The Good Samaritan, Part 8
And departed.] Text.
Doct. Satan having wounded and ſpoiled man ſo leaves him, hee departs from him and lets him lie, (that is our Obſervation.)
Vſe 1 Expect we therefore no better dealing at his hands: As he deales by witches, ſo by every other ſinner, when he hath brought them to the gallowes, then he runs away laughing at the ſport: God indeed caſteth downe, but withall hee raiſeth up, Hoſ 6.1. The divell hee caſteth downe, and leaves us in the ſudds, Mat. 27.4.
Vſe 2 Beware we of ſuch dealing; you that have drawne others into evill courſes, ſeeke to bring them out againe by true repentance, otherwiſe as the divell doth, ſo do you, herein you are too like him.
But how leave they him? The Text ſhewes [halfe dead.] Rhem. in loc.The Papiſts hence inferre Free-will, and heavenly life left in man, ſince his fall, whereby he hath ability to diſpoſe himſelfe towards his owne converſion. We may grant them thus much,
Doct. Man is not by his fall ſo wounded as that he is wholy dead, there is ſtill ſome portion of life remaining in him ſince his fall. What it is, and wherein it conſiſts, is now to be conſidered.
Firſt, conſider man Philoſophically, in genere Entis, in regard of his naturall abilities and endowments, (as Theophilact and Saint Auſtin do in this place) ſo there is life remaining. He hath ſtill an Immortall ſoule, endued with Ʋnderſtanding, Will, Conſcience, Memory, Affections; Capeable of divine objects; he ſtill hath apprehenſions and operations ſuteable to his nature, being able to Compare, Connect, Diſcourſe, Deduct, &c. the Image of God in him is not wholy loſt.
Conſider man in a Civill ſenſe, Politically, as he is a member of the Common-wealth; ſo he is ſtill endued with many excellent vertues; he can go, ride, buy, ſell, plant, build, &c. Acts 5.4. Was it not in thy power? &c.
Conſider man in a Spirituall ſenſe, Theologically, or as he is to be taken in Divinity, ſo he is not halfe dead (as here) but wholy dead, Coloſ. 2.13. Epheſ. 25. Nor are we dead in ſome one ſin, but dead in many ſins; the ſoule having bled to death (as it were at every joynt) being deprived of all actuall goodneſſe, and wholy unable to recover himſelf out of this miſery.
Thus Ferus on Mat. 7.16, 17. without Gods aſſiſtance mans underſtanding cannot know good, nor his will chooſe good: By which good (he ſaith) he meaneth not morall nor humane good, but the chiefe and the eternall good, which cannot be knowne and choſen without the Revelation of divine light; which ſpeech (with other ſuch like) Dominicus Sotho (in lib. Annot. in Ferum) condemns, as favouring too much Lutheraniſme.
Vſe 1 It may admoniſh us not to think above what is fit, as concerning mans nature; that there is either leſſe life or more in it, then indeed there is. The Papiſt and their followers too much advance it, and many of us too much debaſe it, while we conceit our ſelves ſo wounded as that there is no life at all remaining. True it is, we have no power to do any gracious acts, as of our ſelves; yet we have power to apply our ſelves unto the Miniſtery; to heare what is delivered; to apply our underſtanding to that we heare; to conſult, to compare that which is delivered with the Scriptures; which things a ſtock, or ſtone cannot do.Velle credere eſt gratiae, ſed poſſe credere eſt naturae. Aug. So that it is an erronious and a falſe conceit to judge of man as of a block in the worke of his converſion: For though man concurre not to the working of his own Salvation as a cauſe, or agent; yet he may and muſt concurre as a Subject. God only worketh that which is good in man, yet man of himſelfe hath a generall power to will and work: So that God worketh not without man, but in man, and by man as his Inſtrument,Opus pium quatenus opus a libero Arbitrio eſt, tantum quatenus pium a ſola gratia eſt, Bellar. lib. 6. de gratio. Aug. Cont. Pelag. Act. 3. which receiveth the whole activity in good things from the firſt moover. The naturall power of willing and thinking is ours, the goodneſſe and holineſſe is Gods.
Freewill in good actions is as the Materia, Grace working as the Forma; now as the matter without the Form is rude and ſhapeleſſe: So Freewill is altogether rude and deformed, if it be not framed and faſhioned by grace comming thereunto. The one is as the Beaſt, the other as the Rider. Now as the Beaſt is guided by the hand of the Rider, that it may go in the way to the Riders pleaſure: So Freewill is governed by grace to walke aright in the waies of God.
