unto all men in regard of the substance of their souls which are invisible incorporeal and intelligent as God is Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man And Gen. 9. 6. again in James Therewith curse we men James 3 9. which are made after the similitude of God We read of the Emperour Theodosius that having exacted a new tribute from the people of Antioch there arose See Theodor. hist lib. 5. c. 21. a commotion in which the people broke down the Statue of the Empress Placilla his late wife He in a rage sent his Forces against the city to sack it One Macedonius a Monk interceded thus If the Emperour be so much and so justly offended that the image of his wife was so defaced shall not the king of heaven said the Monk be angry at him if he shall deliberately deface and break the image of God in so many men as are like to perish in this Massacre What a vast difference is there betwixt reasonable creatures and that brazen image we for that image are easily able to set up one hundred but the Emperour with all his power is not able to restore so much as an hair of these men if once he kill them upon which admonition Theodosius it is said forbore his design Secondly in a strict sense So 't is appliable onely to Christ who is the image of the invisible God the brightness Colos 1. 15. of his glory and express image of his Heb. 1. 3. person For all the three things that go to make a perfect image viz. Likeness Derivation and Agreement in nature are concurrent here The kings image is in his coin and in his son but after a different manner In his coin there may be likeness and derivation but not identity of Nature which is also added in his son In Saints there are the former they are like to God in their qualities derived from him but in Christ all three Thirdly in a middle sense neither so largely as to extend to all men nor so strictly as to be restrained unto Christ alone but between both So taken it is nothing else but that conformity to God from which all men fell in the first Adam and unto which none but Saints are restored by the second § 6. For the third The parts of which man consisteth are body and soul Moses at first speaks to both The Gen. 〈◊〉 7. Lord God saith he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul God had before made Spirits by themselves and bodies by themselves some celestial others terrestrial now on the sixth day for a conclusion of his works he frames a creature consisting of a spirit and a body joyned together in whom he includes the choice perfections of all the former One observes that God Weemse Portracture p. 41. hath joyned all things in the world by certain Media The earth and water are coupled by slime the air and water by vapours Exhalations are a middle between air and fire Quick silver a middle between water and mettals coral between roots and stones so man between beasts and Angels Manilius hath comprehended much in Manil. lib. 4. apud Lip◠Physiolog l. 3. dissert 2. few verses Quid mirum noscere mundum Si possint homines quibus est mundus in ipsis Exemplúmque Dei quisque est in imagine parva In English thus What wonder if men know the world Since they themselves the world epitomize Yea every one a medal of God is Where he doth in effect call his body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world and his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little God In the pursuance Charron of wisdome pag. 16. of the former the Stoicks were wont to say That it was better being a fool in an humane shape then being wise in the form of a beast Yea Solomon himself in the twelfth of Ecclesiastes findeth in his head both Sun Moon and Stars Well therefore may his head resemble the heavens where these lights are as our eyes also are in our upper parts without which the world would be a dungeon his heart the fire it being kept hot by continual motion and conveying natural heat to the whole body his bloud and other humours the water his spirits the air and his flesh and bones the earth In prosecution of the latter Tully a Platonist Scito te Deum esse c. Lib. de somn Scip. goeth so far as to bid a man take notice that he is a God and some Divines Bonaventurae Amatorium pag. 601. col 2. finde a resemblance of the Trinity in mans soul The understanding will and conscience three faculties but one soul as Father Son and holy Ghost three persons but one God Let us all mean while taste and see how good the Lord is in preparing us such bodies and infusing such souls into us but withall so as to consider and improve the Original of both § 7. Seeing Adams body had its original from the dust of the earth the consideration hereof should be an antidote against pride in all his posterity Art not thou the son of Adam was not he the son of dust was not that the son of nothing when the Lord would humble Adam after the fall he put him in minde of his being dust In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat Gen. 3 19. Gen. 18. 27. thy bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return And when Abraham would be low before God he styleth himself dust and ashes Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes Ecclus 10. 9. Why art thou proud O dust and ashes saith Siracides and Bernard Cùm sis humi limus cur non es humilimus Why art not thou most humble O man seeing thou art but the dust of the earth As for the soul that was purely from God Divinae particula aurae as an ancient Poet calleth it for God saith Moses breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul This should render us restless till that Image after which Adam was made be renewed in us by regeneration The relicks of it found in men unconverted what are they but magni nominis umbra the mere shadow of a great and glorious name How unlike are natural men to God for all them Our Queen Elizabeth once in her progress observing some pictures of hers hung up for signs to be very unlike her caused them to be taken down and burnt Burning must be the end of those that continue unlike to God whereas such as are by converting grace changed into the same 2 Cor. 3. 18. image as Paul speaketh from glory to glory shall at length arrive
neck of the true Spouse of Christ which makes her to look pleasingly and amiably in the eyes of her Beloved and distinguishes her from all false and counterfeit lovers To all this we may finally add what it is in the very work it self and the contrivances of it wherein not to anticipate the thoughts of others that shall peruse it soundness of judgement with elegancy of expression Sublimity of Notion with sobriety of spirit Variety of reading with accurateness of composure Sweetness of wit with savouriness of heart do seem to be linked together in so rare and happy a conjunction as which makes this Chain of Principles to be a chain of Pearls The Lord by his holy spirit set home the Truths in it upon the hearts of all those who shall be made partakers of it To him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen Cambridge Novemb. 2. 1659. THOMAS HORTON WILLIAM DILLINGHAM A Collection of the several Aphorismes and Exercitations contained in the ensuing TREATISE APHORISME I. Pag. 1. MAns blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 2. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiencie that attend them An apostrophie to the world EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 20. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 29. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 43. The first inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and Saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy APHORISME II. Pag. 61. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 61. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 72. The insufficiencie of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshipped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 84. Oracles of God vocal or written Books of Scripture so called in five respects viz. In regard of their declaring and foretelling their being consulted prized and preserved EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 95. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity of piety of veracity of duration and of Authority The divine authority of Scripture asserted by arguments An inference from the whole Aphorisme APHORISME III. Pag. 111. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 111. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 120. That there is a God the prime dictate of natural light deducible from mans looking backward to the creation forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death upward to the Angels above us downwards to inferiour beings within our selves to the composition of our bodies and dictates of our consciences about us to the various occurrences in the world EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 129. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive A brief exposition thereof Satans impudence Nature and art both unable to discover the Trinity What Scripture revealeth about it Basils memento Julians impiety Socinians branded The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes 26. EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 143. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiosity to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweetness of taste sense of interest and sincerity of obedience APHORISME IV. Pag. 155. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 155. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 169. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Tit. 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 27. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 181. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end John 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 201. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture
you of what is written in the hundred fourty and sixth Psalm Happy is he that Psal 146. 5. hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God EXERCITATION 4. Exerc. 4. The first Inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy § 1. IN the synagogues of old upon the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles called by the Jews Hosanna Rabbah the great Hosanna and by the Evangelist The last day the great day of Jos 7. 37. vid. Ludov. de Dieu in loc the feast four portions of Scripture were wont to be read viz. The close of the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy the last words of the Prophet Malachy the beginning of Joshua and that passage concerning Solomons rising up from his knees after his prayer and blessing the people with a loud voice in the eighth chapter of the first book of Kings Then did Jesus who was the end of the Law and the Prophets the true Joshua and Solomon stand up saying If any man thirst let him John 7. 38. come unto me and drink He that beleeveth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But why did he then speak of waters Tremellius giveth this account of that out Annot. in loc of the Talmud The Jews saith he upon that day used with much solemnity and joy to fetch water from the river Siloah to the Temple where being delivered to the Priests it was by them poured upon the altar the people in the mean time singing out of Isaiah With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells Isa 12 3. of salvation Our Saviour therefore to take them off from this needless if not superstitious practise telleth them of other and better waters which they were to have of him according to what he had elsewhere said by the ministery of the same Prophet in these most emphatical words Ho every one Isa 55. 