neck of the true Spouse of Christ which makes her to look pleasingly and amiably in the eyes of her Beloved and distinguishes her from all false and counterfeit lovers To all this we may finally add what it is in the very work it self and the contrivances of it wherein not to anticipate the thoughts of others that shall peruse it soundness of judgement with elegancy of expression Sublimity of Notion with sobriety of spirit Variety of reading with accurateness of composure Sweetness of wit with savouriness of heart do seem to be linked together in so rare and happy a conjunction as which makes this Chain of Principles to be a chain of Pearls The Lord by his holy spirit set home the Truths in it upon the hearts of all those who shall be made partakers of it To him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen Cambridge Novemb. 2. 1659. THOMAS HORTON WILLIAM DILLINGHAM A Collection of the several Aphorismes and Exercitations contained in the ensuing TREATISE APHORISME I. Pag. 1. MAns blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 2. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiencie that attend them An apostrophie to the world EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 20. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 29. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 43. The first inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and Saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy APHORISME II. Pag. 61. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 61. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 72. The insufficiencie of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshipped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 84. Oracles of God vocal or written Books of Scripture so called in five respects viz. In regard of their declaring and foretelling their being consulted prized and preserved EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 95. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity of piety of veracity of duration and of Authority The divine authority of Scripture asserted by arguments An inference from the whole Aphorisme APHORISME III. Pag. 111. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 111. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 120. That there is a God the prime dictate of natural light deducible from mans looking backward to the creation forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death upward to the Angels above us downwards to inferiour beings within our selves to the composition of our bodies and dictates of our consciences about us to the various occurrences in the world EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 129. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive A brief exposition thereof Satans impudence Nature and art both unable to discover the Trinity What Scripture revealeth about it Basils memento Julians impiety Socinians branded The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes 26. EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 143. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiosity to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweetness of taste sense of interest and sincerity of obedience APHORISME IV. Pag. 155. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 155. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 169. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Tit. 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 27. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 181. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end John 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 201. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture
deceived Rev. 20. 10. them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever § 3. Thirdly Deep things of God of the divine Essence and Will concerning which the Apostle saith The 1 Cor. 2. 10. Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Things which the clearest understandings of men and Angels entertain with amazement we cannot but bewray our balbutiencie when we treat of One in Three and Three in one such a mysterious gulf is the Trinitie so when we discourse either of the Personal Union or the Theandrical acts of Christ And no wonder seeing we meet with such secrets and depths even in Gods revealed Will The greatest divines have acknowledged many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things hard to be understood yea diverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knots that cannot be untied till there either come further light into this world or we be translated into a better Such as every modest christian will be readie to say of as the learned Cajetan did concerning the reason of that difference which in the Hebrew Text is observable betwixt the title of Psalm 121. and those other Psalms of Degrees Reservo Spiritui Sancto I reserve the solution of this and that doubt to the holy Spirit For to him and the other Divine Persons such things are no riddles though to us they be dark and Enigmatical yea perhaps unsearchable Although we ever and anon meet with cause of crying out as Saint Paul once did How unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. are his judgements and his waies past finding out Let us alwaies remember and believe that of St. James known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the Act. 15. 