Fate considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a substance p. 303. 3. And what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an Energy or Act together with the etymological reasons of those sundry Appellations the Stoicks have imposed upon it p. 304. SECT II. ARTIC 1. THe second Classis of Philosophers who understood Fate to be a Constitution meerly Natural subdivided into 2 distinct Sects viz. 1 those who assert the Immutability and Inevitability of Fate 2 those who dâ—fend the possibility of its Alteration and Evasion p. 305. 2. The Leaders of the First Sect Heraclitus Empedocles Leucippus Paâ—menides and chiefly Democritus p. 306. 3. Democritus justly chaâ—ged with the patronage of Inevitable Fate and his doctrine concâ—rning it concisely râ—hearsed ibid. SECT III. ARTIC 1. THe Principal of the Second Sect Aristotle and Epicurus p. 312. 2. The Grounds of the Authors in puting the opinion both of Fates Identity with Nature and the possibility of its Mutation and Declination by either Fortuitous or Arbitrary Antagonists to Aristotle ibid. 3. Epicurus unanimoâ—s to Aristotle in the point of Physical and Eluctable Necessity p. 314. 4. The scope of Epicurus his Figment of the Declination of Atoms in the human Soul and his Accommodation thereof to the tuition of mans Liberty epitomized ibid. 5. An Exception in the name of Democritus against Epicurus Inference p. 316. 6. The justification thereof by a Respons conforme to the Physiology of Epicurus p. 317. 7. The most weighty Rejoynder of the connexion of those Causes which Avert the Mind from so well as of those which Attract it to an object to the eternal Series of Fate found too light to overbalance Epicurus his defence of mans Liberty p. 319. SECT IV. ARTIC 1. MAthematical Fate briefly described p. 321. 2. The gross Vanity thereof concealed from many Philosophers only by the cloud of Transcriptive Adhaesion to Antique Traditions ibid. 3. The Absurdity of Sydereal Necessity evicted 1 by an Argument desumed from the Hypothetical Necessity of the Matter on which Celestial Impressions are to operate 323 4. 2 By the common Experiment of the unaequal Fortunes of Twins p. 324. 5. 3 By the double Impiety inseparable from the belief thereof p. 325. CHAP. X. The Liberty of Mans Will Fortune and Fate conciliated to Providence Divine page 328. SECT I. ARTIC 1. THE intent of the chapter p. 328. 2. Democritus Fate inconsistent both to the Fundamentals of Religion and the Liberty of mans Will and therefore detested ibid. 3. Aristotle and Epicurus their Fate admitted in that it is Identical to Nature but abominated in that it clasheth with the Certitude of Divine Praescience p. 329. 4. The Platonick and Stoick Fate embraced so far as it is conceded to be a Constitution of the Divine Wisdome but abandoned in that it detracts from Divine Omnipotence ibid. 5. In what qualified sense Christianisme may tolerate the use of the term Fate ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1. FAte and Fortune conciliated in the point of Providence Divine p. 330. 2. Plutarchs ingenious Assimilation of Fate to the Civil Law and his design therein p. 331. SCET. III. ARTIC 1. FAte concentrical to mans Elective Liberty in the point of Praedestination p. 332. 2. The Concord betwixt Theology and Philosophy in their admission of 2. orders of Causes natural viz. Necessary and Free the ground of the Affinity both betwixt the Difficulties and Solutions on either part as to the Abolition of the seeming Repugnancy between Fate and mans Free-will p. 333. 3. The First capital Difficulty desumed from Divine Praescience as stated by Divines p. 334. 4. The same as stated by Philosophers ibid. 5. The full solution of the same by vertue of the Divines Discrimination of Necessity into Absolute and Hypothetical p. 335. 6. The Solution of the same by the Philosophers proving that the definite Praenotion of future Contingents is no Cause of their definite Contingency but è contrà the definity of their Futurition the cause of their definite Praenotion p. 338. 7. The Disparity betwixt Divine and Human Praenotion p. 339. 8. The same exemplified ibid. SECT IV. ARTIC 1. THe Second Capital Difficulty erected upon a sophism called Ignava Ratio as it respecteth both Theology and Philosophy p. 340. 2. Two eminent Opinions of Divines touchant the Solution of this Difficulty recognized and their judicious Modelly in duely acknowledging the mysterie of Praedestination to be Arcanum Divini imperii commended p. 34â— 3. The First opinion found totally uncapable of Expedition from the Sophisme Ignava Ratio 343. 4. The Second Opinion to a great part extricated from the same Labyrinth p. 345. 5. The Fatists Subtersuge of the Infallibility of Divine Praenotion praecluded p. 346. 