them forward unto that haven where-unto these present meditations are bound which only affords safe harbour unto all that seek to arrive at it be they never so many 15. Instead of an exhortation You my Brethren that are annoynted to preach Gods mercy to the people give me leave to propose that counsel which I follow my self Seeing the iniquitie of the times wherein we live will not suffer us to perswade our selves that the most part of those to whom we preach are in the state of Grace Let us make this account that there is a farr greater necessitie layd upon us to teach the means How men may be brought unto the state of Grace then to frame Characters whereby they may know themselves to be what indeed they are not Gods Elect Children It is the chief mystery of the Ministerial function to set into the work of Conversion aright to impel men those wayes to which each disposition is most inclinable Now I knovv not hovv it comes to passe but questionlesse by the infinite Wisdom and never sufficiently admired Goodnesse of our God that there is no Object of Belief of vvhose truth the unregenerate man can have such strong Historical or Moral persvvasions as of the Points novv delivered No Practise vvhereto they can vvith like Facilitie or hope of surenesse be svvayed or vvrought as unto Denyal of themselves and Desire of his mercy Do ye demand of me a Reason of this Assertion It is Plain and palpable to your ovvn senses That vvhich disinables them for performing any Good and makes them uncapable of all other saving Truths is by Divine Providence made a Natural Ground of these persvvasions Their very dulnesse is as a spur to incite alacritie in these duties Every mans Conscience that hath any touch of moral honesty any sense of good or evill will throughly instruct him that the more impotent and unable he is to follow that in practice which his mind approves the deeper sense he may have of this his Impotency and surer arguments of the slavery of his unregenerate Will Now it is the infinite mercy of God not to exact more of any then they are able to do before their Conversion that is not to exact any thing of them that is truly good or if you will any thing which doth not in its own natured serve Hell And yet His Infinite justice requires of all that they sincerely and heartily though but Morally acknowledge bewaile this their natural Impotencie or want of abilitie to do any thing that is Good before they can be Converted or inabled to do better The not using of this Natural capacitie whereby collapsed man only exceeds divels in natural goodnesse or rather comes short of them in natural iniquitie is that which makes all that hear the Gospel and obey it not inexcusable But shall all that use this Capacitie right be assured to have it filled with Grace Yes the Spirit hath sealed their Assurance Isa 1. 16. Draw neer to to God and he will draw neer to you Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up Jam. 4. 10. So then we have better abilities or opportunities to cast our selves down then to lift our selves up And the Lord hath a more speciall hand in lifting us up then in casting us down Our Impotencie to walk uprightly our naturall pronenesse to all manner of evill and the weight of our actual sins do much help and in a manner impell us so we would not be wilfull to cast our selves down before the throne of Grace by whose power only we must be lifted up without any help or indeavour of our own Herein I must commend the Anti-Lutherans modestie for not calling St. Iames his Authoritie in question albeit his Testimony in this Point makes more against him then it doth against the Lutheran or other Protestants in the Point of Iustification And it is good wisdom for him so to do at least it were bootlesse for him to do the contrary seeing our Saviour hath said no lesse Come unto me all ye that labour and are laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11. The greater our labour is the heavier our load Or the more weary we grow under it the readier we are to run with better speed to Christ unto whom the feeble blind and lame were most frequent and most earnest Supplicants And our coming to him consists not either in strength or agilitie of bodie but in the frequency of Supplications and depth of groanes It was his saying They that are whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick We must feel our selves sick at the heart before this our heavenly Physitian will begin his Cure or use his Skill by applying the Medicine of saving Grace 16. Is it then impossible for the unregenerate Man to feel his infirmitie to be morally perswaded of the Soules immortalitie or to be somewhat affrighted with terrour of conscience or so affected Is it impossible to implore his heavenly Physitians help with as great care and diligence as he would an Earthly Physitians presence to save his Body in a dangerous sicknesse It were rather impossible that any who is not an absolute Atheist such as it is scarce possible for any man to be should be so slothfull and carelesse in coming to Christ as the most part of men are were they not through our sloth or ignorance or through our factious skill and industrie that should instruct them led on as it were in a drowsie dreame to imagine that Gods mercy would either come unto them without seeking or that it were impossible for them to do any thing before it apprehend them that might infallibly availe for the finding of it or rather for being found and imbraced by it The natural man is not so unnatural to himself as not to desire ease in true sense of actual paine or exemption from danger which his soul doth dread Nor is he so Brutish as to think himself not beholding to him that in these Cases is able and willing to afford him Comfort It is the Duty and should be the Care of us whom that Great heavenly Physitian hath appointed to visit his Patients First to work a sense and feeling of that natural Infirmitie Plinie See Chapt. 8. and Fol. 3145. whereof the Great Naturalist was without an Instructer very sensible Secondly to confirm their Belief of this Article That no present Fee or hope of praise amongst men can make any earthly Physitian half so ready to cure their bodies as he that out of his Free Bounty made their soules is at all times to repair them so they would but Implore his Omnipotent Mercy with as true and hearty affections as they do the help of their bodily comforters in distress CHAPT XLII GODS JUST HARDENING OF PHARAOH when he had filled up the measure of his iniquitie OR An Exposition of Rom. 9. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. Therefore hath he mercie
