expressions in Solomons song Because of the savour of thy Cantle 1. 3. Nescit divina qui non optat qui non amal Jo. Euseb Nicomb Theopolit pag. 91. good ointments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee He doth not know the things of God saith a late writer well who doth not desire and love them § 6. Thirdly Sense of interest Of the Zidonians God said They shall know that I am the Lord But of his own people Ezek. 28. 22. compared with verse 26. Ephes 1. 13. Israel They shall know that I am the Lord their God Paul of the beleeving Ephesians concerning Christ In whom ye trusted after that ye had heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation Others may consider the Gospel as a word of truth and a doctrine holding forth salvation but such as are savingly enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit view the salvation it holdeth forth as theirs and are ready to say of every truth therein contained This is good and good for me Happy man whosoever thou art that canst look by an eye of faith at the Gospel as the Charter of thy liberties at the condemning Law as cancelled by thy Surety at the Earth as the footstool of thy Fathers throne at Heaven as the portall of thy Fathers house at all the creatures in Heaven and Earth as an heir is wont to look at his fathers servants which are therefore his so far as he shall have need of them according to that All 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Fourthly Sincerity of obedience No doubt but Elies two sons being Priests had a literal knowledge of God yet being profane they are said expresly not to have known him They 1 Sam. 2. 12. were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord. When Lucius a bloudy persecuter offered to confess his Faith in hope thereby to beget in the auditours a good opinion of his orthodoxy Moses the religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judge Ruffin histor Eccles lib. 2. cap. 6. of ones faith as well as the ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not beleeve as a Christian ought Fully consonant hereunto is that of James I will James 2. 18. shew thee my faith by my works That of John He that saith I know God and keepeth 1 John 2. 4. not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And that of Job Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdome Job 22. last and to depart from evil is understanding APHORISME IV. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Exerc. 1. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption § 1. THe most learned among the Heathen made account they had sufficiently characterized their Jupiter when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Optimus Maximus they styled him Good and Great yea the Best and Greatest of Beings Neither can it be denied that these two attributes if we take them in their latitude Aph. 4. comprehend very many of those perfections which commonly go under other names And this perhaps may be the reason why David in Psalm one hundred fourty fifth which the Rabbins are said to have esteemed so Coppen in argumento Psal 145. highly of as to determine but with more superstition then truth that whosoever repeated in thrice every day might be sure of eternal life having set himself to extoll God and to bless his name as appeareth by the first and second verses insisteth chiefly on these two Great is the Lord and greatly to be Psal 145. v. 3. praised and his greatness is unsearchable Shortly after They shall abundantly utter Vers 7. 8 9. the memory of thy great goodness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works I shall accordingly treat of both and first of his Goodness § 2. Moses was skill'd in all the Acts 7. 22. learning of the Egyptians yet as not content herewith he becometh an humble suiter to God for some further and better knowledge I beseech thee saith he Exod. 33. 18. shew me thy glory Other notions may fill the head of a moral man nothing short of the knowledge of God can satisfie the heart of a Saint Wherefore in answer to this request the Lord maketh him a promise saying I will make Verse 19. all my goodness pass before thee The thing desired was a sight of his glory the thing promised a view of his Goodness Which intimateth that however in themselves all the Attributes of God be glorious yet he glorieth most in the manifestation of his goodness neither doth any bring him in so much glory from the creatures who are wont to magnifie this most I will mention the Isai 63. 7. loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses So the Church in Isaiah Now the forementioned promise made to Moses in Exodus the three and thirtieth was made good in chapter the thirty fourth where the Lord is said to have passed by him and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God mercifull Exod 34 6. 7. Totum hunc locu◠ad bonitatem Dei pertinere asserit Ludovic de Dieu Auimadvers in loc and gracious long-suffering and abundant in bounty and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and to the fourth generation All which clauses even the latter expounded by most of Gods Justice may be so interpreted as to relate to his Goodness rather It is twofold one Essential that wherewith God is good in himself the other Relative that whereby he doth good to his creatures The former is here set forth by the term Jehovah which is doubled and doth most fully serve to express it as coming from a root that signifieth Being For Goodness and Entity are convertible and Diabolus in quantum est bonus est August p. de Natur. 〈◊〉 c. 5. every thing so far forth as it partaketh of Being partaketh also of Bonity wherefore God in whom all degrees of Entity meet is undoubtedly most good The latter in
Decrees Some innovatours there are indeed who have so modelled the mysterious Doctrine of Predestination as to leave little or nothing of mysterie in it Our Remonstrants think themselves able to wade where our Apostle was past his depth and forced to crie out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their way pretends to give a clear reason why one is elected another reprobated one converted another not but for my part I had much rather with St. Paul be ignorant still then over-learned that I say not over-sawcie with Arminius and his followers § 3. Secondly the Antiquitie 'T is from everlasting An eternal Decree So Paul According as he hath chosen us in Ephes 1. 4. him before the foundation of the world This expression notes eternity The kingdome we are elected to is said to have been prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the foundation Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared Math. 25. 34. for you from the foundation of the world in reference to the third heavens that place where the kingdome is to be set up and inherited which was in the beginning of time created by the builder and maker of it as God is stiled But the Decree whereby we were Hebr. 11. 10. designed thereunto to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the foundation of the world That is from everlasting as may be further gathered from other phrases in the writings of our Apostle this by name Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our 2 Tim. 1. 9. works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began This both Erasmus and Calvin interpret of predestination Compare we it with another speech of the same Apostle to Titus In hope of eternal life which God that cannot Tit. 1. 2. lie promised before the world began The meaning whereof will no longer be obscure if it be considered that the first-born of election was Christ himself who applied to himself that which God said of old by the Prophet Isaiah Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my soul is well-pleased Matth. 12. 18. That certain persons were from eternity given to Christ whom the Father had constituted Head of all his elect to be his members by him brought to eternal blessedness according to what we read in St. Johns Gospel Thou hast given him power over all flesh John 17. 〈◊〉 that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him That in this transaction there passed promises from the Father to the Son in the behalf of himself and all his members And that this is the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus these the Promises of eternal life before the world began spoken Promisit vitam aeternam non tantum initio mundi praedicando eâ—m primis parentibus in paradiso sed etiam paciscendo de ea ante conditum mundum cum Filio designato mediatore nastro in soedere redemptionis David Dicson Exp sit Analytic in Tit. 1. 2. August l. de Praedestin grat cap. 5. of in the forecited places to Timothy and Titus upon the latter whereof I meet with the same Gloss from a Reverend Scotish writer whose name and words are here presented in the Margine I shall add no more concerning the antiquitie of this Decree save onely a brief saying of Austin Intra mundum facti sumus ante mundum electi sumus We were made within the world but chosen before it § 4. Thirdly the object of election is a definite number of particular persons singled out of the rest of mankinde We learn from St Luke that the Luke 18. 7. Elect cry unto God day and night And St John in his Apocalypse telleth us what one of their principal cries is They Rev. 6. 10 11. cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud As also what answer they had from heaven It was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow-servants and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled From the collation of which texts it may be inferred that their number is set and shall in due time be completed for that is the thing related to in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be fulfilled It is then a definite number and that of particular persons whose names are elsewhere said to be Luke 10. 20. Phil. 4. 3. written in the book of life Names in Scripture being often put for persons as in the Acts The number of names together Acts 1. 15. were about one hundred and twenty and in the Revelation In the earth-quake were Apocal. 11. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slain of men seven thousand it is in the original Names of men They do certainly shoot beside the mark who so confidently teach that predestination is terminated not upon persons but qualifications and that not this or that man in particular is elected or reprobated but onely in general whosoever beleeveth and persevereth belongeth to election whosoever continueth in unbelief to reprobation and that so as the same person may be to day under the one and to morrow under the other decree according to the change of his qualifications But if so it would not in likelyhood have been said The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Novit Deus qui sint sui Non quales sed qui. Rom. 9. 15 18. having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his but rather what kinde of men are his Nor to the Romanes I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy And again He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth which doth clearly relate to persons but rather what sort he will § 5. Against what hath been said in this and the former paragraph there are two principal objections whereof neither is to be waved lest it should be thought unanswerable The first is borrowed from philosophy and runs thus Acts suppose the being of their objects The decrees of God are divine acts and therefore could not pass upon mens particular persons before the world was because there were then none in being I answer that whereas the Acts of God are either Immanent abiding within or Transient passing from him and terminated upon somewhat without himself His transient Acts do either suppose or produce the being of their objects suppose it as his Rewarding and Punishing produce it as his creating acts But those that are immanent of which rank his Decrees are do not necessarily require the preexistence of their objects in esse reali in a way of reality for it sufficeth that they have it in esse cognito in the forekowledge of God Jesus Christ our Mediatour is styled a Lambe foreordained before
