The remains of that reverend and learned prelate, Dr. George Rust, late lord bishop of Dromore, in the kingdom of Ireland collected and published by Henry Hallywell.

THE REMAINS OF THAT Reverend and learned Prelate , Dr. George Rust , Late LORD BISHOP OF DROMORE , IN THE KINGDOM of IRELAND .

Collected and Published By HENRY HALLYWELL .

Prov. 10.7 . The memory of the just is blessed .

LONDON , Printed by M. Flesher , for Walter Kettilby , at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1686.

Imprimatur .

Ex Aed . Lambeth . Apr. 27. 1686. Jo . Battely .

TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOHN LORD BISHOP of CHICHESTER . May it please your Lordship ,

TO take into your Patronage the REMAINS of a great and learned Man , which since 't were an Injury , and Uncharitableness to the World , to let them perish , may live and preserve his Memory to Posterity , by the favourable countenance of your Lordship's Name . And indeed to whom should I rather address the pious and usefull Labours of a truly Primitive and Apostolical Bishop than to your Lordship , who deservedly bear the same Character your self ? My Lord , your Lordship has an Interest and Claim in the Studies of your Clergy , and being your self so great a pattern of what is truly Generous and Noble , it begets a kind of Confidence in me , that your Lordship will not despise my poor and weak Endeavours in promoting any usefull Truths , who am in all Sincerity ,

My Lord , Your Lordship's and the Churches most humble Servant , HENRY HALLYWELL .

THE PREFACE TO THE READER .

SInce the Publication of a Discourse of the Authour's concerning the use of Reason in Things of Religion , these following were transmitted to me by a Friend of his ; the Subjects of which being of such high importance and usefulness to the Minds of Men , and withall setting forth so full a Representation of the Authour's great Judgment , universal Learning , unprejudiced Reason , and lively Sense of the noblest Truths in the whole Oeconomy of Providence with the World , they will not need any formal Excuses , and prefatory Apologies , for their being offered to publick view .

Wherefore I shall rather chuse to set before the impartial and ingenuous Reader a brief Account of each of them ; how exceedingly they conduce to the begetting the most honourable Thoughts of God in his dealings with Mankind , settle the Grounds and Foundations of all true Wisedom and Science , and add a great Confirmation to the Truth of Christianity it self .

The first of these Discourses was preached at St. Mary's in Cambridge , in the Year 1658. wherein the Authour endeavours to form in the Minds of Men great and honourable Thoughts of God , of his Nature , Attributes and Providences in the World . It was looked upon by Epictetus as the chiefest part of all Religion {αβγδ} , C. 38. to have right Apprehensions of the Nature of God ; for according to the Notions we entertain of him , such will be our Conceptions of his Ways , and the Administration of his Providence . Hence it was that Grotius made this Observation , Vot . pro pace . That the Followers of Melancthon were boni & lenes , but those of Calvin , asperi , & tales qualem in maximam partem humani generis Deum esse sibi imaginantur . And therefore to err in this , is not onely to think dishonourably of God , but it deeply affects our Minds , and moulds them into the form of that Image we have dressed up there , and derives an unhappy Influence upon all the moral Actions of our Lives . Our Opinions and Sentiments in Religion will all be squared according to the Notion we entertain of God , and when that is false , a Troop of Errours presently falls in upon us , and we can never draw any true Conclusions from his Nature and Attributes . Of so great concernment is it to have a true Idea and right Conception of the Nature of God ; for the begetting of which in our Minds this first Discourse was chiefly designed , in which we may clearly see the lively Image of the Authour's candid and serene Soul , which was deeply tinctured with that Almighty and powerfull Love he endeavours to explicate to others . Love is the most pretious thing in all the World , and the whole Creation speaks it in a Language easie to be understood by every unpolluted Mind ; the Contemplation of which occasioned the Syrian Pherecydes to say , That God transformed himself into Love when he brought into Being the goodly Frame and Furniture of Heaven and Earth . And Plato , the best and wisest of the Pagan Philosophers , places the {αβγδ} as the fruitfull Source and Spring from whence the other two Hypostases in that sacred Triad are derived : Nor was this a Notion pitcht upon by chance , and at a venture , but a part of that Cabbalistical or Traditional Learning which Plato had gathered in the East , probably from some of the wise Men of the Jews ; which the later Platonists ( though thinking and contemplative Men ) were so far from rejecting , that they became even fond of it ; which would induce a Man to believe that this Notion was providentially preserved amongst them , the better to facilitate the Belief of the Christian Trinity . Love is the highest Perfection of all Rational Beings , and when our Minds are fully possessed with it , it lies not useless and inactive , but inspires the Soul with passionate Thirsts after so lovely a Good , and vigorous Endeavours , that the same beautifull Image may be drawn upon the Heart of every individual Person in the World .

The Apostle makes it one Character of a Degenerate Age , when Men shall be {αβγδ} , Lovers of themselves ; and certainly nothing is more contrary to the free and universaliz'd Spirit of a Christian than this {αβγδ} , Self-love , this narrow and contracted Nature , which acts as it were in a particular Sphere , and is wholly unconcerned for the rest of God's Creation . And it is certainly the want of this universal Charity and Benignity that retards those happy times and flourishing state of Christ's Church , and obstructs the Descent of the New Jerusalem from Heaven , that Lovely Spouse of our Lord Jesus , which as she will be entirely beloved of her Head and Saviour , so the Badge and Cognizance by which she will be known on Earth will be {αβγδ} , or Brotherly-love .

The next Discourse [ of Truth ] was first published by Mr. Glanvil , afterwards reviewed and corrected from a better Copy by an ingenious Person , who thought it worth his while to bestow some Notes and Observations upon it for the better clearing and illustrating the Authour's sense ; whose Annotations , if carefully perused , will obviate all offence that may be taken at any seemingly harsh Expression , and free the ingenuous Reader from mistake of the Authour's meaning ; which I have here exhibited entire , with the Addition of two Prefaces : For that Discourse was first delivered 1651. in Christ's-College Chapel , upon Prov. 20.27 . Afterwards , in the Year 1655. it was preached at St. Mary's in Cambridge upon Joh . 18.38 . And here I hope I shall be so far from displeasing that learned Person ( if he be yet in being ) who hath commented upon it , that he will be rather gratified with my Care and Endeavours in collecting these scattered Remains , thereby to preserve the Memory of so great a Man .

But to our Purpose ; The Reader will easily observe that the Authour's intent in this Discourse is to shew that there are natural and innate Characters and Differences in Things , and that these Idea's depend not upon Arbitrarious Will , nor are factitious and alterable at pleasure , but eternal and immutable , according to the Archetypal Copies and Originals of them in the Divine Intellect . Forasmuch as the Divine Understanding is nothing but a steady Comprehension of the Natures , Properties , Relations and Affections of Things one to another , which are not made so merely by explicite Will , but are eternally found to be what they are , and their Habitudes and Respects immutable and independent , not {αβγδ} , but {αβγδ} so . And if we will not allow this , all the Knowledge in the World will be no better than the clattering and insignificant sound of Words , an impertinent noise and mere brutal Language . For any thing will then signifie any thing , and any Medium whatever ( though seemingly never so unsutable ) will be fitted to prove any conclusion , if the {αβγδ} , the mutual respects of Things which are the Foundations of all Reason and Science , be mutable and alterable by Arbitrarious Will and Pleasure . There is no Theory in Naturals , no Mathematical Demonstration , though built upon never so solid Grounds , that can with any confidence be relied on , for ( taking away the mutual Habitudes and Respects of Things ) all Arguments will be equally conclusive , and being alike fitted to prove every thing , must of necessity at last prove nothing ; and Sense and Nonsense , Truth and Contradictions will be all one . Nor will it fare any better in Morals , for if the Rationes boni & mali be not immutable and eternal , there can be no such thing as intrinsecal evil , and all Vice which we suppose to have an innate Turpitude and Deformity , may notwithstanding not be so . Nay farther , if there be no intrinsecal Connexion between Evil and any particular Instance of Vice , it may as well be termed Vertue . All which our Authour more fully and largely insists upon . And if at the Conclusion he have a little perstringed those Notional and Metaphysical Divines , it is but a just rebuke of them who have so far disfigured the beautifull face of Truth , by their dry and insipid Notions , nice Distinctions and insignificant Terms , that it is a hard matter to know her .

The last is an Exercise which the Authour performed in the Divinity Schools in the University of Cambridge in the Year 1656. which whether we respect the greatness of the Argument , as being the Foundation of the Christian Religion , and that which has been the matter in Controversie between the Christians and Jews , for above these sixteen hundred Years past , or whether we look upon the Authour's Reading and Skill in the Jewish Writers , is no whit inferiour to the former . For in this ( though brief Discourse ) we have a solid and rational Refutation of all the Cavils and Exceptions which the greatest and most learned Rabbins of the Jews could invent to invalidate the force of those Predictions which the Christians urge against them , to prove that the promised Messiah is long since come . And by this we gain thus much , That since the Objections of the Nasutest Jews are so weak , and their Exceptions against those Prophecies the Authour here makes use of , so very trifling and frivolous , and that they are at so great an Uncertainty among themselves , both as to the Person and Time of the Messiah's coming , it a very strong confirmation of us Christians in the Belief of this great Article of our Faith , That our Jesus is really the promised Messiah , and that the Jews themselves ought to have received him as such , and submitted themselves to his Laws , as the Son of God , and the King of Israel .

And it seems to me a Contemplation well worth the implying our Thoughts upon , how it should come to pass that the Jews , who since our Saviour's time have all along abhorred Idolatry , and tenaciously observed the Worship of the one onely true God of Israel , should yet be so obstinately and pertinaciously set against the Christian Doctrine , and that for the space of 1600 Years , without any visible hope of Recovery and alteration of their Minds , and content themselves with such poor and trivial subterfuges , notwithstanding that many of the Miracles of Jesus , as to matter of Fact , are owned and confessed by them to be true . This has for some time tortured my Thoughts , nor have the odinary ways of Solution hitherto so fully answered the Question . It is true , the Christians have given great occasion of Scandal to the Jews in their Practices , whereby they have very much alienated and estranged their Hearts from the Holy Religion of Jesus , nor have they taken a right Course for their Conversion , while too many looked upon the Jews as no other than a sort of Beasts , and thought they sufficiently discharged their Duty , si in gentem istam fortiter convitiati sint , as Luther once complained . But this ground is too short and narrow , into which to resolve so obstinate and continued Resistence ; forasmuch as wise men consider the Reason of the Thing , and the Merits of the Cause before they adhere to or reject a Doctrine , and we must rise higher to fetch any tolerable Reason of so inveterate and perverse an Obstinacy .

I consider therefore ,

1. That it may a little abate of the wonder and strangeness of the thing , when we reflect upon those Multitudes of fallen Angels , who rebelling against God , soon after their first Creation have ever since persisted in open hostility , notwithstanding their Acknowledgment of his Being and powerfull Providence . Which opposition of the Kingdom of Darkness , against God and his Kingdom of Light , Lactantius somewhere , I think , calls Magnum Mundi Secretum . And there is no doubt but Men may by long use bring their Minds into such a preternatural State , and offer such Violence to their Intellectuals as to lose that tender and delicate sense and rellish of Truth , L. 1. c . 5. which Arrian terms {αβγδ} such a Petrification of Mind , as bereaves Men of Natural Pudor , or Shame , making them deny even the Evidence of Sense , and believe Contradictions ; and in the Scripture Phrase , is {αβγδ} , an injudicious Mind , that hath lost the Natural Discrimination between Truth and Falshood . And to this deplorable State and Condition Divine Providence often delivers those Men up , who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness , or will not receive it in the Love of it that they may be saved .

2. I observe that St. Paul speaking of the Rejection of the Jews , calls it a Mystery , i.e. a mysterious Truth , which contains in it some farther knowledge than at the first view it seems to offer , and in which under the exterior Cortex is lodged some sacred , weighty and recondite Wisedom . Rom. 11. v. 25. And I would not Brethren , that ye should be ignorant of this Mystery ( lest ye should be wise in your own Conceits ) that blindness in part is happened to Israel , untill the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved . The sense of which I conceive to be this : The Apostle tells the Gentiles that they have no reason to be proud and insolent , as if , because God vouchsafed the Gospel to them , that therefore he had eternally abandoned and cast off all care of the Jews , whom he once owned as his peculiar People , but that this Rejection of the Jews was a great piece of the mysteriousness of Divine Providence , and though a severe Vengeance would long pursue this forlorn People for that great sin in crucifying their Messiah , and their obstinate Infidelity and Contempt of him and his Laws , yet it should not doe so for ever , forasmuch as that {αβγδ} , obduracy , or Occecation of theirs which was the occasion of this severity , should be but {αβγδ} , partial , and for such a space of time , ( for so St. Ambrose interprets it with relation to time ) till the fulness of the Gentiles come in , and that then the whole Nation of the Jews should return and acknowledge Jesus to be their Messiah , and together with the Gentiles make up one glorious and Catholick Church .

3. What if there be this farther lodged in this Mystery , namely , that this last and great Captivity of the Jews , and their Dispersion into all parts and quarters of the World , shall be made use of for the bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles , and the Conversion of the yet remaining Pagan World ? For it is the Excellency and Fertilty of the Divine Wisedom to make the same thing subservient to divers ends : As the Captivities of the Jews before our Saviour's coming were not onely punishments to them for their Sins , but by their Intercourse with the more sincere and inquisitive Pagans , became usefull to imbue them with a more explicite knowledge of the one onely true God , which in the end might serve the better to dispose and facilitate the Minds of Men for the entertainment of the Christian Doctrine when it should appear in the World : so an All comprehensive Providence in this general Dispersion of the Jewish Nation may make use of them as serviceable Instruments in her hand for the Conversion of the Infidel and unbelieving part of the World , wherein they are scattered . And whatever else may be contained in this Mystery , yet this I think is plain , that the whole Body of the Jewish Nation , shall be brought in to the Reception of the Christian Faith . But whether their Conversion shall be effected in a stupendious and miraculous way , as it is less needfull , so it is more hard to determine .

Mr. Mede ( though not fully satisfied himself therein ) supposes it probable the Jews will be converted by some miraculous way , suppose by Voice or Vision from Heaven , to which purpose he takes notice of three places of Scripture , upon which ( besides what Mr. Mede alledgeth ) I shall borrow somewhat which I received from another excellent Interpreter of hard and obscure Places of Scripture , who has already enriched the World with divers Treatises of the most considerable and usefull knowledge . The first is , Zach. 12.10 . They shall see him whom they have pierced ; which Sentence , though considered alone may seem to have little force in it , yet if it be read with the Context that seems to predict and describe the very Conversion of the Jews and the excellent state of the Christian Church at that time , it will appear not a little to the purpose . Nor will its force be easily avoided , unless we interpret this seeing of him whom they pierced , of the sight of Faith , which others haply will look upon but as a frigid Evasion .

The second place is , Mat . 23.39 . Ye shall not see me henceforth , till ye shall say , Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord . This our Saviour spake some few days before his Passion , and looking upon himself now as a dead Man , and gone into the other world , he told the Chief Priests and Scribes especially , ( who , Mat . 21. rebuked the people for their Acclamations they made to him in those Words , Hosanna to the Son of David , Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord , which Grotius glosseth thus , Felix sit Rex à Deo nobis datus , ) that they should see him no more , till the Time when they should say , Felix sit Rex à Deo nobis datus , and so acknowledge him their King and promised Messias . That this must be understood of seeing him again after his being gone into the other World , is plain , because it had not been true if he had understood it of seeing him again before his Death . For questionless they saw him at his Arraignment and Crucifixion ; wherefore the Words seem naturally to import such a seeing of him as St. Paul had by Vision from Heaven , whereby he was converted , and forced to say , Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord , to recant his Judaism , and to sing Hosanna to Christ the Son of David , and to profess himself a Christian .

And accordingly which is the third place pointed at by Mr. Mede , St. Paul , 1 Tim . 1 . 16. {αβγδ} , But for this very Reason , says he , I ( who out of Ignorance had been a Blasphemer , a Persecutor and Injurer of Christ ) obtained Mercy , {αβγδ} , that in me first ( as the Primitiae of the Jewish Nation , that is to be converted in such a miraculous manner as I was , ) Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering {αβγδ} , ( not as our English renders it , for a pattern to them , for then it should have been {αβγδ} , but ) for a representative figure or type of them which should hereafter believe on him to Life everlasting . This seems to be the natural sense of the place : for why should be say , {αβγδ} , if others were not to follow , that should be converted in such a miraculous manner as he was , by Vision and Voices from Heaven ? For in other ways of Conversion he was not the first of the Jews that were converted . Wherefore there must be a Conversion of the Jews by such a mean as Paul was converted , and of which the manner of Paul's Conversion was {αβγδ} , either a Specimen , or a Prophetick Type or Figure .

These three Scriptures may incline a rational Man to believe that some Chief of the Jews , the most able , most noted , and most zealous of them for the Jewish Religion may be called as Paul was . Whose Testimony will awake all the Jewish Nation , and cause them more impartially to consider the Truth of the Christian Religion , and the Completion of Prophecies , and their genuine Interpretation , the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church , and the Lives of the Reformed Christians , a sort of them at least may be so considerably perfected by that time , that things being so fitly prepared , it may seem a miracle for any sincere Jew at this season not to be converted . I may add , that there seems to be promised in the Holy Prophetick Writings a very plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God upon those new both Jewish and Pagan Converts , for the enlargement of the Kingdom of our Saviour , that the Regnum Lapidis may become Regnum Montis , and fill the whole Earth . For Divine Providence acts not per saltum , but manages the Affairs of the World in a steady course by orderly steps and Degrees . This is all I have to say ( if it be not thought more than was necessary ) with reference to the following Discourses , to the perusal of which I remit the Reader .

H. H.

IT is the earnest Request of the Publisher of these REMAINS , That if any Gentleman hath in his Custody the Learned Position of this our Reverend Bishop , which he had at S. Mary's in Cambridge , when he answered the Divinity Act on Commencement Tuesday , Anno 1658. upon this Question , Fore Resurrectionem Corporis suadet Scriptura , nec refragatur Ratio , That he would please to communicate the same to the Publisher , or Printer of these Remains , who promise to return the Copy to the owner safe , with many Thanks for the Lone thereof .

