A Chain of Principles

EXERCITATION 1. Psal. 144. end opened. Blessedness what. Solomon's scope in Ecclesiastes. Why he stiles himself Coheleth. His testimony concerning the creatures. Their threefold transcendent vanity. Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure, by reason of the folly, enmity, anxiety and insufficiency that attend them. An apostrophe to the world.

§. 1. THis is a case, which hath long since been determined by the Prophet David, who in Psalm the hundred forty fourth, after he had twice charged those, whom he calls strange children, with a mouth speaking vanity, once in the eighth, and again in the eleventh verse, goeth on to record (as good Interpreters ancient and modern do conceive) the substance of their vain talk in a way of boasting about their flourishing condition in reference to thriving of children, Our sons, say they, are as plants grown up in their youth (not wishing they might, as we read it, but boasting they were) our daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace; To plenty of provision, Our garners are full affording all manner of store; To increase and usefulness of cattle, Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, Our oxen are strong to labor; To peace and tranquility of estate, There is no breaking in, nor going out, no complaining in our streets. Hereupon they applaud themselves, and as placing their happiness in such outward accommodations, say, as it is in the former part of verse the fifteenth, Happy is the people that are in such a case. Which sense is extremely favored, not only by the vulgar Latin, inserting Dixerunt, but also by the Septuagint, who render it by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , both concur ring to have it read, They pronounced the people blessed that were in such a case. Then come in the last words according to this interpretation, as the Psalmists resolution in the point, by way of Epanorthosis, or in express contradiction rather to so gross a mistake, yea blessed are the people which have the Lord for their God.

§. 2. There is one center in which the desires of all men meet, however distanced in the circumference; One port, for which they are all bound, although imbarked in several vessels, and affecting different winds to sail by. That center and port is Blessedness, which may admit of this description. It is the acquiescence of rational appetites in an object so full of real and durable goodness, as to be able fully to satisfy all their longings. The question debated in Ecclesiastes is, whether anything under the sun be such an object. The Preacher resolves it in the negative, by reason of that universal vanity, which overspreads the whole creation. Therefore it is, that the eye (as he telleth us) is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, because these two senses of discipline, when they have given their utmost intelligence cannot present the soul. of man, with any created accommodations perfectly good without defect, and perpetually good without decay. Solomon was one that had both men and money at command, to assist him in making difficult and costly experiments; a wise heart able to dive into natures secrets; a peaceable reign, in which he met with nothing to take him off from the work, or disturb him in it; strong inclinations and constant endeavors to find out the utmost of what could possibly be discovered in any creature, yet he it is that concludes, upon trial, not upon hear-say, or conjecture, Vanity of vanities, saith Coheleth, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

§. 3. Coheleth, which is the style he gives himself in that Book, comes from a root, that signifies to collect and gather, and, though it be of a feminine termination, is, for want of a common gender in the Hebrew tongue, (as other words of the like form) capable enough of a masculine construction. To him it may be thought agreeable upon four different notions, each whereof contributeth much validity to what he testifies. First as a Preacher, who having gathered sundry arguments to convince the sons of men of the insufficiency of all things below God himself to render them happy, in that Discourse speaks as to a Congregation; whereas in the Proverbs he had spoken as to one man, frequently using this compellation, My son. So Jerome, and Cajetan. Secondly as a writer, who had collected into a Synopsis all the opinions of those, who had been taken for wise men by their several followers concerning happiness, confuting such as were erroneous. So Grotius. Thirdly as a Student, who had gathered much wisdom by observation and experience, which he there gives demonstration of. So Broughton. Lastly as a Penitent, who having by his gross idolatry and other sins fallen from communion with the people of God, and being desirous to have his return stand upon record, and to testify his repentance in that book, for the Churches satisfaction gathers together many experiments of his own personal folly, and makes an humble confession of them: whereupon he was restored, and again gathered into the bosom of the Church. So Cartwright and Junius. The witness we see is beyond exception.

§. 4. In his Testimony, Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities all is vanity, the Assertion is repeated, as in Pharaohs dream, to show its certainty; and the term of vanity doubled, partly to manifest the transcendency thereof, as the most holy place was styled The Holy of Holies, and the most eminent Canticle The Song of Songs: and partly to note the multiplicity, as Scripture calleth that the Heaven of Heavens, which, being highest, contains many heavens within its circumference. For there is in the creatures a threefold transcendent vanity; as may appear in that they are

First so unprofitable, as to be hurtful withal. Upon this the Preacher seems to have had a special eye, because after All is vanity, he subjoins immediately What profit hath a man of all his labor, which he hath taken under the sun? He hath done nothing but filled his hands as it were with air, who hath been toiling all his days to replenish his chests with wealth: And what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind? Just so much, and no more, then that Emperor got, who having run through various and great employments, made this open acknowledgement, Omnia sui, sed nihil prosuit, I have been all things, but it hath advantaged me nothing at all. Neither are they simply unprofitable, but this sore evil did Solomon see under the sun, namely, Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. They often prove prejudicial to the outward man, exposing it to danger. Who ever robbed a poor beggar, or begged a poor fool? more often to the inward: whence that of Agur, Give me not riches, but feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say who is the Lord? As if abundance made way for Atheism in those that know not how to manage it. Plenty betrays many souls to slavery. Which made the good Emperor Maximilian second of that name, when a mass of treasure was brought in, refused to have it hoarded up, professing himself A keeper of men, not of money, and fearing lest by falling into love therewith he should cease to be a Sovereign Lord, and become a servant to the mammon of unrighteousness.

§. 5. Secondly so deceitful as to frustrate expectation when men's hopes of advantage by them are at the highest. Let him that would rightly conceive of vanity (saith a late Casuist) imagine the Idea of a thing made up of nothing as the matter, and a lie as the form of it. Scripture speaks of lying vanities, and useth the terms deceitful and vain as equipollent. Favor (saith Bathsheba) is deceitful, and beauty is vain. The Poet interprets Vanus by mendax; and in old Latin vanare was the same with fallere. The creatures are wont shamefully to frustrate men's hopes, and seldom or never make good to the enjoyer what they promised to the expectant. Yea as Jonahs gourd (having done him no service in the night, when he needed it not) withered in the morning, when he hoped for most benefit by it against the ensuing heat of the day: so the blessings of this world frequently wither at such times as we looked to find the most freshness in, and refreshment from them. None but Haman was invited with the King to Queen Esther's banquet; this filled his bladder with windy hopes, which ended soon after in his ruin.

§. 6. Thirdly so inconstant and mutable as to be gone all on the sudden without giving their owners warning. That is said to be vain which vanisheth. Man is like to vanity, his days are a shadow that passeth away. Accordingly the two sons of the first man carried in their names a memorandum of what they and their posterity were to expect. Cain signifies possession, Abel vanity: All the possessions of this world are of a vanishing nature, and liable to a speedy decay; or rather, they are not Possessions but Pageants, which whilst they please us, pass away from us in a moment. Those we have here are running banquets, delicate, and served in with state, but soon over. How many doth swift destruction snatch every day out of the arms of worldly felicity, and stab to the heart at one blow! Behold Belteshazzar in the midst of his cups and concubines struck into a deadly trembling. Herod, when the people had newly invested him with a Godhead presently, ere it was well on, had it pulled over his ears, and became a prey to worms. The rich man in our Savior's parable invited himself to a feast of delicacy, and talked of prosperity laid up for many years; but that very night was his soul required of him to pay the reckoning.

§. 7. These things duly weighed, I could not but be affected with that gallant speech of a Christian writer, If the fruition of all the world were to be sold, it would not be so much worth as the labor of ones opening his mouth only to say, I will not buy it: Yet wondered less at it, when I remembered how much some even heathen Philosophers have disdained to think of scraping to themselves an happiness out of the worlds dunghill, how generously they have professed their living above such accommodations as it affords. I am really greater (could Seneca say) and born to far greater things then that I should become a slave to my outward man. For there are some higher acquests gloried in by more sublimed flesh and blood, as much more conducing to blessedness, I mean intellectual accomplishments of wisdom and learning. Yet, as when the enquiry was Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? The depth said it is not in me, and the sea said it is not with me; So if the like question be put concerning Happiness, worldly wisdom itself must return the like answer, and say It is not in me, by reason of the folly, enmity, anxiety and insufficiency that attend it, so as the Preacher might well determine even of it, This is also vanity.

§. 8. I. Folly. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So the Apostle, who speaking elsewhere of those who bore the name of most knowing men, saith They became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves wise, they became-fools. With men indeed a little science may make a great show; but he only is wise in God's esteem who is wise to salvation. Give me a man as full of policy as was Achitophel, of eloquence as Tertullus, of learning as the Athenians were in Paul's time; If with Achitophel he plot against the people of God, with Tertullus have the poison of asps under his lips, with those Athenians be wholly given to superstition; for all his policy, eloquence, and learning, one may be bold to call him fool in Scripture-language. The learned Logician, whom Satan daily deceiveth by his sophistry, and keeps from offering up to God reasonable service, is no better then a fool for all his skill: Nor the subtle Arithmetician who hath not learned to number his days that he might apply his heart to saving wisdom: Nor the cunning Orator, who although he be of singular abilities in the art of persuading men, is of Agrippa's temper himself but almost persuaded to be a Christian.

§. 9. II. Enmity. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God. He that calleth it so, found it to be so indeed in his own experience; for Paul was nowhere more opposed then in Greece the eye of the world, more derided then at Athens the eye of Greece. Whence it is that S. James, not contenting himself with the epithets of earthly and sensual, brands it also with the name of Devilish wisdom. What else was Matchievel but the Devils professor in politics, as Arius, Socinus, and such like masters of error have been in Divinity? And of such Devilish wisdom what other issue can be expected but that it should lead men to the Devil from whom it came? where Bernard leaves them saying, Suffer the wise men of this world to go wisely down to hell.

§. 10. III. Anxiety. Wisdom is neither attained with ease, as requiring much study which is a weariness to the flesh; neither doth it, when attained, administer ease, but the contrary rather: for when study hath been midwife to knowledge, knowledge becomes nurse to grief. Let Solomon speak; I gave my heart to know wisdom, I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Many and dreadful are the damps that seize upon such as dig deep in the mines of learning. Sharp wits like sharp knives do often cut their owners fingers. The deep reach of a prudent man makes him aggravate such evils as are already come upon him, by considering every circumstance so as to accent every sad consideration, and anticipate such as are yet to come, by galloping in his thoughts to meet them. Had not Achitophel been so wise, as to foresee his inevitable ruin in the remote causes of it, when Hushai's counsel was embraced, he would never have made so much hast, as he did, to hang himself.

§. 11. Lastly Insufficiency to render men either holy or happy. For when the worldly-wise have dived into the bottom of Natures sea, they are able to bring up from thence instead of these pearls of price, nothing but hands full of shells and gravel. Knowledge indeed and good parts managed by grace are like the rod in Moses his hand wonder-workers; but turn to serpents when they are cast upon the ground, and employed in promoting earthly designs. Learning in religious hearts like that gold in the Israelites ear-rings is a most precious ornament: But if men pervert it to base wicked ends, or begin to make an idol of it, as they did a golden calf of their ear-rings, it then becomes an abomination. Doubtless these later times, wherein so many knowing men are of a filthy conversation, and have joined feet of clay to their heads of gold, would have afforded good store of additional observations to him that wrote the famous book concerning the vanity of Sciences, which appeareth in nothing more then their inability to produce suitable deportment in such as enjoy them; without which there can be no solid foundation laid for true happiness.

§. 12. Wherefore bething thyself at length, O deluded world, and write over all thy school-doors, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; Over all thy court-gates, Let not the mighty man glory in his might; Over all thy Exchanges and Banks, Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Write upon thy looking-glasses that of Bathsheba, Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain; Upon thy Mewes and Artillery-yards that of the Psalmist, God delighteth not in the strength of an horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man; Upon thy Taverns, Inns, and Alehouses, that of Solomon, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise; Upon thy Magazines and Wardrobes, that of our Savior, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, & where thieves break through and steal. Write upon thy Countinghouses that of Habakkuk, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his, how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay. Thy Play-houses that of Paul, Lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God. Thy banqueting houses, that of the same holy Apostle, Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both them and it; Yea upon all thine Accommodations that of the Preacher, All is vanity and vexation of spirit.

EXERCITATION 2. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soulsatisfying object. The circular motion of human souls, and their only rest. A threefold fullness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures.

§. 1. WHat shall we then say? Are the sons of men, in whom such strong desires and longings after blessedness are implanted left without all possible means of attaining that in which rational appetites may acquiesce? God forbid. They shall be abundantly satisfied, with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures: so David to God concerning such as put their trust under the shadow of his wings. Creature-comforts are but lean blessings in comparison, there is a fatness in God's house, such as satisfies, and that abundantly. They afford but drops, Christ a river of pleasures. Look as when an Army of men comes to drink at a mighty river, a Jordan, a Thames, they all go satisfied away, none complaining of want, none envying another, because there was water enough for them all: whereas had they come to a little brook there would not have been found enough to quench the thirst of everyone. So here. The creatures are small brooks that have but a little water in them, yea broken cisterns that hold no water: No wonder if souls return empty from them. But Christ hath a river for his followers, able to give them all satisfaction. We must not expect more from a thing then the Creator hath put into it. He never intended to put the virtue of soul-satisfying into any mear creature, but hath reserved to himself, Son and Spirit the contenting of spirits as a principal part of divine prerogative. To such as expect it elsewhere, that person or thing they rely upon may say as Jacob did to Rachel, Am I in God's stead?

§. 2. Certain it is that none can make our souls happy but God who made them, nor any give satisfaction to them but Christ who gave satisfaction for them. They were fashioned at first according to the image of God, and nothing short of him who is styled the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person can replenish them. As when there is a curious impression left upon wax, nothing can adequately fill the dimensions and lineaments of it but the seal that stamped it. Other things may cumber the mind, but not content it. As soon may a trunck be filled with wisdom as a soul with wealth; and bodily substances nourished with shadows, as rational spirits fed with bodies.

Whatsoever goodness creatures have is derivative, whatsoever happiness they enjoy stands in reduction to the Original of their being. The motion of immortal souls is like that of celestial bodies purely circular. They rest not without returning back to the same point from whence they issued, which is the bosom of God himself. Fishes are said to visit the place of their spawning yearly, as finding it most commodious for them; and sick patients are usually sent by physicians to their native soil, for the sucking in of that air from which their first breath was received. Heaven is the place where souls were produced; the spirit of man was at first breathed in by the Father of spirits, and cannot acquiesce till he be enjoyed, and heaven in him.

§. 3. Witness was born to this truth by the Amen, the faithful and true witness, when speaking of those whom the Father had given him, he uttered that remarkable assertion, This is life eternal that they may know thee, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Also when he made his followers that promise of rest, Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, &c. and ye shall find rest to your souls. God would not rest from his works of creation till man was framed: Man cannot rest from his longing desires of indigence till God be enjoyed. Now since the fall God is not to be enjoyed but in and through a Mediator: Therefore when any man closeth with Christ, and not till then, he may say with the Psalmist, Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. That which the King of Saints testified will be most readily attested by all his loyal subjects. Enquire of such as are yet militant upon earth, wherein their happiness consists, the answer will be in their having fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Let those who are triumphant be asked what it is that renders their heaven so glorious, their glory so incomprehensible, ye shall have no other account but this, it is because they have now attained a complete fruition of that all-sufficient, alsatisfying, ever-blessed and ever-blessing object God in Christ.

§. 4. Nor can it easily be denied by such as consider that in this object there is found a threefold fullness, opposite to the threefold vanity in the creatures, which I discoursed of before. First a fullness of utility opposite to their unprofitableness. Infinite goodness extends itself to all cases and exigence without being limited to particulars, as created bonity is. Hence in the Scripture God and Christ are compared to things most extensive in their use, and of most universal concernment. Philosophers look at the Sun as an universal cause: Christ is called the Sun of righteousness by the Prophet; and The Lord God, saith the Psalmist, is a Sun and shield. In a Tree the root beareth the branches, and the branches fruit. Christ is both root and branch. A root in Isaiah, In that day shall there be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. A branch in Zechariah, Behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch. In a building the foundation and corner-stone are most considerable in point of use. Christ is both. Thus saith the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation. In military affairs what more useful for offense then the sword, for defense then the shield? The Lord is both. Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people? saved by the Lord the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency. In civil commerce money is of most general use for the acquiring of what men need, of which Solomon therefore saith It answereth all things (whence it is that worldlings look at a full chest as having a kind of Deity in it, able to grant them whatsoever their hearts desire) of God in Christ it is most true. He only can answer all the desires, all the necessities of his people; and is accordingly said to be their silver and gold as Junius renders the place in Job. To him a soul may not only say as Thomas did, My Lord and my God, but as another, Deus meus & omnia, My God and my all.

§. 5. Secondly a fullness of truth and faithfulness opposite to their deceit. The creatures do not, cannot perform whatsoever they promise, but are like deceitful brooks, frustrating the thirsty travellers expectation. We read of Semiramis that she caused this Motto to be engraven upon her tomb, If any King stand in need of money, let him break open this monument. Darius, having perused the inscription, ransacks the sepulcher, finds nothing within, but another writing to this effect, Hadst thou not been unsatiably covetous, thou wouldest never have invaded a monument of the dead. Such are all the things of this world. They delude us with many a promising Motto, as if they would give us hearts ease; but when we come to look within, instead of contentment, afford us nothing but conviction of our folly in expecting satisfaction from them. With God it is otherwise. He is faithful that promised, saith the Apostle; And again, Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. I am the way, saith Christ of himself, the truth and the life. In him believers find not less, but more then ever they looked for; and when they come to enjoy him completely are enforced to cry out, as the Queen of Sheba did, The half was not told me.

§. 6. Thirdly a fullness of unchangeableness opposite to their inconstancy. This God challengeth to himself, I am the Lord, I change not; And Jesus Christ is said to be the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Another Apostle, speaking of the father of lights, from whom descends every good and perfect gift, (therein alluding, as Heinsius conceives, to the High Priest his Urim and Thummim, that is lights and perfections; to Urim in these words father of lights, to Thummim in these Perfect gift) tells us that with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning. The metaphor is thought by some to be borrowed from the art of painting, wherein pictures are first rudely shadowed; then drawn to the life. In the creatures we find a full draught and lively portraiture of mutability; but not so much as the rudiments of a draught, as the least line or shadow of it in God and Christ.

EXERCITATION 3. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25, 26. The Psalmists case stated. The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles. How God strengtheneth his people's hearts against their bodily distempers; how under discouragements of spirit. The secret supports of saving grace. What kind of portion God is to the Saints. A congratulation of their happiness herein.

§. 1. FRom that pathetical passage in one of the Psalms, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. these two conclusions may be raised.

1. There is no person or thing in heaven or earth short of God in Christ to be looked upon and desired as our utmost good.

2. The fruition of God in Christ is able to make and to continue a man happy even in the midst of utmost extremity.

The former I have treated of in the foregoing exercitations, intending to handle the latter in this. That I account an utmost extremity as to kind, (though as to degrees it may be either more intense or more remiss) when there is a complication of sufferings both in body and mind at once. Such was the Psalmists case here. It is not flesh alone, or heart alone, but my flesh and my heart, in conjunction, both failed him at one and the same time. Such is the sympathy of soul and body, that when it fares ill with one, the other commonly is disturbed. If the soul be in an agony, the body languisheth. Satan's buffeting Paul with blasphemous thoughts, as some conceive, proved a thorn to his flesh. On the other side, if the outward man be tormented, the inward is wont to be dismayed, even to failing of heart. The Stoics indeed, those magnificent boasters, talk of an Apathy, and Plutarch tells us that Agesilaus, when he lay sick of the gout, and Carneades, who came to visit him, observing what pains he conflicted with, was about to leave him as one not in case to be spoken to, bad him stay, and pointing at once to his own feet and to his heart said, Nothing comes from thence hither; as if his mind were no whit disquieted for all the sufferings of his flesh. But far better men then any of them have born witness to the contrary. Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. So Paul. David in one of his Psalms thus, O Lord heal me, for my bones are vexed; my soul also is sore vexed. In another thus, There is no soundness in my flesh; I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

§. 2. But as when Peter walking upon the waves, and perceiving how boisterous the winds were, began to sink, Jesus immediately stretched forth his hand and caught him: So when the Psalmists flesh and heart failed, God even then was the strength of his heart; according to the Original The rock of it. Rocks are not more fortifying to Cities and Castles built upon them, then God is to his people's hearts. A sincere believers soul is therefore assimilated by our Savior to an House founded upon a rock; which was every way assaulted, in the roof by rain descending upon that, in the foundation by floods washing upon it, in the walls by winds blustering against them; and yet stood because it was strong, was strong because founded on a rock. Such a rock is our God, and that even in such a case as hath been described.

§. 3. Hezekiah whom God had chosen to life, was sick unto death. Lazarus whom Jesus loved, sickned and died. Timothy had his often infirmities. The Psalmists flesh failed him, or, to speak in Paul's phrase, his outward man perished; yet God meanwhile was the rock and strength of his sick servants heart. First by preserving therein an expectation of such fruit as saints use to reap from such trials. Fruit which relates partly to sin and partly to grace. To sin by way of cure. Diseases when sanctified drain the inward as well as the outward man, and help to spend out the bad humors of both. Sickness (saith Isidore ) woundeth the flesh, but healeth the mind; is the bodies malady, but the souls medicine. For instance, weakness kills the itch of worldliness. Let pleasure open all her shops, and present a sick man with her choicest rarities: Let Mammon bring forth all his bags and gingle them in his ears; produce all his Crowns, Sceptres, Mitres, and lay them at his feet, how ready will he be to cry out, Away with them. Behold I am at the point to die (as Esau once reasoned) and what can these vanities profit me? The like may be said of self-confidence and pride which are also frequently antidoted by diseases. A special end (as Elihu tells Job ) which God aims at in his chastening with pain is to hide pride from man, that is, to remove it, as what we hide is removed out of sight. A Christian Emperor, one of the Ferdinands, when his Chaplain Matthias Cittardus came to visit him as he lay upon his death-bed, and according to the mode of the Court styled him most Invincible Emperor, finding himself overcome with sickness, would not admit of that compellation, but charged him not to use it more: whereupon the Chaplain made his next address on this wise, Go to dear brother Ferdinand, endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

§. 4. Next to Grace, in point of growth. The rise of grace is sometimes occasioned by a sore disease. Beza tells us of himself, that God was pleased to lay the foundation of his spiritual health in a violent sickness which befell him at Paris. The growth of grace is always promoted when God makes use of this means. It is not more usual with children to shoot up in length, then with Christians to wax taller in grace in or after a sickness. See it exemplified in the famous Protestant Divines: Olevian said upon his deathbed, In this disease I have learned to know aright what sin, and what the majesty of God is. Rollock upon his, I am not ashamed to profess that I never reached to so high a pitch in the knowledge of God, as I have attained in this sickness. Rivet upon his, In the space of ten days since I kept my bed, I have learned more, and made greater progress in Divinity, then in the whole course of my life before.

§. 5. Secondly by infusing and exciting a principle of Christian patience, which is therefore able to support and strengthen the heart when Philosophical Stoical patience cannot do it; because itself is strengthened from such divine Topics, as Philosophy knows but little, if anything, of. I shall instance in two, The pains of hell deserved by us, and the pains of Christ endured for us. Well may the consideration of Hell-torments due to us all, as being by nature children of wrath, conduce to the working of patience in us under these petty sufferings in comparison. For what are these rods to those scorpions? A fever to those everlasting burnings? The stone or gout to that fire and brimstone? A sick-bed to Hell, where the fit never goeth off, the fire never goeth out, the worm never dieth? So also when upon our beds of sickness we think of that garden wherein Christ lay prostrate upon the ground, in our fits of his Agony, in our sweats of his water and blood; the consideration of his torments, and of our interest in them, may well mitigate the sense of our present sufferings, if not wholly swallow them up, as Aaron's rod devoured those of the magicians. Art thou afflicted with sore pain in this or that part? He had hardly any member free. Are thy spirits feeble and faint? His very soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. Dost thou cry My God, my God, why hast thou afflicted me? Jesus cried with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

§. 6. Yea but how manifest soever it be that when the flesh faileth the heart may be strengthened, how the heart itself should fail and yet be strengthened is not so evident. I am therefore to make it appear in the next place; that these two clauses, My heart faileth, and God is the strength of my heart, may both be verified at once without a paradox in different respects. By reason of remainders of unbelief in the most regenerate on this side heaven, when Satan's temptations shall strike in with their corruptions, holy men may be induced in a fit of dejection because the Lord hath cast them down, to conceive and say he hath cast them off. David once said, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Such fainting flows from not believing; such unbelief is much fomented by not considering that (as no outward blessing is good enough to be a sign of eternal Election, seeing God often filleth their bellies with hid treasure, who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, so) no temporal affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of Reprobation; seeing the dearest son of God's love was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Yet may the same heart at the same time be strengthened from another cause, namely God, who easily can, and usually doth supply such effectual grace as is able to keep the head above water, when the rest of the body is under it, able to preserve the Spouse in a posture of leaning upon her beloved in a wilderness; to make one with Abraham believe in hope against hope, and say with Job, Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him. Faith can support when Nature shrinks; call God father when he frowns; and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud. When it sees no light it may feel some influence, when it cannot close with a promise, it may lay hold upon an attribute, and be ready to make this profession,

Time was when Jonah said, I am cast out of thy sight, but added with the same breath, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple; and presently after, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, &c.

§. 7. The connection of these words in the psalm My heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever, may seem to imply some such thing; to wit that in times of languishment, God affords a strengthening support in secret by encouraging a believer to wait upon himself as his portion forever, notwithstanding all his sufferings for the present. There can be no better, or more sovereign cordial then this, if we consider the suitableness, and sufficiency of God to this purpose. In the choice of a portion as of a wife, fitness is chiefly to be regarded; she is a wife indeed, who is a meet help, that a portion indeed, which is suitable to the soul of man. God only is so. For the soul is a spiritual and immortal substance, therefore to her worldly accommodations are unsuitable, because they are, most of them corporeal, All of them temporal. But God who is a Spirit, and who only hath immortality, fits her exactly in both respects. The uncreated Spirit becomes a portion forever to this his everlasting creature. As for sufficiency, the souls appetite is too vast for any creatures to fill up the measure of its capacity: but when she hath once pitched upon God self-sufficient in his being, all-sufficient in his communications, she then hath enough, and is ready to profess with David, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage. Indeed what can one wish in an heritage that is not to be found in God? Would we have large possessions? He is immensity. A sure estate? He is immutability. A long term of continuance? He is Eternity itself. I shall therefore shut up this with a serious congratulation to the Saints, and an high applause of their blessedness. Happy, thrice happy you, dearly beloved in the Lord, because when those men of the world which have their portion in this life, as David speaks, part with theirs (as they must all do at death, if not before) you are led to a fuller fruition of your portion. Theirs at the best is but some good blessing of God, that will in time be taken from them; yours is the good God himself, blessed and blessing you forever. He is so at present, and he will be so to all eternity; A portion of which you can never be plundered. Impoverished you may be, but not undone; discouraged, but not disinherited. Your flesh perhaps, yea and your hearts too may fail, but God will be the strength of your hearts, and your portion forever. I shall add no more, but only remind you of what is written in the hundred forty and sixth Psalm, Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

EXERCITATION 4. The first Inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1, 2. by way of invitation, backed with three encouragements to accept it, viz. The fullness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth, the universality of its tender, and the freeness of its communication. The second by way of expostulation, and that both with worldlings and saints. A conclusion by way of soliloquy.

§. 1. IN the synagogues of old upon the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, called by the Jews Hosanna Rabbah the great Hosanna, and by the Evangelist, The last day, the great day of the feast, four portions of Scripture were wont to be read. viz. The close of the fifth book of Moses, called Deuteronomy, the last words of the Prophet Malachi, the beginning of Joshua, and that passage concerning Solomon's rising up from his knees after his prayer, and blessing the people with a loud voice in the eighth chapter of the first book of Kings. Then did Jesus, who was the end of the Law and the Prophets, the true Joshua and Solomon stand up saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But why did he then speak of waters? Tremellius giveth this account of that out of the Talmud. The Jews, saith he, upon that day used with much solemnity and joy to fetch water from the river Siloah to the Temple, where being delivered to the Priests, it was by them poured upon the altar, the people in the mean time singing out of Isaiah, With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Our Savior therefore to take them off from this needless, if not superstitious practice, telleth them of other and better waters, which they were to have of him, according to what he had elsewhere said by the ministry of the same Prophet in these most emphatical words, Ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, Come ye, buy and eat; yea Come; buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Words that, besides an intimation of the forementioned truths concerning the creatures inability, and the sufficiency of God in Christ to satisfy souls, clearly hold forth a double improvement thereof, one by way of invitation, the other by way of expostulation.

§. 2. The Invitation is set on with vehemence and importunity, Ho come, but as not content with that, he doubleth it, yea Come ye, and tripleth it, yea Come. Not Come and look on, or Come and cheapen, but Come and buy, buy and eat. They may be rationally said to Come who frequent the Ordinances, wherein Christ is usually to be found; They to buy, who part with somewhat, are at some cost and pains in pursuit of him; They to eat, who feed on him by a lively faith. Careless wretches will not so much as vouchsafe to Come, by reason of their oxen, or farms, or some other impediment, the Lord must have them excused. Formal professors Come indeed, but refuse to Buy, will lay out no serious endeavors in searching the Scriptures and their own deceitful hearts, but are merely superficial in such undertakings. Temporary believers (whose hearts are really, though not savingly wrought upon) seem to have bought, yet do not eat, for want of that spirit of faith, which ingrafts men into Christ, and makes them as truly one with him as the body is with the meat it feeds upon. Want we encouragements to accept of this invitation? The place itself presents us with three.

§. 3. One from the fullness of that satisfaction which is here tendered under the metaphors of water, wine, milk, and bread: the last whereof is implied partly in those terms of opposition, For that which is not bread, as if he had said, ye might have had that of me which is bread indeed, partly in the verb Eat, which cannot so properly be applied to any commodity here mentioned, water, wine, and milk being liquids, as to bread. Now there is somewhat in Christ to answer each of these. His flesh is bread, his blood is wine, his Spirit is waters, his doctrine is milk. But because I conceive the Holy Ghost in this place doth not so much intend a parallel of these, as a declaration of that sufficiency which is to be found in Christ and his benefits for saving to the utmost of all those that shall come unto God by him; I shall only pitch upon that consideration, and by adding unto this a like place in the Revelation, briefly demonstrate from them both how all-sufficient a Savior he is. This in Isaiah holds forth somewhat proper to every sort of true believers. Milk for babes, water for such as are young and hot, wine for the aged, bread for all. The other is that of Christ to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see, where he commends his gold for such as is tried in the fire, his raiment for such as will take away shame, and his eye-salve for a special virtue to make the blind see. Take them together, and there is in them enough to supply our principal defects, viz. unbelief in the heart for which there is here gold tried in the fire, whereby we may probably understand the grace of faith, concerning which we read in Peter, That the trial of your faith, being much more precious then of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise. And unholiness in the life, for which there is the white raiment, if by it we understand inherent righteousness, according to that in the Apocalypse, To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. Lastly Ignorance in the mind, for which there is his Eye-salve to remove it, according to the Apostles prayer for his Ephesians, that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened &c.

§. 4. A second encouragement is from the universality of this offer. Ho everyone that thirsteth come; so he do but thirst he shall be welcome, how unworthy soever he may be in other respects. He will give grace to the thirsty, who enables them to thirst after grace. Christ is far from turning such persons away; yea but for such he would have no customers in the world; his commodities must lie by him dead for want of vent; seeing others will not take them off, but leave them still upon his hand, as things in which they see no need, have no esteem of. This let all men know for certain, that such as thirst so as to come, come so as to buy, buy so as to eat, will never have cause to repent of their bargain. I have somewhere read of a great Commander, who being extremely tormented with thirst, sold himself and his Army into enemies hands for a draught of cold water; which when he had drunk he repented and said. Oh quantum ob quantillum! How very little is that for which I have parted with so very much! Believers may take up the like words, but in a far different sense: O how much grace, how much happiness have I got for a little thirsting, a little trusting in Jesus Christ!

§. 5. A third from the freeness of communication, amply declared in this clause, Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. In the place hitherto insisted upon, the word money occurs thrice, twice in the first verse and once in the second, but not in the same signification. In the first it is clearly interpreted by price and signifies merit; They are said to have no money, who being conscious to themselves of their having nothing of their own to answer divine justice with, to fetch them in pardon, peace and righteousness, wholly disclaim all self-sufficiency, and come unto Christ as to one that expects not to receive but to be received; looks for little or nothing from us but that we be nothing in ourselves, desirous to have all from him, and to partake of his fullness grace for grace. In the second it is expounded by labor, and denotes industry. Men are said to spend money for that, which they lay out their pains about. Money answers all, saith the Preacher: The Heathens have a proverb which ascribes as much to labor. We say not with them, that God sells his benefits to us for our pains; but this we acknowledge, he giveth them so as to require our industry about them. Yet is not this any prejudice to the freeness of his grace, or any contradiction to that clause Buy without money and without price, because our labor can no way merit his blessings. As when a Schoolmaster teacheth a boy gratis, the youth cannot possibly attain to learning unless he be industrious, and take pains at his book; but it doth not therefore cease to be free on the teachers part, because the learners pains are required. So it is here.

Yet some in all ages have been so vain as to dream of bringing their money with them whenever they come; I mean that, which if not in itself, yet in their opinion seems to deserve what they come for. So the Pharisees of old, and the Papists of late. Insomuch as Cornelius à lapide in his comment upon this very place, which maketh altogether for the contrary doctrine, countenanceth the popish tenets of free-will and merit of congruity. So Elephants, they say, are wont before they drink to bemud the water, which, if it were suffered to remain clear, would discover their deformity to them.

§. 6. I proceed to the Expostulation contained in the next words, Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Words applicable both to worldlings, and to such believers as have not yet got clear of the world. First to worldlings, who manifestly spend not their money only, but their souls for that which is not bread. In the Lord's prayer Bread is put for all necessaries, and used in the Lord's supper to signify the absolute necessity of receiving Christ, by whom spiritual life is supported, as the natural life is by bread. Now the accommodations doted upon by men of the world, and often purchased with the loss of salvation are justly said not to be bread, because they are neither absolutely necessary to be had, nor able to support such as enjoy them. A man's life, saith our Savior, consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Wealth indeed is an accessory good, but no necessary blessing. None are made really happy by it (though Latinists use the same word Beatus to signify both rich and blessed) A Christian may be happy without it; really happy, yea and really wealthy too, for he is abundantly rich that possesseth Christ in the midst of poverty; and doth not make treasure his God, as the servants of Mammon do, but God his treasure.

§. 7. Furthermore, as the expression there is, They spend their labor for that which satisfieth not. A late Jesuit tells us a story of a feast made in Germany by a certain Magician for Noble men, who whilst they sat at table with him received good content, and fared to their thinking very deliciously, but when they departed found themselves hungry, as if they had eaten nothing at all: which indeed was their case; if the Jesuits relation of the magicians art and fact may be credited. Such entertainment doth this present world afford its principal guests. They are not fed with satisfying substances, but with deluding shadows rather. Surely every man walketh in a vain show, surely they are disquieted in vain. David speaks it of such as heap up riches: of whom also Solomon saith, The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit. A strong city in his conceit, but indeed a castle in the air. One that applies the scaling ladders of Scripture and reason to such walls, may easily climb so high as to reach and pull down those ensigns of vanity, which makes such a flourish on the battlements thereof. Sooner shall men gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles, then find that a fountain of all good to any soul, the love whereof Paul hath branded for the root of all evil. It drowns in perdition; how can it then crown with happiness? Oh that ever so rich an heir, as the soul of man, should run away with so servile a thing as money is, or give the least consent to a match so far below her birth and breeding!

§. 8. Let authority be added to wealth, and great honors to great revenues, yet will the product of both sums be not soul-satisfaction and blessedness, but vanity and vexation of spirit. How often is the sword put into mad men's hands, the bramble advanced to rule over better trees, and walls of mud shined upon while marble pillars stand in shade? How often do goats clamber up the mountains of preferments whilst the poor sheep of Christ feed below? yea how often is greatness acquired by base, and confounded by weak means? Flattery held Absalom's stirrup. He that is every ones master now, was a while since at every ones service. Well might Stella call Ambition, Charities ape; for it also believeth all things, hopeth all things, yea and beareth all things too till what it hoped for be attained, then grows intolerable itself. It may further be observed that God usually taketh a course to break the staff of such pride by confounding the power of worldly Potentates, not with Lions and Tigres, but as Pharaohs of old, by frogs and lice. The Apostle I remember saith An Idol is nothing, and yet the silversmiths cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Diana then was a great nothing. Such are those men of place idolized by common people, when the Lord begins to blow upon them in his wrath, like those nobles of Idumea concerning whom Isaiah said, All her Princes shall be nothing.

§. 9. Secondly, as for those saints whose wings are still somewhat clogged with the birdlime of this world, I humbly desire them to consider, how ill it becomes the offspring of heaven to go licking up the dust of this earth, the woman's seed to content itself with the serpents food; Any one of the posterity of Japheth, after he hath been persuaded into the tents of Sem, to bring on himself Canaan's curse, A servant of servants shalt thou be, by subjecting his soul to that, which God made to serve its servant the body. Verily if this present world, or anything in it be over precious in thy sight, O Christian, thou art become vile in the eyes of God, yea in thine own: for none can set an high price upon things without him till he have first undervalued his soul. Time was when Satan shown our Savior all the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them. If ever the world appear unto thee temptingly glorious, suspect it for one of Satan's discoveries. Sure I am the Scripture useth diminishing terms when it speaks of creature-comforts; as in styling the pomp of Agrippa and Bernice much fancy, no reality; in calling men's temporal estates this worlds goods, not theirs but the worlds, deceitful and uncertain riches, thick clay, and dust of the earth, wind, grass and the flower of grass, the least things, hardly things. Solomon brings them down to the lowest degree of entity, yea to nullity, saying, Labor not to be rich, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?