neck of the true Spouse of Christ which makes her to look pleasingly and amiably in the eyes of her Beloved and distinguishes her from all false and counterfeit lovers To all this we may finally add what it is in the very work it self and the contrivances of it wherein not to anticipate the thoughts of others that shall peruse it soundness of judgement with elegancy of expression Sublimity of Notion with sobriety of spirit Variety of reading with accurateness of composure Sweetness of wit with savouriness of heart do seem to be linked together in so rare and happy a conjunction as which makes this Chain of Principles to be a chain of Pearls The Lord by his holy spirit set home the Truths in it upon the hearts of all those who shall be made partakers of it To him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen Cambridge Novemb. 2. 1659. THOMAS HORTON WILLIAM DILLINGHAM A Collection of the several Aphorismes and Exercitations contained in the ensuing TREATISE APHORISME I. Pag. 1. MAns blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 2. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiencie that attend them An apostrophie to the world EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 20. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 29. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 43. The first inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and Saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy APHORISME II. Pag. 61. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 61. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 72. The insufficiencie of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshipped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 84. Oracles of God vocal or written Books of Scripture so called in five respects viz. In regard of their declaring and foretelling their being consulted prized and preserved EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 95. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity of piety of veracity of duration and of Authority The divine authority of Scripture asserted by arguments An inference from the whole Aphorisme APHORISME III. Pag. 111. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 111. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 120. That there is a God the prime dictate of natural light deducible from mans looking backward to the creation forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death upward to the Angels above us downwards to inferiour beings within our selves to the composition of our bodies and dictates of our consciences about us to the various occurrences in the world EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 129. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive A brief exposition thereof Satans impudence Nature and art both unable to discover the Trinity What Scripture revealeth about it Basils memento Julians impiety Socinians branded The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes 26. EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 143. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiosity to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweetness of taste sense of interest and sincerity of obedience APHORISME IV. Pag. 155. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 155. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 169. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Tit. 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 27. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 181. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end John 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 201. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture
of I shall instance in two The pains of hell deserved by us and the pains of Christ endured for us Well may the consideration of Hell-torments due to us all as being by nature children of wrath conduce to the working of patience in us under these petty sufferings in comparison For what are these rods to those scorpions A feaver to those everlasting burnings The stone or gout to that fire and brimstone A sick-bed to Hell where the fit never goeth off the fire never goeth out the worm Mark 9. 44. never dyeth So also when upon our beds of sickness we think of that garden wherein Christ lay prostrate upon the ground in our fits of his Agony in our sweats of his water and bloud the consideration of his torments and of our interest in them may well mitigate the sense of our present sufferings if not wholly swallow them up as Aarons rod devoured those of the magicians Art thou afflicted with sore pain in this or that part He had hardly any member free Are thy spirits feeble and faint His very soul was exceedingly Matth. 26. 38. sorrowfull even unto death Dost thou cry My God my God why hast thou afflicted me Jesus cryed with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou Matth. 27. 46. forsaken me § 6. Yea but how manifest soever it be that when the flesh faileth the heart may be strengthened how the heart it self should fail and yet be strengthened is not so evident I am therefore to make it appear in the next place that these two clauses My heart faileth and God is the strength of my heart may both be verified at once without a paradox in different respects By reason of remainders of unbelief in the most regenerate on this side heaven when Satans temptations shall strike in with their corruptions holy men may be induced in a fit of dejection because the Lord hath cast them down to conceive and say he hath cast them off David once said I had fainted unless I had beleeved to Psal 27. 13. see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Such fainting flows from not beleeving such unbelief is much fomented by not considering that as no outward blessing is good enough to be a signe of eternal Election seeing God often filleth their bellies with hid treasure who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath so no temporall affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of Reprobation seeing the dearest son of Gods love was a man of sorrows and acquainted Isa 53. 3. with grief Yet may the same heart at the same time be strengthened from another cause namely God who easily can and usually doth supply such effectual grace as is able to keep the head above water when the rest of the body is under it able to preserve the Spouse in a posture of leaning upon her Cant. 8. 5. beloved in a wilderness to make one with Abraham beleeve in hope against Rom. 4. 18. Job 13. 15. hope and say with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Faith can support when Nature shrinks call God father when he frowns and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud When it sees no light it may feel some influence when it cannot close with a promise it may lay hold upon an attribute and be ready to make this profession Though both my flesh and my heart fail yet divine compassions fail not Though I can hardly discern at present either sun or moon or stars yet will I cast anchor in the dark and ride it out till the day break Time was when Jonah said I am cast out of thy sight but Jonah 2. 4 7. added with the same breath yet will I look again toward thy holy temple and presently after when my soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord c. § 7. The connexion of these words in the psalm My heart faileth but God is Quaecunque me angustiae corporis aut animae urunt Tu meo anims es robur dum te aeternam mihi haereditatem fore spero Simmius in Psal 73. the strength of my heart and my portion for ever may seem to imply some such thing to wit that in times of languishment God affords a strengthening support in secret by encouraging a beleever to wait upon himself as his portion for ever notwithstanding all his sufferings for the present There can be no better or more sovereign cordiall then this if we consider the sutableness and sufficiency of God to this purpose In the choice of a portion as of a wife fitness is chiefly to be regarded she is a wife indeed who is a meet help that a portion indeed which is sutable to the soul of man God onely is so For the soul is a spirituall and immortall substance therefore to her worldly accommodations are unsutable because they are most of them corporeall All of them temporall But God who is a Spirit and who onely John 4. 24. hath immortality fits her exactly in both respects The uncreated Spirit becomes a portion for ever to this his everlasting 1 Tim. 6. 16. creature As for sufficiency the souls appetite is too vast for any creatures to fill up the measure of its capacity but when she hath once pitched upon God self-sufficient in his being all-sufficient in his communications she then hath enough and is ready to profess with David The Lord is the portion of Psal 16. 56. mine inheritance and of my cup the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Indeed what can one wish in an heritage that is not to be found in God Would we have large possessions He is immensity A sure estate He is immutability A long term of continuance He is Eternity it self I shall therefore shut up this with a serious congratulation to the Saints and an high applause of their blessedness Happy thrice happy you dearly beloved in the Lord Quid potest co esse selicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haeredâ—tas ejus dignatur esse ipsa Divinitaâ— Prosper de vit contemplat lib. 2. cap. 16. because when those men of the world which have their portion in this life as David speaks part with theirs as they must all do at death if not before you are led to a fuller fruition of your portion Theirs at the best is but some good blessing of God that will in time be taken from them yours is the good God himself blessed and blessing you for ever He is so at present and he will be so to all eternity A portion of which you can never be plundered Impoverished you may be but not undone discouraged but not disinherited Your flesh perhaps yea and your hearts too may fail but God will be the strength of your hearts and your portion for ever I shall add no more but onely reminde
