Omnipotent because the glorie of God wherewith he is glorified is every where or because the Power or Right-hand by which he is strengthned is a Power Omnipotent Omnipotencie it self Thus much of that Absolute Infinitie or Infinitie in Act unto which Christs Humane Nature was not Exalted and yet it was Exalted in some sort Infinitly above all other created substances and so Exalted or at least declared to be so Exalted specially by the Ascension of it into heaven and by its Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father 8. That is Infinitum actu or actually Infinite Extra quod nihil est which is so perfect and compleat that nothing in the same kind can be added unto it That is Infinitum potentia or potentially Infinite unto which somewhat may successively be added without end or ceasing Thus Philosophers have taught that In continuâ quantitate non datur minimum in discretâ non datur maximum There is not the least quantitie but is divisible into infinite parts There is no member so great but may still be made greater by Addition and albeit Addition were made every moment unto the worlds end yet the Product could not be actually infinite some number might be added unto it which as yet is not contained in it In this manner the participated Power or Glorie of God or the participation of this Power or Glorie may be infinite The participation of this Power or Being may every moment whilest the world lasteth or whilest immortall creatures continue in being be greater then other and yet never come to be so great but that it may be augmented or bettered and that which may be augmented or bettered cannot be actually Infinite The least parcel of earth could not subsist without the participation of Gods Power or Being and the least or dullest part of the earth which participates of his Being doth in a sort infinitly exceed Nothing or that which is not Nothing could have any Being but by participating of his Being who is infinite No power besides Infinite Power could out of Nothing produce Something Trees and plants and other workes of the 4 th and 5 th dayes creation excell the earth Beasts of the field excell them Man excelleth the beasts of the field and the Angels excell man in nobilitie and dignitie of being And yet the most excellent amongst the Angels is but a participation of Gods Power or Excellencie and as Divines collect God hath not made any creature so excellent but he may make it more excellent every day then other yet this supposed should not the Excellencie of it be Actually infinite because it may be still bettered Yet may that which is not actually infinite in any one kind or according to any one branch of Infinitie actually contein greater Excellencie or perfection in it then the addition of perfection unto some other creature though by succession infinite can attain unto And thus Christs Humane Nature by reason of the Personall Union which it hath with the Godhead or with the Son of God containes greater Excellencie in it of diverse kinds then any other created substance not so united though the faculties or perfections of it were continually bettered could reach unto 9. But omitting the Dignitie of Christs humane Nature in the general it will be a more profitable search to examin the particular Effects or Efficacie which his Humane Nature now Exalted hath in respect of us These may not be measured much lesse limited by other mens most noble Faculties or perfections The most dull sight on earth may see as far as the Sun or Starrs and the most quick sight cannot see beyond them No mans eye-sight can pierce through the thickest clouds much lesse through the heavens above or through the rockes here on earth Though thus to do were absolurely impossible to man or any other creature endued with sight we might not hence thus collect Christs glorified eyes are humane eyes as ours are created eyes as ours are Therefore He cannot with these bodily eyes look down from heaven and behold what is done or lyes hid in the most secret corners of the earth or that his facultie of hearing because a created facultie cannot apprehend all the blasphemies or oathes even the most secret murmurings of his enemies either against him or his Church Or admitting any Saints eyes already glorified in bodie in heaven could by vision of the Divine Nature see all things that are done in earth or that his eares could hear all the Conference that passeth in this Kingdom for some one day yet this excellencie of his outward senses being supposed his internal or intellective faculties were not able to distinguish betwixt every thing so heard or seen or to censure every word or deed as it deserves Nor could his memorie perhaps perfectly retain what for the present the apprehends or conceives Yet may we not hence argue Christs intellective Faculties are but Humane not divine Ergo he cannot distinctly and infallibly Judge or censure every thing he sees or hears or infallibly retayne the Records of his Judgment or censure inviolate and entire unto the day of Judgment Bound we are rather to beleive that Christ as Man or with his Humane eyes sees all our wrongs and as Man hears all our prayers and takes notice of all our doings Or that he who as Man shall bee our Judge is in the mean time an Eye-witnesse of all our misdeedes or well doings an Eare-witness of all our speeches good or bad Nor may we again by broken Inductions gathered from the effects or efficacie of natural bodies or created substances upon other bodies take upon us to limit or bound the Efficacie of Christs Bodie upon the bodies or soules which he hath taken to his protection We may not collect that Christs bodie because comprehended within the heavens can exercise no reall Operation upon our bodies or soules here on earth or that the live Influence of his glorified Human Nature may not be diffused through the world as he shall be pleased to dispense it or to sow the seeds of life issuing from it sometimes here sometimes there 10. This Real though Virtual Influence of Christs Humane Nature is haply that which the Lutherans call the Real Ubiquitarie presence of Christ Bodie Luther himself never denyed Christs very bodie or Humane Nature to be comprehended within the heavens and yet he affirmed it to be present with us in such a manner as the sound is present with us which is really made or caused a great way from us And we may not deny This Real Influence or Virtual Presence of Christ to be in a manner Infinite or at least to extend it self to all created substances that are capable of it in what created distance soever they be from his bodie whose Residence we beleive to be in the highest heavens at the Right hand of God This kind of Infinitie of his Presence can seem no Paradox or improbable Imagination to
greater part of men we do necessarily breed a greater scruple or nurse a more dangerous Doubt of salvation in all men as yet not effectually called then the Romish Church doth For Gods Intention or purpose to save men is without all question more Essential to the Efficacie of the Word preached or of the Sacraments administred then the Romish Church can conceive the Intention of her Priests to be Besides all this If their Doctrine were true who teach That all such men as in the issue prove Goats or Reprobates were such from their birth or irreversibly destinated to death before they were born God should with-hold or withdraw his Purpose or Intention of Salvation from farre more hearers of the Word and partakers of the Sacraments then the Romish Priests usually do 8. But many you will say which hear the Word are already assured of their Estate in Grace or of their salvation And this Doctrine cannot occasion any doubt or distrust in them It cannot indeed whilst they are thus perswaded But even this Perswasion it self if it be immature or conceived before its time doth secretly nurse A Presumption which is far worse then Doubt or distrust of salvation And sometimes occasions a worse kinde of distrust or Doubt then the former doctrine of the Romish Church doth For suppose A man which is to day strongly perswaded of his present Estate in saving Grace and certain of his salvation should to morrow or the next day fall into some grosse or grievous sin and continue in it or the like for many dayes together If his former assurance remain the same it was it is No Assurance of Faith No true Confidence but Presumption Or if his former Confidence or Assurance upon consciousness of new sins fail or abate The Former Division of All Mankinde into Goates and sheep into Elect and Reprobates will thrust him into Despere For the Consciousnesse of freedom from grosser sins or of practise of good works cannot be a surer token of his Estate in Grace or salvation then the consciousness of foul and grievous sins is of Rejection or Reprobation if it were true that every man is at all times either in the state or condition of an Elect person or a Reprobate For The Rule of life and Faith is as plain and peremptory that no Adulterer no murtherer no foul or grievous offender shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as it is That all such as live a godly and a sober life shall enter into it And yet our own consciences can give a surer Testimony that we have committed grosse and greivous sins then that they are cleansed from the guilt of former sins Seeing the heart of man is more deceitful or more deceivable in its perswasions or Judgement of its good deeds or resolutions then in its apprehension of grosser facts committed by us And for this Reason I cannot perswade my self That any man which hath any sense or feeling of True Religion or rightly understands himself in these or the like Points can in the consciousness of grosse and fouler sins rest perswaded that he is in the same Estate of Grace wherein he was or in the same way to life Howbeit even in the consciousness of foulest sins he may and ought to have hope that he may be renewed by repentance And yet to have such an hope were impossible unlesse he were perswaded that there is a Mean or middle Estate or condition between the estate and condition of the Elect and the Reprobates 9. But let us take a man that hath been long perswaded that he is and hath been in the irreversible state of salvation and is not conscious to himself of any grosse or palpable sin or at least of continuance in any such sins since this perswasion did possesse him Yet if he have embraced this opinion or perswasion before his soul were adorned with that golden chain of spiritual vertues which St. Peter requires 2 Pet. 1. whether for making our election sure in it self or for assuring it unto us This immature or misplaced perswasion may fill his soul with the self same presumption which the absolute infallibilitie of the present Romish Church doth breed or occasion in all such as beleeve it And that is A presumption worse then heathenish For though an Heathen or Infidel kill men uncondemned by law live in incest and fall down before stocks and stones or other dumb creatures Yet such a man being called in question for killing men uncondemned by Law will not justifie his Action If his incest be detected he will be ashamed of it or being challenged for worshipping stocks and stones he will not allege any sacred Authoritie for his warrant But if you challenge a Romanist with some like practises and tell him that he transgresseth the Law of God in those particulars as grossly as the Heathens do his Reply will be Though our facts be outwardly the same yet our practises are most dislike Our practises cannot be against the Law of God seeing they are warranted by the authoritie of the Church and Pope who is the faithful Interpreter of Gods Laws and cannot erre in matters of faith or practice authorized by him In the like case if you shall oppose a man that makes himself thus certain of his salvation before his time in this or the like manner Sir you are as covetous as great an oppressor of the poor as uncharitable as malitious as proud and envious as are the Heathen or others whom you condemn for Infidels and no good Christians And press him with such evident particulars in every kind as would amate or appall an ingenuous Heathen or other meer moral man that were conscious of the like yet you shall find him as surely locked up in his sins by this his immature perswasion of his own infallible estate in Grace as the Romanist is by his Implicit Belief or the Churches absolute Infallibilitie So long as this Perswasion lasts that he shall certainly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no Messenger of God shall ever perswade him that he hath done or continues to do those things which whosoever continues to do shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Grosse and palpable or open sins might happily shake or break this perswasion how stiffe soever it had been before but so will not secret or lurking sins It rather animates or quickens those secret sins of envy ambition pride or malice And of all other fruits of this preposterous perswasion or misplaced Truth this is the worst that it makes men mistake their malice towards men whose good parts or fame they envy to be zeal towards God or to his Truth 10. Unless Sathan had put this Fallacie upon some men in our times it were impossible that they could sleep upon the consciousness of such uncivil behaviour as they use or such unjust aspersions as they cast upon all others without respect of persons which dissent from them in Opinions often disputed between
