For the full resolution of this Question the Sacred Scriptures are not the sole Competent Judge or Rule Nor doth the determination of it belong to the Cognizance of such as are the best Interpreters of Sacred writ for the true Grammatical or Litteral sence of every proposition contained in it This Case must be reserved to the Schools of Arts or to the certain Rules of true Logick and Philosophy which are the best guides of Reason in all discursive faculties But here I am engaged to do that which in other cases I have endeavoured to avoid that is to make repetition of two great Problems in the Science or Faculty of Theologie heretofore in their several places handled and in some ensuing meditations to be hereafter inculcated The first Problem is In what sense or with what limitations the Scripture is held by all reformed Churches to be the only Rule of Faith The Second In what sense or how far it is true that Recta ratio Reason rectified or rightly managed may be admitted a competent Judge in Controversies belonging to the Faculty of Theologie 2. To the First Problem In what sence the Scripture is held by us to be the sole and competent Rule of Faith and manners I have no more to say for the present then hath been long ago published in the second book of these Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed Sect. 1. Chap. 11. The summe of all in that place delivered is to my best remembrance This No Christian is bound to admit or receive any Doctrine or proposition as an Article of his Faith unlesse it be contained in the Old or New Testament either Totidem verbis or may be Concludently or Demonstratively deduced from some Sacred Maxim or proposition expresly contained in the Canonical Books in the Old and New Testament Such Maxims as are expresly and plainly contained in Scripture Every Christian Man is bound to believe absolutely But such propositions or Conclusions as may be demonstratively inferred from Canonical unquestionable Maxims they only are bound absolutely to believe which have so much use of Reason or skill in Arts as may enable them clearly to discern the Necessity of the Consequence or concludent Proof of the Deduction The ignorant or illiterate are only bound to believe such Deductions Conditionally See the second Book chap. 2. chap. 4 c. or to practise according to their Teachers instructions with such Reservation or under such Conditions as have been expressed in the second and third Book of these Commentaries 3. But what Propositions though expresly contained in Scriptures be Negative or Affirmative Vniversal Indefinite Particular or Singular Or how any or all of these be Convertible whether Absolutely by Accident or by Contraposition or how to Frame a perfect Syllogism out of them These or the like are points which the holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets and other Pen-men of Sacred and Canonical Writ did never undertake or professe to teach The discussion or determination of Questions of this nature must be had from the Rules of Reason sublimated or regulated by good Arts or faculties And for the bettering or Advancing of Natural Reason in this search the most learned or most sanctified Christian this day living should be very unthankful to the only Lord his Redeemer and Sanctifier if he do not acknowledge it as an especial branch of his All-seeing Providence in raising up unto the World such Lights of Nature and Guides of Reason as Aristotle Plato and others of the Ancient Philosophers were True Reason in whomsoever seated Whether in the Natural or Regenerate man unlesse it be advanced and guarded by such Rules of Arts as these Sages of the old World have by Gods Providence invented or bettered can be no fit Judge but being so advanced and guarded is the most Competent Judge of Controversies in Divinity of such Controversies I mean as arise from Consequences or Deductions made by way of use or application out of the uncontroverted Maxims of sacred Writ And if we would sequester Grammatical or Rhetorical Pride and partialitie to the several Professions wherein respectively men glory we might easily discern all or most of those unhappy Controversies which have set the Christian World for these late years in Combustion to have been hatched maintained and nourished by such pretended Favorites of the Spirit as either never had faithfully Learned any true Logick Philosophie or ingenuous Arts or else had utterly forgotten the Rules which they had learned or heard before they begun to handle controversies in Theologie or entertain disputes about them 4. Obliquity can have no other Cause beside that which is the Cause of the Act whence it necessarily results The Hypothesis for whose clearer discussion these last Theses have been premised is this Whether it being once granted or supposed that the Almighty Creator was the Cause either of our mother Eves desire or of her Actual Eating of the Forbidden Fruit or of her delivery of it to her husband or of his taking and eating it though unawares the same Almighty God must not upon like Necessity be acknowledged to be the Author of all the Obliquities which did accompany the positive Acts or did necessarily result from them This is a Case or Species Facti which we cannot determine by the Rule of Faith It must be tried by the undoubted Rules of Logick or better Arts. These be the only perspective Glasses which can help the Eye of Reason to discover the truth or necessity of the Consequence to wit Whether the Almighty Creator being granted to be the Cause of our Mother Eves first Longing after the forbidden Fruit were not the Cause or Author of her sin Now unto any Rational man that can use the help of the forementioned Rules of Arts which serve as prospective Glasses unto the Eye of Reason that usual Distinction between the Cause or Author of the Act and the Cause or Author of the Obliquity which necessarily ensues upon the Act will appear at the first sight to be False or Frivolous yea to imply a manifest Contradiction For Obliquity or whatsoever other Relation can have no Cause at all besides that which is the Cause of the Habit of the Act or Quality whence it necessarily results And in particular that conformity or similitude which the First man did bear to his Almighty Creator did necessarily result from his substance or manhood as it was the work of God undefaced Nor can we search after any other true Cause of the First mans confirmity to God or his integrity besides him who was the Cause of his manhood or of his Existence with such qualifications as by his Creation he was endowed with In like manner whosoever was the cause whether of his coveting or eating of the Tree in the middle of the Garden was the true Cause of that Obliquity or crooked deviation from Gods Law or of that deformity or dissimilitude unto God himself which did necessarily result
deceive our selves and others by giving one and the same Answer to All or Most Questions that are or can be moved concerning these Duties That may be true of Mortification or Conversion whether spiritual or moral taking it in some Degree which is altogether false if we apply it to the same Qualification or Duty taken or considered according to another Degree Thus much they better saw then considered who have entertained Dispute Pro or Con in that Question An Homo in prima Conversione ad Deum sit merè Passivus Whether man in his first Conversion be meerly passive The Issue would be easier shorter and more certain if the same Question were proposed thus An Homo quoad Primum Gradum Conversionis sit merè Passivus Whether man be meerly Passive in the first Degree or Degrees of his Conversion or Mortification For mine own part as I acknowledge many Degrees of Conversion and many precedent Motions to true and compleat Mortification So I should think the most men Living that are throughly Converted and truely mortified to be Meerly Passive not in the First Second or Third Degree only but in All or most of the intermediate Degrees of Mortification which are precedent to the Habit of it or rather to the Gift of Perseverance in it And being once Habitually Mortified we are in a sort Active 2. But if in the First Second or Subsequent Degrees of Mortification we be meerely Passive How shall we avoyd That Imputation which is laid upon our Church by the Romanists The Imputation is This That albeit we grant men to be Mortified and require the Dutie of Mortification at mens hands yet wee acknowledge them not to be Men but meere Stocks in the Acts or Interims of their Conversion or Mortification To this we answer That although we be meerly Passive in the Acts of Mortification yet are we not Passive after the same manner that Stocks and Stones or Creatures meerly Sensitive are Passive Nor are Creatures indued with sense Passive after the same manner that stocks and stones or creatures without sense are There be Passives inanimate Passives sensitive reasonable Passives or Patients Every Faculty of Sense is meerly Passive in respect of its proper Function or Sensation And yet the ignoblest Faculties of sense are in some sort Active that they may be sensitively Passive or passive after another manner than stocks and stones or things inanimate are The Sense of Touching which of all the five External Senses is most ignoble and least Active may not withstanding be lesse Passive or more or lesse capable of paine by the Activitie or motion of the bodie But of the more Noble Senses the Maxim is most true Sentire est pati All Sensation is a kind of Passion or suffering And it is generally resolved in Schooles that Visio fit intromittendo non extramittendo Sight or Vision although it be the most Noble external Sense is not made by Extramission or sending out of the Rayes or beames of the Eye but by Impression of the Obiect seen and Impression is a Passion So that Sight it self consists in Passion and the Eye it self in respect of its proper Function is meerly Passive and yet he that will see the Sun or other Objects Visible must be content to open his eyes not to wink yet to wink or open the eyes is no Passion but an Action He that desires to see Objects obscure or lesse Visible must Intend the Optick Nerves otherwise he shall not be sensitively Passive In what sence we are said to be Passives in our Conversion And He that desires to hear well especially if he be afarre off must be content to Listen and Listning includes an Intension of the Organ or Instrument of hearing an Action in the Hearer that he may be sensitively Passive He that speaks is the Agent or Actor And yet how pleasant soever his speech be the Hearer must be Active to finde him Eares Now Faith is as the Eye-Sight of the Soul and understanding and yet Faith as the Apostle saith comes by hearing Our Mortification or Conversion which is a work of Faith is never wrought without some sense or feeling And in these works if they be spiritually performed the Spirit of man is as meerly Passive as the bodily Eye is in the sense of Sight or the Eare in the Act of Hearing But meerely Passive after a more remarkable manner in the First Degrees of Mortification or Conversion than in their Accomplishment The Resolution then of the former doubt is This We are meerly Passive in the Degrees or works of Mortification or Conversion We are not meerly Passive we must be Active in some works by the Providence of God presupposed for accomplishment of these works or for his accomplishing these works in us by the Spirit 3. For Illustration of that which in this Point may be easily conceived by all without offence as I hope to any We will take for Instance or Example a man whose heart hath never found any internal Comfort of the Spirit a Despiser of the Meanes which lead to Grace A Young Man Every way as dissolutely Bent as his yeares and Experience will permit him This man upon some Loathsome Concomitants which follow ryot or upon some grievous mischance that hath befalne him or his Friend in an unruly place upon the Lords-Day abjures the like place and Companie for a while And being not able or unaccustomed to be alone resolves to make trial whether he shall speed better by repairing at times seasonable unto the Lords House In thus resolveing and in thus repairing to the Church he is not meerly Passive but an Active This is no Work of true Faith no Degree of true Conversion or Mortification spiritual yet a Motion by Gods Providence presupposed or rather prerequired to his future Regeneration or Conversion He is Active Likewise in Lending his Eares with some tolerable attention unto the Preacher The Theme whereupon the Preacher without any notice of this Parties Dispositions or Occasions doth insist we will suppose to be that portion of scripture which was the meanes of St. Austins first Conversion to Christianitie without any choyce made by Him but presenting it self in respect of his present thoughts or purpose by meere Chance The Theme which first wrought his Conversion as he himself in His Confessions acknowledgeth Confess 8. lib. 12. Cap. was Rom. 13. 13. 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in Ryoting and Drunkennesse not in Chambering and Wantonness not in strife and Envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof A discreet methodical application of such Doctrines as this Text affords would much move any dissolute Young-Mans heart which had been impelled or drawn upon the former presupposed Occasions to heare these Words opened or discoursed upon without his choyce and beyond his Ayme or expectation And in this supposed Motion or relenting of
