is a Conviction as sufficient and Authentick as the depositions of two or three or more most honest men Now the same Law or reason of the Law which in some cases admits the testimony or confessions of dishonest men for legal proof will warrant us to admit the opinions but especially the reasons of Ancient Heathens which never knew the true God nor Jesus Christ whom he had sent for sufficient and Authentick Testimonies to convince the Athiests of later times or such as live without God in this present world or such amongst us as having much better means then the best of the Heathen had to know God and his Christ yet live altogether without any true fear or love of Either and in as little sense or feeling of their own natural Servitude or present bondage unto sin as the rudest or worst sort of Heathen did 9. Yet further Albeit the wisest and best sort of Heathen Philosophers lived in Bondage unto Sin and died Servants of corruption yet did they not alwayes speak out of the corruption wherewith their very Souls were tainted Many things they spake and wrote out of the Law of nature written as our Apostle testifieth Rom. 2. 15. in their hearts By the Light of which Law likewise they did many things contained in the written Law of God For not having that Law as the Apostle there saith they were a law unto themselves Now as the testimony or confession of a notorious Malefactor voluntarily and judicially made against himself is suffcient to condemn that Judge or Juror of injustice or partiality that would not take it for a legal proof or conviction so shall the Allegations or collections of the Heathens which were themselves Servants unto sin be of Authority enough to condemn us of a worse crime unlesse upon their informations we make more particular and exact enquirie First into the servile Estate or Condition wherein we were born and in which until our regeneration we still continue Secondly into the means by which we may be redeemed from the same Estate or condition Now the means by which we must be redeemed the most learned amongst the Heathens after long search guided in part by the Light of Nature could not discover But as in other Cases so in this when they seemed to be wise they became Fools When they sought to set themselves Free by Rules of Art or Philosophie from one or Few branches of this Servitude they intangled themselves Faster in some others 10. It was a Beam of Truth a step or approach to Freedom rightly discovered by * In Paradox Tully Si servitus sit sicut est Obedientia fracti animi abjecti arbitrio carentis suo “ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quis neget omnes Leves omnes Cupidos omnes denique Improbos esse Servos If servitude saith he be as no man even in the most strict proper and legal sense can make any more of it then the obedience of a broken or crazed abject mind deprived of all power or right to dispose of it self or its own Actions Who can deny all inconstant vaine men all Covetous generally all Wicked men to be truly Servants To presse his General reason a little further and to draw it from the very First root or spring of Servitude properly so called All men as well the wicked as the vain or inconstant have a desire to be Happy For Happiness is the mark whereat our intentions aim but of which most men in their Courses fall much wide or short For inasmuch as we cannot attain unto the End but by the Means or mean which are useful for attaining that Happiness which we most desire Partly through our natural weaknesse but especially through Satans cunning these useful Means intercept most of our time most of our pains and endeavours which should be reserved for purchase of the End For so it is with most of us by Nature as with young unexperienced or Carelesse Apprentices or Factors who finding some extraordinary contentment in the First Inne they come at spend most of their time and money there which should have been spent at the Fair or Mart for which they were Bound The special Means whose Vse is Necessary to the attainment of that Happiness which we most desire are specially Three Delight of Mind Contentment of the Body and Competencie of Wealth Now albeit in our First Aims or intentions we desire not These For Themselves nor in any Extraordinary Measure yet such is the Frailnesse of our Nature that Whatsoever things we much Accustome our selves unto they will at length Plead * See Chap. 21. â— 5. S. Aust Confess 1. 8. c. 5. Sayes I was bound not in Gaolers Irons but by my own Iron-will The enemy had made a chain of that My perverse Will became Lust Lust served became a Custome And Custome let alone became Necessity In a Chain made up of these Links Lay I a poor and miserable Slave to Sin Therefore Give the water no passage Eccles 25. 25. Let every one that names the name of Christ stand aloof off from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let not Sin enter the First Dore of Sense Eye or Ear or c. not the second of Phansie nor the third of Vnderstanding nor the fourth of Will Least it
If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 3. Touching the First Point What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie They are set down by our Apostle Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like This word Flesh sometimes signifies our Bodily substance sometimes our Corrupted Nature It shall suffice by the way to note in a word that the Flesh or Body is sometimes taken for the Fleshly Nature or Bodily Substance it self Sometimes for the Corruption of the Flesh or of Nature corrupted And in this Later Sense it is to be taken in This Place 4. That we may the better understand this Duty of Mortification by Sounding the Bottom of it we are in the first place to take it into serious Consideration That the words by which our Apostle here expresseth the Works or Deeds of the Flesh are not to be measured according to that Carnal Conceit or Grosse Sense which the Flesh it self alwayes partial for it self is ready to suggest but according to the Scale of the Sanctuary When He saith Adultery Fornication c. are the works of the Flesh we must not understand Only those Acts of Adultery or Fornication which come under the Cognizance or Censure of Courts Civil or Ecclesiastick not the Fruits or Blossomes But The very First Seeds of these Sins all Inclinations of the Flesh or Secret desires of the heart of this Kind This Art or Method of measuring these words or the sins comprehended under them our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 5. 27 28. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not Commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart When he reckons Lasciviiousness amongst the works of the Flesh we must not restrain this word to Actual Lasciviousness or Lascivousnesse in attempt We are to extend it to every Degree of this sin in Word or Thought to every Motion of the Tongue of our Heart or Senses by which either the Ears or Senses of others or our own Souls or Consciences may be polluted When he saith Idolatry is a work of the Flesh we must not take Idolatry only for the Visible or External Act of Adoration profered either to Creatures or their Images It comprehends All inordinate Affection of the heart to any Creature For to love Money more then God then our Neighbours or more then Equity or just dealing is a Branch of the Idolatry here mentioned by our Apostle For so he interprets himself Eph. 5. 5. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor Covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Again when he reckons Murther amongst the Works of the Flesh We must not measure This Monster only by such Pictures of it as are drawn in Bloud For even Hatred Wrath Strife and Sedition are true Lineaments or live Limbs of this Gyant Ye have heard saith our Saviour it was said by them of Old Time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment But I say unto you That whosever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire Mat. 5. 