the title El which as a learned Jew affirmeth doth not less clearly express his influence then Jehovah doth his Essence El and Elohim Abarbanel apud Joann Buxtorf fil in Dissertat de Nominibus Dei Hebraicè thes 39 41. in their most proper notion as he telleth us signifying the authour and producer of things by an infinite power Of this Relative goodness there are sundry distinct branches mentioned in this superexcellent Text which are spoken to in their order § 3. The First is Mercy The nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intra viscera recepit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 1. 78. whereof may receive much light from the Hebrew word which is here made use of It cometh from a root that signifieth shutting up in ones bowels as child-bearing women retain and cherish their dearest offspring within their wombs Accordingly we reade in Luke of the bowels of Gods mercy a phrase which implieth both inwardness and tenderness First inwardness our bowels are the most inner parts The mercy of God springs from within and hath no original cause without himself Humane affection is commonly both begotten and fed by somewhat without in the thing or person beloved as culinary fire must be kindled and kept in by external materials But God loveth because he loveth Deut. 7. 7 8. Exod. 33. 19. and sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy as celestial fire is fuel to it self He freely extendeth mercy to us in making us good then doth us good for being so is not this a mercifull God Secondly tenderness The forecited passage in Luke runneth thus in our translation Through the tender mercies of our God Of all parts the bowels relent and earn most In them we are wont to finde a stirring when strong affections of love or pity are excited as Joseph did upon sight of Benjamin Gen. 43. 30. God speaking after the manner of men useth this pathetical expression concerning his people How shall I give thee Hos 11. 8. up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together His people accordingly crie to him Where is thy zeal and thy strength the Isai 63. 15. sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Of all humane bowels those of mothers are the tenderest Can a woman saith the Lord forget her sucking Isai 49. 15. childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yet sooner shall all the mothers in the world prove unnatural then he unmercifull for so it followeth yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee § 4. Well may this notion of mercy put us in minde of returning bowels of love to God according to what David said in the beginning of Psalm the eighteenth I will love thee O Lord my strength where the word cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex intimis visceribus diligam te Psal 18. 1. the same forementioned root and intimateth exercising love out of his most inward bowels as also of extending bowels of compassion to those especially that stand in nearest relation to him according to that of John Whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up 1 Job 3. 17. his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him But that is not all the improvement we are to make of this Attribute As it is a most tender affection so is it to be most tenderly used Take we therefore diligent heed as of refusing it by unbelief so of abusing it by presumption First of refusing mercy by unbelief Many Jonah 2. 8. as the phrase is in Jonah forsake their own mercie by giving way to objections arising from the flesh like smoke out of that bottomless pit in Revelation Say not therefore God is so angry with me the arrows of the Almighty stick so fast and the poyson thereof doth so drink up my spirit that I cannot expect any mercy from him Know that the Lord is wont even in wrath to remember mercie and that the Habak 〈◊〉 3. correction which thou at present lookest at as an argument of wrath may perhaps be an evidence of love and an act of mercy God is not about to hew thee down as thy unbeleeving heart imagineth but to prune thee for prevention of luxuriancy Be sure the right hand of his clemency knoweth whatever the left hand of his severitie doth Thou hadst better be a chastened son then an undisciplined bastard There is no anger to that in Isaiah Why Isai 1. 5. should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more That in Ezekiel I will Ezek. 16. 42. make my fury towards thee to rest and my jealousie shall depart from thee and I will be quiet and will be no more angry That in Hos 4. 17. Tunc magis irascitur quando non irascitur Super oâ—nen iram miseratio ista Bernard Hosea He is joyned to idols let him alone Then is God most angry of all when he refuseth to be angry yea there is no anger of his to be compared to this kinde of mercy Men that are fatted to destruction often go prosperously on in the world have few afflictions in their life no bands in their death but as Erasmus once said From this prosperitie Absit à nobis chrissimi alis selicitas Erasm in concione de misericordia good Lord deliver us Say not I am unworthy and must therefore despair for mercy is free and if God should shew mercy to none but such as are worthy of it he should shew mercy to none at all seeing All have sinned and come short as of the glory so of the mercy of God Say not my sins are many and great too many and too great to be pardoned but oppose to the multitude of thy transgressions that multitude of tender mercies mentioned Psal 51. 1. by the Psalmist not forgetting the gracious invitation by another Prophet Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughtss and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon or multiple pardon as the original phrase imports To the greatness of thy sins oppose the riches of Gods mercy and greatness of his love spoken of by the great Apostle God saith he who is rich in mercy for his Ephes 〈◊〉 4. great love wherewith he loved us Lo here a vast heap whereunto men may come with confidence be it never so much they have need of because these riches are not impaired by being imported The mercies of an infinite God are infinite mercies and so able to swallow up all the sins of finite creatures What though thou hast heretofore delighted in sin despair not for he delighteth in
