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
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
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
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
person of Esau who did never servilely submit to Jacob I answer 1. He that should go about to prove that negative would finde an hard task but suppose it proved yet in point of right Esau as having sold his birth-right became servant to him that bought it For in this respect it is said to Cain the elder brother concerning Abel Unto thee shall Gen. 4. 7. be his desire and thou shalt rule over him 2. In point of fact time was when Esau became a very humble suppliant to Jacob for a mess of pottage Feed me I pray thee with that same red pottage for Gen. 25. 30. I am faint Now The borrower saith Solomon is a servant to the lender How Prov. 22. 7. much more he that craves to him that giveth Besides if the word serve be taken in a large sense Esau served Jacob wel-nigh all his life long and brought him much nearer to God by vexing him Non obsequendo sed persequendo as one saith not by obeying but by opposing Which put me in minde of that story in Bromiardus concerning an apprentice that had served an hard master by whom he had been often sore beaten These blows the Lord had made a means of the mans conversion whereupon lying upon his death bed and his master standing by catched fast hold on his hands and kissed them saying Hae manus perduxerunt me ad paradisum These hands have helped to bring me to heaven 3. The Patriarchal capacity doth not exclude but comprehend the Personal for Jacob and his Israeliâ—es Esau and his Edomites make a Nation In which respect when David put garrisons in Edom 2 Sâ—m 〈◊〉 14. throughout all Edom put he garrisons and all they of Edom became Davids servants Esau himself in his off-spring might not unfitly be said to have served Jacob in his Lastly If no more can be had then this bare acknowledgement that our exposition must be confined to their posterity even that will go nigh to serve our turn and to suit with the Apostles scope if it be considered how exceeding fit the Israelites were to typify election of whom God said Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God and the Deut. 14. 2. Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are on the earth The Edomites to figure out reprobates seeing of them it is said by the Prophet They shall call them Malac 1. 4. the border of wickednes and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever § 7. 11. By resolving certain queries The first whereof is that in verse 14. What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Had the doctrine of predestination which Paul taught been the same with that of our modern Remonstrants viz. God's electing upon foresight of mens being in Christ by faith and reprobating upon foresight of their final unbelief and impenitencie there would then have been no occasion for the quere for reason how corrupt soever would soon have closed with the equity of such decrees to render par pari like to like It is God's awarding paribus imparia unlike destinies to men of like conditions considered in the same lump and doing this arbitrarily according to the good pleasure and counsel of his own will that setteth it on crying out of iniquity in Gods proceedings But what doth Paul answer He abhorreth the thoughts of such a thing God forbid it is as if he had said far be it from every one that pretends to a rational being much more then every Christian to entertain the least thought of a possibility of injustice in any decree of God whose will is the supreme rule of righteousness The judgements of God as Austin hath said truly of them can neither be fully Dei judicia nemo plenè comprechendit nemo justè reprehendit August de Civiâ— Dâ—i lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 2â— Isaaci Junii Antapologia in paraenes ad Remonstrantâ—s pag. â—1 2 Freti axiomatibâ—s rationis obliquâ— distortâ—e Revocatis omnâ—â— Dei consilia sub humanam incudem c. comprehended nor justly reprehended of any Let me desire such as are so very apt to be cavilling at them to swallow and digest by a serious consideration those admonitions and reproofs which a late Belgick Contra-remonstrant hath handed to their fellows Calceati Deum aditis c. You draw near saith he with shoes on your feet to him that dwelleth in an unaccessible light and presuming upon certain Axiomes of crooked and distorted reason pass sentence upon the decrees of God we blame you in this regard especially for intruding your selves into things which ye have not seen and giving answers about the secrets of heaven with so much confidence as if ye sate at Gods counsel-table You examine his counsels by the rules of humane proceedings and if any thing concur that suits not with your preconceived opinions about free-will expunge it quite out of the number of Gods designs as unworthy of him Yea Our Apostle not content with a bare expression of abhorrency goes on to free the decrees of God from all iniquity each by it self Election because it is an act of mear bounty free grace in performing whereof God cannot possibly be unjust as being under no law but at absolute liberty to dispose of his free undeserved favours according to the good pleasure and counsel of his own will to which purpose that is cited out of Exodus 15. For he saith to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion and that inferred v. 16. So then it that is the the purpose of God according to election of which before v. 11. is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy As for reprobation rightly stated no iniquity will be found therein if the grand laws of the universe be duly heeded which is that all creatures be subservient to their makers glory according to the proverb The Lord hath Pâ—ov 16. 4. made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Seeing the end of reprobating any is mainly this that God may thereby be exalted as Paul tel's us here v. 17. in the instance of Pharaoh For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth § 8. The nex Querie is that in v. 19. Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth â—e yet finde â—ault for who hath resisted his will He had said concerning God in the words immediately foregoing He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Corrupt nature catching at the latter clause is ready to impute unto God himself as injustice before so from hence rigour and cruelty for that notwithstanding his own
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
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
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.
