nothing but winde in them the one lifteth up in nature the other lifteth up in God But here it may be objected What meaneth the Apostle thus to disable knowledge seeing by it we depart from evil and are informed to good and the prophet Isaiah saith in his 53 chapter vers 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many where knowledge is made the cause of our justification I answer that wheresoever knowledge in holy scripture is taken in a good sense there it is vox complexa as sapientia is by S. Bernard called sapida scientia savourie knowledge for in this knowledge charitie which is the extern form of knowledge is comprehended But here in this text of scripture Knowledge is vox incomplexa standing alone by it self and in opposition to Charitie and therefore here it produceth no good effect but onely pride which is enemie to goodnesse But charitie is the substance of Christianitie and therefore is called of the School Divines grace it self And this in the building of a Christian toward heaven is the master-builder for the more it worketh in us the better and bigger Christians we grow according to that of S. Augustine Charitas inchoata inchoata justitia est charitas provecta provecta justitia est charitas magna magna justitia est charitas perfecta perfecta justitia est Charitie begunne is righteousnesse begunne charitie increased is righteousnesse increased great charitie is great righteousnesse and perfect charitie is perfect righteousnesse And when this is come then there is no difference between God and man it is conformitie between God and man it is as S. Paul saith the fulfilling of the law further then this we cannot go Yea that which is the most comfortable and remarkable point in all Christianitie is the law of the Spirit of life which freeth from the law of sinne and of death and this is the main refuge to the distressed conscience There are in the best two laws ruling in them because the best are compounded of two the flesh and the spirit The law of the flesh is concupiscence which gives precepts onely for the flesh whose end is sinne and death and therefore it is called the law of sinne of death and the law of the spirit is charitie which gives precepts onely for holinesse and righteousnes and this is called the law of life because the end of it is life These two laws are ex diametro opposite one to the other in the regenerate because they be both of force in this life therefore the regenerate are carried both wayes sometimes to sinne and sometimes to holines and vertue But because charitie which is the root of all good desires is the more noble law as being the law of the spirit and is in all evil actions first or last or both opposite to them and never yeeldeth but during the violence of the passion which being over it immediately returneth to his former strength and vertue therefore this freeth from the other so that condemnation is never liable to them in whom this law is found Therefore when the blessed Apostle besought God that the prick in the flesh that is to say concupiscence the law of sinne and death might be removed from him he would not grant it but told him My grace shall be sufficient for thee and this is nothing else but charitie which freeth the compound from sinne and death because as S. Peter saith it covereth the multitude of sinnes it will not suffer them to appeare And the reason why God would not have the law of the flesh and of sinne to be outed from this holy man and from the regenerate was because he would have his grace to conflict with the flesh that after the conflict his grace might be victour For my power saith God is made perfect through weaknesse But there is no greater weaknesse in man then concupiscence the lust of the flesh which being overcome by charities desire Gods grace and power is advanced and perfected And this law of the spirit S. Paul opposeth to the law of the letter which is knowledge when it is separate from the spirit and this killeth as well in the ministerie of the Gospel as in the ministerie of the Law of Moses as S. Augustine teacheth lib. de spiritu litera because the more knowledge we have the greater shall be our condemnation if we want the spirit of charitie to put it in practise Will you know then what charitie is which is thus advanced above knowledge It is the most noble above all vertues as our Apostle teacheth 1. Cor. 13. 13. Now abideth faith hope and charitie but the greatest of these is charitie He saith not shall be as Calvin and Beza offer to evacuate the Apostles comparison commendation but is now Now abideth faith hope and charitie but the greatest of these is charitie This is the lust and desire of the spirit as concupiscence is the lust and desire of the flesh the one sanctifieth and justifieth the other damnifieth and condemneth Gal. 5. 