§. 10. Let Diotrephes then say, It is good for me to have the preeminence, Judas, It is good for me to bear the bag; Demas, It is good for me to embrace this present world. But do thou, O my soul, conclude with David, It is good for me to draw near to God. Thou art now as a bird in the shell, a shell of flesh, which will shortly break, and let out the bird: This crazy bark of my body ere long will be certainly split upon the fatal rock of death; then must thou its present pilot forsake it, and swim to the shore of eternity. Therefore, O everlasting creature, see and be sure thou content not thyself with a transitory portion. I do not Lord, thou knowest I do not. Of a small handful of outward things I am ready to say, It is enough: but that which I long so passionately for is a large heart full of God in Christ. Thou art my sun, the best of creatures are but stars, deriving the luster they have from thee: Did not thy light make day in my heart, I should languish for all them in a perpetual night of dissatisfaction. There are within me two great gulfs, a mind desirous of more truth, and a will capable of more good then finite beings can afford; Thou only canst fill them, who art the first truth, and the chief good. In thee alone shall my soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.

EXERCITATION 1. The safe conduct of Saints, signified by the pillar in Exodus, performed by the counsel of God himself, the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion. How that tends to blessedness.

§. 1. THere is no possibility of arriving at Blessedness without a safe conduct, nor at glory without guidance; No infallible guidance but by the counsel of God himself. All which the Psalmist is like to have had in his eye, when in his humble address to God he expresseth himself in this manner, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. The husbands duty in relation to his wife is to be the guide of her youth. Such hath Christ (one of whose names is Counselor ) been to his Church in former times, is at this day, and will continue to the end of the world. In Exodus we meet with the history of the Jewish Church, her youth, and her strange manner of guidance; which when the Levites in Nehemiah came to commemorate they do it thus, Thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. It was not only a seasonable act of mercy to them in that age; but may be looked upon as an emblem of that safe conduct, which the Church in all ages may expect from Jesus Christ. For as in that cloudy-fiery pillar there were two different substances the sire and the cloud, yet but one pillar. So there are two different natures in Christ, his Divinity shining as fire, his Humanity darkening as a cloud, yet but one person. As that pillar departed not from them by day or by night, all the while they travelled in the wilderness. So whilst the Churches pilgrimage lasts in this world, the safe conduct of Christ by his Spirit and Ordinances shall be continued. But as at their entrance into Canaan, a type of heaven, the pillar is thought to have been removed, because not mentioned in the sequel of the story, and because when Israel passed over Jordan we read not of the pillar but the Ark going before them; So when the Church shall arrive at heaven, her resting place, the mediatory conduct of Christ is to cease, and the Ordinances, which are here of use, to disappear.

§. 2. Mean while this infallible counsel of God hath been most effectually administered by the Prophets and Apostles, especially by Christ himself, whose words were such as led directly to everlasting bliss. Insomuch as when Jesus said to the twelve will ye also go away? Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. As if he had said, Go whither we will to other teachers, we shall be sure not to meet with words of eternal life anywhere else. Such are proper to Christ's school taught only by himself, and his under-officers: whereof one hath left this profession upon record, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. So the Disciple whom Jesus loved in his first epistle. Another this, I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men: for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So Paul in his valedictory speech to the Elders of Ephesus. Which he could not have said, had not the doctrine he preached among them been sufficient to have led all his hearers to the fruition of God in Christ, and therein to complete happiness. That by the counsel of God he intended to decipher Christian Religion is manifest, because that was the sum of all his ministry, as we find him declaring elsewhere, Having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead &c.

§. 3. Counsel it is, and therefore styled sometimes mystery, and that a great one, Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of Religion, as others render it; meaning the Christian, an epitome whereof followeth, God manifest in the flesh and sometimes wisdom, and that not among punies and novices, who see not into the depth of things, but among them that are perfect. Sometimes, The wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory. Which made an ancient writer affirm, that the mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our understanding, above the discourse of human reason, above all that any creature can comprehend. Yea it will be found the Counsel of God himself, and not of man, if we do but consider a few of its materials; viz. principles above the reach of man's wit, A resurrection of the dead, a mystical union of all believers among themselves and to their head; A Trinity of persons in one Essence, two Natures in one person; God reconciled to men by the blood, men to God by the spirit of Christ, with others of the like elevation. Doctrines contrary to the bent of man's will. As that of original sin, which represents him to himself as a child of wrath, worthy, before he see the light, of being cast into outer darkness. And that of self-denial, which taketh him off from confidence in his own abilities; whereas proud Nature challengeth a self-sufficiency, and will hardly be content with less. Lastly, Promises and threatenings beyond the line of human motives and dissuasives, exhibiting to the sons of men, not temporal rewards and punishments only, but the gift of eternal life and the vengeance of eternal fire: Things which not any of the most knowing Law-givers and Princes of this world did or could hold forth, till the only wise God was pleased to reveal and urge them in the sacred authentic records of Christianity.

§. 4. Now Christian Religion promotes our guidance to the fruition we treat of these two ways, viz. by discovering God in Christ, and by uniting to him, the former it performeth as Christian, the latter as Religion.

First as Christian it discovers God in Christ, which other Religions do not. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him. So the Evangelist, or, as others think, the Baptist. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ &c. So the Apostle. The poor Pagan knoweth neither God nor Christ, but ignorantly turneth the truth of God into a lie, worshipping creatures; and instead of Christ is directed by his Theology to the service of a middle sort of divine powers, called Daemons, and looked at as Mediators between the celestial Sovereign God's, whom the Gentiles worship, and mortal men. The modern Jew acknowledgeth the true God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but owneth not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ; yea disowneth him so far, as not only to expect another Messias, but (if writers deceive us not) to blaspheme and curse him and his followers. The deluded Mahometan confesseth one God, the Creator of heaven and earth; yea conceiveth so well of the Lord Jesus, as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman, till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ: yet will neither acknowledge his satisfaction, upon which our salvation is founded, nor his Divinity by virtue whereof that satisfaction is meritorious. Whereas the true and pious Christian is by his Religion taught to say with Paul, in direct opposition to all the three forementioned sects, We know that an Idol is nothing in the world; and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called God's, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be God's many and Lord's many) yet to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

§. 5. Secondly as Religion, (a term which both Augustine and Lactantius derive à religando because by the true Religion improved men's souls are tied and fastened to the supreme Being) it unites us to God and to Christ. The graces of union are especially Faith and Love; Christian Religion is made up of these two. Kiss the Son, saith David, which implieth the affection of love; Blessed are all they that put their trust in him, which holds forth an expression of faith. Hold fast the form of sound words, saith Paul, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Love is the fulfilling of the Law, faith the fulfilling of the Gospel, both the fulfilling of Christian Religion. These two pipes being rightly laid from a Christians soul to the fountain of living waters fetch in from thence a daily supply of such grace as will certainly end in a fullness of glory: whereas worldlings all the pipes of whose spirits are laid to cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, must needs continue empty still; and for want of Christ (who is not seen but by those two eyes, nor embraced but by those two arms) fall short of happiness, how eminent soever they may be in the pursuit of by-ways. Thus to discover and to unite are acts of prerogative not communicable to other professions. For to maintain (as some do) that a man may be saved in an ordinary course (I meddle not with extraordinary dispensations, but leave the secrets of God to himself) by any Religion whatsoever, provided he live according to the principles of it, is to turn the whole world into an Eden; and to find a Tree of life in every garden, as well as in the paradise of God.

EXERCITATION 2. The insufficiency of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship. John 4. 24. opened. God to be worshiped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in Natures school. Faults in Aristotle's Ethics.

§. 1. IT hath appeared already in part by what hath been hitherto discoursed, that as the other Patriarchs sheaves made obeisance to Josephs, so other Religions must bow down to Christianity, by name those three grand competitours, Paganism, Judaism, and Muhammadism: as also those other leading books, by name the Talmud, the Alcoran, and the much applauded writings of heathen Philosophers must all do homage to the Bible. Yet will it not, I suppose, be unworthy of my pains and the Readers patience further to clear the insufficiency of all exotic doctrines by an argument taken from divine worship, to which I proceed by certain steps.

I. Religion is a thing which distinguisheth men from beasts more then reason itself doth. For some brute beasts have appearances of reason, none of Religion. Man is a creature addicted to Religion may perhaps be found as true a definition, as that which is commonly received, Man is a living creature endued with reason.

II. Some kind of Deity is acknowledged everywhere throughout the world, and wherever a Deity is acknowledged, some kind of worship is observed. Should a Synod of mere Philosophers be convented to consult about the matters of God, I make no question but in the issue of their debates they would pronounce one Anathema against Atheism, and another against Irreligion. Among the Romans to worship sparingly was accounted the next door to being an Atheist.

III. None but the true God can discover what the true worship of God is. As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper light; A million of torches cannot show us the Sun: so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is, or what worship he expects without divine and supernatural revelation from himself.

§. 2. IV. Before the settling of Christianity and spreading the Gospel throughout the world, many everywhere were unsatisfied concerning the worship they performed, and inquisitive after some teacher who might help them therein by his advice. This may be gathered not only from that, which was said by the woman of Samaria in that dispute of hers with our Savior about worship, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. But also by what Ficinus reporteth concerning Plato, to wit, that being asked by one of his scholars, how far forth and how long his precepts were to be obeyed, he returned this answer, Untill there come a more holy one, by whom the fountain of truth shall be opened, and whom all may safely follow.

V. The precepts and practice of such as teach and profess other Religions are inconsistent with those Gospelrules which Christ and his Apostles have given for the regulating of divine worship. Two whereof I shall instance in.

The first is that which fell from our Savior's own mouth, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in truth. Where Spirit in the latter clause seems to stand in opposition partly to the formality of the Jews, who did so wholly addict themselves to outward observances in a spiritless way, as to give our Savior occasion of saying, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Partly to the Idolatry of the Gentiles, who instead of tendering service suitable to a spiritual Being, worshipped God in and by representations and images of this or that visible creature. The word Truth in like manner may probably seem to be opposed partly to the typical worship of the Jews, in which there were many resemblances and shadows of things to come, as sacrifices, incense and other rites, the truth whereof was exhibited in Christ and in Gospel-service: partly to the perfunctory worship of the Gentiles, who for want of Scripture-light framed to themselves sorry forms of devotion, which the wisest among them were altogether unsatisfied with, yet as knowing no better, and being loath to give offense, observed them only for fashions sake, so worshipping in show, rather then in truth.

§. 3. Doubtless what Seneca professed in his time, was a principle, which the most judicious Heathen walked by, both in that and the ages foregoing. He, speaking of their religious observances, plainly said, A wise man will keep them all as things commanded by our laws, not as things acceptable to the God's; for custom rather then conscience sake. Thereby showing (as Augustine observeth) that he himself misliked what he practiced, and did not approve his own adoration. What else was this but mock-worship? And although it must be granted that some of them were more serious in that way of superstition which the Gentiles Theology prescribed, yet was not their worship in Truth; for being destitute of Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life, they wanted that Truth in the inward parts, required by God in all holy services. The Pelagians indeed were of opinion that those virtues which appeared in heathen Philosophers and others of eminent note for morality, though they had not received the knowledge of Christ, were true graces. But if Austin may be credited, this above all their corrupt tenets was that for which the Christian Church did most abominate them & their doctrine. Yea Paul, whom we are bound to believe, in the fourth Chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, is thought to have concluded the contrary: we find there the life of the Gentiles clearly opposed to the life of God, which they, saith he, were alienated from; as also to the truth as it is in Jesus, and to that true holiness, or holiness of truth wherewith every spiritual worshipper is endued. And so far is the Apostle in that place from excepting their philosophers, that, as Grotius thinks, he aims especially at them; because his phrase in the seventeenth verse, That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, is fully parallel with that in his epistle to the Romans, They became vain in their imaginations: which is certainly meant of their philosophers, for it follows professing themselves to be wise 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (the name whereby that sort of men were commonly known, witness the seven wise men of Greece) before Pythagoras invented that other of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 lovers of wisdom, as more modest.

§. 4. The second grand direction about the manner of worship is, that it be performed in the name, and through the mediation of Jesus Christ, who saith of himself I am the way, No man comes to the Father but by me: And of whom Paul saith, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; whereupon Luther was bold to assert, That all the prayings, teachings and actings of men are out of Christ idolatry and sin in the sight of God. Now although the first direction were not altogether unknown to some of the Gentiles, as may be gathered from sundry passages in their writings, cited by Grotius in his notes upon John the fourth at the four and twentieth verse, and by Doctor Meric Casaubon in his second book De cultu the third chapter: yet of this second they had no knowledge at all; for it is not a lesson to be learned in Natures school. The heavens indeed, and so the earth, with all the creatures in them both, declare the glory of God in himself; but the glory of God in the face of Christ as mediator is not declared by any of them. Insomuch as Paul tells the Ephesians, that while they were Gentiles, they were at that time without Christ; although Ephesus then was full of Philosophers and eminent scholars, witness the proverb of Ephesian letters, and that story in the Acts, which mentions the burning of books there to the value of fifty thousand pieces of silver, by such as were taken off from the study of curious arts upon their conversion to the faith. As for Jews and Mohammedans, the former we know have espoused long since another Messias, and the latter set up that impostour Mahomet for their mediator.

§. 5. Now the argument built upon the foundation of these premised considerations stands thus, No religion or doctrine can bring us to the fruition of God but such as instructs us how to worship him aright; No religion or doctrine but Christianity teacheth the right worship of God; Therefore none but it can bring us to enjoy him. The proposition is bottomed upon that necessary connection which is between the fruition of God and his adoration; he being wont to communicate himself in or after acts of worship, according to these and the like places. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. The Assumption hath been already cleared. But if further proof be needful, I shall add one argument more. So far is the light of nature from making a full discovery of what belongs to divine worship, that the wisest Philosophers in their moral tractates have not only been silent as to faith in Christ, and repentance from dead works and such other eminent duties of religion, but commended to their readers some habits and actions for virtues and duties, which in Scripture are represented as vices and sins. For example, Aristotle one of Natures high priests, in his Ethics, one of the choicest pieces of morality extant, maketh a virtue of Eutrapelia, which Paul under that very term prohibits as a thing inconvenient for Christians, Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor Eutrapelia Jesting, which are not convenient. So also Nemesis, that is, grief and indignation at the prosperity of unworthy men is by him reckoned among such affections as are near of kin to virtues, but condemned at large by David in Psalm the thirty seven, and by Solomon in the Proverbs, saying, Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked. Another of his virtues is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Magnanimity, which he describeth to be the judging of a man's self worthy of great things when he is so. Whereas our Savior directeth us even when we have done all things that are commanded us, yet to say we are unprofitable servants. He would have such a person a despiser and contemner of others, which is plainly Pharisaical; thinks all that savoreth of humility unworthy of his magnanimous man, whereas Solomon telleth us, It is better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, then to divide the spoil with the proud. Yea he alloweth him in case of contumely to speak evil of his adversaries, whereas our Savior's rule is, Bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.

EXERCITATION 3. Oracles of God vocal, or written. Books of Scripture so called in five respects, viz In regard of their declaring and foretelling, their being consulted, prized and preserved.

§. 1. IN the epistle to the Hebrews these two phrases The first principles of the oracles of God, And the principles of the doctrine of Christ import one and the same thing, implying also that Scripture Records are the only Storehouse and Conservatory of Christian Religion. I shall therefore from hence take occasion to show, That books of Scripture are oracles of God, why they are so called, and wherein they excel other oracles. For the first. There were two sorts of Oracles belonging to God, vocal and written. The vocal were those answers he gave from between the Cherubims on the top of the Mercy-seat which covered the Ark, by reason whereof the Holy of Holies, where that Ark stood, was styled the Oracle. The written are the two tables of the Law, called by Stephen the lively oracles, and the Canonical books of Scripture, as well those of the Old Testament of which Paul speaketh when he declareth it as the great privilege of the Jews, that to them were committed the oracles of God; as those of the New, to which Peter is like to have had a peculiar respect in that saying of his, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Especially if his meaning be to admonish such as speak in congregations, public teachers, or as another Apostle styleth them Ministers of the New Testament, that they be careful to deliver Scripture-truths in Scripture-words, New-Testamentmatter in New-Testament-language, taking the particle 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in that text for a note, not of similitude, but of identity; as when it is said, We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, it is not meant of a glory like his, but the very same; So let him speak as the Oracles of God, that is, the self-same things which God hath spoken in his word.

§. 2. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , whereby heathen writers had been wont to express their oracles, (chiefly such are were uttered in prose, while such as were delivered in verse went under the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) was enfranchised by the holy Ghost, and applied to the books of Scripture to intimate (as I conceive) that these books were to be of like use to Christians, as those oracles had been to Infidels; whereof take a five-fold account.

I. Those declared to heathen men the will of their Idols, whence also they had their names of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and oracula from orare, quod inerat illis Deorum oratio, as Tully giveth the etymology, because they contained what the God's spake, and delivered to be their mind. The Scriptures in like manner contain the mind of Jehovah. Somewhat of his nature we may learn from the creatures, but should have known little or nothing of his will, had not canonical Scripture revealed it. We use to call a man's Testament his last will, because in it he makes a final declaration of what he would have his executours do. He that would exactly know the will of God, must look into his two Testaments: there he shall find it fully expressed, and nowhere else.

§. 3. II. Those foretold future events, which made them to be so much frequented by such as thirsted after knowledge of things to come. These read everyone his destiny, and acquaint him aforehand with what he may or may not infallibly expect according to his present and future qualifications. Not to mention prophesies in the New testament, whereof the principal magazine is the Apocalypse, the old contains very many predictions beyond the activity of human foresight. For although such effects as depend upon natural causes (which are uniform in their workings) may be foretold by a skillful naturalist; and a wise Statesman, observing the present constitution of a government, may prognosticate what events are like to ensue upon those counsels and courses which he sees taken: yet the quickest eye upon earth cannot foresee such future contingents as have their dependence upon the mere free-will of persons yet unborn; and whereunto, when they are born, not common principles, but heroic impulses must incline them. Whereas in the Scriptures we meet with the names of Josiah and Cyrus, and with their performances long before they had a being. We find old Jacob foretelling the respective fates of all his children, and of their posterity; Isaiah speaking of Jesus Christ, as if he had written an history rather then a prophesy; And Daniel, who lived under the fitst, describing the several revolutions under all the other Monarchies, as if he had seen them with his eyes.

§. 4. III. Those gave advice in doubtful cases, and were in all undertakings of moment consulted with by devout Heathens, who as Strabo testifies, in their chief affairs of state relied more upon the answers of their oracles then upon human policies. These were David's delight and his counselors, as we use to advise with those friends, whom we take most pleasure in. He had many wise men about him, but in all their meetings for advice the word of God was still of the Quorum, and nothing to be concluded of in the result without its consent. Scripture must not only be heard in all our debates, but when anything comes to be voted, always have a negative voice. Concerning Ahithophel's advice it was said, what he counseled in those days was as if a man had inquired at the Oracle of God; which words (being as it is well said by Peter Martyr, Comparatio non aequiparatio, a comparison only, not a parallel ) sufficiently intimate that all the Oracles of God are to be consulted, and also that their counsel is to be rested in. I shall therefore be bold to say to him that reads, whoever he be, as Jehoshaphat once did to Ahab, Enquire I pray thee of the word of the Lord today; As Paul to his Colossians, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. yea as Christ to his hearers, Search the Scriptures. Other books may render men learned to ostentation, none but these can make them really wise to salvation. Philosophical speculations, quaint notions and strains of wit, if compared w ^th these oracles, are but as so many spiders webs to catch flies, fitter for the taking of fancies then the saving of souls.

§. 5. IV. Those were exceedingly prized by such as enjoyed them, as the great advantage of their States, and the great donative of their God's, who were thought to gratify their worshippers by nothing more, then by oracular discoveries. These are certainly the highest privileges wherewith a people can be gratified; witness that discourse of Paul in the beginning of his third chapter to the Romans; where he handles and decides the controversy between Jew and Gentile about precedency. Consent in Religion is wont to tie the fastest knots of mutual accord; but there are no greater animosities then those that arise from diversity of professions. The Jews of old abhorred the Gentiles as uncircumcised, ignorant Idolaters; the Gentiles on the other side derided the Jews for their circumcision as savouring of obscenity, & for their sabbaths, as favoring idleness: Paul who was by birth a Jew, by office a teacher of the Gentiles, well knew what fewds, and also what odds there were between them; yet equally involves them in the guilt of original sin throughout the whole second chapter. And because the Jew, who stood upon his points, esteeming himself every way the better man, would be ready to take offense at this, and to say, as it is, in the first verse of the third chapter, What advantage then hath the Jews, or what profit is there of circumcision? The Apostle answereth by way of concession: and though he hold his conclusion firm (which is that both Jews and Gentiles, considered in their naturals, are all under sin, and that in this respect there is no difference ) yet he readily granteth that in some regards the Jews far excelled the rest of the world. Divers of their privileges are insinuated in the former part of the second verse, Much every way; in the latter one instanced in, as most considerable, Chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God.

§ 6. V. Those were preserved with much solicitude. History telleth us how great care the Romans took for the safe custody of the Sibylline oracles in their Capitol after Tarquin had bought them: when the Capitol was burnt and those books in it, what means were used to get other copies out of Greece; and how a College of Priests was appointed to keep them safe. These do surely deserve as much and more care in every suitable, possible way. The ancient Jews preserved the letter of Scripture entire, but lost the sense; as the Papists now keep the text, but let go the truth. A good Christian will not be backward in giving all diligence to hold-fast both, by laying the Scripture up in his judgment, conscience and memory. We are all desirous to have fair and well-printed Bibles. Believe it, the fairest impression of the Bible is, to have it well printed on the readers heart. M ^r Fox telleth us of one Crow a sea-man, who being shipwrecked lost all his wares, and also cast five pounds in money into the sea, but kept his New Testament hanging still about his neck, so swimming upon a broken mast, till after four days (all the rest of his company being drowned) he was discovered and taken up in that posture alive. The only way of preserving souls from being drowned in eternal perdition, is having the grace and truth of Scripture so bound upon the heart as to be willing to part with money or anything else, for the safety of them. It is well worthy of our best consideration how much and how often Solomon in the proverbs presseth this. It is known how careful the most are to get and keep silver and gold, but Receive my instruction (saith Wisdom there) and not silver; and knowledge rather then choice gold. Yet as well as men love money they will rather let go that then lose their members, whereof none are more dear then the apple of the eye. My son (saith he) keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee: keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye. Yet skin for skin and all a man hath will he give for his life: if the loss of a member or two will save that they shall go. His advice to his son is, Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her for she is thy life. Yet the martyrs parted even with their lives to save their souls; our keeping of these is really as of great concernment as the keeping of our very souls, for so saith Solomon, He that keepeth the commandment, keepeth his own soul.

EXERCITATION 4. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity, of piety, of veracity, of duration, and of authority. The divine authority of Scripture asserted by two arguments. An inference from the whole Aphorism.

§. 1. HAving shown wherein they agree, I am now to make known wherein these Scripture-Oracles differ from and excel those other. viz.

I. In point of perspicuity. Apollo's oracles were delivered in so dark and ambiguous terms, as gave the Grecians, though they were his chief worshippers, occasion to style him by the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because he seldom answered directly in doubtful cases, but used such a form of words as might be diversely interpreted, to the end his credit might be salved, whatever event the business had about which he was consulted with. Whereas Scripture is so framed, as to deliver all things necessary to salvation in a clear and perspicuous way. There are indeed some obscure passages in it to exercise our understandings, and prevent our loathing of overmuch plainness and simplicity: yet whatsoever is needful for us to satisfy hunger, and nourish our souls to life eternal, is so expressed (I do not say that it may be understood, but so) as men that do not willfully shut their eyes against the light, cannot possibly but understand it.

§. 2. II. In point of piety. The heathen were put upon many ungodly practices by their oracles, if good historians may be credited, even by those of the Sibyls, which were of greatest esteem for sanctity. But the frame of Scripture is according to godliness. Piety sparkleth in every leaf, and throughout the whole there runs a constant exaltation of God in Christ. Well nigh all sorts of Poems (to instance in them ) with which we meet in human writings have their parallels in the Canonical books; but they are such as carry in them a genius and strain of godliness far beyond anything that occurs in the Poems of men. There are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Songs of victory; but such as exalt, not the prowess of man, but, the glory of God. So Exodus the fifteenth. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 funeral songs, but such as celebrate Christ's death and the good will of God therein; so Psalm the twenty second, and Isaiah the fifty third. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 songs of love, but such as set forth the love of Christ to his Spouse the Church, and her mutual affection to him. So Psalm the forty fifth, and the Canticles. There are also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sacred pastorals, but such as magnify no other Shepherd but God alone, so Psalm the three and twentieth. Yea 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 too, but such as ascribe all to him. So Psalm sixty fifth. Let Virgil be asked Quid faciat laetas segetes, he will wholly insist upon this or that secondary cause of fertility. Ask David, he presently falls in his Georgicks upon praising God as the author of all fruitfulness. Thou visitest the earth and waterest it, Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof; Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, Thy paths drop fatness, &c. in the end of that forecited Psalm.

§. 3. III. In point of veracity. Many falsehoods were uttered, much flattery practiced by their oracles. As when Socrates was declared by the father of lies to be the wisest man upon earth, notwithstanding the two great Prophets Haggai and Zechariah were his contemporaries: and when Apollo was said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by reason of his so palpable favoring of king Philip in his responses. Whereas Scripture is free, not only from all degrees of falsehood (for of it we may say, Verity of verities, all is verity) but of flattery too. Insomuch as it may be observed concerning the pen-men of holy Scripture, that, contrary to the custom and guise of human writers, they are not more free, full and impartial in any relations, then in those which concern their own failings, and theirs who were nearest and dearest to them. Moses his unbelief, David's blood-guiltiness, Jonahs pettishness, Jeremiah's impatience, Paul's persecution are recorded by their own pens. And whereas the other Evangelists in the enumeration of Christ's Apostles barely name Matthew for one, without setting any brand upon him, he himself telleth us what he had been before Christ called him, Matthew the publicane. Yea whereas Paul in his epistle to the Galatians had brought in a charge against Peter for Judaizing, and spoken of his own resisting him openly, because he was indeed to be blamed; yet Peter for all this in his second epistle (which was written a good while after) styleth him his beloved brother Paul, and commendeth not his wisdom only, but all his epistles, even that wherein he himself was reproved. As for their carriage toward others, Moses who loved the Hebrews so well as to wish himself blotted out of God's book, rather then they should perish, yet spareth not to relate their many rebellions, with the aggravations thereof to the full. The idolatry of his brother Aaron, the murmuring of his sister Miriam, the frowardness of his wife Zipporah, are as freely recorded by him, as any other historical passages whatsoever. Luke who was Paul's companion and scholar telleth us in the Acts what havoc he had made, and how sore an enemy he had been to the Church of Christ. Mark, whom Peter styleth his son, aggravateth the story of his dear fathers sin against Christ, more then some of the other Evangelists. Luke and John telleth us barely of his denying; but Mark addeth further that he began to swear and curse, saying, I know not the man.

§. 4. IV. In point of duration. Satan, who is God's ape in very many things, had his oracles also of both sorts, Vocal; as at Delphi and Dodona, which Ovid in that respect joineth together in one verse, Non mihi si Delphi, Dodonáque diceret ipsa; Written; as in the Sibyls books contained at first in three volumes, two whereof, as it is said, were purposely cast into the fire by her that presented them, because Tarquin would not go to the price of them; and the third sold for as much as was demanded in the beginning of the treaty for all three. Now providence so ordered things that there was was a remarkable failing of the former sort upon the coming of Christ in the flesh, and a total cessation of them not long after his death, insomuch as Plutarch wrote a book of their defect: and a destruction of the latter after Christianity had taken root in the Roman empire, when Stilico burnt the Sybils books as fomenters of paganism and profaneness. He that was manifested to destroy the works of the devil stopped the mouths of those evil Angels that gave answers by oracles. The Sun of righteousness arose, and those wild beasts were forced to betake themselves to their dens. Then was the prince of this world judged, and his Angels dislodged, for the Lord Christ had ejected them. But the Old Testament Scriptures received a strong confirmation from Christ by his appealing to them, arguing from them and expounding of them. Yea so far were the Oracles of God from any diminution by his coming, preaching and dying, that they received not a confirmation only but a glorious augmentation, in that within a while after there was added to them by his Secretaries the Evangelists and Apostles another Volume, I mean the books of the New Testament; upon the publishing whereof there came out from God as it were a second edition of his Oracles much enlarged.

§. 5. Fifthly and lastly. In point of authority. Those were from the father of lies, as hath been said; but these from the Father of lights. Scripture is of divine authority: Holy men of God (saith Peter) spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They wrote accordingly. All Scripture, saith Paul, was given by inspiration of God. It is not more true that they are oracles for their use, then that they have God for their author. Many large volumes have been written for to make good this assertion. It is a thing wherein the Spirit of God, who indicted the Scripture, gives such abundant satisfaction to the spirits of godly men, as to make other arguments, though not useless, yet to them of less necessity; He alone bearing witness to the divinity of holy writ, and to the truth of his own testimony, so putting a final issue to that controversy. But because there is need of other reasons for the conviction of other men, I have produced certain arguments elsewhere, and shall here make an addition of two more, which are not mentioned in that discourse, one from consent, another from continuance.

§. 6. From consent thus. Writings of men differ exceedingly one from another, which made Seneca say, Philosophers would then be all of one mind when all clocks were brought to strike at one and the same time. Yea it is hard finding an author that doth not differ from himself more or less, if he write much, and at various seasons. But here is a most harmonious consent. The word since written fully agrees with that which in former times was delivered to the Patriarchs, and transmitted by word of mouth. As the word God is the same today, yesterday and forever, although not incarnate till the fullness of time came, and then made flesh: So the word of God, although till Moses received a command to put it in writing, there wanted that kind of incarnation, was for substance the same before and after. And as the written word agreed with the unwritten, so doth one part of that which is written harmonize with another. The two Testaments, Old and New, like the two breasts of the same person give the same milk. As if one draw water out of a deep well with vessels of different metal, one of brass, another of tin, a third of earth, the water may seem at first to be of a different color; but when the vessels are brought near to the eye, this diversity of colors vanisheth, and the waters tasted of have the same relish: So here, the different style of the historiographers from Prophets, of the Prophets from Evangelists, of the Evangelist from Apostles may make the truths of Scripture seem of different complexions till one look narrowly into them and taste them advisedly, then will the identity both of color and relish manifest itself.

§. 7. From continuance thus. Notwithstanding all the confusions that have happened in the world, all the fires that have been kindled, the massacres that have been executed, and the battles that have been fought against the true Christian Religion, the storehouse thereof hath continued to this day, and these Oracles of God been preserved in spite of hell. Solomon's philosophical treatises, which the world had no spleen against, but a liking of, are long since lost; whereas his Canonical writings are extant still. When the earth clave asunder to swallow up Korah & his company, there are that think some of his children were taken up by the hand of God into the air till the earth closed again, then set down without having received any harm because in the titles of sundry Psalms mention is made of the sons of Korah, whom they suppose then preserved to propagate these whose service the Lord had a purpose to use so long after. How often hath persecution opened her mouth from age to age, and swallowed up millions both of men and books! Yet the bible hath been continued still by the over-ruling hand of heaven, yea, which maketh it more remarkable, God hath so befooled the devil herein, as to preserve his own Book many times by the hands of his and its enemies. It is too well known how small friends the Jews are and have heretofore been to the truth contained in the Old Testament, yet of them did the Lord make use to keep it, and they proved careful feoffes in trust for making over the assurances of life to us Gentiles. Concerning one book of the New Testament, viz. the Apocalypse, it is very observable that when the authority thereof was questioned of old, the Church of Rome struck in with her testimony, and was a special means to have it kept in the number of Canonical books; not without a special providence. God, who made Pharaohs daughter a second mother to Moses, whom he had appointed to bring destruction afterwards upon her fathers house and kingdom; did then make the Romish Church a dry nurse to preserve this Book (whose meaning she knew not) that it might bring desolation upon herself and her children afterwards. Well may we therefore conclude and say of the holy Bible, as Gamaliel once did of the Apostles preaching, Had this work been of men it would have come to naught longere this, but being it is of God, the devil and his complices have not been able to overthrow it.

§. 8. Learn we also from that hath been said, to magnify the grace of God, who in order to the promoting of our blessedness, hath brought us of this nation to the knowledge of Christian Religion, for want whereof many millions in other parts still sit in darkness and the shadow of death. It was a memorable act of Witekindus, one of the Dukes of Saxony, who flourished about the nine hundredth year of Christ; after his renouncing paganism, and receiving the faith of the gospel, he caused the black horse, which he had formerly born in his military colors, to be laid aside, and instead thereof a white horse to be born, in testimony of his triumphant joy for that great change: perhaps because among the Romans the manner was to make use of such coloured steeds in their triumphs. It put me in mind of what we read in the sixth of the Revelation verse the second, where Christ is described as going out in the ministry of the Gospel, which was then newly embraced by that Prince; Behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was givne unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. Yea whereas there are sundry modes of the Christian Religion, we are therefore to have our hearts and mouths filled with the highest praises of God, because we have it in the purest, that is, the Protestant way, which allows the people in general a free use of Bibles in their native language. In sundry parts even of Europe it is far otherwise, particularly in Spain, where the Bible in their vulgar tongue is reckoned among prohibited books, and sufficeth to bring him that reads it into danger of the Inquisition. Wherefore let such as list make their boast of other things which England is said to be famous for, as beautiful Churches, bridges, women, &c. If I were asked what advantage have English men and what profit is there of living in that Island, mine answer should be much every way; but chiefly because to them are committed the Oracles of God, & liberty to read their fathers mind in their mother tongue.

EXERCITATION 1. 1 Corinth. 15. 34. expounded. Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards. Three observations from the end of the verse. What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life. What may be had. The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural, Literal, and Spiritual.

§. 1. AWake to righteousness and sin not: for some have not the knowledge of God; I speak this to your shame. These are the Apostles express words to his Corinthians. Which will be better understood, if we consider.

I. That there was a time, when of all the Nations in the world Greece was held the most licentious, and Corinth of all the cities in Greece; insomuch as in common speech revellers were said to play the Grecians, and fornicators to play the Corinthians. Also that after the grace of Christ (who came to call sinners to repentance) had appeared there in planting Christianity, this riotous humor was notably fed in false brethren by those false teachers, who opened a gate to all profaneness by denying the resurrection.

II. That of such teachers and professors Paul speaks in this chapter, How say some among you that there is no resurrection? and calleth upon them in the beginning of this verse to awaken unto righteousness, because the many and gross vapors that ascended from this heresy had cast them into a deep sleep, wherein all their spiritual senses were bound. Heretics may perhaps pretend to the highest strains of devotion, and make their boast of strongest assurances: yet all this be but like the talking or walking of men in their sleep, or like the quick and nimble phantasms of dreaming students. Their devotion is but a dream of pieety, their assurance will prove but a dream of happiness.

§. 2. III. That the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 there used by the Apostle is very emphatical, and properly signifies an awaking out of such a sleep as hath been occasioned by too much drink. Thus Noah awoke from his wine, and Awake ye drunkards saith Joel. Neither will it be difficult to discern in a sensual opinionist the symptoms of a drunken man. Ye may see him reeling to and fro, now entertaining this odd conceit, tomorrow that, and the next day a third, unstable in all: well if not vomiting too and casting out scornful reproaches upon all that are of a contrary judgment, as upon dark and low-spirited men. Ye may perceive him full of tongue, as drunkards commonly use to be, prating, and venting his own apprehensions everywhere; yea perhaps boasting of himself and his party as too many, too hard for all their opposites. So one drunkard, our proverb saith, is forty men strong. Who so attempts to reason with him will easily find him as uncapable of conviction, as Nahal was of Abigail's narration till his wine was gone out of him.

IV. That the cause was manifest why such men had a charge given them not to sin, Awake unto righteousness, saith the Apostle, and sin not. For that the desperate opinion they had embraced was an high-way to abominable courses. The denial of a resurrection hath a natural tendency to looseness of life, inclining men to say, as they did, Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die. And the more licentious any man is, the more willing to close with such an opinion. Accordingly among the Jews, whereas most of the common people adhered to the Pharisees, who professed strictness, and amused them with outward forms of godliness, the Gentry and such as gave themselves most to voluptuousness became followers of the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection. Such men (saith Theophylact ) are not so easily persuaded of a resurrection, because they are afraid of punishments in another life, if any be.

§. 3. V. That these especially were the persons whom Paul there censureth for gross ignorance, such as they had just cause to be ashamed of. He had said before in the twelfth verse, Some among you say there is no resurrection: in the four and thirtieth speaking still of the same men, Some have not the knowledge of God. Only whereas in case of personal affronts to himself and his fellow-preachers he had appeared much more mild in the fourth chapter, I write not these things (saith he there) to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. Here he setteth an edge upon his rebuke, and telleth them he spake it to their shame; because the heresy he striketh at, struck at the root of all religion, and became an in-let to Epicureanism, yea to Atheism.

VI. That from the latter part alone, Some have not the knowledge of God, I speak this to your shame, three observations may be raised without offering violence to the words, one as implied, the rest as expressed, to wit,

• 1. There is a knowledge of God to be had.
• 2. Some have it not.
• 3. The want of it is a matter of shame.

All which I intend to insist upon in this and the following Exercitations.

§. 4. Concerning the first. There is a knowledge of God to perfection, which is always saving; and another to salvation indeed, but as yet imperfect. The former hath been proudly challenged by some sons of delusion, and accounted attainable in this life by the sole improvement of reason. For we read of Aetius that he dared to say, I so know God, as I do myself; yea I do not know myself so well as I do God. A certain evidence to make it appear, that the wretch neither knew himself, nor God. And Petrus Abelardus is said to have maintained this assertion, That the whole of God's essence may be comprehended by human reason. But the truth is, it is neither attainable in this life, as being reserved for another world (according to the Apostles doctrine, We know but in part. When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away ) nor at all by the sole improvement of reason. The lesser cannot comprehend the greater; God is greater then our heart, faith S ^t . John, therefore incomprehensible by the shallow reason of shipwreck'd nature. He and the Sun are alike in this, both refresh wary beholders, but put out the eyes of curious pryers. However faith may look upon God with much comfort, for reason to stare too much upon him is the way to lose her sight. When she hath tired and wildered herself in searching after the true God her return must be Non est inventus, He is not to be found, at least not by me. Faith only can find him out, yet not to perfection neither, although to salvation it may and doth.

§. 5. Which is the latter kind of knowledge above-mentioned, and that I am now speaking to, as attainable here. Even the lowest rank of Christians, whom John styleth his little children are described by their having known the father: And because the new covenant runneth thus, They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. But although it be most true, that there is a saving knowledge of God attainable here, yet for any man to presume, that whatever knowledge of God he attaineth, it will certainly save him is a most strong delusion. For whereas there is a Natural and a Literal as well as a Spiritual knowledge, it will be manifest by the sequel of this discourse, that none is saving but the third. The first is that which may be fetched out of the book of nature without any further manuduction of higher principles. Antony the religious Monk, when a certain Philosopher asked him, how he did to live without books, answered he had the voluminous book of all the creatures to study upon, and to contemplate God in.

