then his Preservation God gratifies her Religious good Nature with larger bounties she had also the delight and comfort to Suckle and Swadle him and not onely by connivence or permission but by speciall Favour and Commission from Pharaohs Daughter not upon her own proper costs and charges but with a certain Honourable Salary and Stipend and with full expectation of high preferment in Pharaohs Court for a surplusage So true is that of the Apostle Eph. 3.20 God is able to doe exceeding abunndantly above all that we can aske or think And the Psalmists supposition is here in some sence affirmatively true When his Father and Mother forsook him then the Lord took him up Psal 27.10 for Moses his Parents durst not take notice of him neither was there any to look for or after him but a timerous Damosell who yet but looked at a distance God took the care then upon himself who is a present help when all other second auxiliaries faile to all distressed persons but above all others to exposed Infants Their Angels in Heaven when no Guardians on Earth doe alwayes saith our Saviour Mat. 18.10 behold the Face of my Father stand before and about him as his Guard continually to attend and wait for Orders towards their protection and preservation And as he appointeth his noble Hosts to be their Overseers and Assistants so he maketh the most honourable among men to be the instruments of his good providence Kings shall be their Nursing Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers as was here in effect demonstrated and was in some part proved and experienced by David and so by him witnessed and attested Psal 22.9.10.11 4. The experience of Gods mercifull dispensations and gracious dealings is a great ayd and assistance to our Faith and a strong and powerfull encouragement for our chearfull dependance on Gods good providence It was an experiment which satisfied Peters scruple removed his error and prejudice and produced that determination and conclusion of Faith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Acts 10.34 And it was an Argument of sense which fetched that answer and confession of Faith from Thomas My Lord and my God But as it is an help to Faith so it is the settlement and strength of hope and obedience former favours provoke us to thankfulnesse in prosperity and good dayes and encline us to confidence and resolution in adversity in dangerous and difficult times take a proofe and instance of both Josephs rejection of his Mistrisse her solicitations was grounded on his Masters favour and Gods goodnesse in his former deliverance and present preferment Gen. 39.8.9 Behold my master c. as if he had said Such an unworthy complyance and condiscention as she moved was both a sin against God and an iniustice against Pharaoh the former an act of irreligion the latter of ingratitute both a great wickednesse When Benhadad was in straits and knew not which way to turn himself his Servants counselled him to joyn with them in a submission to Ahab King of Israel and the motive to this their counsell and his acceptance and all their submission was this Behold now we have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are mercifull Kings c. 1 Kings 20.31.32 Doubtlesse it is a good Argument God hath been found in this and such emergencies when we sought unto him therefore let us seek again to him he hath heard when we called therefore let us call again David frames such an Argument when from an induction of mercies he concludes a continuation The Lord that delivered c. 1 Sam. 17.34.35.36.37 And Saint Paul from the former experience of mercies builds his future hopes of a succession 2 Cor. 1.8 9.10 So true is that of the same holy Apostle Rom. 5.4.5 Patience worketh experience and experience hope not an hypocriticall presumption which hath the luck alwayes to be bafled but a grounded dependance which maketh not ashamed as all hypocrites shall be when their vain confidences fayl them which alwayes obtains either what it expects or better or more and is therefore a rejoycing hope because an obtaining ver 2. or which is more pertinent Because the love of God is shed abroad c. ver 5. former receipts of mercies hath produced in our hearts an assurance that God loveth us and if so then we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 3.28 and none but such God loves so as to reward And this made the Psalmist use that Exhortation Tast and see that the Lord is good c. Psal 34.8 and that solemn and sacred Protestation I will remember the years c. Psal 77 10.11.12.13 5. Acts of nature and reason if performed in Faith are taken in and converted into Religion Moses Parents did an act of naturall affection in Faith as was before cleared and so they were not onely naturall but religious and faithfull for so doing and the ground hereof is That as not the opus operatum not the doing of a work of Religion is a duty abstractedly and simply considered removed from all adjuncts and circumstances for even the most wicked transgressors may doe that which for the substance of the work is Religious and yet they are not Religious in doing it because of a defailance in the right manner of performing as in Jehu his Zeale the Pharisees Prayers the Hypocrits Almes for they doe them not in ayme respect and order to God and his Laws but to other ends and purposes as is expressed Hos 7.14.16 Zach. 7.5 so the most common acts of life of nature and civility may become acts of Faith and holy Religion if they be duely circumstantiated done spiritually and divinely with relation and reference unto God obedience and submission to his will for it is the manner of doing and the end which differenceth and distinguisheth holy and prophane actions acts of Faith and acts of Reason of Grace and Nature and therefore those acts which materially are naturall and ciuill rationall and morall if performed with a desire a care and conscience to please God they are formally and truely Religious and Christian as the Philippians Contribution sent by Epaphroditus is called a Sacrifice acceptable a Sacrifice acceptable because done to him with an Eye and respect to God the liberality was to Paul the Sacrifice the Service to God and this sauctified it and adopted it into an holy office or an act of Faith Aug. lib. 19. de Civ Dei cap. 25. throughout 6. To denominate an act a duty of Faith it is sufficient to walk and move according to that degree and measure of light we have received and to beleeve proportionably to the evidence of the Revelation That which stayed Moses his Parents their Faith and for which they were reputed faithfull was not a clear Philicall or Mathematicall demonstration for this carries its evidence so strongly along with that it commands and forceth assent neither was it