17. As concupiscence is the root of all vices so this is the root of all vertues it is the souls sanctified appetite Every man that hath wit and discretion will make choice of the best and the fairest but charitie is the best of all Gods gifts above faith and hope and knowledge and therefore above all things I wish you to seek and follow that In the twelfth chapter before the Apostle sets down all the better sort of Gods gifts among which he placeth wisdome knowledge faith working of miracles and the rest and then willeth them to make choice of the best But saith he desire you the best gifts and when he had so said then he said further I will yet shew you a more excellent way as if he had said Now I will shew you of a gift that is above all gifts yea better then the best before-named such a gift that without it all other are worth nothing Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charitie I am as sounding brasse or a tinkling cymball And though I had the gift of prophesie and knew all secrets and all knowledge yea if I had all faith so that I could remove mountains and had not charitie I were nothing And though I feed the poore with all my goods and though I give my bodie that I be burned and have not charitie it profiteth me nothing Now if all be nothing without this then get this and get all But what is the reason why all other graces without this are worth nothing Because without charitie they are as a bodie without a soul. Hadst thou a bodie as well framed as Leanders and Hero's was yet if thou hadst not a spirit to move in it thou shouldest have but a dead bodie worth nothing as S. James teacheth of faith without charitie by the effect
end of Christs suffering for us which I hope no good Christian will extenuate If Christ hath merited that the righteousnesse of the law should be fulfilled in us who are his members then the law is not impossible to be fulfilled of us but Christ hath merited that the righteousnesse of the law should be fulfilled in us therefore the law is not impossible to be fulfilled of us The major is true because it is blasphemie to discredit the efficacie and end of Christs merits The minor is as true by this scripture Rom. 8. 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that is to say In sinnes room he condemned sinne If sinne be condemned then it cannot hurt us the fuit is at an end But to what end did God send his Sonne and condemne sinne in the flesh It followeth in the text that the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us It is not said That the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in himself or for himself onely because he died not for himself nor had need of such a righteousnesse for that he was the lawgiver and had alwayes the laws fulnesse in himself before he wrought any thing but That the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us And how is that to be done not by faith onely or by bare imputation alone as the ignorant understand it but by our actuall walking in divine precepts and therefore it is said vers 4. Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit But in our walking though it be after the Spirit the law is oft broken of us by sinnes of commission and sinnes of omission and therefore the laws righteousnesse is not fulfilled of us I answer As it is oft broken of us so it is as often repaired and satisfied and so all is made whole again and so he is in statu quo priús Tremelius upon the text hath Restituitur redintegratur à malo He is restored and made whole from the evil Which in Saint Augustines words is a spotlesse and blamelesse walking in Gods laws For in his book de perfectione justitiae speaking of many places of scripture urged for the perfection of the Saints he saith thus Horum testimoniorum aliqua currentes exhortantur ut perfectè currant aliqua ipsum finem commemorant quò currendo pertendant Ingredi autem sine macula non absurdè etiam ille dicitur non qui jam perfectus est sed qui ad ipsam perfectionem irreprehensibiliter currit carens omnibus criminibus damnabilibus atque ipsa peccata venialia non negligens mundare eleemosynis Some places exhort the runners that they may runne perfectly some mention the end to which they should tend Therefore he may be said without absurditie to enter spotlesse not who is already perfect but he which runnes inculpably to that perfection wanting all deadly sinnes and not forgetting to expiate his veniall sinnes by alms If he riseth not again so oft as he falleth either in number or vertue then he seemeth to be no more a just man Wherefore let every one as soon as he is down presently rise again Our sinnes of commission are repaired and reversed by repentance Ezech. 18. 21 22. But if the wicked will return from all his sinnes that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawfull and right he shall surely live he shall not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him If it be thus to the wicked shall it not be as much to the godly when they sinne lesse and not with a full consent Our sinnes of omission are salved and supplied by prayer as S. Augustine insinuateth upon this point of giving the law unto us Admonet nos Deus facere quod possumus petere quod non possumus God by giving his law to us admonisheth us to do what we can and to ask that which we cannot do Whereupon it follows that obedience as farre as we can and prayer where we cannot in regard of the frailtie of the flesh maketh Gods law to us possible because in his Gospel he hath promised to give us that which we pray for as we ought to pray in which are included all our sinnes as well of commission as of omission These are the helps which the Gospel affordeth How are we to respect and frequent these two upon which our salvation so much dependeth were it not fit that these two should alwayes lie by us to be ready at every need The old law onely commandeth but giveth no power to perform but the new law not onely giveth precepts but also power and helps by the sacraments to perform because it is written in Christs bloud and so hath Christs spirit and life going together with it Therefore it is called of S. Paul The law of the Spirit of life and of S. James The law of libertie not because it gives men libertie to sinne but because it freeth from the lets and enlargeth mans heart through the spirit to perform it with alacritie and cheerfulnesse according to that of David I will runne the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart And to this belong the counsels of the gospel which go beyond the precepts of the law of which S. Chrysostome speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ commanded nothing impossible insomuch that many go beyond the very commandments And if it be demanded who ever did this he forthwith answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Paul S. Peter even all the quire of saints Lastly as Christs spirit and grace gives such power to go beyond the precepts so it is not incongruent that it should so modifie sinnes in his members to make them veniall and not killing in regard they are not done with a full consent but with a desire of doing the contrary of which the Apostle saith thus Rom. 7. 