Micah 7. 18. mercy mercy pleaseth him as much as ever any sin did thee What though thy rebellion hath been long continued The Psalm 103. 17. mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him Yea what though to former guilt thou hast added back-sliding and relapses to rebellion yet remember that in Jeremiah Return Jerem. 〈◊〉 22. ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings together with that in the last of Hosea where Israel had no sooner said In thee the fatherless findeth mercy but it followeth immediately I will heal Hos 14. 3 4. their back-slidings I will love them freely But lest any should surfet on these sweet meats take we heed § 5. Secondly Of abusing mercy by presumption Mercie improved openeth to us the surest refuge Mercy abused brings upon us the sorest vengeance It would be considered that there is one kinde of presumers whom mercy it self is resolved to have no mercy on so long as they continue such to wit those that dare expect it notwithstanding their resolution to go on in their impenitence and ignorance of God For thus saith the God of heaven concerning him Who blesseth himself in his heart saying I Deut. 29. 19 20 21. shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven and shall separate him unto evil And again It is a people of no Isa 27. 11. understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Such shall at length finde to their costs that the Justice of God as well as his Mercy endures for ever And that as nothing is more calm then a smooth more raging then a tempestuous sea nothing more cold then lead when it is taken out of the mine nor more scalding when it is heated nothing blunter then iron yet when it is whetted nothing more sharp So none more mercifull then God but if his patience be turned to fury by our provocations none more terrible Because I have purged thee saith the Lord and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken Ezâ—k 24. 13 14. it and I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent c. Wo and again wo to them all against whom mercy it self shall rise up in judgement Look as the power of God though infinite receives limitations from his will He could have made millions of worlds would make but one In like manner his infinite mercy is also limited by his will and his word the interpreter of his will plainly telleth us that as Physicians begin with preparatives so he begets fear in their hearts whom he intendeth mercy to Look as a father pittieth his his children so the Lord pittieth them that Psal 103. 13 17 18. fear him The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them Not they that presume but that fear not such as break but as keep his Covenant not those that forget but that remember his Commandments to do them or at least whose earnest desires and endeavours are that way bent may expect and shall Exerc. 2. receive mercy from him They shall finde by sweet experience the infallible truth of what Mr Peacock once said Mr R. Boltons Instructions pag. 87. upon his recovery out of a deep and long desertion viz. That the sea is not more full of water nor the sun of light then the Lord is of mercy EXERCITATION 2. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification and Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Titus 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 17. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised § 1. A Second branch of Gods goodness is Grace which relates to unworthiness as the former did to misery God is mercifull to the ill-deserving Gratious to the undeserving So far are we from being able to merit so much as the crumbs which fall from his table that even temporal favours are all from grace Noah was preserved in the deluge Why because He found Gen. 6. 8. grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jacob was enriched and had enough How came it to pass Because God said he to Esau Gen. 33. 11. hath dealt graciously with me But beside that common favour which all share in more or less there is a more special grace which the Psalmist prayeth for Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with Psal 106. 5. thy salvation § 2. This third is drawn throughout the whole web of salvation and there is not a round in the ladder to heaven which doth not give every one that steppeth upon it just occasion of crying Grace Grace Did the Lord elect thee to life and glory when so many were passed by What reason can be given of this but free grace Paul styleth it the election of grace in his Rom. 11. 5. epistle to the Romanes and telleth his Ephesians that God had chosen them in Ephes 1. 4 5 6. Christ before the foundation of the world according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glorie of his Ibid. vers 7. grace Hast thou obtained redemption through the bloud of Jesus That also saith he there flows from the riches of his grace Hath the Lord effectually called thee Bow down thine head and adore free grace as the cause thereof For he saveth and calleth us 2 Tim. 1. 9. saith the same holy Apostle with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace So in the Acts when a great number beleeved and were turned to Christianity Barnabas saw the grace of Act. 11. 21. 23. God shining forth in their conversion Hast thou received any abilities tending either to thine own sanctification or to the edification of others Do the like upon this occasion too as Paul did saying By the grace of God I am what 1 Cor. 15. 10 I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me In a word dost
