can bestow virtue but do it not, they are not good and gracious; for if they cannot render men good, neither can they profit them; fince without virtue nothing can be good or profitable. To the fame purpose is the twenty-fecond differtation of Maximus Tyrius, entitled, whether any one can be made good by God; in which there are very many things worthy of attention, but too long to be transcribed. These things he borrowed from his master Plato, in whofe Menon is extant this notable differtation; whether in the whole of his prefent discourse, we have properly enquired into, and made it appear, that virtue is neither obtained by nature, nor by teaching, but by divine appointment. See Clemens Alexandrius, ftromat lib. 5. p. 588.

LIV. Nature itself and man's confcience teach him these two things: ft. Our inability for virtue. 2dly, The all-fufficiency of God, whereby he is the fountain and the author of all true good. Of the former Epictetus apud Arrianum, lib. 2. c. 11. fays, the beginning of philofophy to those who enter into it by the gate as they ought, is a fenfe of their own impotence and inability. Of the latter, Maximus Tyrius Differt. 22. We are not to imagine, that any good can befal men but what comes from God: as there is no good to men which derives not its original from God.

LV. From those generals, the Heathen themselves have proved these more particular propofitions: 1ft, That to the acquifition and practice of virtue, men stand in need of divine assistance and grace. Hierocles, a Pythagorean philofopher has excellently taught this in these words: We are not so much

as

to preconceive, that virtuous actions are fo in our power as to be performed without divine aid: we ftand in need of the affiftance of God, both for efcaping evil and acquiring good. 2dly, That from a fenfe of our own impotence, we are to ask it of God, Epictet. apud Arrianum, lib. 2. c. 18. Noble is the ftruggle and divine the enterprise, the fubject a kingdom, liberty, happinefs, calm of mind unruffled by paffions. Are all concerned? therefore remember God, call him in for thy affiftant, thy affociate. See alfo Seneca, Epift. 10. and 41. and Marc. Antonin. lib. 2. § 40. 3dly, That we are to thank God for it, Epictet. apud Arrian. lib. 4. c. 4. Then I finned, now I do not, THANKS BE to God. LVI. But they did not imagine, that this divine afsistance confifted only in moral fuafion, or in prefenting fuch objects whereby a man may be excited to virtuous actions; but in divine fuggeftions, aids and infpirations, as the emperor Antonine fpeaks, lib. 1. S. 17: who, in the fame place, declares, that he had a good disposition of mind from the Gods, which he afcribes

scribes to their beneficence: lib. 9. §. 40. he mentions their co-operation; for, if they can at all co-operate with men, they alfo can in this, namely, in the practice of virtue. But if afhould except, that thefe relate to things in our own power, he anfwers, who has told thee that the Gods do not affift even in thefe? Set about asking these things of the Gods by prayer, and you will fee the confequence.

ny

LVII. And they maintained, that the fame divine aid was fo neceflary to virtue, that even the best disposed fouls could not be without it. Maxim. Tyr. Differt. 22. p. 228. fays, "but they who have acquired the very best natural difpofition of foul, halting between the higheft virtue and the loweft vice, ftand in need of the divine aid, to give the proper bias and direction to the better fide. For their natural weakness makes them eafily take the worst path. This by means of pleasures and lufts, flatters even well-difpofed fouls, and hurries them into the fame paths of vice.

LVIII. It is therefore really a fhame that heathen writers have entertained more humble fentiments of the infirmity and inability of our nature for good, and clearer conceptions of the divine affifting grace, and have faid finer things about imploring it by prayer, than thofe profeffors of the excellency of the Chriftian religion, who ought to have put a due value on the holinefs of true virtue. Thus they who are Pagans, will, in the day of judgment, rife up against thofe falfe Christians, the ungrateful enemies of the grace of God, no less to their condemnation, than the queen of the South, to that of the unbelieving Jews.