20. But if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me A third argument I have from the kindes of fulfilling Gods law which are two the inward and the outward The inward is the fulfilling of the law in desire The outward is the fulfilling of it in the bodies members prompted and put on by the mindes direction and affection The inward is more noble because it is more neare to the minde its originall and fountain and without whose act the bodies members could act nothing yet the outward is the more ample because it breaketh out further The inward fulfilling of necessity must be acknowledged or else we destroy the inward man and frustrate that great work of mans redemption Of this inward fulfilling thus speaketh the Apostle Rom. 7. 22. For I delight in the law of God after the
inward man This delight is the wills fulnesse often spoken of in the 119 Psalme O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day long Again Therein is my delight I will observe it with my whole heart Now the whole is the fulnesse of a thing therefore there is an inward fulfilling of Gods will Notwithstanding we must not here rest but proceed to the outward also because the bodie is a part of the whole and so bound by the law to follow its inward principle By this outward fulfilling God is more glorified to the eye of the world and without the outward the inward is not seen wherefore upon every good opportunitie they ought to go both together But here we must take knowledge that the bodie in its own principle is so farre from fulfilling Gods law that it is a contrary law to it and is called of the Apostle the law of the members and the law of sinne and of death I see another law in my members warring against the law of my minde and leading me into captivitie to the law of sinne which is in my members That is to say as S. Augustine expoundeth it captivare conantem endeavouring to leade me into captivitie to the law of sinne in my members How may we be freed from this by another law that is the law of the minde called the law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sinne and of death Then the law of the members cannot hold us in captivitie Here therefore come to be considered of us three laws in Gods word expressed The first is that which is called the law of God and this is the glasse of our lives shewing what we should do and what we should not do The second is called the law of the members and the law of sinne and of death because it labours and endeavours to draw us to sinne and to death And this is concupiscence giving precepts and motions for sinne which in the unregenerate draweth death after it The third is the law of the minde called of S. Paul Rom. 8. 2. the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus And this law is bestowed upon us habitually in baptisme and is nothing else but holy charitie which sanctifieth by the power of the holy Ghost and purifieth the minde before God and is opposite to concupiscence And because this is the strongest law and seated in the minde which is mans form and principle therefore this both freeth from the law of the members and of sinne also fulfilleth the law of God which is mans conformity with him And this is confirmed by that main conclusion Charitas est legis plenitudo Charitie is the fulnesse or fulfilling of the law Which is thus to be understood saith S. Augustine Diffunditur in corde charitas Dei unde fiat legis plenitudo non per vires arbitrii quod est in nobis sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis The love of God is diffused in our hearts from whence proceeds the laws fulfilling not by the power of free-will which is in us but by the holy Ghost which is given to us It may be objected that the law of the members or concupiscence is imputed by God to the whole man being it is opposite and rebells against the law of the Spirit I answer that the sinne of the flesh is not imputed to the whole man because the flesh is not yet redeemed in execution according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8. 