6. A second subtersuge of the Fatist viz. that the Subsequence of the Decree to Praenotion doth implicate the possibility of its Elusion and Mutability praevented ibid. 7. A third Conclusion viz. that the posteriority of the Decree of Election to Gods praevision of mans future good actions doth make man the Author of his own Discretion detected and redargued p. 347. 8. Two Extracts from the praemises 1 that the Cooperation of mans Will to sufficient Grace may be conceived a Cause of his Election 2 that to render a reason why God did not constitute All men such as that All should cooperate to sufficient Grace and so be Elect is an impossibility to mans understanding other then this that such was his eternal will p. 347. 9. The former Sophisme ignava Ratio in part dissolved by Plutarchs Distinction that though All effects are comprehended in yet all are not caused by Fate p. 348. 10. The insufficiency of that Distinction to the total solution of the Difficulty duely acknowledged p. 349. 11. The most promising Responses of some Philosophers concisely praesented viz. of 1. Of Plato ibid. 2. Seneca p. 350. 3. Chrysippus p. 351. 4. Aquinas p. 352. 12. These acute Responses aequitably audited and their import sound to be no more then this that man hath a Freedome of Assent but not of Dissent to the Will of God p. 352. 13. The Dehortation from immoderate Curiosity in Divine Mysteries and concise Adhortation to conform unto and calmly acquiesce in the Revealed Will of God 353. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD DEMONSTRATED CHAP. I. SECT I. ARistotle though an Ethnick poysoned Section 1. Article 1. Aristotle the most knowing and curious Ethnick did yet by his silence in the cardinal point of Theology proclaim the impossibility of mans full understanding the simple and perfect Essence of God with the Macedonian and Grecian Idolatry nay so given over to that sottish impiety Polytheisme that he could be content to make a Goddesse of his Wench and offer solemn sacrifices to her as a Deity whom his own obscene luxury had degraded from the native dignity of Humanity to devote his orisons to her for good whom his own temptations had frequently subdued to evill as Gassendus Exercitat 3. out of Diogenes Laert. hath accused him had
into an arbitrary Mutability Why because the Decree is not made nisi supponendo quide esset facturus but upon a Supposition what the future Actions of his life would be and the Immutability thereof is established upon the Necessity Suppositional which Article 7. A third Conclusion viz that the posteriority of the Decree of Election to Gods praevision of mans future Good actions doth make man the Author of his own Discretion detected and redargued can diminish nothing of the Liberty of man as we have more then once professedly evinced And as little solid reason hath He to argue thus If God did therefore Elect me only because He eternally praevised those Good works which I now do then ipse ero qui me discernam shall I my self be to my self the Author of my Discretion For t is not man who by his own single power can make this Discretion but the very Grace of God alone without which no man can ever attain so high as the foot of Goodness Conclude we therefore though it be not difficult to mans Reason Article 8. Two Extracts from the praemises 1 that the Cooperation of mans Will to sufficient Grace may be conceived a Cause of his Election 2 that to render a reason why God did not constitute All men such as that All should cooperate to sufficient Grace and so be Elect is an impossibility to mans understanding other then this that such was his eternal Will to investigate the Cause Why God was pleased to ordain this vessel for Honour and that for Dishonour why He by the vigorous Magnet of his special Indulgence doth Attract this and not that man still dispensing a sufficient portion of his illuminating Grace to all men since it is not obscure that the Concurse Conspiracy and Cooperation of this mans Will to that sufficient Grace may inoffensively be conceived to be the Cause at least a Cause and so è contra Yet is it and the Acutest Wits have from the Flaws made in them by the more then Adamantine Hardness of this Rock had great reason to conjecture it will always continue the most Desperate Difficulty that ere perplexed the Cogitations of inquisitive Mortality to explore the reason why God made men of such a condition as that some would be destinate to Honour and others to Dishonour and not All men such as that they should willingly suffer themselves to be Allected by the Loadstone of his Love or be willing to cooperate to his Grace diffused upon them when had it seemed convenient to his Wisdome He might have made All men such as that they would with all ardency of Affection and force of their Wills have Cooperated to his Grace and so have bin Elected to Honor. And certainly from hence alone that our Delection of Virtue or Vice conforme to which our Minds are carried on with a kind of infraenable Tendency and to which the Praevision of God