endearments be either inconsistent with or prejudiciall to our holy profession any lets or hinderances to us in the discharge and performance of the duties of Piety or Charity the love of God and Man then we are by all means to quit and dis-own them we must come out of Babylon though our Interests be there if we cannot stay but we must partake of their sins we must forsake Egypt if she distresse the People of God and our precious Faith for we cannot serve God and Mammon Christ and Belial Q. But what is there such a power and faculty in man to refuse or choose what he will And if so then doth not this power necessarily inferr a freedom in the will of man A. Certainly man is a free Agent in all his exercises and operations and what he doth not freely he doth not as a man but as a horse and mule which have no understanding and we are forbidden to be such Psal 32.10 for it is naturall for the will of man to move freely rationally and deliberately and this freedom or liberty of the will is an essentiall of humanity and the proper act of that freedom is Election which is exposed both to coaction and compulsion Voluntas non cogitur for that which is compelled is against the will and that which is against the will is not willed It is true the will may be letted changed and the commanded actions thereof compelled that is those inferiour faculties which are moved by the will but the immanent actions of the will that is to deliberate will and choose cannot be so and also to necessitation and determination to one For if the will be determined by the Physicall and speciall influence of outward causes then morives were in vain reason in vain deliberation in vain all perswasions and threats in vain but therefore are these used because man hath a power of Election that he may deliberate and act indifferently and either doe or not doe or doe this or the contrary For what exercise have we of our wills if we act not voluntary And how act we voluntarily if we be necessitated absolutely And to what end and designe are those terrors and promises of the Lord the danger we shall incurr by our disobedience and the reward we shall reape by our obedience if they be not as rationall motives and have not with them a persuasive efficacy It is true indeed that the will often mistakes and errs in her choyce putting bitter for sweer evill for good and one the contrary But this proceeds not from any forfeiture of what was naturall to the will and all or certainly very few excepted confesse that Adam had true and entire liberty but from the corrution of nature or the naturall faculty depraved which is a contracted contagion whereby we are averse and indisposed to good we are refractory and rebellious to the very Laws of Nature as well as of Grace of right Reason as holy Religion and we are prone and strongly enclined to observe and follow the desires and delights of the carnall sensitive appetite and to satisfie the lusts of the flesh for the understanding is full of ignorance and darknesse during this state of corruption of pride and contradiction against all sacred and saving truth the will is full of enmity and opposition against that which is good the conscience full of impurity and sophystry the heart of folly and madnesse of infidelity and hypocrysie and therefore no wonder if every imagination fancy and conception of the heart be unto evill and that continually Yet even in these aptnesses inclinations and prejudices the will moves freely and acts by choyce For as Angels and good Spirits by a most free agency doe good and nothing but good because their understandings are taken up with the contemplation and satisfaction and their affections with the desires and delight of good onely So Devills and wicked men long and thirst pursue and prosecute sin by chusing the evill and refusing the good having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Ephes 4.18 and so allowing and approving of sinne and wickednesse So that whether the object be chosen good or evill the will acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by deliberation and with indifferency though that the good is chosen be from the causality of Faith and influences of spirituall Grace that evill from the corruption of Nature either transmitted and passed over to us by carnall propagation or contracted by vitious habits customes and education and this properly concerns not the liberty of the Agent but onely expresseth the reasons causes and motives for which he thus exerciseth and manageth his liberty It was from Nature that Moses chused or made a choyce it was by Faith he made this choyce He chused rather to suffer affliction c. Q. But what doth Faith Catechise and direct men rather to suffer affliction Can sufferings be the objects of our desires and longings Or are afflictions in numero eligibilium matters worthy of our election and complacency A. Doubtlesse they are in some degree and measure though not of themselves yet secondarily in respect of their uses as they relate either to the prevention of a greater threatned and demerited impendant evill or as they conduce to some present or future good For sometimes they are Fatherly corrections to avoyd the wrath and severity of dis-inheriting When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 and that is an happy temporall judgement which barrs an Eternall a desireable chasticement which wards off future condemnation Sometimes they are Instructions It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Psal 119.71 and to receive Instruction is highly appetible and that with the most ingenuous and noble as well as holy and religious spirits Sometimes they are preparatives for Glory having not onely a purging but also a purifying quality 2 Cor. 4.17.18 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of Glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall Sometimes they are discoveries of the truth of the inward parts of our sincerity That the tryall of our Faith being much more precious then of Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be found unto prayse and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 that though they be sharp and biting yet have they in them somewhat of the bonum jucundum but indirectly and by consequence For we are to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations Knowing this that the trying of your Faith worketh patience James 1.2.3 much of
