PART. 1.

In the Beginning.IN the Beginning whereof, ‘O onely Eternall God, of whose being, beginning, or lasting, this beginning is no period, nor measure; which art no Circle, for thou hast no ends to close up; which art not within this All, for it cannot comprehend thee; nor without it, for thou fillest it; nor art it thy self, for thou madest it; which having decreed from all eternity, to do thy great work of Mercy, our Redemption in the fulnesse of time, didst now create time it selfe to con­duce to it; and madest thy glory and thy mercy equal thus, that though thy glorious work of Creation were first, thy mercifull work of Redempti­on was greatest. Let me in thy beloved Servant Augustine's own words,Conf. li. c. 3. when with an [Page 27]humble boldnesse he begg'd the understanding of this passage, say, Moses writ this, but is gon from me to thee; if he were here, I would hold him, and beseech him for thy sake, to tell me what he meant. If he spake Hebrew, he would frustrate my hope; but if Latine, I should comprehend him. But from whence should I know that he said true? Or when I knew it, came that knowledge from him? No, for within me, within me there is a truth, not Hebrew, nor Greek, nor Latin, nor barbarous; which without organs, without noyse of Sylla­bles, tels me true, and would en­able me to say confidently to Mo­ses, Thou say'st true. Thus did he whom thou hadst filled with faith, desire reason and under­standing; as men blest with great fortunes desire numbers of servants, and other Com­plements of honour. But ano­ther instrument and engine of thine,Aq. 2. q. 46. A. 2. whom thou hadst so en­abled, that nothing was too [Page 28]minerall nor centrick for the search and reach of his wit, hath remembred me; That it is an Article of our Belief, that the world began. And therefore for this point, we are not under the insinuations and mollify­ings of perswasion, and conve­niency; nor under the reach and violence of Argument, or Demonstration, or Necessity; but under the Spirituall, and peaceable Tyranny, and easie yoke of sudden and present Faith. Nor doth he say this, that we should discharge our selves upon his word, and slumber in a lazy faith; for no man was ever more endeavourous then he in such inquisitions; nor he in any, more then in this point. But af­ter he had given answers to all the Arguments of reasonable & naturall men, for a beginning of this world; to advance Faith duly above Reason, he assignes this with other mysteries on­ly to her comprehension. For Reason is our Sword, Faith [Page 29]our Target. With that we prevail against others, with this we de­fend our selves: And old, well disciplined Armies punished more severely the loss of this, then that.’

This word, In the beginning, is the beginning of this book, which we finde first placed of all the holy books; And also of the Gospel by Saint John, which we know to be last written of all. But that last beginning was the first; for the Word was with God, before God created Heaven and. Earth. And Moses his In the Beginning, hath ever been used powerfully, and prosperously, a­gainst Philosophers and Hereticks relapsed into an opinion of the worlds eternity. But Saint John's In the Beginning, hath ever had strength against the Author of all errour, the Divel himself, if we may beleeve the relations of exorcists, who in their disposses­sings, mention strange obedien­ces of the Divell at the naked enunciation of that word. It is [Page 30]not then all one Beginning; for here God Did, there he Was. That confesses a limitation of time, this excludes it.Caninius Conc. To. 1. De Conc. Nic. The great Philoso­pher, (whom I call so, rather for his Conversion, then his Argu­ments) who was Arius his Advocate at the first Nicene Councell, as­sign'd a beginning between these two beginnings; saying, that after John's eternal Beginning, & before Moses's timely beginning, Christ had his beginning, being then created by God for an instrument in his generall Creation. But God forbid that any thing should need to be said against this, now. We therefore confessing two Begin­nings, say, that this first was simul cum tempore, & that it is truly said of it, Erat quando non erat, and that it instantly vanished; and that the last Beginning lasts yet, and ever shall: And that our Mercifull God, as he made no Creature so frail and corruptible as the first Beginning, which being but the first point of time, dy­ed as soon as it was made, flow­ing [Page 31]into the next point; so though he made no creature like the last Beginning, (for if it had been as it, eternall, it had been no crea­ture;) yet it pleased him to come so neer it, that our soul, though it began with that first Beginning, shall continue and ever last with the last. We may not dissemble, nor dare reprove, nor would avoid an­other ordinary interpretation of this Beginning, because it hath great and agreeing autority, and a consonance with our faith: which is, that by the beginning here, is meant the Son our Savior; for that is elsewhere said of him,Rev. 1.8. I am first and last, which is, and was, and is to come. And hereby they would establish his coeternity, and con­substantialness, because he can be no creature, who is present at the first Creation. But because although to us, whom the Spirit hath made faithfully credulous, and filled us with an assurance of this truth, every conducing, and convenient application governs and commands our assent, because [Page 32]it doth but remember us, not teach us. But to the Jews, who roundly deny this Exposition, & to the A­rians, who accept it, and yet call Christ a creature, as fore-created for an Assistant in this second Cre­ation; these detortions have small force, but as Sun-beams striking ob­liquely, or arrows diverted with a twig by the way, they lessen their strength, being turned upon ano­ther mark then they were destined to. And therefore by the Example of our late learned Reformers, I forbear this interpretation; the ra­ther, because we are utterly dis­provided of any history of the Worlds Creation, except we de­fend and maintain this Book of Moses to be Historical, and therefore literally to be inter­preted. Which I urge not with that peremptorinesse, as Bellar­mine doth,De Purg. l. 1. c. 15. who answers all the Arguments of Moses's silence in many points maintained by that Church, with this only, Est liber Historiarum, non Dogmatum. For then it were unproperly argued by [Page 33]our Saviour, If ye believed Mo­ses, ye would believe me, John 5. for he writ of me. There is then in Moses, both History and Precept, but evidently distinguishable without violence. That then this Beginning was, is matter of faith, and so, infallible. When it was, is matter of reason, and therefore various and perplex'd. In the E­pistle of Alexander the Great to his Mother, remembred by Cy­prian and Augustin, there is men­tion of 8000. years. The Calde­ans have delivered observations of 470000 years. And the Egypti­ans of 100000. The Chineses vex us at this day, with irreconcilia­ble accounts. And to be sure, that none shall prevent them, some have call'd themselves Abo­rigenes. The poor remedy of Lu­nary and other planetary years, the silly and contemptible escape that some Authors speak of run­ning years, some of years expi­red and perfected; or that the account of dayes and monthes are neglected, cannot ease us, nor [Page 34]afford us line enough to fathom this bottom. The last refuge uses to be, that prophane history can­not clear, but Scripture can. Which is the best,Bib. Sanct. l. 5. because it is halfe true; But that the later part is true, or that God purposed to reveal it in his Book, it seems doubtfull, because Sextus Senensis reckons almost thirty severall supputati­ons of the years between the Creation, and our blessed Savi­ours birth, all of accepted Au­thors, grounded upon the Scrip­tures; and Pererius confesses, he might have encreased the number by 20. And they who in a de­vout melancholy delight them­selves with this Meditation, that they can assigne the beginning of all Arts which we use for Neces­sity or Ornament; and conclude, that men which cannot live with­out such, were not long before such inventions, forget both that many Nations want those commo­dities yet, & that there are as great things perish'd and forgoten, as are now remaining. Truly, the [Page 35] Creation and the last Judgement, are the Diluculum and Crepuscu­lum, the Morning and the Even­ing twi-lights of the long day of this world. Which times, though they be not utterly dark, yet they are but of uncertain, doubtfull, and conjecturall light. Yet not equally; for the break of the day, because it hath a succes­sion of more and more light, is clearer then the shutting in, which is overtaken with more and more darknesse; so is the birth of the world more discernable then the death, because upon this God hath cast more clouds: yet since the world in her first infancy did not speak to us at all (by any Authors;) and when she began to speak by Moses, she spake not plain, but diversly to divers un­derstandings; we must return a­gain to our strong hold, faith, and end with this, That this Begin­ning was, and before it, Nothing. It is elder then darknesse, which is elder then light; And was be­fore Confusion, which is elder [Page 36]then Order, by how much the universall Chaos preceded forms and distinctions. A beginning so near Eternity, that there was no Then, nor a minite of Time be­tween them. Of which, Eternity could never say, To morrow, nor speak as of a future thing, because this Beginning was the first point of time, before which, whatsoever God did, he did it uncessantly and unintermittingly; which was but the generation of the Son, and procession of the Spirit, and enjoy­ing one another; Things, which if ever they had ended, had begun; And those be terms incompatible with Eternity. And therefore Saint Augustin says religiously and examplarily,Conf. l. 11. cap. 12. If one ask me what God did before this beginning, I will not answer, as another did merrily, He made Hell for such busie inquirers: But I will soo­ner say, I know not, when I know not, then answer that, by which he shall be deluded which asked too high a Mystery, and he be praysed, which answered a lie.

PART. 2.

NOw we have ended our Con­sideration of this beginning, we will begin with that, which was before it, and was Author of it, God himself; and bend our thoughts first upon himself, then upon his Name, and then upon the particular Name here used, E­lohim.

PART. 3.

MƲndum tradidit disputatio­ni eorum, Sirac. 3.11 ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem. So that God will be glorified both in our searching these Mysteries, because it testifies our liveliness towards him, and in our not finding them. Lawyers, more then others, have ever been Tyrants over words, and have made them accept other significations, then their nature enclined to. Hereby have Casuists drawn the word Anathema, which is consecrated or separated, and se­parated or seposed for Divine use, to signify necessarily accursed, and cut off from the communion of the Church. Hereby Criminists have commanded Heresie, which is but election, (and thereupon Paul gloryed to be of the strictest He­resie, a Pharisee; Act. 6.5.) and the Scep­ticks were despised, because they were of no Heresie) to undertakeLaert. [Page 54]a capitall and infamous significa­tion. Hereby also the Civilists have dignified the word Priviledge, Acacius de Privil. l. 1. cap. 1. whose ancientest meaning was, a law to the disadvantage of any private man (and so Cicero speaks of one banished by priviledg, and lays the names, cruel and capitall upon Priviledg) and appointed it to express only the favours and graces of Princes. Schoolmen, which have invented new things, and found out, or added Sub­urbs to Hell, will not be exceed­ed in this boldness upon words. As therefore in many other, so they have practised it in this word cre­are: which being but of an even nature with facere, or producere, they have laid a necessity upon it to signifie a Making of Nothing; Scot. 2. Sent. Dist. 1. q. 5. Pererius. For so is Creation defined. But in this place neither the Hebrew nor Greek word afford it; neither is it otherwise then indifferently used in the holy books. Somtimes of things of a preexistent matter, He created man of Earth, Sirach. 17.1. and he created him a helper out of himself. [Page 55]Sometimes of things but then re­vealed, They are created now, Isa. 48.7. and not of old. Sometimes of that, whereof God is neither Creator, nor Maker, nor Concurrent, as of Evill; faciens Pacem, Isa. 45.5. & cre­ans malum: And sometimes of that which was neither created nor made by God, nor any o­ther, as darkness, which is but pri­vation; formans bucem, Isa. 54.7. & cre­ans tenebras. And the first that I can observe to have taken away the liberty of this word, and made it to signify, of Nothing, Aq. 1. q. 45 ar. 1. is our countryman Bede upon this place. For Saint Augustin was as opposite and diamitrall against it,Aug. contr. advers. leg. & proph. as it is against truth. For he says, fa­cere est quod omnino non erat; cre­are verò est, ex eo quod jam erat educendo constituere. Truly, it is not the power and victory of rea­son, that evicts the world to be made of Nothing; for neither this word creare inforces it, nor is it expressly said so in any Scrip­ture. When Paul says himself to be Nothing, 1 Cor. 22.11. it is but a diminuti­on [Page 56]on and Extenuation (not of him­self, for he says there, I am not inferior to the very chief of the A­postles, but) of Mankind. Where it is said to Man, Your making is of Nothing, it is but a respective, and comparative undervaluing;Isa. 41.24. as in a lower descent then that be­fore, All Nations before God are less then Nothing. Isa. 40.17. As in another place by a like extreme extending it is said, Deus regnabit in aeter­num & ultra: Ex. 15.18. Only it is once said,Machab. 2.7.28. Ex nihilo fecit omnia Deus; but in a book of no straight obli­gation (if the matter needed au­thority) and it is also well transla­ted by us, Of things which were not. But therefore we may spare Di­vine Authority, and ease our faith too, because it is present to our reason. For, Omitting the qua­relsome contending of Sextus Empiricus the Pyrrhonian, (of the Author of which sect Laerti­us says, that he handled Philoso­phy bravely, having invented a way by which a man should de­termine nothing of every thing) [Page 57]who with his Ordinary weapon, a two-edged sword, thinks he cuts off all Arguments against pro­duction of Nothing, by this, Non fit quod jam est, Nec quod non est; Ca. de Or­tu & inte­rit. nam non patitur mutationem quod non est; And omitting those Ido­laters of Nature, the Epicureans, who pretending a mannerly loth­ness to trouble God, because Nec bene promeritis capitur, Lucret. nec tangitur ira, indeed out of their pride are loth to be beholden to God, say, that we are sick of the fear of God,Horace. Quo morbo men­tem concusse? Timore Deorum; And cannot therefore admit crea­tion of Nothing, because then Nil semine egeret, but ferre om­nes omnia possent, And subitò ex­orirentur, incerto spacio, Lucret. with such other dotages. To make our ap­proches nearer, and batter effe­ctually, let him that will not con­fess this Nothing, assign somthing of which the world was made. If it be of it self, it is God: and it is God, if it be of God; who is also so simple, that it is impossible [Page 58]to imagine any thing before him of which he should be compoun­ded, or any workman to do it.Boet. de Consol. 5. pros. 6. For to say, as one doth, that the world might be eternall, and yet not be God, because Gods eter­nity is all at once, and the worlds successive, will not reconcile it; for yet, some part of the world must be as old as God, and infi­nite things are equall, and equalls to God are God. The greatest Dignity which we can give this world, is, that the Idaea of it is eter­nall, and was ever in God: And that he knew this world, not only Scientiâ Intellectus, by which he knows things which shall never be, and are in his purpose im­possible, though yet possible and contingent to us; but, after fai­ling, become also to our knowledg impossible, (as it is yet possible that you will read this book tho­row now, but if you discontinue it (which is in your liberty) it is then impossible to your know­ledge, and was ever so to Gods;) but also Scientiâ Visionis, [Page 59]by which he knows only infalli­ble things; and therefore these Idaeas and eternall impressions in God, may boldly be said to be God; for nothing understands God of it self, but God; and it is said, Intellectae Jynges à patre, Zoroast. O­racul. 4. intelligunt & ipsae: And with Zo­roaster (if I misconceive not) Jynx is the same as Idaea with Plato. The eternity of these Idaeas wrought so much, and obtained so high an estimation with Scotus, that he thinks them the Essence of this world, and the Creation was but their Existence; which Reason and Scaliger reprehend roundly, when they do but ask him, whe­ther the Creation were only of ac­cidents.

