theless I obtained mercy, although I did it ignorantly through unbelief," or, Notwithstanding I did it ignorantly &c. Ye read the words ordinarily thus, For I did it ignorantly; as if ignorance were the reason of his conversion, by way of excuse: but the Greek or which you translate for, may be read, although. As in Luke xxiii. 40, "Fearest thou not God," saith the thief on the cross to his fellow, "seeing, (or although) thou art in the same condemnation?"* So Acts i. 17, " Who," speaking of Judas, "was guide to them that took Jesus, although he was numbered with us:" ye read it ordinarily for, but it should he rather rendered although, for it is the same Neither can it be truly translated for, by way of extenuation, it being an aggravation rather: for sins of ignorance are of two sorts: either such as are simple ignorance; or of prave disposition. Simple ignorance doth excuse; but ignorance of prave, or ill disposition doth aggravate. Such was Paul's ignorance :† for, says he, I did it ignorantly

OTL.

* Οτι εν τω αυτω κριματι ει, Luke xxiii. 40. Οτι κατηριθμημενος ην ovv nμv, Acts i. 17. Vulg. annumerabatur enim nobiscum, quasi esset ratio cur iste se ducem præbuerit illis qui Christum capiebant, cum contrarium velit apostolus, hoc modo, ille Judas a diabolo et carne sua seductus eo pervenit dementiæ, ut suum dominum turpiter prodiderit, quamvis cum aliis maximis ab eo sit affectus beneficiis, tum vel hoc inprimis ornatus, quod in numerum et collegium apostolerum erat cooptatus.-Tarnov. exercit. bibl. 188, 189.

† Paulus cum verbum de Christo prædicato audiret, nolebat credere, sed repugnabat, ut alii pharisæi, licet hic eis fervidius, fecit enim ea quæ sunt infidelitatis; hoc est, non tantum habuerit fidei vacuitatem, sed etiam malorum operum plenitudinem: quo spectat quod vox απιστίας sape includat aπav imо repugnantiam. Ignorantia facti et circumstantiæ excusat, in tantum, non in totum, sed Paulus peccavit e、 ignorantia juris, quæ non excusat. Nam Paulus se vocat peccatorem primum seu præcipuum, et misericordiam Dei prædicat, quæ, quo peccatum majus, eo et ipsa major. quamvis igitur Paulus pharisæus, cum scire omnino posset et deberet, Jerosolymis vivens, Christi doctrinam esse divinam, quippe tot miraculis, confirmatam, ipsumque esse mundi salvatorem in V. Test. promissam, tamen oculos ad tantam lucem claudens, volens illam ignorabit quam habere poterat, si non restitisset præfracte; et jam id admirans dicebat, gratiam nihilominus sibi esse factam, quantumvis ignorans fecerit illa sua incredulitate, Idem 1106, 1107, &c. quomodo igitur per orɩ vel quia, ignorantia potest constitui causæ ? quum extraordinaria præter Dei voluntatem nullam habeant, saltem quod nos sciamus, causam. Paulus enim hic constituitur eos voluπwo omnium qui sunt credituri, confer, v. 15, 16. Et hic versu 16 est causa cur deus Paulus converterit dia TOUTO si enim or vertis causaliter, tum ignorantia et incredulitas erunt causo remissionis peccatorum, et proinde omnis qui peccat ex incredulitate et ignorantia, ut Judæi, Act. xxxvii. 13, 27; 1 Cor. ii. 6, gratiam consequitur, quod tamen falsum est, Idem, exercit. bibl. page 193, 189.

in unbelief. He doth not barely say, I did it ignorantly; but ignorantly in unbelief: which is the worst disposition, and that doth aggravate.

Besides, ignorance is either such as is invincible, and cannot be helped; or such as is wilful and may be helped: such was Paul's ignorance, for he stood by, and held the clothes of those that stoned Stephen. There was enough done and said before him to convince him of Christ, and therefore his ignorance was rather aggravating.

Yea, and as Tarnovius doth well observe, Paul in this Scripture doth not go about to extenuate, but aggravate his sin. Witness the precedent, and following words: in the precedent words, says he, "I was a blasphemer,” and “a persecutor," and "injurious. In the following words, "whereof I am chief," &c.

Besides, the conversion of Paul was miraculous, and not to be laid on the ordinary cause of ignorance: and if he were therefore converted because ignorant, then all that are ignorant should be converted; but not so, we see the contrary. The words therefore, are not to be read with for, but with an although, or with a notwithstanding, thus: I was a blasphemer, injurious, persecutor, nevertheless I obtained mercy, although I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And will the Lord save a particular person with a notwithstanding, and will he not save a people, his people with a notwithstanding all their guilt and sin?

God keeps the same method in giving out the benefits that do come by Christ, as in giving out of Christ himself. Now for Christ himself: the first promise that was given of him, was given with a notwithstanding, Notwithstanding the great sin that Adam and Eve committed in the fall, yet, says the Lord, "The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head."

