in the mines of learning Sharp wits like sharp knives do often cut their owners fingers The deep reach of a prudent man makes him aggravate such evils as are already come upon him by considering every circumstance so as to accent every sad consideration and anticipate such as are yet to come by galloping in his thoughts to meet them Had not Achitophel been so wise as to foresee his inevitable ruine in the remote causes of it when Hushai's counsel was embraced he would never have made so much hast as he did to hang himself § 11. Lastly Insufficiency to render men either holy or happy For when the worldly-wise have dived into the bottome of Natures sea they are able to bring up from thence in stead of these pearls of price nothing but hands full of shels and gravell Knowledge indeed and good parts managed by grace are like the rod in Moses his hand wonder-workers but turn to serpents when they are cast upon the ground and employed in promoting earthly designes Learning in religious hearts like that gold in the Israelites ear-rings is a most pretious ornament But if men pervert it to base wicked ends or begin to make an idol of it as they did a golden calf of their ear-rings it then becomes an abomination Doubtles these later times wherein so many knowing men are of a filthy conversation and have joyned feet of clay to their heads of gold would have afforded good store of additional observations to him that wrote the famous book concerning the vanity of Sciences which appeareth Corn. Agrippa in nothing more then their inability to produce sutable deportment in such as enjoy them without which there can be no solid foundation laid for true happiness § 12. Wherefore bething thy self at length O deluded world and write over all thy school-doors Let not the Jerem. 9. 23. wise man glory in his wisdome Over all thy court-gates Let not the mighty man glory in his might Over all thy Exchanges and Banks Let not the rich man glory in his riches Write upon thy looking-glasses that of Bathsheba Favour is Prov. 30. 31. deceitfull and beauty is vain Upon thy Mewes and Artillery-yards that of the Psalmist God delighteth not in the strength Psal 147. 10. of an horse he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man Upon thy Taverns Innes and Alehouses that of Solomon Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Upon Prov. 20. 1. thy Magazines and Wardrobes that of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves Matth. 6. 19. treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt where theeves break through and steal Write upon thy Counting-houses that of Habakkuk Wo to him Habak 2. 6. that increaseth that which is not his how long and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay Thy Play-houses that of Paul Lovers of pleasure more then lovers 2 Tim. 3 4. of God Thy banquetting houses that of the same holy Apostle Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall 1 Cor. 6. 13. destroy both them and it Yea upon all thine Accommodations that of the Preacher All is vanity and vexation of Eccles. 1. 14. spirit EXERCITATION 2. A gloss upon Psalme 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 § 1. VVHat shall we then say Are the sons of men in whom such strong desires and longings after blessedness are implanted left without all possible means of attaining that in which rationall appetites may acquiesce God forbid They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness Psal 36. 7 8. of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures so David to God concerning such as put their trust under the shadow of his wings Creature-comforts are but lean blessings in comparison there is a fatness in Gods house such as satisfies and that abundantly They afford but drops Christ a river of pleasures Look as when an Army of men comes to drink at a mighty river a Jordan a Thames Exerc. 2. they all go satisfied away none complaining of want none envying another because there was water enough for them all whereas had they come to a little brook there would not have been found enough to quench the thirst of every one So here The creatures are small brooks that have but a little water in them yea broken cisterns that hold Jerem. 2. 13. no water No wonder if souls return empty from them But Christ hath a river for his followers able to give them all satisfaction We must not expect more from a thing then the Creatour hath put into it He never intended to put the virtue of soul-satisfying into any mear creature but hath reserved to himself Son and Spirit the contenting of spirits as a principall part of divine prerogative To such as expect it elsewhere that person or thing they rely upon may say as Jacob did to Rachel Am I in Gods stead Gen. 30 2. § 2. Certain it is that none can make our souls happy but God who made them nor any give satisfaction Neque enim facit beatum hominem nisi qui sent hominem Deus Aug. epist 52. to them but Christ who gave satisfaction for them They were fashioned at first according to the image of God and nothing short of him who is stiled the brightness of his Fathers glory and Heb. 1. 3. the express image of his person can replenish Ad imaginem Dei facta anima rationalis caeteris omnibus occupari potest repleri non potest Bernard Serm. de bonis deserend them As when there is a curious impression left upon wax nothing can adequately fill the dimensions and lineaments of it but the seal that stamped it Other things may cumber the minde but not content it As soon may a trunck be filled with wisdome as a soul with wealth and bodily substances nourished with shadows as rationall spirits fed with bodies Whatsoever goodness creatures have is derivative whatsoever happiness they enjoy stands in reduction to the Originall of their being The motion of immortall souls is like that of celestiall bodies purely circular They rest not without returning back to the same point from whence they issued which is the bosome of God himself Fishes are said to visit the place of their spawning yearly as finding it most commodious for them and sick patients are usually sent by physicians to their native soil for the sucking in of that air from which their first breath was received Heaven is the place where souls were produced the spirit of man was at first breathed in by the Father of spirits and cannot acquiesce till he be enjoyed and heaven in him § 3. Witness was born to this truth by the Amen the
are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him § 5. Secondly as Religion a term which both Austine and Lactantius derive à religando because by the true Religion improved mens souls are tied and fastened to the supreme Being it unites us to God and to Christ The graces of union are especially Faith and Love Christian Religion is made up of these two Kiss the Son saith David Psal 2. 12. which implyeth the affection of love Blessed are all they that put their trust in him which holds forth an expression of faith Hold fast the form of sound 2 Tim. 1. 13. words saith Paul which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Love is the fulfilling of the Law faith the fulfilling of the Gospel both the fulfilling of Christian Religion These two pipes being rightly laid from a Christians soul to the fountain of living waters fetch in from thence a dayly supply of such grace as will certainly end in a fulness of glory whereas worldlings all the pipes of whose spirits are laid to cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water must needs continue empty still and for want of Christ who is not seen but by those two eyes nor embraced but by those two arms fall short of happiness how eminent soever they may be in the pursuit of by-ways Thus to discover and to unite are acts of prerogative not communicable to other professions For to maintain as some do that a man may be saved in an ordinary course I meddle not with extraordinary dispensations but leave the secrets of God to himself by any Religion whatsoever provided he live according to the principles of it is to turn the whole world into an Eden and to finde a Tree of life in every garden as well as in the paradise of God EXERCITATION 2. The insufficiency 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 worshiped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in Natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks § 1. IT hath appeared already in part by what hath been hitherto discoursed that as the other Patriarchs sheaves made obeisance to Josephs so other Religions must bow down to Christianity by name those three grand competitours Paganisme Judaisme and Mahometisme as also those other leading books by name the Talmud the Alcoran and the much applauded writings of heathen Philosophers must all do homage to the Bible Yet will it not I suppose be unworthy of my pains and the Readers patience further to clear the insufficiency of all exotick doctrines by an argument taken from divine worship to which I proceed by certain steps Exerc. 2. I. Religion is a thing which distinguisheth men from beasts more then reason it self doth For some brute beasts have appearances of reason none of Religion Man is a creature addicted to Religion may perhaps be found as true a definition as that which is commonly received Man is a living creature indued with reason II. Some kinde of Deity is acknowledged every where throughout the world and wherever a Deity is acknowledged some kinde of worship is observed Should a Synode of mere Philosophers be convented to consult about the matters of God I make no question but in the issue of their debates they would pronounce one Anathema against Atheisme and another against Irreligion Among the Romanes Parcus Deorum cultor infrequens Horat. lib. 1. Ode 34. to worship sparingly was accounted the next door to being an Atheist III. None but the true God can discover what the true worship of God is As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper Desine cur nemo videat sine Numine Numen Mirari Solem quis sine sole videt light A million of torches cannot shew us the Sun so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is or what worship he expects without divine and supernatural revelation from himself § 2. IV. Before the settling of Christianity and spreading the Gospel throughout the world many every where were unsatisfied concerning the worship they performed and inquisitive after some teacher who might help them therein by his advice This may be gathered not onely from that which was said by the woman of Samaria in that dispute of hers with our John 4. 25. Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui fontem veritatis aperiat c. Marsil Ficinus in vita Platonis Vid. Livium Galan praetar pag. 8. Saviour about worship I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But also by what Ficinus reporteth concerning Plato to wit that being asked by one of his scholars how far forth and how long his precepts were to be obeyed he returned this answer Untill there come a more holy one by whom the fountain of truth shall be opened and whom all may safely follow V. The precepts and practise of such as teach and profess other Religions are inconsistent with those Gospel-rules which Christ and his Apostles have given for the regulating of divine worship Two whereof I shall instance in The first is that which fell from our Saviours own mouth God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Where Spirit in the latter clause seems to stand in opposition partly to the formality of the Jews who did so wholly addict themselves to outward observances in a spiritless way as to give our Saviour occasion of saying well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me In vain do they worship Mark 7. 6 7. me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Partly to the Idolatry of the Gentiles who in stead of tendring service sutable to a spiritual Being worshipped God in and by representations and images of this or that visible creature The word Truth in like manner may probably seem to be opposed partly to the typical worship of the Jews in which there were many resemblances and shadows of things to come as sacrifices incense and other rites the truth whereof was exhibited in Christ and in Gospel-service partly to the perfunctory worship of the Gentiles who for want of Scripture-light framed to themselves sorry forms of devotion which the wisest among them were altogether unsatisfied with yet as knowing no better and being loth to give offence observed them onely for fashions sake so worshipping in shew rather then in truth § 3. Doubtless what Seneca profest in his time was a principle which the most judicious Heathen walked by both in that and the ages foregoing He speaking of their religious observances plainly said A wise man
word but my reason cannot fathome Whilest others run themselves on ground and dispute it till their understandings be non-plust may I be enabled to beleeve what Scripture testifieth concerning an unbegotten Father an onely-begotten Son and an Holy Spirit proceeding from both Three yet but One and therein to acquiesce without enquiring as Mary did when the Angel foretold her miraculous conception How can this thing be To which question my return should be no other but that of Austine who notwithstanding his fifteen books concerning the Trinity modestly said Askest thouâ— me Nescio libenter nescire profiteor August serm de tempore 189. how there can be Three in One and One in Three I do not know and am freely willing to profess my ignorance herein Verily this light is dazling and our eyes are weak It is a case wherein the wisest clerks are punies and the ablest Oratours infants § 6. Yet is the mystery it self written in Scripture as it were with the Sun-beams I reject not as invalid but onely forbear as less evident the places commonly cited out of Moses and the Prophets choosing rather to insist upon New-testament discoveries when the vail which formerly hid the Holy of Holies from mens sight was rent in pieces and the secrets of heaven exposed to more open view then whilest the Church was in her minority At our Saviours baptisme there was a clearer manifestation of the Trinity then ever before as if God had reserved this discovery on purpose to add the greater honour to his onely Sons solemn inauguration into the office of Mediatour-ship which was then most visibly undertaken Who so casts his eye upon the third chapter of the Gospel according to Luke will quickly discern the Father in an audible voice heard but not seen This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Vers 21 22 23. Voce Pater Naâ—us flumine Flamen ave pleased The word made flesh now in the water receiving baptisme and after praying so both heard and seen The Spirit like a Dove descending and resting upon Christ seen but slot heard Insomuch as the Catholicks were wont in the times of Athanasius to send the misbeleeving Arians to Jordan there to learn the knowledge of a Trinity § 7. Behold after this a clear nomination of the three coessential Persons in that commission which Christ our Lord sealed to the Apostles before his ascension in the end of the Gospel according to Matthew when he sent them out to make disciples in all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Who can but see a Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil epist 78. here How can any who by vertue of this institution hath been baptized refuse to beleeve it It becomes us saith Basil to be baptized as we have been taught to beleeve as we have been baptized to glorifie as we have beleeved the Father the Son and the holy Spirit This the great Apostate Julian was not a little sensible of wherefore considering that he could not fairly disclaim the Trinity till he had renounced his baptisme he took the bloud of beasts offered in sacrifice to the heathen Gods as Nazianzen tells Nazian Orar. 1. aduers Juliar circa medium us from the report of his own domestical servants and bathed himself therein all over so as much as in him lay washing off the baptisme he had formerly received Add hereunto that impregnable place which hath hitherto and will for ever hold out against all the mines and batteries of hereticks in the first epistle of John There are three that bear witness in heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7. the Father the Word and the holy Spirit and these three are One. Where a Trinity is proclaimed both in numero numerante there are three and in numero numerato telling us plainly who they are Father Word and holy Spirit And that the same Essence is common to them all For these three are One. § 8. Yet is there a late generation of men commonly known by the name of Socinians who although they maintain against Atheists the Personalitie and Eternitie of God the Father have confounded Christian Religion by denying the Eternitie of the Son whose Personalitie they acknowledge and the personalitie of the Spirit whose Eternitie they confess Methinks it fares with these three blessed Persons as with those three noted wells of which we reade in the twenty sixth of Genesis Two of them Isaacs servants were enforced to strive for with the herdmen of Gerar which made him call the one Esek that is contention the other Sitnah that is hatred A third they got quiet possession of and he called the name of it Rehoboth saying Now the Lord hath made room for us The Fathers Godhead is like the well Rehoboth which there was no strife about the Sons divinity like the well Esek we are forced to contend for that as also for the Deity of the Spirit which is as Sitnah to the Socinians they hate the Exerc. 4. thoughts of it much more the acknowledgement But can any man say by the Spirit of God that the Spirit is not God Is it not as clear by Scripture-light that Christ is God as by Natures light that God is Are they Christians and Spiritual who denie the divinity of Christ and the Spirit Let the judgement of charity enjoy its due latitude but for my part I would not for a thousand worlds have a Socinians account to give at the end of this EXERCITATION 4. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiositie to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweeteness of taste sense of interest and sinceritie of obedience NExt to the Essence and Subsistence of God his Attributes are to be considered concerning which I premise this rule § 1. The degrees of our respect are to keep proportion with degrees of worth in persons and things ordinary worth requiring esteem eminent calling for reverence supereminent for admiration yea and adoration too if it be an uncreated object Hence the Psalmist upon contemplation of God crieth out as in an extasie O Lord our Lord how excellent Psal 8. 1 and 9. is thy Name in all the earth His Attributes are his Name their worth so superexcellent as far to transcend the utmost pitch of that observance which we poor we are able any way to render Seeing as the stars of heaven disappear and hide their heads upon the rising of the Sun that out-shineth them so creatures seem not to be excellent yea not to be when the being and excellency of their Maker displayeth it self according to that All nations before Isai 40. 17. him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity The best of them have but some perfections
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