We cannot work any Inclination or propension in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to move it self upwards or to be more easily moved by us But Vegetables of what kind soever Grasse Corn or weeds which growup with them Herbs or plants albeit they have no Freedom or power at all to move themselves out of the places wherein they grow yet have they a Natural Faculty to increase themselves or be augmented by the Benignity of the Earth wherein they grow and the influence of moysture and heat from Heaven A Capacity withal which stones or other inanimate Creatures have not to be much bettered both in growth and quality by the industry or skilful husbandry of man Another degree or rank of Animate or Living Creatures there is which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines as well as they can expersse the Greek Stirp-Animalia or Plant-Animalia that is Living Creatures in some respects best resembling meer Vegetables in others Sensitives which we call Animalia The most of this rank Live in the Sea as Oysters Cockles Mustles or other duller kinds of Shel-Fishes which herein agree with meer Vegetables in that they can hardly move themselves out of their places as from the Rocks or Sands wherein they breed and yet have a Sense or feeling of their proper Nutriment or of its want which meer Vegetables have not and a Motive power within themselves answerable to this sense of pain or pleasure of opening or shutting their mouthes or those instruments of Sense by which they suck in their food or nutriment Some Land Creatures there be if we may believe good Writers without our own Experiments that hold the same Correspondency between meer Vegetable and Sensitive Creatures which the forementioned Shel-Fishes or Sea-Creatures do To omit the reports of the Russian Lamb or other like Sensitives which are fastned to the Earth out of which they grow It hath been in my hearing and in a Solemn Audience avouched by as great a Philosopher and Divine as any that have written of the West Indies That there is a kind of herb or Plant about Portrico which though it cannot move it self out of its place yet hath as nimble wilie motions within it self as great a Command over its own Branches to decline ungrateful touches as any perfect Sensitive Creatures have which are tied to a certain Station or setled Footing 3. Creatures truly Sensitive that is such as far exceed Vegetables or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Sense of pain in want or indigence of food or the pleasure they take when it is in competent measure afforded them Of the difference betwixt Vegetables Sensitives their motive power have a Power some greater some lesse to Move themselves out of their places and to seek their Nutriment and after satisfaction made to hunger to betake themselves unto places most convenient for their Rest or Sleep This Capacity of sense whether of pain or pleasure or of motion to enjoy the one and avoid the other is in every Sensitive Creature even in the worm or snail in some degree or other but not Equal in all Some are most swift in their Motions though much defective in other sense as Flies Gnats Beetles or other meaner Volatile or flying Creatures which are not capable of durable pain nor of Memory to avoid such pain as they are capable of being apt to be quelled with such light blows or touches as cannot annoy stronger Sensitives or Four-footed Beasts Amongst the more perfect or stronger sort of Sensitives or Brutes some are indued with better Memory or Dexterity of Exercising their senses or motive Faculties then we 〈◊〉 are But the best of meer Sensitive Creatures especially such as are by nature tamâ— or apt to be tamed as Horses Hounds Haukes c. although they have no other Freedom then that which is opposed to Coaction yet are their Inclinations alterable by Custome as Lyoung uâ— made proof and Demostration to the Lacedemonians by his two Plutarch De Liberis Educandis Et in Laconicis Apophtheg whâ—lps of the same kind whose inclinations by nature were the same yet Both much altered by breeding or training 4. Wherein then do we Reasonable Creatures exceed the best of these docile Sensitives In this That albeâ—t they exereise their Faculties of sense or motion more dexterously and more sagaciously by instinct of nature and have a greater aptnesse to perceive approaching denger or to receive impressions or occurrences from wind and weather then men have yet have they no power no Freedom at all to Reflect upon such Occurrences or Impressions much lesse to Calculate or weigh them aright but an excellent Capacity only to entertain them as they are offered Thus sheep and other cattel divers sorts of birds or fouls of the air do often unwittingly Prognosticate the alteration or change of weather by their voice or motions before wiser men or Astronomers can take just notice of it save only by Their motions voyces or gestures 5. Now as Sensitive Creatures do farr exceed meer Vegetables in sense of pain or pleasure of the true difference betwixt meer Sensitive and Reasonable Creatures and in the motive Faculty so the Reasonable Creature doth farr excel the best and most docile Sersitives in a Faculty or Power peculiar to himself alone amongst all visible or Corporeal Substances That is in a Power to Reslect upon what he hath seen heard or felt or remembers either concerning motions or impressions made by or within himself or in any other part or member of this visible world A Power or Faculty Likewise Every son of man who hath attained unto the use of Reason hath to number such Occurrences as have befallen himself or such as he hath observed to befal others or to have happened however within his Memory and a further Branch of the same Reflective Power or Faculty to Calculate and weigh them with their Circumstances whether of Time or Place and to Compare Occurrences past or matters observed before with Occasions or Occurrences present and out of the Consideration of both to make Observations or Presages of what by probable Conjecture may ensue 6. From this Reflective Power or Faculty and the Branches of it all of them being Peculiar to man amongst all visible or middle-world-Creatures doth that Freedom of Will immediately Result the search of whose several Branches whether growing by Nature and bettered by Gods special Providence or immediately implanted or ingrafted by Grace is the principal Subject of the Treatises following 7. The First Root of this kind of Freedom as it is Mans Peculiar above all other visible Creatures is That Reflective Power before-mentioned upon his Observations whether made upon the dispositions or Docility of Sensitive Creatures wild or tame or upon the suggestions or Operations of his own senses or that part of those Faculties of his Soul or Body in which he is rather a Sensitive Contradistinct to meer
