all things againe are in his power as strength or force to move our limbes is in our sinewes or motive faculty The perfections of all things are truly said to be in Him in as much as whatsoever is or can bee done by their efficacy or vertue Hee alone can doe without them Hee could feed all the beasts of the field without grasse heale every disease without herbe mettall or other matter of medicine by his sole word not uttered by breathing or any other kinde of motion not distinct from his life or essence Hee is life it selfe yet is not his life supported by any corporeall masse or praeexistent nature nor clothed with such sense as ours is for sense in as much as it cannot be without a corporeall organ is an imperfect kind of knowledge Paine hee cannot feele as we doe because that tendeth to destruction which is the period of imperfection yet what soever paine any sensible or materiall object can inflict upon us He alone can inflict the same in an higher degree The measure of paine likewise which we feele by sense He knows much better without sense or feeling of it But when wee say all things are in Him after a more excellent manner than they are or can bee in themselves Wee must not conceipt a multitude or diversity of excellencies in his Essence answering to the severall natures of things created We must not imagine one excellencie sutable to elementary bodies another to mixt a third to vegetables a fourth to sense c. one to the humane nature another to the Angelicall And if Plato meant there were as many severall Idaea's eternally extant whether in the first cause of things or without Him as there were substances specifically distinct one from another his opinion may neither be followed nor approved by any Christian In all these Divine Excellency as one face in many glasses of different frame is diversly represented being in it selfe more truly one than any other entity that is termed one or then any bond of union betweene things united Of natures extant some to our capacity represent Him better some worse not the meanest or basest but is in some sort like Him not the most excellent creature that is not all the excellencies of all can so fully represent his nature as an Apes shadow doth a Mans body But what in other cases would seeme most strange infinite variety best sets forth the admirable excellency of his indivisible unity 3 Touching the question proposed Whether he were one excellency or all excellencies whether he were one perfection or all perfections Respondent ultima primis The answer is in a manner given in the beginning of this Discourse Though hee that saith God is all perfections excepts none yet hee includes onely perfections numerable and participated And to say He were onely one perfection implyes onely perfection limited and therefore perfection borrowed not independent Or admitting there be a meane betweene all or some perfections and one perfection which may fitly be expressed by all perfection yet he that should thus say God is the universall unity or totality of perfection had need to distinguish acurately of universality and totality and define Vniversale ante rem more exquisitely than the Platonickes doe that he may acquit his meaning from suspition of such totality or universality as ariseth not onely by aggregation of parts but whose extent is no more than equall to all its parts For every other universall or whole is fully equalized by all the parts taken together whereas the Divine Nature infinitely exceeds all particular natures or perfections possible though in number they could be infinite It is then if any man list so to speake such a totality or universality as cannot bee augmented much lesse made up by multiplication of any other perfection though prosecuted in infinitum neither diminishable or exhaustible by multiplicity or division of particulars derived from it But whether wee consider this His infinite Essence in it selfe or as it eminently containes all things possible the incomprehensibility of it is in both respects more fully intimated exprest it cannot be by indefinite formes of speech than by addition of any definite termes whether of singularity universality or totality Hee speakes more fully and more safely that saith God is being it selfe or perfection it selfe than he that saith he is the onely being or all being the onely perfection or all perfection the totality of being and of perfection So all plurality be excluded we expresse his being and perfection best by leaving them as they truly are without all quantity 4 That all plurality not onely of Idaeall perfections answering to the natures of things numerable or created but of internall perfections whose different titles necessarily breed plurality of conceits in us must be excluded from the true orthodoxall intellectuall apprehension of the illimited Essence may from the former maine principle be thus evinced In that Hee is without beginning without end without all cause of being without dependence we cannot imagine or at least our understanding must correct our imaginations if they shall suggest his power to bee as the stemme wisedome goodnesse and other like atributes as branches growing from his being or essence as from the Root For if his Being or Essence be absolutely independent it is absolutely illimited and being such what could limit or restraine it from being life from being power from being wisedome from being goodnesse from being infinitely whatsoever any thing that hath being is He that affirmes any of these attributes to bee what another is not or divine Essence not to bee identically what all those are must grant as well the Attributes as the Essence to be finite and limited If power in God have a being distinct from wisedome and wisedome another being distinct from goodnesse one must needs want so much of infinite being as another hath of proper being distinct from it and at the best they can bee but infinite secundùm quid or in their ranke Againe if any of them be what Essence identically is not Essence cannot bee infinite because wisedome power and being have their severall beings distinct from it And the nearer these come whether severally or joyntly considered to the nature of true infinity the more naked and impotent they leave their mother-Essence if we once grant Essence and them to bee distinct as Parents and children or as root and branch or to what use should powerlesse Essence serve to support these branches of infinity this it could not doe without infinite power And those branches if they need a root or supportance their being must needs bee dependent and therefore limited 5 From the former definition of absolute infinity Infinitum est extra quod nihil est We may conclude that unlesse all power unlesse all wisedome unlesse all goodnesse unlesse all that truly is or can possibly be supposed to have true being bee identically contained in Gods Essence He could not be
many perish 200 19 How God of a most loving Father becomes a severe inexorable Iudge 207 20 Whilest God of a loving Father becomes a severe Iudge there is no change or alteration at all in God but onely in men and in their actions Gods will is alwayes exactly fulfilled even in such as goe most against it How it may stand with the Iustice of God to punish transgressions temporall with torments everlasting 213 21 How Anger Love Compassion Mercy or other affections are in the Divine Nature 226 A TREATISE OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBVTES SECTION I. Of the one absolutely infinite and incomprehensible Essence in generall THe originall of Atheisme of errours or misperswasions concerning the Beeing or Attributes of the Divine Nature being in a former Treatise at large discussed the next enquiries which exact Method would in this Argument make are First how this truth of Gods being most certainly known by internall experience unto some may by force of speculative Argument bee made manifest unto others Secondly how his nature and attributes may be fitliest resembled My first resolution professed in the beginning of the discussing of the originall of Atheisme as yet restraines me for adventuring too farre in the former For whilest I view the progresse which I have purposed to debate this point upon my first entry into that Paradise of contemplation within whose territories I now encampe by syllogisticall force of argument seemeth to me as great an oversight as to entertaine an enemy more desperate then potent with a pitched battaile when as all his forts might by constant prosequution of advantages gotten be orderly taken each after other without possibility of any great losse or apparent danger Now the Atheists chiefe strength lying in a preconceived impossibility of a Creation and Resurrection the conquest of the whole truth will easily bee compassed after those weake holds bee as in due time they shall be utterly demolished Or in case after their overthrow he be of force to bid us battaile we shall be most willing to try our intended quarrell with him by dint of argument in the Article of the last Iudgement In the meane time wee may without danger of his checke proceed upon those advantages which the grounds of nature give us CHAP. I. How far we may seeke to expresse what by light of Nature or otherwayes may be conceived concerning the incomprehensible Essence or his Attributes FIrst if every particular man or bodie generable have precedent causes of their beings their whole generations must of necessity have some cause otherwise all should not be of one kinde or nature Now this progresse from effects unto their causes or betwixt causes subordinate cannot be infinite but as all progressive motion supposeth some rest or stay whence it proceedeth so must this progresse whereof I speake take beginning from some cause which hath no cause of its being And this is that incomprehensible Essence which wee seeke 2 But whereunto shall wee liken him Things compared alwayes agree in some one kind or have at least a common measure Is then this cause of causes contained in any predicamentall ranck of being Or can our conceipt of any thing therein contained be truly fitted unto him Or may his infinite and incomprehensible nature be rightly moulded within the circumference of mans shallow braine One thing it is to represent the infinite Essence another to illustrate this truth that he cannot be represented Though nothing can exactly resemble him yet some things there be which better notifie how farre he is beyond all resemblance or comparison then others can doe By variety of such resemblances as his works afford may our admiration of his incomprehensiblenesse bee raised higher and higher and with our admiration thus raised will our longing after his presence still be enlarged The nature of things finite and limited no Philosopher can so exactly expresse as Painters may their outward lineaments But as some sensible objects besides their proper shape or character imprint a kinde of dislike or pleasance in creatures sensitive so have our purest and most exact conceipts intellectuall certaine symptomaticall impressions annexed which inwardly affect us though we cannot outwardly so expresse them as they may imprint the like affection in others Hence it is that the more right resemblances we make to our selves of any thing the greater will be the symptomaticall impression of the latent truth some part or shadow whereof appeareth in every thing whereto it can truly be compared And though we cannot in this life come to a cleare view of that nature which we most desire to see yet is it a worke worthy our paines to erect our thoughts by varietie of resemblances made with due observance of decorum unto an horizon more ample then ordinary in whose skirts or edges wee may behold some scattered rayes of that glorious light which is utterly set unto men whose thoughts soare not without the circumference of this visible world for all we see with ouâ— bodily eyes is but an hemisphere of midnight