to the Jews which had answer'd him rightly that the Messias was to be the Son of David is unanswerable and most satisfactorie If the expected Messias were not to be the Son of God and truly God the supreme Lord as well of the dead as of the living why did David in spirit call him Lord before he was the Son of David It is a point to be observed that the Iews in our Saviours time did not or could not deny that this Psalm was literally meant of their expected Messias albeit the later Iews seek to wrest it but most ridiculously some to Ezekiah some to Abraham But that the word Adonai is of no lesse value or importance then Iehovah but only imports Iehovah or God incarnate or the Messias his Exaltation to be Lord or King may be evinced against the Iew for that the same sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving which One Psalmist solemnly offers unto Iehovah Another Psalmist or perhaps the same doth alike solemnly offer up to Adonai or to the expected Messias in another Psalm As Psal 57. which is a Prophetical Song of David and containes the Exaltation of his God and Lord Exalt thy self O God above the heaven and let thy glory be upon all the earth ver 5 11. This Prophecie was then punctually fulfilled and Davids prayer or request signed by the mouth of God when our Saviour after his Resurrection said All power is given to me in heaven and in earth go therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holie Ghost Mat. 28. 18. Unto this Iehovah or God whose Exaltation he foresaw and heartily prayed for and unto whom he had directed his prayers ver 1. He offers the Sacrifice of praise ver 9. under the title of Adonai I will praise or confesse thee among the people O Lord I will sing unto thee among the Nations The verie self-same sacrifice David offers unto the same God under the title of Iehovah Psal 108. 1 2 3 4 5. O God mine heart is prepared so is my tongue I will sing and give praise Awake Viol and Harp I will awake early I will praise thee O Lord among the people I will sing unto thee among the Nations For thy mercie is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds Exalt thy self O God above the heavens and let thy glorie be upon all the earth which last words were twice repeated in the 57. Psam 2. These Fundamental Points of Faith are clear from this collation of Scripture First That Adonai or Lord was the known Title of the Messias whom the Jews expected in our Saviours time and this was the reason that the Pharisces had not a word to answer or rejoyn unto our Saviour when he avouched that the Messias was to be The Son of God because David in Spirit called him Adonai Lord Matth. 22. 45. The second That he that was Adonai or the Messias was likewise Jehovah truly God because David did not in spirit onely call him Lord but did in spirit worship him as his Lord and God with the best sacrifice that he could devise as appears from Psalm 57. 8. A great part of the Book of Psalms even all those passages if my observation fail me not without exception which mention the extraordinary manifestation of Gods glory or his exaltation as King run the same way and as it were pay Tribute unto the infinite Ocean of Gods mercy first manifested in our Saviours Exaltation to the right hand of God The more remarkable Passages are these Psal 97. ver 1. Jehovah reigneth let the earth rejoice let the multitude of the Isles be glad Whilest Jehovah was onely known in Jurie the multitude of the Isles or Nations had no special reason to be glad for Iudah was then his Sanctuary and Israel his dominion but after God had given our Saviour Christ the utmost parts of the earth for his possession that is after our Saviours Ascension into Heaven and the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples enabling them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom unto all Nations the multitude of the Isles the whole Earth had reason to rejoyce Then was that fulfilled which followeth in that Psal ver 6. The Heavens declare his righteousness and all the people saw his Glory That this Psalm is literally meant of Christs Exaltation to be Lord of Lords and of his Inauguration to his everlasting Kingdom The Apostle St. Paul Heb. 1. 6. puts out of question amongst all Christians when he bringeth in his first begotten Son into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him so the Psalmist had said in this 97. Psal ver 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven Images worship Him all ye Gods or as the Septuagint upon which our Apostle often Paraphrased Worship him all ye Angels of God The matter or subject of this Psalm is almost the same with Psal 2. Both of them contain Prophesies concerning the Declaration of Christ to be the Son of God And from this harmonie between this 97. and the second Psalm and from the common Prenotion or Rule of interpreting Scriptures known to the Learned or unpartially observant in those days the Apostle adds that Preface unto his Testimonie when he bringeth in his onely begotten Son into the World He supposeth that the Learned among his Countrie-men should or might have known that both these Prophecies were to be punctually fulfilled upon the Exaltation of the Messias or of those times wherein God should be manifested in the Flesh 3. Yet some conjecture that our Apostle Heb. 1. 6. hath reference rather to Deut. 32. ver 43. in the Greek Translation then unto the 97 Psalm in the Hebrew The words indeed in the Greek or Septuagint are the very same though in the Hebrew not the same by any Equivalencie of the literal sense At nec sic quidem malè There is a varietie of sense yet no discord but rather a full and perfect Consort between the Literal and Grammatical sense of the Hebrew and the mystical and real sense which the Greek or Septuagint in both places expresseth First The 97 Psalm as many others are is a Poetical descant upon Moses his divine Prophetical Song Deut. 32. And the 70 Interpreters whether out of some Prenotion or out of the admirable Concord between that song of Moses and the 97 Psalm or out of a divine Instinct wherewith as St. Augustine is of opinion they were impelled sometimes to intersert a more express meaning of the Holie Ghost then an ordinary Commentator could out of the Hebrew have observed whether this way or that way moved they have given the same Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. ver 43. which our Apostle hath made upon Psal 97. ver 7. which is no other then the Septuagint had made before but literally more consonant to the Hebrew then their Paraphrase upon Deut. 32. is But
certainty of Faith of his present estate in saving Grace Yet no man knows anothers heart he hath no tast or experimental knowledge of those gifts and graces which God bestows upon others yet unless he know the nature and quality of those Gifts and Graces wherwith others are indowed as he doth the nature quality of those Graces wherewith his own heart is seasoned it will be impossible for him to determine whether the Graces which God hath bestowed upon him be for their nature or specifical quality the very same with those which others have had and finally lose them Yea whether the Grace whereby one man is finally saved be for specifical quality the same with that by which another is saved Only this we know and believe That whosoever is saved is saved only by the free grace of God not as it is a Quality inherent in us but as it unites us unto Christ who is the Author and Fountain of all heavenly Gifts and Graces As for the particular manner how God doth work in us or by us me thinks the Observation of the Wise King might long since have put a Period to all the curious disputes of this Age. So he said Eccles 11. 5. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit by the Spirit I take it he means Vis Formatrix nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child even so thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good 2. Wherefore to wave all these and the like Curious Questions which rather breed Contention then Edification we will build this Discourse upon these Two sure Foundations The First That the Illumination of our minds and Spirits that the Tast of the heavenly Gift the participation of the Holy Ghost the rellish of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the Life to come are all of them True Graces of God through Jesus Christ The Second That from these Graces some men have fallen and may yet fall both totally and finally The former Principle to wit That the participation of the Holy Ghost the Tast of the heavenly Gift c. are Graces of God through Jesus Christ none but a Pelagian will question The Second That from these Graces a man may fall both totally and finally no Christian should question For it is supposed by our Apostle Hebr. 6. 4 5 6 7. For no man fals into the sin against the Holy Ghost but he which hath had these Graces and is fallen from them But shall we hence conclude that every one which hath had the Tast of the Good Word of God and of the powers of the Life to come and loseth it for a while or for a long time doth thereby fall into the Sin against the holy Ghost God forbid It is not every falling away from these Gifts and Graces but a falling from them into Apostacie which makes up the measure of that irremissible sin It is not every sin but the sin of blasphemie against the Holy Ghost which is unpardonable And blasphemie against the Holy Ghost alwayes includes a slanderous disposition against the wayes of truth a renunciation of Christ as their Redeemer and a back-sliding either into Atheism Judaism or Mahumetanism Now many there be who live a dissolute and ungodly life whose practises are as bad as may be which yet do not slander the way of truth which do not so much as wish in heart much less profess themselves to be Jews Turks or Mahumetans rather then the Disciples of Christ Nor do all which slander Christ and his profession fall into this unpardonable sin but only such as have tasted of his Goodness and afterwards fall from him and speak and think contumeliously of him and of the Religion which he hath taught us 3. The whole Host of Israel some few excepted did murmur against God and against his Servant Moses yet all that murmured were not cut off from seeing of that Good Land but only those which had seen his wonders in Egypt at the red Sea and in the wilderness and being of years to lay them to heart provoked him ten times that is as often as they had seen them As the rejection of those murmuring Israelites from the Land of Canaan was a Type of such as are Reprobated from the Kingdom of Heaven So the sin of those that were sent to view the Land was a peculiar Type or shadow of the sin against the Holy Ghost These men after they had seen this good and pleasant Land after they had tasted the fruits of it brought a malicious slander upon it that it was a Land which ate up its own Inhabitants that it was not worth the pains and danger which they were to undertake in encountering the Anakims and others which were much stronger then they and would not be put out of their own possessions but by strong hand and much blood on both parts In this manner if any man after God hath endowed him with the heavenly Gift and with the Tast of the Powers of the Life to come shall so farre fall away from Christ as to think that the promises of that Blessed Life are not worthy of that spiritual warfare without which it cannot be obtained unworthy of that sincerity and integrity of life which is peremptorily enjoyned all that seek after it And in this resolution rather in this want of true Resolution for sake the Church of God and despite the Spirit of Grace he by thus doing fals into this irremissible sin But as our Apostle saith unto these Hebrews so may I say of you I hope better things of you yea I am perswaded that all and every of you are free from this sin None of you can pretend ignorance of the wayes of Life Let me therefore exhort you in the words of our Apostle Hebr. 6. 11 12. This we desire that every one of you shew all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that you be not slothful followers of them which through faith and patience inherit the promise Or as St. Peter speaks Give all diligence to make your election sure Not by way of Syllogism but by good Practise and Conversation 4. Reason not thus with your selves He that hath once tasted of saving Grace cannot lose the tast of it But I have tasted of saving Grace Therefore I cannot lose the Tast of it To prevent the uncertain or ticklish issue of such Collections Remember First That God doth not promise the Kingdom of Heaven to subtil disputers but to faithful practisers Secondly Consider how easie a matter it will be for Satan when temptations arise to shake all the joynts of the former Syllogism and to dissipate and break the Jamor Proposition He that once tasted of saving Grace cannot lose it into shivers For That in any ordinary or intelligible sense is saving Grace from which if a man do not fall or lose the
were much better then their present in mercie favour and loving kindnesse 5. But whilst they thus contend for the merit of works done by Grace do they not derogate from the merits of Christ who is the only fountain of all Grace We say They do But They Reply They do not but rather magnifie the merits of Christ more then we do who deny the merits of Saints For Christ as they alledge did not only merit Grace for us but this also that we by Grace might truly Merit Now grace itself and the merit of grace is a more Magnificent Effect of Christs Merits then grace alone Here is a Double Effect of Christs Merits by their Doctrine whereas we admit but a single One. Thus they reply But if the One of those two effects which they imagine or conceive doth derogate more in true construction from the merits of Christ then the supposal or admission of it can add unto them We attribute more unto his merits by the admission of One single Effect only to wit meer grace then they do by acknowledgment of Two to wit grace it self and the merit of grace in us But the more we are to merit by grace for our selves the less measure of merit we leave unto Christ For as that which he merited for us is not ours but his so that which we merit for ourselves is not His but Ours The merit of grace supposeth a Fulnesse or Fountain of grace and Fountain of grace there is no other but Christ himself nor is there any Fulness of grace but in him only For of his fulnesse as the Evangelist saith Iohn 1. 16. we all have received grace for grace that is grace upon Grace Every degree or greater measure of Grace which we receive doth flow alike immediatly from the fulness of this inexhaustible Fountain of Grace without any secondary Fountain or Feeders Grace doth not grow in us as Rivers do which although they have one main spring or fountain yet they grow not to any greatness without the help of secondary Fountains or concurrence of many springs or feeders Grace doth so immediatly come from Christ as the Rivers do from the sea Increase of Grace doth come as immediatly from Christ as the increase of Rivers from rain or as the increase of light in the waxing Moon comes from the Sun 6. The state of this Question concerning The merits of works comes to the same issue with that other Great question concering Justification As whether it be by faith alone or by faith and works The Romish Church grants that we are justified by faith in Christs blood or merits Tanquam per Causam efficientem as by a true efficient Cause seeing all the Grace which we first receive is bestowed upon us for Christs sake But they hold withall that it is the Grace which for Christs sake is bestowed upon us by which we are formally justified that is As water poured into a vessel doth immediatly expell the air which was in it before so the infusion of Grace for the merits of Christ doth expell sin whether Original or actuall out of our souls And this in their Language is The remission of sins for the attaining whereof There needs no imputation of Christs righteousness after Grace be once infused The formall Cause of every thing requires some efficient or Agent for the production or resultance of it but being once produced or existent it excludes the interposition or intervention of any other Cause whatsoever for the production or existence of its formall Effect To produce heat in the water it is impossible without the Agency or Efficiency of fire but the water being made scalding hot by the heat of fire will heat or scald the flesh of of man or other living creature although it be removed from the fire although it work only in its own strength or of the heat inherent in it Thus say the Romanists that grace cannot be produced in us but by the vertue and efficiency of Christs merits but being by them once produced it doth justifie us immediatly by the strength and vertue of it inherent in us and by the same strength and vertue working in us it doth produce its formall effect to wit the increase of grace and lastly eternal life But if this Doctrine of theirs so far as it concerns Justification or the Remission of sins were true then this inconvenience as I have elsewhere shewed would necessarily follow That no man already after this manner justified could say or repeat that Petition in our Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us without a mockerie of God or Christ For if our sins be formally remitted by the infusion of grace and if by the infusion of the same grace we be formally justified the only true meaning of this Petition is in true Resolution This Lord makes us such or remit our sins after such a manner that we shall not stand in need of thy remission or forgivenss of them or that we shall not stand in need of the mediation of thine only Son For if they be remitted immediatly by grace so long as this grace endures all mediation is superfluous is impossible This Inconvenience is farther improved by the same Doctrine so far as it concerns the merits of works done in charitie And prophanes those Two other Petitions in the same our Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven no lesse then their Doctrine of Justification doth that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us For if works done by grace or charitie could truly merit eternal life the effect of all the three Petitions should be but this Lord let thy Kingdom of Grace so come unto us Lord let thy will be so done by us here on earth that as we have been long debters unto thee for giving thine only Son to die for our sins and for the purchasing of the First Grace unto us so let us by this grace be inabled to make both Thee and Him debters to us by the merit of this grace and debters in no meaner a sum then the retribution or payment of Eternal Life For if that life can be merited by our works then God doth owe it unto us for our works And if it be due unto us by merit or by debt then it is not as our Apostle hath it in this 23. verse the gift of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original hath it the Grace of God The Apostle might as well have said that Eternal Life was as truly the wages of our righteousness as death is the wages of our sin And so the best Scholars in the Romish Church do grant he might have said What then is the Reason why he did not say so Of this they give us This Reason Inasmuch say they as the First grace by which we merit the Kingdom of heaven is