The Book of Scripture without doubt hath the preeminence in worth by many degrees; but that of the creatures had the precedency in time, and was extant long before the written word. We may therefore well begin with it.

EXERCITATION 2. That there is a God, the prime dictate of natural light; deducible from man's looking backward to the creation, forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death, upward to the Angels above us, downwards to inferior beings, within ourselves to the composition of our bodies, and dictates of our consciences, about us to the various occurrences in the world.

§. 1. THere are six several acts which every man of understanding is able to exert in a way of contemplation: He may respicere, prospicere, suspicere, despicere, inspicere, and circumspicere. Whosoever shall advisedly exercise any of these will undoubtedly meet with some demonstrations of a Deity; much more if he be industriously conversant in them all.

I. If he do respicere look backward to the creation of the world (which the light of nature will tell him had a beginning) he will see and understand the invisible things of God by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, as Paul speaks. Basil therefore called the world a school wherein reasonable souls are taught the knowledge of God. In a musical instrument when we observe divers strings meet in an harmony, we conclude that some skillful musician tuned them; when we see thousands of men in a field, marshalled under several colors, all yielding exact obedience, we infer that there is a General, whose commands they are all subject to. In a watch, when we take notice of great and small wheels all so fitted as to concur to an orderly motion, we acknowledge the skill of an artificer. When we come into a Printing-house and see a great number of different letters so ordered as to make a book, the consideration hereof maketh it evident that there is a composer, by whose art they were brought into such a frame. When we behold a fair building, we conclude it had an architect; a stately ship well rigged and safely conducted to the Port, that it hath a Pilot. So here. The visible world is such an Instrument, Army, Watch, Book, Building, Ship, as undeniably argueth a God, who was and is the Tuner, General, and Artificer, the Composer, Architect and Pilot of it.

§. 2. II. If he do prospicere look forwards to the rewards and punishments, to be dispensed in another world, (which the heathens Elysium and Tartarus show them to have had a sleight knowledge of by the light of nature) he cannot but acknowledge some supreme Judge, whom they are dispensed by; and that he is a searcher of hearts, wherein piety and sin do chiefly reside; seeing it were impossible for him otherwise to pase righteous judgment without mistaking good for evil, and evil for good. Some discourses of Plato, and some verses of Menander, besides many other testimonies make it appear that the notion of these things was entertained by the wiser sort both of Philosophers and Poets, and that which they held of a world to come is a topick sufficient to argue from, for the being of a God in the world that is.

III. If he do suspicere, look upwards to a rank of creatures above himself, I mean good and evil spirits, of which the heathens were not ignorant; witness their large discourses of Demons, of Intelligences, and of a bonus & malus Genius. For if such creatures as Angels be acknowledged, so good, holy, wise and powerful as they are said to be by all that take notice of them, they must have a maker better, holier, wiser and powerfuller then themselves; seeing the cause is always more noble then the effect, and hath that perfection which it communicates much more eminent in itself. If there be Devils, whose mischief and might are both of them so confessedly great, there must needs be a God to restrain and countermand them; else the world would soon be turned into a a mere hell, full of nothing but abominations and confusion.

§. 3. IV. If he do despicere, look downward to things below himself, whose nature is inferior to that of man; the contemplation of elements, plants and brute beasts will extort the confession of a Deity. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work. Nor these alone, which have so much of magnificence in them: but the least fly, if it could be anatomized, would be found to have in it more miracles, then parts; such proportion of members, distinction of offices, correspondence of instruments, as speaketh the infinite power and wisdom of the Maker. Well might Job say, as he did, Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?

V. If he do inspicere, look within himself, and that either to the composition of his body, or to the dictates of his conscience. We are so fearfully and wonderfully made, that the great physician Galen, though an heathen, being amazed at the wisdom which he discovered in the frame of every member in man's body, could no longer contain himself, but fell to praising the Creator in an hymn. As for conscience there is nothing more common then for wicked men after the commission of gross sins to be inwardly tormented and affrighted by reason of somewhat it suggests, the substance whereof is, that there is a God, and that he will judge them for what they have done. Calvin telleth us of a certain profane fellow who was ranting at his Inn, and blasphemously wresting that of the Psalmist, The heaven of heavens is the Lord's, and the earth hath he given to the children of men, as if God left us to do what we list upon earth, confining himself and his providence to the heavens; thereby as far as he openly durst disavowing a Deity. Whereupon he was struck suddenly with extreme torments in his body, and began to cry out O God, O God. So natural it is even for the worst of mankind to acknowledge a God in their extremities; and for others more ingenuous, even among those that want Scripture-light (as Tertullian hath observed) to be frequently saying, God seeth. I commend it to God, God will recompense: which drew from him an exclamation that must be warily understood, O the testimony of a soul naturally Christian!

§. 4. VI. If he do circumspicere, look round about him to the various occurrences in the world; the great deliverances vouchsafed to some, the great calamities brought upon others, both beyond all expectation. The Lord is, and cannot but be, known by the judgments which he executeth; so by the blessings which he bestoweth. Who can see a Daniel rescued from reasonable lions, unreasonable men, a Moses preserved in an ark of bulrushes, a Noah in a deluge of waters, others in a furnace of fire? Who can behold a Pharaoh plagued, an Herod eaten up with worms, an Achitophel making away himself, a Judas bursting asunder in the midst, an Arius voiding of his bowels, and not cry out, as it is in the Psalm, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth? We meet with a passage in Atheneus not unworthy, as I conceive, to be taken notice of, and recorded here. When at a public meeting in some place of receipt, a beam of the house suddenly falling had dashed out the brains of a notoriously wicked man in the sight of many by-standers to whom he was known; one Stratonicus brake out into a speech so emphatical in the Greek, as it can hardly be translated without much loss, yet take it thus: Sirs, said he, the beam of light which I have, convinceth me that there is a God; if any of you be otherwise minded, this beam of wood may suffice to beget in him the same persuasion.

§. 5. But notwithstanding all this, as it fared with the wise men from the east, who, although they were assured by the appearance of a star that a King of the Jews was born, yet needed the prophets manuduction to give them notice who he was, and where they might find him: so though natural reason improved can make it appear that there is a God, yet there is a necessity of Scripture-revelation to inform us who and what he is, in regard of his Essence, Subsistence, and Attributes; in all these the written word goes far beyond whatever was or could be discerned in Natures school, and becomes the fountain of that literal knowledge which we are now to treat of.

EXERCITATION 3. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is. The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive. A brief exposition thereof. Satan's impudence. Nature and Art both unable to discover the Trinity. What Scripture revealeth about it. Basils memento. Julians impiety. Socinians branded. The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes. 26.

§. 1. DIvines tell us of three ways, whereby reason goes to work in her enquiry after God; but none of them all is able to make a full discovery of his Essence. The first is via causalitatis, when from the creatures, whereof God is the supreme universal cause, reason begins to contemplate him as their efficient, because they could not make themselves. But hitherto it only discovereth Quod sit, that there is a God, to whom all things ow their beings; not Quid sit what he is. The second is via remotionis, when it considereth the several imperfections of creatures, and removeth them all from God, as inconsistent with a Deity. Thus it conceiveth him immortal, impassible, impeccable, because to die, suffer, sin, are imperfections. But this only showeth Quid non sit, what he is not; she is still to seek for what he is. The third is via eminentiae, when reason considereth the sundry perfections, which are scattered here and there among created beings, and ascribes them all to God in an eminent and transcendent way. As when finding in Angels and men wisdom, holiness, and strength, it conceiveth God to be most wise, most holy, and most strong. Yet even this doth but show Qualis sit, non quis, what kind of being God is, not who is he. Reason for that must be beholding to revelation. In which respects I cannot but applaud the wise answer of that Philosopher, ( Epictetus, as some report) who when his hearers said to him, S ^r you have uttered many excellent things concerning God, but we cannot as yet understand what he is, told them plainly, Were I able fully to set forth God, I should either be God myself, or God himself cease to be what he is. Si omnino ego Deum declararem, vel ego Deus essem, vel ill Deus non foret.

§ 2. Were all such passages set aside as are not originally the Heathens own, but borrowed from Jewish or Christian authors, I should not be afraid to affirm, that there is one very short expression in Scripture, to wit this, I am that I am, which revealeth more of God, then all the large volumes of Ethnic writers. An expression so framed as to take in all differences of time, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, wherein a verb of the future tense, as Ehieh is, may signify time past and present, as well as that which is to come. Hence ariseth a great latitude of interpretation; for according to different readings it implieth different things. Reading it, as we do, I am that I am, it importeth the supremacy of God's being. The creatures have more of non-entity then of being in them: It is proper to him to say I am. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . so the Septuagint. Or the simplicity thereof; whereas in creatures the Thing and its Being, Ens and Essentia are distinguishable, in him they are both one. Or the ineffabilitie; as if the Lord had said to Moses, enquiring his name, I am myself, and there is nothing without myself that can fully express my Being. Which put Scaliger upon inventing that admirable epithet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, Ipsissimus Ipse. Or lastly, the Eternity thereof; since there never was, never will be a time, wherein God might not, or may not say of himself I am. Whence it is that when Christ would manifest his goings out from everlasting, as Micah phraseth it, he maketh use of this expression, Before Abraham was, I am, not I was; for that might have been said of Enoch, Noah and others who lived before Abraham's time, yet were not eternal, but I am. If it be rendered I am what I was, as Piscator would have it, then it speaketh his Immutability: I am in executing, what I was in promising, Yesterday and today and the same forever. If, as others, I will be what I will be, then it denotes his Independency. That essence which the creatures have dependeth upon the Creatours will; None of them can say I will be, not having of and in itself any power to make itself persevere in being, as God hath. It may perhaps intimate all these, and much more then the tongues of Angels can utter. Verily it is a speech containing more in it (as a learned writer acknowledgeth) then human capacities can attain.

§. 3. I shall therefore forbear to enlarge upon it. Let me only observe before I leave it the notorious impudence of apostate spirits. Satan not contenting himself to have got the name of Jove in imitation of Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God, prevailed with his deluded followers to ascribe unto him that, which the Lord of heaven and earth assumeth to himself in this mysterious place of Exodus, saying I am that I am. For over the gate of Apollo's temple in the city of Delphi, so famed for oracles, was engraven in capital letters this Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . which signifies Thou art, whereby those that came thither to worship, or to consult Satan's oracle, were instructed to acknowledge him the fountain of being, and the only true God: as one Ammonius is brought in discoursing at large of this very thing in the last Treatise of Plutarch’s morals, whereunto I refer the reader.

§. 4. As to the point of divine subsistence, Jehovah Elohim, Father, Son and Holy Ghost: three persons, but one God; or in Leo's expression, One God without division in a Trinity of Persons, and three Persons without confusion in an Unity of Essence; it is a discovery altogether supernatural: yea Nature is so far from finding it out, that now when Scripture hath revealed it, she cannot by all the help of Art comprehend, or set it forth as she doth other things: Grammar itself wanting proper and full words whereby to express, Logic strong demonstrations whereby to prove, and Rhetoric apt similitudes whereby to clear so mysterious a truth. The terms Essence, Persons, Trinity, Generation, Procession and such like, which are commonly made use of for want of better, have been and will be cavilled at as short of fully reaching the mystery in all its dimensions. Of the similitudes usually brought for its illustration that which Hilary said is most true, They may gratify the understanding of man, but none of them exactly suit with the nature of God. For example, Not that of a root, a trunk, and a branch; the trunk proceeding from the root, the branch from both, yet but one tree: because a root may for some time be without a trunk, and a trunk without a branch, but God the Father never was without his Son, nor the Father and Son without their coeternal Spirit. Neither that of a crystal Ball held in a river on a Sunshineday, in which case there would be a Sun in the Firmament, begetting another Sun upon the crystal Ball, and a third Sun proceeding from both the former, appearing in the surface of the water; yet but one Sun in all: for in this comparison two of the Suns are but imaginary, none real save that in heaven; whereas the Father, Word and Spirit are distinct Persons indeed, but each of them truly and really God.

§. 5. Well therefore may Rhetoricians say, It is not in us and in our similitudes fully to clear this high point; Logitians also, It is not in us and in our demonstrations fully to prove it. For however reason be able from the creatures to demonstrate a Godhead, as hath been said, yet it cannot from thence a Trinity; no more then he that looks upon a curious picture can tell whether it was drawn by an English-man, or an Italian, only that the piece had an artificer, and such an one as was a prime master in that faculty: because the limbner drew it as he was an artist, not as one of this or that nation. So the world is a production of that Essence which is common to all three, not any personal emanation from this or that subsistent; which is the reason why a Deity may be inferred from thence, but not any distinction of Persons, much less the determinate number of a Trinity. The doctrine whereof is like a Temple filled with smoke, such smoke as not only hinders the view of the quickest eye, but hurts the sight of such as dare with undue curiosity pry into it. A mystery, which my faith embraceth as revealed in the word, but my reason cannot fathom. Whilest others run themselves on ground, and dispute it till their understandings be non-plust; may I be enabled to believe what Scripture testifieth concerning an unbegotten Father, an only-begotten Son, and an Holy Spirit proceeding from both; Three, yet but One: and therein to acquiesce without enquiring as Mary did, when the Angel foretold her miraculous conception, How can this thing be? To which question my return should be no other but that of Augustine, who notwithstanding his fifteen books concerning the Trinity, modestly said, Askest thou • me how there can be Three in One, and One in Three? I do not know, and am freely willing to profess my ignorance herein. Verily this light is dazzling, and our eyes are weak. It is a case wherein the wisest clerks are punies, and the ablest Orators infants.

§. 6. Yet is the mystery itself written in Scripture as it were with the Sun-beams. I reject not as invalid, but only forbear as less evident the places commonly cited out of Moses and the Prophets; choosing rather to insist upon New-testament discoveries, when the veil which formerly hid the Holy of Holies from men's sight was rent in pieces, and the secrets of heaven exposed to more open view, then whilst the Church was in her minority. At our Savior's baptism there was a clearer manifestation of the Trinity then ever before; as if God had reserved this discovery on purpose to add the greater honor to his only Sons solemn inauguration into the office of Mediator-ship, which was then most visibly undertaken. Who so casts his eye upon the third chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, will quickly discern the Father in an audible voice, heard but not seen, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The word made flesh now in the water, receiving baptism, and after praying, so both heard and seen. The Spirit like a Dove descending and resting upon Christ, seen but slot heard. Insomuch as the Catholics were wont in the times of Athanasius to send the misbeleeving Arians to Jordan, there to learn the knowledge of a Trinity.

§. 7. Behold after this a clear nomination of the three coessential Persons in that commission which Christ our Lord sealed to the Apostles before his ascension, in the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, when he sent them out to make disciples in all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Who can but see a Trinity here? How can any who by virtue of this institution hath been baptized, refuse to believe it? It becomes us (saith Basil) to be baptized as we have been taught, to believe as we have been baptized, & to glorify as we have believed, the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit. This the great Apostate Julian, was not a little sensible of; wherefore considering that he could not fairly disclaim the Trinity, till he had renounced his baptism, he took the blood of beasts offered in sacrifice to the heathen God's (as Nazianzen tells us from the report of his own domestical servants) and bathed himself therein all over; so, as much as in him lay, washing off the baptism he had formerly received. Add hereunto that impregnable place (which hath hitherto, and will forever hold out against all the mines and batteries of heretics) in the first epistle of John, There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Spirit; and these three are One. Where a Trinity is proclaimed both in numero numerante, there are three; and in numero numerato, telling us plainly who they are, Father, Word, and holy Spirit: And that the same Essence is common to them all. For these three are One.

§. 8. Yet is there a late generation, of men commonly known by the name of Socinians, who although they maintain against Atheists the Personalitie and Eternity of God the Father, have confounded Christian Religion by denying the Eternity of the Son, whose Personalitie they acknowledge; and the personalitie of the Spirit, whose Eternity they confess. Methinks it fares with these three blessed Persons, as with those three noted wells of which we read in the twenty sixth of Genesis. Two of them Isaac's servants were enforced to strive for with the herdmen of Gerar, which made him call the one Esek, that is, contention, the other Sitnah, that is, hatred. A third they got quiet possession of, and he called the name of it Rehoboth, saying, Now the Lord hath made room for us. The Fathers Godhead is like the well Rehoboth, which there was no strife about, the Sons divinity like the well Esek, we are forced to contend for that, as also for the Deity of the Spirit, which is as Sitnah to the Socinians; they hate the thoughts of it, much more the acknowledgement.

But can any man say by the Spirit of God, that the Spirit is not God? Is it not as clear by Scripture -light that Christ is God, as by Natures light that God is? Are they Christians and Spiritual, who deny the divinity of Christ and the Spirit? Let the judgment of charity enjoy its due latitude: but for my part, I would not for a thousand worlds have a Socinians account to give at the end of this.

EXERCITATION 4. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect. They are set down in the Scripture so, as to curb our curiosity, to help our infirmity, to prevent our misapprehensions, and to raise our esteem of God. Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light, sweeteness of taste, sense of interest and sincerity of obedience.

NExt to the Essence and Subsistence of God, his Attributes are to be considered; concerning which I premise this rule.

§. 1. The degrees of our respect are to keep proportion with degrees of worth in persons and things; ordinary worth requiring esteem, eminent calling for reverence, supereminent for admiration, yea and adoration too, if it be an uncreated object. Hence the Psalmist upon contemplation of God crieth out as in an ecstacy, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the earth! His Attributes are his Name; their worth so superexcellent, as far to transcend the utmost pitch of that observance, which we, poor we, are able any way to render. Seeing as the stars of heaven disappear, and hide their heads upon the rising of the Sun that out-shineth them: so creatures seem not to be excellent, yea, not to be, when the being and excellency of their Maker displayeth itself, according to that, All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity. The best of them have but some perfections: God either hath (as manna is supposed to have had the relish of all meats) or containeth all; Sovereignty comprehendeth inferior honors. The best of their perfections are mixed with some defects: but God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. They may be perfect and good in their kind: He is perfection and goodness itself. In them we may find matter of wonderment, but of astonishment in him, witness that eminent place Nehem. 9. 5. Blessed be thy glorious Name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Nature, though not altogether silent upon this argument, to wit the divine Attributes, yet enjoyeth but a dim light to discover them by, whereas the Scripture representeth them most magnificently in sundry respects.

§. 2. First, so as to curb our curiosity. For which end it expresseth divers of them negatively, as when God is said to be infinite, immortal, invisible, unsearchable: whereby we are taught that it is easier for us to know what he is not, then what he is; which is known only to himself. The best terms (as Scaliger hath it) for men to manifest their understanding of God by, are those which manifest that they understand him not. Thou, O Lord, saith Nazianzen, hast produced all those things of which we speak; but art unspeakable thyself. All that can be known by us is from thee, but thou thyself canst not be known. Yea Austin was not afraid to affirm that Nescience is the better way of knowing God.

Secondly, so as to help our infirmity. For whereas we are not able by any one act of our finite understandings to comprehend that infinite Essence, which is itself one simple Act, but comprehensive of all perfections; Holy Scripture, condescending to our weakness, alloweth us to take up as it were in several parcels, what we cannot compass at once; and in contemplating the Attributes to conceive some under the notion of divine properties incommunicable to creatures; such as are Immensity, Independency, Eternity, Simplicity, Self-sufficiency, All-sufficiency, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence. Others under that of divine faculties; such are Understanding, Will, and Memory ascribed to God. It gives us leave to look at some as divine affections; such are his Love, Hatred, Anger, Grief and Delight. At others as divine virtues; such are his Mercy, Justice, Patience, Faithfulness, Holiness, Wisdom, &c. and at other some as divine excellencies resulting out of all the former; such are Majesty, Blessedness and Glory.

§. 3. Thirdly, so as to prevent our misapprehensions. The Attributes of God however diversified in our conceptions (as hath been said) are identified with his Essence, which is but One: though to us they appear to be different each from other, and all from it; as the vast ocean, though but one, receiveth divers names from the several shores it washeth upon: so however Justice, Mercy, Power and the rest, be several names suited to different operations; yet God is but one simple Act under those various denominations. Lest we should therefore apprehend them to be such qualities as our virtues are, really distinguishable, yea and separable from our being (as appeared when the first man fell from his holiness, yet continued a man still) Scripture doth sometimes predicate them of God in the abstract: as when Christ is styled Wisdom; when it is said, God is love, and the Spirit is truth. Men may be called loving, wise and true: God is love, wisdom and truth itself. The Apostle telleth us that if God swear, he doth it by himself and no other; yet we find him in the Psalm swearing by his holiness: whence it followeth that his holiness is himself. Christ is usually said to sit at the right hand of God; but in one place it is expressed by sitting on the right-hand of power: Therefore God is Power, as well as Love. There is the same reason of all his attributes.

§. 4. Fourthly, So as to raise our esteem of God. Some there be which are frequently called Communicable Attributes, because in them the creatures share, as being, immortality, goodness, and wisdom. Lest we should in this respect have lower thoughts of God then becomes us, Scripture is wont to ascribe them to him in such a way of supereminence as, (however they be participated by Angels and men yet) he only is said to have them. Witness these texts, There is none besides me. Who only hath immortality. God only wife. And There is none good but God. Because in him they are all infinite, all eternal, all unmixed, and without the least allay of imperfection. An apostrophe borrowed from a devout, though popish, writer, shall shut up this. O abyss of divine perfections! How admirable art thou, O Lord, who possessest in one only perfection the excellecy of all perfections, in so excellent sort, that none is able to comprehend it but thyself!

§. 5. There is yet behind, a third kind of knowledge far exceeding both the former. A knowledge of God not proceeding from the light of Nature alone, as the first doth; nor of Scripture alone, as the second; but from effectual irradiations of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, accompanied with purging and cheering influences from the same spirit. Look as the Literal maketh an addition of further discoveries to the Natural (which hath been sufficiently proved) So this Spiritual knowledge of God superadds even to the Literal sundry particulars, not unworthy of our serious consideration, viz.

First, Clearness of light. Since the Canon of Scripture was perfected, the things which the Holy Ghost discovereth are no other for substance, but those very things which are contained in the written word: only he affords regenerate persons clearer light to discern them by, then any they had before their conversion. Take a man that is now become a learned Critick, turn him to the same Author which he perused when he was a young student; he will find the self-same matter, but see a great deal further into it, because he hath now got further light. So is it here.

Secondly, Sweetness of taste. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. So the Spouse. O taste and see that the Lord is good. So the Psalmist. Upon which place the School-men have founded their distinction of knowledge of sight and a knowledge of taste. Spiritual science is steeped in affection; taking delight in the things known, and not barely apprehending, but relishing and savouring what it apprehendeth with abundance of love and complacency. Whence those expressions in Solomon's song, Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as an ointment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee, He doth not know the things of God (saith a late writer well) who doth not desire and love them.

§. 6. Thirdly, Sense of interest. Of the Zidonians God said, They shall know that I am the Lord: But of his own people Israel, They shall know that I am the Lord their God. Paul of the believing Ephesians concerning Christ, In whom ye trusted, after that ye had heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Others may consider the Gospel as a word of truth, and a doctrine holding forth salvation; but such as are savingly enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit, view the salvation it holdeth forth as theirs, and are ready to say of every truth therein contained, This is good and good for me. Happy man, whosoever thou art, that canst look by an eye of faith at the Gospel as the Charter of thy liberties, at the condemning Law as cancelled by thy Surety, at the Earth as the footstool of thy Fathers throne, at Heaven as the portall of thy Fathers house, at all the creatures in Heaven and Earth as an heir is wont to look at his fathers servants, which are therefore his, so far as he shall have need of them, according to that, All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Fourthly, Sincerity of obedience. No doubt but Eli's two sons, being Priests had a literal knowledge of God; yet being profane, they are said expressly not to have known him. They were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord. When Lucius a bloody persecutor offered to confess his Faith, in hope thereby to beget in the auditors a good opinion of his orthodoxy, Moses the religious Monk refused to hear him, saying, The eye might sometimes judge of ones faith as well as the ear: and that whosoever lived as Lucius did, could not believe as a Christian ought. Fully consonant hereunto is that of James, I will show thee my faith by my works. That of John, He that saith, I know God, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. And that of Job, Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

EXERCITATION 1. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church. A lively portraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof. Exod. 34. 6, 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness. Our bowels of love to God, of compassion to brethren. Mercy not to be refused by unbelief, nor abused by presumption.

§. 1. THe most learned among the Heathen made account they had sufficiently characterized their Jupiter, when they styled him Good and Great, yea the Best and Greatest of Beings. Neither can it be denied that these two attributes, if we take them in their latitude, comprehend very many of those perfections, which commonly go under other names. And this perhaps may be the reason why David in Psalm one hundred forty fifth (which the Rabbins are said to have esteemed so highly of, as to determine, but with more superstition then truth, that whosoever repeated in thrice every day might be sure of eternal life) having set himself to extol God and to bless his name, as appeareth by the first and second verses, insisteth chiefly on these two. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Shortly after, They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works. I shall accordingly treat of both, and first of his Goodness.

§. 2. Moses was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians; yet as not content herewith, he becometh an humble suitor to God for some further and better knowledge, I beseech thee (saith he) show me thy glory. Other notions may fill the head of a moral man: nothing short of the knowledge of God can satisfy the heart of a Saint. Wherefore in answer to this request, the Lord maketh him a promise, saying, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. The thing desired was a sight of his glory; the thing promised a view of his Goodness. Which intimateth that however in themselves all the Attributes of God be glorious, yet he glorieth most in the manifestation of his goodness, neither doth any bring him in so much glory from the creatures who are wont to magnify this most. I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us; and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. So the Church in Isaiah.

Now the forementioned promise made to Moses in Exodus the three and thirtieth, was made good in chapter the thirty fourth, where the Lord is said to have passed by him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in bounty and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third, and to the fourth generation. All which clauses, (even the latter, expounded by most of God's Justice) may be so interpreted as to relate to his Goodness rather.

It is twofold, one Essential, that wherewith God is good in himself, the other Relative, that whereby he doth good to his creatures. The former is here set forth by the term Jehovah, which is doubled, and doth most fully serve to express it, as coming from a root, that signifieth Being. For Goodness and Entity are convertible, and everything so far forth as it partaketh of Being, partaketh also of Bonity: wherefore God in whom all degrees of Entity meet is undoubtedly most good. The latter in the title El, which as a learned Jew affirmeth, doth not less clearly express his influence, then Jehovah doth his Essence: El and Elohim in their most proper notion (as he telleth us) signifying the author and producer of things by an infinite power. Of this Relative goodness there are sundry distinct branches mentioned in this superexcellent Text, which are spoken to in their order.

§. 3. The First is Mercy. The nature whereof may receive much light from the Hebrew word which is here made use of. It cometh from a root that signifieth shutting up in ones bowels, as child-bearing women retain and cherish their dearest offspring within their wombs. Accordingly we read in Luke of the bowels of God's mercy; a phrase which implieth both inwardness and tenderness. First inwardness, our bowels are the most inner parts: The mercy of God springs from within, and hath no original cause without himself. Human affection is commonly both begotten and fed by somewhat without, in the thing or person beloved; as culinary fire must be kindled and kept in by external materials: But God loveth because he loveth, and showeth mercy on whom he will show mercy; as celestial fire is fuel to itself. He freely extendeth mercy to us in making us good, then doth us good for being so; is not this a merciful God? Secondly tenderness. The forecited passage in Luke runneth thus in our translation, Through the tender mercies of our God. Of all parts the bowels relent and earn most. In them we are wont to find a stirring, when strong affections of love or pity are excited, as Joseph did upon sight of Benjamin. God speaking after the manner of men useth this pathetical expression concerning his people, How shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. His people accordingly cry to him, Where is thy zeal, and thy strength? the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies are they restrained? Of all human bowels those of mothers are the tenderest. Can a woman (saith the Lord) forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet sooner shall all the mothers in the world prove unnatural, then he unmerciful: for so it followeth, yea they may forget, yet will not I forget thee.

§. 4. Well may this notion of mercy put us in mind of returning bowels of love to God, according to what David said in the beginning of Psalm the eighteenth, I will love thee O Lord my strength; where the word cometh from the same forementioned root, and intimateth exercising love out of his most inward bowels: as also of extending bowels of compassion to those especially that stand in nearest relation to him, according to that of John, Whoso hath this worlds goods, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? But that is not all the improvement we are to make of this Attribute. As it is a most tender affection, so is it to be most tenderly used. Take we therefore diligent heed, as of refusing it by unbelief, so, of abusing it by presumption.

First, of refusing mercy by unbelief. Many, as the phrase is in Jonah, forsake their own mercy, by giving way to objections arising from the flesh, like smoke out of that bottomless pit in Revelation. Say not therefore God is so angry with me, the arrows of the Almighty stick so fast, and the poison thereof doth so drink up my spirit, that I cannot expect any mercy from him. Know that the Lord is wont even in wrath to remember mercy: and that the correction which thou at present lookest at as an argument of wrath, may perhaps be an evidence of love, and an act of mercy. God is not about to hew thee down, as thy unbelieving heart imagineth, but to prune thee for prevention of luxuriancy. Be sure the right hand of his clemency knoweth whatever the left hand of his severity doth. Thou hadst better be a chastened son, then an undisciplined bastard. There is no anger to that in Isaiah, Why should ye be stricken anymore? ye will revolt more and more: That in Ezekiel, I will make my fury towards thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry; That in Hosea, He is joined to idols, let him alone. Then is God most angry of all, when he refuseth to be angry; yea there is no anger of his to be compared to this kind of mercy. Men that are fatted to destruction often go prosperously on in the world, have few afflictions in their life, no bands in their death: but as Erasmus once said, From this prosperity good Lord deliver us.

Say not I am unworthy, and must therefore despair; for mercy is free, and if God should show mercy to none but such as are worthy of it, he should show mercy to none at all, seeing All have sinned and come short, as of the glory, so, of the mercy of God. Say not my sins are many and great, too many and too great to be pardoned: but oppose to the multitude of thy transgressions that multitude of tender mercies mentioned by the Psalmist; not forgetting the gracious invitation by another Prophet, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughtss; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon, or, multiple pardon, as the original phrase imports. To the greatness of thy sins oppose the riches of God's mercy, and greatness of his love spoken of by the great Apostle. God, saith he, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Lo here a vast heap, whereunto men may come with confidence, be it never so much they have need of, because these riches are not impaired by being imported. The mercies of an infinite God are infinite mercies, and so able to swallow up all the sins of finite creatures. What though thou hast heretofore delighted in sin? despair not, for he delighteth in mercy, mercy pleaseth him, as much as ever any sin did thee. What though thy rebellion hath been long continued? The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. Yea what though to former guilt thou hast added backsliding, and relapses to rebellion? yet remember that in Jeremiah. Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings, together with that in the last of Hosea, where Israel had no sooner said, In thee the fatherless findeth mercy, but it followeth immediately, I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely. But lest any should surfeit on these sweet meats, take we heed.

§. 5. Secondly, Of abusing mercy by presumption. Mercy improved openeth to us the surest refuge; Mercy abused brings upon us the sorest vengeance. It would be considered that there is one kind of presumers whom mercy itself is resolved to have no mercy on, so long as they continue such: to wit, those that dare expect it, notwithstanding their resolution to go on in their impenitence, and ignorance of God. For thus saith the God of heaven concerning him, Who blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, The Lord will not spare him, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man; and the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him; and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven; and shall separate him unto evil. And again, It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. Such shall at length find to their costs that the Justice of God, as well as his Mercy endures forever: And that as nothing is more calm then a smooth, more raging then a tempestuous sea; nothing more cold then lead when it is taken out of the mine, nor more scalding when it is heated; nothing blunter then iron, yet when it is whetted nothing more sharp: So none more merciful then God, but if his patience be turned to fury by our provocations, none more terrible. Because I have purged thee, saith the Lord, and thou wast not purged; thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness anymore, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent &c. Woe and again woe to them all, against whom mercy itself shall rise up in judgment. Look as the power of God, though infinite, receives limitations from his will; He could have made millions of worlds, would make but one: In like manner his infinite mercy is also limited by his will; and his word the interpreter of his will; plainly telleth us that, as Physicians begin with preparatives, so he begets fear in their hearts, whom he intendeth mercy to. Look as a father pitieth his his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, to such as keep his Covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. Not they that presume, but that fear; not such as break, but as keep his Covenant; not those that forget, but that remember his Commandments to do them; or at least whose earnest desires and endeavors are that way bent, may expect and shall receive mercy from him. They shall find by sweet experience the infallible truth of what M ^r Peacock once said upon his recovery out of a deep and long desertion, viz. That the sea is not more full of water, nor the sun of light, then the Lord is of mercy.

EXERCITATION 2. Grace what. From it spring Election, Redemption, Vocation, Sanctification and Salvation. A Caveat not to receive it in vain. It purgeth and cheereth. Glosses upon Titus 2. 11, 12. and 2 Thess. 2. 26, 17. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to. Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels, but towards men of all sorts. It leadeth to repentance; is valued by God, and must not be slighted by us. A dreadful example of goodness despised.

§. 1. A Second branch of God's goodness is Grace, which relates to unworthiness, as the former did to misery. God is merciful to the ill-deserving, Gratious to the undeserving. So far are we from being able to merit so much as the crumbs which fall from his table, that even temporal favors are all from grace. Noah was preserved in the deluge. Why? because He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jacob was enriched, and had enough. How came it to pass? Because God, said he to Esau, hath dealt graciously with me. But beside that common favor which all share in more or less, there is a more special grace, which the Psalmist prayeth for, Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people; O visit me with thy salvation.

§. 2. This third is drawn throughout the whole web of salvation, and there is not a round in the ladder to heaven, which doth not give everyone that steppeth upon it just occasion of crying, Grace, Grace. Did the Lord elect thee to life and glory, when so many were passed by? What reason can be given of this but free grace? Paul styleth it the election of grace in his epistle to the Romans; and telleth his Ephesians that God had chosen them in Christ before the foundation of the world, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Hast thou obtained redemption through the blood of Jesus? That also, saith he there, flows from the riches of his grace. Hath the Lord effectually called thee? Bow down thine head and adore free grace, as the cause thereof. For he saveth and calleth us saith the same holy Apostle, with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. So in the Acts, when a great number believed, and were turned to Christianity, Barnabas saw the grace of God, shining forth in their conversion. Hast thou received any abilities tending either to thine own sanctification, or to the edification of others? Do the like upon this occasion too, as Paul did, saying, By the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly then they all; yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. In a word, dost thou find in thyself any beginnings of salvation, any hopes that it shall be perfected? Remember what that great asserter of free grace hath left upon record to all posterity. By grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Remember it so, as

§. 3. First, to beware of receiving the grace of God in vain, it being ordained for better ends, to wit, purging and cheering of such as receive it. The grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. All partakers of grace should not only deny that gross ungodliness of conversation, which the very sons of morality decrie and abhor; but also worldly lusts, which others are secretly indulgent to. Neither should they content themselves with a negative purity, such as that of the Pharisee was, I am not as other men; not as this publicane; not an extortioner, not an adulterer, (Logicians say of this particle Not, that it is of a malignant nature; Divines know that the malignant Church is much built up by such negatives) but also practice positive holiness, by living soberly, righteously and godly, and that too in this present world: not putting on a vizard of these, as the manner of some is, on a sick bed, or death bed, when they can no longer look at themselves, as men of this world, but of another. As for cheering, remarkable is that prayer made in behalf of the Thessalonians, Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts. It implieth that whereas we cannot possibly raise from ourselves any ground of hope, or have any lasting, much less everlasting consolation from the creatures, Grace is a firm foundation for both. And this is it, which hath put the prince of darkness (whose desire it hath always been to keep men in as hopeless and comfortless condition as he can) upon using his utmost endeavors in all ages of the Church, either to obstruct the doctrine of free grace, as by Pelagian and Arminian tenets, or to poison this fountain with corrupt deductions and inferences, as by Antinomians and Familists. Wherefore remember it so, as

§. 4. Secondly, In all thy tenets and discourses to magnify and exalt that to which thou owest so very much, indeed thine All that good is. Think it not enough, with some, of a thousand parts to ascribe nine hundred ninety and nine to free grace, reserving but one for free-will: for as Prosper resolves the case well, It is not devotion to give almost the whole to God, but deceit to retain the least part. And again, Grace is wholly repelled, where it is not wholly entertained. I list not now to dispute the point: Only let me have leave to commend to thy reading and observation a paper of verses, inserted by certain Divines that were present at the Synod of Dort, into their suffrage, and comprehending a brief decision of the five Articles there debated, with a pious inference from thence; because with me they have ever been of great esteem since I first met with them in the Acts of that Synod.

In English thus,

§. 5. A third branch of divine goodness is Long-suffering; whereby God hath been pleased to put a notable difference between Angels that fell, and the lapsed sons of Adam. Of them Peter saith, God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. This was quick and speedy work. But the Lord saith the same Apostle, is Long-suffering to usward. He exerciseth much patience, very much, even towards all, though vessels of wrath. For so Paul, What if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? How profane was the old world? How wicked a place was Jericho? yet was he one hundred and twenty years in warning those of that age, before he brought the deluge upon them: And he that made the world in six, was seven days in destroying that one city. The great Doctor of the Gentiles was not much more then thirty years old, when God converted him: yet we find him looking at this as infinite patience, as all longsuffering, that he was born with so long. I obtained mercy (saith he) that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. How sensible then ought they to be of this Attribute, whom God hath born with forty, fifty, sixty years, and still continueth to cry unto, as it is in Habakkuk, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his: How long? as in Jeremy, O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved: How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? And again, Woe unto thee O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be. All which places declare sufficiently that the longsuffering God doth in a manner long to see our conversion to him.

§. 6. And that indeed is the most proper use we can make hereof according to Paul's expostulation, Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Verily we cannot meet on this side hell with a worse temper of spirit then that which inclines a sinner to despise the forbearance of God, and to kick against the bowels of his goodness: As that profane Arian did, who was executed at Norwich, concerning whom M ^t Greenham acquainteth us with this strange and prodigious narration.

Horrible blasphemy! desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love, whereby he should have been drawn to it. The next degree of impiety is, when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning, because he with whom they have to do is a longsuffering God. A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. But let such fear and tremble at what followeth, Though a sinner doth evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged; yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked. The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance, as in the parable, Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none. Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience, as in the Canticles, Open to me, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. Take we heed of slighting that which God and Christ value. Know and consider that patience may be tired, that however the Lord be longsuffering, yet he will not suffer forever, but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning. Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem, Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee: I am weary with repenting.