darknesse to the habitation of Saints and seat oâ— blisse 3 The rule of decorum in all resemblances of things amiable or glorious is that as well the simple termes of comparison be sightly and handsome as the proportion betweene them exact Supposing the ods of valorous strength betweene Aiax and ordinary Trojanes to have beene as great as Homer would have us beleeve it was the manner of this Champions retreat being overcharged with the multitude of his Enemies could not more exquisitely be resembled than by a company of children driving an hungry hard-skinned Asse with bats or staves out of a corne-field or meadow The Asse cannot by such weaklings be driven so hard but he will feed as he goes nor could Aiax be charged so fiercely by his impotent foes but that he fought still as he fled The proportion is approved as most exact by a teacher of Poetry that was his Arts Master who notwithstanding with the same breath disallows the invention as no way applyable unto Turnus at least in the courtly censure of those times wherein Virgil wrote Be the congruity betweene the termes never so exquisite or pleasant the Asse notwithstanding is no amiable creature nor can wisedome or valour for his many base properties willingly brook comparison with him in any More fitly as this Author thinketh might Turnus his heroicall spirit have beene paralleld by a Lion which though unable to sustaine the fierce pursuit of many hunters yet cannot be enforced to any other march then Passant gardant 4 But wee must allow the Poet whose chiefe art is to please his Readers appetite with pleasant sauces more then with solid meates to bee more dainty and curious in this kinde than it is requisite the School-divine or Philosopher should be albeit neither of them need much to feare lest their discourses be too comely so solidity of truth bee the ground of their comelinesse No courtly Poet is more observant
built unlesse the Lord doe afford not onely his concurrence but his blessing to the labours of the one and to the watchfulnesse of the other But in this argument wee may expatiate without impeachment of digression from the matter or of diversion from our ayme in the following Treatise of divine providence 6. This present Treatise requires an induction sufficient to prove that every visible or sublunarie substance aswell the common matter whereof all such things are made as the severall formes which are produced out of it have an efficient cause precedent to their making or production For the seuerall formes or bodies generable which are constituted by them the induction is as cleare to every mans sense or understanding as any mathematicall induction can bee The naturalist is neither able nor disposed to except against the universalitie of it or to instance in any sublunarie bodie which hath not a true efficient cause or an agent precedent from whose efficacie its physicall or essentiall forme was either made or did result The question onely remaines about the efficiencie or production of the prime or common matter Seeing it is the mother of generation wee will not vexe the Naturalist by demanding a generative cause efficient of its beeing but that it must have some cause efficient wee shall enforce him to grant from a generall Maxime most in request with men of his profession The Maxime is That the philosophicall progresse from effects to their causes or from inferiour to superiour causes is not like Arithmeticall or geometricall progressions it cannot bee infinite Wee must at length come to one supreme cause efficient which in that it is supreame is a cause of causes but no effect and being no effect nor cause subordinate to any other Agent it can have no limit of Beeing it can admit no restraint in working Whatsoever we can conceive as possible to have limited Beeing or beginning of such Beeing must haue both frō it by it Now if the perfect workes of nature bodies sublunarie of what kind soever suppose a possibilitie physicall included in the prime and common matter before they have actuall Being if it imply no contradiction for them to have beginning of Beeing it will imply no contradiction that the prime mater it selfe or imperfect masse whereof they are made should have a beginning of its imperfect beeing That Physicall beeing which it hath doth presuppose a logicall possibilitie of beeing as it is that is no contradiction for it sometimes to be and sometimes not to haue beene This supreame cause or agent which as we suppose did reduce the logicall possibilitie of the prime matter of sublunary bodies into Act cannot be the heavens or any part of the hoast of heavē neither the sun moon nor stars For albeit the Sun be the efficient cause by which most workes of nature in this sublunarie part of the world are brought to perfection yet is it no cause at all of that imperfect masse or part of nature on which it workes Vnlesse it had some matter to worke upon it could produce no reall or solid effect by its influence light or motion how ever assisted with the influence of other stars or planets Yet must this prime matter have some cause otherwise it should be more perfect than the bodily substances which are made of it For they all stand in neede both of this prime matter as a cause in it kinde concurrent to their production and of the efficiencie of the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents to worke or fashion the materialls or Ingredients of which they are made If either this common matter of sublunary substances or the Sunne which workes upon it had no superiour cause to limit their beeing or distinguish their offices both of them should bee infinite in Beeing both infinite in operation Now if the matter were infinite in beeing the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents could have no beeing but in it or from it For if the Sunne were infinite in operation the matter it selfe could bee nothing at all no part of nature unlesse it were a worke or effect of the Sunne Infinitie in beeing excludes all possibilitie of other Beeing save in it and from it And infinitie in operation supposeth all things that are limited whether in beeing or operation to bee its workes or resultances of its illimited efficacie CHAP. 7. Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which worke upon it were of necessitie to have a beginning of their Beeing and Duration 1 FOr further demonstration that as well the Sunne which is the efficient generall as the prime matter which is the common mother of bodies sublunary had a beginning of beeing there can be no meane eyther more forcible or more plausible then another Maxime much imbraced and insisted upon by the great Philosopher to wit that as well the efficient as the materiall cause derive the necessitie of their causalitie from the end or finall cause unto which they are destinated The Sunne doth not runne its daily course from East to West or make its annuall progresse from North to South to get it selfe heate or for the increase of its native force or vigour by change of Climates but for the propagation of vegetables for the continuance of life and health in more perfect sublunary substances If then wee can demonstrate that those vegetables or more perfect sublunarie bodies for whose continuall propagation for the continuance of whose life and well-fare the Sunne becomes so indefatigable in its course had a true beginning of beeing that the propagation is not infinitely circular the cause will be concluded that as well the common matter whereof they are made as the Sunne it selfe which produceth them had a beginning of beeing and operation from the same supreame cause which appointed the Sunne thus to dispense its heate and influence for the reliefe and comfort of this inferiour world To prove that these sublunarie more perfect bodies as vegetables c had a beginning of beeing or propagation no Argument can be more effectuall to the Naturalist or others that will take it into serious consideration than the discussion of that probleme which Plutarch hath propounded Whether the Egg were before the Hen or the Hen before the Egg. The state of the question will be the same in all more perfect vegetables or living Creatures which usually grow from an imperfect or weake estate to a more perfect and stronger Whether the Acorne were before the Oake or the Oake before the Acorne Whether the Lyon had precedencie of nature to the Lyons whelp or the Lyons whelp unto the Lyon The induction may be for eyther part most compleate in respect of all times and of all places if with the Naturalist wee imagine the world to have beene without beginning or without ending No Naturalist can ever instance in any more perfect feathered fowle which was not first covered with a shell or contained in
the seat of Chance or Fortune in our way and to declare what is meant by these termes and whether such events as we say fall out by Fortune or Chance have any alliance with necessity In this discussion I hope wee shall arive at that point whereat the favourers of absolute necessity and the favourers of other opinions concerning Fate and Fortune more fluctuant will bee content to cast anchor Fortune saith Plutarch is a part of Chance as free-will or choise is of contingency Every casuall event is contingent but every contingent effect is not casuall or a chance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very name of Chance in Greek saith Aristotle implies as much as to be to no end or purpose yet this etymology under correction was no part of the Ancients meaning which gave the Greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such events as we terme casuall unlesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frustra be referred onely as perhaps Aristotle intended to the efficient cause After a manner of speech not much unlike to this the Schoolemen say that is gratis dictum as wee would say freely spoken not for which a man takes no fee but for which he hath no just ground or reason And that in phrase of Scripture is said to bee done gratis or frustra which is done without just motives or provocation not that which is done or attempted to no end or purpose Oderunt me frustra and Oderunt me gratis They hated me without a cause or They hated me vainly are in some translations equivalent The word in the originall answers to both In analogy to this kinde of speech those events were said to fall out by chance or to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the opinion of such as gave this name had no efficient cause or at least none discernable but were supposed to move themselves or to take possession of such short beeing as they had without the assignement of any superiour power or of any constant or setled cause intruding themselves into the course of nature like unbidden guests sometimes as unwelcome as frost in summer sometimes as welcome as warme weather to such as want fire in winter 5 Fortune hath her authority placed onely in reasonable actions or deliberations yet not in all these but onely in such events as fall out either so farre beyond or contrary to mens intentions that they may be rather wondred at then expected If husbandmen should digge their Vineyards with purpose to finde Gold the fruitefull vintage thereon following though no part of their intentions could not so properly bâ—e ascribed to Fortune as if a husbandman intending onely to dig his Vineyard in hope of a plentifull vintage should finde store of Gold 6 The meaning of Plato of Aristotle and Plutarch may bee better perceived by fit instance then by large scholastique commentaries upon their severall definitions of Fortune Valerius Maximus and to my remembrance Plutarch hath a memorable storie of one Iason Phereus that was cured of an impostume in a fray or Duell The blow of an enemy was the cause of this mans health but by a rare and unusuall accident quite contrary to his intention that gave it and altogether beyond his expectation that received it His purpose was only to maintaine