1 2. that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat yea Come buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Words that besides an intimation of the forementioned truths concerning the creatures inability and the sufficiency of God in Christ to satisfie souls clearly hold forth a double improvement thereof one by way of invitation the other by way of expostulation § 2. The Invitation is set on with vehemence and importunity Ho come but as not content with that he doubleth it yea Come ye and tripleth it yea Come Not Come and look on or Come and cheapen but Come and buy buy and eat They may be rationally said to Come who frequent the Ordinances wherein Christ is usually to be found They to buy who part with somewhat are at some cost and pains in pursuit of him They to eat who feed on him by a lively faith Careless wretches will not so much as vouchsafe to Come by reason of their oxen or farms or some other impediment the Lord must have them excused Formal professours Come indeed but refuse to Buy will lay out no serious endeavours in searching the Scriptures and their own deceitfull hearts but are merely superficial in such undertakings Temporary beleevers whose hearts are really though not savingly wrought upon seem to have bought yet do not eat for want of that spirit of faith which ingrafts men into Christ and makes them as truly one with him as the body is with the meat it feeds upon Want we encouragements to accept of this invitation The place it self presents us with three § 3. One from the fulness of that satisfaction which is here tendered under the metaphors of water wine milk and bread the last whereof is implied partly in those terms of opposition For that which is not bread as if he had said ye might have had that of me which is bread indeed partly in the verb Eat which cannot so properly be applied to any commodity here mentioned water wine and milk being liquids as to bread Now there is somewhat in Christ to answer each of these His flesh is bread his bloud is wine his John 6. 51. Matth. 26. 28 29. John 7. 38 39. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Spirit is waters his doctrine is milk But because I conceive the Holy Ghost in this place doth not so much intend a parallel of these as a declaration of that sufficiency which is to be found in Christ and his benefits for saving to the utmost of all those that shall come unto God by him I shall onely pitch upon that consideration and by adding unto this a like place in the Revelation briefly demonstrate from them both how all-sufficient a Saviour he is This in Isaiah holds forth somewhat proper to every sort of true beleevers Milk for babes water for such Vinum Lac senum as are young and hot wine for the aged bread for all The other is that of Christ to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea I counsel thee to buy of me gold Rev. 3. 18. tried in the fire that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see where he commends his gold for such as is tried in the fire his raiment for such as will take away shame and his eye-salve for a special vertue to make the blinde see Take them together and there is in them enough to supply our principal defects viz. unbelief in the heart for which there is here gold tried in the fire whereby we may probably understand the grace of faith concerning which we read in Peter That the tryal of your faith 1 Pet. 1. 7. being much more pretious then of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise And unholiness in the life for which there is the white raiment if by it we understand inherent righteousness according to that in the Apocalypse To her was granted that she Rev. 19. 8. should be arraied in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints Lastly Ignorance in the minde for which there is his Eye-salve to remove it according to the Apostles prayer for his Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdome Ephes 1. 17 18. and revelation the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. § 4. A second encouragement is from the universality of this offer Ho every one that thirsteth come so
Christ his Divinity shining as fire his Humanity darkening as a cloud yet but one person As that pillar departed not from them by day or by night all the while they travelled in the wilderness So whilest the Churches pilgrimage lasts in this world the safe conduct of Christ by his Spirit and Ordinances shall be continued But as at their entrance into Canaan a type of heaven the pillar is thought to have been removed because not mentioned in the sequele of the story and because when Israel passed over Jordan we reade not of the pillar but the Ark going before them So when the Church shall arrive at heaven her resting place the mediatory conduct of Christ is to cease and the Ordinances which are here of use to disappear § 2. Mean while this infallible counsel of God hath been most effectually administred by the Prophets and Apostles especially by Christ himself whose words were such as led directly to everlasting bliss Insomuch as when Jesus said to the twelve will John 6. 67 68. ye also go away Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life As if he had said Go whither we will to other teachers we shall be sure not to meet with words of eternal life any where else Such are proper to Christs school taught onely by himself and his under-officers whereof one hath left this profession upon record That which we have 1 John 1. 3. seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ So the Disciple whom Jesus loved in his first epistle Another this I take you to record this day Act. 20. 26 27. that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God So Paul in his valedictory speech to the Elders of Ephesus Which he could not have said had not the doctrine he preached among them been sufficient to have led all his hearers to the fruition of God in Christ and therein to complete happiness That by the counsel of God he intended to decipher Christian Religion is manifest because that was the sum of all his ministery as we finde him declaring elsewhere Having obtained help of Act. 2â— 22 27. God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead c. § 3. Counsel it is and therefore styled sometimes mystery and that a great one Without controversie great is 1 Tim. 3. 16. the mystery of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion as others render it meaning the Christian an epitome whereof followeth God manifest in the flesh and 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. sometimes wisdome and that not among punies and novices who see not into the depth of things but among them that are perfect Sometimes The wisdome of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Maâ—t Expos fidei God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which made an ancient writer affirm that the mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our understanding above the discourse of humane reason above all that any creature can comprehend Yea it will be found the Counsel of God himself and not of man if we do but consider a few of its materials viz. principles above the reach of mans wit A resurrection of the dead a mysticall union of all beleevers among themselves and to their head A Trinity of persons in one Essence two Natures in one person God reconciled to men by the bloud men to God by the spirit of Christ with others of the like elevation Doctrines contrary to the bent of mans will As that of original sin which represents him to himself as a childe of wrath worthy before he see the light of being cast into outer darkness And that of self-deniall which taketh him off from confidence in his own abilities whereas proud Nature challengeth a self-sufficiency and will hardly be content with less Lastly Promises and threatnings beyond the line of humane motives and dissuasives exhibiting to the sons of men not temporal rewards and punishments onely but the gift of eternal life and the vengeance of eternal fire Things which not any of the most knowing Law-givers and Princes of this world did or could hold forth till the onely wise God was pleased to reveal and urge them in the sacred authentick records of Christianity § 4. Now Christian Religion promotes our guidance to the fruition we treat of these two ways viz. by discovering God in Christ and by uniting to him the former it performeth as Christian the latter as Religion First as Christian it discovers God in Christ which other Religions do not No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the John 1. 18. Father he hath declared him So the Evangelist or as others think the Baptist All things are of God who hath reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ c. So the Apostle The poor Pagan knoweth neither God nor Christ but ignorantly turneth the truth of God into a lie worshipping creatures and in stead of Christ is directed by his Theology to the service of a middle sort of divine powers called Daemons and See M. Mede his Apostasie of the latter times pag. 9 10 sequent looked at as Mediatours between the celestial Sovereign Gods whom the Gentiles worship and mortal men The modern Jew acknowledgeth the true God of his fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob but owneth not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ yea disowneth him so far as not onely to expect another Messias but if writers deceive us not to blaspheme and curse him and his followers The deluded Mahometan confesseth one God the Creatour of heaven and earth yea conceiveth so well of the Lord Jesus as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ yet will neither acknowledge his satisfaction upon which our salvation is founded nor his Divinity by vertue whereof that satisfaction is meritorious Whereas the true and pious Christian is by his Religion taught to say with Paul in direct opposition to all the three forementioned sects We 1 Cor. 8. v. 4 5 6. know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one For though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father of whom
is no Lord of our spirits but God alone who onely is greater then our hearts as St John speaketh 1 John 3. 20. This made the good Emperour History of the Bohemian persecutions English in 8º chap. 39. § 2. Maximilian the second say That whosoever assumed to himself a power over the consciences of men set himself down in the throne of God His son Rodolphus who succeeded him in the Empire resolved to walk in his fathers steps yet was once unhappily wrought upon by the subtlety Ibid. chap. 40. § 1. of the Jesuites to give way to the passing of an Edict for shutting up the Protestants Churches during some time But that very day news was brought him that Alba Regia the chief city he had in Hungary was taken by the Turks Whereupon in great astonishment he is reported to have said I Expectabam tale quid postquam hodie Dei regimen quod est conscient arum usurpaâ—e coeperam Joh. Laet. compend hist pag. 666. expected that some such mischief as this should befall me seeing this day I began to usurp the government belonging to God which is of consciences § 4. II. In point of unaccountableness The greatest Princes upon earth do or should govern by laws to the making whereof others concur as well as they But our God is a law to himself He onely can write upon his imperial Edicts My reason for it is my will Yet because Stat pro ratione voluntas of the holiness of his nature his will is always most just so as he never enacted any thing but what is in it self equal and reasonable although perhaps to our shallow understandings it may appear otherwise as to our eyes turrets and steeples how upright soever if their height be exceeding great do often seem crooked and look as if they stood awry which should deter us from censuring any of his Decrees or Dispensations as some great but unhallowed wits are wont to do of whom Luther maketh this sober and sad complaint They require that God act jure humano according Luther de servo arbitrio cap. 173. to what the sons of men do commonly account right and just or otherwise that he would cease to be God Tell not them of the secrets of his Sovereign Majesty let him render a reason of his being God if he speak do or will any thing but what appeareth equal to men Proud flesh cannot vouchsafe the God of heaven so much honour as to beleeve any thing to be good or right which is spoken or acted above what the Codex of Justinian or the fifth book of Aristotles Ethicks defineth to be just I confess indeed that God often condescendeth in his holy word to give men a reason of some proceedings and to clear them up to our understandings but it is more then he needeth to do more then we ought to expect in all cases It will therefore be our wisdome to forbear playing the Criticks upon his decrees and administrations considering that he alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unaccountable not to be called in question for any of his doings and always remembring that of Paul Nay but O man who art thou that Rom. 9. 