18. world § 4. Well may the prudent consideration of what hath been said concerning the depth of Divine Omniscience put the wisest of men in minde of their Nescience keep them from leaning to their own understandings and give them just occasion to think of an answer to Zophars question What canst thou know If the secrets of nature do so puzzle thee what canst thou know concerning those much greater secrets of grace and glory of which Luther Quid si philosophia haec non capit fides tamen capit major est verbi Dei authoritas quam nostri ingenii capacitas major Sp. Sanctus quà m Aristoteles Luther de captivit Babylonicâ— Psal 147. 5. very excellently Philosophy receives them not faith doth The authority of Scripture is greater by far then the capacity of our wit and the Holy Ghost then Aristotle Well may the depth of Divine understanding which the Psalmist saith is infinite Great is the Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite cause us to reflect upon the shallowness the finiteness yea the folly of our own For if the foolishness of God be wiser then men as the Apostle telleth us it is 1 Cor. 1. 25. what is his wisdome Add if the wisdome of this world be foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3. 19. what is its folly No wonder if one learned man wrote a book of the vanity Cornel. Agrip. of Sciences others of the Nullity Anton. Verderius Franc. Zanch. M. D. Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio Socrates Quo magis studiis incumbimus eò magis nos videre quà m nihil scimus Ap. Jo. Bevoricium Epist quaest p. 86. Quod nihil scitur If the wise heathen profest the onely thing he knew was this that he knew not any thing at all If Frier Paul of Venice the judicious author of that excellent history of the Councel of Trent was wont to say The more we studie the more we see how little or nothing we understand yea if more knowing men then any of these abounded in acknowledgements of their own ignorance Asaph So foolish was I and ignorant Psal 73. 22 Prov. 30. 23. I was as a beast before thee Agur Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy So true is that of our great Apostle If any man think that he knows any thing he 1 Cor. 8. 2. knows nothing yet as he ought to know § 5. Next followeth the third dimension which is Longitude in this expression The measure thereof is longer then the earth For the better stating whereof let it be considered that whereas the word here translated Measure relateth not to extension onely but also to duration and the earth hath a double longitude one of space the other of continuance which the Scripture taketh special notice of in other texts as in that of Ecclesiastes One generation Eccles 1. 4. passeth away and another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever I conceive the latter may here be alluded to viz. the earths long continuance as in some low proportion fit to resemble that everlasting duration of God which cannot be adequately represented by any creature Sure I am by the Ancient of days in Daniel the eternal Dan. 7. 9 13. Jehovah is described by length of Prov. 3. 16. days in wisdomes right hand of which in the Proverbs many Interpreters understand the blessings of Eternity And this very place of Job is expounded by Gregory in this sense His words are Terrâ longior quia creaturae modum perennitate Greg. Moral lib. 10. cap. 7. suae Aeternitatis excedit All creatures had an original all but some few shall have a dissolution Of the Creatour and of him onely is that of the Psalmist verified From everlasting Psal 90. 2. to everlasting thou art God He gave beginning Principium sine pâ—incipio finis sine sine to all things but was himself without a beginning is the end for which all things were made but himself without end The best of men alas are but of yesterday and know not where they shall be to morrow according to that of Bildad We are but Job 8. 9. of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a shadow His being God from everlasting to everlasting should encourage us to walk in the way everlasting having this everlasting consolation Psal 139. last 2 Thess 2. 16. and good hope through grace that he will save us with an everlasting salvation because he wanteth neither power to Isa 45. 17. effect it for his strength is everlasting Isa 26. 4. nor will for his mercy is so too as David testifieth The mercy of the Lord is Psal 103. 17. from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him § 6. The more to blame were some overweening sons of Adam for daring to assume unto themselves and ascribe to other persons and things this incommunicable perfection of God Of old the heathenish people of Rome were wont to style their Emperours yea and their city Eternal Concerning
