Frame of Nature must go out of the Channel into which God did at first put it The Order of Things on this Earth takes a great Turn from the Wind both as to the Fruitfulness of the Earth and to the Operations on the Sea and has likewise a great Influence on the Purity of the Air and by consequence on mens good or ill Health and the Wind or the Agitation of the Air turns so often and so quick that it seems to be the great Instrument of Providence upon which an unconceivable variety of things does naturally depend I do not deny but that it may be said that all those Changes in the Air arise from Certain and Mechanical though to us unknown Causes which may be supported from this That between the Tropicks where the Influence of the Heavenly Bodies is stronger the Wind and Weather are more Regular though even that admits of great Exceptions Yet it has been the common Sense of Mankind That besides the Natural Causes of the Alterations in the Air they are under a particular Influence and Direction of Providence And it is in it self highly probable to say no more of it This may either be managed immediately by the Acts of the Divine Mind to which Nature readily obeys or by some subaltern Mind or Angel which may have as Natural an Efficiency over an Extent of Matter proportioned to its Capacity as a Man has over his own Body and over that compass of Matter that is within his reach Which way soever God governs the World and what Influence soever he has over Mens Minds we are sure that the governing and preserving his own Workmanship is so plainly a Perfection that it must belong to a Being infinitely perfect And there is such a Chain in things those of the greatest consequence arising often from small and inconsiderable ones that we cannot imagine a Providence unless we believe every thing to be within its Care and View The only difficulty that has been made in apprehending this has arisen from the Narrowness of Mens Minds who have measured God rather by their own Measure and Capacity than by that of Infinite Perfection which as soon as it is considered will put an end to all further doubtings about it When we perceive that a vast Number of Objects enter in at our Eye by a very small Passage and yet are so little jumbled in that Crowd that they open themselves regularly though there is no great space for that neither and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many Objects that lye before us some even at a vast distance from us both of their Nature Colour and Size and by a secret Geometry from the Angles that they make in our Eye we judge of the distance of all Objects both from us and from one another If to this we add the vast Number of Figures that we receive and retain long and with great order in our Brains which we easily fetch up either in our Thoughts or in our Discourses we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an Infinite Mind should have the Universal View of all things ever present before it It is true we do not so easily conceive how Free Minds are under this Providence as how Natural Agents should always move at its direction But we perceive that one Mind can work upon another A man raises a sound of Words which carry such signs of his inward Thoughts that by this Motion in the Air another Man's Ear is so struck upon that thereby an impression is made upon his Brain by which he not only conceives what the other Man's Thought was but is very powerfully inclined to consent to it and to concur with it All this is a great way about and could not be easily apprehended by us if we had not a clear and constant Perception of it Now since all this is brought about by a Motion upon our Brains according to the force with which we are more or less affected it is very reasonable for us to apprehend that the Supreme Mind can besides many other ways to us less known put such Motions in our Brain as may give us all such Thoughts as it intends to impress upon us in as strong and effectual a manner as may fully answer all its purposes The great Objection that lies against the Power and the Goodness of Providence from all that Evil that is in the World which God is either not willing or not able to hinder will be more properly considered in another place at present it is enough in general to observe That God's Providence must carry on every thing according to its Nature and since he has made some Free Beings capable of Thought and of Good and Evil we must believe That as the Course of Nature is not oft put out of its Channel unless when some extraordinary thing is to be done in order to some great End so in the Government of free Agents they must be generally left to their liberty and not put too oft off of their Biass This is a hint to resolve that difficulty by concerning all the Moral Evil which is generally speaking the occasion of most of the Physical Evil that is in the World A Providence thus setled that extends it self to all things both natural and free is necessary to preserve Religion to engage us to Prayers Praises and to a dependence on it and a submission to it Some have thought it was necessary to carry this further and so they make God to be the first and immediate cause of every Action or Motion This some Modern Writers have taken from the Schools and have drest it in new Phrases of General Laws Particular Wills and Occasional Causes and so they express or explain God's producing every Motion that is in Matter and his raising every Sensation and by the same parity of Reason every Cogitation in Minds This they think arises out of the Idea of Infinite Perfection and fully answers these words of the Scriptures That in God we live move and have our being To others all this seems first unnecessary for if God has made Matter capable of Motion and capable of receiving it from the Stroke or Impulse that another piece of Matter gives it This comes as truly from God as if he did immediately give every Motion by an act of his own Will It seems more suitable to the Beauty of his Workmanship to think that he has so framed things that they hold on in that course in which he has put them than to make him perpetually produce every new Motion And the bringing God immediately into every thing may by an Odd Reverse of Effects make the World think that every thing is done as much without him as others are apt to imagine that every thing is done by him And though it is true that we cannot distinctly apprehend how a Motion in our Brain should raise such a Thought as Answers to it in our Minds
