perplex'd by the Pagan Sophisters about this great Attribute of God Omnipotence Omnipotens Omnia-potens some jangling meerely about the etymology of the word have dash'd themselves against the rockes of heresy Faustus the Manichee and Cresconius the Grammarian have put Saint Augustine to the sweat about it who dwelling too critically upon God's omnia potest went about to geld his omnipotence Nay D. Aug. lib. 26. Cont. Faust cap. 5. some herein making reason their pole-starre and not faith have leap'd out of their curiosity into blasphemy as the Hermians and Seleucians of old those hoeretici materiarii as Tertullian styles them who following the proud sect of the Platonists Adversus Hermog cap. 25. made their materia prima co-omnipotent with God because God as they pretended could not make the world out of nothing but of some praeexisting matter And from this hive belike swarm'd those Locusts of their age Menander Carpocrates and Cerinthus who tooke off the power of God in the creation of the world and set it upon Angells D. Aug. de fide Symb. c. 1. and so either par'd too much the divine prerogative in making it slow or unable for so great a worke or else super-added to the glory of those intellectuall natures as if this great frame of the universe had been rather the workmanship of their hands then of his that created both it and them Although others of a like vertigo were not so over-stagger'd with their owne phrenzies but that they allowed the God-head a superintendency of power and yet not that * Tri. Vne Triune power the christian struggles for a power of three persons in one essence of equall majesty and commaund but ascrib'd to the Father only a sulnes of power a mediocrity to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost none at all and of this sinke was Petrus Abaialardus censured by Saint Bernard in his 190. Epistle ad innocentium But leaving these to their strong delusions knowing that an evil conjecture hath overthrown their judgement Ecclus. 3.24 Let us returne whence wee have digress'd a little to divine omnipotence and wee shall finde by ground or reason there of to bee divine essence for GOD workes not but by his essence and by how much more perfect the forme is in every agent by which it workes by so much the power is greater in working Seeing then the essence of God is infinite his power of necessity must bee infinite too now because to be thus infinite is to bee but one there is but one omnipotence as there is but one essence and yet for the diversities of respects Divines have cut it into a double file an actuall and absolute omnipotence Omnipotentia absoluta the absolute omnipotence of God is that by which hee can perfectly doe any thing that is possible to bee done and it is called absolute because it is not limited by the universall law of nature as if divinity were necessarily pinn'd to the order of secondary causes and that God could not doe any thing besides or above that law and this the schooles call omnipotentia Dei extraordinaria Gods extraordinary power because by that hee can worke besides the trodden and accustomed course of nature producing of himselfe as wel those effects of secundary agents as others Pol. syntag lib. 20. cap. 29. to which sublunary creatures cannot attaine Haec simpliciter essentialis saith the Syntagmatist this omnipotence is simply essentiall by which God can absolutely and simply doe all things which are possible to bee done to wit such as doe not repugne the will or nature of God though they doe sometimes the course of nature for that may bee impossible in respect of the one which is not of the other Quod dicitur impossibile secundum aliquam Parte 1. q. 25. Art 40. ad primum potentiam naturalem divinae subditur potentiae saith Thomas what naturall power calls impossibillity is without dispute possible to omnipotence and therefore there is nothing that hath but a * Quicquid potest habere rationem entis comprehenditur sub possibilâ—bus respect n omnipotentiae absolutae capability of being that comes not within the verge of Gods absolute power of his power though sometimes not of his will or wisedome for God can doe many things which these thinke neither convenient nor necessary to bee done To imagine any thing of God as if hee did it because he can doe it is an abrupt and rude presumption non quia omnia potest facere ideo credendum est Deum fecisse etiam quod non fecerit sed an secerit requirendum God can of stones raise up children unto Abraham Lomb. lib. 1. dist 43. ex Aug. lib. de spir et lit Cap. 1. but hee never did nor I thinke will Potuit Deus ut duodecim legiones Angelorum c. God could have sent twelve legions of Angells to fight against those Iewes that apprehended Christ sed noluit saith Lombard potuit Deus hominem pennis ad volandum instruxisse God could have given man as well wings as feete made him soare as goe non tamen quia potuit Tert. lib. adversus Prax. cap. 10. secit saith Tertullian Potuit et Praxeam et omnes pariter haereticos statim extinxisse hee could have crush'd Praxeas and all other heretickes in their very shell and first matter non tamen quia potuit D. Aug. lib. de Nat. et Grat. cap. 7. extinxit saith the same Father Once more