willing in a sense the hard-heartednesse of Reprobates he yet findes fault with them for it yea and damns them in the conclusion although his will be irresistible The substance of this cavil namely what influence the Will and Providence of God hath into mens induration and how guilty themselves are of it shall hereafter be made to appear if the Lord will in explication of the following Aphorisme Meanwhile it is carefully to be observed how Se. Paul as provoked by the malapartness of men who though conscious to themselves of their own hardening themselves will be laying the blame upon God strikes in with his Apostolical authority and gives them this severe check Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God Qui ex adverso responâ—as Deo as it is well rendred by Beza in reference to the continual and manifold bublings up of carnal reason against divine dispensations Nâ—lo à me quaeraâ— c. Audiat honâ—o ne pereat â—omo propter quem Dâ—us sactus est homo Augâ—â—stin de verâ— Apâ—st Serâ— 7. 11. Quis 〈◊〉 ille attâ—nde quis sis 〈◊〉 aâ—tende Ille Dâ—us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hâ—me Seâ—m 22. de verb. Apâ—st Quarâ—â— tu raâ—ionem â—go expâ—vescam altitudinen Turatiocinare ego miror Tâ—â— disâ—uâ—t ego credam Altitudinem â—idcâ— ad presundum non perveâ—io ib. Serm. 22. prope siaâ—m and decrees that which our English Proverb calls chopping Logick with god A vice which our very being men should suffice to wean us from So as the word O man here seems to carry an emphasis in it which Austin long ago observed in sundry passages of one and the same set of his Sermons Ask me not an account saith he of Divine dispensations why things are carried so and so towards this and that person I am a man of whom thou askest thou that enquirest art a man Let us both attentd to the man that said O man Who art thou that repliest against God Let man hear lest man perish for whose sake God himself became man And again minde it well who he is against whom thou repliest and who thou thy self art that repliest against him He is God thou art but a man And yet again most fully Thou askest a reason of this and that I will tremble at the depth thou arguest let me wonder Do thou dispute I resolve to believe I see the depth but the bottom I cannot reach § 9. His third way of prosecution is by alledging certain testimonies out of Moses and the Prophets I shall onely fix upon one namely that in Romans 9. 27. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved Who so list may see this and the following verses expounded to our purpose by the learned Ludovic de Dieu of Gods Decrees yea which is more Paul himself interpreting the remnant of Gods Elect in Rom. 11. 2 3 4 5. where the conclusion is Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the Election of grace And now Reader judge I pray thee between us and tell me after all this that hath been produced whether a vehement agitatour in these points had J. G. Exposit of Rom. 9. in his epistle to the Reader 〈◊〉 3. any just cause to say as one did That to him who shall narrowly and attentively weigh and consider the tenour and process of the Apostles discourse Romans 9. from verse 6. to the end it will be found as clear as the light at noon day that there is nec vola nec vestigium neither print nor footstep neither little nor much of any such thing as either Election or Reprobation in it Meaning as he there expresseth himself a peremptory Election and Reprobation from eternity of a determinate number of men under a meer personal consideration § 10. As for the proof of our second Assertion those words in verse 20. 21 22. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto houour and another unto dishonour What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction clearly hold forth to my apprehension the Sovereign greatness and power of God as the fountain of Negative Reprobation and contain a direct allusion to that in Isaiah 45. 9. Wo unto him that striveth with his maker Let the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it What makâ—st thou or thy work He hath no hands Now if the Prophet and Apostle or rather the Holy Ghost by them do rightly infer the silence and submission of the clay from its relation to the Potter much more may the quiet submission of Non-Elect persons to the disposing will of God be from hence concluded as Lessius demonstrates seeing mankinde hath much more dependance See Lâ—ssius de perfection divinis l. 10. c. 3. §. 19. upon the Sovereign Lord of all then a Potter can challenge over any vessel whatsoever and this notwithstanding they are not yet fully convinced of the reason of all Gods proceedings with them Such as still expect that and therefore flie in the face of God for want of satisfaction in this and that particular must give me leave to send them to the Morals of Gregory Semetipsum homo considerans tacet divina judicia discutere metuit qui esse se pulverem agnoscit Rationem de occulâ—o Dei consilio quaerere nihil est aliud quam contra eâ—us consilium superbire Cum ergò factorum causa non deprâ—henditur restat ut sub factis illius cum humilitate taccatur quia nequaquam sufficit sensus carnis ut secreta penetret majestatis Qui in factis ' Dei rationem non videt infirmitatem suam considerans cur non videat rationem videt Gregor Exposiâ— moral in Job 9. cap. 8. for the learning of better manners Man saith he considering himself holds his peace and he that acknowledgeth himself but dust is afraid to discuss the judgements of God For him to seek a reason of Gods secret Decrees is nothing else but to rise up proudly against the counsel of his Will Wherefore when the cause of any fact of his is not discerned it calls for our silence and humility for the sense of flesh sufficeth not to pierce into the secrets of Majestie So as he that sees not a reason of that or that Divine dispensation by considering his own infirmity sees a clear reason why he sees it not § 11. But say Gregory what he can yea and Paul himself what he will the fault is not like to be mended so long as carnal mindes have to do with these points We are all by nature Enemies in our mindes as our Apostle