1 Joh . 4.16 . — God is Love , —

TO speak worthily of God , and to have right Apprehensions of his Nature and Attributes , as it is a piece of the Worship we owe him , so doth it inspire our Minds with a generous and manly Religion , and leads us into a clear and demonstrative understanding of the noblest Truths , both in Nature and Providence . And to all these Purposes , amongst the several Divine Perfections , there is none of so large and diffusive an Influence as that of Goodness . And this Consideration hath prevailed with me to design a fair representation of this Divine Attribute , for the Argument of my present Discourse .

Goodness is the Title which God challengeth as proper to himself ; Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one , that is God . Mercy is the Quintessence and Flower of Goodness , and this is the Name whereby God proclaims himself unto Moses ; The Lord , the Lord God mercifull and gratious , long-suffering , and abundant in Mercy and Truth . And this God hath effectually made good in the whole Oeconomy of his Providence towards the Apostate Sons of Men . O that there were an heart in this People , that they might believe my Judgments always , saith God . Why is it that he is thus desirous of their Obedience ? That it might go well with them and their Children for ever . God would not have us think it is for any ends of his own , that he is at so great cost and pains with us . My people ( saith he ) have forsaken the Fountain of living Waters , and have digged to themselves broken Cisterns , that will hold no water . Methinks , these words import as if God had said , O ye foolish Sons of Men , if when ye departed from me , ye could better your selves any where else , I could be content with your Apostasie : But that which troubles me is , that ye forsake the Fountain of Living-waters , and Well-springs of Bliss and Happiness , and betake your selves to broken Cisterns , and deceitfull Brooks , that will hold no water , and are then dried up when ye most need them . And when God sees what froward and untoward Creatures we are , he begins to reason with us ; Why will ye die , O House of Israel ? What evil have ye found in me ? Have I been a barren Wilderness , or a Land of Darkness unto you ? God would that all Men should be saved , and come to the knowledge of the Truth ; and lest we should entertain any suspicions concerning him , as if he pleased himself in our Ruines and Miseries ; though we may take his Word , he hath added an Oath too , and hath sworn , that , As he lives , he desires not the Death of a Sinner , but rather that he should turn from his Wickedness and live . God would have his Creatures know , that he is not accessory to their Mischief , O Israel , thou hast destroyed thy self , but in me is thy help . Judgment is God's strange Work , which the impenitency of Men doth , as it were , force from him ; How shall I give thee up Ephraim ? How shall I deliver thee O Israel ? God holds his hands so long as there is any hope of our Amendment , and waits to be gratious to us , and expects our Repentance with infinite long-suffering and patience ; and would fain know of us , if it might be , what course his infinite Wisedom should take for our Recovery ; O Ephraim , what shall I doe unto thee ? And at last appeals to our own Consciences , whether he could doe more to his Vineyard than he hath done . But when all means prove ineffectual , and we contumacious in our sins , then , and not till then , The God of Love turns to a consuming Fire , and we become the proper Fewel of Hell , and Objects of his Justice .

The Authour to the Hebrews tells us , That Jesus Christ is the Brightness of his Father's Glory , and the express Image of his Person ; He was God manifest in the Flesh , and we are to look on all his Actions as the Actions of God in humane Nature . Now the onely Errand he came into the World for , was the good of Men , and to assure lost Men of the Love of their offended God , and that they had not outsinned his Mercy . God so loved the World , but how ? that is too much for the Tongue of Men or Angels to express , onely we may make some guess at it by the Effects , That he sent his onely begotten Son into the World , that whoever believeth on him should not perish , but have everlasting Life . God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself ; the enmity was rather on our part than his : And Jesus Christ disrob'd himself of his Glory , and took on him the form of a Servant in pursuance of this design of Love , and during his abode in this State of Humility , he went up and down the World , doing good , and all his Miracles were Acts of Tenderness and Beneficence , to teach us that the Power of God is always tempered with Goodness . Our blessed Saviour himself hath given us the largest Instances of Sweetness , and Love , and Mercy , and Tenderness , and Pity , and Compassion , that ever the world had any Cognizance of . A good man ( saith one ) if he were killed ten thousand times over by the same hand , as often as he returned to life again , so often would he pardon the Murtherer . If ever this saying was verified , it was in the Person of our blessed Jesus . When he came near to Jerusalem , where he had met with so much opposition and contempt , how passionately doth he mourn over it ! O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , thou that killest the Prophets — And in another place it is said , he wept over this incorrigible City , and breaks out with somewhat an abrupt Exclamation , O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong to thy Peace ! but now they are hid from thine Eyes . Grief and Love would suffer him to add no more . Sure , no man is so blasphemous , as to think our Saviour wept Crocodile Tears , Tears of Treachery and Dissimulation : Oh no ; they were , they were the Expressions of his tender and dear Affections to a People that were going into a sudden and inevitable Destruction . And though he had no other business here but the Good of the World , and was entertained with Despite , and Scorn , and Spittings , and Buffetings , a painfull and ignominious Death ; yet so transcendent was his Love , that in the midst of his Shame and Agony , he prays , Father , forgive them , for they know not what they doe . Greater Love ( saith our Saviour ) can no Man shew , than that he lay down his Life for his Friend ; But herein God manifested his love to us , in that while we were yet Enemies Christ dyed for us . And now that he is ascended into Heaven , he there attends our Affairs , and hath left his Apostles and Disciples , and his Spirit to manage his Cause with the coy and froward Sons of Men , who are always wooing and beseeching us , that we would come and be reconciled to God . As if the Great God of Heaven and Earth could not be happy without such corruptible Worms as we are : And all the desire of Heaven is , that we would but be content to be happy , and accept of that Salvation , which upon the easiest and most advantageous Terms is freely offered unto us . The Summ is , God is the Father of Spirits , and Lover of Souls , and the Gospel is nothing else but the most effectual course that infinite Wisedom and Goodness could contrive , in order to their Happiness .

To carry on this Discourse a little farther , This is a Truth that Heaven and Earth bears witness to , and the whole World preacheth this Sermon to us , in a Language clear and easie to be understood , that God is Love . God is a self sufficient Being , in and of himself infinitely happy and blessed , and he doth not seek to serve himself of his Creatures . It is not any Glory or Benefit , that he can receive either from Men or Angels , which moved him at first to bring them into Being . No ; God is an Ocean of Love and Goodness , that delights to overflow his Banks , and break in upon his Creatures , and make them happy . He is a free Sun of Light and Glory , that sends forth his enlivening and refreshing Beams into every Subject that is capable of them . And it was not ( as I said ) that for himself God did at first make a World ; for nothing could add to his infinite Perfection : But it was to communicate his Goodness , and to take up his Creation into a participation of his own Happiness and Bliss . Amor divinus rerum omnium est principium : And though it seems becoming the Simplicity and Majesty of God , that he should be alone within himself , retired into the inapproachable recesses of his own Being ; yet through the infinite desire of communicating and diffusing his own Love and Goodness , he lays aside this State , and goes forth of himself , and by his tender care and Providence is intimately present with the longest Projection of Being . No Man hateth his own Flesh , ( saith the Apostle ) but rather cherisheth it ; and we are ( as I may speak ) flesh of his flesh , and bone of his bone , and the whole Creation is but the Expansion and Dilatation of Divine Simplicity and Perfection ; And all Creatures do more properly belong to God than Faculties or Actions to their Principles from whence they flow . And God pronounces concerning the Works of his Hands , that they are very good ; for God made not Death , neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living ; but created all things , that they might have their Beings , as the Authour of the Book of Wisedom speaks . All the several Degrees of Individuals of Creatures are like so many Rays , that flow from the inexhaustible Fountain of Light and Being , from whence the farther they go , the weaker and fainter they grow , till at last they reach to the confines of Non-Entity , or rather impossibility of Existence . For whatever is possible , and capable of Life and Happiness , and can without prejudice to its self , or Neighbours , be contained within the compass of Immensity , is an Object of Divine Power and Goodness : And we have no cause to suspect but that Emanations have reached to the production of it . Infinite Goodness is the pregnant Womb from whence we have our Birth and Off-spring . This Infinite Goodness is it that brought us out of the dark and silent grave of Nothingness into the light of Being and Life . This is that tender Mother , that folds the whole Creation in its loving Armes : It gives Being unto every Beast of the Field , and Bird of Heaven , and Fish of the Sea , and to every thing else , even to the most Contemptible Worm that creeps on the face of the Earth ; that they may all enjoy that Life and Happiness which is proper to their Natures . It is a Vainself-deceiving Thought of Man , to think that all things were made onely for him ; as if he were so brave a thing , that all God's Thought and Care must be spent upon him . No , this infinite Goodness acts in a freer and larger Sphere , and gives Life and Being unto every thing that is capable of the Pleasure and Happiness of it . This is that tender Nurse that feeds the Ravens , and hears the young Lions when they rore after their Prey . This is that common Father , of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named , and the whole Creation waits on him , and he gives them their Meat in due season . This infinite Goodness it is that sendeth the Springs into the Valleys , which run among the Hills ; that giveth drink to every Beast of the Field , wherewith the wild Asses quench their Thirst ; She causeth the Grass to grow for the Cattel , and Herb for the service of Men , and Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man , and Oil to make his Face to shine , and Bread which strengthens Man's Heart . It is She which hath planted the Cedars of Lebanon , and all the Trees of the Forest , for the Birds to make their Nests in , and sit and sing among the branches : She hath made the high Hills a refuge for the Goats , and the stony Rocks for the Conies . It is She hath appointed the Sun and the Moon for Times and Seasons , and to light and comfort the Life of this lower World . This is that infinite Goodness ; and both Earth and Sea , and all the Capacities of immense Spaces are full of its Riches .

Again , this is no more than what the inward experience of every good Man bears Witness to , who in his Measure finds himself like affected ; He is acted by a free and Universaliz'd Spirit , and an all-spreading and dissusive Love . He looks not on himself as a partial and determinate Being , but as a Part and Member of the Universe , and accordingly serves not his own particular Interest , but the Good and Welfare of the whole . Good Men desire that all may be happy , and would not have any of God's Children to be any ways , or in any measure , miserable : He desires every Creature 's good , as he doth his own , and rejoiceth in their welfare as much as in his own , and so far is he from envying or repining at the free communications of God to any of his Creatures , that he is willing it should go better with others than with himself , and desires nothing more than that the Goodness of the Lord may fill the Heaven and Earth , and overflow its Banks , and water and refresh the Minds of Men . It was a noble Speech , and the sense of every good Man's Soul , that If it were lawfull to put forth an Act of Omnipotency , that I might redeem poor lost and degenerate Souls , even would I be content to be buried in the Grave of an eternal Nothing . This was the Extravagancy of his Affections ; for when he recollects himself , he sees it needless ; for they are already in the hands of an infinitely wise and almighty Goodness , whose Love is more immense and boundless than that of a finite and shallow Creature ; yet such passionate Eruptions of Spirit we find also in sacred Story ; Blot me out of thy Book , says Moses , and I could be accursed for my Brethrens sake , saith St. Paul . I hardly think that these are any Hyperbole's , or must have such lean Interpretations , as are usually put upon them . A Man throughly acted by the Spirit of Goodness , would be even content to live in perpetual banishment from God ; I mean from the sweet embraces and touches of his Love , so he might be without sin , than that any of God's Children should be for ever unacquainted with him . And therefore he thinks it would be the best employment and the greatest happiness in the World , to be used as an Instrument to doe good to others ; and he would not triumph in any thing more , than to see God giving him success in his Prayers and endeavours in this particular ; to see the Travel of his Soul , and to be able to say , Behold , here am I , and the Children which thou hast given me ; He would account the greatest part of his Heaven , and doth not rejoice onely in the fruit of his own labour , but is as much pleased when he sees God making use of others for the propagating of his own Goodness , and the Happiness of his Creatures . Tell me now whosoever thou art that hast thy Spirit thus affected , is not this Temper of Mind a participation of God ? a piece of the Divine Image and Nature , and the highest Perfection the Soul of Man is capable of ? And if we will doe Honour to God , and pronounce according to our Faculties , and the best light that Heaven has given us ; Must we not conclude that God is infinitely better , and more loving , tender , pitifull and compassionate , in all degrees , both of Intension and Extension , than the best of the Sons of Men ? The Perfections of God are not Arbitrary and contingent , but eternal and immutable . We come no other ways to the Knowledge of them , but as they are transcribed in our Minds : And the Scripture it self is therefore entertained by us , because it makes a great report of God , conformable to the most perfect Idea's we have of him , or can frame of him . Wherefore , as we come to know what Faithfulness , and Veracity , and Wisedom , and other Perfections , are in God by some Resemblances of them , which we find in our selves ; so , if we would understand what Goodness is in God , we must reflect on our own Minds , and consider how we are affected with it . Is it not a very natural way of Deduction to infer : If there be so much Love in a Drop , in a Beam , in a Creature , then surely there is infinitely more in the Ocean , in the Sun , in God himself . And for my part , I must confess , I should think my self guilty of the highest Blasphemy , ( for I should reproach the most precious Attribute of the Deity , ) if I should make the Love of God more narrow , limited and contracted , than that of a finite , contracted Creature . It is true , in a Condescension to our Weakness , God hath represented himself under the notion of a Father , and Husband , and Friend : But if we were able to judge aright , the single Name of God speaks a thousand times more Love than ten thousand times such Appellations of Endearments .

For to come nearer to a Demonstration of what we have hitherto discoursed on ; God is nothing else but Ens summè perfectum ; and Goodness is the Flower and Summity , nay more , the Root and Original of all Perfection . Socrates in Plato's Symposion saith concerning Love , that it is {αβγδ} , or simple Goodness is the first Hypostasis in the Platonick Triad , and the Apostle tells us , that Love is the fulfilling of the Law , and all moral Excellencies are contained in it , by way of Eminency and Transcendency , and ( as he saith ) in the superessential Causes . Goodness is the richest , and most essential Attribute of the Divine Nature , which if you take from God , you rob him of the Deity . And all other Perfections are onely so far morally such , as they partake of this , and are serviceable thereunto . Justice , that gives every one his right and due , is so far onely commendable as it communicates with Goodness ; for Summum Jus summa Injuria , and strict Justice many times borders upon Cruelty , at least it is no perfection to exact it . Even this Goodness it is that enstamps upon all the Notion of Perfection ; the partaking or not partaking of Goodness makes all Things undergo divers Censures . Even Wisedom and Power disjoin'd from Goodness , what is it but subtile Mischief , and armed Wickedness ? And all Perfections whatever are onely so far good and desireable as they are found built on this Foundation . Let there be a Being of infinite Subtilty and Cunning , that can contrive ways , and carry on designs ; and let it have Almighty Power , that can compass and bring to pass whatever it would , and let it be , as to its subsistence , immutable and immense ; yet , if you add to its Being Principles of Envy and Malice , it will be so far from deserving the name of Good , that it will be a worse Devil than Hell it self can shew . Were there a mighty Potentate upon Earth , to whom the whole World are Slaves and Vassals , and to whom all should owe ( as from whom they first receiv'd ) their Beings , and all that they have ; and should this Man Delight to be Instrumental to the Torment and Misery of his Subjects ; though we could not accuse him of Injury , ( for he may doe what he will with his own , ) yet we should be so far from deeming him worthy of Love , that we should hate and abhor him for his Cruelty . Wherefore , as I said , Goodness is the most high and essential perfection of the Deity . God is no narrow , contracted , selfish Being , carries on no Designs , and particular Interests of his own : That is a piece of beggarly policy , that becomes not an Alsufficient Being . The Cause which God alone manages in the World , is the cause of Goodness , Righteousness , Equity and Justice , and whatever hath any thing of Beauty and Comeliness in it . God is a Being neither fond nor cruel ; nor dotes upon any ; but onely intends this , that all things may be ordered and disposed according to the Laws of Eternal Goodness , Wisedom and Rectitude . It is to make God like unto our selves , a narrow , contracted , selfish Being ; to think that he minds himself as he is himself , and not as he is the First , Universal and Eternal Good . For true Love is to abstract from this and that , Mine and Thine , and His , and all such limiting and particular Circumstances , and is to be fixed upon the naked Notion of Good and Lovely . God is not subject to our Weakness and Impotency , to our Humours , and Passions , and Fondnesses , and Partialities , and petty Hatreds , and childish Indulgences , and the low Designs , and particular Interests of Humane Nature . The Glory which God aims at in his Actions is not the Applause of Men , and Praise of his Creatures , ( though this becometh us as our Duty , ) for this is too low and mean a Design to be intended by Divine Wisedom . Among us sory and imperfect Beings , acting according to the generous Principle of Right and Good , is the onely worthy end a Man can propound to himself ; and it is lowness , and poverty of Spirit , to hunt after popular Applause . The true Glory of God is the Manifestation , and Propagation , and Diffusion of his Life , his Nature , his Goodness , of his Attributes and Perfections ; as the Glory of the Sun are those Rays that flow from it . It is a Principle implanted in the lowest Degrees of Being to communicate it self , and beget its likeness in other beings , so far as it hath Power and Ability to doe it . But this Property must be most essential to God , whose Nature is Goodness ; and therefore nothing can be more agreeable to him , than to propagate his Wisedom and Goodness , and together with these that Happiness and Bliss wherein he eternally enjoys himself , so far as the Subject is capable of it . Can a render Mother's Love be free , and yet she expose the child of her Womb to be devoured by wild Beasts , or suffer it to be torn asunder before her Face ? Were the Sun a free Agent , and yet could it chuse not to shine ? Or do you think in a sullen humour it would suck up it 's Rays , and leave the World in an Eternal benumbed Darkness , and shut up the Womb of the Earth , our Great Mother , that it should never bring forth Fruit more for Man or Beast ? Creatures are the off-spring of an inexhausted Goodness , out of whose pregnant Womb they first sprung , and the same Goodness hath a more tender regard over them than the most affectionate Mother can have of the Child that hangs on her Breast . God is infinite Goodness , and it is the nature of Goodness to communicate it self ; and therefore it is more impossible for God not to be good , and consequently not to doe good , than it is for the Sun to turn into a Cloud , and to be no longer the Treasure of Light .

