restored And for further illustration of this place that in Esa 60.19 Esa 60.19 may come up to helpe us the Sunn shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightnesse shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Which place must first be conceived as the learned observe of that great light and prosperity that shall be in the Church under the state of the new Testament when both Jews and Gentiles were to have the knowledge of the everliving God and when the knowledge of the true God should be spread over the earth as the waters cover the Sea but then the aeternity and perfection of this excellency was to be compleated when God should make new Heavens and a new Earth in those glorious Mansions where a farre more glorious light then the Sunn of the firmament shall shine and whereas then there shall be dies unus perpetuus nox nulla one perpetuall day and no night at all that light and excellency that shall shine and flow out to the sonns of God in the state of the new Testament both in spirituall knowledge and divine graces is but as a glimpse of their glory and excellency which shal be compleated in the life to come And some Divines I find who call this their excellency under the state of the new Testament whether for time we referre it to the primative or Apostolique Church as some or to the middle times as others or to the latter times as a third or to all these from Christs time to the last in their severall degrees and in times when the Church had her Lucida intervalla her halcion dayes or dayes of free professing of the Gospel not in her times of the storme beating by generall persecutions or darkning by the clouds of affliction as a fourth this their spirituall excellency I say under the state of the new Testament they call typum a type or figure or resemblance of that excellency and glorious estate of the Sonns of God in the life to come wherein the excellency of their estate shall fully appeare so that the Prophets sometimes make a transition from the one to the other and promise to the Church in its compleat estate in regard of sanctity and freedome from sinne those things that shall in their height and perfection be obtained in the state of glory which you have heard in this life may be resembled or shadowed out 1 Cor. 13.9 1 Cor. 13.9 10. For we know in part and prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away And he adds in the 11. and 12. Verses when I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things for now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known We know in part parum enim ex multo cognoscimus Versio Syriac per Trem. as the Syriacke version by Tremelius for we know but a little of much we know but here after an imperfect manner in comparison of what we shall know there Our knowledge here is but compared to Childhood in regard of a perfect and well instructed man The knowledge of a Child is but small even so small and weake is our knowledge in this life in comparison of what we shall have in the life to come Here we discern Divine truths more darkely there we shall discerne them more clearly and fully And where it is here said that we know in part Non est sensus doctrinam salutis nos tantum ex parte non integram habere proinde revelationibus aut traditionibus aliis opus esse Nequaquam sed est collatio praesentis et futuri status circa cognitionem Dei et rerum divinarum Etenim summa hujus vitae scientia nihil est ad futuram perfectionem collata Paraeus in loc as Paraeus hath it This is not the meaning of the words as though the doctrine of salvation were but had of us in part and not wholly and that therfore we should stand in need of other revelations or traditions to make it out not so but collation or comparing of our estate in this life present with that which is to come cōcerning the knowledge of God and Divine things For the chiefest knowledge that we have in this life is nothing in comparison of that perfection we shall attain unto in the life that is to come We prophesie but in part in comparison of the excellent light clearnesse of judgement in Divine mysteries that we shall attaine unto then for when that which is perfect shall come then that which is imperfect shal be done away not corruptivè or destructivè but absorptivè ac perfectivè not quite abolished corrupted or destroyed but swallowed up into that knowledge which is more excellent and more perfected even as childhood is swallowed up of youth or youth into a perfect man or as Chrysostom gives it Chrysost in verb. Non abolebitur scientia ut nulla sit sed desinet esse imperfecta this knowledge which we now have in part shall not be absolutely abolished that it be none at all but it shall cease to be imperfect Even as that knowledge which a man hath in any liberall Art or Science when he is but Bachellour in Arts and when he knowes them but in part is not totally abolished when he proceeds to be Master in them but swallowed up into greater knowledge and perfected so our knowledge in part or imperfect knowledge of Divine mysteries in this life of that excellent and perfect knowledge in the next life Now vve