that a Christian Church too a Church of Christ and the sufferings of the people of God the rebukes of Christ though then the people of God had not the Title yet they had the Religion of Christ and albeit in outward expression and denomination they were not called Christians till long after at Antioch Acts 11.26 yet such they were really and in truth For Beleevers before Christs comming and since are admitted into the same Covenant of Grace because consigned by the same Sacraments not indeed in the same Signes but in the Spirituall thing signified 1 Cor. 10.3.4.5 And did all eat the same spirituall meat And did all drink the same spirituaell drink for they dranke of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the Wildernesse which did Scale the same promises though not so immediately as ours but under a covert of temporall things even ever since that Grant the Seed of the Woman c. Gen 3.15 and is the expresse affirmation of the Apostle Gal. 3.17 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was foure hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect which relateth to the same object Jesus Christ Heb. 13.8 Acts 3.25 4.12 for the same excellent purposes of mercy remission of sins reconciliation with God and life eternall So the Covenant was the same for substance though not for circumstance and fashion and so their Faith and Religion the same For Christ was the Lambe slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 So Aug. Epist 157. ad opt Eadem fides nostra illorum quoniam hoc illi crediderant futurum quod nos credimus factum And therefore here we may say with Saint Paul Rom. 11.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the Wisedom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out And with David Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wouderfull works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred But to this I have said somwhat before in the first Part and 8. Page and 1. Observ 8. To suffer with the people of God The people of God are eo nomine so far from being exempted from the common calamities of man-kind that they are the greatest sufferers of and sharers in them And if judgement begin at the House of God where shall the ungodly appear Gods People are a persecuted People But of this largely also before and more is to be said after 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esteeming That which put Moses on this choice was a well-grounded conviction of Conscience that it was a duty and a right enformed judgement for resolution and action without warranty and sufficient grounds of conviction is but perversnesse and obstinacy sin and impiety the mistaking of evill for good will necessarily inferr evill doing Hence sins are called the Works of darknesse Eph. 5.11 and Heathens darknesse ver 8. Walking in the vaenity of their minds Having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Eph. 4.17.18 And the Apostle notes this when he tells us of the unbeleeving impenitent Jews They err in their hearts and so they have not known my wayes Heb. 3.10 and therefore he admonisheth them ver 12. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God And hence Minutius Faelix concludes Non minoris est seeleris Deum ignorare quam laedere Ignorance of God is as bad as Sacriledge Hos 5.4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God for the spirit of whordoms is in the midst of them and they have not known the Lord. On the contrary the right discerning and separating evill from good conduceth much to the eschewing of evill and doing good to deny the world and self and chuse Christ and Heaven And therefore the Apostles supplication for the Philippians Phil. 1.9.10.11 is that they may abound in all judgement To what end that they may approve or try things that are excellent and differ be able Christians to distinguish betwixt evill and good And to what are such abilities required that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ Being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and prayse of God And his Petition for the Colossians is to the same purpose Col. 1.9.10 For this cause we also since the day we heard it doe not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the Knowledge of his will in all wisedom and spirituall understanding That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the Knowledge of God As the bodily Eyes guides our feet so the understanding is the leader of the will and affections Hence those Prayers of David Psal 119.18.34.73 125. Open then mine Eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law Give me understanding and I shall keep thy lay yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandements I am thy Servant give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies And hence that Exhortation of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.20 In understanding be ye men otherwise ye will prove Children tossed too and fro still Children and never come to be perfect men Eph. 4.13.14 10. He had respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He first looked on the Duty now the Reward that to set him forward this to encourage and back him that as principall this as second to his choice that to leade and command this to fortifie and strengthen that as finis agentis his designe this as finis rei his happinesse and felicity See here and admire admire and acknowledge the great love of God to man who not onely gave us understanding to know our Duty but furnisheth with ayds and helps to further and assist us in our Duty he not onely teacheth us what to doe but supplies strength for to doe and affords means to preserve that strength he deals with us in those wayes which are most proper for us by threatnings and perswasions punishments and rewards Deut. 11.26 Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse The Lord knoweth our frame Psal 103.14 and so frameth all his dispensation accordingly he considers we are but men weak and impotent creatures and therefore he gives Grace Yet withall he considers that we are men