I do not like that a Creature should pretend Right in respect of God , or implead his Maker at the Bar of Justice ; I would not have God and Man placed on even ground , or equal terms . If he should condemn me to eternal Miseries , I would not challenge him of wrong or injury ; for he is my God and Sovereign , and may dispose of me at his pleasure ; the Clay must not rise up against the Potter , and say , why hast thou made me thus ? But I have security beyond all legal Bonds and Obligations , that God will not deal thus arbitrariously with me ; and it is the Goodness and Benignity of his Nature , which assures me he will never hurt an innocent or penitent Creature ; and neither Man nor Angel , at the Day of Judgment , shall be able to charge their Sin or Misery upon any Action of God's purposes toward them . Goodness in God is not arbitrarious or contingent . I cannot forbear to say ( and I care not though all the World heard me , for I speak nothing but what is worthy of God , and to the Honour of my Maker , ) I can with more ease think , that Light should spring out of the bottomless Pit , that the Sun should become the source of Darkness , that Ice should burn , and Fire freez , that the Elements should interchange their Natures , and contradictory Terms be reconciled to one another , than that God should take up a thought of making any of his Creatures miserable , without the consideration of their Provocation , and continuance in it . And so fully hath God by natural and revealed Light instructed my Mind in this Truth , that if an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Doctrine , it were impossible I should believe him .

Fond Self-love computes the Riches of Grace from that respect it hath to a Man's self ; but where ever a true Spirit of Goodness and Love doth reside , it will account that most rich and free , which is of the largest extent . It is no Argument of Rejoicing to a good Man , that he enjoys more than others do , for he would be better pleased if others were as happy as himself ; if he did not see or believe some wise end , why it is not so . Were there a good Prince on Earth of Absolute and irresistible Power , and by an impossible supposition unaccountable to God himself , ( or at least let us not consider him with that Relation ; ) Can we possibly imagine this Man should design the greatest part of his Subjects , some to Phalaris's Bull , others to Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace , others to Caldrons of boiling Lead , others to lie perpetually on the Rack ; every one to the most exquisite Torments that Wit and Malice could invent ; and all this to get himself a Name of Power and Greatness , and to recite the Honour of his Absolute Dominion and Sovereignty ? Shall we not rather judge it a matter of greater Glory , and more agreeable to his Nature , and ten thousand times more credible that he should lay out his power to make those that are under him as happy as they are capable of ? 't is true , fond Man , when he hath gotten power into his Hand , he prides himself in acting arbitrariously , doing and undoing , raising and abasing , making happy and miserable , merely because he will doe so , and to shew his Absoluteness and Independency . But we must remember , that this Man is gotten up into a place that is too high for him , and so he is become giddy and mad , drunk and intoxicate with Pride and Self . But to think that God hath any such design upon the generations of Mankind , is as misbecoming and ridiculous , as if we should think to procure the Name of Mighty and Potent , by going up and down the World , and in the bravery of our Spirits triumphing over a company of Worms under our Feet . God is onely glorified by those that love and adore him ; and it being universally acknowledged by every Creature that hath any apprehensions of the Love of God , that his Power is sovereign and independent , it must needs advance the Glory of this Attribute , when he communicates himself in any ways of Goodness . And here do these two Attributes of God mutually commend one the other ; for Goodness is the more to be adored because independent , and Independency is the more lovely because good .

Thus have you some imperfect Account of that grand and fundamental Truth , That God is Love ; and you see I have not been curious in ranking my Arguments , or methodizing my Discourse , nor did I think it needfull ; for I do not know that I have spoken any thing which , as to me , is not as clear and evident as common Notions , and of whose Truth I make no more doubt than I do of my own Existence , which the so much admired Monsieur hath made the first Principle of his Philosophy . But the summ of all that hath been said may be comprised in these three words , God is Love ; which is witnessed to us by Divine Revelation , by Creation and Providence , by the inward sense and experience of every good Man , and by the Nature of Reasoning it self .

I could now from this single Principle of Divine Goodness , that we have hitherto been speaking of , by mathematical and demonstrative Evidence deduce the noblest Conclusions that the Mind of Man can entertain it self withall : But this is too large and spacious a Field , and I must draw my Thoughts into a narrower compass .

I shall rather take notice of a Troop of Objections , that I perceive rushing in upon me , that threaten to beat down all before them , and at the first onset to batter down all those Forces , which , while no Enemy appeared , seemed so triumphant : And they thus assault me : If that God be simple Goodness , and the Property of Goodness is to communicate it self , and this be no Arbitrarious Principle , but the most natural and essential Attribute of the Deity ; from such Premisses as these , it will follow , that this infinite Goodness must infinitely communicate it self unto all degrees of Being , in all the possible differences of Place or Duration , or else he must contradict his own Nature , and cease to be what he is . Tell me then , what means the Date of this present World ; how came it to pass that the Womb of Divine Goodness was barren and unfruitfull for infinite Ages ? And what is it that hath set bounds and limits to this created World , walled it with a Crystallin or Empyrean Heaven ? Was here onely a Capacity of receiving matter , or is not every parcel of infinite space equally capable of the Emanations of Divine Goodness ? Why is it then that its Productions reach not to the utmost Limits of an infinite Extension ? Whence is it that this diffusive and impartial Love confines its care to this spot of Earth , which compared with its Immensity vanisheth into Nothing ? To me it is strange , seeing every Star is of the same nature as the Sun , that they also have not Planets wheeling about them , and all these replenished as our Earth , with Principles of Life , that may in their several measures enjoy that Happiness that belongs unto them . Why do the Souls of Brutes onely taste the Pleasures of this Life , and are presently remanded back into their first Nothing ? And why do they not rather fly from Bush to Bush , and enter into Bodies again , and reiterate their Happiness in a never ending Succession ? And seeing the Souls of Men have so quick a sense of Pleasure and Happiness , why did they not receive their Being in the first moment of Eternity ? Or why are they in the instant of their Creations depriv'd of Original Righteousness , and imprisoned in these Bodies , and not rather left to themselves by certain steps and declensions to slide into those disadvantageous Conditions , according to those secret and hidden Chains of Attraction which we may imagine Divine Wisedom might have placed in the nature of Things ? And seeing God did decree , or at least foresee the Fall of Adam , Why would he make him a Common Person for all Mankind , which they never consented to ? And involve his Posterity in all that Sin and Misery , which they never were in a Capacity of preventing ? Why is the Soul of Man so hardly dealt withall , as to be condemn'd to such an Estate , where it must live the Life of a Plant or a Beast , or both , before it come to the use of Reason , whereby it sinks into the Animal and sensual Life beyond all hopes of prevention , without a kind of Miracle ? How did Sin and Misery enter into the World , and why are the Generations of Men in such a forlorn and desperate Condition ? How comes it to pass that this infinite and tender Goodness should deliver the greatest part of Mankind into eternal Torments to advance its Sovereignty and Dominion ? Or why does it decree an inevitable Necessity of sin , and by a physical Influx determine the Will of his Creatures to execute what he hath decreed , and punish and damn it for that which was never in its power to help ? Why doth not God put forth his omnipotent Power , and redeem his Creation out of the Jaws of Death and Misery ? How is it consistent with infinite Goodness , that the pains of the damned should be so eternal ? And seeing nothing is contrary to God but Sin , why doth he not make an utter destruction of it , and save his Creatures ?

This is the main Body , and other Reasonings there are , that are ready to come up to a new Assistence ; but I am not frighted with this mighty Host . For as for some Opinions that have mustred up themselves against me , I shall not undertake to answer them ; and for the rest , if I had nothing to say , I would hold to the Conclusion : But I confess I understand them so , that they administer no such Scruples to my Mind , which I cannot pretty easily answer . And there is an acute Authour well known among us , who , as I may say without Flattery ( for he is above it , ) so Ages to come will approve my Testimony , hath very highly obliged the Christian World ; and he , in some pieces already extant , and others , which we hope may afterwards see the Light , hath laid down such Hypotheses and Principles , so agreeable to Scripture , and conformable to our Faculties , as to an ingenuous and considerative Mind will give a facil Account of all these Difficulties ; and thither at present I must refer you ; for your Patience will not give me leave to enter into a larger Discourse of this Subject ; onely to that Question , How Sin came into the World , a word or two .

And we are first chiefly to consider , that such is the infinite Goodness and infinite Wisedom of God , as he knows how to bring good out of evil , and is acquainted with all the Circumstances of Beings , and clearly sees how to bestow his Goodness with the greatest Advantages : But it is very hard , and too presumptuous to determine , that this or that particular Line of divine Providence is not agreeable to infinite Goodness . But if this look too like an evasion , I farther add , that there are infinite degrees of Beings within the Sphere of Omnipotency , and it is suitable to Divine Goodness in its productions to reach the utmost limits of Possibility . Now among other possible Ided's we find one of a Being , as to its inward Essence spiritual and immaterial , yet having so near and vital Union with matter , that it shall be in a kind of Indifferency to the Divine and Animal Life , and this we call Man ; nor must we require , that he should be created in a state of Impeccability ; for then he had not been what he is , but some other higher order of Being , which , according to the former Principles , is to be supposed already produced . But this being once made , it is agreeable to the Wisedom of God to suffer it to act according to those Faculties and Powers , he hath indued it with , and consequently by its free choice and election to bring sin into the World . Nor must we easily expect , God should be at the expence of a Miracle in treating with his Creatures ; but that he should deal with them in a way suitable to their Natures . Wherefore the Objection can onely be made against the production of such a lapsible Being as this is ; and for that , besides what hath been said already , I have farther to add several Considerations . First , It is very suitable to the Wisedom of the Creatour , that seeing he made such a visible World , as this is wherein we live , and furnished it with variety of Creatures , which are suited to various Functions , that he should make such a Creature as Man is , to be Governour and Master over them ; and consequently , that he should be thus vitally united to a Terrestrial Body , which ipso facto puts him into a State of Peccability . I might say farther , that hereby was place given us to demonstrate the reality and sincerity of our Affections to the Divine Life ; which God would the rather have accepted , because of our being so addicted another way ; and had we stuck close to the dictates of the Divine Life , notwithstanding all suggestions to the contrary ; it would have been a matter of very great Triumph , and the avoiding of so hazardous a Temptation . And it is not to be doubted , but that there were far beyond the number of those that fell many Myriads of Rational Beings , our Kindred and Allies , that maintain'd their Innocency , and are ingrafted into the Will of God , beyond all possibility of Apostasie . Besides God hath the greater advantage to magnifie his love in our Recovery , and Man will have the transcendent Pleasure , to have escaped out of so great Dangers and Miseries ; and lastly , hereby is an occasion given us of exercising those Perfections , which otherwise there could not have been opportunity for , as Patience , Self denial as to the most delightfull Pleasures , Pity , Compassion , Fortitude and Magnanimity of Spirit , Dependance upon God , and Faith in him : Therefore ought it not to be expected that the Wisedom of God should step beside the course of Nature to prevent these Objects and Occasions , which these Divine Excellencies are to be conversant about . These things I have briefly touched on ; more might be said , if I believed it requisite and suitable . I now hasten to a Conclusion , and have but two words to detain you with .

First , This then is an encouragement to Faith and Confidence in him : we should not frame to our selves such a notion of God , as to make him the Object of servile and flavish Fears , unless it be to such as go on unrepenting in their sins . These are Passions , that are to be conversant about a lion-tiger-like , malignant , devilish Nature . We should understand and apprehend God , as one that challengeth the noblest of our Passions , which is Love and whatever flows from thence . Power devoid of Goodness is that which we are afraid of , and hide our selves from , as from ravenous Beasts , that are ready to devour us . But Power , accompanied with Goodness , is a most lovely and amiable thing , under whose shadow we may sit down with Peace and Rest . One word more , and I have done .

If this be a true Testimony concerning God , then , Secondly , How infinitely doth he deserve to be loved by us ! God is Love , and he that dwelleth in Love , dwelleth in God , and God in him . Amor est Vinculum Coeli & Terrae , and the highest union of the Soul with God . This sweet and gentle Fire melts and dissolves the Soul into the close Embraces of the Deity ; where it loseth it self like a Beam in the Sun , or a Drop in the Ocean . Love , it is the Flower and Complement of the Beatifical Vision , and the blessed Seraphims are nothing else but Flames of Love . This is that which makes us join Centre with God , to touch and feel him , and become , as it were , one with him . All Creatures owe their Being to Love , and Love brings them back again from whence they sprang , as the thankfull Rivers pay what they borrowed of the Sea . Infinite Goodness and Loveliness might challenge our Affections , though we receiv'd nothing from it ; but now our love compleats the Circle , and is the Regress and Return of the Soul into the bottom of that Goodness , out of which it first came .

Kindle in our Hearts , O Lord , this Flame of Divine Love ; Melt and dissolve our Icy and frozen Spirits ; Fire us with a Coal from thine Altar , that all the Substance of our Souls may ascend up unto thee in Clouds of Incense ; that we may love and lose our selves in the Embraces of thee , who art Loveliness and Love it self , and may repose our selves in the Bosom of infinite Sweetness and Tenderness ; and suck the full Breasts of Everlasting Goodness ; and with Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , Moses , David and Samuel , all the Prophets , all the Apostles and Spirits of Bliss and Glory , sing a Song of Eternal Love unto the God of Love : Blessing , Honour , Glory , Power , Thanksgiving , Adoration , Hallelujah be unto him that sits on the Throne , and unto the Lamb for ever and ever . Amen and Amen .

Prov. 20.27 . The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord , searching all the inward parts of the Belly .

THere are two things , God and a Man's own Soul ; the want of a right Apprehension whereof , is a great foundation both of those misapprehensions that are concerning the Providences and Dispensations of God in the World , and also of the looseness and irregularity in the practices and behaviours of Men . For we are to judge of the truth of our Opinions , relating to the Providences of God by their Conformity to the Nature and Attributes of God . And therefore if we have misapprehensions of Divine Attributes and Perfections , we must necessarily mistake in Divine Dispensations . And because every one desires to be what his God is , therefore if we misjudge and misunderstand the Nature of God , we shall be also irregular and amiss in our own practices ; for we can never condemn that as a Fault in our selves , which we take for a Perfection in our God : And therefore it is rightly brought as one great Reason of the Wickedness of the Heathen , that their Gods were represented to them , as taken with the same Lusts and Pleasures which they themselves were so much enclin'd and given up to . So some Mens Apprehensions of God lead them to a kind of Cruelty , Rigour and Severeness towards others , and to the desire of an Exercise of Arbitrarious Power and Dominion over them , even in things mental and intellectual .

And as wrong Apprehensions of God's Nature , so also Misconceits of the Nature of the Soul , and its Operations , must needs cause mistakes concerning the great Providences of God , which relate to the Minds of Men . For it being agreeable to the Wisedom and Goodness of God , to deal with us in a way suitable to our Faculties , and the Principles of our Constitution , if we mistake here , we shall necessarily conceive amiss of those Dispensations of God , which concern the government of us in reference to our Minds and Understandings . And farther , because every Being doth act suitably to its Principles ; therefore voluntary Agents , if they do not rightly understand the Nature and Dispositions of their Powers and Faculties , what Objects and Operations are thereto proportioned , will certainly neglect the attempting of such Objects , and the exercise of such Actions , which they do not conceive to be in their Sphere and Capacity . It is therefore a matter of very great moment , to have a right understanding of the nature of our own Souls , which was the onely motive that cast my thoughts upon these words now read unto you , The Spirit of Man —

Some by the [ Candle of the Lord ] understand Divine and Supernatural Grace , which being communicated to the Soul of Man , doth penetrate the inward and secret thoughts of the Heart , and the several Distempers unto which the bare Light of Nature is insufficient ; and so by [ Belly ] they understand the Mind of Man , which before the illumination of the Spirit of God , could carry sinfull Thoughts , and Desires , and Designs in its Womb , and yet not feel or take any notice of its burthen ; so that it is this Divine Light , that affords a Man Breath for his spiritual Life .

Some understand by the [ Candle of the Lord ] that favour and loving kindness of God which is the Life of Man , and penetrates his whole Body , and is to him as marrow and fatness . Some make that to be the sense ; some this ; that though the Spirit of Man be concealed from other Men , yet it is naked and open in the sight of God , and so the words are to be turn'd thus , Lux domino spiritus hominis perscrutanti omnia penetralia ventris . But all these Interpretations seem to force the Words from their genuine and natural sense ; and therefore I shall close with that which is most obvious , and most generally received ; that their meaning is , that the Soul of Man in Man is as it were a Candle lighted and set up by God , to search into and take notice of all the secrets that are inwombed in Man , his Thoughts , Desires , Affections , &c.

For the more explicite handling of these Words we shall enquire ,

1. What is meant by the Candle of the Lord .

2. What is meant by the Spirit of Man .

3. How the Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord .

Of the first : By the Candle of the Lord is meant nothing else but Truth : For Truth is the Light of the intellectual World , and the Soul of Man ( as we shall shew afterwards ) is so far the Candle of the Lord , as it is identified with Truth .

Now Truth is of an equivocal signification , and therefore cannot be defined before it be distinguisht . To our purpose therefore , It is twofold : Truth in Things , which you may call Truth in the Object ; and Truth in the Understanding , which is Truth in the Subject . By the first I mean nothing else , but that Things necessarily are what they are ; and that there are necessary mutual Respects and Relations of things one unto another . Now that Things are what they are , and that there are mutual Respects and Relations , eternal and immutable , and in order of Nature Antecedent to any Understanding , either created or uncreated , is a thing very plain and evident : For it 's clearer than the meridian light , that such Propositions as these , Homo est Animal rationale ; Triangulum est quod habet tres angulos , are not arbitrarious Dependences upon the Will , Decree , or Understanding of God , but are necessary and eternal Truths , and wherein 't is as impossible to divide the Subject , and what is spoken of it , as it is for a thing not to be what it is , which is no less than a contradiction ; and as indispensible are the mutual Respects and Relations of things , both in Speculatives and Morals .

For can it be imagin'd that every Argument can be made a proportioned Medium to prove every Conclusion ? That any thing may be a suitable Means to any end ? That any Object may be conformable to any Faculty : Can Omnipotence it self make these Propositions , That twice two are four , or that Parallels cannot intersect clear , and convincing Arguments to prove these grand Truths , That Christ came into the World to dye for Sinners , and is now exalted as a Prince and Saviour at the Right Hand of God ? Is it possible that there should be such a kind of Geometry , wherein any Problems should be demonstrated by any Principles ; quidlibet ex quolibet ; as that a Quadrangle is that which is comprehended of four right lines ; therefore the three Angles of a Triangle are not equal to two right ones ?