Thus in the types of Christ; there were three great types of him in the wilderness: the manna, the brazen serpent, and the rock but though all these were types, yet the rock especially and therefore in 1 Cor. x. 4, says the apostle, "And that rock was Christ." He had said before, they did all eat the same spiritual meat; yet he doth not say, And that meat was Christ, or that manna was Christ: but having said, They all drank of the same spiritual rock, he addeth,

And that rock was Christ. Why? but because the rock and water was a special type of Christ. Now if we look into the history, we shall find, that the waters of the rock, whereby Israel were saved from death, was given with a notwithstanding they murmured, and sinned much through unbelief; yet the Lord struck the rock, and waters came forth like honey; yea, and the apostle tells us that the rock followed them, they did not follow the rock, but the rock went after them. And when Christ himself came into the world, ye may read in Luke iii. what a pack of wicked men were then in Judea that were in office; Pontius Pilate, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas; yet then, even then did Christ come notwithstanding all the malice of those tyrants and times. And if ye look into Isa. lvii. 17, ye may read a clear proof of all this, "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart." What then? "I have seen his ways," verse 18, "I will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners.' All this is spoken of a people, as well as of a particular perHere is mercy, here is love, here is pardon with a notwithstanding. So that God doth sometimes save his people with a notwithstanding all their sins. That is the first reason.

son.

Again, if God should not shew mercy to his people with a notwithstanding; how should the glory of his mercy appear? If a physician should only cure a man that hath the head-ache or tooth-ache; one that hath taken cold, or some small disease; it would not argue any great skill and excellency in the physician. But when a man is nigh unto death, hath one foot in the grave, or is, in the eye of reason, past all recovery; if then the physician cure him, it argues much the skill and excellency of that physician. So now, if God should only cure, and save a people that were less evil and wicked; or that were good indeed, where should the excellency of mercy appear? But when a people shall be drawing on, lying bed-rid, as it were, and the Lord out of his free love, for his own name's sake, shall rise, and cure such an unworthy people, this sets out the glory of his mercy. Read therefore, and consider what is said in Ps. lxxxvii. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee: but rather,

according to the Hebrew, in thee, O thou city of God.* What are those glorious things? Verse 4, I will make mention of Rahab, and Babylon, to them that know me: Rahab signifies, pride and insolence; for Egypt dealt proudly and insolently with the people of God; Babylon also oppressed them sorely, and held them in captivity; yet, says the Lord, I will make mention of Egypt and Babylon to them that know me. Yea, Philistia, and Tyre, and Ethiopia; men and people that were very wicked, shall be found with the saints; the Lord will take special notice of them, as of those in Zion. What then? Then glorious things shall be spoken in thee. Mercy is never glorious, but when it is rich; it is never rich, but when it is free; and the more free it is, and works with a notwithstanding, the more glorious it is. Now God, who is the God of glory, will have his mercy, which is his glory, made glorious; and therefore, though the sin of a people be exceeding great, and very heinous, yet he will sometimes save them for his own name's sake, with a notwithstanding all their sins.

If God doth sometimes save a people with a notwithstanding all their sin: then it is possible, I see nothing in the word contrary to it, but that England, Scotland, Ireland, may yet be saved, with an outward salvation, notwithstanding all our fears, notwithstanding all our sins. The Lord saved Israel, brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, notwithstanding all their rebellion. The Lord saved Lot out of Sodom, notwithstanding he saw what he would do with his two daughters afterward. The Lord saved Israel out of Babylon, notwithstanding that they were loth to depart, and were grown exceeding vile and very wicked there. The Jews were a people that were under the law; indeed they were saved by the same covenant of grace that we are, and by Jesus Christ as we are, yet were under the law, for God dealt with them in a more legal way and manner than he doth deal by us. And did the Lord's grace and free love so strive upon them, as to save them with a notwithstanding, and shall not his grace and love now strive upon his gospelpeople, to save, and deliver them with a notwithstanding ? Were they under the law, and yet saved by grace? Did the Lord save the Mosaical Israel, for his own name's sake, with * gloriosa dicta in te.-Ar. Mont.

a notwithstanding; and shall he not save christian Israel, in a way of free love, with a notwithstanding also? Surely the Lord is as full of grace now, in the times of the New Testament, as ever he was in the times of the Old Testa

ment.

But we are a people that have been much defiled with the superstitions of the former times, and the idolatry thereof. And was not Israel so in the land of Egypt? read Ezek. xx. Oh, but since the Lord hath been pleased to come among us, and make a tender, and offer of reformation, we have been unwilling to it.

True, but were not Israel unwilling to go out of the land of Egypt?

But we are not only unwilling, but we have risen up against, and murmured, and chidden with those that would have been our reformers.

And did not Israel chide with Moses?

Oh, but we have sinned worse than they, for we have sinned greatly in the face of all those glorious mercies, which God hath shewed of late among us.

And I pray consider it, was it not thus with Israel? It is said in the verse precedent; They rebelled at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Or, as in the Hebrew, even in the Red Sea:* when the waters stood like walls on both sides of them; when they saw those walls of waters that never people saw before, and saw the power, the infinite power of God leading them through on dry land; then did they rebel, at the sea, even in the sea; and yet for all this the Lord saved them, he saved them with a notwithstanding all this. And I say, shall the Lord put forth so much of grace upon a people, that were under the law; and not put forth much more of his grace upon those that are under the gospel? O England, England, I cannot write thee lost or forsaken; thou mayest yet be saved, I speak of outward salvation, thou mayest yet be saved, notwithstanding all thy fears, and all thy sins.

Din' n'y. Græc. Και παρεπικριναν αναβαινοντες εν τη ερυθρα Jalaoon. Vulg. lat. in mare. Hieron. in mari rubro; erant in grandi et præsenti, et inevitabili discrimine constituti. nam Egyptii a tergo, montibus impediebantur ne vel ad dextram vel ad sinistram declinare, mari vero ne progredi possent occludebantur: hisce augustiis inclusi murmurabant et rebellabant ubi potissimum divinæ bonitatis memoria vigere debet.-Muscul. in Nas.