23. But we also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit that is the law of the Spirit of life in our mindes by which we are sanctified and consecrated to God even we do mourn in our selves waiting for the adoption the redemption of our bodies that is to say the deliverance of our bodies from concupiscence which is thus done saith S. Augustine Liberari à corpore mortis est omni sanato languore concupiscentiae carnis non ad poenam recipere corpus sed ad gloriam non enim à corpore mortis impii liberabuntur unquam quibus in resurrectione eadem corpora ad aeterna tormenta reddentur To be freed from this bodie of death is to heal all the languour or infirmitie of lust in the flesh and not to receive the bodie to pain but glory in the citie of God for the wicked shall never be freed from this bodie of death to whom the same bodies at the resurrection shall be restored to suffer everlasting torments And the reason why God hath not redeemed or delivered our bodies is because God hath ordained that man should not attain his end and perfection without difficultie or at one instant as the angels did but to go to heavens happinesse by much opposition and by many sighs and sorrows as our head hath done before us by many sufferings and that according to the difference of every ones conflict and striving they might be rewarded with the different orders of the glorious angels For which cause all they who have generous mindes according to the dispensation of grace must put on in the way of godlinesse the best that they can knowing with the Apostle that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And from hence it will follow that whereas Christians have longer time and more difficulties to go to their end then the angels had therefore their rewards shall be greater and more then theirs though their grace be more and greater then that of Christians Wherefore when they both shall meet there shall be a blessed harmonie and sweet rejoycing in God together And to shew a little further the difference between the angels and mens travell toward the end this shall appeare from mans combate under the three laws warring one against another The law of the members challengeth the law of the minde and spirit and the law of the minde and spirit challengeth the law of the members and the law of God challengeth both saying Thou law of spirit and grace comest too short for mans salvation and thou law of members art out of measure sinfull and therefore killing What shall the distressed conscience now do when so many fists are one upon another in one man beside the unknown stratagems of the devil the multitude of the worlds incursions and the manifold falls into sinne O the fears the cares and the labours Is not here S. Pauls exclamation O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death At last comes in our captain to our comfort and then the Apostle saith I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then take we heart and say further with the same Then I my self with the minde serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sinne The Saviour of the world strikes in with
because our eyes are more conversant in beholding inferiour and nearest causes therefore the Apostle directeth us to this here and thus onely the Romane empire was the letting cause One tyrant will not suffer another tyrant to rise because he would be tyrant still But one must not alwayes continue the worlds race requireth this One generation passeth and another cometh When one Comedian hath acted his part he goes off the stage and another cometh on Let Christs little flock therefore be of good comfort for when the whole generation of Antichrist have played their parts they shall all be taken away in the end As Moses said to the children of Israel Exod. 14. 13. The Egyptians whom ye have seen this day ye shall never see them again And this demonstration is confirmed by S. Chrysostome upon this chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As those kingdomes were destroyed which were before the Romane Empire as the kingdome of the Medes by the Babylonians the Babylonians by the Persians and the Persians by the Macedonians and the Macedonians by the Romanes so the kingdome of the Romanes shall be destroyed of Antichrist and he again of Christ and after that he shall obtain no more The discoverie of Antichrist Vers. 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed That wicked in the Greek text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est exlex that outlaw for he shall live without law And herein is verified the prophesie of him in his type Antiochus Dan. 11. 36. And the king shall do what him lust His will shall be his law as if he were a God Here is the patience of the saints for what he will they must undergo Then shall that wicked be revealed that is to say disclosed Before this time Antichrist was in his egge as you may see in the seventh verse he was closed in a mysterie the dragon then sat upon it now here he breaks forth But here we must observe that which Anselm and Carthusianus do upon this place that the Apostle doth not define the time of Antichrists uncovering but leaves it at large saying That he may be revealed in his time setting down no speciall time again in saying For the mysterie of iniquitie doth alreadie work but he doth not expresse how long it shall work Yet certain it is that after the falling away Antichrist shall come though it be not known how soon or how long after And as Carthusianus saith Verisimile est quòd post discessionem statim veniet Antichristus vel nascendo vel publicè praedicando It is likely saith he that after the falling away Antichrist straightway shall come either in springing up or in publick preaching And upon this he saith further Ideo de adventu Antichristi qui est secundum quod praecedet diem judicii subditur ET REVELATUS FUERIT id est manifestatus mundo Therefore saith he of the coming of Antichrist according to that he is to precede the day of judgement it is added AND THAT HE SHOULD BE REVEALED that is to say manifested unto the world Thus that judicious writer maketh a double coming of Antichrist one in his preparation and another in his corporall presence the one immediately after the defection and the other immediately before the worlds end The first that is of his preparation I cannot better apply