also as relating to that His words are these This his Justice upon the wicked is a part of his goodness towards his people as it is said The just shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance He Psalm 58. 11. shall wash his feet in the bloud of the wicked A gloss that may receive confirmation from certain passages in Psalm one hundred thirty six Where the destruction of opposite Princes is recorded as an evidence of Gods mercy to his Church He slew famous kings for his mercy endureth for ever Sihon king of the Amorites for his mercy endureth for ever And Og the king of Bashan for his Psal 136. v. 18 19 20. mercy endureth for ever As also from that in the first of Nahum The Lord is good a Nahum 1. 7 8. strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him But with an overflowing floud he will make an utter end of the place thereof that is the oppressing city Niniveh and darkness shall pursue his enemies § 2. But the learned Critick Ludovicus de Dieu considering that in other places by name Zechar. 5. 3. the word Nakah signifieth to make void and to cut off by altering the translation of these words puts them into a posture of looking directly at the goodness of God and not with an oblique glance He renders them thus Evacuating cutting Evacuando non evacuabit succidendo non succidet Lud. de Dieu Animadvers in Exod. pag. 81 82. off or destroying he will not evacuate cut off or destroy visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation making this the sense So great is Gods goodness that even when he is angry and punisheth yet he will not utterly overthrow He visiteth indeed the sins of the fathers upon the children but it is to the third and fourth generation onely not for ever Now according to this interpretation which for ought I know may well be received the expressions import an eighth branch of divine goodness to wit Clemency in correcting here set forth by a generall declaration and by a particular instance First by a generall declaration in these words VENAKKEH LO IENAKKEH destroying he will not destroy that is not altogether not so destroy as to make a full end according to the expression in Jeremy Thus in like forms of Jerem. 46. 28. speech Delivering thou hast not delivered that is say our Translatours Neither hast thou delivered this people at all Redeeming he cannot redeem that is say they None of them can by any means Exod. 5. 22. Psal 49. 7. redeem his brother Proportionably here Destroying he will not destroy that is God wil not at all he wil not by any means utterly destroy his people however he may correct and chasten for some time Suitable whereunto is that in Amos his Prophesie Behold the eyes of the Lord God Amos 9. 8. are upon the sinfull kingdome and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord. § 3. This sense is exceedingly favoured by a parallel place in Jeremy I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee Jer. 30. 11. Though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure Then followeth VENAKKEH LO ANAKKECA which Pagnin rendereth And destroying I will not destroy thee It may further and yet more strongly be confirmed by a passage in the fourteenth of Numbers The hand of faith having once fastned upon God will not readily let go his hold Moses had taken fast hold of that discovery which the Lord was pleased to make of himself in this place of Exodus and accordingly upon occasion improveth it by pleading with him for Israels preservation from a totall ruine which was then deserved and threatned making use to that end of those very terms the discovery was made in and among others of those now under debate as most argumentative in the sense contended for It is as if he had said Wilt thou O Lord Numb 14. 17 18. bring an utter destruction upon this whole people What shall then become of that goodness of thine which it pleased thee to proclaim to thy servant in Sinai If thou beest resolved to punish them yet remember what thou hast said Destryoing he will not destroy If their iniquities must be visited upon their children O let it not be for ever Lord but onely to the third and fourth generation as thou hast spoken Whereas from the words in that other sense which is commonly received Moses could not possibly have drawn so strong a plea. For if God will by no means clear the guilty all Israel having at that time contracted a deep and deadly guilt what inference could be made from thence but that all Israel were of necessity to perish § 4. Secondly by a particular instance contained in the last clause Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and fourth generation For the cleerer explication whereof it will be requisite to demonstrate that God in so doing exerciseth both equity and clemency lest either should be doubted of Concerning the former Although by an express law Magistrates Deut. 24. 16. compared with 2 Kings 14. 6. Vide Grotium de jure belli pacis lib. 2. cap. 21. §. 14. be forbidden to put children to death for their parents sins yet God who is authour of life and death hath reserved to himself a liberty of so doing whensoever it pleaseth him by reason of his supreme dominion over all and therefore for him to inflict inferiour temporal punishments in that case cannot but be accounted just The rather if we take into consideration that children may be accounted part of the parents themselves for as a mans wife is himself divided so his children are himself multiplied However they are undoubtedly part of their parents goods and so esteemed When God had once said concerning Job Behold Job 1. 