EXERCITATION 3. The bounty of God declared by his benefits, viz. giving his Son to free us from hell, his Spirit to fit us for heaven, his Angels to guard us on earth, large provisions in the way, and full satisfaction at our journeys end. Joh. 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal. 24. 1. Glossed. Isai. 25. 6. Alluded to. Inferences from divine Bounty, beneficence to Saints; not dealing niggardly with God, exemplified in David, Paul, and Luther. Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary. It appears in his making good of promises, and threatenings; teaching us what to perform and what to expect.

§. 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause, making use of the generical term, have it, Abundant in goodness. I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation, and to read it, Abundant in bounty, because the word, as Zanchi and others have observed, most properly signifieth that kind of goodness, which we call Bounty or Benignity, and which maketh a fourth branch. This God is abundant in: witness the greatest of his gifts, by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactors. I shall instance in some of the chief. He bestoweth upon us,

First, His son to free us from hell. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He did not grant him upon the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures; but freely gave him unasked; not a servant but a Son; not an adopted son, such as we are, but a begotten, begotten, not as Saints are, of his will by the word of truth, but of his Nature; he himself being the Word and the Truth; not one of many, but an only Son thus begotten; and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance, but that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world. Majesty and love have been thought hardly compatible. Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love, and that to the world, the undeserving, yea illdeserving world of mankind. Herein is love, (saith S ^t John elsewhere, let me say, herein is bounty) not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Loved, and So loved; that particle is most emphatical, and noteth the transcendency of a thing, either good or evil. Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus, Him that hath so done this deed; so impudently, so abominably, so unchristianly. The officers being astonied at our. Savior's doctrine, cried out, Never man spake so as this man; so excellently, so powerfully, so incomparably. Here, God so loved the world, that is, so freely, so infinitely, so unspeakably. The Apostle himself, who had been wrapped up to the third heaven, and there heard things not to be uttered, wanteth words, when he cometh to utter this; and useth an accumulation of many; because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently. Not content to have styled it love, mercy, grace; as not having yet said enough, he calleth it great love, glorious grace; rich mercy, yea, exceeding riches of his glorious and merciful grace, in his second chapter to the Ephesians.

§. 2. Secondly, His Spirit to fit us for heaven. Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask him. The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration (we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit ) and that real holiness, concerning which the Apostle saith, without it no man shall see the Lord: So preparing us for that place, which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare for us. A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there. The Spirit, by enabling us hereunto, first bringeth heaven into the soul, then conducteth the soul to it. Whence it is that Nehemiah, recording the acts of God's bounty to Israel, reckoneth this as one of the principal, Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them.

Thirdly, His Angels to guard us on earth. After David had said, The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them, he addeth immediately, O taste and see that the Lord is good; herein good, in bestowing such a guard upon us. It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahasuerus, to make Haman the favourite, his attendant as he rode through the streets: Lo here a far greater; the holy Angels, those favorites in the Court of heaven, are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. A task which they perform without grudging, (although in themselves more noble creatures then we are) both out of love to their younger brethren, of whom they have a most tender care; and out of obedience to God, their Father and ours, who hath given them charge so to do, as it is in the Psalm, He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Lay this to the former (as Bernard did) and we shall see the whole heaven at work for our preservation; God the Father sending his Son to redeem us; the Fathet and Son sending their Spirit to guide us; the Father, Son, and Spirit sending their Angels to minister for us. O taste and see that the Lord is good, bountifully good!

§. 3. Fourthly, Large provisions in the way. We consist of body and soul; he provideth plentifully for both; giving us richly all things to enjoy, as one Apostle phraseth it, yea as another, giving unto all men liberally and not upbraiding. Whereas ordinary benefactors, by reason of their stinted abilities give either but a few things, or to a few persons only, or if to many, but sparingly; and are besides apt to corrupt and blemish their good turns by casting them in the receivers teeth, and making their boast continually of them: all these are here removed from God, whilst he is said to give unto all men, and that liberally, yea and so as not to upbraid; although whatever men receive, yea whatever they are, (sin excepted) be wholly his. That of the Psalmist is very emphatical, and well deserveth our consideration. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein. The house wherein a man dwelleth, may be his landlords; but the furniture his own. Here we are told that not the earth only, but the fullness of it is the Lord's. Both house and furniture may be another's; but he that inhabiteth it his own man. Here they that dwell therein are the Lord's, the inhabitants themselves, as the room and the stuff. To which agreeth that of S ^t Paul, ye are not your own; and that of an ancient writer cited by Heinsius. Our very being is none of ours; much less the things we have in possession. As for spiritual provisions, his people use not to be scanted in them. Another particular reckoned up by Nehemiah, when he set himself to celebrate the acts of divine bounty towards Israel • , was the institution of Ordinances. Thou camest down also (saith he speaking to God) upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath. One way whereby great Princes are wont to manifest their royal bounty is the making of great feasts, as Ahasuerus, and Solomon did: we may safely allude to the Prophets expression (though the place have another meaning) and say of the Church in that respect, In this mountain doth the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. Good Sermons and Prayers are like well refined wines: and as Christ himself is a Savior full of merits, so is his Gospel a doctrine full of promises; his Supper a Sacrament full of mysteries; his Sabbath a day full of opportunities; all his Ordinances fat things full of marrow.

§. 4. Fifthly, Full satisfaction at our journeys end. Now indeed, as the natural, so the spiritual eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the spiritual ear with hearing; because we see but as through a glass darkly, not face to face, and know but in part that of which we hear. Then shall eye and ear have enough, when we shall see God as he is; and hear Christ saying, Come ye blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Here, although believing souls have fellowship with God in Christ sufficient to stay their stomachs as at a breakfast; yet that degree of fruition is wanting which should satiate them fully, as at a feast beyond that of Ordinances. What shall there be enjoyed will replenish every chink of rational appetites; the first Truth filling up our understandings, and the chief Good our wills to the very brim. Then shall that be to the utmost verified, which David once said of regenerate persons, They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures: for with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light shall we see light.

§. 5. For improvement hereof. As our Savior once said, Be ye merciful: so Be ye bountiful, let me say, as your father is bountiful. S ^t Paul having praised the Macedonians for their deep poverty abounding unto the riches of their liberality, urgeth the grace and benignity of Christ as a principal motive to excite his Corinthians to a like exercise of bounty towards the poor Saints at Jerusalem. For ye know, saith he, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be-rich. More especially let us all learn from hence not to deal niggardly with God himself; but to think no pains too great, no expense too much, no time too long that is spent in his service: Not, as the manner of some is, who so manage the profession of religion, as if their main care and study were how to serve him with most ease, and to come off with the cheapest performances. David, Paul, and Luther, were men of another spirit. The first, as he delighted in the commemoration of divine bounty to him, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me: And again, Return unto thy rest O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee; so he was no niggard in his returns, but ever and anon enquiring what he should do to testify his thankfulness, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? And as providence offered occasion laying himself out for God; witness that his resolution, testified to Araunah the Jebusite, not to offer unto the Lord of that which cost him nothing. The second was willing to spend and to be spent in the work of his ministry; and not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus, who had there suffered not bonds only, but death for him.

And yet O the business of some men's spirits! whose services cost them very little or no intention, whilst instead of using the world, as if they used it not, they use good duties as if they did not use them; pray as if they prayed not, hear as if they heard not, keep the Sabbath as if they kept it not, and repent as they did no such thing: Who although they profess believing in Christ, and know that God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, yet deal so sparingly with the Lord, as to grudge him (I say not every drop of blood, but) of sweat, yea almost every minute of time that they spend in his immediate service. Let such men know that to be over-thirfty in our expenses upon God is the worst piece of husbandry in the world. I shall dismiss them with that of Moses to those unthankful men of Israel, Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise!

§. 6. A fifth branch is faithfulness. One letter of this glorious name is Abundant in truth, that is, in faithfulness. Multus fide, so Junius renders it. These two are frequently joined in Scripture, as exegetical of each other. So when Christ is styled the Amen, the faithful and true witness, and the counsels of God said to be faithfulness and truth. God abounds in it so as to have no mixture of the contrary, although the best of men have some. Whence that of Paul, Let God be true, that is, owned and acknowledged for such, but every man a liar. A lightsome body may have somewhat of darkness in it; for example a precious stone some speck or cloud, but light itself admits of none. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all: So God is truth, and in him there is no falsehood at all. God that cannot lie, saith the Apostle. Satan is so the father of lies, as that he doth notwithstanding at times speak some truth, to the end he may deceive the better: God so the father of truth, as that he can never lie, no more then he can deny himself; which is utterly impossible. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Now his truth appeareth especially in two things.

First, The fulfilling of all his promises; which shall as surely receive their accomplishment in due season, as that of Christ's Incarnation did when the fullness of time was come; and that of bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt at the end of four hundred and thirty years; which was most exactly performed the self-same day in which that number of years was expired. The Greek word for truth (as some think) according to its Etymology implies not forgeting what one hath promised. God remembereth whatever he hath at any time said, and that so effectually, as to make everyone of his promises good, although perhaps long after the making of them; yea and after many appearances to the contrary. See it in Abraham. He receiveth a command to go out to a land which the Lord should show him, and a promise that it should be given to him and his. He goeth; but meeteth with a great famine at his first coming thither, which forced him to flee into Egypt for bread, because he was like to starve there. Yet afterwards it proved a land flowing with milk and honey to his posterity. Another grand promise made to Abraham was that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude: yet Isaac the son of promise was not born till a good while after; and being grown was like to have been offered up for a sacrifice at God's command. But the Lord spared him, and a wife is at length procured for him; yet for twenty years together after his marriage he hath no issue by her. All this while how small appearance is there of a numerous seed? Neither did the posterity of Isaac begin to multiply of a long time after this: for all the souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were no more but threescore and ten. In Egypt a course was taken by Pharaohs tyranny to keep them from increasing. But behold the faithfulness and truth of God, who being mindful of his promise, caused such fruitfulness amongst them, notwithstanding all obstacles, that there were numbered in the second year after their coming out of Egypt, more then six hundred thousand fighting men, besides women and children, and the whole tribe of Levi.

§. 7. Secondly, The accomplishing of all his threatenings, as it is written, I the Lord have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. Accordingly when the seven Angels appeared with the seven last plagues, they that stood on the sea of glass, said in their song, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, Just and True are thy ways, thou King of Saints. And when the third of them poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of water, an Angel out of the altar said, Even so Lord God Almighty, True and righteous are thy judgments. If it be objected that destruction was threatened to Nineveh at the end of forty days, but not then executed, the answer is at hand; Their repentance prevented their ruin. For as some of God's promises are made with the condition of faith and perseverance; so his threatenings are denounced with the exception of repentance; which though concealed for the most part, is always included, and sometimes expressed, as in that place of Jeremiah, At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. Be we admonished from hence,

First, What to practice in reference to God, to wit Truth in our promises to and covenants with him, that so our returns may be answerable in kind to our receipts. All his ways are mercy and truth to us-ward; therefore all ours should be truth and faithfulness towards him. Thrice happy we, whatever our outward condition prove, if we be able to profess in the sincerity of our hearts, as they did in Psalm the forty fourth, All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant. Our principal comfort flows from God's keeping his Covenant of grace with us; it should therefore be our principal care to keep touch with him.

§. 8. Secondly, What to look for in reference to ourselves. To wit, an exact fulfilling of all promises and threatenings that are conditional, according to their several conditions. Hath the faithful and true witness said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned? Let no unbeliever then, whilst he continueth in that estate, expect salvation: neither any that believeth and walketh in Christ fear damnation, seeing he hath Truth itself engaged for his safety; and seeing the faith of God's elect, according to S ^t Paul's doctrine, should go hand in hand with the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Let all that wish well to Zion make full account that in due time, The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it; because it hath been promised of old. Let them also know assuredly, that the Lord will consume Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming; because this commination standeth upon the file in holy Scripture, and is not yet completely verified. Former ages have seen Antichrist Nascent, when the Bishop of Rome first usurped authority over all the Churches; Antichrist Crescent, when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images, and praying to Saints departed; Antichrist Regnant, when he exalted himself above Kings and Emperors, setting up his mitre above their crowns; yea Antichrist Triumphant, when he once became Lord of the Catholic faith, so as none might believe without danger more or less, or otherwise then he prescribed. To this observation made by one of our own learned countrymen, let me add; we our selves have seen him Antichrist Cadent, falling and waning ever since Luther, Calvin, Perkins and others were set on work by God to unmask him. And no doubt, if we do not, our posterity shall see him Antichrist morient, dying and giving up the ghost: for the Lord faithful and true hath not only threatened his ruin, but foretold that his day is coming.

EXERCITATION 4. Keeping mercy for thousands explained. Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity. Luther's last Will and Testament. Iniquity, transgression and sin what. Six Scripture-expressions setting out the pardon thereof. God's goodness therein. Faith and repentance the way to it. Pardon in the Court of Heaven, and of Conscience. The equity and necessity of forgiving one another. We are to forgive as God for Christ's sake forgiveth us viz. heartily, speedily, frequently, thoroughly. A twofold remembrance of injuries, in cautelam & in vindictam.

§. 1. THe sixth branch of divine goodness, is the Lord's keeping mercy for thousands; which phrase admitteth of sundry notions, worthy of diligent consideration.

First, Keeping it as in a storehouse. God is said to be rich unto all that call upon him, and we read of the riches of his goodness. These riches are laid up with him, and kept as in a magazine, to be made use of upon all occasions according to the emergent necessities of his people. Whence it is, that we also read, of their obtaining mercy, and finding grace to help in time of need.

Secondly, Keeping it for the present age, as well as having dispensed it formerly to predecessors. Our fathers were all liberally supplied out of God's forementioned Treasury, as it is in Psalm the two and twentieth, Our fathers trusted in thee; They trusted, and thou didst deliver them; They cried unto thee, and were delivered; they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. This should be no disheartening to us, as if his Treasury were exhausted; but encourage us rather, as Paul's example did succeeding believers. For this cause I obtained mercy (said he) that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Which is the next observable.

Thirdly, Keeping it for time to come, as well as dispensing it at present. God hath mercy in hand, and mercy in store. We now say, as it is in the Lamentations, It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. The same will they have occasion to profess that shall come after us. God keepeth mercy, and mercy keepeth us. Created goodness indeed, being limited, may be justly suspected of penury. Esau might have somewhat to plead for his saying, Hast thou but one blessing my father? But Divine goodness is like an ocean without either banks or bottom. Our heavenly Father hath blessings reserved, as well as bestowed: many more blessings then one, yea for many more persons then one; as it followeth.

Fourthly, Keeping mercy for thousands, and that not of persons only, but, as it is in the Chaldee, for thousands of generations. One generation goes, saith the Preacher, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. Not one of all these generations but coming and going tasteth of mercy; and the whole earth, during the time of these revolutions are still full of the Lord's goodness. When the ark rested Moses said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. He that charged his providence with the thousands of Israel, is ready to charge it with the thousands of England, both in this and after ages, if they do not apostatize from him, and so forsake their own mercy.

§. 2. Well may we therefore trust God with our posterity, seeing he that hath shown mercy to us keepeth mercy for them. As that fountain of light the Sun is not weary with shining; it giveth us light, and keepeth light for our Antipodes: so this fountain of mercy is never tired with communicating goodness to one generation after another. Good parents in bad times are often troubled with great solicitude, when they think what will become of their children after them. Let such consider that they leave them in his hand, who is a God keeping mercy for thousands: as Luther did, who had this passage in his last Will and Testament. Lord God I thank thee for that thou hast been pleased to make me a poor and indigent man upon earth. I have neither house, nor land, nor money to leave behind me. Thou hast given me wife and children; I restore them to thee. Lord, nourish, teach and preserve them, as thou hast hitherto done me, O thou that art a Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows. Let them remember how much mercy is entailed upon the issue of believers by virtue of these and the like places, He will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great. The Lord will increase you more and more, both you and your children. The just man walketh in his integrity; his children are blessed after him. And that Satan never can, God never will cut off this entail, unless either the children degenerate; or the parents, distrusting providence, make use of some unlawful means for their promotion. In which case, Woe to him, saith the Prophet, that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he might set his nest on high—Thou hast consulted shame to thy house—For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. If Jeroboam out of design to secure the kingdom, and settle the crown in his own line, will take the practice of Idolatry as a means to this end; This thing becomes sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth. No wonder then, if when God's own peculiar people begin to distrust him, and by reason of unbelief take irregular courses for their advancement in the world, this very thing prove an obstruction to that mercy, which they and theirs might have otherwise been partakers of. Such as would be sure to find him a God showing and keeping mercy unto thousands, must be careful to be found in the number of those that love him and keep his commandments, as he himself informeth us in the Decalogue.

§. 3. The seventh branch is forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. Where the terms are multiplied to note the readiness of God to forgive our offenses, how many soever they be, though transgression be added to iniquity, and sin to transgression. How great soever they be Pescha, which signifieth rebellious, as well as Chattaah, which imports failings; and of what kind soever they be, whether original, viz. the crookedness & perverseness of nature, intimated in Avon the word used in that speech of David, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, or actual, expressed by the two other terms. To help our understanding herein, the Holy Ghost in Scripture is pleased to make use of sundry expressions very significant, when he speaks of God's pardoning sin. viz.

I. Taking it away, as in that place of Hosea, where the Church is directed to make her addresses on this wise, Take with you words, and turn to the Lord, say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips. Not as if when iniquity is forgiven it were presently to be taken out of the memory; but that which the Saints desire is to have it taken out of the conscience, that their hearts may accuse them for it no more. As a thorn in the hedge is a fence, but an offense in the midst of a garden: So sin in the memory may do well to keep us from relapsing, but is a grievance in the conscience. Which made Austin after assurance of forgiveness, when he had made confession of his former aberrations, bless God that he could now call them to mind without being affrighted at the consideration of them.

II. Casting of our sins behind his back. So in Hezekiah's song, Thou hast in love to my soul, saith he, delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. This God doth with a purpose never to view them more Oculo vindice, so as to take vengeance for them, though Oculo judice, he cannot but by reason of his Omniscience see and discern them. All the while David's sins were before his own face, and he making a penitent confession of them as in the one and fiftieth Psalm, I acknowledged my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, they were cast behind the back of God, as the Prophet Nathan assured him, saying, The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die.

III. Scattering them as a cloud, or as a mist. So the Geneva translation hath it in that cheering passage of Isaiah, I have put away thy transgressions like a cloud, and thy sins as a mist. Sin is that which interposeth itself between the soul and the light of God's countenance: But whether it be a slender mist or a thick cloud, an infirmity or a rebellion, the sun of righteousness eyed by faith can and will dispel it so, as to make it vanish.

§. 4. IV. Covering or hiding them. So in the Psalm, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Men never punish hidden sins, because the law taketh notice of none, but such only as come to light, by breaking out in words or actions. God is accordingly said to cover and hide those sins as it were out of his sight, which he never intends to inflict punishment for.

V. Throwing them into the depth of the Sea. Thus in Micah's Prophesy, Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth &c. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea. Alluding perhaps to what befell Pharaoh and his host in the red sea, which drowned the greatest Egyptian Commanders, as well as the meanest common soldier. The vast Ocean overfloweth both the lowest sands and the highest rocks: that of God's pardoning grace removeth both the smaller prevarications, and the grosser abominations of all such, as are truly penitent believers.

VI. Blotting them out, as in David's petition, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wherein he alludeth to the custom of Creditours, who use to set down what everyone oweth, and when debts are either forgiven, or paid, to blot them out. Our sins are called debts in the Lord's Prayer: Christ as our surety hath given satisfaction to divine Justice for them; When this is once apprehended and applied by a lively faith, God issueth out a pardon; drawing as it were, the lines of Christ's Cross over the lines of his debt-book; so as he may still see the sum we were indebted in, but sees it cancelled, never to be exacted more.

§. 5. Be we then advertised from hence in the first place, to acknowledge the singular goodness of God to us in this particular, of forgiving our iniquity, transgression and sin. David in the place last cited speaketh of it as a special evidence of loving kindness and tender mercies. The Apostles Creed, having premised the articles concerning Christ, by whom all blessings were procured for the Catholic Church, when it comes to recite them, nameth forgiveness of sins in the first place, as the choicest privilege on this side heaven. And in that compendious prayer, which our Savior taught us, there is a remarkable connection of two petitions by a conjunctive particle, not to be found in any of the former. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses. To show that as our daily sins make us unworthy of daily bread, so there is no sweetness in them till the other be pardoned. Bread and all other outward mercies a man may receive from an angry God: pardon of sin never cometh but from favor and special love, yea riches of grace, as Paul expresseth it, speaking of Christ, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

§. 6. In the second, to believe and repent, that we may be found in the number of those to whom this choice blessing is imparted. Scripture telleth us men must be turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in Christ. Also that God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Observe the method, Repentance first, and then forgiveness. God doth not bestow his distinguishing favors upon all men promiscuously. Pardoning mercy doth indeed come from him with ease (he is called a God ready to pardon ) but droppeth not from him at unawares, that I may allude to what Seneca said of his liberal man. He will know whom he bestoweth his forgiveness upon. Unbeleeving, unrepenting sinners never obtained it; faithful penitents never yet went without it. They may perhaps not be so sensible of it in times of temptation and of desertion: but, to make use of a known distinction, whereas there is a double forgiveness, one in the high Court of heaven, of which the Lord speaketh in his answer to Solomon's prayer, Then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins. (all authentical pardons are coined there; the stamping of them is a part of prerogative royal; and it is no less then high treason in the Pope to have his mint of Indulgences going at Rome ) Another in the Court of conscience, spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews, The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins: it may safely be asserted that forgiveness is certainly passed in the Court of heaven, whensoever Christ is received by faith; according to that, Be it known unto you, that through this man, meaning Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Yet may there for some space of time after this, not determinable by any man, be wanting a seal upon earth to this pardon; and the believer continue not so fully acquitted in the court of his own conscience, as to be assured of forgiveness till the Lord hath taught him by experience to see and acknowledge, that assurance of pardon is a free gift of his, as well as faith, or pardon itself.

§. 7. In the third place, To be followers of God as dear children, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. We should

First, Forgive one another. The equity and necessity whereof are both exceedingly pressed by our Savior, to the end we might not look at it either as unreasonable, or as arbitrary. The former by his parable in the eighteenth of Matthew. The wrongs we suffer compared to the sins we commit, are but as an hundred pence to ten thousand talents; great odds both in number and weight: for number, ten thousand to one hundred; and for weight, the one sort are talents, the other pence. What more equal then that we who have so many talents forgiven us, should be ready to forgive so few pence? The latter in an express declaration annexed to the Lord's prayer. If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Whence it followeth, that persons addicted to revenge, so oft as they repeat that petition Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us, do in effect make a dreadful imprecation against themselves; and fetch down a curse from heaven instead of a blessing. For he that saith with his tongue, Lord, I pray thee forgive me, as I forgive others; but meanwhile saith in his heart, I cannot, I will not forgive such an one, doth he not by consequence say to God, Forgive not me? doth he not pronounce himself unworthy of pardon, and in effect subscribe to the sentence of his own condemnation? Yet alas how common a sin is revenge! As the heart in the natural body is the first member that liveth, and the last that dies: so revenge in the heart is a lust that soonest appeareth in children, and is often longest ere it be healed in the regenerate. Molanus telleth us that the Christians of old in Austin's time, were wont to beat upon their breasts in a deep sense of their sins, at the Nobis in the beginning of the forementioned Petition, Forgive Us: well may the most of men nowadays beat their breasts for grief, and hang down their heads for shame at the Nos in the latter clause, As we forgive. For how few are there that do it aright? Seeing that,

§. 8. Secondly, we should forgive others, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. to wit,

First, Heartily without dissembling. Christ denounceth a terrible threatening against such, as do not from their hearts forgive everyone his brother. It is not a making a fair show in outward carriages, not binding up, as it were, the broken bones of peace with good looks and sweet words, that God accepteth, if the heart be full of wormwood and gall. Joab kissed, and stabbed, Judas kissed and betrayed. Hail Master, said the one to Christ; Art thou well my brother? said the other to Amasa. How hateful is such dissimulation to God and man? Forgiveness is a fruit of love: My little children, saith S ^t John, let us not love, so say I, let us not forgive in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Secondly, Speedily without delay. Be like God, ready to pardon. As in bestowing, he doubleth his benefit that giveth betimes: so in pardoning, he forgiveth twice that forgiveth with speed; his forgiveness receiveth a double welcome, and shall have a double reward. It is not for Christians to harbor animosities in the course of their lives, and think to salve it by saying we forgive all the world, when they lie upon their death beds. For that may be applied to pardoning, which Divines usually say of repenting, True forgiveness is never too late, but late forgiveness is seldom true. Wherefore let not the sun go down upon your wrath, as Paul adviseth his Ephesians. If that which was but a mote at first, be watered and cherished with the fresh suspicions of some few days, it will turn to a beam, and go near to put out the eye of love.

Thirdly, Frequently without stint or limitation. God multiplieth pardon; so should we. When ye stand praying, forgive, saith Christ; and Paul bids us Pray continually. We should therefore be inclined to forgive continually; and to make actual performance whensoever there is an opportunity. Peter thought he had offered fair when he asked, How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? adding till seven times, as making account that surely that was often enough. But our Savior maketh nothing of that number; would by no means have him stay there. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee till seven times, but until seventy times seven: putting a certain definite number for an indefinite, and thereby intending to teach that his followers should forgive Toties quoties so oft as they shall be trespassed against.

§. 9. Fourthly, Throughly, as without excepting, so without remembering any offense. God excepteth not any of our sins when he affordeth us pardoning grace. But if we confess, he is faithful & just to forgive us our sins, & to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Should he reserve but one unforgiven, that one would sink our souls to hell. It is our duty to imitate him herein. Forgive, saith Christ, if ye have ought against any. Whoever the person, and whatever the thing be, you must forgive. One of the Evangelists setteth down the petition thus, in our Savior's form of prayer, Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. It must then be performed without excepting any either person or essence. As also without remembering any. God doth so forgive our sins as not to keep a register of them. I, even I am he, saith the Lord, that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Yet with us what more frequent then saying, I forgive such a man, such a wrong; but shall never forget it or him? A distinction that came not out of Christ's school, but Satan's mint. Paul was of a different spirit; witness that remarkable passage of his to the Galatians, Brethren, I beseech you be as I am, for I am as ye are; ye have not injured me at all. Where he seemeth to desire that every member of the Church in Galatia would be to him as an Alter ego, another self, seeing he was affected as another self to each of them. But had they not injured him? yes very much, in preferring the false Apostles before him, questioning his doctrine, yea becoming his enemies, and that for telling them the truth; yet behold him professing here, Ye have not injured me at all, because these wrongs were as no wrongs in his estimation, it was not his purpose to impute them; he speaks as one that had really forgotten them by reason of his resolution to forgive them. There is I confess, a kind of remembrance not inconsistent with true forgiveness, when prudent men remember offenses and offenders in cautelam, so as to beware for the future of exposing themselves to the like injuries: But Christians ought not to remember in vindictam, so as to revenge themselves upon the delinquents for wrongs done in time past. I say to revenge; for otherwise a Christian may seek to right himself in a legal way, yea and to bring offenders to condign punishment; still retaining a charitable mind towards them: even as God, though he have forgiven justified persons, may notwithstanding and often doth chastise them with his fatherly corrections.

EXERCITATION 5. The latter clauses of Exod. 34. 7. so translated and expounded as to contain an eighth branch of divine goodness, viz. Clemency in correcting. Equity in visiting iniquities of the fathers upon the children. Clemency in stopping at the third and fourth generation. A lesson for Magistrates. A speech of our Q. Elisabeth. God's proclamation in Exod. 34. Improved by Moses in Numb. 14.

§. 1. THe following clauses have somewhat more of difficulty in them then any of the former, as being variously rendered and expounded by Interpreters. The most read as we do, That will by no means clear the guilty, visiting &c. But amongst these that do agree in the translation there is some difference about the meaning of the words. The major part of that combination apply them wholly to the Justice of God in taking vengeance upon obstinate sinners. Some few (whereof M ^r Ainsworth is one) respecting the scope of the whole context, which is to set forth the Goodness of God, consider this also as relating to that. His words are these.

A gloss that may receive confirmation from certain passages in Psalm one hundred thirty six. Where the destruction of opposite Princes is recorded as an evidence of God's mercy to his Church. He slew famous kings, for his mercy endureth forever. Sihon king of the Amorites, for his mercy endureth forever. And Og the king of Bashan, for his mercy endureth forever. As also from that in the first of Nahum, The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him: But with an overflowing flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, that is, the oppressing city Nineveh, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

§. 2. But the learned Critick Ludovicus de Dieu, considering that in other places, by name Zechar. 5. 3. the word Nakah signifieth to make void, and to cut off, by altering the translation of these words, puts them into a posture of looking directly at the goodness of God, and not with an oblique glance. He renders them thus, Evacuating, cutting off or destroying, he will not evacuate, cut off, or destroy; visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation: making this the sense,

Now according to this interpretation (which for ought I know may well be received) the expressions import an eighth branch of divine goodness, to wit, Clemency in correcting, here set forth by a general declaration, and by a particular instance.

First by a general declaration in these words, VENAKKEH LO IENAKKEH, destroying he will not destroy, that is not altogether, not so destroy as to make a full end, according to the expression in Jeremy. Thus in like forms of speech, Delivering thou hast not delivered, that is, say our Translatours, Neither hast thou delivered this people at all. Redeeming he cannot redeem, that is, say they, None of them can by any means redeem his brother. Proportionably here, Destroying he will not destroy, that is, God will not at all, he will not by any means utterly destroy his people, however he may correct and chasten for some time. Suitable whereunto is that in Amos his Prophesy, Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom; and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

§. 3. This sense is exceedingly favored by a parallel place in Jeremy, I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. Though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure. Then followeth, VENAKKEH LO ANAKKECA, which Pagnin rendereth, And destroying I will not destroy thee. It may further, and yet more strongly be confirmed by a passage in the fourteenth of Numbers. The hand of faith having once fastened upon God, will not readily let go his hold. Moses had taken fast hold of that discovery, which the Lord was pleased to make of himself in this place of Exodus, and accordingly upon occasion improveth it, by pleading with him for Israel's preservation from a total ruin; which was then deserved and threatened, making use to that end of those very terms the discovery was made in, and among others of those now under debate, as most argumentative in the sense contended for. It is as if he had said,

Whereas from the words in that other sense, which is commonly received, Moses could not possibly have drawn so strong a plea. For if God will by no means clear the guilty; all Israel having at that time contracted a deep and deadly guilt, what inference could be made from thence, but that all Israel were of necessity to perish?

§. 4. Secondly by a particular instance contained in the last clause, Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third, and fourth generation. For the clearer explication whereof, it will be requisite to demonstrate that God in so doing exerciseth both equity, and clemency, lest either should be doubted of. Concerning the former; Although by an express law Magistrates be forbidden to put children to death for their parents sins; yet God, who is author of life and death, hath reserved to himself a liberty of so doing, whensoever it pleaseth him, by reason of his supreme dominion over all: and therefore for him to inflict inferior temporal punishments in that case, cannot but be accounted just. The rather if we take into consideration that children may be accounted part of the parents themselves: for as a man's wife is himself divided, so his children are himself multiplied. However they are undoubtedly part of their parents goods, and so esteemed. When God had once said concerning Job, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, Satan by virtue of that Commission slew not his cattle and servants only, but his sons and daughters. And when he had determined concerning Achan, Let him, and all that he hath be burnt with fire, the Israelites in obedience to that command burnt his children, together with his other substance.

§. 5. As to the latter, God's visiting on this wise will be found an act of clemency, as well as of equity, if it be considered,

First, That it is but to the third and fourth generation, not to all generations, and forever, according to the Psalmists expostulation, Wilt thou be angry with us forever? wilt thou draw out shine anger to all generations? Not to do thus is mercy, witness that in Nehemiah, For thy great mercies sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them: for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

Secondly, That all sorts of sinners are not so punished, but only or mainly such as are guilty of the most heinous provocations; chiefly Idolaters and worshippers of false God's. For the second commandment (which is the first place of Scripture wherein we meet with this expression) hath it thus, I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. that is, of them that manifest their hatred of me by committing spiritual adultery with Idols, which, as some affirm is the most proper and only notion of that phrase throughout the Scripture.

Thirdly, That it is seldom done, but where children tread in their fathers steps, and are guilty of the same sins with their progenitors. Then no wonder if what we find in Isaiah's prophesy be accomplished to the full, Behold, it is written before me; I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Fourthly, that it is never done but with merciful intentions; namely to restrain men from sin upon this ground, because their children, whom they affect so dearly are like to smart for it. He is a truly miserable heir that inheriteth his fathers sins with his lands: the one will quickly eat out all, and more then all the comfort he can expect from the other. Now there is scarce any penalty more grievous in Chrysostom's opinion, then for a man to see misery brought upon his offspring, and that for his sake.

§. 6. Rulers should imitate God herein, by not dealing against malefactors to the utmost of rigor, but exercising clemency in their corrections: not writing all their laws in blood, as Draco of old is said to have done; not dismembering where a plaster will suffice, nor applying scorpions where a rod will serve the turn. Humanity is a manlike, cruelty a diabolical principle. In wrath God always remembereth mercy, so should they of whom it is written, I have said ye are God's. The sword of his justice is always furbished with the oil of loving kindness; so should theirs. Our Queen Elizabeth is reported to have professed, That next to the Scriptures she knew no book, which had done her so much good, as the often reading of Seneca's treatise De clementia.

§. 7. To shut up this so long discourse with a review of Moses his example touched upon before in the third paragraph; Look as some kind of artificers after long poring upon a piece of black work, finding a dimness in their sight, are wont to take an emerald, or some other green thing, by the verdure whereof their eyes may be refreshed and their spirits cheered: so believers, when puzzled & dulled with the consideration of sad events, should for their spiritual relief make use of this glorious proclamation made by God himself concerning his goodness and the several branches thereof; which are all cheering to faith. Moses did so in the fourteenth of Numbers. The spies were then newly returned with their dismal report; the people fallen into their two epidemical diseases, rebelling and murmuring, excepting only Caleb and Joshua. Hereupon God being highly provoked threateneth to disinherit them, verse. 12. to kill them all as one man, verse. 15. It was now time for Moses, who loved them as his own soul to bestir himself, to become their advocate, and beg pardon on their behalf, as he doth in the 17, 18 and 19 verses, grounding his plea upon two topicks: the former God's power in these words, I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great. Let it be, that is, be manifested, and appear to be great. But what hath power to do with pardon? Much every way. Forgiveness is an act of potency as well as of clemency. We know that in all Civil states pardoning such as the law hath sentenced is a prerogative belonging to the Supreme Power. His second topick is God's truth engaging him to make good what had formerly been proclaimed by himself concerning his goodness in Moses his hearing. To an active believer, such as Moses approved himself in his whole course, every revelation of God is like a clear and distinct voice uttered in an arched vault, which resoundeth again and again. God hath spoken once, saith David, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Accordingly Moses, as he heard this admirable discovery of divine goodness, when the Lord first uttered it on mount Sinai: so now he heareth it over again, and upon this signal occasion maketh a due improvement of it, by founding his plea for Israel upon it. According as thou hast spoken saying, The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, &c.

EXERCITATION 6. Job 11. 7, 8, 9. expounded of divine Greatness. Three reasons of that Exposition, with the resolution of a question about it. The height of God's universal, unaccountable, omnipotent Sovereignty proved and improved.

§. 1. ZOphar in Job, being about (as I now am) to set forth the greatness of God, premiseth this interrogation, Canst thou by searching find out God? to imply the truth of what is elsewhere clearly expressed by the Prophet David, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. It could not otherwise be His. For as one saith well, Non esset Deus magnus, si non esset major captu nostro. Such is the shallowness of man's understanding, that God should not be really great if he were not greater then our capacities. The description he maketh thereof followeth in these words. It is as high as heaen, what canst thou do? deeper then hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer then the earth, and broader then the Jea. Where by height Zophar seemeth to understand the Omnipotent Sovereignty, by depth the omniscient wisdom, by length the everlasting duration, by breadth the omnipresent immensity of God. The grounds of this interpretation are chiefly three.

First the dimensions here enumerated are those whereby we are wont to estimate the greatness of things: and I find all the forementioned Attributes spoken of as branches of divine greatness in other places. Omnipotent Sovereignty; Great is the Lord, and of great power. Omniscient understanding. God is greater then our heart, and knoweth all things. Everlasting duration; Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. Omnipresent immensity; Great is our God above all gods. Who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him?

Secondly, each particular dimension is elsewhere applied to these very attributes, though some with more clearness then others. Height to God's Sovereignty. He that is higher then the highest regardeth, and there be higher then they. Depth to his Omniscience. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Length to his Eternity. He asked life, and thou gavest it to him; even length of days forever and ever. Which Calvin and the Chaldee paraphrase, apply to Christ, understanding thereby the eternal duration of his kingdom. Lastly breadth to his Omnipresence, but covertly in that of Isaiah, The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; to signify that protection and safety, which his presence with his Church in every place affords to all the members thereof, like a broad river encompassing a fenced town on every side.

Thirdly, Me thinks there is somewhat expressed in Zophars speech which as to the two former particulars, tends to this interpretation. For having said, It is as high as heaven, he presently adds, What canst thou do? meaning perhaps what are thy weak abilities to his omnipotence? He in regard of his Sovereign power can do all things; but thou, alas! what canst thou do? And after affirming, It is deeper then hell, he subjoineth, what canst thou know? as if he had said, what are thy shallow apprehensions to the depth of his thoughts? He in regard of his omniscient understanding knoweth all things, but thou, poor man, What canst thou know?