more then Fatal 3266 Gods Decrees do not prejudice his Eternal liberty 3089 Decrees of God not terminated to the abstract Entities of men 3151 3182 c. 3234 3248 3283 Decree of Election and Reprobation not to be taken as an Act long since past 3241 One and the same man not alwaies one and the same Object of Gods Decree 3236 3243 Gods Decree did not necessitate Adam in any degree to sin 3012 To affirm it layes an higher imputation on the Holy Lord God then we can truly lay on Satan ibid. The Doctrine of the Rigid Decree 3175 3182 to 3189 The Doctrine of the Rigid Decree makes Christ a Sacrifice not a Priest 3266 That Doctrine came at first from Romish Schoolmen into England at second or third hand ibid. Rigid Decree The Doctrine liable to two Imputations 1. It takes away Christs Priesthood 2. Christs Judicative power 3267 God from eternity Decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will God from Eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible will Two seeming Contradictories reconcileable 3237 Of several kinds of Definitions which fittest for Divines 3034 Flacâ— Illyricus's S. Austin's Aquinas's Melancthon's Calvin's Martyrâ—s Definâ—ation of sin Original 3032 c. Demochares Parrhesiastes his Barbaritie 3136 Deny Christ how some men do 3172 Needless Disputes make men negligent in Duties 3129 Divinitie Turkish 3181 c. Divisions in Arts and of Common use differ 3243 A discourse about that Division he will have mercy on whom and whom he will he hardens 3242 Under the Division of living after flesh or Spirit all comprehended 3147 Division of mankind into Elect and Reprobate See Elect. Do as you would be done to the meaning of it lost amongst us 3079 To Do one thing to be a Doer another 3099 3018 To do in the Hebrew Phrase signifies the Habit Maldonates Observation ib. The word doth the true value of it 3104 Dominiâ—ans and Schoolmen have harsh expressions about the Author of sin 3012 Dominium non fundatur in fide 3003 Dominion not so intire as at first 3003 To despise Dominion a great sin 3171 Drunkennesse 3126 E. EDucation good or bad may hinder or improve the Growth of sinne Original 3032 Education or discipline the effect of it in Bruits 3085 c. 3133 in youth c. 3135 Eâ—ficacie everlasting See Sacrifice Ego non sum Ego S. Ambrose 3240 The End or Scope of the discussions in the 35 first Chapters of this book 3129 End Hebr. 3. 14. what it imports 3149 3153 End Matth. 24. 13 what it signifies 3153 End and effect differ 302â— Election and Reprobation much about them in the sixth Section Questions of Election and Reprobation cannot be right stated without good skill in point of Free will 3082 Election and Reprobation The terms taken in a Passive or Concrete Sense Easy in the Active or Abstract very hard to be understood 3128 c. Points of Election and Reprobation not to determin but to be determined by points more General 3147 All men be not either Elect or Râ—probate who be so 3147 3154 Division of all mankind into Elect or Reprobate not right 3153 The sad effect of that Division 3275 Of Election Reprobation the Object 3155 A Question about Election and Reprobation ib. 3156 Best to examine our perswasions of Election or Reprobation by our progress in or neglect of Mortification 3162 The Elect obliged to the dutie of Mortification 3102 Even the Elect need daily cleansing 3287â— What we must do to make our Election sure 3038 Inconveniences following the Tenent That Christ dyed only for the Elect 3172 No man bound at his first admission into the Church to believe that he is Elect 3172 3174 Elect to Grace and Elect to Glory 3174 A man Elect may have been a child of wrath 3183 The opinion of Absolute Election undid the Jew 3186 Dangerous Reasonings about Election 3245 State of Election and Reprobation usually mutable before it come to be Immutable 3245 No mans Election or Reprobation absolutely necessary from Eternity 3156 State of Election and Reprobation under promise and under Oath 3238 Gods Peculiar Favour to the Elect and acceptation of their good works 3284 c. Men Elect and men within the Covenant differ 3284 c. An electio sit ex praevisis operibus 3218 Elect See Decree See Sins Remitted An estate Immutable may be attained in this life 3148 Mens estates become both ways Immutable not by Qualities but by measures of sins or duties 3149 c. Three estates of every particular man that is saved and four estates of man in General 3154 Enoâ—h his Book 3171 Epicurus his Moderation c. 3139 Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood The Novatian The Masse Sins remitted before committed 3280 See Sins remitted Esau runneth Isaac willeth God sheweth mercy 3214 c. Excommunication The great Jewish taken out of Enochs Book and words 3171 F. FAll See Adam Faith an Assent 3073 Justification by faith 3210 3218 An ill faith to believe that Tò credere will save 3274 A full assurance of faith immaturely pretended unto and taught 3274 Special faith effects of the Doctrine 3274 3277 It hindred the Reformation ibidem Fides est Fiducia in what sense true 3276 Fall away Believers in part may fall away 3073 to 3078 Every sin diminishes though not totally destroyes Grace 3279 Fallacies in Syllogisms about Pharaoh his case 3232 c. Satans Fallacie to terminate our desires in the meanes 3063 3064 A fatalitie Orthodoxal 3080 3284 A Brutish Fate of Stoicks Manichees c 3081 3266 To extirpate this Fate Just Martyr Origen Athanasius Nyssen Jerom endeavoured ibid. Pretended Favourites of the Spirit breeders of controversies 3011 Dr. Field commended the reading of Flaccius Illyricus to his Author 3039 Flaccius Illyricus his Definition of Original sin 3032 c. Flesh in St. Paul signifies or comprehends the rational soul also 3118 Flesh signifies both our Substance and the corruption thereof 3097 Flesh what debt we owe unto it ibid. what be the deeds of the flesh which we must mortifie 3097 c. 3100 All have a flâ—sh to mortifie 3102 All the deeds of the Flesh must be mortifyed though we cannot utterly kill them 3099 Living after the flesh about it Read 3146 c. Every moment of life ledd after the flesh an approach to the Ratification of Gods Threat Ye shall dye 3152 Flesh See Mortification A Freeman simply not of a Corporation 3042 Of free-will 3080. A short narrative of the disputes about it ib. and 3081 c. The cause of the ill successe in such disputes 3082 The utilitie of the disquisition about Free-will ibid. Several acceptions of the word Free and Freedom Spontaneum opposed to Coaction 3083 the subjects of such Freedom ibid. c. several kindes or degrees of Freedom 3087 definition of a free created Agent ibid. Of Free-will two branches Contradictionis Contrarietatis 3088 The root of Freedom Reflexive power 3086 No rational Agent but is
Freedom in respect of divers Objects and degrees in Natural men 3090 SECT V. Of the great Duty of Mortification and of the use of Free-will for Performing it 3096 CHAP. 28. Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification and which be the especial works of the flesh we are to Mortifie 3096 29. How farr the duty of Mortification is Universal how farre Indefinite 3099 30. Containing the true Rule for examining our Perswasions concerning our Estate in Grace 3103 31 How the Flesh is Mortifyed by Vs How by the Spirit 3106 32. Whether Mortification and Conversion may be said to be ex pr visis operibus though God alone do properly Mortifie and convert us 3112 33. By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Body 3115 34. Containing the Manner and Order of the Spirits working or of our working by the Spirit 3120 35. Wherein the accomplishment of Mortification or of Conversion unto God doth properly consist 3124 36. Contâ—ining the Scope or Summe of what hath been said concerning Free-will and the service of it in the duty of Mortification 3129 Sect. VI. Concerning Election and Reprobation and That the Decrees of God be not terminated to the Abstract Entities or Substances of men 37. Concerning the Limitation of these Two Propositions Rom. 8. 13. 1. If ye live after the slesh ye shall dye 2. If through the spirit ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live 3146 38. A Sermon on St. Iude's Epistle verse the fourth enquiring who those men were which were of Old ordained to the Condemnation there spoken of and what manner of Ordination is there meant 3164 39. A serious Answer to Mr. Henry Burton who took exception at a Passage in this Authors Treatise Of the Divine Essence and Attributes about Objective Goodnesse c. 3175 40. A Paraphrase upon the Eleven first Chapters of Exodus with useful Observations and parallels 3190 41. Salvation only from Gods Grace or An Exposition of Romans 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth But of God that sheweth mercy 3210 42. An Exposition on Romans 9. verses 18 19 20 21 22 c. or a Treatise of God his just Hardening Pharaoh c. 3222 SECT VII Of the Acts or Exercises of Christs Everlasting Priesthood CHAP. 43. Concerning the Manner or meanes by which the Son of God doth now de Facto through the continual Exercise of his Everlasting Priesthood in his heavenly Sanctuary set Free indeed all such as seek for the working out of their own Salvation with fear and trembling pag. 3252. 44. The Coherence of the eighth Chapter to the Hebrews with the seven precedent and two following The exact Proportions or Parallels betwixt the mundane Tabernacle with the two Sanctuaries therein and the Caelestial with those in it betwixt the Manner or Rites in the Consecration of the One and the Other Betwixt the High-Priests of the Old Testament and Christ our onely High-Priest of the New intimated in this explicated in the following Chapters 3253. 45. That the soules of Righteous men Abraham c. Were in a Blissefull heavenly Mansion before But after The Kingdom of Heaven was perfectly set up and open to all Beleevers By Christs Placing As man at the Right Hand of God Their Condition was bettered 3255. 46. A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating The Tabernacle the vessels c. with Blood of Beasts And of Consecrating The Heavenly Places with the most Pretious Blood of Jesus Christ 3257. 47. Before the fuller draught of that Parallel If the Blood of Bulls and the Ashes of an Heifer much more the Blood of Christ treated on in the Two next Chapters The Apostles Translating the Hebrew word Berith by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is shewed to be not a meere Allusion but of strict Proprietie 3259. 48. The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and the One Sacrifice of Christ and The high Praeeminence and Efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrine That in the Masse Christs Body is identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 3261. 49. That the Forraign mainteiners of the more then Fatal Irrespective Rigid Decree make Christ Jesus rather a meere Sacrifice Then a True Everlasting Priest acting for us and dayly working out our Reconciliation to God So do such as teach That the sinnes of some were Remitted before they were Committed Of the Superexcellency of Christs Priest-Hood and One Sacrifice in Comparison of the Aaronicall Pr. and the Many Servâ—ces thereof 3266. 50. The Raritie of That Rite of Consecrating the Water of Sprinkling by the Ashes of the Red Heyfer an Emblem of Baptism and the Singularitie thereof Our Churches meaning in some Expressions at the Administration of That Sacrament 3270. 51. Inordinate Libertie of Prophesying brought Errors into the Church and hindred the Reformation 3273. 52. That Justification Consists not in One Single Act. In what sense Fides est Fiducia is True 3276. 53. Christs Parable Math. 12. 43. c. applyed Two degrees of Reconciliation the First Active or but meer Grammatically Passive The Other Reall-Passive So Correspondently Two Branches of Justification The One from Christs Death the Other from the benefit of His Priesthood daily participated to us 3277. SECT VIII Of Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood CHAP. 54. Three Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood 1. The Novatian denying the Reception of some sort of sinners 2. Alate Contrary Error affirming That Every sin which some sort of Men Committ is pardoned before it be committed 3. The Romish Doctrine of the Masse giving Scandal to the Jew All of them respectively derogating from the infinite Value or Continual Efficacie of Christs Everlasting Priesthood 3280. 55. From the Text Hebr. 10. 1 2 16 17. and from this Maxim That Christs One Sacrifice of himself was of Value absolutely infinite it follows not That such as worship God in spirit or such as are received into the Covenant of Grace have their sinnes remitted before they commit them That Doctrin makes Christs Resurrection Useless in respect of us and our Baptism needless Legal worshipers Conscious and their sinnes remembred in such sort as Evangelical worshippers are not The Vast odds betwixt Christs One Sacrifice and the Many legal We must distinguish betwixt the Infinite Value and Infinite Vertue of Christs Sacrifice The precious Effects of H. Baptism and the Eucharist flowing from the Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and Priesthood How Legal Sacrifices c. prefigured Christs 3292. 56. The Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and the Vse of His Priesthood two distinct several things Wherein the Exercise of his Priesthood doth Consist How it was foreshadowed Ordinances Effectual by Vertue of Christs Presence Vertual Presence is a Real Presence 3301. A Table of the Texts of Holy Scripture Expounded or Illustrated in this BOOK Genesis Chap. Verse
