earth tanquam ex Termino positivo as of the Terme or Object unto which his Creation of them had Reference that is He did not decree to make them untill the earth was made Or he did not determine to make them but out of the Earth not of the Water or other Element as he made the Fishes of the water not of the earth So that grass was made of the earth and fishes of the Sea not as of any Cause concurrent to their making or production but tanquam ex Termino aut Objecto praeviso The Whales and great fishes which God created on the fift day were not from the time of their Creation so much as a material Cause of the Fry or Spawn which proceeded from them untill God bestowed his Blessing upon them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas The Effect of this Blessing was a true and proper Creation For hereby they became in their kinds Efficient and material Causes And from this Blessing they received the first Possibilitie of Propagation or continuance of their kind by succession or generation of the like Admitt then our Mortification as well as our Vivification is a work of Creation God Createth life in Baptized Infants And this production of life spiritual in them is like unto the Creation of the heaven and Earth or of the First Masse that is not ex praevisis operibus neither by their works nor from Gods Foresight of their works Thus much the Romish Church confesseth in the prayer used at the Burial of Infants Baptized Omnipotens mitissime Deus qui omnibus parvulis Renatis fonte Baptismatis dum migrant à saeculo sine ullis Eorum meritis vitam illico largiris aeternam sicut animae hujus Parvuli hodiè credimus to fecisse Ex Rituali Romano Pauli quinti impresso Antuerpiae 1635. in 8. Ex Offic Plantiniana Moreti in Officio Defunctorum De Exequijs Parvulorum Pag. 244. In this Creation there is no * Quaere if it be not otherwise in a Pagan â—f yeares Coming to Christianitie Without Baptisme either Obteined or Desired He cannot be saved And Baptisme he may not have without Qualifications preparative professed to the Church that he may be admitted to it And Reall in his Soul that he may have Rem Sacramenti that is become partaker of the Inward and Spiritual Grace Qualification or disposition praecedent either by way of Title or by way of Term or Object Or if we grant any Term or Object of this creation it must be the Entitie of the Infant or its Capacitie of Baptisme or the Baptisme it self 3. How it is said All things were created of Nothing But as it was the Almightie Creators pleasure not to make herbs untill he had made the earth nor fishes untill he had made the Sea out of which he made them tanquam ex termino as of a positive Term or Object praeexistent though not positively concurring to their Creation or Co-working with him So as we suppose it was his pleasure not to work Mortification or to Create Life in such as are capable of Reason untill some works which he requires be done by them albeit the best works which any can do be as little Conducent by way of Causalitie or Title to the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual as the Red Earth was to the Creating of Adam or Adam in a dead sleep was to the Creation of Eve Adam was the sole work of God and so was Eve though made of Adam aswell as the heaven and the earth were the sole works of God And so is our Election so is our New Life so is our Mortification spiritiual as truely and intirely the work of God though not wrought without some works of ours praeexistent as the Creation of Life in Infants is Gods Work although they have no workes praeexistent And as Adam though Eve was made of him had no more share with God in her Creation than Nothing had with Him in the Creation of the heavens and the Earth So neither have we after we have done the works required to Mortification any greater share or Title of Causalitie in the production of Life or Mortification Spiritual than Infants have in their Regeneration 4. It may be Objected That the works prerequired by us to Mortification spiritual are more truely Ours than any Action that can be imagined as requisite in the heavens for Creation of the Sun Moon or Starres Or in the Earth for the Creation of herbes and trees T is true Some Actions are required in us * See the 2. note at the end of this Sect chapt 36. that Grace may be created in us yet not to make us more Capable naturally of Grace but to make us Meere Passives not uncapable of it or not Positively Contradictorie to his Majestie or eternal aequitie Man from the beginning had a Freedome of Will to deprive himself of such Blessings as God in his Bounty had provided for him Our first Parents by the Abuse of their Free Will betwixt Good and Evill made themselues uncapable of any Blessing or Reward from Gods Justice or meer Bountie yet were they not hereby made uncapable of his Infinite Mercy Nor are his Posteritie made uncapable of it by Sin meerely Original but by Abuse of that Free-Will which is left them as the proper Fruit of Sin Original that is a Free-Will to do Evill We have a Power or Freedome left us to make our selves more Uncapable of Gods Mercy than we were in Adam no Power at all to make our selves more Capable of it it is God alone which increaseth this Capacitie in us That of St. Austin is notwithstanding most true in respect of All that are come to years of discretion Deus qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te God which made thee without any endeavours of thine own will not save thee without thine own endeavours And yet the best of our endeavours are but to keep our selves in the same state wherein we were when we had no works no endeavours that is when we were Infants And happie is he that doth not by lewd endeavours or ill works ☜ evacuate the Fruits of Baptisme in himself For him that doth finally so Cassate or Voyd them it had been better if he had never been baptized if he had never been born For by frustrating the hopes which he had in Baptisme he makes himself more uncapable of Gods mercy for having the Spirit of Life created in him than the Earth was of Gods Power to have Man created of it CHAP. XXXIII By what Spirit we are said to Mortifie the Deeds of the Bodie 1. Of the difference betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man IF the deeds of the Body or the Flesh must be mortified by the Spirit of man then man hath not only Freedome of Will but Liberum Arbitrium an Abilitie to Mortifie his own
