God in the best manner that may be thought and most worthy of so glorious a Being cloathed with all Perfection Beauty and Amiableness not to render him Monstrous like armed Power without Benignity nor Contemptible as an ignorant or defective Deity but especially to think of him according to the Notices he has given of himself in his revealed Will and not to imagine that either his Essence or many times his Operations can stoop to my little understanding And if I were fit to give Advice to others it should be this that no Man presume to demolish the Divine Attributes and out of the ruins thereof to erect unto himself some groundless Fancy which like a Castle in the Air hath nothing Solid to support it as if God could not be just to his Creatures without being imperfect in himself Neither let any Man stand dismayed at the Consideration of the Fatal Period as if God could not foreknow the Events of things but either Divine Justice must be Arraign'd or Man Degraded to a Machine for as he that doth Righteousness is Righteous and by perseverance therein shall undoubtedly be happy so he that wilfully persisteth in evil doing is Wicked and without Repentance must expect to be miserable But as the former of these will look upon Divine Prescience as the Cause of his Happiness so neither can the latter blame it as any occasion of his Misery Let no Man think to arrest Judgment by absurdly charging his own Prevarications upon Divine Perfection as if a Man should urge that because God is perfect in all his Attributes he was therefore obliged to be wicked in all his Actions Who would not blush at the Impudence and Absurdity of such a Plea Prescience is a Perfection which God cannot want and preserve his Divinity but to make it a Cause of Mans Misery were to make it an imperfection It is no less essential to the Divine Nature than Omnipresence and those that will dare to Retort their wickedness upon God may make this Attribute as Criminal as the other For if Men will not trust God with the Foreknowledge of evil Actions lest that should infer a necessity of sinning the next thing and with equal reason will be to seclude Divine Presence from the inspection of wickedness lest God should that way become accessary thereunto If a naked Foreknowledge of Evil be any cause of it why not actual Presence at the Evil committed But the Scripture doth better inform us concerning the Causes of good and evil and of Mans Happiness and Infelicity than the shallow reasonings of some Persons who yet pretend to be wise above others There we are taught that Man's happiness depends upon the Grace of God in Christ Jesus freely offered to reasonable Creatures and willingly accepted by them That the Soul not by any blind fatality but by rational inducements and the use of proper Means being convinced of the Evil and Danger of Sin and directed the way to Salvation is brought to such a Belief of the Gospel and such a voluntary Obedience thereunto as may render the Person acceptable with God through the merits of our Blessed Saviour * Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his Grace And then the cause of Man's Sin and Misery doth consist not in Divine Prescience but in the Prevalency of Corruption and Temptation arising partly from an Original Taint and partly from a wilful Pursuit of irregular Appetite after the pleasures of sense by which means the Affections being besotted and the heart hardened against Reasons without and Motions within there is at last an inveterate and habitual Malignity brought upon the Soul * But let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed Jam. 1.13 14. These are such causes of Good and Evil that a diligent observer may easily see and feel their Efficacy but how a naked Prescience should operate what others do I know not I can by no means understand But this I conclude for certain that God is Righteous in all his ways both with respect unto the causes of Good and Evil and their Rewards or Consequents His Judgments will one day appear to be according to Truth without the least diminution of his other perfections namely †Vnto them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Indignation and Wrath but to them who by patient continuance in in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 8. FINIS
Arbitrary nor just without being ignorant Besides how can God be said to search the Heart * Rom. 8.27 and †Jer. 11.20 try the Reins or to what purpose should he do it unless he knows the bent and tendency of Men's Minds and what they will do before they act it And how can he suit his Providences to his blessed ‖ Rom. 8.28 Ends and Purposes for the good of his People if he knows not the Exigencies that shall befall them On the other hand if there be no voluntary Agents in the World what need any Providence at all General Laws might serve the turn 't is but putting the several Parts and Wheels of the Creation together and set them a moving like a Pendulum and they will drive on one another and so Epicurus his Doctrine comes in play that God regards not particular things What can we expect but confusion and disorder whilst we