fully consonant to Gods owne words to Ionah Chap. 4. 10 11. Then said the Lord thou hast had pitie on the Gourd for the which thou hast not labored neither madest it to grow which came up in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle Amongst great men many oppresse their tenants but what Lord would spoile his proper inheritance whereto no other can be intituled or eate out the heart of that ground which hee cannot alienate or demise What Architect would deface his owne worke unlesse the image of his unskilfulnesse whereof the Creator cannot bee impeached be so apparant in it as he cannot but blush to behold it Or who would leave a goodly foundation bare or naked unlesse he be unable to reare it up without injustice Now seeing the Entitative Good of proper being is the foundation of that true happinesse which flowes from more speciall participation of Gods presence wheresoever he hath laid the one it is to all that rightly consider his Wisedome Truth and Goodnesse an assured pledge of his will and pleasure to finish it with the other As his nature is immutable so are his gifts without repentance The current of his joyfull beneficence can admit no intermission much lesse admixture of any evill Sorrow woe and misery must seeke some other Originall they have no hidden vent or secret issue from the Ocean of Ioy and Happinesse 9 As the fountaine of bodily light cannot send forth darknesse but uniformly diffuseth light and light onely throughout this visible Sphere so cannot the infinite Ocean of true felicity send forth any influence but such as is apt to cherish the seeds of joy and happinesse wherewith every creature capable of them was sowne in its first creation And as it is the property of light propagated or diffused from the Sunne to make such bodies as are capable of its penetration as Glasses Chrystall Pearle c. secondary fountains of light to others so doth the influence of divine goodnesse inspire all that are conformable to his will with desire of doing to others as he hath done to them that is of being secondary authors or instruments of good to all But such as wilfully strive against the streame of his over-flowing goodnesse or boysterously counterblast the sweet and placide spirations of celestiall influence become creators of their owne woe and raise unto themselves those stormes wherein they perish Yet so essentiall it is unto this infinite Fountaine of goodnesse however provoked to send forth onely streames of life and such is the vertue of the streames which issue from him that as well the evill and miseries which miscreants procure unto themselves as their mischievous intentions towards others infallibly occasion increase of joy and happinesse unto all that give free passage unto their current And this current of life which issueth from this infinite Ocean never dryes up is never wasted by diffusion The more it is dammed or quarved by opposition of the sonnes of darkenesse the more plentifully it overflowes the sonnes of light All the good which one refuseth or putteth from thē returnes in full measure to the other But if the miseries which wicked spirits or their conforts either suffer themselves or intend to others worke good to those that receive the influence of infinite goodnesse might he not without prejudice or imputation inspire these castawayes with such mischievous thoughts or at least intend their woe and misery as these are occasions or meanes of others happinesse or of his glory Wee are indeed forbid to doe evill that good may ensue but if it bee his will to have reprobates doe or suffer evill for the good of his chosen shall not both bee good as willed by him whose will in that hee hath absolute dominion over all his creatures is the rule of goodnesse CHAP. 13. In what sense or how Gods infinite will is said to be the rule of goodnesse 1 BAd was the doctrine and worse the application or use which Anaxarchus would have gathered from some Hieroglyphicall devices of Antiquity wherein Iustice was painted as Iupiters assistant in his Regiment Hereby saith this Sophister unto Alexander then bitterly lamenting the death of his dearest Friend Clytus whom he had newly slaine in his temelent rage your Majesty is given to understād that the decrees of great Monarchs who are a kinde of Gods on earth must bee reputed Oracles of Iustice and their practices may not bee reputed unjust either by themselves or by others But this sophisticall inversion of these Ancients meaning was too palpable to please either the wiser or honester sort of Heathen though living in those corrupt times For albeit many of them conceived of Iupiter as of a great King subject to rage and passion yet all of them held Iustice for an upright milde and vertuous Lady ready alwayes to mitigate never to ratifie his rigorous decrees alwayes tempering his wrath with equity The true Iehovah as he needes no sweet-tongued consort to moderate his anger as Abigail did Davids so hath he no use of such Sophisters as Anaxarchus to justifie the equity of his decrees by his Omnipotent Soveraignty or absolute dominion over all his creatures 2 To derogate ought from his power who is able to destroy both soule and body in hell fire I know is dangerous to compare the prerogatives of most absolute earthly Princes with his would be more odious Yet this comparison I may safely make He doth not more infinitely exceed the most impotent wretch on earth in power and greatnesse than he doth the greatest Monarch the world hath or ever had in Mercy Iustice and Loving-kindnesse nor is his will the rule of Goodnesse because the designes thereof are backt by infinite power but because holines doth so rule his power and moderate his will that the one cannot enjoyne or the other exact any thing not most consonant to the eternall or abstract patternes of equity His will revealed doth sufficiently warrant all our actions because we know that he wils nothing but what is just and good but this no way hindereth but rather supposeth Iustice and Goodnesse to be more essentiall objects of his will than they are of ours And therefore when it is said Things are good because God wils them this illative infers only the cause of our knowledge not of the goodness which we know and the logicall resolution of this vulgar Dialect would be this We know this or that to be good because Gods will revealed commends it for such But his will revealed commends it for such because it was in it nature good for unlesse such it had bin he had not willed it These principles though unquestionable to such as fetch their Divinity from the Fountaine will perhaps in the judgement of others that never taste it but
