vnchewed and that is Whether God here as hee is said to harden be the cause of our transgressions Which quaere admits a three-fore distraction and difference of opinion Two of them are extremes and by hot opposition each of other they haue both lost the truth the third runnes in a midway and euer directs to safety Florinus whose opinion posterity records as the monument of a seduced errour with no lesse peremptorinesse than blaspemy hath arraigned the Almighry and made him not onely the permitter but the Author of our sins The Seleuciani after him were poisoned with that heresie the Libertines laboured in the defence therof Manes and his disciples dreampt of a summum malum and vpon that phantasie grounded their assertion that God the summum bonum is to be seene onely in our good actions but euery depraued Act had its deriuation from their summum malum But those of a more solid and well tempered iudgement whom the influence of the Spirit had taught a moderation or the danger of Inquisition forbad curiosity dare not with Florinus impute here sinne vnto God yet maintaine against the Manichees that God is not a bare and idle spectator but powerfull ouer although no actor in the sinne Not in the sinne as it is meerely a sinne but in the sinne as 't is a punishment of sinne And therefore in euery transgression of ours there are foure thing remarkeable 1 Subiectum seu materiale he subiect in which sinne subsists and that is two-fold 1 Substantia the substance or rather the faculties of the reasonable soule in which originall sinne is so riueted that the naturall man can by no meanes purge himselfe of that hereditary contagion or Actio bona on which all our actuall sinnes are grounded 2 Formale the formalitie or obliquity of the action For euery sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law and in the sinner there 's nothing sinne but this 3 Reatus The guilt of this enormitie which makes vs liable to eternall death 4 Poena the punishment inflicted vpon the guilty whether temporall or eternall or both Now wee may not charge God with the obliquitie of the action for that proceedes from a peruerse and a seduced will but the substance of the action as the Schoolemen speake that hath its originall from God And therefore we consider sinne either vt malum culpae as 't is a violation of Gods law or vt malum poenae as a punishment laid vpon vs for the violation of that Law So Rom. 1.25 The Gentiles turned the truth of God into a lye There 's malum culpae And it followes immediatly at the 26 verse For this cause God gaue them vp into vile affections There 's malum poenae Now God is author of the second not the first If mists still hang on the eyes of clouded errour I thus dispell them with that of Hugo de Sancto Victore Deus malis potestatem solam tribuit non voluntatem quià licet ex ipsius permissione sit quod malum possunt ex inspiratione tamen non est quod malum volunt God onely giues power to the wicked not will that although it be by his permission that we can doe euill yet it is not by his inspiration that we will doe euill And therefore as the Schooles doe commonly distinguish of the decree of God so must wee of the execution of that decree which is either per efficieutiam when the diuine power doth worke any thing with or without the creature or secundum permissionem when the creature hath leaue to worke without the guidance of that power Neither will it sauour of impertinence if we insert here that distinction of Gods prouidence in efficientem deserentem Into a releeuing and forsaking prouidence for whensoeuer God withdrawes his especiall aid and assistance from vs man is hurried where his owne corrupter appetite not Gods grace carrieth him Adam fell as soone as the influence of Gods grace ceased and without the supportance of the same grace we all fall with no lesse certainty of perill than danger of restitution When the Sunne sets we see darknesse followes immediatly vpon the face of the earth and yet the Sunne is not the efficient cause of darknesse but the deficient so when the Sunne of righteousnesse shall forsake vs the darknesse of errour must needs possesse the vnderstanding and the will must mistake in her choice and execution She must necessitate consequentiae non consequentis The necessitie is grounded on a consequent in Logicke not any influence in Nature And here we may borrow a true glosse for that in the 2 Acts where it is said that Christ was deliuered into the hands of the wicked by the determinate counsell fore-knowledge of God We must not thinken hat God was the setter in this villany that he conspired with Iudas in his treason or with Pilate in his bloudy sentence But that he only gaue way to their attempts and suffered them to crucifie the Lord of glory Yea but why did not God curbe them in their cruell proceedings Why should his