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
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
not God by his almightie power have prevented Adams eating the forbidden fruit None I thinke will bee so incredulous to doubt whether he that commanded the Sunne to stand still in his sphere and did dead Ieroboams arme when he stretched it out against the Prophet could not as easily have stayed Adams hand from taking turned his eye from looking upon or his heart from lusting after the forbidden fruit All these were acts of meere power But had he by his omnipotent power laid this necessity upon Adams will or understanding or had he kept him from transgression by restraint hee had made him uncapable of that happinesse whereto by his infinite goodnesse hee had ordained him for by this supposition hee had not beene good in himselfe nor could he be capable of true felicitie but he must bee capable likewise of punishment and miserie The ground of his interest in the one was his actuall and inherent goodnesse communicated in his creation nor was hee liable to the other but by the mutability of his goodnesse or possibilitie of falling into evill In like manner hee that gave that knowne power and vertue to the load-stone could as easily draw the most stony hearted son of Adam unto Christ as it doth steele and iron But if hee should draw them by such a necessarie and naturall motion hee should defeat them of all that hope or interest in that excessive glorie which hee hath prepared for those that love him If againe it bee demanded why God doth not save the impenitent and stubborne sinner it is all one as if wee should aske why hee doth not crowne bruit beasts with honour and immortality That this he could doe by his infinite power I will not deny And if this he would doe no creature justly might controll him none possibly could resist or hinder him yet I may without presumption affirme that thus to doe cannot stand with the internall rule of his justice goodnesse and majestie Nor can it stand better with the same rule to save all men if wee take them as they are not as they might bee albeit hee hath indued all with reason to distinguish betweene good and evill For many of them speake evill of those things which they know not but what they know naturally as bruit beasts in those things they corrupt themselves It stands lesse with Gods infinite goodnesse or power if we consider them as linckt with infinite justice or majestie to bring such into true happinesse than to advance bruit beasts unto immortality It is a people saith the Prophet of no understanding therefore hee that made them will not have mercie on them and hee that formed them will shew them no favour God out of the abundance of his goodnesse mercie and long-suffering tolerates such as the Prophet and Apostle speakes of and out of his infinite love seekes by the preaching of the Word and other meanes not prejudiciall to his justice and majestie to gather them as hee would have done Jerusalem here in my text But finally there is a certaine measure of iniquity which where it is full an height of stubbornnesse and prophannesse whereunto if once they come the stroake of his infinite justice fals heavie upon them for wilfull contempt of his infinite mercie that as hee himselfe somewhere saith Hee cannot any longer endure them The suspitions to which these resolutions seeme liable are specially three First that they derogate from Gods extraordinary favour towards his elect Our answer is briefe the offence if any there be is taken not given seeing wee onely affirme that none so perish but that they had a possibility to be saved we deny not that many are so saved as it were not possible for them finally to perish yet so saved they are not by Gods infinite power laying a necessity upon their wils but by his infinite wisdome preparing their hearts to bee fit objects of his infinite mercy and fore-casting their finall salvation as necessary by assenting not altogether necessarily to the particular meanes whereby it is wrought That is in fewer termes unto their salvation an infinite power or infinite mercy matched with justice infinite without an infinite wisdome would not suffice To call some how many none may determine extraordinarily as hee did Saint Paul may well stand with the eternall rule of his goodnesse because hee used their miraculous and unusuall conversion as a meanes to win others by his usuall and ordinary calling Speciall privileges upon peculiar and extraordinary occasions doe not prejudice ordinary lawes Albeit to draw such privileges into common practice would overthrow the course of justice It is not contrary then to the rule of Gods justice to make some feele his mercy and kindnesse before they seeke that others may not despaire of finding it having assured all by an eternall promise that seeking they shall finde and that they which hunger and thirst after righteousnesse shall be satisfied The second suspition and imputation is that this doctrine may too much favour free will In briefe wee answer there have beene two extremities in opinions continually followed by the two maine factions of the Christian world The one That God hath so decreed all things that it is impossible ought should have beene that hath not beene or not to have beene which hath beene This is the opinion of the ancient Stoicks which attribute all events to fate and is no way mitigated but rather improved by referring this absolute necessity not to second causes or nature but to the omnipotent power of the God of nature This was refuted in our last meditations because it makes God the sole author of every sinne The second extremity is That in man before his conversion by grace there is a freedome or abiliment to doe that which is pleasing and acceptable to God or an activity to worke his owne conversion This was the errour of the Pelagians and communicated to the moderne Papists who hold a meane indeed but a false one betweene the Pelagians and the Stoicks The true meane from which all these extremities swerve may bee comprised in these two propositions the one negative In man after Adams fall there is no freedome of will or ability to doe any thing not deserving Gods wrath or just indignation the other affirmative There is in man after his fall a possibility left of doing or not doing of some things which being done or not done he becomes passively capable of Gods mercies doing or not doing the contrary he is excluded from mercy and remaines a vessell of wrath for his justice to worke upon For whether a man will call this contingence in humane actions not a possibilitie of doing or not doing but rather a possibilitie of acknowledging our infirmities or absolute impotencie of doing any thing belonging or tending to our salvation I will not contend with him Onely of this I rest perswaded that all the exhortations of the Prophets and Apostles to worke