21 22. Lastly we are not to take the works of the Flesh albeit we take them in the grossest sense for those Acts Habits or Accustomances only which are seated in the Flesh or Bodily part of man but for those Acts or Inclinations which are accomplished in the Operations or Exercises of the Reasonable Soul For if we mark the Apostles Words not Witchcraft and Idolatry only which are usually accomplished in some External or Bodily Act but even Heresie it self is expresly mentioned amongst the works of the Flesh and yet is Heresie the proper Off-spring of the supreme Faculty of the Humane Soul that is of the Intellective Faculty or Understanding The most dangerous Hereticks have been alwayes men of great understanding and for wit acute and subtile Nor are we to restrain this word Heresie to profest Opinions or Errors expressedly maintained or subscribed unto We are to extend the Apostles meaning unto the First Seeds or Roots of this sin as to Emulation to Affectation of applause to Secret pride of heart or hearty desire of Vain Glory or Excelling others These are the General Seeds of the most Grosse Sins here mentioned And therefore our Apostle in the Conclusion of this 5 th Chapter to the Galatians strikes at the very Root Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another If we harbour these or the like desires though secretly in our breasts they will as Opportunity serves betray us to the Grossest Sins here mentioned as to Murther to Heresie or the like Now not of these grossest sins only as Murther Adultery Heresie or Idolatry but of their First Seeds or Roots our Apostle fore-warnes these Galatians as he had done in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And who then shall Inherit this Kingdom For who is he that is not subject to some one or other of these Mis-demeanours or perverse Inclinations who is he that doth not either consent to unlawful Lust or entertain desires of Applause or of Excelling others or doth not often either Envy or Emulate his Equals or Betters True it is that no man can say His Heart is Clean in respect of these Acts or inclinations unto them Shall no man therefore seeing no man is altogether Free from these Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven God forbid It is one thing to Do such things according to the ordinary Use and construction of this Phrase in our vulgar Language another thing to be a Doer of Them or to make these Misdoings the chiefest of our Doings which is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this and like Sayings So when it is said He that doth sin is the Servant of sin the meaning is He that is a Doer of that which is sinful is the servant of sin But so is not every one that sinneth for there is no man which sinneth not It is well observed by Maldonate the Jesuite that this word to Do in the Hebrew Dialect includes not the present Act or Operation only but the Habit or Custome of Doing There is no man which sometimes Doth not some of the works here mentioned by our Apostle And yet there is No Man which hath Mortified the
Salvation as God is readie to work in them and for them And because God never failes to work salvation in them and for them that are diligent in seeking it or affraid to neglect it therefore they are said to Work out their own Salvation not properly or Formally but Consecutivè that is Salvation is the Necessary Consequent of their working or doth necessarily follow upon their work Not by any force or Efficacie of their Work or by any natural Connexion but meerely by Gods Appointment or Decree The very same phrase in the Original our Saviour useth unto the people John 6. 27. Which words can beare no other Construction then that which we have made of St. Pauls words Philip. 2. 12. no other Interpretation then our English hath already made Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life And so the Vulgar Latin doth not render them verbatim Operamini Cibum but Operamini Cibo Not Work that meat but work for that meat For if That Meat which endureth to eternal Life must be given them by the Son of God if This Meat be the very Bodie and Blood of the Son of God it cannot be the proper Effect of any mans work or any Merit of man but the End or consequent of our Labours or endeavours and yet we are said to work This Meat in the same sense that we are said to work our Salvation viz. Consecutivè because God doth infallibly make us partakers of it if we diligently seek after it or labour for it 7. By the right Use of this Distinction we may reconcile many places of Holy Scripture which seem repugnant one to another as Likewise qualifie many Speeches whether of the Fathers or some Good Modern Writers which otherwise would seem harsh and offensive Who can say saith Solomon Prov. 20. 9. I have made my heart clean This Interrogation is in all mens judgement Equivalent to this Universal Negative No man can say I have made my heart clean Howbeit the Psalmist Psal 73. 13. saith Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain There is no Contradiction between this Psalmists Particular Affirmative I have cleansed my heart and Solomons Universal Negative No man can say I have cleansed my heart Solomon speakes of the Internal Purification which is the proper Effect and sole work of Gods Spirit The Psalmist speakes of his own Labours or Endeavours that his heart might be thus purified by the spirit of God He then did cleanse his heart Consecutivè non Formaliter Every one Saith St. John that hath this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 1. Joh. 3. 3. This place perhaps Some will say is meant of men Regenerate only seeing they only have that hope whereof the Apostle here speakes Many other such places of scripture there be in which we are said and sometime Commanded to Purifie our Selves as Jam. 4. 8. Cleanse your hands ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded This place cannot be meant of men truely regenerate For even Sinners and double minded men such as men regenerate are not are commanded to cleanse their hands and to purifie their hearts Many other places likewise there be wherein this purifying of the heart is wholly ascribed unto God God saith St. Paul Act. 15. 9. put no difference betwixt us and them purifying their hearts by Faith Not this Purification only But all other Good Works are said to be wrought by God as Esay 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us or for us And our Saviour saith John 15. ver 5. Without me ye can do nothing Both parts of our former Distinction are included in that of St. Paul 2. Tim. 2. 21. If any man purge himself from these he shall be a Vessel unto honour Sanctified and meet for the Masters Vse and prepared unto every good work His speech is if we mark it He shall be made a Vessell unto honour if he purge himself He doth not say He shall be enabled to make himself a Vessell of Honour Nor doth he in proprietie of speech or as we say Formally or Efficiently purge himself But in that he doth those things whereupon this Purification by Gods Spirit doth immediately follow Man is said to purge himself And so are we in this place of St. Paul Rom 8. said to mortifie the deeds of the bodie by the Spirit when we do those things whereupon this Mortification doth immediately insue not by any Merit or Causalitie of our works but by Gods meere Grace by the Councel of his Holy irresistible Will by the Determination of his Eternal Decree by which it hath pleased him to apoint The One as a Necessarie Consequent of The Other to witt Spiritual Mortification or life it self as the Issue of our endeavours to Mortifie the Flesh This kind of Speech is usual not in Scripture only but in other Good Writers and in our Common Dialect So Tully tells us of a Romane Orator who for want of skill in Civill Law Petijt revera ut causa caderet made a Motion that he might Loose his Cause This Motion he did not make directly or Formally His meaning is that if his Motion had been granted he must by Necessary Consequent have lost his Cause Thus when we see a man Look Old whom we know to be much younger then our selves we usually say You make me an Old Man Not hereby meaning that he hath brought Old-Age or Gray Haires upon us by any trouble or vexation but that he who is much younger then we being apparently Old we must by Consequence be Old So that he makes us Old not Efficiently but only by Consequent truely argues us to be Old According to this Analogie of Speech by which He is said to make us Old whose Age doth truely argue us to be Old is that Prophesie litterally mean◠of Jeremiah which was punctually or formally fulfilled in God or his Christ Jer. 1. 10. See I have this day set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to root out and to Pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jeremiah did never Levie an Armie or incite any people to take Armes for the Deposition of their present Governour or for the Alteration of any state yet in as much as He foretold the Extirpation of Some Kingdomes and the Erection or Plantation of Others And in as much as what he foretold did certainly come to passe he is said to have Done that which did Follow upon his Predictions though many yeares after his death And in the same Sense we are said to Mortifie the Flesh to cleanse our Hearts to work out our Salvation yea to make our Election sure when we do those things whereupon our Purification or Mortification shall be wrought though many yeares hence and alwaies wrought by the Omnipotent Power of that Decree by which those Kingdomes