A parallel betwixt Pharaohs Crueltie towards the Jews and the Jews crueltie towards Christ and his Apostles A Parallel between the cruel oppression and stubbornnesse of Pharaoh and his People in Moses's time and a little before and the ingratitude stubborness and malitious cruelty of the Jews towards Gods people and his Embassadors for their good in the dayes of our Saviour and his Apostles Equalitie of crueltie ingratitude or contempt of Gods Messengers in the Jewish Nation must needs by the Rule of Justice induce an Excesse of Induration or Infatuation upon them To draw the Parallel aright After the first cruel Pharaoh had begun to oppersse the Israelites and murther their Infant Males Moses is born and design'd by God to be his Embassdor unto Pharaoh for his Peoples release from bondage Upon the continuance of this oppression by the second Pharaoh which the former had begun The Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their Task-masters for I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the Land unto a good Land and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey Exod. 3. 7 8. The Seed of Abraham was no lesse grievously oppressed by the Romanes and by Herod the Great their Deputy And which was worst of all their own Governours layd heavy burdens of conscience upon them Many of them were tormented in body if not in soule by the Divel The depth as well of the Peoples as of the Governours misery was That they did not perceive or rightly apprehend the danger of their disease In commiseration of all these and other parts of their affliction The same Lord God which had appeared to Moses in the Bush and testifyed that he was come down to see the affliction of the Israelites under Pharaoh did now the second time descend from heaven to earth to visit the affliction of his people under the Romanes and their Governors shewing his Commission to this purpose by many signs and Wonders much greater and more gracious then Moses had wrought in Egypt most of them respectively exhibited in the sight of the Pharisees Priests and Elders and of all the people but with worse successe in respect of them for whose good they were purposely and especially wrought then Moses his miracles had found in Egypt The Egyptians 't is true did not hearken unto Moses nor hold his miracles in that esteem which they deserved but to persecute to stone or otherwise to slay or murther Moses we do not read of any attempt made by them untill after he had departed with Gods People out of Egypt Whereas the Scribes and Pharisees with the Priests and Elders upon the more frequent sight of our Saviours Miracles did not only harden their own hearts but wrought the people otherwise well inclined unto his Doctrine to such an hardnesse of heart that they persecuted The God or Great Angel of the Covenant who had appeared to Moses in Mount Sinai unto a bloudy ignominious death and which doth aggravate the sin sought the release of Barabbas the Murtherer that is by name and qualitie the Son of their Father the Divel whilest he stood in competition with the only Son of God for enjoying the benefit of that Boon which by the indulgence of the Romanes was granted to them at every Feast of the Passeover in remembrance of their Fathers deliverance out of Egypt 25. More foolish again by much these Scribes and Pharisees with their Complices were then the Egyptians in Mosesâ—s time had been in that they persecuted as farr as in them lay the Lord God of their Fathers after his departure out of this World by procuring a watch or guard to be set about his grave seeking thereby to stop his passage which he had foretold from death to life But he in the mean time gives evident Proof that he had greater Power and more soveraign command over the earth over the rocks grave it self then Moses had over the waters of Egypt or the Red Sea which Moses by vertue of his power whose Embassador he was did command to swallow up the Egyptians alive This second Moses or Great Prophet like unto him after his death commands the rocks to cleave asunder and the earth and grave to give up their dead No marvel if after the Iews had thus wilfully and desperately hardened their own hearts the Lord God of their Fathers have hardened their hearts after a stranger manner then he did the hearts of Pharaoh and his People and for a longer space even to this present day Besides all other oddes of circumstantial considerations from our Saviors fore-warnings or admonitions the measure of that blindnesse or Induration which possessed these later Jews did most justly accrue from neglect of that Peremptorie monition which Moses their Lawgiver had given them Deut. 18. 15 16 17 18 19. The Lord thy God will raiseup unto thee a prophet from the middest of thee like unto me unto him shall ye hearken According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly saying Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither let me see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me They have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to passe that whosoever wil not hearken unto my words which he shal speak in my name I will require it of him 26 Here were a fit place A Parallel betwixt Moses and Christ Jesus and fair Occasion to institute a Parallel or decypher the similitude between Moses and Jesus the great Prophet as the people did often enstyle him a point whereunto I have spoken somewhat in the Third Book of Comments upon the Apostles Creed Chap. 11. The diligent Reader I know may finde much more for his better satisfaction in many learned Commentators upon the 18. of Deuteronomie and the 3. of the Acts and amongst others in the learned Gualter who is not in this point so prolix as in most other of his Comments upon the Acts. At this time and in this place these Two Circumstances onely present themselves to my Memorie which I shall commend to the ingenuous Readers view The First That Moses was born at that very time wherein the Pharaoh which then ruled over Egypt had a design to make away all the Hebrew Infant-Males being thereunto sollicited or provoked as Josephus tells us by the suggestions of his Secretarie upon a Prenotion or Fame which he had heard or learned God knows from whom or by what means that there should about that time arise a Prophet