make a conscience as well of their words as of their wayes herein perhaps especially faulty that they are too zealously sollicitous not to speake amisse make no scruple of entertaining these and the like inferences following as naturally descending from the former Maxime It is impossible ought should fall out otherwise than it doth all things in respect of God and his Omnipotent Decree are necessary Contingencie is but a solecisme of secular language or if any thing may without offence be termed contingent it must be reputed such onely with reference to second causes 2 Howbeit such good men as doe thus write and speake will give us leave I know to take it in the first place as granted that God is wiser than we are and knowes the nature of all things and their differences better than they or we doe This being granted we will in the second place suppose that Contingency is not a meere fictitious name of that which is not as Tragelaphus nor altogether Synonymall to Necessity The question about Contingency and of its difference from necessity is not such as one in merriment once proposed in schools An chimera calcitrans in vacuo terat calceos The very names of Contingency and Necessity to ordinary Latinists differ more than Ensis and Gladius than Vestis and Indumentum betwixt which perhaps the ancient Latine Artificers or Nomenclators knew some difference Yet was it impossible for them to know any thing which God knew not who out of all controversie knowes the true difference betweene Contingency and Necessity much better then we can doe For both of them are Entities of his making and serve as different Lawes to the diversity of his creatures or their different actions All the reasons that can be drawne from the immutability of Gods Decree to the contrary may with greater facility and strength of the same Decree be retorted than brought against us For God immutably decrees mutability Now who will say that things mutable are in respect of Gods decree or knowledge immutable The Heavens and other bodies moveable according to locall motion are truly moveable in themselves absolutely moveable not immoveable in respect of Gods decree or knowledge for he knowes them to bee moveable because he decreed them so to be hee doth not know them to be immoveable because he decreed them not to be such unlesse for a time by interposition of miracle It implies lesse contradiction to say Deus immutabiliter decernit mutabilia than to say which hath beene accounted an ancient orthodoxall Maxime Stabilis dat cuncta movere For Mobility is a branch of Mutability 3 Every thing in respect of Gods decree or knowledge is altogether such as God hath decreed it should be If then God hath decreed there should be contingency as well as necessity it is altogether as necessary that some events should be contingent as others necessary and as truly contingent as the other is necessary in respect of Gods decree Albeit to speake properly the natures of contingency and necessity consist not in meere relation or respect For in as much as both are immediate and reall effects of Divine Omnipotency both must have absolute being the being of neither is meerly relative Now if Contingency have a true and absolute being it is neither constituted in the nature of contingency by any respect or relation to second causes nor can any respect or relation to the first cause deprive it of that absolute nature which the Omnipotent efficacy of the cause of causes hath irrevocably bestowed upon it Briefly if Contingency be any thing it is that which it is by the Omnipotent Decree and being such it is altogether as impossible that some effects should not be absolutely contingent as that such effects as the Divine Decree hath appointed to bee necessary should not be at all Or if we would make impartiall inquiry into the originall of all things nothing without the precincts of the most glorious and ever blessed Trinity is absolutely necessary 4 By Contingency lest haply we might be mistaken we understand the possible meane betweene necessity of being and necessity of not being or of being such or of not being such or betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing or necessity of being done or necessity of being left undone This meane betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing is that which in agents intellectuall as in men and Angells wee call freedome of will or choice Vnto which freedome necessity is as contradictory as irrationability is to the nature of man and contingency as necessarily presupposed as life and sense are to reason Adde reason to contingency and we have the compleat definition of Free-will In those cases wherein the Creator hath exempted man from restraint of necessity his will is free The divine will it selfe is not free in those operations which are essentiall though most delectable God the Father is more delighted in the eternall generation of his Sonne so is God the Father and the Sonne in the eternall procession of the Holy Ghost than in the creation production or preservation of all the creatures Yet are not these or other internall operations of the blessed Trinity so free in respect of the divine nature as is the production of the world Whatsoever God decrees he decrees it freely that is so as he might not decree it Whatsoever he makes he makes it freely that is he so makes it as that it was not necessary for him to make it CHAP. 13. Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 1 IT is an unquestionable rule in the Art of Arts that propositions for their forme not incompatible may from the necessity of their matter or subject become equivalent to propositions directly contradictory whose indispensable law or rule it is that if the one be true the other must needs be false they admit of no meane betwixt them Now there is no matter or subject in the world which is so absolutely necessary as the existence of the Divine Nature or the internall operations of the Trinity Whence it is that betweene these two propositions The generation of the Sonne is necessary the not generation of the Son is necessary there is no possible meane which can be capable of truth The first is so absolutely necessary and so necessarily true that the latter is eternally false But such is not the case or condition of these two propositions following The Creation or Existence of the World is necessary The not Creation or non existence of the World is necessarie These are not contradictories for their form nor equivalent to contradictories for their matter or subject and therefore may admit a meane betweene them To say the creation or existence of the world was absolutely necessary hath no truth in it for it had a beginning of existence and being and may have an end and the other extreame or contrary The not
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
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
desires Venter non habet aures The Belly pinched with hunger must be satisfied with meat so must the thirsty throat bee with drinke before the eares can sucke in the pleasant sound of musicke or the eye feed it selfe with fresh colours or proportions Too much pampering bodily senses starves the minde and deepe contemplation feedes the mind but pines the body Of making many Bookes saith Salomon there is no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh The more Knowledge we get the greater capacity wee leave unsatisfied so that we can never seize upon the intire possession of our owne selves and contemplation as the wise King speaketh were vanity did we use the pleasures of it any otherwise thā as pledges or earnest of a better life to come And albeit man in this life could possesse himselfe as intirely as the Angels doe their Angelicall Natures yet could not his entitative goodnesse or felicity be so great as theirs is because the proper patrimony which he possesseth is neither so ample nor so fruitfull God alone is infinite in being infinitely perfect and he alone infinitely enjoyes his intire being or perfection The tenure of his infinite joy or happinesse is infinitely firme infinitely secured of being alway what it is never wanting so much as a moment of time to inlarge or perfect it by continuance uncapable of any inlargement or increase for the present But this entitative or transcendentall goodnesse is not that which wee now seeke whereto notwithstanding it may lead us For even amongst visible creatures the better every one is in its kind or according to its entitative perfection the more good it doth to others The truest measure of their internall or proper excellencies is their beneficial use or service in this great Vniverse whereof they are parts What Creature is there almost in this whole visible Sphere but specially in this inferiour part which is not beholden to the Sunne from whose comfortable heat Nothing as the Psalmist speakes can bee hid It is at least of livelesse or meere bodies in it selfe the best and fairest and farre the best to others And God as it seemes for this purpose sends forth this his most conspicuous and goodly messenger every morning like a bridegroome bedeckt with light and comelinesse to invite our eyes to looke up unto the Hils whence commeth our Helpe upon whose tops he hath pitched his glorious Throne at whose right hand is fulnesse of pleasures everlasting And from the boundlesse Ocean of his internall or transcendent joy and happinesse sweet streames of perpetuall joy and comfort more uncessantly issue than light from the Sunne to refresh this vale of misery That of men the chiefe inhabitants of this great Vale many are not so happy as they might be the chiefe causes are that either they doe not firmely beleeve the internall happinesse of their Creator to be absolutely infinite as his other attributes are or else consider not in their harts that the absolute infinitie of this his internall happinesse is an essentiall cause of goodnesse in it kinde infinite unto all others so farre as they are capable of it and capable of it all reasonable creatures by creation are none but themselves can make them uncapable of happinesse at least in succession or duration infinite Goodnesse is the nature of God and it is the nature of goodnesse to communicate it selfe unto others unto all that are not over growne with evill of which goodnesse it selfe can be no cause or author CHAP. 12. Of the infinitie and immutability of Divine goodness communicative or as it is the patterne of morall goodnesse in the creature 1 THe father of Epicures wil have more than his sonnes to consent with him that imbecility and indigence are the usuall parents of Pitie Bountie Kindnesse or other like branches of communicative humane goodness Whilest we ned not others helpe we little think in what need they stand of ours The Prince in his jollity can hardly compassionate the beggers misery nor knowes the Begger how to bemone decayed Nobles whose condition is more miserable than his owne though so it seemes not unto him who would thinke he had fully conquered