from sin that is Albeit he was not from his Creation either by nature or by supernaturall endowment utterly impeccable yet by the assistance and benignity of his Gratious Creator he might have attained unto such a perpetuall estate or immunity from falling into sin 4. The question about merit of works no way concerns the First man in his primaeval Estate Suppose he had preserved or imployed the Talent concredited unto him at his first creation aright should the superaddition or crowning of his First Estate with perseverance have been a meer gift of grace or rather a kinde of merit This is a Question not very pertinently moved by some Schoole-men and the Contradictory to their determination more inconsiderately maintained by some modern Disputants or Logical Criticks For seeing Adam received that great Talent concredited to him in his creation not absolutely or to use it as he pleased but at his perill or under express penalty that if he misimployed it or contemned his Commandement which bestowed it upon him he should dye the death it is no way improbable that if he had improved his Talent for some competent time that the state wherein he was created should have been hereditary to him and his not by such free Grace as is bestowed upon us under the Gospell but by way of Merit de congruo though not according to Commutative yet to Distributive Justice rather then by meere Mercy or benignity But this opinion I vent not with any intention to move or abett disputes or controversies already moved about this curious Question but rather to perswade the Reader that all questions concerning the Merits of works or of perseverance in that Grace by which all good works are wrought must be reduced or confined to the estate or condition of mankinde since Adams Fall Of which Question thus stated or limited I shall I hope be able to give the Reader or any that will soberly dispute or conferr with me in it better satisfaction Vivâ voce then this Treatise without digression will permit me to do The principall Points in it or which I had in my thoughts either to prosecute or propose The First man was neither necessitated to continue good nor to become Evil. are these following First That albeit the First man were by vertue of Creation righteous and just yet were neither his perseverance or non-perseverance in this righteousnesse absolutely necessary both of them possible That both were possible hath been declared at Large before in the sixth book of Commentaries upon the Creed In the 2 Part 2 Sect. Chap. 13. c. of the Attributes unto which I referr the Ingenuous Reader where he may finde this proposition as I take it demonstrated That to decree or appoint a mutual or reciprocal Possibility between our First Parents perseverance or non-perseverance was Facible to the Omnipotent Creator because it neither implies nor presupposeth any Contradiction in Terminis And whatsoever effect or praenotion answerable unto it implies no Contradiction either in it self or to the Goodnesse of the Divine Nature or Deity is Facible by Power Omnipotent that is The Almighty Creator might have decreed or yet may decree it when he pleaseth The Second Principle or supposition in this place to be handled is Whether the Almighty Creator did de Facto decree or ordain that neither the Perseverance or non-perseverance of the First Man or of our First Parents should be absolutely Necessary but contingent Or in other terms thus That the Estate or condition wherein they were created might have continued to this day for them and their successors undefeatable That their Perseverance or the perseverance of their Posterity in the state of Righteousnesse wherein they were created was not necessary by any Divine Ordinance or decree is clear from the Event because the First man and the First woman did fall de Facto from that Estate wherein they were created which neither of them could have done if their First Estate had been by vertue of the Almighties Decree or any ordinance from him Immutable or absolutely Necessary But can it be as strongly proved That the fall of our first Parents or their eating of the Forbidden Fruit did not proceed from any necessitating Decree or undefeatable contrivance of the Almightie Creators Wisdom To perswade men which have not their senses exercised in points of Logical or Scholastick disputes that the Fall of our First Parents was not necessary no not in respect of the Divine Decree or ordinance would be a harder task then to prove that their Perseverance was not in respect of that Decree necessary That our First Parents did fall from their Estate is a Question of Fact of which every honest good man may be a competent Judge at least able enough to resolve himself But whether it was as possible for them not to have fallen as it was to fall is Questio Juris or more then so a point of Metaphysical or Theological disquisition wherein it would be very hard to find a Grand-Jury of Profest Divines in any one County almost throughout this Kingdom which could be competent Judges or fit Inquisitors Not that they want either skill or industry for interpreting sacred Scripture which is the only true rule of Faith and manners aright but for want of skill or memory in Secular Arts how to examine or determine what Consequences or inferences are consonant or dissonant to the undoubted Rule of Faith or to the unquestionable Maxims contained in it For deciding or waiving such Controversies as are emergent not so much out of the sence of Scriptures as out of such Inferences or Consequences whether negative or affirmative as contentious or unresolved spirits would fasten upon it Recta ratio that is Reason regulated by Rules of unquestionable Arts or Sciences is the most competent Judge That there is but one God and one Lord That the only God is a God of Goodness and willeth no wickednesse are positive points of Faith and Christian Belief Fundamental Maxims in Theologie To dispute or move any question directly about the truth or limitation of these Maxims would be a branch of Infidelity or which perhaps is worse an approach to Blasphemy CHAP. V. Of the Right use of Reason or Rules of Art for determining Controversies in Divinity whereof the Sacred Scripture is the sole Rule 1. Of the use of Arts in discussing Controversies in Theologie BUt admit this Maxim There is but one God and he a God of Goodness no Author or abetter of evil were undoubtedly believed by all Yet this inference or Consequence might be as it hath long time been controversed Whether he that avoucheth This only God to have decreed the Fall of the First Man to have been necessary or inevitable might be demonstratively convinced to make him the Author and Cause the only Cause of the First Mans sin and of all the sins which necessarily issue from it or from the Nature of man corrupted by it
treat that may live or do as he will in matters of Civil Pass or commerce And by Contrary He is a Servant that in matters Civil non vivit ut vult that either cannot do as he would or ofttimes must do as he would not Or to give the very Radical point of difference betwixt the Master and the Servant of what rank soever the Servant be we are first to know wherein they agree Both of them Essentially agree in This in that they have a reasonable will or desire to do themselves good For such as God hath deprived of the use of reason whether by Nature or from their birth or by subsequent mischance or Accident are neither capable of Dominion nor Servitude They can neither properly be Masters nor Servants He that is a Free-man or Master in those things wherein he is Free or a Master hath not only Voluntatem propriam but Arbitrium proprium not only a reasonable Will or desire to do himself good but with-all a power or Faculty to dispose of his time of his Actions or imployments for compassing or attaining the good which he desires The Servant whilest he is a Servant hath no arbitrium proprium no Right or power to dispose of himself or of his actions or labours for compassing or atchieving that good which in that he is a reasonable Creature he can as truly affect or desire as his Master doth Any Master or Man that is Free if at any time he find himself Melancholy or misaffected in body or mind may allot what hour or hours of the day he please for the Exercise of his body or Recreation of his mind and make choice of what company of what sport or recreation he please so it be Civil and ingenuous or such as the Law doth either approve or not condemn But this may not a Servant do without his Masters especial leave or licence For seeing his Master hath as good Right or interest in his actions or Labours as he that payeth rent for grounds or hire for an Horse hath in the use of both during the times of their hire It is a branch of the same fraud or Couzenage in a Servant either to alienate or convert his Actions or Labours to any other end then to his Masters behoof as it is in a man that takes money of Another for his Lands or Grounds and yet will reap part of their annual fruits or commodities The same offence in a Servant to mispend that time in play sport or idlenesse which should be spent in his Masters imployments as for a man to take interest for money lent and not suffer the Party to enjoy it wholly during the time for which he paid interest 5. Again An hired Servant may as truly and lawfully desire to encrease that power stock or means which he hath either gotten by his service or hath been left him by his Friends as his Master in like case may do But he may not use it is unlawful for him to use the same means for encreasing his portion that his Master may do For First He cannot without wrong to his Master take so much time for contriving his own profit or commodity as his master without wrong to any man may do Or Secondly Though he had time enough to contrive his ends yet can he not without wrong to his Master have time enough or take liberty to practise the means for effecting or accomplishing what he hath contrived As he may not without his Masters leave frequent Markets or meeting where gainful bargaines or opportunities of increasing his meanes are to be had 6. Againe It is Lawfull and honest for a Servant to wish well unto his friends or to be willing to do them good that have done him any But it is not so Free or lawfull for him to imploy himself his time or Labours to do them any reall good or friendly office as it is in like case for his Master Nay a Servant in this case shall oft be constrained to bestow his paines for their good whom he least affects and to neglect or to do nothing for them to whom he wishes most good whom he loves best For all his Actions or imployments are at the disposall of his Master who if he command him to do some businesse for his own enemy but his Masters Friend though to the prejudice of his own Friend but his Masters Enemy unlesse the action be unjust or by the publique law forbidden He must do his Masters Will not his Own Nor would any Ingenuous man like worse a Servant in thus doing but rather the better So that every Servant hath a Freedome of Will to desire that which is good for himself or to his friend but hath oft-times a Necessitie laid upon him aut non agendi quod vult aut agendi quod non vult either of not doing that which he most desires to do or of doing that which he most desires not to do But unto this necessitie or inconvenience no Free-man is either by Law or Conscience subject And no Ingenuous man will voluntarily subject himself for any other mans pleasure especially if he be but his equall or one that hath no more peculiar Interest in him then another man may have The answer of the Romane Orator doth better become a Free and Ingenuous man as he was then a Servant When his potent Adversarie expostulated with him Cur tu Inimicum meum defendis He wittily replyed Cur tu Amicum meum accusas It was as Free for him to defend Him that was an Enemie to the Accuser as it was for the Accuser to accuse His Friend And it may be the Elegant Poet of these later times did take the hint or matter of his Epigramme from this passage in the Orator Odero sijubeas Selium tibi scilicet Hâ—stem Si mihi tu Selium quod sit Amicus à mes Selius because your Foe I 'le hate in minde So you will love him for that heès my Friend Thus much of Civill Servitude or the Condition of Servants The second point was What Anà logie or proportion this Servitude or Servants to Sin have to Civill Bondage or to such as are truely and properly Servants by Humane and legall Constitutions CHAP. XVII What Analogie or proportion Civill Servitude hath with true Servitude unto Sin 1. FOr the trueth of this Conclusion Whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of sin no further or better proof as hath been praemised can be expected Servitude to sin the most proper kind of Servitude then our Saviours Authoritie But in what sense this Conclusion is true Or Whether such as commit Sin be truely and properly termed Servants or Servants only in a Metaphoricall or borrowed sense some happily will make Question or doubt For mine own part I make none as being from many particulars sufficiently inform'd That such of our Saviours Speeches as not unto ordinary Hearers only but unto many good Interpreters seeme only borrowed or Metaphorical
