Pharaoh For this expostulation whereunto our Apostle in this place hath reference was uttred after the seventh wonder wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh upon which it is expresly said that The Lord hardned the heart of Pharaoh that hee hearkned not unto them Whereas of the five going before it is onely said That Pharaoh hardned his heart or his heart was hardned or hee set not his heart to the wonders The spirits censure likewise of Pharaohs stupiditie upon the first wonder may bee read impersonally or to bee referred to the wonder it selfe 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 Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes Let my people goe that they may serve mee For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maist know that there is none like mee 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 bee cut off from the earth or as Junius excellently rendreth it I had smitten thee and thy people with pestilence when I destroyed your cattell with murraine and thou hadst beene cut off from the earth when the boiles were so rife upon the Magitians but when they fell I made thee to stand for so the Hebrew is verbatim to what purpose that thou mightest still stand out against mee nay but for this very purpose That I might shew my power and declare my name more manifestly throughout all the earth by a more remarkable destruction than all that time should have befallen thee This briefe survey of these historicall circumstances present unto us as in a mappe the just occasion the due force and full extent of the objection here intimated in transitu Thou wilt say then unto mee why doth hee yet finde fault As if some one on Pharaohs behalfe had replied more expresly thus God indeed had just cause to upbraid Pharaoh heretofore for neglect of his signes and wonders it was a foule 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 it is impossible for him to avoid For is it possible for him to open the doore of repentance when God hath shut it or to mollifie his heart whose hardning was now by Gods decree irrevocable I have heard of a malepart Courtier who being rated of his Soveraigne Lord for committing the third murther after hee had beene graciously pardoned for two made this saucy reply One man indeed I killed and if the law might have had its course that had beene all For the death of the second and of the third your Highnesse is to answer God and the Law Our Apostle being better acquainted than wee are with the circumstances of time with the manner of Pharaohs hardening foresaw the malepart Jew or Hypocrite especially when Pharaohs case came in a manner to be their owne would make this or the like saucie answer to God If Pharaoh after the time wherein by the ordinary course of justice hee was to die were by Gods speciall appointment not onely reprived but suffered to be more out-ragious than before yea imboldened to contemne Gods messengers the ensuing evils which befell the Aegyptians may seeme to be more justly imputed unto God than unto him at least the former expostulation might seeme now altogether unseasonable To this objection our Apostle opposeth a twofold answer First he checks the saucinesse of the Replicant Nay but oh man who art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui respondeas Deo saith the Vulgar Beza as hee thinkes more fully qui responsas Deo our English better than both that repliest against God The just and naturall value of the originall doubly compounded word will best appeare from the circumstances specified First God by Moses admonisheth Pharaoh to let his people goe But he refuseth Then God expostulateth with him As yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe The objection made by the Hypocrite is as a rejoynder upon Gods Reply to Pharaoh for his wonted stubbornnesse or as an answer made on his behalfe or others in his case unto the former expostulations For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Respondenti respondere to rejoyne upon a replie or answer Now this Rejoynder to speake according to the rules of modestie and good manners was too saucie out of what mans mouth soever it had proceeded For what is man in respect of God any better than an artificiall body in respect of the artificer that makes it or than an earthen vessell in respect of the potter Nay if wee might imagine a base vessell could speake as fables suppose beasts in old time did and thus expostulate with the potter When I was spoiled in the making why didst thou rather reserve me to such base and ignominious uses than throw mee away especially when others of the same lumpe are fitted for commendable uses it would deserve to be appointed yet to more base or homely uses For a by-slander that had no skill in this facultie for the potters boy or apprentise thus to expostulate on the vessels behalfe to his father or master would argue ignorance and indiscretion The potter at least would take so much authority on him as to reply I will appoint every vessell to what use I thinke fit not to such use as every idle fellow or malepart boy would have it appointed Now all that our Apostle in this similitude intends is that wee must attribute more unto the Creators skill and wisdome in dispensing mercy and judgement or in preparing vessels of wrath and vessels of honour than wee doe unto the potters judgement in discerning clay or sitting every part of his matter to his right and most commodious use Yet in all these the potter is judge saith the author of the booke of Wisdome That very vessell which ministred the matter of this similitude to our Apostle Jer. 18. 4. was so marred in the potters hand as he was inforced to fashion it againe to another use than it was first intended for That it was marred in the first making was the fault of the clay So to fashion it anew as neither stuffe nor former labour should be altogether lost was the potters skill And shall wee thinke our Apostle did intend any other inference from this similitude than the Prophet from whence hee borrowes it had made to his hand O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this potter saith the