the product of both sums be not soul-satisfaction and blessedness but vanity and vexation of spirit How often is the sword put into mad mens hands the bramble advanced to rule over better trees and walls of mud shined upon while marble pillars stand in shade How often do goats clamber up the mountains of preferments whilest the poor sheep Ambitio te ad dignitatem nisi per indigna non ducit Senec. Natural quaest in Praefat. lib. 1. Ambitio charitatis simia Charitas patiens est pro aeternis ambitio pro terrenis Didac Stella de Contemptu mundi part 1. pag. 88. of Christ feed below yea how often is greatness acquired by base and confounded by weak means Flattery held Absolons stirrup He that is every ones master now was a while since at every ones service Well might Stella call Ambition Charities ape for it also beleeveth all things hopeth all things yea and beareth all things too till what it hoped for be attained then grows intolerable it self It may further be observed that God usually taketh a course to break the staff of such pride by confounding the power of worldly Potentates not with Lions and Tigres but as Pharaohs of old by frogs and lice The Apostle I remember saith An Idol is nothing and yet the silversmiths cried out Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana then was a great nothing Such are those men of place idolized by common people when the Lord begins to blow upon them in his wrath like those nobles of Idumea concerning whom Isaiah said All her Princes shall Isa 34. 12. be nothing § 9. Secondly as for those saints whose wings are still somewhat clogged with the birdlime of this world I humbly desire them to consider how ill it becomes the offspring of heaven to go licking up the dust of this earth the womans seed to content it self with the serpents food Any one of the posterity of Japhet after he hath been perswaded into the tents of Sem to bring on himself Canaans curse A servant of servants shalt thou be by subjecting his soul to that which God made to serve its servant the body Verily if this present world or any thing in it be over precious in thy sight O Christian thou Cujus anima in oculis ejus est pretiosa in ejus oculis mundus est parvus Dictum Hebraeorum apud Buxtorf in florileg p. 225. Pecuniam habes vel teipsum vel pecuniam vilem habeas necesse est Senec. art become vile in the eyes of God yea in thine own for none can set an high price upon things without him till he have first undervalued his soul Time was when Satan shewed our Saviour all the kingdomes of this world and the glory of them If ever the world appear unto thee temptingly glorious suspect it for one of Satans discoveries Sure I am the Scripture useth diminishing terms when it speaks of creature-comforts as in styling the pomp of Agrippa and Act. 25. 23. 1 Joann 1. 17. Bernice much phansie no reality in calling mens temporal estates this worlds Matth. 13. 22 goods not theirs but the worlds deceitfull 1 Tim. 6. 17. Habak 2. 6. Amos 2. 7. and uncertain riches thick clay and dust of the earth winde grass and the flower of grass the least things hardly things Solomon Eccles 5. 16. James 1. 11. Luke 16. 10. 15. brings them down to the lowest degree of entity yea to nullity saying Labour not to be rich wilt thou set Prov. 23. 4 5. thine eyes upon that which is not § 10. Let Diotrephes then say It is good for me to have the preeminence Judas It is good for me to bear the bag Demas It is good for me to embrace this present world But do thou O my soul conclude with David It is Psal 73. 28. good for me to draw near to God Thou art now as a bird in the shell a shell of flesh which will shortly break and let out the bird This crazy bark of my body ere long will be certainly split upon the fatal rock of death then must thou its present pilot forsake it and swim to the shore of eternitie Therefore O everlasting creature see and be sure thou content not thy self with a transitory portion I do not Lord thou knowest I do not Of a small handfull of outward things I am ready to say It is enough but that which I long so passionately for is a large heart full of God in Christ Thou art my sun the best of creatures are but stars deriving the lustre they have from thee Did not thy light make day in my heart I should languish for all them in a perpetuall night of dissatisfaction There are within me two great gulfs a minde desirous of more truth and a will capable of more good then finite beings can afford Thou onely canst fill them who art the first truth and the chief good In thee alone shall my soul be satisfied as with marrow Psal 63. 5. and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips APHORISME II. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar Exerc. 1. in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness § 1. THere is no possibility of arriving at Blessedness without a safe conduct nor at glory without guidance No infallible guidance but by the counsel of God himself All which the Psalmist is like to have had in his eye when in his humble address to God he expresseth himself in this manner Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel Aph. 2. and afterward receive me to glory The Psalm 73. 24. husbands duty in relation to his wife is to be the guide of her youth Such Prov. 2. 17. hath Christ one of whose names is Counsellour been to his Church in former Isa 9. 6. times is at this day and will continue to the end of the world In Exodus we meet with the history of the Jewish Church her youth and her strange manner of guidance which when the Levites in Nehemiah came to Nehem. 9. 19. commemorate they do it thus Thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to shew them light and the way wherein they should go It was not onely a seasonable act of mercy to them in that age but may be looked upon as an emblem of that safe conduct which the Church in all ages may expect from Jesus Christ For as in that cloudy-fiery pillar there were two different substances the sire and the cloud yet but one pillar So there are two different natures in
