in fending fervants after fervants, and paffing by many offences, before he determined to deftroy and caft them out. Firft then, this cannot be understood of the faints, or of fuch as repent and are faved; for it is faid exprefly, He will deftroy them. Neither would the parable any ways have anfwered the end for which it is alledged, if these men had not been in a capacity to have done good; yea, fuch was their capacity, that Chrift faith in the prophet, What could I have done more? So that it is more than manifeft, that by this parable, repeated in three fundry evangelifts, Chrift holds forth his long-fuffering towards men, and their wickedness, to whom means of falvation being afforded, do nevertheless refift, to their own condemnation. To thefe alfo are parallel thefe fcriptures, Prov. i. 24, 25, 26. Jer. xviii. 9, 10. Mat. xviii. 32, 33, 34. Acts xiii. 46. mentation over Jeru Laftly, That there is a day of vifitation given Pr. III. to the wicked, wherein they might have been faved, and which being expired, they are fhut out from falvation, appears evidently by Chrift's lamentation Chrift's laover Jerufalem, expreffed in three fundry places, Matth. xxiii. 37. Luke xiii. 34. and xix. 41, 42. falem. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, faying; If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes! Than which nothing can be faid more evident to prove our doctrine. For, Firft, he infinuates that there was a day wherein the inhabitants of Jerufalem might have known those things that belonged to their peace. Secondly, That during that day he was willing to have gathered them, even as an ben gathereth her chickens. A familiar example, yet very fignificative in this cafe; which fhews that the offer of falvation made unto them was not in vain on his part, but as really, and with as great chearfulness and willingness, as an ben gathereth God har gathereth her chickens. Such as is the love and care of the hen toward her brood, fuch is the care of Chrift to gather loft men and women, to redeem them out of their corrupt and degenerate ftate. Thirdly, That because they refufed, the things belonging to their peace were bid from their eyes. Why were they hid? Because ye would not fuffer me to gather you; ye would not fee thofe things that were good for you, in the feafon of God's love towards you; and therefore now, that day being expired, ye cannot fee them: and, for a farther judgment, God fuffers you to be hardened in unbelief. So it is, after real offers of mercy and falvation dens, when. rejected, that mens hearts are hardened, and not before. Thus that faying is verified, To him that bath, fhall be given; and from him that bath not, fhall be taken away even that which he bath. This may feem a riddle, yet it is according to this doctrine easily folved. He hath not, because he hath loft the feafon of using it, and fo to him it is now as nothing; for Chrift ufes this expreffion, Matth. The one ta- XXV. 26. upon the occafion of the taking the one talent from the flothful fervant, and giving it to fufficient. him that was diligent; which talent was no ways lent was infufficient of itself, but of the fame nature with thofe given to the others; and therefore the Lord had reason to exact the profit of it proportionably, as well as from the reft: fo, I fay, it is after the rejecting of the day of vifitation, that the judgment of obduration is inflicted upon men and women, as Chrift pronounceth it upon the Jews out of Ifa. vi. 9. which all the four evangelists make mention of, Matth. xiii. 14. Mark iv. 12. Luke viii. 10. John xii. 40. and last of all the apostle Paul, after he had made offer of the gospel of falvation to the Jews at Rome, pronounceth the fame, Aus xxviii. 26. after that fome believed not; Well fpake the Holy Ghost, by Ifaiah the prophet, unto our fa thers, thers, faying, Go unto this people, and fay, Hearing ye fhall bear, and shall not understand; and feeing ye fball fee, and fhall not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of bearing, and their eyes have they clofed; left they =fhould fee with their eyes, and bear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. So it appears, that God would have them to fee, but they clofed their eyes; and therefore they are juftly hardened. Of this matter Cyrillus Alexandrinus upon John, lib. 6. Cyril. Alex. cap. 21. fpeaks well, anfwering to this objection. "But fome may fay, If Chrift be come into the "world, that thofe that fee may be blinded, their "blindness is not imputed unto them; but it rather "feems that Christ is the cause of their blindness, "who faith," He is come into the world, that those "that fee may be blinded. "But," faith he, "they maining in the clofing speak not rationally, who object these things unto "God, and are not afraid to call him the author of " evil. For, as the fenfible fun is carried upon our horizon, that it