Lord Behold as the clay is in the potters hand so are yee in mine hand Oh house of Israel Ierem. 18. 6. The true and full explication is thus much and no more albeit God sought to prepare them to glorie yet had they a possibilitie or libertie utterly to spoile themselves in the making Howbeit if so they did hee was able to forme them againe to an end quite contrarie unto that whereto hee first intended them So the Prophet explicates himselfe vers 9. 10. And here wee must request our Reader alwayes to remember that the Apostle compares God not to a frantick or fantastick potter delighted to play tricks to his losse as to make a vessell scarce worth a groat of that peece which with the same ease and cost might bee made worth a shilling onely to shew his imperiall authoritie over a peece of clay He imagineth such a potter as the Wise man did that knowes a reason why he makes one vessell of this fashion another of that why he appoints this to a base use that to a better albeit an unskilfull by-stander could perhaps discerne no difference in the stuffe or matter whereof they are made The summe then of our Apostles intended inference is this As it is an unmannerly point for any man to contest or wrangle with a skilfull artificer in his owne facultie of whom hee should rather desire to learne with submission so it is damnable presumption for any creature to dispute with his Creator in matters of providence or of the worlds regiment or to debate his owne cause with him thus Seeing all of us were made of the same masse I might have beene graced as others have beene with wealth with honour with strength with wisdome unlesse thou hadst beene more favourable to them than to mee Yet that which must quell all inclination to such secret murmurings or presumptuous debates is it our stedfast beleefe of his omnipotent power or absolute will No but of his infinite wisdome equity and mercie by which he disposeth all things even mens infirmities or greater crosses to a better end in respect of them so they will patiently submit their wils to his than they could hope by any other meanes to atchieve Gods will to have mercie on some and to harden others or howsoever otherwise to deale with men is in this sense most absolute Whatsoever wee certainly know to bee willed by him wee must acknowledge without examination to bee truly good Whomsoever wee assuredly beleeve it hath beene his will to harden wee must without dispute beleeve their hardning to have beene most just Yet thus to beleeve wee are not bound unlesse it were a fundamentall point of our beleefe that this his most absolute will hath just reasons though unknowne to us why hee hardneth some and not others yea such ideall reasons as when it shall be his pleasure to make them knowne to us wee shall acknowledge them to bee infinitely better and more agreeable to the immutable rules of eternall equitie which indeed they are than any earthly Prince can give why hee punisheth this man and rewardeth that The contrarie in consequence which some would inferre out of our Apostle in this place is the true naturall and necessarie consequence which they have made of another orthodoxall principle Gods will is the only infallible rule of goodnesse that is in their exposition Things are good onely because God doth will them When as in truth his will could not be so infallible so inflexible and so soveraigne a rule of goodnesse as all must beleeve it to bee that thinke themselves bound to conforme their wils to his unlesse absolute and immutable goodnesse were the essentiall object of this his most holy will Wherefore though this argument bee more than demonstrative It was Gods will to deale thus and thus with mankinde therefore they are most justly dealt withall Yet on the other side this inference is as strong and sound Some kinde of dealings are in their owne natures so evidently unjust that we must beleeve it was not Gods will to deale so with any man living Abraham did not transgresse the bounds of modestie in saying to God That the righteous should perish with the wicked that be farre from thee Shall not the Judge of all the earth doe right Yet were Gods will the rule of all goodnesse in such a sense as some conceive it or our Apostles meaning such as many in this place have made it Abraham had beene either very ignorant or immodest in questioning whether Gods will concerning the destruction of Sodome lovingly imparted to him Genes 18. had beene right or wrong whether to have slaine the righteous with the wicked had beene just or ill beseeming the great Judge and Maker of the world Howbeit to have slaine the righteous with the wicked would have beene lesse rigorous and lesse unjust than to harden man by an inevitable necessitating decree before they had voluntarily hardned themselves or unnecessarily brought an impenitent temper or necessitie of sinning upon themselves And for this cause we may safely say with our father Abraham Thus to harden any whom thou hast created that bee farre from thee Oh Lord. Farre be it ever from every good Christians heart to entertaine any such conceit of his Creator Albeit this first answer might suffice to check all such captious replies as hypocrites here make yet as our Apostle in his second answer imports wee need not use the benefit of this generall apologie in Pharaohs case The reason or manner of Gods justice and wisdome in hardning and punishing him is conspicuous and justifiable by the principles of equitie acknowledged by all For Pharaoh and his confederates were vessels of wrath sealed up for destruction Hell as wee say did yawne for them before God uttered the former expostulations perhaps from that very instant wherein hee first sent Moses unto him It being then granted that God as wee indeed suppose did from the plague of murraine or that other of boiles positively and inevitably harden Pharaohs heart and after he had promised to let the Israelites goe infatuated his braines to wrangle with Moses First whether their little ones afterwards whether their flocks should goe along with them yet to reserve him alive upon what condition or termes soever though to bee hardned though to be threatned though to be astonished and affrighted with frosts plagues and lastly to bee destroyed with a more fearfull destruction than if hee had dyed of the pestilence when the cattell perished of the murraine was a true document of Gods lenity and patience no impeachment to his justice a gentle commutation of due punishment no rigorous infliction of punishment not justly deserved For what if God had thrust him quick into hell in that very moment wherein hee told him Ad hoc ipsum excitavite For this very purpose have I reserved thee alive that I might shew my power in thee No question but as the torments of
