from sin that is Albeit he was not from his Creation either by nature or by supernaturall endowment utterly impeccable yet by the assistance and benignity of his Gratious Creator he might have attained unto such a perpetuall estate or immunity from falling into sin 4. The question about merit of works no way concerns the First man in his primaeval Estate Suppose he had preserved or imployed the Talent concredited unto him at his first creation aright should the superaddition or crowning of his First Estate with perseverance have been a meer gift of grace or rather a kinde of merit This is a Question not very pertinently moved by some Schoole-men and the Contradictory to their determination more inconsiderately maintained by some modern Disputants or Logical Criticks For seeing Adam received that great Talent concredited to him in his creation not absolutely or to use it as he pleased but at his perill or under express penalty that if he misimployed it or contemned his Commandement which bestowed it upon him he should dye the death it is no way improbable that if he had improved his Talent for some competent time that the state wherein he was created should have been hereditary to him and his not by such free Grace as is bestowed upon us under the Gospell but by way of Merit de congruo though not according to Commutative yet to Distributive Justice rather then by meere Mercy or benignity But this opinion I vent not with any intention to move or abett disputes or controversies already moved about this curious Question but rather to perswade the Reader that all questions concerning the Merits of works or of perseverance in that Grace by which all good works are wrought must be reduced or confined to the estate or condition of mankinde since Adams Fall Of which Question thus stated or limited I shall I hope be able to give the Reader or any that will soberly dispute or conferr with me in it better satisfaction Vivâ voce then this Treatise without digression will permit me to do The principall Points in it or which I had in my thoughts either to prosecute or propose The First man was neither necessitated to continue good nor to become Evil. are these following First That albeit the First man were by vertue of Creation righteous and just yet were neither his perseverance or non-perseverance in this righteousnesse absolutely necessary both of them possible That both were possible hath been declared at Large before in the sixth book of Commentaries upon the Creed In the 2 Part 2 Sect. Chap. 13. c. of the Attributes unto which I referr the Ingenuous Reader where he may finde this proposition as I take it demonstrated That to decree or appoint a mutual or reciprocal Possibility between our First Parents perseverance or non-perseverance was Facible to the Omnipotent Creator because it neither implies nor presupposeth any Contradiction in Terminis And whatsoever effect or praenotion answerable unto it implies no Contradiction either in it self or to the Goodnesse of the Divine Nature or Deity is Facible by Power Omnipotent that is The Almighty Creator might have decreed or yet may decree it when he pleaseth The Second Principle or supposition in this place to be handled is Whether the Almighty Creator did de Facto decree or ordain that neither the Perseverance or non-perseverance of the First Man or of our First Parents should be absolutely Necessary but contingent Or in other terms thus That the Estate or condition wherein they were created might have continued to this day for them and their successors undefeatable That their Perseverance or the perseverance of their Posterity in the state of Righteousnesse wherein they were created was not necessary by any Divine Ordinance or decree is clear from the Event because the First man and the First woman did fall de Facto from that Estate wherein they were created which neither of them could have done if their First Estate had been by vertue of the Almighties Decree or any ordinance from him Immutable or absolutely Necessary But can it be as strongly proved That the fall of our first Parents or their eating of the Forbidden Fruit did not proceed from any necessitating Decree or undefeatable contrivance of the Almightie Creators Wisdom To perswade men which have not their senses exercised in points of Logical or Scholastick disputes that the Fall of our First Parents was not necessary no not in respect of the Divine Decree or ordinance would be a harder task then to prove that their Perseverance was not in respect of that Decree necessary That our First Parents did fall from their Estate is a Question of Fact of which every honest good man may be a competent Judge at least able enough to resolve himself But whether it was as possible for them not to have fallen as it was to fall is Questio Juris or more then so a point of Metaphysical or Theological disquisition wherein it would be very hard to find a Grand-Jury of Profest Divines in any one County almost throughout this Kingdom which could be competent Judges or fit Inquisitors Not that they want either skill or industry for interpreting sacred Scripture which is the only true rule of Faith and manners aright but for want of skill or memory in Secular Arts how to examine or determine what Consequences or inferences are consonant or dissonant to the undoubted Rule of Faith or to the unquestionable Maxims contained in it For deciding or waiving such Controversies as are emergent not so much out of the sence of Scriptures as out of such Inferences or Consequences whether negative or affirmative as contentious or unresolved spirits would fasten upon it Recta ratio that is Reason regulated by Rules of unquestionable Arts or Sciences is the most competent Judge That there is but one God and one Lord That the only God is a God of Goodness and willeth no wickednesse are positive points of Faith and Christian Belief Fundamental Maxims in Theologie To dispute or move any question directly about the truth or limitation of these Maxims would be a branch of Infidelity or which perhaps is worse an approach to Blasphemy CHAP. V. Of the Right use of Reason or Rules of Art for determining Controversies in Divinity whereof the Sacred Scripture is the sole Rule 1. Of the use of Arts in discussing Controversies in Theologie BUt admit this Maxim There is but one God and he a God of Goodness no Author or abetter of evil were undoubtedly believed by all Yet this inference or Consequence might be as it hath long time been controversed Whether he that avoucheth This only God to have decreed the Fall of the First Man to have been necessary or inevitable might be demonstratively convinced to make him the Author and Cause the only Cause of the First Mans sin and of all the sins which necessarily issue from it or from the Nature of man corrupted by it
according to the inflexible Rule of his immutable Justice and to revvard the Penitent sinners though sometimes children of vvrath not for their vvorks yet according to their vvorks or qualifications and so to revvard them not by the Rule of his Justice but out of his meere Mercy or out of that most Free and Gratious â—ounty vvhich gave us all Life and Being when vve vvere not and therefore could not by any Works deserve the least of all his Blessings 14. If to maintain these Conclusions be Arminianism I profess my self not to knovv in these particulars vvherein the Arminians differ from the Orthodox and Ancient Church But if Arminius and his follovvers have taught or maintained any other Conclusions by vvhich the least tittle may be derogated from Gods Free Mercy and Grace by vvhich any thing besides death or Non-deserts may be ascribed to mans Works or Free-Will I no vvay partake vvith them in those and the like errours I shall in good time by Gods assistance make it appear that I truly acknovvledge both Gods Mercy and Grace tovvards men and mens sins the best mens sins and unthankfulnesse tovvards God to be much greater then he doth or can acknovvledge either of them to be vvhosoever he be that shall hold the Contradictory to any Conclusion in this Chapter for vvhich I am accused of Arminianism or to any Principal Conclusion maintained in my book of the Divine Essence and Attributes or to any Conclusion vvhich I have delivered or shall deliver concerning Election or Reprobation 15. The imputations laid upon me by the Author of the Epistle are heavie and grievous if they could be proved however most injurious being made so publick before I heard of them or could prevent their spreading Yet for my own part if it were in my power to censure him my resolution should be like to that of a Civilian when the question was propounded to him An liceat meretricâ— quaestum facere His resolution as I remember for it was long since I read it in Bodin was to this effect Pessimè facit quòd artem meretriciam exercet sed meretrix cum sit non malefacit quod ex arte quam exercet quaestum facit The Author of the Epistle hath much wronged himself me in suffering himself to be so farre misled with doctrine of Absolute Election and Reprobation as it seems he is But being thus farre mislead by it and wedded unto it his practise in slandering me without any relentance which as yet I hear of is but Consequent to his doctrine if he were throughly examined upon it And he that should punish him for his slander and not condemn his doctrine should do me small right and should do him as much wrong as he that should punish a Scholar for holding a false Conclusion without questioning or disproving the Premisses from which it necessarily followes For it is as impossible for him that thinks himself to be in the Immutable estate of Grace or Election or is certainly perswaded of his Salvation before his time to suspect much lesse to recant any lewd practice or dangerous errour whereinto he may fall untill he renounce his Opinion or his Immature perswasion of his own Estate as it is for any Scholler to revoke a false Conclusion which still mantains the erroneous Premisses out of which it necessarily follows 16. The Point then to be proved is That the justification of slander how virulent soever and indulgence to corrupt affections once implanted do as necessarily follow upon Immature and preposterous perswasions of mens Immutable estate in Grace or Election as any Conclusion doth out of its natural Premisses Now the Truth of this Point may be made as clear as any Rule of Art or Reason can make the truth of any other For it a Rule of nature tryed and approved by Art a Fundamental Principle in both their Schooles that An Vniversal Negative may be simply Converted as thus If no man can be a stone or an Inanimate creature then no stone or inanimate creature can be a man The Scripture which is the Rule of Faith gives us these Vniversal Negatives No adulterer no covetous Person no Idolater no murderer no slanderer or virulent rayler can inherit the kingdom of God These Vniversal Negatives being granted and believed Nature and art and common reason must admit of their Conversions No man that must enter into the kingdom of heaven no man that is truly certain of his salvation can be an Adulterer can be a Covetous person can be a murtherer can be a slanderer or virulent reviâ—er of his brethern Now if any man which believes himself to be in the immutable state of Election so certain of his salvation that if he instantly dye he shall instantly go to heaven shall happen to do the same things that Adulterers do that Covetous men do that murderers slanderers or virulent revilers do it will be impossible for him to suspect himself of being an Adulterer of being Covetous of being a slanderer or reviler so long as his former perswasion concerning his Absolute Estate of Salvation c. is not recalled For if he must enter into the kingdom of heaven whensoever he dyes if this be a part of his Belief he cannot believe or suspect that he is a doer of those things which whosoever doth cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven Thus as the presumed Absolute Infallibility of the visible Romish Church for the time being doth lay a necessity upon their Successours of freezing in the dregs of their Predecessours errors so this Immature Perswasion of mens particular Estate in Election Grace or salvation doth lay a like necessitie upon such as are overtaken with it of having their hearts hardened with Hypocrisie with security or secret indulgence to their corrupt affections And for this reason amongst others did the sage and Reverend Reformers of the Church wherein we live worthily admonish that the Points of Election and Predestination are to be warily thought upon they are no fit Themes for every mans private meditations much less fitt seeds to be promiscuously sowen in every Congregation by any Seeds-man 17. Had any man in this Kingdom of how distempered behaviour soever so he had been seasoned with the knowledg of ingenuous Arts or civil education slandered me in his Cups or Passions amongst private or common friends so deeply and upon so gross mistaking as the Author of the Epistle hath done slandered me unto the highest Authority on earth his heart in his sober thoughts would have smitten him long ere this and I should have had some ingenuous satisfaction voluntarily tendred from him But from men mislead with wilde zeale unto the Doctrine of Absolute Election and Reprobation as it hath of late years been taught by some and from men jealous of others as if they were Arminians that in this point dissent from them I can expect no voluntary satisfaction but rather continuance of the like unless I could disswade them