But because all which can be said hereof is cloudy, and there­fore apt to be mis-imagined, and ill interpreted, for, obscurum lo­quitur quisque suo perieulo, I will turn to certain and evident things; And tell thee, O man, which art said to be the Epilogue, and com­pendium of all this world, and the [Page 60] Hymen and Matrimoniall knot of Eternal and Mortall things, whom one says to be all Creatures, Picus. be­cause the Gospel, of which onely man is capable, is sent to be prea­ched to all Creatures; Mar. 16. And wast made by Gods hands, not his commandment; and hast thy head erected to heaven, and all others to the Center; that yet on­ly thy heart of all others, points downwards, and onely trembles. And, oh ye chief of men, ye Princes of the Earth, (for to you especially it is said, Terram dedit filiis hominum; for the sons of God have the least portion there­of; And you are so Princes of the Earth, as the Divell is Prince of the Air, it is given to you to raise storms of warr and persecution) know ye by how few descents ye are derived from Nothing? you are the Children of the Lust and Excrements of your parents, they and theirs the Children of Adam, the child of durt, the child of Nothing. Yea, our soul, which we magnify so much, and by [Page 61]which we consider this, is a veryer upstart then our body, being but of the first head, and immediate­ly made of Nothing: for how many souls hath this world, which were not nothing a hundred years since? And of whole man com­pounded of Body and Soul, the best, and most spirituall and deli­cate parts, which are Honour and Pleasure, have such a neighbour­hood and alliance with Nothing, that they lately were Nothing, and even now when they are, they are Nothing, or at least shall quickly become Nothing: which, even at the last great fire, shall not befall the most wretched worme, nor most abject grain of dust: for that fire shall be a puri­fier, not consumer to nothing. For to be Nothing, is so deep a curse, and high degree of punish­ment, that Hell and the prisoners there, not only have it not, but cannot wish so great a loss to themselves, nor such a frustra­ting of Gods purposes. Even in Hell, where if our mind could [Page 62]contract and gather together all the old persecutions of the first Church, where men were tormen­ted with exquisite deaths, and of­tentimes more, by being denyed that; And all the inhumanities of the Inquisition, where repen­tance encreaseth the torture, (for they dy also, and lose the com­fort of perseverance;) And all the miseries which the mistakings, and furies, and sloth of Princes, and infinity and corrosiveness of officers, the trechery of women, and bondage of reputation hath laid upon mankind, since it was, and distil the poyson and strength of all these, and throw it upon one soul, it would not equall the tor­ment of so much time as you sound one syllable. And for the lasting, if you take as many of Plato's years, as a million of them hath minutes, and multi­ply them by Clavius his number, which expresses how many sands would fill the hollowness to the first Mover, In Sacro­bos. you were so far from proceeding towards the end, that [Page 63]you had not described one mi­nute. In Hell, I say, to escape which, some have prayed to have hils fall upon them, and many hor­rours shadowed in the Scriptures and Fathers, none is ever said to have wished himself Nothing. Indeed, as reposedly, and at home within himself no man is an A­theist, however he pretend it, and serve the company with his bra­veries (as Saint Augustine sayes of himself,Conf. l. 2. cap. 3. that though he knew nothing was blameable but vice, yet he seemed vicious, lest he should be blameable; and fain'd false vices when he had not true, lest he should be despised for his innocency;) so it is impossible that any man should wish him­self Nothing: for we can desire nothing but that which seems sa­tisfactory, and better to us at that time; and whatsoever is bet­ter, is something. Doth, or can any man wish that, of which, if it were granted, he should, even by his wishing it, have no sense, nor benefit? To speak truth free­ly [Page 64]there was no such Nothing as this before the beginning: for, he that hath refin'd all the old Definitions, hath put this ingre­dient Creabile, (which cannot be absolutely nothing) into his De­finition of Creation:Piccolo­min. Defin. Creat. And that Nothing which was, we cannot desire; for mans will is not larger then Gods power; and since No­thing was not a pre-existent mat­ter, nor mother of this All, but onely a limitation when any thing began to be; how impos­sible is it to return to that first point of time, since God (if it im­ply contradiction) cannot reduce yesterday? Of this we will say no more; for this Nothing being no creature, is more incompre­hensible then all the rest: but we will proceed to that which is All, Heaven and Earth.

PART 4.

ONe sayes in admiration of the spirit and sublimenesse of Abbot Joachim his Works,Picus. that he thinks he had read the Book of life. Such an acquaintance as that should he need, who would worthily expound or comprehend these words, Heaven and Earth. And Francis George in his Har­mony sayes, That after he had cu­riously observed, that the Ark of Noah, and our body had the same proportion and correspondency in their parts, he was angry, when he found after, that S^t Augu­stine had found out that before. So natural is the disease of Meum & Tuum to us, that even con­templative men, which have aban­don'd temporall propriety, are de­lighted, and have their Complacen­tiam, in having their spirituall Me­ditations and inventions knowne to be theirs: for, qui velit in­genio [Page 66]cedere, rarus erit. But be­cause to such as I, who are but Interlopers, not staple Merchants, nor of the company, nor within the commission of Expositors of the Scriptures, if any licence be granted by the Spirit to discover and possesse any part, herein, it is condition'd and qualified as the Commissions of Princes, that we attempt not any part actually pos­sess'd before, nor disseise others; therefore of these words, so abun­dantly handled, by so many, so learned, as no place hath been more traded to, I will exposito­rily say nothing, but onely a lit­tle refresh, what others have said of them, and then contemplate their immensity. Al opinions about these words, whether of Men too supple and slack, and so miscarried with the streame and tide of el­der Authority; or too narrow and slavish, and so coasting ever within the view and protection of Philosophy; or too singular, and so disdaining all beaten paths, may fall within one of these ex­positions. [Page 67]Either in these words Moses delivers roundly the intire Creation of all, and after doth but dilate and declare the Order; which is usually assign'd to Chry­sostome and Basil, govern'd by the words in Gen. 2.4. In the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens; and of these, He that liveth for ever made all things together; Sirach. 18.1. and because the literall interpretation of successive dayes cannot subsist, where there are some dayes mention'd before the Creation of these Planets which made dayes. Or else, (which Augustine authorizeth) the Hea­ven signifies Angels, and the Earth Materiam primam, out of which all things were produc'd; which Averroes hath call'd Id ens quod mediat inter non esse penitus, In 1^o Phys. 70. & esse Actu. And another hath affor­ded it a definition, which Divines have denied to God: for he says, Est nullum praedicamentum, Arist. 7. Met. Piccolom. de Defin. Mat. primae ne­que Negatio. And therfore that late Italian Distiller and Sublimer of old definitions hath riddled up­on [Page 68]it, That it is first and last; immortall and perishable; for­med and formelesse; One, four, and infinite; Good, bad, and neither; because it is susceptible of all formes, and changeable in­to all. Or else Heaven must mean that Coelum Empyraeum (which some have thought to be increate, and nothing but the refulgence of God) which is exempt from all alteration even of motion; and the Earth to designe the first Matter. And in this channell came the tide of almost all accep­ted Expositors, till later ages som­what diverted it. For with, and since Lyra, (of whom his Apolo­gist Dornike sayes, Dilirat qui cum Lyra non sentit) they agree much, that Heaven and Earth in this place, is the same which it is now; And that the substantiall forms were presently in it distinct­ly, but other accidentall proper­ties added successively. And ther­fore Aquinas having found▪ dan­ger in these words,1. q. 65. Ar. 1. Praecessit in­formitas materiae ejus formatio­nem, [Page 69]expounds it, Ornatum, not formam. So that this Heaven and Earth, being themselves and all between them, is this World; the common house and City of Gods and men, in Cicero's words;Nat. De­or. 2. and the corporeal and visible image and son of the invisible God, in the description of the Academicks: which being but one, (for Ʋni­versum est omnia versa in unum) hath been the subject of Gods la­bor, and providence, and delight, perchance almost six thousand yeares; whose uppermost first moving Orbe is too swift for our thoughts to overtake, if it dispatch in every hour three thou­sand times the compass of the Earth,Gilbert. de Magn. l. 6. c. 3. and this exceeds fifteen thousand miles. In whose firma­ment are scattered more Eyes (for our use, not their owne) then any Cyphers can esteeme or ex­presse. For, how weake a sto­mack to digest knowledge, or how strong and misgovern'd faith against common sense hath he, that is content to rest in their [Page 70]number of 1022 Stars? whose nearer regions are illustrated with the Planets, which work so effectu­ally upon man, that they have of­ten stop'd his further search, and been themselves by him deified; And whose navell, this Earth, which cannot stir, for every other place is upwards to it, and is un­der the water, yet not surroun­ded, and is mans prison and pal­lace, yea man himself, (for ter­ra est quam calco, Conf. 12. & terra quam porto, says Augustin:) A world, which when God had made, he saw it was very good; and when it became very bad, because we would not repent, he did: and more then once; for he repented that he made it, and then that he destroyed it; becoming for our sakes, who were unnaturally con­stant (though in sinning) unna­turally changeable in affection: And when we dis-esteemed his be­nefits, and used not this world a­right, but rather chose Hell, he, to dignify his own work, left Heaven it self, to pass a life in this [Page 71]world: Of the glory of which, and the inhabitants of it, we shall best end in the words of Sirach's Son, When we have spoken much, Ch. 43.27. we cannot attain unto them; but the sum of all is, that God is all. But because, as the same man says, When a man hath done his best, Cha. 18.6. he must begin again; and when he thinks to come to an end, he must go again to his labour; let us further consider what love we may bear to the world: for, to love it too much, is to love it too little; as overpraysing is a kind of libelling. For a man may oppress a favorite or officer with so much commen­dation, as the Prince neglected and diminished thereby, may be jealous, and ruine him. Ambas­sadours in their first accesses to Princes, use not to apply them­selves, nor divert their eye upon any, untill they have made their first Dispatch, and find themselves next the Prince; and after ac­knowledg and respect the beams of his Majesty in the beauties and dignities of the rest. So should [Page 72]our soul do, between God, and his Creatures; for what is there in this world immediately and pri­marily worthy our love, which (by acceptation) is worthy the love of God? Earth and Heaven are but the foot-stool of God: But Earth it self is but the foot­ball of wise men. How like a Strumpet deales this world with the Princes of it? Every one thinks he possesseth all, and his servants have more at her hand then he; and theirs, then they. They think they compass the Earth, and a Job is not within their reach.Malaguz­zi. Theso. Polit. par. 2. fo. 60. A busie Wit hath ta­ken the pains to survey the posses­sions of some Princes: & he tels us, that the Spanish King hath in Eu­rope almost three hundred thou­sand miles, and in the new world seaven millions, besides the bor­ders of Africk, and all his Ilands: And we say, the Sun cannot hide himself from his Eye, nor shine out of his Dominions. Yet let him measure right, and the Turke exceeds him, and him the Persi­an; [Page 73]the Tartar him, and him Prete-Jan. There came an E­dict from the Emperour (saith the Gospel) that the whole world should be taxed: Luk. 2.1. And when the Bishop of Rome is covetous of one treasure, and expensive of another, he gives and applies to some one the Indulgences Ʋrbis & Orbis. And alas, how many greater King­domes are there in the world, which know not that there is such a Bishop or Emperour? Ambiti­on rests not there: The Turke, and less Princes, have stiled them­selves King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and chosen to God. Chri­stian Princes, in no impure times, have taken (nay given to them­selves)Justinian. Proem. Numen nostrum, andAcacius l. 1. c. 6. Cassā. Cat. glo. Mud. P. 5. Cons. 24.50. Divina Oracula, and Sacra Scripta to their Laws. Of them also some speak so tremblingly, that they say, to dispute their A­ctions is sacriledg. And theirDe nova forma fide­lit. c. 1. Extra Jo. 22. ca. cum Intergloss. Baldus says of him, Est omnia, & super omnia, & facit ut Deus; habet enim coeleste arbitrium. But more roundly the Canonists of [Page 74]their Bishop, Qui negat Domi­num Deum nostrum Papam, &c. which title the Emperour Constan­tine also long before afforded him.Distin. 96. l. Satis. And Mar­tial to Do­mitian, l. 8.2. But alas, what are these our fellow-ants, our fellow-durt, our fellow-nothings, compared to that God whom they make but their pattern? And how little have any of these, compared to the whole Earth? whose hills, though they erect their heads beyond the Country of Meteors, and set their foot, in one land, and cast their shadow into another, are but as warts upon our face: And her vaults, and caverns, the bed of the winds, and the secret streets and passages of al rivers, and Hel it self, though they afford it three thou­sand great miles,Munster l. 1. c. 16. are but as so many wrinkles, and pock-holes. A prince is Pilot of a great▪ship, a Kingdome; we of a pinnace, a family, or a less skiff, our selves: and howsoever we be tossed, we cannot perish; for our haven (if we will) is even in the midst of the Sea; and where we dy, our home [Page 75]meet us. If he be a lion and live by prey, and wast amongst Ce­dars and pines, and I a mole, and scratch out my bed in the ground, happy in this, that I cannot see him: If he be a butterfly, the son of a Silkworm, and I a Sca­rab, the seed of durt; If he go to execution in a Chariot, and I in a Cart or by foot, where is the glo­rious advantage? If I can have (or if I can want) those things which the Son of Sirach calls principall, water, fire, and iron,C. 39.26. salt and meal, wheat and hony, milk, and the blood of grapes, oyle, and clothing; If I can prandere Olus, Horace. and so need not Kings; Or can use Kings, and so need not prandere Olus: In one word, if I do not frui (which, is, set my delight, and affection only due to God) but Ʋti the Creatures of this world,Lombard. l. 1. Dist. 1. this world is mine; and to me belong those words, Subdue the Earth, Gen. 1.28. and rule over all Creatures; and as God is proprietary, I am usu­fructuarius of this Heaven and [Page 76]Earth which God created in the beginning. And here, because Nemo silens placuit, Auson. multi brevita­te, shall be the end.