that lake are more grievous than all the plagues which Pharaoh suffered on earth so the degrees of his hardning had he beene then cast into it had been in number more his strugling with God more violent and stubborne his possibility of repentance altogether as little as it was after the seventh plague if not lesse But should GOD therefore have beene thought unjust because he continued to punish him in hell after possibility of repentance was past No Pharaoh had beene the onely cause of his owne woe by bringing this necessitie upon himselfe of opposing God and repining at his judgements All is one then in respect of Gods justice whether Pharaoh having made up the measure of his iniquitie bee irrevocably hardned here on earth or in hell To reserve him alive in the state of mortalitie after the sentence of death is past upon him is no rigour but lenitie and long-suffering although Gods plagues be still multiplied in Egypt for his sake although the end of his life become more dreadfull than by the ordinarie course of Gods justice it should have beene if hee had dyed in the seventh plague Another reason why God without impeachment to his justice doth still augment Pharaohs punishment as if it were now as possible for him to repent as once it was is intimated by our Apostle to be this That by this lenitie towards Pharaoh Hee might shew his wrath and declare his power against all such sinners as he was that the world might heare and feare and learne by his overthrow not to strive against their Maker nor to dally with his fearefull warnings Had Pharaoh and his people died of the pestilence or other disease when the cattell perished of the murraine the terror of Gods powerfull wrath had not beene so manifest and visible to the world as it was in overthrowing the whole strength of Aegypt which had taken armes and set themselves in battell against him Now the more strange the infatuation the more fearefull and ignominious the destruction of these vessels of wrath did appeare unto the world the more bright did the riches of Gods glory shine to the Israelites whom hee was now preparing for vessels of mercy the hearts of whose posteritie hee did not so effectually fit or season for the infusion of his sanctifying grace by any secondarie meanes whatsoever as by the perpetuall memory of his glorious victory over Pharaoh and his mighty host But this faithlesse generation whose reformation our Apostle so anxiously seekes did take all these glorious tokens of Gods extraordinarie free love and mercy towards their Fathers for irrevocable earnests or obligements to effect their absolute predestination unto honour and glory and to prepare the Gentiles to be vessels of infamie and destruction Now our Apostles earnest desire and unquenchable zeale to prevent this dangerous presumption in his countrie-men enforceth him in stead of applying this second answer to the point in question to advertise them for conclusion that the Aegyptians case was now to become theirs and that the Gentiles should be made vessels of mercy in their stead All which the event hath proved most true For have not the sons of Iacob beene hardened as strangely as Pharaoh Have they not beene reserved as spectales of terror to most nations after they had deserved to have beene utterly cut off from the earth yea to have gone quick into hell Nor have the riches of Gods mercy towards us Gentiles beene more manifested by any other apparent or visible document than by scattering of these Jewes through those Countries wherein the seed of the Gospell hath beene sowne The third generall point proposed concerning the Logicall determination of this proposition whom hee will hee hardneth or concerning the immediate or proper object of the induration here spoken of PHaraoh we grant was hardened by Gods absolute irresistible will Could Beza can Piscator or any other Expositor living enforce any more out of the literall meaning of those texts whether granting thus much wee must grant withall what their followers to my apprehension demand that Pharaoh was an absolute Reprobate from the wombe or that hee was by Gods irresistible will ordained to this hardening which by Gods irresistible will did take possession of his heart is the question to be disputed They unlesse I mistake their meaning affirme I must even to death deny I desire then that in this case I may enjoy the ancient pivilege of Priests to be tried by my Peeres which God wot need not be great ones I will except against no man of what profession place or condition soever either for being my Judge or of my Jury so his braines be qualified with the speculative rules of syllogizing and his heart seasoned with the doctrine of the ninth Commandement which is Not to heare false witnesse against his Neighbour against his knowledge To avoid the Sophisticall chinkes of scattered propositions wherein Truth often lyes hid in rhetoricall or popular discourse wee will joyne issue in this syllogisme Whatsoever God from eternity decrees by his irresistible will is absolutely necessarie and inevitable or impossible to be avoided God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his irresistible will Ergò The hardning of Pharaoh was absolutely necessarie and impossible to be avoided And if his hardning were inevitable or impossible to bee avoided it will bee taken as granted that he was a reprobate from the wombe Damnatus antequà m natus the absolute childe of eternall death before he was made partaker of mortall life The Major proposition is a Maxime not questioned by any Christian Jew or