it to the poor fast and pray most dayes in the week they should be damned yea the Evill deeds of the one should be forgiven before they were committed the others good works or abstinence from Evill works should not be capable of pardon for as Election unto life Eternal if it were terminated to mens persons without respect unto their works doth include not only a general Ante-dated Pardon for all the sins they can commit but priviledgeth them also from all question so doth Reprobation include an utter exclusion from all hope of Pardon what course of life soever they take if so be it were Terminated to their Persons or Entities without respect unto their works The Orthodoxal Truth then is that God hath decreed to reward every man according unto all his works not according to the foresight of his individual Nature or Person And though it be true that it is impossible for any man to fall from the estate of Election into the estate of Reprobation and as impossible for any man to aseend or be transported from the estate of Reprobation unto the estate of Election Yet is it not alike impossible for him that is for the time present in a Middle State betwixt both that is a man capable of Gods promises in Christ and yet lyable to his Judgments either to proceed unto the estate of Election or to fall into the state of Reprobation There is a necessitie that every Elected man shall be saved that every man Reprobated shall be damned but no like necessitie by the Eternal decree that This or That particular man shall attain to the state of Election or fall into the state of Reprobation Their works or measure of working whether well or ill their faith or want of faith the measure manner of both are not so immutable or unchangable as their natures or persons are Now Gods immutable Decree doth infallibly reward them according to the measure manner or qualitie of their works or of their faith or infidelitie For albeit the Works or Acts of mans Faith be Mutable yet Gods purpose of rewarding every man according to his works or different measure of faith or infidelity is most Immutable 5. But albeit God do not Ante-date any pardon in particular for the sinnes of the Elect is it safe hence to conclude that he is not more favourable unto them than unto other men or doth his peculiar favour to them being granted conclude him to be an accepter of Persons surely it would if we did maintain that his Eternal Decree for shewing peculiar favour and mercy towards the Elect did respect only mens Persons or Individual substances But laying this Foundation That God from Eternitie hath Decreed to reward every man not according to the prevision of his Individual Manhood or substance but according to all his works God 's peculiar favour may without imputation of partialitie or acceptance of persons be extended not to the Elect only but unto all that are within the Covenant unto all that without Hypocrisie or sinister respects have subscribed unto it Yet though this peculiar favour be to be extended to all within the Covenant we may not deny but that it reaches the Elect in an extraordinary measure for ordinarily none are admitted into the number of the Elect which have not done some works which others not of that number have not done And if God out of his free bountie reward not the men but their works more bountifully than he doth the works of other men whose persons are not within his Covenant whose works are not so capable of bountie he cannot hence be conceived to be a Respecter of Persons but an accepter of such in every Nation as work righteousness or do less evill then others do The works which St. Peter requires to the making of our Election sure are all in their Nature and qualitie Good all parts of righteousness and though we cannot do them aright yet such as hope to be partakers of Gods peculiar favour must be industrious in doing them But not these works only but even our Subscription unto the Covenant of Grace our Profession of being Christs Disciples is a work capable of mercy of peculiar favour in respect of others which neglect this Covenant though No work meritorious of Grace or of better abilities to proceed in Christianitie nor are the best works of the Elect in their nature such 6. Gods gratiousness to the Elect and his respect to their good works First the good Works which He doth that is within the Covenant are more capable of reward than the like works of men which are without the Covenant and yet the good works of the Elect are more capable of reward then the best works of him that is only within the Covenant not in the state of Election not confirmed in Grace Secondly the good Works of men within the Covenant do facilitate their progress towards Grace and lengthen their possibilities of being confirmed in Grace The good works of the Elect do more then strengthen their present estate in Grace they make them capable of greater Glorie than others Elect are which work not after the same manner or measure as they do But leaving the Elect and their works to God who only knowes them the good works of such as are within the Covenant though as yet not confirmed in Grace do in some degree shelter them from danger of final Apostasie or of exclusion from Grace The more good Works such men have done the better fruits of Faith they have shewed the firmer they stand in the day of temptation wherein the Fruitlesse hearer shall fall Thus much is included in the Close of our Apostles words Heb. 6. ver 7 8. The Earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which beareth thornes and bryers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned These Hebrewes had come as neer to that shelf upon which others had made shipwrack of faith as any men since have done which have escapt it And if they had been to be judged by men according to their present Facts they had incurred that dreadful sentence of final Rejection or Reprobation which the Apostle there denounceth against backsliders What then was the Sheet-anchor which in our Apostles Divinitie did hold them from striking against the immoveable rock of Reprobation the Merits of their former works So some great Professors of Romish Divinitie do teach in their Lectures de Reviviscentia meritorum that is of the Revival of merits being dead or abated by Relapse or Backsliding This Title they ground upon this very Text of Scripture being otherwise groundless as they themselves confesse The words of the Apostle are ver 9 10. Beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak For God is not unrighteous to forget your
Saviour Christ to sett him Free and to enable him to do those things which being done he shall be set Free For the Question is not nor ever ought to have been made Whether we have any Free-Will or power to make our selves Free but Whether we have a Free-Will or some Abilitie to do those things which being done we shall be made Free which being left undone we have no Hope or probable Assurance that we shall be made Free Indeed by the Son of God 4. Let Every one that is called a Christian and is not ashamed of the Cross of Christ or of Baptism in his name account it an open shame or Scandal both to his Person and Profession either to deny or suspect that he hath not the same measure of Free-Will or a greater which Naaman the Syrian had when he came to the Prophet Now he had a true Freedome of Will or choyce of harkening or not harkening to Good Counsel The one Branch he exercised in not obeying the Prophets Command The other he practised in hearkening to his Servants Advice or Counsel And it went better with him that he did so For otherwise he might have gone home a more grievous Leper then he came and made himself uncapable of the Miracle wrought upon him by God alone Let us Likewise account it a shame to suspect that we have not the same Freedome of Will which the Widdow of Sarepta had Now she had a true Freedome of Will or choyce either to relieve or not to relieve the Prophet out of her small store If she had not relieved him she and her Child might have died for hunger within few daies after But she making choyce of the better part of such Freedome of Will as she had was with her Child preserved alive by miracle Let such as be Servants to sin as she was then when the Prophet came to her use that Portion of Free-Will which they have either as well or not further amiss then she did hers And the Lord no doubt will work as great miracles in and upon their Soules as he did upon her poor pittance of oyl and meal Let not any man that professeth himself the Servant of Christ be more prone to Tempt God by Distrusting then to Try his Goodnesse by practising the Like works of mercy and charitie as that poor Widdow did 5. Even such amongst us are most conversant and busiest in the medling or market-way to Gain or Preferment and by their several Trades or Callings which they have made choyce of more obnoxious then other men are to the temptations of the Prince of this world will scorn to be suspected not to have as much Free-Will or Good Nature or as good affection towards Christ and his Gospel as the Romane Souldiers or Publicans had unto John Baptists Person or his Doctrine of Repentance And a Freedome of Will or ability they certainly have as well to be contented with their wages or Fees and to deal Conscionably as to exact more then their due or to oppress others by bribery by extortion or unjust exactions If they make choyce of practising this later Branch of such Free-Will as they have this is but to take Earnest mony to become hired Servants unto Mammon If they make choyce of that part of Free-Will which Zachaeus did practise that is to be Charitable Liberal to the poor and to make such Restitution as he did to those whom they have wronged then they shall be made Children of Abraham or which is more true Servants of God and of Christ whose Service is perfect Freedome 6. A brief Rule for right stating the Questions Concerning the Concurrence of Grace and Free-will Again albeit not many of us scarce Ten in any Age since the Apostles Times have any Freedome of Will or ability to determine or examine the Controversies about the power of Grace and of Nature about Justification or Election yet even the meanest amongst us have a Freedome of Will either to say or not to say their dayly Prayers or Devotions and a Like Freedome of Will to frequent or not to frequent the Solemn Prayers of the Church and to hear them either negligently or attentively and a Capacity withall to understand the meaning of them being expounded unto them by their ordinary Pastors or Catechists whom I could wish to make this one special work of their Function 7. For Conclusion I shall commend to every Readers or Teachers Meditations that Prayer of the Church appointed to be read amongst others in the second Service Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most Gratious Favour and further us with thy Continual Help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie Thy Holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the First part of this Godly Prayer we have the State of the Question concerning the Concurrence of Grace and Free-Will more pithily and more plainly set down than in any Controversie-writers whether in the Romish or Reformed Churches The Summe is that without Gods Preventing Grace or peculiar disposition of his Favourable Providence we cannot do any Good Works at all though but Civilly or Morally Good as a Learned Jesuit acknowledgeth nor any works Spiritually Good without Gods assistant Grace or Gifts of the Spirit inherent in us This is that which is in the same Prayer Better expressed by The Furtherance of his continual help In the later Clause of the same Prayer That in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting Life we have all I am perswaded that the Romish Church would have said Concerning the Necessitie of Good Works Whether unto Salvation or Justification and all again that the Protestants have said or can say against the Romish Church concerning Justification by Faith only without works When we Pray that we may glorifie Gods Name by our good works this argues their Necessity unto Salvation if not to Justification And when we pray that after we have glorified Gods Name by our Good works we may attain Everlasting life by Gods mercy in Christ and through Christ this is an Argument most Concludent that we must not rely upon or put our Confidence in the Best Works which we do though we do them continually but in Gods Mercies and Christs Merits Only And this is the Full and Lively Expression of our Apostles meaning when he saith We are Justified by Faith in Christ alone Finally Let all of us remember this Lesson that when it is said We are to Renounce Good works in the Plea of Faith or all Trust ☜ or Confidence in our Selves or in our Merits or Workes This must alwayes be understood of the Good works which we have done not of the Good works which we have left undone much less of Works which we have done amiss We must as our Saviour instructs us
Luk 14. ver 26. and many other places deny our selves and forsake all before we can be truely his Disciples And we must be truly his Disciples before we can be made Free by Him Indeed as is apparent from the words of our Saviour heretofore recited Ioh. 8. 36. Let us therefore beseech him which quencheth not smoaking Flax and crusheth not a bruised Reed to plant in us Good Intentions to grow by his Assisting Grace into Good Desires and good desires into firm and constant Resolutions of doing that which is good and acceptable in his sight and finally to Crown our best Endeavours wrought in us by his Grace with Everlasting Life and Glory through His Mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen The End of Chapt 36. and of the Fift Section Some Notes of the Publishers relating to severall Chapters preceding THough I hope the Strong and Learned will not boggle at those Terms Conversion Moral Mortification Moral in the 31. Chapter Yet my heart misgives me that They may be taken to Scandal by some Scrupulous but Wel-minded and Pious Reader And therefore though what follows of the Authors in that Chapt. c. might well quiet such Readers mind and ascertain him That there is no Snake nor other Brood of the old Serpent Latent under Those Herbs yet shall I out of my poor Talent Contribute a poorer Mite towards his Satisfaction though only by casting an handfull of dust into the Scale which may make some addition to the number none at all to the weight of what the Author himself hath already there spoken to that Point * Hor. Serm. L. 1. Sat. 8. 1. We see what power Art hath over Nature as to Materials Inanimate The Potter over foul Clay The Cutter over hard Stone The Carver or Carpenter over knotty Carkases of Trees which the Axe hath reduced to the Capacity of Stones the Finer and Founder over Oare and Metals first to work prepare and purifie them afterwards of them to make Olim truncus eram ficulnus inutile lignum Cum faber incertus scamnum facereine Priapum Masuit esse Deum Deus inde ego at pleasure vessels of honour or of Basest use to shape them into figures of Beasts or Men not to say of Gods though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Aequivocal * God 's only and yet hath besotted man adventured upon that Contradiction also Isai 44. 10. c. Which Formes or new Qualities introduced rather educed E Potentia materiae sive Naturali sive Obedientiali or perhaps only discovered by the Artist who seems to adde nothing to what was in the matter before give us cause to think and say There is a strange Alteration Change Tantùm non Conversion wrought in those Subject Materials And now I have Lâ—d the Reader thus farre out if yet it be Out of his way let me carry him one Stones-Cast further and it is to shew him Socrates's Meditation partly mixt of Admiration Diog. Laert. Lib. 2. at the singular Care of Artists partly of Indignation at the strange negligence of Men that Those should be so scrupulously carefull to make their statues so like unto men and that These should be no more careful least by their own sloth they should become as Theocritus calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto statues This Consideration the Satyrist has improved and fixt upon his Gilded Gallant whom having nothing good in him but his Parents-Bloud nor any thing like good about him but Clothes Wealth and Relations he thus taxes Juven Sat. 8. v. 53. Hic petit Euphraten armis industrius At Tu Nil nisi Cecropides Truncóque simillimus Hermae Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quà m quà d Illi marmoreum Caput est Tua vivit imago That Poor-man's vertuous Thus and So But you Are meer-sheer-Pedegree Hermes's Statue 'Twixt which and you there 's no'ther difference Save that It says nothing you speak Non-sense But though Mercuries statue according to this account had a little the Worse yet had Memnons Effigies something the Better of Him at least if that was true which Tacitus in 2. Book of Annals reports of it that Radiis icta solaribus vocalem sonum reddidit in Plain English I dare not say True It spoke and if it did we may not Count the words lesse then Apollo's Oracles * 2. A power equal to rather greater then the former hath Industrie and Culture over the next rank of Naturals Vegetables See the Lord Verulam's Nat. Historie Cent. 6. This is seen in such effects as spring from the Artificial modelling and qualifying of Plants farre otherwise then they by nature were or then if left to themselves and let alone they would have been Art hath made barren Trees fruitful sowre fruits sweet and Crooked Plants streight Art can form even These whose peculiar Tendencies till they be superseded incline more powerfully then the former quite another way into better Resemblances or Features then nature left to its course would have produced It can alter or better them so much from what they were or would have been as may give us reason enough to give the same Attributes of Change Alteration Conversion and that with more proper Verification to These then to Inanimates And surely he that carefully Reads the 11. Chapt. to the Romans and sees what use the Holy Ghost hath made of the Art of Ingraffing in Generall yet must it not though much to our present advantage be dissembled that the Metaphor is highly improved there and that the Antitype of Ingraffing is supernatural or Contrary to nature as that an Evil Ciens should be Inoculated into a Good Stock and by vertue thereof be changed into the Goodnesse of the Stock the Practise of Art being to graffe a Good Ciens upon an Evil Stock which shall meliorate overrule and change the ill juice of the Stock into the nature of the Impe will not grudge such Effects as are wrought by the Art of Ingraffing to be intitled so * 3. But what a Largenesse or Latitude of Power Humane Industry hath over the Memory the Imaginative and Loco-motive Faculties of Sensitives is most abundantly manifest 1. In the Training of Horses even to Admiration as hath been seen in our Time 2. * Of Oxen as those at Susae in Babylon which after they had gone so often or so many Turns for water could not with strkes be forced to stirre one foot more upon that Account 3. In the Tutoring of Elephants Plinie in his Nat. Hist 8. l. 3. c. tels it upon the report of a Creditable Roman that saw an Elephant write a sentence of 30. or 40. Letters Suetonius in Galba tels of a New Shew or Sight Elephas Funambulus one that danced upon the Rope Seneca Epist 85. says Domitores-feras docent pati jugum usque in Contubernium mitigant Leoni manum insertat Magister osculatur Tigrim custos Elephantem minimus Aethiops jubet ambulare per Funem 4. In the Discipling