Be we than rightly informed of theſe things, and ſo farre as God hath given ability and Freewill, co-work we with God. David calls God his helper, now (ſaith Saint Auſtin) Adjuvari non dicitur qui nihil ſponte conatur: He is not ſaid to be helped who never concurred with his indeavour. And Beza on theſe words of the Apoſtle, We are labourers together with GOD, 1 Cor. 3.9. Inferrs that we doe gratiae primae foreign, and hee that denies it, denies that efficacie of the firſt grace.
But it is with us as it was with Naaman, who comming to the Prophet to be cured of his Leproſie, and being willed by him to waſh ſeven times in Iordan, he ſtomacks the matter and breakes out into a Paſſion; I had thought (ſaid he) he would have come to me and have called on the name of his God, and laid his hands on me and ſo I ſhould have been healed: Three things he expected: 1. That the Prophet ſhould come to him: 2. Call on his God. 3. Lay his hands on him and cure him: But all this while nothing is thought on to be done by himſelfe. So is it with us in the cure of our leprous ſoules, God muſt do all, he muſt deliver us, if he will have us without our pains.
But fruſtra oramus pro quibus non laboramus (ſaith St. Austin) In vaine we pray for that bleſſing, which our indeavours never ſeek; God ſends his Angell to ſtirre the waters, but no Angell to dragg us into the Poole; we muſt uſe thoſe powers God hath beſtowed on us, and ſtep in our ſelves if we would be healed. Non trunci aut ſtipites ſumus (ſaith Beza on 2 Pet. 1.5.) we are not blocks and ſtones but reaſonable creatures, and God workes on us accordingly. Put caſe two men ſhould go together; both have Freewill, and power which way to take, to the Taverne, or to the Temple, one will to the Church, the other to the Ale-houſe, which of theſe two thinke you ſhall ſooneſt be converted? So here, uſe the meanes, follow that, and however thou canſt not doe any thing meritorious, to deſerve at Gods hand, yet thou inviteſt him to ſhew thee mercy, as the child doth that ſtands at the Table waiting at his Fathers elbow with a Trencher in his hand: Thou art in the way of preferment. Nor can I thinke God will ever leave himſelfe without witneſſe in ſuch a caſe.
Vſe 2 This ſerves to diſcover to every naturall man his condition: Think not thy ſelfe to be alive to God, becauſe thou art able to do this or that action; as to heare, read, pray, do juſtice, deale righteouſly with man; for ſuch a power ſtil remains, ſince the fall: But to do theſe things as thou oughteſt,Vide Calv. in Gen 9.6. Siquis obijciat im…ginem, &c▪ is impoſſible, till thou getteſt a new nature: till then thou art but like a walking ghoſt, which ſeemeth to do the actions of a living man; it walks, it talks, &c. yet it doth theſe things not as a living man: Not from any inward principle, not from the motion of life within, nor is it conſtant in the worke, it only makes an apparition, and ſo vaniſheth.
Vſe 3 Nor may we be out of hope, ſo as to deſpaire either of our ſelves or others, ſeeing man is not every way ſo dead, as one whoſe ſoule is departed from his body.
Thoſe that are naturally dead underſtand nothing, but in man naturally there is a life of Ʋnderſtanding remaining (though marvellouſly corrupted) by which he may know that he is dead: Thoſe naturals dead cannot ſtirre nor walke to the meanes of life, as theſe may; thoſe cannot heare, and receive what we ſay, as theſe can: So that you ſee we muſt call on them, you, to attend ſtill unto the meanes.
True it is by falling into the hands of Theeves we are rob'd and ſpoiled and left naked in a wildernes (as it were) yet there is hope to be reſtored againe to a happy eſtate, ſeeing all life is not wholy gon. Now there is hope while there is life. Let us lift up our eyes than, God may ſend ſome good man by to powre in wine and oyle, and bind up our wounds: As followes in the other part of the Parable which now I come unto.
And by chance there came downe a certaine Prieſt that way, Text Ver. 31, 32, 33.and when he ſaw him, he paſſed by on the other ſide, and likewiſe a Levite, &c.
How the wounded man came cured is here ſhewed,
1. Negatively, not by the Prieſt nor Levite, verſ. 31, 32.
2. Affirmatively, How and by whom it was, verſ. 33. The good Samaritane he did it.
Thoſe who helped not, are noted, 1. By their Profeſſion or Calling, Preist, Levite. 2. By their Diſpoſition, which is generally notified and expreſſed [They paſſed by] And then particularly exemplified from the manner of it [They ſaw him in the way] and yet paſſed by on the other ſide.