12. all that he hath is in thy power Satan by vertue of that Commission slew not his cattel and servants onely but his sons and daughters And when he had determined concerning Achan Let Josua 7. 15 24 25. him and all that he hath be burnt with fire the Israelites in obedience to that command burnt his children together with his other substance § 5. As to the latter Gods visiting on this wise will be found an act of clemency as well as of equity if it be considered First That it is but to the third and fourth generation not to all generations and for ever according to the Psalmists expostulation Wilt thou be angry Psal 85. 5. with us for ever wilt thou draw out shine anger to all generations Not to do thus is mercy witness that in
deceived Rev. 20. 10. them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever § 3. Thirdly Deep things of God of the divine Essence and Will concerning which the Apostle saith The 1 Cor. 2. 10. Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Things which the clearest understandings of men and Angels entertain with amazement we cannot but bewray our balbutiencie when we treat of One in Three and Three in one such a mysterious gulf is the Trinitie so when we discourse either of the Personal Union or the Theandrical acts of Christ And no wonder seeing we meet with such secrets and depths even in Gods revealed Will The greatest divines have acknowledged many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things hard to be understood yea diverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knots that cannot be untied till there either come further light into this world or we be translated into a better Such as every modest christian will be readie to say of as the learned Cajetan did concerning the reason of that difference which in the Hebrew Text is observable betwixt the title of Psalm 121. and those other Psalms of Degrees Reservo Spiritui Sancto I reserve the solution of this and that doubt to the holy Spirit For to him and the other Divine Persons such things are no riddles though to us they be dark and Enigmatical yea perhaps unsearchable Although we ever and anon meet with cause of crying out as Saint Paul once did How unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. are his judgements and his waies past finding out Let us alwaies remember and believe that of St. James known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the Act. 15. 18. world § 4. Well may the prudent consideration of what hath been said concerning the depth of Divine Omniscience put the wisest of men in minde of their Nescience keep them from leaning to their own understandings and give them just occasion to think of an answer to Zophars question What canst thou know If the secrets of nature do so puzzle thee what canst thou know concerning those much greater secrets of grace and glory of which Luther Quid si philosophia haec non capit fides tamen capit major est verbi Dei authoritas quam nostri ingenii capacitas major Sp. Sanctus quà m Aristoteles Luther de captivit Babylonicâ— Psal 147. 5. very excellently Philosophy receives them not faith doth The authority of Scripture is greater by far then the capacity of our wit and the Holy Ghost then Aristotle Well may the depth of Divine understanding which the Psalmist saith is infinite Great is the Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite cause us to reflect upon the shallowness the finiteness yea the folly of our own For if the foolishness of God be wiser then men as the Apostle telleth us it is 1 Cor. 1. 25. what is his wisdome Add if the wisdome of this world be foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3. 19. what is its folly No wonder if one learned man wrote a book of the vanity Cornel. Agrip. of Sciences others of the Nullity Anton. Verderius Franc. Zanch. M. D. Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio Socrates Quo magis studiis incumbimus eò magis nos videre quà m nihil scimus Ap. Jo. Bevoricium Epist quaest p. 86. Quod nihil scitur If the wise heathen profest the onely thing he knew was this that he knew not any thing at all If Frier Paul of Venice the judicious author of that excellent history of the Councel of Trent was wont to say The more we studie the more we see how little or nothing we understand yea if more knowing men then any of these abounded in acknowledgements of their own ignorance Asaph So foolish was I and ignorant Psal 73. 22 Prov. 30. 23. I was as a beast before thee Agur Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy So true is that of our great Apostle If any man think that he knows any thing he 1 Cor. 8. 2. knows nothing yet as he ought to know § 5. Next followeth the third dimension which is Longitude in this expression The measure thereof is longer then the earth For the better stating whereof let it be considered that whereas the word here translated Measure relateth not to extension onely but also to duration and the earth hath a double longitude one of space the other of continuance which the Scripture taketh special notice of in other texts as in that of Ecclesiastes One generation Eccles 1. 