O Eternall and Almighty pow­er, which being infinite, hast enabled a limited creature, Faith, to comprehend thee; And being, even to Angels but a passive Mirror and looking-glasse, art to us an Active guest and domestick, (for thou hast said, I stand at the door and knock,Rev. 3.20. if any man hear me, and open the doore, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with me, and so thou dwellst in our hearts; And not there only, but even in our mouths; for though thou beest greater, and more remov'd, yet humbler and more communicable then the Kings of Egypt, or Roman Emperours, which disdain'd their particular distinguishing Names, for Pha­raoh and Caesar, names of confusi­on; hast contracted thine immensi­ty, and shut thy selfe within Syl­lables, and accepted a Name from [Page 77]us; O keep and defend my tongue from misusing that Name in light­nesse, passion, or falshood; and my heart, from mistaking thy Na­ture, by an inordinate preferring thy Justice before thy Mercy, or ad­vancing this before that. And as, though thy self hadst no beginning thou gavest a beginning to all things in which thou wouldst be served and glorified; so, though this soul of mine, by which I partake thee, begin not now, yet let this minute, O God, this happy minute of thy visitation, be the beginning of her conversion, and shaking away confusion, dark­nesse, and barrennesse; and let her now produce Creatures, thoughts, words, and deeds agreeable to thee. And let her not produce them, O God, out of any contemplation, or (I cannot say, Idaea, but) Chime­ra of my worthinesse, either be­cause I am a man and no worme, and within the pale of thy Church, and not in the wild forrest, and en­lightned with some glimerings of Naturall knowledge; but meerely out of Nothing: Nothing prexis­tent [Page 78]in her selfe, but by power of thy Divine will and word. By which, as thou didst so make Hea­ven, as thou didst not neglect Earth, and madest them answe­rable and agreeable to one another, so let my Soul's Creatures have that temper and Harmony, that they be not by a misdevout conside­ration of the next life, stupidly and trecherously negligent of the of­fices and duties which thou enjoynest amongst us in this life; nor so an­xious in these, that the other (which is our better business, though this also must be attended) be the less endeavoured. Thou hast, O God, denyed even to Angells, the ability of arriving from one Extreme to a­nother, without passing the mean way between. Nor can we pass from the prison of our Mothers womb, to thy palace, but we must walk (in that pace whereto thou hast enabled us) through the street of this life, and not sleep at the first corner, nor in the midst. Yet since my soul is sent immediately from thee, (let me for her return) rely, [Page 79]not principally, but wholly upon thee and thy word: and for this body, made of preordained matter, and instruments, let me so use the ma­teriall means of her sustaining, that I neither neglect the seeking, nor grudge the missing of the Conveni­encies of this life: And that for fame, which is a mean Nature between them, I so esteem opinion, that I despise not others thoughts of me, since most men are such, as most men think they be: nor so reverence it, that I make it alwayes the rule of my Actions. And because in this world my Body was first made, and then my Soul, but in the next my soul shall be first, and then my body, In my Exterior and morall conversation let my first and presen­test care be to give them satisfaction with whom I am mingled, because they may be scandaliz'd, but thou, which seest hearts, canst not: But for my faith, let my first relation be to thee, because of that thou art justly jealous, which they cannot be. Grant these requests, O God, if I have asked fit things fitly, and [Page 80]as many more, under the same li­mitations, as are within that prayer which (As thy Manna, which was meat for all tasts, and served to the appetite of him which took it, and was that which every man would) includes all which all can aske, Sap. 16.20 Our Father which art, &c.

PART. 1.

I Come now to the first Part:Names. In which, the first Conside­ration is, Why God would have them named? These are the Names, Antiq. l. 2. c. 4. &c. Josephus de­livering the same History, sayes, that he would not have ascribed the Names, because they are of an hard and unpleasant sound, but that some had defamed the Nati­on, as Egyptians; and denyed them to be Mesopotamians. It hath therefore one good use, to distinguish them from profane Nations: But the chiefest is, That they are inserted into this Book for an everlasting honour both to God and them. Amongst men, all Depositaries of our Memories, all means which we have trusted with the preserving of our Names, putrifie and perish. Of the infinite numbers of the Medals of the Emperors, some one haypy An­tiquary, [Page 93]with much pain, travell, cost, and most faith, beleeves he hath recovered some one rusty piece, which deformity makes reverend to him, and yet is indeed the fresh work of an Impostor.

The very places of the Obelises, and Pyramides are forgotten, and the purpose why they were erect­ed. Books themselves are subject to the mercy of the Magistrate: and as though the ignorant had not been enemie enough for them, the Learned unnaturally and treacherously contribute to their destruction, by rasure and mis-interpretation. Caligula would abolish Homer, Virgil, and all the Lawyers Works, and eter­nize himself and his time in Me­dals: The Senate, after his death, melted all them: Of their brasse his Wife Messalina made the Statue of her beloved Player; and where is that? But Names ho­nour'd with a place in this book, cannot perish, because the Book cannot. Next to the glory of having his name entred into the [Page 94] Book of Life, this is the second, to have been matriculatted in this Register, for an example or instru­ment of good. Lazarus his name is enrolled, but the wicked rich mans omitted. How often in the Scriptures is the word Name, for honour, fame, vertue? How often doth God accurse with abolishing the Name? Thou shalt destroy their Name, Deut. 7.24. And, I wil destroy their Name de sub coelo, Deut. 9.14. And, Non seminabitur de Nomine tuo, Nah. 1.14. With which curse also the civill Ephesi­an Law punished the burner of the Temple, that none should name him. And in the same phrase doth God expresse his blessings to Abraham, Gen. 12.2. and often elsewhere, I will make thy Name great. Which, without God, those vaine attempters of the Tower of Babel endeavoured: for it is said, Gen. 11.4. They did it, to get themselves a Name. Whether Nomen be Novimen, or Notamen, it is still to make one known: and God, which cannot be known by [Page 95]his own Name, may nearlyest by the names and prosperity of his. And therefore, for his own sake, he is carefull to have his servants named. He calleth his own sheep by name; And,Joh. 10. Scribe Nomen Diei hujus, says he to Ezekiel, c. 24.2. Of all Nations, the Jews have most chastly preserved that Ceremony of abstaining from ethnick Names.Ethnick Names. At this time, when by their pres­sures they need most to descend to that common degree of flattery, to take the names of the Princes by whose leave they live, they do not degenerate into it, when al­most all Christendom hath strai­ed into that scandalous fashion, of returning to heathen Names, as though they were ashamed of their Examples. And almost in all their Names, the Jews have either testified some event past, or pro­phecied or prayed for some good to come:Significant. Names. In no language are Names so significant. So that if one consider diligently the senes of the Names register'd here, he will not so soon say, That the [Page 96]Names are in the History, as that the History is in the Names. For, Levi is coupled to God, which notes Gods calling. Simeon, hea­ring and obedient, where their willingness is intimated. Juda is confessing and praising, which re­sults of the rest. Zebulon is a dwelling, because they are esta­blished in God: in whom, be­cause they have both a Civill poli­cy, and a Military, Dan is a Judg­ment, and Gad, a Garrison. In which, that they may be exerci­sed in continual occasions of meri­ting, Naphthali is a wrestling. And to crown all, Asher is complete bles­sedness. The other Names have their peculiar force, which will not come into this room: but I entred the rather into this Medi­tation and opinion, because I find the Scriptures often to allude to the Name, and somtimes express it, as 1 Sam. 25.25. As his name is, so is he, Nabal, a fool. And in Exod. 15.23. Therefore the name of the place was called bitter. And the Romans also had so much respect to the [Page 97]ominousness of good Names, that when in Musters every Souldier was to be called by Name,Cic. l. 1. de Divinat. they were diligent to begin with one of a good and promising Name, which Festus reckons to be Vale­rius, Salvius, Statorius, and such. And I have read in some of the Criminalists, that to have an ill Name, in this sense, not malae famae, was Judicium ad torturam. Hom. 8. in Gen. Origen exaggerating pathetically the gradations of Abraham's sorrow at the immolation of his son, after he hath expostulated with God why he would remem­ber him of the Name son, and why of Beloved son, rests most upon the last, that he would call him by his Name Isaac, which signifies joy, in a commandement of so much bitterness. It may be then some occasion of naming them in this place, that as these men were instruments of this work of God, so their names did sub-obscurely foresignifie it. For Reason, the common soul to all lawes, forbids that either great [Page 98]punishments should be inflicted otherwise then Nominatim; Non nisi nominatim liberi exheredandi: Briss. form. so. 604. Or that great benefits should be in any other sort conferr'd. For conformably to this case, which now we consider, of delivering persons from bondage, the law is,Lex Fus. Can. Servis non nisi Nominatim li­bertas danda est. Of this Honour to his servants, to be remembred by Name, God hath been so dili­gent, that somtimes himself hath imposed the Name before the birth,Changed Names. and somtimes changed it to a higher signification, when he purposed to exalt the person. It is noted,Fr. George pro fo. 17. that to Abram's Name he added a letter, whose number made the whole Name equall to the words, Creavit Hominem. So that the multiplying of his seed, was a work not inferior to the Creation. And from Sarai's Name he took a letter, which expressed the num­ber ten, and repos'd one, which made but five; so that she contribu­ted that five which man wanted be­fore, to shew a mutuall indigence [Page 99]and Supplement. How much Schismatick disputation hath pro­ceeded from the change of Si­mon's Name into Peter? Mat. 15. What a Majestick change had James and John into the Sons of Thunder? Mar. 13. yet God not only forbore ever such vast Names, as Pharaoh gave Joseph, Ge. 41.41. which is not only Ex­pounder of secrets, Addition to Names. but Saviour of the world: which also the Ro­man Emperors assumed in many Coyns, (AEternitas Caesaris, And Caesar salus, And Servator, And Restaurator Orbis;) but (to my remembrance, and observation) he never added other Name, as a pronomen, or cognomen, or such: To shew (I think) that man brought not part of his Dignity, and God added; but that God, when he will change a man, be­gins, and works, and perfects all himself. For though corrupt cu­stome hath authorised it now, And,Robortellus de Nomi­nibus. Gaudent pronomine molles auriculae; yet the Romans them­selves, from whom we have this burden of many Names, till they [Page 100]were mingled with the Sabius, u­sed but one Name.Politianus Miscel. c. 31 And before that Custom got to be noble, their slaves, only when they were manumitted, were forced to ac­cept three names. In this Excess of Names the Christians have ex­ceeded their patterns: for to o­mit the vain and empty fulness in Paracelsus Name, which of the Ancients equalls that grave, wise Author, which writes himself, Pulmannus Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius? But God hath barely and nakedly, but permanently engrav'd these Names. Which shall never be subject to that obscurity, which Ausonius imputes to one who was Master to an Emperor, and re­warded with a Consulship, but overswaid with his Colleague, that men were fain to inquire, Quibus Consulib. gesserit consulatum. But wheresoever these Names shall be mentioned, the Miraculous History shall be call'd to memory; And wheresoever the History is remem­bred, their Names shall be refreshd.

