JACOB and ESAV: Election. Reprobation. OPENED AND DISCUSSED BY WAY OF SERMON AT PAUL'S CROSS, March 4. 1622.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  August. lib. 7. de Trinitate. 
Qui videt haec, vel ex parte, vel per speculum in ●…nigmate, gaudeat cognoscens Deum, & gratias agate, qui verò non, tendat per pietatem fidei ad videndum, & non per cacitatem ad calumniandum.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO MY MOST HONOVRED FRIEND William Brouncker Esquire, This.  
SIR:  
WHere I own a just service, and would publish it, I less fear the censure of vain glory, than of unthankfulness; you know the age is both tart, and nimble, in her Paraphrase on those which would be Men in Print; I have found it; yet will rather hazard the imputation of a weak man, than an vngrat●f●●… However, I desire not so much to expose my labours to the world, as my loyalty, that others might take notice how much you have been mine in your cherishing of those, and how I am ever yours in my expressions of this. He that doth but tacitly acknowledge the bounties of a noble friend, in a manner buries them, when he that proclaims them, hath in a part requited; he hath repaid his honour, and therefore him, and so hath satisfied, though not restored. If this public thankfulness of mine, for those daily favours, shall meet with so merciful an interpretation of yours, I esteem not any rigid one of the times; I cannot gloze with them, nor you, yet shall endeavour to be reputed one of those who unfeignedly honours you, and will do, whilst I wear the name, and title of  
Your ever friend, and servant HUM: SYDENHAM.   

JACOB and ESAV.  ROM. 9.18. 
He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy; and whom he will, he hardeneth.  
THe Text holds some Analogy with the Times we live in, fraught with no less subtlety, than danger; and as an undiscreeter providence is soon oreshot in those, so in this too. We are not here then to cheat our Auditory with a thin discourse; Mystery is our Theme and subject, the very Battlement and Pinnacle of Divinity, which he that too boldly climbs, falls headlong into error. A task, though perchance disproportionable to youthful undertake, and may from such challenge the censure of a vainglorious enterprise: yet give me leave to return, though not satisfaction, answer. In sacred Riddles what we cannot resolve, give us leave to contemplate; and what not comprehend, admire: where our pencil fails us to limb in so curious a Portraiture, we'll play Timanthes, and shadow with a veil; and when our reason is once nonplussed, we are hushed in a contented wonder, Where we may behold the Almighty (in a full shower) pouring down his blessings upon some, scarce deawing or sprinkling them on others; softening this Wax, and hardening that Clay, with one and the self same sun, (his will) and yet that will not clouded with injustice. Here is that will not only stagger, but entrance a carnal apprehension; Not a circumstance which is not equally loaded with doubt and amazement, and whose discussing will no less invite than command attention. That which in common passages of Divinity doth but transport our thought, in those more mystical will captivated: Every word is knotty, and full of brambles, and requires the hand of an exact industry.  
It behoves us then to be wary of our choice, how either we traffic here with corrupt antiquity (where but to taste were to surfeit) or with that modern Navy of Expositors, where mixture of opinion will rather cloy than feed, and confound than inform our understanding. I desire not to paraphrase on a reverend error, nor to chastise there where I beg information. I shall only request grey hairs thus fare to dispense with me, that where their Candle burns dimly and uncertainly, I may borrow light of a more glorious flame. Not then to beguile time and so noble an attention with quaintness of preamble, or division; The parts here are, as the persons, and their condition, Two, Mercy for whom he will, and they are Sheep; Hardening for whom he will, and these are Goats. Let us first put them on the right hand, and we shall find a Venite Benedicti, Come ye blessed, here is mercy for you; After, these on the left hand, and we shall meet with an Itemaledicti, G●e y● cursed, here is hardening for you: Both which, when we have in a careful separation orderly distinguished, we shall make here the will of the Almighty as free from injustice, as there his censure, He will have mercy on whom he will, etc.  

PART. I. He will.  
THat the will of God is the principal efficient cause of all those works which he doth externally from himself, so that there is no superior or precedent cause moving and impelling it, shines to us no less from the eternity of his will, than the omnipotency; for with that double attribute Augustin doth invest it in his 2. book contra Manichaeos', cap. 2. And seeing there is nothing before his will, as being eternal; nothing greater, as being omnipotent; we infer with that learned Father, that Neque extra, vel ultra illam causa inquirenda; There is no cause either without, or beyond it, that being the source and fountain of all causes, as by a more particular survey of God's works we shall discuss hereafter. For illustration. In his eternal decree, why are some marked out as inheritors of his Zion? others again expulsed, and banished those blessed Territories? they as vessels of mercy, for the manifestation of his goodness; these of fury, for the promulgation of his justice? Doubtless the will, & the beneplacitum of the Almighty as the primary & immediate cause, whereof if there be any more subordinate, they have all alliance and dependency on it, Tanquam à principali intentione primi agentis. Like inferior Orbs which have their influence & motion from a higher mover. I need not travail far either for proof or instance; our Chapter is bountiful in both. What was the cause that God did choose jacob and reject Esau? The mediate and secondary cause, was, because he loved jacob, and not Esau. But why is his love incommunicable, and as it seems, in a partial reservation, peculiar to that more than this? I know not a more plausible and higher motive than his will. Insistendum ergò in particulas, cuius vult, & quem vult. Our enquiry here must be cautelous, and slow of foot, lest we run violently into error. Here is a cuius vult only for him that he hath mercy on, and but a quem vult for him he hardens; ultra quas procedere non l●cèt, saith Caluin. Here is the utmost Verge & Pillar where reason durst to coast; what is beyond is either unknown, or dangerous; how ever some vainglorious brains (ambitious of mysterious and abstruser knowledge) have inscribed here their Multa pertransiéunt, & augibitur scientia. But in so stickle & dangerous a tortent, how are they overwhelmed at last? and whilst they so ventrously climb this steeper turrer, throwned desperately into heresy? For mine own part, I have ever thought curiosity in divine affairs but a acquaint distraction, rather applauding an humble (yet faithful) ignorance, than a proud and temerarious knowledge. And had some of the Fathers been shot-free of this curious insolence, they needed not have retreated from former Tenants, & so much in dear posterity, no less in the review than retractation of laborious errors: Amongst whom S. Augustine (though since entitled Malleus Haereticorum) shared not a little in the 83. of his Questions, and 68 Where expounding our place of the Apostle, would thus vindicate the Almighty from injustice; that God foresaw that in some, Quo digni sunt iustificatione; that in others, Quo digni sunt obtusione; so making God, will to depend on a foreseen merit. A position that doth not only repugn the discipline of holy story, but thwarts the main tide & current of orthodox antiquity, as in a fuller discourse we shall display anon: and therefore in his 7. Book de Praedestinatione Sanctorun, cap. 4. he doth chastise his former tenants with 2 Deus non elegit opera, sed sidem in praescientiâ; That God did not elect lacob for foreseen works, but faith. But because in saith there is as well a merit, as in works, he once more rectifies his opinion in the first of his Retractations and 23, where he doth peach his sometimes ignorance, and ingeniously declares himself, that— Nondum diligentius quaesivit, nec invenit mysteria, he had not yet throughly sifted that of the Apostle, Rom. 11.5. That there was a remnant according to the election of grace, which, if it did flow from a foreseen merit, was rather restored than given, and therefore (at last) he informs his own judgement, and his Readers thus; Datur quidem fideli sed data est etiam prius ut esset fidelis; Grace is given to the faithful, but it is first given that he should be faithful. Hence Lombard in his 1 book, 41 distinction, pathetically, Elegit quos voluit Deus gratuitâ misericordiâ, non quia fideles futuri erant, sed ut essent, nec quià crediderant, sed ut fierent credentes. God out of the prerogative of his will, and bounty of his goodness, hath chosen whom he pleased, not because they were faithful, but because they should be, and not of themselves believing, but made so. And therefore, that  sim sidelis, 1 Cor. 7.25. bears a remarkable emphasis. I have obtained mercy that I might be faithful, not that I was. Here the Pelagian startles, & lately backed with a troop of Arminians, takes head against this truth, fancying and dreaming of certain causes without God, which are not subsisting in God himself, but externally moving the will of God to dispose and determine of several events, laying this as an unshaken principle, Fidem esse conditionem in obiecto eligibili ante electionem; That faith and obedience (foreseen of God in the Elect) was the necessary condition and cause of their election. I intent not here a pitched field against the upstart Sectary, for I shall meet him anon in a single combat: my purpose now is to be but as a scour, or spy, which discovers the weakness of his adversary, not stands to encounter. And indeed both the time and place suggest me rather to resolve, than debate; and convince, than dispute an error. That faith then, or any praeexisting merit in the person to be elected; was the cause of his election, is neither warrantable by reason nor primitive Authority. For God could not foresee in the elect any faith at all, but that which in after times he was to crown them with, and therefore not considerable as any precedent cause of election, but as the effect and fruit, and consequent thereof.  