word but my reason cannot fathome Whilest others run themselves on ground and dispute it till their understandings be non-plust may I be enabled to beleeve what Scripture testifieth concerning an unbegotten Father an onely-begotten Son and an Holy Spirit proceeding from both Three yet but One and therein to acquiesce without enquiring as Mary did when the Angel foretold her miraculous conception How can this thing be To which question my return should be no other but that of Austine who notwithstanding his fifteen books concerning the Trinity modestly said Askest thouâ— me Nescio libenter nescire profiteor August serm de tempore 189. how there can be Three in One and One in Three I do not know and am freely willing to profess my ignorance herein Verily this light is dazling and our eyes are weak It is a case wherein the wisest clerks are punies and the ablest Oratours infants § 6. Yet is the mystery it self written in Scripture as it were with the Sun-beams I reject not as invalid but onely forbear as less evident the places commonly cited out of Moses and the Prophets choosing rather to insist upon New-testament discoveries when the vail which formerly hid the Holy of Holies from mens sight was rent in pieces and the secrets of heaven exposed to more open view then whilest the Church was in her minority At our Saviours baptisme there was a clearer manifestation of the Trinity then ever before as if God had reserved this discovery on purpose to add the greater honour to his onely Sons solemn inauguration into the office of Mediatour-ship which was then most visibly undertaken Who so casts his eye upon the third chapter of the Gospel according to Luke will quickly discern the Father in an audible voice heard but not seen This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Vers 21 22 23. Voce Pater Naâ—us flumine Flamen ave pleased The word made flesh now in the water receiving baptisme and after praying so both heard and seen The Spirit like a Dove descending and resting upon Christ seen but slot heard Insomuch as the Catholicks were wont in the times of Athanasius to send the misbeleeving Arians to Jordan there to learn the knowledge of a Trinity § 7. Behold after this a clear nomination of the three coessential Persons in that commission which Christ our Lord sealed to the Apostles before his ascension in the end of the Gospel according to Matthew when he sent them out to make disciples in all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Who can but see a Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil epist 78. here How can any who by vertue of this institution hath been baptized refuse to beleeve it It becomes us saith Basil to be baptized as we have been taught to beleeve as we have been baptized to glorifie as we have beleeved the Father the Son and the holy Spirit This the great Apostate Julian was not a little sensible of wherefore considering that he could not fairly disclaim the Trinity till he had renounced his baptisme he took the bloud of beasts offered in sacrifice to the heathen Gods as Nazianzen tells Nazian Orar. 1. aduers Juliar circa medium us from the report of his own domestical servants and bathed himself therein all over so as much as in him lay washing off the baptisme he had formerly received Add hereunto that impregnable place which hath hitherto and will for ever hold out against all the mines and batteries of hereticks in the first epistle of John There are three that bear witness in heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7. the Father the Word and the holy Spirit and these three are One. Where a Trinity is proclaimed both in numero numerante there are three and in numero numerato telling us plainly who they are Father Word and holy Spirit And that the same Essence is common to them all For these three are One. § 8. Yet is there a late generation of men commonly known by the name of Socinians who although they maintain against Atheists the Personalitie and Eternitie of God the Father have confounded Christian Religion by denying the Eternitie of the Son whose Personalitie they acknowledge and the personalitie of the Spirit whose Eternitie they confess Methinks it fares with these three blessed Persons as with those three noted wells of which we reade in the twenty sixth of Genesis Two of them Isaacs servants were enforced to strive for with the herdmen of Gerar which made him call the one Esek that is contention the other Sitnah that is hatred A third they got quiet possession of and he called the name of it Rehoboth saying Now the Lord hath made room for us The Fathers Godhead is like the well Rehoboth which there was no strife about the Sons divinity like the well Esek we are forced to contend for that as also for the Deity of the Spirit which is as Sitnah to the Socinians they hate the Exerc. 4. thoughts of it much more the acknowledgement But can any man say by the Spirit of God that the Spirit is not God Is it not as clear by Scripture-light that Christ is God as by Natures light that God is Are they Christians and Spiritual who denie the divinity of Christ and the Spirit Let the judgement of charity enjoy its due latitude but for my part I would not for a thousand worlds have a Socinians account to give at the end of this EXERCITATION 4. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiositie to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweeteness of taste sense of interest and sinceritie of obedience NExt to the Essence and Subsistence of God his Attributes are to be considered concerning which I premise this rule § 1. The degrees of our respect are to keep proportion with degrees of worth in persons and things ordinary worth requiring esteem eminent calling for reverence supereminent for admiration yea and adoration too if it be an uncreated object Hence the Psalmist upon contemplation of God crieth out as in an extasie O Lord our Lord how excellent Psal 8. 1 and 9. is thy Name in all the earth His Attributes are his Name their worth so superexcellent as far to transcend the utmost pitch of that observance which we poor we are able any way to render Seeing as the stars of heaven disappear and hide their heads upon the rising of the Sun that out-shineth them so creatures seem not to be excellent yea not to be when the being and excellency of their Maker displayeth it self according to that All nations before Isai 40. 17. him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity The best of them have but some perfections
Micah 7. 18. mercy mercy pleaseth him as much as ever any sin did thee What though thy rebellion hath been long continued The Psalm 103. 17. mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him Yea what though to former guilt thou hast added back-sliding and relapses to rebellion yet remember that in Jeremiah Return Jerem. 〈◊〉 22. ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings together with that in the last of Hosea where Israel had no sooner said In thee the fatherless findeth mercy but it followeth immediately I will heal Hos 14. 3 4. their back-slidings I will love them freely But lest any should surfet on these sweet meats take we heed § 5. Secondly Of abusing mercy by presumption Mercie improved openeth to us the surest refuge Mercy abused brings upon us the sorest vengeance It would be considered that there is one kinde of presumers whom mercy it self is resolved to have no mercy on so long as they continue such to wit those that dare expect it notwithstanding their resolution to go on in their impenitence and ignorance of God For thus saith the God of heaven concerning him Who blesseth himself in his heart saying I Deut. 29. 19 20 21. shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven and shall separate him unto evil And again It is a people of no Isa 27. 11. understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Such shall at length finde to their costs that the Justice of God as well as his Mercy endures for ever And that as nothing is more calm then a smooth more raging then a tempestuous sea nothing more cold then lead when it is taken out of the mine nor more scalding when it is heated nothing blunter then iron yet when it is whetted nothing more sharp So none more mercifull then God but if his patience be turned to fury by our provocations none more terrible Because I have purged thee saith the Lord and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken Ezâ—k 24. 13 14. it and I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent c. Wo and again wo to them all against whom mercy it self shall rise up in judgement Look as the power of God though infinite receives limitations from his will He could have made millions of worlds would make but one In like manner his infinite mercy is also limited by his will and his word the interpreter of his will plainly telleth us that as Physicians begin with preparatives so he begets fear in their hearts whom he intendeth mercy to Look as a father pittieth his his children so the Lord pittieth them that Psal 103. 13 17 18. fear him The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them Not they that presume but that fear not such as break but as keep his Covenant not those that forget but that remember his Commandments to do them or at least whose earnest desires and endeavours are that way bent may expect and shall Exerc. 2. receive mercy from him They shall finde by sweet experience the infallible truth of what Mr Peacock once said Mr R. Boltons Instructions pag. 87. upon his recovery out of a deep and long desertion viz. That the sea is not more full of water nor the sun of light then the Lord is of mercy EXERCITATION 2. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification and Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Titus 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 17. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised § 1. A Second branch of Gods goodness is Grace which relates to unworthiness as the former did to misery God is mercifull to the ill-deserving Gratious to the undeserving So far are we from being able to merit so much as the crumbs which fall from his table that even temporal favours are all from grace Noah was preserved in the deluge Why because He found Gen. 6. 8. grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jacob was enriched and had enough How came it to pass Because God said he to Esau Gen. 33. 11. hath dealt graciously with me But beside that common favour which all share in more or less there is a more special grace which the Psalmist prayeth for Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with Psal 106. 5. thy salvation § 2. This third is drawn throughout the whole web of salvation and there is not a round in the ladder to heaven which doth not give every one that steppeth upon it just occasion of crying Grace Grace Did the Lord elect thee to life and glory when so many were passed by What reason can be given of this but free grace Paul styleth it the election of grace in his Rom. 11. 5. epistle to the Romanes and telleth his Ephesians that God had chosen them in Ephes 1. 4 5 6. Christ before the foundation of the world according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glorie of his Ibid. vers 7. grace Hast thou obtained redemption through the bloud of Jesus That also saith he there flows from the riches of his grace Hath the Lord effectually called thee Bow down thine head and adore free grace as the cause thereof For he saveth and calleth us 2 Tim. 1. 9. saith the same holy Apostle with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace So in the Acts when a great number beleeved and were turned to Christianity Barnabas saw the grace of Act. 11. 21. 23. God shining forth in their conversion Hast thou received any abilities tending either to thine own sanctification or to the edification of others Do the like upon this occasion too as Paul did saying By the grace of God I am what 1 Cor. 15. 10 I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me In a word dost