If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 3. Touching the First Point What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie They are set down by our Apostle Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like This word Flesh sometimes signifies our Bodily substance sometimes our Corrupted Nature It shall suffice by the way to note in a word that the Flesh or Body is sometimes taken for the Fleshly Nature or Bodily Substance it self Sometimes for the Corruption of the Flesh or of Nature corrupted And in this Later Sense it is to be taken in This Place 4. That we may the better understand this Duty of Mortification by Sounding the Bottom of it we are in the first place to take it into serious Consideration That the words by which our Apostle here expresseth the Works or Deeds of the Flesh are not to be measured according to that Carnal Conceit or Grosse Sense which the Flesh it self alwayes partial for it self is ready to suggest but according to the Scale of the Sanctuary When He saith Adultery Fornication c. are the works of the Flesh we must not understand Only those Acts of Adultery or Fornication which come under the Cognizance or Censure of Courts Civil or Ecclesiastick not the Fruits or Blossomes But The very First Seeds of these Sins all Inclinations of the Flesh or Secret desires of the heart of this Kind This Art or Method of measuring these words or the sins comprehended under them our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 5. 27 28. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not Commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart When he reckons Lasciviiousness amongst the works of the Flesh we must not restrain this word to Actual Lasciviousness or Lascivousnesse in attempt We are to extend it to every Degree of this sin in Word or Thought to every Motion of the Tongue of our Heart or Senses by which either the Ears or Senses of others or our own Souls or Consciences may be polluted When he saith Idolatry is a work of the Flesh we must not take Idolatry only for the Visible or External Act of Adoration profered either to Creatures or their Images It comprehends All inordinate Affection of the heart to any Creature For to love Money more then God then our Neighbours or more then Equity or just dealing is a Branch of the Idolatry here mentioned by our Apostle For so he interprets himself Eph. 5. 5. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor Covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Again when he reckons Murther amongst the Works of the Flesh We must not measure This Monster only by such Pictures of it as are drawn in Bloud For even Hatred Wrath Strife and Sedition are true Lineaments or live Limbs of this Gyant Ye have heard saith our Saviour it was said by them of Old Time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment But I say unto you That whosever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire Mat. 5. 21 22. Lastly we are not to take the works of the Flesh albeit we take them in the grossest sense for those Acts Habits or Accustomances only which are seated in the Flesh or Bodily part of man but for those Acts or Inclinations which are accomplished in the Operations or Exercises of the Reasonable Soul For if we mark the Apostles Words not Witchcraft and Idolatry only which are usually accomplished in some External or Bodily Act but even Heresie it self is expresly mentioned amongst the works of the Flesh and yet is Heresie the proper Off-spring of the supreme Faculty of the Humane Soul that is of the Intellective Faculty or Understanding The most dangerous Hereticks have been alwayes men of great understanding and for wit acute and subtile Nor are we to restrain this word Heresie to profest Opinions or Errors expressedly maintained or subscribed unto We are to extend the Apostles meaning unto the First Seeds or Roots of this sin as to Emulation to Affectation of applause to Secret pride of heart or hearty desire of Vain Glory or Excelling others These are the General Seeds of the most Grosse Sins here mentioned And therefore our Apostle in the Conclusion of this 5 th Chapter to the Galatians strikes at the very Root Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another If we harbour these or the like desires though secretly in our breasts they will as Opportunity serves betray us to the Grossest Sins here mentioned as to Murther to Heresie or the like Now not of these grossest sins only as Murther Adultery Heresie or Idolatry but of their First Seeds or Roots our Apostle fore-warnes these Galatians as he had done in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And who then shall Inherit this Kingdom For who is he that is not subject to some one or other of these Mis-demeanours or perverse Inclinations who is he that doth not either consent to unlawful Lust or entertain desires of Applause or of Excelling others or doth not often either Envy or Emulate his Equals or Betters True it is that no man can say His Heart is Clean in respect of these Acts or inclinations unto them Shall no man therefore seeing no man is altogether Free from these Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven God forbid It is one thing to Do such things according to the ordinary Use and construction of this Phrase in our vulgar Language another thing to be a Doer of Them or to make these Misdoings the chiefest of our Doings which is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this and like Sayings So when it is said He that doth sin is the Servant of sin the meaning is He that is a Doer of that which is sinful is the servant of sin But so is not every one that sinneth for there is no man which sinneth not It is well observed by Maldonate the Jesuite that this word to Do in the Hebrew Dialect includes not the present Act or Operation only but the Habit or Custome of Doing There is no man which sometimes Doth not some of the works here mentioned by our Apostle And yet there is No Man which hath Mortified the
