this Basis was it that many Schooolmen erected that Axiom Praevisionem Dei nihil influere in humanas actiones that the Praevision of God hath no influence coactive upon the actions of man Now what hath bin argued for the Praevision and Praenotion of God is also to be extended to his Praediction especially because t is uncontrovertible that Praediction is posterior or subsequent to the Praenotion of any Contingent yet in the womb of Futurity since what is not exactly foreknown can never be certainly foretold For which respect shall any urge upon us that the Divine Praenotion and Praediction cannot be Fallacious we shall most willingly concede their position as most indubitate because nothing can be prognosticate by God as Future which is not really Future but when it shall be thence inferred that if Peter had once the absolute power in his own hands to have not denyed and rightly using that arbitrary power had actually not denyed in that case the praenotion and praediction of his denyal by God had proved Fallacious we must reject the Illation as illegal and absurd because had not Peters denyall bin realy Future God had neither praevised nor praedicted the same For it is the Reality of its Futurition that supports the Certitude of the Praediction of any future Contingent And therefore in case Peter had bin not to deny God had as certainly praedicted that He would not deny since so the Supposition had bin quite contrary viz. that Peter rightly using his Liberty of Election would determine it not to a Negation but Affirmation Whereupon we may safely conclude 1 that Peters Abnegation was Future and 2 that God both praevised and praedicted the same upon no other Necessity but only this that Peter when it should be in his own power to determine himself to either part would then actually determine himself rather to Disclaim and Abjure then own and avow his Master Thus the Divines And thus the Philosophers Non quia Dii definitò norunt Article 6. The Solution of the same by the Philosophers proving that the dâ—finite Praenotion of future Contingents is no Cause of their definite Contingency but è contrà the definity of their Futurition the câ—use of their dâ—finite â—â—anotion Contingentia ideo illa eventura sunt Neque enim quia Dii norunt ideo necessariò eveniunt sed quia cum naturae sint anâ—ipitis aut talem aut talem exhibebunt exitum norunt Dii necessariò qualem seu utrum obtinebunt adeo ut Contingens ex sua quidem natura indefinitum sit sed respectu tamen notitiae Deorum definitum Quinetiam constat nostra quoque notitia Contingens definitò cognosci cum viz. propriè Contingens deinceps non sit sed necessariò consequitur antegressas cur fiat Causas Saith Ammonius in lib. de interpret The whole importance whereof is this That the definite praenotion of Contingents by God is in no relation the cause of their definite Contingency but their being of themselves definitely Future or their Ambiguity being to be determined to Definity of Futurition is the Cause of their praenotion by God For though a Contingent be Indefinite in respect to its own nature i. e. it is equally determinable by the Liberty of its Causes to either of two contrary Events yet in respect to the Praenotion of God it is Definite because God hath an infallible praenotion to which of two contrary Events its Causes will determine it All which may be confirmed à Minori from the Praenotion of Man experience assuring that Physicians frequently prognosticate and praedict the death of their deplored Patients even to an hour Not that their Prognosticks have any influence upon the Disease to determine it to Mortal when yet t is Dubious but that the determination of the disease from Dubious to definitely Mortal by its causes is the ground of their Prognostick Here lest we be misconceived to confound Divine and Human Article 7. The Disparity betwixt Divine and Human Praenotion Praecognition we advertise that the Praenotion of God is Infallible because à Priori i. e. He foreknows Contingents while they are yet only in Possibility and in the womb of their Causes nor to him who demands Why or How God foreknows Events while they are yet in the Dark or Nothing of Futurity can any other response be given but this that He is Omniscient i. e. God but the Praenotion or rather Praesagitition of man is Fallacious because desumed à Posteriori from Effects educed extra Causas into actual Existence Which vast Disparity may be most adaequately Exemplified Article 8. The same exemplified thus God certainly Foreknows that Peter shall fall sick and die of such or such a disease viz. a Pestilent Fever How because He foreknows that those Causes which in respect to the Ambiguity or Indifferency of their event may or may not generate an intense putrefaction and malignity in the humors of Peters body shall lose that their Possibility and determine themselves to the actual production of that particular malignant or pestilential inquinament in his blood which constituteth the essence of that disease and that the disease so generated will be so violent and inoppugnable by the force of Nature that the Temperament of Peters body being too weak