The primary and chief motive than is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ephes. 1.5. the good pleasure of Gods will, which, prompted of itself, without any reference to praeexisting faith, obedience, merit, as the qualities, cause, or condition of it, hath poured grace on this man more than that; Non solum in Christo, 
Synod. Dort.  sed per Christum. And therefore (as that late venerable Synod hath awarded it) Non ex illis conditionibus facta est, sed ad illas; That election was not framed of these conditions, but to them, as to their effect and issue. And if we commerce a little with passages of holy story, we shall find that our election points rather to the free will of God in his eternal council, than to any goodness in us which God foresaw: so Acts 13.48. where we read of the Gentiles, that many believed because they were ordained to eternal life, and not therefore ordained because they formerly believed. And if we will not suffer our minds to be transported either with scruple or novelty, the text is open, Ephes. 1.4. He hath chosen us before the foundations of the world were laid, that we might be holy, not that we were. And in this very Chapter, verse 23. The vessels of mercy are first said to be prepared to mercy, then called: and therefore Saint Austin in his 86. Tract upon john, out of a holy indignation, doth check the insolence of those, Qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei; Which in matters of salvation, obscure and extenuate the grace of God with the foreknowledge of God: for if God did therefore choose us, because he did know, and foresee that we would be good, he did not choose us to make us good, but we rather chose him, in purposing to be good, which if it did carry any show either of probability, or truth, we might question our Apostle, who in his 8 here, and 29. no less persuades, than proves, that those which God foreknew he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, and therefore God did not choose us, because before election there was a conformity in us, but because from all eternity he did elect us, in time he made us conformed to the image of his Son. Whereupon St. Augustine in his fift book, contra julianum. 3. chapped. thus, Nullum elegit dignum, sea eligendo effecit dignum. God in the choice of his Elect, found none worthy, but in the choosing made them worthy. Moreover, our election, which is of grace (as I yonder proved) could not stand if works and merits went before it. Haec quippè non invenit merita, sed facit; Grace doth not find works in us, but fashions them, according to that of the Apostle, 2 Thes. 2.13. God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of the spirit, and not of works. Nay, some here so much abolish and wipe off all claim of merit, that they admit not Christ as the meritorious cause of our election. Indeed, say they, the Scripture is thus fare our Schoolmaster, That we are justified by the blood of Christ, 
Synod. Dort.  and reconciled to God by the death of his Son: but where are we informed that we are elected through his blood, or praedestinated by his death? Indeed, in the 3 of john 16. we find a— sic Dous dilexit,— God so loved the world that he gave his Son. So that, not because Christ died for us, God loved, and chose us, but because God loved and chose us, therefore Christ died for us. For so Rom. 5.8. God setteth out his love towards us, that whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In matters therefore of election, we acknowledge not a cause more classicke than the Cuius vult here specified, He will have mercy on whom he will. Insomuch that in the parable of the householder, Matth. 20. I find but a sic volo, as a sufficient and just cause of his designs. I will give to this last as much as to thee; & yet this Will so clothed with a divine justice, that God is not said to will a thing to be done, because it is good, but rather to make it good, because God would have it to be done. For proof whereof, a sweet singer of our Israel instances in those wonderful passages of creation, where 'tis first said that Deus cre●uit, God created all things, and the Valdè bonum comes aloof, he saw that they were all good, and the moral portends but this, That every thing is therefore good, because it was created, and nor therefore created because it was good; which doth wash, and purge the will of the Almighty from any stain, or tincture of injustice; for though that be the chief mover and director of all his projects, as the prime and peremptory cause, doing this, because he will, yet we find not only sanctitatem in operibus, but justitiam in vijs. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Hereupon that great treasurer of Learning and Religion, Zanchius in his 3 book, de Natura Dei. and 4 chapter, divides between the cause of God's will, and the reason of his will: That though there be no superior cause of it, yet there is a just reason, and a right end and purpose in it. 
Morl. Clean. Lep.  Hence S. Jerome, Deus nihil fecit quia vult, sed quia est ratio sic fieri; God doth nothing because he will, but because there is a reason of so doing, in regard whereof it is not simply called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the will of God, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the good willof God, Ephes. 1.11. So that in his sacred resolutions and designments, though we meet (sometimes) with passages, wound up in darkened terror, the cause whereof we may admire not scan; yet the drift and main ends of the Almighty have been so backed with strength of a just reason, that we may rather magnify his goodness than tax his power; and applaud the calmness of an indulgent mercy, than repine at the lashes of an incensed justice. Equity and goodness are children of one burden, both the lawful issue of his will, which though foul mouths of libertines have strangely bastardized, making that the throne of tyranny, which is the rule of justice, yet let them know that of Augustine to his Sixtus; Iniustum esse non potest, quod placuit justo. To be God, and to be unjust, is to be God and not God. So fair a goodness, was never capable of so foul a contradiction, and therefore (as the same father prosecutes) Iniquitatem damnare novit, non facere: God knows how to judge, not to commit a crime, and to dispose, not mould it, and is often the father of the punishment, not the fact. Hence 'tis, that the dimness of humane apprehension conceives that (oftentimes) a delinquency in God, which is the monster of our own frailty; making God not only to foreknow, but predestinate an evil, when the evil is both by growth, and conception ours, and if aught savour of goodness in us, Gods, not ours, yet ours too, as derivative from God, who is no less the Patron of all goodness, than the Creator, and 'tis as truly impossible for him to commit evil, as 'twas truly miraculous to make all that he had made good. And therefore Tertullian, in his first book de Trinitate, makes it a Non potest fieri, a matter beyond the list and reach of possibility, that he should be Artifex mali operis, the promoter & engineer of a depraved act, who challengeth to himself the title no less of an unblemished Father, than of a judge. Our thoughts then should not carry too lofty a sail, but take heed how they cut the narrow straits, and passages of his will. A busy prying into this Ark of secrets, as 'tis accompanied with a full blown infolence, so with danger; Humility (here) is the first stair to safety; and a modest knowledge stands constantly wondering, whilst the proud apprehension staggers, and tumbles too. Here's a Sea unnavigable, and a gulf so scorning fathom, that our Apostle himself was driven to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O depth, and in a rapture, more of astonishment, than contemplation, he styles it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: voluntatis suae mysterium, or (as Beza translates it,) Sacramentum, the Sacrament, and mystery of his will, being so full of unknown turnings, and Meanders, that if a naked reason hold the clue, we are rather involved, than guided in so strange a Labyrinth.  