Consciences of Christian People as a main Part of their Baptismal Vow and pressed home as a Duty that concernd their everlasting Salvation would by Gods Blessing be likely to prove fruitfull as indeed it is usefull For somewhat to enlarge that which hath been Toucht on The use of the former Doct. to condemn sloth to prevent presumption and despair in the foregoing Chapter this may be more particularly considered First It leaves Sloth and Negligence in this Good Dutie of so high Concernment clean without excuse Secondly Being rightly applyed it serves as an Antidote both against Presumption and Despair 20. There is no way to make a Coward Hardie or Resolute in sight but by putting him upon some manifest exigent or apparent Necessity either of killing his Adversary or of being killed by him So long as there is hope to escape by Flight or Non-appearance it is a matter almost impossible to make a Timorous spirit try his strength or ability The foes or enemies with whom we are here enjoyned to fight are our own Bodies or our own Flesh which still fighteth against our soules from whose assaults there is no possibility of flight There is an apparent Necessity layd upon us either of killing the Deeds of the Body or of being more then killed by them For if we Live after the flesh or suffer the works of the Flesh or deeds of the Body to live or raign in us we shall dye the death of the Soul Did we truly apprehend the Necessity of this choyce how were it possible for us to deferre this Conflict with our own flesh for one Moment 21. Some not withstanding there be which see in part this necessity of dying by living after the flesh and yet submit their Wills and Affections unto the desires and lusts of the Flesh as Men Condemned by Law do their Bodies to the Officers of Justice or Executioners This These poor souls do Some out of Conscience because they hold it unlawfull to resist Authority Some out of weaknesse as being not able to prevail if they should struggle with Authority But neither of these Motives can have place in the former Case For First the Conflict or Resistance of the Flesh is not only Lawful but necessary so necessary that if after our promise in Baptism and participation of the word and Sacraments we neglect the undertaking of this warre with our own bodies we are in the same case that Souldiers are which after they have received Presse-money and good pay run from their Colours We justly incurre the Sentence of everlasting death by not seeking to put the Deeds of this mortal Body to death We become perpetuall slaves to Satan by refusing to fight with sin which is Christs enemy and Satans Agent 22. Nor can we pretend that our endeavours to mortifie the Deeds of the Body are hopeless or vain because we are not able of our selves to think a good thought much less to give good success to our best endeavours For the Apostle as you heard before enjoynes us to work out our Salvation with feare and trembling that is as men afraid to be idle or slothfull for a moment even for this Reason Because it is God that worketh in us both the Will and the deed And though the same Apostle hath elsewhere said That it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy yet it is a Generall Rule in Divinity Finis dicendorum est ratio dictorum our Apostles speech must be taken from the end or General Scope at which he aimed To what end then doth our Apostle give us the former or like Rule To the end that we should not will or desire our Mortification nor run with alacrity towards the Goal which in every Epistle he sets Before us to wit the Mortification of the Flesh and life of the Spirit or rather to kindle our desires to work and stir up our alacrity in working yet so as we still rely not upon our works or indeavours but meerly upon the Good will and mercy of our God He that saith See Chapt. 41. 42. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy did never say that it was not the Good Will or Pleasure of God to shew Mercy unto all that abandoning all other wayes run with what speed and alacrity they can unto his Mercy He that saith God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth did never say that it was Gods Will to harden any which deny themselves and their own doings and wholly betake themselves to his Infinite Goodness His meaning sure in that place is that as God will have mercy on none that seek salvation by works or other prerogatives of the flesh so he wil harden none that put their confidence not it their works but in his mercy 23. The Summe of all that can in this Point be said is That no man can be partaker of the promise of Life but he that faithfully seeks for Mercy in Christ Jesus And no man can faithfully seek for mercy in Christ but he that sincerely renounceth his own works and merits And no man can sincerely and truly renounce his own works and merits but he that is industrious and laborious in these works of Mortification here enjoyned Hypocrites and ungodly persons will be ready in the day of Tryall to deny all hopes of salvation by works Chapt. 36. or confidence in merits But as was intimated before No man can be truly said to renounce those good works paragr 7. which he hath left undone but those works which he hath done No man can truly deny himself but he that exerciseth himself in these works of Mortification We cannot possibly know our own Impotency or want of strength to perform these works of Mortification as we ought unless we make proof or triall of our strength in working them as we can The more we try our strength the more insufficient shall we find our selves and the better Experience we have of our own Insufficiency the more earnestly will we if we do as we ought for our own good crave the assistance of Gods Spirit the more Faithfully will we rely on Christ who is our strength and the Rock of our Salvation and so not presume 24. Again The former Doctrine is useful to prevent Despair in the dayes of Temptation Albeit we find our Transgressions of this precept to be great and many Our Apostle saith not If ye have lived after the flesh ye shall dye for so no flesh should be saved But his words are if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye If any man find his Conscience burdened with an heavy load of the works of the Flesh let him not take the frights no nor the Scarres of Conscience wounded by sins past or the impressions by sin present as undoubted marks of Reprobation yet let him call to
work and Labour of Love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and dâ—minister Had it been any injustice in God to have forgotten their former works if it had their works were truly meritorious or capable of reward by plea of justice For that work unto which reward without injustice cannot be denyed is meritorious or worthy of the reward yet the Apostle implies that God should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unjust If he had so utterly excluded these Hebrews from entring into his Rest as he did their Forefathers from entring into the land of Promise For albeit their later works had been much like their forefathers yet their former works had been much better But in what sense doth the Apostle say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not unjust 7. This word Injustus is sometimes no more than non benignus or non misericors that is See Book 9. Ch. 12. Numb 3. not bountiful or not merciful to such as are in miserie Though works of pitie of bountie be not works of justice or equitie yet sometimes he that shewes pitie or favour though in Cases wherein the positive Law of God requireth Justice or severe execution if the case come before the Magistrate is said to deal justly that is not rigorously not hardly So the Holy Ghost when he gives the reason why Joseph did not seek publickly to be divorced from his espoused wife THE BLESSED VIRGIN saith he did thus resolve because he was A Just Man that is a Courteous and mild-hearted man Not a just man according to strict and Legal justice For by the positive Law of God the crime which he suspected was punishable not with divorce only but with death If Joseph then in resolving to put away his espoused wife privately did the part of a just and upright man he had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an unjust man in our Apostles sense if he had resolved to use the remedie or benefit of the Law Yet can no man be said strictly or properly to be unjust for using any lawful remedie but non benignus or non mitis he may be said to deal rigorously or hardly or uncourteously in using the extremitie of the Law To apply this Distinction to the Point in question If God had excluded these Hebrewes from entring into his Rest after they had accomplished such a measure of works as the Apostle there intimates he had not been so merciful and bountiful unto them as the Scripture teacheth he is to all he had not shewed himself so gratious a Lord nor given such incouragements to his other servants of not being wearie of weldoing as he alwaies useth to do Briefly when the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Phrase in the Original is as much as if he had said so farr is God from being unjust that you shall find him a most gratious and Loving Father so farr will he be from forgetting your works and labour of Love so farr from cutting you off from entring into his Rest that he will remember you with his best blessings even with the blessing of Salvation however your late backslidings have deserved the contrary But however God be a Gratious and loving Father to all that call upon him to all that are within his Covenant but especially to his Elect albeit this his Gratiousness consists in the not imputing or in remitting of their sinnes yet is there not the least sinne which any within his Covenant or which any of his Elect do commit whose Pardon must not be sought for after the Commission of it and must actually be obteined otherwise they should dye in their sinnes for though the Son of God did take away the sinnes of the whole world by his sufferings upon the Crosse yet were no mans sinnes so taken away by him or so dissolv'd as that he from that time did cease or yet doth cease to dissolve them whensoever they are committed and their dissolution by repentance sought for Unlesse he did yet dissolve the works of the Divel in us unlesse he did yet in peculiar manner remit sinnes even our pettie sinnes would inchain us unto the servitude of Satan St. Jâ—hn no way excludes the Elect but speakes to men regenerate albeit not to them alone when he saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2. 1. Now the Office of an Advocate is to plead his Clients Cause before his Judge as either for Justice if his Cause be good or for mercy or mitigation of Justice if his Client be delinquent God we know is as well a God of Justice as of mercy and hath as well one ear open to the Accusations which are brought against us as another attentive to the Intercessions which are made for us Satan is our professed Adversarie and after he hath inticed us to do his work he never ceaseth to sollicit the Execution of Gods Justice or vengeance upon us Not the best of Gods Saints may at any time plead their own cause or ioyn this Issue with him Lord Let Justice be awarded with speed either for us or against us either let our Adversarie be condemned for accusing us falsely or let us be condemned with him if we have done unjustly This were to become not our own Advocates which yet were presumption but to turn Satans Sollicitors even to suplicate for wo and vengeance upon our own soules David hath taught us the Form of our Plea with God even whilest we stand upon best termes Lord enter not into Judgement with this thy servant for no flesh is righteous in thy sight 9. But will the Almighty Judge of all the world be so unmindfull of his Great Attribute as to deny Execution of Judgement upon such as have deserved it being thereunto sollicited and importuned by his professed Adversarie or will The Son of God be so Partial as to plead for their acquittal which confess themselves Guiltie of the Crimes Objected To this we Answer 1. God hath Two Covenants One of Justice Another of Mercy And albeit God The Father should do us no wrong no injustice but do Himself right if he did upon Every accusation instantly Condemn us yet seeing His Onely Son hath by a full and alsufficient price purchased a Reconciliation for us He may maintaine the plea of Justice even before the Almighty Judge against our Adversarie for us Or haveing satisfied the Justice of God for all the sinnes of mankinde He may Remove our Tryal from the Barre of Justice to the Throne of Grace and mercy 2. Neither God the Father could deny Execution of Justice upon us nor could God the Son plead so much as for our Reprival if we should stand upon our own integritie or our own Justification so that Our Confession of Guilt is so farre from doing us preiudice that it is a most necessary Condition of our Acquittal If God the Father