Dominus Lazarum suscitavit in corpore nunquid dicendum est non potuit Iudam suscitare in mente God rais'd Lazarus in body and could hee not Iudas in spirit also potuit quidem sed noluit saith S Augustine Thus Antiquity you heare still pleades for Gods Potuit His infinite Power the Fathers generally acknowledge but they sometimes restraine the execution of it and mince it with a Noluit or a non fecit And doubtlesse he can doe more things than he doth doe if hee would doe them but he will not not that there is any defect in his Will or Power but because in Wisedome he doth not thinke it meet Gods actuall Omnipotence is that by which he is not onely able to doe whatsoever he wil'd or decreed to be done Actualis omnipotentia but also Really doth it Solo voluntatis imperio at a becke or command without difficulty or delay with a meere Dixit factum est He speakes onely and he does it So does it that it cannot be hinder'd by any cause or impediment whatsoever And this the Schooles call againe Omnipotentia Dei ordinata Gods ordinated Omnipotence because hee doth by that what hee hath ordain'd or decreed to doe And this hath respect to the particular Law of nature and to a speciall order bequeath'd things by that Law through which he at first creat'd all things and still either conserves or moderates or destroyes them Now as there are
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus calls them Against which we are to take up our Sword and Buckler and not onely oppose De Sacrament Mat. cap. 7. but murther them if we can And therefore in this warre of the Flesh the learned Parisiensis would have the prima acies cut off the first Motions slaine propter iniquitatem Rebellionis for their rebellious attempts against the Spirit as being not onely bellowes and fuell but Fire also to our daily and dangerous mis-treadings And yet the Church of Rome is so hot here for the immaculatenesse of the Saint that she altogether dis-inherits him of flesh cuts off the Intaile of his primitive corruption washes cleane away his originall Taint in the Laver of Baptisme And so doth the conduit of our Church too quoad Reatum but not quoad Actum The guilt of sinne is expung'd but the act and existency remaines still even in the Regenerate there being found in them not onely poenas quasdam aut sequelas peceati Certaine sequels or punishments of sinne but also really and in their owne Nature damnabiles * Reveren dissimus Davenantues de justitia habit cap. 1. Reliquias remainders enough to damne them but that the dominion of sinne being Bankrupt as it were and broken and the bond cancell'd above they make not to the condemnation of his person that is atton'd and reconcil'd by Christ And therefore the Cardinall may forbeare to traduce us for Messalians and Origenists Bell. de sacr Bapt. l. 1. c. 13. because we allow not a totall eradication of sin by the power of that Sacrament for as much as some of his owne Tang denying concupiscence after Baptisme to be Peceatum yet they say that it is Radix peccati and so takes hold in the very child of God which Root though it be crush'd a little and bruiz'd yet it sticks fast still in the Nature notwithstanding the guilt be absolutely remov'd from the person of the regenerate And this much their owne * Lib. 2. dist 32. lit B. Lombard in circumstance will tell us who granteth that by the vertue of Baptisme there is a full absolution of originall sin in respect of the Guilt of it but a Debilitation only and an Extenuation of the vice no totall Extirpation And therefore the Gratianists sticke not to glosse here that it is not so dismissed nè sit that it be not at all But it remaines debilitatum sopitum languishing and slumbring not dead it seemes Nay Aâ—not ad Rom. cap. 5. Hugo de sancto victore comes on more fully Manet secundum culpam dimittitur secundum solum aeternae dan nationis debitum Whence I gather with that learned * Episcopus Sarisburiensis de justitia habit cap. 20. Prelate that concupiscence after Baptisme is no lesse than Culpa even in the Regenerate And that That Justice which is conferr'd on them consists rather in the participation of Christs merits who cut the score than in any perfection of Vertues or Qualities infus'd So that the Vis damnatoria as they call it The condemning power in this Sinne is taken off by vertue of that Sacrament but the contagion or deordination of it still dwells in man which is so rivited in his nature and as it were nature it selfe ut tolli non possit sine destructione naturae we may assoone destroy nature herselfe as It And if we beleeve the Scholeman Non est medici summi illum tollere In this case God himselfe cannot doe it so Alexander Halensis de Sacramento Baptismi 4. part 8. quaest 2. Articl Let others then vaunt at their pleasure in the riches and ornaments of their inward man ruffle in the gawdy plumes of their conceiv'd perfections decke their minds in their white robes of purity file and whet and sharpen the very point of the spirit they talke of yet if wee knock a little at the doores of their hearts Enter into them with a Candle and a snuffer as Charron speakes wee shall finde Concupiscence there sitting in her chaire of state commaunding or at least drawingon