them in these a little before he was to be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no When one told him that if he truly repented he should surely not perish he brake out into this speech Nay if your Christ be so easie to be intreated indeed as you say then I defie him and care not for him Horrible blasphemy desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it The next degree of impiety is when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning because he with whom they have to do is a long-suffering God A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But let such fear and tremble at what followeth Though a sinner doth evil Eccles 8 11 12 13. an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance as in the parable Behold these three years I come seeking Luke 13. 7. fruit on this fig-tree and finde none Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience as in the Canticles Open to me for my head is filled with Cantic 5. 2. dew and my locks with the drops of the night Take we heed of sleighting that which God and Christ value Know and consider that patience may be tired that however the Lord be long-suffering yet he will not suffer for ever but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou Jerem. 15. 6. art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting EXERCITATION 3. Exerc. 3. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end Joh. 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect § 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause making use of the generical term have it Abundant in goodness I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation and to reade it Abundant in bounty because the word as Zanchy and others have observed most properly signifieth that kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat benignitatem seu liberalem beneficentiam Zanch. de Natur Dei l. 1. câ— 18. Vide Fulleri miscellan lib. 1. c. 8. goodness which we call Bounty or Benignity and which maketh a fourth branch This God is abundant in witness the greatest of his gifts by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactours I shall instance in some of the chief He bestoweth upon us First His son to free us from hell God Joh. 3. 16. so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son He did not grant him upon Non concessit sed purissime dedit Stella the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures but freely gave him unasked not a servant but a Son not an adopted son such as we are but a begotten begotten not as Saints are of his Jam. 1. 18. will by the word of truth but of his Nature he himself being the Word and the Truth not one of many but an onely Son thus begotten and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance but that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world Majesty and love have been thought Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majâ—stas amoâ— hardly compatible Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love and that to the world the undeserving yea ill-deserving world of mankinde Herein is love saith St John elsewhere let me say herein is bounty not that we loved 1 Joh. 4. 10. God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Loved and So loved that particle is most emphatical and noteth the transcendency of a thing either good or evil Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus Him that hath so 1 Cor. 5. 3. done this deed so impudently so abominably so unchristianly The officers being astonied at our Saviours doctrine cried out Never man spake so as Joh. 7. 46. this man so excellently so powerfully so incomparably Here God so loved the world that is so freely so infinitely so unspeakably The Apostle himself who had been rapt up to the third heaven and there heard things not to be uttered wanteth words when he cometh to utter this and useth an accumulation of many because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently Not content to have styled it love mercie grace as not having yet said enough he calleth it great love glorious grace rich mercy yea exceeding riches Ephes 2. 4 5 7. of his glorious and mercifull grace in his second chapter to the Ephesians § 2. Secondly His Spirit to fit us for heaven Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. him The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit and that real holiness Joh. 3. 5. 6. concerning which the Apostle saith without it no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. So preparing us for that place which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare Joh. 14. 2 3. for us A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there The Spirit by enabling us hereunto first bringeth heaven into the soul then conducteth the soul to it Whence it is that Nehemiah recording the acts of Gods bounty to Israel reckoneth this as one of the principal Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct Nehem. 9. 20. them Thirdly His Angels to guard us on earth After David had said The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that Psal 34. 7 8. fear him and delivereth them he addeth immediately O taste and see that the Lord is good herein good in bestowing such a guard upon us It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahashuerus to make Haman the favourite his attendant as he rode through the streets Lo here a
far greater the holy Angels those favourites in the Court of heaven are all ministring spirits Hebr. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation A task which they perform without grudging although in themselves more noble creatures then we are both out of love to their younger brethren of whom they have a most tender care and out of obedience to God their Father and ours Psal 91. 11. Mittis Unigenitum immittis Spiritum nè quid vacet in coelestibus ab opere solicituelinis Angelos mittis in ministerium who hath given them charge so to do as it is in the Psalm He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Lay this to the former as Bernard did and we shall see the whole heaven at work for our preservation God the Father sending his Son to redeem us the Fathet and Son sending their Spirit to guide us the Father Son and Spirit sending their Angels to minister for us O taste and see that the Lord is good bountifully good § 3. Fourthly Large provisions in the way We consist of body and soul he provideth plentifully for both giving 1. Tim. 6. 17. us richly all things to enjoy as one Apostle phraseth it yea as another giving unto Jam. 1. 5. all men liberally and not upbraiding Whereas ordinary benefactours by reason of their stinted abilities give either but a few things or to a few persons onely or if to many but sparingly and are besides apt to corrupt and blemish their good turns by casting them in the Authores pereunt garrulitate sui Martial receivers teeth and making their boast continually of them all these are here removed from God whilest he is said to give unto all men and that liberally yea and so as not to upbraid although whatever men receive yea whatever they are sin excepted be wholly his That of the Psalmist is very emphatical and well deserveth our consideration The earth is the Lords Psal 24. 1. and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein The house wherein a man dwelleth may be his landlords but the furniture his own Here we are told that not the earth onely but the fulness of it is the Lords Both house and furniture may be anothers but he that inhabiteth it his own man Here they that dwell therein are the Lords the inhabitants themselves as the room and the stuff To which agreeth that of St Paul ye are not your own 1 Cor. 6. 19. and that of an ancient writer cited by Heinsius Our very being is none of Nostrum non est quod sumus multò minùs quod habemus ours much less the things we have in possession As for spiritual provisions his people use not to be scanted in them Another particular reckoned up by Nehemiah when he set himself to celebrate the acts of divine bounty towards Israel◠was the institution of Ordinances Thou camest down also saith Nehem. 9. 13. 14. he speaking to God upon mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gavest them right judgements and true laws good statutes and commandements and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath One way whereby great Princes are wont to manifest their royal bounty is the making of great feasts as Ahasuerus and Solomon did we may safely allude to the Prophets expression though the place have another meaning and say of the Church in that respect In this mountain doth the Lord of hosts make Isai 25. 6. unto all people a feast of fat things of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Good Sermons and Prayers are like well refined wines and as Christ himself is a Saviour full of merits so is his Gospel a doctrine full of promises his Supper a Sacrament full of mysteries his Sabbath a day full of opportunities all his Ordinances fat things full of marrow § 4. Fifthly Full satisfaction at our journeys end Now indeed as the natural so the spiritual eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the spiritual ear with hearing because we see but as through a 1 Cor. 13. 12. glass darkly not face to face and know but in part that of which we hear Then shall eye and ear have enough when we shall see God as he is and hear Christ 1 Joh. 3. 2. saying Come ye blessed of my Father inherit Matth. 25. 34. the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Here although beleeving souls have fellowship with Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in patria God in Christ sufficient to stay their stomachs as at a breakfast yet that degree of fruition is wanting which should satiate them fully as at a feast beyond that of Ordinances What shall there be enjoyed will replenish every chink of rational appetites the first Truth filling up our understandings and the chief Good our wills to the very brim Then shall that be to the utmost verified which David once said of regenerate persons They shall be abundantly Psal 36. 8. 9. satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light § 5. For improvement hereof As our Saviour once said Be ye mercifull so Be ye bountifull let me say as your father is bountifull St Paul having praised the Macedonians for their deep poverty abounding unto the riches of their liberality urgeth the grace and benignity of Christ as a principal motive to excite his Corinthians to a like exercise of bounty towards the poor Saints at Jerusalem For ye know saith 2 Cor. 8. 2 9. he the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be-rich More especially let us all learn from hence not to deal niggardly with God himself but to think no pains too great no expence too much no time too long that is spent in his service Not as the manner of some is who so manage the profession of religion as if their main care and study were how to serve him with most ease and to come off with the cheapest performances David Paul and Luther were men of another spirit The first as he delighted in the commemoration of divine bounty to him saying I will Psal 13. 6. sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me And again Return Psal 116. 7. unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee so he was no niggard in his returns but ever and anon enquiring what he should do to testifie his thankfulness What shall I Psal 116. 12. render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And as providence offered occasion laying himself out for God witness that his resolution testified to