faithfull and true witness when speaking of those whom the Father had given him he uttered that remarkable assertion This John 17. 3. is life eternall that they may know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Also when he made his followers that promise of rest Come unto me all ye that labour Matth. 11. 28 29. and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you c. and ye shall finde rest to your souls God would not rest from his works of creation till man was framed Man cannot rest from his longing desires of indigence till God be enjoyed Now since the fall God is not to be enjoyed but in and through a Mediatour Therefore when any man closeth with Christ and not till then he may say with the Psalmist Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee That which the King of Saints testified will be most readily attested by all his loyall subjects Enquire of such as are yet militant upon earth wherein their happiness consists the answer will be in their having fellowship with 1 John 1. 3. the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Let those who are triumphant be asked what it is that renders their heaven so glorious their glory so incomprehensible ye shall have no other account but this it is because they have now attained a complete fruition of that alsufficient alsatisfying ever-blessed and ever-blessing object God in Christ § 4. Nor can it easily be denied by such as consider that in this object there is found a threefold fulness opposite to the threefold vanity in the creatures which I discoursed of before First a fulness of utility opposite to their unprofitableness Infinite goodness extends it self to all cases and exigents without being limited to particulars as created bonity is Hence in the Scripture God and Christ are compared to things most extensive in their use and of most universall concernment Philosophers look at the Sun as an universal cause Christ is called the Sun of Malac. 4. 2. righteousness by the Prophet and The Psal 84. 11. Lord God saith the Psalmist is a Sun and shield In a Tree the root beareth the branches and the branches fruit Christ is both root and branch A root in Isaiah In that day shall there be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of Isa 11. 10. the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious A branch in Zechariah Behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch In a building the Zech. 3. 8. foundation and corner-stone are most considerable in point of use Christ is both Thus saith the Lord God behold I Isa 28. 16. lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a pretious corner-stone a sure foundation In military affairs what more usefull for offence then the sword for defence then the shield The Lord is both Happy art thou O Israel who is like Deut. 33. 29. unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thine excellency In civill commerce money is of most generall use for the acquiring of what men need of which Solomon therefore saith It answereth all Eccles. 10. 19. Quicquid nummis prasentibus opta veniet clausum possidet arca Jovem Petron. Arbit things whence it is that worldlings look at a full chest as having a kinde of Deity in it able to grant them whatsoever their hearts desire of God in Christ it is most true He onely can answer all the desires all the necessities of his people and is accordingly said to be their silver and gold as Junius renders the place in Job To him a soul may not onely say as Thomas did My Job 22. 25. Erit Omnipotens lectissimum aurum tuum argentum viréâ—que tibi Lord and my God but as another Deus meus omnia My God and my all § 5. Secondly a fulness of truth and faithfulness opposite to their deceit The creatures do not cannot perform whatsoever they promise but are like deceitfull brooks frustrating the thirsty travellers expectation We reade of Semiramis that she caused this Motto to be engraven upon her tomb If any King stand in need of money let him break open this monument Darius having perused the inscription ransacks the sepulchre finds nothing within but another writing to this effect Hadst thou not been unsatiably covetous thou wouldest never have invaded a monument of the dead Such are all the things of this world They delude us with many a promising Motto as if they would give us hearts ease but when we come to look within instead of contentment afford us nothing but conviction of our folly in expecting satisfaction from them With God it is otherwise He is faithfull that promised saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 23. And again Faithfull is he that 1 Thess 5. 24. calleth you who also will do it I am the way saith Christ of himself the truth John 14. 6. and the life In him beleevers finde not less but more then ever they looked for and when they come to enjoy him completely are enforced to cry out as the Queen of Sheba did The half was 1 Kings 10. 7. not told me § 6. Thirdly a fulness of unchangeableness opposite to their inconstancy This God challengeth to himself I am Malac. 3. 6. the Lord I change not And Jesus Christ is said to be the same yesterday and to day Heb. 13. 8. and for ever Another Apostle speaking of the father of lights from whom descends James 1. 17. every good and perfect gift therein alluding as Heinsius conceives to the Heinsius in locum High Preist his Urim and Thummim that is lights and perfections to Urim in these words father of lights to Thummim in these Perfect gift tells us that with him is no variableness neither Exerc. 3. shadow of turning The metaphor is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pareus in loc thought by some to be borrowed from the art of painting wherein pictures are first rudely shadowed then drawn to the life In the creatures we finde a full draught and lively pourtraiture of mutability but not so much as the rudiments of a draught as the least line or shadow of it in God and Christ EXERCITATION 3. 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 § 1. FRom that patheticall passage in one of the Psalms Whom have Psalm 73. 25 26. I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is
oracles for their use then that they have God for their authour Many large volumes have been written for to make good this assertion It is a thing wherein the Spirit of God who indited the Scripture gives such abundant satisfaction to the spirits of godly men as to make other arguments though not useless yet to them of less necessity He alone bearing witness to the divinity of holy writ and to the truth of his own testimony so putting a final issue to that controversie But because there is need of other reasons for the conviction of other men I have produced certain arguments Tâ—ctica Sacra lib. 2. cap. ult elsewhere and shall here make an addition of two more which are not mentioned in that discourse one from consent another from continuance § 6. From consent thus Writings of men differ exceedingly one from another which made Seneca say Philosophers Tunc inter Thilosophos conveniet quando inter Horologia would then be all of one minde when all clocks were brought to strike at one and the same time Yea it is hard finding an authour that doth not differ from himself more or less if he write much and at various seasons But here is a most harmonious consent The word since written fully agrees with that which in former times was delivered to the Patriarchs and transmitted by word of mouth As the word God is the same to day yesterday and for ever although not incarnate till the fulness of time came and then made flesh So the word of God although till Moses received a command to put it in writing there wanted that kinde of incarnation was for substance the same before and after And as the written word agreed with the unwritten so doth one part of that which is written harmonize with another The two Testaments Old and New like the two breasts of the same person give the same milk As if one draw water out of a deep well with vessels of different mettal one of brass another of tin a third of earth the water may seem at first to be of a different colour but when the vessels are brought near to the eye this diversity of colours vanisheth and the waters tasted of have the same relish So here the different style of the historiographers from Prophets of the Prophets from Evangelists of the Evangelist from Apostles may make the truths of Scripture seem of different complexions till one look narrowly into them and taste them advisedly then will the identity both of colour and relish manifest it self § 7. From continuance thus Notwithstanding all the confusions that have happened in the world all the fires that have been kindled the massacres that have been executed and the battels that have been fought against the true Christian Religion the store-house thereof hath continued to this day and these Oracles of God been preserved in spite of hell Solomons philosophical treatises which the world had no spleen against but a liking of are long since lost whereas his Canonical writings are extant still When the earth clave asunder to swallow up Korah his company there are that think some of his children were taken up by the hand of God into the air till the earth closed again then set down without having received any harm because in the titles of sundry Psalms mention is made of the sons of Korah whom Tirinus in Numer 16. notâ ultimâ they suppose then preserved to propagate these whose service the Lord had a purpose to use so long after How often hath persecution opened her mouth from age to age and swallowed up millions both of men and books Yet the bible hath been continued still by the over-ruling hand of heaven yea which maketh it more remarkable God hath so befooled the devil herein as to preserve his own Book many times by the hands of his and its enemies It is too well known how small friends the Jews are and have heretofore been to the truth contained in the old Testament yet of them did the Lord make use to keep it and they proved carefull feoffes in trust for making over the assurances of life to us Gentiles Concerning one book of the New Testament viz. the Apocalypse it is very observable that when the authority thereof was questioned of old the Church of Rome struck in with her testimony and was a special means to have it kept in the number of Canonical books not without a special providence God who made Pharaohs daughter a second mother to Moses whom he had appointed to bring destruction afterwards upon her fathers house and kingdome did then make the Romish Church a drie nurse to preserve this Book whose meaning she knew not that it might bring desolation upon her self and her children afterwards Well may we therefore conclude and say of the holy Bible as Gamaliel once did of the Apostles Acts 5. 38 39. preaching Had this work been of men it would have come to nought longere this but being it is of God the devil and his complices have not been able to overthrow it § 8. Learn we also from that hath been said to magnifie the grace of God who in order to the promoting of our blessedness hath brought us of this nation to the knowledge of Christian Religion for want whereof many millions in other parts still sit in darkness and the shadow of death It was a memorable act of Witekindus Sr H. Spelman in Aspilogia p. 71. one of the Dukes of Saxony who flourished about the nine hundredth year of Christ after his renouncing paganisme and receiving the faith of the gospel he caused the black horse which he had formerly born in his military colours to be laid aside and in stead thereof a white horse to be born in testimony of his triumphant joy for that great change perhaps because among Qui candore cum nive certabant Pompon Laetus the Romanes the manner was to make use of such coloured steeds in their triumphs It put me in minde of what we reade in the sixth of the Revelation verse the second where Christ is described as going out in the ministery of the Gospel which was then newly embraced by that Prince Behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bowe and a crown was givne unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer Yea whereas there are sundry modes of the Christian Religion we are therefore to have our hearts and mouths filled with the highest praises of God because we have it in the purest that is the Protestant way which allows the people in general a free use of Bibles in their native language In In Hispania in Indice librorum prohibitorum Regulae sexta sic habet Prohibentur Biblia in vulgari lingua cum omnibus suis partibus Azor. Instit moral Tom. 1. lib. 8. cap. 26. pag. 714. Anglia mons pons sons Ecclesia foemina lana sundry parts even of Europe