evil Now to use our Free-will further amisse then is Necessary is meerly Contingent no way Necessary Albeit he could do nothing as he ought yet he might have done lesse ill in being imployed in some honest Vocation or Lawful Exercise then by giving himself over to Pamper Ease and Sloth In Lawful imployments we are commonly freed from all other ill Guests besides our selves In Living Idlely or doing nothing we make our very hearts our brains and souls like Empty Rooms for the Infernal Spirits to set up Shop in The Poets Observation is very useful for all but most Peculiar for Younger Students and expressed in Terms to their Liking Si non ante Diem librum cum lumine poscas Hor. Epist 2. Invidiâ vel amore vigil torquebere Lib. 1. si non Intendas animum studiis rebus honestis If Men would give some Divine Precepts or Sentences full Possession of their Morning Thoughts these would serve as so many Armed Men to keep out the suggestions of the Devil ☜ the World and the flesh from entring into their Hearts 11. To hold this Freedom of Will in avoiding Occasions or motives to sin is most agreeable to the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches All which if I mistake not permit a Moderate and lawful Vse of Vows not only to men already sanctified or in the estate of Grace but unto all such as desire to avoid sin and the Motives thereunto that they may be sanctified In these two Points I hope we shall all agree First That we may not Vow any thing which is not in our Power Secondly That the avoidance of Occasions or Motives to grosse or known sins is one of the most proper and most safe Objects of solemn Vows 12. Some of our Wise and Godly Founders of Colledges which died before Reformation begun do not tye us by oath never to transgress in matters of Manners or Crime But to undergo punishment for breach of good manners they strictly tye us Virtute Juramenti What is the reason Surely that which we said before They well knew that to undergo ordinary punishment as losse of Commons or the like was in our Power and Consequently just matter of Vow But to avoid al actions punishable was not as they foresaw in our Power No part of the Object of our Free-will and therefore they made it no Branch of that Solemn Vow which we make to God for Observation of their Statutes 13. Now as it is Lawful to Vow strict Observance of outward means either useful for avoiding grosser sins or for repenting for them once committed So God upon diligent and faithful observance of our Vows in these or the like subjects doth not only free us from being led into grievous temptations but so enlargeth our Freedom of Will in other Points that by the assistance of his Gracious Providence we gain some Power over our own desires and affections which before we had not This cannot seem strange in the course of Nature especially if we consider it as subject to Gods Favourable Providence For seeing our carnal appetites or affections are alwayes nourished and strengthened by External Occasions or Opportunities they must needs be starved or weakned by Substraction of this their Nutriment And the weaker they are the better hand the spirit or Conscience gets over them the easier they are to be tamed and nurtured 14. Many men have not the Power to abstain from Dainties when they are set before them or when they are invited to taste them And the more yielding they are to such Invitations the greater Liberty will their Appetites take and leave them lesse Power to abstain from riotous Feasting But until Long Custom hath brought forth a worse disposition then we bring with us from our Cradles it is farr more Free and Easie for us to abstain from Houses of unhallowed Mirth or Good-Fellowship as they are termed then to abstain from those Courses which are usually followed in them after we be once accustomed to them In respect of every Negative Precept or things forbidden it is always More Easie to avoid the First * This is manifest in that Great Example and Champion of Chastity holy Joseph Who durst not stay to struggle for his Garmēt though it cōcerned him highly to have got away that which he knew would be made a Cloke for his Mistresses sin and a Colour of His but hasted and fled Chusing rather to leave behind him a seeming Argument of his Guilt then by longer stay or Reasoning after those two Arguments of Wrong done a Good Master and Sin against a Good God would not disswade to incur a Real Danger of becoming Guilty Even so it is commanded 2 Tim. 2. 22. Fly away from Lust We may and must resist the Devil and fight it out against Him but for Lust the only way is as when the house it on fire Avoidance and Flight Haste away Escape for thy life and Thy Souls Life Look not behind Thee nor stay lest the fire overtake thee and so thou be consumed in the Flame Occasions then to resist insuing Opportunities And the more Careful we are in avoiding First Temptations the more Capable we are as was before intimated of Gods Peculiar Providence to shield us from the assaults of Satan Not that the lesse Abuse of our Free-will in Evil or in avoiding Occasions that lead unto it can Merit any such Favour but the Extream Abuse of such Free-will as we have Exempts us from those Priviledges which Gods Infinite Bounty bestowes on us 15. But let us take a man which hath been so far from avoiding that he hath been alwayes industrious in seeking out Occasions to transgresse a man that by continual entertainment of all Opportunities to sin hath yielded up his soul to many foul and grievous sins What Freedom of Will what choice of means for working Mortification or amendment can be imagined to be left in such a Man shall we say he hath Freedom of Will inter Mala What portion of Freedom is in such as Sin Extreamly This were Destruere Suppositum We will rather suppose him to have so far abused that Free-Will which men naturally have in doing Evil that of Two of Three of Four or more Evils proposed together he would be ready to chuse The Very Worst alwayes prone to imbrace those Opportunities with greatest speed which lead to greatest mischiefs One Cui e malis id maximè placet quod est maximum Is there any Method or place for medicine to this disease The wicked saith the Prophet are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Esay 57. 20 21. Now as the most dangerous and turbulent seas do not rage when the winds are calm So neither do the wicked some out their shame when Actual Temptations or provocations cease And in as much as Occasions and Opportunities do not at all times
