An exposition of the lawes of Moses: Viz. Morall. Ceremoniall. Iudiciall. The second volume. Containing an explanation of diverse questions and positions for the right understanding thereof. Wherein also are opened divers ancient rites & customes of the Iewes, and also of the Gentiles, as they haue relation to the Iewish. Together with an explication of sundry difficult texts of Scripture, which depend upon, or belong unto every one of the Commandements, as also upon the ceremoniall and iudiciall lawes. Which texts are set downe in the tables before each particular booke. All which are cleered out of the originall languages, the Hebrew and Greeke, and out of the distinctions of the schoolemen and cases of the casuists. / By Iohn Weemse, of Lathocker in Scotland, preacher of Gods Word.

EXERCITAT. III That the end of Divinity here consisteth rather in practise than in contemplation.

Luke. 11.28. Blessed are they that heare the Word of God, and keepe it.

THe end of our Divinity here consisteth in doing rather than contemplation. If we speake properly, doing is not in the understanding but in the will; when reason divideth, compoundeth, or frameth any propo∣sition within it selfe, then the understanding is not sayd properly to doe, but contenting it selfe within it selfe, then it is speculative: but when the understanding set∣teth the will on worke, then the will doth, & the under∣standing but directeth the will; and when the understan∣ding reasoneth within it selfe, they call this actus elicitus; but when the understanding setteth the will on worke, they call this actus imperatus.

A proposition in Divinity commandeth us eyther virtually to practise, or else formally. Virtually it com∣mandeth us to practise; example, This is life eternall, to know thee to be the onely true God, and whom thou hast sent,

Christ, Ioh. 17.3.11. This is a proposition which vir∣tually includeth in it practise; for as the Hebrewes say, verba notitiae includunt verba affectus, Words of know∣ledge include words of affection: if it be life eternall for us to know God, then it is life eternall also for us to love God.

This proposition againe in Divinity, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soule, and with all thy mind, Matth. 22.37. and thy neighbour as thy selfe, vers. 39. commandeth practise formal∣ly.

Secondly a proposition in Divinity urgeth practise eyther mediatly or immediately: mediatly, as God is summum bonum the chiefe good; out of this mediate proposition we gather an immediate, therefore we are to love him above all things.

Thirdly, these conclusions in Divinity which con∣clude for practise, the propositions out of which they are drawne, must also be for practise and not for con∣templation, nam nihil agit extra genus suum, as they say in the Schooles; as we cannot gather grapes of thornes, or figgs of thistels, Matth. 7.16. So new wine cannot be the cause why the Apostles spake with divers tongues, Act. 2. So we cannot gather conclusions of practise from speculative propositions.

Fourthly, these rules which serve to direct men to practise may be called rules of practise, as the Carpen∣ters line in his hand is a line of practise, because it lea∣deth him to practise. So the Word of God is the line by the which wee should walke, therefore it is a rule of practise, Gal. 6.6. As many as walke according to this rule, peace be unto them: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is to worke by rule or line, the Word is the rule of our working, therefore it tea∣cheth us practise.

But it may be said, [Object.] that contemplation is the end of

Divinity in heaven to see God face to face, therefore is the end of our Divinity here upon earth.

[Answ.] Contemplation in heaven leadeth us alwayes to pra∣ctise, and they can never be separate; for as below here those Sciences which we call inspectrices, as the mathe∣maticks, physicke, and such (whose end consisteth not in doing) are the parents of morall philosophie and of doing, for by these we take up the nature of things, the goodnesse and the truth of them, and then we begin to esteeme of them, and love them when wee know them; so that contemplation bringeth forth alwayes practise. The glorified Saints in heaven, comming nea∣rer to the first cause, esteeme more highly of him, and therefore they love him more sincerely, and returne all praise to him.

[Object.] But it may seeme that contemplation is more excel∣lent than practise; for Mary is preferred unto Martha, Mary for her contemplation to Martha for her acti∣on.

[Answ.] When Mary and Martha are compared together, they resemble not the contemplative and the active life, but the naturall and spirituall life; Mary careth for the spirituall life, and Martha for the naturall. Did not Mary care for practise as well as Martha? sate shee not at Christs feete that shee might learne practise, that she might wash them with her teares and wipe them with her haire?