want were hee but furnished with such supplies of meat drinke and clothing as these have alwayes ready at hand That sympathy which in livelesse or reasonlesse creatures naturally flowes from similitude of internal qualities seldome breaks forth in men but either from experimentall remembrance of what lately hath or from apprehension of what shortly may befall themselves sight of the like afflictions in others as wee have lately felt revives the phantasmes or affections which were companions of our mourning and by so pitying of our owne former plight we pity them 2 But albeit Epicurus observation may seeme in a manner universall whilest applyed to its proper subject Man in his corrupt state yet when he transcends à genere ad genus from our corruptible nature to the divine nature which is immortall his inference is of the same stampe with those fooles inductions that concluded in their hearts There was no God The divine nature saith he is not penetrable by mercy or pity Why so Will you heare a bruit make Enthymems Because these finde no entrance into the hearts of men but through some breach of defect or indigence It is well this slow-bellyed evill beast could grant mans nature not to bee altogether so bad or cruell as want might not tame it and make it gentle and kinde But would not bruit qeasts so they might speake disclaime his conclusion that true felicity or fulnesse of all contentment possible should make the divine nature worse than want and misery doth the humane Surely there is somewhat else amisse in that which is made better by defect Nor could wealth and honour make the mighty unmindefull of others but by making them first forget themselves The externalls whereon our desires fasten so captivate the humane soule that she cannot doe as she would or as nature teacheth her but these strings being cut she followes her native sway And in a good sense it was most true which a Master of a better sect than Epicurus founded hath taught Nemo sponte malus 3 Lust in old Age Pride in Beggars and shifting in men overflowing with wealth seeme to transcend the nature of sinnes and are monsters in corrupted nature because not begotten by temptations they in a manner beget themselves yet scarce shall we finde an old man so prone to Lust a rich man so delighted in shuffling an Epicure so addicted to his pleasure or any at all so ill affected either in himselfe or towards other that being askt wold not professe his desire to deserve well of others to be liberall to be upright compassionate just and bountifull For though continuāce in bad custome induce in a sort another nature yet can it not transport any man so farre beyond himselfe or miscarry his thoughts so much but he shall feele
of charitie To prevent this mischiefe which is the root of all evill what perswasion could be more fit or pertinent than this prediction of the Prophet That the wealth which Hezekiah and his fathers had heaped together which his successors would be too carefull to increase would in succeeding ages steale their children for whom it was provided from them and make them miserable captives in a forraigne Land To heape up riches we know not for whom is a vanity to heape them up with care and toile to the destruction of our best private friends and advancement of the publike enemy is the extremity of folly mixt with misery Had Hezekiah his successors beene as ready to aske counsell of Gods Prophets as of Politicians these could have instructed them that the miseries foretold by Esay were fatall unto covetousnesse and unconscionable care for posterity yet not simply necessary after covetousnesse was much increased in Hezekiahs successors For long after the going out of this decree whensoever the Princes of Iudah repented for their owne oppression and the oppression of their fathers the Lord repented him of the plagues denounced and shewed himselfe ready to remove the oppressor from them And though in penitency in other sinnes did in part concur yet continuance in violence and oppression was the principall string and fatall cord by which the Princes of Iudah did draw captivity upon themselves and their children and desolation upon the City 9 To passe over the various alternation of Iudahs and Ierusalems different fates in the dayes of Manasses Ammon and Iosias and come to Iehoikim Iosias sonne in whose dayes the inveterate disease of Iudah came to a Crisis Did not thy Father saith the Prophet Ieremy to this untoward and Prince eate and drinke and doe judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poore and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousnesse and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to doe it Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Iehoiakim the son of Iosiah King of Iudah They shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother or ah sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his glory He shall bee buried with the buriall of an Asse drawne and cast forth beyond the gates of Ierusalem Ier. 22. vers 15 16 17 18 19. Shortly after the execution of this sentence upon Iehoiakim in full measure Ieconiah his son with other of the royall seed according to Esaias former prophesie were caried captives unto Babell and all or some of them made Eunuches Howbeit the execution of the same decree upon Zedekiah and such as were yet left behinde was not as yet unavoydable or meerly fatall but such notwithstanding they made it at last by continuance of like covetousnesse and oppression When the City was more narrowly besieged by the Chaldean than it had beene by the Assyrian the Lord of hosts calls for the Aegyptian as he had done for the King of Cush to remove the siege The libertie and respiration which Zedekiah and his besieged people in the meane time got being much greater then Hezekiah had for two years space together was a true pledge of Gods antecedent will which in part