conniuence betray the â—…ouâ—… of Innovence Saint Austine shall answer for me Quia melius iudicauit deâ— malis bene-facere quà m mala nullae esse permittere To extract good out of euill was peculiar onely to omnipotency and goodnesse and therefore no lesse solid than charitable is that caucat of Du-Plesses Malè quaeritur vnde malum essiciatur It is an ill curiosity to seeke an efficient cause of ill Let this then satisfie modesten quiry that it is with the sinner as with an vntuned Instrument and the Musitian the sound is from the finger of him that toucheth it but the iarring from the Instrument That our discourse then with the time may draw to wards a Period we inuolue and wrap vp in this one distinction the very iuice and substance of the controuersie Sinne is considerable two waies ante commissionem before the Commission Sic se Deus habet negatiuè tum respectu voluntatis tum productionis God doth neither worke with vs nor countenance vs in the act of sinning Post commissionem after the Commission sic Deus determinat ordinat peccatum God sets bounds to the malice of wicked men and so mannages the disorder in sin that contrary to the nature of sinne and the intent of the sinner it shall redound â—o his glory We inculcate then that God is not the author but the orderer of sinne Hee causeth the worke not the fault the effect not the delinquencie working by not in mischiefe Wherein according to the rules of Logicke the finall and impulsiue causes euer so distinguish the actions that two doing the same thing to a diuers intent are notwithstanding said not to doe the same So God gaue his Sonne and Christ himselfe and Iudas Christ saith Augustine why is God here holy and man guilty Nisâ— in re vnâ quam fecerunt non est causa vna ob quam
farre from starting at its owne vglinesse that it is non-sensible of deformity And hence Theodoret defines it to be pranam animi affectionem a corrupt and depraued affection of the minde which if man once giue way to hee is so screen'd both from Gods mercy and truth that though it be about him and in the masterdome and dominion of his best sense Non cernit tamen nec intelligit yet his eyes are as blinde intelligencers to belieue as his vnderstanding And against such that sweet singer of Israel breakes out into his passionate complaint Vsquè quò filij hominum vsquè quò O ye sonnes of men how long will ye turne my honour into shame how long and that of the Protomartyr Stephen in his Oration to the refractary Iewes Durâ ceruice O ye stiffe-necked and vncircumcized of heart and eares yee doe alwaies resist the holy Ghost And indeed such hearts are but the Wardrobes and Exchequers of future mischiefe whose keyes are not in the custodie of the Almighty but thine owne bosome For so that great Doctor of the Gentiles Secundum impoenitens cor tuum thesaurisas iram According to the impenitency of thine owne heart thou treasurest vp wrath to thy selfe against the day of wrath How then can that eye which should be fixed either on the tendernesse or mercy of his Creator glance so much on his iniustice as to make that the Midwife of so foule a progenie Obduration was neuer the childe of goodnesse neither can a sinne of so base a descent lay claime to omnipotencie It stands not I dare say with Gods power I am sure his will to reconcile two enemies in such an extremity of opposition Doe sweet water and puddle flow immediatly from one and the selfe-same spring light and darknesse from the selfe-same Sunne I know there is a stiffe-necked and bliud-fold Tribe which God hath left not made the storie of his vengeance whose affections are too dull and drousie in his seruice Men crest-fallen in deuotion whose hearts are so dead in their allegeance to him that they seeme spiritlesse hauing all the powers faculties of their soule benummed and their conscience without pulse or motion And of these the Prophet Incrassatum est cor populi Their heart is as fat as brawne These sticke not to belch open defiance in the face of the Almighty and with those Miscreants in Iob. are ready to expostulate with eternity Quis est omnipotens vt seruiemus ei Who is the Lord that we should serue him Such haue forehead◠of brasse which no shame can bore through and as the Prophet spake of Iuda a face of whoredome which refuseth modesty But Saint Gregory in his 10. Homily vpon Ezechiel hath proclaimed their doome Frontem cordis in impudentiam aperit culpa frequens vt quo crebrius committitur eò minus de illa committentis animus verecundetur Frequency of sinning doth flesh vs in immodesty assiduity in impudence Offences that are customarie are not easie of dimission and if thou once entertaine them as thy followers they will quickly intrude as thy companions Sinnes that are sed with delight with vse are as dangerous as those of Appetite which oftentimes proue no lesse inseparable