Free in respect of some acts operations objects 3088. God is not free in respect of every object ib. 3089 Satan free in choice of particular evils though he hath lost all freedom to good 3089 Freedom and servitude in Collapsed Angels and men unregenerate differ 3090 To use free-will extreamly amisse is not necessary but contingent 3093 Abuse of freedom in not avoiding remoter occasions of sin betraies Men to a kind of necessitie to be overcome by nearer opportunities 3094 Use of vows a proof of freedom 3093 c. What freedom is in the unregenerate man 3092 What freedom in extreamly debauched sinners 3095 Freedom not equall in all ibid. A slave has as free a will as his master 3130 3144 How free-will co-operates with Gods Spirit inexplicable 2112 What freedom of will in servants to sin 3029 Where no freedom is admonitions useless ib. The true state of the question about Free-will 3130 The Question about concurrence of Grace and free-will stated in a Church Collect 3131 Free-will in Naaman Sareptan widdow Zachaeus Roman Soldiers ibid. God free to do Good man free to do evil 3249 We are de jure freed from servitude to sin and Satan by Christs death De facto by the Acts of his Everlasting Priesthood 3252 G. SIn against the Holy Ghost is not for Nature or qualitie unpardonable but as a Symptom of the full measure of iniquitie 3282 God See Decree see Will see Pharaoh Gentiles in danger to be more hardened then the Jews or the Egyptians 3208 Duty to pray against it 3209 Gentiles forewarned 3248 Gomarists 3129 Greater Glorie given to the Elect that work good in a greater measure 3285 Goodness How Gods will is the Rule of goodness All things be not good because God willeth them God willeth some things because they be good 3179 c. 3229 3181 3188 Goodness objective precedent in order of Nature to the Act or Exercise of Gods will 3176 c. Goodness Objective and Subjective 3178 Gospel or New Covenant The Condition of men under it 3285 3292 c. Grace Baptismal denyed restrained 3174 Free Grace and meere mercie maintained 3184 3210 c. Grace of Christ a more soveraign qualitie then Adams Righteousness 3005 Estate in Grace the best way to examine it 3097 3103 c. Galen his Heresie 3086 H. HArdening Gods just hardening Pharaoh after he had filled up the measure of his sin 3222 c. What it is to hardâ—n 3223 c. The manner how God hardens men 3224 Hardening Positive Privative ib. positive by favours exhibited not on purpose to harden but to mollifie 3225 God no necessary yet a positive Cause by consequence of hardening ibid. Gods justice in hardening Pharaoh justifyable by Rules of equitie 3230 He hardeneth whom he will 3242 The use of this Truth 3244 Hardening See Pharaoh See Jews See Gentiles Heathen vertues a Catalogue of them c. 3135 Heathen Testimonies of our corrupt nature 3019 ' c. Red Heifer the Rite of it 3261 3264 c. 3267 Red Heifer a Type of Christ 3271 3299 3302 the Rite Rare 3261 not above ten times in all the time of the Law 3270 the Jews say but nine times The tenth to be done by Messias 3299 High-Priest See Priesthood Hemingiuss good Counsel 3267 Dr. Hessils 3274 Holy-water The Canon for it grounded on the Rite of the Red Heifer and Elizaeuss salt 3264 c. Canon for Holy-water mistakes its Ground 3270 ' 3264 Hope must be mingled with fear A Rule to plant hope and prevent despair 3104 Grounds of hope 3104 more grounds 3278 Hope why called an Anchor what it apprehends 3â—03 Humane nature abstract not object of Divine decree 3234 Humane nature The Cross contradicting temper thereof 3024 c. Humane nature See Decree Howant-cry for Antichrist likely to fall into Tiber 3262 I. JAcob and Esau St. Pauls instance 3214 Ideal Reasons 3229 Idea of Reprobation 3226 Identitie of several sorts 3233 Idiopathie 3119 Idiote by nature neither Servant nor Master 3046 Iesuites design 3189 A Iewish objection ill answered by the Romanist 3290 Iews in part Believers Servants to sinne lews answer we were never in Bondage how true 3040 c. 3072 c. Iews De jure not to be slaves because Gods peculiar Ones 3044 Iews which sort Believers or others made that passionate reply to Christ John 8. 3073 Iewish Revolts 3075 c. Iews God their King in a Peculiar sense 3134 Iews spoiled the Egyptians jure Reprisaliorum and by their consent also 3195 Iews hardened as well as the Egyptians 3205 yea more then they 3206 Rejection of the Iew. the Original and manner of it 3210 to 3215 Iews Keepers of Truth in the S. Oracles and in some Traditions also 3299 Ioshua Israelâ—tes see Caleb Isaac willeth Esau runneth God sheweth mercie 3215 Ishmael no Reprobate 3214 Ishmael see Agar Image of God To create man in it and Righteous both one 3006 Reliques of Gods Image in the Natural man such as be not in Divels 3124 Imaginations as bad as erecting Images 3015 Irresistible See Will. Iudas not reprobated from Eternitie 3157 Iustification by Faith 3210 c. Iustification consists not in one Indivisible Act 3269 3276 Iustification 2. branches of it 3278 3279 K. KIngdom of Heaven The sense of that passage in St. Ambrose his Creed Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers 3256 The Kingdom of Heaven not erected till â—esus was made Lord and Christ ibid. Then Enoch Abraham Moses and such as lived at the Time of Christs Ascension were consecrated Kings and Priests ibid. We must first know our selves before we can know God as Creator Redeemer Sanctifier 3002 Not knowing our selves in the Individual as sinners in the General as sons of Adam an occasion of a Socinian Error 3002 Knowledge of Christ the first part of it more easie then the second wherein both parts consist 3001 c. The 35. first Chapters intended for an Introduction to the second Part of the knowledge of Christ 3129 L. THe Law gives the Estimate of sin Like a medicine sets sin on working Sin rages and revives at the law 3025 c. Law a Schoolmaster the Lessons it taught by Legal sacrifices 3293 The poorness of Legal services in comparison of Christs one Sacrifice 3261 c. 3293 c. 3298 c. Gods people under the Law and under the new Covenant in farre different conditions 3292 Legal worshippers conscious of sinne in an other manner then Evangelical are 3293 Liber est qui vivit ut vult Tullie 3046 c. He hath both voluntatem propriam Arbitrium proprium ' ibid. Tullies definition of Libertie lame 3049 conteâ—ins but the Body of libertie The Soul of libertie is potestas volendi quod Deus jubet ibid. Libertie See Freedom and Servitude Of libertie of Prophesying the sad effects 3273 Limitation of two propositions if ye live c 3146 Lite pendente nihil fit 3129 Lords Supper Christs presence in it 3296
AN EXACT COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF Doctor Iackson P. of C. C. C. Oxon Such as were not Published before CHRIST EXERCISING HIS EVERLASTING PRIESTHOOD Mans Freedom from Servitude to Sin effected by Christ sitting at the Right Hand of God and there Officiating as a most Compassionate High-priest in behalf of Sinners OR A TREATISE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST which Consists in the true Estimate or Experimental Valuation of his Death Resurrection and Exercise of his Everlasting Sacerdotal Function in the Heavenly Sanctuarie where he now sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father THIS ESTIMATE Cannot be rightly made without a Right Understanding of the Primaeval State of Adam Of the Nature of Sin How it first came How it still comes into the World Of Mans Servitude unto Sin Of Free-will How we are sett Free by Christ Of Mortification Election Reprobation All which with other Considerable particulars as of the Use of Reason and Arts in Controversies of Divinitie of Baptism the Lords Supper c. are As an Introduction to Christs Priesthood discoursed on in this Tenth Book of Comments on the Creed AND VSEFVLL TABLES ADDED Verily Verily He that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If the Son make you Free then ye shall be Free indeed LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothie Garthwait at the little North-Door of S. Pauls Church 1654. THE PREFACE To the Christian and Considerate Reader Grace Mercy c. AS to the Great Richness and Goodly Number of This Author's Writings I shall not here say much having spoken most of what I had to say anent Those two Points in The Account or Preface set before the First Volume of His Workes Printed in Folio the last year And yet Thus much I shall say That I am dayly more and more confirmed in my Judgement There passed upon them being likewise perswaded of This That though it be but the Addition of one Single Unitie to the former Number of his Bookes yet will it prove a Multiplyed Accession of Degrees to the weight and excellency of them I shall perhaps better gratifie The Reader if I can present unto his View any Observables worthy his Notice Concerning the Method and References both of This present and Those his other writings published in His Life-Time And such as I think may be usefull do here follow 1. Of this Great Author's Bookes of Commentaries upon the Creed with their Respective Appendices The Five First I Beleive in God viz. The 1 2 3. Of the Eternal Truth of Scripture c. The 4. Of Justifying Faith The 5. Of the Original of Unbeleif Misbeleif c. Relate unto or Explicate the first Words of the First Article of The Creed 2. His Sixt Book being A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes to which append his Sermons upon 2. God The Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth Chron. 6. 39. upon Jeremie 26. 29. His Treatise of the Signes of The Times and his Sermon upon Luke 21. 1. Referres to the next words of The Creed Now if any shall Object That nigh the One Half of these Treatises and Sermons too are about Divine Providence of which there is no explicit mention in the Creed The Answer is readie and easie So they ought to be it was meet and right they should be so The Good God that made the world with all the comely Ornaments and rich Furniture thereof did neither leave it to it self so soon as it was made nor transmit the Tuition of it to a Guardian or Locum-Tenens but ever did and still doth keep the Government in That Hand which with so great wisdom made the same And His verie Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Son our Saviour's Words Pater meus adhuc operatur teach us to depend upon and trust unto his Constant Providence and support for Conservation And This as a Clew leads or as a Terminus Communis Couples our Faith to his Creative power 3. His Two Sermons the Former of them Call'd Bethlehem and Nazareth upon Jeremie 31. 22. The later upon Galat. 4. 4. enstyled Mankinds Comfort from the weaker sex His Treatise entituled Christ's Answer to Iohn's Question or An Introduction to the Knowledge of Christ His 7. Book of Commentaries upon the Creed Call'd The Knowledge of Christ Jesus Containing The Principles of Christian Theologie And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord which was Conceived by the the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary qua Talis Christ's Eternal Sonship his Conception Birth and Circumcision in the Fulness of Time being if not the intire Subject yet the Main Scope of these last mentioned parcels respectively referre to that Portion of The Creed wherein we avouch our Faith in The Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ incarnate 4. The Subject of this Great Author's Eighth Book of Commentaries upon The Apostles Creed enstyled Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead and Buried The Humiliation of the Son of God is the same God and our Lord who was conceived by The Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Marie And The Scope of it is to shew That HEE according to the Scripture before Extant 5. His ninth Book Of the Consecration of the Son of God to his Everlasting Priesthood whereof His Agonie and Bloody Death His Rest in the Grave and in this Authors private opinion see Book 8. pag. 385 He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven His descension into Hell His Resurrection and Ascension were Respectively the several Giests or Moments some as preparations others as Continuations some as Accomplishments others as Consequents Lookes back somewhat towards the former and forward somewhat toward these Later particulars of the Creed 6. All the Tracts or Books mentioned in the three last Paragraphs for those be They which Directly Destinately and Immediately treat of Christian Theologie qua Talis make but up The First and more Easie Part of The Knowledge of Christ And This to use the Author 's own words Consists in the display of that most admirable Harmonie which ariseth from the Concent of Prophetical with Evangelical Writings or from the Correspondencie of Parallels between Matters of Fact recorded in the Old Testament and the Events answering in proportion to them in the New 7 This Tenth Book not published till now is addressed to The Second part of The Knowledge of Christ which Consists in the True Experimental Valuation of His Vndertakings for mans Redemption viz. Of His taking upon Himself the Form of a Servant of His Death Resurrection and Ascension Of all which several steps or progresses of His O Economie as also of the whole Volume of His other whether Actings or Sufferings for us The most precious Beneficial Effects and saving Influences are Actually and only Derived unto us by the Continued Acts and Constant Exercise of His Everlasting Priesthood executed dayly in The Heavenly Sanctuarie by Him there Sitting
such evil with positively evil intentions It is their delight to Countermand Gods Laws to make his Negative Precepts Their Affirmatives and his Affirmatives their Negatives And knowing much better then most men do with what particulars God is more specially offended they tempt every man as opportunity serves to do those things wherwith he is most offended To tempt some men unto grosse foul or base sins they see it bootlesse Neverthelesse in as much as no man can be without some sin or other they sollicite all to be like themselves in one sin at least that is in Impenitency And to be finally Impenitent for the least sin is more offensive to the Goodnesse and Mercy of God then all other sins that can be by man Committed 5. But some happily will thus far plead for Baal or Belzebub and his Followers That many good Turns are done by them to some men Yet even their best Favours or greatest Benefits are worse then a biting usurers kindnesse Unto this man they may lend Wealth to that man health to a third procure ease from pain or use of Limbs but all this with purpose to get the Eternal inheritance of their Souls 6. The Unregenerate sin not in every Action against men The meerly Natural or unregenerate men in some actions sin not at all against their Neighbours or Fellow Creatures to whom oft-times they heartily do that Good which they truly intended And in such Actions Their Offence in respect of Gods Law is to be accounted as I take it Privative only no way Positive Pythagoras Socrates Plato Anacharsis perhaps Diogenâ—s himself and many other Heathen would have done as the good Samaritane did to any Passenger or Citizen of the Great City Now the Samaritans Action was not against Gods Law though not altogether according to his Law Neither the Intention nor Performance in Like deeds of mercy done by Heathen or meer natural men are void of evil because the Doers are never affected with that Sincerity of Heart on with those Bowels of Compassion which Gods Law requires much lesse with those Referencies which are due unto Gods Glory Yet if any man be of Opinion that the Heathen or unregenerate man doth Positively and actually sin against Gods Laws in the Best works that he can do I will not contend with him For albeit I think my Former Assertion to be true yet is it not my purpose to take the truth of it for any Ground of the insuing Discourse Concerning the proper subject of mans Free-Will 7. The Unregenerate man hath a true Freedom in doing Evil. Supposing it were most true That the best of unregenerate men do Positively and actually sin against Gods Law in every Action that they do Yet this shall no way infringe our First Assertion which is this The unregenerate man hath a true Freedom of will in the Choice of those particular Evils into some one or other of which he necessarily fals For as the Absolute Impossibility or want of Freedom to do Evil doth not bereave the Almighty of absolute Freedom in doing Well So neither doth the unregenerate mans Impossibility of doing Good strip him of all Freedom in doing Evil. Though he cannot but do Evil or do every thing that he doth amisse yet is there no Necessity that he should do so great Evil as oft-times he doth or do it so far amisse as he doth Few men have any power or Freedom of Will not to be angry when they are provoked not to allay their anger so soon as they ought after it be once upon what Termes soever kindled Yet even such as Neâ—essarily sin this sin of unadvised Anger in some degree or otherâ— do not thereupon necessarily commit Man-slaughter Murther or Blasphemy Many men have Power or Freedom of Will in ruling their tongues which have no Freedom or power to stay the boyling of the heart in anger Many again in their passions have a Free Power over their hands which have none over their tongues Many that can hardly hold their hands in heat of anger have a Freedom of will not to strike with edge-tools or weapons that may make deadly wounds 8. Every Unregenerate man at his first arrival at the Use of Reason is Free in respect of the height or Extremity of those very sins unto which he is either by General Corruption of nature or Peculiar Disposition of body most subject It is not Necessary that he which is by Nature Education and Dyet most prone to wantonnesse Juvenal Nâ—mo repente suit turpissimus â—â—ould delight in Adultery or to be overtaken with temptations to Unnatural Lusts Into Acts or Crimes whether for their kind unnatural or Prodigious or for degree extremely evil no natural man did ever Necessarily fall nisâ— Necessitate ex Hypothesi that is unlesse it were for abusing that Freedom of Will or choice which naturally he hath in Ordinary evils in things Moral or Indifferent But by sinning in a higher Degree or oftner in any kind then the corrupted estate of Nature or Sin meerly inbred did Necessitate us unto we exempt our selves from the Protection of Gods ordinary and wonted Providence And thence exempted we naturally fall into an Estate or disposition of mind most unnatural and bring a * See Chap. 18. last Parag. and Chap. 21. Parag. 