they had fulfilled and which should undoubtedly have beene fulfilled in greater measure for their good so they had used this liberty to Gods glory or gone on so well in this time of breathing as in their distresse they had begun Ye were now turned and had done right in my sight in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name But ye returned and polluted my name and caused every man his servant and every man his hand-maid whom hee had set at liberty at their pleasure to returne and brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for hand-maids Therefore thus saith the Lord Yee have not hearkned unto me in proclaiming libertie every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour behold I proclaime a liberty for you saith the Lord to the Sword to the Pestilence and to the Famine and I will make you to be removed into all the Kingdomes of the Earth c. Ier. 34. v. 15 16 17. And Zedekiah King of Iudah and his Princes will I give into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of them that seeke their life and into the hand of the King of Babylons army which are gone up from you Behold I will command saith the Lord and cause them to returne to this City and they shall fight against it and take it and burne it with fire and I will make the Cities of Iudah a desolation without an inhabitant ver 21 22. 10 Too much skill in secular policy made them put too great confidence in the strength of Aegypt and this confidence in the helpe of man made them secure whilest they were conscious of breaking the Covenant which their Fathers had made and they lately renewed with their God The probabilities of the Aegyptians success against the Chaldean were in all politique esteeme very great and likely it is that the Chaldeans were brought back againe with speed unto Ierusalem by the speciall hand of the Almighty that they might execute his judgements upon this rebellious people How necessary how fatall and unevitable the execution of his consequent will alwayes becomes where his antecedent will hath beene thus openly and wilfully neglected may best be gathered from the same Prophets reiterated threats unto this people resuming as it seemes their former vaine confidence of the Chaldeans finall departure after his forementioned prophecy to the contrary Ier. 37. ver 9 10. Thus saith the Lord deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise every man in his tent and burne this Citie with fire To extinguish this flame or prevent the extinction of Zedekiahs royall race and Iudahs earthly glory there was no possibility left so long as they wrestled with Fates and made policie their strength yet was there after this time a possibility as true as Gods promise can make any for escaping à tanto though not à toto a possibility for Zedekiah to have kept himselfe and his family in a better estate then they afterwards enjoyed a possibility to have left the City and Temple standing after death had disposed of them so he would at the time appointed by God have submitted himselfe unto the King of Babell unto whom he had sworne allegiance Then said Ieremiah unto Zedekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of Hostes the God of Israel If thou wils
yet his practise though exactly answering â—o Machiavels rules of reformation here and elsewhere set downe found but the Mountebankes successe hee cured some present mischiefes but procured more grievous secret and more permanent inconveniences The barbarous nations which longed most for Romes destruction learned the use and art of making the Romans weapons and artillerie from the discontented Exiles which his severitie thrust upon them Nor did Constantine the great though Leunclavius be willing to preferre the unsanctified Zozimus his bill against him to Christian Princes halfe so much weaken the Empire by his largesse towards the Christians as Septimius did wound it by seeking to restore or rather to intend the rigour of ancient discipline amongst moderne dissolute Romans Many like practises in the issue became meanes of the Empires more speedy dissolution though all as farre as the eye of policy could see most convenient for the present season but it is not for politicians to know the exact temper of times seasons which the father hath put in his owne power as cases reserved for infinite Wisdome 15 Had Rome in the dayes of Arcadius and Honorius stood at the same point of liking with God as she sometimes had done these oversights as it pleaseth posteritie now to censure them of Constantine and Septimius with infinite other particulars of like nature falling out before and after them should have added much to the measure of her wonted prosperitie But being now declined from Gods favour to the aspect of his Iustice all conspire against her and her best supporters become stumbling-blocks to cause her to fall And although it had beene possible for the severall successions of her ancient and choisest Senators to have beene assembled together in counsell for her good yet what possibilitie was there left to prevent the combination of second causes secretly conspiring her destruction when as the unavoidable mischances of Nations which they knew not even the disasters of her enemies became confederates with domestick miscariages to worke her mischiefe If we consider onely the visible causes or meanes observable by which this mightie Empire came to miserable ruine not all the oversights committed by any one though the very worst of al her Governours or Counsellors not all the devises of any one natioÌ„ or coÌ„mon enemy did sow the seedes of so much evill and mishap as befel her from one example of severitie unseasonably practised by the King of Goathes upon a wicked woman that sought to cover her adultery by her abused husbands blood The fact indeed deserved the height of Princely indignation and more then an ordinary death but to pull her in peeces