Apprehensions or Boastings and that is given us by our Saviour himself in this Gospel Chap. 14. vers 15 23 24. If ye love me keep my Commandments And again Chap. 15. vers 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love How many may we find who in distresse or danger whether by Sea or Land specially in grievous stormes or sicknesse will seriously purpose and Resume that Branch of their Vow in Baptism ☜ To for sake the Devil and all his works the Lusts of the Flesh the Pomps and vanities of this wicked world And yet the Same Men being restored to health and probable safety will of Late zealous Professors and solemn votaries turn Gaderenes or Gergesites ready upon new Opportunities or Provocations of untame Desires to wish Christ to depart out of their Coasts rather then His Residence in their Hearts or Brains should give a continual check to their swinish appetites or Brutish Fancies And thus to do is not to keep but to violate Christs Commandments which whosoever doth not keep as well in This Particular of mortifying the works or Lusts of the Flesh as in other Duties doth not truly Believe in him shall not without hearty Repentance or new Purification of the heart and spirit either see God or be partaker of Christs Kingdom 11. Another Precept of Christ there is more General then the Former Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets So far is the whole Christian world as we call it from keeping this Commandment that the Practises most Contrary to it are so Vniversal and so violent as that both the Casuists and professed Interpreters of Scriptures have almost lost the true meaning of it at least have utterly neglected the extending or branching of it into useful Rules of Good life or for bringing forth the Fruits of the Spirit And which is worse such learned and pious men as have undertaken the Cure of souls and have been solemnly sworn to the faithful Execution of Pastoral Charge dare not press the Observance of this Great Commandment upon their Flock which daily and hourly most shamefully transgresse it partly by the uncontroled Practises of stubborn people partly by Authorized Rules in Courts of Justice No Prophet of the Lord dare speak his mind or interpreter of the Gospel or spiritual Governour dare put his Commission from Christ in Execution unlesse such as are resolved to suffer a Martyrdom from their flock or from the Professors of the one or other Law established throughout this Kingdom Without Reference to any particular Cause or Person I dare boldly pronounce in the General That not the Twentieth Part of Tedious Suits or Vexations in Law or other Grievances or oppressions would either be set on foot by the People or suffered to be prosecuted by Men in Authority if the Fear of God Belief in Christ Loyalty to their Soveraign Lord or Good Affection to their Country were planted in Either of them truly or indeed 12. The General Neglect of this Great Commandment of doing as we would be done unto in former times of our security and Peace hath been alwayes Dangerous But the Violation of it in these Times of Mortality of Calamity and more then wonted danger of worse to ensue is Prodigious For preventing the Execution of Gods Judgements threatned for our Violation of This and other Commandments of Christ I must entreat all Sorts of men that hear me this day in the same words for sense and meaning which a Zealous and Learned Father sometimes used in like case Parcite Regi Parcite Regno parcite Populo Anglicano parcite Animabus Vestris If there be any true Love and Loyalty in us towards our Gratious Soveraign Lord and his Royal Issue any good Affection towards our Native Country or to our souls Let us abate our wonted Pride and Luxury our wonted Covetousnesse Let us not think it sufficient to abstain from Unjust Unchristian Vexation and Oppression of our Neighbours unlesse we seriously account that measure of Contentment of our desires of what kind soever which heretofore hath been Lawful to be in these times more then most Vnexpedient To use that Plenty of Diet or measure of Recreation but especially that Benefit or Advantage of Laws for advancing our selves or increasing our Fortune which heretofore we have done perhaps without sin Let This also in these times be esteemed Impious or a sin not to be Expiated without hearty Repentance and extraordinary Performance of works of Mercy Dan. 4. 27. The End of the Second Sermon 13. * The Authors Connexion of the 21 Chapter to the 4 Section as it was before These two Sermons were inserted But the more we labour further to unfold this Argument of our Natural Servitude unto sin the faster we shall draw another Knot or the more we presse the several Branches of this Servitude upon the Conscience of the Untegenerate or not well sanctified man the greater Perplexity we shall Create unto him in another part of Theology whose Knowledge is altogether as Necessary and as useful as our Experience of Natural Servitude unto sin is The Knot or perplexed Difficulty is What Kind or what portion of Freedom of Will is or can be Compossible with Absolute Servitude unto sin in the Vnregenerate or Vnsanctified man SECT IV. Of that Faculty of the Reasonable Soul which we commonly call Free-will Of the Root and several Branches of it in the Generality What Branches or Portion of this Free-will is in the Man altogether Vnregenerate or in debauched or heinous Sinners CHAP. XXIV Of the Difficulties of the Controversies Concerning Free-Will with the Reasons why They have troubled the Church so long 1. IF we should abstract this Problem from the Difficulties wherewith it may seem to be intangled by the former discourses Concerning our Servitude to Sin and consider it only in its own Nature and Essence this Question alone hath ministred more matter of intricate Disputes The main Point about Free-Will scarce well stated in any Age since the Apostles times then any other Controverted Point in Theologie He that hath leasure skill and opportunity to take an accurate Historical Survey of the the true State or rather of the Instability or ill stated Tenour of this Point since the death of our Saviours Apostles or other Canonical Writers of the New Testament will easily discover that the Disputes about it Pro and Con have been like to a Pair of Scales which never came to any Permanent Stay or constant Settling upon the right Center but have one while wagled this way another while that way The Orthodoxal Truth Concerning this Point as it was taught by our Saviour himself and by his Apostles and maintained by those who did immediately succeed them is That there was no other State or Fatality in Humane Affairs or Events save only This That such as sought after Glory and Immortality by
We cannot work any Inclination or propension in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to move it self upwards or to be more easily moved by us But Vegetables of what kind soever Grasse Corn or weeds which growup with them Herbs or plants albeit they have no Freedom or power at all to move themselves out of the places wherein they grow yet have they a Natural Faculty to increase themselves or be augmented by the Benignity of the Earth wherein they grow and the influence of moysture and heat from Heaven A Capacity withal which stones or other inanimate Creatures have not to be much bettered both in growth and quality by the industry or skilful husbandry of man Another degree or rank of Animate or Living Creatures there is which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines as well as they can expersse the Greek Stirp-Animalia or Plant-Animalia that is Living Creatures in some respects best resembling meer Vegetables in others Sensitives which we call Animalia The most of this rank Live in the Sea as Oysters Cockles Mustles or other duller kinds of Shel-Fishes which herein agree with meer Vegetables in that they can hardly move themselves out of their places as from the Rocks or Sands wherein they breed and yet have a Sense or feeling of their proper Nutriment or of its want which meer Vegetables have not and a Motive power within themselves answerable to this sense of pain or pleasure of opening or shutting their mouthes or those instruments of Sense by which they suck in their food or nutriment Some Land Creatures there be if we may believe good Writers without our own Experiments that hold the same Correspondency between meer Vegetable and Sensitive Creatures which the forementioned Shel-Fishes or Sea-Creatures do To omit the reports of the Russian Lamb or other like Sensitives which are fastned to the Earth out of which they grow It hath been in my hearing and in a Solemn Audience avouched by as great a Philosopher and Divine as any that have written of the West Indies That there is a kind of herb or Plant about Portrico which though it cannot move it self out of its place yet hath as nimble wilie motions within it self as great a Command over its own Branches to decline ungrateful touches as any perfect Sensitive Creatures have which are tied to a certain Station or setled Footing 3. Creatures truly Sensitive that is such as far exceed Vegetables or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Sense of pain in want or indigence of food or the pleasure they take when it is in competent measure afforded them Of the difference betwixt Vegetables Sensitives their motive power have a Power some greater some lesse to Move themselves out of their places and to seek their Nutriment and after satisfaction made to hunger to betake themselves unto places most convenient for their Rest or Sleep This Capacity of sense whether of pain or pleasure or of motion to enjoy the one and avoid the other is in every Sensitive Creature even in the worm or snail in some degree or other but not Equal in all Some are most swift in their Motions though much defective in other sense as Flies Gnats Beetles or other meaner Volatile or flying Creatures which are not capable of durable pain nor of Memory to avoid such pain as they are capable of being apt to be quelled with such light blows or touches as cannot annoy stronger Sensitives or Four-footed Beasts Amongst the more perfect or stronger sort of Sensitives or Brutes some are indued with better Memory or Dexterity of Exercising their senses or motive Faculties then we 〈◊〉 are But the best of meer Sensitive Creatures especially such as are by nature tamâ— or apt to be tamed as Horses Hounds Haukes c. although they have no other Freedom then that which is opposed to Coaction yet are their Inclinations alterable by Custome as Lyoung uâ— made proof and Demostration to the Lacedemonians by his two Plutarch De Liberis Educandis Et in Laconicis Apophtheg whâ—lps of the same kind whose inclinations by nature were the same yet Both much altered by breeding or training 4. Wherein then do we Reasonable Creatures exceed the best of these docile Sensitives In this That albeâ—t they exereise their Faculties of sense or motion more dexterously and more sagaciously by instinct of nature and have a greater aptnesse to perceive approaching denger or to receive impressions or occurrences from wind and weather then men have yet have they no power no Freedom at all to Reflect upon such Occurrences or Impressions much lesse to Calculate or weigh them aright but an excellent Capacity only to entertain them as they are offered Thus sheep and other cattel divers sorts of birds or fouls of the air do often unwittingly Prognosticate the alteration or change of weather by their voice or motions before wiser men or Astronomers can take just notice of it save only by Their motions voyces or gestures 5. Now as Sensitive Creatures do farr exceed meer Vegetables in sense of pain or pleasure of the true difference betwixt meer Sensitive and Reasonable Creatures and in the motive Faculty so the Reasonable Creature doth farr excel the best and most docile Sersitives in a Faculty or Power peculiar to himself alone amongst all visible or Corporeal Substances That is in a Power to Reslect upon what he hath seen heard or felt or remembers either concerning motions or impressions made by or within himself or in any other part or member of this visible world A Power or Faculty Likewise Every son of man who hath attained unto the use of Reason hath to number such Occurrences as have befallen himself or such as he hath observed to befal others or to have happened however within his Memory and a further Branch of the same Reflective Power or Faculty to Calculate and weigh them with their Circumstances whether of Time or Place and to Compare Occurrences past or matters observed before with Occasions or Occurrences present and out of the Consideration of both to make Observations or Presages of what by probable Conjecture may ensue 6. From this Reflective Power or Faculty and the Branches of it all of them being Peculiar to man amongst all visible or middle-world-Creatures doth that Freedom of Will immediately Result the search of whose several Branches whether growing by Nature and bettered by Gods special Providence or immediately implanted or ingrafted by Grace is the principal Subject of the Treatises following 7. The First Root of this kind of Freedom as it is Mans Peculiar above all other visible Creatures is That Reflective Power before-mentioned upon his Observations whether made upon the dispositions or Docility of Sensitive Creatures wild or tame or upon the suggestions or Operations of his own senses or that part of those Faculties of his Soul or Body in which he is rather a Sensitive Contradistinct to meer
were overthrown and others erected in their place whose Erection or Ruine Jeremiah had foretold Now to inquire How Man or his Free-will doth cooperate with Gods spirit in the First Second or Third Act of his Conversion is to my Apprehension a Question not Inextricable onely but as Impertinent as to make a Philosophical or Political Search How Jeremiah did concur with God in the Destruction of the Babylonian Or Esay with the same God in the Erection of the Persian Empire Or more punctually to our present purpose how He that should open another mans mouth that were unable or unwilling to open it himself and yet so desperately sick that unlesse he took some Physical Receipt to remove the matter of his desease or to revive his spirits he should certainly dye might be truely said to save his Life yet not to save it Efficienter by way of efficiencie but by Consequence that is because the Physick which without opening his mouth could have no Operation did revive or restore his wonted health And in this sense Lydia may be said to have saved her own Soul by way of Consequence Act. 16. 