his reputation or revenge his wrongs either to wound or to be wounded without any hope or thought of curing his disease the danger wherof was not fully discovered til it was past But a more perfect Idaea or exemplarie forme of fortune good or bad then any historian relates the greeke Epigrammatist hath pictured for our contemplation The matter of the Epigram was in English thus A silly poore wretch being deprived of all meanes to live resolves to deprive himselfe of breath but whilest he sought a place convenient for acting this desperate purpose finding store of gold which another had hid he returned home againe leaving his halter in the place which was worse taken by him that hid the gold then meant by him that left it for he hanged himselfe in it for griefe of his losse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A poore wretch finding gold for ioy left 's halter in its steed Which he that left the gold for griefe did make his fatall threed To finde Gold was no part of that poore mans hopes whom despaire of like meanes to live by had made desirous of death the other had as little minde to dispatch himselfe when he came to visit the supposed stay and comfort of his life wherein his soule had solaced her selfe with the foole in the Gospell CHAP. 21. Of the proper subject and nature of Fate 1 THE most usefull issue which these or the like cases afford is this whether the event specified in them bee meerely casuall contingent or in some sort necessarie One and the same determination will as well befit the like quaestion concerning such events as are properly tearmed Fatall whose proper subject nature and definition we are more particularly to inquire after The first quaere which few meddle withall would bee this Whether fatall events participate more of contingencie then of necessitie But setting aside all comparison it sufficeth us that they truely participate of both but in different degrees or measures according to the diversitie of times Contingencie is alwayes as necessarily praesupposed to the production of events fatall as necessitie is included in them And as the proper forme or essence of Fates consists not in every sort of necessitie but in some peculiar branch thereof so neither is every Contingent subject a fit matter for receiving that forme or branch of necessitie wherein the nature of Fate consists and which giues denomination and being to events fatall I have heard many unthrifts upon the loosing of a faire game at Tables curse the Dice or cry vengeance upon ill luck but I never heard any Gamester frame such inditements either in verse or prose against Fates as were usuall amongst the heathens whose language in other cases is with our unthrifts most familiar Such pettie adventures as Cardes and Dice are as met all too base to be instampt with the inscription of Fate whose proper subject in publike affaires is matter either of tragedie or of triumph in private matter either of extraordinarie and unusuall prosperitie or of calamitie Most of Gods creatures are the subject of contingency mankind onely or humane societie is the the proper sphaere without whose circumference neither fortune or fatall events doe wander Yet is not every part of man subject to fate though man according to every part bee subject to that contingencie which is praesupposed to Fates Iustin Martyr though a professed enemy to Stoicall Fates and a most valiant champion a chiefe leader to all the rest which have defended the Christian truth against that sect being most potent in the infancie of Christianitie was not so nice as either to
of the former rule of decorum in their comparisons than the holy Prophets are Thus hath the Lord spoken unto mee saith Esaias cap. 31. vers 4. Like as the Lion and the young Lion roring on his prey when a multitude of shepheards is called forth against him hee will not bee afraid of their voice nor abase himselfe for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come downe to fight for mount Sion and for the hill thereof Saint Austin hath noted three sorts of errors in setting forth the divine nature of which two go upon false grounds the other is altogether groundlesse Some saith he there be that seeke to measure things spirituall by the best knowledge which they have gotten by sence or art of things bodily Others doe fit the Deity with the nature and properties of the humane soule and from this false ground frame many deceiptfull and crooked rules whilest they endeavour to draw the picture or image of the immutable Essence A third sort there be which by too much straining to transcend every mutable creature patch up such conceipts as cannot possibly hang together either upon created or increated natures and these rove further from the truth then doe the former As to use his instance He which thinkes God to be bright or yellow is much deceived yet his errour wants not a cloke in as much as these colours have some being from God in bodies His errour againe is as great that thinkes God sometimes forgets and sometimes cals things forgotten to minde yet this vicissitude of memorie and oblivion hath place in the humane soule which in many things is like the Creator But hee which makes the Divine nature so powerfull as to produce or beget it selfe quite misseth not the marke onely but the Butt and shoots as it were out of the field for nothing possible can possibly give it selfe being or existence 5 But though in no wise wee may avouch such grosse impossibilities of him to whom nothing is impossible yet must we often use fictions or suppositions of things scarce possible to last so long till we have moulded conceipts of the Essence and Attributes incomprehensible more lively and semblable then can be taken either from the humane soule alone or from bodies naturall To maintaine it as a Philosophical truth that God is the soule of this universe is an impious errour before condemned as a grand seminary of Idolatry Yet by imagining the humane soule to be as really existent in every place whereto the cogitations of it can reach as it is in our bodies or rather to exercise the same motive power over the greatest bodily substance in this world that it doth over our fingers able to weild the Heavens or Elements with as great facility and speed as we doe our thoughts or breath We may by this fiction gaine a more true modell or shadow of Gods infinite efficacy then any one created substance can furnish us withall But whilest we thus by imagination transfuse our conceipts of the best life and motion which we know into this great Sphere which we see or which sute better to the immutable and infinite essence into bodies abstract or mathematicall we must make such a compound as Tacitus would have made of two noble Romanes Demptis utriusque vitiis solae virtutes misceantur The imperfections of both being sifted from them their perfections onely must be ingredients in this compound Yet may we not thinke that the divine nature which we seeke to expresse by them consists of perfections infinite so united or compounded We must yet use a further extraction of our conceits ere wee apply them to his incomprehensible nature CHAP. 2. Containing two philosophicall Maximes which lead us to the acknowledgement of one infinite and incompreâ—ensible Essence VNto every Student that with observance ordinary will survey any Philosophicall tract of causes two maine springs or fountaines doe in a manner discover themselves which were they as well opened and drawne as some others of lesse consequence are wee might baptize most Atheists in the one and confirme good Christians in the other The naturall current of the one directly caries us to an independant cause from whose illimited essence and nature the later affords us an ocular or visible derivation of those generall attributes whereof faith infused giveth us the true taste and relish The former wee may draw to this head Whatsoever hath limits or bounds of being hath some distinct cause or author of being As impossible it is any thing should take limits of being as beginning of being from it selfe For beginning of being is one especiall limit of being 2 This Maxime is simply convertible Whatsoever hath cause of being hath also limits of being because it hath beginning of being for Omnis causa est principium omne causatum est principiatum Every cause is the active beginning or beginner of being and an active beginning essentially includes a beginning passive as fashionable to it as the marke or impression is to the stampe Or in plainer English thus Where there is a beginning or beginner there is somewhat begunne Where the cause is praeâ—xistent in time the distinction or limits of things caused or begun are as easily seene as the divers surfaces of bodies severed in place But where the cause hath onely precedence of nature and not of time as it falleth out in things caused by concomitance or resultance the limits or confines of their being seeme confounded or as hardly distinguishable as the divers surfaces of two bodies glued together Yet as wee rightly gather that if the bodies be of severall kindes each hath its proper surface though the point of distinction bee invisible to our eyes so whatsoever we conceive to have dependance upon another wee necessarily conceive it to have proper limits of being or at least a distinct beginning of being from the other though as it were ingrafted in it But whether we conceive effects and causes distinctly as they are in nature or in grosse so long as wee acknowledge them this or that way conceived to be finite and limited wee must acknowledge some cause of their limitation which as we suppose cannot be distinct from the cause of their being 3 Why men in these dayes are not Gyants why Gyants in former were but men are two Problems which the meere naturalist could easily assoyle by this reason for substance one and the same The vigour of causes productive or conservative of vegetables of man especially from which he receiveth nutrition and augmentation is lesse now then it hath beene at least before the Flood though but finite and limited when it was greatest Why vegetables of greatest vigour ingrosse not the properties of others lesse vigorous but rest contented with a greater numericall measure of their owne specificall vertues is by the former reason as plaine For in that they have not their being from themselves they can take no more then is