PART. 2.

THough God be absolutely simple,Composi­tion in Gods acti­ons. yet since for our saks in his Scriptures he often submits himself to comparisons and simi­litudes, we may (offencelesly (since there is nothing but him­self, so large as the world) thus compare him to the world: That his eternall Prescience is the Coelestiall world, which admits no alteration, no generation of new purposes, nor corruption of old; and those four, Mercy, Pow­er, Justice, Judgment, are the Elementary world, of which all below is composed, and the Ele­mented world are his particular extrinsick actions: In which, though they be so complexioned, [Page 136]that all are mingled equally, yet in every one of them, every one of these four concur. For, in every work of God there is mercy and justice,Aq. qu. 21. ar. 4. so, as they presup­pose one another. And as in his created Elements, so in these there is a condensing and a rarifying, by which they become and grow into one another. For often that action which was principally intended for a work of Justice a­gainst one Malefactor, extends it self to an universall Mercy, by the Example. And the children of God know how to resolve and make liquid all his Actions. They can spie out and extract Balmes, and Oyles from his Vinegers; and supple, and cure with his cor­rosives. Be he what he will, they will make him Mercifull, if Mercy be then wholsomest for them. For so that brave Maca­bee interpreted Gods daily affli­cting them; The Lord doth not long wait for us, as for other nati­ons, whom he punisheth when they come to the fulness of their sins; [Page 137]but he never withdraweth his Mer­cy from us. And in like manner out of his Mercies they can di­stil Justice, when presumption up­on Mercy needs such a corrective. For so says Saint Ambrose, De Paradi­so. De poenit. dist. 1. Ser­pens. Cain indignus judicatus est, qui puni­retur in peccato; because he was not so much spared, as reserved to a greater condemnation. And upon like reason, the Emperiall laws forbid a servant in an Inne to be accused of incontinency, be­cause (in those times) custome had made them all such, and therefore unworthy of the laws cognisance. Yet of all these four Elements Mercy is the up­permost and most Embracing.Of Mercy. Miserationes ejus super omnia o­pera ejus. And,Psal. 144. Quanta Magni­tudo, as great as his greatness (which is infinite) is his Mercy. And as great as his power,Eccl. 2.17. which is omnipotent: for it is therefore said, Misereris omnium, Sap. 11. quia om­nia potes. Before there was any subject of his mercy, he was mer­cifull; for Creation it self is one [Page 138]of the greatest of his Mercies. And it is Misericordia Domini, Thre. 9. quia non sumus consumpti; so that our preservation is also from mercy. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may have mercy upon you; Isa. 30.18. and, miserans miserabitur, in the next verse. God is the Lord of Hostes, and this world a war­fare. And as the Emperiall Armies had three Signa Milita­ria to be given them,Veget. l. 3. cap. 5. so hath Gods mercy afforded us. They had Signa Vocalia, the express word of the Commander, which office the word of God doth to us; And Semivocalia, which were the sound of trumpets & other instruments, and such to us are traditions and Sermons, partaking of God and man: And they had Signa muta, which were the Colours and En­signes, and such to us are the Crea­tures and works of God. His Mercy is infinite in Extent: for it is in all places; yea, where there is no place: And it is infinite in Du­ration; For as it never begun, (for the Ideating of this world, [Page 139]which was from everlasting, was a work of mercy) and as the in­terruptions which by acts of Ju­stice it seemes to suffer here, dis­continue it not, (for though God say, For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee; Isa. 54.8. yet he adds there, yet with everlasting Mercy have I had compassion on thee;) so also is it reasonable to think, that it shall never have end. And because in heaven there can be no distinct and particular act of Mercy from God, because there shall be no demerit in us, nor possibility of it, after judg­ment; Therefore, and from the Psalm, Non continebit in ira sua misericordias suas, some (but too licenciously) have concluded a determination and ending of the pains of the damned; and others learned and pious, and accused by no body for this opinion, evict from hence, certain intervalla, and relaxations in the torments of Hell,Lomb. l. 4. Dist. 46. ex August. after the generall Judg­ment, as all confesse a diminishing of the pains there, and that the [Page 140]punishment is citra condignum, by the benefit of the passion of our Blessed Saviour. That which is Mercy in God, in us is Compassi­on. And in us, it hath two steps. To rest upon the first, which is but a sadnesse, and sorrow for anothers misery, is but a dull, lazy, and barren compassion. There­fore it is elegantly expressed in the Psalm,Psal. 111. Jucundus homo, qui miseretur, & commodat; for that is the second and highest step in Compassion, Alacrity, and Chear­fulnesse to help. And as God, delighting most in mercy, hath proposed to himselfe most wayes for the exercise thereof, so hath he provided man of most occasi­ons of that vertue. Every man contributes to it, by being Agent, or Patient. Certainly, we were all miserable, if none were; for we wanted the excercise of the profitablest vertue. For though a Judg may be just, though none transgresse; and we might be mer­cifull, though none wanted, by keeping ever a disposion to be such, [Page 141]if need were; yet what can we hope would serve to awake us then, which snort now under the cries of the wretched, the testimo­ny of our own consciences, the li­berall promises of reward from God, and his loud threatnings for such omissions? Amongst the Rules of State, it is taught and practis'd for one, That they which advance and do good, must do it immediately from them­selves, that all the Obligation may be towards them: But when they will destroy or do hurt, they must do it instrumentally by o­thers, to remove and alienate the envy. Accordingly, when Princes communicate to any Jura Regalia, by that they are authorized to ap­prehend, accuse, pursue, condemne, execute, and dispoil, but not to par­don. God doth otherwise; for, for our first sin, himselfe hath in­flicted death, and labour upon us. And, as it were to take from us all occasion of evill, he doth all the evill of which his nature is capable, which is but Malum [Page 142]poenae. But of the treasures of his mercy, he hath made us the Stew­ards, by dispensing to one ano­ther. For first, he hath redeemed man by man, and then he hath made Hominem homini Deum. And proportionall to this trea­sure, he hath made our neces­sities and miseries infinite. So much, that an Egyptian King forbad Hegesias the Philosopher to speak publickly of humane mi­sery,Val. Max. l. 8. c. 9. least every one should kill himself. All consists of givers and receivers: and to contract it closer, every man is both those; and therefore made so, because one provokes the other: for, Homo indigus, Prov. 19. misericors est. And it is therefore that Aquinas sayes,2^a. 2ae. q. 30. ar. 2. that old men, and wise men, are aptest to this vertue, because they best fore-see a possibility of nee­ding others compassion. And if thou hadst nothing to give, or knewest no want in any other, thou hast work enough within doors; Miserere animae tuae. But towards our selves,Eccles. 30. or persons al­most [Page 143]our selves, there is not pro­perly mercy, but grief;Aqu. ibid. therfore we must go to seek guests. And to such a chearfull giver, God gives himself;Paulinus: Homil. de Gazophi­lactio. l. 4. c. 5. Et quid non possidet, qui ipsum possi [...] possi­dentem? sayes a contemplative wise man. And for such a giver to work upon. God makes others needy; Fecit mileros, at ag­nosceret misericordes, sayes the same man, in the same book. In the first constitution of the Ro­man Empire, by the generall cor­ruption of all men, which is to give more to them which abound, they easily fore-saw, that men would soon decline and stray in­to a chargeable and sumptuous worship of their Gods; And therefore they resisted it with this law, Deos frugi colunto. This mo­derated their sacrifices, but yet withheld them not from the su­perfluous adorning the Temples and Images of their Gods. But in our reformed Christian Religi­on, which is the thriftiest and cheapest that ever was instituted, [Page 144](for our Sacrifices grow within us, and are our owne creatures, prayer and praise; and since our Bessed Saviour hath given himself for us, we are now as men which had paid a great fine, and were bound to no other rent, then acknowledgements and services) now that we have removed the expensive dignising of images, and relicks, what other exercise is there left for our charity, then those nearer images both of God, and of our selves, the poore? Be mer­cifull then, as your Father in hea­ven is mercifull. And how is he? homines & jument a salvabis, Deus, Psal. 35. and by jumenta are un­derstood men not yet reduced to the knowledg of God. Give then thy counsel to the ignorant, thy prayers to the negligent, but most thy strength to the oppressed and dejected in heart; for surely, oppression maketh a wise man mad, Eccl. 7.9. how tempestuously will it then work upon a weaker? let no greatness retard thee from giving, as though thou wert a­bove [Page 145]want. Alas, our greatness is Hydroptick, not solid: we are not firm, but puffed, and swoln; we are the lighter, and the lesser for such greatness. Alcibiades bragg'd how he could walk in his own ground; all this was his,Aelian. l. 3. c. 28. and no man a foot within him; and Socrates gave him a little map of the world, and bid him show him his territory there; and there an Ant would have overstrid it. Let no smalnesse retard thee: if thou beest not a Cedar to help towards a palace, if thou beest not Amber, Bezoar, nor liquid gold, to re­store Princes; yet thou art a shrub to shelter a lambe, or to feed a bird; or thou art a plan­tane, to ease a childs smart; or a grasse to cure a sick dog. Love an asker better then a giver: which was good Agapetus counsel to Ju­stinian: Yea rather, prevent the asking; and do not so much joyn and concur with misery, as to suf­fer it to grow to that strength, that it shall make thy brother ask, and put him to the danger of a [Page 146]denyall. Avoid in giving, that which the Canonists expresse by Cyminibilis, which is a trifling giver. And give not (as Seneca cals them) panes lapidosos; which are benefits hardly drawn, which have onely the shape, not the nourishment of benefits: But give as thou wouldst receive. For thou givest not, but restorest, yea thou performest another du­ty too, thou lendest. Thou dost not waste, but lay up; and thou gainest in losing. For to this gi­ving most properly squares Plato's definition of liberality, that it is, studium lucrandi ut decet. I need not much fear that any man is too much inflamed to a wastfull charity by this; yet it is an affection capable of sin. And therefore, as waggoners in steep descents, tie the teame behind, not to draw it up, but to stop sodaine precipitations downward, so, onely to prevent such slipery downfals, I say, That as the Ho­ly Ghost forbids, Eccl. 7.18. Be not just orvermuch, so one may [Page 147]be charitable overmuch. His apt­nes to give, may occasion anothers sloth, and he may breed the worms which shall eat him; and pro­duce the lean kine, which shall devoure the fat. And so, as Paulinus says,Ad Seve­rum. In charitatem de charitate peccat. And in another place,De Mona­chata. Multa charitas pene deli­rum, & pietas stultum fecit. For, God would not, saith Saint Am­brose, that we should pour out,De Officiis. but distribute our wealth. So that for precise Moderation herein precept will not serve; but that prayer of that most devout Ab­bot Antony, (of whom Saint Augustine says,De Doctri­na Christi­ana. that without knowledge of letters, he rehear­sed, and expounded all the Scrip­tures) Deus det nobis gratiam Discretionis. For, the same B. Dorothaeus which says wisely, God requires not that you should fly, but that you should not fall,Doctrin. 14 sayes also devoutly,Doctrin. 1. That they which do what they are comman­ded of Christ, pay their tribut just­ly, but they which performe his [Page 148]counsels, bring him presents. But in this we may insist no longer: wee shall best know what wee should do, by considering what God hath done, and how hee express'd his mercies towards his Israelites.