that he may instruct him But we have the mind of Christ When He saith WEE have the mind of Christ he includeth ALL such as He was that is All Men truely Regenerated by the Spirit whom God hath instructed to discern the things of God By The Mind of Christ the Apostle meaneth the self same thing that he did by the Spirit of God Between the mind of Christ communicated unto us and the Spirit of God communicated unto Us and received by Us there is no difference or distinction The importance of both Speeches is the same Our mind being Changed from Evill to Good or from minding of Carnal things to the minding of Spiritual things is called The mind of Christ by Participation so likewise The Spirit of God by Participation But the Spirit of God which communicates this Mind or Spirit unto us or by which we are said to receive it hath not alwayes the same Importance Between the Importances there is no Dissention yet a Distinction Sometimes by the Spirit of God God the Spirit or God the Holy Ghost is meant who in a peculiar manner is said to sanctifie Us to Regenerate Us to Quicken Us to work Mortification in Us. Sometimes again by the Spirit of God is meant The Spirit which is in Christ which is the Fountain from whence all gifts of the Spirit are immediatly derived unto us though the derivation be immediately wrought by the Holy Ghost And when the Apostle saith that we have the mind of Christ this Mind of Christ which we have received supposeth a Mind or Spirit in Christ which participates it unto us or from which we receive it by Participation We may not imagine a Transmigration or Transmission of the Spirit which is in Christ from Him to Us but a Participation only God hath anoynted him with the Oyle of gladnesse above his Fellowes God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him From the fulnesse of this Spirit in him we receive Grace for Grace Albeit this Grace be distributed or Portioned out unto Us by the Holy Ghost Christ sends the Spirit of Mortification or Regeneration into our hearts as the Fountain or Conduit head doth the water into a Citie The Holy Ghost prepares our hearts to receive this Spirit of Christ and brings it unto Us after such a manner as He that makes the Aquaeducts or Conduit pipes doth convey water into a Town or Citie otherwise destitute of good water 6. But what doth the Apostle mean by the Spirit of man as it is Contradistinct or opposite to the Spirit of God the whole Reasonable Soul or Form of man by which he is distinguished from other Creatures Or some principal part which hath least commixture with the Flesh or Body that which we commonly call the Conscience This part of the Soul even in the unregenerate man oft times disallowes such things as are entertained by the Reasonable Soul and condemnes such Actions as are undertaken by Reason and mannaged with Extraordinary understanding When the Gentiles saith our Apostle do by Nature the things contained in the Law they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their CONSCIENCE also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. 14. 15. In this Accusation or Processe in the very Heathen there is a Combate or Conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh or between the Mind and the Affections 7. But may not the same part or Facultie of the Reasonable Soul disallow or Condemn at one Time the self same things which at another time it well approves If it may there is no Necessitie of Distinction between the Soul and the Spirit But if there be any Conflict between Reason it self and the Spirit at one and the same time there must needs be a Distinction betwixt them Now it seemes that even whilst the Reasonable Soul doth contrive mischief or give her Consent to things unjust or unexpedient whilst it Hatcheth Haeresie the Conscience doth secretly check it and endeavour to restrain it And this Conscience could not do unlesse it were in some sort distinct from that Reasonable part or Facultie of the Soul which is indued with Freedome of Will For there can be no Conflict but between two different Parties or Capacities 8. This is most Consequent to Plato's Philosophie and to true Theologie For as the Platonicks distinguish between the Soul and the Mind So our Apostle distinguisheth between the Soul of man and the Spirit of Man 1. Thess The Spirit of man is not said to be mortified but Quickened by the Spirit of God 5. 23. And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Our Sanctification is not entire or universal in respect of the Parts universal it cannot be in respect of all Degrees untill the Soul as well as the Spirit untill the Body as well as the Soul be thus Sanctified as our Apostle wisheth Every part of man must be in Part or in some good measure Sanctified But before this entire or whole Sanctification can be wrought there must be a Mortification of the Body or of the Flesh and under The Flesh as hath been observed before The Reasonable Soul with its best Faculties is usually comprehended by our Apostle Howbeit we do not read of any Mortification of the Spirit but of Renovation Vivification or Quickening of it 9. What shall we say then That the Spirit or conscience of man is altogether free from the Contagion of the Flesh that it stands in no need of Mortification 1. Cor. 8. 7. St. Paul tells us of some men whose Conscience being Weak is defiled But the Conscience in his Language perhaps is not altogether the same with the Spirit But the Synteresis in all likelyhood is And again He tells us that there be men of Corrupt minds and destitute of the truth which suppose that Gain is Godliness 1. Tim 6. 5. And we read of a Soundnesse of mind 2. Tim. 1. 7. But that defilement or corruption of the Spirit or mind Seemes by our Apostle not to be Ordinary However the mind or Conscience may be polluted by the Contagion of the Flesh yet are they not so radically polluted as the Flesh is The Flesh is the seat of the disease The Idiopathy as Physitians speak is in The Soul the Sympathy only in the Spirit or Conscience So that if the deeds of the Flesh be mortified there needs no peculiar Cure or Mortification of the Spirit So it falls out in diseases of the Bodie If the Protopathie be cured the Sympathy will fall of it self As many are vexed oft times with great Aches or pains in the Head Some with Fitts of the Epilepsie or Falling-Sicknesse when as the root of the disease is in the Stomack In these Cases there needs no peculiar Physick for the Head But cure the Stomack and the Head
of the Flesh which must be mortified The Affection whence this Loathsome stream doth spring is a desire of mirth or pleasure For no man directly desires to be Drunk All men naturally desire to be Merrie as having an internal spring of delight or mirth in themselves which naturally desires an issue or vent otherwise the Soul and Spirit becomes sodden in Melancholy Hence it is that many mens Affections detesting this Melancholy humour be drenched in this Filthy sink or puddle of Drunkenness which is but a Sinister or preposterous Issue of inbred Mirth The true Mortification of this monster is not to be sought by quelling or weakening the Affection whence it springs but rather by giving it another Issue or vent Thus much is implyed in our Apostles advice Eph. 5. 18. Be not Drunk with wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord. Our Apostle here supposeth that the spirit of God which alone worketh the mortification of this sin and other Lusts of the flesh although he detests all drunken ryotous mirth is not a dull spirit of melancholy It delighteth much in its own musick alwaies desirous to hear pleasant songs of its own setting And there is no meanes so Effectual for drowning drunken mirth as a full consort of the musick of this spirit Beatus populus quiscit Jubilationem hanc Blessed are the People That can rejoyce in Thee O Lord. 8. The perfect Cure of the Soul is wrought Per Simile Thus it is plain how this Cure must be wrought by Contraries and yet per simile by the Like too The Lusts of the Flesh must be Mortified by the Spirit and yet these are Contraries But if we descend unto Particulars Ambition or desire of honour must be mortified by desire of Honour Covetousness which is a desire of Riches must be mortified by the desire of Riches Drunkenness which is a Desire of Mirth must be mortified by a desire of Mirth Immoderate carnal Love must be mortified by excessive Love of Christ and of things Spiritual Between the Desires themselves there is as true Similitude as is between the several currents of water which issue from the same spring or fountain but as perfect a Contrarietie between the Objects and issues of the desires as there is between the several waters of the same fountain whilest the One runnes in a pure rock or conduit pipe and the other into a sink or puddle 9. To Conclude then The spirit of God doth first purifie the