it hath Now limits of being are essentiall properties of that essence or being wherin they are found And distinct bounds or limits are included in the distinct forme of being which every thing hath from its cause Actuall essence or existence it selfe is distributed to every thing that hath cause of being as it were sealed up in its proper forme or kind of being It is as possible to put a new fashion upon nothing as for any thing that is to take limits or set forme of being from nothing That which hath nothing to give it being can have nothing to give it limits or bounds of being And as no entity can take its being or beginning of being from it selfe so neither can it take bounds or limits from it selfe but must have them from some other The prime essence or first cause of all things that are as it hath no precedent cause of existence nor can it be cause of existence to it self so neither can it have any cause of limits without it selfe nor can it be any cause of limits to it selfe It remaines then that it must bee an essence illimited and thus to be without bounds or limits is the formall effect or consequence of being it selfe or of that which truly is without any cause precedent to give it being or make it what it is 6 So essentially is the conceipt of being without bounds or limits included in our conceipt of being without cause precedent that if we should by way of supposition give any imaginary entity leave to take beginning or possession of being from it selfe without the warrant of any cause precedent to appoint or measure it out some distinct portion or forme of being thus much being once by imagination granted wee could not by any imagination possible debarre this entity from absolute necessity of being for ever after whatsoever it listed to be or from being all things rather than any one thing Of the Heathens many did hold an uncreated Chaos praeexistent to the frame of this Vniverse and Philosophers to this day maintaine an ingenerable matter which actually is not any body but indifferent to be made every body Let us but suppose First the one or other of them to be as Homogeneall in it selfe as the ayre or water Secondly to be able to actuate or Proteus-like to transforme it selfe into a better state than now it hath without the helpe of any agent or efficient and then as it could have no cause so can there bee no reason given to restraine it from taking all bodily perfection possible to it selfe And if it bee true which some teach that this prime matter hath neither proper quantity nor quality what should hinder it to take both without measure supposing it might bee its one carver of those endowments Or imagine there were such a vacuity where the world now is as we Christians beleeve there was before it was made and onely one of Democritus casuall Atoms or some meere possibility or appetite of the matter left free venire in vacuum to give it selfe full and perfect act without curbe or restraint of any superiour power or sharer to cry halfe mine with it or make claime to the nature of any actuall entity lost it being supposed to be able to take any one nature upon it what should either hinder or further it to assume the nature of earth rather than of water or of these two rather than of any other Element or of any simple bodies rather than of mixt or compounded substances or of bodily substances rather than spirituall or of all these rather than of their metaphysicall eminences and perfections Or whilst we imagine it without cause of existence or beginning no reason imaginable could confine it to any set place of residence or extension no cause could bee alledged why it should take possession of the center rather than of the circumference of this Vniverse as now it stands or of both these rather than of the whole sphere or of the whole sphere rather than of all extensive space imaginable Only the very supposition of taking beginning though without cause doth put a limit to its duration because this kinde of beginning being but imaginary depends upon our imagination as upon its true cause And yet even thus considered me thinks it should extend its existence both waies and draw a circular duration to the instant where it beginnes Or not imagining the beginning let us imagine it only to have true present being without any cause precedent to push it forward or superiour guide to appoint it a set course and it is not within the compasse of imagination why the duration of it should not reach as farre the one way as the other as farre beyond all imagination of time past as of time to come why it should not comprehend all duration imaginable by way of present possession or supereminent permanency without admission of any deflux division or succession for continuation of its existence 7 If it bee objected that any thing may follow from supposition or imagination of impossibilities the reply is easie The objection is either false or true in a sense which no way impeacheth but rather approves that kinde of arguing True it is there is almost nothing in nature so impossible as it may not be the possible consequent of some impossibility supposed or granted but of every particular impossibility supposed or imagined the possible consequences are not infinite neither such nor so many as we list to make them they are determinate by nature Now we cannot conceive it to be in nature more impossible for a meere logical possibility really and truely to take beginning of actuall being onely from it selfe then it is for that which is supposed imagined thus to take beginning to be restrained either to any determinat kind or part of being or to bee confined to any set place or residence Or if any mislike these imaginarie models let him now he hath givē us leave to make them and vouchsafed to looke upon them utterly cancell or deface them The everlasting edifice to whose erection they are destinated is this Such as we cannot cōceive that not to be which we conceive to take beginning of being from it selfe without any cause precedent such of necessity must we conceive and beleeve him to bee indeed who neither tooke beginning from himselfe nor had it given by any but is the beginning of being the sole maker of all things that bee being himselfe without beginning without dependance o◠any cause without subordination to any guide to appoint his kinde to limit his place or prescribe his time of being He is in all these and whatsoever branch or portion of being imaginable truely and really infinite the quintessence or excellency of all perfections whether numericall or specifical incident to al sorts or degrees of Beings numerable CHAP. 1. Of infinity in Beeing or of absolute infinitie and the right definition of it by the ancient
weild so high a prerogative with upright constancy But in that Holy and mighty One the reservation of such liberty as anon we intimate is a point of high perfection 6 That to be able to decree an absolute contingency as well as necessity is an essentiall branch of Omnipotency or power infinite shall by the assistance of this Power be clearly demonstrated in the Article of Creation That God did omnipotently decree a contingency in humane actions that the execution of this decree is a necessary consequent of his communicative goodnesse a consequent so necessary that unlesse this be granted we cannot acknowledge him to be truly good much lesse infinitely good shall by the favour of this his Goodness be fully declared in the Treatise of mans fall and of sinnes entrance into the World by it That which in this place wee take as granted is That Gods wisedome is no lesse infinite than his power that he perfectly foreknowes whatsoever by his omnipotency can be done that his power and wisedome are fully commensurable to his immensity and eternity that all these rules following are exactly parallell in true Divinity Gods Presence is not circumscriptible by the coexistence of his creatures He is in every one of them as a Center and all of them are in Him as in a circumference capable not of them only but of all that possibly can bee onely uncapable of Circumscription or Equality His Eternity is more than commensurable to time or any duration of created Entities It is in every duration as a permanent instant and all durations are contained in it as a fluent instant in a set time or as noonetide in the whole day His Power likewise may not be confined to effects that are have beene or shall bee the production of every thing out of nothing argues it to be truly infinite and yet the production of all is to the infinity of it not so much as a beame of light which is strained through a needles eye is to the body of the Sunne or to all the light diffused throughout the world Least of all may his infinite wisedome be comprehended within those effects which by his power have been produced or which it now doth or hereafter shall produce But looke how farre his immensity exceeds all reall or compleat space or his Eternity succession or the duration of things created or his Power all things already reduced from possibility to actuall existence so farre doth his infinite Wisedome surmount the most exact knowledge that can bee imagined of all things already ereated and their actions Nothing that is could have borne any part in the world without the light or direction of his Knowledge and yet that measure of his Knowledge which can bee gathered from the full harmony of this Vniverse is lesse in respect of it absolutely considered then skill to number digits is to the entire or exact knowledge of all proportions or other arithmeticall rules or affections that can arise from their multiplications or divisions The causes properties hidden vertues of each thing created are better knowne to Him than so much of them as we see or perceive by any other sense is to us and yet He knowes whatsoever by infinite power possibly might have beene but now is not whatsoever hereafter may be though it never shall be as perfectly as he doth the things which at this instant are heretofore have beene or hereafter must be 7 The subject wherein this his incomprehensible wisedome exhibits the most liuely and surest apprehensions for drawing our hearts after it in admiration is the harmony or mixture of contingency with necessity And this most conspicuous in moderating the free thoughts of Men or Angells and ordaining them to the certaine and necessary accomplishment of his glory The contingent means which by his permission and donation these creatures may use for attaining their severall ends or private good may be successively infinite And yet albeit the utmost possibilities of their varieties and incōstancies were reduced to act the ends notwithstanding which his infinite wisedome hath forecast in their creation should by any course of many thousands which they may take be as inevitably brought to passe as if no choice or freedome had beene left them or as if every succeeding thought had been drawne on by the former and al linked to that which hee first inspired or by his irresistible power produced with indissoluble chains of Adamantine Fate We would esteeme it great wisdome or cunning to use S. Austines illustratiō in a Fowler to be able to catch againe all the Birds which he had formerly caught after he had permitted every one of them to take wings and flye which way they listed God hath nets every where spred for catching such as his wisedome suffers to flye farthest from him or most to decline the wayes which in his goodnesse he had appointed for thē and which is most of all to be admired the very freedome or variety of mens thoughts so they be permitted to imploy them according to their owne liking becomes their most inevitable and most inextricable snare For all their thoughts are actually numbred in his infinite wisedome and the award of every thought determinately measured or defined by his Eternall Decree So farre is freedome of choice or contingency from being incompatible with the immutability of Gods will that without this infinite variety of choice or freedome of thought in man and Angels wee cannot rightly conceive him to be as infinitely wise as his decree is immutable 8 Free it was for mee to have thought or done somewhat in every minute of the last yeare whereby the whole frame of my cogitations or actions for this yeare following might have beene altered and yet should God have beene as true and principall a cause of this alteration and of every thought and deed thus altered as he is of those that de facto are past or of that which I now thinke or doe Nor should his will or pleasure as some object depend on mine but mine though contingently free necessarily subject unto his For unto every cogitation possible to man or Angell he hath everlastingly decreed a proportionate end to every antecedent possible a correspondent consequent which needs no other cause or meanes to produce it but onely the reducing of possibility granted by his decree into Act. For what way soever of many equally possible mans will doth encline Gods decree is a like necessary cause of all the good or evill that befalls him for it Did we that which we doe not but might doe many things would inevitably follow which now doe not Nor doe the things which at this instant befall me come to passe because he absolutely decreed them and none but them as we say in the first place But because hee decreed them as the inevitable consequents of some things which hee knew I would doe which notwithstanding hee both knew and had decreed that I might not have done For
