xxvi. 8. SERM. it is needful or opportune. As there was of old an LXXII. Abimelech among the Philistines, whom God by Gen. xx. 3. special warning deterred from commission of sin; a divine Melchisedeck among the Canaanites; a disExod. xviii. creet and honest Jethro in Midian; a very religious and virtuous Job in Arabia; who by complying with God's grace, did evidence the communication thereof in several nations; so it is not unreasonable to suppose the like cause now, although we cannot by like attestation certify concerning the particular effects Kab aur thereof. We may at least discern and shew very *ain pro-conspicuous footsteps of divine grace, working in φία τοὺς Ελε part, and producing no despicable fruits of moral Clem. Alex. virtue, (of justice and honesty, temperance and so ἐδικαίου ποτέ ληνας. briety, benignity and bounty, courage and constancy in worthy enterprises, meekness, patience, modesty, prudence, and discretion, yea, of piety and devotion in some manner,) even among pagans, which if we do not allow to have been in all respects so complete, as to instate the persons endued with them, or practisers of them, in God's favour, or to bring them to salvation"; yet those qualities and actions (in degree, or in matter at least, so good and so conformable to God's law) we can hardly deny to have been the gifts of God, and the effects of divine grace; they at least themselves acknowledged so much; for, Nulla sine Deo mens bona est, No mind is good without God, said Seneca"; and, Θεία μοίρα φαίνεται παραγι " Mortalem vitam honestare possunt, æternam conferre non possunt. Prosper in Collat. cap. 26. (Prodesse ad salutem. Aug. Prosper, Fulgent. &c.) Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit. Cic. de Nat. Deorum ii. sub fin. • Sen. Ep. 73. -Quæ secundum justitiæ regulam non solum vituperare non LXXII. γνομένη ἡ ἀρετὴ, οἷς παραγίνεται, Virtue appears to pro- SERM. ceed from a divine dispensation to them who partake of it, said Socrates P: and, Aî äpioтai púσeis, àμφισβητήσιμοι ἐν μετρίῳ τῆς ἄκρας ἀρετῆς πρὸς τὴν ἐσχάτην μοχθηρίαν καθωρμισμέναι, δέονται ξυναγωνίστου Θεοῦ καὶ ξυλ λήπτορος τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ θάτερα τὰ κρείττω ροπῆς καὶ χειραγωγίας. The best natured souls being constituted in the middle, between the highest virtue and extreme wickedness, do need God to be their succourer and assistant in the inclining and leading them to the better side; saith Max. Tyr. xxii. St. Austin himself, who seems the least favourable in his judgment concerning their actions and state, who calls their virtues but images and shadows of virtue, (non veras, sed verisimiles,) splendid sins; acknowledges those virtuous dispositions and deeds to be the gifts of -Dei doGod, to be laudable, to procure some reward, to avail so far, that they, because of them, shall receive a more tolerable and mild treatment from divine justice; which things considered, such persons do at least, by virtue of grace imparted to them, obtain some part of salvation, or an imperfect kind of salvation, which they owe to our Lord, and in regard whereto he may be called in a sort their Saviour. But although the torrent of natural pravity hath prevailed so far, as that we cannot assign or nominate any (among those who have lived out of the pale) who certainly or probably have obtained salvation, possumus, sed etiam merito recteque laudamus. Aug. de Spir. et Lit. cap. 27. P Plat. Menon. ad finem. Tolerabilius puniuntur. Minus Fabricius quam Catilina punietur, &c.—non veras virtutes habendo, sed a veris virtutibus non plurimum deviando. Aug. na. Epist. 130. Aug. SERM. yet doth it not follow thence, that a sufficient grace LXXII. was wanting to them. The most universal practice Gen. vi. 3. 20. Isa. v. 4. contrary to the intents of grace doth not evince a defect of grace. For we see that the same cause hath in a manner universally overborne and defeated other means and methods designed and dispensed by God for the instruction and emendation of mankind. God's Spirit did long strive with the inhabitants of the old world: yet no more than one family was bettered or saved thereby. God by his good Spirit Neh. ix. 20. instructed the Israelites in the wilderness, as Nehemiah saith; yet no more than two persons did get into Canaan: that people afterward had afforded to them great advantages of knowledge and excitements to piety, (so that God intimates, that he could not have done more for them, in that regard, than he had done.) Yet, There is