20 21. repliest against God Hath not the potter power over the clay Together with that of Job God is greater then man why dost Job 33. 12 13. thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters § 5. Thirdly In point of Almightiness In the Princes of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority and Power are often severed their authority may be great when their power to manage it is but small David was King yet could not act as he desired for the sons of Zerviah were too strong for him But in God they always go hand in hand for the accomplishing of what his wisdome hath designed Therefore I called it Omnipotent Sovereignty I know Job 42. 2. saith Job that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be withholden from thee meaning that God cannot be hindered in the execution or bringing to pass of whatsoever he hath in the thoughts and purposes of his heart The Angel to Mary With God nothing Luke 1. 37. shall be impossible Paul to the Ephesians He is able to do exceeding abundantly Ephes 3. 20. above all that we ask or think Other Scriptures may seem opposite to these but are not God that cannot lie Tit. 1. 2. He cannot denie himself saith St Paul For 2 Tim. 2. 1â— answer to these and the like instances we must distinguish of Impossibles They are of two sorts Impossibilia naturae Voetius Disp Theol. part 1. 〈◊〉 109. and Impossibilia naturâ First there are divers things impossible indeed to nature such as in the ordinary course of secondary causes cannot be done which yet to God are most feaseable for example working of miracles giving sight to such as were born blinde raising up children to Abraham out of the very stones in the street Secondly Some other things are impossible not to nature onely but in nature and that either in reference to the nature of God when they are such as argue imperfection in the doer as to sin and to die or in respect to the nature of the things themselves when they are such as implie contradiction as for a creature to be made independent The former Si ista passet Deus non esset omnipotens Magna in Deo potentia est non posse mentiri August lib. 1. de Symbol cap. 1. of these God himself cannot do not through want but through height and abundance of power He cannot sin lie or deny himself and that because he is Omnipotent it is for impotent creatures to be liable unto such kinde of imperfections as these are Neither can he do the latter yet is it not through any defect of power in God that such things cannot be done but through want of capacity in the things which are simply impossible So then when we ascribe Almightiness to God the meaning is that whereever divine Understanding can be a principle of direction and divine will a principle of injunction there divine power can shew it self an able principle of execution Or in plainer terms That God can do whatsoever he will and the onely reason why things that do either argue imperfection or imply contradiction fall not within the compass of his power is because they are such as for want of goodness or entity cannot become objects of his will § 6. Now if the perfection of God be so very high in regard of his Omnipotent sovereignty think of thine own lowness O man or rather O worm and no man and be confounded within thy self upon comparing thy servile condition by nature with his Sovereignty thy imbecility with his Omnipotence Adam indeed so long as he stood was an universal Monarch having dominion both over himself and
their interest in him I do not mean an haughty spirit swelled with pride for that is altogether unsutable to a saving interest in God who beholds the proud afar off but Psalm 138. 6. an humble spirit greatned by continual converse with the great God who by raising vp his servants hearts to the contemplation and fruition of higher objects maketh them too big for this world It is reported of Moses that when he was come to years or according to the original when he was waxed great Hebr. 11. 24 25 26 27. in spirit perhaps as well as in stature he did overlook the preferments pleasures and riches of the world which are all there intimated yea the menaces of it too for it is there also said He feared not the wrath of the king but endured as seeing him who is invisible His conversing with the great God had made all these to appear to him as petty things To a soul truly great no Animo magno nil magnum worldly matter hath any true greatness in it As if one could take a station in heaven whatsoever is here below would appear but small in his sight by reason of its distance It is accounted by some a great matter to have the frowns and ill word of a great man But St John whose conversation was in heaven made nothing of it Speaking of Diotrophes his malignancy and reproachfull speeches he phraseth it thus prating against us with malitious John 2 epistle v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words The term properly signifieth trifling Though Diotrephes were a great prelate and his words very malitious yet the Apostles spirit was raised so far above them that with him all were but trifles and by him contemned as such APHORISME V. The Goodness and Greatness of God are both abundantly manifested by his decrees of Election and Preterition together with his works of Creation and Providence EXERCITATION 1. Exerc. 1. How predestination cometh to be treated of here Election described from the Nature Antiquity Objects Products and Cause of it Rom. 11. 33. 2 Tim. 1. 9. with Tit. 1. 2. Ephes 1. 4. with Matth. 25. 34. opened Of Acts supposing their objects Of Acception of persons what it is and that Predestination doth not import it Acts 13. 48. Expounded and vindicated Whether one Elect may become a reprobate The negative maintained and 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26. cleared Ephes 5 and 11. enlightned Concerning the good pleasure of Gods will and the counsel thereof § 1. I Durst not wholly wave the doctrine of Predestination no not in this Treatise of Principles after I had duely Aph. 5. pondered that grave admonition of Ambrose or according to others of Prosper Quae Deus occulta esse voluit non sunt scrutanda quae autem monifesta fecit non sunt neganda ne in illis illicitè curiosi in istis damnabiliter inveniamur in grati De vocar Gent. cap. 7. Such things as God would have kept secret must not be pried into by us nor such denied as he hath openly declared lest we be found in the former attempt unlawfully curious in the latter damnably unthankfull And also laid to heart the endeavours not of foreiners onely but of certain late English writers to possess their readers with vehement and strong prejudices against the long-received truth in those points One of them telleth us It is sacrilegious to grant that God hath I. G. Red. Redeem pag. 243. lin 7. Ibid. pag. 278. lin 46. from eternity elected a certain number of men personally unto salvation whom he purposeth to bring thereunto infallibly c. Elsewhere styling it That capitall errour of personal Election and Reprobation Another speaking of preterition or negative reprobation hath these words This is T. P. Divine philanthropy defended c. 4. § 2. one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have been infamously invented to disguise and palliate the frightfull rigidness of their doctrine Not long after he calleth it canting pretends the lamentable distinction as it is there by him styled to be no more then a trick insufficient to buoy up a sinking cause and in another book of his The dream of absolute preterition Mean Divine purity defended pag. 97. while where alas is the reverence and submission due to Scripture that onely card and compass by which we are to sail in this ocean that onely clue by the help whereof this labyrinth is to be traversed It directly opposeth Rom. 11. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Electi and Reliqui the elect and such as were passed by in that saying The election hath obtained and the rest were blinded In it we reade of a book of life containing Revel 13. 8. 21. 27. 26. 15. the names of all those whom God hath chosen and of others whose names were not written in that book Of some whom the Lord knoweth for 2 Tim. 2. 19. Maâ—th 7. 23. his and others to whom he will say I never knew you Of Christs sheep given John 10. 26 28 29. to him by the father and of such persons as were not his sheep nor accordingly so given to him This I hope is no canting there is neither Errour nor Trick in all this but to proceed § 2. Election as to our purpose which concerns the choise of men onely not of Angels is that secret unsearchable decree of God wherein he did from everlasting single out of the rest of mankinde a definite number of particular persons ordaining them infallibly unto the attainment of holiness here and happiness hereafter according to the counsel and good pleasure of his Will Which description offers to the readers consideration as things material and not unfit to be treated of provided it be soberly done the Nature Antiquity Object Products and Cause of Election First The Nature of it It is a secret unsearchable decree of God The two principall emanations of God's Will respecting intellectual creatures are his Decrees and his Commands They differ as in sundry other things so in point of perspicuitie The Commands are plain he that runs may read his duty in them the Decrees abstruse Our destinies cannot be so easily read as our duties may And whereas divers secret things may yet be discovered upon diligent search according to that Proverb of Solomon Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water Prov. 20. 5. but a man of understanding will draw it out The Decrees of God are so secret as to be withall unsearchable Whence the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of Rom. 11. 13. God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out where by Judgements it is as I conceive most proper to understand the Decrees of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence cerno decerno decretum his Will by Waies the Administrations of his Providence in order to the execution of those