14. because she opened her eares unto St. Pauls Doctrine and heard him with attention which being done the Lord opened her heart to feed upon the Word of Life the only Physick of her soul So that the word of Life or Christ who is the Eternal Word of God did Immediately and Formally open her heart and save her soul But unlesse she had opened her eares whilest Christ did knock at these doores of her outward sensea by St. Pauls voyce Christ had not come into her heart to have entertained her at his Spiritual Banquet as she did Paul and his Company with bodily Food CHAP. XXXII Whether Mortification and Conversion may be said to be Ex Praevisis Operibus though God Alone do Properly Mortifie and Convert us 1. BUt be it as we have said The maine Objection against the former Doctrine fully answered That we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Bodie in as much as we do that Morally which being so done God doth work Mortification Spiritual in us All is not so well as might be wished For this Resolution seemes to breed another Difficultie of greater Danger or rather to establish a rejected Error For hence it may seem to follow that Mortification Spiritual is Ex praevisis Operibus from the works which we do or which God foresees that we shall do And if the accomplishment of Spiritual Mortification be Ex praevisis Operibus then Life it self here promised should Likewise be Ex praevisis Operibus by our Works or from Gods Foresight of our Works And if either Mortification or Spiritual Life be Ex praevisis Operibus then our Election Likewise should be Ex praevisis Operibus by our Works or at Least from Gods Foresight of our Works especially if that be true which before hath been delivered That none of Yeares and discretion are in the Estate of the Elect but such as have truely Mortified the Deeds of the Body and that all such as have thus truely and throughly Mortified the Deeds of the Body are in the Estate of the Elect. What shall we say then that Election is Ex praevisis Operibus by our works or from Gods Foresight of our Works This is a Bug-beare Indeed by which many of Gods Children so I account them have been and are much affrighted but of which they shall not need to be afraid if they will give us leave to unmask it For being unmasked it will appear to be of the same Visage and Countenance that their own Doctrine is of and a great deal more Consonant to their own maine Principles then many other Principles or Conclusions unto which they seek to consort it And unmask it we may with This Distinction Mortification Vivification or Election may be said or conceived to be Ex praevisis Operibus by our works or from Gods Foresight of our works Two wayes Either tanquam ex Causa aâ—t Titulo as from the Efficient Cause or Moral Title unto these Graces or tanquam ex Termino aut Objecto non implicante Contradictionem as from the Term or Object unto which Gods Decree for producing the works of spiritual Mortification by which our Election is made sure is Terminated To say that Mortification or Election should be By or From our works in the Former Sense that is from our works as from any True Cause of their production or as from any Merit or Title that They may be produced in us is an Error indeed deservedly rejected by most Reformed Churches To say That Mortification or Election it self is By our works or From our works in the Second Sense that is tanquam ex Termino as from a Term or Object without whose Presence or Coexistence God doth not work or accomplish our Mortification by his Spirit nor admit us into the Estate of the Elect This is no Error but an Orthodoxal Doctrine voyd of all danger For it Being granted which is as much as can be demanded that Mortification Spiritual is a work of Creation and proper only unto God yet even Creation it self taken in the stricter Sense was ex Termino praeviso from some Term though not out of any Cause or matter praeexistent For when we say that God Created the heavens and earth of Nothing that is out of no Matter Praeexistent we necessarily include that this Nihilum or Nothing was the Negative Term of this Creation Logical Possibility that is whatsoever includes no Contradiction is the Object of Omnipotencie and Creation it self is the Reduction of such Possibilitie into Act or Real Effect If there had been any thing besides God praeexistent to this work of Creation or unlesse Nothing had been praecedent not praeexistent to all things that are or have Existence there could have been no such Creation as we beleive there was of the heaven and of the Earth or of the First Masse out of which all things were made 2. But Herbs and Grass were not made out of meere Nothing as the Heaven and Earth were For they were made of the Earth as it is Gen 1. 11. God said Let the Earth bring forth Grasse the herb yeilding seed and the fruit tree yeilding fruit after his kind He did not in this sort Say Let Nothing bring forth the heavens and the earth For so Nothing should have been Somthing Or if God had made herbs and grass after the same manner that he made the heavens and the Earth we could not say that they had been made of the Earth For so the Earth should have been Nothing And yet the making of grass and herbs out of the earth was a true and proper Creation because although God did make them of the Earth yet he made them not of the earth Tanquam ex materiali Causa Vid. Erastum Disput contrâ— Paracelsum as of their true material Cause but of the
this Sentence of death till he commit the Fact at which the Law doth immediately strike not at his Person Again there is ordinarily required to Excommunication not only Sententia Iuris but Sententia Iudicis Though the Canon by which he is Excommunicated were made Long before yet he that offends against the Canon is not forthwith Excommunicated by it until he be refractory or Contumacious The Judge may admonish before he give Sentence without his sentence judicially given the party is not excoÌ„municated by the Law But some peculiar Cases there be wherein a man may stand Immediatly Excommunicated by the law or Canon without the sentence of the Judg there is no place left for Admonition or recanting The Fact being once proved either by witnesses or by its own Evidence the Judge hath no more to do but to read the Canon and to pronounce that the party hath fallen upon it So that he is said to be excommunicated by the Law or Canon which was made perhaps a thousand years before he was born yet not born an excommunicate person or in the State of excommunication into this estate he falls by doing some Fact or other at which the Rule or Canon doth immediately strike without further Processe or Conviction Now in as much as the Sentence was given before he was born it cannot be denyed but that he was excommunicated before he was born and yet had not been excommunicated at all unlesse he had done that Fact which requireth Excommunication by the Law 7. Some Founders of Colledges appoint a Process or Formal proceeding against Offenders even in grosser Crimes as for Adultery Murther manifest Perjury or the like before any man can be expelled for these and the like Crimes Such as they appoint Judges must give Sentence Viva voce upon the examination not of the Fact only but of the Quality of the Fact as whether it be Scandalous in so high a degree as deserves Amotion without further Admonition or expectation of amendment And every one that is in these Cases amoved or expelled is expelled by his present Judges not immediatly by his Founder or his Statutes though the Judges must proceed according to their intent or meaning But in case any of the same society the very Governours themselves should obtain a Licence or Dispensation for their Oath there needs no sentence of any Judge there is no place for Admonition or Traverse because the Founders themselves even when they made these Lawes and statutes inflicted these punishments upon all such as in this kind transgress their statutes Now upon whomsoever the Founder of any Society which dyed some two or three hundred years agoe did inflict the punishment of Expulsion by vertue of this present Statute he did inflict it before the party offending was born and yet this punishment had not at all fallen upon him unless he had committed that Fact which the Founder in his life time did thus severely censure whensoever it should by any of his Society be committed See the Note at the end of this Chapter Now in this case we may truly say that the party thus offending doth * expell himself by committing that Fact for which he was expelled by his Founder The Founder then expels him before he was born without any respect unto his Person â—or no Lawgiver makes any Decree or Law against any mans Person but against mens Misdemeanours but the party cannot be said to expell himself before he doth dash against the inflexible Law or statute 8. And if no Law-giver on earth how partial soever make any Capital Decrees against any mans person Far be it from us to think that the Eternall Law-giver who is himself the Everliving Rule of Justice and Equity should sentence any mans Person to everlasting death albeit whosoever is sentenced to everlasting death be so sentenced from Eternity because God himself who is Eternal is the very Rule or Law a Law or Rule inflexible which cannot alter and yet rewards every man according to all his wayes and works not according to his Person or Individual Nature Whosoever then is reprobated by God is Reprobated by him before he be born even from Eternity and yet no man Baptized is born a Reprobate or becomes so untill he reprobate himself by committing those sins or rather that measure of sin unto which the Eternall Law-giver did before all Times award finall exclusion from the Benefits of Christs Death and Passion Now unto such ungodly men as St. Iude here speaks of this Award was allotted from Eternity thus they were ordained to Condemnation But their Persons were not created or made to ungodlinesse Taking them as now they are there was a Necessity from Eternity that they should perish but there was No necessity from eternity that they should be such ungodly men as now they are This necessity did accrue in time they wilfully and freely brought it upon themselves Thus much of the First Part of the Second General to wit In what sense it is true That whosoever is reprobated or ordained to everlasting death in time was so reprobated or ordained from Eternity The meaning is that the Law or Rule by which he is reprobated or ordained to death hath no beginning of Date it was unchangably set from Eternity Yet was this Law or rule an Immanent Act that is conteined in him only who is Eternal it dit did not produce any Reall effect answerable unto it either for the creature before he was made or in the creature after he was made until he have made up that measure of Sin unto which everlasting death was by this Eternal living Rule awarded But the measure of sinne being made up then as the Lawyers speak Indicium transit in rem judicatam that is the eternall Law or sentence produceth a Transient Effect in the Creature so qualified and that is an Ordination Passive the beginning of that death which shall have no end 9. The Second Part of the Second General Second part of the second General which was the last Doctrinal point was Whether St. Iude in this place be to be understood of Gods eternal design or Ordination unto death or of some written Ordination or Ruled Case which did as truly fit these men taking them as now they are as it did other ungodly persons of old against whom the Sentence of Condemnation here meant was denounced or declared by other of Gods Embassadours That these ungodly men here in S. Jude were Fore-ordained to this condemnation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth literally and clearly evince but whether this Fore-ordination were in S. Iudes intent or meaning a Fore-ordination from Eternity the literall importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old doth make it questionable or rather puts it out of question that he did not so mean For it is an Adverb of Time and never reaches to my observation so farre as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉
could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the Adoption the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh CHRIST came who is over all GOD blessed for ever Amen He concludes his sorrow as though he had still prayed for them whilest he sorrowed If it be further demanded what Peculiar occasion he had to be overtaken with these suddain Pangs of sorrow rather in this place the beginning of this ninth Chapter then any other the Special occasion as I intimated before was the present Opportunitie or necessitie of answering an Exception which from the Rejection of these Iews might have been taken against those confident Assertions wherewith He had concluded the former And being to anatomize their wounds for others instruction unto the quick the sight of their grievousnesse could not but make his heart to bleed 4. Against his former Assertions he saw the Gentile or Iew late converted would be ready thus to object If they of whom Christ according to the flesh came If They for whose miscarriage Christ in the dayes of his flesh was more sorrowfull then thou canst be yet They notwithstanding all these Prerogatives and peculiar Interests in Gods Promises are fallen away and utterly separated from God Where is the Infallibilitie of our assurance What is the ground of thy boasting that Neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8. 38 39. Have we any warrant thus to perswade our selves besides Gods Word any better Assurance then his Promise and seeing these Jews thy Country-men as thou often inculcates had both These in as ample manner and Form as we can expect if neither took effect in Them why may not Both want their effects in us With this Objection the Apostle if we duly mark the Closure of his protested sorrow for the Jews Fall directly meets ver 6. Not as though the word of God had taken none effect It was in his eye when he fell into the former Trance out of which awaked he falls in hand with it afresh again 5. The more often and more seriously we read the Doctrinal Part of this Epistle to the Romanes or of those other to the Galatians and the Hebrews the juster occasion we shall have alwaies to admire our Apostles skill as well in right applying the Typical Praenotions or Aenigmatical Portendments of the Old Testament to the Events in the New as also in making use of whatsoever by the Iews or any on their behalf could be Objected for establishing the truth which he maintained against them For Instance at this time take only The manner of his Retorting the former Objection wherein this whole Chapter and the other Two following are wholly spent The manner is thus It is true The Iews my kinsmen who had greater Interest in Gods Love and Promises then any people besides them hitherto have had as great as any after them can expect are become Cast-awaies But spend your thoughts not so much in wondering at this as in Considering that the only Cause of their Fall was no other then Ignorance of this Doctrine which I now teach being formerly taught by the Law and the Prophets Be ye not therefore Partakers with them in this their Error and so Gods Promises shall undoubtedly take effect in you for he hath ordained that their Fall shall be the means of your establishment The Ignorance of these his Country-men was not Ignorantia purae negationis but pravae dispositionis an Ignorance rooted in Carnal Pride the offspring of another Pernicious Error They thought it sufficient to salvation that they were Israelites and the seed of Abraham herein most grosly ignorant and more inexcusable then the Heathen seeing the Scripture had plainly given them to understand that They are not all Israel that are of Israel neither all Children that are of the seed of Abraham for Abraham had Ishmael and many other children besides Isaac and yet the Lord had said to Abraham In Isaac shall thy seed be called The Mystical or Evangelical sense of which words in our Apostles Exposition ver 8. is this They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are accounted for The Seed The true and Orthodoxal Construction of this Apostolical Declaration upon Moses's words if we apply it unto the Romanes to whom or unto our selves for whose good he wrote it and referr it to the End by him intended and supposed throughout this whole Discourse is as much as if he had said Stand not ye upon the Prerogatives of the flesh as my rejected Country-men have done but betake your selves wholly to Gods Promises as Abraham did and ye shall undoubtedly remain the chosen seed of Abraham and Children of God His Assertion or Assurance is the same in effect with that of St John Chapt. 