4. passeth away and another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever I conceive the latter may here be alluded to viz. the earths long continuance as in some low proportion fit to resemble that everlasting duration of God which cannot be adequately represented by any creature Sure I am by the Ancient of days in Daniel the eternal Dan. 7. 9 13. Jehovah is described by length of Prov. 3. 16. days in wisdomes right hand of which in the Proverbs many Interpreters understand the blessings of Eternity And this very place of Job is expounded by Gregory in this sense His words are Terrâ longior quia creaturae modum perennitate Greg. Moral lib. 10. cap. 7. suae Aeternitatis excedit All creatures had an original all but some few shall have a dissolution Of the Creatour and of him onely is that of the Psalmist verified From everlasting Psal 90. 2. to everlasting thou art God He gave beginning Principium sine pâ—incipio finis sine sine to all things but was himself without a beginning is the end for which all things were made but himself without end The best of men alas are but of yesterday and know not where they shall be to morrow according to that of Bildad We are but Job 8. 9. of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a shadow His being God from everlasting to everlasting should encourage us to walk in the way everlasting having this everlasting consolation Psal 139. last 2 Thess 2. 16. and good hope through grace that he will save us with an everlasting salvation because he wanteth neither power to Isa 45. 17. effect it for his strength is everlasting Isa 26. 4. nor will for his mercy is so too as David testifieth The mercy of the Lord is Psal 103. 17. from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him § 6. The more to blame were some overweening sons of Adam for daring to assume unto themselves and ascribe to other persons and things this incommunicable perfection of God Of old the heathenish people of Rome were wont to style their Emperours yea and their city Eternal Concerning
much as he doth not will to all men the chief good viz. eternal life he is said to hate and to reprobate them § 3. Fourthly His purpose was to deny unto the non-elect that special grace which brings infallibly to glory those whom God bestows it upon No creature can challenge effectual grace at the hands of God as a due debt either to his nature or to his labour There be many that speak and write of God sawcily as if he were bound to give this and that and the other grace even where they can produce no promise by which he hath made himself a debtour I cannot but commend the zeal of Peter Lombard against such men To me saith he this word Vt mihi videtur hoc verbum Debet venenum habet nec Deo proprie competit qui non est debito◠nobis nisi forte ex promisso Lib. 1. sententiarum Dist 43. He ought or he is bound seems to have much poyson in it and cannot be properly applied to God who is no debtour to us save onely in those cases wherein he hath passed some promise Sure I am our Saviour telleth his Disciples plainly It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven but to them it is not given Matth. 13. 11. And the housholder in the Parable stops the mouths of those murmurers that repined as expecting more from him then it was his pleasure to give with the sole consideration of its being his will to have it so Friend I do thee no wrong Take what is Matth. 20. v. 10 13 14 15. thine I will give to this last even as unto thee Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine own Fifthly The consequents of the forementioned denials are 1. Permission of sin particularly of unbelief John 10. 46. Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep 2. Obduration in sin Romans 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 3. Condemnation for sin Revel 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire This last is that which by Divines is usually styled Positive Reprobation and is clearly distinguishable from the Negative in that the one is an act of punitive justice respecting sin committed and continued in But the other an absolute decree of Gods most free and Sovereign Will without respect to any disposition in the creature I call them consequents not effects because though Negative Reprobation be antecedent to them all it is not the proper cause of them This difference between the decrees Aquinas long since took notice of Election saith he Thom. part 1. quaest 23. Artic 3. ad ◠um is a proper cause both of that glory which the Elect look for hereafter and of that grace which here they enjoy Whereas Reprobation is not the cause of the present sins of the non-elect though it be of Gods forsaking them but their sin proceeds from the parties themselves so passed by and forsaken But I am under a promise of brevity and therefore shall add no more but onely advise the English Reader who is desirous of further information in these deep points to procure and peruse that excellent piece of the profound Doctor Davenant printed at Cambridge Ann. 1641. under this Title Animadversions written by the right Reverend John Bishop of Salisbury upon a Treatise intituled Gods love to mankinde where he will not onely meet with the doctrine of Predestination modestly handled but also with ample satisfaction to most of those wicked cavils which flesh and bloud have been wont to suggest against it § 4. Having thus finished that preamble which the daring Heterodoxie of some modern writers put me upon a necessity of I proceed to the making good of two Assertions tending to cleare the former part of our present Aphorisme viz. That the Goodness of God is abundantly manifested in his Decree of our Election and his Greatness no less in that of Preterition In order to a demonstration of the former I desire to have it considered how free how peculiar how ancient how leading how lasting a favour Election is First A free favour It is therefore called Election of Grace and spoken of Roman 11. 