For as some of Gods promises are made with the condition of faith and perseverance so his threatnings are denounced with the exception of repentance which though concealed for the most part is always included and sometimes expressed as in that place of Jeremiah At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome Jer. 18. 7 8. to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Be we admonished from hence First What to practise in reference to God to wit Truth in our promises to and covenants with him that so our returns may be answerable in kinde to our receits All his ways are mercy and truth Psal 25. 10. to us-ward therefore all ours should be truth and faithfulness towards him Thrice happy we whatever our outward condition prove if we be able to profess in the sincerity of our hearts as they did in Psalm the fourty fourth All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our principal comfort flows from Gods keeping his Covenant of grace with us it should therefore be our principal care to keep touch with him § 8. Secondly What to look for in reference to our selves To wit an exact fulfilling of all promises and threatnings that are conditional according to their severall conditions Hath the faithfull and true witness said He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Let no unbeleever then whilest he continueth in that estate expect salvation neither any that beleeveth and walketh in Christ fear damnation seeing he hath Truth it self engaged for his safety and seeing the faith of Gods Tit. 1. 1 2. elect according to St Pauls doctrine should go hand in hand with the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Let all that wish well to Zion make full account that in due time The mountain of the Isai 2. 2. Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it because it hath been promised of old Let them also know assuredly that the Lord will consume Antichrist with the spirit 2 Thess 2. 8. of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming because this commination standeth upon the file in holy Scripture and is not yet completely verified Former ages have seen Antichrist Nascent when the Bishop of Rome first usurped authority over all the Churches Antichrist Crescent when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images and praying to Saints departed Antichrist Regnant when he exalted himself above Kings and Emperours setting up his mitre above their crowns yea Antichrist Triumphant when he once became Lord of the Catholick faith so as none might beleeve without danger more or less or otherwise then he prescribed To this observation made by one of our own learned countreymen let me add we our Dr Crakanthorp in his Vigilius dormitans chap. 13. § 24. selves have seen him Antichrist Cadent falling and waining ever since Luther Calvin Perkins and others were set on work by God to unmask him And no Exerc. 4. doubt if we do not our posterity shall see him Antichrist morient dying and giving up the ghost for the Lord faithfull and true hath not onely threatned his ruine but foretold that his day is coming EXERCITATION 4. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture-expressions setting out the pardon thereof Gods goodness therein Faith and repentance the way to it Pardon in the Court of Heaven and of Conscience The equity and necessity of forgiving one another We are to forgive as God for Christs sake forgiveth us viz. heartily speedily frequently throughly A twofold remembrance of injuries in cautelam in vindictam § 1. THe sixth branch of divine goodness is the Lords keeping mercie for thousands which phrase admitteth of sundry notions worthy of diligent consideration First Keeping it as in a store-house God is said to be rich unto all that call upon Rom. 10. 12. him and we reade of the riches of his goodness These riches are laid up with him and kept as in a magazine to be made use of upon all occasions according to the emergent necessities of his people Whence it is that we also reade of their obtaining mercie and finding Hebr. 4. 16. grace to help in time of need Secondly Keeping it for the present age as well as having dispensed it formerly to predecessours Our fathers were all liberally supplied out of Gods forementioned Treasury as it is in Psalm the two and twentieth Our fathers trusted in thee Psal 2◠4 5. They trusted and thou didst deliver them They cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded This should be no disheartning to us as if his Treasury were exhausted but encourage us rather as Pauls example did succeeding beleevers For this 1 Tim. 1. 16. cause I obtained mercie said he that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter beleeve on him to life everlasting Which is the next observable Thirdly Keeping it for time to come as well as dispensing it at present God hath mercy in hand and mercy in store We now say as it is in the Lamentations It is of the Lords mercy that Lam. 3. 22. we are not consumed because his compassions fail not The same will they have occasion to profess that shall come after us God keepeth mercy and mercy keepeth us Created goodness indeed being limited may be justly suspected of penurie Esau might have somewhat to plead for his saying Hast thou but one blessing my father But Divine goodness is like an ocean without either banks or bottome Our heavenly Father hath blessings reserved as well as bestowed many more blessings then one yea for many more persons then one as it followeth Fourthly Keeping mercy for thousands and that not of persons onely but as it is in the Chaldee for thousands of generations One generation goes saith the Preacher and Eccles 1. 4. another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever Not one of all these generations but coming and going tasteth of mercy and the whole earth during Psal 33. 5. the time of these revolutions are still full of the Lords goodness When the ark rested Moses said Return O Lord unto the many Numb 10. 36. thousands of Israel He that charged his providence with the thousands of Israel is ready to charge it with the thousands of England both in this and after ages if they do not apostatize from him and so forsake