Coloss 1. 21. tels the Colossians yea the carnal minde or the wisdome of the flesh as he speaks to the Romans is enmity against Roman 8. 7. God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be whence it is that one or other of the great Masters of Reason as they would be accounted although they be not unwilling to yield an independant Sovereignty and Arbitrary working to some men as in the Eastern parts of the world most do to their absolute Monarchs as at this day and the Romane Senate did of old to Augustus Cesar witness Dion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Cass Roman hist lib. 53. p. 516. in ant edit Graec. Lat. Cassius in his history The Senate saith he freed him from all the necessity of law so as he might do or not do what he list as having both himself and the law at his disposal yet out of their deep enmity and malignity against God deny him the like prerogative and will therefore be always found opposing his Decrees and those most that are most Arbitrary This hath been the root of that notorious piece of opposition in labouring that the decrees of God should be wholly silenced and either not studied or if studied not disputed or if disputed not preached of Some such there were in Austins time against whom he bends his discourse in the 14 15 and 16. Chapters of his book De Bono Perseverantiae And some there are at this day that ranck the points of Predestination among Fruitless and Sapless Speculations Holy Bucer was of a far different judgement He in one of his first Lectures Sâ—â—hâ—â—jus Electionis memoria meditatio nobis auferretur Bone Deus quomode resisteremus Diabole Quoties enim Diabolus tentat fidem nostram nunquam autem non tentat tunc sempeâ— ad Electionem est nobis recurreadum at Cambridge upon the epistle to the Ephesians after published by Tremellius Si hujus electionis c. If the memory and meditation of Gods election were taken from us good Lord how should we resist the Devil For so often as Satan tempts my faith which he is ever tempting of then do I always betake my self to free election c. A little after he asserts the doctrine of election as a principle ground not of solid comfort onely but of solid piety and of true love to God in which regards he would byâ— all means have it preached in coetu fidelium in the open congregation Verily this famous University is likely to continue famous so long as it continueth orthodox We may expect to share in the Apostles benediction and hope that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit will be with us so long as we teach to the praise of the glory of free grace the love of God in electing freely what persons he will the grace of Christ in dying freely and with a special intention for those whom the Father had elected and the communication of the Spirit in freely converting and finally preserving those whom the father had so chosen and the Son so died for Sure I am our blessed Saviour once said to his Disciples In this Luke 10. 20. rejoyce that your names are written in heaven and that nothing doth more inflame a Christians love then a firm belief of his personal election from eternity after he hath been able to evidence the writing of his name in heaven by the experience he hath had of an heavenly calling and an heavenly conversation When the Spirit of God whose proper work it is to assure as it was the Fathers to elect and the Sons to redeem hath written the law of life in a Christians heart and therewith enabled him to know assuredly that his name is written in the book of life he cannot then but melt with flames of holy affection according to that most emphatical speech of Bernard Amat ille non immeritò qui amatâ—â— est sine merito Amat sine â—ine qui sine principio se cognoscit amatum Bern. epist 107. God deserveth love from such as he hath loved long before they could deserve it And his love to God will be without end who knoweth that Gods love to him was without any beginning I confess indeed that the book of life like the tree of life in paradise hath a tree of knowledge growing hard by which cannot with safety be tasted of There are some nice and needless questions started about it that might be spared and should be forborn But these high walls and sons of Anak should by no means prevail with us to play the unworthy spies and bring up a bad report or give way to any brought up by others upon a land that floweth with so much milk and honey as the doctrine of predestination doth Surely for men to silence it were to stop up those wels which the Prophets and Apostles especially Paul Exerc. 4. have digged in their writings for the refreshing of thirsty souls yea to endeavour the cancelling of that first and great charter of our salvation EXERCITATION 4. Creation what Pythagoras and Trismegist Hebr. 6. 3. opened Scripture-Philosophy Ex nihilo nihil fit how true Creature what Gods goodness in works of creation particularly in the framing of Adam The consultation upon which pattern after which parts of which he framed Two histories one of a Priest the other of a Monk The original of body and soul improved § 1. THe word Creation hath divers acceptions It is taken either largely for the production of any thing remarkably good or evil so magistrates in a Common-wealth and Graduates in an Universitie are said to be created God is said to create a clean Psal 51. 52. Ephâ—â— 2. 20. heart and we are called his workmanship oreated in Christ unto good works and for evil Moses in Numbers speaking of the remarkable judgement inflicted on Koraâ— and his complices useth this expression Si creationem creaverit Deus if God created a creature the radix is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or limitedly with some restraint and that either strictly for the generation of living creatures in a natural way so in Horace Fortes creantur â—ortibus bonis and in Virgil Sulmone creatos quatuor hâ—c juvenes Whence also procreare or more strictly for the making of a thing out of some praeexistent matter but such as is naturally indisposed and unapt for that production whereas in generation there is always materia habilis disposita as when God created man of the dust of the earth and woman of mans rib or most strictly for the production of a thing without any praeexistent matter at all out of mere nothing we are to speak of it in the two latter senses for so it belongeth to God alone Thus Isâ— 44. 24. saith the Lord thy Redeemer and he that formed thee from the womb I am the Lord that maketh
at that perfection of glory which is also the image of God as David hath it As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness EXERCITATION 5. Exerc. 5. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providentiall dispensations the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects Crosses how to be considered § 1. THe vicissitude of divine dispensations which I am to treat of next is exactly recorded by Solomon saying In the day of prosperity Eccles 7. 14. be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him It is most clear from hence that there is an intermixture of dispensations adverse and prosperous in the course of divine Providence and that we may see much of God therein It will appear in six particulars There are times I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs yet well with the publick which keepeth him from sinking into despondency Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands yet Let him take all said he 2 Sam. 19. 29 30. for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house The woman of Sparta whom we reade of And. Camerar cent 3. pag. 174. in Plutarch being told that all her five sons were slain in the battel but withall that the enemies were worsted and her countreymen victours uttered this Heroick speech Lugeant ergò miserae Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico Let such as are miserable lament I cannot but account my self happy now that my countrey hath had the better II. Wherein a mans personal comforts are multiplied but the Churches misery damps his mirth Nehemiah was much in favour at the king of Persia's Court yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard that the city Nehem. 2. 3. the place of his fathers sepulchres lay waste and the gates thereof were consumed with fire We read of Terentius an orthodox captain under Valens an Arrian Emperour who having done some eminent Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 2. 8. service was willed by the Emperour who intended him a just recompence to ask of him what he would He preferred a petition in behalf of the orthodox Christians that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in Valens displeased tore the petition and threw it away He gathered up the scattered pieces and profest that seeing he could not be heard in the cause of Christ he would make no suit for his own advantage That of Esaias Rejoyce ye with Isa 66. 10 11. Jerusalem c. that ye may suck and be satisfied is both preceptive and argumentative Jerusalem is compared to a nursing mother beleevers to her sucking children If the Nurse be in health the Childe hath cause to rejoyce in that and shall fare the better for it If she be distempered the childe will go near to suck the disease from her § 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity as in Josephs case He had been envyed sold imprisoned His feet were hurt in Psal 105. 18. the stocks the iron entred into his soul Yet afterward Pharaoh giveth him his own Gen. 41. 42 43. ring arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen putteth a gold chain about his neck maketh him ride in the second chariot he had caused the people to cry before him Bow the knee and appointed him Ruler over all the land of Egypt in which height of honour he lived and died IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels of long prosperity as in Jobs case The candle of God had long shined upon his head and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle His children then were about him he had washed his steps with butter and the rock poured him out rivers of oyl His Vers 3 4 5 6 19 20. root was spread by the waters and the dew lay all night upon his branch His glory was fresh in him and his bowe renowned in his hand which are his own expressions Job 29. But ere long his servants are slain with the edge of the sword his castle taken away by the enemy all his children killed at once vvith the fall of an house in vvhich they vvere feasting he himself afflicted in body vexed in spirit grieved by his comforters in a vvord brought from the throne to the dunghil so as to give just occasion to the proverb As poor as Job Fifthly Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns so as a man goes out of one into another in a succession of vicissitudes Thus it fared with Ezechiah After his comming to the Crown for divers years the Lord was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went forth But in the fourteenth year of his reign the tide of prosperity begins to turn Sennacharib comes up against him with a most formidable host and took his fenced cities He betakes himself to prayer and the Lord delivers him by a miracle sending an Angel to destroy one hundred eighty five thousand of his enemies in Chap. 20. 1. c a night But the next news we hear is that Ezechiah was sick unto death yet he dies not but had fifteen years added to his life and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery Yet presently after all this he receives a sad message from thence concerning the loss of all his treasure and the wofull condition of all his posterity See what a strange succession is here after glorious victories comes the loss of his fenced cities and an alarm given to Jerusalem it self After that a miraculous deliverance then a mortal sickness then a cheering sign but e're long a Message of very sad concernment § 3. VI. Wherein pleasure and sorrow joy and grief are so interwoven one with another as a man may seem happy and miserable both at once Jacob is at once scared with hearing of Esau's four hundred men and cheered with the sight of an host of Angels sent to gaurd him He doth at once receive an hurt in the hollow of his thigh and a blessing from the Angel that wrestled with him David at once is hated by Saul and loved by Jonathan Ahashuerus at once enjoys the glory of an absolute Monarch and is sleighted by his own wife Haman at once swims in an ocean of Court-delights and is tormented for the want of Mordechai's knee As one the one side Out of the strong comes sweetness 〈◊〉 Pet. 4. 14. when the spirit of glory and of God rest upon a suffering Saint because he is a Saint and a sufferer so on the other Even in laughter the heart is sorowfull Prov. 14. 13. Medio de fonte leporum Lucret. l.