Fountain of our Desires that is the spirit or Conscience of man The spirit of man being thus quickened and purified doth by direction and assistance of the same Spirit of God divert the current of his Desires and give a new vent or issue to his Affections And the Desires or Affections by this diversion of their Current receive a further Degree of Purification from the Ocean or Sea into which they empty themselves that is from Heaven and the heavenly Lights on which they are sett Between the Current of our Desires or Affections thus purified by the spirit of God and the Coelestial Objects whereon they are sett there is such Reciprocation or mutual recourse as it were between a stream of pure water and a Sea of Nectar the stream or spring still falling into the sea and the sea still sweetning the stream by reflowing upon it The spirit of Christ which knowes no bounds or Limits which is more boundless then the Ocean delights in our Desires or Affections whilest they are sett upon heavenly things And the more his spirit is delighted in our Desires and Affections thus emptying and pouring out themselves the more he purifies and sweetens them by the influence of his Gratious Spirit Yet are not any mans Affections so throughly sweetned by the Spirit of Grace in this Life as not to retain some permanent Tincture or mixture of the Flesh Howbeit every man is Throughly mortified in whom the spirit of Christ hath gotten the Soveraigntie over the Flesh and won the better part of the natural Affections to its service But whether this Soveraigntie being Once gotten may not Finally or for a time at least be lost Heave it to the determination of the Schooles My application for the present shall be from the words of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 38. 25 26. Though the book be Apocryphal yet his observation in this place is Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdome of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of Leasure or as some read by right imployment of his vacant time And he that hath little businesse shall become wise How can he get wisdome that holdeth the Plough and that glorieth in the Goad that driveth Oxen and is occupied in their Labours and whose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk is of Bullocks Or of the breed of bullocks His verdict concerning Handy-Crafts-Men is for the most part true of Men full of that which we call Book-Learning or imployed in matters of Government of Sate Would to God it were not too true of many that have little Business In respect of this private Learning Every one of us Especially in these times have Bookes enough of our own so we would sequester some competent times or vacant seasons for serious perusing them Every mans course of life and dayly Actions are the best Bookes for this Learning And no man can so well read them as his own Spirit and Conscience Herein then consists the Wisdom of him that is in part and desires to be A â—etter Christian First in careful Observing the Touches of Gods punishing or chastising Hand Secondly in Reflecting upon the motions of his Spirit Thirdly in duly Examining Every day What advantage the Flesh hath gotten against the Spirit or the Spirit against the Flesh All this being done the best imployment of all these Talents which God commits unto our trust must be in acknowledgeing our whole strength to be from God and in Consecrating our best endeavours by continual Prayer for the assistance of his Spirit In this Last Point we are Active yet Active only to the End that we may be Towardly Passive that we grieve not the Good Spirit of God by which our Sanctification must be wrought He will not forsake Vs unless we forsake Him first But as water which hath been heated by the fire congeales the soonest after it be taken off and removed from it So they ☜ which have felt the Motions of Gods Spirit and have been in some measure Mortified by it freez the soonest in the dregs and Lusts of the flesh and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him or so grieve him that he cease to renew or continue his former Motions But he that will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High and will open his
to leave off all wearing of Gold to cast away all their Ornaments of Dignity as filthy ensignes of Luxury to bring them all into Juno's Temple and there consecrate and Leave them Their Youth also he reduced to an excellent Temper as may be collected from the Cure he wrought upon the women whom he taught to forget their beloved Ornaments And here I cannot forbear but I must appeal to my Reader and ask him sadly and seriously whether he thinks that if St. Chrysostom or St. Austin were now here alive again upon earth and should desire him to pick out and point unto them the best as he thought of those our Cities that most â—lagrantly Professe Christianity wherein they might hope with most probabilitie of successe to attempt the like Cure of vanity either in women or men he could promise Those Holy Fathers any hopes that they should speed so well amongst Christians as Pythagoras did amongst the Crotonians Whether he thinks that at this Time this Juncture or rather this Fracture of Time when at Gods chiding the Springs of water are seen the Foundations of the world are discovered when his wrath being kindled yea not a little he hath stained the Pride of Glorie and still cals aloud to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with Sack-cloth Isai 22. 12. when Spots and paint and powder Glorious and strange Array seem to be as Ominous to men as the Gilded Hornes and Ribbons were to the white Oxen that were suddenly to be sacrificed They could perswade any Ten wanton Young-men but to observe that Rule of the Apostle prescribed women whose adorning let it not be that outward of plaiting Hair wearing Gold or donning Apparel but the Dress of the Inner-man the heart and Spirit with ornaments of Grace Or any Five Daughters of Sion that walk according to Ovids Rule with Stretched-out necks to cover themselves Decently as those Fathers should judge or as themselves or their Mothers had judged sometime Decent Though they should be allow'd to doe it with the most precious Riches of the East Silk and Pearl and the Gold-plate of Vphaz Yet was Affected Curiositie of Hair and Dresse in men so monstrous even in the sight of that Monster of Mankind * Seneca de Ira l. 2. c. 33. Caligula that he put a Yong Gentleman to Death for it Munditiis ejus cultioribus capillis offensus And nakednesse so odious in the sight of Modest heathen women that Clemens Alex Strom 4. l. reports it in praise of a certain Mulier Lysidica who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used to go into the Bath with her clothes on And yet I fear or Phansie some Reader that could not do This would grudg to Allow the Crotonian Reformation the Honour to be stiled a Moral Conversion * S. August Tom. 7. l. 1. Contr. Julian Cap. 7. 4. Epist 130. and more places where he Takes notice of Polemo Will he then allow that Title to our Next Instance Which I wil commend that though few do imitate yet some may admire it It is of Polemo the debaucht Athenian Ruffian Perditae Luxuriae adolescens says Val. Maxim l. 6. c. 9. who upon a time having made an end of his accustomed All-night Revels by that time of the Morning that Xenocrates was at his moral Lecture in the Schools and having occasion as it fel out to pass that way struck into the Schoole with design rather to jeer and affront the Grave Philosopher now busie at Lecture then to learn any thing of him He seeing Polemo come in such a pickle as a Pernox Convivator must needs be and besides in a prodigious aequipage and Garb of Luxury crownd with Rose-Buds and hung with all the Imaginable Fanes Labels and Swadling-Bands of Phansie compos'd his Countenance to the utmost dimensions of Gravity remov'd his discourse whereupon he was when Polemo came in into the Theme of Temperance and this he pursu'd with so much Sweetness Power and Eloquence without taking any notice of him whom he most thought on that this Younker began first to startle as one wak'd out of a Trance then to look up towards Xenocrates as soberly as he could next he stole his Garland off his head and laid it from him after that he pull'd his Armes in under his cloak and otherwaies exprest what effect that morning Lecture had upon him in summe he went out of the Schoole a clean other man Mutatus Polemo chang'd even to a Proverb and turnd so constant a Student and good Proficient in Morality that he succeeded his Master in his Schoole Hic vir hic est quem quaerimus but where shall we finde the like amongst Christians An hundred of our sory Lectures scarce produce one such Convert I mean Like and Such in proportion to the means of Grace tenderd in Christ Iesus quaero