To inquire then the cause of God's will, were an Act of Lunacy, not of judgement; for every efficient cause is greater than the effect, now there's nothing greater than the will of God, and therefore no cause thereof. For if there were, there should something praeoccupate that will, which to conceive were sinful, to believe blasphemous. If any then (suggested by a vainglorious enquiry) should ask why God did elect this man, and not that? we have not only to resolve, but to forestall so beaten an objection: Because he would. But why would God do it? Here's a question as guilty of reproof, as the author, who seeks a cause of that, beyond, or without which there is no cause found, where the apprehension wheels, and reason runs giddy in a doubtful gyre: Composcat se ergo humana temeritas, 
August.  & id quod non est non quaerat, ne id quod est non inveniat. Here a scrupulous and humane rashness should be hushed, and not search for that which is not, lest it find not that which is. For as the same Father, in his 105 Epist. Cur illum potiùs, quàm illum, liberet, avi non, scrutetur (qui potest) iudiciorum eius tam magnum profundum, sed caueat praecipitium—. Let him hat can, descry the wonders of the Lord in this great deep, but let him take heed he sink not; and in his answer to the second question of Simplician: Quare huic ita, & huic non ita, home tu quis es qui respondeas Deo? & cur isti sic, illi aliter? Absit ut dicamus judicium luti esse, sed figuli. Why God doth to this man so, and to that not so, who dare expostulate? and why to this man, thus, to that, otherwise? fare be it, that we should think it in the judgement of the clay, but of the potter. Down then with this aspiring thought, this ambitious desire of hidden knowledge, and make not curiosity the picklock of divine secrets; know that such mysteries are doubly barred up in the coffers of the Almighty, which thou mayst strive to violate, not open. And therefore if thou wilt needs trespass upon deity, dig not in its bosom; a more humble adventure suits better with the condition of a worm, scarce a man, or if so, exposed to frailty.  
'Tis a fit task and employment for mortality, to contemplate God's works, not sift his mysteries, and admite his goodness, not blur his justice; And it hath been ever the practice of primitive discipline, rather to defend a disparaged equity, than to question it, for so that reverend Father (who ever mixed his learning with a devout awe) in his 3 book, cont. julianum, and 18 chapter, Bonus est Deus, instus est Deus, potest aliquos sine bonis meritis liberare, quia bonus est, non potest quemquam sine malis damnare, quia iustus est. God is equally good and just, he can save some without reference to desert, because he is good, he cannot damn any man without a due demerit, because he is just: Nay had God delivered all mankind into the jaws of destruction, we could not touch him with injustice, but rather admire so dark and investigable an equity, which we may illustrate by worldly passages and humane contracts. If I were bankrupt of instance, S. Augustine could relieve me. A great man (saith he) lends two sums of money, to two several men, who can tax him of obdurateness, or injustice, if at time of repayment he forgive this man his debt, and require satisfaction of that? for this life's not in the will and disposal of the debtor, but of the creditor. So stands the case between frailty and omnipotency. All men (which through Adam became tributaries to sin and death) are one mass of corruption, subject to the stroke of divine justice, which, whether it be required or given, there is no iniquity in God, but of whom required, and to whom given, 'tis in such debtor's insolence to judge, lest God return their sauciness with a— Non licet mihi quod volo facere? as the householder did the murmuring labourers in his vineyard. Is thine eye evil, because I am good? And indeed I display not a higher cause of election, and reprobation than divine goodness, which that learned Schoolman, Part. 1. quaest. 23. art. 5. doth not only illustrate but prove no less by similitude, than argument. For God (saith he) made all things for his goodness sake, that in things by him made, his goodness might appear, but because that goodness is in itself, one, and simple: and things created cannot attain to so divine a perfection, it was necessary that that goodness should be diversely represented in those things, and hence 'tis that to the compliment and full glory of the universe, there is in them a diversity of degrees required, of which some possess a lower, and some a higher room; and that such a multiformitie may be preserved in nature, God permits some evils to be done, lest much good should be anticipated:— Voluit itaque Deus in hominibus, quantum ad aliquos, quos praestestinet, suam repraesentare bonitatem, per modum misericordiae, parcendo illis, quantum verò ad alios, quos reprobet, suam ostendi bonitatem per modum iustioiae, puniendo eos. God in those he elects, would show his goodness by way of mercy in sparing these, in others he reprobates, his goodness too, by way of justice in punishing them. And therefore our Apostle here not only magnifies the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, vers. 23. but his long parience too, to vessels of wrath, vers. 22. So that in his house there are not only those of gold and silver, but of wood and earth too, and some to honour, some to dishonour, 2 Tim. 2.20. Of which if any mutinous or saucy ignorant desires a reason beyond God's will, I have no answer but that of Augustine, in his 22 Sermon, the verb Apost. Turatiocinare, ego mirer, in disputa, ego credam: altitudinem video, ad profundum non pervenio; Dispute and reason he that durst, while my thought and belief stand at a bay, and wonder; I see there is a height, but cannot reach it, and know this gulf, not fathom it. For as in things natural (it is Aquinas similitude) when all the first matter is uniform, why one part of it should be under the form of fire, another under the form of earth, there may be a reason assigned, that there might be a diversity of species in things natural: but why this part of matter should be rather under the form of fire, and that under the form of earth, depends only on the simplicity of God's will; & as it hangs too on the will of the Architect, that this stone should be rather in this part of the wall, and that in another, although reason and art require that other stones should be in one part of the Edifice, & others in another. Neither is there for this iniquity in God, that he doth not proportion his gifts in a strict equality, for it were against the reason and truth of justice, if the effect of Predestination should be of debt, and not of grace; for in those thing which are of an unrestrained freedom, every man (out of the jurisdiction of his own will) may give to whom he will, more or less, without the least disparagement of justice: And therefore to those recoiling dispositions which mutter at a free hounty, heaped on others without reference to desert, I will usurp that of the Parable, Tolle quod tuum est, & vade. And yet notwithstanding though the will of God be the independent prime cause of all things, so that beyond it there is no other cause, and without it there is no reason of God's actions; yet it is not the sole and particular cause, for there are many secondary concurring with the first, by the mediation whereof, the will of God brings his intendments to an issue. As in matters of our salvation the will and working of man shakes hands with that of God, for though without him we find a Nil potestis facere, joh. 15.52. Ye can do nothing; yet assisted by his will, and the powerful and effectual operations of his grace, our will cooperates with Gods. Else how could David pray to him to be his helper, unless he himself did endeavour something? or how could God command us to do his will, except the will of man did work in the performance of it? 