than hereditary to doe well is as impossible to these as not to doe ill So can assiduity make a sinne both delightfull and naturall Can the Aethiop change his skinne and the Leopard his spots then may yee also doe well which are accustomed to doe euill That sinne then is irrazable which is so steeled with custome and may vnder goe the censure of that sometime Citie of God Insanabilis est dolor tuus Thy sinne is written with a pen of iron and with a claw of a Diamond is engrauen on the table of thy heart How then can wee without sacriledge and robbing of diuine honour make God the father of so foule and vnwashed a crime Obduration is the issue of thine owne transgression Perditio tua ex te ô Israel If destruction dog thee thanke thy corrupt affections not blame thy maker for he doth but leaue thee and they harden To lay then with some depraued libertines the weight and burden of our sinnes on the shoulder of Predestination and make that the wombe of those soule enormities may well passe for an infirmity not for excuse and indeed thus to shuffle with diuine goodnesse is no lesse fearefull than blasphemous For though God from eternity knew how to reward euery man either by crown or punishment Nemini tamē aut necessitatē aut voluntatem intulit delinquendi yet he neuer enioyned any man either a necessity or a will to sinne If any then fall off from goodnesse hee is hurried no lesse with the violence of his owne perswasion than concupiscence and in those desperate affaires Gods will is neither an intermedler hor compartner Cuius ope scimus multos ne laberentur retentos nullos vt laberentur impulsos saith Augustine By whose hand of prouidence wee know many to be supported that they might not fall none impeld that they should And in his answer to that 14. Article falsly supposed to be his Fieri non potest vt per quem à peccatis surgitur per eum ad peccata decidatur for one and the selfe-same goodnesse to be the life and death of the selfe-same sinne is so much beyond improbability that it is impossible If any then goe onward in the true rode of diuine graces no doubt but the finger of the Almighty points out his way to happinesse but if he wander in the by pathes of a vicious and depraued dissolutenesse his owne corrupt affections beckens him to ruine To loue then his children and neglect his enemies doth neither impaire Gods mercy nor impeach his iustice But why God should loue this as his childe neglect that as his enemy Nec possible est comprehendere nec licitum inuestigara is beyond all lawfulnesse of enquirie all ken of apprehension Let this then satisfie our desire of knowledge Et ab illo esse quod statur non esse ab illo quod ruitur That his prouidence is the staffe and crutch on which we so leane that we yet stand our corrupt affections the bruzed and broken reed on which if wee doe leane we fall If any flagger at those vnfathomed mysteries and his reason and apprehension be strooke dead at the contemplation of Gods eternall but hidden proiects let him season a little his amazement with adoration and at last solace his distempered thoughts with that of Gregory Qui infactis Dei c. In the abstruse and darker mysteries of God he that sees not a reason if he sees his own infirmity he sees a sufficient reason why he should not see Me thinkes this should cloy the appetite of a greedy inquisition and satisfie the distrust of any but of too querulous a disposition which with the eye of curiositie prying too nicely into the closet of Gods secrets are no lesse dazeled than
fecerunt I shut vp all with that state of Fulgentius in his first booke ad Mâ—â—cinum cap. 13. Where hauing long houered ouer this question An peccata siant ex praedestinatione He at last thus resolues it Potuit Deus sicut voluit praedestiuare quosdam ad gloriam quosdam ad poenam sed quos praedestinauit ad gloriam praedestinauit ad iustitiam quos autem praedestinauit ad poenam non praedestinauit ad culpam God when hee saues any man doth predestinate him as well to the meanes as to the end But in the reprobation of a sinner God destines the sinner onely to the punishment foreseeing but not determining those sinnes which shall in time draw Gods punishments downe vpon him Doe our corruptions harden then and God punisheth Take heed you Pharaohs of the world you which persecute the poore Israelite in his way to Canaan spurre not the goodnesse of the Almighty to reuenge or iustice Laesa patientia fit suror trample too much on the necke of patience you will turne it to fury It is true God hath feet of Lead clemency intermixt with slownesse of reuenge but he hath hands of iron they will grinde and bruise into powder when they are dared to combat Sera venit sed certa venit vindicta Deorum Procrastination of diuine iustice is euer waited on no lesse with a certainty of punishment than ruine What shall wee doe