the title El which as a learned Jew affirmeth doth not less clearly express his influence then Jehovah doth his Essence El and Elohim Abarbanel apud Joann Buxtorf fil in Dissertat de Nominibus Dei Hebraicè thes 39 41. in their most proper notion as he telleth us signifying the authour and producer of things by an infinite power Of this Relative goodness there are sundry distinct branches mentioned in this superexcellent Text which are spoken to in their order § 3. The First is Mercy The nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intra viscera recepit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 1. 78. whereof may receive much light from the Hebrew word which is here made use of It cometh from a root that signifieth shutting up in ones bowels as child-bearing women retain and cherish their dearest offspring within their wombs Accordingly we reade in Luke of the bowels of Gods mercy a phrase which implieth both inwardness and tenderness First inwardness our bowels are the most inner parts The mercy of God springs from within and hath no original cause without himself Humane affection is commonly both begotten and fed by somewhat without in the thing or person beloved as culinary fire must be kindled and kept in by external materials But God loveth because he loveth Deut. 7. 7 8. Exod. 33. 19. and sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy as celestial fire is fuel to it self He freely extendeth mercy to us in making us good then doth us good for being so is not this a mercifull God Secondly tenderness The forecited passage in Luke runneth thus in our translation Through the tender mercies of our God Of all parts the bowels relent and earn most In them we are wont to finde a stirring when strong affections of love or pity are excited as Joseph did upon sight of Benjamin Gen. 43. 30. God speaking after the manner of men useth this pathetical expression concerning his people How shall I give thee Hos 11. 8. up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together His people accordingly crie to him Where is thy zeal and thy strength the Isai 63. 15. sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Of all humane bowels those of mothers are the tenderest Can a woman saith the Lord forget her sucking Isai 49. 15. childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yet sooner shall all the mothers in the world prove unnatural then he unmercifull for so it followeth yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee § 4. Well may this notion of mercy put us in minde of returning bowels of love to God according to what David said in the beginning of Psalm the eighteenth I will love thee O Lord my strength where the word cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex intimis visceribus diligam te Psal 18. 1. the same forementioned root and intimateth exercising love out of his most inward bowels as also of extending bowels of compassion to those especially that stand in nearest relation to him according to that of John Whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up 1 Job 3. 17. his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him But that is not all the improvement we are to make of this Attribute As it is a most tender affection so is it to be most tenderly used Take we therefore diligent heed as of refusing it by unbelief so of abusing it by presumption First of refusing mercy by unbelief Many Jonah 2. 8. as the phrase is in Jonah forsake their own mercie by giving way to objections arising from the flesh like smoke out of that bottomless pit in Revelation Say not therefore God is so angry with me the arrows of the Almighty stick so fast and the poyson thereof doth so drink up my spirit that I cannot expect any mercy from him Know that the Lord is wont even in wrath to remember mercie and that the Habak 〈◊〉 3. correction which thou at present lookest at as an argument of wrath may perhaps be an evidence of love and an act of mercy God is not about to hew thee down as thy unbeleeving heart imagineth but to prune thee for prevention of luxuriancy Be sure the right hand of his clemency knoweth whatever the left hand of his severitie doth Thou hadst better be a chastened son then an undisciplined bastard There is no anger to that in Isaiah Why Isai 1. 5. should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more That in Ezekiel I will Ezek. 16. 42. make my fury towards thee to rest and my jealousie shall depart from thee and I will be quiet and will be no more angry That in Hos 4. 17. Tunc magis irascitur quando non irascitur Super oâ—nen iram miseratio ista Bernard Hosea He is joyned to idols let him alone Then is God most angry of all when he refuseth to be angry yea there is no anger of his to be compared to this kinde of mercy Men that are fatted to destruction often go prosperously on in the world have few afflictions in their life no bands in their death but as Erasmus once said From this prosperitie Absit à nobis chrissimi alis selicitas Erasm in concione de misericordia good Lord deliver us Say not I am unworthy and must therefore despair for mercy is free and if God should shew mercy to none but such as are worthy of it he should shew mercy to none at all seeing All have sinned and come short as of the glory so of the mercy of God Say not my sins are many and great too many and too great to be pardoned but oppose to the multitude of thy transgressions that multitude of tender mercies mentioned Psal 51. 