being extended He hath either Elected or Reprobated is necessarily dependent upon the Notions or Species of things objected to our Senses and traductively to our Cognoscent Faculty there remains to us more then a great occasion of applauding and admiring the Modesty and judgement of the Apostles Exclamation ô Altitudo especially when the Exhibition or Praesentation of those Notions and Species doth depend upon that Concatenate Series or subalternate syntax and Disposition of Causes and Effects which God when He Created the World according to the Model of his own imperscrutable Wisdome thought good to institute And this we have judged to be a faithfull Summarie of what the Divines Respons to this Circaean Charm or Sophisme of Adrastus containeth The Remnant of our Assumption is only to contract those voluminous Discourses of Philosophers which perpendicularly point at the Solution of the same most bloody and impious Sophisme into a sew medullary or essential lines Plutarch de Fato as Platos Interpreter insisting upon the praerecited Adaequation of Fate to the Civil Law hopes to Article 9. The former Sophisme ignava Ratio in part dissolved by Plutarchs Distinction that though All effects are comprâ—hended in yet all are not caused by Fate decide the mighty Controversy by distinguishing thus Tametsi omnia quae fiunt Fato contineantur non tamen Fato omnia fieri ac ejusmodi esse ea quae Contingenter sive Liberè ac Fortuito fiunt That though all things which come to pass are contained in Fate yet are not all things effected By Fate and particularly those Events which are meerly Fortuitous and those which are effected by Arbitrary Agents Now according to this eminent Distinction we may concede that it is indeed comprehended in Fate not only that Thou being cast upon the thorny bed of Sickness shalt or recover or perish but also that thou shalt or Consult or Neglect the Physician But positively deny that therefore either thy Convalescence or Death is Fatal since t is Contingent as also that thy use or neglect of the Physician is Fatal since t is Arbitrary Notwithstanding this nice and specious Distinction we Article 10. The insufficiency of that Dâ—stinction to the total solution of the Difficulty duely acknowledged confess there remains a Difficulty and such a one as the greatest Oedipuses of the World may without dishonour to their Perspicacity despair of its satisfactory Dissolution viz. How it can be since there is some Cause which condueeth rather to thy Convalescence then Destruction or è contrà rather to thy Destruction then Convalescence and some Cause which induceth or inclineth thee rather to Consult then Neglect the Physician or è contrà rather to Neglect then Consult him and since those Causes had others Antecedent to them and those were connected to others and those to others c. retrograde along the chain of Fate How it can be we say that these Effects being admitted to be Contained in Fate may not be also admitted to be Caused by Fate Especially when we cannot without passion quarrel at his Construction who shall tell us that to be Contained in Fate is as much as to be connected to the Series of Causes and that little less then to be Effected by Fate To palliate not cure the Itch of Curiosity in this particular we ask leave with the sublimest and most daring Contemplators of the World to recurr to that General Asylum Non debet Humana Sapientia supra Divinam illam gloriari juxta quam vetamur scrupulosiùs inquirere quamobrem Deus sic ordinarit And this the reason was of our saying that the second opinion of Divines to our first inspection seemed capable of Extrication from the Labyrinth of the Fatists Vnactive Argumentation for our second and more profounding meditations have found it far otherwise However we judge it worthy our Readers Patience here to acquaint himself with the subtle Evasions of some Philosophers especially when He shall survey them in epitome Article 11. The most promising Responses of some Philosophers
in the incomparable Commentary of Gassendus as a motion which once conceded doth totally infringe the indispensable rigor of Fate and conserve an Evasory or Declining Liberty for the Mind of man This Plutarch taught us in two perspicuous texts 1 when He sayth de Anim. Solert that the motion of the Declination of Atoms in the Human Soul was subtilly invented by Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Fortune might be brought on the theatre of the world there to act her part and the Arbitrary power of man might not be abrogated 2 when He declares de Stoic repub that the same Epicurus sese in omnem partem versare ingeniúmque contendere in id incumbendo ut quomodocunque à motione sempiterna liberum tueatur Arbitrium ac pravitatem esse inculpabilem non patiatur rack't all the nerves of his wit to find out a way for the protection of mans Free will and so that evil might not praetend to inculpability