it is far otherwise particularly in Spain where the Bible in their vulgar tongue is reckoned among prohibited books and sufficeth to bring him that reads it into danger of the Inquisition Wherefore let such as list make their boast of other things which England is said to be famous for as beautifull Churches bridges women c. If I were asked what advantage have English men and what profit is there of living in that Island mine answer should be much every way but chiefly because to them are cōmitted the Oracles of God liberty to reade their fathers minde in their mother tongue APHORISME III. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared Exerc. 1. to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual § 1. AWake to righteousness and sin 1 Cor. 15. 34. not for some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame These are the Apostles express words to his Corinthians Which will be better understood if we consider I. That there was a time when Aph. 3. of all the Nations in the world Greece was held the most licentious and Corinth of all the cities in Greece insomuch as in common speech revellers were said to play the Grecians and fornicatours Pergraecari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to play the Corinthians Also that after the grace of Christ who came to call sinners to repentance had appeared there in planting Christianity this riotous humour was notably fed in false brethren by those false teachers who opened a gate to all profaness by denying the resurrection II. That of such teachers and professours Paul speaks in this chapter How say some among you that there is no resurrection Verse 12. and calleth upon them in the beginning of this verse to awaken unto righteousness because the many and gross vapours that ascended from this heresie had cast them into a deep sleep wherein all their spiritual senses were bound Hereticks may perhaps pretend to the highest strains of devotion and make their boast of strongest assurances yet all this be but like the talking or walking of men in their sleep or like the quick and nimble phantasmes of dreaming students Their devotion is but a dream of pieety their assurance will prove but a dream of happiness § 2. III. That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used by the Apostle is very emphatical and properly signifies an awaking out of such a sleep as hath been occasioned by too much drink Thus Noah awoke from his wine and Awake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 9. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joel 1. 5. ye drunkards saith Joel Neither will it be difficult to discern in a sensual opinionist the symptoms of a drunken man Ye may see him reeling to and fro now entertaining this odd conceit to morrow that and the next day a third unstable in all well if not vomiting too and casting out scornfull reproaches upon all that are of a contrary judgement as upon dark and low-spirited men Ye may perceive him full of tongue as drunkards commonly use to be prating and venting his own apprehensions every where yea perhaps boasting of himself and his party as too many too hard for all their opposites So one drunkard our proverb saith is fourty men strong Who so attempts to reason with him will easily finde him as uncapable of conviction as Nahal was of Abigails narration 1 Sam. 25. 37. till his wine was gone out of him IV. That the cause was manifest why such men had a charge given them not to sin Awake unto righteousness saith the Apostle and sin not For that the desperate opinion they had embraced was an high-way to abominable courses The deniall of a resurrection hath a natural tendency to loosness of life inclining men to say as they did Let us eat and drink for to 1 Cor. 15. 3◠morrow we shall die And the more licentious any man is the more willing to close with such an opinion Accordingly among the Jews whereas most of the common people adhered to the Pharisees who professed strictness and amused them with outward forms of godliness the Gentry and such as gave themselves most to voluptuousness became followers of the Sadducees who denied the resurrection Such men saith Theophylact are not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl in 1 Cor. 15. easily perswaded of a resurrection because they are afraid of punishments in another life if any be § 3. V. That these especially were the persons whom Paul there censureth for gross ignorance such as they had just cause to be ashamed of He had said before in the twelfth verse Some among you say there is no resurrection in the four and thirtieth speaking still of the same men Some have not the knowledge 1 Cor. 4. 