Can the infinite Wisedom it self make the damning of all the innocent and the unspotted Angels in Heaven , a proportionate means to declare and manifest the unmeasureableness of his Grace , and Love , and Goodness towards them ? Can Lying , Swearing , Envy , Malice , nay , Hatred of God and Goodness it self , be made the most acceptable Service of God , and the readiest way to a Man's Happiness ? And yet all these must be true , and infinitely more such Contradictions than we can possibly imagine , if the mutual Respects and Relations of things be not eternal and indispensible , which that they are I shall endeavour to prove .

First , We must premise that Divine Understanding cannot be the Fountain of the Truth of Things ; nor the Foundation of the references one to another . For it is against the nature of all Understanding to make it Objects . It is the nature of Understanding , ut moveatur , illuminetur , formetur , &c. of its Object , ut moveat , illuminet , formet . Intellectus in actu primo hath its self unto its Object , as the Eye unto the Sun ; it is irradiated , enlightned and actuated by it : And Intellectus in actu secundo hath it self unto its Object , as the Image to that it represents ; and the perfection of Understanding consists in being actuated by , and in an adequate Conformity to its Object , according to the nature of all Idea's , Images or Representations of Things . The Summ is this , No Idea's or Representatious are or make the Things they represent ; all Understanding is such ; therefore no Understanding doth make the Natures , Respects , and Relations of its Objects .

It remains then , that Absolute , Arbitrarious and Independent Will must be the Fountain of all Truth ; and must determine the References and Dependences of Things ; which Assertion would in the first place destroy the Nature of God , and rob him of all his Attributes . For then it is impossible that there should be such a thing as Divine Wisedom and Knowledge , which is nothing else but an Apprehension of Common Notions , and the Natures and mutual Respects and Relations of Things : For if the Nature of God be such , that his Arbitrarious Imagination that such and such Things have such and such Natures and Dependences , doth make those Things to have those Natures or Dependences , he may as easily unimagine that Imagination ; and then they that before had a mutual Harmony , Sympathy and Agreement with one another , shall now stand at a great distance and opposition . And thus the Divine Understanding will be a mere Protean Chimaera , a Casual Conflux of Intellectual Atoms : Contradictions are true , if God will understand them so , and then the Foundation of all Knowledge is taken away , and God may as truly be said to know nothing as every thing ; nay , any Angel , or Man , may as truly be said to know all things , as God himself ; for then every thing will be alike certain , and every Apprehension equally conformable to Truth . These are infallible Consequences , and a thousand more as absurd as these , if contradictory Propositions may be both true ; and whether they be so or no , it 's a mere Casual dependence upon the Arbitrarious Pleasure of God , if there be not a necessary immutability and eternal opposition betwixt the being and the not being of the same thing , at the same time , and in the same respect . Likewise all those Truths we call Common Notions , ( the systeme and comprehensions of which is the very Essence of Divine Wisedom ; as the Conclusions issuing from them , not by any operose Deduction , but a clear intuitive Light , are the very Nature of Divine Knowledge , ( if we distinguish those two Attributes in God , ) I say , all these Propositions of immediate and indemonstrable Truth , if these be onely so , because so understood by God , and so understood by God because he pleased so to have them , and not because there is an indispensible relation of Harmony and Proportion betwixt the Terms themselves ; then it is a thing merely casual , and at the Pleasure of God to change his former Apprehensions and Idea's of those Truths , and to make their Contradictories as Evident , Radical and Fundamental as themselves but even now were ; and so Divine Wisedom and Knowledge will be a various , fickle and mutable thing , a mere tumult and confusion . All these consequences infallibly flow from this certain Principle , That upon a changeable and uncertain Cause , Effects must needs have a changeable and uncertain Dependence . And there is nothing imaginable in it self , more changeable and uncertain than Will not regulated by the dictates of Reason and Understanding .

If any deny these Consequences and Deductions , because they suppose that God is mutable , and changeable ; I answer , by bringing this as another Absurdity , that if there be no indispensible and eternal Respects of Things , it will rob God of his Immutability and Unchangeableness ; for if there be no necessary dependence betwixt Unchangeableness and Perfection , what should hinder , but that if God please to think it so , it will be his Perfection to be changeable ? And if Will , as such , be the onely Principle of his Actions , it is infallibly his Perfection to be so . For 't is the Perfection of every Being to act according to the Principle of its Nature , and it is the Nature of an Arbitrarious Principle to act or not , to doe or undoe upon no account but its own Will and Pleasure ; to be determined and tied up , either by it self , or from abroad , is violent and contranatural .

And therefore from this Principle , that Absolute and Sovereign Will is the Spring and Fountain of all God's Actions , it was rightly inferr'd by a late Pamphleteer , That God will one day damn all Mankind , good and bad , Believers and Unbelievers , notwithstanding all his Promises , Pretensions or Engagements to the contrary ; because this damning all Mankind in despight of his Faithfulness , Justice , Mercy and Goodness , will be the greatest Advancement of his Sovereignty , Will and Prerogative imaginable . His words are , God hath stored up destruction both for the perfect and the wicked , and this doth wonderfully set forth his Sovereignty ; his exercising whereof is so perfect , that when he hath tied himself up fast as may be , by never so many Promises , yet it should still have its scope , and be able to doe what it will , when it will , as it will . Here you have this Principle improved to the height . And however you may look upon this Authour as some new Light , or ignis fatuus of the Times , yet I assure you , in some pieces by him set forth , he is very sober and rational .

In the next place , to deny the mutual Respects and Rationes rerum to be immutable and indispensible , will spoil God of that Universal Rectitude which is the greatest Perfection of his Nature : For then Justice , Faithfulness , Mercy , Goodness , &c. will be but contingent and arbitrarious Issues of the Divine Will . This is a clear and undeniable consequence . For if you say these be indispensible Perfections in God , for instance , if Justice be so , then there is an eternal relation of Right and Equity betwixt every Being , and the giving of it that which is its propriety ; if Faithfulness , then there is an indispensible Agreement betwixt a Promise and the Performance of it ; if Mercy , then there is an immutable and unalterable Suitableness and Harmony between an indigent Creature , and Pity and Commiseration ; if Goodness , then there is an everlasting Proportion and Symmetry between Fulness and its Overflowing and Dispreading of it self , which yet is the Thing denied : For to say they are indispensibly so , because God understands them so , seems to me extreme Incogitancy ; for that is against the Nature of all understanding , which is but the Idea and Representation of things , and is then a true and perfect Image , when it is exactly conformed to its Object : And therefore , if Things have not mutual Respects and Relations eternal and indispensible , then all those Perfections do solely and purely depend upon absolute and independent Will , as Will ; and consequently , it was and is indifferent in it self , that the contrary to these , as Injustice , Unfaithfulness , Cruelty , Malice , Hatred , Spite , Revenge , Fury ; and whatever goes to the Constitution of Hell it self , should have been made the top and highest Perfections of the Divine Nature ; which is such Blasphemy as cannot well be named without horrour and trembling . For instead of being a God , such a Nature as this is , joined with Omnipotency , would be a worse Devil than any is in Hell . And yet this a necessary and infallible consequence from the denial of these mutual Respects and Relations of Things unto one another , to be Eternal and Unchangeable .

And as by the denial of these the Nature of God is wholly destroyed , so in the second place the Mind of Man would have no certainty of Knowledge , or assurance of Happiness . He can never come to know there is a God , and consequently not the Will and Mind of God , which , if there be no intrinsecal and indispensible Respects and Relations of Things , must be the Ground and Foundation of all Knowledge ; for what Means or Argument should we use to find out or prove a Divine Nature ? It were Folly and Madness to sit down and consider the admirable Contrivement and Artifice of this great Fabrick of the Universe ; how that all natural Things seem to act for some end , though themselves take no cognizance of it : How the Sun by its Motion and Situation , or ( which is all one ) by being a Centre of the Earth's Motion , provides Light and Heat , and Life for this inferiour World ; how living Creatures bring forth a most apt composure and structure of Parts , and with that a Being endued with admirable Faculties , and yet themselves have no insight into , nor consultation about this incomparable Workmanship ; how they are furnished with Powers and Inclinations for the preservation of this Body , when it is once brought into the World ; how without previous deliberation they naturally take in that Food , which without their Intention or Animadversion is concocted in their Ventricle , turned into Chyle , that Chyle into Bloud , that Bloud diffused through the Veins and Arteries , and therewith the several Members nourished , and Decays of Strength repaired ; I say the gathering from all these , ( which one would think were a very natural consequence , ) that there is a wise Principle which directs all these Beings unknown to you , in their several Motions , to their several Ends , ( supposing the Dependence and Relations of Things to be contingent and arbitrarious , ) were a piece of Folly and Incogitancy ; For how can the order of those Things speak a wise and understanding Being , which have no Relation or Respect unto one another , but their whole Agreement , Suitableness and Proportion is a mere casual Issue of Absolute and Independent Will ? If any thing may be the Cause of any Effect , and a proportionate mean to any End , who can infer infinite Wisedom from the Dependence of Things , and their Relations to one another ? For we are to know that there is a God , and the Will of that God , before we can know the mutual Harmony or Disproportion of Things ; and yet if we do not know these principal Respects that Things have among themselves , it is impossible we should ever come to the knowledge of a God : For these are the onely Arguments that any Logick in the World can make use of , to prove any Conclusion . But suppose we should come to know that there is a God , which , as I have demonstrated , denying the necessary and imputable Truth of common Notions , and the indispensible and eternal Relations of Things , is altogether impossible : However , let it be supposed ; yet how shall we know that these common Notions and Principles of natural Instinct , which are the foundation of all Discourse and Argumentation , are certain and infallible Truths ; and that our Senses ( which with these former Principles we suppose this Divine Nature to have given us to converse with this outward World , ) were not on purpose bestowed upon us , to befool , delude and cheat us ; if we be not first assured of the Veracity of God ? And how can we be assured of that , if we know not that Veracity is a Perfection ? And how shall we know it is so , unless there be an intrinsecal Relation betwixt Veracity and Perfection ? For if it be an Arbitrarious Respect depending upon the Will of God , there is no way possibly left whereby we should come to know that it is in God at all : And therefore we have fully as much Reason to believe that all our Common Notions and Principles of Natural Instinct , whereupon we ground all our Reasonings and Discourse , are mere Chimaera's to delude and abuse our Faculties : And all those Idea's , Phantasms and Apprehensions of our External Senses , we imagine are occasioned in us by the Presence of outward Objects , are mere Spectrums and Gulleries , wherewith poor Mortals are befooled and cheated ; as that they are given us by the first Goodness and Truth , to lead us into the Knowledge of himself and Nature . This is a clear and evident Consequence , and cannot be denied by any that doth not complain of Darkness in the brightest and most meridian Light . And here you have the Foundations laid of the highest Scepticism ; for who can say he knows any thing , when he hath no Basis on which he can raise any true Conclusion ?

Thus you see the Noble Faculties of Man , his Mind and Understanding , will be to no end and purpose , but for a Rack and Torture ; for what greater Unhappiness or Torment can there be imagined , than to have Faculties , whose Accomplishment and Perfection consists in a due Conformation unto their Objects , and yet to have no Objects unto which they may be conformed ; to have a Soul unmeasurably breathing after the Embraces of Truth and Goodness , and after a search and enquiry after one and the other , and to find at last they are but airy , empty and uncertain Notions , depending upon the Arbitrarious Determinations of boundless and Independent Will ; which Determinations she sees it beyond her reach ever to come to any knowledge of ?

Here you have likewise the true Foundations of that we call Rantism ; for if there be no distinction betwixt Truth and Falshood , Good and Evil , in the Nature of the Things themselves , and we never can be assured what is the Mind and Pleasure of the Supreme and absolute Will , ( because Veracity is not intrinsecally , and ex natura Rei , a Perfection , but onely an Arbitrarious , if any Attribute in the Deity , ) then it infallibly follows , that it is all one what I doe , or how I live ; and I have as much Reason to believe that I am as pleasing to God , when I give my self up unto all Filthiness , Uncleanness and Sin ; when I swell with Pride , Envy , Hatred and Malice , &c. as when I endeavour with all my Might and Strength , to purge and purifie my Soul from all Pollution and Defilement , both of Flesh and Spirit ; and when I pursue the Mortification of all my Carnal Lusts and Inclinations : And I have fully as much ground and assurance , that the one is the ready way to Happiness as the other .

And this is another Branch of this Second Absurdity , from the denial of the intrinsecal and eternal Respects and Relations of Things , that a Man would not have any assurance of future Happiness ; for though it be true indeed , or at least we fansie to our selves that God hath sent Jesus Christ into the World , and by him hath made very large and ample Promises , that whosoever believes in him , and conforms his Life unto his Precepts , shall be made Heir of the same Inheritance and Glory which Christ is now possessed of and invested with in the Kingdom of his Father ; yet what ground have we to believe that God does not intend onely to play with , and abuse our Faculties , and in conclusion to damn all those that believe and live as is above expressed ; and to take them onely into the Enjoyments of Heaven and Happiness , who have been the great Opposers of the Truth and Gospel , and Life , and Nature of Jesus Christ in the World ? For if there be no Eternal and Indispensible Relation of Things , then there 's no intrinsecal Evil in Deceiving and Falsifying , in the Damning the good , or Saving obstinate and contumacious Sinners , ( whilst such , ) notwithstanding any Promises or Threatnings to the contrary : And if the Things be in themselves indifferent , it is an unadvised Confidence to pronounce determinately on either side . Yea , farther , suppose we should be assured that God is Verax , and that the Scripture doth declare what is his Mind and Pleasure , yet if there be not an intrinsecal Opposition betwixt the Being and not Being of a Thing at the same time , and in the same respect ; then God can make a Thing that hath been done undone , and that whatever hath been done or spoken , either by himself , or Christ , or his Apostles , should never be done , or spoken by him or them ; though he hath come into the World , yet he should not be come ; though he hath made these Promises , yet that they should not be made ; though God hath given us Faculties , that are capable of the enjoyment of himself , yet that he should not have given them us ; and that yet we should have no Being , nor think a Thought while we fansie and speak of all these Contradictions : In fine , it were impossible we should know any thing , if the Opposition of contradictory Terms depend upon the Arbitrarious resolves of any Being whatsoever . If any should affirm that the Terms of Common Notions have an eternal and indispensible Relation unto one another , and deny it of other Truths , he exceedingly betrays his Folly and Incogitancy ; for these Common Notions and Principles are Foundations and radical Truths upon which are built all the Deductions of Reason and Discourse , and with which , so far as they have any Truth in them , they are inseparably united . All these Consequences are plain and undeniable , and therefore I shall travel no farther in the Confirmation of them .

Against this Discourse will be objected , That it destroys God's Independency and Self-sufficiency ; for if there be Truth antecedently to the Divine Understanding , the Divine Understanding will be a mere Passive Principle , acted and enlightned by something without it self , as the Eyes by the Sun , and lesser Objects , which the Sun irradiates : and if there be mutual Congruities and Dependences of things in a moral sense , and so , that such and such means have a natural and intrinsecal Tendency or Repugnance to such and such ends , then will God be determined in his Actions from something without himself , which is to take away his Independency and Self sufficiency . The Pardoning of Sin to Repenting Sinners seems to be a Thing very suitable to Infinite Goodness and Mercy , if there be any suitableness or agreement in Things antecedently to God's will ; therefore in this Case will God be moved from abroad , and as it were determined to an Act of Grace . This will also undermine and shake many Principles and Opinions which are look'd upon as Fundamentals , and necessary to be believed : It will unlink and break that Chain and Method of God's Decrees which is generally believed amongst us . God's great Plot and Design from all Eternity , as it is usually held forth , was to advance his Mercy and Justice in the Salvation of some , and Damnation of others : We shall speak onely of that part of God's design , the advancement of his Justice in the Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind , as being most pertinent for the improving of the Strength of the Objection against our former Discourse .

That God may doe this , He decrees to create Man , and being created , decrees that Man should sin ; and because , as some say , Man is a mere passive Principle , not able , no not in the presence of Objects , to reduce himself into action ; or because in the moment of his Creation , as others , he was impowred with an Indifferency to stand or fall ; Therefore , lest there should be a frustration of God's great design ; He decrees in the next place , infallibly to determine the will of Man unto sin , that having sinned he might accomplish his damnation ; and what he had first , and from all Eternity in his Intentions , the Advancement of his Justice . Now if there be such an Intrinsecal Relation of Things , as our former Discourse pretends unto , this Design of God will be wholly frustrated . For it may seem clear to every Man's understanding , that it is not for the Honour and Advancement of Justice to determine the will of Man to sin , and then to punish him for that Sin unto which he was so determined ; Whereas if God's will , as such , be the onely Rule and Principle of Actions , this will be an accommodate means ( if God so please to have it ) unto his design . The summe is , We have seemed in our former Discourse to bind and tye up God , who is an absolute and independent Being , to the petty formalities of Good and Evil , and to fetter and imprison Freedom and Liberty it self , in the fatal and immutable Chains and Respects of Things .

I answer . This Objection concerns partly the Understanding of God , and partly his Will ; As for the Divine Understanding , the Case is thus ; There are certain Beings or Natures of Things which are Logically possible ; it implies no Contradiction that they should be , although it were supposed there were no Power that could bring them into Being ; which Natures of Things , supposing they were in Being , would have mutual relations of Agreement or Opposition unto one another , which would be no more distinguished from the Things themselves , than Relations are from that which founds them . Now the Divine Understanding is a Representation or Comprehension of all those Natures or Beings thus Logically , and in respect of God absolutely possible , and consequently it must needs be also a Comprehension of all these Sympathies and Antipathies , either in a natural or a moral way , which they have one to another : for they , as I said , do necessarily and immediately flow from the things themselves , as Relations do , posito fundamento & termino . Now the Divine Understanding doth not at all depend upon these Natures or Relations , though they be its Objects ; for the Nature of an Object doth not consist in being motivum facultatis , as it is usually with us , whose apprehensions are awakened by their presence ; but its whole Nature is sufficiently comprehended in this , that it is terminativum facultatis ; and this precisely doth not speak any dependency of the faculty upon it , especially in the Divine Understanding ; where this objective , terminative Presence flows from the Fecundity of the Divine Nature : for the things themselves are so far from having any Being antecedently to the Divine Understanding ; that had not it been their exemplary Pattern and Idea , they had never been created , and being created , they would lye in darkness ; ( I speak of Things that have not in them a Principle of Understanding , not conscious of their own Natures and that beauteous Harmony they have among themselves ) were they not irradiated by the Divine Understanding , which is as it were an universal Sun that discovers and displays the Natures and Respects of Things , and does as it were draw them up into its beams .