Hor. Serm. faciásne quodolim Mutatus Polemo L. 2. Sat. 3. ponásne insignia morbi Fasciolas cubital focalia potus ut ille Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas Postquam est impransi correptus voce Magistri This Cure he wrought upon an other upon many disadvantages but you 'l ask perhaps had the Physitian heald himself yes it seems he had got an excellent Magisterium or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against that Epidemical putrid Hereditary disease of mankind Lust Phryne that Nobile Scortum Atheniense as Val. Maxim L. 4. c. 3. calls her had laid a wager with some of her Customers that she would conquer Continence and this Philosopher both at once To him she comes at an opportunity not ordinary when the man was Benè potus perhaps this signifies not what ill it sounds but only Plenitude uses all the immodest Arts and Modes she had to allure him It may indanger the modesty of some sort of Readers to write what she did though it moved him no more then a Dead man in short she did tempt him to the utmost yet was not He tempted but received this Testimonie of Chastity from Harlotry it self That he was invincible I presume the Objection that this was a natural Deadness no Mortification Moral A cold Palsie Fit of Age no voluntarie Continence I say then 1. They be weak Authors that report it to us and so admire it themselves 2. Sure They were both wiser and Honester then to commend unto Posteritie Impotencie in stead of Exemplary Vertue 3. He seem'd as free from the proper vice of old Age 1. Orat. de Fort. Alex. M. as from that of Youth Plutarch tels it of him that he Refused 50. Talents sent him by Alexander the Great with this excuse or reason return'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophie had taught him not to Contract or amasse wealth but to shrink up his desires So had it taught others 1. Crates the Rich and Noble Theban who cast 200. Talents of Silver into the Sea Diog. Laert. Lib. 6. or as some say into the common Bank upon
observant Eye may see bear the Stamp and Form of a Conclusion or Collection containing matter for its Truth as unquestionable and of as large Extent for good Vse as any Maxime in this whole discourse This Illative being turned into a simple Assertive Non est volentis neque currentis c is as the Axis whereon the whole Doctrinal Part of this Epistle revolves But taking this Verse as it here lyes being both a Principle and a Conclusion the Lists of my Inquirie into it at this time by Gods assistance shall be but Two Vndè infertur Quò refertur 1. Two Inquiries From what Premisses it is gathered And 2. To what End it is referred Or To what Vse or purpose in the Apostles Intent it is specially applyable The Premisses whence it is gathered first well sounded will rectifie our aime or Level at the Scope whereto it is directed And the End or scope being known will easily impart the right Vse or Application Amongst many Vses whereto these words may serve it is not the least That their just Extent once rightly taken will serve as a just measure or scantling to notifie and unfold the contents of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Chapter which have been as much perverted as any places in all St. Pauls Epistles because they have been the common Themes of every illiterate vocalist or rural Scholar 2. It is I take it agreed upon by all at least it will be denyed by none that the principal End of this Epistle is to establish these Romanes whether Jews or Gentiles by Progenie in that Faith wherein they had been instructed And by the Line or Level which is directed to this End must the Argument of this present Chapter as of all the rest be squared The Materials here handled differ somewhat from the former but Modus considerandi their Reference or Aspect to the proposed End is the same What the Apostle in this place here inserts either concerning the hardening of Pharaoh the Reprobation of the Modern Iewes or free Election of their Fathers is purposely inserted for under-propping or fortifying his Former Assertion That Iustification or Salvation must be sought by Faith only without Works To perswade the truth of this our Assertion no particular Allegations of Authorities or reasons can so much avail with an ingenuous Auditor as his own di-diligent Perusal of the 10. and 11. Chapters in which The Resumption of his former Argument is to cleare-sighted men more evident then the Continuance of it is in this And with his former Doctrine in those two Chapters resumed he intermingles powerful admonitions to the Gentiles to make their Election Sure unto which purpose the Original and manner of the Iewes Rejection is in this Chapter premised And He that shall please in his more retired thoughts unpartially to survey the Connexion which the 10. and 11. Chapters with the last part of this 9 have with the former specially with the 4 5 6 7 and 8 The stream or Current of the Discourse will evidently bewray it selfe to be the same howsoever it may seeme a litle before and after This 16 Verse to run a close way or under ground yet so as the opening of it is apparent verse 30. What shall we say then That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse But Israel hath not attained to righteousnesse because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the workes of the Law Verse 32. 3. The fairest Connexion of this 9. Chapter with the former in my opinion is This The Apostle having in the later end of the former Chapter confidently avouched the Infallible Assurance of their hopes which renouncing Workes seek Salvation only by Faith in Christ and his heart having been dilated with joy and exultation of spirit in contemplation of their happinesse is in the rebound more deeply touched with sorrow for the Iewes his countrey-men and kinsfolk according to the flesh The lamentable Issue of whose excellent Prerogatives and strange miscarriage of their extraordinary paines and zealous care in observing the Law might well have danted the late converted Gentiles to whom he writes and in mens esteem much impaired the strength of all former assurances which he had given them unlesse he had further manifested the true Original of the Fall or Rejection of Gods antient people This unfained sorrow for their miserie is so much the greater as every good mans in like case would be by how much their Meanes of well doeing had been the better their Approach to true happinesse nearer and their Interest in Gods promises more peculiar then other mens were It litle moves us to see a lazy unthrift come to be a begger But to see a man extraordinarily industrious in his Calling not to thrive or utterly to overthrow himself and his posterity by some one wilfull humour is grief to every other man that can take paines for his living This Original of our Apostles sorrow is expressely intimated by himself Chap. 10. Ver. 1 2. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge And in the 11. Chapter he tels us Gentiles what Moses before had told these Iewes That whensoever they should turn again to the God of their fathers they were to have Precedencie of all other people in the world in his Everlasting and unchangable Love I say then Have they stumbled that they should fall God forbid But rather through their Fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie Now if the Fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness ver 11. 12. And again ver 28 29. Concerning the Gospel they are Enemies for your sake but as touching the Election they are beloved for the fathers sake for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance And would it not greive any zealous soul that loves the memorie of his fathers to see them so farre estranged from their God who is not altogether estranged from them but alwayes ready when these Prodigals shall returne unto him to embrace them as his dear Sons These are Points whose contemplation in our Apostle was deeper then our shallow witts can rightly sound and did cast him out of such an Ecstasie of joy into such a suddain Trance of sorrow that he had no leasure to expresse the Causes of it in the beginning of this ninth Chapter but is fain to reserve it to the beginning of the tenth The very depth of sorrow had swallowed up the very stream or current of his discourse and causeth him to begin thus abruptly I say the truth in Christ I lye not my conscience also hearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heavinesse and continual sorrow in my heart For I