his being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow lest Satan saith he should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 7 11. V. Because if we look to our selves cheerfulness is advantageous both to our bodies therefore compared to the best food such as men use to have at feasts He that is of a merry heart hath a Prov. 15. 15. continual feast and the best physick too A merry heart doth good like a medicine Prov. 17. 22. but a broken spirit drieth the bones And also our spirits Uncheerfulness maketh the soul of a man drive heavily as the chariots of Pharaoh did in the red sea but the joy of the Lord oyleth the wheels Cheerfulness supples the joynts of our hearts and so rendereth them nimble and active in holy performances See Nehemiah 8. 10. VI. Because if we cast our eyes upon others the uncheerfulness of professours often bringeth a bad report upon the profession and maketh the world ready to beleeve that Christians serve a bad master or have but an hard service of it whereas their rejoycing in the ways of the Lord would help to bring others in love with religion See Acts 9. 31. and Esther 8. the two last verses § 7. Fifthly Endure afflictions so as in the day of adversity duly to consider the Nature Authour and Ends of Crosses I. The Nature of those afflictions that befall men in Christ They are not Inter vincula carnisicis Chirurgi Chamier Panstrat from vindicative justice which is wholly removed from such by the mediation of him in whom they have beleeved and so not formally punishments but from fatherly discipline whereby it cometh to pass that although the matter be the same there is as much difference between the sufferings of beleevers and of ungodly persons out of Christ as there is between the cords wherewith an executioner pinioneth his condemned malefactour and those wherewith the indulgent Chirurgion bindeth his patient the ones design being to kill the others to cure They are crosses indeed which beleevers undergo but no curses and have no such malignity in them as the world imagineth II. The Authour Well might Eliphaz Job 5 6. say Trouble springs not out of the ground for it cometh from heaven and that out of love As many as I love Rev. 3. 19. saith Christ I rebuke and chasten How bitter soever the cup be which I am to drink and by whomsoever it is handed to me the comfort is it was of my heavenly fathers mixing who I am sure would not put any poysonfull although he do put some displeasing ingredients into it I will therefore say Christ enabling as Christ himself did The cup which my father hath given me shall John 18. 11. I not drink it III. The Ends Which are specially three 1. The mortifying of our corruptions By this shall the iniquity of Jacob Isa 27. 9. be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin All the harm which the fiery furnace did the young men in Daniel was to burn off their cords our lusts are cords cords of vanity in Scripture-phrase the fiery tryal is sent on purpose to burn and consume them Afflictions help to scour off this kinde of rust Adversity like winter-weather is of use to kill the vermine which the the summer of prosperity is wont to breed 2. For the enlivening and quickning of our graces I spake unto Jerem. 22. 21. unto thee in thy prosperity and thou saidst I will not hear But elsewhere Lord in Isa 26. 16. trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when they chastening was upon them These two places compared shew how apt prosperity is to make men Gallio's adversity to render them Zelots As bruising maketh aromatical spices to send out their savour and collision fetcheth fire out of the flint which was hid before so pressures excite devotion The cold water of persecution is often cast in the Churches face to fetch her again when she is in a swoon 3. For the furthering of our glory Christ went from the Cross to Paradise so do Christians He was made perfect through Heb. 2. 10. sufferings so are they It became him to Luke 24. 26. suffer and to enter into his glory It becomes them to tread in their masters steps When the founder hath cast his bell he doth not presently hang it up in the steeple but first try it with his hammer and beat upon it on every side to see if any flaw be in it Christ doth not presently after he hath converted a man convey him to heaven but suffers him first to be beaten upon by manifold temptations and after advanceth him to the crown spoken of Jam. 1. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him this crown the cross makes way for although no cross can merit it but that of Christ Yet as law is said to work wrath occasionally So Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work 2 Cor. 1. 17. for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory APHORISME VI. Aph. 6. Providence extends it self not onely to all created beings and to all humane affairs especially those that concern the Church but even to the sins of Angels and men EXERCITATION 1. Introduction concerning the contents of this Aphorisme Providence over all created beings Preservation of men to be ascribed to God himself not to good men yea not to good Angels in whom heart-searching and patience wanting Providence reaching to humane affairs Oeconomical Civil Military Moral and Ecclesiastical Anastasius his design frustrate Rome and our nation instanced in I. G. castigated § 1. THis Aporisme requireth a clear demonstration of these propositions 1. That divine providence extends it self to all created beings 2. That it reacheth to Exerc. 1. all humane affairs 3. That it is especially seen in such affairs as concern the Church And 4. That although God be not the authour of sin yet his providence is an actour in it Unto these when I shall have added an answer to objections and from each proposition an inference the whole will be completely handled The first proposition which I am to begin with is Divine providence extends it self to all created Beings Well may we strike in with the Levites in that form of acknowledging God wherein they went before the people saying Thou even thou art Lord alone Nehem. 9. 6. Thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all David bringeth it down a little lower Thy judgements are a great deep O Lord Psal 36. 6. thou preservest man and beast Job lower yet What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver Job 7.
20. of men As God made all things by the word of his command He commanded and they were created so he upholds them all in being by the word of his Psal 148. 5. Heb. 1. 3. power Heaven earth sea man and beast especially man It is not with God as with carpenters and shipwrights who make houses for other men to dwell in vessels for others to sail in and therefore after they are made look after them no more God who made all things for himself looks to the preservation of all It is accordingly said of Christ All things were created by him and for him and by him all Col. 1. 16 17. things consist The creatures are all as vessels which if unhooped by withdrawing of Gods manutenency all the liquor that is in them their several vertues yea their several Beings would run out and they return to their first nothing Schoolmen compare God to the sun creatures to the air The sun shines by its own nature the air onely by participation of light from the Sun So whatever good the creatures have is by derivation from Jehovah the fountain of Being Take away the light of the Sun the air ceaseth to shine and so it is here As things Artificial are preserved in their being by the duration of such natural things as they consist of v. g. an house by the lasting of stones and timber so things natural which depend upon God by the continuance of that Divine influence by which they were at first made § 2. It is not in good men to preserve themselves or others They derogate from God exceedingly that ascribe too much in this kinde to any man as some luxuriant French wits did to Cardinal Richelieu of whom they said That God Almighty might Howels Lustra Ludovici p. 166. put the Government of the world into his hands That France in Gods and the Cardinals hands was too strong that what Idem in the proem to â—is hâ—stâ—ry of Lewis 13. fol. 2. the soul was to the body the same was he to France Si foret his nullus Gallia nulla foret Yea one frivilous pamphleter profanely and ridiculously called him The fourth person in the Trinity Yea not in good Angels themselves Who Hebr. 1. 14. though they be all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation yet are none of them governing spirits appointed to provide for mankinde the utmost rewards and punishments They are wanting in two qualifications which should enable them hereunto one is the knowledge of mens hearts where the truth of grace or venome of sin lieth the other patience whereof no Angel hath enough to bear with men without destroying them for their continual provocations Whereas in God there is a meeting of both these See for the former Jerem. 15. 9 10. The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart I trie the reins even to give every man according to his waies and according to the fruit of his doing And for the latter Hosea 11. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man we may add and say God and not Angell § 3. The second proposition follows viz. That Divine Providence reacheth to all humane affairs which we may for methods sake subdivide into Oeconomical Civil Military Moral and Ecclesiastical Humane affairs are I. Oeconomical such as do belong to a Family For example Riches and Poverty Preferment and Debasement which in Hannah's song are ascribed 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. to the sole Providence of God The Lord said she maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghil c. yea to instance in blessings highly prized by Christian Families Grace and Peace which are the things prayed for by the Apostles in most of their benedictions We read of Saints in Cesar's houshold Quisquis Cristianum se esse coa fitetur is tanquam generis humani hostis sine ulteriore sui defensione capite plectatur Camerar Orat. 1. cap. 39. p. 135. Phil. 4. 22. Nero that monster of men was Cesar then he that had published a bloudy law That whosoever profest himself Christian should be apprehended as an enemy to mankinde and put to death without any further defence Yet even in his house the Providence of God hath so wrought as to convert and preserve such men as were men of grace Saints indeed not onely in his Empire and under his Government but in his Family and under his Roof As for Peace that of the Rabbins although it be somewhat a quaint yet may be Take â—the first letter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vir and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foe-mina there remains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignis M. Gaâ—akers Serm. on Eleazars prayer Gen. 24. 12 13 14. p. 8. an usefull observation Take the first letter say they of Gods name out of the name of the man and the last out of the womans name and there remains nothing but fire implying that there is like to be nothing but the fire of contention and strife jealousie and heart-burnings between man and wife where they come not together in Gods name Whereas if wisdome make the match as it doth when people marry in the Lord happy are they who are so met For her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are Prov. 3. 17. peace II. Civil such as belongeth to Kingdomes Republicks Corporations or to men as combined in such Societies Many are the contrivements of men to work themselves and others into places of Government but when all this is done that of the Psalmist is most true Promotion comes neither Psalm 15. 6 7. from the east nor from the west nor from the south But God is the judge he pulleth down one and setteth up another And that of Daniel He changeth the times Dan. 2. 21. and the seasons he removeth kings and setteth up kings Witness this history Anastasius a Grecian Emperour having no Male issue to succeed him was desirous to transfer the Throne to one of his three Nephews whom he had bred up and not being able to resolve which of them he should take put the thing to lot thus He caused to be prepared three beds in the Royal-Chamber and made his Crown to be hanged within the tester of one of these beds called the Realm being resolved to give it to him who by lot should place himself under it This done he sent for his Nephews and Causinus his Holy Court part 2. pag. 239 after he had Magnificently entertained them commanded them to repose themselves each one choosing one of the beds prepared for them The eldest accomodated himself according to