of the Flesh which must be mortified The Affection whence this Loathsome stream doth spring is a desire of mirth or pleasure For no man directly desires to be Drunk All men naturally desire to be Merrie as having an internal spring of delight or mirth in themselves which naturally desires an issue or vent otherwise the Soul and Spirit becomes sodden in Melancholy Hence it is that many mens Affections detesting this Melancholy humour be drenched in this Filthy sink or puddle of Drunkenness which is but a Sinister or preposterous Issue of inbred Mirth The true Mortification of this monster is not to be sought by quelling or weakening the Affection whence it springs but rather by giving it another Issue or vent Thus much is implyed in our Apostles advice Eph. 5. 18. Be not Drunk with wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord. Our Apostle here supposeth that the spirit of God which alone worketh the mortification of this sin and other Lusts of the flesh although he detests all drunken ryotous mirth is not a dull spirit of melancholy It delighteth much in its own musick alwaies desirous to hear pleasant songs of its own setting And there is no meanes so Effectual for drowning drunken mirth as a full consort of the musick of this spirit Beatus populus quiscit Jubilationem hanc Blessed are the People That can rejoyce in Thee O Lord. 8. The perfect Cure of the Soul is wrought Per Simile Thus it is plain how this Cure must be wrought by Contraries and yet per simile by the Like too The Lusts of the Flesh must be Mortified by the Spirit and yet these are Contraries But if we descend unto Particulars Ambition or desire of honour must be mortified by desire of Honour Covetousness which is a desire of Riches must be mortified by the desire of Riches Drunkenness which is a Desire of Mirth must be mortified by a desire of Mirth Immoderate carnal Love must be mortified by excessive Love of Christ and of things Spiritual Between the Desires themselves there is as true Similitude as is between the several currents of water which issue from the same spring or fountain but as perfect a Contrarietie between the Objects and issues of the desires as there is between the several waters of the same fountain whilest the One runnes in a pure rock or conduit pipe and the other into a sink or puddle 9. To Conclude then The spirit of God doth first purifie the Fountain of our Desires that is the spirit or Conscience of man The spirit of man being thus quickened and purified doth by direction and assistance of the same Spirit of God divert the current of his Desires and give a new vent or issue to his Affections And the Desires or Affections by this diversion of their Current receive a further Degree of Purification from the Ocean or Sea into which they empty themselves that is from Heaven and the heavenly Lights on which they are sett Between the Current of our Desires or Affections thus purified by the spirit of God and the Coelestial Objects whereon they are sett there is such Reciprocation or mutual recourse as it were between a stream of pure water and a Sea of Nectar the stream or spring still falling into the sea and the sea still sweetning the stream by reflowing upon it The spirit of Christ which knowes no bounds or Limits which is more boundless then the Ocean delights in our Desires or Affections whilest they are sett upon heavenly things And the more his spirit is delighted in our Desires and Affections thus emptying and pouring out themselves the more he purifies and sweetens them by the influence of his Gratious Spirit Yet are not any mans Affections so throughly sweetned by the Spirit of Grace in this Life as not to retain some permanent Tincture or mixture of the Flesh Howbeit every man is Throughly mortified in whom the spirit of Christ hath gotten the Soveraigntie over the Flesh and won the better part of the natural Affections to its service But whether this Soveraigntie being Once gotten may not Finally or for a time at least be lost Heave it to the determination of the Schooles My application for the present shall be from the words of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 38. 25 26. Though the book be Apocryphal yet his observation in this place is Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdome of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of Leasure or as some read by right imployment of his vacant time And he that hath little businesse shall become wise How can he get wisdome that holdeth the Plough and that glorieth in the Goad that driveth Oxen and is occupied in their Labours and whose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk is of Bullocks Or of the breed of bullocks His verdict concerning Handy-Crafts-Men is for the most part true of Men full of that which we call Book-Learning or imployed in matters of Government of Sate Would to God it were not too true of many that have little Business In respect of this private Learning Every one of us Especially in these times have Bookes enough of our own so we would sequester some competent times or vacant seasons for serious perusing them Every mans course of life and dayly Actions are the best Bookes for this Learning And no man can so well read them as his own Spirit and Conscience Herein then consists the Wisdom of him that is in part and desires to be A â—etter Christian First in careful Observing the Touches of Gods punishing or chastising Hand Secondly in Reflecting upon the motions of his Spirit Thirdly in duly Examining Every day What advantage the Flesh hath gotten against the Spirit or the Spirit against the Flesh All this being done the best imployment of all these Talents which God commits unto our trust must be in acknowledgeing our whole strength to be from God and in Consecrating our best endeavours by continual Prayer for the assistance of his Spirit In this Last Point we are Active yet Active only to the End that we may be Towardly Passive that we grieve not the Good Spirit of God by which our Sanctification must be wrought He will not forsake Vs unless we forsake Him first But as water which hath been heated by the fire congeales the soonest after it be taken off and removed from it So they ☜ which have felt the Motions of Gods Spirit and have been in some measure Mortified by it freez the soonest in the dregs and Lusts of the flesh and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him or so grieve him that he cease to renew or continue his former Motions But he that will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High and will open his