A Discourse about Thou art Peter c. Book 2. ch 30 Valentian his Inchanted Circle Anton. Fernand. See Book 8. Ch. 7. And Book 10. Chap. 15 16. See Matth. 16. 16 19. Two Fundamental points collected by collating Scripture with Scripture The Exaltation of Jehovah as King is that Kingdom of Heaven which S. John Baptist preached to be then approaching The Septuagint Deut. 32. 43. reconciled with Psal 97. 7. See Chap. 2. §. 5. and ch 3. §. 11. The Grounds of Christs Title to be Lord. Other grounds of Christs Title to be the Lord. Revel 5. 13. An universalitie of Duties as well as of Tongues is included in this confession The same will of God is declared by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ but more fully by Christ The first Instance how Christians are bound more strictly to obey now then Jews were before Christ Mal. 4. 2. Matth. 4. 16. Luke 2. 32. John 1. 6. What service of men is forbidden 1 Cor. 7. 23. A second instance of obedience more strictly enioyned Christians then it was the Jews See the 10 Book Chap. 39. pag. 3187. * So Christ saith Joh. 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples See how Salvian answers the like Objection in his 5 Book De Providentia Deut. 4. 5 6 7 8. See the Application Chap. 2. §. 5 6. f. 3316. An Advertisement concerning H. Scripture Experiments in Nature and in our selves or Consciences confirm the truths of H. Scripture Five General Points Heathen Notions of Two Sorts The Pythagorean Notion S. G. Nazianzen's story of Bishop Marcus Arethusus is in his third Oration or former Invective against Julian S. Austins story of Bishop Firmus Metaphrastes hath a story of Anthimus Bishop of Nicomedia partly like This. The opinion of the Stoicks How Virtue is a Reward to it self Gen. 15. 1. Hebr. 11. 26. Philip. 3. 14. Heb. 12. 2. Rom. 2. 7. Notions of Good and Evil as fresh as those of True and false ☞ ☞ The Jealousie and inquisitiveness of Conscience shews that it is deputed by God as our visitor or supervisour The Checks Gratulations of our Consciences be tastes or pledges of the Two-fold award that shall be given at the last day Rom. 2. 6 7 c. The Heathen Notions of a final Judgement vanished like dreams A Discourse about Dreames Though Heathen Notions were like Dreams Christian Divines may see realities of Truth in them Touching Epicurus See Book 10. fol. 3139. How Epicurus did collect That Nature detested Vice See the conference betwixt Dionysius and Daâ—ocles Tull. Tùscul Lib. 5. And Philip Comines of Lewis the eleventh See Wisdom 17. ver 11. See Juvenal Set. 13. See Horace Epist Lib. 1. Epist 1. Hic murus abenevâ— esto Nil conscire sibi Psalm 3. 6. and 23. 4. and 27 1. and 46 1. Prov. 28. 1. Wisd 5. 1. That there was to be a Judgement was known to the original world It was foretold by Enoch See Book 10. Chap. 38. num 11. p. 3171. Enoch a lively Type of Christ Testimonies of the Old Testament That God That Christ shall be Judge See Book 7. Chap. 36. It was revealed by degrees That Christ should be Judge Two Conclusions one Corollary An useful General Rule Christs Answers to the Jews were but Comments upon the Prophets A main Branch of That Good Confession which Christ witnessed was His Title to be Judge The Adversative Particle Nevertheless The blasphemous and treacherous Jews condemn Christ of Treason and Blasphemy The Application So God took away the Author of this Book some 16. or 17. years ago It is 〈◊〉 this was preacâ—'d at Newcastle where he was Vicar divers yeers The literal meaning of Dan. 7. 13. enquired Polanus his restriction of Dan. 7. 13. to Christs Ascension One Prophesie may in the literal sense have two verifications yea contrary senses lib. 7. cap. 17. An answer to all Texts bâ—ought for the Rom Churches great Glory by distinction Inchoativè and Completivè See chap. 12. §. 8. An Exposition of Jerem. 31. 34. Mal. 3. 2. meant Inchoativè of Christs first coming Completivè of his second By first coming he means His coming to judge and punish the Jews The coming spoken of John 21. 22. Such a discrimination of Elect and Reprobate as was then may not be lookt for till Doomes-day See Book 10. chap. 37 38. Dan. 7. 13. fulfilled Acts 1. 9. The manner of Christs going up to Heaven shewd the manner of his coming to Judge the Earth The Place or Term from which Christ shall come to Judgment To what Place Christ probably shall come See Book 9. Chap. 43. Two Senses chiefly apt to receive the impressions of Terror Terrors of Sounds and Terrors of Sights A view of the terrible Spectacles and Sounds preceding Doomsday See Book 1. Chap. 24. See Book 1. chap. 24. §. 4 5 c. The terrors on mount Sinai Types of the Terrors of Doomsday A special Observable It was Christ that shook the earth at the giving of the Law The dreadful sounds that will be heard at Doomsday Clavius Another Author tells that the Birds fell to the earth upon a great shout given by a multitude in an Army or at some great solemnity The Process of the final Judgement Of this Rule see chap. 11. §. 9. Christs Exercise of the power of the Keys of Hell and Death not fully manifested till Doomsday The great Excellencies of Christs Name The Word The Real Dignity Emblemed in the Sharp Sword going out of Christs mouth is Defender of his Church Whether S. John and S. Paul by The Word of God mean our Lord Jesus Christ An Explication of Heb. 4. 12 13. The Word writ or preached not only nor chiefly meant Heb. 4. 12. Most high perfections implyed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Books to be opened at Christs coming See ch 10. §. 9 Psal 32. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 23 ☜ Three Errors about the last Judgment See Tully De Senectute Two Points proposed Pythagoras his broken Notion of a Resurrection See Juvenal 15. Sat. v. 174. The Solid Truth extract out of Pythagoras his Opinion of Transmigration Vid. For catulum lib. 1. pag. 87 90. Points wherein Heathens held consort with Christianitie The opinion of the Genethliaci This Error of the Genethliaci may Facilitate the Christians Belief of Gods Power Some Christians erre as much as the Genethliaci Three principal Propositions That there is a Logical Possibilitie presupposed to the working of Gods Power See Book 10. Fol. 3177. The bringing Possibilitie into Act doth not impair Gods power but shewes the exercise of it pro hac vice See §. 9. These differ as Addition and Substraction ☞ The Jesuite makes a Sinister use of this Truth touching The Power of God The several Shifts of Romish Writers to maintain their Doctrine of Transubstantiation Of Christs virtual influence See Book 10. ch 55 56. The Corinthian Naturalist his Two curious
of Truthes The Philosophers Rapt with Joy in Contemplation and Invention * The former of the Two Philosophers was Pythagoras The later was Archimedes Of both see Plutarch in his Book intituled Non posse hominem suaviter vivere secundum Epicurum Much more Joy in the knowledge of saving truths How this tast'd of eternal life is preserved Of questions touching falling from Grace See the Authors Opinion more fully about Sin against the Holy Ghost Book 8. Chap. 3. which Book though published 21. years since I suppose was written after This. They only enjoy and keep this Tast that diligently seek after it and truly prize it The danger of seeking to enjoy worldly Contentments together with this heavenly Tast See this Fallacie in Aristotles Rhetor. Tast of unlawful pleasures deads and looseth the heavenly Tast Unlawful pleasures and sinful acts destroy the heavenly tast both by Efficiency and Demerit How worldly pleasures and temporal contentments come to prevail against the tast of Eternal life Faculties natural and Grace Two Scales Moderating of worldly desires and natural affections necessary for gaining and preserving the heavenly tast ☜ ☜ Seneca Watchfulness and sobrietie also are necessary Sobrietie consists not only in temperance of meat and drink but in Ruling our thoughts and words The final Recompence of our doings Good or bad Chemnitius's Rule The Romanists Allegation from the force of the word merit Hor. de Arte. The Romanists second proof of Merit The Answer The Rom-third Argument Bellarmine his Reasons The Causal Particles For Because and the like imply not merit of Works And see more of them Book 8. Chap. 15. The Freenesse of the Pardon excludes not all qualification but rather requires sincere performance of good Duties Works not properly meritorious but indeed Unworthy of eternal life How Christs temporal sufferings were of infinite merit Why the pleasures of sin though temporary deserve eternal punishment See this Book Fol. 3498. Of the word Gift or Grace Whether the Grace of God or the Effects of his Eternal Favour can be merited by us See Book 10. Fol. 3285. Gods Justice and righteousness in rewarding us does not imply the merit of our works The divers acceptions of Justice or righteousness Should such a thing be our meriting derogates from Christs merits See the fourth Book Chap. 11 16. c. About merit and justification The place perhaps related to in the next paragraph Of Justification the doctrin whereof is corrupted by the doctrin of Merit ☞ How works are excluded from Justification Two rocks to be avoide here Confid in merit of Works and Praemature conceit or presumption of our Election ☞ Eternal life a most Free Gift of God Gods infinite Freedom The true way of laying hold on General Promises It follows not God cannot deny himself ergo I am in and shall persevere in the state of Salvation Equally dangerous to confide in Merit and to presume of Election See Book 10. Chap. 42. Fol. 3228. The Free Gift of eternal life excludes not due Qualifications in the receiver * This was preached at Newcastle upon Tine For whom was the Kingdom of heaven prepared See the 10. Book Chapt. 42. Fol. 3236. c. Humilitie a necessary qualification The third Point The Qualification for receiving this Free Gift Why Christ instanceth in the Scribes and Pharisees Turkish mercie See the discourses following upon that precept Do as you would be done to Two Generals 1. A sentence and that Twofold 2 The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Positive verities or Conclusions See The Fathers cited by this Author in his fourth Book Chap. 11. c. about the inseparableness of Faith and works Good works necessary to Salvation Omission of Good Works forfeit our interest in the promises Damnation awarded for Omissions The Romanists wresting Hebr. 11. 6. to maintain merit of Works The third Positive truth mentioned §. 1. handled Chap. 31. ☞ See this Authors Treatise of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. See this Authors Treatise Of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. A Sinister exposition of Saint James 2. 10. ☞ Why Christ instances in works of Charitie rather then of Pietie ☞ ☞ * About Newcastle upon Tine where these were preached The worse the poor be the more we may be charitable unto them All neglect of the poor is sin This spiritual neglect is a sin exceeding sinful Jansenius his Observation A Catholick verity The Definition of merit The state of the Question Consider three things Increase of Grace no more merited then the First Grace About Free-will See an elaborate Treatise Book X. Chap. 24. c. A Syllogism If there be not Ratio Dati Accepti A promise is no Ground of merit How the Papists and Pharisee agree in this point rather how they exceed him The Objection drawn from the Causal Particle For in the text framed and answered Jansenius his Argument The Author his Answer See the 27th Chapter of this Book where this Argument is most fully answered and that with some variation of what is here The miserie and mistakes of man The short or summe of mans Dutie The Coherence The Authors Method Severus Two Grounds of this Rule or Law of Nature Cyrus Scipio Exceptions against these two Rules The Answer to the former Exceptions ☞ More exceptions against that Rule and Answers to them This Rule must be understood of a 〈◊〉 Will. Rigid censuring a Pronostick of falling Q. If nature alone binde men to do good to their enemies How Christ fulfilled the Law * See §. 8. Rom. 12. 20. The Application ☜ Ps 35. 13 Esai 22. 12. Ezek. 21. 10. How this Precept Do as you c containeth all the Second Table So Christ said to St. Peters Lovest thou me Feed my sheep So David said to God Psal 16 My goodness extendeth not to thee But to the Saints that are in earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight See St. Aug De Civit. Dei Lib. 10. Cap 4. and 15. Cap. 22. and Lud. vives's Comment An Objection against this precept thus improved and expounded An Answer to the Objection A Second Objection Mens affections are right balanced when they be as ready to do as to receive good A double oversight ☞ Good things are only pleasant whilst they rellish of Gods Goodness ☞ Pro. 16. 8. See the 6. Book 2 part chapt 11. page 95. Titus 2. 11 A Dutie semblable to every desire See §. 13. ☜ See St. Basil de 40. Martyr * See the Sermons upon that Text. Chapt. 35 36. The bestmeans to put the dutie in practise Keep an exact Register or Calendar of our Good and evil dayes Deu. 24. 19 ☞ ☞ Ecclus. 11. 25. 27. Psal 41. 1. Beatus qui intelligit super pauperem ☞ Two great inconveniences of wealth and greatness unduly sought See Fol. 3586. ☞ Such mixt deeds are like a Linsy-wolsey Garment or plowing with an Ox and an Ass yoked or lowing miscellan See Chap.