the motions of the flesh which they can no more restraine then the beating of their pulses which still keepe centinell in the body and are the watch words of nature that the heart liveth Serm. 58. super Cant. Erras si vitia putes emortua et non magis suppressa Hee is in an error saith S. Bernard that thinks his corrupt inclinations to be absolutely dead and not rather supprest or smothered Velis nolis intra sines tuos habitat Cananaeus let the Israclite doe what he can this Canaanite will be still skulking about his coasts subjugari potest exterminarinon potest made tributary perhaps hee may bee exil'd he will not And indeed those untamed lusts and affections of ours which are nothing else but the waves and stormes of our soules rais'd by every litle blast of the flesh as long as we are inviron'd with these walls of frailty this rotten tabernacle of the body Moder ari et regere possumus S. Ier. Reg. Monach c. 22. amputare non possumus master perhaps or qualify for a time wee may totally subdue wee cannot The mind no doubt may put in her plea with a Video meliora I see that the law of God is the better I see and approve it too and therfore I serve it But then comes the flesh with a Deteriora sequer 't is true the other is the right way but it is troublesome and slippery and like a sandy hill to the feete of the aged The way the flesh walkes is smooth and even pleasing to him that treads it and therfore I follow that I follow That were more tolerable but I serve I am in subjection to it though my minde have a desire and more then a desire an act of serving the law of God yet there is another Master I must serve too my flesh invites mee invites nay commaunds and hurryes me and that is to the law of sinne Certum est Orig. Homil. 21. in Ios etiam Iebuzoeos habitare cum filiis Iudoe in Ierusalem saies the Allegoricall Father nothing more certaine then the deepe remainders of corruptioneven in Gods peculiar Israel These Iebusites will be still dwelling with the sonnes of Iudah in Ierusalem the flesh will bee serving the law of sinne even in the sanctified and chosen vessell S. Paul himselfe and the reason is 't is a church militant wee live in Cant. 2. an Army saith Solomon terrible with her banners no lying idle then in tents and garrisons but a daily marching on against the enemy a continuall skirmishing with the flesh which though by the daily sallyes and excursions of the spirit it be somtimes repell'd and driven back as if it had received the foyle or the defeate yet gathering new strength and forces it comes on againe with her fresh and restlesse assaults so that there is no expectation of a totall triumph and
Domini Luke 2.30 The salvation of the Lord or rather the salvation from the Lord from the Lord for man Hence David rapt in the spirit and desiring to see the sonne of God incarnate pour's out his request to the Lord with an Ostende nobis misericordiam tuam et salutare tuum da nobis domine shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation Psal 119 41. thy mercy and thy salvation because from thee but thy mercy and our salvation because for us And this Salvation for us was a mighty salvation So runnes the prophecy Blessed be the Lord God of Israell why Hee hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David Luke 1.68 A mighty Salvation and therefore a mighty Mercy such a mercy as the Apostle cal's Divitias misericordiarum riches of mercy mercie so wonderfully rich that it is above all Gods workes all his workes of nature or miracle or glory or mystery In his workes of nature there was only flatus or spiritus Dei the breath of the Lord used what breath his Dixit et facta sunt which were the breathings of the Almighty upon his creatures he spake and for the most part they were made and where they were not so he spake and breath'd and they were made good So God breath'd into man the breath of life Gen. 2.7 and man was a living soule Gen. 2.7 In his workes of miracle there was digitus Dei the finger of God so in those done before Pharach and his wisemen When magicke was at a stand and all her spells and inchantments non-plust in the production of lice out of dust the Sorcerers and Wizards insteed of manifesting their skill acknowledge their impotence and that great Master of their blacke art who had hitherto tutor'd them in lyes now lectures them a way to truth with a digitus Dei hic This is the finger of God Exod. 8.19 In his workes of glory there is manus Dei the hand of God so those roling torches of the firmament those bright eyes of Heaven Sunne Moone and starres with all that spangled and glorious hoast the Apostle calls the worke of Gods hand Heb. 1.10 But in his workes of mystery especially in this greatest of incarnation as if nature and miracle and glory were subordinate and the breath or hand or finger of the Almighty too weake for so mighty a designe there was Brachium Dei the arme of God his mighty arme the strength of his mighty arme And therefore the blessed Virgin Mary in a deepe contemplation of it professes Stella in 1. Lucae Dominum potentiam in brachio forti demomstrasse The Lord hath shewed strength in his mighty arme Luke 1.51 In that ransome of the Israelites from the Egyptian