all things that stretcheth sorth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by my self Yea so necessary was the confession of this truth with the utmost hazard to distinguish God from Idols that to the end the Jews who were then captives in Babylon might not be wholly to seek for a profession of their faith they had this verse in the Hebrew Bible written then and so still in Chaldee letters Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens Jerem. 10. 11. ' E◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. de Monarthia Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trismegistus Not unsutable whereunto is that of Pythagoras long since cited by Justin Martyr Whosoever would from henceâ—orth challenge any Diety to himself must be able to shew such a world as this and to say in truth This is of my making and that of Trismegist an heathen too in one of his books There are mainly three to be considered God the World and Man the world made for man and man for God § 2. But we have a more sure word of Prophesie and to that let us take heed It will shew us First How we Christians by faith understand that the Hebr. 11. 3. worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Well might a Gilb. Voetius Disput Theol. part 1 p. 881. late writer conclude his Discourse of Creation with this Epiphonema Quantum est quod nescimus The truth is it is but little that we can learn from Philosophers even concerning Creation it self the onely Article of the Creed which they speak fully too unacquainted with Scripture Which made Maximilian the first to say that the Audiâ—ndi sunt Ethâ—ici non â—anquam Philomeâ—e sed tanquam Ranae Apud Voetium ibid. pag. 680. Ethnicks were to be heard not as singing Nightingales but as croaking frogs And two great Physicians betake themselves to the study of Scripture for understanding the secrets of Nature One Sennertus who findeth much fault with those who perverted the text of Moses and interpreted him out of heathen writers ausu infelici saith he non tolerando by an unhappy and intolerable undertaking The other Vallesius Huic lectioni consecrari senectutem statui in his philosophari c. Vallosius who in the Preface to his Sacra Philosophia telleth us that whereas he had in the former part of his life commented upon all Aristotles Acromasticks and many pieces both of Hippocrates and Galen he was resolved to devote the remainder of his days to the study of the holy Scriptures and to seek his Philosophy out of them for time to come By faith we understand A Christian firmly beleeves those truths concerning the time and manner of the worlds creation because he hath Scripture testimony for them That the worlds were framed speaking after the Jewish mode though there be indeed but one world in the plurall number for the Hebrews then were wont to mention a threeâ—old viz. an inferiour a middle and a superiour world as Camero Cameron Myrothec pag. 288. telleth us Framed by the word of God saith this place When Solomon was to build a magnificent Temple he needed many workmen and they many tools Not so God who did all without any coadjutour any instrument by the sole word of his command By the word of Psaâ— 33. 6. the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth Let Psal 148. 5. them praiâ—e the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created Art can work if Nature first afford it some complete matter Let an artificer have a stone he can make a statue otherwise not Nature can work if there be a principle to work upon though incomplete Let there be seed it can produce a plant let there be spawn a fish But to work without praeexistent matter Dr Jacksons Commentary on the Creed 2d part chap. 6. § 4. pag. 64. so as to bring forth the first plant without seed the first fish without a spawn yea the first principles of these and all things else out of nothing by his sole word is proper to God So that things which are seen as it followeth here were not made of things which do appear That Rule Ex nihilo nihil fit holds in natura constituta now that God hath set nature in a course of working by secondary causes enabled to produce effects like themselves but in natura constituenda it was otherwise when God wrought by his word of command and is therefore called Elohim by Moses two and thirty times in his history of creation as Mercer observeth The Schoolmen for the most part express that which is here called Things that do not appear by the term Nothing either simply Nothing or No such thing as it appeared to be at first yet when they speak of Non-ens they take not the word materially as if mear Nothing were the matter of which any Being were framed but Terminatively as the term from which the Creatour moved For example the Angels they say and the souls of men together with the Essential forms of natural bodies were not then educed ex potentia materiae as they are since in the ordinary course of generation by Vâ—ssii Thes p. 12. particular agents but induced in materiam by God himself the universal cause and had an immediate Production by the Creatour whereas some other things as the Sun Mans body had a mediate creation as being produced ex non-ente tali from such things as of themselves could not have caused such effects but by virtue of Gods creative word B. Hall contemplat of creation Doctor Hall hath given us the true notion of this in a compendious saying of his God made something out of nothing and of that something all things So as if all things be run to their first Original they will be found to come up out of the womb of Nothing from whence nothing but Almightiness could have fetch 't them § 3. That although the creatures be now subject to vanity yet the goodness of God did shine forth in their first production and is still abundantly manifested in them The creature saith Paul speaking of its present state Rom. 9. 21. was made subject to vanity Whatsoever thing had any being of it self and was not for ever but did receive a being in time and that from God is a creature saith Daneus well thereby excluding the Divinity of Christ which was Creatura est res omnis quae neque à sciâ—sa est neque semper fuit sed ut aliquando à Deo producta est Daneus Physic Christ in p. 59. from everlasting as the Angels were not but produced by God in time and sins of all sorts because though God be
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
their flourishing condition in reference to thriving of children Our sons say they are as plants grown up in their youth not wishing they might as we reade it but boasting they were our daughters as Exerc. 1. corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace To plenty of provision Our garners are full affording all manner of store To increase and usefulness of cattel Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets Our oxen are strong to labour To peace and tranquillity of estate There is no breaking in nor going out no complaining in our streets Hereupon they applaud themselves and as placing their happines in such outward accommodations say as it is in the former part of verse the fifteenth Happy is the people that are in such a case Beatum dixerunt populum cui haec sunt Which sense is extremely favoured not onely by the vulgar Latine inserting Dixerunt but also by the Septuagint who render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both concur ring to have it read They pronounced the people blessed that were in such a case Then come in the last words according to this interpretation as the Psalmists resolution in the point by way of Epanorthosis or in express contradiction rather to so gross a mistake yea blessed are the people which have the Lord for their God § 2. There is one centre in which the desires of all men meet however distanced in the circumference One port for which they are all bound although imbarked in severall vessels and affecting different winds to sail by That centre and port is Blessedness which may admit of this description It is the acquiescence of rational appetites in an object so full of reall and durable goodness as to be able fully to satisfie all their longings The question debated in Ecclesiastes is whether any thing under the sun be such an object The Preacher resolves it in the negative by reason of that universal vanity which overspreads the whole creation Therefore it is that the eye Eccles 1. 8. as he telleth us is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing because these two senses of discipline when they have given their utmost intelligence cannot present the soul of man with any created accommodations perfectly good without defect and perpetually good without decay Solomon was one that had both men and money at command to assist him in making difficult and costly experiments a wise heart able to dive into natures secrets a peaceable reign in which he met with nothing to take him off from the work or disturb him in it strong inclinations and constant endeavours to finde out the utmost of what could possibly be discovered in any creature yet he it is that concludes upon triall not upon hear-say or conjecture Vanity of vanities Eccles 1. 