invade the Divine Attributes or labour to set them at odds one with another But now if we lay aside all Perverseness and Prepossession the Harmony of the Divine Perfections will be a most pleasant object of our Consideration God doth not impose a Necessity of sinning upon any Man but he knows some Men will be ready enough to sin out of choice He doth not punish or reward in Men what he acteth himself or what he causeth them to act without the Intervention of their Wills but if some will be vertuous and others vitious when they might be otherwise God is just in punishing and rewarding tho' not ignorant in the mean time who will deserve well or ill at his hands In a word God doth know that Man is a Free-Agent because he made him so and doth daily preserve him in that Capacity he also knows that some Men will abuse their Freedom in spite of all Invitations and Inducements to the contrary unless he interpose his Sovereign Power as sometimes I conceive he doth to move them irresistably unto good From what hath been said the Argument will lye thus God is perfect in all his Attributes and harmonious in all his Actings and Providences throughout the World But the denial of Divine Prescience doth infringe his Wisdom and Power and the Denial of Free-will doth obstruct his Justice therefore it must follow that Man 's Free-agency is not only consistent with God's Fore-knowledge of future Events but both of them are most certainly true The third thing to be considered is the Non-causality of Divine Prescience At the time indeed when this Discourse happened I was laught at by one of the Gentlemen for using that as an Argument which he would by no means admit for a truth But I do not look upon laughter as a sufficient confutation and oft-times those who carry things at highest are furthest out of the way I shall therefore lay down this Proposition and run the hazard of Proving it Namely that God's foresight of what I shall hereafter choose hath not any causality in it to determine my choice nor to infringe at all my liberty of choosing If I can make this evident it will be very material for the main thing that seems to byass and mislead Mens Minds in this matter is an apprehension that God's Fore-knowledge of any thing must needs cause the same and that thence all other inferiour causes must be urged on by such a fatal Necessity that the Effect is put quite without the Verge of Liberum Arbitrium But this I hope will appear to be a great Extravagancy from the following Considerations Let us then observe first that all Foresight or Prescience is nothing else but a sort of Knowledge and Knowledge doth suppose something to be known antecedent thereunto A Man cannot be said to know but he must know something that was in being before he knew it and even the Objects of Divine Fore-knowledge have a virtual Existence in God antecedent in order of Nature thereunto so that as to himself it is rather Intuition than Prescience but with respect unto us and to the not-yet actual Existence of the Objects the word Prescience is proper enough as was noted before Knowledge then hath its dependance upon the things known not they on it and therefore strictly Knowledge considered barely as such is an Effect and no Cause at all As for Example I know that the Sun warms and refreshes but then there was a Sun in being first whose influence I have found to have this Effect upon me I know that the three Angles of every Triangle are equal to two right Angles because first I have seen a Triangle and then I have seen the Theorem demonstrated but my knowing it is no cause why it is so I deny not yet that the knowledge of one thing is frequently the cause of another thing subsequent and emergent thereupon but never of that particular thing known for instance my knowledge of a high water makes me decline the Foord and go about by the Bridge but it is not therefore the cause of the high water I know that such a Man is crafty for which cause I take care that he do not over-reach me but my Knowledge is no cause of his craftiness * Rev. 2 9. I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not saith he that holdeth the seven Stars in his right hand But if any Man will say that this knowledge was the cause of that blasphemy he will go near to be a Blasphemer himself Object But here it will be objected That these Instances are only of things already in being which are not like to be caused by a knowledge subsequent thereunto but the Question is about the knowledge of things to come besides if Prescience be but a species of Knowledge and that all Knowledge supposeth something to be known antecedent to it as was intimated above it seems there may be a certain Prescience of a thing antecedent or which is all one Fore-knowledge of a thing past But is not this a plain Contradiction This Objection will be easily answered by considering the Nature of Prescience a little more particularly And first there is a kind of Fore-knowledge of certain things that Man is capabe of as namely Changes of the Moon Ecclipses of both the great Luminaries various Phases Conjunctions and Consigurations of Planets Occultations of Fixed Stars with divers other Phaenomena All these by Calculation may be foreseen for many years and foretold even to a few Minutes The King's Observer for Example or any other Curious Astronomer knows of these Appearances before they come and when to watch them at the Observatory But is there any Man so pleasant as to say that the Astronomers Skill is the cause of an Eclipse or if Monsr Hevelius can tell when some of the fixed Stars will disappear that therefore he hides them cunningly and will not let the World see them Now why should not humane Prescience in its kind and degree have a