with horses as Hermanarichus commanded was so indignely taken by her brethren that in revenge they killed this grave and auncient King by whose wisedome and authoritie the Goathes had beene able so well to have matched the Huns as the Romanes might have stood as arbitrators to moderate the quarrell as they saw fit or to have devided the prey But the Goathes being suddenly deprived of their Governour in the very nicke when the warre was begun left their habitation to the Hunnes and upon protestations of more then ordinary fidelitie and good service got to be admitted as naturall subjects within the Empire which by this meanes became exposed to a double mischiefe It hath the Hunnes as neare but more insolent and noisome neighbours then the Goathes had beene and through the folly and greedinesse of the Imperiall officers the Goath in short time of a former open enemy became a treacherous friend The Romans nurst this young snake in their bosome after such an unpleasant and untowardly fashion as they might bee sure hee would be ready to use his sting when God should send him one And albeit the Goath and Hun did naturally worse agree then the Toade Spider yet in relation to the execution of Gods justice upon the Roman Empire they hold this exact subordination that wheresoever the one had broken skinne the other was ready to infuse his poyson the one alwaies ready to inlarge the wounds which the other had made before they closed Howbeit when both these enemies had done the worst to Rome that they intended for both of them had power in respect of any help that man could make to do her as much harm as they listed yet the Prophets speech concerning Israel was remarkably true of her Perditio tua ex te O Roma Romes destruction was from her selfe Her very enemies would have healed her but Babylon-like shee would not be healed Alaricus the Goath had taken the Citie but made conscience of defacing it he spared the suppliants for the Temples sake Attilas was kindly intreated by Pope Leo not to visit it the rather thereto perswaded because God had visited Alaricus for polluting it It was the crie of the noble Aetius his blood treacherously shed not by the Enemy but by the Emperour Valentinian at the instigation of Maximus which did solicite Gensericus King of Vandals to come out of Afrique to visit Rome now sunke so lowe by Aetius his fall that she could never bee raised againe 16 The concatenation of sinister Fates that is in better language the combination of second causes designed by God for the execution of his consequent Will upon the Roman Empire is in this case so pregnant that I cannot make a fitter close of this discourse then by relating the historicall Circumstances occasion and consequence of Aetius his death Maximus a Roman Senator and principall Favorite of Valentinian the Emperour sporting with him on a time in his Palace chanced to leave his ring behind The Emperour by this token invites Maximus his Lady to come and visit his Empresse Eudoxia his intention being to visit her in such a manner as was no way pleasing to her but most displeasing to her Husband unto whoÌ„ she disclosed their joynt wrong her speciall griefe The indignity of the Fact being done by so deare a friend as he supposed Valentinian was made so deepe impression in his heart that an ordinary revenge could not suffice The Emperors life seemed too small a recoÌ„pence without hopes of succeding him his hopes of succession he saw were but vain if Aetius should survive Valentinian Maximus therefore smoothly dissembling his discontent for the present perswades the Emperour that Aetius was too potent in the opinion of the State and become more popular than before by the happy successe of his late employment against Attilas the common enemie and terrour of Christendome The Emperours weakness is easily wrought to put Aetius to death which as one observes was in effect to cut off his owne right hand with his left and to expose himselfe to publike hatred and danger without a Defendant Thrasilas a Centurion to Aetius knowing his Generalls loyalty and innocency in â—â—venge of his undeserved death kills Valentinian And Maximus not content to usurpe the Empire unlesse he might have the Empresse
how little soever a surd number exceeds the next square yet the overplus is in division infinite And so are the events which the Politician seeks to rectifie or determine of and therefore not certainly rectifiable or determinable save onely by him whose wisdome is actually infinite It is an errour incident to little children to think they might easily shake hands with the man in the Moone or with Endymion kisse the Moone it selfe if they were upon the next hill where it seemes to them to set and if you bring them thither they think they came but a little too late if they could bee now at the next hill where they see it goe downe they imagine they might doe so yet Such for all the world is the practicall Politicians errour the cause of both in proportion the same Children are thus deceived because they imagine no distance betweene heaven and earth or betweene heaven and that part of earth which terminates their sight And so the secular Politicians minde reacheth no farther than the hemisphere of his owne facultie Either he knowes not or considers not how farre the height and depth of his wisedome and counsell that sits in the heavens and rules the earth exceeds the utmost bounds or horizon of his foresight and limited skill in this only different from the childe that his wit is more swift and nimble than the others body so that he is not so soone weary of his pursuit But if hee misse of his purpose at the first he hopes at his next flight to speed and thus in seeking after true felicity which was hard by him when hee beganne his course he runnes round all the dayes of his life even as he is led by him that daily compasseth the earth Better might Painters