§. 2. If it be asked, why I expound all these clauses of God, seeing the particles It and Thereof (It is high as heaven, The measure thereof ) seem to relate unto somewhat else. My answer is, that Expositors differ much about this very thing, and according to their several apprehensions translate the words after a different manner. The vulgar Latin and our old English translations carry all to Almighty God, who was mentioned in the verse before, Canst thou find out the Almighty? reading it thus, He is higher then heaven, what art thou able to do? His length exceeds the length of the earth &c. Others considering that divers words in the original text being feminine will not agree in construction with Eloah and Saddai, whereby God is there expressed, have therefore looked back to the sixth verse for an antecedent, where they meet with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Wisdom, and expound all of it, inserting the word Sapientia into their Latin translations, as Oecolampadius and Junius do. But for my part, there is I conceive a word nearer hand, which will serve the turn better, and that is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Perfection. Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It, that is, the Perfection of God is as high as heaven &c. And herein I join with Castellio, whose translation is fully squared to this sense; for so he readeth the place, Tune Dei intima pervestiges, aut ipsam adeo perfectionem Omnipotentis invenias? Quae cùm coelum altitudine adaequet, quid ages? &c. Now I interpret the words, as before, because however they be read, whether God, or wisdom, or Perfection be taken for the antecedent, it cometh to one and the same issue, for the Wisdom of God is himself; and his Perfection comprehends not Wisdom only, but all his other excellencies whatsoever; insomuch as Lessius entitleth his book concerning the Attributes, De perfectionibus divinis. The way thus cleared, I now proceed without further interruption to single out the particular dimensions, and discourse of them in their order.

§. 3. Seeing all divine perfections far transcend human capacities, the safest way, as I humbly conceive, for us to make a due estimate concerning the height of God's sovereignty is to compare it with that of earthly potentates, which is within the compass and reach of our understandings. Verily it is not without cause that S. Paul styles him the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; that Moses, Melchizedek and Abram, entitle him the most high God four times in one chapter. For upon search it will appear that his Sovereignty excels that of the high and mighty ones upon earth in point of Extensiveness, of Unaccountableness, and of Almightiness.

I. In point of extensiveness His kingdom ruleth over all. The whole earth and sea, which make but one globe, is to the Universe but as a little central point; the mightiest potentate hath no more but his share in that little. Whereupon Seneca bringeth in his wise & virtuous man with this censure and sarcasme in his mouth. Is this that Point, which so many Nations of the world do so strive to divide among themselves by fire and sword? O how ridiculous are the bounds of mortal men! All that in which they sail to and fro, manage their wars, and set up their petty kingdoms is but a Point. Whereas the Sovereignty of God extendeth itself to the whole earth and sea, yea to heaven; and the heaven of heavens, giving laws not only to the visible host of sun, moon, and stars, but also to the invisible host of Angels, who are said to excel in strength, and to do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Yea there is not a Devil in hell that can go beyond the length of his chain, for even those legions of darkness are, though much against their wills, subjected to the empire of the father of lights.

Yea whereas the dominion of worldly Potentates reacheth but to the outward man, and their laws cannot directly oblige the conscience, so as to bring upon it a guilt binding over the soul to death; his do. And in this respect S ^t James telleth us that there is one law-giver, one and but one, who is able to save and to destroy. The style which Paul giveth earthly governors is masters according to the flesh; but Moses calleth God, the God of the spirits of all flesh; to imply that however there be many, who lord it sufficiently over the flesh and outward man, there is no Lord of our spirits but God alone, who only is greater then our hearts, as S ^t John speaketh. This made the good Emperor Maximilian the second say, That whosoever assumed to himself a power over the consciences of men, set himself down in the throne of God. His son Rodolphus who succeeded him in the Empire resolved to walk in his fathers steps, yet was once unhappily wrought upon by the subtlety of the Jesuits to give way to the passing of an Edict for shutting up the Protestants Churches during some time. But that very day news was brought him that Alba Regia the chief city he had in Hungary was taken by the Turks. Whereupon in great astonishment he is reported to have said, I expected that some such mischief as this should befall me; seeing this day I began to usurp the government belonging to God, which is of consciences.

§. 4. II. In point of unaccountableness. The greatest Princes upon earth do, or should govern by laws, to the making whereof others concur as well as they. But our God is a law to himself. He only can write upon his imperial Edicts, My reason for it is my will. Yet because of the holiness of his nature his will is always most just; so as he never enacted anything, but what is in itself equal and reasonable, although perhaps to our shallow understandings it may appear otherwise: as to our eyes turrets and steeples how upright soever, if their height be exceeding great, do often seem crooked, and look as if they stood awry; which should deter us from censuring any of his Decrees, or Dispensations, as some great but unhallowed wits are wont to do; of whom Luther maketh this sober and sad complaint,

I confess indeed that God often condescendeth in his holy word to give men a reason of some proceedings, and to clear them up to our understandings: but it is more then he needeth to do, more then we ought to expect in all cases. It will therefore be our wisdom to forbear playing the Critics upon his decrees and administrations; considering that he alone is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , unaccountable, not to be called in question for any of his doings: and always remembering that of Paul, Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Hath not the potter power over the clay? Together with that of Job, God is greater then man: why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.

§. 5. Thirdly, In point of Almightiness. In the Princes of this world 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Authority and Power are often severed: their authority may be great, when their power to manage it is but small. David was King, yet could not act as he desired, for the sons of Zeruiah were too strong for him. But in God they always go hand in hand for the accomplishing of what his wisdom hath designed. Therefore I called it Omnipotent Sovereignty. I know, saith Job, that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee, meaning that God cannot be hindered in the execution, or bringing to pass of whatsoever he hath in the thoughts and purposes of his heart. The Angel to Mary, With God nothing shall be impossible, Paul to the Ephesians, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Other Scriptures may seem opposite to these, but are not. God that cannot lie. He cannot deny himself, saith S ^t Paul. For answer to these and the like instances, we must distinguish of Impossibles. They are of two sorts, Impossibilia naturae, and Impossibilia naturâ. First there are divers things impossible indeed to nature, such as in the ordinary course of secondary causes cannot be done, which yet to God are most feaseable; for example, working of miracles, giving sight to such as were born blind, raising up children to Abraham out of the very stones in the street. Secondly, Some other things are impossible not to nature only, but in nature; and that either in reference to the nature of God, when they are such as argue imperfection in the doer, as to sin, and to die: or in respect to the nature of the things themselves, when they are such as imply contradiction, as for a creature to be made independent. The former of these God himself cannot do; not through want, but through height and abundance of power. He cannot sin, lie or deny himself, and that because he is Omnipotent: it is for impotent creatures to be liable unto such kind of imperfections as these are. Neither can he do the latter: yet is it not through any defect of power in God, that such things cannot be done, but through want of capacity in the things, which are simply impossible. So then, when we ascribe Almightiness to God, the meaning is, that where ever divine Understanding can be a principle of direction, and divine will a principle of injunction, there divine power can show itself an able principle of execution. Or in plainer terms, That God can do whatsoever he will: and the only reason why things that do either argue imperfection, or imply contradiction fall not within the compass of his power, is because they are such, as for want of goodness or entity cannot become objects of his will.

§. 6. Now if the perfection of God be so very high in regard of his Omnipotent sovereignty, think of thine own lowness, (O man, or rather, O worm, and no man) and be confounded within thyself, upon comparing thy servile condition by nature with his Sovereignty; thy imbecility with his Omnipotence. Adam indeed, so long as he stood, was an universal Monarch, having dominion both over himself, and over the creatures: But every man since the fall is a slave born, a servant to divers lusts and pleasures: Neither is there any way for getting out of this estate, but getting into Christ, who restoreth all such as close with him to a spiritual Sovereignty, Making them kings to God and his father; and upholding them with his royal Spirit, as some read that in the Psalm. Till then what are whole Nations of men, but, to speak in the Prophets language, as the drops of a bucket, which in their fall are so licked up by the dust of the earth as they are no more discernible; or as the small dust of the balance, which is of no moment at all towards turning of the beam one way or other? And if Nations be so inconsiderable, what shall we say of particular persons? I will suppose a mighty Prince, but an unbeliever styled your Highness, or your Majesty at every word; and be bold to present him upon this occasion with Zophars interrogatory, What canst thou do? When God leaveth thee to thyself, how impotent are thy best abilities, as to the things of a better world? Seeing they are such as no natural man can either receive, for they are foolishness to him, and must be spiritually discerned; or close with when they are discovered: for the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

May these and the like considerations work so kindly upon us, as Canutus his not being able to set bounds to the ocean did upon him. It is an history worth the remembering. This Canutus was one of the ancient kings of England, who really to refute the flatterers by whom he was told that all things were at his command, caused his royal Pavilion to be set upon the sands, when the tide was coming in, then said to the sea,

But in vain, for the tide kept its course, and came up to his feet, without doing him any reverence. Whereupon he removed further off, and said, who can say to the sea, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be staid. It is also reported that after this he never put on his crown more.

O that all the sons of men would accordingly learn from this branch of divine greatness never to boast more of their own abilities! but to throw down all their crowns at the feet of Christ, who, though omnipotence be incommunicable, leaveth upon such as receive him by faith some impressions and footsteps of it. For whereas divine Almightiness standeth in two things especially, to wit, in God's being able to do all things that are regularly possible, and his not being able to do any sinful thing; there are some prints of both upon Christians, I can do all things, saith S ^t Paul, through Christ that strengtheneth me. And whosoever is born of God, saith S ^t John, cannot sin, because he is born of God.

EXERCITATION 7. The depth of divine Omniscience seen in discerning the deep things of man, yea of Satan, yea of God. Our Nescience discovered and acknowledged. The longitude of God's perfection stated. Eternity proper to him. Not assumed by, or ascribed to men without blasphemy.

§. 1. THe second dimension is the depth of God's Omniscience, which appears in that he is able to found and fathom the deepest things, whether of man, or of Satan, or of the Divine essence and will.

First, There are deep things of men. Their words are deep: and again, The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters. Their hearts and counsels much more. Both the inward thoughts of everyone of them, and the heart is deep. So David of the churches enemies. Counsel in the heart of man is like a deep water. So Solomon of wise sages. who are therefore compared by a learned writer to coffers with double bottoms, which when others look into, being opened, they see not all they hold on the sudden and at once. But these are no depths to God, to whom David said, There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. And elsewhere, The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. Neither is it the least act of God's goodness to mankind, that he is pleased to reserve the searching of hearts to himself, as part of his own prerogative royal, because if men were able to dive into one another's thoughts, there would be no quiet in the world; no peaceable living one by another, in regard of that hidden hypocrisy and malice which lurks in the most.

§. 2. Secondly, Deep things of Satan, spoken of in the Revelation; As many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak. Seducers are wont to boast of their mysterious tenets, and to speak of them as great depths, not to be fadomed by common Christians. Christ in that Epistle of his to the church of Thyatira, makes use of their own term, Depths as they speak; but so as to brand them for Depths of Satan fetched from hell, whereas they perhaps held them forth as new truths, glorious lights and revelations from above. Thus popery is a mystery, but a mystery of iniquity, as Paul styleth it, and Socinianism a depth, but a Depth of Satan. There is not a serpentine winding or turning in any of those corrupt opinions, which pester and poison the Church of Christ at this day, but God seeth and knoweth it, how hard soever it be for his servants to discover and refute. To these may be added all those other hellish designs which go under other names in the Scripture, as The wiles of the devil, and his devices; all which dark secrets are not in the dark to divine understanding. And he that now sees them all will one day reckon with Satan for them, yea, and sink him so much the deeper into hell, by how much his depths have done more mischief upon earth. I say into hell, where he shall have those agents and factors by whom he now carrieth on his cursed work, for his cursed companions to eternity, according to that in the Apocalypse, The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast, and the false prophet are; and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

§. 3. Thirdly, Deep things of God, of the divine Essence and Will, concerning which the Apostle saith, The Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. Things which the clearest understandings of men and Angels entertain with amazement: we cannot but bewray our balbutiencie when we treat of One in Three, and Three in one; such a mysterious gulf is the Trinity: so when we discourse either of the Personal Union, or the Theandrical acts of Christ. And no wonder, seeing we meet with such secrets and depths even in God's revealed Will, The greatest divines have acknowledged many 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Things hard to be understood; yea, diverse 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , knots that cannot be untied, till there either come further light into this world, or we be translated into a better. Such as every modest Christian will be ready to say of, as the learned Cajetan did concerning the reason of that difference, which in the Hebrew Text is observable betwixt the title of Psalm 121. and those other Psalms of Degrees, Reservo Spiritui Sancto, I reserve the solution of this and that doubt to the holy Spirit. For to him and the other Divine Persons such things are no riddles; though to us they be dark and Enigmatical, yea, perhaps unsearchable. Although we ever and anon meet with cause of crying out as Saint Paul once did, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out? Let us always remember and believe that of S ^t . James, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

§. 4. Well may the prudent consideration of what hath been said concerning the depth of Divine Omniscience put the wisest of men in mind of their Nescience; keep them from leaning to their own understandings; and give them just occasion to think of an answer to Zophars question, What canst thou know? If the secrets of nature do so puzzle thee, what canst thou know concerning those much greater secrets of grace and glory? of which Luther very excellently, Philosophy receives them not, faith doth. The authority of Scripture is greater by far then the capacity of our wit; and the Holy Ghost then Aristotle. Well may the depth of Divine understanding, which the Psalmist saith is infinite, Great is the Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite, cause us to reflect upon the shallowness, the finiteness, yea, the folly of our own. For if the foolishness of God be wiser then men, as the Apostle telleth us it is, what is his wisdom? Add if the wisdom of this world be foolishness with God, what is its folly? No wonder if one learned man wrote a book of the vanity of Sciences, others of the Nullity, Quod nihil scitur. If the wise heathen professed, the only thing he knew was this that he knew not anything at all. If Frier Paul of Venice the judicious author of that excellent history of the Council of Trent was wont to say. The more we study, the more we see how little or nothing we understand; yea, if more knowing men then any of these abounded in acknowledgements of their own ignorance. Asaph, So foolish was I and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee. Agur, Surely I am more brutish then any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. So true is that of our great Apostle, If any man think that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.

§. 5. Next followeth the third dimension, which is Longitude, in this expression, The measure thereof is longer then the earth. For the better stating whereof let it be considered, that whereas the word here translated Measure relateth not to extension only, but also to duration; and the earth hath a double longitude, one of space, the other of continuance; which the Scripture taketh special notice of in other texts, as in that of Ecclesiastes, One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever. I conceive the latter may here be alluded to, viz. the earths long continuance, as in some low proportion fit to resemble that everlasting duration of God, which cannot be adequately represented by any creature. Sure I am by the Ancient of days in Daniel the eternal Jehovah is described; by length of days in wisdoms right hand, of which in the Proverbs, many Interpreters understand the blessings of Eternity: And this very place of Job is expounded by Gregory in this sense. His words are, Terrâ longior, quia creaturae modum perennitate suae Aeternitatis excedit.

All creatures had an original, all but some few shall have a dissolution. Of the Creator, and of him only is that of the Psalmist verified, From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. He gave beginning to all things, but was himself without a beginning; is the end for which all things were made, but himself without end. The best of men, alas! are but of yesterday, and know not where they shall be tomorrow, according to that of Bildad, We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow. His being God from everlasting to everlasting should encourage us to walk in the way everlasting, having this everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, that he will save us with an everlasting salvation; because he wanteth neither power to effect it, for his strength is everlasting; nor will, for his mercy is so too, as David testifieth, The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.

§. 6. The more to blame were some overweening sons of Adam for daring to assume unto themselves, and ascribe to other persons and things this incommunicable perfection of God. Of old the heathenish people of Rome were wont to style their Emperors, yea and their city Eternal. Concerning which practice of theirs, two ancient writers, Jerome and Prosper interpret those names of blasphemy mentioned in the Revelation. They accounted such no less then blasphemers as called Rome the Eternal city, and saluted the Emperor thereof by the title of your Eternity. A thing usually done among them. Yea this Calenture had taken the brains of some even amongst the Christian Emperors: so exceedingly contagious are words and examples that contain blasphemy in them. Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth of Constantius an Arian Prince, that being puffed up by the ostentation of his flatterers, and the prosperous success of his affairs, he was come to that height of insolence as to presume he should never die, and in his writings to style himself Our Eternity. His words are these, Immunem se deinde fore ab omni mortalitatis incommodo fidenter existimans, confestim à justitia declinavit ità intemperanter, ut Aeternitatem meam aliquoties subjeceret ipse dictando. Yea Justinian himself feared not to say concerning some of his Edicts, Nostra sanxit Aeternitas.

EXERCITATION 8. Divine Immensity shadowed out by the breadth of the Sea. Divine Omnipresence cleared and vindicated. The proposal hereof as an antidote against sinning in secret. Five practical Corollaries from the greatness of God in general.

§. 1. THe fourth dimension is still behind in that clause, Broader then the Sea. It may be thought to relate unto divine Omnipresence and Immensity; which is, though not set forth to the life, yet some way shadowed out by the breadth of the Sea: In that the vast ocean stretcheth its arms far and near (so we call them arms of the Sea) to the embracing of certain shores, very much distant each from other; and is in that respect in a manner omnipresent with the several parts of the earth, which it is united to in one Globe. So, and much more then so, the Immensity of God's essence is such as to render him actually, and at all times present with every creature in the upper and lower world; for which cause he is said to fill the heaven and the earth. To a certain Philosopher, who asked one of our profession, Where is God? the Christian answered, Let me first understand from thee where he is not, to intimate his being present everywhere. Which he is, not only by his power and providence, as some would confine it, but also by his essence; according to the true meaning of that which Paul said at Athens concerning God, He is not far from everyone of us. For in him we live and move, and have our being. He said not (as Chrysostom observed) By him we live and move, but in him; to note the intimacy of his presence, and that with all sorts of things, whether they be such as have life, or motion without life, or barely Being without motion. Yea where-ever they be, whether in heaven, or earth, or hell, as the Psalmist expressly, If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea; even there shall thy hand lead me. To which accords that of Seneca, Turn thyself which way thou wilt, thou shalt there see him meeting thee. There is not anything void of him, He filleth whatsoever he hath made.

§. 2. This truth having been so fully acknowledged by a wise heathen, it will argue but too much weakness in any Christian to stumble (as some notwithstanding have done) at this sorry cavil against it. It seems unworthy of God, say they, to afford his presence with all things, even the least and filthiest. Neither do we see how he can possibly do it without receiving some defilement from them. For if God were not lessned by creating the meanest things, then surely he is not by affording his presence to them after they were made. As for defliement, there can be no fear of that. Can the sun shine upon dunghills and worse places without being thereby defiled? and shall not God's essence, which is infinitely purer then the light, preserve itself from contracting filth from anything it cometh near unto! The soul of man united to a sickly and leprous body, doth notwithstanding retain its purity. Much more God in the forementioned case. Be we therefore careful, in spite of all heretical cavils firmly to believe the truth of divine Omnipresence and Immensity; for the clearing up whereof to our understandings, Divines have invented sundry comparisons; two whereof I shall instance in. One out of Austin, The whole world, saith he, is so in God, as a little sponge in a vast ocean. The Sea besides its encompassing the sponge on every side, doth also thoroughly penetrate, moisten, and sustain the whole substance within, and every part of it. Another out of Lessius. He compareth the world to a crystal Ball hanging in the light of the Sun. In which case the light would intimately pierce the whole Ball, and also extend itself far and near, round about it. Such and so intimate is God's presence with every creature in every place.

§. 3. The contemplation whereof should be effectual for the preventing of all sins, especially such as are usually committed in secret, upon this grand presumption, which the Prophet denounceth a curse against the subjects of, saying, Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord. and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? a presumption that there is none by to take notice of them. Suppose it were so; yet men are bound to reverence themselves: That of Ausonius is excellent advise, When thou art about to act anything unseemly, be afraid of thy self, although there be no other witness. But so it is not; for conscience is by; concerning which Lactantius produceth an admirable speech out of Seneca, O thou mad man! what will it profit thee to have none conscious of thy crime, so long as thou hast a conscience that is? But that thou wilt say is part of thyself. True: wherefore I add, God is by; of whom the Apostle emphatically saith, If our heart condemn us, God is greater then our heart, and knoweth all things. Conscience we are wont to say, is a thousand witnesses; and let it be withal considered, that God is as a thousand consciences; both for intimacy of presence, and perspicacity in discerning. It is worth observing how the mention of God's immensity is brought in by the Prophet in that forecited place of Jeremy, where the whole verse runs thus; Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Our most secret sins are, in reference to God, no more secret, in regard of his Omnipresence, then if committed in the most open light. Witness that in Moses his prayer, Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. Jacob once said of Bethel, God was once in this place, and I knew it not; How fearful is it? Let every place be a Bethel to thee, O watchful Christian, a place of fear, and in some sense an house of God, be it market, or shop, or field; be sure the Lord is in that place, not present only, but looking on; nor only looking, but weighing and pondering, whatsoever thou doest there in all the circumstances and aggravations thereof, as Solomon testifies, The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

§. 4. Having already made improvement of the several branches, let me now for a conclusion draw certain Corollaries from the greatness of God in general; in number five.

First, Let him be greatly praised for this by all mankind. 'It is the Psalmists inference, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. The world is wont to commend greatness both in persons and things. Great Princes have had Panegyrical Orations made in their praise, as Trajan by Pliny; great cities, as Grand Cair; great monuments, as the Colossus are greatly extolled by writers and travellers. How much more should the great God? whom the Prophet accordingly magnifies, saying, Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles, as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity. The drop of a bucket is nothing to the whole ocean, nor the dust of the balance to the whole earth: no more is the whole earth with all the inhabitants of it to God. In so much as if he were to be sacrificed to, proportionably to his greatness, all the beasts in Lebanon would not suffice for a burnt-offering, nor all the wood thereof for a fire, nor all men in the world for a priest to offer it.

§. 5. Secondly, Let him be greatly confided in by all his people. That of S ^t . John, Ye are of God, little children; and greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world, should be made use of by the Saints as a precious receipt against the most deadly poison that can at any time be administered to them. The Church indeed is very often put upon renewing Jehosaphats complaint, and crying out, We have no might against this great company (perhaps both of wicked men, and wicked spirits) that comes against us; neither know we what to do. But so long as she can add, as he there doth, Our eyes are upon thee; this contemplation of her great God and Savior may support her against the fear of them all. The devil is mighty, I confess it, said Luther, but he will never be Almighty, as my God and Savior is. upon these grounds a believing Christian, living up to his principles, may well say,

Thirdly, Let the world learn to seek after interest in him. Many, saith Solomon, Many seek the rulers favor. And reason good; because he is able to protect the persons, and reward the services of his followers. Behold here a Ruler indeed, whose favor was never sought in vain, if sought in time; one that can protect from hell, and bestow heaven; yea that which is the heaven of heaven, the fruition of himself. Being great with great men is a thing much affected by some, although in experience it often becomes not a burden only, but a mischief: whereas the love and favor of the great God, and our Savior, always proves, (shall I say, beneficial? that's too little) it proves, and that always beatifical.

Fourthly, Let such as have obtained interest from him look for great things from him. To Baruch it was once said, Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: because he sought them in the creatures; but if we seek them from and in the great Creator, we may lawfully seek great things, neither shall our doing so be attended with disappointment. For open thy mouth wide, saith the Lord, and I will fill it. We are wont either not to open our mouths at all, or not wide enough; and therefore it is that most of us continue so empty. Ye have not, because ye ask not; so the Apostle: let me say, ye ask perhaps, and yet have but little, because ye do not expect much. O Consider, as Samuel once bespake the men of Israel, how great things God hath already done for you, that so your experiments may be your encouragement, to expect yet greater: remembering that of our blessed Savior to Nathaniel, Believest thou? thou shalt see greater things then these.

He in whom ye trust, O believers, is a great God, and loves to do all things like himself. Wherefore look for great things from him, great assistances, great enlargements, great deliverances: yea the forgiving of great sins, and the obtaining of great salvation.

§. 7. Fifthly, Let such as have received great things from God, maintain a certain greatness of spirit suitable to their interest in him. I do not mean an haughty spirit, swelled with pride, for that is altogether unsuitable to a saving interest in God, who beholds the proud afar off; but an humble spirit greatened by continual converse with the great God; who by raising up his servants hearts to the contemplation and fruition of higher objects, maketh them too big for this world. It is reported of Moses, that when he was come to years, or according to the original, when he was waxed great, (in spirit perhaps, as well as in stature) he did overlook the preferments, pleasures, and riches of the world, which are all there intimated, yea the menaces of it too: for it is there also said, He feared not the wrath of the king, but endured, as seeing him who is invisible. His conversing with the great God, had made all these to appear to him as petty things. To a soul truly great no worldly matter hath any true greatness in it: As if one could take a station in heaven, whatsoever is here below would appear but small in his sight by reason of its distance. It is accounted by some a great matter to have the frowns and ill word of a great man: But S ^t John, whose conversation was in heaven, made nothing of it. Speaking of Diotrophes his malignancy and reproachful speeches he phraseth it thus, prating against us with malicious words. The term properly signifieth trifling. Though Diotrephes were a great prelate, and his words very malicious; yet the Apostles spirit was raised so far above them, that with him all were but trifles, and by him contemned as such.

EXERCITATION 1. How predestination cometh to be treated of here. Election described from the Nature, Antiquity, Objects, Products and Cause of it. Rom. 11. 33. 2 Tim. 1. 9. with Tit. 1. 2. Ephes. 1. 4. with Matth. 25. 34. opened. Of Acts supposing their objects. Of Acception of persons, what it is, and that Predestination doth not import it. Acts 13. 48. Expounded and vindicated. Whether one Elect may become a reprobate? The negative maintained, and 1 Cor. 9. 24, 25, 26. cleared. Ephes. 5, and 11. enlightened. Concerning the good pleasure of God's will and the counsel thereof.

§. 1. I Durst not wholly wave the doctrine of Predestination, (no not in this Treatise of Principles) after I had duly pondered that grave admonition of Ambrose, or according to others of Prosper, Such things as God would have kept secret must not be pried into by us; nor such denied as he hath openly declared: lest we be found in the former attempt unlawfully curious, in the latter damnably unthankful. And also laid to heart the endeavors, not of foreiners only, but of certain late English writers to possess their readers with vehement and strong prejudices against the long-received truth in those points. One of them telleth us, It is sacrilegious to grant that God hath from eternity elected a certain number of men personally unto salvation, whom he purposeth to bring thereunto infallibly &c. Elsewhere styling it, That capital error of personal Election and Reprobation. Another speaking of preterition, or negative reprobation hath these words. This is one of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which have been infamously invented to disguise and palliate the frightful rigidness of their doctrine. Not long after he calleth it canting, (pretends the lamentable distinction (as it is there by him styled) to be no more then a trick insufficient to buoy up a sinking cause ) and in another book of his The dream of absolute preterition. Mean while where alas! is the reverence and submission due to Scripture, that only card and compass by which we are to sail in this ocean, that only clue by the help whereof this labyrinth is to be traversed? It directly opposeth Electi and Reliqui, the elect and such as were passed by, in that saying, The election hath obtained, and the rest were blinded. In it we read of a book of life containing the names of all those whom God hath chosen, and of others whose names were not written in that book. Of some whom the Lord knoweth for his, and others to whom he will say, I never knew you. Of Christ's sheep given to him by the father, and of such persons as were not his sheep, nor accordingly so given to him. This, I hope, is no canting; there is neither Error nor Trick in all this, but to proceed.

§. 2. Election (as to our purpose which concerns the choice of men only, not of Angels) is that secret unsearchable decree of God, wherein he did from everlasting single out of the rest of mankind a definite number of particular persons, ordaining them infallibly unto the attainment of holiness here, and happiness hereafter, according to the counsel and good pleasure of his Will. Which description offers to the readers consideration as things material, and not unfit to be treated of, provided it be soberly done, the Nature, Antiquity, Object, Products and Cause of Election.

First, The Nature of it. It is a secret unsearchable decree of God. The two principal emanations of God's Will respecting intellectual creatures, are his Decrees, and his Commands. They differ, as in sundry other things, so, in point of perspecuity. The Commands are plain; he that runs may read his duty in them; the Decrees abstruse: Our destinies cannot be so easily read, as our duties may. And whereas divers secret things may yet be discovered upon diligent search, according to that Proverb of Solomon, Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water: but a man of understanding will draw it out. The Decrees of God are so secret, as to be withal unsearchable. Whence the Apostle, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! where by Judgments it is, as I conceive, most proper to understand the Decrees of his Will; by Waies, the Administrations of his Providence in order to the execution of those Decrees. Some innovatours there are indeed, who have so modelled the mysterious Doctrine of Predestination, as to leave little or nothing of mystery in it. Our Remonstrants think themselves able to wade, where our Apostle was past his depth, and forced to cry out, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ! Their way pretends to give a clear reason why one is elected, another reprobated, one converted, another not, but for my part I had much rather with S ^t . Paul be ignorant still then over-learned, (that I say not oversawcie) with Arminius and his followers.

§. 3. Secondly the Antiquity. 'It is from everlasting: An eternal Decree. So Paul, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. This expression notes eternity. The kingdom we are elected to, is said to have been prepared 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from the foundation. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; in reference to the third heavens, that place where the kingdom is to be set up and inherited, which was in the beginning of time created by the builder and maker of it, as God is styled. But the Decree whereby we were designed thereunto, to have been 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , before the foundation of the world. That is, from everlasting; as may be further gathered from other phrases in the writings of our Apostle; this by name, Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works. but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began. This both Erasmus and Calvin interpret of predestination. Compare we it with another speech of the same Apostle to Titus, In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. The meaning whereof will no longer be obscure, if it be considered that the first-born of election was Christ himself (who applied to himself that which God said of old by the Prophet Isaiah; Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is wellpleased. ) That certain persons were from eternity given to Christ, whom the Father had constituted Head of all his elect, to be his members, & by him brought to eternal blessedness, according to what we read in S ^t . Johns Gospel, Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. That in this transaction there passed promises from the Father to the Son in the behalf of himself and all his members. And that this is the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, these the Promises of eternal life before the world began, spoken of in the forecited places to Timothy and Titus: upon the latter whereof I meet with the same Gloss from a Reverend Scottish writer, whose name and words are here presented in the Margine. I shall add no more concerning the antiquity of this Decree, save only a brief saying of Austin, Intra mundum facti sumus, & ante mundum electi sumus. We were made within the world but chosen before it.

§. 4. Thirdly, the object of election is a definite number of particular persons singled out of the rest of mankind. We learn from S ^t Luke that the Elect cry unto God day and night: And S ^t John in his Apocalypse telleth us what one of their principal cries is, They cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood? As also what answer they had from heaven, It was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow-servants and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. From the collation of which texts it may be inferred that their number is set, and shall in due time be completed; for that is the thing related to in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 shall be fulfilled. It is then a definite number, and that of particular persons, whose names are elsewhere said to be written in the book of life, Names in Scripture being often put for persons; as in the Acts, The number of names together were about one hundred and twenty. and in the Revelation, In the earth-quake were slain of men seven thousand; it is in the original, Names of men. They do certainly shoot beside the mark, who so confidently teach that predestination is terminated not upon persons, but qualifications; and that not this or that man in particular is elected or reprobated, but only in general, whosoever believeth and persevereth belongeth to election, whosoever continueth in unbelief, to reprobation; and that so as the same person may be today under the one, and tomorrow under the other decree, according to the change of his qualifications. But if so, it would not in likelihood have been said, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his, but rather, what kind of men are his. Nor to the Romans, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And again, He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth (which doth clearly relate to persons) but rather, what sort he will.

§. 5. Against what hath been said in this and the former paragraph there are two principal objections; whereof neither is to be waved, lest it should be thought unanswerable. The first is borrowed from philosophy, and runs thus. Acts suppose the being of their objects; The decrees of God are divine acts, and therefore could not pass upon men's particular persons before the world was, because there were then none in being. I answer that whereas the Acts of God are either Immanent abiding within, or Transient passing from him, and terminated upon somewhat without himself; His transient Acts do either suppose, or produce the being of their objects; suppose it as his Rewarding and Punishing, produce it, as his creating acts. But those that are immanent (of which rank his Decrees are) do not necessarily require the preexistence of their objects in esse reali in a way of reality; for it sufficeth that they have it in esse cognito, in the forekowledge of God. Jesus Christ our Mediator is styled a Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world; yet had he no existence as such till after his incarnation. God who had designed Josiah to special services, called him by his name, and foretold what should be done by him, full three hundred and thirty years before he did it. So elsewhere ( Cyrus is named, and hath a service allotted him in the foreknowledge of God one hundred and forty years before he was born. It is reported by Procopius that when Misdates king of Persia was dead without issue, but had left his wife with child; the Persian nobility set the crown on the Queens belly before she quickened, thereby acknowledging her issue that should be for their lawful Sovereign. So as Sapores (which was afterwards the childes name) began his reign before his life. If such acts when done by men seem not irrational, why should any think it strange for the only-wise God to set the crown of election upon the head of certain persons, while as yet they have no being, save only in the womb of his decree?

§. 6. The other objection is taken from such places of Scripture as deny God to be an accepter of persons, which they say he must needs be, if considering mankind in an equal condition he chose some to life, and passed by others.

In order to the solution hereof, I shall first Distinguish between Acceptation and Acception of persons. We find them both mentioned by S ^t Peter as it were with one breath, in that short saying of his, ( Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him ) the one as attributable to him, the other as not. Were it not for his acceptation of persons, woe and nothing but woe to the sons of men. It is the joy of their hearts to consider that there are certain men of his good will; as some read that in the Angels song: and to remember that the Church is by her head and husband styled Hephzibah that is my delight is in her; because the members thereof are, as Paul speaketh, accepted in the beloved. Next Declare the true notion of Prosopolepsie or acception of persons in Scripture-dialect.

Besides the prime importance of these words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Greek, and Persona in Latin for an individual intelligent substance, (so, The gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons is the blessing of recovery granted upon the prayers of sundry men and women) They have a secondary importance, and are sometimes put to signify a vizard, property or counterfeit resemblance assumed by any such individual. So in Seneca, Nemo potest personam diu ferre, that is, None can play the hypocrite long: and in the Epigrammatist a gray-haired man having put on a black periwig to conceal his age, is told of it thus,

Now because these vizards and properties are things external, not at all belonging to the Essence of the party assuming them, hence it cometh to pass that these words at the next remove signify such relations, accommodations and and accomplishments as being external to the essence of a man, as also to the merit of his cause, ought not to incline a Judge to pronounce a sentence on his behalf, or in the distribution of justice to regard him above others to whom such helps are wanting. He who is swayed in judicial proceedings by such outward things is in the Scripture said to be an accepter of persons. So in Leviticus, Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness thou shalt judge thy neighbor. And in the New Testament these two terms 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 righteous judgment, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 accepting of persons are directly opposed. Divines have received it for a maxim. That acceptation of persons is not found in gratuitis, in acts of bounty, wherein the doner is at liberty to dispose his free gifts as pleaseth himself, but in debitis in acts of justice and right, wherein there lieth an obligation upon him that distributeth to give every man his due. Hereupon they conclude that in divine predestination Almighty God, who is no debtor to any of his creatures, and who acteth therein not as a Judge, but as a Sovereign Lord and liberal benefactor, chooseth some and passeth by others, as without injustice or wrong to any, so without any show of that which the Scripture properly calleth Acception of persons, because he was not moved by any external thing in doing so.

If any Reader think it not safe to credit this upon my single testimony, behold in the margin further security, to which it were easy to add. much more, if need were.

§. 7. Fourthly, The products of Divine Election are chiefly two. First, Holiness here. God is said to have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. Where spiritual blessings are pointed at as the streams, and election as the fountain from whence they flow. It as the root, and holiness as the fruit. So elsewhere, We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation, through Sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Here we find not only Sanctification in general, but faith, which is the flower of holiness, derived from Election. The same Apostle stiles it, The faith of God's elect. And S ^t . Luke in the Acts, speaking of the success which S ^t . Paul's preaching had among the Gentiles, saith expressly, As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.

A Text which the soundest divines look at, as a most pregnant place to prove a causal influence of Divine Predestination upon the work of saving faith. Others, I know, there are, (and they not a few, nor inconsiderable) who have strongly endeavored to turn the edge and strength of this place another way, by rendering the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not (as we do) Ordained, but Disposed, or well-affected to eternal life. Unto whose corrupt Gloss, I oppose the following considerations.

First, If it were to be so read, then all that heard the Apostles Sermon there recorded, even all and everyone without exception should have believed, seeing there is not a man in the world, and therefore none in that congregation who was not disposed, and well-affected to the reward of eternal life (the will of man being necessarily carried to the desire of blessedness, which none are so brutish as not to affect) for that unto which these are said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is not conversion, but life eternal.

Secondly, Disposedness in their sense doth not always precede faith, nor faith always follow it. When Saul was in the full career of his persecuting madness against the Saints, what disposedness was there in him unto conversion, unless fury be a disposition to faith? yet then did he first believe. In that young man who came to our Savior, of whom it is testified, That he was not far from the kingdom of God, which of their dispositions was wanting? yet he went away sorrowful, and believed not.

Thirdly, Faith itself is the first saving disposition that any man hath, because it first lays hold upon Christ, and of life by him; in so much as none is formally disposed to eternal life till he have believed.

Fourthly, S ^t . Luke doth nowhere use 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , either in his Gospel, or in the Acts for disposedness, but for ordination and constitution divers times, therefore our reading here, As many as were ordained to eternal life, is to be retained.

§. 8. But learned Grotius will by no means allow of this interpretation. They (saith he) who apply this Text to Predestination, Nihil vident, see nothing at all. Yet by his favor, a man that saw as far into the Mysteries of Divinity, as also into the idioms of the Greek tongue, as Grotius himself (be it spoken without disparagement to his great learning) Chrysostom I mean, applies it so in his Commentary upon the place. And his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by which 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is expounded Erasmus translates Praefiniti à Deo, Predestinated of God. Three things are alleged by Grotius, for overthrowing of this sense; but all in vain. His first plea is, that 'tis not usual for all of a city, a congregation that are predestinated, to believe at one and the same time, therefore that which we assert is not like to be the meaning here. For answer, I acknowledge it is not usual; no more is it to have three thousand inhabitants of one city brought in to God on one day. But what if God willing to glorify his Gospel, and the power of converting Grace, as he called three thousand Jews in one day, by Peters Ministry, Acts the second; so here by S ^t . Paul's, at his first solemn undertaking to preach unto the Gentiles, Acts the 13. were pleased to work upon as many in that congregation as did belong to the election of grace? shall any man dare to prescribe, and plead custom to the contrary? His second Argument runs thus. All that truly believe are not Predestinated unto life. Therefore that for which we contend is not to be thought a proper sense. Answer. This reason is founded upon a grand mistake, viz. That faith is common to all, whether elect, or non-elect, although Paul style it, the Faith of God's elect, as before; and Christ tells the Jews, Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. He argues in the third place, from S ^t . Luke's unacquaintedness with the secrets of God. It was not in his power to tell who of that company were elected, who not; therefore by his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he must not be conceived to have understood such as were in that sense ordained to eternal life. I answer, Although the pen-man did not, the inditer, viz. the Holy Ghost did exactly know whose names were written in the book of life, and whose were not. Now he it was that in the history of the Acts suggested and dedicated to his secretary both matter and words.