then wretched miserable that we are or to whom shall we flie for succour The good S. Augustine tells vs à Deo irato ad Deum placatum from the tribunall of his iustice to his throne of mercy and compassion That of Anselmus was most admirable Et si Domine ego commisi vnde me damnare potes tu tamen non amisisti vnde me saluare potes O blessed Iesus though I haue committed those transgressions for which thou maist condemne mee yet thou hast not lost those compassions by which thou maist saue me If our soules were in such a straight that wee saw hell opening her mouth vpon vs like the red sea before the Israelites the damned and vgly fiends pursuing vs behinde like the Egyptians on the right hand an on the left death and sea ready to ingulse vs yet vpon a broken heart and vndisguised sorrow would I speake to you in the confidence of Moses Stand still stand still behold the saluation of the Lord. Thou then which art opprest with the violence and clamour of thy sinnes and wantestan aduocate either to intercede or pitty heare the voice of the Lambe Cry vnto me I will heare thee out of my holy hill Is any heauily loaden with the weight of his offences or groanes vnder the yoke and tyrannie of manifold temptations Come vnto me I will refresh thee Doth any hunger after righteousnesse behold I am the bread of life take eat here is my body Doth any thirst after the waies of grace loe I am a liuing spring come drinke here is my bloud my bloud that was shed for many for the remission of sinnes for many not for all Hath sinne dominion ouer thee or doth it reigne in thy mortall heart are the wounds of thy transgressions so deepe that they cannot be searched or so old that they corrupt and putrifie where is the Samaritan that will either binde them vp or powre in oyle But art thou not yet dead in trespasses are not thy vlcers past cure are there any seeds of true life remaining is there any motion of repentance in thy soule will thy pulse of remorse beate a little haste thou but a touch of sorrow a sparke of contrition a graine of saith know there is oyle of comfort for him which mournes in Sion Not a teare drops from thee with sincerity which is either vnpittied or vnpreserued God puts it into his bottle On the other side is there a Pharaoh in thee an heart vnmollified a stone that will not be bruized a flint vnmalleable I both mourne for it and leaue it But is this heart of stone taken away and is there giuen thee a heart of flesh is it soft and tender with remorse truly sacrificed to sorrow know there is balme of Gilead for the broken heart balme that will both refresh and cure it Thou then which groanest in the spirit and art drawne out as it were into contrition for thy sinnes thou which hast washt thy hands in innocence goe cheerefully to the altar of thy God vnbinde thy sacrifice lay it on But hast thou done it sincerely from thy heart lurkes there no falshood there is all swept cleane and garnished doth the countenance of that smile as cheerefully as the other seemes to doe of the outward man if so thy fire is well kindled the Altar burnes clearly the sauour of thy incense shall pierce the clowds But is this repentance disguized hath it a touch of dissimulation in it is not thy olde rankor cleane disgorged but must thou againe to thy former vomit hypocrite thy Altar is without fire thy incense without smoke it shall neuer touch the nostrils of the Almighty thy prayers in his eares sound like brasse and tinkle like an ill-tuned Cimball all this formality of zeale is but a disease of the lip giue me thy heart my sonne I will haue that or none and that cleane too washt both from deceit and guilt That subtill fallacy of the eye pointing towards heauen that base hypocrisie of the knee kissing the earth that seeming austerity of the hand martyring thy breast gaines from me neither applause nor blessing the example of a Pharisee could haue chid thee to such an outside of deuotion Qui pectus suum tundit se non corrigit aggrauat peccata non tollit saith Augustine where there is an outward percussion of the breast without remorse of the inward man there is rather an aggrauation of sinne than a release these blanchings and guildings and varnishings of externall zeale are as odious in the eie of God as those of body in a true Christian this glosse this paint of demurenesse speakes but our whoredomes in religion the integrity of that man is open both to censure and suspition that is exposed either to the practise of it or the approbation A villaine is a villaine howsoever his garbe or habite speake him otherwise and an hypocrite is no lesse though sleeked ouer with an externall sanctity drest in the affectations of a preciser cut Let vs be truely that what we seeme to be and not seeme what we are not let there be dores casements in our breasts that men may see the loyaley twixt