To the second part of the Objection , the strength whereof is , That to tye up God in his Actions to the Reason of Things , destroys his Liberty , Absoluteness and Independency . I answer , It is no Imperfection for God to be determined to Good ; It is Bondage , Slavery or Contraction , to be bound up to the Eternal Laws of Right and Justice : It is the greatest Impotency and Weakness in the World to have a Power to Evil , and there is nothing so diametrically opposite to the very Being and Nature of God . Stat pro ratione voluntas , unless it be as a redargution and check to impudent and daring Inquirers , is an account no where justifiable . The more any Being partakes of Reason and Understanding , the worse is the Imputation of acting arbitrariously , & pro imperio . We can pardon it in Women and Children , as those from whom we do not expect that they should act upon any higher Principle : but for a Man of Reason and Understanding , that hath the Laws of Goodness and Rectitude ( which are as the Laws of the Medes and Persians , that cannot be altered ) engraven upon his Mind ; for him to cast off these Golden Reins , and to set up Arbitrarious Will for his Rule and Guide , is a piece of intolerable Rashness and Presumption . This is an infallible Rule , that Liberty in the Power or Principle is no where a Perfection , when there is not an Indifferency in the Things or Actions about which it is conversant : And therefore it is a piece of our Weakness and Imbecillity , that we have a Nature so indetermined to what is Good . These Things need no Proof , indeed cannot well be proved , otherwise than they prove themselves : for they are of immediate Truth , and prove themselves they will , to a pure unprejudiced Mind .

Our former discourse doth not infer any Dependency of God upon any thing without himself ; for God is not excited to his Actions by any foreign or extrinsecal Motives ; what he does , proceeds from the eternal , immutable Respects and Relations , or Reasons of Things , and where are these to be found , but in the Eternal and Divine Wisedom ? For what can Infinite Wisedom be , but a steady and immovable Comprehension of all those Natures and Relations ? and therefore God in his Actions does not look abroad , but onely consults ( if I may so speak ) the Idea's of his own Mind . What Creatures doe , is but the offering a particular Case , for the reducement of a general Principle into a particular Action : or the Presentment of an Occasion for God to act according to the Principles of his own Nature ; when we say that God pardoneth Sin upon Repentance , God is not moved to an Act of Grace from any thing without himself ; for this is a Principle in the Divine Wisedom , That Pardon of Sin to Repenting Sinners is a thing very suitable to Infinite Goodness , and this Principle is a piece of the Divine Nature : Therefore when God upon a particular Act of Repentance puts forth a particular Act of Grace , it is but as it were a particular Instance to the general Rule , which is a Portion of Divine Perfection ; when 't is said , To him that hath shall be given , and he shall have abundance ; the meaning is , He that walks up unto that Light , and improves that Strength that God hath already communicated unto him , shall have more abundant Incomes of Light and Strength from God . It doth not follow that God is moved from without to impart his Grace : For this is a branch of Divine Wisedom : it is agreeable to the Infinite Goodness of God , to take notice of , and reward the sincere , though weak indeavours of his Creatures after him ; so that what is from abroad , is but a particular Occasion to those Divine Principles to exert and put forth themselves .

Thus have we spoken concerning the Truth of Things , or Truth in the Object . It follows that we speak concerning Truth in the Power or Faculty , which we call Truth in the Subject ; which we shall dispatch in a few words .

Truth in the Power or Faculty is nothing else but a Conformity of its Conceptions or Idea's unto the Natures and Relations of Things , which in God we may call an actual , steady , immoveable , eternal Omniformity , as Plotinus calls the Divine Intellect , {αβγδ} , which you have largely described by him . And this the Platonists truly call the Intellectual World , for here are the Natures of all things , pure and unmixt , purged from all those dregs , refined from all that dross and alloy which cleave unto them in their particular instances . All inferiour and sublunary things , not excluding Man himself , have their excrescences and defects ; exorbitances or privations are moulded up in their very frames and constitutions . There is somewhat extraneous , heterogeneous and preternatural in all things here below , as they exist amongst us ; but in that other World , like the most purely fined Gold , they shine in their native and proper Glory . Here is the first Goodness , the benign Parent of the whole Creation , with his numerous Offspring , the infinite Throng of created Beings : Here is the Fountain of eternal Love , with all its streams and rivulets : Here is the Sun of uncreated Glory , surrounded with all its rays and beams : Here are the eternal and indispensible Laws of Right and Justice , the immediate and indemonstrable Principles of Truth and Goodness : Here are steady and immutable Rules for all Cases and Actions however circumstantiated , from which the Will of God , though never so absolute and independent , from everlasting to everlasting , shall never depart one Tittle . Now all that Truth that is in any created Being , is by participation and derivation from this first Understanding and Fountain of intellectual Light . And that Truth in the Power or Faculty is nothing but the Conformity of its Conceptions or Idea's with the Natures and Relations of Things , is clear and evident in it self , and necessarily follows from what hath been formerly proved concerning the Truth of Things themselves , antecedently to any Understanding or Will ; for Things are what they are , and cannot be otherwise without a Contradiction , and their mutual Respects and Dependences eternal and unchangeable , as hath been already shew'd : so that the Conceptions and Idea's , of these Natures and their Relations , can be onely so far true as they conform and agree with the Things themselves , and the Harmony which they have one to another .

And thus much in Answer to the First Question , What is meant by the Candle of the Lord ?

The second Question is , What is meant by the Spirit of Man ? The Jewish Doctors for the most part hereby understand the highest , noblest and most divine part of the Soul , the same that the Platonists do mean by their {αβγδ} , or Intellect ; and the Mystical Divines by their {αβγδ} , or Spiritus . But I shall take it in the large and ampliated sense , as it comprehends the whole Soul of Man ; and therefore that we may answer to the third Question , How the Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord , we must speak something to the Nature of the Soul in general .

We need not say any thing concerning the Nature of a Body or Spirit . The whole Nature of a Body is concluded in this , that it hath Length , Breadth and Thickness , whose Parts cannot be double one upon another , nor penetrate other Things . A Spirit is a Being self-moving , neither excluding nor excluded by other Things . And of this sort is the Soul of Man whose Nature consists in this , that it hath engraven upon it Common Notions and Principles of natural Instinct , which are of immediate and indemonstrable Truth and the Foundations of all Discourse , together with the Natures and Essences of all Degrees of Being , either Actual or Possible . And herein consists a great part of that Light which the Souls of Men receive from God ; and therefore we shall take occasion hereafter to speak more largely to it .

In the mean while we would not be understood as if it could actually and at once view all those Common Principles with their Dependences , or all those Natures and Idea's of Things , but on occasion given by searching , and as it were digging into its own bowels , it is able to draw forth all those Natures and Notions . In the next place , it hath Power of taking notice of its own Actions , which it doth , not so much by Discourse ( especially in some Cases ) as by inward Sense and Feeling of those Acts which it exerts . Again , yet it is capable of being touched and affected by the Influences , Illapses and Descensions of God upon it , and of being irradiated and enlightned by the first Mind and Intellect : It can be touched and affected by the Body , with which it is united , from this outward World , and be awakned into those several Dispositions and Modifications , which we call usually by one Common Name of Sense . It hath a Power or Faculty , taking occasion from inward , divine or outward Sense to frame Discourses , deduce Inferences , which are so far true as they are bottom'd upon the Common Notions or Principles of Natural Instinct , which are the Foundations of all Reasoning . It hath a Power of moving or actuating a Body ; it can move towards or from those Objects by which it is touched or affected . And here comes in the Will with all its train and retinue of Affections and Passions , so far as they are in the Soul it self .

These I take to be the chief Particulars , and to which all the rest may be reduced , wherein the Nature of the Soul consists . Which ( as she is usually handled by our vulgar Philosophers , those notional , abstracted and metaphysical Naturalists ) is rather veil'd and darken'd , than any ways explained or understood . They divide it into several Faculties , really distinct from the Soul it self ; As the common Astronomers do the Heavens into so many Circles and Epicycles , which are neither true in themselves , nor solve the Phaenomena for which they were invented . Because the Soul is a Spirit , therefore it cannot receive the material Species , therefore there must be an Intellectus agens to defecate and purifie them from their gross and corporeal Dregs , and so convey them to the Intellectus possibilis , as they are pleased to call it . But if you inquire what they mean by Material and Immaterial ; what those pretty kind of Entities their Species be ; whether their Intellectus agens be corporeal or incorporeal : If corporeal , how a part of the Soul ; if spiritual , how rather united to the material Fancy than the Intellectus possibilis ; how it refines the Species from their material dross and defilement , you will find they will lead you in a Labyrinth without any clew or thread to get out , besides a few new-coined words and expressions , that signifie nothing to a considerative Mind . Whereas the Truth is , the Soul is of an indifferent Nature , that doth hang between Heaven and Earth ; as an Amphibion , it is capable of being affected either by material or immaterial Beings : which is a Thing immediate , and you can give no more account of it , than why the Soul is rational and intelligent : Onely thus much our Faculties acknowledge , that being the Soul is united to a Body , and doth actuate , inform and enliven it , it is very reasonable it should receive some Impressions and Affections from that Body , unto which it is thus nearly united .

They fansie the Understanding and the Will to be two Faculties both really distinct from the Soul and themselves ; that the Will is Potentia caeca , takes no cognizance of the Objects after which it is drawn ; which are gross Inconsistences and Contradictions . For it is impossible the Soul should either embrace or avoid any thing , if the same Principle were not both Intelligent and had a Principle and Power both of moving towards or from its Object , according as it apprehends it either good or evil . From this conceit of real and distinct Powers in the Soul arise those ridiculous Questions usually disputed among them , An potentiae possunt realiter separari ab anima per potentiam Dei absolutam ? An potentia separata ab anima possit uniri subjecto extraneo ? An potentia separata ab anima existeret per modum perseitatis ei superadditum , vel per solam actualem existentiam propriam , cum negatione actualis inhaerentiae : These and such like fond and ridiculous Questions and Suppositions have made some Men think these kind of Philosophers ( there are such kind of Divines too ) tinctured with a grain of Madness . That there should be such Powers of Understanding , Will , Fancy and Memory ; which being clapt upon the Soul , should make it understand , will , imagine , remember ; and such kind of Modes , Perseities , Subsistence , Inherence , which being added to Things , make them subsist or inhere , so that they can be granted to or taken from them : Such kind of discourse would either make a sober Man mad , or make him swear that they are mad that talk so . But Indignation hath forced me into too large a Digression .

The Spirit of Man may be called the Candle of the Lord in three senses ; formaliter , efficienter and finaliter : Formaliter , as it partakes in its proportion and capacity of the same Light that God doth . Efficienter , because whatever Light is in the Soul of Man , it doth flow from God . Finaliter , because all the Light that Man hath communicated to him , should lead to God . We shall speak something of all these Particulars .

In the first sense , The Soul of Man is so far the Candle of the Lord , as it either enjoys or is capable of Light and Truth . And out of the Discourse of the Nature of the Soul we may gather that there are four Faculties in Man , unto which all the rest may be reduced , which are the Principles and Capacities of Truth and Knowledge , viz. 1. Natural Instinct . 2. Inward Sense . 3. Outward Sense . 4. Reason or Discourse . The first is the Faculty that is conform'd to common Notions or Principles of immediate Truth , and the Natures and Essences of Things : both which the Soul is furnished with in a sense hereafter to be explained . By the second we are able to feel and take notice of our own Actions , or receive Impressions from the Divine Mind , and to be irradiated with the Divine Light . The third is the Faculty whereby we are fitted to converse with this outward World , and to take notice of the Things that be and are done by us . By the fourth , making use of inward , outward and divine Sense , we do prove , convince , confute , raise Inferences , Deductions , &c. All which trains of Reasoning are onely so far true , as they follow upon Common Notions and Principles of Indemonstrable Light .

These therefore are the Faculties , whereby Man is capable of Light and Truth ; Natural Instinct , Inward Sense , outward Sense , Reason and Discourse ; And whatever is not conformed to one of these Faculties , can no-ways be proved , and is not to be admitted as Truth : for we must not , can not , ultra facultates sapere . And whatever we come to the knowledge of by any of these Faculties , if there want not the Requisites of its Conformation to its Object , we may take for Truth . For it is contrary to the Goodness of God , to give us Faculties that should , when there is no outward or accidental Cause of Errour , deceive or abuse us . These very Faculties or Capacities of Truth are a Degree of Light wherein we are like unto God ; when these Faculties are in conjunction with their Objects , then are we one with Truth , and Partakers of that Light which is The Candle of the Lord .

Here follows another Preface of the Authour's to the Discourse of Truth , as it was delivered at St. Mary's in Cambridge , Anno 1655. upon Joh . 18.38 . Pilate said unto him , What is Truth ?

WHat is Truth ? Pilate's Question hath always been the Great Inquiry of the World ; but especially in these days of ours , when to doubt of all things begins to be a Principle in Divinity as well as Philosophy . The Foundations , that Men have so long built their Opinions and Faith upon , are shaken and stagger'd in this Sceptical Age . Every one upon a particular and several Sect is in Quest after Truth ; and so foolish and full of vain affectation is the Mind of Man , that each one confidently believes himself in the right ; and however others call themselves , that he and those of his Party are the onely Orthodox . Should we go abroad in the World , and ask as many as we meet , What is Truth ? we should find it a changeable and uncertain Notion , which every one cloaths his own Apprehensions with . Truth is in every Sect and Party , though they speak Inconsistences among themselves , and Contradictions to one another . Truth is the Turkish Alcoran , the Jewish Talmud , the Papists Councils , the Protestants Catechisms and Models of Divinity ; each of these in their proper place and region . Truth is a various uncertain Thing , changes with the Air and Climate ; 't is Mahomet at Constantinople , the Pope at Rome , Luther at Wittemberg , Calvin at Geneva , Arminius at Oldwater , Socinus at Cracow ; and each of these are sound and orthodox in the Circuit of their own Reign and Dominion . And as it is mutable according to Places , so also according to the Ages of the World : 't was one while Arianism under several Emperours , in several Councils , among several Fathers . 't was , for some hundreds of years , a Company of foppish and ridiculous Superstitions and Ceremonies , Pardons and Indulgences , Redemptions from Purgatory , and the like : And we know in our days into what new shapes this Proteus hath transform'd it self . Truth , 't is worm-eaten Antiquity , an infallible Chair , the strongest Lungs , the longest Sword , the most Voices . Truth is confident Ignorance , assisted with heady and turbulent Zeal , and backt with merciless Persecution of all Gainsayers . 't is presumptuous Incogitancy , accompanied with rigid and uncharitable Censures of all dissenting Judgments . 't is a Confession of Faith with an Anathema at the foot of every Article . 't is that which confutes Opinions and answers Arguments by branding them with Names of Reproach and Scandal . 't is a standard Measure in the hands of some particular Sect , to which all Mens understanding must be even'd and squar'd . 't is a State Mould committed to the keeping of some Party that is in greatest favour ; whereinto all Opinions are cast ; and those that are beyond its Capacity are rejected as Dross . In a word , Truth is a piece of Education , Interest , Humour , Fancy and Temper : 't is that we are born to , suck in with our Mothers Milk , learn with our A B C. 't is an inveterate Prejudice that is bred in our Minds , which all Arguments , that can be brought to the contrary , do irritate , but not convince : 't is an Opinion first taken up , and then Reason sought out to maintain it . Truth , 't is that which serves every Man's turn or interest , 't is the surest and strongest side , 't is that which secures a Man's estate , liberty and outward advantages ; 't is that which saves a Man the cost and expence of self-denial and patience under the reproach and persecution of a prevailing Sect ; 't is that which leads the way to applause and preferment , and gives the pompous Title of Sound in the Faith , that is , in the Opinion of the Place and Church where one lives . Otherwise , Truth is a piece of humoursome singularity ; the Man is unwilling to go with a multitude , or trust himself in a crowd , lest he be lost , forgotten and not taken notice of : 't is a desire to appear {αβγδ} , the Authour of some new discoveries ; the Head and Father of a particular Sect : 't is a piece of over-weening pride , of fond self-flattery and conceit , that thinks it self wiser than the Church where it lives and all the World besides . Many times again , Truth is nothing else but the boilings of an heated and melancholick , of an unwieldy and untamed Fancy ; and hence spring most of the new-lights of the present Age . Truth to these Men is a bundle of empty and aiery words , that sound well , but have no sense ; 't is a company of non-significant Phrases handsomely put together ; 't is seraphick and mystical non-sense ; a Discourse made up of high-flown expressions , to which there answers no representation or idea in the Mind . Once more ; Truth is a piece of temper and complexion , 't is light in a coloured glass , diversified according to the dispositions of Men ; 't is the several tinctures of Mens passions and affections ; 't is Cruelty in rigid and severe ; 't is fond Indulgence in soft and effeminate Natures ; 't is that which best gratifies a Man's lusts and corruptions .

But is this the best representation can be made of Truth ? Surely no : Truth is the First-begotten of the Divine Goodness ; 't is the Life and Nature of the second Hypostasis in the Deity ; 't is the Sun of the Intellectual World that rays into pure and holy and unprejudiced Souls , and fills them with Joy and Happiness ; 't is the highest Accomplishment , next to Goodness and Righteousness , that our Minds and Understandings are capable of . It will not be amiss therefore to make a stricter Inquiry and Search into its Nature , and to give a more particular Answer to Pilate's Question ,

What is Truth ?

Messias in S. Scriptura promissus olim venit .

