them Secondly to bring to an end issue or event So Predictions and Prophesies Types and Figures are said to be fulfilled when the things are come to pass which those did foresignifie So the Scripture was fulfilled which saith He was numbred with the transgressours and thus the Ceremonial Law of Moses was fulfilled when Christ came and died for us and put an end to it Now of these two significations of the word fulfill in this sentence Love fulfilleth the Law he seemeth to take it in the latter sense as if it were said The Spirit of God and Grace of Charity hath made the Law out of Date and put a final period to it so that now it is not to be regarded any otherwise than the prophesies and shadows which have accomplishment in Christ whereas the word fulfill is not to be taken in this sense but in the former And yet if he doth take the word fulfill in the former sense namely perfectly to perform as the word is taken there understanding the while perfection of parts not of degrees then he is mistaken in thinking that love fulfills the Law per actus elicitos doing it self all that is required whereas it doth not fulfill the Law otherwise than per actus imperatos by setting others other faculties and graces on work The Sun giveth light to the world per actum elicitum it bringeth forth flowers and fruits per actum imperatum Love causeth us to be well and kindly affected this is the own and proper work of it but over and above it layes a command upon us to be serviceable in several Duties Love is not the fulfilling of the Law by elicit actions for fear and trust are required moreover in the first Table upright dealing and mercifulness in the second if it were it should indeed bring some discharge to the Law because it should contain in it self all the several parcels of the Law But because it doth fulfill the Law onely by exciting us or setting us on work to do the several duties enjoyned therefore it is needfull nevertheless that the Law should still abide in place and force that we may know what the particulars are that God requireth of us and that we may do them out of obedience to his will who commandeth these particulars to be done And certainly Love is not more a fulfilling of the Law after that Christ is come then it was before his coming for to love God above all was ever the sum of the first Table and to love our Neighbour as our self was always the sum of the second Table and howsoever meant the meaning was ever the same and as much did charity put an end to the Decalogue in the Old Testament as it doth in the New One chief place of Scripture by occasion of which and by following the sound of it more than seeking after the sense of it he is mis-led and mis-leadeth others is that which he quoteth to the Qu. 167. of the Law being a schoolmaster to Christ which text as some others also do he mis-understands thorowout For first by the Law they mean the Moral or ten Commandments whereas indeed it meaneth the Law Ceremonial chiefly if not onely which hath as much of the Gospel in it as of the Law the several rites and Ceremonies being but appendices Evangelii annexed to the Doctrine of the Gospel then though somewhat darkly revealed That the Apostle means this and not the Law Moral considered as a Covenant of works holding nothing for the present of a Saviour appears by the scope of the Apostle to the Galatians which is against them that would have circumcision and all the Ceremonies of Moses retained in the time of the Gospel as necessary to our Justification in Christ the very same opinion that beginning at Antioch the Apostles condemned at Jerusalem Acts 15. The errour of the beleeving Pharisees was not that it was needfull to be circumcised and to keep the ten Commandments but to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses namely that Law of Moses which was of the same kinde with circumcision which properly is the Law of Moses the law Moral being the Law of Nature written in mans heart before and by Moses ministery written out fair in Tables of stone Yet is it true that the Apostle speaketh in that Epistle against the Moral Law so far as it was supposed to justifie us but this he doth by way of argument against his adversaries and not as if he made the cause of the Moral Law and Ceremonial all alike in respect of retaining or not retaining them his way of arguing being à genere ad speciem negativé We are not justified by the Law any Law whatsoever therefore not by the Law Ceremonial And as our Authour mistakes the term Law here so doth he also in the fourth lawfull use of the Law which is to witness to Christ quoting Rom. 3. 21. where it is said that the Righteousness of Christ is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Where the Law signifies the Books of the Law not the ten Commandments In the promise made to Adam Gen 3. to Abraham Gen. 12. is testimony given to Christ and his grace and in all those places where Moses wrote of him The Law and the Prophets being the same in that place that Moses and the Prophets Acts 26. 22. Moses in his five books wrote of Christ so did the Prophets So for the Law The word Schoolmaster mistaken helpeth to deceive them further for upon hearing of that they presently imagine great rigour and hard usage to be intended they think of nothing but stripes and scourges and ruling with a wooden sceptre as if he must needs be an Orbilius plagosus such a one as Fr. Junius met withall that he complains of so much in his life Corpus suum exercitavit in corpore meo whereas the best authours that treat of teaching young scholars as Plutarch and Quintilian will not allow of striking of them But be it as it may for that Paedagogus howsoever through penury of words we be forced to turn it is Formator morum such a one as was allowed and appointed to wait on great mens sons and heirs apparent and to teach them how to behave themselves and to frame their pliable and waxen age to love of goodness and practise of vertue and detestation of vice to fashion them betimes so far as might be for what they were to be another day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so calls it Constantine Manasses speaking of him that was Pedagogue to the Emperour Augustus he did set him in right tune for his carriage and made his behaviour congruous to himself so great a Personage Thus Cyrus had one who taught him before-hand not to respect persons in matters of Justice by reproving him for that he would have adjudged a coat that was in question not to the true owner but to another whom it best fitted And Iulian in his