14. of God Onely whereas in case of personal affronts to himself and his fellow-preachers he had appeared much more milde in the fourth chapter I write not these things saith he there to shame you but as my beloved sons I warn you Here he setteth an edge upon his rebuke and telleth them he spake it to their shame because the heresie he striketh at struck at the root of all religion and became an in-let to Epicurisme yea to Atheisme VI. That from the latter part alone Some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame three observations may be raised without offering violence to the words one as implied the rest as expressed to wit 1. There is a knowledge of God to be had 2. Some have it not 3. The want of it is a matter of shame All which I intend to insist upon in this and the following Exercitations § 4. Concerning the first There is a knowledge of God to perfection which is always saving and another to salvation indeed but as yet imperfect The former hath been proudly challenged by some sons of delusion and accounted attainable in this life by the sole improvement of reason For we reade of Aetius that he dared to say I so know God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. haeres Totum quod Deus est humanâ ratione comprehendi posse O siand hist Eccles centur 12. p. 265. as I do my self yea I do not know my self so well as I do God A certain evidence to make it appear that the wretch neither knew himself nor God And Petrus Abelardus is said to have maintained this assertion That the whole of Gods essence may be comprehended by humane reason But the truth is it is neither attainable in this life as being reserved for another world according to the Apostles doctrine We
the action but the Cardinal himself How much safer is it for us to follow the tract of Scripture which to shew how effectual the influence of divine providence is upon actions of that nature is wont to compare God unto whatsoever is necessary to secure a city besieged for example unto weapons walls fortifications watchmen and souldiers To weapons both offensive and defensive Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto Deut. 33. 29. thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency To walls I saith the Lord will be unto her Zech. 2. 5. a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her To fortifications We have a strong city salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks If besides Isa 26. 1. bulwarks a city be compassed about with a river chiefly if with the sea it self we account it strongly fortified Hear the same Prophet The glorious Isa 33. 21. Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams To watchmen Except Psalm 127. 1. the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain Lastly to souldiers The Lord is a man of war yea the Lord Exod. 15. 3. is a whole army of men both Van and Reer The Lord will go before you and Isa 52. 12. the God of Israel will be your rere-ward II. Over civil affairs I have been told that during the late treaty of a match between the Prince of Wales that then was and the Infanta of Spain the Earl of Bristol then Embassadour at Madrid when things went exceeding Reported by Mr Stephen Marshall cross to his designes fell into a deep perplexity could not rest for divers nights till a Gentleman that lay in his chamber took the boldness to speak to him and said My Lord I have observed much perplexity and thereupon much restlesness in you I humbly beseech your Lordship to consider that the world was well governed five thousand years and more before you were born and will be so when you are dead I pray you therefore be not troubled at any thing but refer the issue to God Whereupon he is said to have fallen to rest Our way to be quiet is to do the like upon all occasions to drive up things to divine Providence and there to rest Time was when Daniels head and heart was filled with the visions of God by which the great changes that were to happen in the government of the world had been newly made known to him viz. the wheeling about of Monarchy from the Babylonians who then were in the highest of their power to the Persians thence to the Grecians and thence to the Romanes from an head of gold to a breast and arms of silver from them to a belly and thighs of brass and from them to legs of iron and to feet part of iron part of clay yea in the end to a little stone cut out without hands which brake the whole image in pieces He notwithstanding quarrelleth not with Providence for intending so notable so destructive changes to the government then in being goeth not about to demand any account thereof from God of such alterations but betaketh himself quietly to the praise admiration of him by whose wisdome and power they were all in their seasons to be accomplished Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven Daniel answered and said Blessed be the name of Dan. 2. 