he is Si omnino ego Deum declararem vel ego Deus essem vel ille Deus non foret § 2. Were all such passages set aside as are not originally the Heathens own but borrowed from Jewish or Christian authours I should not be afraid to affirm that there is one very short expression in Scripture to wit this I am that I am which revealeth Exod. 3. 14. more of God then all the large volumes of Ethnick writers An expression so framed as to take in all differences of time according to the idiome of the Hebrew tongue wherein a verb of the future tense as Ehieh is may signifie time past and present as well as that which is to come Hence ariseth a great latitude of interpretation for according to different readings it implieth different things Reading it as we do I am that I am it importeth the supremacie of Gods being The creatures have more of non-entity then of being in them It is proper to him to say I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Or the simplicity thereof whereas in creatures the Thing and its Being Ens and Essentia are distinguishable in him they are both one Or the ineffabilitie as if the Lord had said to Moses enquiring his name I am my self and there is nothing without my self that can fully express my Being Which put Scaliger upon inventing that admirable Scalig. de Subtilit Exercit. 365. § 2. epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Ipsissimus Ipse Or lastly the Eternitie thereof since there never was never will be a time wherein God might not or may not say of himself I am Whence it is that when Christ would manifest his goings out from everlasting as Micah phraseth Micah 5. 2. it he maketh use of this expression Before Abraham was I am not I Joh. 8. 58. was for that might have been said of Enoch Noah and others who lived before Abrahams time yet were not eternal but I am If it be rendered I am what I was as Piscator would have it then it speaketh his Immutability I am in executing what I was in promising Yesterday and to day and the same for ever If as others I will be what I will be then it denotes his Independency That essence which the creatures have dependeth upon the Creatours will None of them can say I will be not having of and in it self any power to make it self persevere in being as God hath It may perhaps intimate all these and Quae verbulo hoc continentur omnium hominum capacitatem transcendunt Andr. Rivet in Exod. 3. 14. much more then the tongues of Angels can utter Verily it is a speech containing more in it as a learned writer acknowledgeth then humane capacities can attain § 3. I shall therefore forbear to enlarge upon it Let me onely observe before I leave it the notorious impudence of apostate spirits Satan not contenting himself to have got the name of Jove in imitation of Jehovah the incommunicable name of God prevailed with his deluded followers to ascribe unto him that which the Lord of heaven and earth assumeth to himself in this mysterious place of Exodus saying I am that I am For over the gate of Apollo's temple in the city of Delphi so famed for oracles was engraven in capital letters this Greek vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Thou art vvhereby those that came thither to vvorship or to consult Satans oracle vvere instructed to acknovvledge him the fountain of being and the onely true God as one Ammonius is brought in discoursing at large of this very thing in the last Treatise of Plutarchs morals vvhereunto I refer the reader § 4. As to the point of divine subsistence Jehova Elohim Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons but one Deus indivisè 〈◊〉 in Trinitate inconfusè trinus in unitate God or in Leo's expression One God without division in a Trinity of Persons and three Persons without confusion in an Unity of Essence it is a discovery altogether supernatural yea Nature is so far from finding it out that novv when Scripture hath revealed it she cannot by all the help of Art comprehend or set it forth as she doth other things Grammar it self wanting proper and full words whereby to express Logick strong demonstrations whereby to prove and Rhetorick apt similitudes whereby to clear so mysterious a truth The terms Essence Persons Trinity Generation Procession and such like which are commonly made use of for want of better have been and will be cavilled at as short of fully reaching the mystery in all its dimensions Of the similitudes usually brought for its illustration that which Hilary said is Omnis comparatio homini potiùs utilis habeatur quà m Do apta Hilar. lib. 1. de Trin. most true They may gratifie the understanding of man but none of them exactly suit with the nature of God For example Not that of a root a trunk and a branch the trunk proceeding from the root the branch from both yet but one tree because a root may for some time be without a trunk and a trunk without a branch but God the Father never was without his Son nor the Father and Son without their coeternal Spirit Neither that of a chrystall Ball held in a river on a Sunshine-day in which case there would be a Sun in the Firmament begetting another Sun upon the chrystall Ball and a third Sun proceeding from both the former appearing in the surface of the water yet but one Sun in all for in this comparison two of the Suns are but imaginary none reall save that in heaven whereas the Father Word and Spirit are distinct Persons indeed but each of them truly and really God § 5. Well therefore may Rhetoricians say It is not in us and in our similitudes fully to clear this high point Logitians also It is not in us and in our demonstrations fully to prove it For however reason be able from the creatures to demonstrate a Godhead as hath been said yet it cannot from thence a Trinity no more then he that looks upon a curious picture can tell whether it was drawn by an English-man or an Italian onely that the piece had an artificer and such an one as was a prime master in that faculty because the limbner drew it as he was an artist not as one of this or that nation So the world is a production of that Essence which is common to all three not any personal emanation from this or that subsistent which is the reason why a Deity may be inferred from thence but not any distinction of Persons much less the determinate number of a Trinity The doctrine whereof is like a Temple filled with smoke such smoke as not onely hinders the view of the quickest eye but hurts the sight of such as dare with undue curiosity pry into it A mystery which my faith embraceth as revealed in the
God either hath as manna is supposed to have had the relish of all meats or containeth all Sovereignty comprehendeth inferiour honours The best of their perfections are mixed with some defects but God is light 1 Joh. 1. 5. and in him is no darkness at all They may be perfect and good in their kinde He is perfection and goodness it self In them we may finde matter of wonderment but of astonishment in him witness that eminent place Nehem. 9. 5. Blessed be thy glorious Name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Nature though not altogether silent upon this argument to wit the divine Attributes yet enjoyeth but a dim light to discover them by whereas the Scripture representeth them most magnificently in sundry respects § 2. First so as to curb our curiositie For which end it expresseth divers of them negatively as when God is said to be infinite immortal invisible unsearchable whereby we are taught that it is easier for us to know what he is not then what he is which is known onely to himself The best terms as Scaliger hath it for men to manifest Scalig. de Subâ—iliâ— Exercit. 365. § 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazi anz hymn ad Deum Meliùs seitur nesciâ—ndo Aug. lib. 2. de ordine their understanding of God by are those which manifest that they understand him not Thou O Lord saith Nazianzen hast produced all those things of which we speak but art unspeakable thy self All that can be known by us is from thee but thou thy self canst not be known Yea Austin was not afraid to affirm that Nescience is the better way of knowing God Secondly so as to help our infirmitie For whereas we are not able by any one act of our finite understandings to comprehend that infinite Essence which is it self one simple Act but comprehensive of all perfections Holy Scripture condescending to our weakness alloweth us to take up as it were in several parcels what we cannot compass at once and in contemplating the Attributes to conceive some under the notion of divine properties incommunicable to creatures such as are Immensity Independency Eternity Simplicity Self-sufficiency All-sufficiency Omnipotence Omniscience Omnipresence Others under that of divine faculties such are Understanding Will and Memory ascribed to God It gives us leave to look at some as divine affections such are his Love Hatred Anger Grief and Delight At others as divine virtues such are his Mercy Justice Patience Faithfulness Holiness Wisdome c. and at other some as divine excellencies resulting out of all the former such are Majesty Blessedness and Glory § 3. Thirdly so as to prevent our misapprehensions The Attributes of God however diversified in our conceptions as hath been said are identified with his Essence which is but One though to us they appear to be different each from other and all from it as the vast ocean though but one receiveth divers names from the severall shores it washeth upon so however Justice Mercy Power and the rest be severall names suited to different operations yet God is but one simple Act under those various denominations Lest we should therefore apprehend them to be such qualities as our virtues are really distinguishable yea and separable from our being as appeared when the first man fell from his holiness yet continued a man still Scripture doth sometimes predicate them of God in the abstract as when Christ is styled Wisdome when it is said God Proverb 8. 