1. by the Psalmist not forgetting the gracious invitation by another Prophet Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughtss and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon or multiple pardon as the original phrase imports To the greatness of thy sins oppose the riches of Gods mercy and greatness of his love spoken of by the great Apostle God saith he who is rich in mercy for his Ephes 〈◊〉 4. great love wherewith he loved us Lo here a vast heap whereunto men may come with confidence be it never so much they have need of because these riches are not impaired by being imported The mercies of an infinite God are infinite mercies and so able to swallow up all the sins of finite creatures What though thou hast heretofore delighted in sin despair not for he delighteth in
them in these a little before he was to be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no When one told him that if he truly repented he should surely not perish he brake out into this speech Nay if your Christ be so easie to be intreated indeed as you say then I defie him and care not for him Horrible blasphemy desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it The next degree of impiety is when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning because he with whom they have to do is a long-suffering God A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But let such fear and tremble at what followeth Though a sinner doth evil Eccles 8 11 12 13. an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance as in the parable Behold these three years I come seeking Luke 13. 7. fruit on this fig-tree and finde none Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience as in the Canticles Open to me for my head is filled with Cantic 5. 2. dew and my locks with the drops of the night Take we heed of sleighting that which God and Christ value Know and consider that patience may be tired that however the Lord be long-suffering yet he will not suffer for ever but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou Jerem. 15. 6. art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting EXERCITATION 3. Exerc. 3. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end Joh. 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect § 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause making use of the generical term have it Abundant in goodness I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation and to reade it Abundant in bounty because the word as Zanchy and others have observed most properly signifieth that kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat benignitatem seu liberalem beneficentiam Zanch. de Natur Dei l. 1. câ— 18. Vide Fulleri miscellan lib. 1. c. 8. goodness which we call Bounty or Benignity and which maketh a fourth branch This God is abundant in witness the greatest of his gifts by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactours I shall instance in some of the chief He bestoweth upon us First His son to free us from hell God Joh. 3. 16. so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son He did not grant him upon Non concessit sed purissime dedit Stella the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures but freely gave him unasked not a servant but a Son not an adopted son such as we are but a begotten begotten not as Saints are of his Jam. 1. 18. will by the word of truth but of his Nature he himself being the Word and the Truth not one of many but an onely Son thus begotten and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance but that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world Majesty and love have been thought Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majâ—stas amoâ— hardly compatible Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love and that to the world the undeserving yea ill-deserving world of mankinde Herein is love saith St John elsewhere let me say herein is bounty not that we loved 1 Joh. 4. 10. God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Loved and So loved that particle is most emphatical and noteth the transcendency of a thing either good or evil Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus Him that hath so 1 Cor. 5. 3. done this deed so impudently so abominably so unchristianly The officers being astonied at our Saviours doctrine cried out Never man spake so as Joh. 7. 46. this man so excellently so powerfully so incomparably Here God so loved the world that is so freely so infinitely so unspeakably The Apostle himself who had been rapt up to the third heaven and there heard things not to be uttered wanteth words when he cometh to utter this and useth an accumulation of many because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently Not content to have styled it love mercie grace as not having yet said enough he calleth it great love glorious grace rich mercy yea exceeding riches Ephes 2. 4 5 7. of his glorious and mercifull grace in his second chapter to the Ephesians § 2. Secondly His Spirit to fit us for heaven Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. him The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit and that real holiness Joh. 3. 