then to the preaching of the Alcoran in the Turks empire First because as I have alreadie shewed there is the absolute apostasie And next by comparing Mahumetisme with Papisme For in the Papacie there as Calvin saith Ecclesiae fundamenta manent the foundations of the Church remain but in Mahumetisme there is all rent up and overturned in the Papacie he saith there Christ is semisepultus that is but half buried but in Mahumetisme he is whole buried in the Papacie he saith there is semirutum aedificium the house of God half ruinate but in Mahumetisme there is not so much as a groundsell or a raft to be seen neither stick nor stone Moreover because in the Alcoran there Mahomet Antichrists immediate forerunner is preached and expected And lastly because Antichrist is called of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man without law and the Turk hath no other law to rule his people by but his own will Wherefore from his kingdome we are to expect the great Antichrist And with this agreeth S. Pauls sequel which is That the man of sinne could not appeare till the Romane Empire were removed And it is known that the Turkish kingdome grew upon the ruine of the Romish in Heraclius time The two Beasts These two kingdomes the Romish and Turkish are the two beasts that S. John writeth of Revel 13. and are to precede the Antichrists coming The first beast is the Romane Empire which rose out of the sea that is to say from the citie of Rome because that famous arm of the sea Tybur flows through it And this beast is described in this monstrous shape in the form of his bodie to be like a leopard for his various government by Kings Consuls Decemvirats Dictatours Cesars c. in his feet to be like a bear to lay hold and in his mouth like to a lion to devoure and tear And by this beast was the Church most lamentably rent and torn during the time of the ten persecutions as we reade in Ecclesiastical histories The second beast is the Turkish Empire which is there said to rise out of the earth that is out of the drie rockie and desert land of Arabia Regio aquarum inops inculta as Sturmius saith Out of this countrey as historie affordeth Mahomet sprung up And this beast by his original in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est terrae filius the sonne of the earth in regard of his base birth which fitteth well with Mahomet that scum of the earth Again he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a giant in regard of his monstrous and huge dominion spread so farre over the earth And this beast is compared to a lambe in the frame of the Alcoran which praiseth religion and offers content to every sect as being patched up of all the pleasures of hereticks in assoiling the nations that dwelt nigh him as Ranulphus testifieth and in doing by craft and guile what he might not do by deeds of arms But after he had raised his kingdome by flatteries as Antiochus did his then he spake like a dragon saying that he was sent of God to compell men to his religion by the sword and that they which will not obey his law must pay tribute or be put to death for so be the words of the Alcoran And this beast exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him that is in speaking great things and blasphemies in making warre with the saints and overcoming them and in having power over all kindreds tongues and nations as
learn in these books what is good for thy bodie and not learn what is good for thy soul Open thy eyes wider and then thou shalt see that there could be no goodnesse in the creature except God had made it and that if the effect be good then the cause of this good must needs be infinitely more good and therefore he above all things is to be sought of us And this is so cleare a lesson that except a man will shut his eyes he must see it and understand it because the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 19 20. That which may be known of God is manifest in them For the invisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world being considered in his works that they should be without excuse And these preachers are of S. Paul acknowledged for preachers in the 10 chapter following and the 18 vers having relation to the 14 verse Have they not heard no doubt their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Secondly Gods Word is thy preacher And this is proved by the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes for that book as the learned know signifieth a preacher Again turn to Acts 15. 21. and there the holy Ghost will tell thee that Moses was preached every day in the Synagogues while his words were read unto them If thou saist that Gods scriptures are too high for thy capacitie then what sayest thou to the 19 Psalm vers 7. which teacheth that the testimony of the Lord giveth wisdome to the simple And art thou so simple to think that when God gave his scriptures to the Church he gave them so darkly that men might not understand them then he might as well not have given them Thou wilt object that of the Eunuch in Acts 8. 