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A38307
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Discourse proving from scripture and reason that the life of man is not limited by any absolute decree of God. By the author of the Duty of Man, &c.
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E. R.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing E27D; ESTC R214813
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41,051
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142
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tediousness I shall reduce them to the two following heads 1. Some have foolishly imagined that the Period of Humane Life is fatal and necessary 2. Others upon the contrary extream have as groundlesly thought that it is altogether fortuitous and casual Amongst those who ascribe every thing to the dispensation of a sure and inevitable destiny the Stoicks have been always reckoned the chiefest combatants It is well known that those stupid and senseless Philosophers did teach that all effects were necessarily produced by the natural order and series of causes which were from the outgoings of Eternity inseparably chained together so that neither Humane industry nor the Divine power could alter what such a conjunction of causes was to produce That Humane Industry care and good menagery cannot alter the decree of Fate the Stoick moralist Seneca very fairly confesseth Fatis agimur cedite fatis Non solicitae possunt curae Mutare rati stamina fusi Seneca in Oedip. The same Seneca also affirms that the supreme being is so strictly tyed to the Sempeternal series and order of Causes that he must follow but cannot gain-say what is thus established Quicquid est quod nos sic vivere jussit sic mori eadem necessitate deos alligat irrevocabilis humana ac Divina pariter cursus vehit Sen. lib. de provid 5. There are two very dangerous Authors of great name and fame who amongst many other bad opinions have recalled this Stoical Dream which was long since rejected the one is the Famous Mr. Hobs the other the subtil Author of that Book entituled Tractatus Theologico policitus Both which I may perhaps have occasion to examine more particularly But if all things were thus established by a fatal necessity sound reason would suggest to sober Men that it were a needless thing for the Sick to call for the Physitians aid And indeed Cicer overy ingeniously confesseth this Si fatum tibi est ex hoc morbo convalesceri sive tu medicum adhibueris sive non adhibueris convalesces Si fatum tibi est non convalesces sive medicum adhibneris sive non convalesces alterutrum fatum est medicum ergo adhibere nihil valet Cic. lib. de fato And although Seneca thinks he has fallen upon a very good answer yet it is truly never a whit better Cum sanitas inquit videatur de fato debetur medica quia ad nos benificium fati per hujus manus venit lib. 2. nat cap. 35. By which means the Physitian is as fatally determined to prescribe the Cure as the Sick Mans recovery is Destinated The Ages in which these Men lived being dark and blind we ought as much to pity their case as correct and reprehend them It is our happiness that we are not left to the conduct of natural reason and would God our thankful acknowledgments were answerable to the greatness of this Blessing I shall not need to stand in rejecting this Dream I think the hazards this speculation hath exposed some of its favourites to will be forcible enough to affright others from embracing it I remember I have read of some whom this conceit had so far distracted that they did cast away their Swords and other weapons when their Enemies approached Saying If it be our Fate to dye to keep our Weapons will never preserve us from Death ' This also reported of the deluded Mahumetans that in Battel they take courage from this that they are no sooner Born than Fate Seals upon their Foreheads how long they shall Live and what death they shall dye Alas who would not pitty Men thus infatuated and bewitched Surely as St. Augustin excellently speaks Si cor tuum non esset fatuum non crederes fatum Tract 37. in Joh. Next the Stoick stand the Star-gazers and Astrologers who attribute the shortness or extension of our Lives to the bad or benign Aspect and Conjunction of the Stars in the time of our Nativity Now although I deny not that the Heavens have an influence upon inferior things yet surely this secret and occult dominion Star-gazers plead for is so manifestly cross to reason and dayly experiences that no man in his wit will affirm it The Prophet hath long since advised us not to be dismayed at the signs of Heaven adding the Heathens they are dismayed at them Jer. 10. 2. As if it had been only peculiar to the Heathen part of the World who were ignorant of Gods Providence to believe the vain predictons of Astrologers Babylon was upbraided for her trusting Astrologers Star-gazers and monthly Prognosticators Isa 47. 13. These Men confidently presumed to foretell the time of Mens Death and the easily deceived multitude gave a ready assent to whatever they spake So easily a matter it is to impose any thing upon the belief of the vulgar The Palmaster as foolishly pretendeth that God hath sealed upon every Mans Hand how long he shall live and that observing men as they would have us believe they are can understand this by the lines and draughts in the palm of the hand And for proof of this they aledg Job 37. 7. Where it is said he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his work But from this place no such thing can be collected for Elihu is there taken up in expressing the greatness of Gods works and the Divine power in commanding the Snow and the Rain small and great to be on the Earth and he addeth he sealeth up the hand of every Man That is when Snow and Rain are upon the Earth Men cannot labor and toil their hand is sealed up they cannot work Epicurus and his followers could never be reconciled to this opinion but yet the acount they give of this matter is every whit as extravagant and irrational they being equally unhappy in the account they give of the beginning and Period of Beings The account these Men give of the original of Beings is so incredible that no rational Man can have any temptation to believe it but this belongs not to the present discourse I shall therefore only consider what they say of the Period of Beings and briefly their opinion is that it is no more but the casual and fortuitous separation of those particles of Matter that were united by a happy chance and hit This error is of an Old Date and had long ere now past prescription if it had not been so suitable to the humors of bad Men. The Saducees whose Religion it was to contradict the Pharisees were very great sticklers for this Dream Some Men have confined the Divine providence to the Stars and plucked out sublunary Beings from his immediate Rule and Dominion Cicero could not be perswaded that God had any knowledg of things contingently future Some to mend the matter confess God may know the general kinds of things but they will not allow that he knows every particular For this they think is inconsistent with the immutability of