Lum●…. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 42.  It is true (saith S. Augustine) we find a Deus operatur omnia in omnibus, but we no where find a Deus credit omnia in omnibus. Nostrum itaque est credere, & velle, illius autem dare credentibus, & volentibus facultatem operandi: To will, and to believe is ours, but to give the faculty of operation to them that will and bleeve, is Gods. I have laboured more than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God with me, 1 Cor. 15.10. Why God therefore doth save some men, there is more to be alleged than this, God would have them to be saved; for if this laurel do beautify our triumph we must encounter, he that will have this Crown must tug for it, and this prize, must wrestle, Qui creavit te sine te, non saluat te sine te. He that hath created thee without thyself, will not save thee without thyself. And therefore those whom God from all eternity hath destined to salvation, he hath in a like privilege destined to the means: But why those means, not communicable to all, many a busy endeavour hath struggled for a reason, not compassed it. Out of more than a double jury of Interpreters, which I have (not with a little distraction) observed, waving here in doubtful opinion, Hugo de Sancto Victore gives thus his verdict. God's grace is indifferently exhibited to all men, to the elect and reprobate, but all do not equally lay hold on it. Some no less neglect, than repulse God's grace, and when its comfortable beams shall shine upon them, they shut their eyes against it, and will not behold it, and God in justice withdraws his grace from these men, because they withdraw themselves from his grace. Est enim in gratiâ quemadmodum in solis radio (saith he) There is a proportion betwixt the rays of the Sun, and the eye, and betwixt the soul of man, and the grace of God. The eye is ordoined by nature to be the organ of the sight, and yet the eye cannot see except the Sun enlighten it; neither can the Sun make any thing else see but the eye in man, for it may shine upon our hand or foot, nevertheless the hand or foot shall see nothing: so the soul hath a possibility to merit by her natural abilities, but that possibility shall be vain and fruitless, unless it be quickened by the powerful operation of God's grace, which grace, if it shall once actuate it, than the soul will be able to attain to that double life of grace here, of glory hereafter. Vnde totum est ex gratiâ, sic tamen ut non excludatur meritum. Whence he would have all to hang on grace, yet so that we exclude not merit. But this inference is many stories above my reach, and in the greenness of my judgement, there is little truth in the consequence, and palpable contradiction in the consequent. For how can the merits of man challenge any thing, if all flow from the grace of God? Yes (saith Hugo) even as a weak child which cannot yet go alone, should be led by the Nurse, a man cannot say that the child goeth of himself, but by the assistance of the Nurse; and yet the Nurse could not make the child go, unless he were naturally inclined to that motion: so the soul of man is said to merit by the aid of grace, and by her own natural inbred ability, but all the glory of the merit must be ascribed to God, because the soul can do nothing without the support and grace of God. Whencel can gather no truth but this, that in solo homine sit petenntia logica ad salutem. That a man only maybe saved without apparent contradiction; no unreasonable creature is capable of that everlasting blessedness and beatifical vision; and the soul of a beast is no more able to see God, than a senseless stock to behold a visible object. For man only hath a passive power to salvation, and man before his conversion hath a passive power only. And therefore the similes afore proposed, if they be referred to the soul before the conversion, are false, and bear no proportion, for then the soul is stark blind, and dead in trespasses, and cannot look on the grace offered, or move one jot in the course of Christianity: But after the conversion when God speaks Ephata to the soul, be opened, when the understanding is illuminated, and scales of error once drop from the eyes, than it may hold some correspondency with truth. As therefore in matters of our conversion, so of election too, all hangs on Grace, and this grace in a holy reservation limited to a narrow Tribe, for the cuius vult here insinuates no more, and He will have mercy on whom he will, sounds in a direct aequivalence with this, He will have mercy only on some; of which some there is a definite and set number, uncapable of augmentation, or diminution, however those new sprung Sectaries, 
Arminians.  out of a turbulent brain and thirst of cavillation, blaspheme the eternity of God's decree, making our election mutable, incomplete, conditionate, subject to change and revocation, and what other stranger birth and prodigy of opinion, which I conceive not without a holy impatience and indignation. And whereas our Fathers of old have maintained, even to the sword and faggot, the decree of election to be no less eternal than irrevocable, these would fain lull our belief with innovation of upstart discipline, altering no less the number than the condition of the elect into the state of reprobate, and of the reprobate into the elect. And (as the Devil did to Christ) they urge Text and reason for it. For God (say they) cannot give grace to whom he doth give grace, which if he should do an elect may be damned; and he can give grace to him he doth not give grace too, which if he do, a reprobate may be saved, and so a reprobate may become an elect, and an elect a reprobate. Thus they shoot by an indirect aim, and sail by a wrong Compass, for we inquire not here of God's power, but of his will, not what he can do, but what he hath resolved to do. Again, it seems no consequence, God can save or damn a man, therefore this man can be saved or damned, 
Huge de Saxcto Victore in cap. 9 ad Rom.  Non enim posse Dei sequitur posse nostrum, God's power stands not in relation to ours: as if God would otherwise redeem mankind than by the death of his Son. (As there was another means possible (saith Austin) but not more convenient.) That therefore mankind could otherwise be redeemed; and if God had this in his power, that it should be therefore in man's too? Can not God (if he would) have saved judas? doth it therefore follow that judas could be saved? No, for though this be too ragged and stony for a popular capacity to dig through; yet if we look back a little into the mysteries of God's decree, we shall find that which will no less relieve our understanding, than remove our scruple; where things from everlasting have such a doom, which is not malleable either by change or revocation, For the Lord of hosts hath determined, and who can disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who can turn it away? Isay 14.27. Seeing then that election is from eternity, and that not obnoxious to mutability or corruption, we neither curtail the elect of their primative glory, nor of their number. Which though they be a little flock, (in respect of that herd and large droue of the damned) yet in those sacred volumes of God's diviner Oracles, we find them numberless. So Apoc. 7.9. These things I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which none could number of all nations and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with long white robes, and palms in their hands. Whence those Factors for the Romish See, would hue out a way to universal grace; making our election general, manifold, indefinite, and would have Christ's death no less meritorious, than propitiatory for the sins of the whole world. A quaere long since on foot between Augustine and Pelagius, and since in a fiery skirmish between the Calumist and the Lutheran, out of whose mud and corruption there hath been lately bred the Arminian, a Sect as poisonous as subtle, and will no jesse allure than betray a flexible and yielding judgement. For our own safety then, and the easier oppugning of so dangerous a suggestion, let us examine a little of the extent & bounds of this grace, which Divines cut into these three squadrons, in Gratiam Praedestinationis, vocationis, & iustificationis. Gratia Praedestinationis, is that of eternity, the womb and Nursery of all graces, whereby God loved his elect, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Gratia vocationis, a secondary grace, by which God calls us, and by calling prescribes the means of our salvation. And this grace hath a double prospect, Either to that which is external, in libro Scripturae, or creaturae, where God did manifest himself as well by what he had made, as by what he had written, or to that which is internal, of illumination, or renovation, of that in the intellect only, which a reprobate may lay claim to, of this in the heart, which by a holy reservation and incommunicablenesse is peculiar to the elect, Gratia instificationis, which is not a grace inherent, but bestowed, and stands as a direct. Antipode to humane merit. Yet not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Schools christian with a gratia gratis data, any gift which God out of his free bounty hath bestowed upon us beyond our desert, as Prudence, Temperance, and the like; for in these the heathen had their share, whose singular endowments have made posterity both an admirer, and a debtor; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gratia gratum faciens, a gift perfect, and fanctified, which doth so qualify the receiver, that he is not only acceptable, but glorious in the eyes of the bestower, a● Faith, Hope, & the third sister, Charity, which no less reconcile than justify us before God.  