whether they be trusters in themselves or no If he be pleased to enquire it may be he may finde that they were of his own party who thought that saying of our Saviour that Salvation was not onely difficult but impossible with men howbeit possible with God to be too harsh and rigid and therefore sought to make it more soft and pliable by taking up an odd conceit that turned the Camel into a Cable-rope which might by their own hands be untwisted and pass the needles eye Little reason was for this but that they had a minde to keep the staff in their own hands and trust themselues rather than any other Yet I say not that they are as the Pharisees were trusters in themselves that they are righteous but trusters in themselves that they can be so when they will Thus wicked men are taught by them to beleeve that God would never be so unreasonable as to command any thing that is impossible or bid them work if their hands were bound or invite them to come to him if their feet were not at liberty and so long as God calls them they have power to come Such who are loth for the present to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts are encouraged to defer their repentance thinking that they can leave their sins and be converted and become new men at their own leasure before their death at furthest when they come to leave this life that so they may be elected for that is the onely time of peremptory election to life eternal Their adversaries Doctrine should not be pressed with the inconvenience of breeding men in security sloth and presumption No Doctrine but may be abused and their own is obnoxious and liable to the abuse of security and confidence and self-confidence at least as much as the other Qu. 205. How doth God work Faith preserve and increase it by the Gospel A. By the cooperation of the holy Ghost enlightening mens mindes into and perswading their hearts to embrace the truth and goodness of God presented to them therein in their hearing reading meditating or conferring about it In this Question and Answer he instructeth his followers in the Doctrine of the Remonstrants touching The work of God in mans Conversion Posset disputari said they at first so soon as they were known by that name Col. Hag. P. 311. sÃtne hic nobilissimus agendi modus qui fit suadendo it may be disputed whether or no it be not the most noble way of dealing with man by perswading of him and whether it be convenient to use any other way with safetie to the properties of humane nature and whether it be not enough if as much be done for mans conversion as Satan useth to do in drawing men to sin though there may be some other actions beyond the power of Satan as immediate illumination of the understanding which in this business doth much help So wrote they then Without further doubt resolved now and thought fit to be put among Principles these two for Conversion of a sinner Illumination and Perswasion as if it were no more then to bring a light into a dungeon and to tell the prisoner it is better to be abroad at his liberty then to lie there Some of those who love not to hear of Pelagius are loth to go much beyond him As for Moral perswasion he hath laid us in a text before-hand by a new translation Epist. to Open Door for those words Eph. 5. 6. The children of disobedience he hath altered to the children of unperswasibleness As if the worst that is in them were this that they will not be perswaded and would they but be perswaded the work were done But I take his word and argue thence If wicked men be unperswasible as I think they are then perswasion will not do it that will not do it alone There must be that and somewhat more done There is no charming of deaf ears the contumacious will not listen to fair words No such hooks will draw Leviathan to the shore no such darts enter his scales while he sporteth in the deep But if not by perswasion how then what by compulsion Neither Never yet was any man compelled to either good or evil We must and will think that to be the best and noblest way that God Almighty is pleased to use and that is to give a new spirit and frame of heart to incline and bend the will to good yet not to break it or deprive it of the native liberty but to cure the depraved nature of it to amend and rectifie the chief spring or wheel of motion And this is not to offer violence or force any more than was offered to that band of men that followed Saul whose hearts God had touched or to Saul himself that was turned to another man 1 Sam. 10. To draw a man to that which is against his nature this indeed is rather violent then kindly working When a Physician hath cured the dropsie once it is then an easie matter to perswade the patient to forbear immoderate drinking but before that be done it is either labour lost or force offered The strength of Gods grace overcometh the reluctancie and rebellion of mans heart yet not in a hostile way for as it overcometh the heart strongly so it inclineth it mildly and changeth it gently and healeth it and raiseth it to a right temper and better state so here is more than perswasion and yet no prejudice to the liberty of will And as for Illumination he hath likewise provided a text Open Door p. 141. whereupon those words 1 Joh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light he giveth his paraphrase Whosoever receiveth the light that comes from God and walks therein as God is in it affording power and strength to him there-through as if all men within the Church were within the light there spoken of and they walked in it that receive it being presented to them and met withall as our Authour loves to speak But by Light the Apostle meaneth Goodness and Truth and Purity as by Darkness Ignorance and Sin verse next before if we walk in darkness and chap. 2. vers. 9. he that hateth his brother is in darkness speaking of Christians not Infidels To walk in the light therefore is not to entertain the means that God affordeth to his Church universally as the light of the Sun is spread in the air but it is to live in Gods faith and fear in holiness truth and justice I grant that God is a Sun as the Psalmist calleth him and as S. James meaneth when he termeth him the Father of Lights yea a spiritual Sun yet doth he not shed forth his spiritual beams any otherwise than by a voluntary dispensation when and how and to whom he will not presented to all alike not by every one to be met withall or to be walked in so that hence cannot be made good that Universal Objective Grace by some maintained Now that saving Faith