is a preservation from greater evils by less No poyson but providence knoweth how to make an antidote so Jonah was swallowed by a whale and by that danger kept alive Joseph thrown into a pit and afterwards sold into Egypt and by these hazards brought to be a nursing father to the Church Chrysostome excellently Fides in periculis secura est in securitate Homil. 26. operis imperf in Matt. periclitatur Faith is endangered by security but secure in the midst of danger as Esthers was when she said If I perish I perish God preserveth us not as we do fruits that are to last but for a year in sugar but as flesh for a long voyage in salt we must expect in this life much brine and pickle because our heavenly father preserveth us as those whom he resolveth to keep for ever in and by dangers themselves Pauls thorn in the flesh which had much of danger and trouble in it was given him on purpose to prevent pride which was a greater evil Lest I said he should be exalted above measure through abundance of the revelations there was given 2 Cor. 12. 7. me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Elsewhere having commemorated Alexander the copper-smith 2 Tim. 4. 14 15 17 18. his withstanding and doing him much evil yea Nero's opening his mouth as a lion against him and the Lords delivering of him thence he concludeth as more then a conquerour And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen EXERCITATION 3. Hard-heartedness made up of unteachableness in the understanding untractableness in the will unfaithfulness in the memory unsensibleness in the conscience and unmoveableness in the affections metaphors to express it from the parts of mans body stones and mettals A soft heart Mischief searedness and virulency attendants of hardness God concurring thereunto by way of privation Negation permission presentation Tradition to Satan Delivering up to lusts and infliction § 1. OUr fourth proposition is still behinde viz. Divine providence is an actour even in sin it self I shall single out hardness of heart a sin common to all sorts of men though in different degrees intending to declare I. What hard-heartedness is II. That it is a sin III. That God is an actour in it For the first This word Heart is of various acceptions in the Scripture Sometime it signifieth the understanding as when it is said God gave Solomon 1 Kings 4. 29. largeness of heart as the sand that is He had an understanding full of notions Exerc. 3. as the sea-shore is full of grains of sand Sometimes put for the will as when Barnabas exhorteth the Christians of Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose Acts 11. 23. of heart that is with the full bent and inclination of their wills For as to know is an act of the understanding so to cleave is an act of the will Sometimes for the memory as when the blessed Virgin is said to have laid up all Luke 2. 51. our Saviours sayings in her heart that is kept them under lock and key like a choice treasure in her remembrance Sometimes for conscience So the Apostle speaketh of a condemning and not 1 John 3. 20 21. condemning heart Now Gods deputy in point of judicature is conscience which Nazianzen therefore calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a domestical tribunal or a judge within doors Lastly Sometimes for the affections So the Prophet Ezekiel saith of people that when they sate hearing the word their heart went after their covetousmess Ezek. 33. 31. that is their fears and hopes their desires love and other affections were upon shops ships land and other commodities even while they were busied in the worship of God Each of these faculties called Heart in the book of God is liable to its peculiar indisposition and distemper All put together make up the hard-heartedness of which we are treating the particular ingredients whereof are these that follow I. Unteachableness in the understanding Scripture joyneth blinding of eyes and hardning of hearts as near a kin He hath John 12. 40. blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted It is proverbially said Lapidi loqueris One had as good speak to a stone as to an unteachable man and we are all so by nature Whence that of Paul The natural man receiveth not the 1 Cor. 2. 14. things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Such are often present at Sermon so are the pillars of stone in the Church and they understand both alike § 2. II. Untractableness in the will There was reason enough spoken to Sihon by Moses his messengers but all would not incline him to yield a passage to the army of Israel in an amicable way because he was hardened Sihon king of Heshbon saith Moses would not let us pass by him for the Lord thy God Deut. 2. v. 27 28 30. hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate c. So was there enough said and done to Pharaoh but still the burden of his story is this He hardened his heart and would not let Israel go Steep a stone in oyl it continueth hard still Pharaoh had sundry mercies showen him being delivered from one plague after another upon Moses his prayers but the oyl of mercy could not soften him Beat upon a stone with an hammer it is a difficult thing and in some cases impossible to make an impression The hammer of Gods word in the mouth of Moses and Aaron held as it were by the handle of ten notable miracles gave ten mighty blows at Pharaohs will yet could make so little impression that after the ten plagues his heart was ten times harder then before III. Unfaithfulness in the memory Pertinent hereunto is that upbraiding passage of our Saviour to his Disciples Have ye your heart yet hardened do ye not Mark 8. 17 18. remember they seemed to have at present forgotten two of Christs miracles and are therefore charged with hard-heartedness Let water fall upon flesh it moisteneth it upon earth it soaketh in and rendereth it fruitfull let it fall upon a rock it runneth presently off and leaveth no footsteps behinde it Where hardness of heart prevaileth as Vers 19 20. here it did not and therefore the disciples a little awakened by Christs interrogations were able to give an account of his miracles there is commonly no more of a chapter sermon or pious discourse remaining in the hearers memory then there is moisture upon a rock after a good showre of rain IV. Unsensibleness in the conscience St Paul speaketh of some past feeling Ephes 4. 19. 1 Tim. 4. 2. and