3 4 5. Necessity upon our selves of sinning extreamly Finally without Gods Special Grace the best of us sinin every Action without the guidance of his Fatherly Providence we sin extreamly against Every divine Commandment 9. All of us at the First use of Reason have a true Freedom of Will in avoiding such Occasions or Opportunities to sin as being not avoided but Voluntarily and Freely affected draw a Necessity upon us of falling into foul and grievous sins It was perhaps impossible for AEgisthus to avoid Adultery so long as he betroathed himself to Sloth But it was not impossible for him nor for any to have avoided this disease or at Least to have been divorced from it after he had been betrothed to it The Poet in my Opinion gave us a truer Cause of this mans fault then those Divines possibly can which make all Events Necessary or unavoidable in respect of Gods Decree Quaeritur AEgisthus quare sit factus Adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat 10. Supposing his slothfulnesse had been no sin in its self yet would it be a grievous sin in us to say that the Almighty did Decree he should be slothful that he might become an Adulterer or be an Adulterer that he might become a Reprobate for manifestation of his Glory His slothfulnesse in true Divinity was the true and Necessary Cause of his Filthinesse But of his slothfulnesse there was no Necessary Cause To use Free-will extreamly amisse is not Necessary but Contingent but a Cause Contingent only The only Cause it had was the ill use of that Freedom which he had in doing amisse or avoiding Occasions of doing greater
earth tanquam ex Termino positivo as of the Terme or Object unto which his Creation of them had Reference that is He did not decree to make them untill the earth was made Or he did not determine to make them but out of the Earth not of the Water or other Element as he made the Fishes of the water not of the earth So that grass was made of the earth and fishes of the Sea not as of any Cause concurrent to their making or production but tanquam ex Termino aut Objecto praeviso The Whales and great fishes which God created on the fift day were not from the time of their Creation so much as a material Cause of the Fry or Spawn which proceeded from them untill God bestowed his Blessing upon them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas The Effect of this Blessing was a true and proper Creation For hereby they became in their kinds Efficient and material Causes And from this Blessing they received the first Possibilitie of Propagation or continuance of their kind by succession or generation of the like Admitt then our Mortification as well as our Vivification is a work of Creation God Createth life in Baptized Infants And this production of life spiritual in them is like unto the Creation of the heaven and Earth or of the First Masse that is not ex praevisis operibus neither by their works nor from Gods Foresight of their works Thus much the Romish Church confesseth in the prayer used at the Burial of Infants Baptized Omnipotens mitissime Deus qui omnibus parvulis Renatis fonte Baptismatis dum migrant à saeculo sine ullis Eorum meritis vitam illico largiris aeternam sicut animae hujus Parvuli hodiè credimus to fecisse Ex Rituali Romano Pauli quinti impresso Antuerpiae 1635. in 8. Ex Offic Plantiniana Moreti in Officio Defunctorum De Exequijs Parvulorum Pag. 244. In this Creation there is no * Quaere if it be not otherwise in a Pagan â—f yeares Coming to Christianitie Without Baptisme either Obteined or Desired He cannot be saved And Baptisme he may not have without Qualifications preparative professed to the Church that he may be admitted to it And Reall in his Soul that he may have Rem Sacramenti that is become partaker of the Inward and Spiritual Grace Qualification or disposition praecedent either by way of Title or by way of Term or Object Or if we grant any Term or Object of this creation it must be the Entitie of the Infant or its Capacitie of Baptisme or the Baptisme it self 3. How it is said All things were created of Nothing But as it was the Almightie Creators pleasure not to make herbs untill he had made the earth nor fishes untill he had made the Sea out of which he made them tanquam ex termino as of a positive Term or Object praeexistent though not positively concurring to their Creation or Co-working with him So as we suppose it was his pleasure not to work Mortification or to Create Life in such as are capable of Reason untill some works which he requires be done by them albeit the best works which any can do be as little Conducent by way of Causalitie or Title to the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual as the Red Earth was to the Creating of Adam or Adam in a dead sleep was to the Creation of Eve Adam was the sole work of God and so was Eve though made of Adam aswell as the heaven and the earth were the sole works of God And so is our Election so is our New Life so is our Mortification spiritiual as truely and intirely the work of God though not wrought without some works of ours praeexistent as the Creation of Life in Infants is Gods Work although they have no workes praeexistent And as Adam though Eve was made of him had no more share with God in her Creation than Nothing had with Him in the Creation of the heavens and the Earth So neither have we after we have done the works required to Mortification any greater share or Title of Causalitie in the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual than Infants have in their Regeneration 4. It may be Objected That the works prerequired by us to Mortification spiritual are more truely Ours than any Action that can be imagined as requisite in the heavens for Creation of the Sun Moon or Starres Or in the Earth for the Creation of herbes and trees T is true Some Actions are required in us * See the 2. note at the end of this Sect chapt 36. that Grace may be created in us yet not to make us more Capable naturally of Grace but to make us Meere Passives not uncapable of it or not Positively Contradictorie to his Majestie or eternal aequitie Man from the beginning had a Freedome of Will to deprive himself of such Blessings as God in his Bounty had provided for him Our first Parents by the Abuse of their Free Will betwixt Good and Evill made themselues uncapable of any Blessing or Reward from Gods Justice or meer Bountie yet were they not hereby made uncapable of his Infinite Mercy Nor are his Posteritie made uncapable of it by Sin meerely Original but by Abuse of that Free-Will which is left them as the proper Fruit of Sin Original that is a Free-Will to do Evill We have a Power or Freedome left us to make our selves more Uncapable of Gods Mercy than we were in Adam no Power at all to make our selves more Capable of it it is God alone which increaseth this Capacitie in us That of St. Austin is notwithstanding most true in respect of All that are come to years of discretion Deus qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te God which made thee without any endeavours of thine own will not save thee without thine own endeavours And yet the best of our endeavours are but to keep our selves in the same state wherein we were when we had no works no endeavours that is when we were Infants And happie is he that doth not by lewd endeavours or ill works ☜ evacuate the Fruits of Baptisme in himself For him that doth finally so Cassate or Voyd them it had been better if he had never been baptized if he had never been born For by frustrating the hopes which he had in Baptisme he makes himself more uncapable of Gods mercy for having the Spirit of Life created in him than the Earth was of Gods Power to have Man created of it CHAP. XXXIII By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Bodie 1. Of the difference betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man IF the deeds of the Body or the Flesh must be mortified by the Spirit of man then man hath not only Freedome of Will but Liberum Arbitrium an Abilitie to Mortifie his own
from their Doctrinal Error For whilest this vail is spread over their hearts envious or malitious slander whilest it exonerates it self upon such as they suspect for Achans and Arminians will be interpreted zeal violent passions will be taken for the Power of the Spirit such nastie Soloecismes or rude scurrilitie as would seem loathsom to heathen Artists will go current with themselves and their associates for sanctified eloquence and so will ignorance in Philosophie or School-Divinitie be applauded for holy Simplicitie But seeing their tongues and pens are their own seeing they have cast off the yoke of obedience and begin to proclaim not mutter with our tongues we will prevail we are they that ought to speak and print books Who is Lord over us Let them use what language they please the Print-houses in this interim possessed and imployed by them shall but exercise my patience as some I hope by usurpation not by just Warrant pulpits here and there ever and anon for these three and twenty years have done during which time whilest such Schediasticks as these have preached of absolute Election or Reprobation I still have prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they said And so I suppose many more of my profession in this Kingdom have done God in the mean while hath enlightened the hearts of many by our prayers and ministry to see their error and hath made me a witnesse of many mens sorrow for being misled And whensoever the vail shall be taken from the heart of such now living in this land as still maintain that Rigid Doctrine their sorrow and compunction will be no less then the sorrow and compunction of those Jews which had through ignorance consented to the crucifying of the Lord of Glory 18 The practise of the Jews was in the issue more desperate then men in this age no less zealous of that which they apprehend for truth can have opportunity to attempt But the error which led the Jews to that desperate practise against the Son of God is no way impaired but rather enlarged by some Christians of these times Our onely comfort is that however the common error of both times be rather strengthened then any way enfeebled by such in our times as nurse it yet is it neither so general nor so inveterate in this land as it was in the Jewish nation before their final destruction The Governours of our Church and State the learned Pastors or conformable Layity are not so infected with it as the Pharisees Scribes and Elders in Judea were in our Saviours time Their excessive pride and Hypocrisie made them so extraordinarily impatient of reproof and contradiction and their extraordinary impatience of reproof in matters of practise and of contradiction in point of opinion hatched that cruel and murtherous hate against the Son of God The setled matter of their deadly malice was pride and hypocrisie of heart that wherewith this corrupt matter was continually fed was passionate zeal to maintain the Absolute Election of their Nation and the Absolute Rejection of the Gentiles humorous perswasion of their own immutable estate in Gods promise first occasioned or strengthened by reflecting upon the accurate reformation which to their seeming they had made of their forefathers Idolatry of Sabbath-breaking other palpable transgressions of Gods Law But however crueltie and fury have no such Objects to practise upon in these latter dayes as the Jews and as the Scribes and Pharisees had yet is not bodily death a more Usual effect of pestilent feavers then slander persecution crueltie and murderous hate are in all Ages of ignorant zeale and hypocrisie Nor do putrified or malignant humours more usually breed pestilent feavers or other dangerous diseases in mens bodies then immature perswasions of their own Immutable estate in Grace or indigested resolution concerning absolute Election or Reprobation do hatch pride and hypocrifie in mens soules And the most infallible Symptome of pride and hypocrisie is Jealously of being contradicted by such as contradict them not or impatiency of meer Logical Contradiction without gallor bitterness in point of Opinion Another Accidental Improvement of the Jews murtherous hate against our Saviour was the hotness and blindness of their zeal to Moses's writings Yet were not Moses's writings in higher esteem with them then St. Paules Epistles are deservedly with us And would to God some amongst us did not further mistake or pervert his scope and aim in that 9. Chapter to the Romanes then the Jewes did Moses's meaning But the Parallel between the Jewish misperswasions of love and zeale to God and his servant Moses and the misperswasions of many Modern Christians presumed love to our Saviour and his Apostles is elsewhere S See his Tiâ—eatise of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Ch. 14. page in quarto 245. handled in the general and shall by Gods assistance be further prosecuted in some particulars My purpose for the present is to shew how neerely it concerns my self and all that seek to prevent the Resubmission of this people unto the Roman yoke to beware of peremptory resolutions concerning Absolute Reprobation 19. It was well observed by Oecolampadius that the ordinary Pictures of God or of his enemy Puerorum major pars nescit quid sit Deus quid Sathan quid bonum quid malum idque firmitèr credo Neque talis Deus vel Sathan quemadmodum Pictores in tabellas aut parietes pingunt Si nosti quomodo Deus misericors sit benignus mitis mansuetus Longanimis patiens justus c. verè Deum agnoscis per illas enim res propriè quid sit Deus discimus E contrario Sathan nihil aliud est quam immiserâ—cordia odium invidia homicidium mendacium irrisio proximi omne malum Oecolamp concione ad adolescent pag. 349. were no good Books for instructing Laymen or Children in the nature of God or of Sathan The truest representation that can be made of God would be to teach them what truth is what mercy what Love or Goodness is The best Picture that can be taken of Sathan would be the true Characters of Falshood malice hatred crueltie envy Yet by this Good Authours leave however Sathan be the Father of lyes the Author of malice the hatcher of envy and hatred the Com-plotter of cruelty yet can he not so truly and properly be called falshood it self envy it self hatred it self cruelty it self in the abstract as God is said to be Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self and Goodness it self For though falshood hatred envie cruelty c. be now become Natural to the old Serpent yet were they adventitious to his prime nature and substance he was not from the beginning invested with these or the like habits But if the Opinion of some men amongst us concerning absolute Reprobation were from above He whom we professe to be the Almightie Creatour of heaven and earth should be as truly and properly falshood it self hatred it self cruelty it self as he is
Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self Goodness it self The Branches of the Doctrine concerning Absolute Reprobation which bear this Fruit are to omit others for the present specially these Two The First That the manifestation of Gods punitive Justice was a part of the Object of Gods Primary Will and an exercise of his Will as directly as immediatly and as irresistibly intended by him in the Creation as the manifestation of his Goodnesse Bounty or reservation of his mercy to such as shall be saved was The Second That God from Eternity did as truly hate all those who perish without respect or reference to their works or qualifications as he did love those who shall be saved Now if the number of such as perish be much greater then the number of such as shall be saved and if the same God did from eternitie as truly hate the greater sort of men as he did love the lesse without all respect or reference to their works or qualifications if he did out of his eternal hatred as peremptorily decree the endless torments of the One as he did the everlasting happiness of the Other These Conclusions of the Lutherans avouched by them in some Catechismes which I have seen before the name of Arminius was heard of in these Parts will necessarily follow viz. That such as maintain this rigid doctrine of Absolute Reprobation do not believe in or acknowledge the same God which the Lutherans with all antiquitie acknowledge for they acknowledge their God to be Truth Mercy Love and Goodnesse whereas the stiffe maintainers of Absolute Reprobation confesse their God to be hatred and Crueltie it self Now to acknowledge one and the same God to be Truth Love Mercy and Goodnesse itself in respect of some and in respect of others to be falshood hatred crueltie it self is a grossser Heresie or Transformation of the Deity then was the Heresie of the Manichees which acknowledge Two Gods or independent Originals of all things the One as Fountain of all Goodness the Other the Authour of all Evill For avoyding these and the like Conclusions no evasion or observation hath been or can be pretended by such as make the Entity or Individual Natures of man the Formal Objects of Reprobation besides this One viz. That Gods Will is so the Rule of Goodness that if he will the death of all that dye without respect unto their works or Qualifications this must be Good If he be pleased to hate the greater Part of mankind without all reference to their Qualifications the hatred of them must be as good as his Love of those few which shall be saved And the Apostle did advise them to rest upon this answer when he saith O man who art thou that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus hath not the Potter power over the clay c. But whether this Use of our Apostles Doctrine in that place be according to his meaning or whether any Conclusion can be drawn from that Chapter which may make for absolute Election or Reprobation is elsewhere examined By that which hath been said See Chapt. 42. Numb 9. 10. it may appear that such in this Land as stifly hold the Tenet of absolute Reprobation which the Christian world besides hath for the most part forsaken have some reason though no just cause to question the truth delivered by me in what sense Gods Will is said to be the Rule of Goodness For unlesse they can disprove my Tenet which God be praised hath stronger Supporters then my weaknesse can afford they must either revoke their errour or admit God to be more then the Author of sin as truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as properly sin it self as Being it self or life it self And yet if they could perswade the ignorant that Gods Will is the Rule of Goodness in such a sense as they would make it the Inconveniences which the Lutherans object would be rather for a while removed then cleerely avoided They might be prest upon them again with greater force and advantage with this addition that they maintain the Turkish Opinion concerning Fate and Providence And upon this Ground only as I conceive do the the Lutherans instile the Calvinists Limbs of Gog or of the Eastern Antichrist But the best is that of such who at this day do not disclaim the name of Calvinists the most and best learned dislike the opinion of Absolute Reprobation and so I hope in good time will every faithfull Pastor in the Church of England and every Loyal Elder in this our Israel For admit we could make full proofe unto the Congregations committed to our Charge that Papistry is as some have enstiled it the Ocean of Heresies that the Absolute Infallibility of the Pope or Consistory exceeds the mixture or combination of all other particular Heresies which have been that the Idolatry which the Roman Catholicks from the belief of the Pope or Churches absolute Infallibilitie are inforced to commit and practise doth equalize the Idolatry of those heathens which solemnly worshipt the Divel yet all this being proved by us and firmly believed by our flocks would be of small force or sway to retain understanding men in their Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord or in obedience to the Lawes Ecclesiastick or Civil of this Kingdom if once the Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation might be fastened upon the Church of England or be embraced by her Learned Pastors or Governours For so they might as concludently prove us to be as grosse Hereticks as we say they are and evince our Churches doctrine to be as Blasphemous as theirs is Idolatrous To have this Rigid Doctrine generally embraced or acknowledged by us or at least to have the World believe that it were generally acknowledged by us is the very Thing and the main business which the Factors for the Romish Church for these many years have earnestly sollicited This is the very net wherein Sathan hopes to catch this Island he hath set the Jesuites to spread and hold it and when opportunity serves to draw it And the Jesuites as they have long used our Pulpits and Print-houses so they attempt to use some in our Parliaments as their Podders to drive us into it Their prey they know must needs be great if they can bring us into these straights or put a necessity of this hard choice upon us Whether were better to live in obedience to a Church which adores wicked and naughty men Divels incarnate for such some of their Popes have been as Gods on Earth or to hold communion with that Church or societie of men which makes the God of heaven the Almighty Creatour of all things Visible and invisible much worse then an Incarnate Divel yea then any wicked Spirit or then the Divel himself can without slander be conceived to be Isaiah 58. 4. Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the Fist of wickedness ye shall
or more then a Prophet which should work great wonders for the good of the Hebrews or Israelites his kinsmen according to the flesh which could not be effected Rebus sic stantibus As the case stood then without dangerous prejudice to the Egyptians Upon the like jealousie occasioned by more then a publick Fame an Authentick Prenotion That there should about the latter end of Herods raign arise A Star in Jacob a true King of the Jews the bloodie Tyrant caused all the Males of Judah and Benjamin about Bethlehem which were under two years to be cruelly murthered and yet left the true King of the Jews the Heir of David the Flower of Jesse and Hope of Israel untouched The Second Circumstance or remarkable similitude between Jesus and Moses was this Moses after the first cruel Pharaohs death was commanded by God to return into Egypt his native soil upon assurance given him that they were dead that sought his life Joseph is warned in a dream or Divine vision by night to return with Jesus and his Mother out of Egypt into the land of Israel Because they were dead that sought the young childs life to wit Herod and his Complices Mat. 2. 20. But my aim in this place of which I hope I have not fallen much wide or short was to set the Parallel aright between the Induration or Infatuation of the Egyptians in Moses his dayes and the Excaecation of the Jews after their contempt of our Saviours miracles and more then Prophetical Monitions The Kalender made by the learned Author of the Book of Wisdom for the opposite Fates or Destinies of the Egyptians and of the Iews began in his own time and shortly after our Saviours Resurrection to be out of Date and more then so quite inverted Versâ tabulâ currebant qui modò stabant the Lot or destinie which this good Author assigned unto the ungodly Egyptians did fall upon his Presumed Holy Ones the Iews his Countrey-men Vnto these the destroyer gave Place and was afraid of them for it was enough that they only tasted of the wrath But as for the ungodly wrath came upon them without mercy unto the end for he knew before what they would do Wisd 18. 25. and 19. 1. of the Jews saith St. Paul They please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the uttermost or to the end The Author of the Book of Wisdom Whosoever he were Philo or some other did slide or draw himself into a Twofold error only by overstretching two undoubted Canonical Truths He had rightly observed that as the Canaanites so the Egyptians were an accursed seed from the beginning as being the Off-spring of Cham and that the children of Israel were a seed two waies blessed as being the Progenie of Sem and of faithfull Abraham Wherein then did he erre or fail in his Collections First in that he presumed the curse derived from their Father Cham should be perpetually upon the Egyptians Secondly that the blessing derived from Sem and Abraham unto their seed should be absolutely everlasting Our Apostle St. Paul partly by Observation but especially by the Spirit of Prophesie did know or fore-see that the Seed of Sem and of Abraham should fall into a greater measure of Induration to continue for a longer time then that which had befallen the Seed of Cham or the Egyptians Yet did he not hence Collect or occasion us to think that this curse upon his Countrey-men the Iews should be either universal or perpetual but to continue only untill the Fulness of the Gentiles were come in Neither doth he intimate that this blessing upon the Gentiles Rom. 11. 11. specially the sons of Japhet which were heires in Reversion unto the Blessing bestowed upon Sem should continue unto the worlds end but rather to determine with the recalling of the Jews whose Restauration it is Probable shall be wrought or occasioned by the Infatuation or Obduration of the Gentiles which through their ingratitude and contempt is likely to become more grievous then the Induration either of the Egyptians in Moses dayes or of the Jews after our Saviours death ☜ 27. If we would look upon the Face of Christendom at this Instant How small a Portion of it shall we find not either besmeared with its own blood or disfigured with wounds and scarrs or other like signs of more then Jewish Infatuation and which is of all the rest the most Ominous Praesage or Symtom the hearts of most Princes and States-men are so addicted to their own Politick Resolutions that if Gods true Embassadors though Prophets raised for this purpose from the dead should take upon them to forewarn them as boldly as Moses did Pharaoh to submit themselves unto The Lord they should find more harsh entertainment in ordinary Assemblies then Moses did in Pharaohs Court as bad as our Saviours Apostles and Disciples found in Jerusalem or in Jewish Synagogues The best excuse or Apologie which best Divines or Preachers of the Gospel throughout most Christian or other Nations can make for their backwardness or want of boldness to deliver Gods Message unto greatest Princes or other States-men will be this That seeing the Spirit of Prophecie is now taken from them they may not take upon them to use the boldnesse or animositie which Moses and Aaron and other ancient Prophets did even in the Presence of greatest Princes One duty notwithstanding the Ministers of the Gospel or Christs Embassadors may duly practise without danger in the middest of this perverse and crooked Generation in every State and Kingdom a duty which we of this Church and Kingdom are specially bound to perform that is to pray and intreat the same God and Lord Iesus Christ which hardened King Pharaohs heart to remove his Plagues from all Christian Kings and States-men as also from Turkish Mahumetan or heathenish Princes and to use these and the like Parts following of our English Letanie or Liturgie more then thrice a week as we are injoyned twice at least every day evening and morning either in our Publick or private Devotions From all blindness of heart from pride vain-glorie and hypocrisie from envie hatred and malice and all uncharitablenesse c. From hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy word and commandements Good Lord deliver not only all Christians Kings but even such Kings as Pharaoh was by Profession and take from all Iews Turks infidels and Hereticks all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and make us all One Flock under One Shepherd Jesus Christ the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Soules Amen CHAP. XLI SALVATION ONLY FROM GODS GRACE Or An Exposition of Rom. 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy THese words as every