Mahometane And out of it wee may draw another Major as unquestionable but more immediate in respect of the conclusion proposed Whomsoever God decrees to harden by his irresistible will his hardning is absolutely inevitable altogether impossible to be avoided The Minor Pharaoh was hardned by Gods irresistible will is granted by us and as wee are perswaded avouched in termes equivalent by our Apostle The difference is about the conclusion or connexion of the termes which without better limitation than is expressed in the proposition or corollarie annexed is loose and Sophisticall Would some braine which God hath blest with naturall perspicacitie art and opportunitie vouchsafe to take but a little paines in moulding such sit cases for the Praedicates as Aristotle hath done for the Subjects of Propositions though those wee often use not or use amisse those seeming Syllogismes whose secret flawes clear sighted judgements can hardly discerne by light of arts would crack so fouly in framing that bleare eyes would espie their ruptures without spectacles It shall suffice mee at this time to shew how grosly the Syllogisme proposed failes in the fundamentall rule of all affirmative Syllogismes The Rule is Quae cunque conveniunt cum aliquo tertio inter se conveniunt All other rules concerning the quantitie of propositions or their disposition in certaine Mood and Figure serve onely to this end that the
humility and true repentance in their Auditors suppose a possibilitie of humiliation and repentance a possibility likewise of acknowledging and considering our owne impotency and misery a possibility likewise of conceiving some desire not meerely bruitish of our redemption or deliverance Our Saviour yee know required not onely a desire of health of sight of speech in all those whom he healed restored to sight or made to speake but withall a kind of naturall beleefe or conceit that he was able to effect what they desired Hence saith the Euangelist Marke 6. 5. Mat. 13. verse last Hee could not doe many miracles among them because of their unbeleefe Yet CHRIST alone wrought the miracles the parties cured were meere patients no way agents And such as sollicited their cause in case of absence at the best were but by-standers Now no man I thinke will deny that Christ by the power of his Godhead could have given sight speech and health to the most obstinate and perverse yet by the rule of his divine goodnesse he could not cast his pearles before swine Most true it is that wee are altogether dead to life spirituall unable to speake or think much lesse to desire it as wee should Yet beleefe and reason morall and naturall survive and may with Martha and Marie beseech Christ to raise up their dead brother who cannot speake for himselfe The third Objection will rather be preferred in Table-talke discourse than seriously urged in solemne dispute If God so dearly desire and will the life and safety of such as perish his will should not alwaies be done Why Dare any man living say or thinke that hee alwaies doth whatsoever God would have him doe So doubtlesse he should never sin or offend his God For never was there woman so wilfull or man so mad as to bee offended with ought that went not against their present will Nor was there ever or possibly can be any breach unlesse the will of the Law-giver be broken thwarted or contradicted For he that leaves the letter and followes the true meaning of the Lawgivers will doth not transgresse his law but observe it And unlesse Gods will had beene set upon the salvation of such as perish they had not offended but rather pleased him in running headlong the wayes of death Yet in a good sense it is alwayes most true that Gods will is alwayes fulfilled We are therefore to consider that God may will some things absolutely others disjunctively or that some things should fall out necessarily others not at all or contingently The particulars which God absolutely wils should fall out necessarily must of necessity come to passe otherwise his will could in no case be truly said to be fulfilled As unlesse the Leper to whom it was said by our Saviour I will be thou cleane had beene cleansed Gods will manifested in these words had beene utterly broken But if every particular which hee wils disjunctively or which he wils should be contingent did of necessity come to passe his whole will should utterly be defeated For his will as wee suppose in this case is that neither this nor that particular should be necessarily but that either they should not be or be contingently And if any particular comprised within the latitude of this contingency with its consequent come to passe his will is truly and perfectly fulfilled As for example God tels the Israelites that by observing his Commandements they should live and dye by transgressing them Whether therefore they live by the one meanes or dye by the other his will is necessarily fulfilled Because it was not that they should necessarily observe his Commandements or transgresse them but to their transgression though contingent death was the necessary doome so was life the necessary reward of their contingent observing them But the Lord hath sworne that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but in his repentance if then hee never repent Gods delight or good pleasure is not alwayes fulfilled because hee delights in the one of these not in the other How then shall it be true which is written God doth whatsoever pleaseth him in the Heaven and in the Earth if hee make not sinners repent in whose repentance hee is better pleased than in their death But unto this difficultie the former answer may bee rightly fitted Gods delight or good pleasure may bee done two wayes either in us or upon us In the former place it is set upon our repentance or obsequiousnesse to his will For this is that service whereto by his goodnesse he ordained us But if we crosse his good will and pleasure as it respects this point that is if wee will not suffer our selves to be saved the same delight or pleasure is set upon our punishment and fulfilled upon us And if wee would enter into our owne hearts wee might see the Image of Gods will hitherto