1. saith Coheleth vanity of vanities all is vanity § 3. Coheleth which is the style he gives himself in that Book comes from a root that signifies to collect and gather and though it be of a feminine termination is for want of a common gender in the Hebrew tongue as other words of the like form capable enough of a masculine construction To him it may be thought agreeable upon four different notions each whereof contributeth much validity to what he testifies First as a Preacher who having gathered sundry arguments to convince the sons of men of the insufficiency of all things below God himself to render them happy in that Discourse speaks as to a Congregation whereas in the Proverbs he had spoken as to one man frequently using this compellation My son So Hierom and Cajetan Secondly as a writer who had collected into a Synopsis all the opinions of those who had been taken for wise men by their severall followers concerning happiness confuting such as vvere erroneous So Grotius Thirdly as a Student who had gathered much wisdome by observation and experience which he there gives demonstration of So Broughton Lastly as a Penitent who having by his gross idolatry and other sins fallen from communion vvith the people of God and being desirous to have his return stand upon record and to testifie his repentance in that book for the Churches satisfaction gathers together many experiments of his own personal folly and makes an humble confession of them whereupon he was restored and again gathered into the bosome of the Church So Cartwright and Junius The witness vve see is beyond exception § 4. In his Testimony Vanity of vanities vanity of vanities all is vanity the Assertion is repeated as in Pharaohs dream to shew its certaintie and the term of vanity doubled partly to manifest the transcendency thereof as the most holy place was styled The Holy of Holies and the most eminent Canticle The Song of Songs and partly to note the multiplicity as Scripture calleth that the Heaven of Heavens which being highest contains many heavens within its circumference For there is in the creatures a threefold transcendent vanity as may appear in that they are First so unprofitable as to be hurtfull withall Upon this the Preacher seems to have had a speciall eye because after All is vanity he subjoyns immediately What profit hath a man of all his Eccles 1. 3. labour which he hath taken under the sun He hath done nothing but filled his hands as it were with air who hath been toyling all his days to replenish his chests with wealth And what profit Eccles 5. 16. hath he that hath laboured for the wind Just so much and no more then that Emperour got who having run Septimius Severus through various and great employments made this open acknowledgement Omnia sui sed nihil prosuit I have been all things but it hath advantaged me nothing at all Neither are they simply unprofitable but this sore evil did Solomon see under the sun namely Riches kept for the owners thereof to Eccles 5. 13. their hurt They often prove prejudiciall to the outward man exposing it to danger Who ever robbed a poor beggar or begged a poor fool more often to the inward whence that of Agur Give me not riches but feed me with Prov. 30. 8 9. food convenient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord As if abundance made way for Atheisme in those that know not how to manage it Plenty betrays many souls to slavery Which made the good Emperour Maximilian second of that name when a mass of treasure was brought in refused to have it hoarded up professing himself A keeper of men not of Hominum â—on opum mihi demandata est custodia quibus si semel capiar illico è Rege servus futurus sum Beyerlinck Apophtheg Christian pag. 210. money and fearing lest by falling into love therewith he should cease to be a Sovereign Lord and become a servant to the mammon of unrighteousness § 5. Secondly so deceitfull as to frustrate expectation when mens hopes
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
servants He would have such a person a despiser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contemner of others which is plainly Pharisaical thinks all that savoureth of humility unworthy of his magnanimous man whereas Solomon telleth us It is better to be of an humble Prov. 16. 19. spirit with the lowly then to divide the spoil with the proud Yea he alloweth him in case of contumely to speak evil of his adversaries whereas our Saviours rule is Bless them that curse you pray for them Matth. 5. 44. that despitefully use you EXERCITATION 3. 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 § 1. IN the epistle to the Hebrews these two phrases The first principles Hebr. 5. 12. and 6. 1. of the oracles of God And the principles of the doctrine of Christ import one and the same thing implying also that Scripture Records are the onely Store-house and Conservatory of Christian Religion I shall therefore from hence take occasion to shew That books of Scripture are oracles of God why they are so called and wherein they excell other oracles For the first There were two sorts of Oracles belonging to God vocal and written The vocal were those answers he gave from between the Cherubims on the top of 1 Kings 6. often and Chapt. 8. 6. the Mercy-seat which covered the Ark by reason whereof the Holy of Holies where that Ark stood was styled the Oracle The written are the two tables Exerc. 3. of the Law called by Stephen the lively Acts 7. 37. oracles and the Canonical books of Scripture as well those of the old Testament of which Paul speaketh when he declareth it as the great priviledge of the Jews that to them were committed the Rom. 3. 2. oracles of God as those of the New to which Peter is like to have had a peculiar respect in that saying of his If 1 Pet. 4. 11. any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Especially if his meaning be to admonish such as speak in congregations publick teachers or as another Apostle styleth them Ministers 2 Cor. 3. 6. of the new Testament that they be carefull to deliver Scripture-truths in Scripture-words New-Testamentmatter in New-Testament-language taking the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that text for a note not of similitude but of identity as when it is said We beheld his John 1. 14. glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father it is not meant of a glory like his but the very same So let him speak as the Oracles of God that is the self-same things which Vid. Gerhard Coment in 1 Pet. 4. pag. 631 634. God hath spoken in his word § 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby heathen writers had been wont to express their oracles chiefly such are were uttered in prose while such as were delivered in verse went under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was enfranchised by the holy Ghost and applied to the books of Scripture to intimate as I conceive that these books were to be of like use to Christians as those oracles had been to Infidels whereof take a five-fold account I. Those declared to heathen men the will of their Idols whence also they had their names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and oracula from orare quod inerat illis Deorum oratio as Tully giveth the etymologie because they contained what the Gods spake and delivered to be their minde The Scriptures in like manner contain the minde of Jehovah Somewhat of his nature we may learn from the creatures but should have known little or nothing of his will had not canonical Scripture revealed it We use to call a mans Testament his last will because in it he makes a final declaration of what he would have his executours do He that would exactly know the will of God must look into his two Testaments there he shall finde it fully expressed and no where else § 3. II. Those foretold future events which made them to be so much frequented by such as thirsted after knowledge of things to come These reade every one his destiny and acquaint him aforehand with what he may or may not infallibly expect according to his present and future qualifications Not to mention prophesies in the New testament whereof the principal magazine is the Apocalypse the old contains very many predictions beyond the activity of humane foresight For although such effects as depend upon natural causes which are uniform in their workings may be foretold by a skilfull naturalist and a wise Statesman observing the present constitution of a government may prognosticate what events are like to ensue upon those counsels and courses which he sees taken yet the quickest eye upon earth cannot foresee such future contingents as have their dependance upon the mere free-will of persons yet unborn and whereunto when they are born not common principles but heroick impulses must incline them Whereas in the Scriptures we meet with the names of Josiah and Cyrus and with their performances long before they had a being We finde old Jacob foretelling the respective fates of all his children and of their posterity Isaiah speaking of Jesus Christ as if he had written an history rather then a prophesie And Daniel who lived under the fitst describing the severall revolutions under all the other Monarchies as if he had seen them with his eyes § 4. III. Those gave advice in doubtfull cases and were in all undertakings of moment consulted with by devout Heathens who as Strabo testifies Lib. 16. in descript Judaeae in their chief affairs of state relied more upon the answers of their oracles then upon humane pollicies These were Davids delight and his counsellours Psal 119. 