His Mer­cy in brin­ging them to Egypt.He brought them into the Land of Egypt. For though in the Scriptures, when God would ex­cite his children, he uses to re­member them that he is that God which brought them out of the Land of Egypt; yet, that he brought them into that Land, was more simply, absolutely, and intirely a work of Mercy. For, in the o­ther he exercised his Justice upon Pharaoh; and his Power in Mi­racles. And Miracles must not be drawne into consequence; No man may argue to himself, God hath miraculously preserved me, therefore he will do so still. Miracles are to our apprehension incoherent & independent things with the rest of Nature. They seem none of the links of that [Page 149]great chaine of providence, and connexion of causes. Therefore he which hears them, beleeves them but so far as he beleeves the repor­ter; and he which sees them, sus­pects his sense in the apprehen­ding, and his judgment in the inquisition and pursuite of the causes; or goes more roundly to work, and imputes it all to the Divell. But this work of bringing them into Egypt, was only a work of a familiar and fatherly Provi­dence: and, though it were grea­ter then the other (for in com­ming from Egypt they were but redeemed from serving, here from perishing) yet there is nothing in the History, which a meer natu­rall man would grudg to beleeve. From what kind of Destruction did he then deliver them?Famine. From famine; One of those three affli­ctions, which God in a diligent and exquisite revenge presented to David's choice. And one of those two, in comparison whereof, Da­vid chose a pestilence of uncertain lasting and intenseness. An affli­ction [Page 150]so great, as God chooses that comparison to express his greatest affliction of all, which is a famine of his word.Amos. An affli­ction which defeats all Magistra­cy; for in it one may lawfully steal. All propriety; for in it all things return to their prima­tive community. All naturall af­fection; for in it fathers may sell their children, by humane laws; and divine books have Examples where they have eaten them. An affliction,Sueton. Ca­lig. 26. which Caligula, to ex­ceed his predecessors and his own Examples, studied out, when to i­mitate the greatest power of all, praeclusis horreis, indixit populo fa­mem. An affliction with which our law revenges her self when a delinquent which had offended her before, doth after in contempt of her stand mute at the bar. It is a Rack, without either Engine or Executioner; a devouring poy­son, and yet by substraction; and a way to make a man kill himself by doing nothing. Such are all extreme famines, and such was [Page 151]this. For it was no particular curse upon one country; for fa­mine was in all the Land,Gen. 41.54. ver. 57. says the text. And all Countryes came to Egypt to buy corn. It was no naturall disease or infirmity in the earth or aire: but as the Psalmist expresses it,Ps. 105.16 God had called a fa­mine upon the land, and utterly brake the staffe of bread. Egypt her self, which uses to brag,Paneg. Plin. in I­racund. Ni­hil se imbribus coeloque debere, and whose inundations are fertilities, felt the barreness, though by Jo­sephs providence it felt not the pe­nury. In this affliction, in this distress, the sons of Jacob must go into a strange land, where they had no friend whom they knew, but (to speak humanely) an ene­my whom they knew not. And yet God, as though their malice against their brother Joseph, and as though this curse upon the whole land had been ordained by him for their advantage, (for so it may seem by those words of Jo­seph, You sent me not hither, Gen. 45.8 but God; and in the Psalm,Psal. 105. God sent [Page 152]a man before them) appears to Jacob, perswades the jour­ney, assures him and his safe going, great propagation, and safe return.

His Mer­cy in pro­pagating them in Egypt. Propagation is the truest I­mage and nearest representation of eternity. For eternity it self, that is, the Deity it self seems to have been ever delighted with it: for the producing of the three Persons in the Trinity,Propagati­on of God. which is a conti­nuing and undeterminable work, is a propagation of the Deity. And next to this contemplation, that God, which is full, and per­fect, and All, should admit a pro­pagation, it may deserve a second place to consider, that that which is meerly and utterly Nothing,Of Sin. which is Sin, (for it is but priva­tion) hath had the greatest pro­pagation that can be. And be­tween these two extreme Miracles, A propagation in that which is al­ready All, and a propagation in that which is alwayes. Nothing, we may wonder at a propagation [Page 153]in that which is but one halfe; which is, those Religious Orders,Of religi­ous Or­ders. & devout professions, which mul­tiply without Mothers. Of which (not to speak of late times, when that profession was become a dis­ease and contagion, and so no wonder though they infected, and possessed, and devoured whole teritories; but in their primitive institution and practice, how in­finite was the propagation? we cannot discredit those stories (for being dis-interessed in our late-sprung Controversies they could not speak prejudicially) which reckon 5000. in some one Mona­stery; and 500 Monasteries un­der one Abbot. These who had no wives, had infinite spirituall children; and having nothing in the world, had a great part of it. Within one mile of Alexandria, there were 500 Monasteries pene contigua. So that, it is truly said of them, they had Oppida ex­tra Mundum. And when the on­ly tribe of the Benedictins was in full height,Azor. l. 12 it had not many lesse [Page 154]then 40000 Monasteries. And not only the Christian Church, the easiness of whose yoke might invite them to these counsails, but the Jews under an insupportable law, would ever super-errogate in this kinde. Of whose one sect, the Esseni, L. 5. c. 17. Pliny says, per multa seculorum millia, gens aeterna, in qua nemo nascitur; and he gives no other mother to such an in­crease then this, Tam foecunda illis aliorum vitae poenitentia. Of these men, (if they will accept that name,) (except such of them as being all born to sail in the same ship as we, and to suffer with us, have so sublimed their wits with a contempt of ours, that they steal from us in a Calenture; or so stupified themselves, that they forsake their partnership in our labours and dangers, in a lazy Scurvie,) I dare not conceive any hard opinion: For though we be all Gods tenants in this world, and freeholders for life, and are so bound amongst other duties, to keep the world in [Page 155]reparation, and leave it as well as we found it, (for, ut gignamus geniti) yet since we have here two employments, one to con­serve this world, another to increase Gods Kingdome, none is to be accused, that every one doth not all, so all do all. For as, though every parti­cular man by his diet and tempe­rance, should preserve his own body, and so observe it by his own experience of it, that he might ordinarily be his own Physician; yet it is fit, that some sepose all their time for that study, and be able to instruct and reform others; So, though eve­ry one should watch his own steps, and serve God in his vocation; yet there should be some, whose Vocation it should be to serve God; as all should do it, so some should do nothing else. But, because, our esse must be con­sidered before our bene esse, and to our esse properly conduce all things which belong to our pre­servation here, (for, the first [Page 156]words that ever God said to man, were,Gen. 1.28 Bring forth, and multiply, and fill the earth, which was pro­pagation; And then presently, subdue it, and rule, which is Do­minion. And then, Every thing which hath life, shall be to you for meat; which is not only suste­nance, but lawfull abundance and delicacy.) Therefore to advance propagation, lawes have been di­ligent and curious. Some have forbidden a man to divide him­selfe to divers women, because, though God in his secret ends have somtimes permitted it to the Patriarchs, and though (being able to make contraries serve to one end) he threatens in another place, that ten women shall follow one man; yet ordinarily this li­berality of a mans self, frustrates propagation, and is in it selfe a confession, that he seeks not chil­dren.Maximini­ano, & Constanti­no. And therefore the Pane­gyrick justly extols that Empe­rour, who married young; No­vum jam, tum miraculum, juve­nis uxorius. And some lawes in [Page 157]the Greek States enforced men to marry: and the Roman law pretended to have the same ends, but with more sweetnesse, by gi­ving priviledges to the married: but ever increasing them with their number of children, of which to have had none, threw a man back again into penalty; for of the estate of such, a tenth part was confiscate; for to have children, is so much of the es­sence of the lawfulnesse of that act, that Saint Augustine sayes, Si prolem ex conditione vitant, De bono Conjugali. non est matrimonium; for that is a condition destroying the nature of matrimony; of which, and of the fruits thereof, how indul­gent the Romans were, this one law declares; That to Minors they allowed so many years more then they had, as they had chil­dren.

Of this propaga­tion.Of this propagation, which is our present contemplation, ma­ny think devoutly, that the smal­nesse of the first number, and the shortnesse of the time, are the re­markable [Page 158]and essentiall parts. To advance their devotion, I will re­member them, that the number of 430. years divers times spoken of, is from Abraham's coming to Canaan; Exod. 12.41. for the time of this pro­pagation in Egypt, was but 215. years. And the number of men, which is 600000. is only of fight­ing men,Numb. 1. which cannot well be thought a fist part of all the souls. The whole number Josephus, pro­portioning 10. to a paschal lamb, as the Rabbins do, brings to be 3700000. yet to me these seem no great parts of Gods exceeding Mercy in this History; for from so many, in such a space, God, without miracle, by affording twins, and preserving alive, might ordinarily have derived more men then ever were at once upon the whole earth. But whether his decree have appointed a certain number which mankind shall not exceed, (as it seems to be a reaso­nable conjecture of the whole, because in the most famous parts it is found to have held; Rome, and [Page 159] Venice, and like States never ex­ceeding that number to which they have very soon arrived:) Or that the whole earth is able to nourish no more, without doubt it is evident, that the world had very long since as many souls as ever it had, or may be presu­med to have ever hereafter. And it is a very probable conjecture, that the reason, why, since wolves produce oftner, and more then sheep, and more sheep are killed then wolves, yet more sheep re­main, is, because they are che­rished by all industry. For only there men increase, where there is means for their sustentation. That therefore which God did mercifully in this, was, that he propagated them to such num­bers under such oppressions and destructions: for the Egyptians cruelly caused them to serve,Exod. 1. and made them weary of their lives by sore labour, with all manner of bondage: yea, their devoti­on was scornfully mis-interpreted, Because you are idle, you say, let [Page 160]us go offer to our Lord. Exod. 12. And yet, the more they vexed them, the more they grew;Ps. 105.24 and hee made them stronger then their oppressors; And this, though that desperate law of destroying all their male children, had been executed a­mong them.

His Mercy in bring­ing them from E­gypt.Now follows his bringing them from Egypt: And though that were properly a work of Justice, because it was the performance of God's promise, yet that pro­mise was rooted in Mercy: And though hee brought them out In Manu forti, as it is very often re­peated, and by effect of miracles, and so show'd his power, (for it is written,Psa. 106.7 he saved them for his Names sake, that he might make his power to be knowne. And in a­nother place,Exo. 14.4 I will get me honour upon Pharoah, and upon all his host) yet respecting the time when he did it, (to which his promise had not limited him) and for whom he did it, we can contemplate nothing but Mercy. For in the [Page 161]same place, it is said, Our Fa­thers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, neither remembred the multitude of thy Mercies: so that, diversly beheld, the same Act might seem all Power, and all Mercy. And at this time we consi­der, not that those plagues afflicted Egypt, but the land of Goshen felt none; and we hear not now the cryes and lamentations for the death of the first-born, but we re­member, that not a dog opened his mouth against the children of Isra­el. Exod. 11. He delivered them then from such an oppressor, as would nei­ther let them go, nor live there. From one who increased their la­bours, and diminished their num­bers. From one who would nei­ther allow them to be Naturals, nor Aliens. So ambiguous and perplex'd, and wayward is humane policy, when she exceeds her limits, and her subject. But God, though his mercy be abun­dantly enough for all the world, (for since he swet, and bled Phy­sick enough for all, it were more [Page 162]easie for him, to apply it to all, if that conduced to his ends,) yet because his children were ever fro­ward, and grudged any part to others in this their Delivery, pours out all his sea of Mercy upon them, and withdraws all from the Egyptians. Therefore he is said to have hardned Pharaoh's heart. Which because it is so of­ten repeated (at least nine times) was done certainly all those ways by which God can be said to har­den us.Indurati­on. Either Ad captum hu­manum, when God descends to our phrase of speech, and serves our way of apprehending; Or permissively, when God, as it were looks another way,Corn. Cel­l. 5.3. & agrees with that counsell of the Physici­an, It is a discreet mans part to let him alone, which cannot be cu­red; Or substractively, when he withdrawes that spirituall food, which, because it is ordained for children, must not be cast to dogs; Or Occasionally, when he presents grace proportioned to a good end, in its own nature and quality, [Page 163]which yet he knows the taker will corrupt and envenom it, (for so, a Magistrate may occasion evill, though neither he may, nor God can cause any;) Or els Ordinately and instrumentally, when God, by this Evill, workes a greater good; which yet was not Evill where it first grew, in the Para­dise of Gods purpose and decree (for so no simple is Evill) but be­comes such, when it comes to our handling, and mingling▪ and ap­plying. Yea, that very Act which God punished in Pharaoh, which was the oppression, proceeded from God. For the Psalmist says, He hardned their heart to hate his people, Ps. 105.25 and to deal craftily with his servants. Percrius Ex. 1. That so by this Violence and this Deceit, they might have a double title to proffess themselves of the Egyptians treasure. And ac­cordingly for all their pressures, he brought them away sound; and rich, for all their deceit:Ps. 105.37 He brought them forth with silver and gold, and there was none feeble in their tribes. Yea it is added, Egypt was glad [Page 164]at their departing; which God in­timated, when he said,Exo. 11.1 when he letteth you go, he shall at once chase you hence. Only to paraphrase the History of this Delivery, without amplifying, were furniture and food enough for a meditati­on of the best perseverence, and appetite, and digestion; yea, the least word in the History would serve a long rumination. If this be in the bark, what is in the tree? If in the superficiall grass, the let­ter; what treasure is there in the hearty and inward Mine, the Mi­stick and retired sense? Dig a lit­tle deeper, O my poor lazy soul, and thou shalt see that thou, and all mankind are delivered from an Egypt; and more miraculously then these. For, Almightiness is so naturall to God, that no­thing done by his power, is very properly miracles, which is above all Nature. But God delivered us, by that which is most con­trary to him; by being impotent; by being sin; by being Dead. That great Pharaoh, whose E­gypt [Page 165]all the world is by usurpati­on, (for Pharaoh is but exemptus, Acacius de privile­giis. and privilegiatus; and that Name, (I hope not the Nature) is strai'd into our word Baro) whom God hath made Prince of the air, and Prince of Darkness; that is, of all light and aiery illusions, and of all sad and earnest wickedness, of Vanity, and of sin; had made us fetch our own straw, that is, painfully seek out light and bla­sing Vanities; and then burn his brick, which is, the clay of our own bodies with concupiscences and ambitions, to build up with our selves his Kingdome; He made us travell more for hell, then would have purchased Heaven; He enfeebled us from begetting or conceiving Male children, which are our good thoughts, and those few which we had, he strangled in the birth: And then, camest thou, O Christ, thine own Moses, and deliveredst us; not by doing, but suffering; not by killing, but dying. Go one step lower, that is higher, and nea­rer [Page 166]to God, O my soul, in this Meditation, and thou shalt see, that even in this moment, when he affords thee these thoughts, he delivers thee from an Egypt of dulness and stupiditie. As often as he moves thee to pray to be de­livered from the Egypt of sin, he delivers thee. And as often as thou promisest him not to return thither, he delivers thee. Thou hast delivered me, O God, from the Egypt of confidence and pre­sumption, by interrupting my fortunes, and intercepting my hopes; And from the Egypt of despair by contemplation of thine abundant treasures, and my porti­on therein; from the Egypt of lust, by confining my affections; and from the monstrous and unnatu­rall Egypt of painfull and weari­some idleness, by the necessities of domestick and familiar cares and duties. Yet as an Eagle, though she enjoy her wing and beak, is wholly prisoner, if she be held by but one talon; so are we, though we could be delivered of all ha­bit [Page 167]of sin, in bondage still, if Va­nity hold us but by a silken thred. But, O God, as mine inward cor­ruptions have made me mine own Pharaoh, and mine own Egypt; so thou, by the inhabitation of thy Spirit, and application of thy merit, hast made me mine own Christ; and contenting thy self with being my Medicine, allowest me to be my Physician. Lastly, descend, O my Soul, to the very Center, which is the very Pole, (for in infinite things, incapable of distinction of parts, Highest and lowest are all one) and consider to what a land of promise, and heavenly Hierusalem God will at last bring thee, from the Egypt of this world, & the most Egyptiacal part, this flesh. God is so abun­dantly true, that he ever per­formes his words more then once. And therefore, as he hath fulfil­led that promise, Out of Egypt have I called my Son; Mat. 2.15. So will he also perform it in every one of his elect; and as when Herod dyed, his Angell appeared to Joseph in [Page 168]Egypt in a dream, to call him thence; So when our persecutor, our flesh shall dy, and the slumber of death shall overtake us in this our Egypt, His Angels, sent from Heaven, or his Angels newly crea­ted in us, (which are good de­sires of that dissolution,) or his Ministeriall Angels in his militant Church, shall call and invite us from this Egypt to that Canaan. Between which (as the Israelites did) we must pass a desert; a disunion and divorce of our body and soul, and a solitude of the grave. In which, the faithful and discreet prayers of them which stay behind, may much advan­tage and benefit us, and them­selves, if therby God may be mo­ved to hasten that judgment which shall set open Heavens greater gates, at which our Bodyes may enter, and to consummate and ac­complish our salvation.