5. as tending to the praise of the glorie of free grace The Lambs book of life Ephes 1. 6. so named because the Lamb Jesus stands there inrolled in the head of it as the head of all the Elect and the Captain of that salvation whereunto they are chosen is a book of love Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved Ma◠12. 18. in whom my soul is well pleased It was so said of Christ and may be applied to all the Elect in their measure Hence Paul stileth his Thessalonians Brethren beloved of the Lord because God had chosen 2 Thess 2. 13. them to salvation and God expresseth the Election of Jacob by Jacob have I loved to shew that free love on Gods part is the fountain of this favour We love persons or things because they are lovely God loveth them first after makes them lovely then loves them more for being so The cause of our love is in the objects of Gods in himself we are predestinated aster the Ephes 1. 11. counsel of his own will not after the good inclinations of ours Secondly A peculiar favour Rarity much enhaunceth a benefit Immunities and priviledges are therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Privilegium gaudet paucitate much valued and stood upon because they are not common to many and are therefore more rejoyced in because but few partake of them There were but eight persons saved from the Deluge of waters in Noahs time who is accordingly said to have fround grace in Gen. 6. 8. the eyes of the Lord in that he and his were preserved when all the world beside perished And in regard the Deluge of fire that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah swept away all the other inhabitants but Lot onely and his nearest relations were exempted from it God is said to have magnified his mercy toward them as Lot acknowledged saying Behold thy servant hath found Gen. 19. 19. grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercie which thou hast shewed unto me We should all have perished in the Deluge of fiery indignation had not God elected some few whom he hath not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation by 1 Thess 5. 9. our Lord Jesus Christ. They are but few as Scripture tels us again and again Many are called but few chosen Mat 20. 16. 22. 14. The goodness of God is therefore to be more acknowledged in so peculiar a favour § 5. 3ly An ancient favour Old things if evil are so much the worse for that Old leaven is to be purged out and the 1 Cor. 5. 7. Ephes 4. 21. old man to be put off But every
Glosses and strained Paraphrases have endeavoured to carry the sense quite another way against the poyson of whose endeavours our people may perhaps stand in need of an Antidote It shall be my care by Divine assistance which is alwaies needfull especially in the debating of such mysteries to present them with one and in as calm a way as may be without provoking however without reproching such as are contrary minded to demonstrate these two Conclusions viz. That Paul in the ninth to the Romans doth upon occasion propound and prosecute the doctrine of Predestination And that he plainly derives the Decree of Preterition from the Sovereign greatness of God But before we enter upon so great a depth which I do with fear and trembling let it be observed that our Apostle from the end of the eight to the beginning of his twelfth chapter continues a profound complicate discourse wholly about the main concernments of his countreymen the Jews and that the best help we have for enlightening certain clauses in the ninth ought to be feâ—ched from passages in the tenth and eleventh Chapters the neglect whereof I verily think hath occasioned the miscarriages of so many in their interpretations of that Scripture I shall hope to improve the Observation to good purpose § 2. Concerning the former of our Conclusions there will be no need of going far to seek the occasion of Pauls falling upon this Doctrine He had carefully and continually preached faith in Christ as the onely way of salvation in opposition to all others This however embraced by divers Gentiles could by no means finde entertainment with the Jews Be pleased to compare Chapter 9. 31 32 33. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not obtained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone As it is written Behold I lay in Sâ—on a stumbling-stone and rock of offence and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed with Chapter tenth verse 2 3 4. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submited themselves to the righteousness of God For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth This their stumbling at Christ as they generally did caused a great stumble in the thoughts of considering men who could not but stand amazed to see that whereas God had set up but one onely way to be laid hold upon for the attainment of blessedness his own onely people in the eye of the world should almost universally decline that and venture their souls upon another Yet this they did even they who are here so magnificently described Chapter 9. verse 4 5. Who were Israelites to whom pertained the Adoption and the glorie and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises Whose were the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen Hereupon some were apt to crie out All is undone The word of God it self hath taken no effect The Promise to Abraham is fallen to the ground All Sermons and other Ordinances have been but a sso much rain upon rocks that glides off and leaves no impression Our Apostle to recover them out of these dumps leads them by degrees into the knowledge of Divine Predestination as the root of all this giving them first to understand that all who bore the name of Israelites and enjoyed the Ordinances were not indeed such children of God as belonged to the Election of grace and therefore did not close with Christ in the use of them as some few did upon whom the word of grace weas effectual and in whom as few as they were Gods promise to Abraham was preserved As for those unto whom his Gospel was hid they were as he elsewhere tels the Corinthians a sort of lost men and women 2 Cor. 4. 〈◊〉 For this see Chapter 9. verse 6 7 8. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect For they are not all Israel which are of Israel Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children But in Isaac shall thy seed be called That is They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Where the Elect people of God who onely are accounted the spirituall seed and who onely in the conclusion will concur to constitute Christ Mystical are styled children of the Promise perhaps in reference to that grace and Promise of eternal life given to them in Christ Jesus before the world began to which I have spoken before in this Aphorisme Exercitation the first Paragraph the third however in allusion to the birth of Isaac who was produced above the power of nature by vertue of a promise declaring Gods will and pleasure to have it so for the Elect in the respective hours of their conversion are all of them born again John 1. 13. not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Who of his James 1. 18. own will begetteth them with the word of truth that they should be a kinde of first-fruits of his creatures § 3. Having thus given a more obscure intimation of some few elect ones complying with the Gospel although most part of the Jews were recusants as to that interest he goeth on to profess it more openly in the beginning of the eleventh chapter God hath not cast away his people which â—e foreknew verse the second the infallible meaning whereof may be gathered from that in Peter Elect according to the 1 Pet. 1. 2. foreknowledge of God the Father And more plainly yet in verse the seventh and eighth of the same chapter The Election hath obtained and the rest were blinded According as it is written God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day But to return to our ninth chapter Who can advisedly reade that passage in his discourse about Jacob and Esau That the purpose of God according to Election might stand and consult the circumstances of of it viz. the childrens not yet being born nor having done good or evil as also a choice no way founded upon him that willeth or upon him that runneth but upon God alone who sheweth mercy and not reflect upon that election by me described in the first Exercitation under this Aphorisme § 2. Add hereunto those Apostolical distributions of men into those on whom the Lord will have mercy and those whom he will harden in verse the eighteenth that is in other terms Elect and Reprobate Also into vessels of mercy and vessels of
4. Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat That is Some bitter thing from midst of sweetness breeds And that which vexeth from the flowers proceeds § 4. This God doth for divers good ends and purposes As first to manifest his wisdome in compounding passages of Providence so as one shall qualifie another prosperity allay the sowreness of adversitie this asswage the swellings of that As the painters skill appears in tempering bright colours and dark shadows the cooks in mingling sweet tart ingredients the musicians in raising harmony out of discords Oratours in making up curious Librat in Antithetis sentences by a fit opposition of contrarieties II. To magnifie his goodness The frame of our spirits is such that if prosperitie were continued without interruption we should be apt to swell and presume if adversitie without intermission to sinck and despair Our weakness such that we should never give a due estimate to blessings were we not sometimes taught by experience what it is to be under pressures We learn by sickness to prize health by restraint to value libertie A calm is much more pleasing to us after a tempest and the shining forth of the Sun after an elipse It is therefore an act of much mercy in God thus to intermingle favours crosses lest by a constant course of the former we should grow wanton and effeminate or by continuance of the latter sottish and stupid III. To keep up and maintain his respect in the world God will be known to be the Sovereign Lord of all persons and things the great disposer of all affairs in such a way as seemeth best to himfelf therefore gives out blessings and crosses interchangeably so as man shall be at no certainty what to expect but live in a constant dependance on him who keeps the disposal of prosperity and adversity in his own hands to the end that man should finde nothing certain but this that there is a great uncertainty of future events Wherefore § 5. First take notice from hence what we are to look for in our pilgrimage here viz. vicissitudes and changes from one condition into another If Solomon had no where said There is a time to weep and a time to laugh experience Eccles 3. 