§. 9. The second product of election is happiness hereafter. Accordingly the objects of this Decree are those whom God hath not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is that which they are said to be chosen to; and that wherein their names are written, called, The book of life. For as in military affairs, Commanders have their Muster-rolls, wherein are contained the names of all the soldiers whom they have listed, whence the phrase of Conscribere milites; and in Common-wealths there are Registries kept wherein are recorded the names of such as are chosen to offices of trust and other preferments, whence the title of Patres conscripti ascribed to the Senators of Rome. So the Scripture condescending to our capacities and speaking of God after the manner of men, attributeth to him a book of life, wherein it supposeth a legible writing and Registring the names of all those persons whom he hath irreversibly predestinated to life everlasting. I say, irreversibly, for if that of Stoics be true, In sapientum decretis nulla est litura, In the decrees of wise men there will be no blotting and blurring; how much more may it be asserted concerning those eternal Decrees of the only wise God? If it became Pilate to say, What I have written I have written, it would certainly mis-become the great God to blot so much as one name out of the Lambs book of life written by himself before the world was. We may take it for granted that this book will not admit of any Deleatur, or of any Expurgatorie Index, whatever some pretend to the contrary, whose arguments have been elsewhere sufficiently answered. I shall only here propound, and endeavor to satisfy another objection, whereof no mention is there made. Paul knew himself to be a chosen vessel, for Ananias had told him so from Christ's own mouth: yet speaks of himself as of one in some danger, at least in some possibility of becoming a Reprobate, in these words, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway, or, as other translations have it, a Reprobate. Ergo, the decree of Election is not irreversible.

Resp. To prepare the way for a full answer, let it be considered, 1. That the places cited in the objection are not fitly opposed; because the former is not necessarily to be understood of election to salvation, but may probably be limited to Paul's being chosen an Apostle: Neither is the latter infallibly meant of that reprobation, which is contradistinct to the said election, but of somewhat else. Yea although it be true, and may strongly be inferred from other texts, that Paul knew his own election to life eternal, the reprobation spoken of in the end of the verse is not to be taken in the most rigid sense, but in a milder. 2. That our Apostle, (according to his custom in sundry epistles) was in the end of this chapter fallen upon the use of terms agonistical, borrowed from the Olympic and other Grecian games in that age; as appeareth in the foregoing verses. Know ye not that they who run in a race &c. Every man that striveth for the mastery &c. I so run, not as uncertainly. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air. And that in the last verse he hath no less then four allusions to these exercises. One in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to cuffing, wherein the combatants were wont with their blows to make one another livid under their eyes; so did he by acts of mortification beat himself as it were black and blue. A second in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to the exercise of wrestling, wherein the antagonists mutually strove to cast each other to the ground, and to keep them under. So he, the better to subdue his body of sin, was careful to keep down his body of flesh, which if pampered, is apt to rebel. A third in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . We read in the second to Timothy chapter the second, verse the fifth, of their striving lawfully, that is, according to the rules and laws prescribed for that game respectively, in which they were to strive for the mastery. The officer by whom these laws were propounded to the combatants was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Paul in allusion thereunto saith of himself 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because in the discharge of his Apostolical office he had acquainted them with the rules & laws of Christianity. A fourth in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 unapproved, a term of disgrace put upon those whom such as were to judge and pass sentence upon the combatants disallowed. Whereas those whom the judges rewarded were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 approved ones. 3. That this unapprovedness may either relate to God himself, or to good men. If to God the supreme judge, then whosoever carrieth himself amiss in any particular course of living, offendeth the Lord, falleth under his fatherly displeasure, and is as to this particular, a person disallowed and rejected, how firm soever his station may be as to the main. If to good men, who are subordinately to judge of their preachers doctrine and conversation, a teacher is then said to be unapproved of them, when upon observation of some unfaithfulness, or looseness in his demeanour, some sensuality or unlawful indulgence to his body, they begin to disesteem him, in comparison of what they did before, yea perhaps to cast him out of their affections, and of their prayers, of which till then he was a partaker.

These things premised, let it now be observed whether the meaning of the place contested about be not clearly this, or to this effect.

And if this really be the utmost importance of the text, (as for ought I know it is) without extending it to further or other kind of reprobation, I hope the objection built upon it will not need any further or other kind of answer.

§. 10. Fifthly, The Cause of divine election, about which the world is so filled with disputes, is not to be found in anything without God himself. the disputers indeed of this world lay out many thoughts, and put out many books concerning such contrivements as our corrupt reason would perhaps better allow, and our corrupt wills better affect: but holy Scripture resolveth all into the sole will of God; the good pleasure and Counsel whereof the Apostle celebrateth as the causes of our predestination. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. And again, Being predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Words so very plain and full as would certainly have put an end to altercations, and silenced disputes in these points; but that corrupt reason is extremely talkative, and the wisdom of flesh direct enmity against God, and therefore such as will never yield, till its corruption be removed; for enmity cannot be reconciled, the enemies may. Whence that excellent speech of Melancthon, worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, Dulcescet nostra de predestinatione sententia, ubi impiae rationis judicium Spiritus Dei stultificaverit. Then and there only will our doctrine of predestination have a sweet relish, when and where the Spirit of God shall have befooled the conceits of wicked reason. That which Paul celebrateth as the true cause of our election is,

1. The good pleasure of God's will, according to which he disposeth both of persons and things arbitrarily, as himself liketh best. And in this our reason would better acquiesce were it thoroughly defecated by grace: That of Christ, which never had any corruption in it, fully did: as appeareth by that famous address of his to God the father; I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

2. The counsel of his will. Although God may be truly said to act arbitrarily, yet he never doth anything unadvisedly, but according to the counsel of his will, which is always rational, though our shallow reason in this state of degeneracy and mortality be not able to fathom the depth of its contrivements, and thereupon ready to cavil at, and call in question the equity of them. Such as do so; (if any such shall cast an eye upon these papers) must give me leave to say unto them, as one of our ancient writers did to their forefathers.

To which let me add a saying of Luther, and with it conclude this Exercitation. Wherefore be not obstreperous, but hold thy

EXERCITATION 2. Preterition described. The term defended. Ephes. 1. 4. compared with Revel. 17. 8. Ephes. 1. 9. and Rom. 9. 13. expounded. God not bound to any creature, except by promise. The parable in Matth. 20. urged. The three consequents of negative reprobation. D ^r Davenants Animadversions against M ^r Hoards book recommended. The goodness of God manifested in Election, as in a most free, peculiar, ancient, leading, and standing favor.

§. 1. HAving so fully discoursed of Election, (by which the Decree of preterition is to be measured) there will be less need of enlarging much upon that. Take only this description of it; after a brief explication whereof, I intend, if God will, to proceed unto other concernments. Preterition or negative Reprobation is an eternal decree of God purposing within himself to deny unto the Non-elect that peculiar love of his, wherewith election is accompanied, as also that special grace which infallibly bringeth to glory: Of which negations, permission of sin, obduration in sin, and damnation for sin, are direct consequents. This description carries in the face of it a clear reason, why the thing described goeth under the name of Negative reprobation, because it standeth mainly in the denial of those free favors which it pleaseth God to bestow upon his elect. As for the term of preterition, we neither are, nor ought to be ashamed thereof, however some bold writers have jeered it, because it is very significant, and hath been made use of by their betters. Prosper by name, and that both in verse and in prose. For in one of his Poems he recordeth this as a Pelagian tenent

That of all mankind the Grace of Christ passeth by none. And in his Treatise de Vocatione Gentium he beginneth the thirteenth chapter of his first book with this saying, Quod si aliquos Salvantis gratia praeterierit &c. If saving grace have passed by any, it is to be referred to the unsearchable judgments of God, and those ways of his which are past finding out by us in this life. This premised, let us take a transient view of the chief particulars in the description.

§. 2. It is First an eternal decree, coeternal with that of election; for the very choosing of some to salvation implieth a passing by of such as were not chosen. Let the Reader compare that passage in Ephes. 1. 4. He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, with that parenthesis Rev. 17. 8. whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

Secondly a decree which God purposed in himself. We read in one place of the purpose of God according to Election, and in another of God's good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. The like may be said of preterition. His good pleasure is the sole fountain of both. The root of both is within himself and not in anything without him; as hath been well observed by Calvin.

Thirdly, the eternal purpose of God was to deny the Non-elect that peculiar love, wherewith his election is accompanied; in which respect he is said to hate them. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. A term by which some Divines are willing to understand no more, then his not being willing to bestow everlasting happiness upon them: because Hatred in Scripture is often put to signify a less degree of Love. We may not believe that Leah was odious to her husband; yet the text saith, God saw that Leah was hated, which is certainly to be expounded out of the verse foregoing, where it is said of Jacob that he loved Rachel more then Leah. He loved Leah perhaps less then he ought, surely less then he did her sister, and in that respect is said to have hated her. That to the Romans concerning Esau, some interpret in proportion to what is there said concerning Leah, and among the rest Aquinas. God (saith he) loveth all men in as much as he willeth some good to all; but in as much as he doth not will to all men the chief good, viz. eternal life, he is said to hate and to reprobate them.

§. 3. Fourthly, His purpose was to deny unto the non-elect that special grace, which brings infallibly to glory those whom God bestows it upon. No creature can challenge effectual grace at the hands of God, as a due debt either to his nature, or to his labor. There be many that speak and write of God saucily, as if he were bound to give this and that and the other grace, even where they can produce no promise by which he hath made himself a debtor. I cannot but commend the zeal of Peter Lombard against such men. To me (saith he) this word He ought, or he is bound seems to have much poison in it; and cannot be properly applied to God, who is no debtor to us, save only in those cases wherein he hath passed some promise. Sure I am, our Savior telleth his Disciples plainly, It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given, Matth. 13. 11. And the householder in the Parable stops the mouths of those murmurers that repined, as expecting more from him then it was his pleasure to give, with the sole consideration of its being his will to have it so. Friend, I do thee no wrong. Take what is thine, I will give to this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?

Fifthly, The consequents of the forementioned denials, are, 1. Permission of sin, particularly of unbelief. John 10. 46. Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. 2. Obduration in sin. Romans 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. 3. Condemnation for sin, Revel. 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. This last is that which by Divines is usually styled Positive Reprobation, and is clearly distinguishable from the Negative, in that the one is an act of punitive justice respecting sin committed and continued in. But the other an absolute decree of God's most free and Sovereign Will, without respect to any disposition in the creature. I call them consequents, not effects; because, though Negative Reprobation be antecedent to them all, it is not the proper cause of them. This difference between the decrees Aquinas long since took notice of.

But I am under a promise of brevity, and therefore shall add no more but only advise the English Reader, who is desirous of further information in these deep points, to procure and peruse that excellent piece of the profound Doctor Davenant printed at Cambridge, Ann. 1641. under this Title, Animadversions written by the right Reverend John Bishop of Salisbury upon a Treatise entitled, God's love to mankind: where he will not only meet with the doctrine of Predestination modestly handled, but also with ample satisfaction to most of those wicked cavils which flesh and blood have been wont to suggest against it.

§. 4. Having thus finished that preamble, which the daring Heterodoxie of some modern writers put me upon a necessity of, I proceed to the making good of two Assertions, tending to clear the former part of our present Aphorism, viz. That the Goodness of God is abundantly manifested in his Decree of our Election; and his Greatness no less in that of Preterition. In order to a demonstration of the former, I desire to have it considered, how free, how peculiar, how ancient, how leading, how lasting a favor Election is.

First, A free favor. It is therefore called Election of Grace; and spoken of as tending to the praise of the glory of free grace. The Lambs book of life (so named, because the Lamb Jesus stands there enrolled in the head of it, as the head of all the Elect, and the Captain of that salvation whereunto they are chosen) is a book of love. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. It was so said of Christ, and may be applied to all the Elect in their measure. Hence Paul styleth his Thessalonians, Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God had chosen them to salvation: and God expresseth the Election of Jacob, by Jacob have I loved, to show that free love on God's part is the fountain of this favor. We love persons or things, because they are lovely. God loveth them first, after makes them lovely, then loves them more for being so. The cause of our love is in the objects; of God's, in himself: we are predestinated aster the counsel of his own will, not after the good inclinations of ours.

Secondly, A peculiar favor. Rarity much enhaunceth a benefit. Immunities and privileges are therefore much valued and stood upon, because they are not common to many, and are therefore more rejoiced in, because but few partake of them. There were but eight persons saved from the Deluge of waters in Noah's time, who is accordingly said to have fround grace in the eyes of the Lord, in that he and his were preserved when all the world beside perished. And in regard the Deluge of fire that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah swept away all the other inhabitants, but Lot only, and his nearest relations were exempted from it: God is said to have magnified his mercy toward them, as Lot acknowledged, saying, Behold thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast shown unto me. We should all have perished in the Deluge of fiery indignation, had not God elected some few whom he hath not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. They are but few, as Scripture tells us again and again, Many are called, but few chosen. The goodness of God is therefore to be more acknowledged in so peculiar a favor.

§. 5. 3 ^lie . An ancient favor. Old things, if evil, are so much the worse for that; Old leaven is to be purged out, and the old man to be put off. But every good thing is commended by its antiquity. One said well that Old wood is best to burn, old friends best to trust, and old books best to read. What price do Scholars put upon an ancient Manuscript? Doubtless the oldest of all Manuscripts, is the book of life: and the writing of our names therein the firstborn of all God's favors. If God so value the first-fruits of our services, as he doth; how careful should we be to magnify the first-fruits of his goodness? If old charters be of so great esteem as they are in the world, how great an estimate should we set upon the most ancient Magna Charta of our Election, having this seal, The Lord knows who are his.

Fourthly, A leading favor. Those are the most valuable blessings that have influence upon sundry others, which they draw infallibly after them. Such is Election. Paul makes it the first linck of his golden chain, and shows how introductive it is of all the rest. whom God did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Here is a chain which God lets down from heaven that by it he may draw up his Elect thither. The first linck of it is Predestination, taken in a restrained sense for the Election of grace. The next Effectual Vocation; into this the former hath a causal influence according to what the Lord once said by his Prophet Jeremy, chap. 31. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindenes, have I drawn thee. Election having once pitchit upon a man, it will find him out, and call him home, where ever he be. Zacchaeus out of cursed Jericho; Abraham out of idolotrous Ur of the Chaldeans; Nicodemus and Paul out of the College of the Pharisees, Christ's sworn enemies; Dionysius and Damaris, out of superstitious Athens. In what dunghill soever God's jewels be hid, Election will both find them out there, and fetch them out from thence. The third linck is Justification; the dependence thereof upon Election may be gathered from that passage in the same chapter to the Romans, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. As also from the vision in Zechariah, where Joshua the high priest representing the people, appeared clothed with filthy garments in sign of guilt by them contracted, till God had commanded, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. Whereupon there was a fair Miter put upon his head, and he clothed with change of garments, in reference to their change of condition from guilt to free justification; the spring whereof is hinted to in that speech, The Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. The Fourth and last is Glorification, That takes in both the beginnings of glory in sanctification (of which Paul in his second to the Corinthians the third chapter and last verse, We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord: and of which he telleth us elsewhere, that all the graces of which it consists proceed from this prime grace of Election, (saying, God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him ) and the consummation of glory in heaven; the foundation whereof is by our Savior clearly laid in the Fathers giving us to him by Election at first, This, saith he, is the Fathers will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. So true is that of a Modern writer, Election depends upon God alone, all other blessings upon Election.

Fifthly, A standing favor. The favors of men may be suddenly changed into frowns; as those of King Ahasuerus towards Hamon were: who but he over night in the Kings esteem? next day he will not endure the sight of him. But God's are immutable. All the blessings of the Covenant of grace are sure mercies, according to that by the Prophet Isaiah, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David; Election in a special manner. Our Apostle accordingly intimates in one place, that the purpose of God according to election must stand: and affirms in another, that this foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows who are his. In which few words, we have no fewer then three grounds of its stability; a Foundation, a Seal, and a Science. Election is the Foundation of God; a firm Foundation that stands sure. With us things founded upon a rock, have great stability; the rock of ages, as he is called, even God himself, his good pleasure and counsel is that upon which our Election is founded. With us, writings once sealed receive a confirmation thereby, and become unrepealable. God hath set his seal to this Decree. With us, knowledge or science is of things certain and unalterable, not as opinion, which being of things only probable may be changed; The seal here is, The Lord knows who are his. No wonder then if the Lord be forever found to make good that which he said by his Apostle, God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew. If having named Election in the foregoing verse, he presently subjoins, The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

EXERCITATION 3.

An Introduction to Romans 9. Most part of that chapter expounded, together with sundry passages in chapter 10, and 11. for proof of these two conclusions. 1. That Paul in Rom. 9. doth upon occasion propound and prosecute the doctrine of Predestination. 2. That he derives the Decree of preterition from the Sovereign greatness of God. A Consectary showing how useful the said doctrine is to sober minds.

§. 1. FOr a full proof of our second Assertion, That the greatness of God is abundantly manifested by his decree of Preterition, we must of necessity have recourse to the ninth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as unto the proper seat of that argument; although divers from abroad, and some at home by foreign interpretations, forced Glosses and strained Paraphrases, have endeavored to carry the sense quite another way; against the poison of whose endeavors our people may perhaps stand in need of an Antidote.

It shall be my care, by Divine assistance, (which is always needful, especially in the debating of such mysteries) to present them with one: and in as calm a way as may be, without provoking, however without reproaching such as are contrary minded, to demonstrate these two Conclusions, viz. That Paul in the ninth to the Romans doth upon occasion propound, and prosecute the doctrine of Predestination. And that he plainly derives the Decree of Preterition from the Sovereign greatness of God. But before we enter upon so great a depth (which I do with fear and trembling) let it be observed that our Apostle from the end of the eight, to the beginning of his twelfth chapter, continues a profound complicate discourse wholly about the main concernments of his countrymen the Jews; and that the best help we have for enlightening certain clauses in the ninth, ought to be fe • ched from passages in the tenth and eleventh Chapters: the neglect whereof, I verily think, hath occasioned the miscarriages of so many in their interpretations of that Scripture. I shall hope to improve the Observation to good purpose.

§. 2. Concerning the former of our Conclusions, there will be no need of going far to seek the occasion of Paul's falling upon this Doctrine. He had carefully and continually preached faith in Christ, as the only way of salvation, in opposition to all others. This, however embraced by divers Gentiles, could by no means find entertainment with the Jews. Be pleased to compare Chapter 9. 31, 32, 33. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness, hath not obtained to the Law of righteousness. Wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law: for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold I lay in S • on a stumbling-stone, and rock of offense: and whosoever believes on him, shall not be ashamed, with Chapter tenth, verse 2, 3, 4. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. This their stumbling at Christ, as they generally did, caused a great stumble in the thoughts of considering men, who could not but stand amazed to see, that whereas God had set up but one only way to be laid hold upon, for the attainment of blessedness, his own only people in the eye of the world, should almost universally decline that, and venture their souls upon another. Yet this they did, even they who are here so magnificently described, Chapter 9. verse 4, 5. Who were Israelites; to whom pertained the Adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: Whose were the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for evermore, Amen. Hereupon some were apt to cry out,

Our Apostle to recover them out of these dumps, leads them by degrees into the knowledge of Divine Predestination, as the root of all this: giving them first to understand, that all who bore the name of Israelites, and enjoyed the Ordinances, were not indeed such children of God, as belonged to the Election of grace, and therefore did not close with Christ in the use of them▪ as some few did, upon whom the word of grace weas effectual, and in whom (as few as they were) God's promise to Abraham was preserved. As for those unto whom his Gospel was hid, they were as he elsewhere tells the Corinthians, a sort of lost men and women. For this see Chapter 9. verse 6, 7, 8. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Where the Elect people of God (who only are accounted the spiritual seed, and who only in the conclusion will concur to constitute Christ Mystical) are styled children of the Promise, perhaps in reference to that grace and Promise of eternal life, given to them in Christ Jesus before the world began, to which I have spoken before in this Aphorism, Exercitation the first, Paragraph the third: however in allusion to the birth of Isaac, who was produced above the power of nature, by virtue of a promise declaring God's will and pleasure to have it so; for the Elect in the respective hours of their conversion, are all of them born again not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God Who of his own will begetteth them with the word of truth, that they should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

§. 3. Having thus given a more obscure intimation of some few elect ones complying with the Gospel, although most part of the Jews were recusants as to that interest; he goeth on to profess it more openly in the beginning of the eleventh chapter, God hath not cast away his people which • e foreknew verse the second, the infallible meaning whereof may be gathered from that in Peter, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And more plainly yet in verse the seventh and eighth of the same chapter, The Election hath obtained, and the rest were blinded; According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. But to return to our ninth chapter. Who can advisedly read that passage in his discourse about Jacob and Esau, That the purpose of God according to Election might stand, and consult the circumstances of of it (viz. the children's not yet being born, nor having done good or evil; as also a choice no way founded upon him that willeth, or upon him that runneth, but upon God alone who showeth mercy ) and not reflect upon that election by me described in the first Exercitation under this Aphorism §. 2.? Add hereunto those Apostolical distributions of men into those on whom the Lord will have mercy, and those whom he will harden in verse the eighteenth, that is in other terms, Elect and Reprobate. Also into vessels of mercy, and vessels of wrath verses 22, 23. What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory? Where I desire to have it punctually observed that the vessels of wrath are only said to be fitted to destruction, without naming by whom, God, Satan, or themselves; whereas on the other side God himself is expressly said to have prepared his chosen vessels of mercy unto glory. Which was purposely done (as I humbly conceive) to intimate a remarkable difference between election and preterition; in that Election is a proper cause not only of salvation itself, but of all the graces which have any causal tendency thereunto; and therefore God is said to prepare his elect to glory: Whereas negative reprobation is no proper cause, either of damnation it self, or of the sin that bringeth it, but an antecedent only; wherefore the Non-elect are indeed said to be fitted to that destruction which their sins in the conclusion bring upon them, but not by God. I call it a remarkable difference, because where it is once rightly apprehended and truly believed, it sufficeth to stop the mouth of one of those greatest calumnies and odiums which are usually cast upon our doctrine of predestination, viz. that God made sundry of his creatures on purpose to damn them: a thing which the rhetoric of our adversaries is wont to blow up to the highest pitch of aggravation. But is as soon blown away by such as can tell them in the words of the Excellent D ^r Davenant,

(e. gr. that he made the sun to enlighten the world, because he filled it with lightsomeness.)

§. 4. We have seen our Apostle propounding the doctrine of predestination in this his discourse; see how he prosecutes the same more ways then one.

I. By producing certain instances. The persons he instanceth in, if not as solemn examples, yet, as types and figures are at least, of election Isaac and Jacob; of reprobation, Ishmael and Esau. It is the grand privilege of God's elect to have his covenant established with them in special manner. The Messias, saith the Angel in Daniel, was cut off, but not for himself; And he shall confirm the Covenant with many. The word is Larabbim with those excellent ones, by whom Piscator understandeth the elect, those Many whom God's righteous servant is said to justify, Isaiah 53. 11. where we meet with the same word. If so, who more fit to figure out them then our father Isaac? concerning whom the Lord said to Abraham, I will establish my Covenant with him for an everlasting Covenant, and with his seed after him. Again, the style of all those who are written in heaven, that is, of the Elect, is the general Assembly, and Church of the 〈◊〉 stborn. If so, who more fit to typify them then Jacob, a man of all others most famous for procuring a primogeniture in an extraordinary way? As for reprobation, the objects whereof are castaways, well might Ishmael stand for a figure of them, because of him Sarah said unto her husband, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And her word was ratified by God himself, saying to Abraham, In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy • eed be called. As also Esau, who here falleth under two sad characters; One of God's hatred, then which nothing more dreadful, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, verse 13. the other of servitude, verse 12. The elder shall serve the younger. Concerning which, M ^r Ainsworth hath these words, Servitude

Romans 9. 10, 11, 12, 13. So he.

§. 5. The main exception, which our adversaries hitherto have been wont to take at this and the like expositions, ariseth thus. Jacob and Esau are considerable in a double capacity, the one Personal, as they were this and that individual member of mankind; the other Patriarchal, as they were heads of several Nations, Jacob of the Israelites, Esau of the Edomites or Idumeans. They suppose we cannot safely apply the oracle delivered to Rebecca unto their persons, seeing Malachi long since expounded it of their posterity in these words, Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord? yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness &c.

My conceptions concerning this matter (which as I would not impose upon any, far be such presumption from me, so I would have no Reader contemn, till he have considered them) are as followeth. According to their double capacity, the answer of God to Rebecca about them seemeth to have had a double aspect: One to their posterity regarding temporal things especially, of which Malachi speaketh, another to their persons eying chiefly their spiritual concernments; and of that Paul treats in Romans 9. as the context importeth. Nor can this be wondered at by such as consider how usual it hath been with God, as to discover himself by degrees (witness that in Deuteronomy, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them, he shined forth from mount Paran ) so to reserve more spiritual discoveries for Gospeltimes.

§. 6. Whereas it is further objected that the Elders serving the Younger was never verified in the person of Esau, who did never servilely submit to Jacob; I answer. 1. He that should go about to prove that negative, would find an hard task; but suppose it proved, yet in point of right Esau as having sold his birth-right became servant to him that bought it. For in this respect it is said to Cain the elder brother concerning Abel, Unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 2. In point of fact, time was when Esau became a very humble suppliant to Jacob for a mess of pottage. Feed me▪ I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Now The borrower, saith Solomon, is a servant to the lender. How much more he that craves to him that giveth? Besides if the word serve be taken in a large sense, Esau served Jacob well-nigh all his life long, and brought him much nearer to God by vexing him. Non obsequendo, sed persequendo, as one saith, not by obeying, but by opposing. Which put me in mind of that story in Bromiardus concerning an apprentice that had served an hard master, by whom he had been often sore beaten. These blows the Lord had made a means of the man's conversion; whereupon, lying upon his death▪bed, and his master standing by, catched fast hold on his hands and kissed them, saying, Hae manus perduxerunt me ad paradisum, These hands have helped to bring me to heaven. 3. The Patriarchal capacity doth not exclude, but comprehend the Personal; for Jacob and his Israeli • es, Esau and his Edomites make a Nation. In which respect, when David put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David's servants; Esau himself in his offspring might not unfitly be said to have served Jacob in his. Lastly, If no more can be had then this bare acknowledgement that our exposition must be confined to their posterity, even that will go nigh to serve our turn, and to suit with the Apostles scope, if it be considered, how exceeding fit the Israelites were to typify election, of whom God said, Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are on the earth. The Edomites to figure out reprobates, seeing of them it is said by the Prophet, They shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.

§. 7. 11. By resolving certain queries. The first whereof is that in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Had the doctrine of predestination which Paul taught been the same with that of our modern Remonstrants, viz. God's electing upon foresight of men's being in Christ by faith, and reprobating upon foresight of their final unbelief and impenitence, there would then have been no occasion for the query; for reason how corrupt soever would soon have closed with the equity of such decrees to render par pari, like to like. It is God's awarding paribus imparia unlike destinies to men of like conditions considered in the same lump, and doing this arbitrarily, according to the good pleasure and counsel of his own will, that setteth it on crying out of iniquity in God's proceedings. But what doth Paul answer? He abhorreth the thoughts of such a thing. God forbid, it is as if he had said, far be it from everyone that pretends to a rational being, much more then every Christian to entertain the least thought of a possibility of injustice in any decree of God, whose will is the supreme rule of righteousness. The judgments of God (as Austin hath said truly of them) can neither be fully comprehended, nor justly reprehended of any. Let me desire such as are so very apt to be cavilling at them, to swallow and digest by a serious consideration, those admonitions and reproofs which a late Belgic Contra-remonstrant hath handed to their fellows.

Yea, Our Apostle not content with a bare expression of abhorrency, goes on to free the decrees of God from all iniquity, each by itself. Election, because it is an act of mear bounty & free grace, in performing whereof God cannot possibly be unjust, as being under no law, but at absolute liberty to dispose of his free undeserved favors according to the good pleasure and counsel of his own will, to which purpose that is cited out of Exodus 15. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion and that inferred v. 16. So then it, that is the the purpose of God according to election, of which before v. 11. is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. As for reprobation rightly stated, no iniquity will be found therein, if the grand laws of the universe be duly heeded, which is that all creatures be subservient to their makers glory according to the proverb. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil: Seeing the end of reprobating any is mainly this, that God may thereby be exalted, as Paul tell's us here v. 17. in the instance of Pharaoh. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

§. 8. The nex Query is that in v. 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth • e yet find • ault? for who hath resisted his will? He had said concerning God in the words immediately foregoing, He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Corrupt nature catching at the latter clause, is ready to impute unto God himself, (as injustice before, so from hence) rigor and cruelty, for that notwithstanding his own willing in a sense the hard-heartedness of Reprobates, he yet finds fault with them for it. yea, and damns them in the conclusion, although his will be irresistible. The substance of this cavil, namely what influence the Will and Providence of God hath into men's induration, and how guilty themselves are of it, shall hereafter be made to appear (if the Lord will) in explication of the following Aphorism. Meanwhile, it is carefully to be observed how S ^e . Paul, as provoked by the malapartness of men, who though conscious to themselves of their own hardening themselves, will be laying the blame upon God, strikes in with his Apostolical authority, and gives them this severe check, Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Qui ex adverso respon • as Deo, as it is well rendered by Beza in reference to the continual and manifold bublings up of carnal reason against divine dispensations and decrees, that which our English Proverb calls chopping Logic with god. A vice which our very being men should suffice to wean us from. So as the word, O man here seems to carry an emphasis in it, which Austin long ago observed in sundry passages of one and the same set of his Sermons.

And yet again most fully.

§. 9. His third way of prosecution is, by alleging certain testimonies out of Moses and the Prophets. I shall only fix upon one, namely that in Romans 9. 27. Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel; Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. Who so list, may see this and the following verses expounded to our purpose by the learned Ludovic. de Dieu of God's, Decrees, yea which (is more) Paul himself interpreting the remnant of God's Elect in Rom. 11. 2, 3, 4, 5. where the conclusion is, Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the Election of grace.

And now, Reader, judge I pray thee between us; and tell me after all this, that hath been produced, whether a vehement agitatour in these points, had any just cause to say as one did,

Meaning (as he there expresseth himself) a peremptory Election and Reprobation from eternity of a determinate number of men, under a mere personal consideration.

§. 10. As for the proof of our second Assertion, those words in verse 20. 21, 22. Shall the thing formed, say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto houour, and another unto dishonor? What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? clearly hold forth to my apprehension the Sovereign greatness and power of God, as the fountain of Negative Reprobation; and contain a direct allusion to that in Isaiah, 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What mak • st thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Now if the Prophet and Apostle, or rather the Holy Ghost by them, do rightly infer the silence and submission of the clay from its relation to the Potter; much more may the quiet submission of Non-Elect persons to the disposing will of God, be from hence concluded; (as Lessius demonstrates) seeing mankind hath much more dependence upon the Sovereign Lord of all, then a Potter can challenge over any vessel whatsoever: and this notwithstanding they are not yet fully convinced of the reason of all God's proceedings with them. Such as still expect that, and therefore fly in the face of God for want of satisfaction in this and that particular, must give me leave to send them to the Morals of Gregory for the learning of better manners. Man (saith he) considering himself, holds his peace, and he that acknowledgeth himself but dust, is afraid to discuss the judgments of God. For him to seek a reason of God's secret Decrees, is nothing else but to rise up proudly against the counsel of his Will. Wherefore when the cause of any fact of his is not discerned, it calls for our silence and humility; for the sense of flesh sufficeth not to pierce into the secrets of Majesty. So as he that sees not a reason of that or that Divine dispensation, by considering his own infirmity, sees a clear reason why he sees it not.

§. 11. But, say Gregory what he can, yea and Paul himself what he will, the fault is not like to be mended so long as carnal minds have to do with these points. We are all by nature Enemies in our minds, as our Apostle tells the Colossians: yea, the carnal mind, or the wisdom of the flesh (as he speaks to the Romans) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: whence it is that one or other of the great Masters of Reason (as they would be accounted) although they be not unwilling to yield an independent Sovereignty and Arbitrary working to some men, as in the Eastern parts of the world most do to their absolute Monarchs as at this day, and the Roman Senate did of old to Augustus Caesar, witness Dion Cassius in his history; The Senate, saith he, freed him from all the necessity of law, so as he might do or not do what he list, as having both himself and the law at his disposal: yet out of their deep enmity and malignity against God, deny him the like prerogative, and will therefore be always found opposing his Decrees, and those most, that are most Arbitrary. This hath been the root of that notorious piece of opposition in laboring that the decrees of God should be wholly silenced, and either not studied, or if studied, not disputed, or if disputed, not preached of. Some such there were in Austin's time, against whom he bends his discourse in the 14, 15, and 16. Chapters of his book, De Bono Perseverantiae. And some there are at this day that rank the points of Predestination among Fruitless and Sapless Speculations.

Holy Bucer was of a far different judgment. He in one of his first Lectures at Cambridge upon the epistle to the Ephesians, after published by Tremellius. Si hujus electionis &c. If the memory and meditation of God's election were taken from us, good Lord, how should we resist the Devil! For so often as Satan tempts my faith, which he is ever tempting of, then do I always betake myself to free election &c. A little after he asserts the doctrine of election as a principle ground not of solid comfort only, but of solid piety, and of true love to God; in which regards he would by • all means have it preached in coetu fidelium, in the open congregation. Verily this famous University is likely to continue famous, so long as it continueth orthodox. We may expect to share in the Apostles benediction, and hope that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit will be with us, so long as we teach, to the praise of the glory of free grace, the love of God in electing freely what persons he will; the grace of Christ in dying freely, and with a special intention for those whom the Father had elected; and the communication of the Spirit in freely converting and finally preserving those whom the father had so chosen, and the Son so died for. Sure I am our blessed Savior once said to his Disciples, In this rejoice that your names are written in heaven; and that nothing doth more inflame a Christians love then a firm belief of his personal election from eternity, after he hath been able to evidence the writing of his name in heaven, by the experience he hath had of an heavenly calling, and an heavenly conversation. When the Spirit of God (whose proper work it is to assure, as it was the Fathers to elect, and the Sons to redeem) hath written the law of life in a Christians heart, and therewith enabled him to know assuredly that his name is written in the book of life; he cannot then but melt with flames of holy affection, according to that most emphatical speech of Bernard, God deserveth love from such as he hath loved long before they could deserve it. And his love to God will be without end, who knoweth that God's love to him was without any beginning. I confess indeed that the book of life, like the tree of life in paradise, hath a tree of knowledge growing hard by which cannot with safety be tasted of. There are some nice and needless questions started about it that might be spared, and should be forborne. But these high walls and sons of Anak should by no means prevail with us to play the unworthy spies, and bring up a bad report, or give way to any brought up by others upon a land that floweth with so much milk and honey as the doctrine of predestination doth. Surely for men to silence it, were to stop up those wels, which the Prophets and Apostles, especially Paul, have digged in their writings for the refreshing of thirsty souls; yea to endeavor the cancelling of that first and great charter of our salvation.

EXERCITATION 4.

Creation what. Pythagoras and Trismegist. Hebr. 6. 3. opened. Scripture-Philosophy. Ex nihilo nihil fit, how true. Creature what. God's goodness in works of creation, particularly in the framing of Adam. The consultation upon which, pattern after which, parts of which he framed. Two histories, one of a Priest, the other of a Monk. The original of body and soul improved.

§. 1. THe word Creation hath divers acceptions. It is taken either largely, for the production of anything remarkably good or evil; so magistrates in a Common-wealth, and Graduates in an University are said to be created, God is said to create a clean heart, and we are called his workmanship oreated in Christ unto good works: and for evil, Moses in Numbers speaking of the remarkable judgment inflicted on Kora • and his complices useth this expression, Si creationem creaverit Deus, if God created a creature: the radix is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Or limitedly, with some restraint; and that either strictly, for the generation of living creatures in a natural way, so in Horace, Fortes creantur • ortibus & bonis, and in Virgil, Sulmone creatos quatuor h • c juvenes. Whence also, procreare, or more strictly, for the making of a thing out of some preexistent matter, but such as is naturally indisposed and unapt for that production, whereas in generation there is always materia habilis & disposita; as when God created man of the dust of the earth, and woman of man's rib, or most strictly, for the production of a thing without any preexistent matter at all out of mere nothing; we are to speak of it in the two latter senses, for so it belongeth to God alone. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Yea so necessary was the confession of this truth with the utmost hazard to distinguish God from Idols, that to the end the Jews, who were then captives in Babylon, might not be wholly to seek for a profession of their faith, they had this verse in the Hebrew Bible written then, and so still in Chaldee letters, Thus shall ye say unto them, The God's that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. Not unsuitable whereunto is that of Pythagoras long since cited by Justin Martyr, Whosoever would from hence • orth challenge any Diety to himself, must be able to show such a world as this, and to say in truth, This is of my making. and that of Trismegist (an heathen too) in one of his books; There are mainly three to be considered; God, the World, and Man: the world made for man, and man for God.

§. 2. But we have a more sure word of Prophesy, and to that let us take heed: It will show us, First, How we Christians by faith understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Well might a late writer conclude his Discourse of Creation with this Epiphonema, Quantum est quod nescimus! The truth is it is but little that we can learn from Philosophers, even concerning Creation itself, (the only Article of the Creed which they speak fully too) unacquainted with Scripture. Which made Maximilian the first to say, that the Ethnics were to be heard not as singing Nightingales, but as croaking frogs: And two great Physicians betake themselves to the study of Scripture for understanding the secrets of Nature. One Sennertus, who findeth much fault with those who perverted the text of Moses, and interpreted him out of heathen writers, ausu infelici, (saith he) & non tolerando by an unhappy and intolerable undertaking. The other Vallesius, who in the Preface to his Sacra Philosophia telleth us that whereas he had in the former part of his life commented upon all Aristotle's Acromasticks, and many pieces both of Hippocrates and Galen, he was resolved to devote the remainder of his days to the study of the holy Scriptures, and to seek his Philosophy out of them for time to come. By faith we understand. A Christian firmly believes those truths concerning the time and manner of the worlds creation, because he hath Scripture testimony for them. That the worlds were framed, speaking after the Jewish mode, though there be indeed but one world, in the plural number; for the Hebrews then were wont to mention a three • old, viz. an inferior, a middle, and a superior world, as Cameron telleth us. Framed by the word of God, saith this place. When Solomon was to build a magnificent Temple, he needed many workmen, and they many tools. Not so God, who did all without any coadjutour, any instrument, by the sole word of his command. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Let them pray • e the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created. Art can work, if Nature first afford it some complete matter: Let an artificer have a stone, he can make a statue, otherwise not. Nature can work if there be a principle to work upon, though incomplete; Let there be seed, it can produce a plant, let there be spawn, a fish. But to work without preexistent matter, so as to bring forth the first plant without seed, the first fish without a spawn, yea the first principles of these and all things else out of nothing, by his sole word, is proper to God. So that things which are seen (as it followeth here) were not made of things which do appear. That Rule, Ex nihilo nihil fit, holds in natura constituta, now that God hath set nature in a course of working by secondary causes enabled to produce effects like themselves; but in natura constituenda: it was otherwise, when God wrought by his word of command, and is therefore called Elohim by Moses two and thirty times in his history of creation, as Mercer observeth.