to sustain such a disproportionate Encounter will thereby be dissolved and so Death shall inevitably succeed But the Physician can only conjecture that Peter may fall sick of such a malignant Fever why because He discovers that Peters praevious Intemperance hath prepared the continent Cause or Fewell for a putrid Fever and that the access of Malignity either by Contagion communicated or from an intense Corruption of humors internally kindled may according to the Aptitude of its nature seise upon that praepared fewell and Ferment it into a pestilential Fever but Definitely He doth not know that Peter shall fall sick of such a pestilential disease in regard it transcends the maximes of his Art and the Capacity of his limited Reason to foreknow whether the Possibility of such an Effect from such Causes shall be determined to Necessity Nor can He praedict that Peter being invaded with that disease shall certainly perish thereby untill the Dubiosity of the Fever be actually determined to Lethality for then from Symptoms that signify the total Succumbency or yeelding of Nature to the victorious fury of the disease he may with good warrant and honour praesage the imminent death of Peter ¶ SECT IV. THe other Capital Difficulty being erected upon a certain circumventing Socraticisme or Interrogatory Sophisme Article 1. The Second Capital Difficulty erected upon a sophism called Ignava Ratio as it respecteth both Theology and Philosophy most adaequately denominated by Cicero de Fato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignava Ratio an unactive Argumentation because praevailing upon the mind it stupefies the same to a perpetual Restiveness or Supinity by charging even the Thoughts of every man upon the
not consent to his own Adnihilation though he might evade his torments by the bargain with advantage preferring the miserable condition of something to the horrid opacity of nothing Third that God made such abundant provision conductive to the utility of men that both from the Amplitude and Variety of 3. his work they might collect matter sufficient to incite them to the constant contemplation of his Wisdome and gratefull acknowledgement of his Munificence as also that having observed what of the Creatures were less commodious they might be directed in their election of the more commodious and beneficial as well for their Conservation as Delight Fourth that the labours of Agriculture are superfluous and voluntarily undergon by man more for the maintainance of his 4. delicacy and inordinate luxury then the provision of Necessaries to his livelyhood Since the same liberal earth which is Mother Nurse and Purveyer to all other Animals cannot be thought inhospitable to man only nor so cruelly penurious as to exclude her best guest from participating the inexhaustible bouÌ„ty of her table And though we grant some moderate labour necessary in order to the comfortable sustentation of our prodigal bodies always upon the expence yet have we good cause to esteem that more a blessing then a curse since the sweat of industry is sweet Not only because the active genius of man is constellated for business and therefore never more opprest then with the burthen of idleness but also because the sprightly hopes of a wealthy harvest sweeten and compensate the labour of semination Nor is the contentment which growes from ingenious Husbandry much below any other solace of the mind in this life if we may credit the experience of many Princes who having surfetted on the distractions of royalty have voluntarily quitted the magnified pleasures of the Court magnified only by such ambitious Novices who never discovered the gall that lyes at the bottom of those guilded sweets and with inestimable advantage exchanged the tumult of their palaces for the privacy of Granges have found it a greater delight to â—ultivate the obedient and gratefull earth then rule that giddy beast the multitude a happier entertainment of the mind and more wholsome exercise of the body to hold the easie plough then sway an unweildy Scepter and revell in the infatuating pomp of greatness Fifth that those preposterous seasons Blights Mildews Combustions c. putrefactive accidents that make the preguant earth 5. suffer abortion and so nip the forward hopes of the laborious swain doe neither intervene so frequently nor invade so generally as to introduce an universal famine or so cut off all provision as not to leave a sufficient stock of Aliment for the sustentation of mankind Sixth that the divine Intellect was the universal exemplar 6. to it self framing the types or ideas both of the world and of man within it self and accordingly configurating them This may be evinced by an argument à minori since even our selves have a power to design and modell some artificial engine whose pattern or idea we never borrowed from any thing existent without the circle of our selves but coyned in the solitary recesses of our mind Seventh concerning mans being obnoxious to the injury of many Contingencies as the voracity of wild beasts the venome of 7. Serpents the conflagration of Lightning the contagion of the Pestilence the