SI Spiritui sancto visum fuisset colloquii istius copiam secisse , quod Servatorem nostrum postquam è mortuis resurrexerat cum duobus Discipulis Emaunta proficiscentibus habuisse narrant Evangelistae , quàm feliciter praesentem disputationem expedire , & quàm nullo negotio non modo Messiam venisse , sed & Jesum Nazarenum eundem illum fuisse probare potuissemus ! Quinimò , nisi Judaeorum pervicacia Apologiam praebuisset , meritò tempus frustra conterere videri possem , qui Messiam venisse astruere satagerem , post Jesu nostri vitam sanctam , doctrinam coelestem , opera divina , resurrectionem gloriosam , quibus omnibus aliísque certissimis Argumentis se fuisse promissum illum diúque expectatum Messiam palam comprobaret . Sed cùm ejusmodi sit homuncionum genus , qui praejudicio adeò occaecati sunt , ut in meridiana luce diem esse negare ausint ; idcirco mihi in animo aliquando erat demònstrâsse Jesum nostrum esse ipsummet promissum Messiam , ut apud ingenuous & cordatos constaret Judaeorum obstinatam incredulitatem , & juratum in Christum Dei odium nullâ posse excusatione defendi . Verùm hanc materiam altiùs paulò cogitatione persequens , facile mihi persuasi , eam fusiorem disquisitionem postulare , quàm aut vestra patientia , aut exercitii hujus ratio ferre poterit . Quapropter ad eam quae prae manibus est quaestionem diverti , eodem consilio , & uti spero , eodem successu . Nam cùm in Thesi probatum fuerit Messiam venisse , de eo in Hypothesi litem haud ita magnam suturam judico . Missâ itaque Terminorum , & Quaestionis statûs ( quae per se patent ) explicatione , assertionem nostram in sequentibus stabilire conabor .

Argumentis vero nostris paucis praeludere non abs re fuerit , praesertim cùm ea , quae praeludii loco dicenda sunt , non minimi , saltem apud Judaeos , ponderis esse possint .

In Talmude Tract . Sanhedrim ( citante Raymundo ) dixit Rab . {αβγδ} completi sunt omnes termini , adventus scil . Messiae : de hoc nomine ibi est sermo . In eodem codice cap . chelek , reperitur decantatum illud & celebratum Dictum Eliae , Rabbini in tanto apud Judaeos honore , ut essato ejus enucleando non minùs student , quam ipsius S. Scripturae Textui ; Duo millia , inquit , Inane , Duo millia Lex , Duo millia Messias , & uno destruitur , Mundus sc . juxta quam Traditionem ex Judaeorum supputatione elapsa jam sunt quatuordecim secula adventui & durationi Messiae destinata . Narrat porrò Vir maximus Hugo Grotius lib . 5. de Ver . Relig . Christ . opere tanto Autore digno , Magistrum quendam Hebraeum Nehemiam , qui annis quinquaginta Jesum praecessit , apertè jam tum dixisse , non posse ultra eos quinquaginta annos protrahi tempus Messiae à Daniele significatum . In eodem Talmude Codice Sanhedrim , ait alius quidam Elias ad R. Jehudam , Non minus octoginta quinque Jubiloeos durabit Mundus , Jubiloeo autem extremo silius Davidis veniet . Jubilaeus autem , ut notum est , constat annis quinquaginta , quare octoginta quinque Jubilaei conficiunt annos 4250. in quinti itaque Millennii initio venturus erat . Ibidem Rab . ait , Non veniet filius Davidis donec imperârit Regnum Edomi nefarium ( h . e . Romanum ) super Israelem novem mensibus ; at ab eo tempore plura secula , quàm sunt isti menses , expirârunt . Accepimus etiam ex laudato Talmudis libro Messiam eo die natum esse , quo Templum à Tito incendebatur , & quòd inter pauperes & leprosos sedeat in porta Romae , sive , interpretante Glossâ Talmudicâ , in ea parte horti Eden , quae spectat portam Romae . Ut ut est , id pro certo habemus , circa id tempus magna & universalis erat de adventu Messiae expectatio , sive Historiae Evangelicae , sive etiam Scriptoribus profanis fidem adhibeamus ; Namque Suetonius , & in eadem ferè verba Tacitus in Vita Titi Vespasiani , percrebuerat ( inquit ) Oriente toto vetus & constans opinio esse in fatis , ut eo tempore Judoeâ profecti rerum potirentur . Et Joseph . de bello Jud . l. 7. c . 12. Quod maxime ( inquit ) Judoeos ad bellum excitaverat , Responsum erat ambiguum in sacris inventum , quòd eo tempore quidam esset ex eorum finibus orbis terroe imperium habiturus . Id equidem ( inquit ) illi quasi proprium acceperunt , multíque sapientes Interpretatione decepti sunt . Hoc autem planè responso Vespasiani designabatur Imperium , qui apud Judaeos creatus est Imperator . Haec ille : Unde videre est opinionem de Messiae adventu in istius aetatis hominum mentibus tam altas radices egisse , ut qui apud eos maximâ sapientiâ claruerunt , maluerint vaticinia & oracula de Rege isto ad Principem profanum & Idololatram detorquere , quàm negare , id quod hodierni Judaei faciunt , ea ad istud seculum pertinere . Quin & ipsi Judaei circa ea tempora factis suis huic Veritati fidem fecerunt , quidam Herodem , alii Judam Gaulonitem tanquam Messiam secuti , praesertim memorabili istâ defectione sub duce suo Barcosba , quem omnes tunc temporis sapientes , atque inter caeteros magnus ille Doctor R. Akiba pro Messia acceperunt . Cùm toties frustrà & falsi essent Judaei , dein terminos finxerunt Messiae adventui , tandem Maledictione caverunt , nequis tempora supputet , Expiret Spiritus eorum qui supputant terminos temporum . Verùm neque ita se sistebat caeca Judaeorum curiositas ; sed alii semper alias , puisque pro Cerebri sui modulo Pseudo messiae adventui qeriodos assignârunt . Quae recensitae habentur apud Authorem Schulshelet Hakabbalah . Alii assignârunt annum 5335. à Creatione Mundi , qui incidit in annum Christi 1575. Alii annum 5337. Alii 5360. R. Gedaliah 5358. Abrabanel in Commentariis suis super Isaiam & Jeremiam annum 5263. aut 5294. Ait verò R. Saadiam , Rabbi Solom . Jarchi , R. Levi Ben Gerson , R. Mosen Ben Nachman , & R. Bechai , ad unum omnes statuisse adventum Messiae fore anno Mundi 5118. Zohar verò eum rejecisse in annum 5408. qui incidit in annum Christi 1648. Denique cùm omnia haec figmenta falsitatis convicta sint , tandem Pseudo-messiam suum ad extremum sexti millennii relegârunt , adventum ejus unà cum mortuorum resurrectione conjungentes , adeò ut Menasseh Ben Israel haud quadraginta annorum durationem largiri dignetur Regno isti , quod aeternum fore S. Propheta vaticinatur . Sed missis Judaeorum partim somniis , partim deliriis , videamus quibus fundamentis Thesis nostra innitatur .

Arg. 1. Itaque primum Argumentum petimus à Gen. 49. v. 10. Non auferetur Sceptrum ( Thargum , sive Paraphrasis Chaldaica Onkelosi , qui , ut resert Autor Sepher Ikkarim , legem oralem accepit â Schemaiah & Abtsalione , cujus itidem Translatio tantae est apud Judaeos Autoritatis , ut nefas sit ei contraire , interpretatur vocem {αβγδ} exercens dominium {αβγδ} Thargum Hierosolymitanum reddit {αβγδ} Reges , Thargum Jonathanis {αβγδ} Reges Principésque ) de Juda , neque Legislator deinter pedes ejus , usquedum ( Jonathan vertit usque tempus illud quo ) veniet Shiloh , aut Meshicha , aut Rex Meshicha , ut omnes Thargumistae habent , & ei erit aggregatio vel obedientia populorum .

Priusquam hinc Argumentum deducam , adnotandum est Sceptrum esse insigne Dominii , quicunque itaque Populus ab aliis distinctus & separatus propriis legibus regitur , apud illos est Sceptrum & Majestas Imperii ; adeò ut Sceptrum tum primùm ad Judam pervenerit , cùm post decem tribuum defectionem , Juda in Rempublicam evasit ; & quamvis post Captivitatem Babylonicam , qui ei praesiderunt quandoque erant de Tribu Levi , quandoque extranei ut Herodes aliíque ; nihilo tamen secius Resp . Judaeorum eadem permansit , & proinde eadem populi Judaici Majestas atque Imperium . Sensus itaque Prophetiae talis videtur , fore aliquando ut Tribui Judae illud honoris ac Praerogativae obveniret , ut tota Dei Respublica penes eam permansura esset , Deúsque aliud apud se de Juda , quàm de reliquis decem Tribubus statuerat , quamvis enim ipsae ad tempus Sceptro potiturae erant , Sceptrum tamen illud discessurum aliquot seculis ante Messiae adventum ; Judam verò fore Rempublicam , suos Reges , Duces , Principes , Gubernatores , quicunque aut qualescunque tandem fuerint , usque ad Messiae tempora habiturum .

His praemissis ex hoc loco sic arguo , Sceptrum non auferendum erat de Juda , priusquam venerit Messias , sive stante Judaeorum Rep. Messias venturus erat ; Ergo Sceptri ablatio quod jam à mille quingentis , & quod excurrit annis contigit , necessariò arguit Messiam venisse .

Multa sunt quae in hoc argumento excipiunt Judaei , ea verò omnia ad haec tria Capita reduci possunt .

1. Alii nimirum sunt , qui per Shiloh quidem Messiam , sed per {αβγδ} non intelligunt Dominium .

2. Alii verò qui per {αβγδ} Dominium , sed per Shiloh non intelligunt Messiam .

3. Alii denique qui Shebet & Shiloh eodem quo nos sensu accipiunt , argumenti tamen vim non admittunt . Sit itaque

Prima Exceptio : Non auferetur {αβγδ} i . e . baculus , aut scipio , fulcimentum Jehudae , & legislator , &c. priusquam venerit Messias ; i.e. Judaeis in captivitate suâ nunquam deerit subsidium , & legislatores , qui consulant iis , & adhortentur adferenda adversa , ita Menasseh Ben Israel in Quaest. super Genesin , & in lib . idiomate nostro nuper edito .

Resp . Verùm primò , Shebet absolutè positum nuspiam significat fulcimentum consolationis & auxilii . 2. Quorsum Patriarcha solummodò filio suo Judae solamen promitteret , cum & reliqui non minora , sed graviora potius mala passuri essent .

Secunda Exceptio : Non auferetur {αβγδ} i . e . non tolletur Castigatio à Jehuda , & legislator è medio pedum ejus , i.e. semper erunt quasi in portis eorum inimici , qui leges iis praescribant , donec veniat Messias , ita R. Joel Ben Sueb .

R. Haec Expositio nullo modo consistere potest ; 1. nimirum meritò dubitatur utrum Shebet simpliciter positum uspiam sumatur pro Castigatione . Praesertim 2. junctum verbo {αβγδ} quod ubique accipitur in meliorem partem . 3. quicunque pensitaverit , aut quod subjungit Moses v. 28. Omnes istoe sunt tribus Israelis duodecim , & hoc est quod elocutus est iis pater earum , cùm benediceret iis , earum cuique prout benedictioni ipsius convenit ; aut praecipuè Patriarchae ad filium suum Judam integrum Sermonem animadverterit , facilè percipiet , eum omnia bona faustáque comprecari . 4. à Davide ad Hezechiam usque Regnum Judae prosperitate gaudebat & opulentiâ , ideóque minimè verum est Virgam ab eo non discessisse . 5. quâ ratione afflictiones memoratae ad Judam restringuntur , cùm & reliqui Jacobi posteri maximam earum partem perpessi sunt ?

Tertia Exceptio : Non tolletur {αβγδ} i . e . Tribus à Juda nec legislator ; ut mens Patriarchae sit , quamvis decem tribus captivas adducturus sit Assyriorum Rex in Terras nobis incognitas , Junius & Tremel . {αβγδ} verterunt tribum . Tribum Judae tamen nunquam sublatum iri ; h . e . non ablatam ex oculis & commercio ac notitiâ hominum , sed semper fore ei Legislatores , h . e . sapientes à quibus doceatur usque ad adventum Messiae .

R. Sensus hujus Exceptionis est Tribum Judae non extinctum iri priusquam venerit Messias ; Verùm ex hâc Interpretatione Tribum non decessuram à Juda perinde est ac si dictum fuisset , Juda non discedet à seipso ; Judas nimirum hic sumitur non pro ipso Patriarchâ Judâ , sed pro posteris ipsius , & Tribu Judae , sicut & reliqui Jacobi filii pro suis Tribubus , uti Moses nos docet , v. 28. Omnes istae sunt tribus Israelis , &c. quod & cuilibet ad benedictiones singularum diligentius attendenti evidenter patebit . Quin & addi potest Tribuum & familiarum omnium ante mille sexcentos , plus minus , annos , confusionem factam esse , ne ipsos quidem Judaeos diffiteri .

Quarta Exceptio : {αβγδ} i . e . quamvis decem tribus abrumpantur à domo Davidis , Tribus tamen Benjamitica non recedet à Juda , &c.

R. Verùm hoc quàm indignum tam solenni Prophetiâ ! certè Deus ipse cùm interminatus est Solomoni Regni scissuram , se unicam Tribum filio daturum promittit ; & Ahijah Jeroboamo , Solomoni , inquit , Tribus una erit ; & 1 Reg . c . 12. v. 20. post defectionem decem Tribuum disertè legitur , Nemo secutus est domum Davidis proeter tribum Judoe solam ; tam nihili erat Benjaminis ad Judam adhaesio , ut Spiritus S. ejus quidem nè mentionem facere dignatus sit ; quod tamen ( ut & id moneam ) si quando magnum videri debuisset , tum certè maximi cùm stante Judaeorum Rep. Tribus Benjamitica Judae potestati subdita erat : Illud enim quàm ridiculum est de Juda benedictionis loco dici fratrem Benjaminem unà cum eo usque ad Messiae adventum eodem servitutis & Tyrannidis jugo pressum iri .

Particulari huic singularum exceptionum resutationi , Argumenta tria generalia adjungam cur {αβγδ} non aliâ quàm Sceptri significatione exponendum sit .

1. Quod est Argumentum ad hominem : De Dominio interpretati sunt Thargumistae omnes , Doctores Talmudici , R. Hadarschan , reliquíque veteres Rabbini , & recentiorum pars maxima .

2. Quia jungitur cum {αβγδ} , quae vox nunquam alio quàm sensu judiciali sumitur in S. Literis : Est autem Scripturae mos rem eandem verbis saepe diversis repetere ; dirigúntque omnes rectae Expositionis Leges , ut cùm duae voces occurrant geminae , & similis significationis , unius interpretationem ex altera petamus , neque ullo modo committamus , ut eum sensum uni affigamus , qui ab alterius quâcum jungitur , significatione quàm longissimè abhorreat .

3. Nisi hoc commate Sceptrum promittatur Judae , nulla omnino in hac benedictione ejus promissio extabit . At quis crediderit rem tanti momenti morituro jam Seni aut Deum non revelaturum , aut ab eo omissum iri , cùm de reliquis filiis atque adeò de ipso Juda longè minutiora praedicat . Atque ita deventum jam est ad secundum genus exceptionum , quae negant per Shiloh Messiam intelligi .

Sit itaque quinta Exceptio . Non auferetur Sceptrum de Juda donec Shiloh veniat , i.e. Moses , tunc enim ereptum Judae Imperium tradetur Mosi , ex Tribu Levi ; ita R. Bechai in locum .

R. Sed quàm frigidum est hoc effugium ! Quale erat illud Israelitarum , multò minùs Judae Sceptrum dum in Aegypto degebant ? Vix quidem populus erat , saltem sub alieno Sceptro , & Tyrannidis jugo miserè laborans . Neque Argumentum ipsius quicquam efficit , non verisimile esse primae istius Redemptionis à Captivitate Aegyptiaca nullam fieri mentionem ; id enim Abrahamo jam praedictum erat , neque nova indigebat Revelatione .

Sexta Exceptio . Non auferetur Sceptrum de Juda donec veniat Shiloh , i.e. David , ita Aben Ezra & R. Levi ben Gersom .

R. At quomodo dici potest Sceptrum fuisse apud Judam ante Davidis aetatem ? Non diffitendum est Primogeniturae praerogativam supra Reubenem , Simionem , Levi à Deo Judae collatam fuisse , Judaeque primum semper & honoratissimum locum assignatum in Castris movendis , muneribus offerendis , terrâ distribuendâ , populo recensendo , verùm hic non Sceptri & Imperii , sed tantùm Ordinis ob Primogeniturae praerogativam honor erat .

Septima Exceptio . {αβγδ} , non colligetur Sceptrum ad Judam , {αβγδ} , donec ponatur , i.e. destructum sit Tabernaculum , Shiloh : quod accidisse constat , nam simul ac illud destructum erat , venit Samuel & Davidem regem unxit ; haec etiam est Expositio R. Bechai .

R. At verò {αβγδ} significat recedere , declinare , divertere , nequaquam verò colligi , multò minùs cùm addatur Praepositio {αβγδ} , quae semper significat motum à loco ; Shiloh etiam cùm locum significat , scribitur secùs ac in Textu sine ● in medio ; neque {αβγδ} uspiam occumbere significat , nisi cùm de Sole sermo sit , qui Terram & Oceanum subire videatur . Praeter memorata Grammaticae Impedimenta , David etiam Textui interserendus est , ut sensus integer fiat , viz. non colligetur Sceptrum , &c. donec desertum sit Shiloh , & David venerit , cui adhaerebunt populi ; & revera tota haec Expositio verbis tam apertam vim infert , ut nec resutatione quidem digna censeri debeat .

Octava Exceptio . Non auferetur Dominium de Juda & Scriba de medio pedum ejus donec veniat Shiloh , i.e. donec Ahijah Silonites vestem Jeroboami in duodecim partes scindat , tunc enim aliae Tribus habebunt partem Imperii , solo antea Judâ possessi , ita R. Hisquiah , ut refert Ben Israel .

R. At locus Shiloh , ut jam dictum est , aliter scribitur ; & unde Shiloh esse Shilonitam , eúmque Ahijam ? Cur non potiùs indigitatus fuisset Jeroboamus , cui populus adhaerebat , quod hîc de Shiloh praedicitur ? At verò nec Jeroboamus , nec Silonites hîc intelligi possunt ; nam tantum abest ut Sceptrum tum dici posset à Juda discessisse , cùm abscissae fuerant decem Tribus à domo Davidis , ut tum praecipuè Sceptrum ad Judam devenerit , cùm antea erat Israelis vel duodecim Tribuum : nec refert Davidem & Solomonem fuisse de Tribu Judae ; nam pari ratione Sceptrum dicendum fuisset Benjaminis regnante Saule . Respublica non est Principis , fed Princeps Reipublicae ; ut Seneca Neroni dixisse fertur .

