fluid substance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to harden and petrifie but yet all this while it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blindness a benummedness an induration but in part by which three things may be understood First That this calamity for that is another sense of this word taken notice of by the ancient Lexicographers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not to last for ever upon the Nation of the Jews but was only to continue 'till the fulness of the Gentiles was come in as it follows immediately in the same Verse Secondly It may be said to have been in part in that all the Jews were not hardened or blinded but on some the Sun of Righteousness and the Light of the Gospel shone as brightly as on the Gentile World Thirdly Of those that were hardened and blinded all were not in an irreversible condition but some had still some power and liberty left them of returning to a better mind or at least that God had resolved to deal so mercifully and kindly with them as to take off that supernatural blindness from their Eyes and hardness from their Hearts that they might see and feel the truth and arrive at a due sense and knowledge of themselves and him which seems to be the meaning of that passage in the Prophet Isaiah c. 10. v. 21 22. applied by St. Paul Rom. 9. 27. The Remnant shall return even the Remnant of Jacob unto the mighty God for though thy people Israel be as the sand of the Sea yet a Remnant of them shall return And it was for these not those who were concluded under a final and irrecoverable Doom that St. Paul's Prayers and endeavours were intended for these and none but these that to the Jews he became as a Jew that he might gain the Jews And to them that were under the Law as under the Law that he might gain them that were under the Law 1 Cor. c. 9. v. 20. And now from this Account which I have given of Gods dealing with the people of the Jews I shall make these following observations First That the design of these three Chapters the 9th 10th and 11th to the Romans is only to give an account of the rejection of the Jews and the reasons upon which it depended Secondly That one reason of their rejection was owing to themselves for having abused the Patience and the Mercy of God and slighted the means and opportunities of Salvation which is so far from giving any Countenance or favour to the Doctrine of irrespective Reprobation that it perfectly destroys it In as much as here is here all along a plain consistence observed to the ordinary notions of Equity and Justice amongst men nay these three Chapters of St. Paul are so far from giving any advantage to that cause that after all these provocations which might make it very just à parte Post to Doom so many obstinate Sinners to eternal Torments and though the Jews were under so great disadvantages at that time by the substraction of the divine Grace and by a positive Judgment of Blindness and obduration superadded to it that it may seem morally impossible for many of them to come to the knowledge of the truth and to an hearty Repentance for their Sins that so they might be saved Lastly Though it be very reasonable to believe that God did as in Justice he might actually put some of them into such a Condition that there was a natural impossibility of their Repentance yet it cannot be proved from any thing in all that long discourse of St. Paul that any one Jew was so wholly blinded hardened and utterly forsaken by the Grace of God and by the natural powers of his own mind and will that it was no way possible for him to Repent though their Condition was such that it was morally impossible as I have said but the far greatest number of them must be lost for ever Thirdly It is very well worth our while to observe that notwithstanding this blindness or hardness yet the Jews had all the while a zeal for God though that zeal was not according to knowledge And St. Paul himself in the sincerity of his heart persecuted Christianity before his Conversion as thinking he did God good Service thereby which was the case of almost all the Jews as our Saviour himself had foretold it should be From whence it is easie to perceive that the zeal and heat of a Party let it be never so much a pretended zeal for God nay let it be never so sincere and real in it self yet it is not always a sign of truth but on the contrary when this zeal for God is a zeal to divide and break the Unity of the Mystical body of Christ which is his Church A zeal without Charity and Brotherly kindness A zeal of Calumny and slander against all those that are not of the same party with themselves A zeal to believe all that may do hurt And a zeal to report it that it may do the more A zeal of not reading or hearing what other Men can say for themselves lest they should be instructed or informed A zeal that calls Truth and Sobriety carnal Reason A zeal that will still persist when it has nothing to say for its self A zeal that flies from Conviction as if it were a Wolf in Sheeps-Cloathing or Satan in the shape of an Angel of light A zeal against the Order Government and quiet of the world A zeal to see all things like it self on fire A zeal to propogate Religion by Swords or by Daggers to conclude A zeal for God but not according to knowledge A zeal of Impudence And a zeal for Nonsense this kind of zeal though it should be sincere as it is to be feared that in many it is not This is not that Christian zeal which discovers it self chiefly by Charity Humility and mutual Forbearance by obedience to Superiours and love to one another but it is rather the zeal of those who are given over to a reprâ—bate Mind and who after all their magnificent and swaggering pretences are in danger of greater Flames than they endeavour to kindle Lastly I think it very reasonable to believe that this hardness of the Jews which was the Consequence of their many and great Sins and was the occasion of so horrid outrages committed against the person and followers of our Lord which we see no argument how powerful soever had sufficient strength and efficacy to hinder was after his Crucifixion still greater than it was before because it is manifest they still persisted in the same impenitent and obdurate State and it is equally plain that the reasons which might induce them to a sense and sight of their Sin grew every day more strong and potent than the other For when the vail of the Temple was rent in sunder at the instant of
