fore he calleth the men of Judah to be judges between him and his vineyard, saying, What could I have done more to my vineyard than I have done in it? And yet' (as is said) 'it brought forth wild grapes:' which was applied to those in Israel, who refused God's mercy. The same similitude is used by Christ, Matt. xxi 33.Mark xii. 1. and Luke xx. 9. where Jesus shews, how to some a vineyard was planted, and all things given necessary for them, to get them to render fruit to their master, and how the master many times waited to be merciful to them, in sending servants after servants, and passing by many offences, before he determined to destroy and cast them out. Now this cannot be understood of the saints, or of such as repent and are saved for it is said expressly, He will destroy them. Neither would the parable any way answer the end for which it is brought, if these men had not been in a capacity to have done good. Yea, such was their capacity, that Christ saith in the prophet, what could I have done more? So that it is manifest, by this parable, repeated by three Evangelists. that Christ declares his long-suffering towards those men, who when means of salvation were afforded to them, did nevertheless resist, and would not be saved.

26. Lastly, That there is a day of visitation given even to the wicked, wherein they may be saved, and which being expired they are then shut out from salvation, appears evidently by Christ's lamentation over Jerusalem, expressed in three sundry places, Matt. xxiii. 37. Luke xiii. 34. and xix. 41, 42. ' And when he was come

near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this tby day, the things that belong to thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes;' than which nothing can be more plain. For, first, he here shews, that there was a day wherein the inhabitants of Jerusalem might have known those things that belonged to their peace;' Secondly, that during that day he was willing to have gathered them even as a hen gathereth her young;' Thirdly, that because they refused 'the things belonging to their peace,' they were at length hid from their eyes.' Why were they hid? Because ye would not suffer me to gather you;' ye would not see those things that were good for you, in the season of God's love towards you, and therefore now,' that day being expired, ye cannot see them.' And for a farther judgment, God suffers you to be hardened in unbelief.

27. So it is, after they have rejected the offer of mercy, and salvation, and not before, that God hardens men's hearts. 6 And thus, to him

that hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath: he hath not, because he hath lost the season of using it, and so to him it is now as nothing. For Christ uses this expression, Matt. xxv. 26. on occasion of the taking 'the one talent' from the slothful servant: which talent was no way insufficient of itself, but of the same nature with those given to the others. And therefore the Lord had reason to exact the profit of it, proportionably, as of the rest. So (I say) it

is after rejecting the day of visitation, that the judgment of obduration is inflicted on men: as Christ pronounces it on the Jews, out of Isaiah vi. 9. which all the four Evangelists mention. Matt. xiii. 14. Mark iv. 12. Luke viii. 10. John xii. 40. And last of all, St. Paul, after he had offered salvation to the Jews at Rome, pronounces the same, Acts xxviii. 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and should be converted and I should heal them.' So it appears, that God would have had them to see, but they closed their eyes;' and therefore they were justly hardened.

28. What now remains to be proved is, That God hath given to every man during the day of his visitation, a measure of saving, sufficient light and grace. And this I shall prove, through God's assistance, by plain and clear testimonies of scripture.

·

29. First, that of St, John i. 9.‹ That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' He hath said before, The life that is in him is the light of men,' and, 'the light shineth in the darkness:' and to this he adds, He is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

30. From whence we may in short observe, that the apostle calls Christ 'the light of men.' And as he is the light, if we walk with him in that light' which he communicates to us, we come to have fellowship' and communion' with him,' as the same apostle saith elsewhere, 1 John i. 7. Secondly, That this light shineth in the darkness, though the darkness comprehend it not.' Thirdly, That this true light lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' Here the apostle carefully avoids their captiousness, who would restrain this to a certain number; for where every one is, there is none excluded.And should they say, that this 'every man' is only every one of the elect, the following words "every man that cometh into the world,' would plainly refute them. So that it is clear, there comes no man into the world, whom Christ hath not' enlightened' in some measure, and in whose dark heart the light hath not shined. Though the darkness comprehend it not,' yet it'shineth' there, and the nature thereof, is to dispel the darkness, where men shut not their eyes upon it.

31. And for what end this light is given, is expressed in verse 7, where John is said to come for a witness to bear witness to the light, that all men through it (♪ aure) might believe.'Our translators indeed (to suit their doctrine) have turned the words through him,' as if all men were to believe through John. For which, as there is nothing in the text, so it is contrary to the whole strain of the context. For seeing Christ hath lighted every man with this light, is it not, that they may come to believe through

it?" John shined not in the darkness, but this light shineth in the darkness,' that having dispelled the darkness, it may beget faith.

32. Seeing then this light is the light of Jesus Christ, and the light through which men come to believe, it needs not to be doubted, but that it is a supernatural, saving and sufficient light. It cannot be any of the natural faculties of our soul, because it is said to shine in the darkness, which darkness is no other than the natural state of man. And that this is sufficient and saving,

I

prove thus:

That which is given that all men through it may believe; that by walking in which we have fellowship with God, must be sufficient to salvation but such is this light.' Therefore it is sufficient for salvation.

Again, That which we are commanded to 'believe in, that we may become the children of the light,' must be a supernatural, sufficient, and saving principle: But we are commanded so to 'believe in this light.' Therefore, it is a supernatural, sufficient, and saving principle.

The first proposition cannot be denied: the second is Christ's own words, John xii. 36.—— 'While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light.'

33. If it be said, That by 'light' here is meant Christ's outward person, this is sufficiently answered by the words themselves, and by the verse going before, Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you;' plainly importing that when that light in which they were to believe was removed, they should lose the capacity or season of believing. Now this could not