5. 6. concerning which the Apostle saith without it no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. So preparing us for that place which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare Joh. 14. 2 3. for us A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there The Spirit by enabling us hereunto first bringeth heaven into the soul then conducteth the soul to it Whence it is that Nehemiah recording the acts of Gods bounty to Israel reckoneth this as one of the principal Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct Nehem. 9. 20. them Thirdly His Angels to guard us on earth After David had said The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that Psal 34. 7 8. fear him and delivereth them he addeth immediately O taste and see that the Lord is good herein good in bestowing such a guard upon us It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahashuerus to make Haman the favourite his attendant as he rode through the streets Lo here a
their own mercy § 2. Well may we therefore trust God with our posterity seeing he that hath shewed mercy to us keepeth mercy for them As that fountain of light the Sun is not weary with shining it giveth us light and keepeth light for our Antipodes so this fountain of mercy is never tired with communicating goodness to one generation after another Good parents in bad times are often troubled with great solicitude when they think what will become of their children after them Let such consider that they leave them in his hand who is a God keeping mercy for thousands as Luther did who had this passage in his last Will and Testament Lord God I thank thee for that thou hast Melch. Adam Vit. German Theol. p. 134. been pleased to make me a poor and indigent man upon earth I have neither house nor land nor money to leave behinde me Thou hast given me wife and children I restore them to thee Lord nourish teach and preserve them as thou hast hitherto done me O thou that art a Father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows Let them remember how much mercy is entailed upon the issue of beleevers by vertue of these and the like places He will bless them Psal 115. 13 14. that fear the Lord both small and great The Lord will increase you more and more both you and your children The just man walketh Prov. 20. 7. in his integrity his children are blessed after him And that Satan never can God never will cut off this entail unless either the children degenerate or the parents distrusting providence make use of some unlawfull means for their promotion In which case Wo to him saith the Prophet that coveteth an Hab. 2. 9 10 11. evil covetousness to his house that he might set his nest on high Thou hast consulted shame to thy house For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it If Jeroboam out of design to secure the kingdome and settle the crown in his own line will take the practise of Idolatry as a means to this end This thing becomes sin unto the house of 1 King 13. 34. Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth No wonder then if when Gods own peculiar people begin to distrust him and by reason of unbelief take irregular courses for their advancement in the world this very thing prove an obstruction to that mercy which they and theirs might have otherwise been partakers of Such as would be sure to finde him a God shewing and keeping mercy unto Exod. 20. 6. thousands must be carefull to be found in the number of those that love him and keep his commandments as he himself informeth us in the Decalogue § 3. The seventh branch is forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Where the terms are multiplied to note the readiness of God to forgive our offences how many soever they be though transgression be added to iniquity and sin to transgression How great soever See Muis on Psal 51. 2. they be Pescha which signifieth rebellious as well as Chattaah which imports failings and of what kinde soever they be whether original viz. the crookednes perversnes of nature intimated in Avon the word used in that speech of David Behold I was shapen in iniquity or actuall expressed by the two other terms To help our understanding herein the Holy Ghost in Scripture is pleased to make use of sundry expressions very significant when he speaks of Gods pardoning sin viz. I. Taking it away as in that place of Hosea where the Church is directed to make her addresses on this wise Take Hos 14. 2. with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Not as if when iniquity is forgiven it were presently to be taken out of the memory but that which the Saints desire is to have it taken out of the conscience that their hearts may accuse them for it no more As a thorn in the hedge is a fence but an offence in the midst of a garden So sin in the memory may do well to keep us from relapsing but is a grievance in the conscience Which made Austin after assurance Quid retribuam Domino quòd recolit haec memoria mea anima mea non metuit inde August Confess lib. 2. c. 7. of forgiveness when he had made confession of his former aberrations bless God that he could now call them to minde without being affrighted at the consideration of them II. Casting of our sins behinde his back So in Hezekiahs song Thou hast in love to my soul saith he delivered it from the Isa 38. 17. pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back This God doth with a purpose never to view them more Oculo vindice so as to take vengeance for them though Oculo judice he cannot but by reason of his Omniscience see and discern them All the while Davids sins were before his own face and he making a penitent confession of them as in the one and fiftieth Psalm I acknowledged Psalm 51. 3. my transgressions and my sin is ever before me they were cast behinde the back of God as the Prophet Nathan assured him saying The Lord hath put 2 Sam. 12. 13. away thy sin thou shalt not die III. Scattering them as a cloud or as a mist So the Geneva translation hath it in that cheering passage of Isaiah I have Isa 44. 22. put away thy transgressions like a cloud and thy sins as a mist Sin is that which interposeth it self between the soul and the light of Gods countenance But whether it be a slender mist or a thick cloud an infirmity or a rebellion the sun of righteousness eyed by faith can and will dispell it so as to make it vanish § 4. IV. Covering or hiding them So in the Psalm Blessed is he whose transgression Psalm 32. 1. is forgiven whose sin is covered Men never Si texit peccata Deus noluit advertere Si noluit advertere noluit animadvertere Si noluit animadvertere noluit punire August in loc punish hidden sins because the law taketh notice of none but such onely as come to light by breaking out in words or actions God is accordingly said to cover and hide those sins as it were out of his sight which he never intends to inflict punishment for V. Throwing them into the depth of the Sea Thus in Micha's Prophesie Who is Micah 7. 18 19. a God like unto thee that pardoneth c. He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea Alluding perhaps to what befell Pharaoh and his host in the red sea which drowned the greatest Egyptian Commanders as well as the meanest
common souldier The vast Ocean overfloweth both the lowest sands and the highest rocks that of Gods pardoning grace removeth both the smaller prevarications and the grosser abominations of all such as are truly penitent beleevers VI. Blotting them out as in Davids petition Have mercy upon me O God according Psal 5. 1. to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Wherein he alludeth to the custome of Creditours who use to set down what every one oweth and when debts are either forgiven or paid to blot them out Our sins are called debts in the Lords Prayer Christ as our surety hath given satisfaction to divine Justice for them When this is once apprehended and applied by a lively faith God issueth out a pardon drawing as it were the lines of Christs Cross over the lines of his debt-book so as he may still see the sum we were indebted in but sees it cancelled never to be exacted more § 5. Be we then advertised from hence in the first place to acknowledge the singular goodness of God to us in this particular of forgiving our iniquity transgression and sin David in the place last cited speaketh of it as a special evidence of loving kindness and tender mercies The Apostles Creed having premised the articles concerning Christ by whom all blessings were procured for the Catholick Church when it comes to recite them nameth forgiveness of sins in the first place as the choisest priviledge on this side heaven And in that compendious prayer which our Saviour taught us there is a remarkable connexion of two petitions by a conjunctive particle not to be found in any of the former Give us this day our dayly bread And forgive us our trespasses To shew that as our dayly sins make us unworthy of dayly bread so there is no sweetness in them till the other be pardoned Bread and all other outward mercies a man may receive from an angry God pardon of sin never cometh but from favour and special love yea riches of grace as Paul expresseth it speaking of Christ In whom we have redemption Ephes 1. 7. through his bloud the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace § 6. In the second to beleeve and repent that we may be found in the number of those to whom this choice blessing is imparted Scripture telleth us men must be turned from darkness to Acts 26. 18. light from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Also that God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Acts 5. 31. Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Observe the method Repentance first and then forgiveness God doth not bestow his distinguishing favours upon all men promiscuously Pardoning mercy doth indeed come from him with ease he is called a God ready to pardon but Nehem. 9. 17. droppeth not from him at unawares that I may allude to what Seneca said Sinum habet facilem sed non perforatum de benefic of his liberal man He will know whom he bestoweth his forgiveness upon Unbeleeving unrepenting sinners never obtained it faithfull penitents never yet went without it They may perhaps not be so sensible of it in times of temptation and of desertion but to make use of a known distinction whereas there is a double forgiveness one in the high Court of heaven of which the Lord speaketh in his answer to Solomons prayer Then will 1 Chron. 