19 20 21. God for ever and ever For wisdome and might are his And he changeth the times and seasons he removeth kings and setteth up kings We should do well however things go to make Austins resolution Felix sit mundâ—s evertatur mundus benedicam Domino qui fecil mundum August ours Let the world sink or swim be ruined or prosper I will still bless the Lord who made the world As for the late wheelings of Providence here in this Isalnd and alterations thereupon I for my part say with Anselm once Si quis potest intelligere Deo gratias agat si non potest non immittat cornua ad ventilandum sed submittat caput ad venerandum Anselmus Epistola de fide ad Vrbanum Pap. cap. 2. Archbishop of Canterbury If any be able to understand them let him give thanks to God if any be not let him however bow dovvn his head to vvorship God not lift up his horn by vvay of debate and ventilation § 4. An objection against the third proposition concerning Gods special care and providence over the Church and the members thereof may be formed thus The Church of all Societies the Saints of all men are the most in sufferings Yea some Churches by name those seven in Asia which vve reade of in the Revelation have been extinguished From vvhence some are apt to infer vvant of care and providence rather Answ Be it granted that the militant Church is for the most part in a Non oportet membra deliciari sub capite spinis coronato suffering condition and that Christ our head being a man of sorrows typified by the brazen altar upon vvhich the fire vvas continually burning a vvife of pleasures did not become him nor members used to overmuch delicacie That every vessel of mercy must expect scouring in order to brightness and hovvever trees in the vvilderness grovv vvithout culture trees in the orchard must be pruned in order to fruitfulness and corn-bearing fields broken up vvhen barren heaths are left untouched yea that in some particular instances the candlestick hath been removed and the place unchurched yet the inference is not solid because first All afflictions are advantagious to the godly They often help to make bad men good alvvays to make good men better David could say It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119. 71. Of the godly captives of Judah the Lord saith He had sent them out of Jer. 24. 5. that place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good Secondly because the promises made concerning the Churches preservation such as I insisted upon above in the second Exercitation of this Aphorisme are for the most part misunderstood and consequently misinproved Learn vve for the future to embrace them vvith these three cautions § 5. I. That they do in especial manner concern the Church Catholick not this or that particular Nation or Congretion If that in the beginning of Esaias the tvventy seventh vvere to be considered as a National Church vve all knovv it hath been ruined long since notvvithstanding the promise there made vvhich must therefore be understood of it as a type of the Church universal that is so vvatered and kept as to be inexpugnable Look as by vertue of the Covenant made vvith Noah that the vvhole earth should never be again overflovvn vvith a general deluge vve may be sure it never shall yet there have since and may still be divers inundations whereby
the strength of my heart and my portion for ever these two conclusions may be raised 1. There is no person or thing in heaven or earth short of God in Christ to be looked upon and desired as our utmost good 2. The fruition of God in Christ is able to make and to continue a man happy even in the midst of utmost extremity The former I have treated of in the foregoing exercitations intending to handle the latter in this That I account an utmost extremity as to kinde though as to degrees it may be either more intense or more remiss when there is a complication of sufferings both in body and minde at once Such was the Psalmists case here It is not flesh alone or heart alone but my flesh and my heart in conjunction both failed him at one and the same time Such is the sympathy of soul and body that when it fares ill with one the other commonly is disturbed If the soul be in an agony the body languisheth Satans buffeting Paul with blasphemous thoughts as some conceive proved a thorn to his flesh On the other 2 Cor. 12. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 side if the outward man be tormented the inward is wont to be dismaied even to failing of heart The Stoicks indeed those magnificent boasters talk of an Apathie and Plutarch tells us that Agesilaus when he lay sick of the gout and Carneades who came to visit him observing what pains he conflicted with was about to leave him as one not in case to be spoken to bad him stay and pointing at once to his own feet and to his heart said Nothing Mane Carneades Nihil enim illine huc pervenit comes from thence hither as if his minde were no whit disquieted for all the sufferings of his flesh But far better men then any of them have born witness to the contrary Our flesh had no 2 Cor. 7. 5. rest but we were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears So Paul David in one of his Psalms thus O Lord heal me for my bones are Psal 6. 2 3. vexed my soul also is sore vexed In another thus There is no soundness in my Psal 38. 