taught a Middle Doctrine Asserting an inward Grace but subject to the freedom of the Will And that all things were both decreed and done according to the Prescience of God in which all future Contingents were foreseen He also taught that the first Conversion of the Soul to God was merely an effect of its free choice so that all Preventing-grace was denied by him which came to be the peculiar distinction of those who were afterwards called the Semi-Pelagians Prosper and Hilary gave an account of this System to S. Austin upon which he writ against it and his Opinions were defended by Prosper Fulgentius Orosius and others as Cassian's were defended by Faustus Vincentius and Gennadius In conclusion St. Austin's Opinions did generally prevail in the West only Pelagius it seems retiring tâ— his own Country he had many followers among the Britans But German and Lupus being sent over once and again from France are said to have conquered them so intirely that they were all freed from those Errors Whatever they did by their Arguments the Writers of their Legends took care to adorn their Mission with many very wonderful Miracles of which the gathering all the pieces of a Calf some of which had been drest and the putting them together in its Skin and restoring it again to Life is none of the least The Ruin of the Roman Empire and the disorders that the Western Provinces fell under by their new and brabarous Masters occasioned in those Ages a great decay of Learning So that few Writers of Fame coming after that time St. Austin's great Labours and Piety and the many vast Volumes that he had left behind him gave him so great a Name that few durst contest what had been so zealously and so copiously defended by him And though it is highly probable that Celestine was not satisfied with his Doctrine yet both he and the other Bishops of Rome together with many Provincial Synods have so often declared his Doctrine in those Points to be the Doctrine of the Church that this is very hardly got over by those of that Communion The chief and indeed the only material difference that is between St. Austin's Doctrine and that of the Sublapsarians is That he holding that with the Sacrament of Baptism there was joyned an inward Regeneration made a difference between the Regenerate and the Predestinate which these do not He thought Persons thus regenerate might have all Grace besides that of Perseverance but he thought that they not being predestinated were certainly to fall from that state and from the Grace of Regeneration The other differences are but forced Strains to represent him and the Calvinists as of different Principles He thought that overcoming Delectation in which he put the Efficacy of Grace was as Irresistible though he used not so strong a word for it as the Calvinists do And he thought that the Decree was as Absolute and made without any regard to what the Free-Will would chuse as any of these do So in the main Points the Absoluteness of the Decree the Extent of Christ's Death the Efficacy of Grace and the Certainty of Perseverance their Opinions are the same though their ways of expressing themselves do often differ But if St. Austin's Name and the Credit of his Books went far yet no Book was more read in the following Ages than Cassian's Collations There was in them a clear Thread of good Sense and a very high Strain of Piety that run through them and they were thought the best Institutions for a Monk to form his Mind by reading them attentively So they still carried down among those who read them deep Impressions of the Doctrine of the Greek Church This broke out in the Ninth Century in which Godescalcus a Monk was severely used by Hincmar and by the Church of Rheims for asserting some of St. Austin's Doctrines against which Scotus Erigena wrote as Bertram or Ratramne wrote for them Remigius Bishop of Lyons with his Church did zealously assert St. Austin's Doctrine not without great sharpness against Scotus After this the matter slept till the School-Divinity came to be in great Credit And Thomas Aquinas being counted the chief Glory of the Dominican Order he not only asserted all St. Austin's Doctrine but added this to it That whereas formerly it was in general held That the Providence of God did extend it self to all things whatsoever he thought this was done by God's concurring immediately to the Production of every Thought Action Motion or Mode so that God was the First and Immediate Cause of every thing that was done And in order to the explaining the joint Production of every thing by God as the First and by the Creature as the Second Cause he thought at least as his Followers have understood him That by a Physical Influence the Will was predetermined by God to all things whether good or bad so that the Will could not be said to be free in that particular Instance in sensu composito though it was in general still free in all its Actions in sensu diviso A distinction so sacred and so much used among them that I chuse to give it in their on Terms rather than translate them To avoid the consequence of making God the Author of Sin a distinction was made between the Positive Act of Sin which was said not to be Evil and the want of its Conformity to the Law of God which being a Negation was no positive Being so that it was not produced And thus though the Action was produced jointly by God as the first Cause and by the Creature as the Second yet God was not guilty of the Sin but only the Creature This Doctrine passed down among the Dominicans and continues to do so to this day Scotus who was a Franciscan denied this Predetermination and asserted the Freedom of the Will Durandus denied this Immediate Concourse in which he has not had many Followers except Adola and some few more When Luther began to form his Opinions into a Body he clearly saw that nothing did so plainly destroy the Doctrine of Merit and Justification by Works as St. Austin's Opinions He found also in his Works very express Authorities against most of the Corruptions of the Roman Church And being of an Order that carried his Name and by consequence was accustomed to read and reverence his Works it was no wonder if he without a strict examining of the matter espoused all his Opinions Most of those of the Church of Rome who wrote against him being of the other Persuasions any one reading the Books of that Age would have thought that St. Austin's Doctrine was abandoned by the Church of Rome So that when Michael Baius and some others at Louvain began to revive it that became a matter of Scandal and they were condemned at Rome Yet at the Council of Trent the Dominicans had so much credit that great care was taken in the penning their Decrees to avoid all