corruption of swarms of other diseases both epidemick and sporadick c. that all these are the regular effects of Gods Generall Providence and have their causes times and finalities preordained and inscribed in the diary of Fate to whose prescience nothing is contingent But of this more satisfactorily in our subsequent consideration of universal Providence whither in strictness of method it refers it self Eight that this complaint against the unkindness of Nature 8. for producing man tender naked unarmed c. is grosly unjust For the imbecillity of our Infancy is necessary to the perfection and maturity of those noble organs contrived for the administration of the mandates of that Empress the Cogitant Soul and is amply compensated either by the vigor and acuteness of the senses or by diuturnity of life It being observed by Naturalists that those Animals which live long have a long gestation in the womb a long infancy and attain but slowly to their maturity and standard of growth the four general motions of life Inception Augmentation State and Declination carrying set and proportional intervals each to other as that truly noble Philosopher Scaliger hath hinted in his correction of that fabulous tradition of the extreme loâ—gaevity of Deer in these words De ejus vitae longitudine fabulantur neque enim aut gestatio aut incrementum hinnulorum ejusmodi sunt ut praestent argumentum longaevi Animalis As for his being born naked t is no disfavour nor neglect in her for that cumbersom wardrobe of raggs which man hath gotten upon his back is become necessary only by the delicacy of his education and custome not so intended by nature in the primitive simplicity and eucrasie of his constitution when there needed nothing but the skin either to warme or adorn the body Lastly those Armes which Nature hath denied him either he wants not at all or his own ingenious hands can provide at pleasure CHAP. IV. The General Providence of God DEMONSTRATED Sâ—CT I. THe Synopsis of my method exhibited in the hem of the first Section of the first Chapter was designed Article 1. The Authors reasons for his present adherence to the common discrimination of Providence from Creation as a clue to conduct the thoughts of my Reader along the series of those Attributes of the supreme Ens which as being of most general concernment and such as may be clearly demonstrated by the Light of Nature even to those who either never heard of or except against the testimony of Holy Writ I have promised to illustrate by the conviction of Arguments deduced from that catholique Criterion Reason to whose Judicature all Nations and Ages have readily submitted their assent and therefore I am not necessitated here to insert any farther explanation of the connexion and dependence of this Theme upon the precedent but only in avoydance of misconception to advertise that when I say the Creation of the World ex nihilo and the constant Conservation of the same in its primitive order and harmonious Coefficiency of causes subordinate are the general operations of the Wisdome and Power of the First cause I doe not intend that those are Acts really distinct each from other for in the demonstration of the Existence of God t is plainly though succinctly evinced that the Conservation of the Vniverse is nothing but the Act of Creation prolonged or continued but only conform my theory to the customary notions and terms of the Schools and yeeld to the necessity of a division in the gross capacity of mans understanding in order to the more
4. pag. 278. 279. at large expunging that fabulous aspersion and proving them strict solemne and ceremonious Votaries to all the Gods of Greece the latter lib. de sacrificiis p. 57. deriding them for their superstition nay such immoderate and frantique zeal towards the honour of their principal Deity Diana as made them embrace the slames and offer themselves as holocausts unto her Moreover as this inoppugnable propensity to Religion is a Article 7. That it is not in the power of man totally to â—â—dicate this plant of Religion or notion of special Providence Divine â—ut of his minde evinced from hence that the most contumacious Atheists have at some time or other acknowledged it as Cyence of Gods own ingraffing on the mind of man so also is it not in the power of any man though assisted by all the stratagems and legions of Hell totally to eradicate it thence This is a truth confirmed by the Experience of all Ages For notwithstanding the insolent pretences and blasphemous Rhodomontadoes of many miscreants who have gloried in the most execrable cognomen of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and studied to advance their names to the highest pinacle of Fame by being accounted men of such absolute and fearless Spirits as that they scorned to own any Being superior to their own to which they should be accountable for their actions yet have they bin compelled so violent are the secret touches of that hand which converts all things into demostrations of his own Glory either by the scourge of some sharp calamity or the rack of some excruciating disease in their lives to recant or at the neer