7. 14. I hear from heaven and forgive their sins all authentical pardons are coined there the stamping of them is a part of prerogative royal and it is no less then high treason in the Pope to have his mint of Indulgences going at Rome Another in the Court of conscience spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews The worshippers once purged should have had no Hebr. 10. 2. more conscience of sins it may safely be asserted that forgiveness is certainly passed in the Court of heaven whensoever Christ is received by faith according to that Be it known unto you that through this man meaning Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Yet may there for some space of time after this not determinable by any man be wanting a seal upon earth to this pardon and the beleever continue not so fully acquitted in the court of his own conscience as to be assured of forgiveness till the Lord hath taught him by experience to see and acknowledge that assurance of pardon is a free gift of his as well as faith or pardon it self § 7. In the third place To be followers Ephes 5. 1. and 4. 32. of God as dear children tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us We should First Forgive one another The equity and necessity whereof are both exceedingly pressed by our Saviour to the end we might not look at it either as unreasonable or as arbitrary The former by his parable in the eighteenth of Matthew The wrongs we suffer compared to the sins we commit are Matth. 18. from verse 23. to the end but as an hundred pence to ten thousand talents great odds both in number and weight for number ten thousand to one hundred and for weight the one sort are talents the other pence What more equal then that we who have so many talents forgiven us should be ready to forgive so few pence The latter in an express declaration annexed to the Lords prayer If ye forgive men their trespasses your Matth. 6. 14 15. heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Whence it followeth that persons addicted to revenge so oft as they repeat that petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us do in effect make a dreadfull imprecation against themselves and fetch down a curse from heaven in stead of a blessing For he that saith with his tongue Lord I pray thee forgive me as I forgive others but meanwhile saith in his heart I cannot I will not forgive such an one doth he not by consequence say to God Forgive not me doth he not pronounce himself unworthy of pardon and in effect subscribe to the sentence of his own condemnation Yet alas how common a sin is revenge As the heart in the natural body is the first member that liveth and the last that dies so revenge in the heart is a lust that soonest appeareth in children and is often longest ere it be healed in the regenerate Molanus telleth us that the Christians Augustiâ—i seculo ad vocem Nobis quilibet Christianus pectus suum tundebat Jo.
Molanus Theol. practicae compend p. 211. of old in Austins time were wont to beat upon their breasts in a deep sense of their sins at the Nobis in the beginning of the forementioned Petition Forgive Us well may the most of men now adays beat their breasts for grief and hang down their heads for shame at the Nos in the latter clause As we forgive For how few are there that do it aright Seeing that § 8. Secondly we should forgive others as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us to wit First Heartily without dissembling Christ denounceth a terrible threatning against such as do not from their Matth. 18. 35. hearts forgive every one his brother It is not a making a fair shew in outward carriages not binding up as it were the broken bones of peace with good looks and sweet words that God accepteth if the heart be full of wormwood and gall Joab kissed and stabbed Judas kissed and betrayed Hail Master said the one to Christ Art thou well my brother said the other to Amasa How hatefull is such dissimulation to God and man Forgiveness is a fruit of love My little children saith St John let us not love so say I let us not forgive 1 Joh. 3. 18. in word and tongue but in deed and in truth Secondly Speedily without delay Be Nehem. 9. 17. Bis dat qui cito like God ready to pardon As in bestowing he doubleth his benefit that giveth betimes so in pardoning he forgiveth twice that forgiveth with speed his forgiveness receiveth a double welcome and shall have a double reward It is not for Christians to harbour animosities in the course of their lives and think to salve it by saying we forgive all the world when they lie upon their death beds For that may be applied to pardoning which Divines usually say of repenting True forgiveness is never too late but late forgiveness is seldome true Wherefore let not the sun go down upon Ephes 4. 26. your wrath as Paul adviseth his Ephesians If that which was but a mote at Ira festuca est odium trab◠August first be watered and cherished with the fresh suspicions of some few days it will turn to a beam and go near to put out the eye of love Thirdly Frequently without stint or limitation God multiplieth pardon so Isai 55. 7. should we When ye stand praying forgive Mark 11. 25. saith Christ and Paul bids us Pray 1 Thess 5. 