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
the setling of the affections and consciences of such as be Novices in faith untill they be taught to runne this division upon the same string Hast thou beene enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift beene made partaker of the Holy Spirit Thy sinne is great and thou art found a despiser of the riches of his bountie unlesse thou embrace these illuminations notwithstanding thy inbred corruptions daily increase upon thee as undoubted pledges of his favour and assured testimonies of his good purpose to make thee heire of eternall life Worthy thou art to bee numbred among those perverse and way ward Jewes whom our Saviour compares to children playing in the market if while those good motions and exultations of spirit last thou givest not more attentive eare than hee that danceth doth to him that pipeth or harpeth unto that sweet voyce of our heavenly Father encouraging thee in particular as hee did sometimes the host of Israel Oh that there were such an heart in thee alwayes that it might goe well with thee for ever But eschew these or the like inferences as cunning Sophismes of the great Tempter that old and subtile Serpent I thanke God J have felt the good motions of the spirit J perceive the pledges of his good purpose toward mee but his purpose is unchangeable Therefore is my election sure enough I am a sealed vessell of mercy I cannot become a vessell of wrath If such thoughts have at any time insinuated into thy heart or be darted upon thee against thy will remember thy selfe in time and thus repell them If God harden whom hee will if this will be immutably and eternally free it is as free for him to harden mee as any other And consider withall that albeit thou canst not make or prepare thy selfe to be a vessell of mercy yet thy untimely presumption of it continue long in the end will make thee as in the beginning it doth prepare thee to be a vessell of wrath This was the disease whereof the whole Nation of the Jewes did perish Doest thou see thy brother one baptized in the name of Christ goe on stubbornly in his wicked courses thou doest well to threaten him with the sentence of Death Yet limit thy speeches by the Prophets rule Jerem. 18. pronounce him not for all this an absolute reprobate or irrecoverable vessell of wrath give him not forthwith for dead but rather use double diligence to prevent his death and tell him If God shew mercy upon whom he will shew mercy if this his will be eternally free it is as free for him yet to shew mercy upon supposed Cast-awayes and to harden uncharitable and presumptuous Pharisees for the present manifestation of his glory as it was for him to reject the Jewes and chuse the Gentiles Perhaps the ingenuous and hitherto indifferent reader will here begin to distrust these last admonitions and for their sakes most of our former resolutions as prejudiciall to the doctrine concerning the certainty of salvation But if it please him either to looke back unto some passages of the former discourse or to goe along with mee a little further I shall acquaint him though not with a surer foundation yet with a stronger frame or structure of his hopes than hee shall ever attaine unto by following their rules who I verily thinke were fully assured of their owne salvation but from other grounds than they have discovered to us Surer foundation can no man lay than that whereon both parties doe build to wit the absolute immutability of Gods decree or purpose Now admitting our apprehension of his will or purpose to call elect or save us were infallible yet hee that from these foundations would reare 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 vaine in his imaginations as if hee expected that wals of loome and rafters of reed covered with ferne should be able to keepe 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 selfe all the changes and chances of this mortall life and the immutable state of immortality in the life to come are alike immutably decreed by the eternall counsell of his immutable will Now if mortalitie or mutabilitie have precedence of immortality in respect of the same persons by the immutable tenor of his irresistible decree can it seeme any paradox to say 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 wee become so actually and compleatly spirituall as utterly to mortifie all lusts and concupiscences of the flesh Untill then our mortification be compleat and full wee 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 shall be in the life to come after our mortall hopes are ratified by the sentence of the almighty Judge I cannot affirme if any man peremptorily will deny it nor will I contend by way of peremptorie deniall if it shall please any man upon probable reasons to affirme But if to such as finally perish no true or reall possibilitie of repentance during the whole course of this mortall 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 baptisme any true or reall possibility of running the wayes of death not what sinnes soever they commit the feare of Hell or the declaration of Gods just judgements if at any time they truly feared them is but a vaine imagination or groundlesse fancie 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 feare 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-beares when children grow once so wise as to discerne them from true terrors doe serve their parents to very small purpose For mine owne part albeit I feare not the state of absolute reprobation yet so conscious am I to mine owne infirmities that I would not for all the hopes or any joy or any pleasure which this life can afford abandon all use of the feare of hell or torments of the life to come Upon this reall
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