of Heart For * Rev. 13.8 The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the World tho' not actually yet so as to be the Object of Divine Prescience unless you will say he was slain from the foundation of the World and yet God knew not of it It was then foreknown unto God that the Lamb would he actually slain before they that slew him had done good or evil So that if God do enforce whatever he foreknows then they who crucified our Saviour were under a necessity of doing it from the foundation of the World and they who shall be seduced by Antichrist to believe a Lye and so be damned have been about sixteen hundred years under a satal Decree of Damnation And even Adam who all Men grant to have had Free-will must have been under a necessity of falling unless we shall suppose that when God foreordained his dear Son for a * 1 Pet. 1.20 Sacrifice he did not know to what End But the Lamb slain doth suppose Sin to be attoned and that implies Sinners Now there could not be Sinners but some Body must sin first and that being the first Man Adam must by this Argument have sinned not out of choice but unavoidable necessity which is a most horrid and impious absurdity Thus we have at hand three pregnant Instances which do mightily expose the weakness of the Objection The Sin of Adam the Death of Christ the Destruction of Jerusalem The first of these appears to have been certainly foreknown unto God and yet none denies that Adam had power to have stood innocent The second was so particularly foretold by our Saviour himself that the very Persons were pointed out who were the chief Actors in it yet Had they known they would not have cruoified the Lord of Glory The third likewise was largely and punctually prophecied yet had * Mat. 23.36 Jerusalem known in her day the things which belonged to her peace Christ says †Luke 19.42 He would have gathered her Children together as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but she would not So that in these great Events we may easily discern a reserv'd condition and an evident possibility of having been otherwise tho' they were all known unto God from the Foundation of the World For in case of right Judgment and Information possible enough to have been attain'd Adam had not sinned Christ had not suffered Jerusalem had not been ruin'd They were all indeed foreseen in their Causes and those Causes were sure to produce their proper Effects so far as they were permitted that is God foresaw that Men left to their Liberties and their Lusts would make a false Estimate of things and would be sure to act accordingly but yet such foresight had no Causality upon such Actions as hath been said nor could there be any inforcement from God upon such Events whereby the Liberty of free Agents was in the least diminished if the Scriptures be admitted for truth But here I would not be misunderstood as if I thought God to be an unactive beholder of all those Transactions which are foretold by Prophecy Surely he is too much a Cause of all things to be a Nude Spectator of any one Action and certain Events I grant to have been as well predetermin'd as prophecy'd of which I shall give Instance presently When God purposeth to have any thing brought about he can easily set Agents at work and remove Impediments he can turn Mens Hearts like Rivers of Water yet never so as to put any preternatural force upon the Will to do evil For the course of Divine Providence tho' invisible to us I conceive to be so laid and things dependent by God's disposal in such a Series and Concatenation that various Causes and Contingents shall concur to operate upon Mens Faculties in such sort as to make them willing to act their Parts unknown oft-times unto themselves in order to effect the Almighty's Purpose Upon which Account I am apt to believe that even in reference to those Events that are under a peremptory Decree most of the Actors that bring them about are as much free Agents as is the Husband man in his choice of a fit season to plow his ground But however the things I mainly insist upon are these that since Men derive that strength from God by which they Blaspheme his Name and violate his Laws God must be the primary Cause of those Actions but not of the Will wherewith they are done That he doth not Enforce the Volitions unto Evil and yet he fore-knows them And that in divers Instances it doth appear that those Events and Actions have been foreknown unto God of which the immediate Instruments have been free and voluntary Agents as