Now though we may not train along the thoughts of our Reader out of the direct tract of our praesent Theme into a wide Digression concerning Epicurus his whole Romance of the Declination of Atoms in the Soul especially having lately remitted him to Gassendus his accomplisht Comment thereupon yet can we not impede his progress along the streight line of method here to arrest him while we informe him briefly How he accommodated that fiction to the vindication of mans Liberty from the inexorable Coaction of Fate We conceive that Epicurus having observed 3 kinds of Motion in Animals but principally in Man viz. Natural Violent and Voluntary took it for granted that the primary Cause of each was to be deduced from Atoms the Principium à quo of all motion and hereupon concluded that the spring of all Natural motion was the primary motion congenial or inhaerent to Atoms viz. that whiâ—h physiology calls the motion of Gravity whereby an Atom is praecipitated ad lineam rectam to a perpendicular that the spring of all Violent motion was the motion of Reflexion or that which ariseth from occursation arietation or repercussion of one Atom by another whereby the Atom reflected is carried ad lineam obliquam and lastly that the spring of all Voluntary motion was the motion of Declination to which no region is determined nor time praefixt But might not Democritus and other Defendants of Absolute Necessity natural have excepted against this as insufficient to Article 5. An Exception in the name of Democritus against Epicurus Inference the protection of mans Evasory Freedome by returning that because this motion of Declination is no less Natural for it is derived from no other principle but Atoms themselves then that of Gravity therefore doth it still remain that All things are effected by Fate as well when Epicurus his Hypothesis is conceded as before Insomuch as all things which were to come to pass by reason of those various motions of Arietation Repuls Declination c. by an eternal series and kind of subalternate Concatenation are consequent one upon the heels of another and particularly that event of Cognition and Appetition to which mans Liberty appertains and so are brought to pass by an equal Necessity For that the Mind of man may display or execute that Liberty Elective whereby it affects and prosecutes any object conceive it to be an Apple necessary it is that the Image or Species of that Apple be first emitted from it and being transmitted through the mediatory organs of sight invade percell and commove the Mind to know or apprehend it Necessary to the Apple before it can transfuse its visible Species to the eye that it be put in some place convenient for adspect by him who gathered it from the tree or received it elsewhere Necessary that the Tree which bore that apple be first generated by a seed and nourished by the moisture of the earth concocted by the heat of the Sun Necessary that that Seed be derived from a former apple and that from a former tree planted in this or that determinate place at this or that determinate time and so by retrogression to the beginning of the world when both the Earth and all its Vegetable seeds had their origination from the Concursions and Complexions of Atoms which could not being agitated by the impulse of their own inhaerent Faculty Motive but convene and coalesce and acquiesce in those Figures those situations at that time Again if the Soul or Mind be also a Contexture of orbicular Atoms those Atoms must have bin contained in the Sperm of the Parents must have consluxed thither from certain meats and drinks as also from the Aer and beams of the Sun those me at s must have bin such and no other and so subalternately successive from eternity the Event will be found to come to pass by the same Adamantine Necessity whatever of the Causes lateral or concurrent which must run up to an account beyond all Logarithms you shall please to begin at Because from Eternity Causes have so cohaered to Causes that the last causes could not but concurr which being deduced into act the Mind could not but know and knowing affect or desire that particular object viz. the Apple And what is here said of Causes the same in all points is to be understood also of Atoms which constitute those causes and from whose congenial motions the Causes derive those their Motions by which they attain to be Causes To this Exception that we may compose some Response such Article 6. The justification thereof by a Respons conforme to the Physiology of Epicurus as may seem Consentaneous to the Doctrine of Epicurus and to contain somewhat of Probability at least we must usurp the liberty to assume that such is the Contexture of Atoms in the Soul or Mind its Declinant Atoms can break that Rigidity arising from other Atoms and so make its nature Flexile to any part in which Flexility the root of Liberty doth consist And therefore the