voluntatem No argument can be of such force or perspicuitie as is this Primary Rule of Argumentation Negativa universalis simpliciter convertitur The Minor Pharaohs Salvation in his Youth or Infancie was truly possible is as evident from another Maxim in Divinitie Quicquid non implicat Contradictionem est possibile sive objectum Divinae potentiae Now what contradiction could it implie to save this child suppose Pharaoh more than it did to save another for example Moses Unlesse we will say that Pharaoh was made of another mould or a creature of another Creator than Moses or other children are To save Pharaoh as a sonne of Adam could imply no contradiction for so no flesh could possibly be saved If to save Pharaoh after he had committed many actual sinnes and follies of youth did imply any Contradiction what man of yeares in this age especially can hope for Pardon 28. It will be Replyed that albeit to save Pharaoh in his Youth or Infancie did implie no Contradiction in the Object and therefore his Salvation was not absolutely in it self impossible yet it being supposed that God from eternitie decreed to harden him and destroy him by his Irresistible Will it must needs implie a Contradiction in Gods Decree or Will to save him and by Consequent his Salvation was Impossible ex Hypothesi This Answer is like a Medicine which drives the Malady from the outward parts whereto it is applied unto the heart It removes the difficultie into a more dangerous Point For we may with safety inferre That God did not decree by his Irresistible Will to exclude Pharaoh in his Youth or Infancie from possibilitie of Salvation because to have saved Pharaoh in his Youth or infancie was in it-self not impossible as implying no Contradiction For Gods eternal Decree can never prejudice the Eternal Libertie of his omnipotency Whatsoever is absolutely possible to God is always alike possible to him Whatsoever in it self is possible yea whatsoever is not absolutely impossible is absolutely possible to God from eternity whatsoever is once possible unto him can at no time become less possible to him The Evangelists Rule Non est impossibile apud Deum omne verbum would faile even in its proper and native sense if that which is absolutely possible could become impossible to God though by interposition of his own Decree The most Absolute Monarch on Earth may impoverish his estate or weaken his power by his own voluntary Grants but it is the prerogative of Omnipotencie that it cannot be prejudiced or impaired by any decree or Act though of its own making for alwaies acting it never passeth any Act whence as elsewhere is proved at large it doth not it cannot oblige or bind it self being eternally free and uncapable of any bound or Limit They that speak or think of the Eternal Decree of Reprobation or Election as of an irrevocable Act Long since past not freely concurrent to every action to every thought of men throughout their several Successions No alteration in the Object can make any thing less possible to God then it was unless it be such an alteration as implies some Contradiction in the Object which before was not implyed in it make Eternitie subject to change and mortalitie the subject of immutabilitie Unlesse we grant the former proposition whatsoever is or was absolutely possible to God is eternally alike possible to him not withstanding any decree that can be imagined to the contrary we must of necessitie admit a change either in the Omnipotent power as being lesse able since the Date of this supposed absolute Decree then before to produce the self same effect viz. the salvation of Pharaoh in his Youth or infancie Or in the Object of his power and this were Destruere suppositum For if the object be changed another comes in his place it ceaseth to be what it was and continueth not the same if so it did the possibilitie of it would be the same in respect of the unchangeable Power unto which nothing is impossible In Bodies natural so long as the Passive disposition or Capacitie continueth the same the same Effect will necessarily follow unlesse the Efficacie or the Application of the Agent alter Idem secundum idem semper natum est producere idem He which is alwaies the same without possibility of alteration in himself is at all times equally able to do all things that in themselves are not impossible And no man I think will say that Pharaohs election in his infancie was in it self more impossible than his own reprobation was And he that thinketh his own reprobation was in it self impossible cannot think himself so much bound to God as he maketh shew of for his infallible Election 29. If from the former proposition VVhatsoever is absolutely possible to God is alwaies possible to him a man should thus assume To have shewed mercie to Pharaoh was absolutely possible to God and hence conclude Ergo It is possible to God to shew mercie on him at this Instant the Illation whatsoever the Assertion be includes the same fallacie of Composition which was before discovered in the Syllogism Quas emisticarnes easdem comedisti Sed crudas emisti Ergo c. For Pharaoh though unto this day one and the same reasonable soul yet is he not one and the same Object of Gods eternal decree for hardning or shewing mercie To save any man of Gods making implyes no contradiction unto that Infinite Power by which he was made To save any man that hath not made up the full measure of his iniquitie implies no contradiction to his Infinite goodness no impeachment to his Majestie it is agreeable to his mercie To save such as have made up the full measure of their iniquitie alwaies implies a contradiction to his immutable Justice And all such and for ought we know only such are the immediate Objects of his eternalabsolute and irresistible Will or purpose of Reprobtion But when the meaâ—sure of any mans iniquitie is made up or how farre it is made up is only known to the all-seeing Judge This is the secret wherewith flesh and bloud may not meddle as being essentially annexed to the prerogative of eternal Majestie belonging only to the Cognizance of infinite wisdom The fourth General Point concerning the Extent or nature of this division He will have mercie on whom he will have mercie and whom he will be hardneth AS some do lose the use of their native tongue by long travelling in forrein Countries so mindes by too much poring on the Rules of Logick or too much accustomed to the Logicians Dialect without which there can be no commerce with Arts and Sciences oft-times forget the Character of ordinarie speech in matters of civil and common use In Arts or Sciences divisions should be either formal by direct predicamental line as that Of creatures indued with sense some have reason some are reasonless or at least so exact that the several members
hardneth In respect of every particular and determinate person not thus qualifyed it is universally true He hath mercy when he will have mercy and when he will be hardeneth And he hardeneth at no time sooner then when men what men soever are most confidently presumptuous of his mercy That this doctrine delivered is no way prejudicial to the certainty of salvation but rather directs us how to make our Election sure or untimely secure of their perseverance in faith or continuance in his favour 32. Perhaps the ingenuous and hitherto indifferent Reader will here begin to distast these last Admonitions and for their sakes most of our Resolutions as prejudicial to a commonly received doctrine concerning the Certainty of Salvation And I must confesse that upon first sight they may seem suspicious in that they suppose our Election to be not only uncertain in respect of our apprehensions but mutable in its nature But if it please him either to look back into some passages of the former discourse or to go along with me alittle further I shall acquaint him though not with a surer foundation yet with a stronger frame or structure of his hopes than he shall ever attain unto by following their Rules who I verily think were fully assured of their own salvation but from other grounds than they have discovered to us Surer foundation can no man lay than that whereon both parties do build to wit the absolute immutabilite of Gods decree or purpose Now admitting our apprehensions of his Will or purpose to call elect or save us were infallible yet he that from these foundations would rear up the Edifice of his faith after this hasty manner Gods purpose to call elect and save mee is immutable Ergo my present calling is effectuall my election already sure and my salvation most immutable becomes as vain in his imaginations as if he expected that wals of loom and rafters of reed covered with fern should be able to keep out Gun-shot because seated upon an impregnable Rock For first who can be longer ignorant of this truth than it shall please him to consider it That Gods purpose and Will is most immutable in respect of every object possible that mutabilitie it self all the changes and chances of this mortal life and the immutable state of immortalitie in the life to come are a-like immutably decreed by the eternal counsel of his