24. as we use to advise with those friends whom we take most pleasure in He had many wise men about him but in all their meetings for advice the word of God was still of the Quorum and nothing to be concluded of in the result without its consent Scripture must not onely be heard in all our debates but when any thing comes to be voted always have a negative voice Concerning Achitophels advice it was said what he counselled in those days was as if a man had enquired at the Oracle of God 2 Sam. 16. last which words being as it is well said by Peter Martyr Comparatio non aequiparatio a comparison onely not a parallel sufficiently intimate that all the Oracles of God are to be consulted and also that their counsel is to be rested in I shall therefore be bold to say to him that reads whoever he be as Jehoshaphat once did to Ahab Enquire I pray thee 2 Chron. 18. 4. of the word of the Lord to day As Paul to his Colossians Let the
21 22. Sr Walt. Raleigh lib. 5. pag. 374 393. by their oracles if good historians may be credited even by those of the Sibyls which were of greatest esteem for sanctity But the frame of Scripture is according to godliness Piety sparkleth in every leaf and throughout the whole there runs a constant exaltation of God in Christ Well nigh all sorts of Poems to instance in them with which we meet in humane writings have their parallels in the Canonical books but they are such as carry in them a genius and strain of godliness far beyond any thing that occurs in the Poems of men There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Songs of victory but such as exalt not the prowess of man but the glory of God So Exodus the fifteenth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 funeral songs but such as celebrate Christs death and the good will of God therein so Psalm the twenty second and Isaiah the fifty third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 songs of love but such as set forth the love of Christ to his Spouse the Church and her mutual affection to him So Psalm the fourty fifth and the Canticles There are also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacred pastorals but such as magnifie no other Shepherd but God alone so Psalm the three and twentieth Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too but such as ascribe all to him So Psalm sixty fifth Let Virgil be asked Quid faciat laetas segetes he will wholly insist upon this or that secondary cause of fertility Ask David he presently falls in his Georgicks upon praising God as the authour of all fruitfulness Thou visitest the earth and waterest it Thou makest it soft with showres Thou blessest the springing thereof Thou crownest the year with thy goodness Thy paths drop fatness c. in the end of that forecited Psalm § 3. III. In point of veracity Many falshoods were uttered much flattery practised by their oracles As when Socrates was declared by the father of lies to be the wisest man upon earth Helvicus p. 18. notwithstanding the two great Prophets Haggai and Zechary were his contemporaries and when Apollo was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of his so palpable Vide Sirenium de fato l. 9. c. 12 13. favouring of king Philip in his responses Whereas Scripture is free not onely from all degrees of falshood for of it we may say Verity of verities all is verity but of flattery too Insomuch as it may be observed concerning the pen-men of holy Scripture that contrary to the custome and guise of humane writers they are not more free full and impartial in any relations then in those which concern their own failings and theirs who were nearest and dearest to them Moses his unbelief Davids bloud-guiltiness Jonahs pettishness Jeremies impatience Pauls persecution are recorded by their own pens And whereas the other Evangelists in the enumeration of Christs Apostles barely name Matthew for one without setting any brand upon him he himself telleth us what he had been before Christ called him Matthew the publicane Matth. 10. 3. Yea whereas Paul in his epistle to the Galatians had brought in a charge against Peter for Judaizing and spoken Galat. 2. 11. of his own resisting him openly because he was indeed to be blamed yet Peter for all this in his second epistle which was written a good while after styleth him his beloved brother Paul and commendeth 2 Pet. 3. 15 16. not his wisdome onely but all his epistles even that wherein he himself was reproved As for their carriage toward others Moses who loved the Hebrews so well as to wish himself blotted out of Gods book rather then they should perish yet spareth not to relate their many rebellions with the aggravations thereof to the full The idolatry of his brother Aaron the murmuring of his sister Miriam the frowardness of his wife Zipporah are as freely recorded by him as any other historical passages whatsoever Luke who was Pauls companion and scholar telleth us in the Acts what havock he had made and how sore an enemy he had been to the Church of Christ Mark whom Peter 1 Pet. last 13. styleth his son aggravateth the story of his dear fathers sin against Christ more then some of the other Evangelists Luke and John telleth us barely of his denying but Mark addeth further Mark 14. verse 68. 70. 71. that he began to swear and curse saying I know not the man § 4. IV. In point of duration Satan who is Gods ape in very many things had his oracles also of both sorts Vocal as at Delphi and Dodona which Ovid in that respect joyneth together in one verse Non mihi si Delphi Dodonáque diceret ipsa Written as in the Sibyls books contained at first in three volumes two whereof as it is said were purposely cast into the fire by her that presented them because Tarquin Plin. natur hist lib. 13. cap. 13. would not go to the price of them and the third sold for as much as was demanded in the beginning of the treaty for all three Now providence so ordered things that there was was a remarkable failing of the former sort upon the coming of Christ in the flesh and a total cessation of them not long after his death insomuch as Plutarch wrote a book of their defect and a destruction of the latter after Christianity Sibyllinae fata cremavit opis Vide Baron tom 4. ad annum Christi 389. n. 56. Molin Vates p. 182. had taken root in the Romane empire when Stilico burnt the Sybils books as fomenters of paganisme and profaness He that was manifested to destroy the works of the devil stopped the mouths of those evil Angels that gave answers by oracles The Sun of righteousness arose and those wilde beasts were forced to betake themselves to their dens Then was the prince of this world judged and his Angels dislodged for the Lord Christ had ejected them But the old Testament Scriptures received a strong confirmation from Christ by his appealing to them arguing from them and expounding of them Yea so far were the Oracles of God from any diminution by his coming preaching and dying that they received not a confirmation onely but a glorious augmentation in that within a while after there was added to them by his Secretaries the Evangelists and Apostles another Volume I mean the books of the New Testament upon the publishing whereof there came out from God as it were a second edition of his Oracles much enlarged § 5. Fifthly and lastly In point of authoritie Those were from the father of lies as hath been said but these from the Father of lights Scripture is of divine authority Holy men of God 2 Pet. 1. 21. saith Peter spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost They wrote accordingly All Scripture saith Paul was given 2 Tim. 3. 16. by inspiration of God It is not more true that they are