LIX. Moreover, feeing the Spirit of God, the author of holinefs, is highly generous and noble, and therefore by David Pfal. li. 12. called free (ingenuous) Spirit, hence that holiness, with which he adorns the elect is alfo fuch; as highly furpaffes all the painted virtue of the Gentiles, in whatever manner it displays itself, and all the fcrupulous diligence of the Scribes and Pharifees. Which if it does not exceed these it is not acknowledged to be genuine holiness by Christ our Lord, Mat.

V. 20.

LX. When the children of God recollect their glorious and heavenly pedigree, they endeavour to excel others both in a beautiful difpofition of foul and manner of life, Pfalm xlv. 13. "The king's daughter," that is the daughter of the heavenly Father, who is also the Bride of the king's son, every believing foul" is all glorious," adorned with a holinefs not only glorious to herself, but alfo to the Father and the Bridegroom, and is the beginning of a heavenly glory. and that chiefly within not only when the appears abroad and

prefents

prefents herself to the view of men, but also when she fits in the inner bed-chamber in the fecret exercises of religion, in which she in private pleases the Father and the Bridegroom, who having a regard to the inward man, she above all endeavours to keep that pure and chaste. Her clothing is of gold; in comparison of which whatever excellency natural men were ever poffeffed of, is but a fhining vanity: nay it was wrought; gold curioufly beautified with various refemblances, which reprefents the perfections of God himfelf; and of different colours, on account of the different yet harmoniously correfponding graces of the Holy Spirit: or, of neddle work of the phrygian embroiderers, or rather the work of the cunnning workman, mentioned Cant. vii. 1. Nor is the spouse only beautiful within, but also without; holding forth the word of life, Phil. ii. 16. fhe practifes charity, glorifies Christ, edifies her neighbour; and in this manner fhe is brought unto the king worthy to be presented to him. This is the only way, by which we are to endeavour to obtain familiarity with him, and the fweeteft intercourse of the chafteft love, both on earth and in heaven.

LXI. That which we have in Pfal. cx. 3. is not very different from this encomium: "Thy people, O Jefus Christ, which "were given thee by the Father, purchafed and redeemed by "thee, who acknowledge thee for their Lord, and are bound to "thee by a military oath, is extremely willing, being devoted to

thy fervice with the greatest readiness of foul, alacrity, incli"nation and voluntary obedience. Nor are they willing only, "but willingness itself in the abstract; nay, willingnesses in the "plural number, the highest and most excellent willingness: all "which add an emphasis, and fuch it is or in the day of thy "[valour] power, in which thy generous spirit laying hold on "them, animates them to fome grand and bold enterprize. Then "they go forth in the beauties of holiness, by which they are << a terror to the devil, a delight to God and angels, and a mu"tual edification to one another."

LXII. These brave soldiers of Christ are not without their ambition, which Paul describes, 2 Cor. v. 9. Aiò nai Qiλorqueda Évágta auravα, wherefore we [make it our ambition] labour to be accepted of him. God never beholds himself without the highest complacency; above all he is delighted with his own perfections, and with holiness, which is the glory of them. When he fees any delineation of this in his creatures, there he in a manner stands ftill, and delights his eyes with fo pleasing an object, and declares by words and actions, that nothing can be more acceptable to him. And this is the holy ambition of believers, fo to behave

behave in the whole course of their life, and to have their mind fo difpofed, as in both to please God. Of old, Satan infpired a wicked ambition into our first parents, to labour after the image of God in a falfe way, by attempting what was forbidden them. But the heavenly Spirit is the author of a more generous ambition, which stirs the man up, to imitate God in the habits of his foul, and the actions of his life, that he may, upon earth, prefent fomething before God, in which he may take pleasure, as in a lively image of himself. Nothing can be more noble than this holy ambition.