sins whereof as St. Iude intimates the supream Iudge will take special notice in that day and the harborers of it without repentance shall have a large portion of the wo or curse denounced by Enoch There is no sin for its quality more opposite to Iustice or that can more provoke a just gracious Iudge then intrusion into his Office without Warrant or Commission and yet so they all do that without warrant will become Magistrates or Censurers or Judges of others Such as affect the name of Zealous Professors in our times cannot more directly impeach themselves of gross Hypocrisie then by nursing this censuring humor in themselves orr applauding it in others whilest they profess to believe this Article of appearing before the Judgement seat of Christ The Belief whereof were it true or sound would not suffer this censorious humour of all others whatsoever to lodge in the same brest with it as being most directly opposite unto it most incompatible with it Nor did our Apostle St. Paul himself know any other Medicine or possible cure of this Malady then the pressing this Article upon such as were tainted with it Who art thou saith he Rom. 14. 4. that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth What more would you have said or have left un-said to such as take upon them to judge or censure their lawful Magistrates and Pastors And again ver 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother seeing we shall all stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ and ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God As for the Magistrate or such as have taken the charge of souls upon them they must give an account to God not of themselves onely but of others committed to their charge but their flock or inferiors are not bound to give account of them and for this reason should in conscience be more ready to be directed or censured by them then to direct or judge their Actions 8. The former Point might pass without further Addition or Annotation were it not that a late Divine of deserved note seems to deny the place avouched Dan. 7. 13. to be literally meant of a final Judgement of which if it were not literally meant our Saviors Allegation of it was not concludent nor should the conviction of the High Priest for giving wrong Judgement upon our Savior be so notorious and manifest as we suppose it to be and at the last day it will appear The prejudice of one modern Divines authority in a Negative of this nature cannot be great especially seeing this Negation is grounded onely upon an inconsiderate or careless Inference This place of Daniel saith he is literally meant of Christs ascending to his Father and of his investiture in the Kingdom of Heaven This no man denies And necessary it was that he should ascend into Heaven and be established in his Throne before he came to the accomplishment of Jurisdiction Royal such is the exercise or execution of final Judgement The Argument then will hold much better Affirmatively then Negatively The forecited place of Daniel is literally meant of Christs Ascension and Enthronization Ergo it is principally meant of the execution of final Judgement of such a Judgement as is to reverse or rectifie whatsoever hath been wrongfully done or adjudged by the most potent Monarchs or supream Tribunals of the earth So it is expresly foretold Dan. 2. 44 45. That this Kingdom whereof the Son of Man did take possession should destroy or break in pieces the Babylonian the Persian the Macedonian and the Roman Monarchy with all their appurtenances and attendances or reliques And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the Iron the brass the clay the silver and gold the great God hath made known to the King what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure To omit all Question how Christs Kingdom here foretold being not erected till the Roman Monarchy was at the height should destroy the Babylonian the Persian or the Macedonian Monarchy all which three were in the wane before the Roman was Crescent Certain it is that the Roman Monarchy being at the height when Christ ascended was to be destroyed by him yet not destroyed at his Ascension The Case then is clear that the forementioned Prophecie of Daniel cannot be terminated by the time of our Saviours Ascension but is to be extended to all succeding ages yea after time shall be no more If the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession be for duration everlasting for power most Soveraign so absolute and independent that all other Kingdoms which have been are or shal be depend on it and are responsible to it the execution of all Judgement whether past or to come whether temporal or eternal must either be ratified or reverst or immediately awarded by This everlasting King Polanus himself the principal Author or Abettor of the former Opinion viz. That the place of Dan. 7. 13. is not literally meant of Christs coming to Judgement grants That the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession shall be consummate in the life to come and not before And in granting thus much he is concluded to grant withal that the former places are principally or consummatly meant of Christs coming to Iudge the World and to translate the Kingdom of God begun here on earth into the Heaven of Heavens in which so translated all shall be Kings all shall be Judges all shall be perpetual Laws unto themselves there shall be no place for after Judgement especially for any sentence of condemnation 9. To let the former mis-interpretation of the Prophet Daniel pass as a private error or oversight rather which wants the general consent as well of the Roman Church as of the Reformed it is now God be praised on all hands agreed on and acknowledged by the best learned of both Churches that many places of the Old Testament are literally and truly meant both of Christs first coming in humility to be judged of men and of his second coming in glory to give Iudgement upon the world And not of these two Periods of times onely but of all the times intermediate or interjacent Howbeit of these times onely Inchoativè consummately finally or punctually of the life to come which takes beginning from the last Iudgement That this place of Dan. 7. is Inchoativè meant of Christs first coming that is that it first began literally to be verified then but shall not be consummated or
fulfilled until the last Judgement or in the life to come is acknowledged and well observed by a late learned Jesuit And this Interpretation being proffered by a man of that profession I entertain the rather because it affords us a facile and commodious interpretation of all or most of those places whether in the Old Testament or in the New which the Romish Church the Iesuits in special insist upon for the glorious Prerogatives of the visible Church and of the visible Roman Church above all Churches visible How many instances soever or places they bring whether general for the visible or militant Church or for the glory of the Roman Church in special this One Answer will give satisfaction to all They are meant of the visible or militant Church Inchoativè but of the Church triumphant Consummativè They are meant of the visible or militant Church indefinitely that is some particular members of the visible Church have undoubted pledges or earnests of those glorious promises in this life which notwithstanding shall not be either universally punctually or solidly accomplished save onely in the members of the Church triumphant Christs Church whether we consider it as militant or triumphant is an essential or integral part of his Kingdom and as his Kingdom so his Church hath its first plantation or beginning here on earth Both have a right or interest in the glorious promises made to the Church universal neither Church nor Kingdom here on earth can have entire possession of the blessings or prerogatives promised until it be given them by the Great King at the day of Final Judgment Of this rank is that prophecie Jer. 31. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more This Place no man denies was literally verified in the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon our Saviours Ascension But shall not be punctually and solidly fulfilled until the day of Judgment be past Then the true members of Christs Church shall neither need Tradition nor the written Word they shall be all immediately taught of God and have his Laws most perfectly and indeliblely written in their hearts The gates of hell shall not then in any wise prevail against them not so far as to annoy their bodies or interrupt their peace and happiness Of this intire happiness and perfection the Church Militant had a pledge or earnest in the effusion of the Holy Ghost and all that be true Members of Christs Church have a superficial draught or picture of this entire happiness in their hearts But Christ at his Ascension was so far from annulling the use of preaching or teaching one another that as the Apostle tels us Eph. 4. 11 12 13. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers more extraordinary then any had been during the time of the Law for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith c. 10. Thus to interpret the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Church indefinitely taken can be no Paradox seeing the predictions of our Saviour himself concerning his Kingdom must of necessity be thus interpreted witness that Prediction to omit others Matth. 16. 27 28. The Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Verily I say unto you there be some standing here that shall not tast of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom The later part of this Prediction or the Experiment answering unto it was exemplified in Peter Iames and John within seven dayes after For these Three were Spectators of his Transfiguration in the Mount And his transfiguration was but a representation or exemplification of that glory wherein he shall appear in the day of Judgment when he shall give these Apostles and all that shall obey his precepts full possession of the Kingdom of God prepared for them But albeit these three Apostles had not onely their eyes but their ears true witnesses of his glory as of the glory of the onely begotten Son of God for so it is said Matth. 17. 2. His face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light and ver 5. A bright cloud over shadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear him Yet miserable men had they been for all this if their hopes or expectations had been terminated or accomplished with this transient glorious spectacle or voice Both the voice and the spectacle were but earnests or pledges of that everlasting joy or happiness which they were to expect in the perpetual fruition of the like sights or sounds in the life to come Of this sort or rank is that Prophecie of Esay 2. 4. And he shall judge among the Nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into Plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more There was at the birth of this great Judge a glimps exhibited of this Universal Peace which shall not be universally established before the last and final Judgement All the Nations of the Earth were quiet and free from any noise of War when he came first into the World For Janus his Temple was then shut And after he shall be revealed again unto the World from Heaven there shall be neither Death nor Famine nor the Sword Howbeit even the dearest of his Saints which have lived since his first Birth were to endure a perpetual War in their Pilgrimage here on earth and the end of their War is to make them capable of this everlasting peace 11. Another Prediction of his coming to Judgement there is which must be interpreted according to the former Rule that is Inchoativè or in part of his first coming to visit us in humility and to instruct the World but Completivè or fully of his second coming to Judge the World Mal. 3. 2 3. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner or purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness So certain and so general is the former Rule of interpretation that not this prediction of Malachi's onely and the like of other Prophets but the fulfilling of them related by the Evangelists cannot rightly be interpreted without the
Gideon exempt his Successors from the like or greater fear upon notice of Gods extraordinary presence For so Manoah Samsons father after long Conference with the Lord after he knew that it was an Angel of the Lord which had brought the Message to him of Samsons birth said unto his Wife Judg. 13. 22. We shall surely die because we have seen God But his Wife said unto him if the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things neither would he at this time have told us such things as these ver 23. So then Gods extraordinary presence is terrible even to his servants to flesh and blood without exception though in the issue it will prove comfortable to such as truly fear him and faithfully rely upon his promises St. Peter long after this time was a man less conscious of many grievous sins then most of us alive this day are yet not upon any sight or spectacle of Gods Extraordinary Presence but only upon an instinct or secret apprehension of his Peculiar Presence in Christ as man notified unto him by the miraculous draught of fishes which he took by his direction and command cries out Lord depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. And St. Paul before his conversion fell to the earth upon a suddain glimpse or representation of that glorious light wherein Christ shall appear at the last day Acts 9. 3 4. And after he had heard A Voyce saying unto him though in no extraordinary manner for terror Saul Saul why persecutest thou me He trembling and astonished at the name of Jesus said Lord what wilt thou have me to do ver 6. No marvel if St. Paul being conscious of persecution intended by him against Christs Church and having by Fact and Resolution declared himself to be Christs Enemy were thus affrighted at the Sight and Voice when as St. Peter St. James and St. John after long and peculiar familiarity with Christ and after many gracious promises made unto them of Gods special protection over them were thrown down to the earth with a more placid and comfortable Voice then that which St. Paul heard The Voice which they heard out of the cloud was this This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And when they heard it saith the text Matth. 17. 6. they fell on their faces and were sore afraid until Christ came and touched them and said arise and be not afraid This strange dejection of these three great Apostles at so mild and gentle a Voice yet a Voice uttered from the extraordinary presence of God gives us a Remarkable Document or grounded Observation of the truth of that saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Christ had told these Three Matth. 16. 28. that they should see not God but the Son of man coming in his Kingdom Peter had a desire to have inherited that joy wherewith his heart was ravished at the sight of our Saviours Transfiguration which as you heard before was but a representation of his coming in glory to Judge the world and out of this desire he said Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias Yet as soon as he heard the Voice the Antipathie between sinful flesh and the fruition of Gods presence or the inheritance of that Kingdom of Christ which was then represented begun to shew it self And what shall We do then which are conscious of more grievous sins then St. Peter S. Iames or S. John then were unto whom both the Spectacle of Christs glorious presence and the Voice or Sound which in that day shall be heard from heaven will be far more terrible then any manifestation of Gods presence whether made by Voice or Sight unto our First Parents unto Gideon unto Manoah or unto any of his Apostles recorded in Scripture 4. Let us now take a view of such representations or descriptions of the Terrible Spectacles which shall be seen and of the Terrible Voices or sounds which in that last day shall be heard as Gods Prophets or Evangelists have framed to us These representations are of Two Sorts either Charactred out unto us in meer Words or in Matters of Fact historically related To begin with the Terrible Spectacles which shall appear before the last day or at the least before the Process or Judgment begin These are most punctually exprest by the Prophet Joel Cap. 2. 30 31. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come And Ioel 3. 15 16. The Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining The Lord also shall roar out of Sion utter his voice out of Jerusalem the heavens the earth shall shake The Terrors here foretold were really represented by the first desolation of Iudah and destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and Chaldeans whose approach to execute Gods Judgments upon that land and people was prophesied of by this Prophet in the beginning of this Second Chapter yet so foretold by him as the plagues there threatned might by Repentance have been prevented So could not the Terrors foretold in the Second Prophecie at least the Prophet expresseth no means for averting these fearful signs in the heavens and earth This later prophecie is in particular exemplified by our Saviour Matth. 24. 27 29 30. For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West So shall also the coming of the Son of man be Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of heaven shall fall and the Powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Both the Prophecie of Joel and this prediction of our Savior were in part fulfilled shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus by the burning of the Mount Vesuvius in Campania a Province of Italy the manner and effects whereof how fearful and terrible they were not to Rome onely or Italy but to a great part of Africa to Egypt to Syria and to Constantinople with the Countries adjoyning and how consonant they were unto the Prophet Joels and our Saviors Prediction may be gathered from Dion in his 66. and 68. Books and from other Roman Heathenish