approach of that King of terrors Death to confess this their horrid impiety Thus the proud and Adamant-hearted Pharaoh who deriding Article 8. Pharaoh the Divine Embassy of Moses in an imperious strain of Scâ—rn and expostulatory bravado demanded of him Quis est Jehovah cujus voci auscultem dimittendo Israelem non novi Jehovam c. did yet when the Violentum of Divine Vengeance by heavy judgements had convinced him when the true and real Miracles of Moses had won the garland from those weak Delusions and prestigious impostures of his Magicians and he beheld their black Art fooled in their vain attempts to imitate Moses in the visible transformation of Dust into Lice when the tangible darknesâ— that benegroed the horizon of Aegypt and so made it more then midnight to the eye of his body had illuminated that of his Soul and when the frozen Granadoes of the clouds had broke open the iron door of his Conscience then sends he post for those whom he had barbarously exiled from his presence humbles himself before them and howles out this Palinodia Peccavi hac vice Jehovah justissimus ego vero populus meus sumus improbissimi Thus Herod Agrippa who in the morne to enhance the estimate of majesty and stroke that vertiginous and admiring Article 9. Herod Agrippa beast the multitude had arrayed him in his brightest ornaments of State thickly imbrodered with plates of Oriental Gold and studded with Diamonds and all other resplendent Gemms so that the incident Sun beams seemed to have acquired a greater lustre by reflexion from him and who by the blast of popular Euges had the wings of his Pride fanned up to so sublime a pitch that he lost sight of his own Humanity and vainly conceived the adulatory Hyperbole of his Auditors to be but their just acknowledgement of his Divinity being wounded by the invisible sword of a revenging Angel before Sun set by a fatal experiment confuted both his own and his flatterers blasphemy and with the hoarse groans of a tortured wretch cryed out En ille Ego vestra appellatione Deus vitam relinquere jubeor fatali necessitate mendacium vestrum coarguente quem immortalem salutastis ad mortem rapior Sed ferenda est voluntas coelestis Numinis Joseph 19. Antiquit. p. 565. Thus that real Lycaon Antiochus Epiphanes who had not only denied but being enraged by a malitious Phrensy beyond Article 10. Antiochus Epiphanes that of Lucifer newly degraded publickly despited and reviled the Almighty Patron of the Jews blasphemed his most sacred name demolished his temples profaned his consecrated Utensils violated his religious institutions and persecuted his worshipers with all the most bloody cruelties that the wit of an exalted malice could invent or inflict being put upon the rack of a sore and mortal disease which some have conjectured and not without good warrant from probability to have bin a Cancer in his bowells introduced mediately by Divine Justice immediately â—y a fix't melancholy generated by the uncessant stings and convulsions of his guilty Conscience as by its procatarctick Cause and despairing of any case or cure but from his injured enemy God he sighes out his Confession The sleep is gon from my eyes and my heart faileth for very Care And I thought with my self into what tribulation am I come and how great a sloud of misery is it wherein I now am But now I remember the evills that I did at Jerusalem and that I took all the vessels of Gold and Silver that were therein and sent to destroy the inhabitants without a Cause I perceive therefore that for this cause these troubles are come upon me c. It is meet to be subject unto God and that a man who is mortal should not think himself equal unto God through pride Maccab. 1. chap. 6. vers 9 10 11. Thus the Giant Emperour Maximinus as insatiate a Article 11. Maximinus Blood-hound to the Christians as Antiochus had bin to the Jews novorum suppliciorum inventione sese insolenter efferens boasting the acuteness of his wit by the invention of new ways of tortures for those patient martyrs as Eusebius lib. 1. de vita Constant cap. 51. hath described him and advancing the Roman Eagle in desiance of those who fought under the sanguine standard of the Cross nay so infatuated with the confidence of his own Greatness and personal strength that he entertained a conceit that Death durst not adventure to encounter him for feare of having his javelin broke about his own crazy skull and all his skeleton of bones rattled to dust as Capitolinus tell us notwithstanding when he felt himself invaded with a Verminous Vlcer or Fistula in mediis corporis arcanis which did letificum foetorem exhalare ut medicorum aliqui incredibilem foetorem ferre non valentes occiderentur evaporate so contagious and pestilential a stench that some of his Physicians not able to endure that mephitis or steam of intense corruption fell down dead and understood the same to be supplicium Divinitus illatum ajudgement sent from God to retaliate upon him those tortures which he had caused in the bowells and secret parts of many innocents then did his flinty heart melt within him and tandem sentire coepit quae contra pios Dei cultores impiè gesserat