know but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away nor at all by the sole improvement of reason The lesser cannot comprehend the greater God is greater then our heart 1 Joh. 3. 2. faith St. John therefore incomprehensible by the shallow reason of shipwrack'd nature He and the Sun are alike in this both refresh wary beholders but put out the eyes of curious pryers However faith may look upon God with much comfort for reason to stare too much upon him is the way to lose her sight When she hath tired and wildered herself in searching after the true God her return must be Non est inventus He is not to be found at least not by me Faith onely can finde him out yet not to perfection neither although to salvation it may and doth § 5. Which is the latter kinde of knowledge above-mentioned and that I am now speaking to as attainable here Even the lowest rank of Christians whom John styleth his little children are described by their having known 1 John 2. 13. the father And because the new covenant runneth thus They shall all know Jerem. 31. 33. me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord. But although it be most true that there is a saving knowledge of God attainable here yet for any man to presume that whatever knowledge of God he attaineth it will certainly save him is a most strong delusion For whereas there is a Natural and a Literal as well as a Spiritual knowledge it will be manifest by the sequel of this discourse that none is saving but the third The first is that which may be fetched out of the book of nature without any further manuduction of higher principles Antony the religious Monk when a certain Philosopher asked him how he did to live without books answered he had Socrat. Eccles histor lib. 4. cap. 23. the voluminous book of all the creatures to study upon and to contemplate God in Beleeve me said Bernard to his friend as one that speaketh out of experience Bern. epist 107. Aliquid amplius invenies in sylvis quà m in libra There is sometimes more to be found in woods then there is in books Trees and stones will teach thee that which is not to be learned from other masters The Book of Scripture without doubt hath the preeminence in worth by many degrees but that of the creatures had the precedency in time and was extant long before the written word We may therefore well begin with it EXERCITATION 2. 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 § 1. THere are six several acts which every man of understanding is able to exert in a way of contemplation He may respicere prospicere suspicere despicere inspicere and circumspicere Whosoever shall advisedly exercise any of these will undoubtedly meet with some demonstrations of a Deity much more if he be industriously conversant in them all I. If he do respicere look backward to the creation of the world which the light of nature will tell him had a beginning he will see and understand Exerc. 2. the invisible things of God by the things that Rom. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hex are made even his eternal power and Godhead as Paul speaks Basil therefore called the world a school wherein reasonable souls are taught the knowledge of God In a musical instrument when we observe divers strings meet in an harmony we conclude that some skilfull musician tuned them when we see thousands of men in a field marshalled under several colours all yeelding exact obedience we infer that there is a General whose commands they are all subject to In a watch when we take notice of great and small wheels all so fitted as to concur to an orderly motion we acknowledge the skill of an artificer When we come into a Printing-house and see a great number of different letters so ordered as to make a book the consideration hereof maketh it evident that there is a composer by whose art they were brought into such a frame When we behold a fair building we conclude it had an architect a stately ship well rigged and safely conducted to the Port that it hath a Pilot. So here The visible world is such an Instrument Army Watch Book Building Ship as undeniably argueth a God who was and is the Tuner General and Artificer the Composer Architect and Pilot of it § 2. II. If he do prospicere look forwards to the rewards and punishments to be dispensed in another world which the heathens Elysium Vid. Livium Galant Christian Theolog cum Platonica comparat lib 12. pag. 341. sequent and Tartarus shew them to have had a sleight knowledge of by the light of nature he cannot but acknowledge some supreme Judge whom they are dispensed by and that he is a searcher of hearts wherein piety and sin do chiefly reside seeing it were impossible for him otherwise to pase righteous judgement without mistaking good for evil and evil for good Some discourses of Plato and some verses of Menander besides many other testimonies make it appear that the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand these things was entertained by the wiser sort both of Philosophers and Poets and that which they held of a world to come is a topick sufficient to argue from for the being of a God in the world that is III. If he do suspicere look upwards to a rank of creatures above himself I mean good and evil spirits of which the heathens were not ignorant witness their large discourses of Demons of Intelligences and of a bonus malus Genius For if such creatures as Angels be acknowledged so good holy wise and powerfull as they are said to be by all that take notice of them they must have a maker better holier wiser and powerfuller then themselves seeing the cause is always more noble then the effect and hath that perfection which it communicates much more eminent in it self If there be Devils whose mischief and might are both of them so confessedly great there must needs be a God to restrain and countermand them else the world would soon be turned into a a mere hell full of nothing but abominations and confusion § 3. IV. If he do despicere look downward to things below himself whose nature is inferiour to that of man the contemplation of elements plants and brute beasts will extort the confession of a Deity The heavens declare Psal 19. 1. the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his
he is Si omnino ego Deum declararem vel ego Deus essem vel ille Deus non foret § 2. Were all such passages set aside as are not originally the Heathens own but borrowed from Jewish or Christian authours I should not be afraid to affirm that there is one very short expression in Scripture to wit this I am that I am which revealeth Exod. 3. 14. more of God then all the large volumes of Ethnick writers An expression so framed as to take in all differences of time according to the idiome of the Hebrew tongue wherein a verb of the future tense as Ehieh is may signifie time past and present as well as that which is to come Hence ariseth a great latitude of interpretation for according to different readings it implieth different things Reading it as we do I am that I am it importeth the supremacie of Gods being The creatures have more of non-entity then of being in them It is proper to him to say I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Or the simplicity thereof whereas in creatures the Thing and its Being Ens and Essentia are distinguishable in him they are both one Or the ineffabilitie as if the Lord had said to Moses enquiring his name I am my self and there is nothing without my self that can fully express my Being Which put Scaliger upon inventing that admirable Scalig. de Subtilit Exercit. 365. § 2. epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Ipsissimus Ipse Or lastly the Eternitie thereof since there never was never will be a time wherein God might not or may not say of himself I am Whence it is that when Christ would manifest his goings out from everlasting as Micah phraseth Micah 5. 2. it he maketh use of this expression Before Abraham was I am not I Joh. 8. 58. was for that might have been said of Enoch Noah and others who lived before Abrahams time yet were not eternal but I am If it be rendered I am what I was as Piscator would have it then it speaketh his Immutability I am in executing what I was in promising Yesterday and to day and the same for ever If as others I will be what I will be then it denotes his Independency That essence which the creatures have dependeth upon the Creatours will None of them can say I will be not having of and in it self any power to make it self persevere in being as God hath It may perhaps intimate all these and Quae verbulo hoc continentur omnium hominum capacitatem transcendunt Andr. Rivet in Exod. 3. 