his heart and Conscience the Partie moved is a meere Passive In thus fitting the discourse to his former Life or Cogitations the Preacher himself is Gods Instrument not the Agent He had no Suffrage in the choyce of his Text at least in suiting it to this Particular Occasion much lesse any hand or finger in the Issue or Successe Both these are wholy from the disposition of Divine Providence 4. But now that the Parties Heart is touched by these or the like Occurrences unexpected either by this Patient or by his physitian doth he still remaine as meerly Passive as he was in the accomplishment of his Mortification or Conversion Surely the thoughts of a meere Natural Civil or Moral man are Free and Able to Reflect upon those Motions in respect of whose Production his best Faculties are meerely passive Free and able to Revise and work upon those Occurrences and Dispositions of divine Providence on which he did not so much as think before they set his thoughts on working But supposing him to be thus Able thus Free and willing to Reflect upon his former thoughts and to Revise what lately hath befallen him Are such Reflections able without Gods Special Grace infused to produce any further Degree of Mortification or Conversion Men must be in some sort Active that They may be Towardly Passive in the work of Mortification Or is the Partie thus affected meerely Passive or a Co-agent with the Spirit of Grace in the Production of such farther Degrees of Mortification as shall after wards be produced He is in my Opinion a meere Passive in the Production of all Degrees which shall be produced untill his Conversion or Mortification shall be accomplished Are then such Reflections upon his former wayes or Revises of what hath befallen him for them to no purpose No man I think will avouch this But if to any to what good purpose do they serve shall they make him a more Towardly Passive in the next Good Motions which it shall please God to put into his heart than he was in the former Shall he by often thinking upon his former Courses or by abstinence from evill Company be enabled so to qualifie his Heart that the same or like touches of Gods Providence shall mollifie or affect it more at the Second time than they did at the First or at the Third more than at the Second or at the Fourth more than at the Third I know no harme I cannot conceive the least Suspicion of danger in this or the like Assertion so long as we still acknowledge him to be no more then a meere Passive in all the Degrees of his Conversion or Mortification 5. Notwithstanding how harmelesse soever this Assertion be in it self I can be content to relinquish the use of it rather then any good Christian should be offended with it or put into doubt lest it come too neare 〈◊〉 or other modern Heresâ—â— But he that shal denie me the Libertie of thus Expressing my self shall give me leave to retaine This Conclusion He which is diligent in Reflecting and ruminating upon what hath befallen him by Gods Special Providence upon the first or second time wherein he hath been impelled to take notice of it shall be sure to have his heart more deeply touched with the same or like Occurrences the third or fourth time then he which hath been alwaies negligent to Ruminate or Reflect upon such Invitations or Admonitions as by Gods Providence have been rendered unto him In respect of our Purpose which is only to leave sloth or negligence without Excuse it is all One whether a man after the First Degree of Mortification may Positively and actually Concurr to make himself A more Towardly Passive against the next Touch of Grace or Document of Gods Special Providence or whether his Heart remaining still at the same Passive Bent which it had when it was first touched by Grace or special Call of Gods providence God be pleased to multiply the Active Meanes of Mortification or to make their Contrivance and disposition more remarkable and effectual than they were before This is most certain That he which will not take such Warnings as God shall send him into his serious Consideration shall bring this Two-fold Inconvenience upon himself First ☜ his Soul shall be every day then other more unapt to be wrought unto Repentance or to have Mortification wrought in it by such Meanes as formerly would have wrought it Secondly God in justice will deprive him of such ordinary Meanes or Motives to Mortification as before he had Mans extreame want of all Abilitie so to prepare or mollifie his own heart as it may be more towardly Passive than it hath been cannot disinable God from multiplying his Flessings or from Granting Grace Sufficient to mollifie their hearts which are not able to mollifie themselves yet have been diligent according to that Abilitie which they have to Reflect and ruminate upon his Providence Summoning them to Repentance alwaies diligent and readie to acknowledge their own Insufficiency and out of this acknowledgement more earnestly to sollicite his Grace and Favour for enabling them to do better 6. In what sense we are said to work out our own Salvation So then mans Endeavours are not available not of force to produce Mortification spiritual yet are they Two wayes necessary Necessitre Praecepti Necessitate Medij by a Necessitie of Dutie and by a Necessitie of Meanes that spiritual Mortification may be accomplished in us And because man by the assistance of Gods special Providence without the concourse of sanctifying inherent Grace is enabled to do somewhat which being done ☜ his conversion or Mortification shall undoubtedly be accomplished therefore are we said to Mortifie the Body and not so only but to make our Election sure yea to * Or rather industriously to labour for our own Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work out our own Salvation For so the Apostle speaks Philip 2. 12. But how are we said to work out our own Salvation Non Formaletersed Consecutivè in such a Sense as we say One mans Riseing is anothers Fali Or The Ruine of one or more great Families is the Raising of others Or as 't is said in Philosophie Generation unives est Corruptio alterius i. e. not Formally or properly for Generation and Corruption are Opposites but by way of Consequence For inasmuch as The One is the Necessary Consequent of the Other The One is said to Be The Other And thus when the Apostle wills us to work out our own Salvation with fâ—ar and 〈◊〉 he gives the reason in the next words For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. So that God truely and properly Worketh all as well the Will as the Deed yet it is his Good Pleasure to work Both only in them which work with fear and trembling as being most affraid to neglect so great