1. ver 12 13. As many as received him to them he gave power to be the sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh but of God Nor doth our Apostle either here or in any other part of his writings once intimate any other Cause of these Jews Rejection besides that hereditary disease whereof the Baptist foresaw their best teachers dangerously sick and for whose prevention he prescribes a wary dyet whilest he offers the medicine of baptism unto them When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduces come to his Baptism he said unto them O Generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath â—o come Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance and think not to say within you selves We have Abraham for our Father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to Raise up Children unto Abraham Mat. 3. 7 8 9. Had they stedfastly relyed upon Gods Power manifested in the miraculous birth of Isaac and the mightie increase of his Posteritie as they did upon this glorious Title of being Abrahams and Isaacs seed they might have been sons not of Abraham only but of God And no place of Scripture in my observation warrants us to think that they were excluded by any Immutable Decree or irrevocable Act of Omnipotencie from thus relying on Gods Power or from following Abrahams foot-steps Let us not then I beseech you in a matter of so great Cosequence Presume to understand above that which is written or to make a further Resolution of mens Reprobation then our Apostle hath done And the First and only Cause into which he resolves the Rejection of these Jews as from the Conclusion
an Vniversalitie of the Subject inferre an Vniversalitie of Time This Collection is false God from eternitie foresaw that all men would be sinners Ergo He foresaw from Eternitie that Adam in his Integritie should be a sinner The Inference in the former Syllogism is as bad God decreed to harden Pharaoh from eternitie Ergo He decreed to harden him in every moment of his life Or Ergo He was a Reprobate from his cradle This Conclusion rightly scanned includes an Vniversalitie of the Subject that is all the several Objects of divine justice which are contained in Pharaohs life not one particular only Whereas Pharaoh in the Minor Proposition is but one particular or individual Object of induration or of the divine Decree concerning it 19. And thus at length we are arrived at that Point whence we may descry the Occasions Albeit Pharaoh was alwaies One and the same man yet he was not alwaies One and the same Object of the divine Decree by which so many Writers of good Note have missed the right stream or Current of our Apostles discourse and gravelled themselves and their Auditors upon By-shelves All this hath been from want of consideration That albeit Pharaoh from his birth unto his death were but one and the same Individual Man yet was he not all this while one and the same individual Object of Gods Decree concerning mercy and induration The difference betwixt these we may illustrate by many parallel resemblances Suppose that Scepter whose Pedegree Homer Iliad That Pharaoh in the Syllogism proposed is no singular but an Indefinite Term. Lib. 2. so accurately describes had in that long succession lost some part of his length this had broken no square nor bred any quarrel whether it had been the same Scepter or no. yet if the first and last owners should have sold or bought Scarlet by this one and the same Scepter they should have found a great alteration in the measure So then it is one thing to be one and the self-same Standard and Another thing to be one and the self-same Staffe or Scepter The least alteration in length or quantitie that can be doth alter the Identitie of any measure but not the Identitie of the material substance of that which is the measure The same grains of barly which grow this year may be kept till seven years hence But he that should lend gold according to their weight this year and receive it according to their weight at the seven years end should find great difference in the summes though the grains be for number substance the same yet their weights are divers Or suppose it be true which is related of the Great Magore that he weighs himself every year in gold and distributes the summe thereof to the poor and that he had continued this custom from the seventh year of his age yet cannot there be half the difference betwixt the weight of one and the same Prince in his child-hood and in his full age after many heartie prayers to make him fatt as is between the different measures of Pharaohs induration within the compasse of one year Therefore this Argument Pharaoh was hardened after the seventh plague by Gods irresistible Will Ergo He was an irrecoverable reprobate from his childhood is to a man of understanding more gross than if we should argue thus The great Magore distributed to the poor five thousand pounds in gold in his fortieth year Ergo He distributed so much every year since he began this custom of weighing himself in gold For as he distributes unto the poor not according to the Identitie of his person but according to the Identitie or Diversitie of his weight so doth the Immutable Rule of Justice render unto every man not according to the Vnitie of of his Person but according to the Diversitie of his work Unto the several measures of one and the same mans iniquities several measures of Induration whether Positive or privative are allotted from eternitie But Final induration by Gods irresistible Will or irrecoverable Reprobation is the just recompence of the full measure of iniquitie or as the Prophet speakes To harden thus Q. Whether he mean Dan. 9. 24. is to seal up iniquitie to destruction without hope or possibilitie of Pardon 20. These two Propositions are of like eternal truth God from eternitie decreed by his irresistible will to harden Pharaoh having made up the full measure of his iniquitie and God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Pharaoh should make up such a measure of iniquitie For he doth not decree iniquitie at all much lesse full measures of iniquitie And yet unlesse he so decree not iniquitie only but the full measure of it Pharaohs Induration or Reprobation was not absolutely necessary in respect of Gods eternal Decree For It was no more necessary than was the full measure of iniquitie unto which it was due And that as hath been said was not necessary because not decreed by Gods Irresistible Will without which Necessity it self hath no Title of Being That the contention concerning Pharaohs induration hath no contradiction for its ground From these deductions I may clear a debt for which I ingaged my self in my last publick meditations My promise was then to make it evident that these two Propositions 1. God from Eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will 2. God from Eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will might easily be made good friends if their Abettors would cease to urge them beyond their natural dispositions See Attribut 1. part Ch. 15. Numb 7. For in their natures they are Indefinites not Singulars Both in a good sense may be made to tell the truth But a wrangler may work them Both to bear evidence for error God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will T is true of Pharaoh so misqualified as Moses found him perhaps when he brought the first at least when he brought the Seventh Message to him But false of Pharaoh in his Infancie or not laden with such a measure of Iniquitie as by the Divine Decree was from Eternitie Sealed up for death God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will is true of Pharaoh in his infancie or youth but false of Pharaoh after his wilfull contempt of Gods Summons by signes and wonders 21. The Conclusion of the Syllogism proposed indefinitely taken is most true but universally taken is altogether false Beza's Collection upon this place is grounded upon the Indefinite Truth of this Affirmative God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh But he extends this Indefinite Truth beyond its compass For he makes it an Vniversal in that he terminates the Irresistible decree to every moment of Pharaoh's life without Distinction of Qualification And it may be he was of opinion that as well each several qualification as each different measure of Pharaoh's hardening or impenitency
did come to passe by Gods Irresistible Will His Error into which the greatest Clerk living especially if he be not an accurate Philosopher might easily slide consists originally in confounding Eternitie with Successive Duration and not distinguishing Succession it self from things durable or Successive He and many others in this argument speak as if they conceived that the necessary Coexistence of Eternitie with Time did necessarily draw every mans whole course of life Motu quodam raptús after such a manner as Astronomers suppose that the highest Sphere doth move the lower whereas if we speak of the course not of Pharaoh's natural but moral life it was rather an Incondit heap or confused multitude of durables than one entire uniforme duration And each durable hath its distinct Reference to the eternal Decree That which is eternally true of one was not at all much lesse eternally true of another Eternitie it self though immutable though necessarily though indivisibly co-existent to All was not so indissolubly linked with Any but that Pharaoh might have altered or stayed his course of life before that moment wherein the measure of iniquitie was accomplished But in that moment he became so exorbitant that the Irresistible Decree of induration did fasten upon him His Irregular motions have ever since become irrevocable not his Actions onely but his Person is carried headlong by the everlasting revolutions of the unchangable decree into everlasting unavoydable destruction 22. The Proposition or Conclusion proposed Pharaoh was hardened by Gods Irresistible Will indefinitely taken is true from all eternitie throughout all eternitie and therefore true from Pharaoh's birth unto his death but not therefore true of Pharaoh howsoever qualified or of all Pharaoh's Qualifications throughout the whole còurse of his life For so the Proposition becomes an Vniversal not onely in respect of the Time but of the Subject that is of all Pharaohs several qualifications The sense is as if he had said God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh howsoever qualified as well in his Infancie as his full Age by his Irresistible Will and thus taken it is False The Inference is the same with the fore-mentioned Adam in Gods foreknowledge was a sinner from eternitie Ergo Adam was alwaies a sinner a Sinner before he sinned during the time of his innocencie or with this God from all eternitie did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should die the death Ergo He did decree by his irresistible Will that Adam should dye as soon as he was created or be a sinner all his life long To reconcile these two Propositions aright God from eternitie decreed by his Irresistible Will that Adam should dye God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should die otherwise than we have reconciled the two former God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will no Writer I presume will undertake The only reconciliation possible is this God did decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam sinning should die God did not decree by his irresistible-Will that Adam not sinning should dye nor did he decree by his Irresistible Will that Adam should sin that he might die For as we said before God did neither decree his Fall nor his perseverance by his Irresistible will And his death was no more inevitable than his Fall Nor was Pharaohs final Induration more inevitable than the measure of iniquitie to which such Induration was from eternitie awarded by Gods Irresistible will Of Pharaoh thus considered the Conclusion was true from eternitie In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said universal universalitate temporis as to Pharaoh true in respect of every moment of Pharaohs life wherein the measure of his iniquitie was or might have been accomplished though it had been accomplished within three years after his birth And this accomplishment presupposed the Induration was most inevitable his Final Reprobation as irrecoverable as Gods Absolute will taking absolute as it is opposed to disjunct is irresistible 23. In what sense the Conclusion proposed may be said to be universal universalitate subjecti The same Proposition in respect of Reprobation is universally true Vniversalitate Subjecti that is of every other person so ill qualified as Pharaoh was when God did harden him VVhosoever shall at any time become such a man as Pharaoh was then is a Reprobate from eternitie by Gods Irresistible will And seeing no man is exempted from his Jurisdiction he may harden whom he will after the same manner that he hardened Pharaoh although de facto he doth not so harden all the Reprobates that is he reserves them not alive for examples to others after the ordinary time appointed for their dissolution Nor doth he tender ordinary meanes of repentance unto them after the door of Repentance is shut upon them God in his infinite wisdom hath many secret purposes incomprehensible to man as VVhy of such as are equal offenders one in this life is more rigorously dealt withall than another VVhy of such as are equally disposed to goodness Moral one is called before another by his irresistible calling That thus to dispense of mercy and justice in this life See his Treatise of the Signs of the Time the 3. or moral part of it doth argue no Partialitie or respect of persons with God is an argument elsewhere insisted upon 24. The Point whereupon we are now to pitch is this Indefinite Men usually are Called Elected Reprobated or hardened by Gods Resistible will before they be called Elected reprobated or hardened by his irresistible will All these Termes are Indefinite and according to their different measures as truly mutable as Immutable from Eternitie or as in other * See Chapt. 