7 8. flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart § 2. But as when Peter walking upon the waves and perceiving how boisterous the winds were began to sink Jesus immediately stretched forth his hand and caught him So when the Psalmists flesh and heart failed God even then was the strength of his heart according to the Original The rock of it Rocks are not more fortifying to Cities and Castles built upon them then God is to his peoples hearts A sincere beleevers soul is therefore assimilated by our Saviour to an House Matth. 7. 25. founded upon a rock which was every way assaulted in the roof by rain descending upon that in the foundation by flouds washing upon it in the walls by winds blustering against them and yet stood because it was strong was strong because founded on a rock Such a rock is our God and that even in such a case as hath been described § 3. Hezechiah whom God had Isa 38. 1. chosen to life was sick unto death Lazarus whom Jesus loved sickned John 11. 3. and died Timothy had his often infirmities 1 Tim. 5. 23. The Psalmists flesh failed him or to speak in Pauls phrase his outward man perished yet God mean-while 2 Cor. 4. 16. was the rock and strength of his sick servants heart First by preserving therein an expectation of such fruit as saints use to reap from such tryals Fruit which relates partly to sin and partly to grace To sin by way of cure Diseases when sanctified drain the inward as well as the outward man and help to spend out the bad humours of both Sickness saith Isidore woundeth the flesh but healeth Adversa corporis remedia sunt animae Aegritudo carnem vulnerat mertun curat Isidor l b 3. de Summ. bono the minde is the bodies malady but the souls medicine For instance weakness kills the itch of worldliness Let pleasure open all her shops and present a sick man with her choicest rarities Let Mammon bring forth all his bags and gingle them in his ears produce all his Crowns Sceptres Mitres and lay them at his feet how ready will he be to cry out Away with them Behold I am at the point to die as Esau once reasoned and what Gen. 25. 32. can these vanities profit me The like may be said of self-confidence and pride which are also frequently antidoted by diseases A speciall end as Elihu tells Job which God aims at in his chastening with pain is to hide Job 33 17. pride from man that is to remove it as what we hide is removed out of sight A Christian Emperour one of the Ferdinands Ab. Scultetus Idea Concion in Isaiae cap. 9. pag. 1. 7 In agone Invistissimi titulum agnosâ—eâ—e noâ—bat c. when his Chaplain Matthias Cittardus came to visit him as he lay upon his death-bed and according to the mode of the Court styled him most Invincible Emperour finding himself overcome with sickness would not admit of that compellation but charged him not to use it more whereupon the Chaplain made his next address on this wise Go to dear brother Ferdinand endure hardship as a good souldier of Jesus Christ § 4. Next to Grace in point of growth The rise of grace is sometimes occasioned by a sore disease Beza tells Morbus isle verae sanitatis principium c. Epist praefix Confessioni us of himself that God was pleased to lay the foundation of his spiritual health in a violent sickness which befell him at Paris The growth of grace is always promoted when God makes use of this means It is not more usual with children to shoot up in length then with Christians to wax taller in grace in or after a sickness See it exemplified in the famous Protestant Divines Olevian said upon his death-bed In this disease I have learned to know Mel. Adam in vitis Germ. Theol. p 601. aright what sin and what the majesty of God is Rollock upon his I am not ashamed Idem in vitis Exterorum pag. 189. to profess that I never reached to so high a pitch in the knowledge of God as I have attained in this sickness Rivet upon his Danberi Orat. funeb in excessum Andreae Riveti pag. 90. In the space of ten days since I kept my bed I have learned more and made greater progress in Divinity then in the whole course of my life before § 5. Secondly by infusing and exciting a principle of Christian patience which is therefore able to support and strengthen the heart when Philosophical Stoical patience cannot do it because it self is strengthened from such divine Topicks as Philosophy knows but little if any thing
of I shall instance in two The pains of hell deserved by us and the pains of Christ endured for us Well may the consideration of Hell-torments due to us all as being by nature children of wrath conduce to the working of patience in us under these petty sufferings in comparison For what are these rods to those scorpions A feaver to those everlasting burnings The stone or gout to that fire and brimstone A sick-bed to Hell where the fit never goeth off the fire never goeth out the worm Mark 9. 44. never dyeth So also when upon our beds of sickness we think of that garden wherein Christ lay prostrate upon the ground in our fits of his Agony in our sweats of his water and bloud the consideration of his torments and of our interest in them may well mitigate the sense of our present sufferings if not wholly swallow them up as Aarons rod devoured those of the magicians Art thou afflicted with sore pain in this or that part He had hardly any member free Are thy spirits feeble and faint His very soul was exceedingly Matth. 26. 38. sorrowfull even unto death Dost thou cry My God my God why hast thou afflicted me Jesus cryed with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou Matth. 