mind being allected by the Species of any object is indeed carried towards that object but so that if another object shall instantly occurr whose Attraction is aequivalent it may again be invited by and carried towards that object also so that deflecting from the first it may become aequilibrated or indifferent to either part which doubtless is to be Free or Arbitrary And that the Mind being thus constituted Flexile and Indifferent doth at length determine it self rather to one then the other part this ariseth from hence that the impression of one Species is more violent then of the other and consequently that the Election succeeds upon the Apprehension of that object whose species appears either positively good or comparatively more good Finally that the Mind when it electeth or willeth any object is as it were the principal Machine or main Spring by whose motions all the Faculties and the members destinate to execution are excited and carried thither whither the Mind tendeth and
more both of Imprudence and Inconstancy it must import to play the uncircumspect Sophister with those who as our Adversaries themselves affirme stood possessed with a full perswasion that the Term of every mans life was absolutely and without any respect to his future piety or Impiety predetermined I profess sincerely I am yet to be perswaded that any Credulity can be so pedantique and slavish as to entertain a beleif that even Man I forbear to say God can thus openly and detectibly dissimulate with any the most stupid and indiscreet person alive unless he be first resolved to expose himself to the just scorn and derision of all men and by this loose and childish jugling forfeit that reputation which he had acquired by his former grave and oraculous treaties and the just performance of all Articles to which he had subscribed 'T is one thing to admit that the Holy Ghost doth sometimes descend to discourse in the stammering and amphibological Phrase of man when he is pleased to hint unto us those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ineffable Mysteries which are too fine to be spun into words by the gross fingers of flesh and are notions reserved to entertain the Soul when enfranchized from the bonds of Corporeity such are those glances whereby he affords us a dark landskip of the New Jerusalem and allegorical description of the joyes and glories of the Eternal Life an idea of the majesty of his incomprehensible Essence and three distinct Subsistences in one indivisible Existence c. and a far different nay contrary to say that he doth speak Anthropopathically and conform to our unequall capacities when he promiseth those things which do not only not transcend our faculties of comprehension but are familiar to our knowledg nay such as the neerest concernment of our nature requires us fully and perspicuously to know And such is the quality of those Blessings which the Bounty of Providence hath by promise assured unto the Virtuous in order to the demulsion and dulcification of the sharp condition of this life and particularly that of longevous subsistence upon earth To conclude the Spirit or Form of a Promise doth consist in this that they to whom the promise is made do understand the good therein specified to be really bona fide in specie intended to be performed by him who made the promise Now if there arise any doubt whether or no that promise be repugnant to a verity formerly declared then doth the force and sanction together with the Dignity thereof totally vanish and become voyd Our Adversaries have rejoyned that God doth therefore promise Longevity to obsequious Children because he hath formerly decreed to qualifie their particular Constitutions with respective Durability But alas this subterfuge neither dissolves the Difficulty nor prevents the Doubt For if his Decree concerning their Longevity be Absolute devoyd of all Suppositionality and suspended upon no respect to his Prevision of their obedience no reason can discover what Force or Energy the promise can pretend unto from the performance of the Condition required Again how can that Promise 〈◊〉 way of invitation or allurement affect those who are already confirmed that what the promise imports is formerly by the positive and non-conditionate Will of God made inevitable and hath the Possibility of its Futurition determined to precise Necessity In fine the Postulation of that Condition can neither consist with the Eternal Identity of God that promises nor effectually move those to whom he makes the promise to endeavour the Consequution of that ample reward of filial obedience for his Decree concerning the Term of their life doth and shall forever stand firm and immote whether the Condition be performed or not The last Testimony they have essayed to extort from us is the Article 8. The sixth Testimony cleared from 4. Exceptions Instance of Ezekiah and this by a Fourfold Cavillation 