14. much more then the tongues of Angels can utter Verily it is a speech containing more in it as a learned writer acknowledgeth then humane capacities can attain § 3. I shall therefore forbear to enlarge upon it Let me onely observe before I leave it the notorious impudence of apostate spirits Satan not contenting himself to have got the name of Jove in imitation of Jehovah the incommunicable name of God prevailed with his deluded followers to ascribe unto him that which the Lord of heaven and earth assumeth to himself in this mysterious place of Exodus saying I am that I am For over the gate of Apollo's temple in the city of Delphi so famed for oracles was engraven in capital letters this Greek vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Thou art vvhereby those that came thither to vvorship or to consult Satans oracle vvere instructed to acknovvledge him the fountain of being and the onely true God as one Ammonius is brought in discoursing at large of this very thing in the last Treatise of Plutarchs morals vvhereunto I refer the reader § 4. As to the point of divine subsistence Jehova Elohim Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons but one Deus indivisè 〈◊〉 in Trinitate inconfusè trinus in unitate God or in Leo's expression One God without division in a Trinity of Persons and three Persons without confusion in an Unity of Essence it is a discovery altogether supernatural yea Nature is so far from finding it out that novv when Scripture hath revealed it she cannot by all the help of Art comprehend or set it forth as she doth other things Grammar it self wanting proper and full words whereby to express Logick strong demonstrations whereby to prove and Rhetorick apt similitudes whereby to clear so mysterious a truth The terms Essence Persons Trinity Generation Procession and such like which are commonly made use of for want of better have been and will be cavilled at as short of fully reaching the mystery in all its dimensions Of the similitudes usually brought for its illustration that which Hilary said is Omnis comparatio homini potiùs utilis habeatur quà m Do apta Hilar. lib. 1. de Trin. most true They may gratifie the understanding of man but none of them exactly suit with the nature of God For example Not that of a root a trunk and a branch the trunk proceeding from the root the branch from both yet but one tree because a root may for some time be without a trunk and a trunk without a branch but God the Father never was without his Son nor the Father and Son without their coeternal Spirit Neither that of a chrystall Ball held in a river on a Sunshine-day in which case there would be a Sun in the Firmament begetting another Sun upon the chrystall Ball and a third Sun proceeding from both the former appearing in the surface of the water yet but one Sun in all for in this comparison two of the Suns are but imaginary none reall save that in heaven whereas the Father Word and Spirit are distinct Persons indeed but each of them truly and really God § 5. Well therefore may Rhetoricians say It is not in us and in our similitudes fully to clear this high point Logitians also It is not in us and in our demonstrations fully to prove it For however reason be able from the creatures to demonstrate a Godhead as hath been said yet it cannot from thence a Trinity no more then he that looks upon a curious picture can tell whether it was drawn by an English-man or an Italian onely that the piece had an artificer and such an one as was a prime master in that faculty because the limbner drew it as he was an artist not as one of this or that nation So the world is a production of that Essence which is common to all three not any personal emanation from this or that subsistent which is the reason why a Deity may be inferred from thence but not any distinction of Persons much less the determinate number of a Trinity The doctrine whereof is like a Temple filled with smoke such smoke as not onely hinders the view of the quickest eye but hurts the sight of such as dare with undue curiosity pry into it A mystery which my faith embraceth as revealed in the
God either hath as manna is supposed to have had the relish of all meats or containeth all Sovereignty comprehendeth inferiour honours The best of their perfections are mixed with some defects but God is light 1 Joh. 1. 5. and in him is no darkness at all They may be perfect and good in their kinde He is perfection and goodness it self In them we may finde matter of wonderment but of astonishment in him witness that eminent place Nehem. 9. 5. Blessed be thy glorious Name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Nature though not altogether silent upon this argument to wit the divine Attributes yet enjoyeth but a dim light to discover them by whereas the Scripture representeth them most magnificently in sundry respects § 2. First so as to curb our curiositie For which end it expresseth divers of them negatively as when God is said to be infinite immortal invisible unsearchable whereby we are taught that it is easier for us to know what he is not then what he is which is known onely to himself The best terms as Scaliger hath it for men to manifest Scalig. de Subâ—iliâ— Exercit. 365. § 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazi anz hymn ad Deum Meliùs seitur nesciâ—ndo Aug. lib. 2. de ordine their understanding of God by are those which manifest that they understand him not Thou O Lord saith Nazianzen hast produced all those things of which we speak but art unspeakable thy self All that can be known by us is from thee but thou thy self canst not be known Yea Austin was not afraid to affirm that Nescience is the better way of knowing God Secondly so as to help our infirmitie For whereas we are not able by any one act of our finite understandings to comprehend that infinite Essence which is it self one simple Act but comprehensive of all perfections Holy Scripture condescending to our weakness alloweth us to take up as it were in several parcels what we cannot compass at once and in contemplating the Attributes to conceive some under the notion of divine properties incommunicable to creatures such as are Immensity Independency Eternity Simplicity Self-sufficiency All-sufficiency Omnipotence Omniscience Omnipresence Others under that of divine faculties such are Understanding Will and Memory ascribed to God It gives us leave to look at some as divine affections such are his Love Hatred Anger Grief and Delight At others as divine virtues such are his Mercy Justice Patience Faithfulness Holiness Wisdome c. and at other some as divine excellencies resulting out of all the former such are Majesty Blessedness and Glory § 3. Thirdly so as to prevent our misapprehensions The Attributes of God however diversified in our conceptions as hath been said are identified with his Essence which is but One though to us they appear to be different each from other and all from it as the vast ocean though but one receiveth divers names from the severall shores it washeth upon so however Justice Mercy Power and the rest be severall names suited to different operations yet God is but one simple Act under those various denominations Lest we should therefore apprehend them to be such qualities as our virtues are really distinguishable yea and separable from our being as appeared when the first man fell from his holiness yet continued a man still Scripture doth sometimes predicate them of God in the abstract as when Christ is styled Wisdome when it is said God Proverb 8. 1 Joh. 1. 8. 1 Joh. 5. 6. is love and the Spirit is truth Men may be called loving wise and true God is love wisdome and truth it self The Apostle telleth us that if God swear he doth it by himself and no other yet we Heb. 6. 13. finde him in the Psalm swearing by his Psal 89. 35. holiness whence it followeth that his holiness is himself Christ is usually said to sit at the right hand of God but in one place it is exprest by sitting on the right-hand of power Therefore God Mark 14. 62. is Power as well as Love There is the same reason of all his attributes § 4. Fourthly So as to raise our esteem of God Some there be which are frequently called Communicable Attributes because in them the creatures share as being immortality goodness and wisdome Lest we should in this respect have lower thoughts of God then becomes us Scripture is wont to ascribe them to him in such a way of supereminence as however they be participated by Angels and men yet he onely is said to have them Witness these texts There is none Isa 49. 6. besides me Who onely hath immortality 1 Tim. 6 16. and Chap. 1. 17. Matth. 19. 17. God onely wife And There is none good but God Because in him they are all infinite all eternal all unmixed and without the least allay of imperfection An apostrophe borrowed from a devout though popish writer shall shut up this O abyss of divine perfections How admirable art thou O Lord who possessest in one onely perfection the excellecy of Fr. Sales Love of God lib. 2. cap. 1. § 3. pag. 74. all perfections in so excellent sort that none is able to comprehend it but thy self § 5. There is yet behinde a third kinde of knowledge far exceeding both the former A knowledge of God not proceeding from the light of Nature alone as the first doth nor of Scripture alone as the second but from effectual irradiations of the Spirit of Ephes 1. 17. wisdome and revelation accompanied with purging and cheering influences from the same spirit Look as the Literal maketh an addition of further discoveries to the Natural which hath been sufficiently proved So this Spiritual knowledge of God superadds even to the Literal sundry particulars not unworthy of our serious consideration viz. First Clearness of light Since the Canon of Scripture was perfected the things which the Holy Ghost discovereth are no other for substance but those very things which are contained in the written word onely he affords regenerate persons clearer light to discern them by then any they had before their conversion Take a man that is now become a learned Critick turn him to the same Authour which he perused when he was a young student he will finde the self-same matter but see a great deal further into it because he hath now got further light So is it here Secondly Sweetness of taste I sate Cantic 2. 3. down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste So the Spouse O taste and see that the Lord is Esal 39. 8. good So the Psalmist Upon which place the School-men have founded their distinction of knowledge of sight and a knowledge of taste Spiritual science Scientia visûs gustâ—â— is steeped in affection taking delight in the things known and not barely apprehending but relishing and savouring what it apprehendeth with abundance of love and complacency Whence those