is not produced in the heart of a sinner by Illumination and Perswasion onely may be proved by these two arguments First because they are far unable to do it for corruption is so deeply fastened in mans nature and such is his Death in sin that though his understanding be enlightened and his affections perswaded yet if his heart and will be not renewed and changed and quickened the work will still be undone To perswade is but to present objects outwardly and these are looked upon according as the Subject is disposed these are apprehended ad modum recipientis as the party stands affected Never was there foul love nor fair prison Sin and sinfull lusts are more beautifull in the eyes of a wicked worldling and are more suitable to him than the Grace and Glory of heaven though set forth by a potent Oratour And the wilde Ass that hath long been wonted to the range of the hills scorneth the populous and pompous city Illumination likewise is but an outward work though it be wrought within man yet it is external to the heart of man it is from without and as I may say forinsecal and therefore cannot much confer to the power of the soul It is not Light but Eye-salve that must help the facultie and recover the sight And this is to be noted further that where the holy Ghost doth enlighten the minde and not withall correct the innate pravitie of the heart may follow and sometime doth follow the sin against the holy Ghost which sin is so called as we know not because it is against the person but against the office or work of the holy Ghost which is to convince and to illuminate And the Devils are thought to be guilty of this kinde of sin because of the height of light in them joyned with the height of malice Secondly suppose that these two could produce true faith yet this were not enough to make good what we are often taught namely that Faith is not of our selves but it is the gift of God yea such a gift as is wrought by the exceeding greatness of his power even that power that raised Christ from the dead for what is done should be chiefly by the efficacy of the object thorowly laid open And as Satan on the one hand enticeth to the pleasures of sin so should the Spirit of God on the other proffer holiness and heaven and promise and excite and invite and commend but the will when it cometh to must cast the scale and like an impartial judge no way bent or made beforehand give sentence and determine what is to be done and what must be followed and thus shall faith be produced by man himself and not be as it is called Gods gift And whereas he saith that God doth work Faith by the cooperation of the holy Ghost it is to be noted that the Spirit of God in working Faith if it be meant of the first production of it is not said in sound Divinity to cooperate with man as if man did co-work with God For what is done is the sole work of Gods grace and power As Lazarus being dead could do nothing could not cooperate to raise himself to life but being by divine power quickened he could then eat and walk and speak So man being dead in sin hath no free will to Good to Faith or Conversion but having received Grace as a principle of spiritual life he can then walk in the Spirit and Serve God in a spiritual manner Qu. 208. Can any man hear of himself A. No as the ability to hear the Gospel outwardly is of Gods gift so the word outwardly heard brings to men by the gift of God power of more inward hearing and attention This Question and Answer what man can do and what power he hath or hath not in order to life eternal doth of right appertain in Divinity to the place or Head of Free-will Yet whereas he saith here No man can hear outwardly of himself but it is Gods gift it may admit a twofold sense The first is this No man can come to hear the Gospel outwardly unless God of his Grace be pleased to send it to him And this should be his meaning by one of his texts which he quoteth Rom. 10. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Which words signifie thus much if at least the Apostle may explain himself Men cannot beleeve in him of whom they never heard neither can they hear but by the word of God that is by mandate or commission from God to some or other for to go and preach to them But this is not his meaning for he is giving the reason why Faith is not wrought in all those that have the Gospel which is this because they do not hear and learn but stop their ears and refuse Gods gift The second sense therefore is this That any man is able outwardly to hear the Gospel is the gift of God by nature in whom we live and move and are This I think he means But First this is not proved by his text out of the Proverbs The hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them For as God did frame the earth and yet the earth doth bring forth fruit of her self the blade the ear and the corn Mark 4.28 So may man hear the word of God and see the Moon and Stars of himself though God did frame both the hearing ear and the seeing eye And secondly the pretended Orthodox who are thought by some too much to denie free-will did never yet denie that man hath free-will to natural and moral actions and religious too though not in a spiritual manner untill he be regenerate Therefore to say as here he doth that man hath not ability of himself to hear outwardly is a note beneath Gammoth and a great deal more than needs whatsoever the matter is that he stoops so low But seeing he goeth so far in denying free-will I hope he will never be so fierce as some have been before him who for the Semi-Pelagian objected to them have returned roundly the Sesqui-Manichean with somewhat more rage than reason The Manicheans did indeed deny free-will but how quoad naturam sive radicem liberi arbitrii according to the very nature of it or free choice which is essential to man 2. to evil 3. before the fall this was the Manichean Whereas the Pelagian affirmed vires liberi arbitrii the power or strength of mans will to good after the fall And who they be that claim kindred more or less to each of these is an easie matter to judge and determine But thirdly overmuch courtesie and condescension do always give some cause of suspicion yet I proceed no further than to suspicion or conjecture He who can upon quitting the point of free-will gain in exchange the point of Universal Grace may think himself no looser having found out a way to corroborate the title of