before him his First Titles are The Lord The Lord God mercyful and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving transgression Iniquitie and sin c. Visiting the iniquitie of the fathers upon the children c. Exod. 34. 6. This Sense well fitts our Apostles Instance in Iacob and Esau See Geu 36. For God was mercyfull unto Esau whom he blest and made a Father at least of One considerable Nation but exceeding mercifull unto Jacob because his purpose was to give the world a manifest proof of his extraordinary Goodnesse in him as he did of his severitie in hardening Pharaoh who had made up the measure of his forefathers iniquitie which God as in the former place he had said to Moses did visit upon him But of this Instance concerning Pharaoh and the similitude which the Apostle borrowes from the Potter we shall speak if God permitt hereafter 13. See Chap. 42. Numb 9. If we put the former verses and the words of this verse together our Apostle saith neither more nor lesse in them then our Saviour implyed in that speech Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple And not being his disciple it is impossible he should find mercy Or professing himself to be his disciple and not willing to learn this Lesson of denying himself the latter end shall be worse then the begining that is he shall be hardened But shall all that truely forsake themselves be assuredly his disciples and find that mercy which God promised unto Moses Yes Christ hath promised to all without exception There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and for the gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life and in the world to come eternal life Mark 10. 29 30. 14. But if there be a possibilitie for All unfainedly to fly unto Gods mercyes and if All that fly unto them shall undoubtedly find them and make their Election sure See Chap. 32. how is not election ex Praevisis operibus seeing to fly unfainedly to Gods mercyes is truly a Work yea an industrious Work Now to make workes necessary or ordinarily available to our First Conversion may seem a point of Poperie if not a degree of Pelagianism To this purpose some sons of our common Mother would interpret My meaning should I utter this Doctrin in some publik Audience This was a Sermon preached in C. C. C. Chappel in Oxon 20 or 30. yeares since Howbeit in truth and veritie there is no doctrine under heaven with which my former Assertion may better stand then with the Doctrine of the English Church No Tenet or Principle of any other Religion whatsoever that can so directly clear the former Objection as doth the Fundamental Article of that Religion which is professed by all the Reformed Churches Do not all these expressly teach That men are Iustified by beliefe in Christ without works Now let any man rightly answer an Argument usually made by the Papists and as commonly denyed by every Protestant and I shall make his Answer as well fitt the former Objection or any inconvenience that can be pretended against the former Assertions The Argument used by our Adversaries is Works of Faith are true Workes and to believe in Christ is a true work of Faith Now if we cannot be Iustified but by believing in Christ it is impossible we should be Iustified Without good workes The Answer to this Captious Syllogism most used by the Reformed Writers is Fides justificat non quà Opus sed Relativè I like their Meaning well but their Manner of expressing is not so Artificial as it might be and therefore more Obnoxious to Exception I would answer as I take it more appositely to the same Effect To renounce all works and seek salvation only by Plea of mercy is the proper and Formal Work of Faith and therefore is essentially included in the Act of Justification not included in the universalitie of works which are excluded from justification Did not Priests as the Proverb is forget that they had been Clerkes Or rather could great Clerkes in Divinitie remember what they had learned when they were Punie Artists the former Objection or the like could never have troubled them the Form of it drawn into Mood and Figure being so childishly Captious as would be exploded out of the Schooles of Arts should it be stood upon in good earnest If such Divines as urge it most should come into our Per-vices and apply it to matters there discussed thus Omne visible est Coloratum Omnis color est visibilis Ergo Omnis color est coloratus I hope a meaner Artist then this Nursery God be praised hath any would quickly cut off their progress with a Distinction of Visibile ut quod visible ut quo and shew that the Major though universally true of every Subject or body that may be seen did not nor could not comprehend Colour it self by which they are made visible and by whose Formal Act they are denominated colorata The Fallacie of the former Objection drawn into Mood and Figure is the same but more apparent Every Will or Work of Man must be utterly renounced from the Act of Justification or Conversion But to deny our selves and renounce all works is a Work Ergo This work must be excluded from the suit of mercy as no way available Cujus contrarium verum est Seeing This is opus quo renunciamus the Formal Act by which all works must be renounced This Work must of Necessitie be included in the suite of mercy and is alwaies Precedent to every mans first Conversion whose calling is not extraordinary Neither may we that are Ministers of Gods word and Sacraments presume to give any man hope of being converted without this work or Act. Unlesse we thus distinguish between Works and Renouncing of Works and grant in man before his effectual Vocation or Conversion as true a possibilitie to do the One as want of abilitie to perform the Other we shall sett the soules of our hearers in a perpetual Backwater or cause them to flote Ambiguously as it were between the main Current of sacred Scriptures and the stream of antient Interpreters both gratiously inviting all to Gods mercy and the fierce Current of modern opinions which deny all possibilitie of running in any sort to Gods mercy before Grace infused do draw us The unseasonable overflow of Which newly-out-burst doctrine through out our Land doth more mischief to mens soules then the summer floods do to their fields But if we give that Vent or issue to this Eddye or whirlepool which the former Distinction naturally implies we shall lett our Auditors or Hearers at liberty to take sea-room enough And the breath of Gods spirit plentifully diffused throughout the whole Current of His Word will as a gentlegale impell
them forward unto that haven where-unto these present meditations are bound which only affords safe harbour unto all that seek to arrive at it be they never so many 15. Instead of an exhortation You my Brethren that are annoynted to preach Gods mercy to the people give me leave to propose that counsel which I follow my self Seeing the iniquitie of the times wherein we live will not suffer us to perswade our selves that the most part of those to whom we preach are in the state of Grace Let us make this account that there is a farr greater necessitie layd upon us to teach the means How men may be brought unto the state of Grace then to frame Characters whereby they may know themselves to be what indeed they are not Gods Elect Children It is the chief mystery of the Ministerial function to set into the work of Conversion aright to impel men those wayes to which each disposition is most inclinable Now I knovv not hovv it comes to passe but questionlesse by the infinite Wisdom and never sufficiently admired Goodnesse of our God that there is no Object of Belief of vvhose truth the unregenerate man can have such strong Historical or Moral persvvasions as of the Points novv delivered No Practise vvhereto they can vvith like Facilitie or hope of surenesse be svvayed or vvrought as unto Denyal of themselves and Desire of his mercy Do ye demand of me a Reason of this Assertion It is Plain and palpable to your ovvn senses That vvhich disinables them for performing any Good and makes them uncapable of all other saving Truths is by Divine Providence made a Natural Ground of these persvvasions Their very dulnesse is as a spur to incite alacritie in these duties Every mans Conscience that hath any touch of moral honesty any sense of good or evill will throughly instruct him that the more impotent and unable he is to follow that in practice which his mind approves the deeper sense he may have of this his Impotency and surer arguments of the slavery of his unregenerate Will Now it is the infinite mercy of God not to exact more of any then they are able to do before their Conversion that is not to exact any thing of them that is truly good or if you will any thing which doth not in its own natured serve Hell And yet His Infinite justice requires of all that they sincerely and heartily though but Morally acknowledge bewaile this their natural Impotencie or want of abilitie to do any thing that is Good before they can be Converted or inabled to do better The not using of this Natural capacitie whereby collapsed man only exceeds divels in natural goodnesse or rather comes short of them in natural iniquitie is that which makes all that hear the Gospel and obey it not inexcusable But shall all that use this Capacitie right be assured to have it filled with Grace Yes the Spirit hath sealed their Assurance Isa 1. 16. Draw neer to to God and he will draw neer to you Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up Jam. 4. 10. So then we have better abilities or opportunities to cast our selves down then to lift our selves up And the Lord hath a more speciall hand in lifting us up then in casting us down Our Impotencie to walk uprightly our naturall pronenesse to all manner of evill and the weight of our actual sins do much help and in a manner impell us so we would not be wilfull to cast our selves down before the throne of Grace by whose power only we must be lifted up without any help or indeavour of our own Herein I must commend the Anti-Lutherans modestie for not calling St. Iames his Authoritie in question albeit his Testimony in this Point makes more against him then it doth against the Lutheran or other Protestants in the Point of Iustification And it is good wisdom for him so to do at least it were bootlesse for him to do the contrary seeing our Saviour hath said no lesse Come unto me all ye that labour and are laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11. The greater our labour is the heavier our load Or the more weary we grow under it the readier we are to run with better speed to Christ unto whom the feeble blind and lame were most frequent and most earnest Supplicants And our coming to him consists not either in strength or agilitie of bodie but in the frequency of Supplications and depth of groanes It was his saying They that are whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick We must feel our selves sick at the heart before this our heavenly Physitian will begin his Cure or use his Skill by applying the Medicine of saving Grace 16. Is it then impossible for the unregenerate Man to feel his infirmitie to be morally perswaded of the Soules immortalitie or to be somewhat affrighted with terrour of conscience or so affected Is it impossible to implore his heavenly Physitians help with as great care and diligence as he would an Earthly Physitians presence to save his Body in a dangerous sicknesse It were rather impossible that any who is not an absolute Atheist such as it is scarce possible for any man to be should be so slothfull and carelesse in coming to Christ as the most part of men are were they not through our sloth or ignorance or through our factious skill and industrie that should instruct them led on as it were in a drowsie dreame to imagine that Gods mercy would either come unto them without seeking or that it were impossible for them to do any thing before it apprehend them that might infallibly availe for the finding of it or rather for being found and imbraced by it The natural man is not so unnatural to himself as not to desire ease in true sense of actual paine or exemption from danger which his soul doth dread Nor is he so Brutish as to think himself not beholding to him that in these Cases is able and willing to afford him Comfort It is the Duty and should be the Care of us whom that Great heavenly Physitian hath appointed to visit his Patients First to work a sense and feeling of that natural Infirmitie Plinie See Chapt. 8. and Fol. 3145. whereof the Great Naturalist was without an Instructer very sensible Secondly to confirm their Belief of this Article That no present Fee or hope of praise amongst men can make any earthly Physitian half so ready to cure their bodies as he that out of his Free Bounty made their soules is at all times to repair them so they would but Implore his Omnipotent Mercy with as true and hearty affections as they do the help of their bodily comforters in distress CHAPT XLII GODS JUST HARDENING OF PHARAOH when he had filled up the measure of his iniquitie OR An Exposition of Rom. 9. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. Therefore hath he mercie
prime Because the Moon being of an incorruptible substance hath continued one and the same since the first Creation But unto this Consequence every Artist could make reply that the proper and immediate subject of the Eclipse is not the Nature or Substance of the Moon howsoever considered but in certain opposition to the Sun So that albeit this Proposition The Moon shall be eclipsed be true and necessary from everlasting yet it is necessarie yet it is true only of the Moon in such Diametral opposition to the Sun that the Earth may cover it with her shadow as with a mantle Whensoever it is in such Opposition it is necessarily Eclipsed Whensoever it is not in such opposition to the Sun it cannot possibly by the course of nature be Eclipsed 25. It is in like manner true which we have often said that the proper and immediate Object of the eternal Decree concerning Induration or Reprobation was not Pharaohâ—s Individual Entitie or Essence but Pharaoh charged with a certain measure of iniquitie or separation from his God Granting then that Pharaoh's Substance from his infancie to his full age was one and the same as incorruptible as the Moon yet the degrees of his declination from the unchangeable Rule of Justice or of his opposition to the Fountain of mercy and goodnesse might be more than are the degrees of the Moons aberration or elongation from the Sun Now the Alseeing providence did more accurately calculate each work each word each thought of Pharaoh and their opposition to his goodness than Astronomers can do the motions of the Moon or Plancts And will he not make his payment according to his calculation Tu Domine nosti utrum radix sit dulcis an amara de qua for is pulchra folia Emittuntur Tu judex interius meliùs ipse nosti etiam medullas radicum subtiliùs perscrutaris non solùm intentionem sed radicis ejus medullam intimam disertissima tuae lucis veritate colligis numeras intueris consignas ut reddas unicuique non solummodo secundum opera vel intentionem sed etiam secundum ipsam intertorem absconditam medullam radicis de quâ procedit intentio operantis Augustin in Soliloqu Cap. 14. pag. 14. 2. So that in One and the self-same Pharaoh there might be more several Objects of the eternal decree than are minutes or scruples in forty years motion of the Moon Not the least varictie or alteration in his course of life but had a proportionate Consequent of reward or punishment allotted to it from all eternitie by the Irresistible Decree Unto Pharaoh then having made up the full measure of his iniquitie Irresistible induration and unrecoverable Reprobation was by the vertue of this eternal Decree altogether necessary and inevitable But unto Pharaoh before this measure of iniquitie was made up neither induration nor irrecoverable Reprobation was so necessarie or inevitable To think the unchangeable Rule of Justice should award the same measure of Induration or Reprobation unto far different measures of iniquitie goes deeper thaâ— the dreggs of Heaâ—henism it is a doctrine which may not be vented where any Christian eare is present 26. The former Resemblance is fully Parallel to our Resolution in all other points save onely in this that the eternal decree did not so necessarily direct or impell Pharaoh to make up the full measure of his iniquitie as it doth direct and guide the course of the Moon till it come in full and Diametral opposition to the Sun Therefore this Similitude will not follow As The Moon though at this time not Eclâ—psed yet holds that course by the unchangeable decree which in time will bring it to be in Diametral opposition to the Sun and by consequence to be Eclipsed So though Pharaoh in his infancie was not reprobated or hardened by Gods Irresistible Will yet Was he by the eternal decree ordained to such reprobation or induration without possibilitie of altering his course or avoiding that opposition which his full age had unto Divine Goodnesse As every true convert or regenerate person may say with him in Saint Ambrose Ego non sum Ego I am become another man so might it be truly said in a contrarie sense Pharaoh sometimes was not Pharaoh When he was a child he spake as a child he thought as a child His mouth was not not opened against God his mind was not set on murther To have seen the Israelitish infants strangled or exposed to the merciless flouds would more have affected his heart being young and tender than afterwards it did his daughters Nor was that crueltie which in his full age he practised so contained in his infancie as poison in the serpents egge It did not grow up by kind or necessitie of his natural temper much lesse was it infused by Gods Irresistible Will but acquired by Voluntarie custom The seeds of it were sown by his own self-will ambitious pride was the root politick jelousie was the bud tyrannie and oppression the fruit Neither was it necessary by the eternal decree that this corrupt seed should be sown or that being sown it should prosper and bud or that after the budding it should ripen in malignitie During all this progress from bad to worse the immediate Object of Gods Immutable and Vnresistible Will was mutabilitie in Pharaoh But this progress which was not necessarie by any eternal decree or law being de facto once accomplished his destruction was inevitable his induration unresistible his reprobation irrecoverable by the eternal and uncontroulable Decree 27. That Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was not excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from possibilitie of repentance That Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was not such an Object of Gods Irresistible Will for induration as in his full age he became may be thus demonstrated No man whose salvation as yet is truly possible is utterly excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation But the salvation of Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was truly possible Ergò Pharaoh in his Touth or infancie was not excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation Therefore He was not then the Object of Gods Irresistible Will for Induration The Major is evident from the exposition of the Termes For God is said to Will that onely by his Irresistible Will which hath no possibilitie to the contrary The necessitie of it like-wise may be made evident by the Rules of Conversion No mans salvation that stands excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation is truly possible Ergò No man whiles his salvation is possible is utterly excluded by Gods Irresistible Will from salvation or which is all one No man whiles his salvation is possible is either hardned or reprobated by Gods Irresistible Will or in Latin more perspicuously thus Nullus per Irresistibilem Dei voluntatem à salute exclusus est servabilâ—s Ergo Nullus servabilis idest quandiu servari potest est à salute exclusus per irresistibilem Dei