We conclude then, that the external grace which the creature affordeth us, is not limited to a private number, but to all; yet we deny the power and virtue of salvation in it. We allow a sufficiency of redargution for convicting the heathen, who when they knew God, worshipped him not as God, and therefore are both desperate and inexcusable. Moreover the grace which the Scripture affor death us, as it is not universal, so not of absolute sufficiency for faluation, but only in genere mediorum externorum, (as the Schools speak) because it doth prescribe us the means how we may be saved, but it doth not apply the means that we are saved. Again, that grace of Illumination is more peculiarly confined, and if by the beams of that glorious Sun which enlighteneth every man that comes into the world, we attain to the knowledge of the Scripture, yet the bare knowledge doth not save us, but the application. But the grace of regeneration is not only a sufficient, but an effectual grace, and as 'tis more powerful, so 'tis more restrained; they only partake of this blessedness, whom God hath no less enlightened, than sanctified, and pointed out, then sealed, men invested in white robes of sincerity, whose delinquencies, though sometimes of a deep tincture, are now both dispensed with, & obliterated, not because they were not sinful, but because, not imputed: so involucrous, and hidden are Gods eternal projects, that in those he relinquisheth, or saves, his reason, is his will; yet that as fare discoasted from tyranny, as injustice. The Quare we may contemplate, not scan, lest our misprision grow equal with our wonder. And here in a double ambush dangerously lurk the Romanist and the Arminian, men equally swollen with rancour of malice, and position: and with no less violence of reason, than importunity, press the virtue of Christ's death for the whole world. Alas! we combat not of the price and worth of Christ's death, but acknowledge That an able ransom of a thousand worlds; but the ground of our duel tends to this, whether Christ dying proposed to himself the salvation of the whole world. We distinguish then— inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi, & gratiam Christi. The merits of Christ and the gracious application of those merits. His merits are able to allay the fury of his incensed Father, and reconcile unto him the very reprobates: but the application of those merits are restrained to the Elect, for they only are capable of so great a blessedness. For proof whereof we have not only that venerable Bench and Council of Fathers and Schoolmen, but also a higher court of Parliament to appeal unto, the Registers and penmen of sacred Chronicles, Evangelists, & Apostles, which punctually insinuate Christ's death only for his own, for his Church, for his Brethren, for those whose head he was, laying down his life for some, and shedding his blood for some, for his sheep, his little flock, his peculiar Priesthood, his tabernacle, body, spouse, his Canaan, Zion, jerusalem, his Ambassadors, Saints, Angels, in a word this Cuius vult, The Elect. I'll not beat your ears with a voluminous citation of text and Fathers, I'll draw only one shaft out of this holy quiver, and direct it to the Roman adversary, which if he shall repel or put by, I'll proclaim hereafter a perpetual truce. The main and chief cause that impelled Christ to die, was his love, john 15. But Christ loved not all, but his own Eph. 5. Therefore Christ died not for all, but for his own. The jesuite here retraicts, and we have none now left to encounter us but the Arminian; who (like a cunning Fencer) hath many a acquaint flourish, and with a false blow sometimes staggers, not wounds his adversary. The part most indangered, is the eye of our Intellect, and judgement which he thus dazzels with a subtle nicety. That Christ hath obtained reconciliation for all, for Saul and judas, 
Moulin in his Anatomy of Arminianism  but not as they were reprobates, but as they were sinners; For God (saith he) did equally intent, and desire the salvation of all, and the reason why they were not saved was their incredulity, and misapplying of this gracious reconciliation and atonement. Thus they would betray weakness into the hands of error; and for a fairer gloss, and gild of this their treachery, they distinguish— inter Impetrationem, & applicationem; Pretending that Christ did impetrate reconciliation for all, but the application of that leans wholly to the elect. How crazy and ill tempered this position is, we'll declare briefly. First, we deny that Christ by his death hath impetrated reconciliation for all, for Saul, or judas: Neither can our thought, much less our belief give way to so strange a Paradox, 
Idem ibidem.  That remission of sins is obtained for those whose sins are not remitted, or that salvation was purchased for those whom God from all eternity had decreed to condemn. Again, we acknowledge Christ's death sufficient for all, all believers, nay all, if they did believe. But that Saul or judas or the residue of that cursed Hierarchy should reap the benefit of his Passion, we utterly disclaim as erroneous and heretical. For if Christ by his death hath reconciled judas, how is't that judas suffers for his sins? for we cannot without impeachment both of his mercy, and justice too, say that Christ suffered for judas his sins, yet judas is damned for those sins; And since Christ as he is God, hath from everlasting destined judas to damnation, how is't that the same Christ, as he is man, and mediator between God and man, should reconcile judas, whom from eternity he had reprobated? Again, if Christ hath obtained reconciliation for all men, than none shall be borne without the covenant of Christ, so that of the Apostle will be false: That, By nature we are all borne the children of wrath, Ephes. 2. And can we truly be styled the children of wrath, if reconciliation be obtained for all men without exception? And if all infants borne without the covenant are reconciled, Cur non clementi crudelitate in cunis iugulavimus? (saith the learned Moulin) why do we not in a merciful cruelty murder them in their cradles? for then their salvation were sealed; but if they survive, they are nourished in Paganism, infidelity, which are the beaten roads and highways to destruction. And if we scan (saith he) the nicety of these words, the obtaining of reconciliation to be applied, and the application of reconciliation obtained, we shall find it a mere curiosity to harrow and perples the brain, and torture the understanding, since Christ hath never obtained that which he hath not applied, neither hath he applied that which he hath not obtained. Yet these men either of a headstrong opinion, or learned madness, are so violent in the prosecution of their tenants, that no strength of answer will satisfy their objection, nor modesty of language suppress their clamour, but a foul mouthed Forsterus will bray out his witty spleen with an— Error, & furor Zuinglianorum. His reasons are as slender as they are many (the vertigoes and impostures of agiddie brain) fit for silence, than rehearsal, and for scorn than consutation. We apply then; Is grace universally bountiful, and mercy open-brested unto all? What mean then those Epithets of outcast, cursed, damned, and that triple inscription of death, hell, and damnation? are they either of policy or truth? Are they things real, or fancied only to bugbear and awe mortality? What would the Throne portend? judge, adversary, Sergeant, prison, or those horrid tones of worm, fire, brimstone, howling, gnashing? Is the Scripture the Anvil of untruth, or are these things no more than feigned and imaginary? What will those flames of your threatened purgarory prove at last, but the Chimaera and coinage of a fantastic brain? And a 500 year's indulgence, but the shark and legerdemain or your Lord God the Pope? Either your opinion is sandy, or your prison, both which must fleet with your holy Father's honour, if the arms of mercy be expanded to all. Again, are the merits of Christ appliable to all? Swear, whore, drink, profane, blaspheme, and (if there be in that Alcharon, and cursed roll, a sin of a fairer growth) baffle the Almighty at his face. Thinkest thou that heaven was ever guilty of such treason against her Sovereign? or that it will ever entertain a guest so exposed to the height of dissoluteness and debaushment? No, thou must know that one day there will be a dread full summons, either at those particular accounts, at the hour of Death, or at the general audit of the last trump, when thou shalt meet with a new Acheldema and vale of Hinnom, places no less of terror than of torment, the fiery dungeon, and the burning Tophet, where the fury of the great judge reals in a flood of brimstone, and his revenge boiles in a fiery torrent, limitless, and unquenchable. On the other side happily mayst thou slumber, without howl; or skreeke of conscience, thou wounded and dejected spirit; Thou whose glorious ornaments are but sack cloth and ashes, and thy choicest fare but the bread of sorrow and contrition. Know there is balm of Gilead for the  sinner, and oil of comfort for those which mourn in Zion. Behold how thy Saviour comes flying down with the wings of his love, and sweepts away thy sins that they shall neither temporally shame thee, nor eternally condemn thee: Who shall wipe off all tears from your eyes, and lodge you in the bosom of old Abraham, where there is bliss unspeakable for ever. And thus I have showed you the happiness of sheep under the state of mercy; Time bids me now to reflect on the misery of Goats, as they are under the condition of hardening.   

PART. II. He hardeneth.  