4. would soon have forced us to acknowledge that our whole course is chequered with prosperity and adversitie that most of a Christians drink in this life is Oxymel most of his food Bitter-sweets Whilest Israel marched throughout the wilderness the blackest night had a pillar of fire and brightest day a pillar of cloud so in this world things never go so well with the Israel of God but that they groan under some affliction never so ill but that they have some comfort afforded them Secondly Learn to maintain in our selves a mixture of affections suitable to this mixture of Divine dispensations Rejoyce with trembling Leaven and Honey were both excluded under the Psal 2. 11. Levit. 2. 11. Law from offering by fire Leaven for its excessive soureness Honey for its excessive sweetness To shew saith Ainsworth that in Saints there should neither be extremity of grief nor of pleasure but a mediocrity We should be carefull in time of prosperity to fear affliction with a fear of expectation though not of amazement with such a fear as may cause preparation but no discouragement Look at a very fair day as that which may prove a weather-breeder and usher in storms On the other side in time of adversity hope for refreshment The Psalmist did so Psal 42. 7. 8. Nemo considat nimiùm secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Sen. Trag. All thy waves are gone over me yet the Lord will command his loving-kindeness Thirdly Observe the difference that is between this present and that other world Dying Aristotle is reported to have said I rejoyce that I am now going out of a world of contraries This indeed is so But that which dying men go into is without such mixture All tears shall be wiped from the Saints eyes impenitent sinners shall have judgement without mercy Briefly in this militant Church as in the Ark of old There is a rod and a pot of manna Here upon earth we have little Manna without some rods little welfare without some sharp affliction few Rods without some Manna not many afflictions without some measure of consolation whereas in Heaven there is nothing but Manna in Hell nothing but Rods or Scorpions rather § 6. IV. Keep we our selves in a frame of cheerfulness that we may be alwaies prepared in the day of prosperity to rejoyce This will appear a duty which we are bound to I. Because God doth not onely approve and like it He loveth a cheerfull giver so a cheerfull thanks-giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. and worshipper Nehemiah was afraid Nehem. 2. 2. to be seen sad in the kings presence Mordechai durst not go into the court gates with his sack-cloth on dejected Esther 4. 2. looks and the sack-cloth of an uncheerfull carriage do ill become the servant of the king the followers of the court of heaven But also require and command it Serve the Lord with gladness Psal 10◠2. The Jews of old were commanded to rejoyce in their solemn feasts Deut. 16. 14. 15. which were accordingly to be kept in the most cheerfull seasons The Pass-over at the first ripening of corn Pentecost at the first reaping and the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of Harvest II. Because Jesus Christ was anoynted to give us the oyl of joy for mourning Isa 61. 3. and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness He himself indeed was anoynted with the oyl of gladness above his fellows but such as are received into fellowship with him should and shall if the fault be not in themselves partake with him in some degree of the same unction III. Because the Spirit of Christ is a spirit of cheerfulness His two first fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22. are Love and Joy Yea when it is said Grieve not Ephes 4. 30. Sanctam hilaritatem admitte Nè quis nimio moerore magnum illum hospitem ossendat Heins in locum the holy spirit of God Heinsius thinketh this to be part of the meaning Be cheerfull after an holy manner Let none offend that great guest the spirit of God by overmuch sadness And Drusius telleth us in the Preface to his Praeterita of an usual saying among the Hebrews Spiritum sanctum non residere super hominem moestum that the holy Ghost is not wont to reside upon a sad-spirited man IV. Because our adversary the Devil being a melancholy spirit himself delighteth in our sadness The prince of darkness loves to see the servants of God in a dark condition He is gratified and gets advantage by our uncheerfulness Therefore Paul writeth to his Corinthians concerning the incestuous person that upon his repentance they would comfort him and prevent