is a preservation from greater evils by less No poyson but providence knoweth how to make an antidote so Jonah was swallowed by a whale and by that danger kept alive Joseph thrown into a pit and afterwards sold into Egypt and by these hazards brought to be a nursing father to the Church Chrysostome excellently Fides in periculis secura est in securitate Homil. 26. operis imperf in Matt. periclitatur Faith is endangered by security but secure in the midst of danger as Esthers was when she said If I perish I perish God preserveth us not as we do fruits that are to last but for a year in sugar but as flesh for a long voyage in salt we must expect in this life much brine and pickle because our heavenly father preserveth us as those whom he resolveth to keep for ever in and by dangers themselves Pauls thorn in the flesh which had much of danger and trouble in it was given him on purpose to prevent pride which was a greater evil Lest I said he should be exalted above measure through abundance of the revelations there was given 2 Cor. 12. 7. me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Elsewhere having commemorated Alexander the copper-smith 2 Tim. 4. 14 15 17 18. his withstanding and doing him much evil yea Nero's opening his mouth as a lion against him and the Lords delivering of him thence he concludeth as more then a conquerour And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen EXERCITATION 3. Hard-heartedness made up of unteachableness in the understanding untractableness in the will unfaithfulness in the memory unsensibleness in the conscience and unmoveableness in the affections metaphors to express it from the parts of mans body stones and mettals A soft heart Mischief searedness and virulency attendants of hardness God concurring thereunto by way of privation Negation permission presentation Tradition to Satan Delivering up to lusts and infliction § 1. OUr fourth proposition is still behinde viz. Divine providence is an actour even in sin it self I shall single out hardness of heart a sin common to all sorts of men though in different degrees intending to declare I. What hard-heartedness is II. That it is a sin III. That God is an actour in it For the first This word Heart is of various acceptions in the Scripture Sometime it signifieth the understanding as when it is said God gave Solomon 1 Kings 4. 29. largeness of heart as the sand that is He had an understanding full of notions Exerc. 3. as the sea-shore is full of grains of sand Sometimes put for the will as when Barnabas exhorteth the Christians of Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose Acts 11. 23. of heart that is with the full bent and inclination of their wills For as to know is an act of the understanding so to cleave is an act of the will Sometimes for the memory as when the blessed Virgin is said to have laid up all Luke 2. 51. our Saviours sayings in her heart that is kept them under lock and key like a choice treasure in her remembrance Sometimes for conscience So the Apostle speaketh of a condemning and not 1 John 3. 20 21. condemning heart Now Gods deputy in point of judicature is conscience which Nazianzen therefore calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a domestical tribunal or a judge within doors Lastly Sometimes for the affections So the Prophet Ezekiel saith of people that when they sate hearing the word their heart went after their covetousmess Ezek. 33. 31. that is their fears and hopes their desires love and other affections were upon shops ships land and other commodities even while they were busied in the worship of God Each of these faculties called Heart in the book of God is liable to its peculiar indisposition and distemper All put together make up the hard-heartedness of which we are treating the particular ingredients whereof are these that follow I. Unteachableness in the understanding Scripture joyneth blinding of eyes and hardning of hearts as near a kin He hath John 12. 40. blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted It is proverbially said Lapidi loqueris One had as good speak to a stone as to an unteachable man and we are all so by nature Whence that of Paul The natural man receiveth not the 1 Cor. 2. 14. things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Such are often present at Sermon so are the pillars of stone in the Church and they understand both alike § 2. II. Untractableness in the will There was reason enough spoken to Sihon by Moses his messengers but all would not incline him to yield a passage to the army of Israel in an amicable way because he was hardened Sihon king of Heshbon saith Moses would not let us pass by him for the Lord thy God Deut. 2. v. 27 28 30. hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate c. So was there enough said and done to Pharaoh but still the burden of his story is this He hardened his heart and would not let Israel go Steep a stone in oyl it continueth hard still Pharaoh had sundry mercies showen him being delivered from one plague after another upon Moses his prayers but the oyl of mercy could not soften him Beat upon a stone with an hammer it is a difficult thing and in some cases impossible to make an impression The hammer of Gods word in the mouth of Moses and Aaron held as it were by the handle of ten notable miracles gave ten mighty blows at Pharaohs will yet could make so little impression that after the ten plagues his heart was ten times harder then before III. Unfaithfulness in the memory Pertinent hereunto is that upbraiding passage of our Saviour to his Disciples Have ye your heart yet hardened do ye not Mark 8. 17 18. remember they seemed to have at present forgotten two of Christs miracles and are therefore charged with hard-heartedness Let water fall upon flesh it moisteneth it upon earth it soaketh in and rendereth it fruitfull let it fall upon a rock it runneth presently off and leaveth no footsteps behinde it Where hardness of heart prevaileth as Vers 19 20. here it did not and therefore the disciples a little awakened by Christs interrogations were able to give an account of his miracles there is commonly no more of a chapter sermon or pious discourse remaining in the hearers memory then there is moisture upon a rock after a good showre of rain IV. Unsensibleness in the conscience St Paul speaketh of some past feeling Ephes 4. 19. 1 Tim. 4. 2. and
of others that had their consciences seared with an hot iron without all sense as a member once cauterized Smite a stone as long as you will beat it while you can stand over it it complaineth not lay a mountain upon it it groaneth not Such are some mens consciences Let God beat upon them with sermon after sermon cross after cross let them have worlds of oaths lies cheats other sins to answer for they feel not the load of these mountains complain not of them but perhaps with Judas go out from the Sacrament to play the traytour and with king Ahaz sin yet more in their distress Although temperance modesty and the like dispositions be in some measure quite extinguished yet if conscience like Jobs messenger be still left to report the story of this desolation there is some hope but if as David sometime dealt with the Philistines all be slain and none left alive to bring the tidings if not onely al ingenuity be banished but the very mouth of conscience also stopt the case is desperate V. Unmoveableness in the affections See an instance thereof in king Zedekiah of whom it is said He did that which was 2 Chron. 36. 12 13. evil in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel Zedekiah's heart was so obdurate as not to have his affections Non magis incepto vultus sermone movetur Quam si dura silex aut Marpesia caut Virg. moved with any thing that Jeremiah could say or do Let a man go about to make an oration to a stone be it never so eloquent and pathetical the stone is not affected with it No more are many hard hearts with the voice of Gods word or rod. Tell them of the beauty of Christ they are not perswaded to love him of the ugliness of sin they are not induced to hate it of the torments of hell they are not moved to fear and shun it Such is the nature and composition of hard-heartedness which was the first thing to be spoken to § 3. The second particular is the sinfulness of that frame which appeareth from the expressions the opposites and the attendants of it mentioned in holy Scriptures I. From the expressions which are borrowed some from the bodies of men liable to a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others from mettals and others from stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not onely the thick brawny skin that groweth over the labourers hand and travellours foot rendering that part insensible but also among Physicians that knottiness which groweth upon the joynts in some diseases as in a long-continued gout by them called nodosa podagra and pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 durities in artubas Budae commentar incurable by physick Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram Hardness of heart is expressed by this Mark 3. 5. John 12. 