1 Joh. 1. 8. 1 Joh. 5. 6. is love and the Spirit is truth Men may be called loving wise and true God is love wisdome and truth it self The Apostle telleth us that if God swear he doth it by himself and no other yet we Heb. 6. 13. finde him in the Psalm swearing by his Psal 89. 35. holiness whence it followeth that his holiness is himself Christ is usually said to sit at the right hand of God but in one place it is exprest by sitting on the right-hand of power Therefore God Mark 14. 62. is Power as well as Love There is the same reason of all his attributes § 4. Fourthly So as to raise our esteem of God Some there be which are frequently called Communicable Attributes because in them the creatures share as being immortality goodness and wisdome Lest we should in this respect have lower thoughts of God then becomes us Scripture is wont to ascribe them to him in such a way of supereminence as however they be participated by Angels and men yet he onely is said to have them Witness these texts There is none Isa 49. 6. besides me Who onely hath immortality 1 Tim. 6 16. and Chap. 1. 17. Matth. 19. 17. God onely wife And There is none good but God Because in him they are all infinite all eternal all unmixed and without the least allay of imperfection An apostrophe borrowed from a devout though popish writer shall shut up this O abyss of divine perfections How admirable art thou O Lord who possessest in one onely perfection the excellecy of Fr. Sales Love of God lib. 2. cap. 1. § 3. pag. 74. all perfections in so excellent sort that none is able to comprehend it but thy self § 5. There is yet behinde a third kinde of knowledge far exceeding both the former A knowledge of God not proceeding from the light of Nature alone as the first doth nor of Scripture alone as the second but from effectual irradiations of the Spirit of Ephes 1. 17. wisdome and revelation accompanied with purging and cheering influences from the same spirit Look as the Literal maketh an addition of further discoveries to the Natural which hath been sufficiently proved So this Spiritual knowledge of God superadds even to the Literal sundry particulars not unworthy of our serious consideration viz. First Clearness of light Since the Canon of Scripture was perfected the things which the Holy Ghost discovereth are no other for substance but those very things which are contained in the written word onely he affords regenerate persons clearer light to discern them by then any they had before their conversion Take a man that is now become a learned Critick turn him to the same Authour which he perused when he was a young student he will finde the self-same matter but see a great deal further into it because he hath now got further light So is it here Secondly Sweetness of taste I sate Cantic 2. 3. down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste So the Spouse O taste and see that the Lord is Esal 39. 8. good So the Psalmist Upon which place the School-men have founded their distinction of knowledge of sight and a knowledge of taste Spiritual science Scientia visûs gustâ—â— is steeped in affection taking delight in the things known and not barely apprehending but relishing and savouring what it apprehendeth with abundance of love and complacency Whence those
expressions in Solomons song Because of the savour of thy Cantle 1. 3. Nescit divina qui non optat qui non amal Jo. Euseb Nicomb Theopolit pag. 91. good ointments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee He doth not know the things of God saith a late writer well who doth not desire and love them § 6. Thirdly Sense of interest Of the Zidonians God said They shall know that I am the Lord But of his own people Ezek. 28. 22. compared with verse 26. Ephes 1. 13. Israel They shall know that I am the Lord their God Paul of the beleeving Ephesians concerning Christ In whom ye trusted after that ye had heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation Others may consider the Gospel as a word of truth and a doctrine holding forth salvation but such as are savingly enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit view the salvation it holdeth forth as theirs and are ready to say of every truth therein contained This is good and good for me Happy man whosoever thou art that canst look by an eye of faith at the Gospel as the Charter of thy liberties at the condemning Law as cancelled by thy Surety at the Earth as the footstool of thy Fathers throne at Heaven as the portall of thy Fathers house at all the creatures in Heaven and Earth as an heir is wont to look at his fathers servants which are therefore his so far as he shall have need of them according to that All 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Fourthly Sincerity of obedience No doubt but Elies two sons being Priests had a literal knowledge of God yet being profane they are said expresly not to have known him They 1 Sam. 2. 12. were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord. When Lucius a bloudy persecuter offered to confess his Faith in hope thereby to beget in the auditours a good opinion of his orthodoxy Moses the religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judge Ruffin histor Eccles lib. 2. cap. 6. of ones faith as well as the ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not beleeve as a Christian ought Fully consonant hereunto is that of James I will James 2. 18. shew thee my faith by my works That of John He that saith I know God and keepeth 1 John 2. 4. not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And that of Job Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdome Job 22. last and to depart from evil is understanding APHORISME IV. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Exerc. 1. 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 § 1. THe most learned among the Heathen made account they had sufficiently characterized their Jupiter when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Optimus Maximus they styled him Good and Great yea the Best and Greatest of Beings Neither can it be denied that these two attributes if we take them in their latitude Aph. 4. comprehend very many of those perfections which commonly go under other names And this perhaps may be the reason why David in Psalm one hundred fourty fifth which the Rabbins are said to have esteemed so Coppen in argumento Psal 145. highly of as to determine but with more superstition then truth that whosoever repeated in thrice every day might be sure of eternal life having set himself to extoll God and to bless his name as appeareth by the first and second verses insisteth chiefly on these two Great is the Lord and greatly to be Psal 145. v. 3. praised and his greatness is unsearchable Shortly after They shall abundantly utter Vers 7. 8 9. the memory of thy great goodness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works I shall accordingly treat of both and first of his Goodness § 2. Moses was skill'd in all the Acts 7. 22. learning of the Egyptians yet as not content herewith he becometh an humble suiter to God for some further and better knowledge I beseech thee saith he Exod. 33. 18. shew me thy glory Other notions may fill the head of a moral man nothing short of the knowledge of God can satisfie the heart of a Saint Wherefore in answer to this request the Lord maketh him a promise saying I will make Verse 19. all my goodness pass before thee The thing desired was a sight of his glory the thing promised a view of his Goodness Which intimateth that however in themselves all the Attributes of God be glorious yet he glorieth most in the manifestation of his goodness neither doth any bring him in so much glory from the creatures who are wont to magnifie this most I will mention the Isai 63. 7. loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses So the Church in Isaiah Now the forementioned promise made to Moses in Exodus the three and thirtieth was made good in chapter the thirty fourth where the Lord is said to have passed by him and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God mercifull Exod 34 6. 7. Totum hunc locu◠ad bonitatem Dei pertinere asserit Ludovic de Dieu Auimadvers in loc and gracious long-suffering and abundant in bounty and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and to the fourth generation All which clauses even the latter expounded by most of Gods Justice may be so interpreted as to relate to his Goodness rather It is twofold one Essential that wherewith God is good in himself the other Relative that whereby he doth good to his creatures The former is here set forth by the term Jehovah which is doubled and doth most fully serve to express it as coming from a root that signifieth Being For Goodness and Entity are convertible and Diabolus in quantum est bonus est August p. de Natur. 〈◊〉 c. 5. every thing so far forth as it partaketh of Being partaketh also of Bonity wherefore God in whom all degrees of Entity meet is undoubtedly most good The latter in