our heart and tongue and how our thoughts whisper to our tongue and how our tongue speakes them to the world A way with those Meteors and false-fires of Religion which not onely by-path vs in a blinded zeale but misleade others in our steps of errour Let vs put off the old man in our pride vaine-glorie hypocrisie enuy hatred malice and that foule disease of the times and vs vncharitablenesse and let vs put on the new man in sinceritie faith repentance sobrietie brotherly kindnesses loue and what without it disparages the tongue both of men and Angels charitie then at length all teares shall be wiped away from our eyes and we shall receiue that euerlasting benediction Come yee children inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world To which the Lord bring vs for Christ Iesus sake to whom be praise and power ascribed now and for euermore Amen Gloria in excelsis Deo FINIS
our vnderstanding than remoue our scruple where things from euerlasting haue such a doome which is not malleable either by change or reuocation For the Lord of hosts hath determined and who can disanull it and his hand is stretched out and who can turne it away Isay 14.27 Seeing then that election is from eternity and that not obnoxious to mutability or corruption we neither curtaile the elect of their primatiue glory nor of their number Which though they be a little flocke in respect of that herd and large droue of the damned yet in those sacred volumes of Gods diuiner Oracles we finde them numberlesse So Apoc. 7.9 These things I beheld and loe a great multitude which none could number of all nations and kinreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lambe cloathed with long white robes and palmes in their hands Whence those Factors for the Romish See would hew out a way to vniuersall grace making our election generall manifolde indefinite and would haue Christs death no lesse meritorious than propitiatory for the sinnes of the whole world A quaere long since on foot betweene Augustine and Pelagius and since in a fiery skirmish betweene the Calumist and the Lutheran out of whose mud and corruption there hath beene lately bred the Arminian a Sect as poisonous as subtill and will no Iesse allure than betray a flexible and yeelding iudgement For our own safety then and the easier oppugning of so dangerous a suggestion let vs examine a little of the extent bounds of this grace which Diuines cut into these three squadrons in Gratiam Praedestinationis vocationis iustificationis Gratia Praedestinationis is that of eternity the wombe and Nursery of all graces whereby God loued his elect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia vocationis a secondary grace by which God cals vs and by calling prescribes the meanes of our saluation And this grace hath a double prospect Either to that which is externall in libro Scripturae or creaturae where God did manifest himselfe as well by what he had made as by what he had written or to that which is internall of illumination or renouation of that in the intellect only which a reprobate may lay claime to of this in the heart which by a holy reseruation and incommunicablenesse is peculiar to the elect Gratia instificationis which is not a grace inherent but bestowed and stands as a direct Antipode to humane merit Yet not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Schooles christen with a gratia gratis data any gift which God out of his free bounty hath bestowed vpon vs beyond our desert as Prudence Temperance and the like for in these the heathen had their share whose singular endowmēts haue made posterity both an admirer and a debter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia gratum faciens a gift perfect and fanctified which doth so qualifie the receiuer that hee is not onely acceptable but glorious in the eyes of the bestower a◠Faith Hope the third sister Charity which no lesse reconcile than iustifie vs before God We conclude then that the externall grace which the creature affordeth vs is not limited to a priuate number but to all yet we denie the power and vertue of saluation in it We allow a sufficiencie of redargution for conuicting the heathen who when they knew God worshipped him not as God and therefore are both desperate and inexcusable Moreover the grace which the Scripture affor deth vs as it is not vniuersall so not of absolute sufficiency for faluation but onely in genere mediorum externorum as the Schooles speake because it doth prescribe vs the meanes how we may be saued but it doth not apply the meanes that we are saued Againe that grace of Illumination is more peculiarly confined and if by the beames of that glorious Sunne which enlightneth euery man that comes into the world we attaine to the knowledge of the Scripture yet the bare knowledge doth not saue vs but the application But the