40. Elsewhere from mettals as in that of Isaiah Thou art obstinate Isa 484. thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow brass When men will no more stoop to the precepts of Christ then a beast would to the yoke if his neck were of iron sinews are instruments of motion they all go down from the head to the body by the neck if the neck should be stiff and the sinews of iron it would not be possible for the head to bow down Such is the state of obstinate persons Yea and further the Prophet here ascribeth to them a brow of brass The brow is that place where shame is wont to discover it self this is said to be of brass to note their impudency An hard heart is frequently accompanied with a brazen face And in other places from stones An hard heart is usually called an heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and chap. 36. 26. Zechar. 7. 12. Yea the hardest of all stones the Adamant They made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law c. stones are drier and more inflexible then mettals themselves Chymicks can distill mettals and alter the shape of them to serve their turns But Moses could not O duriora sanis Judaeorum pectora finduntur petrae sed horum corda durantur Horum immobilis duritia manet orbe concusso Ambros without a miracle fetch water out of a rock nor can men by the help of fire change the shape of a stone and render it flexible Well might one of the Fathers cry out by occasion of what befell at our Saviours passion O the hearts of the Jews harder then rocks the rocks rent but their hearts were further from rending then before The earth quaked but their hardness continued unremoved almost unmoved As in Jeroboams time when the Prophet cried O altar altar thus saith the Lord It heard and rent Jeroboams heart was harder then the very stones and rent not § 4. II. From the opposites of hard-heartedness the chief whereof is spiritual Evangelical tenderness promised in the covenant of grace where it is said I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within Ezek. 11. 19. you and will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that is a soft and tender heart I do not mean that natural tenderness caused by constitution or education of both which it is true that it softens the manners and keeps them from Emollit mores nec sinit esse seros fierceness ascribed to Rehoboam of whom it was said He was young and 2 Chro. 1◠7. tender-hearted and could not withstand the children of Belial Such men are fitly compared to ripe plumbs and apricocks which however soft and smooth on the out-side yet have an hard stone within like a brick at first soft when the clay is fashioned and continues so till the Sun have hardened it yea by pouring on of water softened again but if once baked in the brick-kill no fire will melt it an whole sea will not moisten it afterwards So it fares with sundry men formerly tender-hearted when once hardened by conversing in the world and baked as it were in the kill of custome That which I intend is Spiritual tenderness ascribed to Josiah Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God 2 Chr. 34. 27. and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord God As mettals are melted with the fire before they be cast in a new mold so must every heart be melted and softened before it come to be moulded anew The new creature is alwaies a tame and tender creature This is that temper which hardness of heart is opposite to and therefore sinfull III. From the attendants thereof Divers have been already mentioned
his will And again He is so good as that he would never suffer evil if he were not so Omnipotent as to bring good out of evil IV. By way of presenting objects of which our corruptions make a bad use Esaias his Evangelical Ministry made the heart of that people fat and made their Isal 6. 10. ears heavy and shut their eyes The hotter the Sun is wont to shine the more the dunghil is wont to sent Men grow hardest under the most Gospel ministry So under mercies of all sorts He that observeth the passages of Pharaohs story shall finde that his corruptions took many occasions from the carriage of things to harden him yet more and more After he had been freed from two or three several plagues by Moses his prayer upon his hypocritical relentings he might perhaps begin to think that the God of Israel was such an one as might be deceived with fair shews and so fear him less It pleased God not to strike Pharaoh himself with any plague by Twiss Vind. part 2. p. 94. the hand of Moses nor to suffer his people to rise up against him and free themselves by main force This might happily tend to his further hardening and put him upon saying If he be so great a God why doth he not smite me in mine own person or carry out his people without me Besides the same plague was never twice inflicted he saw that and might think when one plague was over that would not come again and there could not come a worse then that the God of Israel had surely done his worst already Come we to the last scene of his Tragedy after Israel was departed things were so carried as to cram his corruption and to make his heart fatter then before The Hebrews are all found in a place with the sea before them and great mountains on each side Their being so pent encourageth Pharaoh and his host The sea is ere long divided for Israel the waves stand as walls on either side the people passe through as on dry land Why should not the sea might he think make way for me as well as for them The prey is now in view let go this one opportuty they are gone for ever If the waves stand up but a while longer as they have done a good while already the day is ours They pass on and perish § 7. V. By way of tradition to Satan Who although he have not any power of enforcing yet hath a notable slight of perswading and by this means of Non babet potentiam cogendi sed ast utiam suadendi hardening No doubt but Pharaoh being deluded by the Magicians who were suffered to counterfeit the same miracles which Moses did was thereby hardened through the operation of Satan We reade of an evil Spirit from 1 Sam. 16. 15. God troubling Saul and after that of many hard-hearted prancks by him plaid such as never before and of John 13. 2. the divels having put into Judas his heart to betray Christ after which he was restless till he had done it As they must needs go our Proverb saith whom the divel drives 'T is strange how that mans spirit declined into further and yet further degrees of hardness but less strange if we consider that the divel was entred into him Judas was first a cunning dissembler the disciples suspected themselves as soon as him and therefore said Master is it I Afterward a secret thief for he bare the bagge and filched then a bold traytour What will ye give and Hail Master In the conclusion a desperate self-murderer as the most interpreters judge in making away himself VI. By way of delivering men up to their own lusts Hear God of his own people My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them Psal 81. 11 â—2 up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels how much more is this true of God's enemies Pharaoh by name See how these three lusts of his Idolatry Ambition and Covetousness concurred to the making of him so hard-hearted towards God so hard to be prevailed with by Moses As an Idolater he was loath to receive a message from the God of Israel whom he knew not Vid. Twiss vindici part 2. pag. 94 c. Who is the Lord said he that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go As an Ambitious Prince it went to his heart to have Moses control him in his own dominions and to admit the commands of any superiour Lord Thus saith the Lord Let my people go was as fire to his bones and enraged him who would not hear of any lord over that people but himself As a Covetous man he was loth to have so fat a collop cut off his flank to hear of parting with a people by whose pains in making bricks he had such daily comings in VII By way of infliction and penalty One sin is often made the punishment of another and hardness the punishment of many sins oft reiterated When Exod. 9. 34. Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart he and his servants The harder they were the more they sinned and the more they sinned the harder they were Affected hardness is frequently followed with inflicted hardness Men by customary sinning make their hearts as an adamant stone so Zech. 7. 12. the phrase is in Zechary of which it is said Incidit gemmas sed non inciditur ipse Hircino tantùm sanguine mollis erit That is It cuts all stones It self is cut of none It softned is by bloud of goats alone Unregenerate persons of hard hearts usually grieve their godly friends who are cut at the heart to see their obstinacy as Christ grieved for the Pharisees hardness Mark 5. 〈◊〉 At non inciditur ipse But such an one cannot heartily grieve for himself His heart till it come to be steeped in the bloud of Christ who is that Scape-goat in Leviticus relenteth not or not to purpose It were easie to add much more but I shall now shut up all concerning this proposition God hardeneth Grave est auditu non facile recipit hoc pia mens non quia quod dicitur non bene dicitur sed quia quod bene dicitur non bene intelligitur Hugo de S. Victor lib. 1. de sacram part 4. cap. 12. with the saying of Hugo de sancto Victore concerning that God willeth evil This is irksome to the ear and a pious minde doth not easily receive it but the reason is not because what is said is not well said but because what is well enough said is not half well understood EXERCITATION 4. Exerc. 4. Objections against and Corollaries from the foregoing propositions The least things provided for Luthers admonition to Melancthon Maximilians address