rule which all the former inductions can afford is this There can bee no reall effect whether artificiall naturall or supernaturall without an efficient Nothing which now is not or sometimes was not could possibly bee made without some agent or maker betweene every naturall Agent and its patient betweene every Artificer and his worke there alwayes results a mutuall relation of efficient and effect But this rule will not abide the turning Betweene every efficient and its proper effect there alwayes results a mutuall relation of agent and patient if by this terme patient wee understand a matter or subject praeexistent to the exercise of the agents efficiencie 4 The usuall division of Agents into artificiall naturall and supernaturall supposeth a three-fold diversitie in their objects betwixt which there is this proportion As nature alwayes affordeth art a compleat naturall subject to worke upon so the supernaturall agent or supreme efficient exhibits that imperfect substance or matter unto nature which shee brings unto perfection Nature doth so unto Art as it is done to her by a benefactor supernaturall Vnto this observation upon the former division wee can adde no more nor can any more be required besides a just proofe that there is an agent supernaturall which sometimes had no matter at all to worke upon but made even Nature her selfe and the passive capacitie or subject whereon shee workes of no worke or matter praeexistent The matter it selfe and nature it selfe are the immediate effects of his active force or efficiencie Now to beate the Naturalist at his owne weapon wee are to make proofe of this assertion by full induction and strength of reason grounded upon experiments in every subject wherein the Naturalist can instance First it is universally true of all the workes as well of Nature as of Art which now are perfect and sometimes were not so that they did not make themselves but had respectively their severall makers or efficient causes which brought them unto that perfect estate and condition which now they have The most perfect works of nature cannot put themselves into a perfect artificiall forme without the help of some Artificer Stones doe not naturally grow into Statues nor trees into the pictures or Images of men or birds Brasse and Copper with other metalls conceived in the bowells of the earth doe not either by themselves or by the help of naturall causes which produce them cast or mould themselves into Guns or Bullets The Earth and Water doe not worke themselves into the live-substance of plants or vegetables but are first wrought and as it were kneaded together by the heate of the Sunne first altered then incorporated into the substance of such trees by the vegetative faculty which is actually resident and praeexistent in the trees or plants which are nourished by them There is no sublunarie substance which did not take beginning either entirely and together or piece-meale and successively The elementall bodies of the ayre and water were not totally the same a thousand yeares agoe that now they are both continue the same they were by equivalencie of succeeding parts or daily addition by new generation Now successive generation supposeth an end or destruction of that that was a beginning of that which succeedes in its place and the beginning of every thing supposeth a beginner or cause efficient to give it being The race or continuation of more perfect sublunary substances as of vegetables and moving creatures remaines the same not by equivalency of succeeding parts but by a totall production of distinct individualls And every distinct individuall tree or liuing creature hath its immediate and proper efficient as well as its materiall cause nothing can give it selfe a distinct numericall being 5 What is the reason then why the workes of nature which are perfected in their kinde by their proper efficients as trees come to full growth cannot transforme themselves into bodies artificiall without the worke of the Artificer What is the reason why the imperfect masse wherein the seeds of nature are contained cannot grow up into a perfect or compleate body naturall without the efficiencie of some other in the same kinde already compleate Fortes creantur fortibus Nature makes nothing perfect but by the help of some Agent formerly made perfect Doth the perfection of bodies artificiall by an indispensable Law of necessitie require a perfect worke of nature praeexistent to the operation of Art and doth this perfect worke of nature bee it brasse wood or stone by a like indispensable Law of necessitie require an imperfect masse or matter praeexistent to the naturall Agents or efficients which mould or kneade it into its perfect or specificall forme And shall not this imperfect masse with all its severall Elements or ingredients that can be required to the perfection of any naturall body more necessarily require some precedent efficient cause of its imperfect being or existence This cannot be conceived for if these imperfect substances whereof any naturall body is made could eyther give beginning of being to themselves or have it from no cause efficient they should bee in this respect much more perfect than the more perfect workes of nature in that they eyther make themselves or have no maker Vpon this principle of nature or from this impossibilitie in nature That any visible work whether naturall or artificiall should either give it selfe being or have its being from no cause precedent did Tully rightly argue that as a man comming into an house wherein were no live creatures saue Rats and Mice could not conceive that either the house did make it selfe or had no other maker besides these Rats and Mice which were found in it So neither can it be imagined that this visible spheare wherein the workes of Art and Nature are daily seene and doe daily begin to be and expire could either make it selfe or have beeing of it selfe without beginning without a Maker super-artificiall or an efficient supernaturall Every part of this Vniverse considered alone is a worke of nature but the exquisite harmony betweene them is a worke more then Artificiall All that nature can adde to art or art to nature is but a shadow of that great Artificers skill which composed the severall workes of nature into so excellent a forme and tuneth their discording qualities into such exact harmony The induction of Tully is more briefly but more pithily and expressely gathered by our Apostle Heb. 3. ver 4. Euery house is builded by some man but hee that built all things is God But if every house bee built by some man how is God said to build all things shall every builder of an house be a God No but whatsoever man doth build God doth likewise build For except the Lord doth build the house they labour in vaine that are builders of it Psalm 127. 1. Better it were to bee idle or to doe nothing then either to be laborious in building houses or watchfull in guarding Cities strongly
that which hath no beginning of beeing cannot have its beeing for any other sake besides it owne Nor can we truely say that it is for its owne sake And this Authors reason for this assertion is most judiciously acute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praeter causam enim est cujus cansa non est so the Latin translator The Authors full meaning is That which hath no efficient cause to give its beginning of beeing can have no finall cause of its beeing or rather no cause at all whether finall formall or material But is it selfe the cause of causes the prime efficient by which all things are what they are and the last end or finall cause for which they are CHAP. 8. Discussing the second generall proposed Whether the making something of nothing rightly argue a power Omnipotent 1 THe discussion of the second generall Principle might well have had its admission into Divinity denyed had not some Schoole Divines by disputing whether there can be any instrumentall cause of Creation given it a colourable pretence for intruding it selfe Their meaning may in more civill language be thus exprest Whether the power of creating may by omnipotency be delegated to any agent not omnipotent That Omnipotency it self cannot be delegated all agree Now if the production of spirituall grace in the heart of man be a true and proper effect of creative power they who teach that the Sacraments of the Gospel do conferre grace ex opere operato that is by their proper efficacy are ingaged to make proofe that the power of creation may be delegated by the Almighty Father either to the consecrated Sacramentary Elements or to the Priest which consecrates them But leaving the discussion of this Question in the explication of whose termes or meaning the favourers or maintainers of it do not agree 〈◊〉 proper place 〈◊〉 our present question is Whether ability to create substances visible or invisible doth necessarily inferre it to be Omnipotent Spirituall grace all grant is no substance But here againe the Schoolemen have troubled themselves and their Readers with a question if not more curious yet as unnecessary as the former as whether this visible world or at least some part of it might not have beene created immediately by Angels as by Gods instrumets The Question perhaps might be more pertinent and more distinct were it framed thus Whether to make any visible or invisible substance of nothing or without any matter pretedent which should remaine as an ingredient in the substance made do rightly infer the immediate maker to be Omnipotent That any cause efficient of substance which hath beene created or hereafter may be created could be enabled to create or make any other substance without any entity praexistent whereof it should be made is an hypothesis or supposall which hath no other ground either in Philosophy or Divinity besides the vncertaine grounds from which some have attempted to prove that creation is a prerogative of the one Omnipotent which cannot be delegated to any other This truth some labour to prove from this Maxime Inter 〈◊〉 non ens infinita distantia est Betweene something betweene any thing which truly is and meere nothing there is an infinite distance or disparity Now this breach of disparity or distance infinite which they conceive between something nothing caÌ„not be fully made up save only by power truly infâ—nite whence it may seeme concluded that it is impossible for any thing to be made of nothing save onely by power in it selfe Omnipotent or absolutely infinite The conclusion it selfe or the last proposition in the inference I verily beleeve to be most true but the meane to inferre it or manner of inferring it is not so certaine as the conclusion is sound The Argument is bâ—t calculatory And this kind of argument is deceitfull unlesse the degrees of proportion whether between the disparity oâ— congâ—â—ity of termes compared bee determinate and certaine The degrees of disparity betweene something and nothing cannot be more in number or more infinite than are the entitive degrees of any created substance And these are not actually or absolutely infinite nor can the disparity betwixt something and nothing betwixt nothing and the most excellent eventure that is be so great or so absolutely infinite as is the disparity betwixt the most excellent creature that is or can be and the one Omnipotent Creator who alone is absolutely infinite 2 But be it onely supposed no way granted that the power of making some visible substance out of nothing might be delegated to some Creature the exercise of this power thus delegated would not inferre the Exerciser of it but only the Author to be Omnipotent For to be Omnipotent includes as much as to be able to do all things which imply no contradiction as much as to make all things that can be conceived as logically possible out of nothing because all sorts or kinds of being numerable or comprehensible are eminently contained in the incomprehensible Essence of which the attribute of Omnipotency is a chiefe prerogative It is not then all one to be enabled to make some thing suppose a gnat or flye out of nothing and to be able to make as many things as now are extant in the world or much better than these are out of meere nothing It is a maxime evident by light of reason that no Doner can really give more than he hath to give suppose he were willing enabled and authorized to give himselfe to give its whole nature with the appurtenances to any other Creature already extant or in possibility to bee created It being then supposed that an Angell by some speciall delegation from the incomprehensible Essence or power Omnipotent might be enabled to make something of nothing it were not possible that he should make any nature or essence more excellent than himselfe Yet it is possible that there might be some more excellent created substance than this Angell yea of necessity there should be a possibilitie of his being more excellent in his kind than now he is However for him to give for him to bestow a more excellent being upon that which is not than for the present he himselfe hath is no way possible Suppose then hee might entirely alienate from himselfe or bequeath the best being which for the present he hath upon some possibility of being or advance some numerable not being to his own estate by his utter annihilation this could not argue him to be Omnipotent because there be many other effects possible which are not in his power to produce albeit he could resume that which he had given unto another and bestow it againe where he pleased Lastly seeing the prime Essence who alone is absolutely infinite did not make all things out of nothing by a necessity of nature but because it was his will so to make them no creature by any delegated power imaginable could possibly make any one thing or more things out of nothing