vassalage the text sayes he did it with his arme his outstretched arme Psal 77. with his arme why not as well there with his finger or his hande as with his arme why Their freedome from that temporall captivity by Moses was a type of our redemption from our spirituall slavery by Christ and therefore as the arme was exercised in the one so in the other too Wee were in our Egypt here in darkenesse darkenes so thicke that it might bee felt made slaves to the grindings of a Tyrant though not a Pharaoh yet a Prince as he was of darkenes and worse then hee was then of utter darknesse under his Iron rod and scepter all the fetters and manacles of sinne and Sathan till God by the vertue of his Arme knock'd off those yron shackles and brake asunder the bands of death and darkenesse And herein was the worke of his Arme his mighty Arme the Strength of his mighty Arme nay it was not so properly the strength of his own Arme as that strength which is the Arme it selfe the Arme JESUS And here in two Prophets meet Paravit Dominus brachium suum and Dominus in fortitudine ventet brachium ejus dominabitur The Lord hath made bare his Arme so Isaiab His holy Arme hath gotten him Victory so David And why hath the Lord thus made bare his Arme or what is that Victory his holy Arme hath got What Isai 52.10 All the ends of the world shall see his salvation Isa 52.10 And His salvation is made knowne in the sight of all the Heathen Psal 98.2 Here then still Psal 98.2 this Arme is Salvation and this Salvation Mercie and this Mercie Eminent and this Eminencie in Truth All the ends of the world shall see it and it shal be made known in the eyes of all the Heathen all the Heathen all the World all shall see it shall See it but not enjoy it and yet to see it is the way to enjoy it and that we may finde that way and at length enjoy it as we should Isa 52.9 Breake forth into melody sing together ye waste places of Ierusalem and not onely those but the whole Earth Sing aloud unto the Lord all yee Lands the round world and all that therein is ye sowles of the Ayre Psal 98. that sing among the branches ye Beasts and Cattell upon a thousand Hills yee that sport also in the deepe Psal 104. v. 8. 11 12. that goe up as high as the mountaines and downe to the Valleyes beneath Let the Sea roare and the fulnesse thereof let the floods clap their hands and the little hills dance for joy Let the Nations also be glad let them sing upon the harpe upon the harpe with a Psalme of Thankesgiving Praise him on the Cymballs ye sons of His praise him on the Wel-tuned Cymballs with trumpets also and shawmes praise his Name Powre out all your acclamations and shouts of Joy all your Hosannahs and Hallelujahs yee Saints of his Sing and sing aloud unto the Lord that his mercie is thus made knowne upon Earth and his saving Health among all Nations And here we cannot complaine of the Lord as the Prophet did of old Isai 63.15 Where is now the sounding of thy bowels and thy mercies towards us For it is gone you heare into all Nations but rather where is the sounding of our Thankfulnesse our singing aloud in Magnificats and Regratulations unto him Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantobo saith David I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever Psal 89.1 And certainely if they be Mercies of the Lord they are Mercies for ever Psal 89.1 and if Mercies for ever great Mercies and if Mercies and Great and For ever too worthy for ever to be sung by all those that are in misery even by Kings by David himselfe if a King as he was in misery For Misery hath aswell a For ever as Mercy hath And therefore it was necessary that God's Mercies should be infinite because of our miseries and it was just that our miseries should be infinite because of our sinnes Here then Abyssus abyssum invocat One deepe cryes unto another and here Altitudo
Nescience not a Privation of knowledge but a Negation of it which was in Adam in his state of Innocence in the good Angells and Christ himselfe as he was man and is no sinne at all neither doth it oppose the knowledge of God either in Generall or Particular A Privative Ignorance is when a man knowes not those things which by nature he may know and by duty he is tyed to know lib. 3. de lib. Arbit cap. 12. haec merito deputatur Animae in Reatum saith Saint Augustine This layes a deserved guilt upon the Soule 't is sinne a dangerous one and not only Peccatum but Paena too as Treading opposite to the knowledge of the true God who is life and without whom there is Death certanely So that now wee cannot but farther conceive a double Blindnesse in respect of things Divine The one affected when through a voluntary Ignorance we know not those things which we cannot not know This is so farre from lessening sin that it aggravates it as being Directè voluntaria and therefore necessarily Sinne And not only so Estius in 2. sent d. 22. sect 11. but a Canopie or Curtaine to sinne with more freedome And this Saint Bernard hath a fling at with his frustra sibi de infirmitate blandiuntur c. Serm. 38. super Cant. infirmity or ignorance is a vaine Plea for those which are contented not to know that they may with greater liberty offend And these the Prophet