none that understandPsal. xiv. eth, or seeketh after God, was a complaint in the best times. The pagans had the means of knowing Rom. i. 21. God, as St. Paul affirmeth, yet generally they grew vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; from which like cases and examples we may infer, that divine grace might be really imparted, although no effect correspondent to its main design were produced. Neither, because we cannot allege any evident instances of persons converted or saved by virtue of this grace, (this parcior occultiorque gratia, more sparing and secret grace, as the good writer de Vocatione Gentium calls it,) are we forced to grant there were none such; but as in Israel when Elias said, the children of Israel have 1 Kings forsaken God's covenant, thrown down his altars, and slain his prophets with the sword; and I, I xix. 14, 18. LXXII. only am left; there were yet in Israel, living close- SERM. ly, seven thousand knees, who had not bowed to Baal: so among the generations of men, commonly overgrown with ignorance and impiety, there might, for all that we can know, be divers persons indiscernible to common view, who, by complying with the influences of God's grace, have obtained competently to know God, and to reverence him; sincerely to love goodness, and hate wickedness; with an honest heart, to observe the laws of reason and righteousness, in such a manner and degree which God might accept; so that the grace afforded might not only sufficere omnibus in testimonium, (suffice to convince all men,) but quibusdam in remedium, (to correct and cure some,) as that writer de Voc. Gent. speaks. The consideration of God's nature and providence doth serve further to persuade the truth of this assertion. If God be rich in mercy and Psal. cxlv. bounty toward all his creatures, as such, (and such he frequently asserts himself to be,) if he be all-present and all-provident, as he certainly is, how can we conceive him to stand as an unconcerned spectator of what men do, in affairs of this consequence? That he should be present beholding men to run precipitantly into desperate mischiefs and miscarriages, without offering to stay or obstruct them; struggling with their vices and follies, without af fording them any relief or furtherance; assaulted by strong temptations, without yielding any support or succour; panting after rest and ease, without vouchsafing some guidance and assistance toward the obtaining them? How can he see men invincibly erring and inevitably sinning, without making good what the Psalmist says of him: Good and upright Psal. xxv. 8. 9. LXXII. cvii, 9. 17. SERM. is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way; to withhold his grace in such cases seemeth inconsistent with the kind and compassionate nature of God, especially such as now it stands, being reconciled to mankind by the Mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus. He also, that is so bountiful and indulgent toward all men in regard to their Psal. ciii. 4. bodies and temporal state; who preserveth their life from destruction, who protecteth them continually cxlv. 16. from danger and mischief; who openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desires of every living thing; who satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry Acts xiv. soul with goodness; who, as St. Paul speaketh, filleth men's hearts with food and gladness; is it likely that he should altogether neglect their spiritual welfare, and leave their souls utterly destitute of all sustenance or comfort; that he should suffer them to lie fatally exposed to eternal death and ruin, without offering any means of redress or recovery? To conceive so of God seemed very unreasonable even to a pagan phiMax. Tyr. losopher: Do you think, saith Max. Tyrius, that divination, poetry, and such like things, are by divine inspiration insinuated into men's souls, and that virtue (so much better, and so much rarer a thing) is the work of moral art? You have forsooth a worthy conceit of God, who take him to be liberal in bestowing mean things, and sparing of better things. Acts xvii. He that, as St. Paul saith, giveth to all men life, breath, and all things, will he withhold from any that best of gifts, and most worthy of him to give, that grace whereby he may be able to serve him, to praise him, to glorify him, yea, to please and gratify him; Diss. 22. 25. * Η πολλοῦ ἄξιον νομίζεις τὸ θεῖον πρὸς μὲν τὰ φαῦλα καλῶς καὶ ἀφθόνως παρεσκευασμένον, πρὸς δὲ τὰ κρείττω ἄπορον. |