27. 46. forsaken me § 6. Yea but how manifest soever it be that when the flesh faileth the heart may be strengthened how the heart it self should fail and yet be strengthened is not so evident I am therefore to make it appear in the next place that these two clauses My heart faileth and God is the strength of my heart may both be verified at once without a paradox in different respects By reason of remainders of unbelief in the most regenerate on this side heaven when Satans temptations shall strike in with their corruptions holy men may be induced in a fit of dejection because the Lord hath cast them down to conceive and say he hath cast them off David once said I had fainted unless I had beleeved to Psal 27. 13. see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Such fainting flows from not beleeving such unbelief is much fomented by not considering that as no outward blessing is good enough to be a signe of eternal Election seeing God often filleth their bellies with hid treasure who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath so no temporall affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of Reprobation seeing the dearest son of Gods love was a man of sorrows and acquainted Isa 53. 3. with grief Yet may the same heart at the same time be strengthened from another cause namely God who easily can and usually doth supply such effectual grace as is able to keep the head above water when the rest of the body is under it able to preserve the Spouse in a posture of leaning upon her Cant. 8. 5. beloved in a wilderness to make one with Abraham beleeve in hope against Rom. 4. 18. Job 13. 15. hope and say with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Faith can support when Nature shrinks call God father when he frowns and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud When it sees no light it may feel some influence when it cannot close with a promise it may lay hold upon an attribute and be ready to make this profession Though both my flesh and my heart fail yet divine compassions fail not Though I can hardly discern at present either sun or moon or stars yet will I cast anchor in the dark and ride it out till the day break Time was when Jonah said I am cast out of thy sight but Jonah 2. 4 7. added with the same breath yet will I look again toward thy holy temple and presently after when my soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord c. § 7. The connexion of these words in the psalm My heart faileth but God is Quaecunque me angustiae corporis aut animae urunt Tu meo anims es robur dum te aeternam mihi haereditatem fore spero Simmius in Psal 73. the strength of my heart and my portion for ever may seem to imply some such thing to wit that in times of languishment God affords a strengthening support in secret by encouraging a beleever to wait upon himself as his portion for ever notwithstanding all his sufferings for the present There can be no better or more sovereign cordiall then this if we consider the sutableness and sufficiency of God to this purpose In the choice of a portion as of a wife fitness is chiefly to be regarded she is a wife indeed who is a meet help that a portion indeed which is sutable to the soul of man God onely is so For the soul is a spirituall and immortall substance therefore to her worldly accommodations are unsutable because they are most of them corporeall All of them temporall But God who is a Spirit and who onely John 4. 24. hath immortality fits her exactly in both respects The uncreated Spirit becomes a portion for ever to this his everlasting 1 Tim. 6. 16. creature As for sufficiency the souls appetite is too vast for any creatures to fill up the measure of its capacity but when she hath once pitched upon God self-sufficient in his being all-sufficient in his communications she then hath enough and is ready to profess with David The Lord is the portion of Psal 16. 56. mine inheritance and of my cup the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Indeed what can one wish in an heritage that is not to be found in God Would we have large possessions He is immensity A sure estate He is immutability A long term of continuance He is Eternity it self I shall therefore shut up this with a serious congratulation to the Saints and an high applause of their blessedness Happy thrice happy you dearly beloved in the Lord Quid potest co esse selicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haeredâ—tas ejus dignatur esse ipsa Divinitaâ— Prosper de vit contemplat lib. 2. cap. 16. because when those men of the world which have their portion in this life as David speaks part with theirs as they must all do at death if not before you are led to a fuller fruition of your portion Theirs at the best is but some good blessing of God that will in time be taken from them yours is the good God himself blessed and blessing you for ever He is so at present and he will be so to all eternity A portion of which you can never be plundered Impoverished you may be but not undone discouraged but not disinherited Your flesh perhaps yea and your hearts too may fail but God will be the strength of your hearts and your portion for ever I shall add no more but onely reminde