30 31. where when Philip asked the Eunuch whether he understood what he read he answered How can I except I had a guide And I answer thee again that there is a great difference between the Eunuch and thee and this place of scripture which he read and the places of scripture which to thee are propounded for he was out of the Church which is the house of light and thou art in it Again that scripture was to him a mysterie but to thee it is no mysterie For in Isaiah no name is exprest but it is read He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but what he this was the articles of our faith expresse to the simplest that it was Jesus Christ the Messias of the world who was delivered by the Jews to Pontius Pilate to be slain for our redemption and therefore this excuse of darknesse is utterly taken from thee because the Gospel is the blazing of the Law and there is nothing so dark in one place but in some other it is so bright that the very blear-eied may see it Therefore Fulgentius saith In verbo Dei abundat quod perfectus comedat abundat etiam quod parvulus sugat Ibi est enim simul lacteus potus quo tenera fidelium nutriatur infantia solidus cibus quo robusta perfectorum juventus spiritalia sanctae virtutis accipiat incrementa In the word of God aboundeth that which the perfect man may eat and that which the little one may suck For there is both drink of milk whereby the tender infancy of the faithfull may be nourished and solid meat whereby the strong youth of the perfect may receive the spirituall increase of holy vertue Thirdly Gods holy Sacraments are our preachers while by visible and sensible signes they teach us what we are to beleeve for which they are of the learned called visibilia verba words visible Therefore when we see the water in Baptisme this bringeth to our remembrance the water and bloud which came out of our Saviours side and when we see the bread and wine this preacheth to us that his bodie was broken and his bloud shed for our sinnes as the water signifieth the washing away of our transgressions And these Sacraments do that for us that all the preachers of the land cannot do For they by their words can but onely teach us and enlighten our understanding but these preachers the Sacraments besides the light which they give to our understanding infuse through Christs power and effectuall ordinance grace into our souls and make us acceptable before God Yea so effectually do they this that they can never want grace after who rightly receive them and preserve the vertue of them Therefore our Lord said to the woman in John 4. 14. Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never be more athirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternall life This water is that grace which is bestowed upon us in Baptisme which after the Eunuch had received as we reade in Acts 8. 39. he went away rejoycing and we reade not that he heard any more sermons or received any other Sacraments for his well of water which he carried away with him into a farre heathen countrey was sufficient for him But oh the lamentation of our times Who shall make our people to beleeve that Christs Sacraments bestow grace they say they signifie onely and that faith cometh by hearing onely yet when they have heard what they can and beleeve what they will they shall never be saved without the grace of the Sacraments at least in desire I can shew you of some that are saved without the hearing of the word preached our baptized infants but I can shew you of none saved ordinarily without the Sacraments in regard of our Saviours exception in John 3. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God Therefore the men which shut up all in the preaching of the word evacuate Christs Sacraments and do they know not what for preaching is but a preparation for the Sacraments and there the principall grace lies hid For this cause our Saviour said to his Apostles Matth. 28. 19. Go teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost For people must first be taught that God bestoweth grace in the Sacraments or els they will not receive them And the principall Sacrament is Baptisme because that onely bestoweth new life and the rest strengthen and preserve it Fourthly printed sermons are thy preachers For assoon as there is any rare sermon preached by and by it is put to print and from the presse it is disperst all the land over There is scarce a house in any town but one or other in it by reading can repeat it to thee Then how shouldest thou starve for want of preaching when the best preachers in the land such as thou never sawest nor they thee yet by this means continually preach unto thee Fifthly Gods Spirit
and reasonable answer Quanquam res est in utramque partem disputabilis mihi tamen magis probatur ipsos verè in eum locum adductos esse Neque enim absurdum est quum Deus corpora animas habeat in sua manu mortuos ad tempus in vitam ejus arbitrio restitui dum ità expedit Tunc autem Moses Elias non sibi resurrexerunt sed ut praestò adessent Christo. Calvin Harm Evang. in loc Though the thing be disputable on both parts yet to me saith he it seemeth more probable that they were truely brought into that place Neither is it absurd seeing God hath in his hands bodies and souls that at his will the dead should for a time be restored to life when it is so expedient c. But for this businesse the coming of Enoch and Elias is most expedient for that it is said of Antichrist that he shall come after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and therefore they who are to buckle with him had need to be more then ordinarie men such to whom none were like as Ecclesiasticus reporteth of Enoch and Elias and endued with true miracles And this is further confirmed by the prophesie of Malachi Behold I will send you Elias the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. But this our late Divines turn aside by applying it to John the Baptist and to Christs first coming according to that in Matt. 17. 