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so much as if he had said in the Beginning or from the beginning much less doth it amount unto so much as if he had said before all worlds or before the foundation of the world was laid which words or the like do import Eternity And unto this literall Importance or signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The material or real Circumstances do fully accord Both do fully witness that he speakes only of some Fore-ordination made or declared in the compass of Time as ver 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the errour of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core This Wo denounced takes Date only from the Time of their following the ways of Cain of Balaam and Corah God did not ordain either from Eternity or by any written Sentence upon Record That these men by name should go on in the ways of Cain should run after the error of Balaam should perish in the gainsaying of Corah But now that they had visibly followed the wayes of these wicked men they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fore-sentenced or Fore-ordained to the same condemnation which had fallen upon Cain Balaam and Corah The Sentence or Judgment declared of old against these Three was as a Ruled Case for the condemnation of these men that S. Jude speaks of they had incurred the Sentence of condemnation given of old as we say Ipso Facto that is by doing the same things which Cain Balaam and Corah had done And S. Jude whether by the Spirit of Revelation or by Evidence of their Facts themselves doth but declare or pronounce that these ungodly men had fallen fowl upon that immovable Rule or Canon which had formerly been declared against Cain and Corah and his Confederates 10. That these men now were in the same state wherein Cain and Corah were after they had committed these Foul sins for which they were condemned our Apostle takes it as granted ver 12 13. These are spots in your feasts of Charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear clouds they are without water caried about with winds trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots Raging waves of the Sea foming out their own shame wandring stars to whom is reserved the Blackness of darkness for ever He speakes of them as of Reprobates or men ordained to condemnation For being in the same state or condition for the Quality and measure of their sins that Cain Balaam and Corah had been they were Fore-Ordained with them to the same condemnation and this their Fore-Ordination was upon Record in all that Moses or others had written concerning Gods Judgments upon Cain upon Balaam or Corah That our Apostle means such a Fore-Ordination upon Ancient Record we gather from the 14. verse And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophecied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh c. If Enoch ALSO did prophecy of them then some other besides Enoch had prophecied of them So had Moses who related Gods Judgments upon Cain prophecied of their Judgments who followed the wayes of Cain and in foretelling Gods fearfull Judgments upon Corah Dathan and Abiram he foretold the condemnation of all such as followed their ways and were Fore-Ordained to the like condemnation in their condemnation But more expresly Fore-Ordained of old unto the same condemnation by Enochs Prophecie which was more ancient then Moses his writings although Moses mentioned it not The form of his Prophecy or of his Judgments denounced against all ungodly men The Book of Enoch Of it See Tertul. De Cultu Foem Lib. 1. Cap. 3. and the Annot upon that place was upon Record in our Apostles time in a Book called the Book of Enoch unto which or so much of which as concerns this place St. Jude gives Authentick testimony ver 14. c. Behold the Lord-cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him This Prophecy was literally meant and in particular directed against the ungracious seed of Cain and other such ungodly men of the Old World as did oppose or malign the Church of God then seated in the Posterity of Seth of which Enoch was a principal member a man of high place or dignity but the same Prophecy was literally meant of these ungodly men which did oppose the Church and deny that Lord which Enoch foretold should come to give judgement upon all such as continue in ungodliness And though this Prophecy were verified or in some measure fulfilled in the ungodly men of the Old World yet was it more exactly fulfilled in these ungodly men here in St. Iude and shall be fulfilled again upon all such as they were unto the worlds end and all in whom it is or hath been or shall be fulfilled are by it Ordained to the Condemnation here meant and St. Iude having perfect notice that these ungodly men had followed the wayes of Cain and of Corah doth but pronounce or declare them to be lyable to the Condemnation foretold by Enoch But whether all of them were at this time in the absolute State of Reprobation that is irreversibly ordained to everlasting death or whether the Gate of Mercy and Way to Repentance were everlastingly shut up against all of them That we leave to the eternall Judge seeing the 22. verse mentions Compassion for some and making a difference 11. The Jews highest Excommunication taken from Enochs words However This Prophecy of Enoch was so famous and so Authentick in the Jewish Church before St. Iude wrote this Epistle that their GREAT AND FEARFVL EXCOMMVNICATION was conceived in the very Form of Words which S. Iude here out of Enochs useth And as Writts amongst us have their name or Title from the First and Principal words contained in them as some are called Sub Poena some Nisi prius c. so the greatest and most fearfull Excommunication which the Jewish Church did use was called THE EXCOMMVNICATION OF DOMINVS VENIET THE LORD SHALL COME St. Paul as we read Rom. 9. 3. did wish that he himself might be Anathema one excommunicated or separated from Christ for his Countrey-men or kinsmen according to the flesh But he did not wish himself to be Anathema Maranatha for their sakes This kind of Anathema or Excommunication though he considently denounceth against all such in the Church of Corinth as did not love their Saviour If any man saith he 1 Cor. 16. 22. love not the Lord Ièsus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha that is all one as if he had said Let that Sentence which Enoch first denounced against all vngodly and wicked men especially against all Blasphemers of God of Christ or the wayes of the