his will And again He is so good as that he would never suffer evil if he were not so Omnipotent as to bring good out of evil IV. By way of presenting objects of which our corruptions make a bad use Esaias his Evangelical Ministry made the heart of that people fat and made their Isal 6. 10. ears heavy and shut their eyes The hotter the Sun is wont to shine the more the dunghil is wont to sent Men grow hardest under the most Gospel ministry So under mercies of all sorts He that observeth the passages of Pharaohs story shall finde that his corruptions took many occasions from the carriage of things to harden him yet more and more After he had been freed from two or three several plagues by Moses his prayer upon his hypocritical relentings he might perhaps begin to think that the God of Israel was such an one as might be deceived with fair shews and so fear him less It pleased God not to strike Pharaoh himself with any plague by Twiss Vind. part 2. p. 94. the hand of Moses nor to suffer his people to rise up against him and free themselves by main force This might happily tend to his further hardening and put him upon saying If he be so great a God why doth he not smite me in mine own person or carry out his people without me Besides the same plague was never twice inflicted he saw that and might think when one plague was over that would not come again and there could not come a worse then that the God of Israel had surely done his worst already Come we to the last scene of his Tragedy after Israel was departed things were so carried as to cram his corruption and to make his heart fatter then before The Hebrews are all found in a place with the sea before them and great mountains on each side Their being so pent encourageth Pharaoh and his host The sea is ere long divided for Israel the waves stand as walls on either side the people passe through as on dry land Why should not the sea might he think make way for me as well as for them The prey is now in view let go this one opportuty they are gone for ever If the waves stand up but a while longer as they have done a good while already the day is ours They pass on and perish § 7. V. By way of tradition to Satan Who although he have not any power of enforcing yet hath a notable slight of perswading and by this means of Non babet potentiam cogendi sed ast utiam suadendi hardening No doubt but Pharaoh being deluded by the Magicians who were suffered to counterfeit the same miracles which Moses did was thereby hardened through the operation of Satan We reade of an evil Spirit from 1 Sam. 16. 15. God troubling Saul and after that of many hard-hearted prancks by him plaid such as never before and of John 13. 2. the divels having put into Judas his heart to betray Christ after which he was restless till he had done it As they must needs go our Proverb saith whom the divel drives 'T is strange how that mans spirit declined into further and yet further degrees of hardness but less strange if we consider that the divel was entred into him Judas was first a cunning dissembler the disciples suspected themselves as soon as him and therefore said Master is it I Afterward a secret thief for he bare the bagge and filched then a bold traytour What will ye give and Hail Master In the conclusion a desperate self-murderer as the most interpreters judge in making away himself VI. By way of delivering men up to their own lusts Hear God of his own people My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them Psal 81. 11 â—2 up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels how much more is this true of God's enemies Pharaoh by name See how these three lusts of his Idolatry Ambition and Covetousness concurred to the making of him so hard-hearted towards God so hard to be prevailed with by Moses As an Idolater he was loath to receive a message from the God of Israel whom he knew not Vid. Twiss vindici part 2. pag. 94 c. Who is the Lord said he that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go As an Ambitious Prince it went to his heart to have Moses control him in his own dominions and to admit the commands of any superiour Lord Thus saith the Lord Let my people go was as fire to his bones and enraged him who would not hear of any lord over that people but himself As a Covetous man he was loth to have so fat a collop cut off his flank to hear of parting with a people by whose pains in making bricks he had such daily comings in VII By way of infliction and penalty One sin is often made the punishment of another and hardness the punishment of many sins oft reiterated When Exod. 9. 34. Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart he and his servants The harder they were the more they sinned and the more they sinned the harder they were Affected hardness is frequently followed with inflicted hardness Men by customary sinning make their hearts as an adamant stone so Zech. 7. 