1 By this Excuse Singulare aliquod Exemplum non evertere regulam that one single denormous Example is not sufficient to evert the general obligation of a law or one swallow makes no summer This Exception I confess might have had some colour or slender pretext of Validity had not our Opponents themselves totally excluded it by asserting that the immutable law of Destiny was equally extended to all and every individual person from Adam down to us For most certain it is that God never limited his free Omnipotence by any fixt law or bound up his own hands with the same setled Constitutions whereby he circumscribed the definite activity and duration of his Creatures it being the Prerogative of his Nature to know no Impossibility but to be able to act either above or against the statutes of his Deputy whensoever and upon what subject and to what end soever he pleases But I have no warrant to beleive that among the Propugnators of Fate any one hath deviated inro so remote an Alogie as to opinion that the Lots of all men are not delivered out of one and the same common urne but that the Decrees concerning the Destinies of some particular persons are not so definitive precise and immoveable as those of all others in generall 2 By this Response that under the seeming Absoluteness of the Prophets Sentence Morieris Thou shalt dye there lay concealed a tacite Hypothesis which was this Nisi seria poenitudine te ad Deum convertas unless by serious and profound repentance thou shalt mortify the old man of sin and apply thy self wholly to the Mercies of God Against this mistaken plea our defence shall be that it wants the principal inducement to beleif and so can afford no satisfaction at all For besides this that it quadrates neither to their First Exception nor their Thesis concerning the Immobility of Destiny what Logick can tolerate the induction of an Hypothetical upon a Categorical Proposition or more expresly how can any Condition be comprehended under that message which by a definitive and peremptory decree and such as carried no respect to the performance or non-performance of any condition whatever tels the K. in down right terms that the date of his life was now expired and that the severe Publican Death stood ready at the door of his chamber within some few hours to exact from him the common tribute of Nature Subordinata non pugnant is an Axiome I well know and am ready to receive a challenge from any singularity that dares question the universality of its truth but that a condiiional Decree can be subordinate to an Absolute I am bold to deny nor need I goe far for an Argument to prove the impossibility thereof the very Antithesis of those notions Absolute and Conditional sufficiently declaring as much To take the just dimensions of this Cloud every Condition is moveable upon the hinge of Indefinity or Uncertainty as being suspended upon an uncertain and mutable Cause viz. the Arbitrary Election of mans Free will insomuch that the Event thereof cannot be known
nay not unto the Omniscience of God who is the only Cardiognostes and sees beyond our very Essences so long as it hangs in suspence or indecision by reason of the Indifferency or non-determination of its Cause i. e. while it is not determined to either part by the Actual Volition of mans will But as for an Absolute decree that cannot but be Certain and Immutable as being constitute without and antecedent to any Prevision of a Condition that is to be or hath bin performed or is not to be or hath not bin performed 3 By insinuating that God made use of this sharp Commination in order to the more Expedite and effectual reduction of the K. to Penitence But alas this also is a broken reed and he shall fall into the ditch of Error who relies thereon For who can be perswaded that this Commination could be serious and in earnest that must not at the same time dissolve the rigour and immutability of Gods decree concerning the fatal Term of the K s. life or how could it be serious if it were fully constituted from all Eternity that the K. should not die till full 15. years after the Sentence This is a pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and something that no man can comprehend For to comminate suddain death to him whom our Adversaries acknowledge reserved by the law of Destiny till the complete expiration of his prefixt Term of life is not to comminate in earnest but in jest and argue the God of Truth of Dissimulation Again what Efficacy or inforcing Virtue could that Commination have over the Affections of Ezekiah if he firmly beleived that he should not could not dye before the precise term of his life constituted and made intransible from Eternity Assuredly if so he had no just cause either to complain of or fear the abscission of his days 4 By recurring to this their last refuge Deum hac ratione palam facere voluisse quam Regi ab aeterno