DISCOURSE Proving from SCRIPTURE and REASON THAT THE Life of Man Is not Limited by any Absolute DECREE OF GOD. By the Author of the DUTY of MAN c. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Henry Bonwicke at the Red Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard 1680. THE PREFACE Reader THE following Discourse is of so small bulk that a Preface may seem as needless and rediculous as an Index In some few hours it may be perused and then both the design of the Author and of the Book may be known It may be thou desirest to know what was the occasion of the following Discourse But I know not if I be obliged to answer this and such like idle questions yet to satisfie thy curiosity know that the Author was unhappily engaged to converse with a Society of men who frequently debated this and such like queries and mostly he was opposed by the greater part as maintaining an unreasonable position Whether their charge be true or false is a thing better determined by others unconcerned than either by them or me I know very well their clamorous calumnies and reproaches which since I cannot shun I shall endeavor to slight as indeed unworthy to be regarded If men of good consideration dislike any thing in the Discourse I promise them upon Information I shall either endeavor to satisfie them or to rest satisfied with what they say Nay further if there be any Line in it inconsistent with Piety and Religion freely reject it for I perswade thee if the Author knew any such he world burn the Book for its sake But I hope upon trial there shall be found no harsh notion in it to offend the most squeamish conscience For the opinion I have rejected is in my judgment inconsistent with the Divine Goodness and Holiness repugnant to the freedom of Humane Nature and destructive of all lawful means for the preservation of a mans life While as that sentiment I embrace begets in mens minds noble and generous conceptions to promote real Piety and Religion and intemperance upon the account that Piety is the meanes to prolong our lives and wickedness the cause of our short lives And that this is no cheat or delusion the wisest of men hath left upon record Pro. 11. 19. As righteousness tendeth to Life so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death This brings to my memory the Psalmists advice with which I shall conclude What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy Tongue from evil and thy Lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good Seek peace and pursue it But the wicked and deceitful man shall not live out half his days OF THE PERIOD OF Humane Life JOB 14. 5 6. Seeing his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Turn from him that he may rest till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day THis excellent Book of Job represents to us a plain and unquestionable instance of the various successes all Humane actiions are liable to and of the promiscuous administration of Divine Providence to particular persons Here we may read of Job's happy and flourishing condition that he was the greatest of all the men of the East and of his low and afflicted state poor even to a Proverb and in a condition that only pleaded pity and compassion and how again the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning From this various administration of Providence men have taken occasion to make divers inferences The scoffing Atheist hath from thence wickedly concluded that God hath no care of Humane Affairs If God say these scoffers had any care of this World he would never suffer those men who have corrupted their ways by Treachery and Deceit to prosper and enjoy an affluence of all worldly delights whereas the vertuous and godly man who takes heed to his ways lest he sin and who throughtout the whole course of his life hath carefully studied to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and Man is notwithstanding a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief as plagued all the day long and chastened every Morning and hath Waters of a full Cup wrung out to him If God say they concerned himself with Humane Affairs he would never suffer the Tabernacles of Robbers to prosper and the House of the Upright to be ruined and destroyed This is without all contradiction a great stumbling block and offence to the Blind Atheist and hath even been a sad trial to the best of Gods people Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very Treacherously Was a question Jeremy could hardly at first resolve And we find Job and the Prophet Habakkuk very much puzled with it and the psalmist plainly confesseth that his feet were almost gone and that his steps had well nigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked Psal 73. To see bad men prospering in their wicked purposes and undertakings and good men unsuccessful and frustrated in their just attempts has been none of the least Topicks the Epicurean Atheists have made use of in their exempting this World from the Divine Rule and Dominion It was this single consideration that made Cato who was once a Preacher of Providence how Orthodox I enquire not accuse the Dominion and Government of the gods of instability and unjustness that Caesar who tyrannically invaded the Rights of the Commonwealth of Rome should be successful in so unjust attempts and Pompey put to the worst and overthrown in the lawful defence of his Country this stumbled him exceedingly 'T is true some few of the Learned and Sober Heathens did not thus rashly fall foul upon Providence but very wisely inferred the being of a future State where the vertuous shall be rewarded and the vitious punished And those Holy men in Scripture who did fret because of the prosperity of the wicked quickly perceived their folly and error and that the wicked were only fed like Sheep for the Slaughter and as the Poet excellently expresseth it tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant Job's Friends though they did not directly fall foul upon the Divine Providence yet it is evident they were of opinion that God would never have afflicted Job with such sad calamities if he had been upright and sincere Remember saith Eliphaz whoever perished being innocent Or where were the Righteous cut off ch 4. 7. Bildad tells Job If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee ch 8. 6. To both these Zophar succeeds with a charge as grievous and bitter For thou hast said my Doctrine is pure and I am clean in thine eyes But O that God would speak and open his lips against thee ch 11. v. 4 5. These were the Cordials Job's Friends afforded him while as his afflicted condition pleaded pity from his