them in these a little before he was to be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no When one told him that if he truly repented he should surely not perish he brake out into this speech Nay if your Christ be so easie to be intreated indeed as you say then I defie him and care not for him Horrible blasphemy desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it The next degree of impiety is when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning because he with whom they have to do is a long-suffering God A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But let such fear and tremble at what followeth Though a sinner doth evil Eccles 8 11 12 13. an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance as in the parable Behold these three years I come seeking Luke 13. 7. fruit on this fig-tree and finde none Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience as in the Canticles Open to me for my head is filled with Cantic 5. 2. dew and my locks with the drops of the night Take we heed of sleighting that which God and Christ value Know and consider that patience may be tired that however the Lord be long-suffering yet he will not suffer for ever but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou Jerem. 15. 6. art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting EXERCITATION 3. Exerc. 3. 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 Joh. 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 § 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause making use of the generical term have it Abundant in goodness I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation and to reade it Abundant in bounty because the word as Zanchy and others have observed most properly signifieth that kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat benignitatem seu liberalem beneficentiam Zanch. de Natur Dei l. 1. câ— 18. Vide Fulleri miscellan lib. 1. c. 8. goodness which we call Bounty or Benignity and which maketh a fourth branch This God is abundant in witness the greatest of his gifts by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactours I shall instance in some of the chief He bestoweth upon us First His son to free us from hell God Joh. 3. 16. so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son He did not grant him upon Non concessit sed purissime dedit Stella the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures but freely gave him unasked not a servant but a Son not an adopted son such as we are but a begotten begotten not as Saints are of his Jam. 1. 18. will by the word of truth but of his Nature he himself being the Word and the Truth not one of many but an onely Son thus begotten and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance but that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world Majesty and love have been thought Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majâ—stas amoâ— hardly compatible Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love and that to the world the undeserving yea ill-deserving world of mankinde Herein is love saith St John elsewhere let me say herein is bounty not that we loved 1 Joh. 4. 10. God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Loved and So loved that particle is most emphatical and noteth the transcendency of a thing either good or evil Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus Him that hath so 1 Cor. 5. 3. done this deed so impudently so abominably so unchristianly The officers being astonied at our Saviours doctrine cried out Never man spake so as Joh. 7. 46. this man so excellently so powerfully so incomparably Here God so loved the world that is so freely so infinitely so unspeakably The Apostle himself who had been rapt up to the third heaven and there heard things not to be uttered wanteth words when he cometh to utter this and useth an accumulation of many because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently Not content to have styled it love mercie grace as not having yet said enough he calleth it great love glorious grace rich mercy yea exceeding riches Ephes 2. 4 5 7. of his glorious and mercifull grace in his second chapter to the Ephesians § 2. Secondly His Spirit to fit us for heaven Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. him The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit and that real holiness Joh. 3. 5. 6. concerning which the Apostle saith without it no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. So preparing us for that place which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare Joh. 14. 2 3. for us A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there The Spirit by enabling us hereunto first bringeth heaven into the soul then conducteth the soul to it Whence it is that Nehemiah recording the acts of Gods bounty to Israel reckoneth this as one of the principal Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct Nehem. 9. 20. them Thirdly His Angels to guard us on earth After David had said The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that Psal 34. 7 8. fear him and delivereth them he addeth immediately O taste and see that the Lord is good herein good in bestowing such a guard upon us It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahashuerus to make Haman the favourite his attendant as he rode through the streets Lo here a
far greater the holy Angels those favourites in the Court of heaven are all ministring spirits Hebr. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation A task which they perform without grudging although in themselves more noble creatures then we are both out of love to their younger brethren of whom they have a most tender care and out of obedience to God their Father and ours Psal 91. 11. Mittis Unigenitum immittis Spiritum nè quid vacet in coelestibus ab opere solicituelinis Angelos mittis in ministerium who hath given them charge so to do as it is in the Psalm He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Lay this to the former as Bernard did and we shall see the whole heaven at work for our preservation God the Father sending his Son to redeem us the Fathet and Son sending their Spirit to guide us the Father Son and Spirit sending their Angels to minister for us O taste and see that the Lord is good bountifully good § 3. Fourthly Large provisions in the way We consist of body and soul he provideth plentifully for both giving 1. Tim. 6. 17. us richly all things to enjoy as one Apostle phraseth it yea as another giving unto Jam. 1. 5. all men liberally and not upbraiding Whereas ordinary benefactours by reason of their stinted abilities give either but a few things or to a few persons onely or if to many but sparingly and are besides apt to corrupt and blemish their good turns by casting them in the Authores pereunt garrulitate sui Martial receivers teeth and making their boast continually of them all these are here removed from God whilest he is said to give unto all men and that liberally yea and so as not to upbraid although whatever men receive yea whatever they are sin excepted be wholly his That of the Psalmist is very emphatical and well deserveth our consideration The earth is the Lords Psal 24. 1. and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein The house wherein a man dwelleth may be his landlords but the furniture his own Here we are told that not the earth onely but the fulness of it is the Lords Both house and furniture may be anothers but he that inhabiteth it his own man Here they that dwell therein are the Lords the inhabitants themselves as the room and the stuff To which agreeth that of St Paul ye are not your own 1 Cor. 6. 19. and that of an ancient writer cited by Heinsius Our very being is none of Nostrum non est quod sumus multò minùs quod habemus ours much less the things we have in possession As for spiritual provisions his people use not to be scanted in them Another particular reckoned up by Nehemiah when he set himself to celebrate the acts of divine bounty towards Israel◠was the institution of Ordinances Thou camest down also saith Nehem. 9. 13. 14. he speaking to God upon mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gavest them right judgements and true laws good statutes and commandements and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath One way whereby great Princes are wont to manifest their royal bounty is the making of great feasts as Ahasuerus and Solomon did we may safely allude to the Prophets expression though the place have another meaning and say of the Church in that respect In this mountain doth the Lord of hosts make Isai 25. 6. unto all people a feast of fat things of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Good Sermons and Prayers are like well refined wines and as Christ himself is a Saviour full of merits so is his Gospel a doctrine full of promises his Supper a Sacrament full of mysteries his Sabbath a day full of opportunities all his Ordinances fat things full of marrow § 4. Fifthly Full satisfaction at our journeys end Now indeed as the natural so the spiritual eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the spiritual ear with hearing because we see but as through a 1 Cor. 13. 12. glass darkly not face to face and know but in part that of which we hear Then shall eye and ear have enough when we shall see God as he is and hear Christ 1 Joh. 3. 2. saying Come ye blessed of my Father inherit Matth. 25. 34. the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Here although beleeving souls have fellowship with Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in patria God in Christ sufficient to stay their stomachs as at a breakfast yet that degree of fruition is wanting which should satiate them fully as at a feast beyond that of Ordinances What shall there be enjoyed will replenish every chink of rational appetites the first Truth filling up our understandings and the chief Good our wills to the very brim Then shall that be to the utmost verified which David once said of regenerate persons They shall be abundantly Psal 36. 8. 9. satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light § 5. For improvement hereof As our Saviour once said Be ye mercifull so Be ye bountifull let me say as your father is bountifull St Paul having praised the Macedonians for their deep poverty abounding unto the riches of their liberality urgeth the grace and benignity of Christ as a principal motive to excite his Corinthians to a like exercise of bounty towards the poor Saints at Jerusalem For ye know saith 2 Cor. 8. 2 9. he the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be-rich More especially let us all learn from hence not to deal niggardly with God himself but to think no pains too great no expence too much no time too long that is spent in his service Not as the manner of some is who so manage the profession of religion as if their main care and study were how to serve him with most ease and to come off with the cheapest performances David Paul and Luther were men of another spirit The first as he delighted in the commemoration of divine bounty to him saying I will Psal 13. 6. sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me And again Return Psal 116. 7. unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee so he was no niggard in his returns but ever and anon enquiring what he should do to testifie his thankfulness What shall I Psal 116. 12. render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And as providence offered occasion laying himself out for God witness that his resolution testified to