grace of regeneration is not onely a sufficient but an effectuall grace and as 't is more powerfull so 't is more restrained they onely partake of this blessednes whom God hath no lesse enlightned than sanctified and pointed out then sealed men inuested in white robes of sinceritie whose delinquencies though sometimes of a deepe tincture are now both dispēsed with obliterated not because they were not sinfull but because not imputed so inuolucrous and hidden are Gods eternall proiects that in those he relinquisheth or saues his reason is his will yet that as farre discoasted from tyranny as iniustice The Quare we may contemplate not scan lest our misprision grow equall with our wonder And here in a double ambush dangerously lurke the Romanist and the Arminian men equally swolne with rancor of malice and position and with no lesse violence of reason than importunitie presse the vertue of Christs death for the whole world Alas we combat not of the price and worth of Christs death but acknowledge That an able ransome of a thousand worlds but the ground of our duell tends to this whether Christ dying proposed to himselfe the saluation of the whole world We distinguish then inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi gratiam Christi The merits of Christ and the gracious application of those merits His merits are able to allay the fury of his incensed Father and reconcile vnto him the very reprobates but the application of those merits are restrained to the Elect for they onely are capeable of so great a blessednesse For proofe wherof we haue not only that venerable Bench and Councell of Fathers and Schoole-men but also a higher court of Parliament to appeale vnto the Registers and penmen of sacred Chronicles Euangelists Apostles which punctually insinuate Christs death onely for his own for his Church for his Brethren for those whose head hee was laying down his life for some and shedding his blood for some for his sheepe his little flock his peculiar Priesthood his tabernacle body spouse his Canaan Sion Ierusalem his Ambassadors Saints Angels in a word this Cuius vult The Elect. I 'le not beat your eares with a voluminous citation of text and Fathers I 'le draw only one shaft out of this holy quiuer and direct it to the Roman aduersary which if he shall repell or put by I 'le proclaime hereafter a perpetuall truce The maine and chiefe cause that impeld Christ to die was his loue Iohn 15. But Christ loued not all but his own Eph. 5. Therefore Christ died not for all but for his owne The Iesuite here retraicts and we haue none now left to encounter vs but the Arminian who like a cunning Fencer hath many a quaint flourish and with a false blow sometimes staggers not wounds his aduersary The part most in dangered is the eie of our Intellect and iudgement which he thus dazzels with a subtile nicety That Christ hath
obtained reconciliation for all for Saul and Iudas Moulin in his Anatomy of Arminianisme but not as they were reprobates but as they were sinners For God saith he did equally intend and desire the saluation of all and the reason why they were not saued was their incredulitie and misapplying of this gracious reconciliation and attonement Thus they would betray weaknesse into the hands of errour and for a fairer glosse and gilding of this their treachery they distinguish inter Impetrationem applicationem Pretending that Christ did impetrate reconciliation for all but the application of that leanes wholly to the elect How crazy and ill tempered this position is wee 'le declare briefly First wee deny that Christ by his death hath impetrated reconciliation for all for Saul or Iudas Neither can our thought much lesse our beleefe giue way to so strange a Paradox Idem ibidem That remission of sinnes is obtained for those whose sinnes are not remitted or that saluation was purchased for those whom God from all eternity had decreed to condemne Againe we acknowledge Christs death sufficient for all all beleeuers nay all if they did beleeue But that Saul or Iudas or the residue of that cursed Hierarchy should reap the benefit of his Passion we vtterly disclaime as erronious and hereticall For if Christ by his death hath reconciled Iudas how i' st that Iudas suffers for his sinnes for we cannot without impeachment both of his mercy and iustice too say that Christ suffered for Iudas his sins yet Iudas is damned for those sinnes And since Christ as he is God hath from euerlasting destined Iudas to damnation how i' st that the same Christ as he is man and mediator betweene God and man should reconcile Iudas whom from eternity he had reprobated Againe if Christ hath obtained reconciliation for all men then none shall be borne without the couenant of Christ so that of the Apostle will be false That By nature we are all borne the children of wrath Ephes 2. And