For as some of Gods promises are made with the condition of faith and perseverance so his threatnings are denounced with the exception of repentance which though concealed for the most part is always included and sometimes expressed as in that place of Jeremiah At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome Jer. 18. 7 8. to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Be we admonished from hence First What to practise in reference to God to wit Truth in our promises to and covenants with him that so our returns may be answerable in kinde to our receits All his ways are mercy and truth Psal 25. 10. to us-ward therefore all ours should be truth and faithfulness towards him Thrice happy we whatever our outward condition prove if we be able to profess in the sincerity of our hearts as they did in Psalm the fourty fourth All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our principal comfort flows from Gods keeping his Covenant of grace with us it should therefore be our principal care to keep touch with him § 8. Secondly What to look for in reference to our selves To wit an exact fulfilling of all promises and threatnings that are conditional according to their severall conditions Hath the faithfull and true witness said He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Let no unbeleever then whilest he continueth in that estate expect salvation neither any that beleeveth and walketh in Christ fear damnation seeing he hath Truth it self engaged for his safety and seeing the faith of Gods Tit. 1. 1 2. elect according to St Pauls doctrine should go hand in hand with the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Let all that wish well to Zion make full account that in due time The mountain of the Isai 2. 2. Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it because it hath been promised of old Let them also know assuredly that the Lord will consume Antichrist with the spirit 2 Thess 2. 8. of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming because this commination standeth upon the file in holy Scripture and is not yet completely verified Former ages have seen Antichrist Nascent when the Bishop of Rome first usurped authority over all the Churches Antichrist Crescent when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images and praying to Saints departed Antichrist Regnant when he exalted himself above Kings and Emperours setting up his mitre above their crowns yea Antichrist Triumphant when he once became Lord of the Catholick faith so as none might beleeve without danger more or less or otherwise then he prescribed To this observation made by one of our own learned countreymen let me add we our Dr Crakanthorp in his Vigilius dormitans chap. 13. § 24. selves have seen him Antichrist Cadent falling and waining ever since Luther Calvin Perkins and others were set on work by God to unmask him And no Exerc. 4. doubt if we do not our posterity shall see him Antichrist morient dying and giving up the ghost for the Lord faithfull and true hath not onely threatned his ruine but foretold that his day is coming EXERCITATION 4. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture-expressions setting out the pardon thereof Gods goodness therein Faith and repentance the way to it Pardon in the Court of Heaven and of Conscience The equity and necessity of forgiving one another We are to forgive as God for Christs sake forgiveth us viz. heartily speedily frequently throughly A twofold remembrance of injuries in cautelam in vindictam § 1. THe sixth branch of divine goodness is the Lords keeping mercie for thousands which phrase admitteth of sundry notions worthy of diligent consideration First Keeping it as in a store-house God is said to be rich unto all that call upon Rom. 10. 12. him and we reade of the riches of his goodness These riches are laid up with him and kept as in a magazine to be made use of upon all occasions according to the emergent necessities of his people Whence it is that we also reade of their obtaining mercie and finding Hebr. 4. 16. grace to help in time of need Secondly Keeping it for the present age as well as having dispensed it formerly to predecessours Our fathers were all liberally supplied out of Gods forementioned Treasury as it is in Psalm the two and twentieth Our fathers trusted in thee Psal 2◠4 5. They trusted and thou didst deliver them They cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded This should be no disheartning to us as if his Treasury were exhausted but encourage us rather as Pauls example did succeeding beleevers For this 1 Tim. 1. 16. cause I obtained mercie said he that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter beleeve on him to life everlasting Which is the next observable Thirdly Keeping it for time to come as well as dispensing it at present God hath mercy in hand and mercy in store We now say as it is in the Lamentations It is of the Lords mercy that Lam. 3. 22. we are not consumed because his compassions fail not The same will they have occasion to profess that shall come after us God keepeth mercy and mercy keepeth us Created goodness indeed being limited may be justly suspected of penurie Esau might have somewhat to plead for his saying Hast thou but one blessing my father But Divine goodness is like an ocean without either banks or bottome Our heavenly Father hath blessings reserved as well as bestowed many more blessings then one yea for many more persons then one as it followeth Fourthly Keeping mercy for thousands and that not of persons onely but as it is in the Chaldee for thousands of generations One generation goes saith the Preacher and Eccles 1. 4. another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever Not one of all these generations but coming and going tasteth of mercy and the whole earth during Psal 33. 5. the time of these revolutions are still full of the Lords goodness When the ark rested Moses said Return O Lord unto the many Numb 10. 36. thousands of Israel He that charged his providence with the thousands of Israel is ready to charge it with the thousands of England both in this and after ages if they do not apostatize from him and so forsake
understanding God is greater then our heart and knoweth 1 Joh. 3. 20. all things Everlasting duration Behold Job 36. 26. God is great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Omnipresent immensity Great is our 2 Chr. 2. 5 6. God above all gods Who is able to build him an house seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him Secondly each particular dimension is elsewhere applied to these very attributes though some with more clearness then others Height to Gods Sovereignty He that is higher then the Eccles. 6. 8. highest regardeth and there be higher then they Depth to his Omniscience O the Rom. 11. 33. depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! Length to his Eternity He asked life and thou gavest it to him even length of days for ever and ever Psal 21. 4. Which Calvin and the Chaldee paraphrase apply to Christ understanding thereby the eternal duration of his kingdome Lastly breadth to his Omnipresence but covertly in that of Isaiah The glorious Lord will be unto us a Isa 33. 21. place of broad rivers and streams to signifie that protection and safety which his presence with his Church in every place affords to all the members thereof like a broad river encompassing a fenced town on every side Thirdly Me thinks there is somewhat exprest in Zophars speech which as to the two former particulars tends to this interpretation For having said It is as high as heaven he presently adds What canst thou do meaning perhaps what are thy weak abilities to his omnipotence He in regard of his Sovereign power can do all things but thou alas what canst thou do And after affirming It is deeper then hell he subjoyneth what canst thou know as if he had said what are thy shallow apprehensions to the depth of his thoughts He in regard of his omniscient understanding knoweth all things but thou poor man What canst thou know § 2. If it be asked why I expound all these clauses of God seeing the particles It and Thereof It is high as heaven The measure thereof seem to relate unto somewhat else My answer is that Expositours differ much about this very thing and according to their several apprehensions translate the words after a different manner The vulgar Latine and our old English translations carry all to Almighty God who was mentioned in the verse before Canst thou finde out the Almighty reading it thus He is higher then heaven what art thou able to do His length exceeds the length of the earth c. Others considering that divers words in the original text being feminine will not agree in construction with Eloah and Saddai whereby God is there exprest have therefore looked back to the sixt verse for an antecedent where they meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdome and expound all of it inserting the word Sapientia into their Latine translations as Oecolampadius and Junius do But for my part there is I conceive a word nearer hand which will serve the turn better and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfection Canst thou finde out the Almighty unto perfection It that is the Perfection of God is as high as heaven c. And herein I joyn with Castellio whose translation is fully squared to this sense for so he readeth the place Tune Dei intima pervestiges aut ipsam adeò perfectionem Omnipotentis invenias Quae cùm coelum altitudine adaequet quid ages c. Now I interpret the words as before because however they be read whether God or wisdome or Perfection be taken for the antecedent it cometh to one and the same issue for the Wisdome of God is himself and his Perfection comprehends not Wisdome onely but all his other excellencies whatsoever insomuch as Lessius intitleth his book concerning the Attributes De perfectionibus divinis The way thus cleared I now proceed without further interruption to single out the particular dimensions and discourse of them in their order § 3. Seeing all divine perfections far transcend humane capacities the safest way as I humbly conceive for us to make a due estimate concerning the height of Gods sovereignty is to compare it with that of earthly potentates which is within the compass and reach of our understandings Verily it is not without cause that S. Paul styles him the 1 Tim. 6. 15. blessed and onely potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords that Moses Melchisedech and Abram entitle him the most high God Gen. 14. v. 18 19 20 22. four times in one chapter For upon search it will appear that his Sovereignty excels that of the high and mighty ones upon earth in point of Extensiveness of Unaccountableness and of Almightiness I. In point of extensiveness His kingdome Psalm 103. 19. ruleth over all The whole earth and sea which make but one globe is to the Universe but as a little central point the mightiest potentate hath no more but his share in that little Whereupon Seneca bringeth in his wise vertuous man with this censure and sarcasme in his mouth Is this that Point Hoc est illud punctum quod inter tot gentes ferro iâ—ni dividitur O quà m cidiculi sunt mortalium termini Punctum est istud in quo navigatis in quo bellatis in quo Regna disponitis minima c. Senec. Natural quaest lib. 1. in Praefatione which so many Nations of the world do so strive to divide among themselves by fire and sword O how ridiculous are the bounds of mortal men All that in which they sail to and fro manage their wars and set up their petty kingdomes is but a Point Whereas the Sovereignty of God extendeth it self to the whole earth and sea yea to heaven and the heaven of heavens giving laws not onely to the visible host of sun moon and stars but also to the invisible host of Angels who are said to Psalm 103. 20. excell in strength and to do his commandments hearkning unto the voice of his word Yea there is not a Devil in hell that can go beyond the length of his chain for even those legions of darkness are though much against their wils subjected to the empire of the father of lights Yea whereas the dominion of worldly Potentates reacheth but to the outward man and their laws cannot directly oblige the conscience so as to bring upon it a guilt binding over the soul to death his do And in this respect St James telleth us that there is one James 4. 12. law-giver one and but one who is able to save and to destroy The style which Paul giveth earthly governours is masters Ephes 6. 5. according to the flesh but Moses calleth Numb 17. 16. God the God of the spirits of all flesh to imply that however there be many who lord it sufficiently over the flesh and outward man there