For as some of Gods promises are made with the condition of faith and perseverance so his threatnings are denounced with the exception of repentance which though concealed for the most part is always included and sometimes expressed as in that place of Jeremiah At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome Jer. 18. 7 8. to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them Be we admonished from hence First What to practise in reference to God to wit Truth in our promises to and covenants with him that so our returns may be answerable in kinde to our receits All his ways are mercy and truth Psal 25. 10. to us-ward therefore all ours should be truth and faithfulness towards him Thrice happy we whatever our outward condition prove if we be able to profess in the sincerity of our hearts as they did in Psalm the fourty fourth All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our principal comfort flows from Gods keeping his Covenant of grace with us it should therefore be our principal care to keep touch with him § 8. Secondly What to look for in reference to our selves To wit an exact fulfilling of all promises and threatnings that are conditional according to their severall conditions Hath the faithfull and true witness said He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Let no unbeleever then whilest he continueth in that estate expect salvation neither any that beleeveth and walketh in Christ fear damnation seeing he hath Truth it self engaged for his safety and seeing the faith of Gods Tit. 1. 1 2. elect according to St Pauls doctrine should go hand in hand with the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Let all that wish well to Zion make full account that in due time The mountain of the Isai 2. 2. Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it because it hath been promised of old Let them also know assuredly that the Lord will consume Antichrist with the spirit 2 Thess 2. 8. of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming because this commination standeth upon the file in holy Scripture and is not yet completely verified Former ages have seen Antichrist Nascent when the Bishop of Rome first usurped authority over all the Churches Antichrist Crescent when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images and praying to Saints departed Antichrist Regnant when he exalted himself above Kings and Emperours setting up his mitre above their crowns yea Antichrist Triumphant when he once became Lord of the Catholick faith so as none might beleeve without danger more or less or otherwise then he prescribed To this observation made by one of our own learned countreymen let me add we our Dr Crakanthorp in his Vigilius dormitans chap. 13. § 24. selves have seen him Antichrist Cadent falling and waining ever since Luther Calvin Perkins and others were set on work by God to unmask him And no Exerc. 4. doubt if we do not our posterity shall see him Antichrist morient dying and giving up the ghost for the Lord faithfull and true hath not onely threatned his ruine but foretold that his day is coming EXERCITATION 4. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture-expressions setting out the pardon thereof Gods goodness therein Faith and repentance the way to it Pardon in the Court of Heaven and of Conscience The equity and necessity of forgiving one another We are to forgive as God for Christs sake forgiveth us viz. heartily speedily frequently throughly A twofold remembrance of injuries in cautelam in vindictam § 1. THe sixth branch of divine goodness is the Lords keeping mercie for thousands which phrase admitteth of sundry notions worthy of diligent consideration First Keeping it as in a store-house God is said to be rich unto all that call upon Rom. 10. 12. him and we reade of the riches of his goodness These riches are laid up with him and kept as in a magazine to be made use of upon all occasions according to the emergent necessities of his people Whence it is that we also reade of their obtaining mercie and finding Hebr. 4. 16. grace to help in time of need Secondly Keeping it for the present age as well as having dispensed it formerly to predecessours Our fathers were all liberally supplied out of Gods forementioned Treasury as it is in Psalm the two and twentieth Our fathers trusted in thee Psal 2◠4 5. They trusted and thou didst deliver them They cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded This should be no disheartning to us as if his Treasury were exhausted but encourage us rather as Pauls example did succeeding beleevers For this 1 Tim. 1. 16. cause I obtained mercie said he that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter beleeve on him to life everlasting Which is the next observable Thirdly Keeping it for time to come as well as dispensing it at present God hath mercy in hand and mercy in store We now say as it is in the Lamentations It is of the Lords mercy that Lam. 3. 22. we are not consumed because his compassions fail not The same will they have occasion to profess that shall come after us God keepeth mercy and mercy keepeth us Created goodness indeed being limited may be justly suspected of penurie Esau might have somewhat to plead for his saying Hast thou but one blessing my father But Divine goodness is like an ocean without either banks or bottome Our heavenly Father hath blessings reserved as well as bestowed many more blessings then one yea for many more persons then one as it followeth Fourthly Keeping mercy for thousands and that not of persons onely but as it is in the Chaldee for thousands of generations One generation goes saith the Preacher and Eccles 1. 4. another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever Not one of all these generations but coming and going tasteth of mercy and the whole earth during Psal 33. 5. the time of these revolutions are still full of the Lords goodness When the ark rested Moses said Return O Lord unto the many Numb 10. 36. thousands of Israel He that charged his providence with the thousands of Israel is ready to charge it with the thousands of England both in this and after ages if they do not apostatize from him and so forsake
their own mercy § 2. Well may we therefore trust God with our posterity seeing he that hath shewed mercy to us keepeth mercy for them As that fountain of light the Sun is not weary with shining it giveth us light and keepeth light for our Antipodes so this fountain of mercy is never tired with communicating goodness to one generation after another Good parents in bad times are often troubled with great solicitude when they think what will become of their children after them Let such consider that they leave them in his hand who is a God keeping mercy for thousands as Luther did who had this passage in his last Will and Testament Lord God I thank thee for that thou hast Melch. Adam Vit. German Theol. p. 134. been pleased to make me a poor and indigent man upon earth I have neither house nor land nor money to leave behinde me Thou hast given me wife and children I restore them to thee Lord nourish teach and preserve them as thou hast hitherto done me O thou that art a Father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows Let them remember how much mercy is entailed upon the issue of beleevers by vertue of these and the like places He will bless them Psal 115. 13 14. that fear the Lord both small and great The Lord will increase you more and more both you and your children The just man walketh Prov. 20. 