liberty of the Will but speaking of that famous Difficulty concerning the inconsistence of the Divine Prescience with it he says that we are not to deny the truth of a Proposition or Notion which we feel and of which we are intimately conscious to our selves for the sake of a Being whose Modes of operation and ways of scientifical Intuition by reason of his infirnity we cannot comprehend And I do appeal to any Man in the World let him be who he will and of what perswasion soever if Posidonius in a raging fit of the Gout or Stone should yet out of an affected piece of Stoicism pretend that all that while he feels no manner of Pain but that he is perfectly at ease and should not have suspected himself to be at all discomposed were it not for the Visits of his Friends and the formality of a Nurse and a Physician by his Bed-side that he is listning all this while with unspeakable Delight to the Tunefull and Melodious Musick of the Spheres when yet his Groans and wry Faces do sufficiently confess that he feels no such Harmony within would not every one say that he does not believe himself and that he has no reason to expect that any one else should believe him And shall we not with equal reason say the same of him who will needs argue and dispute himself into a necessary Agent notwithstanding he feels himself inwardly to be Free Or how is it possible for us ever to look on any Proposition as True when the universal Seemings and Appearances of Mankind and those not of things without us but such as if they be any thing at all are a part of our very Nature and are always most intimately present with and in us shall yet notwithstanding be looked upon as no better than Dreams and Delusions of a sickly Mind This is the first Answer to the first Advantage that may be taken from the consideration of that Lucta or Contention which there is between the two Principles of the Flesh and Spirit as that Contention is described by St. Paul But Secondly The second Answer may be that if this place of St. Paul or any other be to be understood of an absolute and uncontrollable Necessity overruling all actions and thwarting perpetually all our good Desires so as without the help of an irresistible Grace they can never produce their effect this will destroy not only the Necessity but the nature of Obedience for Obedience and Compulsion are inconsistent together to Obey is one thing and to be compelled is another not only of a quite different but of a quite contrary Nature Thirdly Since it is supposed at least from this very place of St. Paul that there are such good Desires implanted in us by Nature which yet for all that are everlastingly overborn without being able to attain that end to which they are directed what is this but to represent God as the most cruel and arbitrary Being that can possibly be conceived who does not only plague and torment us in the other World for no reason but his own arbitrary Will and Pleasure but to compleat the Torment of those whom he has predestined to Eternal Flames and to signalize his utmost Vengeance and Displeasure against them He begins the Tragedy in this Life and creates in them a longing after Happiness and Virtue only to make them the more exquisitely Miserable by an everlasting Frustration Fourthly and Lastly St. Paul himself in the beginning of the next Chapter hath these words For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of Sin and Death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit In which words it is plain beyond all possible colour of Exception that we are capable by Nature of paying some sort of Obedience to the Laws of God and right reason for whatever is weak is acknowledged to have a comparative though imperfect Strength and whatever wants to be fulfilled or compleated is at the same time acknowledged to have something of its own And so St. Paul tells us elsewhere not that we cannot possibly do any good work or think so much as a good thought of our selves by our own natural ability and power but that we have all Sinned and come short of the glory of God that is that our Obedience though it is not nothing and though it may be syncere yet it is imperfect and stands in need upon account of its defects of some other Expiation than what we are able to make so that after all it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth though we may do both but of God that sheweth Mercy It is so far from being true that by reason of the Original corruption of our natures we are carried forth with such an irresistible violence to all manner of Evil that it needs a perpetual Miracle to hinder the most profligate wretches from being worse than they are which yet Mr. Calvin does expresly assert and I have shewn that by his principles he is bound to do it that on the contrary it is acknowledged by St. Paul himself that there are very strong desires and tendencies to Goodness very powerful inclinations and breathings after Virtue implanted in us by nature and it is manifest by experience that all manner of Wickedness even in those who are arrived at the utmost perfection of degeneracy and Lewdness is at first accompanied with a sensible regret and pain that every man in the cool and unprejudiced retirement of his thoughts condemnes it and finds always in it an harsh and grating Incongruity to the natural grain and byass of his mind Nemo repente fuit turpissimus it requires a great deal of exercise and practice for a man to arrive at such a desperate pitch of Madness and Folly as to sin without any reluctancy or pain without some inward blushing and secret shame without a silent Confession of his Guilt and an earnest though fruitless and impracticable Desire that his lost Innocence might be retrived Every man is naturally desirous of a good name and a good name in the common judgment of all Mankind not excepting those themselves who have most grosly forfeited their Title to it is only to be purchased by worthy Inclinations and virtuous Deeds and for what those Deeds and those Inclinations are we have the same unanimous and universal consent All men admire and envy the Virtues of those who are better than themselves they excuse their own Follies by comparing them with those of other men and they uphold their drooping Spirits which would otherwise be oppressed by the too heavy weight of guilt and shame either by such Intemperance as removes from