Plinies unbelief The Psalmists stumble at the prosperity of the wicked His recovery by considering it was not full was not to be final The superintendency of Providence over military and civil affairs in particular The Churches afflictions Promises cautioned Duty of casting care upon God He no authour of sin The attestation of this State and of this writer § 1. TWo things are still remaining viz. Objections against and Corollaries from the formentioned propositions to which in their order Objection against the first Some think Ex hoc Deus beatus est quia nihil curat neque habet ipse negotium neque alteri exhibel Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 4. Credat Judaeus Apello Non ego namque Deos didici securum agere aevum Hor. the extending of divine Providence to all created beings how mean soever unsutable to the perfection of God whom they say it doth not become to stoop so low Epicurus is cited by Lactantius as speaking to this purpose and after him Horace Answ They speak like heathens not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God The Psalmist otherwise Who is like unto the Lord our God Psal 113. v. 5 6 7 8. who dwelleth on high Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil He maketh the barren woman to keep house to be a joyfull mother of children Of his care and providence it is beleeved Providentia Dei nec fallitar nec fatigatur Eam nec magna onerant nec parva effugiunt Molin Enod quaest p. 23. and asserted by divines that it is neither deceived nor tired that as the greatest things do not overburden it so least things do not escape it That of our Saviour to his Disciples is a most express assertion Are not five Luke 12. 6 7. sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered Wherefore by way of Corollary from hence let God himself alone be acknowledged the Preserver and Governour of all things Let no man think by his strength of parts or extremity of pains to take the work out of his hands Melancthon was beyond Monendus est per vos Philippus ut desinat esse Rector mundi Wolf memorabil measure solicitous about Church-affairs in that age wherein he lived insomuch as Luther once wrote to his neighbour-ministers that they should do well to give him a serious admonition not to attempt the government of this world any longer That of Maximilian the Emperour in the time of Pope Julius the second was an honest acknowledgement Deus aeterne nisi vigilares Historia Pontificum Romanorum contract per Jacobum Revium pag. 259. quà m male esset mundo quem regimus nos Ego miser venator ebriosus ille acâ—sceleratus Julius O eternal Lord God if thou thy self shouldst not be watchfull how ill it would be with this world which is now governed by me a miserable hunter and by this drunken and wicked Pope Julius § 2. Against the second proposition it hath been objected that there is no such thing as the providence of God superintending humane affairs especially considering the great prosperity which is enjoyed by wicked men Pliny the great Naturalist speaketh of Irridendum est si quis putet illud quicquid est summum agere curam rerum humanâ—rum Natur. hist l. 6. c. 7. Psalm 73. v. 2 3. it as a thing to be entertained with laughter rather then belief And the Psalmists words are these As for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Behold V. 12 13. these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Answ That which then satisfied him should now suffice to answer us He went into the sanctuary of God then understood V. 17 18. he their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction Their prosperity was not full was not to be final I. Was not full The places wherein they stood were slippery their felicity varnished over but rotten within That in S. John and onely that is perfect prosperity when the inward and outward man thrive together I wish 3 John 2. above all things saith he to Gaius that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth With them it is quite otherwise They have it may be fat bodies but lean souls full purses but empty heads and hearts blest in their estates but cursed in their spirits Have Lament 3. 65. houses and lands worth many thousands but hearts little worth according to that The tongue of the just is as Prov. 10. 20. Nulla verior miseria quam falsa laetitia Nihil infelicius felicitate peccantium choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth Call you this prosperity It is in truth nothing less It is unhappiness rather and there are those who have not stuck to name it so II. Was not to be final Thou castedst them down into destruction The world came in fast upon them one way and the wrath of God came as fast another This fair day of theirs is but a weather-breeder as a calm before an earth-quake To Deut. 32. 35. me belongeth vengeance and recompence saith the Lord their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste David expresseth it most emphatically I have seen the wicked in great Psalm 37. 35 36. power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree A tree that retaineth its viridity and freshness even in winter when fruit-bearing trees have cast their leaves yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found Let such an one be sought in his counting-house which was wont to be the temple wherein he worshipped his God Mammon he is not there At Court where he was so magnified and almost adored he is not to be found in the lodgings there He that would finde him must seek him in hell For there he is This is the end of such worldly prosperity as cometh from God and yet defieth him § 3. The Corollary from hence is let the superintendency of divine providence over all humane affairs in particular over Military and Civil be humbly acknowledged I. Over military Those French-men were undoubtedly to blame who in their flattering applauses of Richelieu did ascribe Howels lustra Ludov. p. 166. the reduction of Rochel solely to him insomuch as one of their Chroniclers writeth That in the taking of that town neither the king nor God Almighty had a share in
understanding God is greater then our heart and knoweth 1 Joh. 3. 20. all things Everlasting duration Behold Job 36. 26. God is great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Omnipresent immensity Great is our 2 Chr. 2. 5 6. God above all gods Who is able to build him an house seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him Secondly each particular dimension is elsewhere applied to these very attributes though some with more clearness then others Height to Gods Sovereignty He that is higher then the Eccles. 6. 8. highest regardeth and there be higher then they Depth to his Omniscience O the Rom. 11. 33. depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! Length to his Eternity He asked life and thou gavest it to him even length of days for ever and ever Psal 21. 4. Which Calvin and the Chaldee paraphrase apply to Christ understanding thereby the eternal duration of his kingdome Lastly breadth to his Omnipresence but covertly in that of Isaiah The glorious Lord will be unto us a Isa 33. 21. place of broad rivers and streams to signifie that protection and safety which his presence with his Church in every place affords to all the members thereof like a broad river encompassing a fenced town on every side Thirdly Me thinks there is somewhat exprest in Zophars speech which as to the two former particulars tends to this interpretation For having said It is as high as heaven he presently adds What canst thou do meaning perhaps what are thy weak abilities to his omnipotence He in regard of his Sovereign power can do all things but thou alas what canst thou do And after affirming It is deeper then hell he subjoyneth what canst thou know as if he had said what are thy shallow apprehensions to the depth of his thoughts He in regard of his omniscient understanding knoweth all things but thou poor man What canst thou know § 2. If it be asked why I expound all these clauses of God seeing the particles It and Thereof It is high as heaven The measure thereof seem to relate unto somewhat else My answer is that Expositours differ much about this very thing and according to their several apprehensions translate the words after a different manner The vulgar Latine and our old English translations carry all to Almighty God who was mentioned in the verse before Canst thou finde out the Almighty reading it thus He is higher then heaven what art thou able to do His length exceeds the length of the earth c. Others considering that divers words in the original text being feminine will not agree in construction with Eloah and Saddai whereby God is there exprest have therefore looked back to the sixt verse for an antecedent where they meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdome and expound all of it inserting the word Sapientia into their Latine translations as Oecolampadius and Junius do But for my part there is I conceive a word nearer hand which will serve the turn better and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfection Canst thou finde out the Almighty unto perfection It that is the Perfection of God is as high as heaven c. And herein I joyn with Castellio whose translation is fully squared to this sense for so he readeth the place Tune Dei intima pervestiges aut ipsam adeò perfectionem Omnipotentis invenias Quae cùm coelum altitudine adaequet quid ages c. Now I interpret the words as before because however they be read whether God or wisdome or Perfection be taken for the antecedent it cometh to one and the same issue for the Wisdome of God is himself and his Perfection comprehends not Wisdome onely but all his other excellencies whatsoever insomuch as Lessius intitleth his book concerning the Attributes De perfectionibus divinis The way thus cleared I now proceed without further interruption to single out the particular dimensions and discourse of them in their order § 3. Seeing all divine perfections far transcend humane capacities the safest way as I humbly conceive for us to make a due estimate concerning the height of Gods sovereignty is to compare it with that of earthly potentates which is within the compass and reach of our understandings Verily it is not without cause that S. Paul styles him the 1 Tim. 6. 15. blessed and onely potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords that Moses Melchisedech and Abram entitle him the most high God Gen. 14. v. 18 19 20 22. four times in one chapter For upon search it will appear that his Sovereignty excels that of the high and mighty ones upon earth in point of Extensiveness of Unaccountableness and of Almightiness I. In point of extensiveness His kingdome Psalm 103. 19. ruleth over all The whole earth and sea which make but one globe is to the Universe but as a little central point the mightiest potentate hath no more but his share in that little Whereupon Seneca bringeth in his wise vertuous man with this censure and sarcasme in his mouth Is this that Point Hoc est illud punctum quod inter tot gentes ferro iâ—ni dividitur O quà m cidiculi sunt mortalium termini Punctum est istud in quo navigatis in quo bellatis in quo Regna disponitis minima c. Senec. Natural quaest lib. 1. in Praefatione which so many Nations of the world do so strive to divide among themselves by fire and sword O how ridiculous are the bounds of mortal men All that in which they sail to and fro manage their wars and set up their petty kingdomes is but a Point Whereas the Sovereignty of God extendeth it self to the whole earth and sea yea to heaven and the heaven of heavens giving laws not onely to the visible host of sun moon and stars but also to the invisible host of Angels who are said to Psalm 103. 20. excell in strength and to do his commandments hearkning unto the voice of his word Yea there is not a Devil in hell that can go beyond the length of his chain for even those legions of darkness are though much against their wils subjected to the empire of the father of lights Yea whereas the dominion of worldly Potentates reacheth but to the outward man and their laws cannot directly oblige the conscience so as to bring upon it a guilt binding over the soul to death his do And in this respect St James telleth us that there is one James 4. 12. law-giver one and but one who is able to save and to destroy The style which Paul giveth earthly governours is masters Ephes 6. 5. according to the flesh but Moses calleth Numb 17. 16. God the God of the spirits of all flesh to imply that however there be many who lord it sufficiently over the flesh and outward man there