7. in his integrity his children are blessed after him And that Satan never can God never will cut off this entail unless either the children degenerate or the parents distrusting providence make use of some unlawfull means for their promotion In which case Wo to him saith the Prophet that coveteth an Hab. 2. 9 10 11. evil covetousness to his house that he might set his nest on high Thou hast consulted shame to thy house For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it If Jeroboam out of design to secure the kingdome and settle the crown in his own line will take the practise of Idolatry as a means to this end This thing becomes sin unto the house of 1 King 13. 34. Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth No wonder then if when Gods own peculiar people begin to distrust him and by reason of unbelief take irregular courses for their advancement in the world this very thing prove an obstruction to that mercy which they and theirs might have otherwise been partakers of Such as would be sure to finde him a God shewing and keeping mercy unto Exod. 20. 6. thousands must be carefull to be found in the number of those that love him and keep his commandments as he himself informeth us in the Decalogue § 3. The seventh branch is forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Where the terms are multiplied to note the readiness of God to forgive our offences how many soever they be though transgression be added to iniquity and sin to transgression How great soever See Muis on Psal 51. 2. they be Pescha which signifieth rebellious as well as Chattaah which imports failings and of what kinde soever they be whether original viz. the crookednes perversnes of nature intimated in Avon the word used in that speech of David Behold I was shapen in iniquity or actuall expressed by the two other terms To help our understanding herein the Holy Ghost in Scripture is pleased to make use of sundry expressions very significant when he speaks of Gods pardoning sin viz. I. Taking it away as in that place of Hosea where the Church is directed to make her addresses on this wise Take Hos 14. 2. with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Not as if when iniquity is forgiven it were presently to be taken out of the memory but that which the Saints desire is to have it taken out of the conscience that their hearts may accuse them for it no more As a thorn in the hedge is a fence but an offence in the midst of a garden So sin in the memory may do well to keep us from relapsing but is a grievance in the conscience Which made Austin after assurance Quid retribuam Domino quòd recolit haec memoria mea anima mea non metuit inde August Confess lib. 2. c. 7. of forgiveness when he had made confession of his former aberrations bless God that he could now call them to minde without being affrighted at the consideration of them II. Casting of our sins behinde his back So in Hezekiahs song Thou hast in love to my soul saith he delivered it from the Isa 38. 17. pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back This God doth with a purpose never to view them more Oculo vindice so as to take vengeance for them though Oculo judice he cannot but by reason of his Omniscience see and discern them All the while Davids sins were before his own face and he making a penitent confession of them as in the one and fiftieth Psalm I acknowledged Psalm 51. 3. my transgressions and my sin is ever before me they were cast behinde the back of God as the Prophet Nathan assured him saying The Lord hath put 2 Sam. 12. 13. away thy sin thou shalt not die III. Scattering them as a cloud or as a mist So the Geneva translation hath it in that cheering passage of Isaiah I have Isa 44. 22. put away thy transgressions like a cloud and thy sins as a mist Sin is that which interposeth it self between the soul and the light of Gods countenance But whether it be a slender mist or a thick cloud an infirmity or a rebellion the sun of righteousness eyed by faith can and will dispell it so as to make it vanish § 4. IV. Covering or hiding them So in the Psalm Blessed is he whose transgression Psalm 32. 1. is forgiven whose sin is covered Men never Si texit peccata Deus noluit advertere Si noluit advertere noluit animadvertere Si noluit animadvertere noluit punire August in loc punish hidden sins because the law taketh notice of none but such onely as come to light by breaking out in words or actions God is accordingly said to cover and hide those sins as it were out of his sight which he never intends to inflict punishment for V. Throwing them into the depth of the Sea Thus in Micha's Prophesie Who is Micah 7. 18 19. a God like unto thee that pardoneth c. He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea Alluding perhaps to what befell Pharaoh and his host in the red sea which drowned the greatest Egyptian Commanders as well as the meanest
some pretend to the contrary whose arguments have been elsewhere sufficiently answered I shall onely here propound and endeavour to satisfie another objection whereof no mention is there made Paul knew himself to be a chosen vessel for Ananias had told him Acts 9. 15. so from Christs own mouth yet speaks of himself as of one in some danger at least in some possibility of becomming a Reprobate in these words I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any 1 Cor. 9. 27. means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway or as other translations have it a Reprobate Ergo the decree of Election is not irreversible Resp To prepare the way for a full answer let it be considered 1. That the places cited in the objection are not fitly opposed because the former is not necessarily to be understood of election to salvation but may probably be limited to Pauls being chosen an Apostle Neither is the latter infallibly meant of that reprobation which is contradistinct to the said election but of somewhat else Yea although it be true and may strongly be inferred from other texts that Paul knew his own election to life eternal the reprobation spoken of in the end of the verse is not to be taken in the most rigid sense but in a milder 2. That our Apostle according to his custome in sundry epistles was in the end of this chapter fallen upon the use of terms agonistical borrowed from the Olympick and other Grecian games in that age as appeareth in the foregoing verses Know ye not that they 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26. who run in a race c. Every man that striveth for the mastery c. I so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the air And that in the last verse he hath no less then four allusions to these exercises One in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cuffing wherein the combatants were wont with their blows to make one another livid under their eyes so did he by acts of mortification beat himself as it were black and blue A second in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the exercise of wrestling wherein the antagonists mutually strove to cast each other to the ground and to keep them under So he the better to subdue his body of sin was carefull to keep down his body of flesh which if pampered is apt to rebell A third in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We reade in the second to Timothy chapter the second verse the fifth of their striving lawfully that is according to the rules and laws prescribed for that game respectively in which they were to strive for the mastery The officer by whom these laws were propounded to the combatants was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul in allusion thereunto saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in the discharge of his Apostolical office he had acquainted them with the rules laws of Christianity A fourth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unapproved a term of disgrace put upon those whom such as were to judge and pass sentence upon the combatants disallowed Whereas those whom the judges rewarded were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved ones 3. That this unapprovedness may either relate to God himself or to good men If to God the supreme judge then whosoever carrieth himself amiss in any particular course of living offendeth the Lord falleth under his fatherly displeasure and is as to this particular a person disallowed and rejected how firm soever his station may be as to the main If to good men who are subordinately to judge of their preachers doctrine and conversation a teacher is then said to be unapproved of them when upon observation of some unfaithfulness or looseness in his demeanour some sensuality or unlawfull indulgence to his body they begin to disesteem him in comparison of what they did before yea perhaps to cast him out of their affections and of their prayers of which till then he was a partaker These things premised let it now be observed whether the meaning of the place contested about be not clearly