of every creature which is good had an Objective being in him before it could have any Subjective being in the creature The Beautie of Salomons Temple whilst it stood was Subjectively in the materials rightly proportioned and adorned but Objectively in the Spectators or Surveyors eye The same Beautie was Objectively in the Architects Brain or Fancie before it could be either Subjectively in the material Temple or building or Objectively in the Spectators eye In like manner Justice or goodnesse Original was Subjectively in the first Man after his Creation but was Objectively in God before the First Man was created 8 Yet if another man had written That there was an Objective Goodnesse in the Creature precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Will I should not have had the malitious wit or invention to have charged him as the forecited Author hath done me with the overthrowing of any Divine Attribute or with making the Creature a God or with Blasphemous Arminian Heresie Charitie would rather have moved me to make this construction of his words If we consider these Three Man the Image of God Goodness as all of them were Objectively in God before they had any actuall being Gods Image might be said to be in the Man and Goodnesse in Gods Image in such a sense as every Attribute is said to be in the subject of aproposition abstract from sense He that saith Socrates is a reasonable creature must acknowledge reason to be in Socrates The connexion between the Subject and the Attribute in Abstract Propositions is Essentiall and Eternall So necessarie so eternal was the Connexion between Man made after Gods Image or so considered and Goodness that whensoever it should please God to give this Subject Man after his Image actual Being the Attribute likewise to wit Goodness was of necessitie to have actuall Being or Coexistence with its Subject without intervention or interposition of any other cause If besides the Act or exercise of Gods Will by which man was created after his Image any other Act or exercise of his Will had been necessary or useful to make him actually Good then Goodness or Justice original should not have been Natural but Supernatural to the First Man which no good Protestant may grant The First Mans Goodness so long as it continued was continued by preservation of Gods Image in him and cannot be renued otherwise then by renovation of the same Image in him so that the Goodness of God is the Rule of Goodness the Ideal Form or patern of Goodness in the Creature The Act or exercise of the Divine Wil makes no creature morally or spiritually good but by making it conformable unto his own Goodness This and no other was my meaning in that 13. Chapter and this my meaning as I thought was sufficiently exprest by me and is so acknowledged by ingenious and understanding Readers 9. Nihil In bonis numerandum nisi quod per seipsum sit Laudabile i. e. sponte suâ possit laudari Tull. de Leg. L. 1. p. 163 quod a. laudabile sponte suâ illud ante sine praecepto bonum Laudabile If any man be disposed to except either against any Particular Proposition in this 13. Chapter or against my Generall declaration in what sense Gods Will is said to be the Rule of Goodness I shall request him positively to set down the Proposition Contradictory to any Proposition of mine which in that Chapter he thinketh to be Erroneous And if he can Concludently draw any such dangerous Consequence out of the Propositions avouched by me as I shall do out of his I faithfully promise to retract what I have said But until I see better Proofs then this obiector brings any I rest confident that howsoever some Divines of our Times will be ready to Contradict this Proposition All things are not Good only because God willeth them but God willeth somethings because they are Good Whiles this controversie is only betwixt him and me in this Particular yet I shall be sure to finde the same man to Contradict himself and to confesse as much as I here avouch whensoever he shall have occasion to dispute with the Jew or to assign the difference between the Ceremonial and the Moral Law or the Reason why The One is to be perpetually observed The Other not so The shedding of innocent Blood was evil before any Law was made against it before Gods Will was declared to the contrarie Cain did suffer punishment for the Fact before any positive Law and before any Act of Gods Will declared to prohibit it The shedding of innocent blood then was not evil because it was forbidden but it was afterwards peremptorily forbidden because alwaies Evil. Cains Enterprise against his innocent brother was Objectively Evil before there was any man that could commit this or the like enormitie Charitie Peace Brotherly Love are Good not onely because God hath commanded them or willed us to follow them but God by his Law doth will and command us to follow after these things because they were alwayes good even before he willed or commanded us to follow them The time will never be wherein Innocencie Brotherly Love Charitie Peace and loving kindnesse shall be as displeasing to God as Murther Hatred Malice Crueltie and Uncharitablenesse hitherto alwaies have been He cannot enact a Law either to authorize these or the like practises or to prohibit the contrarie vertues But in as much as Râ—ites and Ceremonies Sacrifices Circumcision c. which God sometimes did will and command men to observe were onely Good because God did will and command them Hence it is that they are now abrogated and their use inverted without any change of Gods eternal Will or of his Divine Nature The Negative Precepts concerning Rites and Ceremonies have been turned into Affirmatives and the Affirmatives into Negatives because the One containeth no other Goodnesse nor the Other any Evil in them which did not entirely depend upon Gods Positive Will to command or forbid them And seeing His Will though most Immutable is immutably Free though not to do Good or Evil yet Free to make that which is not in its nature or essentially Good to be Good for One Time or Season not for Another and that which is not in its nature or essentially Evil but of an indifferent nature to be sometimes Good and sometimes Evil therefore hath he made the Omission of some Ceremonies to be as Good in latter times as their observance was in former and the Observance of others to be as evil as their former Neglect or contempt were under the Law or from the Date of Gods first Covenant with Abraham until the Ratification or publication of the New Covenant made in Christ The uncircumcised manchilde saith God to Abraham Gen. 17. 14. whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people But seeing the observance of that which is here commanded was onely Good
Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self Goodness it self The Branches of the Doctrine concerning Absolute Reprobation which bear this Fruit are to omit others for the present specially these Two The First That the manifestation of Gods punitive Justice was a part of the Object of Gods Primary Will and an exercise of his Will as directly as immediatly and as irresistibly intended by him in the Creation as the manifestation of his Goodnesse Bounty or reservation of his mercy to such as shall be saved was The Second That God from Eternity did as truly hate all those who perish without respect or reference to their works or qualifications as he did love those who shall be saved Now if the number of such as perish be much greater then the number of such as shall be saved and if the same God did from eternitie as truly hate the greater sort of men as he did love the lesse without all respect or reference to their works or qualifications if he did out of his eternal hatred as peremptorily decree the endless torments of the One as he did the everlasting happiness of the Other These Conclusions of the Lutherans avouched by them in some Catechismes which I have seen before the name of Arminius was heard of in these Parts will necessarily follow viz. That such as maintain this rigid doctrine of Absolute Reprobation do not believe in or acknowledge the same God which the Lutherans with all antiquitie acknowledge for they acknowledge their God to be Truth Mercy Love and Goodnesse whereas the stiffe maintainers of Absolute Reprobation confesse their God to be hatred and Crueltie it self Now to acknowledge one and the same God to be Truth Love Mercy and Goodnesse itself in respect of some and in respect of others to be falshood hatred crueltie it self is a grossser Heresie or Transformation of the Deity then was the Heresie of the Manichees which acknowledge Two Gods or independent Originals of all things the One as Fountain of all Goodness the Other the Authour of all Evill For avoyding these and the like Conclusions no evasion or observation hath been or can be pretended by such as make the Entity or Individual Natures of man the Formal Objects of Reprobation besides this One viz. That Gods Will is so the Rule of Goodness that if he will the death of all that dye without respect unto their works or Qualifications this must be Good If he be pleased to hate the greater Part of mankind without all reference to their Qualifications the hatred of them must be as good as his Love of those few which shall be saved And the Apostle did advise them to rest upon this answer when he saith O man who art thou that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus hath not the Potter power over the clay c. But whether this Use of our Apostles Doctrine in that place be according to his meaning or whether any Conclusion can be drawn from that Chapter which may make for absolute Election or Reprobation is elsewhere examined By that which hath been said See Chapt. 42. Numb 9. 10. it may appear that such in this Land as stifly hold the Tenet of absolute Reprobation which the Christian world besides hath for the most part forsaken have some reason though no just cause to question the truth delivered by me in what sense Gods Will is said to be the Rule of Goodness For unlesse they can disprove my Tenet which God be praised hath stronger Supporters then my weaknesse can afford they must either revoke their errour or admit God to be more then the Author of sin as truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as properly sin it self as Being it self or life it self And yet if they could perswade the ignorant that Gods Will is the Rule of Goodness in such a sense as they would make it the Inconveniences which the Lutherans object would be rather for a while removed then cleerely avoided They might be prest upon them again with greater force and advantage with this addition that they maintain the Turkish Opinion concerning Fate and Providence And upon this Ground only as I conceive do the the Lutherans instile the Calvinists Limbs of Gog or of the Eastern Antichrist But the best is that of such who at this day do not disclaim the name of Calvinists the most and best learned dislike the opinion of Absolute Reprobation and so I hope in good time will every faithfull Pastor in the Church of England and every Loyal Elder in this our Israel For admit we could make full proofe unto the Congregations committed to our Charge that Papistry is as some have enstiled it the Ocean of Heresies that the Absolute Infallibility of the Pope or Consistory exceeds the mixture or combination of all other particular Heresies which have been that the Idolatry which the Roman Catholicks from the belief of the Pope or Churches absolute Infallibilitie are inforced to commit and practise doth equalize the Idolatry of those heathens which solemnly worshipt the Divel yet all this being proved by us and firmly believed by our flocks would be of small force or sway to retain understanding men in their Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord or in obedience to the Lawes Ecclesiastick or Civil of this Kingdom if once the Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation might be fastened upon the Church of England or be embraced by her Learned Pastors or Governours For so they might as concludently prove us to be as grosse Hereticks as we say they are and evince our Churches doctrine to be as Blasphemous as theirs is Idolatrous To have this Rigid Doctrine generally embraced or acknowledged by us or at least to have the World believe that it were generally acknowledged by us is the very Thing and the main business which the Factors for the Romish Church for these many years have earnestly sollicited This is the very net wherein Sathan hopes to catch this Island he hath set the Jesuites to spread and hold it and when opportunity serves to draw it And the Jesuites as they have long used our Pulpits and Print-houses so they attempt to use some in our Parliaments as their Podders to drive us into it Their prey they know must needs be great if they can bring us into these straights or put a necessity of this hard choice upon us Whether were better to live in obedience to a Church which adores wicked and naughty men Divels incarnate for such some of their Popes have been as Gods on Earth or to hold communion with that Church or societie of men which makes the God of heaven the Almighty Creatour of all things Visible and invisible much worse then an Incarnate Divel yea then any wicked Spirit or then the Divel himself can without slander be conceived to be Isaiah 58. 4. Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the Fist of wickedness ye shall