12. I say unto you that Elias is already come To this I reply that as there are two comings of Christ a first and a second so there are also two Eliahs the true and proper Elias who was the Prophet and the spirituall Elias which was John the Baptist so called because he came in Eliahs spirit This spirituall Elias as our Saviour most truely reporteth came before Christs first coming and the proper Elias is to come before his second coming And this as Jansenius on this point in the Gospel saith communiter intelligitur Thus are both true Elias is come and not come The spirituall Elias is come and hath done his part but the proper Elias is yet to come because Malachi saith He shall be sent before the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now it is manifest that Christs first coming was not that great and terrible day because the scripture calleth it the day of salvation and the acceptable time Therefore it is left that the true and proper Elias is yet to come before the great and terrible day so called of the prophets because it is a day of judgement and revenge Vers. 5. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things Vers. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time After the Apostle hath laid out the two antecedents of the worlds end the apostasie and the Antichrist now he confirmeth his doctrine and chideth these Thessalonians for being so soon removed from the tradition of the truth as if he should have said Did ye heare me so slightly that ye have so soon forgotten me I told you something then which is not fit to be written namely that the apostasie cannot yet be ripe nor the man of sinne be revealed for that the Romane Emperour will not suffer it He will admit no man to play Rex or to display the banner of Antichrist But the time shall come when his date shall be out then shall defection flourish and after that the man of sinne shall be in his colours This S. Paul would not write lest the publick prediction of the ruine of the Romane Empire should spurre them up to an exasperation against the Christian profession for it is not good to wake a sleeping dogge nor to draw troubles which will come too fast of their own accord When sheep are sent among wolves they had need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves And this doctrine both S. Ambrose and S. Chrysostome confirm upon these words Ye know what withholdeth S. Ambrose saith Post defectum abolitionem regni Romani appariturum Antichristum After the defect abolishing of the Romane kingdome Antichrist is to appeare And S. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Romane Empire shall be taken away then shall Antichrist come Antichrists originall and seed Vers. 7. For the mysterie of iniquitie already worketh Here is demonstrated Antichrists seed and originall which is iniquitie Iniquitie in the Greek text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anomie or a life without law and is the mother of apostasie and apostasie is the breeder of Antichrist In the primitive Church before canons were made and government established men would preach what they listed for without law no man is confined and then were heresies broacht in plentie Satan wrought cunningly and by degrees upon their green wits and therefore their anomie S. Paul calls a mysterie Anomie began in the Apostles dayes and continued to Mahomets time apostasie stood up in Mahomets time and to this day expecteth Antichrists time The Turks daily look for their Mahomet and the Jews for their Messias when both these are met in one then shall be that great monster the man of sinne Then if we will not be deluded in the birth and originall of Antichrist we must look for him out of the apostasie there is the fittest matter of his breed He must be no Christian that shall be the Antichrist by reason of the opposition But it is wondered at that he should be so long in breeding for the mysterie began in the Apostles time and S. John saith that then were many Antichrists which were his fore-runners and yet as yet he is not come I answer As the great Comet is a longer time in gathering then the ordinarie stella cadens and as all great works have long and great preparations so hath this man of sinne In the first six hundred yeares after Christ he was an embryon since that time to this he hath been in his animation and now we expect his viperous birth Vers. 7. Onely he who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way Why doth the Apostle applie this let onely to the Romane empire seeing there were other and farre higher causes of this dilation as Gods will of sufferance and the administration of angels Of the first it is said Psalme 115. 3. Our God is in heaven and he doth whatsoever he will And S. Paul Rom. 9. 19. saith Who hath resisted his will Of the second we reade in Daniel 10. 13. that the angel who was prince of the kingdome of Persia withstood that other angel who was prince of the holy nation untill Michael one of the chief princes came in to his help To this we say that where divers causes be concurring to one end there the naming of one doth not exclude the other but