someway an actor about yet he is no author of them as also works of art for which God enables men but produceth them not The vanity which all such things are subject to is partly Negative a non-ability to serve man as they did before the fall after it the Lord said to Adam Cursed is the Gen. 3. 17. ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Partly Positive whence that of Solomon Behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1. 14. Yet if any shall hereupon conclude that it was so from the beginning Moses will expresly confute him by whom we are told that when God at the very end of his creation Saw every Gen. 1. 31. thing that he had made and behold it was very good which to me is a demonstration that the Angels were not then fallen Yea if any shall deny that the goodness of God is still visible in them let that saying of the Psalmist stop his mouth The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. What he predicates Psal 35. 5. of the earth I am not afraid to extend to the sea and to all other parts of the Universe They are all at this day full of the goodness of the Lord the sea especially which we Islanders are especially bound to take notice of by way of rejoycing and to glorifie God for according to these direct places Glorifie ye the Lord even the name of the Isaiah 24. 15. Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea And in the Psalms The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Psal 97. 1. isles be glad thereof Well may the earth rejoyce herein because if the Lord did not so reign as to set bounds to that whose natural place is above the earth as Psalm 104. informs us it would all quickly be overflown Well may the multitude of the isles be glad thereof for what are they in regard of the Ocean that surrounds them but as so many nutshels in a great vessel of water how suddainly drowned if God did not reign so as to restrain that element § 4. But I must not allow my self too much scope I shall therefore restrain my future discourse upon this head to the sole creation of man and shew how goodness appeared in it It is reported as the speech of Favorinus Nihil est in macrocosmo magnum praeter microcosmum That in the vast world of creatures there is nothing truly great except the little world of man Surely next to the knowledge of God there is nothing of more concernment to us and therefore let none wonder at me who cannot go over all for singling out his creation to be insisted upon concerning which I intend to shew out of certain texts in Genesis the consultation upon which the pattern after which and the parts of which he was made at first For the first It is the manner of Artificers to deliberate much and to put themselves to more then ordinarie pains about their Master-pieces Man was to be the Master-piece of this visible world and accordingly Moses speaking of God according to the manner of men brings him in consulting about so prime a piece God said Let us make man whereas most other Gen. 1. 26. things were made with a word speaking Let there be light and there was Gen. 1. 3 24. light Let the earth bring forth and it was so Here the Creatour calls as it were a solemn Councel of the sacred persons in Trinity when he is about to proceed to the making of man Which is to be taken notice of both because other Scriptures use the plural number where mans creation is spoken of as in Eccles 12. 1. Remember thy creatour according to the Original Creatours and Job 35. 10. Where is God my maker Hebrew Makers and because it should restrain us from deriding any mans deformity for fear of our reproching his Maker To which purpose that history is very remarkable An Emperour Fitz Herb. of policie and religion Part. 1. pag. 54. out of Guil. Malms l. 2. c. 10. of Germany came upon a Lords-day morning unattended to a poor countrey Church where pretending himself a souldier he was present at Mass which was said by the parish Priest a man so deformed that he was saith mine Authour Poenè portentum naturae almost a monster in nature And as the Emperour wondred with in himself that God whose beauty and Majesty is infinite would be served by so deformed a creature it came to pass that the Priest reading the hundred Psalm which was in the course of his Liturgy to be rehearsed upon that day pronounced the second verse thereof Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves in such a different tone and voice from that which he before used that the Emperour apprehended it as a thing ordained by Almighty God to meet with and answer his present cogitation and began to entertain so reverent an opinion of the Priest that having informed himself after Mass of his great virtue he made him Arch-Bishop of Colen much against the good mans will who notwithstanding behaved himself in that great charge with singular commendation and left a most sweet savour behinde him § 5. For the second The pattern after which man was made is sometimes called Image alone So God Gen. 1. 27. created man in his own image in the image of God created he him sometimes likeness Gen. 5. 1. Gen. 1. 26. Mos est Hebraeis duo substantiva ita conjungere ut diuersae res esse videantur cùm tamen alterum adjectivi epitheti significationem habeat Andr. River in Gen. Exercit 4. alone In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him Sometimes both Let us make man in our image after our likeness which makes a wise interpreter think that when they are joyned it is by Hendiadys and that the Holy Ghost meaneth an Image most like his own ad imaginem similitudinem suam that is ad quà m simillimam sui imaginem It is exceeding much for mans honour that he is an Epitomie of the world an abridgement of other creatures partaking with the stones in being with the stars in motion with the plants in growing with beasts in sense and with Angels in science But his being made after Gods Image is far more As great men are wont they often erect a stately building then cause their own picture to be hung up in it that spectatours may know who was the chief Founder of it so when God had created the Fabrick of this world the last thing he did was the setting up his own Picture in it creating man after his own image Now there is a threefold sense of this phrase for the image of God is taken first in a large sense and so it is appliable
his being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow lest Satan saith he should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 7 11. V. Because if we look to our selves cheerfulness is advantageous both to our bodies therefore compared to the best food such as men use to have at feasts He that is of a merry heart hath a Prov. 15. 15. continual feast and the best physick too A merry heart doth good like a medicine Prov. 17. 22. but a broken spirit drieth the bones And also our spirits Uncheerfulness maketh the soul of a man drive heavily as the chariots of Pharaoh did in the red sea but the joy of the Lord oyleth the wheels Cheerfulness supples the joynts of our hearts and so rendereth them nimble and active in holy performances See Nehemiah 8. 10. VI. Because if we cast our eyes upon others the uncheerfulness of professours often bringeth a bad report upon the profession and maketh the world ready to beleeve that Christians serve a bad master or have but an hard service of it whereas their rejoycing in the ways of the Lord would help to bring others in love with religion See Acts 9. 31. and Esther 8. the two last verses § 7. Fifthly Endure afflictions so as in the day of adversity duly to consider the Nature Authour and Ends of Crosses I. The Nature of those afflictions that befall men in Christ They are not Inter vincula carnisicis Chirurgi Chamier Panstrat from vindicative justice which is wholly removed from such by the mediation of him in whom they have beleeved and so not formally punishments but from fatherly discipline whereby it cometh to pass that although the matter be the same there is as much difference between the sufferings of beleevers and of ungodly persons out of Christ as there is between the cords wherewith an executioner pinioneth his condemned malefactour and those wherewith the indulgent Chirurgion bindeth his patient the ones design being to kill the others to cure They are crosses indeed which beleevers undergo but no curses and have no such malignity in them as the world imagineth II. The Authour Well might Eliphaz Job 5 6. say Trouble springs not out of the ground for it cometh from heaven and that out of love As many as I love Rev. 3. 19. saith Christ I rebuke and chasten How bitter soever the cup be which I am to drink and by whomsoever it is handed to me the comfort is it was of my heavenly fathers mixing who I am sure would not put any poysonfull although he do put some displeasing ingredients into it I will therefore say Christ enabling as Christ himself did The cup which my father hath given me shall John 18. 11. I not drink it III. The Ends Which are specially three 1. The mortifying of our corruptions By this shall the iniquity of Jacob Isa 27. 9. be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin All the harm which the fiery furnace did the young men in Daniel was to burn off their cords our lusts are cords cords of vanity in Scripture-phrase the fiery tryal is sent on purpose to burn and consume them Afflictions help to scour off this kinde of rust Adversity like winter-weather is of use to kill the vermine which the the summer of prosperity is wont to breed 2. For the enlivening and quickning of our graces I spake unto Jerem. 22. 21. unto thee in thy prosperity and thou saidst I will not hear But elsewhere Lord in Isa 26. 16. trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when they chastening was upon them These two places compared shew how apt prosperity is to make men Gallio's adversity to render them Zelots As bruising maketh aromatical spices to send out their savour and collision fetcheth fire out of the flint which was hid before so pressures excite devotion The cold water of persecution is often cast in the Churches face to fetch her again when she is in a swoon 3. For the furthering of our glory Christ went from the Cross to Paradise so do Christians He was made perfect through Heb. 2. 10. sufferings so are they It became him to Luke 24. 26. suffer and to enter into his glory It becomes them to tread in their masters steps When the founder hath cast his bell he doth not presently hang it up in the steeple but first try it with his hammer and beat upon it on every side to see if any flaw be in it Christ doth not presently after he hath converted a man convey him to heaven but suffers him first to be beaten upon by manifold temptations and after advanceth him to the crown spoken of Jam. 1. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him this crown the cross makes way for although no cross can merit it but that of Christ Yet as law is said to work wrath occasionally So Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work 2 Cor. 1. 17. for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory APHORISME VI. Aph. 6. Providence extends it self not onely to all created beings and to all humane affairs especially those that concern the Church but even to the sins of Angels and men EXERCITATION 1. Introduction concerning the contents of this Aphorisme Providence over all created beings Preservation of men to be ascribed to God himself not to good men yea not to good Angels in whom heart-searching and patience wanting Providence reaching to humane affairs Oeconomical Civil Military Moral and Ecclesiastical Anastasius his design frustrate Rome and our nation instanced in I. G. castigated § 1. THis Aporisme requireth a clear demonstration of these propositions 1. That divine providence extends it self to all created beings 2. That it reacheth to Exerc. 1. all humane affairs 3. That it is especially seen in such affairs as concern the Church And 4. That although God be not the authour of sin yet his providence is an actour in it Unto these when I shall have added an answer to objections and from each proposition an inference the whole will be completely handled The first proposition which I am to begin with is Divine providence extends it self to all created Beings Well may we strike in with the Levites in that form of acknowledging God wherein they went before the people saying Thou even thou art Lord alone Nehem. 9. 6. Thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all David bringeth it down a little lower Thy judgements are a great deep O Lord Psal 36. 6. thou preservest man and beast Job lower yet What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver Job 7.