His Mer­cy in their Preserva­tion.The next place is, to consider his Mercy in their preservation in the Desert. For God hath made [Page 169]nothing which needs him not, or which would not instantly re­turn again to nothing without his special conservation: Angels and our Souls are not delivered from this dependancy upon him. As therefore Conservation is as great a work of Power as Creation; so the particuliar wayes of Gods pre­serving those special people in the Wilderness, are as great works of Mercy, as the Delivery from E­gypt. And though this book of Exodus embrace not all those, yet here are some instances of every kinde; as well of preservation from extrinsick violences of War, as in­trinsick of Famine; and mix'd, of infirmities and diseases. And because Gods purpose had desti­ned them to an offensive War at last, let us mark by what degrees he instructed and noursed them to it. They had been ever frozen in slavery, without use of Arms, or taste of Honour, or Glory, or Vi­ctory. And because they were ther­fore likely to forsake themselves, and dishonour him, God (faith the [Page 170]History) carried them not by the way of the Philistims Country, Exod. 13.17. though that were nearer, lest they should repent when they see Warr, and turn again into Egypt. But presently after, when he had con­tracted himself to them, and affirmed and affianced his presence by the Sacrament of the Pillar, he was then content that they should see an Army pursuing them; which was not so much terrible to them as they were Enemies, as that that they were their Masters. For then they ex­claimed to Moses, Exod. 14.11. Hast thou brought us to die in the wilderness, because there were no graves in E­gypt? Did not we say, let us be in rest, that we may serve the E­gyptians? So soon did a dejecti­on make them call their former bondage, rest; and sink down to meet and invite death, when the Lord of life upheld them. And at this time, God used not their swords at all, yet gave them a full victory. But when this had warm'd them, as soon as the A­malekites [Page 171]made towards them, they fear'd not, murmur'd not, retir'd not; nay, they expected not: but saith Moses, to Joshuah, Chuse us men, and go, Exod. 17.9 fight with Amalek. Which victory, lest they should attribute to themselves, and so grow too forward in ex­posing themselves, and tempting God; the lifting up, or falling down of Moses's hands in pray­er, that day, sway'd and govern'd the battell. Which therfore God was especially carefull that the souldier should know; for so he commanded Moses, Write that for a remembrance in the book, Exod. 17.14. and rehearse it to Joshuah. To their other wars this book ex­tends not: but is full of examples of his other mercies towards them, though they murmur'd; yea, by the words it may well seem, they were done because they murmur'd: In the Morning ye shall see the glory of God, (sayes Moses to them) for, Exod. 16.7 he hath heard your grudging against him. And again, At evening shall the Lord [Page 172]give you flesh; Ver. 8. for the Lord hath heard your murmuring. They murmur'd for water, Exod. 15.24. saying, What shall we drink? and then God presented water; but lest they should attribute all that to the nature of the place, those waters were too bitter to be drunk. Then God would sweeten them; yet not by Miracle; but to encline them to a reverence of Moses, he inform'd him, what would do it naturally; as it appears in ano­ther place, where the Art of phy­sick is extoll'd: Was not the water made sweet with wood, Eccl. 38.5. that men might know the vertue thereof? And yet, the next time that they murmur'd for water, he gave it them miraculously from the rock; to shew, that though Mo­ses was enabled to all naturall works, yet he withdrew not his miraculous presence from them. And then, when they murmur'd desperately for meat, Oh that we had dyed in the Land of Egypt, Exo. 16.2. when we sat by flesh-pots, &c. the Lord, as though nothing in [Page 173]use, or in nature, had been pre­cious enough for them, rained down such fowles, as no Natura­list since can tell what they were: and such a grain, as though it a­bide the interpretation of panis fortium, and panis Angelorum, yet, saith a curious observer of those subtilties, the name signifies,Fra. Geor. problem. fol. 45. Quid est hoc? which is easily ga­thered from the very Text, When they saw it, they said to one ano­ther, Exod. 16.15. it is Man; for they wist not what it was. In which,Probl. 351 the same Problamist observes this wonder, that every man took a like proportion, and all were a­like satisfied, though all could not be of alike appetite and digestion. And a greater wonder, and by a better Author is observed in it, That it was meat for all tasts, Sap. 16.20 and served to the appetite of him which took it, and was that which every man would. Yet this heavenly food they injured with a wearinesse of it; and worse, with their compa­risons; for they cried, We remem­ber the flesh we are in Egypt for [Page 174]nought, Num. 11.5. the cucumers, pepons, leeks, onions, and garlick. As though they had been lesse worth, or they had paid more for it. If then they could chide him into mercy, and make him mercifull not only to their sin, but for their sin, where or when may we doubt of his mercy? Of which, we will here end the consideration; not without an humble acknowledg­ment, that it is not his least mer­cy, that we have been thus long possessed with the meditation thereof: for thus long we have been in the Harbour, but we launch into a main and unknown Sea, when we come to consider his Power.

Of all the wayes in which God hath expressed himselfe towards us, we have made no word which doth lesse signifie what we mean, then Power: for Power, which is but an ability to do, ever relates to some future thing: and God is ever a present, simple, and pure Act. But we think we have done [Page 175]much, and gone far, when we have made up the word Omnipo­tence, which is both wayes im­proper; for it is much too short, because Omnipotence supposes and confesses a matter and subject to work upon, and yet God was the same, when there was nothing. And then it over-reaches, and goes down-wards beyond God: for God hath not, or is not such an Omnipotence, as can do all things; for though squeamish and tenderer men think it more mannerly to say, This thing can­not be done, then, God cannot do this thing; yet it is all one: And if that be an Omnipotence, which is limited with the nature of the worker, or with the congruity of the subject, other things may in­croach upon the word Omnipo­tent; that is, they can do all things which are not against their nature, or the nature of the mat­ter upon which they work. Beza therefore might well enough say, That God could not make a body without place; And Prateolus [Page 176]might truly enough infer upon that,Verbo Be­zanitae. that the Bezanites (as he calls them) deny omnipotence in God; for both are true. And therefore I doubt not, but it hath some mysterie, that the word Om­nipotence is not found in all the Bible; nor Omnipotent in the New Testament. And where it is in the Old, it would rather be interpreted All-sufficient, then Al­mighty; between which there is much difference. God is so Al-sufficient, that he is sufficient for all, and sufficient to all: He is enough, and we are in him able enough to take and apply. We fetch part of our wealth, which is our faith, expresly from his Treasury: And for our good works, we bring the metall to his Mint, (or that Mint comes to us) and there the Character of Bap­tisme, and the impression of his grace, makes them currant, and somewhat worth, even towards him. God is all-efficient: that is, hath created the beginning, or­dained the way, fore-seen the [Page 177]end of every thing; and nothing else is any kind of cause thereof. Yet, since this word efficient, is now grown to signifie infallibility in God, it reaches not home to that which we mean of God; since man is efficient cause of his own destruction. God is also all-conficient: that is, concurs with the nature of every thing; for indeed the nature of every thing is that which he works in it. And as he redeemed not man as he was God, (though the Mercy, and Purpose, and Ac­ceptation were only of God) but as God and man; so in our repen­tances and reconciliations, though the first grace proceed only from God, yet we concurr so, as there is an union of two Hypostases, Grace, and Nature. Which, (as the incarnation of our Blessed Saviour himself was) is conceived in us of the Holy Ghost, without father; but fed and produced by us; that is, by our will first enabled and illumined. For neither God nor man determine mans will; for [Page 178]that must either imply a necessiting therof from God, or else Pelagia­nisme) but they condetermine it. And thus God is truly all-confici­ent, that is, concurrent in all; and yet we may not dare to say, that he hath any part in sin. So God is also all-perficient: that is, all, and all parts of every work are his intirely: and lest any might seem to escape him, and be attributed to Nature or to Art, all things were in him at once, before he made Nature, or she Art. All things which we do to day were done by us in him, before we were made. And now, (when they are produced in time, as they were foreseen in eternity,) his ex­citing grace provokes every parti­ticular good work, and his assi­sting grace perfects it. And yet we may not say, but that God begins many things which we fru­strate; and calls when we come not. So that, as yet our under­standing hath found no word, which is well proportioned to that which we mean by power of God; much less of that refined and sub­til [Page 179]part thereof, which we chief­ly consider in this place, which is the absolute and transcendent pow­er of Miracles, with which this History abounds. For whatsoever God did for his Israelits, beside Mi­racles, was but an extension of his Mercy, and belongs to that Para­graph which we have ended before.