such Forms as are agreed on among Nations and when that is not granted he may take such Reparation from any that are under that Obedience as may oblige the whole Body to repair the Injury Much more may he use the Sword to protect his Subjects if any other comes to invade them For this end chiefly he has both the Sword given him and those Taxes paid him that may enable him to support the Charge to which the use of it may put him And as a private man owes by the Ties of Humanity Assistance to a man whom he sees in the hands of Thieves and Murderers so Princes may assist such other Princes as are unjustly fallen upon both out of humanity to him who is so ill used and to repress the Insolence of an unjust Aggressor and also to secure the whole Neighbourhood from the effects of Success in such unlawful Conquests Upon all these accounts we do not doubt but that Wars which are thus originally as to the first occasion of them Defensive though in the Progress of them they must be often offensive may be lawful God allowed of Wars in that Policy which he himself constituted in which we are to make a great difference between those things that were permitted by reason of the hardness of their hearts and those things which were expresly commanded of God These last can never be supposed to be immoral since commanded by God whose Precepts and Judgments are altogether righteous When the Soldiers came to be baptized of St. Iohn he did not charge them to relinquish that course of Life Luk. 3.14 but only to do violence to no man to accuse no man falsly and to be content with their wages Nor did St. Peter charge Cornelius to forsake his Post when he baptized him â—cts 10. The Primitive Christians thought they might continue in Military Employments in which they preserved the Purity of their Religion entire as appears both from Tertullian's Works and from the History of Iulian's short Reign But though Wars that are in their own nature only Defensive are lawful and a part of the Protection that Princes owe their People yet unjust Wars designed for making Conquests for the enlargement of Empire and the raising the Glory of Princes are certainly publick Robberies and the highest Acts of Injustice and Violence possible in which men sacrifice to their Pride or Humour the Peace of the World and the Lives of all those that dye in the Quarrel whose Blood God will require at their hands Such Princes become accountable to God in the highest degree imaginable for all the Rapine and Bloodshed that is occasioned by their Pride and Injustice When it is visible that a War is unjust certainly no man of Conscience can serve in it unless it be in the Defensive part For though no man can owe that to his Prince to go and murder other persons at his command yet he may owe it to his Country to assist towards its Preservation from being over-run even by those whom his Prince has provoked by making War on them unjustly For even in such a War though it is unlawful to serve in the Attacks that are made on others it is still lawful for the People of every Nation to defend themselves against Foreigners There is no Cause of War more unjust than the propagating the true Religion or the destroying a false one That is to be left to the Providence of God who can change the hearts of men and bring them to the knowledg of the Truth when he will Ambition and the desire of Empire must never pretend to carry on God's work The wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of God And it were better barefacedly to own that men are set on by Carnal Motives than to prophane Religion and the Name of God by making it the Pretence ARTICLE XXXVIII Of Christian Mens Goods which are not common The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common as touching the right Title and Possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability THere is no great difficulty in this Article as there is no danger to be apprehended that the Opinion condemned by it is like to spread Those may be for it who find it for them The Poor may claim to it but few of the Rich will ever go into it The whole Charge that is given in the Scripture for Charity and Almsgiving all the Rules that are given to the Rich and to Masters to whom their Servants were then Properties and Slaves do clearly demonstrate that the Gospel was not designed to introduce a Community of Goods And even that Fellowship or Community which was practised in the first beginnings of it was the effect of particular mens Charity and not of any Law that was laid on them Barnabas having land sold it and laid the Price of it at the Apostles feet And when St. Peter chid Ananias for having vowed to give in the whole Price of his Land to that distribution and then withdrawing a part of it Acts 4.36 37· and by a Lye pretending that he had brought it all in he affirmed that the Right was still in him till he by a Vow had put it out of his power When God fed his People by Miracle with the Manna there was an equal distribution made yet when he brought them into the promised Land every man had his Property The equal division of the Land was the foundation of that Constitution but still every man had a Property and might improve it by his Industry either to the increasing of his Stock the purchasing Houses in Towns or buying of Estates till the Redemption at the Jubilee It can never be thought a just and equitable thing that the sober and industrious should be bound to share the fruits of their labour with the idle and the luxurious This would be such an Incouragement to those whom all wise Governments ought to discourage and would so discourage those who ought to be encouraged that all the Order of the World must be dissolved if so extravagant a Conceit should be entertained Both the Rich and the Poor have Rules given them and there are Virtues suitable to each state of Life The Rich ought to be sober and thankful modest and humble bountiful and charitable out of the abundance that God has given them and not to set their hearts upon uncertain Riches but to trust in the living God and to make the best use of them that they can The Poor ought to be patient and industrious to submit to the Providence of God and to study to make sure of a better Portion in another State than God has thought fit to give them in this World It will be much easier to persuade the World of the Truth of the first part of this Article than to bring them up