self i. e. in the simplicity of its nature is either more good or absolutely good adhaere to a second judgement which of its self is either less good or absolutely evil but yet notwithstanding that in the object which affects and inclines the Intellect is always ipsa veri species the Apparence of Truth which it observes and is attentive to And because that species of Truth may be either real or counterfeit therefore may that which is in its own nature really true be presented under the disguise of an absolute falshood or less Truth and that which is in its own nature really false be presented likewise under the disguise of an absolute truth or less falshood and so the Intellect becoming subject to deception in the point of judicature may be allected to the prosecution of an absolute falshood or less truth while the object remains obvelated under the delusive vizard of an absolute truth or a less falshood è contra This seriously considered supports three excellent Consequences 1 that as often as the Intellect having adhaered to a true judgement Article 16. Three considerable Inferences from the praemises quits and pursues a false one so often of necessity doth something intervene which detracts the genuine or natural Apparence from the good object and imposes a counterfeit Apparence upon the evil one and by that means causes a mutation of the Intellects assent or judgement and therefore 2 that the commutation of the species or Apparence of the object is the sole immediate cause of the Commutation of the Intellects judgement and assent and therefore 3 that since the Will is obliged by that necessity formerly declared to conforme to the conduct and directions of its Guide the Intellect it is in vain therefore to hope or attempt that the Will should change its Appetition unless care be first taken that the Intellect change its judgement or that the Will should be constant to its Appetition unless we provide that the Intellect be constant to its judgement And therefore that Mind which having discovered the incomparable beauties of virtue is become enamoured on her and stands resolved to court no other Mistress but her ought to be exceeding circumspect and cautious in this particular that it submit to the allurement of no object untill it hath profoundly examined whether that species of Good therein presented be really true or only superficial and counterfeit that so it may render its self superiour to the delusion of painted Vice The admirable Des Cartes in 3. part passion artic 22. praesenting a general praeservative against all the excesses and Article 17. Cartesius his general Praeservative against the excesses of Passions exorbitancies of our passions gives us this excellent advice that having learned first to distinguish betwixt those motions or Affections which are terminated in the Soul and those which are terminated only in the Body we should when we feel our blood and spirits agitated by any affection which concernes only the body reflect upon this as a general Maxime that all things which offer themselves to the imagination do tend to no other purpose but to the deception of the Soul and to perswade the rational and judicative Faculty that those reasons inservient to the Commendation of the object of that passion are far more solid sirme and worthy our assent then really they are and on the contrary that those reasons inservient to the Improbation or disallowance of the object are far more trivial infirme and less worthy our assent then really they are That when the passion perswades to those things whose execution may admit suspension or delay we abstain from passing our verdict too hastily upon them and divert our cogitations to the serious examen of the inconveniences impendent on their pursuit and execution or at least to some other object till time and sleep shall have calmed the impetuous commotions of the blood and spirits which the seeming good of the object hath excited And that when the Passion incites to those actions whose fleet occasion gives the soul little or no time to consult and deliberate we always endevour to convert our Understanding to the perpension and our Will to the prosecution of those reasons which are conttary to those inferred and urged by that passion notwithstanding they shall at the first view appearless valid and ponderous for thereby we shall mainly refract and abate the violence of the passion Now this may be our Exemplar in ordering our advice how Article 18. General Rules praescribed by the Author how to praevent the Delusion of the Vnderstanding and dependent seduction of the will by Evil disguifed under the similitude of Good to prevent the Delusion of our Understanding and the seduction of our Will by Evil disguised under the similitude of Good First we ought to learn the discrimination of the goods of the Mind from those pertinent only to the Body and then when we meet with any object apparently good abstractly to examine whether that good concerns either the body alone or the mind alone or both body and mind equally or more the body then the mind or more the mind then the body If only the body we are to convert our cogitations upon the reasons which disswade more intently then upon the reasons which perswade the election of and adhaerence to it that so we may if there be any detect the Evil couched under that vernish of good and also conquer the Minds impatience which too often beares a large share in our deceptions If only the Mind in that case we are to bring it to the touchstone of the Divine Will i. e. examine whether those reasons whereby it perswades our Intellect to an Approbation and consequently our Will to an affectation and prosecution of it are correspondent to that inseparable or proper sign or mark of true Good Conformity to the Will of God or not for the very Soul or quintessence of virtue doth radically consist â—n this that man without all haesitancy murmur diffidence and reluctancy conforme his Will to the indeceptible Divine Will as being ascertained that he can will nothing more excellent in its self nor convenient to him then what God hath willed before If both body and mind equally then to abstract those reasons which insinuate the interest of Sense and insist only upon those which praefer it to the mind for if they shall be found worthy of assent we need the Authority of no other to justify our election of that object If more the body then the mind then we ought to aestimate the convenience of it by that lesser relation it holds to the mind and not by that greater it holds to the body And finally if more the mind then the body since the interest of the mind is infinitely to be praeferred to that of the body where the reasons are equall on each part t is manifest we may safely acquiesce in that judgement and embrace the object