besides those which the Omnipotent was willing should be so made nor these any better either for substance or qualitie than his will was they should be Nor could any creature be enabled by his will out of nothing to make any thing which was not eminently contained in the nature of that creature to whom this power of creating is supposed to be by his will delegated For albeit some efficient or productive causes bring forth effects for substance or qualitie more excellent then themselves yet this they never doe this they cannot doe unlesse they worke upon some advantage which the subject or matter whereon they worke doth afford them But this advantage cannot be supposed in the production of any substance out of no subject or matter praexistent All the excellency which any effect or substance so produced can have must be intirely derived from its efficient And that can be no greater excellency or perfection than the efficient it selfe hath not altogether so great because it must be eminently contained in the perfection of its efficient if so be the efficient have any perfection or being left after the production of such an effect So that every efficient cause which is or can be supposed as an instrumentall cause of creation or as enabled to produce something out of nothing is thus farre limited that it can produce no effect more excellent that it selfe and being thus limited in it selfe and by dependance on an higher cause as well in its being as in its operation it cannot be conceived to bee Omnipotent For that includes as much as to be illimited in operation or which is all one to bee the operative power of the incomprehensible Essence or of Being infinite 3 But though to be able to make something out of nothing be not formally aequipollent to the attribute of Omnipotency yet can it not hence be concluded that any agent besides the one Omnipotent is either able or can be enabled to produce the least substance that is the least portion or matter ingredient to any bodily substance out of meer nothing To lay the first foundation or beginning of being of any finite substance is the sole effect of being it selfe and therefore of that which is truly infinite in operation Whatsoever is finite or limited can have no other kind of being than borrowed or participated And this kinde of being must bee immediately derived without intervention of any instrumentall cause from being not participated or borrowed but from increated and authentique being To create is to give actuall being or existance without the help or furtherance of any Contributer or Confounder Now if this power of creating could possibly bee delegated to any created substance it were possible for that which is created by it to have its being extra infinitum esse that is it should not be immediately and intirely contained in the infinite and incomprehensible Essence or Being For in this very supposall That one created substance might by power delegated from Omnipotency create another it is necessarily implied that the substance created should have its being intirely or part of its being immediately from the other which by power delegated is supposed to create it And having such being as it hath either intirely or in part immediately from the other it could not be immediately and intirely contained in the first cause of all things And if the least substance possible could have its Being not immediately and intirely from the first cause or supreame Efficient he could not bee actually and absolutely infinite in Being or Omnipotent in working For that onely is absolutely infinite or infinite in Being in which all things possible are immediately contained without whose incomprehensible Being nothing can have existence without whose immediate operation nothing can begin to be or exist These agitatiōs discussions may notifie unto us the strength soundness of that treble rule or fundamentall principle layd by others and before touched by us First it is peculiar unto Art to turne bodies already formed and perfected by nature into another fashion It is the property of nature and of naturall and finite Agents to worke the unfashioned or confused matter into some determinate forme or set kinde of being It is the prerogative of the Omnipotent Maker to afford naturall Agents the intire matter and stuffe whereon they worke and to bestow on them such being as they have whether that be materiall or immateriall celestiall or sublunary spirituall or bodily and to bestow i◠intirely without the helpe of any Co-efficient without the contribution of any stuffe or matter of any reallitie praeexistent SECTION II. Of Divine Providence in generall and how contingency and necessity in things created are subject unto it CHAP. 9. Of the perpetuall dependance which all things created have on the Almighty Creator both for their beeing and their operations 1 BVt will it suffice us to beleeve that as Art hath its proper subject made or fitted by Nature or as more perfect substances praesuppose an imperfect state in Nature so this imperfect state of nature or the subject on which naturall efficients do work was made of nothing without any coagency of Nature or Art by the sole power of the Almighty Father To beleeve all this is but the first part of our beleefe of this Article of Creation For better apprehending the intire object of our beleefe in this point we are to observe the difference betwixt the dependance which Art hath on nature or which workes artificiall have on the Artificer or which more perfect naturall substances have on the imperfect substances whereof they are made or on their naturall efficients and the dependance which both naturall Agents Patients which efficient causes as wel artificiall as naturall with their severall matters or subjects have on the Almighty Creator and Maker of all things First then nature or causes naturall after they have finished their proper works and fitted them for Art to worke upon do not cooperate with the Artificer in fashioning them to his ends or purpose The Artificer againe after he hath finished his worke doth not continually support preserve or apply it to those uses unto which it serves but leaves this unto their care for whose convenience it was made The Clocke-maker doth not tye himselfe to keep all the Clocks which he makes nor doth he which undertakes to keepe them binde himselfe to watch their motions perpetually or to observe them as curiously as Physitians doe their sicke Patients Againe the most perfect works of nature as vegetables and living things depend upon their causes whether materiall or efficient for the most part onely in fieri not in facto whilest they are in making or in perfecting not after they be made and perfected The Lyonesse doth not perpetually nourish her whelps with her owne substance nor doth the Raven continually provide for her young ones or any other creatures more kinde than they perpetually support or direct their brood in
the earth and in the waters are as immediately and as intirely ascribed unto the operative power of the Creator as their first Creation out of nothing was Yet the reason of their ascribing all this unto the immediate and sole power of God will no way warrant the truth of their criticisme who teach that neither the fire doth truly heat or burne or the water really coole or moisten or that no visible creature hath any reall operation upon another but that our assigning of their motions or operations as true causes in their kind of the effects which we see daily produced is but a solaecisme of vaine Philosophy or of sciences falsly so called whereas the right resolution of this solaecisme into distinct and Christian phrase is but this God doth produce heat cold moisture vegetables and other living things ad praesentiam creaturarum the Fire Water Sunne Earth c. being but bare witnesses of the Creators power which is manifested in them or of its operation in their presence by which operation alone all those effects are produced which the Philosophers ascribe unto the Creatures And most true it is that the Creator doth daily worke all those effects which we attribute to naturall agents yet doth hee not worke such effects onely in them or where they are present but he truly worketh by them and with them And if the Omnipotent power be truly said to worke by and with natural meanes or causes they must truly worke with him in their kinde When the Apostle saith in him wee live and move and have our beeing this necessarily implies that wee have a life in its kinde distinct from his life a motive power different in its kinde from his power a kinde of beeing likewise distinct from his infinite Essence or from being-it-selfe But in as much as the life of all things living the motions of every thing that moveth the being of every numerable thing that is hath such an absolute dependance as hath been declared upon his creative power hence it is that the Prophets and Divine Philosophers ascribe all the visible effects or events which time presents or place accompanieth no lesse intirely to the Creator than the first production of their visible and naturall causes As for the former Critickes in whose language God onely worketh in his creatures or his creatures being present they might with as good reason affirme that the Sunne did not really move but that God did move the Sun being present yet could he not move or create motion ad praesentiam Solis unlesse the Sunne did truly move The truth is the Sunne doth move or is moved by Gods presence in it but he doth not move with it or by it But with the Sunne or other Creatures he truly worketh as they truly worke with him And by this concession of some true power and property of working unto naturall Agents more is ascribed to the Creator of all things than can bee ascribed by the contrary opinion which utterly denies al power or property of working to the Creatures For he that denyes any effects to be truly wrought by them cannot ascribe their abilities or operative force which in his opinion is none unto their Creator But Moses taugh the Israelites that it was God which gave them power to gather substance Nor were they more bound to praise God for the substance which they