stands, let him take heed lest
he fall. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, That night two
shall be in a bed, one received, the other left. Strait is the way that
leads to heaven, and few there are that enter therein." The parable of the
seed and of the sower, "some fell on barren ground, some was choked. Whom
he hath predestinated he hath chosen. He will have mercy on whom he will
have mercy." _Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei._ These
and the like places terrify the souls of many; election, predestination,
reprobation, preposterously conceived, offend divers, with a deal of
foolish presumption, curiosity, needless speculation, contemplation,
solicitude, wherein they trouble and puzzle themselves about those
questions of grace, free will, perseverance, God's secrets; they will know
more than is revealed of God in his word, human capacity, or ignorance can
apprehend, and too importunate inquiry after that which is revealed;
mysteries, ceremonies, observation of Sabbaths, laws, duties, &c., with
many such which the casuists discuss, and schoolmen broach, which divers
mistake, misconstrue, misapply to themselves, to their own undoing, and so
fall into this gulf. "They doubt of their election, how they shall know,
it, by what signs. And so far forth," saith Luther, "with such nice points,
torture and crucify themselves, that they are almost mad, and all they get
by it is this, they lay open a gap to the devil by desperation to carry
them to hell;" but the greatest harm of all proceeds from those thundering
ministers, a most frequent cause they are of this malady: [6710]"and do
more harm in the church" (saith Erasmus) "than they that flatter; great
danger on both sides, the one lulls them asleep in carnal security, the
other drives them to despair." Whereas, [6711]St. Bernard well adviseth,
"We should not meddle with the one without the other, nor speak of judgment
without mercy; the one alone brings desperation, the other security." But
these men are wholly for judgment; of a rigid disposition themselves, there
is no mercy with them, no salvation, no balsam for their diseased souls,
they can speak of nothing but reprobation, hell-fire, and damnation; as
they did Luke xi. 46. lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, which
they themselves touch not with a finger. 'Tis familiar with our papists to
terrify men's souls with purgatory, tales, visions, apparitions, to daunt
even the most generous sp