§. XX.
Proof 3.Lastly, That there is a Day of Visitation given to the Wicked, wherein they might have been saved, and which being expired, they are shut out from Salvation, Christ’s Lamentation over Jerusalem.appears evidently by Christ’s Lamentation over Jerusalem, expressed in three sundry Places, Matth. 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 thy Day, the Things that belong to thy Peace; but now they are hid from thine Eyes! Than which nothing can be said more evident to prove our Doctrine. For, First, he insinuates 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 an Hen gathereth her Chickens. A familiar Example, yet very significative in this Case; which shews that the Offer of Salvation made unto them was not in vain on his Part, but as really, and with as great Chearfulness and Willingness, as an Hen gathereth her Chickens. Such as is the Love and Care of the Hen toward her Brood, such is the Care of Christ to gather lost Men and Women, to redeem them out of their corrupt and degenerate State. Thirdly, That because they refused, the Things belonging to their Peace were 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.
God hardens, when.So it is, after real Offers of Mercy and Salvation rejected, that Men’s Hearts are hardened, and not before. Thus that Saying is verified, To him that hath, shall be given; and from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath. This may seem a Riddle, yet it is according to this Doctrine easily solved. 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, Matth. xxv. 26. The one Talent was sufficient.upon the Occasion of the taking the one Talent from the slothful Servant, and giving it to him that was diligent; which Talent was no ways 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 well as from the rest: So, I say, it is after the rejecting of the Day of Visitation, that the Judgment of Obduration is inflicted upon Men and Women, as Christ pronounceth it upon the Jews out of Isa. vi. 9. which all the four Evangelists make Mention of, Matth. xiii. 14. Mark iv. 12. Luke viii. 10. John xii. 40. and last of all the Apostle Paul, after he had made Offer of the Gospel of Salvation to the Jews at Rome, pronounceth the same, Acts xxviii. 26. after that some believed not; 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 them to see, but they closed their Eyes; and therefore they are justly hardened. Cyril. Alex.Of this Matter Cyrillus Alexandrinus upon John, Lib. 6. Cap. 21. speaks well, answering to this Objection. But some may say, If Christ be come into the World, that those that see may be blinded, their Blindness is not imputed unto them; but it rather seems that Christ is the Cause of their Blindness, who saith, He is come into the World, that those that see may be blinded. But, saith he, they speak not rationally, who object these Things unto God, and are not afraid to call him the Author of Evil. For, as the sensible Sun is carried upon our Horizon, that it may communicate the Gift of its Clearness unto all, and make its Light shine upon all; The Cause of Man’s remaining in Darkness, the closing of his Eyes.yet if any one close his Eye-lids, or willingly turn himself from the Sun, refusing the Benefit of its Light, he wants its Illumination, and remains in Darkness, not through the Defect of the Sun, but through his own Fault. So that the true Sun, who came to enlighten those that sat in Darkness, and in the Region of the Shadow of Death, visited the Earth for this Cause, that he might communicate unto all the Gift of Knowledge and Grace, and illuminate the inward Eyes of all by a spiritual Splendor: But many reject the Gift of this heavenly Light freely given to them, and have closed the Eyes of their Minds, lest so excellent an Illumination or Irradiation of the eternal Light should shine unto them. It is not then through Defect of the true Sun that they are blinded, but only through their own Iniquity and Hardness; for, as the wise Man saith, Wisdom ii. Their Wickedness hath blinded them.
From all which I thus argue:
The obstinate Jews had a Day.If there was a Day wherein the obstinate Jews might have known the Things that belonged to their Peace, which, because they rejected it, was hid from their Eyes; if there was a Time wherein Christ would have gathered them, who, because they refused, could not be gathered; then such as might have been saved do actually perish, that slighted the Day of God’s Visitation towards them, wherein they might have been converted and saved.
But the first is true: Therefore also the last.