not fast as ye do this day to make your voyce to be heard on high CHAP. XL. A Paraphrase upon the Eleven first Chapters of Exodus with usefull Annotations Observations and Parallels ALbeit the Ancient Heathens however they came by them had many excellent Notions and some Exquisite Discourses upon those Notions of A Divine Providence which even to their apprehension did usually over-reach and controll all Politick Projects of greatest Princes Yet such Exquisite Maps or Live-Patterns of the Onely Wise Gods Proceedings in Counter-plotting the subtlest contrivances of mightiest Princes or of the profoundest Professors of mysteries of State or other subordinate Projectors as the Historie of Joseph wherewith Moses concludes the Book of Genesis or the Historie of Pharaoh wherewith the same Moses begins the Book of Exodus the best of the Heathens had none Nor may this present Age expect any equal though every Age in one Kingdom or other afford some matter of Historie like unto them Quoad veritatem licèt non quoad mensuram With the Historie of Joseph I am not at this time to meddle any further then as it may lead me or instruct me to take a more exact survey of Gods Process with Pharaoh or of The manner how or of The means by which He hardened him 2 So long as that great and in his kinde Religious Pharaoh lived whose life and prosperous estate of the kingdom whereof he was Lord Joseph by Gods good Providence and peculiar instructions had both preserved and advanced nothing went amiss with the Stemmes of Jacob All of them from the highest to the lowest fared well for Josephs sake and which was more then all the matter of their well-fare the Egyptians amongst whom they sojourned did not envie or repine at their prosperitie at least they durst not profess any enmity or attempt to wreak their malice if they had conceived any against them The fresh memory of Josephs good deservings at the Kings Princes and Peoples hands did prevent all practises of Hostilitie or repining crueltie though but intended against them so long as that Pharaoh which had so well rewarded Joseph and had him in so great esteem did sway the Scepter of Egypt But it seems that this gracious King dyed about the same time that Joseph did or rather before him For Moses instructs us Exod. 1. 8. There arose a new King which knew not Joseph that is either had no Memorial Record or took no notice how well he had deserved both of the King and Kingdom of Egypt And he said unto his people Behold The people of the children of Israel are greater and mightier then we c. Josephus in his second book of Judaical Antiquities informs us and his information will much advance the true value of the Literal Sense of the Sacred Context according to the Original that this latter Pharaoh or new King mentioned by Moses Chap. 1. vers 3. was of another Line no Son or Heir unlesse by Adoption of that great Pharaoh and Grand Patron of Joseph but at the best of some Collateral Line Now whether it were out of Real Fear or out of Pride of heart or Popularitie This new King to give some Document in the beginning of his Reign of more care and wisdom for maintaining and advancing the welfare of the Natives then his Predecessor had practised who had placed his special favours upon forraigners and strangers thus resolves with himself and proposeth his resolution to his Counsel of State or War Come let us work wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to passe that if there be war they joyn themselves also unto our Enemies and fight against us and get them out of the Land verse 10. The First Project of this new King was to keep the Israelites from Mutinie whereunto their number might as he thought provoke or tempt them by laying the yoke of servitude and hard labour upon them But perceiving that the more he did press them the more they multiplied and grew stronger his second project became more cruel for it was to destroy or put the Males of Israel out of this world as fast and as soon as they came into it Neither of these Two Projects were any part of Gods Ordination or Design Both were suggested to this proud Kingâ— by Gods enemie who is the father of all Bloodie Politicians and chief master of all unhallowed Policies However the entertainment of this Satanical Suggestion and the putting of it in execution by Royal Authoritie and Command was an Inchoation or rather a large measure of that Ordination or Coaptation of this Kingdom and State to that destruction whereof our Apostle speaks Rom. 9. 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 3 But that new King which devised all the forementioned evils against the children of Israel The infant killer and Hardned two several Pharaohs was not the Subject of that Obduration mentioned by our Apostle and recorded by Moses from Exod. 7. unto the 11. For that bloodie King which caused all the Males of Israel to be cast into the river dyed before God appeared to Moses in the â—â—sh as is evident from Exod. 2. 23. And it came to pass in process of time that the King of Egypt dyed and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage c. and is expresly avouched by Josephus in his second Book of Jewish Antiquities Chap. 5. However this other Pharaoh becoming Successor to that cruel King mentioned Exod. 1. 8. not in Place onely but in Cruelty and oppression the wickedness and wrongs practised by the former Pharaoh and his subjects are charged upon the Second and his people because they were bound by the Law of God and by the Law of Nature to have given better Satisfaction to the Israelites then they did so much at least as Moses in his First message to Pharaoh Exod. 4. did demand And this Pharaohs heart to whom he was sent was more capable of or rather more fitly disposed to that Obduration which befel him because he could not be ignorant of the ill success which his Predecessors cruel intentions against the Infant-Males had found It was the former Pharaohs main Project to destroy the Hebrew-Males And in the heat of this persecution Moses is born but hid for three months from Pharaohs Firrets or blood-hounds rather by his Parents This providence in his parents was not from secret Instinct of Nature but from True Faith or supernatural Revelation as our Apostle instructs us Heb. 11. 23. By Faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child and they not afraid of the Kings commandment 4. Josephus tells us that the Occasion which Pharaoh took to murther all the Hebrew Males was from a constant Fame or Praenotion suggested unto him by a Secretary of state That