children of Israel died not one ver 5. 6. Pharaohs experience of the former Plagues fore-told by Moses and accomplished in his own sight did perswade him so farr to believe his Prediction of this that he sent into Goshen to know the truth of that part of it And behold there was not one of the cattel of the Israelites dead v. 7. And yet as it follows in the same verse The heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go 17. All or most of the former signs were respectively rather more noysome and terrible then detrimental unto Pharaoh and his People We do not read before this time of the death or destruction of any useful creatures besides of Fishes when the waters were turned into bloud And this calamitie was neither so grievous nor so universal as the murrain of cattel was It extended only to that part of the River or those waters that were nigh to Pharaohs Court otherwise the Magicians or Inchanters could have had no Place to practise their skill in But this murrain of the most useful creatures was very general Nor would the Magicians have attempted the like if it had been apprehended as facible by them seeing both the Egyptians and themselves should have been greater Losers by the Practise of their own cunning But seeing this Plague did not infect Pharaohs coffers or treasure Cities which the Israelites were enjoyned to build or to prepare materials for their building nor yet Pharaohs Chariots or Stables hence haply it is that he is not so much affected with the wonder as he had been with some of the former And yet because this wonder did give little or no check unto his proud stubborn thoughts the Lord instantly and without further Commission as being now in Processe of Sentence commands Moses to bring another Plague upon the Egyptians more terrible noysome then any of the rest had been ver 8. Then the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron Take to you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace c. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven and it became a boyl breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boyles for the boyl was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians ver 10 11. Whether Pharaoh did resume or continue his former Resolutions without any relentance the Text is silent but expresse enough to this purpose That the Lord did from this time harden the heart of Pharaoh after a more extraordinary manner then it had been hardened before for so the words do run ver 12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had spoken unto Moses But what was it that the Lord had spoken unto Moses Or where did he specially speak to this purpose The place whereto these words As the Lord had spoken unto Moses do punctually referr is as our English margin directs us Exod. 4. 21. And the Lord said unto Moses when thou goest to return into Egypt See that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go In most of the former Treaties between Moses and Pharaoh Or in the relation of the successe or effect of his speech or works this Epiphonema or Close comes often in That Pharaoh hearkened not to Moses and Aaron as the Lord had spoken But in none of them besides this present is it so expresly added that the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh as he had spoken unto Moses This different Character of this Close from the rest gives us to understand or intimates at least That this plague of blaines was the first of all the plagues in which the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh after any extraordinary manner But after what manner did he now harden it Not by Infusion of any bad Qualitie or new unhallowed Resolutions but by giving him up to his own lusts or by leaving him more open and exposed to the temptations of Sathan then he had been From this time and not before doth That of our Apostle Rom. 9. 17. For this very purpose have I made thee stand that I might shew my power in thee Commence or begin to take place Now thus to infatuate Pharaoh or suffer him to infatuate himself after he had so often hardened his own heart and slighted Gods forewarnings was a true Act of justice and withall a Prognostick that the just Lord was now Purposed to destroy him So the heathens out of their broken Speculations of Divine Providence have observed Quos Jupiter vult perdere prius deâ—entat Infatuation is commonly the Usher of fearful destruction God in all this deals no otherwise with Pharaoh then pharaoh had done with the poor oppressed Israelites immediately after the delivery of Moses first Embassage unto him Pharaoh upon this occasion as was observed before severely exacts the same Tale of bricks after he had prohibited the Task-masters to afford them any straw which they performed before when they had plenty of straw allowed them The Lord in like manner requires but the same obedience of Pharaoh after he had deprived him of understanding and of the sweet influence of his ordinary general Providence which he had required of him before or at the exhibition of the first signs or wonders And this only is it which ministred the occasion or matter of that question made by our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he yet chiâ—e unto which I have no more to say for the present then may be found in the Treatise upon that place Rom. 9. 19. See Chapter 42. of this Book Number 6. 18. But to finish this present Survey of the Mosaical Story concerning this proud and foolish Pharaoh it is a witty Character which * Kaì 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. Antiq. Iud. Cap. 5. Josephus hath made of his humorous wilful disposition That after he had seen and in some measure felt three or four several plagues he had a kind of itching humour or longing desire to have more variety of experiments in the like kind This the diligent reader may with me easily observe That upon his sight of the first signs and experiments of the Plagues which did accompany them he demeand himself like a proud Phantastick Humorist and did many waies bewray such a temper as it was impossible for him to become wise untill he had abandoned his former dispositions or resolutions But after the Plagues of the Murrain of cattell and of the blaines upon the Inchanters themselves this proud Phantastick falls into a Phrenzie and fares like a distracted Bedlam and raves as if his brains had been blasted by the fumes or steames of his cauterized heart or seared conscience Witnesse those Passages following Exod. 9. 27. And Pharaoh