immutable Will Now if mortalitie and mutabilitie have precedence of immortalitie in respect of the same persons by the immutable Tenor of his irresistible decree can it seem any Paradox to say That mans Estate whether of Election or Reprobation is even in this life usually mutable before it come to be Immutable and that by vertue of the same inalterable decree Or That ordinarily there should be in every one of us as true a possibility of living after the flesh as of living after the spirit before we becom so actually and compleatly spiritual as utterly to mortifie all lusts and concupiscences of the flesh Untill then our mortification be compleat and full we may not presume all possibilitie of living after the flesh to be finally expired and utterly extinct in our soules And whether this possibilitie can be in this life altogether so little or truly none as it shall be in the life to come after our mortal hopes are ratified by the sentence of the almighty Judge I cannot affirm if any man peremptorily will deny it nor will I contend by way of peremptorie denial if it shall please any man upon probable reasons to affirm it 33. But if to such as finally perish no true or reall possibilitie of repentance during the whole course of this mortal life be allotted by the everlasting irresistible decree in what true sense can God be said to allow them a time of repentance How doth our Apostle say that the bountifulnesse of God doth lead or draw them to repentance if the doore of repentance be perpetually mured up against them by his Irresistible will If in such as are saved there never were from their birth or Baptism any true or reall possibilitie of running the waies of death the fear of Hell or the declaration of Gods just judgements if at any time they truly feare them is but a vaine imagination or groundless Phansie without any true cause or reall occasion presented to them by the immutable decree Or if by his providence they be at any time brought to fear hell or the sentence of everlasting death yet hath God used these but as bug-beares in respect of them though truly terrible to others And Bug-heares when children grow once so wise as to discern them from true terrors do serve their parents to very small purpose For mine own part albeit I fear not the state of absolute reprobation yet so conscious am I to mine own infirmities that I would not for all the hopes or any joy or pleasure which this life can afford abandon all use of the fear of hell or torments of the life to come But whatsoever the Tenor of my estate in mine own apprehension heretofore hath been for the present is or hereafter may be I am and I think shall so continue absolutely perswaded that the absolute impossibilitie whether of Apostasie from Faith professed or of becomeing true and Stedfast professors is the usual Successor as heir by Conquest of mixt possibilitie of becoming as well vessels of wrath as vessels of mercy and è contrà 34. Upon this reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath doth our Apostle ground those admonitions Hebr. 3. 12. 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif indeparting from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin And againe Chapt. 4. v. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it These and the like admonitions frequent in the Prophets and the Gospel suppose the men whom they admonish to be as yet not absolutely reprobated but in a mutable state or in a state subject to a mutuall possibilitie of becoming vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy and by Consequence not altogether uncapable of that height of impietie unto which onely the eternal and immutable decree hath allotted absolute impossibilitie of repentance or of salvation Upon the true and reall possibilitie of becoming vessels of mercy supposed to be awarded by the eternal and Irresistible decree to all partakers of the word and Sacraments doth S. Peter ground that exhortation Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly in to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2 Peter 1. 10 11. The end of this exhortation was to bring his Auditors
Rom. 11. 33. 38. He that desires to have his heart filled with such a measure of joyfull admiration as will seek a vent in these or the like unaffected serious exclamations must feed his thoughts with contemplation of divine attributes specially with those of infinite duration or eternitie of infinite wisdom of infinite goodnesse and love to man In all which I have adventured to tread a path for others to correct or follow upon triall being assured of this that without the knowledge of these generalities nothing can be said to any purpose in the particulars thus farre prosecuted or in the like to bee prosecuted more at large when God shall grant leasure and opportunitie 39. These present disquisitions though seeming curious as the resolution is truly difficult have a vulgar and immediate use yet not so vulgarly plain or common to all as profitable to every particular Christian not fully perswaded of the certainty of his salvation The speciall aime of my meditations in this argument is first to deterre my self and others from all evill wayes whatsoever but especially from those peculiar and more dangerous sinnes which make up the full measure of iniquitie with greatest speed Secondly to encourage mine owne soule and others with it to accomplish those courses unto which the immutabilitie or absolute certaintie of election it self which must in order of nature and time goe before our infallible apprehensions of it is inevitably predestinated by the eternal and irresistible decree These exhortations are more fit for popular sermons than such points as hitherto have been discussed whose discussion neverthelesse hath seemed unto me very expedient as well for warranting the particular uses which I purpose if God permit to make out of the chapters following as for giving such satisfaction to my best friends as God hath enabled me to give my self concerning the Apostles intent and meaning in this ninth chapter 40. If what I have said shall happen to fall into any mans hands which hath a logical head and beares a friendly heart to truth though otherwise no friend to me yet I presume he will not be so uncharitable towards me as to suspect that I have intended these premisses to inferre any such distastful conclusions as these That Election should be ex fide aut operibus praevisis for our faith or workes sakes That any man should be more than meerly passive in his first conversion That the working of saving grace might be resisted or lastly That in man before his conversion there should be any spark of free will remaining save only to do evill Whosoever will grant me these two Propositions That the unregenerate man hath a true freedom of will in doing evill and The eternal Creator a freedom of will in doing good I will engage my self to give him full satisfaction that no difference betwixt Reformed Churches concerning Praedestination or Reprobation is more then verbal or hath any other foundation besides the ambiguitie of unexplicated termes The errors on all sides grow only from pardonable mistakings not so much of truth it self as of her proper seat or place of residence C. Reader THis last Discourse was published without the Authors consent or knowledge as he says Book 9. Chap. 12. margin He that will compare shall find very considerable meliorations in This now printed after an exact Copy which also had a solemn Dedication prefixed I feared these late Revolutions might have made the ritual publishing it prejudicial to the H persons Therefore have I placed it here as in the Dark behind a Curtain where the Reader may have the same benefit Though the Authors Friends have not either the honour intended or the accidental prejudice To the Two Noble Gentlemen his much honoured Friends Mr. R. S. and Mr. E. S. sonnes to the R. H. L. S. The Blessings of this Life and of the Life to come be multiplied Noble Sirs THere is no Argument in Divinitie wherein every Soul that earnestly seeks Salvation or the avoidance of damnation ought in reason to be more desirous of satisfaction than in the point of of Eternal Election and Reprobation Nor are Scholastick disputes concerning these Points in themselves so dangerous as they are made by such as are more apt to abett Contentions sett on foot than able rightly to examine whence the quarrel first began upon what termes it stands or how it may fitly be composed In searching out the true sense and meaning of whatsoever it hath pleased God to reveal there can be no offence in the manner of the search we often offend Diligence and accurate pains are alwaies commendable as in every other Subject so in this wherein Curiositie is only dangerous Howbeit wheresoever Curiositie