hath already been made evident There is yet another part of the Objection to be considered namely That future contingents are not knowable I confess they are inscrutable to us to whom they are contingent but to God there can be no such thing for he that makes any thing contingent unto God leaves him obnoxious to Surprize and Disappointment and consequently under great Difficulty of Governing the World For the clearing of this point let us lay down for a ground-work what I hope is not denied by any that I am concerned with namely that God Almighty knows most perfectly all things present and let us see whether this will not both infer the knowledge of things to come and take away all contingency with respect unto God And by the way let us observe the knowledge of Mankind which tho' very dim and imperfect even in things now existent and before our Eyes yet extends in some degree to things both past and future The Historian is acquainted with many revolutions of former Ages and from a parity of Reason may foresee some that are to come The Physitian that understands in any competent Measure the Nature of a Medicine knows from whence it derives it's Original what are it's constitutent Principles and how it will operate The Mechanist that understands an Engine knows how it was made the parts of which it is composed and what Feats it will perform The Philosopher that enquires into the Reasons of Things and the Agency of Bodies with the various Affections of Matter and Motion can tell before hand the success of divers Experiments and Undertakings which are in the dark to other People And the Astronomer can tell the future Appearances of Heaven as was noted before Now if all this and much more result from Man's imperfect knowledge of a few things we must sure conclude something further from God's most perfect knowledge of all things especially if we add hereunto the consideration of his Dominion and Soveraignty over all Creatures The World is a great Machine or Engine which God made at first and still upholds its Being and Motion by the Word of his Power Not so much as an Atome can stir but by Vertue derived from him Shall we then
charge concerning thee †Psalm 91.8 Now as the ground of that Security against Dangers and sundry Evils mentioned in the 91st Psalm at ver 8. is omitted in the Devil's Quotation So the ground of God's Foresight and cause of the Event foreseen is omitted in the Objection namely a prudent care to preserve life And as the Son of God was never like to fall down and worship the Devil so any sober Man that lives to a full Age is not like to attempt desperate ways to destroy himself The Answer too given by our Saviour is proper in this Case * Mat. 4.7 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God For if he foresees the End he foresees also the means conducing thereunto which means God having graciously put into thine own hands why shouldst thou tempt him to save thy life by Miracle when thou may'st preserve it by thy own Discretion Thus we see the Devils Argument and that of the Objection run exactly Parallel Secondly The Fallacy of this reasoning consists partly in joining a Truth and a Falsity together and make the one to infer the other tho' there be no Connexion between them and partly in leaving out the consideration of that which must be suppos'd to make the sence compleat whether the inference be true or false For instance let this be the Argument in short God foresees the End therefore it will so come to pass I say here the Proposition is true but the inference without something else supposed is false for if the illative Particle therefore refer only to the word foresees there is no good consequence since Forelight hath not any Causality as hath I hope been proved That Divine Prescience doth ascertain the End is true upon this Account * Necessitas consequentiae in ordine probandi non est necessitas rei ipsius in ordine causandi Baxt. Meth. part 1. pag. 45. that it beholds the Causes wherein the certainty doth consist but that it doth so meerly of it self without supposition of Causes and proper means to effect that end is false God by his Foresight lays no necessity upon the Event but he foresees it in it's causes of which humane Endeavours ordinarily are no small part Therefore the sence of the Argument must in this manner be compleated before it can be made to conclude any thing God foresees the causes productive of such Effects therefore such Effects will follow not from the foresight but from the causes foreseen Thirdly Let us suppose that God foresees some strong Man vigorous and healthful shall dye within a year who according to the Course of Nature might live twenty If this be true it must be true also that intemperance neglect of means or the like must bring him to it Some cause there must be but naked Foresight is no cause at all Again suppose God foresees that such a person will live twenty years If that be true then that he should attempt every day to destroy himself must be false for if God foresees the one he foresees nor the other because they are inconsistent He doth not foresee contradictions