scourges with a Noluerunt intelligere Psal 34. And the Apostle with a Sponte ignorant 2. Pet. 3. and Iob too with a Nolumus scientiam Depart from us for wee desire not the knwledge of thy Law Iob 21.14 Such conditions are so farre below man that they are altogether Brutish and as brutish taunted at by the Psalmist Nolite estote sicut Equus Mulus Bee not like the Horse and Mule which have no understanding Psal 32.9 The other not affected when through an Involuntarie Ignorance wee know not those things which are without or beyond our knowledge And this Ignoranee is more pardonable That of Saint Augustine standing in force here Non tibi deputabitur ad culpam D. Aug. lib. de nat grat quod invitus ignoras That shall never be imputed unto thee for sinne which either thy Infirmities tell thee that thou canst not or thy will if not averse that thou doest not know Now put the case that our Ephesian had still persisted in his Olim tenebrae that his Darkenesse without an Apostolicall illumination had overshadowed him unto death that neither Saint Paul nor any Proselite of his had acquainted him with the living God not preach'd unto him Christ Jesus nor his Gospell had not this Ignorance beene invincible and consequently no sin No sin in respect of any law positive but of the law naturall For betweene a law naturall and a law positive there is this difference that the law naturall obligeth every man as farre forth as he partakes of the use of reason and Quatenus so without any farther obligation But a positive law whither it be divine or humane Est in 2 Sent. Dist 22. §. 9. doth not binde Nisi positivè promulgatum except it be positively proclaim'd for it hath not the essence and full vigour of law without promulgation Whence it is manifest that the Ignorance of the law naturall is allwaies a sinne whither it have the accesse of externall instruction or no for the Gentiles which had not the law that is the Law taught had notwithstanding the workes of the law ingraven in their hearts Rom. 2. And if ingraven there V. 15. Ignorance had no plea. But the Ignorance of a law positive though it be divine is not a sinne to those to whom it was not promulgated and taught And therefore that Insidelity by which some beleeve not in Christ to wit to whom Christ hath not beene preach'd who have not heard any thing at all of his Name to them it is no sin which our Saviour himselfe intimates in his Si non venissem loquutus essem If I had not come and spoken unto them they had had no sin Iohn 15.22 What no sinne no not of Infidelity And therefore Saint Augustine expounding that place and speaking of those to whom the preaching of the Gospell had not sounded plainly excuseth them from sinne from that particular sinne of unbeliefe in Christ but withall thrusts them headlong into Hell for other sinnes committed against the law of nature in his 89. Tract upon Iohn and more at large in his 3. booke against the 2. Pelagian Epistles 3. Chapter And here by the way Some without pitty censure I cannot the unhappy condition of those unhappy as they would have them for the present though in their owne condition admiredly happy heretofore which were sometimes such Lights unto the world and their incomparable workes still shining to posterity yet the Law of Nature prompting them there was a God that gave them Light and the world too and they not glorifying that God Romans 1.21 they became thereby inexcusable and are now under the chaines of everlasting darkenesse Aristotle the Rationall and Socrates the wise and Cato the censorious and Aristides the Iust and Seneca the morall and Plato the divine with all their rich Precepts and Principles both of Nature and Morality they severely I say not uncharitably doome to eternall flames where they now burne And yet in this heate of Justice they sprinkle them with this Mercy that for their naturall and morall Excellencies they shall burne the lesse even civill vertues prevailing so farre without true Religion Vt hac additâ as Saint Augustine tells Marcellinus of the Romane Empire If they had had this they had been Citizens Alterius Civitatis Denisons of the new Ierusalem so farre from burning below that they had shin'd as Starres in the Firmament for evermore But as they were they past not Absque mercede They doing something saith S. Ierome not onely Sapienter but also Sanctè God being therefore bountifull unto them in this life prosperitate vitae In Epist ad Gal. cap. 10. and mercifull in that to come levitate paenae And indeed it stands with the strict rules of Justice that small offences should lesse suffer and so minus punietur Fabricius quam Catilina Sanctus Hieron in E zech cap. 29. saith the Father Fabricius shall be lesse punished then Catiline But he will have him punish'd not because he was good but because the other was more evill For Good we cannot call him then he had beene Crown'd but he was lesse impious and therefore punishable the lesse lesse impious How non veras virtutes habendo sed a veris virtutibus non plurimum deviande not that the vertues he had were true indeed but that they digress'd not much from those which others had that were reputed true so Saint Augustine againe in his 4. booke against Julian 3.