his law and in the end with much ado we overcome Thus stands the difference between men and angels travell toward the end the one had a short cut without difficulties the other hath a long race in many infirmities and miseries Therefore of these it is said Apoc. 7. 14. These are they which came out of many tribulations To return again to the laws possibilitie a fourth argument ariseth from the nature of a law For if God should give such a law which could not be kept of us then it could not binde us because by the rule of justice no man ought to be bound to that which is impossible for that were a wrong both to nature and grace Therefore the School verse saith Ultra posse viri non vult Deus ulla requiri A fifth argument is from the end of a law which is to be kept for if God should command things impossible then he should make a law not to be kept but to be broken which is contrarie to the right end of a law and of a lawgiver But God for his infinite wisdome will never give a law to a wrong end therefore he will never command things impossible But the adversaries to this truth will perchance object that when God first gave his law to man it was possible to be kept the impossibilitie now proceeds onely from our selves because through our own default it is that we are disinabled and therefore God may justly still oblige us to it though impossible But to this it is answered that Christ hath made a full satisfaction for that default of ours and by this means discharged us of that obligation insomuch that God can no more in equitie now require impossibilities at our hands then he could at first at Adams Neither does he if we may beleeve S. Paul who saith I can do all things by Christ that strengtheneth me But it may be further urged that the law is still the same it was and therefore of it self doth oblige us now to as exact a performance as ever it did Adam though God for Christ his sake is pleased to remit from the rigour of it requiring sub poena no more of us then we being assisted by his grace are able to perform To this I answer that the law obliges us no further then the intent of the lawgiver was to extend it and therefore if God intends not now as questionlesse he doth not to exact of us the performance of the law as it stood in its rigour quoad omnes gradus neither does it in reason oblige us now to any such perfection And so by consequence the law as given to Adam is not the rule whereby we are to be judged but as it was given to us in Christ which every Christian ought and therefore may perform And here we may observe that it is most convenient to reason and justice that the law should be exacted so farre as the possibilitie of the obliged could reach and no further Adam in his integritie might have perfectly kept it if he would and therefore the fulfilling of it in rigour was expected sub poena of him and that justly we now fallen would perfectly fulfill it but cannot by reason of the punishment inflicted on us by our just judge and therefore durante poenâ he cannot in equitie now expect that perfection in keeping it which Adam had For to mutilate a runner or oppresse him with weights and then to command him to runne with that agilitie and speed he formerly could unlesse he were endued with his first integritie strength and libertie of limbes is absurd so to think our good God now in this our languour and reluctancy of nature will under pain of death tie us to absolute obedience and not restore us to the state of innocencie wherein 't was possible is altogether as senslesse and unreasonable A sixth argument is from the goodnesse of the lawgiver which is God If God should command things impossible then he should be more cruel then a tyrant who will not offer to ask of his subjects such a tribute which he knows cannot be paid nor make such a law which cannot be kept because this is against the common good of every state but God is good to all and no tyrant because his mercie is over all his works therefore he will not command any thing impossible And to this accordeth S. Augustine Deus nec impossibile aliquid potuit imperare quia justus est nec hominem damnaturus est pro eo quod non potuit vitare quia pius est God could not command any thing impossible because he is just neither will he damne a man for that he could not avoid because he is mercifull Now it is manifest that God gave his law in Moses time many hundred yeares after Adams fall and therefore he gave it to be kept according to the condition of mans present estate And in this estate it pleased the Almightie to make a league of friendship betwixt himself and mankinde whereupon Abraham who lived before the law was called the friend of God and holy David a man after his own heart Now let any man tell me how a father that hath received his prodigall sonne into his grace and favour and forgiven all can yet exact of his sonne without tyrannie or ridiculousnesse to perform as many acts of hospitalitie or otherwise now in the estate of his decocted patrimonie as in his full riches unlesse the father had restored him again unto as great an inheritance To confirm this answer take this argument A man can either do as much as Gods grace inables him or not If not how doth grace inable him If he can do all which Gods grace inableth him to do how is it possible for a most just and good God either to desire or at least require more then his own with all usury possible Secondly to impose on man his friend precepts impossible to be observed neither suiteth with the true rules of friendship neither is compatible with the majestie of so most just a Creator especially seeing he hath now supplied mans fall with his Sonnes grace which is farre greater and better then that in paradise for Adam demerited but one sinne to his posteritie viz. original which cannot be augmented but Christ hath poured out the abundance of his graces for our salvation as S. Paul speaketh Not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many Valor meritorum satisfactionis Christi longè excedit demerita Adae idque non ex acceptatione divina sed ex rigida justitia valore ipsorum operum quem habebant ex dignitate personae operantis patientis so the School And S. Leo thus Ubi abundavit peccatum superabundavit gratia qui