gathered or for the Manna which by miracle hee sent unto them than for the 〈◊〉 which he gave them to gather the one or other 2 Yeâ— is not this absolute and immediate dependance which every creature as well or its being as for its power or exercise of it hath oâ— the Almighty Creator the intire ground or reason why the effects which are in their kinde produced by the Creatures are by the Prophets wholly ascribed unto power Almighty For this dependance or the reason of ascribing all things to God which is grounded on it being for the present â—questred he hath a peculiar title to all the works or effects especially to all of greater and more publique consequence which the Creatures produce from his skill or wisedome in contriving the combination of second causes with their severall operations for the assequution of their last or utmost end Nor was the entitative goodnesse of every creature in his kinde albeit considered in that perfection wherein God made it the ground or reason of that approbation which hee bestowed upon them as they severally began to bee or after hee had accomplished them all God saith Moses saw all that he had made and loe it was exceeding good What goodnesse then was this which hee thus commends the goodnesse of order or of harmony betwixt them as they were parts of this Vniverse This harmony was the accomplishment of his severall workes the ground of his praises and the complete object of our beleefe of this Article of Creation Hence saith the Apostle Heb. 11 By faith we beleeve What Secula facta esse nay more then so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worlds were harmonically made It was a double over-sight in some good Divines from one or both of these two principles Omne ens quâ—â—ens est bonum What soever hath being is good whatsoever is was made by God and all things which God made were good to infer that sinne or morall evill could have no positive entitie For the greater the entitative goodnesse of any creature is the greater measure of morall evill it alwayes includes unlesse its entitative goodnesse hold such harmony or correspondency with the rest as may helpe to make up or support that goodnesse of order that is that goodnesse of coordination amongst themselves or of that joint subordination unto their Creator which he first framed and placed in this Vniverse as it was his worke Vnlesse sinne or morall evill had some positive entitie or some positive degrees or measure all sinnes should be equall there could bee no different kinds of sinne no numericall difference or degrees betwixt particular sinnes of the same kind But of the nature of sinne or morall evill and how compatible this evill is with goodnes entitative more at large by Gods assistance in the Treatise of Originall sinne or the estate or condition of the sons of wrath which estate every child of Adam by participation of this first sinne doth inherit The peculiar title which the Almighty Creator by right of Creation or by the combination or contrivance of naturall and intellectuall agents hath to all the praises which either the Souldier or Statesman the Landlord the Husbandman or such as live by Merchandizing daily rob him of will come more fitly to be declared in some following Treatises of Divine speciall providence 3 If the Reader desire a briefe abstract or summe of what hath beene said of Gods power in creating the world or of the reservation of this free power unto himselfe to alter to innovate or amend the estate wherein he hath hitherto
his first sinne or appetite of the forbidden fruite to bee necessarie or necessitate his will in his sinister choyces This were all one as to say that God were the immediate and necessarie cause of sinne of death of all the evills that have befallen mankinde since Adam For he is the sole immediate and necessarie cause of all things which hee so decrees as they cannot possibly fall out otherwise For him to erre in decreeing or for the execution of his decree to bee defeated is impossible In respect of his proper and adaequate object and peremptorily intended effect his will is a more irresistible more powerfully necessitating cause than any other cause whatsoever Now if Gods will had beene to leave no possibility for Adams perserverance his fall had beene the compleat object of Gods decree concerning our first estate and by consequence Gods decree or will had beene the first cause of sinnes first entrance into the world CHAP. 14. The former conclusion proved by the consent of all the Ancients whether Christians or Heathens which did dislike the errour of the Stoikes THE incommodious or inconsiderate speeches which some of better note and antiquitie have let fall were as I perswade my selfe but symptomes of their provoked zeale or eager desire to salve those grosse absurdities which they had rightly espied in others But it is alwaies more easie to expugne an errour or salve a particular inconvenience then to provide that no more shall follow upon the cure or medicine Had those famous lamps of Gods Church by whose light many grosse opinions have beene discried and reformed seene the inconveniences which follow upon their owne positions as clearely as many of their friends since have done it would bee a foule slander in us to suspect that they would not wil-willingly have altered their dialect or taken advise for expressing their good meaning in tearmes more safe more proper and scholastique If otherwise we abstract their speeches from that respect and reverence which we owe unto their memorie or that good opinion which best men have had of their sinceritie I cannot see wherein the necescesarie consequences of their opinions as they are usually expressed comes short of the Manichees errors or wherein they differ at all from the Stoicks The Manichees held all evill and mischiefe in the world to fall out by inevitable necessity but this necessitie they derived from an evill Author from a prime cause or Creator of evill onely not of any thing that was good And better it is for it is more consonant to our Saviours advise to acknowledge the tree for evill where the fruite is evill then to justifie it for good when the fruite is apparently and of necessitie naught The pertinacie or stiffenesse in this common error Evils and mischiefe or wicked actions fall out by necessitie being presupposed aequall they adde lesse sinne or errour to it which hence acknowledge a prime cause of evill or a cause evill by fatall necessitie then those which hold evill to be necessary in respect of his Omnipotent decree who is infinitely good In fine the Manichees were grosse haeretiques in holding evill and mischiefe to fall out by inevitable necessitie but this heresie once admitted it was rather a consonancy of error then any addition of new heresie to admit two prime causes or Creators the one of good the other of evill They durst not slander goodnesse with any crime or for being the Author of any thing that was not good nor were they disposed to flatter greatnesse as if evill were no evill because it proceeded from it 2. That which the Ancients reprooved in the Stoicks opinion as most injurious to God and all good men was that they held all things and evill things amongst the rest to fall out by fate or unavoydable necessitie This foundation being once laied the rootes of vertue must utterly perish and that which we call vice should bee a meere name or matter of nothing there is no place left for just reward or punishment Whether by fate the Stoicks meant the influence of starres the course of nature or the decree of GOD who to them was all one with Nature all was one in respect of the former inconveniences which necessarily followed from admission of an inevitable necessitie in humane actions whence soever that be derived To say it comes from the first cause or from the second is meerly accidentall to the error or inconvenience so sharply justly reproved by the primitive Church In respect of a Tradesmans commoditie it is all one whether he be prohibited for setting up or trafiquing by the companie of his own profession or by some higher powers so the prohibition or restraint be as large peremptorie without hope of release or if he bee restrained upon his allegiance by the Prince or privy counsell his hopes of thriving will be much lesse then if he were tied onely by the locall statutes of some pettie Corporation Thus if the Stoick derived the necessitie of all things from the revolution of the Heavens or from other second causes as their supposed guides the impossibilitie of doing otherwise then we doe was in every Christians conceipt evidently much lesse then if we derive this necessitie from the Omnipotent decree Now the danger or incenvenience of their opinion did formally consist in nursing a conceipt in men that it was impossible for them to doe otherwise then they doe or to avoyd the evills and mischiefes into which they fall And these dangers or inconveniences are so much greater in Christians then they were in the Stoicks as the God which wee acknowledge is more Omnipotent then nature or the Stoicks god For the more Omnipotent he is the more impossible is it for any creature to avoid the necessitie which by his decree is layed upon him 3. In respect of the former inconveniences or of the opinion it selfe it is meerely accidentall whether this necessity bee layed upon us by coaction or willingly and cheerefully entertained by us whether it proceed from Gods power or impulsion or from his wisdome so our actions and their issues bee in respect of his Omnipotent power or will alike unavoidable If birds and fishes could speake I suppose the one would as much complaine of those that in hard frost or snow allure them with baites to come within the fall of the trappe as the other would doe of Fishers for driving them violently into their nets If the birds once taken be used as hardly their expostulations would be so much more just as their usage before their taking was more kinde To make a man willing to undoe himselfe upon faire promises made not with purpose to doe him good but to circumvent him is greater cruelty then can accompany open violence Hee that wittingly ministers poyson instead of Physick is in all mens judgement as true a Murderer as hee that kils with the sword albeit the partie to whom it is ministred having no reason to suspect any