this or to this effect I Paul well remembring what I am a member and minister of Jesus Christ am and shall continue carefull to exercise my self in all the duties of mortification not making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof lest I who by mine office am bound to declare unto others the grand rules of Christian practise particularly of temperance which I urged but now saying Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things should by any sensual demeanour of mine own not onely prove a castaway as to the esteem I formerly had in the hearts and consciences of good people and to the interest I enjoyed in their devotion which I should account a loss far exceeding that of honour or estate but also fall under the wrath and fatherly displeasure of my God and be cast out of fellowship with him though but for a short space of time which to me who have lived in the sense of it under the constant light of his countenance and found his loving kindness better then life would be worse then any death And if this really be the utmost importance of the text as for ought I know it is without extending it to further or other kinde of reprobation I hope the objection built upon it will not need any further or other kinde of answer § 10. Fifthly The Cause of divine Electionis tuae causam in te quaere nec invenies quod quaeris quod invenisse te existimas jam perdidisti quia ibi quaeris Heins homil in Job 17. 9. pag. 38. election about which the world is so filled with disputes is not to be found in any thing without God himself the disputers indeed of this world lay out many thoughts and put out many books concerning such contrivements as our corrupt reason would perhaps better allow and our corrupt wils better affect but holy Scripture resolveth all into the sole will of God the good pleasure and Counsel whereof the Apostle celebrateth as the causes of our predestination Having predestinated us Ephes 1. 5 11. unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will And again Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Words so very plain and full as would certainly have put an end to altercations and silenced disputes in these points but that corrupt reason is extremely talkative and the wisdome of flesh direct enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. and therefore such as will never yield till its corruption be removed for enmity cannot be reconciled the enemies may Whence that excellent speech of Melancthon worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance Dulcescet nostra de predestinatione sententia ubi impiae rationis judicium
of others that had their consciences seared with an hot iron without all sense as a member once cauterized Smite a stone as long as you will beat it while you can stand over it it complaineth not lay a mountain upon it it groaneth not Such are some mens consciences Let God beat upon them with sermon after sermon cross after cross let them have worlds of oaths lies cheats other sins to answer for they feel not the load of these mountains complain not of them but perhaps with Judas go out from the Sacrament to play the traytour and with king Ahaz sin yet more in their distress Although temperance modesty and the like dispositions be in some measure quite extinguished yet if conscience like Jobs messenger be still left to report the story of this desolation there is some hope but if as David sometime dealt with the Philistines all be slain and none left alive to bring the tidings if not onely al ingenuity be banished but the very mouth of conscience also stopt the case is desperate V. Unmoveableness in the affections See an instance thereof in king Zedekiah of whom it is said He did that which was 2 Chron. 36. 12 13. evil in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel Zedekiah's heart was so obdurate as not to have his affections Non magis incepto vultus sermone movetur Quam si dura silex aut Marpesia caut Virg. moved with any thing that Jeremiah could say or do Let a man go about to make an oration to a stone be it never so eloquent and pathetical the stone is not affected with it No more are many hard hearts with the voice of Gods word or rod. Tell them of the beauty of Christ they are not perswaded to love him of the ugliness of sin they are not induced to hate it of the torments of hell they are not moved to fear and shun it Such is the nature and composition of hard-heartedness which was the first thing to be spoken to § 3. The second particular is the sinfulness of that frame which appeareth from the expressions the opposites and the attendants of it mentioned in holy Scriptures I. From the expressions which are borrowed some from the bodies of men liable to a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others from mettals and others from stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not onely the thick brawny skin that groweth over the labourers hand and travellours foot rendering that part insensible but also among Physicians that knottiness which groweth upon the joynts in some diseases as in a long-continued gout by them called nodosa podagra and pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 durities in artubas Budae commentar incurable by physick Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram Hardness of heart is expressed by this Mark 3. 5. John 12. 40. Elsewhere from mettals as in that of Isaiah Thou art obstinate Isa 484. thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow brass When men will no more stoop to the precepts of Christ then a beast would to the yoke if his neck were of iron sinews are instruments of motion they all go down from the head to the body by the neck if the neck should be stiff and the sinews of iron it would not be possible for the head to bow down Such is the state of obstinate persons Yea and further the Prophet here ascribeth to them a brow of brass The brow is that place where shame is wont to discover it self this is said to be of brass to note their impudency An hard heart is frequently accompanied with a brazen face And in other places from stones An hard heart is usually called an heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and chap. 36. 26. Zechar. 7. 12. Yea the hardest of all stones the Adamant They made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law c. stones are drier and more inflexible then mettals themselves Chymicks can distill mettals and alter the shape of them to serve their turns But Moses could not O duriora sanis Judaeorum pectora finduntur petrae sed horum corda durantur Horum immobilis duritia manet orbe concusso Ambros without a miracle fetch water out of a rock nor can men by the help of fire change the shape of a stone and render it flexible Well might one of the Fathers cry out by occasion of what befell at our Saviours passion O the hearts of the Jews harder then rocks the rocks rent but their hearts were further from rending then before The earth quaked but their hardness continued unremoved almost unmoved As in Jeroboams time when the Prophet cried O altar altar thus saith the Lord It heard and rent Jeroboams heart was harder then the very stones and rent not § 4. II. From the opposites of hard-heartedness the chief whereof is spiritual Evangelical tenderness promised in the covenant of grace where it is said I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within Ezek. 11. 19. you and will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that is a soft and tender heart I do not mean that natural tenderness caused by constitution or education of both which it is true that it softens the manners and keeps them from Emollit mores nec sinit esse seros fierceness ascribed to Rehoboam of whom it was said He was young and 2 Chro. 1◠7. tender-hearted and could not withstand the children of Belial Such men are fitly compared to ripe plumbs and apricocks which however soft and smooth on the out-side yet have an hard stone within like a brick at first soft when the clay is fashioned and continues so till the Sun have hardened it yea by pouring on of water softened again but if once baked in the brick-kill no fire will melt it an whole sea will not moisten it afterwards So it fares with sundry men formerly tender-hearted when once hardened by conversing in the world and baked as it were in the kill of custome That which I intend is Spiritual tenderness ascribed to Josiah Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God 2 Chr. 34. 27. and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord God As mettals are melted with the fire before they be cast in a new mold so must every heart be melted and softened before it come to be moulded anew The new creature is alwaies a tame and tender creature This is that temper which hardness of heart is opposite to and therefore sinfull III. From the attendants thereof Divers have been already mentioned