And because practise is, joyned alwayes with know∣ledge, therefore the wisedome which is proper to the understanding is ascribed sometimes to the will, Iob. 28.28. to depart from evill is understanding: and there∣fore it is, that justice and judgement are joyned toge∣ther in the Scripture, and they are called fooles who doe not according to their knowledge. And Salomon saith Eccle. 10.2. The heart of a wise man is at his right

hand, because his heart teacheth his hand to put things in practise.

The end of our Divinity is more in practise than in contemplation; therefore these onagri or wilde asses, the Heremites who lived without all society of men, for∣get the cheife end wherefore they were let here, living rather like beasts than like men: and if wee shall take a view of the ecclesiasticall history, as out of Theodoret and Zozomen, wee shall see how unprofitablie these men have spent their time, leaving the congregation of the Saints of God. Theodoret writeth of one Mace∣donius qui 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & gubba dictus est; gubba in the Syri∣acke tongue is a Ditch, he was called gubba because he stoode in a Ditch all his time, and he was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, because he eate nothing but Barley pulse: See how unprofitablie this man spent his time, not giving himselfe to reading of the holy Scriptures, for he was altogether ignorant of them; for when Flavianus the Bishop sent for him that hee might make him a Mini∣ster, he was so ignorant of that which the Bishop had done unto him when he ordained him Minister, that being required the next Sabbath day to come againe to the Church, answered him who came for him, that he was affraid to be made Minister the next Sabbath day also, and so refused to come; see how this holy man spent his life for forty yeares in contemplatin and what great progresse he made in Christian Religi∣on. So Theodoret maketh mention of one Styllites who stoode under a pillar all his life time, and never came in∣to a house. So Zozomen in his ecclesiasticall history, writeth of one Pior, who going out of his fathers house into a desert, vowed solemnely that he should never see any of his kinsmen or friends againe, and living fifty yeares there he had a sister who longed to see him be∣fore shee dyed: the Bishop pitying the poore woman,

granted leave to Pior to come and visit her, and he re∣turning into his countrey, & standing before the doore called out his sister, and shutting his eyes, he said unto her, behold, I am your brother Pior, looke upon mee as much as you please; but shee entreating him earnest∣ly to come to her house, he altogether refusing went backe againe to the Wildernesse: and so wee reade in Theodoret of one Adynus; who lived ninety yeares in the Wildernesse and never spake to any man, as if he had beene possessed with a dumb Divell: this is that holy contemplative life which the Church of Rome com∣mendeth so much, but this is pure Religion, to visite the fatherlesse and widdow in their necessity, Iam. 1.27. These Heremites living this contemplative life were like Poly∣phemus having but one eye in his head, and looking e∣ver up but never downe.

The Schoolemen differ but little in this poynt, how Divinity teacheth us practise. Thomas and his follow∣ers say, that fides non est recta ratio agendi, sed recta ratio sentiendi; and therefore Contra gentiles hee compareth faith to hearing rather than to sight, but he addeth that practise followeth faith as the fruit of it: but Scotus maketh faith to be habitus practicus. Yee see how both of them insist in this, that Divinity consisteth in pra∣ctise.

The Lord Num. 15.38.39. commanded the Israelites to make fringes upon the borders of their garments, that they might remember the Commandements of the Lord and keepe them; the Sadduces gave them∣selves onely to looke upon the fringes, and if they had onely remembred the Law, they thought then they had discharged their duties; but the end of the Pharises was to remember their owne traditions. So the end of the Monkes Divinity now is onely idle contemplation with the Sadduces; and the end of the Iesuites Divinity

now is onely to practise mischeefe: and many Christi∣ans when they reade the Scriptures now, they reade them not for practise, but for to passe the time with; they are like little children who seeke Nuts to play, but not to breake them and eate the kernels.

The conclusion of this is, Iam. 1.22. Be yee doers of the word, and not hearers onely, deceiving your selves.

Notes

• The understanding is speculative, and setteth the will on worke.
• Actus

  • elicitus.
  • imperatus.
• A proposition in Divi∣nity commandeth pra∣ctise, virtually or for∣mally.
• A proposition in Divi∣nity, commandeth pra∣ctise, mediately or immediately.
• If the conclusions be practicke, the propositi∣ons must be practicke.
• The word of God is a line and rule of practise.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• Cap. 13. de historia reli∣giosa. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• From 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a pillar.
• Lib. 6.29.
• In Sacra hist. lib. 14. 8.
• The opinion of the Schoolemen in this point.
• The end of the Sadduces and Pharises Divinity.
• The end of the Monks and Iesuites Divinity.
• Conclusi.