him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened The Fiery Wheels are Emblems of his suddain approach or of the swiftness of his Judgements to overtake his Enemies Though the Vision was new and uncouth yet the Branches of the things seen or revealed unto Daniel were known before unto Gods Prophets His Seat or Throne was prepared of old so faith the Psalmist Psal 9. 4. Thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the Throne Judging right And again ver 6 7. O thou enemy destruction is come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed Cities their memorial is perished with them But the Lord shall endure for ever he hath prepared his Throne for Judgement See Psal 96 ver 10. 13. And Psal 98. ver 8 9. But Daniel saw more seats and Thrones then one albeit he mention as perhaps he saw none sitting in them This as one wittily commenteth upon this place of Daniel is an Emblem of the Law which was an Emptiness or vacuum in respect of the Gospel and as all things else in the Law prefigured or forepainted were solidly accomplished in the Gospel So these Seats which are here indefinitely represented unto us by Daniel without any specification of their number without intimation of any sitting on them are pictured unto us by St. John with 24. Elders sitting upon them Rev. 4. 4. And round about the Throne were 24. seats and upon the seats I saw 24. Elders sitting and clothed in white raiment and they had on their heads Crowns of Gold Our Savior had said unto his Apostles Matth. 19. 28. that They should sit upon twelve seats Iudging the twelve Tribes of Israel And twelve Heads of the Tribes of Israel or the like number of Select Ones who lived under the Old Testament may make up the number of 24. That as all the Truths of both Testaments will consummately be fulfilled so the Saints of Both may then be most perfectly united in the Church Triumphant 9. But to proceed to such other Representations as are to be found in the Scripture This manner of Christs coming to Judge the earth or of his appearance in glory was represented unto Moses and to the Israelites Exod. 24. 10. 17. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel And this fire had devoured them if they had approached the mountain or Gods presence without Gods invitation But Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and 70. of the Elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir stone and as it were the body of Heaven in its clearness And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand This was a Peculiar Priviledge or dispensation Also they saw God and did eat and drink and in this they represented the state of the Elect which notwithstanding the terror of that last day shall be invited by Christ and be admitted to eat and drink with him in his Kingdom But this dispensation during the time of the Law was not granted to all Israel but to Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and to the 70. Elders or Nobles of Israel only unto all the rest whom God did not vouchsafe to invite the Spectacle though seen afar off was Terrible so terrible that they durst not approach unto it So shall the coming of the Son of Man be to all the kindreds of the earth which have not hearkned to his sweet and loving Invitations here on earth All such as have neglected them or make their appearance before him without a garment or habit in some sort suitable to the Marriage unto which they have been invited shall be everlastingly excluded and cast into utter darkness where shall be nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth But the thred which I am now to follow is the forementioned Prophecie Dan. 7. v. 9. 10. Now whether in the vision of the Ancient of days God the Father were personally represented or whether it were a representation of the Godhead or Divine Power onely as it is indivisibly in the Blessed Trinity without any note of Personal difference or whether at the last day there shall be any distinct representation of Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father or whether The Throne of the Son of God shall then onely appear are Questions which I will refer wholly to the Schools It sufficeth us to believe and know that the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement especially this Final Judgement to the Son and that the SON OF MAN shall then appear in the Glory of his God-head in Glory equal to God the Father What Manner of appearance this shall be and how the world shall be affected with it we are now to inquire so far as is fitting taking the description of it from Gods written word And haply lest we should conceive of God the Father as more ancient for dayes then the Son which Transformation of the Divine Nature the pictures of the Blessed Trinity seen and allowed by the Roman Church do naturally and inevitably suggest to the unlearned St. John doth describe the Son of Man or that glory wherein the Son of God and the Son of Man shall then appear much what after the same manner that Daniel had done the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7. 9 10. The description of the Son of God and of the Son of Man taken by St. John is Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. And I saw in the middest of the 7. Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle His head and his hairs were white like wooll as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire And his feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength You have heard before out of the seventeenth of St. Matthew that St. Peter Iames and John when they were spectators of his transfiguration which was but a representation of the Son of Mans coming in his kingdom when they heard the voice out of the cloud fell on their faces and were sore afraid until he came and touched them and said arise be not afraid This sight or vision of his glory Apoc. 1. 17 18. was more terrible then the Voice which they then heard When I saw him saith St. John I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am be that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore
in the first place 3. All of them did solemnly promise and vow to mortifie the deeds of the body as we now do But so may others do which never meant to be baptized It is true and therefore the full and onely Reason why these Romans one and other were reckoned as dead to sin was not because they had promised or vowed to mortifie the deeds of the flesh or to put sin unto a civil death that is to break the Raign or Dominion of it For thus to promise or thus to vow without sufficient means or probable hopes such hopes and means as by nature they could not have to perform what they thus vow were presumption a tempting of God and provocation of Satan to take that opportunitie which they themselves offer to assault them To compell all that come unto the Sacred Laver to undertake that treble vow which is and hath been alwayes solemnly made and undertaken either by the parties themselves which are to be baptized in case they be of years or by their sureties were the part rather of a cruel Stepdame than the office of a loving Mother unlesse the Church our Mother which exacts this vow of all and every one could give full assurance to all and every one of her sons that God in baptisme for his part never failes to give means sufficient for quelling the reign of sin for mortifying the deeds of the body Means I mean sufficient not in themselves only but sufficient to every one of us unlesse we will be defective unto our selves Now adde this Reason unto the former and you have the true and full meaning of our Apostle when he saith that all that are Baptized are dead to sin that is First they are dead unto it by solemn vow or profession Secondly they are said to be dead unto sin or sin to be dead in them in as much as they in Baptism receive an Antidote from God by which the rage and poison of it might easily be asswaged or expelled so they would not either receive that grace or means which God in Baptisme exhibits unto them in vain or use it amisse So we may say that any popular disease is quelled or taken away after a soveraign remedie be found against it which never fails so men will seek for it seasonably apply it and observe that Dyet which the Physitian upon the taking of it prescribes unto them 4. Some in our times there be and more I think than have been in all the former which deny all Baptismal Grace Others there be which grant some Grace to be conferred by Baptisme even unto infants but yet these restrain it onely to infants Elect. And This they take to be the meaning of our Churches Catechisme wherein Children are taught to believe That as Christ the second Person in the Trinitie did Redeem them and all mankind So the Holy Ghost the third Person doth sanctifie them and all the Elect People of God But can any man be perswaded that it was any part of Our Churches meaning to teach Children when they first make profession of their Faith to believe that they are of the number of the Elect that is of such as cannot finally perish This were to teach them their Faith backwards and to seek the Kingdom of Heaven not Ascendendo by ascending but Descendendo by descending from it For higher then thus Saint Paul himself in his greatest perfection could not possibly reach no nor the blessed Angels which have kept their First station almost these 6000 years Yet certain it is that Our Church would have every one at the very first profession of his Faith to believe that he is One of the Elect People of God But those Reverend Fathers which did compose that Catechisme and the Church our Mother which did approve and authorize it did in charity presume that every one which would take upon him to expound this Catechisme or other principles of Faith should first know the Distinction between the Elect that is such persons as cannot perish and the Elect People of God or between Election unto Gods ordinarie Grace or means of salvation and Election unto eternal glory Every People or Nation every company of men when they are first converted from Gentilism to Christianitie become an Elect People a chosen generation or company of men that is they and their seed after them are made capable of Baptism receive an Interest in Gods promises made unto us in Christ which the heathens whilst they continue heathens cannot have And all of Us are in Baptism thus far sanctified that we are made true members of the visible Church qualified for hearing the word for receiving the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood and whatsoever Benefits of Christs Priestly Function are committed to the dispensation of his Ministers And thus far sanctified by Baptisme no man can be but by the Holy Ghost Our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. That the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing Husband else were your children unclean but now they are holy So that he attributes an holiness unto the children of believing Parents by which they are more capable of Baptisme then the children of unbelieving Parents are And of this holiness by which they are capable of Baptisme all children are partakers although but one of their Parents whether Father or Mother do believe much more are the children of believing Parents to be reputed holy or sanctified after baptisme by which alwayes some Gift of the Holy Ghost is conferred upon them For even that holiness which was communicated or derived unto them from their Parents before they were baptized or by which they became capable of Baptisme was conferred upon their Parents by Baptisme 5. Whether This gift or Qualification wherewith The Holy Ghost is said to sanctifie all the Elect people of God be or include in it the Grace of Regeneration I will not dispute That infants are by Baptisme regenerated we may not deny unlesse we will take upon us to put another sense upon the Articles of our Church than they will naturally bear But whether such as were baptized when they came to years of discretion as most of these Romanes were did in Baptisme receive the Grace of Regeneration or were forthwith regenerated That I leave unto the Schools It sufficeth us to know the true meaning of our Apostle in this place And this it is All of us in baptisme receive A gift or Talent which by nature we had not we could not have For the use of this talent we shall be called unto a strict accompt And when this accompt shall be taken it shall go harder with those which either have abused it misimployed it or not used it than with the Gentiles Heathens or Infidels which never received the like For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And unlesse their means to vanquish Satan
souls and affections are withdrawn from pursuit of that happy and blessed life which hath its beginning here on earth but hath no End in Heaven were the Belief of it firmly rooted in our souls If any man swerve from the wayes of righteousness whether in the General course of his life or in particular Acts it is through want of this Hope either in the Act or in the Habit. The want of this Hope in the Habit proceeds from habitual want of our spiritual Tast The want of the same Hope in particular Acts proceeds from the interruption of this Tast in such as sometimes have been partakers of it The chief part then of our Ministery is First To plant This Tast Secondly To preserve it in our hearers In these Two consists Tota Ars Medendi the whole method of spiritual Physick The objects of our spiritual Tast are Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost for in these two consists the Kingdom of God as was observed before out of Rom. 14. 17. Without Righteousness there is no Peace Without Peace of conscience there is no Joy First then of Peace Secondly of Joy 2. Under the name of Peace All blessings spiritual are included It is the Fruit of Righteousnesse and the Root or stemme of Joy The best tydings which the Angels could bring unto the people at our Saviours birth were tydings of Joy And in their hymn after they had ascribed Glory to God they declare the Original of this Joy to be Peace on earth and Good-will towards men The best Legacie which our Saviour had to bestow upon his Apostles before his death after he had as it were made his last Will and Testament was Peace John 14. 27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid And at his first appearance to his Disciples being assembled together after his Resurrection he came and stood in the midst of them and said Iohn 20. 19. Peace be with you And after he had shewed them his hands and his side he said to them again Peace be unto you ver 21. The same Salutation is recorded by Saint Luke Chap. 24. 36. And this Salutation is continued to the Church as the sum and brief of all good things which we can desire for our selves or wish to others Peace be to this House and to all that dwell in it Be the very solemn words which The Priest going to visit the sick is by the appointment of our Church to take with him and to say when he enters into the sick persons house And this I suppose is injoyned not so much with reference to The like form of Salutation commonly used among the Jewes as either in Imitation of that Form of Blessing prescribed by our Saviour or rather in obedience and observation of that Precept given by Him Matth. 10. 12. Luke 10. 5. Salute the House ye enter into and Say Peace be to this House And so likewise by the Churches Appointment we conclude our prayers The peace of God that is The Peace wherein the Kingdom of God consists which passeth all understanding keep your harts and minds in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ c. The Form of this Blessing is taken from our Apostle Phil. 4. 7. And therein we do but pray for that which the Apostle promiseth in Gods name to the Philippians 3. But if this Peace as our Apostle there speakes surpasseth all understanding how shall we seek after it or discover the nature of it or the nature of that joy in the holy Ghost which is the fruit of it Or is this Peace and this Ioy one or both of them that New Name written in the white stone Revel 2. 17. Which Christ promiseth to give to him that overcometh which no man knoweth saving he which hath it For Answer we say This Peace surpasseth the understanding of all men who are not acquainted with it But if it must keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ sure we must have an experimental knowledge of it we must feel and perceive it So in effect the Prophet Esay had said Esay 64. 4. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of any man the things which God hath prepared for them which love him But all this is to be understood of the Natural Man or of the man as yet not partaker of the spirit of regeneration For as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 2. 10. God hath revealed these things even unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And Again ver 12. We have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The same spirit gives us a true rellish of that Peace whence these joys do spring 4. But if such as have the Tast or Rellish of it know it better by experience then they can by any Map or description of it How shall we perswade such as do not know it to seek after it Or what description shall we make of it to bring them in love with it The best Description which we can make of it must be taken from the known sweetnesse of Temporal Peace which is but the Emblem or shadow of it And the sweetness of Civil peace is alwayes much better known much better esteemed Carendo quam Fruendo by some interposition of want then by continual fruition of it A consuet is nulla fit passio We of this land which have longer enjoyed Civil Peace without interruption then any Nation in the world besides have not so true a rellish of the sweetness of it as most of our neighbor Nations which within these few years have often felt the bitterness of warre as well domestick or Civil as Forraign Necessary therefore it will be for us which neither have seen or felt the enemies Sword for these Threescore years and more to use some Fiction of Warre for right conceiving the sweetness even of Civill Peace Imagine then we lived in such a Land or State as the State of Israel was in the dayes wherein Esaias prophecied or in the dayes whereof he prophecied Chap. 9. ver 19. 20. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the Land darkened and the People shall be as the fewel of the fire no man shall spare his brother And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry and he shall eat on the left hand and shall not be satisfied they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasses shall be ready to devour Ephraim his brother Tribe and Ephraim's intentions against him shall be as cruel and yet both like Simeon and Levi brethren only in mischief and cruelty shall conspire to ruinate Judah the soveraign Tribe of that people Thus imagine