the former Complaint or matter of grievance Unto this Conjecture I should the more incline had not the Lord given Moses a Second Encouragement much different from the former immediately after the Repetition or Resumption mentioned Chap. 6. verse last For so it follows in the next words Chapt. 7. vers 1 2. Then the Lord said to Moses Behold I have made thee Pharaohs God and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet Thou shalt speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land Here was a great Incouragement to undertake so hard a Service But what Incouragement could either Moses or Aaron take from the next passage of Gods Instructions or Declaration of His Will unto them verse 3 But I will harden Pharaohs heart and multiply my miracles and my wonders in the land of Egypt This is a Question worth the asking and the Resolution of it worth considering For that which most discouraged Moses from obeying the Lords commands was his suspicion or presumption that Pharaoh would not hearken to him nor regard his Signs as Aequivalent to Letters of Credence How then should he take heart and courage by knowing that perfectly which before he did but suspect or fear to wit that Pharaoh would not or that he could not hearken unto him Now thus much Moses could not but know from Gods own Declaration of his purpose to harden the heart of Pharaoh verse 3 4 c. And this Question will beget a Second on whose Resolution the clearing of the main Difficultie wil most depend This Second Question or Quaerie is What manner of Hardening the Lord meant in the fore-cited 3. verse Whether he meant a Positive and direct Hardening by way of Necessary Causalitie See Chapt. 42. Numb 4. or Physical Determination of Pharaohs Will or Spirit unto obstinacie or unrelenting stubbornnesse at least from the Date of Gods fore-mentioned Declaration of his will unto this purpose or a Privative or some other way 14 This Question is so Captious that it is uncapable of any One Punctual Answer whether Affirmative or Negative The best is that the whole Knot may be clearly dissolved by distinguishing the Differences of Times or several Treaties between Moses and Pharaoh In respect of the three or foure last Signes and the Treaties upon them This Affirmative Answer is Punctual Pharaohs heart was Positively hardened by God or rather infatuated by means extraordinary and altogether unusual unless in two or three like extraordinary Cases In respect of the Five or six first signs or miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh This Negative Answer is as punctual Pharaohs heart was not hardened by God either Positively or directly much less Irresistibly The Means or manner how his heart became hardened were but Ordinarie only by Moses his Proposal of such Conditions unto him as his proud heart was naturally averse from and by pressing him to grant them in such a manner as would Provoke his avaritious mind to resist or deny them The true Tenor of Gods former Speech to Moses is but this This is the Answer to the former Question propounded in the 13. Paragraph What incouragement could either Moses If Pharaoh will not hearken unto thee nor let my people go upon the sight of the first signs and wonders which thou shalt be enabled to work before him and his people let not this dismay thee or make thee give over thy Charge for the longer he is or shall be in yeilding the greater will be thy victorie and his Case the harder For assure thy self in the end he shall be willing to let you go both he and his people shall intreat you to be gone out of their Coasts I will multiply my Signs so fast upon them that Egypt and all other Nations shall be taught to know who is the Lord even the Lord God of the Hebrewes and of Israel 15. All the Discouragements that Moses had either from Pharaoh from the Egyptians or from the Israelites are cured by This that God would break through all difficulties He would lay his hand on Egypt and bring forth his Armies and make the Egyptians c. know that He was the Lord. See Exod. 7. ver 4. 5. But more particularly to revise the Characters of Mosaical Expressions How Pharaohs heart upon the sight of Moses his signes and miracles became hardened by several degrees Upon the exhibition of the First Wonder which was the Turning of Aarons Rod into a Serpent it is thus written Chapt. 7. ver 13. So Pharaohs heart was hardened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he haâ—kened not to them as the Lord had said This Phrase Pharaohs heart was hardned may referre more properly to Aaron then unto God as the Agent if the speech be to be construed Personally or otherwise to Aarons Rod or to the Sign or Wonder it self in which to speak with due reverence unto the truth there was no such extraordinary force as would have inclined an unregenerate mans heart though by nature and habit no way so stubborn as Pharaohs was to have yeilded forthwith to Moses's requests or demands seeing the Magicians of Egypt did the like This only may be said and it is all that can be said to the contrary that the devouring of the Magicians rods turn â— d into serpents by Aaronâ— rod first so turnd was very ominous so ominous as the observation of it could not but either mollify or harden Pharaohs heart as perhaps it did both according to the several times or vicissitudes of reflecting upon it For his heart and desires being once drawn a little from their natural Bent by the sight of this Wonder but not fully broken must either stand at the Point to which they were drawn or return with greater violence to their former station The Lord speaking in His own Person to Moses ver 14. saith not I have hardened Pharaohs heart but Pharaohs heart is hardened he refâ—seth to let the people go which can imply no other hardening then such as did result or rebound upon the sight or consideration of the wonder Upon the exhibition of the second Sign to wit the turning of the waters of Pooles and Rivers into bloud which was somewhat more fearful then the former Moses his expression of Pharaohs disposition is Impersonal ver 22. And Pharaohs heart was hardened And it was no extraordinarie wonder that his hart should be hardned again in such a sense or after such a manner as it was upon the sight of the first Wonder seeing the Magicians or sorcerers did the like Thus much only may seem extraordinarie or to carrie a great deal of odds on Moses and Aarons behalf in that this plague could not be removed by any Magicians Spell or skill in sorcerie but onely by Mose's prayers unto God This might well have wrought relentance in any ordinarie Heathen Prince which had but the