17. continually We should therefore be inclined to forgive continually and to make actual performance whensoever there is an opportunity Peter thought he had offered fair when he asked How oft shall my brother sin against me and Matth. 18. 21 22. I forgive him adding till seven times as making account that surely that was often enough But our Saviour maketh nothing of that number would by no means have him stay there Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but untill seventy times seven putting a certain definite number for an indefinite and thereby intending to teach that his followers should forgive Toties quoties so oft as they shall be trespassed against § 9. Fourthly Throughly as without excepting so without remembring any offence God excepteth not any of our sins when he affordeth us pardoning grace 1 Jo◠1. 9. But if we confess he is faithfull just to forgive us our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Should he reserve but one unforgiven that one would sink our souls to hell It is our duty to imitate him herein Forgive saith Christ if ye have ought against any Whoever the person Mark 11. 25. and whatever the thing be you must forgive One of the Evangelists setteth down the petition thus in our Saviours form of prayer Forgive us our Luke 11. 4. sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us It must then be performed without excepting any either person or essence As also without remembring any God doth so forgive our sins as not to keep a register of them I even I am he saith the Lord that blotteth Isai 43. 25. out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Yet with us what more frequent then saying I forgive such a man such a wrong but shall never forget it or him A distinction that came not out of Christs school but Satans mint Paul was of a different spirit witness that remarkable passage of his to the Galatians Brethren I beseech you be as I am for I am Galat. 4. 12. Vide Bezam Grotium in loc as ye are ye have not injured me at all Where he seemeth to desire that every member of the Church in Galatia would be to him as an Alter ego another self seeing he was affected as another self to each of them But had they not injured him yes very much in preferring the false Apostles before him questioning his doctrine yea becoming his enemies and that for telling them the truth yet behold him professing here Ye have not injured me at all because these wrongs were as no wrongs in his estimation it was not his purpose to impute them he speaks as one that had really forgotten them by reason of his resolution to forgive them There is I confess a kinde of remembrance not inconsistent with true forgiveness when prudent men remember offences and offenders in cautelam so as to beware for the future of exposing themselves to the like injuries But Christians ought not to remember in vindictam so as to revenge themselves upon the delinquents for wrongs done in time past I say to revenge for otherwise a Christian may Exerc. 5. seek to right himself in a legal way yea and to bring offenders to condign punishment still retaining a charitable minde towards them even as God though he have forgiven justified persons may notwithstanding and often doth chastise them with his fatherly corrections EXERCITATION 5. The latter clauses of Exod. 34. 7. so translated and expounded as to contain an eighth branch of divine goodness viz. Clemency in correcting Equity in visiting iniquities of the fathers upon the children Clemency in stopping at the third and fourth generation A lesson for Magistrates A speech of our Q. Elisabeth Gods proclamation in Exod. 34. Improved by Moses in Numb 14. § 1. THe following clauses have somewhat more of difficulty in them then any of the former as being variously rendered and expounded by Interpreters The most reade as we do That will by no means clear the guilty visiting c. But amongst these that do agree in the translation there is some difference about the meaning of the words The major part of that combination apply them wholly to the Justice of God in taking vengeance upon obstinate sinners Some few whereof Mr Ainsworth is one respecting the scope of the whole context which is to set forth the Goodness of God consider this
Spiritus Dei stultificaverit Then and there onely will our doctrine of predestination have a sweet rellish when and where the Spirit of God shall have befooled the conceits of wicked reason That which Paul celebrateth as the true cause of our election is 1. The good pleasure of Gods will according 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which he disposeth both of persons and things arbitrarily as himself liketh best And in this our reason would better acquiesce were it throughly defecated by grace That of Christ which never had any corruption in it fully did as appeareth by that famous address of his to God the father I thank thee O father Matth. 11. 55. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 2. The counsel of his will Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God may be truly said to act arbitrarily yet he never doth any thing unadvisedly but according to the counsel of his will which is always rational though our shallow reason in this state of degeneracy and mortality be not able to fathome the depth of its contrivements and thereupon ready to cavil at and call in question the equity of them Such as do so if any such shall cast an eye upon these papers must give me leave to say unto them as one of our ancient writers did to their forefathers The Apostle saith he having discoursed of these mysteries acknowledgeth Hieron in epistola ad Ctesiphontem their depth and adoreeth the wisdome of God in them Dignare tu ista nescire Concede Deo potentiam sui Nequaquam te indiget defensore Be thou also willing to be ignorant of such things Leave God himself in the modelling of his decrees and dispensations He will be sure to do it so as not to stand in need of any apology or defence of thine To which let me add a saying of Luther and with it conclude Tu Ratio stulta es non sapis quae sunt Dei. Itaque nè obstrepas mihi sed taâ—e non judica sed audi verbum Dei 〈◊〉 this Exercitation Reason saith he thou art a fool and dost not understand the matters of God Wherefore be not obstreperous but hold thy prating make not thy self a judge of these things but attend to the word of God and beleeve EXERCITATION 2. Preterition described The term defended Ephes 1. 4. compared with Revel 17. 8. Ephes 1. 9. and Rom. 9. 13. expounded God not bound to any creature except by promise The parable in Matth. 20. urged The three consequents of negative reprobation Dr Davenants Animadversions against Mr Hoards book recommended The goodness of God manifested in Election as in a most free peculiar ancient leading and standing favour § 1. HAving so fully discoursed of Election by which the Decree of preterition is to be measured there will be less need of enlarging much upon that Take onely this description of it after a brief explication whereof I intend if God will to proceed unto other concernments Preterition or negative Reprobation is an eternal decree of God purposing within himself to deny unto the Non-elect Exerc. 2. that peculiar love of his wherewith election is accoÌ„panied as also that special grace which infallibly bringeth to glory Of which negations permission of sin obduration in sin and damnation for sin are direct consequents This description carries in the face of it a clear reason why the thing described goeth under the name of Negative reprobation because it standeth mainly in the denial of those free favours which it pleaseth God to bestow upon his elect As for the term of preterition we neither are nor ought to be ashamed thereof however some bold writers have jeered it because it is very significant and hath been made use of by their betters Prosper by name and that both in verse and in prose For in one of his Poems he recordeth this as a Pelagian tenent Quòd gratia Christi Nullum omnino hominem de cunctis qui generantur Praetereat That of all mankinde the Grace of Christ passeth by none And in his Treatise de Vocatione Gentium he beginneth the thirteenth chapter of his first book with this saying Quòd si aliquos Salvantis gratia praeterierit c. If saving grace have passed by any it is to be referred to the unsearchable judgements of God and those ways of his which are past finding out by us in this life This premised let us take a transient view of the chief particulars in the description § 2. It is First an eternal decree coeternal with that of election for the very choosing of some to salvation implieth a passing by of such as were not chosen Let the Reader compare that passage in Ephes 1. 4. He hath chosen Agnoscendum est secreti hujus profunditatem nobis in hac vita patere non posse us before the foundation of the world with that parenthesis Rev. 17. 8. whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world Secondly a decree which God purposed in himself We reade in one place of the purpose of God according to Election and in another of Gods good pleasure Rom. 9. 11. Ephes 1. 9. Deus in negatio praedest nationis non egreditur extra sâ—ipsum Institut l. 3. cap. 22. which he hath purposed in himself The like may be said of preterition His good pleasure is the sole fountain of both The root of both is within himself and not in any thing without him as hath been well observed by Calvin Thirdly the eternal purpose of God was to deny the Non-elect that peculiar love wherewith his election is accompanied in which respect he is said to hate them Jacob have I loved but Esau Rom. 9. 13. have I hated A term by which some Divines are willing to understand no more then his not being willing to bestow everlasting happiness upon them because Hatred in Scripture is often put to signifie a less degree of Love We may not beleeve that Leah was odious to her husband yet the text saith God saw that Leah was hated which is certainly to be expounded out of the verse foregoing where it is said of Jacob that he loved Rachel more Gen. 29. 30 31. then Leah He loved Leah perhaps less then he ought surely less then he did her sister and in that respect is said to have hated her That to the Romanes concerning Esau some interpret in proportion to what is there said concerning Leah and among the rest Aquinas God saith he loveth all men In quantum quibusdam non vult hoc bonum quod est vita aterna dicitur eos habere odio vel reprobare Tho. part 1. qu. 23. art 3. ad â— um in as much as he willeth some good to all but in as