manifested by his word distinctly written in them and that the Rule which his justice observes in punishing the wicked and reprobate is to measure out their plagues and punishments according to the measure of their neglecting his will or contradicting his delight in their subjection That as the riches of his goodnesse leading them to repentance hath beene more plentifull so they by their impenitencie still treasure up greater store of wrath against the day of wrath To this purpose doth the Lord threaten the obstinate people before mentioned in Esay These are as a smoake in my nose and a fire that burneth all the day as hee hath spread out his hands to them all the day Behold it is written before mee I will not keepe silence but will recompence into their bosomes your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountaines and blasphemed mee upon the Hils therefore will I reward their former workes into their bosome Both these parts of Gods delight are fully expressed by Salomon Wisdome cryeth without shee hath uttered her will in the streets shee cryeth in the chiefe places of the concourse in the opening of the Gates in the Citie shee uttereth her words saying How long yee simple ones will yee love simplicitie and the scorners delight in their scorning and fooles hate knowledge Turne you at my reproofe behold I will powre out my spirit upon you I will make knowne my words unto you These passages infallibly argue an unfained delight in their repentance and such a desire of their salvation as the wisdome of God hath expressed in my text But what followes Because I have called and yee refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but yee have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I also will laugh at your calamitie I will mock when your feare commeth This his delight remaines the same but is set upon another object To the same purpose Esay 65. 12. Therefore I will number you to the
punishment due to our finnes than to suffer sinne still to raigne in us whom he loved more dearely than his owne life If then we shall continue in sinne after the manifestation of his love the hainousnesse of our offence is truly infinite in so much as wee doe that continually which is more distastfull to our gracious God than any torments can be to us So doing we build up the workes of Satan which hee came purposely to destroy For of this I would not have you ignorant that albeit the end of his death was to redeeme sinners yet the onely meanes predestinated by him for our redemption is destruction of the workes of Satan and renovation of his Fathers Image in our Soules For us then to reedifie the workes of Satan or abett his faction is still more offensive to this our God then was his Agonie or bloudy sweat For taking a fuller measure of our sinnes let us hereunto adde his patient expectation of his enemies conversion after the resurrection If the sonne of Zaleucus before mentioned should have pardoned any as deeply guilty as himselfe had beene of that offence for which hee lost one of his eyes and his father another the world would have taxed him either of unjust follie or too much facilitie rather than commended him for true justice or clemencie But that we may know how farre Gods mercy doth over-beare his Majestie he proceeds not straightway to execute vengeance upon those Jewes which wrecked their malice upon his deare and onely Sonne which had committed nothing worthy of blame much lesse of death Here was matter of wrath and indignation so just as would have moved the most mercifull man on Earth to have taken speedy revenge upon these spillers of innocent blood especially the law of God permitting thus much But Gods mercy is above his law above his justice These did exact the very abolition of these sinners in the very first act of sinne committed against God made man for their redemption yet hee patiently expects their repentance which with unrelenting fury had plotted his destruction Forty yeares long had hee beene grieved with this generation after the first Passeover celebrated in signe of their deliverance from Aegyptian bondage and for their stubbornnesse Hee swore they should not enter into his rest And now their posterity after a more glorious deliverance from the powers of darknesse have forty yeares allotted them for repentance before they bee rooted out of the land of Rest or Promise Yet hath not the Lord given them hearts to perceive eyes to see or eares to heare unto this day because seeing they would not see nor hearing would not heare but hardened their hearts against the Spirit of grace Lord give us what thou didst not give them hearts of flesh that may melt at thy threats eares to heare the admonirions of our peace and eyes to forefee the day of our visitation that so when thy wrath shall be revealed against sinne and sinners wee may bee sheltered from flames of fire and brimstone under the shadow of thy wings so long stretched out in mercie for us Often Oh Lord wouldst thou have gathered us and wee would not but let there be we beseech thee an end of our stubbornnesse and ingratitude towards thee no end of thy mercies and loving kindnesses towards us Amen GODS IVST HARDNING OF PHARAOH When he had filled up the measure of his iniquitie OR AN EXPOSITION OF ROM 9. 18 19. Therefore he hath mercie on whom he will have mercie and whom he will he hardneth Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his will LONDON Printed by JOHN HAVILAND for ROBERT MILBOURNE 1638. Gods just hardning of Pharaoh when he had filled up the measure of his iniquitie Or An Exposition of ROM 9. 18 19. Therefore hath he mercie on whom he will have mercie and whom hee will hee hardneth Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet finde failt For who hath resisted his will THe former part of this proposition here inferred by way of conclusion was avouched before by our Apostle as an undoubted Maxime ratified by Gods owne voyce to Moses For he said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compasion on whom I will have compassion Exod. 33. 