WHat? he that is rich in goodness, and his mercies above all his works? he that mourns in secret for our offences, and vows that he desireth not the death of a sinner, will he harden? How can this stand either with his promise, or mercy, or justice? God's unrevealed projects are full of wonder, which if our apprehension cannot dive to, our beliefs must sound. Occulta esse possunt, iniusta non possunt, fraught they may be with sullen and darker riddles, never with injustice. Let us first then take a survey of Man's heart, and see to what miseries the hardness of it hath exposed our irregular predecessors, and after try whether we can make providence the mother of so deformed an issue. And here awhile let us observe S. Bernard tutor his Eugenius, Cor durum, a heart, which the softer temper of Gods working spirit leaves to mollify, and its own corrupt affections gins once to mould. Like that of Naball, to be all stone, becomes at last so cauterised,  semetipsum non exhorreat quià nec sentit, that it is so fare from starting at its own ugliness, that it is non-sensible of deformity. And hence Theodoret defines it to be pranam animi affectionem, a corrupt and depraved affection of the mind, which if man once give way to, he is so screened both from God's mercy and truth; that though it be about him, and in the masterdom and dominion of his best sense, Non cernit tamen, nec intelligit, yet his eyes are as blind intelligencers to believe, as his understanding. And against such that sweet singer of Israel breaks out into his passionate complaint, Vsquè quò filij hominum, usquè quò? O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my honour into shame, how long? and that of the Protomartyr Stephen, in his Oration to the refractory jews. Durâ cervise, O ye stiffnecked and uncircumcized of heart and ears, ye do always resist the holy Ghost. And indeed such hearts are but the Wardrobes and Exchequers of future mischief, whose keys are not in the custody of the Almighty, but thine own bosom. For so that great Doctor of the Gentiles, Secundum impoenitens cor tuum thesaurisas iram: Accord to the impenitency of thine own heart, thou treasurest up wrath (to thyself) against the day of wrath. How then can that eye which should be fixed either on the tenderness or mercy of his Creator, glance so much on his injustice, as to make that the Midwife of so foul a progeny? Obduration was never the child of goodness, neither can a sin of so base a descent lay claim to omnipotency. It stands not (I dare say) with God's power, I am sure, his will, to reconcile two enemies in such an extremity of opposition. Do sweet water and puddle flow immediately from one and the selfsame spring? light and darkness from the selfsame Sun? I know there is a stiffnecked and bliud-fold Tribe, which God hath left, not made the story of his vengeance; whose affections are too dull and drowsy in his service. Men crestfallen in devotion, whose hearts are so dead in their allegiance to him, that they seem spiritless, having all the powers & faculties of their soul benumbed, and their conscience without pulse or motion. And of these the Prophet, Incrassatum est cor populi, Their heart is as fat as brawn. These stick not to belch open defiance in the face of the Almighty, and with those Miscreants in job. are ready to expostulate with eternity. Quis est omnipotens ut seruiemus ei? Who is the Lord that we should serve him? Such have foreheads of brass, which no shame can boar through: and (as the Prophet spoke of juda) a face of whoredom which refuseth modesty. But Saint Gregory in his 10. Homily upon Ezechiel, hath proclaimed their doom. Frontem cordis in impudentiam aperit culpa frequens, ut quo crebrius committitur, eò minus de illa committentis animus verecundetur: Frequency of sinning doth flesh us in immodesty, assiduity, in impudence. Offences that are customary are not easy of dimission, and if thou once entertain them as thy followers, they will quickly intrude as thy companions. Sins that are said with delight, with use, are as dangerous as those of Appetite: which oftentimes prove no less inseparable, than hereditary; to do well is as impossible to these, as not to do ill; So can assiduity make a sin both delightful, and natural. Can the Aethiop change his skin, and the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do well which are accustomed to do evil. That sin than is irrazable which is so steeled with custom, and may under go the censure of that sometime City of God; Insanabilis est dolor tuus: Thy sin is written with a pen of iron, and with a claw of a Diamond is engraven on the table of thy heart. How then can we without sacrilege, and robbing of divine honour, make God the father of so foul and unwashed a crime? Obduration is the issue of thine own transgression. Perditio tua ex te, o Israel: If destruction dog thee, thank thy corrupt affections, not blame thy maker, for he doth but leave thee, and they harden. To lay then (with some depraved libertines) the weight and burden of our sins on the shoulder of Predestination, and make that the womb of those soul enormities, may well pass for an infirmity, not for excuse, and indeed thus to shuffle with divine goodness, is no less fearful, than blasphemous. For, though God from eternity knew how to reward every man, either by crown, or punishment—. Nemini tamen aut necessitatem, aut voluntatem intulit delinquendi, yet he never enjoined any man either a necessity, or a will to sin. If any than fall off from goodness, he is hurried no less with the violence of his own persuasion, than concupiscence; and in those desperate affairs, Gods will is neither an intermeddler, hor compartner, Cuius  scimus multos, ne laberentur, retentos, nullos, ut laberentur, impulsos (saith Augustine.) By whose hand of providence we know many to be supported that they might not fall, none impelled that they should. And in his answer to that 14. Article falsely supposed to be his, Fieri non potest, ut per quem à peccatis surgitur, per eum ad peccata decidatur: for one and the selfsame goodness, to be the life and death of the selfsame sin, is so much beyond improbability, that it is impossible. If any than go onward in the true road of divine graces, no doubt but the finger of the Almighty points out his way to happiness; but if he wander in the by paths of a vicious and depraved dissoluteness, his own corrupt affections beckons him to ruin. To love then his children, and neglect his enemies, doth neither impair God's mercy, nor impeach his justice. But why God should love this as his child, neglect that as his enemy, Nec possible est comprehendere, nec licitum investigara—, is beyond all lawfulness of enquiry, all ken of apprehension. Let this then satisfy our desire of knowledge, Et ab illo esse, quod statur, & non esse ab illo, quod ruitur: That his providence is the staff and crutch on which we so lean that we yet stand; our corrupt affections, the bruised and broken reed on which, if we do lean, we fall. If any flagger at those unfathomed mysteries, and his reason and apprehension be strooke dead at the contemplation of God's eternal, but hidden projects, let him season a little his amazement with adoration, and at last solace his distempered thoughts with that of Gregory, Qui infactis Dei, etc. In the abstruse and darker mysteries of God, he that sees not a reason, if he sees his own infirmity, he sees a sufficient reason why he should not see. Me thinks this should cloy the appetite of a greedy inquisition, and satisfy the distrust of any, but of too querulous a disposition, which, with the eye of curiosity prying too nicely into the closet of God's secrets, are no less dazzled than blinded; if not with profanation, heresy. Divine secrets should rather transport us with wonder, than prompt us to enquiry, and bring us on our knees to acknowledge the infiniteness both of God's power and will, than ransack the bosom of the Almighty, for the revealing of his intents. Is it not blessedness enough that God hath made thee his Steward, though not his Secretary? Will no Mansion in heaven content thee, but that which is the throne and chair for omnipotency to sit on? No treasury, but that which is the Cabinet and store-house of his own secrets? Worm, and no man, take heed ●ow thou struglest with thy Maker; expostulation with God imports no less peremptoriness, than danger; and if Angels fell for pride of emulation, where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry? As in matters therefore of unusual doubt, where truth hath no verdict, probability finds audience, So in those obstruct and narrow passages of his will, where reason cannot inform thee, belief is thy best intelligencer, and if that want a tongue, make this thy interpreter; so thou mayst evade with less distrust, I am sure, with more safe.  