to be true or things to be that will never be as once a wise Critick would needs maintain that when Jonah was sent to preach unto Nineveh God then foresaw that City would be destroy'd in forty days tho' it stood many years after But God doth not foresee that Causes will produce such Effects as are improper and impossible not that Repentance will produce Destruction nor that Poison Drowning or Debauchery will produce length of days and vertuous prudence an untimely End In a word Divine Prescience beholds not things in parcels but altogether in one View Sees the Issues and Periods of all things not without but in conjunction with the proper causes conducible thereunto Fourthly It may not be amiss to remember that as there are some true Propositions which by leaving out a word or two may be made false So there are others and those of Divine Authority which without something understood cannot be made out to be true Of the first sort is this * Jo. 7.16 Jo. 12.44 My Doctrine is not mine and again He that believeth on me believeth not on me But this is the Devil's way of quoting Scripture leaving out the Context that should explain it and in this manner too frequently do some Persons deal with those Writings they have a mind to cavil at Of the other sort is this †Jon. 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown And ‖ 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Now the Divine Purpose for the Destruction of that City and for excluding (a) v. 10. Fornicators Idolaters Thieves Drunkards Extortioners and the like out of the Kingdom of Heaven is denounced absolutely without any annexed Condition and yet all acknowledge that such Threatnings are Conditionally to be understood and to be executed only in case of Impenitency And thus it is in our present case That God Foresees the End is true but it is not the whole Truth nor to be understood exclusive of the Means It is undoubtedly true that Christ foresaw the Destruction of Jerusalem yet we must not thence infer that he foresaw it without any respect to Sin for thus he complains How often would I have gathered your Children together c. and ye would not How could it be matter of Complaint that they would not if the Peoples choice be not imply'd Either God Foresees that Men will abuse their Liberty or he doth not if not then neither is he Omniscient nor are the Scriptures true if he doth then such Foresight is so far from taking away Mens Liberty that it confirms it for Men cannot abuse their Liberty unless they have it nor can they use it if the Objection have any force which supposeth Mens endeavours and the use of Means to be in vain Thus then I Summ up what hath been said in Answer to the Objection * Acts 17.24 25 26. God that made the World made all things therein seeing he is Lord of Heaven and Earth and giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things and hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell upon the Earth and Determined the Times before appointed and the Bounds of their Habitation We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Stones or stupid Earth that he should be ignorant either of his own Off-spring or of the Work of his Hands or the Bounty of his Goodness And having gratiously endued Mankind with the Light of Knowledge and with a Faculty of choosing things for his good and avoiding things hurtful he doth not extinguish that Sight nor take away such power of Election unless it be as a Punishment for some grievous and long-continued Provocation But forasmuch as he beholds at once in his Omnisciency the Nature Vertue and Activity of all Creatures with the Causes
Events and Issues of all Things and Actions from Everlasting to Everlasting and since he knows most perfectly the Heart of Man the Bent of his Affections his measure of Grace and prevailing Motives he must of necessity Foreknow the various Results of Man's choice and Liberty of Will without the least obstruction to the free Course and Exercise thereof He Foresees the End together with the Means and the Effect depending on its proper Cause He foresees that some Men shall not live out * Psal 55.23 half their days but they are such as are bloody and deceitful He foresees that †Prov. 10.27 The Years of the Wicked shall be shortned but then he shall fall by his own wickedness And to conclude he foresees that ‖ Prov. 11.5 A righteous Man shall prolong his days not by daily attempts to destroy himself but as the Wise Man saith by the fear of the Lord and in the way of Righteousness Obj. One Objection more and I have done It hath been often said in this Discourse that the Event Foreseen of God is certain and will come to pass and again it hath been asserted that some Events which have been Foreseen might possibly not have come to pass how can these two Notions agree together I answer first that any thing can be certain and uncertain at the same time and in the same respects is granted to be a contradiction but a thing barely Possible which may either be or not be implies no contradiction at all For as there are many things Possible to be which shall never came to pass Actually so