19. The true sense and meaning of which place I have before declared in unfolding the 16. verse of this chapter so that the later part of this eighteenth verse Whom he will hee hardneth must be the principall subject of my present discourse The Antecedent inferring this part of this conclusion is Gods speech to Pharaoh Exod. 9. 18. Even for this purpose have I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth The inference is plaine seeing Gods powre was to be manifested in hardening Pharaoh The points of inquiry whose full discussion will open an easie passage to the difficulties concerning Rebrobation and Election and bring all the contentious controversies concerning the meaning of this chapter to a breefe prospicuous issue are especially foure 1. The Manner how God doth harden 2. The pertinencie of the Objection why doth hee yet finde fault for who hath resisted his will and the validitie of the Apostles answer 3. The Logicall determination of this proposition Whom hee will hee hardeneth what is the proper object of Gods will in hardening 4. What manner of division this is Hee will have compassion on whom hee will have compassion and whom hee will hee hardeneth For the right opening of all these foure difficulties the explication of the single termes with their divers acceptions serves as a key The termes briefly to be explicated are three 1. Gods will 2. Induration or Hardening 3. Irresistible The principall difficultie or transcendent question is in what sense Gods will or Induration may be said to be irresistible whom hee will hee hardeneth Not to trouble you with any curious distinctions concerning Gods will this is a string which in most meditations we were inforced to touch Albeit Gods will be most truly and indivisibly one and in indivisible unitie most truly infinite and immutable yet is it immutably free omnipotent able to produce pluralitie as well as unitie mutabilitie as well as immutabilitie weaknesse as well as strength in his creatures By this one infinite immutable will hee ordaines that some things shall be necessarie or that this shall be at this time and no other And such particulars hee is said by an extrinsecall denomination from the object to will by his irresistible will The meaning is the production of the object so willed cannot be resisted because it is Gods will that it shall come to passe notwithstanding any resistance that is or can bee made against it If any particular so willed should not come to passe his will might be resisted being set only on this By the same immutable
and indivisible will hee ordained that other events should be mutable or continguent viz. that of more particulars proposed this may be as well as that the affirmative as well as the negative And of particulars so willed no one can bee said to bee willed by his irresistible will If the existence of any one so willed should be necessarie his will might bee resisted seeing his will is they should not bee necessarie Each particular of this kinde by the like denomination of the thing willed hee may be said to will by his resistible will The whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or list of severall possibilities or the indifference betwixt the particulars he wils by his irresistible will The Psalmists oracle is universally true of all persons in every age of Adam specially before his fall Non Deus volens iniquitatem tues God doth not he cannot will iniquitie And yet wee see the world is full of it The Apostles speech againe is as universally true This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one of you should know to possesse his vessell in honour 1 Thess 4. 3. God willeth and he seriously willeth sanctitie of life in our selves uprightnesse and integritie of conversation amongst men and yet behold a Vacuum in this little world in the sonnes of Adam whom hee created after his owne image and similitude So then hee neither wils mens goodnesse nor wils their iniquitie by his irresistible will Hee truly willed Adams integritie but not by his irresistible will For so Adam could not have fallen What shall wee say then God did will Adams fall by his irresistible will God forbid For so Adam could not but have sinned Where is the meane or middle station on which we may build our faith The immediate object of Gods irresistible will in this case was Adams free will that is Potestas labendi potestas standi Powre to stand and powre to fall By the same will hee decreed Death as the inevitable consequent of his fall and life as the necessary unpreventable reward of his perseverance Thus much briefly of Gods will in what sense it is resistible or irresistible The nature and property of an hardened heart cannot in fewer words better bee expressed than by the Poets character of an unruly stubborne youth Cereus in vitium flecti monitoribus asper It is a constitution or temper of minde as pliant as wax to receive the impressions of the flesh or stamp of the old man but as untoward as flint or other ragged stone to admit the image of the new man The first generall part how God doth harden THe difficultie is in what sense God can bee truly said to be the Authour of such a temper The proposition is of undoubted truth whether we consider it as an indefinite God doth harden or as a singular God hardened Pharaoh or in the universality here mentioned God hardemeth whom he will after the same manner he hardened Pharaoh Concerning the manner how God doth harden the questions are two 1. Whether hee harden positively or privatively onely 2. Whether he harden by his irresistible will or by his resistible will onely To give one and the same answer to either demand without distinction of time on persons were to entangle our selves as most Writers in this argument have done in the fallacie Ad plures interrogationes Touching the first question some good Writers maintaine the universall negative God never hardens positively but privatively onely onely by substracting or not granting grace or other meanes 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 12. Others of as good note and greater desert in Reformed Churches better refute the defective extreme than they expresse the meane betweene it and the contrary extreme in excesse with the maintenance