may communicate the gift of its "clearness unto all, and make its light fhine upon "all; yet if any one clofe his eye-lids, or willingly The eaufe "turn himself from the fun, refufing the benefit of of man's re " its light, he wants its illumination, and remains darkness, " in darkness, not through the defect of the fun, his eyes. « but through his own fault. So that the true Sun, "who came to enlighten thofe that fat in darkness, "and in the region of the fhadow of death, vifited "the earth for this caufe, that he might commu"nicate unto all the gift of knowledge and grace, "and illuminate the inward eyes of all by a fpiritual fplendor: but many reject the gift of this heavenly light freely given to them, and have closed the eyes "of their minds, left fo excellent an illumination or "irradiation of the eternal light should shine unto "them. It is not then thro' defect of the true Sun "that they are blinded, but only thro' their own ' iniquity The obftinate Jews iniquity and hardness; for, as the wife man faith, "Wisdom ii. their wickedness bath blinded them.” From all which I thus argue: If there was a day wherein the obftinate Jews had a day. might have known the things that belonged to their peace, which, because they rejected it, were hid from their eyes; if there was a time wherein Chrift would have gathered them, who, because they refused, could not be gathered; then fuch as might have been faved do actually perish, that flighted the day of God's vifitation towards them, wherein they might have been converted and faved. Prop. II Proved. But the first is true; therefore also the last. §. XXI. Secondly, That which comes in the fecond place to be proved is, That whereby God offers to work this falvation during the day of every man's vifitation; and that is, That he bath given to every man a measure of faving, fufficient, and fupernatural light and grace. This I fhall do, by God's affiftance, by fome plain and clear teftimonies of the fcripture. Proof I. First, From that of John i. 9. That was the true The light light, which lighteth every man that cometh into enlightning the world. This place doth fo clearly favour us, every man, that by fome it is called the Quakers text; for &c.- it doth evidently demonftrate our affertion; fo Obf. 1. that it scarce needs either confequence or deduction, seeing itself is a confequence of two propofitions afferted in the former verses, from which it followeth as a conclufion in the very terms of our faith. The first of these propofitions is, The life that is in him is the light of men: the fecond, The light fhineth in the darkness; and from these two he infers, and He is the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. From whence I do in fhort obferve, That this divine apostle calls Chrift the light of men, and giveth us this as one of the chief properties, at least confiderably and especially to be obferved by number of by us; feeing hereby, as he is the light, and as we walk with him in that light which he communicates to us, we come to have fellowship and communion with him; as the fame apoftle faith elsewhere, 1. John i. 7. Secondly, That this light fbineth in darkness, though the darkness comprehend it not. Thirdly, That this true light enlighteneth —Not to a every man that cometh into the world. Where the certain apostle, being directed by God's Spirit, hath care- men, but Efully avoided their captioufnefs, that would have every man. restricted this to any certain number: where every one is, there is none excluded. Next, fhould they be fo obftinate, as fometimes they are, as to fay that this [every man] is only every one of the elect; thefe words following, every man that cometh into the world, would obviate that objection. So that it is plain there comes no man into the world, whom Chrift hath not enlightened in fome measure, and in whofe dark heart this light doth not fhine; though the darkness comprebend it not, yet it fhineth there; and the nature thereof is to difpel the darkness, where men fhut not their eyes upon it. Now for what end this The light light is given, is expreffed verse 7. where John is difpelling faid to come for a witness, to bear witness to the begets faith. light, that all men through it might believe; to wit, through the light, di dur, which doth very well agree with wrds, as being the nearest antecedent, though moft tranflators have (to make it fuit with their own doctrine) made it relate to John, as if all men were to believe through John. For which, as there is nothing directly in the text, fo it is contrary to the very ftrain of the context. For, feeing Chrift hath lighted every man with this light, is it not that they may come to believe through it? All could not believe through John, because all men could not know of John's teftimony; whereas every man being lighted by this, may come there-through to believe. John fhined not darkness |