other things shall Actually come to pass which yet Possibly might not be Thus it is Possible I may go to Rome but 't is a thousand to one I shall never come there and if it Actually so fall out yet that does not take away the Possibility of going thither for Learned Men say * White de Mucao Multa futura esse quae non crunt multa posse fieri quae non fient On the other hand something will Actually that is certainly be done this day which possibly might be deferr'd till to morrow Illud enim possibile est quo posito nullum sequitur inconveniens But all this perhaps will better appear from the consideration of these Particulars 1. An Event may be certain with respect unto God which is not so to us for nothing can be uncertain to him that is Omniscient but to us that know but in part almost every thing Future is obscur'd with some kind of uncertainty 2. An Event may be certain in it self on Supposition of certain Causes and yet supposing other Causes it would fall out quite otherwise So that 3. The certainty of a future Event is absolute in respect of God Hypothetical in respect of it self but unknown or uncertain in respect of us That is to say it can never so fall out but that he who knows the whole train of Causes leading to it must of necessity Foreknow it But it is the Causes not the Foreknowledge which make it to be what it is which being supposed the Effect certainly follows Which Certainty extends not to us who are ignorant of the Causes Let us see now how this will appear by instances Suppose the French King before he dye turns Protestant whether it so fall out or not God knows for as Solomon saith * Prov. 21.1 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord. If Conviction or Interest oblige him to become a Protestant the Effect will certainly follow but this is Hypothetical that is upon Supposition of prevailing Causes and Motives it must follow But to us there can be nothing of Certainty whilst we are ignorant of that Princes Intentions neither know how it may please God to work upon him hereafter The Captivity of the Jews was certainly Foreknown unto God and together with a great Pestilence foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah in a very remarkable and particular manner And afterwards saith the Lord I will deliver Zedekiah King of Judah and his Servants and the People and such as are left in this City from the Pestilence from the Sword and from the Famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and into the hand of their Enemies c. And he adds further That their City shall be given into the hand of the King of Babylon and he shall burn it with Fire Yet the same Prophet is sent to call them to Repentance to prevent even this very Captivity and tells them ‖ Jer. 7.5 6 7 If ye throughly amend †Jer. 21.6 7 8 9 10. your Ways and your Doings if ye throughly execute Judgment between a Man and his Neighbour if ye oppress not the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widdow and shed not innocent Blood in this place neither walk after other Gods to your hurt then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the Land that I gave to your Fathers for ever and ever We see here a reserved Condition and fair possibility of preventing that Eminent Captivity so much noted in Scripture and so much Prophesied God grant that we by the same Method may earnestly endeavour to prevent another Captivity which has they say been Prophesied too and which severely threatens England at this day I conclude with Adam's Transgression before-mentioned which was most certainly Foreknown unto God forasmuch as * 1 Pet. 1.10 Redemption by the Precious Blood of Christ was Foreordained before the foundation of the World and 't is no less certain that Adam had Free Will and Power to have persisted Innocent which surely amounts at least to a possibility of not transgressing the Divine Command And this consideration alone is enough to answer the Objection and to silence any Argument that can be opposed in this matter I have now done the Uses I propound to my self from this Discourse are Specially these four 1. To read the Scriptures Impartially and to value them Equally upon the Account of that Sacred Authority stampt upon the whole and the Spirit that breaths in every part not to build an Hypothesis upon some few single Expressions further than it may appear to be consentaneous to the integral Body of Truth contained therein 2. In all mysterious Points wherein there appears a difficulty either to affirm or deny still to adhere to that side which hath the surer Evidence and wherein the Word of God is clear and unquestionable to esteem that the strongest Evidence of all and unto which all Arguments from humane reason and even Mathematical Demonstration must yield submission 3. But in such matters wherein there appears equal Danger in both extreams and wherein many Person have err'd on either hand to take the MIDDLE WAY and walk in it with such Caution and Moderation as to be Friends with them that tread not the very same steps and always ready to admit any further discovery of Truth 4. To represent the Ever-blessed