of search is dangerous peremptorie Resolutions whether negative or affirmative must needs be pernicious seeing suspension of Assent in difficult or controversed Cases is a propertie no less Essential to true Faith than firm adherence to divine truth known and acknowledged And if the blame were bestowed in that proportion it hath been deserved amongst the several Commentators upon the Scriptures prefixed to these discussions the heaviest burden would lye not upon such as make new Queries but upon such as have taken upon them to give absolute Determinations without accurate search of the Apostles meaning preposterously seeking to comprehend what they should admire and endeavouring to stirre up affected admiration of that which every Novice might fully comprehend were their Resolutions in this Argument as Orthodoxal as they are peremptorie The end of these present Queries is to find out a middle way how to maintain some principal Conclusions of Reformed Churches specially concerning the Servitude of mans Will the Nullitie of merits or of Works foreseen and the Irresistible efficacie of saving Grace without association of those Rigid Premisses which latter ages have invented for their maintenance as Astronomers of old did Epicycles and Copernicus of late the motion of the Earth for salving their Coelestial Phaenomena To pick quarrels with Antecedents of good use whereas the fault lies only in the Inference is a fault too common to Controversie-writers in every age And thus to spight an erroneous Conclusion the foundations of many useful truths are often overthrown and new false Principles brought in their place which will bring forth dangerous errors by faultlesse Consequences I have often been enforced to season my retired thoughts with sighs or tears whiles I beheld the factious oppositions of forraign Reformed Churches abetted animated and propagated by men whom God had placed as Bystanders or unpartial Vmpires and blessed with all opportunities of making peace amongst others so they themselves had been the sons of peace The parties here meant were English Divines men freed by Gods especial providence from all vicinitie of publique adversary or such politick provocations as their forraign brethren were often misled with Some or rather a great many of no mean note have held it as a matter of conscience and affected it as
by his Blood were the Deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Light 4. The Parallel between the Institution of the Passover and of the Lords Supper or of the two Inheritances bequeathed the one by Moses the other by Christ is so plain that it needs no Comment It only requires a diligent Reader or Hearer or what is wanting on the ordinary Hearers part may be supplied by every ordinary Catechist before the receiving of the Sacramental Pledges One point yet remaines more pertinent to the unfolding of our Apostles meaning Heb. 9. ver 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth And it is this As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance or take possession of the Land of Canaan till after Moses the Testator or Mediator of the old Testament was dead so neither was the Kingdom of Heaven our everlasting inheritance set open to all or any Beleivers until Christ Jesus the Testator or Mediator of the new Testament was crucified dead buried and raysed again to immortal Glorie Since which time as is the King so is the Kingdom or inheritance bequeathed so is the Testament it self being sealed by his bloody death All and every of them Truely Everlasting CHAP. XLVIII The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and The One Sacrifice of Christ And The high praeeminence and efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrin that in the Masse Christs Body is Identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 1. THe principal Termes of proportion in this Parallel which serve as so many several Kens or Markes for the right survaying of it are The services of the Law or the Offices of Legal Priests and the Perpetual Function of our High Priest The services of the Law wherein our Apostle instanceth are the Principal and most Solemn Sacrifices which were injoyned to the Priests after the order of Aaron The One Sort whereof were Anniversaries as of Bullockes and Goates and to be offered every year upon the day of Attonement and so to be offered from the First Erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness so long as the Law of Ceremonies was de Jure to continue untill our Saviours death upon the Cross since which time all Bloody Sacrifice have lost their Legal Vse The Other service was That Sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the Consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her Ashes which perhaps was not Anniversarie nor often put in practice from the time of Moses his Death untill the Ascension of our Saviour into heaven Now our Apostle takes it as granted that if these choice Sacrifices of Attonment and of the Red Cow were altogether unsufficient to purifie the Hearts and Consciences or the Soules and Spirits of sinful men the Ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the Law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifices of our high Priest was Alsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifice of our high Priest was Alsufficient and most Efficacious for The Eminency of Christs bloudie Sacrifice upon the Cross in respect of all Legal sacrifices of what rank soever consisteth First in the Efficacy which it had and hath for Remission of all sins committed against the Moral Law of God that is of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable Soul and Conscience The least degree of such Purification no Legal Sacrifices could immediatly effect reach or touch To what Use then did they directly serve or what was the proper Effect unto which they were immediately terminated That was the Purification of mens Bodyes from meere Legal uncleannesse that is from all such negligences Ignorances or Casual Occurrences as not being expiated by the Priest did exclude the parties so offending from the Tabernacle of the Congregation Or as our Apostle speakes to Purifie them from such uncleannesses of the flesh as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul or the dead works of sinne All which being not expiated by a more excellent Priest then any was after the order of Aaron will exclude all from entring into the heavenly Tabernacle 2. Such Legal uncleannesse as did exclude the Parties polluted with it from the Tabernacle of the Congregation was many waies contracted as by touching of the dead by eating of Meats forbidden by the Law or by not eating meates allowed of by the Law according to the Rule or Prescript for such Ceremonial Services or by the like Omissions or Practises which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful but sinful in the Seed of Jacob only to whom they were Evill only because forbidden not forbidden because they were evill in their own nature Even in regard of such shadows or Typical Offices for Purifying men Legally unclean the best and most solemn Sacrifices of the Law though offered once at least every year and otherwise as often as dayly Occasions or Occurrences did require were no way so efficacious or Effectual as the One Sacrifice of the Son of God offered by himself but Once for all is for the perpetual Purifying of our Soules from the Dead works of sin and for our Consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God which is that Freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such Free as Believe in his Name and Abide in his word John 8. 3. The Eminencie of Christs Priesthood and Sacrifice above the Priesthood and Services of the Law is deeply wronged by the Doctrine and Practise of Secular and Regular Roman-Catholick Priests as they do term themselves and so is our Apostles Doctrine in the ninth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews more peremptorily contradicted by them then it was by the Incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his life time The Western Anti-Christ so the Lutherans distinguish them hath in this particular so farr out-bid the Antichrist of the East that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Law-opposer or man of sin were to be followed close with Howant-Cry or his Footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years by the Christian Kingdoms or States the Chase and Cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent then into Constantinople though That no question be now the seat of Gog and Magog or of the Eastern Antichrist That Contradiction of Sinners which our Saviour Christ did indure here on Earth Heb. 12. 3. improved by the Roman Church in later dayes against all such as