Means much available for strengthening of Faith or for repairing those decayes or ruines which the subtiltie of Satan works in our soules yet the Reiteration of the Sacrament of Baptism is neither Necessary nor allowable much lesse Commendable for such purposes And the Raritie or rather Singularitie of It was to my apprehension Emblematically prefigured by the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer or the Water of sprinkling which was Legally sanctified or consecrated by her Ashes The Law concerning this kind of Purification is not to be found I take it in Leviticus at least not in that sixteenth Chapter wherein the Law of the Sacrifice of attonement is punctually set down However the forementioned Glossarie upon the Romish Canon for consecrating Holy Water either through negligence See Chapt. 48 Num. 6. or ignorance or both avouch that place for it If the sacrifice of the Red Heifer had belonged unto the Feast of attonement it must have been reiterated once every year whereas the Hebrew Antiquaries affirm that this solemnitie was not used above tea times during all the time of the Law of the Tabernacle or Temple And whether it were so often used may be questioned because there is no Law or Precept for the Continuation of it but only for the use of the water of sprinkling being once consecrated by it so often as the occasion specified in the Law did require 2. But unlesse the frequent use of the water so mingled with the ashes did wast or exhaust the ashes of that one sacrifice which Eleazar not Aaron was commanded to offer These might have been preserved without putrifaction for a longer time then the Law of Ceremonies was to endure For Ashes as good Naturalists tell us being well kept are immortal or an Emblem of Immortalitie But it may be that as soon or as often as the Ashes of any such sacrifice were by frequent use of the water of sprinkling exhausted or wasted the Legal Priests were bound by the Law mentioned to offer another for consecrating the water of sprinkling whose use was to continue as long as the reason mentioned in the Law did indure 3. The chief use or End of the water of sprinkling mingled with the Ashes of this sacrifice was to purifie such as had made themselves Legally unclean or had casually fallen into such uncleanness One branch of this uncleanness was the touching or being touched by any Dead Corps And unto this use of the water of sprinkling mentioned Numb 19. 11. that of our Apostle Heb. 9. 14. hath special Reference more then Allusion How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from DEAD works That this Legal Sacrifice for sinne was an Exquisite Type of Christs Bloudy Death and sufferings or an exact picture of his bloud wherewith the heavenly Sanctuary or Holy places were purified although the bloud of this Legal sacrifice were not brought into the Earthly Sanctuary no good Writers which I have read either deny or question That the Water of sprinkling consecrated by the aspersion of the Ashes of this Legal Sacrifice did truely resemble the water of Baptism by which we are washed from sin and consecrated unto God as clean persons that is made members of his Church here on earth is so evident in it self that it needs no Paraphrase or Laborious Comment upon the fore-cited Law Yet to this purpose the learned Reader may find much pertinent matter in Chytraeus his Comments upon the Book of Numbers and in many others It will be more needful or better suiting with my intentions in this place to prevent the captious exceptions which some Anti-Papists have heretofore taken and now resume against the expressions of our Publick Liturgie in that Part of it which concerns the Administration of Baptism Almighty and everlasting God which of thy great mercie diddest save Noah and his Familie in the Ark from perishing by water and also diddest safely lead the children of Israel through the red sea figuring thereby thy holy Baptism and by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Iesus Christ diddest sanctifie the floud Iordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin We beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou wilt mercifully look upon these Children Sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they being delivered from thy wrath may be received into the Ark of Christs Church and being stedfast in faith joyful through hope and rooted in charity may so passe the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life there to reign with thee world Without end through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Seeing now dearly beloved Brethren that these Children be regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs Congregation let us give thanks unto God for these Benefits and with one accord make our prayers unto Almightie God that they may lead the rest of their life according to this beginning We yeild thee heartie thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own Child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation and humbly we beseech thee to grant that he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin that as he is made partaker of the death of thy Son so he may be partaker of his resurrection so that finally with the residue of thy holy congregation he may be Inheritor of thine everlasting Kingdom through Christ our Lord. Amen 4. It is no part of our Churches Doctrin or meaning that the washing or sprinkling infants bodyes with Consecrated water should take away sinnes by it's own immediate Vertue To affirm thus much implies as I conceive a Contradiction to that Apostolical doctrin The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven c. 1. Pet. 3. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further then thus That if this Sacrament of Baptism be duely administred the blood or bloody Sacrifice of Christ or which is all one the Influence of his spirit doth alwaies accompany or is Concurrent to this solemn Act. But whether this Influence of his spirit or Vertual presence of his body and blood be either immediatly or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party Baptized or have some vertual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soule of the partie Baptized whilest the water is poured upon him is Too Nice and curious a Question in this Age for sober Christians to debate or contend about It may suffice to beleive that this Sacramental pledge hath a Vertual Presence of Christs Blood or some Real