whereof they are deeply charged not by Papists onely but by their brethren How often have Calvin and Beza beene 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 formall terme 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 farre asunder the division is altogether imperfect the former member comes as farre short of the truth as the latter overreacheth it God sometimes hardens some men neither the one way nor the other that is as wee say in schooles datur medium abnegationis betweene 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 sinne of meere omission without all mixture of commission But with this question here or elsewhere wee are not disposed to meddle being rather willing to grant what is confessed by all or most That hee sometimes hardens privativè if not by meere substraction of grace or utter deniall 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 Hardening But many times hee hardens Positivè not by infusion of bad qualities but by disposing or inclining the Heart to goodnesse that is by communication of his favours and exhibition of motives more than ordinarie to repentance not that hee exhibites the same with purpose to harden but rather to mollifie and organize mens hearts to the receiving of Grace The naturall effect or purposed issue of the Riches of Gods bountie is to draw men to repentance But the very attempt or sway of meanes offered provokes hearts fastned to their sinnes to greater stubbornnesse 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 hee 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 onely ex hypothesi Meanes of repentance sincerely offered by God but wilfully rejected by man concur 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 If a Physician should minister some physicall drink unto his patient and heape 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 necessary ensue from both actions albeit the patient only were the true moral cause or the only blame-worthy cause of his owne death or danger following
Just 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 owne hearts in the wildernesse and yet their hearts had not beene so hardened unlesse the Lord had done so many wonders in their sight In every wonder his purpose was to get beleefe but through their wilfull unbeleefe the best effect of his greatest wonders was induration and impenitencie Now as it suits not with the rule of good manners for Physicians to tie a mans hands of discretion or place lest hee use them to his owne harme so neither was it consonant to the rules of eternall equitie that God should necessitate the Israelites wils to a true beleefe of his wonders or mollifie their hearts against their wils that is Hee neither hardens nor mollifies their hearts by his irresistible will nor did he at all will their hardning but rather their mollification All this is true of Gods ordinarie manner of hardning men or of the first degrees of hardning any man But Pharaohs case is extraordinarie Beza rightly inferres against Origen and his followers that this hardening whereof the Apostle here speaketh was irresistible that the party thus hardened was uncaple of repentance that God did shew signes and wonders in Aegypt not with purpose to reclaime but harden Pharaoh and to drive him headlong into the snare prepared for him from everlasting All these inferences are plaine first that interrogation Who hath resisted his will is equivalent to the universall 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even 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 my text Whom hee will hee hardneth yea so hardneth that it is impossible they should escape it or his judgements due unto it In all these collections Beza doth not erre Yet was Beza with reverence bee it spoken more to blame than 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 unto the Crowne of Egypt as I thinke Origen did we need not we may not grant but to his extraction out of the wombe yea to his first creation out of the dust as if the Almighty had moulded him by his irresistible will in the eternall Idea of reprobation before man or Angell had actuall being as if the only end of his being had beene to bee a reprobate or vessell of wrath Beza's collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than hee hath left them make God not only a direct and positive cause but the immediate and onely cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessarie cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of these or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable cause that is hee did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardning Pharaoh by his irresistible will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an absolute reprobate or borne to the end he might bee hardned wee are hereafter to dispute in the third point All wee 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 beene altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examine the pertinencie of the objection and unfold the validitie of the answers The second generall point concerning the pertinencie of the objection WHy doth hee yet finde fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth hee yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth hee chide All that are reprobates doth hee only chide them is this all that they are to feare the very worst that can befall them were this speech to bee 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 deale 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 doe but that which bee by his irresistible will hath appointed Or suppose the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 the life to come yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to doe It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturally designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immutable sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of Gods everlasting wrath against the reprobates in generall The quaere's which here naturally offer themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any Interpreters have occasioned mee in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usuall for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historicall circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have speciall reference or allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And indeed 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 thy selfe against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them goe Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee yet chides and threatens him againe How long wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe before mee Let my people goe that they may serve mee Else if thou refuse to let my people goe behold to morrow I will bring the locusts into thy coasts That which makes most for this interpretation is the historicall circumstance of the time and manner of Gods proceeding with