over the creatures But every man since the fall is a slave born a servant to divers lusts and pleasures Neither is there any way for getting out of this estate but getting into Christ who restoreth all such as close with him to a spiritual Sovereignty Making them kings to God and his father Rev. 1. 6. and upholding them with his royall Spirit as some reade that in the Psalm Till then Psal 51. 12. what are whole Nations of men but to speak in the Prophets language as the drops of a bucket which in their fall Isa 40. 15. are so licked up by the dust of the earth as they are no more discernable or as the small dust of the ballance which is of no moment at all towards turning of the beam one way or other And if Nations be so inconsiderable what shall we say of particular persons I will suppose a mighty Prince but an unbeleever styled your Highness or your Majesty at every word and be bold to present him upon this occasion with Zophars interrogatory What canst thou do When God leaveth thee to thy self how impotent are thy best abilities as to the things of a better world Seeing they are such as no natural man can either receive for they are foolishness to him and must be spiritually 1 Cor. 2. 14. discerned or close with when they are discovered for the carnal minde is Rom. 8. 7. enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be May these and the like considerations work so kindly upon us as Canutus his not being able to set bounds to the ocean did upon him It is an history worth the remembring This Canutus Cambden Britannia out of H. Huntington was one of the ancient kings of England who really to refute the flatterers by whom he was told that all things were at his command caused his royall Pavilion to be set upon the sands when the tide was coming in then said to the sea Thou belongest to my dominion and this earth which my throne standeth upon is mine I charge thee therefore not to flow in upon my ground nor to wet the feet of thy Sovereign Lord. But in vain for the tide kept its course and came up to his feet without doing him any reverence Whereupon he removed further off and said Be it known to all men in the world that the power of Princes is but a vain empty thing and that none fully deserveth the name of a Sovereign Lord but he at whose beck heaven and earth yield their obedience who can say to the sea hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be staid It is also reported that after this he never put on his crown more O that all the sons of men would accordingly learn from this branch of divine greatness never to boast more of their own abilities but to throw down all their crowns at the feet of Christ who though omnipotence be incommunicable leaveth upon such as receive him by faith some impressions and footsteps of it For whereas divine Almightiness standeth in two things especially to wit in Gods being able to do all things that are regularly possible and his not being able to do any sinfull thing there are some prints of both upon Christians I can do all things saith Philip. 4. 13. St Paul through Christ that strengtheneth me And whosoever is born of God 1 John 3. 9. saith St John cannot sin because he is born of God EXERCITATION 7. Exerc. 7. The depth of divine Omniscience seen in discerning the deep things of man yea of Satan yea of God Our Nescience discovered and acknowledged The longitude of Gods perfection stated Eternitie proper to him Not assumed by or ascribed to men without blasphemy § 1. THe second dimension is the depth of Gods Omniscience which appears in that he is able to found and fadome the deepest things whether of man or of Satan or of the Divine essence and will First There are deep things of men Their words are deep and again The Prov. 18. 4. words of a mans mouth are as deep waters Their hearts and counsels much more Both the inward thoughts of every one of them and the heart is deep So David of Psal 64. 6. the churches enemies Counsel in the Prov. 20. 5. heart of man is like a deep water So Solomon of wise sages who are therefore compared by a learned writer to coffers with double bottoms which when others look into being opened they see not all they hold on the suddain Sr. Walter Ralegh's hist book 5. p. 359. and at once But these are no depths to God to whom David said There is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord Psal 139. 4. thou knowest it altogether And elsewhere The Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth Chron. 28. 9. all the imaginations of the thoughts Neither is it the least act of Gods goodness to mankinde that he is pleased to reserve the searching of hearts to himself as part of his own prerogative royal because if men were able to dive into one anothers thoughts there would be no quiet in the world no peaceable living one by another in regard of that hidden hypocrisie and malice which lurks in the most § 2. Secondly Deep things of Satan spoken of in the Revelation As many as have not this doctrine and which have not Revel 2. 24. known the depths of Satan as they speak Seducers are wont to boast of their mysterious tenents and to speak of them as great depths not to be fadomed by common christians Christ in that Epistle of his to the church of Thyatira makes use of their own term Depths as they speak but so as to brand them for Depths of Satan fetch'd from hell whereas they perhaps held them forth as new truths glorious lights and revelations from above Thus popery is a mystery but a mystery of iniquity as Paul styleth it and Socinianisme a depth but a Depth of Satan There is not a serpentine winding or turning in any of those corrupt opinions which pester and poyson the Church of Christ at this day but God seeth and knoweth it how hard soever it be for his servants to discover and refute To these may be added all those other hellish designs which go under other names in the Scripture as The wiles of the divel and his devices Ephes 6. 11. 2 Cor. 2. 11. all which dark secrets are not in the dark to divine understanding And he that now sees them all will one day reckon with Satan for them yea and sink him so much the deeper into hell by how much his depths have done more mischief upon earth I say into hell where he shall have those agents and factours by whom he now carrieth on his cursed work for his cursed companions to eternitie according to that in the Apocalyps The divel that
elsewhere We are bound to give thanks alwaies to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God 2 Thes 2. 13. hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth Here we finde not onely Sanctification in general but faith which is the flower of holiness derived from Election The same Apostle stiles it The faith of Gods elect Tit. 1. 1. And St. Luke in the Acts speaking of the success which St. Pauls preaching had among the Gentiles saith expresly As many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved Acts 13. 48. A Text which the soundest divines look at as a most pregnant place to prove a causal influence of Divine Predestination upon the work of saving faith Others I know there are and they not a few nor inconsiderable who have strongly endeavoured to turn the edge and strength of this place another way by rendering the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as we do Ordained but Disposed or well-affected to eternal life Unto whose corrupt Gloss I oppose the following considerations First If it were to be so read then all that heard the Apostles Sermon there recorded even all and every one without exception should have beleeved seeing there is not a man in the world and therefore none in that congregation who was not disposed and well-affected to the reward of eternal life the will of man being necessarily carried to the desire of blessedness which none are so bruitish as not to affect for that unto which these are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not conversion but life eternal Secondly Disposedness in their sense doth not alwaies precede faith nor faith alwaies follow it When Saul was in the full career of his persecuting madness against the Saints what disposedness was there in him unto conversion unless fury be a disposition to faith yet then did he first believe In that young man who came to our Saviour of whom it is testified That he was not far from the kingdome of God which of their dispositions was wanting yet he went away sorrowfull and believed not Thirdly Faith it self is the first saving disposition that any man hath because it first laies hold upon Christ and of life by him in so much as none is formally disposed to eternal life till he have believed Fourthly St. Luke doth no where use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either in his Gospel or in the Acts for disposedness but for ordination and constitution divers times therefore our reading here As many as were ordained to eternal life is to be retained § 8. But learned Grotius will by no means allow of this interpretation They saith he who apply this Text to