12. the phrase is in Zechary of which it is said Incidit gemmas sed non inciditur ipse Hircino tantùm sanguine mollis erit That is It cuts all stones It self is cut of none It softned is by bloud of goats alone Unregenerate persons of hard hearts usually grieve their godly friends who are cut at the heart to see their obstinacy as Christ grieved for the Pharisees hardness Mark 5. 〈◊〉 At non inciditur ipse But such an one cannot heartily grieve for himself His heart till it come to be steeped in the bloud of Christ who is that Scape-goat in Leviticus relenteth not or not to purpose It were easie to add much more but I shall now shut up all concerning this proposition God hardeneth Grave est auditu non facile recipit hoc pia mens non quia quod dicitur non bene dicitur sed quia quod bene dicitur non bene intelligitur Hugo de S. Victor lib. 1. de sacram part 4. cap. 12. with the saying of Hugo de sancto Victore concerning that God willeth evil This is irksome to the ear and a pious minde doth not easily receive it but the reason is not because what is said is not well said but because what is well enough said is not half well understood EXERCITATION 4. Exerc. 4. Objections against and Corollaries from the foregoing propositions The least things provided for Luthers admonition to Melancthon Maximilians address
neck of the true Spouse of Christ which makes her to look pleasingly and amiably in the eyes of her Beloved and distinguishes her from all false and counterfeit lovers To all this we may finally add what it is in the very work it self and the contrivances of it wherein not to anticipate the thoughts of others that shall peruse it soundness of judgement with elegancy of expression Sublimity of Notion with sobriety of spirit Variety of reading with accurateness of composure Sweetness of wit with savouriness of heart do seem to be linked together in so rare and happy a conjunction as which makes this Chain of Principles to be a chain of Pearls The Lord by his holy spirit set home the Truths in it upon the hearts of all those who shall be made partakers of it To him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen Cambridge Novemb. 2. 1659. THOMAS HORTON WILLIAM DILLINGHAM A Collection of the several Aphorismes and Exercitations contained in the ensuing TREATISE APHORISME I. Pag. 1. MAns blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 2. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiencie that attend them An apostrophie to the world EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 20. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 29. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 43. The first inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and Saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy APHORISME II. Pag. 61. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 61. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 72. The insufficiencie of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshipped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 84. Oracles of God vocal or written Books of Scripture so called in five respects viz. In regard of their declaring and foretelling their being consulted prized and preserved EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 95. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity of piety of veracity of duration and of Authority The divine authority of Scripture asserted by arguments An inference from the whole Aphorisme APHORISME III. Pag. 111. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 111. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 120. That there is a God the prime dictate of natural light deducible from mans looking backward to the creation forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death upward to the Angels above us downwards to inferiour beings within our selves to the composition of our bodies and dictates of our consciences about us to the various occurrences in the world EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 129. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive A brief exposition thereof Satans impudence Nature and art both unable to discover the Trinity What Scripture revealeth about it Basils memento Julians impiety Socinians branded The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes 26. EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 143. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiosity to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweetness of taste sense of interest and sincerity of obedience APHORISME IV. Pag. 155. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 155. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 169. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Tit. 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 27. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 181. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end John 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 201. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture
expressions setting out the pardon thereof Gods goodness therein Faith and repentance the way to it Pardon in the Court of Heaven and of Conscience The equity and necessity of forgiving one another We are to forgive as God for Christs sake forgiveth us viz. heartily speedily frequently throughly A twofold remembrance of injuries in cautelam in vindictam EXERCITATION 5. Pag. 223. The latter clauses of Exod. 34. 7. so translated and expounded as to contain an eight branch of divine goodness viz. Clemency in correcting Equity in visiting iniquities of the fathers upon the children Clemency in stopping at the third and fourth generation A lesson for magistrates A speech of our Queen Elizabeth Gods proclamation in Exodus 34. Improved by Moses in Numbers 14. EXERCITATION 6. Pag. 234. Job 11. 