37. Num. 5. 6. See 9. Book Ch. 18. c. Meditations we have shewed There is a State of Election under promise and a State of Election under Oath of which the latter only is Absolutely immutable The like we may say of Reprobation it is either under general Threat or upon Oath the Former is mutable so is not the Latter No man living shall ever be able to make his Inference good Pharaoh was absolutely reprobated from eternitie that is Whether granting that Pharaoh was a reprobate from eternitie we must grant withall that Pharaoh was a reprobate in his Middle age Youth or Infancie His reprobation was immutable from eternitie Ergo Pharaoh in his Youth or Infancie was a Reprobate To inferre the Consequence proposed no Medium more probable than this can possibly be brought Pharaoh from his Infancie to his full age was alwaies one and the self-same Man Et de eodem impossibile est idem affirmari negari The Consequence not withstanding is no better than this following The last Eclipse of the Moon was necessary from the beginning Ergo The Moon was necessarily eclipsed in the first quarter or in the
those whose doctrin they Follow My purpose is onely to request my Brethren of the Church of England however for the present they stand affected in these poynts to take it into more deep and Logical Consideration then hitherto it hath been taken by English Preachers or Writers Whether According to Forrain Rigid Tenets of Predestination or of Gods absolute irrespective Decree for Election and Reprobation which came to us English at the third hand as from Zwinglius c. which They had at the first from some antient Romish Schoolemen it be possible for us or them to maintain by any rational way That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ either now is or hath been a true Priest or Sacrificer rather then a meer Sacrifice predestinated from eternitie for takeing away the sinnes of the Elect onely Or whether such as They Term Elect from Eternitie needed any Priest at all besides God the Father who did destinate his Onely Son to be a Sacrifice or a mean necessary though subordinate for effecting the principal or utmost end of his Decree to wit his own Glory by the salvation of the Elect My poor Capacitie for these 34. yeares wherein I have lived a Minister or Priest of the Church of England could never nor yet can find any tolerable answer or Evasion to free such as maintaine the often-mentioned Rigid Decree from these Two Imputations The One That they cannot truely or by any rational way acknowledge Christ to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedec The Other That they cannot acknowledge him to be properly instyled such a Judge as in our Creed we profess him to be They will at length be enforced to borrow a more fit expression of his Office from our Sister-Nation and instyle him to be the Doomester or Doomesman of the Quick and of the Dead that is an Inferior Officer which hath no hand or Vote in the course of Justice for Life and Death but onely a power or delegated authoritie to read or pronounce the sentence which the Judge or Cheif Officer of State had written before though not so long before or in such indeleble Characters as the Doom which our Saviour Christ shall pronounce upon Every man at the Great day of his appearance was written in the Life-books of life and death everlasting My exhortation unto every man amongst us which beleive in his name shall be that of the Learned and pious Hemingius That we seek not our assurance of Faith or hope in Parcarum Tabulis which were irreversibly written before any part of the world was made if we may beleive some heathen poets or Stoicks but in Gods promises made to Abraham and to be performed by Jesus Christ as he is now our High-Priest and King and as the Supream Judge of Quick and Dead 3. Having thus farr endeavoured to sever the dross or wipe off the Aspersions or such meaner stuffe as have been cast upon or mingled themselves with that Golden Foundation layd by our Apostle Hebr. 9. My next Addressment must be to Dilate or Diduct the Precious Metal contained in it or in the Third Parallel proposed The Parallel was between the anniversarie Sacrifices of Attonement the Sacrifices of the Red Cow and the One Sacrifice offered Once for all by our Everlasting High-Priest His Sacrifice is truely instyled Everlasting not for this reason alone that it was of Infinite Value or a full price for purchasing the Everlasting Redemption of man-kind but in this respect also that it hath an Everlasting Efficacie for the dayly remission of actual sinnes for purifying the Hearts and Consciences of all such as in Faith dayly pray unto the Father in the name and mediation of his only Son who is likewise rightly instyled an Everlasting Priest not in regard onely that he is now altogether immortal but more especially in that he Perpetually executeth the Office of the High Priesthood by making Continual Intercession for us by accomplishing our Reconciliation unto the Godhead All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministerie of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath commited unto Vs the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. This Reconciliation Quâ Deus nos sibi reconciliavit was wrought by Christ whilest he went about on earth doing good and by his sufferings upon the Cross c. The Other part of our Reconciliation or reconciliation taken in the Passive Sense Quâ nos Deo reconciliamur is dayly wrought in true Beleivers by this our High-Priest and so wrought by the continuated participation of his Spirit by the interposed renovations or nourishments of that Grace which immediatly descendes to us from the sweet influence of this Sun of righteousness now sitting more Glorious by much in his heavenly Tabernacle then the visible Sun in its Sphere And of This Part of Reconciliation or of Reconciliation in the Passive Sense must that of our Apostle be understood Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 20 21. 4. He that desires to guesse aright at the Eminencie of Christs Priest-hood and Sacrifice in respect of the Aaronical or Legal Services or to take such an indefinite Estimate of both as may advance his Meditations upon The knowledge of Christ crucified and ascended into the heaven of heavens may follow the Scale set by Astronomers betwixt the space of Local distances on earth and the space of the highest Coelestial Orbes or Spheres which answer in proportion to them alwaies allowing a greater Excesse of Proportion between the Excellencie of Christs Priesthood beyond Aarons or Melchisedecks then Astronomers allot betwixt the space of so many Degrees in the heavens and so many miles on earth 5. The Legal Priests or sacrificers were at the same time and by succession Many their Sacrifices or Services were both for their kinds or matter and for the solemn manner of their offerings More The several kinds of their sacrifices and Solemnities I leave unto the Readers search this being an Argument whereof many have written copiously enough in most modern Churches It will be enough for me to observe or call thus much to the Readers Remembrance that all the Offices or Services of Legal Priests were fully accomplished in the Consecration of the Son of God to be our Everlasting High Priest That all their Offerings and Sacrifices whether bloudy or unbloudy whether of Vegetables as of herbs or green Eares of Corn of meal of Loaves whether anniversary or upon special occasions were more then accomplished in his Own Once offering of himself The All-sufficiencie of this his Oblation of himself will best appear from
of any doubtful or difficult place of Scripture The people were in a manner taught to believe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere to believe this Article was sufficient to Salvation live they in the mean time how they list This foolish Doctrine did begin and propagate it self in Germanie before Melancthon did correct Luther or as Chemnitius thinks did record his own Recantation But the infection in the mean time did so farr overspread the Church of England before it heard of the remedie that it moved Sir Thomas Moore to lay aside jesting and deplore the miseries of his times in earnest to see men given over to Revelling Bouzing or drinking or to other worse vices and yet continue Confident that the sufferings and Passions of Christ should fully pay the shot or discharge the reckoning how great soever it were 3. It was but an Implicit Branch of the former Error which at the first did not break forth in expresse Termes to teach men to Believe Secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with full Assurance of Faith that Christ dyed for them in particular before they had any assurance that Christ dyed for All men A strange Conclusion which they sought to cover or overshadow with a more dangerous branch of the same Error to wit That every man was to have Fiduciam or full assurance of his own Estate in Grace or interest in Christ not from Gods General promises made in Him but from special or Particular Faith This was that unfortunate Doctrine which gave such Scandal to the beginning of Reformation in Germanie that not three hundred Bellarmines not so many Valentia's or other learned Jesuites which have lived since could ever withdraw the tenth part so many from Reformed Religion as Dr. Hessils did with-hold from embracing it by exagitating this Sensual Doctrine as he styles it as if it had been conceived or maintained of purpose that some professing Reformation might continue and encrease their drunken and voluptuous Others their lascivious and wanton kind of life and yet be as sure of their Personal Salvation as either St. Peter or St. Paul were during their Pilgrimage here on Earth This was that Ginne or Noose which Satan sought to draw upon them as knowing that he had this kind of people at greater command then ever he had any besides For as is intimated in some former meditations published and in some Others in due time to be communicated to Learned and Pious Readers There is not There cannot be any possible Evasion out of this snare but by recanting the former Opinions or Errors themselves For every Novice in Arts hath Learned that every Vniversal Negative Proposition may be Converted Simpliciter Now the Scripture gives us this Universal Negative again and again That no Adulterer no Covetous Person no Slanderer or Reviler of his Neighbours no Seditious or Rebellious Spirit shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The other Vniversal Negative which they deliver up as their Deed and Writing unto the Father of Lies and of all wicked cunning is This That no Man which must of necessitie enter into this Kingdom though he dye this day or to morrow can be an Adulterer a Covetous Person a Slanderer or Reviler of his Neighbour or carrie a Seditious Rebellious or Traiterous Spirit to his King and Countrie Now by this Noose or Gin which they have cast for themselves the Great Tempter can draw or lead them to all manner of mischief and Hypocrisie to envenome their thoughts with malice and slander with Treason Sedition and Disloyaltie and yet assure them that they are no Slanderers no Traytors c. but Zealous and Godly persons because they must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Last and worst branch of the former bitter Root is an Assertion which I never read in any forraign writer but of late set down in Terminis Terminantibus by some English Zelots whose study and practice it hath been either to improve or malignifie Forraign Errors The improvement of the former Errors which Outlandish Writers did rather not take into Consideration then maintain is The Division of all Mankind into Two Sorts that is into Elect and Reprobate An Error I confesse which can do no great harm upon such Sawcy Malepert Vocalists as have the gift to let the Word of God runne as fast out at their mouthes as it comes into their braines either by the Ear or Eye But if it enter once into the thoughts of a Sober Conscientious Spirit whose brain and heart have dayly entercourse or Commerce it is impossible but it should put him into a Dangerous Perplexitie either of being carelesly Presumptuous or of falling into utter despaire Experiments of this Later evill have been more frequent in our Church and in these times then in any other Church or times before us 4. For Conclusion of this Tragical Consideration I would request all such as sit in judicature specially in Causes Criminal to call to mind or suffer Me to be their Remembrancer of a Grave saying delivered by a great Praelate in the high Court of Parliament That Severitie without instruction is a kind of Tyranny More particularly my humble request is that with good leave I may put such in mind as judge seditious turbulent or enormous practises or Censure Fellones de se that they shall mightily condemn themselves by judging them unless they be as forward withall to quell the Erroneous Doctrine whether by Lawes Ecclesiastical or Civil whence the former Practises spring As that kind of Sedition Stubborn disobedience disloyalty Scandalum Magnatum or privie Conspiracie under whose heavie burden this State and Church doth now sigh and groan These and divers other like Branches of the Divels service are as true and proper Effects or natural issues of the forementioned preposterous Belief or Doctrine of Special faith or Division of all Mankind into Two Sorts as Christian Charitie Humilitie Obedience Penitencie or Contrition of Spirit are of the true and wel-grounded Belief of Jesus Christ and of him Crucified 5. The best instructions that can be given for rectifying the former Errours is that of our Apostle Rom. 4. Though we follow the Interpretations or Hints of those Writers whom these Zelots most admire He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to performe And therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him But for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our Justification Vers 20 21 22 23 24 25. CHAP. LII That Iustification Consists not in one Single Act. In what Sense Fides est Fiducia is True 1. MUst we then with the Romish Church admit of a First and Second