Nature is the Common law by which God governs us, and Mi­racle is his Prerogative. For Mi­racles are but so many Non-ob­stantes upon Nature. And Mi­racle is not like prerogative in any thing more then in this, that no body can tell what it is. For first, Creation and such as that, are not Miracles, because they are not (to speak in that language) Nata fi­eri per alium modum. And so, only that is Miracle, which might be done naturally, and is not so done. And then, lest we allow the Divell a power to do Miracles, we must say, that Miracle is contra totam Naturam, against the whole order and disposition of Nature. For as in Cities, a father governs [Page 180]his family by a certain Order, which yet the Magistrate of the City may change for the Cities good, and a higher Officer may change the Cities Order; but none, all, except the King: so, I can change some naturall things (as I can make a stone fly upward) a Physician more, and the Divell more then he; but only God can change all. And after that is out of necessity established, that Mi­racle is against the whole Order of Nature, I see not how there is left in God a power of Miracles. For, the Miracles which are produced to day, were determined and in­serted into the body of the whole History of Nature (though they seem to us to be but interlineary and Marginall) at the beginning, and are as infallible and certain, as the most Ordinary and custo­mary things. Which is evicted and approved by that which La­ctantius says, and particularly proves,De vera Sap. c. 15. that all Christs Miracles were long before prophecied. So that truly nothing can be done a­gainst [Page 181]the Order of Nature. For, Saint Augustine says truly,Cont. Fau­stum l. 26. c. 3. That is Naturall to each thing, which God doth, from whom pro­ceeds all Fashion, Number and Order of Nature: for that God, whose Decree is the Nature of e­very thing, should do against his own Decree, if he should do a­gainst Nature. As therefore if we understood all created Nature, nothing would be Mirum to us; so if we knew Gods purpose, no­thing would be Miraculum. For certainly, those Miracles which Moses did, after God had once revealed to Moses, that he would do them, were not Miracles to him, no more then the works of the Conjurers, which ex Ratione Rei, were as true as his. But the expressing of his power at this time was, that in the sight of such understanders and workmasters, as the Magi were, he would do more without any Instrument conducing to those ends, then they could do by their best in­strument, the Divell; and so [Page 182]draw from them that confession, Digitus Dei hìc est: for else who could have distinguished between his and their works, or denied the name of Miracle to theirs? for they (not to depart at this time from vulgar Philosophy; not that I bind your faith to it, but that if we abandon this, it is not easie and ready to constitute another so defensible) by their power of locall Motion, and Application of Active and passive things, could oppose matter to heate, and so produce frogs truly; yea, when such things are brought together by such a workman, he can by them produce greater effects then nature could. As an Axe and timber being in the hand of a Statuary, he can make an I­mage; which they two, or a less skilfull Agent could not do. But God wrought not so: But, as Arnobius sayes, he did them, Sine vi carminum, Adversus Gent. l. 1. sine herbarum aut graminum succis, sine ulla observatione sollicita: De vera sap. c. 15. but verbo, & jussione, as Lactantius notes. By [Page 183]which means Arnobius pronoun­ces, none of the Philosophers could cure an Itch;Adv. gent. l. 2. Nemo Phi­losophorum potuit unquam scabi­em, unâ interdictione sanare. An­other expressing of his power, was in this, that when he would, he intercepted their power; which was, when they attempted to make Cyniphs. For that is a kind of treason, and clipping God's coyn, to say, that they were hindered by naturall cau­ses, for, if those Cyniphs were­lice, (as many Translations call them) and if sweat be the mat­ter of them, and the Divel could not ordinarily provide store of that, yet I say, their credit stood not upon the story, but the fact: And then the Divel knew natural means, to warm and distill mul­titudes of men into sweats: And last, if they were such vermine, yet they are agreed to be of that kind which infest dogs; and they never sweat. And if by Cyniph be express'd some flie, not made till then, and then of putrefacti­on [Page 184](for it were too much to al­low creatures of a new Species,) certainly, the Divell can produce all such. Either then the crea­ture being meerly new, the Di­vell understood not of what it was composed; Or God changed the form of Dust into another form, which the Divell could never do; or else, God manacled his hand in the easiest thing, to confound him the more; for after this, it appears not that the Magi at­tempted to do any more Mira­cles. To discountenance then their deceits, and withall to af­flict the Land of Egypt, was the principall purpose of God in these Miracles: not to declare himself, or beget faith; for he doth not alwayes bind miracles to faith, nor faith to miracles. He will somtimes be believed without them; and somtimes spend them upon unbelievers; lest men should think their faith gave strength to his power. For though it be said,Mark 6.5. Christ could do no great works in his own countrey, for [Page 185]their unbeliefe: yet he did some there; which Saint Hierom sayes,Ema. Sa­crâ, in hunc locum. was done, lest they should be ex­cusable, having seen no Miracle: And he did not many, least, as Theophylact sayes, he should after many Miracles resisted, have been forced in justice to a severer pun­nishment of them. But because the danger of beleeving false miracles is extreamly great, and the essen­tiall differences of false and true, very few, and very obscure, (for what humane understanding can discern, whether they be wrought immediately, or by se­cond causes; And then for the end to which they are addressed, what sect of Christians, or what sect departed from all Christians, will refuse to stand to that law? If there arise a Prophet, and he give a wonder, Deut. 13.1. and the wonder come to passe, saying, let us go after other Gods, that Prophet shal be slaine.) I encline to think, that God for the most part, works his miracles rather to shew his Power, then Mercy, and to terrifie enemies, [Page 186]rather then comfort his children. For miracles lessen the merit of faith. And our Blessed Saviour said to the Pharisees, An evill ano­adulterous generation seeketh a sign, And John Baptist,Mat. 12.38 Joh. 10. in whom there seems to have been most use of Miracles, did none. And though in this delivery from Egypt, for Pharaoh's hardness, God aboun­ded in Miracles, yet in their de­livery from Babylon, (of which in respect of this, the Prophet says, The day shall come, Her [...]. 16. saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought his sons out of the land of Egypt; But the Lord liveth, that brought his sons out of the land of the North) God proceeded without Miracles. And though in propagation of Christian Religion in the new dis­coveries, the Jesuites have recor­ded infinite Miracles, yet the best amongst them ingenuously deny it;Jo. Acosta. de procur. Jud. sal. l. 2. c. 9. And one gives this for a rea­son, why Miracles are not affor­ded by God now, as well as in the primitive Church, since the occa­sion [Page 187]seems to be the same, That then ignorant men were sent to preach Christianity amongst men armed and instructed against it, with all kindes of learnings and philosophies; but now learned men are sent to the ignorant; and are superiour to them in Reason and in Civility, and in Authority; and besides, present them a Re­ligion less incredible then their own. I speak not thus, to che­rish their opinion, who think God doth no Miracle now: that were to shorten his power, or to un­derstand his counsels; but to re­sist theirs, who make Miracles or­dinary. For, besides that it con­tradicts and destroyes the Nature of Miracle, to be frequent, God at first possest his Church, (For­titer) by conquest of Miracles; but he governs it now, (sua­viter) like an indulgent King, by a law which he hath let us know. God forbid I should discredit or diminish the great works that he hath done at the tombs of his Martyrs, or at the pi­ous [Page 188]and devout commemoration of the sanctity and compassion of his most Blessed Mother. But to set her up a Banke almost in every good Town, and make her keep a shop of Miracles greater then her Sons,Miracula B. Virg. ab Anno 1581 ad 1605. fo. 150. (for is it not so, to raise a childe, which was born dead, and had been buried seven­teen days, to so small end?) (for it died again as soon as it was carri­ed from her sight) is fearfull and dangerous to admit. God for­bid, I should deny or obscure the power and practice of our blessed Saviour, and his Apostles, in cast­ing out Divels in the primitive Church: but that the Roman Church should make an Occupa­tion of it, and bind Apprentices to it (for such are those little boys whom they make Exorcists) and then make them free when they receive greater Orders, and yet forbid them to set up, or utter their ware but where they ap­point, is scarce agreeable to the first Examples, I dare not say, Institution; for I see not that this [Page 189]Order had any. Why we do not so, the reason is, because non fuit sic ab initio: And no hardnesse of heart is enough to justifie a toleration of these devout deceits and holy lyes, as they are often called amongst themselves. The Power of God, which we cannot name, needs not our help. And this very History (in expounding of which Pererius inculcates so often, Non multiplicanda mira­cula) which seems the principallest record of Gods Miracles, though literally it seem to be directed to his enemies, by often expressing his power; yet to his children it insinuates an Admonition, to be­ware of Miracles, since it tels them how great things the Divel did: And that his giving over in no great thing, but the least of all, shows, That that was not a cancelling of his Patent, which he had in his Creation, but onely a Supersedeas not to execute it at that time. For, (excepting the staying of the Sun, and carrying it back (if it be cleer that the body [Page 190]of the Sun was carried back, and not the shadow only) and a very few more) it appears enough, that the Divell hath done oftner grea­ter Miracles, then the children of God: For God delights not so much in the exercise of his Power, as of his Mercy and Justice, which partakes of both the other: For Mercy is his Paradise and garden, in which he descends to walk and converse with man: Power his Army and Arsenel, by which he protects and overthrows: Justice his Exchequer, where he preserves his own Dignity, and exacts our Forfeitures.

Even at first God intimated how unwillingly he is drawn to execute Justice upon transgressors; for he first exercised all the rest: Mercy, in purposing our Creation; Power, in doing it; and Judg­ment, in giving us a Law: Of which the written part was in a volume and character so familiar and inward to us (for it was writ­ten in our hearts, and by Nature) [Page 191]as needed no Expositor: And that part which was vocall, and delivered by Edict and Proclama­tion, was so short, so perspicuous, and so easie (for it was but prohi­bitory, and exacted nothing from Man) as it is one of the greatest strangenesses in the Story, that they could so soon forget the Text thereof, and not espy the Ser­pents additions and falsifications. And then at last God interposed his Justice; yet not so much for Justice sake, as to get opportunitie of new Mercy, in promising a Re­deemer; of new Power, in raising again bodies made mortall by that sin; and of new Judgments, in delivering, upon more com­munications, a more particular law, apparelled with Ceremonies, the cement and mortar of all ex­terior, and often the inflamer of interior Religion. So that almost all Gods Justice is but Mercy: as all our Mercy is but Justice; for we are all mutuall debtors to one another; but he to none. Yea, both his Nature, and his will are [Page 192]so condition'd, as he cannot do Justice so much as man can. For, for his will, though he neither will nor can do any thing against Ju­stice, he doth many things beside it. Nothing unjustly, but many things not justly: for he rewards beyond our Merits, and our sins are beyond his punishments. And then, we have exercise as well of Commutative Justice as Distribu­tive; God only of the later, since he can receive nothing from us. And indeed, Distributive Justice in God, is nothing but Mercy. So that there is but one limb of Ju­stice left to God, which is Pu­nishment; And of that, all the degrees on this side finall condem­nation, are acts of Mercy. So that the Vulture, by which some of the Ancients figured Justice, was a just symbole of this Justice;Pierius li. 18. for as that bird prayes onely upon Carcasses, and upon nothing which lives; so this Justice appre­hends none but such as are dead and putrified in sin and impeni­tence.

[Page 193]To proceed then: All ordina­ry significations of Justice will conveniently be reduced to these two, Innocence, which in the Scri­ptures is every where called Righ­teousnesse: or else Satisfaction for transgressions, which, though Christ have paid aforehand for us all, and so we are rather pardo­ned then put to satisfaction; yet we are bound at Gods tribunall to plead our pardon, and to pay the fees of contrition and pen­nance. For, since our justifica­on now consists not in a pacifica­tion of God, (for then nothing but that which is infinite could have any proportion) but in the application of the merits of Christ to us, our contrition (which is a compassion with Christ, and so an incorporating of our selves into his merit) hath aliqualem pro­portionem to Gods Justice; and the passion of Christ had not aequa­lem, but that Gods acceptation (which also dignifies our contriti­on, though not to that height) advanced it to that worthinesse. [Page 194]To enquire further the way and manner by which God makes a few do acceptable works; or, how out of a corrupt lumpe he selects and purifies a few, is but a stumbling block and a tentation: Who asks a charitable man that gives him an almes, where he got it, or why he gave it? will a­ny favorite, whom his Prince on­ly for his appliableness to him, or some half-vertue, or his own glo­ry, burdens with Honours and Fortunes every day, and destines to future Offices and Dignities, dispute or expostulate with his Prince, why he rather chose not another, how he will restore his Coffers; how he will quench his peoples murmurings, by whom this liberality is fed; or his No­bility, with whom he equalls new men; and will not rather repose himself gratefully in the wisdome, greatness & bounty of his Master? Will a languishing desperate pa­tient, that hath scarce time enough to swallow the potion, examine the Physician, how he procured [Page 195]those ingredients, how that soyle nourished them, which humor they affect in the body, whether they work by excess of quality, or specifically; whether he have pre­pared them by correcting, or else by withdrawing their Malignity; and for such unnecessary scruples neglect his health? Alas, our time is little enough for prayer, and praise, and society; which is, for our mutuall duties. Mo­rall Divinity becomes us all; but Naturall Divinity, and Metaphy­sick Divinity, almost all may spare. Almost all the ruptures in the Christian Church have been occasioned by such bold disputa­tions De Modo. One example is too much. That our Blessed Sa­viours body is in the Sacrament, all say; The Roman Church ap­points it to be there by Transub­stantiation. The needless multi­plying of Miracles for that opinion hath moved the French and He­lvetick reformed Churches to find the word Sacramentally; which, because it puts the body [Page 196]there, and yet no nearer then Heaven to Earth, seems a riddle to the Saxon and such Churches; whose modesty (though not clearness) seems greatest in this Point; since beleeving the reall being of it there, they abstain generally (though some bold ad­venturers amongst them also do exorbitate) from pronouncing De Modo. The like tempests hath the inquisition De Modo, rais'd in the article of Descent in­to Hell, even in our Church; and of the conveyance of Gods grace (which was the occasion of this digression) in the Roman at this day. But to decline this sad contemplation, and to further our selves in the Meditation of Gods justice declared, in this Hi­story, let me observe to you, that God in his Scriptures hath Regi­stred especially three symbols or Sacraments, of use in this matter. One in Genesis, of pure and meer Justice, Cha. 3.22. vindicative, and perma­nent; which is, The Cherubim and fiery sword placed in Paradise, [Page 197]to keep out, not only Adam, but his Posterity. The second in Exodus, of pure and only Mercy, Ch. 25.17 which is the modell and fabrick of the Mercy seate, under the sha­dow of two Cherubims wings. The third, partaking of both Mercy and Justice, and a Memori­all and seal of both, is the Raine­bow after the Deluge.Gen. 9.14. The first of these, which is of meer Justice, is so figurative, and so mystick, and so unfit for Example or conse­quence, and so disputable whe­ther it lasted long, or ever were literally, that it seems God had no purpose to deliver any evident testimony of so severe and meer Justice. But that of meer Mercy, he made so familiar, that only devising the form himself, he committed the making of it to man: and so affiancing and bin­ding his Mercy to mans work, did, as it were, put his Mercy into our hands. Yet that also is long since translated from us: and there remains only the middle one, more convenient, and proportionall, [Page 198]and usefull. For, as it betokens his Justice in the precedent de­luge, or his Merey in assuring us from any future; so is it made of naturall and well known causes, (and thereby familiar to us) and yet became a Sacrament by Gods speciall institution then.Hom. 28. in Gen. And, though it should be true which Chrysostome says, That it was a new miracle then, and never ap­peared before;De Noe & Area, cap. 27 yea, though that could be true which Ambrose, somewhat against the text, and directly against the other Exposi­tors, says, That the Bow mentioned there was not a Rainbow, but that A bow in the clouds, signifies only, The power of God in persecution, and thereupon he observes, that God says, A Bow, but says not Ar­rows, to inflict terror, not wounds; Every way, I say, it doth the of­fice of remembring Gods Justice and Mercy together. And accor­dingly, in this large and particu­lar History of Gods Justice and Persecution, both towards his children, and his enemies, if we [Page 199]consider their laborious waste and maceratings of their bodies by hot and intemperate labour; All their contempts, and scorns, and a­viling, and annihilating in the eye of the Egyptians; All their Or­bity, and enfeebling their race by the Edict of destroying their male children; All their deviations and strayings forty years, in a pas­sage of a few dayes; and all their penuries and battels in that jour­ney; And then for the Egyptians, if we looke upon all their afflicti­ons, first of plagues hatefull to their senses, then noisome to their fruites, then to their cattel, then to their bodies, then to their po­sterity, then to their lives, excep­ting only the drowning of the E­gyptians in the sea, and the kil­ling of the Israelites by their own hands in their guiltinesse of Idola­try with the Calfe, it will scarce be found that any of the afflictions proceeded from meer Justice, but were rather as Physick, and had only a medicinall bitternesse in them. It remains, for determi­nation [Page 200]of this Meditation, that we speake a little of Gods Judge­ments.