Predestination Nihil vident see nothing at all Yet by his favour a man that saw as far into the Mysteries of Divinity as also into the idioms of the Greek tongue as Grotius himself be it spoken without disparagement to his great learning Chrysostom I mean applys it so in his Commentary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Hom. 30. in Act. Apost upon the place And his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expounded Erasmus translates Praefiniti à Deo Predestinated of God Three things are alleadged by Grotius for overthrowing of this sense but all in vain His first plea is that 't is not usual for all of a city a congregation that are predestinated to believe at one and the same time therefore that which we assert is not like to be the meaning here For answer I acknowledge it is not usual no more is it to have three thousand inhabitants of one city brought in to God on one day But what if God willing to glorifie his Gospel and the power of converting Grace as he called three thousand Jews in one day by Peters Ministry Acts the second so here by St. Pauls at his first solemn undertaking to preach unto the Gentiles Acts the 13. were pleased to work upon as many in that congregation as did belong to the election of grace shall any man dare to prescribe and plead custome to the contrary His second Argument runs thus All that truely believe are not Predestinated unto life Therefore that for which we contend is not to be thought a proper sense Answer This reason is founded upon a grand mistake viz. That faith is common to all whether elect or non-elect although Paul stile it the Faith of Gods elect as before and Christ tels the Jews Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep John 10. 26. He argues in the third place from St. Lukes unacquaintedness with the secrets of God It was not in his power to tell who of that company were elected who not therefore by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must not be conceived to have understood such as were in that sense ordained to eternal life I answer Although the pen-man did not the inditer viz. the Holy Ghost did exactly know whose names were written in the book of life and whose were not Now he it was that in the history of the Acts suggested and dedicated to his secretary both matter and words § 9. The second product of election is happiness hereafter Accordingly the objects of this Decree are those whom God hath not appointed unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus 1 Thes 5. 9. Christ Salvation is that which they are said to be chosen to and that wherein their names are written called The 2 Thes 2. 13. book of life For as in military affairs Phil. 4. 3. Commanders have their Muster-rolls wherein are contained the names of all the souldiers whom they have listed whence the phrase of Conscribere milites and in Common-wealths there are Registries kept wherein are recorded the names of such as are chosen to offices of trust and other preferments whence the title of Patres conscripti ascribed to the Senators of Rome So the Scripture condescending to our capacities and speaking of God after the manner of men attributeth to him a book of life wherein it supposeth a legible writing and Registring the names of all those persons whom he hath irreversibly predestinated to life everlasting I say irreversibly for if that of Stoicks be true In sapientum decretis nulla est litura In the decrees of wise men there will be no blotting and blurring how much more may it be asserted concerning those eternal Decrees of the onely wise God If it became Pilate to say What I have written I have written it would certainly mis-become the great John 19. 22. God to blot so much as one name out of the Lambs book of life written by himself before the world was We may take it for granted that this book will not admit of any Deleatur or of any See my Tactica Sacra lib. 3. cap. 2. §. 9 10 11. sequent Expurgatorie Index whatever
Glosses and strained Paraphrases have endeavoured to carry the sense quite another way against the poyson of whose endeavours our people may perhaps stand in need of an Antidote It shall be my care by Divine assistance which is alwaies needfull especially in the debating of such mysteries to present them with one and in as calm a way as may be without provoking however without reproching such as are contrary minded to demonstrate these two Conclusions viz. That Paul in the ninth to the Romans doth upon occasion propound and prosecute the doctrine of Predestination And that he plainly derives the Decree of Preterition from the Sovereign greatness of God But before we enter upon so great a depth which I do with fear and trembling let it be observed that our Apostle from the end of the eight to the beginning of his twelfth chapter continues a profound complicate discourse wholly about the main concernments of his countreymen the Jews and that the best help we have for enlightening certain clauses in the ninth ought to be feâ—ched from passages in the tenth and eleventh Chapters the neglect whereof I verily think hath occasioned the miscarriages of so many in their interpretations of that Scripture I shall hope to improve the Observation to good purpose § 2. Concerning the former of our Conclusions there will be no need of going far to seek the occasion of Pauls falling upon this Doctrine He had carefully and continually preached faith in Christ as the onely way of salvation in opposition to all others This however embraced by divers Gentiles could by no means finde entertainment with the Jews Be pleased to compare Chapter 9. 31 32 33. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not obtained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone As it is written Behold I lay in Sâ—on a stumbling-stone and rock of offence and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed with Chapter tenth verse 2 3 4. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submited themselves to the righteousness of God For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth This their stumbling at Christ as they generally did caused a great stumble in the thoughts of considering men who could not but stand amazed to see that whereas God had set up but one onely way to be laid hold upon for the attainment of blessedness his own onely people in the eye of the world should almost universally decline that and venture their souls upon another Yet this they did even they who are here so magnificently described Chapter 9. verse 4 5. Who were Israelites to whom pertained the Adoption and the glorie and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises Whose were the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen Hereupon some were apt to crie out All is undone The word of God it self hath taken no effect The Promise to Abraham is fallen to the ground All Sermons and other Ordinances have been but a sso much rain upon rocks that glides off and leaves no impression Our Apostle to recover them out of these dumps leads them by degrees into the knowledge of Divine Predestination as the root of all this giving them first to understand that all who bore the name of Israelites and enjoyed the Ordinances were not indeed such children of God as belonged to the Election of grace and therefore did not close with Christ in the use of them as some few did upon whom the word of grace weas effectual and in whom as few as they were Gods promise to Abraham was preserved As for those unto whom his Gospel was hid they were as he elsewhere tels the Corinthians a sort of lost men and women 2 Cor. 4. 〈◊〉 For this see Chapter 9. verse 6 7 8. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect For they are not all Israel which are of Israel Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children But in Isaac shall thy seed be called That is They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Where the Elect people of God who onely are accounted the spirituall seed and who onely in the conclusion will concur to constitute Christ Mystical are styled children of the Promise perhaps in reference to that grace and Promise of eternal life given to them in Christ Jesus before the world began to which I have spoken before in this Aphorisme Exercitation the first Paragraph the third however in allusion to the birth of Isaac who was produced above the power of nature by vertue of a promise declaring Gods will and pleasure to have it so for the Elect in the respective hours of their conversion are all of them born again John 1. 13. not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Who of his James 1. 18. own will begetteth them with the word of truth that they should be a kinde of first-fruits of his creatures § 3. Having thus given a more obscure intimation of some few elect ones complying with the Gospel although most part of the Jews were recusants as to that interest he goeth on to profess it more openly in the beginning of the eleventh chapter God hath not cast away his people which â—e foreknew verse the second the infallible meaning whereof may be gathered from that in Peter Elect according to the 1 Pet. 1. 2. foreknowledge of God the Father And more plainly yet in verse the seventh and eighth of the same chapter The Election hath obtained and the rest were blinded According as it is written God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day But to return to our ninth chapter Who can advisedly reade that passage in his discourse about Jacob and Esau That the purpose of God according to Election might stand and consult the circumstances of of it viz. the childrens not yet being born nor having done good or evil as also a choice no way founded upon him that willeth or upon him that runneth but upon God alone who sheweth mercy and not reflect upon that election by me described in the first Exercitation under this Aphorisme § 2. Add hereunto those Apostolical distributions of men into those on whom the Lord will have mercy and those whom he will harden in verse the eighteenth that is in other terms Elect and Reprobate Also into vessels of mercy and vessels of
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
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