hope by looking on the multitude of men now living to draw accurate pictures of such as shal be in the Age to come than any Politician can expect either by observation of former times or experience of his owne to prescribe exact rules for managing of future projects For if we consider the whole frame or composition of circumstances or all the ingredients if I may so speake of every event there is as great a varietie in humane actions as there is in mens faces Never were there two events of moment upon earth altogether alike each differs from other either in the substance number or quality of occurrences or in the proportion of their consonancie or dissonancy unto the counsell of the Lord as there is no visage but differs from another if not in colour or complexion yet in shape or figure I have beene perhaps rather too long then too bold in decyphering the vanity of this proud Criticke which accuseth Christianity of cowardize in actions and devotion of stupiditie and dulnesse in consultation of State But so might Bats and Owles condemne the Eagle of blindnesse were tryall of sight to be made in that part of twilight wherein darknesse hath gotten the victory of light Some men not able to discern a friend from a foe at three paces distance in the open Sunne will reade their Pater noster written in the compasse of a shilling by moone shine much better than others clearer sighted can reade a Proclamation print The purblinde see best by night yet not therefore better sighted than others are because the absolute triall of â—ight is best made by day So is the meere Politician more quick fighted than Gods children in matters permitted by divine providence to the managing of the Prince of darknesse For albeit the righteous Lord do in no case permit or dispense with perjury fraud or violence yet he suffers many events to be compassed by all or some of these or worse meanes Now when matters usually managed by speciall providence come by divine permission once to catching hee that makes least conscience of his wayes will shew most wit and resolution For whatsoever falls to Satans disposalls shall assuredly bee collated on him that will adventure most It is his trade and profession to lend wit might and cunning for satisfying present desires upon the mortgage of soules and consciences And his Scholar or Client the politique Atheist perceiving fraud and violence to prosper well in some particulars imagines these or like meanes throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which he most desires But when Satans commission is recalled or his power by Gods providence contracted the cunningest intentions or violent practises of Politicians prove much like to a peremptory warrant out of date which being directed to one County is served in another Both indanger the party prosecuting and turne to the advantage of the prosecuted I conclude this Chapter and Section with the observation of a namelesse Author but set downe in verses related by Camerarius Si vitam spectes hominum si denique mores Artem vim fraudem cuncta putes agere Si propius spectes Fortuna est arbitra rerum Nescis quam dicas tamen esse vides At penitus si introspicias atque ultima primis Connectas tantum est Rector in orbe Deus Who looks on men and on their manners vile Weenes nought is wrought nought got sans force or guile Who nearer looks spyes who knows what her wheele Who coozneth fraud and oft makes force to reele But Eagle sights which pierce both far and neare Eye One who onely ruleth all this Spheare SECTION IV. Of Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men CHAP. 31. Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this rule without any purpose of man are to quicken the ingraffed notion of the Deitie and to bring forth an acknowledgement of Divine Providence and Iustice 1 ARISTOTLE did rightly denie retaliation or counterpassion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact justice and yet it may be Pythagoras his thoughts did soare much higher than his when he pitched upon the affirmative In ordinary offences committed by unequall or extraordinary persons Pythagoras his tenent is not universally true As if a great person should beat his farre inferiour without just cause it stands neither with the Law of God or rule of equity to beat him in the same fashion or according to the same measure againe But when Kings and Monarks doe extraordinary wrongs unto their subjects or practise prodigious cruelties upon their inferiours they usually suffer the like harmes or plagues themselves But who saith Cominaeus shall call Potentates in question who shall accuse who shall condemne who shall punish them All as he resolves that can be required to a formall processe shall be supplyed by the complaints and teares of such as are agrieved by them by the sighes and grones of the fatherlesse and widowes These are more authentique than any witnesses of fact more powerfull then any Atturney or Advocate before the supreme tribunall of God So good and gratious a Iudge is He and so