his fancy and hit upon nothing the second did the same He then expected the youngest should go directly to the Crowned bed but he prayed the Emperour that he might be permitted to lie with one of his brothers and by this means not any of the three took the way of the Empire which was so easie to be had that it was not above a pace distant Anastasius much amazed well saw God would transfer the Diadem from his race as he did afterward to Justine Who can read and consider such examples without saying as he did Ludit in humanis Divina potentia rebus That is Divine power often dares Desport it self in mens affairs Remember Daniels four beasts and the seven heads of that beast in the Apocalyps conceived by interpreters to resemble the seven forms of Government which Rome was to undergo sucsessively from a Common-wealth to Kings from Kings to Consuls from Consuls to Dictatours thence to Decemvirs thence to Tribunes of the people thence to Emperours thence to Popes Reflect upon this Nation of ours which hath been governed at first by Britains then Saxons then Danes then Normanes one while in the way of an Heptarchy another while of a Monarchy and now of a Republick and if thou canst refuse to crie out O the depth § 4. III. Military such as belong to the managing of Wars It is not for nothing that God is so often styled Lord of hosts in the Old Testament We finde him so called no less then one hundred and thirty times in two of the Prophets Esaias and Jeremy Because in ordering of Martial affairs he in a manner doth all Captains and superiour Officers may and do consult but God determines They throw the dice he appoints the chance they set their men as it pleaseth them he in the issue plays the game as it pleaseth him Hear David in that Psalm of his which he made in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul speaking of his own experiments and celebrating God as assisting him both in the field and at sieges By thee I have run through a troop and by my God have I leaped over a wall giving him Psal 18. 29. strength activity skill It is God that girdeth me with strength He maketh my feet like hindes feet He teacheth my hands Verse 32 33 34. to war so that a bowe of steel is broken by mine arms Yea success and victory Thou hast girded me with strength to the Verse 39. 40. battel thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies that I might destroy them that hate me In the New Testament we seldome or never meet with that title That which comes nearest it is Lord God Almighty and this occurs twice in the Revelation when mention is made of the victories which it pleaseth God to give to the Reformed Churches against Anti-Christ and his adherents once in these words We give thanks O Lord Rev. 9. 17. God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned And again in these Great and marvelous 15 3. are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy waies Thou King of Saints IV. Moral such as belong to good manners or in more Gospel terms To living soberly righteously and godly in Tit. 〈◊〉 12. this present world The two former I well know are pretended to by men unregenerate yea by heathens Socrates they say lived so soberly as not to be discomposed by any outward emergency to shew himself alwaies the same man Fabritius so righteously as that it was commonly said of him To turn the Sun out of its course would be found more easie then to turn him from the way of justice But for godliness which is the third it were hard if any should pretend to that without strong impressions from God in Christ yet the Pelagians of old did asserting those virtues which appeared in Moral men who had not received Christ Jesus the Lord nor known what it was to walk in him for true graces for which very fault as S. Austin tels us above all others the Christian Church August contr Julian Pelag. l 4. ◠3. did most detest them yea a Christian Minister of late hath in print dared to collect from that saying of Paul All men have not faith an implication J. G. Preface to the Reader before Red. Redeemed fol. 6. à fine That men who act and quit themselves according to the true principles of that reason which God hath planted in them cannot but believe and be partakers in the precious faith of the Gospel But we have been taught and must teach that it is not in the power of any inferiour creature so to improve it's faculties as to raise up it self to a superiour rank No tree can make it self a beast no beast a man no man a Saint by the Omnis insidelium vita peccatum est nihil est bonum sine summo bono ubi enim deest agnitio aeternae incommutabilis voluntatis falsa virtus est in optimis moribus Prosper sent 106. bare improvement of his reason whence he comes to be a man Moral principles prove to such as relie upon them and seek no further Mortal principles We believe that of Prosper The whole life of an unbeliever is sin Neither is there any thing good where the chief good is wanting but false virtue in the midst of the best manners V. Ecclesiastical such as belong to the Church and the legitimate members of it In that Song of Loves Psal 45. 9. Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir is meant the Church Look as an indulgent Prince besides the common affection he bears and protection he gives to all his subjects hath a peculiar respect to and converse with his Princess so there is a peculiar providence of God toward his Church the handling whereof at large I refer to the next Exercitation EXERCITATION 2. Exerc. 2. Deuteron 11. 12. opened Gods care over the Church proved from the provision he makes for inferiour creatures From Israels conduct From the experiments and acknowledgements of saints in all ages Experiments of the Virgin Mary Rochellers Musculus acknowledgements of Jacob David Psalmist Austin and Ursin From Gods causing things and acts of all sorts to cooperate unto the good of the saints Isaiah 27. 2 3. explained The Church preserved from in and by dangers § 1. OUr third proposition is That divine Providence is seen more especially in such affairs as concern the Church and the members thereof In order to the clearing whereof I intend to insist upon two places of Scripture The first is that in Deuteronomy 11. 12. Where Moses describing the land of Canaan saith of it thus A land which the Lord thy
seeing an infant she should imagine it an Hebrew be moved into pitty towards it adopt it for her own son and light upon the childe 's own Mother to be it's nurse yet upon this did Israels redemption much depend There were such real alterations in the heavens that the stars are said to have fought against Sisera in their Judges 5. 20. 2 Kings 7. 6 7 c. orders Elsewhere an imaginary noise was so apprehended by the Syrians as to make them flie and leave their tents whereupon followed great plenty after a famine II. Acts of all sorts whether voluntary or involuntary gratious or sinful Augustus his taxing the Roman Empire requiring every one to repair to his own city was a voluntary act on his part to enrich himself but ordered by Providence to further ends for hereby the virgine Mary comes to Bethleem and Christ was there born in the place so long before prophesied of Austin was once out in his Sermon much against his will but providence disposed it to the conversion of a soul The storie is this That holy man fell one day in the pulpit upon a large discourse against the Manichees contrary to his purpose and intention when he came thither At his return home spake of it asked Possidonius and others whether they did not observe it Credo quod aliquem errantem in populo Dominus per nostram oblivionem curari voluit Possidonius in vita August Their answer was they did and wondered Whereupon he said God I believe hath made use of my oblivion and errour to cure some one or other of the people Some two days after one Firmus a merchant comes to him and falling down at his feet with tears confesseth he had been nursed up for many years together in the heresie of the Manichees but was that day by his Sermon rightly informed truely converted and made a Catholick which Austin and others then hearing glorified and Profundum consilium Dei admirantes ac stupentes glorificaverunt ejus nomen qui eum voluerit unde veluerit quomâ—do voluerit per scientes per nescicntes an marum operatur salutem Idem Ibid. admired the profound counsel of God in converting souls when he will and by whom he will whether the Preacher know of it or not How gracious acts such as Obadiah's hiding and feeding the Prophets Ebed-melech's helping Jeremy in and out of prison are subservient to Providence in procuring the Churches good is easie to discern It is so even in sinfull acts themselves Such was the Philistines invading the land of Palestina yet there was a time when their doing it was so disposed of as to be a means of preserving David and his men Saul was then ready to seize upon his prey but was diverted by this news coming in that very nick of time Saul went on this side the mountain and David and his men on that side of the mountain 1 Sam. 23. 26 27 28. and David made hast to get away for fear of Saul for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them But there came a messenger unto Saul saying Haste thee and come for the Philistines have invaded the land wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David c. § 6. The second Text I have made choise of to insist upon is in the Prophesie of Esaias Chapter 27. verse 2 3. In that day sing ye unto her A vineyard of red wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day The Prophet had said before of this vineyard that God looking it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wilde grapes But it being Esal 5. 2. since purged here he calls it a vineyard of red wine that is of the best according to that in Solomons Proverbs Look not thou upon the wine when it is red Prov. 23. 31. when it gives his colour in the cup when it moves it self aright So as we are here by it to understand a reformed Church Such at this day are the Protestant Churches come out of Popery For we may distinguish a four-fold face of the Christian visible Church spoken of by Divines The first fair in the Apostles time she was then a virgin undefiled the second Spotted in the succeeding age of Fathers and Hereticks wherein traditions began to prevaile she was then a Wanton the third Deformed when Popery overspread all she was then an Whore the fourth Reformed since Luthers time she is now a Matrone and may exspect so far as it shall be for her good and her keepers glory that continuall irrigation and constant custody which is here spoken of Such as wish and project as some have done the total and final ruine of the visible Church must effect it in a time that neither belongs to day nor night for the Lord hath here promised to keep it lest any hurt it yea to keep it night and day There is a three-fold preservation which it and the members of it may look for from Divine Providence One from another in and a third by dangers First from dangers according to the promise in one of the Psalms Because thou hast made the Lord which is Psal 91. 9 10. my refuge even the most high thy habitation There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Austin had appointed to go to a certain town to visite the Christians Agnoscunt omnes miram Dei providentiam cui ut liberatori gratias meritò egerunt Possidonius in vita August cap. 12. there and to give them a Sermon or more The day and place were known to his enemies who set armed men to lie in wait for him by the way which he was to pass and kill him As God would have it the guide whom the people had sent with him to prevent his going out of the right way mistook and led him into a by-path yet brought him at length to his journeys end Which when the people understood as also the adversaries disappointment they adored the Providence of God and gave him thanks for that great deliverance II. In dangers So in Job 5. 19 20. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee In famine he shall redeem thee from death and in war from the power of the sword In time of famine the widdow of Sarepta's store was made to hold out The Providence of God was with Daniel in the lions den shutting up the mouths of those furious beasts with the men in the fiery furnace giving a prohibition to the fire that it should not burn when they were in the jaws of danger yea of death The Church hath always been a Lilly among thorns yet flourishes still This bush is yet far from a consumption although it have seldome or never been out of the fire III. By danger there