of the division should exhaust the whole or integrum divided As if a Geographer should say Of the inhabitants of the earth some are seated on this side the Line others beyond it This Division is not formal nor so exact as is required in arts or just under it the division were good but very imperfect if he should say Some are seated between the Tropick of Cancer and the Artick circle others betwixt the Tropick of Capricorn and the circle Antartick for a great many are commodiously seated betwixt the Tropicks as experience hath taught later ages to reform the errour of the Ancient and some likewise betwixt the Polar circles and the Poles But in matters arbitrarie and contingent as matters of common use for the most part are to exact alike formal or accurate divisions is ridiculous especially when as well the members of the division as the dividend it selfe are terms indefinite As if a man should say of men Some are extraordinarily good some extraordinarily bad or of Academicks some are extraor dinarily acute some are extraordinarily dull though every one will grant the division to be indefinitely true yet no man almost would acknowledge himself to be contained under either member as the most part of men are not indeed Or if one should say Every Prince sheweth extraordinary favour to some of his subjects and some others he maketh examples or subjects of his severitie who could hence gather that no part or not the greatest part were left to the ordinarie course of justice or to the priviledges common to all free denizons Now we are here to remember what was premised in the entrie into this Treatise That albeit Gods Will be most immutable yet is it immutably free more free by much than the Changeable will of man So are the objects of this his Free-will more arbitrarie than the designs of Princes The Objects of his Will in this our present argument are mercie and induration and these he awards to divers persons or to the same persons at divers times according to a different measure Whence if we take these termes in that extraordinary measure which is included in this division That most men are not comprehended under either member of this division the most part of men with whom we shall usually have to deale do not fall within either member The proper perhaps the only subjects of this division it self in Moses time were the Israelites and Egyptians in our Apostles time the cast-away Jews and such of the Gentiles as were forthwith to be ingrafted in their stead If we take mercie and induration in a lesser measure according to their lower degrees or first dispositions scarce any man living of riper years but hath devolved from the one part of this division unto the other oftner then he hath eaten drank or slept Christs Disciples saith Saint Mark Chap. 6. v. 52. had not Considered the miracle of the loaves because their hearts were hardened yet shortly after to be mollifyed that Gods mercie and Christs miracles might find more easie entrance into them Our habitual temper is for the most part mutable how much more our actual desires or operations And whatsoever is mutably good or mutably evill in respect of its acts and operations One and the same man according to the diversitie of time or qualification may be the true and proper subject of both parts of this division which are sometimes de bono sometimes de malo objecto hath its alternant motions from Gods decree of hardning towards his decree of shewing mercie and è contrà 31. The doctrine contained in this passage of Scripture will never sound well for the right setling the affections and consciences of such as be Novices in faith untill they be taught to run this division upon the same string Hast thou been enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift made partaker of the Holy Spirit Thy sin is great and thou art found a despiser of the riches of his bountie unless thou embrace these illuminations as undoubted pledges of his favour and assured testimonies of his good purpose to make thee heir of eternal life Worthy thou art to be numbred among those perverse and wayward Jews whom our Saviour compares to children playing in the market if while these Good motions and exultations of spirit last thou givest not more attentive ear than he that danceth doth to him that pipeth or harpeth unto that sweet voice of thy heavenly Father encouraging thee in particular as he did sometimes the host of Israel Oh that there were such an heart in thee alwaies that it might go well with thee for ever But eschew these and the like inferences as cunning Sophismes of the great Tempter that old and subtile Serpent I thank God I have felt the good motions of the Spirit I perceive the pledges of his good purpose towards me but his purpose is unchangeable Therefore is my Election sure enough I am a sealed vessel of mercy I cannot become a vessel of wrath If such thoughts have at any time insinuated into thy heart or be darted upon thee against thy will remember thy self in time and thus repell them If God harden whom he will if his Will be immutably and eternally free it is as free for him to harden me as any other And consider withall that albeit thou canst not make or prepare thy self to be a vessel of mercy yet thy untimely presumption if it continue long in the end will make thee as in the begining it doth prepare thee to be a vessel of wrath This was the disease whereof the whole Nation of the Jews did perish Doest thou see thy Brother one baptized in the name of Christ go on stubbornly in his wicked courses thou dost well to threaten him with the sentence of death Yet limit thy speeches by the Prophets Rule Jerem. 18. pronounce him not for all this an absolute Reprobate or irrecoverable vessel of wrath give him not forthwith for dead but rather use double diligence to prevent his death and tell him If God shew mercy upon whom he will shew mercy if this his VVill be eternally free it is as free for him yet to shew mercy upon supposed Castawaies and to harden uncharitable and presumptuous Pharisecs for the present manifestation of his glory as it was for him to reject the Jews and chase the Gentiles Finally this Division though we take Mercy and Induration according to their Indefinite or lowest measure is not more universally true in respect of the Innumerable Subjects or parties unto whom it may fittly be applyed then it is in respect of the Time wherein it may be applyed to any determinate Individual Subject which hath not made as yet either the Full Measure of his iniquitie up to the brim or his Election immutably sure Of all and every Person and Subject not thus qualifyed it is universally true He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he
c. 3303 c. See Presence Luther did not distinguish inter Liberam voluntatem Liberum Arbitrium 3130 Lutheran Catechisms and consequences 3188 Lutherans wrest the Antients in Point of Consubstantiation 3298 Lycurgus's Whelps 3085 3134 M. Great Magore weighs himself yearly in gold and gives it to the poor 3236 Malepert Courtier 3227 Manichees their Bruitish opinion 3080 c. Marie the B. Virgin free from sin in her consent Be in vnto me 3038 Mass Doctr. of it injurious to Christ 3262 c. wrongs his one sacrifice the value and efficacie of it 3289 c. scandalizes the Jew 3290 makes Legal Priests Types of Masse-Priests 3265 Melchizedeck by the Romanists made a Type of Mass-Priests rather then of Christ 3265 Melchizedek not read that he offerd any sacrifice his Priesthood was a Priesthood of Blessing Authoritative 3302 Ministers main work to sett men right in the way of Conversion 3219 Mercie of God maintained 3184 3210 c. 3217 He will have mercie on whom he will the sense and quintessence of that Aphorism 3205 it implies mercie in abundance mercie to the purpose to all that seek it 3217 God shewes mercie Isaac wills Esau runs 3215 He will have mercie on whom he will the extent of that Division 3242 c. To have mercie on whom he will is a reserved prerogative of God 3216 Rom. 9. 16. excludes not endeavours nor meanes but merits 3216 c Gods readiness to shew mercie 3221 He will have mercie he hardeneth to what points the Text reaches 3247 c. Merit of works The question useless as to Adams first Estate 3008 Meritorum Reviviscentia 3285 Men several sorts several workings of the Spirit 3121 Men not come to full growth in faith c. but Children in Christ 3247 Mens deprecaturad optima 3119 Not Metaphors but Mysteries in the 6 8 9 10 Chapt. to the Hebr. 3254 Moses hid by Revelation 3191 designed Heir of the Crown of Egypt 3192 His great Atchievements perhaps against Ethiopia an omen of his leading Israel out of Bondage ibid. Two points of his Embassie to Pharaoh 3193 Gods Viceroy carried the Treaties in accurate solemnitie 3194 instructed incouraged 3196 had miracles for Letters of Credence 3195 3197 Mortification 3096 c. Progress in mortificaton a firm sign of mans Estate in Grace 3097 3103 3245 By it measure our perswasions 3162 Dutie of mortification how universal how indefinite 3099 Universal in respect of Persons though not for the matter or degrees 3146 The very Elect must mortifie 3102 Mortification a Term divisible 3105 Mortification how wrought by the Spirit how by our selves 3106 How by Gods Spirit how by mans Spirit 3110 3115 3120 Flesh the seat of the disease and must be mortified Spirit quickned 3118 c. 3121 Mortification Moral and Spiritual 106 3132 c. Whether mortification be ex operibus praevisis 3112 Mortification consists in two things Deading our desires purifying the heart 3119 Accomplishment of mortification wherein it consists 3124 c. it consists not in negatives 3125 Men that have been mortified if they draw back like heated water they freez the soonest 3128 More about Mortification 3146 c. Each degree of mortification is an approach to the Final Ratification of the promise ye shall live 3152 Mortification our reasonable Service 3159 The use of the Doctrine of Mortification 3160 c. Murmuring what must quiet it 3229 Mutinie at Capua 3074 Maâ—hiavel's judgment upon it ib. N. NAaman had some degree of Free-will 3130 Natural grounds to deny our selves and flee to God Impotencie to doe good that Good he approves dulness it self a spur 3219 c. This natural Capacitie not used makes us inexcusable ibid. The Naturalist hunts Truth upon fresh Sents not foyled with second notions 3019 Negative Precepts Sin more provoked by them then by Affirmative the reason 3026 Negative See precepts See proposition This error That all things be necessary nothing Contingent in respect of God a cause of Errors c. 3164 3016 An ill necessitie freely Contracted 3052 3063 3055 Necessary ab aeterno that ungodly men perish but not necessarie that they should be ungodly men 3169 Necessitie See Adam See Decree See Free Nobilitie expires not in uno vitioso 3032 Non-age Persons under yeares neither servants nor freemen properly 3042 of the two rather Servants ibid A strange Note upon St. Jude 3164 3173 Novatian's Error or Heresie 3280 c. Novatian's quarel with Cornelius Bishop of Rome 3281 Novatus and Novatianus two several Persons 3291 Novatus his Character 3291 O. MAns Tye by oath tempts to unfaithfulness why 3026 Oath makes promise or threat irreversible 3148 Oath of God to Abraham to requite him in kind 3302 The great Objection why doth he yet find fault 3226 c. Answered 3228 3230 Obliquitie necessarily resulting from the Act is Caused by the Cause of the Act 3011 The Cause of any Action Essentially evil or inseparable from evill is the Cause of evill 3165 Obliquitie did necessarily result from the forbidden act exercised yet was not the Act necessarie 3012 The distinction of the Act and obliquitie has no place in the first sin of Man 3013 Act and obliquitie as Connex as Roundness and Sphere 3013 c. Oecolampadius his observation 3187 Often offering an argument of imperfection 3263 3290 Ex operibus praevisis whether mortification be so tanquam ex Titulo or tanquam ex Termino 3113 3218 Opera quae renunciamus opus quo renunciamus 3219 Object See Decree Ordained to Condemnation how ungodly men are 3164 God ordaines no man to trouble the Church 3165 Yet if God ordains all Actions so that they could not come to passe otherwise then they do That would follow 3164 c. What God ordains that he is Author of 3165 c. Every Ordination to Everlasting death is not Reprobation 3166 Ordination to life and predestination ordination to death and reprobation differ as Genus and Species 3166 Origen See Beza Original See sin P. PAcuvius See Calavius Parable that of our Saviour Matth. 12. 43. applyed 3277 Paraeus his Dispute with Becanus 3012 Parallels betwixt Jews and Modern Christians 3187 The Hardening of the Jews and the Egyptians 3206 c. Moses and Christ 3207 Passeover and the Lords Supper between the two Inheritances bequeathed by Moses and Christ 3261 The Mundane Tabernacle and Celelestial the Rites and Priests of that and Christ 3253 3257 3259 3261 The Red Heifer and Christ 3261 3267 3270 3299 3302 Pardon due to Learned Authors which their Followers cannot claim 3013 No Pardon Antedated by God 3283 Some Popes denyed to Antedate Pardons ib. Pardon See Sin remitted c. Parents may by Lewdness improve the venom of sin Original in their Children 3019 3031 Parricide not rife till forbidden by Law 3024 3145 Sin irritated by Precepts more by Negative Precepts 3025 c. It is easier to avoid the first occasions then the insuing opportunities of Sin against Negative Precepts 3094 Precepts