The Schoolmen for the most part express that which is here called, Things that do not appear, by the term Nothing, either simply Nothing, or No such thing, as it appeared to be at first: yet when they speak of Non-ens, they take not the word materially, as if mear Nothing were the matter of which any Being were framed; but Terminatively, as the term from which the Creator moved. For example, the Angels, they say, and the souls of men, together with the Essential forms of natural bodies were not then educed ex potentia materiae, (as they are since in the ordinary course of generation by particular agents;) but induced in materiam by God himself the universal cause, and had an immediate Production by the Creator: whereas some other things, as the Sun & Mans body, had a mediate creation, as being produced ex non-ente tali from such things as of themselves could not have caused such effects, but by virtue of God's creative word. Doctor Hall hath given us the true notion of this in a compendious saying of his, God made something out of nothing, and of that something, all things. So as if all things be run to their first Original, they will be found to come up out of the womb of Nothing, from whence nothing but Almightiness could have fetched them.

§. 3. That although the creatures be now subject to vanity, yet the goodness of God did shine forth in their first production, and is still abundantly manifested in them. The creature, saith Paul, speaking of its present state, was made subject to vanity. Whatsoever thing had any being of itself, and was not forever, but did receive a being in time, and that from God, is a creature, saith Daneus well: thereby excluding the Divinity of Christ which was from everlasting, as the Angels were not, but produced by God in time; and sins of all sorts, because though God be someway an actor about, yet he is no author of them; as also works of art, for which God enables men, but produceth them not. The vanity which all such things are subject to, is partly Negative, a non -ability to serve man as they did before the fall; after it the Lord said to Adam, Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Partly Positive; whence that of Solomon, Behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yet if any shall hereupon conclude, that it was so from the beginning, Moses will expressly confute him, by whom we are told, that when God at the very end of his creation Saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good; which to me is a demonstration that the Angels were not then fallen. Yea if any shall deny that the goodness of God is still visible in them, let that saying of the Psalmist stop his mouth, The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. What he predicates of the earth, I am not afraid to extend to the sea, and to all other parts of the Universe, They are all at this day full of the goodness of the Lord: the sea especially, which we Islanders are especially bound to take notice of by way of rejoicing, and to glorify God for, according to these direct places, Glorify ye the Lord, even the name of the Lord God of Israel, in the isles of the sea. And in the Psalms, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof. Well may the earth rejoice herein, because if the Lord did not so reign as to set bounds to that (whose natural place is above the earth, as Psalm 104. informs us) it would all quickly be overflown. Well may the multitude of the isles be glad thereof: for what are they in regard of the Ocean that surrounds them, but as so many nutshels in a great vessel of water; how suddenly drowned, if God did not reign so as to restrain that element?

§. 4. But I must not allow myself too much scope, I shall therefore restrain my future discourse upon this head to the sole creation of man, and show how goodness appeared in it. It is reported as the speech of Favorinus; That in the vast world of creatures, there is nothing truly great except the little world of man. Surely, next to the knowledge of God, there is nothing of more concernment to us; and therefore let none wonder at me, who cannot go over all, for singling out his creation to be insisted upon: concerning which I intend to show out of certain texts in Genesis, the consultation upon which, the pattern after which, and the parts of which he was made at first.

For the first, It is the manner of Artificers to deliberate much, and to put themselves to more then ordinary pains about their Master-pieces. Man was to be the Master-piece of this visible world, and accordingly Moses speaking of God according to the manner of men, brings him in consulting about so prime a piece. God said, Let us make man: whereas most other things were made with a word speaking, Let there be light, and there was light. Let the earth bring forth, and it was so. Here the Creator calls as it were a solemn Council of the sacred persons in Trinity, when he is about to proceed to the making of man. Which is to be taken notice of, both because other Scriptures use the plural number where man's creation is spoken of (as in Eccles. 12. 1. Remember thy creator: according to the Original, Creatours; and Job. 35. 10. Where is God my maker? Hebrew, Makers: and because it should restrain us from deriding any man's deformity, for fear of our reproaching his Maker. To which purpose that history is very remarkable. An Emperor of Germany came upon a Lordsday morning unattended to a poor country Church, where, pretending himself a soldier, he was present at Mass, which was said by the parish Priest, a man so deformed, that he was saith mine Author, Poene portentum naturae, almost a monster in nature. And as the Emperor wondered with in himself, that God, (whose beauty and Majesty is infinite) would be served by so deformed a creature, it came to pass that the Priest reading the hundred Psalm, which was in the course of his Liturgy to be rehearsed upon that day, pronounced the second verse thereof, Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves, in such a different tone and voice from that which he before used, that the Emperor apprehended it as a thing ordained by Almighty God to meet with and answer his present cogitation, and began to entertain so reverent an opinion of the Priest, that having informed himself after Mass of his great virtue, he made him Arch-Bishop of Colen, much against the good man's will: who notwithstanding behaved himself in that great charge with singular commendation, and left a most sweet savor behind him.

§. 5. For the second. The pattern after which man was made, is sometimes called Image alone. So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; sometimes likeness alone, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Sometimes both, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: which makes a wise interpreter think that when they are joined, it is by Hendiadys, and that the Holy Ghost meaneth an Image most like his own, ad imaginem & similitudinem suam, that is, ad quàm simillimam sui imaginem. It is exceeding much for man's honor, that he is an Epitomie of the world, an abridgement of other creatures, partaking with the stones in being, with the stars in motion, with the plants in growing, with beasts in sense, and with Angels in science. But his being made after God's Image is far more. As great men are wont, they often erect a stately building, then cause their own picture to be hung up in it that spectators may know who was the chief Founder of it: so when God had created the Fabric of this world, the last thing he did was the setting up his own Picture in it, creating man after his own image. Now there is a threefold sense of this phrase: for the image of God is taken, first, in a large sense, and so it is appliable unto all men in regard of the substance of their souls, which are invisible, incorporeal. and intelligent, as God is. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. And again in James, Therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God. We read of the Emperor Theodosius, that having exacted a new tribute from the people of Antioch, there arose a commotion, in which the people broke down the Statue of the Empress Placilla his late wife. He in a rage sent his Forces against the city to sack it. One Macedonius a Monk interceded thus. If the Emperor be so much, and so justly offended that the image of his wife was so defaced, shall not the king of heaven (said the Monk) be angry at him if he shall deliberately deface and break the image of God in so many men as are like to perish in this Massacre. What a vast difference is there betwixt reasonable creatures, and that brazen image? we for that image are easily able to set up one hundred, but the Emperor with all his power is not able to restore so much as an hair of these men, if once he kill them. upon which admonition Theodosius, it is said, forbore his design. Secondly, in a strict sense. So 'tis appliable only to Christ, who is the image of the invisible God; the brightness of his glory, and express image of his person. For all the three things that go to make a perfect image, viz. Likeness, Derivation, and Agreement in nature are concurrent here. The kings image is in his coin, and in his son, but after a different manner. In his coin there may be likeness and derivation, but not identity of Nature, which is also added in his son. In Saints there are the former; they are like to God in their qualities derived from him; but in Christ all three. Thirdly in a middle sense, neither so largely as to extend to all men, nor so strictly as to be restrained unto Christ alone, but between both. So taken, it is nothing else but that conformity to God from which all men fell in the first Adam, and unto which none but Saints are restored by the second.

§. 6. For the third, The parts of which man consisteth, are body and soul; Moses at first speaks to both, The Lord God (saith he) formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul. God had before made Spirits by themselves, and bodies by themselves, some celestial, others terrestrial; now on the sixth day for a conclusion of his works, he frames a creature consisting of a spirit and a body joined together, in whom he includes the choice perfections of all the former. One observes that God hath joined all things in the world by certain Media. The earth and water are coupled by slime; the air and water by vapors; Exhalations are a middle between air and fire; Quick silver a middle between water and metals; coral between roots and stones, so man between beasts and Angels. Manilius hath comprehended much in few verses,

In English thus, Where he doth in effect call his body 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a little world, and his soul 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a little God. In the pursuance of the former, the Stoics were wont to say, That it was better being a fool in an human shape, then being wise in the form of a beast. Yea Solomon himself in the twelfth of Ecclesiastes findeth in his head both Sun, Moon, and Stars. Well therefore may his head resemble the heavens where these lights are (as our eyes also are in our upper parts) without which the world would be a dungeon; his heart the fire, it being kept hot by continual motion, and conveying natural heat to the whole body; his blood and other humors the water; his spirits the air; and his flesh and bones the earth. In prosecution of the latter, Tully a Platonist goeth so far as to bid a man take notice that he is a God, and some Divines find a resemblance of the Trinity in man's soul. The understanding, will and conscience, three faculties, but one soul; as Father, Son, and holy Ghost, three persons but one God: Let us all mean while, taste and see how good the Lord is in preparing us such bodies, and infusing such souls into us: but withal so as to consider and improve the Original of both.

§. 7. Seeing Adams body had its original from the dust of the earth, the consideration hereof should be an antidote against pride in all his posterity. Art not thou the son of Adam? was not he the son of dust? was not that the son of nothing? when the Lord would humble Adam after the fall he put him in mind of his being dust. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And when Abraham would be low before God, he styleth himself dust and ashes, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes. Why art thou proud O dust and ashes? saith Siracides, and Bernard, Cùm sis humi limus, cur non es humilimus? Why art not thou most humble, O man, seeing thou art but the dust of the earth. As for the soul, that was purely from God, Divinae particula aurae as an ancient Poet calleth it, for God saith Moses, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This should render us restless till that Image after which Adam was made be renewed in us by regeneration. The relics of it found in men unconverted what are they but magni nominis umbra, the mere shadow of a great and glorious name. How unlike are natural men to God for all them? Our Queen Elizabeth once in her progress observing some pictures of hers hung up for signs to be very unlike her, caused them to be taken down and burnt. Burning must be the end of those that continue unlike to God; whereas such as are by converting grace changed into the same image (as Paul speaketh) from glory to glory shall at length arrive at that perfection of glory, which is also the image of God, as David hath it, As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

EXERCITATION 5. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providential dispensations, the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects; Crosses how to be considered.

§. 1. THe vicissitude of divine dispensations (which I am to treat of next) is exactly recorded by Solomon, saying, In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. It is most clear from hence, that there is an intermixture of dispensations, adverse and prosperous, in the course of divine Providence, and that we may see much of God therein. It will appear in six particulars.

There are times. I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs, yet well with the public, which keepeth him from sinking into despondency. Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands; yet Let him take all, said he, for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house. The woman of Sparta, whom we read of in Plutarch, being told that all her five sons were slain in the battle, but withal that the enemies were worsted, and her countrymen victors, uttered this Heroic speech. Lugeant ergo miserae; Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico. Let such as are miserable lament; I cannot but account myself happy now that my country hath had the better.

II. Wherein a man's personal comforts are multiplied, but the Churches misery damps his mirth. Nehemiah was much in favor at the king of Persia's Court, yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard that the city the place of his fathers sepulchers lay waste, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. We read of Terentius an orthodox captain under Valens an Arian Emperor, who having done some eminent service was willed by the Emperor, who intended him a just recompense, to ask of him what he would. He preferred a petition in behalf of the orthodox Christians, that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in. Valens displeased, tore the petition and threw it away. He gathered up the scattered pieces, and professed that seeing he could not be heard in the cause of Christ, he would make no suit for his own advantage. That of Isaiah, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem &c. that ye may suck and be satisfied, is both preceptive and argumentative. Jerusalem is compared to a nursing mother, believers to her sucking children; If the Nurse be in health, the Child hath cause to rejoice in that, and shall fare the better for it: If she be distempered, the child will go near to suck the disease from her.

§. 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity, as in Josephs case. He had been envied, sold, imprisoned; His feet were hurt in the stocks, the iron entered into his soul. Yet afterward, Pharaoh giveth him his own ring, arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen, putteth a gold chain about his neck, maketh him ride in the second chariot he had, caused the people to cry before him. Bow the knee, and appointed him Ruler over all the land of Egypt, in which height of honor he lived and died.

IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels of long prosperity, as in Jobs case. The candle of God had long shined upon his head, and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle. His children then were about him, he had washed his steps with butter, and the rock poured him out rivers of oil. His root was spread by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon his branch. His glory was fresh in him, and his bow renowned in his hand, which are his own expressions Job 29. But ere long, his servants are slain with the edge of the sword, his castle taken away by the enemy, all his children killed at once with the fall of an house in which they were feasting, he himself afflicted in body, vexed in spirit, grieved by his comforters, in a word brought from the throne to the dunghill, so as to give just occasion to the proverb, As poor as Job.

Fifthly, Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns, so as a man goes out of one into another, in a succession of vicissitudes. Thus it fared with Hezekiah. After his coming to the Crown for divers years the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth. But in the fourteenth year of his reign, the tide of prosperity begins to turn. Sennacharib comes up against him with a most formidable host, and took his fenced cities. He betakes himself to prayer, and the Lord delivers him by a miracle, sending an Angel to destroy one hundred eighty five thousand of his enemies in a night. But the next news we hear, is that Hezekiah was sick unto death; yet he dies not, but had fifteen years added to his life, and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery. Yet presently after all this he receives a sad message from thence concerning the loss of all his treasure, and the woeful condition of all his posterity. See what a strange succession is here; after glorious victories, comes the loss of his fenced cities, and an alarm given to Jerusalem itself. After that a miraculous deliverance, then a mortal sickness, then a cheering sign, but e're long a Message of very sad concernment.

§. 3. VI. Wherein pleasure and sorrow, joy and grief are so interwoven one with another, as a man may seem happy and miserable both at once. Jacob is at once scared with hearing of Esau's four hundred men, and cheered with the sight of an host of Angels sent to gaurd him. He doth at once receive an hurt in the hollow of his thigh, and a blessing from the Angel that wrestled with him. David at once is hated by Saul, and loved by Jonathan. Ahasuerus at once enjoys the glory of an absolute Monarch, and is slighted by his own wife. Haman at once swims in an ocean of Courtdelights, and is tormented for the want of Mordechai's knee. As one the one side, Out of the strong comes sweetness; when the spirit of glory and of God rest upon a suffering Saint, because he is a Saint and a sufferer: so on the other, Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.

That is,

§. 4. This God doth for divers good ends and purposes. As first to manifest his wisdom in compounding passages of Providence, so as one shall qualify another: prosperity allay the sowreness of adversity; & this asswage the swellings of that. As the painters skill appears in tempering bright colors, and dark shadows; the cooks in mingling sweet & tart ingredients; the musicians in raising harmony out of discords; Orators in making up curious sentences by a fit opposition of contrarieties.

II. To magnify his goodness. The frame of our spirits is such, that if prosperity were continued without interruption, we should be apt to swell and presume; if adversity without intermission, to sink and despair. Our weakness such, that we should never give a due estimate to blessings, were we not sometimes taught by experience what it is to be under pressures. We learn by sickness to prize health, & by restraint to value liberty. A calm is much more pleasing to us after a tempest; and the shining forth of the Sun after an elipse. It is therefore an act of much mercy in God thus to intermingle favors & crosses, lest by a constant course of the former, we should grow wanton and effeminate, or by continuance of the latter, sottish and stupid.

III. To keep up and maintain his respect in the world. God will be known to be the Sovereign Lord of all persons and things; the great disposer of all affairs in such a way as seemeth best to himfelf, & therefore gives out blessings and crosses interchangeably, so as man shall be at no certainty what to expect, but live in a constant dependence on him, who keeps the disposal of prosperity and adversity in his own hands, to the end that man should find nothing certain but this, that there is a great uncertainty of future events. Wherefore,

§. 5. First, take notice from hence what we are to look for in our pilgrimage here. viz. vicissitudes and changes from one condition into another. If Solomon had nowhere said, There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh, experience would soon have forced us to acknowledge that our whole course is chequered with prosperity and adversity; that most of a Christians drink in this life is Oxymel, most of his food, Bitter-sweets. Whilest Israel marched throughout the wilderness, the blackest night had a pillar of fire, and brightest day a pillar of cloud: so in this world, things never go so well with the Israel of God, but that they groan under some affliction; never so ill, but that they have some comfort afforded them.

Secondly, Learn to maintain in ourselves a mixture of affections suitable to this mixture of Divine dispensations. Rejoice with trembling. Leaven and Honey were both excluded under the Law from offering by fire: Leaven for its excessive soureness; Honey for its excessive sweetness; To show (saith Ainsworth) that in Saints there should neither be extremity of grief, nor of pleasure, but a mediocrity. We should be careful in time of prosperity to fear affliction with a fear of expectation, though not of amazement; with such a fear as may cause preparation, but no discouragement. Look at a very fair day, as that which may prove a weather-breeder, and usher in storms. On the other side, in time of adversity hope for refreshment. The Psalmist did so, All thy waves are gone over me, yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness.

Thirdly, Observe the difference that is between this present, and that other world. Dying Aristotle is reported to have said, I rejoice that I am now going out of a world of contraries. This indeed is so. But that which dying men go into is without such mixture. All tears shall be wiped from the Saints eyes; & impenitent sinners shall have judgment without mercy. Briefly, in this militant Church, as in the Ark of old, There is a rod, and a pot of manna Here upon earth we have little Manna without some rods, little welfare without some sharp affliction; few Rods without some Manna, not many afflictions without some measure of consolation: whereas in Heaven there is nothing but Manna, in Hell nothing but Rods, or Scorpions rather.

§. 6. IV. Keep we ourselves in a frame of cheerfulness, that we may be always prepared in the day of prosperity to rejoice. This will appear a duty which we are bound to,

I. Because God doth not only approve and like it. (He loveth a cheerful giver, so a cheerful thanks-giver and worshipper. Nehemiah was afraid to be seen sad in the kings presence. Mordechai durst not go into the court gates with his sack-cloth on: dejected looks, and the sack-cloth of an uncheerfull carriage do ill become the servant of the king, the followers of the court of heaven:) But also require and command it, Serve the Lord with gladness. The Jews of old were commanded to rejoice in their solemn feasts: which were accordingly to be kept in the most cheerful seasons. The Pass-over at the first ripening of corn, Pentecost at the first reaping, and the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of Harvest.

II. Because Jesus Christ was anointed to give us the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He himself indeed was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, but such as are received into fellowship with him should, and shall, if the fault be not in themselves, partake with him in some degree of the same unction.

III. Because the Spirit of Christ is a spirit of cheerfulness. His two first fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22. are Love and Joy. Yea when it is said, Grieve not the holy spirit of God, Heinsius thinketh this to be part of the meaning. Be cheerful after an holy manner. Let none offend that great guest, the spirit of God by overmuch sadness. And Drusius telleth us in the Preface to his Praeterita of an usual saying among the Hebrews, Spiritum sanctum non residere super hominem moestum, that the holy Ghost is not wont to reside upon a sad-spirited man.

IV. Because our adversary the Devil, being a melancholy spirit himself, delighteth in our sadness. The prince of darkness loves to see the servants of God in a dark condition. He is gratified and gets advantage by our uncheerfulness. Therefore Paul writeth to his Corinthians concerning the incestuous person, that upon his repentance they would comfort him and prevent his being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, lest Satan, saith he, should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

V. Because if we look to ourselves, cheerfulness is advantageous both to our bodies, therefore compared to the best food, such as men use to have at feasts. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. and the best physic too. A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. And also our spirits. Uncheerfulness maketh the soul of a man drive heavily, as the chariots of Pharaoh did in the red sea; but the joy of the Lord oyleth the wheels. Cheerfulness supples the joints of our hearts, and so rendereth them nimble and active in holy performances. See Nehemiah 8. 10.

VI. Because if we cast our eyes upon others, the uncheerfulness of professors often bringeth a bad report upon the profession; and maketh the world ready to believe that Christians serve a bad master, or have but an hard service of it, whereas their rejoicing in the ways of the Lord would help to bring others in love with religion, See Acts 9. 31. and Esther 8. the two last verses.

§. 7. Fifthly, Endure afflictions so as in the day of adversity duly to consider the Nature, Author and Ends of Crosses.

I. The Nature of those afflictions that befall men in Christ. They are not from vindicative justice, which is wholly removed from such by the mediation of him in whom they have believed, and so not formally punishments: but from fatherly discipline, whereby it cometh to pass that although the matter be the same, there is as much difference between the sufferings of believers, and of ungodly persons out of Christ, as there is between the cords wherewith an executioner pinioneth his condemned malefactor, and those wherewith the indulgent Surgeon bindeth his patient; the ones design being to kill, the others to cure. They are crosses indeed which believers undergo, but no curses, and have no such malignity in them as the world imagineth.

II. The Author, Well might Eliphaz say, Trouble springs not out of the ground, for it cometh from heaven, and that out of love. As many as I love, saith Christ, I rebuke and chasten. How bitter soever the cup be, which I am to drink, and by whomsoever it is handed to me, the comfort is, it was of my heavenly fathers mixing, who I am sure would not put any poisonful, although he do put some displeasing ingredients into it. I will therefore say, Christ enabling, as Christ himself did; The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

III. The Ends, Which are specially three. 1. The mortifying of our corruptions. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. All the harm which the fiery furnace did the young men in Daniel was to burn off their cords; our lusts are cords, cords of vanity in Scripture-phrase; the fiery trial is sent on purpose to burn and consume them. Afflictions help to scour off this kind of rust. Adversity like winter-weather is of use to kill the vermin; which the the summer of prosperity is wont to breed. 2. For the enlivening and quickening of our graces. I spake unto unto thee in thy prosperity and thou saidst, I will not hear. But elsewhere, Lord in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when they chastening was upon them. These two places compared show how apt prosperity is to make men Gallio's, adversity to render them Zealots. As bruising maketh aromatical spices to send out their savor; and collision fetcheth fire out of the flint, which was hid before; so pressures excite devotion. The cold water of persecution is often cast in the Churches face to fetch her again when she is in a swoon. 3. For the furthering of our glory. Christ went from the Cross to Paradise; so do Christians. He was made perfect through sufferings; so are they. It became him to suffer, and to enter into his glory: It becomes them to tread in their masters steps. When the founder hath cast his bell, he doth not presently hang it up in the steeple, but first try it with his hammer, and beat upon it on every side, to see if any flaw be in it. Christ doth not presently after he hath converted a man, convey him to heaven, but suffers him first to be beaten upon by manifold temptations, and after advanceth him to the crown spoken of Jam. 1. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. this crown the cross makes way for; although no cross can merit it but that of Christ. Yet as law is said to work wrath occasionally. So Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory.

EXERCITATION 1. Introduction concerning the contents of this Aphorism. Providence over all created beings. Preservation of men to be ascribed to God himself, not to good men, yea not to good Angels, in whom heart-searching and patience wanting. Providence reaching to human affairs: Oeconomical, Civil, Military, Moral and Ecclesiastical. Anastasius his design frustrate. Rome and our nation instanced in. I. G. castigated.

§. 1. THis Aporisme requireth a clear demonstration of these propositions. 1. That divine providence extends itself to all created beings. 2. That it reacheth to all human affairs. 3. That it is especially seen in such affairs as concern the Church. And 4. That although God be not the author of sin, yet his providence is an actour in it. Unto these when I shall have added an answer to objections, and from each proposition an inference, the whole will be completely handled.

The first proposition, which I am to begin with, is, Divine providence extends itself to all created Beings. Well may we strike in with the Levites in that form of acknowledging God, wherein they went before the people, saying, Thou even thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein; and thou preservest them all. David bringeth it down a little lower, Thy judgments are a great deep, O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Job lower yet, What shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men. As God made all things by the word of his command, He commanded and they were created, so he upholds them all in being by the word of his power. Heaven, earth, sea, man and beast, especially man. It is not with God, as with carpenters and shipwrights, who make houses for other men to dwell in, vessels for others to sail in, and therefore after they are made look after them no more; God who made all things for himself, looks to the preservation of all. It is accordingly said of Christ, All things were created by him and for him, and by him all things consist. The creatures are all as vessels, which if unhooped by withdrawing of God's manutenency, all the liquor that is in them their several virtues, yea their several Beings would run out, and they return to their first nothing. Schoolmen compare God to the sun, creatures to the air. The sun shines by its own nature, the air only by participation of light from the Sun. So whatever good the creatures have, is by derivation from Jehovah, the fountain of Being. Take away the light of the Sun, the air ceaseth to shine, and so it is here. As things Artificial are preserved in their being by the duration of such natural things as they consist of v. g. an house by the lasting of stones and timber: so things natural which depend upon God by the continuance of that Divine influence by which they were at first made.

§. 2. It is not in good men to preserve themselves or others. They derogate from God exceedingly that ascribe too much in this kind to any man, as some luxuriant French wits did to Cardinal Richelieu: of whom they said, That God Almighty might put the Government of the world into his hands. That France in God's and the Cardinals hands was too strong; that what the soul was to the body, the same was he to France. Si foret his nullus, Gaul nulla foret. Yea one frivolous pamphleter profanely and ridiculously called him, The fourth person in the Trinity. Yea, not in good Angels themselves; Who though they be all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? yet are none of them governing spirits, appointed to provide for mankind the utmost rewards and punishments. They are wanting in two qualifications which should enable them hereunto; one is the knowledge of men's hearts where the truth of grace, or venom of sin lieth: the other patience, whereof no Angel hath enough to bear with men without destroying them for their continual provocations. Whereas in God there is a meeting of both these. See for the former, Jerem. 15. 9, 10. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart; I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing: And for the latter, Hosea 11. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger: I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man: we may add and say, God, and not Angel.

§. 3. The second proposition follows, viz. That Divine Providence reacheth to all human affairs: which we may for methods sake subdivide into Oeconomical, Civil, Military, Moral, and Ecclesiastical. Human affairs are,

I. Oeconomical, such as do belong to a Family. For example, Riches and Poverty, Preferment and Debasement, which in Hannah's song are ascribed to the sole Providence of God. The Lord (said she) maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, &c. yea, to instance in blessings highly prized by Christian Families, Grace and Peace, which are the things prayed for by the Apostles in most of their benedictions. We read of Saints in Caesar's household, Phil. 4. 22. Nero, that monster of men, was Caesar then; he that had published a bloody law, That whosoever professed himself Christian, should be apprehended as an enemy to mankind, and put to death without any further defense. Yet even in his house the Providence of God hath so wrought, as to convert and preserve such men as were men of grace; Saints indeed, not only in his Empire, and under his Government, but in his Family, and under his Roof. As for Peace, that of the Rabbins, although it be somewhat a quaint, yet, may be an useful observation. Take the first letter (say they) of God's name, out of the name of the man, and the last out of the woman's name, and there remains nothing but fire; implying, that there is like to be nothing but the fire of contention and strife, jealousy and heart-burnings between man and wife, where they come not together in God's name. Whereas if wisdom make the match, as it doth when people marry in the Lord, happy are they who are so met, For her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

II. Civil, such as belongeth to Kingdoms, Republics, Corporations, or to men as combined in such Societies. Many are the contrivements of men to work themselves and others into places of Government: but when all this is done, that of the Psalmist is most true, Promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he pulleth down one, and setteth up another. And that of Daniel, He changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings. Witness this history: Anastasius a Grecian Emperor having no Male issue to succeed him, was desirous to transfer the Throne to one of his three Nephews, whom he had bred up; and not being able to resolve which of them he should take, put the thing to lot thus. He caused to be prepared three beds in the Royal-Chamber, and made his Crown to be hanged within the tester of one of these beds, called the Realm, being resolved to give it to him, who by lot should place himself under it. This done, he sent for his Nephews, and after he had Magnificently entertained them, commanded them to repose themselves, each one choosing one of the beds prepared for them. The eldest accomodated himself according to his fancy, and hit upon nothing; the second did the same. He then expected the youngest should go directly to the Crowned bed; but he prayed the Emperor that he might be permitted to lie with one of his brothers, and by this means not any of the three took the way of the Empire, which was so easy to be had, that it was not above a pace distant. Anastasius, much amazed, well saw God would transfer the Diadem from his race, as he did afterward to Justine. Who can read and consider such examples without saying as he did,

That is,

Remember Daniel's four beasts, and the seven heads of that beast in the Apocalypse, conceived by interpreters to resemble the seven forms of Government which Rome was to undergo sucsessively; from a Common-wealth to Kings; from Kings to Consuls; from Consuls to Dictatours; thence to Decemvirs; thence to Tribunes of the people; thence to Emperors; thence to Popes. Reflect upon this Nation of ours, which hath been governed at first by Britain's, then Saxons, then Danes, then Normanes: one while in the way of an Heptarchy, another while of a Monarchy, and now of a Republic; and, if thou canst, refuse to cry out, O the depth!

§. 4. III. Military, such as belong to the managing of Wars. It is not for nothing that God is so often styled, Lord of hosts in the Old Testament. We find him so called no less then one hundred and thirty times in two of the Prophets, Isaiah and Jeremy. Because in ordering of Martial affairs, he in a manner doth all. Captains, and superior Officers may, and do consult, but God determines. They throw the dice, he appoints the chance; they set their men as it pleaseth them, he in the issue plays the game as it pleaseth him. Hear David in that Psalm of his which he made in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, speaking of his own experiments, and celebrating God as assisting him both in the field, and at sieges, By thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall: giving him strength, activity, skill. It is God that girdeth me with strength. He maketh my feet like hinds feet. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Yea, success and victory. Thou hast girded me with strength to the battle; thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. In the New Testament, we seldom or never meet with that title. That which comes nearest it is, Lord God Almighty; and this occurs twice in the Revelation, when mention is made of the victories which it pleaseth God to give to the Reformed Churches against Anti-Christ and his adherents, once in these words, We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And again in these, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, Thou King of Saints.

IV. Moral, such as belong to good manners. or in more Gospel terms, To living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. The two former I well know are pretended to by men unregenerate, yea, by heathens. Socrates (they say) lived so soberly, as not to be discomposed by any outward emergency, to show himself always the same man. Fabritius so righteously, as that it was commonly said of him, To turn the Sun out of its course would be found more easy, then to turn him from the way of justice. But for godliness, which is the third, it were hard, if any should pretend to that without strong impressions from God in Christ, yet the Pelagians of old did, asserting those virtues which appeared in Moral men, who had not received Christ Jesus the Lord, nor known what it was to walk in him, for true graces: for which very fault, as S. Austin tells us, above all others, the Christian Church did most detest them: yea, a Christian Minister of late hath in print dared to collect from that saying of Paul, All men have not faith, an implication,

But we have been taught, and must teach that it is not in the power of any inferior creature so to improve it's faculties, as to raise up itself to a superior rank. No tree can make itself a beast, no beast a man, no man a Saint by the bare improvement of his reason, whence he comes to be a man. Moral principles prove to such as rely upon them, and seek no further, Mortal principles. We believe that of Prosper where the chief good is wanting—but false virtue in the midst of the best manners.

V. Ecclesiastical, such as belong to the Church, and the legitimate members of it. In that Song of Loves, Psal. 45. 9. Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir, is meant the Church. Look as an indulgent Prince, besides the common affection he bears, and protection he gives to all his subjects, hath a peculiar respect to, and converse with his Princess: so there is a peculiar providence of God toward his Church; the handling whereof at large I refer to the next Exercitation.

EXERCITATION 2. Deuteron. 11. 12. opened. God's care over the Church proved from the provision he makes for inferior creatures. From Israel's conduct. From the experiments and acknowledgements of saints in all ages. Experiments of the Virgin Mary, Rochellers, Musculus, acknowledgements of Jacob, David, Psalmist, Austin and Ursin. From God's causing things and acts of all sorts to cooperate unto the good of the saints. Isaiah 27. 2, 3. explained. The Church preserved from, in, and by dangers.

§. 1. OUr third proposition is, That divine Providence is seen more especially in such affairs as concern the Church, and the members thereof. In order to the clearing whereof, I intend to insist upon two places of Scripture. The first is that in Deuteronomy, 11. 12. Where Moses describing the land of Canaan, saith of it thus, A land which the Lord thy God careth for: The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. That land was then the only habitation of God's Church, and besides, a lively type of the Catholic Church which was afterwards to be spread over the whole face of the earth, whence it is that believers in all places were styled inward Jews, and the Circumcision.

This continual care of God over his Church and the members thereof appeareth,

I. From the provision made by him for inferior creatures. So our Savior argueth. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better then they? They have no caterers to bring in provision from them; no barns to fetch provision out of; yet want it not, but go cheerfully on, chirping continually, because God feedeth them: and that sometimes in a way little less then miraculous, if that be true which is reported by some good writers, namely, that when the young ravens are forsaken of their dams and left bare, out of their own dung there ariseth a worm which creepeth to their mouths, and becomes nourishment to them.

§. 2. II. From the conduct of Israel after the flesh in former times. A breviate of that Nations story will presently let us understand how they were brought into that land, (whereof this place in Deuteronomy speaketh) and cared for there by a thousand providences. Time was when Joseph was raised up to be a nursing father to them, & that by a most remarkable dispensation. He had been formerly sold into Egypt, was imprisoned without cause, cast as Junius thinketh, into that prison whereunto such were put as had most highly offended the king, to be sure into one where his feet were burt in the stocks, and he laid in irons. Had not his prison-house been so bad it is like he should not have had opportunity to make himself known to butler and baker of Pharaoh, who were his fellow-prisoners. The butler being restored to his place according to Josephs interpretation of his dream, forgets to acquaint Pharaoh with him till all other means had been used to quiet the kings mind, and none found effectual: then he speaketh, and then is Joseph speedily advanced. Being so he becometh a preserver of the Church in his father, brethren and their families. Afterwards when there was risen another generation that knew not Joseph; and the king of Egypt had set himself by force and art to extinguish Israel, the bush, although burning was not consumed in the midst of the fire: their burdens were increased, yet their persons multiplied; and Moses ere-long raised up to deliver them out of their bondage. A man preserved by the daughter of that Pharaoh, whom he was called to destroy, and by that means brought up at court, yea instructed there both in the Art and Government, and in all the learning of the Egyptians. Under his conduct God did for them (as one Prophet speaketh) terrible things which they looked not for. Puls them out of Pharaohs bosom in spite of his heart, at their departure sendeth them laden away with the jewels and treasures of Egypt; maketh a passage for them through the sea, and accompanieth their hosts into the wilderness. There providence fetcheth them water out of a rock, then which nothing drier; and bread from heaven, which is wont to grow out of the earth. There their food is Manna & Quails; a cloud and pillar of fire their guides, when this servant of God was dead, up steps Joshua in his room, bringeth them into and settleth them in the promised land; which proved to them after their settlemement by lot, an habitation of righteousness and mountain of holiness. A land flowing not only with temporal, but also with spiritual milk and honey, after Solomon had erected a magnificent Temple for them, which was the wardrobe of those ceremonies wherewith God was then to be served. Then were they (as the Psalmist hath it) abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's house, and made to drink of the river of his pleasures.

But their sins having at length cast them out of that good land, and occasioned the burning of their Temple, God left them not destitute of his help, but ordained for them sundry refreshments in the time of their captivity. This among others in Esther's time. King Ahasuerus under whom they then were in a state of captivity had his sleep taken from him, would spend the time not in this or that exercise but in reading; of all books, calls for that of the Chronicles; of all places hath that read to him which concerned a good service done by Mordechai a Jew; doth not only take notice of it, but inquire what reward had been given him; understanding he had received none causeth Haman his favourite to be called; putteth him upon doing singular honor in the view of all men to this Mordechai, giveth his wife Queen Esther occasion of impleading this Haman, discovering his plot against all the Jews, and preventing that massacre of them, which should speedily have been executed. Yea providence went on to work so happily in the hearts of those Monarchs, who then held them captives, as not long after to proclaim their deliverance, and liberty for them to rebuild both Jerusalem and the Temple; which they also attempted.

Whilest the second Temple was building by Herod, not so magnificent as the former, yet in some respect more glorious: if Josephus misinform us not, for the space of almost ten years it never rained all that while in the day time, the providence of God so ordering it, lest the work should be interrupted. Yea so remarkable was the power and greatness of God in assisting the builders then, that we find him in Haggai and Zechariah, their Prophesies, which were both written about that time, frequently styled by that name, The Lord of hosts, particularly five times in four verses of Haggai. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while, and I will strike the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. That which raised the glory of this second above that of the first Temple was the personal presence of Jesus Christ in it. His coming, preaching, suffering, so ripened the sins of this people (who began again to degenerate after their return) as hot weather doth the corn, that ere long they and their Temple became a prey to the Roman Eagle.

§. 3. III. From the experiments and acknowledgements of godly persons in several ages. The Blessed virgin Mary after her journey to Bethlehem, and lying in of her child there, may be probably thought to have been straitened in her means, as being but poor, and not to have sufficient for the maintenance of her child, herself and Joseph in the journey they were to take presently after into Egypt. See how God provideth; hard before that, he sendeth the wise men from the east, and they bring costly presents with them, gold among others, which was certainly of no small use for defraying their ensuing charges. In the year 1573 when the Protestants were besieged in Rochelle by the French kings forces, God sent them in daily with the tide an infinite number of small fishes: such as before that time were never seen within that haven, and presently upon the end of the siege retired again. We read of Wolfangus Musculus, a late Germane Divine, that having received by Luther's books, the light and sense of the Gospel, he forsook his Monastery and married: that after this he was so poor, as to let his wife go out to service, and betake himself to work with a weaver, who proved an Anabaptist. That during his abode there, he solaced himself with this distich,

That is,

That the Anabaptist within a while turned him off, and he being then to seek for maintenance, was hired to work at Strasbourg about the town ditch, which was then to be new cast and enlarged, and to have begun the next morning. That Bucer having notice hereof, and of his parts, prevailed over night with the Consul to give him a call to the work of the Ministry, which he gladly embraced.