temporal A mountain of gold could not have swayed so much with St. John as thirty pieces of Silver did with Judas so unequally was the balance of his heart set that this small sum being put as it were in the one scale did over-poize his Lord and Master who was the fountain of all spiritual Graces being put in the other scale It was not then the weight of the money but the Excesse of his desire and propension to money which made him so foully to miscarry The whole art or skill of a Christian consists in these two points First In examining or finding out the strength or sway of his affections unto things temporal And secondly In abating or weakning their strength or in weaning his soul from such desires This is that which the Scripture cals the Circumcision of the heart and that is no other then a putting off of all superfluous or impertinent desires or a lopping or limiting of our natural desires that they extend not beyond our compasse A Grain of Faith or spiritual Grace may sway more in a man of moderate desires then an Ounce of the same faith or Grace can do in a man of immoderate or vast desires The first fruit of Grace is to moderate our desires or affections this is the only way to become rich in Faith and rich in Grace Thus much the heathen Philosopher had observed that the way to be truly rich was not to make continual addition to our wealth or coyn but by substraction or abatement of our desires of it Unless we use the same Method in matters spiritual we can have no certaintie of our salvation no assurance of our setled Estate in Grace albeit our apprehensions of Eternal Life through Christ be quick and lively albeit our zeal to the professors of the truth be strong and servent Though it be most true which St. John saith that Greater is he which is in us then he which is in the world that is Christ Jesus is much stronger then the Divel yet unless we hold our desires and propensions to things temporal within compass and keep our selves within the bounds which he hath set us we have no assurance of his protecting of us against his adversary who is much stronger then we are or can be without his special Protection But say we have set a short period to our desires of things temporal and brought our natural affections into a tolerable subjection unto the spirit of Grace Are we hereby freed from danger or from suffering prejudice in our spiritual Tast of Eternal Life No! Besides that moderation of our natural desires or affections in which The forsaking of all that we have consists there is required a Perpetual watchfulness over all our wayes we must carefully look to every particular step For as a Judicious Divine hath well observed albeit he which is thus far a Christian in heart be endowed with the extraordinary Graces of the spirit be like a man of an able and active body well armed and skilfull in the use of his weapons yet even such a man may quickly take the foile if his adversary encounter him upon a slippery ground For this reason as there must be An Habitual for saking of all that we have lest otherwise our own concupiscences do tempt and betray us so there must be a perpetual watchfulnesse to prevent all advantages which the great tempter never ceaseth to seek out against us hence is that other precept of our Saviour so often inculcated by himself and by his Apostles Be sober and watch watch and pray continually c. Without sobriety there can be no watchfulnesse And this sobrietie consists not only in the moderation of our meat and drink or other pleasure of the sense but in the government of our very thoughts and speeches It includes a maturitie of Judgement and deliberation in all our resolutions and undertakings It is no lesse opposed to restless or hasty furious passion then to habitual excesse in any other kind whatsoever For Celeritas semper malis conatibus addit a Comes Unruly or prodigious Acts are for the most part ushered by rashness A lesser weight if it move swiftly or be violently thrown will sway more and give a greater blow then a far greater weight which moveth slowly or with lesse violence The swiftness of Motion or violent passions will mis-sway our inclinations or propensions though in themselves moderate as far as the setled weight of an habituate inclination or Custome Now albeit we be commanded to be sober and watch to watch and pray continually yet this being an Affirmative Precept Obligat semper non ad semper though it alwayes binds us yet it doth not bind us to all times alike The due observance of it is more specially required at those times which are set a part by Gods law as the Sabbath is or at those times which are by the Church consecrated for religious meditations and performances such as is this instant time of Lent if I should term it the Holy Time of Lent I should with some men incur the censure of superstition seeing all times are alike holy Be it so if we consider them in themselves yet the time of Lent being sequestred or set apart by the Church those feastings or merry meetings which in the season of Joy lately past were not unlawful if the like should be practised or exercised in it would convince the practisers of prophanness I know there is a Doctrinal Error too well entertained in many parts of this Kingdom which much hinders the due observance of this Time but so it doth the performance of many other necessary duties The Error is this That humane Lawes or Lawes Ecclesiastick made by the Church do not bind the Conscience his Doctrine hath been maintained by some worthy and Orthodox Pastors in this Church without any Error if their meaning were rightly conceived But what they conceive not amisse is so expressed that it hath occasioned many to erre foully not in Doctrine only but in Practise Their meaning I know is no more then this That no man doth sin or wound his Conscience but by transgressing some Law of God This in Thesi is most true Yet let me request you to remember or consider what hath been told you before in the controversie between us and the Romish Church concerning Christian Obedience and Loyaltie to Princes that however no man can sin but by transgressing Gods Lawes yet an Ecclesiastick or humane Law being made this year for restraint of our liberty in things indifferent may make the same Act or practise to be a transgression of Gods Law which the year or years before had been no transgression of it But the Law concerning the observation of Lent as well in respect of dyer as of frequenting the house of God is not of this or the last years standing it hath the warrant and custome of the Ancient Church and the highest authoritie of this
Kingdom to give it countenance And whilst either the Church or Lawes of the Kingdom do enjoyn you to do these things which in themselves are not unlawful in obeying them you obey Gods Law which commands obedience in disobeying them you disobey the Lawes of God which forbid disobedience to the higher powers If then you will obey the Lawes specially where they command fasting or abstinence or devotion in publick God will blesse your private devotions and your use of meat and drink the better CHAP. XXVII ROMANS 6. 23. For the wages of sin is Death but the Gift of God is Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. About the Merit of Good Works The Romanists Allegations from the force of The word Mereri amongst the Ancients and for the Thing it self out of Holy Scriptures The Answers to them all respectively Some prove Aut nihil aut nimium The different value and importance of Causal particles For Because c. A difference between Not worthie and Unworthie Christs sufferings though in Time finite of value infinite Pleasure of sin short yet deserves infinite punishment Bad works have the Title of Wages and Desert to Death But so have not good works to Life Eternal 1. DEath as was expressed in the 21. verse is the End of sin and Life Eternal as you have it verse the 22. is the End of Holinesse or of the service of God The Proof of both Assertions you have in this 23. verse because Death is the wages of sin and Life Eternal the Gift of God the last and best Gift wherewith he crowneth such as serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse Now the final recompence or reward whether that be good or bad is the End or Period of all our wayes or works Herein then doth Life and death everlasting only agree that as well the One as the Other is the End or issue of mens several wayes or courses here on earth Yet these Ends are Contrary the one to the other and so are the wayes which lead unto them The only way to the One is Righteousness and holiness the ready way unto the other is sin and wickedness But however sin be injustice and the author of sin be most unjust yet herein they both observe the Rule of Justice that they pay their servants their wages to a mite and unlesse the righteous Judge did moderate their cruelty they would pay their servants more then is their due But doth not the Just Judge deal so with his servants Yes he payes them more then is their due yet this he doth without injustice for he rewardeth them not according to the Rule of Justice but according to his Mercy and Bountie To punish men beyond their desert is injustice But to Reward men above their deserts is no way contrary to Justice but an Act of mercy triumphing over Justice But hath Justice no hand no finger in distribution of the Final Reward of Holinesse This is or should be the brief issue of that great Controversie between the Romanists and Reformed Churches An bona opera renatorum mereantur vitam aeternam Whether the Good Works of men regenerate do deserve or merit eternal life And it is a very Good Rule which a Great Champion of Reformed Churches hath given us To reduce all Controversies to those places of Scripture wherein they are properly seated and out of whose sense or meaning they are emergent To handle them especially in Pulpit upon other occasions or to go out of our way to meet with them is but to nurse Contention And of all the places in Scripture which are brought either Pro or Con for the Merit of Works none is more pertinent none more fit to be discussed then this 23. verse of Rom. 6. Those Answers which are often given by Romanists unto other places of Scripture alleadged by our Writers will appear impertinent if they be rightly examined by our Apostles Conclusion in this Chapter Our Method in handling this Controversie shall be this First To set down the Arguments brought by the Romanist for establishing the Merit of Works Secondly To press the sense and meaning of our Apostle in this 23. ver of Rom. 6. against them Thirdly To joyn issue with them or to set down The true State of the Question not only betwixt us and them but between the just Judge and our own souls and Consciences 2. First They alledge That the word Merit is frequent in the Antient Fathers of the Church and that albeit the same Word be not so frequent in the Scripture yet the matter it self which the Fathers expresse by the word mereri is often intimated or necessarily implyed in Terms Equivalent And if we agree upon the Matter it is but a vanity to wrangle about Words Both points of their Allegation deserve the scanning To the First Concerning the word mereri or to merit in the Latine Fathers we reply that as Coyns or metals instamped so Words do change their value or importance in different Ages and in several Nations Custom hath as great authority in the one Case as Soveraign power hath in the other Mereri to merit imports as much in the antient secular Roman or Latine Writers as to deserve that which we sue for or attain unto or to have a just Title unto it So a Souldier is said to merit his pay a servant his wages and good States-men or Commanders in warre their honours But unto this pitch or scantling the Ecclesiastick Writers as St. Austine St. Jerome or later as St. Bernard do not extend the word Merit Mereri according to their meanings is no more then Assequi that is to attain or get that which men desire So Turonensis brings in a blind man supplicating to an Holy Man of his time in this form Ut possim per preces tuas mereri visum that I may merit my sight through your prayers In which words the word Mereri to merit can imply no more either in the poor mans meaning or in this Historians then Assequi to get or obtain For no man can merit any thing by anothers prayers If these could properly merit or deserve any thing at Gods hand the merit should be his whose prayers God vouchsafed to hear not his for whom he prayed The same word Mereri with some Writers doth not import so much as to obtain or get any thing at Gods hands by vertue of our own or others prayers but only to be an Occasion or Condition without which that which befals us though not desired by us should not have befallen us So as we said before one speaks of Adams sin Felix peccatum quod talem meruit redemptorem O happy sin which merited such a Redeemer Now there is nothing in the world which could less deserve any benefit at Gods hand then sin which yet was the Occasion or Condition without which the Son of God had not been incarnate at least had not been Consecrated through Affliction
to be our Redeemer No Act or work of God no not the first work of Creation was of more free Gift or bounty as the Romanists grant or less merited either de Condigno or de Congruo by any work of ours then the work of our Redemption So that the word Merit how often soever it be used by the Antient Latine Fathers carries no weight to sway us to any conceipt of True Worth in our Works for the purchasing of eternal life 3 But what if the Holy Ghost speak thus in Formal or Equivalent Terms as that Eternal life is the wages or stipend of our Works or that our Works are worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven or of the life to come Shall we not subscribe unto him Yes we will if the Romish Church can prove unto us that He thus spake or meant Now that he thus speaks or means they endeavor thus to prove First from all those places of Scripture in which Eternal life is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces that is a reward or stipend Now our Saviour himself thus speaketh Matth. 5. 11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you From this and the like places they labor to infer that the patience of Martyrs is meritorious of Eternal Life To this and the like places the Answer is easie The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Latin Merces imply no more in the Language of the Holy Ghost then our English word Reward And hence the fruit or issue of our paines so it be grateful to men though no way deserved is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So our Saviour saith that the very Hypocrites which do all their works to be seen of men if they gain applause have their Reward Yet no man will say that a dissembler or hypocrite doth deserve or merit this Reward but rather punishment And Rewards we know are sometimes given freely out of meer bountie and liberalitie as well as by way of desert or merit Yea it is not properly a Reward unlesse it be a Gratuitie or Largesse That which a man works for upon Covenant or that which he receives by way of hire is not a Reward but a just Pay or Stipend and though it be most true that God renders to every one according to all his wayes yet in proprietie of speech he is said to reward none but those whom he remembers in mercie and bountie For so it is said Heb. 11. 5. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him not so of such as seek him not for them he punisheth and no branch of punishment is any branch of Reward This then we learn from our Apostle That the first thing to be believed in all ages is this That there is a God The second That this God is a Rewarder of those that seek him This truly infers That His Reward is worth the seeking after whether it be bestowed upon us in this or in the life to come but it doth not infer that our seeking after it is meritorious or worthy of the least of his Rewards And though Eternal Life be the Best and Last Reward of such as seek God yet it is not the Only Reward that he bestowes on them that seek him yea he bestowes Eternal Life or the Life of Glorie upon none upon whom he doth not first bestow the Reward of Grace The Kingdom of Grace is but the Entrance into the Kingdom of Glorie And when we teach new Converts to pray in the first Place for The Kingdom of Grace and to pray for it as the Reward or Gift of God Yea and the Romanists themselves do grant that no man can merit the Kingdom of Grace which is properly the Reward of such as seek God so that all their Arguments which they draw from this Topick that Eternal Life is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces and may therefore be merited by us are altogether groundless All of them conclude Aut nihil aut nimium either nothing at all or a great deal too much As That the First Grace may be merited which they themselves deny 4. Their next chief Topick is that Our works or endeavors are said to be worthy of Eternal Life and that in Canonical Scriptures To this purpose Cardinal Bellarmine citeth that of our Saviour Luke 10. 7. Dignus est operarius mercede sua The Laborer is worthy of his hire But I am perswaded that he took this upon trust from some idle or ignorant Scholler whom he had imployed to rake testimonies for his present purpose If his leisure had served him to look upon the Circumstances of the Text with his own eyes he might clearly have seen that our Saviour there speaks not of Eternal Life or of the Reward or Gift of God but of that Hire which is due unto the Preachers of the Gospel from such as are instructed in the Gospel The other Testimonies alledged by him are more Pertinent though not Concludent And they are in number Three The First is Luke 20. 35. But they that shall be accounted Worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage The second is 2 Thess 1. 4. We our selves saith he glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous Judgment of God that ye may be counted Worthy of the Kingdom of God For which ye also suffer The third is Revel 3 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are Worthy This last Testimony affords them A new Topick or Frame of Arguments which they draw from this and the like places wherein The works or righteousness of the Saints are assigned as True Causes Why they enter into the Kingdom of heaven So our Saviour saith in the Final Sentence Math. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me This is as much saith Bellarmine as if he had said Ye are Therefore blessed of my Father ye shall Therefore enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Because ye have done these and the like good Works out of your Love and Charitie towards me Now if these works be The Cause Why they enter into the Kingdom of