see but as in a Glasse more darkly then more clearly And as in a Glasse the nudae species rerum apparentium as the naturall Philosophers speak the nudae species or likenesses of things are but to be seen not the things themselves Here we see Gods vvisdome in his Works his power his excellencie here vve know that his Son vvas incarnate that he made all things of nothing and the like but this vve know not perfectly till vve shall see God himself face to face and know as vve are known namely of God himself 1 Iohn 3.2 for 1 Iohn 3.2 We shall see him as he is non comprehendendo totam essentiam sed conspiciendo per modum ineffabilem habendo imaginem Dei perfectè renovatam labemque omnem totaliter deletam ac deperditam not by comprehending his whole Essence for that is beyond the sphaere of the abilitie of any Created and finite nature but by the beholding of him after an ineffable manner having the Image of God perfectly renewed in us and all spott or contagion of sinne totally taken away from us and destroyed for untill then we cannot
that perished lib. 20 de civitate Dei cap. 24. and those were the Aereal Heavens or the regions of it To which I answer that the comparison in Peter is not between the Heavens that then perished and these that now are being indeed for substance still the same but between the world that then was 2 Pet. 3.6 is qui tum erat mundus 2 Pet. 3.6 that is as Beza well hath it Beza in loc aspectabilis ille terrae decor quaecunque animantia in terra degebant iis duntaxat exceptis quae in arca erant inclusa nec enim aquae in coelos redundarunt imò ne ipsa quidam terrae substantia periit sed futurae conflagrationis longe alia erit ratio ideò coelum terram id est rerum universitatem distinctè nominavit in proximo versu that visible comelinesse of the earth and whatsoever living Creatures then was upon it except onely those that were shut up in the Ark neither did the Waters then reach unto the Heavens yea not so much as the very substance of the earth perished But the matter shall be farre otherwise about burning of the world by fire therefore in the next Verse he distinctly named the Heaven and the earth that is the whole world to which the forenamed world was opposed And Beda by the Elements understands all the four Elements Beda in verba yet thinks two onely shall utterly perish that is Fire and Water and other two remain renewed that is the Air and earth called the new Heavens and the new Earth Yet what hath been said against this before shall suffice neither doth this plâ—â—se the Pontificians Others thinke onely three here meant Water Earth Aire because they cannot see how the Element of fire should be consumed by fire To which I would answer with Aquin in suplem ad 3. Aquin in supplem ad 3. part sum qu. 74. art 3. partem summarum qu. 74. art 3. respond ad 1. having shewn that the fire that shall burn the world shal be of the same species with ours he adds non tamen est idem numero notwithstanding it s not the same in all respects with ours And we see saith he that in two fires of the same species one may destroy the other major scilicet minorem the greater the lesse consumendo materiam by consuming the matter of it c. Again loco quo supra Respond ad secundum Loco quo supra Resp ad 2. the fire that shall burn and purge the world shall not have its calefactive power ex principiis essentialibus sed ex divina virâ—ute vel operatione out of its own essentiall Principles as usually it hath but from the Divine power or operation of God in it as his Instrument inabled from him to produce this effect And actio instrumenti magis manifestat virtutem moventis quà m virtutem moti the action of the Instrument rather manifests the power and efficacie of the Mover of it or Worker by it then of it self and the fire which God shall stirre up to purge the world shall have such efficacie in it from him that it shall work beyond the ordinary course of nature and shall be able to melt the Elements and that with fervent heat as S. Peter speaks yet non ad eorum funditus consumptionem sed solum usque ad eorum purgationem not to the totall or utterly abolishing of their substance but to the purging of them from their grosser attracted qualities Neither will that of Gregory hold Greg. magnus who saith in tantum accendet ignis Judicii in quantum ascenderunt aquae diluvii the fire shall burn as high towards heaven as the waters of the Flood ascended but that should be no higher than fifteen Cubits above the high Mountains which would not extend to the melting of all the Elements much lesse to the burning of the Sphaericall Heavens Dr. Willet qu. 29. in 8. Dr Willet qu. 29. in 8. ad Rom. ad Rom. there is not any visible thing that had a beginning but shall also have an ending In which he saith truth and for which the Psalmist will warrant him Psal 102.25 26. Psal 102.25.26 The Heavens are the works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt indure they all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed If any visible thing should escape change these were likest but not these must escape And Heavens are here taken as opposed to