Sacrifice and most perfect offering Of all the Legal Sacrifices which present themselves unto my former observation or present memory there is one kind only which can beare the true shaddow or serve as a Modell of the Everlasting Efficacie of his onely Sacrifice once offered for all And that was the sacrifice of the Red Heifer Numb 19. and the Legal Use which GODS People under the Law were to make of Her Ashes The correspondencie between the effects of the Ashes of this sacrifice and of the blood of Christ is gathered by our Apostle Heb. 9. ver 13 14. If the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean sanctifâ—eth to the purification of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself to God purge your consciences from dead workes to serve the living God But wherein did this sacrifice picture out the Everlasting Efficacie of the Blood of the Son of God in more peculiar manner than other Legal sacrifices did 14. First in that all such as were legally unclean by touching a Corps or Grave by comming into a Tent wherein a Corps lay unburied or suffering the vessels in such a Tent to be uncovered were to be purified by the Water of Sprinkling which was qualified or consecrated to this purpose by the Ashes of the Red Cow or Heyfer and as often to be purified by this water as they should incurre this Legal uncleanness And yet the sacrifice of this beast was not to be offered so often as this people did incurre these Kinds of legal uncleanness Thus much is Evident from the practice of the Jewish Church during the time of the Law For this water of purification was often every year oft-times Every month to be sprinkled upon some one or other of this people oft-times upon one and the same man within one and the same year even as often as he should by chance or negligence incurre any of the former branches of uncleannesse Yet was not this sacrifice whose ashes were still to be mingled with the water of purification to be offered once Every year in every Age or in many Ages The Sacrifice of the Red Heyfer as the Jewes confesse was but nine times offered during the time of the Law Once by Eleazar Aarons Son in the wilderness And this sacrifice was not reiterated untill the destruction of Salomons Temple that is not during the space of a thousand yeares and more It was the Second Time offered by Ezra after this peoples Return from Captivitie and but seven times after unto the destruction of the second Temple And this Foolish Nation since that time hath not presumed to offer it but expects the offering of it the tenth time by their King Messias Thus is the faithless Synagogue by Gods providence the Keeper not of the Sacred Oracles onely written by Moses and the prophets but even of those Traditions which testifie the summe and truth of these Oracles to wit that this legal sacrifice amongst the rest was to be accomplished in their Messias He was indeed to set the Period to this legal Rite and to all the rest not by offering them after a Legal Rite or manner but by offering up himself instead of them all once for all in bloodie sacrifice in whose infinite Value and Everlasting Efficacie all other sacrifices or offerings for sin were so terminated or swallowed up as Land-rivers or currents of waters are in the sea But what circumstance have we from the written Text that this sacrifice was not to be so often offered as this people had occasion to use the water of sprinkling or the Ashes of this sacrifice to cleanse them from their former Legal pollutions Numb 19. It is said ver 9. that the Ashes should be laid up without the Camp in a cleane place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reserved or kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of separation The Ashes were to be reserved not for this Generation onely present but for the use of Posteritie As Manna which was commanded in the same Character to be reserved in the Ark was the Type of Christ as he is the food of life or the bread which came down from heaven So were these Ashes as an Emblem of the Everlasting Efficacie or operative vertue of his sacrifice There is no Bodily substance under heaven which can be so true an Emblem or model of incorruption as Ashes are Being the Remainder of bodies perfectly dissolved or corrupted they are not capable of a second corruption And when it is said that the Ashes should be reserved for a water of separation the meaning is that one sacrifice might afford ashes enough to season or qualifie as many several vessels of water as this people for many generations should have occasion to use for Legal purification So it is said in the same ninth verse that the Reservation of these Ashes was a Purification for sin A purification not in Act onely or for one or two turnes but a Continual Purification or as a Treasurie or storehouse for making as many purifications or waters of sprinkling as this people had occasion to use And so Christ is said Heb. 1. 3. to have made a purification for our sinnes when he had by himself purged our sinnes saith our English he sate down on the right hand of the Majestie on high But the Translation under Correction comes somewhat short of the Original and the shorter it comes of it the more advantage it yeilds unto their opinion which think their sinnes were remitted and purged before they were actually committed The Apostles words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haveing made a Purification for sin he hath ascended into heaven The word Purification is not to be restrained to One Act or operation but includes or implies the Perpetual qualitie of himself or substance of his sacrifice being by this one Act consecrated to be a perpetual Fountain of purification As he did not onely make one propitiation for our sinnes So neither did he once actually purge us from our sinnes by offering up himself but still remaines the purification of our sinnes that is he doth still purifie and cleanse us from our sinnes as often as we seek by Faith and true repentance to be cleansed and purified by him 15. So then the Blood of the Legal Sacrifice or Heyfer did consecrate the Ashes to be as a Storehouse or treasury of legal purification and the Ashes thus consecrated by this sacrifice did hallow or consecrate the Water which was put into them to make actual purification as often as occasion required So did our High Priest by the One Sacrifice of Himself consecrate his Blood to be an inexhaustible Fountain of purification Evangelical And his Blood and Body thus consecrated once for all do consecrate or sanctifie the Water of Baptism to cleanse or wash Infants from sin Original and such as are of yeares when they are baptized from sinnes Actual