freely given us without any merit precedent therefore the Kingdom of heaven it self or life eternal although it be truly merited yet is called by our Apostle The gift of God not the stipend or wages of God In giving this Reason they speak very consequently to their former Position that we are justified by Christ only as by the Efficient Cause but immediatly and formally justified by grace inherent in us though merited for us by Christ But would to God they would learn at length to speak as consequently to the truth delivered here Rom. 6. 23. verse by our Apostle as they do to their own Tenets or to the Canon of the Trent Councill concerning Justification which Tenet or Canon neither Calvin nor Chemnitius which examined that Canon could more punctually have crossed after it was made then our Apostle here in this verse did almost 1500. years before it was made For he doth not say that Eternal Life is the grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Christs sake or for his merit which might denote only the efficient Cause but that it is the grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or through Jesus Christ our Lord. This imports not the efficient only but the immediat and next Cause of this gift of God it excludes the interposition or intervention of any Causality whatsoever besides Christ And thus much here Of the state or issue of the controversie betwixt us and the Romish Church concerning merits The Appendix or second Branch whereof according to the order proposed in the twentie seventh Chapter Section 1. was The state of this very Question Betwixt God the righteous Judge of All and our own souls or Consciences or if you will betwixt our Consciences and us And this being rightly stated will put into our mouthes That true confession which every Christian soul must make so often as it shall become A Petitioner unto God who made it 7. This we know and all do grant That God made the First Man righteous Whether this Original righteousness were a supernatural Grace or no is A question betwixt us and the Romish Church and it hath been touched by us if not throughly handled in the very entrance or begining of the tenth Book Certain it is that it was A Grace and either a part of mans Being or of our nature as it was the workmanship of God or A Grace conferred upon our nature with its First Being And A Grace which could no way be Merited either De condigno or de congruo Their very First Being was the meer gift of God So were all the Qualifications and Graces wherewith it was indued Suppose man had continued in this first estate this had been but a continuance of that free Gift of God which was bestowed upon him with his beginning If he had been advanced or translated to a better or more perfect estate this likewise had been a new Free Gift or Grace of God which could not be Merited by man For his very First Estate was more worth then all the Labor and endeavors which God required at his hands for the preserving of it so that he was still indebted unto God as well for every moment or hour of life in such an happy estate as he was for his first Creation and if he had been advanced to any better estate this had made him a new Debter unto his Maker it had been more then A Continuance of the former Debt The utmost issue or best effect of all his endeavors could only have made him Capable or not unworthy of the Continuance of Gods Favour and grace which he most freely extends to all that do not make themselves Unworthy of them That the First Man then was endowed with grace this was Gods sole Work That he made himself unworthy of this First Grace and so lost it this was his own work Yet after he had made himself and his posterity thus Unworthy of the First Grace God bestows a Second upon him the Grace of Redemption and this Grace could not be merited by him it was A more Free gift of God then his first Creation was That was an Act or gift of his Bounty this later was An Act of his abundant Mercie Bounty extends it self to such as are not worthy of it but Mercie reacheth to such as are most unworthy of Bounty to such as deserve the severity of punitive Justice What shall we say then that the Second grace which was promised to mankind in the womans seed though it cannot be merited by any yet being freely and actually bestowed upon them may merit the Continuance of it the Increase of it or advancement to a better Estate 8. To be freed from the Sentence of Death which was denounced against our First Parents is an extraordinary Grace or Blessing of God and This Blessing we all receive by the Grace of Baptism and this Blessing we all enjoy so long as we continue in Grace and the longer we enjoy this Grace or blessing the more still we are indebted to our Gracious God then they are which never receive it which want it Now it is not possible that we should merit any thing at Gods hands by the long enjoyment of that blessing which the longer or in greater measure we enjoy the more still we are indebted unto him that gives it To what use or end then doth this Grace serve Only to make us more indebted to God then we were for our natural Being Nay But to make us see the misery of our First Estate better then we could possibly see it whilst we continued in it and to enable us to make a better and more thankful acknowledgment of our Debt to God for all his blessings then without this Grace or this blessing of Redemption we possibly could do Let the Advocates then of the Romish Church extol the excellency of Grace unto the Skies or Heavens whence it descends we will not in this contradict them but only request them to consider that the more excellent Grace in it self is the greater should their condemnation be that make no better use of it then they do if God should enter into Judgment with them And certainly that man hath received but a mean portion or Talent of Grace which sees not his accounts to God to be much encreased if God should call him to a strict account for not imploying his Talent or not stirring up that Grace of God which is in him 9. But suppose we did stir up this Grace or suffer our selves to be stirred up by it to good works to what use or end doth our fruitfulness in Good Works serve To this end only that we may not be found unworthy either of the Continuance of Gods Gracious Favour or of the Continual Increase of it To acknowledge the First Receit of Grace to be the sole work of God and yet to ascribe in part the Increase of it to our own Merits or right use of it is no
the widdow These indeed are works of iniquity and deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven But is it a Work of iniquity not to work at all As not to give meat unto the hungry Not to give drink unto the thirstie Not to cloath the naked or lodge the harbourless Yes even these Omissions deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven Either by their connexion with sins of oppression because it is scarce possible that any which hear Christs promises should be barren of good Works unless they were too fruitful in the works of impietie and oppression or rather because as our Saviour elsewhere infers that Not to save mens lives when means and opportunitie is offered is to kill Not to feed the hungrie is a bloody sin Not to cloath the naked is as the sin of Oppression The Doing of some Good Works cannot excuse men for the Omission of others which be as necessary To prophesie in Christs name is a Gracious Work to cast out Divels is a Work of Greater Charity and comfort to the possessed then to visit the prisoners and yet such as have done these and many other wonderful Works shall not be admitted at the Last Day Besides the Goodness of the Works which we are bound to do there must be an Uniformitie in them Otherwise they are not done in Faith Now the same Faith and belief which inclines our hearts to works of one kind will incline them to the practise of every kind which we know or believe to be required at our hands by our Lord and Master That even the best Works of mercy or most beneficial unto others are not acceptable unto God unless they be done out of Faith obedience to our Masters Will is clear from our Apostles Verdict of Enoch Heb. 11. 5. Before his translation saith our Apostle he had this testimonie that he pleased God For so it is said Gen. 5. 24. that he walked with God the way by which he walked was his Good Works and Conversation but The Guide of this way and his works was his Faith So the Apostle infers without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ver 6. As God is the Author of goodness yea goodness it self so we cannot come unto him by any other way then by doing good to others yet that which must make even our best Works pleasing to him must be our Belief in him and in his goodness and that he is A bountiful Rewarder of all that do good The good Works even of the Heathen and of such as knew neither him nor his Providence of such as in stead of him worshipped false gods were rewarded by him but with rewards and blessings only Temporal He was their Rewarder but not himself their Reward This was the Peculiar of Abraham his friend and of Abrahams children that is of all such as do the works of Abraham out of the Faith of Abraham that is out of a lively apprehension and true esteem of his goodness Unto all such he himself shall be merces magna nimis or valdè magna Their exceeding great Reward Unto men thus qualified and only unto them it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world This Kingdom shall be a Kingdom of everlasting bliss and yet the greatest blessedness of this Kingdom shall consist in the fruition or enjoying of the presence of this Everlasting King who is goodness it self the participation of whose goodness is the very Life and Essence of that happiness which all desire but none shall attain besides such as do His Will by well doing To be separated for ever from his presence is the source of all the miserie which shall befall the damned or accursed But from this place of our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. The Romanist alwayes ready like the spider to suck poison from such flowers in this garden of God as naturally afford honey to such as seek God labours to infer as he doth out of the words of the text That the Everlasting Kingdom here promised is the just Reward of our good works and is as properly merited as everlasting death is by the Omission of the works here mentioned or by the Positive Works of inquitie So that I should here according to my proposed method proceed unto the third point That these good works how necessary soever they be are necessary only Tanquam via ad regnum non tanquam causa regnandi only as the Way and Means which lead unto this Kingdom not as the causes of its preparation for us or of our admission unto it But for the present I chuse rather to make some use or Application of what hath been said concerning the necessity of Good Works then to dispute of their Efficacie or Causality for attaining this Kingdom intending to touch that a little more in the next Chapter though with reference to what I have spoken in the 27. and 28. Chapters 6. You see that Good Works done in faith or which is all one a Working Faith are absolutely necessarie unto salvation But are they as necessary to Justification If they be how is it said by St. Austine and approved by the Articles of the Church of England Bona opera sequuntur hominem justificatum non praecedunt in homine justificando Good works follow Justification they do not go before it This Orthodoxal Truth only imports thus much That no man can do those works which are capable of the promises before he be inabled by God to do them and that this ability to do them is from the Gift of Justifying Faith Now every one that hath this Faith in his heart is said to be Justified that is absolved from the Guilt of sins past and freed from the Tyranny and Dominion of sin by receiving this pledge or earnest of Gods mercie and in this sense is Justification taken by St. James when he saith a man is justified by works that is He is not to be accounted the Son of faithful Abraham nor may he presume upon his own Actual Justification or estate in Grace until he be qualified and enabled to do the Works of Abraham In the same sense is Justification taken by St. John Rev. 22. 11 Qui justus est justificetur ad huc Let him that is righteous be righteous still or more justified And in this sort Children or Infants are said to be Justified by the Infusion of Faith The practise of Good Works is not required to their Justification before they come to the knowledge of good and evil But neither is the apprehension or actual Belief of Gods mercies in Christ required of them Though they be justified and saved for the Merits of Christ and through his blood as we are Yet is not the Rule for Application of these Merits the same in them and
All is to be ascribed to the mercie of God that no man ought to glorie in himself or in his works The other That this Doctrine of merit is taught by the Holy Ghost as either by Christ himself by his Prophets or Apostles for so it must be taught if it be imposed as an Article of Faith although we could not convince it to contradict the Former or any other Article of Faith First then of the state of the Question or Point of Difference betwixt us Secondly Of the Refutation of their Opinions Thirdly The answer to the Objection which they frame out of the Causal Particles in this Text Math. 25. 34 41. 3. That the Doctrine of Merits doth not contradict the Catholick Doctrine which ascribes our salvation wholly to the mercie of God Jansenius seeks to justifie by this One Reason For that the Romish Church doth acknowledge those Good Works wherein she placeth Merits to proceed from the Mercie of God But this speech of his Habemus bona opera a miscricordia Dei By or from the mercies of God we have our Good Works is Indefinite that is It is uncertain how far this man himself or any of his profession do acknowledge Good Works to proceed from the Mercie of God If he had said that All our Good Works are wholly from God this had agreed well with both branches of his Former Conclusion As First That All were to be given to the mercie of God And Secondly That no man might glorie in himself or in his works But if his Speech had been thus farre extended it would have left no room for merits whereas the Doctrine of Merits must have place in all the writings that come from the Roman Press albeit perhaps the Writer himself had assigned them none But if either All our Good Works be not from God or if All of them be from God Quoad Originem only as they are in the Root but not as they are in their Growth and perfection Then there may perhaps some place be left for Merit So much of them as proceeds from our selves and not from God might be accounted our own but yet being ours there is no necessity that God should reward them with everlasting life For the clearer understanding of our adversaries meaning and the State of the Question betwixt us and them we may consider First the Root or Faculty Secondly the Stemme or Habit of meritorious works Thirdly the Fruit or works themselves or the exercise or practise of or according to their Habit. The Root or Facultie whence works truly good do spring as most of the Romish Church now acknowledge is Grace infused And this Infusion of Grace by which men in their Divinity are first justified they acknowledge to be wholly from God And in that they acknowledge the First Grace or Root of Good Works to be wholly from Gods mercie they consequently deny that it can be merited 'T is a Maxim in their modern Schools as we shewed before that Fundamentum meriti non cadit sub merito The Foundation of merits cannot be merited And this Foundation of merits is the First Grace by which man is first justified But after this Grace be once infused the Use of it depends upon mans Free-will He that useth this Talent well or not amiss shall have more given him This Overplus the Romish Church ascribes to the Merit of Works And by the habitual and constant use of Grace and Free-will Life Eternal it self by their Doctrine may be properly merited We acknowledge that whosoever doth not hide the Talent of Grace but imploys it aright shall certainly receive increase of Grace from God and be partaker of joy according to the measure of his Works though not For his Works sake or for his right use of Grace 4. We say the Increase of Grace is no more from any Works or Merits of Works then the First Grace it self is The inheritance of Eternal Life can no more be purchased by the fullest measure of Grace or greatest perfection of Works that in this life can be attained unto then the First Grace can be purchased by Works That the First Grace is not given for our Works is not procured by them the Romish Church now acknowledgeth This beginning of Grace or foundation of merits they confesse that they receive from the sole blessing or Predestination of God And so say we All increase of Grace the Preparation of this Kingdom for us our Preparation to be capable of it our admission into it are the Effects likewise of Gods Predestination and the Fruits of his mercy Yet not so as that his Mercie or Predestination doth impose any necessity upon the men for whom this Kingdom is prepared We deny not a Freedom of will in this Preparation but the Merit of our Free-will A Freedom of will we have to neglect or despise the ordinary means by which Grace is bestowed A Freedom likewise to hide or not imploy those Talents or blessings which God hath already bestowed upon us If we do evil or imploy these Talents amiss the evil is wholly our own the miscarriage is wholly our own If we do well or imploy them aright This is Gods Work and not ours or not so ours as that we may hence challenge any Reward as due unto us No man can do well unless he be enabled first by God to do well and the more he is enabled by Gods Gifts and Graces bestowed upon him the more he is bound to God Nor can we ever in this life be so thankful unto God for Gifts already received as we ought to be The least increase of Grace after the First Grace given exceeds the greatest measure of our service or thankfulness if we could impartially esteem or rate them by their proper worth or weight So that the more Grace we receive from God or the better our Works are the more still we are indebted to him that inables us to work and as our debt to him increaseth so our Title to Merit any thing at his hands questionlesse decreaseth To conclude then That which creates a new Title of bond or debt unto God from us cannot possibly be the Ground-title of merits that is Of any debts or dues from God to us But Grace not the First Grace only but all increase of Grace doth still create or found a new Title of Debt from us to God Therefore Neither the First Grace nor any increase of Grace can be Fundamentum meriti any Foundation or Ground-title unto merits But rather seeing Merits include a Debt or due from God to us he that most aboundeth in Grace which is the Free Gift of God will be most ready to disclaim all Merits 6. But if Works it may be some of the Romish Church will say cannot deserve Everlasting Life in themselves or as they are wrought by us yet may they deserve it in as much as God hath promised Life eternal to all