licet Samothracum c. Let the poor Man swear by the Gods all round From supream Jove to the Gods under ground Yet no Man credit to his Oath will give Who contemnes Thunder with the Gods good leave For no worse plague than Poverty can be He that has that may despise destiny P. 206. Eadem necessitas Deos alligat c. THe same necessity tyes both Gods and Men Divine and Humane things are alike subject to and equally carry'd down by a torrent of Fate impossible to be stemmed as he that made and governed all things he wote those laws of fate by which himself is obliged he commanded but once but he obeys for ever P. 278. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I see what mischiefs my designes attend But too strong Passion does weak reason bend P. 279. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I hear you and I grant 't is true you say But Lust calls loudly and I must obey Ib. Volo equidem c. I Do what I can to live exactly as a wise man should do but I am forced now and then to step aside for I am at best but Flesh and Blood and these throw me violently whether I will or no sometimes upon the coast of Lust and sometimes upon that of anger I grieve for my friends death though I cannot recall him and I fear mine own though I cannot prevent it I am carryed this way and that way as the giddy Whirl-wind of my Passions drive me and I offend rather out of meer necessity than out of deliberate choice or inclination I feel my self tripping and yet I have not power to fix my foot but am forced to yield to the frailty of my Nature which it is impossible for me always to withstand P. 210. Quid est hoc Lucili c. TEll me my Lucilius if thou canst what is' t that makes us look one way while we row another that hurryes us back into the Port again when we were almost got to the end of our Voyage what is it that boiles and works within our Minds and puts our thoughts into a dangerous ferment that will not suffer them to be consistent to themselves or fixed with a wise and steady purpose of mind upon any object or end we waver in our counsells and designes we pursue nothing frankly nothing entirely nothing constantly What other account can possibly be given of such inconstancy as this but that it is the effect of folly lust and passion which are not pleased with any thing for a substantial reason and therefore cannot be pleased with any thing long P. 282. Illud simul cogitemus c. i. e. YOu ought to consider with your self Lucilius that if this universe which is as frail and mortal as your self be yet notwithstanding sustained and upheld by the Providence of God that so we also if we would imitate as we ought to do that care and circumspection of the supream being might prolong the time of our continuance among Men if we would but deny our selves the destructive enjoyment of those bodily pleasures which are the cause to so many of untimely Death P. 283. Imbecilli fluid que c. WE and all things here below are weak and infirm and but of short continuance let us therefore fix our meditations on things above let us contemplate the first Ideas and exemplars of all things formed and swimming in the Aetherial matter and God in the midst of them casting about and considering with himself how to preserve those things by providence and care which of themselves neither are nor can be of an immortal nature because the fluid matter of which they are composed is subject to perpetual flux and dissipation but God by wisdome supplyes the inabilities of nature for all things above continue as they are not because the Aetherial substances are not lyable to change but because they are defended from it by the care and goodness of Goâ—d He is the great artificer of the world the maker and preserver of all things who supplyes what is wanting in the powers of matter by a virtue and sufficiency derived from himself P. 284. Corpusculum hoc c. THis body of ours is but the Gaol and Prison of the Mind it is this that is toss'd and tumbled to and fro upon this it is that torments are iâ—flicted this alone that is subject to diseases but the Mind is sacred and inviolable because composed of an Aetherial substance which is so swift and so subtile that no manner of hold can be fastened upon it P. 284 285. Mobilis inquieta mens THe mind of Man is moveable and unquiet it never stands still but naturally streams it self abroad and shoots it self immediately to an infinite distance wherever there is any real or imaginary object for its contemplation it wanders and is impatient and glad of any thing that hath the appearance of new Which you cannot wonder at if you consider the nature of the Soul for it does not consist of gross and earthy parts but it descends from above out of the Heavenly matter and this is the nature of the Heavenly bodies that they are always in motion wherefore the Soul as beâ—ng made of the Aetherial matter is like that Matter nimble in its motions and is moved in it self and carryed forth to things at tâ—e greatest distance from it by a swift and restless agitation c. P. 285. Nunc me put as c. i. e. YOu think I warrant you that I am speaking of the Stoicks who are of opinion that the soul of a Man who is prest or squeezed to death cannot pass through all together but is dispersed and scattered as the rest of the fluid matter for want of free passage to come away together but you are widely mistaken in your opinion of me and so are the Stoiques in their sentiments of the Soul for as flame cannot be opprest as it cannot be hurt or cut in sunder by any blow or blast but it returns again with greater force and winds it self about that which endeavours to restrain and curb it so it is with the mind which is every whit as subtile and piercing as the flame it cannot be pend up in any place how narrow soever nor stifled and imprisoned within the body but it breaks through all obstacles by means of its subtil and Aetherial nature and as the Thunder and Lightning when they are most fatal either to man or beast yet they pass off without leaving a discernable wound so it is with the soul which is more subtile then fire it passes through the body by the most invissible pores P. 285 286. Nihil est quod non expugnet c. THere is nothing so difficult which diligence and resolution will not conquer the bended armes of massy Oakes may be straitned â—nd crooked Timber yields to the force of heat and stretching out it self at length complyes against nature with the convenience of men How much