the Earth as Gen. 2.1 Gen. 2.1 Thus the Heavens and the earth were finished and all the Host of them Psal 8 3 Psa 8.3 When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Starres which thou hast ordained Even these heavens in which are the Moon and the Starres shall perish shall be burned with fire Thus much briefely for the former point that Aethereall Heavens shall burn as well as the Aereall But as we have seen what Heavens shall burn let us a little consider what Heaven shall not burn When I say the Aethereall heavens I mean the Sydereall and all the sphaericalls under the highest or third heaven as the primum mobile and the coelum crystallinum c. but the third heaven I mean not which is the Seat of the Blessed and which was a Creature created the first day Gen. 1.1 Gen. 2.4 Gen. 1.1 and Gen. 2.4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth Heb. 11.10 when they were created Heb. 11.10 Abraham looked for a Citie which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God This Heaven is corpus supremum immobile incorruptibile amplissimum ac totum lucidum c. First it is a body and a substance though most subtile for that in which bodies are contained its necessarie that that should be corporeall for inter locatum locum inter contentum continens there must be aliqua proportio some proportion between the things contained and the thing containing Now the bodie of Christ is alreadie in the highest heaven and ours shall be howsoever the bodies of Enoch and Eliah now be Secondly quicquid est apertibile est corpus But so was the highest heaven Acts 7.56 Acts 7.56 otherwise Stephen had not seen Christ standing at the right Hand of God if that Heaven had not been opened for howsoever I know that some think there was nulla scissura in coelis no division at all in the Heavens and that miraculum non fuit in coelis sed in Stephani oculis not in the opening of the Heavens but in the eyes of Stephen Others that he saw this in a Vision c. or mentall contemplation not with bodily eyes yet Gual hom 55. in Act. saith Gualter Hom. 55. in Acta Ego haec illi revera visibiliter apparuisse nec mentis duntaxat contemplationi objecta fuisse intelligo I do
the first-born or first of their strength was thus destroyed throughout all Egypt in every house such a hideous Cry was made that Pharaoh started out of his Bed on the night time and finding his sonne his first-born to whom he intended his Crown to be dead he wanted no affrighting seeing Gods Arrow strike into his house yea to hitt the chief Member of it next to himself he was afraid lest the next Arrow might hitt himself Jam tua res agitur paries dum proximus ardet you know who spoke it When the next house is on fire its high time to look to our own Now Pharaoh needed no more intreatie he was willing to let the people flock and all go Now not onely men but vvomen and children must go also and not onely they but Flock and Herd and what they would so they would be gone before Egypt was totally destroyed for they were afraid that if they were not let go the rest of the Egyptians would also be destroyed And now might an Israelite have had a Furlong from Pharaoh upon reasonable terms to have passed all his Scouts and Guards Yet because the Devill could not be content to lose Pharaoh no more than Pharaoh could lose Israel therefore he stirres up Pharaoh to pursue And Salomon hath it Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved Prov. 29. and hardeneth his neck shall be destroyed suddenly and that without remedy And was it with him with his army any otherwise even when he presumed that Israel was in his Jawes and when he thought they had missed their vvay in the vvildernesse and were Man Woman and Childe at his mercie Goods Cattell and all they borrowed of the Egyptians and all they had then vvas he the nearest his fearfull ruine Exod. 14.2 3. God bid Mosâ—s speak to the Children of Israel that they should turn and Encamp before Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the Sea over-against Baal-zephon c. divertant let them turne aside as Iunius and Tremelius read Iunius Trem. Exod. 13.17 God gives a reason for it Chap. 13. Verse 17. God set them not through the way of the Land of the Philistines although that was near for God said Lest the People repent when they see Warre and they return to Egypt So he that could work without means would use means to keep them forward R versi sunt as the Vulgar they turned again yea Aliquantulum versus Egyptum a little towards Egypt as Lyra hath it as though they had meant to have either come back again into Egypt or else wandred in the Desart they knew not whâ—tâ—er For being before Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the Sea Iosephus over against Baal-zephon Iosâ—phus observes that they had ex uno latere mare ex alio montem magnum asperrimum They had the Sea on the one hand and a great and steep Mountain upon the other and had no way to passe on drie land but that way that Pharaoh was comming against them with his Army And instead of è regione Phiaiâ—oth Iunius Versio c. as the Vulgar over-against Pi-hahiroth Iunius reads ante