then at any time as hitherto at all times he hath done deferre the execution of Justice upon us which our adversarie dayly sollicites against us he defers it at the Plea or Intercession of this our Advocate not for our own sakes And it is worth the noteing that as the reason why the Psalmist will not have us ioyn issue with our adversary in point of Justice is because No flesh is righteous in Gods sight so our Apostle to shew that our Advocate though partaker with us of flesh blood is Exempted from this Vniversal Negative enstyles Him by the name of Jesus Christ the righteous If He were not righteous even in Gods sight He could be no fitt Advocate to stand betwixt us and Gods Justice to avert his Judgements from and draw down his mercy and blessing upon us But in respect of what sinnes is Jesus Christ the Righteous said to be our Advocate an Advocate even for the Elect and regenerate Is he their Advocate onely in respect of sinnes committed before their regeneration or before their Confirmation in Grace or an Advocate also for the remission of those sinnes which they have committed after their regeneration by Baptism or after the increase of Justifying or sanctifying Grace whether procured by receiving of Christs Body and Blood or by other meanes If our Advocate he were onely in respect of sinnes committed before Baptism or of sinnes inherent by nature the Apostle had not said If any man sin we have an Advocate but if any man hath sinned he hath an Advocate or Intercession is alreadie made for him by his Advocate The title which he bestowes upon his Disciples Little Children argues them to have been in his esteem men regenerate and more free as he hoped from ordinary sinnes than other men at the least he wrote unto them to the end that they should not sin after they had been cleansed from their sinnes but yet he addes if any man shall hereafter fall into any sin We He saith not YOU as takeing himself included in the number of those which stood in need of Advocation have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous This implyes that Christ doth not cease to execute the Office of an Advocate for the regenerate so long as they live here on earth For it is not the Office of any Advocate to plead for the remission of those sinnes which are alreadie remitted or from which he knowes his Clients to be cleare exempted before they have committed them If then the son of God make intercession for the sinnes of the Elect or regenerate whilest they live here on earth their sinnes are not remitted untill He have made intercession for them nor doth He intercede for actual sinnes till after they be committed 10. However if the Son of God be our Advocate onely unto God the Father It is the Advocate 's Office to plead for pardon The Iudge which hath Power whether in respect of sinnes past or now present He as Advocate doth onely plead our Pardon It is God the Father then which must grant the Pardon and if every sin be a work of Satan the pardoning of sin is the Dissolution or destruction of the work of Satan How then is it said that the Son of God doth destroy or dessolve the workes of Satan in us As the Almighty Father is said to have made the world for he spake the word and it was made yet he made it by the Eternal Word his Onely Son so albeit the Father likewise do give the Fiat or Warrant that our sinnes may be remitted or that the workes of Satan may be dissolved in us yet they must be dissolved by the Son as immediatly by the Son as the world was Created by the Son 1 Iob. 2. 1 2. For this reason the Apostle in the forecited place doth not content himself with the onely Title of Advocate but adds withall that he is the Propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world He saith not though that be most true He hath made the Propitiation for our sin lest haply any man should hence collect that all his sinnes were forgiven before they were committed because the Propitiation was made for them before they were committed For albeit the Propitiatorie Sacrifice was of value infinite and all-sufficient for the full ransom of the World yet is it not sufficient for us which believe that Christ dyed for us to look onely upon the Propitiation which he then Made for us for that is past but upon himself as he still continues the propitiation for our sinnes so saith the Apostle He is the propitiation for our sinnes not onely an Advocate to plead for us unto his Father that our sinnes may be remitted but this request being granted he is withall the High Priest which must remit them and not our high priest onely but the Propitiation by which Every work of Satan in us must immediately be dissolved Again though all unto whom St. John wrote this Epistle were not regenerate yet it is certaine that all such as walk in the light are regenerate yet saith St. John Chap. 1. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son what hath it done Cleansed us from all our sinnes Though that be in a good sense most true yet our Apostle doth not So speak Lest haply such as had attained unto this Communion of Saints or participation with the Children of Light being thus farre cleansed by Christs bloud might take occasion to think that all their sinnes aswel those that are to come as those which were past were already pardoned by him or that they were as truly cleansed from the guilt of sinnes future as of sins already committed past But the Apostle making himself one of the number to whom he speaks says If WE walk in the light the bloud of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin that is it never ceaseth to cleanse the Elect or regenerate from the sins which they never cease in some measure or other to committ or harbour in them And if there were not a perpetual Remission of our sinnes or if this cleansing us from our sinnes by the bloud of Christ were not as perpetual and continual as our Commission of sinne is our Case even the Case of men regenerate would be Lamentable So farre is it from truth that the sinnes of any man be forgiven before they be committed or that any man is by the bloud of Christ actually cleansed from those sinnes which as yet have not actually polluted his soul and conscience that as bad Diet casts men into a Relapse of those diseases from which they had been lately cured so the sinnes which we commit this hour will call our former sinnes to remembrance in Gods sight until these later as well as the former be actually forgiven or
Free in respect of some acts operations objects 3088. God is not free in respect of every object ib. 3089 Satan free in choice of particular evils though he hath lost all freedom to good 3089 Freedom and servitude in Collapsed Angels and men unregenerate differ 3090 To use free-will extreamly amisse is not necessary but contingent 3093 Abuse of freedom in not avoiding remoter occasions of sin betraies Men to a kind of necessitie to be overcome by nearer opportunities 3094 Use of vows a proof of freedom 3093 c. What freedom is in the unregenerate man 3092 What freedom in extreamly debauched sinners 3095 Freedom not equall in all ibid. A slave has as free a will as his master 3130 3144 How free-will co-operates with Gods Spirit inexplicable 2112 What freedom of will in servants to sin 3029 Where no freedom is admonitions useless ib. The true state of the question about Free-will 3130 The Question about concurrence of Grace and free-will stated in a Church Collect 3131 Free-will in Naaman Sareptan widdow Zachaeus Roman Soldiers ibid. God free to do Good man free to do evil 3249 We are de jure freed from servitude to sin and Satan by Christs death De facto by the Acts of his Everlasting Priesthood 3252 G. SIn against the Holy Ghost is not for Nature or qualitie unpardonable but as a Symptom of the full measure of iniquitie 3282 God See Decree see Will see Pharaoh Gentiles in danger to be more hardened then the Jews or the Egyptians 3208 Duty to pray against it 3209 Gentiles forewarned 3248 Gomarists 3129 Greater Glorie given to the Elect that work good in a greater measure 3285 Goodness How Gods will is the Rule of goodness All things be not good because God willeth them God willeth some things because they be good 3179 c. 3229 3181 3188 Goodness objective precedent in order of Nature to the Act or Exercise of Gods will 3176 c. Goodness Objective and Subjective 3178 Gospel or New Covenant The Condition of men under it 3285 3292 c. Grace Baptismal denyed restrained 3174 Free Grace and meere mercie maintained 3184 3210 c. Grace of Christ a more soveraign qualitie then Adams Righteousness 3005 Estate in Grace the best way to examine it 3097 3103 c. Galen his Heresie 3086 H. HArdening Gods just hardening Pharaoh after he had filled up the measure of his sin 3222 c. What it is to hardâ—n 3223 c. The manner how God hardens men 3224 Hardening Positive Privative ib. positive by favours exhibited not on purpose to harden but to mollifie 3225 God no necessary yet a positive Cause by consequence of hardening ibid. Gods justice in hardening Pharaoh justifyable by Rules of equitie 3230 He hardeneth whom he will 3242 The use of this Truth 3244 Hardening See Pharaoh See Jews See Gentiles Heathen vertues a Catalogue of them c. 3135 Heathen Testimonies of our corrupt nature 3019 ' c. Red Heifer the Rite of it 3261 3264 c. 3267 Red Heifer a Type of Christ 3271 3299 3302 the Rite Rare 3261 not above ten times in all the time of the Law 3270 the Jews say but nine times The tenth to be done by Messias 3299 High-Priest See Priesthood Hemingiuss good Counsel 3267 Dr. Hessils 3274 Holy-water The Canon for it grounded on the Rite of the Red Heifer and Elizaeuss salt 3264 c. Canon for Holy-water mistakes its Ground 3270 ' 3264 Hope must be mingled with fear A Rule to plant hope and prevent despair 3104 Grounds of hope 3104 more grounds 3278 Hope why called an Anchor what it apprehends 3â—03 Humane nature abstract not object of Divine decree 3234 Humane nature The Cross contradicting temper thereof 3024 c. Humane nature See Decree Howant-cry for Antichrist likely to fall into Tiber 3262 I. JAcob and Esau St. Pauls instance 3214 Ideal Reasons 3229 Idea of Reprobation 3226 Identitie of several sorts 3233 Idiopathie 3119 Idiote by nature neither Servant nor Master 3046 Iesuites design 3189 A Iewish objection ill answered by the Romanist 3290 Iews in part Believers Servants to sinne lews answer we were never in Bondage how true 3040 c. 3072 c. Iews De jure not to be slaves because Gods peculiar Ones 3044 Iews which sort Believers or others made that passionate reply to Christ John 8. 3073 Iewish Revolts 3075 c. Iews God their King in a Peculiar sense 3134 Iews spoiled the Egyptians jure Reprisaliorum and by their consent also 3195 Iews hardened as well as the Egyptians 3205 yea more then they 3206 Rejection of the Iew. the Original and manner of it 3210 to 3215 Iews Keepers of Truth in the S. Oracles and in some Traditions also 3299 Ioshua Israelâ—tes see Caleb Isaac willeth Esau runneth God sheweth mercie 3215 Ishmael no Reprobate 3214 Ishmael see Agar Image of God To create man in it and Righteous both one 3006 Reliques of Gods Image in the Natural man such as be not in Divels 3124 Imaginations as bad as erecting Images 3015 Irresistible See Will. Iudas not reprobated from Eternitie 3157 Iustification by Faith 3210 c. Iustification consists not in one Indivisible Act 3269 3276 Iustification 2. branches of it 3278 3279 K. KIngdom of Heaven The sense of that passage in St. Ambrose his Creed Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers 3256 The Kingdom of Heaven not erected till â—esus was made Lord and Christ ibid. Then Enoch Abraham Moses and such as lived at the Time of Christs Ascension were consecrated Kings and Priests ibid. We must first know our selves before we can know God as Creator Redeemer Sanctifier 3002 Not knowing our selves in the Individual as sinners in the General as sons of Adam an occasion of a Socinian Error 3002 Knowledge of Christ the first part of it more easie then the second wherein both parts consist 3001 c. The 35. first Chapters intended for an Introduction to the second Part of the knowledge of Christ 3129 L. THe Law gives the Estimate of sin Like a medicine sets sin on working Sin rages and revives at the law 3025 c. Law a Schoolmaster the Lessons it taught by Legal sacrifices 3293 The poorness of Legal services in comparison of Christs one Sacrifice 3261 c. 3293 c. 3298 c. Gods people under the Law and under the new Covenant in farre different conditions 3292 Legal worshippers conscious of sinne in an other manner then Evangelical are 3293 Liber est qui vivit ut vult Tullie 3046 c. He hath both voluntatem propriam Arbitrium proprium ' ibid. Tullies definition of Libertie lame 3049 conteâ—ins but the Body of libertie The Soul of libertie is potestas volendi quod Deus jubet ibid. Libertie See Freedom and Servitude Of libertie of Prophesying the sad effects 3273 Limitation of two propositions if ye live c 3146 Lite pendente nihil fit 3129 Lords Supper Christs presence in it 3296