LXIII. What is faid Canticles i. 9. is very remarkable, "I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharoah's chariot." For the understanding this paffage, we are to explain, ift, Why the church is compared to a horse. 2dly, Why to an Egyptian horfe. 3dly, Why to a horse in the king's chariots. As to the firft: 1. An horfe fuffers itself to be eafily managed and led, not only with fpur and bridle, but alfo with the whip. Thus Strabo writes, lib. 17. that the "Maffæfilians and Lybians, made use of horses so swift and manageable, that they could be governed by the whip only :" hence Martial fays, lib. 9. Epigr. 23. " Et Maffylæum virgo gubernet equum. And manage a Maffylean horfe with a rod." Wherefore the very learned Bochart, Hierozoic, lib. 2. c. 6. refers the Hebrew word op to a word used by the Arabs, which fignifies to manage and govern. See what Lipfius has collected, Centur. 3. ad Belgas, Epift. 56. concerning the nature, fidelity, and natural affection of horses. Such also are the godly: for as they have renounced their own will, fo they are docile and manageable at the leaft command of God, faying, Speak Lord, for thy fervant heareth. 2. An horse is a very strong creature, and hence it is, Jer. viii. 16. and xlvii. 3. frong. Whence the very learned perfon ingeniously conjectures, that Epirus, a country famous for horfes, had its name. In like manner, the godly "go in the ftrength of the Lord God," Pf. lxxi. 16: they can do all things through Chrift which ftrengtheneth them," Phil. iv. 13. And perform fuch things in overcoming the world and conquering fin, as far exceed the itrength of other men. 3dly, An horfe is a generous animal, to which God himself gives an illuftrious encomium as an emblem of warlike prowefs, Job xxxix. 22, &c. Bochart 1. c. chap. 8. has given us a very diftinct explication of that paffage. And certainly there is fomething heroical in the godly, which, whenever Chrift, falvation and piety are concerned, discovers itself in a manner, that may astonish those who behold it. For the

,אביד called

aged,

aged, the young, the helpless of both fexes have been often seen to behave with fuch courage and bravery for Chrift, and undergo with fo much refolution, the moft cruel deaths in the caufe of religion, that it was evident, they were actuated by a fpirit above that which is human. And they were "as migh ty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the ftreets in the battle; and they did fight because the Lord was with them, and the riders on horfe were confounded." Zech. X. 5.

LXIV. Moreover, Egypt was formerly famous for its horses, XIV. of which we frequently read in Scripture, 2 Kings xviii. 24. If. xxxi. 1. Nay, the law itself prohibited the kings of Judah too much to multiply their horfes, leaft, by that means, they fhould bring the people back to Egypt, Deut. xvii. 16. However Solomon had his horfes from thence in very great numbers, 1 Kings x. 28, 29. 2 Chron. ix. 28. We may then infer from this, that they were extraordinary beyond others. But to fuch Egyptian horfes the church is compared, to fhew her excellent courage and boldnefs: for the Egyptian horse was the fymbol of this, and in their enfigns they preferred it to the lion, as Clemens Alexandrinus Stromat. lib. 5. p. 567. informs us: "for of ftrength and force the lion is their fymbol, but of courage and boldness the horse."

LXV. Nor are they compared to this alone, but also to the horfes in king Pharoah's chariot, which doubtlefs were the most excellent, and felected from his whole kingdom. For as the royal chariot excelled, fo who can doubt, that the king's horses excelled all others? All these comparisons are adapted to set off the nobleness of Chriftian piety.

LXVI. Nay, God does not ftop here: but as if it was too mean to compare his elect to a company of horfes in Pharoah's chariot, he promises to prepare them "as the horse of Zech. x. 3

his majesty, his goodly horfe in the battle," Than which nothing could be fpoken with greater magnificence. The holy person is really as a horfe prepared for the battle of the Lord, and the horse of the fupreme commander of the divine majesty, which, on account of its ftrength and valour, is worthy to be mounted by the king of heaven himself. Where fore even he who had his name written on his vefture and on his thigh, The King of kings and Lord of lords, was seen by John fitting on a white horse, Rev. xix. 11. by which is denoted the genuine profeffors of truth, and fincere followers of holiness, with whom Jefus fights, and in whom he rests and is glorified.

VOL. II.

D

LXVI