And at last when thou hast sca●…'d all, what either scruple or inquisition can prompe thee to, in a dejected humiliation, thou must cry out with that jewish penitent; Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief. Yea, but how shall we here clear God from this aspersion, when the Apostle is the Herald to his guilt? whom he will he hardens: Induras is an active, and doth always presuppose a passive; And if there be a subject that must suffer, there must be a hand too that must inflict. How then can we quit the Almighty of the suspicion either of tyranny or injustice, since he is said to send on some the spirit of error, 2 Thess. 2. and that great Trumpet of God's displeasure, Esay in his 63. brings in the jews, no less muttering than expostulating with God, Quare errar● nos fecist● Domine? Lord why hest thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear? These instances (at the first furu●y,) bear terror in their looks, and like sophisticated lights in a dark room, make things seem more ugly than they are; and are but false bills, preferred against a spotless innocent, which, without search, may convince of public erime, but narrowly scanned, absolve him, no less from the act, than the thought of guilt. How God therefore in this is liable to censure and misprision, and how both a beholder, an intermedier of depraved actions; vouchsafe me a little your attentive parience; and I doubt not, but I shall inform the understanding of the shallow, and to the portion of my weak Talon, will strive to satisfy the waveringly judicious. Whom he will he hardens. Some (too nicely tender of the honour of their maker) have given way to an interpretation more modest, than authentic, and interpret,— indur●●…— for ●uritia●● manifestare, so that God is not properly said to harden the heart, but rather to manifest how hard it is, And to this opinion Saint Augustine is a ●lo●e adherent in his 18 Question upon Exodus. But this holds not with the purpose of God, nor with the scope and meaning of the Text, which if we compare with others of that nature, we shall find that Gods will hath rather a singer in this, than his promulgation: for so in the 10 of josua we read, that'twas the will and the sentence of the Almighty, that the Canaanites should be hardened; that they might deserve no mercy, but perish. Others there are (whose opinions border nearer upon truth) which would have God to be said to harden— non effective, sed permissiuè; Not by way of Action, but permission, and so Damascen in his third book de fide Orthodoxa, cap. 20. Where his words run thus. Operaepretium est agnoscere—. 'Tis a matter no less worthy of knowledge, than observance, that 'tis the custom of the Scripture to call God's permission, his action. So we read that God sent his enemies the Ipirit of slumber, which is not to be ascribed to God as an agent, but as a permitter. This gloss suits well with the approbation of Saint Chrysostome; who speaking occasionally of that of the first of the Romans, Deus tradidit ●llos— God gave them up unto vile affections, he there expounds— tradidit, by permisit, which he thus illustraces by a similitude— As the General of an Army, in the sweat and brunt of a bloody day, if he withdraw his personal directions from his soldiers, what doth he but expose them to the mercy of their enemies? not that he led them into the jaws of danger, but because they were not backed by his encouragement: So God in this spiritual conflict, he delivers us not into the hands of our arch-enemy he leaves us to our own strength, and our corrupt affections drag us thither with a witness. And hence that dicotomy of Caietan claims his prerogative, that God doth harden Negatively, but not Positively, with distinction though it be sound & Orthodox, yet it doth not exempt us from scruple, for God hath more in the stiffnecked and perverse, than a maked and bare permission, otherwise we should too weakly distance obduration from a lesser sin, for every sin God permits and as Saint Augustine in his Enchir. 96. cap. Nihil sit nisi omnipotens fieri velit, vel finend● ut fiat, v●l ipse fa●iend●. There's nothing done without the consent and approbation of the Almighty, and that either by his person or substitute. If God therefore be only said to harden man because he permits him to be hardened, why should he not be likewise said to steal, because he permits man to steal? No doubt therefore but God hath a greater ore in this sin of hardneing, than in offences of a lesser bulk. And therefore Saint Augustine in his 3. lib. con●. julianum, 3. cap. with many a sinewed allegation proves; that God doth concur to the excaeca●ion and hardening both of the mind and heart,— Non solum, secundum paetientiam, & permissionem, sed potentiam, & actionem. Not according to his patience and permission only, but his power and action: Which position he thus (after) qualifies with a distinction. Obduration is not only a sin, but a punishment of a sin. Now, that which is in obduration merely of sin hath its pedigree and original from man only; but that which is of punishment for that sin, from God. And therefore I cannot but approve of that of Isiodore, Qui iusti sunt, à Deo non impelluntur, ut malifiant; sed dùm mali iam sunt, indurantur, ut deteriores existant,— Accord to that of Paul, 2 Thes. 2. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they might believe a lie, that all might be damned that believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. I have as yet but touched the bark and skin of the controversy, the pith and the kernel is yet unchewed, and that is,— Whether God here (as he is said to harden) be the cause of our transgressions. Which quaere admits a threefore distraction, and difference of opinion. Two of them are extremes, and by hot opposition each of other, they have both lost the truth, the third runs in a midway, and ever directs to safety. Florinus (whose opinion posterity records as the monument of a seduced error) with no less peremptoriness than blaspemy hath arraigned the Almighry, and made him not only the permitter, but the Author of our sins. The Seleuciani, after him, were poisoned with that heresy, & the Libertines laboured in the defence thereof. Manes, and his disciples, dreamt of a summum malum, and upon that fantasy grounded their assertion, that God the summum bonum, is to be seen only in our good actions, but every depraved Act had its derivation from their summum malum. But those of a more solid and well tempered judgement, whom the influence of the Spirit had taught a moderation, or the danger of Inquisition forbade curiosity, dare not with Florinus impute (here) sin unto God, yet maintain against the Manichees, that God is not a bare and idle spectator, but powerful over, although no actor in the sin, Not in the sin, as it is merely a sin, but in the sin as 'tis a punishment of sin. And therefore in every transgression of ours, there are four thing, remarkable, 1 Subiectum, seu materiale, he subject in which sin subsists, and that is twofold. 1 Substantia, the substance, or rather the faculties of the reasonable soul, in which original sin is so riveted, that the natural man can by no means purge himself of that hereditary contagion; or Actio bona, on, which all our actual sins are grounded. 2 Formale, the formality, or obliquity of the action. For every sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the transgression of the Law, and in the sinner there's nothing sin but this. 3 Reatus, The guilt of this enormity, which makes. us liable to eternal death. 4 Poena, the punishment inflicted upon the guilty, whether temporal, or eternal, or both. Now we may not charge God with the obliquity of the action, for that proceeds from a perverse, and a seduced will, but the substance of the action (as the Schoolmen speak) that hath its original from God. And therefore we consider sin, either ut malum culpae. as 'tis a violation of God's law, or ut malum poenae. as a punishment laid upon us for the violation of that Law: So Rom. 1.25. The Gentiles turned the truth of God into a lie, There's malum culpae. And it follows immediately at the 26 verse. For this cause God gave them up into vile affections, There's malum poenae. Now God is author of the second, not the first. If mists still hang on the eyes of clouded error, I thus dispel them with that of Hugo de Sancto Victore— Deus malis potestatem solam tribuit, non voluntatem, quià licet ex ipsius permissione sit, quod malum possunt, ex inspiratione tamen non est quod malum volunt. God only gives power to the wicked, not will, that although it be by his permission that we can do evil, yet it is not by his inspiration that we will do evil. And therefore as the Schools do commonly distinguish of the decree of God, so must we of the execution of that decree, which is either per efficieutiam, when the divine power doth work any thing with, or without the creature, or secundum permissionem, when the creature hath leave to work without the guidance of that power. Neither will it savour of impertinence, if we insert here that distinction of God's providence in efficientem & deserentem: Into a relieving and forsaking providence, for whensoever God withdraws his especial aid and assistance from us, man is hurried where his own corrupter appetite, not God's grace carrieth him. Adam fell as soon as the influence of God's grace ceased, and without the supportance of the same grace we all fall, with no less certainty of peril, than danger of restitution. When the Sun sets, we see darkness follows immediately upon the face of the earth, and yet the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness, but the deficient; so when the Sun of righteousness shall forsake us, the darkness of error, must needs possess the understanding, and the will must mistake in her choice and execution. She must necessitate consequentiae, non consequentis. The necessity is grounded on a consequent in Logic, not any influence in Nature. And here we may borrow a true gloss for that in the 2 Acts, where it is said that Christ was delivered into the hands of the wicked, by the determinate counsel & foreknowledge of God. We must not thinken hat God was the setter in this villainy, that he conspired with judas in his treason, or with Pilate in his bloody sentence: But that he only gave way to their attempts, and suffered them to crucify the Lord of glory. Yea, but why did not God curb them in their cruel proceed? Why should his connivance betray the ●…ou●… of Innovence? Saint Austin shall answer for me. Quia melius iudicavit de● malis benefacere, quàm mala nullae esse permittere. To extract good out of evil was peculiar only to omnipotency and goodness; and therefore no less solid than charitable is that caucat of Du-Plesses— Malè quaeritur, unde malum essiciatur. It is an ill curiosity to seek an efficient cause of ill. Let this then satisfy modesten nulls that it is with the sinner as with an vntuned Instrument, and the Musician, the sound is from the finger of him that toucheth it, but the jarring from the Instrument.  