7 8 9. expounded of divine Greatness Three reasons of that Exposition with the resolution of a question about it The height of Gods universal unaccountable omnipotent Sovereignty proved and improved EXERCITATION 7. Pag. 253. The depth of Divine Omniscience seen in discerning the deep things of man yea of Satan yea of God Our Nescience discovered and acknowledged The longitude of Gods perfection stated Eternity proper to him Not assumed by or ascribed to men without blasphemy EXERCITATION 8. Pag. 263. Divine Immensity shadowed out by the breadth of the Sea Divine Omnipresence cleared and vindicated The proposal hereof as an antidote against sinning in secret Five practical Corollaries from the greatness of God in general APHORISME V. Pag. 277. The Goodness and Greatness of God are both abundantly manifested by his decrees of Election and Preterition together with his works of Creation and Providence EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 277. How predestination cometh to be treated of here Election described from the Nature Antiquity Objects Products and Cause of it Rom. 11. 33. 2 Tim. 1. 9. with Tit. 1. 2. Ephes 1. 4. with Matth. 25. 34. opened Of Acts supposing their objects Of acception of persons what it is and that Predestination doth not import it Acts 13. 48. Expounded and vindicated Whether one Elect may become a reprobate The negative maintained and 1 Cor 9. 24 25 26. cleared Ephes 5. and 11. enlightned Concerning the good pleasure of Gods will and the counsel thereof EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 310. Preterition described The term defended Ephes 1. 4. compared with Revel 17. 8. Ephes 1. 9. and Rom. 9. 13. expounded God not bound to any creature except by promise The parable in Matth. 20. urged The three consequents of negative reprobation Dr Davenants Animadversions against Mr Hoards book recommended The goodness of God manifested in Election as in a most free peculiar ancient leading and standing favour EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 327. An Introduction to Romans 9. Most part of that chapter expounded together with sundry passages in chapter 10 and 11. for proof of these two conclusions 1. That Paul in Rom. 9. doth upon occasion propound and prosecute the doctrine of Predestination 2. That he derives the Decree of preterition from the Sovereign greatness of God A Consectary shewing how usefull the said doctrine is to sober mindes EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 359. Creation what Pythagoras and Trismegist Hebr. 6. 3. opened Scripture-Philosophy Ex nihilo nihil fit how true Creature what Gods goodness in works of creation particularly in the framing of Adam The consultation upon which pattern after which parts of which he framed Two histories one of a Priest the other of a Monk The original of body and soul improved EXERCITATION 5. Pag. 381. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providential dispensations the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects Crosses how to be considered APHORISME VI. Pag. 400. Providence extends it self not onely to all created beings and to all humane affairs especially those that concern the Church but even to the sins of Angels and men EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 400. Introduction concerning the contents of this Aphorisme Providence over all created beings Preservation of men to be ascribed to God himself not to good men yea not to good Angels in whom heart-searching and patience wanting Providence reaching to humane affairs Oeconomical Civil Military Moral and Ecclesiastical Anastasius his design frustrate Rome and our nation instanced in J. G. castigated EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 415. Deuteron 11. 12. opened Gods care over the Church proved from the provision he makes for inferiour creatures From Israels conduct From the experiments and acknowledgements of Saints in all ages Experiments of the virgin Mary Rochellers Musculus acknowledgements of Jacob David Psalmist Austin and Ursin From Gods causing things and acts of all sorts to cooperate unto the good of the Saints Isaiah 27. 2 3. explained The Church preserved from in and by dangers EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 438. Hard-heartedness made up of unteachableness in the understanding untractableness in the will unfaithfulness in the memory unsensibleness in the conscience and unmoveableness in the affections Metaphors to express it from the parts of mans body stones and mettals A soft heart Mischief searedness and virulency attendants of hardness Gods concurring thereunto by way of privation negation permission presentation Tradition to Satan Delivering up to lusts and infliction EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 463. Objections against and Corollaries from the foregoing propositions The least things provided for Luthers admonition to Melancthon Maximilians address Plinies unbelief The Psalmists stumble at the prosperity of the wicked His recovery by considering it was not full was not to be final The superintendency of Providence over military and civil affairs in particular The Churches afflictions Promises cautioned Duty of casting care upon God He no authour of sin The attestation of this State and of this writer A CHAIN OF THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES Or An orderly concatenation of Aphorismes and Exercitations Wherein The chief heads of Christian Religion are asserted and improved APHORISME I. Mans blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Aph 1. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiency that attend them An apostrophe to the world § 1. THis is a case which hath long since been determined by the Prophet David who in Psalm the hundred fourty fourth after he had twice charged those whom he calls strange children with a mouth speaking vanity once in the eighth and again in the eleventh verse goeth on to record as good Interpreters ancient and modern do conceive Augustin Genebrard Ainsworth Jo. Baptist Folengius in Psal 144. the substance of their vain talk in a way of boasting about