possibilitie of becomming vessels of wrath doth our Apostle ground those admonitions Hebr. 3. 12. 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeleefe in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin And againe chapt 4. verse 1. Let us therefore feare lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seeme to come short of it These and the like admonitions frequent in the Prophets and the Gospell suppose the men whom they admonish to be as yet not absolutely reprobated but in a mutable state in a state subject to a mutable possibility of becomming vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy and by consequence not altogether uncapable of that height of impietie unto which onely the eternall and immutable decree hath allotted absolute impossibility of repentance or of salvation Upon the true and reall possibilitie of becomming vessels of mercy supposed to be awarded to all partakers of the word and Sacraments doth Saint Peter ground that exhortation Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if yee doe these things yee shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2 Peter 1. 10 11. The end of this exhortation was to bring his Auditors unto that full growth in grace and good workes in this life unto which absolute impossibilitie of Apostasie is as irresistibly assigned by the eternall immutable decree as finall induration or impossibilitie of repentance is unto the full measure of iniquitie In what proportion these two contrarie possibilities may bee mixt in all or most men before they arrive at the point of absolute impossibilitie either of Apostasie or of repentance wee leave it to every mans private conscience to guesse or examine grosso modo and to infinite and eternall wisdome exactly and absolutely to determine Unto whose examination wee likewise referre it whether the impossibilitie of repentance bee absolute or equall in all that perish or the impossibilitie of Apostasie be absolute and equall in all that are saved at one time or other before they depart hence or whether the mutuall possibilities of becomming vessels of mercie 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 mortall life God alwayes 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 carnall and Gods words are all spirituall and alwayes leave some print or touch behinde them whereby the soule in some degree or other is presently hardned or presently mollified or at least disposed to mollification or induration Continuall or frequent calcitration against the edge of this fierie sword breeds a Callum or compleat hardnesse or as the Apostle speakes eit seares the conscience But where it entereth it causeth the heart to melt and makes way for abundant mercie to follow after Men as yet not comne to 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 doe to theirs Now if a kinde loving father should say to one of his sonnes whom hee had often taken playing the wag Thou shalt never have pennie of what is mine and to another whom hee observed to follow his booke or other good exercises well pleasing to him Thou shalt bee mine heire a man of discretion would not construe his words though affectionately uttered in such a strict sense as Lawyers would doe 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 bee disinherited and the other made heire Though God by an Angell or voice from heaven should speak to one man at his devotions Thou shalt bee saved and to another at the same time Thou shalt be damned his speeches to the one were to bee taken as a good encouragement to goe 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 individuall 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 yet it is true that the Jewes 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 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 Propheticall language whose threats or promises are alwayes immediately terminated not to mens persons but to their qualifications In their Dialect only true Confessors are true 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 possibility of becomming Amorites The true scantling of our Apostles up-shot Hee will have mercy upon whom hee will have mercie and whom he will he hardneth rightly taken reacheth exactly to these points following and no farther First to admonish these Jewes by Gods judgements on Pharaoh not to strive with their Maker not to neglect the warnings of their peace upon presumption that they were vessels of mercy by inheritance seeing they could not pretend any privilege able to exempt them from Gods generall jurisdiction of hardning whom he would as well of the Sonnes of Abraham as of the Aegyptians of diverting those beames of glory which had shined on them upon some other nation It secondly reacheth to us Gentiles and forewarns all and every one of us by Gods fearefull judgements upon these Jewes not to tie the immutabilitie of Gods decree for Election unto any hereditarie amiable nationall disposition but to fasten one eye as stedfastly upon Gods severitie towards the Jew as we doe the other upon the riches of his glorie and mercie towards our selves For if he spared not the naturall branches let us take heed lest he also spare not us who have beene hitherto the flower and bud of the Gentiles Behold therefore the goodnesse and severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards thee goodnesse if thou