Plinies unbelief The Psalmists stumble at the prosperity of the wicked His recovery by considering it was not full was not to be final The superintendency of Providence over military and civil affairs in particular The Churches afflictions Promises cautioned Duty of casting care upon God He no authour of sin The attestation of this State and of this writer § 1. TWo things are still remaining viz. Objections against and Corollaries from the formentioned propositions to which in their order Objection against the first Some think Ex hoc Deus beatus est quia nihil curat neque habet ipse negotium neque alteri exhibel Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 4. Credat Judaeus Apello Non ego namque Deos didici securum agere aevum Hor. the extending of divine Providence to all created beings how mean soever unsutable to the perfection of God whom they say it doth not become to stoop so low Epicurus is cited by Lactantius as speaking to this purpose and after him Horace Answ They speak like heathens not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God The Psalmist otherwise Who is like unto the Lord our God Psal 113. v. 5 6 7 8. who dwelleth on high Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil He maketh the barren woman to keep house to be a joyfull mother of children Of his care and providence it is beleeved Providentia Dei nec fallitar nec fatigatur Eam nec magna onerant nec parva effugiunt Molin Enod quaest p. 23. and asserted by divines that it is neither deceived nor tired that as the greatest things do not overburden it so least things do not escape it That of our Saviour to his Disciples is a most express assertion Are not five Luke 12. 6 7. sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered Wherefore by way of Corollary from hence let God himself alone be acknowledged the Preserver and Governour of all things Let no man think by his strength of parts or extremity of pains to take the work out of his hands Melancthon was beyond Monendus est per vos Philippus ut desinat esse Rector mundi Wolf memorabil measure solicitous about Church-affairs in that age wherein he lived insomuch as Luther once wrote to his neighbour-ministers that they should do well to give him a serious admonition not to attempt the government of this world any longer That of Maximilian the Emperour in the time of Pope Julius the second was an honest acknowledgement Deus aeterne nisi vigilares Historia Pontificum Romanorum contract per Jacobum Revium pag. 259. quà m male esset mundo quem regimus nos Ego miser venator ebriosus ille acâ—sceleratus Julius O eternal Lord God if thou thy self shouldst not be watchfull how ill it would be with this world which is now governed by me a miserable hunter and by this drunken and wicked Pope Julius § 2. Against the second proposition it hath been objected that there is no such thing as the providence of God superintending humane affairs especially considering the great prosperity which is enjoyed by wicked men Pliny the great Naturalist speaketh of Irridendum est si quis putet illud quicquid est summum agere curam rerum humanâ—rum Natur. hist l. 6. c. 7. Psalm 73. v. 2 3. it as a thing to be entertained with laughter rather then belief And the Psalmists words are these As for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Behold V. 12 13. these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Answ That which then satisfied him should now suffice to answer us He went into the sanctuary of God then understood V. 17 18. he their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction Their prosperity was not full was not to be final I. Was not full The places wherein they stood were slippery their felicity varnished over but rotten within That in S. John and onely that is perfect prosperity when the inward and outward man thrive together I wish 3 John 2. above all things saith he to Gaius that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth With them it is quite otherwise They have it may be fat bodies but lean souls full purses but empty heads and hearts blest in their estates but cursed in their spirits Have Lament 3. 65. houses and lands worth many thousands but hearts little worth according to that The tongue of the just is as Prov. 10. 20. Nulla verior miseria quam falsa laetitia Nihil infelicius felicitate peccantium choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth Call you this prosperity It is in truth nothing less It is unhappiness rather and there are those who have not stuck to name it so II. Was not to be final Thou castedst them down into destruction The world came in fast upon them one way and the wrath of God came as fast another This fair day of theirs is but a weather-breeder as a calm before an earth-quake To Deut. 32. 35. me belongeth vengeance and recompence saith the Lord their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste David expresseth it most emphatically I have seen the wicked in great Psalm 37. 35 36. power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree A tree that retaineth its viridity and freshness even in winter when fruit-bearing trees have cast their leaves yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found Let such an one be sought in his counting-house which was wont to be the temple wherein he worshipped his God Mammon he is not there At Court where he was so magnified and almost adored he is not to be found in the lodgings there He that would finde him must seek him in hell For there he is This is the end of such worldly prosperity as cometh from God and yet defieth him § 3. The Corollary from hence is let the superintendency of divine providence over all humane affairs in particular over Military and Civil be humbly acknowledged I. Over military Those French-men were undoubtedly to blame who in their flattering applauses of Richelieu did ascribe Howels lustra Ludov. p. 166. the reduction of Rochel solely to him insomuch as one of their Chroniclers writeth That in the taking of that town neither the king nor God Almighty had a share in
thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee Why may not this God be trusted with thy children too Sure I am he should Tell me Who provided for them before they were born Who put care and tender affections into their mothers heart milk into their nurses breasts Did not God Is not he that made provision for them all before they came into this world and hath comfortably maintained them ever since fit to be trusted with them still though thou beest gathered to thy fathers and seest Corruption Doubtless he is § 7. The better to help us in the performance of so important a duty as this take along with us the following directions I. Get and keep assurance of a peculiar interest in the love and favour of God in Christ We neither trust known enemies nor doubtfull friends with what we account pretious They that know God to be their enemy they that doubt whether he be their friend or no cannot with confidence cast their whole care upon him But he that can groundedly say with David I am thine may go on as he doth Lord save me He that Psal 119. 94. can say with assurance of faith The Lord is my shephard may confidently Psal 23. 1. add I shall not want The spouse may go leaning upon her beloved with all her Cant. 6. 3. 7. 10. 8. 5. weight when she hath first been enabled to say My beloved is mine and I am his I am my beloveds and his desire is towards me II. Continue in well-doing Let them that suffer according to the will of God saith S. Peter commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Look how much care a man hath to please God so much confidence may he have to cast all his care upon him Whilest the people of Israel went up to the place of Gods publick worship all the males that were of age thrice in a year leaving none but women and children at home so giving the enemy fair oportunity for invasion God undertakes they shall not so much as desire or think of such a thing Neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before Exod. 34. 23 24. the Lord thy God thrice in the year III. Treasure up the promises chiefly such as are made on purpose to assure us of Gods caring for us that in particular Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with Heb. 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Where there is in the Original an accumulation of many negatives to make the assertion as strong as may be it is as much as if he had said I will never in no wise in no case forsake thee We are wont to call the bils and bonds of able men good security The promises of God all-sufficient are certainly so IV. Reflect upon former experiments and let them be encouragements for time to come The Psalmist did so when he said I have considered Psal 77. 5 10. the days of old the years of ancient times I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Some enquire why David when he asked for a sword and Abimelech told him there was none at hand but that of Goliah called for it and said There is none like to that it is 1 Sam. 21. 9. probable he might have found some of better mettal or as good and some perhaps fitter for his strength but yet prefers this above all because of his experiment God had formerly blest him in the use of that § 8. Against the fourth and last proposition of Providence her activity even in sin it may be objected and usually is that this tenet cannot be maintained without making God the Authour of sin which opinion is an abhorrencie to the mindes of all sound Divines I answer so it is and ought to be neither doth that assertion want the attestation of this State Witness a modern but pregnant occurrence yet not generally known and therefore inserted here in perpetuam rei memoriam In the year of our Lord 1645. there was published in London an English book wherein God was expresly made the Author of his peoples sins though not without some limitations The Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster took offence at this though some of them being acquainted with the man whose name it bore were ready to say of him as Bucholcerus Habuit cor bonum sed non caput regulatum Sculter Annal. Dâ—c did of Swenckfeldius He had a good heart yet without a well regulated head made complaint of it to both houses of Parliament They both censured the said book to be burnt by the hand of the common hangman and the Assembly of Divines agreed upon a short Declaration Nemine contradicente by way of detestation of that abominable and blasphemous opinion which was also published under that Title July 17. 1645. and in which we meet with these among other expressions That the most vile and blasphemous Assertion whereby God is avowed to be the Authour of sin hath hitherto by the general consent of Christian Teachers and Writers both ancient and modern and those as well Papists as Protestants been not disclaimed onely but even detested and abhorred Our Common adversaries the Papists have hitherto onely calumniously charged the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches with so odious a crime in the mean time confessing that we do in words deny it as well as they themselves now should this book be tolerated might insult over us and publish to the world that in the Church of England it was openly and impudently maintained That God is the Authour of sin then which there is not any one point whereby they labour in their Sermons and popular Orations to cast a greater Odium though most injuriously upon the Reformed Churches We are not for the Reverence or estimation of any mans person to entertain any such opinions as do in the very words of them asperse the honour and holiness of God and are by all the Churches of Christ rejected This premised I now assert positively and considerately yet without obliging my self to make good every phrase that hath fallen unadvisedly from the pen of every wâ—ter that what Protestant Churches say in their publick Confessions and allowed Protestant writers in their books concerning Gods having a natural influence into the sinfull acts of creatures but without a moral influence into the sinfulness of their acts his inflicting hardness of heart as a punishment to former sins his directing and ordering great sins to great good as Joseph's vendition to the Churches preservation yea the crucifixion of Christ to the salvation of the Elect do neither really nor in due construction amount to the making of God the Author of sin To what hath been elsewhere further said of this copious argument I refer the capable reader to my Tactica Sacra Lib. 1. Cap. 1. § 5. ibidem cap. 6. § 4. FINIS