can we truely be stiled the children of wrath if reconciliation be obtained for all men without exception And if all infants borne without the couenant are reconciled Cur non clementi crudelitate in cunis iugulauimus saith the learned Moulin why doe we not in a mercifull cruelty murther them in their cradles for then their saluation were sealed but if they suruiue they are nourished in Paganisme infidelitie which are the beaten roades and highwayes to destruction And if we scan saith he the nicety of these words the obtaining of reconciliation to be applied and the application of reconciliation obtained wee shall finde it a meere curiositie to harrow and perples the braine and torture the vnderstanding since Christ hath neuer obtained that which he hath not applied neither hath he applied that which he hath not obtained Yet these men either of a head-strong opinion or learned madnesse are so violent in the prosecution of their tenents that no strength of answer will satisfie their obiection nor modestie of language suppresse their clamour but a foule mouthed Forsterus will bray out his witty spleene with an Error furor Zuinglianorum His reasons are as slender as they are many the vertigoes and impostures of agiddie braine fitter for silence than rehearsall and for scorne than consutation Wee apply then Is grace vniuersally bountifull and mercy open-brested vnto all What meane then those Epithites of outcast cursed damned and that triple inscription of death hell and damnation are they either of pollicie or truth Are they things reall or fancied onely to bug-beare and awe mortalitie What would the Throne portend Iudge aduersarie Sergeant prison or those horrid tones of worme fire brimstone howling gnashing Is the Scripture the Anuill of vntruth or are these things no more than faigned and imaginary What will those flames of your threatned purgarory proue at last but the Chimaera and coinage of a phantasticke braine And a 500 yeares indulgence but the sharke and legerdemaine or your Lord God the Pope Either your opinion is sandy or your prison both which must fleet with your holy Fathers honour if the armes of mercie be expanded to all Againe are the merits of Christ appliable to all Sweare whore drinke prophane blaspheme and if there be in that Alcharon and cursed rolle a sinne of a fairer growth baffle the Almighty at his face Thinkest thou that heauen was euer guiltie of such treason against her Soueraigne or that it will euer entertaine a guest so exposed to the height of dissolutenesse and debaushment No thou must know that one day there will be a dread full summons either at those particular accounts at the houre of Death or at the generall audit of the last trumpe when thou shalt meet with a new Acheldema and vale of Hinnom places no lesse of terror than of torment the fiery dungeon and the burning Tophet where the fury of the great Iudge realls in a floud of brimstone and his reuenge boiles in a firy torrent limitlesse and vnquenchable On the other side happily maist thou slumber without howle or skreeke of conscience thou wounded and deiected spirit Thou whose glorious ornaments are but sack cloth and ashes and thy choisest fare but the bread of sorrow and contrition Know there is balme of Gilead for the broken-hearted sinner and oile of comfort for those which mourne in Sion Behold how thy Sauiour comes flying downe with the wings of his loue and sweepts away thy sinnes that they shall neither temporally shame thee nor eternally condemne thee Who shall wipe off all teares from your eyes and lodge you in the bosome of old Abraham where there is blisse vnspeakeable for euer And thus I haue shewed you the happinesse of sheepe vnder the state of mercie Time bids me now to reflect on the misery of Goats as they are vnder the condition of hardening PART II. He hardeneth WHat he that is rich in goodnesse and his mercies aboue all his workes he that mournes in secret for our offences and vowes that he desireth not the death of a sinner will he harden How can this stand either with his promise or mercy or iustice Gods vnreuealed proiects are full of wonder which if our apprehension cannot diue to our beliefes must sound Occulta esse possunt iniusta non possunt fraught they may be with sullen and darker riddles neuer with iniustice Let vs first then take a suruey of Mans heart and see to what miseries the hardnesse of it hath exposde our irregular predecessors and after try whether we can make prouidence the mother of so deformed an issue And here awhile let vs obserue S. Bernard tutoring his Eugenius Cor durum a heart which the softer temper of Gods working spirit leaues to mollifie and its owne corrupt affections begins once to mould Like that of Naball to be all stone becomes at last so cauterized Vt semetipsum non exhorreat quià nec sentit that it is so