Nona Exceptio . Non auferetur Sceptrum de Juda donec Shiloh , i.e. Nebuchad-nezzar venerit , per quem populus Judaicus abducetur in Captivitatem .

R. 1. Qui fit ut Shiloh Nebuchad-nezzarem significet ? 2. Amplior est significatio {αβγδ} quàm ut solummodo populum Judaicum complectatur . 3. {αβγδ} significat voluntariam adhaesionem , non subjectionem violentam . 4. Judaei in Captivitate Babylonica habuerunt suum {αβγδ} , Caput sive Principem Captivitatis , cum jure gladii & vitae necísque potestate , id quod Historia Sufannae & Danielis , licèt Apocrypha , haud obscurè arguit . 5. Haec 70 annorum Captivitas non tam erat Sceptri ablatio quàm Interregnum , postea enim redierunt in Terram suam suísque iterum Legibus regebantur . Huic etiam particulari refutationi duo Argumenta addam , quae contra singulas hujus secundi generis exceptiones aequè militant , quibus probatur per Shiloh intelligendum esse Messiam .

1. Quod est Argumentum ad Judaeos , de Messia intelligunt omnes Thargumistae , Bereshit Rabba , Echa Rabbati , sive Glossa super Lament . Cabalistae , Doctores Talmudici , & recentiores quamplurimi ; Consulatur hac de re Raymundi Pugio Fidei , & Buxtorfius in voce {αβγδ} .

2. Verba ultima hujus Commatis ( & ei adhaerebunt populi ) sunt Nota Messiae & Periphrasis {αβγδ} Shiloh : Quod nisi concedatur , verba scilicet ista exponere {αβγδ} Shiloh , fieri non potest ut cognoscatur quid sibi velit Patriarcha per illud Shiloh , ex cujus vocis intellectu , totius Prophetiae Intellectio dependet . Perpendamus enim omnes quae fingi possunt {αβγδ} Shiloh Interpretationes , tamen inde nec conjecturam facere erit de Jacobi mente . Sume nimirum Shiloh pro {αβγδ} , ut LXXII . verterunt ; vel pro cui repositum est , ut antiqui Patres ; vel pro Qui mittendus est , ut Vulgatus Interpres , quamvis nimis absurde ; vel Pacificator , Fortunatus , Felix , voce derivativâ à {αβγδ} ; vel Filius ejus , ut ferè Hebraei ; ita ut {αβγδ} in fine sit affixum voce deductâ à {αβγδ} , Secundina , in qua Embryo jacet & vivit , unde {αβγδ} , Filius : sive cui Munus , à {αβγδ} , Munus , & {αβγδ} , ut R. Solomon ; sume inquam quamlibet harum Interpretationum , quis conjicere poterit quid intendatur per {αβγδ} , aut cui repositum est , aut Pacificator , aut Filius ejus , aut cui Munus , nisi concedamus verba ista ( & ei erit obedientia populi ) Periphrasin esse ejus qui prius Shiloh vocatus est , tum enim , certissima nota atque indicio monstratur quinam intelligendus sit , omnes enim Nationes Messiae adhaesuras , Esaias , Michaeas , reliquíque Prophetae non semel praedixerunt , idémque à Judaeis ipsis firmissimè creditur .

Accedimus ad tertium Exceptionum genus , corum scil . qui Shebet & Shiloh eodem quo nos sensu accipiunt , negant tamen ex hoc loco probari posse Messiam venisse . Sit itaque

Decima Exceptio . Non auferetur Sceptrum de Juda , &c. i.e. Ita ut transferatur ad quemvis ex ejus fratribus ; non itaque hic praedici Israelitis semper fore Regem vel Sanhedrim , sed quando erit fore eum ex Progenie Judae . Ita Bereschit Rabba , R. Moses Gerundensis , R. Obadiah Sphornus , R. Bechai ut nos docent Menasseh Ben Israel & Josephus de Voisin in Observat . ad Raymundum .

R. At 1. Quodnam illud esset Benedictionis , promitti quidem Judae eum fratribus suis non serviturum , futurum tamen sub alienorum Tyrannide ? 2. Quod praecipuè advertendum est , scilicet , Prophetiam hanc , si in hunc sensum interpreteris , omnino nihil per eam significabitur ; nam si proximo momento à quo Sceptrum ad Judam pervenerit , ipse unà cum fratribus suis sub exterorum jugum abiisset , atque ad Messiae usque Adventum perstitisset , nihilominus haec Prophetia suum nacta fuisset Complementum .

Undecima Exceptio . Verba in hunc modum distinguenda sunt {αβγδ} , ut sensus sit , Non auferetur Sceptrum in aeternum postquam venerit Messias , ita Bereshith Rabba , R. Bechai , qui & Translationem Onkelosi ita se habere asserit in correctis Codicibus ; hanc Expositionem inde astruere conantur quod {αβγδ} notetur accentu Jethib , qui ( si Menassi assentiamur ) distinguit & dividit Periodos .

R. {αβγδ} significat quidem aeternitatem , aut Tempus diuturnum , fed in fine sententiae , in medio semper , usque ; & cum {αβγδ} , usquequo ; {αβγδ} verò significat quia , vel quod , vel si , vel sed , non autem , quando , vel ubi , vel cum , ut nos docent Linguae Hebraicae periti , & Jethib non distinguit & dividit Periodos , ut in hoc ipso Capite & v. proximè sequenti videre est .

Sed Athnach Colon efficit & respirationem , & eum accentum reperimus in {αβγδ} verbo immediatè ante {αβγδ} , adeò ut necesse sit {αβγδ} inchoare sententiam . Sed missis hisce Grammaticis Exceptionibus , quae tamen Interpretationem hanc funditus evertunt : quàm futilem , jejunam & ridiculam Prophetiam hanc redditura est hujusmodi Expositio ! Patriarcha , scil . introducitur praedicens post elapsos quater mille annos Sceptrum non discessurum à Juda in seculum , h . e . ad quadraginta annorum spatium ; ea enim opinio jam apud Judaeos obtinet , Messiae adventum propè abfuturum à Mundi fine , & Menasseh ait , fortè eodem anno & die Messiam venturum & fore mortuorum resurrectionem .

Duodecima atque ultima Exceptio . Non auferetur {αβγδ} , i . e . Imperium & Jurisdictio quamvis exigua de Tribu Judae , &c. Judah nimirum semper erat Caput fratrum suorum ; atque in Captivitate Hispaniae Galliaeque Capita Israelis semper fuerunt ex stirpe & domo Davidis ; ita Abrabanel .

R. Si huc tandem res rediit , plane nihilo proximum in hac Prophetia promittitur ; quid enim Capitibus Familiarum cum Regibus & Principibus ? Shebet quidem Jurisdictionem significat at politicam , quam nullus Populus sibi vendicat nisi qui propriis Legibus , tanquam Gens ab aliis distincta & separata , gubernantur . Quod spectat ad honorificum illum statum , quem quingentis abhinc annis extulit in itinerario suo Benjamin Tudelensis , qui in Bagdat se oculis suis vidisse resert magnum numerum Israelitarum , qui certo tempore Principem quem credebant ex stirpe Davidis esse , curru vectum prosequebatur , inter eundum acclamantes , date locum Filio Davidis , & his similia , cùm Author ille à Viris doctis , praesertim Constant . L'Empereur fabularum & falsitatis jampridem convictus , fidem apud cordatos decoxerit , Exceptionem quae hinc peti possit haud dignam censeo operosâ refutatione ; quin frequentiora commercia quae partibus Europaeis jam diu fuerunt cum omnibus penè Mundi Nationibus locísque hujusmodi somnia & figmenta abundè satìs redarguerunt .

Atque ita quantâ potuimus brevitate percurrimus ea omnia quae Judaei ad Argumentum nostrum pro Messiae adventu à Prophetia Patriarchae Jacobi petito excipiunt . Tria verò sunt quae jam dictis Appendicis loco addenda putavi .

1. Minimè mirum esse debere si Judaei effugia quaedam excogitaverint , quibus tum hunc tum alia S. Scripturae loca eludant , namque tantum non impossible videtur , quamlibet Scripturam ita exaratum iri , quin hominis versutia alios atque alios ei sensus effigere possit ; vix nimirum ullum vocabulum occurrit quod non induit varias significationes , neque aliqua sententia quae non patitur multiplicem constructionem , neque Oratio ulla quae non diversimodè possit dividi & distingui ; & reverà si Prophetiae tam disertis & expressis verbis conceptae fuissent , ut unicus tantùm earum sensus effingi posset ; omnino fieri non potuit quin Judaei jam olim & Messiam venisse , & Jesum Nazarenum eundem illum fuisse confessi essent .

2. Non est cur aliud quicquam à Deo expectemus , quàm quod satìs provideat instructioni Animi docilis & ingenui qui veritatem sufficienter propositam promptè amplectetur ; Enimverò qui non assentietur , eum esse Scripturae sensum qui verisimilior fuerit ; & si possibile sit alium verborum sensum excogitare , certè ei nullus omnino Scripturae sensus credendus restat ; & qui crediderit eum esse Scripturae sensum , ad quem verba quovis modo trahi & torqueri possint , fas ei erit quidvis esse sensum Scripturae credere : Animus autem cordatus & ingenuus eum agnoscet Scripturae sensum quem verba ipsa nullâ vi distorta facillimè expromunt .

3. Argumento est , nihil omnino ponderis hisce Exceptionibus subesse , eásque tales esse quae neque Judaeis ipsis satisfaciant , quòd tantus sit illarum numerus ; si enim in una aliqua acquievissent , nunquam aliis experiundis tantum insudâssent .

2. Secundum Argumentum quo probatur Messiam olim venisse petimus ex Hag . c . 2. v. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. Adhuc unum pusillum ipsum , & ego tremere faciam caelos & terram , & mare & aridum , & tremere faciam omnes gentes , ut veniant ad desiderium omnium gentium , & implebo domum hanc gloriâ , dixit Dominus exercituum ; major erit gloria domûs hujus posterioris , quàm illius prioris , ait Dominus exercituum . Nam in loco hoc dabo pacem , dictum Jehovae exercituum . Huic loco geminum adjungo , Mal . 3.1 . Ecce ego mittens Angelum meum qui praeparabit viam ad facies meas , & statim veniet ad templum suum Dominus , quem vos quaerentes estis , & Angelus foederis quem vos volentes estis . Ex his locis sic arguo , Messias venturus erat stante Templo secundo ; Ergo destructo Templo secundo necessariò concluditur Messiam venisse .

Hîc excipiunt Judaei , 1. in loco Haggaei non esse sermonem de Messia , neque Messiam intelligi per desiderium Gentium , neque Messiae praesentiam esse gloriam istam domûs secundae , quâ superat gloriam domûs prioris . Duas itaque fixerunt loci hujus Interpretationes .

Prior est R. D. Kimchi , R. Azariah A-adoni & Talmudis in Codice Bababatra , qui gloriam Templi secundi supra istam prioris collocant , 1. in structura & ornatu quem ei veteri fabricâ dirutâ conciliavit Herodes : 2. in duratione , Domus enim prima non duravit ultra quadringentos & decem annos , at Domus secunda 420. Et juxta hanc Expositionem Desiderium Gentium nihil aliud significat quàm Aurum , Argentum , Gemmas & Margaritas , quae sunt res desideratissimae Gentium , quae tamen , Deo ita Corda eorum commovente , allaturae erant ad aedificationem & ornatum Templi .

R. Verùm hâc ratione Gloria Templi secundi nequaquam erit major Gloriâ prioris : Nam , 1. Gloria quae in structura , ornatu & duratione constat nequaquam digna est tam solenni praedictione . Et , 2. Quaecunque tandem illa fuerint nullatenus consideranda venient , si respiciamus ad quinque ista quae fuisse quidem in domo priori , non autem in secunda ipsi Judaei narrant . Sunt autem , 1. Urim & Thummim . 2. Arca Foederis , in qua reposita erant Tabulae Legis , Virga Aaronis & Olla Mannae . 3. Ignis coelestis . 4. Schechina , sive Praesentia Divina . Et. 5. Spiritus Prophetiae . Alii aliter enumerant , de quibus Auctor Meor Enajim , R. Azarias , Praesentia , inquit , Majestatis Divinae & quinque res illae pretiosae quae fuerunt in aede priori non in posteriori extulerunt eam in dignitatem inaestimabilem , & sunt quidem Viri docti qui aegrè Josepho assentientur ( cujus tamen solâ autoritate alii nituntur ) Templum ab Herode dirutum fuisse & denuò aedificatum , sed tantùm externa quaedam ornamenta adjecta fuisse , & ab his partibus sunt Ecchius aliíque : Sed etiamsi stet Josepho sua fides . 2. Non tamen Templum Herodis ( namque tum Zorobabelis tum Herodis Templum uno nomine à Judaeis domus secunda dicitur ) comparandum erat cum Solomonis Templo etiam quoad structuram & ornatum , quamvìs Josephus Gorionides ( Autor aliquot annorum centenis recentior quàm prae se fert videri velle ) quamvìs , inquam , ille dixerit simile ei in pulchritudine visum nullum fuisse ; Nam , 1. Herodes in Oratione sua ad Judaeos habita , Autore Flavio Josepho , id solummodo sibi proposuit , nimirum supplere quod Templo secundo deerat ad aequandum Salomonicum , & quia sexaginta cubitis depressius erat ad parem altitudinem extruere ; nullâ interim longitudinis aut latitudinis ratione habitâ ; ideóque verisimile videtur cùm Josephus scribit vetera Fundamenta ab illo sublata , eum nihil aliud significare voluisse quàm quòd ea subtulerit quae ad aedificium altius evehendum necessariò commutanda erant , reliquis in usum suum servatis , atque in hac sententia est Vir omnifariae lectionis Joannes Hornbeck , in Libro pro Convincendis Judaeis nuper edito : quod eo magìs verisimile videtur , quia Teste eodem Josepho non ultra sesqui-annum in ipsius {αβγδ} , h . e . tecti aedificii extructione mille Sacerdotum Operam impendit , reliquum verò aedificium octo annis absolvit , ídque per manus undecies mille Operariorum , cùm tamen Solomon centum quadraginta tribus millibus per septem annos usus sit . Vid . Riberam , l. 1. c . 28 , &c. 2. Neque Templum Herodianum etiam ornatu par aut simile erat Salomonico , ut patebit ex 2 Chron . 3.5 , 6 , 7. erat enim intrinsecus auro obductum & lapidibus pretiosis ornatum , vasáque ejus omnia ex auro confecta erant , secùs quàm in Templo secundo , ubi Judaeis ipsis fatentibus , aenea erant : nè quid hîc dicam de augustissimis istis Columnis Jachin & Boaz , aut de amplissimo istoc aeris fusi Lacu quae in Herodiano Templo defuerunt .

Tria igitur hîc diximus . 1. Templum Herodianum cessisse Salomonico quoad amplitudinem & molem Fabricae . 2. Multò magìs quoad splendorem & ornatum , ubi pro Auro & Margaritis argentum atque aes reposita sunt . 3. Quod & praecipuum est , quinque illa supra memorata quibus caruit Templum Herodianum ejusdem suerunt , quorum Absentiam nihil praeter Adventum Messiae compensare poterat . Et certè quantum huic Exceptioni diffidant Judaei indè patet , quod futile illud de duratione addiderint tanquam dignum patella operculum : cui enim in mentem venerit , Deum ante tot secula praedicturum se coelum & terram , mare & aridum , &c. commoturum , & omnes Gentes concussurum , ut majorem faciat gloriam secundae quàm prioris , quia totis decem annis diuturnior erit ejus duratio .

Praeterea non est negligendum quod sequitur , ( & in hoc loco dabo pacem ) tantum enim abest Judaeos pacem consecutos suisse post restauratum ab Herode Templum , ut jam tum Romanis Subditi & Tributarii fuerint , & haud ita multò pòst , unà cum Templo deleti .

Haec animadvertens sagacissimus Judaeorum Abrabanel , aliam inivit viam ; Ille enim Deum introducit , v. 6. loquentem de domo ista secunda quam tum extruebant , eámque appellantem parvam & pusillam , minantémque se commoturum omnes Gentes , h . e . Romanos excitaturum ad ipsam destruendam : ver . autem septimo Judaeos consolantem promissione tertiae domûs quam post redditum suum à longâ istâ , quâ jam premuntur , captivitate aedificaturi erant , atque istam domum Deum repleturum gloriâ sua , quae major foret , quàm fuit Templi Salomonici . Haec summa est , integram autem ejus Paraphrasm vid. apud Hulsium in Theol Jud .

R. Domus haec {αβγδ} v. 3. sine controversia intelligitur de domo secundâ , atque ipse Abrabanel , v. 6. de eâdem exponit ; quis itaque in animum inducere potest ut credat eadem ipsa verba iterum usurpata , v. 7 , & 9. intelligenda esse de Templo multa post secula , scil . aliquot annorum millia aedificando , cum nulla sit subjecti variatio , aut variationis umbra aut vestigium ? Restat igitur ut Domûs secundae prae primâ hoc loco memorata gloria , non alia sit quàm quòd Messias in eam ingressurus sit . Ille enim est Glori● Israelis , & Gloria Dei Israelis , dignus cujus gratiâ Coelum & Terra , Mare & Aridum commoveantur , & tremefiant omnes Gentes : Ille Urim & Thummim à quo procedit divinae Voluntatis Revelatio : Ille Arca foederis , & Propitiatorium per sanguinem suum ; Ille baptizat Spiritu & Igne ; Ille Spiritum recepit sine mensura , & in eo habitat plenitudo Deitatis corporaliter . Umbrarum itaque istarum quae Templi primi gloria erant corpus & substantia per Messiam restituitur ; hunc etiam locum R. Akiba qui tanto apud Judaeos honore erat ut R. Eliezer de eo dixerit omnes sapientes Israelis coram me sunt instar tunicae allii hoc calvo excepto , i.e. R. Akiba qui calvus erat , & super quem Spiritum sanctum sicut super septuaginta seniores quievisse asserunt ; hic Doctor Mishnicus locum hunc interpretatur de diebus Messiae , ut Raymundus è Talmude nos docet . Et Vir omni laude major Hugo Grotius in Hebraeorum scriptis versatissimus , ad hunc locum , Messiam , inquit , appariturum in Templo secundo credidêre Judaei omnes qui ante excidium vixêre .