That our discourse then with the time may draw to wards a Period, we involve and wrap up in this one distinction the very juice and substance of the controversy. Sin is considerable two ways, ante commissionem, before the Commission, Sic se Deus habet negatiuè, tum respectu voluntatis, tum productionis. God doth neither work with us, nor countenance us in the act of sinning. Post commissionem, after the Commission, sic Deus determinat, & ordinat peccatum. God sets bounds to the malice of wicked men, and so mannages the disorder in sin, that contrary to the nature of sin, and the intent of the sinner, it shall redound ●o his glory.  
We inculcate then, that God is not the author, but the orderer of sin. He causeth the work, not the fault; the effect, not the delinquency, working by, not in mischief. Wherein, according to the rules of Logic, the final and impulsive causes ever so distinguish the actions, that two doing the same thing to a diverse intent, are notwithstanding said not to do the same. So God gave his Son, and Christ himself, and judas Christ, (saith Augustine) why is God here holy, and man guilty? Nis● in re unâ quam fecerunt, non est causa una ob quam fecerunt. I shut up all with that state of Fulgentius in his first book ad M●●cinum cap. 13. Where having long hovered over this question, An peccata siant ex praedestinatione? He at last thus resolves it. Potuit Deus, sicut voluit, praedestivare quosdam ad gloriam, quosdam ad poenam, sed quos praedestinavit ad gloriam, praedestinavit ad iustitiam, quos autem praedestinavit ad poenam, non praedestinavit ad culpam. God when he saves any man doth predestinate him as well to the means, as to the end. But in the reprobation of a sinner, God destinies the sinner only to the punishment; foreseeing, but not determining those sins which shall in time draw God's punishments down upon him.  
Do our corruptions harden then, and God punisheth? Take heed you Pharaohs of the world, you which persecute the poor Israelite in his way to Canaan, spur not the goodness of the Almighty to revenge, or justice. Laesa patientia fit suror—, trample too much on the neck of patience, you will turn it to fury. It is true, God hath feet of Lead (clemency intermixed with slowness of revenge) but he hath hands of iron, they will grind and bruise into powder, when they are dared to combat.  Sera venit, sed certa venit vindicta Deorum. 
Procrastination of divine justice is ever waited on no less with a certainty of punishment than ruin. What shall we do then (wretched, miserable that we are) or to whom shall we fly for secure? The good S. Augustine tells us,— à Deo irato, ad Deum placatum—, from the tribunal of his justice, to his throne of mercy, and compassion. That of Anselmus was most admirable— Et si Domine ego commisi unde me damnare potes, tu tamen non amisisti, unde me saluare potes—. O blessed jesus, though I have committed those transgressions for which thou mayst condemn me, yet thou hast not lost those compassions by which thou mayst save me. If our souls were in such a strait, that we saw hell opening her mouth upon us, like the red sea before the Israelites; the damned and ugly fiends, pursuing us behind, like the Egyptians, on the right hand, an on the left; death and sea ready to ingulse us, yet upon a broken heart, and undisguised sorrow, would I speak to you in the confidence of Moses,— Stand still, stand still, behold the salvation of the Lord. Thou then which art oppressed with the violence and clamour of thy sins, and wantestan advocate either to intercede, or pity, hear the voice of the Lamb,— Cry unto me, I will hear thee out of my holy hill. Is any heavily loaden with the weight of his offences, or groans under the yoke and tyranny of manifold temptations?— Come unto me, I will refresh thee—. Doth any hunger after righteousness? behold, I am the bread of life, take, eat, here is my body. Doth any thirst after the ways of grace? lo, I am a living spring, come, drink, here is my blood: my blood that was shed for many for the remission of sins; for many, not for all. Hath sin dominion over thee? or doth it reign in thy mortal heart? are the wounds of thy transgressions so deep that they cannot be searched? or so old, that they corrupt and putrify? where is the Samaritan that will either bind them up, or pour in oil? But art thou not yet dead in trespasses? are not thy ulcers past cure? are there any seeds of true life remaining? is there any motion of repentance in thy soul? will thy pulse of remorse beat a little? hast thou but a touch of sorrow? a spark of contrition? a grain of saith? know there is oil of comfort for him which mourns in Zion. Not a tear drops from thee with sincerity which is either unpitied, or unpreserued,— God puts it into his bottle. On the other side, is there a Pharaoh in thee? an heart unmollified? a stone that will not be bruised? a flint unmalleable? I both mourn for it, and leave it: But is this heart of stone taken away, and is there given thee a heart of flesh? is it soft and tender with remorse? truly sacrificed to sorrow? know there is balm of Gilead for the broken heart, balm that will both refresh and cure it. Thou than which groanest in the spirit, and art drawn out (as it were) into contrition for thy sins; thou which hast washed thy hands in innocence, go cheerfully to the altar of thy God, unbind thy sacrifice, lay it on. But hast thou done it sincerely? from thy heart? lurks there no falsehood there? is all swept clean and garnished? doth the countenance of that smile as cheerfully, as the other seems to do of the outward man? if so. thy fire is well kindled, the Altar burns clearly, the savour of thy incense shall pierce the clouds. But is this repentance disguized? hath it a touch of dissimulation in it? is not thy old rancour clean disgorged, but must thou again to thy former vomit? hypocrite, thy Altar is without fire, thy incense without smoke, it shall never touch the nostrils of the Almighty, thy prayers in his ears sound like brass, and tinkle like an ill-tuned Cymbal; all this formality of zeal is but a disease of the lip: give me thy heart my son, I will have that, or none, and that clean too, washed both from deceit, and guilt. That subtle fallacy of the eye pointing towards heaven, that base hypocrisy of the knee kissing the earth, that seeming austerity of the hand martyring thy breast, gains from me neither applause, nor blessing; the example of a Pharisee could have chid thee to such an outside of devotion,— Qui pectus suum tundit, & se non corrigit, aggravat peccata, non tollit, saith Augustine, where there is an outward percussion of the breast, without remorse of the inward man, there is rather an aggravation of sin, than a release; these blanching, and guildings, and varnishings of external zeal, are as odious in the eye of God, as those of body in a true Christian; this gloss, this paint of demureness speaks but our whoredoms in religion, & the integrity of that man is open both to censure and suspicion, that is exposed either to the practice of it, or the approbation. A villain is a villain howsoever his garb or habit speak him otherwise, and an hypocrite is no less, though sleeked over with an external sanctity, & dressed in the affectations of a preciser cut. Let us be truly that what we seem to be, and not seem what we are not; let there be doors & casements in our breasts that men may see the loyaley 'twixt our heart and tongue, and how our thoughts whisper to our tongue, and how our tongue speaks them to the world. A way with those Meteors and false-fires of Religion, which not only by-path us in a blinded zeal, but mislead others in our steps of error. Let us put off the old man in our pride, vainglory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, malice, and (that foul disease of the times, and us) uncharitableness; and let us put on the new man in sincerity, faith, repentance, sobriety, brotherly kindnesses, love, and (what without it disparages the tongue both, of men, and Angels) charity; then at length all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, and we shall receive that everlasting benediction.— Come ye children, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.— To which, the Lord bring us for Christ jesus sake, to whom be praise and power ascribed now, and for evermore. Amen.   
Gloria in excelsis Deo.  
FINIS.