fauces Montium Chirotharum before the narrow passages or straits between the Mountains of Pi-hahiroth or before between Migdol and the Sea over-against Baal-zephon What manner of place that was Pharaoh explanes in the next Verse which God foretold he would use or inwardly so say think in his minde They are intangled in the Land the Wildernesse hath shut them in or Coarctati sunt in terra as the Vulgar they are straitned or shut up in the Land Or irretiti as others They are insnared in the strait places in the Wildernesse amongst the steep and high Hills and are kept in on the other hand by the Sea For thus had Pharaoh gotten intelligence by his Scouts and Spies and therefore made haste to the prey little questioning but that all was his own But Exod. 14.24 25. Exod. 14.24 25. In the Morning Watch the Lord looked unto the Host of the Egyptians through the Pillar of Fire and of the Coud and troubled the Host of the Egyptians This Cloud and Fire is that mentioned before Verses 19 20. Verses 19 20. which came from before them to behinde them to guard them from the Egyptians The morning Watch was the three last hours of the night as saith the Geneva Note and how he troubled the Host of the Egyptians we see Verse 25. He took off their Chariot Wheels so that they drave them heavily I do not think that the Spoaks and Wheels were onely clogged with much tough thick and tenacious heavie Clay which stuck to them as some do that indeed would retard them but that was not all the Text saith He took off their Chariot Wheels Iunius Ablatesquerotis as Iunius and their Wheels being taken away subvertit rotas curruum as the Vulgar He overthrew their Chariot Wheels Vulg. versio so that they had much trouble in the driving of their Chariots If he did but onely take them off it would be a great trouble and stay in their March in putting them on again and who knowes how often God might take them off for that is not expressed in the Text. But it may be objected if the Wheels were taken off how could they drive at all Osiander answers Lucas Osiand Rotis momento vel detractis vel confractis currus everterentur The Wheels being removed or in a moment broken the Chariots would soon be overturned It may be when God took them off they were made more unserviceable then before broken or bruised so that they could but drive them slowly God did by this means so retard their motion that they could make no great haste after the Israelites And Psal 77.17 18. Psal 77.17 18 the Clouds powred out water the Skies sent out a sound thine Arrows also went abroad The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven the lightnings lightned the world the earth trembled and shook so that the Egyptians said Let us flie from the face of Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians so that they would presently have retreated which when the Lord saw he caused Moses to strike the waters again and so drowned them before they could have time to return Lyra in loc But Lyra notes that this was after the Israelites were gotten out of the compasse of the Sea to the drie Land on the Sea shore or much before them that the waters should not hurt them for when Pharaoh and his Host first entered the Sea Filii Israel jam essent multum elongati à litore The Children of Israel had then passed on a great distance from that Shoar on which Pharaoh entred jam enim Israelitae alveum maris egressi erant et versabantur in continenti as Osiander Lucas Osiand Now the Isralites were gotten out of the channell and bottom of the Sea and remained on the continent And I might
note here how God punished Pharaoh and all his puissant Hoast by an insensible Creature but letting passe those let me answer one objection and so on Exod 14.13 Exod. 14.13 Moses told the Israelites when as yet they were not entred the Sea but stood trembling and quaking to see the mightie Host of the Egyptians that the Egyptians they saw that day they should see them no more for ever Vers 30. And yet Vers 30. it s said the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the Sea shore The answer is very easie for the Israelites saw them no more as any living or pursuing Enemies but saw dead upon the Sea shoar Some think upon that shore next Egypt but that is not like Others that they were wrecked and cast out of the Sea to that shore on which the Israelites landed that they might the more be incited to give glory to God and be incouraged against their enemies And Josephus adds Iosephus Vt haberent arma corum ad defendendum se contra Hostes insurgentes that so the Israelites might be furnished with their Armes against all such enemies as might arise against them in the way Iunius But Junius reads it Videruntque Israelita Egyptios morientes in littore maris The Israelites saw the Egyptians dying on the Shore that is saith he è litore maris trajecto hostes suos morientes spectarunt The Israelites themselves standing now safe being passed thorow the Sea did from the Shore see their enemies sinking and dying in the waters of the Sea Exod 15.5 Exod. 15.5 The depths covered them they sanke into the bottom as a stone so that no Art