Adde Desiderium gentium idonea est & familiaris Messiae Periphrasis , ad quem omnes gentes confluxuras ubique apud Prophetas praedicitur ; id quod utramque exceptionem pariter convellit , sicut & alter ille locus , Mal . 3.1 . quem tamen in alium sensum detorquent Judaei . R. Solomon per nuncium & Angelum foederis intelligit Angelum Mortis , quem Deus mittit ad perdendos Impios , eósque in judicium vocandos ; sed hanc Expositionem jure rejicit Abrabanel : id nimirum non postulabat peculiarem Prophetiam , sed jam omnibus notum erat ; Et Judicium de quo hic Sermo est , non peculiare & privatum est , sed universale & publicum ; nec mos erat Prophetarum interminari mala spiritualia sed corporalia potiùs & terrena , qualia sunt Urbis & Templi excidia ; nec commodè explicari potest cur Deus diceretur Templum suum ingredi cùm animam poenis infernalibus affligit . Abrabanel itaque Kimchi & Aben-Ezra ( quamvis singuli sua habent commenta , quae omnia refutata videas in Hulsii Theol Jud . ) in hoc tamen omnes consentiunt , prophetiam hanc impletum iri cùm populo Judaico è Captivitate reduci , & inimicis omnibus debellatis , Deus denuò aedificaverit Templum , illúdque repleverit Majestatis Divinae praesentiâ .

At ( 1. ) quàm miserum hoc est effugium facilè patebit perpendenti prophetiae scopum . Totis Capitibus primo & secundo exprobrantur Judaeis horrenda ista peccata quae post reditum suum à Captivitate Babylonicâ denuò perpetrârant , quorum praecipua erant Sacrificiorum prophanatio , legitimarum Uxorum Repudia ad contrahenda cum alienigenis Matrimonia , & impudentia Murmura contra Deum ; huic Impietati cap . 3. & quarto Deus interminatur diem Judicii & vindictae , adito usitato Divinae Bonitatis Temperamento , diem istum qui impiis exitialis futurus erat , fore piis & Deum timentibus salutis Originem . Constat igitur ad Judaeos qui sub Templo secundo vixerunt pertinere hanc comminationem Judicii , unde non minori evidentiâ colligitur hujus adventûs diem non prorogandum esse ultra Templi secundi Durationem ; praesertim si consideremus ( 2. ) hodiernos Judaeos seipsos immunes profiteri à Peccatis istis quae apud Prophetam iram Divinam concitant . ( 3. ) Tempus etiam instare indicatur verbis quamplurimis Emphaticis quae in Textu occurrunt {αβγδ} ecce , quod nota est rei brevi futurae {αβγδ} statim veniet , {αβγδ} venit , nuspiam reperire est verba tam Emphaticè brevitatem Temporis significantia , cùm res istae de quibus sermo est post duo , & quod amplius est annorum millia eventurae erant , uti nunc somniant Judaei . Tempus hujus Prophetiae impletioni definitum olim elapsum esse jam probavimus , de diebus verò Messiae hic Sermonem esse Judaei ( ne recentiores quidem ) non diffitentur , & locus ipse Messiam satis evidenter indigitat ; Ille enim solus est ille Dominus quem quaerebant & expectabant , qui Praecursorem habiturus erat ad praeparandam viam coram facie ejus : Ille erat Angelus ille foederis quem volentes erant ; ille idem qui supra in Prophetia Haggaei desiderium Gentium dicebatur . Summa est , stante Templo secundo Messias venturus erat ; at Templum secundum jam à multis seculis deletum est , ergo necessariò inde sequitur Messiam olim venisse .

3. Tertium atque ultimum à S. Scriptura Argumentum petimus ex Dan. 9.24 , 25 , 26. Septuaginta Hebdomadae decisae sunt super populum tuum , & super Civitatem sanctam , &c. Igitur cognoscito & intelligito ab enunciatione Verbi de reducendo populo & de aedificandis Hierosolymis usque ad Messiam Principem erunt septimanae septem & septimanae sexaginta duae , post septimanas autem illas 62 excidetur Messias , &c. Ex hoc loco sic arguo , Ante urbem & Templum deleta excidendus erat Messias , istorum igitur deletio , quam tot retro seculis accidisse constat , certissimè arguit Messiam venisse .

Et nec inficias ibunt Judaei hoc Argumentum validum fore , si de Messiâ hoc loco sermo sit ; & per Messiam v. 25. intelligi volunt vel Cyrum , ita R. Sol . Jachiadis , Menasseh Ben Israel ; vel Nehemiam , ita Aben-Ezra ; vel Joshuam Sacerdotem , ita R. Levi Ben Gerson ; vel Zorobabelem , ita Abrabanel & ex modernis plerique . Per Messiam verò v. 26. vel Agrippam ultimum eorum Regem ( quem aiunt unà cum filio Mombaso , si istorum hominum Chronologiae adhibenda sit fides , occisum fuisse Romae ab Imperatore Vespasiano tribus annis & dimidio ante Excidium Templi ) ita R. Sol . Arab . Menasseh ; vel summum Sacerdotem , vel Sacerdotem Unctum , ita R. Saadia Gaon ; vel ipsum Templum , ita Jachiades . Verùm haec Commenta facilè diluemus ponendo Epocham unde hae septuaginta Septimanae secundum Judaeos inchoandae sunt . Utrinque enim ( quamvis aliter sentiant nec sine ratione Viri docti , finiendas nimirum esse in morte Christi , id quod Judaeos magìs jugulat , Impraesentiarum tamen ) concedatur terminandas esse in Urbis Templíque Excidio . Judaeorum tum antiquorum tum recentiorum pars maxima annos hosce 490 ordiuntur ab excidio Templi prioris , atque abinde usque ad Cyrum , aut Joshuam , aut Zorobabelem , numerant septem Septimanas , aut 49 annos . Sed R. Abr. Ben Ezra earum initium sumit à secundo Darii Medi , de quo sermo est , Dan . 9.1 . atque abhinc usque ad Nehemiam septem etiam Hebdomadas vel 49 annos numerat , sed utrique supputationi adversatur omnis historiae fides : Ab anno enim tertio Darii Nothi ( inter quem & Templi primi Excidium praeter septuaginta annorum Captivitatem intercesserunt non paucorum Principum Tempora , inter quem etiam & Darium Medum non unae erant Principum successiones quorum S. Literae meminerunt ) aio tamen à tertio Darii Nothi ad Excidium Hierosolymorum excurrerunt anni 490. tertius enim Darii Nothi uti constat ex Diodoro incidit in tertium Olympiadis Octogessimae nonae , sive in Annum Olympicum trecentesimum quinquagesimum quintum . Excidium autem Hiesolymitanum per Titum , quod in confesso est , in annum Olympicum octingentesimum quadragesimum quintum ; accurata verò horum terminorum differentia est 490 anni . Idem constat ex Ptolemaei Canone Astronomico , primus Darii Nothi in Can . Ptol . respondet 325 Nabonassaris . Ergo tertius Darii concurrit cum 327 Nabon . Ultimus autem annus sive Mors Neronis 815 Nabon . Ergo Excidium Templi biennio posterius cum 817 Nabon . Igitur differentia est 490 anni . Haec accepta debemus felicissimo Scripturarum Propheticarum Interpreti Josepho Medo non Collegii Christi modò sed & hujus Academiae Ornamento . Adeò ut Cyrus , Cambyses , Smerdis , Darius Hystaspis , Xerxes , Artaxerxes , quorum plerique in S. Literis , singuli apud Scriptores profanos occurrunt , mera forent in Historia Phantasmata , si Judaeorum supputationi quicquam tribuatur . Et revera mirum videri potest perpendenti , in quantas angustias Persicae Prophetiae Monarchiae durationem contrahunt Judaei , quam ( ut hujus vim eludant , & cerebelli sui figmenta ei affigant ) non ultra quinquaginta duos annos stetisse volunt ; reliquos enim 382 qui ad sexaginta duas Hebdomadas complendas restant , Graecorum & Romanorum Imperio facilè concedunt , & juxta Abenez . 49 tantùm anni istis 52 addendi sunt . Cùm tamen si side digni sunt Herodotus , Thucydides , Xenophon , Diodorus Siculus aliíque necesse est ut ad ducentos ad minimum annos proferamus ; quâ de re consulantur Annales Reverendissimi Jacobi Armachani Viri in omni genere Literarum Historico praesertim & Chronologico peritissimi ; proinde non nisi quatuor Reges Persicos agnoscunt , contra omnem Historiae prophanae consensum quae quatuordecim nobis exhibent , eósque ferè omnes in sacris Literis recenseri audacter affirmat & Inductione probat Vir Cl. Constan . L'Empereur in discursu ad Lectorem Paraphrasi Josephi Jachiadae in Danielem praefixo .

Quapropter Messias v. 25. de nemine eorum quos Judaei proferunt dici potest . Quibus addo omnino sine fundamento esse , supponere alium à Daniele Messiam intelligi v. 25. alium 26. Atque ob eandem rationem jam memoratam Templum esse nequit v. 26. patet enim eodem vocabulo aliud intelligi versu praecedente , sed neque unquam legimus Templum Messiam appellatum . Neque per Messiam v. 26. innuitur Sacerdos unctus , aut Sacerdos magnus illorum Temporum , tum ob Rationes jam dictas , tum quia toto Templi secundi tempore nullum suisse Sacerdotem unctum tradunt Judaei . Vid . Raymundi Pugionem fidei , & Observationes Josephi de Voisin in hunc locum : Neque de Agrippa intelligi potest Messias , nam post sexaginta duas Hebdomadas excidendus erat ante Urbis & Templi Eversionem ; at istorum temporum historia narrat Agrippam à Vespasiano . Vid . Scalig . ad annum Euseb . 2061 , & 2086. Romam abductum multos annos vixisse post Hierosolymorum Excidium . Porrò ipsummet Messiam hoc loco intelligendum esse vel inde liquidò constabit , quod is de quo hic sermo est simpliciter & absolutè vocatur {αβγδ} & {αβγδ} cum alibi haec vox nemini sive Regi sive Sacerdoti aut cuiquam tribuatur sine additamento aut Domini , aut affixi , aut proprii nominis , ut loca omnia quae pauca sunt , percurrenti patebit . Neque in Universâ sacrâ Paginâ reperire est Messiam absolutè positum , unico hoc Danielis loco excepto , quod argumento est Judaeos olim hanc Prophetiam de Messia intellexisse , atque hinc Nomen illud Regi suo , quem expectabant , indidisse .

Unica restat Judaeorum Exceptio , quae si quid habeat Ponderis uno ictu prosternet totam illam Argumentorum structuram quae hactenus allata pro Messiae adventu ; idcircò necessarium est ut ei quâ possumus brevitate , satisfaciamus : Aiunt siquidem promissum de Messia conditionatum esse , ideóque adventum ejus differri & prorogari ob eorum peccata .

Atque haec quidem Exceptio majorem probabilitatis speciem habitura erat , si tempore Messiae adventui destinato non comparuisset Jesus noster , qui evidentibus certissimísque signis atque indiciis se fuisse eundem illum toties promissum Messiam evicit .

Hoc tamen misso consideremus , 1. Judaeos sibimet blandè persuadere se Jesum nostrum , qui Messiae nomen assumpsit , nobili facinore è medio sustulisse ; nec diffitendum quidem est si sese pro Messia falsò venditasset , eos sacrificium Deo gratissimum obtulisse , cùm populi seductorem crucifixerunt ; & cùm ubique ferè pro Messia acceptus sit , atque adeò juxta eorum Opinionem totus mundus ab eo seducatur , fieri non potest quin ob hoc sint Deo admodum accepti , dum seipsos non sine libertatis , fortunarum vitaeque periculo huic ( quam vocant ) seditioni opponunt . Adeóque si haec culpa non sit , virtus erit maxima ; & cujus gratiâ dubium non est quin Deus ad alia multa Judaeorum peccata conniveret ; quae cùm ita sint tantum abest cur prorogetur Messiae adventus , ut potius acceleraretur .

2. Haec Exceptio è Regione adversatur Expositioni quam Judaei affigunt Isaiae , c . 53. quem locum sicut nos de Messiâ , ita isti de Populo Judaico interpretantur , ubi somniant Gentes Judaeorum innocentia convictas tandem agnituras , eos gravem hanc & diuturnam Captivitatem subiisse non obsua sed Gentium peccata .

3. Quaenam ea sint populi Judaici ( non enim de quorundam Individuorum peccatis quaestio est ) peccata , quae Messiae adventui obicem ponunt ? non sunt in legem aut ceremonialem aut judicialem istae offensae ; nam leges istae ferè ad Templum & terram sanctam pertinebant ; & si quae sint Ceremoniae quae vim suam extra limites Palaestinae obtinent , in earum observatione diligentissimos se praestant Judaei ; neque offensae sunt in primam aut secundam tabulam , sunt enim unius Dei cultores , acerrimi omnis Idololatriae hostes , nominis divini tantâ Reverentiâ tenentur , ut Tetragrammaton ne proferre audeant , solicitè Sabbata observant , & ut verbo dicam , procul absunt à Patrum suorum peccatis , qui liberos suos sacrificârunt Molocho , qui tamen septuaginta tantum annorum Captivitate istorum scelerum poenas luerunt . Neque adeò graviter peccamus , ac secerunt Majores nostri , inquit Menasseh Ben Israel , & fortasse si adhuc in patriâ essemus non ejiceremur inde . Quid itaque est quod Messias adventum suum differat ? ob Majorum nostrorum peccata nimirum ; ita Autor modo laudatus . At quis ille tam iniquus rerum Judex , cui in mentem venire potest Deum tam acerbè in liberos 1600 annorum servitute ob proavorum peccata animadversurum , qui jam olim cavit ne dicerent Judaei amplius , Patres comedisse Omphacem & dentes filiorum obstupefactos , sed unumquemque iniquitatem suam luiturum , eorúmque qui Omphacem comederent dentes obstupefactum iri : Praeterea quî fit ut qui de Messiae adventu post commissa haec peccata prophetârunt , de eodem tamen adventûs tempore locuti sint ?

4. Quomodò dici potest Messiae adventum ob Judaeorum peccata differri , cùm disertis verbis praedictum sit ob gravia populi delicta Urbem & Templum post Messiae adventum deletum iri , Dan. 9.26 .

5. Quomodò ista promissio conditionalis dici potest atque adeò incerta , cui certum Tempus , scil . septuaginta Hebdomadae , definitur ?

6. E contra stant Veterum Rabbinorum & Doctorum Talmudicorum testimonia , quos laudatos vide apud Raymundum in Pugione fidei . Illi enim scriptum reliquerunt Temporibus Messiae homines fore caninâ Impudentiâ , Asininâ Contumaciâ , ferinâ crudelitate , & quod Messias venturus esset cùm jam sceleratissimus esset & deploratissimus populi Judaici status . Sed nec rectae Rationi nec S. Scripturae consentaneum est Messiae adventum ob populi peccata prorogari ; eum enim praecipuè in finem venturus erat , ut genus humanum ad bonam frugem , resipiscentiam , & veram Dei cognitionem perduceret ; Jer . 31.31 , 32 , &c. Mal . 1.4 , 5 , 6. Peccata itaque Judaeorum quae in hunc usque diem irae divinae fomes & pabulum extiterunt , non alia sunt quàm quòd respuerint ( & adhuc respuunt ) & cruci suffixerint Jesum nostrum Deum in secula benedictum ; cùm tamen se fuisse verum illum Messiam , vitâ , doctrinâ , resurrectione , miraculis demonstraverit .

Atque ita Argumenta è sacris Literis petita , ex multis pauca ab omnibus Judaeorum exceptionibus vindicavimus .

4. Quartum atque ultimum Argumentum à Ratione sic instituo . An Messias Propheta ille quem Moses praedixit Deum olim illius similem suscitaturum fuisse , quem Prophetae docent & Judaei credunt fore magnum Gentium Doctorem , cujus diebus Deus promisit se novum foedus cum domo Israelis pacturum , An Inquam Messias ille legem Mosaicam abrogare debuerit necne , impraesentiarum non quaeritur , id pro certo habeo Legem usque ad Messiae adventum durare opportuisse , Judaeíque ab ultimo suo Prophetâ Malachiâ ejus meminisse jubentur . Itaque cùm Deus luculentè demonstraverit mentem suam de abolendâ lege cultúque Mosaico , certissimo argumento est Messiam venisse ad aliam legem condendam cui totus mundus subdatur . Cum autem Lex haec aut Judicialis aut Ceremonialis sit , nullum esse potest luculentius divinae Voluntatis de eâ abolendâ Judicium , quàm dissipatio istius Reipublicae & Populi ad quem spectabant leges istae Judiciales , atque excidium Urbis & Templi , à quibus maxima atque potissima pars Ceremoniarum dependit , ita ut ( quod in cultu Mosaico praecipuum erat ) per 1600 plus minus annos nullum oblatum suerit sacrificium .

Atque hoc modo mentem suam tam apertè significavit Deus , ut non solùm Chrysostomus , & Sozomenus , verùm etiam Ammianus Marcellinus , homo parùm Christianus scribat . Judaeos in aedificatione Templi , quod sub Juliani auspiciis aggressi sunt , slammarum globulis ad fundamenta erumpentibus impeditos fuisse . Quo nihil potuit significantius de coelo proferri , Deum cultum istum Judaicum reviviscere nolle , ac proinde Messiam venisse . Potuissem & quinti Argumenti loco attexere , olim apud Judaeos fuisse quendam in quo omnes Prophetiae & praedictiones quae Messiam spectant plenissimè consummatae sunt , sed cum hujus rei disquisitio integram dissertationem jure oprimo vendicare poterit , missam facio , & ex dictis concludo , Messiam in S. Scripturâ promissum olim venisse .

FINIS .

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A Discourse of the Use of REASON in Matters of Religion : shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to Right Reason ; against Enthusiasts and Deists . Written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rush , late Lord Bishop of Dromore in Ireland , and translated into English , with Annotations upon it , By Hen . Hallywell . Printed for Walter Kettilby , &c.