Suitable to these and the like experiments are the following acknowledgements. Jacob, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mereies, and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant: for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. David, Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Another Psalmist, Psalm, 71. 5, 6, 7. Thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb: my praise shall be continually of thee. I am a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge. Austin again and again to this purpose.

so for all, as if he had but one to care for. And Piscator in Ursins life reports, that he, to wit, Zacharius Ursinus was wont to say, I had often lain in the streets, had not the Providence of God been mine hostess, and afforded me a lodging. Nisi hospita fuisset divina providentia.

§. 4. IV. From the effects of care ascribed to God, when Scripture speaks of him after the manner of men. For example, we men are by our cares made solicitous and thoughtful about the person or the thing cared for. So the Psalmist saith of God, I am poor and needy, and the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer, make no tarrying, O my God. We are rendered inquisitive what to do for them. So the Scripture brings in God, saying, How shall I do for the daughter of my people? O Ephraim, What shall I do unto thee. We are grieved if they miscarry. Of God it is said, His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. We are not content till we have taken a particular survey of whatever concerns them. So of God it is said, That he numbereth their hairs, bottleth their tears; hath a book of life for their names, a book of providence for their members, and a book of remembrance for their discourses. Lastly, as men endeavor the good of such as they receive into their special care, and do what they can to make things operate to that end; so we know (saith S. Paul) that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are the called according to his purpose. Make me this assertion good, and the abundance of his care will be presently visible to any man. Now this may be done by showing how God makes use of things, and of acts of all sorts to this end.

§. 5. I. Of all sorts of things, whether Natural, or Artificial, Necessary, or Contingent, Real, or Imaginary. The reflection of the Sun-beams upon water is a natural thing; If Providence orders so, as the Moabites taking it for blood, conjecture a mutiny in the armies of the king of Israel and Judah, come up disorderly, and perish. So this deceptio visus in them, wrought for the Churches deliverance. Those Trumpets, Pitchers and Lamps in the seventh of Judges were things artificial, no way able of themselves to produce such an effect, as the defeat of an huge host: yet the Lord so disposeth of the sound of the Trumpets, breaking of the Pitchers, and burning of the Lamps, as by them to strike a terror into the great army of Midian, and make them fly. That the fire should burn, and the sea keep it's channel according to the order of nature, were necessary things: yet did providence so over-rule in the case of those three Worthies in Daniel, that the fire, though it burnt up their accusers, should not so much as scortch them; and semblably in the Israelites case, that the sea, though it swallowed up the Egyptians, their enemies, should afford a safe passage to the Hebrews. What more contingent then that Pharaoh's daughter should go with her maids to wash in the river at that very place where Moses was exposed? that seeing an infant, she should imagine it an Hebrew, be moved into pity towards it, adopt it for her own son, and light upon the childes own Mother to be it's nurse? yet upon this did Israel's redemption much depend. There were such real alterations in the heavens, that the stars are said to have fought against Sisera in their orders. Elsewhere an imaginary noise was so apprehended by the Syrians, as to make them fly, and leave their tents, whereupon followed great plenty after a famine.

II. Acts of all sorts, whether voluntary, or involuntary, gracious or sinful. Augustus his taxing the Roman Empire, & requiring everyone to repair to his own city, was a voluntary act on his part to enrich himself: but ordered by Providence to further ends: for hereby the virgins Mary comes to Bethlehem, and Christ was there born in the place so long before prophesied of. Austin was once out in his Sermon much against his will; but providence disposed it to the conversion of a soul. The story is this. That holy man fell one day in the pulpit upon a large discourse against the Manichees, contrary to his purpose and intention when he came thither. At his return home spake of it, asked Possidonius and others whether they did not observe it. Their answer was, they did, and wondered. Whereupon he said,

Some two days after one Firmus a merchant comes to him, and falling down at his feet with tears, confesseth he had been nursed up for many years together in the heresy of the Manichees, but was that day by his Sermon rightly informed, truly converted, and made a Catholic: which Austin and others then hearing, How gracious acts, such as Obadiah's hiding and feeding the Prophets, Ebed-melech's helping Jeremy in and out of prison, are subservient to Providence in procuring the Churches good, is easy to discern. It is so even in sinful acts themselves. Such was the Philistines invading the land of Palestine, yet there was a time when their doing it was so disposed of, as to be a means of preserving David and his men. Saul was then ready to seize upon his prey, but was diverted by this news, coming in that very nick of time. Saul went on this side the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made hast to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them. But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land: wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, &c.

§. 6. The second Text I have made choice of to insist upon, is in the Prophesy of Isaiah, Chapter 27. verse 2, 3. In that day sing ye unto her; A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. The Prophet had said before of this vineyard, that God looking it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. But it being since purged, here he calls it a vineyard of red wine, that is of the best, according to that in Solomon's Proverbs, Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it gives his color in the cup, when it moves itself aright. So as we are here by it to understand a reformed Church. Such at this day are the Protestant Churches come out of Popery: For we may distinguish a four-fold face of the Christian visible Church spoken of by Divines. The first fair, in the Apostles time, she was then a virgin undefiled: the second Spotted, in the succeeding age of Fathers and Heretics, wherein traditions began to prevail, she was then a Wanton: the third Deformed, when Popery overspread all; she was then an Whore: the fourth Reformed, since Luther's time: she is now a Matrone, and may expect, so far as it shall be for her good, and her keepers glory, that continual irrigation, and constant custody, which is here spoken of. Such as wish and project (as some have done the total and final ruin of the visible Church) must effect it in a time that neither belongs today nor night: for the Lord hath here promised to keep it, lest any hurt it, yea, to keep it night and day.

There is a three-fold preservation, which it, and the members of it may look for from Divine Providence. One from, another in, and a third by dangers. First, from dangers, according to the promise in one of the Psalms, Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

II. In dangers. So in Job 5. 19, 20. He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea in seven, there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword. In time of famine the widow of Sarepta's store was made to hold out. The Providence of God was with Daniel in the lions den, shutting up the mouths of those furious beasts; & with the men in the fiery furnace, giving a prohibition to the fire that it should not burn, when they were in the jaws of danger, yea of death. The Church hath always been a Lily among thorns, yet flourishes still. This bush is yet far from a consumption, although it have seldom or never been out of the fire.

III. By danger. there is a preservation from greater evils by less. No poison, but providence knoweth how to make an antidote; so Jonah was swallowed by a whale, and by that danger kept alive. Joseph thrown into a pit, and afterwards sold into Egypt, and by these hazards brought to be a nursing father to the Church. Chrysostom excellently, Fides in periculis secura est, in securitate periclitatur. Faith is endangered by security, but secure in the midst of danger, as Esther's was, when she said, If I perish, I perish. God preserveth us, not as we do fruits that are to last but for a year, in sugar; but as flesh for a long voyage in salt, we must expect in this life much brine and pickle, because our heavenly father preserveth us as those whom he resolveth to keep forever, in and by dangers themselves. Paul's thorn in the flesh which had much of danger and trouble in it was given him on purpose to prevent pride, which was a greater evil. Lest I, said he, should be exalted above measure through abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Elsewhere, having commemorated Alexander the copper-smith his withstanding and doing him much evil, yea Nero's opening his mouth as a lion against him, and the Lord's delivering of him thence, he concludeth as more then a conqueror. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.

EXERCITATION 3. Hard-heartedness made up of unteachableness in the understanding, untractableness in the will, unfaithfulness in the memory, unsensibleness in the conscience, and unmoveableness in the affections. metaphors to express it from the parts of man's body, stones and metals. A soft heart. Mischief, searedness, and virulency attendants of hardness. God concurring thereunto by way of privation, Negation, permission, presentation. Tradition to Satan. Delivering up to lusts, and infliction.

§. 1. OUr fourth proposition is still behind, viz. Divine providence is an actour even in sin itself. I shall single out hardness of heart, a sin common to all sorts of men, though in different degrees, intending to declare, I. What hard-heartedness is. II. That it is a sin. III. That God is an actour in it.

For the first, This word Heart is of various acceptions in the Scripture. Sometime it signifieth the understanding, as when it is said, God gave Solomon largeness of heart, as the sand. that is, He had an understanding full of notions, as the sea-shore is full of grains of sand. Sometimes put for the will, as when Barnabas exhorteth the Christians of Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. that is, with the full bent and inclination of their wills. For as to know is an act of the understanding, so to cleave is an act of the will. Sometimes for the memory, as when the blessed Virgin is said to have laid up all our Savior's sayings in her heart. that is, kept them under lock and key, like a choice treasure in her remembrance. Sometimes for conscience. So the Apostle speaketh of a condemning and not condemning heart. Now God's deputy in point of judicature is conscience; which Nazianzen therefore calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a domestical tribunal, or a judge within doors. Lastly, Sometimes for the affections. So the Prophet Ezekiel saith of people, that when they sat hearing the word, their heart went after their covetousmess. that is, their fears, and hopes, their desires, love and other affections were upon shops, ships, land and other commodities even while they were busied in the worship of God. Each of these faculties called Heart in the book of God is liable to its peculiar indisposition and distemper. All put together make up the hard-heartedness, of which we are treating; the particular ingredients whereof are these that follow.

I. Unteachableness in the understanding. Scripture joineth blinding of eyes and hardening of hearts as near a kin. He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted. It is proverbially said, Lapidi loqueris; One had as good speak to a stone as to an unteachable man: and we are all so by nature. Whence that of Paul, The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Such are often present at Sermon, so are the pillars of stone in the Church, and they understand both alike.

§. 2. II. Untractableness in the will. There was reason enough spoken to Sihon by Moses his messengers; but all would not incline him to yield a passage to the army of Israel in an amicable way, because he was hardened. Sihon king of Heshbon, saith Moses, would not let us pass by him, for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, &c. So was there enough said and done to Pharaoh but still the burden of his story is this, He hardened his heart and would not let Israel go. Steep a stone in oil, it continueth hard still. Pharaoh had sundry mercies shown him, being delivered from one plague after another upon Moses his prayers; but the oil of mercy could not soften him. Beat upon a stone with an hammer, it is a difficult thing, and in some cases impossible to make an impression. The hammer of God's word in the mouth of Moses and Aaron, held as it were by the handle of ten notable miracles, gave ten mighty blows at Pharaohs will; yet could make so little impression, that after the ten plagues his heart was ten times harder then before.

III. Unfaithfulness in the memory. Pertinent hereunto is that upbraiding passage of our Savior to his Disciples, Have ye your heart yet hardened? do ye not remember? they seemed to have at present forgotten two of Christ's miracles, and are therefore charged with hardheartedness. Let water fall upon flesh it moisteneth it, upon earth it soaketh in and rendereth it fruitful: let it fall upon a rock it runneth presently off and leaveth no footsteps behind it. Where hardness of heart prevaileth (as here it did not, and therefore the disciples a little awakened by Christ's interrogations were able to give an account of his miracles) there is commonly no more of a chapter, sermon or pious discourse remaining in the hearers memory, then there is moisture upon a rock after a good shower of rain.

IV. Unsensibleness in the conscience. S ^t Paul speaketh of some past feeling, and of others that had their consciences seared with an hot iron, without all sense as a member once cauterized. Smite a stone as long as you will, beat it while you can stand over it, it complaineth not; lay a mountain upon it it groaneth not. Such are some men's consciences. Let God beat upon them with sermon after sermon, cross after cross; let them have worlds of oaths, lies, cheats, & other sins to answer for, they feel not the load of these mountains, complain not of them, but perhaps with Judas go out from the Sacrament to play the traitor, and with king Ahaz sin yet more in their distress. Although temperance, modesty, and the like dispositions be in some measure quite extinguished, yet if conscience, like Jobs messenger be still left to report the story of this desolation, there is some hope; but if, as David sometime dealt with the Philistines, all be slain, and none left alive to bring the tidings, if not only all ingenuity be banished, but the very mouth of conscience also stopped, the case is desperate.

V. Unmoveableness in the affections. See an instance thereof in king Zedekiah, of whom it is said, He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Zedekiah's heart was so obdurate, as not to have his affections moved with anything that Jeremiah could say or do. Let a man go about to make an oration to a stone, be it never so eloquent and pathetical, the stone is not affected with it; No more are many hard hearts with the voice of God's word or rod. Tell them of the beauty of Christ, they are not persuaded to love him; of the ugliness of sin they are not induced to hate it; of the torments of hell, they are not moved to fear and shun it. Such is the nature and composition of hardheartedness, which was the first thing to be spoken to.

§. 3. The second particular is, the sinfulness of that frame, which appeareth from the expressions, the opposites, and the attendants of it mentioned in holy Scriptures.

I. From the expressions, which are borrowed some from the bodies of men liable to a double 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , others from metals, and others from stones. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth not only the thick brawny skin that groweth over the laborers hand, and travellours foot, rendering that part insensible: but also among Physicians that knottiness which groweth upon the joints in some diseases as in a long-continued gout, by them called nodosa podagra, and pronounced incurable by physic, Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram. Hardness of heart is expressed by this, Mark 3. 5. John 12. 40. Elsewhere from metals, as in that of Isaiah, Thou art obstinate, thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass. When men will no more stoop to the precepts of Christ, then a beast would to the yoke, if his neck were of iron: sinews are instruments of motion, they all go down from the head to the body by the neck; if the neck should be stiff and the sinews of iron it would not be possible for the head to bow down. Such is the state of obstinate persons. Yea and further, the Prophet here ascribeth to them a brow of brass. The brow is that place where shame is wont to discover itself; this is said to be of brass to note their impudency. An hard heart is frequently accompanied with a brazen face. And in other places from stones. (An hard heart is usually called an heart of stone ) Yea the hardest of all stones, the Adamant. They made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law &c. stones are drier, and more inflexible then metals themselves. Chymicks can distill metals, and alter the shape of them to serve their turns. But Moses could not, without a miracle, fetch water out of a rock, nor can men by the help of fire, change the shape of a stone and render it flexible.

almost unmoved. As in Jeroboams time when the Prophet cried, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, It heard and rent; Jeroboams heart was harder then the very stones and rent not.

§. 4. II. From the opposites of hard-heartedness; the chief whereof is spiritual Evangelical tenderness, promised in the covenant of grace, where it is said, I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that is a soft and tender heart. I do not mean that natural tenderness, caused by constitution or education, of both which it is true, that it softens the manners, and keeps them from fierceness, ascribed to Rehoboam, of whom it was said, He was young and tender-hearted and could not withstand the children of Belial. Such men are fitly compared to ripe plumbs and apricocks, which however soft and smooth on the outside, yet have an hard stone within: like a brick, at first soft when the clay is fashioned, and continues so till the Sun have hardened it, yea, by pouring on of water, softened again; but if once baked in the brick-kill, no fire will melt it, an whole sea will not moisten it afterwards. So it fares with sundry men formerly tender-hearted, when once hardened by conversing in the world, and baked, as it were, in the kill of custom. That which I intend, is Spiritual tenderness, ascribed to Josiah, Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God: and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord God. As metals are melted with the fire before they be cast in a new mold, so must every heart be melted and softened, before it come to be molded anew. The new creature is always a tame and tender creature. This is that temper which hardness of heart is opposite to, and therefore sinful.

III. From the attendants thereof. Divers have been already mentioned. I shall instance in some few more. He that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. Who hath hardened himself against God and prospered.? Crying sins are commonly answered with the Echo of roaring judgments. Hardness being in genere culpae one of the greatest evils, there must needs be mischief due unto it in genere penae. Hereunto may be added stubbornness; for when hardness is risen to an high degree, both senses of discipline are obstructed; the ear, They resisted to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they should not hear; yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone. The eye, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts. Also searedness with an hot iron, which is the next door to hanging; such as are formerly burnt in the hand, if they fall again into the hands of justice, are commonly denied their book, and sent to the gallows. Notorious malefactors are stigmatized, so are hard-hearted sinners.

Lastly, virulency or bitterness of spirit against the ways and people of God. When divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude. No such bitter enemies to religion as those that after some relentings return to their former frame of hard-heartedness: as the worst travelling is when it hath freezed after a thaw: so the worst conversing is with men of that spirit.

§. 5. I am now to show in the third place, that the providence of God is an actor even in this sin, and that both in partial hardness, which often befalls the elect of God, according to that, O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. And from that which is total and final, found in Reprobates of whom Paul therefore saith, Whom he will he hardeneth; and again, The election hath obtained, but the rest were blinded or hardened. Now this is done divers ways.

I. By way of Privation. As when the sun departs, darkness followeth; yet the Sun is no cause of darkness, but the absence thereof: so when God departs in that, be it never so little, suppose but restraining grace, hardness followeth, yet God is not the efficient of it. Time was when Pharaoh had restraining grace, while it lasted there were no violent hands laid upon Moses and Aaron, by whose ministry all the plagues were brought upon him. He is no sooner deprived of that, but his cruelty is let out to the full; Moses threatened with death the last time he saw his face, and all pursued with a bloody intent. Pharaohs heart had somewhat of softness, and malliableness in it all the while this fire remained, upon the removal whereof, it returned to it's own hardness and coldness, as metal would. As when a man holds a staff in his hand, let him but take away his manutenencie, the staff falls immediately to the ground by its own poise.

II. By way of Negation. As when God either refuseth to give a people softening means, or denieth his blessing upon them. So when Moses called to all Israel, and said unto them. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land. The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs and those great miracles: yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day. In so doing, God himself is said to harden (as S. Austin hath it) when he softens not, and to blind when he enlighteneth not. As the Sun freezeth and congealeth the water, not by imparting coldness to it, but by not imparting heat, and shining upon it with fervent beams. So it is (saith the same Father) in God's hardening, who doth not do it by imparting malice, but by not imparting grace. Neither doth this denial affix any unlawfulness upon him; as the like would do upon a good man that had to give, and to spare what his neighbor stood in absolute need of; for it is not the same cause throughout, betwixt God and man: there is a mutual tie of the creatures one to another. All men are made of one blood, (as in the Acts ) they are therefore bound by the law of nature to mutual helpfulness. Not so between God and the creature: for the dependence, and consequently the tie is not mutual. We depend upon God, not he upon us; therefore for us not to do what he requireth, is absolutely sinful, but no law bindeth him to give whatsoever is needful for us; therefore not to give, it is no sin. If he please to indulge it, it is grace, and not debt; if not, the clay must not contend and find fault with the potter.

§. 6. III. By way of Permission. Hard-heartedness is one of those evils, which God permitteth, but approveth not, and accordingly included in that speech, God in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Therefore the School-men upon those Texts, Deus non volens iniquitatem, tu es, and Quod non volui elegerunt, have founded a notable distinction between Velle, Nolle, and Non velle, which is not inconsiderable here. God is said to Will a thing, when he so approves it, as to effect it. To Nill a thing, when he so dislikes it, as to prohibit it; Non velle, not to will it; when he so dislikes, as not to prohibit, yea, and not to effect it, yet permits it to be for good ends. Of the Lord, it is truly said, That he wills an heart of flesh, and that he nills a heart of stone; as for hardheartedness, although he frequently permit it, yet we must say he is not altogether willing to have it, however willing to suffer it. Our temper must be that of Austin, In a wonderful and unspeakable manner even that which is done against his will, is not done without his will; for it would not be done, if it were not permitted; neither doth he permit it without, but with his will. And again, He is so good as that he would never suffer evil, if he were not so Omnipotent, as to bring good out of evil.

IV. By way of presenting objects of which our corruptions make a bad use. Isaiah his Evangelical Ministry made the heart of that people fat, and made their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. The hotter the Sun is wont to shine, the more the dunghill is wont to sent. Men grow hardest under the most Gospel ministry. So under mercies of all sorts. He that observeth the passages of Pharaohs story, shall find that his corruptions took many occasions from the carriage of things to harden him yet more and more. After he had been freed from two or three several plagues by Moses his prayer upon his hypocritical relentings, he might perhaps begin to think that the God of Israel was such an one as might be deceived with fair shows, and so fear him less. It pleased God not to strike Pharaoh himself with any plague by the hand of Moses; nor to suffer his people to rise up against him and free themselves by main force. This might happily tend to his further hardening, and put him upon saying,

Besides, the same plague was never twice inflicted: he saw that, and might think when one plague was over, that would not come again, and there could not come a worse then that: the God of Israel had surely done his worst already. Come we to the last scene of his Tragedy after Israel was departed, things were so carried as to cram his corruption, and to make his heart fatter then before. The Hebrews are all found in a place with the sea before them, and great mountains on each side. Their being so pent, encourageth Pharaoh and his host. The sea is ere long divided for Israel; the waves stand as walls on either side, the people pass through as on dry land. Why should not the sea, might he think, make way for me as well as for them? The prey is now in view, let go this one opportuty, they are gone forever. If the waves stand up but a while longer (as they have done a good while already) the day is ours. They pass on, and perish.

§. 7. V. By way of tradition to Satan. Who although he have not any power of enforcing, yet hath a notable slight of persuading, and by this means of hardening. No doubt but Pharaoh being deluded by the Magicians, who were suffered to counterfeit the same miracles which Moses did, was thereby hardened through the operation of Satan. We read of an evil Spirit from God troubling Saul, and after that of many hard-hearted prancks by him plaid, such as never before: and of the devils having put into Judas his heart to betray Christ, after which he was restless till he had done it; As they must needs go, our Proverb saith, whom the devil drives. 'It is strange how that man's spirit declined into further, and yet further degrees of hardness; but less strange if we consider that the devil was entered into him. Judas was first a cunning dissembler; the disciples suspected themselves as soon as him, and therefore said, Master, is it I? Afterward a secret thief; for he bare the bag and filched: then a bold traitor, What will ye give? and Hail Master. In the conclusion, a desperate self-murderer, as the most interpreters judge, in making away himself.

VI. By way of delivering men up to their own lusts. Hear God of his own people. My people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts; and they walked in their own counsels: how much more is this true of God's enemies? Pharaoh by name. See how these three lusts of his, Idolatry, Ambition, and Covetousness concurred to the making of him so hard-hearted towards God; so hard to be prevailed with by Moses. As an Idolater, he was loath to receive a message from the God of Israel, whom he knew not. Who is the Lord, said he, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. As an Ambitious Prince it went to his heart to have Moses control him in his own dominions, and to admit the commands of any superior Lord, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, was as fire to his bones, and enraged him, who would not hear of any lord over that people but himself. As a Covetous man, he was loath to have so fat a collop cut off his flank, to hear of parting with a people by whose pains in making bricks he had such daily comings in.

VII. By way of infliction and penalty. One sin is often made the punishment of another, and hardness the punishment of many sins oft reiterated. When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail, and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. The harder they were the more they sinned, and the more they sinned, the harder they were. Affected hardness is frequently followed with inflicted hardness. Men by customary sinning make their hearts as an adamant stone (so the phrase is in Zechariah ) of which it is said,

That is, Unregenerate persons of hard hearts usually grieve their godly friends, who are cut at the heart to see their obstinacy, as Christ grieved for the Pharisees hardness. At non inciditur ipse. But such an one cannot heartily grieve for himself. His heart till it come to be steeped in the blood of Christ, who is that Scapegoat in Leviticus, relenteth not, or not to purpose. It were easy to add much more: but I shall now shut up all concerning this proposition God hardeneth, with the saying of Hugo de sancto Victore concerning that, God willeth evil. This is irksome to the ear, and a pious mind doth not easily receive it; but the reason is not because what is said is not well said, but because what is well enough said is not half well understood.

EXERCITATION 4. Objections against, and Corollaries from the foregoing propositions. The least things provided for. Luther's admonition to Melancthon. Maximilians address. Pliny's unbelief. The Psalmists stumble at the prosperity of the wicked. His recovery by considering it was not full, was not to be final. The superintendency of Providence over military and civil affairs in particular. The Churches afflictions. Promises cautioned. Duty of casting care upon God. He no author of sin. The attestation of this State, and of this writer.

§. 1. TWo things are still remaining, viz. Objections against, and Corollaries from the forementioned propositions: to which in their order.

Objection against the first. Some think the extending of divine Providence to all created beings, how mean soever, unsuitable to the perfection of God, whom, they say, it doth not become to stoop so low. Epicurus is cited by Lactantius, as speaking to this purpose, and after him Horace.

Answ. They speak like heathens, not knowing the Scripture, nor the power of God. The Psalmist otherwise, Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high? Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in earth. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, to be a joyful mother of children. Of his care and providence it is believed and asserted by divines, that it is neither deceived nor tired, & that as the greatest things do not overburden it, so least things do not escape it. That of our Savior to his Disciples is a most express assertion. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Wherefore, by way of Corollary from hence, let God himself alone be acknowledged the Preserver and Governor of all things. Let no man think by his strength of parts, or extremity of pains to take the work out of his hands.

That of Maximilian the Emperor in the time of Pope Julius the second, was an honest acknowledgement. Deus aeterne nisi vigilares, quàm male esset mundo! quem regimus nos; Ego miser venator, & ebriosus ill ac • sceleratus Julius! O eternal Lord God if thou thyself shouldst not be watchful, how ill it would be with this world, which is now governed by me, a miserable hunter, and by this drunken and wicked Pope Julius!

§. 2. Against the second proposition it hath been objected that there is no such thing as the providence of God superintending human affairs, especially considering the great prosperity which is enjoyed by wicked men. Pliny the great Naturalist speaketh of it, as a thing to be entertained with laughter rather then belief. And the Psalmists words are these, As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.

Answ. That which then satisfied him, should now suffice to answer us. He went into the sanctuary of God, then understood he their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castedst them down into destruction. Their prosperity was not full, was not to be final. I. Was not full. The places wherein they stood were slippery: their felicity varnished over, but rotten within. That in S. John and only that is perfect prosperity, when the inward and outward man thrive together, I wish above all things (saith he to Gaius) that thou mayest prosper, and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. With them it is quite otherwise. They have, it may be, fat bodies, but lean souls; full purses, but empty heads and hearts; blest in their estates, but cursed in their spirits. Have houses and lands worth many thousands, but hearts little worth, according to that The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. Call you this prosperity? It is in truth nothing less. It is unhappiness rather, and there are those who have not stuck to name it so. II. Was not to be final. Thou castedst them down into destruction. The world came in fast upon them one way; and the wrath of God came as fast another. This fair day of theirs is but a weather-breeder; as a calm before an earth-quake. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense, saith the Lord, their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. David expresseth it most emphatically, I have seen the wicked in great power: and spreading himself like a green bay-tree. (A tree that retaineth its viridity and freshness even in winter when fruit-bearing trees have cast their leaves) yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea I sought him, but he could not be found. Let such an one be sought in his counting-house, which was wont to be the temple, wherein he worshipped his God Mammon; he is not there. At Court where he was so magnified, and almost adored; he is not to be found in the lodgings there. He that would find him, must seek him in hell. For there he is. This is the end of such worldly prosperity as cometh from God, and yet defieth him.

§. 3. The Corollary from hence is, let the superintendency of divine providence over all human affairs, in particular over Military and Civil be humbly acknowledged. I. Over military. Those French-men were undoubtedly to blame, who in their flattering applauses of Richelieu, did ascribe the reduction of Rochelle solely to him, insomuch, as one of their Chroniclers writeth, That in the taking of that town, neither the king, nor God Almighty had a share in the action, but the Cardinal himself. How much safer is it for us to follow the tract of Scripture? which to show how effectual the influence of divine providence is upon actions of that nature, is wont to compare God unto whatsoever is necessary to secure a city besieged, for example, unto weapons, walls, fortifications, watchmen and soldiers. To weapons both offensive and defensive. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. To walls, I saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. To fortifications, We have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. If besides bulwarks a city be compassed about with a river, chiefly if with the sea itself we account it strongly fortified. Hear the same Prophet, The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. To watchmen, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Lastly to soldiers, The Lord is a man of war: yea the Lord is a whole army of men, both Van and Reer, The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rere-ward.

II. Over civil affairs. I have been told that during the late treaty of a match between the Prince of Wales that then was, and the Infanta of Spain, the Earl of Bristol,

Our way to be quiet is to do the like upon all occasions; to drive up things to divine Providence, and there to rest. Time was when Daniel's head and heart was filled with the visions of God; by which the great changes that were to happen in the government of the world had been newly made known to him: viz. the wheeling about of Monarchy from the Babylonians (who then were in the highest of their power) to the Persians, thence to the Grecians, and thence to the Romans; from an head of gold, to a breast and arms of silver, from them to a belly and thighs of brass, and from them to legs of iron, and to feet part of iron, part of clay; yea in the end to a little stone cut out without hands, which brake the whole image in pieces. He notwithstanding quarrelleth not with Providence for intending so notable, so destructive changes to the government then in being; goeth not about to demand any account thereof from God of such alterations, but betaketh himself quietly to the praise & admiration of him, by whose wisdom and power they were all in their seasons to be accomplished. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings. We should do well, however things go, to make Austin's resolution ours; Let the world sink or swim, be ruined or prosper, I will still bless the Lord who made the world. As for the late wheelings of Providence here in this Isalnd, and alterations thereupon. I for my part say with Anselm once Archbishop of Canterbury. If any be able to understand them, let him give thanks to God: if any be not, let him however bow down his head to worship God; not lift up his horn by way of debate and ventilation.

§. 4. An objection against the third proposition, concerning God's special care and providence over the Church, and the members thereof, may be formed thus. The Church of all Societies, the Saints of all men, are the most in sufferings. Yea some Churches, by name those seven in Asia, which we read of in the Revelation, have been extinguished. From whence some are apt to infer want of care, and providence rather.

Answ. Be it granted that the militant Church is for the most part in a suffering condition, and that Christ our head, being a man of sorrows, typified by the brazen altar upon which the fire was continually burning, a wife of pleasures did not become him, nor members used to overmuch delicacy. That every vessel of mercy must expect scouring in order to brightness; and however trees in the wilderness grow without culture, trees in the orchard must be pruned in order to fruitfulness, and corn-bearing fields broken up, when barren heaths are left untouched; yea that in some particular instances the candlestick hath been removed and the place unchurched, yet the inference is not solid, because first, All afflictions are advantageous to the godly. They often help to make bad men good, always to make good men better. David could say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Of the godly captives of Judah the Lord saith, He had sent them out of that place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. Secondly, because the promises made concerning the Churches preservation (such as I insisted upon above in the second Exercitation of this Aphorism) are for the most part misunderstood, and consequently misinproved. Learn we for the future to embrace them with these three cautions.

§. 5. I. That they do in especial manner concern the Church Catholic, not this or that particular Nation or Congretion. If that in the beginning of Isaiah the twenty seventh were to be considered as a National Church, we all know it hath been ruined long since notwithstanding the promise there made, which must therefore be understood of it as a type of the Church universal; that is so watered and kept as to be inexpugnable. Look as by virtue of the Covenant made with Noah that the whole earth should never be again overflown with a general deluge, we may be sure it never shall: yet there have since, and may still be divers inundations, whereby some parts of the earth have been, and may be laid waste: so by virtue of God's promises, we may be confident that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the whole Church of Christ; yet may divers particular Churches be ruined (as those in Asia have been). No man knows how many more may have the same line of Desolation drawn over them. Mean while the Catholic Church, still, not only continues, but thrives, because like the sea, it wins in one place, what it loseth in another; like the Sun, it riseth to the Antipodes, when it sets to our Hemisphere.

II. That a particular Church in case it degenerate, cannot challenge such interest in them, as it might, if it had continued pure. There was to be a time when the vineyard in Isaiah should afford red wine; then it might look for watering every moment, and being kept from all hurt. But there was also a-time when it degenerated, and instead of red wine, brought forth wild grapes; when instead of keeping it, the Lord threatened to take away the hedge, and pull down the wall thereof: instead of preserving it from hurt, to let it be eaten up, broken down, and laid waste; instead of watering, to command the clouds that they rain not upon it. Who knoweth but the Lord hath said of us in this Nation, as concerning the old Jewish Church? Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Sure I am, he hath already begun to cut our Vine till it bleed; and if repentance step not in to turn away wrath, may be provoked to say of England as he once did of Palestine. I had planted thee a noble vine, holy, a right seed: How then art thou turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine, unto me? May the spirit of Reformation pass through us all! So shall not iniquity be our ruin, as it otherwise may and will.

III. That they use not to be fulfilled all at once, but by certain periods, so as to have their gradual accomplishments. I shall instance in that of Isaiah formerly mentioned. Piscator and Scultetus upon the place interpret it of that preservation which God vouchsafed the Jewish Church under Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah in a state of peace and purity, notwithstanding the opposition made against it. Others expect a further accomplishment thereof, when the Jews shall be called in a glorious manner, and when the deliverer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. So Justus Heurnius in his Evangelical Embassy to the Indians toward the beginning of the fourth Chapter. And the Author of an English Treatise concerning the calling of the Jews, published by D ^r . Gouge, in the year 1621. But the fullest accomplishment of it, is reserved for that period, after which, time shall be no more; when all the Israel of God shall be watered with that pure river of life, clear as Crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb, spoken of in the last of the Revelation. Of this period, I find the place expounded by popish Commentatours, by name Sanctius, Cornelius à Lapide, and Tirinus, the last whereof understands by the vineyard of red wine, Ecclesiam beatorum, the Church Triumphant: yea, and by some also of our own writers, Oecolampadius in particular, who saith, The things there spoken of, have respect to the day of judgment.

§. 6. The Corollary from hence should be that of S. Peter, a serious lesson of casting all our care upon God, for he careth for us. This hath been by experience found the only best way of obtaining Christian tranquility of mind: witness that of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemiah, who after the rooting and flight of his Army, being himself taken captive by the enemy, and asked how he did, answered,

That of Bishop Hooper (in a consolatory letter to certain godly Christians) taken in Bow -Church-yard at prayer, and laid in the Counter. Above all, that of our Father Abraham, who when Isaac had said, Behold the fire and wood, but where is the sacrifice for a burnt-offering? readily answered, My son, God will provide himself a burnt-offering: and when he beheld a Ram unexpectedly provided, to be offered up in lieu of Isaac, called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh, That is, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. See we imitate him who is the father of the faithful, in casting all our care upon God, both for ourselves, and our posterity.

I. For ourselves. Behold a sure warrant for that from the pen of David, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved: Yea, from the mouth of Christ himself; The very hairs of your head are all numbered; fear ye not. Thou (saith Austin ) that shall not lose one hair, how comes it to pass that thou art afraid of losing thy soul?

II. For our posterity. There be many that seem to rest upon Providence for themselves, who do yet macerate their hearts with carking and caring for their children, with thoughts what will become of them when they are gone. As Philip once said, Two hundred peniworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may take a little. And Andrew, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? So do these men say in their hearts, What is my small estate divided among so many children? I am not like to leave enough for everyone to take a little. O fools, and flow of heart to believe! have ye forgotten what God said to your father Abraham? Read, and recall. I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and unto thy seed after thee. Why may not this God be trusted with thy children too? Sure I am he should. Tell me, Who provided for them before they were born? Who put care and tender affections into their mothers heart, milk into their nurses breasts? Did not God? Is not he that made provision for them all before they came into this world, and hath comfortably maintained them ever since, fit to be trusted with them still, though thou beest gathered to thy fathers, and seest Corruption? Doubtless he is.

§. 7. The better to help us in the performance of so important a duty as this, take along with us the following directions.

I. Get and keep assurance of a peculiar interest in the love and favor of God in Christ. We neither trust known enemies nor doubtful friends with what we account precious. They that know God to be their enemy, they that doubt whether he be their friend or no, cannot with confidence cast their whole care upon him. But he that can groundedly say with David, I am thine, may go on as he doth, Lord, save me. He that can say with assurance of faith, The Lord is my shephard, may confidently add, I shall not want. The spouse may go leaning upon her beloved with all her weight, when she hath first been enabled to say, My beloved is mine, and I am his. I am my beloveds, and his desire is towards me.

II. Continue in well-doing. Let them that suffer according to the will of God (saith S. Peter ) commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. Look how much care a man hath to please God, so much confidence may he have to cast all his care upon him. Whilest the people of Israel went up to the place of God's public worship, all the males that were of age, thrice in a year, leaving none but women and children at home, so giving the enemy fair opportunity for invasion: God undertakes they shall not so much as desire or think of such a thing. Neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the year.

III. Treasure up the promises, chiefly such as are made on purpose to assure us of God's caring for us: that in particular, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Where there is in the Original an accumulation of many negatives to make the assertion as strong as may be, it is as much as if he had said, I will never, in no wise, in no case forsake thee. We are wont to call the bills and bonds of able men, good security. The promises of God all-sufficient are certainly so.

IV. Reflect upon former experiments, and let them be encouragements for time to come. The Psalmist did so when he said, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times—I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high, I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Some inquire why David when he asked for a sword, and Abimelech told him there was none at hand but that of Goliath, called for it, and said, There is none like to that: it is probable he might have found some of better metal, or as good: and some perhaps fitter for his strength, but yet prefers this above all because of his experiment. God had formerly blest him in the use of that.

§. 8. Against the fourth and last proposition of Providence her activity even in sin; it may be objected, and usually is, that this tenet cannot be maintained without making God the Author of sin, which opinion is an abhorrency to the minds of all sound Divines.

I answer, so it is, and ought to be; neither doth that assertion want the attestation of this State. Witness a modern, but pregnant occurrence, yet not generally known, and therefore inserted here in perpetuam rei memoriam. In the year of our Lord, 1645. there was published in London an English book, wherein God was expressly made the Author of his people's sins, though not without some limitations. The Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster, took offense at this, (though some of them, being acquainted with the man, whose name it bore, were ready to say of him, as Bucholcerus did of Swenckfeldius, He had a good heart, yet without a well regulated head) made complaint of it to both houses of Parliament. They both censured the said book to be burnt by the hand of the common hangman; and the Assembly of Divines agreed upon a short Declaration, Nemine contradicente, by way of detestation of that abominable and blasphemous opinion, which was also published under that Title, July 17. 1645. and in which we meet with these among other expressions;

This premised, I now assert positively and considerately (yet without obliging myself to make good every phrase that hath fallen unadvisedly from the pen of every w • ter) that what Protestant Churches say in their public Confessions, and allowed Protestant writers in their books, concerning God's having a natural influence into the sinful acts of creatures, but without a moral influence into the sinfulness of their acts; his inflicting hardness of heart as a punishment to former sins; his directing and ordering great sins to great good, as Joseph's vendition to the Churches preservation, yea, the crucifixion of Christ, to the salvation of the Elect, do neither really, nor in due construction amount to the making of God the Author of sin. To what hath been elsewhere further said of this copious argument, I refer the capable reader to my Tactica Sacra, Lib. 1. Cap. 1. §. 5. & ibidem cap. 6. §. 4.