honor of its Invention as was betwixt the two Haâ—lots about the right to the Living Child others requiring if not to the justification of the Decree it self yet at least to justify the Execution thereof the concurse of Good Works so necessarily that no man can ever attain to Glory but by the scale of Merits at least those of our Saviour and others mincing or extenuating the Elective Liberty of man into a meer and simple Libency which we have more then once specified and as often described and accordingly attempting to salve the Repugnancy thus that the Elect are therefore Free because they do their Good works Libently or Willingly and likewise that the Reprobate are also Free because they doe their Evil works Libently Hereupon to him who shall charge upon them with this Vnactive Argumentation they instantly oppose that there is very great reason why every man endowed with this Libency should most strenuously endevour the constant practise of Good rather then Evil because though He be uncertain of the Decree concerning his Election or Reprobation yet is He certain of this that no man shall ever be assumed into Glory unless he shall have done Good nor any be excluded the Celestial Eden unless He shall have done Evil. To which they add that it is the main Duty of every man to the utmost of his power to ascertain himself rather of Election by his perseverance in good then of Reprobation by a debaucht and desperate resignation of the sceptre of his Will to all the temptations of Evil that so he may praevent or mitigate that Fear and Anxiety which must otherwise uncessantly excruciate his mind during his whole life by acquiring a setled confidence that from God who is infinitely Good and Just he hath no cause to expect evil while the scope of all his endevours is to deserve well at least to obtain Mercy at his hand To conclude lest man should in the interim either Glory in himself as if He ought according to justice to be Elected for his good works sake or Complain of the rigour of the Decree of his Reprobation murmuring that it was not his fault why his name was not inscribed in the Book of life they check his Glorying with this cooling card of the Apostle O Homo quis te discernit and hush his Complaint with Tu qui es qui respondeas Deo Nunquid dicet vas Figulo quare me fecisti sic Nunquid sacere illi licet aliud vas in honorem aliud verò in contumeliam Roman chap. 9. ver 21. And if this satisfy not they here set bounds to Curiosity and lime the wings of those Eagle Wits who would soare higher then the lower region of the mysterie with that grave advice of the Canonized Doctor Quare hunc trahat Deus illum verò non trahat noli judicare si non vis errare or that modest rule of Cornelius Tacitus Sanctius reverentius visum de actis Deorum credere quà m scire But as for the Second Opinion to our first inquisition that Article 4. The Second Opinion to a great part extricated from the same Labyrinth seemes capable of extrication from the forementioned Labyrinth without much difficulty thus I am says Adrastus or the Fatist either Elect to glory or Reprobate to misery by an eternal Decree of God This we grant to be most true but with this additional qualification that Himself is Now the Cause why He was from eternity Elect or Reprobate For He is now in that very state in which God foresaw that he would be when educed into existence endowed with reason and assisted with sufficient Grace for the clear discernment of Good from Evil and it now depends upon the Liberty of his Will that God hath praevised him operating good or evil so that the Decree of his Election or Reprobation is subsequent or posterior to the Divine Praevision of his future good or evil Demerits To speak yet louder God therfore Elected him to Glory because He Foresaw that he would use both the Liberty of his Understanding and Will and that Supernaturall Light or Divine Grace which the Compassion of God vouchsafed for his Assistance as he ought to enable him to lead an honest and pious life and therefore Reprobated him to misery because He Foresaw that he would Abuse the Lights of Nature and Grace in constantly and impenitently doing actions point-blank repugnant to their frequent and importune Advisoes This being inferred the Fatist cannot but perceive that it lyes on his part now to doe well and with all the nerves of his Mind to Cooperate to Divine Grace that so God from eternity foreseeing that his Conformity to the dictates of his Grace may have Elected him For if he shall counterinflect his Will to the Inclinations of Divine Grace and pursue Evil those Evil works shall be very they which God from eternity having respect unto hath Damned him for the Guilt of them and impoenitence for them Nor can He elude this truth by pleading that God doth Article 5. The Fatists Subterfuge of the Infallibility of Divine Praenotion praecluded from eternity Foreknow whether He shall be Elect or Reprobate and that therefore of Necessity he shall be what he Will be since the Divine Science is uncapable of Elusion or Mutability Because though God indeed had an infallible Praecognition from Eternity whether he would be Praedestinate or Reprobate yet is that Praecognition grounded upon his own eternal Decree and that eternal Decree grounded upon his eternal Praevision of the Fatists Good or Evil life So that the actual Determination of the Will of man to the constant prosecution of Good is the Basis or first Degree in this mysterious Climax of Praedestination the Praevision thereof by God the second the respective Decree of God the third and his indeceptible Praescience the fourth and last Not that these Antecessions and Consecutions are Temporany i. e. not that the Praescience of God is posterior to his Decree and his Decree posterior to his Praevision for those 3. make but one simple and intire Act in the Divine Intellect and Will and Eternity is but one permanent Now incapable of Division because of Cessation really but Anthropopathically i. e. that narrow and remote Man when he speculates the nature of his own Free-Will and that of Divine Justice as integrally Consistent is necessitated for comprehension sake to suppose some Momenta Rationis or Priority and Posteriority in Eternity as we have singularly enunciated in the 2. Articl 4. Sect. 6. chap. praecedent Article 6. A second subterfuge of the Fatist viz. that the Subsequence of the Decree to Praenotion doth implicate the possibility of its Elusion and Mutability praevented Again the Fatist can justly promise to himself no greater protection by this farther objection that if the Divine Decree be subquent to Divine Praevision therefore is it in his power to stagger the Certitude of the Decree and dissolve its rigour
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