from their greatnesse but from some other causes best knowne unto himselfe His judgements upon Princes and other Potentates are often executed according to the most strict arithmeticall proportion that can be required in the rule of Retaliation upon equalls as well for the manner as for the matter of punishment And although God in this life never plagueth any according to the full measure of their offences committed against himselfe yet he often visiteth Kings and Monarks with a fuller visible measure of calamity than they have brought upon others and with calamity of the same kinde Though Pharaoh had beene the greatest Monark and his Court the most glorious seat of Nobility till their time on earth yet because hee and his Nobles had plotted cruelty against the innocent without relentance or remorse the dignity of his or their persons procures no mitigation either for the matter or manner of punishment Their dues are fully paid them as we say in kinde the guiltlesse blood of poore Hebrew infants is rendred seven â—old into the bosome of the Aegyptian Nobility and men of Warre 2 Never did any State or Kingdome since the foundation of the world were laid receive so terrible a wound within its owne territories in one day as at this time Egypt did but females did in some measure feele the smart Yet in this last as in the former plagues no Egyptian woman had cause to lament for her selfe for her sister or daughter but many for their husbaÌ„ds their brothers or sons What was the reason The Egyptian Mid-wives and they were women if no other of their sex besides had beene more merciful to the infant males of the Hebrewes than the Egyptian men had been And as they had done so hath the Lord requited the one and rewarded the other To the mercilesse Courâ—iers Politicians and men of Warre he hath rendred vengeance and judgement without mercy and punished them with miserable and ignominious death shewing compassion on the weaker and more pitifull sex 3 It was a rare document of divine justice to ordaine of divine wisdome so to contrive that the dogges should lap King Ahabs blood in the same place where they had lapped the blood of Naboth stoned to death through his connivance or permission As sure a token it was of justice tempred with mercy and of the great Kings speciall grace or favour unto this gracelesse King of Israel that the dogs which lapped his blood should not so much as touch his body Being slaine in battell his death was honourable as the world accounteth honour yet was it not so much the dignity of his royall person as his humiliation upon the Prophets chalenge which made him capable of this favour but not a dram either of disgrace or misery from which Ahab was by Gods mercy in part released which did not fall into the scale of Iustice wherein the impiety of proud Iezabel was exactly waighed The measure of her husbands punishment is not so much less as hers was fuller than Naboths had been The sight of her coÌ„manding letters caused poore Naboth to be stoned to death by the men of his citie and at Iehues call her body is dashed against the stones by her owne servants The dogs lapped Naboths blood but they devoured Iezabels flesh she had beene shamelesly cruell in her life and she hath a most shamefull and a most fearfull death Nor would the all-seeing Iudge suffer that respect to be done to her corps which her cruell executioner intended upon remembrance that she had beene daughter to a King It was I must confesse a ruefull case and yet a judgement more righteous than rufull that she which had issued from royall womb she from whose wombe had issued royall progenie for she had beene respectively lawfull daughter lawfull wife and lawful mother unto three Kings should be entombed ere her corps were cold in the entrailes of dogs should have no better burial than the dead Ass or other carion albeit she died in her owne royall palace But thus the Almighties arme sometimes reacheth greatest Princes even in this life heavier blowes than they can give unto their poorest subjects But where the blow or matter of punishment which falls on them is much lighter the wound or torment may be more grievous as was observed before than their furie can procure unto their despised brethren 4 But neither doth the sacred relation concerning Pharaohs overthrow or Iezabels death containe a more perspicuous ocular demonstration of Divine Iustice executed according to the rigour of Retaliation than hath beene represented or rather really acted upon a publike Stage within the memory of some now living The subject of this rufull spectacle was Henry the second French King of that name The accident is not recorded by Gods Spirit yet the experiment as unpartiall Writers which I take it were eye witnesses of it have related is as exactly parallell to the rules of Gods Spirit and affords as good instruction for moderne Princes as examples in the Sacred Story did to posterity This youthfull King in the beginning of his reigne had licenced others to feed their eyes with the sight of a deadly Duell authorized by him in favour of Vivonus to the disgrace and prejudice as the Court of France expected of Chabotius whose hands notwithstanding the Lord did strengthen to kill the Favourite who after many bitter provocations had drawne him within the Lists more against his will than an old Beare is brought to the stake The death of Vivonus though most just doth no way excuse the barbarous injustice of this King who hath this justice done upon him hee had made a sport of shedding blood and he himselfe is slaine in Ludicro certamine running at Tilt and slaine by that hand which had beene his instrument to apprehend those Noble and religious Gentlemen which had been lately imprisoned and in whose misery the Court of France did then rejoyce and adding gall to wormwood solemnized these and the like triumphant shewes or sportings in their sight yet was it not Count Montgomeries hand but the right hand of the Lord which did at one and the same instant unty the Kings Bever and guide the splinter or glance of Montgomeries Speare into that eye which had beheld a Duell that could not be determined without the death of the one or other combatant both being Frenchmen his natural subjects with such delight as yong Gallants do ordinary prizes or other like spectacles of recreation Of Vivonus his death few or none but Frenchmen were eye-witnesses but of this Kings tragicall triumph Spain Germany with other countries were spectators by their proxies or Ambassadors As if the Lord would have these theÌ„ present to cary this message to their masters to be by theÌ„ directed to the rest of ChristiaÌ„ Princes Discite justitiaÌ„ moniti non temnere divos Take warning by this Princes Fate Not to approve what God doth