hungred c. The Form of it is Causal and it necessarily imports some Cause as either the Cause of the Preparation of the Kingdom or of the righteous their Admission into it Otherwise the same form of speech ver 41. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat should not import the true Cause why the wicked are sentenced to hell But the Protestants say they generally grant that this Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR ver 41. doth import that the true Cause why the wicked are condemned to hell is The Omission of these works and hence they inferre that the true Cause why the righteous are admitted into heaven is the performance of those Works which the wicked neglected and that our Saviour did note out this Cause unto us in the manner of his speech Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was hungry and you gave me meat I was naked and ye cloathed me Hence saith Jansenius The righteous do merit eternal life by their Good works as the wicked do everlasting punishment by their bad works This is his Note upon the words and the only Ground or Reason of this Inference is Because the Form of our Saviours Speech is One and the same in both Sentences as well in the Sentence of Life as in the Sentence of Death But though the Phrase or manner of speech be the same will Jansenius therefore stand to the Inference or Observation which he makes upon them viz. That the Good works of the righteous are altogether as true Causes of inheriting the Kingdom of heaven as the bad works of the wicked or their Omission of good works are of their damnation to hell That this was his meaning any honest plain dealing man that should read him only upon those words of this Text would easily be perswaded howbeit in the Process or Sentence against the wicked ver 41. he expresly unsayes the most part of that which he here seems to say being thereto inforced by the Real circumstances of the Text. He ingeniously acknowledgeth what Origen and Chrysostom had observed before him That our Saviour saith unto those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but unto those on his left hand though he say Depart ye Cursed yet he saith not Ye cursed of my Father This implyes as Jansenius acknowledgeth That God the Father is the Author and Donour of everlasting bliss but every one that doth wickedly is the Author of his own Wo or cursed estate God then not our works is the Cause of our Bliss or Salvation Mens evil works not God is the Cause of damnation Again in the other Sentence of Condemnation our Saviour doth not say That the everlasting punishment is prepared for unrighteous men but for the Devil and his Angels What doth this in the Judgment of Jansenius imply First That the condemnation of men is not so to be ascribed unto the Ordinance of God as mens salvation is For God created no man to the end that he should perish but men by their Free-will or Wilfulness in sin do make themselves liable or obnoxious to those torments which principally were prepared for the Divel and his Angels For this Reason saith the same Jansenius Christ doth not say that the Kingdom unto which he cals the righteous was prepared for the Good Angels as the fire is prepared for the Divel and bad Angels lest we should hence collect that men might by Good works deserve or merit the societie of Good Angels after the same manner that they do merit the company or fellowship of evil Angels or Divels For as he adds The merits or Good Works of men do not depend only upon our Free will but they issue from the Grace and bountie of God And our Saviour as this Author concludes in saying That this Kingdom was prepared for the righteous since or from the foundation of the world and in saying hell was not prepared for wicked men but for the Divel and his Angels doth hereby give us to understand That the salvation of the righteous is to be ascribed unto the mercie of God and the condemnation of the unjust not unto God but unto their own iniquity 10. But doth not this plainly contradict his Former Assertion upon the Text when he saith Justi suis operibus merentur vitam aeternam sicut impijsuis operibus aeternum merentur supplicium That the righteous deserve eternal Life by their works as well or after the same manner that the wicked by their works deserve hell All that can be said for him or for his Acquital from contradicting himself is that he put no set Quantity to his First Proposition but leaves it Indefinite a fault common to the Romanists that they may have some excuse for their palpable Contradictions To say That Good Works deserve Heaven even as bad Works deserve Hell and to deny That the one deserves Heaven as well as the other deserves Hell seems to imply a Contradiction Yet if any man should press Janfenius too farre upon these Terms he hath this Evasion Non omnino similiter merentur The one doth not merit Heaven altogether by the same manner that the other doth merit Hell because mens Good Works or Merits do not depend only upon the Freedom of Will But this favourable construction being permitted or allowed him yet to say as he doth That the best works of men how much or how little soever they depend upon mans Free-will do in any sort either in whole or in part merit the Kingdom of Heaven this directly contradicts his former Assertion that Totum deputandum est misericordiae Dei That all is to be imputed to the Mercie of God Quod totum est a Deo non potest vel in parte ascribi meritis nostris That which is wholly from Gods mercie cannot so much as in part or at all be ascribed unto our merits For what is the Reason why the First Grace cannot in their doctrine be Merited is it not because it is wholly from the mercy of God now if this Kingdom of heaven or mans salvation be wholly from the mercy of God it can no more be Merited by any increase of Grace or Good Works then the First Grace it self can be Merited 11. But what shall we punctually answer to the Grammatical Inference drawn from the form of our Saviours speech Inherit the Kingdom c. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me c. The usual Answer is that this Conjunction or Illative For Because and the like do not alwayes denote the Cause of the thing it self but sometimes only the Consequence of what is spoken But seeing the Form of this speech is as Grammarians speak Causal to say that a Conjunction Causal doth not alwayes import some Cause were to deny Principles and affirm that the Grammar Rule were to be corrected But admitting that this Conjunction doth always import some Cause it will not hence follow that it alwayes
Reformation and Refining was that they made The Church which in their Language was the bodie of the Clergie A body Politick or kingdom distinct from the body of the Layetie holding even Christian Kings and Emperours to be Magistrates meerly Temporal or civil altogether excluded from medling in affairs Ecclesiastick Now this being granted the Supream Majestie of every kingdom State or nation should be wholly seated in the Clergie The greatest Kings and Christian Monarchs on earth should be but meer vassals to the Ecclesiastick Hierarchie or at the most in such subordination to it as Forraign Generals and Commanders in chief are to the States or Soveraignties which imploy them who may displace them at their pleasure whensoever they shall transgresse or not execute their instructions or Commissions For this reason as in the handling of the first verses of the 13. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath been declared unto you before All the disputes or Lawes concerning the Supremacie of Kings or Free States within their own Dominions were to no purpose unlesse this Root of mischief and Rebellion be taken away which makes the Clergie a body politick or Common-weal Ecclesiastick altogether distinct from the Layetie-Christian Now this erroneous Root of mischief hath been well removed by the Articles of Religion established in this Church and Land Article the 37. wherein The same authoritie and power is expresly given to the Kings of this Realm and their successors which was in use and practise amongst the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors when kingdoms and Common-weales did first become Christian The Law of God and of nature will not suffer the Soveraign Power in Causes Ecclesiastick to be divorced from the Supream Majestie of any Kingdom or free Soveraigntie truely Christian But what be the contrary Errors into which such as take upon them to be Reformers of the Reformation already made have run headlong Or how do they the same things wherein they judge the Romanists The Romanists as they well observe deserve condemnation by all Christian States for appropriating the Name or Soveraign Dignitie of the Church unto the Clergie and by making the Prerogative of Priests and Prelates to be above the Prerogatives of Kings and Princes The Contrary faction of Reformers not content to deprive the Clergie of those civil Immunities and priviledges wherewith the Law of God the Law of Nations and the Fundamental Law of this Kingdom have endowed them will have them to be no true members of the Common-weale or Kingdom wherein they live Or at the best but such Inferior members of the Common-weale as the Papists make the Layetie to be of the Church men that shall have no voice in making those Coercive Lawes by which they are to be governed and to govern their flocks yea men that shall not have necessary voyces in determining controversies of Religion or in making Rules and Canons for preventing Schisme I should have been afraid to beleeve thus much of any sober man professing Christianitie unlesse I had seen A book to this purpose perused as is pretended in the Frontispice by the Learned in the Laws But the Author hath wisely concealed his own name and the names of those learned in the Lawes which are in grosâ—â— pretended for its Approbation And therefore I shall avoid suspition of ayming at any particular out of mis-affection to his person in passing this general Censure No man could have had the heart to write it no man the face to read it without blushing or indignation but he that was altogether unlearned and notoriously ignorant in the Law of God in the Law of nature and in the Fundamental points of Christianitie 6. All Errors in this kind proceed from these Originals First The Authors of them Charitie may hope by Incogitancie or want of consideration rather than out of Malice seek to subject the Clergie unto the same Rule unto which the Church was subject for the first 300. years after Christ during which time the Kings and Emperours under which the Christians lived were Heathens And whilst the chief Governours were such no Christians could exercise Coercive Authoritie as to Fine imprison or banish any that did transgresse the Lawes of God or of the Church The Apostles themselves could use no other manner of punishment besides delivering up to Satan Excommunication or inhibition from hearing the word or receiving the Sacraments Secondly the Authors of the former Errors consider not That whilest the Church was in this subjection to meer Civil and not Christian Power the Lay-Christians of what rank soever though noble men by birth were as straightly confined and kept under as were the Clergie Yea the Clergie in those times had greater authoritie over Lay-Christians then any other men had Authority much greater over the greatest then any besides the Romish Prelates do this day challenge over the meanest of their flocks But after Kings and Emperors and other supream Magistrates were once converted to the Christian Faith their dignities were no whit abated but gained this Addition to their former Titles that they were held supream Magistrates in Causes Ecclesiastick That is they had power of calling Councils and Synods for quelling Schisms and Heresies in the Church power likewise to punish the Transgressors of such Laws or Canons as had been made by former Godly Bishops or Prelates which lived under Heathen States or of such as the Bishops or Clergy which lived under their Government should make for the better Government of Christs Church Unto punishments meerly spiritual which the Apostles and Bishops had formerly only used Christian Emperors added punishments temporal as imprisonment of body loss of goods exile or death according to the nature and qualitie of the transgression But that any Laws or Canons were made by Christian Kings or Emperors for the Government of the Church or that any Controversies in Religion were determined without the Express Suffrages and Consents of Bishops and Pastors though all wayes ratified by the Soveraigntie of the Nation or State for whom such Canons were made no man until these dayes wherein we live did ever question 7. And of such as question or oppose Episcopal Authoritie in these Cases I must say as once before out of this place in like case I did If Heathen they be in heart and would perswade the Layetie again to become Heathens their Resolutions are Christian at least their conclusions are such as a good Christian living under Heathens would admit But if Christians they be in heart and profession their Conclusions are heathenish or worse For what Heathen did ever deny their Priests the chief stroke or sway in making Lawes or ordinances concerning the Rites or service of their Gods or in determining Points Controverted in Religion To conclude this Point The men that seek to be most contrary to the Romish Church and are most forward to judge her for enlarging the Prerogative of Priesthood beyond its ancient
pamphlets Schismatical and Seditious books find no where better welcome or entertainment then in this Town And wise men I hope will account it a work of charitie rather then of crueltie to take Rats-bane from children albeit they should long after it more greedily then after any wholsom meat Or if any be so stubborn as not to part with this poison by gentle perswasions the only Remedie must be to exclude them from communicating with others in the food of life For us Dearly beloved let us in the bowels of Christ Jesus I beseech you content our selves with the Reformation already established by Authority It is no time to sally out against the Adversary in single bands or scattered companies but rather with the joynt forces of our united affections of prayers and endeavours either to batter the Foundation of their Churches wals or manfully to defend our own keeping our selves within the bounds whereunto authoritie hath confined us The common Adversaries of the Truth which we professe want no strength of wit or weapons of Art to work upon all advantages which our ignorance negligence indiscretion or dissension may present unto them And this one great advantage they have of us that we for the most part fight as it were every man upon his own head without the advice or appointment of our chief Leaders and Commanders So do not our Adversaries they have the perfect Discipline of War And I cannot but approve his wish That either they had our vine or we their fence And it is a Rule to be observed aswell in spiritual warfare as in any others yea most especially in it Arma tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat By denying that to our Adversaries whereto they have fair Title out of Gods Word or out of Venerable Orthodoxal Antiquitie we shall but betray the true Cause which we maintain against them in main and Fundamental Points which if we would wisely maintein them are most defensible Observe I beseech you what hath been said unto you and the God of wisdom and of peace give you understanding in all things profitable to your Salvation CHAP. XXXIX The Third Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man c. A Romish Error breeding Doubt of Salvation charged upon its proper evident Ground viz Their making The Intention of A Bishop Essentially necessarie to the Consecration of A priest And the Intention of a Priest so necessary that no Sacrament can be without it The Error of The Contrarij Teaching a Preposterous immature Certaintie of Salvation The Right Mean betwixt or cure of these extremities prescribed unto us by our Reformers of Blessed memorie contained in the Publick Acts of The Church 1. ANother Doctrinal Point there was mainteined by the Romish Church when our Fathers departed from it which required Reformation And this Point contains all the several Tenets of that Church which did occasion or nurse Doubt of Salvation or Perplexity of Conscience in every private man so often as he should examine his Estate in Grace his hopes or Interest in Gods mercy or promises to all First then by Gods assistance Of the General Error or that branch of it which especially required Reformation Secondly Of the Contrary Error or Inconveniencies into which many by Curiositie of Reformation have run Thirdly Of the True Mean or Orthod oxal Doctrine which the Reformers of our Church did hold and maintain and have delivered unto us in the Publick Acts of the Church approved and ratified by the General Consent of this Kingdom The Error of the Romish Church was Doubt of Salvation with This Error that Church hath been often charged by all the best writers of Reformed Churches But sometimes or by some men in those Churches not upon so Evident Ground as it might be charged For some there be which charge this Error directly upon their Tenet concerning The Nature of Faith or Hope But for their Defence if we joyn issue with them upon those Terms they have more to say then they can have if we charge this Error upon their Doctrine concerning The Intention of the Priest in the Administration of the Sacraments By whose hidden vertue Faith and Hope are begotten and increased For how much soever they may seem to magnifie The Sacraments of the New Testament in respect of the Sacraments of the Law as that they conferre Grace upon the receivers of them Ex Opere operato by the very Sacramental action which the Sacraments of the Law did not Yet all this being granted no man can be more certain of his Estate in Grace then he is of the good Intention of the Priest which administred the Sacraments Now this Assurance or perswasion of the Priests Intention can be no sure Ground of Faith truly Christian 2. The Sacrament of Baptism they hold to be absolutely necessary unto Salvation and that All such infants as die without Baptisme are excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven And yet they hold withall that Unlesse the Priest when he comes to Baptize any Infant do intend to do what the Church appoints him to do the Baptisme is invalid or of none effect albeit he use the Formal Words of Baptisme and apply the Sacramental element to the body of the Infant presented by the solemn prayers of the Church or Congregation present Besides the solemn Pronunciation of the Words I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and the washing of the body in water there must be Interior mentis intentio the internal Intention of the Priests minde must joyntly concur with the Word and Sacrament or rather with the Holy Ghost for producing the Invisible Grace or Gift of the Spirit which is the proper Effect of the Sacrament So that how well soever the Parents the Friends and neighbours assembled demean themselves at or before the performance of this Sacred Act yet every Infant brought to the Sacred Laver may be Two Wayes remedilesly prejudiced by the Priest to the ruine of its soul or losse of salvation First It may be deprived of the fruit or benefit of this Sacrament which is by their Doctrine absolutely necessary to salvation by the meer negligence or carelesnesse of the Priest as in Case he forget in heart or mind to intend his dutie of doing that which the Church in like Case usually doth or appoints to be done whatsoever else he do or say all is nothing it is no Baptisme Secondly The Infant may be so far prejudiced as is said by the malice or impietie of the Priest As in Case he be so wickedly disposed as secretly to subtract or withdraw his Intention by any interposed condition or Limitation though not expressed the Baptisme is invalid or of no effect To give you One of their own Instances or Ruled Cases If one should come to one of their Priests and request him to baptize such a mans child naming his Parents and
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his