assuredly goe forth unto the King of Babylons Princes then thy soule shall live and this Citie shall not bee burnt with fire and thou shalt live and thy house But if thou wilt not goe forth to the King of Babylons Princes then shall this City bee given into the hands of the Chaldeans and they shall burne it with fire and thou shalt not escape out of their hand Ier. 38. ver 17 18 And Zedekiah the King said unto Ieremiah I am afraid of the Iewes that are fallen to the Chaldeans lest they deliver mee into their hand and they mocke me But Ieremiah sayd They shall not deliver thee obey I beseech thee the voice of the Lord which I spake unto thee so it shall bee well unto thee and thy soule shall live But if thou refuse to go forth this is the word which the Lord hath shewed me And behold all the women that are left in the King of Iudahs house shall bee brought forth unto the King of Babylons Princes and those women shall say Thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee thy feet are sunke in the mire and they are turned away back So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans and thou shalt not escape out of their hand but shalt be taken by the hand of the King of Babylon and thou shalt cause this Citie to bee burnt with fire c. vers 19 20 21 22 23. 11 This last neglect of Gods antecedent will so often revealed for his good procured the speedy execution of his consequent will without all possibility to avoid it Not a title of Ieremies or Ezekiels prophesie which his Politicians sought to set at variance but is exactly fulfilled upon him and so is Micahs prophesie upon this Citie The manner how Ieremies and Ezekiels prophesie which seeme to contradict each other were both fulfilled is admirable and might well move a man not well acquainted with the nature of prophecies and Gods speciall providence to think the Fates had plotted his ruine But this particular argument is prosecuted elsewhere more at large 12 To recapitulate the summe of many arguments to like purposes vnto every possible choise or resolution made by man whether concerning matters private or publique there is a distinct correspondent successe allotted by the omnipotent and immutable Decree Every actuall choise or resolution is as the drawing of a new lott whose just price or recompence be it good or bad is instampt upon it from eternity And for the awarding or payment of it in due time the whole host of Gods creatures stand bound by the very tenour of their beeing or dependancy upon their Maker Seeing all of them were made by his word and are continued by his meere will and pleasure sooner shall they forfeit their very beeing and be resolved into nothing than the least tittle of Gods will concerning any creature should not be fulfilled or that successe be it good or bad should not be awarded to private men or publike States in that exact degree and measure which God from eternity hath appointed From ignorance of this essentiall subordination which fate or conspiracy of second causes have unto Gods irresistible providence who by his infinite creative power can at all times dissolve their combination or compose them anew by wayes to man for number incomprehensible as pleaseth him the wisest amongst State wizards have erred and do erre more grossely in assigning the causes of Kingdomes ruines or erections or in prognosticating the successe of politick skill than a vulgar Astronomer should do which would take upon him to foretell the peculiar disposition of the Ayre or weather in every place throughout this Iland for every houre of the yeare following The observation which many of them gather from the inspection of times present or past are of as little use for future ages as an Almanack of this yeare is for the yeares following Sooner may moderne Scholars prove extraordinary Husbandmen by observing Virgils Calender of the rising and setting of Stars or other rules of that ancient husbandry which he describes than pragmaticall wits become wise Statesmen by reading Tacitus Livy or others better acquainted with the mysteries of State or Princely secrets than with Gods providence or with the Almighties Decree concerning the successe of their projects Though that decree bee as He is most immutable yet the variety of mens dispositions especially in sundry ages is greater than any alterations in the heavens the divers conjunctions or oppositions of mens wils to his are more then can be found amongst the Starres Now it is his immutable will to render unto every people and nation according to the degrees of that conformity or dissonancy which they hold with his mercy bounty or justice or with his most holy will CHAP. 25. Of the sudden and strange erection of the Macedonian Empire and the manifestation of Gods speciall providence in Alexanders expedition and successe 1 ARISTOTLE being born when Greece did flourish and living when the Halcyon dayes of Macedon beganne to dawne would gladly tie the light of GODS countenance which in his full age was inclining to the Meridian of Greece unto the situation of his Country and disposition of his Countrimen whose politick vertues in his Philosophicall vanity were intailed to the peculiar temper of that clime The people saith hee that live in cold countries and in Europe as distinct from Greece are stout and hardy but not so wise and politick more free then civill much apter to be their owne men then their neighbours masters The Asiatickes that want no wit are destitute of courage therefore they remaine in servitude and subjection unto others The Grecians as they enjoy the middle place for situation so they participate with the Asiaticks for wit and colder countries for courage in such proportion as enapts them to preserve their libertie and to beare rule and soveraignty over others Many Comets at their first appearance are usually mistaken for fixed Starres reputed next in glory unto the Moone untill their parallax bewray their place and their sudden end discover their orginall to bee corruption Thus the brightnesse of the Grecian Monarchy whilest it was in rising or comming unto its height misperswaded their hearts whose eyes it dazeled that it was to endure like the daies of heaven whereas it proved but like the glistring bubbles of the morning dew which dissolve with the strength of those beames that gave them lustre This is the onely difference the period of their splendor falls in the compasse of an houre and Comets usually continue not many months Wheras the rise and fall of Kingdomes commonly outreach any one mans age or observation and such as follow marke the occurrences of their owne times more then their connexion with former Whence it is that secular politicians are alwayes learning and never attaine unto the knowledge of what they seeke Howbeit Aristotle lived long enough to
the present service and of his seeking to expresse himselfe in outward performances albeit young Samuel-like he could not distinguish the callers voice wanting an Ely to instruct him yet can no Atheist bee so impudent as to surmis◠that Esay leremy and Xenophon should conspire like partners to make a faire game by seeing one anothers hands For what common stake could they hope to gaine by this practice but to omit generalities for justifying Xenophon and Herodotus in relating such rare documents of Cyrus his infancy albeit these being compared with the former prophecie and sacred relations concerning Salomon or others whom God hath called by name are in themselves capable enough of credit we will descend to such particulars in Heathen Writers as are consonant to the sacred passages concerning the Babylonian warre and may serve to set forth the wisedome and providence of God in effecting his good purpose towards the captive seed of Abraham for according to the intent and purport of the former Prophecy the Reader is alwayes to beare in minde that the true and finall cause of Gods extraordinarie blessings upon Cyrus and of his conquest of the Babylonians was the appointed deliverance of his chosen people and the manifestation of his power and wisdome to the ends of the world 4 A man of moderne experience in treatise of Leagues and but of speculative acquaintance with the difficulties which interpose to hinder the association of lesser Segniories against mighty neighbour Monarcks would happely deeme that Xenophon had framed his relations of Cyrus his successe in linking bordering Nations to the Medes and Persians by the modell of some Academicall canvas or suit for some annuall office amongst fellow Citizens The Armenians the Hyrcanians the Cedrosians with many other naturall subjects to the Babylonian all unacquainted with the project at the beginning come over unto Cyrus with as great facility and speed as if there had beene no greater danger in undertaking this doubtfull and in common experience most desperate war than in giving a free voice to one competitor before another in a free and popular State But Xenophon was not so meane a contemplative Scholar as to commit so foule a solaecisme as this had beene albeit his pupose had beene to poetize in these narrations Poeticall fictions must beare a true resemblance of probability Truths themselves must bee set forth in their native colours although they appeare to ordinary experience most incredible Such was the successe of Cyrus in the former businesse if it were to bee deriued onely from his owne witt or contriuance But Xenophon might have good historicall reasons not to suspect the Persian annalls or Persians reports of Cyrus as we haue sacred authoritie to beleeue the matters reported by them He that called Cyrus by his name before hee was borne and had now set him vp as Competitor with the Babylonian for the Asiaticke Monarchie had layd the plot and made the canvas for him before hee set forth and which is principally to bee obserued had giuen publick warning to those Nations which Xenophon mentions more then threescore yeares before to bee ready with others in armes against Babell Set up a standard saith Ieremie in the land blow the Trumpet among the nations prepare the nations against her call together against her the kingdomes of Ararat Minni and Ashchenash appoint a Captaine against her cause her horses to come up as the rough Caterpillers Prepare against her the nations with the Kings of the Medes the Captaines thereof and all the Rulers thereof and all the land of his Dominion And the land shall tremble and sorrow for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon to make the Land of Babylon a desolation without an Inhabitant It is intimated by another Prophet that the Lord would have these prophesies concerning Babylon so remarkeably fulfilled that all the world might take notice of them The Lord answered mee and said Write the vision and make it plaine upon tables that he may runne that readeth it For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speake and not lye though it tarry waite for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Behold his soule which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith Yea also because he transgresseth by wine hee is a proud man neither keepeth at home who inlargeth his desire as Hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations and unto him all people Shall not these take up a parable against him and a tanting proverbe against him and say woe to him that increaseth that which is not his how long and to him that ladeth himselfe with thick clay Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee and awake that shall vex thee and thou shalt be for booties unto thē Because thou hast spoyled many nations all the remnāt of the people shall spoyle thee because of mens blood and for the violence of the land of the Citie and of all that dwell therein Cyrus in the beginning of this expedition was but Cyaxarez his agent to regaine the revolted Armeneans The warre was managed in the King of Media his name albeit God according to Esaias Prophesie did prosper Cyrus under him as hee did David under Saul The same did goe of Cyrus amongst the Medes and Persians as it had of Dauid through the host of Israell Cyaxarez hath slaine his thousand and Cyrus his tenne thousand The Monarchy was to be setled on the Persian Cyaxarez was feoffee in trust for Cyrus as Saul was by Gods appointment for Dauid 5 Their taking of armes was just and in their owne defense Their first resolutions did reach no further then to the safeguard of their borders much trespassed upon by the Caldeans untill unexpected successe hopefull opportunities of better daily presenting themselves without seeking did invite them to come neerer After they had gotten secret intelligence of the enemies estate many new associates and qui◠possession of so much of his dominions as would suffice to maintaine their doubled armie they had no hope to conquer no purpose to besiege the Metropolies of the kingdome That which after a doubtfull consultation did chiefly sway them in the height of all their strength to continue their war was the complaint of their trusty confederates justly fearing lest they should become a prey to the insolent Tyrant much exasperated by their revolt as ready as able to take revenge upon them if once their armie should be dissolued The overthrow of Craesus following upon their resolution to continue the warre brought great accesse of new associates and fresh supplies unto their armie Had Cyrus or his confederates understood the tenour of the Commission which the Lord of hoasts had sealed them before they undertooke this warre they had no question giuen the onset upon Babylon before the overthrow