designarat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God was pleased to take this course for the promulgation of that Longevity which he had from eternity designed to Ezekiah This is more impertinent and less satisfactory then any of the precedént Exceptions For extremely ridiculous it is to opinion that God would by a Commination suspended on a condition or by a hypothetical decree make that known which long before he had by an Absolute Decree without any condition or prevision of any condition constituted firme and immoveable Unworthy and disparaging thoughts both of the Wisdome and Justice of the Supreme Being doth that unhappy man entertain who ascribes unto it the making of Decrees subordinate disparate and irreconcileable That Sacred omniscient omnipotent Agent as himself makes nothing in vaine so would he have us make him our Exemplar and doe no action but what points at some certain end and conduces both to our benefit and the last of ends his Glory But in vain had he promised in vain threatned had he either promised or threatned those things which his own irrevocable Decree had formerly made immutable which must of necessity had they never bin promised or threatned have come to pass in their predetermined opportunity or such to whose Existence it was wholly and absolutely necessary that that very thing under which the promise or commination was made should be effected by such a power to which no other power can resist And this we hope at least is sufficient to the ample justification of our opinions right to those Three appropriate and Convincing Testimonies of the Mobility of the Term of mans life desumed from holy Writ ¶ SECT IV. IT remains only that we endeavour to wind our reason out of Article 1. The necessity of our enquiry into the mystery of Predestination in order to the solution of the present difficulty and the Fatists grand Argument that profound abyss of Predestination of which the Apostle though he had the advantage of all other men in this that he had the eye of his Soul illuminated by beams deradiated immediately from the Soul of Light did yet excuse himself for his non-comprehension with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which the solution of this grand difficulty hath unavoidably precipitated it for the strongest hold which the Defendants of Absolute Fatality have left them to retreat unto is erected upon this Foundation It makes no materiall difference say they whether the Prescience of God be conceived precedent to his Preordination of any future Event and so Predestination be founded upon Prevision or on the contrary this Praeordination precedent to his Praescience and so Praedestination be the basis of Paervision for from the concession of either it follows of absolute necessity that the Term of mans life in individuo must be fixt and intransible We answer Article 2. The refutation thereof by the conciliation of the infallibility of Gods Praenotion to the indetermination of mans free will to the actual election of Good or Evil. That the Consequence indeed ought to be admitted as firme and impregnable For this Praescience whether it praeced or succed Divine Praedestination is and must be ever certain praecise and infallible or so supposed to be at least and therefore must the Term of mans life be constituted certain precise and immutable ex necessitate si non consequentis saltem consequentiae by necessity if not of the Consequent yet of the consequence i. e. if not from the Virtue or Efficiency yet from the Hypothesis or Conditionality of that Praescience For no Sceptick can disallow of this Consequence if God doth infallibly foreknow that this and no other shall be the Term of my life ergo this and no other shall be the Term of my life But this is not the point at which our inquiry is levelled Manifest it is aswell from our precedent discourse as from the Condition of the subject that these two Propositions are not repugnant each to other viz. The Term of mans life is fixt and immutable in respect to the infallibility of Gods Praescience and the Term of mans life is moveable in respect to our right use or abuse of the Liberty of our Will Though I confess with the great Mersennus that the apparent discord betwixt the infallibility of Gods Prenotion and the indetermination of mans Free Will to the actual election of good or evil hath bin the rock against which many the greatest wits of all Ages and Religions have bin shipwrackt in their perswasions of the irresistible enforcement of Destiny To extricate our judgements out of this maze let us remember and adhaere unto that excellent Axiome of the most and most learned of the School-men Praevisionem Dei nihil influere i◠nostras actiones that the Praevision of God hath no influence upon the actions of man nor upon the operation of the remedies applyed by the Physician to the cure of diseases but presupposeth both the one and the other For in