And at this time, (as by infi­nite places in the Scriptures we are directed) we call Gods Judge­ments, all those lawes and directi­ons by which he hath informed the Judgements of his children, and by which he governes his Judgements with or against them. For otherwise this word Judge­ment hath also three profane, and three Divine acceptations. Of the first sort, the first serves con­templations only, and so, Judge­ment is the last act of our under­standing, and a conclusive reso­lution: which both in private studies, and at Counsail tables, many want, though endued with excellent abilities of obje­cting, disputing, infirming, yea destroying others allegations; yet are not able to establish or pro­pose any other from themselves. These men, whether you consult them in Religion, or State, or Law, [Page 201]onely when they are joyned with others, have good use, because they bring doubts into disceptati­on; else, they are, at least unpro­fitable: and are but as Simplicists, which know the venom and pec­cant quality of every herbe, but cannot fit them to Medicin; or such a Lapidary, which can soone spie the flaw, but not mend it with setting. Judgement in the Second acceptation serves for pra­ctice, and is almost synonimous with Discretion; when we consi­der not so much the thing which we then do, as the whole frame and machine of the businesse, as it is complexioned and circum­stanced with time, and place, and behoders: and so, make a thing, which was at most but in­different, good. The third way, Judgement serves not only present practice, but enlightens, and al­most governs posterity; and these are Decrees and Sentences, and Judgments in Courts. The phrase of Divinity also accepts Judgment three wayes; for somtimes it is [Page 202]severe and meer Justice, as, [Judg­ment must begin at the house of God,] 1 Pet. 4.7. And many such. And Judgment in this sense, is deep and unsearchable. For, though Solomon pronounce,Eccl. 7.17. [There is a just man that perisheth in his ju­stice, and there is a wicked man that continueth long in his malice;] yet he enquires for no reason of it:Psa. 36.6. For, [Gods righteousness is like the mountains] eminent and inviting our contemplation to­wards Heaven; but, [his Judg­ments are like a great deep,] terri­ble and bottomless, and declining us towards the center of horrour and desperation. These judg­ments we cannot measure nor fa­thome; yet, for all that, we must more then beleeve them to be just; for the Apostle says, We know the Judgement of God is according to truth. Rom. 2.2. But yet of­tentimes Judgement signifies not meer Justice, but as it is attem­pred and sweetned with Mercy. For, by the phrase of the Psalmist, [Judicabit populum in Justitia, Psa. 72.2. & [Page 203]pauperes in Judicio] and many such,Reuch. de Arte Ca­bul. l. 1. the Cabalists (as one which understood them well, observes) have concluded, that the word Judgment applyed to God, hath e­very where a mixt and participant nature, and intimates both Justice and Mercy. And thirdly, the Tal­mudists have straitned the word, and restrain'd Judgment to signi­fie only the Judiciall part of the law: and say, the Holy Ghost so directed them, in Deut. [These are the commandments, and the Ceremo­nies, and the Judgments, which the Lord commanded.] And they pro­ceed further; for,Deu. 4.13. Because Gods Co­venant and his ten Commande­ments are said simply to be given them, and without any limitati­on of time or place, they confess, they are bound to them ever, and every where; but, because his Ordinances and his law, (which in the Original is, Ceremonies and Judgments) are thus delivered,Ver. 5. [You shall keep them in the Land which you go to possesse] they therefore now cut off Ceremonies [Page 204]and Judgements, from the body of the law,Galatinus, l. 11. c. 3. and in their dispersion bind not themselves to them, but where they may with convenience enough. But here we take the word Judgment intirely, to sig­nifie all the law: for, so the Psal­mists speaks,Ps. 147.19 [He showes his word unto Jacob, his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel; he hath not dealt so with every Nation, nor have they known his Judgements]. For here Judgements are as much as all the rest. And God him­self in that last peice of his which he commanded Moses to record,Deut. 32.4 that Heavenly Song which onely himself compos'd, (for though e­very other poetick part of Scrip­ture, be also Gods word, and so made by him, yet all the rest were Ministerially and instrumen­tally delivered by the Prophets, onely inflamed by him; but this which himself cals a Song, was made immediately by himself, and Moses was commanded to deliver it to the Children; God choosing this way and conveyance of a [Page 205]Song, as fittest to justifie his fu­ture severities against his children, because he knew that they would ever be repeating this Song, (as the Delicacy, and Elegancy ther­of, both for Divinity and Poetry, would invite any to that) and so he should draw from their own mouthes a confession of his bene­nefits, and of their ingratitude;) in this Song, I say, himself best expresses the value of this word thus, [All my wayes are Judge­ment.]

The greatness of this benefit or blessing of giving them a law, was not that salvation was due to the fulfilling of it; nor were they bound to a perfect fulfilling of it upon damnation; for, Salvation was ever from a faith in the pro­mise of the Messias; and accor­dingly the Apostle reasons strongly, [The promise of Christ to A­braham was 430 years before the law,Gal. 3.17.and therefore this cannot dis­annull that] and yet this to A­braham was but an iteration of the promise formerly given, and [Page 206]iterated often. But one benefit of the Law was, that it did in some measure restore them towards the first light of Nature: For, if man had kept that, he had neeeded no outward law; for then he was to himself a law, having all law in his heart; as God promiseth for one of the greatest blessings under the Gospel, when the Law of Nature is more cleerly restored:Jer. 13.31. [I will make a new Covenant, and put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts:] So that we are brought neerer home, and set in a fairer way then the Jews; though their and our Law differ not as diverse in species;Tho. 12 ae. q. 51.5. but as a perfect and grown thing from an unperfect and growing: for to that first Law all Laws aspire. As we may observe in the Jews, who, after the Law of Nature was clou­ded and darkened in man by sin, framed to themselves many di­rective laws, before the promul­gation of this Law in the Desart.Bretram. De politica Judaica. c. 2. For we may easily trace out, be­sides Circumcision, (which was [Page 207]commanded) Sabboths, Sacrifices of divers sorts, Expiatory and Eu­charisticall, Vows, Excommunica­tion, Buriall and Marriage, before the written Law. But these had but half the nature of Law; they did direct, but not correct; they did but counsell, not command: and they were not particular e­nough to do that office fully; for they shew'd not all.Ro. 3.20. Therefore Saint Paul sayes of Moses's Law, and the sufficiency of it,Ro. 4.15. By the Law comes the knowledge of sin. And in another place, Where no Law is, there is no transgression: And again, When the Commande­ment came, sin revived; that is,Rom. 7.9. it revived to his understanding and conscience: For, that sin was be­fore any written commandement, himself cleers it; Ʋnto the time of the Law was sin in the world; Ro. 3.15. but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Not that God imputes it not; (for there is always enough within us for him to try us by; and his written Laws are but De­claratory of the former;) but we [Page 208]impute it not to our selves, by confession and repentance. This therefore is the benefit of the Law, that (as Calvin upon this place sayes) Arguit, objurgat, & velli­cando nos expergefacit. Lev. 24.10 We read in Leviticus, That a Blasphemer was stoned, and after his execution a law was made against Blasphe­mers: If it had been made before, perchance he had not perished. Of­tentimes lawes, though they be ambiguous, yea impossible, avert men from doing many things, which may, in their fear, be drawn within the compass of that Law. Not to go far for Examples; with­out doubt, our Law which makes Multiplication Felony, keeps ma­ny from doing things which may be so called, for any thing they know, though perchance no body know what Multiplication is. And our Law, which makes it Felony to feed a Sprit, holds many from that melancholick and mischie­vous beleef of making such an ex­press Covenant with the Divell, though every body know it is im­possible [Page 209]to feed a spirit. Another benefit of the law, (taking the law at large, for all the Scriptures, as the Apostle doth, [Tell me, Galat. 4 you that are under the law, have you not read in the law, &c.] and then cites a place out of Genesis, before the law was given; And as Saint John says,Joh. 15.25 [It is written in the law] and then cites the 35 Psalm) is, that it hath prepar'd us to Christ, by manifold and evident prophesies. Which use the Apo­stle makes of it thus, [Before faith came (that is to say,Gal. 3.24 the fulfil­ling of faith, for faith was ever) we were kept under the law, and shut up unto the faith which should after be revealed: wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.] Lastly, the law be­nefits us thus, that it wrastles with that other law which S^t. Paul found himselfe not only subject to, but slave to,Rom. 7.13 [I am Captive to the law of sin.] And, [I serve in my flesh the law of sin.] These then were the advantages of the law; And had it any disadvanta­ges? [Page 210]It is true, the laws were ma­ny; for, as the frame of our body hath 248 bones,Fra. Geor. To. 2. prob. 8. so the body of the law had so many affirmative precepts; and of the same number consisted Abrahams name, to whose seed the Messias, to whose knowledg all the law conduced, was promised. It hath also 365 negative precepts; and so many sinews and ligatures hath our bo­dy, and so many dayes the year. But, not to pursue these curiosi­ties, besides that, multiplicity of laws, (because thereby little is left to the discretion of the Judg) is not so burdenous as it is thought, except it be in a captious, and en­tangling, and needy State; or un­der a Prince too indulgent to his own Prerogative: All this great number of lawes are observed by one,Galatinus. l. 11. c. 4. who (Capnio says) was breath'd upon by the Holy Ghost, to have been reduced by David to 11, by Esay to 6, by Micheas to 3, and by Abacuc to one. The Lawgiver himself reduced them in the Decalogue to ten, and there­fore [Page 211]the Cabalists marke mysteri­ously,Fra. Geor. ibid. that in the Decalogue there are just so many letters, as there are precepts in the whole law. Yet certainly the number and intricacy and perplexity of these laws, (for their later Rabins, which make the Orall law their rule,Buxdorfius Synag. Jud. c. 4. fo. 44. insist upon many both contradictions and imperfections in the letter of this law,) was extremely burdenous to the punctuall observers thereof. Yet, to say peremptorily that it could not be observed, seems to me, hasty. Though Calvin, Marlorate in hunc lo­cum. ci­ting Saint Hierome, [Si quis dix­erit, impossibile esse servare legem, Anathema sit] say wisely and tru­ly, that Hierom must not prevail so much as he which says, Why tempt you God, to lay a yoke upon the Disciples necks, Act 15.10. which neither our Fathers nor we are able to bear? Yet that place in Deut. 30.8. hath as much Authority as this [Do all the Commandements which I com­mand thee this day;] therefore they might be done. And in a­nother verse it is said of all the [Page 212]Commandments, laws and Or­dinances together, [This Com­mandement is not hid from thee, nor far off; It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, who shall go up, and bring it down; nor be­yond sea, that thou shouldst say, who shal go beyond sea and fetch it: but it is near thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart.] For, though the Prophet in Gods person say,Eze. 20.25 Dedi eis prae­cepta non bona; it was but in com­parison of the laws of the Go­spel: As our Saviour calls his A­postles evill comparatively;Mat. 7.11 [Yee which are evill, can give good things.] For simply,Homil. ad Rom. 13. in ver. 25. cap. 7. ad Rom. the law was good; And, as Chrysostome says, so easie, that they were easier things which were commanded by the written law, then by the law of Nature: As, to my under­standing, in the point of concu­pisence it is evident; which in the first law of Nature, and now in the Gospel, is prohibited, but was not so in the letter of the written law.Ibid. So much therefore as was required of them, (for so Calvin [Page 213]says) that is, to make the law a bridle, and a direction to them, was possible to them: and he concludes this point, and I with him, That even the re­generate do but half that them­selves, the grace of God perfecting the rest.