of swimming could help them no verse 10. Vers 10. They sanke as Lead in the mightie waters Exod 14.27 Exod. 14.27 The Lord over-threw the Egyptians in the middst of the Sea Thus God caused those mad and raging waves and proud Billowes to swallow that mad proud and raging people Secondly This judgement must fall on them at such a time as it was most terrible as you have heard so that the circumstance of time did increase the plague that God inflicted on them The more suddenly and unexpectedly that any trouble assailes us the more grievously it afflicts us and especially on the night when we are setled to rest The old Moralist plainly yet truly said Levius laedit quicquid praevideris ante Things foreseen lesse hurt us when they fall upon us because in the interim we prepare our selves against they fall praemonitus praemunitus fore-warned fore-armed The efficient cause of the Creatures subjection to vanitie was God who as you have heard was the absolute Lord of the Creature he hath subjected the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub spe under hope Hope is here ascribed to the Creature as unwillingnesse was as expectation was which as you have heard cannot properly be predicated of the Creature here mentioned Chrysost Theophylact in locum but as Chrysostom observes the Apostle here faineth a certaine person of the Creatures attributing unto them affections as will desire hope sorrow grieving c. Beza hath also well observed Beza in locum that Totus hic sermo per Prosopopaeiam accipiendus That this whole passage and text of the Scripture here concerning the Creature is to be conceived of by way of prosopopaeia as in part you have heard Figuratively attributing unto them humane affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Under hope or in hope but of what I answer under hope of being delivered from the bondage of coruption for he that hath subjected the Creature to vanity yet intends not forever to involve the Creature under the curse no you have heard verse 19. that there is an earnest expectation of the Creature of the manifestation of the sonns of God the Creature stands as it were upon tipp-toes as stretching out the neck waiting with great earnestnesse and desire to see that day when the sonns or children of God shall be manifested in that glorious state which in this life during their mortall bodies cannot be seen and the hope of the Creature is nothing else but the naturall expectation of liberation from the incumbent corruption For there is appetitus naturaliter insitus qui sanè non erit perpetuò irritus There is a naturall appetite in the Creature which doubtlesse shall not be continually or forever frustrate of this expectation And in that the Lord of the Creature made them thus subject to vanitie we may collect that this vanitie or corruption to which they are now subject was not naturall or imbred or connaturall to the Creature God made it in a more excellent and healthfull constitution but this was adventitiall by reason of the sinn of man who having displeased both his Maker and theirs brought them into an ill condition but himself into a worse them lyable to vanity but himself to perpetuall and eternall miserie Secondly hence we see the horrible burthen of the punishment of sinn in that not onely man is punished that sinned but even the brute Beasts yea such Creatures as are insensible also and so heavily that the Creature groans to be delivered from this bondage of corruption or from the burthen How much more may wicked men look to be punished for their own sinnes yet these never groan under the waight of them whilest they are in this life and therefore shall they gnaw their tongues gnash their teeth and groan for ever in the world to come where the Worms shall never die and their Fire shall never be quenched and where they shall have no rest day nor night Thirdly we see the greatnesse of Gods power in that he could make the Creature subject to corruption he that made it in a better estate could also bring it to a worse for the sinne of him that had the possession of it and the Creature must be subject it must obey For what was the Creature to stand it out against the Creator it was impossible for it to do it but must yeeld to be in a worse estate than that in which it was created though with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not willingly Fourthly and lastly observe how God mingles his judgements with his mercies in that the Creature hath a metaphoricall hope in it that this corruption or vanitie to which it is subject shall once come to an end If the Devils or the Damned in Hell had but such hope as the Creature here hath which were short of that created excellencie that they were created in it would elevate their mindes to think of it but they are under the Hatches of eternall despair without any the least hope for ever Oh what Soul seriously considers this and trembles not and sets not all things apart to betake it to such means as will help towards heaven and misse that miserie and then may man have a more noble hope than the Creature here mentioned can have Thus I have done with